WORLD NEWS
Netanyahu: Date set for attack on Hamas in Rafah …
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that the date had been set for an Israeli military operation in the city of Rafah, near Gaza’s border with Egypt, to attack the last remaining Hamas battalions and destroy them.
Netanyahu spoke as Israeli negotiators were in Cairo, Egypt, in the hope of striking a deal with Hamas via Egyptian, Qatari, and American mediators to see some of the remaining 133 Israeli hostages released, some of whom are dead.
In a statement posted online, and translated and released by Israel’s Government Press Office, Netanyahu said:
“Today I received a detailed report on the talks in Cairo. We are working constantly to attain our objectives, first and foremost the release of all of our hostages and the achieving of total victory over Hamas. “This victory requires entering Rafah and eliminating the terrorist battalions there. This will happen; there is a date.”
The Biden administration has opposed an Israeli invasion of Rafah, claiming that there are other methods to achieve the goal of destroying Hamas — though the U.S. has not specified what those other methods are. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said that the U.S. had not been told what the date of Israel’s planned operation will be.
Scotland police can’t cope with flood of hate speech complaints …
Police Scotland has been overwhelmed by a flood of reports under the recently implemented draconian speech restrictions, with approximately 8,000 reports in the first week, alone, surpassing the annual total for hate crimes in general of any other year.
Law enforcement in Scotland has claimed that it “can’t cope” with the staggering number of reports flooding into police stations after the controversial Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021 came into force last Monday, criminalizing the opaquely-worded “stirring up hatred” towards protected groups, such as the so-called LGBTQ2AIS community, among others.
According to initial estimates, Police Scotland received around 8,000 complaints under the law in the first seven days of its implementation, which according to analysis by The Telegraph, would surpass the total number of crimes reported annually (416,000) if the trends continue.
The broadsheet also noted that the number of supposed hate speech violations reported to police in the first week surpassed the total number of hate crimes as a whole recorded in any full year in Scotland.
The chairman of the Scottish Police Federation David Threadgold warned that the man-power hours required to deal with such a large number of complaints will impact the police force’s ability to deal with actual crimes, with the force already failing to solve a growing number of crimes like sexual assault, shoplifting, and car theft. Scotland has also been plagued by a drug epidemic, with the small nation having the highest drug-related deaths per capita in all of Europe.
“Police Scotland have gone public and said that on every occasion, reports of hate crime will be investigated,” he said, explaining: “That creates a situation where we simply cannot cope at the moment. Officers have been brought back in to do overtime shifts and the management of that is simply “unsustainable.
Threadgold went on to suggest that the law was being “weaponised” by the public in order to settle personal grudges against fellow citizens or to wage political feuds, while suggesting that the government encouraging the public to report instances of “hate” has clearly blown up in their face.
“The bottom line is should this demand remain, the police service will have to deal with it but that will clearly impact on other areas of policing,” he said.
The police have also already faced accusations of hypocrisy in the handling of hate speech reports. On Sunday, the Daily Mail reported that a relative of a Scottish National Party (SNP) government minister had avoided a criminal investigation under the law over a post on social media mashing up the Nazi swastika and the Jewish Star of David with the caption “Nazism = Zionism”.
According to the paper, the woman who reported the post to the police — a former police officer, herself — was told that the complaint would not be pursued because she was not Jewish.
U.S. NEWS, POLITICS & GOVERNMENT
Trump sues Judge Juan Merchan’s gag order challenge!
Former President Donald Trump will reportedly sue New York Supreme Court Justice
Juan Merchan in an appeals court to challenge his sweeping gag order.
Merchan, who is presiding over the New York criminal case, imposed a gag order on Trump after news surfaced about a connection between Merchan’s daughter and conspiracy theorist Rep. Adam Schiff (D- CA).
Trump believes Merchan should recuse himself, citing a conflict of interest regarding his daughter’s position at a Democrat consulting firm that supported President Biden’s 2020 campaign.
The suit could postpone Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s (D) case against Trump, the New York Times reported:
The lawsuit was not immediately made public, but court records showed on Monday that Mr. Trump was filing an action against the judge, Juan M. Merchan, in an 11th-hour bid to delay the case. An online court docket where Mr. Trump is filing the action showed that the related paperwork was sealed.
And the appeals court might act fast to reject it. A single appeals court judge will most likely issue a preliminary ruling on Monday, setting up a full five-judge panel to consider Mr. Trump’s request in the coming days.
Mr. Trump’s lawyers have tried several times to delay the trial, but this is their first attempt in an appeals court. The former president, who is again the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, is aiming to push all four of his criminal cases past Election Day. If he wins, the cases are likely to grind to a halt.
The gag order, as Breitbart News’ Nick Gilbertson reported, prevents Trump from making public comments about witnesses participation in the trial, counsel other than Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D), “members of the court’s staff and the District Attorney’s staff, or … the family members of any counsel or staff member, if those statements are made with the intent to materially interfere with … counsel’s or staff’s work” on the case. It also encompasses prospective jurors.
Trump said on Saturday it would be his “GREAT HONOR” to become a “modern day Nelson Mandela” in the “clink” for speaking the truth about Merchan.
Trump’s defense files motion for change of venue in the first of 4 criminal trials!
Attorneys for former President Donald Trump have filed an appeal requesting interim relief, or a stay, just one week before his first criminal case was set to go to trial in New York.
On the same day, a judge with the appellate division of the New York Supreme Court rejected the request to delay the trial. Defense attorneys had argued during an emergency hearing that the trial should be postponed while they seek a change of venue.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is prosecuting President Trump on 34 counts of falsifying business records related to an alleged “hush money” payment scheme to influence the 2016 elections. New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, presiding over the case, has criticized the defense more than once for what he described as attempts to delay the trial.
The defense has indeed filed a flurry of motions and pre-motion letters in the last days leading up to the trial, protesting a gag order and its expansion, citing changed circumstances that warrant the judge’s removal, and arguing a presidential immunity defense that will soon be reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Defense lawyers have also argued that the case should not proceed under the heightened media coverage that the first-ever criminal trial of a former U.S. president is currently attracting and submitted survey results showing high awareness of the trial among New York County residents, arguing that the defense cannot seat an impartial jury in New York.
President Trump said himself during a press conference that the case should not go to trial at the height of the presidential election season, signaling an appeal to higher courts.
Trump says abortion is up to the states!
Former President Donald Trump said on April 8 that decisions on abortion restrictions should be left to states, as he declined to back a national-level limit.
“My view is now that we have abortion where everyone wanted it from a legal standpoint, the states will determine by vote or legislation, or perhaps both. And whatever they decide must be the law of the land. In this case, the law of the state,” President Trump said in a video posted on Truth Social, his social media platform.
“Many states will be different. Many will have a different number of weeks, or some will have more conservative than others, and that’s what they will be. At the end of the day, this is all about the will of the people,” he added.
The Democratic Party gets $186-million “dark money” boost in effort to retake the House!
House Majority PAC, a political action committee backing Democrats, will spend at least $186 million on federal races in 2024, according to the organization.
The PAC, registered with the Federal Election Commission as the hybrid PAC HMP, HMP said the campaign will hit 58 different media markets.
Most of the spending, $146 million, will go toward television, and the remainder will go toward digital ad placements. The group called it an “initial round of reservations,” setting up the possibility of more spending later in the year.
However, according to its announcement, HMP’s initial outlay of $186 million is much larger than the $102 million it spent in 2020.
According to HMP’s FEC records, the group raised about $61.1 million between January 2023 and February 2024. It had about $43.9 on hand at the end of February.
HMP is closely tied to House Majority Forward, which, as a 501(c)(4) nonprofit, is not required to disclose its donors or release financial information as often as an FEC-registered PAC.
For this reason, this type of nonprofit is commonly called a dark money organization.
David Hogg living high on the Hogg with his Gen-Z pac; more than $1M travel expenses!
Gun control activist David Hogg is living high on the hog thanks to the many donors cutting checks to his political action committee (PAC), Federal Election Commission (FEC) records show.
Hogg created a group in the aftermath of the 2022 midterm elections called Leaders We Deserve PAC, which states that its goal is to elect Generation Z politicians to offices throughout the country. He created the PAC with Kevin Lata, the campaign manager for Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-FL)—a Generation Z Democrat elected in 2022.
Hogg launched the group with great fanfare, telling National Public Radio (NPR) that during former President Donald Trump’s presidency, a “social movement” was born on the left.
“For every year of Trump’s presidency, I think there was a new chapter of a social movement that was born, whether it was the Women’s March, March for Our Lives, the environmental movement, or the movement for Black Lives,” Hogg said.
Since Hogg’s group came into fruition, much of the few million dollars raised has gone not to electing candidates or executing its stated mission but to luxurious expenses, such as travel bills, as well as political consultants and legal fees. In fact, the group, in 2023, only spent on a handful of candidates—four to be exact—one of whom was already serving in the U.S. Congress, Frost, and another who lost a race in a special election in Alabama. The vast majority of the group’s money, the FEC filings from 2023 show, did not go to helping candidates at all—and much of it went to other political consultants at various firms, as well as to Hogg and Lata, with a lavish travel budget to boot.
The year-end 2023 FEC filing from Leaders We Deserve shows that the group stated it raised slightly north of $3 million in its first year in operation. The group reported $3,035,868.87 in total receipts in 2023. That is an admirable amount of cash for a totally new PAC.
The FEC records show that Hogg’s group spent more than $51,000 across several payments to a group called Accelerate Political Advisors and another more than $25,000 across several payments to a firm called Bee Compliance, LLC. In addition, the group spent more than $83,000 on legal fees to Elias Law Group, the firm headed by Democrat lawyer Marc Elias. Leaders We Deserve spent another more than $28,000 over two payments, the records show, for “Communications Consulting” from a group called “Liftoff Campaigns” and yet another $60,000 for “Strategic Consulting” from a firm called “Lim Consulting Services.”
Trump and Biden fight for union endorsements ahead of 2024 elections …
As former President Donald Trump heads toward a rematch with President Joe Biden, he is targeting the labor unions to divide the incumbent’s votes. Some experts say this strategy could work for President Trump.
The presumed Republican 2024 presidential nominee is looking for more gains among the blue-collar workers that helped propel his 2016 victory. His campaign is eyeing the divide between union leaders, who have backed Democratic candidates, and rank-and-file union members who could be swayed to vote for President Trump.
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters is a focus for President Trump.
Teamsters has met individually with President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump as the powerful 1.3 million-member labor union carefully vets who they will endorse to be the next president of the United States.
The Republican National Committee recently announced they have closed out the month of March with $93.1 million in their campaign accounts, including a $45,000 donation from the Teamsters’ political action committee. It’s a donation that breaks decades of precedent as the Teamsters typically only provide large donations to Democrats.
The DOJ refuses to provide the House Committee the audio of Biden’s interview with Hur!
The DOJ says it will not provide audio tapes of President Joe Biden’s interview with Special Counsel Robert Hur, which was subpoenaed by the House GOP. In a letter to the House Oversight Committee and House Judiciary Committee issued yesterday, Assistant Attorney General Carlos Felipe Uriarte lamented that despite the department cooperating with the committees’ Feb. 27 subpoenas, “the committees have responded with escalation and threats of criminal contempt.”
“We urge the committees to avoid conflict rather than seek it,” he added. “It is not too late for the committees to choose a different path, to take an offramp towards the ’spirit of dynamic compromise’ that the Constitution requires of us both.”
The “spirit of dynamic compromise” quote comes from a federal court case.
The Feb. 27 subpoena was for notes, audio files, video, and transcripts of Mr. Hur’s probe. The committees set a deadline of March 7, according to a copy of the subpoena obtained by The Epoch Times.
“The department is willing to hear more from the committees, but at this time your further requests appear attenuated from the committees’ stated purposes—with today’s production, you now have the information you requested. Given the extraordinary executive branch confidentiality interests implicated here, a specific and adequate showing of need for any additional information, tethered to the authority under which the committees purport to act, is critical,” he wrote.
Finally, Mr. Uriarte asked the committees not to make public the materials they get from the DOJ.
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
Social Security payment shift … allemande left!
Many Social Security beneficiaries will start receiving their monthly benefits for April from this week onwards, with others having to wait a week or two longer.
The Social Security Administration (SSA) usually pays benefits based on the birth date of beneficiaries.
In April 2024, people born between 1 and 10 of the month get paid on the 10th. People born between 11 and 20 get paid on the 17th, and those born between 21 and 31 get paid on the 24th.
An exception applies to beneficiaries receiving Social Security benefits since before May 1997 or those who receive both Social Security and supplemental security income (SSI). For these, Social Security income is paid on the 3rd of every month.
“If you don’t receive your payment on the expected date, please allow three additional mailing days before contacting Social Security,” SSA stated. Beneficiaries can contact the agency at 1-800-772-1213 between 8 a.m. and 7 p.m. local time, Monday through Friday.
Social Security payments for 2024 got a 3.2 percent hike as part of the cost-of-living adjustments, meaning that over 71 million beneficiaries will see higher checks this year. This is the third consecutive year of COLA hikes due to the elevated inflation rate, with benefits jumping 8.7 percent in 2023, and 5.7 percent in 2022.
Biden and his administration are moving forward with plans to provide student debt relief to as many people as possible.
The administration announced Monday the details of its new plan to reduce student debt balances for millions of borrowers. The proposed regulations — which were drafted as part of the months-long negotiated rulemaking process — feature several different ways for borrowers to see their debt balances reduced, if not eliminated entirely.
The provisions of the plan include forgiving excessive interest that has accrued, discharging balances that have been in repayment for 20 years or more and relief for borrowers who attended now-closed or insolvent institutions.
Biden’s plan aims to address that “runaway interest” by canceling up to $20,000 of the amount a borrower’s balance has grown due to unpaid interest after entering repayment. Single borrowers who earn $120,000 or less and married borrowers earning $240,000 or less who enroll in an income-driven repayment plan would be eligible to have their entire excess interest balances discharged, the administration said.
Some 25 million borrowers stand to benefit from their interest balances being reduced if the plan goes into effect as proposed. An estimated 23 million of those borrowers will have their entire balance growth forgiven, according to the administration.
The administration estimates another 2 million borrowers are eligible to have their debt forgiven under these programs, but have not yet applied.
The new plan will allow the administration to use available data to identify and automatically clear balances for these borrowers as they are eligible, without borrower action.
Another 2 million borrowers could benefit from a provision that will clear debt balances that are at least 20 years old for undergraduate borrowers and 25 years for graduate borrowers. It will apply to undergraduate borrowers with direct loans or direct consolidation loans who entered repayment on or before July 1, 2005, and graduate school borrowers who entered repayment on or before or July 1, 2000.
Blackstone to purchase upscale apartment buildings in $10-billion deal …
Blackstone and Apartment Income REIT Corp. have announced they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Blackstone Real Estate Partners X will acquire all outstanding common shares of AIR Communities for $39.12 per share in an all-cash transaction valued at about $10-billion, including the assumption of debt.
AIR Communities’ portfolio consists of 76 high-quality rental housing communities concentrated primarily in coastal markets including Miami, Los Angeles, Boston and Washington D.C. Blackstone plans to invest more than $400 million to maintain and improve the existing communities in the portfolio and may invest additional capital to fund further growth.
HEALTH
Louisiana Senate passes a bill declaring WHO will have no authority in their state!
Louisiana state senators have unanimously passed a bill that would block international organizations like the World Health Organization from having any power in the state.
The Louisiana Senate passed Senate Bill 133 on March 26 by a vote of 37-0. The measure would prohibit the global entities of the United Nations (UN), the World Health Organization (WHO), and the World Economic Forum (WEF) from having any power in the Bayou State.
The bill was introduced by Sen. Thomas Pressly and two cosponsors, Sen. Valerie Hodges and Rep. Kathy Edmonston, on Feb. 29.
The bill also prohibits state and local offices from enforcing any of the rules, regulations, or mandates issued by these organizations.
“No rule, regulation, fee, tax, policy, or mandate of any kind of the World Health Organization, United Nations, and the World Economic Forum shall be enforced or implemented by the state of Louisiana or any agency, department, board, commission, political subdivision, governmental entity of the state, parish, municipality, or any other political entity.”
The timing of the legislation coincides with a push from the White House to tie the United States to a global pandemic plan.
“Unbeet-able” stamina: Recent research reveals the power of beet compounds
For decades, knowledgeable nutritionists and holistic physicians have been touting the nutritional merits of beets – as well as their ability to promote heart health. These brilliant red root vegetables are rich in natural plant pigments and phytochemicals that have evidence-based abilities to sustain and enhance the health and function of body systems.
Now, one particular group of compounds found in beets is turning out to be of particular interest to researchers. A new review suggests that the betalains in beets not only help battle oxidative stress and inflammation but may also reduce fatigue, boost energy, and improve athletic performance. (In other words, these humble veggies may qualify as a performance-enhancing food!) Read on to find out how betalains in beets and beet juice could help invigorate your workouts.
The same properties of beets that enhance athletic stamina – such as increasing nitric oxide and promoting blood flow – can support heart health. And, it’s not just betalains in beets that benefit your “ticker.” Studies have suggested that healthy levels of potassium in beets can help lower blood pressure. In addition, a cup of cooked beets contains a respectable four grams of fiber, allowing them to support lower levels of homocysteine, a protein which – when present in excessive amounts – is implicated in heart disease.
Registered dietitian Sarah Thomsen Ferreira, R.D., points out that beets can improve arterial health and reduce LDL cholesterol. With their savory, earthy flavor and satisfying consistency, low-calorie beets may help create a sense of fullness that can reduce overeating and combat obesity. By the way, these dietary “good citizens” can also help stabilize blood sugar. Finally, beets are rich in folate, a B vitamin believed to help prevent strokes.
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
Trilateral Commission member Larry Summers says all labor will be replaced by AI!
Last November, the CEO of OpenAI, Sam Altman, was summarily and suddenly fired from the company by the Board of Directors. Chaos ensued. Then, miraculously, Altman jockeyed to be reinstated after he fired the existing Board and bought in new Directors who would be more amenable to his plans to conquer the world.
Enter Larry Summers, member of the Trilateral Commission and new member of OpenAI’s Board of Directors!
Who is Summers? He was appointed as Secretary of the Treasury during the Clinton Administration, following another Trilateral Robert Rubin. Both President Bill Clinton and his vice-president Al Gore were also members. He then went back to Harvard University to serve as its President. Then he joined the Obama Administration as director of National Economic Council.
Jeffery Epstein shares a special connection with one of the most prominent figures at Harvard—University President Lawrence H. Summers.
Summers and Epstein serve together on the Trilateral Commission and the Council on Foreign Relations, two elite international relations organizations.
Their friendship began a number of years ago—before Summers became Harvard’s president and even before he was the Secretary of the Treasury—and those close to Epstein say he holds the University president in very high regard.
“He likes Larry Summers a lot,” Epstein’s friend and Frankfurter Professor of Law Alan M. Dershowitz says. “He speaks well of Larry, and I think he admires Larry’s economic thinking.”
Summers was listed as a frequent flyer on Epstein’s “Lolita Express” at least four times.
SURVEILLANCE STATE
AT&T confirms 73-million people affected by the data breach!
Telecommunications giant AT&T has finally confirmed that 73 million current and former customers have been caught up in a massive dark web data leak. The leaked data includes names, addresses, mobile phone numbers, dates of birth, and social security numbers.
Malwarebytes VP of Consumer Privacy, Oren Arar, describes the AT&T breach as “especially risky” because much of the type of data that’s been exposed. “SSN, name, date of birth—this is personal identifiable information (PII) that cannot be changed, and if scammers gets their hands on it, it just makes their work in stealing peoples identities a lot easier.”
The data came to light a few weeks ago when it was put up for sale on an online cybercrime forum, but the seller, a hacker calling themselves “MajorNelson”, claimed it had been stolen from AT&T three years prior.
In 2021, a hacker named “Shiny Hunters” put a database apparently containing the personal details of 70 million AT&T customers up for sale, but AT&T denied the leak was its data, and denied it again when the data appeared on the dark web last month. It has since revised its position as it wrestles with the thorny problem of investigating what happened on its computers three years ago.
In its latest statement, the company confirmed that the leak contained “AT&T data-specific fields,” but said it had not yet determined the source of that data.
ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT
Scientists just test fired a cloud device over American soil to block sunlight!
The USS Hornet may be a decommissioned aircraft carrier, yet it has nevertheless become the launch-site for a controversial new war in the skies.
The Marine Cloud Brightening Program’s Coastal Atmospheric Aerosol Research and Engagement project, led by researchers from the University of Washington, took to the deck of the Hornet Tuesday to launch streams of particles into the sky above the San Francisco Bay. Their ultimate objective is apparently to block and reflect sunlight in hopes of limiting “global warming.”
CAARE researchers behind the geoengineering scheme opted not to announce their experiment, reportedly citing concerns that there might be significant backlash.
After all, the American public — or at the very least, the residents of Alameda — might first want to hear from the hundreds of scientists who have called for a non-use agreement for solar radiation management and stated in an open letter that the “risks of solar geoengineering are poorly understood and can never be fully known. Impacts will vary across regions, and there are uncertainties about the effects on weather patterns, agriculture, and the provision of basic needs of food and water.”
Robert Wood, the lead UW scientist running the cloud project, noted on his university blog that the team at the CAARE facility developed a “Cloud-Aerosol Research Instrument (CARI).” This device, which has multiple nozzles and resembles a snow maker, can apparently fire trillions of salt particles into the air.
The UW indicated that once emitted, such particles would only remain airborne in the atmosphere for a few days.
Wood told the San Francisco Chronicle simulations project that if 15% of Earth’s marine clouds were artificially brightened, the globe might cool by approximately one degree.
The widespread concerns over the feasibility and fallout of such experiments has prompted the Biden administration to distance itself from the CAARE experiment, even though President Joe Biden signed Congress’ Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2022, providing funding for a “scientific assessment of solar and other rapid climate interventions in the context of near-term climate risks and hazards,” including aerosol injection.
The White House told the Times in a statement, “The U.S. government is not involved in the Solar Radiation Modification (SRM) experiment taking place in Alameda, CA, or anywhere else.”
2ND AMENDMENT
St. Louis apartment resident shoots alleged naked intruder!
A St. Louis, Missouri, resident shot an alleged naked intruder in an apartment building last
Friday afternoon. FOX 2 Now reported the alleged intruder, a 32-year-old man, entered the apartment by breaking through a wall. The suspect then allegedly made threats against the 36-year-old resident and his family.
KMOV noted the resident feared for his family’s safety and shot the alleged intruder.
The suspect was transported to a hospital for treatment for a non-life-threatening wound.
Police are investigating the incident as a self-defense shooting.
GARDENING, FARMING & HOMESTEADING
10 Benefits of Vertical Gardening
Vertical gardening provides unparalleled benefits for urban gardeners. From enabling the cultivation of fresh produce, enhancing aesthetic appeal, to optimizing the use of limited spaces. This innovative gardening approach transforms urban environments into vibrant green sanctuaries, offering a sustainable solution to space constraints while fostering a closer connection with nature.
- Maximizing limited space
- Improving air quality
- Enhancing aesthetic appeal
- Reducing urban heat island effect
- Increasing biodiversity in urban areas
- Benefits of vertical gardening for mental health
- Economic benefits of vertical gardening
- Sustainable water use in vertical gardening
- Ease of accessibility
- Year-round gardening possibilities
COVID RELATED NEWS
COVID-19 lab leak denier Peter Daszak to testify before Congress on Mayday!
EcoHealth Alliance president Peter Daszak will testify publicly before the House regarding the origins of Covid-19 and gain-of-function research on May 1, several
congressional committees announced Thursday.
House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic chairman Brad Wenstrup (R., Ohio) will lead the hearing and ask Daszak numerous questions about his nonprofit’s relationship with the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China. EcoHealth is a U.S.-based non- governmental organization that used funding from the National Institutes of Health to perform gain-of-function research on bat coronaviruses at the Wuhan lab, where the pandemic plausibly originated.
During a closed-door transcribed interview on Capitol Hill in November, Daszak said EcoHealth planned to conduct such research at the University of North Carolina if the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency approved its research proposal called DEFUSE. DARPA ultimately rejected the funding request.
However, a recent Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request uncovered drafts and notes suggesting that EcoHealth intended to mislead DARPA and move forward with conducting gain-of-function research at the Wuhan lab instead.
Paxlovid does not work on the vaccinated!
Pfizer’s COVID-19 drug did not work for many vaccinated people, according to a new paper from the company’s scientists.
There was not a statistically significant difference between Paxlovid and placebo recipients in terms of time to alleviation of symptoms, the scientists reported in the new paper.
The paper, published by the New England Journal of Medicine, describes the results of a company-funded phase 2-3 trial of the drug, which is also known as nirmatrelvir.
The trial enrolled adults who tested positive for COVID-19, showed at least one COVID-19 symptom, had previously received a COVID-19 vaccine, and had at least one risk factor, such as being a cigarette smoker, for severe COVID-19. Participants were randomized from Aug. 25, 2021, to July 25, 2022.
Of the 1,296 participants, 654 received at least one 300-milligram dose of Paxlovid and at least one 100-milligram dose of ritonavir, a protease inhibitor. The rest received a placebo.
The results showed that the median time to alleviation of COVID-19 symptoms, through day 28, was 12 days in the treatment group and 13 days in the placebo arm. That difference “was not significant,” the authors wrote.
The authors said that the results showed “the usefulness of nirmatrelvir–ritonavir in patients who are not at high risk for severe COVID-19 has not been established.”
CANCEL CULTURE
NY Grand Jury releases scathing report against child protection services agency!
The result of a six-month special grand jury investigation into the murder of 8-year-old Tommy Valva by his father has revealed another disturbing instance of abuse of power by child protection agencies and the family court system.
The New York boy died in 2019 from hypothermia after his father, an NYPD cop, inflicted a series of cruel punishments on him. He made the child strip naked, lay on a cold cement garage floor, and hosed him down with cold water. Michael Valva was convicted of his son’s murder in 2022.
The grand jury report, released on April 3, is wrought with similar findings in the recent review of the murder of 5-year-old Harmony Montgomery. Details of the girl’s murder and the state of New Hampshire’s inability to account for her whereabouts for two years gripped the nation.
It was a tragedy set in motion when Massachusetts Family Court Judge Mark Newman awarded custody of the little girl to her father Adam Montgomery. Mr. Montgomery was convicted in February of murdering his daughter.
Judge Newman granted custody to Mr. Montgomery instead of the girl’s mother despite his lengthy violent criminal history and transient status.
Before Tommy Valva’s murder, Suffolk County Family Court Judge Jeff Zimmerman also awarded full custody of the little boy along with his two brothers to his father Michael Valva over the boy’s mother Justyna Zubko-Valva.
In both Harmony and Tommy’s cases, court records, which were widely publicized in both murder trials, show that neither of their mothers had any history of abuse or violence.
In both of the children’s cases, child protection service workers went along with the court’s custody awards despite knowing that there were serious child abuse allegations and child welfare concerns pending against both men.
In her office’s findings from an investigation into Harmony’s murder, Maria Mossaides, director of the Massachusetts Office of the Child Advocate, slammed the state child protection agency for what she called system-wide failures and also for “recklessly” favoring parental rights over Harmony’s safety.
Throughout its 75-page investigative report, the New York grand jury charges New York’s child protection services system with the same kind of failures.
It faulted CPS employees for deeming child abuse allegations by another parent as unfounded with little evidence. It also cited the system as flawed for not having any independent checks and balances with the agency over such decisions.
According to the grand jury, the agency even refused to return its records for the investigation.
PET NEWS
The Instacart delivery driver who fatally shot Angie Harmon’s dog will not be charged!
A delivery driver who fatally shot actress Angie Harmon’s dog while dropping off groceries
to her home through Instacart will reportedly not face criminal charges.
“The driver indicated that he was attacked by her dog, so he discharged his firearm,” a Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department spokesperson told E! News. “The driver is not facing charges for this action.”
“Our officers investigated the incident thoroughly and ultimately decided not to pursue charges. The police are not seeking additional parties. The case is now closed,” the spokesperson added.
A police spokesperson also told People that while the man told officers that the dog attacked him, authorities did not find any visible injuries on the delivery driver.
As Breitbart News reported, Harmon, the actress widely known for roles on Law & Order and Rizolli & Isles, announced last week that a delivery driver shot and killed her German shepherd-beagle mix outside her home in Charlotte, North Carolina.
“This Easter weekend a man delivering groceries for Instacart shot & killed our precious Oliver,” Harmon wrote on Instagram, sharing photos of her dog. “He got out of his car, delivered the food & THEN shot our dog.”
“Our ring camera was charging in the house, which he saw & then knew he wasn’t being recorded,” the actress continued. “The police let him go b/c he claimed ‘self defense.’ He did not have a scratch or bite on him nor were his pants torn.”
“He shot our dog with my daughters & myself at home & just kept saying, ‘yeah, I shot your dog. Yeah I did,’” Harmon said. “We are completely traumatized & beyond devastated at the loss of our beloved boy & family member.”
“We were deeply saddened and disturbed to hear about this incident,” an Instacart spokesperson told People. “We have no tolerance for violence of any kind, and the shopper account was immediately suspended from our platform.”
GOOD NEWS
Hybrid homeschool that gives control to parents and focuses on tradition and God!
Originally from Texas, Renae Zentz met her husband, Harold Zentz, while attending Brigham Young University, and they settled down in Utah. When she became pregnant with their first daughter, Mrs. Zentz chose to be a stay-at-home mom, which led her to investigate different educational options.
Now, the mom of six and grandmother of four runs Family Lyceum, a private school that is a blend of homeschooling and a traditional classroom, where parents are given overall control of their child’s education. With its motto “We are a class that is kind,” the school is also dedicated to upholding the virtue of compassion.
Fifty-one-year-old Mrs. Zentz says Family Lyceum was chosen as the school’s name as a tip of the hat to the schools of ancient Greece and to the Lyceum schools that were created in the early days of the United States by Ralph Waldo Emerson and others. Just as in the early days of America and ancient Greece, Mrs. Zentz wanted her school to be dedicated to families who have a love and thirst for learning.
Mrs. Zentz started thinking about homeschooling when her oldest daughter was a baby.
“My husband is a public school teacher,“ she says, ”and when I visited his junior high, I felt even more strongly about homeschooling.”
Naturally independent, Mrs. Zentz joyfully shouldered most of the responsibility of homeschooling her children and made up her own curriculum. She began to notice, however, that when she set up learning with two or three other families, there was a noticeable difference in her children.
“I found, over the years, that those days that we were together with friends were really the highlight of the week,” Mrs. Zentz says.
The children enrolled in Family Lyceum go to school two or three days a week and homeschool the rest of the time. A love of learning is evident in the families and students of the school and each month, parents are assigned a book to read aloud to their children at home.
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