WORLD NEWS
Cockpit voice and flight data recorders are being gathered as an investigation begins into a sudden mid-air drop on an Auckland-bound flight that left passengers bloodied, hospitalised dozens and “felt like an earthquake had just hit”.
Latam Airlines flight LA800 departed Sydney at 11.35am on Monday with 263 passengers and nine flight and cabin crew headed for Auckland. About two-thirds of the way into the three-hour flight, the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner – which was eight years old, according to flight tracking data – “experienced a strong shake”, the airline said.
The incident occurred after a “technical problem”, the Chilean carrier said, as it continued to investigate the incident. Passengers on board the flight told New Zealand news site Stuff that once the plane landed, the pilot was in “shock” and said his “gauges just blanked out”. Without the instrument panel, passengers claimed the pilot said he briefly lost the ability to fly his plane.
Fifty people were treated by 14 ambulance crews who were waiting for the flight when it landed safely at Auckland airport on Monday at about 4.30pm local time.
Thirteen of those were hospitalized, including one in a serious condition. Those hospitalized included four passengers from Australia, two from Brazil and two from New Zealand, as well as one French and one Chilean passenger. Three cabin crew were also taken for further treatment.
The mid-air drop has been described as lasting for about a second or so.
The Auckland-based DJ Lucas Ellwood, a passenger who had his seatbelt on at the time of the drop, said the lunch service had just finished when the plane “all of a sudden fell”.
“It was over [in] under a second so it was a very quick jolt,” Ellwood told ABC News. “It felt like an earthquake had just hit.”
“Everything was smooth sailing and then it just struck us, with no warning from the pilots,” Ellwood told the Guardian. Ellwood said everything that was not strapped down instantly hit the roof.
“It was harrowing,” he said. Passengers and crew members were left injured and bleeding, while others were visibly shaken, Ellwood said.
The right-wing populist National Rally of Marine Le Pen holds a commanding lead of 13 points over French President Emmanuel Macron in the upcoming elections for the European Parliament.
Three months before voters in France and across the EU will go to the polls and determine the composition of the bloc’s next parliament, President Macron continues to struggle as he looks to move on from a year dominated by civil unrest his country, from racially-inspired riots, to labour union strikes and mass demonstrations against his raising of the pension age, and the nation’s farmers shutting down critical roadways in protest of his green agenda.
According to an Ipsos survey of French voters, Macron’s neo-liberal globalist Ensemble! coalition, which includes his own Renaissance (RE) as well as the centrist Democratic Movement (MoDem) and the globalist Horizons party, is only on pace to receive 18 percent of the vote in the June elections, declining a further two points over the past three months.
Meanwhile, the populist opposition National Rally, led by 28-year-old Jordan Bardella, who took over as president of the party in 2022 as former presidential candidate Marine Le Pen transitioned to leading the parliamentary branch of the party in the National Assembly, is projected to win 31 per cent support after increasing in over the past three months by three points.
The surge means the populist party, capitalizing on anger over mass migration, economic failures, and the green agenda, now commands a 13-point lead over Macron and his allies.
Russia to Hold Joint Naval Drills with Iran and China
The Russian Defense Ministry on Monday announced that a group of Russian warships has arrived in Iranian waters for participation in a joint exercise with Iran and China called “Maritime Security Belt 2024.”
“The practical part of the exercise will take place in the waters of the Gulf of Oman of the Arabian Sea. The main purpose of the maneuvers is to work out the safety of maritime economic activity,” the defense ministry said.
“The goals of this exercise include strengthening the security of international maritime trade, combating piracy and maritime terrorism, facilitating information exchange for maritime rescue operations, and sharing operational and tactical insights,” said Iranian state media.
Russia’s flagship in the exercise is the Varyag, a guided-missile cruiser whose hull dates back to the 1980s. The ship carries an extensive inventory of modern radar systems and weapons, for both surface and submarine warfare. The Varyag often represents Russia’s Pacific Fleet in training exercises and demonstrations.
The Iranian Navy said last month that it was eager to participate in joint exercises with the more advanced and experienced Russian and Chinese navies, to enhance Iran’s blue-water naval capabilities.
U.S. NEWS, POLITICS & GOVERNMENT
Trump Requests Delay of New York Criminal Trial as Supreme Court Weighs Presidential Immunity
Attorneys for former President Donald Trump have filed a motion to exclude certain evidence in his criminal case in New York and adjourn trial as the Supreme Court is set to hear arguments over President Trump’s presidential immunity defense in a separate criminal case.
President Trump has been indicted in four separate jurisdictions on a total of 91 counts and has raised presidential immunity as a defense several times.
In New York, where he is set to go to trial on March 25, he was charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records. In Washington, D.C., he was charged with four counts of obstruction and conspiracy for his actions on Jan. 6, 2021, and the case has been appealed all the way to the high court.
The Supreme Court has set arguments for April 25, and defense attorneys in New York have said the March 25 trial should be postponed until the high court issues a decision.
The defense also argued that prosecutors with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office should not be able to use evidence from President Trump’s time in office.
“The Court must preclude the People from offering evidence at trial of President Trump’s official acts as the Commander in Chief,” a March 7 court filing made public in redacted form on March 11 reads.
The parameters of President Trump’s presidential immunity have been debated in several jurisdictions already and will soon be heard in the Supreme Court.
“This area of law is evolving in real time,” Trump attorneys in New York said.
The Supreme Court limited their review to the question whether and to what extent “a former President [enjoys] presidential immunity from criminal prosecution for conduct alleged to involve official acts during his tenure in office.”
Trump Driver Contradicts Jan. 6 Claim From Star Witness
The Secret Service agent who was driving the SUV with then-President Donald Trump inside on Jan. 6, 2021, refuted the claim that President Trump grabbed for the wheel of the vehicle, according to a U.S. House of Representatives report issued on March 11.
The agent, who is not being identified by name by lawmakers, told a House panel that he “did not see him reach.”
President Trump “never grabbed the steering wheel,” the agent said. “I didn’t see him lunge to try to get into the front seat at all.”
The testimony was given to the Democrat-dominated select committee convened to investigate Jan. 6 in the previous Congress and quoted in a new interim report by House Republicans, who are probing the work that committee did.
Cassidy Hutchinson, a former White House official, testified to the panel in her fourth interview, in 2022, that she was told by Anthony Ornato, another Secret Service agent, that he was told by a fellow agent that President Trump grabbed for the wheel.
“Tony said something to the effect of, ‘did you hear what [expletive] happened?’” Ms. Hutchinson testified on June 20, 2022. Mr. Ornato then “retold the story” he was given, she said, that when President Trump got into the state car, the Beast, after speaking on the Ellipse, he wanted to travel to the Capitol.
She said President Trump became upset when he was told he would be taken back to the White House and “he lunged forward into what I believe … would be called the cab of the presidential limo and went to grab at the steering wheel.” When an agent said, “we’re going back to the White House” and “that’s final,” President Trump “was extremely angry at that response and used his free hand, to my understanding, to then lunge at Bobby Engel,” Ms. Hutchinson claimed, attributing the story to Mr. Ornato.
“Despite the driver of the president’s SUV testifying under oath that the Hutchinson story was false, the select committee chose to validate and promote Hutchinson’s version of the story as fact. The select committee hid the driver’s full testimony and only favorably mentioned his testimony in its final report, it did not release the full transcript,” House Republicans said in the new report.
Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the chairman of the now-disbanded select committee, did not respond to a request for comment.
The Jan. 6 select committee did not release the driver’s transcript. Neither did House Republicans. A Republican aide declined to provide it.
The select committee did say in its final report, after mentioning Ms. Hutchinson’s claims, that “the driver testified that he did not recall seeing what President Trump was doing and did not recall whether there was movement.”
It also noted that Mr. Engel, another agent, “did not characterize the exchange in the vehicle the way Hutchinson described the account she heard from Ornato, and indicated that he did not recall President Trump gesturing toward him.” And it released a transcript of an interview it did with Mr. Ornato in which he said “this is not a story I recollect and I don’t recall that story happening.”
Trump Confirms He Met With Elon Musk: ‘I’ve Liked Him’
Former President Donald Trump confirmed Monday that he met with Elon Musk but said he’s not sure if the billionaire Tesla CEO will back his reelection bid.
Last week, several media outlets reported that the pair met at Mar-a-Lago in Florida, although few details have been released. Those reports claimed that President Trump held the meeting due to his campaign’s alleged cashflow issues and because of his mounting legal fees.
“I don’t know. I’ve been friendly with him over the years,” President Trump told CNBC. “I’ve helped him; when I was president I, helped him. I’ve liked him. We obviously have opposing views on a minor subject called electric cars,” he added. “I’m all for electric cars, but you have to have all the alternatives also.”
After the reports surfaced, in post on X, Mr. Musk wrote that he would not be donating money to either campaign as president.
“Just to be super clear, I am not donating money to either candidate for US President,” Mr. wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, in a post last week. He did not confirm whether he met with the former president.
Since purchasing the social media website in 2022, Mr. Musk has removed suspensions for a number of prominent conservatives, including President Trump’s account after it was banned in January 2021.
Over the years, there have been rumors that gang members and members of prison gangs receive a teardrop tattoo near their eye for every person they have allegedly murdered. Mr. Musk referred to this, saying that it “means they have murdered someone and they are so proud of having murdered someone that they tattoo one tear on their face for every one person that they killed.”
In another instance this year, the X owner referred to reports of a yellow school bus being used to transport illegal immigrants near Brooklyn’s James Madison High School.
“This is what happens when you run out of hotel rooms. Soon, cities will run out of schools to vacate. Then they will come for your homes,” Mr. Musk wrote on social media about a month ago.
BLOODBATH: Mass Layoffs at the RNC; More Than 60 Staffers Will Be Let Go (UPDATED)
Immediately following her election as co-chair of the Republican National Committee Friday, Lara Trump promised that she and new chair Michael Whatley weren’t going to waste any time getting the organization into shape. That was evident Monday at RNC headquarters, where “dozens of officials” are being pushed out, according to Politico.
All told, the expectation is that more than 60 RNC staffers who work across the political, communications and data departments will be let go. Those being asked to resign include five members of the senior staff, though the names were not made public. Additionally, some vendor contracts are expected to be cut.
Lara Trump appeared on Sunday Morning Futures this week detailing election integrity and ballot harvesting efforts the RNC would be focusing on as one of its main priorities.
According to two additional sources, RNC Political Director Elliott Echols; Mike Mears, the chief of staff to former co-chair Drew McKissick; and Tripp Looser are three of the senior staffers asked to resign.
In addition, the Washington Post is reporting that Trump adviser Chris LaCivita, who is also the new chief of staff at the RNC, “had complained about the staff of the RNC for several months…and long planned to make changes” and that he “had studied the organization’s payroll and employees for several weeks.”
Peter Navarro Ordered to Report to Prison on March 19
Former White House adviser Peter Navarro has been ordered to report to a Miami prison on March 19, his attorney has revealed in a filing requesting release.
U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta had denied Mr. Navarro’s prior request for release pending appeal, but the former White House adviser raised the issue to the appellate level.
Mr. Navarro received a four-month sentence in January for contempt of Congress after he refused to comply with a subpoena from the House Jan. 6 Committee.
“For the first time in history, a senior presidential advisor has been convicted of contempt of congress after asserting executive privilege over a congressional subpoena,” the March 10 filing reads.
“Dr. Navarro has appealed and will raise a number of issues on appeal that he contends are likely to result in the reversal of his conviction, or a new trial.”
The filing stated that Mr. Navarro was “to report to the custody of the Bureau of Prisons, FCI Miami, on or before 2:00 p.m. EDT on March 19, 2024.”
Britt Busted For Misleading Sex-Trafficking Story In Bizarre SOTU Response
Already the subject of bipartisan ridicule for the jaw-droppingly strange persona she displayed in her Republican response to the State of the Union address, Alabama Sen. Katie Britt is now taking more serious fire — for having deceptively framed a 16-year-old anecdote about sex trafficking to mislead the audience about when and where the crime happened and how she learned about it.
Observers of all political stripes winced as soon as first-termer Britt started speaking, sounding every bit like she was delivering an absurdly melodramatic audition for a B-movie part.
As she proceeded through her bizarre delivery, Britt eventually came to the subject of border security. Within that passage, she shared an anecdote about a victim of sex trafficking, and did so in a way that misled the audience in three dimensions, making it sound like:
- Britt happened to encounter a woman who shared her story in a one-on-one conversation
- The sex trafficking happened recently — and during Biden’s term
- The sex trafficking occurred in the United States
None of that is true.
Here’s what Britt said:
When I took office [in 2023], I took a different approach. I traveled to the Del Rio sector of Texas. That’s where I spoke to a woman who shared her story with me. She had been sex trafficked by the cartels starting at the age of 12. She told me not just that she was raped every day, but how many times a day she was raped.The cartels put her on a mattress in a shoebox of a room, and they sent men through that door over and over again for hours and hours on end.
We wouldn’t be ok with this happening in a third world country. This is the United States of America, and it is past time, in my opinion, that we start acting like it. President Biden’s border policies are a disgrace.
On Friday, independent journalist Jonathan Katz posted a video in which he revealed that the unnamed woman Britt described is a Mexican citizen and prominent public advocate against human trafficking named Karla Jacinto Romero who testified before Congress in 2015.
Britt’s framing — “I spoke to a woman” in the Del Rio sector “who shared her story with me” — made it sound like she came across a little-known person, living in America, who decided to open up to Britt in an intimate conversation. In fact, Britt heard Romero’s account when Britt, Romero, and Sen. Marsha Blackburn participated in a public, roundtable discussion.
At the event, 31-year-old Romero gave her frequently-shared and reported account of having been sex-trafficked between the ages of 12 and 16 — in other words, way back during the George W. Bush administration.
Beyond serving as an indicator of how long ago Romero’s abuse occurred, the question of who was US president at the time is utterly irrelevant, because Romero wasn’t even trafficked in the United States or anywhere near it. It all took place inside Mexico and, from reporting on her story, it appears most or all of her forced-prostitution happened in the vicinity of Mexico City — nearly 1,000 miles from the American border.
In her speech, Britt melodramatically proclaimed, “We wouldn’t be ok with this happening in a Third World country. This is the United States of America.” And now we find the whole thing did happen in a Third World country.
Romero doesn’t even live in the United States, making Britt’s emphasis on having spoken with her near Del Rio, Texas all the more misleading. Interviewed from Mexico by the New York Times, Romero said when she learned about Britt using her story in the speech, “I thought it was very strange.”
There are enough real horror stories associated with America’s open border to make the case for better security. Britt’s decision to mislead her audience with an anecdote about sex trafficking that happened some 16 years ago far outside America is as baffling as her choice of persona for her first big moment in the spotlight.
Republican Warns of Biden Order Allowing Illegal Immigrants, Felons to Vote
A Republican secretary of state sent a letter this week to the Department of Justice (DOJ) alerting it to an executive order signed in 2021 that he says will allow felons and illegal aliens to register to vote in elections.
In the letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland, Republican Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson wrote that a Biden-signed executive order has led to agencies under Mr. Garland’s charge “attempting to register people to vote, including potentially ineligible felons and to co-opt state and local officials into accomplishing this goal.”
The order, which the White House described as an effort to promote “access to voting,” suggested that it was designed to eliminate racial discrimination at the polls. It told federal agencies, including the DOJ, to “consider ways to expand citizens’ opportunities to register to vote and to obtain information about, and participate in, the electoral process.”
Mr. Watson took issue with one provision that directed the DOJ to ensure that the U.S. Marshals Service change jail and “intergovernmental agreements” to mandate that the facilities “provide educational materials related to voter registration and voting,” and “facilitate voting by mail, to the extent practicable and appropriate.”
The problem, according to Mr. Watson, is that those materials may be given to people who can’t vote such as felons and illegal aliens. State officials are also essentially being forced to comply with the rules, he said.
“Our understanding is that everyone in the Marshals’ custody is given a form advising them of their right to register and vote,” his letter said, according to Fox News. “Providing ineligible non-citizens with information on how to register to vote undoubtedly encourages them to illegally register to vote, exposing them to legal jeopardy beyond their immigration status.”
“Many outside groups performing voter registration and vote harvesting services are partisan entities with a history of being unreliable. There have been documented instances of these groups providing incorrect directions to voters,” the Republican official warned. “It is not proper for the Federal government to push partisan groups into the voting process in Mississippi or any other state.”
ECONOMY & BUSINESS
House Republicans are demanding answers after the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) allegedly took steps to conceal the true number of illegal alien crossings from a large group of investigating Congressmen.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green (R-TN), and Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) wrote to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas Monday amidst his agency’s stonewalling of Congressional efforts to perform constitutional oversight of the colossal border crisis.
Johnson and the two chairmen told Mayorkas they wanted answers within two weeks or they would utilize their subpoena powers.
Concerns about the collapse of the southern border have increased in Washington and throughout the nation, with the Congressmen’s letter stating the problem “is currently the number one issue that concerns the American people, whether they live in a border state or not.” They mention the killings of Kayla Hamilton and Laken Riley, both allegedly by foreign nationals illegally in the country who were released due to Biden-endorsed border and immigration policies.
Air Force to Spend $6 Billion on 1,000 Artificial Intelligence Jets
The U.S. Air Force is preparing to add 1,000 artificial intelligence (AI) jets to its fleet as part of a $6 billion contract that will be awarded to a private developer, new reports have revealed.
The Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) project will feature AI-piloted planes that will be able to fly missions too dangerous for manned aircraft, such as flying just 30 feet above the ground at speeds up to 600 mph, according to the Daily Mail.
To put that in perspective, the speed of sound is about 767 mph.
The proposed jets will aid human-piloted missions by escorting and protecting other planes, acting as scouts, and carrying weapons to attack targets on the ground.
Weapons developers Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, General Atomics, and Anduril Industries are all in the running to win the multi-billion-dollar contract from the Pentagon.
The Department of Defense (DOD) hopes to select two of the competing companies by the summer of 2024 to begin building the jets in order to have them ready within five years.
Each jet has an estimated cost of “$10 to $20 million per plane,” the Daily Mail reports.
DOJ Investigating Boeing 737 Max Incident That Led to Passenger Injuries
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is investigating a mishap involving a Boeing plane that occurred in January.
On Jan. 5, an Alaska Airlines flight made an emergency landing after the door plug of the Boeing 737 Max 9 tore off while the aircraft was flying at 16,000 feet. Some passengers suffered injuries as a result. The airline confirmed that the DOJ is investigating the matter.
“In an event like this, it’s normal for the DOJ to be conducting an investigation. We are fully cooperating and do not believe we are a target of the investigation,” Alaska Airlines said, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The DOJ could look into whether Boeing violated a settlement agreement made with the agency in 2021.
Following two crashes involving Boeing 737 Max 8 planes in 2018 and 2019, the FBI and the Transportation Department investigated Boeing. At the time, the aircraft manufacturer admitted its employees deceived the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
One Boeing employee was found to have withheld certain safety details from the FAA. The two accidents resulted in the loss of 346 lives, and the MAX was prohibited from flying for 20 months.
The DOJ investigation comes as Boeing airplanes have been involved in multiple mishaps this month, including several flights being forced to land because of safety issues. As a result, Boeing stock is down 24% from last year.
Boeing Whistleblower Found Dead amid Lawsuit Against Company
A former Boeing employee who became a whistleblower against the compa
ny has been
found dead amidst a lawsuit he had been aiding.
John Barnett died on March 9 at the age of 62 from what police have described as a “self-inflicted wound. Prior to his death, he had “been giving evidence in a whistleblower lawsuit against the company,” per the BBC. Barnett had retired from the company in 2017 for health reasons after working with Boeing for 32 years. The BBC writes:
From 2010, he worked as a quality manager at the North Charleston plant making the 787 Dreamliner, a state-of-the-art airliner used mainly on long-haul routes.
In 2019, Mr. Barnett told the BBC that under-pressure workers had been deliberately fitting sub- standard parts to aircraft on the production line.
He also said he had uncovered serious problems with oxygen systems, which could mean one in four breathing masks would not work in an emergency.
He said soon after starting work in South Carolina he had become concerned that the push to get new aircraft built meant the assembly process was rushed and safety was compromised, something the company denied.
He later told the BBC that workers had failed to follow procedures intended to track components through the factory, allowing defective components to go missing.
He said in some cases, sub-standard parts had even been removed from scrap bins and fitted to planes that were being built to prevent delays on the production line.
Barnett had been in Charleston at the time of his death and even gave a formal deposition last week. On March 9, he was found dead in his truck in the hotel parking lot where he was residing. His lawyer described the death as “tragic,” and Boeing expressed their condolences to his family.
Walmart Bought a Finance App and Reduced Fraud Protections. Guess What Happened Next?
Only a few hours elapsed between the time that Carl’s pay landed in his checking account and when online thieves pilfered it. “They took all of it but like 67 cents,” he said. Months before, Carl had signed up for One Finance, a banking app. It’s owned and promoted by Walmart, where Carl works in a grocery department.
He was enticed by features like cash back on purchases at Walmart and the chance to receive his pay two days early, as well as by low fees and high interest rates. Everything was fine until Carl used his One debit card — for the very first time — to buy a video game at Walmart last fall. The next time he checked the app, he saw a series of unauthorized transactions that had drained his account. To get by, he tapped his savings, which he said was “just enough to cover everything.” Carl asked to be identified by first name only out of concern for his job security.
So many complaints inundated a Reddit community for One users that moderators made the page private “due to ONE fraud issue and their lack of customer support.” One’s Better Business Bureau page warns that scammers are using the One name and logo to steal money via “loan and impersonation scams.”
One had a higher rate of complaints lodged against it at the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in 2023, its first full year under Walmart control, than most other large neobanks for which data is publicly available. The CFPB received 89 complaints about One, which has 1.6 million customers, according to a recent internal company presentation. That was six more complaints than Dave, a neobank with 9.9 million customers. One also has more complaints per customer than both Current and MoneyLion, two large neobanks. Chime, the largest neobank in the U.S., has by far the highest rate of complaints. (These comparisons are imperfect because neobanks don’t always use the same definitions of “customer.”)
The CFPB received 13 complaints about One in December, almost double the neobank’s monthly average for 2023. Five drivers for Spark, Walmart’s delivery service, have complained in the past two months that hackers stole their personal information, set up fake One accounts in their names, and then diverted their paychecks into those accounts. One was “telling me that they were going to escalate this issue, and weeks would go by and I’d never hear anything from them,” said one driver who requested anonymity to protect his job. Walmart eventually reimbursed his lost pay, he said.
One’s issues threaten to undermine Walmart’s biggest opportunity to enter consumer banking. Starting in 1999, Walmart made four bids to go into the banking business. All failed in the face of what a 2007 New York Times article called a “firestorm of criticism from lawmakers, banking industry officials and watchdog groups.”
One also asks users to set up a PIN. But if you forget your PIN, you can reset it with the last four digits of your Social Security number, which Nixon said is easy for criminals to obtain. “It doesn’t feel safe and it doesn’t seem like the way we should protect people’s entire bank accounts,” said Nixon, who tested One’s login flow at ProPublica’s request. “When the criminal underground realizes that there’s a weakness, a lot of different parties jump on that.”
HEALTH
Vitamin D Could Help Treat Young People With Type 1 Diabetes, Improve Insulin Production
A high dose of vitamin D could improve the function of insulin-producing beta cells in children and young adults recently diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes.
The discovery, published in JAMA Network Open, could mean that a more cost-effective way of managing the disease affecting 1.45 million Americans has been on pharmacy shelves all along.
People with Type 1 diabetes do not make enough insulin, the hormone responsible for producing and moving blood sugar into the body’s cells for energy. Without enough insulin, blood sugar can’t get into the cells and stays trapped in the bloodstream, which causes diabetes symptoms. Complications of Type 1 diabetes include heart disease, stroke, circulatory problems, eye issues, nerve damage, kidney disease, and gum disease.
The research team found that taking the vitamin D supplement helped the body reduce the proinsulin to C-peptide ratio and delayed the loss of C-peptide more than the placebo. When C-peptide is present, the body is still producing insulin; in other words, the young people’s bodies made insulin that worked the way it was supposed to work.
Shop Vitamin D @ The Power Mall:
Optivida Vitamin D – 800IU (60 CT)
Health Officials: Man Dies From Bubonic Plague in New Mexico
Officials in New Mexico confirmed that a resident died from the plague in the United States’ first fatal case in several years.
The New Mexico Department of Health, in a statement, said that a man in Lincoln County “succumbed to the plague.” The man, who was not identified, was hospitalized before his death, officials said.
They further noted that it is the first human case of plague in New Mexico since 2021 and also the first death since 2020, according to the statement. No other details were provided, including how the disease spread to the man.
SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
TikTok lobbying surges ahead of House vote this week
Tensions between Congress and TikTok have reached a boiling point ahead of a high-stakes House vote — scheduled for Wednesday — that could lead to a U.S. ban of the massively popular video app.
Intense lobbying is underway on both sides of the bipartisan bill, which would force Beijing-based Bytedance to divest its ownership of TikTok within 165 days. TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew is expected to visit Capitol Hill this week as part of the company’s full-court press.
If passed and signed by President Biden, the bill would have major implications for the U.S. election, national security, the social media ecosystem, small businesses, America’s youth and more. Divisions within the Republican Party over banning TikTok have erupted at the eleventh hour, following former President Trump’s head-scratching reversal on a policy he championed in office.
In an interview on CNBC on Monday morning, Trump said he still believes TikTok’s Chinese ownership poses “a national security risk” — but again argued that banning the app would only help Facebook.
“Without TikTok, you can make Facebook bigger, and I consider Facebook to be an enemy of the people,” Trump said.
In a new twist, the former president also pointed out: “There are a lot of people on TikTok that love it. There are a lot of young kids on TikTok who will go crazy without it.”
The House will vote on the TikTok bill tomorrow morning under “suspension of the rules,” meaning it will require a two-thirds majority to pass.
TikTok once again sent push notifications Monday urging users to call their representative — a tactic that led to a surge in threats last week and backfired when a key House committee voted 50-0 to advance the bill.
The company also plans on flooding House offices with content creators and lobbyists this week, though it doesn’t expect to change the outcome of the vote, Axios’ Ashley Gold reports.
The top Republican and Democrat on the House China Select Committee sent a letter to Chew on Monday excoriating the company for “spreading false claims” about the bill, which TikTok has falsely characterized as an “outright ban.”
“Using your platform to deceive the American people about bipartisan U.S. legislation underscores the clear necessity of the bill currently under consideration,” the lawmakers wrote.
ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT
When Technocrats Intentionally Sabotage A Nation’s Energy Supply
The head of the Climate Change Committee (CCC) is a radical Net Zero activist and a Technocrat. When the CCC was challenged about faulty data that sent the UK into a condition of permanent energy shortage with Net Zero policy. The CEO of the UK’s climate watchdog promptly told staff to “kill” the story with technical language. So much for “openness” and “accountability”.
The moral hazard for all Technocrats is to drive the world into energy scarcity so that the remaining energy can be rationed and controlled, thereby controlling all economic activity. This is done through policies such as Net Zero and decarbonization, even though there is enough carbonized energy to last hundreds of years.
GARDENING, FARMING & HOMESTEADING
Top 20 Domestic Duck Breeds for Homesteaders
If you’ve been paying any amount of attention to homesteading circles lately, you’ve probably noticed one topic coming up more and more often concerning poultry. Ducks are back, and in a big way. Well, ducks never left us, not really, but they’ve long been overshadowed by chickens in the United States.
I don’t think they’re going to dislodge chickens anytime soon when it comes to the bird of choice, but I know for a fact that ducks are gaining a lot of headway with homesteaders and small-scale operations. They’re extremely healthy, still highly productive, and in many ways easier to take care of than chickens.
If you’ve been thinking about taking the plunge with ducks, you’re in luck because I’m bringing you a quick top 20 for the very best domestic breeds you should consider.
CANCEL CULTURE
Transvestite founder of LGBT group caught 2 years after fleeing country; faces federal fraud charges
The cross-dressing founder of the LGBT activist outfit Casa Ruby fled to El Salvador in 2022 amid mounting concerns over his alleged fraud, money laundering, and other improprieties. After two years of dodging accountability, the Trump critic who calls himself Ruby Corado may finally have to face the
music.
FBI agents arrested Corado at a hotel in Laurel, Maryland, on March 5. The LGBT activist has been charged with bank fraud, wire fraud, laundering of monetary instruments, monetary transactions in criminally derived proceeds, and failure to file a report of a foreign bank account. If convicted on all counts, he could land up to 70 years in prison.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for D.C. said last week that the 53-year-old transvestite also received $1.3 million from the Paycheck Protection Program and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program. Corado allegedly “stole at least $150,000 by transferring the money to bank accounts in El Salvador, which [he] hid from the IRS.”
An amended complaint filed by Racine in November 2022 suggested Corado had ultimately siphoned over $400,000 from Casa Ruby into his personal accounts, reported WRC-TV.
When Corado’s financial irregularities first came to light, Corado sold his house in Prince Georges County for $775,000, allegedly emptied the nonprofit’s coffers, then took off to his native country, leaving behind unpaid employees, unpaid vendors, and eviction notices from multiple properties for failure to pay rent.
Three of the nonprofit’s landlords brought legal action against the nonprofit, claiming they were owed more than $1 million in back rent.
WUSA reported that Corado, considered a flight risk, was held in a men’s jail over the weekend. Judge Robin Meriweather of the Prettyman Federal Courthouse is expected to rule Tuesday on whether the alleged fraudster will remain in jail until his trial.
Democrats in Maine have quietly reintroduced into a different committee the same pro- transgender bill that was unanimously defeated once already. The bill would in part prevent parents from being contacted or having any say in the transing of their children by school or medical officials and would serve as a groomer protection measure.
The bill, LD227, is very similar to LD 1735, which was killed in the Judiciary Committee in January. Republican critics of the bill are blasting the provisions as anti-family and anti-child.
The bill prohibits “interference” between parents and children if a child requests an abortion or wants to undergo “gender-affirming care,” according to Fox News.
In the latest iteration is passed, the law would give sweeping license to the transgendering of children and abortions for minors whether parents agree with the procedures or not. The bill additionally protects any minor who enters the state from outside and would cause Maine law enforcement to prevent parents from being able to influence their children’s medical care if those parents oppose so- called “gender-affirming” care.
The bill is so far-reaching that 16 Republican Attorneys General from other states filed a warning to the Maine legislature not to pass the bill.
The Republican AGs called the bill “unconstitutional” for taking away parental rights and for automatically taking children into state custody, no matter what state the children come from, Fox News reported.
The bill would shield law enforcement, schools, hospitals, doctors, and Maine politicians from lawful actions issued in any other state, and would block any legal recourse for anyone living outside Maine.
The left-wing LGBTQ lobby is praising the bill. Patience Crozier, the director of family advocacy for GLBTQ Legal Advocates and Defenders (GLAD), lauded Maine’s attempt to shield patients seeking transgender care in Maine.
But one Maine parent, Amber Lavigne, who appeared at the Capitol in Augusta, worried that LD 1735 and bills like it summarily cancel parental rights.
Lavigne’s own daughter was groomed into believing she was a transgender boy by a radical gay school counselor who gave Lavigne’s child chest binders and told the girl not to tell her parents about her new “gender identity.”
In a video posted on X, Lavigne said that she complained to the school and the school responded by giving “guidance” to the counselor to pull back on the grooming behavior. But if LD 227 were to pass, Lavigne said, schools would be barred by law from mitigating grooming behavior or even talking to parents about the issue.
Critics of LD 227 also blasted the Democrats for using a trick to slide the bill into the legislature without giving lawmakers or voters a chance to see what is in it ahead of time.
The bill was not published ahead of its introduction, but was instead introduced as a “concept draft bill,” according to Maine Wire.
Entire staff at Deadspin fired months after they smeared 9-year-old Chiefs fan as a racist
Just five months after Deadspin tried to smear a 9-year-old Kansas City Chiefs fan as a racist, all of the sports media outlet’s employees have been fired as a part of a buyout.
Employees received an email announcing the sale, and some were told at a meeting before their access to the company’s digital resources was cut off.
“Recently we were approached by the European firm Lineup Publishing expressing interest in purchasing Deadspin to add to their growing media holdings,” the email read in part.
Other employees posted about the decision on social media.
Deadspin was excoriated by many after it tried to misrepresent the costume worn by a young fan of the Kansas City Chiefs as “blackface.” Critics immediately slammed the outlet by pointing out that they had used a misleading photo only showing one side of the child’s face and not the other, which was colored in red.
In February, the family of the boy named Holden Armenta filed a defamation lawsuit against Deadspin. The Armenta family said they have received “a barrage of hate, including death threats” as a result of the article.
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