Lawmakers press investigation into DEI agenda at the Pentagon
A coalition of lawmakers is pushing forward the ongoing investigation into just how much taxpayer money Pentagon officials are taking away from national defense and putting toward diversity, equity and inclusivity initiatives.
The Pentagon has been under increasing scrutiny for its focus on DEI, even as the Ukraine-Russia and Israel-Hamas wars continue.
The lawmakers sent a letter to the Defense Advisory Committee on Diversity and Inclusion Chair General (Ret.) Lester Lyles expressing concerns that the focus on DEI was a distraction and was hurting recruitment.
“DoD’s emphasis on diversity and inclusion over mission effectiveness and capability concerns our nation’s national security and safety,” the letter said.
Military branches have struggled to meet recruitment goals in recent years. A Department of Defense official recently reported that in fiscal year 2023, all branches collectively fell short of their recruitment targets by more than 40,000. But that shortfall came even after recruitment targets were lowered significantly.
“Stand Together Against Racism and Radicalism in the Services (STARRS), an educational organization that includes retired military members, assembled a study of over one thousand unsolicited comments from military service members, veterans, and their respective families,” the letter said. “Their findings showed that many did not feel comfortable recommending military service because of the DEI policies instituted throughout DoD.”
As The Center Square has previously reported, the Pentagon has embraced an array of equity initiatives, from training on white privilege to guidelines on gender pronouns. Recently, the DOD asked for more than $100 million just for DEI initiatives, sparking backlash.
Wyoming sheriff’s recruiting campaign gets nationwide attention
Laramie County Sheriff Brian Kozak says his agency’s latest ad campaign has gotten a “very positive” reception, especially from the local community.
One tagline, “Work in Wyoming, where breaking the law is still illegal,” got so much attention the Laramie County Sheriff’s Office reached out to officials in Colorado to see if they could do some recruiting in that area as well. They recently put up a billboard with the tagline in Denver for National Police Week.
“We hear that officers there are frustrated,” Kozak said.
Now, the department is getting applications from “all over the country,” the sheriff said Monday on “Morning in America.” He said his office has even received inquiries from as far away as Japan and Australia.
“Our target was originally Colorado, but we’re getting just a massive amount of applications from all over,” Kozak said. “So, this is great news for us.”
Suspect steals LAPD cruiser, drags cop alongside until he crashes into other vehicles, causing more injuries
Over the weekend, a man seized the opportunity to steal a vehicle owned by the Los Angeles Police Department and took it on a short joyride that resulted in injuries to one cop and two civilians.
Around 3:30 a.m. on Sunday, a female officer was working security detail at Oceanwide Plaza, about a mile and a half outside Downtown L.A. While the officer was either sitting inside or standing near her police-issued SUV, a man suddenly hopped inside and began driving, dragging the officer alongside as she attempted to stop the carjacking.
Video of the scene taken by KABC-TV shortly after the crash shows one vehicle with a mangled back end and a police SUV on top of a curb near a bike rack. The video also shows a third vehicle, a red van, parked in the middle of the street with obvious damage to the front end.
KABC-TV did not mention a third vehicle involved, but the Post indicated that the suspect in the police SUV “plowed into multiple other cars and scooters before crashing into a pole.”
Federal scholarship program under fire for alleged bias against conservatives
Lawmakers have threatened to revoke the appropriations for a federally-funded scholarship program that an audit found favors liberally leaning students over conservatives by a ratio of 10 to 1.
The foundation does have members of both parties on its board, including U.S. Rep. Kay Granger, R-Texas, and U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kans.
Notably, President Joe Biden’s Education Secretary Miguel Cardona also sits on the board.
House Republican lawmakers on leadership on the relevant committees sent a letter to foundation Executive Secretary Terry Babcock-Lumish demanding answers.
“Between 2021 and 2023, the Truman Foundation selected 182 Truman winners,” the letter said. “Yet, despite the Truman Foundation’s claims that it ‘supports scholars from a wide range of perspectives, interests, and geographic areas,’ just six recipients espoused interest in a cause traditionally considered conservative-leaning.
“Not a single winner professed interest in causes such as protecting the rights of the unborn or defending the Second Amendment,” the letter continued. “By contrast, the Foundation selected at least 74 winners professing interest in a progressive cause.”
This Is An Impeachable Offense: Stephen Miller
Stephen Miller on Life, Liberty and Levin. “Well, of course, Mark, it is an impeachable offense.
It’s a systemic and deliberate violation of not one or two or three immigration laws, but the entire body of law that is the Immigration and Nationality Act.”
The Chinese Fentanyl Killing Americans | Peter Schweizer
Drug War | Full Measure
By most measures, America’s war on drugs has been an abysmal failure.
From our biggest cities to rural areas, fentanyl, meth, and even a powerful modern version of marijuana have captured a generation, sparking mental illness, crime, and homelessness.
Lisa Fletcher reports from New York’s Hudson Valley, where officials are still trying to crack the code.
Ex-boyfriend eyed in murder of NYC woman, 29, butchered in front of her home
A 29-year-old woman was stabbed to death in front of her Manhattan home early Monday — and investigators are eyeing her ex-boyfriend in the murder, cops and law enforcement sources said.
A man wearing all black knifed the victim, identified as Shirley Rodriguez, multiple times in the head, neck and shoulder outside her apartment building on Haven Avenue, near West 175th Street, in Washington Heights around 5:30 a.m., authorities and sources said.
The killer then ran off, into nearby Fort Washington Park, cops said.
The suspect is a 33-year-old man believed to be the victim’s ex, according to the sources, who noted police were probing the brutal attack as a domestic crime.
Tulsi Gabbard On Corruption in the FBI
Pentagon vows to keep weapons moving to Ukraine as Kyiv faces a renewed assault from Russia
Austin and as many as 50 defense leaders from Europe and around the world were meeting Monday to coordinate more military aid to Ukraine, as Kyiv tries to hold off a Russian offensive in the northeast while launching its own massive assault on the Russia-occupied Crimean Peninsula.
“We’re meeting in a moment of challenge,” Austin said, noting that Russia’s new onslaught of Kharkiv showed why the continued commitment by the countries was vital to keep coming. Austin vowed to keep U.S. weapons moving “week after week.”
The U.S. announced no new aid packages Monday, even as Ukrainian forces continue to complain that weapons are just trickling into the country after being stalled for months due to congressional gridlock over funding.
Pentagon officials have said that weapons pre-positioned in Europe began moving into Ukraine soon after the aid funding was approved.
PROOF That Biden’s DOJ is COLLUDING With Trump Prosecutors?
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey is demanding that the Department of Justice turn over documents related to several of the prosecutors going after former president Donald Trump.
These documents, Bailey believes, will prove that the White House is colluding with these prosecutors to attack Biden’s political opponent and keep him off the campaign trail.
Bailey joins Glenn to make the case that these prosecutors — including Alvin Bragg and Letitia James in New York and Fani Willis in Georgia — should be disqualified. Plus, Bailey also explains why he has threatened to sue the city of Kansas City for doxing Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange wins appeal to fight extradition to U.S.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange won the right to challenge a British court’s decision to extradite him to the U.S. to face espionage charges, extending a yearslong legal battle that pitted U.S. and British authorities against the Australian national and free speech campaigners.
The U.K. High Court’s decision on Monday means that Assange, whose legal fight in Britain has been going on for more than 13 years, will have another chance to try to halt being transferred by British authorities to the U.S. to stand trial for disclosing American military secrets.
Assange’s lawyers argue the charges are politically motivated.
The Committee to Protect Journalists said in a statement it was “heartened” that Assange was granted the right to appeal his case.
“Assange’s prosecution in the United States would have disastrous implications for press freedom. It is time for the United States Department of Justice to drop its harmful charges against Assange,” said Committee to Protect Journalists President Jodie Ginsberg.
16 family members hit by same car, 2 dead, Michigan hit-and-run driver arrested
A woman was set to face charges after authorities say she was behind the wheel when her vehicle slammed into a group of 16 family members in Michigan, killing two and sending the rest to hospitals in what could be a drunk driving incident.
The crash took place Saturday night in Watertown Township, about 12 miles northwest of downtown Lansing.
The victims in the fatal hit-and-run crash ranged in age from age 2 to 61, according to the Clinton County Sheriff’s Office, which responded to the tragic weekend wreck along with more than a dozen other agencies across greater Lansing.
The crash killed a 30-year-old Grand Haven man and a 42-year-old Grand Ledge man, while 14 other victims were sent to hospitals, according to a statement posted on the sheriff’s office Facebook page.
“Alcohol is believed to be a factor in this incident,” sheriff’s office Lieutenant Dan Spitzley posted in the release, adding the crash remained under investigation Monday.
5G | Full Measure
The newest technology that powers our smartphones is 5G, the fifth generation of wireless cellular technology that’s supposed to make things work better and faster.
Before it was deployed around 2019, there were global calls for a pause from some governments, activists, and scientists until the health impacts could be studied.
But that didn’t happen. And earlier this year a big government study on the possible danger of wireless radiation was abruptly halted midstream. Today, we hear from both sides as to what might be going on.
Bulletproof Immunity | Full Measure
Scientists are gaining new insight into the human immune system after the COVID experience. But far beyond COVID, our immune system factors into everything from chronic disease to cancer.
Kristina Carman is a functional medicine practitioner who speaks on how to build a bulletproof immune system.
Hillary Clinton Agrees With Trump’s Abortion Comment
Hillary Clinton finally agrees with former President Donald Trump on something: Democrats will push to make a federal law for abortion.
“I’ve got to hand it to Donald Trump. He’s right about this one!” Clinton wrote on X.
She added a video clip of Trump comments to the National Rifle Association on Saturday — a speech that aired live and in its entirety on Newsmax and the Newsmax2 streaming platform — saying abortion law is now where it belongs as a states’ rights issue.
“If the radical Democrat extremists get their way, they will have a federal law for abortion,” Trump said in his Dallas speech.
Judge Blocks Rule Expanding Gun Background Checks
A federal judge on Sunday blocked the Biden administration from fully implementing a new rule that would require gun dealers to obtain licenses and conduct background checks when selling firearms at gun shows and online.
U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk in Amarillo, Texas, temporarily restrained the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ rule from being enforced in Republican-led Texas or against members of several gun-rights groups.
Kacsmaryk, an appointee of Republican former President Donald Trump, issued his ruling before the rule taking effect on Monday in response to a lawsuit by Texas, gun-rights advocates, and three other Republican-led states.
The lawsuit challenged a rule finalized last month that Democrat President Joe Biden’s administration said would affect more than 23,000 unlicensed dealers and tens of thousands of gun sales annually by closing the “gun show loophole.”
Israel warns re escalation vs Lebanon; ICC Prosecutor seeks to arrest Netanyahu TV7Israel News 20.05
1) After successfully retrieving the bodies of four Israeli hostages; The IDF repledges its commitment to rescue all of the 128 hostages that remain in Hamas captivity.
2) The Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court announces his decision to produce arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.
3) Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant tells the IDF to prepare for a Lebanon offensive ‘at any given moment’.
Nazi’s photo album shows life of a top Auschwitz officer | 60 Minutes
A Nazi’s photo album shows top officers at Auschwitz singing, socializing, and lighting a Christmas tree at a time when hundreds of thousands of Jews were killed in the concentration camp.
The SS “helpers” at Auschwitz
“Here There Are Blueberries,” a Pulitzer Prize-nominated play about a Nazi officer’s photo album, in part, examines the role of young secretaries at Auschwitz and asks: How much did they know?
NY v Trump: Michael Cohen admits to stealing tens of thousands from former president’s business
Former Trump attorney Michael Cohen admitted in testimony Monday that he stole thousands of dollars from the Trump Organization by overstating how much he paid a tech company that provided services for the Trump Organization.
“You stole from the Trump Org, right?” Trump attorney Todd Blanche asked Cohen Wednesday morning.
“Yes, sir,” Cohen responded.
The testimony stems from his comments last week, when he detailed to the court that he and former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg calculated a $420,000 repayment to Cohen for his $130,000 payment to former pornography star Stormy Daniels. Cohen’s payment to Daniels came ahead of the 2016 election to quiet her claims of an alleged affair with Trump in 2006.
Report: Israeli Rappers Banned from U.S. Over Anti-Terror Song
The Israeli rap duo “Ness and Stilla” has reportedly been denied a visa to perform in Miami, Florida, over false accusations that their hit song, “Harbu Darbu,” promotes “genocide” by backing Israel’s war against terror.
The song, as Breitbart News reported in November, was written in reaction to the terror attack of October 7, and expresses the spirit of a nation mobilized for war. It calls out Hamas and Hezbollah — and celebrities who back them.
Mia Khalifa, the adult actress who celebrated the Hamas terror attack, complained that the song was a “call for genocide.” However, there is nothing in the lyrics or style of the song that expresses anything about genocide.
The song is militant, in that it celebrates shooting terrorists (not ordinary people), but in that regard it is no different from thousands of hip hop songs and videos that regularly feature lyrics about firearms, self-defense, and turf wars.
The Jewish News Syndicate reported that Stilla and Ness had been denied entry due to the “Harbu Darbu” lyrics:
3,500 migrants released into US in one day, sources say
Senate candidate David McCormick, R-Pa., reacts to the death of Iran’s president and calls out the border crisis under the Biden administration
WATCH: IDF discovers weapons in UNRWA facility, kills Hamas terrorists
IDF troops have located additional weaponry in an UNRWA facility in Jabalya, the Israeli military announced Monday afternoon.
Additionally, an Israel Air Force aircraft struck and eliminated the terrorist Zaher Huli (also known as “Abu Hamed”), who held roles in Hamas’s military wing and the Hamas Police in central Gaza, the IDF and the Shin Bet announced.
Zaher reportedly used his position to build connections with other Hamas terrorists and promote terror attacks on Israel.
During an additional operation on Sunday, the terrorist Rami Khalil Faki, who held roles in Hamas’ military wing and Hamas Police in the area of Nuseirat, was also targeted in an aerial strike.
In The News Feed. 