News and Headlines: In The News, Politics, World News, Commentary/Opinion.
In The News:
2 US Navy training jets collide in Texas
One of the aircraft landed safely at NAS Kingsville. A trainer pilot and student pilot ejected from the other aircraft before it crashed. One of the pilots was taken to the hospital with minor injuries.
“One aircraft was able to safely land at Naval Air Station Kingsville, Texas, and the other aircraft’s instructor and student pilot safely ejected about nine miles south of Kingsville in Ricardo, Texas.
One pilot was taken to CHRISTUS Spohn Hospital Kleberg for minor injuries,” Chief of Naval Air Training said in a statement.
Mask Mandate to Remain in California Until June 15
California Health and Human Services chief Mark Ghaly told reporters the decision is borne out of caution and is not a repudiation of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s latest mask guidance.
Officials said the decision to wait before adopting the Biden administration’s directions — unlike a number of other major states that made instant changes — will give counties and businesses time to implement the change and allow more Californians to get vaccinated before the state’s planned demasking.
Next month, fully vaccinated Californians won’t be required to wear masks in most indoor settings regardless of size, allowing nearly 40 million residents to shop, dine or see a movie freely for the first time in over a year.
Masks will still be required on public transit and various sites such as schools and hospitals, while private businesses and individual counties may choose to enforce stricter policies.
CDC’s second-in-command Anne Schuchat to step down
Schuchat’s retirement would be the CDC’s second high-profile departure in the past month, after longtime senior scientist Nancy Messonnier said in early May she also planned to leave.
The expected exits follow more than a year of intense scrutiny of the CDC and its pandemic decision-making that subjected senior officials to constant pressure from both inside and outside the Trump and Biden administrations.
Schuchat in a statement confirmed that she planned to leave later this year to “allow more time for creative passions,“
‘There’s something out there that was better than our airplane’: UFO mystery makes it to 60 Minutes
Ahead of a June deadline for an intelligence report on UFOs, the mystery over what the U.S. government calls “unidentified aerial phenomena” was featured on 60 Minutes for the first time. Navy pilot witnesses and former government officials argued this is a serious issue.
Navy pilots such as Cmdr. Dave Fravor, Lt. Cmdr. Alex Dietrich, and former Lt. Ryan Graves, the former head of the U.S. government’s Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, Luis Elizondo, and a former deputy assistant secretary of defense for intelligence, Christopher Mellon, all weighed in on Sunday to say that UFOs are real, though what, exactly, they are remains a mystery.
Last year, videos from the Navy were released through the Freedom of Information Act that showed UFOs moving at incredible speeds and performing impressive aerial maneuvers.
Joe Biden Releases More Monthly Direct Cash Payments to Parents
The Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service announced Monday they would begin issuing the payments for families on July 15 and continue them on the 15th of each month.
The federal government will give a monthly payment of $300 per child under six and $250 per child older than six to families that qualify. The monthly benefits are reduced for couples earning more than $150,000 or individuals earning more than $75,000.
The money will be released to families whether they are employed or not, continuing a trend that analysts fear will slow some workers from returning to work as the coronavirus pandemic diminishes.
Supreme Court agrees to hear challenge to Mississippi abortion law
The court’s order sets up a showdown over abortion, probably in the fall, with a more conservative court seemingly ready to dramatically alter nearly 50 years of rulings on abortion rights.
The case involves a Mississippi law that would prohibit abortions after the 15th week of pregnancy.
The state’s ban had been blocked by lower courts as inconsistent with Supreme Court precedent that protects a woman’s right to obtain an abortion before the fetus can survive outside her womb.
The Mississippi law was enacted in 2018, but was blocked after a federal court challenge. The state’s only abortion clinic remains open. The owner has said the clinic does abortions up to 16 weeks.
Supreme Court rules warrantless home gun confiscation is unconstitutional in 9-0 vote
According to Caniglia v Strom, a lower court had previously determined that police confiscating the guns without a warrant fell under the Fourth Amendment’s “community caretaking” exception, but a 9-0 vote from the nation’s top court struck down that ruling.
Justice Clarence Thomas wrote the unanimous opinion for the Supreme Court, stating that law enforcement can execute “many civic tasks in modern society,” but there is “not an open-ended license to perform them anywhere.”
“The very core of the Fourth Amendment,” Thomas wrote, is the “right of a man to retreat into his own home and there be free from unreasonable search and seizure.”
Fairness issues loom over trial in Iowa student’s slaying
Legal experts say ensuring a fair trial for Cristhian Bahena Rivera, the farmhand charged with first-degree murder in the 2018 slaying of 20-year-old Mollie Tibbetts, will be difficult given the extraordinary circumstances of the case.
Rivera’s arrest inflamed anger over illegal immigration ahead of the midterm elections, with Trump weighing in to declare Rivera guilty almost immediately and Iowa’s governor calling him a predator.
The case also deepened anxieties about random violence against women, since Tibbetts was brutally attacked while going for a run in her small town of Brooklyn, Iowa.
Army vet could be jailed for breaking VA computer monitor in frustration over care
What exactly happened during the Nov. 23, 2020 appointment with a nurse practitioner remains in dispute.
The practitioner accused Edgbert of jumping off an exam table and aggressively approaching the nurse, causing the nurse to retreat backwards into his chair in a defense position, according to the criminal complaint.
Edgbert then is accused of kicking the nurse practitioner in the ankle before taking a swing with his hand at a 17-inch computer monitor, destroying the screen and hitting the practitioner in the process.
Edgbert maintains that he did not kick the nurse practitioner and only slapped at the monitor in frustration and accidentally hit the nurse practitioner in the process.
Edgbert had been depressed since losing his job due to the shoulder injury in early 2020, Bianco wrote. He was involuntarily held in a psychiatric hospital two times last year. When released, Edgbert believed that he would finally get the shoulder surgery he needed.
Texas reports zero COVID deaths 2 months after Biden slammed ‘Neanderthal thinking’
It marked the first time the Lone Star State reported no coronavirus deaths in about 14 months, according to state health data.
Abbott said the case numbers reported on Sunday – 388 – were the lowest in more than 13 months, while the number of hospitalizations was the lowest in 11 months.
President Biden skewered Texas, as well as Mississippi, at the beginning of March for relaxing lockdown measures, accusing state officials of “Neanderthal thinking.”
At the time, Abbott had announced that businesses would be allowed to operate at full capacity – even though some health experts cautioned at the time that dropping preventative measures could lead to a spike in cases.
Right to Repair | Full Measure
The coronavirus pandemic highlighted the need to secure life-saving medical equipment.
But when those vital machines break, there’s a fight over fixing them you might not know about.
Repair technicians say they can’t do their job because manufacturers withhold information to keep the repairs and profit to themselves. Critics say that costs time and lives.
Lisa Fletcher reports on the fight over the “right to repair.”
Sex Trafficking | Full Measure
With kids spending more time at home and on the internet during the Covid-19 shutdowns, something unexpected happened.
Authorities say sex trafficking that begins online— doubled. And with that, there’s been an uptick in reports of children sold for sex by their own parents and relatives.
Today, we take a frank look at a dark American scandal stretching from the poorest neighborhoods to the rich and famous.
New group aims to fight cancel culture by giving ‘woke left’ a ‘dose of their own medicine’
The group, called Unsilenced Majority, was founded by Mike Davis, a former staffer for the Senate Judiciary Committee under Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa.
Davis also runs a different group called the Article III Project, which “punches back on radical assaults on judicial independence” and began with the mission of supporting Trump-appointed judges.
Davis told Fox News that Unsilenced Majority will use a similar approach in fighting against cancel culture.
“What we want to do at Unsilenced Majority is to provide a counterbalance. And so these corporations understand that if they go woke there’s gonna be consequences from everyday Americans.”
The Intercept Attempted To Do A Hit Piece On Our Field Reporters…Here Is What They left Out
The Intercept attempted to do a hit piece on our field reporters, here is where they failed.
NJ cop busted for running meth lab out of home
A Garden State cop was busted Sunday for running a meth lab out of his house, prosecutors announced Sunday.
Christopher Walls, 50, a longtime member of the Long Branch Police Department, was arrested after his coworkers were called to his house Saturday night because of a domestic disturbance, the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office said.
Someone in the house tipped off cops to the cop’s Walter White-like activity and found the ingredients and equipment for making meth in the basement and a shed, a statement from the prosecutor said.
Three suspected Aryan Brotherhood members fatally shot in New Mexico
The men were involved in a shooting last Wednesday and were later dropped off in a car at a hospital in Albuquerque by a fourth man with apparent ties to the prison gang, the Albuquerque Journal reported, citing court records.
Two of the fatal victims have been identified as Brandon Torres, 44, and James Fisher, 41, according to police.
Richard Kuykendall, 41, who police believe dropped the car off at the hospital, has been arrested and charged with possession of a firearm and ammunition, the report said.
FBI agents believe Kuykendall may have allegedly killed one of the men, according to a criminal complaint.
Bob Woodson calls out ‘progressive bigotry on steroids’ in California
Bob Woodson, author of ‘Red, White and Black,’ reacts to new California billboards warn pregnant mothers about racism.
Steve Hilton examines NIH ties to Wuhan lab research on coronavirus
Commentary/Opinion:
‘The Next Revolution’ host slams Dr. Fauci over denial of funded gain-of-function research in China.
2 Nebraska kids found dead, father arrested in California
Police in Bellevue, south of Omaha, said 5-year-old Emily Price and 3-year-old Theodore Price were found dead Sunday morning in 35-year-old Adam Price’s home, but he wasn’t there when the children were found.
The children’s mother, Mary Nielsen, told reporters that she and Adam Price are in the process of getting divorced and that the children were at their father’s home for court-ordered visitation.
Nielsen, who had moved to Illinois with the children, called police more than once and went on social media to plead for information on her children’s whereabouts after not hearing from them since Thursday.
Dallas police arrest 18-year-old in connection with murder of 4-year-old
Police said 18-year-old Darriynn Brown has been charged with kidnapping and theft, though more charges are expected following “forensic analysis.”
He was found with multiple wounds from what police said was an “edged weapon.”
Antwainese Square said she was out on a morning walk, when she said she found the boy in the road. She said it was a sight she will never forget.
Knife-wielding man chases victim in downtown Portland
On 16 May, 2021, a man chased another man in the middle of downtown Portland and tried to stab him with a knife.
This occurred near the Justice Center/central police station. Portland Police did not respond to the scene.
BLM Cofounder Patrisse Cullors Laments ‘White Supremacy’ in Housing Market
Black Lives Matter cofounder Patrisse Cullors shared a post on Instagram lamenting “white supremacy” in the housing market, weeks after her multi-million housing portfolio was revealed.
Meanwhile, Cullors has not faced any issues in the housing market. She bought four homes since 2016, some in predominantly white neighborhoods of Los Angeles, amassing a real estate empire worth nearly $3 million.
Cullors claimed the four homes were purchased to provide for her extended family.
Politics:
New ad goes after Biden and CDC for working with teachers’ union to pay back liberal dark-money donors
A nonprofit organization made up of lawyers and researchers seeking to uncover corruption in the U.S. government just launched a new ad going after President Joe Biden and his Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for ignoring science and instead kowtowing to teachers’ unions and keeping schools closed.
Americans for Public Trust announced a $1 million ad campaign “calling out” President Biden, “the dark money president,” and the CDC after it was revealed that the agency charged with fighting for Americans’ health interests was instead collaborating with the AFT to block school reopenings.
The New York Post, citing damning unearthed emails, revealed in early May that the AFT, the nation’s second-largest teachers’ union, successfully lobbied the CDC not to recommend earlier this year that schools could fully reopen safely.
The emails were provided to the Post by Americans for Public Trust, which had received the emails via a Freedom of Information Act request.
Report: Kamala Harris Keeps Enemies List of Journalists Who Don’t ‘Appreciate Her Life Experience’
“The vice president and her team tend to dismiss reporters. Trying to get her to take a few questions after events is treated as an act of impish aggression,” writes Edward-Isaac Dovere.
“And Harris herself tracks political players and reporters whom she thinks don’t fully understand her or appreciate her life experience.”
Some aides have been “surprised at how much work there is to be done” when it comes to educating Harris on policy issues. Even journalists have grown tired of the VP’s tendency to “retreat behind talking points and platitudes in public.”
Dovere writes that, at times, Harris “comes off as so uninteresting that television producers have started to wonder whether spending thousands of dollars to send people on trips with her is worthwhile, given how little usable material they get out of it.”
Turley warns of Dem’s demand to censure 3 Republicans for ‘opposing view’
Constitutional expert Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University and a frequent guest commentator on network television, is warning about a move from a Democrat in Congress to censure three GOP colleagues for their “opposing view.”
Democrats, insisting on demonizing Trump’s encouragement to his crowd to go and protest “peacefully,” insist it was an “insurrection” intent on the overthrow of the government.
Republican members of Congress have characterized it as a riot, as violence, and in other terms. So U.S. Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I., has introduced a measure to censure three specific Republicans who have refused to adopt his own definition that the events constituted “insurrection.”
“The Cicilline resolution should be condemned by members of both parties as an abusive legislative authority and inimical to the legislative process,” Turley noted. “He would open a Pandora’s Box of politically retaliatory measures that would see no end in our age of rage.
Donald Trump to Headline North Carolina Republican Convention in June
Trump’s second appearance since leaving the White House will be held virtually and physically at the Greenville Convention Center:
Other notable event speakers will be Gov. Kristi Noem, Rep. Dan Bishop (R-NC), Rep. Ted Budd (R-NC), and Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC).
Trump’s first appearance after leaving office was at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on February 28. Nearly seven in ten CPAC attendees indicated in a straw poll vote they want to see Trump run for president again in 2024.
Joe Biden Diverts Healthcare Cash to Help Illegal Migrants
The program costs are expected to reach almost $9 billion by October according to a leaked report in the New York Times.
The transfer of funding to the growing population of more than 50,000 foreign children and youths means fewer resources for lower-profile American kids, as their diverse American parents are damaged by the Chinese virus, cheap labor migration, job losses, housing costs, drugs, or homelessness.
The Politico report follows the leak of a government report to the May 10 New York Times.
The leaked report showed how the HHS agency expects to spend almost $9 billion by October to implement Biden’s decision to import the youths and children of U.S.-based illegal migrants.
World News:
Hamas fires 3,150 rockets at Israel; IAF bombs 950 terror-targets – TV7 Israel News 17.05.21
1) Palestinian Islamists indiscriminately launch over 3,150 rockets toward Israeli civilian communities – all the while vowing to step up hostilities.
2) Israel targets over 950 militant targets in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip – all the while highlighting its efforts to avoid harming uninvolved Palestinian civilians.
3) Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan calls his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani to discuss the need to “give Israel a strong and deterrent lesson” over hostilities vis-à-vis Gaza.
Christians Donate Portable Bomb Shelters to Israeli Communities
The International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem (ICEJ) led the effort.
“Christians around the world want to do something positive to help Israel now,” David Parsons, ICEJ vice president and senior international spokesman, told the Jerusalem Post.
“They are praying and standing up for Israel in their own countries but feel this is something that they can do to really make a contribution to the security and peace in Israel,” Parsons continued.
Most of the shelters have gone to daycare centers, schools, youth centers, and medical clinics — places that cannot run without decent bomb shelters.
Russia/Ukraine | Full Measure
The U.S. has sent a message of support for Ukraine as Russia continues what much of the world sees as provocative action toward its former Soviet partner.
The U.S., and other nations, are wondering if they should step in. Scott Thuman who’s reported from those front lines before, has the update.
Pro-Palestinian Convoy Drives Through London, Protester Yells ‘F*** the Jews’, ‘Rape Their Daughters’
The footage, retweeted by prominent politicians, showed several cars draped in Palestinian flags driving down Finchley Road in St John’s Wood, north London, on Sunday.
Remarking on the sight of three men standing through their sunroofs waving Palestinian flags, London Jewish newspaper Jewish News compared it to “scenes reminiscent of the darkest days of Islamic State”.
London’s Metropolitan Police Service announced it was investigating the footage, saying: “We are aware of a video appearing to show anti-Semitic language being shouted from a convoy of cars in the St John’s Wood area this afternoon.
“Officers are carrying out urgent enquiries to identify those responsible. This sort of behaviour will not be tolerated.”
Exclusive Video: Anti-Israel Protesters Clash with Police in London, Chant ‘Allahu Akbar!’, Israel Is ‘Terror State’
Thousands of demonstrators marched from Speakers’ Corner in Hyde Park to the Israeli embassy on Saturday afternoon. The protest was organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, the Stop the War Coalition, the Friends of al-Aqsa, the Palestinian Forum in Britain, and the Muslim Association of Britain.
The protest in London was joined by the official Black Lives Matter UK organisation, which told its followers on social media to “Fight like Colombia! Resist like Palestine!”
At least 33 demonstrations were held across the UK on Saturday against Israel in response to the retaliatory military strikes carried out against Palestinian terrorists who have been launching rockets into the democratic nation.
Commentary/Opinion:
America’s Promise
Americans are looking for love in all the wrong places—most specifically, Washington D.C.
America promises us freedom and opportunity, but certainly not love. Jason Whitlock, sports journalist and podcaster, explains.
WSJ: Facebook ‘Fact-Checkers’ No Better than ‘Trolls’
Facebook is “spreading disinformation under the guise of ‘fact checking,’” Koonin writes, in an unscientific effort to protect a single narrative that brooks no opposition or dispute.
The case in point was Mark Mills’s April 25 Journal review of Koonin’s own book Unsettled: What Climate Science Tells Us, What It Doesn’t, and Why It Matters, a recent bestseller questioning some of the shibboleths regarding the so-called established “climate change consensus.”
Eleven self-appointed “fact checkers” with a vested interest in the debate critiqued the review on the website ClimateFeedback.org, Koonin notes, and Facebook now waves that fact check “as a giant red flag whenever the review appears in anyone’s feed.”
“This action adds to the growing suppression of open discussion of climate complexities,” Koonin observes, which stymies the advance of true science, which depends on “thoughtful challenge and dialogue.”