News and Headlines: In The News, Politics, World News, Commentary/Opinion.
In The News:
Flood Threat Continues Across The Southern U.S.
Flash flood watches are in effect in South Texas and Louisiana as heavy rain sweeps through the region. Severe weather is expected to continue throughout the week in areas where flooding has already caused extensive damage to homes and businesses.
Strong winds and heavy rainfall has flooded roads, submerging cars and left tens-of-thousands of people without power. According to forecasters, up to four inches of rain could fall in Southeast Texas in the coming days.
In Louisiana, Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) has declared a state of emergency as heavy rains flooded homes, swamped cars and closed a major interstate. The rainy weather and flooding are suspected factors in at least four deaths in the state.
FIRST ON 3: Late-night flights carrying migrant children arrive in Chattanooga
Channel 3 obtained video of one of those planes arriving Friday, May 14 shortly before 1:30 a.m.
A second video, shared with Channel 3, shows more children arriving late Saturday night. According to the source who provided the video, a third plane carrying children arrived Friday afternoon. Flight records confirm that a fourth plane arrived early Wednesday morning, May 19.
The video obtained by Channel 3, shows children who appear to be in their early teens carrying matching bags. The children then boarded buses, which were staged on the runway. Two of the four buses seen in the video are owned by Coast to Coast Tours of East Point, Georgia.
A source with direct knowledge of the operation asked to remain anonymous but tells Channel 3 that approximately 30 to 50 minors are transported at a time, some to reunite with family members and others to go to group homes. He says the operation started in Dallas, Texas, but moved to small airports recently to avoid attention.
Walgreens closes 17 San Francisco stores due to ‘out of control’ shoplifting
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, 17 Walgreens Pharmacy locations have shuttered their doors in San Francisco during the past five years. At least ten of the stores in the city have closed since 2019.
Like many other retailers, Walgreens is blaming Proposition 47, which lowered penalties for thefts under $950 and sparked dramatic increases in shoplifting across the metro area over the last several years. Prop. 47 is supported by criminal justice reformers and the liberal establishment, who have also managed to defund the local police.
Combining the two has allowed professional shoplifters, homeless, and drug addicts to easily work the system and steal items under the monetary threshold from store to store with limited penalties.
150+ missing kids found by US Marshals, local cops in North Carolina
According to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department (CMPD) on Wednesday, a number of the juveniles “were discovered to have been engaged in high-risk activities such as prostitution and narcotics activity,” and several were “victims of human trafficking.”
The department said 130 minors were found prior to the operation, and between April 26 and May 7, 27 more children were located by two-person teams comprised of CMPD’s Missing Person Unit detectives, U.S. Marshals and Department of Public Safety officers.
McNelly noted that the 27 kids recovered during the operation had been missing for between 6 months to over a year. Some did not want to be found, he said.
Comedian Chris Rock slams cancel culture, says it breeds ‘boring’ entertainment: ‘People are scared to talk’ and ‘especially in America’
“It’s weird when you’re a comedian because when your audience doesn’t laugh, we get the message. Like, you don’t have to cancel us.” he said. “They’re not laughing. Our feelings are hurt. When we do something and people aren’t laughing we get it. I don’t understand why people feel the need to go beyond that.”
Rock added that as a result, comedians and entertainers are forced to play it safe and bland out of fears of alienating the general public and saying or doing something offensive.
“What happens is everybody gets safe and nobody tries anything. Things get boring,” Rock said.
“I see a lot of unfunny comedians, unfunny TV shows, unfunny movies because people are scared to make a move and that’s not a good place to be.
We should have the right to fail because failure is a part of art.”
Good Samaritans help Florida deputy under attack during traffic stop, video shows
Deputy Anthony Zimmerer with the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office stopped a black Ford F-150 after the vehicle cut across all lanes of traffic and almost struck him, the sheriff’s office said Wednesday.
The Volusia County Sheriff’s Office shared deputy bodycam footage of what followed during the stop.
The driver, 41-year-old Frank Padilla Velez, began acting erratically when Zimmerer tried to speak with him, according to the sheriff’s office. As the deputy tried to handcuff him, Padilla hit him in the head with his elbow as a struggle ensued.
Texas Woman Caught Crossing U.S. Border with 55 Pounds of Heroin, Say Feds
CBP officers assigned to the Pharr-Reynosa International Bridge on May 17 observed a woman approaching for entry into the U.S. while driving a Volkswagen Jetta, according to information obtained from U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials.
The officers referred the woman to a secondary inspection station where a K-9 alerted to an odor coming from the vehicle.
The officers conducted a physical search of the Jetta and found 24 packages of drugs hidden inside the woman’s tires. The team tested the drugs and identified them as heroin packages.
Officers arrested the driver and identified her as a resident of nearby Edinburg, Texas. They turned the woman and the drugs over to ICE Homeland Security Investigations for further investigation and preparation of drug smuggling charges.
Alex Marlow Reveals Billionaire ‘New Soros’ Funding Left-Wing Media on Mark Levin Show
He continued, “It’s a woman named Laurene Powell Jobs, and she’s the widow of Steve Jobs, and this is a woman who’s very cleverly come up with a way to fund the prestige establishment press.
I’m talking about the Atlantic, which she owns. She also owns most of Axios, but she also funds the activist press, the press that essentially tries to launder Democrat propaganda — left-wing propaganda — through local news outlets, and of course, she’s very tight with Democrat politicians.”
“[Laurene Powell Jobs] is said to have a tight close personal relationship with Kamala Harris, and of course, she’s networked with the biggest companies in the world.
She gets her money from Apple and Disney. This person has done this and been named the most mysterious mega-giver in the world.”
California’s COVID-19 hospitalization rate for children overcounted: Study
A peer-reviewed commentary from two University of California San Francisco academics – Dr. Monica Gandhi and Amy Beck, associate professor of pediatrics – found instances of purported COVID-19 hospitalizations in children were overreported.
The American Academy of Pediatrics released “Adjudicating Reasons for Hospitalization Shows That Severe Illness From COVID-19 in Children Is Rare” on Wednesday. It was first reported on by New York Magazine.
The report tracked two surveys of “large children’s hospitals” in California. Both found broad instances of children being hospitalized because of COVID-19-caused ailments to be exaggerated.
Congressman Devin Nunes discusses the House Intelligence Committee Republicans’ interim report on the origin of the COVID-19 outbreak and its connection to the Wuhan Institute of Virology on ‘Hannity,’ May 19, 2021.
Girl purposely got blue slime on would-be kidnapper’s arms
The 11-year-old Pensacola girl said she learned the importance of evidence from her favorite TV show, the long-running detective series “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.”
Alyssa had been attacked Tuesday as she awaited her school bus, her near-abduction captured by a neighbor’s home security camera.
“I was able to get the slime onto his upper arm and a little bit on his lower arm,” Alyssa told NBC’s “Today” show in an interview that aired Thursday. “I knew that might be better evidence if the cops do find him.”
Her intuition proved right. Escambia County Sheriff Chip Simmons said when his detectives arrested Jared Paul Stanga late Tuesday after a massive manhunt, his arms were still streaked with blue dye.
US Gov’t Accused of Messing With Wildfire Data To Push Climate Change Narrative
Michael Tennant of The New American, and Anthony Watts, of the notable climate change site WattsUpWithThat, write that the U.S. National Interagency Fire Center appears to have been caught cutting off early years of fire stats, evidently to lend credence to claims of “more fires due to anthropogenic climate change.”
Politics:
Marjorie Taylor Greene calls Nancy Pelosi “mentally ill”
BREAKING: Marjorie Taylor Greene calls Nancy Pelosi “mentally ill,” says she’s using holocaust-style tactics to enforce House mask mandate.
Bill O’Reilly: Former OBAMA team pulling the strings behind Biden
Commentary/Opinion:
Bill O’Reilly and Glenn can’t seem to agree on whether or not President Biden TRULY understands the consequences of the decisions he’s made thus far as president.
But they can agree on one thing: Officials loyal to the Obama presidency (like Susan Rice) are pulling a LOT of the Biden White House strings, and while making important policy decisions, it seems clear that they’re NOT concerned with the true welfare of this nation.
GOP lawmakers enraged as Biden secretly buses, flies migrants into Tennessee in ‘the dead of night’
“It is absolutely unacceptable if the Biden Administration is facilitating a mass migration under cover of darkness without any input or oversight from Tennesseans and the affected communities,” Sen. Marsha Blackburn wrote in a social media post Wednesday night.
One thing that does appear to be clear at this point is that Tennessee lawmakers were not informed about the operation.
In a separate statement to Fox News, Blackburn reportedly stated that the transportation of migrants is taking place in “the dead of night without the knowledge or permission of the communities involved.”
CBP Chief: Biden Admin Plans to Bring Back ‘Remain in Mexico’ Migrants Removed ‘In Absentia’
While testifying before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on National Security Wednesday, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Acting Commissioner Troy Miller said invites to return to America are being offered to migrants who had their asylum cases closed after missing their court hearing in the United States while enrolled in the “Remain in Mexico” program ended by President Joe Biden.
Under the Trump-era program, officially known as the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), U.S. border authorities returned migrants to Mexico to wait for their asylum hearings.
Many migrants who enrolled in MPP, including those who went home, were deported “in absentia” when they missed their hearing.
Biden’s offer means he may provide multi-year work permits — and U.S. jobs — to deported economic migrants who would likely have lost their asylum cases and will likely not get their next court dates for several years as a result of the court backlog fueled by the ongoing migrant surge.
Rep. Ashley Hinson to Introduce Bill Stopping Kamala Harris Travel Funds Until She Visits Southern Border
The See the Crisis Act, which Fox News first obtained, will “limit the travel” of Harris “until certain activities are undertaken with respect to the southwest border, and for other purposes.”
This would limit the federal funds that “may be obligated or expected for travel expenses” for her to travel outside the United States.
The bill also includes Harris meeting with agencies at the border and creating a plan to deal with the crisis as well as focusing on the amount of foreign aid to be given to Northern Triangle countries to respond to the crisis, according to Fox News.
In an interview with the outlet Wednesday, Hinson said, “We have an absolute crisis at the border, and Vice President Harris was appointed to lead the administration’s efforts on the border crisis, but it’s been 56 days, and in that time, she hasn’t been to the border once.” Hinson added, “She hasn’t held a news conference on the administration’s efforts for a plan, and I think it’s time she does that.”
NY’s AG Letitia James’ behavior is an affront to justice. She is neither fair nor impartial
Commentary/Opinion:
What is known is that the New York attorney general is under the mistaken impression that her prosecutorial power is an omnipotent weapon that can be used to selectively punish a political nemesis and to advance her own career in public office.
Her malign behavior is an affront to justice because it is so profoundly unethical.
Under the code of conduct that governs prosecutors in New York, James is duty-bound to be fair and impartial. She must refrain from methods that are calculated to produce prejudice. Her decisions cannot be driven by political bias.
Her neutrality must be beyond question such that even the appearance of a conflict of interest is grounds for disqualification.
James seems to have forgotten one of the most sacred cannons of professional ethics: the primary duty of a lawyer engaged in public prosecution is not to convict, but to see that justice is done.
Tucker: Equity is racism
Commentary/Opinion:
Wednesday, FNC host Tucker Carlson reacted to Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot declared she would prioritize black and brown journalists over white journalists in the name of racial “equity.”
Carlson called Lightfoot “a monster.”
Nunes: Overwhelming circumstantial evidence that COVID-19 leaked from Wuhan lab
Congressman Devin Nunes discusses the House Intelligence Committee Republicans’ interim report on the origin of the COVID-19 outbreak and its connection to the Wuhan Institute of Virology on ‘Hannity,’ May 19, 2021.
EXCLUSIVE: Former FBI director Louis Freeh gave $100,000 to a private trust for Joe Biden’s grandchildren and spoke with the then vice president in 2016 ‘to explore lucrative future work options’ with Hunter as the middle man
The emails suggest Freeh was trying to establish a future business relationship with Biden – and the White House has failed to disclose to DailyMail.com whether Joe Biden discussed private business with Freeh while in office.
According to the messages, obtained by DailyMail.com from Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop, the former FBI director was working for three foreign businessmen and officials at the time, who were all later convicted of various corruption charges, including a multi-billion-dollar ransacking of a Malaysian wealth fund.
Freeh himself was not implicated in those charges
The 71-year-old, who served as FBI director under Bill Clinton and George Bush, ran a consultancy firm with highly controversial clients including a now-jailed Malaysian prime minister who stole billions of dollars from his country, a Romanian real estate tycoon convicted of bribery, and a French-Israeli diamond magnate later convicted of bribery and a $145 million property graft.
Wow: CNN Basically Just Admitted Biden’s Presidency Is A Disaster
Commentary/Opinion:
When even CNN has this to say, you know Joe is in trouble.
World News:
Israel officials approve cease-fire with Hamas following 11 days of Gaza violence
Israeli leaders have approved a cease-fire to end nearly two weeks of combat with Hamas militants who have been launching rocket barrages out of the Gaza Strip since last Monday, according to regional media.
U.S. leaders had pressured Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to exercise restraint in the conflict, even as they reaffirmed support for Israel’s right to defend itself.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken had said during a news conference earlier Thursday that he expected a cease-fire soon and was going to speak with Israel’s foreign minister, Gabi Ashkenazi, shortly after leaving the meeting with reporters.
Israel Shoots Down IRANIAN Drone; Hamas Blindsided By Israel’s Response | Watchman Newscast
On today’s Watchman Newscast, host Erick Stakelbeck breaks down news that Israel shot down an Iranian drone–packed with explosives–that entered Israeli airspace earlier this week.
Israel says Iranian forces launched the drone: further proof that Iran is the not-so-hidden hand beyond it’s proxy, Hamas, as the Gaza-based terror group continues to launch rockets at Israel.
Plus, Israel Defense Forces spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus joins the Newscast to provide an on-the-ground report on the external extensive damage Israel has inflicted on Hamas during this latest round of fighting.
Despite Hamas fire persisting US demands Israel cease-fire;JCPOA talks progress TV7 Israel News 20.5
1) While hostilities persist on Israel’s southern front with the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip; U.S. pressure to de-escalate the situation is expected to prevail.
2) The Foreign Ministers of Germany, Czech Republic and Slovakia travel to Israel in a show of solidarity.
3) Progress has been made in the indirect nuclear negotiations between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States in Vienna.
Sweden records more than 30,000 cases of side effects tied to COVID jabs
In the country, the tally has surpassed 30K with the majority of these reactions reported in patients who received the AstraZeneca jab.
Sweden’s Medical Products Agency reported that as of last week, the Scandinavian nation had tallied 31,844 reports of adverse reactions linked to its vaccine rollout.
Sweden presently offers three different COVID-19 jabs: Moderna, Pfizer and AstraZeneca, with the latter being the most widely available (while other European states like Germany have sought to offer substitutes to younger patients, who are more vulnerable to dangerous cerebral blood clots, which are a rare – but not unheard of – side effect).
Jewish Victim’s Kidney Donated to Arab Woman After He Was Lynched by Arab Mob
Randa Aweis, a Christian Arab woman from Jerusalem, is recovering successfully from the transplant surgery, carried out at Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital in the capital city.
Aweis thanked Yehoshua’s widow, Irena, who is currently sitting shiva — the mourning week — for her husband. “We are like family now,” Aweis told her, thanking her for her “noble deed.”
“We are so grateful to the Yehoshua family,” Aweis’ daughter Niveen told The Times of Israel. “We feel, all at once, joy over mom’s transplant, and pain at their tragedy that brought it about.”
“There is no such thing as Arabs and Jews,” she said. “Rather, we’re just people, and we need to live together.”
Antisemitic Attacks in UK Increase by 500% Since Start of Israeli Conflict: Analysis
The Community Security Trust (CST) revealed that between the 8th and 18th of May, when the tensions between the State of Israel and the Hamas terror group escalated, it had recorded 116 antisemitic incidents, compared to 19 in the previous 11 days.
There have been several high-profile antisemitic attacks across the United Kingdom in recent weeks, including the pro-Palestinian convoy that drove through Jewish neighbourhoods in London on Sunday with protesters shouting anti-Jewish and sexually violent remarks including “F*** the Jews” and “rape their daughters”.
On Tuesday it was revealed that London police had arrested and bailed four men in connection with the incident; the suspects are also being investigated by Manchester police in relation to another antisemitic incident that took place in the early hours of Sunday.
A rabbi in Essex was also hospitalised this week following what was reported as a “religiously aggravated assault” by suspects of “Asian” appearance.
‘Iranian Forces’ Fired ‘Armed Drone’ At Israel, Netanyahu Reveals
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed on Thursday morning following a meeting with a top German official that a drone loaded with explosives was fired at Israel and that the drone came from Iran.
“I described during our meeting that while we’re fighting on various fronts, the true backer of much of this aggression is Iran,” Netanyahu said.
The news comes as Democrat President Joe Biden has sought to reenter the highly controversial Iran nuclear deal and has eyed rolling back sanctions on Iran, which is the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism.
“Since the beginning of operation ‘Guardian of the Walls’, approximately 4070 rockets have been fired from the Gaza Strip at Israeli territory, of which approximately 610 failed launches fell in the Gaza Strip,” IDF said in its most recent update.