US News, Politics, World News, Commentary/Opinion and Video Post.
US News:
Biden administration scales back student debt relief for MILLIONS of Americans in stunning reversal after being faced with first lawsuits and following criticism of the huge cost to taxpayers
The Education Department announced the change in a release Thursday specifically about Federal Family Education Loans, which are bank loans backed up by federal guarantees.
They used to major component of federal student loans, but stopped after a major Obama administration student loan overhaul in 2010 that shifted to direct loans from the government.
Nevertheless, about 4 million people still have FFEL loans on the books, according to government data identified by Politico, which flagged the change.
Experts told NPR private banks who were subject to losing business could potentially sue to stop the loan forgiveness program by claiming they suffered harm.
The first lawsuit against the program, filed this week, relied on a plaintiff who demonstrated harm by residing in one of six states where loan forgiveness is taxed like income – a move that will leave people on the hook for a tax bill even while saving thousands in debt.
A second suit, filed Thursday by six GOP-led states, challenges the program by citing President Joe Biden’s comment to ’60 MInutes’ that the pandemic is ‘over.’
Hurricane Ian causes ‘historic’ damage in Florida as people trapped in flooded homes and millions without power
Hurricane Ian has caused unprecedented damage after trapping people in flooded homes and leaving more than two million without power, says Florida’s governor.
Ron DeSantis called the damage “historic” and disaster officials believe thousands could be displaced in the long term.
Ian was a category four storm with winds up to 150mph when it struck southwest Florida on Wednesday, making it the joint fifth-strongest hurricane to hit America.
Lee County sheriff Carmine Marceno told US media that deaths could be “in the hundreds” and that he’d received thousands of 911 calls.
“It crushed us,” Sheriff Marceno said. “We still cannot access many of the people that are in need.”
Virgin Atlantic gender-neutral uniforms?
Virgin Atlantic became the first airline to wear uniforms according to the gender they identify with. The airline also plans to address customers by their preferred pronouns.
Gas Prices Rise As Biden Warns Against Price Gouging Amid Hurricane Ian
Gas prices rose slightly on Thursday as Hurricane Ian made landfall in Florida, despite a warning from President Biden about price increases.
Biden issued the warning to oil and gas companies on Wednesday, saying that Ian should not be an excuse to hike gas prices.
“Do not use this as an excuse to raise gasoline prices or gouge the American people,” Biden said in a speech at the White House.
The national average gas price was $3.782 per gallon on Thursday, up from $3.765 per gallon a day earlier but…
US says citizen killed in Iran strikes on Iraqi Kurdistan
The United States said Thursday that one of its citizens was killed in Iranian strikes on Iraqi Kurdistan as it separately announced fresh enforcement of sanctions on Tehran’s oil sales.
Iran’s clerical state on Thursday carried out cross-border strikes, with 13 reported dead, amid unrest at home sparked by the death in custody of an Iranian Kurdish woman by the notorious morality police.
“We continue to condemn Iran’s violations of Iraq’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Patel told reporters.
Asked if there would be retaliation, Patel said the United States has “a number of tools and a number of lines of efforts to continue to hold Iran accountable for its destabilizing actions in the region.”
Burglar pries open window in middle of day, climbs into home’s back room — and meets elderly homeowner who shoots him dead
A KJRH-TV broadcast indicated the burglar pried open the window. According to the station’s story, a confrontation ensued between the elderly homeowner and the burglar, after which the homeowner shot the intruder.
The suspect then jumped out of the window and ran around to the front of the house, police said. KTUL-TV reported he collapsed on the home’s front yard. Police added that the suspect was pronounced dead when first responders arrived.
The station said the homeowner was taken in for questioning and later released.
Biden appoints first-ever envoy for plants and animals
The Biden administration announced Wednesday that it is appointing a special diplomat to oversee international animal and plant habitats for the first time in U.S. history.
The State Department appointed Monica Medina as the U.S. Special Envoy for Biodiversity and Water Resources to solve the world’s intertwined biodiversity and water crises, according to a department media note.
Medina will adopt an “all-of-government effort” to represent the interests of plants and animals abroad because the administration believes that such species are currently threatened by the “climate crisis.”
First Openly Trans US Army Officer and Wife Arrested in Plot to Give Medical Records to Russia
U.S. Army Major Dr. Jamie Lee Henry, who came out as the first openly trans officer on 2015, is accused of betraying the military and country he serves by working with his wife Dr. Anna Gabrielian, an anesthesiologist at Johns Hopkins, to give medical records to Russia on patients at Fort Bragg and Hopkins, according to an indictment unsealed Thursday by the Department of Justice.
The couple was dealing with an undercover FBI agent posing as a Russian embassy staffer after Gabrielien had allegedly reached out to the Russian embassy.
Gabrielian reportedly calimed she was motivated by patriotism for Russia. Gabrielian’s profile at Hopkins says she speaks Russian and English.
Wake Up America on NewsmaxTV: Dr. Fauci’s Household Net Worth
What Does It Take to Go to Jail in NYC? Teen Rapper Gets Third Gun Bust
His previous arrest was for shooting himself and a police officer in a struggle last January when he was 16. Those charges were dropped when the judge decided the police had no reason to stop him in the first place. The case was sealed.
Williams, whose stage name is “C Blu,” was arrested Tuesday as he ran toward a car and fumbled for something in his waistband. That “something” was a semi-automatic, 9mm Bryco pistol with a round in the chamber and 11 more in the magazine.
Williams was charged with criminal weapons possession as well as obstruction of government administration.
I count at least two more charges: illegally concealing a firearm and possessing one big, bad, scary “high-cap” magazine that holds more than ten rounds, a felony in New York.Williams’ first gun arrest came in 2020 when he was only 14 years old after cops nabbed him with a semi-automatic Taurus pistol.
NYC sex offender with 9 prior arrests accused of beating, raping 81-year-old neighbor in ‘despicable’ attack
So far, Johnson – a registered sex offender, risk level 3, which is the “highest level” – has been charged with second-degree assault on a female over 65 years old and strangulation and burglary in connection to the incident, but there may be additional charges in the future, Essig said.
“He knows I live here alone. Oh my God, how could he do this?” the woman, whose name was withheld from the report, told the newspaper. “I’m still spitting up blood. He didn’t say a word. He knocked me down on the ground and strangled me. He jammed his fingers down my throat so I couldn’t scream. I was knocked unconscious. I believe he raped me.“
Johnson was also arrested in August 2021 for strangulation, in March 2003 for an assault, in June 1995 for an attempted murder for which he pleaded guilty to assault, in February 1994 for grand larceny, and three more arrests in January, March and September 1991 for grand larceny and assault, Essig said.
Police: Tennessee Sex Offender Carjacked Woman, Raped Her at Abandoned House
The suspect threatened the woman, saying he had a knife, and forced her to drive to an abandoned home on Woodlyn Road while her one-year-old child was inside the vehicle, News Channel 9 reported.
The victim was ordered by the suspect to enter the house, where he then allegedly raped her. Following the attack, the man stole her cell phone and left the woman and her child at the vacant residence.
Investigators identified the suspect after viewing surveillance footage from a business near where the woman was kidnapped.
The suspect has a lengthy criminal history, including pleading guilty to rape that occurred in 2010, according to WJHL. He is still on parole for his 12-year sentence, which began in February 2011.
Police also accuse Bennett of being involved in another car theft incident on August 10 and a burglary incident on August 22.
Florida Man Kidnaps His Child, Gets Tased and Bitten by K-9
Palm Coast, Florida — A 27-year-old Palm Coast resident faces charges of kidnapping and using a minor as a human shield after he abducted a small child while armed with a gun and led deputies on a chase which ended in a standoff at a fast food restaurant’s parking lot.
Twin charged in brother’s death at NE Portland hotel
A medical examiner ruled Oliver’s death as a homicide from a gunshot wound.
A neighbor who lives nearby said she was home when it happened.
“I was asleep,” the neighbor, Brenda, said. “I heard a couple gunshots and then I heard a car zoom off.”
She went upstairs to ask her granddaughter, who was awake.
“I said, ‘did you hear anything?’” Brenda said. “She’s like, ‘somebody just shot some gunshots and zoomed off.’ Then a few minutes later, there was police cars everywhere.”
14-year-old Shoots CMPD Officer During Foot Chase in Charlotte, North Carolina
The caller also advised that the suspect had pointed a firearm at a nearby citizen. Responding officers made contact with the suspect, who fled on foot.
At the time, it was not known that the suspect was a juvenile. During a brief foot chase, the armed suspect fired at the pursuing officer, Elliott Whitley, striking Whitley in the shoulder.
The suspect was later identified as a 14-year-old who had an extensive felony history including charges in 46 criminal cases dating back as far as 2014.
Sex Offender Charged in Chicago Kidnapping Attempt Was Released on Recognizance Bond Day Prior
Less than 24 hours before the alleged attacks occurred, the suspect was released by a judge on his own recognizance after failing to register as a sex offender.
Chicago police identified Quavon Ewing, 32, as the man who attempted to grab a woman’s arm and pull her into a minivan he was driving on the 200 Block of S. Sangamon in Chicago’s West Loop neighborhood. The woman was able to escape.
Police also accused Ewing of committing aggravated battery twice against a 35-year-old woman and a 25-year-old woman in two separate incidents.
In the latter case, Ewing allegedly poured a cup of his own urine on the 25-year-old victim’s head and then told the woman, “You deserve it,” according to prosecutors.
California woman charged with murder for driving into man she accused of trying to run over cat: authorities
Hannah Star Esser got out of her car in the Cypress neighborhood of Orange County Sunday evening to accuse Luis Anthony Victor of aiming for a cat with his car in the cul-de-sac on Graham Street. Cypress is west of Anaheim.
Following the heated argument, during which Victor also got out of his car, Esser allegedly got back in hers, made a three-point turn and accelerated into him, launching him onto the hood of her car.
Esser faces 25 years to life in prison if convicted.
Biden Admin Gives $41 Million in Contracts to Soros-Linked Group to Help Illegal Aliens Fight Deportations
The Acacia Center for Justice—a Washington-based nonprofit created through a collaboration between the Vera Institute of Justice and the Capital Area Immigrants’ Rights Coalition—was awarded a total of six contracts from the Department of Justice to provide “legal services” starting from Sept. 1, according to government records.
On its website, the Acacia Center for Justice says its mission is to “expand on Vera’s work over the past twenty years in providing legal support and representation to immigrants facing deportation through the development, coordination and management of national networks of legal services providers serving immigrants across the country.”
The Vera Institute of Justice has received millions in funding from George Soros’ Open Society Foundation.
On Jan. 20, 2021, the CAIR released a statement saying it was relieved to see the Trump administration go.
Texas Illegal immigrant tries taking weapon away from Texas National Guardsman, authorities say
A previously deported illegal immigrant with a criminal record tried taking a weapon away from a soldier Tuesday after fleeing at the southern border, officials said.
Ricardo Jamie-Ruiz, 45, a Mexican citizen, was part of a large group of migrants that was caught by Border Patrol agents near Bentsen Palm Community Park in Mission, Texas, the Texas Department of Public Safety said Wednesday.
After issuing verbal commands to stop, he allegedly grabbed the soldier’s M-4 rifle “with both hands in an attempt to seize the weapon for himself,” authorities said.
“The soldier was able to maintain possession of his weapon,” according to a DPS statement.
Fentanyl crisis continues to ravage US communities as border drug trafficking hits new records: memo
Those who have witnessed activity at the border believe the crisis at the border and the fentanyl crisis are correlated.
“Yeah, I’ve never seen anything like this. The numbers, the organization, the movement. And the federal government is doing a masterful job of keeping it on the down-low as much as possible — sanitizing it as much as possible,” retired Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agent and Texas congressional candidate Frank Lopez Jr. told Fox News Digital.
CBP agents seized an unprecedented 10,500 lbs. of the deadly drug in 2021, and seizures have already surpassed 12,000 lbs. so far this year — the most fentanyl ever seized in a single year in the United States.
That much fentanyl could kill the entire U.S. population eight times over, the memo circulating among senators notes.
Chopper footage of Fort Myers
First Gardasil Wrongful Death Lawsuit Filed Alleging HPV Vaccine Caused 13-Year-Old’s Death
Baum Hedlund Aristei & Goldman and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., chairman of Children’s Health Defense, this week filed a wrongful death suit against Merck alleging the drugmaker’s Gardasil HPV vaccine caused the death of 13-year-old Noah Tate Foley.
The civil action, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina on behalf of Noah’s parents, Clifton and Kelli Foley, alleges Noah died Oct. 8, 2020, of encephalitis caused by an autoimmune/autoinflammatory dysregulation process directly related to the Gardasil injection he received in 2018.
The lawsuit also alleges the vaccine caused autonomic, neurological, heterogeneous autoimmune disease and a constellation of adverse symptoms, complications, injuries and other adverse events, which led to Noah’s wrongful death.
New Study Supports Conclusion of Retracted 2020 Study Showing Unvaxxed Kids Healthier Than Vaxxed
In November 2020, a study that carefully examined 10 years’ worth of data from a pediatric practice in Oregon run by Dr. Paul Thomas was published. Five days following the publication of the study, Thomas’ license was suspended.
A month after that, the journal decided to inform the authors that an anonymous reader had expressed some concerns about the study.
When his lawyer wrote the medical board pointing out that Thomas had suffered a penalty without due process, they offered to reinstate his license, pending the outcome of a hearing, on the condition that he do no more research.
This clearly shows the agenda of the medical board was not to ensure that the children in the practice were receiving good pediatric medical care.
When older children were studied, and those who had the most vaccines were compared to those to those of the same age who had fewer vaccines, a clear pattern emerged for most of the adverse health outcomes:
Tucker Carlson: Ghoulish Dems, Don Lemon rush to politicize Hurricane Ian
Fox News host Tucker Carlson said those politicizing Hurricane Ian ‘don’t abide by standards of decency’ on ‘Tucker Carlson Tonight.’
Tucker Carlson: It’s hard to believe this is happening
Fox News host Tucker Carlson calls out Biden for allegedly using the FBI intimidate his critics on ‘Tucker Carlson Tonight.’
Politics:
Toomey, Manchin accuse Education Department of dragging feet on protecting students from predator teachers
A bipartisan pair of senators accused the Department of Education of dragging its feet when it came to protecting students from sexual predator teachers.
Fox News Digital exclusively obtained a letter sent by Senators Pat Toomey, R-Penn., and Joe Manchin, D-W.V., to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona regarding a recent department report entitled “Study of State Policies to Prohibit Aiding and Abetting Sexual Misconduct in Schools.”
The senators wrote the report “examines state laws, regulations, and policies to ensure that certain school employees with a known history of engaging in sexual…
Biden Plans To ‘End Hunger’ In The US Through The Power Of Diversity, Equity And Inclusion
The administration says that hiring more non-white registered dietitian nutritionists will help minority communities that experience higher rates of “food insecurity,” obesity and type 2 diabetes, according to the White House National Strategy on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health.
The Health Resources and Services Administration will begin collaborating with Minority Serving Institutions and Historically Black Colleges and Universities in 2023 to recruit and train a diverse crop of nutrition experts as part of the White House’s plan.
“A more diverse health care workforce would better serve communities of color, which suffer from higher rates of food insecurity and diet-related disease,” the memo states. “Patients are less likely to seek care or share information if they perceive ethnic or social differences with their health care providers.”
Ron DeSantis is enemy #1 right now for the mainstream machine | Dave Rubin | ‘John Bachman Now’
On Friday’s ‘John Bachman Now’, Dave Rubin calls Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis enemy #1 for the mainstream machine.
Wife of Top Biden Aide Named Ambassador for Plants and Animals
The wife of President Joe Biden’s top aide has a fancy new gig at the U.S. State Department.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday announced that Monica Medina, wife of White House chief of staff Ron Klain, will serve as U.S. Special Envoy for Biodiversity and Water Resources.
According to the Washington Post, which initially declined to note that Medina is married to Klain, the decision to promote her to the newly established role of “diplomat for plants and animals” is one that “underscores the Biden’s administration’s desire” to fight climate change.
Medina currently serves in the State Department as assistant secretary for oceans and international environmental and scientific affairs.
She is an outspoken proponent of the Green New Deal, a controversial legislative proposal sponsored by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) that would cost roughly $9 trillion to implement but would have a negligible effect on global temperatures.
Gavin Newsom Caves to Unions and Pelosi, Signs Vote-by-Mail for Farmworker Unions
This year, the unions tried again with Assembly Bill 2183. Newsom vetoed it again, saying it needed revisions. President Biden publicly backed the bill, as did Vice President Kamala Harris, infuriating Newsom, who owns a winery that includes vineyards in Napa County. Breitbart News reported:
Newsom’s office is on record saying they “cannot support an untested mail-in election process that lacks critical provisions to protect the integrity of the election, and is predicated on an assumption that government cannot effectively enforce laws.”
…
Newsom is “privately seething” over Biden’s endorsement of the bill, multiple people with knowledge of Newsom’s thinking told Politico.
The Los Angeles Times noted: “The new law expands voting options for farmworkers by allowing them to vote by mail or drop off a ballot card at the state Agricultural Labor Relations Board. Farmworkers can also receive assistance filling out their ballots. Previously, secret ballot elections were held at a polling place designated by the board.”
GOP claims House Judiciary subcommittee postponed hearing because ‘Democrats are so scared’ of MTG testifying
The House Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee on antitrust, commercial, and administrative law was supposed to hold a hearing Thursday afternoon dealing with bankruptcy, only to postpone hours before it was set to start.
Democrats had planned to have Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., as a guest, and Warren was expected to announce legislation with Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., that would allow people to declare bankruptcy to have their student loans canceled.
In turn, Republicans wanted to call Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., as a witness. Thursday morning, the hearing was postponed.
Biden DOJ ‘public safety’ push shells out $57M for ‘racial equity,’ criminal ‘justice system reforms’
Wednesday’s announcement said the multi-million-dollar allocation will “support criminal justice reform and advance racial equity in the criminal justice system” through grants aimed at advancing the DOJ’s “goal to promote fairness in the nation’s courts and corrections systems and align criminal justice practices with the latest science.”
The funding “will support efforts at the state, territory, local and Tribal levels to institute more effective and equitable criminal justice policies and practices,” as well as “strategies to ensure the protection of defendants’ and incarcerated individuals’ constitutional rights and safety and efforts to address wrongful convictions.”
The grants are administered by the department’s Office of Justice Programs.
EPA ignored Trump’s personnel order so federal workers wouldn’t be ‘upset,’ says watchdog
Just before Trump left office, he signed an executive order creating a new classification of federal employee known as Schedule F.
Employees classified under Schedule F would have been much easier to fire and discipline – the system was aimed at making the federal workforce more accountable to political leaders and reflected GOP complaints that too many federal employees were resisting Trump’s policy prescriptions.
This week, the U.S. Government Accountability Office released a report on the implementation of Schedule F that bore out those GOP complaints. That report said only 15 federal agencies had made any effort to implement Trump’s order before Biden revoked it during his first week in office, and that the EPA purposefully decided not to implement it to protect its employees.
GAO found other examples of the federal bureaucracy’s lackluster response to the Trump initiative. Its report said four other federal agencies never sent in a petition and were still in the process of reviewing which employees might be reclassified by the time the Biden administration shut down Trump’s order.
World News:
‘This is not our territory’: Startling unrest in Russian republics as thousands flee mobilisation
With his military suffering setback after setback, a week ago he announced the mobilisation of hundreds of thousands of reservists. But even that was qualified.
It was a partial mobilisation and so far the bulk of men being drafted are said to be from areas far from Moscow and in the Russian federation’s autonomous republics.
He will have hoped again that the bulk of ethnic Russians will still not feel directly affected by this latest escalation.
But it is not working out that way, it seems, not for hundreds of thousands of Russians across the country.
They’ve felt so strongly about his latest moves that they have left their homes and everything in them and made the long and difficult journey out of Russia. To Georgia, or to Mongolia and Kazakhstan or Finland, where so many Russians have crossed that the authorities have now closed the border to them.
N Korea fires third ballistic missile this week, hours after Harris leaves from S Korea
The military in Seoul said on Thursday that North Korea had launched an unidentified ballistic missile. This was Pyongyang’s third launch in less than a week, and it occurred only hours after US Vice President Kamala Harris left South Korea.
According to a statement from Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, North Korea launched an unidentified ballistic missile into the East Sea, often known as the Sea of Japan.
In addition, the Japanese coast guard reported a potential North Korean ballistic missile launch, according to information from Tokyo’s defence ministry.
Police In Russia’s Tyva Disperse Anti-Mobilization Rally, Detain Women
KYZYL, Russia — Police in Russia’s Siberian Tyva region have detained at least 27 women and dispersed a rally against the mobilization of local men for Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.
Dozens of women chanted “No to mobilization! No to genocide!” before the rally was dispersed just minutes after it started on the central Arat Square in Tyva’s capital, Kyzyl, on September 29.
One of the detained women told RFE/RL that police registered the women’s personal data and took their fingerprints.
After the rally was dispersed, seven police vehicles remained on the square and a specially equipped vehicle came to the site and started washing the square with water.
Russia Says Sanctions Prevent It From Maintaining Gas Pipeline To Turkey, Balkans
Russia says Western sanctions are preventing it from maintaining a crucial natural-gas-export pipeline that supplies Turkey and the Balkans, potentially worsening Europe’s energy crisis.
South Stream Transport B.V., the Dutch unit of Kremlin-controlled gas giant Gazprom responsible for serving the underwater pipeline to Turkey, said the Netherlands revoked its license as of September 17.
In a letter to managers of South Stream Transport B.V. on September 14 obtained by RFE/RL, company director Oleg Aksyutin ordered them to stop all work, including canceling contracts with Western suppliers.
“Suspend the execution of all contracts related to the technical support of the gas pipeline,” he wrote in the letter, “including design, manufacture, assembly, testing, repair, maintenance, and training.”
NATO Formally Blames Sabotage for Nord Stream Pipeline Damage
NATO said that a series of leaks on the Nord Stream pipelines between Russia and Europe were the result of acts of sabotage and that attacks on its members’ infrastructure would be met with a collective response from the military alliance.
The statement, from the North Atlantic Council, the decision-making body of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, didn’t provide details or evidence.
It also noted that the damage to the pipelines occurred in international waters. But it marks the first time the alliance has formally warned that it would deter and defend…
Iran blames Israel for failing to evade IAEA probes; IRGC bombs Iraqi Kurds – TV7 Israel News 29.09
1) Israel’s Atomic Energy Commission Director General warns of Iran’s nuclear aspirations.
2) The Islamic Republic of Iran deplores the IAEA for refusing to close its open investigations into nuclear particles that were retrieved from undeclared sites in Iran.
3) Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards launches a deadly strike against Iraq’s Kurdish Region.
Putin to Illegally Annex Provinces in Kremlin Ceremony Friday
President Vladimir Putin will sign documents on Friday proclaiming Russia’s annexation of four Ukrainian regions, as Moscow rushes to lock in territorial claims that the Ukrainian army is threatening to reverse on the battlefield.
The move, one of the legal steps Russia says will lead to formal annexation of 15% of Ukraine’s territory, confirms that Putin is doubling down on his war against Ukraine despite suffering a major military reversal this month.
The annexation, after what Kyiv and Western countries say were phony referendums staged at gunpoint on Russian-held Ukrainian territory, has been rejected in the West as an illegal seizure of land captured in war.
Commentary/Opinion:
Exposing UN Agenda 21 Sustainable Development at the Local Level
A group of Miami activists and an outside expert are working to expose the insidious effects of the United Nations and its “Agenda 21” Sustainable Development programs in the South Florida area, two key players in the effort told The New American magazine’s Alex Newman in this episode of Conversations That Matter.
Cuban-born local activist Maria Magdalena Estupinan and Sustainable Freedom Lab’s John Anthony, an expert on the UN’s scheme, describe the pernicious influence of the global organization, which they say is now ubiquitous in local and county government.
One of the defining characteristics is a war on private property rights, but ultimately the goal is total control over citizens’ lives, Estupinan explained.
Their plan is to conduct a forensic study of Agenda 21-linked policies in Miami so that the broader community can understand and combat this threat to liberty and constitutional government.