gud morning bakers
baker
LB notable link missing - here t'is
LB Notable:
>>22458599 @defense_civil25 - 🚨Update: Panama Canal - Chinese companies are building a bridge across the canal.
White House to open press access to podcasters and influencers
“new media seat”
”The Trump White House will speak to all media outlets and personalities, not just the legacy media who are seated in this room,” Leavitt said. She extended an invitation to “independent journalists, podcasters, social media influencers, and content creators” to apply for credentials.
Leavitt stated that those vetted by her office and the Secret Service would be welcome in the James S. Brady briefing room in the West Wing.
In a symbolic gesture, a seat previously reserved for one of the press secretary’s staff members will now be called the “new media seat” and given to a “new media” journalist, she said.
The policy change addresses the situation in which “millions of Americans, especially young people, have turned from traditional television outlets and newspapers to consume their news from podcasts, blogs, social media, and other independent outlets,” Leavitt emphasized.
Trump’s relationship with mainstream media has been contentious. The Republican has labeled some outlets “enemies of the people” and purveyors of “fake news.”
The animosity intensified during his first term in office from 2017 to 2021 due to Russiagate allegations against Trump, as critical journalists claimed that the president had “colluded” with Moscow to be elected. The narrative has since been largely debunked, including by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who filed no criminal charges to substantiate the claims.
“new media seat”
https://www.rt.com/news/611836-white-house-new-media/
How transgender troops prepared to fight Trump's new policy
"Well, it happened," Nicolas Talbott, 31, said in an interview with Reuters. "Here we go."
And transgender service members in the military were ready.
Within 15 hours of that executive order, Talbott joined five other transgender service members in a lawsuit filed on Tuesday by GLAD Law, a LGBTQ rights advocacy group, and the National Center For Lesbian Rights (NCLR). The lawsuit alleges that the new restrictions are violating constitutional guarantees of equal protection.
"Adoption of a gender identity inconsistent with an individual’s sex conflicts with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle," the order reads. "A man’s assertion that he is a woman, and his requirement that others honor this falsehood, is not consistent with the humility and selflessness required of a service member."
It also points to hormonal or surgical requirements as a reason for disqualification, comparable to a mental illness diagnosis.
The order gives Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth 60 days to implement changes including a ban on "invented" pronouns.
Navy Commander Emily Shilling, a pilot who leads SPARTA, an advocacy group for transgender troops, said transgender service members began preparing for possible restrictions in May - long before the November elections returned Trump to the White House.
In a weekend workshop, conducted just blocks from the White House, nearly two dozen transgender service members practiced high-pressure scenarios, including combative mock interviews, to teach them how to advocate for transgender rights if there was a change in policy after the Nov. 5 election.
"(We) did not sit on our hands, and we were preparing for the worst," said Shilling. >shilling
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/how-transgender-troops-prepared-fight-trumps-new-policy-2025-01-29/
US watchdog launches database on Catholic priests accused of sex abuse of minors in the Philippines
January 29, 2025
A United States-based watchdog on Wednesday launched an online database on more than 80 Roman Catholic priests who have been accused of sexually abusing minors in the Philippines and said the silence of Filipino bishops on the crimes amounted to a cover-up.
The Philippines is the third-largest Roman Catholic nation in the world, and public discussions of sexual assaults by members of the clergy, who are revered especially in rural regions, has long been generally muted.
None of the 82 members of the clergy, including seven bishops, who have been included in the new online database on clergy sexual abuses by the groupBishopAccountability.orghad been convicted in any Philippine court.
The database featured their faces, names and details of their alleged sexual assaults on minors, some of which dated back more than two decades ago. The nonprofit said that it had also set up such online databases on Catholic clergy abuses in the U.S., Argentina, Chile and Ireland.
"It’s survivors that serve a life sentence. Many of the priests who have abused us get to carry on with their lives. They don’t face jail time. Some of them retire, move on with their lives, move on even to other careers and escape under the radar”
https://www.boston25news.com/news/world/us-watchdog-launches/O7LEU4YV55GCRCKSUPKLCBFFKQ/
2 Long Island women charged with sex trafficking in case of Emmarae Gervasi’s disappearance; 7 total arrested
Two Long Island women were arrested for their roles in the month-long disappearance of 14-year-old Emmarae Gervasi — increasing the number of suspects in the case to seven.
Suffolk County police charged Jacquelyn Comiskey, 52, and Elizabeth Hunter, 34, with sex trafficking and endangering the welfare of a child on Monday, according to court records viewed by The Post.
Comiskey allegedly transported Gervasi to Bunice Knight’s Copiague home on Jan. 2 — a day before the teen was found on a boat — in exchange for crack cocaine.
The teen was found aboard a 56-foot boat owned by Buckheit and docked at a marina in Islip on Jan. 3.
Her father, Frank Gervasi, acting on an anonymous tip, busted onto the boat and rescued his daughter.
https://nypost.com/2025/01/29/us-news/long-island-women-jacquelyn-comiskey-and-elizabeth-hunter-arrested-in-teen-emmarae-gervasi-disappearance/