Belligerent illegal immigrant arrested for trying to replace American flag at public park with Mexican flag.
Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley claims calls for low-crime Iowa to be the law model of USA is racist because it is 'too white'.
Master-mind behind right-wing twitter account 'Inevitable West' exposed as Indian crypto scammer
The mastermind behind the right-wing X, formerly Twitter, account ‘Inevitable West’ has been exposed as an alleged Indian crypto scammer and political grifter following a major blunder.
Saurabh Chandrakar, linked to the controversial Mahadev betting app, mistakenly promoted the app on his main social media account, inadvertently leading to his identification. This error sparked online investigations, which uncovered his alleged involvement in a massive money-laundering operation connected to the app.
Saurabh Chandrakar, linked to the controversial Mahadev betting app, mistakenly promoted the app on his main social media account, inadvertently leading to his identification. This error sparked online investigations, which uncovered his alleged involvement in a massive money-laundering operation connected to the app.
According to Indian news outlets, Chandrakar, a prominent figure behind the Mahadev betting app, is currently under house arrest in Dubai after being detained following an Interpol-issued Red Notice. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) in India is actively seeking his extradition to face charges related to money laundering, with estimates suggesting the illicit proceeds could amount to ₹6,000 crore (approximately $680 million). His case has become more complex as it is allegedly linked to several high-ranking politicians and bureaucrats in Chhattisgarh. So far, 11 individuals have been arrested, and two charge sheets have been filed.
The Mahadev app has become a focal point of controversy, drawing attention to Chandrakar’s background. Reports suggest that he, along with business partner Ravi Uppal, allegedly ran the app as part of a larger scheme that defrauded thousands of people. The scale of the operation has raised further questions, particularly after reports surfaced of Chandrakar hosting a lavish wedding in Dubai.
In addition to his business dealings, Chandrakar gained notoriety on social media under the pseudonym ‘Inevitable West,’ where his account quickly gained traction. X users noticed a rapid surge in followers, with some speculating that his posts were picked up by high-profile individuals, including Elon Musk, which allegedly contributed to his skyrocketing popularity.
Despite the growing backlash and allegations, ‘@Inevitablewest’ has continued to post right-wing content on X, reportedly blocking users who criticized the account or connected it to the Mahadev app scam.
As of writing this article, the account boasts over 200,000 followers but it has yet to address any of the ongoing allegations.
https://tribune.com.pk/story/2526904/mastermind-behind-right-wing-twitter-account-inevitable-west-exposed-as-indian-crypto-scammer
Russia: How it started vs how it's going.
UPenn and San Jose State to face ‘federal civil rights’ probe for allowing Transsexual athletes to play on women’s teams
The Trump administration is investigating potential civil rights violations at two universities and a high school sports league that allowed transgender athletes to compete on women's teams, the Education Department said Thursday.
The agency is opening reviews at San Jose State, the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association.
The reviews come a day after President Donald Trump signed an executive order intended to ban transgender athletes from competing in girls' and women's sports. The order calls for penalties against schools and leagues, saying competing against transgender athletes deprives female students of equality.
"The previous administration trampled the rights of American women and girls - and ignored the indignities to which they were subjected in bathrooms and locker rooms - to promote a radical transgender ideology," said Craig Trainor, the department's acting assistant secretary for civil rights.
The Education Department said it opened the cases over suspected violations of Title IX, the 1972 law barring sex discrimination in education. Opening an inquiry isn't meant to indicate a finding of wrongdoing, according to department policy. Additionally, the agency said it is reviewing athletics policies at a number of other schools.
San Jose State is being investigated over a player's participation on the women's volleyball team. A lawsuit filed by players against the Mountain West Conference argued that letting her compete poses a safety risk, but San Jose State has not confirmed it has a transgender woman on the volleyball team.
University president Cynthia Teniente-Matson said San Jose State will fully engage with the investigation and comply with the law as it continues to "act within our authority to uphold the values that define us as an institution."
The investigation at Penn focuses on Lia Thomas, who swam on the women's team and was the first openly transgender athlete to win a Division I title in 2022. Thomas graduated that year.
According to the Education Department, the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association allowed a transgender athlete to compete on a girls' high school basketball team, prompting an opposing team to forfeit after three players were reportedly injured. The department did not identify the schools or give further details.
Athletic associations typically don't receive federal money from the Education Department, and it was not immediately clear what authority the agency had to investigate the Massachusetts league.
The Education Department has shifted its civil rights priorities as it aligns with Trump's agenda to target antisemitism and gender identity issues. The investigations also build on Trump's campaign rhetoric, which pledged to end "transgender insanity."
The universities and association did not immediately provide comment.
Advocates for transgender students condemned the investigations.
"Utilizing the Title IX enforcement process to discriminate against trans women and girls is such a gross abuse of power and it's unlawful," Shiwali Patel, the senior director of Safe and Inclusive Schools at the National Women's Law Center, said in a statement. "Courts have affirmed that trans women and girls have civil rights protections when it comes to playing sports, and sports bans targeting trans women harm every woman or girl including those who are cis who doesn't fit sex-based stereotypes of how a woman or a girl should look, play, or act.
"Instead of targeting trans people, the Trump administration should focus on promoting policies that actually benefit women and girls in sports."
Title IX has been at the center of a political tug-of-war in recent years. Under former President Joe Biden, new federal rules expanded the law to protect LGBTQ+ students. A federal judge overturned Biden's rules this year, calling them an overstep.
The Trump administration has been using Title IX to push against schools that provide accommodations for transgender students. Last month, the Education Department opened an investigation into Denver public schools after an all-gender restroom replaced a girls' restroom while leaving another exclusive to boys.
In his order, Trump directed federal agencies to "rescind all funds from educational programs that deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities." The Education Department's Office for Civil Rights can move to cut federal money for institutions that violate civil rights, but only if it's approved by a judge and if the office fails to negotiate a resolution.
https://www.espn.com/college-sports/story/_/id/43721309/penn-sjsu-draw-inquiries-amid-trump-ban-trans-athletes
Trump removes Democratic FEC commissioner ‘effective immediately’
President Trump dismissed Federal Election Commission Chair Ellen Weintraub from service on Friday following in his series of firings from various government agencies.
“Received a letter from POTUS today purporting to remove me as Commissioner & Chair of @FEC. There’s a legal way to replace FEC commissioners-this isn’t it,” Weintraub wrote Thursday in a post on the social platform X, accompanied by a screenshot of a letter signed by Trump.
“I’ve been lucky to serve the American people & stir up some good trouble along the way. That’s not changing anytime soon.”
Weintraub was first appointed to serve on the commission by former President George W. Bush in 2002. Her term expired five years later, but no successor was appointed to take her place, allowing her to serve as an “acting” commissioner for more than two decades.
“You are hereby removed as a Member of the Federal Election Commission, effective immediately,” the president wrote in his Jan. 31 memo to the commissioner, who’s chaired the agency for four terms.
He did not outline any efforts to nominate a replacement for Weintraub.
The FEC is an independent, regulatory agency tasked with enforcing campaign finance laws and overseeing the nation’s federal elections.
The agency has more than 300 employees who are led by six Commissioners.
By law, no more than three Commissioners can represent the same political party, and at least four votes are required for any official Commission action, according to the agency.
The structure is intended to encourage nonpartisan decisions.
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5132004-trump-removes-democratic-fec-commissioner-effective-immediately/amp/
Ellen L. Weintraub (@ellenlweintraub.bsky.social)
@EllenLWeintraub
Received a letter from POTUS today purporting to remove me as Commissioner & Chair of
@FEC
. There’s a legal way to replace FEC commissioners-this isn’t it. I’ve been lucky to serve the American people & stir up some good trouble along the way. That’s not changing anytime soon.
https://x.com/EllenLWeintraub/status/1887648967300694270/photo/1
NCAA bans all biological men from playing women’s sports
The NCAA changed its participation policy for transgender athletes on Thursday, limiting competition in women's sports to athletes assigned female at birth only.
The move came one day after President Donald Trump signed an executive order intended to ban transgender athletes from girls' and women's sports. The order gives federal agencies latitude to withhold federal funding from entities that do not abide by Title IX in alignment with the Trump administration's view, which interprets "sex" as that which someone is assigned at birth.
The NCAA policy change is effective immediately and applies to all athletes regardless of previous eligibility reviews. The NCAA has some 1,100 member schools with more than 500,000 athletes, easily the largest governing body for college athletics in the U.S.
"We strongly believe that clear, consistent, and uniform eligibility standards would best serve today's student-athletes instead of a patchwork of conflicting state laws and court decisions," NCAA president Charlie Baker said. "To that end, President Trump's order provides a clear, national standard."
The NCAA's decision was hailed by former Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines, a vocal advocate of banning transgender athletes from women's sports. Gaines, who was at the White House signing ceremony with Trump, was among more than a dozen college athletes who filed a lawsuit against the NCAA last year, accusing it of violating their Title IX rights by allowing transgender woman Lia Thomas to compete at the national championships in 2022.
"I can't even begin to tell you how vindicating it feels knowing no girl will ever have to experience what my teammates and I did," Gaines posted on X shortly after the NCAA announced the policy change.
The previous NCAA policy that went into effect in 2022 adopted a sport-by-sport approach, in which transgender participation was determined by the policy of the sport's national governing body. In sports with no national governing body, that sport's international federation policy would be in place. If there is no international federation policy, previously established IOC policy criteria would take over.
Over the past year, however, transgender athletes have been targeted by critics who say their participation in women's sports is unfair and a potential safety risk. It became a major talking point in Trump's reelection campaign, even though there is believed to be a very small number of transgender athletes; Baker last year said he knew of only 10 transgender athletes in the NCAA.
The NCAA's revised policy permits athletes assigned male at birth to practice with women's teams and receive benefits such as medical care. It it not uncommon, for example, for women's basketball teams to practice against fellow students who are male.
Regardless of sex assigned at birth or gender identity, an athlete can practice and compete with a men's team assuming they meet all other NCAA eligibility requirements.
However, the NCAA said an athlete assigned female at birth who has begun hormone therapy (testosterone, for example) can practice with a women's team but cannot compete on a women's team without risking the team's eligibility for championships.
Member schools remain responsible for certifying athlete eligibility for practice and competition. The NCAA also said schools are subject to local, state and federal legislation and such legislation supersedes NCAA rules.
The NCAA policy change was announced hours after the Trump administration said it was investigating potential civil rights violations at two universities and a high school sports league that allowed transgender athletes to compete on women's teams. The Education Department said it had opened reviews of San Jose State University, the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association.
San Jose State's women's volleyball team drew headlines last season over unconfirmed allegations that the roster included a transgender player. As for Penn, three former teammates of transgender swimmer Lia Thomas have sued the NCAA, Ivy League, Harvard and the school over Thomas's participation at conference and national championships, saying it violated Title IX provisions.
Sia Liilii, captain of the Nevada volleyball team that refused to play San Jose State this season, said she was "ecstatic" about the new NCAA policy.
"Women have fought long and hard for equal athletic opportunities," Liilii said. "By completely removing men from women's sports, we are moving back to the true definition of Title [IX]. Women are given an opportunity to champion their own sports division and shine on a fair competition floor."
The NCAA also said its board of governors had directed staff to help all member schools foster respectful and inclusive collegiate athletic cultures, noting it has recently updated its mental health guidance.
"The updated policy combined with these resources follows through on the NCAA's constitutional commitment to deliver intercollegiate athletics competition and to protect, support and enhance the mental and physical health of student-athletes," Baker said. "This national standard brings much needed clarity as we modernize college sports for today's student-athletes."
The NCAA policy now mirrors that of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, which governs sports at 241 mostly small colleges across the country. Last April, the NAIA unanimously approved a policy allowing only athletes whose sex assigned at birth is female and who have not begun hormone therapy to compete.
https://www.espn.com/college-sports/story/_/id/43722332/ncaa-adjusts-transgender-policy-wake-trump-executive-order
Sen. Marsha Blackburn
@MarshaBlackburn
I have repeatedly requested a subpoena for the Epstein flight logs from the FBI.
As FBI Director, Kash Patel will work with me to release the Epstein files.
https://x.com/MarshaBlackburn/status/1887539297550479716
The White House
@WhiteHouse
EXECUTIVE ORDER SIGNED: Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports! ✅
"President Trump FOUGHT FOR US."
https://x.com/WhiteHouse/status/1887529872706109705
Jesse Watters
@JesseBWatters
Democrats want to audit you for a $600 Venmo payment, but when
@ElonMusk
audits the trillion dollar government — they’re ready to storm the castle. The government’s been robbing us blind. We’re been writing checks for tourism in Egypt, to help BBC value the diversity of Libyan society, Iraqi Sesame Street, an Armenian LGBT group, a DEI Irish musical, and for Guatemalan trans surgeries. They call the billions they’ve sent off “aid,” but whose hands is that money really ending up in?
https://x.com/JesseBWatters/status/1887678171941593193
Pam Bondi first interview as AG w/ Hannity
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnMEsNaW7ko
Full video of Maxine Waters insurrection
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4viueoaEHg
Catholic Relief Services lays off staff, cuts programs after USAID shakeup
Catholic Relief Services is bracing for massive cuts — as much as 50% this year — because of draconian reductions in U.S. foreign assistance ordered by the Trump administration, according to an internal email from the chief executive of the international relief organization.
CRS is the top recipient of funds from the U.S. Agency for International Development, known as USAID, which the Trump administration has targeted with a spending freeze, office closure and extensive staff cuts this week.
Layoffs have already begun as CRS has been forced to begin shutting down programs funded by USAID, which supplies about half of the Catholic organization's $1.5 billion budget, said CRS president and CEO Sean Callahan in a staffwide email sent Feb. 3.
"We anticipate that we will be a much smaller overall organization by the end of this fiscal year," Callahan wrote in the email, which was reviewed by National Catholic Reporter.
CRS officials at its headquarters in Baltimore did not respond to requests for comment. The U.S. bishops' conference, which created the organization 82 years ago, also did not respond to a request for comment.
Retired Tucson, Arizona, Bishop Gerald Kicanas, a former board chairman of Catholic Relief Services, said eliminating USAID would be a huge mistake. "These are desperate people, living in desperate situations, struggling day by day, hour by hour," Kicanas told NCR.
The cuts would amount to one of the biggest blows ever to CRS, a relief group founded in 1943 by Catholic bishops in the United States to serve World War II survivors in Europe. CRS reaches more than 200 million people in 121 countries on five continents, according to its website.
Callahan said that CRS has already received notifications that some projects for which it is subrecipient have already been terminated and that more are coming.
The staffing cuts and cost-saving measures would be across the board, impacting all divisions and departments of CRS, Callahan said. Temporary furloughs would not be enough to avoid staff cuts, he added.
The cuts will be devastating, said Stephen Colecchi, director of the Office of International Justice and Peace for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops from 2004 to 2018.
"To target this tiny portion of the federal budget in such a haphazard and irresponsible way is going to cost people's lives and livelihoods," Colecchi said. "It is not a thoughtful or humane way to go about treating programs that help the poorest of the poor all over the world."
CRS is holding an emergency briefing Feb. 6 on the foreign aid freeze.
USAID has been an early core target of President Donald Trump's efforts to curtail government spending, led by billionaire Elon Musk who is heading the newly created Department of Government Efficiency, an extragovernmental operation that has been empowered in the administration. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he is now running USAID. While independently created by Congress, it is a part of the State Department.
Democrats in Congress have challenged the legality of the attempts to slash USAID funding or shutter the office entirely.
Compared to other federal departments, USAID's share of the budget is a sliver. In fiscal year 2023, the U.S. allocated $916 billion for defense, or 3.4% of gross domestic product. The Defense Department requested $849.8 billion for fiscal year 2025.
"If you want to review a program, you don't simply freeze it in place, especially when local people are relying on it for lifesaving and life-changing programs," Colecchi said. "What you do is a systematic review for effectiveness and then you decide which programs are to continue and which programs are to sunset.
"A blanket freeze, even for a short period of time, means staff will have to be let go, programs will get interrupted and supply chains will be disrupted," Colecchi added.
"It will really tarnish the reputation of our nation, which has always had a good reputation in the area of humanitarian assistance."
Over a nine-year period — from the 2013 to 2022 fiscal years — Catholic Relief Services received $4.6 billion in funding from USAID, primarily for disaster assistance, according to an August 2024 report by the Congressional Research Service, a branch of the Library of Congress.
Church and faith-based organizations received less than 6% of USAID funding for nonprofit organizations, with more than half of those funds going to Catholic Relief Services, according to the Congressional Research Service.
Among the programs and services provided by CRS: water and sanitation, education, agriculture, health, microfinancing, climate change resilience, as well as justice and peace-building programs in addition to emergency and disaster assistance.
"CRS is the Gospel at work and reflects the best of American values," John Carr, former executive director of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Department of Justice, Peace and Human Development, told NCR.
CRS had 7,000 employees worldwide as of 2018 when it marked its 75th anniversary.
Kicanas, CRS board chairman from 2010 to 2013, said that CRS is trusted around the world. Pulling back programs that support starving and suffering people will have serious ramifications.
"So it's not like a short freeze won't be insignificant," Kicanas said. "It will be very significant for countless numbers of people in countries around the world."
Kicanas said the Trump administration may not "understand the unintended consequences of what a freeze will do, and the impact it will have."
https://www.ncronline.org/news/exclusive-catholic-relief-services-lays-staff-cuts-programs-after-usaid-shakeup
-People and entities linked to Darkhorse Tactical Investments of Connecticut have snapped up more than 100 acres of land within -Joshua Tree National Park boundaries since 2021. Several of those involved in the land purchases have ties to the hotel industry.
Joshua Tree is among the 10 most popular national parks in the U.S. but has no lodging aside from campgrounds within its borders.
-Environmentalists and nearby residents are concerned that potential development by the new land owners could affect the fragile desert environment in the area, long known as Whispering Pines.
https://archive.is/9rVSH#selection-2681.0-2693.191
Argentina canal turns bright red, alarming residents
A canal in a suburb of Argentina's capital Buenos Aires turned bright red on Thursday, alarming local residents.
Pictures and videos show the intensely coloured water flowing into an estuary, the Rio de la Plata, which borders an ecological reserve.
Local media reports suggest the colour may have been caused by the dumping of textile dye, or by chemical waste from a nearby depot.
The Environment Ministry said in a statement that water samples had been taken from the Sarandí canal to determine the cause of the colour change.
By late afternoon the colour of the water had lost some of its intensity, the AFP news agency reported.
Residents have claimed that many local companies dispose of toxic waste in the waterway, which runs through an area of leather processing and textile factories some 10km (6 miles) from the centre of the capital.
A resident, a woman called Silvia, told local news channel C5N that although it is has turned red now, "other times it was yellow, with an acidic smell that makes us sick even in the throat".
"I live a block from the stream. Today, it has no smell. There are not many factories in the area, although there are warehouses."
Another resident, Maria Ducomls, told AFP industries in the region dump waste in the water, and said she had seen it coloured differently in the past - "bluish, a little green, pink, a little lilac, with grease on top".
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cpqlpvdvzlzo
Mysterious land purchases inside Joshua Tree National Park
-People and entities linked to Darkhorse Tactical Investments of Connecticut have snapped up more than 100 acres of land within Joshua Tree National Park boundaries since 2021. Several of those involved in the land purchases have ties to the hotel industry.
-Joshua Tree is among the 10 most popular national parks in the U.S. but has no lodging aside from campgrounds within its borders.
-Environmentalists and nearby residents are concerned that potential development by the new land owners could affect the fragile desert environment in the area, long known as Whispering Pines.
https://archive.is/9rVSH#selection-2681.0-2693.191
George
@BehizyTweets
BREAKING: Pete Hegseth just told Pentagon personnel that a massive audit is coming.
"We are going to focus heavily to ensure that at a bare minimum, by the end of four years, the Pentagon passes a clean audit."
"I believe we are accountable for every dollar we spend and every dollar of waste we find, or redundancy is a dollar we can invest somewhere else."
I CAN'T WAIT! People thought USAID was bad. Wait till they see how much waste & fraud exists at the Defense Department.
https://x.com/BehizyTweets/status/1887892486003245297
Breaking911
@Breaking911
🚨 BOOM! U.S. Attorney sends letter to Elon Musk and DOGE: "We will chase them to the end of the Earth to hold them accountable."
Now we know why the Democrats are in full-blown meltdown mode.
https://x.com/Breaking911/status/1887905033536291026
Biggest real estate project in history of Santa Barbara
The era of the giant upscale outdoor mall is coming to a quick and decisive end in Santa Barbara.
A path was cleared last week to tear down a landmark Macy’s department store in favor of a giant housing project at the sprawling indoor-outdoor mall La Cumbre Plaza.
Almost immediately following the news about the Macy’s location, a second project for new housing was proposed for La Cumbre Plaza. The new project involves tearing down the mall’s other original anchor tenant, an old Sears building, and its adjacent parking area, as well as redeveloping that parcel into an additional 443 apartment units.
The Sears building is situated on the opposite end of the mall’s 31-acre footprint.
Located in the heart of the city’s upper State Street corridor, the shopping center is near both Highway 101 and state Route 154. It opened in 1967 with two anchors: Sears and a J.W. Robinson’s department store, which was part of a small upscale chain based in Los Angeles and which would later become the Macy’s.
Pending project approval, the Macy’s is set to be demolished after its lease expires in 2028. That parcel is slated to be redeveloped into 689 apartment units by local developers Jim and Matthew Taylor, who acquired the Macy’s building for about $63 million in December 2021.
The proposal for the Sears portion of the mall is slightly smaller and more congruous with the footprint of the property. The project would include 36 studio apartments, 183 one-bedroom units, 201 two-bedroom units and 23 three-bedroom units. It will also feature 466 parking spaces, Noozhawk reported.
Santa Barbara City Council member Eric Friedman, who represents the district that includes La Cumbre Plaza, told SFGATE Tuesday that he’s “very excited” that a pair of housing projects are potentially coming to fruition in his district at the same time.
“These are two of the biggest projects in the history of our city going back decades and decades,” Friedman said, noting that both projects are slated to be built at the same time, which he said could be “preferable to one massive project on the heels of another.”
Housing has been a hot-button issue in Santa Barbara for years, coming to a head last fall when a controversial hotel project in the city’s Funk Zone district was approved. During public hearings, many Santa Barbarans said that the need for housing is dire and should be prioritized over all other development.
Though Friedman voted in favor of the Funk Zone hotel project, he said that housing remains a “top priority” for him in Santa Barbara.
While Kennedy Wilson, the developer for the Sears project, is not local like the Macy’s developers, the international firm has a track record in Santa Barbara. Friedman noted that the firm recently transformed an old hotel near La Cumbre Plaza into 73 housing units.
“They have a local understanding, about the city, the process and also the challenges,” he said. Friedman also said he appreciated that the owners and developer of the Sears parcel decided to prioritize working directly with the city instead of going straight to using the state’s bonus density laws and maxing out the building footprint.
“The difference is going through our process,” he explained. “They do get a higher density, but it is something developed through community input here and part of our general plan. It really takes into consideration all development needs: parking, circulation, water, sewer, school district — all impacts.”
SFGATE reached out to Kennedy Wilson about the La Cumbre Plaza project but did not get a response by the time of publication.
While Friedman recognizes there is still much work to be done to getting both projects closer to the starting line, he acknowledged that the era of the big mall on upper State Street is one of the past. Instead, he believes that Santa Barbara can help build a new narrative for the region, and perhaps the state, with the dying shopping mall’s conversion into housing.
“It will come in and transform the neighborhood and bring it back to earlier vitality,” he concluded.
https://www.sfgate.com/centralcoast/article/upscale-california-mall-turn-another-department-20149755.php
Alaska plane is found with all ten people on board dead: Live updates
The search for a plane which vanished off the coast of Alaska has ended in tragedy with all ten people aboard believed to be dead inside.
The aircraft was discovered crash-landed 34 miles southeast of its intended destination of Nome on Friday.
The tiny Bering Air Caravan took off from Unalakleet, a small community in western Alaska, and was on a short 55-minute commuter flight when it suddenly disappeared off flight radars over the Norton Sound inlet at 3:16pm local time.
Little detail is known about those who were on board except they were all adults.
An initial report around 6.20pm ET stated that the remains of three people had been discovered.
However, rescuers have since reported they believe the remaining bodies are within the mangled wreckage of the plane, but are currently inaccessible due to its condition.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14372221/Alaska-Bering-airplane-vanishes-search.html
All Quiksilver, Billabong and Volcom stores to close in U.S.
All Quiksilver, Billabong and Volcom stores in the United States will close after their operator filed for bankruptcy protection.
Altogether over 100 stores for the brands, that sell apparel for skaters, surfers and snowboarders, will close their doors.
Liberated Brands filed a voluntary petition for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Sunday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware.
“The Liberated team has worked tirelessly over the last year to propel these iconic brands forward, but a volatile global economy, consumer spending changes amid a rising cost of living, and inflationary pressures have all taken a heavy toll,” Liberated Brands in a statement, according to Financier Worldwide. “Despite this difficult change, we are encouraged that many of our talented associates have found new opportunities with other license holders that will carry these great brands into the future.”
Todd Hymel, the CEO of the Costa Mesa, California-based company, said in a declaration of support for the bankruptcy filing that a “rapid and dramatic rise in interest rates,” inflation, supply chain delays, a decline in customer demand and shifting consumer preferences cast “significant pressure” on the operator.
He noted that during Covid-19 pandemic the brands experienced a boom in business. During that time, Liberated expanded its retail footprint from 67 to 140 stores, Hymel wrote. However, as the pandemic ended and interest rates and inflation went up, customer demand weakened.
The pandemic also had increased demand for online shopping and led Liberated’s brick-and-mortar retail footprint to impose “a further drag on profitability.” Hymel also said consumer demand toward “fast fashion” contributed to a decrease in profits.
Fans of the labels won’t have to fear, though, as parent company Authentic Brands Group said it will transition to another operator.
https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/quiksilver-billabong-volcom-stores-close-us-rcna191053
Casey DeSantis considers running for Florida governor amid push from top donors
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Republican donors at a gathering last week in Palm Beach County openly discussed the prospect of Casey DeSantis' running for governor in 2026, and for the first time, Florida’s first lady is seriously considering the idea.
Gov. Ron DeSantis, her husband, faces term limits and cannot seek re-election. There has long been speculation about whether Casey, a mainstay on the campaign trail for her husband, would herself one day run for office, but those plans seem to be coming closer to reality, five people directly familiar with the donor event and Casey DeSantis' thought process told NBC News.
“I would say this: I have heard donors have been urging her to run and that while it’s not something she has wanted to do, they are causing her to at least stop and listen,” a source familiar with her thinking said.
Casey DeSantis couldn’t be reached for comment for this article.
Her entrance into the 2026 Republican primary field, which isn't yet set, would have significant ripple effects across both the Florida and the national political landscapes, potentially setting up a proxy war between Gov. Ron DeSantis and President Donald Trump.
The other Republican who has openly said he is considering a run for governor is Rep. Byron Donalds, a close Trump ally.
“It is a real possibility,” another person familiar with the conversations said of the chances Casey DeSantis runs for governor, though they noted they don’t know yet whether it’s a “probable scenario.”
Before the South Florida donor event last week, the prospect was mostly political conjecture. But even then, the idea had gotten enough traction that Casey DeSantis has had to address it.
“I will tell you this, when people talk about me running for governor, I think it speaks highly about the governor himself,” she told the “Conservative Review” podcast in May. “I think when people see me, it is because they are so happy about everything that this governor has done for the state of Florida.
“When people start talking about ‘Oh, you know, you should run,’ that’s because Gov. DeSantis is a rock star and that’s because people are so proud of everything that he’s done for this state,” she added.
Along with Donalds, state Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson is also believed to be considering a run. Though he doesn’t have the national profile of either Casey DeSantis or Donalds, he is a well-known statewide elected official in Florida with upward of $30 million already in the bank from past fundraising efforts.
If Casey DeSantis were to run, the race would almost certainly be viewed, in part, as a proxy war between Trump and her husband.
The two became close allies after Trump endorsed Ron DeSantis’ 2018 bid for governor, but they had a high-profile falling-out when DeSantis ran against Trump in the 2024 Republican presidential primaries.
Their relationship has warmed, but the dynamics of a potential race between the sitting governor's wife and Donalds, widely believed to be the candidate Trump’s team would support, would resurrect the rivalry and the fight over who is the true kingmaker in Florida Republican politics.
DeSantis and Donalds were once so close that Donalds introduced DeSantis and his family at DeSantis’ 2022 election night victory party; the two fell out when Donalds endorsed Trump in the presidential primary.
Similarly, DeSantis has had a strained relationship with Simpson. Last month, the two men openly sparred after the GOP-dominated Legislature proposed a plan to strip DeSantis of immigration oversight authority in the state to give it to Simpson, which DeSantis vocally opposed.
Originally, DeSantis wanted former state Attorney General Ashley Moody, a longtime ally, to run for governor. He saw her as the best prospect to beat Donalds, but he ultimately decided to appoint her to the Senate seat left open when Trump picked Marco Rubio to be his secretary of state.
With Moody's exit, DeSantis was forced to find another candidate who was aligned with him who he believed could become governor.
The governor sees his wife's running "as his best opportunity to set the future leaderships for the state and prevent a Simpson or Donalds governorship,” another source familiar with the thinking said. “That’s what finally opened him up to a Casey run."
A top Donalds adviser told NBC News about having "heard the rumblings" of a Casey DeSantis bid for governor but declined to comment further.
The existing tensions between DeSantis and both men make it nearly impossible that DeSantis, the state’s sitting two-term governor, would endorse either in a governor’s race and left him searching for his own candidate whom he can support to replace him.
DeSantis has already said he would be active in the 2026 governor’s race.
Last month, DeSantis said he would use his state-level political committee, the Florida Freedom Fund, to back a candidate in the 2026 governor’s race. He used the committee last year to help defeat ballot measures that would have legalized recreational marijuana in the state and another that would have enshrined abortion rights in the Florida Constitution.
“The Florida Freedom Fund was instrumental in raising huge sums of $ to defeat Amendment 3 and 4 in 2024,” he posted on X last month. “For the 2026 cycle, the FFF will raise even more resources (1) to ensure support of a strong gubernatorial candidate and (2) to support strong conservative candidates in legislative primaries.”
It has left many wondering whom DeSantis would end up supporting. The candidate who answers that question may already live in the Governor’s Mansion.
"She's going to run. I think at this point most see that," a person familiar with Casey DeSantis' thinking said. "There is a lot to be worked out, but at this point the rumors are not just that — it's feeling very real."
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/casey-desantis-considers-running-florida-governor-push-top-donors-rcna191075
Congresswoman Mary Miller introduces Transgender House member Sarah McBride as 'the gentleman from Delaware, Mr. McBride.’
https://x.com/CitizenFreePres/status/1888086469979357583
CNN graphic shows ‘Obama’ Bin Laden
https://x.com/TheInsiderPaper/status/1888025252506255563
Trump fires archivist of the United States, official who oversees government records
President Trump has fired Archivist of the United States Colleen J. Shogan, the government official responsible for preserving and providing access to government records.
Sergio Gor, director of the Presidential Personnel Office, announced Shogan's dismissal Friday night. Shogan has held the job since 2023.
"At the direction of @realDonaldTrump the Archivist of the United States has been dismissed tonight," Gor wrote on X. "We thank Colleen Shogan for her service."
The move isn't unexpected. Mr. Trump told radio host Hugh Hewitt earlier this month that "we will have a new archivist."
On Thursday, however, a senior archivist official told CBS News there was "no word that anything is changing."
"The archivist looks forward to continuing her strong working relationship with the president and first lady," the official said at the time.
The archivist of the United States, who oversees the National Archives and Records Administration, is typically an apolitical role that receives little attention. But Mr. Trump has expressed ire toward the agency in the past, after it was a key player in the case about his mishandling of classified records.
When he left office in early 2021, Mr. Trump allegedly took dozens of boxes of presidential papers, including nearly 340 documents bearing classified markings, to his home in Florida. Mr. Trump was eventually charged with 40 felonies, including for allegedly refusing to turn over some of the papers. But after Mr. Trump won the election in November, then-special counsel Jack Smith removed him from the case due to Justice Department policy against prosecuting a sitting president.
NARA referred all requests for comment to the White House.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-fires-archivist-of-the-united-states-colleen-shogan/
ICYMI: Illegal migrant deportation protestors getting violent
https://x.com/CitizenFreePres/status/1888095386553741696
The Downfall of Ibram X. Kendi: Exposed As Racist Fraud
After the 2020 death of George Floyd, the former Boston University professor became America’s race guru.
Every era has its grifters, gurus, quacks, and frauds. This is an American tradition, from the snake oil salesmen to the pyramid-schemers to the New Age prophets of the twentieth century. One might be tempted to dismiss them as ethically compromised men, duping the gullible for personal benefit, but they’re something more than that: symbols of each generation’s hopes and anxieties.
The past decade’s examples, who sold us on critical race theory, transgender medicine, and other insanities, are no different. Some Americans wanted to absolve themselves of guilt about race and sexuality and liberate themselves from the shackles of history and biology. Prudent observers could have warned them about the impossibility of this enterprise, but the gurus had, for a time, seemingly unstoppable momentum.
The most significant was Boston University professor Ibram X. Kendi. After the 2020 death of George Floyd, Kendi became America’s race guru, selling books, delivering speeches, lecturing corporations, advising politicians, and everywhere preaching the new gospel of “antiracism.” His key idea was that institutions must practice “antiracist discrimination” in favor of blacks and other minorities to make up for past “racist discrimination.” His ideology was rudimentary critical race theory, his agenda rudimentary DEI.
The press heralded Kendi as a genius, scholar, and the moral voice of the Black Lives Matter era. In 2021, the New York Times was particularly fawning, publishing uncritical fare like “Ibram X. Kendi Likes to Read at Bedtime,” an article about his reading habits. “You’re at the forefront of a recent wave of authors combating racism through active, sustained antiracism,” the Times opined. “Do you count any books as comfort reads, or guilty pleasures?”
Kendi cashed in. The professor signed a lucrative Netflix contract and switched to designer clothes. He secured $55 million for his “Center on Antiracist Research” at Boston University, which promised to engage in scholarship and activism.
It all ended in calamity. As the country emerged from BLM-induced mania, journalists began to cast a more critical eye on Kendi and his work. The conservative press circulated embarrassing clips, including one in which Kendi could not define the word “racism” without deploying circular logic. By 2024, the New York Times, no longer interested in his nighttime reading routine, exposed the professor’s shallow ideology and raised questions about his leadership at the research center.
The reality was uncomfortable for Kendi’s cheerleaders. The smarter critics, pushed aside during the BLM era, always knew that he was a lightweight. The Center for Antiracist Research produced almost no research, despite millions in funding and dozens of full-time staff. When Kendi was confronted with the evidence, he lashed out in signature fashion, blaming “[r]acist ideas” for the negative coverage.
A market for black radicalism has long existed in America. Kendi was never a creative exponent of that line of thought, whatever its merits. Considered against more substantial figures like W. E. B. DuBois, Malcolm X, James Baldwin, or even Angela Davis, Kendi seems shallow. His bedtime stories and picture books—Antiracist Baby, Goodnight Racism—would embarrass even a middling intellectual. His “adult" books are only slightly less vapid.
The problem is not really Ibram Kendi, though, but the broader, predominantly white progressive Left, which, in the wake of George Floyd’s death, was desperate to find someone who would lecture them about “systemic racism” and instruct them how to “do the work” of healing themselves. They frantically searched through the catalog of black academics and, through some unknown combination of bad luck and human error, selected Kendi, the soft-spoken professor, as their racism whisperer. In that sense, white “antiracists” set Kendi up for failure. He was not capable of leading the nation through a “racial reckoning,” nor of managing $50 million in charitable donations. When this reality became undeniable and Kendi became a liability, the progressive machine cut him loose.
Last week, Boston University announced that Kendi would be decamping to Howard University and that his Center for Antiracist Research would close—the proverbial house of cards collapsing. Kendi will no doubt find a receptive audience at Howard, but he will no longer enjoy the unqualified adoration of America’s prestige institutions, or be asked to lead “privilege walks” at Fortune 100 corporate retreats. He will, in time, be seen as another American guru who failed to deliver—a symbol of the furious, destructive passions of the BLM era.