Squatters Accused of Killing NYC Homeowner, Stuffing Body in Duffle Bag

Luis Cornelio
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Squatters Accused of Killing NYC Homeowner, Stuffing Body in Duffle Bag

(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Two squatters allegedly murdered a homeowner who discovered them living inside her upscale New York City apartment upon returning from months abroad, the NYPD announced on Thursday. 

Nadia Vitels’s body was discovered on March 14, stuffed inside a duffel bag, showing visible signs of blunt force trauma, police said.

According to ABC 7 Eyewitness News, Vitels sustained blunt force trauma to the head, facial fractures and two broken ribs.

Vitels had recently returned to the U.S. after a stint in Spain. Upon her arrival at her apartment, previously owned by her late mother, she reportedly made the grim discovery: a man and a woman had taken over the residence.

“We believe that some squatters took the apartment over and this woman came home … and walked in on the squatters that were there,” NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny said. 

Vitels’s 19-year-old son, Michael Medvedev, found her body after growing concerned when he hadn’t heard from her for two days.

“As they’re getting ready to leave, the son opens up the closet door near the front door and discovers the duffel bag with a foot sticking out,” Kenny said, describing the gruesome discovery.

Video footage depicted two law enforcement officials transporting Vitel’s body in a body bag atop a stretcher.  

The NYPD mentioned that these individuals were captured on security footage and are currently being pursued. 

The alleged culprits fled the apartment in the murdered woman’s Lexus SUV, crossing the George Washington Bridge from New York, ultimately making their way to New Jersey and then Pennsylvania. 

The individuals reportedly crashed the SUV in Lower Paxton Township, Pennsylvania. Local law enforcement in the area alerted New York authorities a day later. 

The duo purportedly attempted to purchase a vehicle for $1,000 in Pennsylvania. 

ABC 7 reported that the apartment lacks a front door and access is via an elevator, typical of higher-end apartments. 

Alumni, Students of ‘Catholic’ College Push Back Against Marxist Infiltration

Dmytro "Henry" Aleksandrov
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Alumni, Students of ‘Catholic’ College Push Back Against Marxist Infiltration

(Dmytro “Henry” Aleksandrov, Headline USA) A group of Saint Mary’s College (SMC) affiliates decided to take back their school from the far-left administration who completely abandoned the teachings of the Catholic faith.

A letter that the college administration received on March 19, 2024, came after the Catholic-in-name-only college in South Bend, Ind., announced and then retracted its new policy to admit males who falsely claim to be female, according to the College Fix.

In the letter, the group identified some things that could be improved after discussing the takeover of SMC by Marxists with students, alumni and parents.

One of those things could be a simple hiring test that even President Kate Conboy couldn’t pass — defining what a woman is.

Among other things that could be done to clean up the institution, according to them, is increasing the number of professors who are Catholic by requiring every professor to take the Oath Against Modernism, a pledge to affirm the teachings of the Catholic Church.

The petitioners also said that the college’s curriculum needs to be radically changed. They specifically mentioned SMC’s general education curriculum, the Sophia Program, which has twice as many “gender” studies classes as it does religion classes.

The petitioners said that the college doesn’t belong to Conboy or professors who push anti-Catholic views.

“This college belongs to women. This college belongs to the Catholic Church,” they wrote.

The authors of the letter also didn’t hesitate to criticize Conboy specifically, calling her “the most anti-Catholic president in the history of SMC” and saying that “Catholicism interferes with [her] agenda.”

“Get the college on the right path starting with new leadership. Invest in the faithful. Encourage those without faith to see examples of Catholic leadership and faith in action. Hire faculty and leaders who will fight for and defend women and our Catholic faith. You have the chance to be heroes and heroines,” they wrote.

They also added that the mission of SMC will never be abandoned.

“Please do NOT fail us. We know the 180-year-old mission of SMC. It will not be abandoned but will be championed because of those who fought before us. We will continue to press on until we see our beloved SMC restored to the best college for women in the nation,” they wrote.

SELLERS: Yes, Fartsy McFangFang, Impeachment IS Dead, but Your Reasons Are Wrong

Ben Sellers
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SELLERS: Yes, Fartsy McFangFang, Impeachment IS Dead, but Your Reasons Are Wrong

(Ben Sellers, Headline USA) The spontaneous fecklessness of Hunter Biden in backing out of his requested public hearing on Wednesday did not leave it for want of over-the-top grandstanding, most of which came from Democrats desperate to deflect from the issue at hand.

Reps. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla.; Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas; Jamie Raskin, D-Md.; Alexandria Ocasio–Cortez, D-N.Y., and Eric Swalwell, D-Calif. were among those beclowning themselves before the cameras in a bid to preempt any of the adverse information that could potentially make the evening news’s highlight reels—or, more importantly, the “trending” charts on social media.

Truth be told, their instincts weren’t wrong. In a news cycle teeming with issues of the utmost urgency, most of which revolve around Donald Trump, news about Joe Biden and his years-old corruption scandals simply seems a bit anticlimactic.

Perhaps, as some Democrats observed, the methodical approach taken by House Republicans—whose investigation hinged on ignoring the fact that a laptop full of damning evidence had already spoiled all of their major bombshells—was always doomed to be an exercise in futility.

Leading left-wing intellectuals, such as the Meiselas brothers and social-media influencer Harry Sisson, delighted in Moskowitz’s “brilliant” soundbyte moment of attempting to “flip the script” on Oversight Chair James Comer, R-Ky., and Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, by offering to file a motion for impeachment on the spot.

“I want to, with my last couple minutes, show the American people that they’re never going to impeach Joe Biden,” he said. “It’s never going to happen because they don’t have the evidence, OK? This is a show. It’s all fake.”

Gutsy move, knowing that an entire smoking arsenal of evidence would not change the outcome—unless voting to remove Biden from office suddenly became a political imperative for depraved Democrats and their deep-state allies, in order either to retain or expand their stranglehold on power.

Such a possibility, of course, doesn’t seem so far afield if a viable alternative in the presidential race were suddenly to emerge to replace the deeply unpopular incumbent.

However, Moskowitz’s point is taken: If impeachment—and, by extension, conviction—were the only meaningful outcome of such an investigation, it would be as much an utter waste of time and resources to proceed, with only eight months left until voters get to decide, as, say, sending more money to finance Ukraine’s ongoing territorial dispute with Russia.

Instead, it would be far better to have Jordan, Comer, Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Byron Donalds of Florida and other GOP heavyweights on the two committees hitting the campaign trail to focus on protecting and rebuilding the anemic House majority.

Or they might spend their time reading the newly proposed $1.2 trillion appropriations bill and readying for battle, if necessary, over what looks to be the biggest pile of pork ever shoved down Americans’ throats without going to Iowa.

There are reasons, on the other hand, for Comer, Jordan and company to proceed with their work—notably the pursuit of criminal referrals that would carry into a potential Trump term, when members of Biden’s inner circle might, for once, truly be held accountable.

The knowledge of that sword of Damocles dangling over not just his own head but his son’s and other family members’—and the possibility that his failure to win reelection could render him impotent to shield them from real consequences—might be the psychological straw that broke the 81-year-old dictator.

So, ready the airtight case indeed, gents, but spare the slow drip of water-torturous reveals that all blur together and leave media-consumers with an unending sense of déjà vu.

In a rare moment of lucidity, Swalwell, the notorious Chinese honeypot mark and network-news gas-spewer, hit a shot across the bow by pointing out that not even Fox News was picking up Wednesday’s hearing.

“In fact, one of their anchors, as they broke away, said, ‘This is the same hearing over and over and over,'” Swalwell observed. “At what point are you going to gonna fish or cut bait?”

But while he offered his own list of 10 reasons why the Biden impeachment was “dead,” most were totally off the mark.

Here is, in fact, the actual list of reasons it’s time for the GOP to move on from impeachment:

10. It can’t clear the Senate. They would be lucky if Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., even brought it to the Floor.

9. It might not clear the House. Sadly, when there is talk of RINOs resigning to give Democrats the majority, that means there are a few who won’t vote for impeachment no matter the evidence, especially if it is a lost cause.

8. It’s a waste of money. Frankly, most every lead that Comer and Jordan are setting out to prove has likely already been proven by the laptop. Is there anything that perusing hundreds more emails and bank records is going to elucidate that we don’t already know? If it helps build a case, then great. However, it does not make for great television anymore, so save it all and release a final bombshell report covering all the salient points that folks may have missed or forgotten in one fell swoop.

7. It’s a waste of time. With the clock ticking, there are too many other priorities, even in terms of oversight. Consider the promises that arose from the Weaponization Subcommittee (an offshoot of the Judiciary Committee) about how it was going to begin holding the deep state accountable. Its failure to do so has, no doubt, emboldened permanent Washington even further. Moreover, as Democrats pointed out, Republicans succeeded in impeaching Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas but have yet to send it to the Senate, likely because it would only languish there if they did.

6. SCOTUS has better things to do. As Congress grows increasingly performative and interested in conducting oversight through public tribunal, the high court has grown more activist and, by default, obligated to legislate. They are carrying a heavy load on their upcoming docket with several cases that involve free speech in the modern era, as well as many others tied to the upcoming election. The idea of pulling Chief Justice John Roberts off the bench for yet another impeachment trial seems a bit preposterous when one weighs the relative importance of his priorities.

5. It’s politically risky. The GOP must never forget the lessons of 1998, when the impeachment backlash cost congressional seats in spite of the incontrovertible “evidence” that Bill Clinton had lied to the faces of the American public. Perhaps they just didn’t want to have Al Gore take over for the charmingly charismatic yet pathological equivocator—who did, in fairness, preside over the only balanced budgets many of us have seen or ever will in our lifetimes. Would the GOP take the hit again over Biden? With no seats to spare in the House and cautious optimism about the Senate political map, it isn’t worth finding out.

4. The American public will have the opportunity to remove Biden from office soon enough. It’s true that his presidency is an unmitigated disaster, but early removal does not, in this case, present any actual remedy. The damage is already done. And the fact is, few people think Biden has been running the country to begin with, so at best it would be a symbolic victory.

3. Criminal referrals would be more effective. Call it what you will, but if Trump succeeds in defying all odds amid the gauntlet of lawfare attacks and vote-fraud schemes, plus whatever else may be in store for the summer, vengeance will not only be his mandate but his obligation. Adam Smith wrote that “mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent,” and the egregious attacks waged by bad-faith actors on the Left have been an affront not only to Trump but to all stakeholders in the institutions that they have undermined and destabilized in the process. What an opening salvo it would be to have the criminal referrals ready and waiting for Joe Biden and his leading co-conspirators, all standing trial in a grand-scale RICO case that mirrors everything Jack Smith, Fani Willis and Letitia James have undertaken against his predecessor.

2. Getting rid of Biden would do Democrats a favor. Biden just became the first incumbent president since Jimmy Carter to lose a primary race. But to borrow liberally the famous line from Lloyd Bentsen, political neophyte Jason Palmer, the victor in American Samoa, is no Teddy Kennedy. Nor is the rage-a-holic Biden anything like the saintly Carter. In fact, his approval rating is 5% lower than Carter’s was before one of the biggest electoral bloodbaths in modern American history. Why should the GOP do all the heavy lifting and solve the Democrat National Committee’s Biden problem for them?

1. KAMALA WOULD BE PRESIDENT. Full stop.

Ben Sellers is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/realbensellers.

Nasty ‘Newcomers’: Footage Shows 100s of Illegals Stampeding Texas Guard

Luis Cornelio
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Nasty ‘Newcomers’: Footage Shows 100s of Illegals Stampeding Texas Guard

(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Harrowing video footage captured the moment when a large group of illegal aliens broke through a border fence, nearly trampling over a group of Texas National Guards blocking their illegal entry into the U.S. 

The video, recorded by the New York Post on Thursday, depicted hundreds of illegal aliens, mostly men, raising their arms and pushing the guardsmen through the first set of razor-wire fencing. 

The footage exposed the illegal aliens fighting with the guardsmen over the wire, which seemed to have been broken moments before.

The guardsmen attempted to regain control by lining up across from the illegal aliens, but their efforts proved unsuccessful. 

Overpowering the guardsmen, the illegal aliens ran toward another section of the border wall, where they encountered more Texas servicemen. 

“Watch it! Watch it!” a guardsman shouted to another as the illegal aliens breached the fence. 

“Please, they’re hitting us,” a man with a Venezuelan accent is heard saying in Spanish to an agent across the second fence. It isn’t immediately clear whom he was referring to: the human smugglers, drug cartels or other illegal aliens. 

“Get the f*ck back,” a guardsman shouted, as the rowdy group of illegal aliens pleaded, “Help! Help,” in Spanish. 

Jennie Taer, the Post reporter who captured the video, described the scene as “absolute chaos.”  

Bill Melugin, a Fox News correspondent, confirmed through Texas sources that the group consisted of “several hundred illegal aliens,” most of whom were single adults. 

At least one individual was arrested for assaulting a soldier, with more arrests imminent, reported Melugin on Twitter.

The video garnered millions of views on Twitter, including reactions from lawmakers and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., who blamed the Biden administration for the border chaos.

The rampant illegal immigration has led critics to label the illegal aliens as “newcomers,” as the Biden administration has slowed the deportation process. 

Highlighting the gravity of the issue, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas faced historic impeachment by the House of Representatives, marking the first time a cabinet member had faced such an embarrassment since 1876. 

At the crux of the impeachment were rampant illegal immigration and Mayorkas’s misleading claims before Congress that the southern border was secured.

Some of the newly arrived illegal aliens have been accused of carrying out high-profile crimes, such as the brutal murder of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley, rape and other sex crimes, the attempted murder of police officers, brutal beating of two NYPD officers, pickpocketing and other theft across the country. 

Another Red State Plans Texas-Style Law to Arrest, Deport Illegals

Dmytro "Henry" Aleksandrov
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Another Red State Plans Texas-Style Law to Arrest, Deport Illegals

(Dmytro “Henry” Aleksandrov, Headline USA) Iowa decided to move forward with a bill that would allow local police to arrest illegal aliens inside the state who had previously been deported.

According to the text of the bill, Senate Bill 2340, entering or re-entering the state as an illegal is a crime if he or she has previously been deported or denied admission to the United States, according to Fox News.

As of March 21, 2024, the bill has passed the Senate and the House and now heads to Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds’s desk for signature. Reynolds said she would sign the bill, which would take effect in July of the same year.

“President Biden and his administration have failed to enforce our immigration laws and, in doing so, have compromised the sovereignty of our nation and the safety of its people. States have stepped in to secure the border, preventing illegal migrants from entering our country and protecting our citizens. Americans deserve nothing less,” she said.

The Iowa bill is just one of the laws bills moving through state legislatures, with the states of New Hampshire, Tennessee and Oklahoma proposing similar bills to crack down on illegal immigration.

However, the most famous bill of that kind is S.B. 4 which was signed by Gov. Greg Abbott, R-Texas, into law in December of last year, allowing police to arrest illegals and for judges to order them deported.

In January 2024, the Biden administration sued the state, arguing that the law encroaches into federal territory and citing a 2012 Supreme Court ruling that shut down parts of an Arizona law that sought to empower state and local officials, the news source reported.

“S.B. 4 will not only make communities in Texas less safe, it will also burden law enforcement and sow chaos and confusion at our southern border. S.B. 4 is just another example of Republican officials politicizing the border while blocking real solutions,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.

James May Seize Mar-a-Lago to Pay $454M Fine after Pushing Fake $18M Assessment

Luis Cornelio
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James May Seize Mar-a-Lago to Pay $454M Fine after Pushing Fake $18M Assessment

(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) New York Attorney General Letitia James could seize Mar-a-Lago and sell it to the staggering $464 million civil judgment against former President Donald Trump. However, this proposed action raises eyebrows due to a stark contrast in valuation figures presented during the civil case. 

A CNN segment suggested on Wednesday that Mar-a-Lago could sell for approximately $240 million, nearly half of the civil penalty. Yet, during the trial, Manhattan Judge Arthur Engoron cited a Palm Beach assessor’s baffling valuation of the Florida-based country club at a mere $18 million. 

In contrast, Bess Freedman, CEO of luxury real estate firm Brown Harris Stevens, asserted on CNN that Mar-a-Lago could be “quickly” sold for “hundreds of millions” of dollars.

Even more telling was Freedman’s assessment of properties nearby Mar-a-Lago. “There could be plenty of international people who want to buy that property,” she added. “There are properties that are priced at $150, $200 million that are nearby that. Palm Beach is like the Invidia [envy] of real estate. It just shot up like a rocket.”

Freedman’s insights quickly gained the attention of conservatives on Twitter, who used them to scold Engoron’s ruling, which supported James’s allegations of Trump inflating Mar-a-Lago’s value. 

The legal battle began after James, a Democrat, initiated an investigation into Trump’s alleged inflation of his properties’ values to secure favorable loans and other financial perks.

Engoron, a left-leaning Democrat, concurred with James’s assertions, resulting in a $355 million judgment, which has increased to $454 million because of interests. 

The lack of a clear victim in the case, as Trump has reportedly repaid the loans with interest, has fueled growing concerns of a political witch-hunt by James. She campaigned for attorney general on the pledge to go after Trump and his business dealings if elected.

With Trump thus far unable to meet the hefty fine, James is preparing to seize some of his properties, including the Trump National Golf Club Westchester in New York’s Westchester County and the 212-acre Seven Springs estate.

Trump faces a deadline of March 25 to post a bond covering approximately 120 percent of the fine ($464 million) as he appeals the civil fine, according to Bloomberg. 

SCOTUS Rules for Man Put on Terror Watchlist for Refusing to Spy for FBI

Ken Silva
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SCOTUS Rules for Man Put on Terror Watchlist for Refusing to Spy for FBI

(Ken Silva, Headline USA) The Supreme Court unanimously ruled in favor this week in favor of a man whom the FBI put on the terrorist watchlist after he refused to become an informant.

SCOTUS’s Tuesday decision means that the government must explain why it put the man, U.S. citizen and Sudanese émigré Yonas Fikre, on the watchlist in the first place.

The decison stems from when Fikre traveled from his home in Portland, Oregon to Sudan in 2009 to pursue business opportunities there. At a visit to the U. S. embassy, two FBI agents informed Fikre that he could not return to the United States because the government had placed him on the No Fly List, according to SCOTUS’s decision.

“The agents questioned him extensively about the Portland mosque he attended, and they offered to take steps to remove him from the No Fly List if he agreed to become an FBI informant and to report on other members of his religious community,” SCOTUS said in its decision. “Mr. Fikre refused.”

And when Fikre went to fly home, he was detained him for 106 days in the United Arab Emirates at the behest of the FBI.

Fikre wound up in Sweden, from where he filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government.

During the litigation, the government took him off the No Fly List in 2016. Government then sought a dismissal of Fikre’s lawsuit on the grounds that he was no longer on the watchlist.

However, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals eventually ruled that the government must show that its conduct can’t “reasonably be expected to recur.” Responding to that order, the government submitted a declaration asserting that, based on the currently available information, Fikre would not be placed on the No Fly List in the future.

But that still wasn’t good enough. As the lawsuit made its way back through the court system, the Ninth Circuit further ruled that the government failed to meet its burden because its declaration did not disclose the conduct that landed Fikre on the No Fly List. Nor did it ensure that he would not be placed back on the list for engaging in the same or similar conduct in the future.

The government appealed that order to SCOTUS, which ruled in favor of Fikre on Tuesday.

“The government’s representation that it will not relist Mr. Fikre based on ‘currently available information’ may mean that his past actions are not enough to warrant his relisting. But, as the court of appeals observed, none of that speaks to whether the government might relist him if he does the same or similar things in the future—say, attend a particular mosque or refuse renewed overtures to serve as an informant,” wrote Justice Neil Gorsuch in the decision.

“Put simply, the government’s sparse declaration falls short of demonstrating that it cannot reasonably be expected to do again in the future what it is alleged to have done in the past.”

Fikre’s lawsuit was remanded to the lower courts for further litigation.

Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.

‘MAGA Mike’ Gets 1-Yr Defunding of UN’s Hamas Arm in $1.2T McCarthyesque Fold

Editor 1
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‘MAGA Mike’ Gets 1-Yr Defunding of UN’s Hamas Arm in $1.2T McCarthyesque Fold

(Headline USA) Congressional leaders from both parties looked to put a positive light on a $1.2 trillion spending package that lawmakers are working to approve before funding expires at midnight Friday for a host of key government agencies.

But for fiscal conservatives, it was likely to be a hard sell, leaving some to wonder why they even bothered swapping out ineffective RINO leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., for current House Speaker Mike Johnson, a relative outsider to the D.C. cocktail-party scene who was less likely to be pressured by Democrats into cutting a deal that undermined the Republican agenda.

In fairness, Johnson’s ever-waning GOP majority—which some even fear may fall underfoot to a plot by anti-Trumpists to deliver Democrats control before the 2024 election—has given him even less to work with than the anemic margin that often left McCarthy’s efforts at an impasse.

Whether they will be forgiving of the new speaker or attempt, once again, to invoke a politically risky motion to vacate, which could result in election-year chaos, remains to be seen.

Text of the legislation had not been released as of Wednesday afternoon, but lawmakers and aides were expecting an official unveiling early Thursday.

The package, which is expected to pass, will wrap up Congress’s work on spending bills for the year—nearly six months after the fiscal year began.

This year’s dozen spending bills were packed into two packages. The first one cleared Congress two weeks ago, just hours before a shutdown deadline for the agencies funded through the bills.

Now Congress is focused on the second, larger package, which includes about $886 billion for defense, about a 3% increase from last year’s levels.

The bill also funds the Departments of Homeland Security, Health and Human Services, Labor and others, with non-defense spending expected to be relatively flat compared to the prior year.

Leaders worked to sell the package to members.

In a closed-door meeting with GOP lawmakers in the morning, Johnson described a few of the policy changes that House Republicans were able to secure in the latest negotiations.

Those included a prohibition on funding for a United Nations relief program for Palestinian refugees that extends through March 2025.

Johnson also noted the bill funds 8,000 additional detention beds for noncitizens awaiting their immigration proceedings or removal from the country, a measure that will do little to avert the massive influx under the Biden administration’s open borders.

Nonetheless, Johnson touted it as a success under the current circumstances.

“The Homeland [Security] piece was the most difficult to negotiate because the two parties have a wide chasm between them,” Johnson said at the GOP leadership’s weekly press conference. “I think the final product is something that we were able to achieve a lot of key provisions in, and wins, and it moved in a direction that we want even with our tiny, historically small majority.”

The House was expected to vote on the second package on Friday, giving lawmakers only a day to examine the legislation and, in doing so, bypassing a House rule that calls for giving lawmakers 72 hours to review major legislation before having to vote on it.

That was riling some House Republicans, but following the rule would surely invite some lapse in federal funding, even if just for a day or so, for several key federal agencies.

Once the bill passes the House, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. said he will put it on the Senate floor.

“Even with bipartisanship, it’s going to be a tight squeeze to get this funding package before the weekend deadline,” Schumer said.

Democrats celebrated staving off the vast majority of policy mandates Republicans had sought to include in the spending bills, such as restricting access to the abortion pill mifepristone or banning life-altering sex-change surgeries for minors.

“We’re exactly in the position that we knew we were going to end up,” said Rep. Pete Aguilar D-Calif. “We knew that House Democrats, Senate Democrats, Senate Republicans and the White House weren’t going to tolerate any significant harmful cuts and crazy policy riders.”

The spending in the bill largely tracks with an agreement that McCarthy worked out with the White House in May 2023, which restricted spending for two years and suspended the debt ceiling into January 2025 so the federal government could continue paying its bills.

“We have had to stick to some difficult toplines and fight off literally hundreds of Republican poison pills, not to mention some really harsh, almost unthinkable, cuts proposed by House Republicans,” said Sen. Patty Murray, the Democratic chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee. “But now we have a good, bipartisan bill that protects absolutely essential investments in the American people.”

McCarthy was ousted from the speaker’s role a few months after securing the debt ceiling deal. Eight Republicans ended up joining with Democrats in removing McCarthy as speaker. And some of those unhappy with that debt ceiling deal also expressed misgivings about the latest package.

Johnson was expected to bring the bill up for a vote through a streamlined process that required two-thirds support for the bill to pass. The earlier spending package passed by a vote of 339-85 with Republicans providing all but two of the no votes.

“If this bill sits out for two weeks, it will get pilloried like a pinata,” said Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas. “So they want to jam it through over the next 48 hours.”

“I hope there will be some modest wins,” said Rep. Bob Good, R-Va. “Unfortunately, I don’t expect that we will get much in the way of significant policy wins based on past history and based on our unwillingness to do use any kind of leverage to force policy wins, meaning a willingness to walk away and say no.”

One of the changes Johnson touted for members was prohibiting—through March 2025—funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency after Israel alleged that a dozen employees of the agency were involved in the attack that Hamas conducted in Israel on Oct. 7.

The U.S. is the biggest donor to the agency, providing it with about $364 million in 2022 and $371 million in 2023. After Israel made its allegations, the Biden administration paused funding for the agency. Republicans seek a more lasting prohibition.

But the prohibition does concern some lawmakers on the left because many relief agencies say there is no way to replace its ability to deliver the humanitarian assistance that the United States and others are trying to send to Gaza, where a quarter of the 2.3 million residents are starving.

A newly released poll showed that more than 70% of Palestinians in Gaza approved of the Oct. 7 terrorist massacre that prompted Israel’s current military response. Moreover, many have expressed their ingratitude for the relief drops, complaining they don’t like the food.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., said in a recent speech on the Senate floor that any individual who participated in the Oct. 7 attack must be held responsible. But not innocent civilians.

“Punish the 14. Don’t punish 2 million innocent Gazans,” Van Hollen said.

But House Republicans said the agency was “part of the problem” that Israel is confronting, offering aid and comfort to the terrorists and using their mission to normalize the radical ideology it represents while whitewashing the atrocities it commits.

About three dozen wrote Appropriations Committee members saying, “in light of UNRWA’s record of troublesome allegations and disturbing revelations since Hamas’s October 7 terrorist attack on Israel, we believe that going forward no further U.S. taxpayer funds can be given to the agency.”

Johnson also touted to colleagues a 6% cut to foreign aid programs and only allowing the American flag to be flown over U.S. diplomatic facilities as wins, according to a Republican congressional aid not authorized to speak publicly.

Under the Biden administration, U.S. embassies have been invited to fly the pride flag or light up with rainbow colors in support of the LGBT community, oftentimes projecting an image of weakness or insulting values abroad that are unwelcome in other parts of the world.

Johnson said that after the spending package passed, the House would next turn its attention to a bill that focuses on aiding Ukraine and Israel, though lawmakers are scheduled to be away from Washington for the next two weeks.

The Senate previously approved a $95.3 billion aid package for Ukraine, along with a smaller pittance for Israel and Taiwan, but Johnson declined to bring that up for a vote, saying that Congress must first address its own border security needs.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

Satanist Kyle Spitze Pleads Not Guilty to Distributing Sadistic Child Porn

Ken Silva
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Satanist Kyle Spitze Pleads Not Guilty to Distributing Sadistic Child Porn

(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Knoxville man Kyle Spitze, a member of the Satanic pedophile cult 764, pled not guilty to a slew of child pornography charges Thursday at his initial appearance in federal court.

According to a grand jury indictment docketed on Wednesday, Spitze faces three charges of production of child pornography, one count of enticement, three counts of distribution of animal crushing videos, and one charge of possession of and access with intent to view child pornography.

The animal crushing charges relate to videos of decapitated chickens, including one with “its entrails spelling out ‘crim,’” the indictment said.

The court docket indicates that the Justice Department has yet to offer Spitze a plea deal. Such a deal would be due by April 26, as per a judge’s order. Otherwise, Spitze is set to stand trial May 28.

Spitze was arrested last month. A partially unsealed affidavit from FBI agent Jason Stewart stated that the bureau executed a search warrant on Spitze’s phone on Feb. 10. Headline USA understands that Spitze was hospitalized that time after he recorded a video of his mother’s dead body and posted it online—a bizarre series of events reported by this publication on Feb. 3.

According to the FBI affidavit, investigators found “albums” on Spitze’s phone that contained violent and sexual content.

“One album was labeled with the name of Minor Victim 1 (hereafter MV1). In MV1’s folder were approximately 16 images and 4 videos,” the affidavit said, explaining that the images were child pornography.

The affidavit further stated that metadata from Spitze’s phone gave the geolocation of where one of his victims recorded a video. The FBI was able to track down the victim, notify the parents, and interview her on Feb. 20.

The victim told the FBI that Spitze operated under the name “criminal” on Discord and Telegram.

The FBI also located Spitze’s Telegram account, which he used under the name “criminal.”

“In the Telegram application were messages between ‘criminal’ and MV1 between January 29, 2024, and February 5, 2024. MV1 sent a message saying, ‘kyle.’ Seven days later ‘criminal’ replied, ‘leave me alone [MV1’s name],” the affidavit said.

The remainder of the affidavit is sealed, as is the FBI’s affidavit for a search warrant.

Spitze’s not guilty plea comes a day after one of his fellow Satanists, Kierre “MK Ultra” Cutler, was sentenced to 87 months imprisonment for the charge of distributing child pornography that he pled guilty to last October.

The judge who handed down the sentence said, “This is one of the most disturbing cases I’ve seen.”

“He clearly needs a lot of help, but I don’t know what to do with someone like this. This feels like he can become utterly dangerous,” the judge said, referencing Cutler’s sealed presentence report, which apparently says that he threatened to kill his mother.

Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.

Reddit Makes Stock-Market Debut w/ IPO at $34 per Share amid Strong Demand

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Reddit Makes Stock-Market Debut w/ IPO at $34 per Share amid Strong Demand

(Headline USA) Reddit will enter a new era as a publicly traded company with a market value of $6.4 billion after the social-media platform’s initial public offering was priced at $34 per share.

The price announced late Wednesday came in at the top end of the target range set by Reddit’s investment bankers as they spent the past few weeks gauging investor demand for the stock.

It sets the stage for Reddit’s shares to begin trading Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “RDDT” in a debut likely to spur a flurry of commentary on Reddit’s own platform, as well as competing social media outlets.

The interest surrounding Reddit stems largely from a large audience that religiously visits the service to discuss a potpourri of subjects that range from silly memes to existential worries, as well as to get recommendations from like-minded people.

By tech industry’s standards though, Reddit remains extraordinarily small for a company that has been around since 2005.

Meta Platforms—whose biggest social media service Facebook was started just 18 months earlier than Reddit—boasts a market value of more than $1.2 trillion. Meta also generates annual revenue of $135 billion, while Reddit’s remains below $1 billion.

And then there is this problem: Reddit has never profited from its broad reach, while piling up cumulative losses of $717 million. That number has swollen from cumulative losses of $467 million in December 2021, when the company first filed papers to go public before aborting that attempt.

In the documents filed for its revived IPO, Reddit attributed the losses to a fairly recent focus on finding new ways to boost revenue.

But Reddit will now have more money in the bank to finance its ambitions to expand its influence and reel in more revenue in the process.

The IPO raised about $748 million, including about $228 million for Reddit shareholders who opted to sell some of their stock.

Another $519 million is earmarked for Reddit, but the San Francisco-based company won’t receive all that money because it still has to pay commissions and other costs associated with the offering. Bankers still have a 30-day window to sell another 3.3 million shares that would raise an additional $112 million, before deducting commissions and fees.

Reddit set aside up to 1.76 million of the 15.3 million shares being offered in the IPO for users of its platform. Per the usual IPO custom, the remaining shares were bought primarily by mutual funds and other institutional investors betting Reddit is ready for prime time in finance.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

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