Feds Call Parents Who Oppose ‘Trans’ Agenda Potentially Abusive

(Dmytro “Henry” Aleksandrov, Headline USA) A document revealed that a federally funded “home visiting” program advised service providers to watch for signs of abuse against “gender-diverse children,” using parents who oppose the “transgender” ideology by denying their child to cross-dress as an example.

The Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting [MIECHV] Program released guidance for government workers who visit homes at the request of families, in which the MIECHV categorized steering a child away from “gender expression” that does not correspond with his or her biological sex as abuse, according to the Daily Caller.

For example, the document “Parental Acceptance of Gender Expression in Young Children” informed home visitors it is important for them to “recognize and address the abuse and neglect that may result, either directly or indirectly, from rejection of a child’s gender expression.”

“Gender-diverse children are frequently the targets of violence or harm — by other children, caregivers, or family members,” the document said.

While the document additionally claimed that accepting a child’s “gender expression” can “protect against depression, suicidal thoughts, and suicidal attempts,” studies from different scientists and doctors indicated the opposite result, saying that LGBT activists may actually drive the confused children to suicide.

“It is insane to vilify parents simply for wanting their gender-confused children to feel comfortable in their own bodies. If anyone is guilty of abuse, it is the gender ideologues who feed kids the pernicious lie that they can somehow change their sex, setting them on a pathway to destructive body modifications,” American Principles Project president Terry Schilling said.

In addition to that, he said that this is “just the latest chilling example of the Biden administration’s war on families.”

“We are rapidly headed down a road where every parent in this country who opposes the transgender agenda risks losing custody of their kids. The grave threat to families posed by this administration cannot be ignored. Pro-family Americans must fight it at every turn: in Congress and the state legislatures, in the courts, and most importantly, at the ballot box next year,” Schilling said.

Former NFL Player Goes on Racist Rant Against White Players, Calls for Segregated Games

(Headline USA) Former NFL player Rashard Mendenhall went on a racist rant against white people this week, arguing that the Pro Bowl should be segregated between black and white players, WPDE reported.

Mendenhall, who played as a running ack for the Arizona Cardinals and Pittsburgh Steelers, tweeted on Monday that he was sick of “average white guys commenting” on the sport.

“Y’all not even good at football,” Mendenhall added. “Can we please replace the Pro Bowl with an All-Black vs. All-White bowl so these cats can stop trying to teach me who’s good at football.”

When critics blasted Mendenhall for promoting reverse racism, he pulled the victim card.

“Simply tired of being berated by people who arent experts in de game,” he said in the tweet, replete with typographical errors.

“We jus pretend like I’m the only athlete tired of fans talking trash?” he continued. “You dis upset over a single tweet. What about us? Like me or not, I’m a GREAT in football. This proves my point, u can’t speak on ball alone.”

Another former NFL player, future Hall of Fame defensive end JJ Watt, who is white, jokingly responded to Mendenhall’s tweet, admitting that an all-white team would “get cooked at corner,” referring to a defensive position that is largely dominated by black NFL players.

When asked why he was covering for Mendenhall’s bigoted views, Watt said he didn’t find them offensive.

“Buddy, listen… We don’t need to be offended by everything in the entire world. He said white guys can’t play football,” Watt tweeted in response

“I thought to myself ‘I’m a white guy. I’m very good at football’ and concluded that his statement had no validity,” he added. “Instead of arguing, I had some fun. End.”

Others, however, didn’t think Mendenhall’s views were entertaining.

“I said it years ago, Rashard Mendenhall needs mental help, and a lot of it,” Steelers podcast host Christopher Carter said.

“Dude has been a head case for a while,” Carter added. “Bigotry like that deserves no grace.”

Mendenhall previously provoked controversy by accusing white Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger of being overtly racist.

White House Refuses to Explain Hunter Biden Omission from Flight Manifests

(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) House Republicans requested that White House officials explain why the Marine One helicopter staff fail to record the travel of Hunter Biden on a recent return trip from the Biden family home in Delaware, Fox News reported.

Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy spotted the younger Biden on Tuesday exiting the helicopter and entering the White House with the rest of the family, despite his absence from the passenger list provided by the White House.

“So, Hunter is apparently here at the White House after defying a Congressional subpoena while being indicted and facing a maximum of 17 years behind bars on financial crimes plus another 25 on the gun charges that he is facing,” said Fox White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich.

It appears that, upon further research, Hunter’s unrecorded travel was not an isolated incident. In fact, White House staff have a nasty habit of omitting his visits and other travel as President Joe Biden and his accompanying administration attempt to distance themselves from the first son to prevent bad optics.

Press secretary Karine Jean–Pierre claimed the White House never recorded family members traveling on Marine One and did not plan to start.

“That’s something that we’ve never done,” Jean-Pierre claimed. “This is the family. The family gets to travel with the president, and that’s been the case with every other president, and so it’s not something that we have done or we would be doing moving forward.”

According to White House visitor logs, Hunter Biden has not visited since the beginning of the Biden administration, despite much evidence pointing to the contrary.

Jean–Pierre also claimed that the administration did not attempt to hiding Hunter in the White House to avoid attending fulfilling a congressional subpoena.

Previously, reports indicated that Hunter had taken up residence in the White House to avoid having to pay child support for his young daughter Navy. Hunter also hid out at one point in friend’s $500 million mansion

House Republicans subpoenaed the younger Biden as part of a probe into his overseas business dealings, requesting that he appear for a closed-door testimony. He refused to attend the hearing.

Hunter faces a maximum of 17 years in prison for his financial crimes and 25 more for three additional gun charges.

Liz Cheney Tweet Bombarded w/ Fact-Checks after Bogus Trump J6 Claims

(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) Former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., received no less than five “fact checks” on Twitter after submitting an error-laden post that desperately attempted to smear former President Donald Trump for inciting violence on Jan. 6, 2021.

Cheney posted a video of protestors clashing with police officers at the U.S. Capitol building with an accusatory caption blaming Trump for the frenzy, according to Twitchy.

“On Jan 6, Trump thought it would help him to let police officers be violently attacked, so he did,” she said in the post. “He sat in the WH dining room and watched the attack on television, refusing for hours to tell the mob to leave the Capitol. That’s depravity.”

Even though Cheney co-chaired former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s hand-picked Jan. 6 committee during her final year in office, she appeared to have learned nothing, as almost everything she claimed was demonstrably incorrect.

Despite Cheney’s best efforts to paint Trump as a sociopathic supervillain, Twitter users put the power of the Community Notes function to work and corrected Cheney on her many lies.

“Donald Trump was speaking at The Ellipse until 1:12 pm on January 6, 2021,” the first note read. “His first call to support law enforcement and be peaceful came in the form of a tweet 26 minutes later, at 1:38 pm.”

Another note listed several precise events, their concurrent times and statements by Trump and supporting staff about how the affair transpired.

The note’s author also linked Tucker Carlson’s interview with former Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund, which provided in-depth detail of the order of events on Jan 6.

According to Sund, congressional investigators did not question him about his experience.

Other Twitter users also called Cheney out on her blatant lies.

“What about the new footage of a peaceful crowd being shot with teargas and pepper spray,” one user asked. “Legitimate inquiry.”

“Why is Liz showing you an edited video?” Another user asked. “The full video shows the police pepper spraying and using rubber bullets on peaceful protestors. Liz is inciting violence, like democrats did with Floyd.”

Neighbor Throws Away Perfectly Good Dog after Owner’s Death

(Jacob Bruns, Headline USA) A Florida man put a dog in a trash bag and threw it away after its owner, and the man’s neighbor, died, the News & Observer reported.

Florida police officers discovered the dog in the trash when they noticed one of the trash bags moving.

According to Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno, the dog was found Thursday in Lehigh Acres, when a Family Dollar worker noticed movement in a trash bag in the Dumpster.

“Employees of a Family Dollar … found a trash bag inside the [D]umpster with something moving inside,” the Lee County Sheriff’s Office reported.

“Stuffed inside the bag, [was] Xyla, a 16-year-old Shih Tzu, with a rope around her neck,” it continued. “These heroic employees recognized this to be purposeful abuse and rushed Xyla to Blue Pearl Pet Hospital for evaluation.”

The dog was microchipped, and authorities discovered that the owner had died recently. But, looking to store camera footage, police traced the abuse to the owner of the SUV who could be seen on the footage dropping off the dog in the dumpster in a “bundled up trash bag.”

According to the sheriff’s office report, detectives made contact with the man “who happened to be wearing the same clothing as the suspect in the footage.”

The suspect had told family members that he was “taking Xyla to the Humane Society to be put down that day. Instead, he tried to throw her away in the [D]umpster.”

The 55-year-old has been arrested and charged with a felony for aggravated animal cruelty.

The dog “appears to be in great health,” and will soon be put up for adoption at Lee County Domestic Animal Services.

Former Ariz. Rising GOP Star Warns that Dems’ Lawfare Attacks Guarantee Blue Status

(Robert Jonathan, Headline USA) Arizona authorities are reportedly gearing up to yank the law licenses of any attorney who, in good faith, brings cases forward over election irregularities or malfeasance warned the former top prosecutor for Maricopa County.

Andrew Thomas, who held the county attorney role from 2004 to 2010, warned that lawfare was also running rampant as Democrats in power, led by George Soros-backed Gov. Katie Hobbs, seek to weaponize the legal system for partisan purposes.

With complicit support from a RINO Establishment that apparently stood by and did nothing, Thomas said Democrats had been plotting their coup d’état for at least a decade.

In fact, he may have counted himself as one of its earliest victims.

“As I watch my former state of Arizona descend further into nascent totalitarianism, I feel somewhat like a shipwreck survivor observing the vessel sinking as it takes down some of my treasured possessions with it,” he wrote in a recent post on Substack.

“I lost my law license and more in Arizona due to the same shameless machinations now engulfing the Grand Canyon State writ large,” he added. “The Left has built there a totalitarian infrastructure backed by brutal lawfare that reveals itself, with each passing day, with growing brazenness.”

Despite narrowly losing a primary bid to become state attorney general in 2010 by a margin of 899 votes, Thomas retired as county attorney that year with a bright political future ahead and plans to run in the 2014 gubernatorial election, when incumbent Republican Jan Brewer would be term-limited.

But two years after his term as county attorney ended, in 2012, Thomas and his former deputy, Lisa Aubuchon, were both disbarred by a three-member disciplinary panel of the Arizona State Supreme Court amid allegations that they had “abused their prosecutorial powers” and “launched unethical attacks on their political enemies,” the Phoenix New Times reported.

Thomas, however, contends that he was targeted because of his hardline stance on illegal immigration and political corruption.

The same fate appears to await lawyers who have challenged the ballot hocus-pocus, if not outright election fraud, that occurred in 2020 as well in 2022 in Maricopa County and elsewhere in the state.

A number of legal challenges, particularly those brought by MAGA superstar Kari Lake, the 2022 GOP gubernatorial candidate, are still pending.

Conservative commentator and attorney Rachel Alexander—who worked for Thomas and saw her own license suspended for six months as part of the sham 2012 ethics trial— penned a Townhall column on Monday that shed light on the eerie parallels between the case more than a decade ago and the now commonplace tactics being deployed against Lake and her allies to chill any attempts at challenging the dubious election outcomes.

Alexander noted that Arizona is one of handful of states that will determine who becomes the next president. However, polling data currently purporting to show Trump in the lead over Biden was meaningless, she said.

“Until patriots can defeat the lawfare that has helped turn Arizona purple, if not a lasting blue, prospects for 2024 are not nearly as positive as Trump backers would like,” Alexander contended. “If the left’s cheating in elections is enabled by the courts again, we know exactly what the results in 2024 will be.”

She went to explain that because of the long game put into place a decade ago, Soros-back leftists now control much of the legal infrastructure and can simply dispatch with those who cross them through the weaponized system.

“The left has exploited its dominance over the legal system in Arizona to take hardball to the next level, Alexander wrote. “Because they have successfully targeted the law licenses of conservative lawyers, it is nearly impossible for MAGA candidates in the state to find counsel to challenge election illegalities.”

The driving force behind it is the 65 Project—a national endeavor with ties to some of Democrats’ most ethically unsavory figures including propagandist David Brock and lawfare attack-dog Marc Elias.

The group has made its mission to target pro-Trump lawyers simply for providing due process to their political enemies. And they’ve been alarmingly successful in blue states like Michigan—and, of course, Arizona—where Soros stooges are now running the show.

Moreover, Arizona’s professional regulatory agency for lawyers, the Arizona Bar, appears to be drunk with power, Alexander implied.

It has instituted charges against Lake’s key election attorneys, including Bryan Blehm, who has admitted that that he will lose his license to practice as a result of the proceedings.

Given the machinations, Lake could end up representing herself in court (known as pro se status) if the partisan Democrat agency sidelines her legal team with frivolous ethics complaints and resulting investigations.

“Virtually all of the attorneys who questioned 2020 and 2022 election practices in Arizona have been hit with financial sanctions and State Bar investigations targeting their law licenses,” Thomas wrote in his Substack post.

Ironically, most of the cases were never adjudicated on their merit—likely because the judges themselves were either too corrupt or intimidated by the extortionist threats against them.

Instead, the vast majority of legal challenges to the election were dismissed on procedural grounds, such as lack of standing or laches—meaning the plaintiff waited too long to file the case.

“Their lawsuits went nowhere, including litigation challenging eye-popping Election Day funny business in 2022,” Thomas wrote.

This does not bode well for Election 2024 in the important swing state, Thomas—like Alexander—asserted, in a scenario where Lake is the presumptive Republican U.S. Senate nominee, along with Donald Trump as the presumptive GOP presidential nominee.

“Lake and [AG candidate Abe] Hamadeh are simultaneously continuing their legal battles to claim the state offices they sought in 2022,” Thomas wrote.

“But these are a long shot, given the difficulty of even recruiting attorneys for these suits, much less winning decisions from judges cowering before an emboldened and monied Left,” he added. “The contours of their 2024 races are no less imposing.”

John McCain-style Arizona establishment Republicans were asleep at the switch—or perhaps more concerned with maintaining their meal ticket—when far-left Democrats took control of the attorney discipline process, Thomas said.

“But arguably the most culpable figures were RINOs, the Pharisees of our time who profitably collaborated with the new totalitarianism,” he wrote.

“U.S. Senator John McCain of Arizona exemplified them best and led them ably,” he added. “…The machine he left behind (properly denounced by Lake) consisted of numerous affiliated RINO politicians, lobbyists and miscellaneous hangers-on in the shadows who’ve prospered in exchange for their fidelity.”

In late November, two Cochise County GOP supervisors who didn’t immediately certify the 2022 election results were indicted.

According to Democrat Attorney General Kris Mayes, who narrowly won a disputed election for the job over Hamadeh, “The repeated attempts to undermine our democracy are unacceptable.”

Thomas hinted that some Trump 2020 alternate electors in Arizona could wind up getting indicted in the spring.

About Arizona’s legal community in general—which has exercised its right to remain silent, as it were, about lawfare—Thomas observed that “Self-preservation still reigns supreme, as all seek to be the last devoured by the crocodiles.”

Headline USA’s Ben Sellers contributed to this report.

Report: World’s Largest AI Dataset Littered w/ Child Porn

(Ken Silva, Headline USA) A massive dataset used to power artificial intelligence models has been removed by the organization that created it due to the discovery of child pornography, according to a Thursday report from 404 Media.

Citing a study from the Stanford Internet Observatory, 404 Media reported that the LAION‐5B dataset includes thousands of illegal images—not including all of the intimate imagery published and gathered non‐consensually.

“If you have downloaded that full dataset for whatever purpose, for training a model for research purposes, then yes, you absolutely have [child porn], unless you took some extraordinary measures to stop it,” David Thiel, lead author of the study and Chief Technologist at the Stanford Internet Observatory told 404 Media.

The LAION-5B machine learning dataset, used by Stable Diffusion and other major AI products, was out of “an abundance of caution,” a LAION-5B spokesperson told 404 Media.

The LAION-5B dataset is used to train the most popular AI generation models currently on the market. It is reportedly made up of more than five billion links to images scraped from the open web, including user-generated social media platforms.

Researchers reportedly think the dataset contained child porn because it indiscriminately collected data throughout the open internet.

“Child abuse material likely got into LAION because the organization compiled the dataset using tools that scrape the web, and CSAM isn’t relegated to the realm of the ‘dark web,’ but proliferates on the open web and on many mainstream platforms,” 404 Media reported.

“In 2022, Facebook made more than 21 million reports of CSAM to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) tipline, while Instagram made 5 million reports, and Twitter made 98,050.”

Responding to the misguided notion that a few thousand child porn images won’t affect a dataset of billions, 404 Media said it’s the real-life victims who are affected most.

 “[Victims] knowing that their content is in a dataset that’s allowing a machine to create other images—which have learned from their abuse—that’s not something I think anyone would have expected to happen, but it’s clearly not a welcome development,” Dan Sexton, chief technology officer at the UK-based Internet Watch Foundation, told the outlet.

“For any child that’s been abused and their imagery circulated, excluding it anywhere on the internet, including datasets, is massive.”

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

DOJ Lawyers Doctored Medical Records in Bid to Imprison 69-Year-Old Jan. 6 Protestor, Defense Says

(Ken Silva, Headline USA) In their zeal to lock up 69-year-old Jan. 6 protestor Thomas Caldwell, Justice Department prosecutors omitted some of his medical records to make it look like Caldwell lied about the treatment he received in jail, according to his defense attorney.

Caldwell’s defense attorney, David Fischer, made this accusation Friday in a sentencing memorandum, opposing the DOJ’s bid to incarcerate his client for 14 years—what would likely be a death sentence for the disabled Navy veteran.

A judge stayed Caldwell’s sentencing this week—keeping him out of prison, for now—pending the Supreme Court’s review of a case challenging the obstruction law used to prosecute Caldwell and hundreds of other Jan. 6 defendants. But Caldwell’s lawyer still wants the DOJ to correct its lies about his client.

“The government’s sentencing Exhibit-9 purports to be a complete copy of Caldwell’s medical records from [Central Virginia Regional Jail]. These medical records, according to the government, ‘cast doubt upon [Caldwell’s] current claims’ regarding his physical disabilities,” defense attorney Fischer said in his Friday memorandum.

Fischer said he obtained a full copy of Caldwell’s CVRJ medical records in 2021, directly from CVRJ. The full copy shows that the DOJ omitted a page from the records it submitted to the court, according to Fischer.

“Interestingly, the undersigned’s copy and the government’s copy of the CVRJ records are identical with one notable exception: the government’s copy, i.e., Government Exhibit-9, is missing one page—a page that sets forth in detail which medications Caldwell received (and the dates they were administered) while at CVRJ,” the defense attorney said.

“This missing page proves that Caldwell was not provided with six of his seven prescribed medications while at CVRJ,” he added. “Respectfully, the government should retract its claim that Caldwell misled the public vis-à-vis not receiving his prescribed medications.”

According to Caldwell’s attorney, his client was prescribed Oxymorphone (Opana), Lansoprazole, Hydrocortisone, Clonidine, Lunesta, Vyvanse, and Relpax.

When he was incarcerated, however, the visiting physician at CVRJ, incorrectly assumed that Caldwell was an opiate addict, and ordered that Opana—the medication most necessary to block Caldwell’s back and neck pain—be withheld, his lawyer said. Additionally, Caldwell was allegedly not provided with Lunesta, a sleep aid that allows him to sleep through his pain.

Relpax, a medication designed to combat Caldwell’s chronic, severe migraine headaches, was likewise withheld, according to Fischer. And instead of prescription strength Lansoprazole, CVRJ allegedly provided Caldwell with a less potent, over-the-counter substitute (Omeprazole), which was ineffective.

“In fact, the only prescribed medication consistently provided to Caldwell was hydrocortisone, an anti-inflammatory drug, which does little to relieve Caldwell’s chronic pain,” the defense attorney said.

The DOJ has not responded to the filing from Caldwell, who spent 53 days in jail—49 of which were in solitary confinement—before being released to house arrest. Caldwell was a defendant in the Oath Keepers seditious conspiracy trial, but he was acquitted of the sedition charge and two other conspiracy charges.

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

EV Company Founder Gets 4-Year Prison Sentence for Fraud

(Eli Pacheco, Headline USA) Nikola founder Trevor Milton received a four-year prison sentence on Tuesday for investor fraud—less than half what federal prosecutors sought in the case. 

Milton, 41, who founded the electric truck startup, faced a maximum of 60 years in prison. Federal prosecutors asked for an 11-year sentence for Milton, accused of lying to investors about Nikola’s hydrogen and electric truck technology. 

“Today’s sentence should be a warning to start-up founders and corporate executives everywhere—‘fake it till you make it’ is not an excuse for fraud, and if you mislead your investors, you will pay a stiff price,” the statement read.

In the statement, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said Milton repeatedly lied to investors on social media, television, podcasts, and print.

Among the deceptions: In 2018, Milton posted on Twitter, footage of a truck cruising along a flat road.

Prosecutors said producers towed the Nikola One to a hilltop and released it. “The ‘driver’ released the brakes, and the truck rolled down the hill until being brought to a stop in front of the stop sign,” said the DOJ release.

Milton said a prototype semi-truck “fully functions and works,” according to prosecutors. Nikola One is a hydrogen-powered semi-truck, which was missing motors and a control system. 

The report on CNN.com stated that Milton’s lawyers had no comment.

According to a Justice Department release, Milton must also surrender property in Utah and pay a million-dollar fine. After his prison sentence, he’ll have three years of supervised release. 

Electric vehicles have hit a few speedbumps of late. 

Some electric vehicle manufacturers are scaling down or pausing production because consumer demand is low. Ford delayed a $12 billion plan in production, and General Motors has nixed a goal to make 400,000 EVs by mid-2024.

GM had contracted with Nikola on the deal until the fraud was exposed and pulled out shortly thereafter, sending the startup company’s stock plummeting. Shares peaked around $75 in June 2020 but are now worth about 9 cents apiece.

Kentucky Family Finds an Owl in Their Christmas Tree

(Headline USA) One Kentucky family got a little something extra when they picked out their Christmas tree this year: an owl.

Lexington resident Michele White told WDKY-TV that it’s a tradition for the family to pick out a Christmas tree every year and this year seemed no different.

They had the tree in their home for four days and didn’t notice anything unusual.

“I have three dogs,” White said. “We use this room nonstop: watch TV; the kitchen’s right here; no indication.”

Bobby Hayes, who owns Magic Carpet Cleaning and was at the home while the family was out, first noticed the bird after plugging in a piece of equipment and seeing the tree start to sway.

“The owl was literally sitting on a lower limb here,” Hayes said.

“It crawled up into the tree further,” Hayes said. “It took me several minutes to even find it.”

He sent photos to White, who said she was glad he was there to deal with the animal. Hayes said he was able to safely release the owl in the family’s backyard.

“Everybody’s going to be able to have a merry Christmas now,” Hayes said.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press