Russian-Speaking Hacking Group Access Over 600,000 Emails from DOD, DOJ

Dmytro "Henry" Aleksandrov
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Russian-Speaking Hacking Group Access Over 600,000 Emails from DOD, DOJ

(Dmytro “Henry” Aleksandrov, Headline USA) Email addresses of about 632,000 U.S. federal employees at both the Department of Defense [DOD] and the Department of Justice were accessed by a Russian-speaking hacking group as part of the sprawling MOVEit hack that happened last summer.

New details about a cyberattack in which hackers exploited flaws in MOVEit, a popular file-transfer tool, were provided in a new report on the wide-ranging attack that was obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management [OPM], according to Bloomberg News.

Even though government agencies were compromised by the attack, they neither provided enough information on the scope of the attack nor named the agencies affected, federal cybersecurity officers previously said.

In a July report on the incident submitted to a congressional committee, the OPM said that an unauthorized actor obtained access to government email addresses, links to government employee surveys administered by the OPM and internal OPM tracking codes.

Both the DOJ and the DOD employees were impacted. Among the various parts of the DOD that were affected were the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Army, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Staff and Defense Agencies and Field Activities.

The hack that occurred on both May 28 and May 29 was characterized as a “major incident” by the OPM. The office also said that it didn’t have a reason to believe the attack posed a significant risk, adding that the compromised data was “generally of low sensitivity” and not classified.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Agriculture, and the General Services Administration also said that they were previously affected by the MOVEit breach. In addition to that, the Energy Department received ransom requests from the hackers themselves after two of its entities fell victim to the intrusions.

The attack was blamed on a hacking gang called Clop, or Cl0p [“bed bug” in Russian]. As of Oct. 31, 2023, more than 2,500 organizations have been impacted, according to Brett Callow, a threat analyst at the cybersecurity firm Emsisoft.

A government services provider Maximus Inc. and the Louisiana Office of Motor Vehicles were also the victims of the hackers, Emsisoft said.

“Whatever happened to us being #1 in the world? Hacked into the DoD email system? What’s next? Into the White House?” one person on Twitter wrote.

Ex-FBI Informant Says Kevin McCarthy’s Roomie, Frank Luntz, Hit on Him

Ken Silva
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Ex-FBI Informant Says Kevin McCarthy’s Roomie, Frank Luntz, Hit on Him

(Ken Silva, Headline USA) The man who outed billionaire ex-Trump backer Peter Thiel as an FBI informant has now accused RINO pollster and former Kevin McCarthy housemate Frank Luntz of hitting on him at a Los Angeles hotel.

“[It’s really] interesting how @FrankLuntz has dodged all those very credible sex predator accusations,” said Charles Johnson, a former FBI informant himself, said Tuesday on Twitter. “So I’ll start. Luntz made a pass at me when I was in the Luxe Hotel.”

Johnson did not provide any more details, and Luntz didn’t respond to his allegation—nor did he respond to a Headline USA email seeking comment.

In the past, Johnson’s allegations as to unrelated matters have been independently corroborated.

With Thiel, for instance, Business Insider said it independently verified that the billionaire was on the FBI’s formal roster of registered informants.

FBI special agent Jonathan Buma has also vouched for the veracity of Johnson, who was once Buma’s informant under the codename “Genius.”

Thiel himself was notably outed as gay in 2007 by the gossip website Gawker. He went on to bankroll a libel lawsuit against the site for publishing a sex tape of wrestler Terry “Hulk Hogan” Bollea, which forced the site into bankruptcy.

Luntz, for his part, was thrust into the conservative media spotlight when Tucker Carlson began airing damning allegations against the pollster in 2021.

Among those were that Luntz is paid by well-heeled clients such as Google to falsely represent and/or attempt to manipulate Republican attitudes.

Most recently, he worked with the Biden administration in an effort to persuade vaccine-hesitant individuals to subject themselves to the experimental shots by making it seem as if it was a popular GOP position.

Even more peculiar, however, is Luntz’s relationship with former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.

According to a May 2021 report by Carlson, McCarthy, 57, was the 61-year-old Luntz’s roommate. Neither man is openly gay or bi-sexual. McCarthy is married, but Luntz is not, according to reports.

The California congressman typically rents hotel rooms or sleeps in his office at the U.S. Capitol when he is in town, but “because of the pandemic, McCarthy ha[d] rented a room in Washington at a fair market price from Frank,” a spokesman told Carlson’s show in 2021.

“So actually the top Republican in the House does live with somebody who lobbies for Google,” Carlson observed in his Fox News monologue. “Not only are they friends, they’re roommates. So now you know why they listen to Frank Luntz, but they don’t listen to you.”

The relationship led Donald Trump to wonder aloud during an interview with The Federalist’s Mollie Hemingway.

“Uh, that Luntz thing is weird, right? What’s that all about?” Trump asked.

“I don’t think it’s a romance. I think it’s just, they know each other or something,” he continued, according to Hemingway. “I can’t imagine. I don’t think—I mean, if you’re thinking it—but it is weird … You know, we’re past the age of roommates. You don’t do that.”

Bizarelly, both Luntz and Carlson were revealed to have corresponded with Hunter Biden after his laptop messages became public.

While Carlson sought a college recommendation for his son, Buckley, Luntz’s close ties with the family appear to have extended back to his college days, when he was a friend of Hunter’s now-deceased brother, Beau.

The series of interpersonal connections raised serious questions about whether McCarthy would have been conflicted in overseeing a House investigation of Hunter if his landlord were pressuring him to drop it.

However, he was ousted from the leadership role last month after Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., forced a motion to vacate following McCarthy’s capitulation to Democrats on a massive federal spending resolution.

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

White House Refuses To Call Pro-Hamas Protesters ‘Extremists’

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White House Refuses To Call Pro-Hamas Protesters ‘Extremists’

(Headline USA) White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre refused to say this week whether pro-Hamas protesters on U.S. college campuses are “extremists,” the Daily Mail reported.

During a press briefing on Monday, Fox News’s Peter Doocy asked Jean–Pierre to clarify how President Joe Biden views the radical college students who have used anti-Israel rhetoric, including chants such as “From the river to the sea.”

“What I can say is—what we’ve been very clear about this when it comes to anti-Semitism, there is no place,” Jean-Pierre claimed. “We have to make sure that we speak against it very loud and be very clear about that.”

The press secretary went on to compare college students’ embrace of Hamas to the Charlottesville riot in 2017—an event about which Biden other Democrat officials have frequently spread disinformation.

“He saw neo-Nazis marching down the streets of Charlottesville with vile, anti-Semitic, just hatred,” Jean-Pierre said of the event, which far-right groups organized in part with the foreknowledge—if not under the immediate direction—of the FBI.

“And he was very clear then, and he’s very clear now,” Jean-Pierre continued. “He’s taken actions against this over the past two years. And he’s continued to be clear: There is no place, no place for this type of vile — and this kind of rhetoric.”

Doocy continued to press Jean-Pierre on whether the White House would classify pro-Hamas protests as extremism.

“We hear you guys talk about extremists all the time. It is usually about MAGA extremists. So what about these protesters who are making Jewish students feel unsafe on college campuses?” Doocy asked.

Jean-Pierre again refused to classify the protesters as “extremists” and even made reference to recent criticism of Hamas and backlash against the anti-Israeli protesters by labeling it “Islamophobia” to paint a false equivalence.

“I have been very, very clear.  We are calling out any form of hate, any form of hate,” she claimed, while failing to specifically call out anti-Semitism.

“It is not acceptable. It should not be acceptable here. And we are going to continue to call that out,” she added.

The anti-Israel protests that have taken over college campuses in the past few weeks have led to what Jewish students say is a sharp uptick in threats against them.

At Columbia University, for example, students reported being spat at for speaking Hebrew and said there were Nazi swastikas drawn on the walls of at least one university restroom.

“I have to walk around and go to my class and see someone and think they might want me to not exist or not want my people to exist,” psychology student Jessica Brenner told a local news outlet.

“I don’t take a step without thinking about that,” she continued. “When I’m asked ‘do you feel safe at Columbia University?’, I say ‘no. I don’t feel safe.'”

Kevin McCarthy Gets Primary Challenge From ‘America First’ Candidate

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Kevin McCarthy Gets Primary Challenge From ‘America First’ Candidate

(Headline USA) Ousted former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., earned a primary challenger this week from a conservative who vows to represent the “America First” movement in Congress.

David Giglio, a small business owner, announced his campaign for McCarthy’s seat on Monday, accusing McCarthy of failing to deliver on the promises he made.

“Kevin McCarthy has failed the American people. I am excited to announce my campaign to defeat Kevin McCarthy in California’s 20th Congressional District,” Giglio said in a statement.

“After years of being sold out to special interests, the people of the Central Valley deserve an America First Republican fighting for them in Washington and working alongside President Donald Trump to WAGE WAR against the corrupt uniparty!” he added.

Giglio went on to praise as “courageous” the eight House Republicans, including Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., who ousted McCarthy in September using a motion to vacate the speakership.

“Kevin McCarthy was removed as Speaker by 8 courageous members of his party for failing to keep to his promises and capitulating to Joe Biden and the radical Democrats. Kevin McCarthy must be defeated,” he said in the statement.

Online sources indicate that Giglio has at least one failed campaign in the past. According to YouTube videos, he initially sought to challenge incumbent Democrat Rep. Jim Costa, in California’s 16th district during the 2022 cycle.

After redistricting moved Costa to a new district, however, Giglio wound up running in the 13th district, where another GOP neophyte, Rep. John Duarte, narrowly prevailed for the open seat against Democrat Adam Gray in the general election.

McCarthy has cruised to reelection in every cycle since he first won his House seat in 2006. He also maintained a close relationship with former President Donald Trump, despite opposition from some of Trump’s allies.

During the Gaetz-led ouster, for example, Trump told reporters that he did not encourage Gaetz to remove McCarthy and even blamed House Republicans for “fighting among themselves” in a post on Truth Social.

After he was ousted, McCarthy shot down rumors that he was thinking of stepping down from the House.

“I’m not resigning. I got a lot more work to do,” he said at the time.

Florida Warns Another Company over Its Anti-Semitic ESG Policies

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Florida Warns Another Company over Its Anti-Semitic ESG Policies

(Bethany Blankley, The Center Square) The state of Florida has placed another company, Morningstar–Sustainalytics, on its list of “Scrutinized Companies that Boycott Israel.” The company, which rejects the accusation, has 90 days to respond or be subjected to Florida’s divestment and contract prohibitions.

Gov. Ron DeSantis, Attorney General Ashley Moody and CFO Jimmy Patronis, all trustees of the State Board of Administration, made a joint announcement after they placed Morningstar–Sustainalytics under continued examination in August for its “controversial research methodology which categorizes companies as a risk for supporting Israeli interests in Judea and Samaria.”

The SBA then had a meeting on Oct. 25 about the “environmental, sustainable, governance” corporate governance research, ratings and analytics firm.

As of June 30, the Florida Retirement System held 26,343 shares of Morningstar’s stock worth $5.9 million, Pensions & Investments reports.

“Florida will hold companies accountable for discriminating against Israel,” DeSantis said in a joint statement. “We will continue to invest in companies that provide Floridians with the best return on investment and not companies that utilize arbitrary ESG metrics to advance a BDS agenda.”

Moody said the action should send a message to other woke corporations hoping to do business with or in the state of Florida that they could expect a dose of their own medicine when it came to exerting financial pressure on entities to amend their politically controversial practices.

“Our actions on Morningstar–Sustainalytics should put the rest of the world on notice,” she said. “Florida will not stand by while companies use their economic power to attack Israel.”

Morningstar issued a statement in response, saying, “Morningstar does not support the anti-Israel BDS campaign; it never has, and it never will.”

Last year, the company faced similar scrutiny from a range of Jewish groups, including the Jewish Federations of North America, the Anti-Defamation League, and the American Jewish Committee, among many others over its ESG products.

Of the many concerns raised was language it used in its products referring to the West Bank in Israel as “Occupied Palestinian Territory” or “occupied territory.”

Israel, as a sovereign nation, doesn’t occupy any “territory” and has a right to defend itself from terrorists whose stated goal is to kill Jews and destroy Israel, DeSantis has argued.

After a months-long engagement process with the organizations, Morningstar said it committed to “further fortifying” its ESG “research and ratings against any concerns of anti-Israel bias” and “strongly reinforces the fact that we repudiate the Boycott, Divest, and Sanctions campaign.”

It also agreed to adopt all recommendations made by an independent investigation into its anti-Israel bias allegations and commit to take specific actions.

But some industry watchers have warned that companies may attempt to rebrand their toxic practices under another name due to the negative stigma now attached to the ESG label from the public awareness of it.

That goes doubly for anti-Semitic practices against Israel in the wake of the Oct. 7 terrorist attack that prompted it to declare war on the terrorist organization Hamas.

Pro-Hamas leftist groups in the U.S. and elsewhere have demonstrated—sometimes violently—in response, but have been met with their own backlash and consequences from those rallying in support of Israel and the Jewish people.

Florida’s chief financial officer, Jimmy Patronis, issued a warning to all companies doing business in Florida: “Let me be clear—If you want to do business with the State of Florida, you cannot support BDS policies against Israel, or you will face the consequences.”

The announcement comes after Florida has taken unprecedented action to support its Jewish population, including expanding law enforcement resources statewide, shutting down pro-Hamas student organizations on state college and university campuses, and flying roughly 700 Americans to Florida who were stranded in Israel.

Florida is the only state to bring home stranded Americans from Israel.

Florida has cracked down on companies involved in the BDS movement before. In 2019, it added Airbnb to its Scrutinized Companies List. Airbnb then reversed its policy and was taken off the list. In 2021, Unilever, the parent company of Ben & Jerry’s, was added to the list and remains on it.

Pentagon Boosted Budget for Secret Military Intel Program by Nearly $4B

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Pentagon Boosted Budget for Secret Military Intel Program by Nearly $4B

(Brett Rowland, The Center Square) The Department of Defense said Monday the budget for the Military Intelligence Program was $27.9 billion for fiscal year 2023.

That’s up from the $24.1 billion appropriated top line budget for fiscal year 2022. That figure has increased every year since fiscal year 2019, when it was $21.5 billion.

The Department of Defense said the appropriated top line budget for fiscal year 2023 was “aligned to support the National Defense Strategy.”

“The department has determined that releasing this top line figure does not jeopardize any classified activities within the MIP,” the Pentagon said. “No other MIP budget figures or program details will be released, as they remain classified for national security reasons.”

The Military Intelligence Program is one of the two parts of the U.S. intelligence budget. The larger National Intelligence Program includes “all programs, projects and activities of the intelligence community and any other intelligence community programs designated jointly by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence or the DNI and the President.

The Military Intelligence Program is for intelligence activity done by the military departments and agencies in the Department of Defense that support tactical U.S. military operations, according to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

The Military Intelligence Program budget request was first released in February 2012.

Nuclear Lab Thinks Garden Rocks Are Key to Storing Renewable Energy

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Nuclear Lab Thinks Garden Rocks Are Key to Storing Renewable Energy

(Tom Joyce, The Center Square) Sandia National Laboratories is working with New Mexico-based CSolPower LLC to make an affordable energy storage method from renewable sources—rocks.

The partnership aims to aid in the transition to zero-carbon solar and wind energy for electricity generation.

“You need to have energy storage and dispatchable power when renewable energy is unavailable or when there’s a large spike in demand from the grid,” Luke McLaughlin, a mechanical engineer at Sandia who works on thermal energy storage, said.

“With this project, we’re integrating renewable energy sources into an electrically charged thermal energy storage system,” McLaughlin added. “Our aim is to develop the technology and take it to a place where you can use wind and photovoltaic energy sources to charge the system.”

The Technology Readiness Gross Receipts initiative is paying for this phase of the project at up to $150,000 a year according to the Sandia web site.

Sandia’s Technology and Economic Development Department helps administer this tax-funded program. It allows eligible New Mexico businesses to collaborate with scientists and engineers from Sandia and Los Alamos national laboratories.

It is unclear to what extent Sandia may be receiving additional federal government incentives to conduct its research into garden rocks.

Watchdogs have noted recently that the Biden administration’s green-energy incentives have been ripe for fraud—much like the Obama administration, with its Solyndra scandal and other phony green-energy companies that Democrat cronies effectively used to launder tax-dollars to their personal coffers while avoiding normal regulations and oversight.

Sandia, which also is in charge of designing some of the U.S.’s nuclear weaponry, made national news in 2020 following an exposé from investigative journalist Christopher Rufo that detailed its efforts to brainwash white, male employees into embracing a woke mindset—during a taxpayer-funded company retreat that took place during the Trump administration.

But wokeness aside, the lab’s research also has the potential to become a game-changer for cost-effective and environmentally sustainable home-energy needs with oil prices expected soon to hit uncharted territory amid rising tensions in the Middle East.

That could be the tipping point that turns renewable green-energy into a commercially viable option on the free market, provided the supply is able to meet the demand enough to keep it affordable and reliable.

Sandia’s system features rocks held in a bed to be heated or cooled with air to store thermal energy.

“We’ve learned that gravel from landscaping companies can be successfully used for the system without requiring extensive washing or preparation,” Nathan Schroeder, a Sandia mechanical engineer, said in a release.

To test the rock bed’s performance at the National Solar Thermal Test Facility, Sandia designed a small 100-kilowatt-hour test rig.

Updates have been made, and photovoltaic panels are being installed to show the bed’s ability to charge using an intermittent energy source.

“One of the advantages of thermal energy storage in rocks is that it can be built anywhere,” Walter Gerstle, who co-founded CSolPower in Albuquerque in 2019, said.

“It can be commodified and doesn’t require extensive permitting,” Gerstle added. “We believe it can be implemented more quickly and economically than other approaches.”

Cost is a barrier to this type of energy.

“Reducing the cost of this thermal energy storage system, or energy storage systems in general, increases the potential for deploying these systems in industry, and it increases the likelihood of adopting renewable energy,” Schroeder said in the release.

CSolPower’s technology largely focuses on long-duration energy storage. This means it can provide energy storage ranging from hours to months.

When testing, the bed was charged with air at temperatures exceeding 900 degrees Fahrenheit. The system maintained that temperature for up to 20 hours.

“We successfully charged and discharged the system, and so far, the performance of the system is in line with our predictions and modeling,” Schroeder said.

Researchers hope the technology will help reduce dependence on fossil-fuel heat sources.

“A natural approach is to store excess electricity generated during the day as heat and then use it to heat water and homes at night,” Gerstle said in the release. “This is an example of the small-scale use of this storage option.”

They will continue prototype testing until June 2024.

“Our goal is to take this lab-scale project and prepare it for deployment in the marketplace,” Schroeder said.

CSolPower wants to make its technology ready for utility-scale storage. However, it plans to start with small-scale implementation. If the current testing phase is successful, several greenhouses in northern New Mexico want to use the rock bed for thermal energy storage.

“Instead of curtailing solar energy production, we would store it and use it during cold nights to keep the greenhouses warm enough to grow plants year-round,” Gerstle said.

Census: Fla. Remains Top Destination for People Fleeing N.Y., Calif.

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Census: Fla. Remains Top Destination for People Fleeing N.Y., Calif.

(David Beasley, The Center Square) Tourism is not Florida’s only attraction for out-of-state residents. Retirees continue to like the sunshine and warm weather.

According to new 2022 U.S. Census Bureau statistics, Florida is once again the top destination for U.S. residents moving from one state to another.

The study found 738,969 Florida residents lived in a different state a year earlier. When subtracting the number of residents who moved out to different states that year, it was still a net gain of 249,000, said Stefan Rayer, Population Program director for the University of Florida’s Bureau of Economic and Business Research.

“That is actually the highest net gain since 2005,” Rayer said.

Top states for the influx of residents to Florida were New York, California, Georgia and Texas.

The census numbers don’t reflect the reasons people from other states move to Florida. But age is one of them, Rayer said.

“If you look at migration numbers by age, the biggest gains in Florida are at the retirement ages,” he said. “That’s not surprising since it’s a big retirement destination.”

Once retirees move to Florida, they’re not likely to move out, he added.

“With young adults, people in their 20s and 30s, the in and out stream tends to be relatively balanced,” Rayer said.

“The net gain is actually pretty low and in some cases is negative—meaning there are more people leaving Florida than moving here,” he added. “At older ages, you tend to get a much smaller outflow.”

Over the last several years, the COVID-19 pandemic spurred a lot of migration into Florida, said Brad O’Connor, chief economist with the trade association FloridaRealtors.

“Florida was generally more open than a lot of other states,” he said. “A lot of that was from the New York area, specifically Manhattan and Brooklyn, which are high-income and also very dense. I assume some of that pattern is continuing.”

The absence of state and local income taxes is part of Florida’s attraction, particularly to residents of areas with high taxes, said O’Connor.

Despite the jump in real estate prices in recent years, it’s still less expensive than many other markets, including California and New York, he added.

“Florida is still a bargain compared to New York, Boston and San Francisco,” he said.

Despite the push by employers back in the office, many people are still working remotely, O’Connor said.

“That’s made Florida a very popular destination,” he said.

“You can leave the expensive markets and get more bang for your buck,” he continued. “There’s the lack of income taxes at the state and local level. And then there is the weather, the beaches. All of those have attracted people here.”

29 Los Angeles-Area Cities Sue County over Criminal-Friendly Zero-Bail Policy

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29 Los Angeles-Area Cities Sue County over Criminal-Friendly Zero-Bail Policy

(Kenneth Schrupp, The Center Square) Twenty-nine cities and counting in Los Angeles County are suing the county over its zero-bail policy that went into effect at the beginning of the month as the result of another lawsuit.

In their lawsuit, the cities allege the new policy, implemented on Oct. 1, does not “take into consideration the protection of the public, the safety of the victim, the seriousness of the offense charged, the previous criminal record of the defendant, and the probability of his or her appearing at the trial or hearing of the case.”

Under the new bail schedule, assault, stalking, domestic battery and violation of a protective order will still require cash bail, while human trafficking, battery on a peace officer and sex with a minor will trigger judicial review.

However, most individuals arrested for most offenses will either be cited and released at the site of their arrest, or booked and released at the law enforcement office with orders to appear in court for arraignment on a set date.

In response to the lawsuit, Associate Director Claire Simonich of Vera California, the state branch of national criminal justice reform organization the Vera Institute of Justice, told the Center Square that the data did not support what its opponents say, and that zero-cash-bail was a safe and effective criminal policy.

“The opponents are not only drowning out the factual data on the policy, but the years of research on not just Los Angeles County but in areas across the country that show ending money bail and ensuring public safety go hand-in-hand,” Simonich claimed.

“A similar version of the policy has been in effect on and off for the last three years in Los Angeles County,” she added. “Violent crime and property crime effectively dropped or remained unchanged compared to the two years before the policy was in place.”

Los Angeles County ostensibly instituted a zero-bail policy at first to reduce incarceration-driven COVD-19 infections during the pandemic.

However, critics have noted the coicidental overlap between the pandemic’s emergency measures and the Marxist-based objectives of many subversive left-wing organizations affiliated with George Soros’s globalist agenda, which seeks to destabilize America’s legal and political framework at every level, often using racial “equity” as its pretense.

After ending the policy, Los Angeles County was ordered to re-adopt the policy due to “dismal” pre-trial detention conditions.

 A broad coalition has emerged challenging the policy, ranging from Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna to Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Jonathan Hatami, a leading candidate challenging Soros-backed Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon in the 2024 election.

“Our communities have not been shy about telling us how nervous they are about this change,” Luna told the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors regarding the policy.

“Crime victims who see offenders immediately released from custody are left with little confidence in the criminal justice system,” he continued. “I understand the need to respect the constitutional rights of arrestees, but zero-bail can demoralize deputies and police officers who work hard to make arrests, only to watch the offender walk away with a citation as the victim looks on in disbelief.”

Hatami, told the Center Square that none of the 29 plaintiffs sought a bail system that kept people incarcerated unjustly, but overcompensating by releasing dangerous criminals onto the streets was not the answer.

“All of us want a bail policy that is fair and just for every resident of LA County. That, however, should be done in collaboration with the 88 cities and their residents, victim groups and law enforcement agencies that are going to be directly affected by immediately releasing individuals who are arrested for crimes,” he said.

“No one supports oppressive bail,” he added. “However, most of us don’t support repeat offenders who have been negatively impacting our communities, families and businesses either. In any bail policy, public safety should be the priority.”

Among the 29 cities are a diverse number of cities ranging from progressive Santa Monica to Beverly Hills. A court hearing is set for December.

Headline USA’s Ben Sellers contributed to this report.

Wray and Mayorkas Fearmonger over Hamas to Distract from Their Anti-MAGA Agenda

Ken Silva
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Wray and Mayorkas Fearmonger over Hamas to Distract from Their Anti-MAGA Agenda

(Ken Silva, Headline USA) For the past two-plus years, top FBI and Homeland Security officials have spent their time during congressional hearings to bloviate about the threat posed by right-wing domestic terrorists.

The DHS and FBI received pushback from some GOP lawmakers as a result, and those agencies risk losing certain domestic surveillance powers that allow them to spy on the American people.

But all that has changed in the wake of the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel. At a Senate Homeland Security Committee meeting on Tuesday, FBI Director Chris Wray and DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas pleaded with Congress to renew their spying powers—insisting that they’re necessary to stop Hamas.

Wray and Mayorkas specifically called for the renewal of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which currently allows for the warrantless surveillance of Americans.

Unless reauthorized by Congress, Section 702 will expire at the end of the year.

“That would be a significant blow to the FBI,” Wray said Tuesday.

“These authorities have produced intelligence over the years that has been vital to our homeland security, and that intelligence is all the more vital now in light of the threat environment we are facing in the aftermath of the Hamas attacks in Israel,” Mayorkas added.

Mayorkas and Wray were joined by Christine Abizaid, the head of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s counterterrorism center, who also called for the renewal of Section 702 to fight groups like Hamas.

“We regularly leverage the essential authority of Section 702 to provide insight on foreign terrorists and their networks overseas,” she said.

However, none of them explained how spying on Americans will prevent attacks from Hamas. As noted by the Project for Privacy & Surveillance Accountability, Section 702 failed to detect Hamas’s attack.

“While U.S. intelligence detected rising activity in Gaza, it did not detect the threat that resulted in the killing of more than 1,400 Israelis and at least 30 Americans,” PPSA said earlier this month.

Meanwhile, as of the publication of this article, none of the committee members questioned Wray about his bureau targeting Trump voters—even though Newsweek revealed earlier this month that the FBI is infiltrating MAGA groups ahead of the 2024 election.

“Experts agree that as the 2024 election approaches, there will be greater pressure to prevent law-breaking, one that necessitates infiltration of political circles and other controversial government activity,” Newsweek reported this month—not elaborating on what that “other controversial government activity” might consist of.

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

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