Judges Allow Lawsuit Against FDA Over Anti-Ivermectin Propaganda to Continue

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Judges Allow Lawsuit Against FDA Over Anti-Ivermectin Propaganda to Continue

(Headline USA) A federal appeals court Friday revived a lawsuit by three doctors who say the Food and Drug Administration overstepped its authority in a campaign against treating COVID-19 with ivermectin.

Ivermectin is commonly used to treat parasites in livestock. It can also be prescribed for humans and it has been championed by some conservatives as a treatment for COVID-19.

The agency did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Friday’s ruling from a panel of three judges on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal in New Orleans focused on various aspects of an FDA campaign against ivermectin as a COVID-19 treatment.

The ruling said the campaign — which at times featured the slogan “You are not a horse!” — too often left out that the drug is sometimes prescribed for humans.

The doctors can proceed with their lawsuit contending that the FDA’s campaign exceeded the agency’s authority under federal law, the ruling said.

“FDA is not a physician. It has authority to inform, announce, and apprise—but not to endorse, denounce, or advise,” Judge Don Willett wrote for a panel that also included Jennifer Walker Elrod and Edith Brown Clement. “The Doctors have plausibly alleged that FDA’s Posts fell on the wrong side of the line between telling about and telling to.”

Drs. Robert L. Apter, Mary Talley Bowden and Paul E. Marik filed the lawsuit last year. All three said their reputations were harmed by the FDA campaign. Bowden lost admitting privileges at a Texas hospital, the ruling noted. Marik alleged he lost his positions at a medical school and at a hospital for promoting the use of ivermectin.

The lawsuit was dismissed in December by U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Vincent Brown, who ruled that the complaints didn’t overcome the FDA’s “sovereign immunity,” a concept that protects government entities from many civil lawsuits regarding their responsibilities. The appellate panel said the FDA’s alleged overstepping of its authority opened the door for the lawsuit.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

Activists Vandalize Statue Honoring American Veteran

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Activists Vandalize Statue Honoring American Veteran

(Headline USA) Police in New Mexico‘s capital city on Friday were investigating the vandalism and partial destruction of a public monument to a 19th century frontiersman and U.S. soldier.

The monument to Christopher “Kit” Carson has been encircled by a plywood barrier for its own protection since 2020, when Santa Fe was swept by the anti-American protests following the overdose death of George Floyd.

The monument’s upper spire was toppled Thursday evening.

Photos showed an abandoned pickup truck and cable that may have been used to inflict the damage.

Last year, radical activists covered the statute with red paint.

Activists also toppled a monument on Santa Fe’s central square to U.S. soldiers who fought for the Union in the Civil War in 2020.

Santa Fe Mayor Alan Webber issued a statement that described the latest damage to the monument as a “cowardly act.”

“I want those who did this to be caught and held accountable,” the mayor said. “There is no place for this kind of criminal conduct in our community. We should all condemn it.”

The U.S. attorney’s office confirmed federal jurisdiction over the monument, located outside a U.S. courthouse in downtown Santa Fe.

The U.S. Marshals Service, which protects federal courts, could not immediately be reached Friday.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

Praying Coach Returns to Job and Immediately Resumes Public Prayer

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Praying Coach Returns to Job and Immediately Resumes Public Prayer

(Headline USA) An assistant high school football coach in Washington state who was fired for over his public post-game prayers was back on the field Friday after the U.S. Supreme Court held that his practice was protected by the Constitution.

Joe Kennedy strode alone to midfield, knelt and prayed for about 10 seconds after his Bremerton High School football team beat visiting Mount Douglas Secondary School 27-12 Friday night.

Kennedy was not joined by any athletes or others on the nearly empty field. There was scattered applause from the modest crowd at Memorial Stadium.

Police and private security guards were on hand but there didn’t appear to be any problems or interruptions during or after the event.

Kennedy explained he felt nervous about returning to his job after an 8 year legal fight surrounding his religion.

“Knowing that everybody’s expecting me to go do this kind of gives me a lot of angst in my stomach,” Kennedy said before the game.

It was his first game as coach since 2015, when he was terminated for praying at midfield after games.

Kennedy’s fight to get his job back quickly became a cultural touchstone, pitting the religious liberties of government employees against longstanding principles protecting students from religious coercion.

The Supreme Court defended his right to pray in public as a public employee, with Justice Neil Gorsuch writing “the best of our traditions counsel mutual respect and tolerance, not censorship and suppression, for religious and nonreligious views alike.”

The legal fight transformed Kennedy’s life in ways he never anticipated. He has a book coming out in October called “Average Joe,” with a number of release events planned. He appeared at a 2016 rally for Donald Trump, and he and his wife recently had dinner with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a GOP presidential hopeful who asked for his help on the campaign trail.

“He’s like, ‘I want you to be on my faith advisory board.’ And I’m like, ‘Let me get back to you on that,’” Kennedy recalled. “And he just invited me to Iowa and he calls me and he says, ‘Hey, I really need to know, are you in my camp or not?’ And I said, ‘Well, I’m sorry. My loyalty is to Trump.’”

Kennedy, 54, is grappling with whether football still fits into his life.

After spending so long trying to defend his religious liberty at his current job, Kennedy said he felt a duty to return to Washington state for the part-time job that paid him less than $5,000.

But he and his wife live in Florida now — he has been staying with a friend in Bremerton.

The Bremerton School District, after dragging its feet to rehire Kennedy, declined an interview request.

Before Friday’s game, it wasn’t clear if Kennedy’s return would draw protests.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation, which works to keep government and religion separate, placed a billboard message near the school that read: “Wishing Bremerton High School a safe, secular & successful school year.”

In 2015, a dozen members of the Satanic Temple of Seattle went to a varsity football game at Bremerton High School, many dressed in hooded black robes or masks. Students jeered them, held up crosses, threw liquid and chanted “Jesus.”

The Satanic Temple didn’t return messages from The Associated Press or mention Kennedy’s return on its Facebook page or website.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

Obama Judge Dismisses Leftist Lawsuit Against Trump’s Candidacy

Luis Cornelio
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Obama Judge Dismisses Leftist Lawsuit Against Trump’s Candidacy

(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) A federal court judge in Florida rejected a legal challenge against former President Donald Trump’s eligibility for the 2024 presidential race under the 14th Amendment. 

Judge Robin Rosenberg, an Obama appointee, issued her decision, arguing that the anti-Trump plaintiffs did not have standing to challenge the former president’s candidacy. 

“Plaintiffs lack standing to challenge defendant’s qualifications for seeking the presidency, as the injuries alleged are not cognizable and not particular to them,” the judge wrote, according to the Washington Times. 

The infamous lawsuit, filed by Lawrence Caplan, argued that Trump’s alleged rule in the protests of January 6, 2021, disqualified him from holding elected office according to a contentious interpretation of the U.S. Constitution. 

“The 14th amendment is very clear that you do not need a conviction,” Caplan argued in an interview with USA Today, citing no evidence. “You need to be accused, and obviously there has to be a rationale for the accusation.” 

While Jude Rosenberg did not rule on the constitutionality of the claims, prominent scholars have questioned the allegations that the 14th Amendment bars Trump from running. 

Harvard Law School Professor Emeritus Alan Dershowitz said that the effort to block Trump from appearing on ballots is a “grave danger” to the Constitution, according to Just the News.

This dismissal comes amid broader efforts against Trump’s leading GOP candidacy in key states. Leftist activists and anti-Trump Republicans have rallied to block the former president from appearing on primary ballots, despite no conviction of inciting the violence at the U.S. Capitol. 

In Michigan, leftist activist Robert Davis has been pressuring Democrat Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson to exclude Trump from the state’s 2024 ballots. Davis commented, “I think this legal question is very important to be decided well in advance of the primary elections for either side.” 

Similarly, failed senate candidate Bryant “Corky” Messner claimed that Trump is not eligible to run in New Hampshire. In response, Chris Agers, chairman of the N.H. GOP, warned that the N.H. attorney general would block efforts to prohibit Trump from appearing on the ballots of the 2024 election.

‘Wild West’: Dem. Gov. Rips Biden-led Illegal Alien Invasion

Luis Cornelio
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‘Wild West’: Dem. Gov. Rips Biden-led Illegal Alien Invasion

(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) New Jersey Democrat Gov. Phil Murphy has taken a firm stance against President Joe Biden’s request to take in illegal aliens from an already flooded New York City.  

Murphy expressed serious concerns about the feasibility of such a move, citing the inability of the state to handle the additional influx of immigrants, going as far as saying he won’t allow his state to turn into a “wild west.” 

“I don’t see any scenario where we’re gonna be able to take in a program in Atlantic City or, frankly, elsewhere in the state,” Murphy lambasted during a press conference.  

The fed-up Democrat stressed the need for the Biden administration to address the ongoing border crisis comprehensively before requesting further assistance from states, reported NJ.com.

“We are already seeing folks in New Jersey that have probably swelled into New Jersey from New York or other locations, but you need scale, an enormous amount of federal support, resources that go beyond anything we can afford,” Murphy continued. “Putting everything else aside, I just don’t see it. I would suspect that’ll continue to be the case.” 

Biden’s contentious proposal, outlined in a letter to New York City Mayor Eric Adams, identified 11 federal locations, including the NJ Atlantic City International Airport, as potential housing sites for illegal aliens and asylum seekers.  

In previous weeks, Adams warned that NYC had already been overwhelmed with over 100,000 such individuals. 

Murphy defended his position by highlighting the measures already taken by his administration to protect vulnerable immigrant communities in New Jersey. 

The governor stated, “We’ve always been a nation of immigrants, but that doesn’t mean it can be the Wild West.” 

A top state Republican also ripped the idea, emphasizing the need to prevent the Biden administration from passing the responsibility onto New Jersey. 

“[W]e must stop the Biden administration from exacerbating the humanitarian crisis that they created by passing the buck on to New Jersey from New York City,” remarked State Senate Majority Leader Anthony Bucco, according to NJ.com. “New Jersey cannot afford to be the backstop for New York City’s failure to house migrants as a sanctuary city.” 

Murphy’s rebuke of Biden’s plan comes amid scathing concerns raised by former New York Governor David Paterson, who warned of a potential “revolt” between cities and the federal government regarding the handling of illegal immigration. 

Senate Dems Hold Maui Hostage, Refuse Emergency Aid w/out Another $25B for Ukraine

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Senate Dems Hold Maui Hostage, Refuse Emergency Aid w/out Another $25B for Ukraine

(Mark Pellin, Headline USA) Following signals from the White House to continue endless and limitless funding for the president’s proxy war with Russia, Senate Democrats have threatened to withhold disaster aid for wildfire-ravaged Maui unless it is coupled with at least $25 billion more for Ukraine.

Sen. Kelly Duckworth, D-Ill., said Friday that she would block a proposal to approve funding for emergency disaster aid on its own, without being tied to President Joe Biden’s demand for an additional round of funding for Ukraine, to the tune of $25 billion.

“I would,” Duckworth reportedly said about blocking the disaster aid package. “I think it’s important to include Ukrainian funding.”

Senate Democrats following Biden’s marching orders to hold disaster relief aid hostage could wreak havoc not only for Maui wildfire survivors, but also states left reeling from Hurricane Idalia. The insidious plot left Republicans fuming, after watching the Biden regime literally snooze and snub its way through a response to the Hawaii disaster.

“American priorities must be FIRST. Which is why I stand against linking ANY Ukraine funding to any border security or disaster aid,” tweeted Rep. Cory Mills, R-Fla., who noted that “Hawaii just experienced it’s most deadly disaster with the Maui fires” and that “Florida is still recovering from Hurricane Ian and taking on new damages from Hurricane Idalia.”

FEMA officials earlier this week said they were prioritizing its remaining $3.4 billion budget for the aftermath of those two disasters, but anticipated needing billons more for those recovery efforts and others likely to hit. Biden had requested an additional $12 billion earlier this month for disaster relief, but specifically made its approval dependent on co-passage of $25 billion for Ukraine, according to the Hawaii Tribune-Herald.

The uniter-in-chief made it clear this week that he expected Democrats to back his play in holding the Maui funds hostage, and blaming Republicans if they balk at paying a ransom of more blood money for Ukraine.

“How can we not respond? My God. How can we not respond to these needs?” Biden said Wednesday, after actively ignoring Maui survivors and offering them a pittance of $700 per household for emergency relief.

“So I’m confident, even though there’s a lot of talk from some of our friends up on the Hill about the cost, we have to do it,” Biden said, referring to Republican lawmakers and their constituents who have grown weary of funding Biden’s war.

With a hurricane battering Florida’s coast and ripping through southern states, Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., has proposed an independent emergency aid package to be approved separate from the Ukrainian funding.

“No matter how anybody feels about Ukraine funding, those two things should never be one for the other,” said Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, a Republican who has supported funding the war. “When it comes to taking care of Americans in harm, that should be priority.”

Mark Pellin is an editor at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/sabrepaw70.

Trump Roars Back in Pa. as Dems Grapple with Financial Chaos, Layoffs: Report

Luis Cornelio
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Trump Roars Back in Pa. as Dems Grapple with Financial Chaos, Layoffs: Report

(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) The Pennsylvania Democratic Party finds itself in disarray just months before a crucial election, prompting concerns among party members and strategists alike.

A lengthy Politico report, released on Friday, exposed a litany of issues plaguing the party, including financial woes and staff layoffs. The state party’s troubles come as GOP front-runner Donald Trump eyes a heavy campaign presence in Pennsylvania.

One humiliating misstep that has baffled many is the distribution of thousands of voter information cards that erroneously stated the election date as November 8, when in fact, it is November 7.

This blunder has left many scratching their heads, with one state committee member dubbing it “amateur hour,” and another former party official bluntly saying, “It’s a fucking disaster.”

Financial troubles are also haunting the state party, as it had to fire several employees in July, according to Politico. One of its political action committees reportedly had a meager $7,500 in funds. This has raised concerns about their ability to fundraise effectively, especially with the 2024 presidential election looming. The state party went as far as firing its fundraising arm.

“It’s concerning that the state party is laying people off as we’re heading into a really important Supreme Court race, which then leads into the presidential year,” said Mike Mikus, a Democratic consultant, in an interview with Politico.

Trump’s interest in Pennsylvania is only adding to the pressure miring the struggling Democrats. Trump, the leading GOP candidate for the 2024 presidential race, has intensified his focus on the state, which he won in 2016 but allegedly lost to Joe Biden in 2020.

Trump held two rallies in Pennsylvania in June 2023. The first was a massive 4,000 people rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, and the second was a speech at the Moms for Liberty conference in Philadelphia.

“Has that city gone to hell or what?” Trump said referring to Philadelphia. “Now it’s so dangerous you can’t walk outside to buy a loaf of bread. It’s horrible. It’s horrible what happened.”

Trump’s focus on the state hasn’t gone unnoticed. As reported by Politico, Democrat strategists fear that if corrective measures aren’t taken promptly, Pennsylvania could swing Republican in upcoming elections. A senior Pennsylvania Democrat elected official criticized the party’s leadership, describing it as “incompetent” and “clueless.”

Despite the turmoil within the Pennsylvania Democrat Party, President Joe Biden’s DOJ is prosecuting Trump’s efforts to challenge the 2020 election results in the state, charges that many Republicans deem as political interference.

Buttigieg Wants to Curb ‘Systemically Racist’ Cars

Dmytro "Henry" Aleksandrov
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Buttigieg Wants to Curb ‘Systemically Racist’ Cars

(Dmytro “Henry” Aleksandrov, Headline USA) Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg appointed a group of “leading experts” to advise him on “transportation equity,” among whom are those who said that cars should be phased out because they promote racism and cause climate change.

Earlier this month, Buttigieg appointed 24 new members to his Advisory Committee on Transportation Equity, an Obama-era body that was revived by Buttigieg after the Trump administration got rid of it, the Washington Free Beacon reported.

Among those who were included on the committee were Andrea Marpillero-Colomina, a “spatial policy scholar” who once said that “ALL CARS ARE BAD” because of their negative effect on the planet, and a self-described “transportation nerd” Veronica Davis, who argued in an August essay that cars are “the problem” in the country’s transportation system because they perpetuate “systemic racism.”

In August, Buttigieg announced that the committee will advise him on “promising practices to institutionalize equity into agency programs, policies, regulations and activities” and plans to meet for the first time this fall.

Instead of “advocating for a complete erasure” of cars, the goal is to push Buttigieg to move America away from its reliance on private motor vehicles, Marpillero-Colomina told the Free Beacon.

“My interest in being on the [equity committee] is to raise the question and push the Department of Transportation to really think about [equitable, climate-friendly and ‘economically beneficial’ alternatives to ‘car-centric’ policy],” she said, adding that streets should be reimagined to “prioritize people instead of cars.”

It was revealed that Davis also has a leftist political ideology. She released a book in July that was titled, Inclusive Transportation: A Manifesto for Repairing Divided Communities, and advocated for “a different way of thinking” to “address healing the damage done by cars.”

“This isn’t anti-car propaganda but vehicles have wreaked havoc on the environment and communities… Racism shaped the urban and suburban areas, where even today we see the residual effects,” she wrote in an August essay that was adapted from her book.

Marpillero-Colomina and Davis were not the only ones who were invited to serve on the committee. Another appointee was Boston Mayor Michelle Wu’s Green New Deal director Oliver Sellers-Garcia, whose program called for the city to transition away from cars and embrace a “multimodal” plan of transportation.

“We need to make it not only possible but also preferable for residents to leave traffic- and pollution-inducing fossil fuel-powered vehicles behind,” the city’s plan said.

Report: U.S. Nuclear Infrastructure Projects Over Budget, Decade Behind Schedule

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Report: U.S. Nuclear Infrastructure Projects Over Budget, Decade Behind Schedule

(By Brett Rowland, The Center Square) The federal agency responsible for the research and production infrastructure that supports America’s nuclear weapons stockpile plans to spend more than $34 billion on major projects in the coming years, but many are over budget and behind schedule, according to a report.

The National Nuclear Security Administration, a semi-autonomous agency within the U.S. Department of Energy, maintains and enhances the safety, security and effectiveness of the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile. The agency’s 18 major projects collectively exceeded their cost estimates by more than $2 billion and surpassed their collective schedules by almost a decade as of March 2023, according to a report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

The National Nuclear Security Administration is “reviewing cost and schedule estimates for four of these projects that had already experienced cost overruns or schedule delays and that could result in additional overruns or delays,” according to the Government Accountability Office report. For example, two of the four projects are part of the Uranium Processing Facility family of projects in Tennessee. They are a combined $2 billion over their cost baselines and 6.5 years behind their schedule baselines.

“These cost increases and schedule delays are due to multiple factors, such as poor management practices by the contractor, lower levels of worker productivity than planned, and impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic (e.g., employee absenteeism due to illness),” according to the report.

The NNSA and the Department of Energy plan to complete reviews of both projects this summer.

“NNSA estimates that its portfolio of 18 major projects in the execution phase will overrun their collective cost and schedule baselines. Specifically, and as of March 2023, NNSA’s estimate of the total costs for all 18 projects was approximately $15.6 billion, which is $2.1 billion (or about 16%) higher than the collective cost baseline of approximately $13.5 billion,” according to the report. “In addition, NNSA’s estimate of the schedule for project execution for all 18 projects was 111 years, which is almost 10 years (or almost 9%) longer than the collective schedule baseline of 102 years.”

Among the agency’s major projects are three multibillion-dollar, one-of-a-kind projects to build new, or modify existing, uranium and plutonium component production facilities in New Mexico, South Carolina, and Tennessee.

There’s also a $1.8 billion project for a linear accelerator that will be installed 1,000 feet underground in Nevada, along with multiple critical technologies to produce very detailed X-ray images during plutonium experiments. Another is a $270 million project to build a high explosives laboratory and related facilities in Texas, according to the report.

The Government Accountability Office made multiple recommendations to improve the agency’s management of major projects. The National Nuclear Security Administration agreed with a majority of those recommendations and implemented changes. However, the agency had not fully addressed seven of those recommendations as of July 2023, according to the report.

New York Cigarette Taxes Spike by $1 Per Pack, Highest in Nation

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New York Cigarette Taxes Spike by $1 Per Pack, Highest in Nation

(By Christian Wade, The Center Square) New Yorkers will be paying more for smokes as a $1 per pack tax hike goes into effect on Friday, making the state one of the most expensive in the nation to buy tobacco products.

The changes, which were approved as part of the $229 billion state budget, raise the per-pack tax for cigarettes from $4.35 to $5.35, making the highest tax of any state even higher. It’s the state’s first cigarette tax increase in a decade. That brings the average price of a pack to more than $12 in most retail stores.

Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, had pushed for the higher taxes and a proposal to ban sales of flavored tobacco products, which was ultimately rejected by the state Legislature in budget negotiations.

Anti-tobacco groups praised the state’s move to hike cigarette taxes, saying it will save lives by incentivizing more people to kick the habit.

The American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network projects the impact of the higher tax will save 15,300 New Yorkers’ lives and prevent 14,400 youth under age 18 from becoming adults who smoke.

“By implementing a proven tobacco control intervention, we can prevent youth from trying tobacco and encourage existing smokers to quit, resulting in lower smoking rates,” said Meghan Hallihan, Tobacco-Free CNY’s public health educator. “Smoking-related illnesses are the leading cause of preventable death in the United States, so policies aiming to reduce the number of people who smoke could save many lives.”

More than 28,200 New Yorkers die every year from smoking-related diseases, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Annual costs of tobacco-related illnesses have risen to $4 billion.

Nationally, smoking-related deaths top 400,000 a year, while healthcare expenditures are nearly $96 billion, the CDC says.

But, critics have argued that Hochul’s push to hike cigarette taxes would fuel the black market for untaxed smokes and create a fiscal hole that the state would need to plug.

“If enacted, consumers will go across borders to do their shopping or rely on black-market suppliers,” Adam Hoffer, director of excise tax policy at the Tax Foundation, wrote in a report on the state’s tax hike plans earlier this year. “Tax revenues will fall, illicit activities will thrive, and law enforcement spending will need to increase.”

Other reports argue that New York is shortchanging its anti-tobacco programs despite billions of dollars in revenue through settlements and other sources.

New York collected more than $1.8 billion in tobacco taxes in the budget year that ended June 30, according to state budget figures. It includes payments tied to a 1998 settlement with tobacco companies.

But the state spent only $42 million on smoking cessation programs last year, according to a recent report by the New York Public Interest Research Group, only 20.7% of the $203 million the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends it devotes annually to helping people kick the habit.

The lack of money devoted to helping addicts quit is one reason the state consistently scores an “F” in the American Lung Association’s annual scorecard of tobacco control programs.

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