(By Adam Andrzejewski, RealClear Wire) In 2020, Oregon voted to decriminalize the possession and use of almost all drugs. Now, addicts do hard drugs in the open, and a treatment hotline has so far cost taxpayers $7,000 per call, according to The Economist, putting the spending at $1.4 million.
The Associated Press reported Oregon was “awash in treatment funds after decriminalizing drugs,” adding the state has allocated $265 million to recovery centers. The funding came from taxes levied on the sale of marijuana. Sadly, the rollout of these funds has been slow, with only $184 million distributed as of May 26.
Despite this massive funding, The Economist reported that “…help seems hard to come by.” The overdose death rate in Oregon almost doubled since 2019, twice the national average.
The New York Times has reported on the horrid conditions on the streets of Portland, including needles and humans feces littering the streets, drug addicts using drugs at all times of the day, and violent addicts in tents beating other homeless people with baseball bats.
One program that has been particularly costly and unsuccessful is the treatment hotline. Meant to be a resource for addicts to call for help after receiving a citation for using drugs, The Economist found that in its first two years of existence, fewer than 200 people called the hotline, and fewer than 40 callers were interested in treatment. That put its cost to taxpayers at $7,000 per call.
(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Anger and grief surged through the Deschler family and their community as they grappled with the tragic death of disabled veteran Theodore “Teddy” Deschler, who was killed by FBI agents during an arrest operation at his residence.
The incident occurred in Henderson, Tennessee, on Aug. 16, igniting calls for transparency about what exactly occurred.
“It was a senseless act,” Deschler’s brother, Russell Deschler, told WBBJ on Aug. 20. “Teddy was a 100% disabled veteran. He had problems. He had severe PTSD. He had depression but he was getting help for it, but this was senseless.”
The 45-year-old Deschler was accompanied by his mother, Bonnie Deschler, at the time of the raid. As reported by WBBJ, she proceeded to open the door when she heard knocking in the early hours of the morning.
The FBI proceeded to move her out of the room and then stormed in to search for Deschler. When she pressed for information about what was happening, the FBI team allegedly responded, “It’s none of your business.”
Russell drew attention to the alleged fact that his brother was unarmed. “He didn’t have a weapon on him. He was just trying to get out of the house because it was filled with tear gas,” Russell explained before detailing the harrowing death.
“You couldn’t see,” he stated. “The height of the door and where Teddy was standing when they shot him and killed him, you couldn’t see if he was armed or not and you know he wasn’t “
Alex Morris, a neighbor who witnessed the events unfold, described the chaotic scene.
“I heard a loud bang. Then I heard a couple more. I heard the loudspeakers, ‘Come out with your hands up. We’re the FBI. We’re not going anywhere,’” Morris told WBBJ. “Before I knew it, I was coming out to see what was going on and watched them bust out their windows. I reckon they got him in there.”
Deschler had been arrested as a suspect following a gas station stabbing in a nearby town earlier this year, the Selmer Police Department claimed. However, details of the attack and any subsequent charges remained unclear.
As reported by WBBJ, the family demanded information about the arrest warrant and the circumstances surrounding Deschler’s death. “They said it’s an ongoing investigation, but they won’t say anything to us,” Russell expressed his frustration.
In response to the incident, the FBI issued a vague statement. “The FBI is reviewing an agent-involved shooting which occurred today at approximately 6:40 a.m. while FBI SWAT was conducting an arrest operation in Henderson, TN,” the bureau claimed before saying there is an ongoing investigation.
(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Congressional Republicans have shown themselves to be impotent when it comes to holding federal officials to account for their malfeasance—as evidenced by the fact that the FBI is set to receive a budget increase after targeting a sitting president, fomenting plots to kidnap governors and kill Colorado’s attorney general, and committing untold other constitutional transgressions.
Instead of continuing to wait for the federal government to check its own power, at least one state is taking matters into its own hands.
Earlier this year, Idaho’s GOP passed an internal resolution that calls for the abolition of the FBI if it “cannot be reformed.”
“The Idaho Republican State Central Committee condemns the Federal Bureau of Investigation for its misconduct, government overreach, and politically motivated weaponization,” the resolution said.
Passed unanimously in June, the resolution was sent to the state’s lawmakers and other government officials.
Though largely symbolic in nature, the resolution signals to politicians that their constituents are fed up with inaction, said Idaho resident David Reilly, who helped spearhead the initiative.
“This is an internal party resolution that directs our chairwoman, Dorothy Moon, to send a copy of the resolution to all of our U.S. congressmen, senators and local officials—directing them to support any efforts in DC to reform the FBI,” Reilly said.
“And if it’s irreformable, Idaho wants you to back the abolition of that corrupt federal agency.”
Reilly said he believes the Idaho resolution is the first of its kind. He encouraged other states to follow his lead.
“This is novel. It’s not modelled after any other state,” he said.
“If anyone wants to steal it, be my guest. Switch out the name of your local party and introduce it at your next meeting.”
Reilly said he thinks the resolution resonated in Idaho particularly due to the state’s long, sordid history with the FBI.
“People here absolutely hate the FBI because from 1984 to 1994, we had an activist agent up here who caused a whole bunch of problems and ultimately led to the deaths of multiple Idahoans,” he explained.
Reilly was referring to, in part, what can be described as a low-intensity war the FBI waged against the Idaho-based Aryan Nations in the 1980s and early 90s—in which the bureau terrorized the state with numerous undercover agents and informants posing as Nazis.
Among other tragedies, the FBI’s activities in Idaho resulted in a bureau sniper slaughtering the wife of an Aryan Nations sympathizer, in what’s now commonly known as the Ruby Ridge scandal. And, as typical with FBI operations, the bureau’s activity actually led to a resurgence of the Aryan Nations in the mid-1990s due to the bureau flooding the movement with cash.
In a twist of cruel irony, the FBI now views anyone who cites Ruby Ridge as a potential domestic terrorist, according to a leaked bureau bulletin published by Project Veritas last year. But that didn’t stop Reilly from citing Ruby Ridge in the Idaho GOP’s anti-FBI resolution.
The resolution also cited a the FBI’s coverup of a 1960s informant in the KKK who murdered a civil rights protestor, the Waco massacre, PATCON and the recent Trump-related scandals as reasons to abolish the bureau.
(Headline USA) One of the reporters who works at the small Kansas newspaper that was raided by authorities earlier this month filed a federal lawsuit against the police chief Wednesday.
Deb Gruver believes Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody violated her constitutional rights when he abruptly snatched her personal cellphone out of her hands during a search where officers also seized computers from the Marion County Record’s office, according to the lawsuit. That Aug. 11 search and two others conducted at the homes of the newspaper’s publisher and a City Council member have thrust the town into the center of a debate over the press protections in the First Amendment.
Cody didn’t immediately respond to an email or text message from The Associated Press on Wednesday seeking comment. He has said little publicly since the raids other than posting a defense of them on the police department’s Facebook page.
In court documents he filed to get the search warrants, he argued that he had probable cause to believe the newspaper and City Council member Ruth Herbel, whose home was also raided, had violated state laws against identity theft or computer crimes.
But the newspaper’s publisher, Eric Meyer, has said he believes the identity theft allegations provided a convenient excuse for the search, and the police chief was really upset about Gruver’s investigation into his background with the Kansas City, Missouri, Police Department before he was hired in Marion earlier this year. Meyer has said he plans to file his own lawsuit.
The Record is known for its aggressive coverage of local politics and its community of 1,900 people about 150 miles southwest of Kansas City, Missouri. Gruver — a veteran reporter with more than three decades of experience — said in a statement that by filing her lawsuit.
“I’m standing up for journalists across the country.” She has previously worked at other newspapers in Kansas, Wyoming and Indiana and has won awards for her reporting.
“It is our constitutional right to do this job without fear of harassment or retribution, and our constitutional rights are always worth fighting for,” said Gruver, who had the words “Freedom of the press” tattooed on her right forearm the same day her lawsuit was filed.
The city administrator directed questions about the lawsuit to its attorney, Brian Bina, and outside council, Jennifer Hill. Neither attorney immediately returned phone messages from The Associated Press seeking comment.
The police department’s investigation of the newspaper began after a local restaurant owner accused reporters of improperly using personal information to access details about the status of her suspended driver’s license and her record that included a DUI arrest. A spokesman for the agency that maintains those records has said the reporter’s search on a public website was likely legal.
The lawsuit says that the warrant expressly said that the search was supposed to focus only on equipment that was used to access those records, which was done by another reporter at the paper. But after Cody handed Gruver a copy of the warrant and she told him that she needed to call the publisher, he quickly grabbed her personal phone and took it.
“In seizing Ms. Gruver’s personal cellular phone despite the seizure exceeding the scope of the unreasonable and unlawful search warrant, Chief Cody acted in unreasonable and unnecessarily violent fashion, causing injury to plaintiff’s Gruver’s rights and her person,” the lawsuit said.
One of the officers even read Gruver, another reporter and an office administrator their Miranda rights even though they were never arrested before forcing them outside in the heat to watch the three-hour search.
After the search of the newspaper office, officers went on to search the home Meyer shared with his 98-year-old mother. Video of that raid shows how distraught his mother became as officers searched through their belongings. Meyer said he believes that stress contributed to the death of his mother, Joan Meyer, a day later.
Legal experts believe the raid on the newspaper violated a federal privacy law or a state law shielding journalists from having to identify sources or turn over unpublished material to law enforcement.
Authorities returned the computers and cellphones they took during the raids after the prosecutor decided there was insufficient evidence to justify their seizure. A judge ordered investigators Tuesday to also destroy electronic copies they made of the newspaper’s files.
The Kansas Bureau of Investigation is looking into the newspaper’s actions, but it hasn’t provided any updates on its investigation.
It’s not clear what action local officials might take. The City Council refused to discuss the raids at its meeting last week, and the mayor has told the Record that he doesn’t plan to take any action in response to them until after the KBI completes its investigation.
(By Casey Harper, The Center Square) Recently released federal pricing analysis from the U.S. Department of Agriculture projects that food prices will continue to rise through 2024.
The USDA pointed to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index released earlier this month, which showed consumer prices overall rose 3.2% in the previous twelve months. Food prices, though rose more quickly at 4.9% during the same time.
Now, USDA says that increase will continue.
“Food prices are expected to grow more slowly in 2023 than in 2022 but still at above historical-average rates,” USDA said in its analysis. “In 2023, all food prices are predicted to increase 5.9%, with a prediction interval of 5.3% to 6.5%. Food-at-home prices are predicted to increase 5.2%, with a prediction interval of 4.4% to 6.1%. Food-away-from-home prices are predicted to increase 7.1%, with a prediction interval of 6.8% to 7.5%.”
Food prices are rising more slowly than the fever pitch inflation spike earlier in the Biden administration, but those prices are still increasing.
“Food prices are expected to continue to decelerate but not decline in 2024,” USDA said. “In 2024, all food prices are predicted to increase 2.8%, with a prediction interval of -2.0% to 7.9%. Food-at-home prices are predicted to increase 2.1%, with a prediction interval of -5.1% to 9.9%, and food-away-from-home prices are predicted to increase 5.1%, with a prediction interval of 2.7% to 7.5%.”
Food costs soared in particular in 2022, rising by 9.9%. While 2022 saw the largest spike, prices had already begun rising earlier in the Biden administration.
Food prices rose noticeably in 2020, increasing by more than 3% while some categories like meat became even more expensive than that.
“The largest price increases were for meat categories: beef and veal prices increased by 9.6%, pork prices by 6.3%, and poultry prices by 5.6%,” USDA said. “The only category to decrease in price in 2020 was fresh fruits, by 0.8%.”
In 2021, the price of food-at-home rose 3.5% while the food-away-from-home prices rose 4.5%. Once again, beef saw a spike in cost, though all categories became more expensive.
“Of all the CPI food-at-home categories tracked by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Economic Research Service (ERS), the beef and veal category had the largest relative price increase (9.3%) and the fresh vegetables category the smallest (1.1%),” USDA said. “No food categories decreased in price in 2021 compared with their prices in 2020.”
As The Center Square previously reported, U.S. lawmakers are gearing up to renew the “farm bill” legislation, a major spending package focused mostly on agricultural issues.
That spending package, which normally authorizes five years of funds, could top a trillion dollars this time around. The existing farm bill expires Sept. 30 of this year.
(By Casey Harper, The Center Square) Newly revised Gross Domestic Product data shows that the U.S. economy grew by 2.1% in the second quarter of 2023, lower than previously reported by the federal agency.
The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis released the revised GDP numbers Wednesday, which are lower than the advance figure of 2.4%.
“The GDP estimate released today is based on more complete source data than were available for the ‘advance’ estimate issued last month. In the advance estimate, the increase in real GDP was 2.4 percent…” BEA said. “The updated estimates primarily reflected downward revisions to private inventory investment and nonresidential fixed investment that were partly offset by an upward revision to state and local government spending.”
GDP in the first quarter of this year rose 2%.
BEA also tracks Americans’ personal finances, reporting that disposable income increased.
“Disposable personal income increased $284.5 billion, or 5.9 percent, in the second quarter, an upward revision of $36.3 billion from the previous estimate,” BEA said. “Real disposable personal income increased 3.3 percent, an upward revision of 0.8 percentage point.
“The personal saving rate — personal saving as a percentage of disposable personal income — was 4.5 percent in the second quarter, an upward revision of 0.1 percentage point,” BEA added.
As The Center Square previously reported, the latest consumer confidence data shows Americans are less optimistic about the U.S. economy. Those surveyed cite the labor market as well as increases in the cost of groceries and gas.
(Corine Gatti, Headline USA) Left-wing riots were allowed to occur in Democrat-governed cities without strong resistance or consequence, and now those same professed protestors are raking in millions for their destructive actions.
Another Democrat-ruled city paid more than $5 million to Antifa and BLM protesters who broke the law after the death of George Floyd in 2020, the Daily Caller reported. Denver settled a class-action lawsuit on Aug. 23, detailing how protesters were allegedly selectively targeted for violating curfew, according to court documents.
It’s a violation of free speech to arrest violent protestors, according to the lead attorney for the violent protesters, Elizabeth Wang.
“The First Amendment does not allow police to clear the streets of protesters simply because they do not agree with their message,” Wang said in a statement. Wang didn’t address the looting, property destruction and terror her clients produced on the streets.
That was the basis for then-Democrat Denver Mayor Michael Hancock to set an 8 p.m. curfew in May 2020 while protesters obliterated the city.
Denver’s coffers must be getting low, as that was not the first lawsuit against the city. Seven protesters filed a lawsuit claiming that over 300 people were arrested for violating curfew in 2021, the Daily Caller reported.
A settlement was reached awarding upwards of $5 million to the protesters and ensuring that the city would not enforce future curfews against those engaging in First Amendment activity. In a separate case, a federal jury ordered Denver to pay $14 million in damages to a group of 12 protesters who said police violated their constitutional rights during the demonstrations.
The rioting business has proved lucrative for leftists. New York City agreed to pay over $13 million to settle a lawsuit brought on behalf of roughly 1,300 people who were arrested or beaten by police during race riots that swept through the city in the summer of 2020.
In the Bronx, the city agreed to a $13 million to settle a lawsuit by individual rioters. Philadelphia reached an agreement to pay $9.25 million to more than 200 people who were injured during the police response to protests in March.
(Corine Gatti, Headline USA) Harrison Floyd, leader of the group Black Voices for Trump and one of the 18 co-defendants in former President Donald Trump’s Fulton County lawfare attack by partisan District Attorney Fani Willis, was released Tuesday after spending four days in county lockup for being considered a “flight risk.”
The plight of Floyd—the only male, black co-defendant among the Fulton 19—quickly inspired backlash among conservatives, including a growing number of black Trump supporters, who saw it as yet another example of the two-tiered justice system at work.
Why is Harrison Floyd still in Fulton Co. jail? Why did Fani Willis leave a black man in jail over this? He needs to be released immediately. Please donate to his legal defense fund!!https://t.co/wEapZ3g18h
After Floyd, like his co-defendants, voluntarily surrendered himself last week, Judge Emily Richardson of the Fulton County Superior Court deemed him a threat to society and a flight risk, the Atlanta Journal–Constitution reported.
That left him to endure grueling conditions for four days in detention.
As many in the media gleefully reported following Trump’s arrest, 23 people have died in the Fulton County jail over the last four years, including one man who died from malnourishment and complications from bed bug bites.
“Just one was a stabbing death where they didn’t get to him for like two hours—he bled out,” said Christopher I. Kachouroff, one of Floyd’s attorneys.
“A guy died in there from … bed bugs, of all things,” Kachouroff added. “He’d been bitten so many times.”
A GiveSendGo campaign created for Floyd by Dominion Law Center to assist with his legal expenditures had raised nearly $280,000 as of Wednesday, well beyond its $200,000 goal.
“Harrison is also a veteran of America’s finest—the United States Marine Corp [sic],” it said. “He is a disabled vet and lives off that pension. For him to be treated this way is a travesty.”
The mounting public attention over the weekend proved to be a dilemma for Willis’s office, which didn’t like the optics, according to Kachouroff.
When confronted, Willis’s spokesman, attempted to blame Floyd for showing up unprepared for the hearing.
“Mr. Floyd has had the opportunity to work out a consent bond in the same manner as the other defendants named in the indictment, but chose not to do so until today,” spokesman Jeff DiSantis claimed Tuesday.
The prosecutor’s office said Floyd showed up last Thursday without an attorney and was arrested and booked like any other criminal, the Journal-Constitutionnoted.
DiSantis shared a recording of a phone call Willis made that same day to attorney Carlos J.R. Salvado, Floyd’s attorney, in an unrelated criminal case in federal court in Maryland.
In the call, Willis said she sent a representative to meet with Floyd when he turned himself in. The DA reportedly told Salvado that Floyd was presented with a consent bond at that time—he denied it.
“Fani will say he should have called her in advance to work out a bond. But that’s what these white Democrats want her to say,” said the GiveSendGo campaign.
“…Harrison is innocent,” it continued. “There is no victim here in this fake case being brought by Fani. Harrison shouldn’t have to post any bond whatsoever.”
Nevertheless, the assault on Trump’s black supporters may prove a political gift for Republicans as Democrats’ decades-long grip on black voters appears to be waning fast.
Trump’s mugshot had raised some $7 million as of Sunday, and on social media, many African-Americans rallied in support of the Republican leader, expressing admiration for his newfound street cred.
Some commenters argued that black men, in particular, were sympathizing with Trump because his arrest mirrors the perceived mistreatment that black individuals receive within the American criminal justice system.
One slogan, “The more you indict, the more we unite,” began trending, including a tweet by Brandon Straka, the gay, red-pilled founder of the #WalkAway movement, ZeroHedge reported.
In Atlanta, several groups, including one called Blacks for Trump, gathered near Fulton County Jail on Rice Street to support Trump. Black men were interviewed and shared their opinion that Trump was better for their financial well-being, stating that he encouraged them to work hard and put America first.
One man even articulated his support while wearing a shirt that shockingly declared “N***as 4 Trump.”
Comedian ‘Clutch Williams’ released a video supporting President Trump and said Trump was the best president “We had in a long time. It appears that every lie is being revealed before our eyes.”
🔥🚨BREAKING: Comedian ‘Clutch Williams’ just released a video supporting President Trump and goes as far to say that Donald Trump was one of the best Presidents we had in a long time. It appears that every lie is being revealed before our eyes. pic.twitter.com/zNSLbT6LGM
— Dom Lucre | Breaker of Narratives (@dom_lucre) August 26, 2023
Another person posted on social media, “Trump’s arrest is only making him more popular in the black community!!”
Headline USA’s Ben Sellers contributed to this report.
(Headline USA) President Joe Biden privately admitted that he “felt tired” amidst concerns about his age and mental fitness, according to a new book.
The 80-year-old’s health has become a major concern and “hindrance,” according to author Franklin Foer, whose book The Last Politician releases this fall.
“It was striking that he took so few morning meetings or presided over so few public events before 10 a.m.,” Foer wrote. “His public persona reflected physical decline and time’s dulling of mental faculties that no pill or exercise regime can resist. In private, he would occasionally admit that he felt tired.”
Foer’s reporting directly contradicts claims by the White House that Biden works a full schedule and is able to meet the demands of the job.
“I can tell you, having traveled with him a fair amount, sometimes he’s hard to keep up with,” former White House press secretary Jen Psaki said.
Despite the White House’s spin, the vast majority of voters on both sides of the political aisle find Biden’s age concerning, with 89% of Republicans and 69% of Democrats saying they are worried his health will affect his presidency, according to a recent poll.
“This is something that the White House, the Biden campaign cannot avoid. It is a reality,” MSNBC contributor Eugene Robinson said this week.
“It might be uncomfortable for some people to talk about, but when you have private dinner parties, when you go out and at the ice cream place in the summer, people do,” he added. “Even Democrats who like Joe Biden and plan to support him, they do have concerns about his age.”
Biden himself has acknowledged his age is a “legitimate concern” for voters. However, in private he has vented to allies about the media coverage of his gaffes and falls.
“You think I don’t know how f***ing old I am?” Biden told one aide, according to Politico.
“I think he’s great,” Trump told radio host Glenn Beck when asked about Ramaswamy. “He’s a smart guy. He’s a young guy. He’s got a lot of talent. He’s a very, very, very intelligent person. He’s got good energy, and he could be some form of something, I tell you. I think he’d be very good.”
However, Trump offered some advice to Ramaswamy.
“He’s starting to get out there a little bit. He’s getting a little bit controversial. I guess I’d tell him to be a little bit careful,” Trump said.
In the past, Ramaswamy said he would not accept an offer to be someone’s vice president.
“I don’t do well in a No. 2, so I’d be about as likely to accept it as he would be to accept my offer to be my vice president,” he said earlier this month. “It’s a ‘no.’”
Ramaswamy was the first candidate to emphatically commit to supporting Trump for the 2024 presidential election if Trump is the GOP nominee — even if Trump was convicted in one of the four indictments against him.
He also praised Trump as the “greatest president of the 21st century” during the debate. And when asked whether he stands by that statement considering he is challenging Trump for the presidency now, Ramaswamy did not walk back his comments.
“I judge by results,” he told NBC News. “That being said, I believe I can take the America First agenda even further than Donald Trump did. I think I will be more effective in uniting this country in the process. I want to build on the foundation that Trump laid.”
The young GOP candidate also committed to bringing Trump on as an “adviser” or “mentor” if Ramaswamy were to win the White House.
“Frankly, I will invite him as an adviser and a mentor. I don’t wanna relearn the same lessons. I want to pick up where he left off in taking on the administrative state,” he explained.
