Dianne Feinstein, 90, Hospitalized – AGAIN – after Fall

(Headline USA) Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., was hospitalized this week after falling in her San Francisco home, according to a spokesperson.

The spokesman claimed that Feinstein, 90, went to the hospital only as a precautionary measure. She “returned home shortly after with no serious injuries,” he said in a statement, adding, “All of her scans were clear, and she returned home.”

Feinstein has had memory and cognition troubles for years, but her health has come under intense scrutiny in recent months. She missed months of crucial votes on judicial nominees in the Senate earlier this year due to a shingles diagnosis, leading several of her colleagues to call on her to resign.

The California senator has said she does not plan to seek reelection in 2024, but has also insisted that she has no plans to retire before then. 

Democrat leadership has thus far refrained from calling for Feinstein’s retirement. In a statement on Wednesday, for example, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said he is glad she is “doing well.”

“I spoke with Sen. Feinstein this morning. She said she suffered no injuries and briefly went to the hospital as a precaution,” he said in a statement. “I’m glad she is back home now and is doing well.”

Democratic leadership’s silence on the issue has led some to speculate that protecting Feinstein is a part of the plan to put Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., in the Senate. Schiff is one of several House Democrats seeking Feinstein’s seat and has already won over the backing of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

However, his chances at filling the seat would be derailed if Feinstein retires, since California Gov. Gavin Newsom would be expected to honor his commitment to appoint a black, female replacement.

“It’s very tricky, and political, because they want her to stay,” a confidant of the Pelosi family told Politico’s Playbook. “The political thinking is that if DiFi stays as long as possible, it helps Schiff as well.”

‘Squad’ Rep. Complains Migrant Crisis Is Making Democrats Look Bad Ahead of 2024

(Headline USA) Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., complained this week that the border crisis is making Democrats look bad and demanded “leadership” from President Joe Biden.

The open-borders-embracing “Squad” leftist acknowledged that the influx of illegal immigrants into New York will likely be a pressing issue in the upcoming 2024 election, and said he worries Democrats will lose close races in the House as a result.

“Here’s the thing, Democrats are looking bad right now in New York State, and that’s unacceptable when we have to win at least four congressional seats to take back the House,” Bowman said. “So hopefully the president is listening.”

Bowman pointed to recent reports about New York’s overflowing homeless shelters, and said the state is “struggling to provide housing and all the support that the migrants need.”

“We need leadership from President Biden, period. We need that leadership right here in New York State, because you know, New York State is struggling,” Bowman said, according to NY1. 

New York City Mayor Eric Adams has also blasted Biden, demanding that the administration give the city additional resources to grapple with the surge of migrants.

“Our compassion may be limitless, but our resources are not. This is the budgetary reality we are facing if we don’t get the additional support we need,” Adams said this week. “New Yorkers did not create an international humanitarian crisis. But our city’s residents have been left to deal with this crisis almost entirely on our own.”

Fifty other New York Democrats joined Adams’ call in a letter to Biden last month, urging him to direct federal aid to the city.

“Our City is experiencing an unprecedented migrant influx, with a surge of asylum seekers arriving here in numbers never seen before in history,” they wrote in a letter. “We take pride in New York being a beacon of hope for immigrants, but the influx of migrants is so great that the City is running out of resources.”

Obama Judge Held Twitter in Contempt for Trying to Protect Trump’s Twitter

(Ken Silva, Headline USA) A newly unsealed court opinion shows that Special Counsel Jack Smith obtained a search warrant for Donald Trump’s Twitter account as part of his investigation into the former president, and that Twitter was held in contempt after contesting and failing to comply with the warrant.

The opinion from the Washington DC Appeals Court—issued in July and made public Wednesday—shows that Smith obtained a search warrant in January that directed Twitter to produce data and records related to”@realDonaldTrump.” The Justice Department also slapped a gag order on Twitter to prevent the company from notifying Trump about the warrant.

At first, Twitter fought both the warrant and the non-disclosure order, according to the appeals court opinion.

Twitter argued that the order violated the company’s First Amendment right to communicate with Trump, and that Trump may have legal standing to raise his executive-privilege rights to block the warrant. Twitter further argued that it shouldn’t have to comply with the DOJ’s warrant until the non-disclosure issue was resolved.

Twitter had until Jan. 31 to comply with the warrant. When it didn’t, the DOJ sought a court order to hold the company in contempt.

At a Feb. 7 hearing, Obama-appointed District Judge Beryl Howell heard arguments from both parties about Twitter’s noncompliance with the search warrant.

Judge Howell ruled in favor of the DOJ on both issues, and ordered Twitter to comply with the warrant by 5 p.m. that day. When Twitter again failed to do so, Howell slapped a $350,000 fine on the company.

The appeals court upheld all of Howell’s decisions.

“In sum, we affirm the district court’s rulings in all respects. The district court properly rejected Twitter’s First Amendment challenge to the nondisclosure order,” the appeals court said.

“Moreover, the district court acted within the bounds of its discretion to manage its docket when it declined to stay its enforcement of the warrant while the First Amendment claim was litigated,” the court added.

“Finally, the district court followed the appropriate procedures before finding Twitter in contempt of court—including giving Twitter an opportunity to be heard and a chance to purge its contempt to avoid sanctions. Under the circumstances, the court did not abuse its discretion when it ultimately held Twitter in contempt and imposed a $350,000 sanction.”

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

DeSantis Boots Another Soros Prosecutor

(Robert Jonathan, Headline USA) Invoking his authority under the Florida constitution, Gov. Ron DeSantis has immediately suspended without pay a prosecutor for what his executive order describes as “neglect of duty” and “incompetence.”

At a press conference Wednesday announcing the decision, DeSantis deemed Florida “a law-and- order state” and asserted that “refusing to faithfully enforce the laws of Florida puts our communities in danger and victimizes innocent Floridians.”

That’s why Orlando-area State Attorney Monique Worrell, who reportedly received approximately $1 million in 2020 campaign contributions from a political action committee set up by far-left billionaire oligarch George Soros, is out of a job, at least temporarily.

Soros-funded, soft-on-crime prosecutors far more interested in implementing social justice than criminal justice have presided over a wave of lawlessness in jurisdictions across the country.

“Worrell’s practices and policies have too often allowed violent criminals to escape the full consequences of their criminal conduct, thereby endangering the innocent civilians of Orange and Osceola counties,” an accompanying DeSantis press release explained about the executive action.

DeSantis’ 40-page executive order, including about 25 pages of supporting exhibits, indicates Worrell’s alleged failures to carry out the responsibilities of her office, especially when it involves gun crime, narcotics violations and child porn.

“Worrell has authorized or allowed practices or policies that have systematically permitted . violent offenders, drug traffickers, serious-juvenile offenders, and pedophiles to evade incarceration, when otherwise warranted under Florida law,” the order summarized.

Worrell’s way of doing things allegedly was to avoid filing charges or dropping charges against suspects, even with strong evidence in hand, and trying to circumvent mandatory minimum sentencing requirements, “or other sentencing enhancements, especially for offenders under the age of 25, except in the most extreme cases,” according to the DeSantis document.

“The people of Central Florida deserve to have a State Attorney who will seek justice in accordance with the law instead of allowing violent criminals to roam the streets and find new victims,” DeSantis, who is a 2024 GOP candidate for president, also said.

The governor named Judge Andrew Bain to assume Worrell’s duties as chief prosecutor in the state’s 9th Judicial district for the duration for the suspension.

Worrell is the second radical Democrat prosecutor that DeSantis has found wanting.

Last year, the governor removed Andrew Warren, a Tampa-area State Attorney who had vowed that he would not enforce Florida’s abortion restrictions or restrictions on transgender surgery for minors.

In June, the Florida Supreme Court upheld DeSantis’s action.

According to NBC News, “Both Warren’s and Worrell’s 2020 campaigns received help from a committee that got money from Democratic megadonor George Soros.”

Police in Oakland, Calif. Advise Residents to Fight Crime w/ Air Horns

(Corine Gatti, Headline USA) In another sign of California’s deteriorating criminal justice system, police advised residents in the Democrat-run Oakland to use airhorns to alert neighbors when criminals strike.

That air-horn siren call was the leftist latest solution to combat surging crime in the city, the Gateway Pundit reported.

The crime-infested city has been a concern for both the police force and residents. Due to a shortage of officers and various leftist laws restricting their abilities, the situation has rapidly crumbled.

The Oakland Police Department’s hands are tied, officials said. They have 715 officers, but said that nowhere near sufficient. The police union believed the number should be closer to 1,200 based on the population and call volume, CNN reported, noting that these numbers could differentiate.

Additionally, the state’s stance against the 2nd Amendment added to the grimness of the scenario. To tackle this, the police urged citizens to install security bars on their doors and windows to protect themselves against the 41% increase in burglaries and robberies (more than 20%), according to the outlet. 

The same left-leaning leaders who caused the problem, were the ones complaining about the rise in crime.

NAACP Oakland Branch President Cynthia Adams and Oakland pastor Bishop Bob Jackson were outraged that the Soros-backed DA has allowed things to get this bad, sending a letter to elected officials. 

“African Americans are disproportionately hit the hardest by crime in East Oakland and other parts of the city. But residents from all parts of the city report that they do not feel safe,” they wrote.

“Crime is out of control in the city of Oakland,” former Chief LeRonne Armstrong said in June 2021. And yet, Oakland’s city councilors voted to defund the police, diverting nearly $18 million from the department’s budget and cutting 50 police officers from the force that same month.

Meanwhile, citizens can’t walk outside their homes. David Schneider, 60, was shot and killed while trimming a tree in his yard. His neighbor, Toni Bird, expressed concerns over safety and the need for protection. She suggested barricading the house to feel secure. 

Highlighting the absurdity of Oakland officials’ newest crime-fighting strategy, conservatives derided the move as many potential victims in Oakland remained sitting targets.

 

Foreign Payments to Biden Family Now up to $20M, Including New Porsche for Hunter

(Ken Silva, Headline USA) The House Oversight Committee has released another set of findings from its ongoing Biden family corruption probe, revealing that the amount of foreign payments received by the Bidens is now least $20 million—including a brand-new Porsche for Hunter.

The Oversight Committee’s Wednesday memo follows the committee’s May report, which found that more than 20 companies, 12 banks and nine Biden relatives were used in what GOP lawmakers describe as a complex money-laundering scheme.

That May report focused on Biden payments received from China and Romania, while Wednesday’s memo delved into transactions from oligarchs in Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan. Wednesday’s memo also corroborates former Biden associate Devon Archer’s recent testimony with bank records and other documentation.

For instance, the memo detailed how then-Vice President Joe Biden had dinner with Hunter, Archer and Russian oligarch Yelena Baturina in 2014, around the same time Baturina was paying Hunter and Archer millions of dollars.

Baturina, whose late husband was once identified as presiding over a “pyramid of corruption” by a U.S. ambassador to Russia, was left off the U.S. sanctions list when Russia invaded Ukraine last year. The committee suggested that Baturina was able to avoid sanctions because of her friendship with the Bidens.

Wednesday’s memo also noted that a Kazakhstani oligarch essentially purchased a Porsche for Hunter.

The Kazakhstani, Kenes Rakishev, wired Hunter $142,300 in February 2014. The very next day Hunter purchased a new sportscar for the exact same amount, according to the memo. Archer told the Oversight Committee last month that the sportscar was a Porsche.

The committee said the money for the Porsche was likely a payment for Hunter arranging for Burisma executives to visit Kazakhstan in June 2014 to evaluate a three-way deal among Burisma, a Chinese state-owned company and the government of Kazakhstan.

All told, the amount of foreign payments to the Bidens identified by the Oversight Committee is up to at least $20 million. The committee’s chairman, Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., said his investigation is still underway.

“It’s clear Joe Biden knew about his son’s business dealings and allowed himself to be ‘the brand’ sold to enrich the Biden family while he was Vice President of the United States,” Comer said in a Wednesday press release.

“The House Oversight Committee will continue to follow the money trail and obtain witness testimony to determine whether foreign actors targeted the Bidens, President Biden is compromised or corrupt, and our national security is threatened.”

The Trump camp also highlighted the committee’s latest findings, releasing the following statement.

“Crooked Joe Biden and his corrupt family made millions selling the ‘Biden brand’ to foreign nationals,” said Karoline Leavitt, spokeswoman for Make America Great Again Inc.

“The evidence released today further proves that Merrick Garland and the Biden Justice Department are covering up Biden’s crimes as they relentlessly pursue baseless charges against President Trump. Our nation cannot withstand four more years of this two-tier system of justice.”

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

Biden Decrees New Nat’l Monument Near Grand Canyon to Block Uranium Mining

(President Joe Biden proclaimed a new monument near the Grand Canyon, a move that will stop proposed uranium mining in the area and, consequently, benefit foreign adversaries like China, where the Biden family is personally invested in a state-run energy company.

The Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni—Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument, in Arizona will encompass “nearly 1 million acres” around the famous park, according to the White House.

Nearby tribes, such as Hopi and Havasupai, expressed support for a monument to be designated in the area over concerns about how mining could impact water resources and conservation.

“Help right the wrongs of the past and conserve this land,” Biden said at the remote Red Butte Airfield on Tuesday, making reference to the struggles tribes in the Southwest have faced when it comes to preserving land they’re originally from.

“America’s natural wonders are central to our heritage and our identity of our nation,” he said. “Today marks a historic step in preserving the majesty of this place,” he later added.

The president also focused on the intersection between climate change and economic policy, part of what the White House is dubbing “Bidenomics.”

Some conservatives have criticized the move by Biden as poor energy policy. Uranium is most commonly used for nuclear power.

“As the President is celebrating his inflationary spending agenda and making it harder to produce safe and carbon-free nuclear energy, Arizonans are paying the price,” Stephen Shadegg, state director for Americans for Prosperity-Arizona, said in a news release.

Republicans pre-empted Biden’s visit on Monday with a hearing about how monument status would permanently withdraw 1.1 million acres of U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management land from economic production like uranium mining, cattle grazing and other activies in the area, in addition to limiting opportunities for hunting, fishing and recreation.

“Mohave County doesn’t want this monument,” said House Majority Leader Leo Biasiucci, R-Lake Havasu City, in a news release.

They claimed the move would likely violate the Statehood Enabling Act.

Democrats on the GOP-led committees gathered in Kingman Monday afternoon declined to attend, calling the hearing a “sham.”

In addition to the proclamation, the administration said in a release that they would be investing $44 million to “strengthen climate resilience” at National Parks.

Ohio’s GOP Lawmakers Rebuffed in Bid to Block Anti-Life Amendment

(Ohio voters overwhelmingly rejected an attempt Tuesday to make it more difficult for citizens to change the constitution—a measure intended to prevent Democrats from enshrining abortion via a November referendum.

In a special election that cost state taxpayers $15 million and came less than a year after Republican lawmakers outlawed August special elections, a GOP-backed amendment that would have required a 60% majority to pass a constitutional amendment failed 61% to 39%.

“Obviously, there are a lot of folks that did not want this to happen—not just because of the November issues, but for all of the other ones that are coming,” Republican Senate President Matt Huffman said in a statement expressing his disappointment, while predicting that lawmakers may try again in the future.

The Associated Press called the defeat at 8:58 p.m. with 20% of precincts reporting.

That triggered a wave of hysterical celebration from Democrat party operatives nationwide, who suddenly treated the relatively obscure and convoluted issue like it had been a crucial bellwether all along.

The Ohio Senate Democratic Caucus called the defeat of Issue 1 a win for democracy.

“The defeat of Issue 1 will go down in history as a victory for our state and democracy,” said Minority Leader Nickie J. Antonio, D-Lakewood. “Ohioans saw through the despicable attempt to silence voters and chose to preserve majority rule.”

A proposed constitutional amendment on the November ballot would guarantee abortion rights in the state.

“Ohioans sent a clear message tonight that they won’t allow Republicans to rig our democracy,” said U.S. Rep. Emilia Sykes, D-Ohio. “Whether it’s reproductive rights, voting rights or labor rights, these freedoms should not be subject to the whims of out-of-touch politicians. Tonight, we celebrate, but the fight continues in November.”

That proposed amendment says every individual has a right to make and carry out their own reproductive decisions, including by not limited to decisions on contraception, fertility, treatment, continuing one’s pregnancy, miscarriage care and abortion.

It would prohibit abortion after “fetal viability” except to protect the mother’s life. It defines fetal viability as when a fetus has a significant likelihood of survival outside the uterus with reasonable measures.

A proposed amendment that would make recreational marijuana legal could also be on the November ballot.

Reports came Tuesday of high voter turnout, especially for a special election with a single issue, with the state’s largest counties showing turnout more than double from the May primary elections.

More than 700,000 early ballots were cast, more than twice as many as early votes during primary elections in 2018 and 2022 with high-profile races.

Some counties were even higher. Hamilton County (Cincinnati) showed a turnout of more than 38%, while Cuyahoga (Cleveland) was higher than 36%.

The ACLU-Ohio tweeted that precincts in Stark County ran out of ballots before the polls closed and told voters waiting on ballots or in line when polls closed at 7:30 p.m. to stay in line.

Issue 1 needed only a 50%-plus-one majority to pass. It was the only issue on the ballot.

It would have required any petition filed for an amendment to be signed by at least 5% of each county’s electors based on the county’s total vote during the last gubernatorial election. A petition needs 5% from 44 of the state’s 88 counties.

According to Ballotpedia, more than 80% of political contributions on both sides of Issue 1 came from out-of-state donors.

PBS Catches Kamala’s Climate Anxiety, Offers Cult Therapy

(Mark Pellin, Headline USA) Regime-collaborative mainstream media swung into action after Vice President Kamala Harris warned that America’s youth, who have been subjected to the left’s relentless global boiling doomsaying, were suffering from “climate anxiety.”

Taxpayer-funded PBS NewsHour devoted a Sunday segment to promote the wisdom and comfort of a “climate psychology therapist” to help mentally unhinged, social justice snowflakes who are melting into hysterics over the looming climate armageddon.

PBS anchor John Yang likely didn’t help the purported mental crisis with his introduction of the therapist, warning of “triple-digit temperatures for days on end, smoke from record-setting wildfires fouling the air, warming oceans, bleaching coral reef,” while claiming the doom and gloom can actually be a positive development spurring people to take action.

As the Biden regime’s resident pop-psychologist, Harris informed a NAACP confab earlier this month that a terror sweeping America’s youth was “climate anxiety.” It was a new term the veep said she learned from kids sharing horror stories about global warming at global warming conclaves sponsored by affluent leftists and the federal government.

PBS doubled-down on Harris’s claims, profiling fretting climate cultists who were tracked down to share their foreboding for the future.

“My climate anxiety does affect my daily life again,” lamented one of the troop of traumatized, who claimed to be “living in a city that reaches 117 degrees and I watched the birds outside struggling in the heat.”

After sharing seven stories from “the voices of Americans and how climate change is affecting their feelings,” PBS introduced climate psychologist therapist Leslie Davenport to offer solutions to the alleged problem that climate alarmists have created with their perpetual fear mongering.

PBS ranks among the offenders, dating back several years to when they promoted “a playbook for how to talk to children following a major tragedy” and compared climate change to surviving a mass shooting.

“When does healthy concern about the planet, about climate change become this sort of climate anxiety?” Yang asked, minutes after sounding the alarm on brain-frying temperatures, boiling oceans and bleached corral reefs.

“Well, from the emerging field of climate psychology, one thing that’s really important to understand is we view distress, upset, sadness, grief, anger about climate change to be a really reasonable, even healthy reaction,” said the good doctor, who is currently hawking her book “Emotional Resiliency in the Era of Climate Change.”

When pressed for examples of actions that climate-anxious viewers could take to ease their anxiety — excluding, one would guess, tuning out Yang’s apocalyptic forecasting — Davenport suggested joining a “climate circle” to help cope.

“Talk about it, talk about it to other people who are like-minded, receptive, ‘I feel that way too,’ so that it’s not as isolating,” Davenport said.

“If it’s hard to find that, there are a lot of what are called climate cafes, or climate circles, that can be found by an easy online search, where people just get together often online, remotely, and just say what they’re feeling what they’re experiencing, what people have found helpful.”

Feds Gave Thousands to Newsom-Funded China COVID Lab; Concerns Grow over Site Contamination

(Mark Pellin, Headline USA) In addition to securing upwards of $400,000 from the administration of California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a covert CCP biolab discovered in the Democrat’s home state also received at least $150,000 in federal funding.

The now-notorious biolab was owned and being illegally operated by Prestige Biotech, which took over operations from a bankrupt Universal Meditech. Both companies have extensive ties to CCP officials, the communist government’s United Front espionage network and multiple Chinese drug companies and institutes of virology.

California officials raided the biolab last month and discovered a horror show of hazards, including nearly a thousand dead lab mice, stockpiles of “infectious agents,” including coronavirus, and vials of unidentified biological fluids.

The mice at the black market “unlicensed laboratory,” which received at least $500,000 in state and federal taxpayer funding, “were genetically engineered to catch and carry the Covid-19 virus.”

Biden’s FDA issued a recall warning of 54,000 COVID rapid test kits that the company had manufactured, even as the company was reaping $150,000 from the federal government’s COVID-era Paycheck Protection Program.

“The entire debacle raises a number of questions like: How many of these dangerous biolabs are operating in the US?” wrote Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk.

“What does it take to get licensed to mess around with infectious agents? Why are we allowing the sale of sensitive biological materials to shady Chinese firms?” he asked. “What on earth is going on here!?”

The $360,000 in taxpayer loot that Universal Meditech received from Newsom also had dubious timing, along with the origin of the company’s business license, which didn’t cover the biolab’s continued black market operation under Prestige Biotech.

The Chinese-linked COVID lab that was experimenting with mice that “were genetically engineered to catch and carry the Covid-19 virus” received it’s business blessing from the Newsom administration, “exactly one year to the day before Gov. Gavin Newsom’s State of Emergency Order locking down the entire state over the COVID-19 virus.”

Repercussions from the biolab have extended beyond the financial funding fallout, sparking fears, questions and concerns about the efficacy of COVID tests, along with pregnancy tests that were also recalled, that might have slipped through the cracks or been contaminated.

In a report by the Daily Mail, the FDA “did not disclose” how many of the 56,300 unapproved COVID tests “actually made it into the hands of consumers.”

That was of particular concerns to Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious diseases expert at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, who said photos he had seen of the biolab showed “sloppy” and “slovenly” conditions.

“Could there be in the packaging, also, potentially some surface contamination with an infectious agent? I suppose that’s possible in an environment that’s as extraordinarily bad as this one,” Schaffner told the Daily Mail.

“You cannot imagine that a diagnostic test, which has to adhere to certain performance characteristics, could be produced in an environment that’s so sloppy that you could rely on the results,” he said.

Residents in the Fresno County town of Reedley, meanwhile, took to an online forum to share their concerns in the wake of the Chinese COVID lab being discovered in their backyard.

“I sure hope and pray we were not exposed from anything that has been there for who knows how long,” wrote one resident. “Very very disturbing!!”