Kohl’s Hops on Transgender Bandwagon for Babies

Dmytro "Henry" Aleksandrov
-
0
Kohl’s Hops on Transgender Bandwagon for Babies

(Dmytro “Henry” Aleksandrov, Headline USA) Gearing up to celebrate Pride month by bowing to the woke LGBT mob, Kohl’s started to push pro-LGBT clothing on little children, joining Bud Light and Target.

According to the Daily Wire, in preparation for “Pride” month in June, Kohn’s started to sell onesies with the LGBTQ “pride” flag on them. Among all of the LGBT merchandise that exists in the store is the “Baby Sonoma Community Pride Bodysuit Set,” which sells for $9.99.

“Celebrate the joy that comes from living authentically and unapologetically during Pride month and all year long with this Baby Sonoma Community® Pride Bodysuit Set,” the product description stated.

The Daily Wire also reported that the onesie sold in the store for infants as young as 3 months featured adults and children marching and carrying an LGBTQ flag.

People on Twitter immediately responded to the recent decision of the woke company.

“Kohls’s with the PRIDE BABY clothes… stop targeting children it’s gross. #BoycottTarget was the beginning here’s another to add to the list,” one social media user tweeted.

Another Twitter user shared the same thoughts.

“Another woke corporation who feels it’s ok to sell children’s clothing with adult sexual preferences on them – hey @Kohls  we are looking at you. Go woke go broke mother ph***ers,” while another declared, “Another Company needing Bud-lighting.”

The “Bud-lighting” effect is referred to the destruction of the Bud Light brand that started when Dylan Mulvaney, a man who pretends to be a woman, posted a video to his 1.8 million followers on Instagram promoting Bud Light.

It seems that the video with Mulvaney became a straw that broke the camel’s back and conservatives started to boycott the beer all over the country, which resulted in the loss of  $15.7 billion since the beginning of April.

Additionally, Target — another company that started pushing the pro-LGBT propaganda — lost $10 billion in market capitalization in ten days after people started to boycott the company’s LGBTQ Pride displays including “transgender”-friendly clothing items for children, as reported by the Daily Wire.

Texas Set to Ban Radical DEI Indoctrination at Public Universities

Robert Jonathan
-
0
Texas Set to Ban Radical DEI Indoctrination at Public Universities

(Robert Jonathan, Headline USA) A law banning diversity, equity and inclusion gatekeeping in public universities in Texas is on its way to GOP Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk.

Both chambers of the state legislature passed Senate Bill 17 on Sunday. Taking effect on January 1, 2024, the bill shuts down existing DEI offices and bans any new hires from carrying out DEI-related duties.

It also prohibits radical training programs for employees or students that in practice have become forums for far-left indoctrination that often creates divisive and artificial categories of oppressor and victim with Marxist connotations.

Among other provisions, the law reaffirms that hiring practices at these taxpayer-funded educational institutions must be “color-blind and sex-neutral in accordance with any applicable state and federal antidiscrimination laws.”

So-called diversity statements required of job applicants will also soon be a thing of the past.

Texas universities can’t spend any state money until they certify compliance with the new law, and the law includes state oversight in form of periodic compliance audits. In addition, the text of the bill suggests that any student or employee forced into a DEI program can take a school to court.

Gov. Abbott is very likely to sign the bill. Under state law, he has 10 or 20 days (depending upon whether the legislature is about to adjourn) to make decision, which could include letting it become law without his signature.

Critics of the DEI ideology, who have often reshuffled the DEI acronym to DIE, argue that the agenda that has gained such currency in education, government and corporations that it actually results in conformity, unfairness and exclusion.

Acrimony rather than unity is similarly seen as a  byproduct.

In a statement, GOP State Sen. Brandon Creighton, one of the bill’s co-sponsors, said that “The days of political oaths, compelled speech, and racial profiling in university hiring are behind us. Moving forward, Texas will prioritize the advancement of the most qualified individuals and endorse policies that promote diversity and equality for our great state.”

Florida governor and GOP presidential candidate Ron DeSantis recently approved a bill precluding any federal or state funds spent on DEI offices or staff in the Sunshine State.

Several other red states may soon follow suit.

Observers separately maintain that universities that have substantially expanded campus  bureaucracies, DEI-related or otherwise, and then passed along the costs to classroom customers in the form of soaring tuition, is one of the reasons why student loan debt relief has become a major issue.

Debt Limit Deal Takes Fire from All Sides

Wire Editor
-
0
Debt Limit Deal Takes Fire from All Sides

(By Casey Harper, The Center Square) President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., reached a tentative compromise to raise the debt ceiling over the weekend, but the plan still faces a rocky path forward.

Lawmakers on both sides have expressed frustration with the concessions made to reach that deal with several suggesting they will not vote to support the debt limit increase. If a deal is not passed by June 5, U.S. Treasury officials say the nation risks defaulting on its debt obligations, hurting the national credit rating, and sending shockwaves through the U.S. economy and the global markets.

“I just spoke with Speaker McCarthy, and we’ve reached a bipartisan budget agreement that we’re ready to move to the full Congress,” Biden said over the weekend. “And I think it’s a really important step forward…and it takes the threat of catastrophic default off the table; it protects our hard-earned and historic economic recovery.”

The “Fiscal Responsibility Act” extends the debt limit until January 1 of 2025, notably through the next election. Democrats have touted that the agreement does not significantly cut nondefense spending. McCarthy says the plan would freeze for fiscal year 2024 and then increase by 1% in 2025 and touted that the bill takes back $20 billion that was previously appropriated to the IRS as well as another $30 billion of unspent COVID relief funds.

The agreement would also expand work requirements for food stamps for some American adults. McCarthy touted the wins for Republicans, arguing that in the last several debt limit increases, there were no spending cuts of this kind.

“This responsible debt limit agreement reduces overall spending, reduces non-defense spending, and reduces the deficit—unlike any debt limit increase in recent history,” McCarthy said.

However, several Republicans in the House have suggested they will vote no on the deal as currently constructed. They point to an increase in the national debt as the major issue, rallying in opposition to that rising number.

Lawmakers seem to be disputing even the dollar amounts in the deal itself, arguing, for example, that a smaller increase should not be called a spending “cut.” Because the annual federal deficit has grown so large, lawmakers could reduce the deficit but still add trillions of dollars in debt over the next few years.

McCarthy, who managed to get concessions in a divided government, is also taking fire since he was barely able to win the support of conservative Republicans to be Speaker of the House.

“The D.C. Swamp has proposed the largest debt ceiling increase in our nation’s history, adding $4 trillion to the existing $31 trillion national debt,” Rep. Matt Rosendale, R-Mont, said in a statement after the deal was reached.

“The Fiscal Irresponsibility Act fails to cut spending and continues to fund the Democrats’ and Biden Administration’s radical agenda. It is frankly an insult to the American people to support a piece of legislation that continues to put our country’s financial future at risk. Montanans did not send me to Washington to support business as usual, which is why I will be voting AGAINST the Fiscal Irresponsibility Act.”

White House officials seemed to back up conservative Republicans’ concerns when touting the agreement. A White House official spoke on a press call on background reporters to that effect. Normally, comments on background are not published verbatim, but the White House published a transcript online of the comments:

“This is a — much different from the 22% cut to non-defense discretionary priorities and 10 years of caps that was originally laid out by House Republicans,” the official said. “In fact, this outcome is roughly what would have happened to non-defense spending if we hadn’t had a budget agreement this year and instead had enacted a full-year continuing resolution.”

Senate Republicans have their problems with the deal as well. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., reacted sharply on Twitter after the deal was brokered.

“Fake conservatives agree to fake spending cuts,” Paul said. “Deal will increase mandatory spending ~5%, increase military spending ~3%, and maintain current non-military discretionary spending at post-COVID levels. No real cuts to see here. Conservatives have been sold out once again!”

Democrats have blasted Republicans, calling for a debt limit increase without the proposed cuts.

“The Republicans holding the entire world economy hostage unless they get what they want has been an outrageous display of extremist politics,” Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., wrote on Twitter.

Republicans, though, have pointed to soaring debt and inflation in recent years. The national debt is projected to hit $32 trillion this year, and inflation remains stubbornly high.

The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis released its Personal Consumption Expenditure index Friday which showed the PCE rose 0.4% in April. As The Center Square previously reported, inflation soared during Biden’s administration, with prices for some items like groceries increasing over 10% in one year alone. The U.S. Federal Reserve has raised interest rates nearly a dozen times to help lower inflation, but that has helped hiked the average mortgage interest rate above 7%.

Though inflation has slowed from its height after the pandemic, the latest federal data shows it continues to rise at an elevated pace.

Concern over figures like that are helping Republicans stand their ground in demanding spending cuts. Federal debt spending helps fuel the money-printing that increases the money supply and along with it, inflation.

Other Republicans shared frustration with the debt increase as well.

“With Republicans like these, who needs Democrats?” Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, wrote on Twitter.

Jury Awards Black Woman $11.25M for Being Late to Work

Jacob Bruns
-
0
Jury Awards Black Woman $11.25M for Being Late to Work

(Jacob Bruns, Headline USA) A black woman who was fired for being late to work nearly 50 times has been awarded $11.25 million by a New York City jury, after she claimed discrimination was the reason for her dismissal.

Röbynn Europe, a former professional female body builder, worked at Equinox gym in New York in 2018 and 2019 for 10 months, eventually being late to work 47 times over the course of her tenure. Eventually, Europe was fired for the continued tardiness, the New York Times reported.

Europe, however, filed a lawsuit soon thereafter, arguing that the company’s reasoning was really just a pretext for discrimination against her because she is a a woman of color.

The jury reached a decision in a remarkably short amount of time–a little over one hour–declaring last week that Equinox did in fact discriminate racially and awarding Europe $10 million in punitive damages and another $1.25 million for her distress.

Europe, who attended the far left Oberlin College, mentioned that “racism and sexism — they are just pervasive in the fitness industry.”

But according to the former female body builder, the opportunities to make money in the training industry are unprecedented.

“In coastal cities, training is something you can do without a degree and you can make $75 an hour — there are not a lot of opportunities to do that, so it’s a big draw for people of color.”

Equinox “vehemently disagreed” with the jury’s ruling, and noted that it will not and does not “tolerate discrimination in any form.”

The company, while admitting that one of Europe’s subordinates had made racially or sexually charged comments, argued that one employee’s comments do not constitute a “hostile work environment,” and that the “emotional distress” that Europe claims to have suffered was not “egregious” enough to warrant the massive fine.

Abortion Activists Brutally Assault Pro-Life Advocates

Ezekiel Loseke
-
0
Abortion Activists Brutally Assault Pro-Life Advocates

(Ezekiel Loseke, Headline USA) Two pro-life advocates were savagely beaten outside of a Planned Parenthood in Baltimore on Friday.

The two men, Dick Schafer and Mark Crosby, were assaulted as they advised a woman of her options regarding her pregnancy, according to Life News.

John Roswell, a Baltimore-based pro-lifer, emailed details of the assault, according to Life Site News. He reported that the attack was violent and unprovoked.

According to Roswell, the pro-abortion assailant asked a Planned Parenthood escort to hold his drink before attacking Schafer in the back. Schafer was shoved against the glass of the Planned Parenthood during the attack.

Crosby, who was away from the building and on the street at the time of the attack, went to aid Schafer after he was attacked, but was struck in the face, knocked over and kicked in the head.

After Crosby had been assaulted, a nurse from a pro-life pregnancy center, alerted by screams from witnesses, came to aid the two men.

Both men suffered injuries from the attack. Crosby’s injuries were severe.

“[Crosby’s] plate bone in his upper right cheek is completely fractured,” according to Roswell’s email. “[He] is [also] bleeding from some unidentified area behind his eye and the bone eye orbit is completely shattered and will have to be replaced with metal.”

Schafer is recovering in his home from the attack, but Crosby’s injuries were so severe that he had to be institutionalized.

“Mark [Crosby] is currently in the University of MD (Maryland) shock trauma facility,” Roswell wrote. Despite his hospitalization, Crosby is in good spirits.

Roswell requested prayers for both men and all pro-life people in Baltimore. Life Site News posted graphic photographs of the injuries sustained during the attack along with the story.

These brutal attacks are a continuation of a pattern of violence against pro-lifers.

  • A Michigan man shot a pro-lifer after she spoke with his pro-abortion wife, and a Michigan court gave him community service for the violent gun crime.
  • A professor in New York destroyed a pro-life display while berating pro-life students.
  • The Biden administration trained citizens to ‘monitor’ pro-lifers.
  • After Roe v. Wade was overturned, the FBI labeled pro-life organizations as ‘threats.’

Satanic U.S. Army Colonel Complained to FBI about Pedophilia Accusations, Records Show

Ken Silva
-
0
Satanic U.S. Army Colonel Complained to FBI about Pedophilia Accusations, Records Show

(Ken Silva, Headline USA) The FBI and other investigators referred to U.S. Army Colonel Michael Aquino’s church, the Temple of Set, as a “sadomasochistic devil-worshipping sect” possibly linked to the ritualistic abuse of children.

Apparently, Aquino was upset by this description, according to records released by the FBI earlier this month.

The recently released FBI records from its 1980s-era investigation include letters from Aquino, complaining that his Satanic church was mischaracterized. Aquino said the negative stigma of Satanism led to unfounded allegations that he was engaging in ritualistic child abuse.

Aquino, the founder of the Temple of Set—an offshoot of the Church of Satan—was accused in the 1980s of widespread sexual abuse of children at the Child Development Center, run by the U.S. Army in San Francisco. He has also been linked by at least one victim to the Franklin Scandal, a 1980s-era pedophile ring that catered to prominent Washington DC politicians.

The allegations stemming from these cases are beyond grotesque.

“[Children] told of being forced to play ‘poopoo baseball’ and the ‘googoo’ game—‘games’ that involved the children being forced to ingest urine and feces,” wrote David McGowan in Programmed to Kill: The Politics of Serial Murder.

“Many of the children also spoke of having guns pointed at them and of being told that they and/or their parents and siblings would be killed if they told anyone what had been done to them.”

Despite there being dozens of victims and undeniable evidence that many of them were abused, Aquino was never charged.

The Satanic colonel points to the lack of criminal charges as evidence of his innocence, but researchers have put forth evidence suggesting that the colonel was a protected intelligence asset—with his purported activities being a mixture of MKUltra-like child experimentation and a sexual blackmail op.

Multiple fires at and adjacent to the Child Development Center destroyed records related to the case, and the late great investigative journalist Gary Webb discovered that the U.S. Attorney handling Aquino’s case was involved in the Iran-Contra cocaine smuggling operation.

Aquino sued the Army in 1988 to have his record cleared, but he lost.

“In denying Aquino’s motion, the court concluded ‘there was a probable cause to title Aquino with offenses of indecent acts with a child, sodomy, conspiracy, kidnapping and false swearing,’” McGowan wrote.

The recently released and heavily redacted FBI records show other attempts by Aquino to protect his—and Satan’s—reputation.

According to the records, Aquino wrote to the FBI in August 1987, complaining that the negative stigma associated with his Satanic church is what led to the sex-abuse accusations.

“It would be naive of me not to suppose that my religious office in the Temple of Set was of concern to you when making your assessment of the situation. After all, the Temple is an avowedly Satanist institution, and Satanists are popularly assumed to be bad people,” he said to a special agent, whose name is redacted.

“The irony of all this is that the Temple of Set has worked very hard since its founding in 1975 to be a decent, constructive, and responsible organization.”

In another letter, written in September 1987 to the San Francisco Police Department, Aquino demanded that the agency stop associating the words “Satanic” and “Satanism” with crime.

“These are terms particular to a bona-fide and officially recognized religion in the United States which is not in any sense a criminal activity,” he said.

Almost four years later, Aqunio wrote to the U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command on May 3, 1991, complaining that his Temple of Set was being characterized as a “sadomasochistic devil-worshipping sect.”

“This is completely false,” Aqunio griped, pointing to the Temple of Set’s tax-exempt status.

In response to this letter, Aquino was told that his complaints will be added to his file “so any future reader of this material will have the benefit of your comments and observations.”

The dark mystery surrounding Aquino continues to this day.

It seems as though someone or something is attempting to suppress information about the Satanic Army colonel. When researching for this article, Headline USA found that Aquino’s Wikipedia page has been wiped.

“This submission’s references do not show that the subject qualifies for a Wikipedia article,” his page states, explaining why recent article submissions about him have been denied.

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

Multiple Murders and Mayhem Mar Memorial Day Weekend in Chicago

Jacob Bruns
-
0
Multiple Murders and Mayhem Mar Memorial Day Weekend in Chicago

(Jacob Bruns, Headline USA) While the rest of the country celebrates Memorial Day this weekend, Chicago has been rocked by murders and riots.

Chicago far-leftist Mayor Brandon Johnson is attempting to curb the mass violence by way of a new safety program that eliminates days off for cops in order to have more patrolling the streets. He is also infusing the force with “peace officers,” whose job it is to “de-escalate” potentially violent situations, the Daily Wire reported.

“It’s going to take all of us, not just the police, not just city government, to ensure that our communities can live and thrive in peace and safety,” Johnson said last week.

“However you decide to spend your holiday weekend in Chicago, your safety is my top priority.”

The city of Chicago also implemented an alert system to warn residents in the case of another impending teenager attack.

As of Sunday 34 people had already been shot with eight dead in the Windy City, which is approaching last year’s record of 50.

Of course, Johnson has already expressed that he is not serious about taking the necessary measures to clean up the city, telling the press during teenager riots in April that it “is not constructive to demonize youth who have otherwise been starved of opportunities in their own communities.”

He also lectured the people of Chicago about how American discriminates against young people.

“Have you ever taught middle school? I have,” Johnson boasted.

“Have you ever raised young people? Do you understand the risk that young people take just because they’re young? Do you know that home plate is at the bottom of my stairs? I found that out when my son was sliding down those stairs trying to score.”

Crime in America’s major cities has become so problematic that it has become a hot-button political issue at the level of presidential politics.

“You think of a place like Chicago, these kids – you’re more likely to get shot than to get a world-class education in some of these places,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said when announcing his candidacy.

Missing 73 Years, Medal of Honor Recipient’s Remains Return to Georgia

Wire Editor
-
0
Missing 73 Years, Medal of Honor Recipient’s Remains Return to Georgia

(Headline USA) Soldiers of the 9th Infantry Regiment made a desperate retreat as North Korean troops closed in around them. A wounded, 18-year-old Army Pfc. Luther Herschel Story feared his injuries would slow down his company, so he stayed behind to cover their withdrawal.

Story’s actions in the Korean War on Sept. 1, 1950, would ensure he was remembered. He was awarded the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military honor, which is now displayed alongside his portrait at the National Infantry Museum, an hour’s drive from his hometown of Americus, Georgia.

But Story was never seen alive again, and his resting place long remained a mystery.

“In my family, we always believed that he would never be found,” said Judy Wade, Story’s niece and closest surviving relative.

That changed in April when the U.S. military revealed lab tests had matched DNA from Wade and her late mother to bones of an unidentified American soldier recovered from Korea in October 1950. The remains belonged to Story, a case agent told Wade over the phone. After nearly 73 years, he was coming home.

A Memorial Day burial with military honors was scheduled Monday at the Andersonville National Cemetery. A police escort with flashing lights escorted Story’s casket through the streets of nearby Americus on Wednesday after it arrived in Georgia.

“I don’t have to worry about him anymore,” said Wade, who was born four years after her uncle went missing overseas. “I’m just glad he’s home.”

Among those celebrating Story’s return was former President Jimmy Carter. When Story was a young boy, according to Wade, his family lived and worked in Plains on land owned by Carter’s father, James Earl Carter Sr.

Jimmy Carter, 98, has been under hospice care at his home in Plains since February. Jill Stuckey, superintendent of the Jimmy Carter National Historical Park, said she shared the news about Story with Carter as soon as she heard it.

“Oh, there was a big smile on his face,” Stuckey said. “He was very excited to know that a hero was coming home.”

Story grew up about 150 miles south of Atlanta in Sumter County, where his father was a sharecropper. As a young boy, Story, who had a keen sense of humor and liked baseball, joined his parents and older siblings in the fields to help harvest cotton. The work was hard, and it didn’t pay much.

“Momma talked about eating sweet potatoes three times a day,” said Wade, whose mother, Gwendolyn Story Chambliss, was Luther Story’s older sister. “She used to talk about how at night her fingers would be bleeding from picking cotton out of the bolls. Everybody in the family had to do it for them to exist.”

The family eventually moved to Americus, the county’s largest city, where Story’s parents found better work. He enrolled in high school, but soon set his sights on joining the military in the years following World War II.

In 1948, his mother agreed to sign papers allowing Story to enlist in the Army. She listed his birthdate as July 20, 1931. But Wade said she later obtained a copy of her uncle’s birth certificate that showed he was born in 1932 — which would have made him just 16 when he joined.

Story left school during his sophomore year. In the summer of 1950 he deployed with Company A of the 1st Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment to Korea around the time the war began.

On Sept. 1, 1950, near the village of Agok on the Naktong River, Story’s unit came under attack by three divisions of North Korean troops that moved to surround the Americans and cut off their escape.

Story seized a machine gun and fired on enemy soldiers crossing the river, killing or wounding about 100, according to his Medal of Honor citation. As his company commander ordered a retreat, Story rushed into a road and threw grenades into an approaching truck carrying North Korean troops and ammunition. Despite being wounded, he continued fighting.

“Realizing that his wounds would hamper his comrades, he refused to retire to the next position but remained to cover the company’s withdrawal,” Story’s award citation said. “When last seen he was firing every weapon available and fighting off another hostile assault.”

Story was presumed dead. He would have been 18 years old, according to the birth certificate Wade obtained.

In 1951, his father received Story’s Medal of Honor at a Pentagon ceremony. Story was also posthumously promoted to corporal.

About a month after Story went missing in Korea, the U.S. military recovered a body in the area where he was last seen fighting. The unidentified remains were buried with other unknown service members at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Hawaii.

According to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, more than 7,500 Americans who served in the Korean War remain missing or their remains have not been identified. That’s roughly 20% of the nearly 37,000 U.S. service members who died in the war.

Remains of the unknown soldier recovered near Agok were disinterred in 2021 as part of a broader military effort to determine the identities of several hundred Americans who died in the war. Eventually scientists compared DNA from the bones with samples submitted by Wade and her mother before she died in 2017. They made a successful match.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

NYC Dem. Faces Ethics Complaint for Bigoted Comments about Italians

Robert Jonathan
-
0
NYC Dem. Faces Ethics Complaint for Bigoted Comments about Italians

(Robert Jonathan, Headline USA) A leftist member of the New York City Council is facing an ethics complaint following an offensive remark he made at a budget hearing.

During a discussion about parks department funding, first-term Democrat Councilman Chi Ossé threw some shade, as it were, on Dragonetti Brothers Landscaping, insofar as whether the firm should receive further city contracts.

“I just want to say on Dragonetti. That name alone should have been the first red flag in terms of contracting with the city,” Ossé, who perhaps ironically chairs the council’s cultural affairs committee, said.

In 2022, the Brooklyn-based contractor pleaded guilty to insurance fraud and currently has 10 contracts with the city covering the five boroughs “for tree pruning, stump removal, planting and other services,” the New York Post reported.

Dragonetti has been doing business with the city since 1998.

The Democrat’s remarks prompted a formal complaint with the council’s ethics committee filed by Minority Leader Joseph Borelli, a Staten Island Republican, on behalf of the bipartisan Italian-American caucus, which has seven members in the overwhelmingly Democrat, 51-member city council.

“The members of the Italian Caucus categorically condemn the comments Council Member Chi Ossé made on the record during a budget hearing this week, in which he suggested that an Italian surname that branded a company should have led to its disqualification from ever getting a contract with the City of New York,” the group explained in a statement.

The statement added that “The Council Member’s feeble defense of his defamatory statement – that it was made in reference to a reputation that the company gained long after it had received city contracts – does not stand up to reason,” the statement added.

The caucus also insisted that no excuse exists for any council member “to make remarks that disparage an entire ethnic group and advance hurtful stereotypes.”

Elected in 2022, Ossé, who is reportedly from a wealthy, privileged background, represents a Brooklyn-area district.

According to the Brooklyn news outlet BK Reader, the “life-long Democrat, said his political role models include Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. He identifies with the progressive wing of the party and agrees with elements of the Democratic Socialists of America’s platform.”

Ossé, 25, told the New York Daily News that his commentary “had nothing to do with Italians” and “everything to do with the fact that the company has already been tarnished.”

He similarly told the Post that “The assertion that the business’s ethnic heritage, rather than criminal history and propensity for fraud, was the issue is an intentional lie and its propagation is dangerous.”

Councilman Borelli implied that the formal complaint is a means to hold Democrats to their own standards.

“I didn’t create the woke-everyone-is-offended atmosphere. But if people like Councilman Ossé demand we follow those rules, then he has to follow those rules too.”

According to what insiders told the Daily News, City Council leaders have privately told Ossé to tone down his rhetoric which apparently includes offensive tweets.

Two local Italian-American organizations have filed complaints with City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams and called for Ossé to be removed from committee assignments at the least.

Ossé was one of the first officials to call for GOP Councilwoman Vickie Paladino to be booted from a committee after she spoke out against a city-funded program related to gender ideology.

“That the Council Member harbors such bigoted views is bad enough; that he feels free to openly express them in Council chambers is totally unacceptable,” Paladino asserted.

Outside Law Firm Finds Texas AG Paxton Didn’t Break Laws or Violate Office Procedure

Wire Editor
-
0
Outside Law Firm Finds Texas AG Paxton Didn’t Break Laws or Violate Office Procedure

(By Bethany Blankley, The Center Square) A 174-page report released by the Office of the Attorney General in August 2021, made public before voters reelected Attorney General Ken Paxton to a third term in November 2022, disproved claims presented by Democratically-aligned counsel hired by the House General Investigating Committee.

Another report released Saturday by an outside law firm, Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP, also concluded, “significant evidence to show the actions of the OAG toward the Complainants were based on legitimate, non-retaliatory, business grounds.”

The report came in the hours after the impeachment vote.

Instead, Paxton said the House GIC orchestrated a secretive investigation and presented inaccurate information, “falsehoods, and misstatements” without interviewing or requesting information from the OAG on Wednesday. Its findings were used to issue 20 articles of impeachment and the basis to impeach AG Paxton 48 hours later. The House voted 121-23 late Saturday to impeach an attorney general for the first time in Texas history.

House officials involved in the impeachment process weren’t immediately available to comment on the latest report Sunday.

The investigation relates to the OAG firing several former OAG political appointees. Four sued, alleging wrongful termination. They claim they were retaliated against when they alleged Paxton engaged in misconduct and/or violated the law.

Seven had filed complaints: Jeff Mateer, Ryan Bangert, Lacey Mase, Ryan Vassar, Mark Penley, Blake Brickman and Darren McCarty. Four sued: Vassar, Maxwell, Penley and Brickman.

The Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP report refutes the former employees’ claims, including stating, “there is no evidence supporting the allegation that the Attorney General’s hiring of First Assistant Webster was part of a conspiracy to retaliate against the Complainants;” “Sergeant Gonzales did not attend meetings to intimidate witnesses;” “The press releases the OAG issued after the Complainants alleged wrongdoing are not acts of retaliation,” among others.

It also gives evidence to support its conclusion that the AOG “had valid, non-retaliatory reasons for dismissing” two of the plaintiffs, Maxwell and Penley.

It also shows that Mateer authorized an outside counsel contract that was in question and concluded, “Ryan Vassar’s conduct impeded OAG’s mission and likely violated state or federal Law.”

It also provides evidence to explain why Brickman’s “insubordination justified his dismissal” and why Mase, who “sought to use OAG resources to obtain personal legal advice,” was fired “on legitimate, non-retaliatory grounds.”

The GIC wouldn’t allow any of this evidence to be presented in the House. The only information provided to the House was a video and transcript of a hearing at which Democratic counsel hired by the GIC spoke about over a dozen people who were interviewed. No transcripts of their interviews were provided.

No sworn testimony was presented. No direct witnesses spoke to members of the committee under oath or to members of the full House. No documentary evidence was provided to the GIC or full House. Highlighting these and other facts, those opposing the impeachment process said no due process was being followed in the impeachment process.

The committee’s “politically motivated investigation,” the OAG said in a statement on Saturday, “is predicated on long-disproven claims grounded in hearsay and gossip. In August of 2021, after nearly a year of diligent investigation into these claims from former employees, the Office of the Attorney General released an exhaustive report that ultimately refuted each of the former employees’ allegations.

In that report, the OAG stated it would further investigate the allegations and supplement as necessary. Subsequently, the OAG retained an outside law firm to conduct further investigation into the claims of retaliation by the former employees.”

The OAG 2021 report and the Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP’s reports include information the GIC transcript does not: evidence, including direct witness testimony, emails, copies of signed documents, among others.

The 2021 report, for example, includes a DocuSign time-stamped approval signature that disproves a claim former employees made that “staff” notified Paxton that they wouldn’t approve a request.

In another example, when asked under oath, “Did you come to believe that the Office of Attorney General was being engaged in ongoing criminal activity in connection with Nate Paul,” Mateer couldn’t answer the question or provide evidence related to alleged criminal activity.

He replied, “I know it called for yes or no, but it’s a question that it’s hard to give a yes or no, so that makes it difficult for me—as—as the witness. What I would say is it—it could have led to that. Certainly, it’s—did I have concerns? I had potential concerns.”

On Thursday, Chris Hilton, chief of the OAG General Litigation Division, sought to testify before the GIC and submit the 2021 report as evidence. The GIC refused.

The OAG’s office said the GIC was “not interested in the truth. They were interested only in crafting a highly curated, one-sided case to overthrow the will of the voters.”

Paxton and others argue the impeachment process was illegal because it violated state law.

1...1,9591,9601,961...3,890Page 1,960 of 3,890