Cop Killer Tries to Avoid Death Penalty with Insanity Plea

(Headline USA) A man charged with murdering an Indianapolis police officer when she responded to a domestic violence call in 2020 is seeking an insanity defense as he seeks to avoid the death penalty.

Attorneys for Elliahs Dorsey filed a motion with the court Wednesday saying a report prepared by a doctor states he was suffering from a mental illness when he fatally wounded Officer Breann Leath of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department.

Leath and three other officers were responding to a domestic violence call involving Dorsey when she was shot to death through the door of an Indianapolis apartment, police have said.

She died of two gunshots to the head.

Dorsey faces one count each of murder and criminal confinement, and four counts of attempted murder, one of which stems from his alleged shooting of a woman he had confined inside the apartment.

His attorneys acknowledged they filed their motion for an insanity defense later than normal but blamed the delay in part on issues caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

A Marion County judge ruled this month that prosecutors can seek the death penalty against Dorsey.

Dorsey’s trial currently is scheduled to begin Sept. 18.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

Chinese Spies Attempted to Alter US Tax Code

(Headline USA) American authorities have arrested two suspected Chinese government agents in connection with an alleged plot by Beijing to alter American tax codes to oust enemies of the Chinese Communist Party.

John Chen and Lin Feng were charged in an indictment unsealed Friday with scheming to revoke a New York-based Falun Gong organization’s tax-exempt status and paying bribes to a undercover officer posing as a U.S. tax agent.

The undercover officer recorded multiple conversations with Chen, and investigators obtained a wire tap to record phone calls in which Chen and Feng discussed instructions they purportedly received from Chinese government officials, prosecutors said.

In one recording, prosecutors said, Chen referred to Chinese government officials as akin to “blood brothers” and, in another, he said Beijing would be “very generous” in rewarding the undercover officer’s help cracking down on Falun Gong’s non-profit status.

Chen, a 70-year-old U.S. citizen, and Feng, a 43-year-old lawful permanent resident, are charged with acting as unregistered agents of a foreign government, bribing a public official and conspiracy to commit international money laundering.

Chen and Feng were both born in China but now live in the Los Angeles area, where they were arrested Friday. Information on an initial court appearance or lawyers who could speak on their behalf was not immediately available.

Messages seeking comment were left with the Chinese Embassy in Washington and with the Falun Gong movement.

China banned the Falun Gong movement in 1999, classifying it as an evil cult and one of the “Five Poisons,” or chief threats to its rule. Since then, Falun Gong practitioners have found refuge at a 400-acre compound called Dragon Springs in upstate New York.

In the U.S., the Falun Gong movement is known mostly for its ties to Shen Yun, a touring performing arts group, and The Epoch Times.

America will “continue to investigate, disrupt, and prosecute” China’s efforts to “silence its critics and extend the reaches of its regime onto U.S. soil,” Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said in a statement.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

Debt Ceiling Negotiations Stalled Because of Welfare

(Headline USA) Work requirements for federal welfare programs have emerged as a final sticking point in negotiations over raising the debt ceiling, even as Joe Biden said a deal is “very close.”

Biden’s confused optimism, in comments to reporters as he left the White House on Friday evening, came as the deadline for a default was pushed back to June 5.

House negotiators departed the Capitol after 2 a.m. Saturday without a deal. They were expected to return hours later in hopes of reaching agreement with the White House over the holiday weekend.

Both sides have suggested one of the main holdups is a GOP effort to expand existing work requirements for recipients of food stamps and other federal welfare programs.

Even as they came closer to a framework on spending, each side seemed dug in on the work requirements.

Louisiana Rep. Garret Graves, one of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s negotiators, was blunt when asked if Republicans might relent on the issue: “Hell no, not a chance.”

Yet Biden was upbeat as he departed for Camp David: “It’s very close, and I’m optimistic.”

Biden and McCarthy, R-Calif., have seemed to be narrowing on a two-year budget-slashing deal that would also extend the debt limit into 2025 past the next presidential election. The contours of the deal have been taking shape to cut spending for 2024 and impose a 1% cap on spending growth for 2025.

But talks over the proposed work requirements for recipients of Medicaid, food stamps and other aid programs seemed at a standstill Friday afternoon.

Biden has said the work requirements for Medicaid would be a nonstarter. But he initially seemed potentially open to negotiating minor changes on food stamps, now known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.

The Republican proposal would save $11 billion over 10 years by raising the maximum age for existing standards that require able-bodied adults who do not live with dependents to work or attend training programs. While current law applies those standards to recipients under the age of 50, the Republican plan would raise the age to include adults 55 and under. It would also decrease the number of exemptions that states can grant to some recipients subject to those requirements.

Watchful House Democrats are also pressing Biden to reject any new work requirements. The top three House Democratic leaders led by Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York spoke late Thursday with the White House.

The Democratic-held Senate has stayed out of the negotiations, leaving the talks to Biden and McCarthy. But Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York has pledged to move quickly to send a compromise package to Biden’s desk.

Weeks of negotiations between Republicans and the White House have failed to produce a deal because the Biden administration resisted for months on negotiating with McCarthy over the debt limit.

But House Republicans united behind a plan to cut spending, narrowly passing sweeping legislation in late April that would raise the debt ceiling in exchange for the spending reductions.

“We have to spend less than we spent last year. That is the starting point,” McCarthy has insisted.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

Kirk Cameron Releases Book about Deadly Sins During ‘Pride’ Month

(Dmytro “Henry” Aleksandrov, Headline USA) While woke companies like Target and Bud Light push LGBT propaganda for the upcoming “Pride” month, Kirk Cameron, a Christian actor, is going to release a children’s book on June 1 about the pitfalls of pride and the importance of humility.

“Pride Comes Before the Fall” is the latest children’s book by Cameron that was published by Brave Books, according to The Federalist. It is the first of several books that will cover the seven deadly sins.

“I struggle with pride. I think we all struggle with pride, especially children. And what makes that struggle even more difficult is when kids see pride being celebrated for an entire month,” Brave Books founder and CEO Trent Talbot said.

“We wanted to give parents a tool to be able to have an important conversation about the topic of pride and humility.”

In addition to the story itself, the book will also have “Brave Challenge,” which includes games and questions for parents to use in instructing their kids about humility.

“Take back your children. God gave them to you, not to the government or the schools or even to your church,” Cameron said.

“Children belong to moms and dads, and it is our sacred duty to nourish their hearts and minds with what is good and true and beautiful and leads to their blessing.”

However, a lot of parents, including Christians, completely gave up on the culture war against leftists. Cameron urged believers to remember Jesus Christ because he was “very outspoken about moral issues.”

“The reason we’re in this mess is because Christians have lost their courage to speak the truth in love… Put your eyes on Jesus, the most humble man in the world,” Cameron said.

“He’s the one who said things like, ‘You brood of vipers!’… ‘You ravenous wolves,’ ‘You blind guides.’”

He then continued criticizing Christians who do not participate in the culture war.

“If you’re not in the fight to preserve a good and healthy future for our children, you’re worse than an unbeliever because this is your sacred duty: to love God with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself,” Cameron said.

“If you’re out of the culture war, then that’s not loving. You’re being complicit to the evil. All that evil needs to advance is for good men to do nothing, so get involved. Be brave. Get a backbone. And follow the most humble man in the world. That’s what I’m trying to do.”

Taxpayers Could Pay $380 Million to Relocate Baseball Team

(Headline USA) A bill introduced late Friday in the Nevada Legislature would give the Oakland Athletics significant corporate welfare,  with a potential total up to $380 million for a proposed 30,000 seat, $1.5 billion retractable roof stadium on the Las Vegas Strip.

The bulk of the public funding would come from $180 million in transferable tax credits from the state and $120 million in county bonds, which can vary based on interest rate returns.

Clark County also would contribute $25 million in credit toward infrastructure costs.

The A’s have been looking for a home to replace Oakland Coliseum, where the team has played since arriving from Kansas City for the 1968 season.

The plan in the Nevada Legislature can move forward with a simple majority vote in the Senate and Assembly. Lawmakers have a little more than a week to consider the proposal before they adjourn June 5, though it could be voted on if a special session is called.

The Athletics have agreed to use land on the southern end of the Las Vegas Strip, where the Tropicana Las Vegas casino resort sits.

Las Vegas would be the fourth home for a franchise that started as the Philadelphia Athletics from 1901-54. It would become the smallest TV market in Major League Baseball and the smallest market to be home to three major professional sports franchises.

The team and Las Vegas are hoping to draw from the nearly 40 million tourists who visit the city annually to help fill the stadium. The 30,000-seat capacity would make it the smallest MLB stadium.

Under the bill, the Clark County Board of Commissioners would create a homelessness prevention and assistance fund along the stadium’s area in coordination with MLB and the Nevada Resort Association. There, they would manage funds for services, including emergency rental and utility assistance, job training, rehabilitation and counseling services for people experiencing or at risk of homelessness.

The lease agreement with the Las Vegas Stadium Authority would be up for renewal after 30 years.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

Federal Judge: School Can Ban Foreign Flags at Graduation

(Headline USA) A federal judge ruled Friday that a rural Colorado school district can bar a high school student from wearing a Mexican-American flag sash at her graduation this weekend after the student sued the school district.

Judge Nina Y. Wang wrote that wearing a sash during a graduation ceremony falls under school-sponsored speech, not the student’s private speech. Therefore, “the School District is permitted to restrict that speech as it sees fit in the interest of the kind of graduation it would like to hold,” Wang wrote.

The ruling was over the student’s request for a temporary restraining order, which would have allowed her to wear the sash on Saturday for graduation because the case wouldn’t have resolved in time. Wang found that the student and her attorneys failed to sufficiently show they were likely to succeed, but a final ruling is still to come.

It’s the latest dispute in the U.S. about what kind of cultural graduation attire is allowed at commencement ceremonies, as formal events clash with the new and strange doctrines of identity politics.

An attorney representing the school district argued that Native American regalia is categorically different from wearing a foreign country’s flag.

Ortiz further stated that the district doesn’t want to prevent Peña Villasano from expressing herself and that the graduate could adorn her cap with the flags or wear the sash before or after the ceremony.

But “she doesn’t have a right to express it in any way that she wants,” Ortiz said.

Wang sided with the district, finding that “the School District could freely permit one sash and prohibit another.”

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

MURDOCK: Dems’ Diversity Lies Exposed by Black GOP Presidential Candidates

(Deroy Murdock, Headline USA) Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., is running for president of the United States.

“Love, unconditional love, binds hearts together,” he declared Monday.

While Democrats not surprisingly oppose Scott on most issues, they refuse to acknowledge that his warm reception among Republicans shows that black Americans Have Overcome or, at least, Are Overcoming.

Citing “systemic racism,” The View’s Joy Behar said that Scott “doesn’t get it. Neither does Clarence [Thomas], and that’s why they’re Republicans.”

Duke University Professor Mark Anthony Neal stated ungrammatically via Twitter, “Tim Scott acting like he the only Black person in America who had a parent or grandparent who worked 16-hour days…at minimum wages.”

Self-proclaimed “Progressive, Attorney, Democrat” Ed Hull slimed Scott, via Twitter: “#UncleTimISAnUncleTom.”

Despite the Democrat Left’s racist trivialization of his achievements, Scott has labored for all his gains.

His single, working-class mother reared him and his brother in modest North Charleston. After floundering in high school, a local Chik-fil-A manager mentored him. Scott focused and—after college—flourished in insurance.

Scott ran for Congress in 2010. If the white supremacists—whom Leftists see everywhere—wished to oppress Scott, this was their chance. Instead, Scott won 68% in a GOP primary runoff versus 32% for Paul Thurmond, the white son of the late Dixiecrat governor and U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond.

Then-Gov. Nikki Haley, a Republican, appointed Scott to a vacant U.S. Senate seat. This made Scott the first black southern senator since 1881, when former slave Blanche Kelso Bruce, R-Miss., departed. This happened soon after white supremacists torpedoed the Republican policy of Reconstruction and launched the Democrat Party’s 83-year-long War on Blacks, AKA Jim Crow segregation.

In stunning contrast, the “pro-black” Democrat Party had 140 years to appoint or elect a black Southern senator. They did not accomplish this until Georgia’s Raphael Warnock won a January 2021 runoff—11 years after Scott became senator.

Democrats want blacks to shut up and vote Democrat. They do not want blacks to think for themselves and see that Democrats trap black kids in schools that don’t teach.

Democrat policies impoverish blacks and lionize criminals who prey upon law-abiding blacks.

Democrats also have obliterated the U.S.–Mexico “border” and invited some 5.25 million illegal aliens to invade America. These low-cost laborers will compete against poor blacks for low-wage jobs.

Thank you, Democrats!

Democrats denounce as race traitors those blacks who condemn these outrages. This rhetoric often is vile.

MSNBC’s Tiffany Cross called Scott a “token,” a “tap dancer,” and someone whom “Harriet Tubman would have left behind.”

Revolting.

Today’s Republican presidential field features two black men (former California gubernatorial candidate Larry Elder has also entered the race), a woman of East Indian descent (the aforementioned Haley), and a man of similar background (businessman and author Vivek Ramaswamy). And yet the GOP is the “Racist Party.”

The Democrat contenders are two white men and zero candidates of color. And yet theirs is the “Diversity Party.”

Please explain.

Tim Scott’s Democrat opponents are rotten people who stir racial division for fun and profit. They deserve maximum scorn and severe social sanction.

The good news is that, slowly but surely, black voters are seeing through the Democrats’ race-mongering, shattered promises and bald-faced lies.

In 2020, President Donald J. Trump won 12% of black voters (versus 8% in 2016’s exit polls), specifically, 19% of black men and 9% of black women (up from 13% and 4%, respectively, in 2016).

Amazing: One in five black men voted to re-elect Trump.

Meanwhile, according to a recent ABC/Washington Post poll, Biden’s black approval has cratered from 82% in January 2021 to 52% today.

Worse for Democrats: That survey found that 27% of black voters definitely or probably would vote for Trump. If Trump wins even 20% of the black vote, he will be so re-elected!

So, rather than change their evil ways, Democrats demonize Tim Scott to put open-minded blacks back in their place.

“Shut up. Stop thinking. Do as we tell you.”

With Democrats like these, who needs white nationalists?

Deroy Murdock is a Manhattan-based Fox News Contributor.

GOP Continues Negotiating for Fiscal Sanity while Being Smeared as ‘Terrorists’

(Mark Pellin, Headline USA) As President Joe Biden continued Friday to insist on a prolific spending spree that has the nation teetering on the brink of financial ruin, Democrats have smeared Republicans as “godless” and “terrorists” for pushing a modicum of fiscal restraint.

In response, Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., redoubled efforts this week to pass a spending plan that increases the debt ceiling while calling for reasonable spending cuts.

With those two dynamics working at cross odds, lawmakers headed into the holiday weekend without a debt ceiling agreement, escalating concerns that the government faces potential default, even as Biden has delayed serious negotiations for months.

“Let’s be honest about this. We have to spend less than we spent last year,” McCarthy said this week. “It is not my fault that the Democrats cannot give up on their spending.”

Instead of trimming a tax-and-spend bonanza that funds a far-leftist agenda, Democrats have taken to gaslighting and demonizing.

Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., claimed that Republicans were “extorting the American people by threatening to crater the economy to extract unreasonable demands.” His rhetoric was mild compared to far-leftist Squad Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., who accused Republicans of being “godless” for wanting to cut spending on her pet projects.

The godless extortion peddled by McCarthy increases the debt ceiling by $1.5 trillion and averts default with cuts minimal enough to have factions of his own party bordering on mutiny, which hasn’t stopped Democrats from defaming it as a terrorist act.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen had originally warned that the federal government could run out of funds to pay its bill as soon as June 1, a date she has since bumped to June 5.

Faced with the looming deadline, Squad-lite Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., declared that Biden should stop negotiating with Republicans, even if that meant default and shuttering the government.

“We don’t negotiate with terrorists globally, why are we going to negotiate with the economic terrorists here that are the Republican Party,” Bowman told CNN earlier this week.

The GOP’s terrorist speaker responded with a vow to keep negotiating in good faith, even as Democrats advocate for open rebellion.

“Let me tell the American public. I am not going to give up. We’re not going to default,” McCarthy said. “We’re going to solve this problem.”

Biden Admin. Caught Lying about Taxpayer Perks for Illegal Aliens

(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) The U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency was caught red-handed lying on Twitter, specifically about taxpayer-funded benefits to illegal immigrants. The deceptive tweet triggered a Twitter community note and a critical response from Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., who has constantly slammed Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’s mishandling of the border crisis.

The Biden agency, which oversees the regulation and implementation of immigration laws, took to Twitter to claim that allegations “that migrants will be provided free travel and transportation to their destination are false.” The agency also added, “The U.S. government does not provide help or financial support for noncitizens.” 

Twitter users quickly reacted to the lie by slapping on a “Community Note,” which “added context” to the misleading tweet. “This statement by CBP is misleading as the federal government funds non-government organizations such as Catholic charities to assist in the travel, food, and shelter for illegal aliens and is coordinated by FEMA,” the Community Note highlighted.

A FEMA link admitted that its “Emergency Food and Shelter Program” provides aid to illegal aliens “encountered” by DHS “through the Southwestern border and who are now awaiting their immigration proceedings.” A total of $332.5 million in taxpayer funds have been awarded to this cause, the federal agency said on its website. 

Echoing Twitter’s fact-check, Hagerty took to Twitter to expose the agency’s deception, calling the CBP’s claims “completely false.” The Tennessee senator added that “Biden’s DHS awards HUNDREDS of MILLIONS of $$ for NGOs to transport illegal aliens to U.S. destinations.” 

America First Legal, a conservative legal group led by former Trump advisor Stephen Miller, joined the outcry, accusing the Biden administration of “attempting to hide behind government programs and NGO’s in an attempt to mislead the American people.”  

Mayorkas, who oversees the agency that leads CBP, has been the subject of bipartisan condemnation over the reckless mishandling of Biden’s border chaos. Amid mounting pressure, calls for his removal or resignation have grown louder. 

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., introduced articles of impeachment against what she called “corrupt America Last federal officials,” including the embattled DHS secretary. Greene’s calls for impeachment were echoed by Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., who in a Thursday tweet said, “Secretary Mayorkas needs to resign.” 

‘Dire’: Shambolic U.S. Missile Defense System Triggers Concern

(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) In a damning report released Friday, the Government Accountability Office revealed that the U.S. Missile Defense Agency is lacking behind several foreign threats to the country. The findings shed light on yet another critical flaw within the Biden administration amid unprecedented threats from abroad.  

According to the GAO report, MDA’s radar and missile interceptor systems have languished without much-needed upgrades despite several warnings and recommendations in recent years, according to the Washington Free Beacon. China, Iran and North Korea are among those countries actively threatening the U.S., effectively leaving the U.S. behind with rapidly evolving technologies. 

GAO emphasized that the U.S. Department of Defense has spent over $194 billion, including a whopping $10 billion in 2022, to equip “operational commanders with a network of missile defense-related sensors, interceptors, and command and control capabilities.” Legislation, said the GAO, authorized the watchdog agency to assess the spending and whether the federal government is meeting its ends. 

The watchdog agency issued a dire warning, saying, “As of June 2022, there were 23 previously issued recommendations that have not been implemented.” The report continued, “GAO continues to believe that implementing these recommendations related to testing, transparency, and cost reporting would help address acquisition issues.” 

President Joe Biden was sworn into office in 2021, which means the Biden administration is responsible for following suit with the watchdog recommendations. “In fiscal year 2022, MDA did not deliver as planned the first increment of spiral 8.2-5, known as increment 6B.1, to allow for additional risk reduction testing and software fixes,” the report continued. 

The Washington Free Beacon reported that the federal agency only “partially met its sensor delivery goals” in 2022, which the federal watchdog claims “is consistent with its performance in prior years.” 

Supply-chain issues, typical of the post-2020 COVID years, were among the issues that caused significant delays in the advancement of the technology. “The GMD program delivered two GroundBased Interceptors, one of which was 3 years overdue, but missed delivering the remaining interceptor planned for fiscal year 2022 by a few weeks,” the report found. 

Biden in June 2022 invoked the Defense Production Act to expedite the homegrown production of clean energy, rather than focusing on the advancement of the nation’s missile defense systems. 

As the nation continues to grapple with evolving threats from foreign adversaries, these damning findings could serve as a wake-up call for the U.S. Missile Defense Agency and Biden officials to take immediate action to fix the mishaps found in the report.