Second Teen Migrant Dies under Biden’s Border Anarchy

Luis Cornelio
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Second Teen Migrant Dies under Biden’s Border Anarchy

(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) A migrant teenager reportedly lost his life Wednesday while under the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services, Honduran foreign minister Eduardo Reina said, who also called for an “exhaustive investigation” into the death.

17-year-old Angel Eduardo Maradiaga Espinoza from Honduras was found unconscious at the Gulf Coast Jewish Family and Community Serves shelter in Florida, which is being used by the federal government to house unaccompanied migrant children, the Tampa Bay Times reported Friday.

Espinoza’s death marks the second loss of a minor under the Biden administration’s custody, casting a shadow over the infamous Office of Refugee Resettlement, which cares for unaccompanied minors who cross the border illegally.

Biden had previously criticized the Trump administration over the deaths of underage migrants under their custody, describing them as “unacceptable.”

“Over the last year, six children have tragically died in US custody at the border,” Biden said in May 2019. “It’s unacceptable. It’s not who we are. And silence is complicity. It’s on all of us to stand up and speak out. America is a nation of immigrants. We must guarantee everyone’s treated with dignity.”

The Biden HHS confirmed the death but declined to offer more details.

“The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is deeply saddened by this tragic loss and our heart goes out to the family, with whom we are in touch,” the agency said in a statement.

“As is standard practice for any situation involving the death of an unaccompanied child or a serious health outcome, HHS’ Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) Division of Health for Unaccompanied Children (DHUC) is reviewing all clinical details of this case, including all inpatient health care records,” the agency continued. “A medical examiner investigation is underway.” 

The Biden HHS has come under intense fire for it failures in dealing with the flood of migrant children illegally crossing the border. A HHS whistleblower called the Biden administration the “middleman” in a child-trafficking racket of illegal immigrants that benefitted Mexican drug cartels. Adding to the criticism, the president’s Office of Refugee Resettlement failed to check children’s caretakers for sex offender status.

GOP senators introduced legislation earlier this month that would require Homeland Security to take steps to prevent human trafficking at the border between the United States and Mexico

While HHS cited “privacy and safety reasons” as the reason for withholding information regarding the migrant’s death, a federal official told CBS News that there had been “no altercation of any kind.” 

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said she does know whether President Joe Biden had been briefed on the child’s passing.  

“It’s deeply saddening to hear, and we are certainly aware of the tragic loss, and our hearts go out to the family members,” Jean-Pierre said, while also refusing to offer more details.

“It is a devastating news and incredibly saddening, saddened to hear that news. There is a medical examination that started on May 10. We’re going to allow that process to continue,” she continued, later admitting that there was no information on whether Biden would reach to the migrant’s family. 

The migrant’s sudden death comes a day after the Biden administration came under heavy scrutiny ahead of the May 11 lifting of the Trump-era Title 42 policy that allowed border patrol agents to swiftly remove unauthorized migrants from the U.S.

Woke Lawfare: Fat New Yorkers Can Now Sue for Discrimination

Luis Cornelio
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Woke Lawfare: Fat New Yorkers Can Now Sue for Discrimination

(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) New York City now allows fat individuals to sue over what they dubbed to be weight-based discrimination. 

The New York City Council green-lighted, in an overwhelmingly 44-to-5 vote, legislation that would effectively protect obese individuals from alleged discrimination based on their overweight heft. Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat, is expected to sign the law next month, reported the Daily Mail. 

The bill was sponsored by Councilman Shaun Abreu, a Democrat, who was inspired to introduce the law after he gained 40 pounds during the Democrat-led COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020. People treated him differently after the weight gain, Abreu claimed. 

“This law is designed to help those where weight has nothing to do with the essential job functions of a role,” Abreu said. “Just like any other protected category, like race or gender or age, this will be a new protected category and a claim that you can bring before the Commission on Human Rights.” 

The Democrat councilman also said the bill will work to push back against “toxic” culture after a friend touched his belly to highlight his weight gains.  

“Just recently someone who I considered to be a friend came up to me and touched my stomach and said, ‘We’re getting bigger there, buddy.’ And it just speaks to the toxic culture that exists in the United States when it comes to people that are above their average peers weight,” Abreu bubbled. 

Victoria Abraham, a self-proclaimed “Fat Fab Feminist,” was at the center of the bill and testified before the city council in February 2023 in support of the legislation. 

Although the bill received significant support from the NYC Council — which is led by Democrats — not all lawmakers, including Republican Council Minority Leader Joseph Borelli, applauded the legislation, expressing concerns that it may lead to excessive litigation and allow for broad legal action against any entity or individual. Borelli said that New Yorkers will now “sue anyone and everything.” 

The “Fat Fab Feminist” activist said the bill did not go far enough. “”Are there gaps in this bill? For sure,” Abraham claimed, also calling it “the perfect first step.” 

Neo-Nazi Pleads Guilty to Murdering Roommates after Islamic Conversion

Jacob Bruns
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Neo-Nazi Pleads Guilty to Murdering Roommates after Islamic Conversion

(Jacob Bruns, Headline USA) A Florida man who previously converted to Islam has pleaded guilty to murdering his two roommates because they insulted his newly found faith.

The killer, Devon Arthurs, 24, accepted a sentence including 45 years in prison for his 2017 shooting of his former friends and roommates, Jeremy Himmelman and Andrew Onseschuck inside their Tampa apartment, the New York Post reported.

Arthurs, Himmelman and Onseschuck had formerly been a part of a Neo-Nazi group in Florida before Arthurs renounced his views for a more multicultural option. According to Arthurs, his newfound faith demanded that he commit himself to jihad.

“I had to do it,” he reportedly told the detectives. “This wouldn’t have had to happen if your country didn’t bomb my country.”

He also told the court that he was “brainwashed,” the Tampa Bay Times noted.

“I feel like I can honor the memory of Jeremy and Andrew by being a better human being,” he said. “I’ve let my family down. I’ve let myself down. And I’ve let my country down. And I think about that every single day.”

Arthurs also apologized for the murders and said that he wished to devote his life to combating political radicalism.

“I feel I can be an advocate against extremism. I’d like to take this moment to tell the world to stay away from extremist groups…” he said Monday.

“I’m very sorry for everyone that was involved,” Arthurs continued, saying he deeply regretted his actions and would work on controlling his anger.

“I’m very sorry for everything that has happened. If I could go back and do something over, I would sign myself into a hospital and work on my anger issues and my rational thinking skills.”

Himmelman’s sister, Riley Borghetti, also committed herself to doing whatever it takes to stop political extremism.

“This is a system issue,” she said. “And long as the rhetoric is what it is in our world, this will continue to happen.”

Woke Corporations Pushing to Cancel Mother’s Day Notifications, May Be ‘Sensitive’

Dmytro "Henry" Aleksandrov
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Woke Corporations Pushing to Cancel Mother’s Day Notifications, May Be ‘Sensitive’

(Dmytro “Henry” Aleksandrov, Headline USA) Several woke corporations embraced extreme virtue signaling, allowing their customers to opt out of receiving messages and notifications regarding the celebration of motherhood and cancel Mother’s Day.

According to a Twitter thread by Arizona Informer, at the end of April, companies such as DoorDash, Kay’s Jewelers, Fry’s Food Stores and Levi’s allowed their patrons to avoid promotional material about Mother’s Day because the leftist companies felt that the holiday and the concept of motherhood may be too “sensitive” for some people.

“We know Mother’s Day and Father’s Day can be sensitive times for some,” Fry’s Food Stores stated. “If you’d like to opt out of our emails and push notifications for these holidays, please tap below.”

Kay’s Jewelers shared the same anti-mother sentiment.

“We know Mother’s Day can be a challenging time, which is why we want to know if you’d rather not receive Mother’s Day-related emails.”

DoorDash also said that Mother’s Day may be “difficult” for someone.

“Click the button below if you’d prefer to be removed from additional emails and push notifications this year,” DoorDash said. Ironically, even Ancestry picked up a trend.

Conservatives on Twitter took issue with the recent leftist narrative, stating that it is one of the many attacks on motherhood and the nuclear family unit, as a whole.

“Why is our culture so hateful of motherhood?” anti-abortion activist Lila Rose asked rhetorically, while social media commentator Ian Miles Cheong asked another one.

Some people, however, praised the woke companies for their decision because the holiday may indeed be difficult for some people.

“I can’t speak to their reasoning for sending the opt-out emails, but I know that Mother’s Day was extremely difficult for me and Brooklyn following our miscarriage,” one of the Twitter users wrote.

“Sometimes this stuff isn’t ‘woke,’ it can really just be hurtful to those struggling.”

“[I]t’s about common decency that people may have lost their mothers or not have a relationship, and it causes pain,” Twitter user Jeremy Pepper added.

Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk pointed out that the opt-out option only applies to things like motherhood, and if a regular person doesn’t want these corporations shoving the propaganda of sexual deviancy for a whole month down one’s throat, nobody cares.

“Brands are bending over backwards to let customers to ‘opt out’ of Mother’s Day. Can we opt out of Pride Month spam too?”

China Commission To Call Out Hong Kong Judges

Wire Editor
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China Commission To Call Out Hong Kong Judges

(By Susan Crabtree, RealClear Wire) Over the last month, TikTok has three times interrupted or shut down content on an account airing a powerful documentary about Jimmy Lai, the Hong Kong entrepreneur, newspaperman, and pro-democracy activist imprisoned for more than two years for his role in criticizing the Chinese government.

After censoring its videos of Hong Kong police beating and teargassing protesters in 2019, TikTok last week suspended the account distributing the documentary about Lai, and then reinstated it after multiple media outlets reported on its unexplained shutdown.

Robert Sirico of the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty, a Michigan-based think tank that produced the documentary, says TikTok’s interference in the promotion of the Jimmy Lai film “The Hong Konger” is hardly a coincidence. In fact, he argues, it’s clear evidence of Beijing’s influence over content on the Chinese social-media platform’s parent company, Bytedance, despite TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew’s March testimony to Congress denying the platform would ever censor on behalf of China’s Communist Party.

“It is ironic that content promoting ‘The Hong Konger’ on TikTok would generate account disruptions and temporary suspensions, particularly when TikTok insists it does not cater to the Chinese Communist Party in the adjudication of its content,” Sirico, president emeritus of the Acton Institute, plans to tell the U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China Thursday afternoon, according to written testimony he submitted to the commission ahead of his appearance.

Sirico, a Catholic priest and a close personal friend of Lai’s for more than 25 years, will testify before the panel along with Lai’s son, Sebastien, about Lai’s unjust prosecution and imprisonment in Hong Kong. Jimmy Lai is one of more than 1,000 political prisoners Hong Kong authorities have arrested and sentenced under the national security law imposed by Beijing after the 2019 pro-democracy protests swept the once semi-autonomous city.

Their testimony, along with that of several other human rights advocates, corresponds with the release of the commission’s report on Hong Kong judges’ role in undermining the rule of law in Hong Kong through broad interpretations of the national security law.

The law, enacted in 2020, criminalizes any form of government protest, characterizing different forms of pro-democracy activism as subversion, secession, collusion with foreign or external forces, and terrorism, defined as the use of violence or intimidation against people. Those prosecuted include journalists and online protest organizers, even those whose crime is limited to displaying flags or banners or chanting slogans critical of the Chinese government.

Before the new law, there were 26 political prisoners held in Hong Kong. As of early May, judges in Hong Kong had convicted 1,198 protesters and pro-democracy advocates, 612 of whom were sentenced to an aggregate of 772 years in prison, according to the CECC report.

“By design and in practice, the [national security law] created a parallel legal system that weakens judicial independence and strips criminal defendants of basic due process protections available in the existing common law system, which is referenced in the Basic Law,” the CECC report states. The CECC, also known as the China Commission, is co-chaired by Rep. Chris Smith, a New Jersey Republican, and Sen. Jeff Merkley, an Oregon Democrat.

Hong Kong’s “one country, two systems” principle is enshrined in a document called the Basic Law, which serves as the city’s mini-constitution and protects rights such as freedom of assembly and freedom of speech, which do not exist in mainland China.

It was created through an agreement between Britain and China and came into effect on July 1, 1997, the day Hong Kong returned to Chinese control. These protections for Hong Kong are valid for 50 years after the handover, but under President Xi Jinping’s rule, China has clamped down control over the city and has stated that his ultimate goal is to reunite Hong Kong and Taiwan with mainland China.

The CECC report calls out 29 Hong Kong judges involved in national security law prosecutions by name and urges Congress to pass the Hong Kong Autonomy Act, which would give President Biden the authority to impose sanctions on these judges for undermining the Basic Law in its rulings against protesters and dissidents. The U.S. has previously sanctioned judges in Venezuela and Iran for carrying out similar injustices by orchestrating show trials and prosecuting trumped-up charges against political prisoners.

Ahead of Thursday’s hearing, the Chinese government representatives in Hong Kong pushed back on the CECC report and its policy recommendations, arguing that it and other congressional efforts to condemn Beijing’s crackdown on civil liberties in Hong Kong amount to a campaign to “openly defame and smear China’s national security law” and provide support for “anti-China elements like Jimmy Lai.”

A spokesperson for the commissioner’s office of the Chinese foreign ministry in Hong Kong told the CCP-run Global Times that the actions of Western politicians would “expose their own ugliness and allow the world to see their true nature and sinister intentions in colluding with and sheltering anti-China elements and interfering with and disrupting the rule of law” in Hong Kong.

Since the 2019 Hong Kong protests, more than 80 groups associated with the pro-democracy movement have been forced to close, and 188 pro-democracy leaders have been arrested, 109 convicted, and 46 imprisoned, human rights experts say. Dozens more have been incarcerated for months or years, awaiting their trials.

Sebastien Lai’s testimony chronicles his father’s life story – how the Chinese Communist Party targeted him for decades, eventually arresting, imprisoning, and prosecuting him in December 2020 under the national security law.

Jimmy Lai was born in China’s Guangdong province in 1947. His family was wealthy but lost all their property when the communists took power in 1949. At just 12 years old, he fled to China and traveled to Hong Kong on a fishing boat, immediately working in a garment factory sweatshop to pay back the cost of his passage. From the shop floor of the textiles industry, Lai rose through the ranks, eventually starting his own clothing firm, Giordano, which became an international success and made him a billionaire.

Until 1989, Lai, a devoted Catholic, concentrated on growing his clothing business. But his son describes the Tiananmen Square massacre as “a wake-up call for him.”

“My father then resolved to direct his energy to support the fight for democracy and holding the powerful in Beijing to account, whatever the personal cost to him,” Sebastien Lai plans to tell the panel, according to his written testimony.

At first, Lai used his company to distribute t-shirts emblazoned with pro-democracy messages. In 1990, he launched Next Magazine, a Chinese-language weekly magazine that covered current affairs and business news. Then in 1995, he founded a newspaper, Apple Daily, which quickly became the largest and most popular Chinese-language newspaper in Hong Kong, known for its anti-corruption and pro-democracy stance.

Shortly after launching his media ventures, the CCP began targeting him, threatening to close down all of his Giordano stores in mainland China. Lai sold the Giordano stores but continued his journalistic enterprises despite an aggressive intimidation campaign by Chinese authorities, including what his son describes as fire-bombings of his businesses and home, and long-running surveillance against all family members with surveillance vans and cameramen stationed outside his home.

“My father’s Catholic faith is also relevant to the way in which the CCP targeted him for many years,” his son plans to testify. “His close friendship with Cardinal Zen and other human rights defenders and activists in Hong Kong who draw strength from their religions has become a focal point of the CCP repression against him.”

Cardinal Joseph Zen, 90, is a retired Catholic bishop of Hong Kong whose arrest last May under the national security law sent shockwaves through the Catholic community, both in Hong Kong and globally. At first, he was arrested for suspicion of colluding with foreign forces, but after the international uproar, was charged over his association with a now-defunct organization that helped protesters in financial need.

In November, a Hong Kong judge convicted and fined him and five others for failing to register the nonprofit, which helped pay medical and legal fees for arrested protesters in 2019.

Jimmy Lai, who has been imprisoned continuously since December 2020, has faced multiple charges under the national security law. In September 2021, Next Digital, Lai’s media company, said the new crackdown on government criticism left it no way to operate and it shut down.

Just months earlier, Hong Kong officials froze some of the company’s bank accounts, forcing its flagship newspaper, Apple Daily, to close. The newspaper was raided by hundreds of officers in a show of force, with Jimmy Lai hauled away from the building in handcuffs. Along with Lai, several top editors and executives at Next Digital were charged with crimes.

Lai has been sentenced to five years and nine months for what he has characterized as false charges related to a breach of his Next Digital office lease. He will stand trial later this year on national security law and sedition charges.

“I know the outcome is a foregone conclusion,” Sebastien Lai plans to testify. “The security minister has recently boasted of having a 100% conviction rate in national security cases, and the [national security law] itself is designed to criminalize all dissent, all criticism of authorities.”

GOP Governors Ask Biden to Rescind Title IX Guidance

Wire Editor
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GOP Governors Ask Biden to Rescind Title IX Guidance

(By Steve Wilson, The Center Square) Twenty-five of the nation’s 26 Republican governors have asked the Biden administration to shelve its intent to expand Title IX protections to transgender athletes.

The letter, led by the signature of Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves, says the U.S. Department of Education’s proposed regulation should be withdrawn pending litigation that could be addressed by the U.S. Supreme Court.

“The Department’s proposed regulation would attempt to coerce compliance with an uncertain, fluid, and completely subjective standard that is based on a highly politicized gender ideology,” the letter reads.

The letter comes as the public comment period ends Monday on a proposed revision to Title IX that would ban state and local governments from prohibiting transgender students from participating on sports teams aligned with their gender identity.

Title IX was created to increase opportunities for female athletes. Federal funds can be withheld from those found to be in violation. The law, which was passed in 1972, prohibits discrimination based on sex for school districts, universities, museums and other educational institutions that receive federal funds.

“Compelling a subjective, athlete-by-athlete analysis controlled by a student’s self-identified ‘gender identity’ enforced under threat of Department retribution affords no clarity,” the letter reads. “It does the opposite. This ‘fluid’ subjective standard ensures chaos and confusion in schools and will no doubt result in protracted and disruptive litigation.”

Twenty-one states prohibit transgender students from participating on sports teams that do not align with their biological sex at birth, according to the Movement Advancement Project that tracks state policies.

The letter was signed by Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Sanders, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, Idaho Gov. Brad Little, Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, Missouri Gov. Mike Parson, Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte, Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen, Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo, New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice and Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon.

The signature of Vermont Republican Gov. Phil Scott is not on the letter.

Exclusive: Border Crossers Released by Biden Admin. Live on El Paso Streets

Wire Editor
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Exclusive: Border Crossers Released by Biden Admin. Live on El Paso Streets

(By Bethany Blankley, The Center Square) Groups of mostly single military age men are encamped on the sidewalk and alleyway next to Sacred Heart Catholic Church in downtown El Paso even after many had been cleared out earlier this week. Thousands had congregated in the area after being released by the Biden administration after they’d entered the U.S. illegally ahead of the public health authority Title 42 ending at midnight Thursday.

Prior to its end, The Center Square observed El Paso Police Department officers clearing the encampment next to the church for a street cleaning crew to come through.

The mostly Latino foreign nationals were moving donated blankets, bedding and other items in boxes that were piled up on street corners and sidewalks ahead of the street cleaning. They do this every day, a police officer told The Center Square.

Men who came up to The Center Square spoke no English and asked for money. One was bathing using a bucket of water on the sidewalk.

The area has been inundated with foreign nationals committing and becoming victims of crime, Texas DPS Regional Director of the West Texas Region Jose Sanchez told The Center Square. He also said the new group of people being released by the Biden administration “are very entitled. They’ve been giving us a lot of resistance. They don’t have respect for law enforcement. They don’t have respect for the citizens here.”

Sanchez said gangs are controlling the streets.

“The problem we had downtown with all the migrants and homeless population increasing,” he said, is transnational gang members took over the streets. If homeless illegal foreign nationals wanted “to get in the chow line at the front,” where free food was being offered, he said, they had to pay the gangs.

Local resident Dolores Chacón asked, “why are they being released here in the Second Ward?” She grew up in the neighborhood and told The Center Square, “It breaks my heart to see what is happening. Why just here? Because we’re poor? Because this is 915, the poorest zip code? Why do we have to suffer? Our elderly, people in wheelchairs, they can’t use the sidewalk.”

She asked why those being released “have more rights than we do? Why?”

Chacón also said the situation was “degrading” and “insulting. I’m insulted. It breaks my heart,” adding that she was also speaking for her neighbors, not just herself.

El Paso County Judge Ricardo Samaniego told KTSM News that those outside of Sacred Heart “are not the thousands that we had … A lot of them have left and gone back to get processed and done it the right way and now our process center is beginning to receive more and more.”

Samaniego also said he expected fewer people to enter from Juarez, Mexico, because 250 Venezuelans were “taken back” to Mexico. However, in a video message published to the local community, he said, “with the expected rollback of Title 42 we expect that the number of persons migrating into our community will increase.” He also encouraged residents to “be vigilant when driving down the border highway … as migrants are frequently crossing the roadway.”

The increased presence of military and law enforcement in the area, he said, was “meant to facilitate a peaceful transition from Title 42 to Title 8,” although Title 8 has always been in effect and is the federal law that determines admission or expulsion from the U.S.

“This will be a challenging moment for our community,” he added. “But it is important to recall that this challenge is fundamentally a humanitarian one.” He said multiple officials, faith communities and non-governmental organizations were “working around the clock in close coordination” to “provide hospitality and care.”

Bishop Mark Seitz of the Diocese of El Paso also spoke in the video message, saying, “our community has made it through the most difficult of times,” including “previous migrant surges. Each time, we get through it by pulling together, not by being divided. This is another situation where we need to be ‘El Paso Strong.’”

Local governments were “also supporting this important work with additional facilities and logistical operations to ensure their safe, humane and efficient processing through our community.”

He also claimed, “the travel of the migrants is paid for by the migrants or their sponsors,” in direct contradiction to information published by the city. Over $26 million worth of taxpayer money allocated by FEMA to the city covers their transportation, housing, food and other services free of charge.

McDonald’s Found Liable for Hot Chicken McNugget that Burned Girl

Wire Editor
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McDonald’s Found Liable for Hot Chicken McNugget that Burned Girl

(Headline USA) McDonald’s and a franchise holder are at fault after a hot Chicken McNugget from a Happy Meal fell on a little girl’s leg and caused second-degree burns, a jury in South Florida found in a case reminiscent of the famous hot coffee lawsuit of the 1990s.

A second jury will determine how much McDonald’s USA and its franchise owner, Upchurch Foods, will pay the child and her mother, the South Florida SunSentinel reported.

Thursday’s decision was split, with jurors finding the franchise holder liable for negligence and failure to warn customers about the risk of hot food, and McDonald’s USA liable for failing to provide instructions for safe handling of the food. McDonald’s USA was not found to be negligent, and the jury dismissed the argument that the product was defective.

“Our sympathies go out to this family for what occurred in this unfortunate incident, as we hold customer safety as one of our highest priorities,” McDonald’s owner-operator Brent Upchurch said in a statement. “We are deeply disappointed with today’s verdict because the facts show that our restaurant in Tamarac, Florida did indeed follow those protocols when cooking and serving this Happy Meal.”

Jurors heard two days of testimony and arguments about the 2019 episode that left the 4-year-old girl with a burned upper thigh.

Philana Holmes testified that she bought Happy Meals for her son and then-4-year-old daughter at a drive-thru window at a McDonald’s in Tamarac, near Fort Lauderdale, the SunSentinel reported. She handed the food to her children, who were in the back seat.

After she drove away, her daughter started screaming. The mother testified she didn’t know what was wrong until she pulled over to help the girl, Olivia Caraballo, who is now 7, the newspaper reported. She saw the burn on the girl’s leg and took photos on her iPhone, which included audio clips of the child’s screams.

The sound of the girl’s screams were played in court. The child, who is autistic, did not testify, the newspaper reported.

Lawyers for McDonald’s noted that the food had to be hot to avoid salmonella poisoning, and that the nuggets were not meant to be pressed between a seat belt and human flesh for more than two minutes.

The girl’s parents sued, saying that McDonald’s and the franchise owner failed to adequately train employees, failed to warn customers about the “dangerous” temperature of the food, and for cooking the food to a much higher temperature than necessary.

While both sides agreed the nugget caused the burns, the family’s lawyers argued the temperature was above 200 degrees, while the defense said it was no more than 160 degrees.

The case is likely to stoke memories of the McDonald’s coffee lawsuit of the 1990s, which became an urban legend of sorts about seemingly frivolous lawsuits, even though a jury and judge had found it anything but.

A New Mexico jury awarded Stella Liebeck, 81, $2.7 million in punitive damages after she was scalded in 1992 by hot coffee from McDonald’s that spilled onto her lap, burning her legs, groin and buttocks, as she tried to steady the cup with her legs while prying the lid off to add cream outside a drive-thru.

She suffered third-degree burns and spent more than a week in the hospital.

She had initially asked McDonald’s for $20,000 to cover hospital expenses, but the company went to trial. A judge later reduced the $2.7 million award to $480,000, which he said was appropriate for the “willful, wanton, reckless” and “callous” behavior by McDonald’s.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

Texas Resumes Sending Buses of Illegals to Kamala’s Mansion

Contributing Author
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Texas Resumes Sending Buses of Illegals to Kamala’s Mansion

(Headline USA) Two buses full of migrants arrived in front of Vice President Kamala Harris’s Washington, D.C. residence on Thursday as Texas resumed shipping migrants to Democrat sanctuary cities amidst the influx of illegal immigrants pouring across the southern border.

More than 40 men, women and children were on the first bus, which stopped just outside the Naval Observatory, and 30 more were on the second bus, according to NBC Washington. Many on the bus reportedly said they were from Venezuela.

Texas has sent multiple migrant buses to Harris’s residence over the past year in an effort to draw national attention to the border crisis. Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, said he intends to continue sending the buses to liberal parts of the country “until Biden secures the border.”

“Until President Biden steps up and does his job, Texas will continue busing migrants to sanctuary cities to provide relief to our overwhelmed border towns,” said Andrew Mahaleris, a spokesperson for Abbott.

Abbott said he specifically chose Harris’s residence as a drop-off destination because of her role as the Biden administration’s “border czar.”

“[Harris is] the border czar, and we felt that if she won’t come down to see the border, if President Biden will not come down and see the border, we will make sure they see it firsthand,” he said back in September.

The buses arrived in Washington, D.C. hours ahead of the end of Title 42, a pandemic policy that allowed border officials to immediately expel migrants who did not qualify for asylum.

Migrants have been surging across the southern border over the past week in anticipation of the policy’s end, with Border Patrol apprehending more than 10,000 illegals per day.

Meanwhile, Harris, who was appointed by President Joe Biden to solve the border crisis, has no plans as of right now of visiting the border or even addressing the migrant crisis, according to her schedule.

FBI Whistleblower: J6 Pipe Bombs Were Duds

Ken Silva
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FBI Whistleblower: J6 Pipe Bombs Were Duds

(Ken Silva, Headline USA) For more than two years, the FBI has insisted that the pipe bombs placed outside the Democratic and Republican national headquarters a day before Jan. 6 were a grave threat to the public.

“They would have exploded. They could have exploded,” said former FBI official Steven D’Antuono, who led the bureau’s Detroit field office during the Whitmer kidnap investigation in 2020 before being moved to Washington DC shortly before the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol Hill protest.

“They are viable devices that could have gone off and exploded, causing a lot of serious injury or death.”

But this is false, according to FBI whistleblower Kyle Seraphin, who worked on the Jan. 6 investigation. Seraphin was suspended from the bureau last year for refusing to get a COVID-19 vaccine, and was fired last month for allegedly unprofessional conduct.

Seraphin told the Washington Times about the phony pipe bombs, reportedly saying that technicians who worked in the Joint Program Office for Countering IEDs told him that the devices left at the RNC and DNC were incapable of detonating.

“The devices were primitive and had all the components you would have for a bomb, but they weren’t assembled like a real bomb,” he told the Washington Times. “They would have never gone off. There was no chance they could have actually detonated. So they were inert devices. They just looked good.”

Seraphin reportedly told the Washington Times another shocking fact about the FBI’s pipe bomb investigation: The bureau linked the suspected bomber to a D.C. MetroRail SmarTrip card. The card indicated the individual got off at a Northern Virginia stop after planting both devices on Jan. 5, according to the Washington Times.

“So they tagged the entrance time and the exit time to that card to that guy. And then they found out who bought the card. And the guy who bought the card was not the guy who was using it,” Seraphin reportedly said.

“The card had never been used before. It was bought a year prior by a retired Chief Master Sergeant in the Air Force, and he was a security contractor. So, he held a security clearance.”

Seraphin reportedly said that he and his team surveilled the retired airman, who lived in a Northern Virginia townhouse, for a couple of days and learned about his background. He told the Washington Times that his bosses forbade him from questioning that unnamed security contractor before his team was removed from the case.

“I don’t know what they [eventually] did on that case, but I know that it was BS and the bombs were BS, and it seems like they had a good lead, and they could have run it down. But as far as I know, they never did,” he reportedly said. “He may still be occasionally surveilled. That’s how dumb it gets.”

Skeptics have questioned the FBI’s official story about the J6 pipe bombs for years. Revolver News has published several investigations into the matter, showing the improbability that the bombs could have been sitting outside the DNC and RNC headquarters for some 17 hours without being discovered by the Secret Service agents and their bomb-sniffing dogs.

“The notion that the Secret Service, the most elite protection detail in the world, swept the DNC building and managed to miss the pipe bomb is impossible to believe—either that or what transpired was such an act of such gross negligence that it is tantamount to deliberate malfeasance,” Revolver noted last October.

“Indeed, as the Google Earth satellite photo reveals, the pipe bomb was mere feet from both the entry and exit doors, as well as the parking garage, where the Secret Service claims it conducted a sweep.”

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

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