ATF Director Doesn’t Know How Many ‘Fast and Furious’ Guns Remain in the Streets

Ken Silva
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ATF Director Doesn’t Know How Many ‘Fast and Furious’ Guns Remain in the Streets

(Ken Silva, Headline USA) ATF Director Steven Dettelbach revealed during a Wednesday congressional hearing that he doesn’t know how many guns remain unaccounted for from the bureau’s Operation Fast and Furious—an Obama-era scandal where the ATF purposely allowed illegal gun purchases under the guise of tracking organized crime.

The U.S. government reportedly lost 2,000 firearms during Operation Fast and Furious, of which only 710 were recovered as of February 2012. Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., asked Dettelbach how many more have been recovered since then, and the ATF boss said he didn’t know.

Biggs said one of the Fast and Furious guns has recently been used in a crime. Biggs didn’t provide details of this crime, but said the ATF is now questioning the firearms dealer from which the gun emanated.

“Now you’re asking [the gun dealer] who they sold it to. They sold it to an ATF agent,” Biggs said.

Dettelbach again professed ignorance of the situation.

The crime cited by Biggs would be the latest incident stemming from Fast and Furious, which became a national scandal when Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed by a Fast and Furious firearm in 2010.

At least 150 Mexicans have been maimed or killed by guns that the ATF allowed to “walk.” One of the Fast and Furious guns was also likely used in the November 13, 2015, Paris terrorist attacks, which killed 130 people.

And those aren’t the only victims of Fast and Furious.

Headline USA is one of the few outlets to tell the story of Donald Reynolds Jr., a black businessman serving life plus 75 years on drug, weapon and money-laundering charges. The American Conservative first published an investigation in 2020 about the likelihood that the U.S. government retaliated against Reynolds after he refused to be a government informant in a Fast and Furious-like operation.

Reynolds is currently incarcerated in one of the country’s two maximum-security “Communication Management Units”— prison facilities designed to prevent terrorists and organized crime figures from communicating with their networks outside.

Another victim of the Fast and Furious scandal is the journalist who exposed the operation on a national stage: former CBS reporter Sharyl Attkisson.

Attkisson discovered while working on the ATF scandal that government agents hacked her computer in an attempt to discover her confidential sources. She also says the government threatened to plant child pornography on her husband’s computer.

Attkisson filed a lawsuit over this matter, which is still ongoing.

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

Woke School Board Rejects 2nd Superintendent Candidate to Appease LGBT Mob

Robert Jonathan
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Woke School Board Rejects 2nd Superintendent Candidate to Appease LGBT Mob

(Robert Jonathan, Headline USA) A woke western Massachusetts school board has effectively rejected another candidate for education superintendent.

Late last month, the Easthampton, Mass., School Committee revoked a job offer made to career educator and administrator Vito Perrone merely for innocuously addressing two officials as ladies in an email about his benefits package.

The well-meaning Perrone was told that the term constituted a microaggression.

The committee subsequently offered the school superintendent job to their second choice, Erica Faginski-Stark, director of curriculum and instruction for the public schools in nearby Ludlow, Massachusetts.

An Easthamption student who was speaking on behalf of a group of students emailed the mayor about Faginski’s purported Facebook page, according to the Daily Hampshire Gazette.

With accompanying screen shots, the student alleged that the online content contained “conservative transphobic rhetoric a multitude of times.”

Although the Facebook material appears to have been deleted, Faginski-Stark’s transgression reportedly was for statements made on behalf of women’s sports, which only a relatively short time ago was a mainstream position.

Most, but not all, feminists have gotten on board with the current interpretation of gender ideology by the far Left.

“The Facebook posts that the students shared were from 2021. One of the posts included a link for a petition to ‘Defend Title IX,’ which stated that ‘only girls should play girls’ sports!,” the Boston Herald reported.

Title IX is the federal law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in any school that receives funding from the federal government and which has resulted in the flourishing of women’s athletics.

In another post, dated January 23, 2021, Faginski allegedly linked to a Prager U video called “The End of Women’s Sports,” above which she wrote, in part, that “As a former Div. 1 scholarship athlete and academic & athletic All American, our young women just got stripped of their equal rights and equal opportunity yesterday. It’s time we made our voices heard…”

“It’s unclear what the post is referring to; however, on Jan. 20, 2021, the Biden administration issued an executive order affirming federal anti-discrimination rules against LGBTQ people,” the Gazette recalled.

Mayor Nicole LaChapelle reportedly told the student that she would look into the matter as set forth in the email, which she shared with School Committee Chairperson Cynthia Kwiecinski, one of the officials who claimed she was insulted by Perrone’s so-called microaggression salutation.

After Kwiecinski contacted her, and presumably seeing the handwriting on the wall, Faginski-Stark withdrew her application for the job in the school system.

“Dr. Faginski Stark dropped out immediately, when she heard about the letter, so negotiations never began. If she had not withdrawn, I would have immediately shared the letter with the Committee so that they had time to review it before our executive session,” Kwiecinski told the Gazette.

According to New York Post columnist Kirsten Fleming, “Her sin was expressing a belief that trans athletes should not compete against biological women. This sentiment is not only in line with the majority of Americans, but there is scientific evidence to back up the fact that biological men have an athletic advantage over women. This isn’t transphobic, rather it’s an acknowledgement of reality.”

On Tuesday, the school committee decided against offering the job to the third-place finalist and instead intends to appoint an interim superintendent for a one-year term during which a new search process will get underway.

“Perhaps they should turn this into a reality show where educators parade their woke bonafides before a committee of easily offended children and adults who want trigger warnings on everything” Fleming added.

Vermont Elementary School to Stop Saying ‘Male,’ ‘Female’ in Sex-Ed Classes

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Vermont Elementary School to Stop Saying ‘Male,’ ‘Female’ in Sex-Ed Classes

(Headline USA) A Vermont elementary school informed parents and students this week that it will no longer use the terms “male” and “female” in sex-education classes and will instead opt for more “gender-inclusive language,” the New York Post reported.

Founders Memorial School sent a letter to families on April 20 explaining the change.

“In an effort to align our curriculum with our equity policy, teachers will be using gender inclusive language throughout this unit,” Principal Sara Jablonsky wrote. “With any differences, we strive to use ‘person-first’ language as best practice.” 

Now, instead of referring to a boy as a “boy” or “male,” teachers will say “person who produces sperm.” Likewise, girls will no longer be “girls” or “female,” but “people who produce eggs.”

The equity policy referenced in Jablonsky’s letter was passed by the Essex Westford School District in June 2021. It requires schools to use “anti-racist and LGBTQIA+ affirming perspectives to inform curriculum decisions starting in Pre-K.”

Parents Defending Education Vice President Caroline Moore blasted the school district and warned that the inclusion of radical gender ideology in school curricula will become commonplace thanks to the Biden administration’s new Title IX guidance.

“This manipulation of elementary anatomy and physiology is a bridge too far and a precursor to what we will see everywhere if the proposed changes to Title IX go into effect,” Moore said in a statement.

“A boy is a boy and a girl is a girl. We all know this. So why are we pretending we don’t?” she continued. “This is the primary way to differentiate human beings at birth, not ‘assigned’ like a class project. You cannot politically correct yourself out of this.”

Another spokesperson for the parental-rights organization said the school district’s “inclusive” language was “dehumanizing.”

“It is clear that the school has decided to be derelict in their duty to educate students in the name of equity. If anyone is wondering what it looks like when an elementary school has been captured by gender ideology, this is it,” the spokesperson said.

Montana Transurrectionist Rep. Banned for Remainder of Legislative Session

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Montana Transurrectionist Rep. Banned for Remainder of Legislative Session

Note: Headline USA’s policy is not to use pronouns in stories involving transgender individuals whose preferred pronouns differ from their biological ones.

(Headline USA) Transgender lawmaker Zooey Zephyr was barred from participating on the Montana House floor after disrupting floor debate and helping to orchestrate an attempted insurrection at the state capitol in Helena.

Republican leaders voted Wednesday to expel Zephyr for the rest of 2023 session after Zephyr rejected GOP leaders’ earlier requirement to apologize for outbursts that violated legislative protocols and decorum.

The punishment of the freshman lawmaker caps a weeklong standoff between House Democrats and Republicans after Zephyr told colleagues last week, you will “see the blood on your hands” over votes to ban transgender-affirming genital mutilation and sterilization treatments for children.

House Speaker Matt Regier and other Republicans said Zephyr’s remark was far outside the boundaries of appropriate civil discourse and demanded Zephyr apologize before being allowed to participate in legislative discussions.

“There needs to be some consequences for what he [Zephyr] has been doing,” said Rep. Joe Read.

The events have showcased the growing power of the Montana Freedom Caucus—a group of at least 21 conservative lawmakers, including Read, that has spearheaded the charge to discipline Zephyr.

“They picked me in this moment because I said a thing that got through their shield for a second,” Zephyr told a crowd of supporters gathered on the capitol steps near a banner that read “Democracy dies here.”

But the Freedom Caucus re-upped its demands Monday, saying in a statement that Zephyr’s decision to hoist a microphone toward the gallery’s protesters amounted to “encouraging an insurrection.”

Zephyr will still be able to vote remotely under terms of the punishment.

In a defiant speech Wednesday before colleagues voted, Zephyr addressed Regier directly and said the purpose of the protest was to take a stand for the LGBT community, Zephyr’s constituents in Missoula and “democracy itself.”

Zephyr accused Regier of taking away the voices of 11,000 constituents and attempting to drive “a nail in the coffin of democracy.”

“If you use decorum to silence people who hold you accountable, then all you’re doing is using decorum as a tool of oppression,” Zephyr said.

For the past week, Zephyr has been forbidden from speaking on the House floor.

The House speaker had previously said he would not allow Zephyr to speak until Zephyr apologized, which Zephyr refused to do.

Zephyr’s remarks, and the Republican response, set off a chain of events that culminated in a riot outside the capitol at noon Monday. Protesters later packed into the gallery at the statehouse and brought House proceedings to a halt while chanting “Let her [sic] speak.”

Read said Zephyr gave a signal to supporters just before Monday’s session was disrupted. He declined to say what that was other than a “strange movement.”

“When she [sic] gave the signal for protestors to go into action, I would say that’s when decorum was incredibly broken,” Read noted.

Regier canceled Tuesday’s floor session without explanation and called the disruptions a “dark day for Montana.”

“Currently, all representatives are free to participate in House debates while following the House rules,” Regier told reporters Tuesday.

“The choice to not follow the House rules is one that Rep. Zephyr has made,” he added. “The only person silencing Rep. Zephyr is Rep. Zephyr. The Montana House will not be bullied.”

Such a protest won’t be allowed to happen on Wednesday. Republican leaders said in the letter to Zephyr that the gallery will be closed “to maintain decorum and ensure safety.”

Although several of the rioters resisted law enforcement officers trying to arrest them on Monday, Zephyr called the demonstration peaceful.

“It was chanting, but it absolutely was not violent,” Zephyr said. “Sometimes extreme measures have a response like this.”

The sideshow spectacle mirrored the recent attack on the Tennessee statehouse weeks ago—where state Reps. Justin Jones and Justin Pearson were expelled after leading an insurrection that followed a transgender mass-murderer’s targeting of three adults and three children at a Christian school in Nashville.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

Don Lemon Offered Job as Wingman for Famous Rapper

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Don Lemon Offered Job as Wingman for Famous Rapper

(Headline USA) Don Lemon was canned by CNN this week, but the former anchor already has another job offer.

Rapper Rick Ross, who owns more than two dozen Wingstop locations across the country, reached out to Lemon to offer him a job at Wingstop, saying, “I’mma make sure I get you in front of the right grill, brother.”

In an Instagram story on Tuesday, Ross reacted to the news of Lemon’s firing.

“Just found out Don Lemon was terminated from CNN. Damn, dawg,” he wrote. “But guess what? The brother’s got your back. We hiring at Wingstop. And for some reason, I believe you know what you doing with the lemon pepper wings, so man, just send over your resume.”

Lemon revealed on Monday that he had been fired by CNN after months of tension with the network’s management over his behavior.

“I was informed this morning by my agent that I have been terminated by CNN. I am stunned,” he wrote in a post on Twitter. “After 17 years at CNN I would have thought that someone in management would have had the decency to tell me directly. At no time was I ever given any indication that I would not be able to continue to do the work I have loved at the network. 

“It is clear there are some larger issues at play,” Lemon added.

Shortly after Lemon’s announcement, CNN released its own statement contradicting Lemon’s version of events.

“Don Lemon’s statement about this morning’s events is inaccurate. He was offered an opportunity to meet with management but instead released a statement on Twitter,” the network said.

One report suggested Lemon’s viral exchange on air last week with GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy was the final straw for CNN executives. The interview, during which Lemon complained about Ramaswamy “sitting there, whatever ethnicity you are, ‘splaining to me what it’s like to be black in America,” shocked CNN producers, the report said.

Trump Says ‘No’ to Current Scheduled 2024 GOP Debates

Corine Gatti
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Trump Says ‘No’ to Current Scheduled 2024 GOP Debates

(Corine Gatti, Headline USA) Former President Donald Trump threatened to skip the upcoming GOP debates, citing concerns about moderators, disrespect and the “hateful networks” that are abusive to him,” the RSBN reported.

On his social-media platform, Truth Social, Trump expressed disapproval of the debates and criticized the networks and moderators for their perceived bias against him and his supporters.

“I see that everybody is talking about the Republican Debates, but nobody got my approval, or the approval of the Trump Campaign, before announcing them,” Trump posted.

“When you’re leading by seemingly insurmountable numbers, and you have hostile Networks with angry, TRUMP & MAGA hating anchors asking the ‘questions,’ why subject yourself to being libeled and abused?” he added.

The first debate is expected to occur in August in Milwaukee and will air on Fox News, Politico reported.

Trump expressed dissatisfaction with the second debate location, tentatively set to be held at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif. He noted that the board of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute, which oversees the library, is chaired by Fred Ryan, current publisher and CEO of the left-skewed Washington Post.

Trump later posted on the thread that Ryan has always tried to hide the fact that he’s also Chairman of the Reagan Library. “He knew the reaction from Real Republicans, not the RINOS that don’t care, would be volatile. He’s also hiding it from his Liberal Friends. President Ronald Reagan would not approve!”

At least one other board member may be hostile toward Trump: former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao. Chao, the wife of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, has been embroiled in a feud of sorts with Chao, who accuses the shipping-industry scion of having sold out America in favor of economic ties with China.

The Republican National Committee has indicated that all candidates must pledge their commitment to the official nominee, or they will be excluded from participating in the debates. 

But the former president has refused to pledge in the past. He skipped one debate during the 2016 GOP primary cycle but he participated in later debates.

Trump is the current GOP frontrunner, holding a large lead over Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, an NBC April 2023 poll showed.

According to the poll, 46% of Republican primary voters have chosen Trump as their top choice for the 2024 candidate, with DeSantis following closely behind at 31%.

Teachers Union Boss Testifies to Congress on Her Role in Pandemic School Closures

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Teachers Union Boss Testifies to Congress on Her Role in Pandemic School Closures

(Headline USA) Teachers union president Randi Weingarten testified before Congress on Wednesday regarding her role in COVID-19 school shutdowns, which records show she had a direct hand in.

Weingarten, who heads the American Federation of Teachers, attempted to downplay her advocacy for school closures, claiming that reports that she worked with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to delay school reopenings is a “faulty premise.”

“With a strategy focused on opening schools, it was completely fitting and proper for the CDC, which specializes in science, not education, to consult with education groups. The CDC conferred with more than 50 organizations about the guidance, according to Dr. Walensky,” Weingarten said in her opening remarks.

“Any claim that the contact the AFT had with the CDC was unusual or inappropriate, particularly in reviewing its February 2021 Operational Strategy, is simply wrong,” she continued. 

Weingarten then suggested that congressional Republicans aren’t really interested in helping students recover from the pandemic.

“We are asking you to help us help students recover from the effects of the pandemic—learning loss, trauma and sadness. The unrelenting attacks on teachers over pandemic-era school closings must end as well,” she claimed.

Records obtained by the New York Post this week show that Weingarten was much more directly involved in drafting the CDC’s school reopening guidance than previously known. She spoke twice with CDC Director Rochelle Walensky in the week leading up to the release of the guidance, including the day before the guidance was released, the records showed.

The CDC had been prepared to encourage schools to bring back students full-time regardless of transmission rates, but Weingarten reportedly insisted that a provision be added saying, “In the event of high community-transmission results from a new variant of SARS-CoV-2, a new update of these guidelines may be necessary.”

Wash. State School Board: Teaching Kids to Play Musical Instruments Is White Supremacy

Molly Bruns
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Wash. State School Board: Teaching Kids to Play Musical Instruments Is White Supremacy

(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) A school board director in Washington state linked the teaching of music to racism, causing the entire district to cancel music lessons.

Scott Clifthorne, acting director of the Olympia School District board, suggested that teaching elementary students to play instruments could “inculcate and allow white supremacy culture to continue to be propogated and cause significant institutional violence.”

According to the Daily Wire, the topic came up in a budgetary meeting. The board discussed ending the band and orchestra programs for fourth- and fifth-grade classes, a move that would save the district $530,000.

The board ended up cutting only the fourth-grade programming.

“We’re a school district that lives in … is entrenched in … is surrounded by white supremacy culture. And that’s a real thing,” Clifthorne explained in the public meeting.

“There’s nothing about strings or wind instrumental music that is intrinsically white supremacist,” he continued. “However, the ways in which it is and the ways in which all of our institutions, not just schools… inculcate and allow white supremacy culture to continue to be propagated and cause significant institutional violence are things that we have to think about carefully as a community.”

Parents who attended the meeting reamed out the board for their idiocy. One parent, Alesha Perkins, explained that the school’s issues lie elsewhere.

“This is actually par for the course. The issue is we are having such a catastrophic budget crisis right now that they’re having to cut programs,” she said.

“This program has been deemed ‘inequitable,'” Perkins explained. “And in a previous comment, the director of elementary education stated that not only is this program ‘inequitable,’ but when she heard the word ‘tradition of excellence,’ which is used to describe our music programs, she said that the word ‘tradition’ actually translated to her means ‘systemic discrimination.'”

Perkins also stressed the importance of strong leadership in the midst of historic enrollment losses.

“We are losing students in huge numbers…. I’m talking hundreds and hundreds of students that are exiting the district, and they are virtually all citing these reasons,” she explained. “You cannot sustain a school district with a mass exodus of students.”

Warner Bros. Marks Centennial by ‘Wokefying’ Classic Films

Ezekiel Loseke
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Warner Bros. Marks Centennial by ‘Wokefying’ Classic Films

(Ezekiel Loseke, Headline USA) Warner Bros. is hitting its centennial anniversary, and in celebration is destroying its beloved classics by reinterpreting them with woke nonsense.

The studio described its project as “a short film series that reimagines the Studio’s iconic films through a diverse and inclusive lens,” while entertainment website Bounding Into Comics explained the details of the arrangement.

“The series will see six of the studio’s classic offerings remade with ‘representative casting, storytelling, and narrative’ by a respective up-and-coming filmmaker,” it wrote. These  filmmakers were “specifically selected to participate by DEI industry veterans, including WBD’s Senior Vice President of DEI in North America Karen Horne, in collaboration with Warner Bros.”

The co-chairs and co-CEOs of Warner Bros., Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy, clarified that this project will be run through with woke nonsense.

“We’re absolutely thrilled to work with WBD’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion team to expand opportunities for a broader range of talent to realize their dreams at Warner Bros,” they said. “We can’t think of a better way to celebrate this Studio’s 100-year legacy than investing in the next generation of great storytellers, and we look forward to seeing these iconic movies through their eyes.”

Some of the best films in history will be subject to this torture, according to PJ Media. The 1953 classic Calamity Jane, The 1952 blockbuster Jack and the Beanstalk, the 1937 film The Prince and the Pauper, 1955’s Rebel Without a Cause, and the 1954 A Star is Born, will all be forced to bend the knee to the woke gods.

Mercifully, one of the studio’s best films, Casanova, was left off the list.

Bounding Into Comics revealed the irony of the situation.

“After all, there’s nothing like celebrating your own history by attempting to appease those who unapologetically hate everything about it.”

China-Compromised NYTimes Suddenly Discovers China’s COVID Censorship

Molly Bruns
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China-Compromised NYTimes Suddenly Discovers China’s COVID Censorship

(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) After years of defending China’s role in the COVID-19 pandemic and defending falsified scientific data, the New York Times recently published a report claiming they discovered evidence of a Chinese censorship campaign surrounding the possible lab leak.

Reporters published a piece on Sunday revealing their “investigation” into the Chinese government’s actions early in the pandemic and their influence over organizations such as the World Health Organization and other prominent scientific institutions.

According to the Daily Caller, the article did not address the glaring contradiction that the New York Times itself took research from these groups as gospel, echoing narratives pushed by the Chinese Communist Party via WHO, NAIAD and other research groups.

The Times argued that the possibility of COVID originating in a Chinese lab was a “conspiracy theory.” One article compared the lab leak theory to former President George W. Bush alleging that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.

Several of the scientists cited in the articles railing against COVID skeptics had conflicts of interest, as they had vested financial interests in the gain of function research taking place at the Wuhan lab. Reserachers Kristian Andersen, Robert Garry and Jeremy Farrar all worked with Dr. Anthony Fauci to mislead the public on the origins of COVID due to their investment in the research.

Another frequent citation for the newspaper was researcher Edward Holmes, who frequently made light of the lab leak theory.

“The Times article also relied heavily on quotes from Edward Holmes, who may well have participated in a coverup of the origins of Covid-19 through his ‘proximal origin’ article. In other words, an awful choice for a person to hang this story around,” said Gary Ruskin, co-founder of U.S. Right to Know. “In some ways, it was a worthy article…But the article didn’t mention how much the U.S. government is doing somewhat similar things — burying data and information about the origins of Covid-19.”

The mainstream media organ also worked tirelessly to link the pandemic to racism, using every opportunity to decry politicians as anti-Asian for being concerned about undue Chinese influence in the U.S.

An increasing amount of evidence suggests that the virus originated in a Wuhan laboratory, though the investigation is ongoing.

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