WATCH: Newsom Deploys State Police to Help Local Law Enforcement

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WATCH: Newsom Deploys State Police to Help Local Law Enforcement

(, The Center Square) New California Highway Patrol teams will work with local law enforcement to fight crime in Los Angeles, San Diego, Sacramento, the San Francisco Bay Area, the Central Valley and Southern California’s Inland Empire.

Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the CHP teams in the state’s major cities during a week that also saw Attorney General Rob Bonta reveal an agreement to reform the Torrance Police Department in the Los Angeles area. The pact came in response to an investigation that officials said revealed antisemitism, racism and homophobia among officers.

Both Bonta and Newsom stressed the positive results of local law enforcement and the state working together.

That’s how public safety improves, Newsom said Thursday.

“While the Trump administration undermines cities, California is partnering with them — and delivering real results,” Newsom said. “With these new deployments, we’re doubling down on these partnerships to build on progress and keep driving crime down.”

The CHP officers assigned to crime suppression teams will work in high-crime areas, target repeat offenders, and seize illicit weapons and narcotics, the Governor’s Office said in a news release.

“By combining resources, intelligence and personnel, we can better disrupt criminal activity and strengthen the safety and security of communities across California,” CHP Commissioner Sean Duryee said.

The CHP teams will share intelligence, coordinate enforcement and assist with investigations, the Governor’s Office said. The office added the work will include enforcement to deter and disrupt organized crime.

In 2024, Newsom deployed CHP officers for partnerships with local law enforcement in Bakersfield, San Bernardino and Oakland. So far, that has resulted in more than 9,000 arrests, the recovery of nearly 5,800 stolen vehicles and the seizing of over 400 firearms, the Governor’s Office said.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said she welcomes the CHP’s help.

“We look forward to working with CHP to identify the best use of these additional resources to support ongoing local law enforcement efforts,” Bass said in a statement. “I want to thank the governor for being a collaborative partner. The best way to address crime and other top challenges is through partnership, and this is an example of that. In close collaboration with LAPD and community organizations, we will continue to hold people accountable and implement comprehensive strategies to keep Angelenos safe.”

While Newsom focused Thursday on CHP teams, Bonta told reporters about the five-year plan to reform the Torrance Police Department. He praised the department for asking for the state Department of Justice’s help after an investigation found more than a dozen officers had exchanged racist, homophobic and antisemitic messages.

The investigation occurred when the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office in 2021 charged two former Torrance police officers with felony vandalism and conspiracy to commit vandalism for allegedly spray-painting a swastika on a car that was impounded in 2020, according to the state DOJ.

That led then-Torrance Police Chief Jeremiah “Jay” Hart to ask for the state Department of Justice’s help. The DOJ responded with a review to determine failures in the police department’s policies and practices.

“Today’s enforceable agreement is an important step toward improving Torrance Police Department’s practices and policies and strengthening trust between its officers and the community they serve,” Bonta said Thursday during a news conference in Torrance, a coastal Los Angeles suburb.

Bonta expressed optimism that the Torrance Police Department’s cooperation and willingness to reform “will lead to real results.”

The reform will improve the department “through better policies and practices, modern technology to track performance and enhanced technology,” said Torrance Interim Police Chief Robert Dunn.

The department has a zero-tolerance policy for hate and discrimination, Dunn noted.

As part of the five-year plan, the Torrance Police Department will expand and improve its data collection and identify staff members to carry out Internal Affairs functions.

The plan also calls for the department to communicate clearer and stronger expectations for its supervisors and to determine what training supervisors need. The department will also work to redesign its Early Intervention System to flag potential problems or misconduct.

DHS’s New Election Integrity Czar Has Receipts on Pennsylvania’s 2020 Fraud

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DHS’s New Election Integrity Czar Has Receipts on Pennsylvania’s 2020 Fraud

(Ben Sellers, Headline USA) Left-wing media outlets pounced Tuesday to attack President Donald Trump’s new appointee for the Department of Homeland Security’s election-integrity czar.

Outlets including the Associated Press and ProPublica accused Heather Honey of being an “election denier” for the doubts she has cast over the 2020 election outcome.

However, Honey’s supporters pointed to the fact that she has the receipts to back up her skepticism—including evidence that Pennsylvania, a hotbed for vote fraud by many accounts, finished with 121,240 more votes than voters.

“Heather Honey’s work has never been refuted,” wrote Liz Harrington, Trump’s former campaign spokesperson. “She’s uncovered enough evidence to overturn the fraudulent 2020 election in multiple states.”

Trump could have clinched the election with Pennsylvania and Georgia—another hotly contested battleground state where questions over rampant fraud have yet to be fully resolved.

Left-wing activists, including Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, waged several lawfare attacks on Trump and his allies to ensure that previous efforts to investigate were punished.

Trump adviser Rudy Giuliani was sued for raising questions about the after-hours ballot counting at the Atlanta county’s State Farm Arena following video evidence suggesting that an election official had pulled cases of hidden ballots from beneath a table and scanned them multiple times.

Honey—who worked closely with Trump’s campaign lawyers such as Public Interest Legal Foundation chair Cleta Mitchell—played significant roles in the efforts to challenge Georgia’s final ballot count and the forensic audit of Arizona’s election, which uncovered widespread irregularities.

According to Mitchell, she confirmed more votes than voters in Michigan, as well.

“Her expertise is the study of systems to identify vulnerabilities that could be exploited by potential fraudsters and she was struck by what she saw in 2020 and started applying her expertise to research on election systems,” Mitchell wrote in a post defending Honey following the media smear attack.

The decision for media outlets to target Honey reportedly came directly from Democracy Docket, the anti-integrity activist group founded by notorious election lawyer Marc Elias after he was forced out of the Perkins Coie lawfirm during John Durham’s investigation of the Steele Dossier scandal.

Leftists may be justifiably worried about the Trump administration’s efforts to close many of the voting loopholes they have long exploited to pad the voter tallies with dubious or outright illegitimate ballots.

In addition to red-state redistricting to counter Democrats’ longstanding gerrymandering efforts, Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem have floated the possibility of stationing ICE agents outside of polling precincts to deter illegal voting in blue states.

“Democrats are cheaters and hate nothing more than an honest and well-informed leader who is ON to them – leaders like Heather Honey,” Mitchell wrote in her post.

“Having Heather inside the Dept of Homeland Security is an enormous step toward fixing our broken election systems,” she added. “That’s why the leftist media is howling and having public meltdowns over Heather’s appointment.”

While the shock of the brazen ballot manipulation—much of it the result of unprecedented mail-in voting during the COVID era—may have marked a low point in America’s history, some have since pointed out that the loss had a silver lining.

The four years of Biden allowed Trump and his allies time to regroup, while Democrats continued to lay traps that cost them political capital and set precedents for how Trump could proceed to hold them accountable.

It also allowed him to identify who the true loyalists were to ensure that he could hit the ground running with his ambitious agenda.

“Sometimes it feels like the 2020 election being rigged against Trump was a blessing in disguise, because otherwise … the same elites who wrecked everything would be back in charge now,” conservative influencer Hans Mahncke wrote on Friday.

Ben Sellers is a freelance writer and former editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/realbensellers.

Pritzker Humiliated by Facts after Touting Illinois Elementary Schools

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Pritzker Humiliated by Facts after Touting Illinois Elementary Schools

(Ben Sellers, Headline USA) As he vies with his California counterpart, Gavin Newsom, to fill Democrats’ leadership vacuum ahead of the 2028 presidential election, Illinois  Gov. JB Pritzker tried pushing a bit of pedantry while attempting to target the Trump administration.

Pritzker posted a video of himself at an elementary school Friday, where he pointed to classroom rules that “leaders in Washington ought to learn.”

He specifically cited “Listen carefully,” “Treat each other with respect” and “Make good decisions.”

But in a takedown posted on her Libs of TikTok accounts, social-media influencer Chaya Raichik pointed out that the students in that classroom may not have been able to read the rules at all.

As of 2022, there were 30 schools where not a single student was able to meet grade-level literacy standards, the post noted, citing data from the state Board of Education’s Illinois Report Card.

Many of the schools were located in Chicago, where President Donald Trump has floated the possibility of sending in the National Guard to clear up a rampant crime epidemic.

Pritzker, a billionaire scion of the Hyatt hotel chain family, complained that his state lacked the necessary federal funding to bring law and order to the city.

“He’s defunding our efforts to fight crime so that he can send troops into the city of Chicago for one reason. It’s about the elections in 2026 and about interrupting our ability to have a fair and free election,” Pritzker claimed, without evidence.

Pritzker, meanwhile, has put a possible redistricting battle at the top of his priority list.

After Texas announced its plans to redraw maps and secure more favorable red districts, Texas Democrats were widely mocked for seeking refuge in Illinois, which includes some of the most egregiously gerrymandered districts in the nation.

Ben Sellers is a freelance writer and former editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/realbensellers.

Congress to Face Mounting Pressure to Act on Future of D.C.

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Congress to Face Mounting Pressure to Act on Future of D.C.

(, The Center Square) When Congress reconvenes following the Labor Day holiday, it will likely be pressured to extend Washington, D.C.’s state of emergency and take up legislation on the district’s future.

By law, President Donald Trump can only declare a state of emergency in the district for 30 days without congressional authorization. If he hopes to continue with the deployment of the National Guard, Congress will need to act fast – by Sept. 11. Congress ultimately retains legislative authority over the district.

Trump invoked the D.C. Home Rule Act when he declared a criminal emergency in the district on Aug. 11, calling it “Liberation Day.”

However, the debate over D.C.’s autonomous future began shortly after the president was sworn in to serve his second term.

In early February, U.S. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn, introduced companion legislation in the House and Senate titled the Bringing Oversight to Washington and Safety to Every Resident Act, or BOWSER Act, named after the district’s Democratic Mayor Muriel Bowser.

The companion legislation currently sits in committee and has not progressed since February.

The lawmakers argue the legislation comes in response to the “mayor and city council’s failure to prevent violent crime, corruption, and voting by non-citizens.”

The District of Columbia Home Rule Act of 1973 was enacted by Congress and ratified by D.C. voters. The act gave district residents limited autonomy over local affairs, allowing them to elect local leaders, including mayors and council members.

Despite gaining some control, ultimately, Congress has the authority to manage the nation’s Capital, according to Article 1, Section 8, Clause 17 of the U.S. Constitution. The president also has the authority to appoint district judges.

Ogles blames Bower’s progressive policies for leading to crime, citing the district’s reputation for violent crimes, prior to Trump’s law enforcement and National Guard surge that has significantly lowered crime.

“The radically progressive regime of D.C. Mayor Bowser has left our nation’s Capital in crime-ridden shambles,” Ogles said in February. “Washington is now known for its homicides, rapes, drug overdoses, violence, theft, and homelessness. Bowser and her corrupt Washington City Council are incapable of managing the city. As such, it seems appropriate for Congress to reclaim its Constitutional authority and restore the nation’s Capital. The epicenter of not only the United States Federal Government but also the world geopolitics cannot continue to be a cesspool of Democrats’ failed policies.”

In the duo’s takedown of the district’s leadership, they cited “a long history of official corruption, federal bribery charges against a council member, armed carjackings, public beatings on public transit, assaults and robberies against congressional staff and members of Congress, soft on crime policies, allowing non-citizens to vote in local elections and regulations causing a high cost of living.

In addition to extending the crime emergency in the district, the president needs Congress’s help changing cashless bail policies and reinstating capital punishment.

Although it hasn’t been discussed, it is possible the president could broker a deal with Bowser and council members to adopt his tough-on-crime supporting policies in exchange for retaining the Home Rule Act.

On Thursday, Bowser held a briefing at which she admitted that the surge in law enforcement has been a success. She noted a nearly 90% reduction in carjackings since the surge began compared to a year ago.

“For carjackings, the difference between this period, this 20-day period of this federal surge and last year represents an 87% reduction in carjackings in Washington, D.C. We know that when carjackings go down, when use of gun goes down, when homicide or robbery go down, neighborhoods feel safer and are safer. So, this surge has been important to us for that reason,” Bowser told reporters.

Since Aug. 11, the D.C. Police Union has calculated major decreases in crimes, including 83% drops in carjackings, 46% decreases in robberies, 22% drops in violent crime, 21% decreases in car theft, and 6% drops in property crime. The group adds that there has been an 8% reduction in crime overall.

The mayor credited the surge for increasing “perceived accountability” as a preventive measure in tackling the crime crisis.

“Having more federal law enforcement officers on the street – we think having more stops that got to illegal guns has helped. We think that there is more accountability in the system, or at least perceived accountability in the system, that is driving down illegal behavior. We know that we have had fewer gun crimes, fewer homicides, and we have experienced an extreme reduction in carjackings,” the mayor added.

In addition to Bowser’s acknowledgement of the surge working, a Harvard CAPS/Harris poll released Monday shows that 54% of voters support Trump’s actions in D.C., considering them “justified and necessary,” including 28% of Democrats and 47% of independents.

Despite the success the president is experiencing from the surge, Democrats remain defiant of the crackdown and deployment of the National Guard, which could pose a challenge for Republicans in favor of rescinding the Home Rule Act, with the GOP holding a slim majority in the House.

Instead, Democrats have gone on the offensive, pushing for D.C. statehood. In January, 41 Senate Democrats introduced legislation to establish statehood for the district.

“Virginia’s neighbors in D.C. don’t have the same representation in Congress as other states and are unfairly subjected to taxation without representation – a denial of political freedom that defies the ideological framework upon which our Founding Fathers established this nation. We are proud to support this legislation to recognize D.C. as the 51st state,” the senators argued in January.

One of the president’s ardent critics in the Senate, Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., has been pushing for D.C. statehood while chastising the law enforcement surge.

“Trump’s authoritarian takeover of DC isn’t making anyone safer. You know what it IS doing? Pulling FBI agents & other federal officers away from critical law enforcement & counterterrorism duties nationwide. Taxpayers are funding a Trump stunt that is making us all LESS safe,” Van Hollen posted on X.

“House Republicans are once again treating D.C.’s 700,000 residents like political pawns. Keep your hands OFF D.C. This is why we need to pass my D.C. statehood bill with [Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C.],” Van Hollen wrote in a separate post.

The Senate legislation, as well as a House companion bill, also remain in committee.

Melania ‘Laughed’ at Vanity Fair Offer that Made Leftists Lose Their Mind

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Melania ‘Laughed’ at Vanity Fair Offer that Made Leftists Lose Their Mind

(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) The leftist staff of Vanity Fair reportedly had a meltdown over a proposed cover featuring First Lady Melania Trump—only for her to laugh and promptly reject the offer.

Mrs. Trump was reportedly approached by the magazine’s leadership in July for its September issue but swiftly declined.

News of the proposed cover emerged amid media reports of Vanity Fair’s new global editorial director, Mark Guiducci.

“She doesn’t have time to be sitting in a photo shoot. Her priorities as First Lady are far more important… These people don’t deserve her anyway,” a source told Page Six.

Page Six’s reporting came after the Daily Mail revealed an internal revolt over the proposed cover.

“I will walk out the motherf***ing door, and half my staff will follow me… If I have to work bagging groceries at Trader Joe’s, I’ll do it… It sickens me,” one mid-level editor said.

“We are not going to normalize this despot and his wife; we’re just not going to do it. We’re going to stand for what’s right,” the staffer added.

The editor reiterated that they would rather “bag groceries” at Trader Joe’s than feature Melania.

“It sickens me. Even the idea of it,” the editor added.

The news of Vanity Fair’s drama follows the trend of major fashion magazines snubbing Mrs. Trump for covers during the first Trump administration.

By comparison, former First Lady Jill Biden secured two Vogue covers during her husband’s tenure, Michelle Obama appeared three times in eight years, and Hillary Clinton was featured once in 1998.

Former IDF Operative Uses School Shooting to Promote AI Surveillance System on Fox News

Jose Nino
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Former IDF Operative Uses School Shooting to Promote AI Surveillance System on Fox News

(José Niño, Headline USA) A Fox News guest used the immediate aftermath of a deadly Minneapolis school shooting on Wednesday to promote an artificial intelligence surveillance system that critics likened to George Orwell’s “1984.”

Aaron Cohen, a former Israel Defense Forces operative turned actor, appeared on “Fox News @ Night with Trace Gallagher” less than 24 hours after a gunman killed two children and wounded 17 others at Annunciation Catholic School. 

The shooter, 23-year-old Robin Westman, took his life after opening fire during morning Mass on Tuesday.

During the interview, Cohen pitched what he calls “Gideon,” describing it as “America’s first ever AI threat detection platform.” He told host Trace Gallagher that the system “scrapes the internet 24/7 using an Israeli grade ontology to pull specific threat language and then routes it to local law enforcement.”

“It’s a 24/7 detective that never sleeps, and it’s going to get us in front of these attacks,” Cohen said.

When Gallagher asked whether the platform would have detected the Minneapolis shooting, Cohen responded with certainty: “100%. I wish my program would already be up. We’re not launching until next week. I’ve got a dozen agencies on board Trace. I just unload a major northeast agency with over 2,700 sworn. This is America’s early warning system.”

However, multiple reports from outlets such as Redact indicate that Cohen’s “Gideon” platform does not actually exist as a functional system. According to the Redact report, Cohen is still in the fundraising stage and is still attempting to build a minimum viable product. 

He has been using Fox News appearances in the last few months to pitch the concept and seek funding.

The timing of Cohen’s pitch drew immediate backlash from critics who questioned both the ethics of promoting a surveillance product so soon after a tragedy and the feasibility of the technology itself. 

Some compared the proposed system to the dystopian surveillance state depicted in Orwell’s classic novel.

José Niño is the deputy editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/JoseAlNino

Fund Set Up to Aid Ax-Wielding Scottish Girls as Mum Speaks Out

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Fund Set Up to Aid Ax-Wielding Scottish Girls as Mum Speaks Out

(Ben Sellers, Headline USA) The shocking report of a group of Scottish girls who were punished after having been forced to fend off a pair of foreign attackers with a machete and battle ax captivated many on social media.

Now, a pro-law-and-order activist has set up a GiveSendGo fundraiser to help the young victims and their family cover any legal and medical expenses or other needs.

Blogger Aesthetica established the account to benefit Elaine Thomson, the mother of two of the three girls who were accosted on Saturday, Aug. 23 by a group of “foreign nationals” in the Lochee area of Dundee, Scotland.

The harrowing viral video showed sisters Lola (12) and Ruby (13), who were being filmed during part of the encounter by their friend, Mayah (13).

According to the account provided by Aesthetica, based on an interview with Mayah’s mother, “the girls where [sic] out just walking and the man in the picture made comments to lola(the younger girl) calling her sexy and other sexual remarks then the girls started to tell this man to leave them alone.”

The girls rebuffed the primary instigator, but then the assailant’s sister allegedly “came around the corner and physically attacked ruby (the older sister) she grabbed her hair dragged her to the floor started to punch her then both the man and woman where [sic] kicking her in head while she was on the floor.”

As Mayah called the police, 12-year-old Lola took charge of the situation by brandishing two Braveheart-caliber weapons.

But instead of sympathizing with the victims of the brazen harassment, responding law enforcement officials charged Lola for possession of the weapons.

Ruby was hospitalized with Ruby “a severe concussion a tennis ball sized lump to the back of her head as well as lots of bruises,” according to the GiveSendGo account.

As of Saturday, it had raised nearly £74,000 (almost $100,000) of a target £250,000 (approximately $337,500).

“We set up this campaign because like millions of others who saw the video and have now heard Lola and Ruby’s story, we were astonished at the incredible bravery from such a young child,” said the GiveSendGo description.

“She became the hero for a nation that for too long has seen their cries of help go unheard,” it added. “Lola fearlessly stood on her own standing up to her sister’s attackers and now she needs our help to stand up to the corrupt law establishment that would rather go after victims than hold foreign migrants accountable for their crimes.”

The alleged assailant, Fatos Ali Dumana, 21, has denied the allegations against him. In fact, it was the girls who accosted him, he told the Daily Mail.

“I never touched her. I didn’t hit her, I swear on my life, I have a baby now. I would never hurt someone,” Dumana reportedly said. “If she’s only 12 why was she messing with me and having weapons? … There was one more person also who told them (the police) she was attacking me and calling me a f***** migrant.”

The incident is just the latest in a long series of concerns surrounding the United Kingdom’s failure to address its immigration issues and the corresponding cultural takeover by predominantly Middle Eastern Muslim immigrants.

A man in northwest England was detained by police recently during a protest over the construction of a Muslim religious center for shouting “We love bacon.”

U.S. Vice President JD Vance highlighted the concerns last year on the campaign trail, during a speech for the National Conservatism conference in Washington, D.C.

“The United Kingdom is turning into an Islamic state with nuclear weapons,” Vance said in July 2024. “They could soon be a serious threat to us in America.”

Ben Sellers is a freelance writer and former editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/realbensellers.

Satanic Monkeypox Researcher Resigns from the CDC

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Satanic Monkeypox Researcher Resigns from the CDC

(Ben Sellers, Headline USA) Conservatives widely celebrated the firings or resignations of several disloyal staffers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as woke holdovers of the Biden era made themselves easier to identify and root out—including at least one facing scrutiny for his alarming fetishes and beliefs came under intense scrutiny.

The apparent firing of CDC Director Susan Monarez on Wednesday triggered a chain reaction, with at least four other top health officials resigning in protest, CNBC reported.

Among the most stunning of the departures was ‘resistance’ operative Demetre Daskalakis, a gay activist and former New York health official who joined the CDC during the final months of President Donald Trump’s first term, in December 2020, overseeing its HIV/AIDS Prevention division.

Daskalakis flourished during the Biden administration, rising to become director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases. In that role, he helped oversee the Biden administration’s response to monkeypox outbreaks, mostly in the gay community.

But with noted vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. taking the helm at the Department of Health and Human Services, officials who may once have helped to spearhead the Democrat president’s dubious vaccine mandates are now tasked with undoing the damage.

Daskalakis posted his resignation letter to Debra Houry, the CDC’s chief medical officer, explaining that his differences of opinion with Kennedy were interfering with his job performance.

“I find that the views he and his staff have shared challenge my ability to continue in my current role at the agency and in the service of the health of the American people. Enough is enough,” Daskalakis wrote.

“While I hold immense respect for the institution and my colleagues, I believe that it is imperative to align my professional responsibilities to my system of ethics and my understanding of the science of infectious disease, immunology, and my promise to serve the American people,” he added. “… I am unable to serve in an environment that treats CDC as a tool to generate policies and materials that do not reflect scientific reality and are designed to hurt rather than to improve the public’s health.”

Daskalakis initially suggested his main objection was a change in vaccine schedules that removed CDC guidance calling for children to take the controversial COVID jab.

But as his more-than-1,200-word screed went on, his true motives came more into focus.

“For decades, I have been a trusted voice for the LGBTQ community when it comes to critical health topics,” Daskalakis said.

“I must also cite the recklessness of the administration in their efforts to erase transgender populations, cease critical domestic and international HIV programming, and terminate key research to support equity as part of my decision,” he added.

At the end of the letter, he included his masculine preferred pronouns.

Many critics weighed in with their comments, which included posts appearing to come from Daskalakis’s Instagram and other social media accounts that showed him wearing bondage leather straps in the shape of a Satanic pentagram.

A tattoo that appeared also to be a pentagram was visible on Daskalakis’s right pectoral in a picture that showed him engaging in “puppy play” with another man.

As the questions arose over whether Daskalakis engaged in Satanic practices, more damning evidence continued to flood in.

Few seemed to lament the loss of Daskalakis and his ideologically driven colleagues at the CDC, which lost credibility with many pro-freedom Americans over its repeated bungling of the COVID pandemic response.

Health expert Calley Means articulated the root issues in a brutal takedown following the CDC temper-tantrum.

“President Trump and Secretary Kennedy aren’t responsible for our public health crisis,” he wrote. “They are responsible for identifying it and channeling the overwhelming (and correct) cry from Americans for reform. … If CDC employees want to defend the status quo and aren’t aligned with a reform, they should resign.”

The Biden administration drew sharp criticism for prioritizing DEI and identity politics in its staffing of crucial government roles, including transgender official Rachel Levine as deputy secretary of HHS.

One of the most notorious cases was that of Sam Brinton, a top official overseeing nuclear waste disposal who moonlighted as a “puppy play” fetishist. Brinton was forced out of the Energy Department, however, after he was exposed as a serial luggage thief.

Ben Sellers is a freelance writer and former editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/realbensellers.

Biden Judge Presiding over Ousted Fed Official’s Anti-Trump Lawsuit Was Her Sorority Sister

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Biden Judge Presiding over Ousted Fed Official’s Anti-Trump Lawsuit Was Her Sorority Sister

(Ben Sellers, Headline USA) President Donald Trump’s efforts to force Biden-appointee Lisa Cook from the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors hit a roadblock after the case was assigned to a far-left judge with a serious conflict of interests.

Former Trump adviser Roger Stone was among those highlighting the fact that Biden-appointed Judge Jia Cobb of the D.C. District Cout was a sorority sister of Cook’s in Delta Sigma Theta, a historically black sorority with over 350,000 members worldwide.

Cook, 61, and Cobb, 45, attended different schools in different eras, so it is unlikely that they socialized together. Nonetheless, Stone and other critics suggested the connection might be a violation for Cobb under 28 U.S.C. § 455 and called on her to recuse herself.

Trump announced Cook’s firing on Thursday after warning he would do so if she refused to resign amid serious allegations of mortgage fraud.

The showdown comes as the Fed obstinately refuses to lower interest rates, believed to be a major drag on the U.S. economy. Although Fed members claimed uncertainty over the long-term impacts of Trump’s tariff policies, evidence has suggested that Fed Chairman Jerome Powell and other officials with the nebulous, semi-private bank may be suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome and deliberately attempting to torpedo his efforts.

Powell was slammed for failing to address Biden-era inflation in a timely manner and allowing himself to be misled over employment data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics that falsely suggested a robust recovery under Biden.

Since her firing, Cook has refused to step aside, maintaining that Trump lacks the executive authority to regulate Fed personnel matters.

The resulting lawsuit is likely to go before the U.S. Supreme Court since it touches on the ambiguous question as to what authority the president has in regulating financial policy.

But first, it must go through Cobb, who has a long history of ruling against Trump, irrespective of the rule of law.

Some questioned the coincidental appointment of Cobb and openly questioned whether the clerk of court might be stacking the deck on Cook’s behalf.

Similar criticisms of judicial bias have been raised by Trump himself, who suggested the cases being processed by TDS-afflicted D.C. District Judge Jeb Boasberg would be statistically impossible if following the procedures for random assignment.

Trump’s economic reforms faced another setback at the hands of activist judges when an appeals court judge ruled that most of Trump’s tariff measures had exceeded his authority.

In addition to the lawsuit over Trump’s authority to fire Cook, the Justice Department may be advancing criminal charges against Cook over mortgage fraud for allegedly claiming at least three different properties as her primary residence to enjoy more favorable loan terms.

A conviction would likely render moot any of the civil issues over Trump’s authority, as there is no question that Trump has the ability to fire Fed governors with cause.

Questions about whether sorority ties constitute conflicts of interest arose last year on the campaign trail.

Former Vice President Kamala Harrris, the Democrat presidential candidate, was caught colluding with ABC News to give her an advantage during her Sept. 10 debate with Trump.

Among the issues were Harris’s sorority ties to debate co-moderator Linsey Davis.

Harris also was slammed for a decision to snub a congressional address by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyau, preferring instead to attend a sorority function in Indiana.

Ben Sellers is a freelance writer and former editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/realbensellers.

Social Security/DOGE Whistleblower Resigns

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Social Security/DOGE Whistleblower Resigns

(Headline USA) A Social Security whistleblower whose complaint alleged that Department of Government Efficiency officials mishandled Americans’ sensitive information says he’s resigning because of actions taken against him since making the claim.

Charles Borges, the agency’s chief data officer, alleged that more than 300 million Americans’ Social Security data was put at risk by DOGE officials who uploaded sensitive information to a cloud account not subject to oversight. His disclosure was submitted to the special counsel’s office on Tuesday.

In a letter to SSA Commissioner Frank Bisignano, Borges claimed that since filing the complaint, the agency’s actions make his duties “impossible to perform legally and ethically” and have caused him “physical, mental and emotional distress.”

“After reporting internally to management and externally to regulators, serious data and security and integrity concerns impacting our citizens’ most sensitive personal data, I have suffered exclusion, isolation, internal strife, and a culture of fear, creating a hostile work environment and making work conditions intolerable,” Borges added.

The Government Accountability Project, which is representing him in his whistleblower case, posted Borges’ resignation letter on its website Friday evening. Borges declined to comment.

“He no longer felt that he could continue to work for the Social Security Administration in good conscience, given what he had witnessed,” his attorney Andrea Meza said in a statement. She added that Borges would continue to work with the proper oversight bodies on the matter.

In his whistleblower’s complaint, Borges said the potentially sensitive information put at risk by DOGE’s actions includes health diagnoses, income, banking information, familial relationships and personal biographic data.

“Should bad actors gain access to this cloud environment, Americans may be susceptible to widespread identity theft, may lose vital healthcare and food benefits, and the government may be responsible for re-issuing every American a new Social Security Number at great cost,” said the complaint.

Borges had served as the Social Security Administration’s chief data officer since January.

The SSA declined to comment on Borges’ resignation or allegations against the agency in his letter to colleagues.

President Donald Trump’s DOGE has faced scrutiny as it received unprecedented access from the Republican administration to troves of personal data across the government under the mandate of eliminating waste, fraud and abuse.

Labor and retiree groups sued SSA earlier this year for allowing DOGE to access Americans’ sensitive agency data, though a divided appeals panel decided this month that DOGE could access the information.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

 

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