Ex-Girlfriend of Sam Bankman-Fried Begins 2-Year Sentence for Role in FTX Fraud

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Ex-Girlfriend of Sam Bankman-Fried Begins 2-Year Sentence for Role in FTX Fraud

(Headline USA) Caroline Ellison, a former top executive in Sam Bankman–Fried’s fallen FTX cryptocurrency empire, began her two-year prison sentence Thursday for her role in a fraud that cost investors, lenders and customers billions of dollars.

Ellison, 30, reported to the federal prison in Danbury, Connecticut, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

She had pleaded guilty and testified extensively against Bankman–Fried, her former boyfriend, before he was convicted and sentenced to 25 years in prison.

Ellison could have faced decades in prison herself, but both the judge and prosecutors said she deserved credit for her cooperation.

At her sentencing hearing in New York in September, she tearfully apologized and said she was “deeply ashamed.”

Ellison was chief executive at Alameda Research, a cryptocurrency hedge fund controlled by Bankman–Fried.

FTX was one of the world’s most popular cryptocurrency exchanges, known for its Super Bowl TV ad and its extensive lobbying campaign in Washington, before it collapsed in 2022.

U.S. prosecutors accused Bankman–Fried and other top executives of looting customer accounts on the exchange to make risky investments, make millions of dollars of illegal political donations, bribe Chinese officials and buy luxury real estate in the Caribbean.

The company, which gave predominantly to Democrats but also some Republicans, was able to circumvent normal oversight in part due to the donations to key policy- and lawmakers.

Ellison—the daughter of Massachusetts Institute of Techology economists Glenn and Sara Fisher Ellison—was also a family friend of Securities and Exchange Commission chair Gary Gensler.

The judge overseeing her trial, Lewis Kaplan, gained notoriety as the judge who presided over a spurious defamation lawsuit waged by serial rape-hoaxer E. Jean Carroll.

Kaplan, who had ties to Carroll’s lawyers, repeatedly stacked the deck against Trump, effectively denying him due process in the high-profile lawfare case, leading to an $83.3 million defamation judgment against the now-president-elect for having the audacity to defend himself in response to Carroll’s highly dubious allegations.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

Iconic Voice of AOL’s Early Internet Greeting Dies at 74

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Iconic Voice of AOL’s Early Internet Greeting Dies at 74

(Headline USA) Elwood Edwards, who voiced America Online’s ever-present “You’ve got mail” greeting, has died. He was 74.

He died Tuesday at his home in New Bern, North Carolina, said his daughter Heather Edwards. The cause was complications from a stroke late last year, she said.

Edwards taped his AOL greeting in 1989 into a recorder while sitting in the living room of his home. “You’ve got mail” became a pop culture catchphrase in the late 1990s and served as the title of the 1998 Tom Hanks–Meg Ryan film.

“He would still blush anytime someone brought it up,” his daughter said. “He loved the attention, but he never got used to it.”

He was also the voice of AOL’s “Welcome,” “Goodbye” and “File’s done” messages. He made $200 from the recordings.

He got the gig while working at an independent TV station in Washington, D.C. His second wife, Karen, was a customer service representative for the internet provider that later became known as AOL. She heard the company was looking for someone to be the voice of its software and suggested her husband.

“They were so impressed, they didn’t have him go in a recording booth,” his daughter said.

While few people knew his face, his voice was heard by millions of people each day.

“For a while, America Online was keeping it a secret, making me a man of mystery. But finally it was released, and there you go,” Edwards said in 1999.

He did appear on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in 2015 to repeat the famous catchphrase, smiling broadly and chuckling as the studio audience cheered. He also added his voice to an episode of The Simpsons in 2000.

Edwards first worked in radio and then moved into television. He had a brief stint as a weatherman and worked as an announcer, but mostly he spent his time behind the camera, Heather Edwards said.

“He would say, ‘I have a face for radio,’” she said, adding that her dad “always had a ready smile anytime you’d see him.”

He later worked at WKYC-TV in Cleveland as a “graphics guru, camera operator, and general jack-of-all-trades,” the station said. Edwards also did freelance voice-over work for radio and television commercials.

Survivors include another daughter, Sallie Edwards; granddaughter Abbie Edwards; and a brother, Bill.

The family plans to hold a memorial service Monday in New Bern.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press

Feds Sending Millions in Helene Funding for National Forests, Parks

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Feds Sending Millions in Helene Funding for National Forests, Parks

(Derek Draplin, The Center Square) Federal lands in western North Carolina are set to receive more than $30 million in emergency funding for infrastructure repairs in the wake of Hurricane Helene.

The funding comes as part of $43 million total that the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration is sending to four states affected by the storm, which caused heavy rain, catastrophic flooding, and extensive infrastructure damage in some places. The storm caused 102 deaths in North Carolina and 231 total deaths across seven southern states.

The National Park Service is receiving $25 million for the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina, while the U.S. Forest Service is getting $5.1 million for the Pisgah and Nantahala national forests.

“The damage caused by Hurricane Helene’s heavy rains, strong winds, and flooding is so extensive that emergency vehicles and utility crews cannot make their way into the national forests and national parks to make essential repairs,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a statement. “The emergency funding we’re sending will help the U.S. Forest Service and National Park Service make repairs to vital transportation networks in four impacted states where roads are currently impassable and reopen these roadways as quickly as possible.”

Tourism is a key industry for western North Carolina and Buncombe County, where Asheville is located, and fall is typically the region’s busiest season. Almost $3 billion was spent by tourists in the county in 2023, according to Explore Asheville.

Other allocations include $1.25 million for South Carolina’s Francis Marion and Sumter national forests, $5.25 million for Tennessee’s Cherokee National Forest, and $6.4 million for Virginia’s George Washington and Jefferson national forests.

The funds come with a “quick release” designation, allowing the federal land management agencies immediate access to the funds for “critical eligible repair work that includes removing downed trees, making temporary roadway repairs, stabilizing landslides, and removing overhead hazards and other debris from roadways and bridges to provide safe travel along various routes.”

Two bills introduced this week in the U.S. House would allocate $15 billion for disaster relief to affected states.

Biden Extends Another National Emergency, This Time Related to WMDs

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Biden Extends Another National Emergency, This Time Related to WMDs

(Bethany Blankley, The Center Square) Joe Biden has extended another national emergency, this time related to threats posed by weapons of mass destruction.

Lately, nearly every week, the president has been extending national emergencies that most Americans didn’t even know existed, including one related to Iran that’s been ongoing since 1979.

In nearly all executive orders he issues to extend a preexisting national emergency, he cites the International Emergency Economic Powers Act granting him authorization to do so. The law, which was enacted in 1977, gives presidents sweeping powers.

Under the IEEPA, the U.S. has been in a perpetual state of dozens of national emergencies for various reasons for nearly 50 years, which were extended by multiple presidents.

In this case, the U.S. has been in a perpetual state of national emergency after former President Bill Clinton issued an executive order declaring a national emergency related to WMDs on Nov. 14, 1994. Clinton amended and extended the order four years later “to respond more effectively to the worldwide threat of weapons of mass destruction proliferation activities.”

Former President George W. Bush next extended and amended Clinton’s order on June 28, 2005, “to improve our ability to combat proliferation.” This was after Bush argued it was necessary for the U.S. to invade Iraq because it had WMDs, which no one found.

Even after the colossal intelligence failures related to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and subsequent failures related to the Afghanistan war, the Iraq war is also considered to represent another extensive failure of the intelligence community. The consequences of the conflict were equally disastrous. After nearly nine years of conflict and $728 billion in costs to the U.S. taxpayers, 4,492 U.S. service members were killed and nearly 32,300 were wounded, according to U.S. Department of Defense data. More than 200,000 Iraqi civilians were killed, and more than two million Iraqis were displaced because of the conflict, according to Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs.

Three years after U.S. forces left Iraq, former President Barack Obama sent U.S. troops back to Iraq to combat a new terrorist threat posed by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. Ten years later, U.S. troops are still combatting ISIS and conflict in the region continues.

Despite decades of war, thousands of U.S. troops killed, and the U.S. spending more than $1.6 trillion on unresolved conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, “The proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and the means of delivering them continues to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States,” Biden’s executive order states. “For this reason, the national emergency declared in Executive Order 12938 of November 14, 1994, with respect to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and the means of delivering such weapons must continue beyond November 14, 2024.”

Biden extended the WMD national emergency for another year without mentioning any specific threats.

As of Jan. 15, 2024, U.S. presidents have issued executive orders for 69 national emergencies under the IEEPA, according to the Congressional Research Service, The Center Square reported.

Roughly half, 39, are ongoing. National emergencies invoked through the IEEPA “often last nearly a decade, although some have lasted significantly longer – the first state of emergency declared under the NEA and IEEPA, which was declared in response to the taking of U.S. embassy staff as hostages by Iran in 1979, is in its fifth decade,” according to CRS.

Trump Seals Battleground Sweep, Takes Arizona’s 11 Electoral Votes

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Trump Seals Battleground Sweep, Takes Arizona’s 11 Electoral Votes

(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Arizona’s presidential and Senate races have been decided, after more than four days of waiting. 

President-elect Donald Trump has won Arizona’s 11 electoral votes, according to the liberal New York Times, bringing his total to 312. He led outgoing Vice President Kamala Harris by 6.2 percentage points. 

Trump’s Arizona victory effectively reversed the Grand Canyon State’s temporary shift to Democrats.

In 2020, the state’s electoral votes were certified for Joe Biden. Before that and since 1940, Arizona had voted once for Democrats in 1996, when it went for Bill Clinton.

Arizona was the last battleground state to be called following Trump’s decisive victory in Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. 

At the same time, Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego is projected to defeat Republican Kari Lake in the Arizona Senate race.

Gallego led by 1.5 percentage points, with 49.7% of the vote to Lake’s 48.2%. 

Lake’s defeat comes after narrowly losing the 2022 Arizona gubernatorial race to Gov. Katie Hobbs. 

Gallego will replace outgoing Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, who opted not to seek re-election due to dissatisfaction with her party’s radical leftward shift. 

Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt shared a screenshot of a CNN projection captioned, “Trump completes battleground sweep.” 

Trump’s victory came four days after polls closed on Nov. 5. Notably, Arizona’s ballot-counting process remains to be the topic of controversy. 

Decision Desk HQ’s Michael Pruser called the delays “unacceptable.” 

He added, “You can forgive the time it takes to process late-arriving mail, and the ballots dropped off on election day, but at minimum, the early vote and election day vote should not take four days to complete.” 

Trump Politely Slams the Door on Haley and Pompeo for New Administration

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Trump Politely Slams the Door on Haley and Pompeo for New Administration

(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) President-elect Donald Trump announced he will not offer cabinet positions or any jobs at all to former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley or former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. 

Trump made the announcement Saturday afternoon via Truth Social, coinciding with mounting speculation over his upcoming administration following the 2024 election.

“I will not be inviting former Ambassador Nikki Haley, or former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, to join the Trump Administration, which is currently in formation,” Trump wrote.

The Republican powerhouse added, “I very much enjoyed and appreciated working with them previously, and would like to thank them for their service to our Country. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” 

Trump’s comments came after Haley ran unsuccessfully against him for the Republican nomination in 2024. 

Haley, a former South Carolina governor, spent much of the primary season attacking Trump. She ultimately endorsed him at the Republican National Convention in July, just days after he narrowly escaped an assassination attempt. 

Pompeo was initially rumored to be a presidential contender for 2024. However, he opted out, claiming that the timing was not right. Pompeo, like Haley, spoke at the RNC and endorsed Trump. 

In a Fox News interview with Neil Cavuto in March, the former secretary of state and CIA director did not explicitly rule out serving in a Trump administration if asked.

“I don’t often comment on jobs I’ve not been offered—but If I get a chance to serve and think that I can make a difference … I’m almost certainly going to say yes to that opportunity to try and deliver on behalf of the American people,” Pompeo said. 

Haley affirmed she was open to campaigning for Trump if he asked her. “He knows I’m on standby,” Haley told CBS News’s Margaret Brennan in September. “I talked to him in June. He knows I’m ready if he ever needs me to do that.” 

Trump supporters widely opposed the prospects of Haley and Pompeo joining Trump’s second administration due to their “neocon” foreign policy views. 

‘Look in the Mirror’: Bill Maher Delivers Blunt Message to 2024 ‘Losers’

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‘Look in the Mirror’: Bill Maher Delivers Blunt Message to 2024 ‘Losers’

(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Real Time host Bill Maher delivered a blunt message to his fellow Democratic “losers” after a majority of Americans handed President-elect Donald Trump a landslide victory on Tuesday’s Election Day.

Maher called on Democrats to a post-mortem analysis of their poor performance under outgoing Vice President Kamala Harris. “My message to the losers: losers look in the mirror,” Maher said during Friday’s episode of his HBO show. 

As the audience fell silent, Maher asked, “No? Well, maybe you should. Sorry. Well, that’s my feeling. Losers, look in the mirror.”

Maher also called out Democrats and polling companies for undermining Trump’s momentum. Notably, Maher had endorsed California Gov. Gavin Newsom to replace outgoing President Joe Biden earlier this year. Harris ultimately prevailed.

“For months, Democrats have been saying, ‘How is this even close?’ and they’re right, it wasn’t,” Maher said of the election’s results. “They could not conceive of a second Trump term, but they should’ve. When does America ever turn down seconds? I mean, come on.” 

Earlier in his monologue, Maher conceded that Trump won the election fair and square.  

“We had an election. I did not vote for the winner, we’ll see what the winners do now,” he remarked. “They won, now they have reality they have to deal with. We’ll see what they do.” 

Maher also noted that Trump outperformed in nearly all demographics compared to his 2020 numbers. Among those voters were women, whom the media wrongly predicted would turn against Trump over Roe v. Wade. 

Maher then mocked Harris: “They say she saw the writing on the wall around 10:00 at night on election night. She called McDonald’s to see if she could get her old job back.”

He continued with more jokes, “Kamala underperformed in every demographic although she is still pulling very well among illegal immigrant inmates who want sex change operations. They totally [are] on her side to.” 

Maher concluded that the election was about America having “enough of the anti-common sense woke bullshit.”

In October, Maher said Harris was “very vulnerable” ahead of the election due to her poor performance in the polls.

Trump Trolls Kamala, Offers to Pay Off Her Humiliating $20M Debt

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Trump Trolls Kamala, Offers to Pay Off Her Humiliating $20M Debt

(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) President-elect Donald Trump responded to the humiliating news that Kamala Harris’s defeated campaign is $20 million in debt following extravagant concerts and costly consulting payments. 

In a Saturday post on Truth Social, Trump mockingly offered to help pay off the debt, boasting about his successful campaign’s surplus of cash.  

“I am very surprised that the Democrats, who fought a hard and valiant fight in the 2020 Presidential Election, raising a record amount of money, didn’t have lots of $’s left over,” Trump wrote. 

He added, “Whatever we can do to help them during this difficult period, I would strongly recommend we, as a Party and for the sake of desperately needed UNITY, do.” 

Trump’s comments come amid growing reports affirming that outgoing Vice President Kamala Harris left her failed presidential campaign with a $20 million debt. 

The shocking debt, first reported by Politico, comes despite Harris’s $1 billion fundraising haul in the 2024 race. 

Bombshell reporting from the Washington Examiner and the New York Post revealed that Harris spent roughly $20 million on swing-states concerns. 

The concerts, held across Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Georgia, and featured artists like Bon Jovi, Christina Aguilera, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga and 2 Chainz.

Harris paid Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Productions $1 million on Oct. 15 and $1.8 million to Viva Creative, a marketing agency that boasts of its work with Oprah and comedian Trevor Noah, according to the Examiner. 

By mid-October, Harris disclosed to the Federal Elections Commission expenditures surpassing $880 million. This figure exceeded the Trump campaign’s $354 million in spending by over $526 million. 

Trump bragged about his surplus cash on Truth Social, stating, “We have a lot of money left over in that our biggest asset in the campaign was ‘Earned Media,’ and that doesn’t cost very much. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” 

Trump will be sworn into office on Jan. 20, 2025, becoming only the second president in U.S. history to serve two non-consecutive terms. 

Ella Emhoff and Hope Walz Have Public Meltdowns After Trump’s Historic Victory

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Ella Emhoff and Hope Walz Have Public Meltdowns After Trump’s Historic Victory

(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) The daughters of the 2024 Democratic candidates, who lost in a landslide to now President-elect Donald Trump, are having very public meltdowns on social media, the New York Post reported Saturday.

Ella Emhoff, daughter of Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff is reportedly losing her mind over Trump’s impending inauguration on Jan. 20, 2025. Hope Walz, the daughter of vice-presidential nominee and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, similarly expressed her “anger” over the election results. 

During Kamala Harris’s concession speech on Wednesday, Ella was seen hysterically sobbing, her face turning lobster red.

Ella shared a photo of herself crying via Instagram with the caption: “Truly no words. We are all going to get through this. It just f**king hurts like a b*tch right now and that’s ok.”

Ella also urged followers not to back down, insisting the “fight doesn’t stop now.” She added, “Just people check in on your people right now. … This is the time to organize, mobilize and make a difference in your communities big or small.” 

Hope seemingly did not want to be outdone by Ella, taking to TikTok to affirm her anger. 

“I’ve officially reached the point of anger, and I’m not an angry person, so I’m just trying to channel it,” she wrote Thursday, according to the Post.

In the same post, she scolded Americans for giving Harris the boot: “This country does not deserve Kamala Harris. That woman should go live her best life wherever she wants, doing whatever she wants, because we don’t deserve her at this point.” 

Hope went further, singling out black women: “The only people who delivered this election were black women and we failed them.” 

Like Ella, Hope issued a call to action, writing that she was giving herself “the week to accept” the results. “Then the work starts,” she added. “We got this, America. Going to be OK.” 

Ella and Hope’s public mourning followed Trump’s sweeping victory—a historic political comeback only seen more than a century ago, when President Grover Cleveland lost the White House in 1889, only to return in 1893. 

As a private citizen, Trump endured two federal indictments from the outgoing Biden-Harris DOJ, two state indictments, a head-scratching civil lawsuit against the Trump Organization, legal challenges to ballot access, two assassination attempts, relentless media attacks and widespread Big Tech censorship. 

Despite this, Americans took to the voting booth to send him back to the White House.

Muslims Target Jews in Netherlands

Dmytro "Henry" Aleksandrov
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Muslims Target Jews in Netherlands

(Dmytro “Henry” Aleksandrov, Headline USA) Muslims recently started attacking Israeli soccer fans on the streets of Amsterdam, Netherlands, which sparked a backlash from Jews and conservatives.

The National Pulse reported that as of Friday, the attacks led to five injuries and at least 62 arrests.

Multiple conservative news sources and political commentators posted clips of the violence on Twitter.

 

“This is a terrible moment for our city … I am very ashamed of the behavior that was shown last night,” Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema said at a Friday news conference, according to CNN.

Breitbart reported that Halsema refused to resign after the first pogrom in the Netherlands since World War II.

The Daily Wire also reported that King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands expressed “deep horror and shock” over the attack.

“We failed the Jewish community of the Netherlands during World War II, and last night, we failed again,” Willem-Alexander told Israeli President Isaac Herzog.

Geert Wilders, the leader of the largest party in the Netherlands’ House of Representatives and a supporter of Israel, also criticized the attack, urging to deport the “multicultural scum.”

“Looks like a Jew hunt in the streets of Amsterdam. Arrest and deport the multicultural scum that attacked Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters in our streets. Ashamed that this can happen in The Netherlands. Totally unacceptable,” he wrote.

Wilders also said that Halsema should resign immediately.

Wilders also wrote in another post that he spoke with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the attack.

“A pogrom in the streets of #Amsterdam. We have become the Gaza of Europe. Muslims with Palestinian flags hunting down Jews. I will NOT accept that. NEVER. The authorities will be held accountable for their failure to protect the Israeli citizens. Never again,” he wrote.

Wilders also reported that the Amsterdam police didn’t arrest even one Muslim during the attack on the Jews.

The Wall Street Journal also reported that Israel sent rescue planes to Amsterdam.

“Jews are on their way back to Israel on the rescue flight. This is the fastest rescue operation the world has ever seen. Israel will do whatever is necessary for its people. What a nation. What a spirit. Am Yisrael Chai,” @VividProwess wrote.

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