Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) has requested fingerprints and the names of the arrested individuals to check their visa status.
Columbia University has suspended at least 65 students accused of participating in the violent anti-Israel Butler Library takeover on Wednesday. Another 33 individuals, including alumni and those from affiliated institutions, have also been barred from campus, a school official said. This comes after the univeristy vowed to take immediate disciplinary action.
Dozens of masked protesters stormed the library while students were studying for finals, with some handing out pamphlets that glorified an alleged terrorist. Members of the group committed acts of vandalism and assaulted two security guards, resulting in an NYPD response to clear the building. According to police, 80 arrests were made, which included 61 females and 19 males. The group chanted phrases such as “Free Palestine” and demanded that the university divest from Israel.
New York State Senate committee approves anti-trans sports bill – Gay City News Source Link Excerpt:
The New York State Senate’s Education Committee approved an anti-trans sports bill on May 6 that would stop the state education commissioner from implementing trans-inclusive sports policies, drawing immediate criticism from LGBTQ advocates.
Senate Bill S460 would ban the education commissioner from creating any rules preventing schools from implementing bans on trans athletes if a school “determines” that a student’s participation would somehow “have an adverse effect on the physical or emotional safety of female participants or would adversely impact a female student’s ability to participate successfully in interschool athletic competition.”
The legislation drew five “aye” votes — including from Democrats — and six “nay” votes, but three others voted “aye WR,” or “aye with reservations,” which suggests that those three lawmakers had issues with the bill but voted for it to move forward nonetheless. The “aye” votes came from Republicans Stephen Chan of Brooklyn, James Tedisco of Saratoga County and Schenectady, Daniel Stec of North Country, Bill Weber of Rockland County, and Alexis Weik, whose Long Island district includes parts of the queer haven of Fire Island.
Trump threatens ‘there will be bombing’ if Iran fails to make ‘peace deal’ – The Times of Israel Source Link Excerpt:
US President Donald Trump threatened Iran on Sunday with bombing and secondary tariffs if Tehran did not come to an agreement with Washington over its nuclear program.
In Trump’s first remarks since Iran rejected direct negotiations with Washington last week, he told NBC News that US and Iranian officials were talking, but did not elaborate.
“If they don’t make a deal, there will be bombing,” Trump said in a telephone interview. “It will be bombing the likes of which they have never seen before.”
Half Of US Churches Experiencing Post-Pandemic Attendance Growth – Religion Unplugged Source Link Excerpt:
Half of U.S. Protestant pastors say their churches are growing but some warning signs remain about their congregational future.
U.S. Protestant churches are almost evenly split between those that have grown within the past two years and those that are plateaued or declining, according to an Exponential study by Lifeway Research.
Around half of the congregations (52%) increased their worship service attendance by at least 4% in the past two years. The other 48% of churches have either remained within plus or minus 4% since 2022 (33%) or declined by at least 4% (15%).
“Clearly, the last two years of attendance growth was aided by people returning to regular attendance after being away since the start of the pandemic,” said Scott McConnell, executive director of Lifeway Research. “Most pastors wish they had returned earlier, but their attendance is a source of optimism, though future growth will need to come from brand new contacts.”
Judge Orders Fani Willis to Pay $54K for Intentionally Violating Open Record Laws– legalinsurrection.com Source Link Excerpt:
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis must pay $54,000 for violating Georgia’s Open Records Act.
The $54,000 is for attorney’s fees.
Willis must turn over all documents requested by Ashleigh Merchant, the attorney representing former Trump campaign staffer Michael Roman.
Willis led the charge against President Donald Trump and his team for supposedly trying to rig the 2020 election in her county.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Rachel Krause ruled that Willis intentionally failed to comply with the record laws. From The Associated Press:
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Rachel Krause found that the failures to comply with the records law “were intentional, not done in good faith, and were substantially groundless and vexatious.” Because Willis and her office “lacked substantial justification” for not complying, Merchant is entitled to attorneys’ fees and litigation expenses totaling just over $54,000, Krause found.
Krause ordered Willis to search for and turn over all records responsive to Merchant’s requests. The documents and payment are to be delivered within 30 days of Friday’s order.
Trump Orders Media Outlet That Has ‘Pushed Divisive Propaganda for Years’ to Be ‘Eliminated to the Maximum Extent’– www.westernjournal.com Source Link Excerpt:
The Trump administration announced on Friday that the United States Agency for Global Media, the parent entity of Voice of America and Radio Free Europe, would be discontinued.
An executive order from the White House listed the U.S. Agency for Global Media as one of seven government agencies “that the President has determined are unnecessary.”
The non-statutory components of the U.S. Agency for Global media will therefore be “eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law.”
The entities will also “reduce the performance of their statutory functions and associated personnel to the minimum presence and function required by law.”
A senior White House official told Fox News that “Voice of America has been out of step with America for years.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio says 83% of USAID programs canceled – KYMA Source Link Excerpt:
83% of United States Agency for International Development (USAID) programs have been canceled, according to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
In a social media post Monday, Secretary Rubio said after a six-week review, 5,200 contracts have been canceled, and the programs “did not serve, and in some cases, even harmed” the national interests of the United States.
Rubio went on to say the remaining 18%, or about 1,000 contracts, will “now be administered more effectively under the State Department.”
However, Rubio did not provide details about which programs had been cut, and which will remain in place.
He also thanked the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and his staff for the “overdue” reforms.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the department will only keep 1,000 USAID programs and canceling 5,200 contracts.
Rubio wrote on X:
After a 6 week review we are officially cancelling 83% of the programs at USAID.
The 5200 contracts that are now cancelled spent tens of billions of dollars in ways that did not serve, (and in some cases even harmed), the core national interests of the United States.
In consultation with Congress, we intend for the remaining 18% of programs we are keeping (approximately 1000) to now be administered more effectively under the State Department.
Thank you to DOGE and our hardworking staff who worked very long hours to achieve this overdue and historic reform.
After a 6 week review we are officially cancelling 83% of the programs at USAID.
The 5200 contracts that are now cancelled spent tens of billions of dollars in ways that did not serve, (and in some cases even harmed), the core national interests of the United States.
Justice Alito’s USAID dissent is a map for Trump – Salon Source Link Excerpt:
They did not just dissent in the USAID ruling, they dissembled. They lied about both the court record and the district judge, and they drew a map to show Trump how to frustrate the case going forward.
The majority protected the legislature’s role
The Court’s 5-4 majority opinion, in which Justices John Roberts and Amy Coney Barrett joined the three liberal justices to narrowly protect Congress’ power of the purse, holding that under Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution, since Congress had already appropriated the USAID and it was already signed into law, Trump could not legally freeze it. In other words, a president does not have the power to break, disregard or rewrite laws just because he disagrees with them.
Attorney General Faces Impeachment for Targeting Pro-life Centers– www.dailysignal.com Source Link Excerpt:
The New Jersey attorney general is facing impeachment, in part, for allegedly targeting pregnancy resource centers for investigation because of their pro-life stance and for demanding the names of their staff and donors in the process.
Republicans in the New Jersey Assembly filed articles of impeachment against Attorney General Matthew Platkin on Thursday. They accused him of targeting “certain organizations based upon the political beliefs of the organization, specifically pro-life pregnancy centers.”
The resolution refers to Platkin targeting First Choice Women’s Resource Centers, which has five locations in the state.
Platkin demanded documents and information from First Choice last year, including the names of staff and the identities of its donors. The attorney general brought the investigation under multiple statutes, but most notably under the Consumer Fraud Act, according to Alliance Defending Freedom legal counsel Gabriella McIntyre.
US Army officially bans gender-confused individuals from joining, halts ‘transition’ procedures– www.lifesitenews.com Source Link Excerpt:
WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) — The U.S. Army has indicated that President Donald Trump’s executive order banning gender-confused individuals from entering the military has gone into effect and that the “transitioning” of military members has been halted.
“The U.S. Army will no longer allow [professed] transgender individuals to join the military and will stop performing or facilitating procedures associated with gender transition for service members,” stated a Valentine’s Day post by the U.S. Army on X.
“Effective immediately, all new accessions for individuals with a history of gender dysphoria are paused, and all unscheduled, scheduled, or planned medical procedures associated with affirming or facilitating a gender transition for Service members are paused,” read a subsequent post, adding, “Individuals with gender dysphoria have volunteered to serve our country and will be treated with dignity and respect.”
Effective immediately, all new accessions for individuals with a history of gender dysphoria are paused, and all unscheduled, scheduled, or planned medical procedures associated with affirming or facilitating a gender transition for Service members are paused.
The posts by the Army closely echo a memo by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, circulated on February 7.
“Effective immediately, all new accessions for individuals with a history of gender dysphoria are paused,” wrote Hegseth. “All unscheduled, scheduled, or planned medical procedures associated with affirming or facilitating a gender transition for Service members are paused.”
While pro-transgender activists claim there are currently 15,000 military members who claim that they are “transgender” – out of a total 1.3 million active duty personnel – officials say that the actual number is a fraction of that.
During his inauguration speech, President Trump promised that the federal government would only acknowledge two sexes – male and female – while vowing to “defeat the toxic poison of gender ideology.”
Trump then signed an executive order on Day One of his presidency, rescinding a Biden administration executive order that had allowed gender-confused people to join the military.
As reported earlier by LifeSiteNews, the Biden order made it “the policy of the United States to ensure that all [so-called] transgender individuals who wish to serve in the United States military and can meet the appropriate standards shall be able to do so openly” and without alleged “discrimination.”
The Biden order revoked President Trump’s first-term decision to prohibit gender-confused individuals from enlisting in the military.
As commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of the United States, on January 27, Trump ordered the Pentagon to craft a policy to ensure the readiness and effectiveness of the Armed Forces, which included addressing the issue of gender-confused individuals in the military.
“The United States military has a clear mission: to protect the American people and our homeland as the world’s most lethal and effective fighting force,” wrote Trump. “Success in this existential mission requires a singular focus on developing the requisite warrior ethos, and the pursuit of military excellence cannot be diluted to accommodate political agendas or other ideologies harmful to unit cohesion.”
“Recently, however, the Armed Forces have been afflicted with radical gender ideology to appease activists unconcerned with the requirements of military service like physical and mental health, selflessness, and unit cohesion,” he explained. It is the longstanding policy of the Department of Defense (DoD) “to ensure that service members are ‘[f]ree of medical conditions or physical defects that may reasonably be expected to require excessive time lost from duty for necessary treatment or hospitalization.’”
As a result, many mental and physical health conditions are incompatible with active duty, from conditions that require substantial medication or medical treatment to bipolar and related disorders, eating disorders, suicidality, and prior psychiatric hospitalization.
Consistent with the military mission and longstanding DoD policy, expressing a false “gender identity” divergent from an individual’s sex cannot satisfy the rigorous standards necessary for military service. Beyond the hormonal and surgical medical interventions involved, adoption of a gender identity inconsistent with an individual’s sex conflicts with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one’s personal life. A man’s assertion that he is a woman, and his requirement that others honor this falsehood, is not consistent with the humility and selflessness required of a service member.
For the sake of our Nation and the patriotic Americans who volunteer to serve it, military service must be reserved for those mentally and physically fit for duty. The Armed Forces must adhere to high mental and physical health standards to ensure our military can deploy, fight, and win, including in austere conditions and without the benefit of routine medical treatment or special provisions.
“If you want to have a ‘sex change’ or a social justice seminar, then you can do it somewhere else, but you’re not going to do it in the Army, Navy, Coast Guard, Air Force, Space Force, or the United States Marines — sorry,” warned then-candidate Trump at a campaign rally in North Carolina in August.
19 State Attorneys General Signal Intent to Prosecute Fauci – PJ Media– pjmedia.com Source Link Excerpt:
The venal little worm who posed as America’s Doctor over the past five years may have gotten an unprecedented pardon spanning a decade of potential criminality by the Biden regime on its way out. Still, he can’t slip the proverbial noose at the state level quite so easily.
In perhaps a case of state law trumping federal law, nineteen state attorneys general recently penned a letter to the GOP leadership in Congress requesting cooperation in gathering evidence that might lead to a successful Fauci prosecution at that level of government, despite Biden’s generous federal pardon:
A pardon by former President Biden does not extend to preclude state-level investigations or legal proceedings. As state Attorneys General, we possess the authority to address violations of state law or breaches of public trust. We are fully committed to investigating any malfeasance that may have occurred to the fullest extent of our authority and are prepared to collaborate with you in further efforts.
