Tammy Fournier said she and her husband decided they weren't going to follow the so-called "affirmative model" when her daughter came to them and said she was experiencing gender dysphoria. (Courtesy of Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty)
Winning. Wisconsin mother hopeful after court ruling in favor of parents’ rights to know about child’s transition. So here’s another case of where a school felt that they knew what’s best for a child when it comes to their gender.
Parents sued the Kettle Moraine School District outside Milwaukee, Wisconsin, over its policy that enabled and supported students’ transitions to different gender identities at school without informing or receiving consent from a child’s parents.
Judge Michael Maxwell ruled in the Waukesha County Circuit Court that the policy “violates parents’ constitutional right to determine the appropriate medical and healthcare for their children.” Going forward, the judge said the district is no longer permitted to allow or require “staff to refer to students using a name or pronouns at odds with the student’s biological sex, while at school, without express parental consent.”
Every year since 1958, the West Texas town of Sweetwater has hosted the World’s Largest Rattlesnake Roundup, which is exactly what it sounds like. Thousands of the venomous ophidians are rooted out of their dens and brought to the Nolan County Coliseum to be gawked at, “milked,” and often beheaded and skinned. It started as a way for the region to rid itself of some of its least-welcome residents. Now community leaders wish they could do the same with several giant piles of scrap that have for too long been left to bake in the sun. But that’s proving to be much trickier than wrangling reptiles.
About forty miles west of Abilene on Interstate 20, Sweetwater has unwittingly become home to what is possibly the world’s largest collection of unwanted wind turbine blades. When forklifts deposited the first of these in a field behind the apartment complex where Pamala Meyer lives, on the west side of town, in 2017, she wasn’t initially bothered. But then the blades—between 150 and 200 feet in length and mostly made of composite materials such as fiberglass with a binding resin—kept coming. Each was cut into thirds, with each segment longer than a school bus. Thousands arrived over several years, eventually blanketing more than thirty acres, in stacks rising as high as basketball backboards. Every few dozen feet, a break among the stacks leads into an industrial hedge maze.
“It’s just a hazard all the way around,” Meyer said. She worries about neighborhood children exploring the unfenced piles and says that stagnant pools of water inside the blades breed swarms of mosquitos. Matt Jackson, who works in a nearby warehouse, has other concerns. The piles create shaded nooks and crannies, perfect for Sweetwater’s unofficial mascot. “It’s just a big rattlesnake farm,” he said.
Global Fiberglass says the blades will soon be processed, but Sweetwater leaders have heard such promises before.Eli Rosen/Yucca Films
The blades were brought here by Global Fiberglass Solutions, a company based in Washington State that announced in 2017 its intention to recycle blades from wind farms across the region. Instead of ending up in landfills, they would be ground up into a reusable material that could be turned into pallets, railroad ties, or flooring panels. Global Fiberglass is one of a few companies attempting to develop a viable business from recycling blades.
Besides the main boneyard—behind Meyer’s apartment—stacks of blades also occupy ten acres a couple miles south of town, and the company is storing blades in other locations in the county. “They have, in my view, abandoned them there,” said Samantha Morrow, the Nolan County attorney. “The county doesn’t have and cannot find millions of dollars to clean this up.”
The Sweetwater piles are also at least partly the indirect result of a rule clarification the Internal Revenue Service issued in 2016. Before then, a wind farm could collect valuable federal tax credits for only its first ten years of operation. But the IRS determined that it would restart the clock on the credits if a wind farm “repowered” its turbines—replacing most of their equipment with newer parts. So, despite the expected two-decade lifespan for turbine blades, wind farms across Texas and other states began replacing many that remained in good shape years early.
Some paid Global Fiberglass to remove the older blades and haul them away. The company set up shop in an empty industrial facility in Sweetwater that was once an aluminum recycling plant, but Don Lilly, the managing director of Global Fiberglass, told me that only a handful of blades have ever been ground up there. He said the company was close to ramping up and would soon mill the blades into pieces the size of coarse sand. “The blade material is sold,” he said, “but I can’t go into that part yet.”
Sweetwater has heard such pledges before. The county declared the stockpile a public nuisance a year ago. City attorney Jeff Allen said Sweetwater’s local ordinances are aimed at overgrown lots, not turbine blades, leaving the city with limited legal options. He said he believes Global Fiberglass “intended to be a viable business” but at some point “it just came off the rails.” (Lilly disputes this and says the delays have come from ensuring “all systems were engineered.”)
Sweetwater benefits from the wind-energy industry, including two large wind farms nearby. Drivers arriving on I-20 from either direction are welcomed by a giant wind turbine blade painted with the town’s name. But even the community’s biggest boosters of renewable energy long ago ran out of patience with Global Fiberglass’s mess. “We’d like to see them gone,” said Karen Hunt, director of the local chamber of commerce. “The sooner the better.”
Update, September 25: General Electric filed a lawsuit last week claiming that Global Fiberglass Solutions has failed to fulfill its promise to recycle thousands of blades. GE says it paid the company $16.9 million to recycle about five thousand wind turbine blades, but that GFS instead stockpiled them at facilities in Sweetwater and Iowa. “Only after GFS took millions of dollars from GE, did GFS all but shut down its operations without recycling the Blades,” reads the complaint, filed in U.S. district court in New York.
GE says it later contracted with another company to recycle its blades and is seeking damages to cover these costs as well as reputational damage. Global Fiberglass has not responded to the lawsuit. GE removing its blades from Sweetwater wouldn’t clean up the giant dump; blades manufactured by other companies would still remain.
Saving the children. Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Federal Court Upholds Tennessee, Kentucky Ban on Transgender Medical Procedures for Children. Does my heart good to see that the Federal court stepped in to protect the children. The ruling.
A federal appeals court has upheld a Tennessee and Kentucky ban on transgender-related medical procedures for minors.
The Ohio-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld bans in Tennessee and Kentucky by a 2-1 vote, which allows the states to enforce laws prohibiting children from undergoing transgender-related medical procedures, such as puberty blockers, hormones, and surgery, according to a report by Reuters.
FILE - A sign outside the Internal Revenue Service building is seen on May 4, 2021, in Washington. A former contractor for the Internal Revenue Service has been charged with leaking tax information to news outlets about a government official and thousands of the country’s wealthiest people. The Justice Department said in a statement Friday, Sept. 29, 2023, that 38-year-old Charles Edward Littlejohn of Washington, D.C. is accused of stealing tax return information and giving it to two different news outlets between 2018 and 2020. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)
Former IRS Consultant Charged With Leaking Trump Docs.
Former IRS consultant Charles Littlejohn on Friday was charged with disclosing the tax returns of some of the nation’s wealthiest individuals to the news media, including those of former President Donald Trump, according to Fox News.
Federal prosecutors said Littlejohn, 38, of Washington, D.C., disclosed the tax returns of “thousands of the nation’s wealthiest individuals” to news organizations and tax information associated with a “high-ranking government official” to ProPublica.
He is charged with stealing the files while working as a government contractor, according to the report.
“Littlejohn is charged with one count of unauthorized disclosure of tax returns and return information. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison,” the Department of Justice said in a news release.
Sen. Mike Crapo of Idaho, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, told The Wall Street Journal that IRS guardrails “failed to prevent this brazen breach of taxpayer rights.”
IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel wouldn’t comment on pending legal issues.
“Any disclosure of taxpayer information is unacceptable,” he said. “The IRS has put in place new protocols and protections that tightened security, and our aggressive work in this critical area continues in order to protect the tax and financial information of taxpayers.”
The charges were filed as a criminal information instead of an indictment, which, according to Fox, typically means the defendant has entered a plea deal.
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
The Clinton Foundation, which was launched by former President Bill Clinton and former First Lady Hillary Clinton, has been under major scrutiny and rocked by scandals for years.
As a non-profit, the foundation is accused of abusing its expense privileges and creating a tax haven for the multi-millionaire Clinton family.
The foundation has been involved in shady deals that exploit the Clintons’ power and influence, including the solicitation of large donations from countries where the Clintons have business interests.
As a result, U.S. Tax Court Judge David Gustafson signaled that more legal problems may lay ahead for the Clintons.
The bombshell “Durham Report” by Special counsel John Durham found that the Clintons have avoided legal trouble due to their power.
Specifically, the FBI and DOJ were guilty of “significant failures” related to investigating allegations into the Clintons.
Beginning in 2014, the Durham report found that the FBI was hesitant and “more careful” to proceed with the investigation into the high-profile political family because agents were “scared with the big name [Clinton]” involved.
“They were pretty ‘tippy-toeing’ around HRC because there was a chance she would be the next President,” the report found.
A reliable whistleblower alleged IRS improprieties involving the controversial Clinton Foundation.
Hillary Clinton said a 'small fringe minority' is undermining democracy by attacking institutions & the press.
Sorry if we're a threat to your version of democracy where you demand obedience to the state, want the power to punish dissent, trample rights & freeze bank accounts. pic.twitter.com/CAoplihq9J
Judge Gustafson previously refused an IRS request to dismiss the case. The judge has demanded that the IRS disclose whether it conducted a criminal investigation into the foundation.
Judge Gustafson said there is a “gap” in the IRS’s records and suspicions about its investigation.
In 2018, witnesses testified before Congress that the Clinton Foundation wrongfully operated as a foreign lobbyist by accepting overseas donations. This was an illegal attempt to influence U.S. policy.
A reliable source told the FBI that a foreign government planned to support and “contribute” to Hillary Clinton’s anticipated presidential campaign as a way to “gain influence with Clinton should she win the presidency,” the Durham report found.
An FBI field office began investigating this claim and sought a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant.
Republican Florida Rep. Donalds continued, “Look, the media was in on this from the beginning in my view. They are the ones that were helping to launder out Hillary Clinton’s phony made up information about Donald Trump, the same information that she used with her friends at the upper echelon of FBI to start the Crossfire Hurricane investigation.”
“So her media friends are not going to come out now and say we were wrong and this is damning,” Donalds continued. “They are just going to laugh it off, cover it for one or two days and then ignore it.
The housing of illegal immigrants has taken precedence over that of a United States veteran, revealed by a recent story that has enraged many across the country.
Korean War veteran Frank Tammaro was removed from his nursing home facility after a behind-the-scenes deal was cut, turning the Island Shores Senior Residence of Staten Island into a migrant facility.
“I thought my suitcases were going to be on the curb,” Tammaro exclaimed.
“If it wasn’t for my daughter, they would’ve been on the curb.”
In the fall of last year, Tammaro was told that he had until the March to get out of the nursing home, at which point the building would be used to house migrants.
“The thing I’m annoyed about is how they did it. It was very disgraceful what they did to the people in Island Shores,” Tammaro said.
“Everything was done behind closed doors. We didn’t have a chance to actually make any attempt to stop them because there wasn’t enough time.” (Trending: 8 Undeniable Facts About Joe Biden)
Tammaro thankfully had family who was able to bring him into their home, but it is unknown whether the same was true for the remainder of the Island Shore’s residents.
Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis was extremely upset when she discovered the behind-the-scenes way in which the real estate deal was handled.
“My blood pressure went through the roof when I found out Homes for the Homeless cut a deal with the City of New York to turn Island Shores into a migrant shelter,” Malliotakis stated.
“Our tax dollars as citizens of New York should not be utilized to house citizens of other countries, especially at the expense of our senior citizens and veterans who put their lives on the line, paid taxes their whole lives and built our communities,” she pressed.
Malliotakis then took to X to call out New York City Mayor Eric Adams.
“Where’s the compassion for our elderly who built our community & paid taxes their whole lives?” she posted.
Malliotakis is one of millions of Americans who are frustrated with the way in which the Biden Administration has handled security at the border, and then the migrant crisis as a whole.
To add fuel to the fire, Staten Island, a historically Republican pocket of New York City, has been turned into Mayor Adams’ dump site for migrants.
Many of those who call Staten Island home have taken to social media to express their anger over the city’s failing policies.
Staten Island NY. ( full video) Choas erupts at the Midland Beach Nursing home after residents blocked a bus full of migrants from being housed at the location. Multiple arrests broke out. 🎥 by @LeeroyPress For licensing email Leeroypress@gmail.com #Migrants#UNGA#NYCpic.twitter.com/KC8RTXwIiI
“Mr. Erwin was born in 1942 in Tyler, Texas, where the Black community lived on the north side of town, the whites lived on the south side and Black people did not cross Front Street after sundown.”
“And Black people did not cross Front Street after sundown”??? But whites felt free to stroll around the black part of town any time of day?
It’s the incessant myth of WHITE PEOPLE PREYING ON BLACKS!
In case you’re wondering, even in the 1940s, the black murder rate was many, many times higher than the white murder rate:
And we’re up to four and counting. David Weiss stymied on Hunter Biden tax crimes. We now have four IRS employees (two workers and two managers) who have claimed that there was hanky panky going on in the Hunter Biden saga.
IRS Director of Field Operations Michael Batdorf and DC IRS Special Agent in Charge Darrell Waldon detailed how Weiss’ probe was thwarted in recent testimony before the House Ways and Means Committee.
Garland has repeatedly insisted to lawmakers — most recently on Wednesday before the House Judiciary Committee — that Weiss, the US attorney for Delaware, had “full authority” to bring cases against Hunter Biden anywhere he wished and that Garland would not personally interfere in the probe.
Batdorf recalled sitting in on a June 2022 meeting involving Weiss, IRS criminal investigators, and FBI officials at which DOJ Tax personnel pushed back against charges for the first son — at the same time they were holding conferences with Hunter Biden’s legal team.
When asked how many times the two sides met, Batdorf could not recall specifically, but said there had been “more than two” meetings and possibly as many as four. CPA Academy
“Is it typical in a tax investigation to meet with defense counsel two, three, four times?” Batdorf was asked, to which he answered: “No.”
.IRS Director of Field Operations Batdorf also said he had signed off on a report recommending felony and misdemeanor tax charges dating back to 2014 against Hunter, now 53 — including counts related to income from the first son’s position on the board of Ukrainian natural gas company Burisma Holdings
A court found Dr. Jay Bhattacharya was among those indirectly censored by the Biden administration for his views on COVID-19.
CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Imag
The Biden administration tried to censor this Stanford doctor, but he won in court.
By Rikki Schlott.
This is a continuation/follow up to an article from Phoenix.
A federal court of appeals ruled earlier this month that the White House, surgeon general, CDC and FBI “likely violated the First Amendment” by exerting a pressure campaign on social media companies to censor COVID-19 skeptics — including Stanford epidemiologist Dr. Jay Bhattacharya.
“I think this ruling is akin to the second Enlightenment,” Bhattacharya told The Post. “It’s a ruling that says there’s a democracy of ideas. The issue is not whether the ideas are wrong or right. The question is who gets to control what ideas are expressed in the public square?”
The court ordered that the Biden administration and other federal agencies “shall take no actions, formal or informal, directly or indirectly” to coerce social media companies “to remove, delete, suppress or reduce” free speech.
Bhattacharya, a professor of medicine, economics and health research policy at Stanford University, co-authored the Great Barrington Declaration in the fall of 2020 with professors from Harvard and Oxford.
The epidemiologists advocated for “focused protection” — safeguarding the most vulnerable Americans while cautiously allowing others to function as normally as possible — rather than broad pandemic lockdowns.
The Fifth Circuit court found that the Biden administration and other federal agencies pressured social media companies to censor dissenting views on COVID-19.Getty ImagesA court found Dr. Jay Bhattacharya was among those indirectly censored by the Biden administration for his views on COVID-19.CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Imag
“We were just acting as scientists, but almost immediately we were censored,” said Bhattacharya, director of Stanford’s Center for Demography and Economics of Health and Aging. “Google de-boosted us. Our Facebook page was removed. It was just a crazy time.
“The kinds of things that the federal government was telling social media companies to censor included us — along with millions of other posts from countless other people who were criticizing government COVID policy,” he added.
A New Orleans-based three-judge panel found that the federal government “likely coerced or significantly encouraged social-media platforms to moderate content” by vaguely threatening adverse regulatory consequences if social media companies did not suppress certain viewpoints on the pandemic.
Dr. Bhattacharya (from right) co-authored the Great Barrington Declaration with Oxford researcher Sunreta Gupta and Harvard professor Martin Kulldorff.UnHerdBhattacharya is a professor of medicine, economics and health research policy at Stanford University, where he serves as director of the Center for Demography and Economics of Health and Aging.Getty Images
“The government had a vast censorship enterprise,” Bhattacharya said. “It was systematically used to threaten and coerce and jawbone and tell all these social media companies, ‘You better listen to us: Censor these people, censor these ideas, or else.’”
It was later revealed that then-NIH director Dr. Francis Collins called for a “swift and devastating takedown” of Bhattacharya and his co-authors — whom Collins dubbed “fringe epidemiologists” — in an email to Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Subsequent reporting from Elon Musk’s so-called Twitter Files — internal documents and communications released by Musk, after he bought the platform, to expose Twitter’s inner workings — revealed that Bhattachrya’s profile was being suppressed on the platform.
“It’s akin to the efforts by governments to suppress the printing press when it first was invented, when books represented an enormous threat to power,” Bhattacharya said, referring to efforts by King Henry VIII and the Catholic Church to curb use of the printing press in the 16th century.
“There’s an analogous fight that’s currently going on with social media, which makes it vastly easier for anybody to express their ideas, and very powerful people find that incredibly threatening.”
The September 8 ruling affirmed but narrowed a lower court order, issued on July 4 by US District Judge Terry Doughty, which found that the Biden administration and other federal agencies “engaged in a years-long pressure campaign [on social media outlets] designed to ensure that the censorship aligned with the government’s preferred viewpoints” and that “the platforms, in capitulation to state-sponsored pressure, changed their moderation policies.”
In an email to Dr. Anthony Fauci, Dr. Francis Collins (above) referred to Bhattacharya and his co-authors as “fringe epidemiologists.”AP
Bhattacharya says the first victory, although in a lower court, was the most exciting to him.
“I was just absolutely thrilled, especially to have it on July 4th,” he said. “I think that judge was sending a message by issuing this ruling on July 4th that we’re going to restore free speech in this country.”
Judge Terry A. Doughty declared the Biden administration’s actions “Orwellian” in a July 4th ruling.Youtube
But he believes it’s “unlikely” the Supreme Court will overturn the Fifth Circuit’s decision.
He feels his is a landmark case in curbing the influence the government has over social media — on matters that extend far beyond just COVID-19 and lockdowns.
