Israel may still destroy the progressive allies nuclear capabilities.
Israel has not ruled out an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities in the coming months despite President Donald Trump telling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the U.S. was for now unwilling to support such a move, according to an Israeli official and two other people familiar with the matter.
Celebrating 250 years of Freedom.
Last night was the 250th Anniversary of Paul Revere’s famous ride.Revere mounted a borrowed horse and rode into the countryside to alert colonial militias and warn patriot leaders Samuel Adams and John Hancock in Lexington. Although he was stopped by British patrols before reaching Concord, his message had already been passed along by fellow riders William Dawes and Dr. Samuel Prescott.
And today we celebrate the 250th Anniversary of the battle at Lexington- Concord.
Short and sweet. Since when did low level yokels have more power than Supreme Court Justices?
We’re seeing small time judges in local federal courts making decisions that go way outside of their district. What’s the left always say? Unelected officials. With powers like that, why would any judge want to go any higher if they make these calls from their echo chambers?
The casualties of America’s loss of glassware manufacturing to China.
By
SALENA ZITO
Nationally syndicated political reporter.
CHARLEROI — For 132 years, the sound of the factory air whistle signaling the start of the work day at the plant along 8th and McKean Avenue in this Washington County borough meant all the things we associate with work: men and women had jobs, families had food on their table, the societal fabric was strong, churches were full, and the tax base kept the schools vibrant and the community prosperous.
It was a good sound. It meant stability and aspiration. No one around here ever seemed to mind it.
Last week, the sound of that whistle was different. It was longer, 132 seconds to be exact, a number meant to mark how many years the Pyrex glass plant had stood at this location. It marked the end of the line for the plant.
The sound was mournful as it echoed throughout the Mon Valley.
Three hundred men and women are now without jobs in a town of 4,200. Last September the company, now known as the Corelle Brands, announced they would close the plant that had been one of the great innovators at its inception when two Pittsburgh glass-making firms, the Thomas Evans & Company and the George Macbeth Company merged to form the Macbeth-Evans Glass Company in 1899.
One year later, the local newspaper boasted about the expansion of manufacturing in Western Pennsylvania as the new town of Donora was being plotted to allow for that growth. The story detailed the 16-mile strip of cities that included Charleroi, Monessen, and Donora, who were now coming into a close second to their bigger Mon Valley cities of Homestead, Duquesne, Braddock, and McKeesport:
“Here are located the Page Steel and Wire Mill, the American Steel Hoop’s mill, the American Tin Plate large mills, the W.H. Hamilton & Company, the Macbeth Evans plant and the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company large glass mills and now the great mills of the Union Steel Company now nearing completion at Donora.”
These groups of factories employed over 8,000 people who made good wages at the turn of the century in what was once sleepy farmland. Hundreds of houses of all kinds were being built almost overnight on rolling hills that overlooked the plants, employing real estate developers and construction workers and causing a boom in mom-and-pop grocery stores, gas stations, barber shops, schools, and churches.
By 1936, Macbeth-Evans was bought out by Corning Glass Works, then the largest maker of technical glassware. The president of Corning Glass at the time, Armory Houghton, said of the acquisition, “It is logical that the Macbeth-Evans Glass Company and the Corning Glass Works should come together at this time. This move brings together two companies whose research and development has been outstanding in different fields of the glass industry.”
At the time of the merger, the plant employed 1800 people.
The news was so big it made the front page of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette above the fold on Nov. 11, 1936.
Today all of those mills are long gone. Pittsburgh Plate Glass, which became known as PPG, a place that employed my father for 50 years, where he designed the furnaces that made glass, no longer makes glass. They sold that division to Nippon in 2017, marking the end of PPG’s long history in glass production, which began in 1883.
When Corning Glass Works first purchased the plant, it was renamed Corning Glass Works Macbeth-Evans Division. By the 1990s, a series of mergers, divestitures, private equity acquisitions, Chapter 11 bankruptcies, and more private equity firm acquisitions had occurred. Centre Lane Partners acquired the company after a competitive bankruptcy auction approved its sale to them in their role as one of Anchor Hocking’s largest stockholders.
Anchor Hocking took over the Charleroi plant in March of 2024 and announced they would close it and move operations to their plant in Lancaster, Ohio — it too was a company founded at the turn of the century by Isaac Jacob in Lancaster, Ohio.
Not long ago, Anchor Hocking had a plant in nearby Monaca in Beaver County that closed over ten years ago. Anchor Hocking has gone through a series of acquisitions, venture capital ownerships and bankruptcies. Today, it is owned by Monomoy Capital Partners, a private equity firm located in midtown Manhattan.
We have talked a lot about tariffs and manufacturing since Donald Trump was reelected in 2024 and the outsized role of China in our industries, and the Corning Glass Works Macbeth-Evans Division is certainly such an example.
In fact, our uneven trade has played a significant role in the glass manufacturing collapse in this country. Up until the 1990s, the United States held its own in glass manufacturing. However, China’s aggressive export strategy, which flooded the U.S. market with thousands of goods, hit the glass industry hard.
In June of last year, the Alliance for American Manufacturing released an analysis detailing the threat Chinese imports posed to U.S. manufacturers. In a briefing by the Economic Policy Institute, the glass industry appeared well aware of the dangers of Chinese imports.
They noted that the U.S. glass industry lost almost 40,000 manufacturing jobs between 2000 to 2008. At the same time, China’s share of the U.S. market rose from 3% to 31%.
As U.S. glass and glassware plants closed, Chinese manufacturers expanded. China now leads glass production globally, exporting 28.7% of the world’s glass and glassware compared to the United States’ 6.6%.
That is a hard pill to swallow if you are from Charleroi, once known as the “Glass City” where PPG once had one of its major glass factories.
The people here are a casualty not just of streamlining production, but also of China’s dominance in the market.
“Everything coming from China flooding our market is a big part of the problem. It is a disease,” said state Sen. Camera Bartolotta, who represents the borough.
The echo of the whistle lingers. The tears of the workers on their last shift remain unchecked. Everything has changed. Those who believe Americans do not want jobs in manufacturing, who do not think there is pride in what they do, should sit a spell with the people who worked here.
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Short term win. A court has temporarily blocked a ruling from U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan.
The D.C. Court of Appeals halted the judge’s Tuesday ruling that ordered Citibank to release billions of dollars in green bank grants as part of Biden’s 2022 climate, tax and health care bill.
The D.C. Court of Appeals said a separate order setting deadlines for parties’ responses or statements of support of the emergency motion for stay pending appeal will be issued at a later time.
How California can create 500,000 to 1 million jobs. Send them home.
According to state data, roughly 1.6 million illegal immigrants are currently enrolled in Medi-Cal, part of the program’s total 15 million enrollees. The state had initially projected the expansion would cost just under $6 billion for fiscal year 2024–2025. But just one year in, the costs have surged far past that estimate.
Newsom’s latest budget proposal now puts the cost of covering illegal immigrants at $8.4 billion for 2024–2025, and $7.4 billion the following year.
Think about it. Sending them home would create jobs for US citizens and legal immigrants. Also this would add at least 8 billion to their coffers.
You chose protests and hate groups? See you in court Harvard.
The federal government says it’s freezing more than $2.2 billion in grants and $60 million in contracts to Harvard University, since the institution said Monday, it won’t comply with the Trump administration’s demands to limit activism on campus.
Harvard is one of several Ivy League schools targeted in a campaign by the administration, which also has paused federal funding for the University of Pennsylvania, Brown, and Princeton.
Calling hate speech, attacks on Jewish students and class disruptions is not activism, but actions bordering on terrorism.
Below are three different stories making todays headlines.
Story #1 – FDA Approves Vaccine Nightmare
The FDA has just fast-tracked a SELF-AMPLIFYING RNA vaccine.
Story #2 – Minnesota Lawmakers Introduce Bill to BAN mRNA Vaccines and Gender Medical Procedures on Minors.
Story #3 – UK Mother JAILED for Taking Her Kids’ iPads Away
A British mother was arrested and thrown in jail for over seven hours—all because she took away her daughters’ iPads to help them concentrate on their homework.
Hey Virginia, guess who’s next to be fired? J6 faux prosecutors.
There’s a group of J6 prosecutors who should have been fired. But the acting US attorney demoted this group giving them a second chance. So what do they do? Stab their boss in the back. Filed a phony complaint.
“John Crabb and Elizabeth Aloi, who prosecuted contempt of Congress cases that sent Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro to jail for four months apiece. They include Jason McCullough, who helped lead the team that sent top Proud Boys leaders Enrique Tarrio, Joe Biggs and Ethan Nordean to prison for their role in orchestrating the breach of the Capitol. And they include Kathryn Rakoczy, who was a lead prosecutor in the Jan. 6 cases of Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and more than a dozen of his allies, for their involvement in the attack on the Capitol,” Politico reported.
If true, Letitia James’s 40-Year Pattern of Property and Financial Discrepancies.
his article is part of our continuing investigation into Letitia James’s real estate, financial, and regulatory disclosures. The findings presented here are based on newly uncovered documents, cross-referenced city filings, and expanded analysis from our previous reporting.
Letitia James has built a political career on accountability and transparency. But when it comes to her own real estate dealings, the paper trail tells a different story.
When Letitia James bought her Brooklyn brownstone in 2001, it seemed like a personal milestone. In hindsight, it was just the latest stop on a much longer trail of contradictions—one that stretches back decades and remains unresolved today.296 Lafayette Ave Brooklyn NY Property Discrepancies Investigation
This article focuses on three core findings: an uncorrected DOB violation that predates her purchase, a hazardous alteration that remained unresolved for seven years, and a significant property tax delinquency that occurred while she held public office. These issues are at the heart of our investigation and point to a larger pattern—one that, over time, has quietly expanded to include questionable mortgage filings, misrepresentations of property structure, and financial certifications under penalty of perjury.
It’s not just about a number. It’s about a repeated pattern of paperwork that benefits the filer but doesn’t match the facts. This pattern stretches across multiple properties, unfolds over more than four decades, and cuts through a wide range of government filings—from building violations to mortgage applications to sworn financial disclosures. It’s a timeline of discrepancies that would trigger serious consequences for any ordinary property owner.
The Violation That Never Went Away
On November 21, 2000, the New York City Department of Buildings (DOB) issued Violation #112100C02EM02 against 296 Lafayette Avenue. The charge: “altered building occupied without a valid Certificate of Occupancy.” The temporary C/O for the building had expired in 1991—yet it had remained occupied for nearly a decade in violation of DOB rules. The city assessed a $2,500 fine and directed the owner to legalize the occupancy by filing a Certificate of Correction.
That never happened. And just a few months later, in March 2001, Letitia James purchased the property. Two decades later, the violation is still open—on the city’s books and in public records.
DOB records show the fine was eventually marked “written off,” which means the city stopped attempting to collect it. But a written-off fine does not close the violation itself. The only way to resolve it is through formal correction—and no such documentation was ever filed.
What makes this even more confounding is that just two months after the violation was issued, on January 26, 2001, the DOB issued a new, current Certificate of Occupancy for the building after the property passed inspection—classifying it as a legal five-family dwelling. Yet despite this, the earlier violation remained on the books.
This procedural disconnect raises deeper questions. If the violation was tied to lacking a valid C/O, and a valid C/O was issued after proper inspection, why wasn’t the violation closed? Was the underlying problem not the C/O itself but something else—such as an unfiled alteration, layout discrepancy, or unpermitted occupancy? Or was it simply bureaucratic neglect?
This should have been a major red flag during the title search. Title insurance companies are responsible for identifying open violations before issuing a policy, with a legal obligation to ensure properties are free from unresolved DOB issues. It is standard due diligence to flag such issues, particularly when a property has no clear resolution on DOB records. So how did James obtain title insurance and close the deal without correcting the violation?
One possibility is that the title report flagged the violation but it was ignored. Another is that the violation was intentionally downplayed. Supporting this theory is a 2003 title-related document from Washington Title, which includes a handwritten note that the property was “improved by a 4 family dwelling.” This does not match the Certificate of Occupancy issued in January 2001, which clearly classifies the property as a five-family dwelling.
Even more striking, the 2001 mortgage agreement that James signed includes a 1–4 Family Rider—a legal attachment used only for properties with four or fewer units. And as revealed in recently reviewed loan paperwork, the mortgage itself includes a stamp: “Premises Improved by One or Two Family Dwelling.” These weren’t casual errors or offhand remarks—they were codified in legal and financial instruments with binding implications.
Yet despite all these conflicting representations, the building’s legal status as a five-family dwelling remains unchanged to this day. No Alt-1 application was ever filed to reduce the unit count. No amendment to the Certificate of Occupancy was made. The structure and classification—on paper and in city databases—stand as originally recorded in January 2001.
The 7-Year Alteration Violation
In September 2007, while serving as a City Council member, James was cited for installing scaffolding without notifying the DOB. The violation—classified as hazardous—included improper use of “C” hooks and a failure to display worker ID.
This wasn’t some minor paperwork issue. Scaffolding violations are a major safety concern in New York. Yet the issue wasn’t corrected until 2014, a full seven years later.
When the fine was finally resolved, it had been reduced from $2,000 to $500.
Let that sink in: a scaffolding violation marked hazardous sat unresolved for seven years. And when it was finally settled, the penalty was slashed by 75%. If this were a private landlord in the Bronx or a contractor in Queens, DOB would’ve issued a stop-work order or even vacated the building.
But this wasn’t just any owner. It was a sitting elected official.
The Delinquent Property Taxes
In 2008 and 2009, while still serving in public office, James failed to pay nearly $10,000 in property taxes and water bills. The breakdown:
$9,837 in back taxes
$614 in unpaid water bills
She eventually paid it off, claiming she was waiting for an IRS refund. But the fact remains: a sitting council member was significantly behind on her obligations to the city.
Again, imagine this situation reversed. Would a landlord in arrears on that scale have been treated so leniently by city enforcement or the press?
How the Core Violations Connect to a Larger Pattern
These three issues—an uncorrected C/O violation, a seven-year hazardous condition, and substantial unpaid taxes—form a troubling pattern. But they also set the stage for what came next: years of conflicting representations about the legal occupancy of the building.
In mortgage documents, permit filings, and federal assistance applications, James consistently described the property as a four-family dwelling, despite the official Certificate of Occupancy listing five units. The most striking example appears in her 2011 mortgage modification under the federal HAMP program, where the words “4 fam” are handwritten into the agreement.
That edit likely made her eligible for aid she otherwise wouldn’t have received—since HAMP requires that the property have no more than four units.
Each filing, viewed in isolation, could be dismissed as a mistake. But the pattern—of altering documents, adjusting unit counts, and reclassifying property types—suggests strategic intent.
And the pattern may extend across state lines. In 2023, James signed mortgage documents in Virginia that included a sworn affidavit stating she intended to occupy her newly purchased home as her “principal residence.” At the time, she was actively serving as New York’s Attorney General, residing and registered to vote in Brooklyn. That filing, covered in our April 1, 2025 blog post, raises new questions about her mortgage eligibility and residency certifications.
Additional Property Concerns
While our investigation has uncovered significant issues with James’ Brooklyn property, Gateway Pundit’s Joel Gilbert identified additional concerns with a separate property transaction. Gilbert’s reporting reveals that in 1983, Letitia James and her father Robert James appeared to have secured a $30,300 loan from Kadilac Funding Ltd. by identifying themselves as “husband and wife” on multiple mortgage documents for another property in Queens. However, the deed for the same Queens property executed that same day identified them as “father and daughter.” This designation discrepancy continued through subsequent loan assignments and eventually when the property was sold in 2000.
These filings didn’t just blur familial lines—they helped secure financing that might otherwise have been unavailable. As with our discoveries regarding the Brooklyn property’s unit count discrepancies, these documents raise questions about representations made on official financial filings.
My investigation has independently verified the existence of these documents in New York City Department of Finance records, confirming Gilbert’s factual reporting on the Queens property transaction.
While Gateway Pundit’s Joel Gilbert first raised questions about James’ HAMP loan arrangements in a March 18 article, my investigation has uncovered new evidence that dramatically escalates the seriousness of these allegations. Most notably, I discovered the handwritten modifications on these documents that significantly alter their legal implications.
Financial Disclosure Failures: Another Dimension
The pattern of discrepancies extends beyond property records and into legal financial disclosures. As our earlier investigation revealed, James has a long history of problematic financial reporting dating back to her time as a City Council member.
Perhaps most glaring: her treatment of mortgage liabilities in official filings. Our March 2025 investigation found multiple phantom mortgages that appear in her disclosures but not in property records, alongside documented mortgages that should have been disclosed but weren’t. Some loans appear in her disclosures but not in city or county records. Others—clearly documented in public filings—were omitted entirely. For her Virginia property alone, we uncovered a potential total debt of up to $509,600 against a property she valued at no more than $150,000.
The resulting loan-to-value ratio—potentially as high as 272%—far exceeds industry standards for investment properties and raises serious questions about the nature of these financial arrangements. Similar patterns appear in her Brooklyn property disclosures, with reporting delays, missing mortgages, and unexplained classification changes creating a confusing maze of contradictions.
These disclosure failures form part of the same broader pattern we’ve documented: paperwork that doesn’t match facts, discrepancies that benefit the filer, and a striking difference between how James’ issues are treated compared to ordinary property owners.
The Pattern Has a Timeline
When viewed chronologically, these discrepancies create a remarkable four-decade pattern:
1983: Queens property documents with father list relationship as “husband and wife”
2000: Sale of Queens property documents still listed relationship as “husband and wife”
2000: DOB violation issued; still open
2001: C/O issued for five units after property passed inspection; mortgage filed as if one or two
2003: Title annotation: “4 family dwelling”
2007: Scaffolding violation issued
2008–09: Property taxes unpaid
2011: HAMP agreement with “4 fam” handwritten
2020: Permit application again lists four units
2023: James declares Virginia property her “principal residence”
A Pattern, Not an Error
Individually, each of these incidents might be explained away. But together, they paint a troubling picture: uncorrected violations, unit-count inconsistencies, handwritten edits on federal documents, financial disclosure gaps, and declarations that strain credulity.
If Letitia James were an ordinary landlord in Brooklyn, these filings would raise red flags across agencies. But for over forty years, the system has looked the other way.
This article was written with careful attention to sourcing. Public documents, city filings, and historical disclosures all support the findings. And where another journalist uncovered an early thread—as Joel Gilbert did with the 2011 HAMP filing—we’ve cited his work without repeating it, instead placing it within a longer, more damning narrative.
The record is public. The signatures are real. And yet—no investigation, no consequences, no answers. Just silence where oversight should be.
Who will act on it?
Written by,
Sam Antar
© 2025 Sam Antar.
