01b People Advance

State Department offers $500K in grants as part of free speech push in Britain www.foxnews.com
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NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

The U.S. Embassy in London is offering up to $500,000 in grants to bolster shared values between the United States and the United Kingdom, including freedom of speech, due process and limited government, but at least one British critic is rejecting the offered funding as “MAGA money meddling.”

Liberal Democrat MP Lisa Smart framed the grant as “Trump’s MAGA money meddling in democracy,” in a quote to The Guardian.

“We have a proud tradition of liberty and freedom of speech in this country,” Smart added.

That tradition, according to free speech defenders, is under threat across the pond.

Gun Rights Win: DOJ Concedes Gun Owners Can Carry in Post Offices – PJ Media pjmedia.com
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In a decision that could have far-reaching implications for firearm carry within federal facilities, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has agreed that constitutional gun rights are still valid in public post offices. It is amazing how many basic constitutional facts have been under attack in recent years from federal agencies, to the point that even this concession is a major victory.

A “Memorandum Opinion for the Attorney General” from August 12 regarding the Application of 18 U.S.C. § 930(a) to Post Offices recognized that congressional legislation, in at least nine statutes, has restricted gun carry at certain designated locations and empowers the Department of Homeland Security to do the same. But the Trump-Blanche DOJ rejected the idea of a blanket ban and expressed deep concern about the constitutional implications of such an interpretation, conceding what the plaintiffs wished. In short, as long as firearm carry is justified by the official definition of lawful purposes, it can happen inside post offices. This is what happens when a presidential administration actually cares about the Bill of Rights.

NEW: Woman Identified and Arrested on Two Felony Charges After Vandalizing DC’s Sacred World War II Memorial – Faces Up to TEN YEARS in Prison www.thegatewaypundit.com
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Melissa L. Farris. Credit: U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro

The wicked individual who spray-painted and dumped chemicals on DC’s WWII memorial has been identified and arrested.

As The Gateway Pundit reported earlier, the World War II memorial in Washington, D.C., was vandalized on Thursday with bubbly soap and graffiti containing a very nasty message to the military.

The memorial fountain bubbled over with suds, and a complete loser painted the words “Clean hands Dirty $” on one of its surfaces.

The area was also splattered with red and green paint.

Mundane DOJ Memo On Post Office Gun Bans Is Actually Bigger Deal Than You Think dailycaller.com
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The Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) informed Attorney General Todd Blanche Wednesday that under current law, firearms were not banned in post offices under a broad exception covering many who carry concealed.

Federal district courts have issued conflicting rulings, with the Trump administration previously electing to drop an appeal of a district court ruling that found the ban unconstitutional after the Supreme Court’s Wolford decision. In the memo, the OLC advised Blanche that the provisions of 18 USC 930, one of the more commonly used statutes to justify a ban on carrying guns in United States Postal Service (USPS) buildings, contained an exemption that applied to those who lawfully carry firearms for lawful purposes including self-defense self-defense, removing the threat of criminal prosecution for having a gun inside a post office or on USPS property.

Enes Kanter Freedom declares himself an eligible WNBA prospect | The Post Millennial thepostmillennial.com
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EXCERPT:

“I look forward to the WNBA honoring its stated principles. See you at training camp.”

Amid controversy surrounding who can and should play in the Women’s National Basketball Association, former NBA player Enes Kanter Freedom has declared himself to be an eligible prospect. The announcement challenges the assertions of WNBA coaches and some players who say that trans women, also known as men, should be able to compete on women’s sports teams.

In a video, Freedom said “after careful consideration and reviewing the current eligibility guidelines, I am officially declaring myself a WNBA prospect. If simply declaring who you are is all that’s required, then I meet every single requirement necessary to compete in the WNBA.”

“My team and I have carefully examined the WNBA’s eligibility criteria and governing framework surrounding self-identification and inclusion. Based on the current guidelines, I can and am officially declaring my eligibility for the upcoming WNBA draft in May 2027,” he continued.

“I am definitely not here to mock, make fun of, or disrespect and community or personal choices. I am simply asking that the current rules be equally applied to everyone, the rules that represent the very values that many WNBA players and coaches have publicly advocated for.

“My team and I are prepared to ensure these guidelines are applied equally, consistently, and without exception. And I look forward to the WNBA honoring its stated principles. See you at training camp.”

NEW: Democrat Mayor Arrested In Connection With $1.5 Million Fraud Scheme trendingpoliticsnews.com
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Mayor Brian DePeña of Lawrence, Massachusetts was arrested and charged Friday with one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering in connection with allegations that he fraudulently obtained more than $1.5 million in COVID-19-related small business loans and diverted the proceeds for personal and campaign purposes.

According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts, DePeña, 61, who was elected mayor of Lawrence in November 2021 and reelected in November 2025, previously served on the Lawrence City Council from 2016 to 2021. He owns Tenares Tire Services Inc., a tire sales and automotive services business in Lawrence.

Prosecutors allege that in 2020 and 2021 he applied for Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDLs) from the U.S. Small Business Administration on behalf of that business. These loans, offered during the pandemic to eligible small businesses experiencing substantial financial disruptions, carried an interest rate of 3.75 percent and were restricted to use as working capital to alleviate economic injury caused by COVID-19. Working capital, according to the charging documents, did not include funding a political campaign, paying personal taxes, or paying off mortgages.

The charging documents state that DePeña caused Tenares Tire to apply for and obtain an initial EIDL of $150,000 in June 2020 and used the majority of those funds as working capital for the business. By early 2021, however, prosecutors allege he needed additional cash because his mayoral campaign was struggling to pay bills, he owed the IRS for back taxes, and he owed nearly $900,000 to two private hard-money lenders charging 12 percent and 8 percent interest on loans secured by various properties he owned in Lawrence.

A Supreme Court ruling will allow the Trump administration’s Mail-in Voting Executive Order to take effect in the 2026 midterm election. The order requires states to have “unique ballot envelope identifiers, such as bar codes, [to] enable confirmation that only citizens receive and cast ballots, reducing the risk of fraud and protecting the integrity of Federal elections.”

The final ruling was 6-3, with the three progressive judges dissenting. The ruling did not determine if the executive order was legal, it only determined the states had no standing because they offered no proof of “concrete” harm by the order, claiming their arguments were only “conjecture.”

Trump Triumphs at SCOTUS – Dems Counting on Mail-in Voting Should Prepare to Panic www.westernjournal.com
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The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday allowed President Donald Trump’s executive order regarding mail-in ballots to go forward.

In late March, Trump issued an executive order requiring states to send a list of names of those receiving mail-in ballots so they could be verified as U.S. citizens, with the Department of Homeland Security working in conjunction with the Social Security Administration.

“The Federal Government has an unavoidable duty under Article II of the Constitution of the United States to enforce Federal law, which includes preventing violations of Federal criminal law and maintaining public confidence in election outcomes,” the directive read.

The U.S. Postal Service was instructed not to deliver ballots to those unverified as citizens.

Further, states are required to have “unique ballot envelope identifiers, such as bar codes, [to] enable confirmation that only citizens receive and cast ballots, reducing the risk of fraud and protecting the integrity of Federal elections.”

A $50 million judgment against Alex Jones has been reduced to $1.5 million by a Texas appeals court. The judgment came after Alex Jones was sued by the parents of the victims of the Sandy Hook shooting. Jones claimed the shooting was a false flag operation. The appeals court ruled the trial court “abused its discretion” by applying a judgment greater than the statutory limit.

Texas judge wipes $50 million judgement against Alex Jones www.washingtonexaminer.com
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A Texas appeals court has reduced a $50 million judgment against Alex Jones for falsely claiming the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a staged hoax to $1.5 million.

The ruling stems from a 2022 trial in which Jones, a Texas-based right-wing political commentator and conspiracy theorist, was found liable by default for defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress after repeatedly claiming the massacre was fabricated. A trial court ordered Jones to pay $50 million in damages to the parents of Jesse Lewis, a 6-year-old boy killed in the shooting.

The 3rd Court of Appeals unanimously ruled that Lewis’s parents, Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, failed to provide sufficient evidence that harassment stemming from Jones’s claims reached a level allowing them to exceed Texas’s $750,000 statutory cap on damages.

Investigative journalist James O’Keefe saw a $130,000 judgment against him thrown out by a three-panel D.C. appeals court. The judgment came after a Democrat group sued O’Keefe’s Project Veritas. The group claimed Project Veritas’ video called “Rigging the Election” was fraudulent and in violation of wiretapping rules. A D.C. jury ruled in their favor.  After the judgment, O’Keefe filed an appeal, claiming the judgment was a violation of the Freedom of Press. The panel ruled 2-1 he was right.

Circuit Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson wrote in the ruling, “The principal question in this appeal is whether the jury’s damages award violated the First Amendment by punishing the defendants for publishing a news story. We conclude that it did. The separate issue is whether, under D.C. law, one of the media defendants became the fiduciary of her own news target by tricking him into hiring her as an unpaid intern. We conclude that she did not.”

Court sides with conservative activist James O’Keefe in First Amendment case www.washingtonexaminer.com
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O’Keefe, the founder and former CEO of Project Veritas, had appealed a lower court’s 2022 jury decision to award the Democratic consultant targeted by his media company’s undercover video $130,000 in damages based on claims of fraudulent misrepresentation and wiretapping. O’Keefe’s appeal proved successful on Friday, when the three-judge panel agreed, with one judge dissenting in part, to discard the $130,000 damages judgment.

Fauci may be charged in spite of his pardon www.americanthinker.com
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It appears that Fauci’s right-hand man may have just given the DoJ the jailhouse keys. All they need to do is measure Anthony for his orange jumpsuit. No, I’m not hallucinating. “Let me tell you a little story about a man named…”

It is now very clear that Saint Anthony sent money to Wuhan to finance the manufacture of the COVID-19 virus. He used cut-outs at the EcoHealth Alliance and the University of North Carolina. He later conspired with others in the virology field to publish an op-ed in the professional literature denying any serious possibility of the virus having been engineered.

His buddies at Pfizer and Moderna buried adverse data. He helped to push the idea that there was no alternative treatment for this supposedly lethal disease, and that the “vaccine” was “safe and effective.” He helped with persecuting medical professionals who dared to challenge his authority and use that horse dewormer. Finally, he made his dangerous drug, Remdesivir, the drug of choice for treating hospitalized COVID patients, because royalties lined his pocket.

None of this is news. Even the release of his diary by Senator Rand Paul isn’t news. But the guilty plea by Dr. David Morens is the news that the drive-by media won’t report. “Who is David Morens?” you ask. Morens was “Senior Advisor” to the short Minister of Propaganda at the NIAID during all this activity. His key action was to act as a conduit for “behind-the-scenes shenanigans” that ran around FOIA requirements.

Former Miss North Carolina sues Miss USA over alleged defamation www.washingtonexaminer.com
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Former Miss North Carolina Brittany Boltinhouse is suing Miss USA for defamation, accusing the pageant organization of weaponizing social media against her after she was dethroned over alleged “homophobic views.”

The lawsuit names the Miss USA organization, its Chairman Thom Brodeur, and the operators of the North Carolina pageant as defendants. The case does not challenge Boltinhouse’s dethroning or seek her reinstatement.

Instead, Boltinhouse alleges the defendants made false statements portraying her as racist, homophobic, transphobic, and bigoted, claiming the statements have damaged her reputation.

In the complaint, Boltinhouse acknowledges that old social media posts resurfaced, including six posts from 2017 and 2019 in which she used a racial slur as a teenager.

She also said posts showing her support for President Donald Trump and the late Charlie Kirk were used by the Miss USA organization as part of a campaign against her. Boltinhouse alleged that her conservative Christian and political views, rather than the stated concerns over her social media activity, were the real reason she was dethroned.

Trump Says Navy Has Cleared Iranian Mines From Strait of Hormuz › American Greatness amgreatness.com
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President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that the U.S. Navy has cleared all remaining mines from international waters in the Strait of Hormuz, while warning Iran that any attempt to deploy new mines will draw an immediate military response.

Iran placed mines in the strategically critical waterway during its ongoing conflict with the United States and Israel, disrupting maritime traffic through one of the world’s most important energy corridors.

“I have just been informed by the United States Navy that all mines have been removed and/or detonated from within the International Waters of the Strait of Hormuz,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Trump warned Tehran that the United States would enforce a “Zero Tolerance” policy against renewed mining operations.

“Iran has been notified that any ship or boat placing new mines will be immediately and systematically destroyed,” Trump said.

Trump puts schools ‘on notice’: Pushing transgenderism is ‘child abuse’ www.lifesitenews.com
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President Donald Trump issued a stark warning on Monday to public schools to stop encouraging “gender transitions” for confused students or face consequences.

Speaking from the White House Rose Garden during a back-to-school event with U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, the president lamented the “extreme ideologies” such as “transgender insanity” that have taken root in schools in recent years.

“Transgender didn’t work. Students were taught that our heroes are villains. The FBI was used to target patriotic parents at school board meetings. And meanwhile, far too many government-run schools failed at the basics,” he said. “Under the Trump administration, we’re systematically ending every single one of these radical-left betrayals and we’re putting the parents back in charge. They’re the ones that love our children. They’re the ones that should be in charge.”

“Every public school in America is now on notice: That if they tell a child that they are trapped in the wrong body, they are committing child abuse,” he declared.

With Crucial Win at the Supreme Court, Trump Administration Has Path to Security, Transparency Rules in Mail Balloting www.dailysignal.com
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The Supreme Court delivered a big win to the Trump administration this week that could clear the way for better election integrity across the U.S.

Trump v. California, decided on Monday, cleared a major hurdle in the ongoing legal fight over President Donald Trump’s executive order “Ensuring Citizenship Verification and Integrity in Federal Elections” issued in March.

The primary directives concerned the fight to ensure that only citizens vote in federal elections and to increase the security, integrity, and transparency of mail balloting across the nation.

The fight over the details is sure to continue in the days and weeks ahead, but the Trump administration now has a path to increase the integrity of mail voting prior to the 2026 midterm elections.

The Supreme Court halted a Massachusetts District Court’s ruling to sideline the Trump executive order on two major grounds. The 23 left-leaning states that had sued the federal government over the potential rules lacked legal standing to interfere with the executive branch development of rules and that the ripeness of the case was premature, thus too early to intervene with ongoing implementation or decide the constitutional merits of the case.

Trump Administration Announces Uncovering More Than $13 Billion In Suspected Fraud dailycaller.com
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The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) announced Tuesday that the agency, alongside the White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, has uncovered more than $13 billion in suspected fraud since beginning its work in March.

Federal contractors are responsible for the suspected fraud. They were tracked down by GSA and the task force through governmentwide contracting data, public reporting and inspector general enforcement information, according to a press release.

“Let this serve as a warning to any bad actors thinking of stealing from the federal government: we will catch you, we will work with law enforcement to ensure your arrest, and we will do everything in our power to help recover every dollar you stole,” GSA Administrator Edward C. Forst said in a statement.

A few weeks into the creation, the task force and the GSA identified nearly $6.3 billion in government contracts that are going to potentially fraudulent businesses, the Daily Caller exclusively reported.

Uthmeier Demands FL Bar Toss Complaint Against DHS Attorney thefederalist.com
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Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier is demanding that the state bar dismiss a “meritless” complaint filed by left-wing activists against a Trump administration attorney for criticizing rogue judges.

In his Monday letter to Florida Bar Executive Director Joshua Doyle, Uthmeier slammed the Aug. 18 filing by the Democracy Defenders Fund (DDF) and Lawyers Defending American Democracy against Department of Homeland Security General Counsel James Percival as a “shameless publicity stunt.” The complaint was signed by 128 former federal and state judges, “only three” of whom “previously served on the bench in Florida,” according to the Florida AG.

As The Federalist previously reported, the left-wing groups and judges took aim at a July 23 X thread by Percival. Titled, “Worst of the Worst, District Judge Edition,” the DHS general counsel described rogue judges’ overreaching actions in several immigration-related cases involving the administration and how they conflicted with its policy agenda.

For this and his media appearances criticizing those activist judges, the left-wing groups and former judges demanded that the Florida Bar investigate Percival. They laughably claimed that his commentary constituted “serious professional misconduct” and accused him of “threaten[ing] the rule of law and increas[ing] the risk of violence against judges.”

Trump Brings U.S. Marine Home After Biden Abandoned Him in a Russian Prison for Four Years gellerreport.com
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Biden abandoned a U.S. Marine. Trump brought him home.

Biden traded drug carrying basketball player Brittney Griner for a convicted Russian arms dealer “merchant of death” Viktor Bout.

Harvard lays off nearly one-third of social sciences staff covered by latest restructuring www.thecollegefix.com
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Restructuring aims to close $365 million budget shortfall

Harvard University laid off almost one-third of its social sciences staff affected by its latest restructuring this month, resulting in 75 direct layoffs.

About 15 of those employees were offered a different job or the choice to take the layoff instead. Three other people either got new roles or quit on their own before the official notices went out, The Harvard Crimson reported.

This is more than twice as many people as the number cut at Harvard College the month before.

“The cuts make the social sciences the hardest-hit part of the [Faculty of Arts and Sciences] restructuring disclosed so far,” The Crimson reported.

The layoffs most heavily impacted the coordinator, faculty assistant, and financial associate positions.

“Twenty-two out of 30 faculty assistant, faculty coordinator, or faculty support specialist roles were slashed, and five of 14 financial associate and senior financial associate positions,” according to The Crimson.

The staff restructuring aims to close a $365 million budget shortfall. Last week’s cuts were the fifth and largest wave of job changes since mid-July, after three smaller rounds in May and June.

Enes Kanter Freedom declares himself an eligible WNBA prospect | The Post Millennial thepostmillennial.com
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EXCERPT:

“I look forward to the WNBA honoring its stated principles. See you at training camp.”

Amid controversy surrounding who can and should play in the Women’s National Basketball Association, former NBA player Enes Kanter Freedom has declared himself to be an eligible prospect. The announcement challenges the assertions of WNBA coaches and some players who say that trans women, also known as men, should be able to compete on women’s sports teams.

In a video, Freedom said “after careful consideration and reviewing the current eligibility guidelines, I am officially declaring myself a WNBA prospect. If simply declaring who you are is all that’s required, then I meet every single requirement necessary to compete in the WNBA.”

“My team and I have carefully examined the WNBA’s eligibility criteria and governing framework surrounding self-identification and inclusion. Based on the current guidelines, I can and am officially declaring my eligibility for the upcoming WNBA draft in May 2027,” he continued.

“I am definitely not here to mock, make fun of, or disrespect and community or personal choices. I am simply asking that the current rules be equally applied to everyone, the rules that represent the very values that many WNBA players and coaches have publicly advocated for.

“My team and I are prepared to ensure these guidelines are applied equally, consistently, and without exception. And I look forward to the WNBA honoring its stated principles. See you at training camp.”

U.S. Manufacturing has shown an expansion that hasn’t been seen since 2022, right when the world was recovering from the Covid shutdowns. The Institute for Supply Management showed only one of its 16 industrial categories, chemical production, was contracting. In July, U.S. manufacturing reached 55.6 according to the ISM’s ratings, a level not seen since May 2022.

American Manufacturing Expands At Fastest Pace Since 2022 www.breitbart.com
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The U.S. manufacturing sector is expanding at the strongest pace in four years as output surges, firms add workers, and demand continues to grow, according to a key measure of factory health released Monday.

The Institute for Supply Management’s July barometer of U.S. manufacturing rose to 55.6, the highest since May 2022. This was the seventh consecutive month in which the sector’s reading came in above the threshold of 50 that separates growth from contraction. The reading was higher than economists had forecast.

The employment gauge indicated payroll growth for the first time since September 2023. New orders expanded for the seventh straight month. The measure of production rose to its best reading since late 2021.

Valerie Kloosterman has won $410,000 from the University of Michigan Health-West because of a lawsuit against the hospital. Kloosterman sued after the hospital fired her in August 2021 for refusing to conform to the transgender ideology. She would not reject the gender binary.

Christian Physician Assistant Fired for Resisting Transgender Dogma Gets $410,000 Lawsuit Settlement www.breitbart.com
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A Michigan physician assistant (PA) who alleged she was fired after refusing to comply with hospital transgender policies because of her religious beliefs is receiving a $410,000 settlement in her wrongful termination lawsuit.

Valerie Kloosterman sued University of Michigan Health-West (UMHW) filed suit in 2022 after she was fired in August 2021, alleging the 200-bed suburban Grand Rapids teaching hospital was requiring her to go against her conscience as a Christian.

“All I wanted to do was provide the best care possible to my patients without being forced to violate my Christian beliefs,” Kloosterman said in a statement to Fox News Digital.

She was represented in the lawsuit by First Liberty Institute, which documented that Kloosterman had “received positive performance reviews throughout her employment before raising faith-based objections to mandatory gender identity training,” the news outlet reported.

The legal advocacy nonprofit reported she was terminated after requesting a religious accommodation from finishing training that “required her to affirm statements about gender identity that were in violation of her Christian faith.”

No effort was made to accommodate her, according to the institute which takes on civil rights cases to “reclaim religious freedom in America.”

According to Fox Digital’s report:

The lawsuit says University of Michigan Health-West officials called her to a meeting, where they disparaged her religious beliefs, called her “evil” and a “liar,” told her she could not bring her Christian beliefs into the workplace, and accused her of contributing to suicides among individuals with gender dysphoria.