02 U.S. Politics
BALTIMORE: The Federal Aviation Administration delayed flights for a third straight day on Wednesday (Oct 8) at airports including Reagan Washington National and Newark Liberty International Airport as the agency continued to face higher-than-normal staffing shortages.
There were nearly 3,000 flight delays by 5.30pm (Thursday, 5.30am, Singapore time) after 10,000 delays in total on Monday and Tuesday with thousands tied to the FAA slowing flights because of air traffic controller absences at facilities across the country as the government shutdown reached its eighth day.
Some flights at Reagan were being forced to hold in the air due to a slowdown in air traffic, the FAA said.
“Historically, there’s about 5 per cent of delays that is attributed to staffing issues in our towers. Last couple days it has been 53 per cent,” US Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy said on Fox News’ “Will Cain Show.” “My message to the air traffic controllers who work for DOT is show up for work – you have a job to do.”
Air traffic control staffing issues during this shutdown have emerged earlier than the last major halt to government funding in 2019, during US President Donald Trump’s first term, leading to unexpected shortages in cities around the country.
Presenting a letter to Trump during talks at the White House, Netanyahu had said (at the time), “I want to present to you, Mr President, the letter I sent to the Nobel Prize Committee. It’s nominating you for the Peace Prize, which is well deserved, and you should get it.”Meanwhile, while actively campaigning for the honour in the past, Trump seemed to downplay the hopes in the most recent statement. When asked about his chances of winning the prize, Trump told reporters, “I have no idea… Marco would tell you we settled seven wars. We’re close to settling an eighth. I think we’ll end up settling the Russia situation… I don’t think anybody in history has settled that many. But perhaps they’ll find a reason not to give it to me.”
A recent court decision has effectively legalized open carry in Florida—and at least some Publix store managers say the company will allow it inside its stores. But not every grocery chain is following suit, and this has reignited a familiar debate: the tension between gun rights and private property rights.
Back on September 10, the First District Court of Appeal struck down Florida’s long-standing ban on open carry as unconstitutional. The very next day, Attorney General James Uthmeier affirmed that open carry is now legal throughout the state.
Since then, sheriff’s departments across Florida have announced they will no longer enforce the old law. But there are caveats—certain locations like schools, government buildings, and meetings remain off-limits for firearms, whether carried openly or concealed.
According to The Ledger and other local media outlets, several Publix store managers confirmed that open carry is now being allowed, in accordance with the new legal landscape.
“That’s a state law now so there’s nothing Publix can do to restrict open carry. So Publix is allowing it,” a manager at a Jacksonville Publix told reporters.
Democratic Arizona Gov. Hobbs launches reelection bid as her party aims to build power nationally The Washington Post
from news.google.com
Court Declares Gun Ban Unconstitutional—Then Demands Names of Pro-2A Group Members– www.usacarry.com
LAFAYETTE, LA — A federal judge has issued a final judgment in the closely watched case Reese v. ATF, acknowledging that the federal prohibition on handgun sales to adults under 21 violates the Second Amendment—but limiting the practical impact of the decision to a small, narrowly defined group.
On October 7, U.S. District Judge Robert Summerhays issued a two-page ruling in compliance with a January 2025 decision from the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. That earlier ruling found that the federal law barring handgun sales by licensed dealers to adults aged 18 to 20 was unconstitutional.
Judge Summerhays’ final order declared the statute unconstitutional only as applied to three individual plaintiffs—Caleb Reese, Joseph Granich, and Emily Naquin—as well as members of the Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC), Second Amendment Foundation (SAF), and Louisiana Shooting Association (LSA) who were members of those organizations on November 6, 2020 and who reside within the Fifth Circuit’s jurisdiction, which includes Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas.
The judgment blocks the federal government from enforcing the handgun sales ban against those specific individuals, but only if the buyer is between 18 and 20 years old and is covered by the limited group named in the case.
Masked, armed law enforcement agents who regularly violate the law and strip people of their constitutional rights is nothing new in America. They have, in fact, a long and well-documented history, including states — after years of abuse by masked men — passing laws specifically to prevent them from concealing their identities when performing law enforcement operations.
In this era, we call them Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents; during the late 19th and early to mid-20th centuries they called themselves the Ku Klux Klan. They often operated with the blessing of both federal and state governments, deputized and given badges and guns, and “enforced the law” while wearing their famous white hoods to conceal their individual identities.
ICE operates today with a level of anonymity, impunity and intimidation that closely parallels the Ku Klux Klan’s tactics as masked, semi-official enforcers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Both used legal or quasi-legal authority, masked identities and violent or coercive tactics to carry out their missions, all without individual accountability while targeting vulnerable minorities and subverting legal norms to do so.
In response to a Federalist inquiry, not a single Democrat U.S. Senator called for the Virginia Democrat attorney general candidate Jay Jones to drop out of the race in light of his text messages fantasizing about assassinating Republican Todd Gilbert.
“Put Gilbert in the crew with the two worst people you know and he receives both bullets every time,” Jones wrote, after running a hypothetical about how to allocate two bullets among Gilbert, Hitler, and Pol Pot. The 2022 text messages were first reported by National Review on Friday. According to a source cited by the outlet, Jones also “suggested he wished Gilbert’s wife could watch her own child die in her arms so that Gilbert might reconsider his political views” in a follow-up phone call with a Republican state lawmaker.
The Federalist reached out to each Senate Democrat, asking if they would call for Jones to drop out of the race in light of his violent comments.
Only Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., addressed The Federalist’s inquiry. Though Kaine criticized Jones’ remarks, he also refused to call for him to drop out. “There is nothing that can justify these indefensible words, and they are contrary to all I’ve known about Jay Jones for decades,” Kaine said. “With hundreds of thousands of Virginians already having voted, it’s up to Virginians to decide.”
from thefederalist.com
A University of Chicago professor who described her employer as “evil” and a “colonial landlord” over the summer is now facing felony charges for alleged aggravated battery against a police officer.
The charges stem from sociology Professor Eman Abdelhadi’s involvement in a protest Friday near an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview, Illinois, The Chicago Maroon reports.
Abdelhadi was arrested and charged with two counts of aggravated battery, a felony, and two counts of obstructing the peace, a misdemeanor, according to information the Cook County Sheriff’s Office provided to Fox News Digital on Monday.
In a post Monday on Bluesky, the professor appeared to suggest that law enforcement officers were the ones to blame for the violence at the protest.
“Claim: rioters attacked ICE,” Abdelhadi wrote. “Truth: ICE rushed at unarmed protesters standing on a patch of grass.”
She also reposted a video of herself yelling “Shame!” at police officers while wearing a “Free Palestine” T-shirt.
from www.thecollegefix.com
It’s a sign that Jones’ campaign is now in full damage-control mode.
Jay Jones, the Democratic nominee for attorney general in Virginia, has called off a Thursday night fundraiser that was set to be hosted by best-selling novelist David Baldacci. A person familiar with the situation confirmed the cancellation to Axios, describing it as a sign that Jones’ campaign is now in full damage-control mode.
from thepostmillennial.com
Democratic Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson emasculated himself by suggesting he wouldn’t deport an illegal alien who hypothetically beat up and raped his wife.
Johnson — who has been obstructing President Donald Trump’s efforts to rid his crime-infested city of violent illegal aliens — made the cowardly admission at a news conference Tuesday.
Reporter William Kelly teed up Johnson’s humiliating self-own by recounting a crime that occurred last month, in which an illegal alien from Nicaragua grabbed a woman on the street, bashed her head in, and raped her.
“If that had been your wife, Stacie, would you want ICE to deport … that illegal alien? Yes or no?” Kelly asked.
A Nicaraguan migrant, high on cocaine, randomly targeted a woman on the Northwest Side, knocking her unconscious and raping her in an alley, prosecutors allege.
Judge calls him “a threat to all females.”https://t.co/vwI2VgxoPg
— CWBChicago (@CWBChicago) September 25, 2025
The scandal whereby Jay Jones, the Democrat nominee in the Virginia attorney general race, sent graphic text messages describing his desire to assassinate a political opponent says much about our current political culture. Beyond how some describe “violent” policies to justify violent actions against their adversaries, it also reflects the practical realities of the way states administer elections.
The candidates at the top of Virginia’s Democrat ticket, gubernatorial nominee Abigail Spanberger and lieutenant governor nominee Ghazala Hashmi, have, as of this writing, refused to demand that Jones remove himself from the ticket. One potential reason for their reluctance to do the obvious “right thing”: It would disenfranchise tens of thousands of Virginia voters.
I am willing to bet that a lot of these people don’t even care about ICE or the people affected by deportations. This is just one of the new ways to protest Trump and Republicans.
The New York Post reports:
Far-left professor Eman Abdelhadi charged with violent felonies after Chicago ICE facility riots
A far-left University of Chicago professor has been arrested and charged with violent felonies following riots at an ICE facility in the city, law enforcement has said.
Eman Abdelhadi, an associate professor in the university’s Department of Comparative Human Development, was arrested Friday and charged with two counts of aggravated battery to a government employee, a Class 3 felony, and two counts of resisting/obstruction peace, a Class A misdemeanor, the Cook County Sheriff’s Office told Fox News.
Radical sociologist Abdelhadi, who previously cursed out her employer while speaking at a “Socialism 2025” conference, is due in court again on Tuesday.
A far-left lunatic fashioned at least 200 improvised explosive devices out of homemade materials and planned to unleash a series of terrorist attacks across Washington, D.C., authorities said after arresting the man on Tuesday.
The deranged New Jersey resident had reportedly filled a tent with what the Metropolitan District Police described as “grenades” readied for detonation at the annual Red Mass gathering of Christians this week.
A notebook left behind by the man was filled with hate-filled scrawls against justices on the U.S. Supreme Court, who already confirmed they would not be attending the appeal to their faith out of safety concerns.
Louis Geri, 41, also appeared motivated out of hatred for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to his writings left behind in a tent outside the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle. He allegedly told police officers who approached him, “You might want to stay back and call the federales, I have explosives,” according to a copy of their report obtained by the Washington Post.
After a visit to the city on Tuesday, FBI Director Kash Patel revealed that over 110,000 gang members are currently roaming the streets of Chicago, a city long plagued by corruption, lawlessness, and political cowardice.
That means roughly 4% of Chicago’s 2.7 million residents are active gang members, about one gang member for every 24 people living in the city.
“We learned that the Chicago city streets have 110,000 gang members. That’s right. You heard me right. They had 1,200 shootings this year alone, 360 homicides,” Patel said during an interview with Hannity.
Patel’s statement paints a chilling picture of a city spiraling out of control under liberal policies that prioritize optics over safety. Despite decades of Democrat rule, Chicago continues to be one of the most dangerous cities in America.
In his remarks, Patel credited President Donald Trump for empowering federal law enforcement to act decisively where local leaders have failed:
There has been an occupation of the streets outside the Portland ICE facility for months by the anti-ICE crew.
Over that time, there’s been violence as well as harassment of the agents and the residents of the neighborhood. A resident even brought a lawsuit against the city because of the disruption. People walking through the area were treated to the vile sayings spewed all over the buildings. The actions have largely gone uncovered by the national media. However, there has been great work from brave journalists on the ground for months, including Katie Daviscourt and Shelly Boufferache (@hunnybadgermom), and we’ve covered some of their reporting.
With ICE facilities still facing attacks and besiegement by “protesters,” the far left has come up with a new way to “defeat” federal immigration authorities. Thankfully, this one doesn’t involve snipers on rooftops or setting things on fire. It is hilariously stupid, though, and perhaps a bit more nefarious than it first appears.
The recent trend involves demonstrators dressing up in inflatable dinosaur costumes and “dancing” in front of ICE agents. Here’s what that looks like in practice.
This is EXACTLY how we defeat the brutality of ICE, Stephen Miller, and the Trump administration.
Don’t get into fights with law enforcement and DON’T block ICE vehicles!!!
Just make them look stupid.pic.twitter.com/Hm5HZgVbhj
— JΛKΣ (@USMCLiberal) October 8, 2025
ALEXANDRIA, Virginia — Former FBI Director James Comey pleaded not guilty Wednesday morning to charges of making false statements and obstructing a 2020 congressional proceeding, as prosecutors signaled the case would introduce classified information in the discovery phase of legal proceedings.
The prosecution, led by U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan, argued this was a complicated case and pushed for more time before bringing it to trial. U.S. District Judge Michael Nachmanoff raised skepticism about how complicated the two-charge indictment is, but he eventually agreed that a preliminary date for when the trial could begin is Jan. 5.
The government requested that a trial take place outside the “speedy trial window” in part because there is a large amount of discovery in the case, including classified materials, which were not previously discussed before the arraignment.
Former Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey pleaded not guilty Wednesday to the two criminal charges he faces for allegedly lying to Congress.
Comey was indicted Sept. 25 for making a false statement and obstruction of a congressional proceeding. If convicted, he could face up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
But in his arraignment Wednesday, Comey pleaded not guilty to both charges and requested a jury trial, which has been scheduled for Jan. 5, 2026. The government says it expects the trial to take 2-3 days.
Comey is represented by former federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, who is known for being the first to bring charges against Osama bin Laden in 1996.
The charges against Comey concern his 2020 testimony before Congress on the investigation into alleged Trump-Russia collusion in the 2016 election. Comey briefly headed that investigation during his tenure as FBI director before President Donald Trump fired him in May 2017.
US President Donald Trump has called for the imprisonment of Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois governor JB Pritzker, accusing them of failing to protect federal immigration officers. The remarks, posted on Trump’s social media platform Truth Social, come amid ongoing political tensions over immigration enforcement and the deployment of federal troops in Democratic-led cities.“Chicago Mayor should be in jail for failing to protect ICE Officers! Governor Pritzker also!” Trump wrote, referring to US immigration and customs enforcement personnel operating in the city.
Trump’s comments follow a recent executive order by Johnson that designates city property as an “ICE Free Zone,” restricting federal immigration agents from using municipal facilities. The move was seen as a direct pushback against federal immigration operations within the city.Trump’s statement adds to a broader dispute over the use of the national guard in Democrat-led states. Hundreds of Texas national guard soldiers have reportedly assembled at a military facility near Chicago, despite vocal opposition from state leadership, including Johnson and Pritzker.The administration has not accused either Johnson or Pritzker of any wrongdoing legally. Both leaders have opposed Trump’s immigration policies and criticized what they see as the federal government’s overreach. Pritzker has previously accused Trump of trying to provoke unrest as a means to justify military deployments.
Roblox, which reports more than 111 million active monthly users, is used by roughly two-thirds of American children aged 9 to 12.
Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman has filed a lawsuit against Roblox, alleging the company failed to protect minors from sexual predators and explicit material, including violent simulations depicting the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
Filed on Monday, the suit accuses the California gaming platform of operating as a “playground for pedophiles” by neglecting to implement any meaningful age verification, moderation, or parental safeguards. Roblox, which reports more than 111 million active monthly users, is used by roughly two-thirds of American children aged 9 to 12.
According to the complaint, predators frequently create fake accounts posing as children to contact and groom minors. “Roblox is designed to allow predators easy access to children,” prosecutors wrote, alleging that the company’s inaction has resulted in “harassment, kidnapping, trafficking, violence, and sexual assault.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday ready to spar with Democrat members of the Committee and armed with a binder full of of negative and embarrassing information about them.
Bondi testified that the Department of Justice under her leadership is “ending the weaponization of justice” and “returning to our core mission of fighting real crime.”
While indicating there will be accountability for past abuses of power, Bondi emphasized that the Justice Department is focused now on tackling violent crime in cities like Washington D.C. and Memphis, rather than pursuing politically motivated investigations.
Bondi’s testimony came two weeks after the Justice Department indicted disgraced former FBI Director James Comey for lying to Congress, and days after President Trump deployed National Guard troops to Chicago, Illinois and Portland, Oregon.
The attorney general clashed with Senators. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), and other Democrats throughout the contentious hearing.
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has vowed to take legal action against anyone in the federal government allegedly involved in monitoring his private phone records during Special Counsel Jack Smith’s “investigation” into Jan. 6.
The senator’s fiery remarks followed bombshell reports revealing that Smith and his team, as part of their so-called “Arctic Frost” investigation, allegedly tracked phone calls from multiple Republican lawmakers well after the events of Jan. 6, 2021.
‘Abuse Of Power’
Tuesday night on Fox News’s “Hannity,” Graham called the alleged surveillance an outrageous violation of his rights.
“If he [Trump] had never announced he was going to run for president, none of this would have happened,” Graham said.
“They were trying to destroy his comeback.
“This was all orchestrated by Jack Smith, Alvin Bragg, Fani Willis, Letitia James to destroy this man so he could not win in 2024.
“I’ve seen this movie before.
Former Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) is directing her attention to federal worker back pay in an apparent attempt to pull focus away from Jay Jones’s violent text messages. At the same time, Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears‘s (R-VA) campaign continues to blast the Democratic ticket on Jones’s violent rhetoric.
Republicans, including President Donald Trump, have called on Democrats to force their candidate for attorney general, Jay Jones, to drop out of the election, after text messages surfaced where he said state House Speaker Todd Gilbert should get “two bullets to the head.” So far, he has not dropped out, and Democrats have been mum about holding him accountable for his violent rhetoric, frustrating conservatives further.
Spanberger has condemned her ticket mate’s violent rhetoric, but didn’t ask him to leave the ticket. Instead, she’s redirected her messaging to focus on the government shutdown, seizing on the opportunity to slam Republicans on a Trump administration memo threatening to withhold back pay from furloughed federal employees.
Fifty-two years ago, I found myself in a beautiful corner of central France as a camp counselor to twelve 8- and 9-year-old boys. Four were Algerian, and eight were French. I can still remember some of their names and faces: Kamal, Mohammed, Mustapha, Pierre, Michel, Nicholas, and Jean-Paul. It was a learning experience as well as a memorable one.
The camp lasted a month. I worked six days a week with one day off. On my day off, I would trek many kilometers to a small village called Le Chambon-sur-Lignon.
There, I enjoyed the peace and quiet of life away from twelve very active garçons (“boys”). I especially enjoyed several cups of robust café au lait, drunk leisurely with a croissant or a croque monsieur sandwich. While walking through the village or sitting at the café, I enjoyed observing the villagers. People-watching is one of my favorite pastimes. At the time, I was unaware that I was among a very special group of heroes and heroines.
from www.americanthinker.com
A man was arrested with 200 “viable” explosives on Sunday. His target was a Catholic Mass known to be routinely attended by SCOTUS justices. Police found a manifesto expressing hatred for Christians, the Supreme Court, Jews and ICE.
It would have added to the 500+ attacks on churches since Roe v. Wade was overturned.
Within earshot of this arrest, the transgender would-be assassin of Justice Kavanaugh got leniency from a Biden-appointed judge. The judge, Deborah Boardman, sentenced the assassin to just eight years instead of the 30 recommended. The primary consideration was that the assassin identifies as transgender.
All this week, the public has witnessed astonishing behavior from authorities in Portland and Illinois. Violent members of Antifa in Portland commit crimes in plain view of police officers with impunity. Worse, they assault conservative reporters and police choose to arrest or blame the reporters.
You won’t see any pearl-clutching in coastal media newsrooms about the First Amendment implications of police arresting reporters who have been physically assaulted. They simply don’t count as “real” reporters. Also, “Antifa is just an idea,” they say.
from dailycaller.com