This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

Chicago's struggling Democrat mayor, Lori Lightfoot, is finally talking tough on the problem of homeless people sleeping and forming "encampments" all over O'Hare Airport after some embarrassing media coverage hit the national media.

Lightfoot is in a difficult race for re-election, and the sudden press coverage, beginning with the New York Post and then moving on to Fox News, of homeless people proliferating at the nation's fourth-busiest airport was not helping her campaign.

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

A new law has been adopted by a possibly unprecedented 94 out of 120 members of the Israeli Knesset that strips citizenship from terrorists.

It is the Palestinian Media Watch that explains the organization initiated the plan, writing the original proposal before it moved into the lawmaking body.

It provides that it cancels the "citizenship or residency" of any terrorist who gets a payment for the commission of an act of terror.

The qualifications are a conviction of a terror offense, a sentence to prison time, and seeking or receiving payment.

Avi Dichter, the nation's minister of agriculture and rural development, said, "The problem was a very serious problem: Israeli [Arabs] who engage in terror, including those who murdered Israelis, receive a status of Palestinian Authority employee the day they enter prison in Israel, from the day of their arrest until the end of their lives.

"Whether in prison or outside of prison, they are PA employees because they are terrorists. Here I owe a word of praise to the Palestinian Media Watch institute and to the one responsible for legal matters there [PMW Director of Legal Strategies] Maurice Hirsch, who truly invested day and night to gather the information that truly shines a light on a phenomenon that we have been living alongside, living alongside it for years, and allowing it to pass."

In fact, the Palestinian Authority pays salaries or benefits to terrorists who survive their criminal activities, or to the families of those who die committing terrorism.

The cost is in the hundreds of millions of dollars a year, and the international community, which funds much of the PA budget, has been trying to get those payments eliminated for multiple years.

Explained PMW, "The underlying rationale of the law is that the PA sees all the imprisoned terrorists – including the Israeli Arab terrorists to whom they pay a special addition – as Palestinians, as soldiers and as the 'fighting sector' of Palestinian society. The terrorists also see themselves as Palestinian soldiers. When an Israeli citizen or resident carries out an act of terror, acting as a soldier of a foreign and hostile entity, and then receives a payment from that foreign entity as a reward for his participation in terror, that person is fundamentally breaching his duty of loyalty to the state of Israel, and is, by his own actions, demonstrating that he should no longer be considered to be an 'Israeli.'"

The law actually is not unique, as other nations and even international law recognize that a terrorist does not continue to be a part of the institution he or she attacks.

"International law recognizes the right of countries to strip persons of their nationality in certain circumstances. The issue that arises is whether that person holds, or is entitled to, an alternative status. Accordingly, Article 8(1) of the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness 1961 provides that as a general rule, countries should not deprive a person of their citizenship in a manner that would render him stateless," PMW reported.

But an exception is that "a country may strip someone of their citizenship, even if that decision leaves the person stateless, inter alia, if the person acted 'inconsistently with his duty of loyalty' to the country and 'in disregard of an express prohibition by the Contracting State rendered or continued to render services to, or received or continued to receive emoluments from, another state.'"

PMW reported, "When an Israeli terrorist carries out an act of terror against Israel and Israelis on behalf of the Palestinians, he is clearly breaching his 'duty of loyalty.' When that terrorist then receives a payment – referred to in the convention as an 'emolument' – from the PA as a reward for his acts of terror – receiving a payment of this nature is specifically prohibited by Israel’s Anti-Terror Law – Israel is certainly within its rights under the convention to strip that person of his citizenship or residency even if that person is left stateless."

In fact, 134 nations around the globe already impose such penalties.

PMW reported, "The PA 'Pay-for-Slay' terror reward policy is widely recognized as a means to incite, promote incentivize and reward terror. Using this policy, the PA does its utmost to ensure that Israeli Arabs feel a greater affiliation with being 'Palestinian' than with being 'Israeli.' The additional payment that the PA pays specifically to Israeli terrorists provides not only an extra and added incentive to participate in terror by also as a bridge between the PA and the Israeli Arabs."

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

"Prevent" is a government program in the United Kingdom intended to counter terrorism and stop violence.

But it's ignoring the worst and most dangerous threat, from Islamists, according to charges from Christian Concern.

The organization cited a recent "Independent Review of Prevent" that found the group "is not doing enough to counter the violent Islamist extremism."

"Prevent has lost its focus and lost its way. It has become unbalanced, focusing far too much on far-right extremism and not enough on Islamist extremism. It has, in the words of the Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, in her response to the report, 'become overly focused on addressing vulnerabilities rather than protecting the public from those who willingly support extremism,'" Christian Concern noted.

"This needs to change."

The report noted that Islamist terrorism accounts for 80% of the Counter Terrorism Police network's live investigations. Only 10% are "right-wing."

"The government’s response to the report discloses that since the start of 2017, MI5 and the police have together disrupted 37 late-stage attack plots! Eight of these attack plots were in the last year. We should all be grateful for the incredible work these agencies do and their success which is literally saving lives," the organization reported.

But, the report confirmed, all six of the U.K.'s "deadly" terror attacks since 2019 have been "Islamist."

These include the brutal murder of Sir David Amess MP in October 2021 and the Liverpool suicide bomber in November 2021. Islamist-motivated attacks are therefore far more numerous and more deadly than those of any other motive. Yet only 22% of Prevent referrals for the year 2020 to 2021 concerned Islamism, the report said.

The report bluntly charges the government operations with "a double standard" in dealing with Islamist violence and so-called "extreme right-wing" operations.

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

A recent poll of registered voters found that 83% believe American taxpayer dollars spent on U.S. infrastructure should be spent on American-made products.

Unfortunately, special interests that oppose the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that dictates new infrastructure, including iron, steel, electric vehicle chargers, and broadband fiber-optic cable must be "Made in America" are trying to find ways to allow importers to get a piece of the action. We can’t let that happen.

It's time to act and let your lawmakers know that U.S. tax dollars should go to support and bolster U.S.-based supply chains. If we have learned anything from the recent pandemic, it’s that supply chains need to be located within our national borders.
The Alliance for American Manufacturing has established a short web-based form that you can use to encourage your legislators to fully enforce the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law's "Build America, Buy America" requirements.

Take just a few minutes here to tell your representatives that American factory workers should be employed to make necessary improvements to America's crumbling roads and bridges, not to mention our fragile electric electrical grid, railways, and water systems.

Somewhere in our American journey, we lost our national ambition to invest in America. We allowed our first-rate developed country to fall into disrepair. At the same time, China advanced while we stood still and it pulled ahead of us in certain areas, erecting the largest network of high-speed rail. Europe built the longest tunnel, and the Middle East turned a barren desert into global air hubs, spurring economic growth.

Over 42% of the 617,000 bridges across America are at least 50 years old, and 7.5% of them are deemed structurally deficient. Our nation's bridge repair backlog demands $125 billion. Since American workers are the only workers who pay taxes to America, U.S. taxpayer dollars should be spent on domestic materials crafted by American workers. Establishing such a common-sense policy will help us develop supply chains where they don't exist or are deficient.

We certainly don't want China-built or China-financed infrastructure projects in the United States. According to January 20, 2023, Wall Street Journal article, China has been severely criticized by several foreign leaders for its lending practices. Economists point to programs that have contributed to debt crises in Sri Lanka and Zambia – countries that have few options to repay the loans. The largest-ever infrastructure project in Ecuador revealed thousands of cracks in a $2.7 billion hydroelectric plant, raising concerns that Ecuador's most significant source of power could break down. An engineer at the University of San Francisco in Quito said, "We could lose everything…and we don’t know if it could be tomorrow or in six months."

A power generation company in Uganda has identified over 500 Chinese-built construction defects in a Nile River hydropower plant. The $567 million plan was financed through a $480 million loan courtesy of the Export-Import Bank of China.

America's independence relies on founding values like homegrown self-sufficiency and self-reliance. Communist-led countries like China should never be relied upon. In his farewell address, George Washington, the father of American independence, warned us against foreign entanglements, saying, "There can be no greater error than to expect or calculate upon real favors from Nations."

We need to keep America's workers working, earning good wages, paying sufficient taxes, and reaping the benefits that come from the dignity of work.

Signing the Alliance for American Manufacturing petition is a great way to ensure our representatives hear from us and stay on track. "Buy America" policies and keeping China in check are two of the few truly bipartisan issues that those from both political parties and independents can agree upon.

Make your voice heard. It’s the American thing to do.

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

"War is on the way," China expert Gordon G. Chang is warning after a little-reported incident in which a Chinese satellite lasered the state of Hawaii.

Chang, a distinguished senior fellow at the Gatestone Institute and author of "The Coming Collapse of China," said, "Nobody on the ground was burned by the green Chinese beams of light on January 28, but the laser shower is another warning that war is on the way."

The events were noted when, on Jan. 28, the Subaru-Asahi Star Camera caught images of a shower of green laser beams lasting just seconds.

The camera watches for images from the Subaru Telescope on Hawaii's Mauna Kea.

"The beams were not, as originally thought, from a NASA satellite," Chang explained."They could have come from only one source: China's Daqi-1/AEMS satellite."

And why would China be pointing lasers at a dormant Hawaii volcano?

"It's a Chinese satellite that is measuring pollutants, among other things," explained Roy Gal of the University of Hawaii Institute of Astronomy to the Hill. But Chang noted Richard Fisher of the Virginia-based International Assessment and Strategy Center offered other suggestions.

"China's Daqi-1 satellite, a perfect example of the dual-use nature of China's space program, utilizes a green laser for environmental or greenhouse gas research, but that data, which provides information about atmospheric density and heavy weather, could also be used to target China's new hypersonic glide vehicle," he told Gatestone.

Those weapons, he explained, "require precise weather measurements to deliver warheads precisely on target."

Or it could have been tracking U.S. submarine movements, other experts said.

And Fisher also suggested green lasers can be used to measure seabeds.

"It is likely that China has been seeking to develop compact but more powerful green lasers that can conduct underwater surveillance, perhaps anti-submarine and anti-mine missions, from space," he said.

The events were little noted as January 28 was the same day that China's now-infamous spy balloon entered Alaskan airspace.

Chang warned, "Combined with the green lasers collecting atmospheric data useful for a strike by a hypersonic glide vehicle on Hawaii, American defense planners should be alarmed."

He said, "This preparation means, among other things, that it is dangerous to assume that China's January 28 laser shower was for civilian purposes only."

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

The Democrats in America have a problem: Kamala Harris.

And Charles Lipson, the Peter B. Ritzma professor of political science emeritus at the University of Chicago, wonders if they can get it solved.

In a Real Clear Wire commentary, he wrote Joe Biden's pick to be his vice president is, in fact, "a living embodiment of the Peter Principle, where people keep getting promoted until they reach jobs for which they are clearly unqualified."

Typically, a vice president of a sitting president is primed for a run for the Oval Office itself.

However, he explained, "Harris is deeply unpopular with independents, who are essential for electoral success (fewer than one in three voters view her favorably), and she is losing popularity among Democratic Party leaders. They see her ineptitude, listen to her word salads, and watch the polls with dismay. The latest evidence of Harris’ fading position is a sharply critical article in the New York Times, of all places, filled with anonymous disapproval from senior Democrats, many of whom once supported her. Now, they are worried."

The real problem? Although she's already considered a "drag" on the 2024 ticket for Democrats, "she’s almost impossible to drop."

Her black heritage plays a role there, as African-Americans likely will be "insulted" if she's canceled.

"Normally, voters don’t care much about the vice presidential nominee, even when they aren’t wild about the choices, as we learned in 1988 when George H.W. Bush chose Dan Quayle and again two decades later with John McCain’s surprise selection of Sarah Palin. But 2024 is likely to be different if Biden runs again. He is already the oldest person to sit in the Oval Office, and he is showing his age. Although gaffes have plagued Biden throughout his career, they have grown worse in recent years. There’s a reason he refuses to hold press conferences," Lipson explained,

That means there's a higher probability the vice president would play a role.

"It’s a reasonable inference that a man who would turn 86 during a second term in the Oval Office might not be able to finish the job. His vice president would be forced to step in. Polls show voters are not thrilled with the prospect of Kamala Harris doing that," he explained.

Her failings were evidence when she ran for president in 2000, and her polling was at less than 1% in her own party's field. Then 2022 didn't help her.

"Normally, the White House dispatches the veep to crisscross the country, appearing with candidates eager to be seen with such a prominent national figure. Not this time. Although candidates wanted her help in raising money, they wanted it behind closed doors. No joint public appearances, please," Lipson wrote.

Her background is that Biden appointed her "border czar" and she's accomplished virtually nothing.

Now, only one in seven respondents has a "very favorable" view of her, he noted.

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

There was heterosexual marriage. Then came homosexuality and lesbianism. Then transgenderism and soon on the horizon polygamy.

And furries.

The Post Millennial is reporting an LGBT magazine is promoting acceptance of "furries," people who "identify with and often dress up as anthropomorphic cartoon animals."

The report explained they often deny any sexual element, but a 2019 study confirmed that often is a significant element.

The PinkNews article said those "furries" just want to share their love of anthropomorphic cartoon animals "but researchers in the 2019 study observed that '[b]oth sexual attraction to anthropomorphic animals and sexual arousal by fantasizing about being anthropomorphic animals were nearly universal,'" the report aid.

"If you’re in a place where you feel safe to explore who you are, you’re gonna figure it out quicker and with less angst along the way," said Reskell, a non-binary transgender furry in an interview with PinkNews. "I think I would have worked it out eventually, but I don’t think I’d be where I am now if it wasn’t for having a community that is an open and welcoming space for people who are queer."

In fact, Sharon E. Roberts, of the International Anthropomorphic Research Project, said, "Depending on the study, we typically find that at least 70 percent of the fandom identifies as LGBTQ+, and some of our latest studies indicate that about 25 percent of the fandom identifies as gender diverse."

She noted there's often a "history of bullying" in such cases.

The PinkNews publication detailed multiple "furries," including "Mabel," who identifies as a "tigress fursona."

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

The U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled soon to decide on a case involving authorities' crackdown on social media comments that parody police.

The Institute for Justice said at issue is whether the court will review the case of an Ohio man arrested and prosecuted for making fun of his local law enforcement.

"Well-known parody websites The Onion and The Babylon Bee offered their support for Anthony Novak’s First Amendment case," the IJ reported.

It seeks to know "whether freedom of speech actually protects Americans or whether police can arrest you for what you post online."

"We are asking the Supreme Court to make it clear that qualified immunity does not trump free speech," said IJ Senior Attorney Patrick Jaicomo. "The First Amendment protects the right of every American to poke fun at government officials. But if police can arrest you for your jokes, that right is meaningless."

WND previously reported when the case was brought that Patrick Jaicomo, a lawyer for IJ, said, "Anthony Novak was arrested, jailed, and prosecuted because he made fun of his local police department on Facebook."

"Razzing police isn’t a crime; it’s protected by the First Amendment. In fact, parodies like those Anthony posted have an American history going back to the time of George Washington. The Supreme Court should make it clear that qualified immunity cannot protect police officers who punish people for exercising the freedom of speech."

The case got its started when Novak created a page to make fun of police in Parma, Ohio, who were "long fraught with problems," the IJ said.

"That post and the five that followed it mocked the department’s reputation for heavy-handed tactics and other questionable policing. Unexpectedly, Anthony’s parody received a lot of views. By the end of the day, a police spokesman was on local television assuring the public that the page was fake and threatening a criminal investigation into the Facebook page. Because of that threat, Anthony took down the page. It had been up about 12 hours," the IJ reported.

But three weeks later, in the middle of the night, his home was raided and police seized everything he had that could connect to the internet, the legal team said.

That included his roommate's devices and video game consoles.

Police accused him of disrupting operations.

He spent four days in jail before getting out, and at trial, was found not guilty.

After his acquittal, he sued the officers, but the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said he could not hold them accountable for their actions.

"Why? Because, even though the court acknowledged that parody was protected by the Constitution, no previous case had held that Anthony’s specific speech was. IJ’s petition to the Supreme Court asks the court to take up Anthony’s case and decide whether government officials are entitled to qualified immunity when they arrest someone based purely on speech. More broadly, it asks the Supreme Court to do away with qualified immunity altogether," the IJ reported.

Novak said, "I sued to hold the police accountable for violating my rights, but also to make sure this doesn’t happen to anyone else. My Facebook page was obviously a joke, but the criticism was serious. I hope the Supreme Court will take my case and put other police forces on notice by making it clear that what happened to me was wrong."

Stella Stevens, the 1960s screen siren who added sweet sexiness to films like The Nutty Professor, Too Late Blues, and The Ballad of Cable Hogue, has died. She was 84 years old.

Stevens died on Friday in Los Angeles, according to her son, actor-producer-director Andrew Stevens. “She had been in hospice for quite some time with Stage 7 Alzheimer’s,” he said, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The blond, blue-eyed actress shone brightest in light comedies, playing a shy beauty contestant from Montana in Vincente Minnelli's The Courtship of Eddie's Father (1963), a headstrong nun opposite Rosalind Russell in Where Angels Go, Trouble Follows! (1968), and frolicked with the fun-loving Dean Martin in two films: the Matt Helm spy spoof The Silencers (1966) and How to Save a Marriage and Ruin Your Life (1968).

Stevens also co-starred with Elvis Presley in Girls! Girls! Girls! (1962), a film she despised.

Background

Her signature role, however, came in Jerry Lewis's The Nutty Professor (1963), in which he played the nice but nerdy Julius F. Kelp, a college chemistry professor who invents a potent cocktail that transforms him into swinging ladies' man Buddy Love.

Her character, coed Stella Purdy, is drawn to Love but also sees something in Kelp.

“I am basically a comedienne, I always have been,” she told Skip E. Lowe in a 1992 interview. “The sex [in my films] has always been ‘comedy sex.’

"A lot of the serious dramatic roles I’ve played, I’ve thought to myself, ‘Oh God, they were dreary.’ I like the pacing of comedy, the excitement of it.”

Stevens, on the other hand, stood out in dramas. In John Cassavetes' Too Late Blues (1961), she persuaded jazzman Bobby Darin to abandon his idealistic dreams, and in Rage (1966) and The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970), she played whores with golden hearts.

Stevens endured a wet, arduous shoot as Ernest Borgnine's determined ex-streetwalker wife in the classic disaster film The Poseidon Adventure (1972), performing many of her own stunts.

Works continued

Stevens, who appeared three times in Playboy magazine, had an explicit love scene with Jim Brown in Slaughter (1972), which some Southern moviegoers did not approve of, and fought a fierce battle with Tamara Dobson in Cleopatra Jones and the Casino of Gold (1975).

Stevens, a self-described tomboy, liked to get physical, as evidenced by her great knock-down, drag-out fight with Wonder Woman (Lynda Carter) on the first episode of the ABC series in 1975.

Estelle Caro Eggleston was born on October 1, 1938, as an only child in Yazoo City, Mississippi. When she was four years old, her family relocated to Memphis, Tennessee, and she spent a lot of time in the movie theater behind their house.

She married a classmate, Herman Stephens, when she was 15, had a son when she was 16, and divorced when she was 17.

On Thursday, the Federal Emergency Management Agency turned down Ohio's request for assistance for the troubled town of East Palestine, where a train wreck and resulting chemical spill have raised concerns about serious contamination.

Two new developments took place on Friday, First, former President Donald Trump announced that he would be visiting East Palestine, bringing with him a swarm of media representatives, according to The Western Journal.

Then, according to WKBN-TV, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine announced on Friday night that FEMA had changed its mind.

“FEMA and the State of Ohio have been in constant contact regarding emergency operations in East Palestine.

"U.S. EPA and Ohio EPA have been working together since day one. Tomorrow, FEMA will supplement federal efforts by deploying a Senior Response Official along with a Regional Incident Management Assistance Team (IMAT) to support ongoing operations, including incident coordination and ongoing assessments of potential long-term recovery needs,” DeWine said in a joint statement with FEMA regional administrator Thomas Sivak.

On Thursday, DeWine had said on Twitter that “FEMA continues to advise that Ohio is not eligible for assistance at this time.” Trump mentioned the coincidence in a post on his Truth Social platform.

Trump responds

“Biden and FEMA said they would not be sending federal aid to East Palestine. As soon as I announced that I’m going, he announced a team will go. Hopefully he will also be there. This is good news because we got them to “move.” The people of East Palestine need help. I’ll see you on Wednesday!” Trump posted Saturday.

According to the Associated Press, East Palestine's problems began on Feb. 3 when about 50 cars of a Norfolk Southern train derailed.

Officials indicated that approximately 20 cars contained hazardous substances. According to the Associated Press, a mass evacuation was ordered two days later after officials decided to burn off the vinyl chloride in the cars, which released toxic phosgene and hydrogen chloride into the air.

Before residents were allowed to return, a plume of black smoke hung over the town for several days.

Residents speak out

Despite official statements to the contrary, residents reported symptoms such as rashes and headaches.

“When we went back on the 10th, that’s when we decided that we couldn’t raise our kids here,” Amanda Greathouse said according to CNN, adding that her house had an odor that “reminded me of hair perming solution.”

According to her, it took 30 minutes to develop a rash and feel nauseated: “When we left, I had a rash on my skin on my arm, and my eyes were burning for a few days after that,” Greathouse, who has two pre-school children, said.

“The chemical smell was so strong that it made me nauseous. I just wanted to quickly pick up what I needed and leave. I only took a few pieces of clothes because even the clothes smelled like chemicals, and I’m afraid to put them on my kids,” she said.