This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
The U.S. Supreme Court has determined, in previous cases, that arbitrary bans on political signs are not constitutional.
So has the Ohio Supreme Court. And the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Nevertheless, a town in Ohio adopted an ordinance that imposes severe restrictions on when such a political statement can appear, and now quickly is trying to reverse itself.
It's because of the attention it got from the American Center for Law and Justice, which was contacted by a resident of Carrollton, Ohio, and wrote to town officials.
They now have "agreed to stop enforcing this unconstitutional ordinance and to stop preventing our clients from placing political signs in their yard. This represents a triumph for this family and others affected by this unconstitutional ordinance. The town also agreed to take the ordinance to the Village Council for discussion and direction to take action, which should lead to the ordinance being removed from the books entirely," the ACLJ reported.
The legal team explained the case arose because of a "local ordinance that prohibits citizens from displaying political signs until mere weeks before an election – an egregious violation of their right to free speech."
In fact, Carrollton's rule states: "Political signs may be exhibited not more than thirty days before nor more than seven days after the date of any election."
Many problems are linked, the legal team's report said.
"One of them is that in Ohio, early voting commences on October 8, 2024, and many people plan to vote on days other than Election Day itself. This ordinance will, therefore, ban political signs until almost immediately before the election actually starts."
The clients for the ACLJ are homeowners in Carrollton and "wish to show their support for their preferred candidate for president by placing political signs in their yard. This support is not limited to simply 30 days before an election; they have a fundamental desire to express their political support throughout the year."
Their sign, supporting President Trump, went up. And a policeman knocked on their door.
"He told them that he had been directed to go door to door to families that had political signs in their yards and order them to remove the signs. This order was so egregious that our clients thought it was a joke, but the officer confirmed the order; they had to take down their sign," the report said.
But the Supreme Court has, in fact, determined that basing sign permissions on content is "presumptively unconstitutional."
"We sent a letter on Tuesday to Carrollton, demanding that it immediately cease from applying this unconstitutional ordinance. … A day after receiving our demand letter, the town of Carrollton responded and agreed to stop enforcing this unconstitutional ordinance and to stop preventing our clients from placing political signs in their yard," the ACLJ said.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
A former FBI agent persecuted for his concerns about the government's weaponization against conservatives has warned the nation now to be prepared.
"Arm yourself and know how to defend yourself," explained Marcus Allen, a former FBI staff operations specialist, during a hearing held by the Judiciary Subcommittee on Weaponization of the Federal Government.
He continued, "Make three to four friends in your neighborhood and promise to come to each other's mutual aid in times of hardship."
Further, he said, "And during the great depression, people stocked up their pantry, so I think that's a good practice especially in our economic times, and make sure you have three to four months of food."
Allen was testifying before the committee exploring how Democrats effectively have turned the government, factions such as the FBI, DOJ, CIA and more, into arms of the Democrat party.
The DOJ, for example, has tried to prosecute Donald Trump for having government documents after his presidency. Its prosecutors gave Joe Biden a pass on essentially the same charges.
A key difference in the cases is that Trump, as president, was authorized to declassify any of the documents he had. Biden, who at the time had only been vice president, did not.
Allen explained how the FBI attacked him for expressing concerns about how many federal agents were acting the part of protesters, or rioters, during the January 6, 2021, events at the Capitol.
A report in Modernity explained, "Allen testified the feds came down hard" following an email he sent months later, which his supervisors claimed contained hyperlinks to "extremist propaganda" from "questionable sources."
The report noted, "Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz, who testified alongside Allen, is investigating the FBI's security clearance and adjudication process, including the targeting of 'political conservatives who were seen as loyal to Trump or resistant to COVID-19 vaccine mandates.'"
Allen continued, "There are no words strong enough to describe the impact the FBI's lies about me have had on me and my family. The stress has taken a toll on our health and our children have suffered, traumatized by the thought of our door getting kicked in or Dad not coming home."
And the report said, "Allen also urged Americans to pray and read the Bible regularly."
Former first lady Melania Trump blamed the Democratic Party and establishment media for the "toxic atmosphere" that led to the assassination attempts against her husband, the UK Daily Mail reported. Trump sat down for a rare interview with Fox & Friends co-host Ainsley Earhardt, which aired on Thursday.
Melania Trump spoke from her perspective as the wife of GOP nominee and former President Donald Trump. She shared her feelings about the assassination attempts against him and about the couple's son, Barron Trump, among other personal topics.
The usually tight-lipped first lady will release her memoir "Melania" on Oct. 8. She has been in the press on a publicity tour promoting the book that will drop less than a month before Election Day.
Donald Trump has survived two assassination attempts in as many months, which Melania Trump chalked up to divine providence. "And, I think both of the events, they were really miracles," she said.
"Like, that much and he could, you know, he could not be with us," she said, holding her index finger and thumb closely together to describe how close the July 13 attempt came to succeeding. "I think something was watching over him. It's almost like country really needed him," the former first lady added.
Melania Trump believes that both assassination attempts stem from this rhetoric against Donald Trump. "Is it really shocking that all this outrageous violence goes against my husband?" the 54-year-old former first lady said.
"Especially that we hear the leaders from the opposition party and mainstream media branding him as threat to democracy, calling him vile names. They only fueling a toxic atmosphere and all of these people that they wanted to harm - this needs to stop," Melania Trump urged.
"This needs to stop. The country needs to unite, and I encourage everybody to read my letter that I wrote on July 14th again. Because that cannot continue," she added.
Melania Trump fiercely protected her and her family's privacy during her husband's first candidacy and term as president. However, something has certainly changed, as the former first lady opened up to Earhardt.
The former first lady called her husband "a family man. He loves his country. And all he wants is to build better. And prosperous." Melania Trump said she was happy just having one child, Barron, who has begun his first year at New York University this year.
"He wants to be New York and study in New York and live in his home. And I respect that. And he's incredible, young man. I'm very proud of what he grow up to. His strength, his intelligence. His knowledge. His kindness," she said the son she shares with Donald Trump.
The former first lady also recalled what it was like to come home to their Mar-o-lago residence after it was raided by the FBI in August 2022. "I saw unpleasant stuff that nobody wants to see. And you get angry because, you know, nobody should be putting up with that kind of stuff," Melania Trump said.
The Trump family has faced much adversity since Donald Trump first announced his run for president. Melania Trump has been by his side the whole time, and now she is ready to tell her side of the story.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
There's been another alleged threat against the life of President Donald Trump, who has survived two apparent assassination schemes in just the last few weeks, and a spokesman for his campaign blames it directly on the "violent rhetoric" of Kamala Harris and other extremist Democrats.
A report in the Daily Mail explains Warren Jones Crazybull, 64, of Sandpoint, Idaho, allegedly made at least nine calls to Trump's Florida residence, saying he was going to kill Trump.
The calls came July 31, just weeks after Trump was shot and injured in the ear in an assassination attempt during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
"In one call, according to a criminal complaint and affidavit first reported on Monday, Crazybull threatened to 'find Trump' and said he was 'coming down to Bedminster tomorrow,' which is the town where Trump National Golf Club is located in New Jersey," the report said.
Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said the threats were because of the rhetoric from Harris.
In fact, Joe Biden, Harris, and a long list of other extremists in the Democrat party have for several years described Trump as a "Hitler." They've insisted he would be a dictator if he ever returned to office. They make wild claims that he would destroy "democracy" if elected. Such rhetoric is widely considered to be one of the reasons for the sudden spate of threats against and attacks on Trump.
"Kamala Harris and liberal Democrats are the ones who are deranged," Cheung said in a statement Monday. "There have been two heinous assassination attempts on President Trump, and their violent rhetoric are directly to blame."
He said Harris should "apologize for their hateful rhetoric" and to "tone down" the attacks on Trump.
Crazybull's identity was confirmed by Secret Service through phone records and comparing the voice of the threatening calls recorded by the Mar-a-Lago security staff with a video he posted to Facebook.
The report said Crazybull was tracked, through his phone, into Montana, where he was arrested and then indicted. A trial is scheduled October 28.
He's accused, in one call, of saying, "I am going to down him personally, and kill him."
He's pleaded not guilty to the crimes.
The Secret Service was informed after the threatening calls were received.
The first assassination attempt was by the now-dead Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, who shot at Trump at the Butler rally, nicking his ear.
Then weeks later, a Secret Service agent shot at Ryan Wesley Routh, who had positioned himself, with a rifle, on a golf course where Trump was playing a round.
Routh, 58, fled and was arrested a short distance away.
Donald Trump confessed that he worries about the safety of his family after he survived two brushes with death in recent months - as his son Barron begins college at a heavily liberal university.
Trump's youngest child, Barron Trump, recently started college at New York University's Stern School of Business, where he has been under constant guard by the Secret Service.
During an interview with Fox News, President Trump was asked about the recent attempts on his life and whether he worries for his loved ones.
"I do. I do," Trump told One Nation host Brian Kilmeade.
"I don’t talk about it, but I do. I have to worry about family. I have to worry about everybody," Trump added.
Trump narrowly survived assassination in July at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. The gunman, who was killed by Secret Service, managed to graze Trump in the ear, leaving him bloodied.
This month, Trump was targeted in a second murder attempt while golfing in West Palm Beach, Florida. The Secret Service shot at the gunman after his rifle was spotted poking through the bushes.
Prosecutors announced Monday that the gunman behind the second attempt, Ryan Routh, wrote a letter confessing to an "assassination attempt on Donald Trump" and apologizing in advance for having "failed" to kill the former president.
"I tried my best and gave it all the gumption I could muster. It is up to you now to finish the job; and I will offer $150,000 to whomever can complete the job," Routh wrote.
Despite the two attempts on Trump's life in a few months, Democrats have continued to describe him as a threat to democracy.
Trump has spoken from time to time about the toll of his political career on his loved ones, who have faced a continuous stream of threats since his first run for president.
Barron, the only child of Donald and Melania Trump, was targeted by a Chicago woman last year while he was still a high school student in West Palm Beach. The woman was charged with stalking Barron at school and threatening to kill him and his father.
As a college student, Barron - who bears a striking resemblance to his father - is under a constant watch by Secret Service - as well as star-struck peers who can't help but notice their famous classmate.
In response to a direct question during an interview following the second assassination attempt on his life in two months, former President Donald Trump said he worries about his family's safety, even if he doesn't talk about it much.
No attempts have been made against any of Trump's family members so far. They have Secret Service protection, but so did he when both of the assasination attempts went down.
A man planned to kill him on his own golf course last weekend, but a Secret Service agent saw the rifle poking through the trees and scared him away by shooting at him.
On July 13 at a Butler, Pennslyvania rally, another shooter tried to take out Trump but also failed; although he killed another rallygoer and wounded two more.
After addressing his worries about his family, he then generalized his worry to the entire American public.
“I worry about everybody because look, we’re under siege, and no country has ever suffered like we have the last three and a half, almost four years,” Trump said on Fox News’s One Nation with Brian Kilmeade. “When they allow millions of people to come into our country, from prisons, right? From prisons, and terrorists, and people from mental institutions, and they take over our parks. Look at New York; you can’t play Little League baseball anymore. That doesn’t sound serious, but it is serious.”
He said that he is disturbed by the way illegal immigrants are being treated better than the country's veterans, who fought for the country and served it unselfishly.
Some illegal immigrants are being put up in fancy hotels, while disabled veterans generally get basic housing and health care.
“When you have that happening in this city and this country, I do, I want to protect everybody,” Trump said.
A big reason why Trump is running for president again after losing in 2020 is his desire to make the country better and to prevent it from being utterly ruined under continued Democrat rule.
Let's face it: Trump doesn't need the money he'd make from running for president.
Lots of candidates write a book that makes them millions or go on the speaking circuit and make six or seven figures per speech, but that would be fun money to the billionaire Trump.
Trump may have a lot of flaws as a candidate, but his motivation to do what he thinks will improve the country is pretty clear.
The left wants you to think he wants to be a dictator and that he's a threat to the country, but in reality, they need to destroy him because of his perspective as an outsider and knowledge of what needs to be done to save us.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
The FBI has agreed to compensate individuals whose personal – and valuable – property was lost when the bureau opened thousands of secured personal lockboxes at a vault company and took and kept the contents.
The resolution is being reported by the Institute for Justice, which noted an FBI agent, when learning of the bureau's loss of dozens of valuable gold coins, worried, "Uh oh."
The report explains that the government now is compensating property owners who had cash and coins vanish when the FBI raided the US Private Vaults in Los Angeles, opened the sealed safe deposit boxes and kept everything inside.
"Don Mellein was one of hundreds of safe deposit box holders at US Private Vaults who had his box opened, searched, and subjected to civil forfeiture during an FBI raid in March 2021. A federal appellate court in January held that the entire raid violated the Fourth Amendment," the IJ said.
The separate case developed because the FBI failed – or refused – to return 63 gold coins worth more than $166,000.
The FBI's claim that it was immune to a lawsuit over property that disappeared while in FBI custody was rejected by a federal judge, and after months more of fighting, "it finally gave up and agreed to compensate Don after it was ordered to produce records of instances where other box holders' property was misplaced or went missing."
"The FBI had no reason to go through my box and they were careless in losing my coins," Mellein explained. "It should not have taken a lawsuit for the government to do the right thing."
Already, an FBI agent at the raid on the safe deposit boxes said the day "didn't go down exactly as we planned it."
Agents at the search said they had planned to videotape all box searches and keep a log of people there, but simply didn't.
"In Don's case, although there was a total of 110 gold coins in his box, the agents who searched it did not list any coins on the property receipt or any other paperwork. As far as the FBI's records reflected, the coins did not exist," the IJ reported.
"Valuable property was supposed to be removed and stored in a secure valuables vault, while the boxes themselves were allowed to sit in a parking lot and eventually were taken to a less secure evidence room. When the FBI went to return Don's box, they found 47 of his coins still inside the unlocked and unsecured box, a scenario that one of the FBI's evidence technicians described as a kind of 'malpractice.' As the agent in charge later testified, 'There should not have been coins in that box.' She added, 'This is a problem.'"
The FBI, after trying to conceal the existence of the 47, eventually admitted the bureau had them and returned them.
But Mellein's other 63 coins were gone.
"The FBI is supposed to protect innocent people, but they misplaced Don's property and then fought tooth and nail to keep him from being compensated," said IJ lawyer Joseph Gay. "They stonewalled, claimed immunity, and tried to block discovery. This shows why it's so vitally important for courts to hold government accountable."
Multiple other box owners also have claimed the FBI "vanished" their property, and some of those cases also are in court.
Troublingly, however, is that although the bureau "conceded that it wrongly left hundreds of thousands of dollars in valuable property unsecured," there was no internal investigation or accountability.
"The FBI's misconduct at US Private Vaults is a shameful chapter in the Bureau's history, one for which it needs to be called to account. To be clear, the FBI lied to a judge about its plans, violated the express terms of a warrant, and lost people's retirement savings while trying to forfeit over $100 million in cash, gold, and jewels from hundreds of innocent folks. Congress should call on Director Wray and other senior officials to testify and explain how they will ensure that the FBI never tries something like this again," said IJ lawyer Robert Frommer.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
A woman is suing Broward County, Florida, after law enforcement officers there arrested her for something someone else did, refusing to accept her own identification and ignoring the fact that the description of the wanted woman didn't match.
The Institute for Justice reports the complaint against the county is on behalf of Jennifer Heath Box.
She charges authorities violated her constitutional right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure, as well as due process.
The IJ explained the background:
In December 2022, Jennifer went on a cruise with family members to celebrate the news that her younger brother, Mark, had beat cancer for the second time. After a fun week aboard the Harmony of the Seas, the cruise ship returned to Port Everglades on the morning of Christmas Eve, giving Jennifer enough time to spend Christmas with her three adult children. But when Jennifer scanned her ID to get off the ship, police surrounded her and told her there was a warrant for her arrest for child endangerment out of Harris County, Texas.
The IJ reported the warrant did seek a woman named Jennifer, but it wasn't this Jennifer. And she documented that her own children already all were adults.
"It was a really scary and confusing experience, because I've never had run-ins with law enforcement and I have no criminal record," she explained. "I couldn't believe that I could be stopped, arrested, and jailed, just because my name was similar to someone they were looking for."
She knew the officers were wrong, so she cooperated calmly and provided police with her license and date of birth, as well as information about her children.
It didn't matter to officers.
"Broward County Sheriff's Deputy Peter Peraza handcuffed her on the ship and took her to a police car for additional questioning. In the car, Jennifer continued to lay out evidence that Peraza had the wrong person, but he insisted everything on the warrant matched Jennifer's identification. It didn't," the IJ said.
For example, the suspect's name was Jennifer Delcarmen Heath, not Jennifer Heath Box, the suspect was 23 years younger than Jennifer, making her even younger than one of Jennifer's children, the suspect was five inches shorter than Jennifer, the suspect had different color eyes, hair, and skin tone and the suspect had a different home address, driver's license number, social security number, and Harris County System Person Number.
Then, in what would seem to be important, the law enforcement search was for a woman with "five young children."
"Peraza had so much evidence that he had the wrong Jennifer, and he either ignored that evidence or deliberately misled other Broward County officials," said IJ Attorney Jared McClain. "We must be able to hold government officials accountable when they overlook glaring evidence and arrest the wrong person."
When Peraza arrived at the booking station with the wrong woman, the officer there confirmed she had no outstanding warrants, but Peraza didn't believe him.
"Jennifer was then strip searched and booked. Over the next three days, she faced horrible conditions. A male inmate routinely tried to enter Jennifer's cell while she was alone, and officers blasted death metal over the speakers and freezing air into the cell, making it so cold that she had to sleep back-to-back with another inmate just to keep warm," the IJ said.
Her husband, a police officer, told the county to compare her fingerprints, but officers refused.
Finally, family members found that a Harris County employee had damagingly attached Jennifer's driver's license photo to the warrant, instead of the suspect's photo.
IJ litigation lawyer Bobbi Taylor said, "This lawsuit is about making sure what happened to Jennifer doesn't happen to anyone else. This needs to stop."
The "mistake" cost her three days in jail, the holidays with her children, and a meet-up with a son who was being deployed with the Marines.
House Oversight Chairman James Comer tore into the Secret Service for its failures in leadership that led to multiple assassination attempts on former President Donald Trump.
In an exclusive interview that aired Friday on the John Solomon Reports podcast, Comer explained, "They don't have a money problem. They have a leadership problem and it's going to take more than new leadership. It's going to take a whole new culture at the Secret Service to protect whoever the President is in the future."
Americans looked on in horror when Trump was shot at a rally in Pennsylvania and immediately it became clear that the Secret Service had dropped the ball in an egregious manner.
The shooter was allowed to climb on top of a building a couple of hundred yards from Trump's stage with a scoped rifle. In terms of rifles, a couple hundred yards is nothing, and considering there was a counter-sniper team at the rally, there was no excuse for the Secret Service to miss the shooter.
There are only two answers that explain the failures of July 13th; either the Secret Service was grossly incompetent and leadership must be cleaned out or there was a conspiracy involving the Secret Service to allow an assassin to take a shot at Trump.
Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI), who sits on the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations echoed Comer's observation about the Secret Service.
Johnson stated, "They have plenty of resources, plenty of personnel. What they have is bad management, and unfortunately, we can't get to the bottom of who's responsible for making the decisions that were such spectacular failures in terms of protecting President Trump."
Leadership made decisions that directly contributed to putting Trump's life in danger.
What's worse, the Secret Service's leadership woes have been an ongoing problem for years that have only been brought into the view of the public thanks to a presidential candidate almost being killed.
Comer went on to say, "What we learned from our hearing in the Oversight Committee with Kimberly Cheadle, the former disgraced head of the Secret Service, is we have an agency tasked with protecting the president and the presidential candidates, and they're not up to the up to the job. They're ill-prepared."
Once again, the question becomes are those in charge of the Secret Service genuinely incompetent or are they purposely leaving the door open for a shooter to change American history?
The Secret Service failed to use drone technology to surveil the site of Trump's rally in Pennsylvania which would have spotted Trump's assassin long before he had a chance to take shots at Trump.
The Secret Service also failed to use drones to scout out the golf course where the 2nd assassin was preparing to take shots at Trump last week. There is now a pattern of repeated failures to use existing cheap technology to enhance the Secret Service's ability to protect Trump.
Thankfully, an agent saw the 2nd assassin before Trump came into view and engaged the assassin leading to a police chase and his eventual arrest.
There is still much work to be done to clean up the Secret Service and at this point, Cheadle's resignation is likely not going to be the last if the Secret Service is going to improve its culture and capability.
America First Legal filed a lawsuit Thursday against the Department of Homeland Security and Secret Service, Breitbart reported.
The conservative public interest group alleges that the agencies are purposely withholding information about the first assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump.
AFL launched several probes days after the July 13 shooting that nicked the former president's ear, barely missing the kill shot to Trump's head. The organization has filed a Freedom of Information Act and requested to gain access to information from the federal agencies in charge of protecting him that day.
The public interest group has requested all communications for July 13 involving DHS officials, including Secretary Alejandro Majorkas and senior officials Jonathan Davidson and Kristie Canegello. AFL has also asked for agendas from the director and deputy director of the Secret Service and other agency top brass.
"To date, AFL has not received any requested records, despite requesting expedited processing and meeting all of the standards in law to receive such expedited proceedings," the organization said in a statement. The FOIA request was necessary as the agencies have not been forthcoming.
The Secret Service informed the AFL in July that it could not readily provide the requested information due to a lack of personnel. It also claimed that there was no further threat to anyone's life, which now rings hollow considering the second attempt on Trump's life.
"Just a few days ago, another assassin attempted to take President Trump’s life in Florida. There is no denying that President Trump currently faces genuine threats, and AFL’s requests would help to ensure that USSS and DHS leadership are sufficiently trained and staffed to ensure the safety of President Trump," AFL continued in its statement.
"The American people need total transparency," it added. Unfortunately, as Senate HSGAC Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations Ranking Member Sen. Ron Johnson noted, the Secret Service has been anything but transparent.
"[The] toxicology report; we don’t have any of the trajectory reports. So, where’d the bullets go? We don’t even know how they handled the crime scene," Johnson said to the press about gunman Matthew Thomas Crooks' autopsy and other reports.
The Wisconsin Republican added that to date, he hadn't interviewed the Secret Service sniper who shot and killed Crooks to stop the attack. "There’s just basic information we should have right now, and we don’t have it," Johnson said.
Perhaps the agencies had something to hide after all. As Fox News reported, acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe admitted Friday that "communication deficiencies" hindered the response to Crooks, who was spotted climbing up to the roof where he'd take his shots against Trump.
"For example, the Secret Service did not co-locate its security room with local law enforcement. There was an over-reliance on mobile devices, resulting in information being siloed," Rowe told reporters.
Communication failures came after agents used radio and phones to communicate Crooks' whereabouts, leading to a split in how they were informed. "At approximately 1810 local time, by a phone call, the Secret Service security room calls the counter sniper response agent, reporting an individual on the roof of the building," Rowe shared
"That vital piece of information was not relayed over the Secret Service Radio network," he added. "The Office of Professional Responsibility and the Office of Integrity are reviewing the findings," Rowe later promised.
It is unfathomable to think that these organizations failed so miserably at protecting a former president and current GOP presidential candidate. Changes must be made to ensure Trump and all other politicians are safe no matter what.