This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Two of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz's former military comrades delivered a stunning condemnation of his actions and behavior – just days before he was elected to the first term of his current post in 2018. And he was elected anyway.
Now he's been picked as Kamala Harris' vice presidential hopeful in the 2024 election, and the warning still stands at the West Central Tribune.
Retired National Guard Command Sgt. Majors Thomas Behrends and Paul Herr said, at the time, "The bottom line in all of this is gut wrenching and sad to explain. When the nation called, he quit. He failed to complete the United States Army Sergeants Major Academy. He failed to serve for two years following completion of the academy, which he dropped out of. He failed to serve two years after the conditional promotion to Command Sergeant Major. He failed to fulfill the full six years of the enlistment he signed on September 18th, 2001. He failed his country. He failed his state. He failed the Minnesota Army National Guard, the 1-125th Field Artillery Battalion, and his fellow Soldiers. And he failed to lead by example. Shameful"
The document published at the time charged that Walz "embellished and selectively omitted facts and circumstances of his military career."
They wrote that they had verified dates and facts with official records and those who witnessed various events.
Walz, before being governor, in 2001 re-enlisted in the Minnesota Army National Guard for six years.
Then he was picked to attend the U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy, making a commitment to serve for two years after graduation or being promoted.
He then deployed to Italy in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and when he returned to Minnesota was appointed to the position of Command Sergeant Major of the 1-125th Field Artillery Battalion.
However, in 2004 he was photographed holding a sign at a protest outside a campaign rally for President Bush, and when his unit was informed of plans to deploy to Iraq, he quit, leaving the "battalion and its soldiers hanging; without its senior non-commissioned officer, as the battalion prepared for war."
The two veterans said, "His excuse to other leaders was that he needed to retire in order to run for Congress. Which is false, according to a Department of Defense Directive, he could have run and requested permission from the Secretary of Defense before entering active duty; as many reservists have. If he had retired normally and respectfully, you would think he would have ensured his retirement documents were correctly filled out and signed, and that he would have ensured he was reduced to Master Sergeant for dropping out of the academy. Instead he waited for the paperwork to catch up to him. His official retirement document states, SOLDIER NOT AVAILABLE FOR SIGNATURE."
Ultimately his rank was reduced.
A report at RedState said the two National Guard officers exposed how Walz "lied or embellished his service record and shirked his duty."
They charge, the report said that "he abandoned his troops when they went to Iraq."
The report said, "He abandoned and walked away from his soldiers and his solemn responsibility to lead and take care of them. According to Behrends and Herr, Walz is hiding that part of the information from the public in an attempt to fool the electorate."
RedState noted, "Another retired command sergeant major corroborated the stories of Behrends and Herr. CSM (Ret) Douglas L. Julin was the 34th Infantry Division Command Sergeant Major and met with Walz, along with five other battalion CSMs, in early 2005 before they deployed to Iraq. According to Julin, Walz said he would be deploying with his battalion, even after mentioning that he was going to run for Congress."
Then, suddenly, he was gone.
On social media, a Twitter account for "Stolen Valor," was published paperwork from Walz's departure.
That site explained that Walz, in fact, was reduced in rank for "not completing the required educational requirements."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Shariah law, religious statutes followed by Muslims, is becoming more widely known as adherents to Islam grow in influence around the world.
But being more widely known doesn't lessen the oddities it contains.
For example, an online definition notes it calls for atrocities including amputation of a thief's hands, killing people for criticizing the Quran, killing people who deny Muhammad was a prophet, killing people who lead a Muslim away from Islam, killing a non-Muslim man who marries a Muslim woman, killing homosexuals (although sodomizing young boys is allowed), and "taqiyya" or lying to non-Muslims, is encouraged.
But now a report at Revolver criticizes news agency CNN for using and citing Shariah to try to get out of a defamation complaint.
The leftist network's arguments appear to be that its description of a man helping people leave Afghanistan after Joe Biden abruptly pulled American troops out and abandoned the entire territory to the terrorists in the Taliban as a criminal was accurate.
Because he was a "criminal" under Shariah law.
The Revolver report explained, "They're actually legitimizing (and defending) Sharia Law, which routinely abuses women, sometimes to death, in an effort to try and win that billion-dollar lawsuit. In the process, they're also branding the Navy Vet at the center of the defamation suit a 'criminal' for trying to save women's lives."
Please be aware of multiple instances of offensive language in the following:
CNN's legal arguments include that a Navy vet, who tried to help people escape Afghanistan at that time, carried out "activities he orchestrated and funded, which involved moving women out of Afghanistan, almost certainly were illegal under Taliban rule."
The response comes to a lawsuit from Zachary Young. A court recently ruled that a jury in the case would be allowed to consider punitive damages.
CNN claims it was right to suggest a criminality in Young's behavior because, "To get women out, the operators on the ground were required either to break the law directly or to find someone to break the law for them."
The report accuses CNN of trying "to weasel their way out of a $1 billion defamation suit against them."
The case developed when Young decided to help people escape Afghanistan.
Just recently, a Florida appellate court affirmed that Young, a U.S. Navy veteran, and his company, Nemex Enterprises Inc., could seek punitive damages from CNN.
The report said Young's lawyer charged that Young lost $40-60 million in economic opportunity.
At Headline USA a report said the lawsuit charges that CNN "destroyed Young's reputation and business after the network's correspondent Alex Marquardt published the report about Young."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Legendary actor Jon Voight is sounding alarm bells should Kamala Harris win the 2024 presidential election, saying it could result in dark destruction akin to the "Civil War."
The star of top Hollywood films including "Enemy of the State" and "Deliverance" posted a plea early Tuesday morning on X to vote for Trump.
"My friends, this is the war of our lifetime now. We, the people, are in trouble if this nation picks Kamala Harris. We must stop this crime that is happening," Voight began, sitting in front of an American flag.
"It's a war crime that Obama is directing, and Kamala Harris will be the cackling hyena that just listens and repeats. If we do not stop this horror, you, my friends, will have the biggest horror that you will not know how to end. We must all see this truth become one with this understanding that God will guide us with words of wisdom, that we may understand that Donald Trump will make any sacrifice to save America."
Voight continued: "We, the people, are in danger, and we must vote for President Trump because he will save this nation. And the left are all afraid of his strength because he is only for the people. He's not for the power, the greed, the lies, or wanting to destroy one's hard-earned earnings.
"We must stop this madness now. Our children are in danger. The left is trying to take away your children and turn them into non-binaries. You all on the left, the ones who are my peers that preach, you all know who you are.
"What have you all learned in this life? Have you learned the lessons that will bring you to the higher place of eternity? This is now all your lessons. For each one who votes against Trump, this will be among the worst crimes that you will see in your lives. And you know why? This nation has criminals killing your child, father, brother, friend, you, because of the left mentality allowing this border to be open. The ones who are on the left who fight against Trump will pay a price for the injustice of lies that are Kamala Harris and Obama.
"And all of you who think this is the greatest economy, you will find that your life will sink into a hole of darkness, and the freedom we all once had will be burned in the dark plague of the darkest time in history, like the destruction of the Civil War. My fellow Americans, we've come too far, and this life we were given was the blessing of God. And this is our hope to remember that he shall chant the words of Psalm 25 and in the Torah, Isaiah 55. We shall overcome.
"May God watch over us and bring this nation back together so her beauty will shine with her glory, the red, white, and blue. God bless America, and he will protect our nation against this evil left, and Donald Trump will Make America Great Again. Much love to you. Much love."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Former Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, now dean of the Robertson School of Government, served with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz for years.
And after Kamala Harris tagged Walz as her pick for the Democrat party's nomination for vice president, she spoke out.
"I went to Congress with Tim Walz in 2006 and served with him for 8 years. On the outside, he looks like an awe-shucks, back-slapping, nice guy politician, when in fact he is as radical as AOC or more," Bachmann said.
She said, "Because of Tim Walz, more people have moved out of the state than at any other time in Minnesota's history. Last year, $2 billion and 30,000 people left the state of Minnesota." And she noted Walz promoted "the strongest transgender protection bill in the country and the strongest pro-abortion bill in the country."
AOC is Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., one of the "squad" of leftists and progressives in Congress and one of the extremists promoting her ideologies.
Bachmann cited an analysis of the Minnesota government's recent actions that described a 40% spending explosion, the fact that tens of thousands of Minnesotans are moving out of the state, and condemned Democrats for their "legislative skullduggery."
The leftists in the state even have removed any language that requires a doctor to keep an infant alive if the little boy or girl survives an abortion, the analysis confirms.
Further, the Democrat majority adopted laws creating up to $10 billion in new taxes over just the next four years, and a budget boost of $11 million for the governor's office.
And now the state will give unemployment compensation to hourly workers who have summers off from their jobs in school districts. Lawmakers also banned the "intimidation" or even the transmission of information that would "impede" voters.
Stunningly, the state's leftists even removed language stating that adults attracted to children "are not a protected class."
"Pedophiles may now potentially be considered a protected class should an activist judge decide to 'read' that right into the state constitution," the analysis warns.
The report documents how under Walz, Minnesota now is an "abortion sanctuary" with no limits, at all.
And how background checks are now required if a parent wants to gift a firearm to a son.
"A hate speech database will be created, where people and organizations can report hate speech to the Dept. of Human Rights, even if the speech is not illegal," the report details.
Citizenship, or even permanent residency, no longer is required for driver's licenses, and that process includes being offered the chance to register to vote.
It gets worse, the report details: Now, in Minnesota, the law "prohibits non-religious non-profits that serve minors from discriminating against employees who are gay or transgender. This includes organizations like the Girl Scouts, who would potentially be forced to hire or allow to volunteer biological men who identify as women."
The state now claims the authority to "take temporary emergency custody of minors who travel to Minnesota to receive gender-affirming treatment," which includes chemicals to alter the body, or even body-mutilating surgeries.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
JERUSALEM – As the Mideast in particular, and the wider world in general, awaits Iran's revenge strike for the killing of senior Hezbollah and Hamas leaders – the latter in its own capital – Iranian-aligned Shia militias fired multiple missiles at America's Ain al-Asad Air Base in Iraq – wounding at least five military personnel.
Charles Lister, director of the Syria program of the Washington-based Middle East Institute think tank, wrote on X: "Today's rocket attack on Ain al-Asad was the 219th attack by Iran's proxies on U.S. forces in Syria & Iraq since Oct 2023."
He added six attacks have happened in the last three weeks. It was not immediately clear which group was responsible for the strike, although media linked to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said the attack was carried out by one of its proxies, most likely an Iraqi offshoot of Hezbollah.
Tensions in the Middle East unabated
This strike against a U.S. base in Iraq is almost certainly a precursor for the predicted main event – of Iran and Hezbollah revenge for the recent killings on their home soil. Tensions in Israel – as they are in capitals the world over are extremely high – and there are a dizzying array of permutations of what is likely to take place; claims and counter-claims of who will align with whom, amid multiple reports of Iran utilizing its extensive network among its allies in Russia, North Korea, and even Pakistan to defend against predicted Israeli reprisals.
In Washington, the Biden-Harris administration seems resigned to the fact Tehran will order strikes against Israel and/or Israeli/Jewish targets overseas in the coming hours and days. Despite this assessment, the U.S. military – still by some distance the most powerful armed forces on the planet – have indeed been activated in the region.
Gen. Michael "Erik" Kurilla, commander of CENTCOM arrived in Israel Monday for top-level situational assessments with senior Israeli defense officials – including Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Chief of the General Staff, Lt.-Gen Herzi Halevi.
Apart from Gen. Kurilla's presence, the Biden-Harris administration has given the green light for an impressive military presence to build up in the region, almost on a par with immediately post-Oct. 7.
According to former Jerusalem Post editor-in-chief Yaakov Katz, "The USS Lincoln carrier strike group is on its way to the region to replace the USS Roosevelt which is still here after replacing the Eisenhower strike group in June. Additional ballistic missile defense-capable cruisers and destroyers have been deployed to the region from Eucom and Centcom regions and additional fighter jet squadrons, including a squadron of advanced stealthy F-22 Raptors, have been sent to the Middle East as well."
Although, the substance of his post is still entirely valid, shows of force and the build-up of military assets is all well and good – and is a nod to tactical nous. However, the ultimate problem remains, a bellicose and increasingly emboldened Islamic Republic on the march and feeling itself immune to pressure, because almost none – Israel's strike in Tehran excepted – has been visited on its doorstep.
Under President Trump, Iran's muscular foreign policy of wreaking havoc in the region through the use of proxies while remaining "above the fray" was brought into question, particularly through the killing of former Quds Force commander Qassem Suleimani. It is practically unthinkable the Biden administration would repeat anything like this bold move. In its desperation for "stability" it is sowing the seeds of potentially deadly chaos.
Indeed, the Times of Israel reported U.S. officials telling Israeli counterparts to not allow too strong a response – which seems entirely dependent on what Iran/Hezbollah hit. It is not at clear what would be considered an acceptable amount of damage or loss of life to not engender an increasingly potent reply. The U.S. warning concluded, "the goal at the end of the day is not to lead to an all-out war."
Iran-Israel
Meanwhile, on the Iranian side, there are reports it will turn to its rogue friends for both defensive and offensive weaponry. As early as Sunday, eyewitness accounts – relayed in an X space on the Middle East crisis and reported in the New York Times on Monday – confirmed the presence of Russian-made air defense and radar systems in Tehran.
This development clearly shows the mullahs' nervousness about the scale of the attack they have planned and the possible repercussions stemming from it. A crucial thing to bear in mind is Iran deployed similar weapons in April and they proved mostly ineffective against Israel's response to the more than 300 projectiles fired toward it. The request came following a day-long visit to Tehran by the head of the Russian Security Council and former Minister of Defense, Sergei Shoigu, on Monday.
Unlike the Iranian attack in April, the U.S. is still in the dark about what moves the Islamic Republic regime is likely to make – although it – and other actors – seem certain it will happen. This would appear doubly to be the case if the U.S. has already warned Israel – outlined above – about over-retaliating – which in any other circumstance would rightly be lampooned as a wild concept.
Surprising reports have also surfaced about Pakistan's potential involvement with arming Iran with Shaheen-III ballistic missiles if war with Israel breaks out. The two countries have a long border and exchanged ballistic missiles in January, with Iran firing into its neighbor first. The decision was apparently reached at an emergency meeting of the foreign ministers of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), requested by Iran and Pakistan, took place Monday in the Saudi Arabian port city of Jeddah, with Iran examining its response to the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, according to the Jerusalem Post.
While Iran is a pre-nuclear power (just), Pakistan is one of the few countries to possess a nuclear arsenal. So too North Korea, a foe about which little seems to be known or attention given. Although one doesn't want to give in to doomsday scenarios, this mysterious state could feel its time to play a major role on the international stage has come – and with a wildly unpredictable leader, it seems anything is possible.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has been picked by Kamala Harris as her vice president hopeful.
"I am proud to announce that I've asked @Tim_Walz to be my running mate," Harris tweeted on X.
"As a governor, a coach, a teacher, and a veteran, he's delivered for working families like his.
Walz said on X: "It is the honor of a lifetime to join @kamalaharris in this campaign. I'm all in."
"Vice President Harris is showing us the politics of what's possible. It reminds me a bit of the first day of school. So, let's get this done, folks!"
"It's a fascinating pick that really has some people scratching their heads," said Bret Baier of Fox News.
"I think it raises some questions about the Jewish vote and perhaps how afraid the Democratic Party is," a reference to Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who is Jewish, and was not selected.
The Associated Press called it "yet another milestone" since two weeks ago when the mentally failing Joe Biden abruptly was thrown under the bus by his party, which allowed him to announce he was withdrawing after the party's claims for months that he was on top of his game and pursuing re-election.
Harris was among those who, as shortly as a few days before Biden quit, had been touting him for being as sharp mentally as ever, on top of all situations, and the like.
The AP report said Harris, her husband Doug Emhoff and her VP pick are scheduled to appear for a Philadelphia rally.
The Washington Post explained she was going after a "Midwestern Democrat" to be her No. 2.
The Post said the choice of the 60-year-old who has run a far-left agenda in Minnesota "creates a ticket that many Democrats have said would be politically beneficial."
The report cited the politically correct factors on which Harris is building her campaign: that she is of Indian and Jamaican heritage and has spent much of her career climbing the political ladder in California, sometimes with the help of her onetime lover Willie Brown, a political heavyweight in the leftist state.
Walz, the report said, is from a "list of finalists populated by white men … who have represented more competitive swaths of the country."
Walz is a second-term governor and heads the Democratic Governors Association.
His state mostly votes leftist, not having supported a Republican presidential candidate since 1960. It also was the outlier across America when Ronald Reagan won his overwhelming mandate to the White House. It was under his administration that the George Floyd riots literally burned entire city blocks of Minneapolis.
Walz, like virtually every other Democrat across the nation, has "repeatedly criticized" GOP presidential nominee President Donald Trump "and other Republicans as 'weird' in cable news appearances."
The reports said Harris and Walz already have scheduled a fairly frantic next week with jet trips to multiple locations to try to promote the pair to voters.
Harris, of course, is facing headwinds because of her radical statements and positions that she's adopted in recent years, including one demanding that people must be "woke." Further, her word salads, long strings of words that appear to have only vague meanings, like the "significance of the passage of time" not only are resurging on the Web, they are continuing from the candidate.
Walz came into politics after a career in teaching in public schools. He was elected governor in 2018 and won re-election in 2022.
His verbal contribution to the Democrats' war against Trump, which includes multiple cases of lawfare, has been his comment: "These are weird people on the other side. They want to take books away, they want to be in your exam room. … They are bad on foreign policy, they are bad on the environment, they certainly have no health care plan, and they keep talking about the middle-class. As I said, a robber baron real estate guy and a venture capitalist trying to tell us they understand who we are? They don't know who we are."
The Biden-Harris administration's biggest agenda points so far have been to promote transgenderism and abortion. The duo allowed inflation to explode so that Americans are paying more than 20% more now for the same lifestyle as before the Democrats took office, they've allowed terrorists into American across an open southern border, have allowed America's influence around the world to plunge, and, as Joe Biden said, "cured the economy" only to see trillions of dollars wiped out around the world over just the last few days.
Caroline Leavitt, Trump Campaign press secretary, pointed out, "It's no surprise that San Francisco Liberal Kamala Harris wants West Coast wannabe Tim Walz as her running-mate – Walz has spent his governorship trying to reshape Minnesota in the image of the Golden State.
"While Walz pretends to support Americans in the Heartland, when the cameras are off, he believes that rural America is 'mostly cows and rocks.' From proposing his own carbon-free agenda, to suggesting stricter emission standards for gas-powered cards, and embracing policies to allow convicted felons to vote, Walz is obsessed with spreading California's dangerously liberal agenda far and wide.
"If Walz won't tell voters the truth, we will: Just like Kamala Harris, Tim Walz is a dangerously liberal extremist, and the Harris-Walz California dream is every American's nightmare."
National Right to Life President Carol Tobias immediately issued a warning: "If elected, a Harris-Walz Administration would push for the most extreme abortion agenda policies of any administration. Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are both radically pro-abortion and see the lives of precious unborn babies as disposable inconveniences."
She said, "Tim Walz has made his support of unlimited abortion a foundation of his administration. Both Kamala Harris and Tim Walz have yet to hear of an abortion they would oppose.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
A scheme unleashed by the Biden-Harris administration for this coming school year will force-feed meditation ideologies derived from Buddhism and Hinduism to students in public schools.
A new report from the Washington Stand explains how the administration's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is imposing a six-part strategy that "allegedly" is to improve students' mental health following the administration's damaging COVID lockdowns.
According to the government program's web page, "CDC has identified six school-based strategies and associated approaches that can help prevent mental health problems and promote the positive behavioral and mental health of students," the Stand report explained.
One of those agendas is to "Promote Mindfulness," which includes "[p] practicing mindful breathing, meditation, and movement, such as yoga."
Schools are being instructed to provide time for students to "practice mindfulness."
The instructions include that, "Students and staff could practice mindfulness during morning meetings or advisory periods, after recess, or before the start of a regular class."
As part of the program, the Stand confirmed, "Brooklyn College Academy has dedicated a meditation room with mats and cushions, where teenagers sit cross-legged as instructors guide them through a series of breathing techniques. Sometimes they focus on visualizing images suggested by their instructors; sometimes they empty their minds and replace the contents with nothingness. Linda Mary Noble, a social studies teacher whose love of 'mindfulness' led her to create the meditation room inside her public school, said she loves 'this idea of [her students] having a space that they're not getting in a home. I feel that this is a gift.'"
The report, however, explained that studies have confirmed such religious activities "hurt young people's mental health."
The report pointedly notes that, besides promoting a "secular" belief, "The administration's guidelines encourage teachers to have students ruminate on any beliefs they have that might hinder the progress of 'equity.'"
Other districts have children listen to the sound of chimes as they are directed through meditation.
Meg Kilgannon, of the Family Research Council, said, "Imagine a school setting up a chapel in the school, with kneelers and Gregorian chant playing. Would the average person find the chapel overtly religious? If so, why then are schools making 'mindfulness spaces,' which are nothing more than chapels of another sort?"
Activists for such activities "all acknowledge," the report said, that they reproduce methods sought after by non-Christian religious, New Age gurus, and the like.
National Public Radio admitted, "Mindfulness is a bit of a catch-all term for a secularized version of practices that draw from religions like Buddhism and Hinduism."
That has not slowed the growth of various meditation ideologies, including one called Inner Explorer which is in 100 districts, and Mindful Schools which is in 245.
The concerns are obvious, as children are being subjected to non-Christian agendas during their formative years.
"At the precise time that a child's worldview is forming, he is spending thousands of hours in school, being disciplined by those who do not have a biblical worldview," explained David Closson, director of the Center for Biblical Worldview at Family Research Council.
The Biden-Harris CDC is enthused, however, about the non-Christian teachings.
It suggests schools, "Train teachers and staff on the importance of mindfulness," "Train teachers and staff on strategies for building mindfulness into the day," and "Offer mindfulness opportunities for staff and teachers."
And the CDC doesn't forget the ideological, telling schools to, "Explore mindfulness practice as a way to advance equity."
And worse, the Stand confirmed, a report from Evidence-Based Mental Health journal stunningly confirmed using "mindfulness," "resulted in worse scores on the risk of depression and well-being in students at risk of mental health problems" than doing nothing at all.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
A college district is paying out $330,000 because it censored pro-life and anti-communist messaging from students.
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression explains it was the Young America's Foundation and several of its officers, Alejandro Flores, Juliette Colunga, and Daniel Flores, who took court action against Clovis Community College when school officials "schemed" to remove student-group flyers because of their messages.
The settlement includes a court order against further censorship as well as $20,000 payments to each of the plaintiffs, including the YAF chapter, plus $250,000 in legal charges.
A college district is paying out $330,000 because it censored pro-life and anti-communist messaging from students.
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression explains it was the Young America's Foundation and several of its officers, Alejandro Flores, Juliette Colunga, and Daniel Flores, who took court action against Clovis Community College when school officials "schemed" to remove student-group flyers because of their messages.
The settlement includes a court order against further censorship as well as $20,000 payments to each of the plaintiffs, including the YAF chapter, plus $250,000 in legal charges.
"We're thrilled that today's victory will benefit the speech rights of over 50,000 California students," said FIRE attorney Daniel Ortner. "From now on, student groups won't have to second guess or jump through hoops just to hang a flyer on the bulletin board. And rather than wielding unrestrained power to decide whose views are 'appropriate' or 'offensive,' administrators will defer to the First Amendment."
The courts found that the school's practices violated the First Amendment.
The fight dates back to 2022 when FIRE sued Clovis for taking down a student group's flyers, that included both pro-life and anti-communist messages.
School officials claimed the right to censor whatever they called "inappropriate or offensive," a practice that now has been terminated by the court.
"We won. We showed the school they were wrong. … If you think your speech is being stifled, don't stay quiet, because when you stay quiet, nothing changes," one plaintiff said.
The school's new policy will protect the First Amendment rights of student groups, and it also will hold training sessions for administrators on the subject.
Earlier in the fight, the 9th UK.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had affirmed a preliminary ruling that ordered the college to stop its censorship.
"This is a victory not only for the rule of law but for everyone who values free speech," said Gov. Scott Walker, president of Young America's Foundation and former governor of Wisconsin. "We hope this sends a clear message to those who are considering violating our students' constitutional rights — don't, or you could end up in court-ordered First Amendment training like the administrators at Clovis College."
Emails uncovered during the court filings revealed school officials telling one another not to share those emails.
A report from Just the News explained, "Officials were facing the prospect of losing qualified immunity and suffering personal liability in district court when the case was remanded."
A school official said in a statement the settlement was reached to avoid the costs and "distractions" that come with litigation.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Presumptive Democratic nominee for the 2024 presidential election Kamala Harris has had a long career in politics – making her start as a prosecutor in San Francisco, before becoming California's attorney general, and later a California senator.
As Harris campaigns, questions have been raised about her record as a prosecutor, particularly the effect her policies had on the black community, and other minority groups.
Harris worked as a district attorney at the Alameda County district attorney's office before moving to the San Francisco city attorney's office from 2004 to 2011. There she provided legal services to the city and represented them in civil claims – heading the division on children and families.
During her time as a district attorney, securing convictions was part of Harris' focus, which built on California's tough-on-crime policies after several serial killers ran rampant during the 1970s. High-profile cases include the Night Stalker, the Zodiac Killer, the Hillside Strangler, and the Manson family.
While California's tough-on-crime image was popular politically, the black community was the most affected, with incarceration rates five times higher than their share of the total population in California, a problem that remains today. Although Harris did not write any of the laws she enforced them.
A study from Vera, showed in 2015, the prison inmate numbers for California had increased by 225% between 1983 and 2015. By 2018, California had 127,972 people in the prison system. Despite only making up 6% of California's population, blacks contributed 28% to the prison population and 20% of the jail population.
Another report from The Sentencing Project, a Washington D.C.–based research and advocacy center, found that black Americans are incarcerated at a state average of 1,240 per 100,000 residents.
In 2011, the United States Supreme Court ruled that California's prisons were so overcrowded they inflicted cruel and unusual punishment on inmates. Harris fought against this ruling and went on to oppose the early release of prisoners in 2014, citing the need for inmate firefighting labor. By the time Harris left her post as a U.S. senator in 2021, the incarceration of black men was still a huge issue, with consistent overcrowding up to 200% overcapacity in some instances. Prisons also lacked adequate medical personnel, and in some instances, up to 54 inmates were sharing one toilet at a time.
According to a report from the American Prospect, Harris spent years fighting orders to reduce prison populations.
"Working in tandem with Gov. Jerry Brown, Harris, and her legal team filed motions that were condemned by judges and legal experts as obstructionist, bad–faith, and nonsensical, at one point even suggesting that the Supreme Court lacked the jurisdiction to order a reduction in California's prison population," the report reads.
As attorney general, Harris launched the California Department of Justice's Division of Recidivism Reduction and Re-Entry, while simultaneously resisting releasing thousands of non-violent inmates with a low risk of recidivism, according to the American Project.
"Observers worried that the behavior of Harris's office had undermined the very ability of federal judges to enforce their legal orders at the state level, pushing the federal court system to the brink of a constitutional crisis. This extreme resistance to a Supreme Court ruling was done to prevent the release of fewer than 5,000 nonviolent offenders, whom multiple courts had cleared as presenting next to no risk of recidivism or threat to public safety," the report states.
Harris's record for wrongful conviction during her time as San Francisco's D.A. was also heavily criticized. A self–described "progressive prosecutor," Harris wrote in her 2019 memoir "The Truths We Hold," that her role was to protect people from the inequality that leads that person to commit crimes.
"The job of a progressive prosecutor is to look out for those who are overlooked, to speak up for those whose voices aren't being heard, to see and address the causes of crime, not just their consequences, and to shine a light on the inequality and unfairness that lead to injustice. It is to recognize that not everyone needs punishment, that what many need, quite obviously, is help," Harris wrote in her memoir.
An African-American man from San Francisco, Jamal Trulove, had a different experience while Harris was a D.A. Trulove was wrongfully convicted, and spent six years of his life in prison.
"I never talked to no detective, no police officer, no D.A., nobody," Trulove said, adding he was simply arrested and charged with murder.
Trulove stated in an interview with Vice Harris was present at his sentencing to "celebrate" his conviction.
"She [Harris] showed up at the two most pivotal times in this first trial, me being convicted, and me being sentenced. She wanted to be present for a celebration of a conviction," Trulove said.
Trulove comes from the Sunnydale projects and stated the police were keeping tabs on himself and his brothers from a young age and were watching others in their neighborhood.
"They already had me labeled because I'm from this community as a potential gang member, potential killer, potential drug dealer. You gotta wake up to the fact that you know, things are set up against us…places like this have been developed for predominantly African-American people to not be able to succeed beyond it," Trulove said.
Trulove said the sentiment in his community about having a black female district attorney, Harris actually is Indian and Jamaican, was one of hope – that Harris would have a "more sympathetic way" of prosecuting people in the black community.
In 2007, Trulove's friend Seu Kuka was killed. After a year, no one had been arrested, and no one had interviewed Trulove.
"The police were still, you know, trying to get a conviction by all means necessary. When I was arrested for it, the community knew I didn't do it, and it was a 'here we go again.' See, this is why we don't trust, you know, law enforcement because it gets to a point where somebody didn't do something, and someone goes to jail for it," Trulove said, adding he never had a history of crime up until that point.
Ultimately Trulove's conviction was overturned, however, Harris has yet to answer for what her office did to an innocent man.
Despite Harris' tough–on–crime rhetoric, a 2014 law passed during Harris' tenure as AG – in which she played a key role – is so unpopular a movement has now begun to have the laws undone, and showed how Harris consistently flip-flopped on her policies.
Proposition 47, also known as the "Safe Neighborhoods and Schools Act," reclassified certain non-violent felonies, reduced theft under $950 to a misdemeanor, and converted narcotics possession from a felony to a misdemeanor.
The law has caused a huge amount of crime on California streets, turning downtown San Francisco into a homeless encampment, with open-air drug use and theft becoming a frequent issue. Retailers are barely able to stay afloat after gangs of thieves easily walk out of stores with hundreds of dollars of inventory.
A new ballot initiative is gaining popularity from both Republicans and Democrats, called the Homelessness, Drug Addiction, and Theft Reduction Act, or Prop 36. The act would amend Prop 47 and will be included on the ballot this coming November.
If the reform passes, narcotics like cocaine, heroin, and fentanyl will be illegal to possess while carrying a firearm – penalties would also increase for selling deadly quantities, with traffickers potentially facing murder charges if the drug trafficking results in a fatality.
Harris was responsible for writing up the ballot initiative when Prop 47 was first introduced, stating the law change would reduce prison populations, saving the state hundreds of millions of dollars per year – of which the savings would be used to pay for mental health services, K-12 education, and truancy programs.
Drug treatment programs, however, have been underutilized, and petty crime has skyrocketed because there are no consequences for crime. Republicans have accused Harris of misrepresenting the bill.
A Los Angeles–based criminal defense lawyer, Nicole Castronovo, told Fox News Digital in an interview that Harris' past actions as a prosecutor will cause trouble for her in the future.
"She's one of these people who've talked out of both sides of her mouth, and she's going to have trouble with both the left and the right with the stances she's taken over the years," Castronovo told Fox News Digital.
Harris also acknowledged during an interview with Jake Tapper on CNN's "State of the Union" in 2019 that a state truancy law she sponsored in 2010 resulted in some parents being arrested and jailed. Prosecutors were given the authority to fine and/or jail a parent for up to one year and a $2,000 fine if their child's school attendance was not satisfactory.
MSNBC reported Sunday that no parents were jailed because of the 2010 law. However, a bill sponsored by Harris in 2014 – Senate Bill 1317 – which was modeled on her previous truancy law for San Francisco, resulted in some parents being jailed. Harris further stated in 2011 that she would be putting parents on notice if their children were not attending school.
Harris' 2020 report card as a U.S. senator was not much better, with GovTrack.US stating her record showed she joined the least amount of bipartisan bills, with only 14% of her support going to bills introduced by a lawmaker not part of the Democratic Party.
Harris also ranked more left than her Democrat colleagues, wrote the fewest laws, got bills out of committee the least often, held the fewest committee positions, and was second most absent during congressional votes.
Sexual abuse victims were also let down by Harris in her prosecutor role after she failed to take action against a Catholic priest who had abused students. Furthermore, Harris went as far as to keep documents regarding clergy sex abuse from lawyers and reporters to protect victim identities, according to CBS.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., has a reputation for being a type of street fighter.
He's often brash and coarse. And confrontational. His history includes violating a federal conflict-of-interest law by failing to properly disclose stock shares his wife got for advising a financial technology trust company. He lashes out angrily at those with whom he disagrees. He makes rash statements.
And he jumped aboard his party's wild claims that President Donald Trump was an "insurrectionist" for the few hundred people who rioted on Jan. 6, 2021.
He actively promoted his demands, aligning with those of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, that Congress had to impeach Trump.
And now he appears to be planning his own "insurrection."
That would be his plans to have Congress deny Trump the presidency should he win in November.
He explained his agenda:
What can be put into the Constitution can slip away from you very quickly and the greatest example going on right now before our eye is Section 3 of the 14th amendment which they're just disappearing with the magic wand as if it doesn't exist even though it could not be clearer what it's stating.
And so they want to kick it to Congress.
So it's going to be up to us on January 6, 2025, to tell the rampaging Trump mobs that he's disqualified and then we need bodyguards for everybody and civil war conditions, all because denying justice is not all of them, but these justices who have not many cases to look at each year, not that much work to do, a huge staff, great protection, simply do not want to do their job.
His argument stems from his own interpretation of that section, which states "no person can hold certain offices under the United States or any state if they have previously taken an oath to support the Constitution but have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against it, or provided aid or comfort to its enemies."
He has claimed repeatedly that Trump, on that basis, is ineligible for office.
Of course, Trump never has been charged with insurrection, much less convicted. Congress tried twice to impeach and remove him, including once after he already was out of office. And Congress failed both times.
Nonetheless, Raskin has adopted his own interpretation of that provision and insists on its application, to his satisfaction. Raskin is not the only member of Congress who apparently believes that it is within their power to determine a president guilty of a constitutional violation, as Pelosi's partisan January 6 committee largely spent all of its time and millions of tax dollars trying to assemble a storyline that portrayed Trump as guilty of something on that day when a protest turned into a riot.
Online commenters showed that Raskin's arguments were not being considered seriously.
"Raskin has a few missing screws!" said one. Another added, "I also know Raskin is a complete moron that nobody takes seriously at he talks out of his *** more than he talks out of his mouth."
While Democrats often talk about Trump and Republicans and conservatives and January 6 and insurrection, that action by definition is an organized plan to usurp a government, take over its leadership, is economy, its military, its foreign relations and much, much more, none of which was attempted or event planned that day.
Further, without a solid majority of Democrats in Congress, Raskin's agenda likely would not even make it out of committee.