This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

We've been told President Donald Trump is responsible for Joe Biden's high inflation, Joe Biden's open borders damages, Joe Biden's failure to intervene and resolve international disputes, Joe Biden's energy disasters, and much more.

Now a far-left activist has announced that the FBI's investigation into alleged gambling crimes involving NBA personalities, dozens of whom have been arrested, is because of Trump.

The Daily Mail commented that the stunt by Stephen A. Smith in accusing Trump has "sparked fury."

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

The American people still do not know, and may never know, all of the players in Washington and elsewhere who carried out the Democrat party's lawfare against President Trump over the years.

But they now know those who were the pushers behind the agenda: Former Attorney General Merrick Garland, ex-Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco and ex-FBI chief Chris Wray.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley has released documents showing those names as the activists who were pushing for the "Arctic Frost" investigation that produced much of the Democrats' lawfare against Trump.

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

One of the revelations about the corruption involved in Jack Smith's lawfare against President Donald Trump during Joe Biden's time in office was that the federal government was weaponized to spy on the telephone records of Republican senators.

That scheme now has resulted in a pledge by one of those senators, Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., to sue.

A report from Just the News notes that phone records of multiple senators were seized by Smith during that time frame.

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

As if professional sports in America weren't already facing enough headwinds, with "wokism" running amok and such.

Now the FBI has confirmed that onetime University of Colorado basketball player and now Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups and Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier are under arrest.

Also former NBA guard and coach Damon Jones, and dozens more.

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

President Donald Trump Wednesday announced new sanctions against Russian oil companies as retaliation for President Putin's refusal to end the war with Ukraine or agree to a ceasefire.

Posted Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent: "Now is the time to stop the killing and for an immediate ceasefire. Given President Putin's refusal to end this senseless war, Treasury is sanctioning Russia's two largest oil companies that fund the Kremlin's war machine. Treasury is prepared to take further action if necessary to support President Trump's effort to end yet another war. We encourage our allies to join us in and adhere to these sanctions."

Trump has been increasingly frustrated with Russia's intransigence as he has tried to broker an end to the bloody war. After announcing last week that a meeting with Putin was being planned for Budapest, Hungary, Tuesday Trump said the meeting was off.

A press release from the Treasury Department noted the U.S. was imposing sanctions "as a result of Russia's lack of serious commitment to a peace process to end the war in Ukraine. …

"Treasury will continue to use its authority in support of a peace process."

In the Oval Office, President Trump made further remarks about the sanctions:

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

There are many commonly used excuses that are, in fact, useless. The dog ate my homework. I didn't see the speed limit sign. I didn't know that was income, and more.

Now, in the age of artificial intelligence there are new ones appearing, including, Google told me wrong.

That's the problem facing duck hunters who was firing shots in Idaho … on a day when that wasn't legal.

A report from Cowboy State Daily explained an experienced hunter called counting on AI for accurate information is a "crapshoot."

At best.

Game agents in Idaho had to issue citations to hunters who thought they were following the law, but weren't.

"Idaho Fish and Game spokesman Roger Phillips told Cowboy State Daily some hunters were shooting on the wrong day."

Idaho officials say they want to get on top of the problem right away.

"It's one of those things, when it starts to bubble up, we want to alert people to what's going on," explained Phillips.

Officials in Wyoming, which also has a major industry in hunting, also have concerns.

"Amanda Fry, of Wyoming Game and Fish, explained, "We are seeing inaccuracies in some AI-generated overviews of our regulations. It is an important reminder to reference our website directly for accurate information on our laws and regulations."

She told the publication state officials are happy to provide "accurate" information.

It was Cody's Scott Weber, who has hunted for decades in Wyoming and other states, who told Cowboy State Daily that "he wouldn't trust AI to keep him from getting crossways with the law."

Only the official regulations count, he pointed out.

The report explained, "In the case of the duck hunting regulations, staff discovered that a search engine pulled proposed hunting season dates that were proposed at some point during commission meetings."

Wrong.

Commissioners actually picked other dates.

The report noted another bad situation developed when AI attached fishing regulations from another state to an Idaho river with a similar name.

Game wardens aren't inclined to let excuses stand.

"Here's the thing about that, and game wardens will tell you this, you as a hunter are responsible for knowing all the regulations."

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

State education bureaucrats routinely set "standards" for schools to include certain things in their classrooms for students to learn.

But too often, they are reflecting an agenda or ideology, not the simple facts, according to a report at the Federalist.

For instance, even in Republican majority Alaska, its latest iteration of requirements, dated just last year, have no mention of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and even Christianity.

"Alaska's new social studies standards don't mention the Nome Gold Rush. They don't mention the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System. They don't mention William Egan, the state of Alaska's first governor, and they don't mention Sarah Palin, who ran for Vice President of the United States. There's a lot more that's missing in the Alaska social studies standards, but you can tell right away that something is wrong when Alaska's social studies standards leave Alaska's children ignorant of the headlines of Alaska's history and the most famous Alaskans," the report explained.

"The names of Christopher Columbus, George Washington, and Abraham Lincoln are absent. But so are words like Christianity, Protestantism, and Catholicism; any hint that technological advance might have improved Americans' standard of living; and virtually all of the narrative, events, and heroes of America's wars."

The report noted those bureaucrats appear to be on "radical autopilot" for those social studies standards.

Americans expect such indoctrinations in leftist states like Rhode Island and Minnesota, where materials "strip out factual content, and ignore or slander the history of Western civilization and America, and call it 'social studies instruction.'"

"But radical activists embedded in state education departments do the same thing in red states whenever policymakers and citizens aren't looking. That's what just happened in Alaska," the Federalist said.

The state standards from the Department of Education and Early Development lack "basic facts of American history, much of how our government works, and our foundational documents of liberty. The standards also introduced substantial new amounts of politicized material."

The results came about because state officials outsourced much of the work on the "standards" to "radical activists who have captured the national social studies establishment."

Sources included the extremism of the National Council for the Social Studies, the College, Career, and Civic Life Framework for Social Studies State Standards, and more, the report said.

The result was the injection of politics like the racist Critical Race Theory, after a working group used race categories to discriminate against content advisers.

"And so engaged in illegal racial discrimination in creating its standards," the report said.

So convoluted was the end result that there is a nine-page section on "How to Read the Standards," the report charged.

And it gets worse, the report said, "The standards' subordinate social studies education throughout to 'action civics,' also known as 'protest civics,' which uses the pedagogy of 'service-learning' to substitute vocational training in progressive activism for classroom civics education. They push the narrative that an 'engaged citizen' can only effect change through 'demonstration' (p. 100) and protest, and they also conflate action civics with progressive advocacy: 'Recognize historic inequalities in the United States and Alaska and evaluate proposed solutions to correct them.'"

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

Constitutional expert Jonathan Turley, whose career includes teaching the Constitution, advising members of Congress on the Constitution and even representing them in court on constitutional issues, has lauded the fact that "the cause of free speech is alive in Europe."

He knows this because of one man's sentence to jail for … his free speech expression.

He explained it is the little-reported case of Emanuel Brunisholz in Switzerland, which infamously was unable to side with the allies against Adolf Hitler in World War II.

The defendant is reportedly about to start a 10-day prison stint "due to his voicing skepticism about claims that skeletons are transgender."

That's the concept that skeletons, which in fact exhibit characteristics of being male or female, cannot be defined that way, as a "male" skeleton during his lifetime may have been "female."

Turley explained, "There is very little coverage of this story. Free speech cases are often downplayed by European media. So, we have only limited information coming from conservative sites."

What is known is, "In 2022, he responded to a Facebook post by Swiss National Council member Andreas Glarner on the controversy. Some, including academics in the United States, are now claiming that you really cannot gauge the sex of individuals from their skeletons. The wind-instrument repairman thought that such claims were unfounded and posted a comment that said, 'If you dig up LGBTQI people after 200 years, you'll only find men and women based on their skeletons. Everything else is a mental illness promoted through the curriculum.'"

Police knocked on his door and prosecutors weren't far behind, claiming he engaged in "hate speech" and "public belittling."

"If true, this sounds like just another absurd use of the criminal conduct to silence those with opposing views. However, a court actually convicted him and then another court upheld the conviction. He was ordered to pay a fine or go to jail. He is now going to jail for simply expressing his view, a view supported by many scientists and citizens," Turley said.

He described how the case shows that free speech in Europe is in free fall.

"I spoke in Berlin at the World Forum, where European leaders gathered in one of the most strikingly anti-free speech conferences I have attended. This year's forum embraced the slogan 'A New World Order with European Values.' That 'new world order' is based on an aggressive anti-free speech platform that has been enforced for years by the European Union," he said.

Some anti-free speech campaigners, in fact, are inviting the EU to attack U.S. companies with sanctions for not censoring Americans, he said.

"Yet, there remain brave free speech advocates and groups still struggling to restore this indispensable right to their countries. By going to jail, Brünisholz is bringing needed attention to the crackdown on free speech in that country. Despite the disgraceful role of the courts in this effort, citizens like Brünisholz show that the cause of free speech is alive in Europe."

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

Walmart has confirmed it is pausing job offers to applicants who require the special treatment demanded by the H-1B visa program.

A report at Bloomberg said it is the "latest example" of how the Trump administration's $100,000 visa fees are disrupting workforces.

The report cited people "who asked not to be identified discussing private information" to assert Trump's increased fees for the special privileges allocated to H-1B visa holders were reverberating "across technology and other industries."

The Trump administration change to the program was announced to curb abuse of the program, through which millions of American workers have been displaced and replaced by foreigners who often are paid much lower salaries.

"Walmart is the largest user of H-1B visas among major retail chains, employing an estimated 2,390 H-1B visa holders, according to government data," the report said, adding that's actually only a tiny fraction of the more than 1.6 million H-1B visa workers around today.

Amazon, Microsoft, Meta and other tech giants are the biggest users of the program.

"Walmart is committed to hiring and investing in the best talent to serve our customers, while remaining thoughtful about our H-1B hiring approach," a Walmart official said, in the report.

Under Trump's plan Walmart and other employers would have to pay $100,000 payments for workers they want to hire under the program if those individuals are not already eligible to legally work in the U.S.

The report noted the opposition to Trump's plan from those who have been profiteering on the scheme.

"The new $100,000 visa fee will make it cost-prohibitive for U.S. employers, especially start-ups and small and midsize businesses, to utilize the H-1B program, which was created by Congress expressly to ensure that American businesses of all sizes can access the global talent they need to grow their operations here in the U.S.," charged Neil Bradley, of the Chamber of Commerce.

His organization sued the Trump administration over the dispute.

The White House has explained the changes are the beginning of a number of "necessary reforms" in the program.

Bloomberg said, "Critics have said the program — which was introduced in 1990 to address specific labor shortages — undermines employment of skilled U.S. workers."

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

A Detroit pastor is coming under heavy fire after a viral video appears to show him scolding a church member who was making a $1,200 donation instead of the $2,000 he had requested during a fundraiser.

Bishop Marvin Winans of Perfecting Church is shown to be seemingly offended as the worshiper, Roberta McCoy, made her donation on Sunday.

"I, Roberta McCoy, give in faith, and stand in unity with the vision of Perfecting Church with sowing this seed of $1,000, plus $235 in receiving the blessings to come to all that participate," McCoy read aloud to the church.

The pastor had asked members to give $1,000 as well as raise $1,000 toward the completion of a new cathedral for the church.

He interrupted McCoy, saying, "That's only $1,200," adding, "y'all not listening to what I'm saying."

"If you have a thousand plus a thousand," he explained.

"OK, I'm gonna work on the other $800," McCoy replied.

"That ain't what I asked you to do," Winans concluded.

The live-streamed event has since gone viral, collecting millions of views.

"People need to understand that men like this are exactly who Jesus warned us about," said journalist Collin Rugg.

"He's totally taking advantage of them. This woman is giving what she has, and he is scolding her for it. Shameful."

"The woman is clearly giving all she has. In Jesus' eyes, she gave more than everyone in the room."

Another commenter noted: "I hope he goes viral and everyone leaves his church. This has no place in the Christian world."

Winans told ABC7 Detroit his actions during the event were meant to maintain order and ensure elderly members wouldn't have to stand for long periods.

"I was calling because the whole church was giving, and it was our day of giving, and the whole church was coming, and we didn't want people standing, the mothers and all that, so I was calling them by increments," Winans said.

"And we had someone that had given out of before, and I corrected it, and I told everybody to listen and come when you call, and that's all that was."

McCoy actually holds herself responsible, telling the station: "He absolutely did not rebuke me. Now there's a difference. There was a correction because let me clearly state that pastor gave instruction on the lines to get into."