This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

Decatur County, Iowa, resident Rita Audlehelm noticed that a county official repeatedly failed to attend meetings in person.

So she wrote an op-ed about it. And it was published.

And got sued for defamation.

Now the Institute for Justice has dispatched a letter to county leaders suggesting they abandon their attempt to silence Audlehelm.

The "threat to sue Rita over her factual criticisms violates the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment, which protects Americans' ability to freely criticize the government without fear of retribution," the legal team explained in a new report about the confrontation.

Audlehelm had raised the issue about an official's "repeated failure" to be at meetings, prompting the county threat.

"Rita exemplifies what America stands for. She cares deeply about her community, she's engaged, and she expresses her concerns thoughtfully through her speech," said IJ attorney Brian Morris. "In response, the county has tried to silence Rita through baseless and frivolous threats. That's the work of kings, not elected officials."

Audlehelm explained, "Decatur County residents deserve to know what their elected officials are up to. That's why I started attending the weekly board of supervisors meetings and publishing editorials about what happened. But rather that make these meetings available online, the county wants to silence my speech and keep the public in the dark."

The IJ reported that for more than a year, Audlehelm has attended Decatur County board of supervisor meetings, and sometimes expresses her opinions about the meetings in editorial columns in the Leon Journal-Reporter and/or the Lamoni Chronicle.

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

The war between Israel and the Middle East's Iranian proxies has dragged on for nearly one and a half years. Now, a new book explores a seemingly obscure event that both Hamas and Hezbollah have claimed sparked their attacks on the Jewish state: the arrival of five red calves, brought to Israel by a cooperative effort of Orthodox Jews and devout Evangelical Christians.

On a sweltering day in September 2022, Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz stood at the cargo terminal of Ben Gurion International Airport, awaiting a very special arrival. Boneh Israel, a cooperative effort of Christians and Jews, had succeeded in airlifting five young cows to Israel from Texas. Christians had gone to great effort and expense to find a red cow that fit the exacting requirements to fulfill a commandment required to prepare Jews to serve in the prophesied Third Temple in Jerusalem. Berkowitz, an Orthodox Jew, had been writing articles about news and politics in Israel since 2013, specializing in a biblical and prophetic perspective that appealed to Orthodox Jews and Zionist Christians alike, so the event was his area of expertise.

But the arrival of the red heifers was a watershed, marking a significant step in reviving the Temple service the likes of which had not been seen in living memory. While much of the Christian and Jewish worlds overlooked the significance, the Islamists in the region did not.

Last year, on the 100th day of the Oct. 7 Swords of Iron war, Abu Obeida, the military spokesman for the Izz ad-Din Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian Hamas terrorist organization, made a rare televised appearance in which he listed the motives for the Hamas attack on Israel.

In his speech, he referred to the attack as "the Al Aqsa flood," a reference to the Muslim mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Arab-language media covered Abu Abeidah's speech extensively, focusing on the arrival of five red heifers to Israel as a prelude to constructing the Third Jewish Temple. As an indication of the significance of the Temple Mount to the Gazans, IDF soldiers reported that almost every home they entered in the Strip featured an image of the Dome of the Rock. Indeed, Hamas' emblem of the terror organization features the Dome of the Rock behind crossed swords.

Hezbollah also cited the arrival of the red heifers as the motive for attacking Israel, as more Iranian proxies joined in the war against the Jewish state.

Meanwhile, YouTubers who were ignorant of the true nature of the red heifers went viral, spreading misinformation. Documentaries and articles misrepresented the red heifers, claiming that it was an attempt by Jewish fanatics to incite the Arabs.

Berkowitz realized he had no choice but to write a book about the red heifers. The book, titled "The Return of the Red Heifers: Paving the Road to Redemption," covers every aspect of what the Jewish sages have described as "the most enigmatic Biblical commandment." Berkowitz explains the Biblical and Talmudic sources in plain language, from the exacting requirements to the complex ritual that produces ashes required to purify Jews to serve in the Temple. The cow must be perfectly red with no more than one non-red hair on its entire body. It must be unblemished and never have carried a yoke or a burden of any kind.

While these requirements sound simple, they are complex, and finding a suitable heifer is rare. Berkowitz explains that according to Jewish tradition, only nine red heifers were found from the time of Mount Sinai until the destruction of the Second Temple 2,000 years later. The tenth red heifer will be used to purify the Jewish nation for serving in the Third Temple.

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

Watch as a pro-life activist is brutally attacked and punched by a hate-filled attacker while doing interviews.

Savannah Craven was assaulted while interviewing people on the streets of Harlem:

The attacker is talking about the "magnitude" of having a child, and Craven responds, then directs the microphone back to the interviewee, who lunges forward and smashes her fist into Craven's face.

The video is from Live Action, which reported, that Craven's husband, Henry Antao, explained a woman approached and started a conversation.

"But during the interview, she suddenly assaulted Craven Antao," the report said.

Craven had pointed out, "I'm not the one who admitted they would be okay with killing babies in foster care and killing children that had been abused."

Then the woman knocked Craven to the ground.

"She appeared to attempt to assault her a second time, but Craven Antao's husband positioned himself in between them. Craven Antano was brought to the hospital for her injuries," the report said.

Antao told Live Action, "[We] were out on the street in Harlem doing some street interviews. My wife … was assaulted by a pro-abortion woman we were interviewing… The woman became aggressive and violent upon learning Savannah's pro-life stance. I intervened to protect my wife and we immediately called 911. The police arrived, and we provided them with the assailant's photo and description. We hope justice will be served soon."

Antao said, "We are pro-life activists because ending abortion and protecting babies from the violence that Planned Parenthood commits is the most important issue of our lifetime."

Social media responded:

"Killing children is the ultimate violent act, so punching someone is nothing."

"The left is so violent and uncivilized."

"That's assault."

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Agenda calling for fairness for American products, manufacturers … and consumers

President Donald Trump's campaign to reach fair trade deals with the international community, as expected, hit American consumers with "short-term" pain this week, as stocks measured by the S&P 500, Nasdaq and the Dow Jones Industrial Average all bumped down by a couple of points on the release of his tariff plan.

Trump's extensive tariff agenda includes tariffs for foreign goods imported into the United States that align with tariffs those nations charge for American goods delivered to their citizens.

Analysts have confirmed that the short-term pain is real, but the plan is for the end result to be a better market for American products and American consumers.

On Thursday, just hours after Trump's tariff program was revealed, doomsayers claimed the market "fell significantly." One report even said they "plunged."

The markets, in fact, were down a couple of percentage points, with those individual stocks whose managers have been relying on favorable import structures to make money hit the hardest.
Trump said, in all caps, "THE OPREATION IS OVER! THE PATIENT LIVED, AND IS HEALING. THE PROGNOSIS IS THAT THE PATIENT WILL BE FAR STRONGER, BIGGER, BETTER, AND MORE RESILIENT THAN EVERY BEFORE…"

Trump even has gone to the point of making sure those who have been gaming the system now will be playing in a fair field, by eliminating the so-called 'de minimus' exceptions that allowed overseas companies, from China and the like, to ship directly to American consumers and avoid tariffs.

Those rules had allowed shipments under $800 in value to avoid any payment, and billions of those shipments were routinely sent and delivered.

Trump had given the Commerce Department time to develop a plan to collect those payments, and he said that now is in place.

Starting May 2, shipments under $800 will be subject to an ad valorem duty of 30% of the value of the postal item or $25 per postal item. On June 1, the per-postal-item tariff will increase to $50, reports confirmed. Billions in revenue for America are predicted.

The Washington Examiner noted the S&P was down about 3%, the Dow Jones about 2.8%.

Also affected were international markets, with Japan's Nikkei 225 down 4% and South Korea's Kospi index down about 2.7%. Other markets in Europe, Germany, France and London were down between 1% and 2%.

Gold was at $3,090. And cryptocurrencies were down in the range of 3%.

Trump said, "For decades, our country has been looted, pillaged, raped, and plundered by nations near and far, both friend and foe alike. With today's action, we are finally going to be able to make America great again – greater than ever before. Jobs in factories will come roaring back into our country."

There is a 10% base tariff for all, he said, and "reciprocals" will mean a 54% tariff for China.

Trump has explained the plan is all about the long game – getting trading partners who clearly are protecting their own economies at the expense of the U.S. to reduce or remove their barriers to fairness.

Analyst Charlie Gasparino noted Trump "knows trading partners will respond in kind; U.S. goods will get more expensive overseas and import prices spike. That's where the stagflation comes in. Everyone I know who knows Trump says he's committed to the tariff hammer because he believes in his heart that they will rebuild America, bring jobs back to the Rust Belt and as he explained in his press conference, the trade deals we have crafted with even our allies are so unfair."

He said the "good" that could happen is that, "Trump's art-of-the-deal making skills will change the protectionist behavior of our trade partners."

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

PALM BEACH, Florida – President Donald Trump is again blasting left-leaning judges who are taking extraordinary measures to thwart his deportations of violent criminal illegal aliens.

"People are shocked by what is going on with the Court System," Trump said Sunday on Truth Social.

"I was elected for many reasons, but a principal one was LAW AND ORDER, a big part of which is QUICKLY removing a vast Criminal Network of individuals, who came into our Country through the Crooked Joe Biden Open Borders Policy!

"These are dangerous and violent people, who kill, maim and, in many other ways, harm the people of our Country. The Voters want them OUT, and said so in Record Numbers.

"If it was up to District Judge Boasberg and other Radical Left Judges, nobody would be removed, the President wouldn't be allowed to do his job, and people's lives would be devastated all throughout our Country. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!"

The president has previously pushed for the impeachment of Judge James Boasberg, labeling him a "troublemaker" as the federal judge unsuccessfully ordered deportation planes in the air to return criminals back to the U.S.

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

As anti-Musk, anti-DOGE protests – dubbed the "Tesla Takedown's Global Day of Action" – began Saturday at several dealership locations across the world, at least one agitated demonstrator couldn't take the heat of a Daily Caller News Foundation reporter asking her a question.

The protest took place in Tyson Corner, Virginia.

One X user responded: "She is mentally ill like most of these protesters. They need to be institutionalized for their own protection."

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) was established with noble intentions, to regulate immigration in a way that benefits both American workers and foreign talent.

However, over time, this system has been exploited to prioritize profits over people, undermining the American workforce and perpetuating inequities. While the INA is supposed to protect U.S. workers, its enforcement, or lack thereof, has created a dysfunctional ecosystem where key players manipulate the rules with impunity.

To understand this, we need to examine the roles of the Department of Labor (DOL), the Board of Alien Labor Certification Appeals (BALCA), and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) the primary agencies tasked with regulating employment-based immigration.

The Department of Labor (DOL): The Overworked Referee

The DOL's job is to ensure that employment-based immigration programs don't harm U.S. workers by displacing them or suppressing wages. Unfortunately, the DOL often acts more like a rubber stamp than a watchdog.

What the DOL is Supposed to Do

1. PERM Labor Certification: Certify that no qualified U.S. worker is available for a job before allowing a foreign worker to be hired.
2. Prevailing Wage Determinations: Ensure employers pay foreign workers wages comparable to those paid to American workers for similar jobs.

\What Happens in Practice

The DOL's oversight has glaring weaknesses. Employers exploit loopholes to sideline qualified Americans:

• Sham Recruitment: Employers claim they advertised positions, but these ads often appear in obscure publications or have unreasonable requirements. For example, an ad might run in a small-town newspaper when the job is located in a major city, effectively ensuring no one applies.
• Manipulated Job Descriptions: Employers craft job postings to exclude American candidates by adding impossible qualifications, like requiring ten years of experience in a technology that's only existed for five.
• Ignoring Layoff Data: Employers filing for PERM certifications during layoffs are required to disclose this information. But many simply lie, and the DOL rarely checks.

The Consequences

Qualified Americans are routinely overlooked, and wages for both foreign and domestic workers are suppressed. The DOL's lack of enforcement allows bad actors to continue gaming the system.

BALCA: The Appellate Body That Reflects Systemic Issues

The Board of Alien Labor Certification Appeals (BALCA) is an administrative body that reviews denials of labor certifications. BALCA serves as a critical checkpoint, but its rulings often highlight how employers manipulate the system and how weak DOL enforcement really is.

What BALCA Does

• Reviews Recruitment Efforts: Determines whether employers made genuine attempts to hire U.S. workers.
• Evaluates Prevailing Wage Compliance: Ensures that employers aren't underpaying foreign workers to save costs.
• Interprets Regulations: Sets precedents on how rules should be applied.

Common Issues BALCA Encounters

• Job Descriptions Designed to Exclude Americans: Employers claim no American workers meet qualifications that are excessively narrow or arbitrary.
• Failure to Consider U.S. Applicants: Employers reject Americans for vague or unjustified reasons, such as being "overqualified."
• Inadequate Recruitment: Some employers post job ads for the bare minimum time or on platforms unlikely to attract applicants.

The Problem with BALCA's Role

While BALCA can reject fraudulent certifications, it lacks the authority to impose penalties. This means employers who violate rules face no real consequences. Worse, BALCA decisions often expose systemic flaws but don't fix them, leaving the door open for continued abuse.

USCIS: The Administrator with Too Much on Its Plate

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) oversees visa programs like H-1B, adjudicates green card applications, and monitors compliance with immigration laws. Despite its critical role, USCIS is hampered by inefficiencies, lack of transparency, and weak anti-fraud measures.

The H-1B Lottery
USCIS runs an annual lottery to allocate 85,000 H-1B visas. Employers are supposed to prove they genuinely need foreign workers to fill these positions. However:

• Duplicate Registrations: Some employers submit hundreds of applications for the same worker using shell companies to increase their chances of winning the lottery.
• Hiring During Layoffs: Even companies laying off thousands of American workers are allowed to file for H-1B visas, claiming labor shortages.

Fraud and Abuse

USCIS has acknowledged rampant fraud in visa programs but lacks the resources to address it effectively:

• Shell Companies: Employers create fake entities to manipulate the lottery or transfer workers to other companies after approval.
• Underpaying Workers: Foreign workers are often paid less than the prevailing wage, which lowers wages across the industry.

Operational Inefficiencies

The agency's backlogs in processing applications lead to delays that harm both employers and workers. Meanwhile, employers exploit temporary work authorizations to sidestep regulations, exacerbating displacement of U.S. workers.

The exploitation of immigration programs doesn't just harm American workers, it distorts the entire labor market. Here's how:

1. Displacement of U.S. Workers: Qualified Americans lose out on jobs to foreign workers, often because employers manipulate the system to hire cheaper labor.
2. 2. Wage Suppression: When foreign workers are underpaid, wages for everyone, foreign and domestic, are dragged down.
3. Erosion of Worker Protections: Visa-dependent workers have limited bargaining power, weakening collective protections for all employees.
4. Economic Instability: Over-reliance on foreign labor makes industries vulnerable to global disruptions while neglecting domestic talent development.

Why Should Americans Care?

If you're not in tech or STEM fields, you might think this doesn't affect you. But the systemic issues in immigration programs have far-reaching consequences:

1. Reduced Job Opportunities: Displacement and wage suppression ripple through the economy, affecting industries beyond tech.
2. Weakened Economic Growth: Failing to invest in domestic talent undermines long-term innovation and competitiveness.
3. Eroded Trust in Institutions: When agencies fail to enforce rules, public confidence in the system erodes, leading to resentment and division.

What Needs to Change

1. Stronger Enforcement by the DOL: Require thorough audits of recruitment efforts and layoff disclosures. Penalize employers who lie or manipulate the system.
2. Reform the H-1B Lottery: Limit duplicate registrations and prioritize employers with a proven need for foreign talent.
3. Increased Transparency from USCIS: Publish real-time data on visa applications and employer practices to hold bad actors accountable.
4. Empower BALCA: Give BALCA the authority to impose penalties on employers who violate regulations.

Conclusion:

The INA was meant to balance economic growth with labor protections, but it has become a tool for exploitation. Understanding the roles of the DOL, BALCA, and USCIS and their shortcomings is critical to demanding accountability and reform. Americans must engage with these issues, not just for the sake of fairness, but to ensure the future of a labor market that truly serves everyone.

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

PALM BEACH, Florida – Both President Donald Trump and DOGE leader Elon Musk are reacting to unearthed, two-year-old remarks by a federal judge who is now trying to halt deportation flights for violent illegal alien criminals.

The comments by U.S. District Judge James Boasberg concerned the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol protesters and were posted by conservative influencer Insurrection Barbie on X:

In a speech on given to law students on January 24, 2023, Judge Boasberg (who heard many J6 cases) openly admitted that he didn't think harsh enough laws existed on the books to punish J6 defendants.

He stated: "a lot of law still to be made." Matching the defendants' alleged crimes to statutes is one challenge and there were no statutes that were written that said, 'it is a criminal offense to storm the capital and interfere with the counting of certification of the electoral college after the presidential election."

He also specifically stated that people pled to crimes that were not harsh enough. For instance, he said people have pled to the misdemeanor of "parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a capitol building," which was meant to cover people yelling and disrupting Congress, not for the crime of storming the Capitol."

He openly discussed his bias towards these defendants when speaking to future lawyers. He thought people should have been treated differently because it was J6 …

If you don't want us to drag these people, maybe they should learn to hide their bias.

Journalist Mario Nawfal said of the comments: "Translation: He wanted to invent new crimes after the fact to punish J6 defendants harder – clear judicial bias from the bench."

Trump on Sunday reposted the judge's remarks on Truth Social, adding his own reaction to Boasberg: "But he [the judge] doesn't mind if criminals come into our Country. He is a Constitutional disaster! DJT."

Elon Musk noted of Boasberg's comments: "Wow, this is insane."

A few minutes later Sunday afternoon, Musk added: "He has a villainous look to him."

Earlier on Sunday, the nation's top cop indicated the highest court in America will "get involved" in the cases of "out-of-control" federal judges who are working to thwart the agenda of President Donald Trump.

Appearing on "Sunday Morning Futures" with Maria Bartiromo on the Fox News Channel, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said concerning Judge Boasberg halting deportation flights of violent criminals, "The Supreme Court will get involved."

"This is an out-of-control judge, a federal judge trying to control our entire foreign policy and he cannot do it."

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has offered a simple solution that would allow Congress to fix the problem of leftist and activist judges blocking President Donald Trump's agenda to cut fraud and waste from government spending, secure the border and more.

Some of the judges hearing the more than 100 lawsuits leftists have filed against Trump already have documented leftist leanings. One even ordered jets carrying deportees to El Salvador be turned around in the air and the terror suspects returned to the U.S.

Members of Congress have talked about impeachment, or removing the funding for those judges.

DeSantis' plan is something else: Just have Congress withdraw the courts' jurisdiction over those issues.

A report from Fox News explains Congress actually can do just that.

"Congress has the authority to strip jurisdiction of the federal courts to decide these cases in the first place," he explained on social media. "The sabotaging of President Trump's agenda by 'resistance' judges was predictable — why no jurisdiction-stripping bills tee'd up at the onset of this Congress?"

He said the instructions simply could be added to a "must-pass" bill."

DeSantis was responding to earlier suggestions from Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, that Congress defund the activist judges.

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

'We don't want vicious, violent, and demented criminals, many of them deranged murderers, in our country'

Multiple district court judges across the country, many with reputations as left-leaning activists, have been busy since the start of President Donald Trump's second term, issuing nationwide injunctions to try to prevent him from implementing his policies for the executive branch.

More than 100 cases remain to be decided, with expectations many will reach the Supreme Court in one form or another.

But the courts' lawfare against the president has created what many analysts have suggested is a constitutional crisis, with the judges' deliberate interference in the constitutional responsibilities of the president.

Now Trump is responding, in one specific case, with a call for the judge to be removed.

On Truth Social, Trump cited the activism of James Boasberg, a federal judge in Washington who was appointed by Barack Obama, who had demanded that terrorists being deported by the Trump administration be returned to the U.S.

That order was unsuccessful in that situation, because over the weekend the planes loaded with deportees he wanted back in the U.S. already were in international airspace, so his ruling had no effect.

Further, investigative journalist Laura Loomer revealed there appears to be a huge conflict of interest for Boasberg, suggesting he should have, under ethics standards, removed himself from the case.

She explained, "Less than 12 hours after I exposed Judge James Boasberg's conflict of interest with his daughter Katharine Boasberg, who works for a 501c3 called 'Partners For Justice' @PFJ_USA that gives criminal illegal aliens and gang members legal advice, Katharine Boasberg has DELETED her @LinkedIn page and her Instagram account. I have exclusively uncovered a massive CONFLICT OF INTEREST involving Judge James Boasberg, the Chief judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. Judge Boasberg recently made the decision to prevent the deportation of criminal illegal alien gang members on planes out of the country. This is enough for President Trump's legal team to push for a MOTION FOR RECUSAL for Judge Boasberg."

It's not the first time such a situation has arisen for a judge working on a lawfare case against Trump. When Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg wildly claimed that business reporting misdemeanors, for which the statute of limitations already had passed, actually were felonies and put Trump on trial, Judge Juan Merchan allowed testimony from a former porn star and a convicted perjurer to be used against Trump to obtain a conviction.

It also was revealed that Merchan's daughter is a Democrat operative who was advising campaigns, and making money off the decisions her father was making against Trump in court.

Boasberg, meanwhile, has demanded the Trump administration explain why it didn't order the airplanes deporting terrorists and gang members over the weekend to turn around in the air as he had ordered.

In fact, he issued a verbal order, and then followed that with a slightly different written order. The administration said it followed the written order, but in fact, the airplanes already were outside U.S. territorial jurisdiction.

Boasberg claimed that the administration knew he was holding a hearing on those deportations, and presumably should have waited for him to make his demands known.