This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

A planned economic pressure campaign by New York City comptroller Brad Lander against corporations that have not jumped quickly enough to suit him into the business of selling abortion pills is facing shocking headwinds.

From other investors in a number of major corporations.

The Washington Stand documented that Lander wrote threatening letters to multiple companies, Costco, Walmart, Kroger, Albertsons and McKesson, "extorting" them with warnings that if they didn't start selling the dangerous abortion chemical, mifepristone, he would dump $1.3 billion in company shares.

For example, his threat to Costco was, "The Costco Board of Directors' and management's failure to publicly commit to Costco becoming a certified mifepristone dispenser therefore raises significant investor concerns. These concerns include the company's responsiveness to a growing market opportunity, its mitigation of potential reputational risks, and its commitment to maximizing sales and long-term shareholder value."

But there soon was a "counterpunch," the report said.

That message was from companies with more than $100 billion in assets under management, including, the report said, "Inspire Investing, Guidestone, Morgan Stanley, Truist, Bowyer Research, Innovest Portfolio Solutions, Transform Retirement, Barbara Mull Investment Solutions, Pax Financial Group, Harvest Investment, Steward Guide Wealth Partners, WSI Financial Partners, Kingdom Focused Financial, Christian Wealth Management, Chandler Wealth Management, Insight Financial, 4:8 Financial, Blue Jasper Capital, Bright Portfolios, Surepath Financial Services, Sage Oak Financial, Schwallier Wealth Managers," and more.

It was Lander who claimed, falsely, that "mifepristone's safety is well established," as the Stand explained that's "a common lie that's been debunked by countless personal testimonies, emergency room statistics, and in-depth research."

Specifically, there's the drug's stunning 10% failure rate, and multiple studies, including one from Finland that found 20% of some 42,600 women who used the potentially deadly drug had serious complications.

What Lander demanded was for the companies "to immediately take the necessary steps to receive certification to dispense the medication mifepristone in states where it is legal. Following pharmacy industry leaders, and competitors, CVS and Walgreens, Costco has the opportunity to provide access to abortion medication through its pharmacies. Making mifepristone available benefits customers and employees and increases sales, while also generating long-term shareholder value. It is incumbent on the Board and management to promptly act to ensure that Costco quickly becomes certified and starts dispensing mifepristone without delay."

Conservatives, however, have established a reputation of late for expressing their desires, too. Just ask companies like Target, Bud Light, John Deere and Tractor Supply how their forays into leftism worked out. All of those, in fact, were hit financially by their progressive ideologies.

Bud Light, long the most popular beer in America, now is down in the pack, and the collapse has cost the company hundreds of millions of dollars.

Those opponents to mifepristone explained, "Maximizing shareholder value requires Costco to avoid politicizing its services and to continue to do what it has always done best, provide excellent grocery and retail goods to families. The 'growing market opportunity' of abortion drugs is legally and politically fraught, raises significant reputational issues, and reduces the company's customer base, both literally and because it would drive away many existing customers."

Robert Netzly of Inspire Investing said there is no question that Costco moving into the abortion business "would automatically risk its brand reputation."

Financial adviser David Bahnsen pointed out that promoting chemical abortions literally snuffs out possible customers.

The Stand reported, "There aren't many companies these days willing to risk the billions of dollars in public backlash that comes with embracing the Left's agenda. If Costco, Walmart, Kroger, and others want to stay in Americans' good graces, they'll stick with serving customers, not eliminating them."

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.

It apparently was triggered by a horrific jobs report just days ago under the economic practices being used by Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in America.

Now the stock market is turning into a huge flop, and analysts are expressing concerns that there is a recession on the horizon – possibly even a depression.

American stocks were down by significant margins, sometimes up to 10% for Apple, for example, as the markets across the United States reacted to huge collapses in foreign stock markets overnight.

Market commentator Stuart Varney said the selloff involves several factors, including a housing market in trouble – the high interest rates under Biden's economy have cut many people out of the market entirely. And a growing economic slowdown. And inflation. And more.

"The consumer looks to be tapped out. Friday's very weak jobs report convinced investors that the slowdown is real," Varney's report on Fox explained. "It didn't help when Warren Buffett revealed he'd sold about half his stake in Apple, and that he had been a net seller of stocks for several quarters."

Then there's also the war campaigns around the world that have exploded under Biden's leadership in America. And there's politics and the election.

American measurements, the DOW Jones Industrial averages, NASDAQ, and S&P all were off between 2% and 3% on Monday.

Republicans wasted no time in highlighting that Biden and Harris have been making the nation's economic decisions of late, including spending packages of trillions of dollars.

On video, Harris she explains, "Bidenomics. Ha ha ha ha! That is called Bidenomics and we are very proud of Bidenopmics!"

President Donald Trump, the GOP nominee for the White House this year, said, "Of course there is a massive market downturn. Kamala is even worse than Crooked Joe. Markets will NEVER accept the Radical Left Lunatic that DESTROYED San Francisco and California, as a whole. Next move, THE GREAT DEPRESSION OF 2024! You can't play games with MARKETS. KAMALA CRASH!!!"

A report at the Gateway Pundit said it was Harris' words from only a year ago that are haunting her now.

"Biden and Harris have overseen soaring levels of inflation that have depleted ordinary Americans' savings and made everything more expensive since seizing power more than three years ago," the report said. "All of Wall Street's main indexes crashed Monday morning, with both the Dow Jones plunging and the Nasdaq Composite cratering, plunging more than 1,000 points after the Opening Bell. This news follows last week's disastrous jobs report, which showed a paltry 114,000 jobs were created and the unemployment rate rising to a three-year high."

Earlier, markets in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan took nosedives.

The report noted Harris's boasts about Bidenomics were from only one year ago.

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

A court in the United Kingdom has affirmed the legality of a ban on chemical puberty blockers for children.

The chemicals are given to children by doctors and/or parents who say they want to delay the bodily development of their children so they can determine whether they want to be male or female.

It's a false argument, as being male or female is embedded in the human body down to the DNA level, and while bodies can be surgically "modified," sex cannot be changed.

A report from the Christian Institute explained the UK High Court has affirmed a government ban on prescribing those chemicals for gender-confused children.

"Activist group TransActual UK, in partnership with the crowdfunding group Good Law Project, failed to overturn the Conservative Government's emergency legislation, which protects under-18s from obtaining the drugs via private prescriptions from the UK or Europe," the report explained.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting also has confirmed he'll extend the ban, scheduled to expire in September.

"Mrs Justice Lang DBE dismissed the activists' challenge on all grounds, concluding that it was reasonable for the government to act swiftly based on the highly respected Cass Review without consulting the public," the report continued.

The Cass Review, recently made public, confirmed "very substantial risks and very narrow benefits associated with the use of puberty blockers."

The transgender ideology has been running wild over the last few years, especially in the United States where Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have been repeatedly advocating for the dangerous procedures.

Author JK Rowling, a critic of transgenderism, on social media said, "We seem, at last, to be moving back to treatment for vulnerable youth based on evidence-based medicine, as opposed to the unevidenced claims of ideological lobby groups."

The BBC noted, "In March 2024, NHS England decided that puberty blockers would no longer be routine treatment for children with gender dysphoria. At that point, puberty blockers were only allowed to be used in NHS clinical trials."

The government then tightened the rules on the chemicals, allowing an emergency ban to prevent them from being used on children.

Chay Brown, of TransActual, said, "We are seriously concerned about the safety and welfare of young trans people in the UK."

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

WASHINGTON – Why does the government appear to want to kill January 6 political prisoner Ryan Samsel?

Throughout his nearly four years of pretrial detention, Samsel has pleaded – to no avail – with judges and jail staff to allow him the critical, life-saving vascular surgery he was prescribed before his arrest to stop his blood from clotting.

Instead, he developed 17 blood clots throughout his body while being systemically denied medical treatment during his incarceration. Left untreated, the clots morph into blood-flow-obstructing fibroids.

Thus, each day Samsel is refused surgery his life is literally at risk.

But the Biden Justice Department has essentially played political football with the lives of Samsel and all the other so-called "insurrectionists" who were unprecedentedly assaulted, gassed, bombed and shot at with less-than-lethal munitions by police, terrorized by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, denied bail while held in pretrial custody for years for nonviolent crimes, and handed shockingly lengthy prison sentences for trumped-up or trivial charges that are normally treated as misdemeanors punishable by fines or a maximum one-year prison term.

In addition to being denied the lifesaving procedure, Samsel has essentially been tortured while detained in pretrial detention for "his role in the Capitol riot," repeatedly assaulted by jail guards, from which he has sustained irreversible injuries including loss of eyesight and a broken orbital floor. He has sometimes been detained in solitary confinement for weeks and months at a time.

While caged in a filthy cell in Metropolitan Detention Center Brooklyn, with the assistance of this reporter and a legal expert, Samsel determined to fight for his medical and civil rights pro se in two groundbreaking lawsuits.

In both a Petition of Writ of Mandamus and a Writ of Habeas Corpus filed in the Eastern District of New York on July 19, Ryan Samsel – the political prisoner, Pennsylvania barber and former MMA fighter – lays out how he has been routinely trafficked across the country between different correctional facilities as the respondents systemically circumvent the law and doctors' orders to deny him critical care and emergency surgery in what he suspects is a calculated attempt to take his life.

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

Lame duck Joe Biden has proposed a list of changes, including modifications to the U.S. Constitution, that would allow bureaucrats to have their way with the U.S. Supreme Court.

He wants to throw out justices after they've served just half of the time he spent in the U.S. Senate. He wants ways to force them to make decisions they otherwise might not make. And he wants to target President Donald Trump, the GOP nominee for 2024, with criminal charges.

What it all means, according to a pointed commentary by Jarrett Stepman, a columnist for the Daily Signal, is that Democrats want – and openly are working toward – a "one-party rule" under the "guise of 'democracy.'"

Stepman warned that Biden's agenda "would bring them another step closer to that reality," and would take away the stops that now prevent "the United States from becoming a banana republic, where losing power means being sent to prison—or worse."

Biden, whose declining mental abilities have been evident for a long now time, a decline cited by a special counsel who suggested not charging him for violating federal law regarding the handling of classified documents, boasted of his agenda in a column in the Washington Post.

Democratic nominee hopeful Kamala Harris endorsed it.

"In the plan, Biden—the byline says he wrote it, so let's pretend that's true for a moment—listed a series of radical proposals cloaked in language to give them the appearance of being reasonable," Stepman explained.

Biden claimed to have "great respect" for the nation's institutions and separation of powers.

Then he laid out his case "for their destruction."

His first point was to overturn by legislative action the ruling from the Supreme Court that the Constitution provides immunity for the president for his official acts in Congress.

Leftists were enraged by that decision because it throws a wrench in their lawfare campaign that has brought multiple civil and criminal cases against Trump.

In fact, the ruling said the president has immunity for official acts, but not necessarily for any other actions.

Biden's comments misrepresented the facts of the Democrats' lawfare, as he claimed "No one is above the law. Not the president of the United States. Not a justice on the Supreme Court of the United States," and demanded changes. But that is exactly what the Supreme Court ruling already said.

Then he demanded term limits for Supreme Court justices, under a plan that would allow a president to appoint a new justice every two years,

He concealed whether his plan would impact the current sitting justices, but coincidentally, the three most senior all are conservatives, and if it would apply, his scheme would change the court from a 6-3 conservative majority to a 5-4 liberal bloc.

"How convenient," Stepman noted.

Biden's during his time in the Senate in 1983, called such court-takeover plans "bonehead."

The third article of intervention Biden proposed to control the decisions of the court is to impose a "code" on the Supreme Court through which lawmakers or bureaucrats could insist that justices remove themselves from cases even if there's no reason.

"It's a clear violation of the separation of powers and based on the completely fabricated narrative that the Supreme Court is mired in ethics scandals," Stepman explained. Leftists have, in fact, created "scandals" involving some of the conservative justices as part of their political attacks.

Stepman noted that the court is one institution that Democrats and other leftists have yet to establish control over, and interestingly, it wasn't a problem until the court "shifted to the right."

"It's a fairly ironclad rule in American politics that any institution the Left doesn't control it will ultimately seek to destroy. So it goes with the modern Supreme Court," he said.

The court, in fact, now "represents a potential roadblock to their absolute power over American government."

So they are demanding to remove justices with whom they disagree, and install some of their own ideological compatriots.

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

ActBlue is the billion-dollar fundraising operation that exists to pay for the Democrats' agenda in America.

Online, it boasts of collecting some $14 billion for Democrats since 2004. At this time its total was rising at the rate of about $1,000 per second.

It talks about "powering Democratic candidates & progressive causes across the country."

It also now is under investigation for possible criminal violations.

It is the Post-Millennial that explains the attorney general for the state of Virginia is reviewing allegations the Democrat money machine "has thousands of donations registered under stolen identities and names."

It was commentator and personality Charlie Kirk who said, online, that "It's trivially easy to find massive, repeated donations to ActBlue that use stolen identities and, quite possibly, stolen credit cards."

To which Virginia AG Jason Miyares explained, "My office is aware of these allegations and rest assured, we are looking into it."

The report explained the issue arose in Virginia because a 79-year-old resident living in an apartment at $2,000 a month was "recorded" as having made 22,619 separate donations since 2019.

Totaling more than $800,000.

Kirk, founder of TPUSA, said that "donor," "obviously (is) being exploited for some kind of money-laundering operation. ActBlue raises from all fifty states. We have fifty state AGs. When will one of them take action?"

It was NOVA Campaigns that had shared that Kerry Alberti, 79, was making thousands and thousands of donations each year.

The report said, "ActBlue has been the subject of multiple investigations from O'Keefe Media Group, where people on fixed incomes have their names attached on thousands of donations to Democrats, amounting to tens of thousands of dollars. ActBlue claims that it is the home of 'small-dollar donors' for those on the left. The donation platform 'is available to Democratic candidates and committees, progressive organizations, and nonprofits that share our values for no cost besides a 3.95 percent processing fee on donations.'"

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

An "amazing" parody video spoofing the candidacy of Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential race has been shared by Elon Musk, prompting outrage from left-leaning media.

"I, Kamala Harris, am your Democrat candidate for president because Joe Biden finally exposed his senility at the debate. Thanks Joe," Kamala appears to say in the phony ad.

"I was selected because I am the ultimate diversity hire. I'm both a woman and a person of color, so if you criticize anything I say, you're both sexist and racist."

"I may not know the first thing about running the country, but remember, that's a good thing if you're a Deep State puppet. …

"Joe taught me Rule #1: Carefully hide your total incompetence."

"I take insignificant things and I discuss them as if they're significant, and I believe that exploring the significance of the insignificant is, in itself, significant."

The video, which has more than 123 million views as of Sunday afternoon, was originally posted Friday morning by @MrReaganUSA, clearly indicating it's a "parody," though Musk's sharing comment did not mention that.

It's actually a reworked version of a Harris campaign ad, deleting images of of former President Donald Trump and his running mate JD Vance, while adding images of Biden.

After Musk shared the video with a laughing emoji, there was plenty of reaction.

Investigative journalist and conservative activist Laura Loomer said: "They should run this on TV."

Other commenters stated: "Finally, an honest campaign ad ."

"This is brilliant."

The New York Times wrote about the video, headlining its news story: "Elon Musk Shares Manipulated Harris Video, in Seeming Violation of X's Policies."

The report by Ken Bensinger of the Times said: "Mr. Musk's post … would seem to run afoul of X's policies, which prohibit sharing 'synthetic, manipulated or out-of-context media that may deceive or confuse people and lead to harm.'

"Some observers quickly called out the post. 'This is a violation of @X's policies on synthetic media & misleading identities,' Alex Howard, a digital governance expert and the director of the Digital Democracy Project at the Demand Progress Education Fund, posted on the site on Saturday. 'Are you going to retroactively change them to allow violations in an election year?'"

The paper added: "Pro-democracy groups have raised increasingly urgent alarms about deepfakes, a broad term for digital content that employs artificial intelligence and other technology to create audio, video or images that spread false information and could influence voter behavior.

"The Federal Election Campaign Act prohibits fraudulent misrepresentation of federal candidates or political parties, but the law, written in 1971, is ambiguous when it comes to modern technologies such as artificial intelligence."

The Harris campaign said Saturday: "We believe the American people want the real freedom, opportunity, and security Vice President Harris is offering; not the fake, manipulated lies of Elon Musk and Donald Trump."

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

An Idaho woman has decided to fight – in a higher court – for permission to occupy her tiny home on wheels.

It was Jason Scott, a judge in district court in Ada County, who ruled against her use of her own home.

The situation is that the town of Meridian bans tiny homes on wheels, and also requires that if there is a secondary dwelling unit on a property the same person owns both.

The case being pursued by the Institute for Justice is on behalf of Chasidy Decker, a native of the Treasure Valley.

Because of the high cost of homes there, she bought a tiny home and arranged to park it on Meridian homeowner Robert Calacal's private property for rent.

The institute explained, "Although Chasidy and Robert were both happy with the arrangement, the city was not. Meridian Code Enforcement threatened Chasidy and Robert with fines and jail time if she didn't leave her only home. Chasidy and Robert filed a lawsuit in 2022 challenging the city's irrational and arbitrary ban on tiny homes on wheels for violating the Idaho Constitution."

"I'm devastated that, after waiting two years, I won't be able to move back into my tiny home on Robert's property anytime soon," Decker said in a statement released through her legal team.

"This is terrible news for tiny homeowners and others like me who need more affordable housing alternatives in Idaho."

Bob Beldon, a lawyer for the institute, said< "The city's requirement that the same person has to own both Chasidy's tiny home and Robert's house in order to get an SDU permit is irrational. But we will seek review of this ruling to help protect the property rights of Chasidy and Robert and other Idahoans who wish to make productive use of their residential property to provide more housing."

WND reported when the case developed the institute charged the city's actions were unconstitutional because the local ban on "tiny homes of wheels" actually violates the Idaho Constitution.

According to a report from the IJ's Matt Powers, the state constitution requires that all laws have a legitimate government interest.

"But Meridian's ban has none—Chasidy's home is perfectly safe, which Meridian conceded when they encouraged her to move it to an RV park to live in. The city also can't argue that her home would somehow affect the appearance of the neighborhood since her tiny home is perfectly legal to keep where it's parked—she just can't live in it," the report explained.

"At a time when so few housing options are available to low- and middle-income Americans, why is the city's zoning ordinance further reducing such options?" said IJ Senior Attorney Dan Alban. "Cities should be making it easier for residents to find affordable housing, not more difficult."

This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

Hunter Biden's legal risks are far from over. After having been convicted of gun charges, in a few weeks he'll face a trial on tax charges.

Multiple observers say they expect Joe Biden to deliver a pardon before he leaves office, but right now it's Hunter Biden's lawyers who are in jeopardy.

It's because a judge concluded they misrepresented the facts in demanding that those tax counts be dismissed.