This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
A campaign to eliminate guns from one state is under investigation now, for apparently completing gun purchases during a door-to-door campaign, without completing the legally required background checks.
A social media statement posted by San Juan, New Mexico, County Sheriff Shane Ferrari confirmed the investigation into the group called New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence.
"Before it comes out in the media and gets twisted one way or another, I want to inform you that I am investigating San Juan County citizens' complaints that the 'New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence' gun buyback program not complying with New Mexico State Law 30-7-7.1 'Unlawful sale of a firearm without a background check,'" he said.
"Reviewing the law I do not see where they are exempt from having to undergo a background check and are required to like anyone else. A sale is taking place (gift cards $100 and up), it is advertised as a purchase and called a 'buy back.' Some may question the exemption 'to law enforcement' meaning if we (law enforcement) purchase the gun we don’t need a background check. This mainly covers law enforcement purchasing duty guns."
"If 'New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence' is going through law enforcement to purchase the unwanted firearms those must remain in that law enforcement agency's custody until they obtain a destruction order. Law enforcement can not immediately give someone (including a non-profit group) a firearm for destruction or other means. If that were the case, you could give your gun to law enforcement and they could give it to the San Juan County Wildlife Federation for educational purposes or anyone."
He said in his opinion, the organization is not following the law.
He said he's reached out to the anti-gunners and they referred him to Attorney General Torrez, who now is reviewing the possibility of criminal activity.
He said his investigation is continuing.
"Your right to possess a firearm is upheld in the 2nd Amendment," he said, explaining a person's right to sell property, too, is protected as long as the purchaser is legally qualified to own it.
A report in the Western Journal said that a "buyback" program in Farmington was canceled over the unresolved questions about the legality of what was happening – the purchase, the possession, and even the destruction of weapons.
He also expressed doubts about such programs.
"Most guns purchased are junk, but the numbers look good on paper,” he wrote. “I don’t like my tax dollars being used to buy someone’s unwanted property or junk. You could have it destroyed yourself if you really don’t want it. Taxpayers [sic] shouldn’t pay for it."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
A transit organization's decision to censor ads based on their intent "to influence members of the public regarding an issue on which there are varying public opinions" and "religion," has prompted a federal First Amendment lawsuit.
First Liberty Institute explains it is working on a case challenging the actions of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority's advertising censorship – as violations of the First Amendment.
"The case against WMATA is a critical reminder of what’s at stake when government entities exercise selective censorship. The First Amendment doesn’t play favorites; it ensures that all voices, regardless of their message, have the right to be heard," explained Arthur Spitzer of the ACLU-DC, which is working with First Liberty.
"The government cannot arbitrarily decide which voices to silence in public forums."
First Liberty explained, "The lawsuit was filed on behalf of WallBuilder Presentations ('WallBuilders'), an organization advocating for Americans to understand their history and the important role religion played in the founding of our nation, which sought to advertise on the side of WMATA Metro buses."
The organization said the transit company's officials "rejected the ads because they violated its advertising guidelines."
The lawsuit charges that the restrictions on speech in ads violate the First Amendment, which bans government agencies from picking and choosing which private speech is allowed, based on viewpoint.
The lawsuit points out that the transit authority recently had allowed ads demanding Supreme Court term limits and transparency in hospital prices. It also took ads with religious content such as for "The Book of Mormon" musical.
The case charges that such censorship programs always lead to discrimination based on viewpoints, and result in arbitrary and unreasonable harm to some.
"The First Amendment grants all Americans the right to express their point of view, religious or secular," said First Liberty's Jeremy Dys.
"Rejecting a faith-based advertising banner by labeling it an ‘issue ad,’ while accepting other ads such as those promoting a ‘Social Justice School,’ ‘Earth Day,’ and the highly controversial idea of terms limits for Supreme Court Justices, is hypocritical, discriminatory, and illegal. WMATA must support the freedoms provided in the First Amendment rather than silence Americans through censorship."
The filing requests a court declaration that the censorship rules at WMATA are unconstitutional and that WallBuilder's ads should be run.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
A former employee of a hospital in Newcastle, Wyoming, is charging that the institution's officials tried to have her involuntarily committed as a mental patient after she had raised questions about the ethics – and legality – of some of their actions.
A report in the Cowboy State Daily confirms a lawsuit has been filed by Amanda McDade against Weston County Health Services in federal court.
"She accuses the hospital of retaliating for voicing her concerns, of threatening to have her involuntarily committed as if she were mentally ill, of causing her anxiety, and of forcing her to resign," the report explained.
McDade, a human services employee, worked for the corporation for several years.
Her lawsuit charges, "The defendant is a governmental entity under the Wyoming Governmental Claims Act. Certainly, the government cannot threaten to strip us of our civil liberty and freedom when their illegality and ethics are called out through the proper process. To silence the voice of those who speak against you and threaten to place them in an involuntary mental health hold, as a government employer, is nothing that should ever occur in the free United States of America."
The hospital didn't respond to the publication's requests for comment.
Her responsibilities included, among other things, employee records, payroll, timekeeping, and operations documentation.
The report said the filing charges, "During her employment, the plaintiff raised concerns of money mismanagement, illegality, and ethics through the proper chain of command. Instead of this being remedied, the plaintiff was retaliated against and subjected to a hostile work environment."
The document alleges the hospital officials asked her to change records to "cover-up," but she did not, as she considered the instructions "unethical and likely illegal," the report documents.
Then, abruptly, she found officials were trying to have her involuntarily committed as a mental patient.
The news came when a nurse called McDade to set up a meeting with McDade's physician, Dr. Sara Thurgood.
"McDade was puzzled, as she hadn’t made an appointment and had no medication concerns, the complaint states.
When Thurgood arrived, she informed McDade that hospital officials were concerned she was "almost manic," although the doctor agreed McDade didn't give that appearance.
"My biggest concern here is that they are talking about potentially, uhh, I hope that it’s OK I’m telling you this, they’re talking about potentially involuntary commitment," Thurgood told her.
She said she wouldn't commit McDade herself.
McDade told the doctor she was "in terror and shock," and left the hospital, the report said.
"She legitimately expected the cops to meet her at the door with a straight jacket to see their malicious plan through," the complaint charges.
She later emailed a resignation.
Thurgood told the Cowboy State Daily she was a pawn in the scheme and didn't know what money mismanagement concerns McDade had raised, but hospital officials had asked for her to pursue a commitment to McDade.
"I felt extremely uncomfortable by what I was asked to do. They wanted me to declare her either a danger to herself or other people – that’s what you have to do to Title 25 someone. I did not see that in her," the doctor said.
The legal action seeks damages including pay and lost benefits, compensatory damages for emotional pain and suffering, and punitive damages to be determined at trial.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Nicole Nogrady, a recording star who also acted in "TRON: Legacy," "CSI: NY" and others, has released a video with the stunning warning that we now are in a "Modern Day Holy War."
The star, whose resume includes competing in Miss Trump 2001 and being a camp counselor to Frances-Bean, daughter of Courtney Love and Kurt Cobain, previously was known for commenting, "Life gets amazing and amazing things happen when you realize it's not all about you anymore."
The video starts with President Trump's description of faith in America: "We don't worship government. We worship God."
Nogrady then explains, "Open your eyes, no time to be blind. Open your mind, to see we're in a Modern Day Holy War."
"Be in sin no more," she explains.
Warning, "Everything you learn in school is always just a great big stupid lie," she continues. "Evil is no blatantly running rampant."
Two of Joe Biden's major agenda points in the White House have been promoting unlimited, unrestricted, tax-paid abortion for all. And body-mutilating transgenderism as a goal for children.
Further, his administration repeatedly has attacked churches for simply living out their faith, pro-life advocates for expressing their opinions under the First Amendment, and even has orchestrated assaults on Christian groups like Grand Canyon University, which he's hit with a $37 million fine for allegedly failing to fully explain to graduate students they would need to take courses while doing their dissertations.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
A new study shows that people who experience gender dysphoria cannot expect various mental health issues to disappear by having gender reassignment surgery, according to a report in the Washington Stand.
The study, from Finland, was published in European Psychiatry.
The study noted that those with gender dysphoria "present with many more common psychiatric needs" than a population in general, "even when medical GR [gender-reassignment] interventions are carried out."
The recommendation from the authors, according to the report, was for a "cautious assessment of the timeliness of medical GR and of other treatment needs that may be more urgent."
The study reviewed cases of more than 3,600 people who reached out to "nationally centralized gender identity services" in Finland from 1996 to 2019, and found 38.4% got cross-sex hormones or surgical "reassignment."
Then researchers lined up eight other people "of the same sex, age, and place birth," resulting in a control population of nearly 30,000.
Comparing the groups, the authors found "a much higher risk that a person with gender dysphoria will need 'specialist-level psychiatric treatment' (most often for mood disorders and anxiety) than their age-matched controls and that they will receive more care after entering the system," the report noted.
The authors assigned an "index date" to mark the point that a dysphoric person either had an appointment with a diagnostic team or at a hospital providing such services.
"Before the index date, people with gender dysphoria were 2.4 times as likely to have contact with a specialist-level psychiatrist than the control group (33.0% to 13.7%). After the index date, the gender-dysphoric group was 4.2 times as likely to have contact with a specialist-level psychiatrist (60.6% to 14.5%). People with gender dysphoria were 3.2 times more likely to have received inpatient psychiatric treatment before the index date (11.7% to 3.6%) and 4.0 times more likely after the index date (10.7% to 2.7%)," The Stand report said.
The study also found of those with gender dysphoria, almost three times as many "did not proceed to gender-reassignment procedures if they had obtained serious psychiatric treatment" before their first appointment with those gender services schemes.
The study noted gender dysphoric people needing serious psychiatric treatment surged from 15.3% to 52.9% when people got cross-sex hormones or surgeries.
The study found: "Among people with gender dysphoria, fully half of those who received gender-reassignment interventions later obtained serious psychiatric treatment, although they were slightly less likely to do so than those who did not receive gender-reassignment interventions.
It shows those who got "serious psychiatric treatment" before getting hormones or surgeries, 4 of 5 "still needed psychiatric treatment after…"
The Stand report that the results varied as the authors controlled for "for the year of birth, legal sex, when patients first sought treatment for gender dysphoria, and whether they had previously received serious psychiatric treatment."
That model found "people with gender dysphoria were 3.8 or 3.9 times more likely than the control group to need serious psychiatric treatment," the report said.
The authors also found psychiatric issues were rising generally, but by only the smallest of margins, 3% higher than for people born a year earlier.
Further, they blamed the mental health "crisis" in the Western world as being triggered by "social media."
The Stand explained, "The report’s conclusion also undermines a commonly expressed narrative in U.S. debates over gender-transition procedures for minors, who lack the power to make permanent, life-altering medical decisions in many other contexts."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
The Christian Post has documented Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' pursuit of faith before a first child was born to his wife, Casey, following an earlier miscarriage.
During an interview at the FAMILY Leader's Thanksgiving Family forum, he explained:
“We were married, doing our thing. I was in the Navy, my wife was busy as a TV reporter, and we wanted to have a family, and it didn’t happen at first,” he said. Then after a trip to Israel, "We prayed, we prayed a lot to have a family, and then, lo and behold, we go back to the United States, and a little time later, we … got pregnant."
That first baby, however, was lost.
"We just kept the faith, we just kept praying. We knew that there would be a path that God would lead us on, and lo and behold … a short time after ... we had our first baby girl."
But now a report at the National Pulse explains how when he was inaugurated as governor in 2019, his staff "scrambled" to buy a Bible.
His family apparently didn't have one.
"The King James Bible, held during the inauguration by the governor’s wife Casey DeSantis, was purchased by staff from Jeff Bezos’s Amazon.com for $21.74 and shipped to Florida’s Republican Party headquarters," the report said. "The revelation that DeSantis did not own a family Bible – at least in 2019 – casts a degree of doubt on his current presidential campaign’s framing of the governor as a staunch Christian and culture warrior. The DeSantis campaign has focused heavily on outreach to Evangelical Christians, though DeSantis himself is ostensibly Catholic," the report charged.