Minnesota residents saw a huge win on the topic of Second Amendment rights this week, following a ruling by the state supreme court about serial numbers on firearms.
The Minnesota Supreme Court ruled on Aug. 6 that state law does not preclude residents from carrying a “ghost gun,” which doesn’t have a serial number, as Minnesota's KSTP reported.
The case came before the court due to a legal issue that began in 2022 with a state patrol trooper’s response to a car crash when the firearm was found.
During the course of the state trooper's response to an accident that included a rollover crash in Fridley, Minnesota, the driver told the officer about the firearm.
He also told the law enforcement official that he didn’t have a permit to carry that gun. The trooper found it and discovered it was a so-called “ghost gun” without a serial number.
Thanks to that discovery, the man was charged with felony possession of a firearm without a serial number, as well as carrying a handgun without a permit.
In response to those charges, the man’s defense team moved to dismiss the serial number charge, saying there was no probable cause.
The firearm owner had to defend himself from a Minnesota statute that was put on the books more than 30 years ago in 1994, which made it criminal to receive or possess a firearm that is "not identified by a serial number."
The state’s high court, however, decided that the 1994 statute is but a refrence to the federal law, and that the state of Minnesota doesn’t have an independent system to require the serial numbers.
Judge Paul Thissen penned the majority opinion, in which he asserted that the state statute doesn’t clearly define enough about what a serial number references.
According to the Thissen-authored opinion, the possession of a firearm that is not identified by a serial number is illegal "only if federal law requires that the firearm have a serial number."
While the court ruled in favor of the gun owner, this doesn’t mean the justices are in favor of guns without serial numbers.
In fact, Thissen wrote that the guns "pose real dangers to public safety and the proper regulation of such weapons is an important policy issue. Many states have regulated ghost guns through the legislative process, yet Minnesota has not acted."
“Ghost guns” are generally firearms that are assembled from parts put together by those other than the manufacturer, and since they don’t have serial numbers, are much more difficult for law enforcement to track.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives said that between the years 2016 and 2021, they suspect that over 45,000 suspected ghost guns were recovered from crime scenes nationwide.
President Donald Trump is again calling for the federalization of Washington D.C., after a member of the Department of Government Accountability (DOGE) was badly beaten.
The staffer, Edward Coristine, also known as “Big Balls,” by those inside the D.C. beltway, was the victim of the attack, which has again reignited discussion about the possible takeover, as Fox News reported.
Trump’s push is backed by a number of Republicans, including Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), who has been calling for federalization for some time, saying the town should come under Congressional control.
Lee has even introduced the Bringing Oversight to Washington and Safety to Every Resident (BOWSER) Act, named after D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, in light of recent crime.
The bill, which was introduced with a companion bill by Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) has yet to make it out of Committee, despite some moderate support.
"The Constitution already federalizes D.C.," Lee said on X. "We just need Congress to do its job — and reassert its lawmaking power over our nation’s capital city. My bill, the BOWSER Act, would do that."
The president took to Truth Social on Aug 5 to talk about his frustration with the city that he now calls home, saying, “Crime in Washington, D.C., is totally out of control.
“Local ‘youths’ and gang members, some only 14, 15, and 16-years-old, are randomly attacking, mugging, maiming, and shooting innocent Citizens, at the same time knowing that they will be almost immediately released.”
According to Trump, the lawbreakers aren’t afraid of law enforcement “because they know nothing ever happens to them, but it’s going to happen now!”
Trump said that the D.C. laws needed to be changed to prosecute those carrying out the violent crimes as adults, regardless of whether they are legally minors, all the way down to the age of 14.
In his post, the president spoke about the recent victim who was “ beaten mercilessly by local thugs,” and he said that Washington, D.C., must be safe, clean, and beautiful for all Americans.”
Trump also said he believes it’s important for the world to see a Washington, D.C. that is a reflection of the nation, which he believes could be accomplished via federal control.
“If D.C. doesn’t get its act together, and quickly, we will have no choice but to take Federal control of the City, and run this City how it should be run, and put criminals on notice that they’re not going to get away with it anymore.
He voiced his regret saying maybe if that step had already been taken, “this incredible young man, and so many others, would not have had to go through the horrors of Violent Crime.”
President Donald Trump fired five of the seven members of the Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico (FOMBPR) on Friday, as reported exclusively by Breitbart News.
An official at the White House informed Breitbart that Chairman Arthur J. Gonzalez, Cameron McKenzie, Betty Rosa, Juan Sabater, and Luis Ubiñas were taken off the board, while the remaining two members, Andrew Biggs and John Nixon, remain in place.
“The Financial Oversight and Management Board of Puerto Rico has been run inefficiently and ineffectively by its governing members for far too long, and it’s time to restore common sense leadership,” the official said.
The official said, and a 2017 Daily Caller report supports, that the average salary of the board members is approximately $214,000, which is 10 times the median household income of $20,078 in Puerto Rico.
All of the board members were appointed by former President Barack Obama in 2016. He also appointed Robert F. Mujica Jr., previously the “budget guru” for former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D), as the board's executive director at a reported salary of $625,000.
Mujica formerly made $216,000 as Cuomo's budget guru, so it was a huge jump for him as well.
“The Board is tasked with working with the people and Government of Puerto Rico to create the needed foundation for economic growth and to restore opportunity to the 3.5 million Americans of Puerto Rico,” an Obama press release read at the time.
Besides the $3 million budget for staff, the board spent north of $1 million on McKinney each month for "strategic consulting," according to a 2017 New Yorker article.
“Millions more have gone to other firms—many of which have political connections—to cover costs that include catering and inflated photocopying charges," the article said.
The far-left newspaper Jacobin noted in a critical article in 2023 that Puerto Rico has been bankrupt since 2016; in other words, the board's activities have not benefited the territory.
Democrats love to portray Republicans as profiting off the poor (by running legitimate businesses and paying employees), but how much worse is it to take hugely inflated salaries and spend tens of millions of dollars every year while doing nothing to help this nation, where many live on next to nothing?
It's unconscionable, and it happens way too often in Latin American countries where leaders routinely take all the wealth for themselves and leave the people no better off than before.
It's even worse when the American government does it to one of its own territories, which it should presumably protect and help.
Hopefully, Trump will get rid of Mujica, too, and will put in his own people who will actually improve economic conditions in Puerto Rico.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) said Sunday night that if Democrats in the state House don't show up to work by 3 p.m. on Monday, he will ask a court to remove them so he can appoint replacements under Texas Attorney General Opinion No. KP-0382.
The Democrats fled to Illinois last week to "break quorum" and prevent the House from voting on a redistricting plan that they think disenfranchises minority voters.
By their absence, they are denying the chamber a quorum, which means votes cannot take place.
“Real Texans do not run from a fight. But that’s exactly what most of the Texas House Democrats just did,” Abbott wrote. “Rather than doing their job and voting on urgent legislation affecting the lives of all Texans, they have fled Texas to deprive the House of the quorum necessary to meet and conduct business.”
The Democrats justified their actions by accusing Republicans of trying to "steal the voices" of minority voters.
Democrat Caucus Chair Gene Wu (D-Houston) said the governor is “using an intentionally racist map to steal the voices of millions of Black and Latino Texans, all to execute a corrupt political deal.” The chairman said House Democrats will “not be complicit in the silencing of hard-working communities who have spent decades fighting for the power that (President Donald Trump) wants to steal.”
But Abbott responded, "The Attorney General considered 'whether Texas law allows for a determination that a legislator has vacated office' if they intentionally break quorum. The Attorney General concluded that 'whether a specific legislator abandoned his or her office such that a vacancy occurred will be a fact question for a court.'"
Abbott added:
These absences are not merely unintended and unavoidable interruptions in public service, like a sudden illness or a family emergency. Instead, these absences were premeditated for an illegitimate purpose— what one representative called “breaking quorum.” Another previously signaled that Democrats “would have to go by an extreme measure” of a quorum break “to stop these bills from happening.” In other words, Democrats hatched a deliberate plan not to show up for work, for the specific purpose of abdicating the duties of their office and thwarting the chamber’s business.
That amounts to an abandonment or forfeiture of an elected state office.
Abbott's words were far more restrained than Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's.
“Democrats in the Texas House who try and run away like cowards should be found, arrested, and brought back to the Capitol immediately,” Paxton wrote in a post on X. “We should use every tool at our disposal to hunt down those who think they are above the law.”
Democrats in the Texas House who try and run away like cowards should be found, arrested, and brought back to the Capitol immediately.
We should use every tool at our disposal to hunt down those who think they are above the law.
— Attorney General Ken Paxton (@KenPaxtonTX) August 3, 2025
Meanwhile, Democrats accused Republicans of bringing up relief for recent flood victims in the same special session in which the redistricting vote would be held.
“For two weeks, while families in the Hill Country mourned the loss of over 130 Texans in catastrophic floods, Democrats fought to make their relief the legislature’s top priority,” the Texas House Democrats said in a statement on Sunday. “Instead, Governor Abbott and Republican leadership used the tragedy as political cover.”
Sadly, it seems that the only way to try to get Democrats to actually do their jobs as legislators was to hold that aid "hostage" to voting on an issue that Republicans have full power to do.
Let's remember that these Republicans were elected in sufficient numbers to do a job, and now Democrats want to prevent them from doing part of that job just because they don't agree. That's not democracy, and Abbott cannot let it stand.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld a lower court decision restricting ICE from targeting individuals for investigation based on job, appearance, or spoken language.
The decision means that ICE agents are required to have specific probable cause instead of a general suspicion about an individual's citizenship.
This decision backs a decision by U.S. District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong blocking ICE from making arrests based on the aforementioned factors.
The panel wrote, "We agree with the district court that, in the context of the Central District of California, the four enumerated factors at issue — apparent race, ethnicity, speaking Spanish or speaking English with an accent, particular location and type of work, even when considered together — describe only a broad profile and do not demonstrate reasonable suspicion for any particular stop."
This decision will kneecap much of ICE's workplace raid operations, as targeting specific job sites is an effective tactic to find illegal immigrants. However, ICE isn't taking this decision lying down and plans for more workplace raids are steaming ahead.
The lawsuit was mostly based on a statement from a Los Angeles deputy immigration commander that ICE was targeting "certain types of businesses, including carwashes, because past experiences have demonstrated that illegal aliens utilize and seek work at these locations."
As part of ICE's extensive raids in southern California, agents have been raiding Home Depots, car washes, bus stops, and in one highly publicized case, a marijuana farm in Ventura County that employed minors alongside sexual predators.
ICE's mission is an important one, but not to the leftist judges like Judge Frimpong, who was appointed by President Biden, and the judges on the notoriously leftist 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
They would rather make ICE's job harder and defend illegal immigrants and the abusive business owners exploiting cheap labor and endangering minors.
Democratic Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who is sending money to illegal immigrants, hailed the decision as a victory, saying, "The Temporary Restraining Order that has been protecting our communities from immigration agents using racial profiling and other illegal tactics when conducting their cruel and aggressive enforcement raids and sweeps will remain in place for now."
Of course, this ruling won't truly stop Trump's aggressive deportation operations, but it still demonstrates the damage that leftist judges can do by blocking the will of the American people.
For the most part, the White House has been quiet about this particular case, which will go back to a lower court for another hearing in September.
White House aide Stephen Miller took to X to say, "The ruling has just been issued. A communist judge in LA has ordered ICE to report directly to her and radical left NGOs — not the president. This is another act of insurrection against the United States and its sovereign people."
Leftist district judges still hold a lot of power to obstruct the Trump agenda but it seems likely that should this case advance to the Supreme Court, conservative justices will likely nuke this faulty ruling that has effectively declared certain areas as "safe zones" for illegal immigrants.
President Donald Trump's offhand remark about Jeffrey Epstein "stealing" Virginia Giuffre from his Mar-a-Lago resort has ignited fresh outrage and speculation, the Daily Mail reported.
Trump's comment this week, claiming Epstein poached Giuffre from the spa there two decades ago, drew sharp rebukes from her family, revived conspiracy theories, and spotlighted her 2016 deposition where she cleared him of any misconduct.
Back in the summer of 2000, Giuffre, then 16, held a job as a locker room attendant at the Mar-a-Lago spa in Palm Beach, Florida.
Her father, Sky Roberts, worked as a maintenance man at the club, and the two occasionally crossed paths with Trump, though Giuffre described no close friendship between them.
That same year, Ghislaine Maxwell approached Giuffre and recruited her as a masseuse for Epstein, marking the start of troubling allegations.
Giuffre later claimed Maxwell and Epstein coerced her into serving as a sexual companion, arranging encounters with Epstein and his associates around the world when she was 17 and 18.
Among those she accused was Prince Andrew, though he and others denied the claims and challenged her reliability.
In 2022, Prince Andrew reached a settlement with Giuffre for an undisclosed amount, including a sizable donation to her organization supporting survivors.
Photographs from 1997 show Epstein and Trump together at Mar-a-Lago, and another from February 2000 captures Trump, his then-girlfriend Melania Knauss, Epstein, and Maxwell at the club.
In November 2016, during a libel suit against Maxwell—who had dismissed Giuffre's accusations as falsehoods—Giuffre testified under oath about her limited encounters with Trump.
"I worked for Donald Trump and I’ve met him probably a few times," Giuffre said, specifying the meetings occurred at Mar-a-Lago.
She added that her father knew Trump casually, noting, "My Dad and him, I wouldn’t say they were friends, but my Dad knew him and they would talk... when they saw each other."
Giuffre emphasized no impropriety, stating, "Donald Trump never flirted with me," and affirmed, "True that he didn’t partake in any sex with us."
She clarified further: "I didn’t physically see him have sex with any of the girls, so I can’t say who he had sex with in his whole life or not, but I just know it wasn’t with me when I was with other girls."
Giuffre also said she never witnessed Trump and Epstein together, basing any notion of their friendship on Epstein's own words.
Tragedy struck when Giuffre died by suicide in April 2025, amplifying the sensitivity around her story.
On July 29, 2025, aboard Air Force One, Trump told reporters, "I think she worked at the spa, I think so, I think that was one of the people, he stole her, and by the way she had no complaints about us, as you know, none whatsoever."
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt explained Trump was answering a query, not initiating the topic, and stressed, "The fact remains that President Trump kicked Jeffrey Epstein out of his club for being a creep to his female employees."
Giuffre's family expressed shock, saying, "It was shocking to hear President Trump invoke our sister and say that he was aware that Virginia had been 'stolen' from Mar-a-Lago."
They demanded clarity, adding, "We and the public are asking for answers; survivors demand this."
Sky Roberts rejected the phrasing, stating, "She wasn’t stolen, she was preyed upon at his property, at President Trump’s property," and noted, "Stolen seems very impersonal. It feels very much like an object, and the survivors are not objects, women are not objects."
President Donald Trump's administration on Wednesday declared Brazil a national security threat and sanctioned the nation's head judge (equivalent to the Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court) over human rights abuses and censorship of conservative viewpoints both at home and abroad.
Supreme Federal Tribunal (STF) Justice Alexandre de Moraes received sanctions from the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) under the Global Magnitsky Act because he has engaged in a pattern of arbitrary detentions, denial of fair trial guarantees, censorship, punishing free speech, and other abuses.
De Moraes's actions were all in the name of persecuting conservative political activity, which is prohibited by the act. Consequently, his U.S.-based assets are frozen, and he is banned from transactions involving U.S.
“Alexandre de Moraes has taken it upon himself to be judge and jury in an unlawful witch hunt against U.S. and Brazilian citizens and companies,” Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent said. “De Moraes is responsible for an oppressive campaign of censorship, arbitrary detentions that violate human rights, and politicized prosecutions — including against former President Jair Bolsonaro. Today’s action makes clear that Treasury will continue to hold accountable those who threaten U.S. interests and the freedoms of our citizens.”
“Moraes abused his authority by engaging in a targeted and politically motivated effort designed to silence political critics through the issuance of secret orders compelling online platforms, including U.S. social media companies, to ban the accounts of individuals for posting protected speech,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a separate statement. “Moraes further abused his position to authorize unjust pre-trial detentions and undermine freedom of expression.”
Trump probably feels for Bolsonaro because he was in a similar situation to Trump, being declared the loser of an election while believing that he actually won.
Like Trump, Bolsonaro publicly refused to concede and accused his opponents of voter fraud.
It's probably more likely that Bolsonaro's election was fraudulent than Trump's, but neither one of them could prove it and both ended up having to accept the loss and transfer power eventually.
De Moraes went after Bolsonaro, his family, and his supporters with travel bans, freezing their assets, police raids, and arrests.
He also censored American social media platforms repeatedly, imposing hefty fines for noncompliance so people couldn't see the truth and find out he was wrong.
While de Moraes's actions sound frightfully familiar to how Trump and his allies have been treated, Bolsonaro had no legal remedy against his persecution.
Trump ended up beating all the charges against him, being re-elected by an indignant populace, and being able to pardon all his allies who were unjustly accused of crimes.
The differences highlight the American system's resilience; our democracy just functions better. Trump's sanctioning of de Moraes is an attempt to influence Brazil's government and tell de Moraes he can't get away with his actions consequence-free.
A former ABC News correspondent has finally admitted that the network is “biased” against President Donald Trump due to the newsroom being filled with liberals.
According to Terry Moran, who worked for decades at ABC News in various capacities, the newsroom “lacks viewpoint diversity” due to the almost single-minded ideological makeup of the employees, as Fox News reported.
Moran posted his views in his commentary on Substack, saying, “Let’s talk about bias.”
“I worked at ABC News for almost 28 years, and I’m proud to say that. But: Were we biased? Yes. Almost inadvertently, I’d say. ABC News has the same problem so many leading cultural institutions do in America: A lack of viewpoint diversity."
Moran was previously a foreign correspondent for ABC News and the chief White House correspondent. He also served as the anchor of Nightline during his nearly 30 years at the network.
"We are at the end of our agreement with Terry Moran and based on his recent post — which was a clear violation of ABC News policies — we have made the decision to not renew," the network said in a statement released by a spokesperson.
"At ABC News, we hold all of our reporters to the highest standards of objectivity, fairness, and professionalism, and we remain committed to delivering straightforward, trusted journalism."
Moran was at one time thought of by the executives at ABC News as a potential evening news anchor, reminding many of anchors like Peter Jennings.
Six weeks before being canned by the news outlet, Moran interviewed Trump, something that won him incredible accolades from those inside and outside of the industry.
He didn’t pull any punches either, pressing him about claims regarding a man deported to El Salvador, which caused a kerfuffle amongst immigrant advocates.
Trump went so far as to say Moran was “not being very nice,” and said the interview was a “big break” for him, considering it was a one-on-one sit-down style conversation.
Just months ago, in December of 2024, Walt Disney Co., ABC's corporate parent, reached an agreement to pay a $16 million settlement to Trump following a private suit.
Trump sued over the repeated claims by anchor George Stephanopoulos that Trump was found liable for rape after a sexual abuse suit in New York City.
The company is paying $15 million to a foundation for Trump’s future presidential library and an additional $1 million for legal fees.
The Supreme Court in the state of Alaska has boiled its decision on the campaign of a convicted felon down to just one word, according to the Alaska Beacon.
Last year, the state supreme court issued a headline-grabbing 4-1 decision, saying that Alaska’s U.S. House ballots would allow the felon to attempt to obtain the seat.
Eric Hafner, also known as Inmate 00932-005, campaigned from the Otisville Federal Correctional Institution in New York, which is about 4,000 miles from Alaska.
The 33-year-old candidate is serving 20 years for threatening a public official in New Jersey, where he is from. But in a shocking turn of events, he launched a campaign to be the very thing he threatened: a public official.
According to the state’s high court, their decision came down to the word “fifth.”
A 22-page opinion that explained the court’s decision cited Alaska residents’ approval of 2020’s Ballot Measure 2, in which primary elections were opened to ranked choice voting.
The top four vote-getters would be allowed to be in the primary, regardless of party, and if one of those candidates were to withdraw between the primary and general election, they would be replaced.
The measure said that the Alaska Division of Elections was tasked with replacing the candidate who dropped out “with the candidate who received the fifth most votes in the primary election.”
In the 2024 election, it turned out that two Republican candidates withdrew their candidacy after the primary, and attempted to throw their support behind fellow Republican Republican Nick Begich III, who went on to win the election.
Because of that switch-up, the candidate who got sixth place, which just so happened to be Hafner, or Inmate 00932-005 if you prefer, was put on the ballot in 2024.
Hafner had never lived in Alaska at the time he was a candidate, and if he were elected, he would have been ineligible to take on the office because of his lack of residency.
The case took an interesting turn because, despite the fact that Hafner is a Democrat and running as such, Democrats sued to remove him from the ballot.
The party feared splitting the vote between Hafner and then-incumbent Rep. Mary Peltola, and argued that the measure allowed the Division of Elections to promote the fifth finisher to the ballot, but did not offer any further allowance for the would-be candidate.
Last year, the Alaska Supreme Court ruled that an imprisoned felon in New York could remain on Alaska’s U.S. House ballot despite a lawsuit challenging his eligibility. Last week, the court issued an opinion explaining its decision. via @AlaskaBeacon https://t.co/BPnQKuzLd8
— Anchorage Daily News (@adndotcom) July 28, 2025
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi filed an official complaint on behalf of the Justice Department alleging U.S. District Court Chief Judge James Boasberg committed misconduct by trying to influence other judges against President Donald Trump.
The complaint was written by Bondi’s Chief of Staff Chad Mizelle at her direction and addressed to the Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, Sri Srinivasan.
"The Department of Justice respectfully submits this complaint alleging misconduct by U.S. District Court Chief Judge James E. Boasberg for making improper public comments about President Donald J. Trump to the Chief Justice of the United States and other federal judges that have undermined the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary," Mizelle wrote.
Boasberg is the presiding judge in the high-profile case involving illegal immigrants sent to CECOT prison in El Salvador.
He ordered the Trump administration to turn planes containing migrants around while they were in midair, but that didn't happen and Boasberg has talked about holding DOJ lawyers in contempt for not following his order.
Trump and his team have claimed that the order did not come in time to stop the planes, but that did not satisfy Boasberg.
The complaint focused on two occasions when the DOJ says Boasberg damaged the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary.
"On March 11, 2025, Judge Boasberg attended a session of the Judicial Conference of the United States, which exists to discuss administrative matters like budgets, security, and facilities. While there, Judge Boasberg attempted to improperly influence Chief Justice Roberts and roughly two dozen other federal judges by straying from the traditional topics to express his belief that the Trump Administration would 'disregard rulings of federal courts' and trigger 'a constitutional crisis,'" the complaint read regarding the first occasion.
"Although his comments would be inappropriate even if they had some basis, they were even worse because Judge Boasberg had no basis—the Trump Administration has always complied with all court orders. Nor did Judge Boasberg identify any purported violations of court orders to justify his unprecedented predictions," it argued.
"Within days of those statements, Judge Boasberg began acting on his preconceived belief that the Trump Administration would not follow court orders," the complaint continued. "First, although he lacked authority to do so, he issued a temporary restraining order preventing the Government from removing violent Tren de Aragua terrorists, which the Supreme Court summarily vacated."
"Taken together, Judge Boasberg’s words and deeds violate Canons of the Code of Conduct for United States Judges, and, erode public confidence in judicial neutrality, and warrant a formal investigation."
The DOJ wants Boasberg to face an inquiry by a special investigative committee, which will be tasked with determining whether he engaged in "conduct prejudicial to the effective and expeditious administration of the business of the courts."
Bondi also wants him taken off the case of the Venezuelan migrants deported to El Salvador "to prevent further erosion of public confidence while the investigation proceeds."
It's the second complaint Bondi's DOJ has filed against a federal judge who seemed to be targeting Trump, and there will probably be more where that came from, given the number of judges who seem to be doing the same.