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  • Biden Secret Service Abuse!

    Biden Secret Service Records Show Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Was Denied Protection Despite Numerous Threats
    Biden Agency Spends $100 Million to Help Disadvantaged Communities by Fixing Broken Electric Vehicle Chargers
    Biden Homeland Security Department Greatly Inflates Number of Transnational Criminal Organizations It Dismantles

     

    Biden Secret Service Records Show Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Was Denied Protection Despite Numerous Threats

    The Biden administration doesn’t look good on this one – to put it mildly.

    We received 11-pages of Secret Service records detailing the denial of protection to presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., despite his having received numerous threats from “known subjects.”

    We received the document from the in response to a July 28, 2023, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for records and communications of:

    a) Director Kimberly A. Cheatle

    b) Deputy Director Ronald L. Rowe, Jr.

    c) Chief Operating Officer Cynthia Sjoberg Radway

    d) Assistant Director, Office of Protective Operations, Michael Plati

    On July 28, 2023, Kennedy posted to X (formerly Twitter), “Since the assassination of my father in 1968, candidates for president are provided Secret Service protection. But not me.”

    Just last week, Kennedy again requested Secret Service protection following an incident on the campaign trail involving an armed man impersonating a police officer.

    The records we obtained include a Secret Service “Protective Intelligence and Assessment” that reveals numerous threats to Kennedy (“Behaviors of Interest”):

    On April 23, 2023, a known subject [Redacted] submitted an inappropriate comment on the White House website addressed to President Biden [Redacted] stated, “Born to a political family, his twelfth cousin—Robert Kennedy—announces their candidacy to succeed Joseph Biden for ‘President of the United States.’ There’s no way you’d… assassinate former president Donald Trump. `Go get ‘ern, kiddo!” No further USSS investigation was conducted.

    [Redacted]

    A known subject [Redacted] mailed a nonsensical letter to the hotel where Kennedy held his presidential campaign announcement event [redacted] warned a “madman” may commit a “serious terrorist act” and wanted to discuss his sins with Kennedy. [Redacted] is of record with the USSS [Secret Service] since March 2023 after he sent a nonsensical letter to President Biden with similar rhetoric. The USSS investigation is complete.

    A known subject [Redacted] sent numerous packages, including gifts and a wedding band, to Kennedy [Redacted] stated that she loves Kennedy and expressed anger about being kept away from him. [Redacted]

    A known subject [Redacted] sent materials to Kennedy’s residence. One letter contained a 32-page manifesto in which [Redacted] made nonsensical religious references and described himself as a “commissioned messenger of God.”

    A known subject [Redacted] regularly sends threatening emails, stating he will “bury” Kennedy, “everyone will die,” and that he will make Kennedy “suffer.”

    A subject [Redacted] sent inappropriate communications to Kennedy. The subject believed Kennedy was spying on him, paying people to follow him, and was responsible for vandalism against him. The subject state “your behavior has complete [sic] freaked me out. Focus on your damn campaign and leave me the hell alone.”

    The assessment also notes:

    Many comments suggested that, for no other reason than that he is a Kennedy, he would be at risk of assassination. In May 2023, Kennedy received increased media attention after accusing the CIA of involvement in the assassination of his uncle. Kennedy has advocated for the release of the individual currently imprisoned for assassinating his father, Sirhan Sirhan, because he believes a CIA contractor was responsible for the death.

    Kennedy has received both support and criticism for his stance on vaccines and has been described as an anti-vaccine activist.

    In a July 28, 2023, email chain with the subject line “RFK Jr Says Biden Administration Denied Him Secret Service Protection – The Messenger” Secret Service officials discuss a news article in which Kennedy makes a case for protection.

    The chief of communications, whose name is redacted, writes to Michael Plati, the assistant director of Protective Operations, and others: “We’re getting Press calls on this and sending to DHS.”

    An official in the Office of Intergovernmental and Legislative Affairs, whose name is redacted, responds: “Request for protection to DHS dated 5/26; Response by Congressional Advisory Board 7 /11; Passed to DHS front office on 7 /14.”

    The deputy special agent in charge, whose name is redacted, adds:

    [T]he following language was key to the recommendation and subsequent decision.

    “Protection under these guidelines should only be granted within one year prior to the general election. Protection more than one year prior to the general election should only be granted in extraordinary, case by case circumstances in consultation with the committee, based on threat assessment and other factors.”

    The records were produced earlier this week, the day after we filed a FOIA lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) over similar but broader requests for DHS/Secret Service leadership records regarding the decision to not provide Secret Service protection for Kennedy (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security (No. 1:23-cv-02846)).

    The Biden administration’s refusal to provide Secret Service protection to Mr. Kennedy is dangerous and vindictive. These FOIA requests and our new lawsuit aim to get the full truth on why Mr. Kennedy’s life is being put at unnecessary risk by the Biden administration.

    We’ll be sure to keep you apprised if we uncover any other documents on this disturbing issue.

     

    Biden Agency Spends $100 Million to Help Disadvantaged Communities by Fixing Broken Electric Vehicle Chargers

    What happens when two of the ideology-driven Biden administration’s policies come in contact? You get an outrageous waste of your tax dollars, as our Corruption Chronicles blog reports.

    Besides subsidizing the electric vehicle (EV) industry with a staggering $15.5 billion, the Biden administration is investing an additional $100 million in federal funding to prioritize the repair and replacement of EV charging stations throughout the U.S. The venture will “ensure disadvantaged communities benefit from upgraded charging infrastructure,” according to the Department of Transportation (DOT), which is doling out the money. The costly EV charger project is part of the administration’s Justice40 Initiative which requires 40% of all federal government investments to flow to “disadvantaged communities that are marginalized, underserved, and overburdened with pollution.” The president signed an executive order within days of taking office to allocate unprecedented public funds to poor minority communities in the name of environmental justice.

    The multi-million-dollar EV charger restoration project will operate under a Justice40 initiative known as National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Formula Program that provides states with money to strategically deploy charging stations and establish an interconnected network to facilitate data collection, access and reliability. “The Biden-Harris Administration has set a goal of building a convenient, affordable, reliable, equitable, and Made-in-America electric vehicle (EV) charging network along the Nation’s highways and within our communities,” according to the grant announcement issued this month by the DOT. Because it is a Justice40 program the feds will use a White House Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool to track how assisted chargers aid needy communities. “Recipients of awards under this program can also use the tool to ensure disadvantaged communities benefit from upgraded charging infrastructure,” the grant document states, adding that “the tool can be used to help prioritize and sequence projects to maximize benefits to disadvantaged communities.”

    The White House launched the Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool in response to the president’s January 2021 order to tackle the “climate crisis at home and abroad.” The directive includes an extensive section dedicated to securing environmental justice for disadvantaged, historically marginalized and overburdened communities, by among other things, creating a White House Environmental Justice Interagency Council consisting of top government leaders.

    The heads of key federal agencies—including the attorney general, secretaries of defense, labor, transportation and energy—were essentially ordered to address environmental justice in minority and low-income populations. “Agencies shall make achieving environmental justice part of their missions by developing programs, policies, and activities to address the disproportionately high and adverse human health, environmental, climate-related and other cumulative impacts on disadvantaged communities, as well as the accompanying economic challenges of such impacts,” according to Biden’s order.

    It is not clear what the EV ownership rate is in marginalized or overburdened communities or the demand for chargers because the government has failed to provide that information. However, the administration does reveal that as of this month, 6,261 public charging ports out of 151,506 nationwide were identified as being temporarily unavailable. California has the largest number (1,707) of broken chargers followed by New York (541), Texas (379), Florida (356) and Massachusetts (265). The objective of the administration’s $100 million investment is to enhance and maintain the reliability of the charging network by focusing on the repair or replacement of existing chargers that are currently non-operational, a goal it asserts “will be aligned with the Biden-Harris Administration’s Justice40 Initiative.” The connection is not fully explained.

    Just weeks before the charger allotment the administration announced that, as part of the president’s Investing in America agenda, the Department of Energy is disbursing $15.5 billion to “support a strong and just transition to electric vehicles.” The money will focus on “retooling existing factories for the transition to electric vehicles,” according to the agency. Jennifer Granholm, Biden’s energy secretary, claims the funding shows that the president “understands that building the cars of the future also necessitates helping the communities challenged by the transition away from the internal combustion engine.”

     

    Biden Homeland Security Department Greatly Inflates Number of Transnational Criminal Organizations It Dismantles

    The massive Department of Homeland Security is enabling a literal invasion is also dropping the ball on related criminal threats on our unsecured borders. Our Corruption Chronicles blog explains.

    The U.S. government has long assessed that Mexican drug cartels are the greatest criminal threat to the country and earlier this year federal sources in counterterrorism, intelligence and drug enforcement confirmed in a congressional hearing that the illicit operations have seized unprecedented control of the southwest border. They are officially known as Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCO) and the Biden administration’s reckless open border policies are facilitating their business model, which includes operating in cities throughout the nation with the help of U.S.-based street gangs that have overrun American communities with drugs.

    To address the crisis President Trump issued an executive order in 2017 to dismantle TCOs and prevent international trafficking by, not only strengthening the enforcement of federal law, but also ensuring that Homeland Security agencies devote sufficient resources to identifying, interdicting and disrupting TCOs. “These organizations derive revenue through widespread illegal conduct, including acts of violence and abuse that exhibit a wanton disregard for human life,” Trump’s order states. “They, for example, have been known to commit brutal murders, rapes, and other barbaric acts.” In the document the former president also directs federal agencies to share information and coordinate with each other to identify, interdict and destroy TCOs. This includes improvements in the collection, reporting and sharing of relevant data as well as quarterly reports detailing convictions in the U.S. relating to TCOs and their subsidiaries.

    All these years later the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has no clue how many TCOs it has dismantled and, even worse, the agency created after 9/11 to safeguard the country inflates the figures markedly. During a recent five-year period Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), DHS’s principal investigative arm responsible for disrupting terrorist and transnational threats, failed to accurately measure and publicly report its progress dismantling TCOs, according to a report issued this month by the DHS Inspector General. The watchdog reviewed a sample of 422 Significant Case Reports (SCR) and determined that 253 (60%) did not describe an entity that aligned with HSI’s definition of a TCO. “From FY 2017 through FY 2022, HSI did not accurately publicly report its progress against its established performance measure of disrupting or dismantling TCOs,” investigators write in the report. “Instead, the results that HSI publicly reported included cases that did not involve entities meeting itsdefinition of a TCO.” Specifically, many of the approved case reports identified in the probe as not TCO-related involved one individual committing a crime in the United States and not crossing any international borders. “HSI included 171 of these non–TCO-related SCRs in its public reporting of TCO disruptions and dismantlement’s,” the IG found.

    HSI created the SCR process over a decade ago to identify its most important cases and measure its success in disrupting criminal organizations such as TCOs as well as to justify more congressional funding. The DHS IG found that the embellished stats occurred because the agency relied on data in the case reports which conveniently failed to distinguish between TCO-related and non-TCO-related probes. Nevertheless, the agency repeatedly reported them as successful TCO disrupting investigations. As a result, the report states that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Congress and the public do not know how many TCOs HSI succeeded in dismantling or interrupting during the period examined. The DHS watchdog reveals that “to be considered significant, the investigation must involve a high-threat TCO engaged in criminal activity related to child exploitation; travel or finance (both drug-related and non– drug-related); illicit trade; counterterrorism; worksite enforcement; gangs; or national security.”

    Nine Mexican TCOs have the greatest drug trafficking impact on the U.S. according to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). Among them are the Sinaloa and Juárez cartels, Los Zetas, La Familia Michoacána, Los Rojos and Guerreros Unidos. The TCOs maintain drug distribution cells in cities across the U.S. that report to leaders in Mexico and dominate the nation’s drug market. In a  DHS identifies Mexican cartels as the greatest threat to the U.S. because of their ability to control territory and co-opt parts of government, particularly at a state and local level. “They represent an acute and devastating threat to public health and safety in the Homeland and a significant threat to U.S. national security interests,” the DHS writes in the document. Just this week the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned several Sinaloa Cartel affiliates and fugitives.

     

    Until next week,



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  • ‘Sanctuary city’ has flyers telling migrants to go somewhere else

    Officials in Denver, Colorado – which is widely considered a ‘sanctuary city’ – are asking Texas border towns to hand out flyers urging illegal immigrants not to travel to the Mile High City, according to documents provided to Breitbart by Texas officials.

    Matthew Mueller, executive director for the Office of Emergency Management for the City and County of Denver, told officials in Brownsville, El Paso, Houston, and Dallas that Denver “can no longer provide the same level of sheltering resources to newly arriving persons.”

    Mueller also noted authorities have reduced the maximum number of days migrants can stay in shelters to just 14 days for single adults.

    The Denver official also asked Texas officials to distribute flyers addressing “asylum seekers traveling to Denver.”

    “Denver’s resources have been exhausted,” the flyer states. “If you are coming to Denver seeking shelter, it is important for you to have a plan. The city cannot provide shelter long-term.”

    READ MORE: $300 weekly checks for illegal immigrants approved by Calif. Senate

    Additionally, Denver’s officials warned that housing in the sanctuary city is “very expensive, and there aren’t many affordable housing options available.”

    Texas authorities have bused roughly 2,400 migrants to Denver since May, a fraction of the millions who have crossed the U.S.-Mexico border since President Joe Biden took office in January 2021.

    Denver Mayor Mike Johnston recently addressed the migrant crisis, blaming Texas Gov. Greg Abbott for the new arrivals to the sanctuary city.

    “We have had a significant influx of migrants mostly due to Gov. Abbott in Texas, who has been chartering buses full of buses to arrive in the city and county of Denver,” Johnston said.

    “We still continue to see, particularly in what I would call these involuntary arrivals, which are folks that have been put on a bus by Gov. Abbott and sent to us, many of those folks had no plans on coming to Denver,” he said. “For many of these folks, we’re helping either connect them to family or services where they wanted to arrive … and for folks that do want to stay, we’re getting them connected to work options.”



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  • DOCUMENTS: How Chicago Varsity Disowned Tinubu’s Certificate Tendered To INEC

    Documents obtained by THE WHISTLER have shown that Chicago State University, CSU, denied the certificate President Bola Tinubu presented to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.

    The over 200 pages documents released after the testimony at the Northern District Court of Illinois by Caleb Westberg, CSU Registrar, affirmed that indeed there was a Bola A. Tinubu who shared the same social security number with another person of Nigerian descent but that the diploma certificate stamped by INEC was not issued by CSU.

    Westberg who was testifying before the court as he was being cross-examined by the lead counsel to Atiku Abubakar, the 2023 presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Angela Liu, said, “CSU has determined that it does not have a true and correct copy of the diploma issued to Bola A. Tinubu.”

    He explained that, “We went through every diploma in our possession” and found none “given the importance of this matter.”

    Atiku had approached the US court to compel the CSU to release all academic records of his opponent to aid his case in Court which he said amounted to forgery following several years of inconsistencies in Tinubu’s biodata.

    There were controversies surrounding the president’s age, secondary school, state of origin, university education among others.

    Tinubu had said he graduated from University of Chicago before saying it was an error while appearing before the Lagos State House of Assembly in 1999 when he was placed under investigation.

    The House however cleared him of any wrongdoing at the time he was governor of the state.

    But inconsistencies in his biodata regarding his filing with INEC prompted fresh request from Atiku who through his counsels subpoenaed the US court to unfreeze all the records held on Tinubu.

    The school acquiesced to release the documents following the court directive and sent its representative to throw light on the information.

    Answering a range of questions from Atiku’s lawyer, Westberg told the court that “CSU was unable to find an authentic copy of any diploma that CSU issued to Tinubu in 1979.”

    He clarified that the school did not “have a copy of Mr. Tinubu’s June 22, 1979 diploma but his June 27, 1979 diploma; It is in our possession.”

    He said the June 27, 1979 diploma in the school possession is “a reordered copy.”

    He stated that the June 22, 1979 diploma certificate, stamped by INEC which Tinubu filed with the electoral body to aid his qualification for the 2023 presidential election was not issued by the school,

    Referred to as ‘INEC Diploma’, the deponent said the diploma was fake because at the time a certain Bola A. Tinubu was a student in the school, CSU did not have “a Board of Trustees.”

    He averred that the diploma certificate purportedly granted on “’this 22nd day of June 1979,” was not consistent being that one of the signatories, Elnora Daniel, “was not the Chair or President of CSU in 1979.”

    Rather, “She was the President from 1998 to 2008.”

    He also said the other two signatures from “Herbert A. Conley” and the other were not Dean or chairman in 1979.”

    He revealed that apart from the seal on the certificate being triangle with the two lines through it and not having the word “responsibility” under it and also not having “1867 under it” the certificate is invalid and inconsistent with the one CSU issued.

    He explained that no diploma certificate issued in 1979 had three signatures or the triangle seal or any that cuts off “the signature of Herbert Conley’s position.”

    When questioned about the authenticity of the diploma certificate Tinubu submitted to INEC, Westberg said, “The student in question graduated from the University on June 22, 1979. We were not qualified to verify whether this document is authentic, given that it is not in our possession,” explaining that there have been several forged CSU documents consistent with the one Tinubu submitted to INEC.

    He however said he could not support his finding “to provide a name of an entity that does such (forge), advising that “You can Google this easily. There are many companies that do this for folks,” pointing out that, “CSU has no record of issuing this INEC diploma to President Tinubu in 1979.”

    Asked by Atiku’s lawyer that, “So CSU did not issue the June 22, 1979 diploma as well as the June 27, 1979 diploma to Mr. Tinubu in 1979,” the witness responded, “We issue a diploma to every student that graduates. I think I’m a little confused.”

    When further pressed, “So CSU did not issue the INEC diploma to President Tinubu in 1979,” the witness answered, “No, not in 1979.”

    He added that “CSU did not issue a diploma dated June 27, 1979 to Mr. Tinubu in 1979.’

    He explained that a stock letter from CSU dated June 27, 2022 addressed to Tinubu was written by him,” and that “About 20 years ago we received similar requests and a past Registrar named Lois Davis looked into the matter and drafted a more or less identical letter at that time as well.”

    According to him, CSU received similar requests about Tinubu’s records 20 years ago when Lois Davis was the Registrar but that he did not have a record in his possession.

    He explained that the letter in the school’s possession was not “drafted at the request of Tinubu.”

    Westberg said CSU received “about five to 30 inquiries a day via email about Tinubu certificate.

    On one of the letters, which stated, “Please be advised that Bola A. Tinubu attended Chicago State University from August 1977 to June 1979. He was awarded a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration with Honors on June 22, 1979. His major was accounting,” he said the information on the letter was possible due to the available transcript.

    He said the student transcript contained key information used in the letter but that “Tinubu did not apply for the letter noting further that there was a “Bola Tinubu who attended CSU.”

    When asked if he “is simply assuming that Bola Tinubu is the same person as the President, the witness just replied, “That is correct.”

    He identified a letter written to Mike Enahoro Ebah, through his lawyer, who had contacted the school for Tinubu’s record where the school said it does not “have a record of any documentation for a passport, visa, social security card, or driver’s licence or a record of how tuition was paid during this time of attendance,” noting it indeed conflicts with other available records held on Tinubu.

    He accepted that the “birth date appears to be 3-29-54”, inconsistent with the birth date of “3-29-52” Tinubu had submitted to INEC during cross examination.

    The witness further said CSU should not be blamed for Southwest College’s recognition of Tinubu as a female.

    “We can attest that this is part of the student record. This was received by the university. This is what we have in connection with the student record,” he explained.

    When pressed further, Westberg said he’s not saying that, “Bola A. Tinubu, who is listed as female here, is the same as the Bola A. Tinubu, who is president of Nigeria.

    “I’m not saying that because we believe this to be a part of the student record. So while, you know, I can’t attest to whether or not that was caught at the time, this was submitted and received as part of the student file,”’ he explained.

    He added that, “I’m saying these are accurate documents,” while adding that, “The university is not confused about that (gender). We issued an admissions letter to Mr. Bola Tinubu. He applied as a male student. That is a part of the record.

    He said he did not know who prepared the diploma Tinubu submitted to INEC

    He added that “CSU never certified any documents for anyone” and that “I don’t know if it’s an exception, but we complied with the request” adding that the certification certificate being paraded by Tinubu, “I believe this was made because it’s more of a Nigerian thing.”

    Westberg agreed that he did not know that Tinubu’s middle name is Ahmed in the diploma certificate he submitted to INEC.

    He indicated that the diploma that was provided as the official copy has the wrong date of graduation noting that “the difference in the date of award on the diploma versus the certified copy is likely the result of human error.”

    Source

  • President Biden’s Dog Keeps Biting Secret Service. We Asked a Trainer What Could Be Going On.

    From The Washingtonian:

    President Joe Biden’s two-year-old German Shepherd, Commander, has reportedly bitten another Secret Service agent at the White House. The incident, which happened last week, marks the 11th time Commander has nipped an officer since October 2022. One agent had to go to the hospital after an attack last November. 

    After the watchdog group (no pun intended) Judicial Watch uncovered emails about some of the incidents in July, Jill Biden’s communications director Elizabeth Alexander shared that the family was “partnering with the Secret Service and Executive Residence staff on additional leashing protocols and training.” In a recent statement to Washingtonian, Alexander said, “The White House can be a stressful environment for family pets, and the First Family continues to work on ways to help Commander handle the often unpredictable nature of the White House grounds.” 

    If this were a civilian’s dog, rather than a FDOTUS, we’d likely be telling a different story. While DC doesn’t have an explicit bite-threshold for deeming a dog dangerous, one trainer we spoke with said she doesn’t “know any dog that’s bitten 11 times and is still with us.” (The Humane Rescue Alliance declined to comment on the matter, stating they “don’t have jurisdiction over federal property.”) 

    Read more here…

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  • Republican Noveletsky enters NH-01 primary just as House GOP battle flares

    On a day when many Republican members of Congress were likely asking themselves why they ever wanted to go to Washington, D.C., Greenland businesswoman Hollie Noveletsky announced her plans to join their ranks.

    She jumped into the 1st Congressional District GOP primary on Monday, facing off against former state Sen. Russell Prescott for the chance to take on Rep. Chris Pappas (D)

    Just 36 hours before Noveletsky’s announcement, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) passed a stopgap measure to avoid a government shutdown, a plan that only passed thanks to Democratic support. Less than 12 hours after her announcement, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) declared his plan to use a procedural tool — called a motion to vacate — to try and force McCarthy out.

    Not exactly ideal timing.

    Noveletsky, the CEO of Novel Iron Works, targeted incumbent Democrats in her campaign announcement, pledging “to offer conservative, America First solutions that will help New Hampshire.”

    “When I look at Washington, I see a city run by Joe Biden and Chris Pappas, who bask in inaction and empty promises, while middle-class families in New Hampshire are stuck with inflation, higher energy costs, the rising cost of healthcare, and chaos at our southern border,” Noveletsky said.

    Though Noveletsky has never run for office before, she is no stranger to politics. Often seen at GOP fundraisers, Noveletsky was part of a group of New Hampshire business owners who held a 2021 event opposing the “PRO Act” — a federal law that would override states’ right-to-work laws.

    Her campaign touts Noveletsky’s ten years of service in the U.S. Army Reserves as a nurse practitioner and her volunteer work at disaster sites from Africa to Maine.

    Matt Mowers is a veteran GOP operative who ran in the 1st District in both 2020 and 2022.

    “Keep an eye on Hollie — her combined background in business, the military, and as a nurse give her an incredible biography to run on, and her roots in the Seacoast run deep,” he said via social media.

    Prescott owns R.E. Prescott Pump Company in Exeter and is a professional engineer. He also served as a state senator and member of the Executive Council. His campaign says he has raised more than $400,000 and received several high-profile endorsements, including former NHGOP Chairman Wayne MacDonald.

    “I’ve worked alongside Russell Prescott for many years, and I trust him. I have seen him defeat Democrats like Maggie Hassan when others could not, and I have watched him govern in a conservative way that still brings in the independent votes we need to win in swing districts.”

    McCarthy’s speakership was hotly debated during the 2020 GOP primary, with eventual winner Karoline Leavitt repeatedly criticized for her willingness to back the California Republican if the GOP won the majority. Leavitt, an outspoken MAGA Republican, handily won the primary despite the McCarthy issue but lost to incumbent Pappas in the general election.

    Asked by NHJournal if they would have voted for the stopgap measure and if they supported or opposed the effort to oust McCarthy, the two 2024 candidates gave similar answers.

    “Of course, I would’ve kept the government funded,” Noveletsky told NHJournal. “But as a business owner, I’ve always had to make the tough decisions to make ends meet. Washington has enough career politicians; it needs more business leaders like myself, who know how to reduce spending while keeping the government open.”

    Prescott said, “I would have voted to keep the government open for our first responders, our military, and our seniors, but I would have also been leading on making sure we never get to that point again.” He would not vote to vacate the chair, he added.

    “We need to return our government to a regular and transparent order. The people of New Hampshire deserve no less. We need to get control of our spending; both parties need to stop putting forth bills filled with pork and hidden costs passed on to the voters of the 1st Congressional District.

    “The fact that we continue to govern with a shutdown clock ticking down to the very last minute is absurd.”

    New Hampshire GOP insiders tell NHJournal that party leaders have been working hard to avoid a costly and divisive primary in the district, hoping to go into the 2024 general election unified and with momentum to take on Pappas. Now that there is a competitive primary, several GOP activists who live in the district say they expect at least one more candidate, likely from the MAGA wing of the party, to enter the race.

    With or without New Hampshire’s notoriously late primaries, however, Republicans are looking at an uphill climb. Pappas has won his three terms handily, part of the Democratic Party’s growing success at the federal level.

    Beginning in 2012, New Hampshire Republicans have lost 16 out of 17 federal elections.

    ___

    (c) 2023 New Hampshire Journal

    Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.



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  • How We Are Surviving Fuel Subsidy Removal Impact In Abia- Otti

    Alex-Otti

    Governor Alex Otti of Abia State has disclosed how his administration has been able to contend with negative effects of the fuel subsidy removal by the federal government on its citizens.

    Governor Otti, while delivering the 63rd Founder’s Day Lecture of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu State, said that the Abia State Government, under his watch, has supported businesses and economically vulnerable persons to weather the harsh effects of subsidy removal from petrol.

    The Governor while Speaking on the topic, “Petrol Subsidy Removal: Dealing with the Challenges, Harnessing the Opportunities,” disclosed that his administration met a very difficult situation on ground upon assuming office.

    “The day I was sworn in as governor was also the day the removal of subsidy on petrol was announced by President Bola Tinubu. So, we met a very difficult situation that needed to be carefully managed,” the Governor, a first-class economist, said in his 32-page lecture paper.

    He added, “We began by offering a message of hope to the people, assuring the civil servants that the era of owing salaries was gone and that by the 28th of every month, every legitimate staff of the state civil service would receive their full entitlements. We soon followed up by paying part of the accumulated arrears from the previous government.

    “We are progressively supporting our civil servants by keeping to our commitment to prompt and regular payment of salaries and also clearing up arrears in order to increase the amount of disposable cash available to those in our employ.

    “We have also put in mechanisms that will make for smooth and seamless payment of pensions to all retirees as soon as they sign out from the state civil service. So far, appreciable progress has been made and I can tell you that while a few teething problems remain, our pensioners are beginning to see clear signals that in the New Abia we are building, owing senior citizens their entitlements would be an anathema.

    “Beyond just paying them, we have also directed the State Ministry of Health to enrol a certain category of pensioners in the state into a health insurance scheme that guarantees steady access to quality healthcare for our retirees. So far, 4,700 pensioners have been enrolled and we shall add to this number in the months ahead.”

    Otti told the gathering, comprising mostly of academics (students and lecturers), that his government had stopped the collection of all forms of levies and taxes from micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and given them tax holiday as a way of supporting their businesses.

    “We are continuing to streamline the revenue collection process to enable efficiency, cut out double taxation and make the system independent in ways that limit the activities of middle men.

    “Through the appropriate agencies and boards, we have also harmonised the revenue collection process, working with LGAs to adopt a single collection framework for ease of tax administration and convenience for all parties,” he said.

    According to the Governor, the present government in Abia is very business-friendly and plans to make the state the leading MSME hub in all of Africa.

    He urged students who intend to go into entrepreneurship on graduation to look no farther than Abia State, saying, “It is our conviction that when MSMEs are well funded and supported, the problems of unemployment and poverty, critical metrics for measuring economic development, would be curtailed and people can live in dignity.”

    Source

  • Judicial Watch: Records Show San Francisco Prioritizes Tax Money to Black/Latino Transgenders in Guaranteed Income Program

    (Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today it received 1,719 pages of records from the City of San Francisco showing the city prioritizes tax money for black/Latino transgenders (biological men) in a program which distributes free money to transgender individuals. The records show that the taxpayer-funded “Guaranteed Income for Trans People” (GIFT) program also allowed illegal aliens to apply; allowed people who “engage in survival sex trades” to apply; and the use of the funds by participants is virtually unrestricted.

    Judicial Watch obtained the records through a November 18, 2022, California Public Records Act (CPRA) request to the San Francisco Office of the Treasurer and Tax Collector for:

    Records and communications regarding the application and approval process for transgender, non-binary, gender non-conforming, and intersex individuals receiving Guaranteed Income for Transgender People (GIFT) benefits.

    Records identifying the legality or constitutionality of using transgender, non-binary, gender non-conforming, and intersex status as a factor in deciding who receives GIFT benefits.

    Judicial Watch filed a follow-up request with the Office of the Treasurer and Tax Collector on January 10, 2023, for:

    Records and communications regarding the administration of funds to participants of the Guaranteed Income for Transgender People (GIFT) benefits.

    Records and communications regarding the development of eligibility requirements for GIFT benefits.

    Records and communications regarding financial literacy services and workshops associated with the GIFT program.

    Mayor London Breed announced the launch of the Guaranteed Income for Trans People (GIFT) program on November 16, 2022. The mayor’s office stated in a press release that the city will “provide low-income transgender San Franciscans with $1,200 each month, up to 18 months to help address financial insecurity within trans communities.”

    The program began disbursing funds in January 2023.

    An undated document from the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development, titled “Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development Pre-paid Card Policies and Procedures,” states:

    Selected participants in this program will identify as transgender and extremely low-income (<30% of Area Media Income, approximately less than $28,000 per year for a household of one person). Within this population, there will be a specific focus on Black and Latinx transgender women. A monthly $1,200 stipend will be provided to participants so they may focus on their basic physical and mental health and wellness without worrying about income. Pre-paid cards are being utilized because some participants may not have bank accounts.

    ***

    [The Mayor’s Office] will purchase Pre-paid cards with funding supported by the General Fund and dedicated specifically for the Transgender Basic Income pilot program.

    A March 2022 city document sets the program’s intended opening date as October 2022 and is titled “Guaranteed Income Program for Transgender People.” It details the criteria for guaranteed income eligibility and sets race and sexual identity quotas:

    The collaborative leading this program will focus on a target population of low-income transgender, non-binary, gender nonconforming and intersex (TGI) individuals residing in San Francisco County. The program will prioritize enrollment and retention of BIPOC [Black, Indigenous People of Color] trans and nonbinary people who also engage in survival sex trades, living with disabilities, elders, living with HIV/AIDS, undocumented, monolingual Spanish speakers, formerly incarcerated, and unhoused and marginally housed. [Emphasis in original]

    ***

    We will work collaboratively to create equity guidelines for enrollment, centered on the reality of how racism disproportionately disadvantages BIPOC, black trans women, and undocumented monolingual Spanish speakers. The program enrollment will ensure the 55 participants is 66% BIPOC, at least 30% Black Trans Women, and at least 20% Latinx Trans Women.

    Lyon-Martin Health Services will provide wrap-around peer-led services such as gender affirming primary medical and holistic care, gynecological and sexual health care, mental health services, case management, crisis response services, financial literacy training and workforce development services, and outreach and harm reduction services, to the enrollees. [Emphasis in original]

    A November 2022 email chain among San Francisco government and Treasurer & Tax Collector’s Office (TTX) officials has the subject line “DRAFT — ReliaCard FAQ for GI [guaranteed income] recipients,” which includes concerns about the use of legal names (“dead” names) versus aliases (chosen names):

    Thanks! This looks great. I’d like to see if we can provide more nuance and explanation around the legal name question as this will be very important for the transgender pilot. My understanding is that the city will allow a provider to enroll participants using their chosen name vs legal name and it may be very challenging for someone to put their dead name on the card. So I think we can provide more context – “when you use the card in person you may be asked to verify your id. If you don’t have id that matches the name on the card, you could be turned away.”

    A February 2022 email from Kimmie Wu in the Treasurer & Tax Collector’s Office to her supervisor, Tajel Shah, details how the office hired a firm to push “diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging” training and hiring:

    TTX [Treasurer & Tax Collector’s Office] has hired a firm to advance our Racial Equity initiative. TTX has budgeted for these costs. Scope of the work includes the following:

    A. Executive Leadership Team Assessment and Training

    1. Racial equity assessment – Assess leadership competencies in the areas of diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging. This assessment should be leveraged to develop capacity building and lead to clear recommendations that help leaders lead with equity in mind.

    2. Customized facilitated learning sessions – Work with the varying levels of comfort and practice with concepts of structural and organizational equity including: coaching around racial equity in supervision and program delivery design, customer service, decision-making processes, communications and daily practices.

    B. All Staff Training Sessions

    1. Department wide training – Facilitate one to two Department-wide Racial Equity trainings for All Department Staff. The content will be based on discussions with the Core Team and the consultant assessment of the Department’s racial equity journey.

    C. Restorative Justice Dialogue and Reflection

    Facilitate restorative justice conversations in order to provide insight on how systemic and historic issues of racism and bias are inherently part of conversations, which is therefore limiting full participation and reflection on how work environments and systems of communication (Human Resources/Discipline/Performance) are being heard/interpreted. Garner insights from key conversations to alleviate immediate issues as well as reflect on changes to be made, which may include training.

    D. Hiring, Recruitment, and Promotion Strategy

    1. Address specific job classifications that lack racial diversity, including Managers, Administrative Analysts, Accountants and Auditors. The consultant shall develop recommendations for identifying barriers to application and employment within these job classifications with the aim to broaden diversity and inclusion throughout the hiring and employment cycle. Recommendations may be shared with the Central Department of Human Resources and/or Civil Service. The consultant will also interview the teams to identify group norms and biases within the sections that inhibit full participation by staff.

    2. Review current hiring and recruitment policies and make recommendations to ensure they align with ORE’s racial equity framework. The consultant will make recommendations to broaden recruitment strategies to increase diversity in candidate pools.

    3. Review current employee assessments tools and surveys and recommend the inclusion of questions to gauge sentiment on the department’s effort to address diversity and inclusion. The consultant will evaluate current exit interviews and recommend changes to questions to ensure a racial equity lens is applied.

    4. Review any current candidate exit interviews and propose new questions to gauge sentiment on the department’s effort to address diversity and inclusion and to solicit any feedback or recommendations in this area.

    E. Core Team Racial Equity Capacity Building

    1. Customized learning sessions on racial equity leadership & facilitation – interactive workshops and learning sessions that build capacity to lead with equity through dialogue, analysis and reflection. The sessions should build a foundational understanding and framework for racial equity in the workplace and basic terminology and definitions. The learning sessions must help the Core Teams to push beyond this shared understanding to address topics such as: the role of team members in leading organizational antiracist changes and make recommendations to transform practices that are heavily influenced by white-supremacist culture and practices. The learning sessions should add dress the specific racial equity work to be done by the cohort within the department building on the racial equity plan.

    2. Coaching, facilitation & technical assistance on racial equity plan implementation – Operationalizing the Racial Equity Action Plan as well as provide the Team with tools that help foster inclusion and racial equity across the Agency. The consultant will also provide coaching and support racial equity working groups including: barriers to hiring, supplemental questionnaires, minimum qualifications, etc.

    “These disturbing new documents confirm how, among other leftist extremist policies, San Francisco is abusing tax dollars to give cash to individuals based on race and transgender quotas,” stated Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton

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    Source

  • Chicago kids kicked out of field house for migrant shelter

    Chicago residents gathered at a community meeting Tuesday to protest the city’s decision to kick a local youth football team out of the neighborhood field house in order to make the space into a migrant shelter.

    Sharing video footage from a Tuesday night community meeting in Chicago, Mark Weyermuller, a conservative policy advocate, tweeted, “These ‘Chicago’ KIDS from the Amundsen Park youth football program in the Austin neighborhood will be kicked out of their neighborhood field house so it can become a migrant shelter on Monday.”

    Weyermuller noted that over 600 community residents attended Tuesday’s meeting to oppose the city’s plan to shut down a youth football program to house migrants in the community.

    According to KTVZ News, Tuesday’s meeting occurred as ten additional buses of migrants were scheduled to arrive. Chicago has reported that 9,827 migrants are living in shelters, while an additional 3,012 are awaiting placement in migrant shelters.

    Chicago’s 29th Ward Alderman Chris Taliaferro organized Tuesday’s community meeting to address the city’s plan to house migrants in the neighborhood’s Amundsen Park field house. Taliaferro explained that Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson notified him of the plan just days before the meeting and informed the alderman that the plan would be executed regardless of the community’s wishes.

    “I told them right away that I objected to it because there had been no community engagement, and the response given to me was, ‘You’re getting it,’” he said. “They said this is happening whether you object to it or not, and this is happening whether your community objects to it or not.”

    The Chicago Park District building is typically used for sporting events and for various senior programs. However, with the transition to a migrant shelter, Taliaferro said the mayor’s office would be canceling all of the park programs.

    Additionally, Taliaferro said the mayor’s office had notified him last Friday that the Amundsen field house would be housing 125 migrants. However, he claimed that on Tuesday, the mayor increased the number to 276 migrants.

    According to KTVZ News, Johnson’s plan to transform the neighborhood field house into a migrant shelter has resulted in major backlash from local residents.

    Mona Collins, a neighborhood resident, stated, “We’re taxpayers. They’re not paying taxes. It’s not fair to us.”

    Collins urged community members to vote against the current leaders of Chicago when they are up for election.

    “We’re going to vote them out of office,” she said.

    READ MORE: Army-Navy game hotel rooms given away to migrants, travel agent says

    Donald Glover, an Amundsen Park Advisory Council member, said, “We’re not anti-migrants. But we shouldn’t have to suffer.”

    KTVZ news reported that the atmosphere at Tuesday’s meeting was tense as community residents protested the decisions of city leaders. Representatives from the Chicago Police Department, the Park District, and Johnson’s office were present at the meeting and received significant backlash from constituents.

    “We’re not anti-migrants, but it should not be on our backs,” one resident stated. “For them to just sit up here with this crap, and we’re supposed to listen to it!”

    Residents questioned what would be done for the children who would be affected by the closing of the field house, while others argued that their tax dollars are being used to house migrants without any community input.

    While representatives from the city attempted to defend the decision to house migrants in the community field house, KTVZ News reported that the 600-person crowd did not appear interested in hearing from them.

    During the meeting, Beatriz Ponce De León, Deputy Mayor of Immigrant, Migrant, and Refugee Rights, was met with loud boos and chants of “You work for us” when she tried to introduce herself.



    Source

  • APC To Atiku: We Sympathise With You For Spending Lifetime Chasing Unrealised Dream Of Becoming President

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) has described the world press conference by the former Vice President and presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, as a “drum of shame.”

    In a statement signed on Thursday by the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, the APC said Atiku has spent a lifetime pursuing an unrealised dream of becoming Nigeria’s president.

    Earlier, Atiku held a press conference in Abuja where he appealed to the Supreme Court to defend the country’s reputation.

    In reaction, the ruling APC stated that they were unfazed by the press conference, adding that it lacked purpose except for its falsehoods.

    The statement read in part: “The All Progressives Congress (APC) is unfazed by the press conference addressed by former Vice President and Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar earlier today.

    “The press conference lacked purpose and delivered nothing except the pitiful regurgitation of lies, mindless distortions, and deliberate falsehood on his infantile obsession with the academic record of Bola Ahmed Tinubu, President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

    “For several weeks now, Nigerians and the world have watched with incredulity Alhaji Atiku Abubakar’s display of utter desperation in his failed bid to become the President of Nigeria.”

    The APC described Atiku’s action as desperate and shameless, saying: “Earlier today, he put his desperation in overdrive during his press conference where he addressed some of the issues in his appeal at the Supreme Court and bandying unproven charges against the President of Nigeria, His Excellency Bola Ahmed Tinubu, in a calculated attempt to shamelessly whip up public sentiments and inordinately pressure the Supreme Court.

    “We believe Alhaji Atiku Abubakar should have known better than to demonstrate gross contempt of the highest court by making public comments on a matter that he has submitted to the court for adjudication.

    “The major takeaway from his Yar’Adua Centre show, especially at question time, was that Atiku harbours deep animosity towards Tinubu whom he believes was responsible for his electoral woes in 2007, 2015, 2019, and this year.

    “In desperation, unbecoming of a statesman who once occupied the second highest office in the land, the PDP candidate in the last election has thrown every decency, decorum, dignity, and national respectability out the window on his purposeless judicial voyage of discovery to the United States in search of a magic wand for taking power against the will of the Nigerian electorate loudly expressed in last February’s presidential election.”

    The APC called Abubakar “Nigeria’s most prolific election loser and longest-running presidential candidate in history,” saying: “We see his recent US fishing expedition as the last kick of a roundly rejected presidential aspirant.

    “While we sympathise with Alhaji Atiku Abubakar for spending a lifetime pursuing an unrealised dream, we strongly condemn the perfidious road he has taken and the needless negative exposure of Nigeria and the institution of the Presidency in foreign land.”

    Source

  • San Francisco prioritizing Black, ‘Latinx’ people in guaranteed transgender income program

    From Fox News:

    A program in San Francisco to hand out money to low-income transgender-identifying people favored Black and “Latinx” recipients and even sets race targets for recipients, new documents show.

    Judicial Watch obtained more than 1,700 pages of documents from the City of San Francisco related to the Guaranteed Income for Transgender People (GIFT) program, which was announced by Mayor London Breed last year.

    The pilot program provides low-income transgender residents with payments of up to $1,200 each month for up to 18 months with the goal of providing “economically marginalized transgender people with unrestricted, monthly guaranteed income as a way to combat poverty.” It uses pre-paid debit cards due to participants potentially not having bank accounts. The amount someone can receive is capped at $4,000.

    Read more here…

    Source