— Joe Rogan Podcast News (@joeroganhq) March 4, 2026
Jasmine Crockett is now using the mass shooting in Austin, which was reportedly carried out by an imported Islamic terrorist, to DEFEND illegal aliens while blaming White men for crime.pic.twitter.com/ZPoelLnRae
Canada is fast approaching its 100,000th death from Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID), a grim milestone that puts it way ahead of every other nation.
Health Canada reported that 76,475 Canadians had died under MAID as of December 31, 2024. New cases were arriving at roughly 45 per day, with 2024 alone recording 16,499 deaths. Even if approvals have steadied in recent months, the government’s own trajectory suggests the 100,000th death could come in early June, weeks before the 10th anniversary of Bill C-14, which first legalized doctor-assisted suicide.
“This spring, we’re about to hit our 100,000th individual,” said Canadian anti-MAID activist Kelsi Sheren on a podcast with British rapper Nzube Udezue, known as Zuby, according to the National Post. Sheren has tracked the milestone closely, warning that the country is approaching a six-figure tally in assisted deaths.
Canada legalized MAID in 2016, years after the Netherlands and Belgium, which began allowing assisted suicide in 2002 and 2003, respectively. Unlike Belgium, Canada does not yet permit assisted suicide for patients suffering solely from mental illness, a step planned for early 2027, but the pace of deaths isn’t slowing down.
Even as a later adopter, Canada’s MAID numbers have surged faster than any other jurisdiction. In 2020, assisted deaths jumped 36.8 percent from 5,461 to 7,451, then climbed another 34.8 percent to 9,842 the following year. If trends continue, Canada could surpass the combined totals of every other country with legal euthanasia in a single year.
New Zealand, comparatively, has recorded roughly 1,000 deaths since 2021, Spain 697 in its first three years, and Colombia 692 between 2015 and 2023. In the US, state-level assisted suicide has existed since 1998, with total deaths reaching 5,329 across all states by 2022.
Even in Europe, long-standing euthanasia programs have produced smaller totals. Switzerland tallied 8,738 deaths over 20 years, Belgium 33,647 over 21 years. Only the Netherlands reports a higher share of assisted deaths relative to total mortality—5.8 percent versus 5.1 percent for Canada—but the larger Canadian population means more individual lives lost: 16,499 in 2024 alone, compared with 9,958 in the Netherlands.
The Atlanta Hawks are apparently making the most out of International Women’s Month by teaming up with a famous strip club as part of their promotional “Magic City Monday” game on March 16.
The NBA team put out a release that stated the “Magic City Monday” game will honor one of Atlanta’s “iconic cultural institutions” with special food and a halftime performance by Atlanta great, T.I.
“The Hawks have worked with Magic City to bring the ‘best of’ the phenomena for fans in attendance at the award-winning State Farm Arena,” the statement read.
“We doin’ this one for the city… Magic City,” T.I. said.
The famous Atlanta strip club has been around since the ’80s and is known for more than just its strippers. Magic City is famous for its lemon pepper wings, which will be featured at the “Magic City Monday” game in a few weeks.
“From the food to the music and the exclusive merchandise, we are excited to team up with Magic City to create an authentic, True to Atlanta-inspired game experience,” said Hawks Executive Vice President & Chief Marketing Officer Melissa Proctor.
The wings are apparently so good that during the NBA bubble season in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, former Los Angeles Clippers guard Lou Williams broke protocol to visit Magic City for the wings and was forced to miss games because of the mandatory 10-day quarantine the league required.
Not all NBA players are excited for this collab during a month that’s meant to celebrate women’s accomplishments. San Antonio Spurs center Luke Kornet penned an article asking Atlanta to cancel “Magic City Monday” theme night because he said the promotion doesn’t protect or esteem women and would reflect poorly on the NBA.
“The NBA should desire to protect and esteem women, many of whom work diligently every day to make this the best basketball league in the world,” Kornett wrote. “We should promote an atmosphere that is protective and respectful of the daughters, wives, sisters, mothers, and partners that we know and love.”
🚨 WATCH: Minister Anita Anand reveals that President Trump never notified Canada of the upcoming strikes on Iran. "We weren't notified."pic.twitter.com/Gfzd2JYHi7
The gunman behind Austin’s possible terror-related mass shooting entered the US and cemented his legal immigration status under Democratic administrations — despite a growing criminal record.
Senegalese national Ndiaga Diagne, 53, arrived in America on March 13, 2000, on a B-2 tourist visa during the Clinton administration, a source familiar with his immigration history told The Post on Sunday.
He then went on to lodge a string of other arrests in the Big Apple between 2008 and 2016 — but that didn’t keep him becoming a naturalized US citizen on April 5, 2013, around the start of former President Barack Obama’s second term, sources said. Those three arrests are sealed, sources said.
Diagne also was arrested in Texas at some point on undisclosed charges, sources said.
He was a known emotionally disturbed person in both states, too, sources said.
Diagne applied for asylum in 2016, though the stated purpose and outcome of that application were not immediately clear.
The serial offender opened fire outside Buford’s Backyard Beer Garden near the University of Texas-Austin Campus early Sunday, killing two bar patrons and wounding 14 others before he was shot and killed by police.
He was wearing a “Property of Allah” hoodie at the time of the rampage and had a Quran in his car, sources familiar with the investigation told The Post.
The FBI is investigating whether he was motivated by the US-Israel-led campaign against Iran. Sources said he was wearing an undershirt emblazoned with the Iranian flag or other Iran-related imagery.
A federal jury in Boise awarded $10 million to a University of Idaho professor after finding a Texas TikToker financially liable for spreading false claims that linked her to the 2022 stabbing deaths of four college students.
The decision came Friday in U.S. District Court in the case of Scofield v. Guillard. Jurors awarded $7.5 million in punitive damages and $2.5 million in compensatory damages, according to court records and reporting by the Idaho Statesman.
Professor Rebecca Scofield, who chairs the university’s history department, filed suit in December 2022 against Houston resident Ashley Guillard. The lawsuit stemmed from a series of TikTok videos in which Guillard alleged, without evidence, that Scofield had a romantic relationship with one of the victims and arranged the killings.
The victims, Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin, were stabbed to death in a rental home near campus in Moscow, Idaho, on Nov. 13, 2022. The crime drew nationwide attention and left the campus community reeling.
The Supreme Court sided with a group of parents challenging a California policy that allowed schools to keep kids’ so-called gender transitions a secret.
In a 6-3 decision on Monday, the justices said that California policies that block schools from notifying parents about their child’s desire to change their sex and be referred to by incorrect pronouns likely violate their religious liberty. The ruling comes after the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down a lower court’s ruling siding with parents challenging California’s policies.
“We conclude that the parents who seek religious exemptions are likely to succeed on the merits of their Free Exercise Clause claim,” the Supreme Court majority wrote. “The parents who assert a free exercise claim have sincere religious beliefs about sex and gender, and they feel a religious obligation to raise their children in accordance with those beliefs. California’s policies violate those beliefs.”
The California Department of Education has argued that the challenge should be considered moot because they claim that a frequently-asked-questions page posted by the department has been edited to show that they do not mandate parental exclusion, and so there is no more cause for complaint. The FAQ page included a line that said, “with rare exceptions, schools are required to respect the limitations that a student places on the disclosure of their transgender status, including not sharing that information with the student’s parents.”
While that guidance was deleted, policies that kept parents in the dark about their children were still promoted in statewide teacher trainings, according to documents uncovered by the Thomas More Society.
Policies prohibiting local school districts from passing measures requiring teachers to inform parents about a student’s identity were signed by Governor Gavin Newsom.
“Gender dysphoria is a condition that has an important bearing on a child’s mental health, but when a child exhibits symptoms of gender dysphoria at school, California’s policies conceal that information from parents and facilitate a degree of gender transitioning during school hours. These policies likely violate parents’ rights to direct the upbringing and education of their children,” the majority wrote.
They added that “the intrusion on parents’ free exercise rights here—unconsented facilitation of a child’s gender transition—is greater than the introduction of LGBTQ storybooks we considered sufficient to trigger strict scrutiny in Mahmoud.”
Mahmoud was a case from last year where the court ruled that a Maryland county violated the rights of parents who wanted to opt their kids out of instruction related to LGBT content.
Paul Jonna, special counsel at the Thomas More Society and partner at LiMandri and Jonna LLP, said the ruling was a major victory for parents.
“This is a watershed moment for parental rights in America,” she said. “The Supreme Court has told California and every state in the nation in no uncertain terms: you cannot secretly transition a child behind a parent’s back. The Court’s landmark reaffirmation of substantive due process, its vindication of religious liberty, and its approval of class-wide relief together set a historic precedent that will dismantle secret gender transition policies across the country.”
The court’s liberal justices — Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor, and Ketanji Brown Jackson — wanted to block the parents’ challenge.
Two employees who refused to serve a man and his wife because he was wearing a hoodie with President Trump’s name on it were fired after a video of the heated encounter went viral.
Erika Lindemyer and her husband, Jake, were forced out of a Smoothie King franchise location in Ann Arbor, Michigan, following a fiery clash with two young female workers on Sunday.
The employees claimed they didn’t “feel comfortable” serving the couple because of Jake’s pro-Trump hoodie, as captured by Erika in a viral video.
Smoothie King employees refuse service to Trump supporters and kick them out of the store
The joint U.S.–Israeli attack on Iran began with large-scale strikes on February 28, 2026, after months of escalating clashes, nuclear disputes, and proxy attacks across the region.
Key lead-up (late 2025–February 27, 2026)
Throughout late 2025, Iran accelerated its nuclear program and regional militias intensified attacks on U.S. and Israeli targets in Iraq, Syria, and the Gulf, prompting repeated U.S. and Israeli warnings of “consequences.”
In January–February 2026, Iranian‑linked groups carried out drone and rocket attacks that killed three U.S. soldiers, and Israel continued strikes on Iranian assets in Syria and Lebanon.
By late February, U.S. and Israeli officials had coordinated a joint operation aimed at Iran’s leadership, command‑and‑control, and missile and nuclear infrastructure.
February 28, 2026: Opening strikes
Around the morning of February 28 (local time), Israel launched an unprecedented wave of airstrikes on Tehran and other cities, beginning around 9:45 a.m. IRST, targeting top leadership and key military sites.
In the same operation, U.S. Navy and Air Force assets struck Iranian command‑and‑control nodes, air defenses, missile and UAV sites, and radar and naval facilities.
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and several senior security officials were reported killed in decapitation strikes on his residential compound, along with members of his family and staff.
Iranian retaliation on day one (February 28, 2026)
Within hours, the IRGC announced large‑scale missile and drone launches toward Israel and U.S. bases, vowing retaliation with “no red lines.”
Missile barrages using systems such as Emad and Ghadr targeted Israeli cities including Haifa, triggering nationwide shelter orders, and aimed at at least 14 U.S. bases across Bahrain, the UAE, Kuwait, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq.
The initial exchanges caused casualties in Israel and across the region, with Iran signaling that attacks would continue until the U.S. and Israel were “definitively defeated.”
March 1, 2026: Intensification of strikes
By early March 1, further U.S.–Israeli waves hit Iranian ballistic‑missile facilities, IRGC bases, naval assets, and communication hubs, as part of what was described as a multi‑day campaign.
Iran expanded its retaliatory strikes to additional U.S. positions and continued missile and drone attacks against Israel, while urging regional allies and militias to join the fight.
Smoke plumes and damage were reported in parts of Tehran and other major cities, with growing civilian and military casualties on the Iranian side.
March 2, 2026: Regional widening and “day three”
By day three, Iran and allied militias launched missiles toward Israel and several Arab states, and an Iran‑aligned Iraqi militia claimed a drone strike on U.S. forces at Baghdad airport.
Hezbollah fired missiles into northern Israel in what it called retaliation for Khamenei’s killing and ongoing Israeli operations, while Israeli forces struck targets in southern Lebanon and Beirut’s southern suburbs, causing dozens of deaths and injuries.
The U.S. reported using B‑2 bombers with 2,000‑pound munitions against Iran’s ballistic‑missile infrastructure, claiming multiple Iranian naval vessels sunk and a naval command center largely destroyed; Iran reported more than 200 dead since the campaign began.
Four U.S. troops have been killed.
One U.S. plane has been shot down by Kuwaiti air defense in what’s classified as a friendly fire incident. The pilot ejected safely and is alive.
Political framing and stated objectives
President Donald Trump publicly framed the operation as removing “imminent threats” from the Iranian regime and signaled that strikes could continue for “four or five weeks,” tying them to the deaths of U.S. soldiers.
Israeli and U.S. sources described primary objectives as: decapitating Iran’s leadership, degrading its missile and drone capabilities, constraining its nuclear program, and weakening its regional proxy network.
Iranian officials declared they would not negotiate with Washington under fire and promised continued retaliation through direct attacks and allied militias across the Middle East.
The big guys that were killed involved:
Here is the same group of slain senior figures, separated by institution and with a brief note on their roles and why they mattered before the strikes.
Institution: Supreme Leader’s office / ultimate authority over all branches of the state and armed forces.
Role and significance: As Supreme Leader since 1989, Khamenei was the state’s highest decision‑maker on foreign policy, nuclear policy, and use of force, with direct authority over the IRGC, regular army, intelligence services, and key appointments. His death removes the central node of Iran’s political‑religious system and triggers a leadership‑transition process around the provisional council now managing his powers.
Ali Shamkhani – Senior adviser, head of Defense Council
Institution: Supreme Leader’s network and national security apparatus (Defense Council / high‑level strategic body).
Role and significance: Former IRGC Navy and regular Navy commander, ex‑defense minister, and long‑time secretary of the Supreme National Security Council (2013–2023), he was, by 2026, secretary of the newly formed Defense Council and a close strategic adviser to Khamenei. That position put him at the center of Iran’s war planning, nuclear negotiations posture, and coordination of responses to Israel and the U.S.
IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps)
Major General Mohammad Pakpour – IRGC commander‑in‑chief
Institution: IRGC high command.
Role and significance: A veteran IRGC officer from the Iran–Iraq War era, Pakpour led IRGC Ground Forces from 2009 and was elevated to commander‑in‑chief of the entire IRGC in 2025 after Hossein Salami’s death. He oversaw Iran’s main force for missile, drone, and regional proxy warfare, playing a central role in counterterrorism operations and in shaping Iran’s asymmetric strategy against Israel, the U.S., and Gulf states.
Regular army / joint armed forces
Major General Abdolrahim Mousavi – Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces
Institution: Regular army / joint armed forces command (Artesh plus IRGC coordination).
Role and significance: A career Artesh officer who previously commanded the regular army, Mousavi was appointed in 2025 as chief of staff of Iran’s Armed Forces, coordinating overall defense planning and readiness across all services. His job was to integrate IRGC and regular military capabilities, improve strategic planning, and manage Iran’s response posture to external threats; losing him alongside the IRGC chief and Supreme Leader is a major blow to Iran’s military command structure.
Security council / high‑level strategy bodies
Ali Shamkhani – Supreme National Security Council veteran, Defense Council secretary
Institution: Supreme National Security Council (past) and newly formed Defense Council (immediate pre‑war role).
Role and significance: As SNSC secretary for a decade and then Defense Council secretary, Shamkhani was one of the few figures spanning the IRGC, regular military, and civilian leadership, often acting as a bridge between hard‑line and pragmatic factions. He was instrumental in war‑room coordination during previous crises, and his death removes a key architect of Iran’s strategic responses and back‑channel diplomacy.
Former regime president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is confirmed dead.
There is a rumor that newly appointed Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Arafi, has reportedly been killed in an airstrike, just hours after being given the role.
California is home to one of the largest Iranian communities outside Iran, and celebrations filled the streets of Los Angeles as word spread that the supreme leader was presumed killed in U.S. and Israeli strikes. Many fled the regime that ruled for nearly five decades and now… pic.twitter.com/PlWByCu53J
— CBS Evening News with Tony Dokoupil (@CBSEveningNews) March 1, 2026
Within the Arabic world, Donald J. Trump is the most respected President in US History. It's not even close.
What the President has done will be remembered and talked about for generations. pic.twitter.com/4j3kxqtlez
The Republican response was best summed up by Scott Jennings on CNN:
Trump isn’t starting a war – he’s ending a regime at war with the US & Western Civilization for 47 years. May God rest the souls of the Americans who gave their lives in this noble cause.
Missiles. Nuclear ambitions. Terrorism. It stops now because Trump had the guts to do it. pic.twitter.com/EWaS6xhTZr
President Trump’s decision to launch a war against Iran without congressional signoff has splintered lawmakers, largely along party lines, and supercharged the debate over war powers authority.
While most Republicans largely rallied around Trump’s decision to carry out the massive joint attack with Israel, Democrats quickly denounced the attack as an illegal “war of choice” and demanded Congress come back to Washington to take a vote on whether to authorize another Middle East invasion.
Democratic leaders have vowed to forge ahead with their plans to force a vote on a war powers resolution next week in the House that would block Trump from carrying out additional strikes.
Following major backlash about the scheduled release of a serial child molester through California’s elderly parole program, the 64-year-old is now facing new charges that could keep him behind bars.
News that David Allen Funston was set to be freed was met by outrage among victims, politicians and others. The former Sacramento County district attorney who prosecuted Funston said she was strongly opposed to his release: “This is one I’m screaming about.”
Funston, granted parole earlier this month, was set to be released on Thursday from state prison — but was rearrested that same day on new charges from a decades-old, untried case. The charges he’s facing are from a 1996 case in which he is accused of sexually assaulting a child in Roseville, according to the Placer County district attorney’s office.
In 1999, he was convicted of 16 counts of kidnapping and child molestation and had been serving three consecutive sentences of 25 years to life and one sentence of 20 years and eight months at the California Institution for Men in Chino. The sentences followed a string of cases out of Sacramento County in which prosecutors said Funston lured children under the age of 7 with candy and, in at least one case, a Barbie doll to kidnap and sexually assault them, often under the threat of violence.
He was described by a judge at his sentencing hearing as “the monster parents fear the most.”
Prosecutors in Placer County, at the time, decided not to pursue the case against Funston in Roseville given the severity of the sentences he received in Sacramento County.
But given his scheduled release from state prison, prosecutors decided to file new charges against him. Placer County Dist. Atty. Morgan Gire said “changes in state law and recent parole board failures” led to his improper release.
“This individual was previously sentenced to multiple life terms for extremely heinous crimes,” Gire said in a statement. “When changes in the law put our communities at risk, it is our duty to re-evaluate those cases and act accordingly. David Allen Funston committed very real crimes against a Placer County child, and the statute of limitations allows us to hold him accountable for those crimes.”
He is now being held without bail in the Placer County jail, booked on suspicion of lewd and lascivious acts against a child, according to prosecutors. Funston’s attorney, Maya Emig, said she had only recently learned about his arrest and hadn’t yet had time to fully review the matter.
But she noted that she believes “in the justice system and the rule of law.”
Emig called the Board of Parole Hearings’ decision to grant Funston elderly parole “lawful and just.”
California’s elderly parole program generally considers the release of prisoners who are older than 50 and have been incarcerated for at least 20 continuous years, considering whether someone poses an unreasonable risk to public safety.
In Funston’s case, commissioners said they did not believe Funston posed a significant danger because of the extensive self-help, therapy work and sex offender treatment classes he completed, as well as his detailed plan to avoid repeating his crimes, the remorse he expressed and his track record of good behavior in prison, according to a transcript from the Sept. 24 hearing.
At the hearing, Funston called himself a “selfish coward” for victimizing young children, and said he was “disgusted and ashamed of my behavior and have great remorse for the harm I caused my victims, their families in the community of Sacramento.”
“I’m truly sorry,” he said.
But victims of his crimes, as well as prosecutors and elected leaders have questioned the parole decision and called for its reversal.
“He’s one sick individual,” a victim of Funston’s violence told The Times. “What if he gets out and and tries to find his old victims and wants to kill us?”
A spokesperson for Gov. Gavin Newsom said the governor also did not agree with Funston’s release and had asked the board to review the case. However, Newsom has no authority to overturn the parole decision.
Some state lawmakers also cited Funston’s case as evidence that California’s elderly parole program needs reform, recently introducing a bill that would exclude people convicted of sexual crimes from being considered by the process.
THINK back to your first childhood crush. Maybe it was a classmate or a friend next door. Most likely, through school and into adulthood, your affections continued to focus on others in your approximate age group. But imagine if they did not.
By some estimates, 1 percent of the male population continues, long after puberty, to find themselves attracted to prepubescent children. These people are living with pedophilia, a sexual attraction to prepubescents that often constitutes a mental illness. Unfortunately, our laws are failing them and, consequently, ignoring opportunities to prevent child abuse.
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders defines pedophilia as an intense and recurrent sexual interest in prepubescent children, and a disorder if it causes a person “marked distress or interpersonal difficulty” or if the person acts on his interests. Yet our laws ignore pedophilia until after the commission of a sexual offense, emphasizing punishment, not prevention.
Part of this failure stems from the misconception that pedophilia is the same as child molestation. One can live with pedophilia and not act on it. Sites like Virtuous Pedophiles provide support for pedophiles who do not molest children and believe that sex with children is wrong. It is not that these individuals are “inactive” or “nonpracticing” pedophiles, but rather that pedophilia is a status and not an act. In fact, research shows, about half of all child molesters are not sexually attracted to their victims.
A second misconception is that pedophilia is a choice. Recent research, while often limited to sex offenders — because of the stigma of pedophilia — suggests that the disorder may have neurological origins. Pedophilia could result from a failure in the brain to identify which environmental stimuli should provoke a sexual response. M.R.I.s of sex offenders with pedophilia show fewer of the neural pathways known as white matter in their brains. Men with pedophilia are three times more likely to be left-handed or ambidextrous, a finding that strongly suggests a neurological cause. Some findings also suggest that disturbances in neurodevelopment in utero or early childhood increase the risk of pedophilia. Studies have also shown that men with pedophilia have, on average, lower scores on tests of visual-spatial ability and verbal memory.
The Virtuous Pedophiles website is full of testimonials of people who vow never to touch a child and yet live in terror. They must hide their disorder from everyone they know — or risk losing educational and job opportunities, and face the prospect of harassment and even violence. Many feel isolated; some contemplate suicide. The psychologist Jesse Bering, author of “Perv: The Sexual Deviant in All of Us,” writes that people with pedophilia “aren’t living their lives in the closet; they’re eternally hunkered down in a panic room.”
While treatment cannot eliminate a pedophile’s sexual interests, a combination of cognitive-behavioral therapy and medication can help him to manage urges and avoid committing crimes.
But the reason we don’t know enough about effective treatment is because research has usually been limited to those who have committed crimes.
Our current law is inconsistent and irrational. For example, federal law and 20 states allow courts to issue a civil order committing a sex offender, particularly one with a diagnosis of pedophilia, to a mental health facility immediately after the completion of his sentence — under standards that are much more lax than for ordinary “civil commitment” for people with mental illness. And yet, when it comes to public policies that might help people with pedophilia to come forward and seek treatment before they offend, the law omits pedophilia from protection.
The Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990 and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 prohibit discrimination against otherwise qualified individuals with mental disabilities, in areas such as employment, education and medical care. Congress, however, explicitly excluded pedophilia from protection under these two crucial laws.
It’s time to revisit these categorical exclusions. Without legal protection, a pedophile cannot risk seeking treatment or disclosing his status to anyone for support. He could lose his job, and future job prospects, if he is seen at a group-therapy session, asks for a reasonable accommodation to take medication or see a psychiatrist, or requests a limit in his interaction with children. Isolating individuals from appropriate employment and treatment only increases their risk of committing a crime.
There’s no question that the extension of civil rights protections to people with pedophilia must be weighed against the health and safety needs of others, especially kids. It stands to reason that a pedophile should not be hired as a grade-school teacher. But both the A.D.A. and the Rehabilitation Act contain exemptions for people who are “not otherwise qualified” for a job or who pose “a direct threat to the health and safety of others” that can’t be eliminated by a reasonable accommodation. (This is why employers don’t have to hire blind bus drivers or mentally unstable security guards.)
The direct-threat analysis rejects the idea that employers can rely on generalizations; they must assess the specific case and rely on evidence, not presuppositions. Those who worry that employers would be compelled to hire dangerous pedophiles should look to H.I.V. case law, where for years courts were highly conservative, erring on the side of finding a direct threat, even into the late 1990s, when medical authorities were in agreement that people with H.I.V. could work safely in, for example, food services.
Removing the pedophilia exclusion would not undermine criminal justice or its role in responding to child abuse. It would not make it easier, for example, for someone accused of child molestation to plead not guilty by reason of insanity.
A pedophile should be held responsible for his conduct — but not for the underlying attraction. Arguing for the rights of scorned and misunderstood groups is never popular, particularly when they are associated with real harm. But the fact that pedophilia is so despised is precisely why our responses to it, in criminal justice and mental health, have been so inconsistent and counterproductive. Acknowledging that pedophiles have a mental disorder, and removing the obstacles to their coming forward and seeking help, is not only the right thing to do, but it would also advance efforts to protect children from harm.
Margo Kaplan is an assistant professor at Rutgers School of Law, Camden.
California loses another billionaire after the state threatens to implement a wealth tax.
Joe Biden’s FBI has been proven to have been acting badly. Will anything come of it?
And CNN is about to release a documentary on Christian Nationalism. This raises a couple of questions.
News
Here is some news:
Hollywood legend Steven Spielberg is the latest billionaire to escape California ahead of a hefty proposed wealth tax. The directorrecently purchased a home in the iconic San Remo co-op in New York City overlooking Central Park.
Public Storage announced it is leaving California and moving its corporate headquarters from Glendale to Frisco, Texas.
Public Storage operates thousands of self-storage units across the country.
Blu Zeke Daly, 26, of Manchester, previously known as “Cullen Zeke Daly,” reportedly pulled a vehicle up to a closed gate at the US-Canadian Pittsburgh Port of Entry and fired gunshots at a Border Patrol agent when approached.
The suspect is trans nonbinary.
The FBI under Joe Biden subpoenaed the phone records of now-FBI Director Kash Patel and now-White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles in 2022 and 2023, when both were private citizens. The phone records grab was part of the Biden administration’s investigation into Donald Trump.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is proposing to spend $70 million on his plan for a network of government-owned grocery stores, a sum $10 million higher than he pledged on the campaign trail, even as his administration warns of a multibillion-dollar fiscal shortfall and raises the prospect of higher property taxes.
Cuba’s Interior Ministry reported that four men aboard a US-registered speedboat were killed after opening fire on a Cuban coast guard vessel near Cayo Falcones on Wednesday morning. Six additional passengers were wounded and received medical care.
The ministry said the Florida-registered vessel, carrying at least 10 people, was detected in Cuban waters off the country’s northern coast in Villa Clara province. When five members of the Cuban border guard approached the speedboat to verify its identity, the crew allegedly opened fire, injuring the Cuban commander.
The Cuban government later said that the 10 passengers who opened fire on soldiers were Cubans who had been living in the US and were seeking to infiltrate the island nation for the purpose of committing terrorism, the AP reports. The government claimed that the passengers on the boat “have a known history of criminal and violent activity.”
No movement on Iran.
They continue to talk in Geneva.
Iran refuses to give up their “peaceful” nuclear ambitions.
Iran refuses to giver up their ballistic missile program.
Iran refuses to giver up their nuclear materials.
The Trump administration says both Iranian demands are unacceptable.
The United States shipped a bunch of F-22s to Israel.
We should know more over the next 48 to 72 hours.
Just fucking dumb! Here is Rep Jenelle Bynum saying that Trump asking politicians to stand if they believe government should protect American citizens over illegal aliens. You’ll be shocked at what she says:
OMG
Democrat Rep. Janelle Bynum says it was "racist" and “uncomfortable” when Trump asked to stand for American citizens. pic.twitter.com/CWnLepxU5w
Nancy Pelosi complains that Trump’s SOTU speech was too patriotic: “It’s one thing to acknowledge patriotism, but to spend an hour and a half doing it?” pic.twitter.com/KleBOIBLnP
WTF. CNN's Pamela Brown to release an anti-Christian hit-piece that uses the ass*ssination of Charlie Kirk to highlight the rise of "Christian nationalism" in the United States.pic.twitter.com/SnsHmfTg4f
She doesn’t call this “White Christian Nationalism”. They take the racial component out of it.
She says that the country was based on Judeo/Christian principles. It was.
She says that Judeo/Christian principles should influence our laws and culture. It should. We aren’t kicking anyone out of the country because they have a different religion.
Charlie Kirk’s death did create a revitalization of Christianity. So did the assassination attempts of Donald Trump.
Notice, all the violence is coming out of the Left.
They Might As Well As Cancel It Now
According to the Post Millennial:
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy features a gay Klingon cadet. The show features a lesbian relationship between a mixed Klingon and Jem’Hadar and Tig Notaro, who plays a teacher at the Academy, as well as a Klingon man who dates a human.
“I won’t pretend that I wasn’t scared to take on this role. Part of me still is. Not because of the character himself, but because I knew the reaction that could come with it,” actor Karim Diané said of his character, Jay-Den Kraag, per Pink News.
To those who aren’t crazy about the warrior race being displayed as gay, Diané says their concerns are just “rooted in homophobia, racism, bigotry.” In the Star Trek universe, Klingons are a warrior race who are always ready for a fight and go into battle under the mantra “today is a good day to die.”
“But what matters more is this,” said Diané, “over the past few weeks since this show premiered, I’ve received countless messages from LGBTQ+ people around the world… people who feel seen, validated, and inspired by Jay-Den. Those messages outweigh every bit of negativity. Every single time.”
Episode 7, which aired this week, showed the Klingon character heading off to Ibiza to party down with his gay lover Kyle for spring break, or “All Worlds Day,” as it’s called on the show. Jay-Den Kraag didn’t even end up making it on the trip; he got sidetracked by another plot line, but Kyle came back terribly sunburned. Other cadets spent their All Worlds Day holidays with their families.
Of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, Diané said he imagined a future that expanded who gets to be seen, heard, and valued. “A future where diversity isn’t merely tolerated but celebrated. Jay-Den doesn’t exist outside of that tradition. He exists because of it. ‘Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations’ isn’t just a catchy phrase Roddenberry tossed around. I believe he truly meant it,” he said.
Trekkers and Trekkies on X spoke out against the absurdity of taking a Star Trek series and making it about sexual identity, with one user saying “life long star trek fan but have not even started watching starfleet academy, i just can´t. from captain picard fighting the borg which was beyond epic to increasingly woke and insane storylines with every new series of star trek that has made it impossible to watch.”
“And then they wonder why people only watch the old shows, is because they were fun and entertaining not a platform to push an agenda,” said another.
Whoopi Goldberg finally realizes that seeing a name on a list does not equal guilt. It's funny how the standard shifts when it is one of their own. By defending herself, she just accidentally made the most valid argument for Donald Trump that we have heard yet. pic.twitter.com/FNfS2u1hBH
Actor Ted Levine apologized recently for his iconic turn as cross-dressing serial killer Jame Gumb in the 1991 horror classic “The Silence of the Lambs,” saying that it was “f*cking wrong” that the film had “vilified” the apparent gender confusion of his character.
Levine told The Hollywood Reporter that his intent had always been to play Gumb — nicknamed “Buffalo Bill” — as a “f*cked-up heterosexual man” despite the fact that the character dresses in women’s clothing, wears makeup, and skins his female victims in an effort to make himself a suit of female flesh.
“There are certain aspects of the movie that don’t hold up too well,” he said. “We all know more, and I’m a lot wiser about transgender issues. There are some lines in that script and movie that are unfortunate.”
Levine said that when they were making the film — based on the 1988 Thomas Harris novel by the same title — he had not been particularly concerned, but that “over time and having gotten aware and worked with trans folks, and understanding a bit more about the culture and the reality of the meaning of gender — it’s unfortunate that the film vilified that, and it’s f*cking wrong. And you can quote me on that.”
“I didn’t play him as being gay or trans. I think he was just a f*cked-up heterosexual man. That’s what I was doing,” Levine explained.
The State of the Union was last night and, boy, it was a good speech. Will this do anything with Trump’s dismal approval ratings.
It Was A Good Speech
According to Perplexity:
Opening and framing
Opened by greeting Speaker Johnson, Vice President Vance, members of Congress, and “my fellow Americans,” and declaring that the nation is “thriving… wealthier, and more resilient than ever.”
Framed the moment around the upcoming 250th anniversary of American independence in 2026, calling it the start of “America’s golden era.”
Asserted that the United States is entering a “golden age of America,” promising that the country will “do better and better and better” and not go back to conditions “a very short time ago.”
Economy and “golden age” theme
Claimed the economy is “booming,” with inflation “plummeting,” incomes “rising fast,” and the “roaring economy… roaring like never before.”
Said America is “respected again perhaps like never before,” tying foreign respect to his economic and security policies.
Highlighted record stock market levels and business confidence (as summarized by multiple takeaways), using these as proof of a broad economic turnaround in his first year back in office.
Boasted of lifting “a record” number of Americans off food stamps, citing 2.4 million projected to lose eligibility under new work requirements in his “One Big Beautiful Bill.”
Regulatory policy, DEI, and government
Announced that his administration had “abolished D.E.I. in America,” tying this to a broader rollback of regulations he says “stifle job creation.”
Claimed a “record number” of regulations had been eliminated, presenting deregulation as a key driver of job creation and wage growth.
Argued that government should focus on “protecting its citizens, not illegal immigrants,” using that line to transition into immigration and security policy.
Immigration, border, and DHS funding
Declared that, after “years of unchecked illegal immigration,” the U.S. now has “the most secure border in American history.”
Claimed that in the past nine months “no undocumented individuals have entered the U.S.,” presenting this as proof of unprecedented border control.
Touted an immigration crackdown: said the border is secure “by far,” that the flow of fentanyl is being stopped, and that the murder rate is falling.
Accused Democrats of cutting off funding for the Department of Homeland Security, causing a government shutdown that he said cost “two points on GDP.”
Demanded “complete and immediate restoration of all funding necessary for border security and homeland security.”
Urged Congress to end “deadly sanctuary cities,” and to impose “serious penalties” on officials who obstruct removal of criminal non‑citizens, including drug lords and murderers.
Elections, voting, and the “Safe/SAVE America Act”
Warned of “rampant cheating” in U.S. elections, claiming that electoral integrity is under threat.
Called on Congress to pass the “Safe America Act” (also described as the “SAVE America Act”), aimed at preventing “illegal aliens” from voting in U.S. elections.
Demanded that all voters show ID and proof of citizenship to vote, and said there should be “no more fraudulent‑in ballots,” allowing mail voting only for illness, disability, military service, or travel.
Cited a figure that “89% of Americans, including Democrats” support his proposal, presenting it as overwhelmingly popular.
Crime, fraud, and “war on fraud”
Linked blue states to “fraud and corruption,” saying many are “rampant with fraud.”
Singled out “members of the Somali community” in Minnesota, accusing them of having “pillaged” what belongs to U.S. taxpayers through fraud.
President Trump asked members of Congress to stand if they agree with his statement that the first duty of the U.S. government is to protect American citizens, not those in the country illegally.
Said his administration is “working hard” to end “the killing and slaughter between Russia and Ukraine,” claiming 25,000 soldiers are dying every month in the war.
Argued that Russia’s full‑scale invasion of Ukraine “would have never happened if I were president,” casting it as a consequence of prior leadership.
Claimed to have “ended eight wars” in his first ten months back in office, stressing his desire to “make peace wherever I can” but to never hesitate to confront threats.
Said the U.S. is restoring “security and dominance in the Western Hemisphere,” acting to protect against violence, drugs, terrorism, and foreign interference.
Described large parts of Mexico and other areas as controlled by “murderous drug cartels,” arguing that his policies were aimed at rolling back cartel influence.
Broader themes: revolution, patriotism, and culture
Framed U.S. history as an ongoing revolution: said “The Revolution that began in 1776 has not ended — it still continues,” and that the flame of liberty “still burns in the hearts of every American Patriot.”
Cast his presidency as restoring national “spirit,” saying “our spirit is restored” and the country has undergone a “turnaround for the ages” in a single year.
Positioned his agenda (on immigration, security, and regulation) as defending traditional American values and “patriots” against elites and the “radical left,” a theme emphasized across major analyses.
Closing declaration and “we’re winning” refrain
Reiterated that “for all these reasons” the “state of our Union is robust,” asserting that the country is “winning once more.”
Used his familiar line that Americans tell him, “Mr. President, we’re winning too much. We can’t handle it,” and answered that the country will continue to “win even bigger.”
Closed by inviting legislators to “stand with my administration” on border security and citizen protection, arguing that the State of the Union gives Americans a clear view of “what their representatives really believe.”
If you want, I can now turn this into a left‑column / right‑column table with his claim on the left and fact‑check/contest on the right.
Hakeem Jeffries warned Democrats just to watch the SOTU and not say anything. That didn’t work out.
They refused to stand when they should have again.
Ilhan Omar and Rashida Talib decided to start cussing out the president.
Most Democrats did not show up to the SOTU to go to their own counter rally, which was an embarrassment. Only about 75 people showed up and most were media.
How Does Trump Win in November?
TRUMP: "These people are CRAZY"
Democrats won't even oppose children being ripped from their parents' arms and transitioned to a new gender… pic.twitter.com/hYN7aGg4Uz
The first free grocery store opens in New York and it is working out just the way you’d think it would work.
And the 250th year of our country may be greeted with a bit of a stench.
News
Here is some news:
The Chicago Bears look to be moving to Hammond, Indiana.
All this is over a dispute over a new stadium.
The Illinois House committee meeting that was scheduled for Thursday to discuss funding a new stadium for the Chicago Bears has been cancelled. This cancellation makes a potential Bears move to Indiana feel like a very real proposition.
New York has opened its first free grocery store in West Village which is in lower Manhattan, New York.
The pop-up was opened Feb. 12 as a five-day store by cryptocurrency-based prediction market Polymarket. It comes as Democratic New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani advances a proposal for city-run grocery stores aimed at easing rising food costs and broader affordability pressures.
It was billed as New York City’s first free grocery store, with critics casting it as a stunt riffing on Mamdani’s proposal as the prediction-market company faces heightened scrutiny from regulators in various states, including New York.
New Yorkers need to get a “yellow ticket” in order to get into the store.
After nearly a decade in Virginia, Boeing announced on Wednesday that it is moving its Defense, Space & Security headquarters out of the state back to St. Louis. This comes just weeks after new Democratic Gov. Abigail Spanberger took office, replacing Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin.
In a major shift in European foreign policy, the Council of the European Union formally announced on Thursday that it has added the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to the EU terrorist list.
A trial in California is going after Mark Zuckerberg and Meta.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg was grilled Wednesday about whether his company intentionally designed Instagram to be addictive, in front of the young woman accusing Meta and YouTube of hooking her as a child and damaging her mental health.
He believed he has navigated the safety of young users “in a reasonable way.”
Zuckerberg was pressed on Wednesday about whether children younger than 13 have access to Instagram. The app technically requires users to be 13 to sign up, and Zuckerberg said younger children are “not allowed on Instagram.”
A huge sewage spill has leaked millions of gallons of excrement into the Potomac River.
It could take a year to fix and clean up.
The cause is the ancient plumping system that hasn’t been updated since the 1960s.
Donald Trump has decided to have the federal government take over the disaster because Delaware Governor Wes Moore is incompetent.
Wes Moore is blaming Trump because part of the pipeline was on federal lands and Trump is a racist.
Drinking water is not affected.
Just a little FYI: the United States might be attack Iran this weekend.
California officials who turned a blind eye to unemployment scams — potentially worth tens of billions of dollars during the pandemic — will now be put directly under the microscope of the federal government.
The US Department of Labor is set to send a letter to the state’s Employment Development Department announcing a “strike team” will soon be touching down in the Golden State to root out theft and abuse, The California Post has learned. The investigation will be similar to efforts currently underway in Minnesota.
Federal investigators have been combing through financial records tied to Minnesota fraud schemes after prosecutors uncovered what they describe as a sprawling web of pandemic-era theft, including the massive “Feeding Our Future” case that allegedly siphoned roughly $250 million in federal child-nutrition funds through fake claims and shell companies.
The breadth of fraud in California, however, could leave Minnesota’s thievery looking like chump change.
The feds provided California nearly $290 billion in relief funds during the pandemic, and EDD was among the largest recipients as it was tasked with rapidly implementing expanded unemployment benefits.
Amber Glenn skated to “Like a Prayer” during Tuesday’s short program. Now she’s in serious need of one herself.
One of the U.S.’s “Blade Angels,” Glenn was left in tears following a massive error in her skate — she landed a double loop instead of a triple — that left her in 13th place with just the free skate to go.
The 26-year-old was just one of two skaters on the day to land a triple axel, but her blunder was scored as an invalid element for which she received no points.
Glenn cried as she approached her coaches at the end of her skate, clutching the pearl necklace of her outfit.
American Hero Quinn Hughes:
“I love the U.S.”
“It’s the greatest country in the world. Happy to represent it here with these guys and it’s really special.”pic.twitter.com/OwVEhRjWSf
Here is AOC’s answer of whether she would create a wealth tax. Which, of course, is yes. Included is Argentine Foreign Minister Patricia Bullrich’s response.
AOC in Munich indicating she can't wait to impose a wealth tax. An Argentinian politician quickly schools her on how that destroyed wealth in Argentina.
She knows. That's the whole point. Democrats are destroyers.
🚨 HOLY SMOKES. Rep. AOC just SELF-DESTRUCTED while trying to represent America in Germany
"Should the US commit troops to defend Taiwan?"
AOC: "Um, you know, I think that, uhh, eh, this is such a, uh, you know, I th-I think that this is a, umm, this is of course a, uh, a very… pic.twitter.com/VfT98vKhZY
We lost a couple of icons this weekend. One good, one not so good.
Another trans person loses his crap in Rhode Island.
And New York is getting what it deserves.
Some News
Here is some news:
Jesse Jackson has died at the age of 84.
Inventor of the Rainbow Coalition.
Ran for president in 1984 and 1988.
Was a shadow senator for Washington DC.
Robert Duval has died at the age of 95.
Starred in movies like Apocalypse Now, The Godfather, and The Great Santini.
He won an Oscar for Best Actor for the movie Tender Mercies 1983.
Embattled Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Democratic Mayor Jacob Frey both made public overtures to the feds for reimbursement for usage of state and city resources and recouping of other alleged damages.
Minneapolis estimated $47 million in lost wages for people “afraid to leave home” for work, $81 million in small business revenue losses and $4.7 million from hotel cancellations, according to the outlet.
This comes as Minnesota is under investigation for $19 billion for fraud.
Two people were killed and at least three others critically injured after a man who identifies as a woman opened fire at a high school hockey game in Rhode Island.
Pawtucket Police Chief Tina Goncalves confirmed in a Monday evening press conference that Robert Dorgan, who goes by the name Roberta Esposito, killed himself after what she said was likely a targeted shooting stemming from a family dispute. A clip circulating on social media appears to show Dorgan’s daughter leaving a police station and telling reporters that her father “shot my family” and “he’s dead now.” The woman added that Dorgan “has mental health issues,” and “was very sick.”
Court records from 2020 confirm that Dorgan had undergone gender reassignment surgery. Dorgan claimed to North Providence Police at the time that his father-in-law attempted to throw him out of the house following his surgery. Around that time, Dorgan’s wife filed for divorce, initially citing “gender reassignment surgery, narcissistic + personality disorder traits” as the reason before crossing them out and writing “irreconcilable differences.”
Authorities have not publicly identified the victims, nor have they confirmed the precise relationships involved in the apparent family dispute. Police have also not released information about the weapon used.
This is the latest shooting perpetrated by a transgender-identifying attacker. Earlier this month, a man who identified as a woman and wore a dress killed 10 people at a Canadian school. Transgender-identifying shooters perpetrated deadly attacks on schools in Nashville in 2023 and in Minneapolis in 2025. The latter attack was the subject of the last question Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk was asked when he was assassinated in September.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has announced his preliminary budget, saying that in order to raise enough tax revenue to fill the gap in New York City‘s budget, New York Governor Kathy Hochul will have to allow him to raise taxes on the wealthiest New Yorkers and corporations, or that the tax burden will be passed onto property taxes, which would increase costs for everyday New Yorkers. The funding would primarily go to social services, as Mamdani presented on Tuesday.
Here he is during a press conference yesterday:
Mamdani says if Hochul doesn't allow NYC to raise taxes on corporations and highest earners, he will raise property taxes on New York City homeowners. pic.twitter.com/Bm07LxS9OH
Mamdani said that Hochul and Albany should raise income taxes on those earning over $1 million a year and the “most profitable corporations.”
Mamdani, when asked about the prospect of raising property taxes, said that it should be a “last resort” and that the tax increases would have to be imposed on those who are the wealthiest in the city. The proposal, as a “last resort,” would be a raise of property taxes by 9.5 percent.
Without pursuing either of those two options, Mamdani said that the revenue gap would stay at around $4.7 billion.
Some facts:
The budget has a deficit this year of $3.5 billion.
He wants to spend another $1.2 billion.
The city has spent $3.75 billion on illegal aliens.
The total budget for New York is about $110-120 billion.
Property class
Typical use
2025–26 NYC tax rate (approx.)
Class 1
1–3 family homes, small residential
About 19.8% of assessed valuenyc+1
Class 2
Large residential, co-ops, condos
About 12.4–12.5% of assessed valuenyc+2
Class 3
Utility and special franchise property
About 11.1% of assessed valuenyc+2
Class 4
Commercial/industrial (offices, stores)
About 10.8–10.9% of assessed valuenyc
How your bill is actually calculated
For a given property in NYC, the tax bill is roughly:
Assessed value (after assessment rules, caps, and exemptions) × class tax rate = base tax.
Then NYC applies any exemptions or abatements (e.g., STAR, co‑op/condo abatements, senior/disabled homeowner exemptions) to reduce the bill.
Example: If a Class 1 home has an assessed value of 100,000 (not market value), the property tax before exemptions would be roughly 19,800 for the year at a 19.8% rate.
The New York Times admits it has made a mistake when it comes to pot. Maybe I should be a New York Times opinion writer.
Gee, Really?
The New York Times released an opinion piece that finally admits something that I have been saying for years. This opinion piece is by their Editorial Board. Let’s go through it.
Thirteen years ago, no state allowed marijuana for recreational purposes. Today, most Americans live in a state that allows them to buy and smoke a joint. President Trump continued the trend toward legalization in December by loosening federal restrictions.
This editorial board has long supported marijuana legalization. In 2014, we published a six-part series that compared the federal marijuana ban to alcohol prohibition and argued for repeal. Much of what we wrote then holds up — but not all of it does.
Some things:
I don’t agree with Trump loosening restrictions on weed.
I want to point out, the New York Times might be changing their tune because Trump is loosening restrictions of Pot.
At the time, supporters of legalization predicted that it would bring few downsides. In our editorials, we described marijuana addiction and dependence as “relatively minor problems.” Many advocates went further and claimed that marijuana was a harmless drug that might even bring net health benefits. They also said that legalization might not lead to greater use.
This is the problem with the pot lobby. They think pot is a wonder drug with no side effects. This is just garbage. Pot is a carcinogen, just like cigarettes. It burns hotter than cigarettes. It has tons of nicotine, so it is addictive. And it is a hallucinogenic, so we know it screws with the mind.
It is not a wonder drug.
It is now clear that many of these predictions were wrong. Legalization has led to much more use. Surveys suggest that about 18 million people in the United States have used marijuana almost daily (or about five times a week) in recent years. That was up from around six million in 2012 and less than one million in 1992. More Americans now use marijuana daily than alcohol.
Well, yeah. What did they think would happen. I would also like to point out the most people that are using it are people under 30 years old, including kids.
Surging pot use
Number of U.S. residents consuming marijuana, by frequency of use per month
Source: Jonathan Caulkins (Carnegie Mellon), based on National Survey on Drug Use and Health
By THE NEW YORK TIMES
This wider use has caused a rise in addiction and other problems. Each year, nearly 2.8 million people in the United States suffer from cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome, which causes severe vomiting and stomach pain. More people have also ended up in hospitals with marijuana-linked paranoia and chronic psychotic disorders. Bystanders have also been hurt, including by people driving under the influence of pot.
Last year, UC San Diego hospital reported they get 30 patients a week that are suffering from marijuana psychosis.
America should not go back to prohibition to fix these problems. The war on marijuana brought its own costs. Every year, authorities arrested hundreds of thousands of Americans for marijuana possession. The people who suffered the legal and financial consequences were disproportionately Black, Latino and poor. A society that allows adults to use alcohol and tobacco cannot sensibly arrest people for marijuana use. We oppose the nascent efforts to re-criminalize the drug, such as a potential ballot initiative in Massachusetts this year that would ban recreational sales and home growing.
The question is not whether we should ban the drug. The question is whether we can. Has marijuana become ingrained into society. I say yes.
Yet there is a lot of space between heavy-handed criminal prohibition and hands-off commercial legalization. Much as the United States previously went too far in banning pot, it has recently gone too far in accepting and even promoting its use. Given the growing harms from marijuana use, American lawmakers should do more to regulate it. The most promising approach is one popularized by Mark Kleiman, a drug policy scholar who died in 2019. He described it as “grudging toleration.” Governments can enact policies that keep the drug legal and try to curb its biggest downsides. Culture and social norms can play an important role, too.
The larger point is that a society should be willing to examine the real-world impact of any major policy change and consider additional changes in response to new facts. In the case of marijuana, the recent evidence offers reason for Americans to become more grudging about accepting its use.
Over the past several decades, supporters of marijuana legalization often called for a strategy of “legalize and regulate.” It is a smart approach. Unfortunately, the country has pursued the first part of it while largely ignoring the second.
We want to emphasize that occasional marijuana use is no more a problem than drinking a glass of wine with dinner or smoking a celebratory cigar. Many Americans find it enjoyable to smoke a joint or eat an edible, with friends or alone. Some people with serious illnesses have found relief with marijuana. Adults should have the freedom to use it.
Still, any product that brings both pleasures and problems requires a balancing act, and marijuana falls into this category. Yes, it is safer than alcohol and tobacco in some ways, but it is not harmless. The biggest concern is excessive use. At least one in 10 people who use marijuana develops an addiction, a similar share as with alcohol. Even some who do not develop an addiction can still use it too much. People who are frequently stoned can struggle to hold a job or take care of their families. “As marijuana legalization has accelerated across the country, doctors are contending with the effects of an explosion in the use of the drug and its intensity,” a New York Times investigation concluded in 2024. “The accumulating harm is broader and more severe than previously reported.”
Jennifer Macaluso, a hairdresser in Illinois, experienced these harms. She turned to marijuana to treat severe migraines, and the drug helped at first. After months of use, though, she started getting sick. Her nausea and vomiting became so bad that she had to stop working. Only after months of seeing doctors did one finally confirm marijuana was the problem. “Why don’t more doctors know about it?” she told The Times. “Why didn’t anyone ever mention it to me?”
Part of the answer is the power of Big Weed. For-profit marijuana companies, made possible by legalization, have a financial incentive to mislead the public about what they are selling. Marijuana and CBD companies have made false claims that their products can treat cancer and Alzheimer’s. Others have sold products, such as “Trips Ahoy” and “Double Stuf Stoneo,” in packages that mimic snacks for children. The companies’ executives know they can increase profits by downplaying the harms of frequent use: More than half of industry sales come from the roughly 20 percent of customers known as heavy users.
The legal pot industry grew to more than $30 billion in U.S. sales in 2024, close to the total annual revenue of Starbucks. As the industry has grown, it has increased lobbying of state and federal lawmakers, and it has won some big victories. Marijuana companies, not casual smokers, are the biggest winners of Mr. Trump’s decision to reclassify the drug from Schedule I to Schedule III. The change will increase the profits of these businesses by causing the tax code to treat them more favorably. This does not qualify as grudging toleration.
A better approach would acknowledge that many people end up worse off when they start to use marijuana more frequently. The goal should not be elimination. It should be to slow the recent rise, and perhaps partly reverse it, while acknowledging that many people use marijuana safely and responsibly. Alcohol and tobacco offer a useful framework. Both are legal with limitations, including relatively high taxes, open-container laws and regulations on alcohol and nicotine levels. The goal is to balance personal freedom and public health.
Marijuana, however, is less regulated in several crucial ways. The federal government taxes alcohol and tobacco, for example, but not marijuana. And increases in tobacco taxes have been a major reason that its use has declined during the 21st century, with profound health benefits.
The first step in a strategy to reduce marijuana abuse should be a federal tax on pot. States should also raise taxes on pot; today, state taxes can be as low as a few additional cents on a joint. Taxes should be high enough to deter excessive use, on the scale of dollars per joint, not cents. (Federal alcohol taxes, which have failed to keep pace with inflation since the 1990s, should rise, too.)
An advantage of taxes is that they fall much more on heavy users than casual smokers. If a joint cost $10 instead of $5, it would mean a lot of extra money for someone now smoking multiple joints a day and may change that person’s behavior. It would not be a big burden for someone who smokes occasionally.
A second step should be restrictions on the most harmful forms of marijuana, which would also be similar to regulations for alcohol and tobacco. Today’s cannabis is far more potent than the pot that preceded legalization. In 1995, the marijuana seized by the Drug Enforcement Administration was around 4 percent THC, the primary psychoactive compound in pot. Today, you can buy marijuana products with THC levels of 90 percent or more. As the cliché goes, this is not your parents’ weed. It is as if some beer brands were still sold as beer but contained as much alcohol per ounce as whiskey.
Not surprisingly, greater THC potency has contributed to more addiction and illness. The appropriate response is both to make illegal any marijuana product that exceeds a THC level of 60 percent and to impose higher taxes on potent forms of pot, much as liquor is taxed more heavily than beer and wine.
Third, the federal government should take action on medical marijuana. Decades of studies on the drug have proved disappointing to its boosters, finding little medical benefit. Yet many dispensaries claim, without evidence, that marijuana treats a host of medical conditions. The government should crack down on these outlandish claims. It should issue a clear warning to dispensaries that falsely promise cures and then close those that do not comply.
The federal government needs to be part of these solutions. Leaving taxes and regulations to the states threatens to create a race to the bottom in which people can cross state lines to buy their pot. Congress can set a floor, as it has done, however inadequately, with alcohol and tobacco, and states can build on it as they choose.
The unfortunate truth is that the loosening of marijuana policies — especially the decision to legalize pot without adequately regulating it — has led to worse outcomes than many Americans expected. It is time to acknowledge reality and change course.
Two Los Angeles County supervisors are backing a new tax hike on residents that would spike the cost of almost everything — including shopping, dining out and other everyday purchases across the county.
But because the tax would apply to retail sales and restaurant purchases, it was quickly trashed by opponents who say it raises prices for families regardless of whether they use affected health care services.
“Why should less affluent Los Angeles County residents be required to pay more for clothes, school supplies, and motor vehicles, especially when the sales tax burden is already so high?” Marc Joffe, a visiting fellow at California Policy Center, wrote in an opinion piece for the Daily Bulletin.
Joffe further points out that voters approved a sales-tax hike just two years ago.
If the bill is approved, it would further burden residents already struggling with high living costs, pushing Los Angeles County’s combined sales-tax rate above 10% in many cities.
For the first time in nearly two decades, Floridians seeking a driver’s license will be required to pass the state’s exams entirely in English — a move that came in response to a fatal crash involving an illegal immigrant who failed a test 10 times prior to the accident.
The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles announced the English-only policy last week.
The rule went into effect Friday and is aimed at “promoting clear communication, understanding of traffic laws, and responsible driving behavior.”
Canada has a mass shooting in a school. Canada is giving up the real story without saying it.
California loses another high-profile name because of its tax policies.
And a judge makes a common sense decision concerning ICE.
News
Here is some news:
A major mass shooting occurred on Tuesday, February 10, 2026, in the small community of Tumbler Ridge in northeastern British Columbia, Canada, with at least nine people killed and more than two dozen injured at a secondary school and a nearby home.
Facebook and Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg has become the latest tech billionaire to ditch California in search of greener pastures and has ended up in Florida. The move from Zuckerberg comes as California is considering a 5 percent tax on the ultra-wealthy in the state.
The Federal Aviation Administration lifted a flight restriction that had grounded all flights to and from El Paso International Airport in Texas on Wednesday, after previously warning that the U.S. government “may use deadly force” against any aircraft in violation.
A Trump administration official told Fox News that the initial lockdown came in response to “Mexican cartel drones” that breached U.S. airspace.
The FAA had announced Wednesday morning that all flights to and from El Paso were being grounded, including commercial, cargo and general aviation. The restriction was initially set to be effective from February 10 at 11:30 p.m. MST to February 20 at 11:30 p.m. MST.
January jobs report came out.
130,000 private sector jobs were created. Unemployment went down to 4.3%.
There was an adjustment for the year 2025, down 425,000 jobs.
Wages have gone up beyond the inflation rate, but not a lot.
Prices are not going to go down to 2019 levels. Unfortunately, inflation wasn’t transitory.
A federal judge ruled Monday that California can’t enforce a law banning federal immigration agents from wearing masks.
Judge Christina A. Snyder from the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California ruled that California’s “No Secret Police Act” both discriminates against the federal government for solely applying to federal law enforcement and violates its power granted by the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause.
Democratic California Governor Gavin Newsom signed the law in September to ban Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from wearing masks while making arrests, forcing them to show their faces. The Department of Homeland Security quickly jumped to condemn the law, calling it “a flagrant attempt to endanger” federal officers.
ICE agents currently face a more than 1,000% increase in assaults, a surge in doxxing efforts, and a roughly 8,000% jump in death threats, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
In February 2026, Davis sharply reduced the sentence that a Jefferson County jury recommended for defendant Christopher Earl Thompson, convicted of a 2023 kidnapping, armed robbery, and sexual assault in Louisville. The jury reportedly recommended a 65‑year sentence, but Davis imposed 30 years, citing the defendant’s age and potential for rehabilitation, while adding more than four years for his contemptuous conduct toward the court.
The case involved Thompson abducting a woman in her own vehicle, forcing her to perform oral sex at gunpoint, robbing her at an ATM, and sexually assaulting her again, with DNA evidence tying him to the crime. Local Republicans, including Louisville Metro Council Minority Caucus Chair Anthony Piagentini, publicly denounced the reduced sentence, arguing it disrespected the jury’s decision and endangered public safety.
BREAKING: Judge Tracy Davis cuts in half a 65 year recommended prison sentence for r*pist kidnapper
A radical left-wing group in Los Angeles has published a shocking 40-page roadmap to transform the nation’s second-largest city into a bizarre socialist experiment.
The Democratic Socialists of America’s LA chapter wants to straight-up seize private property through a “creative use of eminent domain,” take control of your neighborhood grocery store, and replace cops with unarmed social workers while shutting down jails.
As a Los Angeles city council member Nithya Raman has been more interested in suing Toyota for making their catalytic converters “super easy to remove” instead of going after actual catalytic converter thieves.
The manifesto, published in 2025 is more than 9,000-words long and gives an insight into the policies that a potential Mayor Raman has signed up to as a DSA member and could try to implement in LA. It targets the “status quo coalition” of elected officials, real estate developers, billionaires, nonprofits, and even some union leaders who’ve supposedly sold out workers.
They think they can actually pull this off in six to eight years through local elections and organizing.
“We are on the burning edge of the economic, climate, and moral crises that define this generation,” the manifesto warns, adding ominously: “The choice remains socialism or barbarism.”
So, what are the goals of the Democratic Socialists of America?
Seizing privately owned housing using eminent domain to seize private property and convert to public/social housing
Build city-owned municipal enterprises and expropriate corporations in essential industries (grocery, restaurants, internet, etc.)
Decommission Men’s Central Jail and don’t replace with any carceral facilities
Execute shift to 100% renewable energy by 2035 — complete fossil fuel elimination in 11 years
Make all public transportation free (buses, trains, bike share)
Publicly acquire and operate all energy systems — full public takeover of utilities
Reclaim private and public golf courses via zoning/legislative means for housing/parks
Divest public pension investments from war profiteers, defense contractors, and fossil fuel companies
Replace armed police with unarmed alternatives for traffic enforcement and mental health crises
End all contracts between public agencies and corporations profiting from war/fossil fuels (including Metro’s contracts)
Ban all unhosted short-term rentals (Airbnb, etc.)
Prosecute and permanently decertify all cops who kill
Noncitizen voting in all local elections
Vacancy tax on empty housing units
Universal rent controlstatewide
Automatic rent freezes and eviction moratoriums with any state of emergency
Decriminalize all drug use and fund safe injection sites
Restore voting rights for all former felons
End all means-testing for child development programs
