Author: HP McLovincraft

Seeker of rabbit holes. Pessimist. Libertine. Contrarian. Your huckleberry. Possibly true tales of sanity-blasting horror also known as abject reality. Prepare yourself. Veteran of a thousand psychic wars. I have seen the fnords. Deplatformed on Tumblr and Twitter.

Hawaii Governor Signs Law Requiring Hemp Retailers to Register With State, Sets Age Restriction on Tinctures

The law, HB 1482, was signed on July 2 and will take effect January 1, 2026. It restricts sales of hemp-derived tinctures to those 21 and older, aligning the product category with rules for adult-use substances.

In addition to the registration requirement, the law grants health officials the authority to inspect facilities involved in hemp sales and distribution and to confiscate noncompliant products. It also makes clear that violations may be prosecuted under the state’s laws on unfair or deceptive practices, unfair competition, and nuisance abatement.

Oversight of hemp processing will fall to the Office of Medical Cannabis Control and Regulation, which will administer a new program specifically for hemp processors. Registration fees and other costs tied to implementation will be funded through Hawaii’s Hemp Processing Special Fund.

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ICE Is Snooping on Your Medical Bills

The feds are vacuuming up a lot of data on Americans in the name of stopping illegal immigration. Their latest target? Your insurance data.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is now using data from the Insurance Services Office’s ClaimSearch, a private industry service for detecting car and health insurance fraud, according to ICE documents obtained by the tech news site 404 Media on Wednesday. ClaimSearch includes 1.8 billion insurance claims and 58 million medical bills—along with the personal data attached to them, including addresses, tax identification numbers, and license plates.

ClaimSearch’s public policy states that it grants full access to law enforcement agencies “investigating or prosecuting insurance-related crime, or developing background information about a specific individual or list of individuals who have been identified as persons of interest with regard to homeland security activity.”

Verisk, the company that runs ClaimSearch, denied to 404 Media that ICE or the Department of Homeland Security is one of its clients. But the National Insurance Crime Bureau, which controls access to ClaimSearch, did not directly answer whether ICE has access. 404 Media speculated that ICE could have gained access through another government agency.

In March 2025, the Trump administration signed an executive order to tear down “information silos” between federal agencies, and in May, the IRS signed a data-sharing agreement with ICE. The administration has leaned heavily on surveillance contractor Palantir, which has a contract with ICE to facilitate “complete target analysis of known populations.”

ICE has also been tapping into the nationwide network of license plate reading cameras by asking local law enforcement agencies to run searches for specific cars, 404 Media reported earlier this year. Some police departments insisted to 404 Media that the searches were conducted for ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations branch, which handles organized crime and smuggling rather than immigration enforcement.

However, the ICE documents on ClaimSearch specifically said that the data was going to Enforcement and Removal Operations, the branch that handles the detention and deportation of undocumented immigrants.

The immigration cops didn’t just start building their mass surveillance dragnets this year. In 2021, at the start of the Biden administration, The Washington Post reported that ICE was buying utility company records. While Customs and Border Protection (CBP) insisted in a 2018 report that it buys “only anonymized data” from third-party brokers, it has used commercial cell phone data to track and arrest specific people.

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Study: CBD Inhibits Osteosarcoma by Targeting Tumor-Driving Inflammation

“Osteosarcoma remains a therapeutic challenge due to its aggressive behavior and high metastatic potential, necessitating exploration of novel treatment modalities”, states the study’s abstract. “Cannabidiol (CBD), a non-psychoactive phytocannabinoid with emerging anticancer properties, has shown promise in preclinical cancer models. However, its mechanisms of action in osteosarcoma remain incompletely understood.”

With that in mind, “This study systematically investigates the antitumor effects of CBD on osteosarcoma and elucidates its molecular targets within the TNF-α/NF-κB/CCL5 signaling axis.”

Conducted by researchers at Shandong University and Harbin Medical University, researchers used cell-based assays and a mouse model, finding that CBD suppressed osteosarcoma cell proliferation, migration, and invasion, while also reducing tumor growth in vivo.

The team identified that CBD binds directly to the NF-κB subunit p65, blocking its ability to activate transcription of the chemokine CCL5. This disruption also interfered with a previously unrecognized positive feedback loop between p65 and CCL5, which helps sustain inflammatory signaling in osteosarcoma cells. By targeting this loop, CBD not only inhibited tumor-promoting inflammation but also weakened the cancer’s ability to proliferate and spread.

The researchers used a combination of molecular docking, protein-binding assays, and gene expression analysis to confirm CBD’s direct interaction with the p65 protein and its downstream effects.

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FDACS removes over 85K illegal hemp products in child safety crackdown

Florida Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson announced results of “Operation Safe Summer,” a statewide enforcement effort resulting in the removal of more than 85,000 hemp packages that were found in violation of state child-protection standards.

In the first three weeks of the operation, hemp-derived products were seized across 40 counties for “violations of Florida’s child-protection standards for packaging, labeling, and marketing,” according to a press release from the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

Simpson said they will continue to “aggressively enforce the law, hold bad actors accountable, and put the safety of Florida’s families over profits.”

The state previously issued announcements advising hemp food establishments on the planned enforcement of amendments to Rule 5K-4.034, Florida Administrative Code, a press release said.

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America’s largest power grid is struggling to meet demand from AI

America’s largest power grid is under strain as data centers and AI chatbots consume power faster than new plants can be built.

Electricity bills are projected to surge by more than 20% this summer in some parts of PJM Interconnection’s territory, which covers 13 states – from Illinois to Tennessee, Virginia to New Jersey – serving 67 million customers in a region with the most data centers in the world.

The governor of Pennsylvania is threatening to abandon the grid, the CEO has announced his departure and the chair of PJM’s board of managers and another board member were voted out.

The upheaval at PJM started a year ago with a more than 800% jump in prices at its annual capacity auction. Rising prices out of the auction trickle down to everyday people’s power bills.

Now PJM is barreling towards its next capacity auction on Wednesday, when prices may rise even further.

The auction aims to avoid blackouts by establishing a rate at which generators agree to pump out electricity during the most extreme periods of stress on the grid, usually the hottest and coldest days of the year.

High prices out of the auction should spur new power plant construction, but that hasn’t happened quickly enough in PJM’s region as aging power plants continue to retire and data center demand explodes.

PJM has made the situation worse by delaying auctions and pausing the application process for new plants, according to more than a dozen power developers, regulators, energy attorneys and other experts interviewed by Reuters.

“We need speed from PJM, we need transparency from PJM and we need to keep consumer costs down with PJM,” Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro told Reuters in an interview. “I think they’ve taken some steps in that direction which is really encouraging to me and we’re going to continue to work at it.”

PJM says the supply and demand crunch has been caused largely by factors outside of its control, including state energy policies that closed fossil-fuel fired power plants prematurely and data center growth in “Data Center Alley” in Northern Virginia and other burgeoning hubs in the Mid-Atlantic.

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GOP Senator Who Helped Federally Legalize Hemp Is Seeking To Close ‘Loophole’ By Banning Products With Committee Vote This Week, Sources Say

The senator who championed the federal legalization of hemp is now seeking to reverse much of the reform by pushing legislation at a committee hearing this week to ban on consumable products with quantifiable amounts of THC, industry stakeholders say.

Several sources told Marijuana Moment on Tuesday that Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), the former majority leader in the Senate who led the push for hemp legalization as part of the 2018 Farm Bill, is behind forthcoming language in agriculture spending legislation that would effectively wipe out the consumable hemp product market.

The bill text has not been released at this point, however, and there are efforts within the cannabis space to get it amended before it goes to a vote in the Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday. Marijuana Moment reached out to McConnell’s office for comment, but representatives did not respond by the time of publication.

Two of the sources said that the hemp provisions will be identical to what the House Appropriations Committee passed late last month, with noted cannabis prohibitionist Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD) leading the charge to correct what he’s described as a “loophole” in the Farm Bill that led to the proliferation of consumable—and in certain cases intoxicating—cannabinoid products such as delta-8 THC that have gone largely unregulated.

Another source said McConnell is aware that hemp legalization is part of his legacy in the Senate and wants closing the so-called “loophole” that has allowed the proliferation of intoxicating products to be part of that history.

Industry experts say the language wouldn’t just ban controversial hemp products found at gas stations and headshops across the country, however. Based on the House text, it would prohibit all products containing any amount of THC, and the concern is that it would mean even CBD items would likely be banned because it’s extremely rare that the extraction of that non-intoxicating cannabinoid would have no THC.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) told Marijuana Moment recently that he’s opposed to cannabis language included in the House agriculture appropriations bill that’s now heading to the floor. He said “I think would completely destroy the American hemp industry.”

“I don’t know how you’d be able to sell CBD oil with that,” he the senator said.

While Harris amended report language attached to the bill that clarifies it’s not the intent of the committee to stop people from accessing “industrial or nonintoxicating hemp-derived cannabinoid products with trace or insignificant amounts of THC,” the House bill itself still says that products containing any “quantifiable” amounts of THC couldn’t be marketed. And it’s rare to find CBD items without any natural traces of THC.

Again, while industry sources familiar with the discussions say the Senate version will contain identical language in its current form, the text isn’t publicly available and it’s possible it could be revised ahead of Thursday’s committee markup. But if the language is the same, that would raise serious concerns in the hemp sector, significantly increasing the likelihood that it could be enacted into law.

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Court Overturns Douglass Mackey Meme Conviction

A federal appeals court has overturned the conviction of Douglass Mackey, the man prosecuted for posting satirical memes ahead of the 2016 presidential election.

The Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on July 9 that the government failed to prove Mackey knowingly participated in a conspiracy, a requirement under the statute used to charge him.

We obtained a copy of the ruling for you here.

Mackey had been found guilty in 2023 of violating 18 U.S.C. § 241, a law dating back to Reconstruction that punishes conspiracies to deprive individuals of their constitutional rights. Prosecutors claimed that Mackey’s memes, which joked that Hillary Clinton supporters could vote via text, were part of a coordinated scheme to suppress votes.

That case has now unraveled.

“The mere fact that Mackey posted the memes, even assuming that he did so with the intent to injure other citizens in the exercise of their right to vote, is not enough, standing alone, to prove a violation of Section 241,” wrote Chief Judge Debra Ann Livingston in the court’s opinion. Because Section 241 applies only to conspiracies involving “two or more persons,” the government had to prove that Mackey entered into an agreement with others, a threshold it did not meet.

Prosecutors attempted to tie Mackey to private Twitter message groups such as “War Room” and “Madman #2,” where users discussed political memes.

The court found no evidence that Mackey saw, let alone participated in, any of the conversations that allegedly formed the conspiracy. “This the government failed to do,” the panel wrote, noting that “Mackey did not send any messages in the War Room in the two weeks before he tweeted the text-to-vote memes.”

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Russia Builds Ammunition Plant in Venezuela to Produce 70 Million Rounds Annually

Russia’s state arms exporter Rosoboronexport has completed the first phase of a new ammunition plant in Venezuela, designed to produce 7.62 mm cartridges for Kalashnikov assault rifles, Russian state conglomerate Rostec announced on July 2.

The facility, now partially operational, features four production lines. Two are designated for steel-core bullets, while the others will manufacture tracer and blank rounds. According to the announcement, the plant is already capable of producing tens of thousands of rounds per shift, with an annual output projected to reach 70 million cartridges.

A test program conducted at a dedicated inspection station reportedly confirmed the ammunition meets the stated performance standards.

The project marks a significant step toward establishing a full-cycle production capability on Venezuelan soil. Rosoboronexport’s executive director noted that the remaining production buildings will be commissioned soon.

In addition to the main manufacturing lines, the plant has launched a waste disposal facility, intermediate storage for ammunition components, and a 210-meter firing range for testing tracer rounds. Auxiliary infrastructure, including a fire reservoir, is also in place.

Rosoboronexport CEO Alexander Mikheev acknowledged the project faced major logistical and technical challenges due to international sanctions imposed on both Russia and Venezuela. The manufacturing lines and commissioning efforts were carried out by the Koshkin Design Bureau of Automatic Lines.

“For Rosoboronexport, the construction of the ammunition plant in Venezuela came with serious challenges, including sanctions pressure on both countries. Despite these objective constraints, together with Rostec, we carried out this complex infrastructure project and demonstrated to the world that we always fulfill our commitments to our partners,” said Alexander Mikheev.

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Attempted Murder Charges for Left-Wing Extremists Involved in Planned Ambush on ICE Officers in Texas with “Intent to Kill”

On Monday, acting U.S. Attorney Nancy Larson announced that attempted murder charges are being brought against ten individuals involved in a coordinated attack on ICE officers in Alvarado, Texas.

The individuals are alleged to be part of an Antifa cell from North Texas.

According to the criminal complaint, the defendants, dressed in black military-style clothing, began shooting fireworks at the facility as part of an organized attack.

A statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Texas shares:

After approximately 10 minutes of convening, one or two individuals broke off from the main group and began to spray graffiti on vehicles and a guard structure in the parking lot at the facility. An Alvarado police officer responded to the scene after correctional officers called 911 to report suspicious activity. When the Alvarado police officer arrived, one alleged defendant positioned in nearby woods shot the officer in the neck area. Another alleged assailant across the street fired 20 to 30 rounds at unarmed correctional officers who had stepped outside the facility.

As alleged in the complaint, AR-style rifles were found at the scene. The assailants fled from the detention center but were stopped by additional law enforcement officers. Some defendants were wearing body armor, some were armed, and some had two-way radios. A total of twelve sets of body armor were found during searches of vehicles associated with the defendants, on their persons, and in the area around the Prairieland Detention Center.

Additionally, officers found spray paint, flyers stating, “FIGHT ICE TERROR WITH CLASS WAR!” and “FREE ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS,” and a flag stating, “RESIST FACISM – FIGHT OLIGARCHY.” One of the alleged attackers had cell phones inside a “Faraday bag,” used to block phone signals and commonly used by criminal actors to try to prevent law enforcement from tracking their location.

Ten individuals were charged in one complaint with three counts of attempted murder of federal agents and three counts of discharging a firearm in relation to a crime of violence.

The statement identifies ,Cameron Arnold, Savannah Batten, Nathan Baumann, Zachary Evetts, Joy Gibson, Bradford Morris, Maricela Rueda Seth Sikes, Elizabeth Soto, and Ines Soto.

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Iran ‘Rapidly’ Beefs Up Air Defenses With Chinese Help After Israel Ceasefire

Iran has taken possession of Chinese surface-to-air missile batteries as Tehran rapidly moves to rebuild defensives destroyed by Israel during their recent 12-day conflict, sources have told Middle East Eye.

The deliveries of Chinese surface-to-air missile batteries occurred after a de-facto truce was struck between Iran and Israel on June 24, an Arab official familiar with the intelligence told MEE.

Another Arab official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive intelligence, said that the US’s Arab allies were aware of Tehran’s efforts to “back up and reinforce” its air defenses and that the White House had been informed of Iran’s progress. 

The officials did not say how many surface-to-air missiles, or SAMs, Iran had received from China since the end of the fighting. However, one of the Arab officials said that Iran was paying for the SAMs with oil shipments.

China is the largest importer of Iranian oil, and the US Energy Information Administration suggested in a report in May that nearly 90 percent of Iran’s crude and condensate exports flow to Beijing.

For several years, China has imported record amounts of Iranian oil despite US sanctions, using countries such as Malaysia as a transshipment hub to mask the crude’s origin.

“The Iranians engage in creative ways of trading,” the second Arab official told MEE. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump likely heavily discussed Iran and its nuclear program when they meet on Monday. 

MEE reached out to the White House for comment but did not receive a response by the time of publication. 

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