Lawmakers Urge CDC to Track Vitamin K Shot Refusals as More Parents Say No

Two Democratic lawmakers are calling on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to begin tracking how often parents decline vitamin K injections for newborns, saying the absence of national data is hindering efforts to prevent a rare but potentially fatal bleeding disorder.

In a letter sent to CDC Acting Director Jay Bhattacharya, Rep. Kim Schrier (D-Wash.), a pediatrician, and Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.) urged the agency to establish surveillance for vitamin K shot refusals, cases of vitamin K deficiency bleeding (VKDB) and related infant deaths.

The request follows a ProPublica investigation that raised concerns about increasing refusal rates and gaps in public health monitoring.

“The CDC has the tools to better understand the burden of vitamin K shot refusal, VKDB and VKDB-related deaths,” the lawmakers wrote. “We urge you to use them, and to share that data with the public, so that we can prevent tragic illness and death in infants.”

Though a database would compile patient information, experts suggest that federal and state privacy laws prohibit the disclosure of any personal details.

Deven McGraw, chief regulatory and privacy officer at Citizen Health, said routine data collection is used to monitor tracking and deployment of recommended public health interventions.

“Typically data like this are reported in a de-identified way, or with identifiers removed, as the purpose is for surveillance and to inform policy and not for punishment,” McGraw told The Defender.

‘There is no such thing as zero risk’

Vitamin K injections have been recommended for newborns in the U.S. for decades to help prevent dangerous bleeding during the first months of life.

The shot is not a vaccine, but it has increasingly become caught up in broader debates surrounding childhood immunizations and medical misinformation, according to pediatricians and public health experts.

Physician and researcher Dr. Suzanne Humphries recently told CHD.TV’s “Good Morning CHD” that media coverage of the issue relies more heavily on fearmongering than empirical data.

Citing figures extrapolated from European populations, Humphries stated that if babies were not given the vitamin K shot, their death from brain bleeding would occur at a rate of approximately 0.26 to 0.9 per 100,000 births.

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Massive Security Blunder Exposes San Francisco Police’s Expanding Drone Surveillance

A major security lapse has exposed hours of live surveillance footage from the San Francisco Police Department’s drone program.

The footage offers a rare glimpse into the scale of aerial policing now taking place over one of America’s largest cities.

According to WIRED, two cybersecurity researchers discovered that live feeds from five SFPD drones had been publicly accessible through a web link generated by drone manufacturer Skydio.

The stream reportedly remained exposed for months before it was taken offline.

The leaked footage showed drones tracking suspects through city streets, monitoring apartment buildings, following vehicles, and assisting officers during arrests and investigations.

In one example, multiple drones tracked a suspect across San Francisco before officers surrounded and arrested him following what police described as an alleged vehicle theft-related incident.

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Has Chuck Schummer Conspired with Netanyahu to Block Iran Peace before the Midterms?

I have received numerous emails asking if Chuck Schumer and the Democrats are attempting to frustrate Trump to prevent him from exiting the Iran War to influence the Midterms by refusing to sign the defense bill for the first time in history. The Democrats under Schummer are clearly trying to prolong the Iran war to discredit Trump for the Midterms. Politics has become simply a political war. This is no longer about what is good for the country including the troops. If one side says the sky is blue, the other must argue it is red even when it is yellow.

Some argue that the Democrats are actively trying to end the war, not prolong it. A “war powers resolution” was introduced by Democrats to force the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iran unless Congress approved further action. That has nothing to do with the actual war, it is simply to embarrass Trump. While this measure failed along party lines as they expected, it does not show that the Democratic party’s official position is against the conflict since they know that would help Trump. It was intended to show that Trump and the Republicans wanted this war.

Without question, this war is already unpopular and harming the administration. The Democrats smell blood. The conflict has been used to push for the “No Kings” rallies and is widely seen as a “political liability” for President Trump and the Republicans in the Midterms. They clearly are trying to prevent any quick and “honorable” way out of a conflict that they argue was initially based on a “misjudgment” with no exit strategy.

The administration’s reasons for the war are disputed by the Democrats. Multiple sources suggest the war’s origins were not tied to nuclear threats (which U.S. intelligence found no evidence of) but rather to a complex mix of factors. These include pressure from the Israeli lobby,  while Netanyahu was escorted into the Situation Room where no other foreign leader ever stepped foot selling the war as if it would be like Venezuela. The public’s lack of understanding of the war’s purpose is cited as a key reason for its unpopularity. This is why the Democrats are not interested in any quick or honorable solution before the Midterms. The Democrats have also put out there that Trump desires to seize Iran’s oil, and to distract from the Epstein scandal.

The Democrats are prolonging the war for political gain, as they paint a picture of a conflict that is hurting the American people, with Democrats actively opposing even funding the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The  NDAA is typically passed on a bipartisan basis each year. Not this time. This is typical Schummer.

Moreover, there is publicly documented meetings between Senator Chuck Schumer and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Schumer has regularly participated in official delegations, leadership briefings, and diplomatic events where Israeli leaders are typically present. I have been unable to confirm a private sit-down meeting this year, the two have been mentioned in the same context recently. Prime Minister Netanyahu’s address to a joint session of Congress in July 2024 was notably boycotted by Senator Schumer for public a show ONLY, where he tried to pretend opposition to Netanyahu’s actions in Gaza.

Senator Chuck Schumer and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had interaction in February 2025 with an official meeting in Washington, D.C. The two were photographed together at the U.S. Capitol with other congressional leaders. However, on July 24th, 2024, Netanyahu’s address to a joint meeting of Congress Senator Schumer attended the speech but had an “awkward” interaction with the prime minister, choosing not to shake his hand as a public statement of his opposition to his policies in Gaza.

To illustrate the political BS of Schummer, while he publicly refused to shake Netanyahu’s hand in the in front of the cameras, a photograph and video released by Netanyahu’s office showed them shaking hands during a private meeting held before the speech. This suggests the public refusal was a calculated political gesture to send a message to the American public that was false.

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Los Angeles Spent $60 Million on Nithya Raman Plan to Get Homeless People Off the Street – It Has Housed THREE UNITS

Nithya Raman, the Democratic Socialist (communist) running for mayor of Los Angeles, is also a member of the LA City Council, who chairs their special council on homelessness.

Last year, the city enacted a plan that was championed by Raman, which was intended to get homeless people off the streets and into apartments.

Despite carrying out the plan, which cost $60 million, only three units have been housed as a result.

Los Angeles residents can look forward to more of this kind of success in the future, no matter who wins the current race for mayor, Raman or incumbent Karen Bass.

The New York Post reports:

LA blew $60M on homeless ‘fix’ — it housed just three units

Just three out of a promised 2,000 apartments have been used to relocate the homeless in Nithya Raman’s failed $60 million project to get people off the streets.

Councilmember Raman, the chair of the Los Angeles City Council’s Housing and Homelessness Committee, introduced the Time Limited Subsidy program back in September as a cheaper alternative to Mayor Karen Bass’ Inside Safe Program — meant to get homeless people into an established residence.

Raman’s plan was to lease and move homeless people into 2,000 apartments and subsidize their rent, rather than pay for them to stay in motels or shelters.

However, nearly a year after that plan was launched — with $62.6 million in taxpayer funds behind it — only three apartments are occupied.

The City Council first approved investing in the subsidy model last September as part of its strategy for complying with a court settlement with the Los Angeles Alliance for Human Rights.

Four months later, on January 28, the council approved resources for a redesigned program targeting 2,000 households…

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Iran Claims It Launched First Attacks on Syria

Iran claimed it attacked an American position in eastern Syria early Friday morning. If true, it would mark the first time the terrorist regime has violated Syria’s sovereignty during the conflict with the United States that began at the end of February.

Both U.S. and Syrian military officials denied any such attack took place.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claimed it “executed a surprise strike on the enemy’s special operations command center located in the al-Tanf region of Syria,” ostensibly in retaliation for “the martyred soldiers of Bampur in Iranshahr.”

This was a reference to a U.S. airstrike on Wednesday that reportedly struck the Bampur Army garrison in southeastern Iran, killing at least seven soldiers. Some reports place the casualty count from the attack much higher, with at least 50 serious injuries sent for treatment at local hospitals.

The IRGC claimed it destroyed American helicopters and a radar system in its assault on al-Tanf, and killed multiple U.S. service members.

U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) quickly rejected these claims as “false,” stating, “No U.S. troops in the region have recently been killed or captured.”

Also, the U.S. military announced in February that it completed its withdrawal from al-Tanf, which served as a hub for operations against the Islamic State from 2014 to 2019, and handed the base over to the new Syrian government. The Trump administration said the fall of Iran-backed dictator Bashar Assad in 2024 removed the last reasons for keeping a substantial American force at the base.

The National noted that the Iranian attack came the day after Syria announced the seizure of weapons hidden inside an oil tanker that was attempting to cross from Iraq into Syria at the al-Tanf crossing. The Syrian Interior Ministry said the weapons were destined for Hezbollah, Iran’s terrorist proxy in Lebanon.

The Iranian strike might, therefore, have been meant as punishment for Syria interfering with Iran’s illicit arms shipments – if the strike claimed by the IRGC happened at all.

There was no independent confirmation of the purported attack on al-Tanf from media operations or the Syrian government, although some people living in the area reported hearing distant explosions.

Al-Tanf is near Syria’s borders with Iraq and Jordan, and Iran launched missiles and drones at Jordan, Bahrain, and Kuwait overnight. The Jordanian military said on Friday it shot down three Iranian ballistic missiles that entered its airspace.

A Syrian military source told Agence France-Presse (AFP) late Friday morning that no Iranian attack took place.

“We deny any Iranian bombardment targeting the Al-Tanf area,” the source said.

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Victim of Monaco Bombing, Vadim Ermolaev Says He Has ‘No Doubt’ Attack Was Carried Out by Ukrainian Intelligence

Kiev was behind the terror bomb in Monaco, says Ermolaev.

About two weeks after his family was targeted by a backpack bomb left on the doorsteps of his Monaco mansion, Ukrainian oligarch Vadim Ermolaiev (another transliteration would be Vadym Yermolayev) sent out a statement, and added pressure on Kiev regime, as he points to the Ukrainian intelligence service as being behind the attack.

This was the first terrorist attack in the history of Monaco, and the businessman sanctioned by Kiev said there is ‘no doubt’ that serving officers of the main intelligence directorate of the military of defense of Ukraine, GUR, are involved in the attempt on his life.

The Telegraph reported:

“The property magnate was approaching his building with his long-term partner and their 13-year-old son when explosives hidden in a backpack at the threshold of the lobby were detonated on the evening of June 29.”

Ermolaev’s partner lost both feet, while his son sustained ‘burns, fractures and severe trauma’.

“’I remain in intensive care and am only now beginning the long process of recovery’, he added, in his first public comments since the blast.”

French police identified Ukrainian Anastasiia Berezovska as the attacker, and she was found shot dead in near Kiev after escaping to the country on July 1.

Vladyslav Reut, a GUR officer, and Vitaliy Zhykovych, a former member of the SBU, have been arrested.

They made bank transfers and cryptocurrency payments to Berezovska that may be linked to the attempt on Ermolaiev’s life.

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Bill giving $10,000 bonuses to NYC paraprofessionals heads to mayor’s desk

A bill to provide $10,000 bonuses to New York City’s full-time paraprofessionals is headed to Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s desk after it was approved by City Council members Thursday. 

Similar legislation introduced last year was backed by the United Federation of Teachers in an effort to address the city’s paraprofessional shortage. After the bill failed to move out of committee, it was reintroduced in February by multiple council members. 

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If Mamdani signs the bill, full-time paraprofessionals will receive four payments of $2,500 throughout the 2026-27 school year. The bill allows the council to reauthorize stipends each year as long as New York City Public Schools has a paraprofessional shortage or until the city changes the practice of pattern bargaining — a local policy that lets the salary increases negotiated for one municipal union’s contract set the pattern for all the others.

The United Federation of Teachers and council members said pattern bargaining has contributed to low paraprofessional pay.

“Once the initial bargaining pattern is established, it becomes an enormous challenge to get the city to grant significantly better terms to another union,” the United Federation of Teachers said on its website.

New paraprofessionals earn roughly $32,000 in the city. Over the past 20 years, starting salaries have increased nearly $12,000 for paraprofessionals but top $86,000 for the highest-paid principals.

“We are going to pass this bill and we are going to put it on the desk of the mayor of New York City saying that the paraprofessionals have been unjustly treated and we are in a crisis,” said UFT President Michael Mulgrew at a union gathering at New York City Hall on Thursday. “And the paraprofessionals are dealing with that crisis each and every day with their work, going above and beyond, and now it’s time for our city to act and do the right thing.”

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This Is How DARPA’s Next Plandemic Begins

The COVID response was built around a genetic sequence most Americans never saw, could not examine, and were expected to trust.

That sequence became the reference point for PCR tests, reported cases, new variants, vaccines, mandates, and emergency powers that reached into jobs, schools, hospitals, and homes.

Jon Fleetwood argues this was not a system thrown together during a crisis. He believes the U.S. military spent the decade before COVID building each piece in advance: predict the sequence, manufacture the countermeasure, compress the timeline, and construct the animal-origin story.

His theory raises a brutal question: What happens when that same machinery is connected to AI, digital ID, and the bank account your family depends on?

The COVID origin debate is usually presented as a choice between two explanations: the virus jumped naturally from an animal, or it escaped from a biolab. Jon Fleetwood argues both stories begin with the same assumption—that the underlying physical virus had already been conclusively established.

“Is there a third option?”

His theory begins with the genetic sequence released in early 2020. Fleetwood said he found that “no US agency, including the military, verified the SARS COV2 sequence before China handed it to the world.”

Yet that sequence became the foundation for almost everything that followed.

PCR tests searched for pieces of it.

Variants were calculated from it.

Vaccines were designed around it.

Then government officials seized on the soaring “COVID-19 case” numbers to destroy businesses, isolate families, strip people of their livelihoods, and make access to a paycheck conditional on accepting a medical procedure.

The sequence did not remain on a computer screen. It determined what millions of people were told to put into their bodies—and what would happen to them if they refused.

Fleetwood isn’t claiming that viruses do not exist. His question is narrower: “What if all they had was a genetic sequence?”

Under his theory, that sequence becomes the master key to the entire pandemic machine. Once it is accepted, laboratories know what to target, testing companies know what to detect, drugmakers know what to manufacture, and public-health agencies know which numbers to present as proof of an emergency.

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Polish President Karol Nawrocki Vetoes Bills Giving Rights to Same-Sex Couples, Vows To Protect Marriage as ‘Union of a Man and a Woman’

Although Poland is governed by Liberal-Globalist Prime Minister Donald Tusk, the Donald J. Trump-aligned President is using his constitutional powers to good effect, defending the conservative values for which he was elected.

About a month ago, he took up the fight against Ukrainians honoring WW2 Nazi criminals who massacred 100,000 Poles and Jews, going as far as stripping Volodymyr Zelensky of Poland’s highest commendation, the White Eagle award.

Today, it arises that Nawrocki VETOED bills that would give same-sex couples new rights, and unapologetically vowed to protect marriage as ‘a union of a man and a woman’.

Reuters reported:

“Poland’s president vetoed two ​bills on Friday that would have introduced ‘cohabitation contracts’ for couples living together, dealing a blow to ‌same-sex couples in one of the few European Union countries with limited rights for LGBT people.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk took office in 2023 pledging to deliver reforms on abortion and LGBT rights, but divisions within his broad pro-European coalition as well as ​nationalist President Karol Nawrocki’s veto powers mean he has struggled to do so.”

The broken-hearted tone of Reuters reporting is totally unsurprising, at this point.

The legislation had secured support from across the governing coalition, but Nawrocki killed it.

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$100 Billion & Climbing: Iran War Price Tag Believed Far Higher Than WH Estimates

While the Pentagon publicly clings to a $30 billion price tag for its war against Iran, internal Defense Department assessments (unsurprisingly) paint a far more staggering picture: the true cost is rapidly closing in on the $80 billion to $100 billion range, according to NBC News.

The Pentagon’s Office of Management and Budget told Congress on June 30 that US military operations against Iran so far is $30 billion: “We’ve spent about $30 billion,” OMB Director Russel Vought told the House Appropriations Committee. 

NBC’s new assessment bluntly states the following, however: “The cost of the war with Iran could be more than triple the most recent estimate of roughly $30 billion, according to three U.S. officials and three people familiar with the internal cost estimates.”

The lower figure was reportedly initially floated based a classic Washington accounting trick which only evaluates the cost of expended missiles and munitions while conveniently ignoring the charred remnants of American hardware and damaged bases littering the Gulf states after Iranian retaliatory attacks, the report explains.

The estimate featured in the NBC report accounts for actually rebuilding those installations previously attacked by Iran. Judging by how things are going this week – after five consecutive days of renewed fighting – the final bill from damage will only keep pushing up from here.

It has been well documented that while American troops at Gulf bases across the Strait of Hormuz and Persian Gulf were by and large pulled back from near ‘front lines’ – large US military assets like refueling tankers were in some cases left behind, resulting in scenes like the following:

Five U.S. Air Force refueling planes were struck and damaged on the ground at Prince Sultan air base in Saudi Arabia, according to two U.S. officials,” The Wall Street Journal reported in mid-March. Each one costs hundreds of millions.

“The tankers were hit during an Iranian missile strike on the Saudi base in recent days, the officials said,” WSJ detailed at the time. “U.S. Central Command declined to comment. The tankers were damaged but not fully destroyed and are being repaired, one of the officials said. No one was killed in the strikes.”

And in Bahrain, home of the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet, damage to military facilities is already estimated at $1 billion. Heavily fortified installations in Kuwait have also taken a severe beating, with both these tiny Arab Gulf states being favored targets of IRGC projectiles of late.

In the meantime, with a $1.5 trillion budget battle looming this autumn, the Pentagon is currently urging Congress to approve $68 billion supplemental funding package just to keep the lights on, but as the Iran war drags on with few clear objectives outlining an endgame, defense officials are hitting a wall of bipartisan skepticism among lawmakers.

One D.C. watchdog group, Public Citizen, has stated this week: “The American people are fed up with spending more on bombs and less on basic needs. And they are furious with a pointless, deadly, illegal, unconstitutional and protracted war that is costing lives and driving up gas prices.”

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