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Federal Prosecutors Open Corruption Investigation Into Democrat DC Mayor Muriel Bowser

Federal prosecutors have opened a corruption investigation into Washington DC’s Democrat Mayor Muriel Bowser.

According to The New York Times, the investigation has been underway for several months.

The investigation is focused on Bowser’s $61,000 trip to Dubai for a UN Climate Change conference in 2023.

Bowser’s trip was reportedly paid for by Qatar.

Earlier this year 7News filed a FOIA request to uncover who paid for Bowser’s trip to Dubai and said there is no record of a donation agreement between DC and Qatar.

“Through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, the 7News I-Team has uncovered who paid for the mayor’s trip to Dubai in 2023, and it ended up costing a foreign country $61,930 in travel expenses, but the District has no record of how the expenses broke down for the mayor or four staff members,” 7News reported earlier this year.

“D.C. has no record of a Donation Agreement between the District and Qatar for the trip — which is required by D.C. Code,” 7News reported.

The Times reported that the probe may be based on “potential violations of bribery or campaign finance laws.”

The New York Times reported:

Federal prosecutors have opened a corruption investigation into Mayor Muriel E. Bowser of Washington, examining a foreign trip she took with members of her staff that was paid for by Qatar, according to people familiar with the inquiry.

The investigation, which is being handled by the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington, has been underway for months, but could face significant hurdles because of the known facts of the case and recent turmoil inside the Justice Department.

This week, the F.B.I. agent who was leading the investigation was fired by the Trump administration for having taken part in a criminal inquiry into President Trump attempts to overturn the 2020 election

The public corruption unit inside the prosecutor’s office that would typically be responsible for pushing the case forward has also been badly damaged by a series of dismissals and resignations stemming from Mr. Trump’s efforts to seek revenge against Justice Department officials and his perceived enemies.

It remains unclear how far the investigation into Ms. Bowser, a Democrat who has served as Washington’s mayor since 2015, has advanced since it was opened. But the people familiar with the inquiry said it was based on potential violations of bribery or campaign finance laws. A spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office declined to comment.

Bowser’s office denied any wrongdoing in a statement to WUSA9.

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Israel Massively Escalates Strikes on Lebanon as Hezbollah Threatens Retaliation

Israel’s long-threatened escalation of their attacks on Lebanon seems to have begun in earnest on Thursday, with massive numbers of strikes reported against several towns and villages in the country’s south.

The IDF issued evacuation warnings for at least five sites in southern Lebanon, and is claiming, as they so often do, that everything they are attacking is Hezbollah infrastructure. Early indications are that a substantial number of civilian casualties have occurred. The most recent toll has one confirmed killed and nine wounded, though those tolls are expected to rise.

This comes amid an Israeli security cabinet meeting, at which the Northern Command will reportedly present various options for the direction and scale of a military escalation in Lebanon, in spite of a ceasefire nominally having been in place for the past year.

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Associated Press Publishes Absurd Video Targeting Pet Ownership Due to Climate Change Hysteria

With everything going on in the world today, The Associated Press — the premier wire service and news institution in the English-speaking world — knows what’s really on your mind: Is Fido’s “carbon pawprint” too big?

In yet another bid to prove that even the most supposedly objective media cannot set priorities that aren’t bad or misplaced, the AP dedicated 32 paragraphs in five sections — along with a video on social media — to the climate change dangers that your furry friend allegedly poses. Because even childless cat ladies are driving us to extinction in ways that don’t involve not having kids, apparently.

“One of the most climate intensive decisions we make is whether to own a pet,” the AP’s Caleigh Wells reported in a piece published Tuesday.

“It’s for the same reason that humans have a big impact: They eat every day. And most of them eat meat. The environmental impact of meat includes the land the animal lived on, the food it ate, the waste it generated and other factors.”

This is apparently being accelerated by a “trend toward refrigerated, ‘fresh’ or even ‘human-grade’ pet food,” with a reminder from the AP that “just like people, a pet’s impact on the planet can vary greatly depending on their diet.”

Now, amazingly, there’s a kernel of truth in here: the same ideology that has given us the archetype of the childless cat lady who foregoes kids to save the planet is still hurting the planet:

The marketing of higher-quality pet food suggests that it’s healthier.

But there isn’t much evidence to suggest refrigerated, fresh or human-grade food leads to better pet health outcomes, according to Alison Manchester, assistant clinical sciences professor at Cornell University’s College of Veterinary Medicine.

“I think a lot of it is playing on marketing and treating pets as members of the family,” said Manchester.

It’s almost like people want to have families. You will not be shocked to learn that this thread of thought goes unexplored by the AP in both the article and the video, which features pet food researcher Billy Nicholles.

In the video, Nicholles said that the problem was “their food, basically, and in particular, the ingredients in their food.”

“Dogs and cats both eat pretty highly meat-based diets,” he continued. “And what do we know about meat? It’s one of the key drivers of climate change.”

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Trump Admin Must Fully Fund Food Stamps for November: Judge

The Trump administration must pay the approximately $9 billion to fully fund food stamps for November, a federal judge ruled on Nov. 6.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) must pay states the money by Nov. 7 to distribute to the approximately 42 million Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participants, according to an oral order from Judge John McConnell Jr. of the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island.

“People have gone without for too long. Not making payments to them for even another day is simply unacceptable,” McConnell said.

USDA officials had declined to fund SNAP amid the government shutdown, arguing that they could not use contingency money or revenue from tariffs. McConnell, in response to a lawsuit, recently said that the administration could either partially fund November benefits with contingency money or fully fund benefits for the month with that money and the tariff revenue.

“If the Government does want to use its discretion to use funds available to make a full payment of SNAP benefits for November 6, then it must expeditiously resolve the administrative and clerical burdens it described in its papers … but under no circumstances shall the partial payments be made later than Wednesday, November 5,” McConnell wrote in a temporary restraining order on Nov. 1.

The government chose to partially fund the November benefits using the contingency fund, which it said contained $4.6 billion. The government stated that it would not use the tariff revenue, or Section 32 funds, because if it were to, then child nutrition programs funded by that revenue might eventually run out of money.

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House Oversight Committee Summons Former Prince Andrew To Appear Before Congress Over Abuse Claims Against Him

Will Andrew appear before US Congress?

The Jeffrey Epstein sex-trafficking ring continues to generate almost daily developments.

Among many other avenues of investigation, we have been reporting here on TGP about how the US House Oversight Committee has been enacting a review on the Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell investigations and prosecutions.

Today (6), it arises that Andrew Mountbatten Windsor – the disgraced former British Prince – has been summoned to appear before Congress which is investigating abuse claims against him.

The Telegraph reported:

“In a letter sent to the former Duke of York on Thursday, Democratic members of the House Oversight Committee say they believe he may also have crucial information about co-conspirators and enablers of Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes.

‘The Oversight Committee will investigate allegations of abuse by Mountbatten Windsor, and will seek information on Epstein’s operations, network, and associates based on the men’s longstanding and well-documented friendship’, they say.”

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‘It’s a Small World After All’ As ICE Crackdown of Illegal Immigrant Truckers Gets Even More Eye-Opening

As is usually the case regarding a horrific event, it takes something tragic before a microscope is trained on the real issue. Joe Biden and Democrats have plenty of blood on their hands from years of massive waves of illegal immigrants pouring over a wide-open southern border. There have been plenty of high-profile cases like Laken Riley and Jocelyn Nungaray. But it took the deaths of three unknown people on a Florida highway to bring attention to the huge problem of illegal immigrants who speak and read little to no English driving 18-wheelers across the country, and the story keeps getting worse.

Since the Florida crash, the Department of Transportation and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have become involved. Since late October, ICE, along with the Oklahoma Highway Patrol, has targeted a portion of Interstate 40. The operation has nabbed 70 illegal immigrants, 34 of whom were operating semi-trucks in violation of Oklahoma state law. It is no surprise where the illegal immigrants are obtaining their commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs). ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations Executive Associate Director Marcos Charles had this to say:

“For the second time in just the past month, the state of Oklahoma and ICE have banded together to bolster public safety along Oklahoma’s highways, identifying and apprehending illegal aliens who are in the country illegally and have been recklessly issued a commercial driver’s license by states like California, Illinois, and New Jersey. Many of the illegal aliens arrested behind the wheel of an 80,000-pound tractor trailer can’t even read basic English, endangering everyone they encounter on the roads.”

Also, as is usual, the details just get more disturbing. The sting operation called “Operation Guardian” discovered, as stated above, that 26 of the illegal immigrant truckers had CDL licenses from the usual suspect states of California, Illinois, and New York. But the best part, eight of the drivers were operating 18-wheelers with no CDL license at all. That’s right, no CDL license. The illegal immigrant truckers picked up by Operation Guardian reads like a who’s who of the United Nations from countries such as China, Guatemala, India, Uzbekistan, as well as other nations. Many also have extensive rap sheets that include convictions for violent crimes.

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Russian Forces About To Conquer Key Donetsk Bastion of Pokrovsk After Campaign of Attrition and New Infiltration Tactics

Key Donetsk city of Pokrovsk is about to turn back to being called by its Russian name Krasnoarmeysk.

After a 21-month battle, Russian forces have spread rapidly through Pokrovsk, a Donetsk region bastion where Ukrainian soldiers have begun to surrender.

In many ways, Pokrovsk is the ‘new Bakhmut’ – the city that the world’s media focuses on, an important Volodymyr Zelensky’s PR city.

And we know that it’s about to be lost because sources in the MSM are already stating that ‘Pokrovsk has no strategic value’ – as it has been the case with every major Russian conquest in this war.

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When A Train Wreck Is No Accident

“In spite of all the rhetoric, we will go deeper in debt, the Fed will print more money, and the value of the dollar will continue to plummet.”

– Ron Paul

Never in history have the economic and political structures been so manipulated by those who are responsible for their safekeeping; never has so much been at stake, in so many countries, and facing collapse, all at the same time.

The great majority of people in the First World recognise that the world is passing through an economic crisis. However, most are under the impression that there are some pretty smart fellows running the show and all they need to do is tweak the system a bit more and we’ll return to happy days.

Not so. The “smart fellows” who are in charge of fixing the problem are in fact the very same people who created it.

Understandably, this a hard concept for most people to even consider, let alone accept, as the very idea that those in charge of the system might consciously collapse it seems preposterous. So, we might wish to back up a bit here and present a very brief history of the system itself, in order to understand that the eventual collapse of the economic system was baked in the cake from the very beginning.

Creating a Central Bank

From the very earliest days of the formation of the American republic, bankers (along with inside help from George Washington’s secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton) sought to create a banking monopoly that would create the country’s currency and become the central banking system.

The first attempt at a central bank was a failure, and strong opponents, including Thomas Jefferson, prevented a second central bank for a time. Later, further attempts were made by bankers and their political cronies, and each central bank was either short-lived or defeated in its planning stages.

Then, in 1913, the heads of the largest banks met clandestinely on Jekyll Island, Georgia, to make another try. Having recently lost yet another bid to create a central bank, due to the public’s understandable concern that the big bankers were already too powerful, a new spin was placed on the idea. This time, they decided to present the idea as a government body that would be decentralised and would have the responsibility of restricting the power of the banks.

However, the new bill was in fact the same old bill, with a new title and some minor changes in wording. But this time, it would be presented by the new president, who was a liberal.

The president, Woodrow Wilson, had in fact been handpicked by the banks. The banks then scuttled their own conservative party’s candidate, got the Democrat Wilson elected, then installed a secretary of the Treasury whose job it would be to ensure that the Federal Reserve was created.

The bill was widely supported by the public, even though, in truth, it was not a federal agency, but a privately owned conglomerate, controlled by the banks. Neither was it a reserve. It was never intended to store money; it was intended to give the biggest bankers control of the economy. They followed the central principle of uber-banker Mayer Rothschild: “Let me issue and control a nation’s money and I care not who writes the laws.”

From the start, the new institution peddled itself as the protector of the people’s interests, but it was quite the opposite. Its purpose from its inception was to control the economy and the government by controlling the issuance of the currency. In addition, it was to be a system of taxation.

Typically, a population accepts a certain amount of direct taxation but has its limits of tolerance. Yet, the bankers understood that a less direct method of taxation was infinitely more profitable and infinitely safer from criticism.

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Woke Portland Politician Who Demanded “Unhoused Neighbors” Be Given a Place to Sleep Has Home Torched by Homeless Person

A Portland Democrat who once called for homeless individuals to be given housing suffered an ironic and cruel twist of fate last week.

As The Oregonian reported, 51-year-old homeless man Vashon Locust was arrested on Tuesday after starting a fire that torched Portland City Councilor Candace Avalos’ townhome and car.

He faces charges of reckless burning, second-degree mischief, and trespassing. These are all misdemeanors.

According to a police affidavit obtained by the paper, Locust snuck into a shed near Avalos’ home on October 26 and attempted to use an electric outlet.

When that failed, he set a fire to stay warm, but he later claimed that it got out of control and tried to put it out.

“He shared that it was very cold that night and his clothing was wet,” the affidavit reads. “Locust attempted to extinguish the fire with his foot.”

Locust then fled to a nearby church.

On October 28, Locust allegedly returned to the scene of the crime to inspect the remains.

Avalos and her cat managed to escape the incident unharmed. She claimed afterward that she was targeted for her political beliefs.

Whatever the cause, this didn’t happen in a vacuum,” she wrote. “In our current national context, it’s hard not to connect this moment to everything happening around us — the threats, the division, the way public service sometimes puts a target on your back.”

The Daily Mail notes that Avalos has long been an apologist for Portland’s homeless population.

She even wrote a column in 2021 titled: “Our unhoused neighbors deserve a safe and clean place to sleep.”

Locust has been arrested more than 50 times for various felony and misdemeanor charges since 2006, according to court records obtained by The Oregonian.

His most recent arrest occurred in February. In this incident, a woman in North Portland reported that Locust would not leave her property and chased her while waving around a stick.

The Oregonian notes that Locust has not been arraigned on the reckless burning charge at this point, and no attorney has been assigned to his case.

He remains in jail until his first court appearance.

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Marijuana Arrests Comprised Nearly Half of All Drug-Related Arrests in Over a Dozen States in 2024

Marijuana-related arrests far outpace arrests for other drug-related violations in jurisdictions where its possession and use remain criminally prohibited under state law.

In five states (Idaho, Iowa, Louisiana, Nebraska, and Wisconsin), more than half of all drug-related arrests reported by state and local law enforcement agencies in 2024 were cannabis-related, according to data provided by the FBI’s Crime Data Explorer.

In nine other states (Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Mississippi, North Dakota, South Carolina, Utah, and Wyoming), 40 percent or more of all drug-related arrests were for marijuana-related violations. In the District of Columbia, where adult-use is legal but public use remains a criminal — not a civil — violation, 42 percent of all drug-related arrests were marijuana-related.

In these states, marijuana-related arrests are almost exclusively for low-level possession. In Alabama, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming more than 97 percent of all marijuana-related arrests in 2024 were for minor possession, not trafficking or sales.

By comparison, marijuana-related arrests typically comprise only a small percentage of arrests in states where personal possession has been legalized. For instance, in Arizona, California, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, New Jersey, Vermont, and Washington, marijuana-related arrests comprised fewer than five percent of all drug-related arrests in 2024. By contrast, marijuana-related arrests comprised over one-third of all drug-related arrests in Illinois, despite lawmakers legalizing the adult-use market in 2019.

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