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DEVELOPING: Incoming Indictment…Grand Jury Considers Charges Against John Bolton

A grand jury on Wednesday convened to consider charges against John Bolton over his mishandling of classified materials.

Trump’s former National Security Advisor John Bolton transmitted classified emails over a private server system and they were intercepted by a hostile foreign country’s spy service, according to a recent leak to The New York Times.

John Bolton is reportedly under investigation for violating the Espionage Act.

The New York Post reported:

A grand jury is convening Wednesday afternoon to consider charges against former national security adviser John Bolton over his alleged sharing of highly sensitive classified materials on a private email server, The Post has learned.

The proceeding comes two months after federal investigators raided Bolton’s Maryland home and Washington, DC, office in search of evidence in the Trump critic’s alleged theft of “highly sensitive national security” information.

Justice Department officials expect an indictment to be handed up either Wednesday or Thursday, with one telling The Post that the case against the 76-year-old is “airtight.”

Bolton is accused of using his private email account to remove sensitive information and record diary-like notes of his daily activities and assessments throughout his time in office, sources told The Post.

New John Bolton documents with classified markings were released after the FBI raided his home in August.

The FBI raided John Bolton’s home over the summer.

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‘What happens on campus doesn’t stay on campus,’ professor says at free speech event

“What happens on campus doesn’t stay on campus. For better or for worse,” Princeton University Professor Robert George said during a recent talk about how free speech ideas in higher education have filtered into the broader culture. 

George, a well-known conservative, spoke Friday at the event “Faithful Free Speech: From Campus to the Hill,” hosted by the American Enterprise Institute and Faith and Law, a non-partisan organization that serves congressional staff, integrating faith and policy. AEI is a think tank based in Washington, D.C. that defends human dignity and prioritizes the values of the nation’s founding. 

Pete Peterson, dean of Pepperdine University’s School of Public Policy, spoke with George about the founders’ intention behind the First Amendment in connecting religion and speech.

George, the McCormick professor of jurisprudence at Princeton, quoted the Declaration of Independence, which says human beings’ rights are “endowed” by God. 

“In other words, the role of government is to secure rights that government did not create,” George said. “Those rights don’t come from the hands of kings or presidents or parliaments or Congresses or Supreme Courts. They come from no merely human power.”

The government’s job is to secure these rights by making sure “people do not become predators against each other, that people don’t violate each other’s rights,” he said. 

Recalling a quote from James Madison, George said, “Only a well-instructed people can be permanently free people. And the way we gain instruction is not simply by going to school. That’s important. It’s very important. But that’s not the only way.”

George continued, “We gain instruction by engaging with each other, by trading reasons and arguments, by doing business with each other in the proper currency of intellectual discourse.”

He urged Americans to pay attention to what is happening on college campuses because “what happens on campus really is vital to what happens in the broader society.”

He gave the example of how “hate speech” is now widely considered to be an exception to the First Amendment, an idea that began on college campuses. 

George said his students at Princeton are high achievers, valedictorians and top-level SAT scorers. But when he teaches Constitutional law and asks what types of speech are not protected by the First Amendment, they often mention “hate speech.”

“There is no such category which in our Constitutional jurisprudence constitutes an exception, and for very good reasons,” he said. 

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Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier Files Supreme Court Lawsuit Against Gavin Newsom and California Over “Sanctuary” Policies for Illegal Aliens

Florida is taking the fight straight to the top.

Attorney General James Uthmeier announced late Wednesday night that Florida has filed a landmark lawsuit against California in the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing that Governor Gavin Newsom’s “sanctuary” state policies are putting American lives at risk and violating the Constitution.

“Tonight, we filed a lawsuit against Gavin Newsom and California in the U.S. Supreme Court because their so-called ‘sanctuary’ policies for illegal aliens are harming states like Florida,” Uthmeier announced.

“California must pay for the carnage of their open border policies and unlawful CDL programs.”

The lawsuit comes after a deadly crash in Florida involving an illegal immigrant from India, identified as Harjinder Singh, who had obtained a commercial driver’s license (CDL) from California and later Washington State despite being unable to read road signs or speak English.

The crash killed three Haitian nationals living legally in the U.S. under temporary protected status.

It was revealed that Singh received a work permit from the Biden regime in June 2021 after the Trump administration denied him one in September 2020.

While he illegally crossed in 2018, it was Biden who gave him permission to live and work in the United States, and it was California that illegally granted him a driver’s license.

As Fox News’ Sean Hannity reminded viewers Wednesday night, the illegal driver “was only behind the wheel because California gives out regular driver’s licenses  even commercial ones to illegals.”

Once an illegal immigrant secures a standard license, upgrading to a CDL becomes easy, despite federal law requiring English proficiency and road safety knowledge.

In the wake of the tragedy, the Department of Transportation, under Sean Duffy, announced it will withhold $40 million in federal grant money from California for failing to enforce English language requirements for truck drivers.

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FBI Data Shows Marijuana Possession Arrests Make Up Over 20% of All Drug-Related Arrests

The FBI’s Crime Data Explorer reports at least 204,036 marijuana-related arrests last year, though the figure is likely an undercount due to gaps in reporting by some law enforcement agencies. The total also excludes cannabis cases that may be included in the tens of thousands of “unspecified drug abuse violations” reported by the bureau.

Of the 204,036 arrests, 92% — or 187,792 — were for simple possession. The remaining 16,244 arrests were tied to “sales/manufacturing.” In total, police reported 831,446 drug-related arrests nationwide in 2024.

Although the numbers remain high, marijuana arrests have declined significantly over the past decade. The drop coincides with the legalization of adult-use marijuana in 24 states and Washington, D.C. since 2012. At their peak in 2007, marijuana arrests surpassed 870,000, making up nearly half of all drug-related arrests at the time. Since 2000, police have made more than 16 million marijuana-related arrests.

“While the total number of marijuana-related arrests have fallen nationwide in recent years, it is clear that marijuana-related prosecutions still remain a primary driver of drug war enforcement in the United States,” said NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano. “Hundreds of thousands of Americans continue to be arrested annually for low-level cannabis-related violations even though a majority of voters no longer believe that the responsible use of marijuana by adults should be a crime.”

Armentano added that these arrests often carry life-long consequences for those charged. “Low-level marijuana offenders, many of them younger, poor, and people of color, should not be saddled with an arrest, a criminal record, and with the lifelong penalties and stigma associated with it for engaging in behavior that is now legally regulated for adults in nearly half the states in this country.”

While the FBI adjusted its crime data collection methods in 2021, making exact comparisons more difficult, the long-term trend is clear: marijuana-related arrests, though down substantially, continue to account for a large share of U.S. drug enforcement.

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Grand Jury reportedly meeting this week in Hope Florida investigation

Florida’s Hope Florida program, once celebrated by the governor and First Lady as a compassionate outreach effort, is now under a grand jury’s microscope. Prosecutors in the capital are reportedly meeting this week to decide whether criminal charges are warranted in a growing scandal that’s shaken the state’s political establishment.

The proceedings are happening behind closed doors inside Leon County’s 2nd Judicial Circuit courthouse, where prosecutors are taking evidence in the Hope Florida investigation.

At issue: whether anyone broke the law after $10 million from a state Medicaid settlement moved through the Hope Florida Foundation to other nonprofits, and then to a political committee once controlled by now–Attorney General James Uthmeier. That committee later helped defeat a proposed constitutional amendment to legalize recreational marijuana.

State Attorney Jack Campbell, who is overseeing the process, declined to provide details.

“No, there’s no comment on that at all. Everything that the grand jury does is, in fact, confidential,” Campbell said when asked about the case last week.

Legal experts say the secrecy is standard procedure. Mario Gallucci of the Gallucci Law Firm is a former New York assistant district attorney and was a principal attorney in its major felony unit. He said these proceedings can take weeks to complete.

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Ohio Judge Blocks Governor’s Hemp Product Ban From Taking Effect

Ohio stores can temporarily resume to selling intoxicating hemp products—for now.

Franklin County Court of Common Pleas Judge Carl Aveni granted a 14-day temporary restraining order on Gov. Mike DeWine’s (R) executive order banning the sale of intoxicating hemp products on October 14.

DeWine announced last week a 90-day executive order that bans the sale of intoxicating hemp products that also started on October 14. The next hearing in this case is scheduled for October 28.

Intoxicating hemp products are items that contain THC that are sold anywhere other than licensed marijuana dispensaries including gas stations, smoke shops and CBD stores, among others.

Marijuana is not considered an intoxicating hemp product and is legal in Ohio. This ban does not affect the marijuana law passed by voters in 2023.

“While we continue to fight in court, today’s developments underscore our continued desire to work with the General Assembly to pass permanent legislation regarding intoxicating hemp,” DeWine said in a statement.

Titan Logistic Group, Fumee Smoke and Vape and Invicta Partners—all members of the Ohio Healthy Alternatives Association—filed a lawsuit last week against the ban, arguing DeWine is breaking federal and state law by restricting access to these products.

“Today’s decision allows thousands of hardworking Ohio entrepreneurs to continue supporting their families and serving consumers who rely on access to safe, legal, and properly regulated hemp products,” Ohio Healthy Alternatives Association said in a statement.

The 2018 Farm Bill says hemp can be grown legally if it contains less than 0.3 percent THC.

“The Executive Order is overly broad in that it applies to all hemp and hemp products including those that are legal under the 2018 Farm Bill and Ohio’s current laws,” the lawsuit says.

“It is also vague because there is no definition of ‘intoxicating hemp’ in the Ohio Revised Code or Ohio Administrative Code.”

DeWine—who has been calling on lawmakers to regulate or ban delta-8 THC products since January 2024—spent much of last week’s press conference where he announced the ban talking about the need to protect children from these products.

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Legalizing Medical Marijuana Leads To ‘Significant Reductions’ In Opioid Prescriptions, Another Study Shows

Medical marijuana legalization is “associated with significant reductions in opioid prescribing,” yet another new study has found.

Researchers at the University of Georgia and University of Colorado analyzed prescription claims for 15 to 20 million insured Americans annually from 2007-2020, comparing the prevalence of opioid prescriptions in states with and without medical cannabis programs in place.

“We find that [medical cannabis laws, or MCLs] are associated with significant reductions in opioid prescribing,” the study, published in the American Journal of Health Economics, found. “Among treated states, the rate of patients receiving opioid prescriptions fell by 16% on average, masking substantial heterogeneity across states, with individual state declines reaching 22%.”

“We also find significant decreases in the intensive margin, both in the daily supply and prescriptions per patient,” the researchers said. “Among subpopulations, decreases were relatively uniform across sex, age, and race/ethnicity, though cancer patients, and non-cancer Black patients experienced a larger reduction (over 20%).”

The study also identified increases in the frequency of use of NSAID pain medications, “suggesting that MCLs are associated with substitution away from opioids toward safer alternatives.”

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China Arrests Almost 30 Pastors, Members Of One Of Its Biggest Underground Churches

Nearly 30 pastors and members of China’s unsanctioned Zion Church were detained Friday in the biggest Christian crackdown since 2018.

Founder and Pastor Jin Mingri was also detained at his home, his daughter, Grace Jin, and church spokesperson, Sean Long, told Reuters.

“What just happened is part of a new wave of religious persecution this year,” Long said, adding that authorities have questioned more than 150 church members and have increased harassment during Sunday church services over the last few months.

Long said five pastors and church members have been released, but he showed Reuters an official detention notice saying Mingri is being held on suspicion of “illegal use of information networks.” The charge could potentially land Mingri in jail for up to seven years, the outlet reported.

Jin said she is concerned for the health of her 56-year-old father, who was previously hospitalized for diabetes.

“We’re worried since he requires medication,” Jin said. “I’ve also been notified that lawyers are not allowed to meet the pastors, so that is very concerning to us.”

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Let Us Now Bury the Truth (Again)

Headline in the Sunday editions of The New York Times: “A New Test for Israel: Can It Repair Its Ties to Americans?”

What a question. Let us set aside our indignation and think about this.

The piece below this head is by David Halbfinger, whose trade over the years has been to appear balanced when covering the Zionist state while glossing its past, which is wall-to-wall condemnable, and faithfully apologizing for its present, which — need this be said — is also wall-to-wall condemnable.

David Halbfinger, who has just begun his second tour as the Times’ Jerusalem bureau chief, in action:

“The war in Gaza may finally be ending, after two years of bloodshed and destruction. But among the damage that has been done is a series of devastating blows to Israel’s relationship with the citizens of its most important and most stalwart ally, the United States.

Israel’s reputation in the United States is in tatters, and not only on college campuses or among progressives….

The question is whether those younger Americans will be lost to Israel long- term — and what Israel’s advocates will do to try to reverse that.”

Halbfinger proceeds to quote none of “those younger Americans,” or anyone else of any age who stands forthrightly against “the Jewish state” in response to the campaign of terror, murder and starvation it has conducted against the civilian population of Gaza these past two years.

No, his sources are professors, think-tank inhabitants and, of course, Israeli Zionists, American Zionists and in two cases Israeli–American Zionists — the good old divided-loyalties crowd.

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Unhinged Radical Teacher in Scottsdale USD Reportedly Labels Innocent 3rd-Grader ‘Extremist’ and Had Neighbor SPY on Him

A Scottsdale Unified School District (SUSD) teacher is under fire after shocking allegations surfaced that she labeled a third-grade student an “extremist” and coordinated with a neighbor to spy on him outside of school.

Even more disturbing, this is the same teacher who reportedly celebrated the assassination of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk on social media.

In a heartbreaking video testimony shared by Libs of TikTok, a third grader shared his disturbing experience with Donna Javinett, a 3rd-grade teacher at Anasazi Elementary School:

“I was a third grader at Anasazi, but in a different class than Mrs. Donna Javinett. This teacher created a hostile school environment for kids like me when she didn’t like their parents. She would yell at me in the hallway and hurry me along.

I also caught her filming me one day. She claimed she was filming Field Day, but the event was already over — and her phone was pointing right at me. At the same time, a neighbor on my street was also filming me while I was outside my home. It was creepy, and I felt unsafe.

It became so bad that my family had to get a restraining order against my neighbor. In court, the neighbor revealed a personal email from Mrs. Javanett thanking her for “protecting teachers against extremists.”

That’s when I found out Mrs. Javanett and my neighbor were working together.

Now, Mrs. Javanett has been caught celebrating gun violence and the assassination of local hero Charlie Kirk in her social media posts.

How do you allow her to teach third graders? How do parents leave their kids in her class? She’s the reason why we — and others — left Anasazi.”

Now, I hear more students are leaving after her recent hateful posts. Thank you.

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