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California Moves to Ban Hemp Wellness Products — And the Weed Nuns Are Fighting Back

California’s Department of Public Health is pushing a new rule — and the timing couldn’t be worse.

A proposed regulation, known as DPH-24-005, would dramatically restrict access to hemp-derived wellness products across the state. The rule aims to prohibit the sale of any hemp topical, capsule, or tincture with more than trace amounts of THC (including naturally occurring Delta-9), even if federally legal and non-intoxicating. Critics say it would wipe out entire categories of hemp products — from calming balms to sleep aids — and gut small, community-driven businesses in the process.

One of the most vocal opponents? The Sisters of the Valley — better known as the “Weed Nuns” — a group of spiritual, feminist cannabis growers based in Merced County.

A Ban That Hits Small Operators Hard

“This is the Public Health Department caving to the dispensary lobby and consolidating the market further than they already have. This is a direct hit to small farms and small operators,” the Sisters warn.

According to the Sisters, the rule would criminalize their signature offerings: non-intoxicating, CBD-rich salves and oils crafted by hand in their small-scale, women-run operation. They argue that DPH-24-005 threatens not just their livelihood, but also consumer access to safe, plant-based alternatives.

They’re not alone. Dozens of California hemp farmers, herbalists, and activists are mobilizing to oppose the measure, saying it caters to the interests of cannabis corporations looking to eliminate competition from the hemp side of the market.

A Moment to Speak Out

A public hearing on the rule will be held via Zoom on Sunday, July 28, 2025, at 10:00 AM Pacific. Anyone in California — and beyond — can participate, and written comments will be accepted until July 30.

The Sisters have launched a campaign urging Californians to show up, speak out, and submit public comments before it’s too late.

“We ask our customers and fans to stand with us,” they wrote. “Not because we need more sales. But because the people’s medicine should not be outlawed by corporate lobbying.”

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Trump Shows Strong Support for Israel as Palestinians in Gaza Starve to Death

President Trump has shown strong support for Israel in recent days, while much of the world has been outraged over the images of Palestinians who are starving to death due to the US-backed Israeli siege on Gaza.

After the US and Israel quit ceasefire talks, Trump blamed the lack of progress on Hamas and suggested it was time for Israel to “finish the job” in Gaza. “I think they want to die, and it’s very, very bad,” Trump said on Friday, referring to Hamas.

For its part, Hamas has said that it was surprised by the US and Israel quitting the truce talks and that it was committed to continuing the process until a deal was reached.

In recent weeks, Trump has been claiming that a ceasefire deal was close, but now he is appearing to suggest that Israel should escalate its genocidal war. “They’re gonna have to fight, and they’re gonna have to clean it up. You’re gonna have to get rid of [Hamas],” he said.

Israeli officials told Axios that they weren’t sure if Trump’s comments were a negotiating tactic or a “green light” for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to use even more extreme military measures. The report said the Trump administration was rethinking its Gaza strategy, but there’s no sign it’s considering putting pressure on Israel to reach a ceasefire.

Israeli officials also told Axios that Trump has applied virtually no pressure on Netanyahu to end the slaughter in Gaza in recent months. “In most calls and meetings, Trump told Bibi, ‘Do what you have to do in Gaza.’ In some cases, he even encouraged Netanyahu to go harder on Hamas,” one official said.

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Vancouver BANS gun-shaped novelty lighters during crime wave

Vancouver’s City Council, led by Mayor Ken Sim, is enacting a “gun grab” not on actual firearms, but on gun-shaped novelty lighters. 

While Vancouver grapples with rising violent crime, tent cities, repeat offenders, and stranger attacks, the council’s focus is on these lighters, which carry a $1,000 fine for possession. This initiative, referred to as “silly novelty barbecuators,” is presented as a solution to violent crime.

This mirrors a past Toronto initiative called “gunplay no way,” a toy gun buy-back amnesty that offered politically correct toys in exchange for toy guns. 

Critics argue that such policies are mere “feel-good optics” and do nothing to address the root causes of illegal firearm problems. 

Politicians, often elected through popularity contests rather than expertise, are accused of lacking topic knowledge and ignoring experts, instead focusing on “silly novelty things that have no credible impact on public safety.”

One panelist, who was shot by a real gun, deemed the Vancouver initiative “madness.” They highlighted the irony of focusing on lighters while illegal border crossings potentially smuggle real guns and drugs into the country. It’s argued that “illegal guns that are the issue and the criminals who are handling that.”

Another panelist living in Vancouver questioned the priorities of the Mayor and Council, especially given that Vancouver is considered the “fentanyl capital of the world.” 

The mayor himself has faced serious threats, including bomb threats and family intimidation from anti-Israel protesters. 

The effectiveness of this Vancouver bylaw was questioned, with doubts about whether it will lead to even “one charge against somebody in Vancouver for having a lighter in the shape of a gun” in a year’s time. 

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Real Life Drama: Tucker County Residents v. AI Data Center Behemoth

As a child, Nikki Forrester dreamed of living in a cabin in the woods surrounded by mountains, trees, water and the outdoor opportunities that came with the natural land. In 2022 — four years after earning her graduate degree and moving to Tucker County from Pittsburgh — Forrester and her partner made that dream a reality when they bought two acres of land near Davis, West Virginia to build a home.

Forrester has thrived in the small mountain town known for its mountain biking, hiking, stargazing, waterfalls and natural scenery. She and her partner moved into their new home in February. Hiking and biking trails are right outside her front door. In the winter, she said, snow piles up making the nearby mountains look like “heaven on Earth.”

It’s been quite literally a dream come true.

“I feel like I’ve never felt at home so much before. I love being in the woods. I love this community. It’s super cheesy, but this was my childhood dream and now it’s actually come true,” Forrester said. “It felt so good to set down roots here. We knew Davis was where we wanted to start our future.”

But in March, one small public notice posted in the Parsons Advocate — noticed by resident Pamela Moe, who scrambled to find answers after seeing it — changed Forrester’s assumptions about that future.

A Virginia-based company, Fundamental Data, was applying for an air permit from the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection for what it called the “Ridgeline Facility.” The company’s heavily redacted application showed plans to build an off-the-grid natural gas power plant between Thomas and Davis. That power plant will likely be designed to power an enormous data center just a mile out from Tucker County’s most populous and tourist-attracting areas.

Earlier this month, representatives for Fundamental Data — who did not respond to requests for comment on this article — told the Wall Street Journal that the facility could be “among the largest data center campuses in the world,” spanning 10,000 acres across Tucker and Grant counties if fully realized.

Now, Forrester said, she and her neighbors are in the middle of what feels like a “fight for [their] lives” as they attempt to learn more about the vague development plans and fight against “big data.”

Her images of the future — skiing on white snow, hiking through waterfalls, looking up at clear and starry nights all with one-of-a-kind mountain scenery below — now exist in the shadows of a looming natural gas plant, an industrial complex and the contaminants that could come with them. The fresh, mountain air that surrounds her home and community could be infiltrated by tons of nitrogen oxide (gases that contribute to smog), carbon monoxide, particulate matter and other volatile organic compounds, per the company’s air permit application.

“Honestly, I feel like if this happens, it will destroy this place. People come here because it’s remote, it’s small, it’s surrounded by nature. If you have a giant power plant coughing up smoke and noise pollution and light pollution, it puts all of those things in jeopardy,” Forrester said. “It would honestly make me question whether I would want to live here anymore, because I do love the landscapes here so much, but they would be fundamentally altered and, I think, irreparably harmed if this actually comes to be.”

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New bill dismantles vaccine liability shield, seeks justice for the injured

For nearly four decades, vaccine manufacturers have operated with near-total legal immunity, shielded from accountability when their products injure or kill. The National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act (NCVIA) of 1986—sold as a way to ensure vaccine availability—has instead become a corporate protection racket, denying justice to thousands of families while allowing pharmaceutical giants to profit without consequence. Now, a bold new bill, H.R. 4668—the End the Vaccine Carveout Act—introduced by Rep. Paul Gosar, seeks to dismantle this corrupt system, restoring the right of injured individuals to sue vaccine manufacturers directly. If passed, this legislation could finally force the industry to answer for its failures, remove dangerous products from the market, and compensate those who have suffered in silence for far too long.

Key points:

  • The 1986 NCVIA granted vaccine manufacturers blanket immunity from lawsuits, funneling injury claims into a flawed federal compensation program (VICP) that rejects nearly half of all cases.
  • The VICP operates as a “kangaroo court,” with strict criteria that prevent most families from receiving justice, while manufacturers face zero financial or legal consequences.
  • COVID-19 vaccines were further shielded under the PREP Act, preventing victims from suing—but H.R. 4668 would remove this protection.
  • The bill eliminates the statute of limitations for filing claims, allowing retroactive cases and giving families long denied justice a chance at restitution.
  • Vaccine manufacturers have avoided rigorous safety testing, relying on short-term studies and non-inert placebos, while enjoying guaranteed profits from government-mandated schedules.

The 1986 betrayal: How Congress sold out families to protect Big Pharma

The origins of the NCVIA trace back to the early 1980s, when lawsuits against vaccine manufacturers—particularly over the DTP (diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis) vaccine—began piling up. Parents of children left with seizures, brain damage, and even death were winning multi-million-dollar settlements, threatening the financial stability of pharmaceutical companies. Instead of demanding safer vaccines, Congress caved to industry pressure, passing a law that stripped families of their right to sue.

Under the NCVIA, all injury claims were redirected to the VICP—a system critics call a “kangaroo court” where the deck is stacked against victims. The burden of proof is impossibly high, the definitions of “vaccine injury” are arbitrarily narrow, and the process drags on for years. Even when families win, compensation is often a pittance compared to the lifelong medical costs of caring for an injured child. Meanwhile, manufacturers continue raking in billions, shielded from any real accountability.

A rigged system: How the VICP denies justice

The VICP is not a court—it’s a bureaucratic maze designed to protect the industry. Unlike civil lawsuits, where discovery processes and jury trials expose corporate misconduct, the VICP operates behind closed doors. Cases are decided by a “Special Master,” not a judge, and plaintiffs are barred from presenting key evidence. Worse, the program is funded by a 75-cent excise tax on each vaccine dose—meaning the public, not the manufacturers, foots the bill for injuries.

Consider the case of Hannah Poling, a child who developed autism and encephalopathy after receiving nine vaccines in a single day. Though the government conceded her injuries were vaccine-related, her family spent years fighting for compensation. Thousands of others aren’t so lucky—their claims dismissed outright because their child’s condition isn’t on the VICP’s narrowly defined “injury table.”

COVID-19 vaccines: The ultimate liability scam

The PREP Act, passed in 2005, expanded Big Pharma’s liability shield to include “countermeasures” during public health emergencies—like COVID-19 vaccines. This meant that even as reports of heart inflammation, blood clots, and neurological damage surged, victims had no legal recourse. H.R. 4668 would strip COVID-19 vaccines of this special protection, allowing injured individuals to sue manufacturers directly.

Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson have made billions while dodging accountability. Internal documents reveal they knew about risks—like myocarditis in young males—yet downplayed them. Under the current system, they face zero consequences. But if H.R. 4668 passes, the floodgates could open, forcing these companies to answer for their negligence in real courts, before real juries.

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America First Legal Files Complaint Over Civil Rights Violations At John Hopkins School Of Medicine

According to Campus Reform, “America First Legal has filed a civil rights complaint with the Department of Justice against the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine over ‘discriminatory’ and ‘unconstitutional’ practices.”

This civil rights complaint was filed over Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) by Stephen Miller’s America First Legal (AFL).

AFL announced this development in a press conference on July 17th.

According to Megan Redshaw, counsel at AFL, “This is about restoring equal treatment under the law.”

Redshaw alleged, “Johns Hopkins has received billions in taxpayer dollars, but it is actively segregating opportunities based on race and sex. That is not just wrong—it’s unconstitutional.”

The complaint itself accused Hopkins of embracing DEI principles, including discrimination along both racial and gender lines.

AFL points to Diversity Leadership Council and House Staff Diversity and Inclusion Council as well as Diversity Roadmap as programs by which the school engaged in discriminatory practices.

According to AFL, “Johns Hopkins has constructed a façade of legality around a deeply illegal system. They have replaced explicit race-based admissions with upstream sorting, downstream subsidies, and bureaucratic double-speak designed to preserve racial preferences.”

The complaint also alleges that the discriminatory practices in medicine are not only illegal but also pose challenges to healthcare.

America First Legal has also been active in standing against the onslaught of DEI, having filed civil rights complaints against both Colorado State and Cornell University.

American First Legal is on the front line of real modern-day civil rights on behalf of all Americans.

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‘Obama Phone’ Scam: Florida CEO Headed to Prison, Must Pay $128 Million Fine After Defrauding Government

The owner of a Florida telecommunications company will spend the next five years in prison and his firm must pay a hefty fine regarding an “Obama phone” scam.

Q Link Wireless LLC and its owner, identified as CEO Issa Asad, previously pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit wire fraud and steal federal funds from the Lifeline program that began in the 1980s, Fox News reported Sunday.

The program offers subsidized cellphone services to lower-income people. In 2012, a video emerged of a protester outside a Mitt Romney event who claimed her neighbors received an “Obama phone,” Breitbart News reported at the time.

When asked why she supported Obama, the woman said, “Everybody in Cleveland low minority got Obama Phone. Keep Obama in President, you know? He gave us a phone, he’s going to do more.”

The clip shows the woman standing with other protesters on the side of a roadway while holding signs. The Breitbart News article speculated that she may or may not have been a paid agitator.

In 2013, Breitbart News reported that opposition to the “Lifeline” program was growing as Tracfone Wireless, “the company that most benefits from the government subsidy, is now advertising on inside-the-beltway news websites in an effort to save it.”

The Fox article said Asad was sentenced to prison and he, along with his company, must pay $128 million in fines.

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Islamic State-Backed Militant Group Attacks Catholic Church in Congo, Nearly Three Dozen Dead

The death toll has risen to at least 34 people in a savage attack by Islamic State-backed rebels on a Catholic church in the eastern Congo on Sunday, according to a local leader.

Dieudonne Duranthabo, a civil society coordinator in Komanda, in the Ituri province, told The Associated Press (AP) that the attackers, armed with guns and machetes, stormed the church in Komanda town at around 1 a.m.

The rampage also extended to several houses and shops that were torched.

“The bodies of the victims are still at the scene of the tragedy, and volunteers are preparing how to bury them in a mass grave that we are preparing in a compound of the Catholic church,” Duranthabo told AP.

Video footage from the scene posted on Aljazeera shows burning structures and bodies on the floor of the church.

Reportedly at least five other people were murdered in an earlier attack on the nearby village of Machongani.

The Allied Democratic Force (ADF) is believed to be the perpetrators of both attacks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

The ADF is a rebel group that historically has operated along the border between Uganda and Congo. It was formed in Uganda in the late 1990s following alleged discontent with President Yoweri Museveni.

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This Scene Perfectly Defines The Fake Legacy Media…

John Brennan, the Obama CIA Deep Stater currently up to his neck in the oversight majority staff report that details how he and others under Obama cooked up the entire Russia collusion hoax, appeared on MSNBC and provided a snapshot that perfectly encapsulates the legacy media.

Brennan openly accused DNI Tulsi Gabbard of lying even though the documents are declassified for all to read. 

And he did this with Jen Psaki, the former Biden Press Secretary.

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Devin Nunes on the Mar-a-Lago Raid’s Possible Ties to Russia Hoax

Former congressman Devin Nunes joined Real America’s Voice to discuss details surrounding the Russia hoax.

During his remarks, Nunes discussed possible ties of the hoax to the raid on Mar-a-Lago.

In 2022, Biden’s FBI raided Mar-a-Lago and seized boxes of records from Trump’s Florida estate.

More than 3 dozen machine-gun-toting agents descended on Mar-a-Lago in August 2022, and by November, Biden’s DOJ appointed a special counsel to investigate the documents stored at the Florida residence.

Subsequently, court documents revealed that Biden’s FBI even authorized the use of deadly force during their raid on Mar-a-Lago which was approved by then US Attorney General Merrick Garland.

Nunes stated, “The raid on Mar-a-Lago. So this continues. Same people doing the same nonsense continue this hoax and raid Mar-a-Lago, which I believe we need to see, what were they actually looking for when they went to Mar-a-Lago?”

“I think that’s an important key, and that the statute of limitations has not run out on.”

John Solomon added, “And maybe, just maybe, it was Russia collusion evidence.”

Nunes replied, “My guess is that it was.”

“That’s my guess, too,” added Solomon.

“But that’s a guess,” Nunes continued. ” I don’t know. But all related, all the same people. They raid Mar-a-Lago, unprecedented on the home of a former President at the time. They raid Mar-a-Lago, same people, same hoaxes, same everything, but with the power of the Justice Department, with a fake special counsel, this guy Jack Smith.”

“So there’s all of that that needs to at, and hopefully, the justice will prevail.”

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