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EPA declares Flint water emergency over after more than $100 million in taxpayer-funded grants

Anearly decade-long fight for safe drinking water in Flint is over.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin announced Monday the city met all of the requirements of a Safe Drinking Water Act emergency order, which has been lifted.

The EPA issued the order in January 2016.

“Today we celebrate a decade’s worth of hard work and partnership at the local, state and federal level to ensure the residents of Flint, Michigan have access to clean, safe drinking water,” Zeldin said in a statement Monday. “Lifting this emergency order is a cause for great celebration for residents of Flint who worked so hard and sacrificed so much to get to this point.”

Zeldin said water sampling shows the city’s water system is in compliance with lead standards.

Since the order was implemented, the city has replaced more than 97% of its old lead pipes, and the water system has tested below the acceptable limit since July 2016.

The EPA has given more than $100 million in taxpayer-funded grants to the city and the state since 2016 to address the issues.

“The lifting of the EPA’s emergency order is a powerful testament to the strength, and advocacy of Flint residents,” Flint Mayor Sheldon A. Neeley said. For nearly a decade, we have worked tirelessly to restore trust and integrity to our water system, as well as meeting rigorous standards. While this milestone marks progress, our commitment to clean, safe drinking water remains unwavering. We will continue to advance infrastructure, strengthen safeguards, and ensure that the mistakes of the past are never repeated. Flint families deserve nothing less.”

The city’s water crisis began in 2014 when it switched from Detroit’s system to the Flint River to save money. Without proper treatment, that water corroded lead pipes that led to lead contamination and a declared public health emergency.

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Shameless Liar Hakeem Jeffries Accuses Republicans of Pushing ‘Conspiracy Theories’ When Asked if Democrats Were Dishonest About Biden’s Health

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries spun an astounding lie while speaking to the press today.

A reporter asked Jeffries, “Given the revelations with Biden’s cancer diagnosis, and the release of the Hur recording, why were Democrats not more open to talking about President Biden’s age in 2024?”

Not only does Jeffries not answer the question, he completely ignores it.

First, he talks about thoughts and prayers for Joe Biden. Then he launches into a ridiculous rant about how cruel Republicans are spreading conspiracy theories.

To make matters worse, he then advances fake news about Republicans cutting healthcare for Americans.

Democrats and the media used to call Joe Biden’s diminished mental state a conspiracy theory. How did that work out?

You know what’s very telling about this clip? There is no mainstream media reportage on it. None. Zero. Why do you suppose that is? Could it be because the media knows that every single thing Jeffries says here is pure deflection or an outright lie?

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Virginia’s new social media law targets teen access via parental consent, age checks

Virginia is preparing to enforce one of the nation’s most sweeping new restrictions on social media access for teens, requiring parental consent, time limits and age checks for users under 16.

The law, signed by Gov. Glenn Youngkin in May, takes effect Jan. 1, 2026, and applies to any platform that allows public profiles, messaging and shared content feeds.

Senate Bill 854 requires users to use a neutral age screen to determine if a user is under 16 and then secure verifiable parental consent before allowing more than one hour of daily use per service.

It also bars platforms from treating a minor’s data as if it belongs to an adult, even when shared through browser plug-ins or common devices.

Virginia joins more than a dozen states that have passed or proposed laws since 2023 to regulate children’s access to social media, including Utah, Texas, Florida, Maryland and California. While the details vary, most require age verification and parental consent for minors to create accounts or use apps beyond a time limit.

Privacy advocates say the law could have unintended consequences. Jason Kelley, associate director of digital strategy at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said the measure may increase data collection rather than limit it.

“Any time a company is required by law to collect more information, there are data privacy risks,” Kelley said, noting that platforms may turn to tools like geolocation, facial scans or ID verification to meet the law’s requirements.

He also raised legal concerns, pointing out that similar laws in other states have been paused or overturned in court.

“Like similar laws in other states, it’s unlikely Virginia’s law will survive judicial scrutiny,” Kelley said.

He also raised concerns that verification systems may not work for all families.

“These systems don’t necessarily take into account a large number of non-traditional families,” Kelley said. “Regardless, such restrictions are not enforcing parental authority. They are imposing governmental authority, subject only to a parental veto.”

Supporters of the law say it gives parents a stronger role in managing their children’s online habits. In a written response, Sen. Schuyler Van Valkenburg’s office said the law is enforced under the existing Consumer Protection Act and handled by the Virginia Attorney General’s Office.

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Hillary Clinton blasts Vance, Musk for encouraging higher birthrates, says immigrants can do that instead

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned that Vice President JD Vance and Elon Musk are pushing America to boost its birthrate to “return to being a Christian nation.”

On May 1, Clinton spoke at the Newmark Civic Life Series in Manhattan at the 92nd Street Y, New York. She argued that there is a “very blatant effort to basically send a message, most exemplified by Vance and Musk, and others, that, you know, what we really need from you women are more children… and what that really means is ‘You should go back to doing what you were born to do, which is to produce more children.’”

Musk, who has fathered 10 children with three women, has repeatedly voiced his concerns about the threat posed by a declining population, often advocating for policies that encourage childbearing. 

Vance also encouraged building families during his speech at the March for Life in January, declaring, “I want more babies in the United States of America. I want more happy children in our country, and I want beautiful young men and women who are eager to welcome them into the world and eager to raise them.” 

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Regeneron to buy bankrupt 23andMe, vows ethical use of customer DNA data

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (REGN.O), opens new tab said on Monday it will buy genomics firm 23andMe Holding for $256 million through a bankruptcy auction, and promised to prioritize the ethical use of DNA data from customers using ancestry testing and other services.

Through the deal, Tarrytown, New York-based Regeneron aims to bolster its capabilities in genomics-driven drug discovery by integrating 23andMe’s trove of more than 15 million customer DNA profiles, collected via its popular direct-to-consumer saliva-testing kits.

South San Francisco, California-based 23andMe filed for bankruptcy last month, seeking to sell its business at auction after a decline in consumer demand and a 2023 data breach that exposed sensitive genetic and personal information of millions of customers.

The second-highest bid, for $146 million, was submitted by a nonprofit research institute founded by 23andMe’s former CEO and cofounder Anne Wojcicki, according to court documents.

The transaction, expected to complete in the third quarter, puts the spotlight back on data privacy issues sparked off by the data breach. 23andMe, once a trailblazer in ancestry DNA testing, has also faced dwindling demand for its core services.

The transaction “starts to bring about a good conclusion to what otherwise could have been a difficult bankruptcy case,” said trial attorney Daniel Gielchinsky, co-founder and partner at DGIM law.

Gielchinsky said Regeneron, with its proven track record, will do a better job in the long run of protecting consumer information safeguarded by privacy laws.

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House investigators question FBI witness about James Comey using ‘honeypot’ spy on Trump campaign

House Judiciary Committee investigators have spoken to an FBI whistleblower about FBI Director James B. Comey’s alleged off-the-books spying on President Trump’s 2016 campaign.

The whistleblower, a former supervisory special agent, previously said in a protected disclosure to the committee that Mr. Comey sent a “honeypot” to spy on the Trump campaign before launching the now-infamous Crossfire Hurricane operation.

A “honeypot” is an undercover operative who feigns sexual or romantic interest to obtain information from a target.

Mr. Comey, a fierce Trump critic who was booted from the FBI by the president, was also recently questioned by the Secret Service for a social media post widely interpreted as a threat against Mr. Trump.

Mr. Comey posted a photo on his Instagram account of seashells on the beach arranged to spell “86 47” with the comment, “Cool shell formation on my beach walk.”

The numeral “86” can refer to removing or killing. Mr. Trump is the 47th president.

The whistleblower interviewed by the Judiciary Committee described the “honeypot” operation in a protected disclosure in October. The disclosure was delivered through whistleblower attorney Kurt Siuzdak, as The Washington Times first reported.

The FBI veteran said two female FBI undercover agents infiltrated Mr. Trump’s 2016 campaign at high levels and were directed to act as “honeypots” while traveling with Mr. Trump and his campaign staff.

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Britain ‘investing in 30,000 more electronic tags for criminals’ amid massive overhaul

Britain is investing in 30,000 more electronic tags for criminals as part of a massive overhaul in sentencing law.

The huge expansion of tagging technology will see nearly 40,000 criminals electronically monitored at once.

Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood is understood to have secured £700 million in funding from the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, to buy the devices.

This will increase the Probation Service’s budget by roughly a third and enable it to quadruple the number of criminals fitted with electronic tags, The Times reports.

It comes as David Gauke, the former Conservative justice secretary, will publish a long-awaited sentencing review this month.

The report is expected to lead to the most drastic shake-up of sentencing legislation in decades and, the government is predicted to accept most of his recommendations.

A MoJ spokesman said last week: ‘This Government inherited a justice system in crisis, with prisons days from collapse.

‘David Gauke is conducting a sentencing review to ensure that we never run out of prison places again, and we are committed to reforming sentencing to ensure our prisons cut crime and keep the public safe.’

The Ministry of Justice is also thought to be preparing to announce a new type of tag that will measure the level of drugs in an offender’s system by monitoring their blood pressure and heart rate.

Mahmood said the new devices are the ‘holy grail’ of tagging technology because of the large proportion of criminals whose offending is driven by drugs.

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US should never have intervened in Ukraine – Trump

US President Donald Trump has rebuked his predecessor, Joe Biden, for funneling vast amounts of American taxpayer money into a foreign conflict that “should have remained a European situation.”

Speaking to reporters at the White House following a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday, Trump expressed frustration over the “crazy” scale of US involvement in the Ukraine conflict. He reiterated that it is “not our war” and stressed that his administration is working to end it through diplomacy.

“This is not our war. This is not my war… I mean, we got ourselves entangled in something that we shouldn’t have been involved in. And we would have been a lot better off – and maybe the whole thing would have been better off – because it can’t be much worse. It’s a real mess,” Trump said.

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SCOTUS: Trump Can Deport 350K Venezuelans Biden Allowed To Break The Law

The Supreme Court issued an order on Monday agreeing that the Trump administration had the constitutional authority to remove the Biden-era temporary protections for hundreds of thousands of migrants who were allowed to remain in the country under the previous administration.

The court placed a hold on a lower court order that blocked Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem from removing “Temporary Protected Status” (TPS) for Venezuelans. Only Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented. TPS permits migrants to work and live in the country if their native country is deemed unsafe.

The Supreme Court’s decision could mean some 350,000 Venezuelans can be deported.

As reported by The Federalist’s Breccan Thies, three days before President Trump took office, then DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas extended the TPS designation for Venezuelans living in the country. The extension was for 18 months. Noem then “vacated the extension and subsequently terminated TPS for Venezuelans who had registered for it in 2023,” Thies reported.

In response “National TPS Alliance, an organization representing those with TPS, and a group of Venezuelans turned around and sued the Trump administration.” The suit alleged the termination of TPS was race-based — without considering that the United States has the right to decide which foreigners are admitted into the United States.

The Trump administration argued in a subsequent motion that Mayorkas “failed, among other things, to evaluate the key statutory question: whether permitting Venezuelan and Haitian nationals to remain temporarily in the United States is ‘contrary to the national interest.’”

An Obama-appointed judge issued a nationwide injunction, and the Ninth Circuit rejected an appeal by the Trump administration. While the protections were “set to expire on April 7,” the judge, as described by the Associated Press, found that “the expiration threatened to severely disrupt the lives of hundreds of thousands of people and could cost billions in lost economic activity.”

The Trump administration contended that the ruling from the lower court amounted to judicial overreach, an issue that has plagued Trump’s first few months in office.

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Alarming Graph Reveals US Beef Industry Is “Hijacked By Chemical Pushers” 

The “Make America Healthy Again” (MAHA) movement is gaining steam as a disruptive force in helping to rescue the nation’s deteriorating food supply chain and public health. It marks a clear inflection point from decades of dependency on ultra-processed foods and pharmaceutical giants profiting from Americans’ imploding health over the last half-century. 

Last week, Goldman Sachs analysts highlighted a decisive shift in consumer behavior, with shoppers increasingly favoring cleaner, “better-for-you” food options. Even Bloomberg has begun to acknowledge MAHA’s rising impact.

At its core, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s movement aims to revive the nation’s health by restoring integrity to the food supply chain—prioritizing cleaner food with fewer chemicals and less industrial farming while reducing reliance on the pharmaceutical industry’s profit-driven approach to managing chronic disease. It turns out that cleaner food and regular exercise may be all it takes to help cure a nation of its sickness. Not Ozempic.

Bloomberg pointed out that food safety and production standards are again in focus following a new U.S.-UK trade deal. While the agreement reduces barriers to billions of dollars in U.S. exports—including beef—the UK continues to ban hormone-treated meat and chlorine-washed chicken, practices common in the U.S. but prohibited in the EU and UK due to stricter regulations.

For readers unaware of how toxic the food supply chain has become under the control of mega-corporations, this graphic from Bloomberg speaks volumes. It underscores the urgent need for Americans to seek cleaner, locally produced food from farmers and ranchers or even their own backyards. 

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