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Indiana Lawmakers Approve Bill To Ban Marijuana Advertising On Billboards

Tuesday discussion around a Bureau of Motor Vehicle (BMV) bill descended into impassioned debate over marijuana advertising, which Republican lawmakers said should be restricted.

In contention was House Bill 1390, authored by Rep. Jim Pressel (R-Rolling Prairie). The underlying legislation originally just dealt with BMV agency matters, like insurance verification, specialty license plates and registration stickers.

But among multiple changes adopted by the Senate Homeland Security and Transportation Committee on Tuesday—including a significant amendment addressing “predatory” towing—was a ban on “outdoor” marijuana advertising, notably on highway billboards.

Specifically, the amended bill language seeks to prohibit outdoor advertisements for products containing marijuana or a variety of other controlled substances, including heroin, LSD and ecstasy.

The bill now moves to the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Pressel, whose district extends to Indiana’s northern border, described “billboards all over the place that say, ‘Come to my store and buy this,’” referencing dispensaries in Michigan, where recreational marijuana is legal.

“And we have trucks—mobile billboards—that drive around and sit in front of our parks. That’s unacceptable, and it sends a mixed message to the consumer that this product is legal in Indiana, which it is not,” said Pressel, who unsuccessfully attempted to add the provision to a separate House bill earlier in the session.

“I think that’s an unfair message,” he continued, “and I believe that we should get in front of this to say that if it’s an illegal substance, listed on our illegal substance list in the state of Indiana, you should not be able to advertise for that.”

Multiple advertisers pushed back.

Ron Breymier, executive director of the Outdoor Advertising Association of Indiana, cited First Amendment issues. He argued that policymakers can dictate the size and placement of billboards, but “not the actual advertisement itself.”

Phones and internet searches, Breymier said, are a “greater threat” than billboards.

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TX State Rep Exposes Government Promoting Radical Transgender Madness At University Of Texas

Republican Texas State Representative Brian Harrison posted a thread on 𝕏 Tuesday, detailing and providing images of the far-left LGBTQ indoctrination taking place on the University of Texas at Austin campus.

Harrison wrote, “The Texas government hosted a transgender conference at @UTAustin today… so, naturally, I snuck in. What I found will shock you. The Texas Government is promoting a radical, liberal agenda… with your tax dollars.”

Harrison provided pictures showing a large banner on campus promoting a gallery showcase titled, “TRANSCENDENCE: A Century of Black Queer Ecstasy.”

An agenda list for an event on campus showed discussions such as “Keeping Time: Queer-Crip Temporal Attunement Through Tarot,” and “Digital Healing: from individual survival to collective care-reimagining workplace health in Chinese women’s literature.”

Another talk students could attend focused on “Abolition pedagogy and women’s health in a Texas women’s prison.”

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Scientists who made ‘vast city’ discovery beneath Egypt’s Giza pyramid claim it was built by a long-lost advanced civilization

A purported ‘vast underground city’ in Egypt is tens of thousands of years older than the Giza pyramids, scientists have shockingly claimed.

If true, it would turn Egyptian – and human – history on its head, though independent experts have called it ‘outlandish’ and ‘crazy talk.’

Last week, researchers in Italy presented bombshell research which claimed to have discovered multi-thousand-foot tall wells and chambers underground beneath the Khafre Pyramid. 

The Giza pyramids are believed to have been built around 4,500 years ago and considered a remarkable feat given their immense scale and the precision of their construction, which remains a mystery for the time period.

However, researchers behind the new study claim that the hidden structures, spanning 4,000 feet, are approximately 38,000 years old — which predates the oldest known man-made structure of its kind by tens of thousands of years.

The team has based these claims on ancient Egyptian text that they interpreted as historical records of a pre-existing civilization that was destroyed during a cataclysmic event.

Professor Lawrence Conyers, a radar expert at the University of Denver who focuses on archaeology and was not involved in the study, told DailyMail.com: ‘That is a really outlandish idea.’

He added that at that time in human history people ‘were mostly living in caves’ 38,000 years ago. ‘People did not start living in what we now call cities until about 9,000 years ago,’ he said. ‘There were a few large villages before that but those only go back a few thousand years from that time.’

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CBD-Rich Cannabis Offers ‘Potential Benefits’ For People With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Scientific Review Finds

A new review of scientific research on the use of marijuana’s components to treat autism spectrum disorder (ASD) finds that “preliminary evidence suggests potential benefits,” including improvements around anxiety, sleep and behavior. But more work—especially randomized controlled trials—are needed “to confirm these results and establish clear treatment guidelines,” authors said.

“Preliminary findings suggest that CBD-rich formulations may provide modest benefits for sleep and social interaction, with a reduction in anxiety symptoms,” says the peer-reviewed study, published in the journal Cureus. “Regarding core ASD symptoms and behavioral outcomes, cannabinoids demonstrated greater efficacy compared to placebo in some studies.”

Researchers also acknowledged that “adverse events varied” among patients, and “response to treatment was inconsistent across individuals,” underscoring the need for further study.

“While cannabinoids, particularly CBD-rich formulations, appear to be relatively safe and potentially beneficial,” the new paper says, “further large-scale, controlled trials comparing CBD to established ASD treatments are essential to clarify its role and long-term impact in ASD management.”

The 13-person team behind the new study includes researchers from various hospitals and universities in Brazil.

Overall, they wrote, “While preliminary evidence suggests potential benefits, particularly for anxiety, sleep, and behavior, the findings remain inconclusive due to study heterogeneity and methodological limitations.”

For the analysis, authors looked at seven studies involving 494 patients, focusing on “key clinical outcomes, such as sleep, autistic core symptoms, anxiety, behavior, social effects, and adverse events.”

“Improvements were noted in anxiety, sleep quality, social effects, and behavior, although these findings varied across studies,” they concluded. “Importantly, adverse events were generally mild and occurred at similar rates in cannabinoid and placebo groups, supporting the intervention’s safety profile.”

Studies also indicated “a slight improvement” in sleep quality, while “autistic core symptoms showed positive responses” the report says. “Some studies also reported reductions in hyperactivity, agitation, self-injurious behavior, and epilepsy, along with improvements in communication skills, attention, and eye contact.”

Drowsiness was the most common side effect, followed by decreased appetite, weight loss, anxiety and restlessness.

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World’s first pig to human liver transplant is carried out in major breakthrough

A pig’s liver has been transplanted into a human recipient for the first time in a ‘milestone’ for organ transfers between animals and people.

Scientists in China used a liver taken from a seven-month old Bama miniature pig which had been genetically modified to reduce the risk of rejection.

Once removed, it was kept ‘alive’ using a medical solution and chilled to 0-4C.

During the nine-hour-long surgery the recipient – a 50-year-old clinically dead man whose family had authorised the procedure – had the donor liver stitched to his blood vessels in his abdomen alongside his own liver. 

Over the next 10 days, the donor liver successfully produced bile and maintained a stable blood flow.

The team hope that rather than a long-term solution, their procedure could one day be used as a temporary treatment for patients with liver failure while they wait for a human donor.

In the UK, there are more than 11,000 deaths due to liver disease each year. Around 700 people are currently on the waiting list for a transplant, and the average wait is three to four months.

The announcement follows a slew of recent breakthroughs, including transplanting a pig’s heart into a man and a woman currently living with a pig’s kidney.

Professor Lin Wang, one of the study’s authors from the Fourth Military Medical University in Xi’an, said: ‘The liver collected from the modified pig functioned very well in the human body.

‘It’s a great achievement. This surgery was really successful.

‘We examined the blood flow in the different vessels and arteries. The flow is very smooth. It functioned very well.’

The experiment was terminated after 10 days because of requests made by the patient’s family members.

The findings, published in the journal Nature, suggest modified livers can survive and function in human bodies, but further research on long-term outcomes is needed.

‘We have the opportunity in the future to solve the problem of a patient with severe liver failure,’ Professor Wang added.

‘It is our dream to make this achievement. The pig liver could survive together with the original liver of the human being and maybe it will give it additional support.’

He also expressed a desire to conduct further research on living, non-brain-dead human beings in the future, but stressed the complications and ‘many rules’ around this.

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Horror as four American soldiers ‘are found dead’ after vanishing during training exercise in Lithuania

Four US Army soldiers have reportedly been found dead the day after they were reported missing during a training exercise in Lithuania. 

The four servicemen, who have not been identified by authorities, were with the 1st Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division. 

Early reports indicate that the soldiers may have been traveling in an M88 recovery vehicle, one of the largest armored vehicles used by the US military, which may have fallen into a body of water. 

The soldiers had been reported missing at around 4:45pm Tuesday following a training exercise near Pabrade, Lithuania, sparking a widespread search conducted by the US Army and Lithuanian authorities. 

The soldiers were reportedly carrying out a tactical training routine at the General Silvestras Žukauskas training ground in Pabradė, which is less than six miles from the border with Belarus. 

The Lithuanian Armed Forces said Wednesday that they had identified a ‘possible location’ of the missing soldiers and their vehicle. 

The military said in a statement that ‘a search and rescue operation is underway, led by the Lithuanian Armed Forces, with additional capabilities from the Fire Protection and Rescue Department and other institutions.’ 

Officials have not offered any details regarding how the soldiers or their vehicle went missing nor the manner of their reported deaths.  

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Pentagon Kills Off HR IT Project After 780% Budget Overrun, Years Of Delays

After blowing deadlines and budgets for years, the Pentagon has finally pulled the plug on a troubled project to overhaul its outdated civilian HR IT systems.

Like many government projects before it, the US Defense Civilian Human Resources Management System (DCHRMS) promised big things when it was kicked off nearly a decade ago. According to a memo [PDF] signed by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth late last week, the program was intended to streamline a large portion of the DoD’s legacy HR IT systems, but it’s being axed after officials concluded pouring more funds into it would be “throwing more good taxpayer money after bad.”

DCHRMS started in 2018 with a planned development timeline of one year and a budget of $36 million, “but instead it’s taken eight years and is currently $280 million over budget – that’s 780 percent over budget,” Hegseth said in a video announcing the DCHRMS and other spending cuts. “We’re not doing that anymore.”

That’s not to say the DoD is giving up on modernizing its civilian HR systems – the memo noted that the Pentagon still wants a new solution, with Hegseth directing officials to develop a fresh plan within 60 days to achieve the project’s original goals.

While the headline item in the memo is the cancellation of DCHRMS, Hegseth ordered cuts to additional programs, contracts, and grants too.

The memo mentioned the cancellation of more than $360 million in grant programs “in areas of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and related social programs, climate change, social science, COVID-19 pandemic response” and the like, stating these efforts were not aligned with the DoD’s current priorities.

We’ve reached out to the Defense Department to get a more complete list of the programs being terminated, but Hegseth did single out a couple in the video. In particular, he pointed to a $6 million grant for decarbonizing the emissions from US Navy ships and a $9 million university grant to develop “equitable AI and machine learning models.”

“I need lethal machine learning models,” Hegseth said. “Not equitable machine learning models.” 

The memo also directed the cancellation of $30 million in contracts with Gartner and McKinsey for analysis products and what Hegseth described as “unused licenses” from “external consulting services.” The move echoes the ongoing scrutiny of federal consulting contracts, such as reviews of deals involving Accenture, IBM, and Deloitte.

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NAT SEC ARCHIVE: Concerned About Nuclear Weapons, JFK Pushed for Inspection of Israel Nuclear Facilities

President John F Kennedy worried that Israel’s nuclear program was a potentially serious proliferation risk and insisted that Israel permit periodic inspections to mitigate the danger, according to declassified documents published today by the National Security Archive, Nuclear Proliferation International History Project, and the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies.  Kennedy pressured the government of Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion to prevent a military nuclear program, particularly after stage-managed tours of the Dimona facility for U.S. government scientists in 1961 and 1962 raised suspicions within U.S. intelligence that Israel might be concealing its underlying nuclear aims.  Kennedy’s long-run objective, documents show, was to broaden and institutionalize inspections of Dimona by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

On 30 May 1961, Kennedy met Ben-Gurion in Manhattan to discuss the bilateral relationship and Middle East issues. However, a central (and indeed the first) issue in their meeting was the Israeli nuclear program, about which President Kennedy was most concerned.   According to a draft record of their discussion, which has never been cited, and is published here for the first time, Ben-Gurion spoke “rapidly and in a low voice” and “some words were missed.”  He emphasized the peaceful, economic development-oriented nature of the Israeli nuclear project. Nevertheless the note taker, Assistant Secretary of State Philips Talbot, believed that he heard Ben-Gurion mention a “pilot” plant to process plutonium for “atomic power” and also say that “there is no intention to develop weapons capacity now.” Ben-Gurion tacitly acknowledged that the Dimona reactor had a military potential, or so Talbot believed he had heard.  The final U.S. version of the memcon retained the sentence about plutonium but did not include the language about a “pilot” plant and  “weapons capacity.”

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Secret CIA files claim Ark of the Covenant has been found

The location of a chest believed to contain the Ten Commandments has long been a mystery, but CIA documents claims the Ark of the Covenant has been found.

According to the Bible, the Ark of the Covenant was built by the Israelites shortly after they fled Egypt around the 13th century BC. Moses then placed the Ten Commandments inside. 

The CIA conducted experiments in the 1980s with individuals who claimed they could perceive information about distant objects, events or other people.

The report details one of these tests where Remote Viewer No. 032 was given coordinates to locate a target, and they described the Ark of the Covenant hiding in the Middle East.

Some historians believe the Ark of the Covenant was originally kept inside the Holy of Holies, the innermost chamber of the ancient Temple of Jerusalem, before it disappeared during the Babylonian sack of Jerusalem in 586 BC. 

There is also a legend that the artifact was taken to Ethiopia and now resides in a local church. Evidence that the chest existed has yet to be found, but the CIA document declassified in 2000 claims it was discovered in 1988.

‘The target is a container. This container has another container inside of it,’ the document states. ‘The target is fashioned of wood, gold and silver…. and it is decorated with [a six-winged angel].’ 

The remote viewer continued to say that the coffin-shaped object is ‘located somewhere in the Middle East’ and saw people in the area speaking Arabic.

The remote viewer, however, was not told that they were searching for the lost covenant before the experiment began. 

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Federal Official Downplays Criticism That Saliva-Based Marijuana Testing As Urine Alternative Would Spur Use By Truckers

Amid ongoing discussions about how to ensure drivers aren’t impaired by marijuana, a federal official recently pushed back on criticism that proposed implementation of saliva-based drug testing could incentivize more cannabis use by commercial truckers.

In comments to the publication Transit Topics, an unidentified official from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) responded to assertions from the CEO of a drug-testing company that oral fluid testing “means truckers who use cannabis will be able to do so with near impunity, as long as they avoid a drug test for a couple of days.”

The contention of the CEO—Ken Fichtler, of Gaize—was that the Department of Transportation’s (DOT) “shift to oral fluid testing will have serious consequences for the trucking industry” because saliva testing has a shorter detection window than typical urine-based testing. He said the tests detect use within the past “24 to 48 hours,” which is far shorter than the period of weeks when marijuana metabolites can be detected in urine.

DOT finalized the new testing policies in 2023 to allow oral saliva drug testing as an alternative to urine-based tests.

The SAMHSA official, granted anonymity by Transit Topics, disputed Fichtler’s claims—both on the test’s detection window itself and the implications of DOT’s revised testing policies for truckers’ marijuana use.

“In referenced journal articles, cannabis use can be detected via oral fluid testing for up to 72 hours,” the official said. “When a donor receives a request for collection, the donor will not know if the test will be an oral fluid or urine collection until they arrive at the collection facility for a federal agency.”

Not knowing whether to expect a saliva or urine test, in other words, would prevent the situation described by Fichtler of drivers simply stopping marijuana use a few days before a saliva-based test.

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