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Pennsylvania Lawmaker Files Bill To Protect Medical Marijuana Patients From DUI Charges

A Pennsylvania lawmaker has reintroduced a bill meant to protect medical marijuana patients from facing DUI charges when there is no proof they are actually impaired behind the wheel.

Rep. Chris Rabb (D) filed the legislation and circulated a cosponsorship memo this week, urging his colleagues to join him in this latest effort to enact the reform.

The memo says that, since the state legalized medical marijuana, many patients have “shared their horror stories about being arrested and convicted of driving under the influence of cannabis without any proof of impairment.”

“That is why this legislation…is being introduced yet again, as the current law must be amended to allow responsible drivers who are also medical cannabis patients to operate a motor vehicle legally,” Raab wrote, emphasizing that the legislation “does not extend to any illegal cannabis use–nor does it protect impaired drivers.”

The bill would amend the current state statute to make it so the presence of cannabis metabolites in a drug test alone could not be used as evidence of impaired driving if the person is a registered medical marijuana patient.

However, that protection would not extend to those who hold a commercial driver’s license.

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Columbia University Folds After Trump Imposes Federal Funding Freeze — Suspends and Expels Students Involved in Anti-Israel Protests

It seems like Columbia University is finally getting the message.

The New York University, long considered one of the world’s leading academic institutions, has announced it will suspend, expel, and even revoke the degrees of students involved in last year’s anti-Israel protests.

The sanctions were confirmed by the Columbia University Judicial Board on Thursday, which said their extent would depend on the severity of their behaviors.

“The outcomes issued by the UJB are based on its evaluation of the severity of behaviors at these events and prior disciplinary actions,” the university said in a statement sent to the entire school community.

“These outcomes are the result of following the thorough and rigorous processes laid out in the Rules of University Conduct in our statutes, which include investigations, hearings and deliberations.”

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Spies, Secrets, and iCloud: Apple’s Legal Showdown in London

The Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) in London is the one that will consider Apple’s appeal against the UK’s Home Office secret order to include an encryption backdoor in the giant’s iCloud service.

As things stand now, pending the outcome of the legal – and political – wrangling, iCloud users no longer enjoy the security and privacy benefits of the Advanced Data Protection (ADP).

This affects iCloud Backup in the following categories: iCloud Drive, Photos, Notes, Reminders, Safari Bookmarks, Siri Shortcuts, Voice Memos, Wallet Passes, and Freeform.

Meanwhile, the tribunal itself is “secret,” and the date it will consider Apple’s attempt to avoid the permanent breaking of encryption, and of the trust of its users worldwide, has been set for Friday, March 14.

But privacy activists like Privacy International (PI) want these hearings to be public, since the outcome of the UK’s anti-encryption push potentially affects millions, possibly billions of people around the world.

Secret as it may be, the IPT – which is believed to normally deal with national security issues – announced Friday’s closed-door meeting, a move that is described as “unusual.”

Unusual perhaps, but not illogical – Apple’s appeal against the original secret order was also apparently meant to be secret but has in the meantime been “leaked” to the public.

The original order came from Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, who targeted the US company with a “technical compatibility notice.” The end result of compliance was giving UK’s spies and law enforcement access to data, by compromising iCloud encryption.

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Zelensky Lashes Out as Putin Accepts US-Ukraine Ceasefire Plan

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wasted no time in reacting to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s acceptance of a proposed 30-day ceasefire, calling it a “manipulative” move aimed at stalling rather than ending the war.

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced Thursday that he is open to a U.S.-backed proposal for a 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine. However, his agreement came with a key stipulation—direct discussions with President Donald Trump.

It can be recalled that Russian President Vladimir Putin signaled to Washington in 2023 in public and privately through intermediaries that he was ready to open to a ceasefire in Ukraine. Putin’s proposal was to freeze the war along current lines, which includes territory gained by Russia.

Sources told Reuters that this approach from Putin offered what some Kremlin figures saw as the best hope for some form of peace. But Biden and his Regime rejected the proposal without countering, as one Russian source lamented.

Another Russian source explained that the Regime insisted on involving Ukraine in any discussion regarding a possible ceasefire. This immovable position caused the talks to collapse completely.

In 2024, Putin offered a peace proposal to Ukraine to permanently end the war in Ukraine and begin negotiations.

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FOIA Requests Target Biden Administration’s Financial Surveillance

Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) has proceeded with filing a number of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests with the Treasury Department, the FBI, and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

The goal is to receive relevant information regarding the Biden administration’s alleged weaponization of government and censorship.

This is yet another attempt to shed light on how third-party groups and organizations were used to circumvent a number of constitutional prohibitions.

ADF’s focus this time is on the previous administration’s policy of using the issue of domestic extremism to, in fact, negatively affect its political opponents – in the cases brought up in these FOIA requests, via access to financial records of US conservatives.

An iteration of the Big Government-Big Tech collusion, which has been investigated by Congress, this one is about Big Governments and Big Banks suspected of having worked together to achieve political goals. But not always by collaborating directly – and this is one of the aspects ADF wants to understand better.

Namely – the involvement of private organizations and businesses hired (“outsourced”) in one way or another, to help banks identify what were designated to be purveyors of misinformation, and domestic extremism.

The FOIAs also aim to reveal the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) role in flagging what are said to be “conservative-coded” transactions (the keywords here are reported to be, “Trump,” “MAGA”, etc.)

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Trump Impersonator Shawn Farash and His Wife Are Latest Conservatives to Be Swatted by Radical Leftists – Farash Vows to Hold Those Responsible Accountable

In yet another disturbing escalation of leftist harassment tactics, President Trump impersonator and conservative activist Shawn Farash and his wife, Brennan, became the latest victims of a dangerous swatting attack at their home in Tennessee on Thursday night.

Law enforcement officers were dispatched to their residence after receiving a false report of a double homicide and an alleged plan for “suicide by cop.”

The terrifying ordeal comes just hours after TGP contributor Patty McMurray reported on two other conservatives—independent journalist Nick Sorter’s parents and X influencer Gunther Eagleman—being similarly targeted.

This pattern of leftist intimidation against outspoken conservatives shows no sign of slowing down, with radical actors weaponizing law enforcement to silence and terrorize their political opponents.

For those unfamiliar, “swatting” is a criminal act where bad actors call in false emergency reports—often claiming violent crimes like murders or hostage situations—to provoke an armed police response at a targeted individual’s home. The results can be catastrophic, with innocent people being placed in imminent danger as law enforcement officers, unaware of the hoax, arrive prepared to engage a violent suspect.

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EU Retaliates to Trump Steel & Aluminum Tariff by Imposing 50% Tariff on U.S. Spirits

A friend in the spirits business just sent me the following statement:

Distilled Spirits Council President and CEO Chris Swonger Statement in Response to the EU’s Announcement to Reimpose Tariffs on American Whiskey

It seems to me that EU leaders are being weenies once again. Trump imposed tariffs on the importation of EU steel and aluminum into the US because he wants to protect the U.S. steel and aluminum industries. Note that the EU has long maintained 20% VAT and other import duties on American steel and aluminum products, as well as all other US products imported into the EU.

Instead of negotiating about steel and aluminum—which most serious people regard as strategic industries that are critical for maintaining national security—the inveterate weenies at the EU decided to punish the American spirits industry by announcing a 50% import duty.

Punishing Bourbon and Tennessee Whiskey distillers strikes me as grossly political, given that these spirits—which are very popular in Europe—are distilled in states that strongly supported Trump in the recent election.

In response to this announcement, Trump threatened to 200% tariff on all alcoholic beverages produced in the EU. I suspect that such a tariff would be absolutely devastating for the German beer industry, the French wine, champagne, and cognac industries, and for the Italian wine industry.

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President Trump’s Tariffs: A New Golden Age For American Aluminum Workers

President Donald Trump specialized in shattering conventional wisdom and challenging the status quo on his road to the White House in 2016. To this day, our president believes Americans are getting ripped off by unfair trade practices where country after country has gotten comfortable taking advantage of the United States due to our unparalleled generosity and wealth. So, he’s focused like a laser beam on fair trade and leveling the playing field so our manufacturing workers can compete with foreign competitors and prosper. President Trump has declared that by implementing targeted tariffs on foreign countries that hurt American workers, “our country will be extremely liquid and rich again.”

Having served as President Trump’s deputy campaign manager in 2016 and as an advisor to his campaigns in 2020 and 2024, I was delighted to see him reelected in 2024 with a huge mandate to fight for our manufacturing sector and usher in a “Golden Age” in America. Make no mistake, our 45th and 47th president is determined to finish the revolution on American trade policy that he began by fixing the mistakes of the Biden-Harris years and strengthening Section 232 tariffs on aluminum and steel. 

As part of the shock-and-awe action of his first one hundred days in office, President Trump signed new proclamations to bolster the fair-trade policy introduced during his historic first term in office. By elevating tariffs to 25% on aluminum and restoring the 25% levy on steel, the Trump administration is making clear that they have the backs of thousands of American aluminum and steel workers and are resolute in their mission to create a multitude of new manufacturing jobs. 

While the globalists in the economic establishment and mainstream media react to targeted tariffs with their customary Trump-deranged hysteria, American manufacturers reacted with both joy and relief because President Trump is making good on another campaign promise. It must be repeated again and again – because the fake news media refuses to tell the truth – that this president supports robust trade, but it must be trade that is fair and reciprocal. This is the linchpin of the policy.

Under the “America Last” mindset of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, foreign countries were free to exploit loopholes in Section 232 to flood the domestic aluminum and steel industry with cheap products. Canada, Mexico, Australia, and Argentina locked arms with D.C. swamp creatures to secure exclusions and exemptions, to the detriment of American workers. Australia’s aluminum exports into the U.S. have increased sharply and at the same time China and Russia have used loopholes to move aluminum through Mexico and Canada to flood our market. As a result of foreign countries cheating, Alcoa announced the permanent closing of its smelter in Washington State. Other closures have included a Century Aluminum plant in Kentucky, which idled production in 2022, and Magnitude 7 Metals in Missouri, which was forced to close in 2024. 

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Postmaster General Agrees to Cooperate with DOGE in Reform Plan in USPS — 10,000 Workers on the Chopping Block

The United States Postal Service (USPS) is teaming up with Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to implement massive reforms aimed at cutting waste, increasing efficiency, and saving taxpayer dollars.

For years, the USPS has been a bloated, inefficient, money-losing government entity, weighed down by excessive regulations and union-driven inefficiencies.

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy penned a letter to congressional leaders outlining just how broken the USPS has been for decades—racking up nearly $100 billion in losses and projected to lose another $200 billion if left unchecked.

“It has long been known that the Postal Service has a broken business model that was not financially sustainable without critically necessary and fundamental core change. Fixing a broken organization that had experienced close to $100 billion in losses and was projected to lose another $200 billion, without a bankruptcy proceeding, is a daunting task.

“Fixing a heavily legislated and overly regulated organization as massive, important, cherished, misunderstood and debated as the United States Postal Service, with such a broken business model, is even more difficult.”

DeJoy, who has helmed the USPS since 2020, touts his “Delivering for America” (DFA) plan as a miraculous turnaround for the agency.

“We’ve transformed a battered bureaucracy into a lean, mean delivery machine,” he seems to imply, citing $2.2 billion in annual transportation cuts, a 20% slash in headquarters staff (infamously dubbed the “Friday Night Massacre”), and a workforce reduction.

According to DeJoy, the USPS has already reduced 30,000 employees since 2021, saving $2.5 billion in labor costs. There will be an additional 10,000 job cuts in the next 30 days through a Voluntary Early Retirement program.

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Record dropouts in Bundeswehr as delusional EU/NATO still mulls going to Ukraine

It’s no secret that Western militaries have suffered from poor recruitment for years. Virtually all EU/NATO members have this problem and there are no signs it will go away any time soon. Worse yet, they are now faced with record dropout rates, which is threatening the integrity of their armed forces. Despite all this and for some inexplicable reason, the EU/NATO still wants to pick a fight with Russia, a “noble democratic endeavor” that would require many times more troops. However, as previously mentioned, their ability to even retain (let alone attract) soldiers remains highly questionable. Namely, the latest reports confirm that 25% of new recruits in the German Bundeswehr drop out after only six months of service.

According to Financial Times, personnel shortages are “pushing troops to a breaking point”. The report cites Eva Högl, the Commissioner for the Armed Forces (Bundeswehr) in the German Parliament (Bundestag), who pointed out that “despite some success in recruitment, poor   meant that the armed forces had come no closer to meeting their target of having 203,000 soldiers by 2031”. As a result, this number dropped to just over 181,000. FT laments that “this comes at a time when Germany is pledging to do more to bolster Europe’s own defenses in the face of a potential US retreat from the continent”. It should be noted that Washington DC has anywhere between 50,000 and 84,000 troops deployed in Europe.

It’s virtually impossible to imagine Bundeswehr being able to deploy even 10% of that outside of Germany. Worse yet, while US soldiers are often very young (teenagers or in their early 20s), the Bundeswehr is “shrinking and getting older”, as Högl pointed out. In her annual report on the state of the German military, she lamented that “the average age had risen to 34 years — up from 33.1 years in 2021”.

“This development must be stopped and reversed as a matter of urgency”, she stated, adding: “I said the troops are challenged, but they are also very overburdened. I’ll go as far as to say they’re at breaking point. When we look at where our Bundeswehr is needed — for national defense, [NATO] alliance defense, international crisis management — it is a lot. And it really is at the limit.”

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