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NYC manhole ‘mole people’ have plundered sewer for lost treasures for decades

Treasures abound beneath city streets for anyone brave or crazy enough to explore the murky depths of the Big Apple’s sprawling 7,500-mile sewer system — all in search of a wayward wallet or piece of jewelry that may have fallen through a grate above.

Those temptations were put on full display last week by two separate incidents caught on camera Friday night, where troops of people were seen emerging from manhole covers across Brooklyn after sneaking around the steamy depths in what police said were likely scavenging operations.

The ever-present threat of arrest and obvious risks to personal safety are apparently no deterrent for these intrepid subterranean explorers — for whom no gemstone is too grimy and no coin too crud-covered to add to their loot pouches — with numerous such incidents capturing the city’s attention over the years.

One happening made headlines In 2015, when part-time city Department of Environmental Protection worker Marquis Evans, then 21, led two pals down a Brooklyn manhole in search of “gold, jewelry and guns” in city sewers, cops said at the time.

The trio took several such belowground “scavenger hunt” excursions before the law caught up with Evans and his friends Damien Nieves and David Hannibal. They were slapped with criminal trespassing charges after spending four hours searching for them.

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Study linking vaccines to SIDS deleted

If a scientific paper offers a counter-narrative conclusion, should it be deleted from the record?

Science publisher Elsevier says yes, if the topic is vaccines, because allowing doctors and parents to read it would pose a risk to public health.

This raises the question: Is censorship of science really the best way to ensure public health and safety?

The paper under scrutiny is a peer-reviewed analysis of three decades of vaccine adverse event reporting data which found that 75 percent of sudden infant deaths occurred within seven days of a vaccination, a statistically significant finding.

Author Neil Z. Miller reviewed the medical literature linking SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome) to vaccines and proposed several pathogenic mechanisms, concluding that, “While the findings in this paper are not proof of an association between infant vaccines and infant deaths, they are highly suggestive of a causal relationship.”

The main finding from the paper, titled ‘Vaccines and sudden infant death: An analysis of the VAERS database 1990–2019 and review of the medical literature,’ is represented in the below image, which was widely shared on social media since its publication in the journal Toxicology Reports, in June 2021.

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Ohio allows child marriage. Some lawmakers are OK with that

Some Republican state senators blocked a bill that would have closed a loophole that allows teens to marry at age 17, which means Ohio might remain among states that permit child marriage.

“All I know is some people in the Republican caucus think it’s OK to have child marriage,” said state Sen. Bill DeMora, D-Columbus, who is co-sponsoring the bill with Sen. Bill Blessing, R-Colerain Twp.

The bill calls for raising the marriage age to 18 and older for all parties.

Last week, the Senate Judiciary Committee planned to vote on Senate Bill 341 but senators pulled it off the agenda, along with other pending bills. This week, SB341 isn’t on the committee agenda.

Blessing declined to comment but the bill came off the committee voting agenda after Republican senators held a private caucus meeting.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Nathan Manning, R-North Ridgeville, said advocates will meet with senators to explain why changing the law is needed.

Senate President Rob McColley, who is running for lieutenant governor with Republican Vivek Ramaswamy, said even straightforward issues sometimes need further exploration. “We’ve still got time left in this legislative session.” 

Fraidy Reiss, founder of Unchained At Last, a national organization seeking to end forced and child marriage, said she doesn’t know who in the senate is holding up a bill that had no opposition and would end an abusive practice that harms children.

“It is shameful. It is a slap in the face to girls in Ohio,” she said.

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Media Lies! No, Pritzker Did Not Just Balance the Illinois Budget

According to a press release from the office of the governor, the Illinois General Assembly passed Governor JB Pritzker’s eighth consecutive balanced budget, totaling $55.9 billion for Fiscal Year 2027. The plan focuses on making Illinois more affordable for working families, fully funding the state’s pension obligations, and investing in education, all while keeping discretionary spending increases below 1%.

Senate President Don Harmon (D-Oak Park) praised the budget, calling it a choice for “stability, responsibility and compassion” amid economic uncertainty and federal spending cuts. He said the plan supports working families, protects access to hospitals and health care, provides more than $300 million in new funding for public education, and includes a sales tax-free shopping holiday for parents, while avoiding increases in the state income tax or sales tax.

Similar to many Democratic spending claims, it includes terms such as “protects access to hospitals and health care.” Of course, no one was denying anyone access to hospitals. Hospitals are open, they remain open, and no one was being denied entry. Ostensibly, this is code for taxpayer-funded welfare programs continuing.

It is also telling that Democrats often refer to federal spending cuts as irresponsible. Just as Democrats become angry about the termination of temporary programs, such as the temporary free lunch program or temporary protections under DACA, once money has been spent or a particular policy has been put in place, they argue that it must continue indefinitely.

Pritzker claims that although he is reducing government revenue through tax cuts and increasing government spending through expanded social-benefit programs, he has produced a balanced budget. His office frames this as “fiscal discipline,” but a quick review of the state’s books shows that while he cut taxes in some areas, he increased them in others. The state continues to carry both massive debt and a deficit. Additionally, state pension contributions are structured under a ramp formula that underfunds what actuaries actually require.

A “balanced budget” in state government parlance means only that projected revenues equal projected expenditures for that fiscal year,  an annual operating measure, not a gauge of overall fiscal health. Illinois is constitutionally required to pass a balanced budget each year, so the claim is partly definitional. It says nothing about accumulated obligations.

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Spanish Gov. Consoles Native-Born Locals — Migrants Are ‘Healthier’ Than You

Migrants have “better health” than Spaniards and thus use fewer public healthcare resources than the native-born population, Spain’s socialist government claims through a study published by its own health ministry

According to Spanish Health Minister Mónica García, the study states that migrants in Spain make fewer use of the nation’s healthcare system, medications, and have a lower prevalence of chronic diseases than the native-born population — who are attributed by the document of using a more “intensive” use of their own country’s healthcare resources.

The study, titled, “Health Status and Use of the Healthcare System Among the Migrant Population in Spain” was presented by García on Monday. According to the La Moncloa presidential palace, the document contains a study that analyses the “health reality” of foreign-born individuals in Spain. Furthermore, the government of socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez claimed that the study “confirms” the “Healthy Immigrant Effect” theory, which states that migrants have a health advantage over native-born individuals.

García, in remarks during the report’s presentation, claimed that the study makes the prevailing narrative surrounding migration and its pressure on the nation’s healthcare system “not hold up.”

In a post sharing her own remarks on social media, García claimed “We dismantle the narrative of hate with data” and that “universality is not only fairer, it also saves money for the healthcare system.”

“The migrant population uses the healthcare system less than the native-born population,” García affirmed on Monday. “Native-born individuals make greater use of the system at virtually every level of care: in primary care, they have more visits, undergo more procedures, consume more medications, and have a higher prevalence of chronic diseases.”

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Taxpayers let off the hook as Newfoundland and Labrador drops equalization lawsuit

The province made the announcement that it was dropping the lawsuit last week after previously seeking additional funding from the federal government through the court challenge.

Terrazzano commented on the implications of the province rescinding its lawsuit, noting the benefit for Canadian taxpayers. “The Newfoundland and Labrador government was suing the federal government, essentially launching this court challenge trying to get the courts to force the federal government to increase the equalization handouts to the province,” he said.

“Newfoundland and Labrador eventually dropped that court case, so it’s a big win for taxpayers … we were intervening in this, because we were arguing like hold on a second right, the constitution was never designed to let provinces sue Ottawa to get bigger handouts from taxpayers,” Terrazzano continued.

“It’s good that Newfoundland and Labrador came to its senses and dropped this court case, because if they were successful, the bill for equalization could have ballooned by billions of dollars and really taxpayers, especially in Alberta, British Columbia, and Saskatchewan, would be on the hook for all this,” he added.

Newfoundland and Labrador’s decision to drop its equalization lawsuit spares Canadian taxpayers from a potential multi-billion-dollar increase in federal transfers. The province’s premier, Tony Wakeham, stated that although he believes the equalization system is flawed, the lawsuit will not be moving forward.

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French Far-Left Leader Claims ‘White, Christian’ France Never Existed

A leading leftist in the National Assembly has claimed that France was never a white and Christian country, and that the idea is merely a “fantasy” of the so-called far-right.

Mathilde Panot, who leads Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s La France Insoumise (France in Rebellion/LFI) party in the lower house of the French parliament, not only championed the idea of a “New France” but appeared to suggest that Old France never actually existed.

Speaking to Le Média, the MP for Val-de-Marne’s 10th constituency said that it is imperative for the political left to “never concede anything whatsoever to the far right” as it is through the acceptance of premises through which the “far right becomes socially acceptable”.

Despite Christian heritage in France dating back to the 5th century with the conversion of Clovis I, she claimed that the right “fantasises about a France that does not exist and has never existed… a France that is supposedly a ‘white’ France, a ‘Christian’ France… a France being ‘invaded’ by—well, by who knows whom. In short, they are completely lost in a fantasy regarding the true nature of this country.”

“The only way to defeat the far right is to remain steadfast in one’s principles and refuse to yield even an inch to them regarding issues of racism, immigration, and—well—all such matters. Anyone who actually cedes ground to them is, in effect, helping them advance every single time—because, by doing so, they are effectively playing right into the far right’s ideological framework,” Panot continued.

The LFI leader made the comments in reference to a growing consensus across the political spectrum against mass migration into France, with fellow leftist leaders such as François Ruffin, who was formerly in the same party as Panot, coming out last month in favour of limiting the influx of foreigners to protect the wages of French workers.

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Connecticut Governor’s Signature on Anti-Homeschool Bill ‘Marks First Regression of Homeschool Freedom In The Modern Homeschool Movement’

Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont (D) signed HB 5468 into law on May 26 – a day that national homeschooling advocacy organization HSLDA asserts now marks “a notable turning point in homeschool freedom.”

“HB 5468 profoundly transforms Connecticut from a state where parents had significant freedom, to the only state that imposes mandatory background checks by DCFS on every parent before they can homeschool,” HSLDA posted to Facebook to its members nationwide.

“Not after evidence of abuse. Not in response to a specific concern,” the group continued. “But as a condition of carrying out a basic responsibility of parenthood—choosing the best education for your child.”

The national legal advocate also warned that the effects of the alarming anti-freedom bill – passed by a Democratic supermajority even after thousands of parents of all political views demonstrated against it at the state capitol – could be felt in other states with like-minded lawmakers eager to flex their muscles against parental rights and add “layers of regulation, restriction and bureaucracy to homeschooling families.”

During debate on the bill, Education Committee Co-Chair State Sen. Douglas McCrory (D-Hartford) defended it by likening the requirement of a Department of Children and Families (DCF) background check on all parents who wish to homeschool to the background check required on all teachers in government schools.

If the parents are the teachers, the same standard should hold in order to “know that the adults who are responsible for educating these children do not have a history of harming children,” he said.

Senate President Pro Tem Martin M. Looney (D-New Haven) dismissed parents’ concerns over the legislation.

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University of Washington Confirms that NIH-Funded Muscular Dystrophy Experiments on Dogs Have Ended After White Coat Waste Investigation

The University of Washington has confirmed that the portion of its NIH-backed muscular dystrophy experiments on dogs has officially ended, following a major investigation and public pressure campaign by the government watchdog group White Coat Waste (WCW).

The experiments intentionally caused dogs to suffer from muscular dystrophy before killing many of them.

WCW first requested documents on the UW muscular dystrophy dog lab from both the NIH and the university in July and August of last year.

The organization finally received the first tranche of records, including graphic photos and videos, from UW in early April. WCW is still waiting for additional records from the university.

Once those initial documents arrived, WCW immediately released the explosive findings.

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Homeowners furious after Ontario government threatens to seize portions of backyards

In sleepy Burlington, Ont., eight homeowners are fighting to save their backyards from the clutches of the Government of Ontario (the Ministry of Transportation to be precise.)

The homeowners face losing about two-thirds of their backyards. And they must also incur the costs of moving any infrastructure that stands in the way. This would include everything from backyard patios and storage sheds to even a swimming pool.

As to why the MTO is acting in such a fashion, this remains a mysterious question.

The crux of the matter is that the eight homes back onto the Queen Elizabeth Way highway. The current boundary is marked by a chain-link fence. As well, a few metres away from the chain-link fence stands a stone wall. One wouldn’t even realize there is a major highway on the other side of that stone wall unless this fact was brought to one’s attention.

By way of background, the eight homes in question were constructed some 70 years ago. And for seven decades the current boundary existed without controversy. But the MTO is now maintaining that the land in question has always belonged to the government and that the province is simply reclaiming land that has always been government property.

But again, what is the ostensible policy reason for this boundary extension? And why now?

This relatively little patch of land surely cannot be used to extend the highway, nor construct a railway line – the typical reasons for land expropriation by the government, or, in this case, land reclamation.

Rebel News ventured out to Burlington to interview the affected homeowners who have indeed lawyered up and are not bending the knee without a fight. They are also very concerned that in the expanded boundary area, homeless people might set up encampments, which would seriously impact their quality of life.

We also reached out to the media relations department of the MTO. Our queries included:

1. The existing boundary has been in place for some 70 years. Why is the MTO now wanting to extend the boundary?

2. What is the purpose given that there is not enough land in question for any sort of extension of the Queen Elizabeth Way (which is situated on the other side of the backyards)?

3. I understand the residents will not be compensated for the loss of this land. Why is that the case?

Our queries were not even acknowledged, which, alas, is standard business procedure when it comes to the communications strategy of the Doug “For the People” Ford Progressive Conservatives.

In the meantime, this baffling boundary dispute appears to be headed to a court of law. Stay tuned.

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