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FDA Recalls Aphrodisiac Chocolates Containing Viagra Ingredients

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has issued a recall for two chocolate products sold by a California adult novelty store, Gold Lion Aphrodisiac Chocolate and ilum Male Sexual Enhancement Chocolate, after discovering they contain high levels of the active ingredients found in prescription medications like Viagra and Cialis. Consuming these chocolates could lead to a life-threatening drop in blood pressure, especially for men with heart conditions who take nitrates.

Why it matters

The recall highlights the risks of purchasing unregulated sexual enhancement products that may contain undisclosed and potentially harmful pharmaceutical ingredients. Consumers should be wary of any over-the-counter products making claims about improving sexual performance, as they may contain dangerous adulterants.

The details

According to the FDA, the recalled chocolates were found to contain sildenafil, the active ingredient in Viagra, and tadalafil, the active ingredient in Cialis. These prescription drug components can interact dangerously with nitrates, potentially causing a severe and sudden drop in blood pressure that could be life-threatening. The chocolates were sold by Gear Isle, an adult novelty store in California, under the names Gold Lion Aphrodisiac Chocolate and ilum Male Sexual Enhancement Chocolate.

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LAUGHABLE: Don Lemon Signals He is Open to Running for President – Says He Could Do a Better Job Than Trump

Since being fired by CNN in 2023, Don Lemon has been making a living by becoming part of the anti-Trump media, a collection of Trump-deranged liberals and bitter, former Republicans who all speak only to each other and appear on each other’s podcasts.

This week, during an appearance on the Pod Save America podcast, Lemon hilariously signaled that he is open to the idea of running for president and actually said that he would do a better job than President Trump.

It’s amazing how highly Don thinks of himself. He has such an inflated sense of self-worth.

Given his participation in the storming of a church in Minnesota this winter, he’ll be lucky to stay out of jail.

FOX News has details:

Don Lemon talks possibility of being president, says he’d be ‘a lot better than Donald Trump’

Former CNN anchor and independent journalist Don Lemon addressed whether he would ever consider running for president.

“Do I ever think about it? Yes,” Lemon said on “Pod Save America” Sunday. “Could it happen? Yeah, it could happen if the opportunity presented itself, the right opportunity presented itself. Look, if I wanted to, I know people are going to think I’m crazy. This is going to be the headline, and people are going to laugh about it. I think I could be President of the United States. I could definitely run this country better than Donald Trump.”

Lemon said that he currently doesn’t have any interest in running for office, arguing that it could “ruin” his life and pointing out that White male candidates “get away with” far more than female or minority ones. He also argued that he would have to change his party affiliation from independent to Democrat.

However, he pushed back on the idea that it was impossible for him to consider running.

“Am I at that point now? No. And I know people are going to say Don Lemon is crazy. But yeah, that’s…look, why can’t I think about running for office? Why can’t I think about being President of the United States when look at what we have?” Lemon said.

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Dem Rep. Susie Lee Deletes ‘I’ll Pray They F*** Him to His Face’ Post About Trump

Rep. Susie Lee (D-NV), who describes herself as “America’s #1 Most Bipartisan Member of Congress,” posted and later deleted a profanity-laced response on X to an Associated Press (AP) story about President Donald Trump’s planned attendance at Wednesday’s Supreme Court hearing on birthright citizenship.

Shortly after 1:00 a.m. ET on April 1, Lee replied to an Associated Press post that said Trump would attend Wednesday’s hearing on birthright citizenship, adding that the visit would make him the “first sitting president to attend oral arguments at the nation’s highest court.” In response, Lee wrote: “So fucking fucked up. I’ll pray they fuck him to his face. Sorry, I say fuck a lot these days.” She subsequently deleted the message.

During the 2018 campaign for Nevada’s Third Congressional District, long viewed as a battleground seat, Republican Danny Tarkanian said Lee was closely tied to then-House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, telling Breitbart News, “Nancy Pelosi helped recruit her to run, she’s raised her millions of dollars, she’s raised twice as much money as the incumbent race for the last election. It will probably be the most expensive congressional race in the country.”

In November 2019, Lee argued Trump had engaged in “clear obstruction” and “abuse of power” over Ukraine, telling a Las Vegas town hall that she supported an impeachment inquiry because she believed there was “ground enough for me to support further fact-finding.” Lee also said she was acting to uphold her oath to the Constitution, arguing that “democracies live or die by the integrity of their elections.”

The next month, Lee announced she would vote to impeach Trump, saying in a statement, “The facts are clear: the President abused the power of his office and blatantly obstructed Congress.” She added, “I took an oath of office to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” At the time, Breitbart News noted that Lee represented one of the congressional districts Trump had carried in 2016 before Democrats flipped it in the 2018 midterms, and that polling in her district suggested her impeachment stance could carry political risk.

Lee has also faced years of ethics scrutiny. In June 2020, she became the subject of an outside ethics complaint after pushing for a change to federal pandemic loan requirements that later benefited her husband Dan Lee’s company, Full House Resorts. Two weeks after the change, the company received $5.6 million in Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans. Lee said she had no influence over whether the loans were approved, though a spokesperson later acknowledged she had been made aware of the application and its approval.

FACT, the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust, stated that Lee’s involvement with Full House Resorts created doubt about her impartiality and raised questions about whether she had acted in the public’s best interest. Days later, Joni Ernst proposed legislation requiring lawmakers, their spouses, and congressional employees to disclose PPP loans within 15 days. The proposal followed reporting that Lee was among the lawmakers or spouses of lawmakers connected to PPP benefits.

Lee again drew scrutiny in 2021 over her financial disclosures. Business Insider reported that she had failed to adequately disclose more than 200 stock trades since early 2020, valued between roughly $267,000 and $3.3 million. The trades involved companies including Planet Fitness, Wayfair, Marriott International, Carnival, Williams-Sonoma, and US Foods.

Lee’s office said the trades had been executed by a third-party money manager without her input and that she worked with a financial adviser and the House Ethics Committee to file the transactions once she became aware of them. Breitbart News reported that the late disclosures did not appear to trigger automatic penalties.

Later that year, FACT called for an investigation into Lee, contending that her repeated failures to disclose stock trades on time could amount to violations of the STOCK Act and House ethics rules. FACT Executive Director Kendra Arnold said the disclosure law must be strictly enforced to determine if members of Congress are using their positions for self-enrichment. Breitbart News also included Lee in a 2021 roundup of 11 Democrats alleged to have violated the STOCK Act.

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US State Dept Settles Free Speech Suppression Lawsuit

The US State Department has settled a lawsuit brought by The Daily Wire, The Federalist, and the State of Texas, accepting a consent decree that bars it from using, financing, or promoting technology designed to suppress or “fact-check” the constitutionally protected speech of American citizens and domestic media outlets.

The settlement also prohibits the Department from working with foreign governments or NGOs for those purposes, whether through formal agreements or informal arrangements.

We obtained a copy of the joint motion for you here.

The New Civil Liberties Alliance, which represented The Daily Wire and The Federalist, secured what amounts to a binding admission that the government had been doing exactly what it was accused of. The Department now acknowledges that its plaintiffs’ speech on COVID-19, sexual ethics, the biological nature of sex, and election integrity was constitutionally protected all along. It took three years of litigation to get the government to say that out loud.

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NASA’s Artemis Program Is a Monument to Government Waste. It Can Only Go Up From Here.

If the pending Artemis II mission is successful, it will not just send Americans around the moon and back for the first time in more than half a century—it will send them further than any human being has traveled into space. If the rest of the Artemis program proceeds on schedule, astronauts will return to the lunar surface by the end of the decade.

That’s been a long time coming. The government has been working to get Americans back on the moon since the Bush administration created the Constellation program in the mid-2000s. Wondering why it’s taking so long, given that the original moon mission required only seven years? The answer involves the familiar forces of government inefficiency and pork barrel congressional politics.

How We Got Here

After the space shuttle Columbia disintegrated while reentering the atmosphere in 2003, the Bush administration decided to shift the space program away from the Space Shuttle program. The result was the more targeted, purpose-driven Constellation program, which focused on completing the International Space Station and laying the groundwork for a “return to the Moon no later than 2020.” This, officials hoped, would be a stepping stone toward a crewed mission to Mars not long afterward.

By the time President Barack Obama took office, the Constellation program was already on the way to cancellation; the new administration declared the program “over budget, behind schedule, and lacking in innovation.” When the Shuttle program retired in 2011, no vehicle was set to take its place. So in 2010, Congress mandated that several legacy aerospace companies create the Space Launch System (SLS), both to take over the missions that the shuttle had been servicing and to provide for future space missions.

As development began on the rocket, the projected budget cost through 2017 was $18 billion, a number that would soon start growing. Early in development, each launch was projected to cost $500 million, a number very optimistic in hindsight: According to the White House’s 2026 budget proposal, an SLS launch costs about $4 billion. Through last year, the total cost of the program has exceeded $60 billion.

The SLS program isn’t just way over budget. It’s way behind schedule too. Congress told it to fly by 2016, but the first launch didn’t come until 2022. The second launch will be Artemis II.

When the first Trump administration started the Artemis program in 2017, the vision was to send Americans to the moon and then Mars. As the program developed, officials set a goal of having humans on the moon again by 2024. In April 2021, SpaceX won the bidding process to build the Human Landing System—the lunar lander that would deliver the astronauts to the moon’s surface. Blue Origin then sued NASA over losing out to SpaceX, and NASA had to pause work until the lawsuit ended. The suit was resolved in November, at which point SpaceX and NASA returned to work. 

Infrastructure issues plagued Artemis, with repairs spanning months. Rocket launches require good weather, and launch windows can be tight, so a few days of bad weather can postpone a launch by weeks or months.

After Jared Isaacman became NASA administrator last year, the Artemis mission schedule underwent substantial structural changes. Artemis III, which had been set to be the mission that would send astronauts to our satellite’s surface, has now become Artemis IV, scheduled for 2028; the new Artemis III will test on-orbit capabilities but will stay in low Earth orbit. Further missions down the line are supposed to begin assembly of a U.S. lunar base. The current slate of missions run through Artemis X, projected to have a 2035 launch date.

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The Life and Mysterious Death of D. Scott Rogo

Although D. Scott Rogo authored or co-authored a total of 30 books on paranormal topics from 1967 to the time of his death in 1990, many of these books have gone out of print over the years and have become difficult to find. He was considered a leading authority in the field of parapsychology. He had written many articles and lectured on the topic at John F. Kennedy University.

Rogo’s work was published in a number of professional journals, including the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research and the International Journal of Parapsychology. He served as a visiting research consultant to the Psychical Research Foundation in Durham, North Carolina, in 1973. He was a consulting editor for Fate magazine, where he wrote a regular column. He collaborated with another well-known author, Raymond Bayless, to write Phone Calls From the Dead (see below).

Early Life

Douglas Scott Rogo was born on February 1, 1950, and he lived his entire life in California’s San Fernando Valley. He died in August 1990, at the age of 40. A graduate of California State University, Northridge, he was a musician who also studied the psychology of music. Scott claimed to have had an out-of-body experience as a child, which prompted his lifelong interest in the paranormal.

While still a student at California State at the age of 19, he published his first book, titled NAD: A Study of Unusual Other-World Experiences. NAD in Sanskrit refers to otherworldly sounds or music. This book was later reprinted by Anomalist Books as a two-volume work entitled Paranormal Music Experiences.

A serious student of the paranormal, Scott Rogo’s interests included exposure of fraud in the field. He acknowledged the possibility that some psychic experiences were psychological in origin rather than supernatural. His friend and co-author, Raymond Bayless, said, “He only used scientific methods to determine what caused the phenomena.”

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Ted Bundy named as killer of teen girl who left a Halloween party and never returned after DNA breakthrough

Notorious serial killer Ted Bundy has been identified as the murderer of a teenage girl who vanished on Halloween night more than half a century ago.

Laura Ann Aime, 17, was last seen alive at a party in Utah County on October 31, 1974, when she told friends she was heading out to buy cigarettes. She never returned.

Around a month later on November 27, 1974, her naked body was found in an embankment up in the mountains near American Fork Canyon Road. The teen had been raped and strangled.

For decades, her murder has been linked to Bundy, with the serial killer giving a deathbed confession to killing Aime and at least 29 other victims before he was sent to the electric chair in January 1989.

But, her case remained unsolved for the next 37 years, with investigators needing more evidence to close the investigation once and for all.

That evidence finally arrived in the way of a breakthrough in DNA evidence last month.

In a press conference on Wednesday, Utah County Sheriff Mike Smith announced that advanced DNA testing of bodily fluids found on the victim had proven Bundy to be the killer once and for all.  

‘Although Bundy did claim that he committed the murder of Laura, the confession he gave was deemed to be not enough evidence to close the case and rule out any other party having had committed this crime, as had been speculated at the time,’ Smith said.

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Energy bills set to spike for Washington state residents — while Microsoft gets rate cut: report

Electric bills are set to jump more than 16% for 1.25 million Washington state residents — even as Microsoft gets a rate cut under a special deal, according to a report.

Puget Sound Energy, a utility company that is owned by a consortium of Canadian and Dutch pension funds, is seeking state government approval for rate hikes of 16.75% next year, 3.76% in 2028, and 8.81% in 2029.

The request, which is subject to approval by Washington’s state regulators at Utilities and Transportation Commission, also includes a proposed rate cut for Microsoft, according to the local news site Zoned Out PNW.

If PSE gets its way, the Redmond, Wash.-based software giant, which as of Wednesday boasted a market capitalization of $2.76 trillion, will see its rates slashed by 12.49% next year; 2.04% in 2028; and 3.06% in 2029.

The UTC board is chaired by Brian Rybarik, who held various roles at Microsoft before he was appointed to his current position by Gov. Bob Ferguson, a Dem.

Microsoft reportedly qualifies for the rate cuts because the tech giant falls under the category of a “special contracts” customer.

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Missouri Senate Passes Bill To Ban Intoxicating Hemp THC Products

After nine hours of debate over competing proposals to ban intoxicating hemp products, the Missouri Senate finally approved a House bill Tuesday night that would align state law with a federal ban set to take effect in November.

It also includes provisions to protect marijuana consumer privacy and cannabis workers’ right to organize.

It now heads back to the House, which can either ask for a conference to work out differences with the Senate or send it to the governor.

The bill, sponsored by Republican state Rep. Dave Hinman of O’Fallon, would prohibit hemp products from containing more than 0.4 milligrams of THC per container, which is among the limits included in a provision in the federal spending bill Congress approved last year.

Even if Congress reverses course and decides to allow the sale of these products, Hinman’s bill would only permit them to be sold in Missouri’s licensed marijuana dispensaries. And if Congress chooses to delay the ban for a couple years, Missouri would still ban all products, except for intoxicating beverages.

“I had just a good opportunity over in the Senate to work with several of the senators to get some of the things that they wanted to get on there that I think actually benefit the bill,” Hinman told The Independent Wednesday morning. “So I’m very happy with the things that were done last night and look forward to bringing that to the House tomorrow.”

Resistance to the bill came from Republican senators who expressed concern that the hemp industry members weren’t included in the final negotiations that took place for more than 12 hours Tuesday.

And Democratic state Sen. Karla May of St. Louis argued Missouri would be taking a more restrictive approach than the federal government because the proposals would deem the intoxicating hemp products as “marijuana.”

“They claim they’re mirroring the federal regulation,” May said during the debate Tuesday. “There’s some things in there that’s going far beyond the federal regulation, such as…hemp-derived cannabinoids will be put under the marijuana umbrella and have to be sold in dispensaries.”

May successfully led a nearly seven-hour filibuster on the first bill brought for discussion, sponsored by Republican state Sen. David Gregory, which would have made the ban effective as soon as the governor signed it.

“We spent pretty much from 11 a.m. until really 9 p.m. trying to figure out where we wanted to go, trying different things,” Hinman said, regarding Gregory’s bill. “We couldn’t get everyone really to agree, and so the senator [Gregory] suggested, ‘Let’s just go back to Hinman’s bill and go with that.’”

In an unusual move, the senators decided to reconvene the Senate Fiscal Oversight Committee at about 10 p.m. The same committee had decided not to vote on Hinman’s bill earlier that day, saying Hinman needed to reach a resolution with the hemp industry.

There was no public notice of the fiscal oversight committee’s evening meeting, which ended when senators voted to move the bill forward and allowed the full Senate to take it up for debate.

An amendment was approved to keep dispensaries from collecting marijuana consumers’ information unless they “opted in,” Hinman said, and another ensured all cannabis workers can unionize and shouldn’t be considered “agricultural workers” who aren’t protected under federal law. A group of workers in St. Louis have been battling this point since 2023.

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School librarians told to remove art books with ‘historic paintings of nudes’ in latest censorship row

School librarians are being told to remove art books with ‘historic paintings of nudes’ in the latest censorship controversy revealed today.

The ‘insane’ trend was revealed by a delegate at the annual conference of the National Education Union (NEU), saying she had heard ‘many accounts’ of art books being cut.

It comes after a school librarian at Lowry Academy in Salford, Greater Manchester, revealed last week she had been forced to remove books deemed ‘inappropriate’ by management.

Bosses used artificial intelligence to earmark almost 200 books for removal, including George Orwell’s 1984 and Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight.

The school later admitted it had removed ‘a small number of books’ but said it had put most of them back, into ‘age-appropriate categories’.

The Lowry Academy case prompted the NEU to pass an urgent motion yesterday to ‘fight censorship and defend librarians’.

The union said that although the woman in the original controversy is not part of the union, it wanted to protect its own librarian members from suffering a similar fate.

Proposing the motion, Kristabelle Williams, a member from Lewisham, said: ‘We cannot ignore the issues that this case has brought up.

‘We can take action as a union now to try to make sure it doesn’t happen again.’

She said the support of the union would give librarians the ‘confidence to not self-censor and resist the chilling effect that this case will cultivate’.

She added members fear there is now an ‘increased risk of external complaints’ and ‘hate campaigns’ about books in their libraries.

Also speaking during the debate was Laura Butterworth, a member from Tameside Greater Manchester, which is near Lowry Academy.

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