Tag: conflict of interest

Consultants Push HPV Vaccines for Infants, as Merck Tests Gardasil in Kids as Young as 4

Consultants paid by Merck and the Gates Foundation are publicly advocating to administer HPV vaccines to children as young as 12-24 months — an age group in which the vaccine has never been tested and for which no safety data exist.

Mark Kane and Eduardo Franco laid out the campaign to extend HPV vaccination to toddlers in an opinion piece published in Clinical Infectious Diseases — an official journal of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA).

Merck, a “Silver” level industry partner, donates tens of thousands of dollars annually to the IDSA foundation.

The push to vaccinate younger children comes as Merck — maker of Gardasil, the only HPV vaccine marketed in the U.S. — partners with major universities to run clinical trials of its HPV vaccine in children ages 4-8 in the U.S. and Gambia.

Merck’s Gardasil vaccine is designed to protect against human papillomavirus (HPV), a sexually transmitted disease. In the U.S., the drug is approved for children starting at age 9 — well before children are sexually active.

Conflicts of interest ‘so thick’ they obscure the science

In the conflict-of-interest statement at the end of the IDSA op-ed, Franco disclosed that he is a vaccine consultant who also holds a patent on a cervical cancer test.

Kane reported no conflicts of interest. However, that claim omits these significant financial and professional credentials:

“The conflicts are so thick it’s impossible to tell if this is a serious immunization policy suggestion, or a fact-pattern of Merck publishing Merck recommendations to use more Merck products,” said Karl Jablonowski, Ph.D., senior research scientist for Children’s Health Defense (CHD).

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McMorrow Pushed Water Affordability While Racking Up $3,000 Unpaid Utility Tab at Million-Dollar Home

A candidate for Michigan’s open U.S. Senate seat apparently doesn’t like paying her utility bills. 

Fox News reported that Mallory McMorrow went nearly a year without paying water or sewer bills on their million-dollar home in Royal Oak until Friday, when contacted by Fox News.

The bill grew to over $3,000 since June 2025 when accounting for late fees and unpaid bills, Fox reported. 

In 2025, McMorrow sponsored Senate Bill 250, which aimed to create a water affordability program. The bill aimed to create the low-income water affordability program within the state health department to ensure an eligible customer didn’t pay over three percent of the household income on a water bill. 

That bill aimed to “identify alternative funding” for the program, which means raising taxes to fund “free” water for others. 

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Bombshell: Left-Wing Tech Billionaires Are Paying the Full Salaries of Dozens of ‘Journalists’ at Top Media Companies

If you want to talk about media corruption, how about the discovery that a left-wing political organization has embedded 80 “journalists” in the corporate media by paying their full salaries?

Breitbart News has previously reported on LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman’s dark money election meddling, as well as Facebook cofounder Dustin Moskovitz’s deep penetration of President Joe Biden’s administration with AI activists.

Behind this corruption is a far-left, globalist organization called Effective Altruism (EA), which the New York Post describes as a “billionaire-backed movement [that] aims to solve the world’s problems” which wants to send the message that “unchecked AI will destroy us all,” and that we must “prioritize causes like climate change, global health, poverty, [and] pandemics.”

EA wants to end factory farming. Okay, and replace it with what — insects? We have to feed 8.3 billion people every single day.

No one should blame EA. These fascist tech bros are merely doing whatever it takes to further their fascist cause. If you believe in something, you take every advantage to promote it.

What is obscene here…

What is indefensible here…

What is inexcusable here is this:

To spread their message the group has the Tarbell Center for AI Journalism — funded in part by EA foundations — which pays full salaries of journalists placed inside such newsrooms as Time, Bloomberg, MIT Technology Review and The Guardian, NBC News, and The Verge.

Then there’s Ezra Klein at the New York Times:

New York Times superstar columnist Ezra Klein has maintained deep, longstanding ties to EA and its billionaires, and even uses his widely read NYT column to solicit donations to them.

How can you call yourself a progressive if you solicit donations to an organization run by… billionaires?

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Gavin Newsom Launches ‘Free Diapers’ Program That Has a Curious Connection to His Wife’s Pet Project

California Governor Gavin Newsom is launching a new project in his state that will give new parents hundreds of free diapers. Sounds great, doesn’t it? New parents need diapers. Lots of them. Win win, right?

ABC 7 reports:

California families welcoming newborns will soon receive hundreds of free diapers before leaving the hospital under a first-in-the-nation program announced Friday by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

During the program’s first year, it will be offered at about 65 to 75 hospitals that handle about a quarter of births in the state and largely serve low-income patients, Newsom’s office said. The initiative will expand to more hospitals statewide, though the governor’s office did not say how many. The state has partnered with nonprofit Baby2Baby to manufacture the diapers under the label “Golden State Start.”…

The state set aside $7.4 million in last year’s budget to roll out the initiative, and this year’s budget proposal includes an additional $12.5 million to implement the program for the upcoming fiscal year ending in June 2027.

Do you like this idea? Well, like all things Democrats offer for free, there is a catch.

As Kevin Dalton pointed out on Twitter/X, this program has a direct connection to Newsom’s wife and a charity she runs:

Gavin Newsom just announced a shiny new taxpayer funded program giving free diapers to newborns leaving California hospitals and his administration is partnering with Baby2Baby with almost $20 MILLION in state funds to manufacture them.

I’m sure it’s a total coincidence that one of Baby2Baby’s Co-CEOs, Norah Weinstein, sits on the board of Gavin Newsom’s wife’s California Partners Project.

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Utah Supreme Court Justice Who Had Romantic Relationship with Leftist Redistricting Lawyer Involved in Helping Democrats Steal Congressional Seat Resigns

The Utah Supreme Court Justice who had a romantic relationship with a leftist lawyer involved in helping the Democrats steal a congressional seat has resigned.

In November, the Utah Third District Court struck down the congressional map crafted by the Republican-led state legislature, labeling it an unconstitutional “gerrymander” and replacing it with a map drawn by left-wing plaintiffs.

The Democrats gained a seat in bright red Utah.

The Utah Supreme Court did not block the new congressional map that gave Democrats a seat.

Last month, it was revealed that Utah Supreme Court Justice Diana Hagen had an inappropriate relationship with a man named David Reymann, a leftist redistricting attorney who helped the Democrats take a congressional seat amid the gerrymandering wars.

Utah Governor Spencer Cox and other state officials launched an investigation into Hagen’s relationship with Reymann.

KSL reported last month:

Utah’s governor, Senate president and House speaker are launching an investigation into Supreme Court Justice Diana Hagen and allegations that she had a relationship with an attorney arguing cases before the high court.

Those allegations are detailed in a complaint submitted late last year to both Chief Justice Matthew Durrant and the Judicial Conduct Commission.

The complaint, which was obtained exclusively by KSL through a public records request, came from a Provo-based attorney who said Hagen’s ex-husband told him the justice had exchanged “inappropriate” text messages with David Reymann, one of the attorneys involved in a case about redistricting, which led to Utah getting a new congressional map.

Hagen strongly denies allegations of an inappropriate relationship of any kind. Reymann also called the allegations “false.” He does outside legal work for KSL and as an attorney for the Utah Media Coalition, of which KSL is a member.

On Friday, Governor Cox announced that he received a resignation letter from Diana Hagen.

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Senate Passes Rule Banning Members From Trading on Prediction Markets

The U.S. Senate unanimously voted on April 30 to ban members and their staff from betting on prediction markets such as Kalshi and Polymarket. The rule, aimed to stop senators from insider trading will go into effect immediately.

“Serving in Congress is an honor, not a side hustle,” Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) wrote in an X post on Thursday. “Americans deserve to know that their leaders are here for the right reason!”

Moreno spearheaded the ban, and Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) added an amendment to expand the rule to Senate staff.

Polymarket, one of the most popular prediction markets in the world, quickly voiced support for the legislation on social media.

“We’re in full support of this,” the trading platform wrote in an X post after the decision was made in Washington.

“Our Rulebook & Terms of Service already prohibit such conduct, but codifying this into law is a step forward for the industry. Happy to help move this forward however we can.”

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The WHO Is Building A Supranational Vaccine Authorization Mechanism

“I need to ask someone else to take responsibility for the second part of the approvals process, so that I won’t have a conflict of interest. I’m also working with Bill Gates and the World Health Organization on the vaccine itself.”

This admission of a conflict of interest was made by Prof. Lester Schulman, secretary of the Ministry of Health’s polio committee, in March 2023, during an internal discussion about approving the importation into Israel of a new polio vaccine. The vaccine was developed and promoted by the World Health Organization in collaboration with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and its approval pathway relied on a new emergency authorization mechanism the WHO has developed in recent years: the EUL (Emergency Use Listing).

Although the remark was framed as a technical aside, it was an unusual confession of a conflict of interest by the committee’s secretary. Its seriousness is compounded by the fact that it was made only after the committee had already voted by an overwhelming majority to initiate the process of bringing the vaccine to Israel, and after it had already worked vigorously to persuade the Pharmaceutical Division to cooperate.

The quotation does not appear in the official minutes of the meeting that were provided to us. It is heard on an audio recording of the session, one of several recordings passed on to us by a whistleblower. The minutes were provided only following a Freedom of Information request and subsequent litigation.

The episode is serious in its own right. But it goes far beyond a local episode of personal conflict of interest or an administrative failure within Israel’s health system. The materials point to something more consequential: the use of an international emergency authorization pathway to shape regulatory decisions inside a sovereign state, advanced through overlapping professional networks, without the organization assuming the legal responsibilities borne by national regulators. 

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Trump wages war, his sons get payoff through savvy investments

The U.S. military desperately needs drone capabilities for President Donald Trump’s war in Iran, and fast. Coincidentally, his sons Eric and Donald Trump Jr., are on the case.

Indeed, the Trump brothers are pumping money into defense-tech oriented firms that have already secured Pentagon contracts, or have already put battle-tested products to market. For example, they’ve invested in Powerus, a new drone company aiming to harness its “strong relationship with Ukraine” as a means to acquire and leverage war-tried Ukrainian drone technologies in a competitive U.S. market. Having bought out several competitors, Powerus already does business with the U.S. military.

In other words, the Trump family stands to benefit financially from the war, and already are.

Eric Trump also invests in Israeli drone firm and DoD contractor Xtend, whose “low cost-per kill” attack drones have been used by the IDF in Gaza. Expanding to the U.S., the company opened an office near Tampa last summer.

Donald Trump Jr. has a $4 million stake in, and sits on the board of Unusual Machines, a drone parts startup. In December, it secured a $620 million DoD loan — the largest loan in the history of the Pentagon’s Office of Strategic Capital — to make drone parts.

And Trump Jr. is a partner at 1789, a “patriotic capitalist” venture capital firm which backs a number of defense-tech startups. The firm, which Trump Jr. joined in November 2024 — right after his father was re-elected to the presidency — has since seen explosive growth: the assets it manages jumped in value from $150 million to more than $2 billion by the end of last year.

Suggesting the firm influences U.S. policy outright, Trump Jr. explained at a Future Investment Initiative event last year that 1789 “understand[s] what the administration wants to do, because [the firm] helped craft some of the messaging.”

Conflicts of interest percolate

As William Hartung, a Quincy Institute senior research fellow, tells RS, the Trump family’s defense-tech pursuits can be linked to a larger network of technology firms and venture capitalists that has significant influence within the Trump administration.

“The emerging military tech sector has deep ties to the administration, starting with vice-president J.D. Vance’s relationship with Palantir founder Peter Thiel, who employed Vance and helped fund his Senate run,” Hartung said. “The fact that Donald Trump Jr. — not only the president’s son but a close political advisor and unofficial spokesperson — will now profit personally from the fate of specific military tech firms adds an even more profound conflict-of-interest.”

To this end, 1789’s portfolio includes a number of defense-oriented companies, such as Anduril, Hadrian, SpaceX, and Vulcan Elements, a DOD contractor that makes rare-earth magnets, which are also backed by controversial venture capitalist Peter Thiel or his VC firm Founders Fund. A Silicon Valley kingmaker and Palantir co-founder to boot, Thiel has simultaneously worked to influence U.S. politics, bankrolling Congressional campaigns while many in his orbit now occupy major positions in the Trump administration.

Notably, Trump Jr. also sits on the advisory board of controversial prediction market Polymarket — which 1789 and Thiel’s Founders Fund also back — fostering an environment where people with insider awareness regarding the outcomes of world events could theoretically profit from that knowledge.

Hartung warns such political access — and, in the case of 1789, venture capital funding — can give certain defense-tech startups an unwarranted edge.

“Venture capital allows firms to stay in the market longer before they score their first big government contract, be it with the Pentagon, an intelligence agency, or the Department of Homeland Security,” Hartung told RS. “But once these influential firms have sunk substantial funds in a startup, they may use their influence to get that firm a contract whether or not its technology is ready for prime time, just to get a return on funds invested up to a given point in time.”

“If they can recruit the president’s son to join in boosting a particular firm, whether or not its product has been proven effective, they have a whole new level of influence, which can be wielded to serve their financial interests rather than the public interest,” Hartung said.

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Spanberger awards $5 MILLION to husband’s firm for Virginia Advanced Propulsion Facilities project

It has been revealed that Democrat Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger signed off on grants totaling $18 million to help a company where her husband works in expanding its operations in Orange County, $5 million of which will be awarded to the company directly. The grants will help build the Virginia Advanced Propulsion Facilities in Orange County.

L3Harris, an aerospace technology company as well as a defense contractor, had announced an over $1 billion expansion for solid rocket motor production capacity at the company’s site in Orange County. The grants are part of the project expansion.

“Governor Spanberger approved two grants of $12.5 million and $500,000 from the Commonwealth’s Opportunity Fund to assist Orange County with the projects. The Governor also approved a performance-based grant of $5 million from the Virginia Investment Performance Grant, an incentive that encourages continued capital investment by existing Virginia companies. Funding and services to support L3Harris’ employee training activities will be provided through the Virginia Jobs Investment Program,” a press release from Spanberger’s office said.

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Large Michigan Solar Projects Can Now Bypass Township Permit Denials. 122 of 148 Lawmakers Took Utility Money

One of Michigan’s electric utilities, Consumers Energy, announced plans to build up to 9,000 megawatts of solar power on 209,000 acres of farmland. The total size of these solar projects is about 326 square miles. That’s about 2.5 times the size of Detroit itself.

Nearly all these costs get added to citizens’ electric bills. Recognizing this would likely create opposition within townships, Democrat politicians in Michigan passed Public Act 233. It overrides a township if they deny a solar or wind farm permit.

For decades, Michigan’s 1,773 local township governments had the authority to decide whether a large solar farm could be built in their communities. In late November of 2023, Public Act 233 was signed into law. Larger solar (>50MW) and wind (>100MW) projects can now skip the voices of local residents. They now have almost no say in some of Michigan’s biggest industrial projects.

If the local jurisdiction denies the solar application, takes too long, or imposes excessive rules, the developer can bypass the township entirely. They can apply directly to the 3 person Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) for approval. All 3 commissioners are appointed by Democrat governor Gretchen Whitmer. In some cases, these developers can bypass townships from the onset.

PA 233 was introduced by MI House of Representatives Abraham Aiyash (D), a top Muslim lawmaker from the Detroit area. Every Democrat voted in favor of the bill, every Republican against (20-18). Like fascists, the MI Democrats took oversight from these small townships and gave it to MPSC. Democrats also control MPSC, which determines how much the two utility companies can charge their MI customers (Consumers Energy, DTE Energy).

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