Tag: elections

Voters Gave Ohio Legal Cannabis. Then Lawmakers Took Away the Part That Helped Me.

I’m Tobey MacCachran – a senior journalism and English student at Denison University– and an intern with NORML since December. I came to cannabis advocacy the way most people arrive at anything that matters: it stopped being abstract. 

I’ve had a birthmark on my right wrist my whole life. Other kids would notice it, point at it, and make jokes, but I never minded. It was a part of me that was as ordinary as my hands or my name. I was born with it, and I was comfortable. 

Eczema was different. 

It showed up in my early teens, uninvited and impossible to ignore. Red, cracking patches spread across my skin during dry winters, causing my hands, wrists, and neck to resemble the surface of Mars. The birthmark was mine. The eczema felt like an invasion. And somewhere in the space between those two things, my relationship with my own body quietly changed. 

By high school, my life was dictated by small adjustments. Long sleeves on some days. Certain seats. Situations I’d remove myself from before anyone noticed. Shirt always on at the beach. And then at 17, I tried a cannabis topical for the first time. 

Something actually worked. And last Friday, Ohio made it a crime to access the product that helped me most. 

SB56 was sold as consumer protection. For people who depend on cannabis topicals for chronic pain and skin conditions, it landed like a punishment.

A cannabis topical isn’t recreational. It’s a cream or balm infused with cannabinoids applied directly to the skin. No high. No altered state. For millions of people managing chronic pain, inflammation, and skin conditions, it’s simply the thing that works when nothing else does. It was that for me – the first treatment in years that gave back some ordinary comfort in my own body. The kind of comfort I hadn’t realized I’d lost until I had it again. 

Ohio Senate Bill 56 went into effect on March 20th. Governor DeWine signed it in December, framing it as consumer protection – a crackdown on unregulated intoxicating hemp products that flooded gas stations and corner stores. And there’s a real conversation to be had there. But buried inside the bill are provisions that go far beyond protecting anyone. 

Keep reading

Washington Sheriffs File Lawsuit to Block Unconstitutional Law Allowing Unelected Commission to Remove Them From Office

Yesterday, four Washington County Sheriffs sued the State of WA, the State Legislature, and Governor Bob Ferguson, asking the court to block a blatantly unconstitutional new law that gives a newly formed, unelected state commission the power to end their careers without a vote, a recall, or a court order.

Of all the terrible bills the (other than their unconstitutional income tax) that Democrats passed in the 2026 legislative session. 2SSB 5974 may be the worst. Duly elected County Sheriffs, Police Chiefs, and Town Marshals are now subject to a state-appointed, unelected bureaucratic board and can be “decertified” and removed from office.

This is another blatantly unconstitutional and sinister Democrat bill, where over 50 Republican Amendments were not adopted! Under the law, its 21 commissioners are appointed by the Governor (who appoints them to six-year terms, with some staggered).

Spokane County Sheriff John Nowels, Pend Oreille County Sheriff Glenn Blakeslee, Stevens County Sheriff Brad Manke, and Ferry County Sheriff Ray Maycumber filed the complaint in the Superior Court of the State of Washington, in Pend Oreille County. A hearing on their motion for a preliminary injunction is scheduled for April 16.

The legal action comes with the consent and support of Spokane County Prosecuting Attorney Preston McCollam, Pend Oreille County Prosecuting Attorney Dolly Hunt, Stevens County Prosecuting Attorney Erika George, and Ferry County Prosecuting Attorney Michael Golden.

The sheriffs’ motion argues the governor and legislature “adopted a modern-day McCarthy loyalty oath in the form of 2SSB 5974,” calling it “not a close constitutional call but rather a flatly prohibited practice from a dark period of our country’s history that must never be resurrected.”

Keep reading

AI Influencing Elections: Anthropic Forms PAC Leading into Midterms as It Fights Trump Administration

AI company Anthropic, currently locked in a legal war with the Trump Administration, has filed paperwork to create a new corporate political action committee, claiming that “AnthroPAC” will make bipartisan donations to candidates. This was met with skepticism from conservatives who point out that 99 percent of the company’s past donations have gone to leftists.

The Hill reports that Anthropic submitted a statement of organization on Friday to form AnthroPAC, marking the AI company’s first employee-funded political action committee. The PAC will be financed exclusively through voluntary contributions from Anthropic employees, following a model commonly used by technology companies to participate in electoral politics.

According to information obtained by the Hill, the PAC is designed to operate on a bipartisan basis, with plans to distribute contributions to candidates across both major political parties. The committee will be managed by a supposedly bipartisan board of directors to oversee its activities and donation decisions.

Despite the stated bipartisan intent, several figures aligned with President Trump expressed doubt on Friday about whether the PAC would genuinely support candidates from both parties. Their skepticism stems from Anthropic’s contentious relationship with the Trump administration and the company’s previous political donations, which have been essentially all to Democratic candidates.

Keep reading

DeSantis Signs Florida Election Integrity Law Requiring Proof of Citizenship to Vote

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday signed a new election integrity bill into law, requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote and tightening voter ID standards across the state.

The measure, widely seen as Florida’s version of the federal SAVE America Act Republicans have so far failed to pass through Congress, will ensure only American citizens will be able to vote.

Most provisions will take effect after the upcoming midterm elections.

“This bill protects and expands integrity in our voter registration process,” DeSantis said upon signing the legislation.

“Our Constitution in the state of Florida says only American citizens are allowed to vote in our elections, so we need to make sure that is the law.”

Under the new law, election officials will verify a voter’s citizenship status after registration.

Keep reading

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.

Keep reading

O’Keefe Media Group: California Identity Scam: Petition Fraudsters Log Into Online Database to Get Real Voter Names for Forged Signatures

The O’Keefe Media on Tuesday released part III of its cash-for-ballots investigation into voter fraud in California.

In part III, undercover journalists discovered that the petition fraudsters are logging into an online database to get real voter names for the forged signatures.

Sigvalid.com was identified as the online database.

Per OMG:

In Part III of the cash-for-ballots investigation, petition fraudsters on Skid Row in Los Angeles were caught on hidden camera logging into an online database accessing registered voter names and addresses. These identities were then given to homeless individuals and used to sign in the name of on election petitions.

Our undercover footage shows these signatures completed under false identities, followed by cash payments.

We tracked the names used in the footage and went door-to-door to verify the individuals whose names appeared in the footage. Residents confirmed the addresses were accurate, but denied ever signing any petitions.

Actual voters are angry and demanding authorities take action.

“That’s my address… but that wasn’t me,” one of the voters said.

Keep reading

US territory turned tropical maternity ward has produced thousands of ‘American’ babies for parents living in China

Pregnant Chinese women have turned a tropical paradise into a maternity ward — pumping out babies who automatically become US citizens daily.

The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), a US territory northeast of Guam in the Pacific Ocean, has been flooded with so-called “birth tourists” since 2009 when then-president Barack Obama introduced a visa-waiver program for Chinese nationals.

China-watchers estimate about 1,000 companies offer birth tourism to the Northern Mariana Islands, other US overseas territories and even the US mainland. They claim a gob-smacking 1.5 million American babies are being raised in China by Chinese parents who’ve participated in birth tourism.

In a March 9 letter to three Trump Cabinet secretaries, Republican lawmakers demanded an accounting on Chinese birth tourism.

“The concern is about these children born to Chinese parents — do the parents have connections to the Chinese Communist Party, which is an adversarial government to the US?” Chris Chmielenski, president of the nonprofit Immigration Accountability Project, told The Post regarding the letter.

Keep reading

Eric Swalwell makes wild claim about secret Kash Patel plot

Congressman Eric Swalwell, a leading Democratic candidate in the California gubernatorial race, accused President Donald Trump this weekend of meddling in the election after reports that his administration is seeking to publicize files about Swalwell’s link to a Chinese spy.

Swalwell appeared in multiple media appearances to capitalize on the report and told CNN that Trump and FBI Director Kash Patel are “dangerous individuals.”

“Donald Trump and Kash Patel do not get to pick the next governor. Californians do,” Swalwell said on Saturday.

Patel is reportedly pushing to release documents around Christine Fang, also known as Fang Fang, a suspected Chinese intelligence agent who cultivated ties with American politicians, according to The Washington Post.

Fang developed extensive ties with Swalwell when he was a city council member at Dublin. She bundled donations for his 2014 reelection campaign and recommended staff for his office. Fang allegedly had sexual relationships with at least two mayors.

Swalwell wasn’t immediately removed from a congressional committee over his ties to Fang, but Rep. Kevin McCarthy ordered a House Ethics Committee investigation into the incident after he became House Speaker in 2021.

In a podcast shared with the California Post, Swalwell’s gubernatorial campaign insisted he was cleared of wrongdoing.

“The air was cleared immediately by the FBI when there was even a suggestion of wrongdoing,” Swalwell told the Sources Say podcast.

His connections with the Chinese spy have dogged his campaign for governor. The Democrat even got into an online spat with Barstool founder Dave Portnoy, who commented, “Call me crazy I like my politicians not to get tricked by foreign spies.”

Keep reading

Palm Beach Elections Volunteer Arrested for Stealing Computer Equipment and Encrypted Access Key Ahead of Special Election Won by Democrat

A Palm Beach, Florida, elections volunteer was arrested for stealing computer equipment encrypted access key ahead of a special election where a Democrat won by 800 votes.

John Panicci was arrested on Friday for taking sensitive computer equipment and other supplies on March 19 ahead of the March 24 special election.

As previously reported, a Democrat flipped a Florida state house district that includes President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.

Emily Gregory won state house district 87 in last Tuesday night’s special election.

President Trump won this district by 11 points in 2024.

Last Monday, ahead of the election, President Trump endorsed Republican Jon Maples for state house district 87.

However, Emily Gregory defeated Republican Jon Maples last Tuesday night.

NBC Miami reported:

A man accused of stealing election computer equipment in Palm Beach County was arrested on Saturday, authorities said.

John Panicci was charged with taking damaged computer equipment, supplies/electronic devices.

According to detectives, on Friday, they arrived at the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Office after receiving reports that sensitive computer equipment had been stolen.

During their investigation, detectives said that on March 19, the Elections Office was doing a training session for volunteers who were going to help with the election scheduled on March 24.

Detectives said that during the training session, Panicci stole an encrypted access key from a voter registration terminal.

The key that Panacci allegedly took was programmed only for the training databases, but there were concerns that if someone else could reverse engineer the encryption, they could then use it on a voter registration kiosk for malicious purposes.

Keep reading

Whistleblower Exposes Massive Election Fraud Ring in California — Claims Voter Reg Office Hands Lists of Stolen Names Directly to Gangbangers to Rig Petitions with Paid Homeless Signers

It’s worse than we thought. As the radical left continues to fight tooth and nail against basic election transparency and the SAVE America Act, independent journalists are exposing exactly why they want the system vulnerable.

Higby, working alongside a group dubbed the “Citizen Justice League,” which includes conservative investigative heavyweights like James O’Keefe and Savannah Hernandez, spent weeks disguised as a homeless man on Skid Row to capture this sickening corruption on hidden camera.

The Gateway Pundit broke coverage of James O’Keefe Media Group’s devastating undercover videos exposing the full street-level operation on Los Angeles Skid Row.

In Part II of the “Cash for Ballots” series, O’Keefe and Higby captured hidden camera footage of petitioners paying desperate homeless individuals $2–$3 per forged signature to impersonate real registered voters using pre-printed lists of actual California voter names and addresses.

Circulators hovered over the signatures, making sure the homeless forgers got the names and handwriting “just right” before handing over the cash.

O’Keefe and Higby then went door-to-door to the real addresses on those lists, only to find longtime residents confirming the named voters hadn’t lived there in years, yet election mail was still being delivered to ghosts.

Keep reading