Tag: safety

Nearly 550 truck drivers cited for not understanding English in Illinois YTD

The number of English language proficiency violations for commercial drivers in Illinois year-to-date has nearly eclipsed last year’s totals with nearly 1 in 5 having CDL’s coming from the state of Illinois.

Since guidance was incorporated into the North American Standard Out-of-Service criteria in June, Illinois State Police tell The Center Square that 221 citations were issued for violating English Language Proficiency assessments. 

A spokesperson said “every ISP officer conducting a commercial motor vehicle inspection initiates the inspection in English. If there is an indication the driver may not understand the inspector’s instructions, the inspector then conducts an English Language Proficiency (ELP) assessment.”

Year to date, about 550 drivers were cited for not understanding English. That’s just shy of totals for all of 2024. In 2023, there were 385. So far this year, 18% of those citations are given to in-state CDL holders. 

“The vast majority of citations are given to out-of-state CDL holders,” the ISP spokesperson said. 

State Rep. Adam Niemerg, R-Dieterich, reacted to nearly 1 in 5 citations going to Illinois CDL holders.  

“So we need to solve the problem in the state of Illinois, the federal government, other states need to solve the problem within their states,” Niemerg told The Center Square. “But it really does scare me.”

ISP said it could not accommodate The Center Square’s request to ride along with an enforcement officer to observe the frequency of such citations.

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EPA Greenlights Second ‘Forever Chemical’ Pesticide in Two Weeks

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approved the highly persistent pesticide isocycloseram on Thursday for golf courses, lawns and food crops such as oranges, tomatoes, almonds, peas and oats.

The pesticide is a “forever chemical” — one of a group called PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances.

Today’s announcement marks the second approval of a PFAS pesticide since President Donald Trump took office, with the first approval coming just two weeks before. The administration plans to approve three more PFAS pesticides in the coming year.

“To approve more PFAS pesticides amid the growing awareness of the serious, long-term dangers from these forever chemicals is absurdly shortsighted,” said Nathan Donley, environmental health science director at the Center for Biological Diversity.

“The undeniable reality is that the Trump administration is knowingly putting the nation’s children at greater risk of developing serious reproductive and liver harms for generations to come.”

Isocycloseram is classified as moderately persistent to persistent and is known to transform into 40 smaller PFAS chemicals, some of which are much more highly persistent.

Among the most concerning harms from isocycloseram is reduced testicle size, lower sperm count and liver toxicity.

While the agency found that people would not be exposed to enough isocycloseram in their diet to cause these harms, it opted not to implement a child-safety buffer to account for the fact that children are more sensitive to chemical pollutants than adults.

If that safety buffer were included, as it is with some other pesticides, young children would have been found to be at high risk of those effects from dietary exposure.

“For all of the rhetoric about caring about children’s health and well-being, this administration is quick to throw them under the bus whenever it suits their polluting benefactors,” said Donley.

“Instead of erring on the side of safety, we get a quick, reckless approval of a new forever chemical without any real thought given to its serious harms.”

Isocycloseram is also highly toxic to bees and other pollinators, with the EPA finding that vital pollinators could be exposed to 1,500 times the lethal level of the pesticide just by collecting nectar and pollen near treated fields.

One out of every three bites of food we eat — and nearly all nutrient-dense foods like fruits and vegetables — come from plants that need to be pollinated by bees and other pollinating animals.

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Another Illegal Immigrant Trucker Causes Fatal Crash, Killing an American Serviceman

Over the weekend, yet another illegal immigrant with a commercial driver’s license issued by the State of New York caused a multi-car collision resulting in the death of an Indiana National Guardsman. The illegal, Georgian national Goderdzi Gujabidze, 56, has since been arrested.

Gujabidze was driving an 18-wheeler in Boone County, Indiana, when he collided with a military Humvee and another vehicle. Indiana National Guardsman Terry Frye died on the scene, and three others were hospitalized.

When authorities attempted to communicate with Gujabidze, they encountered a “language barrier” that required “a translator.”  

Officials discovered that the illegal immigrant had secured a non-domiciled Commercial Driver’s License in New York after the Biden administration waved him across the border in San Luis, Arizona, in 2022.

“Another senseless and avoidable tragedy on America’s roads at the hands of an illegal alien driving a commercial vehicle. Sanctuary states are recklessly providing commercial driver’s licenses to illegal aliens who should not be operating 18-wheeler and trucks on America’s highways,” Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs at the Department of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement to The Daily Wire. “Thanks to the cooperation from Boone County Sheriff’s Office, this illegal will never again be allowed to terrorize American roads again. We pray for the family of Terry Frye as they mourn the loss of their son and thank him for his service to this nation.”

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Microsoft Adds AI to Windows Despite ‘Novel Security Risks’

Microsoft’s recent introduction of Copilot Actions, an experimental AI agent integrated into Windows, has sparked criticism from security experts who question the safety of pushing new features before fully understanding and containing their potential risks

Ars Technica reports that Microsoft unveiled Copilot Actions this week, a set of “experimental agentic features” that allow AI to perform various tasks such as organizing files, scheduling meetings, and sending emails. While the company touted the AI agent as an active digital collaborator that enhances efficiency and productivity, it also issued a warning about the security implications of enabling the feature.

Microsoft’s warning reads:

As these capabilities are introduced, AI models still face functional limitations in terms of how they behave and occasionally may hallucinate and produce unexpected outputs. Additionally, agentic AI applications introduce novel security risks, such as cross-prompt injection (XPIA), where malicious content embedded in UI elements or documents can override agent instructions, leading to unintended actions like data exfiltration or malware installation.

Security concerns stem from known defects inherent in most large language models (LLMs), including Copilot. Researchers have repeatedly demonstrated that LLMs can provide factually erroneous and illogical answers, a behavior known as “hallucinations.” This means users cannot fully trust the output of AI assistants like Copilot, Gemini, or Claude, and must independently verify the information.

Another significant issue with LLMs is their vulnerability to prompt injections. Hackers can exploit this flaw by planting malicious instructions in websites, resumes, and emails, which the AI eagerly follows without discerning between valid user prompts and untrusted, third-party content. These vulnerabilities can lead to data exfiltration, malicious code execution, and cryptocurrency theft.

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Someone Needs To Explain How An Illegal Alien Wanted For Terrorism Got A CDL License

During Thanksgiving week, some 73 million people will take to the roads for the busiest travel season of the year (heaviest travel Tuesday-Monday according to AAA) and drivers will share the highways with an untold number of illegal aliens operating semi-tractor trailers.

We can extrapolate that, from several recent arrests of truck-driving illegal aliens found holding non-domiciled Commercial Driver’s Licenses (CDL) and the fact that California has admitted to illegally issuing 17,000 non-domiciled CDLs to foreign drivers who may not be able to read road signs or who previously drove in more chaotic driving cultures. In a nationwide non-domiciled CDL audit, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) has also identified Colorado, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, and Washington as states with licensing patterns inconsistent with federal regulations.

Terror On Wheels

Now, ICE has arrested an accused terrorist driving a big rig in Kansas. Illegal alien Akhror Bozorov of Uzbekistan, was arrested by ICE on Nov. 9, while he was illegally working as a commercial truck driver. Bozorov, 31, is wanted in Uzbekistan for belonging to a terrorist organization, according to an ICE statement.

“Uzbekistan authorities issued an arrest warrant for Bozorov in 2022 for being a member of a terrorist organization. He is accused of distributing terrorist propaganda, calling for jihad online, and recruiting terrorists to join the jihad movement,” the statement said.

Bozorov illegally snuck into the United States in February 2023, according to ICE. He was arrested by U.S. Border Patrol and released to aimlessly drift around the nation, as per the Biden Administration’s immigration free-for-all policy.

The accused terrorist found comfort in Gov. Josh Shapiro’s Pennsylvania, where, on July 7, 2025, Bozorov was issued a non-domiciled CDL complete with a driver’s license number.

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Milk without cows? Inside the science of lab-grown milk shaking dairy world

Starting early next year, Israelis will find a new kind of milk on their supermarket shelves – one made without cows. Remilk, a food-tech startup, announced it will begin selling its lab-produced milk made from dairy proteins through a partnership with Gad Dairies from next year, according to a report by The Times of Israel. 

The company claims its “cow-free” milk tastes exactly like the dairy one. From January, two variants: a 3 per cent fat milk and a vanilla-flavoured version will be available under the label New Milk. Both are lactose-free, cholesterol-free, and made without antibiotics or hormones. 

A separate ‘Barista’ line, meant for cafés and restaurants, will appear within days, the report said. 

Remilk’s founders say prices will be similar to other milk alternatives like soy or almond milk but unlike them, this one is “real” dairy. The only difference being that no cows will be involved. 

Remilk may enter US market

The launch comes more than two years after Israel’s health ministry approved Remilk’s products for sale, clearing the path for one of the world’s first large-scale rollouts of lab-grown milk. The company is also in talks to enter the US market.

Remilk isn’t alone in lab-grown dairy farming. Food giant Strauss Group has also launched cow-free drinks and cream cheese made using similar precision fermentation technology through another Israeli startup, Imagindairy. It’s the beginning of what some call a “post-cow era”, a shift that could transform the global dairy industry. 

What is lab-grown milk?

Lab-grown milk, sometimes called ‘animal-free dairy’, is real dairy produced without cows. Unlike almond, oat, or soy milk, which are plant-based substitutes, lab-grown milk contains actual milk proteins (casein and whey), identical to those found in cow’s milk. 

There are two main production methods: 

  • Mammary cell cultures: Cow mammary cells are grown in bioreactors that naturally produce milk.
  • Precision fermentation: Scientists insert milk-producing genes into microbes like yeast, which secrete milk proteins when fed sugar. These proteins are then blended with fats and carbohydrates to make milk.

The result then is dairy that looks, tastes, and behaves like the real thing despite it being completely grown in a lab. You can froth it for coffee, make cheese, or churn it into ice cream but without the environmental costs or ethical concerns of traditional dairy farming.

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EPA Accused Of Protecting Itself, Not Public Health, As Water Fluoridation Battle Heats Up

The legal battle over fluoridated drinking water escalated today when attorneys for Food & Water Watch (FWW), Fluoride Action Network (FAN) and other plaintiffs filed a brief accusing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of trying “to protect the EPA from the public” rather than protecting public health.

The outcome of the agency’s appeal will shape federal oversight of community water fluoridation and also determine how much power citizens have to force regulatory action when new scientific evidence emerges.

At the center of the dispute is the citizen petition process, which allows citizens to file lawsuits demanding restrictions on toxic chemicals that aren’t effectively regulated. Congress created the process under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA).

In July, when the EPA appealed a 2024 federal court ruling that ordered it to take action to address the risk posed by water fluoridation, the agency didn’t challenge the court’s finding that current fluoridation levels pose an “unreasonable risk” of neurodevelopmental harm to children.

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California revokes 17,000 commercial driver’s licenses for immigrants

California plans to revoke 17,000 commercial driver’s licenses given to immigrants after discovering the expiration dates went past when the drivers were legally allowed to be in the U.S., state officials said Wednesday.

The announcement follows harsh criticism from the Trump administration about California and other states granting licenses to people in the country illegally. The issue was thrust into the public’s consciousness in August, when a tractor-trailer driver not authorized to be in the U.S. made an illegal U-turn and caused a crash in Florida that killed three people.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Wednesday that California’s action to revoke these licenses is an admission that the state acted improperly even though it previously defended its licensing standards. California launched its review of commercial driver’s licenses it issued after Duffy raised concerns.

“After weeks of claiming they did nothing wrong, Gavin Newsom and California have been caught red-handed. Now that we’ve exposed their lies, 17,000 illegally issued trucking licenses are being revoked,” Duffy said, referring to the state’s governor. “This is just the tip of iceberg. My team will continue to force California to prove they have removed every illegal immigrant from behind the wheel of semitrucks and school buses.”

Newsom’s office said that every one of the drivers whose license is being revoked had valid work authorizations from the federal government. At first, his office declined to disclose the exact reason for revoking the licenses, saying only they violated state law. Later, his office revealed the state law it was referring to was one that requires the licenses expire on or before a person’s legal status to be in the United State ends, as reported to the DMV.

Still, Newsom’s spokesperson Brandon Richards shot back at Duffy in a statement.

“Once again, the Sean ‘Road Rules’ Duffy fails to share the truth — spreading easily disproven falsehoods in a sad and desperate attempt to please his dear leader,” Richards said.

Fatal truck crashes in Texas and Alabama earlier this year also highlight questions about these licenses. A fiery California crash that killed three people last month involved a truck driver in the country illegally, only adding to the concerns.

Duffy previously imposed new restrictions on which immigrants can qualify for commercial driver’s licenses. He said earlier this fall that California and five other states had improperly issued commercial driver’s licenses to noncitizens, but California is the only state Duffy has taken action against because it was the first one where an audit was completed. The reviews in the other states have been delayed by the government shutdown, but the Transportation Department is urging all of them to tighten their standards.

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True scale of America’s mutant meat scandal sparks alarm in government

Advisers to Robert F Kennedy Jr. fear cloned meat and animal breeding could become a divisive issue inside the Make America Healthy Again movement.

The Daily Mail understands that the use of cloned animals in the US food supply is seen as a ‘complex problem’ among Kennedy allies.

The topic gained renewed attention this week when Canada announced it would allow cloned meat products to be sold in supermarkets without any disclosure – a practice the US has quietly permitted for nearly two decades.

Some close allies of the health secretary worry the issue could spark tensions within the movement, particularly among its tech-forward members who align with Elon Musk and view cloned breeding as a potentially valuable tool for boosting sustainability and environmental outcomes, the Daily Mail understands.

For now, the Trump Administration’s Health Department (HHS) has taken no official stance on cloned-animal products in the food supply. 

Sources close to Kennedy say the department is not ruling out weighing in later on what they describe as an ‘interesting issue.’ 

HHS is currently deferring all policy authority to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which sits under Kennedy’s leadership.

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D.C. Appeals Court STRIKES DOWN Trump DOT’s Safety Rules — Allows Immigrants to Obtain Commercial Licenses Again Despite Fatal Florida Truck Crash

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit blocked the Trump-Vance administration’s emergency safety rule, a rule designed to keep America’s highways safe from unvetted foreign drivers.

The court sided not with public safety, not with the families of crash victims, but with activist groups, blue-city governments, and unions who argued that asylum seekers, refugees, and DACA recipients should continue holding commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs) despite major questions about identity verification, training standards, and foreign driving histories.

The stay halts the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s (FMCSA) new rule limiting CDLs to individuals on verifiable, trackable visa categories, H-2A, H-2B, and E-2.

The rule excluded categories where driving and identity records cannot be confirmed, including asylum seekers, refugees, and DACA recipients.

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