Tag: safety

$118 Million in Grants to Make US Trucking Safer to Be Issued

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) will issue more than $118 million in grants to improve roadway safety in the United States, boost commercial vehicle enforcement, and offer high-quality training for military veterans entering the trucking industry, the Department of Transportation (DOT) said in a statement on Dec. 30.

The FMCSA grants “direct critical resources to state and local partners to reduce crashes through data-driven enforcement,” DOT said.

“The investments also bolster the integrity of the Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) system to ensure only qualified drivers are getting behind the wheel,” it added.

Of the $118 million, $71.6 million will be set aside for high-priority grants to support local and state enforcement efforts, such as reducing commercial motor vehicle crashes, conducting awareness campaigns on unsafe driving in high-risk crash corridors, and deploying new technologies to ensure compliance with safety rules.

FMCSA will award $43.8 million as CDL program implementation grants, according to the department. These grants aid states in complying with federal rules and ensure that the process of issuing CDL remains “secure, accurate, and resistant to fraud.”

“At both the national and state levels, agencies responsible for any component of the CDL program can use funding to strengthen compliance oversight, provide training to prevent the masking of driving violations, and implement solutions that improve the timeliness of conviction processing between courts and state systems,” DOT said.

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INSANITY: Newsom’s California Delays Revoking 17,000 Commercial Driver’s Licenses Until March Following “Dangerous Foreign Drivers” Legal Challenge

California Governor Gavin Newsom has backed down on federal enforcement of commercial driver’s license revocations, announcing a delay in the cancellation of 17,000 commercial driver’s licenses (CDLs) issued to immigrant drivers — now postponed until March 6, 2026.

The move comes only after immigrant advocacy groups filed a federal lawsuit and secured a temporary reprieve against the state’s efforts to comply with federal safety and immigration rules.

The Gateway Pundit reported in November that California’s Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) had confessed to illegally handing out 17,000 non-domiciled Commercial Driver’s Licenses (CDLs) to dangerous foreign drivers who have no business operating massive semitrucks or school buses on American roads.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy blasted California for “illegally issuing 17,000 commercial driver’s licenses” to individuals whose credentials did not meet federal requirements, even threatening to withhold up to $160 million in federal highway funds if the state refused to act.

“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,” said U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy. “This is just the tip of the 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.”

Each of the 17,000 non-domiciled CDL holders has been issued notice that their license will expire within 60 days, as it no longer meets federal requirements.

FMCSA is now requiring the California DMV to hand over a full audit of all non-domiciled CDLs to verify that every unlawfully issued license is revoked and that the state corrects the systemic failures that allowed this fraud to occur.

Federal auditors found that over one in four foreign driver records sampled in California failed to comply with federal law, including CDLs that extended beyond the expiration of a foreign worker’s visa, a blatant violation of federal safety regulations.

Now, the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) confirmed that the previously scheduled cancellation, originally set to begin in early January, will now be deferred while legal challenges play out in court.

This stunning reversal follows a wave of legal filings by organizations such as the Asian Law Caucus and the Sikh Coalition, who rushed to court arguing that the state’s actions threatened the livelihoods of thousands of “hard-working” immigrant truck drivers and bus operators.

Their lawsuit claimed that the DMV’s enforcement actions were unlawful and violated due process, alleging that drivers were not financially or legally equipped to respond to abrupt cancellation notices.

Newsom’s announcement provides additional breathing room for the state, which had been under immense pressure from the Trump Administration — and the U.S. Department of Transportation — to clean up a disastrous licensing program that federal auditors found had issued CDLs beyond the lawful terms of the drivers’ immigration status.

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‘Her legs turned blue’: Nuclear plant radiation led to 12-inch blood clot in teen’s hip and deadly complications after she played in nearby creek, lawsuit says

An Ohio teenager died from complications of a bone marrow transplant after developing a “rare” genetic condition caused by radiation from a nuclear plant she lived by, her mother says in a lawsuit. The teen was diagnosed with a 12-inch blood clot in her hip and blood clots in her lungs before she died.

“Cheyenne Dunham, from birth until she was a teenager, regularly consumed food grown in a garden within close proximity to [the nuclear plant], including corn, tomatoes and beans,” lawyers for Cheyenne’s mother say in a 52-page legal complaint. “Cheyenne Dunham lived from age 4 or 5 until she was a teenager … in close proximity to [the nuclear plant]. At this home, Cheyenne Dunham played in a creek and ingested creek water.”

Cheyenne’s mother, Julia Dunham, is suing Centrus Energy in a wrongful death case for her 19-year-old daughter’s death in 2015. Julia became the administrator of Cheyenne’s estate in October and filed her complaint against Centrus Energy in late November. She says radiation from the company’s Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant, referred to as PORTS, led to Cheyenne’s condition and health problems.

Officials shut down the plant in 2001 due to environmental concerns, including the proximity of a school just two miles away and numerous nearby homes.

On May 13, 2019, Zahn’s Corner Middle School in Piketon was “suddenly closed” after “enriched uranium” was detected inside the building, according to Julia Dunham’s complaint. Cheyenne was a student there for three years, from fourth through sixth grade.

“While at Zahn’s Corner, Cheyenne was exposed to radionuclides in excess of federal regulatory limits,” the complaint alleges. “She was also exposed to radionuclides in the Piketon community.”

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Vaccine expert Peter Hotez was offered $2.6M free and clear to debate RFK Jr. on vaccine safety. He turned it down.

Earlier today, I offered Paul Offit $1M to publicly debate me for 1 hour.

While I hope he will accept, I am not optimistic.

They simply don’t like to engage in discussions with people who aren’t easily fooled by their rhetoric.

The Grok conversation about Peter Hotez and RFK Jr

From Grok—

Yes, the story about Dr. Peter Hotez being offered millions to debate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (RFK Jr.) on vaccines stems from a June 2023 incident tied to Joe Rogan’s podcast. After RFK Jr. appeared on *The Joe Rogan Experience* and discussed vaccine skepticism, Hotez criticized the episode as spreading “misinformation.” Rogan then publicly challenged Hotez to debate RFK Jr. on his show, offering $100,000 to Hotez’s charity of choice for an unlimited-time discussion on vaccine safety and efficacy.

This sparked a viral crowdfunding effort on X (then Twitter), with high-profile figures pledging more to the pot (all to Hotez’s chosen charity if he participated). The total quickly exceeded $1.5 million and reportedly climbed as high as $2.6 million or more, depending on the tally. Hotez declined, calling it akin to a “Jerry Springer” spectacle and emphasizing that science isn’t debated like politics; he suggested focusing on education instead. Critics, including RFK Jr. supporters, saw the refusal as dodging accountability.

Steve Kirsch’s $100K Contribution

You’re spot on about @stkirsch (vaccine safety advocate and entrepreneur Steve Kirsch). He was one of the first to jump in, pledging **$100,000** to the pot on June 18, 2023—bringing the total to around $500,000 at that point. He later upped his personal commitment to $600,000 the same day, framing it as a “desperate attempt to get the experts to debunk misinformation.” Kirsch has repeatedly referenced this in later posts as evidence that pro-vaccine experts avoid open challenges, even for massive sums.

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California Expected To Defy Federal Pressure, And Reissue 17,000 Non-Domiciled CDLs

California is expected to begin reissuing approximately 17,000 non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses that the state had planned to revoke following federal enforcement pressure. The decision comes despite ongoing corrective action requirements from FMCSA and raises fundamental questions about federal enforcement authority when a state openly defies compliance directives.

State transportation officials confirmed to sources that the Department of Motor Vehicles will begin restoring the contested licenses to immigrant drivers who received 60-day cancellation notices on November 6. The state has not clarified the specific process but points to the D.C. Circuit Court’s November 13 emergency stay of FMCSA’s interim final rule restricting non-domiciled CDL eligibility.

What California apparently misunderstands, or is choosing to ignore, is that the court stay addressed only the September 29 interim final rule. It did not address the separate compliance failures FMCSA documented during its 2025 Annual Program Review, which found that approximately 25% of California’s non-domiciled CDLs were improperly issued under regulations that existed before the emergency rule was ever published.

The federal government threatened to withhold more than $150 million in highway funding from California over these pre-existing violations. Those threats remain fully in effect regardless of the court’s stay of the new rule.

Two Separate Problems California Is Conflating

Understanding California’s legal exposure requires separating two distinct issues that the state appears to be deliberately merging.

Problem One: The Interim Final Rule. On September 29, 2025, FMCSA issued an emergency interim final rule titled “Restoring Integrity to the Issuance of Non-Domiciled Commercial Drivers’ Licenses.” This rule dramatically restricted the eligibility of non-domiciled CDL holders to H-2A, H-2B, and E-2 visas, excluding asylum seekers, refugees, and DACA recipients. The D.C. Circuit Court stayed this rule on November 13, finding petitioners were “likely to succeed” on claims that FMCSA violated federal law, acted arbitrarily, and failed to justify bypassing standard rulemaking procedures. With this rule stayed, states can theoretically continue issuing non-domiciled CDLs under pre-September 29 regulations, except for states under corrective action plans.

Problem Two: Pre-Existing Compliance Failures. FMCSA’s 2025 Annual Program Review found California had been violating federal regulations that existed long before the interim final rule. The agency documented systemic failures: CDLs issued with expiration dates extending years beyond drivers’ lawful presence authorization, licenses issued to Mexican nationals who are prohibited from holding non-domiciled CDLs (unless under DACA), and inadequate verification procedures. These violations triggered a preliminary determination of substantial noncompliance under 49 CFR 384.307, a process entirely separate from the stayed interim final rule.

California remains subject to a corrective action plan addressing these pre-existing violations. The court stay doesn’t change that. FMCSA’s November 13 guidance was explicit: states “subject to a corrective action plan” must maintain their pauses on non-domiciled CDL issuance until demonstrating compliance with pre-rule regulations.

The Nuclear Option: Decertification

Under 49 U.S.C. § 31312, FMCSA has authority to decertify a state’s entire CDL program if the state is found in “substantial noncompliance” with federal requirements. Decertification would prohibit California from issuing, renewing, transferring, or upgrading any commercial learner’s permits or commercial driver’s licenses, not just non-domiciled credentials, until FMCSA determines that the state has corrected its deficiencies.

The consequences would be immediate and severe. Every new driver in California’s CDL pipeline would freeze. CDL schools would halt operations. Testing would stop. Carriers would face weeks or months of disruption in recruiting new drivers. The ripple effects would devastate one of the nation’s most critical freight corridors.

FMCSA recently threatened Pennsylvania with decertification after an Uzbek terror suspect was found holding a Pennsylvania-issued CDL. The agency gave the state 30 days to respond and warned that failure to correct deficiencies could result in losing issuance authority entirely. California’s defiance appears far more egregious; the state is not merely failing to correct problems but actively moving to restore licenses that federal auditors determined were improperly issued.

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CDC Sued for Pushing Illegal 72-Dose Childhood Vaccine Schedule

First reported by The Defender, a new federal lawsuit is challenging the CDC’s entire childhood vaccine program.

Filed by Dr. Paul Thomas, Dr. Kenneth P. Stoller, and Stand for Health Freedom, the lawsuit accuses the CDC of recommending 72+ vaccine doses for American children without ever testing the cumulative schedule for safety.

Both doctors previously paid a heavy price for questioning the hyper-vaccination program:

  • Dr. Thomas had his license suspended five days after publishing a vaccinated vs. unvaccinated study.
  • Dr. Stoller lost his license for granting exemptions based on genetic vulnerabilities.

What the Lawsuit Alleges

  • No safety testing: Neither the CDC nor FDA has ever studied the long-term, combined effects of the full childhood schedule — despite two decades of warnings from the Institute of Medicine (2002, 2013).
  • 27 years of silence: By law, HHS must file biennial reports to Congress on vaccine safety efforts. Not a single report has been issued since 1998.
  • Constitutional violations: The suit charges the CDC with violating the First Amendment (silencing dissenting doctors), the Fifth Amendment (due process & bodily integrity), and the Administrative Procedure Act (arbitrary and capricious rulemaking).

What Plaintiffs Seek

  • Reclassify all childhood vaccines to Category B — shifting to shared decision-making, which would make medical exemptions far easier to obtain.
  • Require rigorous safety studies comparing fully vaccinated vs. unvaccinated children before any return to a mandated schedule.
  • End retaliation against doctors — protecting physicians who issue exemptions based on individualized medical judgment.

If successful, this lawsuit wouldn’t just expose the unlawful CDC hyper-vaccination program — it would mark a major victory for families seeking vaccine exemptions and for physicians fighting to practice real individualized medicine.

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FDA Leadership Refuses to Add Black Box Warning to mRNA Injections—Despite FDA Scientists Recommending It

A few days ago, CNN reported that the FDA intended to place a black box warning on COVID-19 mRNA injections for serious adverse events, including death.

However, in a striking reversal first reported by Maryanne Demasi, FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary appeared on Bloomberg and claimed the agency now has “no plans” to implement a black box warning—despite the FDA’s own Center for Safety and Epidemiology formally recommending one. He claimed that Dr. Vinay Prasad and “leadership” thought it would be a bad idea.

Dr. Makary stated:

Now, when it comes to the black box warning, we have no plans to put that on the COVID vaccine. The Safety and Epidemiology center within the FDA did recommend that it was a recommendation formally put out. But some of our scientists and leadership, like Dr. Vinay Prasad, have said it may be different today than it was in the first year of COVID when the shot came out.

Because when you have those two doses three months apart, that’s when you see the side effects go way up, like myocarditis in young people. Now that it’s annual, you may not see that same prevalence.

So we don’t want to extrapolate findings to today if it’s not transferable.

This rationale is deeply flawed—and gravely worrisome. It assumes that cardiotoxic injury from mRNA injections is acute, transient, and dose-interval dependent, rather than structural, cumulative, and capable of causing delayed fatal outcomes. That assumption is directly contradicted by the peer-reviewed literature.

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FDA Set to Give COVID Vaccines Serious ‘Black Box’ Designation: Report

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is reportedly preparing to place a serious “black box” warning on COVID-19 vaccines, according to a CNN report citing people familiar with the agency’s plans.

A black box warning is the most serious safety designation the FDA can require — appearing in bold at the top of a drug or vaccine’s prescribing information to alert doctors and patients to potentially serious risks.

According to CNN, the FDA’s proposed action would highlight major risks such as serious side effects and usage restrictions that should be weighed against benefits before administering the shots.

The report says two people familiar with the agency’s internal planning confirmed the intention to add the warning, though the plan has not yet been finalized and could change before it is publicly announced.

Dr. Vinay Prasad, the FDA’s chief medical and scientific officer and head of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, is said to be leading the review of the COVID vaccine warning label.

CNN’s account indicates that officials are still determining whether the black box warning would apply to all COVID vaccines, only mRNA-based shots from manufacturers like Pfizer and Moderna, or specific age groups.

The warning is expected to be unveiled before the end of 2025, though agency officials have not publicly confirmed plans.

Black box warnings are typically reserved for medicines with evidence of serious or potentially life-threatening adverse reactions that must be clearly communicated to providers and patients.

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Exposing the vaccine industry: How corruption, fraud and coercion endanger public health

In a damning exposé, lawyer Aaron Siri’s book “Vaccines, Amen: The Religion of Vaccines” reveals how the American public has been systematically deceived by institutions they were taught to trust—namely, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and pharmaceutical giants. Through meticulous legal battles, Siri uncovers a web of corruption, scientific misconduct and outright fraud that has allowed unsafe vaccines to flood the market while silencing dissenters.

The dogma of vaccines: Faith over science

Vaccines have been elevated to near-religious status, with proponents demanding blind faith rather than critical scrutiny. As Siri explains, people say they “believe in vaccines” without examining the data—because the data, when scrutinized, often doesn’t support the industry’s claims. Instead, vaccine advocates rely on flawed studies, industry-funded research and outright deception to push their agenda.

One of the most shocking revelations is the lack of placebo-controlled trials for childhood vaccines. Despite claims from figures like Dr. Paul Offit—who insists all vaccines undergo rigorous placebo testing—Siri proves that not a single vaccine on the CDC’s childhood schedule was approved based on such trials. Instead, new vaccines are compared to older ones, masking their true risks. This is akin to declaring cigarettes safe because they’re no worse than cigars.

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The Trump Administration’s Top Nuclear Scientists Think AI Can Replace Humans in Power Plants

During a presentation at the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) International Symposium on Artificial Intelligence on December 3, a US Department of Energy scientist laid out a grand vision of the future where nuclear energy powers artificial intelligence and artificial intelligence shapes nuclear energy in “a virtuous cycle of peaceful nuclear deployment.”

“The goal is simple: to double the productivity and impact of American science and engineering within a decade,” Rian Bahran, DOE Deputy Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Reactors, said.

His presentation and others during the symposium, held in Vienna, Austria, described a world where nuclear powered AI designs, builds, and even runs the nuclear power plants they’ll need to sustain them. But experts find these claims, made by one of the top nuclear scientists working for the Trump administration, to be concerning and potentially dangerous. 

Tech companies are using artificial intelligence to speed up the construction of new nuclear power plants in the United States. But few know the lengths to which the Trump administration is paving the way and the part it’s playing in deregulating a highly regulated industry to ensure that AI data centers have the energy they need to shape the future of America and the world.

At the IAEA, scientists, nuclear energy experts, and lobbyists discussed what that future might look like. To say the nuclear people are bullish on AI is an understatement. “I call this not just a partnership but a structural alliance. Atoms for algorithms. Artificial intelligence is not just powered by nuclear energy. It’s also improving it because this is a two way street,” IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said in his opening remarks.

In his talk, Bahran explained that the DOE has partnered with private industry to invest $1 trillion to “build what will be an integrated platform that connects the world’s best supercomputers, AI systems, quantum systems, advanced scientific instruments, the singular scientific data sets at the National Laboratories—including the expertise of 40,000 scientists and engineers—in one platform.”

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