Tag: secrecy

California AG Bonta ‘running out the clock’ to stop parental rights initiative, appeals court hears

California law required Attorney General Rob Bonta to write a neutral title and summary for a 2024 ballot measure to mandate parental notification when children request to be identified as the opposite sex in school records, limit girls’ sports to females and prohibit puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and genital surgery for gender-confused youth.

Having just sued a school district for the same parental notification policy, the Democratic attorney’s title for the Protect Kids of California Act seemed predictable: “Restricts Rights of Transgender Youth.” 

His summary used the same framing, referring to males who identify as girls as “transgender female students,” claiming the parental notification mandate lacks an “exception for student safety” and referring to medicalized gender transitions as “gender-affirming health care.” 

Sixteen months after a trial judge upheld Bonta’s phrasing as “accurately and impartially” conveying the substance of the measure, which under Bonta’s language fell short of the required signatures for the ballot within the 180-day collection window, Protect Kids California’s crusade to give voters a direct say in the matter may founder on a technicality.

Polling suggests voters would approve the measure, with majority support for each of the three prongs, but an appeals panel repeatedly grilled the group’s lawyer at a hearing Monday on why the case wasn’t moot in light of Protect Kids California’s litigation choices.

The three judges essentially made Bonta’s argument for him as Liberty Justice Center counsel Emily Rae tried to redirect them toward Bonta’s “malfeasance,” for what its lawsuit called his “inaccurate, false, and biased” language. The panel, by contrast, asked deputy AG Malcolm Brudigam just a single question during the state’s argument.

Keep reading

Judge Says Don’t Unseal Epstein Grand Jury’s Transcripts

Transcripts of grand jury testimony that led to sex trafficking charges against Jeffrey Epstein’s longtime confidante Ghislaine Maxwell shouldn’t be released, a judge ruled Monday in a stinging decision suggesting the Trump administration’s real motive for wanting them unsealed was to fool the public with an “illusion” of transparency.

U.S. District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer said in a written decision that federal law seldom allows the release of grand jury materials and that making the documents public casually was a bad idea.

The judge also belittled the Department of Justice’s argument that releasing grand jury materials might reveal new information about Epstein’s and Maxwell’s crimes, calling that premise “demonstrably false.”

The decision was a blow to President Donald Trump, who had called for the release of transcripts as he seeks to dispel rumors and quell criticism about his long ago involvement with Epstein, who killed himself in jail in 2019.

Trump campaigned on a promise to release files related to Epstein, but was met with criticism — including from many of his own supporters — when the small number of records released by his Justice Department lacked any real bombshells.

In his ruling, Engelmayer wrote that after privately reviewing the grand jury transcripts, anyone familiar with the evidence from Maxwell’s 2021 sex trafficking trial would “learn next to nothing new” and “would come away feeling disappointed and misled.”

“The materials do not identify any person other than Epstein and Maxwell as having had sexual contact with a minor. They do not discuss or identify any client of Epstein’s or Maxwell’s. They do not reveal any heretofore unknown means or methods of Epstein’s or Maxwell’s crimes,” Engelmayer said.

He said the materials also don’t reveal new locations where crimes occurred, new sources of Maxwell and Epstein’s wealth, the circumstances of Epstein’s death or the path of the government investigation.

The best argument to release the transcripts might be that “doing so would expose as disingenuous the Government’s public explanations for moving to unseal,” Engelmayer wrote.

Keep reading

School district must face ‘deliberate indifference’ claim by gender-confused girl alleging assault

AVirginia school district that allegedly socially transitioned a “gender-nonconfirming” 14-year-old girl into a boy’s identity, hid it from her legal parents, told her to use the boys’ restroom even after boys started threatening her, and “pressured her to recant” those threat claims, will have to defend itself again in trial court.

A split panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated the lawsuit by Michele Blair, who with her husband adopted their granddaughter Sage at age 2 from foster care, where she had been placed after her father’s death and mother’s inability to raise her.

But it dismissed all but her Title IX “deliberate indifference” claim against the Appomattox County School Board, Superintendent Annette Bennett and its staff and contract counselors, and a dissent accused the majority of “push[ing] past the boundaries” set by the Supreme Court in student-on-student sexual harassment cases.

While the school board was “not entirely unresponsive” to Sage’s threat claims, giving her access to the nurse’s restroom, that falls short of “reasonably calculated” efforts to end her harassment, simply addressing it “in piecemeal,” wrote President Clinton-nominated Judge Roger Gregory, joined by President Biden nominee Judge DeAndrea Benjamin.

The court record shows “no indication” the board took action against the boys on the bus who allegedly “threatened her with sexual violence,” another group of males who “jacked” Sage against the wall and threatened her with violence, or students who “threatened to shoot” her “and told her they knew where she lived,” the majority says.

“In fact, the direct opposite happened” when school counselor Dena Olsen and deputy sheriff Daniel Gunter allegedly interrogated her and tried to get her to take back her claims that the boys were threatening her, Gregory wrote. Olsen had first told Sage to use the boys’ restroom and to go back when other girls reportedly complained about her in the girls’ restroom.

Even after being told to use the nurse’s restroom, Sage “continued to be so fearful for her and her family’s life that she ‘suffered a psychotic breakdown’ and opted to run away from home to save her family,” the majority said. 

Keep reading

The move to conceal the flight data of a congressman’s SECRET $1.5 million helicopter

A congressman who represents one of the poorest districts in Pennsylvania appears to have gone great lengths to hide that he owns a $1.5 million helicopter. 

NOTUS reported on Friday that Republican Rep. Rob Bresnahan owns a 2024 Robinson R66, a chopper that retails between $1 million and $1.5 million. 

Bresnahan has yet to list the helicopter on his congressional financial disclosure forms. 

He’s never spoken about it publicly and it’s unlisted on the popular flight tracking website FlightAware.

‘This aircraft (N422RB) is not available for public tracking per request from the owner/operator,’ a message reads, NOTUS found. 

The news site was able to get a spokesperson to admit Bresnahan was the owner by analyzing Federal Aviation Administration record, other congressional financial disclosures and commercial flight data made available by the ADS-B Exchange website.

The website found that he purchased the helicopter in late 2024 using a limited liability company called ‘RPB Ventures LLC.’ 

A spokesperson for Bresnahan told NOTUS that the Pennsylvania Republican bought the helicopter while he was campaigning for Congress last year. 

Keep reading

Report: Fairfax County Public Schools Investigates Claims Staff Arranged Students’ Abortions Without Parents’ Knowledge

Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) in Virginia has opened an investigation into allegations school staff arranged abortions for students without parental notification and consent.

The investigation is based on claims from a report that school officials at Centreville High School in Union Hill arranged and paid for students’ abortions in 2021, including a 17-year-old girl, local news outlet WJLA reported.

“We learned yesterday of these concerning allegations from 2021,” FCPS told the outlet in a statement on Wednesday. “We are launching an immediate and comprehensive investigation as we take all concerns of student wellbeing very seriously.”

FCPS said “not to [our] knowledge” when the outlet pressed as whether staff have ever arranged abortions for students.

“We have launched an immediate investigation into these concerns as soon as we were made aware,” the district added.  

The district has a policy stating that ““every effort shall be made to encourage and support students suspecting pregnancy to discuss their concerns with their parents or guardians.” The policy does not require staff to tell parents, but it states: “In no case shall personnel commit themselves to maintain such information confidentially, keeping it from parents, guardians, or appropriate school authorities.”

The district told the outlet that district employees do not arrange abortions for FCPS students who are minors. When asked if FCPS employees inform students about abortions and where to get them, the district did not directly answer. 

“Students are referred to the public health nurse for any health-related matters. The public health nurses are Fairfax County Health Department employees,” the district told the outlet. 

Virginia state law requires parental consent and notification before a minor can obtain an abortion. 

Keep reading

Top Democrat’s ‘Secret Life’ Revealed By Bombshell Exposé

A top Democratic recruit for U.S. Senate may have had a secret marriage, one that he has never publicly acknowledged existing, up until the time he entered politics, according to a new report from the Daily Mail.

Former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, who jumped into the open race last week, is alleged to have swooned his ex-wife while she was still married to her former husband, she claims in a new interview.

The revelation comes as a shock to longtime observers of the “squeaky clean” Democrat who left office in 2024 with high approval ratings and scuttlebutt about his potential future on the national stage, including reportedly being on the shortlist to join former Vice President Kamala Harris on the party’s ticket.

That image changed after a new story by the Daily Mail alleges that Cooper is no longer “the living, breathing antonym of controversy.”

Before entering politics, Cooper was married to his ex-wife, Georganne Rice, now 65, claims. His desire for elected office ultimately overshadowed their marriage and led to its demise, she told the outlet.

“He was my orientation counselor when I was a freshman and started at [University of North Carolina] Chapel Hill,” she said.

“We dated starting my sophomore year of college, and then we got married two weeks after I graduated from college in 1981.”

“I thought everything was great, until one day he came home and told me that he had signed up to run for state representative,” she continued.

“We had not discussed it or anything. We were in our mid-20s, and I wanted to start a family. I was completely flabbergasted that he would decide to run. He wouldn’t even discuss it with me; he just came home and told me.

“I told Roy, ‘I don’t want this life; we didn’t discuss this.’ It was a pretty major life decision.”

Keep reading

Australian Senate Gags Debate on Bill To Define A Man And Woman

Labor and the Greens have blocked debate on legislation that would have provided a clear definition of a man and a woman in Australia.

Liberal Senator Alex Antic introduced the Sex Discrimination Amendment (Restoring Biological Definitions) Act 2025 at the end of the recent parliamentary session.

The bill (pdf) specifically repeals the definition of gender identity and omits every occurrence of the word “gender identity.”

In addition, the bill provides a clear definition for men and women and substitutes the word “different sex” with “the opposite sex.”

“Man means a member of the male sex irrespective of age. Woman means a member of the female sex irrespective of age,” the bill states.

Antic said the issue would not go away and described the situation as “absolutely unbelievable.”

“The Bill was designed to protect women’s sport and women’s spaces but Labor and the Greens wouldn’t allow it to pass into the second reading,” he said in a post to X.

Antic said the Bill’s aim was to restore the definitions of a man and a woman, which had been “deleted in 2013” by the Labor government.

“Yes, you heard that right, as presently enacted, the Sex Discrimination Act has no working understanding of what constitutes a man or a woman,” he told supporters on Aug. 1.

“My Bill also proposed to remove the concept of ‘gender identity’ from the Act altogether, which the Labor government added as a category of protected classes.”

Keep reading

Another Mental Health Killing Spree…How Long Will Shooter’s Mental Health History be Hidden?

Last Monday the nation had to endure the horror and tragedy of another mass shooting carried out by another “mentally ill” gunman. The questions that come from this shooting incident should begin with how tough can it be for those in power to finally accept that there’s a problem with the behavioral health model that seriously has been broken for decades?

Nevada resident Shane Tamura drove cross country in record time reportedly hell-bent on shooting up the headquarters of the National Football League (NFL). Unfortunately, the mentally ill Tamura didn’t wait to start shooting at the apparent NFL target but, rather, began shooting in the lobby of the mid-town office building, taking out innocent lives for no apparent reason. A shocking unnecessary tragedy and the powers that be, once again, fail to address the elephant in the room…Tamura was being “treated” for mental illness(es) with serious psychiatric mind-altering drugs.

In a three-page hand-written note found on his lifeless body Tamura whined about Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disease associated with head trauma. Yes, Tamura played High School football but never played for any college or for the NFL, his apparent target. And according to one of his former high school coaches Tamura did not sustain any head injuries.

However, Tamura had regularly seen a neurologist who yearly took MRI exams and provided various treatments, including Sumatriptan injections. There is no evidence to date that yearly MRIs revealed any CTE.

But what sport Tamura played in High School really isn’t relevant. What is relevant is that police knew immediately that Tamura had a history of mental illness. As usual, no specific details are ever provided about the alleged “mental illness.” Why? It is allegedly due to this mental illness that innocent lives were taken. Shouldn’t the public have a right to know what specific mental illness Tamura suffered from, what his doctors were providing as “treatment” and how long had Tamura been a mental health patient?

Unfortunately, the public might never get the complete details of the gunman’s mental health issues and drug “treatment,” but it has been revealed through media sources that, despite Tamura’s mental health issues, the gunman was working in security/surveillance at the Horseshoe Casino in Las Vegas.

Because Tamura had been taken in on two Mental Health Crisis holds in Nevada, first in 2022 and then again in 2024, investigators may want to look into how Tamura was able to obtain a conceal carry permit in Nevada and, more importantly, work in security at a Las Vegas casino? Further, Tamura had been arrested in 2022 at a Las Vegas casino for trespassing after reportedly “grabbing a security guard and refusing to leave.” Those charges were suspiciously dropped, but one has to wonder how this incident slipped through the Horseshoe Casino’s background check?

But even these incidents don’t provide the data that is necessary to understand the obvious decent into mental illness that the gunman was experiencing. If investigators want to know why this senseless shooting occurred, the first action would have been to subpoena Tamura’s mental health records.

It was early on reported that a “medication” was found in Tamura’s abandoned automobile in Manhattan, and it later was revealed that an antipsychotic was found in his room where he lived in Las Vegas.

It was only after police reported what was found in his apartment that one can easily surmise that Tamura’s problems weren’t with the NFL but, rather, with the mental health industry. According to news reports police removed from Tamura’s apartment “multiple prescription bottles along with paperwork, other prescription bottles with pills…”

Keep reading

Judge Cannon Rules Trump Would-Be Assassin Ryan Routh Cannot Access Classified Evidence Government Presented in His Case

Judge Aileen Cannon on Friday ruled that Trump would-be assassin Ryan Routh cannot access the classified evidence that the government presented in his case.

The government presented classified evidence to Judge Cannon and she kept it under seal.

“The United States’ Motion and all accompanying material are hereby SEALED, and shall remain preserved in custody of the Classified Information Security Officer, in accordance with established court security procedures, to made available to the appellate court in the event of an appeal,” Judge Cannon wrote.

It is unclear what the classified evidence is related to, however, it was previously reported that Ryan Routh was flagged by federal agents after he returned from a trip to Ukraine but Biden’s DHS never took any further action.

Ryan Routh traveled to Ukraine and fought for 8 months before returning to the US.

His social media accounts were littered with pro-Ukraine propaganda and he even appeared in a video with the AZOV soldiers.

“Subject is a USC who had traveled to Kiev, Ukraine for 3 months to help recruit Soldiers from Afghanistan, Moldova, and Taiwan, to fight in the Ukrainian war against Russia,” the CBP interview notes said according to Just The News.

“Subject stated that he does not get paid for his recruiting efforts and all his work for the Ukrainian government is strictly volunteer work Subject provided his recruiting business card (cards have been uploaded into the event) which list his recruiting partners that he speaks with to recruit soldiers from Afghanistan, Romanian, Pakistan, Syria, and Israel,” the note added, according to Just The News. “Subject stated that he obtains money from his wife to help fund his trips to Ukraine.”

Last year federal prosecutors charged Ryan Routh with attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate after he pushed the muzzle of his rifle through the fence line at Trump’s West Palm Beach golf course.

Ryan Routh was previously charged with two federal gun crimes: Possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possession (max penalty of 15 years in prison and $250,000 fine), and receipt of a firearm with an obliterated serial number (max penalty of 5 years in prison and a $250,000 fine).

Routh set up a sniper’s nest in the shrubbery outside the perimeter of Trump’s golf course in West Palm Beach.

Keep reading

Leopold Report: FBI FOIA Team Erased High-Profile Names from Epstein Records, Including Trump

President Donald Trump’s name was among those redacted from documents tied to the late Jeffrey Epstein, according to a Friday report by Bloomberg, which cited multiple sources familiar with the FBI’s final review process. The revelation has deepened the divide between federal transparency efforts and growing demands from Trump’s own base for full disclosure of the Epstein files.

The report, authored by veteran investigative journalist Jason Leopold, states that a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) review team inside the FBI combed through thousands of pages tied to the Epstein investigation. The team, according to Leopold, was tasked specifically with removing the names of private individuals, including “prominent public figures” such as Trump, before the documents were released to the public.

Keep reading