GOP Caves Again, No Government Shutdown; Major Financial Institutions Guessed Wrong

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By Patrick Reilly, Jon Levine and Rich Calder. Congress passed a last-minute, short-term funding bill and President Joe Biden signed it just before midnight, according to reports.

The Senate approved the stopgap funding measure, known as a continuing resolution, or CR, by a final vote of 88-9, hours after the House passed it 335-91, with votes from both sides of the isle.

Biden finally signed it with just minutes to go before many government operations would have shut down. . .

The deal will increase federal disaster assistance by $16 billion and keep the government open until at least November 17 — however it notably did not include new funding to Ukraine that was proposed under an earlier plan, which became a point of contention among Senate Democrats. . .

Republican holdouts argued that a CR is essentially an extension of the previous Democratically-held Congress’ priorities, and slap to the House GOP majority’s vow to pass 12 individual spending bills laying out conservative priorities in the next fiscal year. (Read more about the last minute deal HERE).

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Last Week’s Prediction: Shutdown Will Happen

By Townhall. At this point, we should expect the government to shut down on October 1. Congress has until September 30 to pass a spending measure to keep the lights on in the Capitol Building, but Speaker Kevin McCarthy said he won’t bring up the House’s plan to present a shutdown until tomorrow. The Senate has a plan to pass a continuing resolution, though it’s unlikely McCarthy will bring that to the floor for a vote.

He also can’t procure Democratic votes unless he wants to risk a leadership scuffle. Also, there’s no incentive for Democrats to help Republicans right now. Goldman Sachs predicts the chances of a shutdown at 90 percent. It might as well be 100 at this point, to be honest (via NY Post):

Wall Street is bracing for the likelihood of lengthy government shutdown — with one prominent analyst placing the odds at 90% that Republicans and Democrats won’t reach a deal before Saturday’s deadline.

Goldman Sachs’ chief economist Jan Hatzius said in a Wednesday note obtained by The Post: “A government shutdown this year has looked likely for several months, and we now think the odds have risen to 90%.”

Hatzius, who heads the bank’s global investment research, predicted the shutdown would likely last two to three weeks

(Read more from “Major Financial Institution Gives Its Prediction on the Looming Government Shutdown” HERE)

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REPORT: RFK Jr. To Quit Dem Party, Run as an Independent

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Democrat presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will exit the Democrat party and run for president as an Independent, Mediaite reported Friday.

Kennedy plans to announce his independent candidacy on October 9 in Pennsylvania, according to a text reviewed by Mediaite. Kennedy’s campaign also plans to launch “attack ads” against the Democrat National Committee (DNC) to “pave the way” for his announcement.

A Kennedy campaign insider told the outlet that Kennedy “feels that the DNC is changing the rules to exclude his candidacy, so an independent run is the only way to go.”

The insider’s comments align with remarks Kennedy made publicly earlier this month. Kennedy claimed the DNC is “trying to make sure that I can’t participate at all in the political process, and so I’m going to keep all my options open,” when a South Carolina voter questioned him about the possibility of a third-party run as an sindependent.

Kennedy confirmed a he will make a “major announcement” in Philadelphia on October 9 in a video statement posted online Friday. (Read more from “REPORT: RFK Jr. To Quit Dem Party, Run as an Independent” HERE)

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More Than 1,000 Kids Reported Missing in This State in ‘Extraordinary Surge’

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Children are disappearing from northern Ohio in record numbers, with more than 1,000 minors reported missing so far this year.

More than 45 children have gone missing in the Cleveland-Akron area this month alone, and in August, there were more than 35 missing minors, according to the Ohio attorney general’s missing children website.

The disappearances are creating a disturbing trend in northern Ohio, which began in May, when nearly 30 children went missing in just the first two weeks.

Officials at the time called it an “extraordinary surge” in disappearances.

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost repeated on Monday that the number of missing children is alarming — though he claimed the figure may be inflated due to inconsistencies in updating reports, which the Cleveland police have admitted to in the past. (Read more from “More Than 1,000 Kids Reported Missing in This State in ‘Extraordinary Surge’” HERE)

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STD’s Exploding Across U.S., ESP. Alaska; Here’s Where the Rates Are the Highest

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By New York Post. The US is in the midst of an “out of control” STD epidemic, with cases of syphilis, gonorrhea and chlamydia on the rise nationwide.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says gonorrhea cases spiked by 28% across the country in 2021, while total syphilis cases soared by a staggering 74%.

However, not all American areas are experiencing the same rates of infection, with a new data breakdown by US News & World Report revealing the 10 states with the highest sexually transmitted disease rates. . .

Seven of the 10 states with the highest rates were located below the Mason-Dixon line, including North Carolina, which clocked in 10th, with a total STD rate of 922.2 per 100,000 residents. . .

Alaska was in the third spot, largely due to sky-high rates of chlamydia cases, with the data showing 760.4 per 100,000 residents received positive results after testing for the infection in 2021. (Read more from “STD’s Exploding Across U.S., ESP. Alaska; Here’s Where the Rates Are the Highest” HERE)

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STD Rates Skyrocketing Among Certain Minorities

By US News. Rates and cases of major sexually transmitted diseases in the U.S. have been increasing largely unabated, with more than 2.5 million cases of chlamydia, syphilis and gonorrhea reported in 2021, the most recent year for which data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is available.

That amounts to a combined rate of 762.7 cases per 100,000 people in the 50 states and the District of Columbia, an increase of 6% over 2020’s rate of 721.6 per 100,000, according to a U.S. News analysis of the data. Between 2020 and 2021, the rate of total syphilis cases in the U.S. – including all stages of the infection, congenital syphilis and syphilitic stillbirth – rose by 32%, CDC figures show. The rate of chlamydia cases increased 4%, while the rate of gonorrhea infections rose 5% over the same period.

Officials have expressed particular concern about a rise in congenital syphilis, which occurs when a mother passes a syphilis infection to her baby while pregnant and can result in the infant’s death. The rate of congenital syphilis cases rose by nearly 30% between 2020 and 2021, while the nearly 3,000 cases of the disease in 2021 marked a more than 750% increase since 2012.

By race and ethnicity, CDC data shows the rate of chlamydia infections in 2021 was highest among Black individuals at 1,081.9 cases per 100,000, while Asians had the lowest rate at 95.7 per 100,000. Black individuals also had the highest rate of reported gonorrhea cases in 2021 at 652.9 infections per 100,000 people, while Asians had the lowest rate at 37.8 per 100,000. American Indian and Alaska Native people had the highest rate of primary and secondary syphilis cases in 2021, at 46.7 per 100,000. The rate of congenital syphilis also was highest in connection with American Indian and Alaska Native mothers in 2021, at 384.5 cases per 100,000 live births. (Read more from “STD Rates Skyrocketing Among Certain Minorities” HERE)

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Court Affirms Laws Protecting Children From Body Mutilations

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A federal appeals court has ruled that Kentucky and Tennessee are allowed to implement laws that protect children from certain transgender treatments, treatments that include surgical body mutilations.

Also impacted are schemes by medical professionals to use chemicals to alter their physical development.

The ruling from the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was described in published reports as a “major setback” for the American Civil Liberties Union, which has advocated for those surgical procedures and has opposed any restrictions on them.

John Bursch, of the ADF, which has advocated for protections for children, explained, “Tennessee and Kentucky are right to protect minors from harmful, irreversible, and experimental medical procedures that can permanently alter children’s bodies without any proven long-term benefit.

“Children suffering discomfort with their sex are best served by compassionate mental health care. Even the far-from-impartial World Professional Association for Transgender Health has admitted that the overwhelming majority of children will naturally resolve their gender dysphoria as they mature. (Read more from “Court Affirms Laws Protecting Children From Body Mutilations” HERE)

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Blue City’s Fentanyl Crisis So Bad, Officials Ask All Citizens to Carry NARCAN

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A Republican Congresswoman is warning America that the fentanyl crisis – exacerbated by President Biden’s lax border policies and liberal crime policies – has gotten so bad that New York City is now calling on its citizens to carry NARCAN with them at all times to help save people whose lives are threatened by drug overdose.

“This morning our city put out an advisory that the people of the City of New York should carry around NARCAN with them – that’s how bad the fentanyl crisis has gotten,” Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., said at a press event with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy Wednesday – “recommending the citizens of New York walk around with NARCAN.”

NARCAN is the best-known brand for naloxone. NARCAN’s website in its “FAQs” (frequently asked questions) section describes NARCAN this way: “NARCAN Nasal Spray was designed to rapidly reverse the effects of a life-threatening opioid emergency. Is is used to revive someone during an overdose from many prescription pain medications or street drugs such as heroin and is available as an over-the-counter treatment.”

It states: “Naloxone, the active ingredient in NARCAN Nasal Spray, competes with opioids to bind the same receptors in the brain, reversing the effects of an opioid overdose in 2 to 3 minutes. This allows time for emergence medical help to arrive,” answering the question, “How does NARCAN Nasal Spray work?”

(Read more from “Blue City’s Fentanyl Crisis So Bad, Officials Ask All Citizens to Carry NARCAN” HERE)

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Wild Videos Show Flooded Airport Terminal, Travelers Attempting to Flee Ankle-Deep Waters

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Travelers trying to flee New York on budget airlines out of LaGuardia Airport were faced with ankle-deep water Friday morning amid widespread flooding.

The airport was forced to close its Terminal A — from where flights on Spirit and Frontier airlines depart — as the floodwaters barreled through the building.

Photos and videos posted online showed the terminal covered in water as frantic passengers tried to flee.

One woman even shared footage from inside one of the terminals, showing her TikTok followers the water creeping up over her boots and seeping through the building’s revolving doors.

@taiilormade thank God I wore boots. #lga #laguardia #nyc #flood ♬ original sound – Taylor 🌴

(Read more from “Wild Videos Show Flooded Airport Terminal, Travelers Attempting to Flee Ankle-Deep Waters” HERE)

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DOJ Announces Criminal Charges Against Man for Allegedly Stealing Trump Tax Info, Leaking It to Media

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The U.S. Department of Justice announced criminal charges on Friday against a contractor with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) who is accused of stealing the tax returns of former President Donald Trump and distributing the material to the media.

Federal law enforcement officials announced the charges against 38-year-old Charles Edward Littlejohn, who was a contractor with the IRS from 2018 to 2020. The company that Littlejohn was working for was not identified and it was not clear “why a contractor had access to sensitive taxpayer information that is supposed to be protected by numerous legal and procedural safeguards,” The New York Times added.

“While Defendant was working on an IRS contract, he stole tax returns and return information associated with Public Official A and thousands of the nation’s wealthiest people, including returns and return information dating back more than 15 years,” court documents say. “He thereafter disclosed the tax information associated with Public Official A to News Organization 1 and the other tax information to News Organization 2. Both news organizations published numerous articles describing the tax information they obtained from the Defendant.”

While the identity of Public Official A is not mentioned in the court documents, numerous publications reported that Trump is the figure in question. (Read more from “DOJ Announces Criminal Charges Against Man for Allegedly Stealing Trump Tax Info, Leaking It to Media” HERE)

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Arizona GOP’s Kari Lake to Announce Senate Bid

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Arizona Republican Kari Lake, who was last year’s Republican gubernatorial nominee in the Grand Canyon State, will announce her candidacy for U.S. Senate during an October 10 rally in Phoenix.

The Wall Street Journal’s Elia Collins first reported on Lake’s plans on Thursday, having spoken with Lake about her forthcoming announcement.

“We need to get a senator in there who is going to fight back and put America first,” Lake told the outlet.

Lake, a former Fox 10 Phoenix anchor who left the news industry over liberal bias, joins Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb in the Republican primary field. Arizona’s 2022 GOP Senate nominee Blake Masters was reportedly weighing a run, but Collins noted former President Donald Trump spoke with Masters via phone call “and walked through Lake’s strengths in a GOP primary, according to people familiar with the call.” (Read more from “Arizona GOP’s Kari Lake to Announce Senate Bid” HERE)

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Longest Serving Female Senator Dead at 90

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U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California has died at age 90, her office confirmed Friday.

Feinstein, a Democrat, was the oldest member of the Senate, where she had served since 1992. She held her seat in the chamber longer than any other woman and any other senator from California.

She passed away Thursday night at her home in Washington, D.C. . .

But in Feinstein’s final years, she had increasingly visible health and memory issues, and as a result of those a conflict with fellow Democrats over her refusal to step down. (Read more from “Longest Serving Female Senator Dead at 90” HERE)

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