WATCH: ‘Majestic’ Owl Comes Down Family’s Chimney to Perch on Christmas Tree

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A wide-eyed creature recently decided to give a family in Arlington, Virginia, a surprise Christmas visit.

The family was in shock when they realized a Barred Owl had come down their chimney like Santa Claus and made itself at home, WUSA 9 reported on Friday.

The Burgoyne family recorded the owl flying around inside their home before it decided to perch on top of their Christmas tree.

Sgt. Murray with the Animal Welfare League of Arlington arrived at the scene to help capture the bird and eventually released it back into its own habitat.

“Twas the week before Christmas, and perched on the tree was an unexpected visitor as majestic as can be!” the animal welfare group wrote in a social media post on Thursday that featured pictures of the owl inside the house:

(Read more from “WATCH: ‘Majestic’ Owl Comes Down Family’s Chimney to Perch on Christmas Tree” HERE)

Education Department Cancels Loan Cancellation Scheme

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The U.S. Department of Education announced today that it will be withdrawing both parts of its Plan C for student loan cancellation. One part involves various ways the department would have declared that a borrower has a “hardship” deserving of complete loan cancellation. The other part would have identified additional categories for waivers of loan repayments, such as when the borrower’s loan balance is larger than the original loan (which is, in fact, a normal situation for many borrowers who get their loan payments deferred for various reasons). Both are being withdrawn via a scheduled notice in the Federal Register on Dec. 26.

Withdrawing the hardship rule was what my Heritage Foundation colleague Madison Marino and I advised in our regulatory comment on the proposed rule. We argued that the department should confess its pretextual rulemaking—conveniently finding “authority” to cancel as much debt as quickly as possible—and that this newly discovered authority violated what is called the Major Questions Doctrine, which presumes that Congress doesn’t delegate to agencies issues of major political or economic significance.

We noted several additional problems in the proposed hardship rule, such as a completely unknown cost to the government and, therefore, to the taxpayers. That’s because other student loan schemes of the department, especially the SAVE plan (which changes the parameters of income-based repayment plans), have been enjoined by courts—they can’t be enforced—so it’s very hard to determine how many borrowers would be affected by eligibility for one scheme or the other. (Read more from “Education Department Cancels Loan Cancellation Scheme” HERE)

Photo credit: Flickr

Trump Shuts Down Notion of Musk Usurping Him: ‘He’s Not Taking the Presidency’

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President-elect Donald Trump dismissed claims that he is ceding the presidency to Elon Musk during a wide-ranging speech celebrating his election victory and sharing his plans for his second term.

Trump spoke at Turning Point USA’s AmFest in Phoenix, Arizona, in his first rally-style speech since the election. During an address that lasted over an hour, Trump discussed many topics, including his work with Musk on the Department of Government Efficiency. At one point, the president-elect referred to claims from the left that he had ceded the presidency to Musk in large part due to the billionaire Tesla CEO leading the opposition to a proposed continuing resolution.

“He’s not taking the presidency,” Trump told the crowd on Sunday. “I like having smart people. You know, they’re on a new kick. Russia, Russia, Russia, Ukraine, Ukraine, Ukraine, all the different hoaxes. And the new one is ‘President Trump has ceded the presidency to Elon Musk.’ No, no, that’s not happening, but Elon has done an amazing job. Isn’t it nice to have smart people that we could rely on?”

Trump then praised Musk’s work with Starlink and SpaceX before joking that he does not have to worry about the South African-born billionaire becoming president. (Read more from “Trump Shuts Down Notion of Musk Usurping Him: ‘He’s Not Taking the Presidency’” HERE)

Trump Predicts His Administration Will Be ‘Fully Operational’ Within Two Hours

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President-elect Donald Trump said his second administration will be “fully operational” in roughly two hours.

The prediction was made on Sunday during Trump’s remarks at Turning Point USA’s America Fest in Phoenix, Arizona, while he was talking about border security. . .

Trump is expected to take the oath of office during his inauguration ceremony at the U.S. Capitol at around noon ET on January 20, 2025.

“For those of us standing before you today, I can proudly proclaim that the golden age of America is upon us,” Trump declared, eliciting cheers from the audience.

(Read more from “Trump Predicts His Administration Will Be ‘Fully Operational’ Within Two Hours” HERE)

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr

Dems Refused to Pass Kids Cancer Research Bill Until They Could Use It to Push 1,500 Pages of Pork

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In March the Republican-led House passed H.R. 3391, which would continue funding research of pediatric diseases like childhood cancer. The legislation never went anywhere in the Senate under the leadership of Democrat Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. But now Democrats are trying to use sick kids with cancer as leverage to pass 1,500-plus pages of pork.

On Wednesday Speaker Mike Johnson unveiled a 1,500-page so-called “continuing resolution” that was really nothing more than a stuffed omnibus bill that included money for censorship, sweetheart deals for Congress, and other unnecessary expenditures. Almost immediately the pork-stuffed “continuing resolution” was rebuked by millions of Americans, including President-elect Donald Trump and incoming co-director of the Department of Government Efficient (DOGE) Elon Musk.

Following public pressure, the House released a trimmed-down version (116 pages) on Thursday. That measure funds the government through March 14. The new version keeps the $110 billion in disaster relief and farmer assistance from the original bill and suspends the debt ceiling for two years. The new version also removed the funding for childhood cancer.

And suddenly — after H.R. 3391 has collected dust in the Senate under the leadership of Schumer for months –Democrats are outraged about funding for pediatric cancer research.

The Bulwark’s Sam Stein wrote that after “pediatric cancer research advocates spent years” working to get funding, “Elon began tweeting.” Elon “killed the budget deal,” according to Stein, and with it funding for childhood cancer research. (Read more from “Dems Refused to Pass Kids Cancer Research Bill Until They Could Use It to Push 1,500 Pages of Pork” HERE)

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Panama President Rejects Trump’s Threat of Taking Back Control of Panama Canal: ‘Not Negotiable’

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Panama’s president shot down President-elect Donald Trump’s threat on Sunday that the US would call on the Central American country to cede control of the Panama Canal if it continued to charge “exorbitant” fees to use the critical shipping channel.

Panama President José Raúl Mulino came out swinging against Trump’s suggestion that the US could demand it regain control of the century-old waterway when he assumes office next month.

“I want to express precisely that every square meter of the Panama Canal and its adjacent area belong to Panama, and will continue to,” Mulino said in a statement posted on social media.

“The sovereignty and independence of our country are not negotiable. Every Panamanian, here or anywhere in the world, carries it in their heart, and it is part of our history of struggle and irreversible conquest.”

Trump first made noise about the key route on Saturday before he addressed the topic again during a speech Sunday at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest. (Read more from “Panama President Rejects Trump’s Threat of Taking Back Control of Panama Canal: ‘Not Negotiable’” HERE)

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Democrats Perform Tactical Retreat on Trangenderism

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Pro-transgender officials in President Joe Biden’s administration are dropping a draft regulation that threatened expensive lawsuits against any school that preserved sports for girls.

The move will prevent President-elect Donald Trump’s deputies from rewriting the draft regulations to protect — rather than punish — single-sex K-12 sports.

The pro-transgender regulations from the Department of Education were also intended to force government schools to downplay heterosexuality — and to raise the status of transgenderism — by creating legal rights for K-12 teenagers who claim they are neither male nor female.

“Not upset it’s dead,” said Erin Reed, a writer who claims to be transgender. Biden’s “rule was a terrible rule that could have been weaponized against trans athletes by the Trump admin and there’s a reason 14/16 trans legislators signed a letter against it,” Reed wrote on BlueSky.com.

“The decision helped ensure that the open proposals could not be quickly rewritten and that the Trump administration would have to at least start the process of introducing its own regulations from scratch,” the New York Times wrote. (Read more from “Democrats Perform Tactical Retreat on Trangenderism” HERE)

Report: Biden’s Nap Delayed Meeting With Gold Star Families Following Chaotic Afghanistan Withdrawal

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With President Joe Biden’s presidency coming to an end in approximately one month, reports keep coming out to confirm what we knew all along, that he was a doddering old man who wasn’t properly dealing with his tasks of the presidency. Afghanistan has come up plenty, as Sarah covered when mentioning that report from The Wall Street Journal, in how the president was too “mentally fatigued” to take a call from Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA) about his concerns with the withdrawal, who was then the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. Now, a new report from the Daily Mail details how Biden’s nap delayed his meeting with Gold Star families.

“Senile Biden’s insult to families of Marines murdered in disastrous Afghan withdrawal,” read the damning headline. According to the piece, the president kept the Gold Star families waiting for three hours while they napped on the tarmac. Biden was meeting with family members of those 13 U.S. servicemembers who were killed when a suicide bomber attacked Abbey Gate in Kabul on August 26, 2021. . .

The Daily Mail report also mentions Biden checking his watch and includes comments from Gold Star family members as well:

While Biden was absent from the withdrawal planning, he did show up to greet the caskets of the US Servicemen and woman who were killed, infamously checking his watch on the tarmac before their coffins were brought out.

It was his second insult to their families that day, according to the sister of Rylee McCollum, one of the men who died.

‘(Biden) made us wait an extra three hours to receive the bodies of our dead family members because he couldn’t pull it together,’ Roice McCollum told DailyMail.com.

Roice said she and others were waiting for Biden to appear when a military officer told her he was napping on his plane.

Christy Shamblin, the mother-in-law of Marine Sgt. Nicole Gee, and Darin Hoover, the father of Staff Sgt. Taylor Hoover, who were also killed in the Kabul blast, told DailyMail.com that their families were also left waiting on the tarmac.

‘We sat in that office for what seemed like an eternity waiting on the doddering old fool,’ Hoover recalled.

(Read more from “Report: Biden’s Nap Delayed Meeting With Gold Star Families Following Chaotic Afghanistan Withdrawal” HERE)

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr

Man Arrested After Allegedly Filming Himself Spraying Bug Killer On Food In Walmart

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An Arizona man was arrested Saturday after allegedly filming himself spraying bug killer on food items inside a Walmart, police said.

Charles Smith, 27, was arrested in connection with a “reckless social media post involving the spraying of pesticides on produce and other food items at a Mesa Walmart,” the Mesa Police Department (MPD) said in a press release. The alleged incident occurred on Thursday around 8:30 p.m., police said.

Smith allegedly entered the store with the intention to film prank videos for his social media and grabbed a can of Hot Shot Ultra Bed Bug and Flea Killer from the store’s shelf without paying for it, according to police.

The 27-year-old then allegedly sprayed the pesticide on fruit, vegetables and rotisserie chickens that were available for purchase inside the store. . .

The video has since been deleted from his TikTok account but continues to circulate on social media. His most recent video shows him tying a bungee cord around the door handles of a store, telling customers inside “You guys are locked in there, forever.” (Read more from “Man Arrested After Allegedly Filming Himself Spraying Bug Killer On Food In Walmart” HERE)

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Navy Admits DOD Will Shell Out Funds For Obscure Environmental Initiative With No Impact On Military Readiness

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A little-known environmental provision in the fiscal year 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) has no impact on military operations, but will instead serve to “protect the native vegetation,” a Navy spokesperson told the Daily Caller News Foundation in a statement Tuesday.

The nearly $884 billion defense bill passed by the U.S. Senate Wednesday includes an initiative to “manage, control and interdict the coconut rhinoceros beetle” — an invasive species of insect that bore holes into the canopies of palm trees — “on military installations in Hawaii.” By the Navy’s own admission, the initiative’s purpose is to preserve vegetation, and thus is effectively unrelated to the Department of Defense’s (DOD) stated mission “to provide the military forces needed to deter war and ensure our nation’s security.”

“While coconut rhinoceros beetles (CRB) don’t pose an operational threat to Navy installations in Hawaii, the invasive insects cause significant harm to the environment,” a spokesperson from Commander, Navy Region Hawaii told the DCNF. “CRB damage and kill palm trees, including the native loulou-hiwa palm (Pritchardia martii), and have potential to significantly reduce coconut production and palm stands … It was important for the Navy to fund projects related to CRB control to protect the native vegetation on Oahu.”

The spokesperson justified the effort on the grounds the Navy is meant to serve as a “steward” of the environment, adding that “biosecurity has become an increasing priority and preventing new introductions of invasive species is critical.” Biosecurity became a DOD priority under former President Barack Obama in 2015, when the agency completed the Regional Biosecurity Plan (RBP) to limit the potential for invasive species to be spread in the Pacific as part of “the environmental impact analysis for a plan to potentially relocate military personnel from a base in Okinawa, Japan.” (Read more from “Navy Admits DOD Will Shell Out Funds For Obscure Environmental Initiative With No Impact On Military Readiness” HERE)