State Admits It Doesn’t Track Noncitizens On Voter Rolls As Federal Law Requires

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For years, Americans have been told that concerns about noncitizens voting are a myth, a right-wing talking point unworthy of serious attention. California’s own secretary of state and attorney general have proven otherwise, however, not by admitting the state has no idea whether, or how often, it’s even happening, but by indicating the state isn’t bothering to track it.

A few weeks ago, the ACLJ submitted two California Public Records Act (CPRA) requests — one to the California secretary of state and one to Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office — seeking records on how the state maintains the integrity of its voter rolls. The Attorney General’s Office took an extension, ultimately responding on Aug. 10.

The Secretary of State’s Office responded first, but refused to provide any records responsive to our request. According to its answer, the statewide voter registration system simply “does not contain” a specific cancellation reason for non-citizenship. In other words, the state cannot tell us how many noncitizens have ever been removed from its voter rolls — because it doesn’t keep that information at all.

Below is a summary of our records requests to the secretary of state, and how California responded to each: First, we asked for the number of voter registrations that were canceled because the registrant didn’t meet citizenship requirements. California said its system “does not contain a voter status reason for cancellation due to non-citizenship.”

Second, we asked for records on the programs the state uses to keep its voter rolls accurate and current. California pointed to training manuals showing that new registrants are checked against death records, felony records from the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, and DMV change-of-address records — but not citizenship (aside from a self-attested checkbox). (Read more from “State Admits It Doesn’t Track Noncitizens On Voter Rolls As Federal Law Requires” HERE)

Shocking Poll Reveals How Gen-Z Women Really Feel about Men — and it’s not Pretty

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Women are from Venus — and men can stay on Mars.

Female Gen-Zers have far more negative views of men than young men do of women, according to a bombshell recent survey.

More than a fifth, or 21%, of women under age 30 have a negative view of the opposite sex, reveals a poll by the UK’s New Statesman.

That’s almost four times the 7% of men under 30 who feel the same way, the study found.

Just half of women of the same age meanwhile had a positive view of men, compared to 72% of men who had a positive view of women, the study shows.

For women under 25, 27% have a negative view, and only 35% hold a positive one. (Read more from “Shocking Poll Reveals How Gen-Z Women Really Feel about Men — and it’s not Pretty” HERE)

RFK Jr.’s Son, Conor Kennedy, put on Russian Wanted List for Fighting Alongside Kyiv in Ukraine War: ‘I was deeply moved’

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Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s son, Conor Kennedy, has been named on Russia’s international wanted list for fighting alongside the enemy in the Ukraine war, according to reports.

The Basmanny District Court of Moscow authorized the younger Kennedy’s “arrest in absentia,” accusing him of acting as a mercenary for the Ukrainian armed forces, Russian state outlet TASS reported last week.

He faces seven to 10 years in prison if captured, according to the outlet.

Kennedy, 32, revealed in an Instagram post in October 2022 that he’d secretly traveled to Kyiv to fight with an international legion on the front lines against Russian strongman Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine— confiding in just one person.

“Like many people, I was deeply moved by what I saw happening in Ukraine over the past year. I wanted to help. When I heard about Ukraine’s International Legion, I knew I was going, and I went to the embassy to enlist the next day,” he wrote in an Instagram post. (Read more from “RFK Jr.’s Son, Conor Kennedy, put on Russian Wanted List for Fighting Alongside Kyiv in Ukraine War: ‘I was deeply moved’” HERE)

Trump Announces Three-Day Delay to 50% Tariffs on Canadian Imports, says US and Northern Neighbor ‘Have a DEAL!’

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President Trump announced Tuesday evening that he was delaying the planned implementation of 50% tariffs on most imports from Canada for three days — teasing that Washington and Ottawa may have agreed to resurrect the dormant Keystone XL pipeline project.

“I have paused the 50% Tariffs against Canada, that were scheduled to kick in tomorrow morning for a three day period,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, “based on the fact that Canada and the U.S.A., subject to the finalization of documents, have a DEAL!”

“The great Keystone XL Pipeline, long ago killed by Sleepy Joe Biden, may be awoken from the grave!” added the president, who subseuqently posted an AI-generated image of him yanking a pipeline labeled “Keystone” out of the ground next to a cracked tombstone reading: “Buried by Biden.”

The announcement came fewer than two hours before the new duties were to take effect and followed all-day conversations between Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.

The Keystone XL pipeline, initially announced in 2008, would have moved up to 830,000 barrels (35 million gallons) of crude oil approximately 1,200 miles from Alberta, Canada to Nebraska, where it would connect with other pipelines that feed oil refineries on the Gulf Coast. (Read more from “Trump Announces Three-Day Delay to 50% Tariffs on Canadian Imports, says US and Northern Neighbor ‘Have a DEAL!’” HERE)

Trump Doubles Down on Declaring Strait of Hormuz U.S. Territory as Iran Threatens to Break U.S. Blockade

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President Donald Trump doubled down Monday on declaring the Strait of Hormuz U.S. territory, asserting that Washington has “total control” of the strategic waterway as Tehran threatened a military attack to break the U.S. naval blockade and declared a shift toward a more offensive posture.

“I just think it’s a great idea,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office when asked to elaborate on his suggestion last week that the strait could be declared U.S. territory.

Trump repeatedly pointed to the blockade as the basis for American control.

“We control it. We control it with the blockade,” he said. “And I like the idea of declaring it a territory. We could do that. We have total control over the strait.”

Trump said Iran could still prove a “nuisance” by placing mines in the water, but described the blockade as “very effective” and touted the amount of oil now moving through the waterway.

(Read more from “Trump Doubles Down on Declaring Strait of Hormuz U.S. Territory as Iran Threatens to Break U.S. Blockade” HERE)

Suspected Chinese Honeypot Fang Fang Solicited Illegal Campaign Donations for Eric Swalwell, FBI Found

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A three-year FBI probe into then-Rep. Eric Swalwell determined suspected Chinese spy Fang Fang helped solicit illegal campaign donations — but the investigation was dropped for “national security reasons,” according to bureau files declassified by the White House Monday.

An undercover operation targeted the California Democrat between May 2014 and May 2017 following a tip that “internships in Congressman Eric Swalwell’s offices were promised in exchange for campaign contributions,” according to a June 10, 2014, FBI memo.

“As part of the scheme to purchase internships, campaign contributions were conduited through third parties to mask the true identity of the donor and in some cases made by foreign nationals in violation of federal criminal law,” noted the memo.

FBI agents conducted interviews with Swalwell, unidentified campaign donors and others in the congressman’s orbit — but were unable to substantiate the quid pro quo allegations.

However, the investigation did uncover evidence that Fang — who also went by Christine Fang — broke the law by soliciting illegal straw donations from foreign nationals, destroyed records, made false statements, smuggled cash and acted as an unregistered foreign agent, presumably for China, according to a May 2, 2017, bureau memo. (Read more from “Suspected Chinese Honeypot Fang Fang Solicited Illegal Campaign Donations for Eric Swalwell, FBI Found” HERE)

House Ethics Committee Opens Investigation Into Democrat Rep For Sexual Misconduct

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The House Ethics Committee opened an investigation into Democratic California Rep. Jimmy Gomez Monday over sexual misconduct allegations.

Gomez was accused in June of kissing a much younger aide who worked for a different member of Congress, the New York Post first reported in April. The committee formally announced Monday that it opened a sexual misconduct investigation into Gomez.

“The Committee, pursuant to Committee Rule 18(a), is reviewing allegations that Representative Jimmy Gomez may have engaged in sexual misconduct in violation of the Code of Official Conduct or any other applicable standard of conduct, including engaging in inappropriate sexual contact with a House staffer in violation of clause 18(b) of the Code,” the committee said.

The committee quietly began investigating Gomez in June over the allegations, CNN reported. Gomez said he made mistakes that caused his family pain, but argued his actions did not violate the law or House rules.

Gomez’s office did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment. (Read more from “House Ethics Committee Opens Investigation Into Democrat Rep For Sexual Misconduct” HERE)

Nearly One-Third Of Gen Z Steers Clear Of Car Insurance, Survey Finds

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A significant share of American drivers have opted to avoid insuring the vehicles they drive amid the rising cost of living and shifting consumer habits, a recent survey finds.

Around 30% of Generation Z — people born between 1997 and 2012 — admitted to owning or driving an uninsured vehicle within the past six months, according to a survey TransUnion published Tuesday. While the reasoning by respondents vary, key factors involve shifting behaviors by consumers as well as the unpredictability of economic outlooks — including effects of the Iran War — making the true costs of car ownership undesirable.

As perhaps the most commonly experienced cost, the average price of a regular gallon of gasoline in the United States was roughly $4.07 at the time of publication, and $0.92 higher than one year ago, according to AAA.

The research was based “almost exclusively” off of TransUnion’s internal data. The global consumer credit reporting agency did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

“We know affordability is a big challenge for Gen Z, and that certainly helps explain their lapses in coverage,” TransUnion senior director of strategic planning Patrick Foy stated in the report’s accompanying press release. “However, we don’t think that’s the whole story as more indicated that they simply chose not to renew their coverage than were unable to pay.” (Read more from “Nearly One-Third Of Gen Z Steers Clear Of Car Insurance, Survey Finds” HERE)

Harvard Professor Slammed For Allegedly Relying On AI In Anti-Trump Op-Ed

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A star economist at Harvard is taking heavy criticism over accusations that artificial intelligence did most of the work on his anti-Trump column.

Ricardo Hausmann wrote the opinion piece attacking President Donald Trump’s tariffs for the Financial Times, which ran it Thursday. He is the Rafik Hariri Professor of the Practice of International Political Economy at Harvard Kennedy School and director of Harvard’s Growth Lab. The outlet later attached an editorial note to the article conceding that AI had played a role.

“It has come to our attention that AI was used to condense a longer draft of this column prior to submission to the FT and our own editorial involvement,” the note reads, according to the Financial Times. The paper added that its code of conduct bars AI from the writing process.

Readers flagged the column on social media over its wooden prose before the disclaimer appeared. One X user called it the worst AI slop yet seen in a major outlet. Another posted a screenshot from the detection tool Pangram indicating the 841-word piece was 71% AI-generated.

Pangram and its chief executive, Max Spero, have become a frequent authority in disputes over AI authorship, though the tool’s reliability remains contested, according to Slate. The Guardian dismissed one Pangram accusation against a longtime staffer as preposterous. A separate case saw the detector score a novel at 78% AI, a finding that helped sink the author’s book deal even as she denied using the technology, according to Fortune. (Read more from “Harvard Professor Slammed For Allegedly Relying On AI In Anti-Trump Op-Ed” HERE)

Iran Denies Report of ‘Backchannel’ Negotiations with U.S.

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Iran’s Foreign Ministry on Monday dismissed “fabricated” reports in American media of secret “backchannel” negotiations between the U.S. government and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

The report on backchannel communications, published by Axios on Sunday, said that former Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard set up the line of communications in May, using the president of Iraqi Kurdistan, Nechirvan Barzani, as a go-between.

According to the report, Barzani used his ties with the IRGC to get in touch with its leader, Gen. Ahmad Vahidi. Vahidi said he supported the work of Iran’s negotiators, including Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf.

Barzani relayed the message back to Gabbard, providing important information at a time when many observers thought the IRGC was working to sabotage negotiations. It was also unclear at the time whether Aragchi, or any other representative of Iran’s secular government, had any real power to make an agreement with the United States.

The report said the Trump administration wanted to open this channel of communication wider, developing Barzani into an intermediary, and possibly even arranging direct talks between American and Iranian representatives in Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan. The Iranians allegedly balked at this proposal, in part because they feared Israel might try to assassinate any representatives they sent to Erbil. (Read more from “Iran Denies Report of ‘Backchannel’ Negotiations with U.S.” HERE)