Police: Councilwoman Incites Mob, Assaults Officers to Stop Arrest of Violent Illegal Alien

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Police are calling for an official investigation and charges against a city councilwoman for allegedly assaulting officers and inciting a violent mob trying to stop the arrest of an illegal alien criminal suspect in Worcester, Massachusetts.

It is another in a slew of incidents where government officials have stepped in to try to block immigration enforcement as the Trump administration cracks down on aliens with criminal records in the U.S.

A local police union argued over the weekend that Etel Haxhiaj, who represents Worcester’s District 5, helped incite the mob into assaulting ICE officers and cops during the Department of Homeland Security operation that escalated out of control Friday. The Worcester Police Patrolman’s Union made the allegations in a statement released Saturday.

The protest by more than two dozen bystanders chanting “no warrant!” and “not the mother!” resulted after authorities came to arrest Ferreira de Oliveira. She is an illegal alien whom local police recently arrested for assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and assault and battery on a pregnant victim, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

It was unclear how many of the bystanders were just a spontaneous outpouring of “neighbors,” as some news outlets reported, or if the gathering was engineered by anti-deportation activists who got a heads up on the apprehension operation. (Read more from “Police: Councilwoman Incites Mob, Assaults Officers to Stop Arrest of Violent Illegal Alien” HERE)

Soviet-Era Spacecraft Plunges to Earth After 53 Years Stuck in Orbit

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A Soviet-era spacecraft plunged to Earth on Saturday, more than a half-century after its failed launch to Venus.

Its uncontrolled entry was confirmed by both the Russian Space Agency and European Union Space Surveillance and Tracking. The Russians indicated it came down over the Indian Ocean, but some experts were not so sure of the precise location. The European Space Agency’s space debris office also tracked the spacecraft’s doom after it failed to appear over a German radar station.

It was not immediately known how much, if any, of the half-ton spacecraft survived the fiery descent from orbit. Experts said ahead of time that some if not all of it might come crashing down, given it was built to withstand a landing on Venus, the solar system’s hottest planet.

The chances of anyone getting clobbered by spacecraft debris were exceedingly low, scientists said.

Launched in 1972 by the Soviet Union, the spacecraft known as Kosmos 482 was part of a series of missions bound for Venus. But this one never made it out of orbit around Earth, stranded there by a rocket malfunction. (Read more from “Soviet-Era Spacecraft Plunges to Earth After 53 Years Stuck in Orbit” HERE)

Archaeologists Stunned by Royal Discovery Behind ‘Massive’ Granite False Door

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Archaeologists confronted by a false door at an excavation site were stunned to find that it led to the tomb of Egyptian royalty.

The Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities announced the discovery in a recent Facebook post in April.

The tomb was found at the Saqqara archaeological site in the Giza Governorate of Egypt.

The tomb belonged to a prince named “Userefre” or “Waser Ef Ra,” the son of King Userkaf.

Userkaf was the founder of the Fifth Dynasty, which lasted from the early 25th century B.C. until the mid-24th century B.C.

The tomb was concealed by a “massive false door,” according to Egyptian officials, and was made of pink granite. (Read more from “Archaeologists Stunned by Royal Discovery Behind ‘Massive’ Granite False Door” HERE)

Complaint Argues Racial Discrimination Inside Law Firms Trump Sanctioned

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Americans for Equal Opportunity has filed a charge of race discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) on behalf of three white members, alleging some of the nation’s largest law firms and the nonprofit that selected and placed summer interns with those legal giants unlawfully discriminated against white Americans in the name of diversity. The EEOC charge filed this morning accuses the Sponsors for Educational Opportunity (SEO) and its 44 partners — some of the country’s most well-heeled law firms — with operating a summer law fellowship program in violation of Title VII.

Title VII is the federal statute which prohibits employers, as well as employment agencies, from discriminating in employment on the basis of race, sex, color, national origin, or religion. And the EEOC charge filed by Americans for Equal Opportunity, a recently formed membership organization dedicated to “promot[ing] and protect[ing] the right of the public to be free from discrimination on the basis of race,” details how SEO allegedly violated Title VII through its discriminatory law fellowship program.

To support its EEOC charge, Americans for Equal Opportunity, or AEO, points to SEO’s own words. “SEO is the nation’s premier summer internship and training program targeting talented African American, Hispanic and Native college students,” the nonprofit’s Form 990 from 2019 boasted, adding: “Each year, SEO Career recruits, interviews, selects and trains several hundred interns and fellows for partners in banking, law, alternative investment and corporate leadership … To date SEO has recruited over 8,900 interns for its U.S. Partners.” A few years earlier, “SEO held itself out to prospective Sponsor Firms as ‘the nation’s only summer internship program for pre-law students of color.’”

Those sponsor firms included a veritable “who’s who,” of the nation’s top law firms, with the EEOC charge identifying the 44 entities who partnered in the SEO Fellowship program. Under the fellowship program, the law firms allegedly paid “SEO to recruit and place SEO Fellows in summer internship programs” for law-school bound college graduates, branded “0L,” in contrast to law students called 1L, 2L, or 3L, based on their year in law school. As the charge notes, large law firms rarely offer “0L” programs outside the SEO Fellowship, and, in fact, only a few top law students even obtain internships as 1Ls. (Read more from “Complaint Argues Racial Discrimination Inside Law Firms Trump Sanctioned” HERE)

Photo credit: Flickr

Dow Jumps Nearly 1,000 and S&P 500 Climbs 2.6% Following a 90-Day Truce in the US-China Trade War

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U.S. stocks are leaping Monday after China and the United States announced a 90-day truce in their trade war. They agreed to take down most of their tariffs that economists warned could start a recession and create shortages on U.S. store shelves.

The S&P 500 was 2.6% higher in early trading and back within 5.5% of its all-time high set in February. Since falling nearly 20% below that mark last month, the index has been roaring higher on hopes that President Donald Trump will lower his tariffs after reaching trade deals with other countries. The index, which sits at the heart of many 401(k) accounts, is back above where it was on April 2, Trump’s “Liberation Day,” when he announced stiff worldwide tariffs that caused worries to spike about a potentially self-inflicted recession. . .

It wasn’t just stocks surging following what one analyst called a “best case scenario” for US-China tariff talks. Crude oil prices jumped more than 3% because a global economy less weakened by tariffs would be hungrier for fuel. The value of the dollar climbed against everything from the euro to the Japanese yen to the Swiss franc. And Treasury yields jumped on expectations that the Federal Reserve won’t have to cut interest rates so deeply this year in order to protect the economy from the damage of tariffs. (Read more from “Dow Jumps Nearly 1,000 and S&P 500 Climbs 2.6% Following a 90-Day Truce in the US-China Trade War” HERE)

Chicago Public Schools Pays $2.6M For Allegedly Forcing Students To Participate In Hindu Ritual

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When a school program tells students not to tell their religious parents about an activity, there is a problem. That is what reportedly happened in Chicago Public Schools when it allegedly forced students to practice Hindu-based Transcendental Meditation (TM) twice a day.

This week the Chicago Board of Education and the David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace settled a class action lawsuit, agreeing to pay out $2.6 million to former Chicago Public Schools high school students who say they were forced to participate in TM for 15-20 minutes in the morning and again in the afternoon.

Court papers show the board of education first signed a $170,000 contract with the foundation to implement its “Quiet Time” program from March through June 2018.

“The key component of Quiet Time is an evidence-based stress reduction and cognitive development technique known as Transcendental Meditation. … If youth choose not to meditate, they are free to select another quiet activity such as sustained silent reading, resting, or quiet sitting,” the contract reads.

But former student Kaya Hudgins, now 22, testified in a deposition that she was told Quiet Time participation was mandatory. And, although the contract calls for permission slips to be signed by parents, Hudgins said students were told not to tell their parents. Hudgins, who grew up in a Muslim home, was 16 when the Chicago school allegedly started to indoctrinate her into TM. Hudgins said she asked if she could do some of her five daily prayers instead during Quiet Time and was denied, and she was sent to the dean’s office for complaining about the program. (Read more from “Chicago Public Schools Pays $2.6M For Allegedly Forcing Students To Participate In Hindu Ritual” HERE)

Embattled NY AG Letitia James Claims She’s Being Followed on Trump’s Orders: ‘Revenge Tour!’

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Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you.

New York Attorney General Letitia James ranted to a crowd that she’s being followed on the orders of President Trump – days before reports surfaced that Trump’s Department of Justice had actually launched a criminal probe into mortgage fraud claims against her.

“They got individuals coming to my house, standing outside my house. Last Sunday – church Sunday while I was in church – these individuals were in front of my house, taking pictures and then streaming it, putting it on social media,” she said during a May 3 rally at Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network headquarters in Harlem.

“This isn’t nothing more than a revenge tour! This is nothing more than vindictiveness! This is nothing more than an individual who is upset at me because we secured a $454 million judgment against him and his family and his company!” added James, who attended the rally to promote City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams’ longshot mayoral campaign.

James — who has been the subject of Trump’s ire after she marshaled a civil fraud trial against him and his Trump Organization that ended with the massive judgment that he is appealing — didn’t say whether she believes she’s being tailed at her Brooklyn home or the shadowy property she owns in Norfolk, Va. (Read more from “Embattled NY AG Letitia James Claims She’s Being Followed on Trump’s Orders: ‘Revenge Tour!’” HERE)

Trump May Travel to Turkey for Putin-Zelensky Talks on Ending Ukraine War

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President Trump is considering making a pit stop in Turkey on Thursday to attend scheduled Ukraine-Russia peace talks during his tour of the Middle East.

“I think you’re going to have maybe a good meeting. You have the potential for a good meeting,” he told reporters Monday, referencing the talks proposed by Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday.

“That meeting wasn’t going to take place, I insisted that that meeting take place, and it is taking place.”

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky committed to the talks over the weekend — telling Putin on X Sunday that he “will be waiting” for him in Turkey. But so far, the Kremlin has yet to confirm whether the Russian leader will attend.

“Here in Ukraine, we have absolutely no problem engaging in negotiations, we are ready for any format,” Zelensky wrote. “I will be in Türkiye this Thursday, May 15, and I expect Putin to come to Türkiye as well. Personally. And I hope that this time, Putin won’t be looking for excuses as to why he ‘can’t’ make it.” (Read more from “Trump May Travel to Turkey for Putin-Zelensky Talks on Ending Ukraine War” HERE)

Department of Homeland Security Investigating State Over Providing Benefits to Illegal Aliens: ‘The Gravy Train Is Over’

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President Donald Trump’s Department of Homeland Security is investigating California over allegations of providing federal benefits to illegal aliens at the taxpayer’s expense.

The department made the announcement on Monday.

“Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Los Angeles Field Office issued a Title 8 subpoena to the State of California’s Cash Assistance Program for Immigrants (CAPI),” the press release reads, noting that the CAPI program “provides benefits to aliens who are ineligible for Social Security benefits because of their immigration status.”

As a result, authorities will receive records — which include applications — from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Social Services and investigate to see if illegal aliens received these federal benefits over the course of former President Joe Biden’s tenure.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a statement that “radical left politicians in California prioritize illegal aliens over our own citizens, including by giving illegal aliens access to cash benefits.” (Read more from “Department of Homeland Security Investigating State Over Providing Benefits to Illegal Aliens: ‘The Gravy Train Is Over’” HERE)

DOJ Investigation Into Anti-Catholic Law Is Latest In Series Of Actions Defending Religious Liberty

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The Department of Justice (DOJ) has stepped up its defense of religious liberty under the Trump administration.

In the past several months, the DOJ has filed statements of interest in land use cases for churches, helped launch a task force to “eliminate” anti-Christian bias and opened an investigation into an “anti-Catholic” law in Washington.

The DOJ opened an investigation Monday into a Washington law that forces Catholic priests to disclose information received in the confessional related to child abuse or neglect. The law, signed by Democratic Gov. Bob Ferguson on Friday, explicitly excludes “members of the clergy” from an exemption for reporting information obtained as a result of “a privileged communication.”

Bishop Thomas Daly of the Spokane Diocese said priests would remain “committed to keeping the seal of confession – even to the point of going to jail” after the law was signed.

“Washington’s new law forces priests to choose between violating their faith or breaking the law,” Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon wrote Monday on X. “That’s unconstitutional.” (Read more from “DOJ Investigation Into Anti-Catholic Law Is Latest In Series Of Actions Defending Religious Liberty” HERE)