California Officials Condemn Trump for Saying Iran Could ‘Take Out’ Los Angeles or San Diego

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California officials denounced President Donald Trump for saying that Iran could “take out” Los Angeles or San Diego, calling his remarks “deranged” and “irresponsible.”

At a campaign rally Monday in Nebraska, Trump spoke about the effect of the Iran war on U.S. prices, saying: “Remember, with the war, it’s just artificial. It’s a little bit high. It’s a small price to pay for keeping the world safe, keeping our country safe.”

“They can take out a city. Let them take out Los Angeles, let them take out San Diego,” Trump said, drawing cheers from the crowd.

California and the state’s leaders are a frequent target of Trump’s ire, particularly Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat who is widely viewed as a potential 2028 presidential contender. In his comments at the rally, Trump appeared to be making light of the potential for Iran to attack major American cities.

In response to the backlash, White House communications director Steven Cheung said on X that the controversy “is not rooted in reality.”

(Read more from “California Officials Condemn Trump for Saying Iran Could ‘Take Out’ Los Angeles or San Diego” HERE)

Sam Altman’s Handler Tries To End Interview Over Suicide Question

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An OpenAI spokesperson interrupted a question about ChatGPT’s role in a young woman’s suicide during Vanity Fair’s sit-down interview with Sam Altman.

The OpenAI CEO told the outlet’s Mark Guiducci he was not familiar with the name of Laura Reiley, a journalist who wrote in The New York Times in Aug. 2025 about her daughter taking her own life after talking with the company’s chatbot, according to a Vanity interview posted on X Monday. OpenAI faces multiple wrongful death lawsuits from families who allege ChatGPT contributed to their loved ones’ acts of self harm.

“Do you know who Laura Reiley is?,” Guiducci asked.

“I don’t,” Altman responded.

“She is a journalist. She wrote an essay in the ‘Times’ last year. Her daughter committed suicide after speaking to ChatGPT. ChatGPT did not tell her to kill herself—” Guiducci explained, before he was cut off by an OpenAI publicist.

Riley’s daughter, Sophie Rottenberg, had confided for months in a chatbot she called ‘Harry’ before her death, Reiley wrote in an Aug. 18, 2025, New York Times essay. (Read more from “Sam Altman’s Handler Tries To End Interview Over Suicide Question” HERE)

The Other Affordability Crisis Quietly Drowning Americans

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Americans are drowning in water bills as the cost of one thing they cannot live without continues to climb.

Water rates jumped 62% over the past decade, rising more than twice as fast as grocery prices and outpacing overall inflation, according to a new analysis released Tuesday by Food & Water Watch, a nonprofit environmental advocacy group.

“It’s almost a quiet emergency,” Mary Grant, water policy director for Food & Water Watch, told the San Francisco Chronicle. “People don’t talk about their water bill. But everyone needs access to water.”

The consumer group looked at the country’s 500 largest community water providers and found Americans are paying significantly more just to keep the taps running.

“Making water less affordable forces households to make hard decisions about what essential expenses to cut back on, such as food or education,” the group wrote. (Read more from “Americans Drowning In Water Bills As Rates Skyrocket Across Country” HERE)

Wall Street Expected To Have Its Best Year Ever As Americans Drown In Debt

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Money is flooding Wall Street as Americans thirst for financial relief amid war-fueled inflation and soaring household debt.

New York’s securities industry is on pace to blow past last year’s record profits, according to a new report from New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli. Wall Street firms made $45.9 billion in just the first half of 2026, already eclipsing what New York City expected them to make for the entire year.

The money has poured in as companies race to build artificial intelligence infrastructure, businesses return to the dealmaking table and investors trade through a year marked by war, tariffs and market swings, the Comptroller’s report found. Virtually every major Wall Street revenue stream grew during the first half of the year, with underwriting seeing particularly strong gains.

Wall Street’s boom looks much different from the economy many Americans are living in. Families have rationed showers and hauled water from creeks as water bills climb into the hundreds of dollars, while gasoline prices have risen sharply and record diesel costs threaten to make already expensive grocery bills even worse due to the wars in Iran and Ukraine.

Many Americans are leaning increasingly on borrowed money. Household debt has continued to climb, with consumers carrying growing credit card and auto loan balances as high interest rates make that debt more expensive to service, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. (Read more from “Wall Street Expected To Have Its Best Year Ever As Americans Drown In Debt” HERE)

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Kristi Noem’s Husband Bryon Spoke About His Wife’s Affair With Advisor, ‘There’s Nothing I Can Do.’

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Kristi Noem and her husband, Bryon, are once again at the center of attention as she filed for divorce from him after 34 years of marriage. Before Bryon’s cross-dressing scandal broke out, former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was accused of having a sexual relationship with her adviser, Corey Lewandowski.

Kristi Noem was fired from her position as the Secretary of Homeland Security after she was accused of infidelity. The allegations of the 54-year-old’s illicit affair with her top aide, Corey Lewandowski, became one of the major reasons for her sacking. While the investigations into Kristi and Corey’s affair were ongoing, reports surfaced that her husband, Bryon Noem, is into cross-dressing. . .

One of the models claimed that she had asked Bryon, who was using the pseudonym ‘Jason Jackson’, about rumors around his wife’s affair with her adviser, Corey, to which Bryon replied, ‘I know. There’s nothing I can do about it.’ . . .

While Kriti’s infidelity and Bryon’s cross-dressing scandal broke out, reports claimed that Kristi knew about Bryon’s cross-dressing and it was an ‘open secret’. Far-right commentator Laura Loomer took to her X account and revealed that it was an arrangement between the husband and wife. She claimed everyone had known about Bryon for a long time. . .

There had been a lot of rumors about Kristi’s ‘open-secret’ affair. But all hell broke loose when she was directly questioned about the same during a House Judiciary Committee hearing. During the testimony, Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Calif.) asked Noem directly about her extramarital affair, but she didn’t give any direct response to the question. (Read more from “Kristi Noem’s Husband Bryon Spoke About His Wife’s Affair With Advisor, ‘There’s Nothing I Can Do.’” HERE)

Here Are Some Of The Craziest Stories Involving Little-Understood Vehicle Taking US By Storm

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As electric bicycles flood American streets, emergency rooms are seeing a growing toll of injuries tied to the increasingly popular two-wheelers.

A statewide analysis from Florida found 1,725 e-bike crashes resulting in injuries — including 70 fatalities — between 2021 and 2024. The series of hospitalizations has prompted the District Attorney’s Office of Orange County, California to organize the first of its kind e-bike and e-motorcycle buyback in September. . .

August 2026: A 44-year-old woman on an e-bike found herself pinned underneath a Volkswagen Beetle. The woman was riding her two-wheeler without a helmet when she crashed into the car and got trapped in the process, according to Fox News. Police and a group of bystanders helped to lift the Beetle and rescue her.

Local business owner Chrissy Vollmer, who responded to the scene, described what she saw to the outlet. . .

May 2026: Firefighters responded to a garage engulfed in flame at an Ann Arbor, according to CBS News. It seemed the structure had spontaneously combusted. Recovered home surveillance footage showed an e-bike parked inside was the volatile villain, whose lithium battery exploded of its own volition.

“This incident serves as an important reminder that lithium-ion battery fires can occur even when devices are not actively charging,” the Ann Arbor Fire Department said in the article. (Read more from “Here Are Some Of The Craziest Stories Involving Little-Understood Vehicle Taking US By Storm” HERE)

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Raised Eyebrows as Banker Who Outed Trump Admin Official Howard Lutnick’s Epstein Ties Dies by Suicide

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By RedState. A British banker who exposed Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s business ties to Jeffrey Epstein has died by suicide, according to The Banker, a death that raised eyebrows and drew the attention of Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY).

“It’s not a game folks,” wrote New Jersey gubernatorial hopeful and businessman Matthew Wingell to the news of the British banker’s passing.

Simon Andriesz, who previously worked under Lutnick at a company owned by the Cantor Fitzgerald Group, shared details with House lawmakers earlier this year that revealed business links between Lutnick and Epstein, links that subsequent reporting revealed to have taken place as recently as 2014.

Andriesz found the connection by searching the Justice Department’s millions of public Epstein files for “HWL” — Lutnick’s initials — knowing Cantor Fitzgerald executives “preferred” to refer to one another by initials in emails. The revelations that Lutnick and Epstein “were in business together” as recently as 2014, and maintained contact with each other through at least 2018, flew in the face of Lutnick’s previous claim that he cut off contact with Epstein in 2005.

While Lutnick was forced to backtrack on his previous statements regarding Epstein, he has not been charged with a crime or accused of any wrongdoing. (Read more from “Raised Eyebrows as Banker Who Outed Howard Lutnick’s Epstein Ties Dies by Suicide” HERE)

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MPs call for investigation after Lutnick-Epstein whistleblower dies

By BBC News. The treatment of whistleblowers by the UK’s financial watchdog must be investigated following the death of a British trader who exposed evidence of links between US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick and Jeffrey Epstein, MPs have said.

Simon Andriesz, a former senior employee of BGC Partners – the international firm of financial brokers founded and run by Lutnick before his appointment by US President Donald Trump – died last month in Thailand.

Earlier this year, Andriesz raised concerns with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the FBI and other watchdogs about evidence he had uncovered of business links between Epstein and Lutnick. It cast doubt on Lutnick’s public statements about his associations with the late sex offender.

A group of UK MPs have now said his death raises “deeply troubling questions” about the way whistleblowers can be treated when they approach the FCA – the financial regulator – with concerns about wrongdoing and subsequent retaliation.

Andriesz’s family said he had taken his own life on 23 September, and that there was no suggestion of foul play. (Read more from “MPs call for investigation after Lutnick-Epstein whistleblower dies” HERE)

Soldiers Wounded In Iran War Reportedly Failed By Medical System

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Dozens of soldiers wounded in a March 1 Iranian drone strike in Port Shuaiba, Kuwait are not receiving adequate medical care, according to an Associated Press report.

Bureaucratic red tape, failure to recognize serious injuries, and lack of planning regarding transporting the injured to hospitals are issues that service members deployed in the Middle East are facing, the AP reported Monday. After years of attempted troop drawdown in the Middle East, there are no major U.S.-run medical facilities in the region.

Army Lt. Col. Arturo Lincón was one of the multiple service members hit by shrapnel during the attack. One piece of metal lodged into his left jaw — while another sliced his salivary gland, bounced off his jaw, pierced the back of his neck, and ultimately severed an artery before lodging in a vertebrae, he told the AP. The damaged artery put him at risk for a stroke.

However, this was not considered severe enough for him to be sent to the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, the closest major military facility, the outlet reported. Instead, he was sent to nearby Army barracks and told to schedule outpatient appointments. He went days without pain medication.

“I was just kind of on my own, at least it felt like that,” Lincón told the AP. . .

Another soldier who had shrapnel removed from his head, Major Stephen Ramsbottom, had to wait over four months for his MRI results, according to the AP. Chief Warrant Officer 4 Rodney Bearman, who had shrapnel embedded from his face to his legs, was briefly seen by Kuwaiti doctors, then sent to the home of a U.S. government employee. The missile attacks from Iran made evacuation flights risky. (Read more from “Soldiers Wounded In Iran War Reportedly Failed By Medical System” HERE)

Trump Signs Executive Order Mid-Rally Allowing Drivers to Use ‘Tax-Free Red-Dye Diesel’ to Lower Fuel Costs

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President Trump signed an executive order Monday waiving restrictions on the use of tax-exempt red-dye diesel, which he said will ease the pain at the pump for truckers and lower the cost of groceries nationwide.

The president described the order — which he inked midway through a raucous midterm election rally in Grand Island, Nebraska — as an “unprecedented step to bring down costs,” and he predicted it would help Republicans in the critical November contests.

“For many years, farm vehicles, construction equipment and other off-road vehicles have used what is known as red-dye diesel … which is exactly the same as normal diesel but is sold tax-free for off-road vehicles and big trucks,” Trump explained.

“So tonight, I’m going to sign a historic executive order to officially waive the off-road requirement and allow anyone to purchase tax-free, red-dye diesel for any reason,” he announced.

White House aide Natalie Harp brought the order up on stage, per Trump’s direction, and the president signed it at the podium. (Read more from “Trump Signs Executive Order Mid-Rally Allowing Drivers to Use ‘Tax-Free Red-Dye Diesel’ to Lower Fuel Costs” HERE)

Banks Seize 42% More Homes as Americans Fall Behind on Mortgages — with One State Hit the Hardest

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More American’s are losing the keys to their houses.

Foreclosures are climbing across the US, with the number of homes repossessed by lenders surging 42% from a year ago as more struggling homeowners reach the end of the foreclosure process.

Lenders repossessed 5,794 properties through completed foreclosures in August, up 22% from July and a 42% from August 2025, according to a new report from real estate data firm ATTOM.

Overall, 40,277 US properties received some form of foreclosure filing — including default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions — during the month. That was up just 1% from July but 13% from a year earlier, continuing a months-long trend of foreclosure activity running above 2025 levels.

Florida recorded the largest number of foreclosure starts, at 3,189, followed closely by Texas with 3,126 and California with 2,565. Illinois and Georgia rounded out the top five.

The growing number of homes making it all the way through the foreclosure pipeline was particularly pronounced in Texas. (Read more from “Banks Seize 42% More Homes as Americans Fall Behind on Mortgages — with One State Hit the Hardest” HERE)

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