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Fashion Model Learning to Be a Man after Being Pushed to Transition at Age 15: ‘I Was Really Crazy on the Hormones’

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In Catholic churches across Manhattan and Brooklyn, Salomé captivated the congregation, uplifting the faithful with her soulful singing and skilled organ playing. The New York Archdiocese Organist Training Program enrollee’s musical gifts had her booking gigs across the city.

But for years, Salomé’s bashful smile and angelic voice concealed a secret — one not even known in the shadows of the confessional. She was a he; Salomé was born Miles.

His story is one that’s becoming all too familiar: A child with unconventional interests, swayed by strange ideologies on the Internet, is hustled by doctors into a life of medical dependency — only to find himself questioning everything years later.

“They very quickly put me on hormones without really any discernment. Looking back, if I were a doctor, I would think this is a much larger decision than the kid thinks that it is,” he tells The Post. . .

At 15, Yardley found himself a patient in the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s gender clinic. He’d been late to start puberty and had interests in singing and dancing. Classmates began to ask if he was gay or a girl. He’d never heard of transgenderism. “I had not questioned my own identity before other people started asking me questions and putting that on me,” he says.

After only his second appointment, a Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia doctor put Yardley on androgen blockers and later estrogen therapy, calling him “the perfect example” of a transgender child. (Read more from “Fashion Model Learning to Be a Man after Being Pushed to Transition at Age 15: ‘I Was Really Crazy on the Hormones'” HERE)

SCOTUS Sides With Nuns Fighting New York Mandate That Made Them Pay For Abortions

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The Supreme Court ruled in favor of nuns fighting against New York’s abortion mandate that forced religious organizations to pay for employee abortions.

The Little Sisters of the Poor, a Catholic organization that serves the elderly, fought the state on its abortion mandate that violates religious liberties for years, but multiple New York courts have ruled in favor of the abortion mandate.

New York mandated in 2017 that employers pay for “not just abortifacients, but even surgical abortions” as part of employee health care. The state had indicated that it would protect religious groups, but “narrowed the exemption to protect only religious entities that primarily employ and serve people of their own faith,” according to Becket Religious Liberty for All. The only religious exemption was for “religious groups that primarily teach religion and primarily serve and hire those who share their faith,” a Becket press release said.

In response Catholic nuns led a group of religious groups spanning different denominations who banded together to push back against the state forcing Christians to provide insurance plans that pay for killing babies as “health care.”

The mandate “violat[ed] their deepest religious convictions about the sanctity of life,” according to Becket. “New York wants to browbeat nuns into paying for abortions for the great crime of serving all those in need,” said Eric Baxter, vice president and senior counsel of Becket. (Read more from “SCOTUS Sides With Nuns Fighting New York Mandate That Made Them Pay For Abortions” HERE)

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NYC Boating Horror Kills 3, Injures 2 as Sixth Passenger Still Missing in Freezing Waters

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At least three people are dead, two are injured and another is missing after a boat capsized in a waterway between Brooklyn and Staten Island Sunday afternoon, officials said.

Five of the six occupants of the boat were pulled from the freezing waters after the vessel capsized around noon in the Ambrose Channel, the city’s main shipping lane that slices the two Big Apple boroughs, according to the NYPD.

Police divers, the US Coast Guard and other agencies descended on the dire scene, where they found four of the five victims unresponsive, according to the military branch.

Two people were airlifted to Staten Island Hospital and three were taken to Coast Guard Station Sandy Hook where emergency services were waiting, cops and the military branch said.

Three people were pronounced dead while one is in critical condition and another is in stable condition, police said. (Read more from “NYC Boating Horror Kills 3, Injures 2 as Sixth Passenger Still Missing in Freezing Waters” HERE)

(Read more from “NYC Boating Horror Kills 3, Injures 2 as Sixth Passenger Still Missing in Freezing Waters” HERE)

New York Radiation Levels Spike Amid Drone Sightings as Americans Told ‘Prepare for Worst’

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A US-China relations expert fears has warned Americans to “plan for the worst” amid the ongoing New Jersey drone mystery – with reports about unexplained radiation spikes in the area.

According to the Geiger Counter World Map, which tracks radiation levels across the world, two areas in the New York metro area have been flagged as red. The areas are both said to be over the 200 counts-per-minute safety threshold. There are similar red flags further north near Connecticut.

It follows claims that the drones are hunting for a nuclear warhead that went “missing” during the Cold War.

And author Gordon Chang has told Forbes the drones could well be to do with the radiation. “There have been reports of spikes and radiation in the New York metropolitan area,” he said. “Two of them, one on each side of the Hudson. That leads to the conclusion that maybe they’re looking for an implanted nuclear weapon.” . . .

Chang says that recent vague reassurances made by the authorities have been of no help, and that it’s time to level with the public. He continued: “At this point we really need the president of the United States to actually address the American people and tell us what the federal government knows and what it doesn’t know.” (Read more from “New York Radiation Levels Spike Amid Drone Sightings as Americans Told ‘Prepare for Worst’” HERE)

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‘Out of Line’: School District Gets 5 Pages of Instructions on How to Get Rid of Its ‘Hostility’ to Bible

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A school district in Waterville, New York, has been delivered a five-page letter with instructions on how it should get rid of its “hostility” to the Bible, and comply with federal law.

The fight is over a decision by Waterville Central School District officials to refuse to recognize a student Bible club.

A student had followed all of the required processes and procedures for establishing that group, but according to the letter, the school refused to acknowledge the club “as it would any other clubs,” because of its association with faith.

“By denying the same benefits to the Bible club that it provides to all non-curricular clubs, the school has missed the concept of ‘equal’ in the Equal Access Act,” explained Keisha Russell, a lawyer for First Liberty Institute. “The school’s actions are unconstitutional, and its justification is legally flawed. The Supreme Court has made clear that the Free Exercise Clause protects religious practices by both students and employees in public school settings.”

At issue is an effort by Elijah Nelson, an eighth-grader, to establish an official Bible club. (Read more from “‘Out of Line’: School District Gets 5 Pages of Instructions on How to Get Rid of Its ‘Hostility’ to Bible” HERE)

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NY Judges Scrutinize ‘Troubling’ $450 Million Penalty in Trump Fraud Case: ‘No One Lost Any Money’

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Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron ordered in February former President Donald Trump to pay an approximate $450 million penalty in a civil fraud case in which there were no victims. Now, a New York appellate court is raising questions regarding the “troubling” penalty and Attorney General Letitia James’ justification for bringing the case in the first place.

James accused Trump of inflating his personal wealth to get better loan terms. Trump, for example, valued his Mar-a-Lago estate at between $427 million and $612 million, Forbes reported. Engoron, however, cited a one-off local Palm Beach County appraiser who valued the property as low as $18 million. Some experts have reportedly valued the sprawling property in the hundreds of millions.

As my colleague Mark Hemingway explained earlier this year, “Trump took out loans over several years, as real estate moguls are wont to do. For him to get approved for those loans, the banks did their own due diligence about Trump’s finances and ability to pay back the loans and decided to give them to him. Trump paid back the loans, and everyone made money.”

Enogoron ultimately ordered Trump to pay $354 million plus an additional $100 million in interest. Trump posted a $175 million bond in April and appealed the ruling.

Trump’s team argued on Thursday before the New York Appellate Division, First Judicial Department that the case was a “clear-cut violation of the statute of limitations,” and that the statute used to bring charges against the former president ultimately did not justify the action taken. (Read more from “NY Judges Scrutinize ‘Troubling’ $450 Million Penalty in Trump Fraud Case: ‘No One Lost Any Money’” HERE)

COVID Adviser Brags in Secret Recording About Drug-Fueled Sex Parties Mid-Pandemic: ‘Had to Be Sneaky’

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New York City’s former COVID czar was caught on a hidden camera boasting about having drug-fueled sex parties mid-pandemic — and admitting New Yorkers would have been “pissed” if they had found out at the time.

Dr. Jay Varma — who served as senior health adviser to then-Mayor Bill de Blasio and was tasked with running the Big Apple’s pandemic response — made the confession in secretly recorded conversations with a so-called undercover operative from conservative podcaster Steven Crowder’s “Mug Club.”

“I had to be kind of sneaky about it … because I was running the entire COVID response in the city,” Varma was filmed telling the unidentified woman on Aug. 1 in what appears to be a restaurant.

The edited clips of the hidden camera footage, which were all recorded between July 27 and Aug. 14 in New York, were released by Crowder on Thursday. The Post has not reviewed the full, unedited recordings.

The identity of the woman Varma was speaking to — or where he met up with her — wasn’t clear. The nature of their relationship also wasn’t clear. (Read more from “COVID Adviser Brags in Secret Recording About Drug-Fueled Sex Parties Mid-Pandemic: ‘Had to Be Sneaky’” HERE)

Ex-Employee Sues Blue State University For Allegedly Firing Her After She Converted To Christianity

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A former City University of New York (CUNY) staff member is suing the university for wrongfully terminating her employment after she converted to Christianity, according to a religious discrimination lawsuit filed last week.

Teona Pagan, who worked at CUNY’s Research Foundation as the Fellowships and Public Service Program Coordinator, alleges she was denied a religious accommodation for an aspect of her job that required her to recruit students for a fellowship focused on the promotion of LGBT “rights and causes,” according to the complaint filed Aug. 28. When Pagan converted to Christianity in April 2022 — months after beginning her job in November 2021 — she suddenly found her duties related to the fellowship in conflict with her sincerely held religious beliefs.

“After my hire, I was told that the committee was particularly drawn to me because of my youthful maturity and willingness to stand boldly for issues plaguing our generation,” Pagan told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “Ironically, when I decided to finally stand for the Truth, who is Jesus Christ, they chose to terminate my employment.”

Pagan was hired for the position right after graduating from the Honors Program at CUNY’s Baruch College, according to the lawsuit.

Pagan oversaw nine other fellowship programs, and less than 10% of her job was devoted to the LGBT-centered program, known as the Mixner Fellowship, she told the DCNF. She thought the religious accommodation would be an “easy fix and compromise,” especially since she had collaborated with her supervisor on other projects “where roles shifted smoothly.” (Read more from “Ex-Employee Sues Blue State University For Allegedly Firing Her After She Converted To Christianity” HERE)

Bombshell Indictment: Top New York Democrat Aide Worked as Agent of Influence for China, Communist Party

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A former top aide to New York Govs. Andrew Cuomo (D) and Kathy Hochul (D) used her high-ranking position in the state’s government to peddle influence for China and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) while profiting millions in the process, an unsealed federal indictment alleges.

On Tuesday, federal prosecutors unsealed the indictment against 41-year-old Linda Sun, born in China and a naturalized American citizen, and her husband, 40-year-old Chris Hu. The indictment charges the couple with operating a money laundering and bank fraud scheme thanks in part to Sun’s allegedly acting as an agent of influence for China while working in Cuomo and Hochul’s administrations.

The couple were arrested and arraigned in federal court in Brooklyn on Tuesday.

The 64-page indictment is far-reaching, detailing Sun’s alleged work as an agent for China and her husband’s subsequent illegal business dealings in China. In particular, the indictment lays out how Sun allegedly acted on behalf of the CCP while working for Cuomo, who is called “Politician-1,” and Hochul, who is called “Politician-2.” The indictment states:

The defendant LINDA SUN acted at the order, direction, or request of representatives of the [People’s Republic of China (PRC)] government and the CCP to engage in political activities intended to influence the public, including the [New York State (NYS)] government, with respect to the political or public interests of the PRC government and the CCP. (Read more from “Bombshell Indictment: Top New York Democrat Aide Worked as Agent of Influence for China, Communist Party” HERE)

FBI Raids Home of Ex-UN Weapons Inspector & Anti-War Pundit Scott Ritter

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On Wednesday the upstate New York home of Scott Ritter was raided by the FBI and state police. The FBI has since confirmed in a statement that this is part of an ongoing federal investigation into Ritter.

Agents were seen entering his house in Delmar, NY in widely shared photographs and local media footage in the afternoon. It was unclear if Ritter was at home at the time and the allegations at the center of the investigation remain unknown.

“I can confirm FBI personnel are at a home on Dover [Drive] conducting law enforcement activity in connection with an ongoing federal investigation,” a statement from the FBI’s Albany office confirmed. “As the investigation is ongoing, [Department of Justice] policy prevents me from commenting further.”

Ritter became a prominent figure as the chief UN weapons inspector in the 1990s in Iraq and ex-intelligence official (Marine Corp intelligence) who publicly opposed the George W. Bush administration’s drive to take the United States into war with Iraq.

He subsequently became a popular anti-war pundit and leading critic of US foreign policy. For an example of his ongoing criticisms of the US government and foreign policy, he wrote in 2019, “I love my country, but the collective ignorance of the American people empowers so-called public servants who abuse their positions of trust to push policies that further individual agendas at the expense of the nation they ostensibly serve. Fact-based logic no longer matters.”

More recently he has been a fierce critic of US policy related to the war in Ukraine, having also made several trips to Russia during the course of the war which began in February 2022.

(Read more from “FBI Raids Home of Ex-UN Weapons Inspector & Anti-War Pundit Scott Ritter” HERE)