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Ohio AG defends letter warning ‘woke’ masked anti-Israel protesters they face prison time: ‘We have a society’

Ohio AG defends letter warning ‘woke’ masked anti-Israel protesters they face prison time: ‘We have a society’

Ohio’s Republican Attorney General is pushing back against critics after warning that anti-Israel protesters wearing masks are facing potential prison time due to state law and XXX “The First Amendment protects you and saying whatever it is you have to say. Even hateful things are protected by the First Amendment,” Ohio AG Dave Yost told Fox News Digital this week. “The First Amendment, though, was always designed to be a shield against the government. It’s not a sword against your fellow students and they have rights too. Your First Amendment rights are limited by their right to be able to go to school, use the library, get the value of their education and the tuition that they paid for.” In a letter sent on Monday, Yost warned university presidents of a historic state law that could mean masked anti-Israel demonstrators on college campuses could face felony charges.  “The law is an old law,” Yost told Fox News Digital. “It goes back to the 20th century, and it was originally designed to make sure that people like Ku Klux Klan were held accountable, that, of course, the reason that the Ku Klux Klan wore hoods and masks over their faces is so that they couldn’t be identified because they were committing crimes. So the General Assembly in Ohio said, okay, you can wear a mask, you can wear a hood, that’s fine. But if you commit a crime with two or more other people, while you are masking yourself, we’re going to see that as a heightened kind of crime, a worse kind of thing, because you’re consciously doing this and trying to hide your identity because you know you’re doing something wrong.” UCLA FINALLY ASKS FOR FBI HELP — BUT TO INVESTIGATE PRO-ISRAEL SUPPORTERS In his letter, Yost warned Ohio universities that “violation of this ‘anti-disguise’ law is a fourth-degree felony punishable by between six and 18 months of imprisonment.” “Those guilty may also pay up to $5,000 in fines and spend up to five years on community control. (See Ohio Revised Code 3761.99.) This punishment is significantly greater than misdemeanors that typically follow minor infractions that accompany student protests.” Students and outside activists have routinely worn face coverings with some blaming the coronavirus and others saying they are afraid of reprisals. “They’ll tell you that in interviews,” Yost said. “I’ve seen it on numerous reports, they’re afraid of, quote unquote, reprisals. Well, reprisals from what? The university administrations are all in on this woke, anti-Israel, pro-Palestine, rhetoric. They don’t have to worry about being thrown out of school for expressing their views. But reprisals from whom? Well, reprisals from the criminal justice authorities who enforce laws like arson laws like trespassing and that’s exactly what this heightened scrutiny is all about.” PARENTS, STUDENTS LIVID AS COLLEGES MOVE CLASSES ONLINE AMID ANTI-ISRAEL VIOLENCE: ‘VERY UNSETTLING’ Yost’s letter, which he told Fox News Digital was simply a reminder to those who intend to break the law that prison time could come along with that, sparked criticism from some on the left including Ohio Democratic State Sen. Bill DeMora, who issued a press release denouncing Yost as “disgusting” and a “pigheaded, blatant misread of the law.” “I hope that Dave Yost takes his letter and shoves it where the sun don’t shine!” DeMora wrote. “I think they protest too much,” Yost told Fox News Digital in response to the criticism. “All the letter does is say, hey, don’t become an accidental felon. Ohio has a law here and incidentally it’s not even implicated unless you’re committing a criminal act, another criminal act with two or more people while you’re wearing a mask. I don’t understand how advising somebody about how to be a law abiding citizen, is intimidating or disgusting. I think Bill DeMora protests too much, but then he’s Democratic operative, a member of the DNC Central Committee, and everything’s a political game to him. We have a society here that needs to run according to the rules and to allow freedom to everybody.” Yost told Fox News Digital he has been reaching out to the Jewish community in his state and recently met with Israel’s deputy counsel to find ways to ensure that Jewish people are adequately protected. “I am concerned about the degeneration of our ability to protect all citizens. We need to protect that right to protest. We need to protect the rights of the other students who are not protesting but are actually trying to study and learn. We need to protect the rights of the communities around the universities. And, the failure to take firm, fair action to enforce the laws that are designed to protect all of us is really concerning. It’s part of the lawlessness starting to sweep the land from things like the border and failure to enforce that to the lawless acts of the Biden administration to usurp Congress and write laws by fiat.” If he could say one thing to the anti-Israel protesters engaging in violence while wearing masks, Yost said that he would remind them that their heroes from the past didn’t hide their identities. “I’d tell them your heroes from the 1960s didn’t wear masks,” Yost said.  “Martin Luther King Jr and John Lewis weren’t in masks when they walked in Selma. Own your expression. Own the dictates of your conscience and don’t break the law.”

NY v. Trump to resume with cross-examination of Stormy Daniels after judge denies request for mistrial

NY v. Trump to resume with cross-examination of Stormy Daniels after judge denies request for mistrial

The unprecedented criminal trial of former President Trump resumes Thursday morning with continued cross-examination of adult film actress Stormy Daniels after the 2024 presumptive presidential nominee and his attorneys were denied in their motion for a mistrial amid her salacious and “unnecessary” testimony.  Trump has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. The charges stem from a years-long investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. The charges are related to alleged payments made ahead of the 2016 presidential election to silence Daniels about an alleged 2006 extramarital affair with Trump. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg must convince the jury that, not only did Trump falsify business records related to alleged hush money payments, he did so in furtherance of another crime — conspiracy to promote or prevent election, which would be a felony.  TOP 5 MOMENTS OF TRUMP TRIAL AFTER ‘SALACIOUS’ STORMY DANIELS TESTIMONY On their own, falsifying business records and conspiracy to promote or prevent election are misdemeanor charges.  The continued questioning of Daniels will come from Trump defense attorneys, who began their cross-examination of the adult film actress, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford, Tuesday.  It is unclear if prosecutors from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office will continue questioning with a redirect.  On Tuesday, Daniels testified she met Trump at a celebrity golf tournament in July 2006 in Lake Tahoe and described the meeting as a “very brief encounter.”  Prosecutor Susan Hoffinger asked what Daniels discussed with Trump. Daniels said it wasn’t very much, and that she was introduced as a director of pornographic films.  NY V TRUMP: JUDGE DENIES MOTION FOR MISTRIAL AMID STORMY DANIELS TESTIMONY After that, Daniels said, someone asked her if she wanted to have dinner with Trump. She testified that she discussed the invitation to dinner with her publicist, recalling that he said she should attend, implying it would be good for her career.  Daniels then testified in detail about the alleged sexual encounter with Trump in a hotel room.  Trump has denied allegations of a sexual encounter with Daniels. Daniels, in 2018, initially denied that a sexual encounter took place but later changed her story.  During her lewd testimony, Judge Juan Merchan said “the degree of detail we’re going into is unnecessary” and asked prosecutor Hoffinger to move questioning along.  BRAGG PROSECUTOR LEADING STORMY DANIELS QUESTIONING IN TRUMP TRIAL DONATED TO JOE BIDEN, DEMOCRATS Trump defense attorney Todd Blanche blasted Daniels’ testimony as “prejudicial” and motioned for a mistrial.  Merchan said a mistrial was not warranted but admitted he was doing everything he could to control the witness, including once objecting to Daniels’ testimony himself.  “I agree that it would have been better if some of these things had been left unsaid,” Merchan said.  Blanche argued that the prosecution is trying to inflame the jury with Daniels’ testimony, including with evidence that he said is irrelevant.  Blanche said it is prejudicial testimony and evidence, saying Daniels has been trying to sell her story about an alleged consensual sexual encounter since 2016.  Blanche said Daniels’ testimony on Tuesday was about “consent and danger” and that was “not the story that she was selling in 2016.”  NY V TRUMP: JUDGE THREATENS JAIL TIME FOR ‘POSSIBLY THE NEXT PRESIDENT’ FOR FUTURE GAG ORDER VIOLATIONS He also said Daniels was testifying about consent and said that kind of testimony “makes it impossible to come back from.”  Blanche said the defense “objected as best we could, but she was able to say what she said.”  He also questioned how the defense could “come back from this” in a way that could be “fair” to Trump.  “We believe there should be a mistrial,” he said, “or that this witness’s testimony is excluded and extremely limited.” Blanche said Daniels’ lurid and explosive testimony “has nothing to do with this case” and is “totally irrelevant.” He also noted that what Daniels said was “extraordinarily prejudicial testimony” and that there is a “high risk of the jury not being able to focus on the charged conduct.” But Hoffinger said the defense was fully briefed on Daniels’ testimony in the motions prior to trial and argued that Daniels’ testimony was probative to Trump’s intent. Hoffinger said the defense is attacking Daniels’ credibility and argued there is “no basis for this.” Fox News Digital first reported Tuesday that Hoffinger, the prosecutor leading Bragg’s questioning of Daniels, donated to Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign.  NY V. TRUMP: MAYOR ADAMS SAYS RIKERS ISLAND IS ‘PREPARED’ IF TRUMP IS SENTENCED TO JAIL During a break, the former president and 2024 Republican presumptive presidential nominee posted to his Truth Social account without naming Daniels. “THE PROSECUTION, WHICH HAS NO CASE, HAS GONE TOO FAR,” he posted. “MISTRIAL!” During the beginning of cross-examination by Trump defense attorney Susan Necheles, Daniels admitted, for the first time, that she wanted to share her allegations about an affair with Trump to “get the story out and make some money.”  She was ultimately paid $130,000 by ex-Trump attorney Michael Cohen.  After hours of listening to Daniels make salacious allegations on the stand about an alleged sexual encounter, which he has denied, Trump spoke to reporters outside the courtroom. Merchan imposed a gag order on the former president, an order he has ruled Trump to have violated at least 10 times.  Trump is barred from speaking about witnesses with regard to their potential participation or about counsel in the case – other than Bragg – or about court staff, DA staff or family members of staff. On Monday, Trump was fined another $1,000, bringing the total to $10,000 in gag order violation fines. Merchan threatened Trump with jail time if he violates the order in the future. “The last thing I want to consider is jail,” Merchan said Monday. “You are [the] former president and possibly the next president.”  Trump, after Daniels’ testimony, followed the gag order and did not mention Stormy Daniels by name or reference her testimony.  “This was a very big day, a very revealing

West Virginia AG blasts DEA for concealing ‘critical’ opioid database

West Virginia AG blasts DEA for concealing ‘critical’ opioid database

FIRST ON FOX: The West Virginia attorney general is calling on the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Department of Commerce to explain their decision to limit public access to a “critical” database on opioid provider registrations. The Controlled Substances Act Registration Information Database, which was previously available to the public, has been restricted since January 2021 to a case-by-case, agency-approved basis only. The database, which was used to provide real-time information about active and retired DEA registrations, is now only accessible to those who can demonstrate a legitimate need for the information after the DEA took ownership of the database from the Commerce Department. West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, who said he has “been deep in the fight” against the opioid crisis, added that he’s “deeply troubled” by the decision. “[I]t was an essential tool for pharmacies checking a provider’s registration status before dispensing opioids, as well as for public accountability when it comes to who DEA grants or refuses a registration,” he noted in a letter Thursday to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and DEA Administrator Anne Milgram. “For too long, an ever-growing supply of legal opioids made it too easy for drugs initially obtained through lawful prescriptions to be diverted to illicit – and deadly – ends,” Morrisey wrote. BIDEN ADMIN WILL MOVE TO RECLASSIFY MARIJUANA AS ‘LESS DANGEROUS DRUG’ IN HISTORIC SHIFT “Pulling down the public database came in the wake of my Office’s and the Inspector General’s reports exposing DEA’s repeated failures in fulfilling its statutory duties to the public,” Morrisey wrote. “And the database concerns an issue that the Inspector General report specifically called out: DEA’s years long failure to issue enough Immediate Suspension Orders, its ‘strongest enforcement tool … to stop registrants from diverting prescription drugs.’” Morrisey noted that the decision comes at a time when opioid-related overdose deaths continue to skyrocket. According to the DEA’s website, opioid deaths increased by 38% from Jan. 31, 2020, to Jan. 31, 2021. West Virginia’s drug overdose mortality has been the highest in the country: 90.9 deaths per 100,000 total population in 2021, according to Morrisey’s letter. Nationwide, more than six times as many people died from drug overdoses in 2021 than in 1999, and more than 3 in 4 of those deaths involved opioids, the letter said. “Each of these realities should have been a reason to increase transparency, not to hide away DEA’s registration decisions from public review,” Morrisey wrote. “Broad access to registration information is critical not just for pharmacies making sure a prescription is legitimate, but for journalists and watchdog advocacy groups holding our government accountable. In short, more eyes on DEA’s registration decisions are vital to make sure DEA is doing its job by denying or suspending registrations for providers who add to the opioid epidemic’s death toll,” he continued. VIRGINIA FIRST LADY, AG TEAM WITH RECOVERING ADDICT TO LAUNCH INITIATIVES TARGETING STATE’S FENTANYL CRISIS Morrisey is demanding answers from DEA and the Commerce Department about why they made this decision, how many applications have been denied, and what criteria are used to issue access to the database. He also urged immediate action to address the concerns and make the information freely available to the public. The West Virginia Attorney General’s Office said it has been investigating the role of federal regulators in allowing excessive overproduction of prescription opioids, which has contributed to the opioid epidemic. Morrisey’s office has also been pushing for increased transparency and accountability in the fight against the opioid crisis. JELLY ROLL GIVES POWERFUL TESTIMONY TO CONGRESS ON FENTANYL: ‘I WAS PART OF THE PROBLEM’ “Agencies should welcome public accountability and I trust they’ll do the right thing,” he said in a statement to Fox News Digital.  The DEA and Commerce Department did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment.

Kennedy cover-up: Failing to disclose a brain-eating worm and other problems

Kennedy cover-up: Failing to disclose a brain-eating worm and other problems

Throughout his career, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has made controversial, inflammatory and sometimes untrue statements that have ticked off folks on the left and right. Whether he’s declaring you’re more likely to be murdered in red states or waging his anti-vaccine crusade, the senator’s son is conducting something of an oddball campaign. Yet with his magic last name, which undoubtedly makes some voters think he’s still a Democrat, he’s polling at about 8 to 10%. That, if it holds up, puts him into serious spoiler territory. But now it turns out that Kennedy has been hiding serious medical conditions. STORMY ALLEGES ONE-NIGHT STAND WITH TRUMP, AGREED TO LIE FOR HER $130,000 PAYOFF When I first saw the New York Times headline on this, I assumed the independent candidate was belatedly disclosing these problems. Nope, not at all. The story was based on digging by reporter Susanne Craig. Based on a deposition from 2012, RFK Jr. was called by a doctor at New York-Presbyterian Hospital after physicians had noticed a dark spot on his brain scans, and he had complained of memory loss and a mental fogginess. This doctor said he believed Kennedy had a dead parasite in his head. The abnormality, RFK recalled the doctor telling him, “was caused by a worm that got into my brain and ate a portion of it and then died.” I don’t know about you, but I’d like to know whether a presidential candidate had part of his brain eaten by a worm. It’s a stunning bit of information, deeply unsettling, and obviously subject to mockery. He told the Times months ago that he had recovered from the memory loss without treatment. The cavalier failure to disclose this, and other ailments, raises disturbing questions about hiding health issues from the public. RFK had contacted some of the same neurologists who had treated or spoken to his uncle, Ted Kennedy, before he died of brain cancer the previous year. There’s more. Not only has RFK suffered from atrial fibrillation for decades, he’s been hospitalized four times for the irregular heartbeat. He told the Times in that earlier interview that he hasn’t had an A-fib incident for more than 10 years. BIDEN TAKES ROLE AS BYSTANDER ON BORDER AND CAMPUS PROTESTS, SURRENDERS THE BULLY PULPIT And Kennedy has also been diagnosed with mercury poisoning. He blamed that on eating too much fish tainted by the metal. That, too, can cause serious neurological issues. This should not be a one-day story. No one should interview RFK without bringing up the failure to disclose these serious medical problems.  The Kennedy campaign refused to release his medical records. Unfortunately, the Joe Biden and Donald Trump teams have done the same during this campaign. The paper notes that RFK goes out of his way to project a vigorous image, skiing with an Olympic gold medalist and lifting weights shirtless. Good for him. But perhaps that masks his real condition. A spokeswoman for Kennedy, 70, asked if his health problems might make him unfit for office, said “that is a hilarious suggestion, given the competition” – an obvious shot at the 81-year-old Biden and 77-year-old Trump. RFK JR RE-UPS TRUMP DEBATE CHALLENGE, SUGGESTING VENUE IN ‘PERFECT NEUTRAL TERRITORY’ Some past presidents have hidden serious medical problems, including JFK, who suffered from Addison’s disease, or malfunctioning adrenal glands that produce vital hormones, and debilitating back pain that initially kept him out of the military. But standards have changed and more candor is expected from candidates. The only reason we know about his nephew’s problems is the deposition that came during his divorce from his second wife. RFK was arguing that his earning ability had declined because of his cognitive problems. The question: Is this sort of subterfuge acceptable from a major candidate? Footnote: Nicole Shanahan, Kennedy’s running mate and a tech entrepreneur picked to help finance the campaign, hasn’t done any interviews since she was tapped. Does this amount to the same kind of secrecy?

Will Israel face consequences over its seizure of the Rafah Crossing?

Will Israel face consequences over its seizure of the Rafah Crossing?

Israeli army kills more Palestians in Gaza after takeover of crossing on vital route for aid deliveries. Israel’s seizure of the Rafah crossing worsens an already dire situation for the 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza. Why has Israel defied the US and taken over the crossing? And what could the consequences be for all sides? Presenter: Tom McRae Guests: Salman Sheikh – Founder of peacebuilding organisation The Sheikh Group Nour Odeh – Political analyst and public diplomacy specialist H A Hellyer – Senior associate fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the Royal United Services Institute in London Adblock test (Why?)