Youngkin Vetoes ‘Disastrous’ Bill Expanding Ranked-Choice Voting In Virginia
'A heightened risk of mistakenly erroneous ballot submissions raises concerns about disenfranchisement and an increased lack of voter confidence in election results.'Gun owner who said he fired back at crooks gives them a warning: 'Stop the stupidity ... you're going to end up getting hurt'
A Texas gun owner who says he returned fire at break-in suspects early Wednesday morning gave them a stern warning about what their futures might hold if they keep up their lawlessness.
"Stop the stupidity because you're going to end up getting hurt," Greg Willis told KXAS-TV.
What are the details?
Willis told the station his Ring camera outside his Arlington home in the 6100 block of Vancil Drive started going off just before 2 a.m.
"[I] wake up, see someone in my son's car," he recalled to KXAS.
Willis added to the station that he and his son went after reportedly three suspects, and at least one of them pulled out a gun and began firing.
"They started shooting at us first, and I returned fire," Willis noted to KXAS.
Willis told the station his son took cover behind a neighbor's truck, which was hit by gunfire.
“I could have been shot, or they could have been shot," Willis added to KXAS, noting it was like something out of the Wild West. "A lot of bullets ringing out."
He also told the station this was the first time he's used his gun in an incident like this and that his adrenaline is still pumping: "I still haven't been to sleep."
"Pretty much now all the neighbors, we are on high alert," Willis added to KXAS.
What happened next?
Police noted to the station that while the suspects ran away, officers set up a perimeter and found two of them hiding in a nearby shed. Police told KXAS they also found a gun and took the two suspects into custody without incident.
Arlington Police said 19-year-old Keaundre Lemon was booked into the Arlington City Jail for criminal trespass along with an outstanding warrant, the station reported. However, a Thursday review of jail records shows no entry for Lemon.
Police also arrested 18-year-old Ahmad Bland for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and criminal trespass, KXAS said, adding that cops noted they're still looking for the third suspect.
While the station said no one was hurt in the shootout, Willis gave a stern warning to the suspects: "You can't run to the well too many times without getting caught. Stop the stupidity because you're going to end up getting hurt."
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Judge halts toppling of Reconciliation Monument in Arlington National Cemetery
A Trump-nominated federal judge has halted the removal of the Reconciliation Monument in Arlington National Cemetery, which the cemetery indicated Saturday would otherwise take place by week's end. While the iconoclasts have been momentarily restrained, the fate of the historic monument, also called the Confederate Memorial, remains uncertain.
The group Defend Arlington, affiliated with Save Southern Heritage Florida, filed a federal lawsuit last month in the District of Columbia accusing the Army, which oversees the cemetery, of violating regulations in an apparent effort to rush the process and get the monument down by January.
The National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2021 requires that the Pentagon remove "all names, symbols, displays, monuments, and paraphernalia that honor or commemorate the Confederate Sates of America (commonly referred to as the 'Confederacy') or any person who served voluntarily with the Confederate States of America from all assets of the Department of Defense."'
The deadline for such removals is Jan. 1, 2024.
The D.C. federal court dismissed the lawsuit last week; however, Defend Arlington attempted once more to preserve the monument, this time in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, reported the Associated Press.
Their lawsuit reportedly stated, "The removal will desecrate, damage, and likely destroy the Memorial longstanding at ANC as a grave marker and impede the Memorial's eligibility for listing on the National Register of Historic Places."
With ostensibly no movement on the legal front, the cemetery announced over the weekend that the removal of the Reconciliation Monument, also called the Confederate Memorial, was in compliance with both the National Environmental Policy Act and the National Historic Preservation Act and would be completed by no later than Dec. 22.
Additionally, the cemetery claimed that "[d]uring the deconstruction, the area around the Memorial will be protected to ensure no impact to the surrounding landscape and grave markers and to ensure the safety of visitors in and around the vicinity of the deconstruction."
U.S. District Judge Rossie Alston, Jr., threw a wrench in the removal plans, granting Defend Arlington a temporary restraining order on Monday, barring the Pentagon from tearing down the 109-year-old monument.
Alston was reportedly concerned by the possibility that grave sites might be disturbed — a prospect raised by the lawyer for the plaintiffs. Alston also made clear that just as he takes the possibility of such disturbances seriously, he "takes very seriously the representations of officers of the Court."
"Should the representations in this case be untrue or exaggerated the Court may take appropriate sanctions," added Alston.
David McCallister, a spokesman for Save Southern Heritage Florida, indicated the Virginia case is stronger than the case dismissed in D.C. because there is now evidence that the removal underway disturbs grave sites.
Although it won't bring closure, this turn of events may nevertheless bring some hope to those in both parties who have denounced the effort to remove the monument.
Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.) and 40 Republicans called on Defense Secretary Austin in a letter last week to suspend all removal activities related to the Reconciliation Monument until Congress finalized the appropriations process for fiscal year 2024.
Clyde stressed that the memorial is exempt from the removal requirement because it "does not honor nor commemorate the Confederacy and that it commemorates reconciliation and nation unity." Additionally, "the Naming Commission's authority explicitly prohibits the desecration of grave sites."
Former U.S. Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) indicated in an August Wall Street journal op-ed that the statue's toppling would signify the desire of a "deteriorating society ... to erase the generosity of its past, in favor of bitterness and misunderstanding conjured by those who do not understand the history they seem bent on destroying."
The Reconciliation Monument was approved in 1906 by Secretary of War William Taft; commissioned by the United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1910; designed by Jewish former Confederate soldier Moses Jacob Ezekiel; and unveiled in Section 16 of the cemetery by President Woodrow Wilson on June 4, 1914.
A hearing concerning the removal has been scheduled in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia for Wednesday.
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Unhinged Democrats Harass Republican Poll Watchers In Virginia: ‘I’m Gonna F-cking Remember You’
Tuesday’s state legislative elections are a big deal for Virginia Republicans. If they can maintain their majority in the House of Delegates and flip the Senate, they’ll have trifecta control of the state government for the first time in 10 years. With bills protecting the unborn, increasing transparency in education, and furthering election integrity likely […]Virginia AG confirms validity of Youngkin's new school policy, which upholds parental rights and curbs gender ideology: 'It's not just common sense, it's the law'
Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares confirmed in a Wednesday opinion the legitimacy and constitutionality of the model policies advanced by the Virginia Department of Education under Gov. Glenn Youngkin, which curb gender ideology and keep students' sports and bathrooms sex-segregated.
Miyares indicated the parental rights-affirming policies comply with the Virginia Human Rights Act, the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment, and Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972, making clear that "school boards across the Commonwealth should support and implement them. It's not just common sense, it's the law."
While LGBT activists and school board officials have taken issue with the policies, Miyares indicated that "every single school district has to reckon with" the prospect that their failure to fall in line with the law will open them up to legal action by parents.
— (@)
The model policies
The VDOE's "Model Policies on Ensuring Privacy, Dignity and Respect for All Students and Parents in Virginia's Public Schools" highlights at the outset the pre-eminence of parental rights, particularly as it pertains to children and their education.
The VDOE noted that the activist policies under the previous administration "disregarded the rights of parents and ignored other legal and constitutional principles that significantly impact how schools educate students," so it has nullified them and started again.
This time around, the department defers to parents "to make the best decisions with respect to their children" and guarantees them they will remained informed about their children's well-being "without limitation."
This way, children will not needlessly suffer mental illnesses such as gender dysphoria or undergo transitioning behind their parents' backs.
According to the new model policies:
- School personnel will refer to each student only by the name that appears in their student record or a nickname "commonly associated" with their official name;
- School personnel "shall refer to each student using only the pronouns appropriate to the sex appearing in the student's official record - that is, male pronouns for a student whose sex is male, and female pronouns for a student whose sex is female";
- Biologically incongruous pronouns and a different name are to be used only if a student's parents provide written instructions to that effect;
- School personnel and students alike cannot be compelled to refer to other students "in any manner that would violate their constitutionally protected rights";
- Biological sex, not so-called "gender identity," will be the determining factor for what sex-segregated school program, event, or activity a student participates in, including athletic activities;
- Where federal law requires transvestites to share in otherwise sex-segregated facilities with students of the opposite sex, parents have the right to opt their children out of using such facilities and shall be provided alternatives; and
- Locker rooms, bathrooms, and travel overnight accommodations will also be based on sex.
Parental rights-affirming care
Having detailed the various ways the policies conform to federal and state laws, Miyares stated his opinion "confirms what the overwhelming number of Virginians already know[:] parents have a fundamental right to the care, upbringing, and education of their children. Parents, not government, are in he best position to work with their children on important life decisions."
"No parent signs up to co-parent with the government," continued Miyares.
Following the AG's affirmation, Youngkin wrote on X, "In Virginia, we will always empower parents and always stand up for the privacy, dignity, and respect of all students in the commonwealth."
Last month, the governor stated these policies will "empower parents, prohibit discrimination, create a safe and vibrant learning environment by addressing bullying incidents immediately, and protect the privacy and dignity of all students through bathroom policies, athletic procedures, and student identification measures."
According to the Virginia Mercury, Spotsylvania County Public Schools became Virginia's first school district to adopt the policies. Roanoke County followed suit shortly thereafter.
Some districts are refusing to obey, instead following the policies advanced by former Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam, whom Virginians determined at the ballot box was undeserving of another term.
ABC News indicated that the 2020 state law that brought about the creation of the model policies is mute on the subject of enforcement.
Jack Preis, a law professor at the University of Richmond, noted that school districts that flout the model policies, like Arlington Public Schools and Fairfax County Public Schools, would indeed be violating the law, though it is unclear what can be done to bring them to heel.
"There could be political consequences, but in terms of specific legal consequences, those would only flow from a judicial decision. And we won't see a judicial decision unless Miyares or an unhappy parent has the power to demand judicial enforcement. It appears unlikely that either of them have that power," said Preis.
Leftist apoplexy
Equality Virginia, an LGBT activist group among the various leftist outfits that have decried the VDOE's new policies, previously suggested that they serve to "escalate a culture war and drop a policy that harms kids."
The ACLU of Virginia claimed they will "harm and endanger trans youth."
Breanna Diaz, policy and legislative counsel with the state ACLU, said last month, "We are horrified that VDOE opted to move forward with proposed model policies that at best invite – and at worst, require – discrimination, that violate state and federal law, and have no place in Virginia schools.
It appears the the ACLU was unswayed by Miyares' opinion.
ACLU of Virginia legal director Eden Heilman said in a statement Thursday, "VDOE’s proposed model policies are part of a coordinated, national effort to erase transgender and nonbinary students from the classroom. ... Attorney General Jason Miyares’ opinion defending the policies is every bit as cruel and misguided as the policies themselves."
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Former FBI contractor accused of grooming dozens of boys, soliciting child pornography
A former FBI contractor from Arlington, Virginia, has been indicted for allegedly grooming dozens of children and soliciting child pornography.
Brett William Janes, who began working for the FBI in May and previously worked for another unspecified intelligence agency, engaged with "roughly a dozen" young boys over Discord and Snapchat.
According to the Department of Justice, Janes groomed his victims by flashing his badge and "telling them he worked for a U.S. intelligence agency before repeatedly threatening suicide if the minors did not continue to communicate with him."
In one instance, the former FBI contractor successfully enticed a young boy he had met via the video game "Valorant" to "strip and masturbate over a live video Discord call," both by paying him hundreds of dollars over CashApp and again threatening to kill himself, said the DOJ.
Janes allegedly also had a 12-year-old boy create and send him child pornography via Discord "through flattery and repeated begging."
The DOJ said that in addition to soliciting and acquiring child pornography from these and other minor victims, Janes allegedly purchased hundreds of videos and images of child sex abuse material over Telegram and attempted to meet up with a minor.
Charging documents indicate that after learning one victim was only 14, Janes tried to have him come over to his house.
Paul Fisher, a special agent with the FBI Washington field office's Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force, indicated in his affidavit supporting Janes' arrest — which took place on May 31 — that the investigation into the accused kicked off in February after a concerned father notified police in Galloway Township, New Jersey, that he had discovered his son had been communicating with an adult over Discord.
Washington-based FBI agents began pursuing the case after agents in Atlantic City, New Jersey, provided them with a lead on April 21, 2023.
The former FBI contractor appears to have made it relatively easy for investigators to track him down, having sent pictures of the badges he used to access federal buildings to his victims. His IP address, email address, and phone number also reportedly corresponded the offending Discord account.
A federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia indicted him Wednesday on two counts of sexual exploitation of children and production of child pornography, one count of attempting coercion and enticement, and one count of receipt of child pornography.
If convicted, he will serve at least 15 years in prison and could face life in prison.
WUSA-TV noted that anyone who believes they or someone they know may have been victimized by Janes should contact the FBI at 202-278-2000.
Court documents indicated his username on Discord was "revision#3409."
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