Big Pharma And Big Food Are Shaking In Their Boots At A Second Trump Era
The incoming Trump administration poses a major threat to the unholy alliance between pharmaceutical giants and Big Agriculture.The incoming Trump administration poses a major threat to the unholy alliance between pharmaceutical giants and Big Agriculture.Californians vote overwhelmingly to get tougher on crime, despite Newsom's opposition
Californians tired of watching thieves and drug addicts overrun their communities voted overwhelmingly to pass a measure to impose harsher penalties for certain crimes.
Proposition 36, otherwise known as the Drug and Theft Crime Penalties and Treatment-Mandated Felonies Initiative, is not so much a new proposal as a means of modifying a previous one.
Proposition 36 seeks to alter Proposition 47, which passed a decade ago. Under Proposition 47, theft of items worth under $950 could not be prosecuted as a felony, effectively allowing thieves to smash-and-grab their way through drug and big-box stores with little more than a slap on the wrist.
'Retailers were only concerned about their bottom lines and not true criminal sentencing reform.'
Prop 36 promised to change the law to increase the penalties for theft and certain drug crimes, in some cases imposing sentences of up to three years behind bars, depending on a defendant's prior criminal history. It would also make certain drug crimes "treatment-mandated felonies," which means convictions for them can be dismissed in the event an offender completes treatment, the New York Post reported.
Though failed Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, a former U.S. senator from California, declined to say whether she voted in favor of Prop 36, other Democrat leaders and liberal outfits in her home state previously voiced opposition to the measure.
"Prop 36 takes us back to the 1980s, mass incarceration — it promotes a promise that can’t be delivered," Gov. Gavin Newsom claimed.
The LA Times insisted that Prop 36 would be "disastrous" for the state.
KTLA revealed its disapproval of the bill by suggesting that Californians merely "perceived" a recent increase in crime in their state. The outlet also indicated that those who backed the measure had impure motives.
"Big box stores like Walmart were among the major financial backers of Prop 36—some argued that the retailers were only concerned about their bottom lines and not true criminal sentencing reform," it said.
Still, the measure did enjoy some support from other liberals, including San Francisco Mayor London Breed, who claimed it would "make targeted but impactful changes to our laws around fentanyl and help us tackle the chronic retail theft that hurts our retailers, our workers, and our cities."
The vast majority of California voters likewise supported Prop 36, which passed with nearly 71% of the 7.6 million ballots cast, according to current totals.
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Dems Targeted Trump Official For Past Alcoholism Then Cried Foul On Biden Addiction Stories
Democrats tried to exploit the alcoholic past of a Trump official in the same election they cried foul over critiques of Hunter Biden's crack addiction.The P. Diddy Indictment Is Also An Indictment Of Our Depraved Culture
For decades, Diddy made music about coercive, drug-fueled sex fantasies. Now he stands accused of living a lifestyle that matched his bravado.Woman spills cocaine at elementary school, beats staffer who tries reporting — even strangles victim with his own tie: Police
An Illinois woman was arrested after she reportedly attacked a staff member of an elementary school Wednesday — and baggies of cocaine spilled upon the floor sparked the alleged assault, according to authorities.
Officers with the Rockford Police Department arrested Shakeda Barfield, 33, on Wednesday after accusations that she battered an elementary school employee.
The elementary school visitor reportedly became violent and subsequently attacked, punched, scratched, and bit the victim.
According to WREX, the Winnebago County State’s Attorney’s Office filed the following charges against Barfield: possession of a controlled substance, possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance, aggravated battery/strangulation, aggravated battery to a school employee, and disorderly conduct.
Police were summoned to the Welsh Elementary School around 9:35 a.m. after a 911 call about a “disruptive visitor” who was battering a staff member, according to WTVO.
The news outlet reported that Barfield was at a morning meeting with a school staff member when baggies of cocaine fell from her clothing to the floor. The elementary school employee noticed the baggies of cocaine before Barfield scooped them up, according to court documents.
The school staff member allegedly attempted to call police to report the illegal drugs, but Barfield reportedly became violent and subsequently attacked, punched, scratched, and bit the victim.
During the physical altercation, Barfield purportedly attempted to strangle the male victim with his own tie, court docs said.
Police said the elementary school employee suffered multiple injuries and was bleeding when officers arrived. Medics arrived at the Welsh Elementary School to tend to the staff member's injuries, which were considered non-life-threatening.
The alleged violent confrontation caused a lockdown at the school. Classes reportedly continued after the lockdown was lifted.
Officers arrested Barfield and took her to the Winnebago County Jail.
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Mexican cartels use drones to transport drugs into El Paso, conduct surveillance
A federal official in El Paso, Texas, recently confirmed a Mexico law enforcement officer's statements claiming that cartels are deploying drones to transport narcotics into the United States, according to Border Report.
On Thursday, Chihuahua Public Safety Director Gilberto Loya stated that he is seeing an increase in drone use by Mexican drug cartels flying drugs into El Paso.
'We have 15 countermeasure devices against drones.'
He said, "In the area of the [Big Red X] monument, they have been using drones to cross packages of drugs and drop them off on the other side."
The monument, about 100 yards south of the border, is also known as Plaza de la Mexicanidad.
Loya also noted that the cartels in Juarez, Mexico, are using the drones to monitor law enforcement activity on both sides of the border and "as a guide to caravan the migrants into the United States," KTSM reported, translating his comments.
A U.S. federal official told Border Report that there have been drug-drone encounters in the area. However, the official could not provide any details about the number of drones or what types of narcotics are being transported.
The news outlet noted that Juarez cartels are primarily known for trafficking methamphetamine.
Despite confirmations from that official, the Border Report noted that federal officials in El Paso were unable to verify whether drones are crossing into the U.S. or whether they are being used to direct illegal immigrants.
Loya reported that his team has taken down a number of drones in the mountains of Chihuahua near the U.S.-Mexico border.
"We have 15 countermeasure devices against drones. Some force the drone to turn back, some cut off its signal entirely, so it falls to the ground, and some just track the drone to its base," he remarked.
Last month, a leaked bulletin reportedly from the U.S. Border Patrol's Yuma Sector Intelligence Unit warned that Mexican cartels were using drones to "drop explosives" on rival gangs, Blaze News previously reported.
Air Force General Gregory Guillot told the Senate Armed Services Committee earlier this year that there were "over 1,000" drone incursions each month near the border.
"I haven't seen any of them manifest in a threat to the level of national defense, but I see the potential only growing," he told lawmakers.
While authorities report an increase in drone activity at the southern border, law enforcement officials in Juarez are attempting to stave off a cartel's attacks against their surveillance cameras, according to Border Report.
Loya told reporters on Thursday that authorities recently installed 11 cameras on the streets of Juarez to monitor the cartel's activities. Since then, members of the cartel have reportedly shot at the cameras and struck them with hammers. In another instance, they allegedly set a utility pole on fire to destroy the equipment.
"Organized crime feels threatened by this system that is being installed throughout the state," Loya stated.
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Health establishment claims abortion-pill reversal unscientific — fine print suggests otherwise
Democratic officials and various pro-abortion organizations have gone to great lengths to attack abortion-pill reversal, characterizing the life-saving practice as dangerous, unscientific, and ineffective.
A recent report highlighted how the Biden-Harris Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, chief among the institutional exponents of this smear, may have unwittingly planted the seed of this narrative's undoing.
The CDC acknowledged in its 2024 U.S. Selected Practice Recommendations for Contraceptive report that medical abortions can be potentially reversed by precisely the means pro-life organizations employ in their rescue efforts — and it is not the first institution to do so.
Mifepristone
To extinguish the lives growing within them, some pregnant mothers take a drug called mifepristone in conjunction with misoprostol up to 10 weeks into their pregnancies.
Mifepristone — which the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has indicated is linked to a number of serious adverse events as well as the deaths of dozens of mothers — starves the uterus of progesterone, a hormone required for a pregnancy to continue.
Misoprostal then forces the uterus to contract and expel its contents, including the child, usually within days of starting the medication. The Mayo Clinic noted, however, that sometimes mifepristone tablets are not enough to completely end a pregnancy or clear away human remains. In such cases, surgery is required.
Those mothers who immediately regret taking the abortion pill are not altogether hopeless.
Reversal
Numerous pro-life organizations and health care professionals across the country provide abortion-pill reversals. The reversal process reportedly involves the administration of progesterone to undo the effects of the abortion pill; a follow-up ultrasound to confirm the viability of the baby; and at least two weeks of continued progesterone treatments.
There have, however, been conflicting studies in recent years about whether the use of progesterone actually helps reverse the effects of mifepristone.
'The reversal of the effects of mifepristone using progesterone is safe and effective.'
A 2016 paper published in the International Journal of Gynecology & Obstetrics, for instance, suggested that the administration of a progestin-based contraceptive — either an etonogestrel implant or depot medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA) injection — on the same day as mifepristone "did not alter the success rates [of the medical abortions]."
Another study published that same year in Obstetrics & Gynecology alternatively indicated that the administration of depot medroxyprogesterone acetate (DMPA), a progestin hormonal medication sold under the brand name Depo-Provera, increased the chances of "ongoing pregnancy."
Pregnancy Help News noted why Depo-Provera would help in this regard:
With an increased concentration of progesterone, such as the progestin in DepoProvera, the mifepristone is quickly displaced from those receptors. When providing APR, prescribers offer supplemental bio-identical progesterone, which is similar to what the mother’s body produces. This treatment works rapidly to fight the effects of mifepristone blockage.
In 2017, a case report published in the peer-reviewed European Journal of Contraception & Reproductive Health Care concluded, "Progesterone use in early pregnancy is low risk and its application to counter the effects of mifepristone in such circumstances may be clinically beneficial in preserving her threatened pregnancy."
In 2018, a study published in the peer-reviewed professional journal Issues in Law & Medicine claimed, "The reversal of the effects of mifepristone using progesterone is safe and effective."
Admissions
Pregnancy Help News' Christina Brown highlighted a telling admission in a recent CDC report concerning progestin-only injectable contraceptives, such as Depo-Provera.
Under the section, "Special Considerations," there is a subsection titled "Postabortion (Spontaneous or Induced)." There, the CDC states:
After a first trimester medication abortion that included mifepristone, concurrent administration of DMPA with mifepristone might slightly decrease medication abortion effectiveness and increase risk for ongoing pregnancy (U.S. MEC 2) (1). Risk for ongoing pregnancy with concurrent administration of DMPA with mifepristone versus DMPA administration after abortion completion should be considered along with personal preference and access to follow-up abortion and contraceptive care.
Brown noted that the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, another fierce critic of abortion reversals, also appears to have admitted that DMPA can save some babies' lives.
In an October 2020 practice bulletin, ACOG stated, "DMPA injection at the time of mifepristone administration may slightly increase the risk of an ongoing pregnancy."
Despite ample evidence that the administration of progesterone during pregnancy is safe — it is, after all, usually administered during the IVF process as well as to prevent preterm birth in singleton pregnancies — and its constituents' ostensible acknowledgments that reversal is possible, the American health establishment nevertheless appears committed to denying remorseful mothers the choice of saving their babies.
Criticism
The ACOG states on its website, "Facts are important, especially when it comes to policies and discussions that impact patients. Claims regarding abortion 'reversal' treatment are not based on science and do not meet clinical standards."
The ACOG notes further that while the "concurrent administration of DMPA may slightly decrease the effectiveness of mifepristone for medication abortion, the results do not demonstrate that DMPA 'reverses' medication abortion."
The ACOG has dutifully furnished leftists with the perceived credibility they need to target pro-lifers.
When New York Attorney General Letitia James sued Heartbeat International and 11 pro-life pregnancy organizations in May for promoting abortion-pill reversal, she cited the ACOG's concerns.
"Abortions cannot be reversed. Any treatments that claim to do so are made without scientific evidence and could be unsafe," said James. "Heartbeat International and the other crisis pregnancy center defendants are spreading dangerous misinformation by advertising 'abortion reversals' without any medical and scientific proof."
James' lawsuit accused the pro-life groups of fraud for saying that abortion-pill reversal "can reverse the effects of the abortion pill and allow you to continue your pregnancy" — precisely what the CDC's recent report appears to suggest.
James is hardly the first pro-abortion activist to clamp down on those seeking to remedy mothers' regret.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta (D) also sued Heartbeat International last year and a chain of crisis pregnancy centers over their promotion of medical reversal. His lawsuit also referenced the ACOG's claims.
Colorado's Democratic Gov. Jared Polis ratified legislation in April 2023 exposing health care practitioners to discipline if they dared perform an abortion reversal. The law also forced limits on advertising by crisis pregnancy centers.
U.S. District Judge Daniel Domenico blocked the law from taking effect late last year, stating, "The law at issue here runs afoul of these first amendment principles."
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