Councilwoman accused of forging signatures to help someone else qualify for ballot



The re-election efforts of a sitting city councilwoman in Michigan may be in jeopardy after she allegedly forged signatures on a petition in hopes of helping someone else qualify for the ballot.

Monique Lamar-Silvia, a 64-year-old pageant organizer and prison minister, is a member of the city council of Saginaw, Michigan, a blue-collar city of some 44,000 residents located about 100 miles northwest of Detroit. She is also among the 11 candidates currently vying this year for five seats on the council with four-year terms.

After examining those signatures, City Clerk Kristine Bolzman determined that at least three of the new signatures were not legitimate.

One local resident, Eric Eggleston, is not among those who qualified to run for a Saginaw city council seat in 2024, but Lamar-Silvia apparently did her best to help him try.

The official deadline for filing to run for the council was July 23 at 4 p.m. That day, Eggleston reportedly learned that he was six signatures shy of the 50 signatures required to qualify for the race.

Video footage captured inside and outside Saginaw City Hall shows Eggleston and Lamar-Silvia venturing to the building late that afternoon, less than an hour before the deadline, MLive reported.

Eggleston entered the building, took two more petition sheets, and went back outside to try and wrangle up six more signatures. Lamar-Silvia attempted to help him, video showed, though an official soon warned her that she had to step off the entrance ramp to do so.

Lamar-Silvia complied and eventually gathered at least one more signature for Eggleston. Carly Hammond, who is also running for a two-year partial seat on the council, happened to arrive at city hall at about that time and agreed to sign Eggleston's petition.

"I was there. I signed the petition. I was trying to help them as they rushing to get signatures," Hammond later told WJRT.

The clock was ticking though, and Lamar-Silvia eventually knelt down beside a concrete surface near the entrance of the building and began writing on Eggleston's petition sheets for some time, video indicated. She did also interact with some individuals during this time.

With just two minutes to spare, Eggleston submitted new forms with six new signatures. However, after examining those signatures, City Clerk Kristine Bolzman determined that at least three of the new signatures were not legitimate.

"It was evident that" the voters "had not signed the sheets themselves," someone from Bolzman's office wrote in a memo obtained by MLive through a Freedom of Information Act request.

Other correspondence from the office obtained by MLive revealed that staff there suspected that Lamar-Silvia had attempted "to falsify signatures on the nominating petition forms" after witnesses saw her "writing for a length of time on the petition sheet" "while checking her phone repeatedly."

Bolzman then contacted Michigan election officials about the incident, and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson's office later confirmed that Lamar-Silvia remains under investigation.

Michigan law strictly forbids an individual from signing a petition with multiple names, and anyone caught doing so can be charged with a felony.

Lamar-Silvia did not respond to multiple requests for comment from MLive. Eggleston, however, defended her: "I fully support and stand with my Councilwoman."

Eggleston never ended up qualifying for the 2024 ballot. He is not the subject of any investigation.

Like the other Saginaw city candidates included on the unofficial Saginaw County general election list, Lamar-Silvia has no formal party affiliation.

H/T: Dave Bondy

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'The Family Sex Show' — sex-ed production aimed at kids as young as 5 that features 'non-sexual nudity' — canceled in UK after 'unprecedented threats'



"The Family Sex Show" — a sex-education stage production aimed at children as young as 5 years old that features "non-sexual nudity" — has been canceled in the United Kingdom after "unprecedented threats" launched at the company putting on the show.

What are the details?

The show "features non-sexual nudity and explores topics such as consent, pleasure, queerness, and gender," BBC News said, adding that it targeted "children as young as five."

In response, more than 38,000 people signed a petition calling for the cancellation of the show, which was set for May performances at Bristol's Tobacco Factory, BBC News reported in a follow-up story. The petition called "The Family Sex Show" "profoundly irresponsible" and "wholly inappropriate."

With that, the theater said on its website that "performances of The Family Sex Show by ThisEgg at Tobacco Factory Theatres have been cancelled ... due to the unprecedented threats and abuse directed at our building and team."

Sex education theatre show aimed at children cancelled after threats and abuse at staffhttps://bbc.in/3rCBqZK
— BBC News (UK) (@BBC News (UK)) 1650387303

The show's creators — ThisEgg — tweeted that it's "regrettable that violent and illegal threats and abuse directed at the company and venues by a small group of people with extremist views has prevented families from opting to attend something that was transparent, consensual and legal."

ThisEgg added that "these public performances would have offered safe and positive learning to children, young people, and guardians about rights, bodies, sex and relationships, advised by safeguarding and educational specialists."

In addition, ThisEgg said it created a website outlining what "The Family Sex Show" is all about. The topics include Bodies & Touch, What Is Sexuality? What Are My Pronouns? and Loving Ourselves.

Anything else?

BBC News reported that some parents anonymously said they were OK with the show and would be happy for their kids to see it, including one Bristol mom who said it was a "great idea" and that her children "would laugh the whole time and put their hands over their eyes and then say to me, 'Why on earth did you bring me here?'"

Bristol therapist and sex education specialist Stephanie Healy told the network she understands why the show would seem "scary" for some parents but urged them to "be brave."

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VIDEO: College students are asked to sign petition to 'unrecognize Memorial Day' as it 'celebrates American imperialism.' It's like handing out free candy.



Campus Reform's video reporter Addison Smith journeyed to Georgetown University as Memorial Day approached to see if students there were interested in signing a petition to "unrecognize Memorial Day as a federal holiday" since it "celebrates American imperialism."

The petition, of course, was fake. But the students' responses were all too real, unfortunately.

What did the students have to say?

The outlet said the petition amassed 50 signatures and that students bought in to the premise with "enthusiasm." One actually condemned Memorial Day as a "celebration of U.S. imperialism and colonialism" before even having seen the petition.

"I don't think Memorial Day should be a thing that we celebrate, personally," he said.

And how did it all start for him? As you might guess, it was a college thing.

"I mean, like, I didn't really think I've been this way until I got to college, and like, I took women's and gender studies classes, and that put me on this path where I'm like, 'Yeah, like, f*** the U.S.,'" he said.

Image source: YouTube screenshot

The student added that the aforementioned classes gave him a "language" as he was learning that "everything is connected, and like, for me, like, I was on this, like, spirituality-type journey where I was like, 'Oh, we're all one' or whatever, and, like, what I was learning in social justice, like, was the material analysis I needed to practice what I feel, like, exists on the spiritual plane in real, everyday life." Or something.

Another student when asked if the U.S. should celebrate Memorial Day said "absolutely not."

Image source: YouTube screenshot

She added that "it represents a lot of negative aspects of America and highlights something that people shouldn't necessarily be proud of. If we're going to honor and celebrate the dead, I think it should be those that lost their lives to, you know, genocide in America." OK.

To top it off, one woman said she wasn't willing to sign the petition because Memorial Day is "one of the bank holidays, and I work at a bank," after which she and another woman broke out in laughter.

Image source: YouTube screenshot

She then added that the U.S. "should probably rebrand Memorial Day as something else; let's celebrate something worthwhile instead of imperialism."

Students Sign Fake Petition To CANCEL MEMORIAL DAY Over 'American Imperialism'youtu.be

Simon & Schuster employees triggered by Mike Pence deal, demand firm stop making deals with Trump officials



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What are the details?

According to an exclusive report from The Wall Street Journal, Simon & Schuster CEO Jonathan Karp was aware that a petition was circulating when he announced internally last week that a memoir by Pence would move forward despite pushback from some employees.

All told, 216 Simon & Schuster employees signed the petition, which equates to roughly 14% of the company's workforce. They also solicited the signatures of another 3,500 outsiders, some of whom were "well-known Black writers," the newspaper wrote.

The Daily Mail later published the contents of the petition in it entirety.

The letter begins by stating:

"The events of the past week have affirmed that Simon & Schuster has chosen complicity in perpetuating white supremacy by publishing Mike Pence and continuing to distribute books for Post Hill Press, including predator Matt Gaetz's FIREBRAND.
By choosing to publish Mike Pence, Simon & Schuster is generating wealth for a central figure of a presidency that unequivocally advocated for racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, anti-Blackness, xenophobia, misogyny, ableism, islamophobia, antisemitism, and violence. This is not a difference of opinions; this is legitimizing bigotry.

The letter goes on to demand that Simon & Schuster "cancel the two-book deal with Mike Pence and do not sign any more book deals with former members of the Trump administration," and "commit to ongoing reevaluations of all clients, authors, distribution deals, and all other financial commitments that promote white supremacist content and/or harm the aforementioned marginalized communities."

The Journal noted the "Simon & Schuster is one of the leading publishers of political books," and just last year published Fox News host Sean Hannity's "Live Free or Die" and former national security adviser John Bolton's anti-Trump book, "The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir."