Ladies, You Don’t Have To Vote For Kamala Harris
Harris, like most female Democrat politicians, relies on one issue and one issue alone to shore up votes from women: abortion.
Students within the Springfield City School District are not safe taking school buses to and from campus, a verified employee who has worked for the district for half a decade told Blaze News’ Julio Rosas.
Blaze News has chosen to keep the employee anonymous after the district sent an email, which was reviewed by Blaze News, encouraging its staff not to speak to the media.
'Our law enforcement, our fire department, everywhere has exhausted its resources because of this influx.'
The worker told Rosas, “If you value your safety, don’t come here. It’s not worth it.”
The employee stated that the entire town is “suffering” because of the massive influx of Haitian nationals who have arrived in the city in recent years.
The flood of new arrivals has led to an increase in non-English-speaking students entering the school system, which, the worker said, has put a strain on the entire district.
According to the staff member, the most significant concern facing the school district is maintaining the safe transportation of students to and from its campuses.
The Springfield City School District comprises 17 schools from preschool through 12th grade, serving approximately 7,700 students, its website states.
“We want to safely take your kids to school,” the employee told Blaze News. “We want to give you that peace of mind.”
“Unfortunately, we have no control of what happens outside [the bus],” the worker explained. “We only have control of what happens inside.”
Many local residents have raised concerns that the influx of Haitian nationals to Springfield and the surrounding municipalities has led to a substantial increase in traffic accidents — some of them deadly.
On the first day of school in August 2023, 11-year-old Aiden Clark was killed after the bus he was riding was struck by an unlicensed Haitian driver. The rollover accident also sent 20 other students to the hospital.
The school district employee explained that many individuals in the community are running the buses’ stop signs.
“It’s not just Haitians doing it; it’s Springfield people too,” the worker told Blaze News.
The employee explained that the community’s resources are “exhausted” due to the influx of new arrivals. According to 2020 Census data, the total population in Springfield was nearly 60,000. However, in recent years, roughly 20,000 Haitian nationals have relocated to the city.
“Our law enforcement, our fire department, everywhere has exhausted its resources because of this influx. It’s not just within the school district, but it’s everywhere. It’s really bad,” the worker stated.
The employee expressed concerns that the strained resources would result in a slower response time from emergency services if another serious bus accident were to happen.
Rosas previously interviewed David Cook, owner and operator of the Plastic Lumber Store in Springfield, who told him that many of the district’s students were scared to get back on the bus after the fatal crash last year.
The school district employee confirmed that the children fear riding the bus to and from school.
“Are the kids safe on those school buses?” Rosas asked.
“If you put in all the factors, the outside factors, no,” the employee replied.
The school district did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.
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A Massachusetts high school girls' field hockey team whose player was seriously injured by a male opponent last fall is forfeiting a game next week against a team with a male player for safety reasons.
The squad from Dighton-Rehoboth High School is scratching its game next Tuesday against Somerset Berkley's team, which includes a male player, WJAR-TV reported.
'When you mix males into a traditional female sport, the risk of the severity of the injury is much greater.'
Readers of Blaze News may recall the viral video showing a male player from Swampscott High School taking a high-powered shot on Dighton-Rehoboth's goal during a playoff game on Nov. 2, 2023.
But the ball instead hit a Dighton-Rehoboth player hard in her face and ricocheted far from the point of impact; the injured player fell to her knees and cried out — as did her teammates. A number of them turned their faces away after coming to her aid, and play was halted while the injured female player was treated. She was released from a hospital the next day, but Dighton-Rehoboth Superintendent Bill Runey said she suffered "significant facial and dental injuries," the Sun Chronicle reported.
Runey in an interview with WJAR this season said the decision to forfeit next week's game "could potentially impact our chances for qualifying for the playoffs, but there are times where we have to choose safety over victory."
The station said the forfeit decision represents the first time the district is going by a new athletic policy passed this year that lets players and coaches opt out of games or forfeit them when opposing teams field players of the opposite sex.
When asked what he would say to those who believe the new policy is unfair, Runey told WJAR that detractors are not "seeing the safety concerns we have. When you mix males into a traditional female sport, the risk of the severity of the injury is much greater.”
Massachusetts scholastic rules allow males to play sports with females if there are no male teams for that sport available — and vice versa. Indeed, Runey added to the station that the district's new policy also can be used if an all-boys team is scheduled to play a squad with female players.
He noted to WJAR that another field hockey game in October also will be forfeited. The station said it reached out to the Somerset Berkley School District but did not hear back.
You can view a video report here about the decision to forfeit the game.
In regard to the male Swampscott player whose shot injured the Dighton-Rehoboth player during the playoff game last season, he scored a goal soon after play resumed. In fact, he scored both goals for Swampscott, giving his team a 2-0 victory and eliminating Dighton-Rehoboth from the tournament.
It won't come as a shock, either, that the male Swampscott player reportedly was a Northeastern Conference All-Star and a four-year varsity player and team co-captain, WCVB-TV reported, citing Swampscott Public Schools Athletic Director Kelly Wolff.
Amid the controversy last year, a teammate of the injured player wrote a letter of protest to the state's lnter-Scholastic Athletic Association.
Kelsey Bain — at the time a Dighton-Rehoboth team captain — said in her letter that "we all witnessed the substantial damage that a male has the ability to cause against a female during a game. How much longer does the MIAA plan on using girls as statistical data points before they realize that boys do not belong in girls’ sports?”
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Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, the former chair of the January 6 Select Committee, was among a handful of Democrats who rushed to condemn political violence over the weekend after the man they spent years demonizing was nearly murdered by an assassin.
Thompson's comments were poorly received.
Some critics questioned Thompson's sincerity, noting he had led the charge on painting President Donald Trump as an insurrectionist and a traitor. Earlier this month, Thompson also suggested that Trump — whom he previously claimed represents extremism — had dictatorial aspirations, telling CNN, "I don't want my government to become an oppressor. We can't have a president who thinks they are king. He can't be a dictator for a day. He can't get any of that. And so what we have in this person is somebody who basically is not a good person."
Other critics highlighted his staffer's instructions to prospective assassins not to "miss next time." Jacqueline Marsaw resigned from her position on Thompson's team after also writing in response to the attempted assassination, "That's what your hate speech got you!"
Most critics, however, referenced Thompson's recent effort to strip away Trump's U.S. Secret Service protection.
Thompson wrote shortly after the assassination attempt, "There is no room in American democracy for political violence. I am grateful for law enforcement's fast response to this incident."
"I am glad the former President is safe, and my thoughts and prayers go out to everyone involved," added the Mississippi Democrat, up for re-election in November.
— (@)
While Thompson is supposedly now glad that Trump is safe, he introduced a bill on April 19 entitled the Denying Infinite Security and Government Resources Allocated toward Convicted and Extremely Dishonorable Former Protectees Act — which he shortened to the "DISGRACED Former Protectees Act."
Democratic Reps. Troy Carter (La.), Barbara Kee (Calif.), Frederica Wilson (Fla.), Yvette Clarke (N.Y.), Bonnie Watson Coleman (N.J.), Jasmine Crockett (Texas), Joyce Beatty (Ohio), and Steve Cohen (Tenn.) were early supporters of the bill.
Thompson released a corresponding fact sheet, which noted, "The United States government has long recognized the need to protect Presidents, former Presidents, other high-level officials, and select family members of those officials from harm."
"Former President Donald J. Trump's unprecedented 91 felony charges in Federal and State courts across the country have created a new exigency that Congress must address to ensure Secret Service protection does not interfere with the criminal judicial process and the administration of justice," continued the fact sheet.
According to Thompson, the provision of Secret Service protection to Trump following a conviction might "serve as an impediment to the equal administration of justice and present logistical difficulties for both the Secret Service and prison authorities."
In light of these imagined challenges, Thompson figured it would be best to terminate Secret Service protection altogether for Trump.
'If you had succeeded, President Trump would be dead.'
Thompson made sure there was no mistaking his aim, explicitly indicating in his fact sheet, "This measure would apply to former President Trump."
While the Secret Service now faces scrutiny about security failures at Trump's rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, it appears the agents Thompson sought to deny Trump nevertheless acted quickly to shield the Republican as gunshots rang out.
"You tried to strip his secret service protection," Will Chamberlain of the Article III Project wrote to Thompson. "If you had succeeded, President Trump would be dead. Resign."
Donald Trump Jr. tweeted, "Remember, if @BennieGThompson and the Democrats got their way, my dad would be dead right now. Don't let them memory hole it."
Thompson told the Mississippi Clarion Ledger, "My bill would not have affected the Secret Service's presence during this tragic event."
"It aims to clarify lines of authority when a protectee is sentenced to prison and is in the custody of another law enforcement agency. That does not apply to the former President," added Thompson.
Again, Republicans aren't buying what Thompson is selling and have called on him to resign.
Mississippi State Auditor Shad White (R) tweeted, "Bennie Thompson—the Mississippi congressman who tried to strip President Trump of Secret Service protection and whose aide apparently wished on social media that the shooter’s aim had been better—should resign TODAY."
White told the Ledger, "It was completely irresponsible when he proposed legislation to take away President Trump’s Secret Service protection. He is one of the most senior Democrats on the U.S. House Homeland Security committee, so he knows better."
"In my opinion he wanted to endanger President Trump’s life to score some political points," continued White. "He has clearly hired and promoted nut job staffers, as one openly called for President Trump’s assassination. Thompson should resign immediately."
The Mississippi Republican Party similarly called on Thompson to resign Sunday, noting his attempt to remove Trump's Secret Service protection as well as his ex-staffer's recent remarks.
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The World Professional Association for Transgender Health is the organization responsible for the "gender medicine" guidelines regarded as authoritative by various American health institutions and groups, including the American Medical Association, the Endocrine Society, and the American Academy of Pediatrics.
While Britain's landmark Cass Review and other studies have demonstrated WPATH's recommendations to be largely indefensible, a report published in March by Environmental Progress revealed that the organization may not be wholly interested in sound defenses. After all, some of its members appear to be freewheeling radicals happily engaged in horrifying pseudo-science.
According to Mia Hughes' 242-page report, WPATH members "demonstrate a lack of consideration for long-term patient outcomes despite being aware of the debilitating and potentially fatal side effects of cross-sex hormones and other treatments."
Internal documents and videos detailed in the report revealed that WPATH members have knowingly given irreversible medical treatments to mentally compromised victims incapable of providing consent; acknowledged minors cannot comprehend the long-term consequences of so-called gender affirmation; glossed over the regrets of victims of sex changes; and manufactured fake body parts in elective surgeries that do not "exist in nature."
Despite WPATH's clear lack of mooring in science and ethics, the organization is still apparently not extreme enough for the Biden administration.
According to an unsealed court document in the federal case Boe v. Marshall, Biden's transvestic assistant secretary of Health and Human Services successfully pressured WPATH to drop its recommended minimum age requirements for sex-change mutilations.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, and various other leftist groups have been working in Boe to undermine the democratic will of the residents of Alabama by axing the Alabama Vulnerable Child Compassion and Protection Act. The act banned the administration of sterilizing puberty blockers, sex-change mutilations, or cross-sex hormones to minors.
The unsealed document that details conversations between the organization's leadership and Rachel Levine regarding WPATH's "Standards of Care Version 8" — as well as other subpoenaed materials WPATH apparently fought in court to keep hidden — is part of a broader report submitted in the case by Dr. James Cantor in support of Alabama's ban.
One internal WPATH message noted, "I have just spoken to Admiral Levine today, who — as always is extremely supportive of the SOC 8, but also very eager for its release — so to ensure integration in the US health policies of the Biden government. So, let's crack on with the job."
Another WPATH message indicated that Levine not only sought to rush the process but had communicated to the organization via his chief of staff, Sarah Boateng, that the "biggest concern is the section below in the Adolescent Chapter that lists specific minimum ages for treatment."
The New York Times indicated that the draft guidelines initially recommended age minimums of 17 for genital mutilations, 15 for healthy breast removals, 16 for breast implants, and 14 for hormone treatments.
Levine wanted these minimums eliminated and to expose vulnerable children to unnecessary surgeries WPATH members elsewhere acknowledged they could not consent to — not because of scientific evidence but because of politics.
"[Levine] is confident, based on the rhetoric she is hearing in DC, and from what we have already seen, that these specific listings of ages, under 18, will result in devastating legislation for trans care," said the internal WPATH message. "She wonders if the specific ages can be taken out and perhaps an adjunct document could be created that is published or distributed in a way that is less visible than the SOC8, is the way to go."
"The issue of ages and treatment has been quite controversial (mainly for surgery) and it has come up again," said another internal WPATH message. "We sent the document to Admiral Levine. ... She like [sic] the SOC-8 very much but she was very concerned that having ages (mainly for surgery) will affect access to health care for trans youth and maybe adults too. Apparently the situation in the USA is terrible and she and the Biden administration worried that having ages in the document will make matters worse. She asked us to remove them. We have the WPATH executive committee in this meeting and we explained to her that we could not just remove them at this stage."
In a subsequent message, WPATH confirmed that in response to Levine's requests, the organization had made changes to how the minimum ages were presented in the documents.
The court document indicated further that rather than admit Levine's influence in the face of questions over its abrupt and visible removal of recommended age minimums, WPATH "fabricated a false explanation."
WPATH suggested that the changes were the result of an effort to place the "emphasis back on individualized patient care rather than some sort of minimal final hurdle that could encourage superficial evaluations and treatments outside of the thorough and comprehensive pathway recommended by WPATH standards."
Cantor told the Times, "What's being told to the public is totally different from WPATH's discussions in private."
Mia Hughes, whose report exposed WPATH earlier this year, reached a similar conclusion, but went farther, telling Blaze Media co-founder and nationally syndicated radio host Glenn Beck last month, "The Hippocratic Oath has long been abandoned by these people."
— (@)
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The NFL has authorized the use of Guardian Caps, a layer of padding for the outside of a football helmet, to be used during games for the 2024 season.
The caps are meant to "reduce player risk and continue driving innovations in equipment technology," the league said in an announcement.
"Guardian Caps have been authorized for in-game use this season," the league added.
The NFL has identified two specific areas where there have been an unnecessary amount of head injuries. The first being practice and training camps.
"We now have two years of data showing significant concussion reductions among players who wear Guardian Caps during practice so players will be permitted to wear the cap during games this upcoming season," said Jeff Miller, the NFL's executive vice president overseeing player health and safety.
After introducing the Guardian Caps during training camps in 2022, the NFL then mandated them during 2023 preseason practices and every regular-season and postseason practice with contact.
The league cited a reduction in force from head contact by 10% if one player is wearing a cap and 20% if all players involved in a play are wearing them.
To reduce player risk and continue driving innovations in equipment technology, Guardian Caps have been authorized for in-game use this season.\n\nHear more from @NFL Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Allen Sills: https://t.co/PpqOBxEiHl— (@)
Kickoffs are another area of concern. With players running into each other in a full sprint all over the field, kickoffs had two times the amount of concussions as a regular football play, the NFL found.
"For several years, Player Health & Safety has been tracking kickoff injury data, so it's been an area of focus," Chief Football Administrative Officer Dawn Aponte stated.
"We've had discussions with the Competition Committee, with Owners Health & Safety Committee, and it was something specifically related to concussions, that that injury rate was showing up as 2x the injury rate of a play from scrimmage."
The NFL is allowing Guardian Caps for games this year, thoughts?— (@)
Dr. Ann Bailey Good, asenior mechanical engineer at Biocore, explained that typically there had been one or two new helmet designs that showed progress toward fewer head injuries. "This year," she stated, "with five, it really speaks to the new technology that's been built into [the helmets]."
The NFL then announced that there are a total of 12 new helmets for players to choose from in 2024, including eight specifically for linemen and quarterbacks.
"There are new helmets this year that provide as much – if not more – protection than a different helmet model paired with a Guardian Cap. These developments represent substantial progress in our efforts to make the game safer for players," EVP Miller added.
As for the Guardian Caps at practices, they were mandated for players in positions that engage in significant amounts of contact on most plays: running backs, fullbacks, linemen, and linebackers.
This left just kickers, punters, quarterbacks, wide receivers, and defensive backs as those who weren't required to wear them.
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A massive container ship attempting to leave the waters around New York City Friday reportedly suffered a similar issue to that experienced by the vessel that tragically brought the historic Francis Scott Key Bridge crashing into Baltimore Harbor late last month.
Unlike the Singapore-flagged Dali, the propulsion problem suffered by the APL Qingdao did not ultimately prove to be calamitous.
The U.S. Coast Guard confirmed to the New York Post that the APL Qingdao, a 1,145-foot, 89,000-ton ship flying under the Malta flag, lost propulsion around 8:30 p.m. while sailing along the shipping lane between Staten Island and Bayonne, New Jersey.
According to John Konrad, a maritime journalist and the CEO of gCaptain, the three tugboats that had been escorting the ship down the 3-mile Kill Van Kull waterway were aided by another three in an effort to bring the ship under control.
The ship subsequently dropped anchor just north of the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge.
BREAKING: A NY tugboat captain has reported to @gCaptain \u201ccontainer ship APL QINGDAO lost power while transiting New York harbor. They had 3 escort tugs but 3 more were needed to bring her under control. They regained power & were brought to anchor near the verrazano bridge\u201d— (@)
"Coast Guard Vessel Traffic Service New York received a report from the M/V APL Qingdao around 8:30pm, Friday, that the vessel had experienced a loss of propulsion in the Kill Van Kull waterway," the Coast Guard said in a statement obtained by the Post.
"The vessel regained propulsion and was assisted to safely anchor in Stapleton Anchorage, outside of the navigable channel just north of the Verrazano Bridge, by three towing vessels," continued the statement. "These towing vessels were escorting the vessel as a routine safety measure, which is a common practice for large vessels departing their berth."
Prior to leaving, the crew had to submit a casualty report accounting for what caused the loss of power. CBS News noted that repairs were also made to the ship's system following the incident.
At the time of publication, VesselFinder indicated that the ship had successfully made its way out of the New York harbor and was nearing its destination of Norfolk, Virginia.
Staten Island Assemblyman Charles Fall (D) told SILive.com, "While the swift response by tugboats to secure the vessel prevented immediate harm, this incident further highlights the urgent need for comprehensive safety reviews of the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, the Goethals Bridge, the Bayonne Bridge, and the Outerbridge Crossing."
"The recent disaster at the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Maryland is a harrowing reminder of what could happen if we fail to prioritize the integrity of our infrastructure," added Fall.
BREAKING: Ship collides with Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, causing it to collapse— (@)
Two weeks after power outages and a propulsion problem allegedly sent the container ship Dali crashing into Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge, divers continue to search for bodies. At least six people are believed to be dead.
Officials announced Friday that they had recovered the body of a third victim, 38-year-old Maynor Yasir Suazo-Sandoval, reported the Independent.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers indicated that a new channel will be ready for use by month's end, enabling ships to enter and leave the second-busiest port in the mid-Atlantic.
Gov. Wes Moore (D) told CBS News' "Face the Nation" that maritime operations in the Port of Baltimore could be functional as early as May.
March was apparently a bad month for American bridges and boats.
A bridge over the Arkansas River south of Sallisaw, Oklahoma, was also struck by a boat late last month. Despite a powerful thwacking sound, there was minimal damage and no casualties.
The Associated Press reported that a barge struck a pier holding Highway 59 over the river on March 30. After a brief road closure, the Oklahoma Department of Transportation indicated that the structure was subsequently deemed sound by engineers and safe to transit.
Barge crashes into the Arkansas River Bridge in Oklahoma— (@)
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