RadioRob

Published by The State (Columbia, S.C.) COLUMBIA, S.C. — Gov. Henry McMaster on Wednesday called exceptions to South Carolina’s six-week abortion ban a “reasonable” approach, clarifying earlier remarks he gave to reporters when asked whether he’d sign more restrictive legislation without exceptions. McMaster told reporters at the State Election Commission office that he wants the Legislature to send him a reasonable bill to ban abortions as legislators mull how restrictive to go following the overturn of Roe v. Wade. A Republican-led House panel recently proposed anti-abortion recommendations that removed rape and incest exceptions … Read More View the full article

Published by New York Daily News Dr. Anthony Fauci says that the government’s response against monkeypox must include combating anti-gay stigmas that could be associated with the disease. Speaking with NPR’s “All Things Considered” on Tuesday, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), highlighted the importance of treating the virus as one that can affect anybody, and not only a certain part of the population. There are currently 19,188 confirmed cases of monkeypox in the current outbreak, which the World Health Organization has recently classified as a public health emergency. Accordi… Read More View the full article

Published by AlterNet By David Badash Florida GOP Governor Ron DeSantis, continuing his months-long, fear-based attack on the LGBTQ community, appears to be claiming that elementary school teachers are “instructed” to tell children they they might be transgender, and insisting if anyone dares to disagree with him, they are “lying.” His claim, which appears in a clip posted by The Recount, is drawing massive outrage on social media. “This will be for elementary school kids, where they’re instructed to tell them, ‘You may have been born a boy, that may have been what you said, but maybe you’re really a girl.’ That’s … Read More View the full article

Published by Al-Araby An Egyptian social media star has been detained in Saudi Arabia under accusations of being immoral and sexually suggestive online. Tala Safwan – who creates content on TikTok and YouTube – allegedly appeared in a recent TikTok live broadcast, which has been accused of having homosexual, lesbian undertones. The influencer’s arrest in the conservative kingdom – where homosexuality is a potential capital offence – has stirred controversy across social media, as many expressed anger using a hashtag translating to ‘Tala Offends Society’, while others defended her. “The Riyadh police arrested a res… Read More View the full article

Published by Radar Online Mega Donald Trump trashed LeBron James over the weekend during a wild speech about gender transitioning and women’s basketball, Radar has learned. The outrageous incident took place while the ex-president addressed a crowd of right-wing teenagers during Turning Point USA’s Student Action Summit in Tampa, Florida on Saturday. Mega Although Trump revealed he likes Michael Jordan “much better” than James, the former president suggested he would convince the 37-year-old Lakers star to transition into a woman to play on his women’s basketball team. “I’m not a fan of Lebron James at all… I don’t like him,” Trump told the crowd of students, “but I’d say: ‘LeBron, did you ever think of becoming a woman? Did you ever consider, because I’d like to have you on my team. I’d love to have you on our team, LeBron.’” “But think of it, it’s so crazy what’s happening,” Trump added as he criticized and mocked transgender athletes. Trump’s speech at Turning Point USA’s Student Action Summit in Tampa over the weekend came just a few days before the ex-president returned to Washington, D.C. for the first time since leaving office in January 2021. Mega On Tuesday, while giving a speech at a conference hosted by the America First Policy Institute, Trump continued to ridicule transgender athletes while also slamming President Joe Biden, the drug epidemic and the homeless crisis taking place in D.C. and throughout the nation. “This guy comes along, he’s named Alice…world record, world record,” Trump joked about transgender weight lifters as he pretended to lift weights. “We could have put another couple hundred pounds on. It’s so unfair.” “You execute a drug dealer, you save 500 lives,” the ex-president also said while suggesting drug dealers should be put to death. As RadarOnline.com previously reported, Trump’s return to Washington, D.C. on Tuesday – and his speech in Tampa on Saturday – came amid rumors the former president is preparing to announce his plans to run for president again in 2024. Mega RadarOnline.com also exclusively learned that although Trump spoke considerately of his former vice president during his speech Tuesday, the ex-president slammed Mike Pence as “unelectable” while speaking to his supporters behind closed doors. “Mike is unelectable. He doesn’t have the gays’ support. The gays love me. They hate Mike,” Trump reportedly said, according to a source from within the ex-president’s orbit, regarding Pence’s plans to also run in 2024. View the full article

On July 23, the World Health Organization declared monkeypox a public health emergency of international concern. It was a contentious decision, with the WHO’s director-general, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, making the final call and overruling the WHO’s emergency committee. The advisory committee’s disagreements mirrored debates that have been unfolding among public officials, on social media, and in opinion pages over the past several weeks. Is monkeypox a public health emergency when it’s spreading “just” among gay and bisexual men and trans women? To what degree do other populations need to worry? Behind those questions are concerns about stigma and how best to allocate scarce resources. But they also reflect an individualistic understanding of public health. Rather than asking what the monkeypox outbreak means for them now, the public could be asking how the monkeypox outbreak could affect them in the future and why and how it could be contained now. The longer monkeypox transmission goes unchecked, the more likely it is to spill over into other populations. There have already been a handful of cases among women and a couple of cases in children because of household transmission. In otherwise healthy people, monkeypox can be extremely painful and disfiguring. But in pregnant women, newborns, young children, and immunocompromised people, monkeypox can be deadly. Those groups would all be in danger if monkeypox became entrenched in this country. Stopping transmission among men who have sex with men will protect them in the here and now and more vulnerable populations in the future. But with a limited supply of monkeypox vaccine available, how can public health officials best target vaccines equitably for impact? It won’t be enough to vaccinate close contacts of people with monkeypox to stop the spread. Public health officials have been unable to follow all chains of transmission, which means many cases are going undiagnosed. Meanwhile, the risk of monkeypox (and other sexually transmissible diseases) isn’t evenly distributed among gay and bisexual men and trans women, and targeting all of them would outstrip supply. Such a strategy also risks stigmatizing these groups. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently expanded eligibility for monkeypox vaccination to include people who know that a sexual partner in the past 14 days was diagnosed with monkeypox or who had multiple sexual partners in the past 14 days in a jurisdiction with known monkeypox cases. But this approach depends on people having access to testing. Clinicians are testing much more in some jurisdictions than in others. Alternatively, public health officials could target monkeypox vaccinations to gay and bisexual men and trans women who have HIV or are considered at high risk for HIV and are eligible for preexposure prophylaxis, or PrEP (medication to prevent HIV infection). After all, there’s a lot of overlap between these populations and those at risk for monkeypox. But only 25% of people eligible for PrEP in the U.S. are prescribed it, and that proportion drops to 16% and 9% among Hispanic and Black people, respectively. This approach risks missing many people who are at risk and exacerbating racial and ethnic disparities. This is why some LGBTQ+ activists are advocating for more aggressive outreach. “We talk about two kinds of surveillance,” said Gregg Gonsalves, an epidemiologist at the Yale School of Public Health and a longtime AIDS activist. “Passive surveillance, where I show up to my doctor’s office. Active surveillance is where we go out and we seek cases actively by going where people are at. There are parties, social venues, sex clubs where we could be doing monkeypox testing.” This will be especially critical outside gay-friendly cities, where both patients and providers may be less informed and gay sex more stigmatized. In New York City, the epicenter of monkeypox in the U.S., disparities in access to monkeypox vaccines have already emerged. The city’s health department offered appointments for first doses of the vaccine through an online portal and promoted them on Twitter. Those initial doses were administered at a sexual health clinic in the well-to-do Chelsea neighborhood. “It was in the middle of the day,” Gonsalves said. “It was in a predominantly gay white neighborhood. … It really was targeted at a demographic that will be first in line for everything. This is the problem with relying on passive surveillance and people coming to you.” Michael LeVasseur, an epidemiologist at Drexel University, said, “The demographics of that population may not actually reflect the highest-risk group. I’m not even sure that we know the highest-risk group in New York City at the moment.” Granted, three-quarters of the city’s cases had been reported in Chelsea, a neighborhood known for its large LGBTQ+ community, but that’s also a reflection of awareness and access to testing. Although more labs are offering monkeypox testing, many clinicians are still unaware of monkeypox or unwilling to test patients for it. You have to be a strong advocate for yourself to get tested, which disadvantages already marginalized populations. The health department opened a second vaccination site, in Harlem, to better reach communities of color, but most of those accessing monkeypox vaccines there have been white men. And then New York City launched three mass vaccination sites in the Bronx, Queens, and Brooklyn, which were open for one day only. To get the vaccine, you had to be in the know, have the day off, and be willing and able to stand in line in public. How can public health officials do the active surveillance that Gonsalves is talking about to target monkeypox vaccination equitably and to those at highest risk? Part of the answer may lie in efforts to map sexual networks and the spread of monkeypox, like the Rapid Epidemiologic Study of Prevalence, Networks, and Demographics of Monkeypox Infection, or RESPND-MI. Your risk of exposure to monkeypox depends on the probability of someone in your sexual network having monkeypox. The study may, for example, help clarify the relative importance of group sex at parties and large events versus dating apps in the spread of monkeypox across sexual networks. “A network map can tell us, given that vaccine is so scarce, the most important demographics of folk who need to get vaccine first, not just to protect themselves, but actually to slow the spread,” said Joe Osmundson, a molecular microbiologist at New York University and co-principal investigator of the RESPND-MI study. During the initial phase of covid-19 vaccine rollout, when vaccines were given at pharmacies and mass vaccination centers, a racial gap emerged in vaccination rates. Public health officials closed that gap by meeting people where they were, in approachable, community-based settings and through mobile vans, for example. They worked hard with trusted messengers to reach people of color who may be wary of the health care system. Similarly, sexual health clinics may not be a one-size-fits-all solution for monkeypox testing and vaccination. Although sexual health clinics may feel welcoming to some, others may fear being seen there. Others may not be able to go to sexual health clinics because of their limited hours of operation, on weekdays only. It isn’t new for public health officials to meet members of the LGBTQ+ community where they are. During a 2013 outbreak of meningitis among gay and bisexual men and trans women, health departments across the country forged relationships with community-based LGBTQ+ organizations to distribute meningitis vaccines. Unlike New York, Chicago is now leveraging those relationships to vaccinate people at highest risk for monkeypox. Massimo Pacilli, Chicago’s deputy commissioner for disease control, said, “The vaccine isn’t indicated for the general public nor, at this point, for any [man who has sex with men].” Chicago is distributing monkeypox vaccines through venues like gay bathhouses and bars to target those at highest risk. “We’re not having to screen out when people present because we’re doing so upstream by doing the outreach in a different way,” Pacilli said. Monkeypox vaccination “is intentionally decentralized,” he said. “And because of that, the modes by which any individual comes to vaccine is also very diverse.” Another reason to partner with LGBTQ+ community organizations is to expand capacity. The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene is one of the biggest and best-funded health departments in the country, and even it is struggling to respond quickly and robustly to the monkeypox outbreak. “Covid has overwhelmed many public health departments, and they could use the help, frankly, of LGBTQ and HIV/AIDS organizations” in controlling monkeypox, Gonsalves said. But even as public health officials try to control the transmission of monkeypox among gay and bisexual men and trans women in this country, it’s important not to forget that monkeypox has been spreading in West and Central Africa for years. Not all of that transmission has been occurring among men who have sex with men. Strategies for controlling monkeypox will need to be informed by the local epidemiology. Social and sexual mapping will be even more critical but challenging in countries, like Nigeria, where gay sex is illegal. Sadly, wealthier nations are already hoarding monkeypox vaccine supply as they did covid vaccines. If access to monkeypox vaccine remains inequitable, it will leave all countries vulnerable to resurgences in the future. KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation. USE OUR CONTENTThis story can be republished for free (details). KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.Subscribe to KHN’s free Morning Briefing. View the full article

Published by AlterNet By Alex Henderson Dr. Anthony Fauci, now 81, has worked in the United States’ federal government under a long list of Republican and Democratic presidents — most recently, as President Joe Biden’s top White House medical adviser. Fauci was never considered controversial in the past, whether the president was Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush or Barack Obama. But during the COVID-19 pandemic, MAGA Republicans developed an intense disdain for the veteran immunologist — and some far-right MAGA Republicans have promised Fauci-related investigations if they regain control of Congress in t… Read More View the full article

Published by Raw Story By Sky Palma The Republican National Committee has paid nearly $2 million to law firms representing Donald Trump, but now they’re warning the former president that they’ll stop paying his legal bills if he runs for president in 2024, ABC News reports. An RNC official speaking to ABC News said that the party’s “neutrality policy” prohibits it from taking sides in the presidential primary. As ABC News points out, this isn’t the first time Trump’s legal bill have been used as leverage over him. “According to the book ‘Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show,’ by ABC News Chief Washington Corres… Read More View the full article

Published by AFP Former Minneapolis police officers from left to right Derek Chauvin, Tou Thao, J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane in handout photos provided by the Hennepin County Jail Washington (AFP) – Two former Minneapolis police officers were sentenced to prison on Wednesday for their roles in the May 2020 killing of George Floyd, a Black man whose death sparked protests against racial injustice across the United States. US District Judge Paul Magnuson sentenced J. Alexander Kueng, 28, to three years in prison and 36-year-old Tou Thao to three and a half years on federal charges. Kueng and Thao were convicted in February of violating Floyd’s civil rights, showing “deliberate indifference” to his medical needs and failing to intervene to stop the use of “unreasonable force” by another officer, Derek Chauvin. Kueng, Thao and Chauvin were among four police officers involved in Floyd’s arrest for allegedly using a counterfeit $20 bill to buy a pack of cigarettes. Chauvin, a 19-year veteran of the force, was videotaped by a bystander kneeling on the neck of a handcuffed Floyd for nearly 10 minutes until he passed out and died. He was found guilty of murder and is serving more than 20 years in prison. The fourth officer, Thomas Lane, was also convicted in February of violating Floyd’s civil rights and was sentenced to two and a half years in prison. Lane’s lawyers had asked for a lighter sentence for him on the grounds that he had suggested placing Floyd on his side and tried to resuscitate him. “All four officers involved in the tragic death of George Floyd have now been convicted in federal court, sentenced to prison and held accountable for their crimes,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke said in a statement. “The federal prosecution of all officers tied to the death of George Floyd should send a clear and powerful message that the Department of Justice will never tolerate the unlawful abuse of power or victimization of Americans by anyone in law enforcement,” Clarke said. Kueng and Lane helped to restrain Floyd while Thao kept away bystanders who were pleading with the officers to get off of Floyd as he lay face down on the ground complaining he could not breathe. Lane was new to the job when he and fellow rookie cop Kueng apprehended Floyd after a shopkeeper accused him of using a counterfeit bill in his store. As they struggled to get Floyd into their vehicle, the pair were joined by two experienced officers, Chauvin and Thao. Lane pleaded guilty in May to separate state charges of aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter. Kueng and Thao are to go on trial on state manslaughter charges in late October. View the full article

Published by Reuters By Sharon Bernstein MARIPOSA, Calif. (Reuters) -Firefighters on Monday finally started to control California’s largest wildfire so far this year, halting its eastward expansion toward nearby Yosemite National Park while thousands of people remained under evacuation orders. The Oak Fire had expanded rapidly after it began on Friday, overwhelming the initial deployment of firefighters, as extremely hot and dry weather fueled its galloping pace through dry forest and underbrush. But Monday was “a successful day for aircraft and firefighters” as helicopters dropped 300,000 gallons (1.4 million liters) of water on the fire, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) said in a Monday night update. The fire grew to 17,241 acres (6,977 hectares) by Monday night, about a 3% increase from Monday morning, Cal Fire said, more than half the size of San Francisco. It was 16% contained, up from 10% contained on Monday morning, and 3,700 people had been evacuated. The report contrasted with comments on Sunday from several Cal Fire officials who said the fire initially behaved unlike any other they had seen and defied their best efforts at containment, with burning embers sparking smaller fires up to two miles in front of the main conflagration. The absence of other major fires in the region enabled Cal Fire to concentrate 2,500 firefighters on the blaze, and the lack of wind allowed for the continuous use of aircraft to drop water and fire retardant, officials said. “It was a perfect storm of a good kind,” said Hector Vasquez, a Cal Fire spokesperson, at the command post in Mariposa, California, about 150 miles inland from San Francisco. The northward direction of the fire was taking it into the Sierra National Forest but no longer in the direction of Yosemite, some 10 miles away. A grove of Yosemite’s giant, ancient sequoia trees did come under threat from another wildfire weeks ago. Temperatures in the area soared to 97 degrees Fahrenheit (36 Celsius) while scant chances for thunderstorms faded. The National Weather Service forecast 100-degree weather for much of the week. More than two decades of drought and rising temperatures have conspired to make California more vulnerable than ever to wildfires, with the two most devastating years on record coming in 2020 and 2021, when more than 6.8 million acres burned, an area greater than the size of Rwanda. (Additional reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Chicago; Writing by Daniel Trotta; Editing by David Gregorio and Stephen Coates) View the full article

Published by Miami Herald MIAMI — Continuing to target what he calls “woke” corporations, Gov. Ron DeSantis wants to prohibit state investments that use “environmental, social and governance” ratings, which can include taking into account impacts of climate change. DeSantis plans to have the State Board of Administration, which oversees investments, direct pension-fund managers against “using political factors when investing the state’s money.” So-called ESG policies have drawn criticism from Republicans across the country. “We want them (fund managers) to invest the state’s money for the best interests of the benefici… Read More View the full article

Published by Miami Herald MIAMI — Miami’s city government is studying the possibility of taking people experiencing homelessness off the streets and moving them to a city-sponsored encampment on Virginia Key. Commissioners on Thursday will discuss a list of five locations where the city could build a “transition zone” that would include temporary shelters and access to social services for people living on the street. Commissioners have for years debated how to address homelessness in Miami. In recent years, the city has taken steps to make it harder for people to live in public spaces, outside of a shelter. The latest … Read More View the full article

Published by Orlando Sentinel A Ph.D. candidate at a Florida university discovered an ancient shark in a coral reef in the Caribbean. Devanshi Kasana, studying at Florida International University (FIU), made the discovery while working with local Belizean fisherman, according to a Monday press release from FIU. Kasana initially believed it was a six-gill shark. “I knew it was something unusual, and so did the fishers,” she said. “(They) hadn’t ever seen anything quite like it in all their combined years of fishing.” The shark turned out to be a Greenland shark, a half-blind animal thought to live mainly in the freezing Arc… Read More View the full article

Published by Reuters By Simon Lewis and Humeyra Pamuk WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The United States has made “a substantial offer” to Russia to release U.S. citizens detained there, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday, adding that he would be pressing his Russian counterpart to respond in a conversation planned for the coming days. Washington offered Moscow a deal to bring home WNBA star Brittney Griner and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan weeks ago, Blinken said at a State Department news conference, and hoped to advance the process when he speaks to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. “There was a substantial proposal on the table weeks ago to facilitate their release. Our governments have communicated repeatedly and directly on that proposal. And I’ll use the conversation to follow up personally and I hope move us toward a resolution,” Blinken said. He declined to say what the United States was offering in return. CNN reported that Washington was willing to exchange Russian arms trafficker Viktor Bout, who is serving a 25 year-prison sentence in the United States, as part of a deal to secure the release of the two Americans. A Russian lawyer for Whelan has previously said he believed Moscow wanted Bout to be part of a prisoner swap for Whelan. Blinken declined to characterize how Moscow has so far reacted to the proposal, which he said had U.S. President Joe Biden’s sign off. PRESSURE ON BIDEN Families of hostages and detainees have been increasing pressure on Biden, most recently in the case of two-time Olympic medalist Griner, who has been held since February. Griner, who was detained at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport with vape cartridges containing cannabis oil in her luggage, was in the courtroom on Wednesday in the latest hearing of her ongoing trial on drug charges. The next hearing is set for Aug. 2. “From a legal point of view, an exchange is only possible after a court verdict,” Griner’s lawyer in Russia, Maria Blagovolina, said in a statement to Reuters. Whelan was sentenced in 2020 to 16 years in prison in Russia, accused of spying. He denied spying and said he was set up in a sting operation. The plight of American detainees has gained visibility after Griner’s arrest and the release in April of former U.S. Marine Trevor Reed at a time when U.S. relations with Moscow are at their worst in decades over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Reed was detained for three years. In a prisoner exchange, the United States commuted the prison sentence of Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko, who was convicted of cocaine smuggling. Blinken said his planned call with Lavrov, the first such conversation between the two diplomats since before the start of Russian invasion of Ukraine in Feb. 24, will not be a negotiation about Ukraine. The White House also declined to go into the details of the U.S. proposal but said that Biden directed his national security team to pursue every avenue to bring Griner and Whelan home safely to their loved ones. “We believe that this is a serious proposal and we want the Russians to take it seriously as well,” said White House spokesperson John Kirby. Kirby declined to say if Washington was offering a prisoner swap but said the administration was balancing the “need to get these Americans home” with U.S. national security and “that we’re not encouraging hostage taking in the future.” Whelan’s family welcomed news of the U.S. offer. “We hope the Russian government responds to the U.S. government and accepts this or some other concession that enables Paul to come home to his family,” David Whelan, Paul’s brother, said in a statement. “The sooner the better,” he added. (Reporting by Simon Lewis and Humeyra Pamuk; Editing by Grant McCool and Alistair Bell) View the full article

Published by AFP Felix Rubio and Kimberly Rubio hold a photograph of their late daughter Alexandria Rubio, who was killed during the Uvalde, Texas mass shooting, as they attend a House Oversight Committee hearing with gun manufacturers Washington (AFP) – US gun makers earned $1 billion in the past decade from sales of AR-15-style semiautomatic weapons, a House committee said Wednesday as lawmakers grilled firearms manufacturers after a series of grim mass shootings. “The gun industry has flooded our neighborhoods, our schools and even our churches and synagogues with these deadly weapons and has gotten rich doing it,” Democratic Representative Carolyn Maloney said. “They are choosing their bottom line over the lives of their fellow Americans,” the New York lawmaker told a tense day-long hearing of the House Oversight and Reform Committee. “This is beyond irresponsible.” Maloney and other Democrats accused the gun manufacturers of using “dangerous” marketing tactics to sell firearms to young people and of failing to “acknowledge their role in the violence plaguing our nation.” “We know the power of marketing, especially the power of marketing to young people, whether it’s cereal or cigarettes, or in this case, guns,” said Bradley Schneider, a Democratic congressman who lives in Highland Park, where a young man shot dead seven people during a July 4 parade. At a hearing attended by several relatives of victims of recent mass shootings, Democrats called for a lifting of the immunity from lawsuits enjoyed by gun makers so they can be held accountable. Under a 2005 law, gun manufacturers are not liable in the United States for the use of their firearms in the commission of a crime. Marty Daniel, chief executive officer of Daniel Defense — maker of the gun used by a young man to kill 19 school children and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas — defended his company’s business practices. “The stated implied purpose of this hearing is to vilify, blame and try to ban over 24 million sporting rifles already in circulation that are lawfully possessed and commonly used by millions of Americans to protect their homes and loved ones,” Daniel said. “I believe our nation’s response needs to focus not on the type of gun but on the types of persons who are likely to commit mass shootings,” he said. Christopher Killoy, president and CEO of Sturm, Ruger & Co., said it would be “wrong to deprive citizens of their constitutional right to purchase a lawful firearm they desire because of the criminal acts of wicked people.” Bill to ban assault weapons Republican lawmakers also pushed back against their Democratic colleagues. “Gun manufacturers do not cause violent crime,” said Representative James Comer of Kentucky. “Criminals cause violent crime.” “We’ll continue to protect the rights of all law-abiding gun owners who safely use, store and carry firearms including the AR-15,” Comer said. According to a report by the House Oversight and Reform Committee, five major gun manufacturers reaped more than $1 billion from the sale of assault rifles over the last decade. Daniel Defense’s revenue from AR-15-style rifles tripled from $40 million in 2019 to more than $120 million in 2021, the report said. Ruger’s earnings from AR-15-style rifles rose from $39 million to $103 million during the period while Smith & Wesson’s revenue from long guns, including AR-15-style rifles, doubled, from $108 million to $253 million. The Democratic-controlled House is moving forward for the first time in nearly 20 years with a bill that would ban the sale, import, manufacture or transfer of certain types of semi-automatic weapons. The “Assault Weapons Ban of 2021” would likely be doomed to fail in the Senate, however. Democrats have 50 seats in the 100-member Senate and 10 Republican votes would be needed to bring the measure to the floor. Congress passed a 10-year ban on assault rifles and certain high-capacity magazines in 1994. But lawmakers let it expire in 2004, and sales of those weapons have soared since then. After the Uvalde massacre, President Joe Biden appealed to lawmakers to again ban assault rifles or at least raise the minimum age for buying them from 18 to 21. But Republican lawmakers, who see such a restriction as going against the constitutional right to bear arms, have refused to go along with Biden’s proposal. View the full article

Published by BANG Showbiz English Kevin Bacon says the cast of ‘They/Them’ gives him “hope” for positive change in the campaign for queer rights. The 64-year-old star features in the new LGBTQ+ horror movie and explained that he has been left feeling optimistic that the US Supreme Court will have a tough time reversing queer rights. Kevin told ET Canada at the film’s premiere: “It’s tough to find hope sometimes these days, but we have to hope still. “The one thing that we can be hopeful about is that there are young people like the people in this movie who are the future.” The ‘Footloose’ actor’s comments come after the United States House of Representatives passed legislation that requires states to recognise same-sex marriages that have taken place elsewhere in the country and Bacon hopes that the film can help others recognise the traumas that conversion camps put LGBTQ+ people through as he only discovered the extent of the issue during his research for the part. He explained: “I just kind of thought, ‘Well, is that really going on?’ And, it is for 50,000 kids a year, in 20 states where it’s 100 per cent legal. “That’s just not cool and the idea that somebody would want to tell Theo, that Theo can’t be who Theo is, is just kind of sickening to me.” Kevin revealed that he felt emotional when he started working with his co-stars on the film. He said: “The first day that I walked out for the very first scene in the movie and I looked out across everybody, all these beautiful faces standing there, I just felt it was very moving for me. I was very, very proud and very moved. “John Logan (the director) did a very exhaustive search to find the best possible people to play these very specific roles and they can now be represented in this movie with a lot of authenticity and a lot of honesty.” View the full article

Published by AlterNet By David Badash Cassidy Hutchinson, seen as one of the most credible witnesses the U.S. House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack put before the public to testify, is now cooperating with the Dept. of Justice in its Jan. 6 investigation, according to ABC News. Hutchinson is the former top aide and advisor to then-Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. “The Justice Department reached out to her following her testimony a month ago before the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack,” ABC News reports in its breaking news story. READ MORE: Fox News could be subject to … Read More View the full article

Published by New York Daily News The ball appears to be in Verizon’s court. Far-right media outlet One America News Network has only days to work out a new deal with the communications giant, which is the only major cable provider still doing business with the doggedly Trumpian channel. If a deal is not reached, OANN, which Emmy Award winner John Oliver described to the Daily News as 100-proof Fox News, will all but disappear from the televisions of most cable news viewers. Watchdog group Media Matters, which monitors outlets like OANN and Fox News, reports that Verizon Fios subscribers have recently seen a message on their s… Read More View the full article

Published by Radar Online Mega President Donald Trump and his former Vice-President returned to Washington D.C. on Tuesday in a sign both are running the numbers to see if they could secure the GOP nomination for 2024. Publicly, both were very considerate in their criticism of each other. But behind-the-scenes, Trump is trashing the man who helped him win office, Radar has exclusively learned. Mega According to a source within Trump’s orbit, the former president has railed on Mike Pence to his supporters and claimed: “Mike is unelectable. He doesn’t have the gays’ support. The gays love me. They hate Mike.” Pence, 63, is an evangelical Christian who has fiercely campaigned against LGBTQ rights and had a determination to overturn Roe v. Wade. Trump has mocked Pence’s religious beliefs in the past and once reportedly joked that Pence wanted to “hang” gay people. A Republican source told RadarOnline.com: “Could Mike Pence win enough votes without the support of the LGBTQ community? He is staunchly anti-everything LGBTQ and inclusion. It seems unlikely in today’s world.” Mega Pence, a former Indiana governor, also hosted a Bible study group at the White House during his term. He reportedly also abides by the so-called Billy Graham rule, refusing to dine alone with another woman or attend an event where alcohol is served unless his wife is with him. As RadarOnline.com reported on Tuesday, ex-President Trump is not the only one slamming Pence and deeming him “unelectable” should the former vice president run for office in 2024. Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, while speaking at a student conference for the right-wing group Turning Point USA on Sunday, also railed on Pence and suggested that although he is a “nice guy,” Pence is “not a leader.” “Let me just say what everyone here knows,” the 40-year-old embattled congressman told the room of teenagers. “Mike Pence will never be president. Nice guy…not a leader.” Mega Taylor Budowich, Trump’s spokesperson, also railed against Pence in May after the ex-veep first suggested he may run in the 2024 Republican presidential primary against his old boss. “Mike Pence was set to lose a governor’s race in 2016 before he was plucked up and his political career was salvaged,” Budowich said at the time. He continued, “Now, desperate to chase his lost relevance, Pence is parachuting into races, hoping someone is paying attention. The reality is, President Trump is already 82-3 with his endorsements, and there’s nothing stopping him from saving America in 2022 and beyond.” View the full article

Published by Reuters By Moira Warburton and Rose Horowitch WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Executives from major gun manufacturers are set to testify on Wednesday before a U.S. House of Representatives panel investigating recent mass shootings in Texas and New York. The hearing, held by the House Oversight committee, will “examine the responsibility that the firearm industry bears in contributing to the gun violence epidemic in the United States and the steps Congress can take to hold manufacturers accountable,” Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney, a Democrat from New York, said in a statement. Confirmed witnesses include Christopher Killoy, president and chief executive of Sturm, Ruger & Co Inc and Marty Daniel, CEO of Daniel Defense LLC. Mark P. Smith, president and CEO of Smith & Wesson Brands Inc, is listed as invited. The committee sought responses from each of the executives following mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas, and Buffalo, New York. The shootings, which took place just 10 days apart in May, killed 31 people and rattled a country notorious for its high rate of gun violence. (Reporting by Moira Warburton and Rose Horowitch in Washington; editing by Richard Pullin) View the full article

Published by Radar Online mega Drama involving Britney Spears kicked off after the singer posted alarming screenshots of text messages she sent her mom, friend, and lawyer after allegedly being forced into a mental health facility in 2019, Radar has discovered. “It’s a little different with proof,” Britney shared, then deleted on Monday, telling fans how she felt abandoned. mega “He was saying he wants to UP the seraquil [sic] and I’m like whoaaaaaaa horsey go f–k yourslwf [sic],” the message to Lynne read, not specifying whether she was referring to her doctor or estranged father, Jamie, who was her conservator at the time. Seroquel is used to treat schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and depression. “I feel like he’s trying to kill me,” she continued in the disturbing thread. “I swear to god I do.” Britney claimed that she got no response from her mom, Lynne, at the time, sharing another screenshot in which she asked her childhood friend Jansen Fitzgerald to help her find new counsel. “I need John Bell‘s number please, when u can,” she wrote to her friend from home. “Also what about the lithium in your opinion and it being monitored for so long … of course they can MAKE UP any excuse to keep doing it but is it really healthy and ok to give blood for THAT LONG,” Britney’s message to Fitzgerald continued. “I have a feeling you will say I will be ok but it still doesn’t make any sense.” Although Britney said she never heard back from her pal either, Jansen insisted that she responded at the time, claiming that she always felt “some of my messages were deleted.” Lynne and Britney in 2010.mega “My heart is a little broken this morning so I would like to clarify some things … I love my friends more than life itself and would go to the ends of the earth for them,” she wrote Monday via her Instagram Stories. Fitzgerald said this message along with “thousands” of others were sent to the court investigator in 2019, alleging that she and Britney would be “cautious” of what they would write out of concern they were being monitored. She added, “When she left the facility, my phone number was blocked from her and we have never spoken again!” Britney’s pal claimed to have made numerous attempts to get in touch with the Gimme More singer to no avail. “I miss my friend terribly and want nothing but the best for her,” she continued. mega Afterward, Lynne stirred the pot by sharing Fitzgerald’s message on her Instagram page, writing, “Britney, I have all the ‘whole conversations‘ as well! I hurt for you that you feel the people who love you the most betrayed you! Let me come to you! I love you!” While calling out her estranged family on social media, Britney also slammed sister Jamie Lynn for allegedly shutting her down when she needed her help, going against the Zoey 101 star’s past claims that she always tried her best to show support. View the full article

Published by Chicago Tribune CHICAGO — In a blue dress and wig, drag queen Muffy Fishbasket — Miss Muffy when performing for kids — opened the children’s book “My Lucky Day,” as a child yelled, “I read it!” “No way, don’t tell anyone the ending,” Miss Muffy replied. “It’s a secret.” Miss Muffy narrated the story at Andersonville’s Midsommarfest in June, eliciting laughs and giggles from the crowd of children and adults, according to a video on social media. Kid-friendly drag performances and story hours have been held in Chicago and some suburbs for years, particularly during Pride Week in June. The events, replete with c… Read More View the full article