* Correction: In addressing South Carolina’s GOP primary results, I forgot SC has runoff elections. Sen. Darlene Graham Nordone and Rep. Ralph Norman face off on on August 25 and the runoff endorsements are already rolling in for this two-candidate matchup.
* White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt is stepping down from her role to be at home with her two small children. She will still advise the White House, but I think this is an admirable move, and one that will certainly make her even more of a role model for young politicos.
* More on the massive 2nd Amendment win from Gun Owners of America and Silencer Shop (plus more): DOJ says they have no plans to appeal removal of suppressors, short barreled rifles and shotguns, and “any other weapons” (SBR, SBS, AOW) from the National Firearms Act. There are certainly details still to sort out, but it’s a huge win for firearms rights, and also gives me great optimism for how the DOJ under AG Blanche will be moving forward. Instead of continuing the fight to leave these regulations in place, they are opting to let them go. Time will tell upon the passage of the official 60 day timeline they have to appeal, but if they stick to their current position of no appeal, this gives me good hope for a good constitutional DOJ moving forward. It’s going to be more needed than ever as leftists like Michigan Dem Senate nominee El-Sayed continue to push for “tweaking” [read: destroying] our 2nd Amendment and the rest of the Constitution and Bill of Rights.
* Health and Human Services has released a big report exposing fraudulent insurance coding for sex-change procedures on minors, and HHS Secretary RFK Jr. and Vice President Vance have announced criminal referrals to DOJ to look into up to 225 hospitals that have billed tens of millions of dollars under what could be violation of law. These hospitals and clinics have been hiding so-called “gender affirming” care under alternate billing and insurance codes. This is especially important in light of the activist group WPATH admitting in court this week (to save their skin) that the “medical guidance” they release isn’t really official study from a scientific body, but more like an opinion. Bottom line: WPATH has held itself up as “the settled science” until real liability in court is on the line, then they’ll throw physicians and organizations that follow them under the bus.
* Also on the DOJ radar is a crackdown on a massive sham marriage network scheme that has benefited a lot of Chinese nationals. The DOJ has identified over 1,000 sham marriages arranged for the exclusive purpose of obtaining legal status in the U.S. Eleven people have been indicted and the numbers they’ve charged are staggering. Unfortunately ICE is refusing to disclose their records on the Congresswoman Ilhan Omar marriage fraud probe, but perhaps that means the investigation is moving forward?
* Two Nebraska families are suing multiple state and local government bodies over what they call a state monopoly education. They say the only families that agree to be educated by the state are afforded education benefits. Is this a worthy argument, or just a way to get tied into the government money and oversight?
* Flock Safety is feeling the heat from the public and many municipalities across the country. They’ve announced some platform changes to their data storage and retrieval. Storage of data from 30 days down to a week, requirement for law enforcement agencies to provide specific case numbers for a search — are these changes enough? Not likely. But at a minimum, it’s good news for those of us fighting against the surveillance state. A multi billion dollar private company can tell the backlash is growing, and they’re at least trying to get ahead of it. There’s still a long fight ahead, and the stakes are very real. No Beijing-style surveillance state in America, thank you. The Epoch Times has a big premium report out on their inner workings, and it’s a great playbook for American privacy activists to understand.
* Missouri legislators in the Future Caucus released a framework for communities and citizens to use in evaluating proposed data center projects. The AI Infrastructure Community Evaluation Framework (AICEF) is a 14 page document offering considerations that are actually pretty helpful, in my mind, to ask informed questions and raise good concerns about these projects as they continue to be a real concern in our communities. Of course, no story like this would be complete without a controversy over whether the document itself was authored using AI, but the Future Caucus says no, it wasn’t. You decide.
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