[NBCnews] WASHINGTON DC — A man has been arrested in the nation's capital and accused of threatening Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., and members of her family.
Seth Jason, of Maryland, was arrested in Washington after being indicted on four charges, according to court records released Thursday... The Justice Department said in a statement that an investigation revealed the calls to Greene were "made from various phone lines connected to studios and control rooms" at Voice of America headquarters...The alleged actions took place before Trump took office. The Voice of America, a broadcast outlet funded by the U.S. government but editorially independent, has been nearly dismantled since Trump returned to office, with hundreds of staff members terminated.
As many as 163 pairs of graduates from six Polish secondary schools in Vilnius, Lithuania participated in the tradition of dancing the Polonez! One of the most beautiful new Polish traditions of Vilnius! pic.twitter.com/UWFmnqHmYu
[Epoch Times] A mine in Wyoming is drawing national attention to what is otherwise a high plains flyspeck with a single gas station, Dollar Store, and four bars along the Tongue River.
In the Bighorn Mountains, Brook Mine will be the first new coal mine to open in Wyoming in 50 years, as well as the first critical mineral and rare earth mine to open in the United States in more than 70 years. Miner Ramaco Resources is to produce at least 2 million tons of coal per year for electricity and extract more than 450 tons of elements annually.
That 2 million tons of coal, once processed, will yield an estimated 1,242 tons of critical minerals and rare earths per year. According to the Fluor study, this would include 456 tons of the highly sought gallium, germanium, scandium, terbium, dysprosium, neodymium, and praseodymium. I assume that's 456 million tons of ore, not rare earth elements.
"This one mine can break our reliance on China," Ramaco Resources CEO and Chairman Randall Atkins said at a July 11 ceremonial ribbon-cutting for the mine about three miles away, at Ramaco’s offices and labs.
The ribbon-cutting drew a high-profile retinue, including Energy Secretary Chris Wright; Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon; Sens. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) and Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.); Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-Wyo.); state lawmakers; and former Sen. Joe Manchin (I-W.Va.), who joined Ramaco’s board in April.
"The generations of coal miners who gave us the lives we have today, those same coal miners that are still delivering the world’s largest source of electricity, they’re going to give us, through mining of those same coal resources, these rare earth elements... and they’re going to bring us back," Wright said, calling for a "revolution" in domestic energy self-sufficiency, especially in processing critical minerals and rare earths.
Ramaco Resources, based in Lexington, Kentucky, operates four metallurgical coal mines in West Virginia and Virginia. It purchased the 4,500-acre Brook Mine north of Sheridan, Wyoming, in 2011 for $2 million to produce coal for local electrical generation, Atkins said during a tour of Ramaco’s Ranchester plant. Opened in the 1880s, the mine had been shuttered for decades.
Ramaco plans to build a plant to process the critical mineral oxides on site or on the 11,500 surrounding acres it owns to "bring magnet and semiconductor manufacturing in Wyoming," Atkins said.
The company said the mine could meet up to 5 percent of the nation’s total demand for permanent magnets, including nearly one-third of the Pentagon’s needs.
[Remix via Zero] After all foreigners were banned from a Swiss swimming pool in Porrentruy over violence, sexual harassment and constant disturbances, Swiss visitors to the pool and employees are generally expressing happiness with the move.
The ban, which came about after "French youths with a migration background" continuously caused problems at the pool and in pool bathrooms, including sexual harassment of young girls. The situation even sparked international headlines.
However, the Swiss paper 20 Minuten reported a surge in season ticket sales after the ban was put in place.
Continued on Page 47
Senator Mitch McConnell showed the way, but the Republicans can do it without his leadership now.
[Townhall] The Senate on Monday confirmed the first judicial nominee of President Trump’s second term.
Whitney Hermandorfer will now be a U.S. Circuit Judge for the Sixth Circuit, the Cincinnati-based bench that hears appeals from Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee
Hermandorfer, of Tennessee, was confirmed by a 46-42 vote along party lines. She will replace an Obama pick, Judge Jane Branstetter Stranch.
Twelve senators did not vote.
Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) called the confirmation of Hermandorfer "a boon to the federal judiciary."
"As the Director of the Strategic Litigation Unit in Tennessee, she’s led major cases on civil rights and the separation of powers and is widely praised for her legal mind, impeccable qualifications, collegial nature and constitutionalist philosophy. I was proud to lead Ms. Hermandorfer’s nomination through the Senate Judiciary Committee and am confident she will be an excellent federal judge," Grassley said.
According to the White House, when nominated earlier this year, Hermandorfer was the director of the Strategic Litigation Unit in the Office of the Tennessee Attorney General. She had previously served as an associate at Williams & Connolly, LLP in Washington, D.C., and clerked for Justices Samuel Alito and Amy Coney Barrett of the Supreme Court, now-Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh when he was on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and Judge Richard J. Leon of the D.C. District Court.
"I am pleased to announce the nomination of Whitney Hermandorfer to serve as a Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit," Trump wrote in May when he nominated her. "Whitney has been serving the Great People of Tennessee, in the Attorney General’s Office, where she has strongly litigated in Court to protect Citizens from Federal Government Overreach. A former Co-Captain of the Princeton University Women’s Basketball Team, Whitney is a staunch defender of Girls’ and Women’s Sports. She has a long history of working for Judges and Justices who respect the RULE OF LAW, and protect our Constitution, including Justice Samuel Alito and two fine Supreme Court Justices I appointed in my First Term. Whitney is a Fighter who will inspire confidence in our Legal System. Thank you Whitney!"
During her confirmation hearings, Hermandorfer said in reference to judicial power that "[I]t is an extraordinary power, the Article III power, to decide cases...With that power, again, comes great responsibility and humility to understand the proper role of a judge is to interpret the law and not make the law or bend the law to whatever policy preferences the judge might have individually."
[CNN] President Donald Trump announced what could be refreshing news to some Americans on Wednesday: thanks to him, Coke is changing its American recipe.
"I have been speaking to Coca-Cola about using REAL Cane Sugar in Coke in the United States, and they have agreed to do so. I’d like to thank all of those in authority at Coca-Cola," Trump said in a post to social media. "This will be a very good move by them — You’ll see. It’s just better!"
A spokesperson for The Coca-Cola Company did not confirm the change, but told CNN in a statement, "We appreciate President Trump’s enthusiasm for our iconic Coca-Cola brand. More details on new innovative offerings within our Coca-Cola product range will be shared soon."
------------------
FWIW, Trump drinks Diet Coke, not regular Coke. Also, the sweetener in regular Coke is currently made from USA grown corn.
Jamaica would presumably be a beneficiary of the 'use cane sugar' rule. Before Passover, Coke regularly makes a lot of cane sugar sweetened Coke for orthodox Jews who don't use corn on Passover.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
07/18/2025 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[46 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I'm not a Coca-Cola fan, but Mexican C-C is cane sugar and it is better
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/18/2025 1:08 Comments ||
Top||
#2
^A matter of habit. When I lived in US (well NM, but it's the same thing), it took me time to get used to cane sugar (and I never got used to adding sugar to meat dishes).
[FoxBusinessNews] Conservative rebellion over cryptocurrency bills leads to marathon 9-hour vote
A conservative rebellion over cryptocurrency bills paralyzed the House floor for two days this week, and while it’s finally over, it means House GOP leaders have significantly less time to carry out their legislative timeline.
Voting kicked off just before 1 p.m. on Wednesday on a procedural measure that would have allowed the House to begin debate on several bills – three cryptocurrency measures plus a spending bill funding the Defense Department’s yearly budget – but appeared poised to fail, with several House GOP lawmakers voting "no." House GOP leaders can only lose three votes to pass anything along party lines.
At one point during the course of roughly nine hours, Republican opposition climbed to 10 members before they struck a deal to pass the procedural measure, known as a "rule vote," around 11 p.m.
The House was initially expected to vote on three digital currency measures in a push dubbed "crypto week."
The Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act (GENIUS Act) to establish stablecoin regulations has already passed the Senate. The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act (CLARITY Act), expected to have at least some bipartisan support, would have placed new federal guardrails on cryptocurrency.
However, the last bill, a Republican priority called the Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act, proved a flashpoint during Wednesday’s marathon vote.
Conservatives made an eleventh-hour push to link the three bills together, citing concerns the Senate would take up CLARITY without passing the anti-CBDC measure.
Privacy hawks were concerned that without the anti-CBDC bill, which blocks the government from issuing its own digital currency, that CLARITY and GENIUS could give the federal government unprecedented insights into how private citizens spend their money if a U.S.-backed digital asset was created.
After hours of closed-door negotiations, however, they agreed to allow those individual votes to go forward – with assurances that the anti-CBDC bill would be linked to Congress’ annual defense policy bill, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).
The NDAA is separate from the defense funding bill that’s expected to get a vote this week. What the House ended up passing is known as a "rule vote," a procedural hurdle that traditionally falls along party lines, which allows lawmakers to debate and vote on respective bills.
The House is wrestling with multiple deadlines at the moment, which the cryptocurrency bills do not have. Delaying the defense funding bill on this week’s calendar could shrink Congress’ already-limited summer schedule before the fiscal year 2026 deadline on Sept. 30.
If passed this week, it will be the second of 12 appropriations bills that House GOP leaders hope to pass for the next year. They’ll still have to sync up with the Senate, however, before President Donald Trump can sign any funding bills into law.
Additionally, House Republicans will need to pass a $9 billion package of spending cuts that the Senate sent over in the early hours of Thursday morning.
The package largely keeps intact requested spending cuts by Trump, targeting the U.S. Agency for International Development, PBS and NPR.
The House initially passed Trump’s full $9.4 billion request, but a small group of Republican senators successfully pushed for the removal of a funding block on an HIV/AIDS prevention program in Africa.
Now, the House must pass the bill by the end of Friday or risk the funding request’s expiry.
Continued on Page 47
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] At least 61 people have died after a huge fire ripped through a shopping mall in Iraq, with a survivor saying the inferno began after an air conditioning unit exploded.
Officials have launched an investigation into the blaze at the newly-opened six-storey Corniche Hypermarket Mall in the city of Kut, where men, women and children were said to be shopping last night.
The blaze reportedly began on the first floor of the building before tearing through the entire block, with horrifying video showing the block engulfed by flames and smoke.
Harrowing footage circulating on social media appears to show people on the roof as the flames rose up the building. It is unclear whether they were rescued.
Firefighters rescued a number of people from the building, local media reports. Ambulances were still taking casualties to hospital until 4am local time.
Chilling pictures of the aftermath this morning show the building completely blackened and burned out, with firefighters still at the scene.
Searches were continuing for the missing in the building's wreckage this morning.
A medical source said there are 'many unidentified bodies,' with the dead said to include men, women and children.
Iraq's interior ministry said in a statement: 'The tragic fire claimed the lives of 61 innocent citizens, most of whom suffocated in bathrooms, and among them 14 charred bodies yet to be identified.'
Civil defence teams rescued more than 45 people who were trapped inside the five-storey building, which includes a restaurant and a supermarket, the interior ministry said.
The blaze broke out late Wednesday, reportedly starting on the first floor before rapidly engulfing the building.
It is just the latest disaster in a country where safety regulations are frequently neglected. Like sprinklers?
The cause of last night's tragedy was not immediately known, but one survivor said that an air conditioner had exploded.
Ambulances were still ferrying casualties to hospitals as late as 4:00 am, with wards in Kut - around 160 kilometres (100 miles) southeast of Baghdad - overwhelmed.
An AFP correspondent said the mall had only opened five days earlier and reported seeing charred bodies at the province's forensic department.
Continued on Page 47
[IsraelTimes] US envoy pens scathing letter to interior minister, accusing Israel of blocking Christian groups from entering Israel and threatening reciprocal steps against Israeli visa seekers
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee has threatened to publicly declare that Israel no longer welcomes Christian groups to Israel over what he said was Jerusalem’s failure to approve tourist visas for evangelical missions.
The threat was issued in a letter that Huckabee sent to Interior Minister Moshe Arbel, which was leaked to Hebrew media on Thursday. Arbel pushed back on the allegations in a response letter that was obtained by The Times of Israel.
Huckabee in his letter sent on Wednesday even threatened to order his embassy to take reciprocal measures against Israeli tourists seeking visas to enter the US.
Given Huckabee’s longstanding support for Israel and close ties with the current government in particular, the rhetoric in his letter represented a shockingly quick deterioration.
But the issue at hand — the ability of Christian groups to tour Israel — is one that is close to Huckabee’s heart, given that he has led countless such trips as an evangelical pastor over the past half a century.
The back-and-forth letters that were leaked to the press came almost two months after the two men met on May 27 to discuss problems encountered by Christian Zionists seeking to visit Israel.
"It is with great distress that I to you my profound disappointment [that the] meeting held in your office has not resulted in what I had hoped to be [the start] of a resolution of the issue of routine granting of visas for Christian organizations," Huckabee wrote in the letter which was partially shown on Channel 12’s broadcast.
According to the Ynet news site, Huckabee wrote to Arbel that at the start of 2025, the Interior Ministry launched investigations into a number of evangelical Christian organizations with long ties to Israel, including the Baptist Conference in Israel and the Christian Missionary Alliance.
Huckabee told Arbel that these organizations were made to fill out long questionnaires and that they have still not received new visas for religious leaders to travel to Israel since the start of the year.
"It would be very unfortunate if our embassy were forced to publicly announce throughout the United States that the State of Israel does not welcome Christian organizations and their representatives, and instead engages in harassment and negative treatment of them. We are also obligated to warn Christians in America that their generous donations are being met with hostility, and that tourists should reconsider their travels," the US envoy wrote, Huckabee wrote in the letter, according to the Belaaz Jewish news site.
Huckabee sent copies of his letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Isaac Herzog, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana.
In addition to threatening a public announcement that Israel no longer welcomes Christian groups, Huckabee said he would warn American Christians that their donations are not received warmly, and that tourists should reconsider any plans to visit Israel if the issue is not resolved.
"Unfortunately, if the Israeli government continues to cause bureaucratic harassment, I will have no choice but to instruct our consular department to explore the possibility of reciprocal treatment of Israeli citizens applying for visas to the United States. This is certainly not the relationship that the State of Israel wants to have with its best partner and friend on Earth," Huckabee wrote.
After receiving the letter, Arbel — of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party — responded, saying that he was "particularly surprised" by the way in which the envoy raised his concerns.
"Every request that was personally brought to the attention of my office has been addressed within an exceptionally short timeframe," Arbel insisted.
"In my view, this course of action deviates from accepted working norms and does not reflect the direct and constructive relationship we have established, he said, adding that the relationship between the two countries is "among the most valued and significant partnerships."
"I greatly appreciate your consistent support for Israel and your steadfast commitment to our partnership. For this reason, I believe it is incumbent upon us to act in a spirit of coordination, mutual trust, and respect — even when misunderstandings or difficulties arise," Arbel concluded.
The private exchange that quickly turned public came on the heels of an apparent Israeli strike on Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... ’s sole Catholic church on Thursday that killed three people and injured several, according to the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, drawing international condemnation and expression of "deep sorrow" from Israel. The military said the church was struck by accident, and that it is investigating what happened.
Earlier this week, Huckabee weighed in on unchecked settler violence in the West Bank for the first time, calling on the Israeli government to investigate the "terrorist killing" of a 20-year-old Paleostinian-American in the village of Sinjil last week.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Epoch Times] A mine in Wyoming is drawing national attention to what is otherwise a high plains flyspeck with a single gas station, Dollar Store, and four bars along the Tongue River.
[Remix via Zero] After all foreigners were banned from a Swiss swimming pool in Porrentruy over violence, sexual harassment and constant disturbances, Swiss visitors to the pool and employees are generally expressing happiness with the move.
