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Cambodia continued construction work at its Ream naval base in August and September, advancing projects that the US suspects could support a Chinese military presence in a strategically valuable corner of Southeast Asia. Satellite photos taken by Maxar and Planet Labs and published by the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative show that two new buildings were built on the north end of the base... ... work took place near the former site of the Tactical Headquarters of the National Committee for Maritime Security, a US-funded building that was officially opened in 2012 and unexpectedly demolished in September 2020...

Los Angeles' political and community leaders were stunned by the corruption indictment handed down Wednesday against Mark Ridley-Thomas, one of the city's best-known and longest-serving officials. Ridley-Thomas is accused of conspiring with Marilyn Louise Flynn, who at the time was dean of USC’s School of Social Work, to steer county money to the university in return for admitting his son Sebastian into the graduate school with a full-tuition scholarship and a paid professorship. Ridley-Thomas was on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors at the time... ...Ridley-Thomas, 66, is the third L.A. City Council member to face federal corruption charges...

Border Patrol documents show at least 160,000 illegal immigrants have been released into the country under the Biden administration with little oversight, monitoring, or risk for deportation — and have even been granted a level of legal status through temporary work permits — according to a new report. Of particular concern to former Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott is that the documents show an abuse of the Biden administration's parole authority, which can be used to grant work permits to illegal immigrants. "By law and regulation, a parole shall only be granted on a case-by-case basis and only for significant...

The California attorney general's office has filed felony charges against the executive director of the state's largest labor union, alleging that an investigation into possible campaign finance violations revealed that Alma Hernández and her husband underreported their income by more than $1.4 million to evade taxes.... ...Named one of Capitol Weekly's Top 100 California politicos, Hernández is a seasoned political operator who helped activate an army of SEIU volunteers to fight the recall of Gov. Gavin Newsom last month. SEIU California President Bob Schoonover said the organization is deeply concerned about the allegations and will continue to fully cooperate with...

<p>Federal Judge Mark T. Pittman, who was appointed by President Donald Trump, has issued a temporary restraining order against United Airlines over its vaccine mandate.</p><p>The order came on Wednesday and it stops United Airlines from imposing its vaccine mandate on employees, Breitbart News reported.</p>

American Airlines has 216 flights cancelled and 519 delayed so far todayThey had 19 cancelled yesterday— Jack Posobiec 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) October 13, 2021 More than 230 American Airlines flights have been cancelled and 600 more have been delayed thanks to Hurricane Joe Brandon, just as CFP predicted and reported Monday night. Data provided by FlightAware

A female officer with Victoria Police, who served for 16 years, has resigned in protest against the use of police to enforce Covid-19 rules, saying in an interview that a “great majority” of her colleagues shared her sentiments.Acting Senior Sergeant Krystle Mitchell has appeared on The Discernible Interviews channel on YouTube on Friday, wearing her dark-blue uniform and revealing that she had been “troubled” by how police resources have been applied during the pandemic by state authorities.Victoria Police has been tasked with making sure that people in one of Australia’s most populous states abide by the lockdown restrictions, and with...

"Capitalism will continue to eliminate mass poverty in more and more places and to an increasingly marked extent if it is merely permitted to do so." – Henry Hazlitt "The superior freedom of the capitalist system, its superior justice, and its superior productivity are not three superiorities, but one. The justice follows from the freedom and the productivity follows from the freedom and the justice." – Henry Hazlitt "Since the State necessarily lives by the compulsory confiscation of private capital, and since its expansion necessarily involves ever-greater incursions on private individuals and private enterprise, we must assert that the state...

NEW YORK—An economic slowdown in China could ripple through the global economy and weigh on commodity prices and growth, star stock picker Cathie Wood of ARK Invest warned in a webinar on Tuesday.Wood, whose flagship $19.7 billion Ark Innovation fund was the top-performing U.S. equity fund in 2020, said that China’s recent steps to crack down on sectors ranging from gaming to education to financial firms are increasing the likelihood of a policy mistake that leads to a sharp slowdown.“I really do think that the policy makers in China are beginning to play with fire,” she said, adding “We will...

Oregon state Sens. Kim Thatcher and Dennis Linthicum, both Republicans, have petitioned Acting U.S. Attorney Scott E. Asphaug to launch a grand jury investigation into the measurement of COVID-19 statistics by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).Thatcher and Linthicum submitted the petition in a letter (pdf) on Aug. 16 after gathering signatures from 1,718 Oregonians and 53,032 Americans.In the petition, the senators expressed concerns over the measurement and reporting of COVID-19 vaccine adverse reactions including fatalities and injuries.The lawmakers stated that a whistleblower, under sworn testimony, said the data reported under...

Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson on Oct. 13 allowed a new law to go into effect that will allow employees to opt-out of vaccine mandates by proving they have acquired immunity to the CCP virus or by submitting a negative COVID-19 test.The bill became law without Hutchinson’s signature under a provision in Arkansas law which makes bills awaiting a governor’s signature to become law after five days. Governors have previously used this legal mechanism to express their disapproval of certain legislation, according to The Associated Press.“I am opposed to the current mandate by the Biden administration, but the solution is not...

As Dollar Tree goes, so goes the country.I admit that I didn’t know what a Dollar Tree was up to a few years ago. I was visiting my parents and my mom asked me to go buy some water glasses at the Dollar Tree. After a “what’s that?” I went shopping. Everything was, in fact, a dollar. Well, no longer.Dollar Tree is raising its price. I listened to a woman complain vociferously about the planned price hike. She’s mad. So is the rest of the country. Inflation isn’t just hitting grandmas looking water glasses for a dollar, it’s going to...

There have been a lot of reports about alleged mistreatment of Jan. 6 defendants.Now a federal judge has held D.C. Corrections officials in contempt over the treatment of one of the defendants and is referred the case to the DOJ for a civil rights investigation into reports about the treatment of other defendants.U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth found D.C Jail Warden Wanda Patten and Quincy Booth, the director of the D.C. Department of Corrections, in contempt for the long delay in failing to turn over medical record needed to approve a needed operation for defendant Christopher Worrell.Worrell has non-Hodgkins...

SFGate reported on a recently released poll analyzing attitudes of those living in San Francisco, and it showed a remarkable number plan to flee the city in the near future. Joint Venture Silicon Valley, with the Bay Area News Group, conducted a poll of 1,610 registered voters across Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco, San Mateo, and Santa Clara. The report notes:A shocking 71% of respondents said the quality of life in the greater Bay Area is worse now compared to five years ago. Fifty-six percent of respondents said they are considering leaving in the next five years — including 53%...

Joe Rogan has found himself at the center of a debate over the COVID-19 vaccines, despite never presenting himself as anti-vaccine. His great sin was daring to get treated for the virus after contracting it earlier this year. The fact that Rogan’s doctor included ivermectin in the medicinal regime sent heads exploding, as he was accused of taking “horse dewormer” amid other unfair, out-of-context claims.Today, though, Rogan got a bit of redemption by running circles around CNN’s chief COVID hysteric, Sanjay Gupta. You may recall Gupta as the same guy who touted Chris Cuomo’s COVID X-ray, only to be embarrassing...

It’s a shame that Facebook is such a sham of a company that it’s impossible to locate a source for the letter below. We found a secondary source that reposted the letter, but the identity of the original poster is a mystery.This crossed my desk through a Tweet by Representative Chip Roy. Sadly, the comments to the thread focused on the anonymity of the poster rather than the message itself. This is a shame because the content of the post is rock-solid. It doesn’t matter that we do not know who wrote it. It really doesn’t even matter if it...

Georgia Republican US Senate hopeful Herschel Walker called off a Texas fundraiser Wednesday after an event organizer displayed a group of syringes arranged to form a swastika in her Twitter profile picture to protest vaccine mandates. The fundraiser had been scheduled to take place Saturday at the suburban Dallas home of movie producer Bettina Sofia Viviano-Langlais. “Herschel is a strong friend of Israel and the Jewish community and opposes hatred and bigotry of all forms,” campaign spokesperson Mallory Blount said. “Despite the fact that the apparent intent behind the graphic was to condemn government vaccine mandates, the symbol used is...

Reuters reports October 1, 2021 Merck pill seen as ‘a huge advance’, raises hope of preventing COVID-19 deaths. Excerpts in italics with my bolds.Co will seek U.S. approval for pill as soon as possibleIf approved, would be 1st oral antiviral COVID-19 drugMerck shares rally, some vaccine makers fallU.S govt agreed to buy 1.7 mln courses at $700 eachAn antiviral pill developed by U.S. drugmaker Merck & Co (MRK.N) could half the chances of dying or being hospitalized for those most at risk of contracting severe COVID-19, with experts hailing it as a potential breakthrough in how the virus is treated.If...

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — On the arrival of National Fossil Day, the giant beaver is the winning candidate to become Minnesota’s official state fossil. The beaver beat out nine candidates and will go on to face the legislative process to become the state fossil. More than 11,000 people voted, and 25% of them voted for the giant beaver.

Millions of retirees on Social Security will get a 5.9% boost in benefits for 2022. The biggest cost-of-living adjustment in 39 years follows a burst in inflation as the economy struggles to shake off the drag of the coronavirus pandemic. The COLA, as it's commonly called, amounts to $92 a month for the average retired worker, according to estimates released Wednesday by the Social Security Administration. That marks an abrupt break from a long lull in inflation that saw cost-of-living adjustments averaging just 1.65% a year over the past 10 years. With the increase, the estimated average Social Security payment...