Former SPLC employee charged with fraud in paid informant investigation

 A former employee of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has been charged with fraud as part of a broader investigation into the far-left civil rights organization by the U.S. Department of Justice.

The DOJ announced Wednesday that a federal grand jury in Montgomery, Alabama, has returned a second superseding indictment regarding fraud charges against the SPLC, which included adding a defendant. In April, the grand jury indicted the SPLC on 11 counts that included wire fraud, making false statements to a federally insured bank and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

The new defendant was identified as Heidi L. Beirich, a 59-year-old resident of Palm Springs, California, who formerly worked at the SPLC. She is being charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to submit false statements to a federally insured bank.

According to this second superseding indictment, from 2007 to 2023, over $4 million in funds donated to the SPLC were secretly sent to persons associated with assorted violent extremist groups.

After the second indictment was unsealed on Tuesday, Beirich was served with an arrest warrant on Wednesday morning in the Central District of California.

“I believe she was part of the effort to open bank accounts in completely fictitious companies’ names and make payments to individuals for reasons that were not accurate as described,” Attorney General Todd Blanche said at a news conference Wednesday.

“This is exactly what we said would happen in a case like this, which is that our investigators and the US attorneys and the agents working the case will can keep on working it even after the initial indictment.”

Founded in 1971 and headquartered in Montgomery, the SPLC rose to prominence for its legal efforts against the Ku Klux Klan and tracking of white supremacist hate groups.

The SPLC has garnered controversy in recent years for its listing of several conservative Christian organizations as hate groups over their opposition to the LGBT movement. The man convicted of a 2102 shooting at the Family Research Council office in Washington, D.C., cited the SPLC's online resources in helping identify his target.

The April indictment alleged that the SPLC, without the knowledge or consent of their donors, sent donations “to fund the leaders and organizers of racist groups, including the Ku Klux Klan, the Aryan Nation, and the National Alliance.”

Former SPLC employee charged with fraud in paid informant case | Politics

WNBA breaks silence on gender eligibility as debate over men in women's sports intensifies

 The WNBA has said there are "no immediate eligibility matters" impacting the league and denounced “bad-faith efforts” in the ongoing debate about trans-identified males competing in women’s sports following a league-wide meeting held after two former NBA players declared their eligibility. 

Team presidents and general managers met on Wednesday and discussed various topics, including how the women's league will handle issues related to gender, race, player safety and politics.

WNBA breaks silence on male athletes as debate intensifies | Sports

UN Stats Show Gaza As Well Fed as Germany and the UK

 READ THE ARTICLE HERE

UN Stats Show Gaza As Well Fed as Germany and the UK | Frontpage Mag

WNBA task force to convene after former NBA players declare eligibility for women's league

 The WNBA is set to discuss its eligibility requirements after two former NBA players declared themselves eligible for the WNBA draft, saying they are doing so in compliance with the league rules. 

On Friday, in a memo first reported by ESPN and The Associated Press, WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said a task force of team presidents and general managers will discuss the topic of transgender-identified players at a previously scheduled meeting.

“I know many of you have received questions in recent weeks regarding transgender athlete participation in women's basketball, and I expect this topic will continue to receive significant attention,” the memo reportedly stated. “I wanted to reach out to share how we are approaching these conversations at the league office and to thank those of you who have responded to questions from the media with thoughtfulness and professionalism.”

It’s unclear whether the memo went out in response to the announcement by former Boston Celtics center Enes Kanter declaring himself as a “WNBA prospect” after reviewing the all-female league’s current eligibility guidelines. A similar announcement was made by former Utah Jazz forward and U.S. Senate nominee Royce White.

Listening sessions will be held for team executives.

WNBA to convene after former NBA players declare for draft | Sports

Senate committee votes to hold Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress

 The Republican-led Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee voted Thursday morning to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress following their hearing last week on the COVID-19 pandemic response and related issues.

The committee chaired by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., voted 8-5 along party lines regarding the former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) director, who invoked the Fifth Amendment 111 times during his tense, three-hour testimony on July 29.

Paul said in his opening statement that the contempt vote was not concerned with Fauci's past policies or opinions, but rather whether a pardoned witness could refuse a committee order to provide testimony.

"We are voting on whether a witness who has received the benefit of a sweeping federal pardon can be ordered by this committee to answer questions and then defy that order without consequence," Paul said.

Paul also acknowledged the irreparable professional, educational and spiritual damage that the government's COVID-19 response and vaccine mandates had on many people.

Senate committee votes to hold Fauci in contempt of Congress | Politics

Before Mamdani... There was John Reed

 John Reed was one of the foremost left-wing leaders during America’s early 20th-century Progressive Era and had much in common with today’s Democratic Socialists.

John Silas “Jack” Reed was a Zohran Mamdani of his era. Both rose in left-wing American politics in their late twenties and early thirties, embraced socialism, and framed politics through class struggle and oppressor/oppressed themes. Both believed America’s political and capitalist systems had to be radically transformed -- or dismantled -- for working-class liberation. Were he alive today, Reed would likely see eye to eye with the NYC mayor.

Reed and his contemporary comrades might view today’s street demonstrators and DSA as their progeny -- the great, great-grandchildren of their own cadre of anarcho-socialist rabblerousers. They would be impressed with the “black bloc” street takeover approach Antifa and aligned groups have used, fomenting revolutionary change through performative street demonstrations, defacing monuments, and clashing with police. They would have been pleasantly stunned by the reach and effectiveness of social media to organize and spread revolutionary propaganda. They would have viewed ICE with the same contempt they held for the Secret Service, who jailed and deported many of them for espousing the overthrow of the U.S. government.

Jack Reed’s life was greatly romanticized even during his own time. In an introduction to a collection of his writings, he is characterized as “[an] adventurer, playboy, Bohemian, lover, radical, anti-war activist, revolutionary agitator.” Indeed, Reed can be looked upon as a godfather of modern American radical socialism, whose views and fervent activism would be embraced by today’s DSA. Class distinctions and conflict (today add in race and gender identity) defined everything. It was an authoritarian ideology that imposed greater controls over private property, as Mamdani has proposed with rent freezes and policies to remove property owners from controlling what they own. As Mamdani once revealingly opined, such policies might even lead to “seizing the means of production,” a Marxist concept found in the Communist Manifesto and Capital that Jack Reed knew well.

Before Mamdani... There was John Reed - American Thinker

Why I Changed My Mind About Marijuana

Liz reflects on how Alex Berenson’s research and book on the harms of marijuana changed her perspective on cannabis.