Day: December 18, 2024

California Judge Orders Guns Taken from Man Who Allegedly Planned Bombing with Wisconsin School Shooter Natalie Rupnow

Tom Pappert
Natalie Sam Rupnow

News emerged Wednesday that Alexander Paffendorf, of Carlsbad, California, was served with a restraining order under California’s red flags law on Tuesday after being questioned by the FBI after investigators learned he allegedly he communicated with Natalie Rupnow, the 15-year-old who police say killed one student and one teacher at the Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, Wisconsin before ending her life, to plan an attack on a government building.

According to CBS8, Paffendorf admitted to the FBI that he and Rupnow discussed plans to “arm himself with explosives and a gun” in order to “target a government building,” with the outlet reporting the restraining order granted by a California judge stated that federal agents were able to view the messages the southern California man allegedly exchanged with the killer.

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Chair of Virginia Democrats Tells Journalist to ‘Delete’ Himself in Deleted Tweet

Tom Pappert
Klippenstein and Swecker

The chair of the Democratic Party of Virginia told an independent journalist to “delete himself” in a post to the social media platform X, which has now been deleted in turn.

“Delete yourself,” Chairwoman Susan Swecker told Substack writer Ken Klippenstein after he questioned the decision by Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives to vote for Representative Gerry Connolly (D-VA-11) to represent the party on the House Oversight Committee.

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Tennessee Representative Says One-Third of Criminal Cases in Williamson County Now ‘Due to Illegal Aliens’

Tom Pappert
Illegal Immigrants

A Tennessee state lawmaker told “Fox & Friends” on Wednesday that one-third of the criminal court cases in Williamson County are now related to illegal immigrants, claiming a county judge warned state lawmakers must consider increasing the number of jails and prisons due to an uptick in crime.

State Representative Todd Warner (R-Chapel Hill) divulged the purported number of criminal cases related to illegal immigrants after he was asked about his legislation that would require law enforcement agencies to detain anyone found to be in the country illegally for the maximum amount of time legally allowed, and then transport the illegal immigrants to sanctuary cities for release if they are not retrieved for deportation by federal agencies.

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DOJ Finds Arizona Department of Child Safety Discriminated Against Parents and Caregivers with Disabilities

Zachery Schmidt
Sign Language

The Department of Justice (DOJ) found that the Arizona Department of Child Safety (DCS) discriminated against parents and other caregivers with disabilities. DOJ officials accused DCS of violating Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The Monday report found DCS “failed to communicate effectively with parents and children with hearing disabilities, including by not providing interpreters. DCS also failed to reasonably accommodate the needs of parents with disabilities by, for example, not providing information in a simplified form,” according to DOJ press release.

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Madison Police Refuse to Confirm Public Report 15-Year-Old Natalie Rupnow ‘Enrolled in Therapy’ Prior to Abundant Life Attack

Tom Pappert

The Madison Police Department (MPD) on Tuesday night declined to confirm to The Tennessee Star the public reporting that 15-year-old Natalie Rupnow, who police say fatally shot a student and a teacher before ending her own life at the Abundant Life Christian School on Monday, was enrolled in therapy prior to the attack.

Following reporting by The Washington Post which revealed Rupnow was “enrolled in therapy” during her parents’ divorce, The Star asked MPD to confirm the mental health treatment. The Star also asked whether she was seeing a psychologist, if these therapy sessions resulted in a diagnosis of a mental health condition, and whether Rupnow was understood to be prescribed any medications for mental health conditions.

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Dave Brat: Ukraine’s War with Russia ‘True Tragedy’ Fueled by U.S. Interests

Kaitlin Housler
Dave Brat

Liberty University’s School of Business Dean Dave Brat recently returned from a trip to Kiev, Ukraine, with religious leaders and academics to survey the country amid its ongoing war with Russia.

Brat said Ukrainian officials were attempting to woo his group of conservative Christians on board with funding the country’s fight against Russia during the week-long trip; however, he noted that his stance on funding the war “hasn’t changed.”

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Florida Obtains Additional Arrest Warrant for Second-Would-Be Trump Assassin

Zachery Schmidt
Ryan Routh

Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody on Wednesday secured an arrest warrant for attempted felony murder against Ryan Routh, according to a press release.

Routh, who allegedly attempted to assassinate President-elect Donald Trump while he played golf at Mar-a-Lago, is accused of causing a traffic accident that “gravely injured a six-year-old girl” after fleeing Trump’s West Palm Beach golf course.

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Senator Marsha Blackburn Demands Answers from VA Secretary Regarding Probe into Sexual Misconduct at Johnson City Veterans Clinic

Kaitlin Housler
VA Sec Denis McDonough

Tennessee U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) sent a letter to U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough requesting information regarding the department’s investigation into sexual misconduct allegations at the Mountain Home Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC) in Johnson City, Tennessee.

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Luigi Mangione Indicted on First-Degree Murder Charge in UnitedHealthcare Killing

Just the News
Luigi Mangione

Luigi Mangione, the suspected shooter of the late UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, was indicted by a grand jury in New York on Tuesday on one count of first-degree murder, according to the Manhattan district attorney’s office.

The 26-year-old was arrested at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania on Dec. 9, following a major manhunt. He has been formally charged in Pennsylvania with one count of murder, two counts of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon, one count of second-degree possession of a forged document, and one count of third-degree criminal possession of a firearm. 

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Virginia Democrat Leader Says Youngkin’s No Tax on Tips Proposal May Not be ‘Responsible’

Tom Pappert
Glenn Youngkin and Don Scott

Virginia House Speaker Don Scott (D-Portsmouth) reportedly said in a Monday press conference that Democrats are only likely to support Governor Glenn Youngkin’s proposal to stop taxing tips if it is “responsible,” suggesting the governor’s proposal to mirror the federal campaign promise by President-elect Donald Trump within the commonwealth could face opposition over financial concerns.

Scott said during his Monday press conference, “Any idea that’s going to put money back into the pockets of hard work of Virginians, we’re going to strongly consider and take a look at it,” reported VPM. 

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Fountain Hills Democrats Attempt to Remove Republicans’ Christmas Tree from Community Center, Attempt ‘Inappropriate’ Replacements

Rachel Alexander
Christmas Tree

Democratic activists in the Town of Fountain Hills objected to a Christmas tree decorated with Trump 2024 flags put up by the Republican Party in the town’s community center. The town refused to take the tree down, citing the First Amendment, so in protest, the Fountain Hills Democratic Club (FHDC) put up their own “inappropriate” replacement, a severed mask of Donald Trump’s head inside a wreath.

Fountain Hills Councilman Allen Skillicorn provided a statement to The Arizona Sun Times. “While I defend the Fountain Hills Democratic Club’s free speech, I am shocked by the inappropriate and out of touch behavior by FH Dem Club members,” he said. “The Grinch appears to reside in their hearts. The people of Arizona and Fountain Hills have rejected their sex toy ideology and devotion to confusing children. I defend their right to not believe in Christianity and the Holiday of Christ’s birth, but does that mean they should mock the faith of others? I invite the FH Dems to enjoy some eggnog and twinkly lights, but leave the Bah Humbug at home, behind closed doors.”

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Commentary: Dr. Jay Bhattacharya Will Rebuild Trust in Public Health

RealClearWire
Jay Bhattacharya

Just weeks before President-elect Trump announced that Dr. Jay Bhattacharya would be his nominee to lead the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Dr. Bhattacharya and I were together at Stanford University for a bold, first-of-its-kind symposium on public health decision making during the COVID-19 crisis. The idea behind the symposium was to shatter the public health echo chamber and bring diverse perspectives together in respectful dialogue. Dr. Bhattacharya and I are close friends, but our backgrounds are quite different. He is firmly at home at Stanford, having gone there as an undergraduate, and then going on to get a medical degree and a Ph.D. there before joining the faculty as a Professor of Health Policy. I, on the other hand, am a blue-collar Midwesterner who enlisted the in U.S. Navy after high school. I carry no titles of academic distinction and was likely the only participant at the symposium without a medical degree or PhD.

Yet, I was invited by Stanford to moderate the symposium’s opening panel with seven leading public health authorities from top institutions across the world. What brought me into this unusual position was my expanding work to rebuild truth and trust in public health—a collaboration that began with former NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins and the Braver Angels organization, which is nation’s largest movement working to bridge the partisan divide.

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House GOP Accuses Liz Cheney of Tampering with J6 Witness, Ask FBI to Investigate Criminality

Just the News
Liz Cheney

The House Administration Oversight Subcommittee and its chairman Barry Loudermilk on Tuesday released an interim report on the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, concluding the attack was preventable and also asking for an investigation into former Rep. Liz Cheney for criminally tampering with a witness during the Democrat-led congressional inquiry of the tragedy.

“Based on the evidence obtained by this Subcommittee, numerous federal laws were likely broken by Liz Cheney, the former Vice Chair of the January 6 Select Committee, and these violations should be investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation,” the report released by the House Administration Oversight Subcommittee and its chairman Barry Loudermilk stated.

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