December 21, 2024 at 1:08 PM EST
Journalists deemed 'legitimate military targets' as Russia muzzles criticism abroad

Russia's former president and current deputy head of its security council, Dmitry Medvedev, has declared that the editors of the Times newspaper in the UK are now "legitimate military targets". Medvedev, who is one of Vladimir Putin's closest allies, was responding to the newspaper's coverage of the recent assassination of Russia's chemical weapons chief, Igor Kirillov, in Moscow on December 17. The paper's leading article referred to his killing by an explosive device hidden in a scooter as a "legitimate act of defence by a threatened nation".

December 21, 2024 at 11:49 AM EST
Missouri GOP governor commutes sentence of former KC cop convicted of killing a Black man

Missouri Gov. Mike Parson commuted the prison sentence of a former Kansas City police officer who was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the fatal shooting of a Black man Parson announced his decision to free former police detective Eric DeValkenaere from prison in a press release Friday afternoon that included numerous other individuals receiving a commutation or pardon. He did not explain his reasoning, but has long hinted he planned to make the controversial decision before he leaves office next month.

December 21, 2024 at 11:45 AM EST
Musk and Ramaswamy to confront Congress in struggle for control of the public purse

WASHINGTON -- President-elect Donald Trump enlisted Washington outsiders Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to tell members of Congress how they should run things. But Musk and Ramaswamy as they build their Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, don't actually hold any elected or bureaucratic positions in the federal government -- giving two hard-driving businessmen far less authority than they're used to having in the private sector.

December 21, 2024 at 11:40 AM EST
Highly pathogenic bird flu detected in a human for first time in Iowa

The Iowa Department of Health and Human Services announced Friday the state's first human case of the highly pathogenic avian influenza. According to a press release from the department, the individual is a commercial poultry worker who was exposed by a flock in northwest Iowa.

December 21, 2024 at 11:35 AM EST
A consolation prize for Don Jr.'s dumped girlfriend

I'm just as happy as anybody to be seeing less of Kimberly Guilfoyle now that Don Jr. has dumped her. The way she walked around with her dinners hanging out all the time was tacky. That said, she didn't deserve to be publicly humiliated by the likes of Don Jr. The paps grabbed a pic of him running from his new girlfriend's house toward his comically large ("I'm not over-compensating, YOU'RE over-compensating") pick-up truck and I did feel a pang of sympathy for Kim. They'd been engaged for years, not long after Don Jr. left his wife and five kids on account of boring. Kim dutifully spent years doing the happy scream and getting her lips blown up, but she still couldn't close the deal.

December 21, 2024 at 11:32 AM EST
It's official: Kristi Noem is breaking up with South Dakota

She didn't really say it in so many words, but it was obvious to anyone who listened to Gov. Kristi Noem's budget speech. She's breaking up with us. Maybe she didn't want to jinx the next chapter of her life, so she never really came out and said she was leaving us. Read between the lines, though, and you can tell that her bags are packed. It seems like only yesterday we renewed our vows for another four years. Now, suddenly, it's over.

December 21, 2024 at 6:07 AM EST
Trump's nominee to lead the IRS brags about a credential tax experts say is dubious

Billy Long, Trump's Nominee to Lead the IRS, Former U.S. Rep. Billy Long of Missouri, whom President-elect Donald Trump has named his nominee to head the IRS, touts his expertise in tax matters. He advertises his credential as a certified tax and business advisor, and he adds CTBA to his name on his X profile. That profile encourages people to message him to "save 40% on your taxes."

December 21, 2024 at 5:43 AM EST
Ketamine and governance shouldn't mix

Psychedelic drugs hit the news last week just as Elon Musk, America's unelected oligarch, started blowing up the government, because, chaos. Musk, who is clueless about how government works, killed a short term spending bill that would have kept government open through March, provided money for cash-strapped farmers, and provided FEMA disaster relief, all while posting juvenile clues of his cluelessness.

December 21, 2024 at 5:24 AM EST
How to turn power over to billionaires who will leave you behind

As we view the achievements of aggregated capital, we discover the existence of trusts, combinations, and monopolies, while the citizen is struggling far in the rear or is trampled to death beneath an iron heel. Corporations, which should be the carefully restrained creatures of the law and the servants of the people, are fast becoming the people's masters. -- President Grover Cleveland Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people. To destroy this invisible government, to dissolve the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of the day. -- President Theodore Roosevelt

December 21, 2024 at 5:10 AM EST
Luigi Mangione prosecutors risk 'full acquittal' after first major 'mistake': legal expert

Criminal defense attorney and former Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Mark Bederow believes that prosecutors in the Luigi Mangione case have already made a significant "mistake." In an editorial published by the New York Times, Bederow argues that adding terrorism-related charges to the Mangione prosecution was a significant error that could jeopardize what should have been a straightforward murder conviction in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

December 21, 2024 at 4:59 AM EST
'Huge liar': Elon Musk lashes out at Dem senator after scathing CNN clip

Tech billionaire and Donald Trump ally Elon Musk lashed out at a Democratic lawmaker on Friday afternoon who accused him of "endorsing a neo-Nazi party." Following Trump's win over Vice President Kamala Harris, Musk has recently tried to use his influence to tilt Germany's election, endorsing on his platform, X, the country's far-right Alternative for Germany party. Musk wrote Thursday night, "Only the AfD can save Germany."

December 20, 2024 at 10:01 PM EST
'Pitiful embarrassment': PR agent who fired Nancy Mace scorches her in several viral posts

One public relations professional in South Carolina is now airing Rep. Nancy Mace's (R-S.C.) dirty laundry on social media, blasting the far-right congresswoman in several viral social media posts. The Daily Beast reported Friday that Wesley Donehue -- the founder of the PR firm Push Digital Group -- recently unleashed on his former client on his X account. Donehue informed his followers that the two-term congresswoman (who was recently reelected) caused him significant stress, and that he fired her several months ago.