Posts on Thursday, August 14, 2025

When Thongbue Wongbandue began packing to visit a friend in New York City one morning in March, his wife Linda became alarmed.[snip] Bue’s story, told here for the first time, illustrates a darker side of the artificial intelligence revolution now sweeping tech and the broader business world. His family[snip]hope to warn the public about the dangers of exposing vulnerable people to manipulative, AI-generated companions.[snip]Similar concerns have been raised about a wave of smaller start-ups also racing to popularize virtual companions, especially ones aimed at children.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem revealed Thursday nearly two million illegal aliens have self-deported since President Donald Trump took office in January. DHS has implemented a number of programs and used a series of tactics to promote self deportation. "In her first 200 days as secretary, DHS also launched an international, multimillion-dollar ad campaign warning illegal aliens to LEAVE NOW because if they don’t, we will arrest them and deport them. This new data shows illegal aliens are hearing our message," DHS adds in a statement.

Apple is preparing a sweeping lineup of new hardware as part of a broader push into artificial intelligence and the smart home, according to people familiar with the plans. The centerpiece is a tabletop robot, targeted for release in 2027, that is designed to act as a lifelike virtual companion. The company is also developing a smart speaker with a display for next year, as well as home-security cameras that would anchor a new Apple-branded security system.

The pieces might be falling into place for Wyoming’s timber industry to make a strong comeback, legislators and land management officials said. The volume of timber being cut in Wyoming might outpace the state’s few remaining sawmills to meet the demand. The increase in demand coincides with tariffs being placed on Canadian lumber, which for decades had been a main source of wood in the United States. Last week, the U.S. Commerce Department announced a significant increase on duties of Canadian lumber imports to 35%. Long-term success of expanding the Wyoming timber industry hinges on building back the “local timber industry,” instead of trucking logs to mills in other states

President Donald Trump claims that hundreds of thousands of non-citizens and millions of dead Americans have been removed from the Social Security system. [Snip] We've already kicked nearly 275,000 illegal aliens off of the Social Security system,' the Republican said. 'These are people, many of them have already left the country, and yet we were sending them checks all the time.' [Snip] Trump also celebrated the removal of over 12 million individuals aged 120 or older from the SSA system. [Snip]There were nearly 135,000 people listed who are over 160 years old, and in some cases, getting payments.'

As Gov. Gavin Newsom launched his California redistricting campaign Thursday at an event in Los Angeles, a U.S. Border Patrol sector chief showed up outside with a contingent of armed and masked agents. Agents, some heavily armed and carrying zip ties, arrested “a few” people outside the event, Newsom spokesperson Izzy Gardon said. Video posted online showed one man in handcuffs being led away. Leading the action was Gregory Bovino, head of the Border Patrol’s El Centro sector, which has aggressively touted its anti-immigrant stance on social media and is under a court injunction blocking the agency from indiscriminately arresting people based on their appearance or location.

Jack Schlossberg brought a van to greet Senator Chuck Schumer and the Kennedy heir left with a job from Washington's most powerful Democrat. Schlossberg remains an object of fascination from his often strange social media posts, drawing scathing criticism from his mother Caroline's sister-in-law Cheryl Hines earlier this week. Jack is the 32 year old-son of Caroline and Edwin Schlossberg. Hines' husband RFK Jr is the son of Robert 'Bobby' Kennedy, who was President John F. Kennedy's brother.

Turns out the censored film about the Oct. 7 massacre in Israel will be gracing Toronto International Film Festival screens after all. TIFF officials were expected to issue a news release on Thursday afternoon after a wild 24 hours of uncertainty and international furor. TIFF board member John Ruffolo told the Sun on Thursday afternoon that the issue “is all resolved” and the film in question “will be exhibited as planned and even bigger than originally. This was no easy negotiation. There were people calling for resignations and the potential of public and private sponsorships being pulled after TIFF president Cameron Bailey made the call.

Bob Menendez advised Egyptian officials how to cover up their part in the grisly murder of Saudi Arabian dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi. This was an egregious human rights abuse and the biggest betrayal to the values he was elected to uphold as a US senator. The disgraced former New Jersey Democrat — now serving an 11-year sentence for corruption and conspiracy to act as a foreign agent for Egypt and Qatar — had coached his high-level Egyptian contacts how to respond to a grilling about Khashoggi’s assassination in a Saudi embassy before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in June 2021, court records show.

“The View” co-host Ana Navarro posted a message on Instagram Thursday morning urging singer Gloria Gaynor to reject President Trump’s Kennedy Center Honor. “A few years ago, I got to briefly meet @gloriagaynor at a concert in Miami. She gifted me a keychain that belted out ‘I Will Survive,’ when you pressed it. Let’s just say, during first Trump term, I pressed it til it ran out of batteries,” Navarro began in her Instagram post. “Yesterday, Trump announced he picked her to receive a Kennedy Center Honor, which he plans to host.” Navarro continued: “Look, the woman is a goddess

The high ground has always held strategic and tactical importance—from mountaintops in ancient battles to the orbital vantage points of today. China and Russia are rapidly accelerating their space and lunar ambitions. Both are seeking scientific, economic, and national security breakthroughs that could shift the balance of power on Earth. The President’s budget calls for an eventual pivot away from NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS)—leaving the heavy-lift rocket business to a capable commercial industry. That pivot should be toward something no other agency, organization, or company is capable of accomplishing: building a fleet of nuclear-electric-powered spaceships and extending America’s reach in the ultimate high ground of space.

Bryan Kohberger called his mom multiple times after killing four University of Idaho students with a knife in November 2022 – first when he got back to his apartment across the state line in Pullman, Washington, and later when he drove back to the scene after sunrise, (snip)The 30-year-old's own lawyers described him in court filings as socially awkward, and he was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder as part of a failed bid to have the death penalty taken off the table(snip) he reportedly had no text with friends or anyone outside his family, other than a single, "benign" group chat.(snip) Kohberger referred to his parents as "Mother" and "Father"

John Oliver skewered Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) for his decades-long fixation on an imaginary Long Island couple – Joe and Eileen Bailey – questioning why the Democratic leader has allowed non-existent voters to justify his political instincts. In a series of clips from years past, Oliver rolled out the Baileys’ lore, as told by Schumer, on Last Week Tonight. The Baileys, according to the Democrat’s own telling, are a middle-class duo from Massapequa whose political journey began as Reagan Republicans in 1980, “Schumer first introduced the world to the Baileys in his 2007 book, Positively American, winning back the middle-class majority, one family at a time,” the host said.

I just recorded Sean Spicer's show, and as he always does with his panel, he asked for a winner of the week and a loser. For the latter, I picked Gavin Newsom, who is on a losing streak. As he flails around, looking for a way to gain more traction in the race to become the Democrats' nominee for president, Newsom is trying on a Donald Trump skin suit to see if that will work. Hey! Trump is winning, so why not emulate his style? (Snip for X post) Ah, Gavin, this is pathetic. When Pete Buttigieg, Mr. Vanilla, is beating you in the race to become president

Attorney General Pam Bondi warned that California will lose federal funding unless Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) ends the state’s sanctuary city policies. Bondi revealed in a post on X that the Department of Justice (DOJ) had “delivered demand letters” to sanctuary cities, counties, and states throughout the nation as part of an effort to “eradicate sanctuary policies” from California. In her post, Bondi included a letter addressed to Newsom. In the letter to Newsom, Bondi explained that President Donald Trump had “directed” Bondi, in coordination with Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem to “identify sanctuary jurisdictions and notify them

Democratic socialist and Minneapolis mayoral hopeful Omar Fateh says his first priority in office would be protecting illegal immigrants from President Donald Trump's "hostile federal government." Fateh made the statement during an interview with KARE 11 News in Minnesota, doubling down on his identity as a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, but denying his policies are "radical." "Day one, if you were elected, what would be some of your top two or three priorities for the city?" the reporter asked in an interview aired Friday. "The first I would say would be a hostile federal government, with not only Donald Trump in office,

A former top executive for liberal billionaire George Soros' Open Society Foundations (OSF) between 2017 and 2020 is back in the spotlight amid reports highlighting his involvement with Zohran Mamdani's New York City mayoral campaign and connecting Obama world to the campaign. Patrick Gaspard, who has served in several high-profile political positions, including advising former President Barack Obama's historic 2008 campaign, serving as the Democratic National Committee's executive director, and being tapped as the Center for American Progress (CAP) president in 2021, has been informally advising Mamdani on the side and recently introduced Obama campaign architect David Axelrod to him, a recent New York Times article revealed.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Aug. 14 declined to block a Mississippi law restricting minors’ access to social media platforms. The court did not explain its new ruling in NetChoice LLC v. Fitch. NetChoice, a trade association for internet companies, filed an emergency application last month after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit lifted a federal district court’s injunction that shielded several platforms from the law’s requirements. NetChoice argues the state law violates First Amendment free speech protections.

I was born in the District of Columbia at the end of 1942. Growing up in the suburbs, there was so little crime that when it did happen, it made the front page... [Snip] If the District were a state, it would have the highest homicide rate of any state in the nation. [Snip] Area residents know what needs to happen in addition to swift punishment of the perpetrators.,,employed fathers in the home and school choice to free especially poor children from failing public schools that give them nothing on which to build a life. Without these, the National Guard will be only a temporary fix.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent appears with Maria Bartiromo to discuss the upcoming summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump. Bessent notes the backseat demands from EU leaders with their position on the Trump negotiation strategy has worn thin amid their hypocrisy. “It’s time to put up or shut up,” Bessent says, when talking about how the EU is still facilitating the economic purchases of Russian energy products, while simultaneously demanding Trump do this and that. WATCH:

Wild, newly released dashcam footage shows the Democrats’ choice to run for governor in South Carolina getting arrested recently in just his underwear — while swearing, using the n-word and referring to himself as both God and Superman.Married father of four William “Mullins” McLeod, 53, is facing calls from his own party to step down from the gubernatorial race that he only formally entered Monday after video emerged a day later of his bizarre arrest just months earlier in May, according to WCBD.The prominent attorney was stopped in downtown Charleston while “yelling at the top of his lungs” and wearing only underwear and shoes,

His career is toast. A DC man who hurled a Subway sandwich at a federal agent on the streets of the capital earlier this week has been identified as a now-former Justice Department trial attorney. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Thursday that Sean Charles Dunn, 37, who is facing a felony assault charge for the sandwich strike, has been fired from his DOJ role. “If you touch any law enforcement officer, we will come after you,” Bondi declared. “I just learned that this defendant worked at the Department of Justice — NO LONGER. Not only is he FIRED, he has been charged with a felony.”

Consumers see businesses as partners in transactions they have voluntarily chosen to take part in. They might not always be happy with the exchanges they make, but they generally understand that they are making a tradeoff that benefits both parties.  Policymakers, however, far too often see businesses as endless sources of money to fund their agendas.  On occasion, businesses will reach a breaking point. So they defend their interests, as some in Los Angeles are doing. A coalition has launched a June 2026 ballot measure to repeal the gross receipts tax, which is levied on business revenues, not profits (and is often passed on to consumers in the form of higher prices). 

President Donald Trump has delegated federal agents to assist in fighting crime in D.C. as part of his move to help clean up the city. They've been involved, showing themselves around D.C., and that's good policing — to discourage bad actors. However, there was one man who was apparently upset with their presence in the city. The man allegedly hurled a footlong sandwich into the chest of the CBP agent, then found out that was unwise, as he turned and fled, but then was immediately chased down by the agents.

By all accounts, even those of liberal media outlets, the Democratic National Committee is broke. Under the leadership of chairman Ken Martin, the DNC is facing a full-blown financial crisis. But how did it come to this? Well, donor flight is one part of the answer. Since President Trump and J.D. Vance took office in a historic victory, the DNC's once-reliable donor class has slammed the brakes on contributions. But the bigger story, and one the mainstream press won't touch, is that a critical pipeline of cash has been shut off: the massive taxpayer-funded slush fund known as USAID.

FBI Director Kash Patel has uncovered a bombshell memo written in 2017 chronicling the extensive political obstruction that career agents in three cities faced from their own bosses and the Obama Justice Department during the 2016 election as they probed whether Hillary Clinton engaged in a pay-to-play corruption scheme involving her family foundation."Shut it down!" then-Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates is quoted as demanding in the detailed timeline of political impediments that agents in New York City, Little Rock, Ark., and Washington D.C. reported. 

Another round of car break-ins happened overnight Wednesday in Minneapolis, bringing the total number of vehicles damaged in the city to roughly 475 since July 14. At least 125 vehicle owners are dealing with broken windows after this latest round that occurred in parts of northeast and south Minneapolis. Neighbors near Northeast Main Street and 11th Avenue Northeast say seemingly every window was smashed, with dozens of vehicles hit. They also say thieves targeted the same area just three weeks ago. (Snip) Odor, a therapist who works with kids, says she'd like to see more programs that help young people.

Bryan Kohberger has been in Idaho’s maximum security prison for nearly two weeks, and one detective says he’s already losing it. Placed in “J Block” for his own protection, “Banfield” has learned Kohberger’s fellow hardcore offenders are going out of their way, as far as they can, to make the notorious newcomer miserable. His fellow inmates have been taking turns shouting through the air ducts, all day and all night, to keep Kohberger from sleeping at night or even hearing himself think during the day. “The good news is the inmates apparently were waiting for him,” said Chris McDonough, director of the “Cold Case Foundation” and a retired homicide detective.

The real scandal at the heart of the Russiagate saga is the intimate and troubling connection between Adam Schiff and Hillary Clinton. This connection reveals how classified intelligence was weaponized to target Donald Trump. We’ve already talked about how recently declassified documents confirm the Trump-Russia collusion hoax was a deliberate political hit job, which Barack Obama approved in coordination with Clinton’s 2016 campaign. But things are so much worse. As PJ Media previously reported, then-congressman Schiff was the architect behind the deliberate leaking of classified information aimed at smearing Trump

Orange Strawman Bad. The New York Times opinion pages, today: By ordering 800 National Guard troops to Washington, on the pretext of an illusory crime wave, President Trump has further dragged the U.S. military into domestic law enforcement, in a move credibly perceived as an ominous “test case.” (Snip) OH GOD TRUMP IS SENDING THE NATIONAL GUARD INTO WASHINGTON D.C., NOTHING LIKE THIS HAS EVER HAPPENED BEFORE. It’s been four years, dorks. Nobody forgot. Of course it has happened before, in the federal district of Washington D.C. and elsewhere. The Watts Riots ended with 14,000 National Guard troops on the streets of Los Angeles. You can find example after example

Sometimes you can’t help but wonder: how do the progressive scolds who constantly shame everyone else for routine actions ever get out of bed in the morning with the burdens they carry? They worry they’re using too much water to brush their teeth, they can’t take a vacation because the emissions from the car or plane will cause the demise of us all, and the CO2 they emit with each breath spells disaster. They constantly fret over the consumption of meat, the use of everyday household appliances that make our lives better, and any other progress that has brought our civilization into the 21st Century.

Last month, Charlie Wolf attended a meeting of the Greers Ferry, Ark., city council to complain about a license-plate camera that he said was violating the Fourth Amendment by regularly taking pictures of his driveway and front yard. Greers Ferry Police Chief Kallen Lacy acknowledged Wolf’s “distress” but rejected his legal analysis, saying “over 5,000 cities” across the country use such cameras, “so there is no constitutional violation there.”[snip] Unlike red-light cameras or speed cameras that are triggered by specific violations,” the Institute for Justice notes, ALPRs “photograph every vehicle that drives by and can use artificial intelligence to create a profile with identifying information

A U.S. district court decided on Wednesday to strike down a 2017 federal regulation that exempted religious employers from the Affordable Care Act’s mandate for employer-sponsored health insurance to cover the cost of contraception. If the ruling holds, religious non-profit organizations such as the Little Sisters of the Poor, the defendants in the case, may now be required to file for an accommodation process with the government that still maintains employees’ access to contraception without the religious organization having to pay. For-profit employers would have access to no religious exemption from the mandate whatsoever.

Yesterday we learned that the Texas Democrats who fled the state to prevent a quorum and block a vote on redistricting were making plans to return home. Even though the article, from an ABC affiliate in Texas, didn't have a lot of detail it was pretty clear that the plan was to fold up their traveling tent and declare victory in some fashion. Today, NBC News has a more detailed follow-up story which goes into detail about the Texas Dems' exit strategy. Texas Democrats met late into the night Tuesday then again Wednesday, including breaking into smaller groups, to discuss their next steps and what their ultimate exit strategy

Mickey Mantle, the legendary centerfielder for the New York Yankees and cultural icon, died 30 years ago this week, on August 13, 1995. Talk to virtually any baby boomer today who called themselves a serious sports fan, and they will tell you that whether they grew up in Odessa, Texas, Omaha, Nebraska, Montgomery, Alabama, or Raleigh, North Carolina—they all wanted to wear number seven on their uniform.

First lady Melania Trump is putting Hunter Biden on $1 billion notice over what she claims are "false, defamatory, disparaging, and inflammatory statements" made about her, demanding he immediately remove and retract the content and issue an apology or face legal action, Fox News Digital has learned. Fox News Digital exclusively obtained the letter that Alejandro Brito, attorney serving as litigation counsel for the first lady, sent to Hunter Biden and his attorney, Abbe Lowell, Aug. 6.