Martha Lillard had just turned 5 when she was diagnosed with polio and depended on an iron lung to live. She died June 26 in Oklahoma, the last U.S. polio patient who used the machine, her sister said. She was 78. "They told her she wasn't supposed to live past 20 years old," Lillard's younger sister, Cindy McVey, told The Associated Press on Friday. "She had the enthusiasm and the drive to continue living and make the best of her life." McVey attributes her sister's death to the effects of long Covid. A death certificate lists causes as chronic pulmonary failure and post-polio syndrome, McVey said.
WASHINGTON ' South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham died on July 11, according to his office. He was 71. Graham's death marks the passing of a longtime conservative fixture of the Senate, and one of President Donald Trump's closest political allies.
VPOTUS JD Vance prejudiced the homicide trial of Tyler Robinson (23), accused of assassinating good-for-nothing Charlie Kirk, when he bleated there is "clear evidence" that the defendant killed the nefarious hatemonger, then speculated on who might have radicalized the alleged culprit.
Infamous example of trial interference by a US politician
The Honorable USDJ Timothy Kelly granted the Justice Department's motion to dismiss the case with prejudice against Proud Boy members Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl, and Dominic Pezzola, after a federal appeals court had already vacated their convictions.
The provenance for all of the Jan 6 case dismissals
Mystery surrounding Senator Mitch McConnell's health is deepening as the US Congress prepares to return from recess next week. McConnell, 84, has not been seen in public since he was admitted to hospital in the Washington area on 14 June. Nearly a month later, the Kentucky Republican's office has released only sparse updates, saying he is "continuing to improve" and remains engaged with Senate business, while refusing to disclose the nature of his illness or explain why he remains hospitalised. Read more
California saw $1.4 billion in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program errors for Fiscal Year 2025. That accounts for $3.8 million every single day. That's part of a trend of Southwestern states having to repay the federal government for SNAP benefits. A payment error rate refers to instances of overpayment or underpayment to households. It is not inherently indicative of fraud, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees SNAP for the federal government. Rather, according to the department, it often stems from households providing incomplete information or state data processing errors. Read more
A vote on a San Francisco supervisor's plan to convert neighborhood corner stores into publicly subsidized markets has been placed on hold. Supervisor Bilal Mahmoud announced the idea late last month and is now accusing Mayor Daniel Lurie of interfering with the Board of Supervisors' legislative process. "What happened is that the mayor called the budget chair and asked her to pull this to even before it could be voted on," Mahmoud said. "This has never happened in the history of the board in recent history." Mahmoud's plan is modeled after New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani's executive action to create government-owned supermarkets.
An indictment says Fahad Mohamed Nur's company received "more than $9.9 million fraudulently from sites or entities involved in the Federal Child Nutrition Program."
A wide-open weekend music thread. Whatever floats yer boat. Have fun!
It never ends, does it? Big fat Brother hath decreed that federal funding for research grants from the National Institutes of Health ($47 billion this fiscal year) must be "screened for disfavored terms and concepts" such as "climate," "gender" and "vaccine."
An illegal alien child rapist from Laos who was set for deportation until Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and the State Board of Pardons granted him clemency has been removed from the United States, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Fox News Digital. Rubio stepped in to terminate Tue Lue Vang's legal status in the U.S. and ensure that Walz's actions would not create roadblocks for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) removing him from the country. Read more
Two teenage boys who identify as girls withdrew their lawsuit in New Hampshire following a Supreme Court ruling that upheld state bans on boys competing in girls' sports. Parker Tirrell and Iris Turmelle filed lawsuits against New Hampshire's ban on males competing on female sports teams, and in 2024, they amended their complaint to include a challenge to Trump's executive order last year that aimed to protect females from having to compete against males in sports, the Associated Press reported.
An LGBTQ cruise that was prohibited from stopping in Turkey earlier this week was not allowed to dock at its substitute port in Egypt on Thursday, according to the company that planned the trip. Atlantis Events CEO Rich Campbell, who is on Virgin Voyages' Scarlet Lady with nearly 2,000 passengers, called the move "really unheard of" and "strange and sad" in a message to The Washington Post. He said that the approval to dock in Alexandria was pulled at the last minute. Read more
The first defendants since daycare fraud became a highly talked-about issue in Minnesota have pleaded guilty. That includes the woman who received more taxpayer money than any other childcare provider in 2025. Fahima Mahamud was arrested in February after she closed down her daycare and, that same day, booked a flight to London. The 50-year-old ran Future Leaders Early Learning Center since 2015. That daycare received $3.7 million in childcare assistance program money last year, more than any other daycare in the state. Read more
Jul 9, 2026
Adam Hoffman " a well connected lawyer and admitted predator " should have spent his life in prison.
Instead, Ken Paxton gave him an Epstein-style sweetheart deal, letting him out of jail after just 29 days in jail.
It's time to start flipping tables!
The Type 003 Fujian aircraft carrier, an 80,000-tonne vessel commissioned into the People's Liberation Army Navy in November 2025, replaces legacy 12-tube depth-charge launchers with specialized port and starboard rotating six-tube ATT mounts. Operating via a permanent-magnet synchronous direct-drive motor and pump-jet propulsion, the 324 mm interceptors accelerate to speeds of 50 to 60 knots within three seconds to execute terminal active or passive homing maneuvers. Read more
