The Supreme Court is allowing President Donald Trump to press on with his White House ballroom project -- over a strident objection from Chief Justice John Roberts and the court's liberal wing.
Alpharetta, a prosperous suburb of Atlanta, Georgia, is home to about 67,000 people, served by about 120 local police officers. It also hosts several dozen cameras sold by Flock Safety ... read more
U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani paused the Trump administration's plan to use the Postal Service to limit the delivery of ballots. read more
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Friday that states can regulate prediction market platforms like gambling and sportsbooks, dealing a heavy blow to the industry. read more
Pakistan says six to seven more Muslim-majority countries are interested in joining the Mecca Defence Pact signed by Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Trkiye. Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar disclosed the information on Monday ahead of a meeting of the top diplomats of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Trkiye in Istanbul. According to Bloomberg, Dar previously said in a speech in the United Kingdom that work was underway to establish a framework to facilitate the accession of other countries to the pact. He did not disclose the names of the interested countries.
From the sub-summary...
... The new CDC Director is failing us. ...
The problem is further up the management chain of HHS ...
Politics, not medical information, now seems to be running the HHS.
US refusals of crucial newborn vitamin spike, raising risk of dangerous bleeding
www.reuters.com
... The percentage of parents and caregivers in the United States refusing a standard vitamin K shot for infants at birth has accelerated sharply this year, an exclusive data analysis for Reuters found, putting more newborns at risk of life-threatening bleeding episodes.
The data confirms what a dozen pediatricians, neonatologists and pediatric critical care specialists told Reuters is a top concern: rising refusals of a life-protective shot and a growing wave of mistrust toward vaccines and other newborn interventions. ...
For decades, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has stoked that mistrust, sowing doubt about vaccines and other established medicines. The acceleration in vitamin K refusals this year aligns with his January announcement dropping recommendations for the birth dose of the hepatitis B vaccine, and five other standard childhood vaccines, from routine use.
The rate of newborns not receiving the vitamin K shot within a day of birth in hospitals jumped more than 57% from January through June, a review of health records for more than 1 million births nationwide by health data and analytics company Truveta revealed.
While vitamin K refusals have been on the rise for years, the Truveta analysis shows that in the first half of 2026, the rate of non-receipt was 2.5 times higher than the average rate from 2019 to 2024. It was 1.4 times higher than in 2025.
Babies are born with very low levels of vitamin K, which helps blood to clot, and are unprotected up until about six months of age, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which still recommends the shot. Without the injection, they are 81 times more likely in those first six months to have life-threatening bleeding in the brain or gut, the CDC says.
One out of five infants who experience serious bleeding will die. Without the shot, such bleeding occurs in one out of 59, opens new tab births.
"It's really terrifying. It's like we're going backwards," Dr. Nia Heard-Garris, pediatric physician scientist at Lurie Children's Hospital, Chicago, said of growing refusals. "We're trying really hard to keep little babies alive." ...
More ...
Flock Has a Powerful New AI Tool for Police. We Got Its Code
www.wired.com
... Flock's surveillance cameras have already sparked outrage. WIRED reconstructed its next-generation AI system, already in use by some police, to confirm it goes much further than tracking license plates. ...
Drawing on a network of cameras that logs the movements of drivers in more than 6,000 communities, the tool can pick out potential witnesses by how often their cars pass through a neighborhood, or surface a driver's "associates" from the cameras they pass together. Because the system also reaches police case files, 911 dispatch logs, and commercial identity records, those plates can be turned into names, home addresses, and relatives. It can search for people in an area drawn on a map based on nothing more than a physical description. ...
The suggested prompts sit in a cache of more than 450 files that WIRED found on Flock's own website, served by its login pages to anyone who loaded them. The code describes 45 tools at the AI's disposal, giving it access to plate scans and camera metadata, arrest records, case files, dispatch logs, ballistics results, and commercial databases that contain Social Security numbers, dates of birth, phone numbers, email addresses, relatives and associates. ...
... removing trees from a golf course in Washington, D.C., without getting approval from officials ...
My guess is that the unauthorized Trump Demolitions are going to get more frequent because of this afternoon's SCOTUS decision ...
Supreme Court continues to allow construction of Trump's White House ballroom
www.cbsnews.com
... In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court halted lower court rulings that would have temporarily blocked the construction of a new 90,000-square-foot ballroom where the East Wing once stood.
The high court said in an unsigned opinion that the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which filed a lawsuit to block the project, did not have the legal right to sue. It did not address the legality of Mr. Trump's East Wing project. ...
Venezuela's Delcy Rodrguez defends endless' benefits of her oil deal with Trump
www.theguardian.com
... Deal that will reportedly see US take control of 65bn barrels of Venezuelan oil has provoked outrage in her country. ...
On Sunday, Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform: "One of the things I am going to do with the Venezuelan Oil is fill up the Strategic National Reserves ...
But the deal has provoked outrage, both among members of Venezuela's opposition and within the Chavismo political movement of which Rodrguez is part.
Speaking on Friday, one prominent opposition figure, who asked not to be named, called the agreement "a massive land grab" by a "rapacious, mafioso United States".
Writing on X, Rafael Ramrez, the former head of Venezuela's state-owned oil company PDVSA, accused Rodrguez's administration of "driving a dagger straight into the heart of the homeland" with the "neocolonial" transaction. "They are handing over 65bn barrels of our reserves to the United States. That has never happened in Venezuela, and I think nowhere else in the world," Ramrez added in an interview with the newspaper El Nacional.
On Saturday, dozens of leftwing protesters marched through Caracas with banners reading: "We are neither a colony, nor a back yard" and "Yankees go home!" ...
... is fill up the Strategic National Reserves ...
Is the high-sulfur, sour Venezuelan crude oil suitable for the storage in the salt caverns of the SPR?
@#3
related?
US Treasury faces media backlash as NYT, Bloomberg journalists denied G20 access
www.firstpost.com
... The US Treasury Department has come under fire after denying press credentials to journalists from several major news organisations, including The New York Times (NYT), The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg News, for the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meeting in Asheville, North Carolina, reported AFP.
The decision has led to a wave of criticism from news organisations and press freedom advocates, particularly as the two-day G20 meeting brings together senior economic policymakers to discuss issues with far-reaching implications for the global economy. ...
@#30
Similar article, no paywall ...
Trump Faces Scrutiny Over $13B in Venezuelan Oil Cash as Only $300M Is Publicly Traced to Caracas
www.ibtimes.co.uk
Trump's foreign beef deal draws skepticism from farmers and cattle ranchers nationwide
www.scrippsnews.com
... Jason Leavitt grew up on the farm in Calvert County, Maryland he now runs with his family. He ushers over 100 cows around their 160 acres of arable land, letting his grass-fed, grass-finished cattle graze on more than a dozen different pastures.
He understands what Pres. Trump is trying to do with the foreign beef deal, importing 300,000 metric tons of ground beef and selling it 25% below market value, but Leavitt believes that move is just a band aid on a bigger problem.
"Is it the worst thing in the world? No. Is it going to solve the intrinsic problems in the food production systems, specifically as it is related to beef production, I highly doubt it," Leavitt said. ...
@#6 ... CENTCOM declares it de-mined. ...
IRGC says ship struck 2 sea mines after U.S. declared Hormuz cleared
www.upi.com
... A supertanker transiting the Strait of Hormuz struck two sea mines, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said Monday, days after the Trump administration said it had cleared the vital transit route of the explosive devices.
According to a statement from the IRGC Navy carried by semi-official Tasnim News Agency, the unidentified tanker struck the mines, caught fire and came to a stop.
The IRGC Navy said the vessel had attempted to pass through an "illegal route south of the Strait of Hormuz" when it came into contact with the mines. ...
OK, found this ...
Flaming Lips - Hangout Fest 2012 - Dark Side of the Moon (Full Show Pro Shot)
www.youtube.com
Flaming Lips - Do You Realize?? (2002)
www.youtube.com
They also did an amazing cover of Pink Floyd back in the day.
Lemme see if I can find it ...
@#11 ... This is the 'fine print' that I'm sure Trump is hoping that the people will never read: ...
Then there is also this ...
Exxon and Chevron decline new spending in Venezuela while taking a wait-and-see approach for the years ahead (January 2026)
fortune.com
... U.S. Big Oil giants Exxon Mobil and Chevron said Jan. 30 they have no plans to increase their capital spending in Venezuela this year while they wait and see how legal and political reforms unfold to make the country more inviting to foreign oil investments.
Since forcibly removing leader Nicolas Maduro from power, President Donald Trump has repeatedly insisted U.S. oil companies will spend more than $100 billion in Venezuela to dramatically rebuild its dilapidated infrastructure.
But Exxon Mobil chairman and CEO Darren Woods infamously drew Trump's ire earlier this month when he told the president that Venezuela is currently "uninvestable" until major reforms are enacted and the country sees real stability. After all, Exxon had its oil assets expropriated in Venezuela less than 20 years ago.
Trump later said Woods' remarks were "too cute" and that he may be inclined to keep the world's largest Big Oil player out of Venezuela.
Woods said Jan. 30 on his fourth-quarter earnings call that he does believe the Trump administration is committed to making the necessary changes to eventually turn Venezuela into a viable investment option. How soon remains to be seen. Venezuela's National Assembly began approving reforms to its oil and gas laws on Jan. 29. ...
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