Minnesota state Sen. Nicole Mitchell (DFL-Woodbury) was found guilty of felony burglary by a Detroit Lakes jury Friday.

The latest: The jury delivered the verdict — guilty on charges of first-degree burglary and possession of burglary tools — just hours after closing arguments.

• Mitchell did not speak to the press following the verdict, but defense attorney Dane DeKrey told reporters she plans to appeal, per the Star Tribune.

The big picture: The fallout over the verdict could upend the balance of power at the State Capitol, where Democrats have a one-seat Senate majority.

Catch up fast: Mitchell, a first-term Democrat, meteorologist and former lieutenant colonel in the Air National Guard, has faced pressure to resign since police arrested her on the morning of April 22, 2024, following a report of a burglary at her stepmother’s Detroit Lakes home.

Mitchell, discovered in the basement dressed in black, told officers at the time that she was there to retrieve her late father’s items, according to a criminal complaint and police body camera footage.

• But Mitchell later denied that her intent was to steal, saying she was attempting to check on her stepmother amid concerns about Alzheimer’s and associated “paranoia.”

What happened: In her trial testimony, Mitchell admitted to trespassing in the home and claimed she lied to police about her reasons for being there, but said she did both things out of concern for her ailing stepmother.

• In his closing argument, Mitchell’s attorney had argued there was a distinction between trespassing and burglary, saying the state couldn’t “rule out that Nicole Mitchell entered just to check on Carol.”

The other side: Prosecutors argued Mitchell’s explanations didn’t add up to a daughter’s concern, pointing out the tools she took with her, including latex gloves a small crowbar.

• “Who packs a freaking prybar just in case?” Becker County Attorney Brian McDonald said during his closing argument.

By the numbers: The felony burglary charge carries a minimum sentence of six months in jail, per Mitchell’s attorney, and a maximum sentence of 20 years.

• A sentencing date has not been set.

Between the lines: Mitchell repeatedly rebuffed Republicans’ calls to resign over the charges in the wake of her arrest.

• While some top Democrats, including Gov. Tim Walz, have said they thought she should step down, the Senate DFL Caucus repeatedly blocked GOP efforts to remove her from her seat.
• Defenders of Mitchell remaining in the Legislature, including Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy, acknowledged the serious nature of the allegations, but said Mitchell had a right to due process.

Zoom in: As a result, Mitchell was able to continue to cast what was effectively the deciding vote whenever the narrowly divided chamber split on party lines.

• Those votes included major pieces of the DFL’s agenda when Democrats held full control of the Capitol in 2024, budget-related bills and procedural fights and resolutions related to her own standing in the Senate.

What we’re watching: What Mitchell — and top Senate Democrats — do next.

• In a statement issued minutes after the verdict, Murphy said Mitchell “has told colleagues that she intended to resign if found guilty of this crime, and I expect her to follow through on that pledge.”
• The governor’s office told Axios that Walz expects Mitchell will resign and will have more information on a special election soon.

The bottom line: The Legislature is scheduled to reconvene in February. If she doesn’t resign, Walz could call a special session for an expulsion vote.

• It would take a vote of two-thirds of the chamber to forcibly expel Mitchell from the chamber. source

Top-secret documents reveal that the National Security Agency is dramatically expanding its ability to covertly hack into computers on a mass scale by using automated systems that reduce the level of human oversight in the process.

The classified files – provided previously by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden – contain new details about groundbreaking surveillance technology the agency has developed to infect potentially millions of computers worldwide with malware “implants.” The clandestine initiative enables the NSA to break into targeted computers and to siphon out data from foreign Internet and phone networks.

The covert infrastructure that supports the hacking efforts operates from the agency’s headquarters in Fort Meade, Maryland, and from eavesdropping bases in the United Kingdom and Japan. GCHQ, the British intelligence agency, appears to have played an integral role in helping to develop the implants tactic.

In some cases the NSA has masqueraded as a fake Facebook server, using the social media site as a launching pad to infect a target’s computer and exfiltrate files from a hard drive. In others, it has sent out spam emails laced with the malware, which can be tailored to covertly record audio from a computer’s microphone and take snapshots with its webcam. The hacking systems have also enabled the NSA to launch cyberattacks by corrupting and disrupting file downloads or denying access to websites.

The implants being deployed were once reserved for a few hundred hard-to-reach targets, whose communications could not be monitored through traditional wiretaps. But the documents analyzed by The Intercept show how the NSA has aggressively accelerated its hacking initiatives in the past decade by computerizing some processes previously handled by humans. The automated system – codenamed TURBINE – is designed to “allow the current implant network to scale to large size (millions of implants) by creating a system that does automated control implants by groups instead of individually.”

In a top-secret presentation, dated August 2009, the NSA describes a pre-programmed part of the covert infrastructure called the “Expert System,” which is designed to operate “like the brain.” The system manages the applications and functions of the implants and “decides” what tools they need to best extract data from infected machines.

Mikko Hypponen, an expert in malware who serves as chief research officer at the Finnish security firm F-Secure, calls the revelations “disturbing.” The NSA’s surveillance techniques, he warns, could inadvertently be undermining the security of the Internet.

“When they deploy malware on systems,” Hypponen says, “they potentially create new vulnerabilities in these systems, making them more vulnerable for attacks by third parties.”

Hypponen believes that governments could arguably justify using malware in a small number of targeted cases against adversaries. But millions of malware implants being deployed by the NSA as part of an automated process, he says, would be “out of control.”

“That would definitely not be proportionate,” Hypponen says. “It couldn’t possibly be targeted and named. It sounds like wholesale infection and wholesale surveillance.”

The NSA declined to answer questions about its deployment of implants, pointing to a new presidential policy directive announced by President Obama. “As the president made clear on 17 January,” the agency said in a statement, “signals intelligence shall be collected exclusively where there is a foreign intelligence or counterintelligence purpose to support national and departmental missions, and not for any other purposes.”

“Owning the Net”

The NSA began rapidly escalating its hacking efforts a decade ago. In 2004, according to secret internal records, the agency was managing a small network of only 100 to 150 implants. But over the next six to eight years, as an elite unit called Tailored Access Operations (TAO) recruited new hackers and developed new malware tools, the number of implants soared to tens of thousands.

To penetrate foreign computer networks and monitor communications that it did not have access to through other means, the NSA wanted to go beyond the limits of traditional signals intelligence, or SIGINT, the agency’s term for the interception of electronic communications. Instead, it sought to broaden “active” surveillance methods – tactics designed to directly infiltrate a target’s computers or network devices.

In the documents, the agency describes such techniques as “a more aggressive approach to SIGINT” and says that the TAO unit’s mission is to “aggressively scale” these operations.

But the NSA recognized that managing a massive network of implants is too big a job for humans alone.

“One of the greatest challenges for active SIGINT/attack is scale,” explains the top-secret presentation from 2009. “Human ‘drivers’ limit ability for large-scale exploitation (humans tend to operate within their own environment, not taking into account the bigger picture).”

The agency’s solution was TURBINE. Developed as part of TAO unit, it is described in the leaked documents as an “intelligent command and control capability” that enables “industrial-scale exploitation.”

TURBINE was designed to make deploying malware much easier for the NSA’s hackers by reducing their role in overseeing its functions. The system would “relieve the user from needing to know/care about the details,” the NSA’s Technology Directorate notes in one secret document from 2009. “For example, a user should be able to ask for ‘all details about application X’ and not need to know how and where the application keeps files, registry entries, user application data, etc.”

In practice, this meant that TURBINE would automate crucial processes that previously had to be performed manually – including the configuration of the implants as well as surveillance collection, or “tasking,” of data from infected systems. But automating these processes was about much more than a simple technicality. The move represented a major tactical shift within the NSA that was expected to have a profound impact – allowing the agency to push forward into a new frontier of surveillance operations.

The ramifications are starkly illustrated in one undated top-secret NSA document, which describes how the agency planned for TURBINE to “increase the current capability to deploy and manage hundreds of Computer Network Exploitation (CNE) and Computer Network Attack (CNA) implants to potentially millions of implants.” (CNE mines intelligence from computers and networks; CNA seeks to disrupt, damage or destroy them.)

Eventually, the secret files indicate, the NSA’s plans for TURBINE came to fruition. The system has been operational in some capacity since at least July 2010, and its role has become increasingly central to NSA hacking operations.

Earlier reports based on the Snowden files indicate that the NSA has already deployed between 85,000 and 100,000 of its implants against computers and networks across the world, with plans to keep on scaling up those numbers.

The intelligence community’s top-secret “Black Budget” for 2013, obtained by Snowden, lists TURBINE as part of a broader NSA surveillance initiative named “Owning the Net.”

The agency sought $67.6 million in taxpayer funding for its Owning the Net program last year. Some of the money was earmarked for TURBINE, expanding the system to encompass “a wider variety” of networks and “enabling greater automation of computer network exploitation.”

Circumventing Encryption

The NSA has a diverse arsenal of malware tools, each highly sophisticated and customizable for different purposes.

One implant, codenamed UNITEDRAKE, can be used with a variety of “plug-ins” that enable the agency to gain total control of an infected computer.

An implant plug-in named CAPTIVATEDAUDIENCE, for example, is used to take over a targeted computer’s microphone and record conversations taking place near the device. Another, GUMFISH, can covertly take over a computer’s webcam and snap photographs. FOGGYBOTTOM records logs of Internet browsing histories and collects login details and passwords used to access websites and email accounts. GROK is used to log keystrokes. And SALVAGERABBIT exfiltrates data from removable flash drives that connect to an infected computer.

The implants can enable the NSA to circumvent privacy-enhancing encryption tools that are used to browse the Internet anonymously or scramble the contents of emails as they are being sent across networks. That’s because the NSA’s malware gives the agency unfettered access to a target’s computer before the user protects their communications with encryption.

It is unclear how many of the implants are being deployed on an annual basis or which variants of them are currently active in computer systems across the world.

Previous reports have alleged that the NSA worked with Israel to develop the Stuxnet malware, which was used to sabotage Iranian nuclear facilities. The agency also reportedly worked with Israel to deploy malware called Flame to infiltrate computers and spy on communications in countries across the Middle East.

According to the Snowden files, the technology has been used to seek out terror suspects as well as individuals regarded by the NSA as “extremist.” But the mandate of the NSA’s hackers is not limited to invading the systems of those who pose a threat to national security.

In one secret post on an internal message board, an operative from the NSA’s Signals Intelligence Directorate describes using malware attacks against systems administrators who work at foreign phone and Internet service providers. By hacking an administrator’s computer, the agency can gain covert access to communications that are processed by his company. “Sys admins are a means to an end,” the NSA operative writes.

The internal post – titled “I hunt sys admins” – makes clear that terrorists aren’t the only targets of such NSA attacks. Compromising a systems administrator, the operative notes, makes it easier to get to other targets of interest, including any “government official that happens to be using the network some admin takes care of.”

Similar tactics have been adopted by Government Communications Headquarters, the NSA’s British counterpart. As the German newspaper Der Spiegel reported in September, GCHQ hacked computers belonging to network engineers at Belgacom, the Belgian telecommunications provider.

The mission, codenamed “Operation Socialist,” was designed to enable GCHQ to monitor mobile phones connected to Belgacom’s network. The secret files deem the mission a “success,” and indicate that the agency had the ability to covertly access Belgacom’s systems since at least 2010.

Infiltrating cellphone networks, however, is not all that the malware can be used to accomplish. The NSA has specifically tailored some of its implants to infect large-scale network routers used by Internet service providers in foreign countries. By compromising routers – the devices that connect computer networks and transport data packets across the Internet – the agency can gain covert access to monitor Internet traffic, record the browsing sessions of users, and intercept communications.

Two implants the NSA injects into network routers, HAMMERCHANT and HAMMERSTEIN, help the agency to intercept and perform “exploitation attacks” against data that is sent through a Virtual Private Network, a tool that uses encrypted “tunnels” to enhance the security and privacy of an Internet session.

The implants also track phone calls sent across the network via Skype and other Voice Over IP software, revealing the username of the person making the call. If the audio of the VOIP conversation is sent over the Internet using unencrypted “Real-time Transport Protocol” packets, the implants can covertly record the audio data and then return it to the NSA for analysis.

But not all of the NSA’s implants are used to gather intelligence, the secret files show. Sometimes, the agency’s aim is disruption rather than surveillance. QUANTUMSKY, a piece of NSA malware developed in 2004, is used to block targets from accessing certain websites. QUANTUMCOPPER, first tested in 2008, corrupts a target’s file downloads. These two “attack” techniques are revealed on a classified list that features nine NSA hacking tools, six of which are used for intelligence gathering. Just one is used for “defensive” purposes – to protect U.S. government networks against intrusions.

“Mass exploitation potential”

Before it can extract data from an implant or use it to attack a system, the NSA must first install the malware on a targeted computer or network.

According to one top-secret document from 2012, the agency can deploy malware by sending out spam emails that trick targets into clicking a malicious link. Once activated, a “back-door implant” infects their computers within eight seconds.

There’s only one problem with this tactic, codenamed WILLOWVIXEN: According to the documents, the spam method has become less successful in recent years, as Internet users have become wary of unsolicited emails and less likely to click on anything that looks suspicious.

Consequently, the NSA has turned to new and more advanced hacking techniques. These include performing so-called “man-in-the-middle” and “man-on-the-side” attacks, which covertly force a user’s internet browser to route to NSA computer servers that try to infect them with an implant.

To perform a man-on-the-side attack, the NSA observes a target’s Internet traffic using its global network of covert “accesses” to data as it flows over fiber optic cables or satellites. When the target visits a website that the NSA is able to exploit, the agency’s surveillance sensors alert the TURBINE system, which then “shoots” data packets at the targeted computer’s IP address within a fraction of a second.

In one man-on-the-side technique, codenamed QUANTUMHAND, the agency disguises itself as a fake Facebook server. When a target attempts to log in to the social media site, the NSA transmits malicious data packets that trick the target’s computer into thinking they are being sent from the real Facebook. By concealing its malware within what looks like an ordinary Facebook page, the NSA is able to hack into the targeted computer and covertly siphon out data from its hard drive. A top-secret animation demonstrates the tactic in action.

The documents show that QUANTUMHAND became operational in October 2010, after being successfully tested by the NSA against about a dozen targets.

According to Matt Blaze, a surveillance and cryptography expert at the University of Pennsylvania, it appears that the QUANTUMHAND technique is aimed at targeting specific individuals. But he expresses concerns about how it has been covertly integrated within Internet networks as part of the NSA’s automated TURBINE system.

“As soon as you put this capability in the backbone infrastructure, the software and security engineer in me says that’s terrifying,” Blaze says.

“Forget about how the NSA is intending to use it. How do we know it is working correctly and only targeting who the NSA wants? And even if it does work correctly, which is itself a really dubious assumption, how is it controlled?”

In an email statement to The Intercept, Facebook spokesman Jay Nancarrow said the company had “no evidence of this alleged activity.” He added that Facebook implemented HTTPS encryption for users last year, making browsing sessions less vulnerable to malware attacks.

Nancarrow also pointed out that other services besides Facebook could have been compromised by the NSA. “If government agencies indeed have privileged access to network service providers,” he said, “any site running only [unencrypted] HTTP could conceivably have its traffic misdirected.”

A man-in-the-middle attack is a similar but slightly more aggressive method that can be used by the NSA to deploy its malware. It refers to a hacking technique in which the agency covertly places itself between computers as they are communicating with each other.

This allows the NSA not only to observe and redirect browsing sessions, but to modify the content of data packets that are passing between computers.

The man-in-the-middle tactic can be used, for instance, to covertly change the content of a message as it is being sent between two people, without either knowing that any change has been made by a third party. The same technique is sometimes used by criminal hackers to defraud people.

A top-secret NSA presentation from 2012 reveals that the agency developed a man-in-the-middle capability called SECONDDATE to “influence real-time communications between client and server” and to “quietly redirect web-browsers” to NSA malware servers called FOXACID. In October, details about the FOXACID system were reported by the Guardian, which revealed its links to attacks against users of the Internet anonymity service Tor.

But SECONDDATE is tailored not only for “surgical” surveillance attacks on individual suspects. It can also be used to launch bulk malware attacks against computers.

According to the 2012 presentation, the tactic has “mass exploitation potential for clients passing through network choke points.”

Blaze, the University of Pennsylvania surveillance expert, says the potential use of man-in-the-middle attacks on such a scale “seems very disturbing.” Such an approach would involve indiscriminately monitoring entire networks as opposed to targeting individual suspects.

“The thing that raises a red flag for me is the reference to ‘network choke points,’” he says. “That’s the last place that we should be allowing intelligence agencies to compromise the infrastructure – because that is by definition a mass surveillance technique.”

To deploy some of its malware implants, the NSA exploits security vulnerabilities in commonly used Internet browsers such as Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer.

The agency’s hackers also exploit security weaknesses in network routers and in popular software plugins such as Flash and Java to deliver malicious code onto targeted machines.

The implants can circumvent anti-virus programs, and the NSA has gone to extreme lengths to ensure that its clandestine technology is extremely difficult to detect. An implant named VALIDATOR, used by the NSA to upload and download data to and from an infected machine, can be set to self-destruct – deleting itself from an infected computer after a set time expires.

In many cases, firewalls and other security measures do not appear to pose much of an obstacle to the NSA. Indeed, the agency’s hackers appear confident in their ability to circumvent any security mechanism that stands between them and compromising a computer or network. “If we can get the target to visit us in some sort of web browser, we can probably own them,” an agency hacker boasts in one secret document. “The only limitation is the ‘how.’”

Covert Infrastructure

The TURBINE implants system does not operate in isolation.

It is linked to, and relies upon, a large network of clandestine surveillance “sensors” that the agency has installed at locations across the world.

The NSA’s headquarters in Maryland are part of this network, as are eavesdropping bases used by the agency in Misawa, Japan and Menwith Hill, England.

The sensors, codenamed TURMOIL, operate as a sort of high-tech surveillance dragnet, monitoring packets of data as they are sent across the Internet.

When TURBINE implants exfiltrate data from infected computer systems, the TURMOIL sensors automatically identify the data and return it to the NSA for analysis. And when targets are communicating, the TURMOIL system can be used to send alerts or “tips” to TURBINE, enabling the initiation of a malware attack.

The NSA identifies surveillance targets based on a series of data “selectors” as they flow across Internet cables. These selectors, according to internal documents, can include email addresses, IP addresses, or the unique “cookies” containing a username or other identifying information that are sent to a user’s computer by websites such as Google, Facebook, Hotmail, Yahoo, and Twitter.

Other selectors the NSA uses can be gleaned from unique Google advertising cookies that track browsing habits, unique encryption key fingerprints that can be traced to a specific user, and computer IDs that are sent across the Internet when a Windows computer crashes or updates.

What’s more, the TURBINE system operates with the knowledge and support of other governments, some of which have participated in the malware attacks.

Classification markings on the Snowden documents indicate that NSA has shared many of its files on the use of implants with its counterparts in the so-called Five Eyes surveillance alliance – the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia.

GCHQ, the British agency, has taken on a particularly important role in helping to develop the malware tactics. The Menwith Hill satellite eavesdropping base that is part of the TURMOIL network, located in a rural part of Northern England, is operated by the NSA in close cooperation with GCHQ.

Top-secret documents show that the British base – referred to by the NSA as “MHS” for Menwith Hill Station – is an integral component of the TURBINE malware infrastructure and has been used to experiment with implant “exploitation” attacks against users of Yahoo and Hotmail.

In one document dated 2010, at least five variants of the QUANTUM hacking method were listed as being “operational” at Menwith Hill. The same document also reveals that GCHQ helped integrate three of the QUANTUM malware capabilities – and test two others – as part of a surveillance system it operates codenamed INSENSER.

GCHQ cooperated with the hacking attacks despite having reservations about their legality. One of the Snowden files, previously disclosed by Swedish broadcaster SVT, revealed that as recently as April 2013, GCHQ was apparently reluctant to get involved in deploying the QUANTUM malware due to “legal/policy restrictions.” A representative from a unit of the British surveillance agency, meeting with an obscure telecommunications standards committee in 2010, separately voiced concerns that performing “active” hacking attacks for surveillance “may be illegal” under British law.

In response to questions from The Intercept, GCHQ refused to comment on its involvement in the covert hacking operations. Citing its boilerplate response to inquiries, the agency said in a statement that “all of GCHQ’s work is carried out in accordance with a strict legal and policy framework which ensures that our activities are authorized, necessary and proportionate, and that there is rigorous oversight.”

Whatever the legalities of the United Kingdom and United States infiltrating computer networks, the Snowden files bring into sharp focus the broader implications. Under cover of secrecy and without public debate, there has been an unprecedented proliferation of aggressive surveillance techniques. One of the NSA’s primary concerns, in fact, appears to be that its clandestine tactics are now being adopted by foreign rivals, too.

“Hacking routers has been good business for us and our 5-eyes partners for some time,” notes one NSA analyst in a top-secret document dated December 2012. “But it is becoming more apparent that other nation states are honing their skillz [sic] and joining the scene.” source

FCC FAST-TRACKS SOROS’ BID TO DOMINATE THE AIRWAVES Last week, the FCC adopted an order to approve his purchase of more than 200 radio stations in 40 markets just weeks before the presidential election. The stations reach more than 165 million Americans, and staff at the FCC are concerned that the move is politically motivated. The commission’s three democrats voted for the move, while the two republicans voted against it. Under existing FCC rules, foreign company ownership of U.S radio stations is not supposed to exceed 25%.  Soros took foreign investment to make his bid and then filed a request for the commission to make an exception to the usual review process. The decision to fast-track the approval process bypassed a national security review, which could have taken up to a year to complete.

Billionaire hedge fund manager George Soros has been the target of controversy recently after a recent move to become a controlling shareholder in the second-largest owner of radio stations in the U.S.

This isn’t the first media brand Soros has bought a substantial stake in, but it worries some people going into the 2024 election. Last year, Soros bought a substantial stake in Vice Media Group. Vice was once worth nearly $6 billion, but Soros bought a stake in the company for pennies on the dollar following its surprise bankruptcy in 2023. The deal valued Vice at roughly $350 million with Soros owning an undisclosed stake in the company.

Audacy, the No. 2 U.S. radio broadcaster behind iHeartMedia, recently filed for bankruptcy. The company owns 227 major radio stations in 27 states and 45 cities across the U.S. These include some of the biggest channels in New York; Memphis and Chattanooga, Tennessee; Denver; Washington D.C., Miami and Orlando, Florida; Atlanta; Baltimore, Maryland; Wichita, Kansas; Austin, Dallas and Houston, Texas; Richmond, Virginia; and many major cities across California as well as several other prominent markets across the U.S.

The bankruptcy plan, which would convert debt purchases into equity ownership, saw Soros purchase roughly 40% of Audacy’s debt, according to The New York Post. While that isn’t a true 51% controlling stake, it’s likely to be one of the largest, if not the largest, stakes in the company potentially giving the Soros Fund effective control of Audacy, The Post reported in February.

Some have voiced concerns about this purchase going into the 2024 election. Soros is a well-known political advocate for left-leaning politicians and is often one of the largest donors to such politicians in countries around the world. Soros donated over $140 million to political causes in 2021 and $170 million to the 2022 mid-term elections.

George Soros taking ‘shortcut’ to buy 200+ US radio stations, FCC commissioner says

https://youtu.be/L1JYvO5801A?si=yiS7xV1q7X6Ur2M3

Commissioner Brendan Carr of theFederal Communications Commission is sounding the alarm over a pending purchase which would allow billionaire Democratic donor George Soros to purchase hundreds of U.S. radio stations.

During a House Oversight Committee hearing last week, Carr objected to a deal that would allow a Soros-backed group to take ownership of 200 stations across 40 markets. He claimed the FCC was deviating from its normal procedure by allowing the purchase to take place.

“I think what’s interesting about it is that the FCC is not following its normal process for reviewing transactions that it has established over a number of years,” Carr warned. “It seems to me the FCC is poised, for the first time, to create an entirely new shortcut.”

The transaction, which was reported by The National Desk in February, would break a rule preventing more than 25% foreign ownership of U.S. radio stations, Carr alleges. Despite this, Carr claimed the agency was expediting its review process.

“What we usually do is require people to file a petition with us, bring in the National Security Agency to review the foreign ownership—it’s probably no big deal here—but we review that foreign ownership and then we vote,” Carr said. “Here, they’re trying to do something that’s never been done before at a commission level.”

Rep. Nick Langworthy, R-N.Y., said during the hearing he was “extremely alarmed” by the purchase.

“Looking at the facts, it seems the administration is giving a left-wing billionaire, who is a major donor, a close ally, one of the chief funders of all of their efforts and their dark money, a free pass to take control of hundreds of local radio stations, flooding the airwaves with leftist propaganda and I think it’s blatant,” he said.

The FCC did not respond to a request for comment from The National Desk Tuesday. source

George Soros closer to controlling 200 radio stations despite objection from Trump-nominated FCC commissioner

Trump-nominated Commissioner Nathan Simington blasted the process

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) seemingly approved a deal that would “fast-track” left-wing billionaire George Soros’ acquisition of more than 200 Audacy radio stations across America, irking a Republican commissioner who “objected.”

The New York Post first reported that the FCC last week “adopted an order to approve Soros’ purchase of more than 200 radio stations in 40 markets just weeks before the presidential election,” potentially allowing the far-left kingmaker to reach more than 165 million Americans at a critical time.

“The FCC decision came after a partisan vote with the commission’s three Democrats voting for the move while the two Republicans voted against it, sources added,” Post reporter Lydia Moynihan wrote.

“Under existing FCC rules, foreign company ownership of US radio stations is not supposed to exceed 25%. Soros took foreign investment to make his bid and then made a filing asking the commission to make an exception to the usual review process, according to public documents,” Moynihan added. “The FCC decision to fast-track his deal is the first time in modern history such a deal has been approved by the full Commission without first running the national security review process—a process that could take up to a year or more.”

The Soros group told the Post they would circle back to the FCC in the near future to run that process. If the deal goes through, Soros would be considered a “major shareholder,” but not necessarily the “owner” of the stations.

An FCC spokesperson told  us that “no decision is final until the Commission releases it, which we have not.”

“The Commission has a long-standing process for reviewing transactions that involve emergence from bankruptcy,” the spokesperson added, noting that the application before the Commission pertains to a transfer from Audacy in bankruptcy, to Audacy post-bankruptcy.

Some inside the FCC object to the notion the move was some sort of shortcut or “fast-tracked” for Soros, pointing to a similar process used to under the previous administration in the bankruptcy proceedings of Cumulus Media in 2018, iHeart Media in 2019, Liberman Television in 2019, Fusion Connect in 2019, Windstream Holdings in 2020, America-CV Station Group in 2021, and Alpha Media in 2021.

However, Trump-nominated Commissioner Nathan Simington blasted the process and said it was, indeed, fast-tracked.

“The FCC has a practice of permitting entities temporarily to exceed foreign ownership caps when emerging from bankruptcy—and the majority, over my objection, did so here. But that wasn’t the only way in which this item was ‘fast-tracked,’” Simington told Fox News Digital.

“Commission leadership tried to approve the item at the staff level, with nothing but a 48-hour notice to Commissioners on a summer Friday. There is almost no factual record on the item because there was almost no attempt to do a real public interest analysis,” Simington continued. “Not a single Commissioner outside of the Chairwoman was invited to even think about the issue until staff was directed to handle it on our behalf without our votes. That’s the true ‘fast-track.’”

Commissioner Brendan Carr, the senior Republican on the Federal Communications Commission, previously expressed concern about a Soros-backed group taking control of Audacy.

“This Soros-backed group is looking to buy the second-largest radio station group in the country… some of them are in Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Florida. The vast majority are probably music or sports, but there are a handful in those states that carry conservative talk radio,” Carr said on Fox News Channel’s “The Ingraham Angle.”

“There is a concern,” Carr added. “The FCC should not be creating this special Soros shortcut.”

The FCC is HELPING George Soros buy up radio stations?!

A group backed by George Soros is buying up more than 200 Audacy radio stations in the U.S. and FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr confirms to Glenn that the FCC is helping fast-track the acquisition! Carr joins Glenn to expose this never-before-seen move by the FCC, which he objected to. He also weighs in on just how suspicious this acquisition is, especially since most investors are taking money OUT of the radio industry. So, does this purchase have anything to do with influencing the 2024 election?

Transcript

Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors

GLENN: I want to tell you what happened with the FCC yesterday. So last week, this just came out. Last week, the FCC adopted an order to approve the purchase of more than 200 radio stations, in 40 markets.

Just a couple of weeks, before the presidential election. Now, I don’t think this is going to affect the presidential election.

But he’s — the one who is behind this is George Soros.

George Soros just bought 200 radio stations, in 40 different markets. Now, the vote came down in the FCC, it was partisan. Three Democrats voting for it.

Two Republicans voting against it.

But here’s — here’s the real problem.

According to existing FCC rules. Foreign company ownership of US radio stations is not supposed to exceed 25 percent. But Soros took foreign investment money to make his bid.

And then he asked the FCC to make an exception, to the usual review process.

So they — the FCC fast tracked this.

Why? Why would they that do?

There’s something else, that is really important. You know the — the — the left has been saying, we’ve got to get off of dial-up. We’ve got to get off of dial-up.

We need high-speed Internet for the rural areas. Well, for some reason, the FCC has delayed the rollout of the internet, to rural communities.

Again, why are they doing that?

Maybe the guy who has the answer is the FCC commissioner.

He’s Brendan Carr.

Brendan, how are you, sir?

BRENDAN: I’m doing great. Wonderful to join you again.

GLENN: I wish we could talk on good things.

You know, call me sometimes when something — when something great would happen.

Brendan, tell me, do I have this right, first of all, about the George Soros takeover of radio stations? And if so, why was there an exception made and fast tracked?

BRENDAN: Well, you note — you had the story out last week. Or actually yesterday.

That says, that the FCC, last week, adopted an order. That effectively fast tracked Soros’ purchase of a 200 radio station.

But I haven’t commented on that publicly. Because the fact is the FCC hasn’t released a final decision to the public. The reporting is that we adopted it, last week in a three-two vote.

I didn’t — outspoken on this particular issue. The reasons you talked about. We have a very clear process that we set up. It could take six months to a year that we’re going through.

But for reasons that are not sort of plain to me. The FCC commission, for the very first time ever, has skipped that process. For the benefit of this Soros-backed group. It sort of lets people draw their own conclusions about it.

But, again, it’s an unprecedented decision for the commission.

GLENN: Never happened before.

BRENDAN: That’s right. We at the commission level, adopted one way. That you can buy radio stations, if you have accepted foreign ownership, which they do.

And that one process is the lengthy six to one year national security review.

And it’s been — now, a lot of these stations are probably just classic rock or news.

But not all of them.

GLENN: And they don’t have to be.

BRENDAN: Yeah.

Conversations — there’s at least three stations that you’re on, that are part of this deal thing with Sean Hannity, same with Dana Lash. Same with Mark Levin. And so there are at least subtleties that are conservative news and talk outlets.

GLENN: I’ve got to tell you, if this was a conservative doing this, I doubt the FCC would have okayed it. Any ramifications? Go ahead.

BRENDAN: Yeah. Well — yeah, Glenn, we actually have that example.

So not too long ago. A year ago. There was a group of conservative buyers.

That wanted to purchase some south Florida radio station. And a number of Democrats spoke up very loudly and said the FCC cannot allow these conservative outlets to buy these radio stations.

Because in the Democrat’s view, it can cost them an election in south Florida. And I missed that pressure campaign. The conservative buyers abandoned the deal. So we’ve seen across-the-board conservative efforts by Democrats. To sort of weaponize the government, to go against conservative speech. There was California Democrats in Congress, that wrote letters to cable companies, telling them to drop Fox News, Newsmax, and OAN because of the editorial decisions, that their news room information — we had a Baltimore resident call on the FCC, to investigate a local TV station that was exposing her own corruption.

And so this is sort of the reverse side of a pattern, that we’ve been living under the last couple of years, of weaponization of government power.

In my view, frankly against free speech.

GLENN: Now, we are told, everywhere, that radio is a dying medium. Why would George Soros want to invest this kind of money?

What did he say in his request?

BRENDAN: It’s a good question. Look, I don’t know a lot of billionaires right now. That with all the options with where they’re going to place their money. To sit around and say, you know what kicks off like cash right now.

Is the local radio station.

Maybe. Maybe. But if any reason, we’re seeing the opposite.

We’re seeing a flight of capital from local broadcasting, because it’s so challenged right now with competitions from social media companies and over the top providers. So maybe there’s a business there, that they’re smart enough to see. That everyone else doesn’t see.

That’s really not the direction can of the Capitol, we’re seeing right now.

GLENN: And the foreign investment.

Do we know who these people are?

BRENDAN: No, we don’t. So the Audacy stations win the bankruptcies. And the Soros group put together a bunch of investors to buy it out, and they have come forward and said, you know, there’s in essence, 25 percent, which is the threshold, of foreign entities.

That are investing.

It’s more likely than not, there’s no big deal there at all.

But the fact is, we usually run a national security group to identify whose those are, and whether they’re fine or not.

And what Soros has said, that is in the near term, to wall off those foreign stakeholders, and then come back to the FCC down the road. To run that longer, sort of six-month to one-year process.

So I do think we need to stay vigilant here.

This is an issue. At least that portion of it, that we’ll come back here before the FCC in the coming months.

GLENN: Any idea how long it will take, before he has control?

BRENDAN: I think it will be almost instantaneous.

You know, after the FCC releases a final decision, that approves it.

You know, they’ve already been hardly getting them out of bankruptcy.

But I think it will be a near instantaneous ability to take the reins of all these 200 stations. The FCC’s decision if this reporting is right.

GLENN: Such a game we’re playing here.

When — when do you suppose, if this reporting is right, they will report on the vote that you were involved in?

BRENDAN: I think the reporting that I see, Jeff said, it could within the next week or so.

GLENN: Okay. So this could actually take place before the election.

BRENDAN: Oh, yeah. I would expect that for sure. Well ahead of it.

GLENN: Talk to me about the other really weird, that happened. With the high-speed Internet. In rural areas.

BRENDAN: Well, this is interesting. There seems to be a pattern emerging within the Biden Harris administration, of this fight, investing billions and billions of everybody. Taxpayer dollars. Leaving rural America behind, when it comes to connectivity. Back in 2019, or 2020, we cut a deal, with EchoStar with Dish. To guarantee, that they would provide 5G high-speed internet to rural America. It was part of a DOJ settlement. It was actually litigated in court.

It was adopted by the full commission. Then in a Friday afternoon news dump last week, the FCC’s leadership, any public input being sought, relieved Dish/EchoStar of the obligation. It was just a one-sentence entry. You know, licensing database.

And frankly, I have been at the FCC for 12 years. I have never seen anything like that.

It’s sort of the worse abuse of process that I’ve seen in the agents. You know, we have rural Americans guaranteed to get this service. It was a June 2025, build-out obligation.

And Dish/EchoStar came in and asked for relief and on Wednesday — sorry, Tuesday night, last week. And by Friday, this massive, you know, relief was provided without any input from me or I’m assuming at least the Republican commissioner that I’m with.

GLENN: I’m trying to piece this together. Why — why would that happen?

BRENDAN: Well, I think there are still a lot of questions to be answered. You know, there was some sort of deal that was cut here.

The features of which, have not been publicly disclosed.

You know, and I just think, there’s one way we still have to ask a lot of questions.

This was a rumor, a lot earlier over the weekend. That a company. Dish Echo could potentially go bankrupt before the election, if they didn’t get this relief. That’s just a rumor. I don’t know if it’s true. But, certainly, I think there’s a lot more to this.

Because, again, the only thing the FCC did was enter a one-sentence line, licensing, database, granting its extension.

So I think the agency has a lot more explaining to do, to justify this decision.

GLENN: I — thank you very much for your courage, for speaking out and being the guy you are.

I mean, I’ve been in this business for, you know, almost 50 years.

And I’ve never even thought of an FCC commissioner.

Because they weren’t — you know, they just didn’t — I don’t know.

They didn’t have that much affect, on, you know, every day life.

And the things that are come out of the FCC now. Are truly, I think frightening.

Especially if you’re on my end of the microphone.

It is — it’s stuff I’ve never seen before.

As you say, you’ve been a commissioner for 12 years. You’ve never seen it before.

And it doesn’t make a lot of sense.

Unless you start to think like a — you know, like a thriller writer, then it becomes more terrifying.

Brendan, thank you.

BRENDAN: Enjoy it. And one day I’ll come back on, and we’ll have some good news and stuff. I’m sure, it will happen at some point. source

Don’t be misled: No one makes a fool of God. What a person plants, he will harvest. The person who plants selfishness, ignoring the needs of others—ignoring God!—harvests a crop of weeds. All he’ll have to show for his life is weeds! But the one who plants in response to God, letting God’s Spirit do the growth work in him, harvests a crop of real life, eternal life.

Paul has been encouraging Christians to live a life marked by the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:19–25), and to support each other in the struggles of life (Galatians 6:1–5). Christianity is all about the grace of God. He gives us good things which we could never have earned on our own. In our sin, we deserve death and suffering. Instead, in Christ, God gives us life and purpose.

Still, as Paul states clearly in this verse, the grace of God does not eliminate the principles of choice and consequence. In this life, our decisions will bring with them natural results. We must not lie to ourselves, that because of God’s grace and forgiveness of our sins, we will not suffer any harm if we continue to choose sin. To believe such a thing is to mock God, to make light of Jesus’ sacrifice for our sin on the cross.

What we do in this life does matter, beyond even the question of whether or not we will see heaven. In eternity, our choices will be reflected in our heavenly rewards, for those who are saved (1 Corinthians 3:12–15; 2 Corinthians 5:10), or our eternal punishment, for those who are not (Revelation 20:11–14).

Until then, the “crop” we produce between now and the moment of our death is also determined by the “seeds” we plant along the way. God’s natural laws of cause and effect still apply, to believers and unbelievers alike. Paul will expand on this idea in the following verses. source

What does it mean that a man reaps what he sows (Galatians 6:7)?

In the first few verses of Galatians 6, Paul emphasizes that individuals are responsible for their actions and should be gentle when others fail (Galatians 6:1). Besides gentleness being an expression of love and a fulfillment of the law of Christ (Galatians 6:2), a gentle response to others is one way we can keep ourselves out of trouble, because it can help us to avoid being hyper-critical. Even as the passage encourages readers to be considerate of others, the truth remains that whatever a man sows that he also reaps (Galatians 6:7). So, while we should bear each other’s burdens (Galatians 6:2), we are still accountable to carry our own load (Galatians 6:5).

In Galatians 6:7 Paul reminds readers that “whatever a man sows, that he will also reap” (NKJV). God is a just God and has instituted throughout human experience the concept of sowing and reaping. When a farmer plants seeds and cares for those seeds, they will usually sprout and produce growth. In the same way, whatever a person “plants” in his own thinking and behavior will later bear fruit—either good or bad. If a person is focused on fulfilling the desires of the flesh, and that is what he invests in, then that person will reap fruit of that investment. Paul describes this fruit in Galatians 5:19–21, and the list is not pretty. On the other hand, if one invests in spiritual things, then the “fruit” in his life will be spiritual and wholesome (Galatians 6:8). Paul explains how the Holy Spirit produces fruit in people and what it looks like (Galatians 5:22–23).

Paul introduces the truth that a what a man sows that he also reaps with a somber warning: “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked” (Galatians 6:7). Wise readers will take heed to their own lives and take steps to ensure they live according to this principle. Let no one entertain the idea that he or she is the exception to the rule. Reaping follows sowing, and it matters what you sow. God searches the heart and knows every circumstance, and His decree that the harvest will match the planting will not be set aside.

Elsewhere, Paul further explains the concept that whatever a man sows that he also reaps. In 1 Corinthians 3:8 he asserts that each person will be rewarded according to his or her own work. Neither the one who plants nor the one who waters are the most significant factors in the equation, because God causes the growth (1 Corinthians 3:7–8). So, even when we are planting and watering well—focusing on the things related to our new life in Christ—it is still God who causes the growth. And even though God rewards the one who works, we understand that even our opportunity to work is a gift from God. In other words, the principle that whatever a man sows that he also reaps teaches both God’s justice and His mercy.

We can apply the principle of reaping what we sow to the matter of salvation. If we do not know Jesus Christ as our Savior, then we are still dead in our sin, or separated from having a right relationship with God (see Ephesians 2:1–5). If we are in that state, then even our righteous deeds are as unclean rags in comparison with God’s standard of righteousness (Isaiah 64:6). If we are in that condition, then the truth that whatever a man sows that he also reaps (Galatians 6:7) is actually terrifying because we are sowing according to sin and death, and the fruit will reflect that. On the other hand, if in His mercy God has made us alive together with Christ by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8–10), then we have the opportunity to sow according to newness of life. Because of His grace we can now invest in things that have eternal value and see fruit that also has eternal value. The fact that whatever a man sows that he also reaps is not only about justice, but about God’s magnificent mercy. God hasn’t given us what we deserved; in His amazing grace God has given us what we did not deserve—the opportunity to sow the seed of righteousness so that we can see the fruit of His righteousness in our lives. source

Theme: We should keep fervent in doing good, because God promises a harvest in due time.

(Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are taken from The Holy Bible, New King James Version; copyright 1982, Thomas Nelson, Inc.)

One of the most fiery letters in all of the New Testament is the little book of Galatians. In it, the apostle Paul throws all his authority, logical force, and emotional power into defending the vital doctrine of ‘justification by faith’—that is, that fallen people are not made righteous in the sight of God on the basis of their good works, but on the basis of God’s grace through faith in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ alone. Because of the importance of what it was Paul was defending, it’s a letter that contains some of his strongest words of rebuke toward those who were relying on their own good works to make them right before God.

But the letter isn’t all harsh. After stressing that good works are not to be seen as the basis of our salvation in Christ, Paul also goes on to stress that good works are to be seen as the natural outflow of our salvation in Christ. And so, it’s also a letter that’s filled with great encouragement to us as followers of Jesus.

One of those very important ‘encouraging’ portions of Paul’s letter of the Galatians—a portion that seems to start off harshly, but that definitely ends on a high note—is found in 6:7-10. The apostle Paul wrote to his brothers and sisters in Christ and told them;

Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith (Galatians 6:7-10)

I’ve been thinking much about this passage lately. I’ve grown increasingly impressed with the wonderful people God has brought into our church family. I never cease to be delighted with the talent and skills that are represented in this place. And I’ve been thrilled to discover ways that the individual members of our church are serving one another behind the scenes.

The Bible tells us, in another of Paul’s letters, that we are a “body” for whom Jesus Christ Himself serves as the “head”. It tells us that Jesus himself—through the ministry of the Holy Spirit—has formed us together as individual members of a body that, “joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love” (Ephesians 4:16). The body causes the growth of the body—when every part of the body does its share. And I want you to know that I see increasing numbers of us rising up within this church family, and serving together in the ways that He has gifted us. It’s truly exciting; and I pray that more and more of us will do so at the Holy Spirit’s call.

And it’s in the spirit of protecting that wonderful increase of happy service to the Lord Jesus that I’m calling your attention to this morning’s passage.

* * * * * * * * * *

There is a danger—if we’re not careful to protect ourselves from it—of becoming discouraged and disheartened in our work in the body today by losing our focus on the results that come in the future. Perhaps you’ve felt a little of that discouragement at some point or another.

Perhaps you yourself have said things like, “Nobody seems to notice what it is that I do around here. Nobody seems to care if it gets done or not. I have to do all the work by myself. And why do I keep doing it? It doesn’t seem to make any difference anyway. It doesn’t seem to change anything. Maybe I’ve made a mistake in thinking this was God’s will for me. Maybe He doesn’t even notice. Maybe He doesn’t even care. Maybe I should just quit. Maybe I should just leave.” And I want you to know, dear brother or sister, that if you have ever felt that way—or if you’re feeling that way right now—it’s not a small matter. It’s something that I believe should be taken very seriously; because it has the potential of robbing us of your vital part in the body.

I believe that, in this morning’s passage, the apostle Paul—writing under the influence of the Holy Spirit—has given us something very important to remember; something that will help us through those times of discouragement; and will keep us serving joyfully and faithfully for the advancement of Jesus’ kingdom.

Let’s look, first, at . . .

1. THE PRINCIPLE.

It’s a very basic principle—one that we see in operation in lots of different areas of everyday life. It’s something that every farmer and every gardener knows. Paul describes it in verse 7 in these words: that “whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.”

When we think a little more deeply about that principle, we discover three important ‘laws’ of sowing and reaping that have to do with our ministry in the body of Christ. First, because it tells us of a man who “sows”, we can see a law that has to do with the initiative of taking action: Someone cannot justifiably expect to reap anything when they have not sown anything. No farmer stands around and expects a crop to grow on its own. He must first take initiative and sow. No gardener stands around and expects beautiful flowers to grow in her garden by themselves. She must first take action and plant seeds or bulbs. And, of course, in the body of Christ, we cannot expect good things to happen unless—as Paul said elsewhere—we put forth “the effective working by which every part does its share”.

A second ‘law’ that we derive from this principle has to do with the nature of what is sown: Someone cannot expect to reap anything other than what has been sown. “Whatever” a man sows “that” he will also reap. Someone should not expect to reap anything other than what has been sown. A farmer doesn’t plant grass-seed and expect to grow corn. A gardener doesn’t plant tomatoes and expect to grow tulips. An bird lover doesn’t even plant bird-seed and expect to grow birds; because it’s not really in the nature of bird-seed to produce birds. (I found that out as a very little boy.) And when it comes to the body of Christ, we not only shouldn’t expect something to happen unless we put forth the effort, but we also shouldn’t expect to “reap” what is good in the church unless we “sow” what is good.

And a third ‘law’ of this principle has to do with expectations for the future; because it tells us that whatever a man sows, that “he will also reap”: If someone sows, they will reap. There’s a cause-and-effect relationship between sowing and reaping. Reaping follows after sowing as surely as day follows night. If a farmer sows seed, he will reap at the time of harvest. If a gardener plants bulbs, she will have beautiful flowers in her garden in springtime. And if we faithfully sow what is good in the church and in our personal lives, we will eventually reap what is good for the body of Christ and for ourselves.

This extremely important principle—that “whatever a man sows, that he will also reap”—is something that the apostle Paul reaffirms once again in verse eight. He embraces it as an important principle of the spiritual life. And if you pay close attention, you’ll find those three ‘laws’ once again represented in what he says.

He writes,

For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life (v. 8).

There’s the ‘law’ that has to do with the initiative taken in sowing: “For he who sows . . . , but he who sows . . .” A deliberate decision to sow something occurs. And there’s the ‘law’ that has to do with the nature of what is sown: “For he who sows to his flesh . . . , but he who sows to the Spirit . . .” The nature of what is reaped is connected to the nature of what is sown. And finally, there is the ‘law’ that has to do with expectation: “For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.”

* * * * * * * * * *

Now; let’s take things a bit further. There are two opposing dynamics being described to us in this passage. One is called “the flesh”—or, “the sinful nature”, as it’s translated in the New International Version; and the other is called “the Spirit”. These two dynamics were described in this letter by Paul back in Galatians 5:16-26; and we need to take a moment to consider what he tells us there.

In a way, it’s easy to tell what the “flesh” is by what Paul describes as its opposite. In Galatians 5:16-18, he writes;

I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law (Galatians 5:16-18).

The “flesh”, then, is the opposite of walking under the power and leading of the Holy Spirit. It’s that dynamic in us that seeks to do things from out of a selfish motive—according to our own will and in our own power—apart from submission and reliance on the Holy Spirit.

And it’s a dynamic in us that is sure to fail. As Paul went on to write;

Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God (vv. 19-21).

As we’ve already learned from the principle of sowing and reaping, “he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption.” The active, intentional decision to sow to the flesh—that is, to gratify our selfish, sinful passions, that dynamic in us that sets itself up against the leading of the Holy Spirit in our lives—will, as a natural and certain consequence, result in our reaping the sorts of “works of the flesh” that Paul described.

Every time, dear brothers and sisters, that we make the choice to gratify the “flesh”—every time we choose to nurse a grudge against another, or to engage in gossip or falsehood; every time we choose to gaze at something on television, or in a magazine, or on the Internet, that God’s word tells us not to see; every time we choose to neglect our duty before God, or to cheat on a business deal, or to lust after what belongs to someone else—we are sowing to the “flesh”. And eventually—as surely as night follows day—we will, of the flesh, reap “corruption”.

But note that Paul goes on to write that, by contrast,

. . . the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another (vv. 22-26).

If, instead of “sowing to the flesh”, we actively choose to ‘crucify the flesh with its passions and desires’, and ‘walk in the Spirit’, we will—of the Spirit—reap the fruit of the Spirit: “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control”; all of which are pleasing to God and in keeping with His law.

* * * * * * * * * *

All of this stands behind that important principle in our passage this morning—that “whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.” And I’d like to point out another thing we need to notice from that passage; and that is . . .

2. THE DANGER (v. 7a).

The danger we face is that of being fooled into believing that the spiritual principle of sowing and reaping isn’t really true. As Paul says in verse 7, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.” To say that “God is not mocked” is, essentially, to say that no one turns their nose up at Him. No one will ever be able to say, “Ha! I cheated You, God! I got away with wrong-doing! I ‘sowed’, but did not ‘reap’!” That will never happen! But Paul warns that there is the danger of our being deceived into thinking it will.

How might that deception come? I certainly believe it can come from the devil himself. I believe one of the greatest deceptions that the devil seeks to foist on the world is that the spiritual principle of sowing and reaping really isn’t true. I believe he is actively and aggressively engaged in a campaign to convince people that you can ‘sow to the flesh’—and do what God says not to do—and not reap the consequences. He brings about terrible destruction in people’s lives through that deception. But another way that deception can come is through our own hearts. In the Bible, the Lord Himself tells us,

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings” (Jeremiah 17:9-10).

Quite often, the devil doesn’t have to do much at all to deceive us about “sowing and reaping”. He just simply takes advantage of the self-deceiving bent that already exists in our own hearts.

But another way that the devil might deceive us about the principle of sowing and reaping—or that we might deceive ourselves—is through the other side of the coin. He does a great deal of damage in the church, and greatly hinders the faithful service of God’s people, by getting them to believe that it doesn’t do any good to serve the Lord. He gets Christians to believe that “he who sows to the Spirit” will NOT “of the Spirit reap everlasting life.” And that’s why we easily grow weary in the service of the Lord, and begin to lose heart. That’s why we begin to think, “Why keep giving myself to all this labor and heartache? What good does it do?” That’s why we freeze-up, and quit, and—sadly—lose the opportunities to see God do great things in and through us.

* * * * * * * * * *

Now; the Bible makes this “warning” a matter of command! Grammatically, the idea is that we are to “stop being deceived” about the spiritual principle of sowing and reaping. We need to disregard the lies of the devil—and of our own fallen and unbelieving hearts. We need to seize hold this principle as a revealed truth from God, and act upon it as something that He—by His sovereign rule—ensures is absolutely, unfailingly true and certain.

And that lead us, next, to consider . . .

3. THE PROMISE (v. 9).

Paul writes, “And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.”

We don’t always see the fruit of what we’ve sown right away. We have to be patient—just as “the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth” (James 5:7). It comes in the time that God has appointed for it—that is, “in due season”; or as the New International Version has it, “in the proper time. And sometimes, that “due season” may be years later than we expect. Some fruit may not even appear in our lifetime. But the promise is that, eventually—at the proper time—”we shall reap”.

I’ll never something I heard once in a church that my wife and I attended in Seattle. An dear elderly couple was sharing a matter of rejoicing to the church family. “Praise God with us,” they said. “A relative of ours that we’ve been praying for has finally come to know the Lord Jesus Christ and trust Him as their Savior. They had been resisting the Lord for a long time, and we’ve been praying for them for years and years. And now, they’ve finally given their lives to Jesus!” We all rejoiced with them; and asked how long they’d been praying for this family member. And then, we all gasped when they said, “We’d been praying for them for over fifty years!” Think of that! Fifty years! Most of us get discouraged and quit after fifty days! But they didn’t lose heart and quit. They kept on praying; and, in due season, they reaped!

The other day, I read a story about an unbelieving man named Luke Short. He lived in the 1700s; and grow to be a very old man. When he was 103 years old, he was sitting around outdoors—just thinking. And as he sat in thought, he remembered a sermon that he had heard long ago by the famous Puritan preacher John Flavel. As he thought through the sermon he heard long ago, he asked God—right then and there—to forgive him for his sins through Jesus Christ. He became a Christian, and he lived for another three years in happy faith in Jesus until he died at the age of 106. And here’s the remarkable thing: That sermon that he thought back on and remembered—that led him to repentance, and that changed his life—was a sermon that he heard eighty-five years prior! The old pastor John Flavel preached a sermon—faithfully sowing to the Spirit; and he reaped the fruit of it almost a hundred years later!¹

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ; let’s not you or me grow weary in doing good. We have a promise from God—that “in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.”

* * * * * * * * * *

And that leads us to . . .

4. THE CALL (v. 10).

It’s a natural consequence of all that we’ve studied so far from this passage: “Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith” (v. 10)

Do you have an opportunity to serve? Do you see a need in the body of Christ? Is the Holy Spirit leading you to give of your time and energy to minister to those in need around you—and especially to others in the body of Christ? Or, are you already serving? Are you already giving of your talents and skills to minister in Jesus’ name?

And do you, at times, find it hard to keep going? Are you ministering to children and teaching them about Jesus’ love—and wondering if anything is sinking in? Are you serving in the kitchen or meeting some needs in the building—doing ‘thankless’ little chores, and feeling like no one seems to notice or care? Are you pulling along side someone who is hurting—trying to counsel them to do the right thing, but feeling like it’s going in one ear and out the other? Are you praying for someone’s salvation; but feeling like God’s not hearing you?

Then don’t let yourself be deceived. God will never be proven wrong. He has established a principle in His moral universe—that whatever we sow, that we will also reap. And if we keep on faithfully sowing good things under the leading of the Holy Spirit, we will—in due season—reap if we do lose heart.

So; let’s not grow weary. Praise God—harvest time is coming! source

Galatians 6:7-8 NLT
⁷ Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant. ⁸ Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit. 

BUY YOU OWN BIDEN LIES TSHIRT BY CLICKING THE TSHIRT AND PURCHASING

This month a federal jury in West Palm Beach handed down a historic verdict. In what’s believed to be a first, a major U.S. corporation was found liable in a U.S. civil court for actions that helped lead to murder and other human rights abuses against non-Americans in a foreign country.

The corporation is Chiquita Brands; the country is Colombia. And the $38.3 million judgment against Chiquita may be only the start — because a second bellwether trial against the company is set to begin in West Palm Beach on July 15.

Either way, the pioneering proceedings bear a big South Florida imprint, starting with West Palm Beach attorney Jack Scarola, who’s co-leading the case against Chiquita.

“You cannot trade human lives for profits,” Scarola told WLRN in summing up the argument for the plaintiffs, the almost 20 Colombian victims’ families — eight of whom were awarded the almost $40 million verdict issued on June 10. Ten more are expected to be included in next month’s trial.

Chiquita, the U.S. fruit giant that has a long and controversial history in Latin America, is accused of aiding and abetting the killing of thousands of Colombians two decades ago by a right-wing paramilitary army, the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, or AUC.

Chiquita paid that group — designated by the U.S. as terrorists — almost $2 million in extortion money from 1997 to 2004 to protect the company’s lucrative Colombian banana operation. Scarola says the jury concluded that money helped fund the AUC’s death squads.

“We have unfortunately often seen this pattern of conduct from U.S. corporations, in Colombia or Central America or Africa, because they think they simply aren’t going to be watched as carefully,” Scarola says.

“This verdict demonstrates they will be watched.”

Chiquita says it will appeal the verdict. In statements, it emphasizes that it deplores the AUC’s terrorism, which targeted many banana labor activists. But it insists it had no choice but to pay the AUC to keep its business and employees safe during the civil war raging in Colombia at that time.

That question was central to this month’s trial. But jurors unanimously concluded not only that Chiquita did have a moral alternative to paying the extortion money, but that by playing ball with the AUC — as well as leftist guerrillas known as the FARC, who were also a designated terrorist group — the company simply helped exacerbate the horrors of Colombia’s conflict.

When the AUC victims’ spouses and other relatives began fleeing to Florida at the turn of the century, human rights advocates began taking notice of their stories. Among them was human rights attorney James Green of West Palm Beach, who played a large role in getting the Chiquita plaintiffs represented here by litigation firms like Scarola’s Searcy Law.

Another was a Roman Catholic priest in Palm Beach County, Father Frank O’Laughlin, who heads the nonprofit Guatemalan-Maya Center in Lake Worth Beach. He helped spearhead an effort to publicize the Colombians’ cases — such as the horrific 2001 kidnapping murder of a teenager in Urabá, Colombia — and Chiquita’s alleged role.

“The realities of Colombia had come to Florida, and there was no walking away from it,” O’Laughlin says. “The only one way to tackle it was to take on the evil of the reality in court.”

In 2007, the U.S. Justice Department did in fact charge Chiquita with doing business with a terrorist organization. In its guilty plea, Chiquita paid a $25 million fine.

That — and the reams of documented admissions of guilt the corporation left in its wake — led the Colombian victims’ families to seek civil damages as well. After 17 years of legal wrangling, cases were finally funneled to the federal court in West Palm Beach this year. And, once again, with notable South Florida involvement, including the University of Miami School of Law and its Human Rights Clinic.

“It definitely taught me a lot of what has been useful for this case,” says Gabriela Valentin Diaz, a staff attorney for the human rights nonprofit EarthRights International, which has helped build plaintiffs’ cases in the Chiquita trial.

No small feat

Before joining EarthRights, Valentin Diaz was a University of Miami law student and alumna working with the school’s human rights clinic to assist those plaintiffs in Colombia.

“They’re coming to a different country to testify in front of a court, which can be a really intimidating environment,” Valentin Diaz says. “But they’re seeing their claims and their stories told in a U.S. court – and a jury deciding in their favor.

“And that’s no small feat.”

JAVIER GALEANO

/

AP

The Chiquita trials are being held in a U.S. court because Chiquita is based in the U.S. — but also because holding them in Colombia risked putting the plaintiffs in danger.

Still, the AUC crimes were committed in Colombia, so Colombian law predominates in the trials. As a result, University of Miami law professor Pablo Rueda Saiz, a Colombia native, is serving as an expert witness on how to blend U.S. and Colombian tort procedure.

And U Miami is playing a role beyond the trials: law professor and corporate accountability expert Marcia Narine Weldon advises other U.S. companies on how to avoid the kind of tragic mess Chiquita got itself into in Colombia.

“This [Chiquita verdict], I think, is the wake-up call that companies needed to have,” says Narine Weldon, who teaches a business and human rights course.

“If you are dealing with Latin America, you have to know that [what happened to Chiquita] is not an acceptable cost of doing business — because, actually, it can cost you your business.”

Narine Weldons says that’s an especially important message in South Florida, where so many businesses do have ties to Latin America.

Chiquita could face other civil trials after next month’s. In the end, it may not cost Chiquita its business — but experts like Narine Weldon point out that what it could cost Chiquita could far surpass the profits it made in Colombia while it was paying off a terrorist group. source

TRUMP JOINS TIKTOK AND CALLS IT ‘AN HONOR.’ AS PRESIDENT HE ONCE TRIED TO BAN THE VIDEO-SHARING APP

Donald Trump has joined the popular video-sharing app TikTok, a platform he once tried to ban while in the White House, and posted from a UFC fight two days after he became the first former president and presumptive major party nominee in U.S. history to be found guilty on felony charges.

“It’s an honor,” Trump said in the TikTok video, which features footage of him waving to fans and posing for selfies at the Ultimate Fighting Championship fight in Newark, New Jersey, on Saturday night. The video ends with Trump telling the camera: “That was a good walk-on, right?”

By Sunday morning, Trump had amassed more than 1.1 million followers on the platform and the post had garnered more than 1 million likes and 24 million views.

“We will leave no front undefended and this represents the continued outreach to a younger audience consuming pro-Trump and anti-Biden content,” Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement about the campaign’s decision to join the platform.

“There’s no place better than a UFC event to launch President Trump’s Tik Tok, where he received a hero’s welcome and thousands of fans cheered him on,” he added.

Democratic President Joe Biden signed legislation in April that could ban TikTok in the U.S., even as his campaign joined in February and has tried to work with influencers.

Trump received an enthusiastic welcome at the fight at Newark’s Prudential Center, where the crowd broke into chants of “We love Trump!” and another insulting Biden with an expletive.

It was Trump’s first public outing since a jury in New York found him guilty Thursday on 34 charges of falsifying business records as part of a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election by covering up hush money payments made to a porn actor who claimed she and Trump had sex. Trump has maintained he did nothing wrong and plans to appeal the verdict. He will be sentenced on July 11.

Throughout his campaign, Trump has used appearances at UFC fights to project an image of strength and to try to appeal to potential voters who may not closely follow politics or engage with traditional news sources. It’s also part of a broader effort to connect with young people and minority voters, particularly Latino and Black men.

TikTok, owned by Beijing-based ByteDance, is another opportunity to reach those potential voters. The platform has about 170 million users in the U.S., most of whom skew younger — a demographic that is especially hard for campaigns to reach because they shun television.

As president, Trump tried to ban TikTok through an executive order that said “the spread in the United States of mobile applications developed and owned” by Chinese companies was a national security threat. The courts blocked the action after TikTok sued.

Both the FBI and the Federal Communications Commission have warned that ByteDance could share user data such as browsing history, location and biometric identifiers with China’s government. TikTok said it has never done that and would not, if asked.

The platform was a hot topic of debate during the 2024 GOP primary campaign, with most candidates shunning its use. Many, including former Vice President Mike Pence, called for TikTok to be banned in the U.S. due to its connections with China

Trump said earlier this year that he still believes TikTok posed a national security risk, but was opposed to banning it because that would help its rival, Facebook, which he continues to criticize over his 2020 election loss to Biden.

“Frankly, there are a lot of people on TikTok that love it. There are a lot of young kids on TikTok who will go crazy without it,” Trump told CNBC.

The legislation signed by Biden gives ByteDance nine months to sell the company, with a possible additional three months if a sale is in progress. If it doesn’t, TikTok will be banned. Biden barred the app on most government devices in December 2022.

His reelection campaign nonetheless uses the app, which it joined the night of the Super Bowl in February. Aides argue that in an increasingly fragmented modern media environment, the campaign must get its message out to voters via as many platforms as possible, including TikTok as well as WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.

Biden’s “bidenhq” account currently has more than 330,000 followers and 4.5 million likes.

Trump’s appearance at Saturday’s fight came after he had sat down for an interview with Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends Weekend” that aired Sunday.

In that appearance, Trump said he was “OK” with the prospect of potential jail time or house arrest, saying it was “the way it is.’’’

But he again suggested the public might not accept such a punishment for a former president now running to return to the White House.

“I don’t know that the public would stand it, you know. I’m not sure the public would stand for it,” he said. “I think it would be tough for the public to take. You know, at a certain point there’s a breaking point.”

Trump, as he has throughout the trial, maintained his innocence, saying he “did absolutely nothing wrong.”

He was asked how his wife, former first lady Melania Trump, has taken the news.

“She’s fine. But I think it’s very hard for her. I mean, she’s fine. But, you know, she has to read all this crap,” he said.

She did not appear with Trump in court at any point during his seven-week trial. source

@realdonaldtrump Launching my TikTok at @UFC ♬ original sound – President Donald J Trump

California progressive says she’s ‘done’ with Democratic Party before voting to make child sex solicitation a felony. California Democratic state Sen. Susan Talamantes Eggman urged her progressive colleagues to pass a Republican-led bill that would make it a felony to solicit a child for sex

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (TND) — A Democratic California state senator criticized members of her party last week while trying to advance a bill targeting solicitation of minors.

State Sen. Susan Talamantes Eggman, D-Stockton, urged other Democratic senators to support a bill increasing penalties for soliciting minors. The bill, SB 1414, would make soliciting a child less than 16 years old punishable by a jail term of up to three years. Anyone convicted of solicitation a second time would have to register as a sex offender if they were more than 10 years older than the minor.

Currently, anyone convicted of soliciting a child in California faces up to a year in prison and a fine up to $10,000.

“A lot of these kids can be throwaway kids – they’re poor kids, they’re kids of color,” Sen. Eggman said. “But they shouldn’t have to live a life determined by what happens to them by others at a very young age and by having the Democratic Party of California say it’s okay. It’s not okay.”

SB 1414 was previously amended by some Democrats to only classify solicitation of minors under 16 as a felony. Sen. Eggman, who will reach her term limit in the California State Legislature in November, told left-wing lawmakers they would look like “fools” and “laughing stocks” if they didn’t move back toward the “center” politically.

I’m leaving, but the rest of you who are gonna be here for a while, let’s get our stuff together and really start focusing on some of the important things,” the state senator said. “We talk about learning, and we talk about being safe. This is like at the core of it.”“I am not arguing that we open the gates to flood our prisons with people, but I am arguing that we have a moral responsibility to say enough,” she continued. “We have given away enough on this area.”

SB 1414 passed the California Senate unanimously, and its counterpart in the Assembly was introduced Friday.

California has a history of high human trafficking numbers. In 2021, nearly 13% of all trafficked U.S. people were in the state, according to the Public Policy Institute of California.

“As a progressive, proud member of this body for the last 12 years, I’m done. I’m done with us protecting people who would buy and abuse our children,” Sen. Eggman said. “I don’t want people buying little girls anymore, and I’m tired of saying it’s okay and that we have to protect the men who do it.”

source

California progressive chides fellow Democrats before voting to make child solicitation a felony: ‘I’m done’

‘I’m done with us protecting people who would buy and abuse our children,’ said California State Sen. Susan Talamantes Eggman

California Democratic state Sen. Susan Talamantes Eggman urged her progressive colleagues to pass a Republican-led bill that would make it a felony to solicit a child for sex.

“I’d like to say as a progressive, proud member of this body for the last 12 years, I’m done,” Eggman said on the Senate floor before voting for the bill last week. “I’m done with us protecting people who would buy and abuse our children. I’m done. I don’t want to send more Black and brown men to prison. I don’t want more people in prison, but I don’t want people buying girls.

“I don’t want people buying little girls anymore, and I’m tired of saying it’s OK and that we have to protect the men who do it.”

Senate Bill 1414, introduced by Republican state Sen. Shannon Grove along with Democratic state senators Anna Caballero and Susan Rubio, classifies soliciting or purchasing sex from children 15 and under as either a misdemeanor or felony with the possibility of jail time.

For those aged 16-17, it’s considered a misdemeanor. While a felony charge entails prison time, repeat offenders with a substantial age gap with the victim must register as tier one sex offenders on their second offense.

“As a mental health professional and as a social worker, I can tell you I’ve spent my entire career working with people who have been wounded,” Eggman added. “I’m not gonna say beyond repair, but they have been wounded to their core by the abuse that’s been heaped on them oftentimes by those that they love and look to protect them.”

Grove’s bill toughens the punishment for child trafficking and increased it from a misdemeanor charge to a felony, carrying a maximum penalty of four years in prison and a $25,000 fine. Unlike current law, the penalties would apply regardless of whether the adult was aware of the child’s age.

Last month, Democrats on the Public Safety Committee “mutilated” portions of Grove’s bill and added several amendments that only made proposed charges applicable if the child is younger than 15. The bill cleared the state Senate last week without Grove’s original language in a 36-0 vote. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom also signaled his support for the bill, which now heads to the Assembly, where Grove hopes to reinsert a few of the bill’s original proposals.

Grove had also proposed amendments to classify solicitation or purchasing sex from a child of any age as a prison felony and eliminate the 10-year age gap requirement for the sex offender registry.

Sen. Shannon Grove introduced SB 1414 this year. (Kelly Sullivan)

“The crime of purchasing a child of any age for sex in the state of California should be a prison felony. I am incredibly disappointed in the Senate Pro Tem and Senate leadership for, once again, passing on an opportunity to restore amendments to the bill and stand up for all of California’s children,” Grove said in a statement.

“This outcome is a failure on the part of legislative leadership who caved to political pressure and did not prioritize the safety of our children. We must restore this bill in the Assembly to protect every child in the state of California from the horrific crime of sex trafficking.” source

FBI said it followed standard protocol in its August 2022 raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida

The Biden administration authorized the use of deadly force during the FBI’s raid on former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida in August 2022 as part of its investigation into classified records, court documents revealed.

“The FBI followed standard protocol in this search as we do for all search warrants, which includes a standard policy statement limiting the use of deadly force. No one ordered additional steps to be taken and there was no departure from the norm in this matter,” the FBI told Fox News in a statement Tuesday.

An “Operations Order” produced in discovery as part of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into Trump’s alleged improper retention of classified records revealed that the “FBI believed its objective for the Mar-a-Lago raid was to seize ‘classified information, NDI, and US Government records,’” as described in the search warrant.

The order, according to a court filing, contained a “Policy Statement” regarding “Use of Deadly Force,” which stated, for example, “Law Enforcement officers of the Department of Justice may use deadly force when necessary.”\

FLASHBACK: TRUMP SAYS MAR-A-LAGO HOME IN FLORIDA ‘UNDER SIEGE’ BY FBI AGENTS

This view shows the Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida. (Charles Trainor Jr./Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty Images/File)

According to the filing, the DOJ and FBI agents “planned to bring ‘Standard Issue Weapons,’ ‘Ammo,’ ‘Handcuffs,’ and ‘medium and large sized bolt cutters,’ but they were instructed to wear ‘unmarked polo or collared shirts’ and to keep ‘law enforcement equipment concealed.”

Trump, who spent another day in a New York City courtroom for his unprecedented criminal trial stemming from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s investigation into Trump allegedly falsifying business records, reacted to the revelations Tuesday afternoon.

The FBI has been criticized for raiding former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home. (Fox News)

“WOW! I just came out of the Biden Witch Hunt Trial in Manhattan, the ‘Icebox,’ and was shown Reports that Crooked Joe Biden’s DOJ, in their Illegal and UnConstitutional Raid of Mar-a-Lago, AUTHORIZED THE FBI TO USE DEADLY (LETHAL) FORCE,” Trump posted on his Truth Social. “NOW WE KNOW, FOR SURE, THAT JOE BIDEN IS A SERIOUS THREAT TO DEMOCRACY.”

FEDERAL JUDGE POSTPONES TRUMP’S CLASSIFIED RECORDS TRIAL WITH NO NEW DATE

Trump added, “HE IS MENTALLY UNFIT TO HOLD OFFICE — 25TH AMENDMENT!”

This image contained in a DOJ court filing on Aug. 30, 2022, and redacted in part by the FBI, shows a photo of documents seized during the Aug. 8, 2022, search by the FBI of former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. (Department of Justice via AP)

Trump was charged out of Smith’s investigation into his retention of classified materials. Trump pleaded not guilty to all 37 felony charges from Smith’s probe, including willful retention of national defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice, and false statements.

Trump was also charged with an additional three counts as part of a superseding indictment out of the investigation: a count of willful retention of national defense information and two obstruction counts.

Trump pleaded not guilty.

The federal judge presiding over the case, Judge Aileen Cannon of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, postponed the trial stemming from Smith’s case indefinitely. The trial was set to begin May 20. source

The Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department and the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station issued a warning for holiday season shoppers who have purchased goods online during CyberMonday sales to be aware their packages may be targeted by mail theives.

CyberMonday means the future delivery of several packages. Although you may be anxiously awaiting their arrival, remember thieves are also on the look out for delivered packages left unattended, especially during the holiday season.

Follow these tips to help keep your packages safe:

–Follow tracking numbers and sign up for delivery notifications so you know the current whereabouts of your package.

–Not going to be home? Ask a trusted family member or neighbor to be on the lookout for your delivery.

–Request the package be left out of view, perhaps behind a pillar, bench, or alongside the house.

–If available, request signature confirmation upon delivery.

–Ordered from Amazon? Secure Amazon lockers are available at various locations throughout the Santa Clarita Valley including Whole Foods and the Valencia Town Center Mall, among other locations.source

SCV Sheriff’s Station Offers Tips On Avoiding Package Theft

Protect Packages From ‘Porch Pirates

Two “porch pirates” wanted in connection to a string of package thefts were taken into custody early Tuesday evening by an off-duty officer in Valencia, who was assaulted while making the arrest.

Around 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, deputies responded to Sunset Hills and McBean Parkway in Valencia regarding a theft call, said Deputy Natalie Arriaga, spokesperson for the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station.

“Upon arrival, deputies learned an off-duty officer with an outside agency observed a known vehicle from past porch thefts driving on Brookdale Court and Springtree Place in Valencia,” Arriaga said.

The officer began following the vehicle and identified the occupants of the vehicle as the suspects wanted for past thefts that had been seen in Ring doorbell footage near the end of November, according to Arriaga.

“The officer initiated a traffic stop on Sunset Hills and McBean Parkway in Valencia and notified the Santa Clarita (Sheriff’s) Station,” Arriaga said.

While contacting the occupants of the vehicle, the male adult driver attempted to flee in the vehicle while the officer was attempting to detain him, according to officials.

See Related: Deputies Cracking Down On Porch Pirates As Holidays Approach

However, the officer was able to remove the keys from the vehicle, according to officials. Deputies then arrived on scene and took the suspects into custody.

Upon searching the vehicle, deputies recovered several packages believed to be stolen from at least 10 different locations in Santa Clarita, according to Arriaga.

Tobia Gonzalez Sandoval, 25, from Van Nuys, was arrested for assault with a deadly weapon on a peace officer, a felony, as well as misdemeanor petty theft, Arriaga added.

The passenger, Yelin Lopez, 28, also from Van Nuys was arrested for misdemeanor petty theft.

The duo was transported to the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station’s jail, with bail set at $70,000 for Sandoval and $0 for Lopez, according to arrest records. source

Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station officials are warning of “porch pirates” ahead of the holidays and offering tips on how to keep packages safe.

“Porch pirates” are thieves who steal packages from doorsteps, which increase during the holiday season, especially in a year when more residents are avoiding the shopping crowds.

“Did you get a chance to enjoy Cyber Monday?  Just waiting on those packages to arrive?  With all the excitement, we sometimes forget to be aware of ‘porch pirates,’” wrote Deputy Natalie Arriaga, spokesperson for the station in a public service announcement.

The threat of porch pirates is all too real, as the Los Angeles metro area was found to have the ninth-highest rate of porch theft in the nation, according to a study by security company Safewise.

To prevent package theft, Arriaga offers tips to make sure the holiday goes on without a hitch.

Deputies advise residents to consider delivering your package to your place of work if you can’t be home for daytime delivery.

In addition, it is recommended to follow tracking numbers, sign up for delivery notifications so residents know the current whereabouts of the package.

If the recipient is not going to be home, it is advised to ask a trusted family member or neighbor to be on the lookout for the delivery.

Request the package be left out of view, perhaps behind a pillar, behind a bench, or alongside the house.

Amazon also offers secure locker provided at various locations including Whole Foods, the Westfield Town Center Mall, among other locations.

“We will continue to do our part and conduct crime suppressions and extra patrol checks, but we ask for your help in being on the lookout for suspicious activity in your neighborhood,” Arriaga wrote. “Always report suspicious activity.”

Deputies Cracking Down On Porch Pirates

Santa Clarita residents purchasing more gifts online this year due to the pandemic, Sheriff’s officials are offering tips to prevent packages from being stolen.

With the newest stay at home orders in place, more individuals are purchasing holiday gifts online, according to a social post from the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station.

Now with most sellers providing tracking on most packages, residents are being encouraged to not leave delivered items out for too long.

“Be aware of delivery dates and remove packages from your porch as quickly as possible,” Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s officials. “If you’re not home, ask a neighbor if they can retrieve your items.”

With most mail being delivered during daytime hours, officials recommend having packages delivered to your workplace. Other options include utilizing secure locker pickup locations offered by some companies.

Residents are also able to sign up for Informed Delivery, a program that allows residents to see what mail is being delivered even before making a trip to the mailbox.

The postal service takes pictures of mail as it is scanned at their facilities, and then shares those digital images with residents for free in a daily email.

This way, residents can be aware of important mail that is being delivered, and avoid leaving important items in the mailbox or on their porches.

For residents who may be a victim of a package theft, are encouraged to make a police report, according to officials.

For Santa Clarita Valley residents who own a video surveillance system that captures images of a “porch pirate,” Santa Clarita deputies urge residents to contact the Santa Clarita Valley

Sheriff’s Station, and resist the urge to immediately share on social media community groups, as it may hinder detectives’ investigations.

In some cases, it has been found that video capturing possible criminal activity is being shared on social media, but yet has not been officially reported.

Deputies from the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station have also been conducting undercover investigations, placing packages near doors and having undercover units waiting by for an arrest if the package is stolen, Sheriff’s officials said in a tweet. source