Austin law enforcement says that a mass overdose incident is to blame for nine deaths and nearly 80 suspected overdoses over the last week in downtown Austin.

The Austin Police Department said that officers and the Austin-Travis County EMS began to respond to numerous reports of overdoses on Monday. The wave subsided after several days but ended up taking the lives of nine people and leading to dozens overdosing.

Law enforcement officials and non-profit organizations tried to battle the mass overdose incident by distributing Narcan and informing at-risk residents of the bad batch of drugs.

Emergency responders said they attended to 36 suspected overdoses on Monday and 27 on Tuesday, with 7 more on Wednesday.

Christa Stedman, the public information officer for Austin-Travis County EMS, said in a media briefing that the distribution of Narcan had unquestionably saved lives.

“We’ve seen in just a couple of days the numbers dramatically decline, that’s a great thing, and I think that speaks to the incredible work that both our community help paramedic team and our partners have done in essentially flooding the city with Narcan.”

Lily Hughs of the Texas Harm Reduction Alliance said that her team of volunteers had been out in the community trying to get the word out about the bad batch of drugs so that users could avoid the threat.

Hughes said they also offered training for drug users who wanted to learn how to use Narcan.

“We took extra time to do training and talk them through, and made sure every single person we talked to knew what was going on,” she said.

EMS said they had handed out about 400 doses of Narcan while the THRA said they had handed out about 100 doses.

Austin police later said that they had detained two persons of interest related to the overdoses. One of those suspects was identified as 55-year-old Johnny Lee Wright, who was charged with unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon.

A second person who was unidentified was arrested on a charge of possession of a controlled substance.

Investigators said they identified Wright and another person through the use of high resolution cameras that recorded Wright allegedly handing off narcotics to users after having received them from the unidentified suspect.

Police said that Wright and the second person were “known by officers who regularly worked the downtown area as narcotics dealers.”

Here’s a news report about the incident:

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President Joe Biden honored multiple figures with the Presidential Medal of Freedom during a ceremony on Friday, including Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, who previously served as speaker of the House and was the first and only woman ever to serve in that role.

Biden predicted that Pelosi will go down in history as the greatest House speaker.

“It is with great appreciation that I accept the Presidential Medal of Freedom from our great and patriotic President of the United States Joe Biden,” Pelosi said in a statement. “Freedom was the vision of our founders, has been the goal of our men and women in uniform, and is our promise to our children. It is with reverence for freedom and respect for all who have received it that I am deeply honored and forever grateful. Thank you, President Biden.”

Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff of California congratulated Pelosi in a tweet, calling the award “a fitting honor for the greatest Speaker of all time.”

— (@)

Former Vice President Al Gore, who is known for promoting climate alarmism ideology, also received the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Friday. Gore, a Democrat, lost the 2000 presidential election to Republican candidate George W. Bush.

John Kerry, who has previously served as special presidential envoy for climate under Biden, secretary of state under Barack Obama, and as a U.S. senator, also received the medal. Kerry, a Democrat, lost the 2004 presidential election to Bush.

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg was also one of the award recipients.

In all, there were 19 people honored with the award on Friday, though the medal was being posthumously awarded in some cases.

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The family of an elderly woman with dementia released video of her sexual assault in order to help police identify the suspect and arrest him.

The horrendous abuse unfolded on Monday at about 6:45 p.m. at the woman’s apartment in Pacoima in southern California.

The video shows the man entering the home of the 81-year-old woman after she answered the door, according to the family. He then went and checked the other rooms before returning and assaulting the woman, and making her perform sex acts on him.

The victim’s son-in-law spoke to KABC-TV about the execrable incident but wanted his face blurred to protect his identity and that of the victim.

“The video catches him doing things that I wouldn’t wish on anyone,” said the victim’s relative. “There’s a lot of elderly people in the community. This guy needs to be off the streets. It’s probably not the first time and it won’t be the last time he’s done this, or will do this.”

He said that the family had set up the camera so that no one could see it.

“The camera in the living room is pretty hidden and we hid it from her,” the son-in-law explained. “To avoid her from trying to turn it off. And he never saw that camera in the living room.”

On Friday afternoon, Los Angeles Police detectives told KABC they were able to identify and arrest a suspect. They said he was still in the area near the apartment complex where the woman lived.

The son-in-law told KTTV-TV that the woman had been diagnosed with early onset dementia.

“We think it’s pretty much progressed to Alzheimer’s already,” he added.

The son-in-law said they were alerted to the incident when his wife noticed her mother was up later than usual. When they rewound the recording, they were stunned by seeing the assault.

The son-in-law told KTTV that he had a suspicion about who the attacker was.

“He’s known to be a lurker. He lurks around the area,” he said.

He added that without the recording, they would have never known what happened because the woman doesn’t remember the incident due to her medical illness.

Police said that they are investigating the incident as attempted rape.

Here’s the report of the assault:

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A 13-year-old girl says she was attacked by adults related to a bull at a Texas school, but the district decided to suspend the victim after she fought back.

The girl, who didn’t want to be identified, told KTVT-TV that she had heard rumors that a new girl at Bettye Myers Middle School in Denton wanted to fight with her.

She said she went to school officials, including a counselor and an assistant principal. She said they told her that they had spoken to the other girl, but it didn’t help the situation.

She says that when she got on the school bus to go home, the girl attacked her. Then she realized the girl’s mother had also joined the fight when she called her “mom” during the fight.

“I was scared,” she said to KTVT with tears in her eyes.

Video shows the assault on the school bus with other students standing around recording the incident and not intervening at all.

“I guess one of the women came and put me in a choke hold on the bus,” she added.

She says that the women followed the bus to her stop and attacked her again. Video from the second altercation shows her being knocked to the ground and beaten.

The girl says she was able to call her mother during the attack.

“I heard my baby scream out,” said her mother to KTVT. “And no one did anything.”

She’s upset at the actions of the bus driver, who appeared to do nothing to prevent the fight and drove away while the girl was being attacked the second time.

“Had he locked the door, called for help, waited for the police to arrive. Those grown adults wouldn’t have been able to get on a bus, assault my child, and they wouldn’t been able to follow the bus and continue assaulting her,” she said.

The girl says she is traumatized because of the attacks.

“I can’t walk to the store anymore. I have to look and watch every time when I see a white car,” she said. “And I have to be on watch everywhere I go. Because of you.”

She also says that school officials suspended her for three days for her response, but she says she was simply defending herself.

A spokesperson for the Denton police told KTVT that they are taking the incident seriously and expect an update about the case soon.

The victim and her mother said that they are leaning on their faith to deal with the aftermath of the violence.

“I had to sit up at night crying about it, asking God why. But I also pray for them cause my mom taught me, just because they did you wrong, it’s all for a reason. It’s all for purpose,” said the 13-year-old girl.

“The other night when she said, ‘Mom, let’s pray.’ And she grabbed my hand and began to pray for them, I’m like, ‘Okay, you know… she’s going to be all right,'” said the mother.

Here’s the news report about the incident:

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Actor Mark Hamill of “Star Wars” fame, who has been an outspoken supporter of President Joe Biden, met with the president on Friday before appearing at the White House press briefing.

Hamill said that he called Biden “Mr. President,” but Biden said Hamill could call him Joe. Hamill said he asked if he could call the president “Joebi-Wan Kenobi.”

Hamill has previously posted the eyebrow-raising claim on social media that “Joe Biden is the best president we’ve ever had.”

But while he has high praise for Biden, he has called it the “understatement of the century,” to describe Donald Trump as the nation’s worst president ever.

— (@)

“May The First Not Quench Your Thirst For Biden’s Re-election!” Hamill tweeted on Wednesday, May 1, adding the hashtag “#BidenHarris2024.”

“May The Second Biden Administration Be As Productive and Successful As The 1st,” he wrote on Thursday May 2.

— (@)

On Friday, May 3rd, Hamill tweeted, “May The Third Be Absurd That The Guy Who Tried To Steal A Fair Election Is Allowed To Run Again.”

Earlier this year, on March 5, he tweeted, “I voted for four more years of an orange-free Oval Office.”

— (@)

In an apparent play on Hamill’s Friday White House visit and press briefing appearance, the Babylon Bee, a satire site, posted a piece titled, “Mark Hamill Joins Death Star Press Conference To Say What A Good Job He Thinks The Emperor Is Doing.”

— (@)

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Investors and clients of HIMS online pharmaceuticals began a boycott of the company after its CEO offered his enthusiastic support of the college students protesting against Israel in its war on Hamas terrorists.

HIMS CEO Andrew Dudum posted Wednesday on social media that his company would hire students who were protesting against Israel.

“Moral courage > College degree,” he wrote in a missive on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

“If you’re currently protesting against the genocide of the Palestinian people & for your university’s divestment from Israel, keep going. It’s working,” he added. “There are plenty of companies & CEOs eager to hire you, regardless of university discipline.”

Dudum, who identifies as Palestinian-American, posted a link to jobs available at his company for those who were protesting against Israel.

He also previously retweeted a post of an article about Democrat Sen. Liz Warren of Massachusetts opining that Israel was committing genocide in the Gaza Strip.

Investors rushed to say on social media that they were dropping their stock holdings because of the CEO’s statement.

“Just sold all my HIMS @AndrewDudum. Wearing the Israel or Palestine jersey is not relevant to me but a CEO hiring protestors and wearing a particular jersey is a tone deaf loss of focus. There is no need for a moral position – that’s not what the board or shareholders hired you for,” responded one stock analyst.

“Good luck. I plan to liquidate my position in $HIMS. When a CEO shows the amazingly poor judgement to post something like this, I don’t trust him to act in the best interest of the company. This is a breach of your fiduciary duty to your shareholders,” read one popular response.

Others said they were canceling their subscription to the service.

“And after 10 year using Hims, I have happily canceled today,” responded entrepreneur Brendan Kaminsky.

“Canceling $HIMS and the customer service queue is 42 people. Guessing it’s a big line out the door. The CEO wants to hire the same college protestors who appear hellbent on destroying America,” replied entrepreneur Eytan Elbaz.

“If you support Israel, cancel your @wearehims subscriptions immediately. You can get similar products elsewhere for cheaper anyway,” posted editor Ben Domenech.

On Friday, the HIMS stock dropped a whopping 8%, though it was unclear whether it was connected to the outrage over the CEO’s comments.

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Wealthy business magnate Elon Musk is sounding the alarm about America’s massive national debt, warning that unless action is taken to tackle the problem, the U.S. dollar will become worthless.

“We need to do something about our national debt or the dollar will be worth nothing,” Musk tweeted.

The country’s national debt is more than $34 trillion, according to fiscaldata.treasury.gov.

Responding to Musk, Ed Krassenstein wrote, “The problem is that no administration wants to take on the National Debt issue because the longterm fix is likely a short term detriment to the economy.”

“Well, something’s gotta give. We should at least slow down the debt growth,” Musk replied.

— (@)

GOP Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky has suggested that the national debt is “greatest threat” to America’s national security and warned that “we are threatening the very existence of our currency, and perhaps our country, by this crazy profligate spending.”

“The national debt is the greatest threat our country faces — and we are rapidly approaching the crisis point,” Republican Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, GOP Rep. Bill Huizenga of Michigan, and Democratic Rep. Scott Peters of California declared in a joint opinion piece posted on The Hill. “It is time for Congress to put the interests of the country ahead of political expediency and get us on sound fiscal footing before it is too late.”

Republican Sen. Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming has also expressed the view that “our debt is the greatest threat our country faces today.”

— (@)

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A Democratic state representative in Michigan has “voluntarily” returned thousands of dollars she received as part of the relief funds issued after the government-imposed COVID lockdowns.

The case relates to Kristian Grant, a first-term Democratic state representative from Grand Rapids. As a small business owner, Grant submitted multiple applications for funds from the Kent County Small Business Recovery, which sprung from the federal CARES Act following the COVID lockdowns. Grant was ultimately granted $15,000.

However, a subsequent review of her applications revealed discrepancies among the documents. In one tax filing, Grant reported that her Game Plan Lifestyle Planner business had generated nearly $4,300 in sales in 2019. In another filing, she indicated that the 2019 sales revenue for that business was a paltry $205.

Grant initially blamed the mistake on confusion created because some orders placed in 2019 were not delivered until 2020.

County officials told her she could keep all the money, so long as she submitted updated tax returns. And according to Kent County Administrator Al Vanderberg, she claimed to have filed the amended returns last May.

But a subsequent review of those materials conducted earlier this month revealed that, in fact, no such amended returns were ever filed.

Grant then decided to return $5,000 of the COVID-related funds, indicating in a statement that she just wanted to put the issue behind her. “Despite no findings of fraud or wrongdoing on my part, I made the decision to voluntarily return the $5,000 grant awarded to Game Plan Lifestyle Planner through the Kent County Small Business Recovery Fund,” she said.

“While I did rely on a professional to assist in preparing my tax return, I take full responsibility for the oversight and believe returning the funds is the right thing to do,” she continued. She now considers the matter to be “fully resolved.”

In her statement, she also made reference to “an individual with ulterior motives” who seems to carry a grudge against her. This individual “stoked” county officials into reviewing her applications, she claimed.

County Administrator Al Vanderberg said that his office was just doing its due diligence in Grant’s case. “As stewards of taxpayer dollars, we take our responsibility seriously,” he said in a statement. “We have thoroughly addressed the issues brought to our attention regarding Rep. Grant’s applications and subsequent funding. We remain steadfast in upholding the highest standards of accountability and transparency.”

Vanderberg confirmed that Grant has returned the funds. He also added that his office, which rejected about 30% of its COVID-related applications, believes that all other grantees are legitimate.

“We have received no additional challenges and have no reason to believe there were problems with other applications.”

State Rep. Kristian Grant returns $5,000 in COVID funds

www.youtube.com

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Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas has criticized Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s (R-Ga.) bid to oust House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) from the speakership, describing it as “silly” and “seriously counterproductive” while calling Johnson “a strong conservative.”

Cruz said that Greene’s ouster effort “increases the chances of chaos” and of giving control over to Democrats. “And there is zero chance a more conservative speaker will result,” he asserted during an interview on the “RealClearPolitics” radio show on SiriusXM, noting, “I think what she’s doing is really unhelpful to the country.”

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), Democratic Whip Katherine Clark (D-Mass.), and Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.) have pledged to vote to table Greene’s motion to vacate, saying in a statement earlier this week, “If she invokes the motion, it will not succeed.”

Greene, who filed the motion to vacate in March, has noted that she plans to pull the trigger next week.

“I’m calling the motion to vacate Speaker Mike Johnson next week after weeks of warning Mike Johnson to stop giving Democrats everything they want,” Greene said in a post on X. “The vote on the motion to table will essentially reveal the Uniparty in full. Vote YES to table the motion to vacate = Uniparty member,” she averred. “Vote against tabling the motion to vacate = not Uniparty member.”

— (@)

Axios reported that Johnson said, “I’m the most conservative member who has ever held the gavel as speaker, but the reality of our numbers is our challenge.”

Greene responded in a tweet by posting six rolling on the floor laughing emojis and writing, “Most conservative except when you… fund the invasion of our country,” “fund full-term abortion,” “fund the trans agenda,” “fund endless war,” “break the tie for warrantless spying,” “criminalize the New Testament,” “are endorsed by Democrat leadership,” and “spend more than Nancy Pelosi.”

GOP Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Paul Gosar of Arizona are both cosponsoring the motion to vacate.

— (@)

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Taking a page from the playbook of University of North Carolina fraternity brothers who captured America’s heart for protecting a U.S. flag on campus this week amid anti-Israel protests, more than 200 students at the University of Mississippi showed up with U.S. flags and red, white, and blue attire to drown out a much smaller group of pro-Palestinian protesters Thursday.

In fact, the pro-Palestinian demonstrators were evacuated from the campus of Ole Miss, the Clarion Ledger reported.

What are the details?

WMC-TV reported that the pro-Palestinian protest was supposed to start at the University Circle but was forced to move after a group of students blocked off the area, saying they were protecting the flag.

“I believe that is just the most important thing for us to do right now is protect everything we stand for,” Ole Miss student Aubrey Grace told the station, adding that “recently with the encampments across the nation, you have seen violence on other school campuses, and that is something that we cannot tolerate, especially as Americans.”

The Ledger said upward of 60 pro-Palestinian protesters gathered on the Quad, and then things heated up when the counter-protesters showed up.

WMC added in its video report that a pro-Palestinian protester threw a water bottle into the crowd of pro-Israel protesters — and then bottles and food were flying in both directions.

Soon, police led the pro-Palestinian protesters into the School of Applied Sciences building, the Ledger said. Jacob Batte, Ole Miss director of media relations, confirmed to the paper that the pro-Palestinian protesters had been safely evacuated from campus on buses.

There reportedly were no arrests or injuries, WHBQ-TV reported.

Pryce Parker — an Ole Miss student who joined the counter protest — told WHBQ in regard to the pro-Palestinian protesters that “you can’t take over our campus like the campuses in the north. This is a southern campus. We believe in God and Jesus, and we don’t stand for that.”

Pro-Palestine protests on Ole Miss campus

youtu.be

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When Obama made it a priority to import immigrants into the United States from Muslim countries, there was a massive jump in the number of refugees and immigrants who came into the United States.

The list of issues that have followed is long, but as anti-Semitism and Marxist indoctrination on college campuses reach all-time highs, Mark Levin can’t help but focus on this one.

“People who come into the country with their own culture are not assimilated into our culture because our culture is being attacked from our educational institutions — that is public schools, colleges, and universities — through our media and our entertainment,” Levin says.

“It’s why CRT, DEI, ESG, and all the rest of the Marxist alphabet soup is so damaging to the country,” he adds.

This is why Levin believes that anti-Semitism is rising on college campuses.

“When you have the importation of individuals from countries or cultures that have almost nothing in common with our country, and from places that hate our country, this is the consequence,” he says.

“When you have Marxist ideologues as tenured faculty members, and elsewhere, pushing their Marxist agenda on American citizen children, this is what you get. A fusion of Marxism and Islamism, and they all are involved in anti-Americanism,” he adds.

And it’s all by design.

“All this extremist radicalism is being taught, it’s being embraced, and now, it’s being practiced, and it’s also being funded. It’s being funded by Democrat Party billionaires through dark money contributions laundered through organizations,” he explains.

“Which is why they almost, almost, uniformly line up against Israel and line up against America and line up against Trump. They will do anything for power,” he adds.

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