News From Around the Web
#10 Vast Botnet Hijacks Smart TVs for Prime-Time Cybercrime - Connor Jones for The Register
8-year-old OP responsible for DDoS attacks and commandeering broadcasts to push war material. Security researchers have pinned a DDoS botnet that's infected potentially millions of smart TVs and set-top boxes to an eight-year-old cybercrime syndicate called Bigpanzi. At least 170,000 bots were running daily at the campaign's height after infecting Android-based TVs and other streaming hardware via pirated apps and firmware updates. A common infection scenario would see a user visit a dodgy streaming site while browsing on their smartphone, only to then be pushed into downloading the associated malicious app to their Android-based smart TV...
#9 Ohio Politician Arrested at Meeting for Criticising Sheriff Dad Rights Violated, Court Rules - Michelle Del Rey for The Independent
A federal judge has ruled that an Ohio elected official had her constitutional rights violated when she was arrested for criticizing her local sheriff at a meeting in July 2022. Niki Frenchko, 49, spoke out against Trumbull County Sheriff Paul Monroe at a public meeting and criticized his performance. After her remarks, the sheriff had two deputies arrest her. The incident was streamed to Facebook Live. Ms. Frenchko, who serves as the only Republican on the three-member Board of County Commissioners, was handed a misdemeanor charge of “disturbing a lawful meeting.” The charge was later dropped, and the commissioner filed a civil rights lawsuit...
#8 House Passes Pelosi-Schumer CR, Averting Shutdown Fears Until March - Bradley Jaye for Breitbart
The House passed a short-term spending extension only hours after the bill cleared the Senate, pushing the next shutdown threat to March and surrendering Republican leverage on enacting a border security package. The continuing resolution (CR) passed 314-108, extending spending levels and priorities set by then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) in December 2022 during a lame-duck session of Congress. The outcome was not in doubt, although many Republicans made clear their opposition to yet another CR...
#7 Illegal Immigrant Released Into Community After Being Charged with Raping a Disabled Person - Johnathan Jones for The Western Journal
The city of Boston released a Haitian man who was in the country illegally after he was arrested and charged with, among other crimes, raping a developmentally disabled person. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents attempted to arrest the man, but officials in the Democrat-run city refused to cooperate and instead released him back into their community. That is according to an ICE news release the agency published on its website on Wednesday...
#6 Jill Biden Becomes Victim of Poor Sign Placement During High School Visit in Utah - Johnathan Jones for The Western Journal
First Lady Jill Biden spoke to teachers and students at a high school in Utah on Tuesday, but the visit came with some unfortunate optics that apparently no one who organized the event considered beforehand. The wife of President Joe Biden paid a visit to a school in West Valley City, a suburb of Salt Lake City. The school chosen was Hunter High School. Given that the First Lady’s eldest stepchild, Hunter Biden, has become synonymous to millions of Americans with drug use, an image of her speaking behind a podium with the words “Hunter High” went viral on the social media platform X... One bank allegedly handed over information to the FBI 'voluntarily and without any legal process.' Federal investigators asked banks to search and filter customer transactions by using terms like "MAGA" and "Trump" as part of an investigation into Jan. 6, warning that purchases of "religious texts" could indicate "extremism," the House Judiciary Committee revealed Wednesday in a letter obtained by Fox News Digital. Fox News Digital has learned the committee also obtained documents that indicate officials suggested that banks query transactions with keywords like Dick's Sporting Goods, Cabela's, Bass Pro Shops, and more... Sen. John Fetterman and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis have found common ground — and they don’t want the Chinese government on it. Mr. Fetterman said the Chinese government should own “zero” agricultural land in the U.S., echoing real estate ownership restrictions in a new Florida law. “I hope many of our colleagues agree that the Chinese government and other U.S adversaries should own zero, zero agricultural land in our country — I believe that,” Mr. Fetterman, Pennsylvania Democrat, said at a Senate Agriculture Committee hearing on Wednesday. “I mean, they’re taking back our pandas, you know, we should take back all of their farmland.” In most countries, Big Pharma is not allowed to advertise vaccines and prescription medicines directly to consumers, and advertising of over-the-counter medicines is tightly regulated. That’s not a problem for Pharma. There are plenty of other workarounds to promote drugs without direct ad spend. You can lobby governments to recommend and even mandate your drugs. Smooth operators can wrangle government spending of public funds to advertise Big Pharma products, which were also purchased with public funds at jacked-up prices. Expect strong support for this tactic from the advertising industry, which stands to win lucrative government contracts to push Pharma products... We can ask this guy in Nashville why the chicken crossed the road because that's exactly what he was doing. You see a lot of hats and gloves, a lot of parkas when it snows like today, but how about taking a walk around town in your finest chicken suit? We can ask this guy in Nashville why the chicken crossed the road because that's exactly what he was doing. He's been coming out in the snow, taking a walk in a chicken suit, for about the last 10 years or so. He just shows up like this and takes a walk when it snows.
The New York Democratic congressman Jerry Nadler said he had been in communication with Capitol police and the FBI about a reported death threat from the far-right activist and Trump ally Roger Stone. “It was a surprise to me. I just found out a few days ago … I saw it on Mediaite,” Nadler told reporters, naming the website which said it obtained audio of the threat and saying he had been in touch with authorities. The reported threat also mentioned Eric Swalwell, a California Democrat who on Wednesday told CNN he also learned of the threat from the Mediaite report. Speaking before the 2020 presidential election to an associate who was then a serving New York police officer, Stone reportedly said: “It’s time to do it. “Let’s go find Swalwell. It’s time to do it. Then we’ll see how brave the rest of them are. It’s time to do it. It’s either Nadler or Swalwell [wh]o has to die before the election. They need to get the message. Let’s go find Swalwell and get this over with. I’m just not putting up with this shit anymore.”
#5 Democrat in Contact With FBI After Roger Stone’s Alleged Death Threat - Martin Pengelly for The Guardian
#4 'Alarming' surveillance: Feds Asked Banks to Search Private Transactions for Terms Like ‘MAGA,’ ‘Trump’ - Brooke Singman for Fox News
#3 Fetterman Aligns with DeSantis on China, says Beijing Should Own ‘zero’ Farmland in the U.S. - Mallory Wilson for The Washington Times
#2 Big Pharma’s Dirty Marketing Schemes Exposed - Rebekah Barnett for The Brownstone Institute
The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on Jan. 17 withdrew its proposal to establish and list Natural Asset Companies (NAC), which would pool investors’ money from around the world to buy controlling rights to public and private land throughout the United States. The NACs would, according to filing documents, manage the lands solely for the purpose of “sustainability.” Critics of the plan charged that wealthy investors and foreign entities would be able to use these vehicles to make decisions to allow or block the public from accessing the publicly owned land that is designated for uses such as hunting, fishing, drilling, mining, hiking, and logging. While some conservation groups and global warming activists had supported the initiative as a way to protect natural resources, many land-rights activists applauded its demise and questioned whether wealthy investors would be better stewards of America’s land...
#1 New York Stock Exchange Abandons Plan To Control America's Natural Resources - Tyler Durden for Zero Hedge
And Now for Something Special 
Tennessee Man Walks Snowy Streets in Chicken Suit
