News From Around the Web
#10 Prosecutors Say Alec Baldwin ‘Engaged in Horseplay’ With Gun Before Fatal Shooting - Edward Helmore for The Guardian, and Law of Defense and News Nation on X
Fewer than three weeks before the actor Alec Baldwin is due to go on trial in Santa Fe, New Mexico, prosecutors have said that he “engaged in horseplay with the revolver”, including firing a blank round at a crew member on the set of Rust before the tragic accident occurred. Baldwin is facing involuntary manslaughter charges in the 2021 shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. In new court documents, prosecutors said they plan to bring new evidence to support their case that the 66-year-old actor and producer was reckless with firearms while filming on the set and displayed “erratic and aggressive behavior during the filming” that created potential safety concerns...
#9 Federal Judge Accepts Plea Deal for Club Q Shooter, Hands Down 55 Concurrent Life Sentences in Colorado - Justin Adams for CBS News, and ClassicFilm and Ocean News UK on X
The gunman who opened fire in an LGBTQ+ nightclub in Colorado Springs in 2022 was sentenced on federal charges on Tuesday. Five people were killed, and 19 were injured at Club Q in a mass shooting that left a painful wound in the Colorado community. Kristen Clarke, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Justice, called it a "brazen and calculated attack against innocent people." "This was one of the most violent hate-fueled mass shootings targeting the LGBTQIA+ community in our nation's history," she said. "This tragedy runs contrary to our most basic American values, respect for the sanctity of life and the intrinsic worth of every human being."
#8 Trump Proposes Green Cards for Foreign Grads of US Colleges, Departing From Anti-immigrant Rhetoric - Adriana Gomez Licon for AP News, and Maria Medvin, and Tracy Beanz on X
Former President Donald Trump said in an interview posted Thursday he wants to give automatic green cards to foreign students who graduate from U.S. colleges, a sharp departure from the anti-immigrant rhetoric he typically uses on the campaign trail. Trump was asked about plans for companies to be able to import the “best and brightest” in a podcast taped Wednesday with venture capitalists and tech investors called the “All-In.” “What I want to do and what I will do is you graduate from a college, I think you should get automatically as part of your diploma a green card to be able to stay in this country. And that includes junior colleges too, anybody graduates from a college. You go there for two years or four years,” he said, vowing to address this concern on day one...
#7 The US Drops Out Of Global Competitiveness Top 10 For First Time Ever - Tyler Durden for ZeroHedge. and the Dibster, and ZeroHedge on X
Singapore, Switzerland and Denmark have been named the world’s most competitive economies in the 2024 World Competitiveness Ranking published by the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) on Tuesday. While Denmark dropped two spots after topping the list in 2022 and 2023, Singapore leapt from 4th place to number 1 thanks to very high scores in government and business efficiency...
#6 ‘This Is About Readiness’: Sen Schmitt Pushes to Eliminate Dei at the Pentagon - Brooke Singman for Fox News, and America2100, and Wallstreet Silver on X
Sen. Eric Schmitt is pushing to ensure measures to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs within the Pentagon are included in this year’s National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), telling Fox News Digital the current focus has a "negative impact" on military recruitment and readiness. Schmitt, R-Mo., was successful in getting a number of amendments included in the version of the NDAA that recently passed the Senate Armed Services Committee — including a measure to make permanent a hiring freeze on DEI-related positions...
#5 Missouri AG Says He’ll Sue New York Over Trump Hush Money Case - Sophia Cai for Axios, and Mario Nawfal, and AG Andrew Bailey on X
Missouri's attorney general announced Thursday that he's suing the state of New York for alleged election interference and wrongful prosecution over former President Trump's hush money case. Why it matters: It marks the beginning of what's expected to be the next wave of legal action after an N.Y. jury found the presumptive Republican presidential nominee guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, with red states suing on Trump's behalf...
#4 Undercover O’Keefe Video: Disney VP Says the Company Discriminates Against White Men - Spencer Lindquist for The Daily Wire, and Charlie Kirk on X
An undercover video captured by the O’Keefe Media Group shows a senior vice president at the Walt Disney Company saying that he was told by co-workers in the human resources department that the corporation discriminates against white men. Michael Giordano, a senior vice president and team lead at the Walt Disney Company, said the corporation discriminates against white men on account of their race and sex in O’Keefe’s video. The report comes as the company has embraced far-left policies on gender and race, going so far as to embed them in their movies and television shows...
#3 Winklevoss Twins Donate $2 Million in Bitcoin to Support Trump - Reuters and Cameron Winklevoss and Tyler Winnklevoss on X
The billionaire Winklevoss twins, founders of cryptocurrency company Gemini, said on Thursday they had each donated $1 million in bitcoin to support Donald Trump, the latest crypto executives to get behind the Republican presidential candidate. Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, whose crypto firm in February entered settlement agreements with U.S. and New York state financial regulators after accusations of wrongdoing, announced the donations in posts on social media site X...#2 Dem Staffer Blasted for Spending Habits After Going Viral for Thanking Biden for Erasing 8K Student Debt - Andrew Mark Miller for Fox News and Janie Johnson, and Gunther Eagleman
A House Democratic staff member who was ripped for praising President Biden after his $8,000 student loan debt was erased is facing even more scrutiny on social media over posts displaying expensive spending habits while earning a salary upwards of $90,000 per year. Ben Kamens, communications director for longtime Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur, sparked a social media firestorm that received almost 20 million views this week when he posted a piece of paper showing his $8,250 in student loans dating back to 2010 had been wiped away following Biden’s latest student loan bailout. "Just got a call to let me know my student debt has been canceled," Kamens wrote. "This is why elections matter. Thanks @JoeBiden."
#1 Appeals Court Panel Denies Steve Bannon’s Bid to Further Delay Contempt Prison Sentence - Alanna Durkin Richer for The National Desk and Scott Macfarlane and George on X
A federal appeals court panel on Thursday rejected longtime Donald Trump ally Steve Bannon's bid to stay out of prison while he fights his conviction for defying a subpoena from the House committee that investigated the U.S. Capitol attack. Bannon is supposed to report to prison by July 1 to begin serving his four-month sentence for contempt of Congress. U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, who was nominated to the bench by Trump, earlier this month granted prosecutors' request to send Bannon to prison after a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit upheld his conviction.
And Now for Something Special 
A Pet Donkey Disappeared in California Five Years Ago. He’s Been Spotted Living With a Herd of Wild Elk - Scottie Andrew for CNN, and Collin Rugg on X
When Diesel the donkey ran away on a hike near his home outside Sacramento, California, five years ago, his owners assumed the worst. “He’s not aggressive, he’s a lover,” Terrie Drewry told CNN affiliate KOVR in 2019, days after Diesel’s great escape. “But right now, he’s scared.” Years passed without a sign of life from Diesel — until earlier this year, when a hunter spotted and filmed a herd of at least a dozen elk in the northern California wilderness. Among them, strangely, was a wild burro.
