Controversial lab studies that modify bird flu viruses in ways that could make them more risky to humans will soon resume after being on hold for more than 4 years. ScienceInsider has learned that last year, a U.S. government review panel quietly approved experiments proposed by two labs that were previously considered so dangerous that federal officials had imposed an unusual top-down moratorium on such research.

One of the projects has already received funding from the National Institutes of Health's (NIH's) National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) in Bethesda, Maryland, and will start in a few weeks; the other is awaiting funding.

Webmaster addition: Get ready for another dropped test tube!

Twelve years have passed since the 2011 nuclear disaster and preparations are underway to discharge treated radioactive water into the sea from the crippled Fukushima power plant, although local fishermen and Japan's neighbors remain wary of the plan.

The Japanese government seeks to begin releasing the water sometime this spring or summer, with operator Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc asserting the many large tanks holding treated water are obstructing work to decommission the defunct reactors.

TEPCO and the government plan to release the water containing trace amounts of tritium into the Pacific Ocean despite opposition from fishery communities whose businesses have finally made progress in recovering from reputational damage caused by the disaster, considered the world's worst nuclear accident since the 1986 Chernobyl meltdown.

One day before lawmakers on the House Weaponization Committee held their second hearing last week, Colorado Republican Rep. Ken Buck sent a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken decrying State Department censorship.

In February, the Washington Examiner exposed the Department of State funneling taxpayer money to a shadow network of corporate censors that operate to suppress dissident media. The Global Disinformation Index (GDI), a British group that recommends where advertisers spend their marketing dollars, received $330,000 from the Biden State Department.

GDI’s list of websites says the “riskiest” or “worst” offenders of disinformation include conservative outlets such as the American Spectator, Newsmax, The Federalist, the American Conservative, One America News, the Blaze, Daily Wire, RealClearPolitics, Reason, and the New York Post. Some of the outlets it calls the least risky are those that peddled the Russia-collusion hoax and suppressed both the Hunter Biden laptop story and revelations about the pay-to-play scandal implicating then-candidate Joe Biden right before the 2020 election.

Webmaster addition: In other words, this violation of the First Amendment will continue, but they promise to be nice about it!

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has called on the United States to find a peaceful resolution to the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine. The move contrasts starkly with many congressional Republicans, who have advocated for indefinitely arming Ukraine rather than finding a peaceable solution to the conflict.

During his Monday night program, Fox News host Tucker Carlson revealed his team had sent a series of questions regarding the Russia-Ukraine conflict to potential and declared 2024 GOP presidential primary candidates. Included in the list were questions such as “Is opposing Russia in Ukraine a vital strategic interest for America? “What’s our objective in Ukraine, and how are we going to know when we’ve achieved it?” and “What is the limit of money and weapons you’d be willing to send to [Volodymyr] Zelensky?”

When parents cannot care for a child, the children often go to relatives.

This leaves family members with extra children to care for and provide for. In some cases, it’s not the child’s fault. For example, when parents get killed by a drunk driver. Oklahoma seeks to make life a little easier for the ones left behind.

The bill, Bentley’s Law, was first passed in Missouri. Cecilia Williams was left to care for her grandson, Bentley, after his parents were killed in an accident with a drunk driver. This allows judges to include child support in a sentence for a person convicted of a DUI, providing a little bit of relief for those left to care for those often left behind.

Fox News star Tucker Carlson has warned his viewers that Democrat President Joe Biden’s administration will usher in a federal government-control digital currency if Americans don’t make their voices heard over the banking crisis.

During the opening of his show, Carlson warned that the collapsing banking system will open the door to digital cash.

On Monday morning trading was halted on 20 banks as the markets opened.

The New York Stock Exchange halted trading at Charles Schwab.

Over the weekend, amid populist howls of outrage that a bailout of SVB would promote moral hazard (in the end depositors did get bailed out with a full recovery, but other unsecured creditors oddly enough would get nothing, while the common stock is a doughnut), we said that while technically true, the events that toppled SVB and now SBNY as well, are really a subsidy for the big banks.

Former President Donald Trump spoke in Davenport, Iowa, on Monday to deliver his platform on education issues as his 2024 presidential campaign kicks into high gear.

During the speech, Trump stated that his administration had extensively studied the possibility of breaking up the Department of Education altogether and reallocating its functions to the states, earning raucous applause.

"We studied it very closely and I was getting ready to do it, pull the trigger," he said. "The long-term goal, but now it's a short-term goal, of breaking up the federal Department of Education and redistributing its functions to the states."

A United Airlines flight from Guatemala to Chicago was diverted to Houston’s George Bush International Airport on Saturday evening.

An emergency was declared “for an incapacitated pilot,” stated a Houston UAL internal document given to CDM.Press. 

“UA Flight 2007 GUA-ORD is diverting to IAH. Declaring an emergency for an incapacitated pilot. Gated at E20. Current ETA shows 1747. Unknown if flight will clear here at this time or just re-crew and go. Will advise when information is available. Pilot reportedly taken to a hospital,” states the UAL Operation Center communication. 

According to the UAL file, "Left seat Capt had chest pains.  Could not get him out of the seat.  Right seater landed."

Biden didn’t specify which protections he believes the federal government should enact, though he has said in the past that transgender Americans should have “every single solitary right, including use of your gender identity bathroom in public.” Restricting such rights is legally and morally wrong, he said last fall.

The president singled out restrictions imposed in Florida, where Governor Ron DeSantis has touted a ban on sex-change surgeries and puberty blockers for children, for criticism. DeSantis, a frontrunner for the Republican Party’s 2024 presidential nomination, also championed a ban on biological boys competing in girls’ sports.

Webmaster addition: Don't you have more pressing things to worry about, Joe?

A Russian Su-27 jet fighter collided with an American MQ-9 Reaper drone over the Black Sea on Tuesday, the US military's European Command said.

"Our MQ-9 aircraft was conducting routine operations in international airspace when it was intercepted and hit by a Russian aircraft, resulting in a crash and complete loss of the MQ-9," said US Air Force General James Hecker, commander of US Air Forces Europe and Air Forces Africa.

Webmaster addition: I imagine the Sukhoy needs some body work as well!

Germany is facing an inevitable economic decline after losing its access to Russian energy, but cannot do anything about it because it is not a sovereign nation, the secretary of the Russian National Security Council has claimed.

“Germany tried for many years to build its economy on a combination of cheap Russian energy and advanced German technologies. Like no one else, it realizes that the terrorist attack against the [Nord Stream pipelines] will definitely cause the German economy to decline further,” Nikolay Patrushev said in an interview published in Argumenti i Fakti newspaper on Monday.

The advantages that German businesses enjoyed by getting access to Russian fuel has long irritated the governments of the US and the UK, he continued. But Berlin is not at liberty to continue cooperating with Moscow, “because the German nation is not independent.”

Webmaster addition: The fact that Germany has not complained to the US about the Nord Stream pipeline suggests that Nikolay is correct!

Kevin O’Leary Stuns CNN Panel Telling Them “Biden Just Nationalized U.S. Banking System”…

The Federal Reserve moved quickly late Sunday to prevent the collapse of SVB Financial from causing any further damage to the U.S. banking system, offering lenders billions in secured loans with a backstop from the Treasury. 

The Fed said it will establish a “Bank Term Funding Program” (BTFP) that will allows U.S. banks to borrow billions, at favorable market terms, if the loans are backed by Treasury bonds, high-quality agency debt or  mortgage-backed securities. 

Those securities will not be subject to the usual discount, or haircut, when used as loan collateral, the Fed said, allowing U.S. banks to get fast cash based on their full par value. Banks are sitting on an estimated $620 billion worth of unrealized losses from Treasury, agency and MBS bonds following the surge in market interest rates that has swamped fixed income portfolios around the world.

Webmaster addition:

China will make further efforts to enable private entrepreneurs to grow and thrive, and the country's private enterprises will enjoy a better environment and broader development space, Premier Li Qiang said on Monday.

The nation will continue to foster a market-oriented, law-based market environment in keeping with international standards, treat companies of all types of ownership as equals and protect the property rights of enterprises as well as the rights and interests of entrepreneurs in accordance with the law, Li said. He was speaking at his first news conference as premier following the conclusion of the first session of the 14th National People's Congress, China's top legislature.

Noting that the country has a supersized market with huge demand and a lot of new untapped sectors, Li said that all these factors promise great opportunities for private entrepreneurs.

President Joe Biden is set to announce a new executive order that would move the United States “as close to universal background checks as possible without additional legislation.”

Breaking

President Biden will announce an Executive Order with the goal of increasing the number of background checks conducted before firearm sales.

This was in Biden's backpocket. These announcements always timed to change topics. (Not sure how criminals will find guns now)

Webmaster addition: Things are falling apart. All the government's lies are coming home to roost. Americans are getting angry. Expect the push to ban guns to really ramp up now!