I just got an email saying 8 of my online passwords have been compromised so I changed them.

I imagine if I got hacked, some real damage could have been done.

Have you ever been hacked? What happened?

“Is it possible that @dominionvoting is admitting to something in court that they thus far have NOT admitted to their US contract clients & millions of voters? The American electorate deserves to know. And right now please.”

Cut through the 2024 election noise. Get The Campaign Moment newsletter.

— Social media account of Rasmussen Reports, which describes itself as a nonpartisan electronic media company that conducts polls, May 17

With almost a half million followers on X, the pollster Rasmussen has a wide reach. Former president Donald Trump repeatedly cited its polls when he was president as it consistently showed a higher approval rating for him than other pollsters.
Now Rasmussen’s social media account is fanning previously debunked claims that Dominion Voting Systems machines could somehow be manipulated via the internet.

Rasmussen’s source is a former Michigan state senator who traffics in election conspiracy theories and is president of a self-described election integrity group called the Michigan Grassroots Alliance. That former lawmaker cited emails released by a far-right sheriff, who obtained them from an attorney involved in a lawsuit filed by Dominion, despite a protective order agreed to by the parties in the case.


Confused? That’s part of the point. The idea is to create a lot of smoke to make people think there is a fire.

The Facts​

The 2020 presidential contest in Michigan was not especially close. Joe Biden defeated Trump by about 155,000 votes, a margin of almost three percentage points. Yet ever since, former Michigan state senator Patrick Colbeck (R) has made baseless claims about fraud in the presidential election. (He was a term-limited senator when he lost the Republican primary for governor in 2018.) He has especially aimed his ire at Dominion Voting Systems, which has a contract in some counties in the state.

For instance, Colbeck was featured in a 93-minute video that circulated online in December 2020 in which he repeated the false claim that the machines that counted paper ballots were connected to the internet and inaccurately suggested the tabulators could have been hacked. That claim had already been rejected by Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Timothy M. Kenny, who in an opinion rejected an affidavit filed by Colbeck. “No evidence supports Mr. Colbeck’s position,” Kenny wrote. He noted that in a Facebook post before the election, Colbeck said that Democrats were using the pandemic as a cover for fraud, which Kenny said “undermines his credibility as a witness.”


That didn’t deter Colbeck, who continued making so many claims about Dominion that the company in 2021 sent a letter hinting at legal action if he didn’t stop making the claims.

Follow Election 2024
“You successfully duped thousands of people across Michigan into believing that the 2020 election was stolen through the manipulation of vote counts in Dominion machines, and you have reaped the benefits from it,” Dominion attorneys said in a letter. The missive suggested that the company — which won a $787 million settlement from Fox News and has pursued claims against other election deniers — might take legal action. No lawsuit has yet been filed.

Now Colbeck is claiming vindication. On X, he claimed that in court proceedings, Dominion authenticated documents that show “Dominion machines are designed to connect to internet” and “Dominion employs Serbian developers not subject to thorough background checks.” He added: “We’ve been lied to for years. Now the truth is FINALLY being exposed … IN COURT!” This was one of the posts that Rasmussen Reports circulated to its followers, suggesting Dominion has misled clients and millions of voters.


The documents were released by Sheriff Dar Leaf of Barry County, who posted them on the internet. Stefanie Lambert, a lawyer for former Overstock chief executive Patrick Byrne, has said she gave them to Leaf, alleging they showed evidence of criminal activity. Dominion has filed a billion-dollar defamation suit against Byrne and is now seeking to have Lambert removed from the case for allegedly violating a protective order regarding discovery. “These documents are now being used for the specific purpose of spreading yet more lies about Dominion,” the company said in a legal filing.
Lambert has justified releasing the documents by arguing that Dominion had “inappropriately” abused the existing protective order to hide “law violations” by designating documents as “confidential trade secret/intellectual property.” Federal Magistrate Judge Moxila Upadhyaya, in a hearing in Washington on May 16, ordered Lambert to make every effort to remove leaked documents from social media and other public forums, according to the Detroit News. The judge emphasized that the protective order in the case barred the sharing of confidential documents.

I know it’s not uncommon to have a pee bottle for long road trips, but it’s anybody pooped in their car?

What a POS she is:


Governor Kim Reynolds has not spoken to Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird since Bird attended former President Donald Trump’s trial in New York on Monday, but both Reynolds and Bird are using the word “travesty” to describe the proceedings.
“It should be stopped. If this was anybody else, this wouldn’t be happening,” Reynolds said on Wednesday after a bill signing ceremony on an Iowa County farm. “It’s preventing him from being on the campaign trail.”
Reynolds said it’s important for fellow Republicans to attend the trial because the judge has ordered Trump not to speak about the jury, the prosecution or witnesses. “Other people have said, ‘Well then we’re going to go express our First Amendment right because we can say that this is a sham. There is no ‘there’ there,'” Reynolds said. “…And if they think this was going to take him down, I think it’s actually having the opposite impact.”
Reynolds, who has two dozen bills left from the 2024 legislative session to review and sign, told reporters from Radio Iowa and Iowa Public Radio she is focused on that and has no plan to fly to New York for the trial, but the governor said she intends to make it clear to Iowans how she views the case against Trump.
“This is ridiculous. It is a sham. It’s an egregious act that’s taking place and however you feel comfortable in helping relay that to the American people or to your constituents, that’s an individual decision,” Reynolds said, “but I think I’ve been pretty clear on where I stand with it.”
Trump was first charged over a year ago with making so-called “hush money” payments to prevent two women from publicly accusing him of having sex outside of his marriage. Reynolds, who backed Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in January’s Iowa Caucuses, endorsed Trump in early March, right after Trump won the so-called “Super Tuesday” primaries in 15 states.
Attorney General Bird endorsed Trump in October and her travel to Trump’s trial this week was paid for by the Republican Attorneys General Association. Reynolds, a member of the Republican Governors Association’s executive committee, said she’s not aware of similar arrangements being made by that group to get GOP governors to appear with Trump at the New York City courthouse.

So Jan has one or two positions to fill? Someone to replace her position and then someone to replace Jenn's special assistant role (or does that go away). Must be looking outside for her position.

That looks really bad.

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Fatal Attraction grabbed you and squeezed until it hurt. This scene. Wow.

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Csb I went to happy hour and went to rock a piss, and a guy didn't lock the single toilet bathroom door and he was taking a shit at 4 pm at a bar. Who does that?

When was the last time you pooped in a bar?

anyone do this?

Sums up the GOP trash

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But the headline sure reads like an Onion article.

Man convicted of murder sues Chicago police after eyewitness revealed to be blind​

Lorna Petty
Tue, May 28, 2024 at 7:42 AM CDT·2 min read

Darien Harris was 12 years into a 76-year prison sentence when he was freed in December 2023 - Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Chicago Sun-Times

A man who spent 12 years in prison for murder is suing Chicago police after being convicted on an eyewitness account from a blind person.
Darien Harris was serving a 76-year sentence when he was freed in December after The Exoneration Project, an Chicago-based organisation fighting for the rights of the wrongly convicted, showed that the eyewitness had advanced glaucoma and had lied about his eyesight issues.
Despite being declared legally blind by his doctor nine years before the incident, the eyewitness picked Mr Harris out of a lineup and identified him in court.

The witness testified that he saw Mr Harris riding a motorised scooter near the gas station when he heard gunshots and saw a person aiming a handgun. He also claimed the shooter bumped into him.
The judge convicted Mr Harris, then an 18-year-old student, in connection with the fatal shooting at a gas station in 2011 in South Side Chicago.
When asked by Mr Harris’s lawyer whether his diabetes affected his vision, the witness said yes but denied that he had vision problems.
However, court records show that the man had been declared legally blind almost a decade before the start of the trial. A petrol station attendant also testified that Mr Harris was not the shooter.

‘I’ve been so lost’​

Mr Harris filed a federal civil rights lawsuit in April alleging that police fabricated evidence and coerced witnesses into making false statements.
Now 30 years old, he told the Chicago Tribune he is still struggling to put his life back together.
“I don’t have any financial help. I’m still [treated like] a felon, so I can’t get a good job. It’s hard for me to get into school,” he said.
“I’ve been so lost. I feel like they took a piece of me that is hard for me to get back.”
The Exoneration Project has helped clear the names of more than 200 people since 2009, including a dozen in Chicago’s Cook County in 2023 alone.

About a year after announcing intentions to shutter and sell its “last-chosen and first-transferred-from” Mayflower Residence Hall, the University of Iowa has taken it off the market — citing “immense interest from returning and prospective students” to live on campus.



“The University of Iowa is not actively marketing Mayflower Hall for sale,” UI Assistant Vice President for Student Life and Senior Director of University Housing and Dining Von Stange said Wednesday. “Based on the future goals for occupancy of the residence hall system by first-year and returning students, we will continue to use Mayflower for student housing.”


A year after listing the 326,000-square-foot property along N. Dubuque Street for $45 million — without landing a buyer — the university in February provided an update on plans to continue using Mayflower for the 2024-25 academic year.




Although the UI in February 2023 suggested Mayflower could close as early as the end of this spring semester, officials also told the Board of Regents at that time that the 2024-25 academic term would be its “final year.”


According to those original plans, selling Mayflower would eliminate maintenance costs and bring in money to help build a new 250- to 400-bed hall for returning students. However, the 56-year-old Mayflower is among the university’s largest halls — housing 1,032 students — and eliminating it from the residence hall rotation would have handicapped the campus’ housing capacity as demand grows.

Fall changes​

Although the campus at that time didn’t disclose plans to keep Mayflower in the rotation longer-term — with UI officials telling The Gazette it still planned to sell it — a recent five-year regents report showed expectations UI’s housing capacity would stay level at 6,465 beds between the 2025 and 2029 budget years.


That number is down 88 beds from the 6,553 available in the year that just ended, a result of this summer’s permanent closure of Parklawn Hall — the smallest on campus, featuring suite-style spaces near Hancher Auditorium.





“Parklawn is not highly desired by students and lacks Cambus and food services,” UI officials said. “Since Parklawn Hall is not highly desired by new or returning students and lacks Cambus or food service, UI intends to close it at the conclusion of the current academic year.”


Among the reasons Mayflower — a former apartment complex turned dorm featuring suite-style double rooms that share a kitchen and bathroom — has been less attractive to students is its distance from the main campus and other residence halls. In hopes of increasing its popularity, the UI is adding study spaces and more single rooms, while promoting its privacy for students wanting more independence and its Cambus access.


“Campus leaders are working with students to determine what additional supports and amenities may be offered,” officials said in February.


The university also is cutting the cost to live there.


Instead of the $8,633 charged last year for the standard double with kitchen, bath and air conditioning, the university next year will shave off $560 and charge $8,073 — putting it in line with the standard “double with air” rooms across campus.


“Historically, some students who were assigned there in previous years expressed concern about the cost differential,” Stange said. “This allows all students not to worry about the additional cost of attendance while living in a double room in Mayflower.”

A real estate flyer shows a room inside the Mayflower Residence Hall. The University of Iowa had listed the property for sale at $45 million. (Photo from Lepic-Kroeger, Realtors brochure)

‘No update to share’​

Though the UI has reported an uptick in returning students interested in on-campus living, it didn’t include in its recent five-year residence system report any plans to build that new returning-student hall it proposed last year for the east side of campus, with cost projections between $40 and $60 million.


“The university is always proactively evaluating its housing and dining systems to best serve students who choose to live on campus,” Stange said. “There’s no update to share at this time regarding a new residence hall.”


Mayflower — sitting on 4.1 acres overlooking the Iowa River — is the first thing many UI visitors see as they exit Interstate 80 onto Dubuque Street. Once site of the Mayflower Inn in the 1940s — featuring a popular Mayflower Nite Club — the hangout was razed in the 1960s and replaced in 1968 with the eight-story Mayflower Apartments.


The university started leasing portions of the apartment building in 1979 due to student-housing crowding and bought the building outright in 1983 for a “bargain sale price of $6.5 million.” Mayflower underwent major renovations in 1999 and in again in 2009 after massive flood damage in 2008.


Although the university in 2023 listed the residence hall for $45 million, a recent city property value assessment valued it at $30.7 million.

Uh oh? Yay? I don't know what to think.

Thinking of putting a Hive on my property,I'll be starting with just one unless someone has a great reason. My main focus would be more pollination around the property and enjoying the honey.

Just getting started, with our climate I believe I need a 2 case box and the "super"(?) On top. Anyone have any good brands? ( you can spend 1200 bucks on the "flow" brand, yeesh)


I've read quite a bit about insects that can get into the boxes and it seems being in a full sun environment is my best insecticide( if you will), thoughts on location or things to consider?


Tips and tricks? " if I were just getting started I would put my extra money towards xxxxxxx, it will make life easier" type stuff?

CHICO (CBS13) — A Chico television news reporter is recovering after someone attacked her while she was broadcasting live on Facebook.

KRCR’s Meaghan Mackey was reporting outside of a home when it happened.

Her station, KRCR, issued the following statement: “Meaghan is very shaken up but is okay. We are thankful law enforcement was right there and handled the situation quickly. We appreciate the kind words so many of you have offered Meaghan tonight.’

Mackey was reporting on a mass drug overdose in Chico. Investigators say a dozen people between 19 and 30 years old overdosed inside a house. One person died, authorities said.

Two officers became sick from exposure to the drug – believed to be fentanyl.

At least seven people remained hospitalized as of Sunday night.

Nearby law enforcement quickly and stopped the attack on Mackey.

In a series of tweets after the attack, Mackey thanked the quick response from officers and the community for showing their support.

“I will not live in fear of doing my job. I value the freedom of the press & will continue to report on the truth and inform the public, even during times of tragedy,” Mackey tweeted.

It’s unclear if anyone was arrested after the attack.

https://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2019/01/13/reporter-attacked-live-facebook/

Tony the (currently) Tarheel needs your help with a survey about his alma mater's wrestling program. Unfortunately I didn't have much input this time. I was kind of checked out this year (and I haven't lived in Iowa since 2009).

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Remembering Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs, safe shelter ranks high


In Washington, whoever is in charge usually says: “We don’t have that many tools to make things more affordable.” It seems to me that’s probably more true for items in the grocery store than it is for housing.

Maybe. I think that housing is an incredibly complex knot that, as you pull on any one part of it, it becomes tighter. Of course we need more housing. Of course housing costs are historically high, especially for young people. But there is some validity to the fact that it’s an incredibly thorny, difficult problem.

In your draft platform, there were four or five different points, though, that involved attacking the problem of housing costs.

Oh, yeah, it is the number-one problem, particularly for young people. Housing, housing, housing. That’s it. Across the country. Americans are struggling with housing costs, and this disproportionately affects the young. It disproportionately affects the poor, and not only is housing the primary financial problem, but it’s also totally misunderstood — completely misunderstood — and intentionally so.

Is there anybody who you hear in the political world talking about housing in a way that you just feel like: “Yes, that’s a bullseye.”

Surprise, surprise, he argues for the continuation of democracy.

Investigators are working to determine what caused a coyote to bite and attack a woman who was walking on the University of Iowa campus Monday.



The attack happened at about 4 p.m. Monday while the woman was walking along the Mormon Handcart Trail, 116 Hawkeye Ct., according to a campus safety advisory. The woman reported she felt something biting her ankle. When she turned around, the animal lunged at her and began to bite and scratch her.


Vince Evelsizer, the furbearers and wetlands biologist at the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, said investigators believe the animal was a coyote based on the description given by the victim, but they haven’t been able to locate the animal.




“The victim is being treated for rabies. She had scrapes, bite marks and lacerations on her head, face and upper body, and her arm required stitches,” Evelsizer said.


There haven’t been any recorded cases of a coyote attacking a person in Iowa in more than 20 years, although there are some cases of coyotes attacking small animals, Evelsizer said.


Investigators have two main theories about why the coyote attacked. The first is that it might have rabies, hence the preventive treatment for the victim. Rabies would be a concerning explanation because there haven’t been any other recently documented cases of canine-related rabies in Iowa, and since the animal hasn’t been caught, it could be spreading the disease, Evelsizer said.




The other possible explanation is that it was an adult coyote with a litter of pups nearby and it was acting in defense of its litter. But Evelsizer said investigators have been searching the area and haven’t found evidence of a litter nearby.


The news release lists several safety precautions that can be taken by anyone concerned about animal attacks, including being aware of surroundings, not leaving out food items and vaccinating pets against rabies.


“Our thoughts are with the victim here. We hope she has a good recovery,” Evelsizer said.

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds says she is not interested in serving as U.S. Secretary of Education if Donald Trump is re-elected, batting down a recent report from The Daily Caller.

The right-wing media outlet quoted a Reynolds spokesperson saying the job is “something that (Reynolds) is interested in” in an April 22 article speculating on potential cabinet appointments.

“I am passionate about education. I'm proud of what we're doing," Reynolds told reporters Wednesday at a news conference. "I mean, it started with STEM, it started with registered apprenticeship programs, literacy, parental choice. So I've got a lot of work to do as governor. I love what I'm doing. And I'm really proud of the work we've done, but we've got a lot of work to do.”

Reynolds said she thinks someone mistook her enthusiasm for education issues as interest in the position.

“The report said they thought I was (interested), and that was — I think they mistook just the way I talk about education as maybe ‘pick me,’” she said.

Reynolds has endorsed former president Trump’s re-election effort after he became the presumptive Republican nominee in March.
"Joe Biden has been a disaster for our country," she posted to social media. "Higher prices, inflation, an open border, crime, and the destruction of America’s image on the world stage. I will do everything to defeat him and elect Donald J. Trump for president of the United States!"

But the endorsement followed a tumultuous primary cycle in which Trump lashed out at Reynolds first for failing to publicly support him and then for throwing her weight behind Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis ahead of the Iowa caucuses.

Here’s a bit of trivia. Our Founding Fathers who wrote the Constitution had no consultants to consult. Astounding, I know.



There was no “Ye Olde Bill Mill.” No “Henry’s Tankards and Think Tankery.” Paul Revere never parlayed his fame into “Freedom Ride Consulting.”


And they did not have, for instance, the Civics Alliance. That’s the conservative outfit that provided Iowa Republican lawmakers with the language for Iowa’s new history and civics curriculum, including an emphasis on the brilliance of the founders.




Nowadays brilliance springs from think tanks and bill mills spitting out “model” conservative legislation. The only interest they have in Iowa is counting us as one more red state drone controlled by their good ideas.


Under the Golden of Wisdom, now redder than ever, GOP lawmakers who run the joint can’t get enough of this stuff.


The Civics Alliance is a good example. The “coalition of organizations and individuals” pitches a K-12 social studies curriculum called “American Birthright.” The group is a spinoff from the National Association of Scholars, which focuses on higher education, which applauded Iowa’s legislation.


“The Civics Alliance wants to improve every aspect of American social studies instruction by inspiring America’s state education departments to provide social studies standards that teach American students their birthright of liberty,” according to its website.





That doesn’t sound so bad.


“The teaching of American civics in our schools faces a grave new risk. Proponents of programs such as action civics seek to turn the traditional subject of civics into a recruitment tool of the progressive left,” the organization argues.


Uh oh.


Action civics is a curriculum that encourages students to take an active role in the democratic process. Instead of being simply fed the traditional menu of historical facts, events and people, students can also get involved in causes important to them.


“Action civics is taking over civics and history classrooms,” the Civics Alliance argues. And some of this curriculum, gasp, is connected to the 1619 project, which focuses on how racial discrimination has shaped our history. It makes white kids uncomfortable, apparently.


Kids getting involved in the political process is the last thing conservatives want. Instead, kids should simply take pride in America’s heritage of freedom. Just don’t use that freedom to become involved in how the nation is governed. Freedom is a museum piece. Don’t touch.


Iowa lawmakers introduced broad legislation dictating social studies curriculum. It failed to clear the legislative process. So, naturally, they condensed it and added it as an amendment to an education funding bill in the final days before adjournment. They passed it swiftly before any action civics could derail it. The governor signed it into law.


The legislation requires teaching the virtues of exemplary Americans and the nation’s political, diplomatic, and military history. The curriculum covers the period from the discovery of the Western Hemisphere to the present. Kids will learn about all the wars, the Founding Fathers and, of course, the accomplishments of “western civilization,” which gets four mentions.


Columbus, the Holocaust and the Emancipation Proclamation all make appearances. As does medieval Europe, Greek city states, ancient Israel and the crimes of communist regimes. The standards must be adopted by Dec. 31, 2025.


But the real news is what gets left out. Slavery, Reconstruction, Jim Crow and the Civil Rights movement are not mentioned. Neither is what happened to the people already living in the Western Hemisphere who we “discovered.” The Great Depression misses the cut. Women’s suffrage, immigration and the gains for workers thanks to organized labor aren’t on the required list.


The legislation does not prohibit teaching other stuff. But if you’re an educator caught in the culture war crossfire, will you take the risk of straying from the standards? The chilling effect of stuff like this is a feature, not a bug. Our public schools are becoming large freezers with all the chilling.


The National Council for the Social Studies isn’t a fan of “American Birthright.”


“W e view these suggested standards as an attempt to return to a time when United States social studies classrooms presented a single narrative of U.S. and Western history that glorified selected aspects of history while minimizing the experiences, contributions, and perspectives of Indigenous peoples, people of color, women, the LGBTQIA+ community, the working class, and countless others,” the council wrote.


“The writers of the suggested standards use outdated language, have a clear political motive, and promote content and approaches to social studies and history education that do not align with those recommended by experts in social studies content areas,” the council added.


And once these kids graduate, the National Alliance of Scholars will have banished the “radical left” from colleges and universities and replaced them with conservatives. You’ve got to love it when a plan comes together.


Iowa Republicans love casting this as a battle between wholesome America lovers and liberal America haters. Black and white, but mostly white. Love it or leave it. Move to Cuba, commies.


But I love my country. And one reason why is we’re not afraid to take a clear-eyed view of our past, warts and all. Asserting racism and white supremacy had no role in shaping this nation and have disappeared from the present is absurd and dishonest.


Strong nations are unafraid of learning about and learning from real history. It’s the authoritarian governments who spoon feed their people fluff patriotism with side of historical mythology. No coat of whitewash can hide the facts.


And the fact Iowa lawmakers were able to dictate social studies curriculum begs the question “Where will it end?”


Perhaps at the voting booths in November. That would be truly historic.


(319) 398-8262; todd.dorman@thegazette.com

Think tanks replace thinking at the Iowa Statehouse

FILE – Snow falls at the Iowa State Capitol Building in Des Moines, Iowa, Jan. 9, 2024, as a winter …

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McGrath has been with Iowa for two years.

Brecht was generally very good this year and Obermuller had a strong season as well, but inconsistent pitching performances, especially in the bullpen, was definitely a big issue in Iowa's underperformance this season.

Several Iowa pharmacies have been cited by the state recently for dispensing incorrect medications, including one instance in which a patient might have died.
The Hy-Vee Pharmacy located at 1501 First Ave. East in Newton, was recently charged by the Iowa Board of Pharmacy with dispensing the incorrect prescription to a customer.

The board alleges that on Jan. 14, 2024, the pharmacy mistakenly dispensed 30 milliliters of morphine concentrate to a patient with incorrect directions on the label, which the board says resulted “in a substantial overdose and possibly early death.” No other information on the case has been made public by the board.

​

The board has imposed a $5,000 civil penalty against the pharmacy and ordered that the entire professional staff at the pharmacy undergo training on medication errors and patient safety.