"It's unusual for judges to do this sort of thing under any circumstances. But I suppose if this was ‘Romeo and Juliet,’ if this was some recognized, established classic or something, it might be different. But this is obviously an advocacy production, so for a Supreme Court justice to participate in advocacy on an issue that is currently in the courts, and at least broadly speaking, before her, I think it's a huge mistake," he said.

The musical, called "& Juliet," features prominent LGBTQ+ themes and nonbinary characters. The musical begins where Shakespeare's original ends. Instead of dying by suicide for love, Juliet chooses to forge her own path, challenging traditional gender roles. On its website, "& Juliet" is described as a "hilarious new musical" that "flips the script on the greatest love story ever told."

Full article:

Tom Homan says he worked under 6 Presidents and Joe Biden is the only one who took steps to unsecure the border. And the reason he did it is for power, like placing illegals into the census so democrats could have more seats. >

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Trailer to the Top:

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Here is Cavill and Adams' successors:

WILTON, Iowa (AP) — Every year the U.S. egg industry kills about 350 million male chicks because, while the fuzzy little animals are incredibly cute, they will never lay eggs, so have little monetary value.

That longtime practice is changing, thanks to new technology that enables hatcheries to quickly peer into millions of fertilized eggs and spot male embryos, then grind them up for other uses before they mature into chicks. The system began operating this month in Iowa at the nation’s largest chick hatchery, which handles about 387,000 eggs each day.

“We now have ethically produced eggs we can really feel good about,” said Jörg Hurlin, managing director of Agri Advanced Technologies, the German company that spent more than a decade developing the SUV-sized machine that can separate eggs by sex.

Even Americans who are careful to buy cage free or free range eggs typically aren’t aware that hundreds of millions of male chicks are killed each year, usually when they are only a day old. Most of the animals are culled through a process called maceration that uses whirling blades to nearly instantly kill the baby birds — something that seems horrifying but that the industry has long claimed is the most humane alternative.


“Does the animal suffer? No because it’s instantaneous death. But it’s not pretty because it’s a series of rotating blades,” said Suzanne Millman, a professor at Iowa State University who focuses on animal welfare.

Chick culling is an outgrowth of a poultry industry that for decades has raised one kind of chicken for eggs and another for meat. Egg-laying chickens are too scrawny to profitably be sold for meat, so the male chicks are ground up and used as additives for other products.

It wasn’t until European governments began passing laws that outlawed maceration that companies started puzzling out how to determine chicken sex before the chicks can hatch. Several companies can now do that, but unlike most competitors, AAT’s machine doesn’t need to pierce the shell and instead uses a bright light and sensitive cameras to detect an embryo’s sex by noting feather shading. Males are white, and females are dark.

The machine, called Cheggy, can process up to 25,000 eggs an hour, a pace that can accommodate the massive volume seen at hatcheries in the U.S. Besides the Cheggy machine in the small eastern Iowa city of Wilton, an identical system has been installed in Texas, both at hatcheries owned by Hy-Line North America.


The process has one key limitation: It works only on brown eggs because male and female chicks in white eggs have similar-colored feathers.

That’s not a huge hindrance in Europe, where most eggs sold at groceries are brown. But in the U.S., white shell eggs make up about 81% of sales, according to the American Egg Board. Brown shell eggs are especially sought by people who buy cage-free, free-range and organic varieties.

Hurlin said he thinks his company will develop a system to tell the sex of embryos in white eggs within five years, and other companies also are working to meet what’s expected to be a growing demand.

Eggs from hens that were screened through the new system will supply NestFresh Eggs, a Southern California-based business that distributes organic eggs produced by small operations across the country. The eggs will begin showing up on store shelves in mid-July and NestFresh executive vice president Jasen Urena said his company will begin touting the new chick-friendly process on cartons and with a larger marketing effort.


“It’s a huge jump in animal welfare,” Urena said. “We’ve done so much work over the years on the farms. How do we make the lives of these chickens better? Now we’re able to step back and go into the hatching phase.”

Urena said the new system was more expensive but any price increase on store shelves would be minimal.

The animal welfare group Mercy for Animals has tried to draw attention to chick culling for more than a decade in hopes of ending the practice.

Walter Sanchez-Suarez, the group’s animal behavior and welfare scientist, said laws in Europe outlawing chick culling and new efforts to change the practice in the U.S. are wonderful developments. However, Sanchez-Suarez sees them as a small step toward a larger goal of ending large-scale animal agriculture and offering alternatives to meat, eggs and dairy.

“Mercy for Animals thinks this is an important step, but poultry producers shouldn’t stop there and should try to see all the additional problems that are associated to this type of practice in egg production,” he said. “Look for alternatives that are better for animals themselves and human consumers.”

JUCO national title game.

Very impressive.

I hope he gets a shot at the next level.

The Des Moines Register ran another article on him earlier this week. It was paywall though.

Well, here’s to hoping materials used to build Summit Carbon Solutions’ carbon pipeline are much thicker than its executives’ skin.



Summit sent out at least eight letters in recent weeks warning critics of the pipeline project to retract statements it contends are false and damaging. Otherwise, they will face legal action for compensatory or punitive damages.


This is a very strange strategy, given the timing.




Iowa’s Utilities Commission has granted Summit a permit to build 700 miles of pipeline in Iowa, which would transport carbon from ethanol plants for storage underground in North Dakota. The commission also allowed Summit to use eminent domain authority to grab land for its right of way from reluctant landowners.


Summit is craving billions of dollars in tax credits for carbon sequestration. It hopes to prop up the ethanol industry by making corn gas a more marketable low-carbon fuel. Raising the corn needed to meet demand will continue fouling Iowa waterways.


North Dakota recently approved Summit’s permit and gave permission for carbon storage in the state. Minnesota gave its OK. Nebraska? No problem.


All that’s left is South Dakota, where to company is making a second try for a permit. Iowa’s permit is contingent on a South Dakota permit. All the marbles are at stake.





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And yet, Summit can’t resist smiting a handful critics.


One letter went to Sierra Club Iowa Chapter Conservation Program Associate Jessica Mazour. She was quoted in a news article arguing Summit is “in collusion” with the utilities commission to “take away democracy and people’s rights.”


Mazour has closely followed this saga since the beginning. Her perspective is informed and credible.


So they don’t like collusion? Let’s go with really cozy.


Among the leaders of Summit is General Counsel Jess Vilsack, son of the U.S. Sec. of Agriculture and former Iowa governor Tom Vilsack. Another former governor, Terry Branstad, is also on board. Summit’s VP of government affairs is Jake Ketzner, who was chief of staff for Gov. Kim Reynolds and as a longtime aide to Branstad.


The guy who spearheaded the whole deal is Bruce Rastetter, an agri-magnate who has given a pile of money to Republicans. Since 2015, Rastetter has donated more than $175,000 to Reynolds in direct and in-kind contributions.


All three Utilities Commission members were appointed by Reynolds.


Another letter, according to The Gazette’s Jared Strong, went to Robert Nazario of the Free Soil Foundation. He’s quoted about the possibility a plume of CO2 from a leak could kill people. But Summit contends no one has ever been killed.


That’s a relief. Here’s a report by NPR on a pipeline break in Satartia, Miss.


“As the carbon dioxide moved through the rural community, more than 200 people evacuated and at least 45 people were hospitalized. Cars stopped working, hobbling emergency response. People lay on the ground, shaking and unable to breathe. First responders didn't know what was going on.


“’It looked like you were going through the zombie apocalypse," says Jack Willingham, emergency director for Yazoo County.’”


But, hey, no one died.


Summit has even threatened to sue former U.S. Rep. Steve King.


"These are just simply threats that say, 'Shut up or we'll sue you because we don't like the truth and what it does to damage our business model,'" King said during a recent interview on Eastern Iowa KXEL radio.


King is right. This is using fear to demand silence. Don’t listen to them.


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

Opinion: Summit tries to intimidate its critics

Summit Carbon Solutions CEO Lee Blank, right, talks to reporters, Friday, Nov. 15, 2024, at the state Capitol in Bismarck, …

www.thegazette.com

I clipped my toenail and slightly cut my big toe 10 minutes before this post. It bled a little. Instead of putting a huge bandage on it, I'm going to sleep with my socks on so I don't bleed on my blanket during the night. My blanket is white.

I tried sleeping with my socks on when I was a kid and it felt weird. I always sleep with my socks off.

CSB.

How about you?

If you're in the final round of Wheel of Fortune and you get RSTLNE automatically, what 3 consonants and vowel are you selecting?

Me? H, P, G, and A

Music City Bowl vs. Missouri it is.

She seems legit.

NJCAA Division 1 Championship Game on Wednesday, December 18th at 7:30pm CST.

Wednesday also features two of the best coaches in the NJCAA with the Reivers' Scott Strohmeier and Hutchinson's Drew Dallas, currently in his fifth season. Dallas, the Salina, Kansas native has lost only five games in his overall tenure and has the Blue Dragons in the Playoffs for the third time since the format began following HCC's National Title march in the spring of 2021. For Strohmeier, he racked up his 150th win at Iowa Western during the season and in his 16th year has built a program that those around the country respect for its sustained success.

Both teams feature high powered offenses and staunch defense, with the Reivers' 'Darkside' defense finding their footing after an uncharacteristically slow start to the season.

BY THE NUMBERS / Per Game Averages




TELEVISION / RADIO COVERAGE

The game will be carried nationally on ESPNU and ESPN+. Iowa Western's flagship radio station, 89.7 The River, will also carry the game with a one-hour pregame show featuring exclusive interviews Reiver coaches and players. The 'Voice of the Reivers", Jake Ryan, will be joined by Russ Nelsen, Josh Odson and Tony Boone on the call. Those outside the Council Bluffs / Omaha Metro can stream the game on the station with the FREE, downloadable app or by clicking the Listen Live icon at the top of the station's webpage. Get into the broadcast booth with the guys during the game here.

https://www.goreivers.com/sports/fball/2024-25/releases/20241211py6s7h

Now squeezebox/fran steal this link and duplipost this.

Thanx.

Kash Patel, Donald Trump’s pick to lead the FBI, has suggested that multiple individuals previously critical of the president-elect should be criminally investigated, according to a review by The Washington Post of dozens of hours of appearances on conservative podcasts and TV interviews over the past two years. If Patel uses the perch of FBI director to pursue Trump’s enemies, it would be a significant shift in bureau policy.


Get the latest election news and results

In the remarks, made before his selection to be FBI director, Patel floated criminal probes of lawmakers and witnesses who gave evidence to the Jan. 6 select committee, accusing them of providing false testimony and of destroying evidence. Those include former Trump aide Cassidy Hutchinson and police officers who testified about defending the Capitol during the Jan. 6 attack. Patel himself testified to the committee in 2021 after being subpoenaed.
The Post has found no evidence of false testimony or evidence destruction, and the chairman of the committee, Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-Mississippi), has denied that the committee destroyed evidence. But Patel has continued to make accusations along those lines.


“Members of Congress can’t hide behind the speech and debate clause for committing felonies when it comes to destroying and suppressing evidence to law enforcement agencies,” Patel said in March on “The Joe Pags Show,” a conservative news radio show. “ … they said the Jan. 6 committee is legit. Okay. If you’re legit, then you’re subjected to the federal statutes. And let’s see who broke the law.”
In March, Trump suggested on social media that Hutchinson should be prosecuted for her testimony to the committee. In an interview with the Epoch Times four days later, Patel echoed that suggestion.
“I think there was other lies told by Cassidy Hutchinson under oath,” Patel said, referring to a recent lawsuit against Hutchinson and parts of her testimony that were later disputed. “She’s also subject to federal prosecution for lying under oath to federal officials. That’s a felony.”
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And in response to a question in May about Capitol Police officers allegedly testifying falsely to the Jan. 6 committee, Patel suggested that they should be investigated.
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“Not just them [members of the U.S. Capitol Police], many others,” Patel said on “The Joe Pags Show.” “Lying under oath is a federal offense and they should be investigated for it.”
In an interview with The Post on Monday, former Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn said he was not worried about additional investigations.
“If the investigations are transparent, then no, not at all. We agreed to testify before anybody who was on the committee,” Dunn said. “ … I’m all for continuing investigations and transparency because that will bring to light what really happened that day. And we were there, we weren’t watching it on TV.”

When asked about Patel’s comments on the podcasts and television interviews, Trump transition spokesperson Alex Pfeiffer said, “Kash Patel is going to end the weaponization of law enforcement. The FBI will target crime, not law-abiding individuals with Kash leading the bureau.”
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In an interview with NBC earlier this month, Trump said members of the Jan. 6 committee should be jailed, but said he would not direct the Justice Department in his administration to do so.
“[Liz] Cheney did something that’s inexcusable, along with Thompson and the people on the un-select committee of political thugs and, you know, creeps,” Trump said on “Meet the Press,” repeating his unsubstantiated claim that the committee has hidden its work. “… They deleted and destroyed a whole year and a half worth of testimony. Do you know that I can’t get — I think those people committed a major crime. … For what they did, honestly, they should go to jail.” The committee’s findings are publicly available on a government website.

If confirmed by the Senate, Patel would have the authority to launch FBI investigations, but decisions about whether to prosecute would fall to the Justice Department.

“The Clappers and the Brennans and the Comeys of the world will always lie, and when we’re back in power, we will prosecute them for lying to Congress, which is a felony,” Patel said in September 2023 on former Trump aide Sebastian Gorka’s podcast, referring to past DNI, CIA and FBI chiefs who clashed with Trump.
Patel also said he plans to target reporters. In June 2023, Patel told Donald Trump Jr. on his podcast that “the legacy media has been proven to be the criminal conspirators of the government gangsters,” referring to roughly five dozen members of the “deep state” listed in his 2023 book, “Government Gangsters.”

And in December 2023, Patel told former Trump aide Stephen K. Bannon on his podcast that journalists should be investigated, repeating false claims that Trump had won the 2020 election.
“We’re going to come after the people in the media who lied about American citizens, who helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections,” Patel said. “We’re going to come after you. Whether it’s criminally or civilly, we’ll figure that out.”

Sounds like he's arguing with some HROTers.

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The NFL is adding a game show and a punting contest to its Pro Bowl skills competitions in February.

The league on Thursday announced the full list of challenges, including tug-of-war and dodgeball.

The games will take place at Central Florida and finish with a seven-on-seven flag football game between the AFC and NFC on Feb. 2.

New this year are Helmet Harmony, a game show that will test players’ knowledge of their teammates, and Punt Perfect that features one punter and one non-punter. The two players from each conference will punt from the 35-yard line, attempting to place as many balls as possible into a set of six buckets in the end zone.

The passing and receiving competitions have a new twist this year. Quarterbacks will try to hit targets at various distances around the field worth different point values in 40 seconds. Before the challenge, each quarterback will select a Pro Bowl Games teammate to answer five trivia questions about current Pro Bowl players. For every correct answer, the quarterback gets an additional 10 seconds.

In the catching challenge, one wide receiver, tight end and defensive back from each conference will compete in an obstacle course, including catches from a JUGS machine at three different distances, to test every aspect of catching a football.

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The rest of the competitions are a relay race and a great football race where six players from each conference will face off in a relay consisting of five different challenges, culminating with a sled push.

This is the third year of the Pro Bowl Games after the NFL eliminated its full-contact all-star game and replaced it with weeklong skills competitions and a flag football game.

Peyton and Eli Manning are back as head coaches for the two conferences.

The skills challenges will be broadcast live on Thursday, Jan. 30, on ESPN from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. The flag football game will be played at Camping World Stadium and will be broadcast at 2 p.m. on ESPN and ABC.

Here’s a Good Place for Elon Musk’s DOGE Dept. to Start Downsizing Government: More than 14,000 Federal Employees Accessed Americans’ Private Financial Data Over 3 Million Times to Target Conservatives and Trump Supporters​

It is great to be an Iowa Wrestling fan.

Go Hawks!

Two geniuses but also more than a little sociopathic, Norm and Uke.

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What is his current excuse for the way its acted since he was elected again?

Biden's Dow has been down 10 days in a row.

It is great to be an Iowa Wrestling fan.

Go Hawks!

ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscast coverage of Trump’s Cabinet picks ‘almost uniformly negative,’ study finds​

FIRST ON FOX – Flagship evening newscasts on ABC, CBS and NBC have been "almost uniformly negative" when covering some of President-elect Donald Trump’s most significant Cabinet appointees, according to a new study from the Media Research Center.

The MRC examined all coverage of Trump’s Cabinet appointees on ABC’s "World News Tonight," "CBS Evening News" and NBC’s "Nightly News" from December 1-14. The study primarily focused on Trump’s Defense Secretary pick Pete Hegseth, FBI Director selection Kash Patel and Director of National Intelligence nominee Tulsi Gabbard, though it also included the other appointments.

Trump’s nominees earned a combined total of 60 minutes and 47 seconds of coverage during the 2-week period. The conservative media watchdog group found that 96% of the coverage was negative.

"Across all three networks, the coverage of Gabbard, Patel, and the handful of other nominees mentioned was entirely negative. Only Pete Hegseth, who received the lion’s share of the airtime, enjoyed a scant four positive evaluative statements, all of which cited his mother describing him as ‘redeemed’ and ‘a changed man,’" MRC senior research analyst Bill D’Agostino wrote.

"To reiterate: the only positive commentary any Trump nominee received on the broadcast networks was from his own mother," D’Agostino added. "In addition to a whopping 96 percent negative tilt across their flagship evening newscasts, these networks also appear to have paid the most attention to Cabinet nominees who appeared to have the highest chances of sinking."

CBS spent the most time on Trump’s nominees overall, spending nearly 25 minutes on them with over 14 minutes focusing on Hegseth.

"While CBS had the most negative overall coverage of the Trump transition (96.7%), they actually were softer on Hegseth than their counterparts: 88 percent negative, making them the only network of the three not to cross the 90 percent negative barrier," D’Agostino wrote.

The second-most transition coverage came from NBC, which was negative 94.7% of the 21 minutes and three seconds spent on Trump’s selections. NBC spent over 11 minutes on Hegseth alone and was the only network to have 100% negative coverage of him, according to the MRC.

ABC spent 19 minutes and 25 seconds on Trump’s nominees, 90% of which was negative, the study found.

"The network devoted 13 minutes and 33 seconds of that time to Hegseth, with a 91% negative slant," D’Agostino wrote.

Patel was the only other nominee besides Hegseth to receive more than a full minute of coverage from the trio of networks.

"Evaluative statements about Patel across all three networks were uniformly negative," D’Agostino wrote.

The MRC also found that "the majority of the reports about Hegseth centered around the handful of salacious allegations against him," but the networks "abruptly lost interest once his chances of being confirmed started to look more promising."

Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa, considered a pivotal vote in the confirmation battle over Hegseth, initially appeared skeptical but expressed willingness to give him a fair shake on Dec. 9.

"Incidentally Hegseth received 37 of his total 39 minutes of coverage from the three broadcast networks on or before December 10. In other words, once his confirmation appeared probable, the broadcast networks abruptly lost interest in the scandals with which they had inundated their airwaves for the previous week and a half," D’Agostino wrote.

Patel was elected on November 30 and "dominated the evening newscasts with a combined 18 minutes of immensely negative coverage" the following evening, according to the MRC.

"But when key Republican Senators who had expressed uncertainty about other nominees publicly indicated that they would support Patel’s confirmation, he quickly became an afterthought," D’Agostino wrote.

"Then like clockwork, on December 11 — the day after Hegseth received that much-needed public support — Patel was back to being the most interesting Cabinet appointee, earning 193 seconds of airtime that evening, compared to just 21 seconds for Hegseth," D’Agostino added. "This pattern of focus suggests that the broadcast networks were budgeting their coverage of Cabinet appointees based on whose nomination they felt they had the best chance of sinking."

MRC founder and president Brent Bozell blasted the coverage as "appalling."

"This is as predictable as it is appalling. It is simply indefensible. But America is seeing through this agenda. And then the media wonder why their numbers are tanking," Bozell told Fox News Digital.

"These radicals' agenda to undermine and damage - no, destroy - a president-elect, verges on the anti-American," Bozell added. "It's 2016 all over again. Donald Trump won the presidency and immediately the radical media are out to sabotage him."