Source: Reuters
“The U.S. and Iran were back on a war footing on Wednesday after the most significant exchange of fire in weeks, with Washington threatening more devastating strikes, while Iran condemned an attack that it said killed five and wounded dozens of civilians at a wedding. The U.S. military’s Central Command said it struck Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps air defenses, radar systems, maritime assets, mine-laying capabilities and communications sites on Tuesday, with Iranian media reporting hits on multiple targets near the Strait of Hormuz — the narrow waterway where Tehran has threatened tankers attempting to pass without authorization. Iran said it struck U.S. assets in Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait and Iraq, according to official statements. The IRGC said it killed a large number of U.S. forces in Jordan, but two U.S. officials told Reuters there had not been any casualties, according to initial assessments.” (09/02/26)
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/us-iran-exchange-attacks-lull-war-appears-over-2026-09-02/
Source: Bluegrass Institute
by Abigail R Hall & Patrik S Ward
“When Shively Police Officer Asad Zahir was arrested for improperly using Flock Safety’s Automated License Plate Reader, it added yet another data point to the growing list of state and local police abusing surveillance technologies. … Zahir is accused of carrying out more than 2,000 unauthorized searches to monitor and target his ex-girlfriend. More than 240 of these searches occurred while Zahir had an active order of protection against him. … The response of the Shively Police Department and other local officials is even more troubling. While discussing the arrest, officials were quick to frame Zahir’s arrest as a triumph of internal oversight and as the direct result of individual malfeasance. … Without a doubt, the individuals who abuse these technologies deserve blame and should be prosecuted. But the ‘few bad apples’ defense conveniently shifts public attention away from much deeper problems.” (09/01/26)
https://www.bluegrassinstitute.org/flock-cameras-arent-compromise-theyre-gross-overreach/
Source: Hoover Institution
“The Process Is The Punishment: ABC v. FCC With Stuart Benjamin.” (09/01/26)
https://free-speech-unmuted.podbean.com/e/the-process-is-the-punishment-abc-v-fcc-with-stuart-benjamin-hoover-institution/
Source: The Hill
“The House on Tuesday voted to send a short-term extension of government funding to President Trump’s desk, avoiding a politically risky shutdown before the midterm elections. The continuing resolution (CR), which funds the government through Dec. 11, passed the House on a 370-48 vote, with 19 Republicans and 29 Democrats voting in opposition. The Senate advanced the measure by a landslide last month. The CR now pushes the spending battle to before the holidays, when the outcome of the midterms will help determine how much leverage each party holds to set the spending agenda.” (09/01/26)
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/6063667-house-government-funding-cr-shutdown-midterms
Source: Garrison Center
by Thomas L Knapp
“In 2024, Floridians voted, by a margin of 55.9% to 44.1%, to legalize recreational marijuana. Unfortunately, the threshold for passage of ‘Amendment 3’ was 60% and the measure failed. So far so bad … but it gets worse. Nearly two years later we’ve learned that state government officials misappropriated millions of dollars in taxpayer money; funneled it through a charity founded by governor Ron DeSantis’s wife and into Republican PACs operated by the man who later became the state’s attorney general, with the approval of the then sitting attorney general, now a US Senator; and poured it into a campaign to defeat the measure. We know this because someone leaked a grand jury report on the matter to CBS News Miami.” (09/01/26)
https://thegarrisoncenter.org/archives/20854
Source: New York Times
“A Utah judge found on Tuesday that prosecutors had enough evidence to try the man accused of killing the conservative activist Charlie Kirk last year and said they could seek the death penalty. The highly anticipated ruling by Judge Tony Graf was a major step in one of the country’s most scrutinized murder cases. It came nearly a year after Mr. Kirk was assassinated during an open-air speaking event attended by thousands at Utah Valley University in Orem. … [Tyler] Robinson’s lawyers have tried to delay the case with procedural fights and have questioned DNA and ballistic evidence tying Mr. Robinson to the killing on Sept. 10. But they have not offered a concrete defense, apart from arguing that Mr. Robinson should not face the death penalty.” (09/01/26)
https://archive.is/1jzC4
Source: Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression
by Sarah McLaughlin
“In the United States, campus speakers, online expression, blockbuster movies, and printed books are all, of course, protected by the First Amendment. But that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re protected against influence and censorship by foreign powers, particularly the Chinese government. This censorship may go under the radar for many Americans, but make no mistake: It can influence not just what you encounter in the secular world, but maybe the spiritual one, too. A report this week from the National Catholic Register paints a disturbing picture: A U.S.-based Catholic organization chose to disinvite a speaker from its conference at the University of St. Thomas in Houston after facing direct pressure from Chinese officials. Apparently even the speaker lists at religious events in the U.S. cannot escape pressure from foreign officials who vest in themselves the authority to censor the world.” (09/01/26)
https://www.fire.org/news/blogs/free-speech-dispatch/why-chinese-government-dictating-who-speaks-religious-event-texas
Source: Politico
“The EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, said Wednesday that the thwarted drone attack at Leipzig-Halle Airport bore ‘all the hallmarks of state-sponsored terrorism,’ after Germany blamed Russia for the incident. Speaking as the bloc’s foreign ministers gather in Wicklow, Ireland, Kallas said Germany’s attribution sent a ‘very strong signal’ and praised EU governments for closing ranks behind Berlin. … Berlin formally blamed Moscow on Tuesday for the Aug. 4 incident, in which three explosive-laden drones were detected around Leipzig-Halle Airport. Germany announced retaliatory diplomatic measures and plans to seek fresh EU sanctions. Russia denies any involvement.” (09/02/26)
https://www.politico.eu/article/kaja-kallas-labels-leipzig-drone-attack-state-sponsored-terrorism/
Source: The Watch
by Radley Balko
“In April 2025, Louisiana District Court Judge Alvin Sharp declared Duncan innocent of the crime for which he’d been convicted and sentenced to death nearly 30 years earlier. It would take another seven months before he was finally released from the Louisiana State Penitentiary, better known as Angola. … Duncan was arrested in 1993 for raping and murdering Haley Oliveaux, the 23-month-old daughter of his girlfriend. … Duncan had no history of sex offenses or abusing children. He was convicted primarily because of testimony from Steven Hayne — a now-disgraced medical examiner who performed the vast majority of autopsies in Mississippi for two decades — and his sidekick Michael West, a notorious forensics fraud best known for finding ‘bite marks’ and matching them to alleged perpetrators. Duncan is the ninth person to be exonerated after being convicted with testimony from Hayne, West, or both.” (09/01/26)
https://radleybalko.substack.com/p/the-framing-of-chris-duncan
Source: KMBC 9 News
“Voters in Independence have successfully recalled a councilman after his vote to approve a multibillion-dollar data center. District 1 Councilman John Perkins was recalled during a special election on Tuesday, with unofficial final results showing over 68 percent of voters in the district supported the recall. … Perkins, in March, voted to approve a proposed data center on 400 acres near Missouri 78 and Little Blue Parkway. He was one of five who voted to support the data center. … McKenna Cobb, who filed the recall petition, criticized the council’s decision to approve significant tax incentives for the project. ‘There’s hours of public testimony and they still vote in favor of billions of dollars in tax incentives,’ Cobb said.” [editor’s note: They left the corporate welfare part for the end of the story; it wasn’t just an “anti-data-center” thing – TLK] (09/01/26)
https://www.kmbc.com/article/independence-john-perkins-recall-data-center-election/73586616
