The Christian Post reports: Twelve Republican senators, most of whom are on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, led by ranking member Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, wrote a letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray asking them to justify the show of force that accompanied the arrest of Mark Houck. Houck is the president of The …

Reuters reports: A Florida doctor known for spreading false claims about vaccines has sued Google LLC and its parent company Alphabet Inc for removing all of his content from their YouTube video-sharing platform with no advance notice, saying the move breached its terms of service. In the lawsuit, filed Thursday in federal court in San Francisco, Joseph Mercola asked the …

The Deseret News reports: As the Senate considers legislation to protect same-sex marriage, a new poll shows nearly three-fourths of Utahns support legal same-sex marriage. The new Deseret News/Hinckley Institute of Politics survey found 72% of residents agree that marriages between same-sex couples should be recognized by the law as valid, with the same rights as traditional marriages. The poll …

The Associated Press reports: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s staff this month quietly dropped a series of human trafficking and child sexual assault cases after losing track of one of the victims, a stumble in open court emblematic of broader dysfunction inside one of America’s most prominent law offices. The Republican has elevated his national profile in recent years, energizing …

From the Justice Department: Chance Seneca, 21, of Lafayette, Louisiana, pleaded guilty today before U.S. District Judge Robert Summerhays to one count of kidnapping. According to his plea agreement, Seneca admitted that on June 20, 2020, he used Grindr, a dating application for gay and bisexual men, to kidnap and attempt to murder H.W., a gay man. Specifically, Seneca acknowledged …

Posted today to Trump’s Truth Social account: Here we go again! Another Fake book is out, this one, supposedly very boring and stale, by self appointed head case, Failing (unfunded liability!) New York Times writer, Maggie Hagerman. it she tells many made up stories, with zero fact checking or confirmation by anyone who would know, like me. In one case …

The Hill reports: The nonpartisan election handicapper Cook Political Report announced on Friday that it is shifting its rating of a competitive Ohio House district in Democrats’ favor following reporting on the Republican candidate’s military credentials. Cook Political Report House editor Dave Wasserman wrote that the election watcher is changing its rating of Ohio’s 9th Congressional District, which features a …

TYT reports: A former Commerce Department official in the Trump administration was sentenced to a five-and-a-half year prison term after pleading guilty to possession of child pornography, federal prosecutors announced last week in a court filing. Under the terms of his plea deal, Adam Hageman was also sentenced to five years of parole after release and a mandatory requirement to …

The Freedom From Religion Foundation reports: Jenny Savoy, a reading enrichment teacher at Richards Middle School in Gwinnett County, Ga., has been openly bragging on Facebook about using her position to convert students to Christianity. She runs a religious club at her middle school and regularly preaches to students. Disturbingly, Savoy described in detail in a Facebook post on Sept. …

The Daily Beast reports: Arizona Republican governor candidate Kari Lake has made her support for law enforcement a centerpiece of her campaign—but her campaign also employs an interesting character: a convicted criminal who pleaded guilty to battery against a peace officer and who once plotted to kill an FBI informant. The staffer, Kenneth Ulibarri, previously campaigned with Lake, Salon reported …

The New York Times reports: As a freshman congressman in 2013, Ron DeSantis was unambiguous: A federal bailout for the New York region after Hurricane Sandy was an irresponsible boondoggle, a symbol of the “put it on the credit card mentality” he had come to Washington to oppose. “I sympathize with the victims,” he said. But his answer was no. …

ESPN reports: Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa was taken to a local hospital with head and neck injuries suffered on a second-quarter sack in Thursday night’s game against the Cincinnati Bengals. Tagovailoa hit the back of his head on the ground when he was sacked by Bengals nose tackle Josh Tupou, and his arms appeared to seize up almost immediately. …

The Associated Press reports: Russian President Vladimir Putin has opened a Kremlin ceremony to start the process of absorbing parts of Ukraine into Russia, defying international law. The annexation ceremony in the Kremlin’s opulent white-and-gold St. George’s Hall will feature Putin and the heads of the four regions of Ukraine signing treaties for them to join Russia, in a sharp …

The Associated Press reports: More than 2 million Floridians remained without power Friday morning as they emerged from the flooding and wreckage left by Hurricane Ian and began to plot a recovery from the storm’s devastation. In Lee County, where Fort Myers and Cape Coral took direct hits from the storm, more than 80% of customers were without power Friday …

USA Today reports: Ian strengthened back into a Category 1 hurricane late Thursday and was set to make landfall Friday afternoon on the coast of South Carolina before moving inland across the state and into North Carolina by Saturday. Heavy rains and tropical storm conditions had already reached the coasts of Georgia and the Carolinas by Friday morning, where life-threatening …

Axios reports: New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman reports in her book — “Confidence Man,” out Tuesday — that former President Trump had threatened internally to go after her phone records to expose leakers. “Trump, angry about my published stories, would bellow that he wanted administration officials to obtain my phone records and identify my sources,” Haberman writes. “It did …

Religion News Service reports: An interfaith group of activists and religious advocates voiced concerns about the rise of Christian nationalism on Wednesday (Sept. 28), arguing the ideology is a threat to democracy during a briefing on Capitol Hill. “We are convening this Christian nationalism briefing because we feel it represents a clear and present danger to our democracy and to …

Mediaite reports: Michael Flynn gave a speech in Arizona where he essentially claimed states are likely go rogue from the federal government as governors exert their own authority and “declare war.” Flynn was speaking at a campaign event for Mark Finchem, a Republican candidate for Arizona’s Secretary of State who has been cozying up with other election deniers, conspiracy theorists …

Law & Crime reports: Kim Davis, the former county clerk from Kentucky who refused to grant marriage licenses to same-sex couples after marriage equality was the law of the land, does not have qualified immunity, a federal court of appeals ruled on Thursday. Davis violated the “clearly established” rights of two couples – David Ermold and David Moore; and James …

“The one thing you don’t do is immediately jump forward to score some sort of cheap and sleazy political point from it. That used to be obvious. But for the past several years, it’s been clear it’s no longer obvious — at least to one political party. “You saw this happen after the forest fires in California two years ago. …