These Are The States With The Highest Freeway Fatalities
A recent study by Ladah Injury & Car Accident Lawyers, a Las Vegas-based personal injury firm, sheds light on which U.S. states have the highest rates of fatal crashes on interstates and freeways. Drawing on crash statistics from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s CDAN portal, the study reviewed data from 2019 to 2023 and ranked states based on the number of fatal freeway crashes per 100,000 residents.
Wyoming emerged as the state with the highest rate. With 5.4 fatal freeway crashes per 100,000 people, the state’s rate is nearly three times the national average of 1.9. Between 2019 and 2023, Wyoming averaged 31.6 fatal incidents annually. The worst year was 2023, which saw 42 fatalities, while the lowest number was 21 in 2021.
Coming in second was New Mexico, which recorded 4.3 fatal crashes per 100,000 residents—more than double the national average. The state averaged 91 fatal freeway crashes each year over the five-year period, peaking at 103 in 2023.
Missouri ranked third with a rate of 3.2 fatal crashes per 100,000 people. The state saw nearly 199 such incidents annually during the study period, with the highest number recorded in 2022 at 227 and the lowest in 2023 with 187.
Arkansas followed in fourth place, reporting 3.1 fatal freeway crashes per 100,000 people. It averaged just over 95 deadly incidents each year. The highest total came in 2023 with 107 crashes, and the lowest was in 2019 with 69.
Montana rounded out the top five. The state saw 2.92 fatal crashes per 100,000 residents, well above the national average. Over five years, Montana averaged 32 fatal incidents annually, with 2021 marking its highest year at 47 crashes.
Other states in the top ten included Mississippi, Alaska, Louisiana, Tennessee, and Texas—all with crash rates significantly above the national norm. Mississippi, for example, logged 2.89 fatal crashes per 100,000 people, while Texas, despite its much larger population, still had a high rate at 2.6.
A spokesperson for Ladah Law Firm pointed to several likely causes behind the high fatality rates: long stretches of rural highway, higher speed limits, and reduced visibility in remote areas.
“States like Wyoming, New Mexico, and Missouri consistently see alarmingly high rates of interstate freeway crashes,” the spokesperson said. “Factors such as long rural stretches, high-speed travel, and limited visibility often create dangerous driving conditions that put lives at risk every day.”
They also emphasized the human cost behind the numbers.
“Behind each of these incidents is a family changed forever — victims facing life-altering injuries or grieving unimaginable loss.”
The law firm called on policymakers to take concrete steps, recommending a stronger highway patrol presence, improved road lighting and signage, and the use of technology to monitor high-risk zones. Public education on speed control and defensive driving was also highlighted as a critical need.
“It’s time for decisive, proactive measures that prioritize lives over speed,” the spokesperson added.
America isn’t a democracy but a constitutional republic designed to limit majority rule and protect individual rights. This distortion enables narratives that label dissent as dangerous, especially in portraying Trump as a “threat to democracy” — a claim pushed by institutions caught spreading falsehoods about him. What appears as consensus is actually assigned opinion enforced by media and political power, as “conspiracy theories” used to silence dissent are proving to be true.
What follows is not just a list of lies — it’s a pattern of systemic deception that reveals where the real threat lies.
The Concealment of President Biden’s Cognitive Decline: A Betrayal of Voters
For years, concerns about Joe Biden’s mental acuity were dismissed as partisan attacks or “conspiracy theories.” The White House physician declared him fit for office. Staffers claimed he “ran circles around them.” Meanwhile, public appearances were tightly controlled, questions were pre-approved, and scripted answers were passed off as spontaneous.
But in 2024, the dam broke. Biden’s debate performance made his decline undeniable. Millions had already cast primary ballots for a man clearly unfit to serve — yet instead of outrage over the scale of the deception, voters watched passively as Kamala Harris stepped in as the de facto candidate.
It was an unconstitutional transfer of candidacy that the media refused to acknowledge. This wasn’t spin — it was a deliberate, coordinated effort to deceive the American public about who was actually running the country.
All while, the same media complex screamed that Trump was the dictator.
If truth and transparency are foundational to democracy, then this widespread concealment — and the resulting erosion of informed consent — should outrage every American who values honest governance.
COVID-19: From “Conspiracy” to Consensus
When Trump suggested the virus originated in a lab, the idea was branded “xenophobic” and “debunked.” Today, both the CIA and FBI assess a lab leak as probable. This pattern repeated across masks, school closures, natural immunity, and vaccine efficacy.
The CDC quietly redefined “vaccine” to accommodate products that didn’t stop transmission, contradicting officials’ earlier claims. Education leaders denied coordinating with teachers unions on prolonged school closures despite evidence proving otherwise, devastating children’s mental health and education.
Throughout, Trump was vilified as “anti-science” for questioning narratives that later collapsed — demonstrating how the “threat to democracy” label silences legitimate dissent.
Border Security: Denial Amid Crisis
While Trump was called xenophobic for demanding border security, his policies effectively curbed illegal crossings without new legislation. In contrast, Biden officials dismantled these effective policies while insisting only Congress could solve the problem.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told Congress the administration had “operational control” of the border — while record-breaking illegal entries, overwhelmed facilities, and surging cartel activity told a very different story.
They claimed to be addressing the “root causes” of migration, yet crossings exploded to historic levels. They blamed Trump’s policies as inhumane while ignoring the actual consequences of their own: trafficking increased, fentanyl poured into American communities, and untold lives were lost in the chaos.
Common sense was discarded. Hatred for Trump outweighed concern for national security and human suffering. While illegal immigrants were given free housing, food, and healthcare, American veterans went neglected, seniors faced rising medical costs, and cities buckled under homelessness and resource strain.
These are not partisan talking points — they are 90/10 issues that should unify Americans regardless of party. But the public was instead gaslit into believing that caring about your own country’s sovereignty is xenophobic or cruel.
The Russia Investigation and Intelligence Abuses
The Trump-Russia narrative — foundation for claims that Trump threatened democracy — collapsed when Mueller found no evidence of conspiracy. Later revelations proved more damning: FBI lawyer Clinesmith falsified evidence for a FISA warrant; the Steele dossier contained deliberately false information paid for by Trump’s opponents; exculpatory evidence in the Michael Flynn case was concealed.
The great irony here is staggering: while Trump was accused of being a threat to democratic institutions, those very institutions were being weaponized against him in unprecedented ways. The real undermining of democratic norms came not from Trump, but from those who claimed to be defending democracy against him.
Media Collusion and Information Control
Today’s media no longer informs — it enforces. The New York Post was banned for reporting verified facts about Hunter Biden. Trump’s “very fine people” comment was maliciously edited to hide his explicit condemnation of neo-Nazis. His reference to a new technique for sterilizing blood was twisted into a narrative that he told people to “inject bleach.”
These aren’t mistakes but engineered falsehoods meant to dehumanize political opponents. In a genuine democracy, media checks power; instead, American media has become a propaganda arm defending institutional power while demonizing challengers.
Government Institutions as Political Weapons
Government institutions have been weaponized for political ends while accusing Trump of authoritarianism. Under Obama, the IRS targeted conservative groups. The DoJ labeled concerned parents at school board meetings as potential terrorists. Security clearances and FISA warrants were politically manipulated.
Classified document cases reveal a two-tiered justice system: aggressive prosecution for Trump versus leniency for Biden and Clinton. January 6th defendants faced harsh treatment compared to 2020 rioters who caused far more destruction.
Federal agencies have colluded with social media to suppress dissent — raising serious First Amendment concerns. The January 6th Committee’s selective editing of evidence and exclusion of exculpatory information about Trump exemplifies how “defending democracy” shields undemocratic behavior.
The Inversion of Reality: Who Truly Threatens Democracy?
Logic dictates a simple conclusion: if nearly every major anti-Trump narrative — from Russian collusion to COVID origins to Biden’s cognitive health — has collapsed under scrutiny, what basis remains for believing Trump threatens democracy?
The aftermath is equally clear: if the institutions aligned against him — intelligence agencies, media conglomerates, and political operatives — have repeatedly misled the public, their credibility to define “danger” is null. The louder they sound the alarm, the more they reveal about themselves: suppressing information, weaponizing government agencies, manipulating elections, and discarding due process when politically convenient.
And yet, instead of acknowledging the obvious, many Americans now defend manufactured narratives that make intelligent people sound irrational. Reasonable citizens abandon common sense — not because the facts changed, but because the media relentlessly promulgates assigned opinions that demand emotional loyalty over objective thought. Issues that should unite 90% of the public — like stopping child trafficking, securing borders, or caring for veterans — become polarizing, not on principle, but because they’re associated with the “wrong” political figure.
Restoring Sanity, Reclaiming Sovereignty
Democracy cannot function without informed citizens. And citizens cannot be informed when they are being systematically lied to — by government agencies, media platforms, and political leaders who view the truth as a threat to power.
The real crisis in America isn’t Donald Trump. It’s the normalization of institutional lying, the abandonment of due process, and the transformation of journalism into narrative enforcement.
Until we reject assigned opinions and return to objective truth and transparency, we will remain ruled not by reason, but by illusion. Meanwhile, those who shout loudest about “threats to democracy” conceal their actions in shadows — while figures like Trump operate in full view. If this inversion continues, “government by the people” will be reduced to a hollow phrase — masking a system of manipulation, not representation.
The time has come for Americans across the political spectrum to acknowledge the pattern of deception and demand better. Our constitutional republic depends on it.
Nuclear Stocks Soar After Report Trump To Sign Order Streamlining Reactor Approvals
President Donald Trump is expected to sign executive orders as early as Friday to boost the nuclear energy industryby streamlining reactor approvals and reinforcing fuel supply chains, Reuters reported on Thursday afternoon.
Four sources familiar with the matter told Reuters that the forthcoming orders aim to simplify the regulatory process for approving new nuclear reactors and to strengthen nuclear fuel supply chains amid mounting concerns over U.S. dependence on foreign suppliers.
The news sent nuclear stocks soaring in the after hours session, with names like NuScale and Oklo up 13% and 17%, respectively.
As we noted less than a week ago, both names are moving forward with SMR permitting and plans. Sam Altman-backed Oklo says it is navigating what CEO Jacob DeWitte calls “good uncertainty” as potential Trump administration executive orders could accelerate Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) licensing, expand military and Department of Energy (DOE) nuclear roles, and boost U.S. nuclear fuel supply chains, according to UtilityDive.
On Oklo’s Q1 2025 earnings call, DeWitte confirmed the company is engaged in a “pre-application readiness assessment” with the NRC, aiming to smooth its formal license submission for a newly upsized 75-MW reactor design in Q4 2025. The company still targets late 2027 or early 2028 for first power production at its Idaho National Laboratory (INL) site.
DeWitte noted the recent departure of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman as Oklo board chair removes a potential conflict of interest should OpenAI become a future power customer. Oklo already holds about 14 GW in nonbinding agreements with data centers and industrial operators.
The White House is weighing four nuclear-related executive orders, including directives to overhaul NRC licensing with an 18-month deadline for new applications, reconsider radiation exposure limits, and authorize military and DOE property for reactor deployments—potentially bypassing standard NRC approvals.
These efforts aim to boost U.S. nuclear capacity to 400 GW by 2050, up from about 100 GW today. While the NRC is already implementing changes from last year’s ADVANCE Act, further reforms could shorten Oklo’s expected 24- to 30-month licensing timeline.
The UtilityDive report says that Zero Hedge favorite Oklo is also among eight companies eligible for the military’s Advanced Nuclear Power for Installations program, enabling on-base reactor deployments. It’s developing nuclear fuel fabrication facilities capable of reusing spent fuel that would otherwise sit in long-term storage.
Meanwhile, as we noted on X this evening, OKLO is now up 9x since Jim Cramer said “I can’t even look at it” back in October 2024.
The U.S. Supreme Court on May 20 reinstated a Maine state lawmaker’s speaking and voting privileges that had been suspended over her criticism of males participating in girls’ high school sports.
In March, the speaker of the Maine House of Representatives barred Maine Rep. Laurel Libby, a Republican, from speaking or voting on the House floor until she recanted her views on Maine’s policy allowing transgender participation in school sports, according to the lawmaker’s application filed with the court.
On May 20, the Supreme Court granted Libby’s request for an injunction blocking the House policy as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit considers the case. The unsigned order did not provide reasons for the decision.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor indicated she would deny the application. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson filed a dissent from the granting of the application.
A federal district court previously denied Libby’s application for a preliminary injunction, finding legislative immunity prevented the court from acting because the speaker’s “sanction” was a “legislative act” and the disenfranchisement of the voters in Libby’s legislative district was not so “extraordinary” as to override immunity.
Libby appealed to the First Circuit, which also declined to block the House policy.
In her April 28 application to the Supreme Court, Libby challenged the speaker’s decision to suspend her privileges as a lawmaker.
“The verbal censure (unwise as it may be) is not what Applicants challenge here. It’s what happened next.
“The Speaker declared Libby was barred from speaking or voting until she recants her view. This means her thousands of constituents in Maine House District 90 are now without a voice or vote for every bill coming to the House floor for the rest of her elected term, which runs through 2026.
“The ongoing and indefinite denial of Libby’s voting rights is unprecedented,” the application said, adding that the U.S. House of Representatives found long ago that the Constitution forbids that chamber from preventing one of its members from voting.
“The member’s vote is not her own; it belongs to her district. And depriving an entire district of representation is no more constitutional than excluding that district from a redistricting plan in the first place. … The same rules apply in Maine.”
On May 8, Maine’s House Speaker Ryan Fecteau, a Democrat, filed a brief urging the Supreme Court not to take up the case.
The brief said that on Feb. 17, Libby “targeted” a high school student who had competed in an event “because that student is transgender,” and identified that student by name. The post, written on her official Facebook account, “quickly went viral,” according to the brief.
Fecteau said he saw the post and “was immediately concerned about the student’s safety and welfare” and sent a letter to Libby, urging her to delete the post. Libby declined.
The Maine House passed a resolution with a vote of 75 to 70, requiring Libby to “accept full responsibility for the incident and publicly apologize to the House and to the people and the State of Maine,” the brief said.
“Like other censures of Maine House members, the censure resolution required Rep. Libby to apologize for her conduct—not recant her views.”
Libby declined to apologize, the brief noted. Fecteau determined that Libby had violated House rules and ruled she could not participate in floor debates and floor votes until she apologized.
The speaker said that Libby “retains all other legislative privileges and continues to enjoy considerable means to advance and oppose legislation and otherwise represent her constituents,” despite those restrictions.
In her dissent, Justice Jackson wrote that Libby’s application isn’t an emergency and fails to meet the “high bar” imposed by the federal All Writs Act, which gives the Supreme Court authority to issue injunctions. She said that the First Circuit is “moving quickly to evaluate the legal issues this case presents,” and oral argument is scheduled for the coming weeks.
Libby has failed to show that her right to the relief she requested is “indisputably clear,” Jackson wrote, citing a legal precedent.
This leaves “many difficult questions,” such as whether there are limits to state legislatures’ power to bind lawmakers to ethics rules, and whether federal courts may determine if those rules are improper, Jackson wrote.
For example, “Does it violate a representative’s First Amendment rights to be subject to sanction under such rules, and does it make a difference what the sanction is?”
“This Court has neither addressed nor answered most of these questions,” Jackson wrote.
Not long ago, U.S. health secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. defended Trump’s nomination of Casey Means as surgeon general. In his nomination remarks, Trump wrote that Means would “work closely” with Kennedy “to ensure a successful implementation of our Agenda in order to reverse the Chronic Disease Epidemic, and ensure Great Health, in the future, for ALL Americans.”
Trained as a head and neck surgeon, Casey Means abandoned her career in surgery to become a prominent “wellness” influencer. Like RFK Jr., Means promotes preventive and alternative medicine that might result in fewer surgeries and other invasive treatments. She practices “functional medicine” and is not board certified in a medical specialty. No wonder her nomination has been attacked by professional groups associated with surgeons and other members of the medical establishment.
Means has promoted what some see as “controversial” ideas, such as removing ultra-processed foods in school lunches and replacing them with unprocessed foods, especially fresh fruits and vegetables. This might seem like common sense, but it threatens a food industry that is focused on processed meat, dairy, and other foods and that employs powerful lobbies to maintain sales.
There is also her view that glucose “as a molecule has caused more destruction of the human mind and body than any other substance in human history.” Like RFK Jr., Means supports food warnings and possibly outright bans on high-sugar foods.
During the Sep. 27, 2024, Roundtable Discussion of Children’s Health: A Second Opinion, Means joined Sen. Ron Johnson, RFK Jr., and a dozen experts in a discussion of preventive options for children’s health. At the roundtable, Dr. Means stated that “if the current trends continue … at best, we’re going to face profound societal instability and decreased American competitiveness, and at worst, we’re going to be looking at a genocidal level health collapse.”
A full four-hour video of the roundtable is available online and is well worth watching for what it says about America’s health care crisis and about the views of RFK Jr. and Casey Means. Several panelists referred to the “corruption” and economic self-interest of food and health care systems that, in their opinion, are making Americans chronically ill. As Means stated, every segment of the current “health care” system “makes more money when we are sick.” It is not a matter of degree, one panelist stated, but of “black and white … good and evil.” According RFK Jr., if a foreign country did these things to us — the poisoning of our food supply and corruption of our health care system — “it would be considered an act of war.”
A crucial point is that President Trump himself stands behind, and in fact set in motion via his appointment of RFK Jr., Means and others in this effort to transform America’s health. More than anyone, it is Trump who is spearheading the effort to transform health care and diet, as well as to lower the cost of prescription drugs and other medical costs. One recalls that in his first term, Trump passed the “Right to Try” legislation that has opened ongoing clinical trials to those willing to pay for them.
Many persons associated with the medical establishment might label Means and RFK Jr. as radicals because of their intention to fundamentally transform American health. This transformation involves many elements, but at its heart, it is a change of approach among physicians away from treating symptoms to promoting wellness. Along with this, there would be major changes in diet and exercise.
Whether Kennedy and Means are radicals is, of course, a matter of opinion. But no one can deny that, despite spending more per capita than any other country in the world, the U.S. has one of the highest levels of chronic and acute disease. This is a problem that must be addressed either by government or by individual choice.
The rate of adult obesity in the U.S. stands at 40% and it is rising. Three fourths of U.S. adults have at least one serious marker of disease — high blood sugar, high blood pressure, obesity or overweight, heart disease, arthritis, and others. We are not a well nation. Just recently I sat outside a local grocery for 30 minutes (waiting on my wife) and observed that a majority of shoppers coming out, their carts piled with Mothers’ Day foods and presents, were either overweight or obese. This is not natural, and it is not the way most of us want it to be. But as many commentators have written, we live in an unhealthy environment that deliberately promotes unhealthy choices.
This is not to say that individual choice plays no role in our predicament. Pizza is the most popular food in America, and this choice is not forced on us. Hamburgers, often loaded with cheese and extra meat patties, are second — again, not because of a conspiracy on the part of the medical establishment, but because they are quick, filling, and tasty. To really change American health, it would be necessary to shift eating patterns from pizza and burgers. Only three percent of Americans consistently eat whole plant-based foods at present.
Many critics believe that these changes are too extreme and that the chances of bringing them about are slim. But health advocates have pointed out that as late as the 1980s, a majority of Americans still smoked on a regular basis, and now that figure stands at 14%. Change in health habits is possible if driven by public education and social and economic pressure. The price of a pack of cigarettes has risen from about 30 cents in 1960 to six dollars today, a result mostly of higher taxation and litigation designed to restrict consumption. A similar program of education and taxation could be applied to sugary foods and drinks.
“Transformation” is difficult to achieve, as I fear Kennedy and Means will find out. But incremental changes are possible, and I believe they should be implemented. As a conservative, I believe that healthy choices are a matter of individual choice, but it is a fact that government policy toward reducing smoking has saved an estimated 8 million lives, 3.5 million of them from lung cancer. Even minor changes to food and medical systems will, I believe, save an equal number of lives. It is right to ban artificial food dyes. It is right to educate the public about the harm of excessive sugar. It is right to promote consumption of more natural foods.
As with the appointment of RFK Jr., Trump’s nomination of Casey Means as U.S. surgeon general is a shot across the bow of America’s health care system and the food and drink industry. Trump campaigned on making America “healthy again.” There is a crisis, and every American is affected in some way — if not directly by disease, then by the burden of health care spending. Trump’s appointment of RFK Jr. and his nomination of Casey Means are steps in the right direction.
CHIMNEY ROCK, N.C.—North Carolina officials estimate that it will take many years, many hands, and up to $60 billion to recover from the widespread devastation caused by Hurricane Helene in late September 2024.
In the historic village of Chimney Rock, located in the western part of the state, a dedicated army of volunteers has been providing much-needed assistance to the recovery effort at no cost.
“It hasn’t required much funding,” Shane Zoccole, founder and director of the South Carolina-based disaster relief nonprofit Spokes of Hope, said.
Zoccole told The Epoch Times that the recovery effort in Chimney Rock is primarily driven by volunteers.
“Chimney Rock is essential to the valley—it’s the commerce of this area,“ he said. ”We felt led to help the businesses, to help the people here, and to get this town to stay on the map instead of going off the map.”
Since October 2024, Zoccole has led more than 2,000 volunteers from various nonprofits willing to help without compensation.
Among the volunteers are hundreds of Amish and Mennonite people from Ohio and Pennsylvania who are ready to go the distance, he said.
“We eat breakfast by 8 a.m., work orders go out, we’re working by 8:30, and then we work until just about 6 p.m., when dinner is served,” Zoccole said.
“It’s been all the moving parts connecting with local business owners and volunteers across the nation.”
He said it has been a collaborative effort since the hurricane made a lasting impact on the landscape eight months ago.
Zoccole founded Spokes of Hope in 2018 after Hurricane Florence caused nine deaths and resulted in $2 billion in damages across South Carolina.
However, that was dwarfed by the destruction caused by Hurricane Helene, he said.
Much of Chimney Rock, a village in western North Carolina’s Hickory Nut Gorge on the eastern slopes of the Blue Ridge Mountains, was either damaged, destroyed, or buried under several feet of mud.
The bridge over the Rocky Broad River, leading to the state park near the village, collapsed in the rising floodwaters, which reached a height of 20 feet.
The ferocious wind, powerful currents, and heavy rain swept away several businesses along the river. All that remained were the concrete foundations.
Near the Bat Cave residential area, a ticket booth remained on its side, while the stately homes further upriver lay in ruins or exhibited heavy damage. Many homes that survived the torrent were no longer safe for habitation.
“Still here, still standing,” read a sign on a house that remained livable.
Confronted with such devastation, Zoccole’s initial reaction was that using a bulldozer to clear the wreckage would be a more effective solution than implementing a reconstruction plan for the village.
Nonetheless, Zoccole and his relief volunteers refused to give up on the community.
“We have to go to the finish,” he said.
“If we don’t finish something that we’ve started, then we’ve [basically] told these people we’re only here part-time for you. We’re only here to help you a little bit.”
Members of the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division arrived in early October 2024, armed with buckets and shovels to clear the knee-deep mud and allow other volunteers to begin repairs.
By early May, volunteers had removed tons of silt and debris from the water-damaged shops. They rebuilt several of them to code using donated and repurposed materials and equipment.
Although many shops remain closed for repairs, Chimney Rock Village no longer bears the worst scars from the hurricane.
Zoccole noted that considerable work remains, as the village business center plans to reopen this summer, possibly in June.
“Our success is in our unity. We’ve been able to pull together ahead of schedule,” he said.
A Storm Like No Other
Chimney Rock Village, located in Rutherford County, has a rural population of about 140 residents. It is one of the 39 counties in North Carolina designated as a critical disaster area following Hurricane Helene.
The hurricane struck Florida with winds of 140 mph on Sept. 26, 2024, before moving into North Carolina the next morning and causing severe rain, flooding, and deadly landslides across much of the western third of the state.
In certain regions, rainfall accumulation reached as much as 30 inches. The storm caused damage to, or destroyed, more than 73,000 homes, roads, and bridges across 6,900 sites, including the heavily trafficked Interstate 40.
The storm claimed more than 100 lives across the state and directly caused 176 deaths across the southeastern region, with seven residents still unaccounted for in North Carolina, according to federal government data.
One resident of Chimney Rock Village lost her life during the storm, which was deemed the worst since Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
According to a revised North Carolina Office of State Budget and Management assessment, the estimated multi-year recovery costs are nearly $60 billion.
The report estimates the storm’s total economic impact at more than $16 billion, which includes $3 billion in direct damages to businesses, and more than $12 billion in lost revenue, excluding wages and income.
Then-North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper requested $3.9 billion from the General Assembly to support struggling communities. Of this total, $1.2 billion has already been allocated, with an additional $225 million set aside in reserve.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has designated $850 million for this initiative, which includes the deployment of 8,500 personnel for emergency response.
‘Nothing but Mud’
Erica Stafford, 40, is the head chef and kitchen manager at Lured Market and Grill near Lake Lure and Chimney Rock.
She said she has witnessed powerful storms and the death and economic havoc they leave behind, but Helene seemed to be far worse.
“Nobody expected it to be what it was,” Stafford said. “Even living here, I thought, ‘Well, there’ll be some flooding. We’re going to have a tree down. We’re going to be out of power.’ Nobody expected the amount of damage done.
“It was such a mess. I got down here, and it was nothing but mud.”
Trump’s ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ Strips Al Capone-Era Tax On Suppressors
Gun rights groups celebrated Thursday morning after the House narrowly passed President Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” in a 215–214 vote. Organizations like Gun Owners of America praised the legislation for including the Constitutional Hearing Protection Act (CHPA), which eliminates both the federal registration requirement and the $200 tax on firearm suppressors. The provision drew sharp criticism from anti-gunners and leftist media outlets as the bill now heads to the Senate.
“The House of Representatives passes GOA-backed language 215-214 to ELIMINATE the unconstitutional taxation & registration of suppressors under the NFA,” GOA wrote on X, adding, “The bill heads to the Senate, where GOA will fight to include protections for short-barreled firearms too.”
🚨BREAKING🚨⁰⁰The House of Representatives passes GOA-backed language 215-214 to ELIMINATE the unconstitutional taxation & registration of suppressors under the NFA.⁰⁰The bill heads to the Senate, where GOA will fight to include protections for short-barreled firearms too. pic.twitter.com/4cRqgi4LHl
GOA’s Deputy Director of Federal Affairs, Benjamin Sanderson, said in a short video posted on X that the organization has been working on a budget reconciliation strategy to deregulate suppressors for the past year. He thanked the millions of GOA members who have supported their efforts.
THANK YOU to our members, supporters, & 2A allies who helped make suppressor deregulation a reality in the House.
This is a huge win for gun owners—and worth celebrating.👏
Next: Let’s get the SHORT Act added in the Senate & send it to President Trump’s desk.🔥 pic.twitter.com/qOocqJlktp
Since being classified under the Al Capone-era National Firearms Act, suppressors have been subject to a $200 tax stamp imposed by the ATF. If President Trump signs the Senate version of the “Big, Beautiful Bill,” purchasers only need to pass an FBI background check to acquire a suppressor.
“Shall not be infringed—or taxed. I’m proud that we secured the elimination of taxation and registration of suppressors in budget reconciliation. It’s past time we restore our constitutional 2A rights,” stated Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA), who originally introduced CHPA.
Shall not be infringed—or taxed.
I’m proud that we secured the elimination of taxation and registration of suppressors in budget reconciliation.
Clyde said, “This is a massive 2A victory — one that takes important steps toward restoring our constitutional freedoms.”
GOA Founder Erich Pratt stated, “Eliminating the suppressor registration and tax is a major step forward for liberty and safety. This would not have happened without Rep. Clyde’s resolve and strategic leadership. Gun owners have one less unconstitutional hurdle to worry about — but we’re not done. The Senate needs to deliver on President Trump’s campaign promise to protect gun owners from another ban on short-barreled firearms like the Biden Pistol Brace Ban.”
Meanwhile, leftist corporate media melted down…
GOA detailed what needs to be done in the Senate: “Let’s get the SHORT Act added in the Senate & send it to President Trump’s desk.”
Over the weekend, the Biden family announced that former President Joe Biden has been diagnosed with stage IV prostate cancer. The statement said that the cancer was characterized by a Gleason score of 9 out of 10, indicating it is highly aggressive, and that it has already spread to the bone.
Well-wishes poured in from both the former president’s allies and political opponents as the Bidens reportedly reviewed treatment options. But it didn’t take long for people to note a few questionable details about the nature and timing of this announcement.
First, it happened to come a little over thirty hours before the release of a highly-anticipated book by CNN’s Jake Tapper and Axios’s Alex Thompson that detailed Joe Biden’s mental decline while in office and the effort by people around him to cover it up and deny it was happening at all. While other books have already come out claiming to tell this story, none have come from journalists as highly respected by the political establishment as Tapper and Thompson.
Also, the day before the announcement,Axios released the full recording of Biden’s interview with special counsel Robert Hur, where the president’s difficulty answering straightforward questions was on full display at the same time his allies in the media were trying to claim he was “as sharp as a tack.”
That convenient timing and speed at which some Biden allies, like David Axelrod, came out and said that talk of the former president’s decline should now be set aside because of this diagnosis led to some skepticism about the claim that the cancer was discovered only a few days ago.
That skepticism only grew as doctors began reacting with disbelief that cancer at this late a stage could have either just developed in the past few months or gone undetected for years while Biden was president. That’s especially true considering that prostate cancer is typically easier to discover early than most other cancers due to antigens it releases in the blood that can be detected with a simple blood test—a blood test we know both presidents Obama and Trump had taken while they were in office.
It is certainly possible that no physical health problems were covered up during Biden’s presidency, that his cancer was only detected for the first time a few weeks ago, as his office has said. But many of those most aggressively denying that anything shady is happening with the timing of this announcement will have a much harder time getting the public to believe them because of the blatant and unsuccessful attempt to censor, hide, and deny Biden’s deteriorating mental state in the lead up to the 2024 election.
The lengths to which establishment politicians and major media figures went to gaslight the American public into dismissing something that was obvious to anyone who was looking should never be forgotten because it exposed the true nature of the political class. They lied, shamelessly, to further their political ambitions.
While that’s far from unusual, rarely are their lies as blatantly and immediately obvious as saying Biden was sharp and highly engaged behind closed doors and that every video that purported to show otherwise was fabricated by far-right video editors.
It’s also rare for the establishment’s lies to blow up in their faces as quickly and extensively as this one did at the now famous June 2024 presidential debate. Once it became obvious that the lie would not hold, virtually the entire anti-Trump political scene flipped on a dime and began parroting concerns that they were mocking people for voicing mere hours before.
The political class is still struggling to run damage control. The most promising strategy—seemingly embodied by Tapper and Thompson’s new book—is to try to pin the blame on a handful of staffers, claiming they hid the truth from media figures like Tapper who then unintentionally spread the lie to the rest of the world. But that would be a much easier sell if millions of Americans had not spent years openly talking about the very thing that was apparently being hidden from them. Still, the establishment will throw as many staffers under the bus as they need to avoid admitting they lied. They do not want the takeaway from this episode to be that they need to lie less.
And beyond that, if the establishment admitted they knowingly supported an increasingly cognitively impaired man, not only to remain in office but to serve an entire second term, it would shatter the illusion that our government is truly run by a president who embodies the wishes of the voting public, like we learned in elementary school. It would reveal the fact that, as long as they don’t actively speak out against or draw attention to all the ways the political class is ripping the American public off, the person sitting in the Oval Office is essentially irrelevant.
Whether the timing of Biden’s cancer announcement is a particularly disgusting part of the scheme to cover all this up or truly a complete coincidence, the last few days have made it clear that the damage the political class did to its credibility with its attempted cover-up of Joe Biden’s condition has not gone away. And that is duly deserved.
AI, Chips, Humanoid Robots: Top Takeaways From Computex 2025
Computex 2025 in Taipei, Taiwan, entered its fourth day on Thursday. Tech blog Tom’s Guide said the spotlight this week has been on AMD’s Radeon RX 9060 XT and Nvidia’s RTX 5060 gaming GPUs. Other top highlights include Intel’s early reveal of next-gen laptop CPUs for 2026 and MSI’s debut of its first AMD-powered gaming handheld, the Claw A8.
Breaking down Asia’s top AI tech show, Bloomberg highlighted five key takeaways from this week:
Consumer AI Needs More Time
There was scant mention of consumers this year. In 2024, Qualcomm Inc. devoted its presentation to how AI would make everything better and we’d never again need our laptop chargers on the move. This time around, it flipped to a script focused on enterprise applications for AI.
Foxconn, also known as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., used its first keynote address at the show to go big on heavy-duty AI, from making cities smarter to bringing robots to manufacturing and making EV design more efficient. The company that assembles the bulk of the world’s iPhones had nothing to excite consumers.
Asustek Computer Inc. offered a sobering outlook on the prospects of so-called AI PCs.
Samson Hu, co-chief executive officer of the Taiwanese computer gear maker, said AI PCs will take a year or two before they go mainstream. That’s because the software is still immature, plus new tariffs from the US are likely to flatten near-term growth. Asus may have to hike prices in the US by as much as 10% to deal with those levies, Hu said.
DeepSeek Changed AI
The debut of DeepSeek in January changed the nature of AI, highlighting China’s advances in the field while dismantling basic assumptions about computing needs.
Huang was among the few executives who addressed that first openly, saying that China is “incredible” at software development and has the resources to make up for any technological gap.
DeepSeek also popularized reasoning models, which require more raw computing power. “And so now the reasoning model is not one shot, but it’s hundreds of shots,” Huang told reporters this week. “DeepSeek increased the amount of computing need by maybe 100 to 1,000 times.”
China Looms Large
The most-clicked headlines centered around Nvidia’s delicate position as the US pursues chip restrictions intended to curtail China’s tech ascent. That came to a head Wednesday, when Huang branded that effort a “failure” and called for Washington to back away.
If the US doesn’t allow Nvidia to sell within China, local companies like Huawei Technologies Co. will fill the void, he warned. “The local companies are very, very talented and very determined,” Huang said. “And the export controls gave them the spirit, the energy and the government support to accelerate their development.”
While key officials in Washington buy that argument as it applies to the rest of the world, US President Donald Trump’s administration has doubled down on measures targeting Beijing.
Executives in Taiwan no doubt took note of two related developments. Huawei hosted its AI developer gathering the same week, touting the Ascend chips that Beijing wants to see supplant Nvidia’s silicon. And Xiaomi Corp. happened to announce it’s developed its own advanced 3-nanometer mobile chip to compete with Qualcomm.
Taiwan Charm Offensive
Intel Corp.’s new boss worked hard to mend ties with the Taiwanese partners, after his predecessor Pat Gelsinger raised concerns about the island’s dominance in semiconductors.
Lip-Bu Tan praised local supply chain partners during a company event in Taipei celebrating its 40th anniversary on Monday.
Even Nvidia dedicated much time and floor space at the conference to lauding its Taiwanese partners. SoftBank Group Corp. founder Masayoshi Son was also in town for the week, though like Tan he was keeping a low public profile.
No Bubble?
There was little public discussion about one of the most pressing questions for tech investors: have we overestimated the need for datacenters? Tech stocks from Nvidia to Meta Platforms Inc. and Microsoft Corp. have gyrated wildly in 2025 in part because of that overarching uncertainty.
To be sure, most of the attendees benefit directly from spending on the servers and components needed to power datacenters and AI development. Nvidia’s CEO echoed the sentiment.
“We’re several hundred billion dollars into tens of trillions of dollars of AI infrastructure buildout,” Huang said.
With all the major announcements already made earlier in the week, the Computex conference will wrap up on Friday.
Goldman analyst Eddy Kuo attended the conference. In a note on Thursday, he pointed out that Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang “is optimistic for humanoid robotics and commented it will be the core of the future economy, and Taiwan is playing a key role in this area integrating AI and humanoid robots.”
As Taiwan faces nursing shortages and an aging population, COMPUTEX 2025 showcases innovative robotics solutions, including Foxconn’s Nurabot for healthcare and Pegatron’s Simba robot dog for dangerous environments.
★ https://t.co/ynzSGjhc12 ★ pic.twitter.com/qERUmznDUJ
— TVBS World Taiwan (@tvbsworldtaiwan) May 22, 2025
“Computex will conclude today and color on the ground here the Computex onsite is super packed yesterday even more crowded than Tue and expect today to reach the peak and lots of interests on ASIC related supply chain,” Kuo said.
Far-Left Activist Charged In Jewish Museum Killings, Shot Couple Multiple Times As They ‘Attempted To Crawl Away’
Update(1817ET): Elias Rodriguez, a 30-year old man from Chicago, has been charged in last night’s fatal shooting of two Israeli embassy employees in Washington, outside an event hosted at the Jewish Museum.
He is accused of opening fire on an entire group of people who were exiting an event hosted by an advocacy group that supports Israel. He faces two counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of Sarah Lynn Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky.
Court filing shows brutal execution-style murders, after which Rodriguez shouted “free Palestine!” as police apprehended him and took him away.
He shot the young woman in the back after she was hit the first time, and as she struggled to stay alive.
The newly filed charges filed against Elias Rodriguez expose the depravity and callousness of the murders. He didn’t just kill Sarah and Yaron- he made sure to finish them.
He followed Sarah as she crawled away in agony after he shot her. He followed her and shot her again. He… pic.twitter.com/T2gjBzlmKR
The court document filed by the FBI indicates that Rodriguez told officers on the scene of the shooting: “I did it for Palestine, I did it for Gaza, I am unarmed.” He was reportedly holding a red keffiyeh as he said this “spontaneously” to law enforcement on the scene.
In a briefing, the FBI’s Steve Jensen has said the shooter was not previously known to the FBI, and that analysts are currently combing through his social media profiles. They said it’s believed the man had traveled to D.C. initially for a work conference.
And as expected, Rodriguez appears to be an ANTIFA radical and avowed communist, based on initial findings from his online history…
Elias Rodriguez, the Chicago far-left activist accused of shooting dead two Israelis outside the Capital Jewish Museum, has a long history of support for BLM, Palestine, communist and anti-white causes.
Interim US Attorney for the District of Washington Jeanine Pirro said in a press briefing the president and attorney general have indicated that in cases where the death penalty is warranted and seems appropriate, it will be used.
“It’s far too early to say whether that is the case, but this is a death penalty eligible case,” she said.
Interim US Attorney for the District of Washington Jeanine Pirro said the shooting was being investigated as an act of terrorism and that more charges may be added
Pirro said it was “far too early” to say if they would seek the death penalty, but that it was a “death penalty eligible case”
The FBI’s Steve Jensen said the suspect Elias Rodriguez was not known to the bureau, but investigators are looking at his social media accounts and contacting his associates
The FBI believe Rodriguez travelled to DC for a work conference one day before the attack
Police chief Pamela A Smith said there would be an increased presence of law enforcement in the area
* * *
Late Wednesday evening there is currently a massive ongoing police response in northwest Washington DC outside the Capital Jewish Museum, after gunfire erupted just outside which killed two staff members of the Israeli Embassy.
“Two Israeli Embassy staff were senselessly killed tonight near the Jewish Museum in Washington DC,” Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem confirmed in a post on X. “We are actively investigating and working to get more information to share.”
The shooting occurred across the street from the FBI’s Washington Field Office, which is located very near to the museum, and Israeli embassy officials are working with local law enforcement and the FBI.
It has further been confirmed that the Israeli ambassador is safe, and was not involved in the incident, and was not present at the time of the shooting.
Underscoring the seriousness of the killings, which appear to have targeted an event which took place at the Jewish Museum, US Attorney General Pam Bondi amd acting US Attorney for DC Jeanine Pirro are currently on the scene in the aftermath.
🚨BREAKING: Israeli diplomat and companion fatally shot outside the Capital Jewish museum in Washington, D.C., gunman reportedly yelled “Free Palestine!” pic.twitter.com/nHMVK0fCcL
Ted Deutch, the CEO of the American Jewish Committee, has described that his organization was hosting an event at the museum and has issued an initial statement:
“We are devastated that an unspeakable act of violence took place outside the venue.”
“At this moment, as we await more information from the police about exactly what transpired, our attention and our hearts are solely with those who were harmed and their families.”
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, has also issued a statement calling it a “depraved act of anti-Semitic terrorism”:
The fatal shooting that took place outside the event that took place at the Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. is a depraved act of anti-Semitic terrorism. Harming the Jewish community is crossing a red line. We are confident that the US authorities will take strong action against… pic.twitter.com/mVyXHjGyxU
— Danny Danon 🇮🇱 דני דנון (@dannydanon) May 22, 2025
Reports say that a suspect may be in custody, but it is unclear as the security situation is fluid amid the ongoing emergency response.
One man and one woman were shot and killed outside of an event at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, law enforcement sources told ABC News.
The suspect in the shooting has been identified as a 30-year-old man from Chicago, Washington, D.C. Police Chief Pam Smith said.
“Two staff members of the Israeli embassy were shot this evening at close range while attending a Jewish event at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington DC,” the spokesperson at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, Tal Naim Cohen, said in a statement on Wednesday night. –ABC News
There are unconfirmed reports that a gunmen screamed “free Palestine” and opened fire:
❗️Suspect opened FIRE before screaming ‘Free Palestine’ — reports
Houman David Hemmati, who is connected to the event at the Jewish Museum, writes on X:
Chaotic scene tonight inside Washington DC Capitol Jewish Museum where, just outside, 2 people (potentially Israeli diplomatic) who may have been attending an American Jewish Committee Young Diplomats event (one I organized years ago) shot & killed.
Tensions have been running high following Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s declaration that a new phase of the Gaza War has begun, dubbed ‘Operation Gideon’s Chariots’ – which aims to fully eradicate Hamas and end in a full Israeli military takeover of the Gaza Strip.
Is this a return to a horrific summer of love?… amid boiling geopolitical tensions which threaten to erupt in a city near you.
