Religiously motivated vandalism that doesn’t involve an attack on a Christian church?  It’s an incredibly rare occurrence in the US, despite the myths often spread by the progressive media.  That said, it is likely to become far more frequent as clashes between the west and eastern ideologies continue to escalate. 

Tempe police are investigating the destruction of a religious symbol placed on “A” Mountain (also known as Hayden Butte) for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.  Officers say a Muslim student group from Arizona State University working with a local Islamic center put a 15-foot tall crescent moon on the mountain to “shine a light” on the community of Phoenix.  A similar temporary landmark was built back in 2003, but was not attempted again for 20 years.

When electrified at night, the sign could be seen for many miles across the Tempe/Phoenix desert. 

Some residents initially complained on social media about the placement of the landmark on public land looming over the city, and described the large LED display as essentially “unavoidable”. 

Per investigators, the display was knocked over and vandalized on March 17, causing $20,000 in damage. There is no description of any suspects.  Tempe city officials say “there is no place in our community for this kind of hate.” 

“People of all faiths are welcome in Tempe and they have the right to feel safe and be safe,” read a portion of their statement.

As noted, religiously motivated vandalism against Islamic centers and landmarks is rare in the US.  There were less than a dozen incidents across the country in the the past year, compared to 415 hostile incidents against Christian churches.  There have been 1384 attacks on churches since 2018.   In Europe where Islamic immigration has overtaken most countries, vandalism and destruction of Christian churches occurs thousands of times per year and very few of these events are investigated by authorities.  

The Phoenix area is home to around 110,000 Muslims with the population nearly doubling from 60,000 only ten years ago.  Surveys show around 58% of all Muslims in the US are first generation immigrants.

The obvious conclusion is that recent geopolitical tensions with Iran have catalyzed a sense of suspicion among Americans when it comes to the Muslim ideology.  However, the distaste for Islam was gestating well before the war started. 

The political lefts co-option of the Gaza issue has not helped the Islamic cause in the west.  Muslim leaders working closely with progressive politicians are seen to be exploiting misplaced liberal sensibilities as a tool for quiet conquest.  

The public’s distrust is not unfounded.  With clear fraud and the theft of public funds taking place among Muslim migrants in states like Wisconsin and California as well as the crippling criminal violence perpetrated by migrants in the EU and UK, there is little love for Islamic groups among native citizens.  

It’s not surprising that people in Arizona don’t want what many see as a symbol of oppressing lighting up their night skyline.  Perhaps the best option for Muslims in the US is to keep their religion quietly to themselves and avoid grand displays that could be interpreted as Islam “planting its flag” in America.  

Authored by Tom Elliott via substack,

As soon as the feds announced Jeffrey Epstein killed himself while awaiting prosecution on charges of sex trafficking, the popular reaction was disbelief: “Jeffrey Epstein didn’t kill himself” quickly became an internet meme. And now, with the release of the Epstein Files, it’s only become harder — if not all but impossible — to believe the official story that Jeffrey Epstein hanged himself in the Manhattan Correctional Center on August 10, 2019.

The “Suicide”

The DoJ’s Inspector General released a report that officially concluded there was no reason to doubt the suicide story, but actually contains many disturbing details if you read the included evidence. As summarized by JustFacts:

• Federal prison officials placed Epstein in a cell with a murderous, hulking ex-cop — a death trap for any child molester.

• Less than two weeks later, prison guards found Epstein in the middle of the night in a semiconscious state with a rope and “friction marks” around his neck.

• Despite a court order requiring the prison to preserve video surveillance footage near Epstein’s cell during the strangulation, federal prison officials failed to do so and also lost the backup due to “technical errors.”

• Federal prison officials took Epstein off “suicide watch” just one day after the strangulation without determining whether Epstein was attacked by his cellmate or tried to commit suicide.

• One day before Epstein’s death, federal prison officials removed his new cellmate and didn’t replace him. They did this even though a prison psychologist sent an email to over 70 prison staffers stating that Epstein “needs” a cellmate — a common suicide prevention measure.

• One day before Epstein’s death, a federal court unsealed more than 2,000 pages of lawsuit records that named and implicated wealthy and powerful people in Epstein’s sex crimes, as well as federal officials in covering up the crimes.

• One day before Epstein’s death, federal prison officials permitted Epstein to make a completely unmonitored phone call in direct violation of prison policy and under patently false pretenses.

• Federal officers placed a hoard of linens in Epstein’s cell, which is commonly prohibited because they can be used to create nooses.

• Federal officers left Epstein alone in his cell for nearly eight hours on the night he died — despite the fact that they were required to check on all inmates in his unit “at least twice per hour” and were only 15 feet from Epstein’s cell.

• Federal officers falsified records to show that they had checked on Epstein, a violation of federal law punishable by up to five years in prison.

• Federal prosecutors “dismissed all charges pending against” the two officers who falsified the records and “declined” to prosecute others who “falsely certified inmate countslips and round sheets on the day before and the day of Epstein’s death.”

• Federal prison officials failed to record footage from 9 of the 11 surveillance cameras around Epstein’s cell on the night of his death, including one that showed Epstein’s cell tier and cell door.

• The FBI agents who searched Epstein’s New York mansion found and then abandoned a sexually explicit trove of photos and CDs labeled with the names of “young” females alongside people other than Epstein. This allowed one of Epstein’s most notorious accomplices to take the evidence and potentially scrub it before giving it to the feds.

• To this day, the federal government hasn’t revealed the names of the people that were written beside the “young” females on Epstein’s CDs.

Hours before Epstein’s reported suicide, he made an unmonitored call to his girlfriend, Karyna Shuliak. She told friends Epstein gave no indication he was thinking of harming himself. The New York Times asked the Bureau of Prisons for his full call logs; “those logs show only one social call during his stay, more than a week earlier, to Shuliak.” In other words, the logs omitted this critical call. To date there is no knowledge of its contents, beyond Shuliak saying Epstein appeared to be in good spirits.

The Cameras

Due to a known issue with the prison’s DVR system — an issue jail officials were already aware of — only one security camera in the SHU unit was functioning. The feds said there exists no camera list correctly naming camera locations in the jail. The corrupted DVR drives were shipped to Quantico, where the FBI reportedly planned to attempt data recovery. However, according to an FBI letter, “they discontinue[d] those efforts once we told them dates prior to July 29th weren’t of interest.” This is itself strange, as pre-July 29th would have covered Epstein’s original reported strangulation.

According to the Inspector General’s report, both guards tasked with monitoring Epstein that night fell asleep during key hours, missing six of the six mandatory visual checks on Epstein. At other points during the night, as newly surfaced surveillance footage shows, the guards were actively walking around mere “steps away” from Epstein’s cell as he was reportedly preparing sheets to hang himself.

👀 Newly surfaced surveillance footage from the night of Jeffrey Epstein’s death … and it appears to show prison guards hanging out just steps away from his cell during the suspected timeframe he had taken his own life.

🎥 DOJ pic.twitter.com/BP6ksnChCi

— TMZ (@TMZ) March 21, 2026

Many online researchers have noted that by using a technique to search Epstein files displaying the text “no images produced,” you’ll find files with a .pdf extension that, when renamed to .mp4, reveal video files. One interesting video is surveillance footage from the Manhattan Correctional Center from the night prior to Epstein’s “suicide.” It shows a large screen blocking the camera from the stairwell.

The Body Swap Theory

Why might blocking the stairwell camera be necessary? One possibility is to facilitate what a worker at the jail posted about on 4Chan: that the night before the “suicide,” the feds swapped Epstein out.

“Last night after 0415 count they took him medical in a wheelchair front cufed but not 1 triage nurse says they spoke to him. Next thing we know a trip van shows up? We do not release weekends unless a judge orders it. Next thing we know, he’s put in a single man cell and hangs himself? Here’s the thing, the trip van did NOT sign in and we did not record the plate number and a guy in a green military outfit was in the back of the van according to the tower guy who let him thru the gate. You guys I am shaking right now but I think they switched him out.”

Within 24 hours, the feds subpoenaed Apple, AT&T, CitiBank, and 4Chan to investigate this poster’s identity and determined it was indeed a staffer at the jail. Consider the priorities this reveals: subpoenas issued within hours of an anonymous post, while the investigation into the most high-profile prisoner death in modern history was left to two guards who falsified records.

Multiple sources in the Epstein files note that at 10:39 PM on August 9, investigators reviewing jail surveillance footage flagged an orange-colored figure moving up a staircase toward the locked tier housing Epstein’s cell. The Inspector General said it could be someone carrying bedding; CBS reported independent analysts said it looked more like an inmate. Officials have repeatedly stated no one entered Epstein’s housing tier that night.

The Guards

The NY Post reported that one of the jail guards, Tova Noel, was googling “Latest Epstein jail” in the hours before his reputed death. Noel also “made a mysterious $5,000 cash deposit 10 days before the predator’s jail-cell suicide, new Department of Justice documents reveal.” Noel drove a $62,000 Range Rover — an extravagant luxury for a jail guard.

Noel was one of the two jail workers accused of faking records to say they checked on Epstein throughout the night of his “suicide.” She was fired, but the feds later dropped criminal charges.

Per the NY Post, “Noel googled ‘latest on Epstein in jail’ at 5:42 a.m. and then again at 5:52 a.m. — less than 40 minutes before her colleague, correctional officer Michael Thomas, found the disgraced financier dead in his jail cell.” Noel later denied to the feds that she had googled Epstein — a claim her internet history would disprove. Despite the DoJ knowing she was actively checking for updates on Epstein throughout that night, the IG report downplays this, merely stating she read an article about Epstein:

“OIG analysis of the activity on the SHU computers revealed that Noel used the computer periodically throughout the night, including to search the Internet for furniture sales and benefit websites and to read a news article about Epstein. Thomas used the computer briefly around 1 a.m. and 6 a.m. to search for motorcycle sales and sports news.”

Noel reported that faking records at the Manhattan Correctional Center was just the way things operated there.

The files only contain Noel’s bank records beginning in December 2018. They show seven cash deposits totaling $11,880. Noel started working at the Special Housing Unit — where Epstein had been held — beginning on July 7, 2019, just weeks before his death.

Noel, who drove a $62,000 2019 Land Rover Range Rover, wasn’t asked about the cash during her DOJ interview, records showed.

The Miami Herald reports that an inmate during Epstein’s incarceration overheard a commotion the morning Epstein was reportedly found dead:

The federal government’s online Epstein library contains a five-page handwritten report of an FBI interview with an inmate who awoke the morning of Aug. 10, 2019 to the loud commotion in the Special Housing Unit, or SHU, where he and Epstein were jailed.

“Breathe! Breathe!” he recalled officers shouting about 6:30 a.m. Then he said he heard an officer say “Dudes, you killed that dude.” A female guard replied “If he is dead, we’re going to cover it up and he’s going to have an alibi — my officers,” the FBI notes said. The inmate claimed the whole wing overheard the exchange.

Later, after learning Epstein had died, he said inmates said “Miss Noel killed Jeffrey.”

He identified the female guard as Tova Noel, one of two correctional officers who were later charged with falsifying reports so that it appeared from their records that they had made their rounds that night — when they had not. The charges against her and the other officer, Michael Thomas, were later dropped, but both were fired.

And another curiosity. In an interview with an unnamed jail worker, the redacted interviewee says they used a fake body to confuse the press:

“[REDACTED] remained with COs [REDACTED] and [REDACTED] until personnel from the Office of Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) arrived to transport EPSTEIN to their facility. Due to the large news media presence outside the MCC, a male OCHE official called and said he would be arriving at the loading dock with a black vehicle. In order to thwart the media, [REDACTED], [REDACTED] and [REDACTED] used boxes and sheets to create what appeared to be a human body, which was put into the white OCME vehicle which the press followed, allowing the black vehicle to depart unnoticed with EPSTEIN’s body.”

The Body Doesn’t Match: The Prostate

It seems clear enough someone died of hanging or strangulation that morning. The question is whether it was Epstein’s body, or someone else’s.

Perhaps the most damning evidence that it was not Epstein’s body comes from his prostate — or rather, his lack of one.

In an exchange with Dr. Richard Axel, Epstein said that despite taking testosterone, he also takes Viagra due to not having a prostate. This is Epstein, in his own words, telling a doctor that his prostate had been removed.

His medical records corroborate this. A LabCorp patient report for Epstein references his “radical prostatectomy” — boilerplate language triggered by a prostatectomy flag in his patient history. This language appears in reports from both 2010 and 2018.

In two of the Epstein files, we have Epstein texting himself about needing a prostate cancer specialist. In April 2019 — just months before his death — NY-Presbyterian Hospital told Epstein the doctor he sought was no longer practicing and included several alternative recommendations. Of a proposed doctor they wrote: “He has been listed as an expert in nerve-sparing radical prostatectomy techniques as well as male infertility by Castle Connolly’s ‘Best Doctors’ Guide since 1999 as well as other national ‘Best Doctor’ lists.” (“Nerve-sparing” translates to Epstein being able to continue his favorite pastime.)

And yet: despite all of these records indicating Epstein’s prostate had been removed, the NYC coroner report describes the deceased as having a prostate that is “slightly and diffusely enlarged, with marked enlargement of the verumontanum.” The verumontanum is an anatomical structure that exists within the prostate. You cannot have one without the other.

To date, there is no publicly known way to regrow a prostate.

The Body Doesn’t Match: The Lipoma

Jeffrey Epstein suffered from a roughly 6 cm lipoma (fatty tumor) in his left supraclavicular fossa — the area above his left collarbone — documented in 2016, 2017, and again in 2018. The 2016 report also references a similar exam from 2014. In 2016 there were communications about surgical removal. In 2017, Epstein’s assistant confirms he hasn’t had it removed. In 2018, it’s being MRI’d all over again.

2016:

2017:

2018:

Both MRIs document a mass large enough to displace the brachial plexus — a critical nerve bundle serving the arm. The autopsy makes no mention of it whatsoever, despite a detailed neck dissection necessitated by the hanging injuries. The 2016 MRI also documented multilevel cervical spondylosis (C3-C7) with cord compression at C5-C6. The autopsy doesn’t mention this either. Its musculoskeletal section notes only a healed rib fracture and general musculature — no soft tissue masses anywhere.

Despite Epstein’s voluminous communications with his doctors in the years and months before his reported death, there is no record anywhere of Epstein having the lipoma removed. As late as September 2018, he was texting his doctor about it. And even if he had somehow undergone an undocumented surgery and recovery in the months before his arrest, that level of operation should have left scarring or other evidence the autopsy would have noted.

The lipoma’s location also creates a cardiovascular problem for the official narrative. “Evaluation of the left supraclavicular fossa once again demonstrates a lesion identified, inferior to the subclavian vein, and displacing the roots of the brachial plexus inferiorly,” the radiologist, Dr. Douglas DeCorato, observed in the 2018 MRI. In 2016, in an exchange with one of his doctors, the surgeon says he’s bringing his brother, a vascular surgeon, because “the tumor is directly adjacent to the subclavian vessels.”

Here is what the official autopsy says of the deceased’s cardiovascular system (a section redacted in some versions of the document):

During autopsy, the cardiovascular system examination involves tracing major vessels including the subclavian. A 6 cm mass resting on those vessels should have been encountered during that dissection — yet the autopsy reports the pulmonary vessels and venae cavae as simply “free of thrombus and embolus” with no mention of any adjacent mass.

The 2018 MRI explicitly states there is “no evidence of adenopathy.” The autopsy, roughly 14 months later, documents multiple enlarged cervical lymph nodes up to 1.5 cm. That could be a new development, but combined with the missing lipoma and the impossible prostate, it deepens the question of whether these records describe the same person.

The Body Doesn’t Match: Physical Appearance

The Epstein in the post-mortem photos has ears and a nose that look markedly different from Epstein’s known features. Morticians have also noted that images of the deceased with his mouth closed do not align with how faces typically present after death by hanging — muscles relax and gravity takes over, meaning mouths and eyes usually fall open.

The Medical Examiner

The original death certificate, from the day after his reported suicide, lists his immediate cause of death as “Pending Further Study.” New York City’s medical examiner, Dr. Kristin Roman, told federal investigators that due to the high-profile nature of the case, she wanted to be “thorough” and speak with the guard who found him. However, she was not permitted to do so. She changed the ruling to suicide after reviewing “additional evidence” — which sources say was his alleged prior suicide attempt.

Jeffrey Epstein’s brother hired famed pathologist Michael Baden to observe the autopsy. “Baden served for decades as a member of the New York State Correction Medical Review Board, an entity responsible for reviewing deaths of inmates in custody,” the Miami Herald reports. “Baden has conducted more than 20,000 autopsies including reviewing those of former President John F. Kennedy, and civil rights leaders the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Medgar Evers.”

Baden found three separate fractures: two on the left and right sides of the thyroid cartilage (the Adam’s apple), plus one on the left hyoid bone. He described the injuries as requiring a “huge amount of pressure” and specifically noted they were “more consistent with ligature homicidal strangulation” than suicide. “I have never seen three fractures like this in a suicidal hanging,” Baden later told 60 Minutes. “Going over a thousand jail hangings, suicides in the New York City state prisons over the past 40-50 years, no one had three fractures.” Others have noted that hyoid fractures can occur in hangings, particularly among older individuals — but three fractures remains highly unusual.

Attorneys for Jeffrey Epstein told the Southern District of New York: “We also had been in receipt of a tremendous amount of medical and scientific evidence volunteered to us opining that the injuries suffered, as reported, were far more consistent with assault than with suicide, and we are happy to supply the court with all the information we have.” These attorneys also noted how the prison guards had moved the body, complicating investigation efforts: “Instead of having the cell in the condition it was found, if he had been dead for 45 minutes or two hours or four hours, there were efforts to move him and, therefore, make it more difficult to reconstruct whether or not he died of suicide or some other cause.”

The Pre-Dated Death Announcement

The feds’ statement on Epstein’s death appears to have been drafted a day before he died. As many as 23 documents in the disclosure are labeled as statements from the Southern District of New York’s US Attorney’s Office. In one version, the date reads August 9, 2019 — a day before Epstein was reportedly found dead. It states: “Earlier this morning, the Manhattan Correctional Centre confirmed that Jeffrey Epstein, who faced charges brought by this Office of engaging in the sex trafficking of minors, had been found unresponsive in his cell and pronounced dead shortly thereafter.”

The DOJ has called it “merely an unfortunate typo that was later updated to reflect the correct date before being publicized.” Theoretically possible, sure. But it’s another incident in an impossibly long string of coincidences where you must extend the feds the benefit of the doubt.

Destruction of Evidence

Then there are the jail’s surveillance hard drives. The Epstein Files contain an FBI memorandum admitting that an FBI agent removed the hard drive from the jail’s camera system, wiping all of the data from the night Epstein died. The agent did this, they acknowledge, even as he knew doing so would result in the content’s corruption. This comes on top of two other surveillance systems that independently failed that night.

And it gets worse. Just yesterday, the Daily Beast reported that six days after Epstein’s death, the Department of Justice shredded a massive volume of documents from the jail:

A Bureau of Prisons “After-Actions team” went through the jail and shredded the files, according to a report drafted by an FBI official whose name has been redacted. The document is part of the tranche of files released by the Department of Justice earlier this year.

“[Redacted] has never seen this amount of bags of shredded documents coming out to be put in the dumpster at the rear gate of the MCC,” the report said.

“Last week Epstein hung [sic] himself, and there is an ongoing investigation. There was a BOP After-Actions team that come, and they are supposed to review what happened,” the report continued.

… “Caller found it suspicious that an after-action team charged with investigating would be shredding huge amounts of paperwork with all of the officials from the AIG, FBI and BO[P] in the building in the middle of an investigation. Those giving instructions to [redacted] said, ‘Make sure you get that box too,’” the document said, referring to the assistant inspector general.

That this was no normal cleanup operation is underscored by the fact that at least one inmate was recruited to help dispose of the shredded material: “[Redacted] was bringing back bags of shredded papers, around 4 or 5 bags, and caller brought them into the gate to throw into the dumpster. [Redacted] told caller that the after-action team is shredding huge amounts of paperwork.”

Even more damning: a federal prosecutor later wrote that “all institutional count slips prior to August 10, 2019, which we requested on August 12, 2019, are apparently ‘missing.’”

The Miami Herald notes there were two separate corruption probes associated with Epstein’s death — “one, an obstruction-of-justice case involving the shredding of documents and possible charges of dereliction of duty and other misconduct by correctional officers; and second, a blackmail-for-sex scheme involving a correctional officer that the DOJ labeled a ‘Color of Law’ probe” — and both were transferred from being an FBI criminal case to being a matter for the DoJ’s Office of Inspector General (OIG), which lacks prosecuting power.

From the outset, on the day Epstein’s body was found, then-Attorney General William Barr immediately announced that Epstein died of an “apparent suicide.” And then, six days later, on Aug. 16, Sampson confirmed the suicide ruling.

With the cause and manner of death already determined, and no foul play suspected, the only aspects of the case left unresolved – at least in the eyes of the Justice Department – was whether the actions of any of the officers contributed to Epstein’s suicide.

This seemed to color the investigation almost from the beginning, since Epstein’s death was never treated as suspicious. As a result, his cell was never considered a possible crime scene that would, under normal circumstances, be examined by experienced criminal and forensic experts who would take fingerprints, blood samples and other evidence. One thing that got lost as a result of the cell not being examined was that the piece of fabric that Epstein allegedly used to hang himself was never identified.

Before moving on, it’s worth recalling that Epstein significantly revised and signed his will two days before his reported death. Normally, dramatic changes to your estate hours before a death arouse suspicion, but it’s also not inconsistent with suicide.

The Tattoo Question

Many have called into question an apparent discrepancy between Epstein having at least one tattoo and the autopsy body having none. The files contain an undated image of Epstein with a barbed wire tattoo on his left arm:

However, this situation isn’t straightforward. In 2009, Epstein references his tattoo in an email. In 2010, his assistant emailed him about tattoo removal options. There are also several redacted emails about a tattoo. Some have pointed to a 2017 DoJ deposition referencing a “barbed wire” tattoo on the left arm, but this deposition is actually from one of the victims, not a contemporaneous observation of Epstein.

Due to Epstein’s 2010 interest in tattoo removal and the lack of dated photos confirming the tattoo’s presence at the time of his arrest, there’s not enough to establish this discrepancy definitively. It’s also possible someone has inserted a fake image of Epstein with a barbed wire tattoo specifically to plant a debunkable conspiracy theory — a known disinformation technique.

Post-Mortem Activity

Meanwhile, accounts connected with Epstein have remained active after his reported death.

The Irish media outlet The Ditch “gained access to the convicted paedophile’s FedEx account after the US Department of Justice published an unredacted password. The department later removed it from the Epstein files.”

The account was used as recently as summer 2024 — despite Epstein’s death in 2019.

The Ditch still has access to the FedEx account and address book, which contains almost 100 names and addresses, including an ex-Israeli Air Force Lieutenant Colonel who now advises Alan Dershowitz.

A package collected from Gulfstream’s product support centre in Savannah, Georgia, was shipped to Plan D LLC in Kennesaw, Georgia, on 20 May, 2024.

Plan D is the now-dissolved firm that Epstein incorporated to own and operate his private jet, which Donald Trump used during the 2024 US presidential election campaign.

Another package was shipped from the same Gulfstream address in Georgia to Empire Aviation in West Palm Beach, Florida, on 12 March, 2024, according to invoices.

FedEx deleted both invoices from the child sex offender’s account in the past few days.

Then there’s Fortnite.

One of the early public discoveries from the Epstein files drop is that Epstein had a Fortnite account under the username littlestjeff1.

This username matches an email listed in the Epstein files, littlestjeff@yahoo.com (Littlest = Little St. James). It also appears as the username of his YouTube account.

After people looked up the account’s status, it appeared to be actively used from Tel Aviv. Fortnite removed the account from online tracking, then issued a statement saying it was a “ruse” — actually another player “who changed their username” to match Epstein’s.

However, Fortnite’s player community noted a problem with this explanation: when people change their username on the platform, you can see the previous usernames. This account showed no prior name. (That community note was later removed from X.)

Other details that Epic Games’ statement didn’t address: the account showed a gap in activity that coincided with Epstein’s stay in the Manhattan Correctional Center, and records of its use were scrubbed from the Wayback Machine.

Could anyone in Epstein’s orbit exert influence over Epic Games? One pathway: Epstein’s estimated $5 million equity stake in Tencent, the Chinese technology conglomerate that purchased a 48.4 percent outstanding stake — equating to 40 percent of total capital — in Epic Games in 2012. Tencent’s acquisition triggered a number of high-profile departures from Epic, reputedly over the company’s shifting philosophy. A financial whistleblower also alerted the feds to suspicious Epstein activities related to Tencent’s ownership.

Epstein’s “secret” bank in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Southern Country International, also saw significant post-mortem activity. The New York Times reported that Southern Country had $693,157 in assets when Epstein died. Then, in mid-December 2019, the estate transferred $15.5 million to the bank. Two weeks later, its assets were back down to $499,759. The estate offered no explanation. A magistrate judge reviewing the transactions said, “There’s no explanation for it.”

The Epstein files dump also includes emails between DoJ and HHS officials from July 6, 2021 — two years after Epstein’s death — discussing “Epstein’s” availability for a call in Colorado. Snopes investigated and found evidence indicating these emails refer to Richard Epstein, a cooperating witness in a Medicare fraud investigation. Despite my general skepticism of Snopes, I believe they’re correct here: the evidence strongly suggests this email chain referred to a different Epstein.

There are also the supposed sightings. Someone thought he might have seen Ghislaine (and someone who looks like Alan Dershowitz) in Quebec. Someone else brought a drone to Little St. James and caught a glimpse of someone who resembles Epstein (and his most recent girlfriend) in the weeks after his reported suicide. Another sighting had him in a random port in Greece.

Why the Feds Might Help Him Disappear

Why would the federal government help Epstein flee? There are actually many reasons.

He provided them a skill they find valuable: money laundering. CBS News recently revealed a previously undisclosed DEA investigation — a five-year-plus probe targeting Epstein and 14 other individuals for approximately $50 million in suspicious wire transfers linked to illicit narcotics and prostitution activity in the U.S. Virgin Islands and New York City.

He was an international power broker, coordinating operations among banking families, intelligence agencies, universities, and governments. He’d been a key cog in the apparatus that seems to run our power structure for at least 40 years. And he provided the U.S. intelligence:

• Epstein “told colleagues and friends that he was an intelligence asset”

• The FBI closed a forfeiture proceeding against Epstein, noting “Epstein… has provided information to the FBI as agreed upon”

• There’s speculation that Epstein was a “confidential informant”

• The U.S. State Department rented Epstein a luxurious townhouse in New York City that had been seized from the Iranian government in 1992. They didn’t even complain when he failed to pay his bills.

• Researcher Mike Benz has detailed reporting all but conclusively showing Epstein helped launder money for the CIA during, at least, Iran-Contra.

And yes, most likely he was leveraging sexual blackmail — as everyone now largely agrees. Were they really going to let Epstein go to trial where he starts spilling secrets? A guy like Epstein would have sooner torched the whole cathedral than quietly accept a life sentence. That was never going to happen.

My working theory is that the feds initially hoped Epstein would be killed in jail — the most convenient outcome for Trump, Barr, and others. Which may explain why they kept housing him with violent inmates. When that failed, they went to Plan B.

Suppression Over Investigation

Of course I cannot prove any of this definitively — although the prostate issue seems as close to proof as it gets. But one thing I can say: even if the feds didn’t help Epstein abscond, why are they acting like they did? If you start with this theory — that they orchestrated a conclusion to the Epstein chapter they hoped would tie up countless loose ends — everything else starts making sense. Including Trump and Bondi’s absolute resistance to dig deeper into the files.

One of the most notable aspects of the feds’ post-Epstein behavior is how focused they are on suppressing incriminating information rather than investigating it.

Case in point: Zorro Ranch. Many Americans have wondered why the feds never raided Epstein’s 7,500-acre New Mexico compound despite multiple victims testifying of abuse there. But it’s worse than neglect — the feds actively prevented others from investigating, reports the Albuquerque Journal.

The request by federal prosecutors essentially “gutted” New Mexico’s investigation into sex trafficking at Epstein’s 7,500-acre Zorro Ranch located 30 miles south of Santa Fe, Balderas said.

“We provided information to them to strengthen their prosecution,” he said. Prosecutors made assurances they would provide findings to New Mexico investigators. “They were making the representation that they were going to prosecute with a multijurisdictional, multistate focus.”

Balderas’ office also sent a letter in 2020 urging federal prosecutors to seize control of Zorro Ranch to preserve evidence, records show. Balderas said he also offered to assist serving search warrants at the ranch but never received a response and has no reason to believe prosecutors acted on the requests …

None of the investigative records provided by New Mexico appear to be among the more than 3 million pages of documents released last month by the U.S. Department of Justice.

The FBI/DoJ’s redactions — technically illegal under the Massie/Khanna disclosure bill — are also telling. The day before Epstein was reported dead, the federal jail transferred out Epstein’s cellmate despite a prison psychologist expressly forbidding this. The records reporting the transfer are blacked out:

This is one of thousands of similar examples. The Massie/Khanna bill specifies redactions are only “permitted to withhold certain information such as the personal information of victims and materials that would jeopardize an active federal investigation.” The law also requires the DoJ to list all redactions and categories of redactions. The DoJ refuses to comply with either requirement.

Should we wonder if the FBI has a conflict of interest considering its post-9/11 data-mining was in large part assisted by Chiliad, a Big Data company run by Ghislaine Maxwell’s sister, Christine? One whistleblower told the FBI “a backdoor to the software is suspected … I suspect Robert, Ghislaine, and Jeffrey were all Mossad agents trying to blackmail leaders in the political and financial world.”

The Impossible Coincidences

I can’t help but acknowledge that putting all of this in writing will be controversial. But this is the actual presumption of a very large swath of the American public — and for good reason. We already know the feds lied about Epstein’s “sweetheart deal.” They lied about his intelligence connections. They lied about the lack of incriminating evidence in the Epstein Files. They refuse to comply with the law requiring the release of unredacted records. And all of that is before the chain of impossibly improbable events surrounding his supposed suicide.

To continue believing the official narrative, you must believe:

It’s just bad luck the body autopsied had an enlarged prostate, despite Epstein telling his own doctor he’d had his removed.

It’s just bad luck a 6 cm tumor documented in Epstein’s neck through 2018 vanished from the 2019 autopsy — with no surgical record explaining its absence.

It’s just bad luck the jail’s known-to-be-broken DVR system wasn’t repaired before the most notorious inmate in the country was found dead.

It’s just bad luck 11 of 12 cameras were either offline or not recording that night.

It’s just bad luck an FBI agent corrupted the data on one of the surveillance drives still in existence.

It’s just bad luck the FBI was unable to recover that footage.

It’s just bad luck the Bureau of Prisons shredded “huge amounts of paperwork” from the jail six days after Epstein’s death, during an active investigation, and that the institutional count slips from the night he died went “missing.”

It’s just a coincidence someone working at the jail posted that he believed they swapped the body out — and the feds subpoenaed his records within hours.

It’s just bad luck that not one but both guards assigned to Epstein’s unit that night fell asleep, failed to make their rounds, and lied about it.

It’s just a coincidence one of those guards was receiving unexplained cash deposits and driving a $62,000 Range Rover, and spent part of the night googling for updates on Epstein in jail.

It’s just bad luck the DoJ dropped charges against both guards.

It’s just bad luck the medical examiner initially needed more time, was denied access to the guard who found the body, and then changed her ruling.

It’s just bad luck a competing pathologist found three neck fractures — more consistent with strangulation than hanging — something he’d never seen in thousands of jail suicides.

It’s just bad luck the feds’ announcement of Epstein’s death was dated the day before he died.

It’s just bad luck Epstein’s FedEx account was shipping packages five years after his death, and his Fortnite account showed activity from Tel Aviv.

It’s just bad luck the feds shut down New Mexico’s investigation into Zorro Ranch and then failed to include any of New Mexico’s records in the 3 million pages they released.

It’s just bad luck so many of the feds’ documents regarding Epstein’s reported final days are still being illegally redacted.

All of this only scratches the surface. Further examples of the feds’ withholding of evidence, as well as conflicts of interest between Epstein-affiliated enterprises and federal officials, are too numerous to document here. One rabbit hole: the Epstein-backed surveillance company Reporty (later renamed Carbyne, also known as Smart911), whose financial backers — including former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak — overlap with the president’s, and whose technology appears to be used at the Pentagon. (There is more on this in the book “Epstein: Dead Men Tell No Tales.” And I can’t help but quickly add: The authors of that book interviewed Epstein’s attorney, victims’ attorneys, among others, and the only person willing to go on record stating he believed Epstein killed himself was Alan Dershowitz. )

Speaking for myself, I can only weather so many insults to my intelligence before accepting I’m being had. We’ll likely never know exactly what happened on August 10, 2019. But one thing I can say with confidence: the feds have absolutely earned their distrust.

*  *  * Spring is here, got seeds?

Very little is known about last week’s incident which forced an ‘unkillable’ F-35 fighter jet to make an emergency landing at an airbase in the Middle East last week, amid reports it took on Iranian fire.

Iranian state media said it was shot and successfully downed. Al Jazeera observed that “If true, this would be the first time during the war that an F-35, the cornerstone of Washington’s aerial firepower, has been struck by Iran.”

US Central Command in the wake of the downing has only offered minimal disclosure, merely confirming the jet was struck, was forced into an emergency landing and that the pilot remains in “stable” condition.

But now Air & Space Forces Magazine has some further details, reporting that the US Air Force pilot was wounded by shrapnel during the attack:

A U.S. Air Force F-35A pilot suffered shrapnel wounds after their aircraft was damaged during a combat mission over Iran on March 19, people familiar with the matter told Air & Space Forces Magazine.

The aircraft was hit by ground fire. Though U.S. Central Command has not provided details, the aircraft was most likely damaged by a surface-to-air missile rather than by small-arms fire or another projectile, given the altitude at which the F-35 typically flies. The incident is under investigation, according to U.S. military officials.

It’s believed to have been a likely surface-to-air missile given the high-altitude profile of the F-35, making small arms basically an impossibility unless for some reason it was flying very close to the earth and at a slow speed.

Meanwhile, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) had released footage days ago claiming to show the strike, stating: “The fate of the fighter jet is unclear and under investigation, and the likelihood of its crash is very high.”

Earlier in the conflict three US F-16s were downed over Kuwait in what the Pentagon has somewhat dubious claimed was a friendly fire incident.

The CENTCOM press release had stated that “During active combat—that included attacks from Iranian aircraft, ballistic missiles, and drones — the U.S. Air Force fighter jets were mistakenly shot down by Kuwaiti air defenses.”

“All six aircrew ejected safely, have been safely recovered, and are in stable condition. Kuwait has acknowledged this incident, and we are grateful for the efforts of the Kuwaiti defense forces and their support in this ongoing operation,” it continued. This has naturally provoked immense skepticism from many journalists and pundits.

*  *  * Spring is here, got seeds?

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The team behind the Arctic Frost investigation subpoenaed years’ worth of records on Kash Patel, who now heads the FBI, according to documents released on March 24.

Former special counsel Jack Smith subpoenaed Verizon for Patel’s phone records from October 2020 through February 2023, the documents, made public by Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee, showed.

Patel was part of the Trump administration from 2019 through January 2021. After the Biden administration took office, Patel began a nonprofit foundation and worked as a consultant, frequently appearing in media to back Trump and his policies.

The subpoenas asked for various details about Patel’s accounts, including financial information and text messages, the records showed. Text and call logs were among the requested details.

Patel disclosed the subpoenas in February, describing them as “outrageous and deeply alarming.”

He said that previous FBI leaders “secretly subpoenaed my own phone records—along with those of now White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles—using flimsy pretexts and burying the entire process ​in prohibited case files designed to evade all oversight.”

The FBI declined to comment further on Tuesday.

Arctic Frost started in 2022. The effort, which involved Smith and FBI officials, featured subpoenas involving more than a dozen Republican members of Congress and the seizure of a phone used by President Donald Trump, whom prosecutors ultimately charged with interfering with certification of the 2020 presidential election for alleging that voter fraud took place.

The case was dropped when Trump in 2024 won a second term in office.

Smith has defended the investigation, telling lawmakers in January that he properly investigated “attempts to interfere with the lawful transfer of power” and that the subpoenaed records were acquired “to understand the scope of that conspiracy, who they were seeking to coerce, who they were seeking to influence, who was seeking to help them.”

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, first obtained records on Arctic Frost and released them in early 2025.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), chairman of the committee’s Subcommittee on Federal Courts, Oversight, Agency Action, and Federal Rights, said during a hearing on Tuesday that Arctic Frost was “a modern Watergate” that targeted lawmakers and people involved with Trump’s reelection efforts, including Patel and Wiles.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) said that the subpoenas of Patel made sense, because the FBI director “made himself a fact witness in that investigation” by making comments on podcasts. Whitehouse said that Patel’s grand jury testimony should be made public.

After years of rapid increases, rent growth in the U.S. is finally slowing—and in some cities, prices are even declining, according to Marketwatch.

From January 2025 to January 2026, rents rose 2.8%, a smaller increase than the year before and lower than pre-pandemic norms, marking the slowest growth since 2021. This cooling trend, driven in part by a surge in new housing supply, suggests the market is stabilizing after an intense period of price escalation. At the same time, easing inflation, steady mortgage rates around 6%, and rising wages could gradually improve overall housing affordability and give households more purchasing power.

Still, housing continues to feel expensive for most Americans because prices surged dramatically during the pandemic and have remained elevated. Income growth hasn’t kept pace, leaving many households stretched and limiting how much relief people actually feel.

Even though rent increases have nearly stalled—growing just over 1% annually in some segments—prices are still significantly higher than they were five years ago, with some cities seeing increases far above the national average. As a result, about half of renters spend more than 30% of their income on housing, underscoring the ongoing affordability crisis.

Marketwatch writes that recent rent declines also haven’t been evenly distributed. The biggest drops are concentrated in fast-growing Sun Belt cities like Austin, where rents have fallen notably from their 2022 peaks, along with places such as New Orleans and Denver. However, these declines often follow unusually steep increases in prior years.

Meanwhile, higher-income renters have benefited more from the recent slowdown, as prices for more expensive units have softened the most. This has pulled down overall averages, making the market appear more affordable than it feels for many.

In contrast, lower-cost rentals saw sharper increases during the boom and have experienced little meaningful relief since. Prices for these units rose faster between 2019 and 2025 and have not declined as much, leaving lower-income renters with fewer gains from the current slowdown. Overall, while the cooling rent market is a step in the right direction, it hasn’t yet translated into widespread affordability, and financial pressure remains especially high for those already most burdened by housing costs.

Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times,

The average tax refund is 10.8 percent higher this year when compared with the same time period in 2025, according to data released by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on March 20.

The figures show that as of March 13, the average refund for individual filers for 2026 was $3,623, up from $3,271 from 2025.

Around 69.7 million individual tax returns have been received by the IRS so far, the agency said, around 1 percent down from the same time period last year. An estimated 164 million taxpayers are expected to file this season, which started on Jan. 26 and will run through April 15.

The release suggests that the average refund size has gradually declined over the past several weeks of filing updates released by the IRS. On Feb. 20, according to the figures, tax refunds increased more than 14 percent over the previous year.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in January touted new tax cuts that were included under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act last year by saying they would lead to “substantial refunds” for families.

“They’re [going to] change their withholding and have bigger take-home pay every two weeks, every month. So, it’s really an exciting time,” he said in a Fox News interview at the time.

The tax refunds come as gasoline prices have surged to nearly $4 per gallon on average nationwide as the price for a barrel of oil has increased amid the U.S. war with Iran that started in late February.

The average price of gasoline ​in America has risen by around $1 per gallon following the strikes on Iran, which prompted Iranian attacks on energy installations around the Middle East and the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, which carries one-fifth of the global oil supply.

The release of IRS data last week comes as the agency announced there is still around $1.2 billion in unclaimed tax refunds for the year 2022, while it also estimated that the median refund for that year is around $686. Taxpayers who haven’t filed a Form 1040 return for the 2022 tax year have until April 15 to submit their returns.

On March 10, officials said that nearly 45 percent of the returns used Schedule 1-A, the form for the new deductions, including approximately 15.5 million that took advantage of tax breaks on overtime and 3.5 million that avoided paying taxes on tips.

“Halfway through this filing season, the Working Families Tax Cuts are already delivering meaningful relief to middle- and low-income taxpayers, increasing after-tax income and putting more money back into the pockets of American families, workers, and small business owners,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement.

The IRS added that taxpayers who may be seeking their 2022 tax refund could see those returns held if they haven’t filed returns for either 2023 or 2024, according to a March 20 news release.

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, backed by Republicans and signed by President Donald Trump in July 2025, included $4.5 trillion in tax cuts, including making his 2017 tax rates permanent.

It also added tax deductions on tips, overtime, and auto loans. There’s a $6,000 deduction for older adults who earn no more than $75,000 a year, while the measure also boosted the $2,000 child tax credit to $2,200.

Ahead of next week’s three-year anniversary of Anheuser-Busch’s most epic marketing ad blunder ever, the Bud Light backlash remains intact and should serve as a case study for generations in how far-left wokeism in corporate America can destroy decades of brand-building overnight.

What began as a viral TikTok promotion featuring Dylan Mulvaney, a man pretending to be a woman, has since become one of the clearest examples of self-inflicted brand suicide in recent consumer history. The latest beer trends from Goldman suggest the brand has yet to fully recover nearly three years later. 

In the latest beer trends report, a team of Goldman analysts led by senior consumer analyst Bonnie Herzog tapped its beer distributor contacts, representing around 60 distributors – or roughly 170,000 retail outlets and about 28% of total U.S. outlets that sell alcohol – and found continued dismal Bud Light consumption trends among Americans.

“Bud Light’s performance continues to level off, even with additional resources being put behind the brand,” Herzog wrote in the note published to clients on Tuesday morning.

Herzog continued, “In terms of specific brands, a distributor noted Michelob Ultra is growing, while Bud Light and Budweiser are struggling.”

To be fair, beer trends have been declining overall in recent years as consumers shift away from alcohol, either due to health trends or because some are gravitating toward marijuana.

The good news for the industry is that 54% of beer distributors expect “a stronger summer selling season,” according to Herzog, who added that volumes are expected to decline by about 1% this year, while noting that Constellation Brands is set to be the “clear outperformer.”

Herzog reiterated a “Buy” rating on Constellation Brands. More details are available in the full Goldman note for professional subscribers.

By Ethan Howland of UtilityDive

The U.S. Department of Energy’s secretary has broad authority under the Federal Power Act to declare emergencies to keep power plants from retiring, and those emergencies don’t have to be imminent, DOE told a federal appeals court last week in response to challenges over its orders keeping a Michigan coal plant online.

“The statute’s text grants the Secretary discretion to determine that an emergency exists,” DOE said in a March 17 brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. “This expressly includes a sudden increase in demand, a shortage of generation facilities, or other causes.”

The brief is the DOE’s first defense in court of the 90-day emergency orders it began issuing last year to prevent fossil-fueled power plants from retiring. So far, the orders have targeted six power plants — all but one coal-fired — totaling about 4,300 MW.

Generally, in those orders, DOE said the power plants need to keep running to prevent blackouts in the face of rising electric demand. The DOE has not allowed any of those orders to lapse, using its authority under the Federal Power Act’s section 202(c) to issue new 90-day orders when the old ones expire.

The brief was in response to challenges brought against the DOE over its May 23 order directing Consumers Energy to continue running the 1,407-MW, coal-fired J.H. Campbell power plant in West Olive, Michigan, past its May 31 retirement date. The department has renewed that order three times since.

Michigan, Minnesota and Illinois as well as the Sierra Club and other groups have challenged the emergency order. In part, they contend that DOE failed to show the Midcontinent region around the Campbell power plant faces an energy emergency.

In its brief, DOE said the Federal Power Act defines emergency broadly.

“It does not require imminence or an unexpected development,” DOE said. “The Secretary is also granted broad discretion to use his ‘judgment’ on what ‘will best meet the emergency and serve the public interest.’”

Moreover, the statute lacks strict procedural requirements, according to DOE.

“Contrary to Petitioners’ contentions, the Secretary was not required to prepare any particular analysis, weigh alternatives, or to select the best theoretically possible emergency response,” the department said.

When DOE considered issuing an emergency order for the Campbell power plant, the department found that electricity demand was rising, major power plants were retiring and new power sources weren’t coming online fast enough, it said. The Midcontinent Independent System Operator was at “elevated risk” for reliability problems and higher than normal temperatures were expected, DOE told the court.

“The Secretary interpreted the totality of this evidence and applied his expertise to find that an emergency exists,” DOE said.

DOE noted that Secretary Chris Wright ordered the Campbell plant to operate under “economic dispatch” to reduce ratepayer costs.

If the court finds a legal flaw in the 202(c) order, it should send the issue back to DOE instead of vacating the order and limiting its ability to issue similar orders, government lawyers argued.

“The Secretary must be able to use section 202(c) to protect public health and safety, particularly in anticipation of extreme weather events like the recent Winter Storm Fern and the ensuing, prolonged cold snap,” the DOE said.

In the seven months after DOE ordered the Campbell plant to stay online, it produced 3.6 million MWh, down 39% from 5.9 million MWh generated over the same period in 2024, according to the latest U.S. Energy Information Administration data. 

Consumers Energy spent about $254 million keeping the Campbell plant operating per the DOE orders through December, according to a Feb. 10 filing at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. It received $119 million in revenue from running the plant in the second half of last year and has asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for permission to recoup $135 million in costs from MISO ratepayers, said CMS Energy Corp., which owns Consumers.

Consumers urged the appeals court in a brief to not weigh in on the cost-recovery issue, which is being handled by FERC.

The utility asked the court to “avoid unintended consequences for those separate proceedings, including making clear that any decision here does not assume the availability of refunds or otherwise affect FERC’s decision-making in those separate proceedings.”

DOE continues to issue emergency orders to keep other fossil-fueled power plants running. On March 16 it issued its second emergency order for TransAlta’s 730-MW, coal-fired Centralia power plant in Washington. The company must make the plant available to run until mid-June under the order. The company had planned to shut it down at the end of 2025.

TransAlta’s president and CEO, John Kousinioris, said during an earnings call in February that the company was complying with the orders, but he did not expect the plant to run given “how flush” the state was with hydropower.

“Our primary focus is more on getting clarity on the existing order,” including how TransAlta will recoup its expenses from keeping the unit online, Kousinioris said.

Other generators under 202(c) orders are in Colorado, Indiana and Pennsylvania.

Authored by David Manney via PJ Media,

California’s education system continues to search for answers while student performance struggles to recover. In one case, the Merced City School District approved a contract worth about $270,000 to bring a rap-based curriculum into classrooms, even as academic performance remains weak.

The district serves over 11,000 students, yet only 13% meet math proficiency standards. The program includes a summer “Rap Camp” and specialized programming tied to cultural themes, all framed to boost student engagement.

The curriculum comes from School Yard Rap, founded by Brandon Brown, a former teacher who promotes music-driven instruction. Lessons include songwriting, DJ work, and performances that connect history and culture through rhythm and storytelling.

“The School Yard Rap curriculum transforms history lessons into relatable characters presented through songs and storytelling—resulting in emotional connection,” the School Yard Rap website states. 

Established in 2016, School Yard Rap, which operates in 28 states, presents “a world where learning meets rhythm, exploring diverse cultures and subjects through interactive music-infused modules.”

Merced has handed out $610,000 worth of contracts to School Yard Rap, the Post reported. Fox News Digital has reached out to the school district and School Yard Rap. 

Supporters believe that approach helps students stay interested in school, an argument that sounds appealing, yet it doesn’t resolve a basic concern. Students struggling with reading and math need direct, structured teaching that builds skills step by step, while a program centered on performance and expression risks shifting attention away from those core needs.

The financial side raises its own concerns; the district has already committed over $600,000 in total contracts tied to the program, a level of spending that stands out in a district already dealing with low performance and limited resources. 

When outcomes remain weak, large investments in unproven strategies invite scrutiny, making leaders accountable for whether those dollars would deliver more value if directed toward tutoring, teacher support, or curriculum improvement that’s focused on the fundamentals.

Federal officials have also taken notice. Harmeet Dhillion, assistant attorney general for civil rights at the DOJ, has warned that race-based programming raises legal concerns, stating that offering benefits based solely on race would violate federal law if proven true.

The Merced program includes an “African American Affinity Group,” which has drawn attention because of how it organizes students. Those details place the district in a position where innovation intersects with legal boundaries.

That’s a concern that doesn’t exist in isolation. Attorney General Pam Bondi and federal civil rights officials have recently taken action in other California districts over programs that classify or treat students differently based on race.

Federal filings have challenged policies that assign benefits or resources using racial categories, arguing that such practices conflict with equal protection principles. These actions signal a broader push to examine how districts design programs and whether they comply with federal law.

California’s education leadership continues to face pressure amid lagging results. State Superintendent Tony Thurmond oversees a system where many students remain below grade level in reading and math. Years of declining performance have created urgency, yet urgency alone doesn’t guarantee sound decisions.

Districts often reach for new ideas in hopes of turning things quickly around. Some ideas may help in limited cases, yet large-scale adoption without clear evidence can deepen existing problems rather than solve them.

Local school boards and administrators are responsible for these choices, deciding how to allocate funding, which programs to adopt, and how to measure success. When a district with low performance heavily invests in a music-based curriculum, it signals a shift in priorities.

Families watching those decisions want reassurance that leaders remain focused on academic growth, not just student engagement. Engagement matters, but it doesn’t replace the need for measurable progress in reading, writing, and math.

Merced’s situation reflects a larger issue across parts of the country, where education systems under pressure turn to bold or unconventional strategies. Some of those strategies generate attention and short-term excitement, while long-term improvement depends on whether students gain the skills they need to succeed beyond the classroom. Without that foundation, new programs risk becoming distractions rather than solutions.

California schools don’t lack funding or attention; they face a deeper challenge rooted in priorities and execution. A rap-based curriculum may draw interest, but interest alone doesn’t raise test scores or close learning gaps.

Leaders must decide whether to continue experimenting or return to methods that have proven results over time. Students deserve clarity, consistency, and a focus on skills that prepare them for the future.

Get more in-depth analysis and unfiltered insight by joining PJ Media VIP today. Right now, save 60% with promo code FIGHT when you sign up. Support independent writing and unlock exclusive content that stays focused on what matters.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has again warned of a “critical energy situation” as oil and gas markets convulse, underscoring growing fears of supply shocks, at a moment President Trump early this week claimed the Strait of Hormuz could “reopen very soon” if talks with Iran succeed – though Tehran has flatly denied any negotiations are underway as confusion reigns over the status of backchannel dialogue. 

Already one country says it is suffering a fuel shortage crisis, amid broader reports of some demand destruction problems coming in from various parts of the globe. Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos on Tuesday said there’s a “distinct possibility” planes may be grounded due to a jet fuel shortage, connected to the war on Iran and de facto closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

“Several countries have already told our airlines they cannot fuel their aircraft, so they have to carry fuel there and back,” he told Bloomberg News in an interview.

He additionally warned that long-haul flights could become “a much more serious problem” due to the fuel crisis and restrictions. He was specifically asked whether planes might inevitably be grounded, to which he responded: “We’re hoping not, but it’s a distinct possibility.”

Now in its fourth week, the US-Israel-Iran war had already disrupted commercial flights across the Gulf and Mideast region, especially impacting key regional hubs of Dubai, Doha, Abu Dhabi, and Tel Aviv – due to the ongoing missile and drone danger in the skies. Another significant development reported by Bloomberg Tuesday:

Vietnam Airlines will temporarily suspend flights on some domestic routes as jet fuel shortages and rising fuel prices caused by the conflict in the Middle East start to impact the nation’s air travel.

The national flag carrier will cut around 23 flights per week from April 1 over tightened supplies of jet fuel, according to a statement from the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam. VietJet Aviation JSC is also reducing flights on some routes, according to schedules on its booking website.

But as far as oil and fuel flows disruptions, Asia in particular has been the first region to feel the supply crunch most acutely. Below is a round-up of some of the latest examples:

Flight surcharges: Some Asian countries, including Vietnam, say airlines are planning to role out fuel surcharges ​on ​international routes ⁠from early April.

Diesel shortages in Thailand: The abbot of Wat Saman Rattanaram in Chachoengsao province, about 50 miles east of Bangkok, warned that cremation services may have to be suspended. “In more than 50 years, I’ve never seen anything like this,” he said.

More drastic power-saving measures… Last week, the Thai government ordered civil servants to take the stairs rather than the lift, and it’s increased the air-conditioning temperature to 27C. It will tell government employees to wear short-sleeved shirts rather than suits.

Bangladesh electricity rationing:  Lectures at the country’s main universities have been cancelled until later this month as the government closed the campuses to save electricity.

India panic-buying gas supplies: India has been dealing with a squeeze in cooking gas supplies over the past few days, leading to panic-buying by domestic users.

Scrambling for cheap local alternatives: There are reports that suggest some regions in India are witnessing a spike in timber sales, while others see increased sales of cow dung cakes – both biomass fuels.

…and there are widespread images and examples of huge lines at gas pumps across various countries.

Major cities in India, particularly #Hyderabad is currently experiencing a severe Compressed Natural Gas #CNG shortage, forcing thousands of auto-rickshaws and cabs off the roads or into long, hours-long refueling queues pic.twitter.com/h0xMYHXDNr

— S.M. Bilal (@Bilaljourno) March 24, 2026

We also detailed earlier that hundreds of service stations across Australia have run out of fuel. 

Energy Minister Chris Bowen warned federal parliament on Monday that more than 109 gas stations in Victoria had run out of at least one grade of gas. He said 47 outlets in Queensland had no diesel, 32 had no regular unleaded, and 37 stations in New South Wales had completely run out of fuel.

The below data from Goldman Sachs charts an array of examples over the past couple weeks:

“The flow of oil to Asian refineries has slowed, and that has downward impacts on us,” Bowen said, adding, “We’re in an uncertain environment, so that’s why we’re doing all the preparatory work.” 

Bowen warned that fuel supplies were at about 38 days for gasoline. He said only 30 days of diesel and jet fuel remained. There’s the potential that the crisis could be coming to fuel pumps near you.