Oil Smuggling Finances Islamic State's New 'caliphate'

It looks like the grounds crew at the Wisconsin State Capitol haven't been keeping up on their, um, weeding: Capitol workers on Friday removed what appear to be several cannabis plants from a flower bed near the west entrance to the statehouse building that were planted without officials' knowledge. Department of Administration spokeswoman Tatyana Warrick said department staff were made aware of the plants in question on Capitol grounds by a media outlet on Thursday. "We do not have the expertise to confirm whether the plants were cannabis, but our facilities staff have examined the area and removed the plants," Warrick said. Shelby Ellison, an assistant professor in the Department of Plant and Agroecosystem Sciences at UW-Madison, said the plants looked purposefully planted in the flower beds that contained mostly tulips but that it was unclear whether the plants could be used as marijuana without further testing. The picture in the article shows the plants are pretty tall, which makes one wonder just how long it has been since the grounds workers did any weeding (pun intended). The article also doesn't say what happened to the cannabis plants or whether they would be tested.

You remember these two. Bridget is the founder of Moms for Liberty and the chief morality cop on the Sarasota County School Board, and her husband Christian was the former head of the Florida GOP who was accused of raping one of their playmates. The anti-LGBTQ predator refused to resign after this sex scandal. Via the Palm Beach Post: A newly surfaced memo from a Sarasota Police investigator described numerous text messages between Christian and Bridget Ziegler where the two were "on the prowl" for a female sexual encounter at different bars, according to records obtained by the Herald-Tribune. In the memo, SPD investigator Angela Cox described seeing messages where Bridget would direct Christian in search of someone they were both interested in having sex with.

If ever you needed proof that it’s the Biden administration looking out for the little guy, while Trump looks out for himself and his wealthy donors, look no further than the right-wing attacks on the CFPB’s efforts to protect Americans from predatory lending practices. The Washington Post makes clear that the Trump administration wanted lenders to be able to make expensive loans to low-income borrowers that they could not afford to repay. The dispute began in 2017, when the watchdog agency issued rules preventing payday lenders from offering expensive loans to low-income Americans who could not afford to pay the money back.

Arizona officials have been trying to locate former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani to serve him with an indictment after a grand jury indicted 18 people in late April over an alleged attempt to alter the results of the 2020 presidential election. So, Giuliani took to Xitter to taunt the authorities at his 80th birthday party in Palm Beach, saying in part, "If Arizona authorities can't find me by tomorrow morning, they must dismiss the indictment." And, of course, Giuliani was served.

Instead of constantly wringing their hands about tariffs, the media might do better actually to define them.

Leftists with nothing left to do but eat their own.