The threat in the past year is not just abroad

'I put my hand on his face'

'All of these individuals and entities in my view have exposure here'

'Our hearts are filled with pain and sadness'

News Books on the Hill Press Small Press Releasing Dyslexic-Friendly Books Signs Major Novella Deal One small press is making reading more accessible than ever By Vanessa Armstrong | Published on October 7, 2024 Comment 0 Share New Share The Clevedon U.K. bookstore, Books on the Hill, already has a dyslexic-friendly shop,  and its owner, Alistair Sims, set up a small press that just closed a deal with major authors like Peter James, Lee Child, Karin Slaughter, and Bernard Cornwell to publish dyslexic-friendly novellas. Books on the Hill Press has different formatting than typical books, which makes reading easier for those who are dyslexic. Some of those attributes include larger font size, more space between lines, and having left-aligned text. You can see their current offering here, which includes books by Neal Asher, Garth Nix, Gareth Powell, and Adrian Tchaikovsky. Today marked the beginning of World Dyslexia Awareness Week, and Sims is urging all publishers to have one percent of their books printed in a dyslexic-friendly fashion. “People assume that, if a book is for dyslexic adults, then it’s simplified in plot and language, but it’s not,” he told The Guardian. “We’re not really changing the contents, we’re changing the formatting to make it easier to read.” Sims—who has dyslexia—also shared with The Guardian that his books have been well-received by those with the same condition: “I’ve had people come into the shop and once they’ve looked at those books, they’ve said: ‘That’s something for me specifically, I can read this.’ A couple of people even cried. So it does make a difference to people’s lives.” [end-mark] The post Small Press Releasing Dyslexic-Friendly Books Signs Major Novella Deal appeared first on Reactor.

FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—Rep. Sharice Davids, D-Kan., appears to have used tax dollars to communicate with constituents too close to the Nov. 5  election. Both federal law and House ethics rules restrict the use of taxpayer-funded resources to communicate with constituents within 90 days of an election.  Photos provided to The Daily Signal show boxes of documents marked as “499s,” a Capitol Hill term for mass mailings to fewer than 500 constituents.  A photo provided to The Daily Signal appears to show 499s from the office of Rep. Sharice Davids, D-Kan. Any mass mailings to 500 or more recipients must be approved by the House Commission on Congressional Mailing Standards, which also is known as the House Franking Commission.  The photos show documents in the boxes said: “Rep. Davids’ Final 499 APC Mailer Drop Checklist.” It wasn’t clear what APC stands for in this context. The documents are dated Sept. 16 and the named staff contact is Eric Stecklow, listed online as a senior communications adviser to Davids.  Federal law imposes a 90-day ban on a member of the House or Senate spending official funds for any unsolicited mass communication within 90 days of an election in which the lawmaker’s name is on the ballot.  Further, House Administration Committee regulations prohibit a House member from spending official funds to make any unsolicited mass communication within 90 days of any election in which the member’s name is on the ballot. The regulation defines “unsolicited mass communication” as “any unsolicited communication of substantially identical content to 500 or more persons in a session of Congress.”  A photo provided to The Daily Signal appears to show a box of documents designated as 499s from the office of Rep. Sharice Davids, D-Kan. Davids was first elected to represent Kansas’ 3rd Congressional District in the House in 2018, a major year for Democrats that saw the party flip the House of Representatives.  The Daily Signal reached two spokespersons for Davids—Zac Donley and Riley George—on Friday and Monday. Neither responded to requests for comment.  Davids, a lawyer, previously was a professional fighter in mixed martial arts. In 2019, the chief of staff to a fellow House freshman Democrat, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, publicly attacked Davids for voting to fund border security.  Categories and issues of interest are noted among documents from the office of Rep. Sharice Davids. It’s not clear how or if federal law on congressional mailings close to an election is enforced, but the House Ethics Committee could choose to enforce it, said Hans von Spakovsky, a former Justice Department lawyer who is a senior legal fellow with The Heritage Foundation. “If she was going to do this mass mailing, it would seem to not only be in violation of ethics rules, but also federal law,” von Spakovsky told The Daily Signal, referring to Davids.  “This would be up to the U.S. Justice Department [to pursue],” he added. “Given the way that [Attorney General] Merrick Garland has totally politicized the department, the chances of him enforcing the law against a Democrat are nil.”  The post EXCLUSIVE: Do House Democrat’s Mass Mailings Run Afoul of Law and House Rules? appeared first on The Daily Signal.

DAILY CALLER NEWS FOUNDATION—Republican Sen. Eric Schmitt of Missouri released a letter Friday pressing the FBI in response to an audit from the Office of the Inspector General that found “egregious failures” in the agency’s handling of child sexual abuse cases. Schmitt, who was joined by 10 other Senate Republicans, addressed FBI Director Christopher Wray after the OIG report found instances of “gross negligence” in areas such as victim services, mandatory reporting of suspected child abuse, case transfers between offices, and timely responses to child sexual abuse allegations, according to the letter. Schmitt asked the FBI to explain how these lapses took place, if the agency implemented any disciplinary measures, and to describe how resources were allocated to handle child sexual abuse cases. “This level of negligence is beyond unacceptable—it’s indefensible,” Schmitt said in the letter. “At a time of historically low trust in American institutions, the FBI continues to undermine its own credibility when it comes to safeguarding our children from predators who wish to do them harm,” Schmitt said in a press release. “It is not only outrageous but unacceptable that the FBI continues to fail the victims of sexual abusers. These victims deserve justice. The FBI has questions to answer and changes to make in the coming days and months.” In nearly half of the cases reviewed by the OIG, the FBI failed to fulfill mandatory reporting requirements to state and local law enforcement as well as to social services, according to the letter. Of the reports that were filed, only 43% were reviewed within 24 hours, and only 17% were fully documented. The audit also revealed that an alarming 73% of transferred allegations lacked verbal contact or confirmation of a receipt, according to the letter. In one case, the FBI delayed action on an allegation against a registered sex offender for over a year, during which he began to allegedly abuse another individual. “How can the American public trust the FBI when it consistently neglects to fulfill its duties in protecting our children from abuse?” Schmitt said in the letter. Following the Larry Nassar scandal, where the U.S. gymnastics coach was convicted of sexually abusing hundreds of athletes, the FBI said it would improve its standards to ensure cases like these are properly handled, according to the letter. Schmitt pointed out that the OIG report proves the FBI’s enforcement is not sufficient. “Under [Wray’s] leadership, the FBI has not only failed to implement effective changes but has instead continued to mishandle cases of child sexual abuse with disturbing frequency,” Schmitt said in the letter. Along with these findings, Schmitt points out a whistleblower report from 2022 alleging child sexual abuse investigations were “deprioritized in favor of politically charged January 6 inquiries,” according to the letter. The Department of Justice requested over $30 million from Congress specifically for Jan. 6 investigations, prioritized “DEI hiring practices,” and other “radical reforms.” “Protecting all Americans, especially children, must take priority over politically motivated sideshows,” Schmitt said. “Ignoring child exploitation investigations for political expediency is a grave betrayal to the victims who depend on the FBI’s expertise and resources.” The letter was signed by Schmitt as well as Republican Sens. Rick Scott of Florida, Ted Cruz of Texas, Mike Braun of Indiana, Josh Hawley of Missouri, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Marco Rubio of Florida, Joni Ernst of Iowa, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Mike Lee of Utah, and Roger Marshall of Kansas. The FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation. Originally published by the Daily Caller News Foundation The post Eric Schmitt, GOP Senators Press FBI Over ‘Indefensible’ Mishandling of Child Sexual Abuse Cases appeared first on The Daily Signal.

The North Carolina State Board of Elections unanimously passed measures attempting to address concerns about hurricane-ravaged western counties leading up to the Nov. 5 presidential election.  With the notable exception of the more metropolitan Asheville, county seat of Buncombe County, most of the hardest-hit North Carolina counties in the path of Hurricane Helene are rural and lean Republican.  But the state election board for the fiercely contested battleground state—former President Donald Trump is neck and neck with Vice President Kamala Harris—has a 3-2 Democratic majority. Harris and Trump are polling less than 1% with one another, according to the Real Clear Politics polling average, and past presidential contests have been tight in the state.  The election board unanimously voted Monday to allow 13 counties most affected by the storm to make changes in election procedures, so long as there is a bipartisan majority to do so.  The process would include changing or adding voting sites and notifying voters by mail and through local media about such changes as quickly as possible. The resolution adopted by the state board allows the chairman of local election boards to appoint replacement members if someone is unable to carry out his or her duties.  “These measures were put in place to ensure the victims of Helene can vote in the upcoming election and provide election officials in the hardest-hit areas the tools they need to conduct a secure election under extraordinarily difficult conditions,” Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the North Carolina State Board of Elections, said Monday during a teleconference with reporters. I am in Big Oak Park, a mobile home community 30 mins south of Asheville. Its residents, many of whom are 55+ years-old and at-risk have been without power for 10 days. Residents tell me that trash has been building up, inviting disease and bears. More to come. pic.twitter.com/kOTZHXxH9b— Tim Kennedy (@TimKennedyJr1) October 6, 2024 In response to a question about absentee ballots, Bell said that “some of the ballots haven’t been delivered to homes or the local boards of elections, and certainly we are working on tracking those.”  But, she added, many civilian absentee ballots were received by voters. She encouraged residents to use the state’s online ballot tracking system. State officials haven’t done enough to respond to election challenges posed by Hurricane Helene, contends a former deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.  Ken Cuccinelli, acting deputy homeland security secretary in the Trump administration, said North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, and the board failed to respond to the lessons learned from Hurricane Sandy, which made landfall on the East Coast weeks before the 2012 presidential election.  “America has learned a great deal about how best to execute an election following a natural disaster in the nearly 20 years since [Hurricane] Katrina struck [in 2005],” Cuccinelli, now national chairman of the Election Transparency Initiative, said in a public statement.  Meet Dianne Messer, who, along with Doug Warden, who is 93-year-old, run Big Oak Mobile Park in Hendersonville, North Carolina.Dianne was kind enough to show me around the property and introduce me to some of the residence, many of whom have been without power for 10 days.… pic.twitter.com/tRZuvYhqi9— Tim Kennedy (@TimKennedyJr1) October 6, 2024 “While several of North Carolina’s neighboring states have moved to implement those lessons, North Carolina’s Gov. Cooper has been shockingly inactive, as have his allies on the state board,” he said. The Tar Heel State has become a major battleground for the 2024 presidential election. In 2020, incumbent Republican Trump carried the state against Democratic challenger Joe Biden by just 1.3%. In 2016, Trump beat Democrat Hillary Clinton in North Carolina by less than 4% of the vote.  In-person early voting begins Oct. 17. Mail-in voting began Sept. 21, after a brief delay to accommodate a court ruling to remove independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s name from the ballot.  “We have every intention of starting early voting as scheduled on Thursday, Oct. 17, in all 100 counties,” Bell, the state election board’s executive director, said.  This is how high the water got during hurricane Helene over a week ago in?River Arts District, Asheville pic.twitter.com/RgNdOgYrLr— Tim Kennedy (@TimKennedyJr1) October 6, 2024 Hurricane Helene made landfall first in Florida, then swept through parts of Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Alabama, killing more than 220 and leaving catastrophic property damage. Of these states, North Carolina sustained the worse beating.  Cuccinelli’s Election Transparency Initiative noted one reported concern that relocated nursing home residents won’t be able to vote.  The elections watchdog group also noted that it’s still unknown which preapproved polling sites are unserviceable in the 22 counties affected by Helene. North Carolina law requires the election board to approve alternate sites.  Also, suspension of deliveries by the U.S. Postal Service in the state’s western counties disrupted mail-in voting.  Cuccinelli said Cooper and the elections board should “stop stalling and start working to ensure that those communities already devastated by Helene at least have their voice through their votes.” Cuccinelli, also a former Virginia attorney general, specified two top North Carolina Republicans who could do this. “To the extent Gov. Cooper refuses to make immediate adjustments, when the General Assembly convenes next week we urge swift action from House Speaker Tim Moore and Senate Leader [Phil] Berger to maintain the integrity of the upcoming election across the western counties of North Carolina—ensuring it proceeds securely and fairly without compromising the democratic process,” Cuccinelli said.  Cooper’s office did not respond to inquiries from The Daily Signal by publication time.  Patrick Gannon, a spokesman for the North Carolina State Board of Elections, referred The Daily Signal’s request for comment to the governor’s office, but also sent an email statement from the board arguing that criticism of the state is “uninformed.”   “The State Board of Elections is committed to ensuring every eligible voter is able to cast their ballot, regardless of their circumstances following the disaster,” the board’s statement said, adding: The affected counties and their staffs are working around the clock to guarantee their neighbors their right to vote. Criticism like this is simply uninformed. It’s also a slap in the face for the dozens of election workers, especially those who are themselves victims of the disaster, who are putting in long hours under trying circumstances to serve their voters. Hendersonville, North Carolina | Alexander, a resident of Big Oak Park, gave me a tour of his community yesterday. Many of the trailers destroyed by hurricane Helene are uninsured and Some belong to families with newborns. @DailySignal pic.twitter.com/XcMQ315EEK— Tim Kennedy (@TimKennedyJr1) October 7, 2024 The board provided increased flexibility to these 13 counties: Ashe, Avery, Buncombe, Haywood, Henderson, Madison, McDowell, Mitchell, Polk, Rutherford, Transylvania, Watauga, and Yancey. The board’s Democratic chairman is Alan Hirsch, president of the North Carolina Healthcare Quality Alliance, a nonprofit focused on rural treatment of opioid addiction and prevention as well as on mental health issues. Hirsch has donated thousands of dollars to Democrat campaigns, including the state’s Democratic Party, then-President Barack Obama, and Cooper, the sitting governor, according to Open Secrets.  Bell has been executive director of the North Carolina Board of Elections since 2019. She is listed on the board’s website as the state’s “chief elections official.”  Bell previously was the election board’s deputy director beginning in 2015. She oversees 100 county election boards. Bell has worked in administrative roles for county and state elections since 2006. From 2011 to 2015, she directed the election board in Transylvania County, which is heavily Republican-leaning. Before that, she was a district elections technician for the state board. NCSBOE-Helene-20241007 Emergency Resolution for 13 WNC Counties_Final_SignedDownload In a Monday op-ed in Townhall, former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, a Republican, noted that about 40,000 mail-in ballots were sent to voters in Helene-affected counties and that only 1,000 were returned.  “These hard-hit counties, which supported Donald Trump with 61% of the vote in 2020, are now grappling with slow recovery efforts, unreliable communications, and an inadequate federal response,” Blackwell wrote. “As citizens in rural, heavily Republican regions seek to participate in the democratic process, the state’s electoral integrity is on the line, especially as concerns about political maneuvering grow in the aftermath of the storm.” Blackwell also warned against sweeping statewide changes that could undermine confidence in the Nov. 5 election.  “Expanding voting measures across the entire state, including areas that were not affected by the hurricane, could open the door to accusations of partisanship,” he wrote. “It’s important that we help the residents of these rural, counties without altering the broader electoral landscape in a way that might be seen as tipping the scales.” Tim Kennedy contributed to this report. The post Will Battleground North Carolina Voters Overcome Hurricane Helene Challenges? appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Columbia Student Protesters Celebrate Hamas on Anniversary of Attack (Update)

More SciAm Gender Madness