[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Kansas City's Democratic mayor has passed the buck to police about his city's collapse into Mad Max-style lawlessness, with gangs of thugs and bikers scaring locals to stay in their homes after dark.
Speaking with the Daily Mail, Quinton Lucas slammed the 'reckless and foolish' street-racing gangs that terrify locals, but rejected claims that he's personally responsible for the collapse of law and order in his city.
Residents and business owners accuse Lucas of soft-on-crime policies and failing to prosecute lawbreakers since the George Floyd race riots of 2020, and of ignoring their repeated pleas for public safety.
Despite these widespread concerns, Lucas said the problem was under control, that Kansas City could 'handle this moment' and that a police recruitment drive would get more officers on the streets in the coming months.
He spoke as his terrified residents complain that downtown Kansas City has become a hotspot for illegal street racing, reckless ATV and dirt bike riders tearing through the neighborhoods.
Locals now fear to tread downtown after dark — and owners of bars and restaurants there say they can understand why, while also complaining that they're on the brink of going bust.
The dystopian scenes recall the Mad Max movies, which saw a 'road warrior' played by Mel Gibson and Tom Hardy terrorized by post-apocalyptic gangs riding motorbikes and ATVs across the Australian desert.
Another video of brazen lawlessness emerged this week, showing two people mercilessly punching and kicking another person on the sidewalk at a bus stop in the downtown area at night.
'We need to make sure that we have enough officers,' Mayor Lucas, 40, told Daily Mail in a phone interview on Friday.
'More than anything, we need to make sure that there are real consequences for those who are engaging in reckless and foolish behavior in downtown Kansas City and all around our community.'
Lucas said he had not seen the latest shocking videos to emerge of chaos on Southwest Blvd — footage of a rider popping a wheelie and speeding when he hit the walker, who was trying to cross the street.
The mayor has faced criticism for ignoring business owners when they report their concerns about crime and how their eateries are suffering to their top local official.
Lucas he has spoken with David Lopez, the general manager at Manny's Mexican Restaurant — one of the downtown restaurateurs who has complained that diners are too scared to go out for a meal, and that businesses are suffering.
'I have great confidence in the city being able to handle this moment and many others,' said the mayor, who lives in a four-bedroom, $500,000 home.
'I know other American cities are confronting at these traffic issues, street racing and beyond, I think we need serious enforcement for all of them, and I think that's what we will continue to see.'
He added that Kansas City police was seeing its largest recruitment drive 'in over a decade,' which he said would help address the problem.
But Mark Anthony Jones, chairman of a district Republican committee, slammed Lucas, saying the mayor had championed soft-on-crime polices since the George Floyd race riots erupted in early 2020.
'He wants to blame the police, but the reason the police can't seem to get a handle on this is because everything that they do, they get their hands slapped by the mayor,' Jones told The Daily Mail.
Jones lives in downtown Kansas City and says he and his neighbors are regularly disturbed by noisy ATVs and other vehicles racing in the lawless streets in the middle of the night.
'People aren't wanting to go out after dark because you might get shot,' he said.
'In my own street at 3am in the morning, somebody will be shooting. That kind of stuff is normal here.'
Sean Smith, a Republican legislator for Jackson County, added that Lucas is struggling against long-term Kansas City problems of crime and poverty, and he 'has a lot on his plate' thanks to a crisis in City Hall.
City manager Brian Platt, who led efforts to improve traffic safety, was fired last month for retaliating against a whistleblower who'd complained that he directed employees to lie to the media.
Funding for Kansas City police is determined by the state and has been subject to years-long controversy. City officials tried to get more control over police resources amid the Floyd-era protests, but faced opposition from state Republicans.
Missourians voted last year to require Kansas City to direct at least 25 percent of its budget to police, compared to 20 percent previously.
Kansas City business owners have been complaining about lawlessness for weeks.
Frustrated business owners and locals are weighing whether to abandon downtown altogether, blaming the Dem-run city's leadership and law enforcement for failing to curb the chaos and restore a sense of safety.
'This isn't a race issue, this isn't a political issue, this is a safety issue,' Lopez, a local business owner, told Fox News, noting how chaos right outside is a constant occurrence, posing extreme danger for the surrounding community.
'I feel as though this city is about unsafe as it's been since my family has been at 207 Southwest Boulevard, and that's 45 years this September,' he added.
'When things out of your control start to chip away at the very foundation of what you've done for four generations, it hurts.'
Not only is the community feeling the impact as they return to the safety of their own homes by nightfall, but long-standing local businesses are bearing the brunt - watching foot traffic vanish and revenue slip away.
[FoxNews] 'The President has the authority to seek changes to executive branch agencies, but he must do so in lawful ways,' US District Judge Susan Illston said
A federal judge on Friday issued a temporary pause on the Trump administration’s plans to restructure various government agencies and cut tens of thousands of federal workers because the government overhaul was not authorized by Congress.
U.S. District Judge Susan Illston put a 14-day pause on the mass layoffs, siding with a group of unions, non-profits and local governments after they filed a lawsuit on April 28.
Illston said Trump may broadly restructure federal agencies, but only in "lawful ways" with approval from Congress.
"The President has the authority to seek changes to executive branch agencies, but he must do so in lawful ways and, in the case of large-scale reorganizations, with the cooperation of the legislative branch," Illston said. "Many presidents have sought this cooperation before; many iterations of Congress have provided it."
"Nothing prevents the President from requesting this cooperation—as he did in his prior term of office," the judge continued. "Indeed, the Court holds the President likely must request Congressional cooperation to order the changes he seeks, and thus issues a temporary restraining order to pause large-scale reductions in force in the meantime."
Illston's ruling was the broadest of its kind against administration efforts to overhaul the federal government, which have been led by Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency, DOGE.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House for comment.
In February, Trump directed agencies to work with DOGE to identify targets for mass layoffs as part of the administration's plans to restructure the government.
#1
The leftist judges know they will lose. They are on a disrupt and delay agenda, otherwise they would do it together. But no, they wait until one judge loses and the next steps up. This is sedition. Or maybe its justification for congress to authorize a third term....
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
05/10/2025 11:26 Comments ||
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[JustTheNews] In April, Newsom bragged about the strength of the California economy, sharing it’s now the world's fourth-largest economy in U.S. dollars
California legislators have been told to expect a deficit of $10 billion or more even if revenues do not fall due to higher than anticipated spending, reports Politico.
Critics note that the $10 billion figure matches the estimated costs of the state’s expansion of eligibility for Medi-Cal, the state’s taxpayer-financed health care system, to all income-qualifying illegal immigrants.
“What a fiscal coincidence: precisely the estimated cost of Gavin Newsom’s plan to extend state Medi-Cal to illegal immigrants,” said Will Swaim, president of the conservative California Policy Center on X.
Earlier this week, the state-funded Legislative Analyst’s Office warned the state’s economy is “stagnant" and “fragile" and that the budget is reliant on an “unsustainable” stock market. Earlier Friday, the LAO urged lawmakers to consider the possible negative downturn that tends to, but does not always accompany, significant decreases in consumer sentiment.
“If hard economic data fall in-line with worrisome economic indicators, the state’s revenue outlook will turn more negative; however, recent history suggests this outcome is far from certain,” wrote the LAO. “As such, we urge policymakers to weigh the risks of both the possibility of a further downturn and of better than expected growth when making budget decisions.”
Last year, the state narrowly closed a $73 billion deficit through a combination of spending cuts, deferrals, shifts, and reserve withdrawals.
Now, even if state tax revenue remains steady, rising non-discretionary spending, such as from Medi-Cal, combined with possible cuts or funding withholding at the federal level could leave the state billions of dollars short yet again.
Federal spending in California is set to be $171 billion this year.
In February, state officials said California had spent $9.5 billion thus far on Medi-Cal services for illegal immigrants, The Center Square first reported, resulting in California Gov. Gavin Newsom requesting a $6.4 billion emergency bailout to fund the program for the remainder of the fiscal year.
In April, Newsom bragged about the strength of the California economy, sharing it’s now the world's fourth-largest economy in U.S. dollars — due to the relative decline of the Japanese yen to the dollar. After accounting for the high cost of goods and services, California only barely edges out low-performing Italy, and the state has shed hundreds of thousands of private sector jobs amid lower projected sales and corporate tax revenue.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] The mayor of Newark was dramatically arrested at an ICE detention facility in New Jersey on Friday.
Mayor Ras Baraka was detained for 'trespassing' according to Alina Habba, the US attorney for the state, who said he 'ignored multiple warnings' by Homeland Security Investigations to leave.
Dramatic footage showed frantic people scrambling outside the gates of the facility, before Baraka was arrested and escorted away by police.
Officers were seen shoving protesters out of the way amid the chaos. Rep LaMonica McIver who was at the facility claimed she and her colleagues were assaulted by ICE officers.
Following his detention, Habba said: 'He has willingly chosen to disregard the law. That will not stand in this state. He has been taken into custody. NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW.'
Governor Phil Murphy said he was 'outraged' by the arrest and called for his 'immediate release'. Baraka was released a few hours following his arrest.
The mayor claims the detention center has been illegally housing migrants amid Trump's mass deportation push.
The mayor claimed the jail has a contract with the city and cannot be housing migrants inside.
Last week he attempted to break in, vowing to turn up daily until he was let in.
A spokesperson for the company which operates the facility confirmed to DailyMail.com that migrants have been housed at the facility for a week.
'Delaney Hall houses illegal aliens. It is not a family detention facility, nor does it house minors,' a spokesperson told DailyMail.com.
[Politico] Within the West Wing, Trump has grown increasingly focused in recent weeks on lowering drug prices, urging aides to find policies capable of making a big dent in the cost of medicines, according to two of the people familiar with the matter.
Trump’s poll numbers have suffered in recent weeks since his tariff policies have begun to rattle markets and raise fears of widespread inflation and shortages of consumer goods.
White House officials initially pressed congressional Republicans to draft in their megabill a “most favored nation” provision tying the cost of medicines in Medicaid to the lower prices developed countries pay abroad.
But that bid ran into opposition across the GOP conference and is unlikely to be included in the legislation, said one of the people familiar with the matter.
The White House is instead now expected to try to advance the drug price proposal on its own, using existing authorities to impose its “most favored nation” model.
The effort, if finalized, would likely draw massive opposition from a drug industry that has warned the idea would decimate companies’ ability to develop new drugs. It could also trigger fresh legal challenges.
Trump’s order this go-around will look largely similar to his first, with even less specifics on which direct medicines are targeted, said one of the people familiar.
If he can move the Overton Window merely by saying a few words…
[Daily Mail, whee America gets its news] President Donald Trump is looking at suspending habeas corpus, the right of a person to challenge their detention in court, as part of his sweeping immigration crackdown.
'The Constitution is clear, and that, of course, is the supreme law of the land, that the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus can be suspended in a time of invasion,' White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller told reporters.
'So it's an option we're actively looking at,' Miller said. 'A lot of it depends on whether the courts do the right thing or not.'
Trump campaigned for the White House on a pledge to deport millions of undocumented migrants and has repeatedly referred to their presence in the United States as an 'invasion.'
Since taking office in January, Trump has been seeking to step up deportations, but his efforts have met with pushback from multiple federal courts which have insisted that migrants targeted for removal receive due process.
Although Trump has not mentioned habeas corpus explicitly in public, last month he commented on steps he could take to combat nationwide injunctions against his actions on deportations.
'There are ways to mitigate it and there's some very strong ways,' Trump told reporters on April 30.
'There's one way that's been used by three very highly respected presidents, but we hope we don't have to go that route. But there is one way used successfully by three presidents – all highly respected – and hopefully we don't have to go that way but there are ways of mitigating it.'
One former federal prosecutor told CNN that Miller has the wrong idea about suspending habeas corpus.
'Essentially everything Miller says about suspending habeas corpus – which would eliminate the ability of the courts to rule on immigration matters – is wrong,' said Elie Honig, now a CNN senior legal analyst.
'The Constitution makes clear that suspension of habeas corpus is to be reserved for actual rebellion or invasion posing the most dire threats to public safety. And Congress has never passed a law authorizing deportations without any court involvement, as Miller suggests.'
Among other measures, Trump has invoked an obscure wartime law in March to summarily deport hundreds of alleged Venezuelan gang members to a prison in El Salvador.
Several federal courts have blocked further deportations using the 1798 Alien Enemies Act and the Supreme Court also weighed in, saying migrants subject to deportation under the AEA must be given an opportunity to legally challenge their removal in court.
The AEA was last used to round up Japanese-Americans during World War II and was previously invoked during the War of 1812 and World War I.
Many judges, including one appointed by Trump, have rejected the invocation of the AEA, stating in rulings how the administration had not shown the United States to be under invasion by a hostile foreign power, as laid out under the 18th century statute.
Suspending habeas corpus could potentially allow the administration to dispense with individual removal proceedings and speed up deportations, but the move would almost certainly be met with stiff legal challenges and end up in the Supreme Court.
It has been suspended only rarely in US history, most notably by president Abraham Lincoln during the 1861-1865 Civil War and in Hawaii after the December 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
In March, the US government deported more than 200 Venezuelan immigrants alleged to have ties to the Tren de Aragua gang to El Salvador, paying the Salvadoran government to imprison them.
Since then, they have had no access to lawyers or ability to communicate with their families. Neither the US nor Salvadoran governments have said how the men could eventually regain their freedom.
The Republican president has touted his immigration crackdown as he marked his 100th day in office last week.
Trump won the White House election last November in large part on promises to combat what he repeatedly claimed is an invasion of criminal migrants.
Trump has sent troops to the Mexican border, imposed tariffs on Mexico and Canada for allegedly not doing enough to stop illegal crossings, and designated gangs like TdA and MS-13 as terrorist groups.
In March Trump invoked the little-known Alien Enemies Act and flew two planeloads of alleged Tren de Aragua members to El Salvador's notorious maximum security CECOT prison.
In a proclamation, Trump said Tren de Aragua was engaged in 'hostile actions' and 'threatening an invasion or predatory incursion against the territory of the United States,' adding that Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro was pulling the strings.
#8
He really doesn't have too. Just open up DOJ investigations of the judge's financial history and if they are meeting with hostile foreign powers. The ones that are, arrest and press charges. There is enough of them to make the others shit themselves.
#10
Again, these judges are attacking one at a time to delay and disrupt our national agenda set by the voters. This is sedition. And if they keep it up we will rally for Trumps third term
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
05/10/2025 11:28 Comments ||
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#11
If the argument is whether or not we are experiencing an invasion I think all you need to do is look at pictures of those caravans making their way through Mexico to our border. Of course, they can't invaded us with their military because they have no military of any consequence. That doesn't mean it's not an invasion. It most certainly is. Anyone who, by any means, contributed funding or any other kind of aid to the migrantsinvaders is guilty of aiding and abetting the enemy.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
05/10/2025 12:05 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
