Lee Ardis

Portland declares fentanyl state of emergency as overdose deaths skyrocket

Just three years after decriminalizing the possession of all drugs, Portland has declared a 90-day state of emergency over its fentanyl crisis.

Following recommendations from the Portland Central City Task Force, officials from the city, county and state have declared a “tri-governmental” emergency, citing deaths and overdoses as reasons for the declaration. Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, Oregon Governor Tina Kotek and Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson made the declaration.

Governor Tina Kotek said: “Our country and our state have never seen a drug this deadly addictive and all are grappling with how to respond.”

She added: “The Chair, the Mayor and I recognize the need to act with urgency and unity across our public health and community safety systems to make a dent in this crisis. We are all in this together.”

The emergency order will enable the city, county and state to allocate more resources for responding to the crisis and establish a command center, which will be headed up by the director of Portland’s Community Safety Division. Individuals who are addicted to fentanyl who interact with first responders in the city during the next 90 days will be triaged by the command center. Officials will also launch public health campaigns and improve outreach to help people with treatment and recovery.

In addition, Portland Police will join forces with the Oregon State Police to patrol the streets of the city’s downtown area for sales of fentanyl.

Multnomah County Commissioner Julia Brim-Edwards explained that fentanyl use is everywhere. She said: “If you go to any neighborhood, whether it’s near a school, inside the bathroom at a public library, at a bus shelter, all over the city, you will see that fentanyl has a grip on our neighborhoods.”

Decriminalization measure could be rolled back

In 2020, voters in Oregon passed Measure 110. This decriminalized the use of some hard drugs, including fentanyl. However, opioid overdose deaths have risen considerably since then, and the measure has come under fire. In 2019, the state had 280 opioid overdose deaths; the number climbed to 956 in 2022. Oregon is grappling with the biggest increase in fatal overdoses of synthetic drugs in the nation and ranks third in overall overdose deaths, according to CDC data.

A proposal to roll back some parts of Measure 110 has attracted bipartisan support in the Oregon legislature; the new measure will see some hard drugs being recriminalized and require people who are arrested for possession to undergo counseling for addiction.

Much of the fentanyl in U.S. originates in China and is smuggled across Mexican border

Fentanyl is a highly addictive drug that is deadly even in very small amounts. The synthetic opioid is said to be 100 times more powerful than morphine and 50 times more potent than heroin. It is approved by the FDA for the treatment of acute pain.

U.S. to run out of armaments in two weeks if it embarks on a multi-faceted war with Iran, Russia, Yemen and possibly the “Republic of Texas,” former Navy SEAL warns

In light of recent events in Texas, where the state Governor Gregg Abbott stands firm in dodging a United States Supreme Court ruling of authorizing border patrol agents to tear down razor fences that the Texas National Guard has installed, former Navy Seal and renowned author Matt Bracken warned of a possible secession of the state from the union and return to being its very own “Republic of Texas.”

On top of the migrant crisis, President Joe Biden’s regime likes to think of the country as “the most powerful force on Earth” as it gears up toward a multi-front war with various countries such as Iran, Russia, Yemen and other countries.

“Joe Biden is still living in the 1980s or maybe, he’s just living in a total fantasy land. But he still thinks America’s military and the U.S. sanctions are the most powerful forces in the world,” Brighteon founder and “Health Ranger Report” host Mike Adams said during a recent episode, where he had Bracken as a guest. “[Treasury Secretary] Janet Yellen thinks we can fund unlimited wars by printing money, even though we can’t manufacture munitions. We’re gonna have a war with Russia, Iran, China and Texas. But we would not have the capacity.”

The novelist agreed, adding that Russians and the other nations can surge their armaments. “If we go to war with them, we’re out of all of our weapons in two or three weeks, completely out,” he said a matter-of-factly. He added that Russia has extra strong missiles. “They have fired missiles at specific targets early in the war and they nailed the barracks. It’s sort of like a brushback pitch by a baseball pitcher. That’s a message for the Pentagon: ‘You’ve got nothing that can stop these dudes,'” he said.

The author also pointed out that Americans do not stand a chance with the sophisticated “engineering skills” of Iranians. He quoted Larry Johnson who said that attacking Iran kinetically now is the stupidest move “because it will just unite all of them and they’ll forget that they hate the Ayatollah and the Crusaders. He said it would be much smarter “if we just continue to destabilize them internally, and politically, because attacking them kinetically is so stupid.”

In one of his books that is about to be released, entitled “Doomsday Reef,” Bracken also presented a scenario about 10-15 years post-United States empire collapse, Texas and Louisiana, have supposedly freed themselves following a massive 80-percent reduction in the American population. “The recovery begins with the oil refineries because they have the latent capacity in this scenario, fuel is everything. You cannot run a modern economy. Fuel is the lifeblood,” he described a chapter in his book. “General Jackson in Texas, he had the foresight to occupy the region between Galveston and Houston, which is called Texas City, and call volunteers, retired infrastructure workers, engineers, soldiers, and start rebuilding it.”

According to him, once the Texas militia – not the American army or the National Guard –can fuel its own boats, ships and trucks, buses and airplanes, it can then expand its control and eventually take control of all of Texas. They will declare it as a republic, without having further to do with the United States. “Texas, under the Lone Star flag, will be an independent country,” he predicted based on his current analyses.

Terror Groups Evacuate Their Positions After Biden Admin Tips Them Off To Their Plans

The Iranian-backed terrorists responsible for murdering three U.S. soldiers, and injuring dozens more, in an attack over the weekend have started to evacuate their bases after President Joe Biden’s administration leaked to the media this week that they are gearing up to respond by carrying out a sustained bombing campaign.

The news comes after NBC News reported on Wednesday that the U.S. retaliatory strikes would be a “campaign” that lasts “weeks,” according to U.S. officials.

The officials went as far as to say that the U.S. would target “Iranian targets outside Iran, and the campaign will involve both strikes and cyber operations,” the report added.

CBS News reported late on Wednesday that the the terror groups that make up Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an Iranian-backed terrorist group, have “evacuated their bases in Iraq and Syria, fearing U.S. retaliatory strikes after Sunday’s attack.”

A U.S. official further telegraphed America’s forthcoming punches by telling ABC News that “these are going to be very deliberate targets — deliberate strikes on facilities that enabled these attacks.”

Andrea Stricker, Deputy Director & Research Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ (FDD) Nonproliferation & Biodefense program, criticized the Biden administration for tipping off the enemy about what its plans were.

“Having let these attacks go on for so long—resulting in the deaths of three service members—the administration must now ‘shock the system’ of the regime to deter further attacks,” Stricker told The Daily Wire on Tuesday. “The blow must be so devastating that Tehran orders its proxies to stand down.”

Utility Bill Debt For Americans Hits Record As Heating Homes Now Seen As Luxury

The Biden administration has whined for months about the public’s negative views on the economy, arguing that people are operating on “false perceptions influenced by right-wing media.”

Most Americans have figured out that government officials and the corporate media have a habit of misrepresenting economic data to convince the public that the economy has never been better.

Last June, the White House unleashed a media campaign with corporate media to blast out the message that “Bidenomics” worked and the economy has never been better. But polling data from Real Clear Politics shows that despite the PR blitz, the president’s polling data went down.

People know when their wallets are hurting, and gaslighting them has not been effective.

Yet another data point released Tuesday supports the public’s position that the nation is less prosperous than the government would like us to believe.

Bloomberg cites a new report from the National Energy Assistance Directors Association that reveals US household utility debt hit a record as an alarming number of Americans can no longer afford heating and cooling their homes.

NEADA said one out of every six ratepayers is behind on energy bills, adding residential utility debt hit a new record last year of $20.3 billion.

The group, representing state-level directors of low-income utility assistance programs, pointed out household heating costs have soared 20% since the start of Covid.

Folks in New York and Michigan have been impacted the most by soaring energy bills, the report said. As of Sept. 30, there were more than 7 million households on utility bill assistance.

Looking at the US CPI Northeast Urban Household Energy index, a basket of household fuels, such as propane, kerosene, and firewood, as well as electricity prices, remains near record highs.

Meanwhile, more than 60% of Americans reported that their wages were lagging well behind inflation.

Montana Child Protective Services Medically Kidnapped Teen Girl to Wyoming for Gender Affirming Care, Fully Revokes Parental Custody

In a controversial and heart-wrenching case, Montana’s Child Protective Services has been accused of forcibly transporting a 14-year-old girl from her family in Montana to Wyoming for gender transition treatment, leading to a complete revocation of her parents’ custody.

The family’s media representative, Mattie Watkins, has disclosed a distressing account to The Gateway Pundit involving the Kolstad family of Montana.

Todd and Krista Kolstad have been embroiled in a legal and emotional struggle for their 14-year-old daughter after Montana CPS took drastic action that is tantamount to “kidnapping.”

In April 2023, the Montana legislature passed State Bill 99, which banned the medical transitioning of minors. However, a series of events unfolded in August that significantly impacted the Kolstad family.

Their daughter was transported to Wyoming, a state with different laws regarding the medical transition of minors, by the Montana CPS for treatment of her sudden onset “gender dysphoria,” despite the parents’ express disapproval.

In August 2023, police informed the Kolstads of a text message from their daughter claiming she was suicidal. They were notified by police that their daughter had allegedly ingested drain cleaner and taken an overdose of ibuprofen.

Todd Kolstad, a US Air Force veteran, said in a video, “Our 14-year-old daughter has struggled for quite some time in school from bullying. We have had many meetings over the years with the school systems trying to address these issues.”

“We even moved from Flathead County in west Montana to a much smaller town in Valley County in east Montana, hoping that this will give our daughter a fresh start in a new school system and new environment. On August 18, 2023, we received a call from our local city police. We were informed that our 14-year-old daughter was texting a friend that she had met at a school track meet, saying she wanted to kill herself.

“It should be noted our daughter had only met this child once face to face several months prior and had only phone conversations with her ever since. We took this threat seriously and spoke to our daughter. However, we knew she was struggling with anxiety since school was about to start on Monday. She was also very angry with us because we told her she needed to put her two-week notice in at her summer job so she could focus on starting the 9th grade, Todd said.

The hospital found no evidence of drain cleaner and ibuprofen, which was later confirmed by a negative toxicology report. Despite this, the girl, who now wished to be called “Leo” and use male pronouns, was admitted for observation, during which the staff ignored the Kolstads’ objections based on their faith and values.

Krista said in a video, “The hospital continued to call our daughter Leo, even though she’s a minor, and after I stated it’s against our wishes, our religion, and our core family values, the hospital told me to call their lawyer if I have an issue, as they will do what the patient tells them.”

“I said to them, according to State Bill 99, they may not under the law provide transgender care nor transition our child. Their response was, they are not providing surgery or hormones, so they’re operating in the gray area of the law. I further explained that my understanding of the law was a minor is a minor, and there’s no difference between a four-year-old and a 14-year-old, and we prefer to be called by her birth name.”

Further complicating the matter, a hospital aide discussed “top surgery” (elective double mastectomy) with the girl, leading to a complaint from Krista Kolstad.

STUNNING: Map Shows All Food Processing Plants That Have Burned Down, Blown Up or Been Destroyed Under Biden

Folks, this is truly stunning.

They are trying to destroy our food supply!

As someone who sits in this chair and covers the news each day, I see this firsthand.

Heck, we covered […] one just this morning.

I knew there have been a lot of food processing plants and other food supply buildings that have burned down, blown up or otherwise met a catastrophic, untimely end in the last 3 years, but I had no idea just how many until I saw it all together in one place.

I’ve been here to cover each of these, but it’s really jarring when you see it all in one place.

Here’s a complied list of nearly 100 fires from 2021 and 2022 from Rumble:\

[Read the list on 100percentfedup.com]

Just like I sincerely doubt Hillary and Bill Clinton have over 100+ friends and close business associates who committed suicide or died under strange circumstances, I do not believe these are all accidents.

No way.

This looks intentional to me.

This looks like an intentional destruction of America from the inside to me.

539 arrested in massive human trafficking operation in California

Law enforcement authorities released information about a massive operation targeting human traffickers that led to more than 500 arrests.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said in a media briefing Monday that police had arrested 539 people in the criminal operation.

“Human trafficking and child exploitation are devastating crimes that prey on some of the most vulnerable members of our community,” the sheriff said.

Police rescued 54 adults and 11 children from exploitation during the action dubbed Operation Reclaim and Rebuild, he added. 40 of the arrested were suspected “sexual traffickers or exploiters” while another 271 arrested were suspected “sex buyers.” Among those rescued was a 14-year-old girl.

He went on to say that the operation was in its tenth year and ended in January, known as human trafficking awareness month, but that police worked all year to arrest human traffickers.

Joining Luna at the media briefing was controversial Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón, who won his position with financial help from left-wing billionaire George Soros. Residents of Los Angeles have vehemently criticized Soros over soft prosecutorial policies that they say have led to an increase in crime.

The operation included more than 95 local, state, and federal agencies, including the Los Angeles Regional Human Trafficking Task Force.

Alan Smyth, the CEO of human trafficking advocacy group Saving Innocence, said that his group saw an uptick in human trafficking ahead of the World Series baseball championships in Los Angeles in 2020, and they expected to see the same ahead of the NFL Super Bowl.

Los Angeles Sheriff Alex Villanueva said the purpose of the operation was to “send a message to pimps, exploiters and buyers that it is unacceptable to buy another human being for sexual purposes.”

Exclusive: As Communist Nicaragua Tries to Eradicate Christianity, Persecuted U.S. Pastor Leads ‘Massive Move of God’

An American pastor wanted on dubious charges by the communist government of Nicaragua told Breitbart News on Wednesday that he believes his organization, Mountain Gateway, is the latest victim in a growing campaign to eradicate Christianity in the majority-Christian country.

Pastor Jon Britton Hancock explained that the Sandinista government told Mountain Gateway it was facing charges of “money laundering” and “organized crime” but has not published an indictment or clarified the alleged evidence backing the charges. Speaking to Breitbart News this week, Hancock confirmed that the Nicaraguan government is obstructing due process to such a degree that his organization does not even have the charging documents that say what crimes it allegedly committed. There is no public indictment. The imprisoned have been denied reasonable access to a legal defense. And the patterns of repressive behavior that Ortega has adopted against Christians suggest to Hancock that this is yet another case of Christian persecution in Nicaragua.

The arrests, Hancock said, interrupted a rapidly swelling wave of Christian fervor in the nation that Mountain Gateway was intimately involved in stirring.

“We saw a massive move of God involving hundreds of thousands of people. That has been a tremendous influence in the hearts of the people of Nicaragua,” Hancock said.

Police arrested 11 pastors associated with Mountain Gateway in December: Walner Omier Blandón Ochoa, Maricela de Fátima Mejía Ruiz, Marcos Sergio Hernández Jirón, Harry Lening Rios Bravo, Manuel de Jesús Ríos Flores, José Luis Orozco Urrutia, Álvaro Daniel Escobar Caldera, Juan Carlos Chavarría Zapata, Juan Luis Moncada, Orvin Alexis Moncada Castellano, and César Facundo Burgalin Miranda.

They have also sought the arrest of Hancock, his son Jacob Britton Hancock, and daughter-in-law Cassandra Mae Hancock, all American citizens who work in Christian ministry.

In a press release on Wednesday, Mountain Gateway emphasized that it “does not understand the complexity of what is happening” and especially questioned why 9 of the 11 pastors arrested remain behind bars when the Nicaraguan government itself says they “are innocent, but claims they were under the control of the three U.S. citizens and two of the imprisoned Nicaraguan pastors.”

“It’s hard to understand this allegation because the government has viewed and approved our funding as it entered the country,” Hancock told Breitbart News this week. “We have documentation outlining our submission for approval of ministry operations funds and for those funds’ approval.”

The anti-Christian context of the political situation in Nicaragua suggests that the charges are part of a greater ambition to erase the faith from the country. In 2018, massive anti-communist protests erupted in the country, peaceful in nature and often backed by local priests in Catholic communities. Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, responded with outsized violence, killing more than 300 people. The visible presence of the Catholic Church in supporting the protests led Ortega to declare the Vatican a terrorist organization and accuse it of attempting to stage a coup against his regime – even as the Vatican largely remained silent and the opposition voices were local Nicaraguan priests.

Senator John Kennedy Introduces Bill to Stop Government From Using Aborted Babies for Research

Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, joined Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) in introducing the Protecting Life and Integrity in Research Act.

The bill would prohibit federal departments, agencies and offices from conducting, funding or approving research involving human fetal tissue obtained through an induced abortion. It would not prohibit the development of new, high-efficiency cell lines, as long as those lines do not derive from fetal tissue researchers gain access to because of an abortion.

“It’s unconscionable that our government would use American taxpayer dollars to fund research that exploits or depends on the taking of innocent life. If the Biden administration won’t stop this immorality, Congress should,” said Kennedy.

“The harvesting and trafficking of the body parts of unborn babies killed through abortion is heinous and unethical. Taxpayer dollars for medical research should be spent on research that will deliver results for enhancing quality of life, instead of devaluing life for the sake of research. This legislation would stop the Biden administration’s gross abuse of taxpayer funds,” said Hyde-Smith.

16-year-old showed no remorse after stabbing friend to death over dispute about McDonald’s sweet and sour sauce, police say

Prosecutors said that a teenage girl showed no remorse after killing her friend over a dispute about sweet and sour sauce from a McDonald’s fast food restaurant in Washington, D.C.

The 16-year-old was convicted for stabbing Naima Liggon, also 16 years old, in August after a house party they had attended. On Thursday, she was given the maximum sentence allowed and will stay in custody until she turns 21 years old.

Prosecutors said text messages she sent after the stabbing showed she had no remorse for her actions. They also said that surveillance video showed the girl could have simply walked back into the McDonald’s for more sweet and sour sauce.

The defense tried to argue that the girl acted only in self-defense because two people were trying to jump her. They also claimed that was had experienced past trauma and had been triggered in the lethal reaction.

Naima’s mother, Joy Liggon, responded to those claims in an interview with WRC-TV outside the courtroom.

“I don’t know what this young lady went through,” she said. “I don’t know what her life experience was, but I know she committed a crime, and she took someone away from my family.”

“That she called a friend,” added Wallace Liggon, the father of the victim.

The teenager issued a statement to the Liggons in court.

“Sorry to the friends and family. I am sorry to cause you this pain,” she said in part. “I still think about the victim and I want to apologize to Naima’s mother. I am a very genuine person and I’m not a bad person.”

Joy Liggon went on to say that she was relieved the girl got the maximum sentence but added that it wasn’t enough. She had asked for prosecutors to file a first-degree murder charge, but instead, they agreed to a plea deal with the girl for a lower charge.

“You have to realize that your kids have free will and free choice to do what they want, so just keep encouraging them to do the right thing,” she continued. “Walk away from conflict. Some things are just not that serious — definitely sweet and sour sauce.”