Representative Ilhan Omar called for a $1 million earmark in a congressional spending bill. It was slated for a Somali-led addiction recovery organization that shares an address with a Somali restaurant. It looks like Ilhan Omar attempted to launder one million dollars in the form of a grant to a Somali substance abuse clinic. The […] The post Red Flags! Rep. Ilhan Omar and Her Potentially Criminal Earmark appeared first on www.independentsentinel.com.

Bob Weir, who co-founded the Grateful Dead and helped introduce new generations to the band at the end of a virtuosic career, died Saturday following a brief battle with cancer. He was 78. “It is with profound sadness that we share the passing of Bobby Weir,” the guitarist’s family wrote in a statement posted on his website. “He transitioned peacefully, surrounded by loved ones, after courageously beating cancer as only Bobby could.” “A guitarist, vocalist, storyteller, and founding member of the Grateful Dead,” the statement continues, “Bobby will forever be a guiding force whose unique artistry reshaped American music.” Fans were shocked to learn that Weir received his cancer diagnosis in July and began treatment just before performing in a series of shows to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Grateful Dead in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. His final performance with the band was, fittingly, “Touch of Grey,” a 1987 song about coming to terms with growing old that marked the Grateful Dead’s only appearance on the Billboard Hot 100. The youngest member of the band’s founding lineup, Weir was known for his fierce stage presence and baritone voice, which served as counterpoints to frontman Jerry Garcia’s hippie tenor. Like the band’s founding bassist, Phil Lesh, who died in October 2024, Weir was known for his unique style of rhythmic playing, which served as the driving pulse of the Dead’s famous jams. Bob Dylan called Weir “a very unorthodox rhythm player” who “plays strange, augmented chords and half chords at unpredictable intervals that somehow match up with Jerry Garcia.” Weir, whose voice even casual Dead fans will recognize from the verses of “Truckin’,” wrote or co-wrote many of the Grateful Dead’s most popular songs, including “Sugar Magnolia,” “Jack Straw,” “Mexicali Blues,” and “Playing in the Band.” Known affectionately to friends and fans alike as “Bobby,” Weir is survived by his wife, Natascha, and their two daughters, Monet and Chloe. Born Robert Hall Parber in San Francisco on October 16, 1947, Weir was adopted by Frederic and Eleanor Weir shortly after birth. Weir met a 21-year-old Jerry Garcia on New Year’s Eve 1963, when Weir was just 16. The pair joined with Lesh, drummer Bill Kreutzmann, and pianist Ron “Pigpen” McKernan to form the Grateful Dead in 1965. He remained with the band until they disbanded following Garcia’s death in 1995. Like Garcia, Weir had a prolific musical career outside the Dead. In the early 1980s he formed Bobby and the Midnites, a band packed with jazz veterans that blended jazz, rock, and power pop in two albums and legendary live shows. In 1998, Weir, Lesh, Kreutzmann, and Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart formed The Other Ones, which continued the Dead’s legacy of improvisation-driven live shows. Weir partnered with Lesh again in 2009 to form Furthur, a psychedelic jam band that was active until 2014. From 1995 until 2014, Weir was also the frontman for RatDog, his primary post-Dead vehicle. In 2015, Weir launched his most enduring side project, which wasn’t really a side project at all. Weir met John Mayer, then a nascent Deadhead, at Capitol Studios that winter. A few weeks later, when Mayer was slated to guest-host The Late Late Show on CBS, he invited Weir to join as the musical guest. The two first played together during a now-legendary soundcheck that lasted more than two hours and inspired the pair to launch Dead & Company. The revival act, which featured Mayer in Garcia’s place, brought Weir back together with drummers Hart and Kreutzmann, along with Allman Brothers bassist Oteil Burbridge and RatDog keyboardist Jeff Chimenti. Dead & Company played more than 200 shows over its 10-year run, including two residencies at the Sphere in Las Vegas. Though Mayer and Weir conceived of it as its own entity, Dead & Company continued the Grateful Dead’s tradition of live jams and brought their catalogue and the Deadhead culture to a new generation of fans. Tributes to Weir are pouring in from all corners of the globe, a testament to his and the Dead’s wide-reaching appeal. “Rest in Peace Bob Weir. Thank you for all the years of support in the environment wars and thank you for your friendship,” Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy posted, along with a picture of him with Weir. Rest in Peace Bob Weir. Thank you for all the years of support in the environment wars and thank you for your friendship. “Fare-thee-well now Let your life proceed by its own design Nothing to tell now Let the words be yours, I’m done with mine” pic.twitter.com/MqD0w9BWGj — Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) January 11, 2026 “Mostly, he just loved playing, and I loved that about him,” Phish frontman Trey Anastasio wrote on Instagram. “I don’t think he ever got caught up in the bigness. I don’t think it meant anything to him. There were times when I was talking to him when I thought he was the last actual hippie.”     View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Trey Anastasio (@treyanastasio) Daily Wire host Michael Knowles hours chipped in with a rendition of “Sugar Magnolia” on his ukelele, adding only, “RIP, Bob Weir.” RIP, Bob Weir! pic.twitter.com/yoBtdAmn5D — Michael Knowles (@michaeljknowles) January 11, 2026 Though fans remained unaware of Weir’s failing health, the guitarist reflected on mortality in a March interview with Rolling Stone. “I’ll say this: I look forward to dying. I tend to think of death as the last and best reward for a life well-lived. That’s it,” Weir said. “I’ve still got a lot on my plate, and I won’t be ready to go for a while.”

'I have provided you with facts and information'

We clearly don't have to worry about the future of hockey

The synagogue has suspended services indefinitely.

'Back to the baseline'

Sunday Smiles

At Turning Point USA’s annual AmFest, BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey and Senior Director of TPUSA Faith Lucas Miles dove into one the most pressing spiritual issues facing our nation right now: weak pastors. Miles calls them “trembling pastors.” They aren’t necessarily “traitorous” in that they’re deliberately spreading ideas antithetical to Scripture, but they also aren’t “true pastors” willing to boldly speak truth no matter the cost.These men, fearful of dividing their congregations or financial loss, steer clear of politically charged subjects.But the problem with that approach is that so many political issues today are theological at their core. Abortion, marriage, gender, race, and justice have deep spiritual implications, but because these issues appear on the ballot, many pastors turn a blind eye to them and fail to lead their congregations.But Allie and Miles argue that truth only prevails when pastors courageously lead in all areas.“I remember one of the things that Charlie [Kirk] said to me is that courage is easy. All you have to do is say yes. You don't have to have a degree on the wall; you don't have to have a bunch of money; you don't have to have good looks. You just have to be willing to say, like, ‘Here I am, Lord. Send me,”’ says Miles.“I think we need more pastors to do that. … What we're trying to do at TPUSA Faith is be that voice coming alongside of them and saying, ‘Rise up, you mighty valiant warrior. It's time to get in the fight here."’One type of weak pastor Allie says she sees a lot of are those unwilling to touch anything related to race. They’ve “got it on abortion; they've got it on marriage and gender,” she says, but “the racial social justice stuff” is where they “totally fumble the ball.”This was especially apparent during 2020, when the death of George Floyd set off a social justice movement that razed entire cities to the ground. During that time, there were so many pastors who “sounded so much like BLM or the world when it came to race and justice,” she tells Miles.Miles says that while he has grace for the pastors who posted black BLM squares before it came out that it was “Marxist, anti-family, anti-God organization,” his sympathy ends with those who never repented.“I've not seen one of these guys go back and repent of that and actually acknowledge this,” he says.While it’s easy to write this off as pride, part of the problem is lack of education.Many of these pastors simply “don't know the history of liberation theology. They don't know that it's a hybrid between Marxism and Christianity. They don't know about James Cone. They don't know about this idea of crucifying the white Jesus,” says Miles.To learn more about how TPUSA Faith is walking alongside pastors, educating and encouraging them to boldly proclaim truth and, as Charlie Kirk is famous for saying, “make heaven crowded,” watch the full interview above.Want more from Allie Beth Stuckey?To enjoy more of Allie’s upbeat and in-depth coverage of culture, news, and theology from a Christian, conservative perspective, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.