7 Ways to Know and Fulfill God’s Purpose for Your Life

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis intensifies the legal battle against Nicolás Maduro, exploring state charges that could accelerate justice for Floridians. DeSantis Targets Maduro with State Charges In a bold move to safeguard Florida’s interests, Governor Ron DeSantis announced that his administration is considering filing state charges against former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. This potential legal action focuses on drug trafficking into Florida and the importation of criminal elements, crimes that have had a direct negative impact on the state. DeSantis’ decision follows Maduro’s recent arrest by federal authorities on charges related to drug trafficking and weapons violations. The Governor’s stance aims to hold Maduro accountable for actions that have brought turmoil to Florida and to leverage the state’s legal systems for swift justice. These state charges represent a strategic escalation beyond federal actions, focusing on the specific damages incurred by Florida. Historical Ties and Political Dynamics Maduro’s leadership in Venezuela since 2013 has been marred by accusations of narcotrafficking, a charge that the U.S. has long pursued. Under the socialist regime of Hugo Chávez, Venezuela shifted from prosperity to poverty, a transformation highlighted by DeSantis as a cautionary tale of socialism’s failures. The Governor’s consistent criticism over the years underscores his commitment to protecting Florida from the fallout of such policies. Florida, home to a significant Venezuelan diaspora, feels the stakes of this legal battle acutely. Many residents have fled the Maduro regime, seeking refuge from the economic and social upheaval that has gripped their homeland. DeSantis’ actions are seen as a direct response to these community concerns, reinforcing his stance against socialism and drug-related crimes. Legal and Political Implications This move by DeSantis is not just about law enforcement; it is a statement on state sovereignty and the ability of local governments to respond to international crimes that affect their jurisdictions. While federal charges against Maduro progress, Florida’s potential state-level prosecution could proceed on a faster timeline, offering a quicker path to justice for those affected. The implications of this case extend beyond the courtroom, influencing political dynamics as Florida prepares for upcoming elections. DeSantis’ actions may bolster his political legacy and appeal to conservative voters who prioritize law and order and protection against international threats. Sources: DeSantis says Florida looking ‘very seriously’ at bringing state charges against Maduro DeSantis targets Maduro with potential state case for drug trafficking into Florida Maduro arrest triggers celebration, outcry, and concern among Florida leaders and activists Ron DeSantis considers state charges against Maduro for drug trafficking

Having maintained the highest household savings rate among European countries for 10 years, German citizens have together squirreled away $11 trillion in personal wealth. This gargantuan rainy day fund was the result of a 20-21% average savings rate maintained by the country between 2014 and 2024. It ranked among the highest savings rates of any […] The post German Households Pass €10 Trillion in Savings After Disciplined Decade of Highest Savings Rates appeared first on Good News Network.

By the author of Prepper’s Pantry Most people who are working hard to eat well consume a lot of fruits and vegetables. One of the biggest issues folks noticed back when we did the Stockpile Challenge every year is getting enough produce in their diets. It can be a major challenge when living from your stockpiled foods to get enough fruits and vegetables.  This is dangerous because, without produce, your family can be at risk for nutritional deficiency diseases like scurvy and their immune systems will be compromised.  A minimum of 5 servings per day is recommended, but during the long winter, how can you meet that goal with the contents of your pantry? As well, many people these days generally eat a low-carb diet that is reliant on protein and produce. (You can get more info about stockpiling for a low-carb diet here.) Supplying your family with produce that will provide the necessary nutrients that their bodies need to thrive is a twofold process.  Not only should you preserve the summer’s bounty for the winter ahead, but you should also come up with ways to add fresh greens outside of the growing season. These suggestions are plucked from my book, Prepper’s Pantry. Building a Stockpile of Fruits and Vegetables When creating your produce stockpile, you have to look at what actually constitutes a “serving” for the people you will be feeding.  It may not actually be the amount that you expect. For example, a child’s serving of green beans is anywhere from a quarter cup to a half a cup (depending on their age), but an adult’s serving is a full cup.  So for a child, plan on 1-3 cups of produce per day and for an adult, plan on 5 cups of produce per day. What to Buy At the grocery store, look for sales to build your supply of produce: Dried:  Dried fruits such as raisins, banana chips (without sugar), and dried cranberries can pack a lot of nutritional punch into a tiny serving size.  Think of them as concentrated vitamins. An adult serving of raisins is only 1/4 cup, which means that you can pack a lot of nutrition into a small amount of space with dried fruits. Canned:  Canned goods such as tomatoes, green beans, and peas can go a long way towards providing nutrition. The benefit to those rows of tin cans is that you don’t require power to store them safely, and they are fully cooked so you don’t even have to heat them up in a grid down situation.  You can also find many varieties of canned fruit but beware of heavy syrups. Opt for fruit canned in juice if possible. Frozen:  Frozen fruits and vegetables are the closest to fresh that you can get.  This is a great way to build a stockpile for times when money is tight, but don’t put all of your produce in the freezer.  During an extended power outage, you stand to lose a large portion of your deep freeze contents. If you do purchase a large amount of produce for the freezer, have canning jars, lids, and an off-grid method for canning them if the electricity goes down for the long-term. Freeze-dried:  This is a more expensive option, but freeze dried fruits and vegetables maintain nutrients, require little storage space, and need no special storage conditions.  You can add a great deal of variety to your pantry with a selection of freeze-dried ingredients, and the foods, if sealed correctly, can last up to 25 years.  You can find a wide variety of freeze-dried fruits and vegetables HERE. Preserving Fruits and Vegetables There are many effective ways to preserve fruits and vegetables that you acquire fresh.  Whether you harvest them from your own property, buy them at the farmer’s market or a local orchard, or even make a bulk purchase from the discount bin at the grocery store, having the supplies and skills to quickly preserve them can allow you to make the most of your windfall. Learn more about the following methods. Dehydrating Canning Root Cellaring – Keep onions, potatoes, parsnips, carrots, apples, and winter squash in a cold room. Freeze-Drying – home freeze dryers are becoming very popular – go here for some expert advice Indoor Gardening There are all sorts of things you can grow indoors, even in the dead of winter. It helps to have a south-facing window and barring that, a grow light. I have had wonderful luck with spinach, lettuce, herbs, garlic, green onions, and even some teeny little radishes. I know others who have been successful with tomatoes and peppers but I have personally never managed those inside. (Maybe one day I’ll get my dream sunroom!) Some folks keep dwarf citrus trees in their homes, also. And don’t overlook the value of sprouting. Sprouts grow incredibly quickly. They’re easy to grow and highly nutritious. You can learn absolutely everything you ever wanted to know about sprouting at this website. I like bean sprouts and microgreens the best.  Each type of sprout has a very different texture and flavor. Any tips? Many in our community are just beginning to build their pantries.  Do you have any budget-friendly tips for adding fruits and vegetables to the larder?  Please share them in the comments below… Want to learn more? Check out my book! Lots of us like to have hard copies of the information that we’ve found helpful.  Because of this, I’ve written up everything I know about building a stockpile on a budget and put it all in one handy primer, available on Amazon. Check out Prepper’s Pantry: Build a Nutritious Stockpile to Survive Blizzards, Blackouts, Hurricanes, Pandemics, Economic Collapse, or Any Other Disasters The post How to Get More Fruits and Vegetables in Your Prepper Stockpile appeared first on The Organic Prepper.

Tim Walz is going away, but the Democratic Party’s Tim Walz crisis isn’t. The Minnesota governor gave up his quest for a third term Monday: Staying out of jail will be challenging enough for him over the next few months, never mind prolonging his stay in office. Federal prosecutors estimate the Somali daycare scam and other frauds perpetrated under his watch cost taxpayers up to $9 billion. Money like that goes a long way in politics. Over the years, Walz and his party have received plenty of campaign cash from the Somali community, a loyal—and influential—bloc in Minnesota Democratic politics. The fraud was no well-kept secret; an independent journalist, Nick Shirley, easily exposed it. But whistleblowers who’d tried to raise the alarm earlier were ignored—it wasn’t convenient for Walz and friends to notice what a key constituency was up to. Just 14 months ago, Walz was Kamala Harris’ running mate; he could have been a heartbeat away from the White House. He was meant to be the answer to the national Democratic Party’s branding problems—its reputation for cultural weirdness and its difficulty courting white, male and rural voters. Walz was supposed to be a reassuringly “normal” Democrat, but it turns out what passes for normal in the party today is deep incompetence, corruption and worse. Tim Walz is indeed a symbol of his party, in all the worst ways. Minnesota was the upper Midwest’s only holdout in the Trump wave of 2024, the last blue redoubt in a region painted red by Trump’s populist rebranding of the Republican Party. Does Walz‘s disgrace put the state in play for 2028? That would be catastrophic for the Democrats’ electoral map, throwing another 10 electoral votes to the GOP. The last time the state voted for a Republican president was more than 50 years ago, when it backed Richard Nixon in 1972. It’s been 20 years since a Republican even won a statewide election in Minnesota: Tim Pawlenty, reelected governor in 2006, was the last to do so. But Walz and his scandals may have given Republicans two fresh chances this year and next. Even with Walz out of the way, his scandals will taint whoever gets the Democratic nomination for governor. Sen. Amy Klobuchar wants the nod—but if she gets it and then wins in November, her vacated Senate seat will present another opportunity for the GOP in a special election next year. Minnesota’s other senator, Tina Smith, has already opted not to run for reelection this cycle, and her seat’s up in November. Walz’s Democrats—technically the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party in Minnesota—face a tough series of tests at the ballot box in the next few months, with the jaw-dropping scale of the Somali scandal threatening to overshadow everything. And, ironically, even Somali American voters in Minnesota have started souring on the Democrats: The Harris-Walz ticket actually lost ground with voters of Somali descent in 2024. “In the Somali American hub of Cedar-Riverside, support for Harris dropped 14 percentage points” compared to 2020, according to a post-election report in the Minnesota Star Tribune, which noted, “Votes for Harris also dropped in precincts in the Seward neighborhood and along West Lake Street by 9 and 12 percentage points …” Biden-Harris policies toward Israel and Gaza were one consideration; another was that Somali Muslims aren’t entirely comfortable with the progressive social stances of the modern Democratic Party. The Harris-Walz ticket still wound up garnering the support of about 80% of the Somali community, however. If the Democrats’ grip on Minnesota is slipping, it’ll be more traditional constituencies who bring about the break—perhaps those who question how well the “farmer” and “labor” legs of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party have been served by a Democratic Party defined nowadays by manias for mass immigration and extreme identity politics. Tim Walz was never a middle American Democrat; he was just a bland-looking white guy whose politics were as far-out as those of anyone else in his party. Another Walz won’t win Democrats white, male or rural voters, even if he’s scandal-free. The Democrats’ problem isn’t with the way their candidates look or sound—it’s what they believe and do. And there won’t be a Democrat who can match the appeal of Republican populism until there’s a Democrat who dares take the populist side on immigration and cultural norms. That kind of Democrat, if he or she exists at all today, would be the opposite of Tim Walz. COPYRIGHT 2026 CREATORS.COM We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post Tim Walz Personifies Democrats’ Decline appeared first on The Daily Signal.

The list spotlights incredible conservation action being taken to protect the world's weirdest and most wonderful wildlife.

It's estimated there may be trillions of rogue planets wandering through the Milky Way, unbound to any star. Since detecting our first ones, we have been presented with an odd mystery.

Democrats bear clear responsibility for Minnesota’s spiraling federal program payment scandal. Either they failed to conduct meaningful oversight of billions in public funds over many years — or they conducted none at all. Their early response to the scandal explains why: They subjected its perpetrators to an unconscionably low standard of scrutiny.What began as a fraud investigation into federal programs meant to feed poor children has expanded rapidly. During the pandemic, a nonprofit called Feeding Our Future became the centerpiece of what federal prosecutors described as the largest COVID-era fraud scheme, involving roughly $300 million. That scandal soon widened to include fraud in autism services and housing programs. Now investigators allege that day-care centers billed taxpayers for caring for nonexistent children — one facility even displaying signage with a misspelling of “learning.”No criminal enterprise of this size and duration emerges unless its participants believe they will not face consequences. Democrats let the fraud happen.As revelations mount, consequences follow. Former vice presidential nominee Tim Walz abruptly abandoned his bid for a third term as Minnesota’s governor. Yet nothing suggests the full scope of the scandal has come into view, either geographically or financially.The estimated cost continues to climb. Last summer, a federal prosecutor put the total at more than $1 billion. Just last month, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson warned the figure could reach $9 billion — and that estimate covers only the schemes already uncovered. As trials proceed, new defendants emerge, and plea deals surface, the total is likely to rise farther.Instead of demanding answers, Democrats rushed to deflect scrutiny. In Seattle, newly elected mayor and self-described democratic socialist Katie Wilson inserted herself into the controversy by issuing a statement “on the harassment of Somali childcare providers” and posting a hotline number for alleged “hate crime” victims — before any comparable fraud investigation had even begun.Minnesota Democrats adopted the same playbook. They framed oversight itself as “racism,” attempting to shut down inquiry by exaggeratedly embracing the broader Somali community from which many of the fraudsters came. That rhetorical move does more harm than good. It links an entire community to criminal activity — something Democrats appear not to mind if it shields them politically.Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan illustrated the tactic in a video statement delivered while wearing a hijab: “I am incredibly clear that the Somali community is part of the fabric of the state of Minnesota.” Flanagan, notably, is also running for the U.S. Senate in 2026.The symbolism revealed more than intended. Democrats did not merely treat the Somali community as “part of the fabric” of Minnesota. They treated fraud perpetrators as apart from the fabric — exempt from scrutiny, audits, and accountability.RELATED: ‘More corrupt than Minnesota’: Trump mocks Newsom after launching California fraud investigation Photo by MAURO PIMENTEL/AFP via Getty ImagesLocal reporting points to warning signs stretching back more than a decade. Yet Democrats allowed massive federal programs to operate under standards so lax that fraud flourished unchecked.Despite their rhetoric of inclusion, Democrats effectively segregated oversight itself. They refused to apply basic accountability to billions in taxpayer dollars. At minimum, that constitutes gross incompetence.The underlying reality is simpler. Democrats let the fraud happen. Whether through neglect or willful blindness, they allowed these programs to operate without serious supervision while evidence of abuse accumulated.Fraud on this scale does not persist without a sense of impunity. That impunity may have grown gradually through years of nonexistent audits and rubber-stamped claims. Or it may have been reinforced more explicitly. Either way, no criminal enterprise of this size and duration emerges unless its participants believe they will not face consequences.The precise nature of Democrat culpability remains to be determined. Was it incompetence? A DEI mindset that discouraged scrutiny? Political quid pro quos? Tim Walz’s sudden exit from the governor’s race suggests that the answers may prove damaging.What is already clear is this: Minnesota’s fraud scandal did not happen in spite of Democratic governance. It happened because of it.

During the 17th-century Finnmark witch trials, 91 people were executed in Norway's northernmost region, mainly by burning at the stake