Los Angeles County public officials issued a warning that those burglarizing and looting evacuated homes during the Southern California wildfires will be held accountable. The Sheriff’s Department has made at least 20 arrests since the fires broke out Tuesday, Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger told reporters Thursday. “In the midst of the emergency, we […] The post Looters of LA appeared first on www.independentsentinel.com.

President-elect Donald Trump was sentenced to an unconditional discharge by Judge Juan Merchan on Friday, officially cementing his status as a felon without handing down any other punishment days before he is sworn into office for his second term. The president-elect appeared virtually from his Florida Mar-a-Lago estate for the New York sentencing hearing and visibly shook his head as Merchan went over the conviction, The New York Times reported. During the hearing, prosecutor Joshua Steinglass argued that Trump has “disdain” for the rule of law but said that the prosecution agrees with the sentence of unconditional discharge. Trump also spoke during the hearing, marking the first time he has addressed the court during the trial. “This has been a very terrible experience. I think it’s been a tremendous setback” for New York, he said, according to the Times. The president-elect pointed to his election victory, arguing that the American people followed the hush money trial and still elected him president. Trump concluded, “I was treated very, very unfairly, and I thank you very much.” Trump’s attorney Todd Blanche, who was nominated by the president-elect for deputy attorney general, blasted the trial and conviction, saying the “majority of the American people” don’t believe the case has merits. Blanche said the only appropriate sentence — if there must be one — is an unconditional discharge. Before imposing the sentence, Judge Merchan said the court had never seen such a “unique and remarkable set of circumstances” but emphasized that while Trump has been elected president twice, he is still a citizen and subject to the law. Merchan said that the office of the president shields “Donald Trump the ordinary citizen, Donald Trump the criminal defendant” from the punishment required by the guilty verdict. JOIN THE MOVEMENT IN ’25 WITH 25% OFF DAILYWIRE+ ANNUAL MEMBERSHIPS WITH CODE DW25 Trump put up a fight to delay the sentencing as he prepares to take the presidency in just 10 days, and the president-elect still has a path to appeal his conviction in the hush money case. In a 5-4 decision on Thursday, the Supreme Court rejected Trump’s request to pause the sentencing. The majority of the court did not rule on the merits of Trump’s argument but said that the question could be decided through an appeal. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett sided with the court’s three liberal justices to reject Trump’s request. Trump was found guilty on all charges in the hush money case last May. He was charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to hide payments that were allegedly sent to porn actress Stormy Daniels in exchange for her silence on an alleged extramarital affair. Trump has denied the charges and said that the trial was politically motivated, hampering his 2024 presidential campaign. Following his election victory over Vice President Kamala Harris in November, the prosecution’s attempt to put Trump behind bars hit a brick wall. Trump faced four years in prison after his conviction, but his election victory made imprisonment an impossibility.

In striking down the Biden administration’s changes to Title IX, a federal court also provided a win for free speech and due process, in addition to protecting women’s sports. While the changes to the rules that allowed men to enter women’s sports, bathrooms, and locker rooms received much media attention, the Biden rules also gutted due process and free speech for students across the nation. Proponents of civil rights praised the latest ruling, including Tyler Coward, lead counsel for government affairs at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE). “As expected, courts have continued to find it impossible to justify the Biden administration’s changes to Title IX rules eviscerating students’ speech and due process rights,” Coward said in a statement provided to The Daily Wire. “With the 2020 rules now back in effect nationwide, schools will be required to restore procedures that respect the rights of all students.” Title IX is a federal statute that prohibits schools that receive federal funding from discriminating based on sex. The statute initially applied to sports, but over the decades, has been expanded to allow schools to act as quasi-judicial systems over accusations of sexual assault and harassment. Biden’s changes to the due process component of Title IX were particularly onerous, Coward explained further. JOIN THE MOVEMENT IN ’25 WITH 25% OFF DAILYWIRE+ ANNUAL MEMBERSHIPS WITH CODE DW25 “The Biden rules violated students’ due process rights in many ways, including by allowing for one person to serve as prosecutor, judge, and jury,” Coward said. “The regulations also eliminated students’ right to a live hearing to contest allegations and to cross-examine an accuser and witnesses through an advisor. When campus administrators investigate the most serious kinds of campus misconduct, they should use the time-tested tools that make finding the truth more likely. We don’t get closer to justice when those tools are not on the table.” Catherine Lhamon, who leads the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights and helped the Obama administration enforce an earlier anti-due process regime, called the recent rulings against her regulations “absurd.” “We published the most comprehensive Title IX regulation since 1975 — I love it. I think it’s amazing,” Lhamon said Wednesday, according to POLITICO. “It has been enjoined in multiple lawsuits in multiple states across the country, in total, which is absurd. … I don’t think that augurs well for a set of courts who are eager to be fully responsive to the civil rights guarantees that we have long had.” On Thursday, a federal court struck down the Biden administration’s new regulations, meaning schools across the country will have to follow the Trump administration’s rules, which provide due process for students accused of sexual assault, stronger protections for free speech, and continue to define “sex” as “male” or “female,” without including “gender identity.”

Love him or hate him, we can’t ignore that when it comes to parenting, Donald Trump seems to be a pretty good father. The proof is evident in the behavior of his kids. Certainly, kids who have an ax to grind don’t act like his kids do. First, adult sons and daughters who harbor deep anger toward a parent never speak highly of him or her, regardless of how famous they are. In fact, fame can be an ideal opportunity for angry kids to humiliate their parents. Trump’s older kids, Eric, Ivanka, and Donald Jr. don’t behave this way. In fact, they have no reason to publicly support their father so enthusiastically other than the belief that their father is a good and capable man. Sure, they may want to applaud him to further their own careers, but they don’t need to do this. They are each highly successful on their own. If they had lukewarm sentiments about their dad, they would at least fade into the background. But they haven’t. They have taken advantage of large public platforms to convince us that he has strong character and extraordinarily strong abilities to improve America. They wouldn’t do this if they believed that his intentions were other than altruistic. The fact that they have successfully convinced millions of Americans that he has what it takes to lead our country can only come from sincere sentiments. Second, both his daughter-in-law and son-in-law are two of his most ardent supporters. How many in-laws boast about their father-in-law not only privately, but also publicly? Lara has no motive to boast other than genuine admiration and Jared could certainly stay silent. When it comes to his business life, Trump puts his grown kids front and center. Fathers who want to dominate the spotlight, don’t do this. They own the public space and keep their adult kids in the background, in part, to avoid the risk that their kids will make derogatory statements about them. Trump takes the risk because he is confident they won’t humiliate or criticize him. He knows they will always support him. When Trump’s older kids were young, he protected them from the paparazzi. He worked to keep his kids out of the spotlight until they wanted to jump into it of their own volition. His first three kids went away to school so that the press would leave them alone. Tiffany and Barron now enjoy that same privacy so they too can live their own lives. The president-elect could easily push all of them into the spotlight to make himself look like a good father, but he doesn’t. Eric, Ivanka, and Donald Jr., along with Lara Trump, put themselves in the public and political arenas to bolster President-elect Trump’s career. When it comes to raising his family, Trump appears to have nothing to hide. Most fathers would be afraid to give their kids the freedom to say what they want about their dad. Who among us would have the confidence to give our kids such a large media presence to say whatever they want about us? Not me. Only a father who feels confident about the job he has done would do so. Many divorced couples carry resentment and anger after their breakup with their spouse and psychologists know how damaging the animosity can be on the couple’s kids. Donald has kept his kids from a lot of pain by embracing friendships with his two ex-wives. And while Ivana Trump passed away in 2022, we still see photos of Marla Maples, Melania, and Donald standing together smiling for the camera at Tiffany Trump’s wedding. The peculiar thing about the president-elect’s life is that he seems to have successfully split himself into two men: the father and the political genius. In his former role, he appears to have worked hard at having close relationships with his kids. To the best of his ability, he has tried to spend as much time as possible with them. This is no easy task when you are running a multi-million-dollar real estate empire and then while being president. Succeeding at both takes impossible time and energy and yet, with these challenges, he has somehow stayed close with his kids. JOIN THE MOVEMENT IN ’25 WITH 25% OFF DAILYWIRE+ ANNUAL MEMBERSHIPS WITH CODE DW25 The other side of Trump is hard to applaud. He has been accused of multiple incidents of sexual harassment and harmful sexual behavior toward women. He has admitted to being a poor husband at times, and his numerous public affairs with women confirm this. Good husbands don’t cheat on their wives or sexually harass other women. The peculiar part is that his five kids know this and still publicly support and encourage him. This occurs only because, in some genuinely incredible feat, Trump has found a way to communicate to his kids that being their father is a much higher priority than even being a husband, businessman, or politician. His life as a father is completely separate from his work life, and his kids must feel this. If they refused to forgive or ignore his deep flaws they would take every opportunity to denounce him on the worldwide stage. Donald Trump is a complex man. He is both a good man and a villain. This is hard for people to understand. The truth is, however, that we are all complex beings. Like him, we are not simply good or evil, kind or cruel. We are both. Certainly, as a man, Trump has made poor decisions, and offended many people to the point where they despise him. But clearly, he has done something well when it comes to his kids. And their behavior is a testimony to his personal success as a father. * * * Meg Meeker, M.D., has spent more than thirty years practicing pediatric and adolescent medicine and counseling teens and parents. Dr. Meeker is a fellow of the National Advisory Board of the Medical Institute, and an associate professor of medicine at Michigan State School of Human Medicine. She is the author of the international best-seller “Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters.” The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the Daily Wire.

While devastating fires spread nearby, these kangaroos were safe and sound indoors thanks to one courageous wildlife rescuer. Pam Turner, who runs Wildwood Wildlife Shelter, shared her harrowing experience in a Facebook post. She included a clip of the frightened young kangaroos she’d ushered into her home. In her caption, Pam stated that there were 20 of these creatures in her house! This wasn’t counting the other animals she’d brought inside. In her video, the woman shared footage of the scared critters scattered around her home. Many of the rescued kangaroos stood at attention, looking around anxiously. Pam did her best to keep them calm by speaking to them in a soothing voice. According to the post from Wildwood Wildlife Shelter, the fire began on December 17 in Australia’s Grampians National Park. By December 26, Pam’s home was projected to be in danger. Gathering the young kangaroos, she planned to protect her property with a sprinkler system. Apparently, it was actually the sound of the water that had frightened the animals in her video. Thankfully, the wildlife rescuer shared that her house was spared due to a change in the wind. “The wind was getting stronger and so was my anxiety, but I couldn’t allow it to get out of control,” Pam wrote. “There was lots of deep breathing and silent prayers. We kept checking the wind direction, waiting for it to blow our way, as predicted. To our great relief, a wind change came early, driving the fire east.” We’re all happy to hear that these kangaroos survived! Screengrab from Facebook Commenters were glad that the woman and her rescued kangaroos were alright. Many praised her courage in such a frightening situation. “Thank goodness you are safe,” wrote one user. “Thank you for your loving care of our wildlife. Praying for strength over the next few weeks as you process and deal with the situation of burnt animals, alive and not.” Another added, “Thank goodness you are all safe. My heart is breaking for all of the wildlife who have suffered so tremendously, but at least your beloved crew are okay.” What a terrifying ordeal this must have been! We’re so glad these kangaroos had someone to look out for them. You can find the source of this story’s featured image here. The post Wildlife Rescuer Collects 20 Kangaroos In Her Home During Raging Fires appeared first on InspireMore.

When a natural disaster strikes, time is often of the essence. It can be difficult to gather everything you need in those moments. That is why it’s so important to have emergency plans set in place. With multiple wildfires still raging in Los Angeles, people are thinking about their own evacuation plans, should something similar happen to them. Still, natural disaster preparation can feel overwhelming, even when done in advance. To get started, however, there’s a simple checklist to keep in mind. This checklist is one that you can refer to when you realize it may be time to evacuate. Learn more about the 6 Ps for evacuation in the helpful video below. @cbsnews As major #wildfires ravage several #LosAngeles neighborhoods, roughly 179,000 people are under #evacuation orders — leaving almost everything behind and some even leaving by foot Whether you are evacuating a wildfire or another #naturaldisaster you can remember the six P's. Here is a checklist of necessities that you might want to take with you if you ever have to leave during wildfires or other disasters. Read more at the linked article. #palisadesfire #firesafety #california #fire ♬ original sound – cbsnews Part of what makes evacuations so daunting is not knowing what to bring. Ideally, you would be able to keep everything in your home protected. But since that’s not guaranteed, you have to figure out what is most important to keep with you. This is far from easy, but the 6 Ps are a good place to start. Plus, this list can help you make your list of items long before a natural disaster takes place. Kind Folks on Social Media Rally Together to Share Natural Disaster Preparation Tips In response to this video on the 6 Ps, people are also giving their own helpful tips for emergency situations. View this post on Instagram A post shared by theSkimm (@theskimm) “Get your dogs acclimated to crates!” someone suggests. “They are safer in your car, or at an evacuation center or vet. If crates feel safe for them it will make a huge difference.” “Be sure to preemptively take photos of your home & items within your home & have a list of expensive items (receipts help),” another person adds. “Insurance won’t cover any lost paper cash so always bring that with you!” You can find the source of this story’s featured image here! The post Do You Know What To Do In Case Of A Wildfire Or Other Natural Disaster? appeared first on InspireMore.

Sentenced Trump

'I was treated very, very unfairly'

'Federal authorities aren't notified'