In response to a rapidly expanding wildfire that has scorched over 16,000 acres, the Georgia Forestry Commission (GFC) has enacted a mandatory burn ban across South Georgia. Supplementing this measure, Governor Brian Kemp has declared a State of Emergency for 91 counties, as bone-dry conditions continue to fuel the massive Pineland Road Fire. The blaze, […]

Follow NewsClips channel at Brighteon.com for more updatesSubscribe to Brighteon newsletter to get the latest news and more featured videos: https://support.brighteon.com/Subscribe.html

Follow NewsClips channel at Brighteon.com for more updatesSubscribe to Brighteon newsletter to get the latest news and more featured videos: https://support.brighteon.com/Subscribe.html

The heart of America. The post The sounds of the Motor City groove: Motown’s influence on Glenn Frey’s songwriting first appeared on Far Out Magazine.

Aliens are in the news again. Not because we’ve recently spotted some new craft that looks like it might just belong to an all-wise extraterrestrial being, but because conspiracy theorists and rabbit-hole-diving hobbyists are excited about a slew of documents they just might finally get their hands on from the U.S. government. There’s nothing a conspiracy theorist likes more than documents. Late last week, President Donald J. Trump told more than 3,000 people at a TPUSA event in Phoenix, Arizona, that he had directed Secretary of War Pete Hegseth “to begin releasing government files related to UFOs and unexplained aerial phenomena.” He added that “we’ve found many interesting documents, I must say, and the first releases will begin very, very soon.”  The announcement wasn’t exactly breaking news. Trump had announced effectively the same thing on his social media accounts back in mid-February. What is new is that apparently we don’t have all that long to wait before our curiosity is indulged, and we can take to obscure forums in the corners of the internet to debate timelines, eyewitness accounts, and the tiny inconsistencies contained within them, real or imagined. (LISTEN: The Spectacle Ep. 402: Demons and Spiritual Warfare: It’s REAL) To make things even more interesting, there have, of late, been all sorts of fascinating tells that maybe, just maybe, we can prove once and for all that aliens are real.  For instance, earlier this year, Barack Obama told an interviewer over coffee that aliens are, in fact, “real, but I haven’t seen them.” Of course, after people noticed he said anything, he tried to dismiss the whole thing as a mathematical probability. Then, of course, Trump accused him of releasing confidential information.  Meanwhile, Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee has been making the interview rounds, calling on the Trump administration to release the files because “I think we can handle it,” all while assuring us that the evidence he’s been privy to in congressional hearings is nothing short of shocking. “We’ve seen too much. I’ve seen too much. Not myself personally, but out when I’ve been briefed by government officials. Video, pictures. Some of the best-trained pilots in the world have described having close collisions with some sort of aircraft or apparatus, and so I think it’s time that they come clean.” Burchett’s point is that, if we’re spending tens of millions of dollars on the whole alien thing, it’s only fair that we get all the juicy details out of it. As a taxpayer, I’m deeply grateful. In all seriousness, the question of whether aliens exist is intriguing, not because the answer is fascinating, but because the aliens are. Aliens are like fairies: They are the green-skinned, creepy-eyed representatives of enchantment in the modern world. Serious and superficial folk (in the words of G. K. Chesterton) tell us that it is absurd to believe such creatures exist. And yet, the myth persists. And a myth it is — at least in its cultural import. First, and perhaps least importantly, we use aliens the way the Greeks employed Zeus or the Irish employed leprechauns: to describe things we don’t quite understand. Are we not quite sure what exactly the oblong flying object the Navy encountered in 2004 was? Alien activity is as good a hypothesis as any. (READ MORE: Lee Strobel: Americans Don’t Need Much Persuasion in the Supernatural) More significantly, however, the alien myth is the one modern man has used to satisfy his deep desire to believe that something exists which he cannot see and to build worlds out of it. Man, as Tolkien liked to point out, has a need to indulge in sub-creation. In turning a barren red planet into a place thriving with intelligent life, man is exercising a faculty which (at least in part) impelled the author of Genesis to write that man is made in the “image and likeness” of the Creator.  It is true, of course, that aliens are a much lesser type of myth than Cinderella’s godmother or that prideful talking pussycat who likes his promises kept. They tend to be less romantic (I’m decently sure that no alien princess has been wooed by an alien prince as of yet) and frankly, a bit less moral (so were the pagan gods). It is, however, also true that it’s more important that the myth exists first than that it’s a perfect myth (that already exists anyway and was written by a far better mythologist than H. G. Wells).  It is proof that perhaps our culture is not so far gone that it has lost its sense of imagination and that men are not quite so grown up that they’ve forgotten to be children. And that’s quite a welcome bit of news. READ MORE by Aubrey Harris: Don’t Blame a Pope for Praying for Peace

America has a spending problem. It also has a health care problem. These are not two separate crises but rather the same crisis wearing different clothes. The Cato Institute’s new “Handbook on Affordability” is a great resource to understand the root problem and how to fix it. Start with a recap of the fiscal picture. The federal government runs large deficits so persistently that they’ve become a structural threat to price stability. As Romina Boccia and Dominik Lett argue in the handbook’s second chapter, when debt expands faster than the economy, investors begin pricing in one of three outcomes: higher future taxes, deeper spending cuts, or inflation that quietly erases the real value of what the government owes. When Congress fails to credibly commit to the first two, it chooses door No. 3 by default. The inflation surge of 2021 was the consequence of an extraordinary flood of deficit-financed spending with no commitment to repaying it. As our money lost purchasing power, the Federal Reserve eventually had to raise interest rates sharply, further reducing purchasing power. Politicians have yet to meaningfully tighten the government’s belt, and we continue to have unnecessarily high interest rates and prices. What’s more, restoring a government’s credibility once it’s lost becomes increasingly difficult and costly. Congress appears unwilling to pay this price. As such, expect a repeat experience in the future. But the problem is deeper, because deficits are not evenly distributed across the budget. This one, as you probably know, is overwhelmingly driven by two programs: Social Security and Medicare. Social Security alone carries roughly $28 trillion in unfunded obligations. Medicare is projected to grow faster than the economy indefinitely, with no natural ceiling. These are not programs that trim themselves. So, without hands-on, structural reform, the debt path is mathematically unsustainable, and the continuation of the inflation risk described by Boccia and Lett is all but certain. Which brings us to the health care half of this story, and to an inconvenient truth that virtually every major political proposal is designed to avoid. The United States spends nearly 18.5 percent of national income on health care, more than any nation on earth and double the average of other wealthy OECD democracies. The standard political response to the problem is to propose more government subsidies to help patients cover costs. This response only makes sense on surface level and has the causation backward. As Michael Cannon and Jeffrey Singer demonstrate in their contribution to the Handbook, subsidies are the furthest thing from a solution to health care unaffordability. They are its primary cause. The mechanism is not complicated: When a system dominated by Medicare, Medicaid, and other compelled government and quasi-private spending insulates patients from feeling the cost of care, the feedback loop that disciplines prices in every other market stops working. Patients who don’t need to pay out of pocket for a marginal service don’t ask whether it’s worth it. Providers have no reason to reduce costs for price-insensitive customers. Instead, we passively pay even more through taxes and expensive insurance premiums. And we get care that is neither notably superior in its outcomes nor remotely affordable without those very subsidies. Supply-side liberalization would help a great deal. Cannon and Singer identify federal health-insurance regulations that cause many customers’ premiums to double. Evidence from deregulated market segments shows that removing these regulations would cut the same premiums substantially. Further, the FDA’s monopoly over drug approval keeps medicines already available in Europe, Canada, Australia, and elsewhere off the American market. Recognizing more foreign certifications would introduce genuine competition into the certification process itself, with welcome effects on prices and access. There’s more. Prescription requirements for medicines that adults can safely self-administer add costs and delays without improving safety. State-level certificate-of-need laws amount to government-enforced cartel protection for incumbent hospitals and facilities. Occupational-licensing restrictions prevent nurse practitioners, pharmacists, and other trained clinicians from practicing at the level of their competence, propping up the prices of the most expensive practitioners. Reforming this cronyism requires no new spending or bureaucracy. It requires only that Congress and state legislatures remove the regulatory architecture that has turned American health care into the world’s most expensive and least price-competitive market. These supply-side policies are an important part of the fiscal and inflation story too. Medicare and Medicaid pay for care made more expensive by decades of accumulated regulation. You cannot sustainably reduce the programs’ costs without reducing the underlying costs of what they buy. You cannot curb the debt curve without reducing the health care spending trajectory. And you absolutely cannot fix affordability when you are heading toward a debt crisis. Veronique de Rugy is the George Gibbs Chair in Political Economy and a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. To find out more about Veronique de Rugy and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com. COPYRIGHT 2026 CREATORS.COM

Rep. David Scott (D-GA), who represented Georgia’s 13th Congressional District for over two decades, has passed away. He was 80. “It is with deep sorrow that we share the unexpected passing of Congressman David Scott,” his office said in a statement. “To the public, he was a devoted leader who spent more than 50 years serving his community, the State of Georgia, and the American people. Beyond his public services, he was a devoted father, grandfather, husband, and friend. He will be remembered not only for his leadership but for his kindness, compassion, and enduring impact on those around him,” the statement continued. pic.twitter.com/Yf0PU1wLx9 — Rep. David Scott (@repdavidscott) April 22, 2026 More from the Associated Press: Scott’s death slightly widens Republicans’ narrow House majority going into the thick of this midterm election year The GOP began the current Congress with a 220-215 advantage, but the margin has fluctuated. Scott is the fourth House Democrat to die in office during this Congress. Scott had been mostly absent from the campaign trail in 2024 and 2026 and had become a noted example of Democrats’ aging leadership targeted by younger generations of the left. He dodged questions from reporters when he qualified for another term in March, but he earlier dismissed pressure to retire. “Thank God I’m in good health, moving and doing the people’s work,” the congressman said in 2024. His wife and campaign adviser Alfredia Scott was even more direct. “When the congressman decides to leave, he won’t be pushed out,” she said in 2024. “He will bow out.” State officials will have to schedule a special election to fill out the rest of Scott’s term, which could overlap with elections to choose a representative for the next two-year term. Early in-person voting starts Monday for May 19 party primaries for the next full term. “Congressman Scott’s passing is deeply sad,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said, according to NBC News. “David Scott was a trailblazer who served the district that he represented admirably, rose up from humble beginnings to become the first African American ever to chair the House [Agriculture] Committee,” he added. “The State of Georgia joins his family and those he represented for so many years in mourning the passing of Congressman David Scott. A devoted public servant, he served his state as a stalwart supporter of Georgia’s agriculture industry — our largest economic driver. Our prayers are with his family, colleagues, and loved ones at this time,” Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said. The State of Georgia joins his family and those he represented for so many years in mourning the passing of Congressman David Scott. A devoted public servant, he served his state as a stalwart supporter of Georgia's agriculture industry — our largest economic driver. Our prayers… — Governor Brian P. Kemp (@GovKemp) April 22, 2026 NBC News shared further: Earlier this month, NBC News reported that Scott was outraised in fundraising by four of his primary opponents in the first quarter. Scott voted on the floor as recently as Tuesday afternoon, according to the clerk’s records. Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens mourned Scott’s death in a statement, calling the congressman “a tireless advocate for the people he served.” “For decades, he fought for Georgia farmers, advocated for our veterans and ensured his constituents were supported at the street level with job and health fairs, serving tens of thousands of Georgians over the years,” Dickens said in the statement. “His legacy is one of service, perseverance and deep commitment to this state.” The first Black chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture, he was replaced as the committee’s top Democrat by Rep. Angie Craig, D-Minn., in 2024 as the party looked to bring in younger committee leadership.

After decades of feuding and fall-outs, The Black Crowes' Chris and Rich Robinson have found a groove of brotherly love and rock bravado

In a shake-up of the military’s civilian leadership, the Pentagon announced that Navy Secretary John Phelan has departed his post, effective immediately. The exit of the Navy’s 79th top official was confirmed by Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell, who stated that Under Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao will step in as the acting secretary.

'Homelessness' is a giant fraud machine. The post Seattle Homeless Authority Down $44M, Can’t Account for $13M appeared first on Frontpage Mag.