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Appeals Court Revives Coast Guard’s Vaccine Mandate Case
The Washington Times reported:
A federal appeals court breathed new life into a lawsuit challenging a Biden-era coronavirus vaccine mandate against Coast Guard employees, ruling that the case is still live because the agency has never formally sworn off punishing people who refused.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the Coast Guard is a “uniquely tight-knit community” where someone’s promotion could still be hindered by his or her vaccine choices. Until the service has a formal ban on discriminating based on vaccine status, the case has a reason to advance, wrote Judge Leslie Southwick. A lower court had deemed the issue moot because the Coast Guard canceled the mandate in 2023 under pressure from Congress.
But unlike the Navy, which has repudiated the mandate, the Coast Guard has left that question unanswered, the appeals court said in its decision overturning the district court. “Because the Coast Guard continues to consider the vaccination mandate a ‘lawful order,’ the service reputation of those who refused to follow it is tarnished,” Judge Southwick wrote. The 2-1 ruling sends the case back to the lower court for more proceedings.
Mom Warns of Scary Reason You May Not Want a Wi-Fi-Connected Baby Monitor
A mother on TikTok has offered a scary reason you may not want to have a Wi-Fi-connected baby monitor, in a popular video. Kelsey Rose, based in Nashville, Tennessee and going by the handle @therealkelseyrose on the platform, shared a clip in which she talked about her use of a Wi-Fi baby monitor.
“If you’re a mom that uses the Owlet camera, unplug that s*** immediately and get a non Wi-Fi-dependent monitor,” Rose said in her video, which has drawn more than 289,000 views in three days.
According to Rose, the baby monitor was hacked roughly a month-and-a-half ago.
“It explains why our son has been waking up terrified in the middle of the night, screaming at the top of his lungs,” Rose said. “Apparently, it’s super-easy to hack them.”
In a follow-up to her viral video, Rose said her husband spotted that the camera light to the monitor was on while he was changing their son and he called her to ask if she was watching them. As he called her, the light went off.
Former Employee Sues City of Seattle for Retaliation Over COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate Process
A former Seattle city employee has filed a lawsuit against the city, alleging wrongful termination, religious discrimination, and retaliation after he was fired for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine despite receiving a religious exemption. Brett J. Rogers, a former police officer for the Seattle Police Department and operations manager for the Seattle Department of Transportation, claims the city violated his constitutional rights by denying him due process and failing to accommodate his religious beliefs.
In the lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, Rogers argues Seattle’s handling of vaccine exemptions unfairly targeted employees with religious objections and that, after he complained about the process, he faced retaliation.
“The City rescinded its vaccine mandate within 12 months of the date of Rogers’ termination, and Rogers’ position was still vacant,” the complaint states. “Had defendants performed job searches for employees with religious exemptions, Rogers could have, and should have, been reinstated.”
6 Anti-Vaccine Mandate Bills Filed in Senate; Futures in House Doubtful
Six bills pushing back on federal vaccine mandates were introduced in the Alabama Senate on Thursday, but their futures in the special session seem shaky.
Speaker of the House Rep. Mac McCutcheon, R-Monrovia, told reporters that while House members agree with their Senate colleagues, he doesn’t plan to let vaccine bills on the floor. He said he thinks the matter should be handled in the courts.
“The legislative body leadership is fully supportive of the governor’s executive order as well as working with the attorney general to try to find a solution, but the last thing we want to do is have a knee-jerk reaction to something that may sound good politically but in substance, what does it do?” McCutcheon said.
USAID Censorship Scheme Exposed; Global Engagement Center Worked With UK Government and Media Firms to Deploy AI Tools
On Thursday, America First Legal (AFL) released explosive new documents obtained through ongoing litigation against the U.S. Department of State’s Global Engagement Center (GEC), exposing a vast, government-backed censorship operation to silence Americans under the guise of “misinformation,” “disinformation,” and “malinformation.”
The documents reveal a disturbing alliance between the GEC, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the British Foreign, Commonwealth, Development Office (FCDO), and media censorship organizations, all working in lock-step to manipulate public discourse, control media narratives, and suppress free speech.
The GEC, which was forced to shut down in December 2024, was designed to “combat foreign disinformation abroad.” However, through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, AFL uncovered that the GEC engaged in state-sponsored propaganda, repeatedly using willing participants from private media organizations. Further, AFL’s lawsuit against the GEC revealed that USAID had created an internal “Disinformation Primer” that explicitly praised private sector censorship strategies and recommended further censorship tactics.
Toronto Police Move to Upgrade Facial Recognition Technology, Raising Concerns
As Toronto police look to supercharge their facial recognition capabilities, documents obtained by Ricochet Media reveal a slew of controversial biometrics companies have formed a queue, each offering to provide them with the necessary technology.
Last December, the Toronto Police Service published a request for proposal, or RFP, seeking to upgrade the facial recognition system it currently employs. Documents obtained by Ricochet in a freedom of information request reveal that companies like Idemia responded to a similar request for information, or RFI, two years prior, offering their facial recognition system as a suitable upgrade. Idemia currently provides its technology to neighboring Peel and York police and has been accused of racial bias.
“Torontonians should see this as a real threat,” says Beverly Bain of No Pride in Policing, an advocacy group focused on defunding Canadian police forces. “These machines are designed to target those who protest, including pro-Palestinian protesters. The idea is to weed those people out, to arrest them, and to punish them for protesting against genocide.”
