Lindsey Graham's legacy invoked on the House floor--262/159

House sends sweeping Russia-Iran sanctions bill to Trump's desk in honor of late Sen. Lindsey Graham

The House passed the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act by a 262, 159 vote Wednesday, sending a bill that authorizes tariffs of up to 100 percent on countries buying Russian energy to President Trump, who is expected to sign it into law.

The legislation clears Congress with broad bipartisan margins after the Senate approved it last month 86, 11. It marks the final major piece of unfinished business championed by the late Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who died at 71 following a trip to Ukraine where he pressed lawmakers to act on the very sanctions package that now bears his name.

Rep. Michael McCaul, the Texas Republican who led the floor fight for passage, framed the vote in personal and strategic terms. He told colleagues the bill would force Russian President Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table and keep his ambitions in check, preventing him from pushing deeper into Eastern Europe.

McCaul did not let the moment pass without honoring the man whose name is on the bill. As the New York Post reported, McCaul delivered a direct appeal to his colleagues:

"Lindsey Graham once said this bill would be his great achievement. I can think of no better way... to honor his life and his legacy than by passing these tough sanctions."

He added a broader call to action.

"Evil is on the march, history is calling, and now is the time to act."

Read more about it...

Lake Worth Beach man pleads guilty to stealing election office equipment

A Lake Worth Beach resident and a registered Democrat accused of stealing equipment from the Palm Beach County supervisor of elections office decided whether he would fight the accusations.

According to court documents in Palm Beach County, John D. Panicci, 59, pleaded guilty Tuesday, Sept. 15, to unlawful use of computers or electronic devices.

Panicci was sentenced to time served in county jail, which was 16 days, placed on probation for two years, ordered to complete 100 hours of community service and must pay court costs.

As part of the plea deal, Panicci was ordered to complete a mental health evaluation and treatment; have no contact with, or be at, the Palm Beach County supervisor of elections office; and complete a 12-hour theft abatement course. [WPBF]

Chinese Spy Satellite sold to Iran

China Sold Iran the Satellite That Aimed the Missiles That Killed Three American Soldiers

Army First Lt. Tyler James Feehan was twenty-five years old. Pvt. Isabella Gonzales was nineteen. Sgt. Angel S. Rampersad's was twenty-eight. All three died on July 17 when 20 Iranian ballistic missiles hit a U.S. military base in Jordan called Muwaffaq Salti; a strike so precise it damaged eight F-15 fighter jets and ripped a wing off an A-10 Thunderbolt II.

The precision wasn't luck. According to new reporting, Chinese satellite imagery helped Iran aim.

The satellite in question is a TEE-01B, a Chinese-made spy satellite Iran acquired in September 2024 for $36 million. It provides high-resolution surveillance imagery — the kind you'd want if you were trying to map the layout of an American air base in a foreign country, identify where aircraft are parked, and time your volley for maximum damage.

Iran didn't develop this capability on its own. Beijing sold it to them.

Read more...

Preparing Space Force to defend our interests in Space

Gen. Caine: US Troops Must Prepare to Fight Around the Moon

American troops need to prepare for combat not only in Earth's orbit but around the moon, President Donald Trump's top military adviser said Wednesday, looking ahead to a new frontier in warfare after the U.S. revealed for the first time that it has deployed weapons in space.

Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told service members and industry figures at the Air, Space, and Cyber Conference outside Washington that the U.S. military should adapt now so it "is prepared to fight, endure and win ... from the seabed to cislunar space."

Space Force, the newest military service, which was created by Trump in 2019, is preparing to fight in space and around the moon because "humanity is advancing deeper into space — the Space Force's job is to help be prepared to defend U.S. interests," Lt. Gen. Gregory Gagnon, head of the force's Combat Forces Command, told reporters separately.

The Outer Space Treaty of 1967, which the U.S. and China have signed, says celestial objects such as the moon are to be used "exclusively for peaceful purposes," nuclear weapons cannot be placed in space, and countries are "liable for damage caused by their space objects."

When asked about the 1967 treaty and other similar obligations, Gagnon said the U.S. Space Force "will continue to execute safe and responsible space operations in all the reaches of space."

Gagnon also says the U.S. aims to double the size of the Space Force over the next five years — to roughly 25,000 service members — and that about two-thirds of that growth would be focused on Combat Forces Command.

Read more...

Immigration Crisis, is America next?

New documentary presents Britain’s immigration crisis as a warning for America

“The Immigration Crisis That Will Destroy the West,” produced in partnership with The Heritage Foundation, examines how mass migration has transformed British communities and asks whether the U.S. is heading down the same path.

A new documentary examining the scale and consequences of mass migration on Western countries is scheduled to premiere Sept. 17.

The film, titled “The Immigration Crisis That Will Destroy The West,” was produced by Nick Freitas, a former Virginia state delegate, Army Green Beret combat veteran, and conservative commentator. Presented in partnership with The Heritage Foundation, it will be released on X, YouTube, and Facebook.

Walking through London’s Whitechapel neighborhood, Freitas opens the documentary’s trailer with a question: “Where am I?”

“Because I recognize this place,” he says, recalling his military training in Bangladesh. “It’s just the place I recognize isn’t supposed to be here.”

The documentary examines how decades of legal and illegal immigration have changed Britain and argues that the country’s experience should serve as a warning to the U.S.

Its trailer, released Sept. 15, moves from the streets of London to interviews about crime, demographic change, cultural integration, and whether political leaders have avoided addressing public concerns.

Read about it...

Sunrise 9-18-26

Lindsay Clancy

Crime City of Lake Worth Beach

THREATS
Incident #: 26094934
2200 BLOCK 10TH AVE N | 9/17/2026 @ 1:15 PM
Palm Beach County Sheriff


THEFT/LARCENY
Incident #: 26094848
100 BLOCK N FEDERAL HWY | 9/17/2026 @ 6:51 AM
Palm Beach County Sheriff


VANDALISM
Incident #: 26094840
1400 BLOCK S FEDERAL HWY | 9/17/2026 @ 2:18 AM
Palm Beach County Sheriff

Evening Sky 9-17-26

Judge Boasberg Was a Nine-Time Host for Chinese Exchange Backed by CCP “Political Warfare” Group

A judge entrusted with reviewing secret surveillance applications also hosted Chinese law students through an exchange supported by CUSEF.

Natalie Winters’ reporting identifies nine host credits for James Boasberg, including six during his FISA court service. The program’s 2023 recruitment flyer confirms CUSEF underwriting and advertises access to American officials. A 2025 congressional letter describes the foundation as an instrument of CCP influence operations.

The documents establish the funding connection. Questions remain about participant screening, meeting content, and security precautions. Who has direct access to the federal judiciary? [Natalie Winters]

Good Night, Patriots!

Biden pardoned him; Trump's federal prosecutors got him

Maduro's financial fixer Alex Saab pleads guilty to money laundering after Biden pardon let him walk free

Alex Saab, the Colombian businessman who served as Nicolás Maduro's top financial operative, pleaded guilty Tuesday to conspiracy to launder money in a Miami federal court, nearly three years after the Biden administration pardoned him and sent him back to Venezuela.

Saab, 54, entered his plea before U.S. District Judge Kathleen M. Williams. He agreed to forfeit $195 million and cooperate with the Department of Justice as part of the deal. He faces up to 20 years in federal prison, with a sentencing date still to be set.

The plea caps a seven-year saga that spans a 2019 indictment, an arrest in Cape Verde, a presidential pardon, a hero's welcome in Caracas, and a second indictment secured in January 2026, all before federal prosecutors finally got their man back in a courtroom.

The guilty plea is a direct rebuke to the Biden administration's decision to free Saab in December 2023, while he was awaiting trial on charges of laundering $350 million stolen from Venezuela's state coffers.

Biden granted clemency as part of a broader exchange that returned 36 people to Venezuela, including 12 American citizens. The deal freed a man the DOJ had spent years pursuing, and handed Maduro a propaganda victory.

Read about it...

FBI Captures Most Wanted Fugitives

FBI Director Kash Patel Announces Historic Capture of All 10 ‘Most Wanted’ Fugitives Under Trump

FBI Director Kash Patel announced Tuesday that the bureau has captured all 10 fugitives who were on its “Most Wanted” list during President Trump’s second term, calling the sweep an unprecedented achievement in FBI history.

Patel revealed the milestone during testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, saying the final fugitive was apprehended in Venezuela over the weekend and is now being brought back to the United States.

Patel used the milestone to contrast the bureau’s performance under President Trump with its record during the previous administration.

“We, the FBI, captured more than two and a half times the number of the top 10 most wanted fugitives on the FBI’s list from the prior administration,” Patel said.

He credited FBI personnel and cooperating law-enforcement agencies for locating fugitives across multiple jurisdictions.

Read about the Captures

Jim Jordan issues Subpoenas to two Democrat District Attorneys

Jim Jordan subpoenas two district attorneys over sanctuary policies shielding illegal immigrant criminals

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan has issued subpoenas to district attorneys in Boulder, Colorado, and Fairfax, Virginia, accusing both of giving illegal immigrants preferential treatment in criminal cases, a charge both prosecutors reject.

Jordan sent the subpoenas after both offices failed to turn over documents the committee had repeatedly requested as part of a weeks-long investigation into local prosecutors who allegedly factor immigration status into charging and plea decisions.

The letters, obtained by Fox News Digital, accuse Fairfax County Commonwealth's Attorney Steve Descano and Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty, both Democrats, of endangering their communities by going easy on illegal immigrants who commit crimes.

Jordan's letter to both prosecutors was blunt. "Despite repeated requests for responsive documents and communications, you have not produced a single document," he wrote. "Accordingly, because you have failed to comply with the Committee's requests, the Committee is serving compulsory process."

Jordan accuses both offices of letting illegal immigrants dodge accountability.

The subpoenas escalate a probe Jordan has run alongside Rep. Tom McClintock of California, who chairs the Judiciary panel's subcommittee on immigration enforcement.

The committee's core allegation is that both jurisdictions have adopted sanctuary policies that create a two-tier system, one set of consequences for citizens, and a softer set for illegal immigrants.

Read more about it...

Perjury and Obstruction in Philadelphia?

Federal judge refers Philadelphia DA Larry Krasner to DOJ over alleged perjury and obstruction

A federal judge has referred Democrat, Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner and his top deputy to the Department of Justice, for possible criminal investigation, alleging the city's chief prosecutor may have pressured staff to present a false narrative to the court.

U.S. District Judge Paul Diamond issued a written opinion Tuesday disqualifying Krasner and deputy Matthew Stiegler from an ongoing murder-conviction case and referring both men to federal prosecutors. The judge concluded that evidence uncovered in the proceeding could constitute false statements, perjury, obstruction of justice, and conspiracy, Fox News Digital reported.

Neither Krasner nor Stiegler has been charged. But the referral itself is extraordinary, a sitting federal judge telling the Justice Department that a major-city district attorney and one of his senior aides may have broken the law inside his own courtroom.

Read about it...

Interest Rates hiked

Fed Hikes Interest Rates for First Time in 3 Years

Fed policymakers tighten policy in the face of elevated inflation and higher Treasury bond yields

Officials voted 12–0 to increase the benchmark federal funds rate—a key policy rate that influences borrowing costs for businesses and consumers—by a quarter point to a new target range of 3.75 percent to 4 percent.

This was the first rate hike since July 2023.

“Economic activity is expanding at a solid pace. While uncertainty remains elevated owing, in part, to geopolitical developments, domestic spending has been resilient,” the Fed said in a post-meeting statement.

“Productivity growth is strong, and capital investment is robust. Job gains have kept pace with the workforce, and the unemployment rate has changed little.”

In addition to the rate decision, the Fed released its Summary of Economic Projections, a quarterly outlook for policy and the economy. “This is certainly a positive for the market. It’s fair to assume that if the Fed had not acted today, it would have caused meaningful strain across markets.”

Read about it...

Different tact in future on Iran

Vice President JD Vance said the conflict with Iran will enter a "much different phase" in the next several months

Trump administration will shift its focus toward preventing Tehran from rebuilding its military capabilities

"We can't predict the future, but I think the president is right to say that this thing will enter a much different phase in a couple of months," Vance told the New York Post in an interview published Tuesday. "He's also the commander in chief, so he's the person who determines ... when conflicts start and when they stop."

Vance's comments came after President Donald Trump said last week he expects the conflict to end following the midterm elections in November.

"I think the war will end immediately after the election because they can't hold out any longer," Trump said.

Read about it...

Lake Worth Beach's City Manager position

ICE fears arise as 2 Lake Worth city manager candidates interviewed

Half of our City does not speak English at home

Two of four candidates to become Lake Worth Beach city manager addressed concerns about ICE detentions in a city filled with recent immigrants

Days after one of Palm Beach County's most immigrant-filled cities signed a policing deal over the objections of ICE critics, the issue of how to deal with detentions — and the fear of them — came up again in Lake Worth Beach's search for a new city manager.

The City Commission voted 3-1 on Sept. 2 to increase payments by $500,000 annually for three years to the police agency it contracts with, the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office, to hire park rangers. Advocates for immigrants and their U.S.-born families demanded the city reject the deal because PBSO works with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The city will spend more than $15.8 million annually.

Two of the four finalists for the city manager position discussed during a Sept. 9 commission meeting the fear from residents worrying that law enforcement will detain them and turn them over to ICE, regardless of whether they have broken the law.

About 41% of the city's nearly 44,000 residents come from another country, and 57% do not speak English at home, U.S. Census Bureau estimates show.

Commissioner Chris McVoy, the lone "no" vote on the PBSO contract, pointed out that federal government has ramped up its denials of asylum cases. "Legal help is not going to do any good," he said. McVoy said "the federal government is regularly doing things they know they can't do, and they're doing them anyway. ... We need much stronger pushback that says we need to do something that actually is useful."

The Sheriff's Office works with ICE through Section 287(g) of the federal Immigration and Nationality Act, which allows ICE to deputize state and local law-enforcement agencies. Gov. Ron DeSantis required Florida law-enforcement agencies to comply in 2025.

Read more...

Early Morning Sky 9-17-26

Depressing

Crime City of Lake Worth Beach

THEFT/LARCENY
Incident #: 26094639
1300 BLOCK S L ST | 9/16/2026 @ 12:29 PM
Palm Beach County Sheriff


BEVERAGE VIOLATION
Incident #: 26094615
1000 BLOCK S DIXIE HWY | 9/16/2026 @ 11:24 AM
Palm Beach County Sheriff


STOLEN TAG
Incident #: 26094604
1400 BLOCK S M ST | 9/16/2026 @ 10:56 AM
Palm Beach County Sheriff


STOLEN TAG
Incident #: 26094548
700 BLOCK N G ST | 9/16/2026 @ 8:13 AM
Palm Beach County Sheriff

Evening Sky 9-16-26

Vice President JD Vance took the stage at the Republican midterm convention on September 11thVance opened by surveying the wreckage the Trump administration inherited eighteen months ago.

Worker wages down. Prices up twenty percent. A southern border that functioned more like a suggestion than a boundary. “They bankrupted our country and left us poor,” he told the crowd. “They left our country weaker, wide open, and our communities less safe.”

The vice president argued that something fundamental has shifted inside the Democrat Party. The policies haven’t changed – defund the police, abolish the border, the Green New Deal. What’s changed is the raw hatred driving them.

“In primary after primary, we have watched the few reasonable Democrats lose to extremists who openly hate our nation,” Vance said. [pjnewsletter]

Good Night, Patriots!