Newly unsealed documents show that federal workers worked at a remote site in Pennsylvania to uncover what could be nine tons of gold stolen from the US Mint by Confederate sympathizers during the Civil War, the Associated Press reports.

An FBI agent from the bureau’s art and antiquities theft division filed an affidavit in 2018 with the federal court claiming the FBI had a reason to believe an unspecified amount of gold was buried in a cave in Dent’s Run in the north central part of the state.  The FBI filed the affidavit to prevent the state’s Department of Conservation and Natural Resources from staking a claim on anything that might be found.

The FBI based their affidavit on information gleaned from a father-and-son team of treasure hunters.  The information was so credible the FBI brought in a contractor with a ground sonar system that can identify the size and density of underground objects.  The contractor identified an area consistent with the size and density of nine tons of gold.

“In a limited number of incidents, UAP reportedly appeared to exhibit unusual flight characteristics. These observations could be the result of sensor errors, spoofing, or observer misperception and require additional rigorous analysis. There are probably multiple types of UAP requiring different explanations based on the range of appearances and behaviors described in the available reporting. Our analysis of the data supports the construct that if and when individual UAP incidents are resolved they will fall into one of five potential explanatory categories: airborne clutter, natural atmospheric phenomena, USG or U.S. industry developmental programs, foreign adversary systems, and a catchall ‘other’ bin. UAP clearly pose a safety of flight issue and may pose a challenge to U.S. national security. Safety concerns primarily center on aviators contending with an increasingly cluttered air domain. UAP would also represent a national security challenge if they are foreign adversary collection platforms or provide evidence a potential adversary has developed either a breakthrough or disruptive technology” – Excerpt from the “Preliminary Assessment: Unidentified Aerial Phenomena” unclassified report released Friday by the US Government.

“Thick, black smoke engulfed the site of a Miami-area condo collapse on Friday afternoon, hindering the already desperate efforts to rescue survivors from the rubble. Frequent fires and heavy rain have provided constant obstacles. Around 4 p.m., an extremely thick cloud of smoke filled the sky and at least three fire trucks were seen heading toward the collapse site. The smoke covered the rubble and made it difficult to see. ‘The weather had been our main obstacle,’ Howard Lieberman, a member of Miami-Dade’s urban search and rescue task force, told The Daily Beast.”

“As many as 159 people were still missing on Friday afternoon, after an entire side of the Champlain Towers complex in Surfside abruptly collapsed in the wee hours of Thursday morning. Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said the death toll stands at four – but has made it clear that the number is certain to rise. After solemnly admitting on Friday morning that crews had a ‘tragic night,’ Cava said later in the day that first responders were painstakingly lifting debris and were ‘desperate to find people.’ Authorities said their search had shifted entirely to the massive pile of rubble after the intact units of the ruined building were cleared of initial survivors. Chief Ray Jadallah of Miami-Dade Fire Rescue said on Friday that crews reported hearing noises under the pile overnight. ‘We have hope, and every time that we hear a sound, we concentrate on that area… as we continue to hear those sounds, we concentrate on those areas,’ said the fire chief. ‘The entire building – the portion that’s still standing – was cleared by rescue crews. So at this point, all resources have been shifted to the rubble, including from above and from below'” – Daily Beast.

After hearing impact statements from members of the Floyd family and his mother, former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was sentenced to 22.5 years, 270 months, in prison by Judge Peter Cahill Friday afternoon for murdering George Floyd.  Prosecutors sought a 30-year sentence, with a maximum sentence being 40 years.

In sentencing Chauvin, Cahill wrote a 22-page memorandum, keeping his oral comments brief to explain his legal analysis.  Cahill stated, “I’m not going to attempt to be profound or clever, because this is not the appropriate time.”

Chauvin was convicted of one count of second degree murder, one count of third degree murder and one count of second degree manslaughter for May 25, 2020 death of Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man.  Police were called because Floyd was suspected of passing a counterfeit $20 bill at a local convenience store.

With at least two other officers standing by, Chauvin kneeled on Floyd’s neck and back for more than nine consecutive minutes, causing a constriction of his breathing which led to a heart attack.  Chauvin faced a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison on all counts.

My son is having a great time with @CongressmanHice's office dog Rocco on National Bring Your Dog to work day! pic.twitter.com/w3N8vBcaol

— Lauren Boebert (@laurenboebert) June 25, 2021

“ProPublica has obtained new details about the Trump White House’s knowledge of the gathering storm, after interviewing more than 50 people involved in the events of Jan. 6 and reviewing months of private correspondence. Taken together, these accounts suggest that senior Trump aides had been warned the Jan. 6 events could turn chaotic, with tens of thousands of people potentially overwhelming ill-prepared law enforcement officials. Rather than trying to halt the march, Trump and his allies accommodated its leaders, according to text messages and interviews with Republican operatives and officials. Katrina Pierson, a former Trump campaign official assigned by the White House to take charge of the rally planning, helped arrange a deal where those organizers deemed too extreme to speak at the Ellipse could do so on the night of Jan. 5. That event ended up including incendiary speeches from Jones and Ali Alexander, the leader of Stop the Steal, who fired up his followers with a chant of ‘Victory or death!'”

“The record of what White House officials knew about Jan. 6 and when they knew it remains incomplete. Key officials, including White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, declined to be interviewed for this story. The second impeachment of President Trump focused mostly on his public statements, including his Jan. 6 exhortation that the crowd march on the Capitol and ‘fight like hell.’ Trump was acquitted by the Senate, and his lawyers insisted that the attack on the Capitol was both regrettable and unforeseeable. Rally organizers interviewed said they did not expect Jan. 6 to culminate with the violent sacking of the Capitol. But they acknowledged they were worried about plans by the Stop the Steal movement to organize an unpermitted march that would reach the steps of the building as Congress gathered to certify the election results” – ProPublica.

https://youtu.be/1uWJjTSt2LA

President Joe Biden said in a press briefing Friday afternoon, when he signed the order making the Pulse Nightclub a national memorial, that he spoke to Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, earlier in the day to offer federal assistance, including FEMA officials and housing, for the people in need after the collapse of the Champlain Towers South complex in Surfside.

“President Biden signed legislation on Friday designating the Pulse nightclub a national memorial. The 2016 mass shooting at the Orlando, Florida gay club is one of the deadliest attacks in modern American history, that left 49 people dead and more than 50 people injured. Earlier this month, on the fifth anniversary of the shooting, Biden called Pulse ‘hallowed ground,’ and noted that the shooting was particularly devastating for members of the LGBTQ community. Survivors of the shooting and victims’ families attended the signing ceremony at the White House.”

“The bill to designate the nightclub as a national memorial passed the Senate on June 9, three days before the fifth anniversary of the shooting. ‘A place of acceptance and joy became a place of unspeakable pain and loss, and we’ll never fully recovery, but we will remember,’ Biden said. ‘May no president have to sign another monument like this,’ he added” – Axios.

New York Times: “The Manhattan district attorney’s office has informed Donald J. Trump’s lawyers that it is considering criminal charges against his family business, the Trump Organization, in connection with fringe benefits the company awarded a top executive, according to several people with knowledge of the matter. If the case moves ahead, the district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., could announce charges against the Trump Organization and the executive, Allen H. Weisselberg, as soon as next week, the people said. The criminal charges would be the first to emerge from Mr. Vance’s long-running investigation into Mr. Trump and his business dealings, and raise the startling prospect of a former president having to defend the company he founded and has run for decades.”

“Police say they’re searching for a shrimp thief on Long Island. The woman allegedly stole $310 worth of frozen shrimp from a grocery store in East Northport. It happened on June 16 at the Stop & Shop on Jericho Turnpike. Police said the suspect took off in a white 2013 BMW with Pennsylvania license plate LSA 3422” CBS 2 New York reports.

Like her Californian counterpart Pistachio Pete, “Shrimpy Shirley” has not been referred to as such by any media outlet besides National Zero. But like the “MAGA Bomber” and the “Barefoot Bandit” these colorful nicknames need to originate somewhere. Why not us? What if this is just the beginning of a series of shrimp thefts up and down the East Coast? We’ll be ahead of the curve.

Plus if she starts stealing lobsters and crab legs too we can smoothy transition into calling her “Seafood Shirley”. Admittedly “Seafood Sue” would probably be better at that point, but we’re already committed to “Shirley” here. We were tempted to go with “Crustacean Karen” but while it sounds good it isn’t as catchy-looking in text. Plus then we’d be fucked if “Shirley” branches out into halibut and salmon thefts. “Fishy Fran” would be too hard of a change to pull off.

SECRET about this WOKE JOKE of a general. His 2 year term expires in Three Months. Most Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs get reappointed to a 2nd term. But Not All. This Virtue Signaling CRAP is to impress whoever the hell is in charge of the Biden administration.#audition pic.twitter.com/apISDCiLHC

— Greg Kelly (@gregkellyusa) June 25, 2021

Axios: “The latest census is expected to show the first decline in history for the nation’s non-Hispanic white population, according to an analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data by the Brookings Institution’s William Frey. The U.S. is rapidly moving toward a majority-minority population — with the racial and ethnic diversity most apparent in younger cohorts. ‘This really is moving in a direction that’s going to favor the issues and the political agendas of these younger people,’ Frey told Axios. ‘Republicans are going to have to awaken to this.’”

The US Department of Justice Civil Rights Division will lead a lawsuit against the State of Georgia for a series of laws it passed quickly in March that severely restrict the ability of citizens to register to vote and cast ballots, it will announce Friday.

According to Mother Jones, the lawsuit will be led by two experienced civil rights attorneys from the DOJ:  Kristen Clarke, the head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, and Vanita Gupta, the associate attorney general.  Both of those appointees had their nominations challenged by Senate Republicans for their past advocacy for voter rights.

Within a 96 hour period in March, Georgia passed through the state house and state senate, and Republican Governor Brian Kemp signed, a law that imposed 16 requirements that limit the ability of people to easily register to vote, get an absentee ballot, and cast that ballot. 

“Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley reaffirmed her support for former President Donald Trump in a speech Thursday night, just months after flaying him for his role in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and predicting that his political career was finished. The potential 2024 presidential candidate lavished praise on Trump during an evening appearance before the Iowa Republican Party’s Lincoln Dinner, a major party gathering in the all-important, first-in-the-nation caucus state.”

“‘Thank goodness for Donald Trump, or we never would have gotten Kamala Harris to the border,’ Haley said, poking at the vice president’s announcement that she would be traveling to the U.S.-Mexico border soon, ahead of Trump’s planned June 30 visit. Haley later hailed Trump’s approach to foreign policy, saying she ‘saw firsthand as ambassador to the United Nations that Donald Trump put America first’ and telling a humorous story about Trump’s decision to label North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un ‘Little Rocket Man,’ saying it showed how the former president had ‘a way of getting people.’ The remarks represent a break for the former Trump cabinet member, who has vacillated in her approach toward Trump as she tests the presidential waters following his defeat. The early struggle to calibrate her position on Trump has penned Haley in between those in the GOP who are eager to move on from Trump and those who want to stick by him” – Politico.

This tweet has been hilariously triggering for the Forever Trumpers.

— Miles Taylor (@MilesTaylorUSA) June 25, 2021

“A statue honoring George Floyd in Brooklyn was vandalized with black spray paint and the name of a white supremacist group, Patriot Front, on Thursday morning. The statue’s unveiling took place less than a week ago on Juneteenth, with Floyd’s brother Terence in attendance. The NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force said it was investigating the incident, which took place between 3 and 5 a.m., but a spokesperson said, ‘There are no arrests and the investigation is ongoing.’ Terence Floyd told HuffPost that the defacement ‘is a perfect example of why we are so diligent in promoting change.’ Patriot Front has claimed responsibility for vandalizing a mural commemorating Floyd in Philadelphia” – Daily Beast.

“It is important that voters have confidence in our elections. People ask for a forensic audit and are told they are stupid and perpetrating a lie. Opponents of any audit should have stronger arguments than calling people names. Why not inspect the ballots if there’s nothing to hide? I’ve been in communication with Trump advisors and they wanted a different approach from our legislature. I would have preferred they waited for the results from Arizona before issuing a formal report. Now we anxiously await the results from Arizona…” – Facebook post from Michigan Republican Party co-chair Meshawn Maddock. Note the “I would have preferred they waited for the results from Arizona” bullshit, as if that fraud is supposed to have any bearing on the result in Michigan.

“Republicans are gearing up for a hot pursuit of Hunter Biden should they win a majority in Congress in the 2022 midterms. They’re itching to probe his international business dealings again with hopes of uncovering evidence of wrongdoing they can link back to his father President Joe Biden ahead of the next presidential elections” Business Insider reports.

“It could become the new Benghazi probe in a GOP-led Congress. GOP lawmakers told Insider they have lots of unanswered questions and are ready to flex their oversight power if voters put them in a position to lead investigations again. ‘There’s no shortage of areas to investigate when it comes to potential wrongdoings with Hunter Biden,’ said Rep. James Comer, of Kentucky, the House Oversight and Reform Committee’s ranking Republican. Comer would be favored to take over the chairmanship of the panel should the GOP win back the House. Republicans say they want to know more about Hunter Biden’s ties to China and the Ukraine gas company Burisma. Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, who has been one of the most vocal Republicans about Hunter Biden, told Insider that much of the information out there about the president’s son would have impacted the 2020 election outcome ‘had it not been for the censorship and suppression by the media.’ ‘There’s [information] out there that had Biden voters known about Hunter Biden, enough of them would not have voted for Biden; he would not be president,’ said Johnson, who led the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee last Congress.”