YPSILANTI, Mich - There’s a new sheriff in town in Washtenaw County, Michigan, who is pushing for major changes to how the sheriff’s department enforces laws and policies that she says are important to protecting the environment.
Sheriff Alyshia Dyer, a former deputy who became a social worker, is focused on protecting the community “from the negative environmental and human health impacts of pollution and climate change.” Dyer, a Democrat, was sworn in earlier this month, becoming Washtenaw County’s first female sheriff after she pulled out an upset victory in the Democratic Party primary in August and ran unopposed in the general election.
In a phone interview with The Daily Wire, the new sheriff emphasized that under her leadership, the sheriff’s department will drastically change its outlook on environmental issues and said that she wants to implement an “Environmental Crimes Unit” in her first term, which would focus on looking into “air pollution, water contamination, and hazardous waste management.” Click here to read more.
LOS ANGELES, CALIF - Far-Left fact-checking outfits are in full-blown panic mode after Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced on Tuesday that Facebook will drop its current fact-checking system, thereby cutting off funding for the partisan organizations.
The International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), which includes signatories like PolitiFact and MediaWise, called an emergency meeting “specifically” over Zuckerberg’s announcement, a Business Insider report revealed.
“This program has been a major part of the global fact-checking community’s work for years,” IFCN’s director Angie Holan said. “People are upset because they saw themselves as partners in good standing with Meta, doing important work to make the platform more accurate and reliable.”
One PolitiFact employee said they “found out this morning at the same time as everyone else” about Zuckerberg dropping the partnership. Click here to read more.
LANSING, Mich - School closures imposed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer during the pandemic continue to plague Michigan students, particularly with fundamental reading skills.
A recent report from the Education Policy Innovation Collaborative analyzed assessments of about 716,000 Michigan’s K-8 students in 678 school districts from the spring and fall of 2024 to offer perspective on recovery from learning loss during school closures four years prior.
Researchers found that while students made some progress in math in 2024, reading proficiency among Michigan students remains at a 10-year low, with little improvement since Whitmer forced schools to shut down in-person instruction. Click here to read more.
LOS ANGELES, CALIF - We have multiple reports Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass knew of the grave fire risk to her city before she abandoned it for a taxpayer-funded “diplomatic” trip to Ghana in Western Africa.
Here’s the timeline of what we know so far courtesy of Lee Fang’s Substack page:
Thursday, January 2: The “National Weather Service explicitly warned Los Angeles about “extreme fire conditions” over the next week.
Thursday, January 2: “Jonathan O’Brien, a meteorologist with the U.S. Forest Service, spoke to officials and posted openly about the incoming threat.”
Thursday, January 2: “O’Brien noted that weather models for Southern California showed a ‘strong-extreme Santa Ana wind event starting Tuesday 1/7.’”
Friday, January 3: “Rose Schoenfeld, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service Los Angeles office… gave a briefing that warned that the lack of rain this winter season, coupled with forecasted strong wind, posed an imminent threat.” Click here to read more.
WASHINGTON - An investigation is underway into the deaths of two dogs who were apparently electrocuted while walking on a sidewalk in the nation’s capital.
WARNING: This story contains details that may be disturbing to some readers.
Ben Stearn says he saw a puppy on the sidewalk jumping up and down just before 4 p.m. Monday. At first, he thought the dog was bothered by salt on the street that road crews put down after the day’s snowstorm.
The dog jumped up and down a few more times then stopped moving.
“I heard this horrible yelping and crying,” Stearn said. “The dog was jumping in the air, and then, it would flop down and jump up again. This went on several times, and then, he flopped down and didn’t move.”
Stearn tried to wipe the puppy’s paws then realized he was feeling a sharp pain.
“I bent down because I was going to feel for a pulse. I felt a sharp pain in my hand, and I thought I had hit something sharp,” he said. Click here to read more.
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