A North Carolina pastor and his son have been charged with dealing drugs out of a church, according to a report.

Josh Price, 50, a pastor at South Side Baptist Church in Lexington, was arrested along with his son Matthew Price, 28, after deputies allegedly seized about 12 pounds of marijuana, nearly 32 grams of psilocybin mushrooms, 41 THC vape pens, 20 marijuana plants, and about 2 pounds of THX wax at the church, reported WBTV-TV.

“I really hope they burn in Hell,” one neighbor said. “I’m a Christian — that is so, so wrong. It’s wrong. It’s wrong anywhere, but especially in God’s house.”

The pastor and his son were charged with manufacturing marijuana, trafficking marijuana, possession with intent to sell and deliver THC wax, three counts of felony maintaining a dwelling, possession with intent to sell and deliver marijuana, and conspiracy to traffic marijuana.

Law enforcement officers were tipped off to the operation by someone living in the fellowship hall behind the church, which Josh Price said had been closed since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, but former members said it had been closed even longer.

Former member Mike Lambeth said he was suspicious of Price when he first came to the church three years ago.

“I met him one time and our spirits didn’t bear witness at all and I did not think he was a pastor," Lambeth said, "and I told a lot of the members there, ‘Y’all better watch out for him.'"

Christian finance guru Dave Ramsey has been sued over a failed company that promised to free its customers from their timeshare obligations, according to a report.

The class-action lawsuit alleges the Washington-based Timeshare Exit Team collected $200 million from clients, with $30 million allegedly going to Ramsey, who promoted the company on his radio show, but defrauded customers through “negligent malpresentation,” reported Religion News Service.

The suit brought by 17 customers say they relied on Ramsey, who often talks about his disdain for timeshare accommodations, for advice on getting out of their burdensome contracts, and the complaint alleges that he continued to promote the company even after concerns were raised about possible fraud -- which he suggested was part of a conspiracy against parent company Reed Hein & Associates LLC.

“Instead of acknowledging the deception, Ramsey recorded a nine-minute radio segment in which he lashed out at anyone he felt to be responsible for Reed Hein’s woes,” the complaint alleges.

The suit alleges that Reed Hein told customers to stop paying their timeshare fees and created fake property deeds to falsely suggest they were free of their commitment.

“When customers finally discovered the schemes and demanded their refunds, Reed Hein fabricated excuses not to honor the promises or stopped returning their calls,” the complaint says.

The lawsuit seeking more than $150 million names Ramsey, Timeshare Exit Team and Happy Hour Media Group as defendants.

An Iowa high school employee was placed on leave after he hurled racist abuse toward a student, according to a report.

A staff member at Dubuque Hempstead High School called a student the N-word during a confrontation in front of several other students in a hallway, and the incident was recorded on video, reported KWWL-TV.

“What you looking at, n---er?” the man yells at the student.

Another Black student walks out of a nearby room toward the staffer as he shouts the slur, as seen on a three-second Snapchat video, but then abruptly stops when he hears the word.

The employee, whose name has not been released, apologizes to the Black student who walked out of the room and then turns his attention back to the other student in the video.

"I want to be clear in saying that the actions shown in this video are not acceptable and do not represent the values of Hempstead High School or the Dubuque Community School District," wrote assistant principal Julia Jorgenson in a letter to parents.

The staff member was placed on administrative leave while the incident is investigated, and Jorgensen promised the school would take "appropriate disciplinary action."

"I have talked personally with many students and parents today, as have members of our administrative team and staff across the building, to reinforce that we are here to support students today and moving forward," Jorgensen said. "I have been nothing short of impressed by the maturity, honesty and emotion in those conversations. One of our Mustang values is to be inclusive, and we will continue to strive to do better each day."

Watch the video at this link.

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) is apparently trying to give Donald Trump a peek inside the special counsel investigation.

The House Judiciary Committee chairman sent a letter Thursday to attorney general Merrick Garland seeking details about the FBI's involvement in special counsel Jack Smith's sprawling investigations of the former president, including his mishandling of classified documents found at his private residence at Mar-a-Lago, reported The Federalist.

"Explain whether any FBI employees who have worked on Special Counsel Smith’s investigation previously worked on any other matters concerning President Trump," Jordan wrote, "and explain whether Special Counsel Smith’s investigation relies on any information or material gathered exclusively by the FBI prior the Special Counsel’s appointment."

The Ohio Republican claimed congressional oversight authority to request a briefing by deputy attorney general Lisa Monaco on any changes made by the FBI to correct any failings cited by Trump-era special counsel John Durham, who recently submitted his final report following a years-long investigation.

"Public trust in the FBI is low," Jordan wrote. "Recent examples of political bias in FBI and Department of Justice operations show that the so-called 'corrective measures' the FBI instituted after Crossfire Hurricane have done nothing to address, let alone cure, the institutional rot that pervades the FBI.

"It is clear that Congress must consider legislative reforms to the FBI, and the Committee has been engaged in robust oversight to inform those legislative proposals. In the interim, however, due to the FBI’s documented political bias, the Justice Department must ensure any ongoing investigations are not poisoned by this same politicization."

MSNBC's Joe Scarborough doesn't see Ron DeSantis connecting with voters by giving the same speech over and over on the campaign trail.

The "Morning Joe" host played video clips of DeSantis and Donald Trump arguing over who could "tame the deep state" quicker, and he said the Florida governor's political skills were vastly overrated.

"Oh my god, you know, do they give him a word and they program it in to him -- 'tame the deep state?'" Scarborough said. "Again, going back to 'Succession,' it's like Logan Roy's famous line, where he told his kids, 'I love you, but you are not serious people.' I keep waiting for Ron DeSantis to become serious."

"I don't know why -- maybe because he speaks in complete sentences, you think at some point some Republican will figure out that being a serious person is the best alternative to Donald Trump," Scarborough added. "He's talking like a robot. He can't just say Donald Trump failed last time, he had four years, his GDP numbers were worse than seven other presidents -- he's not good at this job, he couldn't do it. Instead he goes, it will take more time to tame the deep state. They ask him a follow-up, it will take more time to tame the deep state. They ask him a question, he goes, deep state. Seriously, these are not serious people."

DON'T MISS: Fani Willis' Trump election fraud probe expands into 'several other states': Washington Post

DeSantis has staked his political reputation on culture-war issues by prohibiting classroom discussion of race and gender, enabling right-wing activists to ban books on those same topics and attacking Disney for opposing those measures, but Scarborough said those issues only appeal to the most hardcore conservatives.

"It goes back to what I've been saying nonstop for the past two years," Scarborough said. "You're making yourself more unelectable. You're driving away more parents, you're driving away more suburban voters, you're driving away more educated people. According to the demographics, you're driving away the very people who really would like an excuse to vote for you."

"The deep state, woke, war on woke -- it's like, talk like a human being to us," he added. "But this is what we're hearing from so many people on the far right. They're just undercutting the ability of candidates that you want to beat Democrats to actually win elections."

Watch the video below or at this link.

06 02 2023 09 05 36 youtu.be

A New York pizza shop owner was ordered to pay $150,000 for racially harassing employees.

The worker filed a lawsuit alleging the owner of a pair of Domino's franchises in Olean, New York, and Bradford, Pennsylvania, allowed two managers to regularly use the N-word and call Black workers "boy" during shifts, and the suit claims their complaints were met with further harassment, reported the Olean Times Herald.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission found that a Black employee told a white co-worker to stop using racial slurs, but a manager got close to the worker's face and used the N-word in a threatening manner.

When an employee complained to the owner of Parris Pizza, the agency found, one of the managers threatened the worker with a pair of scissors.

DON'T MISS: 'They know he's busted': Morning Joe hearing Trump pals 'really concerned' about Mar-a-Lago case

Parris Pizza Company LLC agreed to a five-year consent decree with the EEOC to pay $150,000 to Black employees who were harassed and will send an apology letter to all its former employees, and any new business the company opens within that period must institute robust anti-discrimination policies and train workers on federal anti-discrimination laws.

A message seeking comment sent to Domino's corporate communications was not immediately returned.

MSNBC's Joe Scarborough said Donald Trump and his inner circle are "really concerned" about the evidence turned up by special counsel Jack Smith in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case.

The special counsel has a recording of Trump from July 2021 discussing the classified documents he took home from the White House, and the "Morning Joe" host said the former president's denials are not very persuasive.

"Everything he just said there was wrong," Scarborough said. "It really was, no need to even tick through it. I will say, though, you look at the two cases that should cause Donald Trump the most concern, Georgia and, at least in my opinion, Georgia and the documents case. They've got the tapes, they've got the receipts, they've got his own voice, the voice that the grand jury heard. He can call it witch hunt all he wants, but they've got him dead to right on intent, on stealing the documents."

The Department of Justice has reportedly had the recordings for months, although their existence was only reported this week, but Scarborough said his sources close to Trump seemed to know last week that the evidence would soon be made public.

READ MORE: 'Extremism sells': Georgia Republicans lament Trump has turned GOP into party of 'performance artists'

"It is so interesting, you're hearing that reporting, because I started hearing that a week ago, that despite the bravado, Trump himself and people close to Trump are really, really concerned about the documents case," Scarborough said, "and they understand that he's busted. Now, I heard that a week ago. I'm wondering if this tape had something to do with that. People who have been whistling past the graveyard the last five, six, seven years, there's been a change around Trump's people, and they know he is busted. Even Trump is deeply concerned about this."

Watch the video below or at this link.

06 02 2023 07 15 56 youtu.be

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) called for the FBI to turn over a document to the House Oversight Committee that Republicans believe raises questions about President Joe Biden and his family.

Oversight Committee chairman James Comer (R-KY) said the panel was moving forward with holding FBI director Chris Wray in contempt of Congress for withholding the document, which he says contains evidence of "an alleged criminal scheme," although lawmakers have been cleared to review the document at the bureau's offices.

"Well, it's not good enough for me," Grassley told Fox News. "We asked for the document a month ago, it has been subpoenaed. We're doing the constitutional job of oversight. I have read that document. If he would read it and it is an unclassified document, he admits it exists and we aren't interested in whether or not the accusations against vice president Biden are accurate or not. We are responsible for making sure the FBI does its job, and that's what we want to know."

Grassley declined to characterize the findings but said Republicans would make them public once it was delivered to them, and he dismissed Wray's concerns about releasing the document.

"If he would read it, he would know that all the excuses he is giving us that he wants to protect sources, and that's important to protect sources, but that's not an issue with this document the way I read it," Grassley said. "He ought to come forth. They've got to produce this document. They are up against what the Durham report has said about the shortcomings and political bias of the FBI this is just one more example of them not being forthcoming to the public because the public's business ought to be public. And there is no reason for an unclassified document to be held in secret."

Grassley stopped short of characterizing the evidence as "damning," but said it suggests wrongdoing.

"Let's put it this way, there's accusations in it," he said. "But it's not for me to make a judgment about whether these accusations are accurate or not, it's up to my job to make sure the FBI is doing their job, and that's what this is all about as far as I'm concerned. Public's business ought to be public."

The internal frustrations within Donald Trump's legal team started almost immediately after the FBI searched Mar-a-Lago last year, and they spilled into public view not long afterward.

Federal investigators seized 101 classified materials from the former president's private residence in August, and his four-person legal team at the time -- Jim Trusty, Evan Corcoran, Chris Kise and Lindsey Halligan -- worked together to persuade U.S. district court judge Aileen Cannon to grant a special master, but cracks soon emerged, reported The Guardian.

"But Trusty, who played a leading role in the special master litigation, was already frustrated with how things were going," reported Hugo Lowell for the newspaper. "Trusty’s private frame of mind emerged over dinner with Halligan and Corcoran at the five-star Breakers hotel in West Palm Beach, Florida, hours after the special master court hearing.

"The conversation was overheard by this Guardian reporter who happened to be sitting at the table next to them."

Trusty was frustrated that Trump adviser Boris Epshteyn was making the attorneys run legal decisions through him, even though he didn't consider him to be a trial lawyer, and Trusty didn't like that Epshteyn seemed to focus more on Trump's public-relations problems than legal issues.

Lowell then overheard the attorney rip Epshteyn for trying to "troubleshoot" legal problems instead of letting him candidly brief his own client himself, which he compared to "'Game of Thrones' nonsense," and Trusty and Parlatore agreed several weeks later, after the Justice Department told them they believed Trump still had classified documents, that Epshteyn improperly inserted himself into their work.

"The pair chafed that when they spoke to Trump on the phone, Epshteyn was typically also on the line," Lowell reported. "At other times, they sniped that Epshteyn would give overly rosy outlooks to Trump and, in March, traveled to Mar-a-Lago to seek Trump’s permission to exclude him from future deliberations."

Donald Trump's defense lawyers reportedly engaged in a "murder-suicide pact" to protect themselves, much as top Justice Department officials allegedly had as he attempted to overturn his 2020 election loss.

The former president's legal team in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case have been embroiled in interpersonal conflict for months, and the bitterness and mistrust toward co-counsel and Trump adviser Boris Epshteyn curdled so badly that some lawyers agreed to a pact where if one attorney was fired, the rest would quit in solidarity, reported The Guardian.

One top lawyer, Tim Parlatore, abruptly resigned last month over his disagreements with Epshteyn, whom he accused of attempting to interfere with the legal team's efforts to locate classified documents at Trump properties and lying to both other attorneys and the former president.

Epshteyn was recently questioned by special counsel Jack Smith, and Parlatore and Trump lawyer Evan Corcoran have testified before a grand jury in the classified documents case.

RELATED: 'Overwhelming and clear-cut' evidence will push DOJ to 'very quickly' indict Trump: Ex-Mueller prosecutor

The legal team feels confident that Parlatore won't turn on Trump, according to The Guardian, after a transcript showed he told a grand jury the ex-president had allowed him to search freely for any remaining documents last year at his properties.

But six sources familiar with the situation told the newspaper that efforts to remove Epshteyn from the case had failed after months of worsening relations, and he remains on the team while Parlatore had resigned.

Last year, former acting deputy attorney general Bill Donoghue told the Jan. 6 committee that top Justice Department officials, along with then-White House counsel Pat Cipollone, had agreed to resign en masse if Trump made Jeffrey Clarke, an environmental lawyer with the department, the acting attorney general and allowed him to send a letter to states about election fraud.

A new recording that shows Donald Trump discussing a classified document could be the final nail that results in criminal charges, according to one legal expert, and there could be tremendous pressure to prosecute him before the 2024 election.

Special counsel Jack Smith's team has an audio recording of the former president from July 2021 discussing a classified document that outlined a possible attack on Iran that he took from the White House, and he showed awareness that he no longer had the authority to declassify it, and MSNBC legal analyst Andrew Weissmann said the case against Trump was "overwhelming."

"It's always fraught to give predictions, but I would think that the Department of Justice and Jack Smith are going to be very concerned about getting information into the hands of the public and trying to have a trial before there is an election," said Weissman, a former federal prosecutor who worked under special counsel Robert Mueller. "Not for the sake of speed but for the sake of the electorate knowing what the proof is, so they can factor that in in deciding who to vote for. That's a long way of saying that I think they'll feel a lot of internal pressure to act very quickly."

READ MORE: New Trump evidence is almost as good as 'a guilty plea': Former House GOP Intel Chair

"There is, I think from a procedural perspective, we've heard that Donald Trump has sent this letter to the attorney general, so he can appeal to the attorney general, who has the power to sort of do a thumbs-up or thumbs-down on any potential indictment," Weissman continued. "I find it highly unlikely that the attorney general would reject a potential indictment proposal from Jack Smith. The only question there is how long that appeal process would in the department take. Then I actually -- if I guess, I'd say it'll probably be the next couple weeks that you will see some sort of charge on Mar-a-Lago. I think Jan. 6 may take a little longer because it is a much more complicated case."

"I agree with you Mar-a-Lago, at this point, the proof seems overwhelming and relatively clear cut," he added.

Watch the video below or at this link.

06 01 2023 07 13 22 youtu.be

MSNBC's Joe Scarborough believes Donald Trump is sure to be indicted in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case, and he doesn't see how that will help him get re-elected.

The ex-president can be heard on a July 2021 recording admitting that he kept a classified document after leaving the White House and suggesting that he wanted to share the material, but knew he could not lawfully do so, and the "Morning Joe" host said that could be fatal to his bid to return to the White House.

"There's some hardcore supporters who will say it doesn't matter that Donald Trump is a liar, it doesn't matter that he stole classified documents, it doesn't matter that he obstructed justice, it doesn't matter that he broke the law," Scarborough said. "It doesn't matter that he kept lying and that he moved documents the day before they were coming down to get the documents, it doesn't matter that he got caught on tape lying. They'll say that, but when you go a little below the surface with them, they go, 'I'm so exhausted by this guy,' right?"

"When they aren't having to admit that they voted for him twice and that they keep defending him, you scratch below the surface -- I hear it time and time again, we both do -- they're so exhausted by him," Scarborough said.

READ MORE: 'That's going to be his undoing': Legal expert tells CNN that Trump has cornered himself

Trump's hardcore base might stick with him, Scarborough said, and that might be enough to win the Republican Party nomination, but he said an indictment on possible espionage charges would be fatal in a general election.

"I think the indictment that's sure to come now from the Justice Department is really going to hurt Donald Trump in the suburbs of Atlanta, Philly, Detroit, Milwaukee -- you name it, Maricopa County, where all of these swing voters are that decide elections," he said. "Again, Trump people say, it's fine, it's fine. They won't come out and say it, but they like that he's a liar. They like that he lies to the FBI, they like that he lies to the DOJ, they like that he lies to everybody because they think, somehow, in some perverse, twisted logic, they think, somehow, that's sticking it to the libs, by being a liar constantly -- living your entire life being a lie in public service. That's what they think."

"The problem is, and we're going to get to the debt ceiling in a minute, I don't think that's where most of America is," he added. "I think most of America actually, you know, I think there are a lot of voters who decide elections who are going to hear this and it is going to push them even further away from Donald Trump."

Watch the video below or at this link.

06 01 2023 06 13 42 youtu.be

Roger Stone explains in a new documentary how he manipulates Donald Trump by planting lies in his head.

The Republican dirty trickster and longtime Trump adviser is shown in the documentary, A Storm Foretold, by filmmakers Christoffer Guldbrandsen and Frederik Marbell, talking on a hot mic about how he has manipulated the former president for decades, even while he served in the White House, reported The Daily Beast.

“I have a 40-year record of being able to convince the big man to do what’s in his best interest -- he’s not easy to deal with," Stone says in the film. "It’s complicated. He resents any implication that he is handled or managed or directed.”

Stone says he plants ideas in Trump's head by making him think they're his own, with a dollop of flattery.

IN OTHER NEWS: 'That's going to be his undoing': Legal expert tells CNN that Trump has cornered himself

“You have to say, ‘Remember that night when we were in Buffalo and you gave that speech, and God, it had to be 10,000 people, the biggest crowd they’d ever seen, and you said XYZ, and the place went crazy, remember that?'" Stone says. "I don’t know where you came up with that line, but it’s one of the best things."

Stone then says Trump often might say he'll use that line again, and adds that he's used that tactic almost as long as he's been advising the ex-president.

“Doesn’t f*cking matter that he never said it — doesn’t matter,” Stone says. “It’s time-consuming, but it works. I did it for 30 years.”

Guldbrandsen, whose film focuses on the period before and after the 2020 election, told The Daily Beast that he believes Stone had forgotten he was wearing a microphone during that conversation.

“Those are kind of mishaps,” Guldbrandsen said. “I think he had forgotten that he was wearing a mic. I know he had forgotten, because the next morning, he was really, really anxious about what I had recorded.”

The musician brother of Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) has finally had enough.

Charles Tuberville, an Oklahoma-based singer, guitarist and songwriter, responded to recent remarks by the Alabama Republican in support of white nationalists serving in the military and questioning whether inner-city teachers knew how to read or write, reported AL.com.

“Due to recent statements by him promoting racial stereotypes, white nationalism and other various controversial topics, I feel compelled to distance myself from his ignorant, hateful rants,” Charles Tuberville posted on Facebook. “What I’m trying to say is that, I DO NOT agree with any of the vile rhetoric coming out of his mouth. Please don’t confuse my brother with me."

Charles Tuberville has played since the 1970s with a wide variety of blues, rock and roots music performers, including Leon Russell, Freddie King, Bobby Keys, Johnny Winter, Delbert McClinton, Jimmy Vivino, Kenny Neal and B.B. King.

The leader of a gun-worshipping religious sect has joined the growing ranks of MAGA rappers under the name "King Bullethead."

Pastor Hyung-Jin “Sean” Moon, who heads the Rod of Iron Ministries, is turning his far-right sermons into rap videos to spread extremist messages about LGBTQ people and other topics, reported Vice News, although YouTube took down his channel when asked for comment.

“Did you hear about this group called LGTBQ/You may have heard them in your school or even your church pew/They are telling our kids they can switch to any gender/Taking hormones slicing organs like they’re playing Fruit Ninja," Moon raps in one song, called "Fruit Ninja."

Vice described the videos as low-budget productions featuring "questionable rhymes" and "bombastic" videos, which feature Moon wearing skeleton gloves and a crown of gold bullets while waving around a gold-plated AR-15 rifle, which the church teaches is the “Rod of Iron” foretold in the Bible’s Book of Revelations.

READ MORE: Goebbels-quoting Indiana Republican drunkenly crashed car and fled the scene: police

“They can’t stop us so they silence, censor and act like Communists,” he raps in "Big MAGA 20." “Politicians lie to get their power and form their little cliques/Politics is a combination of the words ‘poly’ and ‘ticks’/‘Poly’ means more than one, a few, a group of cliques, and ticks are parasites that suck your blood until the very last drip.”

The group, also known as The Sanctuary Church, remains fully on the fringe and Moon's channel had relatively few followers before it was taken down, but it's among many extremist groups that have aligned their message with the broader MAGA movement, and Moon and other senior members of the sect were present at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, but do not appear to have gone inside.

“They call us conspiracy theorists and domestic terrorists," Moon raps in "Red Eye Patrio." "They did the sedition and blamed it on you and me."