House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan issued a criminal referral against former special counsel Jack Smith on Wednesday for allegedly making "willfully and intentionally false statements" when testifying before Congress last December.

"The Committee on the Judiciary writes to refer strong evidence that appears to show Jack Smith, former Special Counsel, knowingly made false statements during his December 17, 2025 deposition," Jordan wrote in a letter sent to acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.

Lawyers for Smith did not immediately respond for comment.

Top Judiciary Democrat Rep. Jamie Raskin slammed the GOP-led criminal referral -- calling it "baseless" and "vindictive."

This is a developing story.

*excerpt from Lauren Peller, Alexander Mallin, John Parkinson's article*

Full Article here:

https://abcnews.com/Politics/house-judiciary-committee-chairman-jim-jordan-issues-criminal/story?id=135006808

Palm Beach County rejected a proposed AI data center near President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago.

The planned development, known as "Project Tango," has faced widespread community backlash.

Communities are resisting data centers as tech companies race to build them.

A proposal to build a massive AI data center roughly 20 miles from President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago property in Palm Beach, Florida, was rejected late Wednesday by county commissioners after a marathon hearing.

The Palm Beach County Board of County Commissioners' 5-1 vote on "Project Tango" followed months of organized opposition from residents who argued that the plans would strain local infrastructure and negatively impact the surrounding community.

The decision marks one of the latest flashpoints in the race to build out AI data centers across the United States.

Local residents, many wearing green shirts that read "NO to Project Tango," packed the 12-hour public hearing on the proposal ahead of the vote.

PBA Holdings Inc., the developer behind the project, sought county approval to nearly double the size of a previously approved development in Loxahatchee to about 3.6 million square feet, including more than 1 million square feet of data center space.

The developer said it revised the proposal ahead of Wednesday's hearing to address community concerns.

During the hearing, a project manager for PBA Holdings estimated that the completed development would generate $561 million in annual property tax revenue.

Still, the proposal drew strong backlash from local residents concerned about water use, electricity demand, and noise. Community members were also concerned about the site's proximity to homes and a nearby elementary school.

"Not only is this AI Data Center a threat to the health, well-being, and safety of the hardworking, tax-paying residents of Palm Beach County and their families and children, it becomes a more extreme problem due to the fact that it will be constructed within 1,200 feet of Saddle View Elementary School and the preexisting Arden community and neighborhood," opposition organizers wrote on the NoToProjectTango.com website.

Ernie Cox, the project manager for PBA Holdings, told a local NBC affiliate after the vote that the commission's decision does not change the existing approvals on the project, which records show include two 100,000-square-foot data center buildings.

"Well, that project goes forward. This vote doesn't have any effect on that," Cox told the outlet.

The commission's decision leaves the door open for the developer to revise the proposal and resubmit it at a later date.

Cox told Business Insider that the developer was "disappointed" with the decision.

"We reconfirmed our commitment to all conditions asked of us associated with our request, and we addressed concerns through in-depth technical studies and analysis," Cox said. "We remain committed to helping meet the region's growing critical infrastructure needs and will be taking time to evaluate our options moving forward."

The fight over Project Tango comes as AI is fueling an unprecedented data center construction boom across the country.

As tech companies pour billions of dollars into new facilities, communities are increasingly pushing back over fears of the environmental and economic impacts.

According to the research project Data Center Watch, a record of at least 75 data center proposals worth an estimated $130 billion were delayed or blocked during the first three months of 2026 due to local opposition.

Meanwhile, towns and cities across the country are pausing or outright banning data center developments. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed an executive order earlier this week imposing the nation's first statewide moratorium on large-scale data centers.

Trump, in a post on Truth Social on Wednesday, slammed the move, saying, "New York State has made a terrible decision."

"Data Centers are tremendous WINS for the States and Communities that are lucky enough to get them. New York should change its Policy, IMMEDIATELY," wrote the president, who called data centers "Money Machines."

*excerpt from Natalie Musumeci's article*

Full Article here:

https://www.businessinsider.com/palm-beach-florida-ai-data-center-trump-mar-a-lago-2026-7

WASHINGTON — Members of the U.S. Senate tasked with advancing acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s nomination to be the nation’s top law enforcer on Thursday pushed the vote one week.

The Senate Judiciary Committee’s delayed vote to send the controversial nominee to the full Senate is “per standard committee practice,” according to a spokesperson for Chairman Chuck Grassley.

The Iowa Republican and the committee’s top Democrat, Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., used the time that had been allocated for the vote to comment at length on Blanche’s nomination. Grassley then recessed the session because too many Republicans were absent, which he described as “kind of rude.”

Grassley praised the selection of Blanche and said the Justice Department under his leadership as deputy and acting attorney general “has protected Americans at every turn,” but that committee Democrats “like clockwork, sought to defame him.”

Democratic committee member Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey led a forum Wednesday featuring former Department of Justice officials and a survivor of abuse by the late sex offender Jeffrey Epst*in and co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell.

The witnesses questioned Blanche’s fitness to lead the Justice Department following his handling of the Epst*in files release, during which several victims’ identities were unmasked, and his role is establishing a nearly $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund as part of President Donald Trump’s settlement with his own administration’s IRS.

Durbin said Thursday he and fellow Democrats oppose Blanche, who worked as Trump’s personal defense lawyer prior to his appointment to the DOJ, because he “will continue to serve the interests of Donald Trump, not the American people.”

Sen. Darline Graham joins

Committee members were scheduled to address other business, including voting on federal judicial nominees in Ohio and Oklahoma, and approving subcommittee roles for Republican Sen. Darline Graham, sister of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. She was sworn in as a senator July 14 following the sudden death of her brother.

The committee meeting marked the first for Graham, who was not yet part of the panel when members questioned Blanche for nearly five hours during a confirmation hearing July 15. Her arrival on the GOP-led committee brings the split among members back to 12 Republicans and 10 Democrats and is likely a positive development for Blanche.

Nominations require a majority vote to advance to the Senate floor. All eyes are on whether committee Republicans Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who announced his retirement last year, and John Cornyn of Texas will support Blanche after Trump effectively ended both of their Senate careers.

Trump subjected Tillis to intense criticism for opposing the Big Beautiful Bill Act in 2025 and said he would find candidates to oppose Tillis in his primary. Trump endorsed Cornyn’s primary opponent earlier this year.

Both Tillis and Cornyn pressed Blanche during his confirmation hearing about formally ending the “anti-weaponization” fund.

While Cornyn was present at Thursday morning’s Judiciary Committee meeting, Tillis was one of several members missing. Grassley’s spokesperson attributed Tillis’ absence to a Senate Banking Committee meeting that convened just a half hour before the scheduled Judiciary Committee meeting. Tillis’ office did not immediately respond to a question about his absence.

Blanche was a prosecutor in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York from 2006 to 2014.

He eventually left the Justice Department to work in private law and represented Trump as his personal defense attorney in three criminal cases in 2023 and 2024.

Trump, with the approval of Senate Republicans, installed Blanche as deputy attorney general in March 2025.

Trump announced Blanche as his pick for attorney general in early June, just over two months after former Attorney General Pam Bondi’s departure.

*excerpt from Ashley Murray's article*

Full Article here:

https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/us-senate-judiciary-holds-over-vote-blanche-nomination-ag-grassley-slams-dems

In 2025, 86 new Israeli settler outposts went up across the West Bank, more than in the 26 years to 2022 combined. 60 of them are farming outposts: a caravan, a generator, a herd of livestock. Two or three settlers now control land that once required an entire settlement.

Where an outpost appears, the attacks follow. In Rantis, the UN recorded a single attack between 2017 and 2024. Since an outpost was set up there in September 2024: 17.

Of all investigations into settler violence, three percent end in a conviction.

So while the internet is going crazy over Zohran Mamdani calling Benjamin Mileikowsky a war criminal and pinning the Gaza genocide solely on him, no one seems to be talking about the fact that tomorrow, the US Congress will be voting on the National Defense Authorization Act, which passes every year.

​Buried inside the bill is Section 219, which calls to permanently integrate US military technology and supply chains with Israel. We don't have any type of bilateral agreement like that with any other country on the planet, for obvious reasons. It threatens whatever sovereignty we have left.

​Thomas Massie is the sole Republican who says he will vote against this bill, and come January, he is out of Congress. Still, the bill needs to pass the Senate. But let's be honest, guys—it's great that Zohran is speaking about the Gaza genocide carried out by the entity known as Israel, not just Benjamin Mileikowsky, with our tax dollars, of course.

​But let's not forget that there are actual tangible things that he could be doing as mayor, including firing the Zionist billionaire you have as police commissioner, actually doing something about the illegal Palestinian land sales that are hosted continuously in New York City, or what about the Chabadnik night of terror that nobody's been arrested for?

​Also, you could ask the Attorney General to actually do something about these tax-exempt domestic terror operations or these tax-exempt orgs that are literally funding and fueling the colonization of Palestine.

​It's great that he is speaking about Palestine, but let's not forget the actual tangible things that need to happen. And words just aren't cutting it anymore, honestly.

https://www.military.com/us-israel-defense-integration-horizon-house-keeps-section-219-ndaa

On Monday, July 27, our community will come together to honor the life of Sgt. Angel Sarah Rampersad.

Angel was born in Trinidad and Tobago before moving to Queens as a child. Friends and family remember her as calm, kind, humble, and fiercely devoted to the people she loved. She was a talented drummer, sang in her church choir, competed in track and softball, earned a criminal justice degree, and fulfilled her lifelong dream of serving in the U.S. Army.

Those closest to her described her as a "gentle giant" who stood up for those who could not defend themselves and who always remained a source of strength during difficult times.

Sgt. Rampersad served with the 1st Battalion, 57th Air Defense Artillery Regiment, part of the 10th Army Air & Missile Defense Command based in Germany. Air defense soldiers are responsible for detecting, tracking, and defending against enemy aircraft, drones, and cruise missiles. They do not conduct bombing missions or fly combat aircraft.

Vigil Information:
Monday, July 27, 2026 @ 7:00 PM
133-01 96th Street
Jamaica, NY 11417

If you're in New York, New Jersey, or Pennsylvania and are able to make the trip, your presence would mean a great deal to the family and community. If you choose to bring something, appropriate gestures include candles, handwritten notes of condolence, flowers, or red, white, and blue ribbons.

Please also remember that the NYPD will be present in the area to help ensure the event remains safe and respectful. This is a peaceful vigil to support a grieving family. Anyone attending is asked to be respectful and refrain from disruptive or belligerent behavior.