Ron DeSantis' presidential campaign entered this month with just $5 million in cash available for the primary, a sum that reignites doubts about his solvency, budgeting and ability to gain ground on front-running former President Donald Trump.

The pain is so acute that DeSantis is redeploying aides from his Tallahassee headquarters to Des Moines for the stretch run of a do-or-die Jan. 15 Iowa caucus. A better-funded operation might hire locally rather than shift resources. Past presidential campaigns have typically employed such a move only as a last-ditch cost-saving measure — and to look for a campaign-changing boost in an early state.

"The cash crunch has accelerated in the past month. It’s a huge problem," said one DeSantis donor. "If it continues to trend downwards and Trump continues to poll ahead, at some point they’re going to have to figure out if it makes sense to pull out and save face for 2028."

The fundraising numbers and decision to move staff from Florida to Iowa, confirmed by campaign spokesman Andrew Romeo, were first reported Wednesday by The New York Times. Overall, DeSantis' operation raised $15 million over the last three months through a joint fundraising committee, his leadership PAC and his campaign, Romeo said.

But some of the money can be spent only in the general election, because it was raised from big donors who already gave the maximum primary donation. And despite rounds of layoffs that were part of a much-publicized reset, DeSantis burned through more primary cash than he raised over the last three months.

At the end of the second quarter, DeSantis had $6.6 million in primary funds available, according to an NBC News analysis of his last campaign finance filing — roughly $1.6 million more than his campaign says it has now.

If DeSantis doesn't turn it around soon he might not make it to the Iowa caucus. Haley is already polling ahead of him in NH.

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/10/04/new-hampshire-nikki-haley-desantis-00119864

Even though the writers strike that crippled talk shows has lifted, the three co-head writers for Drew Barrymore’s daytime show have declined to return, sources close to the production said.

It was not clear from the sources why the three writers are not returning.

The production sources said offers were extended to all three when they could be extended after the end of the strike, which was lifted on Sept. 27, and all three declined.

Barrymore was criticized after she announced in September that she would resume “The Drew Barrymore Show,” a daytime talk show, even though the strike by the Writers Guild of America had not yet been resolved.

Barrymore was dropped as the host of the National Book Awards in response.

She later walked back the decision, apologized to anyone who felt hurt, and said she would wait to resume production until the strike was over.

Shane Jason Woods, 45, was the first person charged with assaulting a member of the news media during the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection.

Woods, of Auburn, Illinois, took a running start and tackled the Reuters cameraman “like an NFL linebacker hunting a quarterback after an interception,” federal prosecutors wrote in a court filing.

Woods also attacked and injured a Capitol police officer who was 100 pounds (45 kilograms) lighter than him, according to prosecutors. He blindsided the officer, knocking her off her feet and into a metal barricade. The next day, the officer was still in pain and said she felt as if she had been “hit by a truck,” prosecutors said.

Woods, who ran an HVAC repair business, was arrested in June 2021 and pleaded guilty to assault charges in September 2022.

He also has been charged in Illinois with first-degree murder in the death of a woman killed in a wrong-way car collision on Nov. 8, 2022.

While free on bond conditions for the Jan. 6 case, Woods was pulled over for speeding but drove off and fled from law enforcement. Woods was drunk and driving in the wrong direction down a highway in Springfield, Illinois, when his pickup truck slammed into a car driven by 35-year-old Lauren Wegner, authorities said. Wegner was killed, and two other people were injured in the crash.

Woods was injured in the crash and was taken to a hospital, where a police officer overheard him saying that he had intentionally driven the wrong way on the highway and had been trying to crash into a semi-trailer truck, according to federal prosecutors. He remains jailed in Sangamon County, Illinois, while awaiting a trial scheduled to start in January, according to online court records.

Why fear an automated text message? The reasons are mind-bendingly ludicrous, but surf long-running waves of disinformation around 5G networks, the COVID vaccines, and a nefarious federal government intent on harming its citizens.

“These tests and exercises or drills, if you prefer, are always preceding of, or simultaneous with, an actual created crisis,” the Hawaii-based pastor J.D. Farag said in a recent sermon, clips of which spread on X and TikTok.

“The crisis is first simulated and then created,” said Farag, who has nearly 300,000 subscribers on his “End Times news and global events” YouTube page, before comparing the impending event to the Sept. 11 attacks and COVID-19.

Jason Shurka, a spirituality influencer with around 170,000 followers each on YouTube and Instagram, warned followers in videos last month that an emergency broadcast, “disguised as a test,” would send a high-frequency signal to devices across the country “with the intention of activating graphene oxide and other nanoparticles that have been inserted into billions of human beings around the world through the obvious mediums,” presumably a reference to the COVID-19 vaccine.

On Truth Social, the Trump-backed social media network, one QAnon influencer noted the emergency test coincided with rumored nuclear evacuation drills in Russia and warned, “You and your body have been continuously assaulted by every poison, bioagent, medication, and criminal warfare device (millimeter, x-rays, and microwaves) conceivable, for your entire lives.”

And on TikTok, one since-removed video included the caption, “Y’all get ready. October 4th their [sic] activating Marburg virus through 5 g signal which they are activating on October 4. This will affect anyone who took the shots.” The accompanying video featured anti-vaccine activist Todd Callender warning that a 5G broadcast would cause “liquid nanoparticles to swell” and release heretofore contained pathogens into the bodies of COVID-19 vaccine recipients, causing “a Marburg epidemic” as well as, really, a race of human zombies. (The Marburg virus is a dangerous hemorrhagic fever virus.)

On Reddit, one user shared what they claimed was a text message from their landlord, notifying tenants that “we intend to enter your apartment and shut off your power” for two hours because of the supposed fire risk to “all our multiple appliances that we furnish for all of the apartments.” The same text message warned tenants of a distinct risk for “the Covid vax’d.”

The news isn’t all bad: At least a few conspiracy-theory-minded webizens see the Wireless Emergency Alerts test as a positive development: One Truth Social user, for example, pointed out that the digits in the military times for the announced start and end to the test, 14:20 and 14:50, added up to 17 ― a supposed reference to Q, the 17th letter in the alphabet and a calling card for the QAnon conspiracy theory.

“PROOF The White Hats Control the 10/4 EAS Test!” the post announced, using a slang term for upstanding patriots.

“According to some, White Hats have full control of communications,” another Truth Social user posted separately. “If anything these vibrations will be healing frequencies so I’m told…… I for one am not taking any measures to hide my phone…..”

A second lawyer for Rudy Giuliani is seeking to depart his legal team in Georgia, sources familiar with the matter tell ABC News, a move that would appear to leave the former New York City mayor without any local lawyers in the state.

A motion to withdraw has been submitted to the clerk, the sources said. A judge in the case has to sign off on the motion.

News of the move comes after several other former attorneys of the Trump ally have sued Giuliani for failure to pay his bills, including his longtime friend and attorney Bob Costello, who sued Giuliani for over $1 million in payments due to his firm.

Earlier, an additional lawyer for Giuliani in Georgia, David Wolfe, submitted his own motion to withdraw from his representation of Giuliani.

Police in eastern Pakistan have smashed an illegal organ harvesting ring, arresting eight people for surgically removing kidneys from hundreds of patients for wealthy people needing a transplant, authorities said Monday.

The alleged gang leader, identified as “Dr Fawad,” is accused of conducting 328 operations on people to remove their kidney and selling them to clients for up to 10 million Pakistani rupees ($34,000) each, said Mohsin Naqvi, the chief minister of Pakistan’s Punjab province.

Fawad was allegedly assisted in the operations by an unnamed car mechanic who administered the anesthesia, Naqvi said.

The chief minister said the gang lured patients from hospitals and performed the operations privately in the region of Taxila, the city of Lahore and in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

House Democrats on Tuesday said they do not plan to save Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) when a vote on ousting him from the top spot hits the floor later in the day.

Emerging from a more than two-hour meeting in the Capitol, House Democrats said they will vote to oust McCarthy from the Speakership.

“We are following our leader and we are not saving Kevin McCarthy,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, told reporters.

Asked if a decision was made as a caucus not to support McCarthy, Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) responded, “yes.”

This news follows McCarthy's statement that he won't give Dems anything to save his Speakership.

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4235572-mccarthy-says-he-wont-give-democrats-anything-in-exchange-for-support-as-speaker/

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and President Biden are facing a barrage of questions about whether they made a secret side deal on Ukraine funding, after McCarthy headed off a government shutdown by dropping the funding from a last-minute, short-term spending bill over the weekend. The measure passed the House with the support of all the Democrats except one, and lost the votes of 90 Republicans.

Rep. Matt Gaetz, Republican of Florida, who says he plans to file a motion to oust McCarthy as speaker within days, spoke on the House floor Monday, demanding to know "what was the secret side deal on Ukraine?"

He accused McCarthy of "cutting a side deal to bring Ukraine legislation" to the floor in a vote separate from the short-term spending bill.

The president himself certainly fueled the idea, when CBS News asked him on Sunday, "Are you going to be able to trust Speaker McCarthy when the next deal comes around?"

"We just made one about Ukraine," he replied. "So, we'll find out."

For now, House GOP leadership deny there's a deal. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/mccarthy-allies-deny-existence-of-ukraine-back-deal/ar-AA1hAN2w

A member of the Proud Boys extremist group who disappeared days before he was supposed to be sentenced for his role in the U.S. Capitol riot was found unconscious by federal agents after he tried to “covertly return” to his home, the FBI said on Friday.

Christopher Worrell, of Naples, Florida, was taken to a hospital where he remained on Friday, according to the FBI’s Tampa office. The FBI did not provide further details about his condition.

Authorities had been searching for weeks for Worrell, who had been on house arrest when he went missing last month ahead of his sentencing in Washington. Prosecutors had been seeking 14 years in prison for Worrell on convictions for assault, obstruction of Congress and other offenses.

The FBI said that agents quickly surrounded and entered Worrell’s home on Thursday after he returned, found the man unconscious and “immediately provided medical attention.” Authorities say agents found night-vision goggles, $4,000 in cash, and survivalist gear in his home.

Worrell, 52, was convicted after a bench trial in May of assaulting officers with pepper spray gel as the mob of Donald Trump supporters attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Authorities say Worrell, dressed in tactical vest, bragged that he “deployed a whole can” and shouted insults at officers, calling them “commies” and “scum.”

Prosecutors say Worrell then lied on the witness stand at trial, claiming that he was actually spraying other rioters. The judge called that claim “preposterous,” prosecutors said in court papers.

Suicide bombings ripped through two religious ceremonies in Pakistan Friday, killing at least 56 people and injuring dozens more as worshipers celebrated the birthday of the Prophet Mohammad, according to police and local officials.

At least 52 people were killed and a further 50 wounded by an explosion at a religious procession in the Mastung district of the southwestern Balochistan province, Assistant Commissioner Atta Ul Munim told CNN.

Hours later, a separate blast took place during Friday prayers at a mosque near Peshaway City in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, killing at least four people and injuring 11. The explosion caused the roof of the mosque to collapse, but it was not clear how many people remained inside.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for either of the explosions, which struck during a restive period in Pakistan, as it has weathered a surge of militant attacks in the buildup to general elections being held in January.

A judge denied former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark’s attempt to move his Georgia charges to federal court Friday, dealing another significant blow to the early defense strategy being pursued by several charged individuals in former President Trump’s Georgia case.

Like the others, Clark argued he was acting in his capacity as a federal official, an assertion that, if accepted, could provide a pathway for him to assert immunity.

But U.S. District Judge Steve Jones, an Obama appointee, in a 31-page ruling rejected Clark’s argument Friday, the second such time Jones has done so for a defendant.

“The Court concludes that Clark has not submitted evidence to meet his burden to show that his actions were causally related to his federal office,” Jones wrote in his decision.

He previously rejected an attempt mounted by Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, though Meadows is appealing. Jones has not yet ruled on the requests to move courts filed by the three “fake electors” charged in the indictment.

Tens of thousands of mattresses that were sold exclusively at Costco stores have been recalled due to the risk of possible mold exposure.

Manufacturer FXI Inc. initially announced the recall of Novaform ComfortGrande 14-inch mattresses and Novaform DreamAway 8-inch mattresses in June and issued a joint press release with the Consumer Product Safety Commission on Thursday. According to FXI, the recalled mattresses could have been exposed to water during manufacturing, leading to potential mold development.

Recalled mattresses were manufactured in a variety of sizes, from twin to California king, and ranged in price from $150 to $750. All of the Novaform mattresses were sold between January and June this year at Costco stores and on Costco's website in northwestern states, as well as California's San Francisco Bay area. Costco, according to the CPSC, is reaching out to known customers who purchased the recalled products directly as well.

The CPSC said FXI has received reports of 541 cases of mold on mattresses but no related injuries have been reported so far.