"Home values have fallen month-over-month in more than 60 percent of U.S. counties in April, according to data from real estate platform Reventure App -- a decline so widespread that it can only be compared to those that followed the 2008 housing market crash and the 2022 mortgage rate spike, the company's CEO Nick Gerli said.

'More than half the country is now officially in month-over-month declines, indicating that the housing downturn is spreading,' the real estate analyst wrote on X.

'We'll have to see if this lasts into the future, and if it turns into a sustained correction like 2008 or is a blip like 2022. But given the trajectory of listings and inventory, it seems like more value declines are coming,' he said.

For years now, home prices have been rising across the U.S, pushed by chronically low levels of inventory and pent-up demand. The homebuying frenzy that characterized the pandemic years, triggered by historically low mortgage rates, accelerated home prices' vertiginous growth, driving the market to new levels of unaffordability for buyers."

Read the full article here.

"Two Chinese scientists charged in a shocking plot to smuggle a toxic pathogen into the United States worked at an American laboratory led by more senior Chinese scientists funded by the U.S. government, according to federal spending records and the researchers' own disclosures.

"Yunqing Jian, 33, and Zunyong Liu, 34, were charged Tuesday with smuggling a fungus called Fusarium graminearum into the United States in 2024. The fungus is classified in the scientific literature as a 'potential agroterrorism weapon' because it affects wheat, barley, maize, and rice by causing 'head blight,' according to the Justice Department.

"The incident is again raising concerns about the tendrils of Chinese Communist Party influence inside U.S. research institutions and broader society, just five years after the COVID-19 pandemic exposed federal funding to a lab in Wuhan, China where the virus is believed to have escaped and where dangerous gain of function research was being conducted."

Read the entire article here.

"The FBI's electronic case management system, Sentinel, allows agents to hide the existence of relevant investigative reports from other authorized users of the federal database. And during the Russia collusion hoax, Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team used that functionality to keep potentially relevant documents hidden from other FBI agents investigating whether a Fusion GPS contractor lied to Congress.

"The significance of these two facts cannot be overstated: Now in question is whether the federal government complies with the constitutional mandate in criminal cases to provide defendants all material exculpatory and impeachment evidence as well as its discovery obligations in civil litigation; whether Special Counsel Durham's office, the inspector general, and agents investigating the members of the Crossfire Hurricane team had access to all relevant information; whether the DOJ and FBI provided congressional oversight committees with requested (or subpoenaed) documents; and whether FOIA responses included all relevant documents to the press and public.

"Last Wednesday, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, released a recently declassified FBI 'Electronic Communication,' or EC, dating from September 2019, which the Iowa Republican maintains 'Proves Fusion GPS Contractor Nellie Ohr Lied To Congress About Contributions To Crossfire Hurricane.' That 43-page document, drafted by a FBI Washington Field Office agent, detailed extensive evidence indicating Nellie Ohr lied multiple times during her congressional testimony concerning the Crossfire Hurricane investigation into the Trump campaign."

Read the entire article here.

"For many Americans, summer still conjures images of 'those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer' romanticized by the legendary Nat King Cole: hot dogs, picnics, beer, and girls in bikinis at the beach. But for many media outlets, summer is a time to panic about deadly threats from heat waves that will continue to get worse until the world stops using fossil fuels.

"New research, however, casts doubt on the theory that carbon dioxide levels are the primary driver of rising temperatures. A phenomenon called the 'urban heat island effect,' according to the study, could be contributing much more to global warming than originally thought. As populations in an area begin to rise, so do temperatures, the study found.

"If true, this means efforts to reduce fossil fuel use, which experts warn will mean more frequent blackouts and render industry at scale impossible, may not be entirely effective at lowering temperatures."

Read the entire article here.

"There are few doubts in the White House about Jill 'Lady Macbeth' Biden's role in covering up her husband's cognitive deficits as she urged him to run for re-election.

"White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt made that point crystal clear from the press room podium Thursday, saying the former first lady 'needs to answer' for 'lying to the American people' and 'shielding her husband away from the cameras.' ...

"What is becoming clear is that the social-climbing former first lady and the aide she calls her 'work husband,' Arizona-born former child actor Anthony Bernal, played a bigger role in this con job than previously has been acknowledged."

Read the entire article here.

"Harvard University fired a professor after finding that she fabricated research used in studies on dishonesty.

"Francesca Gino, a star business professor at the Ivy League, was stripped of her title this past week after Harvard administrators informed business faculty of their decision, GHB reported.

"An investigation into her work was launched in 2023 after a trio of data bloggers -- Uri Simonsohn, Leif Nelson and Joe Simmons -- presented what they said was evidence of academic fraud in four studies co-authored by Gino, noting that they also 'believe that many more Gino-authored papers contain fake data.'

"Gino was a rising professional at Harvard and her behavioral research studies relating to cheating, lying and dishonesty received widespread media coverage over the past decade."

Read the entire article here.

"Dario Amodei -- CEO of Anthropic, one of the world's most powerful creators of artificial intelligence -- has a blunt, scary warning for the U.S. government and all of us:

"AI could wipe out half of all entry-level white-collar jobs -- and spike unemployment to 10-20% in the next one to five years, Amodei told us in an interview from his San Francisco office.

"Amodei said AI companies and government need to stop 'sugar-coating' what's coming: the possible mass elimination of jobs across technology, finance, law, consulting and other white-collar professions, especially entry-level gigs.

"Why it matters: Amodei, 42, who's building the very technology he predicts could reorder society overnight, said he's speaking out in hopes of jarring government and fellow AI companies into preparing -- and protecting -- the nation.

"Few are paying attention. Lawmakers don't get it or don't believe it. CEOs are afraid to talk about it. Many workers won't realize the risks posed by the possible job apocalypse -- until after it hits."

Read the entire article here.

"Senate Republicans are deeply divided over President Trump's 'big, beautiful bill,' which the House passed by a single vote last week, setting up a battle in the upper chamber between moderates and conservatives that is likely to drag on well into July.

"GOP senators are vowing to rewrite the bill, but they're still weeks away from putting together a package that can muster the 51 votes it needs to pass, according to GOP senators and aides.

"The more senators change the legislation, the more difficult it will be to pass again through the House -- where Republicans control a slim 220-212 majority. Identical legislation must be approved by both chambers before it can go to Trump for his signature.

"Centrist GOP Sens. Susan Collins (Maine), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Thom Tillis (N.C.) are facing off against conservatives such as Sens. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), Rick Scott (R-Fla.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) over potential cuts to Medicaid benefits, the phaseout of renewable energy incentives and other deficit-reduction measures that conservatives say don't go far enough."

Read the entire article here.

"Federal judges are working overtime to defy President Trump.

"How much thought have they given to what happens if he defies them in turn?

"So far, Trump has been obeying the court orders coming from mostly leftist federal district judges, even when those orders are deeply questionable.

"Law professor Jonathan Turley calls it 'injunctivitis,' while Harvard Law's Adrian Vermeule says that district courts' nationwide restraining orders 'are basically an automatic judicial veto on all new policy.'

"'Whatever form of government that is, let's please not call it "democracy,"' Vermeule notes."

Read the entire artice here.

"And I'm proud to be an American, where at least I know I'm free. And I won't forget the men who died, who gave that right to me."