…The resolution would not have banned Flock cameras, but would have directed the city manager to conduct a review of the city’s contracts, guidelines and policies for the technology. By referring the resolution to a committee, the City Council prevented a public hearing from being held on the matter.

As I have stood in the crosshairs of those who target Second Amendment freedoms, I’ve realized that firearms are not the only issue. No, it’s much, much bigger than that. I’ve come to understand that a cultural war is raging across our land, in which, with Orwellian fervor, certain acceptable thoughts and speech are mandated.
— Charlton Heston

An old flame of mine passed away several years ago from this, so it strikes pretty close

Researchers Test a New Way To Find Pancreatic Cancer Before It’s Too Late.

An experimental blood test could help detect early pancreatic cancer and precancerous changes, guiding decisions about further testing.

People at high risk of pancreatic cancer are often monitored with imaging and other tests that can be invasive, expensive, and limited in their ability to catch the disease early. An experimental blood test called PANXEON could give doctors another way to look for cancer while it is more treatable and potentially curable.

In an international study led by researchers at City of Hope, PANXEON correctly identified stage 1 and 2 pancreatic cancer 87% of the time. The study, published in Nature Medicine, evaluated the test in nearly 1,800 patients across the United States, Europe, and Asia to see whether earlier promising results would hold up across different clinical settings.

Finding pancreatic cancer early remains a major challenge. About 90% of patients are diagnosed at advanced stages, when their cancer has already spread. The disease has the lowest survival rate of any cancer, with just 14% of patients living five years after diagnosis.

Detecting precancerous changes in the pancreas

PANXEON also detected more than 64% of cases of high-grade dysplasia, an advanced precancerous condition of the pancreas often described as “stage 0” pancreatic cancer. Detecting these changes could help doctors determine which pancreatic cysts need active monitoring or intervention before invasive cancer develops.

“A stage shift is not just a statistic,” said senior author Ajay Goel, Ph.D., AGAF, chair of the Department of Molecular Diagnostics and Experimental Therapeutics at City of Hope. “The earlier we find pancreatic cancer, the greater the chance that meaningful intervention is still possible.”

More false positives in high-risk groups

The study included people with inherited genetic risk, a family history of pancreatic cancer, pancreatic cysts, or chronic pancreatitis, which is persistent inflammation of the pancreas. These are also the groups most likely to benefit from a blood test that helps guide further evaluation. Goel said testing PANXEON in these patients, rather than comparing cancer patients only with healthy controls, was a key distinction from earlier research.

The test’s rate of false positives depended on the group being tested. It incorrectly flagged cancer in 3% of people without cancer in low-risk groups and 16% of those in high-risk groups. Goel said PANXEON could help identify high-risk patients who need additional evaluation, alongside imaging and other diagnostic tests.

“Pancreatic cancer remains so deadly largely because we find it after the window for cure has begun to close,” Goel said. “For patients, these findings represent progress toward finding pancreatic cancer before symptoms appear and while more treatment options remain available.”

Previous efforts to develop blood tests for early pancreatic cancer detection have fallen short. PANXEON takes an approach that combines three biological signals, or biomarkers, in a blood sample.

Two involve microRNAs, small molecules that help regulate gene activity. The test measures both circulating microRNAs and exosomal microRNAs, which are carried inside tiny packages released by cells. It also measures a protein called CA19-9.

Artificial intelligence combines those measurements into a single score estimating the patient’s risk. PANXEON is the first investigational test to bring these three biomarkers together, an approach Goel identified as another feature that distinguishes it from earlier tests.

“Most biomarkers tell you one part of the story. Combining multiple biological signals gives us a clearer picture of what may be happening in the pancreas,” he said.

Reference: “Liquid biopsy for early detection of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma” by Caiming Xu, Alessandro Mannucci, Haiyong Han, Ruben M. Munoz, Derek Cridebring, Sourat Darabi, Yuji Toiyama, Yoshinaga Okugawa, Gagandeep Singh, Mustafa Raoof, Joon Oh Park, James Lin, Gregory Idos, Michael J. Demeure, Erkut Borazanci, Douglas B. Evans, Susan Tsai, Eunsung Jun, Carlos Becerra, Scott A. Celinski, Laleh Melstrom, Vincent Chung, Guixin Zhang, Dong Shang, David L. Bartlett, Mitsuro Kanda, Song Cheol Kim, Valsamo Anagnastou, Giulia Martina Cavestro, John S. Bolton, Ali H. Zaidi, Daniel Von Hoff and Ajay Goel, 16 September 2026, Nature Medicine.
DOI: 10.1038/s41591-026-04625-x

Supported by The National Institutes of Health / National Cancer Institute (CA72851, CA181572, CA184792, CA187956, CA202797, CA214254, CA271443), and the Italian Association for Cancer Research (start-up #32233).

New Jersey Faces Lawsuit Over Knife, Baseball Bat Ban For Self-Defense

pro-Second Amendment group led a lawsuit Monday seeking to have New Jersey’s laws barring the carrying of items like baseball bats and knives for self-defense thrown out.

The Association of New Jersey Rifle & Pistol Clubs and Knife Rights filed the lawsuit on behalf of four individual plaintiffs, arguing that by prohibiting the use of items other than firearms for self-defense, New Jersey was violating the Second Amendment rights of residents. The complaint said that the state has been in “panic mode” since the Supreme Court’s decision in Heller v. District of Columbia.

“New Jersey demands that its citizens be defenseless when they go about their day in public. Defenseless. Until forced to issue Permits to Carry a Handgun by the Bruen decision in 2022, New Jersey banned its citizens from carrying any weapon for self-defense,” the complaint filed Monday says. “Still today, New Jerseyans cannot carry any ordinary object for protection against violent crime, not a baseball bat, not a stick, not a knife, not a pair of scissors, not anything. If a person keeps an ordinary baseball bat in her car or if she keeps a small baton (sometimes called a kuboton) on her keychain she can find herself arrested and thrown in prison under New Jersey law.”

“The Second Amendment protects all common arms not just guns. There are many situations in which a person may prefer to defend against violent attack with something other than a firearm,” the legal filing continued. “New Jersey does not allow that. This is how a single mom using a carpet cutter to defend herself and her young daughter against a violent and potentially fatal beating found herself a convicted felon.”

In a 1990 decision from the New Jersey Supreme Court, the conviction of a single mother for carrying a carpet cutter and using it to protect herself when an ex-boyfriend was beating her was upheld.

The Supreme Court has already ruled on non-firearms being protected, issuing a unanimous ruling in Caetano v. Massachusetts that held that stun guns were protected by the Second Amendment. While the main opinion was unsigned (also known as a “per curiam” opinion), a concurrence from Associate Justice Samuel Alito went into more detail.

“A weapon is an effective means of self-defense only if one is prepared to use it, and it is presumptuous to tell Caetano she should have been ready to shoot the father of her two young children if she wanted to protect herself,” Alito wrote in a separate opinion. “Courts should not be in the business of demanding that citizens use more force for self-defense than they are comfortable wielding.”

“The Commonwealth of Massachusetts was either unable or unwilling to do what was necessary to protect Jaime Caetano, so she was forced to protect herself,” Alito added. “To make matters worse, the Commonwealth chose to deploy its prosecutorial resources to prosecute and convict her of a criminal offense for arming herself with a nonlethal weapon that may well have saved her life.”

Second Amendment Foundation President Massad Ayoob, who has decades of experience as a law enforcement officer, firearms instructor and an expert witness in the use of force for self-defense, explained why many states tend to treat knives and other items more stringently in self-defense cases in an August interview with the Daily Caller News Foundation.

“Historically, the pistol was seen as the weapon that would be chosen by the lady or the gentleman and the knife and the club were seen as the weapons of the thug and there’s a little bit of that yet today,” Ayoob said.

NH School District Admits Unconstitutional Search of Student’s Vehicle

Because a New Hampshire teen legally owned a pistol and sometimes kept it in the glove compartment of his truck…, school officials conducted a warrantless search of the vehicle without his consent last year. They have acknowledged it was an unconstitutional search in a court agreement.

School officials in New Hampshire have acknowledged they conducted an unconstitutional search of a student’s vehicle in 2025, because he legally owned a handgun—which was not in the vehicle, nor was it ever brought to the grounds of Hillsboro-Deering High School—in full compliance with federal and state laws.

According to the Second Amendment Foundation, which filed a federal civil rights lawsuit last October on behalf of plaintiff Jack Harrington, the search was conducted “solely on the basis of school officials learning that Harrington lawfully owned a firearm in his personal life.”

The case is known as Harrington v. Crawford. The case was filed in U.S. District Court for the District of New Hampshire.

According to a stipulated declaratory judgment, “A search of a student’s person, property, or vehicle based solely on the exercise of a constitutional or legal right, including the fundamental right to keep and bears arms guaranteed under the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (U.S. CONST. amend. II), which encompasses and includes the right to carry, store, or transport a handgun a vehicle or in the glove box of a vehicle, would constitute an unconstitutional and illegal search in violation of the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.”

This search occurred after Harrington apparently mentioned his gun ownership to another student while riding in a bus enroute to a game.

Continue reading “”

Police: Uber Eats driver shoots armed man in self-defense
Investigators say an Uber Eats delivery driver shot a man in what appears to be self-defense outside a Pollo Tropical in Port St. Lucie

Investigators say an Uber Eats delivery driver shot a man in what appears to be self-defense outside a Pollo Tropical in Port St. Lucie.

The Port St. Lucie Police Department said officers responded around 3:43 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 19, to the restaurant at 1365 NW St. Lucie West Blvd. after receiving reports of a shooting.

Officers found Christopher Harris, 37, suffering from a gunshot wound to his chest. He was flown to HCA Florida Lawnwood Hospital, where officials say his injuries were determined to be non-life-threatening.

According to Port St. Lucie Police Chief Leo Niemczyk, the man who fired the shot is an Uber Eats delivery driver.

Niemczyk told WPBF 25 News the incident started over a parking spot.

“He [Harris] pursued him inside. There was a little interaction in the doorway entrance. The Uber Eats driver went inside, picked up his order, went out, and the other person pursued him outside, shoved him and pulled out what appeared to be a knife, what was identified to be a knife,” he said.

Niemczyk said the Uber Eats driver shot Harris once in the chest.

“Christopher Harris. He was the aggressor. He pursued the other individual. He followed him back outside. He shoved him. He pulled out a weapon,” Niemczyk told WPBF.

He said that justifies the man who pulled the trigger defending himself.

“It’s self-defense. It also fits the stand-your-ground rule because he is being pursued. He has no duty to retreat. In fact, he did try to retreat. He did try to avoid the situation, but he was pursued. So 100%, he turned around and used appropriate action. He met deadly force, being a knife, with deadly force by firing one round. It appears to be 100% justifiable,” Niemczyk said.

After being shot, officials say Harris went back inside the restaurant, where people began providing aid and called 911.

Investigators said one knife was recovered after it had been removed from Harris’ waistband while people were helping him. Police said another knife was later found in his front pocket.

Harris is facing charges of attempted aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and felony battery based on a prior battery conviction. Officials say once he is released from the hospital, they expect him to be booked in the St. Lucie County Jail.

The Uber Eats driver is not facing criminal charges in the case.

May they freak out so far as to go into a permanent vegetative state.

Gun Control Activists Freak Out Over ATF’s Plan to Destroy Old Records

Gun tracing is one of those things that no one paid much attention to until privately made firearms became a lot more common. Then, one defense for attempted bans was that tracing these firearms would be impossible, that bad people would get them, and that we wouldn’t be able to track them down.

Spare me.

But now The Smoking Gun, which is a mouthpiece for Everytown for Gun Safety, is beating the tracing drum again, this time to attack a move by the ATF.

ATF practice has always been to keep out-of-business dealer records indefinitely. But in its “Firearm Records Retention Periods” rule, the ATF is proposing — for the first time ever — to destroy those records either 20 or 30 years after they were turned over to the agency. The ATF’s offered justification for this change is to “significantly reduce the volume of records retained by ATF and alleviate concerns that ATF might have established or will establish a registry of firearms, firearm owners, or firearms transactions.”

The ATF proposal would also allow gun dealers that remain in business to destroy sales and inventory records after 20 or 30 years because “[r]educing the records retention period for licensee [records] from permanent to 20 or 30 years would benefit” federal firearms licensees, or FFLs. The rule would even go so far as allowing gun makers to destroy their disposition records after 20 or 30 years, meaning no one would have any idea what happened to a gun after it left the factory.

As the ATF explains, the record retention requirement for dealers has changed a few times over the last few decades. Prior to 1985, dealers were required to keep all inventory and sales records permanently until they went out of business. The requirement was changed in 1985 to mandate keeping records for 20 years, then was changed back to permanent retention in 2022. The ATF explained at the time that requiring permanent retention of such records was justified “[g]iven advancements in electronic scanning and storage technology, ATF’s acceptance of electronic recordkeeping, the reduced costs of storing firearm transaction records, the increased durability and longevity of firearms, and the public safety benefits of ensuring that records of active licensees are available for tracing purposes.” In its current proposal, the ATF fails to explain how all of these reasons for permanent record retention have disappeared in just four years.


Maybe because the reasons were BS in the first place?

See, writer Chelsea Parsons is very upset that these guns will no longer be traceable because of this rule change, but that’s really a case of “tell me you know nothing about gun tracing without telling me you know nothing about gun tracing.

The way gun tracing works is that when a firearm is recovered at a crime scene, the authorities use the tracing to determine who bought it originally. They can reach out to the manufacturer, who tells them which distributor bought it, who then tells them which gun store it was sold to, and finally the gun store says, “Yeah, Joe Smith bought this in 2016.”

That’s it.

It doesn’t magically tell them who has the gun now.

Even with states that have mandatory background checks on all gun transfers, it still doesn’t do much, because if the previous owner has moved, particularly out of state, or died, there’s no way to pick up where that trail might go. Plus, no one is required to remember which store they went to, which means another dead end.

Then, the moment a gun is stolen or illegally transferred in some other way, the chain is broken yet again.

In other words, tracing is a thing, but there’s little evidence I’ve seen that it’s actually solved any crime anywhere. Some have actively looked and been unable to find them.

That was always the case, and it’s why those supposed reasons no longer apply. It was because it was a wish for the anti-gunners, the same people that Parsons fails to acknowledge as a real threat to our gun rights, as she pretends our concerns about a national registry, even if it weren’t called such, were nothing more than gun group fearmongering.

Your Coffee Habit Could Actually Help Slow Aging.

Your morning coffee is supposed to speed things up: wake you up, sharpen your focus and put a little pep in your step. But new research suggests that it could also do the opposite to your biological clock — potentially slowing the pace of aging.

Caffeine appears to trigger an ancient cellular energy system involved in growth, stress and DNA repair, new research says — processes very closely tied to aging. With science linking more health benefits to caffeine, from better heart health and a lower risk of dementia,this pathway might just be the key force behind it.

The research, published in the scientific journal Microbial Cell, examined the effect of caffeine on fission yeast cells. These single-celled organisms share biological features with human cells and are often used to study basic cellular functions.

What did researchers find? Caffeine seems to activate a cellular system, AMPK, that helps cells sense when energy is low. The AMPK process “kicks in to help them cope” with depleted energy, said senior author Dr. Charalampos (Babis) Rallis, Reader in Genetics, Genomics and Fundamental Cell Biology at Queen Mary University of London, in a news release.

Caffeine, Dr. Rallis explained, “helps flip that switch.”

When caffeine works with AMPK, researchers found that a handful of cellular processes seem to reap the benefits. That includes cell growth, stress responses and DNA repair. The last one is especially intriguing. DNA damage naturally builds up as you age, and if cells can’t fix it, you’re more likely to develop disease. Anything that helps with that repair process — like, potentially, caffeine — could keep you healthier as you age.

Of course, the study doesn’t show that drinking coffee will make you live longer, per se. More so, it shows that caffeine activates a system, shared by yeast and human cells that regulates energy, stress, growth and repair — which all contribute to the way cells age.

And beyond your morning cup of coffee or tea, the study also opens up new pathways for research. Dr. John-Patrick Alao, the postdoctoral research scientist who led the study, said future inquiries could explore “how we might trigger these effects more directly — with diet, lifestyle, or new medicines.”

In the meantime, we have another clue to how caffeine gives our bodies a boost, far beyond the morning perk-up we know and love.