Worth Knowing, Probably Not Quite Threadworthy 7/16

[SVPete]

Wait, That’s How Many Messages the Secret Service Missed Regarding Trump's Would-be Assassin at Butler?

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2026/07/14/wait-thats-how-many-radio-transmissions-the-secret-service-missed-about-trumps-would-be-assassin-n2679324

Crooks climbed onto a rooftop with a clear view of the rally stage. He was less than 500 feet from Trump. How he managed to get onto the roof and fire multiple rounds became an immediate controversy, exposing a glaring security flaw around the president. We’ve covered the Secret Service being a dumpster fire in this situation. Why weren’t there snipers on the roof that Crooks occupied? Then-director Kimberley Cheatle said it was due to safety issues because of the sloped roofs, an answer that earned her universal condemnation following the assassination attempt. She got cooked before Congress and later resigned.
...
Now, we’ve learned that there were some 100 radio transmissions the Secret Service missed about the would-be assassin on the day of the attack (via WBAL):

According to a release from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General on June 30, 2026, the Secret Service failed to carry out and arrange several security measures during Trump's then-campaign rally for president on July 13, 2024, at the Butler Fairgrounds, which is located around 44 miles from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Sister station WTAE in Pittsburgh reports that the 64-page report outlined the Secret Service's shortcomings, saying members failed to receive 102 radio transmissions from local authorities concerning an "increasingly intense search for a suspicious person."

At what point does "incompetence" start to look like intentional carelessness or blindness? I think that point has been crossed.

[SVPete]

J.K. Rowling's Center for Women Threatens to Sue Amnesty International

https://hotair.com/john-s-2/2026/07/15/jk-rowlings-center-for-women-threatens-to-sue-amnesty-international-n3816986

J.K. Rowling is threatening to sue Amnesty International UK after the group put out a report labeling the women's recovery center she founded as "anti-rights."

The backstory here is pretty simple. Rowling lives in Edinburgh, Scotland and back in 2022 she founded an organization called Beira's Place which was intended to be a women only center for women escaping sexual violence and domestic abuse. Because women only in this case meant actual women, not trans women, it was attacked by leftists who would prefer women escape abusive men have to share space with men pretending to be women.

Beira's Place is a trauma-informed support center in Edinburgh and the Lothians for women who have experienced sexual violence or abuse.

The center, founded by Rowling in 2022, describes itself as a "women-only" service that operates in accordance with the UK's Equality Act 2010.
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Beira's Place does not provide services to men or transgender women, a policy that has placed it at the center of wider arguments over whether services for women who have experienced sexual violence should be based on biological sex or gender identity.

Amnesty International UK published a "report" which listed Beira's Place and many other organizations as "anti-rights."