Everybody Loves Raymond

Entertainment 5 Minutes

Today is Ray Romano’s birthday (born in 1958), so I found an article about Everybody Loves Raymond!

From: Mental Floss:

1. THE SHOW BEGAN AFTER RAY ROMANO DID A STAND-UP SET ON LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN.

“I was doing stand-up for 12 years,” Romano recounted to Larry King in 2005. “I did my first stand-up spot on Letterman and then the following week his company called me up to say, ‘We want to try to develop a show based around what we saw.'”

2. ROMANO DIDN’T LOVE THE TITLE.

“It was a title that, first of all, the critics … it invites hatred,” Romano explained. “It came about from a sarcastic comment my brother made, who is a police officer. And he said, ‘Look what I do for a living, and look at Raymond—yeah, everybody loves Raymond.’ So we used it as a working title. And it just grew on CBS, and we couldn’t get rid of it.”

3. DORIS ROBERTS THOUGHT SHE WOULD BE TOO BUSY TO EVEN AUDITION.

Doris Roberts was busy directing a play while the Marie auditions were taking place. The play’s producer made sure to have her available for 3:30 one fateful Monday. She beat out over 100 other women for the part.

4. PETER BOYLE WAS PERFECTLY ANGRY AT HIS AUDITION FOR FRANK.

Peter Boyle had trouble just getting into the studio lot. He then couldn’t find a parking space. Then he went into the wrong building. By the time he reached Romano and show creator/showrunner Philip Rosenthal he was, in his own words, “enraged”—and perfectly in character for Frank Barone. The topper of it all was that, according to Romano, the CBS president was going to give Boyle the gig anyway.

5. CBS OFFERED CAROL FROM FRIENDS THE PART OF DEBRA.

Jane Sibbett (Ross’s first ex-wife on Friends) declined the role once she discovered Romano was both unaware she had been offered the role by the network, and that Romano was pushing hard for Patricia Heaton to play his on-screen wife.

Maggie Wheeler, who played Janice on Friends, auditioned for the role of Debra, too. She ended up playing Debra’s friend Linda over the course of the series as a consolation prize. Heaton wasn’t officially cast until one week before the pilot began shooting.

6. RAY IS OLDER THAN HIS “OLDER” BROTHER.

Brad Garrett, who played Ray’s older brother Robert, was 36 when the series first started. Romano was a few months shy of his 39th birthday.

7. PHILIP ROSENTHAL’S WIFE GOT USED TO STORIES FROM HER MARRIAGE BEING WRITTEN INTO THE SHOW.

Monica Horan—who played Robert’s on-again-off-again girlfriend and eventual wife Amy—was married to the show’s creator, Phil Rosenthal. She got used to her arguments with Rosenthal ending up in scripts. Horan told People about an episode where Debra has PMS: “I’m hearing lines from conversations I had with my husband. Ray was telling Debra to take medication, and she was telling him she needed a hug. I was like, ‘Whoa.’ I was crying, then laughing, then crying. It was surreal.”

“Ninety percent of everything you hear on the show has been said to me or Ray Romano or one of the writers,” Rosenthal admitted in the same article. Horan claimed her favorite line to Rosenthal is, “You can say the right thing on TV, but why can’t you do it in real life?”

8. THE NAMES OF THE TWIN BOYS WERE CHANGED AFTER THE FIRST EPISODE.

In the pilot, the kids were known as Matthew and Gregory, but were subsequently turned into Michael and Geoffrey for the rest of the series. Romano’s own twin sons are named Matthew and Gregory; he decided that art was imitating life a little too closely and asked for the names to be changed. Matthew and Gregory not only got new names, they got new actors to play them: Rosenthal cast Sullivan and Sawyer Sweeten as Michael and Geoffrey, respectively. They were the real-life brothers of Madylin Sweeten, who played their TV sis, Ally.

The inclination to separate fact from fiction never seemed to apply to Ally, who kept her character name despite being based on Romano’s real daughter, also named Ally. Not only that, the real Ally (Alexandra Romano) played TV Ally’s friend Molly on the show.

9. RAY’S BROTHER WAS A POLICE OFFICER, WHOSE COLLEAGUES MADE FUN OF HIM.

“Well, my brother was—he is a retired cop now, but at the time he would take a lot of stuff from the other cops,” said Romano. “They think it’s a documentary.” While Garrett put his own spin on the character to differentiate Robert Barone from Rich Romano, there was a point where Ray’s brother—an NYPD sergeant—moved back in with their parents.

10. PATRICIA HEATON’S FATHER WAS A SPORTSWRITER, LIKE RAY BARONE.

Chuck Heaton was a sportswriter for The Cleveland Plain Dealer for 50 years. He’s mentioned in the season one episode “Recovering Pessimist” when Debra runs down a list of Ray’s competition for a Sportswriter of the Year award: “Chuck Heaton’s big story this year was ‘too much violence in boxing.’ Thanks for the scoop, Chuck.”

11. PETER BOYLE’S CAREER WAS ALLUDED TO TWICE IN THE SAME EPISODE.

In “Halloween Candy,” Frank gives the same speech about mortality he famously gave to Robert De Niro’s character in Taxi Driver (1976). He also dressed as Frankenstein’s monster, a nod to his work in Mel Brooks’s Young Frankenstein (1974).

12. THE SHOW MADE ROMANO THE HIGHEST PAID ACTOR ON TELEVISION.

Romano made $1.7 to $1.8 million per episode during the last two seasons of Raymond, surpassing Kelsey Grammer’s $1.6 million per episode salary for Frasier at the time.

13. THE SERIES ENDED WHEN THE WRITERS RAN OUT OF IDEAS.

“We ran out of ideas,” Rosenthal told The A.V. Club of why the show came to an end. “If you worked for me, I would say to you, ‘Go home, get in a fight with your wife, and come back in and tell me about it.’ And then we’d have a show. But after nine years, if we kept that up, our wives would leave us. And in California, that’s half. So we made sure that we got out before that happened.”

14. THE SERIES FINALE TAPING WAS DELAYED BY ONE WEEK.

Patricia Heaton fell ill, and by the intended showtime her voice was completely gone. The audience was sent home, and told to return seven days later.

15. RAYMOND IS LOVED ALL OVER THE WORLD.

The Voronins, or Воронины, the Russian adaptation which Rosenthal attempted to help, was Russia’s number one comedy, and performed original episodes after going through all 210 of the American installments. Local-language versions of the show were also produced in Egypt (Close Doors); Israel (You Can’t Choose Your Family); the Netherlands (Everybody Is Crazy About Jack); Poland (Everybody Loves Roman, which was canceled after four episodes), and the Czech Republic (Everybody Loves Rudy). In the United Kingdom, a pilot was shot (The Smiths).

SOURCE: MENTALFLOSS.COM

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Published by pat frederick

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97 thoughts on “Everybody Loves Raymond”

  1. Good Morning All!

    windy as all get out last night and still this morning! temp is about 30* though which is amazing at this point. we brought up the table top ceramic Christmas tree that hubby’s had forever as neither of us was in the mood to get a real tree this year.

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      1. Good Morning Filly!

        I usually put the feeder out, then put some seeds and peanuts on the far railing for the bluejays–it keeps them from raiding the feeder. The seeds and peanuts I tried to put out blew right off the first time–only a few to see if they would. so i didn’t put any out till just now. hubby said I barely turned my back to the railing when SIX bluejays landed and started to scarf up the seeds and peanuts…LOL

        Yesterday going thru the freezer int he basement, I found 5 ears of corn I froze to make later and lost track off. we thawed them out and put them out by the deer block. there’s only 2 cobs in the tray this morning…we don’t see any empty cobs anywhere wither–altho I guess they could have blown in the wind.

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        1. Some critters would eat the cobs, I expect. I put the seed block out and some seeds out in the big feeder but there are hardly any birds around at all.

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              2. Not nearly as bad today, thankfully. Just a stiff breeze now and then & it doesn’t sound like the whole damned patio is coming down any more!

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  6. Rasmussen Reports
    @Rasmussen_Poll
    Page 185: “The engineer who actually built the algorithm stealing the election for Biden looked at me like I was an idiot and asked, “Do you think we stole the election here in the blue counties? We’re smarter than that. No, we shaved off votes in the red counties in the countryside where Trump was strong, and we left the blue counties untouched. We shaved off 10 percent in Douglas County (Colorado) and 10% in Mesa County (Colorado) and other red counties until Biden’s count was over 50 percent statewide.”

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  9. Just The News: “President Donald Trump on Saturday night threw his support behind popular Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman for the GOP nomination for New York governor. Trump made the endorsement after Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., withdrew from the race.
     
    “Bruce is MAGA all the way, and has been with me from the very beginning,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. “As Nassau County Executive, he is working tirelessly with the Brave Heroes of ICE, Border Patrol, and Law Enforcement to Keep Our Border SECURE, Stop Migrant Crime, Safeguard our Community, and Ensure LAW AND ORDER.

    “As your next Governor, Bruce will continue to fight hard to Grow the Economy, Cut Taxes, and Regulations, Promote MADE IN THE U.S.A., Champion American Energy DOMINANCE, Strengthen our Military/Veterans, Advance Election Integrity, and Protect our always under siege Second Amendment!” he added.

    Blakeman thanked Trump for his support. “I am blessed and grateful to have the endorsement of President Donald J. Trump,” Blakeman told Fox News. “President Trump is driving down gasoline prices and slashing the cost of prescription drugs. Securing our borders has made America safer. President Trump loves New York and we will be partners in making New York safe and affordable.”

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  10. EXCERPT: “A retired FBI agent who assembled major crime cases for years says Attorney General Pam Bondi has a “slam dunk” conspiracy case to prosecute former federal agents and prosecutors for election meddling for relentlessly pursuing Donald Trump for political purposes while protecting prominent Democrats like Hillary Clinton in the face of damning evidence.

    Jonathan Gilliam, a retired FBI agent and Navy SEAL, told the Just the News, No Noise television show that Trump should name a “Justice Czar” to coordinate both prosecutions and policy fixes after documents turned over to Congress by Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel showed that FBI agents were repeatedly thwarted from pursuing corruption allegations against Clinton and her family foundation. 

    The agents were overruled when they told prosecutors there was no probable cause to raid Trump’s home in Florida.

    Creating and falsifying evidence, ex-agent says

    “It’s the same cast of characters every time.” Gilliam said. “We had a tremendous amount of evidence that they were trying to create evidence and falsify evidence to go after Trump. Now we see that they’re trying to stop investigations and get rid of real evidence for the purpose of protecting the Clintons.

    “I think this really does lead to bigger charges such as conspiracy to overthrow an election, I would say, potentially treason, if you could put that in there, but definitely sedition,” he added.

    Gilliam suggested the Justice Department treat the key players accused of weaponizing law enforcement and intelligence powers just like a drug cartel or mafia family.

    “This is a group of people that continue to come up in one case of building cases against Trump, falsifying information. But now it shows that the same people were conspiring to do a second overall crime, or second conspiracy to protect the political candidate that they agree with,” he said. 

    “I mean, honestly, if this was a mafia case, and we had this clear-cut of an example of a group of people committing two or more crimes for the furtherance of their political group or their enterprise. This would be a slam dunk case for any US Attorney. So I think this is something that they should look at,” Gilliam continued.

    “This is years of individuals working their way up and getting together or being pulled up and put together so that they could conspire to stop one individual from becoming president and push the other person forward,” he added.

    Dhillon: Enough evidence to pursue conspiracy charges

    Gilliam’s comments came the same week that Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon told the Just the News, No Noise television show that she believes there’s enough evidence to pursue a conspiracy case alleging the federal agents and state prosecutors conspired to infringe the civil liberties of Trump and his MAGA followers.

    Gilliam suggested such a case would be massive in scope and complicated in mission, and it would be best served by having a central quarterback.

    “We need real investigators under a justice czar to look at these people and criminally investigate and charge them,” he said……”

    https://justthenews.com/accountability/political-ethics/slam-dunk-ex-fbi-agent-says-bondi-has-clear-weaponization

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  11. Just The News: “Local authorities have taken a 23-year-old man into custody in connection with a reported sexual assault that police said occurred at an apartment in Bensalem late last month, according to a recent press release as well as local news reports.

    The Bensalem Township Police Department said officers were notified of a possible sexual assault that took place on the evening of November 30 involving a woman who had agreed to meet with a man identified as Kevin Mendez-Ramon at his apartment after receiving a text message invitation to hang out and watch a movie.

    Police said the woman allegedly told investigators that Mendez-Ramon physically forced himself on her while watching the movie and ignored her repeated attempts to push him away and yelling for him to stop. His roommates did not intervene, according to Bucks County CRIMEWATCH.

    Following the assault, officers said Mendez-Ramon told the victim the encounter had sexually aroused him because it was not consensual. Police said the two communicated again via Instagram days later when he admitted to the assault and apologized.

    Bensalem detectives obtained a warrant for Mendez-Ramon’s arrest after he later acknowledged the assault during questioning. Detectives and members of the Special Investigations Unit located and arrested him at his home on December 18, without incident.

    He has been charged with multiple offenses including rape, sexual assault, aggravated indecent assault, and indecent assault. A Bucks County judge arraigned Mendez-Ramon, setting bail at 10% of $50 million, and he is currently held at the Bucks County Correctional Facility pending further court proceedings. 

    Police noted that Mendez-Ramon is originally from Ecuador and he entered the United States illegally.”

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  12. Just The News: “The new chair of the President’s Cancer Panel, within the National Institutes of Health’s National Cancer Institute, wants to rigorously study ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine as potential cancer treatments, he told a Just the News-Real America’s Voice special report that aired Wednesday night.

    Yale University professor emeritus Harvey Risch, also a senior research scientist in epidemiology at its public health and medical schools, was an early proponent of the low-cost drugs for COVID-19 treatment and critic of the Biden administration’s COVID work.

    Ivermectin and HCQ are “among maybe a dozen various medications that should have more formal studies,” Risch told the program in his first in-depth interview since the government formally announced President Trump had appointed him, cautioning that “they may turn out” not to help but further study is needed in case they do help.

    “I’ve had a lot of anecdotal reports telling me that doctors have treated their patients with those medications” but “they never tell me really how many patients they treated” in which “it didn’t work,” he said. “So honestly, I don’t know yet.”

    Risch emphasized caution and measured expectations throughout his interview but also that much of the good work in cancer research isn’t showy.

    “I don’t want to overpromise, because everybody will get disappointed” if the panel doesn’t meet self-imposed high expectations, “but cancer is a highly treatable disease” with 50 years of “great research” as well as underappreciated study in Risch’s specialty of prevention, which “needs to be more visible,” he said.

    Cancer centers tend to carry the names of wealthy donors whose lives were saved by intervention, “but what you won’t see is the three quarters of the population” that didn’t get cancer due to preventative research, he said. If they all donated $10 “once to a cancer center, we would be really great [in funding] for cancer prevention.”

    He also challenged the pharmaceutical industry to work on “safe and low-cost” cancer prevention medications, which “they could patent and make money off of” in addition to after-the-fact treatments.

    “It’s a question of … being able to sort the fringe from the real” when it comes to evaluating emerging and alternative treatments, Risch said. The only way to vet the “whole industry of purported claims about medications and supplements,” which should be approached “with a skeptical eye,” is through “more formal evaluation.”

    Risch praised NCI researchers as “outstanding scientists” with whom he’s worked most of his career, and wants to “enhance to the degree possible methods that we can use to inform the public about things that they can do to reduce their risks of getting cancer.”

    Tobacco smoking is still the most important preventable “lifestyle” factor in cancer, but research is getting better at identifying dietary factors, he said, citing a theory that the “inflammatory tendency of dietary constituents can lead to increased cancer risk.”

    He ranked “common oils” in cooking from “least to most inflammatory” on his social media pages this year, highlighting “some very good choices that people can use that don’t cost essentially more than the common seed oils,” both flavored and unflavored. 

    Stomach cancers, which are relatively rare in the U.S. now, are closely associated with “the consumption of smoked and processed meats,” for example, he said.”

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  13. 1969/1970 Ford Mustang Boss 429

    Ford built the Mustang Boss 429 to homologate its most potent V-8 for its NASCAR-competing Torino. According to Hemmings, the Boss 429 package cost $1200 and provided you with 375 hp. Well, 375 advertised horsepower. In its day, the Boss 429 was probably making around 475 horsepower, but Ford wanted to keep insurance companies in the dark.

    Studebaker Super Lark

    In its final days as an automaker, Studebaker offered a proto-muscle car in the form of the Super Lark (pictured right). Equipped with the 289-ci “R2” engine, the Super Lark was good for 0-60 mph in around seven seconds and a top speed of over 130 mph. Studebaker even offered a supercharged Super Lark that made around 335 horsepower, but no one knows how many were actually built.

    1968 Hurst Hemi Dart L023

    The car companies sought bragging rights for whose cars were fastest and often made batches of cars specifically for racing. How do you make a car go fast down a quarter mile? Take the smallest car you sell and shoehorn in the biggest motor you can. Dodge Dart, meet the 426 Hemi. It was a match made in a mad scientist's dream and Chrysler actually sold these cars. Bare-bones Darts were shipped to a local Hurst shop missing anything that added weight. Seats, radios, carpeting? Who needs 'em? Some body parts were replaced with fiberglass and some panels were acid dipped. The finished cars were often raced in Super Stock drag racing where they turned in ETs in the 9s.

    The car companies sought bragging rights for whose cars were fastest and often made batches of cars specifically for racing. How do you make a car go fast down a quarter mile? Take the smallest car you sell and shoehorn in the biggest motor you can. Dodge Dart, meet the 426 Hemi. It was a match made in a mad scientist’s dream and Chrysler actually sold these cars. Bare-bones Darts were shipped to a local Hurst shop missing anything that added weight. Seats, radios, carpeting? Who needs ’em? Some body parts were replaced with fiberglass and some panels were acid dipped. The finished cars were often raced in Super Stock drag racing where they turned in ETs in the 9s.

    1971 Ford Mustang Mach 1 Drag Pack

    The Mustang is available in so many combinations and setups it is difficult to name just one variant for this list. And Ford gave a lot of cool names to their stuff. In 1971, you could buy a Mach 1 Mustang powered by a 429 CI Super Cobra Jet equipped with a Drag Pack. What is that you say? How about a 4.11 with a Detroit Locker in the rear. Functional Ram Air fed the power plant, in the days before the Feds clamped down on cold air intakes. Maybe 500 or so of these prowled the streets back in the day.

    1970 American Motors Rebel Machine

    If you didn’t get your driver’s license while piloting an AMC Gremlin, you might not harbor the dark feelings many of us have when we hear “American Motors.” The ones who brought us the Pacer, the Matador, and the Gremlin took a stab at selling a race car and the effort was noteworthy. A 390 CI engine pushed the Rebel Machine down a quarter mile in the 14s, but with mods a skilled weekender might apply, car magazines of the time said it could get into the 12s. But, like pretty much everything else sold by AMC at the time, its looks were not its best suit. Even dressed up in red, white and blue for the upcoming Bicentennial.

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  14. 1969 Chevrolet Camaro COPO ZL1

    chevrolet also put a car on the road with an oversized engine in an undersized car the chevrolet camaro was a smash hit from chevy and was available in a variety of packages with several engine options when gm said it would not sell the car with its biggest engines, some dealers complained gm allowed a few dealers to use the central office production orders copo process to special order anything they liked and at least one dealer ordered some camaros with the zl 1 aluminum block 427 69 of these insane beasts were let loose, many taken straight to the drag strip

    Chevrolet also put a car on the road with an oversized engine in an undersized car. The Chevrolet Camaro was a smash hit from Chevy and was available in a variety of packages with several engine options. When GM said it would not sell the car with its biggest engines, some dealers complained. GM allowed a few dealers to use the Central Office Production Orders (COPO) process to special order anything they liked. And at least one dealer ordered some Camaros with the ZL-1 aluminum block 427. 69 of these insane beasts were let loose, many taken straight to the drag strip.

    1962 Pontiac Catalina Super Duty

    1962 pontiac catalina super duty

    There was a time when Pontiac dominated NASCAR more than half a century ago. The folks at Pontiac decided to pull out all the stops in 1962 and build a race car which would qualify as “stock” for both NASCAR and NHRA. The Super Duty was the result. The base was a Catalina, powered by a 421 CI engine. And the outside of the car looked pretty much stock. But underneath, it was all race car. The front clip was aluminum and the frame rails were swiss-cheesed to remove weight. Other parts of the frame were reinforced for the versions slated for circle tracks. Pushing this down the track was a high performance engine which added $1,200 to the sales price but it was worth it. The Super Duty could run a quarter mile in the mid 12s, a very respectable number considering the year.

    1967 Dodge Coronet W023

    It wasn’t just the little cars that people raced and Chrysler was more than happy to accommodate its customers who wanted to race larger cars at the drag strip. The W023 was the answer. Chrysler placed the battery in the trunk, deleted the heater and a variety of other unnecessary items, and then dropped in a Hemi. It was available with an auto or manual trans and the 4-speeds ran 4.88 gears in the rear. There was also a Plymouth Belvedere R023 sister car with a similar setup; 55 of each were built. They came with no factory warranty, a fairly common feature for factory race cars of the era.

    1970 Plymouth ‘Cuda Hemi Super Track Pack

    1970 plymouth 'cuda hemi super track pack

    Chrysler’s 426 CI Hemi engine found its way into a variety of street and race machines. By 1970, the end was near for the behemoth but racers who wanted to get in a few runs before the EPA killed the fun could order a Hemi Cuda with a “Super Track Pack.” Missing many of the things which would weigh the car down – like a passenger side mirror – the car had a 4.10 rear end to get it moving. Even with a Hemi it was available with an automatic transmission. Just point the wheels straight and floor it. Assuming you were on a sanctioned raceway, of course.

    1964 Ford Fairlane Thunderbolt

    Ford decided it wanted to build a car specially for the drag strip. At the time, the NHRA required a manufacturer to build and sell 100 examples of a car for it to be considered "stock." Since it would not be driven in a normal fashion, Ford opted for fiberglass body panels on much of the car and even Plexiglas windows to save weight. The car was motivated by a 427 CI "high rise" topped with dual 4-bbl carbs. Among other fancy items was an aluminum scatter shield around the clutch – for those occasions when things got a little out of control. The package could cross the ¼ mile in under 12 seconds with little effort. Later runs made with updated accessories have seen these run under 10 second quarter miles.

    Ford decided it wanted to build a car specially for the drag strip. At the time, the NHRA required a manufacturer to build and sell 100 examples of a car for it to be considered “stock.” Since it would not be driven in a normal fashion, Ford opted for fiberglass body panels on much of the car and even Plexiglas windows to save weight. The car was motivated by a 427 CI “high rise” topped with dual 4-bbl carbs. Among other fancy items was an aluminum scatter shield around the clutch – for those occasions when things got a little out of control. The package could cross the ¼ mile in under 12 seconds with little effort. Later runs made with updated accessories have seen these run under 10 second quarter miles.

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  15. 1967 427 “Tri Power” Corvette

    Perhaps not as rare as some other cars on the list, how can you not love a car that came from the factory with side pipes?

    1970 Mercury Cougar XR7

    What happens when you can’t decide between “Luxury” and “Muscle” as design cues in the good old days? You mash ’em together and this is the result. The 428 cubic-inch, Super Cobra Jet, Ram Air motivated it but only a handful were sold.

    1966 Ford Shelby G

    Everything Carrol Shelby built was cool but only a few of these were built in 1966. Which makes them cool and rare. And since it followed Shelby’s “massive motor in a tiny lightweight car,” it was fast.

    1970 Buick GSX Stage 1

    <p>Yes, Buick made muscle cars. Very cool and very fast muscle cars. And if you ever see lists of quarter-mile ETs from back in the day, this car is often near the top of the list. How is that, you say? Look at the specs: 510 ft/lbs of torque launched this Buick into the record books.<span class="redactor-invisible-space"></span></p>Mecum

    Yes, Buick made muscle cars. Very cool and very fast muscle cars. And if you ever see lists of quarter-mile ETs from back in the day, this car is often near the top of the list. How is that, you say? Look at the specs: 510 ft/lbs of torque launched this Buick into the record books.

    1971 Plymouth Hemi Cuda

    Slap a Hemi in its last year of production into a ragtop Cuda and you have something only 11 people bought in 1971. Want one today? Plan on paying about a thousand times sticker price – or more.

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  17. NGO’s and Somalis received money donated for victims of shooting rampage in Maine.

    FTA

    People opened their hearts and their wallets, ultimately contributing $6.6 million to the MCF. They thought the money was earmarked for the shooting victims and their families. Instead, per the Maine Wire,[T]he MCF distributed just $4.7 million to those individuals. The remaining $1.9 million went to NGOs, many of them politically connected, and many of them involved in the nebulous world of “migrant services.” Most of those nonprofits have no connections to the victims’ families or the survivors. Few of them can point to anything done with the money for the benefit of the victims’ families or the survivors.

    That’s bad, but what’s worse is this part:However, several of the nonprofits had directors who were on the MCF steering committee — the committee that allocated the donations. In other words, roughly one third of the money raised in the names of Lewiston shooting victims was under the control of NGOs that saw no conflict or ethical concern with steering that money into their own bank accounts.

    This approach violated the best practices for community foundations handling disaster funds. Those practices require that the funds go to the donors’ intended beneficiaries and that the foundation scrupulously avoids diverting funds and conflicts of interest. Transparency, of course, is the key to ensuring integrity.

    It gets even worse when you learn where some of those funds ended up. First, remember those four NGO heads I mentioned above? They received a bountiful largesse from the donor funds:According to the MCF’s website, the steering committee included the following non-profit heads: Joleen Bedard, United Way of Androscoggin County, Nathan Davis, Gateway Community Services Maine, Muhidin Libah, Somali Bantu Community Association, and Julia Sleeper, Tree Street Youth. Bedard, Davis, Libah, and Sleeper’s NGOs all received $65,000 from the Lewiston shooting fundraising money — far more than the majority of victims received, including Maine residents who were shot. These NGO heads also appear to have steered donation money into groups with which they have prior affiliations, share office space, or have partnered with for prior activities. (Emphasis in original.)

    When it took the $65,000, Gateway Community Services, run by Abdullahi Ali, a Somali-American, already possessed $5 million in government grants. He’s no longer in the US, though:Ali’s taxpayer-funded migrant services business has made national headlines in recent weeks, in part because he received millions of taxpayer dollars before fleeing to Africa to lead a militia against Jubbaland President Ahmed Madobe.

    And then there’s the Somali Bantu Community Association, another NGO with no ties to the shooting victims. Employees and recipients are family members. “Most recently,” writes the Maine Wire, “the organization was awarded more than $31k to support Liberation Farms, a taxpayer-funded halal farm, and to recruit Maine residents to apply for EBT cards.”

    The AK Collaborative, which seems to be another Somali organization connected to the Maine government but not the shooting, also got $65,000. So did Generational Noor, started by a Somali immigrant as a substance abuse charity, although it seemingly never did anything to help with substance abuse. Empowered Immigrant Women United, chaired by Choukri Mahamoud, also got $65,000. Of its $172,289 in total receipts in 2024, nearly all funds went to salaries.

    One of the problems with mass immigration is that you get a lot of chaff with the wheat. Yes, there are good, hard-working, honest people who are Somalis. But when a substantial cohort of the population is dedicated to financial crimes that rip off taxpayers and charitable donor, and when the community seems incapable of policing itself, you have to ask if the burden of the chaff outweighs any benefit from the wheat.

    https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2025/12/a_maine_charity_diverted_shooting_victim_funds_to_shady_often_somali_ngos.html

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  18. Just The News: “A major power outage struck San Francisco on Saturday, December 20, 2025, leaving roughly 130,000 Pacific Gas & Electric Co. (PG&E) customers — about one-third of the city — without electricity during one of the busiest days of the holiday shopping season. 

    The outage, which began around 9:40 a.m. local time, cut electricity to neighborhoods including the Richmond, Sunset, Presidio, Golden Gate Park, Inner and Outer Sunset, and parts of downtown San Francisco. 

    While PG&E has not confirmed a definitive cause, fire officials report that a fire at a utility substation near 8th and Mission Streets contributed to the outage. Fire crews were able to extinguish the fire and help stabilize the local grid.”

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  19. “Investigation Reveals Pelosi Purchased $10 Million Of Taco Bell Stock Day Before Marijuana Rule Change”

    Finance · Dec 20, 2025 · BabylonBee.com

    Image for article: Investigation Reveals Pelosi Purchased $10 Million Of Taco Bell Stock Day Before Marijuana Rule Change

    WASHINGTON, D.C. — An investigation has revealed that Representative Nancy Pelosi purchased $10 million in Taco Bell stock the day before President Trump loosened marijuana regulations.

    Taco Bell’s stock surged 47% in the trading session following the announcement of easier access to weed.

    “The timing of the stock purchase is purely coincidental. Ms. Pelosi has a long history of loving Taco Bell,” said Pelosi’s office in a statement. “She has always been a huge fan of the Crunchwrap Supreme. The stock purchase was in no way related to the imminent change in marijuana regulations, and it is a mystery why they would be connected. Ms. Pelosi is guilty of nothing but loving tacos and capitalism.”

    Several stocks made big moves in the market in the aftermath of the news, with Betty Crocker soaring over 20% on the strength of increased brownie sales projections. Beanie manufacturers also saw strong gains in after-market trading.

    At publishing time, Pelosi had also been discovered to have purchased $1 million worth of stock in the parent company that owns Doritos.

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  23. Right Angle News Network
    @Rightanglenews
    BREAKING – Jobless liberal white women who spend all day stalking around ICE are finally getting put in their place.

    “This is your one warning. If you follow us again, we’re going to stop you, break your window, rip you out, and arrest you.”

    “Can I ask you a few questions, though?”

    walks away

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  26. “The Limited Hangout:

    Blame Congress for the Epstein mess – they passed the bill where the government could redact whatever the heck they wanted – to protect the government. Now, the public will never know how involved our government (IC) or foreign governments were in setting up honey pots, blackmailing politicians, business people, and government officials, etc.

    Congress knew exactly what would happen. Including those who are now screaming the loudest – and who also happened to be the same Congress critters who put in the amendments that the government could redact whatever they wanted – as long as they redact in ways that are in the government’s interest. Congress was protecting their own in doing what they did.

    Now they can blame the DoJ for redacting and pat themselves on the back for doing the right thing by passing this bill. Don’t be fooled. It is total BS. They set this up. Don’t blame Bondi for doing what Congress asked for.”

    Yeah – still funny.

    “The fact is that the “rainbow” flag symbolizing LGBT people is a way to attract and groom children. The flag and colors have bright, saturated colors, a simple geometric design, and rainbow imagery – imagery that is also used in many cartoons and picture books, so a CHAT-GPT query is in order: Can you name cartoons that use the rainbow and why?”

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  27. “Can you name cartoons that use the rainbow and why?

    Note the pattern…

    • LGBT-affiliated groups and individuals intentionally place pride symbols in child-focused environments, including events like drag Queen Story Hour, cartoons, animation, and gay pride parades.
    • This is not age-appropriate inclusion and is most definitely ideological marketing – to children, who are at an age where fetishes can develop.

    To learn more about the development of fetishes in young children, please read my essay: https://www.malone.news/p/sexual-fetishes-grooming-and-the

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  30. “Today is the winter solstice, and it is the day of our annual Christmas party, which means many tasks are ahead to prepare for the event. Have a great day, everybody!”

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  32. ☀️ The Solstice Analemma

    Today is the winter solstice — the longest night of the year (Sun, Dec 21, 2025, 4:03 PM GMT). Italian photographer Paolo Bardelli stitched 48 photos into a perfect solar analemma over Lake Varese.

    By the way, other planets have analemmas, too. Not all are figure-8s, however. The shape depends on the tilt of the planet’s spin axis and the eccentricity of its orbit around the sun. Martian analemmas resemble a teardrop, while Jupiter’s analemma looks like a jelly-bean:

    courtesy: analemma.com

    Step outside at 4pm. Look west. Say hello to winter.”

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  42. Just The News: “Turning Point USA Erika Kirk brought out hip-hop recording artist Nicki Minaj as a special guest at its AmericaFest conference.

    Minaj has applauded the Trump administration for its work supporting Christians in Nigeria, which the administration has argued are being persecuted. “I have the utmost respect and admiration for our president,” she said on Sunday. “I don’t know if he even knows this but he’s given so many people hope that there is a chance to beat the bad guys and to win.”

    Minaj was asked on stage for her reaction to the backlash she’s getting from her industry for showing support for Trump. “I didn’t notice,” she said. “We don’t even think about them.”

    Minaj said she has told those who are upset by her public move to the right. “They’re just disgruntled with themselves,” she said. “I literally tell them, ‘stay mad’ because we’re going to stay joyful and peaceful.” 

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  43. RedWave Press
    @RedWave_Press
    Brianna Lyman on President Trump’s name being added to the Kennedy Center: “I personally don’t care that much, but I do find it funny, Paul, that you care and that the Kennedys care because no one in your party cared in 2020 when you guys were changing names of hospitals, parks, schools, streets, everything in the name of George Floyd.”

    “Wikipedia has an entire page called ‘list of name changes due to the George Floyd protests.’ It is the longest Wikipedia page I’ve ever seen. So people who are up in arms about name changes now were mostly silent. The second point I’d make, I think it’s really disingenuous for the Kennedys and for anyone to sit here and pretend like they care so much about the Kennedy Center because I don’t know how many of you guys have been to the Kennedy Center prior to Donald Trump taking office.”

    “I was there in 2023. I wasn’t a VIP box. That should be pretty nice. The seats were stained. I literally sat down, I was like, is this wet? Is this fresh? The floors were dirty. This is a place that was decrepit. And all of this on top of people getting exorbitant salaries. So people who were running the Kennedy Center or who claimed to love and care about the Kennedy Center said nothing when it was falling into disrepair, and President Trump comes in, they are renovating, they cut salaries that were needlessly high, they’re bringing people to come and see the arts for once. It was not that lively of an institution under the Biden administration. So don’t pretend like you care about the Kennedy Center now when you were quiet when it was falling into disrepair.”

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