President Donald Trump abruptly fired Air Force Gen. CQ Brown Jr. as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on Friday, sidelining a history-making fighter pilot and respected officer as part of a campaign led by his Defense Secretary to rid the military of leaders who support diversity and equity in the ranks.

The ouster of Brown, only the second Black General to serve as chairman, is sure to send shock waves through the Pentagon. His 16 months in the job had been consumed with the war in Ukraine and the expanded conflict in the Middle East.

“I want to thank General Charles ‘CQ’ Brown for his over 40 years of service to our country, including as our current Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He is a fine gentleman and an outstanding leader, and I wish a great future for him and his family,” Trump posted on social media.

Brown’s public support of Black Lives Matter after the police killing of George Floyd had made him fodder for the administration’s wars against “wokeism” in the military. His ouster is the latest upheaval at the Pentagon, which plans to cut 5,400 civilian probationary workers starting next week and identify $50 billion in programs that could be cut next year to redirect those savings to fund Trump’s priorities.

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Republished with permission of the Associated Press.

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Legislation filed Friday in the Florida House imposes harsher statewide penalties on the illicit business of prostitution.

Rep. Dana Trabulsy’s HB 895 would deem it “unlawful for an adult to offer to commit, to commit, or to engage in prostitution, lewdness, or assignation.”

It would set up consequences for all aspects of the illegal activity, including making admissibility of testimony explicit in Florida statute regarding the “reputation” of a place known for the activity or a person frequenting such an establishment.

Violations of the law would be under this law a second-degree misdemeanor.

In addition to criminal consequences, guilty parties would be compelled to “attend an educational program about the negative effects of commercial sex.” Secular or religious organizations could stage the educational programs, and Judicial circuits would have a path to set up their own versions.

Owning, renting, or leasing properties with the knowledge they are being used for prostitution would also be illegal under this law, and subject to progressive felony penalties ranging from third degree for the first offense to first degree for third offenses and those thereafter.

In the case of illegal massage establishments, the penalties would be further enhanced.

A first offense would be a second degree felony, while a third would subject the guilty party to life in prison. The language does not currently preclude parole, however.

If this becomes law, it takes effect in October.

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Florida’s Attorney General is taking legal action against a department store chain the state invested in after marketing decisions hurt the state’s bottom line.

The goal, said James Uthmeier on Friday’s “Ingraham Angle,” is to ensure Target and like-minded retailers “get back to the business of doing business” after consumers voted with their wallets against Pride merchandise and the like.

“Companies have some free speech rights, but publicly traded corporations have a duty to their shareholders, and Target’s radical sexualization of kids caused a massive backlash leading to a plummeting stock price. They lost over $10 billion in just 10 days, and that hurts the shareholders. Here in Florida, our pension investment fund suffered a serious loss,” Uthmeier said.

The lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida claims Target chose ESG and DEI over protecting its shareholders, flouting Sections 10(b) and 14(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 in the process, by marketing what the court filing calls “transgender tuck-friendly” swimsuits with “extra crotch coverage,” sold in small sizes.

Uthmeier said “businesses can make their own decisions, but if you are a publicly traded company and you have a duty to provide value to your shareholders, you’ve got to think about what should doing, and here I don’t believe they properly educated their shareholders on what was going to happen when the public would have a huge backlash.”

The Attorney General’s Office, acting on behalf of Florida’s State Board of Administration, seeks a jury trial and damages.

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