In the Timothy Busfield sexual abuse scandal, his studio appears to have covered up evidence

First, it's sad to note that the judge in the Timothy Busfield sexual abuse case released him from custody, possibly without bail, when seriously, he should remain in prison, considering the gravity of the issues involved. Though special restrictions were issued against him, it's still very disappointing Busfield was released. It's also disgraceful how quite a few of his friends and colleagues, not the least being his wife Melissa Gilbert, defended him.

With that said, it appears Warner Brothers studios, producer of The Cleaning Lady, the TV show where Busfield directed some of the episodes, tried to conceal evidence and information, and stifle witnesses, proving that long after the Harvey Weinstein scandal, there's only so many prominent managements that'll do everything possible to conceal vile incidents, no matter how serious:

New Mexico prosecutors have made headlines with allegations of child sexual abuse against actor and director Timothy Busfield. But he’s not the only one defending himself. They’ve also accused Warner Bros. Television of botching an earlier internal company investigation into the actor and impeding their own criminal probe.

Busfield is battling charges he inappropriately touched child actors while he directed the Fox series The Cleaning Lady, produced by WB TV. According to state officials, the studio’s third-party probe — prompted by an anonymous tip to the SAG-AFTRA hotline — was mishandled: Key witnesses weren’t interviewed and no one involved with it ever publicly reported the allegations. Moreover, prosecutors say, it’s hindered law enforcement’s own inquiry, particularly by slow-walking the handover of documentation.

“The delayed and limited cooperation by Warner Bros. in responding to a search warrant further underscores the institutional barriers that have historically enabled this type of misconduct to continue,” a Jan. 14 filing in the case stated.

Somehow, this fails to come as a surprise the studio would cover up any repugnant activities men like Busfield committed on the set. Also atrocious is how even the lead actress appears willing to back him up. All that just goes to show why the Cleaning Lady is something that would be best confined to the dusty shelves and not viewed in reruns ever again. Some reports I read about it strongly hint it's hostile to USA immigration officials anyway.

One unresolved issue the report does not address that was raised by New Mexico law enforcement involves a question surrounding why an iPad allowing the children’s parents to watch them was taken away. “Timothy said we don’t really like that parents had iPads while on set, and that it was not a standard process, and that they do not encourage it,” the affidavit reads.

Another involves the show’s set teacher allegedly failing to supervise the children at all times. Law enforcement was told by a production assistant, per a court filing, that “she remembered [the alleged victim’s] set teacher, Lee [Lewin], who seemed to lose track of what the child actors were doing,” saying she gave an “example that [alleged victim] was stopped unsupervised, riding a skateboard through a live set at one time.”

New Mexico prosecutors have criticized WB for belatedly providing access to its finished report and its “limited cooperation.” After reading the studio’s internal report, released in a Jan. 16 filing, the lead detective on the case moved to interview other child actors on set, eliciting an email from WB’s lawyer that read “you need to contact” his firm, Proskauer Rose, for such matters, signaling that he would be representing not only WB, but its employees as well.

If the staff didn't allow the parents to monitor what was going on with their kids, that's disturbing and telling. It pretty much says all. Nearly a decade after the aforementioned Weinstein flap, and stuff like this is still going on. Warner Brothers should be ashamed, and the higher echelons who tried to cover up any evidence should resign.

Steve Witkoff continues his inappropriate approach

The USA envoy Witkoff has outraged Israeli officials with a position that Israel open the Rafah border on the other side of Gaza even before the body of the last remaining hostage/kidnapee from October 7, 2023 is returned:

Officials in Jerusalem have expressed anger toward US special envoy Steve Witkoff, who is pressuring Israel to open the Rafah crossing before the return of the final hostage, Ran Gvili.

An Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, sharply criticized Witkoff in a conversation with Ynet: “Witkoff pushed to bring our major rival, Turkey, to the border. The clock is ticking backward toward a confrontation with Turkey, which would pose a real danger to our security."

Kan 11 News reported that Israeli officials were caught off guard by the announcement regarding the opening of the Rafah crossing and intend to demand explanations from envoys Witkoff and Jared Kushner. The Security Cabinet is scheduled to convene on Sunday, where it is expected to approve the crossing’s opening and discuss recent developments in Iran.

Any demand Witkoff makes that the crossing be opened in a way that would enable more weapons to be smuggled to Hamas is offensive in the extreme, and if Kushner's going along with this, that too is reprehensible. That they would even want Turkey to be allowed anywhere near is also offensive. This is why plenty don't consider Witkoff a good envoy, and it ranks right down there as one of the bad things the Trump administration is doing, along with recognizing Ahmed al-Sharaa as a "valid" leader of Syria. How do we convince them to dismiss Witkoff from his post?

Update: speaking of Iran, Witkoff's also taking a dangerously lenient position on their autocracy as well:

A senior Israeli official confirmed that Witkoff is serving as the intermediary with Iran. "Witkoff brought Trump a WhatsApp message from Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, along with a written assurance from President Masoud Pezeshkian, in order to persuade him to postpone the strike," the official said.

This may not have been the sole reason for the delay, as preparations for a major operation were not fully complete two weeks ago, but it did influence the president's mood. "Even now, as intelligence and testimonies from Iranians reach Israel and intelligence agencies in other countries in the region, as well as the US itself, Witkoff continues to push for a diplomatic route to resolve the Iran problem," the senior Israeli official said, expressing clear frustration.

This too is atrocious in the extreme, and one more reason Witkoff must be removed from his post.

Early news on USA Congress' drafting of an anti-sharia bill

Some important news on the development of a bill in Congress to ban Islamic sharia from infiltrating USA politics, which has already happened with figures like Zohran Mamdani being "sworn in" on a koran when he took up his position as NYC mayor:

The Sharia Free America Caucus will present a suite of policies to prevent Sharia law from entering U.S. politics during its first press conference scheduled for Feb. 3, The Daily Signal has learned.

During the press conference, the caucus, led by Republican Reps. Keith Self and Chip Roy of Texas, will present legislative actions that seek to “protect the American people from the advancements of Sharia Law.”

“Members of Congress are convening to sound the alarm about the rising presence and accelerating spread of Sharia in the United States,” Self told The Daily Signal. “If allowed to spread, Sharia will completely erode the bedrock of Western values, individual liberties, and freedoms that define America.”

Sharia law is a system of Islamic religious law that guides personal behavior and civil and criminal justice, often in conflict with Western concepts of liberty and government.

Measures that will be promoted in the press conference include the No Tax Exemptions for Terrorist Act. The bill aims to target funding for groups allegedly tied to Sharia law, such as the Muslim Brotherhood and the Council for American Islamic Relations, Self’s office told The Daily Signal.

They're doing the right thing to bring this up, and they're going to have to push Europe to draft similar laws too. It's vital to do everything possible to draw the line in the sand against the Religion of Peace.

New documentary in the works about Zohran Mamdani that's bound to be sugarcoated

It appears the leftists in Hollywood decided to give NYC's first Muslim mayor more backing for the sake of it, by producing a documentary all about him that's bound to be mega-biased as can be:

A new documentary will chronicle openly socialist Zohran Mamdani’s rise to become Mayor of New York City, a journey that began in 2023.

The documentary will be directed Julia Bacha, who also serves as the creative director of the non-profit Just Vision, which reportedly tells stories that shine “a spotlight on the Israel-Palestine conflict,” per TheWrap.

“It was her interest in Israel and Palestine that led Bacha to Mamdani three years ago,” noted the outlet. “The Brazil-born filmmaker heard in 2023 about a group of New York activists who were calling for charities to stop using tax-deductible donations to fund Israeli settlements.”

Bacha said the documentary began as a focus on whether Mamdani and his team of pro-Palestinian lawmakers will be able to hold their assembly seats through New York’s next election cycle, but it instead morphed into him climbing to become mayor. She reportedly captured over 200 hours of footage chronicling this rise and was especially captivated by the influence of his filmmaker mother, Mira Nair.

For now, this is certainly telling enough. Another disturbing thing about Mamdani was his being "sworn in" to position as mayor on a koran instead of a bible. That says all you need to know what's going wrong in the USA, much as in Europe. This looks to be yet another documentary that gives the whole concept a bad name.

Lady chef assaulted by another woman for fixing hair in ponytail near Haredi man

Here's a disgusting example of a woman who's a sellout to ultra-Orthodox in the worst ways possible:

Jerusalem-based pastry chef Karen Kadosh, one of the owners of the city's "Café Kadosh" in the city, on Friday morning shared that she was assaulted while exiting an elevator, allegedly because she had tied her hair into a ponytail.

In a social media post, Kadosh said she was assaulted by a woman who intentionally kicked her from behind.

"When I exited the elevator, the woman came out after me, and immediately as she exited, her legs hit mine from behind, with force and aggression," Kadosh described.

Kadosh also stressed that this was not accidental contact but a deliberate attack. When she asked the woman what had happened, the woman replied: "I kicked you because you made a ponytail in the elevator in front of a Haredi man - it's not modest."

Kadosh said she was left stunned by the response and asked the woman what was immodest about tying her hair in a ponytail, but received no relevant answer. Later, she recognized the woman as a government employee in the same building.

"On one hand, who has the time and energy to deal with this?" she wrote. "But on the other hand, if we don't address these cases, they will only escalate."

Kadosh said she is debating whether to file a police report.

She absolutely MUST file a police complaint. We seem to have another ultra-Orthodox basket case here who thinks it's such a big deal that she must act obnoxious over a petty issue. And another somebody who thinks sexuality is such a horrible thing, even though a woman fastening her hair in a ponytail is far from harmful in any way. Most of these blabberings about "modesty" don't even make any sense. The assaulter must also be fired from her government job, period. Such people do not belong, and they only risk giving leftists ammunition to use against conservatives.

And after October 7, 2023, that's one more serious reason why such nasty behavior is so abominable.

Haredi parents of infant who died in illegal daycare defend the culprit

Considering what kind of socialist-collective mindset ultra-Orthodox communities like this can go by, it's devastating but not surprising the parents of one of the 2 dead children would defend the operator of the illegal daycare no matter how much she and her colleagues broke the law:

Chani and Yaakov Katz, the parents of Ari Katz, one of the infants who died this week at a daycare in Jerusalem, discussed the sequence of events on Kan Reshet Bet radio and rejected criticism against the haredi public and the daycare management.

"We've known her for seven years. I have three children, and she has raised them all," Chani said about the daycare director. "To me, it's not a daycare. She's an aunt, a second mother to my children. I know her well, and we are like family. I would only send my children to her."

In other words, they're okay with the daycare center being illegal, and quite possibly consider "secular" daycares illegitimate by sharp contrast to the point they won't even send their children there? What an embarrassment.

One of the worst things about this tragedy is that it underlines a problem certain parents have, of abdicating their responsibilities and letting 3rd parties raise their children for them, no matter what the levels of trust and responsibility are. And that irresponsibility's now cost the lives of 2 innocents, yet the parents of one won't even admit it was wrong to send their child there, even if the center lacked operational permission from the city.

Update: the following article is even more disgusting:

Chani Katz, the mother of one of the two infants found dead in an unlicensed ultra-Orthodox Jerusalem daycare earlier this week, spoke out against legal proceedings against the caregivers held responsible and said the death of her 6-month-old son Ari was preordained.

“Miriam and Mali also buried a child. It’ll never leave them. They’re innocent,” said Katz, referring to caregivers Miriam Friedman and Mali Shmuel Eliyahu, whom the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court released to house arrest on Thursday.

The caregivers will be kept under house arrest for nine days, barred from working for 45 days, and prevented from contacting the families of the deceased for 30 days. Speaking to the press ahead of the court hearing, Katz said, “What’s being done to them is an injustice.”

She added that her son Ari had died by “divine decree.”

“My Ari had to die on the very day, at the very hour that he passed,” she said, refusing to speculate on his cause of death. “If he had to pass away, it had to be with Miriam Friedman, and I chose Miriam.”

This doesn't sound like someone with much love for her own children. Her defense is sick, and it's exactly why more tragedies like this will continue. What she says is also a violation of the Commandment that one shouldn't use God's name in vain. Utterly shameful.

Antisemitism rampant in Massachusettes schools, along with other areas

This is sad but surely no surprise schools in Massachusettes could be that bad, along with other parts of the USA:

More than half of participants in a US survey of Jewish K-12 educators working in public and non-Jewish private schools reported experiencing or witnessing antisemitism at work, according to a Thursday release from StandWithUs.

The nationwide study surveyed 584 self-identified Jewish teachers across the United States and found that 61.6% had personally experienced or witnessed antisemitism in their professional environments. Moreover, 45.5% of teachers reported antisemitism from teachers' unions.

Notably, among the 65% of survey participants who were required to take anti-bias training in their school or district, only 10% reported that the training included information about antisemitism. [...]

In November 2025, the Massachusetts Special Commission on Combating Antisemitism revealed that antisemitism in Massachusetts public schools had risen significantly since October 7, 2023. [...]

Testimony issued to the commission warned that students were increasingly being exposed to neo-Nazi, pro-Hamas, and other radical right and left ideologies through social media. Concerns were also raised about the content that students were being exposed to in the classroom, which some testimonies alleged contained inaccurate and harmful material relating to the Jewish people and Israel.

Of course, the Jerusalem Post would rather run the risk of blurring the differences between left and right, even if there's obviously conservatives who can do terrible wrongs too. What's been revealed will sadly take ages to repair.

The modern generation in Iran's had enough of Islam

Professor David Menashri's written about the current revolution in Iran against the totalitarian theocracy of the ayatollah, by a whole generation that's had enough of being governed by the Religion of Peace:

Nearly half a century after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iran has not proven that its ideology offers a cure for society's ills. The revolution's two central promises were social justice and political justice — bread and freedom. Today, Iranians enjoy no more freedom than they did under the shah, and social gaps have remained. The country finds itself at a historic crossroads, locked in a struggle over its character, its identity and the future of the Islamic Revolution.

Modern Iranian history is marked by revolutions and rebellion. Iran is the only country in the Middle East — and one of the few in the world — to have experienced two major revolutions in the 20th century: the Constitutional Revolution of 1906 and the Islamic Revolution of 1979. Since then, the country has seen a series of protest movements: student protests in 1999, the Green Movement in 2009, waves of unrest in 2017 and 2019, the 2022–2023 protests under the slogan "Woman, Life, Freedom," and, since late 2025, the most turbulent wave yet. This time, demonstrators are no longer demanding policy changes but calling openly for regime change.

For Iran's rulers, the Islamic Revolution was not merely a label but an ideal: a revolution in every sphere of life, rooted in Islam. Yet, as with other great revolutions in history, they discovered that utopian means could not deliver their goals and were forced to adapt doctrine to reality. [...]

Today's young Iranians gravitate toward Western culture and remain loyal to their Persian heritage. In defiance of regime policy, they celebrate the Persian New Year, visit the tomb of King Cyrus the Great, women shed the veil, and youth adopt Western symbols.

They'll undoubtably still need the help of western forces to make sure the totalitarian theocracy is defeated. And we have to hope it will be by the end of the year. The Islamic regime in Iran cannot be allowed to continue.

Actress Sydney Sweeney pays solidarity visit to former hostages

Actress Sydney Sweeney's given a new reason to respect her:

Hollywood actress Sydney Sweeney met with former hostages Noa Argamani and Avinatan Or, as shown in a photo published by the pro-Israel organization Stand With Us.

[...] Sweeney is in a relationship with Jewish mega-producer Scooter Braun, known for his open support of Israel. Since October 7, he has published content related to the war and the hostages, and was involved in the traveling Nova Exhibition, a display commemorating the October 7 massacre at the music festival and features testimonies from survivors.

This is a very courageous position she's taking, and it instills a new admiration in me for her. A beautiful woman who takes the right side in history is doing a huge favor for her good looks too.

Tragedy at unlicensed "daycare center" in Haredi neighborhood where 2 children died from poison

Another disaster occurred in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Romema, home to many Haredi families, as 55 children in a "daycare center" lacking permits for operation suffered from a form of poisoning that killed at least 2:

Two babies died, and at least 55 more small children sustained injuries in an incident at a daycare center in Jerusalem’s Romema neighborhood on Monday, Magen David Adom (MDA) reported.

Three-month-old Lia Tzipora Golovnetsitz and six-month-old Aharon Katz died in the incident. According to the Institute of Forensic Medicine at Abu Kabir, the cause of death was likely dehydration as a result of an overheated space.

The director of Hadassah-University Medical Center, Professor Yaniv Sherer, where many of the injured children were taken to for treatment and observation, told Maariv that the injuries and deaths probably resulted from "some kind of poisoning, with or without a combination of crowding, fever, or dehydration."

What makes this particularly horrific is that the living conditions in the center were horrible and shoddy:

Upon arrival at the scene, authorities noted substandard conditions at the daycare center that may have contributed to the tragedy.

A video seen by The Jerusalem Post appeared to show a bathroom containing a mattress meant for a baby to sleep on placed underneath a toilet bowl. This was corroborated by an emergency response team member who saw a baby wrapped in a blanket lying on the bathroom floor.

“Regarding the conditions, children in closets is not common,” one of the rescue workers said. “The kindergarten is in a small four-room residence. There were a lot of kids inside relative to the size of the facility.”

“Overcrowding, strollers in every corner – even in the kitchen – and babies lying in strollers and beds,” one of the rescue workers said.

There's extra documentation available here, which also says:

In a video published on Channel 13 News after the babies were evacuated to hospitals, rooms full of baby strollers are seen, some of them close together, placed densely.

Another recording shows a baby sleeping on a small mattress placed under a toilet, in conditions that raise serious questions about the environment in the daycare.

And, as noted here:

The daycare facility in question operated privately out of a private home, without a license and illegally. Three daycare workers were detained for questioning.

It's repulsive how certain segments of society are so desperate to live a segregated/isolated lifestyle to the point they're okay with unlicensed, dangerous conditions that endanger children. And then, they even riot against autopsy-based investigations, making things utterly worse:

Haredi extremists demonstrated at the Bar Ilan Junction in Jerusalem on Monday evening against the intention to conduct an autopsy on the bodies of two infants who died earlier in the day at a daycare center in the Romema neighborhood.

During the protest, which came as the infants' parents expressed opposition to the autopsies, demonstrators blocked major roads in the area.

The enraged haredim blocked the intersection of Bar Ilan and Yirmiyahu streets, preventing buses and cars from passing, and were heard calling law enforcement "Nazis." After a short time, police began to disperse the rioters using force to restore the flow of traffic.

All this does is desecrate the dignity of the victims even more. That they'd even set fire to trash bins and other debris, along with assaulting a passerby, is another very disturbing and hugely disappointing form of contempt that takes away attention from other more pressing issues like Islamic terrorism. The worst part is that the "gurus" who encouraged this undoubtably intended exactly that. Here's an op-ed writer who commented on the incident:

The first response came from parts of the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) leadership. Instead of taking responsibility, they rushed to deflect blame toward coded enemies: “the attorney-general,” “the Supreme Court,” or the state. This response deserves unequivocal condemnation. It is morally wrong to politicize the deaths of children, and it reflects a deeper failure of leadership.

Leadership begins with accountability. When leaders refuse to acknowledge responsibility, they abandon the very people they claim to represent.

The second reaction asked an essential question: where was the State of Israel? Why is early childhood education, from birth to age three, so poorly regulated and effectively abandoned? This criticism is largely justified.

For years, this sector has existed in a regulatory vacuum, with inconsistent oversight and inadequate standards. However, recognizing the problem is only the first step. The solution cannot be regulation for its own sake. Over-regulation risks choking an already fragile system, as we have seen in parts of the kindergarten and school frameworks.

Responsibility cannot be deflected

What is needed is smart, enabling regulation – focused on safety, professional standards, and transparency – paired with serious budgeting. In my view, local authorities are well-positioned to take responsibility for this domain, but only if they are given the necessary resources and authority.

The third response was harsher: a sweeping indictment of haredi society itself, accusing it of repeated disregard for human life. At first glance, this seems to contradict the call for greater state responsibility. I believe it does not. Both can – and must – be true simultaneously.

Yes, the state must take responsibility for children aged zero to three. But at the same time, haredi society must take responsibility for itself.

Read it all, because we have to hope the state welfare system will start searching out these illegal daycare outfits that are understaffed and lacking in healthy environments for children. And indeed, as the following reports, quite a few have been discovered:

The deaths of two infants at an unlicensed daycare in Jerusalem have renewed scrutiny of Israel’s largely unmonitored childcare sector, where tens of thousands of toddlers are believed to be cared for in facilities operating outside state oversight.

[...] Professionals in the field estimate that about 114,000 toddlers are currently in childcare settings that operate illegally and without oversight.

Until 2021, Israel had virtually no regulation of early childhood frameworks outside state-subsidized daycares run by organizations such as WIZO and Naamat. A supervision law that came into force that year expanded reporting and oversight requirements to private facilities caring for seven children or more. Responsibility for enforcement was transferred to the Education Ministry in 2022.

[...] Education Ministry data show that since August, inspectors have identified 470 unlicensed daycares and nurseries operating illegally across the country. Of those, 70 have been shut down, and 20 others are under active closure orders being enforced in coordination with police.

One more reason why it's disgusting in the extreme that the Haredis would riot against law enforcement, and cause chaos in the streets, since all they're doing is committing violence in the name of infanticide. The culprits running the illegal daycare rooms are hopefully going to be indicted and imprisoned for the blood they now have on their hands. But even the Haredi leadership must be soundly condemned for repeatedly breaking the law, and continuing a culture of silence on serious issues.

Update: additionally offensive is that a female news reporter was harrassed by Haredi hoodlums during a broadcast.