Killer son lay in wait to ambush, execute parents inside Simi Valley home: neighbor

 Chilling new details have emerged in the execution of a Simi Valley doctor and his wife — their killer son sat in wait to ambush and gun down the beloved couple in their own garage, a neighbor told The Post.

Ketih Cordes drove past the home in his black Honda Civic, then staked it out as he waited for the perfect moment to strike, the neighbor said Wednesday.

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Blood was found inside the couple’s garage.Obtained by the NY Post

“He did like a drive-by, like a dry run at 11:25 and then went and staked out at that cul de sac,” said Mike Hylton, who lives five houses down from the bloodied crime scene.

“Then at 12:01 he must have waited for the garage door to open and that was it,” the neighbor said.

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Dr. Cordes and his wife were left for dead in the driveway of their home.

That’s when Hylton’s son heard shots fired, looked outside and saw a car take off. Hylton ran to the couple’s home where he saw Dr. Eric Cordes, 63, and his wife Vicki Schiller, 66, shot multiple times in their garage.

Cordes was shot in the neck and head, and was “hanging out of his Masaratti door jam,” Hylton said.

Schiller was behind him laying on the ground with “holes all over her,” Hylton added.

“I watched them die,” Hylton recounted. Neighbors gathered around the bloody scene as police and paramedics tried to revive the couple.

“When the police got here they tried to revive him. They drug Eric out and tried to do CPR but it was too late for him,” Hylton told The Post.

“He passed right away, she may have lived for another ten minutes or so,” said Hylton.

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Cops say a suicide that happened shortly after the murder is linked to the Cordes’ murder.Focus Medical Imaging

Less than three hours later police located the Black Honda Civic, that the suspect drove, 70 miles away in Ayala Park in Chino. It had been set on fire and the body inside was badly burned, police have yet to identify the occupant.

The shooter is believed to be Cordes’ son who had been living in Kentucky, according to Hylton. “There was a dispute over money and basically there was a threat and he followed through with it,” Hylton told The Post.

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Police believe Eric and Vicki were targeted.

Red smears that appear to be blood stains remain on the sidewalk outside the home’s garage door. While a small vigil with a candle and flowers where left in the driveway.

“They were very loving, very respectful, to the community,” Hylton said. He spent time with the couple going camping and during block parties.

“We used to have cool little block parties. We’d go camping with them in the desert. they had an RV,” Hylton said.

Police have yet to released the name of the suspect or a motive but assured the public the incident appeared to be targeted. There is no ongoing threat to the community, authorities said.

https://nypost.com/2025/12/03/us-news/killer-son-laid-in-wait-to-ambush-execute-parents-inside-1-3m-home/

Vetting Aliens from Third World Countries

 

By Noel S. Williams

Under the despotic autopen administration (AKA bilious Biden) the U.S. had a policy called “Operation Allies Welcome.” It might as well have been called Operation Everyone Welcome. Estimates are that about 190,000 Afghan aliens were admitted since 2021, but the vetting was so ineffectually Bidenesque that nobody really knows what we don’t know.

Some of the aliens welcomed into our country included members of the Afghan Zero Units which worked with the CIA. The evil Afghan national who shot the two West Virginia National Guardsmen in D.C. (murdering one, as of time of writing) was in one of those units. The vetting process included these elements: biometric screening; biographic checks against interagency watch lists -- DoW, DHS, FBI -- and intelligence community checks; and in-person interviews for asylum seekers and special immigration visas.

While seemingly extensive, it wasn’t enough. That may be partly because those who hate our enemies don’t necessarily love us, and the screening procedures mentioned above are inadequate to ascertain their commitment to American ideals. Yet, President Trump only wants immigrants and refugees who share American values and are willing to assimilate into the Golden Age of America, not try to transform it. Others need not apply; in fact, the whole asylum program should probably be overhauled, if not scrapped.

Indeed, President Trump is righteously indignant; he intends to halt immigration from Third-World countries. He has also directed the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to review every Green Card held by aliens from these 19 countries. There are about 3.3 million Green Card holders from these “countries of concern.” Nevertheless, USCIS director Joseph Edlow recognizes the urgency of the matter, stating, in part, “my primary responsibility is to ensure that every alien is vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible.”

USCIS will consider relevant “country-specific factors.” However, many of the countries the aliens escaped from are primitive; they don’t maintain reliable databases to cross-check responses, especially biographical data. Therefore, the “maximum degree” possible implies more thorough in-person interviews with “country-specific” questions. This will be laborious, which is one reason why we need to halt further applicants at least until we’ve accomplished a reset (or indefinitely).

Fortunately, Artificial Intelligence has come a long way, and in conjunction with lie-detector methods it will help ascertain a respondent’s veracity with all deliberate speed -- with emphasis on “deliberate.” Country-specific questions designed to evoke a physiological response that’s hard to conceal may go further than untrustworthy biographical data in determining the alien’s worthiness for, and amenability to, Americanization.

Afghanistan and Somalia are two of the countries of concern. Here are two sets of sample, value-judgement questions that may evoke measurable emotions that expose an alien’s allegiance to foreign potentates, rather than his adopted country:

              For Afghan aliens:

• Should girls be educated beyond basic home economics chores?
• What does being an American mean to you?
• Whom do you admire more, Ahmad Shah Durrani, (founder of modern Afghanistan) or George Washington?
• If your wife has a headache, is it improper to impose yourself upon her?
• Does “might make right”?
• Do you send money back to Afghanistan? To whom?
• What should be the punishment for stealing a goat? (At interviewee’s discretion, aimed to elicit indignant attitude.)
• Is it barbaric to play polo with a severed human head? (At interviewee’s discretion if subject is fidgety and reticent.)
• What is your opinion of no-fault divorce?

                For Somali aliens:

Do you prefer to eat cats, dogs, or geese?

• What is more important, due process or swift “eye-for-eye” retribution?
• How do you define piracy?
• What is your primary source of income? Do your remit any funds home?
• Should women whose vote you disagree with be disenfranchised?
• Are the sexes equal?
• What volunteer efforts have you pursued in America?
• What do you think of Al-Shabaab?
• If a camel escapes from the zoo, would you return it (at interviewee’s discretion if the subject’s answers are not forthcoming. Aimed to provoke a response.)

Those questions are merely for illustrative purposes -- that is, to emphasize that the vetting process focusses on country-specific questions given their concerning status.

Additionally, reviewed aliens should demonstrate English language proficiency (our official language) and not have sucked-up public assistance funds like thirsty camels sucking up water in their homeland (Somalia). That would mean they are a “public charge” and thereby inadmissible per President Trump and USCIS.

President Trump is resolved that his America-First duty requires that USCIS re-examine every alien admitted to America under Biden. AI-enabled lie detectors can supplement human intervention, or perhaps replace it in evaluating written responses (they can be better at spotting lies). As for future immigrants from the aforementioned 19 countries: Americans come first, and our housing, employment, healthcare, and law enforcement resources are already strained to the limit. You’ll just have to transform your own society, for we are the United States, not the United Nations.

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2025/12/vetting_aliens_from_third_world_countries.html

Stop Dem Thieves!

 

By Richard Blakley

The DOJ announced a federal indictment, accusing Congresswoman Shelia Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL) of stealing at least $5 million in federal disaster funds, resulting in 15 federal counts and a $60,000 bond. According to the Epoch Times the federal filing alleges,

The health care company owned by Cherfilus-McCormick’s family had received payments through a COVID-19 vaccination staffing contract, the indictment said. Her brother, Edwin Cherfilus, requested $50,000, but they mistakenly received $5 million and didn’t return the difference.

The indictment also says that McCormick even laundered some of the money through “straw donors to her congressional campaign” and conspired to file a false tax return. When PBS reported on McCormick’s response, they stated she “looked forward” to her day in court, forgetting to include her next sentence, which was,  “But if this is what Congress is becoming where they are trying to intimidate you, scare tactics, especially attacking minorities, black and brown people, then we are going to have fighting for the district.”

So, when a grand jury issues an indictment for someone seemingly stealing $5 million in federal disaster funds, the reason they do it — is racist?  McCormick should note it was Minority Leader Hakeem Jefferies, who on November 20th, announced Cherfilus-McCormick must step down as ranking member of the House Middle East and North Africa Subcommittee. Is Hakeem racist?

Ms. McCormick, you’re being indicted because the evidence suggests you’re a Dem thief.

Then we travel to Minneapolis, where on November 4th, re-elected Democrat mayor Jacob Frey, during his election victory speech, spoke for a full minute in the Somali language.  He even led chants in Somali and according to conservative influencer Paul Szypula, stated that “Minneapolis belongs to Somalia.”  Reading this led to the sarcastic thoughts, “Great, now Somali pirates will not have to travel as far to steal from America.” (Efforts to suppress these thoughts were interrupted when on November 7, 2025, Somali pirates hijacked yet another tanker off the coast of Somalia.)

Then lo and behold, on November 20th, it was announced that Somalis in Minnesota had swindled millions out of the state’s Medicaid autism-care program, sending the money back to their homeland, funding its terror groups.  Nearly 100 autism clinics were involved in fraudulently billing Medicaid for treatment of Somali children with autism; the truth though, was that Somali families were recruited and promised $300 to $1,500 per month per child if they enrolled in the program.  With such a good deal, “autism claims to Medicaid in Minnesota have skyrocketed in recent years — from $3 million in 2018 to $54 million in 2019, $77 million in 2020, $183 million in 2021, $279 million in 2022, and $399 million in 2023.”  What a coincidence!  Jacob Frey was first elected mayor of Minneapolis in 2018.

Then of course there was scandal-plagued Minnesota’s Medicaid Housing Stabilization Services program.  Beginning in 2021, expenses were predicted to be $2.6 million, but instead the program paid out $21 million, and then $42 million in 2022, then $74 million in 2023, then $104 million in 2024, with $61 million already paid out by early November 2025. I wonder if they will get a Christmas bonus and exceed the 2024 amount?

With all this money, why are Somali pirates still attacking tankers?  You’d think they would be surfing or something with their new American-taxpayer-paid surfboards.

President Trump issued a decree “effectively immediately” ending deportation protections for Somalis in Minnesota.  On Truth Social, Trump posted, “Minnesota, under governor [Tampon-Tim] Walz, is a hub of fraudulent money laundering activity.”

Why would President Trump act in such a way toward Democrat-run Minnesota?  It’s because we have to stop Dem thieves.

Next, we travel to Chicago, where you can’t ride a train without being set on fire by a deranged criminal who was set free by leftist judges 72 times, and you can’t even light a Christmas tree without people being shot and killed, but let’s talk about the federal probe into Chicago’s Teachers Union, where public school officials spent at least $18 million on travel expenses between 2021 and 2024.  A November 12th inspector general report found that Chicago Public Schools (CPS) staff spent $7 million in COVID relief funds on luxury hotel stays, Las Vegas conferences, and international trips, including limousine rides and spa visits paid for by Chicago taxpayers.

When should Trump send troops into Chicago to stop corruption?  How about yesterday?  We have to stop Dem thieves.

Like Chicago, North Carolina can’t light a Christmas tree without people being shot and killed.  Also, Chicago Public Schools are reminiscent of Winston-Salem, Forsyth County Schools (WS/FCS) where in August of 2024 a state auditor, Dave Boliel, found among numerous other things, that “More than $75 million in bonuses were given out, as WS/FCS overspent its annual revenue during FY 2022 and FY 2023,” resulting in a $46 million deficit. But that’s a drop in the bucket compared to the suspicious $332 million in misused suspense accounts, most of which show no accounting as to how the money was spent.

Who would have thought that Winston-Salem, NC could have outperformed Chicago in stealing public school funds?  Well, none to worry, as the Democrat-controlled tax assessor’s office and the county commissioners raised property taxes 100–300% on the unfortunate residents of Forsyth County to pay the tab for the people who enjoyed themselves wasting taxpayer money.  Of course, residents can appeal, only to stand before a Democrat-controlled board, many of whom have a conflict of interest, as most are also real estate agents which benefit from high property values.  What a shame such a nice state is trying to compete with Illinois on corruption.  Can Trump help with this?  We have to stop Dem thieves on all levels.

Then we go international.  Same game, just add zeros on the amounts laundered.  Joe Biden’s administration and the Democrat-controlled Congress at the time, so sloppily sloshed money to Ukraine that even in 2022, no one was sure how much money was sent, with numbers being thrown out like $54 billion to $68 billion, being only a $14 billion difference, and “10% for the big guy.” The missing “billions” continued into 2023, not to mention the missing “$1 billion of the total $1.69 billion [in arms]… that had been sent.”  If you dial it back a little, under Obama in 2014, $37 billion went missing in Ukraine.  Seeing all this missing money, it was questioned as to whether or not money was being laundered back into Democrat reelection campaign coffers.  Then in 2024, with Biden/Harris facing some of the lowest poll numbers in history, the Democrat reelection war chest had the most money of any reelection war chest in history.  Coincidence?

Now, what do you know, Zelensky and Ukrainian officials are being investigated for a $100 million embezzlement scheme, which sounds like a drop in the bucket.

When do the investigations begin to stop Dem thieves, and high-level money laundering?

Sure, there are rotten-tomato Republicans too, but looking at the percentages, it certainly seems the number of corrupt Democrats far outweighs the number of corrupt Republicans.

Reflecting on this article, it really does seem the Democrat party does indeed have a “Big Tent,”  but it’s tiring continually watching the American taxpayer be ripped off to pay for it.

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2025/12/stop_dem_thieves.html

How to destroy an economy, for dummies

 

By Jack Hellner

If anyone wants to see how to send a town into a death spiral, all they should do is look at the history of East St. Louis, Illinois.

Here are some facts about the city:

In 1900, it was a prosperous city. From the internet:

East St. Louis was a wealthy city in 1900 due to rapid industrial growth, earning it the nickname ‘the Pittsburgh of the West’. The city experienced explosive population growth as industries like steel and transportation created thousands of jobs, though it began to decline in later decades.

And here is what has happened over the last 125 years:

The last time East St. Louis had a Republican mayor was in 1949.

Manufacturing has left. 

The population has declined from around 35,000 to 18,000, while the national population has gone from 76 million to 340 million.

The poverty rate is 32.9%; the national rate is 10.6%.

Median household income is around $31,000; the national median is around $84,000.

Median sales price of homes is $48,000; the national median is $415,000.

As home sales prices have collapsed in East St Louis, taxing bodies ratcheted up property taxes. If a person or business has property in East St. Louis assessed at $100,000, their property taxes would be between $4,600 and $6,700, depending on the zip code. This causes the death spiral of the town to cascade.

The children haven’t learned basic math or reading skills,which means it is very tough to succeed:

In East St Louis School District 189, 11% of elementary students tested at or above the proficient level for reading, and 11% tested at or above that level for math. Also, 12% of middle school students tested at or above the proficient level for reading, and 7% tested at or above that level for math.

Yet Democrats in Illinois (and on the national stage) routinely block children from having school choice, snatching away the opportunity to leave failing schools.

Even though they can’t read or do math at grade level, Illinois shows that 85% graduate. Pushing kids through who don’t have skills is nothing to celebrate. It is a tremendous disservice to the children.

Most of the media and other Democrats rarely pay attention to East St. Louis (which has a 95% black population, a group they claim to care about) because this is what happens when the majority of people are dependent on a powerful government (socialism).

I am sure most of these residents get their health care for “free” along with SNAP and many other handouts. While that makes a few things affordable for them, it takes away their incentive to work and financially advance, and it increases prices for those who pay, especially the middle class.

Pushing minimum wages to unaffordable levels for businesses to hire makes things more unaffordable for most of us, and takes away a huge amount of job opportunities for the young and the poor to learn to work and to start moving up the economic ladder. It is very harmful when a powerful government essentially discourages work and gives people “free” stuff to incentivize them to stay dependent on the government.

The Great Society and anti-poverty programs were (ostensibly) meant to provide a safety net, not to end up with generational poverty, which is what has occurred.

It would be as stupid to hire people (Democrats) to run the country, who run their states into the ground and are losing people and businesses, as it would be to buy a house in East St. Louis thinking it would be a good investment.

Will most of the media and other Democrats ever learn from history? It doesn’t appear they will, or even care. They seem to care much more about power than results. They seem to want more people to be dependent on the government because they want their votes.

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

'Machine Learning Helps Reveal Hidden Dementia'

 Patients at primary care clinics received more dementia diagnoses after implementation of a machine-learning tool designed to flag potential cases, according to a study published in JAMA Network.

The findings point to a potential solution for diagnosing dementia earlier in the disease process, said Malaz A. Boustani, MD, MPh, professor in the Department of Medicine at the Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis, who led the study.

“Changing or transforming primary care to accommodate the needs of people living with unrecognized dementia or mild cognitive impairment requires a scalable and sustainable solution with minimum time and minimum cost,” Boustani said.

An estimated 6 million Americans have dementia, and more than one third of those older than 55 will eventually develop the condition, according to the National Institutes of Health.

Boustani and his colleagues conducted a randomized clinical trial of more than 5300 adults aged more than 65 (mean age, 71 years; 62.2% women) at nine federally qualified health centers in Indianapolis over a 2-year period beginning in July 2022. Patients did not have a previous diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment, dementia, or severe mental illness.

Clinics were randomized to one of three approaches. One group of 1724 patients received usual care with no routine screening for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD). Another 1300 patients were seen at clinics that used a machine learning algorithm that scanned electronic record data for indicators of dementia risk. A third group of 2301 patients received care at clinics that made diagnosis based on the algorithm plus a patient-reported survey of 10 questions on cognitive abilities, daily tasks, behavior, and mood.

Among clinics using the AI tool, clinicians would receive a notification if a particular patient showed signs of risk for dementia, and suggest ordering a memory test, referral to a specialist, and talking to the patient about any concerns.

Boustani said he and his colleagues validated the diagnosis by analyzing more than 2000 cases of ADRD and more than 11,000 people without those conditions in Indiana. They then divided the population into two cohorts, one of which was used to train the program and the second was used for validation, producing accuracy of close to 80%, Boustani said.

Clinics randomized to the algorithm and survey approach showed 31% higher odds of new ADRD diagnoses (adjusted OR [aOR], 1.31; 95% CI, 1.05-1.64) than usual care clinics (12-month incidence, 12.4%). Clinics using the algorithm alone had a lower incidence of diagnosis than usual care (12-month incidence, 10.3%; aOR, 0.84; 95% CI, 0.63-1.11).

After 12 months, 36.7% of patients in clinics using the survey and algorithm approach had undergone a dementia-related diagnostic test compared to 27.8% of patients in clinics using algorithms alone and 29% of those in usual care clinics.

Chelsea Cox, MPH, MSW, social worker and doctoral candidate at the University of Michigan School of Public Health in Ann Arbor, Michigan, said primary care clinicians are often overburdened and do not have time to screen for ADRD.

“The tools that were employed in this research study remove some of those barriers to help facilitate not only from the patient side, being able to report concerns about memory and cognition, but from the clinician and primary care provider side, to be able to very efficiently determine whether somebody’s at risk and should be referred for additional cognitive and neuropsychological testing,” Cox said.

Various study authors reported receiving grants, consulting fees, and personal fees, along with having equity interest and holding patents from the National Institutes of Health, the Academy for Continued Healthcare Learning, Cognivue, and Pfizer, among others. No other disclosures were reported.

https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/when-machine-learning-helps-reveal-hidden-dementia-2025a1000xtk

DOE's Hyperspeed Reactors

 As the rate of data center development rises, more states should be following the Texas example, where each data center must have its own “behind the meter” onsite power generation. Instead, it appears data center development will continue to grossly outpace the rate of production for on-site electricity generation in most states.

With power demand surging, driven heavily by new AI data centers, more people are starting to realize the best means for addressing future demand will be through clean nuclear energy. Unfortunately, decades of atrophy currently afflict today’s nuclear industry, and nuclear engineers are in desperate need of a “nuclear iteration playground” to quickly develop their advanced reactor designs to the commercial stage.

The current framework of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) does not allow for efficient iteration of reactor design. The licensing process, which used to take several years and has recently been reduced to a comparatively shorter timeline, would need to be heavily repeated for changes to reactor and secondary systems, reopening reactor developers to lawfare attacks from anti-nuclear activists like the Sierra Club and Beyond Nuclear. This leads to the million dollar question: “How do we enable efficient nuclear reactor iteration?”

Enter the Department of Energy

Derived from the Executive Orders issued by President Trump on May 23, 2025, the Department of Energy (DOE) launched the Reactor Pilot Program (RPP). Under this program, multiple companies were chosen to work with the DOE under an expedited licensing pathway to enable faster timelines to reach reactor construction, bringing reactor developers closer to the desired stage of design iteration to achieve economic and commercial scale at a faster pace.  The DOE also initiated the Fuel Line Pilot Program (FLPP) to rapidly progress technology within the nuclear fuel chain.

The primary goal of the RPP was to facilitate three new reactors achieving criticality by July 4, 2026, which was the specific directive given by the Executive Orders. The expedited path to actual steel in the ground is a massive secondary benefit. We recently highlighted one of the program's successes with Valar Atomics achieving cold criticality with Project NOVA.

The FLPP‘s biggest win to date came with the recent announcement of Oklo receiving approval for their Nuclear Safety Design Agreement (NSDA) for the Aurora Fuel Fabrication Facility, approved in just under two weeks.

Concern was expressed by many as to the amount of technical rigor applied to the NSDA review. How could the DOE review in two weeks what would’ve taken the NRC several months, or years? The answer we think others are missing lies in the six years of collaboration between Oklo and the DOE national laboratories. Oklo has been coordinating with Idaho National Laboratory (INL) on multiple projects, including their fuel fabrication facility and their fuel reprocessing technology, since 2019.  The DOE was able to use those two weeks to verify if there were any outstanding questions with the research and coordination that have occurred over those several years, instead of having to take several months or years to perform an independent review of data that had already been coordinated and verified by government laboratory scientists and staff (what the NRC would have to do).

Companies like Oklo will continue to enjoy benefits like these for the remainder of their time under the DOE. Eventually, they will also be able to utilize the recent addendum signed between the DOE and the NRC to very easily and rapidly transition their already approved Aurora reactor design to the NRC license review process for quick commercialization. 

Another under-discussed benefit to working with the federal government on federal land, is the lack of absolute nonsense that reactor developers no longer have to deal with.

• Oklo doesn't have to sit at a local town meeting and listen to grandma complain about how she doesn't want Chernobyl in her backyard
• Atomic Alchemy doesn't have to wait for state and local lawmakers to finish bickering and dragging their feet over changes to zoning laws
• Terrestrial Energy doesn't have to be subject to the weaponization of environmental regulations by the Sierra Club to force them to spend $900 million to protect salmon

To a large extent, the federal government gets to do what it pleases on federal land. For now, it seems like the federal government is finally ready to give reactor developers what they have been in desperate need of – a nuclear iteration playground.

https://www.zerohedge.com/energy/does-hyperspeed-reactors