Meanwhile, tensions flared beneath the waters off the coast of Florida in a startling clash over a prized lobster diving location. A diver found himself ensnared in a dire underwater ordeal when another man allegedly cut off his air supply, leading to an attempted murder accusation and arrest.

Michael Joseph Simpson, aged 51, made the choice to turn himself in at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center situated in Miami-Dade County. It was there, on a Tuesday evening, that jail records show he was formally charged with attempted murder, accompanied by a bond set at $10,000.

The troubling incident reportedly took place just after dawn, around 7 a.m. on July 29, about half a mile away from the exclusive Fisher Island. This altercation happened during the vibrant annual lobster mini-season, as reported by Local 10 News.

According to details provided in the arrest affidavit and covered by Law&Crime, Simpson is accused of aggressively maneuvering his boat toward another vessel at high speed. He reportedly circled the second boat multiple times before securing his anchor just 10 feet away, precipitating the alleged confrontation over the underwater treasure trove.

Investigators say the confrontation began after Simpson claimed the group was diving in “his spot” and warned that a larger boat was on its way before it arrived and anchored nearby.

Authorities allege Simpson then threatened to turn off the surface-supplied air system providing oxygen to an 18-year-old diver searching for lobsters. Investigators say Simpson jumped into the water and intentionally shut off the unit.

As the confrontation unfolded, witnesses yelled, “We have a diver down there you a–hole!” according to the arrest affidavit cited by Law&Crime.

The diver’s boat owner jumped into the water and pulled him to the surface. The diver was gasping for air and appeared disoriented but was not injured, Local 10 reported.

Investigators allege Simpson left before deputies arrived. After authorities identified him as the suspect, Simpson voluntarily surrendered Tuesday, according to Local 10.

Simpson’s attorney, Howard Srebnick, strongly denied the allegations in a statement to News Media, arguing investigators ignored evidence and witnesses he says support his client’s account.

Srebnick said Simpson was diving from his own boat with friends and his two young children and “never disabled anyone’s diving equipment.”

Srebnick said video shows one of the accusers becoming entangled in the Brownie’s Third Lung air system while Simpson “was nowhere near it.”

He also disputed investigators’ allegation that Simpson fled, saying his client instead idled his boat away from the immediate area to avoid escalating the confrontation before cooperating with responding Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers and providing a statement.

Srebnick said numerous eyewitnesses aboard two separate boats corroborated Simpson’s version of events and criticized the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office for arresting his client before interviewing what he described as exculpatory witnesses.

“We are optimistic that the State Attorney’s Office, after reviewing the video and interviewing all the eyewitnesses, will dismiss the charges, clear his name, and restore the reputation he has spent a lifetime building,” Srebnick said.

News Media has reached out to the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office for additional comment.

In a recent announcement, California Attorney General Rob Bonta revealed that the state has channeled $19.2 million of taxpayer funds into legal battles against the Trump administration over the past year and a half.

Bonta framed this expenditure as a prudent investment, justifying the cost by highlighting that it was used to safeguard $207.1 billion in federal funding. This, at least, is what he claims.

However, questions linger about whether these figures include some of California’s setbacks, such as the loss of $4 billion when the state’s high-speed rail project missed critical deadlines.

Although Governor Gavin Newsom and Bonta initially pursued legal action to retain this funding, they eventually chose to abandon the case.

Bonta’s statements suggest a significant disconnect from the realities of economic fundamentals and the financial strains experienced by everyday Californians, introducing both skepticism and debate.

The $207.1 billion figure isn’t money Bonta “saved” or generated out of thin air. It represents routine, baseline federal program allocations — Medicaid matching funds, transportation grants and social safety net dollars — that flow through statutory formulas across the country.

Claiming sole credit for protecting billions in routine federal funding simply because his office attached California’s name to multi-state ideological lawsuits is a self-serving political fantasy.

Federal agencies routinely adjust, review or place administrative holds on grant conditions. The framing of a $200 billion rescue operation is designed to manufacture heroic headlines, not to reflect fiscal reality. 

Meanwhile, the $19.2 million spent on California’s lawsuits was real, cash-out-the-door taxpayer money. Every dollar Bonta burns in court is a dollar extracted directly from working families who are already getting crushed by the highest state income taxes and the highest cost of living in the nation.

The Newsom administration has mastered the art of turning government spending into a moral performance. Sacramento’s political class insists these legal battles are vital to the public interest. But a closer look at the dockets reveals a government treating the federal court system like a stage for partisan posturing.

Take, for example, the multi-state onslaught against federal tariffs. Bonta joined a 25-state coalition in filing lawsuits in the US Court of International Trade, accusing Washington of misusing emergency economic powers and illegally raising costs on everyday consumers. 

The irony is staggering. Newsom and Bonta claim to fight against federal trade policies that inflate prices for working families. Yet, at the exact same time, their administration enforces the nation’s highest state gas taxes; exorbitant utility rates driven by green-energy mandates; and a mountain of regulations that keeps driving the cost of living higher.

Sacramento wants to litigate federal economic policy in court while running a domestic tax-and-regulate regime that actively bleeds its own citizens dry. 

The courtroom theatrics extend deep into immigration and national security policy as well. When the federal executive branch issued executive orders attempting to reshape birthright citizenship under the 14th Amendment, Bonta rushed to file lawsuits to block the order. The state launched similar, headline-grabbing challenges when the federal government deployed National Guard troops to enforce border security.  

These legal antics have another cost. Newsom asked Trump for $40 billion in fire aid — then signed legislation to fund lawsuits against the administration.

That destroyed relations with the White House, and caused Trump and the Republican Congress to hold back on aid. Subtract another $40 billion from Bonta’s supposed haul.

Republican Assemblymember Natasha Johnson brought cold, hard reality back into the conversation when she criticized this wasteful prioritization. Johnson pointed out that while Bonta wastes inordinate sums picking fights with Washington, state leaders claim there is no money for the critical public safety initiatives that Californians actually voted for.

Specifically, Johnson highlighted Proposition 36, the overwhelming 2024 voter-approved public safety measure designed to roll back soft-on-crime policies. Despite a decisive mandate from voters who are exhausted by rampant crime and open-air drug markets, Sacramento has provided little to no new funding to implement Prop 36 over the last couple of years. 

Yet, magically, tens of millions of dollars appear out of nowhere the moment Attorney General Bonta wants to file another press-release lawsuit against federal cabinet secretaries. 

This is the fundamental disconnect destroying the Golden State. Average Californians are struggling every single day just to keep the lights on. Families are cutting back on groceries and small businesses are closing their doors. Middle-class residents are packing up and fleeing the state in droves.

They are not asking for a state government that acts as a national resistance campaign. Their demands are more practical. They want safe streets, functional schools, affordable electricity and lower taxes. But Gavin Newsom’s Sacramento has made its priorities painfully clear.

Taxpayers are footing the bill for political grandstanding on the national stage while the state’s own failures continue to pile up at home.

John Mac Ghlionn is a researcher and essayist.

In a tragic unfolding of events, a grieving father disclosed the final texts from his former spouse, moments before she took the lives of their four children, a case now being investigated as a nightmare murder-suicide by authorities.

For Brady Harmon, the horror story began in June when his children were discovered lifeless inside a home in upstate New York, alongside their mother, Sarah Myers, aged 44, and their grandmother, Amy Steadman, who was 64.

Police allege that Myers, along with her mother, plotted the murder-suicide that tragically claimed the lives of her children — 13-year-old Harper, 11-year-old Hudson, and 10-year-old twins Gavin and Gracelynn.

Harmon had previously explained that his kids primarily lived with his ex-wife amid a custody dispute. The children were eagerly planning to spend the summer with him, a reunion that would have been their first visit since 2019.

In a poignant Facebook post, he shared the haunting last exchanges with Myers, shortly after the Mechanicville Police Department confirmed that the mother and grandmother had orchestrated the violent act of killing the children before ending their own lives.

Chief Bill Rabbitt told reporters on Tuesday that the pair exchanged messages in the days leading up to the killings about administering medications to the children.

In light of the investigation update, Harmon shared the text messages between him and Myers, including exchanges on the day the horror began.

‘According to information released by the Mechanicville Police Department, messages were being exchanged on June 10 concerning the planned murder of my children,’ Harmon wrote online.

‘That was the same day I was told the kids had a stomach bug and was asked to postpone my scheduled FaceTime call.’

The messages began on May 31 after a series of unanswered and outgoing video calls. Harmon then sent Myers the flight information for the children’s visit. 

A few days later, they went over the flight information and Myers confirmed that the children could fly out before July 1st, asking in a separate message if Harmon could send a child support payment so she could buy them sneakers. Then on June 8, Harmon asked Myers for activities that the children enjoyed. 

‘My goal is to create opportunities for all of us to spend quality time together, stay active, enjoy the outdoors, make positive memories, and reconnect as a family,’ Harmon said. 

The father then asked for the children’s medical information, including their physicians, medications and allergies. 

‘I’ll talk to the kiddos about the stuff they would like to do over the summer,’ Myers responded. 

On June 10, Myers texted: ‘The kids have gotten a little stomach bug throwing up is it okay to switch your online visit to tomorrow night at 4 pm your time please.’ 

Harmon responded that he would continue painting instead, adding that he hoped the kids would feel better soon. 

The next day, he asked if the children were feeling better, and a video call went unanswered. 

‘I have thought about sharing these final communications for a long time. I am now sharing the messages from May 31 through June 11 because they show what I was being told while I was planning for my children’s summer with me,’ Harmon wrote in the post.

‘I sent their flight information. I planned activities based on their interests. I requested their medical records, medications, allergies, doctors’ information, and other documents that were required under the parenting plan. I believed I was preparing to welcome my children home.’

Harmon said he believed the truth about his ex-wife and her mother would have come out if the children had the opportunity to stay with him in Utah for the summer. 

‘My children were not pawns to be sacrificed when control was slipping away. They were four beautiful human beings with personalities, dreams, fears, laughter, and an entire family waiting to love them,’ he wrote. 

On the same day that Myers texted Harmon that their children had a stomach bug, police uncovered messages between Myers and Steadman about their plan to medicate the kids. 

‘Sarah Myers instructed Amy Steadman that the medications should be administered between 10.30am and noon so they could be finished before a scheduled telephone call at 6pm with the children’s father,’ Chief Rabbitt said at this week’s press conference.

He added that their plan appeared to take a turn later that morning, when ‘the children failed to respond in the manner that Steadman and Myers had anticipated. 

Around the same time, Rabbitt said one of the women – without specifying which – sent the other a sinister message: ‘It’s not working. We need another option.’

Investigators uncovered evidence pointing to a mass poisoning, though it has since been revealed that 10-year-old Gavin was ‘repeatedly’ stabbed to death with a knife. 

The investigation found that Steadman had visited multiple pharmacies in the days leading up to the mass-poisoning event, the chief shared during Tuesday’s press conference.

Internet history recovered by authorities showed ‘searches about medication reactions, the effects of insulin on non-diabetics and the Utah court system,’ according to the chief.

Rabbitt said later searches included ‘Where is the most fatal place to be stabbed,’ which returned results detailing a specific artery as well as the neck.

Authorities also uncovered letters, including a handwritten confession signed by Steadman and unsigned notes believed to have been from Myers alleging that she and her children were abused while living in Utah.  

Authorities from the New York Police Department are currently probing an incident involving the desecration of a Virgin Mary statue outside St. Rita Roman Catholic Church located in Long Island City. This act is being viewed as a potential hate crime after an individual scaled a fence and proceeded to demolish the statue with a hammer.

Footage released by the Diocese of Brooklyn shows the suspect, wearing a mask, aggressively attacking the statue outside the church. Catholic officials have pointed out that this act is part of a troubling pattern of assaults that have besieged the parish.

Church representatives revealed in a statement that the recent act of vandalism is the fourth to occur at this parish since 2024. The NYPD is actively investigating this episode under the possibility that it’s a hate crime.

As per the Diocese of Brooklyn, the event transpired at approximately 1:42 a.m. on August 1.

The video shows the man, who is wearing a dark T-shirt and shorts, climb over the fence into a courtyard where a statue of the Blessed Mother stood.

The suspect removes a hammer from his pocket and repeatedly strikes the statue before knocking it off its pedestal. He then climbs back over the fence and walks away.

The Diocese said in a statement the attack was the fourth vandalism incident at St. Rita Roman Catholic Church since 2024.

Past acts of vandalism at the parish include the destruction of a 60-year-old stained-glass window and graffiti that defaced a statue of St. Francis of Assisi and the sidewalk.

There was also damage done to a statue of St. Jude inside the church.

The Diocese of Brooklyn told News Media no arrests had been made.

“This week, the NYPD also issued a crime stats update and hate crimes are up by 9.4% over the same 7-month period (Jan-July) of last year,” John Quaglione, deputy press secretary for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn said.