Page 1 The Sun Bay Paper April 15, 2026 April 15, 2026 Volume 9 Issue 37 From Island to Bay, News on the Level production@sunbaypaper.com www.sunbaypaper.com Right... All Along Digital Version Director Patel, I was an FBI Agent for almost three decades and worked pretty much every classification/case you could imagine ...finishing my career in Buffalo as Supervisor of the BR Squad. The reason most retired criminal Agents were so successful is they knew how to INVESTIGATE cases, make arrests, execute search warrants, draw up those warrants, doing INTERVIEWS ...the most important tool that there is, INTERVIEWS! The only way you can interview a subject, if you want to get him/her to talk, is to grab him/her with an arrest warrant, and here’s the part that is, has been, and always will be the most important part of the whole deal ...THE ARREST INTERVIEW ...and the arrest search. If you do it any other way, the FBI will never be successful. The LAST thing you want to do is indict, bench warrant, call his lawyer and tell him to bring in his client ...that’s pure law school BULLSHIT because his lawyer knew this guy’s buddy in law school ...and THAT’S the typical bullshit that comes out of all the districts around WDC ...politics. That’s what happened with Comey. Who wanted to indict Comey? Whoever it was is not very FBI “orientated” ...fact is whoever it was is STUPID and doesn’t belong as an investigator. The f—n guy ADMITTED he lied to Congress, twice he admitted he leaked and gave others info to leak! He threw Andy McCabe under the bus while under oath! WTF! I would have had that weak sister handing up his big case. Martha Stewart...boy...that was nip and tuck, she almost hit him with a spatula! ...didn’t he ...without blinking an eye, and without hesitation. Comey ...when the then President Elect Trump asked him, “What he thought about the “Steele Dossier” ...Comey responded, “It is unveri fied and salacious”. Yet he signed IT ...that’s correct. HE signed it and approved it to go to the FISA Court and ruined many people’s careers with a FELONY LIE!!! What the hell is going on ...that Dossier was responsible for MANY, and I mean MANY, felonies ...for which ...Comey is responsible! Where’s the arrests? Everything Comey did was to keep the real FBI Agents away from criminal cases because we would have solved them! So, get rid of criminal cases and you get rid of the FBI cases. What to do to keep the Strozk’s and McCabe’s and Page’s and Baker’s busy... is “Counter Intel”. Don’t you just love it? The great work they do... “How many arrests did you make...” I thought the FBI was a CRIME fighting agency!? Not a Crime Avoiding Agency?! Comey built his own little hatchet squad and chopped away ...not at crime ...they don’t work Title 18 USC anymore. They moved, in every way, to disregard real crimes … Title 18 USC Crimes …crimes like bank robbery, escape federal prisoners, UFAP, interstate thefts, kidnapping, interstate prostitution, Hobbs Act, Treason and many more. Those were the cases that made FBI Agents what we were … the best there was! Instead, they used terrorism, hunter gatherer, counter terrorism, an oxymoron to make them too busy to bother with bank robberies …or interstate car thefts …or fugitive cases. So, when the time came to draw up and execute some warrants they couldn’t and apparently neither does DOJ know how to pen an arrest warrant, search warrant, or nor does the “prosecutors” know anything about the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure! When I was sworn in at the Old Post Office, the FBI was responsible for 180 Title 18 violations. Hoover believed that the public was so instrumental in solving those cases, he selected 15 viola tions he considered high profile and wanted the FBI on the front pages in every newspaper around showing a bad guy, like Comey, in cuffs with an Agent on each side, making those cases the backbone of the FBI. Under Hoover, most of us broke our backs to make that “BIG” case. The idea is to solve crimes, make arrests, testify in court to the evidence and get convictions and get new informants! The best way is to ask the subject …you would be surprised at how successful that can be, but it takes time to build that type of skill...but...if you don’t enforce the laws ...you will NEVER learn how! If you indict then bench warrant, you kill that very important act. AND … you kill that opportunity to develop sources!!! Two BIG MISTAKES and it’s all legal as can be!!! Ask any of today’s Agents how many arrests they made …last week …last month …last year…and don’t be surprised when they ALL say … well …NONE, NONE and NONE! Go ahead and ask Strzok or McCabe or Baker…IN THEIR ENTIRE FREAKING CAREERS how many and hear the answer, “I was doing counter intel” …then ask how many arrests they made doing THAT …how many informants, none! If those scoundrels, fbi...lower case... agents? spent as much time solving real crimes instead of trying to put an innocent man, President Trump, in jail...for no crime! What crime did my President commit? They could have found real CRIMINALS just by looking around in Comey’s office! Comey did his best and almost succeeded in the overthrow of the Constitutional Republic (that’s the Constitution, for the benefit of those scoundrels, it’s called Treason)! I never had a single year where I had no arrests …no convictions! Cont. on pg. 2 The FBI I Knew—And The One They Stuck Patel With The Right Side
Page 2 The Sun Bay Paper April 15, 2026 The FBI I Knew — cont’d. Cont. from pg. 1 In my first office, Columbia, SC, for “orientation”, Charleston RA for 13 months, I solved a homicide by lifting prints (nobody else believed it would yield anything, and it yielded the palm print of the killer). That was my first 30 days. In the next 13 months, three of us teamed up and arrested over 200…that’s correct …200 fugitive deserters and escape federal prisoners. I arrested a bank robber by out guessing his escape route with a little arithmetic! My partner, Dennis Wick, and I nailed him with two hostages, a shotgun and $18,000. I extracted him with a choke hold, and he outweighed me by 100 pounds!! That works…that’s why it must be trained and used!! With another Agent, Ray, on late duty we rescued a 5-year-old little girl, Tondalaya Jones, front page news on all three TV stations, as well as most newspapers. Kidnapped from Brooklyn she jumped into my arms and said, “Please don’t let me go”! I’ll never forget how that made me feel! Years later, I, Steve Gilkerson and Doc Coulson rescued a 7-year-old kidnap victim! When we made it back to the RA, the phones were jumping off the hook and Walter Cronkite got through to the Resident Agency (RA for short) and asked me if it was true, we rescued that little girl...yes! That’s what I called “Wired”! Our SAC was so emotional ...he could not believe it! But the BIGGEST case, as a rookie, was a cold case, an armed robbery of a Bronx NY Deli where a stick-up guy, who was wanted all over the South, unknown to me that he was listed as an IO Fugitive… shot it out with a NY uniform officer who died from his wounds. IO fugitives are so dangerous that First Office Agents are not allowed to work them. My partner Dennis was shot point blank with a 45, as was his partner, in their second office (both survived, thank God) …however …the SAC, Roland Trent, was so happy with my work he allowed me to keep the case! Unknown to me, that was a big deal as Director Hoover had called the SAC after we arrested him …the IO Fugitive went for a gun, and the fight was on …he and I fought …he lost. Director Hoover followed ALL police killings and didn’t believe this case would ever be solved …it was a year old. So …my second office was the NYO. Fifteen Agents report to the NYO every Monday and ALL 15 are usually sent for orientation and how to stay alive in the Big Apple! ADIC John Malone sent 14 Agents to the Security Squads and me to the Truck Squad, John Gotti’s Crew. Malone dismissed all 14 and asked me to stay. He then had his secretary put a three-way call into the speaker, John Malone, me and Director Hoover...wow...what an honor!!! The Director wanted to know how I did what I did. I said I developed, on a totally unrelated case, an informant. I helped him out of a jam, and he repaid me, by helping me solve an armed robbery, police killing, by an IO Fugitive! A little leg work, record checks, NCIC, and the IO flyers, a year after the Crime and 1500 miles away from the crime scene! The photo spread in NYO, as was the IO Fugitive Flyer...an IO Fugitive is 1 step away from Top 10! I really didn’t think it was that big of a deal, but I was wrong. He, the Director, said he follows all police killings, but never had a first office Agent that successful! He went on, a 25-year Agent dreams about arresting a bank robber or rescuing a kidnap victim …and you scored five major cases. He told Malone to put me on the BEST squad in the FBI, and he did! Just a side note …four days on the Truck Squad, the squad hit a John Gotti drop in the Bronx! While covering the front door with a senior Agent, I spotted a very suspicious 26’ rental van, overloaded, scoping out the drop and I hollered to John to get help as I tried to stop the driver. He tried to run me down and took off. I had the car keys and gave chase. He bailed after a few blocks and took a shot at me. I returned fire. An Agent ran 3-4 blocks from the drop and hollered for me to stop chasing…so I did! He said we have rules about foot chases … “WE DON’T DO IT; YOU’LL LIKELY GET SHOT!” Do you think so...!? Director Patel, there are no FBI Agents working the cases they need to become real Agents ...it’s that simple ...follow what Hoover did ...he was very successful! Your Agents need to be retrained and weeded out...no slackers! They MUST work to become real FBI Agents if you do not retrieve ALL those Title 18 USC Criminal Violations, you will NEVER be successful. We, FBI Agents, NEED bank robbery cases, we need UFAP Cases, especially UFAP they are just dangerous enough to really get into the case! That’s on the job “training”. Science has advanced so much that you can follow a vehicle from New York to California by satellite, you can show a picture of a bad guy coming out of a house in Florida, and get it shown to the victim of the crime before he gets into the car. You have a source of the most highly trained and intelligent pool to choose from ...former Military, Special Ops, Delta, Green Berets, Seal Team, Rangers, Marines ...look to them. They do not need the most difficult part of their training. They are well disciplined... give them 6 weeks of training and you’ll have very qualified FBI Agents! What I am telling you is, your Agents have not worked criminal cases in 25 f—n years. How can they know how to arrest somebody …they don’t know how to draw up an arrest warrant, don’t know how to get a search warrant…don’t know how to execute a search warrant. They don’t know the Elements of Title 18 nor the Federal Rules ...many stopped carrying guns! Under Hoover, that is ground for dismissal! Mar-a-Lago is the perfect example. They have no idea what the Laws say, what the Federal Rules of Criminal procedure, Rule 41, require …the subject CAN witness the search, CAN video (as long as he’s not intrusive), you MUST provide a “detailed” inventory to the subject BEFORE you leave …you MAY not rearrange top secret papers or ANY evidence to create a stronger appearance for a photo op …THAT’S TAMPERING WITH EVIDENCE … and PHOTOGRAPH the freaking top secret papers (what a great f—n idea) …that is several felonies, instant removal! IDIOTS …who the hell was in charge. I participated in more search warrants than you can imagine …the Truck Squad handled about 275 -300 truck hijackings per year, and we solved about 60% …do the math …we inventoried all that we recovered. How about doing a Search Warrant on a DOD Nuclear Waste Disposal Site in West Valley, NY? In the NYO, on the BR Squad, we handled 500 BRs per year. That’s two every working day. We handled and solved 60%, that’s 300 cases. That was more than LA had …along with BR fugitives from other offices, kidnapping, and skyjackings. The BR squad also handled the BLA…Coulson handled most of that! When I transferred to Buffalo, I was asked by the ASAC John Shanley, who showed me my personnel file and noted, I made 57 bank robbery arrests the last year alone …is that correct? I said I didn’t know exactly how many I had but would have guessed there was more than that. He replied, that is more than the entire Buffalo Division made in the last two years combined. He also asked about several shootings noting the last shooting was last Thursday …is that true? Yes, he was a fugitive bank robber out of LA and was very dangerous … he knocked my partner out, was armed and was a light heavyweight contender some years ago. He took a hostage after a foot chase. I was shot at during the chase when I ran past the “boys” who are Harlem dead beats doing what Harlem hoods do. The chase came to a stop when he raised a gun to fire… I shot first causing him to take cover. That’s when he ran upstairs and took a 12-year-old little girl hostage. That’s when my partner showed up and we rushed him. I grabbed the girl and my partner grabbed the subject and down the stairs they went! After a struggle…fight…I knocked him out with a choke hold! That was my last week in the Apple!! The Shooting Review Board ruled justified shooting. There was a wealth of knowledge…just from working cases! My partner and I solved BRs every way possible …forensic, photos, we handled bombing cases, where one detonated in the bank …no injuries …6 skyjacking cases, including the Dog Day Afternoon where my academy classmate took out the subject. We surveilled dozens of trucks being hijacked and several bank robberies… witnessing the robberies and some running gunfights. Ask current Agents how many of them testified as a witness to a robbery! Director, please recover all those violations and start training. Dump as many do nothing Agents, just look at their files, it’s all there and replace them with retired SOG, Seal, Delta, Rangers. They are all well trained. They just need to learn the law…law is common sense. The only way you will get to interview any of Cont. on pg. 3
Page 3 The Sun Bay Paper April 15, 2026 The FBI I Knew — cont’d. Cont. from pg. 2 those Democraps is to get Magistrate arrest warrants and Search warrants for documents that show evidence of guilt, computers, etc. Arrest the bastards, cuff them. I wrote to you that we should NOT go to the Grand Jury. You do NOT want to go to a preliminary hearing. If my memory serves me correctly, the procedure a good AUSA and Agent want is a Magistrate Warrant to arrest and search, and then request an Information filed by prosecutor by passing the Grand Jury. The case Agent presents and eliminates the preliminary hearing…hearsay testimony is allowed! No evidence unless it’s for PC…that’s all that is necessary! If we would have disclosed what evidence we found …before 3500 material is provided to the defense, we would have been fired! It compromises the case …no early releases to scoundrels…wait until trial! Then and only then … required by law, at trial …stop the transparency BULLSHIT, follow the damn laws and to hell with politics when it comes to criminals, crimes and evidence! They broke the laws …not us…they deserve what the law provides …nothing more and nothing less …go by that rule and you will stay out of trouble! If you indict and get a Bench warrant, you will NEVER solve shit! The idea, geniuses, is to “get the subject’s side”, wink…wink…get it… or are you (whoever decided to indict Comey) …just plain dumb? How’d that go? What did he have to say? Once you indict you won’t get to first base with the Subject …you won’t even get to talk to him/her!! You see …subject interviews are the most important part of a good, smart Agent …but none of you know that because YOU DON’T DO CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIONS! The idea is to work the interviews, so you get them thinking …the young ones, who were led around by the nose (like Huma), do NOT want felony convictions on their resume! Comey is a wimp. Without lawyers following him around, he would have rolled completely over… too late now! You need help. Look how fast he rolled on admitting the “Steele Dossier is seditious and unverified” …President Trump got a confession by “interviewing” Comey and Comey is too dumb to realize it! President Trump was so surprised, he didn’t know what to say next BUT he got the most IMPORTANT part of that interview …Comey signed the Affidavits for the search warrants and KNEW it was a FRAUD! A good question would have been, “Then why did you and the others sign the warrants”?! Director Hoover became Director and started firing do nothing Agents and replaced them with college educated candidates …with fighting skills as well, and it worked! Times have changed and we need “that” and not less …more …go after former, military trained … SOG, Seals, Delta, Rangers …tough, well trained, smart …just teach them the laws! They already know how to shoot and fight, just teach them the laws and give them the Criminal Violations that they must have to stay sharp! Interviewing arrested Criminals is as valuable to developing informants and solving cases and dealing with the public! For 25 years, the FBI has lost those skills … gone! Many Agents do not carry their guns … that was a mistake that got an Agent fired! They don’t work CRIMINAL CASES so how the hell are they going to learn the …How To?! That is critical to making a good investigator… a great investigator! The biggest, BEST, violations to get sharp and stay sharp are Fugitives and Bank Robberies…those are “MUST HAVES”. J. Gary DiLaura, FBI RET Owner, SBP Media LLC therightsidejgarydilaura.com Elitist 'Public' Broadcasting Defines 'Viewpoint Discrimination' The newspapers routinely play Hide the Ideology when liberal judges are resisting President Donald Trump. They'll write "a federal judge" ruled against Trump and not tell consumers that the judge is a liberal. Liberals are always painted as nonpartisans when they act like partisans. That's the case with Obama-appointed judge (and former Clinton Justice Department attorney) Randolph Moss, who mysteriously found it was a violation of the First Amendment and "viewpoint discrimination" for Trump to push defunding of PBS and NPR in an executive order. "The message is clear: NPR and PBS need not apply for any federal benefit because the President disapproves of their 'left-wing' coverage of the news," wrote the partisan judge. The First Amendment "does not tolerate viewpoint discrimination and retaliation of this type." They loved this ruling at NPR. "Today's ruling is a decisive affirmation of the rights of a free and independent press," Black Lives Matter-loving NPR CEO Katherine Maher said in a statement. An "independent press" isn't defined by taking government money. That makes you a dependent press. Then Maher unleashed her typical insincerity: "Public media exists to serve the public interest -- that of Americans -- not that of any political agenda or elected official." Everyone listening to NPR knows that's a pants-on-fire lie. NPR whistleblower Uri Berliner found in D.C. voter records that the NPR newsroom had 87 registered Democrats and no registered Republicans. PBS said in a statement that the judge's ruling affirmed that Trump imposed "textbook unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination and retaliation, in violation of longstanding First Amendment principles." Where on Earth in the First Amendment is the part about how conservatives should have to support government-funded viewpoint discrimination and retaliation? PBS and NPR have been discriminating against conservatives and Republicans since the Nixon years. That's why the phrase "public broadcasting" is ludicrous. They have no interest in representing the entire public. They are broadcasting by the Left, for the Left. They're like taxpayer-funded MS NOW. There's no reason for taxpayers to support that. When we've studied guest counts, the tilt is obvious. In the first four months of Trump's second term, we found the "PBS News Hour" guest count was 173 liberals to 41 conservatives -- a ratio of 4.2 to 1. When elected officials and political appointees were removed from the count, the ideological tilt was 149 to 23, or 6.5 to 1. That's actually much better than NPR's ludicrously titled "All Things Considered" evening newscast. In the two months after Congress rescinded their funding -- from July 19 to Sept. 18, 2025 -- the guest count was 53 liberals to three conservatives, and one of those three was opposed to Trump. That's almost 18 to 1. Nobody at NPR believes in what they call "false balance." They believe in rhetorically shoving conservatives to the ground and roughing them up. After all the bullying, they steal their lunch money. These people have the audacity to claim they're on the wrong side of "viewpoint discrimination." It's the same way that liberals insist you can't object to "The View" having a guest disparity of 128 to 2, or latenight comedians favoring liberal guests 99% of the time (as per our 2025 counts). At least these shows didn't take conservative money and bash them over the head with it. Luckily, Congress rescinded the subsidies for PBS and NPR (for now), and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting shut down their propaganda-backing shop. But as soon as Democrats get back control of Congress, they'll start trying to subsidize it all over again. Why wouldn't Democrats want to fund DNC Media? That's why the entire "public broadcasting" concept is an enormous fraud. Tim Graham Director of media analysis at the Media Research Center and Executive Editor of the blog NewsBusters.org
Page 4 The Sun Bay Paper April 15, 2026 It has been my custom for most of the past 28 years to write a year-end column summarizing the Social Security updates scheduled for the following year. I already discussed some of these updates in a column back in October when they were first announced. But it doesn’t hurt to repeat them here. (They all grow out of the annual costof-living adjustments that have been part of the program since 1973.) However, before I proceed, I need to address a related and misleading ad that appears almost daily on my cell phone and iPad, and I’m sure it does on your devices as well. The headline goes something like this: “Here are 6 major changes to Social Security coming in 2026 that you probably don’t know about.” If you open it up (and maybe get sucked in by all the other ads on the site), you will learn that those “major changes” are just the routine COLA adjustments that have been part of the program for over 50 years now. I’m sharing those routine adjustments with you today -- without all the hype. Almost all Social Security beneficiaries are familiar with the most popular and publicized upcoming change: the increase in monthly benefit checks for 2026 due to the automated costof-living adjustment, or COLA. As all of you are already aware, the increase will be 2.8%. I always dread mentioning COLAs in this column because every single time I do, I am flooded with emails from readers complaining that the increase is not enough. Yet here’s the rub: many economists and social planners believe Social Security COLAs are too generous! (I’ve explained why in past columns, but don’t have the space to get into that argument today.) That’s why many discussions of longrange reform for Social Security include proposals to reduce cost-of-living increases. OK, back to the 2026 Social Security COLA. Due to these increases, the average monthly retirement check will be $2,071 in 2026, a $56 increase from the 2025 level. The maximum Social Security check for a worker turning full retirement age in 2026 will be $4,152, compared to $4,018 in 2025. And please note that $4,152 is the maximum for someone turning full retirement age in 2026. That does not mean it is the maximum Social Security payment anyone can receive. Millions of Social Security beneficiaries get much more than that, primarily because they worked well past their FRA and/or delayed starting their benefits until age 70. Here’s another important point about the COLA. Many readers have been asking me if they must file for Social Security benefits in 2025 in order to get the COLA that’s paid in January 2026. The answer is no. The COLA will be built into the benefit computation formula. So even if you don’t file for Social Security until 2026, or some subsequent year, you’ll still get the 2.8% increase. Although this is a Social Security column, I must mention the upcoming increase in the Medicare Part B premium, which is deducted from Social Security checks for most people. In 2026, the basic Part B premium will be $202.90. And as has been the case for 20 years now, wealthy people will pay more than the basic premium. I don’t want to get into the complicated issue of Medicare premiums other than to make this quick point. Even though they are linked in the minds of most senior citizens, Social Security and Medicare are entirely separate programs, administered by entirely separate federal agencies, and they have entirely separate rules and regulations regarding their benefit and payment structures. For example, the Part B Medicare premium increase has nothing to do with the Social Security COLA. Instead, by law, it must be set at a level that covers 25% of the cost of running the program. Taxpayers pick up the remaining 75%. (And again, wealthy people pay more than the 25% share.) Another measuring stick called the “national wage index” is used to set increases to other provisions of the law that affect Social Security beneficiaries and taxpayers. Specifically, this includes increases in the amount of wages or self-employment income subject to Social Security tax; the amount of income needed to earn a “quarter of coverage;” and the Social Security earnings penalty limits. The Social Security taxable earnings base will go up from $176,100 in 2025 to $184,500 in 2026. In other words, people who earn more than $184,500 in 2026 will no longer have Social Security payroll taxes deducted from their paychecks once they hit that threshold. This has always been a very controversial provision of the law. (Elon Musk pays the same amount of Social Security tax as his plumber!) I think it’s a pretty good bet that any eventual Social Security reform package will include an increase in that wage base. Most people need 40 Social Security work credits (sometimes called “quarters of coverage”) to be eligible for monthly benefit checks from the system. In 2025, people who were working earned one credit for each $1,810 in Social Security taxable income. But no one earns more than four credits per year. In other words, once you made $7,240, your Social Security record has been credited with the maximum four credits or quarters of coverage. In 2026, the one credit limit goes up to $1,890, meaning you will have to earn $7,560 this year before you get the maximum four credits assigned to your Social Security account. People under their full retirement age who get Social Security retirement or survivor’s benefits but who are still working are subject to limits in the amount of money they can earn and still receive all their Social Security checks. That limit was $23,400 in 2025 and will be $24,480 in 2026. For every two dollars a person earns over those limits, one dollar is withheld from his or her monthly benefits. There is a higher earnings threshold in the year a person turns full retirement age that applies from the beginning of the year until the month the person reaches FRA. (The income penalty goes away once a person reaches that magic age.) That threshold goes up from $62,160 in 2025 to $65,160 in 2026. A couple of other Social Security provisions are also impacted by inflationary increases. For example, people getting disability benefits who try to work can generally continue getting those benefits as long as they are not working at a “substantial” level. In 2025, the law defined substantial work as any job paying $1,620 or more per month. In 2026, that substantial earnings level increases to $1,690 monthly. Finally, the Supplemental Security Income basic federal payment level for one person goes up from $967 in 2025 to $994 in 2026. SSI is a federal welfare program administered by the Social Security Administration, but it is not a Social Security benefit. It is paid for out of general revenues, not Social Security taxes. Tom Margenau If you have a Social Security question, Tom Margenau has two books with all the answers. One is called “Social Security -- Simple and Smart: 10 Easyto-Understand Fact Sheets That Will Answer All Your Questions About Social Security.” The other is “Social Security: 100 Myths and 100 Facts.” You can find the books at Amazon. com or other book outlets. Or you can send him an email at thomas.margenau@comcast.net. Social Security Update for 2026
Page 5 The Sun Bay Paper April 15, 2026 Random, Useful, Fun Travel Tips Copyright © SBP Media LLC and Sun Bay Paper All rights reserved. This newspaper or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher. Quote of the Week “Your talent determines what you can do. Your motivation determines how much you are willing to do. Your attitude determines how well you do it.” — Lou Holtz The Sun Bay Paper MAIL: PO Box 471, Sanborn, NY 14132 EMAILS: production@sunbaypaper.com thesbpmedia@gmail.com WEBSITE & DIGITAL VERSION: www.sunbaypaper.com OWNER/PUBLISHER: J. GARY DILAURA CONTRIBUTORS: RICHARD LUTHMANN, BOBBY MIMMO The information contained in this publication is for educational, general information, and entertainment purposes only and is never intended to constitute medical, financial or legal advice or to replace the personalized care of a primary care practitioner, financial or legal expert Whether you’ll be traveling in the next few weeks or have plans for a trip in the summer, it’s always a good time for travel tips. NO ROOM FOR AIR Sure, you can find cheap plane tickets, but you’ll pay many extra fees if you are not aware. Thankfully, most airlines still allow one free carry-on bag. The way to win this game is to make the most of that one fee-free bag using the sit-and-zip packing method to create more room in your suitcase. Get a stack of gallon-size zip-close bags. Take an item of clothing and fold it lengthwise. Roll it up tightly like a tube. Put it in a zip bag. Do not zip it closed. Instead, place the open bag on a chair or bed and sit hard on it to expel the air. While still seated, zip the bag to seal. Note: This works best for clothing not prone to wrinkles -- synthetics like nylon, polyester and rayon. START AT THE CORNERS Imagine your luggage as a grocery bag. Whether you have a rolling suitcase or a duffle, weight should be evenly distributed so as not to become too top-heavy. That is why bulkier items such as shoes should be tucked into the bottom corners and sides of the luggage. READ REVIEWS User-review sites have changed how most people plan their travel, giving us an enormously useful tool for evaluating hotels, restaurants, tourist attractions and the like. Tripadvisor is the big kahuna, with more than 250 million candid reviews, mostly of hotels, with those of less traditional lodging like B&Bs, villas and private homes, as well as restaurants and attractions. GET ON THE BUS, GUS Traveling by bus is not as uncivil as it used to be. So, before you rush to book a flight or train for short hops, check out the local bus service. These days, buses are often new and clean, with unexpected perks like free Wi-Fi and outlet access, for starters. And no funky bus smell. AVOID THIRD-PARTYAGENTS You’ll be pointed to dozens of third-party agents like Booking.com and Expedia when you search for low fares and hotel rooms. Great. Learn all you can, and should you come across a deal you are ready to book, go directly to that airline’s or hotel’s site and book direct. Why? Let’s say your flight is canceled. When you get in line to rebook using your existing ticket, you’ll be so angry when that airline’s reservations agent tells you to call that third party because the airline has no obligation to get you on the next flight. Been there, regretted that -- horribly. And getting a refund from that third party after being forced to buy a new ticket? Good luck. USE ‘EM, DON’T LOSE ‘EM There’s no advantage in holding on to frequent-flyer miles, as there’s no way of knowing whether they’ll be worth anything down the road. While all airlines seem to have a “life of the program” exit strategy (they can kill the program any time), miles typically expire within 18 months -- though that deadline may be deferred if you keep your account active, either by flying or using an airline-reward credit card that is linked to your account. So, get a free flight or golf clubs, electronics, magazines or anything else the airline lets you trade miles for while you can. PACK EAR PLUGS, EYE MASK This travel tip should actually be first on the list. A good set of earplugs muffles the sounds of crying babies, drunk Australians, barking dogs, honking horns and more -- a traveler’s best friend. An eye mask will help ease jet lag as you adjust to a new time zone -- both onboard and at your arrival. GET LOST ON PURPOSE If you want to see the parts of town where real people live and work, go visit them -- on foot, without knowing exactly where you’re going. Write down the name of your hotel and inquire at the front desk about areas of the city to avoid. You never know what amazing things you’ll find around the next corner. You can catch a taxi back if needed. Just pick a direction and start walking. BYOE Bring your own everything! It’s safer than putting yourself at the airline’s mercy. Bring a travel pillow, a blanket or sweater and headphones -- and, of course, food. While onboard selections are iffy, assume the quality will be meager. PATIENCE IS ESSENTIAL Patience is my top travel tip. Don’t sweat what you cannot control. Life is much too short to travel while angry and annoyed. Did you miss your flight? No worries, there will be another one. ATM out of money? Great! Take an unplanned road trip to the next town to find another machine. Call it an unplanned adventure. Take a deep breath and remind yourself that it could be worse. MARY HUNT EVERYDAY CHEAPSKATE Mary invites you to visit her at EverydayCheapskate.com, where this column is archived complete with links and resources for all recommended products and services. Mary invites questions and comments at https://www.everydaycheapskate.com/contact/, “Ask Mary.” This column will answer questions of general interest, but letters cannot be answered individually. Mary Hunt is the founder of EverydayCheapskate.com, a frugal living blog, and the author of the book “Debt-Proof Living.”
Page 6 The Sun Bay Paper April 15, 2026 Jim Acosta Whines Trump Is ‘Winning’ His War on the Press Don’t look now, but FCC Chairman Brendan Carr and Jim Acosta agree on something: President Donald Trump is “winning” his effort to reshape the media landscape in his second term. Appearing on the “Power Lines” podcast with his fellow ardent leftists Oliver Darcy and Jon Passantino, Acosta glumly proclaimed, “I don’t think it takes a rocket scientist to figure out that Donald Trump is winning in his, you know, quest to reshape the media in this country that he’s cracked the code on how to hurt the press in the U.S.” Acosta recently testified at a Democrat pseudo-hearing before Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), warning about how Larry and David Ellison had taken over CBS and are now planning to acquire CNN. He accused Trump of committing “an assault on our freedom of speech ... taking us down the road of Putin and China to state-controlled media.” Darcy and Acosta both constantly paint the Ellisons as creating “MAGA-coded” media. It’s always bizarre to hear Jim Acosta warning of “partisan hacks” in TV news, and “propaganda networks,” like CNN and Acosta weren’t sounding like that for Barack Obama or against Donald Trump. Acosta told the podcasters, “We don’t need to have propaganda networks in the U.S. I mean, and by the way, there’s already a propaganda network over at Fox. We don’t, we don’t need more of them.” Despite Acosta’s blathering about Trump’s “campaign to basically destroy the free press in the United States,” there is no shortage of negative coverage of Trump across the elitist media landscape. Anyone watching CBS right now isn’t noticing much difference between them and ABC and NBC. The Big Three evening newscasts are still uber-negative about Trump, most recently about the war in Iran. In a few weeks, they’ll be hating something else he does. If you go back to Acosta’s CNN war on Trump in the first term, he constantly claimed Trump was endangering the lives of reporters by calling them “Fake News” and the “Enemy of the People.” Meanwhile, it couldn’t be imagined that the media might inspire attempts on Trump’s life by constantly suggesting he was a wannabe dictator, basically an American Hitler. Acosta and Team Darcy pretend that CBS, CNN and The Washington Post are now under Trump’s thumb. Acosta insisted “the people” have figured this out, and “that’s why a lot of people are turning away from the traditional broadcast networks. They’re turning away from places like The Washington Post because they’re seeing these oligarchs take over these news organizations and, you know, turn them into House organs for the Trump administration.” If Acosta believes his own rhetoric, it’s only because he’s not actually reading or watching the journalistic output. It’s more likely that he’s just trying to goad them into being as hyper-critical as he is. It’s not hard to accuse a media outlet of “going soft” when they label Trump a fascist a little less often, or commit so-called atrocities like granting half a minute to the fifth anniversary of the Jan. 6 riot. It’s apparently appalling to conduct an interview with the president where he gets to speak for two sentences without being aggressively Accosted, CNN-style. This is the same attack dog who announced on CNN in 2009 that Obama’s first inaugural speech “may be more than the speech of his lifetime. Historians and speechwriters say it could be one for the ages.” In 2013, during the Obama inauguration parade, he gushed that “I feel like I should pinch myself right now.” The partisan hack pretends he was just as tough on Obama. He was nothing of the sort. Tim Graham Director of media analysis at the Media Research Center and Executive Editor of the blog NewsBusters.org The Lee Board of County Commissioners continued its commitment Tuesday to rebuilding and expanding the Fort Myers Beach fishing pier, voting to award a $11.7 million construction contract for the project. The reconstruction by RJ Gorman Contracting LLC will extend the pier to roughly 1,000 feet long and 12 feet wide, or more than 70% longer and 50% wider than the pier destroyed by Hurricane Ian in September 2022. The pier will incorporate reinforced concrete piles, a concrete deck, aluminum railings, an entry gate and three shade structures, establish ing the pier as a durable community landmark. Construction will start after all permits are received and is expected to take about a year. The Board approved the design phase of this project in April 2024. Given the project's scope and complexity, numerous permits are necessary before construction commences. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection sanctioned the project on Sept. 3, 2025; a special exception was granted by the Town of Fort Myers Beach on Nov. 19, 2025; and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is currently conducting a review. Construction is expected to commence upon obtaining final approval from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. FEMA is conducting the EHP (Environmental Planning and Historic Preservation) compliance review. The rebuilt pier will be in the same location as the destroyed pier, adjacent to Lynn Hall Memorial Park and Crescent Beach Family Park. The project is planned to be funded through the Florida Department of Emergency Management Legislative Appropriation Program, Tourist Development Tax funds, and RESTORE Act grants stemming from the BP/Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill in 2010. For more information about the Gulf Consortium, visit www.gulfconsortium.org. Keep up with the project by visiting the Parks Project Information Tool at www.leegov.com/ parks. To receive updates from Lee County Government, sign up for the newsletter here: www. leegov.com/resources/newsletters and follow on social media: www.leegov.com/socialmedia. Lee County Government Fort Myers Beach Fishing Pier
Page 7 The Sun Bay Paper April 15, 2026 What’s New around Fort Myers April Programs from Lee County Library System Lee County Library System locations are hosting free programs for all ages. Registration is required for some programs. For more information or to register, please call the library at 239-479-INFO (4636). Program information is also available online at www.leelibrary.net Fort Myers Mighty Mussels Baseball Class-AAffiliate of the Minnesota Twins Six-game series against the Lakeland Flying Tigers starting April 14th at 7:05 p.m. Reed Moring (1-0, 0.00) starts for the Mussels. Coverage begins at 6:40 p.m. on the Mighty Mussels Baseball Network. www.mightymussels.com 2026 Festivals and Events 21st annual “Ding” Darling Winter Lecture Series Through April 16 dingdarlingsociety.org Bailey-Matthews National Shell Museum & Aquarium, Third Thursdays April 16 shellmuseum.org 11th annual Bonita Springs Film Festival April 16 Prado Stadium bonitaspringsfilmfestival.org World’s Richest Tarpon Tournament, Boca Grande May 13-14 bocagrandechamber.com/worlds-richest-tarpon-tournament 16th annual Fort Myers Film Festival May 14-18 fortmyersfilmfestival.com 14th annual “Ding” Darling & Doc Ford’s Tarpon Tournament, Sanibel Island May 15 dingdarlingsociety.org/tarpon-tournament 3rd annual South Seas Tarpon Tournament, Captiva Island May 22 Followed by Golf Scramble May 23 southseas.com/tarpon-tournament National Seashell Day June 21 visitfortmyers.com/national-seashell-day 30th annual MangoMania July 11 pineislandchamber.org/chamber-events/ mangomania Island Hopper Songwriter Fest Sept. 18-27 island-hopperfest.com 41st Cape Coral Oktoberfest Oct. 17-19 & 24-26 German-American Social Club capecoraloktoberfest.com Sanibel Island Writers Conference November tba FGCU fgcu.edu/siwc 36th annual American Sand Sculpting Championship, Fort Myers Beach Nov. 19-23 fmbsandsculpting.com 38th Fort Myers Beach Christmas Boat Parade Dec. 5 fortmyersbeach.org 2027 Festivals and Events 42nd annual Cape Coral Art Festival and Market Place January tba capecoralartfestival.com 36thth Tour De Cape in Cape Coral January tba Rotary Park tourdecape.net ArtFest Fort Myers, downtown Fort Myers Feb. 5-7 artfestfortmyers.com Cape Coral Friends of Wildlife 9th Annual Ground Owl Day February tba Pelican Baseball Complex ccfriendsofwildlife.org/events/2026/ ground-owl-day 89th Edison Festival of Light Grand Parade, Fort Myers February tba Downtown Fort Myers edisonfestival.org 25th annual Burrowing Owl Festival, Cape Coral February tba Rotary Park Environmental Center ccfriendsofwildlife.org/burrowing-owl-festival-2 Southwest Florida Ag Expo Feb. 25-March 7 Mike Greenwell Regional Park swflagexpo.com Spring training Boston Red Sox February-March tba mlb.com/redsox/spring-training JetBlue Park, Fort Myers Minnesota Twins mlb.com/twins/spring-training February-March tba Lee Health Sports Complex/Hammond Stadium, Fort Myers 90th annual Sanibel Shell Festival, Sanibel Island March tba Sanibel Community House sanibelcommunityhouse.net/shell-festival 28th annual Southwest Florida Reading Festival, Fort Myers March tba Fort Myers Regional Library, downtown Fort Myers readfest.org Fort Myers Beach Lions Club Shrimp Festival March 13-14 fortmyersbeachshrimpfestival.com Taste of the Islands event March tba Sanibel City Hall tasteoftheislands.org Be sure to enjoy the many downtown Fort Myers celebrations hosted by local businesses and the River District Alliance (RDA). Check out all the happenings this month on the events calendar on fortmyers.gov!
Page 8 The Sun Bay Paper April 15, 2026 Kathy Hochul’s Proposed Levy New York’s Governor Seems Indifferent to the Health Consequences of a Steep Tax on Nicotine Pouches: Kathy Hochul’s Proposed Levy Would Deter Smokers From Switching to a Much Less Dangerous Habit By pushing a 75% wholesale tax on nicotine pouches, New York State Budget Director Blake Washington says, Gov. Kathy Hochul is trying to address “a public health concern.” That rationale is absurd on its face, since this tax would sharply raise the cost of a nicotine product that is far less hazardous than cigarettes, perversely discouraging smokers from making a switch that could save their lives. Hochul, who seems determined to portray a money grab as a benevolent intervention, is either oblivious or indifferent to the health consequences of taxing nicotine patches at the same rate as cigarettes. “We see it as a distinction without a difference,” Washington told reporters in January. That position ignores the huge difference between inhaling tobacco smoke, which contains myriad toxins and carcinogens, and orally absorbing nicotine from a pouch placed between the lip and gums. Hochul’s framing also contradicts what the Food and Drug Administration said four days before the end of the Biden administration, when it authorized the marketing of Zyn nicotine pouches in two doses and 10 flavors. That decision was based on the FDA’s determination that “the new products offer greater benefits to population health than risks.” The data, said Matthew Farrelly, director of the Office of Science at the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products, “show that these nicotine pouch products meet that bar by benefiting adults who use cigarettes and/or smokeless tobacco products and completely switch to these products.” Nicotine pouches contain “substantially lower amounts of harmful constituents than cigarettes,” the FDA noted. They therefore offer “a lower-risk alternative for adults who smoke cigarettes.” How much lower? To give you a sense of the difference, the Royal College of Physicians estimates that “the hazard to health” from e-cigarettes, which likewise do not contain tobacco or burn anything but do require inhalation, “is unlikely to exceed 5% of the harm from smoking tobacco.” Nicotine pouches “contain far, far fewer harmful constituents compared to traditional tobacco products,” notes Mary Hrywna, a tobacco control specialist at the Rutgers School of Public Health. The FDA’s Zyn decision implicitly acknowledged that nicotine pouches are “much safer than cigarettes,” says Ray Niaura, a professor at New York University’s School of Global Public Health. Does that sound like “a distinction without a difference”? Washington conceded that cigarettes pose a much more serious cancer risk than nicotine pouches do but added that “there’s an addictive property to both,” which is “really the thrust behind” the proposed tax. Seriously? The central problem with cigarettes is not their addictiveness, which would be of much less moment if smokers did not face a substantial danger of premature death. Other things being equal, a nicotine habit that promises to dramatically reduce that hazard surely counts as a big improvement. The Hochul administration also argues that a hefty tax will deter teenagers from using nicotine pouches. But according to the National Youth Tobacco Survey, just 1.6% of middle and high school students reported past-month use of nicotine pouches last year, down from 1.8% in 2024. Since selling nicotine pouches to anyone younger than 21 is already illegal, enforcing that rule seems like a more sensible way to prevent underage consumption than imposing a new financial burden on adults. That is especially true given the evidence that nicotine pouches are an appealing alternative for adults who smoke. A 2025 study, for instance, found that “daily nicotine pouch use is most prevalent among adults who recently quit using another tobacco product.” A study considered by the FDA found that a quarter of people who initially used Zyn in combination with cigarettes, smokeless tobacco, or both had switched entirely to the nicotine pouches within 10 weeks. A randomized trial reported in 2024 found that nicotine pouches were especially effective at reducing cigarette consumption among low-income smokers, who would be disproportionately affected by Hochul’s tax. These findings suggest that levy would undermine public health in the name of protecting it. DAILY EDITORIALS JACOB SULLUM Last issue’s puzzle solution to ‘FUN, FUN, FUN’
Page 9 The Sun Bay Paper April 15, 2026 What Exactly Is the Purpose of NATO in the Year 2026? One month into Operation Epic Fury against the Islamic Republic of Iran, a long-overdue conversation has finally broken into the open: What, exactly, is the enduring rationale for NATO? For decades, this question has been treated in Washington foreign policy circles as heretical. But it isn’t. And to their credit, President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are now saying so plainly. As Trump recently put it, “They haven’t been friends when we needed them. We’ve never asked them for much. ... It’s a one-way street.” Rubio has been similarly blunt: “If NATO is just about us defending Europe if they’re attacked but then denying us basing rights when we need them, that’s not a very good arrangement. ... So all that’s going to have to be reexamined.” They’re spot-on. At best, America’s European “allies” have spent decades free-riding on the U.S. security umbrella. Despite repeated commitments to meet baseline defense spending targets, many NATO members still under-invest in their militaries and outsource their national defense to American taxpayers. The imbalance is staggering: The United States accounts for the overwhelming majority of NATO’s military capabilities, logistics and strategic lift. Overall, American taxpayers contribute about 60% of total spending on NATO defense. At worst, some of these same European allies actively undermine U.S. operations at critical moments. Major Western European countries such as Spain and France have restricted or complicated U.S. use of their airspace during Operation Epic Fury. That is farcical. A so-called alliance in which members obstruct one another’s ability to wage war is not actually an alliance -- it is a liability. This raises the core question: Why, exactly, does NATO exist in the year 2026? Let’s recall its origins. NATO was founded in 1949 with a clear and urgent mission: to contain and, if necessary, defeat the Soviet Union. That mission was compelling -- indeed, existential. Western Europe lay devastated after World War II, and the Soviet threat was real, immediate and hegemonic. But that world quite literally no longer exists. The Soviet Union collapsed three and a half decades ago. The Berlin Wall fell the year I was born. The Cold War is now a relic of history. By any reasonable metric, NATO achieved its raison d’etre by the early 1990s. But instead of declaring victory and recalibrating, the alliance drifted. It expanded ever further into Eastern Europe and shifted its ostensible mission into ... well, (SET ITAL)something(END ITAL). Simply put, NATO is today an organization in search of a purpose. Is NATO a collective defense pact against the geopolitical successor to the Soviet Union, the Russian Federation? If so, why do so many European NATO members fail to take that threat seriously enough to invest in their own national defense? Is NATO now instead a vehicle for global counterterrorism? If so, why have its members sat on the sidelines and refused to join the United States as it goes to battle against the world’s No. 1 state sponsor of jihad? Or is NATO nowadays just a political club for liberal democracies? If so, what does that have to do with a hardheaded conception of the U.S. national interest? NATO has become a catch-all institution, long on triumphalist platitudes but short on the strategic realities on which its existence was predicated. Meanwhile, the global order is shifting. The initial post-Cold War era of enthusiastic multilateralism has slowly given way to a more interest-driven, nationalist paradigm. Nation-states are rediscovering the primacy of sovereignty, borders and self-interest. In such a world, the idea that the United States should blindly remain bound to a 20th-century transnational alliance structure is untenable. This certainly does not mean that America should retreat into isolationism. But it does mean that our alliances must be rethought, recalibrated and -- where necessary -- replaced. The geopolitical future lies not in outmoded multilateral boondoggles but in agile, strategic bilateral and trilateral partnerships. These smaller, more focused arrangements allow for clearer expectations, greater accountability and more direct alignment of national interests. They avoid the bureaucratic inertia and free-riding that plague massive superstructures like NATO. The highly effective binational U.S.-Israel assault on Iran over the past month illustrates what a dynamic 21st-century bilateral alliance can do. The contrast with the sclerotic NATO member states of Western Europe is stark. For too long, American policymakers have treated NATO as an article of faith. But alliances are not sacred. They must be consistently reevaluated to determine whether they still serve their intended purpose and advance our national interest. If NATO cannot meet that test -- if it continues to function as a lopsided arrangement in which the United States pays, protects and sacrifices while others equivocate and obstruct -- then it is not only reasonable but necessary to question its future and America’s role in that future. Operation Epic Fury has exposed these contradictions in stark relief. Something clearly must change. The ball is in NATO’s court. Because the status quo is no longer defensible -- and deep down, everyone knows it. DAILY EDITORIALS JOSH HAMMER
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