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    <title>The Political Spotlight - Episodes Tagged with “Mike Ashley”</title>
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    <pubDate>Tue, 11 Aug 2026 21:00:00 -0400</pubDate>
    <description>The Political Spotlight is a politically driven opinion, news, and entertainment program. The Political Spotlight is your comprehensive guide to all things "political" at the local, state, and national levels. Our mission is to identify and eliminate corruption in government and politics while defending the United States Constitution. The message is clear: the old, corrupt way of doing business IS OVER! Our goal is to empower all citizens with the knowledge and motivation to stay informed and get involved. The team includes Kristopher H. Bilbrey, Kate Thornburg, and Brandon Rudd. Join the discussion and help change the world, one conversation at a time! ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ LIVE episodes of The Political Spotlight air on YouTube, Rumble, X, and Facebook: Sunday - Thursday @ 9 p.m. (ET) YouTube Link: https://www.youtube.com/@ThePoliticalSpotlight . . . Rumble Link: https://rumble.com/c/ThePoliticalSpotlight . . . Audio-only episodes are available at the following Home Link: https://ThePoliticalSpotlight.fireside.fm . . . They are also available on all podcast hosting sites (including, but not limited to): iTunes/Apple Podcasts -- Spotify -- Stitcher -- TuneIn -- RadioPublic -- iHeartRadio -- Amazon Music/Podcasts -- CastBox -- OverCast -- Castro -- Pocket Casts &amp;amp; many more... No matter where or when you choose to watch or listen, please remember to SUBSCRIBE, LIKE, COMMENT, and then "share the show with everyone you know!" ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Connect with The Political Spotlight team on social media: Facebook 1: https://www.facebook.com/Bilbrey318 Facebook 2: https://www.facebook.com/PoliticalSpotlight318 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ThePoliticalSpotlight Twitter: https://x.com/BilbreyLIVE ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Connect with The Political Spotlight team via email @ tpsprogram@gmail.com or khbilbrey@gmail.com ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ SUBSCRIBE, LIKE, COMMENT, &amp;amp; SHARE THE SHOW! 🚨 🚨 🚨</description>
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    <itunes:subtitle>A light on the darkened path—a voice of reason amid the chaos and corruption...</itunes:subtitle>
    <itunes:author>Kristopher H. Bilbrey, Kate Thornburg, &amp; Brandon Rudd (The Political Spotlight)</itunes:author>
    <itunes:summary>The Political Spotlight is a politically driven opinion, news, and entertainment program. The Political Spotlight is your comprehensive guide to all things "political" at the local, state, and national levels. Our mission is to identify and eliminate corruption in government and politics while defending the United States Constitution. The message is clear: the old, corrupt way of doing business IS OVER! Our goal is to empower all citizens with the knowledge and motivation to stay informed and get involved. The team includes Kristopher H. Bilbrey, Kate Thornburg, and Brandon Rudd. Join the discussion and help change the world, one conversation at a time! ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ LIVE episodes of The Political Spotlight air on YouTube, Rumble, X, and Facebook: Sunday - Thursday @ 9 p.m. (ET) YouTube Link: https://www.youtube.com/@ThePoliticalSpotlight . . . Rumble Link: https://rumble.com/c/ThePoliticalSpotlight . . . Audio-only episodes are available at the following Home Link: https://ThePoliticalSpotlight.fireside.fm . . . They are also available on all podcast hosting sites (including, but not limited to): iTunes/Apple Podcasts -- Spotify -- Stitcher -- TuneIn -- RadioPublic -- iHeartRadio -- Amazon Music/Podcasts -- CastBox -- OverCast -- Castro -- Pocket Casts &amp;amp; many more... No matter where or when you choose to watch or listen, please remember to SUBSCRIBE, LIKE, COMMENT, and then "share the show with everyone you know!" ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Connect with The Political Spotlight team on social media: Facebook 1: https://www.facebook.com/Bilbrey318 Facebook 2: https://www.facebook.com/PoliticalSpotlight318 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ThePoliticalSpotlight Twitter: https://x.com/BilbreyLIVE ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Connect with The Political Spotlight team via email @ tpsprogram@gmail.com or khbilbrey@gmail.com ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ SUBSCRIBE, LIKE, COMMENT, &amp;amp; SHARE THE SHOW! 🚨 🚨 🚨</itunes:summary>
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      <itunes:name>Kristopher H. Bilbrey, Kate Thornburg, &amp; Brandon Rudd (The Political Spotlight)</itunes:name>
      <itunes:email>tpsprogram@gmail.com</itunes:email>
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  <title>#715 | Tuesday, August 11, 2026 | The Political Spotlight</title>
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  <pubDate>Tue, 11 Aug 2026 21:00:00 -0400</pubDate>
  <author>Kristopher H. Bilbrey, Kate Thornburg, &amp; Brandon Rudd (The Political Spotlight)</author>
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  <itunes:episode>715</itunes:episode>
  <itunes:title>#715 | Tuesday, August 11, 2026 | The Political Spotlight</itunes:title>
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  <itunes:author>Kristopher H. Bilbrey, Kate Thornburg, &amp; Brandon Rudd (The Political Spotlight)</itunes:author>
  <itunes:subtitle>In Episode 715 of The Political Spotlight, host Kristopher H. Bilbrey examines the latest developments in the Delaware County EMS investigation involving former Office Manager Meagan R. Coutinho. Bilbrey traces the case from the first public reports in March 2026, through the Indiana State Police investigation and Coutinho’s June 3 arrest, to the August 11 filing of 10 felony charges by Delaware County Prosecutor Eric Hoffman. The charges include multiple counts of Theft and Fraud, along with Conflict of Interest and Official Misconduct, stemming from allegations involving unauthorized compensation and overtime, EMS-related funds, retirement benefits, a private cleaning company, and the Delta High School Girls Golf Boosters. Bilbrey also examines the potential penalties and raises broader questions about payroll oversight, internal controls, financial accountability, and whether John Coutinho or anyone else may have been involved. Meagan R. Coutinho is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law. #ThePoliticalSpotlight</itunes:subtitle>
  <itunes:duration>1:45:07</itunes:duration>
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  <description>&lt;p&gt;After initial rumors in early 2026 that something was amiss at the Delaware County EMS office, the story began to unfold publicly on March 12, 2026, when The Political Spotlight reported that longtime Delaware County EMS Office Manager Meagan R. Coutinho was no longer employed by Delaware County amid allegations of an internal theft investigation.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;On March 23, 2026, the situation escalated dramatically when Delaware County Commissioners announced the suspension of County EMA Director John Coutinho — Meagan Coutinho’s husband — and County EMS Director Mike Ashley, as the Indiana State Police investigation into the alleged theft continued.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The investigation ultimately led to the arrest of Meagan R. Coutinho on June 3, 2026, and to the public release of the Probable Cause Affidavit, which detailed what Indiana State Police investigators alleged had occurred within Delaware County government and beyond.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;━━━━━━&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;More than five months after The Political Spotlight first publicly reported that something was happening inside the Delaware County EMS office, and more than two months after the arrest, the case has reached another major milestone.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;On Tuesday, August 11, 2026, the Delaware County Prosecutor’s Office formally filed 10 felony counts against Meagan R. Coutinho, including multiple counts of Theft and Fraud, as well as one count each of Conflict of Interest and Official Misconduct.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The formal charges stem from allegations involving approximately $181,749.93 in unauthorized compensation, thousands of hours of allegedly unauthorized overtime, money allegedly taken or diverted from a Delaware County EMS-related account, undeposited checks payable to Delaware County EMS, allegations related to retirement funds or benefits, an alleged conflict of interest involving a private cleaning company that received money from Delaware County, and, last but not least, allegations of theft from the Delta High School Girls Golf Boosters.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;In this 715th episode of The Political Spotlight, Host Kristopher H. Bilbrey takes viewers through a recap of the entire timeline — from the first rumblings of trouble inside Delaware County EMS to the Indiana State Police investigation, the June arrest, and the official filing of 10 felony charges by Delaware County Prosecutor Eric Hoffman.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;━━━━━━&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Beyond the criminal allegations, several important questions remain for Delaware County Government:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;If the allegations are true, how could this have persisted for years without detection?&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Who was responsible for reviewing payroll?&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Who authorized — or failed to question — thousands of hours of overtime?&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;What internal controls were in place?&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Who was overseeing the funds?&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;What changes, if any, have been made to ensure that something like this cannot happen again?&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;And one of the most important questions of all: &lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Was Husband John Coutinho, or anyone else, involved?&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;━━━━━━&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Meagan R. Coutinho is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law. The allegations in the charging documents and Probable Cause Affidavit remain allegations unless established through the judicial process.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;In this 715th episode of The Political Spotlight, Bilbrey leads the audience through the paper trail, examines the charges, breaks down the potential penalties, and continues to ask the questions Delaware County taxpayers deserve answers to.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;━━━━━━&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Timeline of other episodes connected to this topic:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;First Mention: Episode 618 (03.12.26):&lt;br&gt;
&lt;a href="https://youtube.com/live/KHsZo1vua7A" rel="nofollow noopener"&gt;https://youtube.com/live/KHsZo1vua7A&lt;/a&gt; . . .&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Commissioners Suspend EMA &amp;amp; EMS Directors (03.23.26):&lt;br&gt;
&lt;a href="https://youtube.com/live/GAKNvIVHY_o" rel="nofollow noopener"&gt;https://youtube.com/live/GAKNvIVHY_o&lt;/a&gt; . . .&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Arrest of Meagan R. Coutinho (06.03.26):&lt;br&gt;
&lt;a href="https://youtube.com/live/oa9h375x6QM" rel="nofollow noopener"&gt;https://youtube.com/live/oa9h375x6QM&lt;/a&gt; . . .&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;News Relating to John Coutinho (06.10.26):&lt;br&gt;
&lt;a href="https://youtube.com/live/peN24gRaVfc" rel="nofollow noopener"&gt;https://youtube.com/live/peN24gRaVfc&lt;/a&gt; . . .&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Commissioners Terminate John Coutinho (06.16.26):&lt;br&gt;
&lt;a href="https://youtube.com/live/631ScX-qidM" rel="nofollow noopener"&gt;https://youtube.com/live/631ScX-qidM&lt;/a&gt; . . .&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;VIDEO version of Ep 715: &lt;a href="https://youtube.com/live/jx3z8xsN2mM" rel="nofollow noopener"&gt;https://youtube.com/live/jx3z8xsN2mM&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Subscribe: &lt;a href="https://bit.ly/subTPS" rel="nofollow noopener"&gt;https://bit.ly/subTPS&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;
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&lt;p&gt;━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The Political Spotlight Airs LIVE&lt;br&gt;
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&lt;p&gt;Audio Podcast: &lt;a href="https://ThePoliticalSpotlight.fireside.fm" rel="nofollow noopener"&gt;https://ThePoliticalSpotlight.fireside.fm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br&gt;
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&lt;p&gt;━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Connect with The Political Spotlight team on social media:&lt;br&gt;
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&lt;p&gt;━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;🚨🚨🚨&lt;br&gt;
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LIVE Sunday - Thursday @ 9 p.m. (ET)&lt;br&gt;
Hosted by: Kristopher H. Bilbrey&lt;br&gt;
Produced by: Kate Thornburg &amp;amp; Brandon Rudd&lt;br&gt;
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© 2026 Mud Creek Studio.&lt;br&gt;
— &lt;/p&gt;
</description>
  <itunes:keywords>The Political Spotlight, Government, Politics, Commentary, Accountability, Politics, Conservative, Liberal, Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, Communication, Transparency, Constitution, Common Sense, Freedom,</itunes:keywords>
  <content:encoded>
    <![CDATA[<p>After initial rumors in early 2026 that something was amiss at the Delaware County EMS office, the story began to unfold publicly on March 12, 2026, when The Political Spotlight reported that longtime Delaware County EMS Office Manager Meagan R. Coutinho was no longer employed by Delaware County amid allegations of an internal theft investigation.</p>

<p>On March 23, 2026, the situation escalated dramatically when Delaware County Commissioners announced the suspension of County EMA Director John Coutinho — Meagan Coutinho’s husband — and County EMS Director Mike Ashley, as the Indiana State Police investigation into the alleged theft continued.</p>

<p>The investigation ultimately led to the arrest of Meagan R. Coutinho on June 3, 2026, and to the public release of the Probable Cause Affidavit, which detailed what Indiana State Police investigators alleged had occurred within Delaware County government and beyond.</p>

<p>━━━━━━</p>

<p>More than five months after The Political Spotlight first publicly reported that something was happening inside the Delaware County EMS office, and more than two months after the arrest, the case has reached another major milestone.</p>

<p>On Tuesday, August 11, 2026, the Delaware County Prosecutor’s Office formally filed 10 felony counts against Meagan R. Coutinho, including multiple counts of Theft and Fraud, as well as one count each of Conflict of Interest and Official Misconduct.</p>

<p>The formal charges stem from allegations involving approximately $181,749.93 in unauthorized compensation, thousands of hours of allegedly unauthorized overtime, money allegedly taken or diverted from a Delaware County EMS-related account, undeposited checks payable to Delaware County EMS, allegations related to retirement funds or benefits, an alleged conflict of interest involving a private cleaning company that received money from Delaware County, and, last but not least, allegations of theft from the Delta High School Girls Golf Boosters.</p>

<p>In this 715th episode of The Political Spotlight, Host Kristopher H. Bilbrey takes viewers through a recap of the entire timeline — from the first rumblings of trouble inside Delaware County EMS to the Indiana State Police investigation, the June arrest, and the official filing of 10 felony charges by Delaware County Prosecutor Eric Hoffman.</p>

<p>━━━━━━</p>

<p>Beyond the criminal allegations, several important questions remain for Delaware County Government:</p>

<p>If the allegations are true, how could this have persisted for years without detection?</p>

<p>Who was responsible for reviewing payroll?</p>

<p>Who authorized — or failed to question — thousands of hours of overtime?</p>

<p>What internal controls were in place?</p>

<p>Who was overseeing the funds?</p>

<p>What changes, if any, have been made to ensure that something like this cannot happen again?</p>

<p>And one of the most important questions of all: </p>

<p>Was Husband John Coutinho, or anyone else, involved?</p>

<p>━━━━━━</p>

<p>Meagan R. Coutinho is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law. The allegations in the charging documents and Probable Cause Affidavit remain allegations unless established through the judicial process.</p>

<p>In this 715th episode of The Political Spotlight, Bilbrey leads the audience through the paper trail, examines the charges, breaks down the potential penalties, and continues to ask the questions Delaware County taxpayers deserve answers to.</p>

<p>━━━━━━</p>

<p>Timeline of other episodes connected to this topic:</p>

<p>First Mention: Episode 618 (03.12.26):<br>
<a href="https://youtube.com/live/KHsZo1vua7A" rel="nofollow noopener">https://youtube.com/live/KHsZo1vua7A</a> . . .</p>

<p>Commissioners Suspend EMA &amp; EMS Directors (03.23.26):<br>
<a href="https://youtube.com/live/GAKNvIVHY_o" rel="nofollow noopener">https://youtube.com/live/GAKNvIVHY_o</a> . . .</p>

<p>Arrest of Meagan R. Coutinho (06.03.26):<br>
<a href="https://youtube.com/live/oa9h375x6QM" rel="nofollow noopener">https://youtube.com/live/oa9h375x6QM</a> . . .</p>

<p>News Relating to John Coutinho (06.10.26):<br>
<a href="https://youtube.com/live/peN24gRaVfc" rel="nofollow noopener">https://youtube.com/live/peN24gRaVfc</a> . . .</p>

<p>Commissioners Terminate John Coutinho (06.16.26):<br>
<a href="https://youtube.com/live/631ScX-qidM" rel="nofollow noopener">https://youtube.com/live/631ScX-qidM</a> . . .</p>

<p>━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━</p>

<p>VIDEO version of Ep 715: <a href="https://youtube.com/live/jx3z8xsN2mM" rel="nofollow noopener">https://youtube.com/live/jx3z8xsN2mM</a></p>

<p>━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━</p>

<p>Subscribe: <a href="https://bit.ly/subTPS" rel="nofollow noopener">https://bit.ly/subTPS</a><br>
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<p>The Political Spotlight Airs LIVE<br>
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<p>━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━</p>

<p>Connect with The Political Spotlight team on social media:<br>
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<p>🚨🚨🚨<br>
'The Political Spotlight'<br>
LIVE Sunday - Thursday @ 9 p.m. (ET)<br>
Hosted by: Kristopher H. Bilbrey<br>
Produced by: Kate Thornburg &amp; Brandon Rudd<br>
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© 2026 Mud Creek Studio.<br>
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    <![CDATA[<p>After initial rumors in early 2026 that something was amiss at the Delaware County EMS office, the story began to unfold publicly on March 12, 2026, when The Political Spotlight reported that longtime Delaware County EMS Office Manager Meagan R. Coutinho was no longer employed by Delaware County amid allegations of an internal theft investigation.</p>

<p>On March 23, 2026, the situation escalated dramatically when Delaware County Commissioners announced the suspension of County EMA Director John Coutinho — Meagan Coutinho’s husband — and County EMS Director Mike Ashley, as the Indiana State Police investigation into the alleged theft continued.</p>

<p>The investigation ultimately led to the arrest of Meagan R. Coutinho on June 3, 2026, and to the public release of the Probable Cause Affidavit, which detailed what Indiana State Police investigators alleged had occurred within Delaware County government and beyond.</p>

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<p>More than five months after The Political Spotlight first publicly reported that something was happening inside the Delaware County EMS office, and more than two months after the arrest, the case has reached another major milestone.</p>

<p>On Tuesday, August 11, 2026, the Delaware County Prosecutor’s Office formally filed 10 felony counts against Meagan R. Coutinho, including multiple counts of Theft and Fraud, as well as one count each of Conflict of Interest and Official Misconduct.</p>

<p>The formal charges stem from allegations involving approximately $181,749.93 in unauthorized compensation, thousands of hours of allegedly unauthorized overtime, money allegedly taken or diverted from a Delaware County EMS-related account, undeposited checks payable to Delaware County EMS, allegations related to retirement funds or benefits, an alleged conflict of interest involving a private cleaning company that received money from Delaware County, and, last but not least, allegations of theft from the Delta High School Girls Golf Boosters.</p>

<p>In this 715th episode of The Political Spotlight, Host Kristopher H. Bilbrey takes viewers through a recap of the entire timeline — from the first rumblings of trouble inside Delaware County EMS to the Indiana State Police investigation, the June arrest, and the official filing of 10 felony charges by Delaware County Prosecutor Eric Hoffman.</p>

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<p>Beyond the criminal allegations, several important questions remain for Delaware County Government:</p>

<p>If the allegations are true, how could this have persisted for years without detection?</p>

<p>Who was responsible for reviewing payroll?</p>

<p>Who authorized — or failed to question — thousands of hours of overtime?</p>

<p>What internal controls were in place?</p>

<p>Who was overseeing the funds?</p>

<p>What changes, if any, have been made to ensure that something like this cannot happen again?</p>

<p>And one of the most important questions of all: </p>

<p>Was Husband John Coutinho, or anyone else, involved?</p>

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<p>Meagan R. Coutinho is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law. The allegations in the charging documents and Probable Cause Affidavit remain allegations unless established through the judicial process.</p>

<p>In this 715th episode of The Political Spotlight, Bilbrey leads the audience through the paper trail, examines the charges, breaks down the potential penalties, and continues to ask the questions Delaware County taxpayers deserve answers to.</p>

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<p>Timeline of other episodes connected to this topic:</p>

<p>First Mention: Episode 618 (03.12.26):<br>
<a href="https://youtube.com/live/KHsZo1vua7A" rel="nofollow noopener">https://youtube.com/live/KHsZo1vua7A</a> . . .</p>

<p>Commissioners Suspend EMA &amp; EMS Directors (03.23.26):<br>
<a href="https://youtube.com/live/GAKNvIVHY_o" rel="nofollow noopener">https://youtube.com/live/GAKNvIVHY_o</a> . . .</p>

<p>Arrest of Meagan R. Coutinho (06.03.26):<br>
<a href="https://youtube.com/live/oa9h375x6QM" rel="nofollow noopener">https://youtube.com/live/oa9h375x6QM</a> . . .</p>

<p>News Relating to John Coutinho (06.10.26):<br>
<a href="https://youtube.com/live/peN24gRaVfc" rel="nofollow noopener">https://youtube.com/live/peN24gRaVfc</a> . . .</p>

<p>Commissioners Terminate John Coutinho (06.16.26):<br>
<a href="https://youtube.com/live/631ScX-qidM" rel="nofollow noopener">https://youtube.com/live/631ScX-qidM</a> . . .</p>

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<p>VIDEO version of Ep 715: <a href="https://youtube.com/live/jx3z8xsN2mM" rel="nofollow noopener">https://youtube.com/live/jx3z8xsN2mM</a></p>

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<p>The Political Spotlight Airs LIVE<br>
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<p>🚨🚨🚨<br>
'The Political Spotlight'<br>
LIVE Sunday - Thursday @ 9 p.m. (ET)<br>
Hosted by: Kristopher H. Bilbrey<br>
Produced by: Kate Thornburg &amp; Brandon Rudd<br>
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/@ThePoliticalSpotlight" rel="nofollow noopener">https://www.youtube.com/@ThePoliticalSpotlight</a><br>
<a href="https://rumble.com/c/ThePoliticalSpotlight" rel="nofollow noopener">https://rumble.com/c/ThePoliticalSpotlight</a><br>
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Email: <a href="mailto:tpsprogram@gmail.com" rel="nofollow noopener">tpsprogram@gmail.com</a><br>
© 2026 Mud Creek Studio.<br>
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