The Department of Justice belatedly released a massive trove of documents related to child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein last month. The documents provide damning insights into the dead pedophile as well as his network of former business associates and friends.

One of the affluent individuals whose name comes up repeatedly in the Epstein files is Thomas Pritzker — cousin of Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker — who has served as executive chairman of the Hyatt Hotels Corporation since August 2004.

‘Good stewardship also means protecting Hyatt.’

The 75-year-old billionaire revealed to the board of the hotel chain on Monday that he was retiring, effective immediately, to protect Hyatt from the fallout of his relationship with the dead pedophile.

In his letter to the board, which was reviewed by the New York Times, Pritzker said that “good stewardship also means protecting Hyatt, particularly in the context of my association with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, which I deeply regret.”

Pritzker noted further that he “exercised terrible judgment in maintaining contact with them, and there is no excuse for failing to distance myself sooner.”

The retiring Hyatt executive chairman appears to have maintained a friendship and remained in frequent contact with Epstein long after the sex offender pleaded guilty to procuring a child for prostitution.

In the newly released Epstein files, the email address accompanying Pritzker’s name is frequently redacted. However in some cases, it is crossed out but still visible.

RELATED: ‘Smoking Gun’: Yale prof nearly blown up by Unabomber defends his Epstein emails

Photo by Joe Schildhorn/Patrick McMullan via Getty Image

Richard Tuttle, chair of the Hyatt board’s nominating and corporate governance committee, said in a statement, “Tom’s leadership has been instrumental in shaping Hyatt’s strategy and long-term growth, and we thank him for his service and dedication to Hyatt.”

Mark Hoplamazian, Hyatt’s president and CEO, has stepped into the role left open by the Epstein associate.

Pritzker is among a growing list of individuals whose relationships with Epstein have earned them heightened scrutiny and professional consequences.

After new details about their relationships and/or communications with Epstein came to light:

Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem resigned as chairman and chief executive of the global ports operator DP World;David Gelernter, a Yale University computer science professor who lost a few fingers opening a package sent by the Unabomber, defended a controversial correspondence he had with Epstein and was barred from teaching classes at the university;Peter Mandelson, a prominent Labour Party figure who was appointed Britain’s ambassador to the U.S. in 2024 by Prime Minister Keir Starmer, resigned in disgrace from the House of Lords while his protege stepped down as Starmer’s right-hand man;Kathy Ruemmler said she was resigning as Goldman Sach’s chief legal officer;Brad Karp resigned as chairman of the top U.S. law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP;U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick was grilled in a Senate hearing about his 2012 meeting with Epstein at the pedophile’s island;New York Giants co-owner Steve Tisch, who NFL commissioner Roger Goodell indicated might ultimately face an internal investigation, admitted to a “brief association where we exchanged emails about adult women, and in addition, we discussed movies, philanthropy, and investments”;Letty Moss-Salentijn was stripped of her administrative duties at Columbia University’s College of Dental Medicine;Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York and former wife of ex-prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, saw her charity, Sarah’s Trust, shuttered; andThorbjørn Jagland, Norway’s former prime minister, was charged with aggravated corruption.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Jeffrey epstein, Pedophile, Child sex offender, Hyatt, Hotel, Thomas pritzker, Pritzker, Degenerates, Leftist, Epstein, Ghislaine maxwell, Fallout, Epstein files, Politics 

In an important development in the investigation into Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance, investigators have cleared several people from the suspect list — including one person who had been heavily scrutinized since Guthrie was first reported missing on February 1.

The New York Post reported on Monday that investigators have ruled out Nancy Guthrie’s family from any suspicion in connection with her disappearance.

‘The family has been nothing but cooperative and gracious and are victims in this case.’

“The Guthrie family — to include all siblings and spouses — has been cleared as possible suspects in this case,” Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos said Monday, according to Post.

“The family has been nothing but cooperative and gracious and are victims in this case,” he added. “To suggest otherwise is not only wrong, it is cruel. The Guthrie family are victims, plain and simple.”

RELATED: ‘It’s never too late’: Savannah Guthrie posts gut-wrenching video update two weeks after mother’s disappearance

Photo by Jan Sonnenmair/Getty Images

Investigators have thus ruled out Nancy’s children, Savannah, Annie, and Camron, as anything other than victims.

Also included on this list is Annie’s husband, Tommaso Cioni, who was reportedly the last person to see Nancy Guthrie alive on January 31.

Prior to this development, Nanos said that he “understands” that Cioni would be subject to suspicion but warned people not to jump to rash judgments without evidence.

“I understand the pundits are out there. They’re gonna say, ‘Well, he’s the last one to see her alive.’ We understand that stuff. But, my goodness, you’re putting a mark on somebody who could be completely innocent. And more important than that, he’s family,” Nanos said, according to the New York Post.

Cioni last saw Nancy around 9:45 p.m. on January 31 after he and Annie had dinner with her, according to reports.

Though a few people were detained by a SWAT team near Nancy’s house in Tucson, Arizona, in connection with the investigation late last week, no one has yet been a named as a suspect.

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​Politics, Pima county, Pima county sheriff’s department, Chris nanos, Tommaso cioni, Savannah guthrie, Nancy guthrie, Tucson arizona, Nancy guthrie disappearance, Suspects 

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) has pledged to intervene in Maryland’s redistricting stalemate after the state’s Senate president, also a Democrat, broke ranks with his party to block the effort.

State Democrats’ redistricting bill, House Bill 488, breezed through the House in early February by a vote of 99-37, mostly along party lines. If passed, the bill would redraw Maryland’s congressional districts to make the state’s sole Republican-held seat significantly more competitive for Democrats. However, the legislation remains stalled in the Senate.

‘At some point, I am going to have to have a conversation with him if he continues to stand in the way of an up or down vote.’

Maryland Senate President Bill Ferguson penned a letter to his colleagues detailing his refusal to bring a mid-cycle redistricting bill to the Senate floor for a vote.

“Despite deeply shared frustrations about the state of our country, mid-cycle redistricting for Maryland presents a reality where the legal risks are too high, the timeline for action is dangerous, the downside risk to Democrats is catastrophic, and the certainty of our existing map would be undermined,” Ferguson wrote.

He acknowledged that he and the Democratic Party are feeling pressure to “fight back” against Republicans’ redistricting efforts in Texas and North Carolina. However, he claimed that the risk to potentially “gain a seat not worth pursuing” was “too high.”

Ferguson explained that any attempt to redistrict would almost certainly prompt Republicans to challenge the map, potentially sending the case to the Maryland Supreme Court, which has never reviewed Maryland’s current congressional map.

“That means that any redrawing of the current map could reopen the ability for someone to challenge the current map and give the court the opportunity to strike it down, or even worse, redraw the map itself,” he wrote.

RELATED: 3 debunked Democrat claims about the SAVE America Act

Bill Ferguson. Katharine Wilson/The Baltimore Sun/Tribune News Service via Getty Images

Ferguson also speculated that if Maryland redraws its congressional map, other Republican states would likely follow suit.

“That means that Maryland’s potential gain of one seat is immediately eliminated, and, in fact, worsens the national outlook,” he concluded.

Ferguson argued that mid-cycle redistricting “twists rules for potential short-term advantage.” However, he claimed that was “not the reason we should not pursue it.”

“Simply put, it is too risky and jeopardizes Maryland’s ability to fight against the radical Trump Administration,” he told his fellow Democrats.

RELATED: Black Democrat governor vetoed slavery reparations bill — but other Dems in his state have now kept it alive

Bill Ferguson and Wes Moore. Kim Hairston/Baltimore Sun/Tribune News Service via Getty Images

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) has urged Ferguson to allow the Senate to vote on the bill.

“My ask is simple: Do not let the democratic process die in the Free State. Debate it, discuss it, make adjustments if necessary, and put it to a vote,” Moore stated during a Wednesday press conference.

Ferguson’s resistance to bringing the bill to the floor has prompted Rep. Jeffries to intervene in the dispute.

“All we are asking Senate President Ferguson to do is allow democracy to prevail. What that means is an up or down vote,” Jeffries told CNN over the weekend. “At some point, I am going to have to have a conversation with him if he continues to stand in the way of an up or down vote. But, hopefully, over the next few days, he will change his mind.”

A spokesperson for Ferguson told WBAL-TV in response to Jeffries’ comments, “There is nothing more for us to say or do.”

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​News, Maryland, Hakeem jeffries, New york, Bill ferguson, Democratic party, Redistricting, Wes moore, Politics 

The Margot Robbie-led film adaptation of Emily Bronte’s “Wuthering Heights” has been on the tip of every woman’s tongue as of late — because the marketing has been aimed at every woman — including BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey.

“I’ve seen all kinds of marketing for this that has been really effective because I thought, OK, I might want to go see this. It’s based on a classic novel,” Stuckey says on “Relatable,” adding that she also is a fan of Margot Robbie.

“So there is, like, this deep obsession in this storyline, and that is true of the book. It is just hyper-sexualized, it seems like in the movie,” she adds.

The story begins with young Catherine Earnshaw and the orphaned Heathcliff — who has no last name — forming an intense bond under her abusive father’s roof.

“Then as adults, their unspoken passion clashes with class barriers. Catherine marries the wealthy, refined Edgar Linton for social security and stability, driving the devastated Heathcliff away. And then years later, Heathcliff returns mysteriously rich and more attractive and transformed,” Stuckey explains.

“And that reignites their fiery, now completely forbidden connection. Not only forbidden because of the class disparity that once existed, but also because she is married. And then she also gets pregnant, and this leads to explicit torrid affairs, and Heathcliff enacts revenge,” she continues.

The story continues on with Heathcliff gaining ultimate control over his enemies’ freedom, estates, social standing, and their daily lives.

However, the film is being promoted as “inspired by the greatest love story of all time.”

“It also carries this tagline, which I think is important to the theme that we’re talking about, ‘Drive me mad.’ This idea that the greatest love story of all time has to do with insanity and jealousy and bitterness and cruelty and torture and revenge and also these very, very hypersexual, and it seems even edging on violent, sexual affairs, that these two lovers are having even during pregnancy,” Stuckey says.

The marketing for the film itself has involved actress Margot Robbie and actor Jacob Elordi acting infatuated with each other in their personal lives — despite Robbie being a married mother.

“I think it’s strange how you can kind of push the boundaries of what is acceptable in a relationship between a man and a woman. Not just on screen. I still think there’s something morally wrong with that obviously,” Stuckey says.

“They probably feel this way about each other, which you could argue is troubling in itself. It is also part of marketing. But it is what draws women in … it builds this idea in women’s minds that this is the greatest love story ever told,” she adds.

Stuckey likens the storyline of “Wuthering Heights” to “The Notebook,” which she calls “totally immoral, totally unethical, not at all a healthy idea of what love and romance and marriage and pursuit should look like.”

“But it really does affect the mind of people, married or unmarried, and setting our standards for what romance and love should actually look like,” she adds.

Want more from Allie Beth Stuckey?

To enjoy more of Allie’s upbeat and in-depth coverage of culture, news, and theology from a Christian, conservative perspective, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

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Capitol Police announced that they arrested an individual who “appears” to have been carrying a gun outside Congress.

Law enforcement issued a statement Tuesday that officers had arrested a person with “what appears to be a gun” near the United States Capitol, cautioning employees and bystanders to avoid the area.

‘One person is in custody.’

“Our officers just arrested a person with what appears to be a gun near the West Front of the U.S. Capitol Building,” the statement reads. “Please avoid the area. We will provide more information when new information is confirmed.”

Capitol Police also announced that they temporarily closed Maryland Avenue between First and Third Streets Southwest while they continue their investigation.

RELATED: FBI forced to release damning docs revealing chilling new details on Trump’s would-be assassin

Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images

Moments after releasing their initial statement, law enforcement said that there does not appear to be any ongoing threat, but advised people to continue avoiding the area.

“At this time, there does not appear to be any other suspects or ongoing threat,” the statement reads. “Out of an abundance of caution, please continue to stay away from the area while we investigate and collect evidence. Again, at this time, one person is in custody.”

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A female worker at a Southern California jewelry store gave an armed robber all he could handle last week amid a scary altercation caught on surveillance video.

Police in Montclair — which is in San Bernardino County and about 35 miles east of Los Angeles — said the suspect entered Fast-Fix Jewelry and Watch Repairs around 7:45 p.m. Thursday holding a small bag, which he he put down before walking back out of the door, KCBS-TV reported.

‘I don’t want to have that kind of feeling where every customer comes in wearing a hoodie and … sunglasses, and I have to now tell them, ”Get your sunglasses off, get your hoodie off, get your cap off.”’

The suspect then “looked around outside the business” before going back inside the store and walking to the rear of a glass jewelry display case, where the female employee was standing, the station said.

KCBS said the suspect then allegedly pulled a handgun from his jacket and began demanding that the woman open the jewelry case.

“The suspect raised the gun toward the employee multiple times and used a flashlight in his other hand to push the employee,” police said, according to the station.

The employee — who wished to be identified only as Alin — told KCBS she was scared but also enraged, so she fought back.

“He said, ‘Don’t scream … just open the case,'” Alin recalled to the station, adding that she pushed him and told him to leave.

“The suspect shattered the glass case with the gun and attempted to grab items from the case, but was pushed out of the business by the employee,” police said, according to KCBS.

Alin added to the station that the crook shocked her lower body with a stun gun amid the fight, and he was able to grab some store items before running off.

RELATED: Video: Masked smash-and-grab robbers don’t look so scary when jewelry store owner pulls his gun and opens fire

While Alin told KCBS that the encounter shook her up, she wasn’t injured.

What’s more, she told the station her work at the jewelry store is more than just a job: “It’s my brother’s store, you know.”

The store owner added to KCBS that the robber stole gold pieces, watches, diamond rings, gold chains, and bracelets — adding up to a loss in the thousands of dollars.

“When you have a jewelry store, you feel like you are targeted in these kind of places, to be honest,” the store owner, who wished to remain anonymous, noted to the station. “Especially with gold prices soaring so high …”

The store owner added to KCBS that the incident marks the second time his place of business has been hit by theft, but he’s hopeful that state laws can be changed to protect store employees and customers.

“I don’t want to have that kind of feeling where every customer comes in wearing a hoodie and … sunglasses, and I have to now tell them, ‘Get your sunglasses off, get your hoodie off, get your cap off.’ Is that the way that we should be working?” he told the station.

More from KCBS:

Police say that as the suspect ran from the store, another person hit him with a chair to try and slow him down, but the suspect was able to continue running and was last seen heading west through the mall.

A gun recovered at the scene was found to be an unloaded and inoperable BB gun, according to police.

Police are asking those with more information about the incident to contact them at 909-621-4771, the station said.

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​Jewelry store, Robbery, Armed robbery, Stun gun, California, Montclair, Fighting back, Defending property, Police, Police investigation, Crime 

Jesse Jackson, a giant in the civil rights movement and founder of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, died Tuesday morning at age 84.

President Trump took a moment to recall Jackson’s achievements and their surprisingly close working relationship.

‘He had much to do with the Election, without acknowledgment or credit, of Barack Hussein Obama, a man who Jesse could not stand.’

On Tuesday morning, Trump posted a message on Truth Social remembering the civil rights leader as a “good man” with “street smarts.”

“The Reverend Jesse Jackson is Dead at 84. I knew him well, long before becoming President. He was a good man, with lots of personality, grit, and ‘street smarts.’ He was very gregarious — Someone who truly loved people! Despite the fact that I am falsely and consistently called a Racist by the Scoundrels and Lunatics on the Radical Left, Democrats ALL, it was always my pleasure to help Jesse along the way,” Trump said.

RELATED: Judge orders Trump administration to restore slavery exhibits to presidential home site

Photo by Antonio Dickey/Getty Images

Trump detailed the ways that he helped Jackson throughout the years, especially as president.

“I provided office space for him and his Rainbow Coalition, for years, in the Trump Building at 40 Wall Street; Responded to his request for help in getting CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORM passed and signed, when no other President would even try; Single handedly pushed and passed long term funding for Historically Black Colleges & Universities (HBCUs), which Jesse loved, but also, which other Presidents would not do; Responded to Jesse’s support for Opportunity Zones, the single most successful economic development package yet approved for Black business men/women, and much more,” he continued.

“Jesse was a force of nature like few others before him. He had much to do with the Election, without acknowledgment or credit, of Barack Hussein Obama, a man who Jesse could not stand. He loved his family greatly, and to them I send my deepest sympathies and condolences. Jesse will be missed!”

Jackson is widely regarded as Martin Luther King Jr.’s successor in the civil rights movement. He was also a presidential candidate in 1984 and 1988.

The announcement of his “peaceful” death was published Tuesday morning on the Rainbow Coalition’s website.

“Our father was a servant leader — not only to our family, but to the oppressed, the voiceless, and the overlooked around the world,” said the Jackson family. “We shared him with the world, and in return, the world became part of our extended family. His unwavering belief in justice, equality, and love uplifted millions, and we ask you to honor his memory by continuing the fight for the values he lived by.”

Reverend Jackson is survived by his wife, Jacqueline, their children — Santita, Jesse Jr., Jonathan, Yusef, and Jacqueline — daughter Ashley Jackson, and grandchildren, according to the announcement. Ashley Jackson was born out of wedlock in 1999 to Jackson and Karin Stanford as a result of a four-year affair, according to Primetimer.

Public observances will be held in Chicago; final arrangements for his celebration of life will be announced on the Rainbow PUSH Coalition website.

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​Politics, Jesse jackson, Civil rights, President trump, Trump tower, Obama, Mlk jr, Rainbow push coalition, Rainbow coalition, Barack hussein obama