Hundreds of teens rampaged a Bronx shopping mall and tangled with police Monday on their day off from school — Presidents’ Day.

News 12 reported that the planned “takeover” at the Mall at Bay Plaza commenced around 2 p.m.

‘This is embarrassing. Bored? Read a book, invent something.’

Officers responded to reports of up to 200 teenagers being disorderly, WABC-TV reported.

“This is insane. I mean, I haven’t seen it this bad ever,” one neighbor, Keshana, told News 12.

The takeover spread throughout several businesses, including a McDonald’s just outside the mall, News 12 said, adding that a window at the fast-food restaurant was shattered.

“A bunch of kids just came in here they were breaking everything,” employee William Norman told News 12. “I was scared for my life, man. I got kids at home.”

WABC reported that the teens appeared to challenge officers; the New York Post said some of them were “appearing to resist and fight the cops.”

RELATED: Massive mall brawl: 300 teens descend upon shopping mall, run amok, fight — even with cops. TikTok influencer set ‘meetup.’

Indeed, one clip posted to X shows officers trying to bring a fleeing male under control, but he escapes after his comrades appear to join his tangle with police. One officer appears to take a swing at one of the mob members.

A News 12 reporter asked a group of teens on camera for the reason behind their behavior, and several replied with laughter, “We was bored!”

RELATED: 73 arrests, 3 stabbings, brawls, and a boardwalk shutdown in a Jersey Shore town over Memorial Day weekend: ‘It wasn’t great’

Authorities told News 12 that officers issued multiple warnings and ordered the large, disorderly group to disperse.

News 12 added that the takeover plan was shared on social media and that it was supposed to end after the teens were “kicked out.”

A mall spokesperson told News 12 that the mall didn’t close despite the chaotic event, which was “resolved quickly.”

Eighteen were taken into custody, News 12 said. WABC reported that the exact charges are pending.

Commenters responding to News 12’s video report didn’t take kindly to the teens’ actions — particularly their stated reason:

“They were bored???” one commenter reacted. “God forbid they stay home and pick up a book to read or maybe study or do some chores.””This is embarrassing. Bored? Read a book, invent something,” another commenter suggested.Bored? They have free wifi all over the place where you can be online for hours and yet still bored,” another commenter argued.”They’re not bored, they’re bums because their parents are bums too,” another commenter declared.”Bored? If they are bored, do something positive like [clean] up the neighborhood,” another commenter offered.

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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!

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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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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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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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