A former teacher of the year from Mississippi has been arrested on charges of child sex crimes, according to authorities.

The Sun Herald reported that Olivia Marie Smith was arrested and charged with sexual battery and enticement of a child to meet for sexual purposes.

‘We want to reassure parents, students, and staff that we are addressing this matter with seriousness and diligence.’

Anyone convicted of sexual battery in Mississippi faces up to 30 years in prison, according to the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network.

Mississippi state law notes that anyone convicted of enticement of a child to meet for sexual purposes faces a minimum prison sentence of two years and a 10-year maximum, plus a fine of up to $10,000.

Jackson County Circuit Court Judge Calvin Taylor set Smith’s bond at $100,000 during a probable cause hearing Thursday

Smith was an assistant principal at the Oak Park Elementary School at the time of her arrest, according to the Sun Herald. But SuperTalk Mississippi Media reported that Smith was a teacher at Ocean Springs Middle School at the time of the alleged child sex crimes. Both schools are part of the same district.

WLOX-TV reported that Smith won teacher of the year in 2022 when she was employed at Ocean Springs Middle School.

The Ocean Springs Police Department said it was alerted June 20 about accusations of a school staffer having an inappropriate sexual relationship with a student.

The Ocean Springs School District issued a statement to WLOX saying, “After being tipped off about potential inappropriate behavior taking place involving an employee, OSSD immediately notified OSPD and Mississippi Child Protective Services.”

The school district also conducted an internal investigation into the accusations.

The Sun Herald reported that police conducted an investigation and accused Smith of engaging in a sexual relationship with a student.

The Ocean Springs School District is fully cooperating with authorities in the investigation, police said.

The district said it fired Smith following an internal investigation.

Smith is not listed on the Oak Park Elementary School website or on the Ocean Springs Middle School site.

RELATED: Former first-grade teacher pleads guilty to sex crimes against teen student after she allegedly admitted affair to husband

The Ocean Springs School District said in the statement, “We are deeply saddened by charges announced today by the Ocean Springs Police Department against one of our former employees.”

“We understand the gravity of this situation and the concern it may raise in our community,” the school district said.

The statement continued, “We want to reassure parents, students, and staff that we are addressing this matter with seriousness and diligence. The safety of our students and staff members remains our highest priority.”

The school district said it “will not have any further comments on this matter.”

Neither the Ocean Springs Police Department nor the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office immediately responded to Blaze News‘ requests for comment.

Anyone with information about the case is urged to contact the Ocean Springs Police Department at 228-875-2211 or Mississippi Coast Crime Stoppers at 1-877-787-5898.

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​Child sex crimes, Middle school, Mississippi, Teacher of the year, Sexual battery, Arrest, Crime 

Former first lady Michelle Obama recently told SXSW London that imposter syndrome is something she sees in women, minorities, and people who don’t think they’re supposed to be in positions of power — but not in white men.

And BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock couldn’t disagree more.

“To have sat at every powerful table there is, I have seen it all. Every table. I’ve been at it … it’s not all that. Because there’s so many people like me, like you, women, minorities, folks who aren’t supposed to be at these tables because they are sitting around thinking that they are imposters,” Obama said.

“You know, imposter syndrome. … I haven’t met one [white man] who has felt it,” she added.

“Obama is describing something real. That ache is real. She just got the diagnosis wrong because imposter syndrome is not a white problem, and it is not a black problem. It’s a God problem,” Whitlock says.

He describes imposter syndrome as the “fear men and women carry when they wear their resume as armor rather than the armor of God.”

“The only people who feel like frauds are the people who forgot whose they are,” he explains.

“The world looks at that feeling and prescribes more affirmation, more representation, more DEI. We’ll fix the fear of not belonging by putting more people in the room. And it never works. The ache gets worse,” he adds.

Unlike Obama, Whitlock believes that imposter syndrome isn’t defined by the color of your skin.

“Only imposters have imposter syndrome. And I’m not saying that about black people. I’m saying it about secular people, about every person, any color, who built their identity on a foundation that can’t hold the weight,” he says.

The fear is that someone will recognize that you don’t belong in the seat you’re in, which comes from “believing your seat was given to you for a reason that has nothing to do with you.”

“And here’s where we have to be honest. We have to be honest about DEI and affirmative action because this is the uncomfortable part. When you tell an entire generation you’re here to fill a quota, you’re here because of your skin, you’re here to make the numbers look right, you have manufactured imposter syndrome on an industrial scale,” Whitlock explains.

“Of course they feel like frauds,” he says, adding, “You told them they were.”

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​Jason whitlock, Michelle obama, White men, Dei, Affirmative action, Imposter syndrome, Blazetv show 

Trouble likely awaits a budget resolution tied to the SAVE America Act as it heads to the stubborn upper chamber of Congress.

On Wednesday, the House passed a $95 billion budget resolution, 216-214, carrying with it important incentives for states to pass the SAVE America Act, alongside funding for Iran-related operations and farm aid.

‘It’s like the Senate is a place that you send things when you want them to die.’

The $95 billion package includes $73 billion for defense and intelligence funding, $12 billion for agricultural aid, and $10 billion in election-related funding for states, a key aspect of the SAVE America Act.

The bill itself is five primary issues: voter ID, proof of citizenship to register, an end to universal mail-in ballots, and bans on transgender athletes in women’s sports and transgender surgery for minors.

The SAVE America Act is now sitting with a Republican-controlled Senate that is in apparently no rush to deal with it.

Trump ramped up his pressure campaign against Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) at a Georgia rally Wednesday, urging supporters to flood Thune’s office with calls demanding action on passing the budget bill and, eventually, the SAVE America Act.

RELATED: House narrowly passes SAVE America Act as rider to trillion-dollar spending bill

Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

He credited Johnson and the House for doing their part, but blamed the Senate for the holdup: “It’s like the Senate is a place that you send things when you want them to die.”

“We’re not going to take this any longer. … I’m trying to be nice; I’m trying to be really nice,” Trump added.

Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) also suggested on X that Thune should “step aside” if he won’t act.

Politico’s reporting from inside the GOP conference shows the resistance runs well past the three sitting holdouts — Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.).

A source familiar with the matter told Blaze News that Thune is prioritizing the continuing resolution to avoid another shutdown and that the budget resolution is in reserve.

Asked Wednesday how close he was to 50 votes, Thune said only, “Good question.”

By Thursday, he was blunter: “I can’t count to 50 right now on a budget resolution.”

Per Politico, Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) told reporters Wednesday he doesn’t expect Thune to take it up at all; Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) isn’t sure the votes exist in the first place; and newly named Budget Chairman Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said there has been no formal conversation yet.

Thune himself has asked colleagues, “Is the juice worth the squeeze?”

Reconciliation needs only a simple majority, as opposed to the 60-vote threshold for passing bills into law. Even so, the bill has failed twice — once in April and again in June — with Collins, Murkowski, Tillis, and Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) voting no alongside every Democrat both times.

RELATED: New Jersey’s noncitizen voter blame game doesn’t add up — literally

Win McNamee/Getty Images

Earlier this month, Speaker Johnson called the package “our best shot” at 50 votes plus Vice President JD Vance as the tiebreaker. For now, McConnell’s indefinite absence drops the vote count to 99, meaning Republicans need a plain majority. One holdout flipping to yes still passes it outright, while an abstention reopens a possible 49-49 tie, putting Vance’s tiebreaker back in play.

Only if all three hold firm does the package fail.

Asked directly at Tuesday’s weekly Senate GOP leadership press conference whether the House’s reconciliation push is more than an academic exercise, Thune demurred: “We’ll see … what they get done this week and what it all consists of.”

He confirmed the Senate would “hold” any budget resolution the House sends over — but specifically as a fallback to fund the government, not to advance the SAVE America Act.

“I hope that’s not necessary,” he said, noting he’s already having “productive conversations” with Democrats on a separate funding deal to carry the government past the November election.

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​Andy ogles, Budget resolution, Jd vance, Mitch mcconnell, Proof of citizenship, Ron johnson, Save america act, Senate, Susan collins, Thom tillis, Transgender athletes, Transgender surgery, Voter id, John thune, Politics 

President Donald Trump is bullish on American technology and keen to see America dominate the “global race for AI.” He has, accordingly, become a champion of artificial intelligence data centers and has even tasked his administration with using federally owned land and resources to help develop them.

Trump emphasized during an event on Thursday at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency headquarters in the national capital that opposition to the erection of data centers across the country is futile — but that consumers should not fear having to shoulder the burden of supporting such inevitable facilities.

‘You have to go with it.’

In his State of the Union address in February, the president acknowledged that many Americans are “concerned that energy demand from AI data centers could unfairly drive up their electric utility bills.”

Recent polls show that Americans largely oppose data centers. A Gallup poll conducted in March found that 71% of Americans somewhat or strongly oppose the construction of an AI data center in their area. A survey conducted this month by Public First found that 41% of respondents oppose building a data center within three miles of their homes, up from 28% in January, and only 24% of respondents support such an initiative, down from 37% at the beginning of the year.

To assuage such concerns, Trump announced in his SOTU speech that the negotiation of the “Rate Payer Protection Pledge,” which has companies agree to: spare consumers from price hikes by building, bringing, or buying new power supply; paying for new power delivery infrastructure upgrades; paying special rates “whether they use the electricity or not”; and investing local job creation.

Within days of the announcement, Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Oracle, and xAI signed the nonbinding pledge.

On Thursday, Trump revealed that the pledge now has among its signatories 23 governors, various state legislators, numerous electricity providers, and data center developers.

RELATED: The path to America-first AI

The three Republican governors who did not sign the pledge were Phil Scott of Vermont, Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, and Ron DeSantis of Florida. DeSantis ratified legislation in May to ensure that “local governments maintain the authority to reject data center development in their communities” and to protect Florida’s water resources from data center consumption.

According to the White House, the pledge “now covers 80% of all power delivered to U.S. homes and businesses and protects 263 million Americans when a data center is built nearby.”

After suggesting that adherence to the pledge and the construction of additional infrastructure to support the incoming data centers would actually drive down utility rates, Trump stressed that “America’s goal must be to dominate the future, and that includes being the number one superpower in artificial intelligence.”

“Whoever wins that race is probably going to win, period,” he added.

Trump suggested that foreign “propaganda” might be partly to blame for those “communists” and others now opposed to having data centers in their back yards. According to the president, communities desirous of data centers “are the smart communities because it means tremendous numbers of jobs, very little actual disruption.”

“You have to convince your community how great these things — you can’t fight it. You have to go with it,” said Trump.

“If you don’t have it, everybody else wants it.”

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​Amazon, Artificial intelligence, Donald trump, Meta, Openai, Oracle, Politics 

Google already has a reputation for spying on users through the microphones embedded in smart devices. Some of these accusations have even landed Google in legal trouble. Now the company looks to make its eavesdropping software public with a new AI-powered listening feature for Pixel phones called “Audio Memory.”

Before we dive too deep, keep in mind that Google hasn’t officially announced this feature yet. Instead, the words “Audio Memory” were spotted in a software teardown by 9to5Google for Android System Intelligence, an app integrated into the Android’s core system that controls various smart features, such as Live Captions, Live Translate, and more.

A privacy concern for users and a legal nightmare for Google?

While the feature isn’t live yet, it’s clearly in development and may launch sometime in the future. Still, there are some hints around what Audio Memory will actually do, and none of it is particularly good if you like privacy.

What is Audio Memory?

Google left a few clues in the Android System Intelligence teardown about what its new feature could entail. “Audio Memory” is listed under the codenamed “blueflax,” and it will supposedly “keep track of what you hear throughout your day, from the music around you to your important conversations.”

Folks who follow Google’s always-listening track record already know that Android comes equipped with a couple of services that hear the world around you.

For starters, compatible Android phones listen for the “Hey, Google” or “OK, Google” hot words that summon either Google Gemini or Google Assistant on demand (depending on the age and capability of your device).

Second, Google Pixel phones all come with a “Now Playing” feature that listens for songs playing within reach of your phone and automatically displays the name of the song on your home screen. It’s a neat little feature for those times you like a song and want to know more about it, but it’s also kind of creepy when you consider that your phone has to constantly analyze the music you hear in public to display the correct information.

Audio Memory sounds like an expansion of Now Playing, except instead of just music, it’s now listening for everything. Based on Google’s wording in the teardown, the feature will likely function in a similar manner as AI pins, which record conversations to be saved, analyzed, and archived into readable transcripts and memorable audio files.

Questions abound

The part that’s unclear is whether or not Audio Memory is constantly active or if it must be triggered before it starts listening. AI pins are designed to do the latter — they have to be powered on and told when to record a conversation by pressing a button, ensuring they can’t eavesdrop on something you don’t want them to hear.

RELATED: Private companies are tracking your location without notice or a warrant — and it’s all perfectly legal

Moor Studio/Getty Images

Google, however, takes a different approach, at least with hot words and Now Playing. These are always active, waiting to be needed. If Audio Memory works the same way — always listening to and recording your conversations — this feature is both a privacy concern for users and a legal nightmare for Google.

Imagine having every conversation saved and analyzed directly on Google’s servers for the sake of what? Preservation? Memories? Or something more sinister? Aside from the endless lawsuits Google would face over such a feature, most phones also don’t have the battery capacity to listen to and record audio all day long. This, at least to me, is the one shred of hope that says Audio Memory isn’t as intrusive as it sounds on the surface. There’s clearly more about this feature we don’t know yet.

One final question remains: Which phones will receive Audio Memory?

The feature was first spotted in a version of Android System Intelligence for Google Pixel 10. This is to be expected, since Pixel 10 is currently Google’s latest released smartphone, and the company likes to test new features on its hardware first. There’s also a chance that Audio Memory is a Pixel-exclusive, just like Call Screening, Magic Eraser, and Gemini integration before it, though many of these features usually trickle down into the rest of the Android ecosystem over time. Lastly, depending on how much on-device processing is involved, there’s a chance that Audio Memory isn’t even compatible with older Android devices that don’t support local AI.

A simple choice?

Given Google’s recent legal troubles over always-listening privacy concerns, the company is likely to tread lightly with Audio Memory to avoid further litigation. However, most of the legal complaints Google received came from its always-listening software secretly recording conversations without users’ knowledge. The game changes if Google convinces users to allow Audio Memory to record their lives willingly. After that, the company theoretically has an open invitation to listen to everything its users do and say.

I guess we’ll have to wait for Audio Memory to launch to get the rest of the story.

​Google, Android, Security, Cell phones, Tech 

A Democratic state representative who pleaded guilty last year to refusing a breathalyzer during a DUI arrest has crashed out once again, this time over U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s arrest of his “neighbor,” an illegal alien identified by authorities as a “known member of MS-13.”

Rhode Island state Rep. Enrique Sanchez (D) has even apparently threatened ICE for getting the dangerous foreigner off American streets.

‘State Rep. Enrique Sanchez should be thanking our law enforcement for removing dangerous criminals.’

Ivan Rene Mendoza Meza, a 28-year-old also known as “El Negro,” stole into the U.S. illegally at least twice. According to ICE, he is “a self-admitted member of MS-13 in Honduras and states he has committed crimes on behalf of the gang,” which is a designated foreign terrorist organization.

ICE Boston issued an immigration detainer for Mendoza following his August 2023 arrest for allegedly trafficking fentanyl, a substance that killed an estimated 38,084 Americans just last year.

Mendoza was accused of being one of the “key members” of a drug-trafficking organization and linked to a residence where five bags of fentanyl pills along with a digital scale and an anti-GPS tracking device were allegedly discovered during a raid.

The 6th District Court of Rhode Island disregarded the detainer and cut the gangster loose on bond.

He spent two years as a free man, but after a brief chase that prompted the involvement of Providence Police and the evacuation of a multi-unit home, the gangster was finally captured by ICE on July 13, 2025.

The MS-13 terrorist’s capture caused apoplexy among the usual suspects.

RELATED: ICE haters claim victory after ‘major bank’ shuts down deals with detention companies

Mostafa Bassim/Anadolu/Getty Images

The Rhode Island branch of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, for instance, condemned the presence of local police at the time of the gangster’s capture, calling for the termination of Providence Police Department Chief Oscar Perez, and demanding the removal of ICE from city streets.

State Rep. Enrique Sanchez, a self-identified socialist, also melted down, calling ICE “the Nazi Gestapo,” referring to the gangster as his “neighbor,” and characterizing their successful operation as an “act of terror.”

This week Sanchez — whose big mouth and radicalism previously got him in trouble during his time as a substitute Spanish teacher — suggested that he had mental problems and that ICE was the cause.

“Fighting and dealing with ICE since last year has f**ked me up in the head after trying to protect and defend hundreds and hundreds of our community members in Providence and across Rhode Island,” wrote the radical.

Sanchez then issued an apparent threat to ICE, stating, “Your day of reckoning will come motherf**kers. I swear to god.”

He shared a version of the same message on Instagram in a foreign tongue.

When asked for comment, ICE referred Blaze News to the Department of Homeland Security, which said of Sanchez’s remarks, “Because of smears and attacks like this, our ICE officers are now facing a 1,300% increase in assaults against them as they put their lives on the line to arrest murderers, rapists, pedophiles, gang members, and terrorists.”

The DHS noted that “instead of vilifying law enforcement, state Rep. Enrique Sanchez should be thanking our law enforcement for removing dangerous criminals,” then proceeded to list a number of criminal noncitizens whom ICE has captured, including Mariel Valdez Nunez, an illegal alien from the Dominican Republic convicted of human slavery; Phet Phommasinh, an illegal alien from Laos convicted of homicide, assault, and aggravated assault with a weapon; and Touthtou Sengsavang, an illegal alien from Laos convicted of failure to register as a sex offender, molestation of a minor, selling cocaine, and other crimes.

Sanchez, who has repeatedly vowed that ICE “will pay” for doing their jobs, responded, “Ok.”

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​Department of homeland security, Ice, Ms-13, Rhode island, Us immigration and customs enforcement, Politics 

The atrocious assassination of Charlie Kirk last September has ignited numerous conspiracy theories, some of which involve the nation of Israel. Even though Charlie was publicly very pro-Israel for years, especially in light of the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks, rumors that the TPUSA founder was beginning to waver on his support for the Jewish nation have led some to speculate that Israel might have been involved in his murder.

So where did Charlie Kirk and Turning Point USA really fall on the issue of Israel?

On a recent episode of “Rufo and Lomez,” co-host Jonathan Keeperman sat down with executive producer of “The Charlie Kirk Show” and TPUSA spokesman Andrew Kolvet, who addressed this question.

“This issue [of Israel] was probably the most difficult for Charlie to navigate in life,” says Kolvet.

He explains that for Charlie, there was one “bright line” when it came to Israel: “Jew-hate has no place in the conservative movement,” and “the scapegoating of an entire people group” is an “ancient evil” that cannot be tolerated.

However, that doesn’t mean that he was ever part of the hard-line, activist “pro-Israel” crowd who demand unconditional, unquestioning support for every Israeli policy. That’s why Charlie was sometimes “accused of being an anti-Semite,” Kolvet explains.

He notes that the “driving force” of the Trump-era conservative movement — which Charlie heavily shaped — has always been “non-interventionalism.”

“Charlie was certainly a driver of that and certainly a proponent of that. He wanted the government to focus more on domestic issues, but he also wasn’t willing to go to that point and blame, you know, a small nation in the Middle East for all the world’s ills,” Kolvet tells Keeperman.

This balanced stance became harder to maintain after Hamas’ October 7 attacks. Many on the right who already held non-interventionist views saw the war in Gaza as validation of their skepticism toward Israel.

“This is an instance of where our preconceived bias, confirmation bias was played into by geopolitical events,” Kolvet says.

The intense fighting reinforced the idea that U.S. ties to Israel drag America into foreign conflicts, creating a “perceived reality” that has grown since October 7 and put pressure on Charlie’s middle position. “It’s a tricky issue,” Kolvet acknowledges, “but we have to be able to say a couple things very, very clearly, I think, on our side if we’re going to keep the coalition together.”

“One, we are America first. Our interests are more important than Israel’s interests. If you are an American, that has got to be a bright line in the sand,” he adds, acknowledging that there are legitimate questions about Israel spying on the U.S., the recurring “$4 billion” in annual U.S. aid to Israel, and the sharing of intelligence and technology with the Israeli military.

“I think those are all valid questions, because we have to be about our own business first and foremost. We have to be about our own priorities first and foremost,” he adds.

However, if American interests “align with Israel,” Kolvet sees that as a positive.

“I certainly don’t think we should be asking that same question when it comes to Hamas, for example, right? … There’s no moral equivalency between the two,” he says. “But we also have to just be really up front that we have domestic issues that we need to get done and we need to accomplish or we’re going to lose this country and the West will fall if America does not get this right.”

He laments the reality that the conservative base’s division over Israel has “poured into the story of Charlie.”

Ultimately, TPUSA stands for two basic principles, says Kolvet: “Reject Jew-hate,” but “be about our own business first” and then address “geopolitics and foreign policy.”

To hear more, watch the video above.

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​Chris rufo, Jonathan keeperman, Andrew kolvet, Tpusa, America first agenda, Israel, Charlie kirk, Rufo & lomez, Blazetv show 

America’s AI debate is a hot mess. Policymakers, technologists, investors, and activists cannot agree on the destination, the strategy, the acceptable costs, or even what “winning” the artificial intelligence race means.

That confusion shuts ordinary Americans out of a debate that will shape their jobs, businesses, institutions, and way of life. Yet an America-first AI regime cannot be designed only by Washington policymakers, Silicon Valley moguls, or a priesthood of engineers. It must serve the people who build businesses, sign paychecks, raise families, and sustain the country.

America’s technological order should be built around productive citizens rather than a handful of companies pursuing a woo-woo race to turn the planet into a cyber-utopia.

My Independence Day forecast looks more accurate now than it did when I wrote it: No single political authority controls America’s technological future, and no shared moral authority guides it. We still have the Declaration, the Constitution, federalism, and one another. Almost everything else remains unsettled.

The Kimi shock

Since July 4, factional warfare among the AI elite has intensified after the release of Kimi, a Chinese open-source model that reportedly outperformed leading American closed-source systems on important benchmarks.

Kimi did not emerge from an isolated Chinese laboratory. Its engineers trained it by distilling capabilities from American proprietary models — the very systems OpenAI, Anthropic, and their allies argue must remain closed to preserve America’s lead.

The result presents a serious problem. America has poured immense financial, scientific, and political capital into closed frontier labs. If Chinese developers can cheaply reproduce much of their practical value, Washington faces a nightmarish choice: either cede global AI leadership and control to Beijing or allow the pursuit of AI dominance to transform our form of government into something we may not recognize as “American.”

America’s historic model combines private innovation, free markets, and strategic federal investment. That model has supported both prosperity and national power. But if massive collaboration between government and closed-source hyperscalers cannot sustain an AI edge, Americans deserve a debate about what comes next — not a panic-driven transfer of more power and money to the same institutions.

How can America face the future if its greatest strategic advantage has become a liability? Without public agreement on what should replace the old model — or even what kind of country a “refounded” United States should be — what can we do next?

RELATED: The question of the AI age: How much humanism is too much?

Moor Studio/iStock/Getty Images

Three rival factions

Right now, among the AI elite, three factions have emerged in response to this problem.

The first faction argues that Kimi changes less than it appears. Chinese engineers did not surpass American frontier models across the board; they optimized around the most expensive benchmarks and competed where open systems could win. Closed labs can adjust, Washington can revise its strategy, and American dominance can survive.

That may be partly right. Frontier labs still possess enormous resources, talent, and political support. They will not disappear simply because open models become more useful.

The second faction believes such economic and political concerns will soon become obsolete. Its members expect recursively self-improving artificial superintelligence to transform or absorb human civilization. Their task, as they see it, is to accelerate the transition and ensure that it occurs under acceptable management. If done right, we would enter a new age that would be pleasurable beyond comprehension.

The test of an America-first AI policy is whether advanced technology strengthens the constitutional nation and the people who give it life.

The left-coded version appears in Effective Altruism. The right-coded version insists that America, not China, must command the coming superintelligence. Both treat maximum acceleration as a moral imperative. From that perspective, open-source AI is dangerous because it disperses capability, slows the drive toward a single frontier breakthrough, and weakens the control of the institutions leading the race.

The third faction rejects the bargain behind closed-source supremacy. Its argument is that hyperscalers are frightening Americans into financing their rise as private governors of technological progress. The companies gain ungodly wealth and authority; Washington gains the hope of planetary AI dominance; citizens inherit the cost and the risk.

Kimi strengthens that argument because it competed by optimizing for what businesses actually need: efficient computing, useful workflows, enterprise deployment, and practical web applications. Open models can undercut closed systems precisely where American economic life is strongest — decentralized experimentation by workers, entrepreneurs, and firms.

This faction therefore urges America to embrace and encourage domestic open-source AI. The point is not that every model must be public or that frontier capabilities require no safeguards. It is that America’s technological order should be built around productive citizens rather than a handful of companies pursuing a woo-woo race to turn the planet into a cyber-utopia.

RELATED: America needs an artificial intelligence coalition, not an AI fortress

Burcu Demir/iStock/Getty Images

The real America-first path

Of the three positions, the third offers the clearest route to America-first AI because it begins with the right political subject: the American people. Technology should enlarge their capacity to create, compete, govern themselves, and live well. They should not be treated as raw material for a government-corporate project aimed at controlling the future.

The first faction is also correct that closed frontier labs will remain part of the system. Some Americans genuinely want to invest heavily in the most powerful possible models. The federal government also believes its military, financial, and geopolitical position may depend on sovereign access to frontier AI.

That belief creates the greatest danger.

Washington may conclude that preserving its global dominance requires technological control beyond civilian resistance. If officials decide they must choose between the survival of the federal regime and the survival of America’s constitutional order, “national security” will become the justification for hoarding data, compute, models, and authority on a scale the country has never seen.

China would then win without beating America at the frontier. By flooding the world with useful, inexpensive, business-friendly open models, Beijing could tempt Washington into becoming more centralized, secretive, and coercive — less recognizably American.

America should refuse that trap. It should protect genuinely dangerous capabilities, preserve a competitive frontier sector, and make room for open models that empower American businesses and citizens. The test of an America-first AI policy is not whether it produces the most powerful machine at any cost. The test is whether advanced technology strengthens the constitutional nation and the people who give it life.

If our AI strategy requires America to stop being America, China has already won.

​Artificial intelligence, Artificial superintelligence, Federal government, New age, National security, America first, Generative ai, China, Effective altruism, Open-source ai, Opinion & analysis, Tech 

Recess should be fun — unless a bully threatens to take your lunch money in exchange for “protection.”

When I became a teacher, I encountered the adult version of that schoolyard racket: the teachers’ union.

For educators tired of national union bullying, the answer is increasingly clear: Go local.

This is neither imaginary nor unusual. Teachers across the country face pressure from two dominant organizations, the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers.

Educators hand over hundreds of dollars in dues every year, only to watch the national unions spend their money on political causes and ideological campaigns that often have little to do with helping teachers in their classrooms.

Sometimes, the unions wander far beyond education altogether.

What happens when a teacher pushes back?

Kelley LaBedz, a client of the Center for Independent Employees, learned that questioning the union can invite retaliation. One California teacher wrote an entire book about the intimidation she faced from national teachers’ unions.

During my own teaching career, I endured several tense conversations with a union representative because I had not completed a membership form.

The message was obvious: Compliance was expected.

Why, then, do so many teachers remain members of the NEA and AFT?

Several reasons. The answer is not simple.

For more than half a century, teachers’ unions have taken credit for protecting health insurance, pensions, and other benefits. They offer liability coverage and representation in disputes with administrators. Many educators fear that their material security will disappear without union membership.

Many also do not know that alternatives exist.

The Supreme Court opened one escape route in 2018. In Janus v. AFSCME, the court held that compelling public employees to subsidize union speech raises serious First Amendment concerns.

Public school teachers may now opt out of paying dues or fees to the NEA and AFT. Thousands have done so.

At the Center for Independent Employees, however, we are pursuing another path: replacing national union affiliates with independent local unions.

Independent locals can serve teachers without sending money and authority to national organizations. They can negotiate pay, benefits, and working conditions while reflecting the values and priorities of the communities they represent.

They also give teachers the security they need without forcing them to support the NEA’s or AFT’s broader political agenda.

This model directly challenges the national unions’ fear-based strategy.

By going local, educators can eliminate layers of bureaucracy, reduce overhead, and keep dues close to home. They can also weaken the enormous political influence national unions wield in state capitals and Washington.

Independent locals often foster a more cooperative relationship with administrators and school boards. National organizations thrive on permanent conflict. Local associations have stronger incentives to solve problems inside the district.

The movement is growing.

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Jacek Boczarski/Anadolu/Getty Images

In Kansas, teachers in 30 school districts have broken from the NEA through independent local unions. Educators in California, Ohio, and other states are exploring the same approach.

The NEA and AFT have shown little interest in changing course.

Their leaders continue accumulating political power even as teacher frustration rises and academic performance declines. They dismiss parents’ concerns while confidence in public education falls to all-time lows.

Organizations created to represent teachers have become increasingly detached from them.

The national unions are more consumed with ideology, institutional power, and political influence than with the day-to-day needs of educators. By claiming to speak for every teacher, they also damage the reputation of millions who do not share their agenda.

Teachers do not have to accept this arrangement.

They should not be forced to choose between professional representation and financial support for causes they oppose. They should not have to surrender local control to distant union executives. And they should not have to tolerate intimidation for asking where their dues go.

For educators tired of national union bullying, the answer is increasingly clear: Go local.

Teachers in Kansas and across the country are standing up for themselves, one district at a time.

​Teachers unions, Public schools, School lunch programs, Nea, Supreme court, Opinion & analysis 

I like to stay fit, which means I spend a fair share of my life dodging supplement ads that follow me across the internet like demented pigeons. Open YouTube and a square-jawed influencer explains why his morning requires 17 capsules, three powders, and something harvested from a mountain reachable only by yak.

Every week brings a new miracle molecule. Last week it sold longevity. This week, telepathy. Next week, immortality.

This is the tragic comedy of wellness culture. We obsess over optimization while ignoring the obvious.

Then there is the cult of optimization, embodied by Bryan Johnson, the man who turned his own body into the priciest science project in operation. Johnson’s regimen reportedly involves constant blood testing, endless biometric tracking, and enough pills to stock a pharmacy. He once had a liter of his teenage son’s plasma pumped into his veins and shipped his own down to his 70-year-old father. The biomarkers showed nothing, so he stopped.

Yet even Johnson recently revealed that he has autoimmune gastritis, a chronic disease in which, as he put it, “my stomach is eating itself.” After years of measuring almost everything measurable, biology still found a way to surprise him

Ordinary people may not have the means to go to the extremes Johnson does, but they have absorbed the same basic message: that health is something you buy rather than something you build.

Pill-pilled

You see it at any gym. A middle-aged accountant arrives with a supplement stack heavier than his dumbbells. A retiree keeps a cupboard that resembles a chemistry bench. Someone winded by a single staircase swallows enough capsules each morning to rattle when he walks.

Our ancestors built civilizations and survived brutal winters without starting each day on a fistful of tablets. Plenty of them died young, taken by infection or a tooth gone septic. But many of the chronic diseases now filling supplement advertisements were far less common than they are today. Their greatest threats came from outside the body. Ours are increasingly self-inflicted.

But some supplements still earn their place. A recent review of the evidence offers a useful reminder that health runs far simpler than the industry selling it wants us to believe.

The point isn’t that supplements never work. It’s that they work best when they correct an actual deficiency.

The review focuses on older adults, the group most likely to develop genuine nutritional shortfalls. Appetite fades with age. Medications interfere with absorption. Bad teeth turn eating into a chore, and illness complicates the rest.

In those cases, targeted supplementation helps.

B is for boring

Vitamin B12 is the clearest example. Deficiency becomes more common with age and can lead to fatigue, nerve damage, and even anemia. Vitamin D matters for people who rarely see the sun or face a higher risk of fractures. Folate has its uses. Calcium and magnesium help when the diet falls short. Omega-3 supplementation may also benefit some people, particularly those who consume little oily fish.

Notice the pattern. The supplements that earn their keep are the incredibly boring ones.

Nobody films a breathless video about correcting a documented B12 deficiency. No fjord-gazing influencer hawks a luxury magnesium subscription against a slow-motion sunrise. Common sense doesn’t trend.

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Meat is medicine

The most striking finding in the review involves protein.

For all the noise about exotic compounds and futuristic blends, many older adults simply don’t eat enough of it. That gap accelerates muscle loss and costs them their independence. A chicken breast and a good steak may do more for healthy aging than an entire shelf of capsules.

This is the tragic comedy of wellness culture. We obsess over optimization while ignoring the obvious.

Supplements promise something modern people desperately want: the feeling that health can be outsourced to a purchase rather than earned through habit.

No mystery

The body isn’t nearly as mysterious as the wellness industry pretends. Sleep still does the heavy lifting. Resistance training still preserves muscle. A sensible diet still outperforms most supplement stacks. Protein still matters more than almost anyone admits.

These points are rather dull. They flatline on a podcast and resist packaging into a $90 tub. Nobody gets rich selling a balanced breakfast. No influencer films a viral hit called “The Shocking Secret of Eating Enough Protein.”

The supplement market thrives because basics bore us and shortcuts seduce us. People would rather believe longevity hides inside a capsule pulled from a rare plant than accept that the answer involves lifting heavy things, eating enough protein, and getting to bed at a sensible hour.

So the market keeps ballooning on the promise that health can be bought instead of built.

Dig in

Sometimes a supplement is the right call. A confirmed deficiency deserves treatment. Certain medical conditions demand it. But the evidence keeps arriving at a conclusion that borders on anticlimactic.

For most people without a documented deficiency, more pills don’t buy better health.

The foundations stay stubbornly old-fashioned, which is exactly why nobody can sell them back to you at a markup.

After years of being told health demands endless powders and concoctions, the answer turns out to be almost insultingly plain.

The miracle formula was never in the bottle. It was on the dinner plate all along, quietly waiting while the wellness industry invented another miracle.

​Nutrition, Vitamins, Supplements, Wellness, Lifestyle, Sleep, Common sense, Make america healthy again