An immigrant-led nonprofit is preparing to slap New York City with a lawsuit now that democratic socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani has unveiled plans for city-run grocery stores to sell products at 30% below market rates, the New York Post reported.

The board of the Multicultural Business Coalition voted to file a lawsuit in the coming weeks to block the initiative after Mamdani announced on Monday that fresh produce, meat, seafood, and “20 other essential items like cheese, milk, and bread” would be sold at a steep discount relative to privately owned stores — with “no exceptions.”

‘The mayor doesn’t seem to want to sit down with us.’

A letter notifying the mayor’s office of the coalition’s intent to pursue legal action is expected to be sent in the coming days, the Post reported. Frank Garcia, the group’s chairman, said the challenge “should be a non-partisan initiative.”

“The mayor doesn’t seem to want to sit down with us,” Garcia told the Post, warning that Mamdani “won’t be able to bully these lawyers.”

Founded earlier this year, the MBC represents roughly 65 organizations of business owners and merchants across the New York-New Jersey region, including Hispanic, Asian, Caribbean, African, Middle Eastern, Jewish, and South Asian-owned businesses.

However, the coalition is not alone in the fight against Soviet-style grocery stores in the Big Apple. Several other groups representing grocery store owners have spoken out against Mamdani’s plans, fearing that their bottom line could be jeopardized by city-run markets.

Radhames Rodriguez, president of the United Bodegas of America, told the Post that “having items that sell for 30% less than our prices means nobody will go to our stores.”

RELATED: Socialist Mamdani says city-run grocery stores will undercut supermarkets by 30%

Adam Gray/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Grocery executive John Catsimatidis, the owner of Gristedes and D’Agostino Supermarkets, has also bashed the proposal. In an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal, Catsimatidis argued that the mayor’s program “would collapse our food supply, kill private industry, and drag us down a path toward the bread lines of the old Soviet Union.”

To address concerns that the initiative could undercut privately owned stores in neighboring areas, Mamdani said the city-run grocery stores would not sell cigarettes, alcohol, lottery tickets, or hot food — items that typically generate some of the highest profit margins for bodegas and convenience stores.

“We know that a lot of what drives revenue for these bodegas, grocery stores, those are things that make it possible for them to continue to operate. Those are not things we have any interest in competing for,” Mamdani said.

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​New york city, Zohran mamdani, Democratic socialism, Politics 

Immigration and Customs Enforcement just snagged another batch of career criminals.

The Department of Homeland Security announced another round of arrests, including child molesters, rapists, and drug dealers, on Tuesday. The illegal aliens were apprehended in targeted arrests across the country.

‘ICE is detaining and removing illegal aliens every single day.’

The DHS’ Worst of the Worst program highlights particularly egregious criminal illegal aliens apprehended by federal authorities.

“Just yesterday, ICE arrested child molesters, rapists, domestic assailants, and other worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens,” Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis told Blaze News Wednesday. “While sanctuary politicians continue to release dangerous criminals onto their streets, our brave law enforcement will continue to risk their lives to arrest these heinous criminals and make America safe again.”

Salvadoran alien Noe Rios-Hernandez was previously convicted of two counts of child molestation, three counts of illegal re-entry, and assault. She was apprehended by federal authorities in Johnson County, Iowa.

Her compatriot Maria Guadalupe Hernandez-Rodriguez was caught in Montgomery County, Maryland, and previously served time for possession of narcotics with intent to distribute.

Honduran alien and convicted rapist Erlin Molina-Ramos was also apprehended in Goshen, New York.

RELATED: Man accused of horrific sex crime tries — and FAILS — to squeak by CBP

ICE CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP/Getty Images

In Texas, ICE arrested Jose De La Luz Garcia-Pizarro, a Mexican national convicted of family violence and felony trespassing.

Cuban illegal migrant Abel Alejandro Perez-Beltran was detained in Lee County, Florida, and had a previous conviction for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

“Under President Trump’s leadership, ICE is detaining and removing illegal aliens every single day,” Bis told Blaze News.

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​Immigration and customs enforcement, Department of homeland security, Politics 

The Democratic National Committee is circling the drain.

Unlike the Republican National Committee, which had no debt and $128.53 million in cash on hand at the end of last month, the DNC under the leadership of Chairman Ken Martin had only $16.3 million on hand and was over $18.5 million in debt.

‘The result of fraudulent activity by an external third party.’

According to the New York Times, the Democratic Party is so desperate, it has begun asking vendors to put off sending invoices until after the midterm elections.

In its desperation, the DNC had to post something near and dear as collateral in order to secure a $15 million loan from Amalgamated Bank in October — a loan that was reportedly timed to enable seven-figure financial transfers to then-gubernatorial candidates in Virginia and New Jersey.

NOTUS, citing D.C. deed records, highlighted that the DNC actually put up its physical headquarters at 430 South Capitol Street in Southeast D.C. as a security — but did not explicitly note the building’s use as assurance in the relevant FEC filings.

This evidently prickled those elements within the DNC that have turned on the DNC chairman, who was described last year by party officials as “weak and whiny.”

“Ken gaslighting us about the DNC’s finances and not being transparent about the financial situation makes us doubt if he can oversee the DNC during the most important primary of our lifetime,” one DNC member said, according to NOTUS.

A DNC official said in a statement obtained by NOTUS, “This is not new. The loan documents were publicly released in November, and the DNC’s building was also used as collateral in our prior lines of credit in 2019, 2018, 2014, and many other years.”

RELATED: ‘He’s been lying to voters’: Paxton BEATS DOWN Talarico over alleged election fraud

Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Martin tried to paint lipstick on this donkey in a July 20 blog post, stating, “So why does the DNC have less cash on hand than some expect? Because we made a conscious decision to invest money in the work required to win in 2025, 2026, and beyond. We are converting the cash we raise into electoral assets: more people, earlier organizing, better technology, and stronger state parties.”

“A larger bank account does not knock on a door, register a voter, recruit a candidate, or protect the vote,” Martin wrote. “We have chosen to build. We are replacing a boom-and-bust campaign model with permanent political infrastructure. We are not choosing between winning now and building for the future. Our investments are designed to do both.”

Despite his practiced ability to cast failure in a positive light, Martin, who took over the DNC in February 2025 and whose term is supposed to end in 2029, is fast running out of friends and beginning to crack under the pressure.

Multiple sources described to the New York Times an incident earlier this month where Martin, “in a pique of frustration,” allegedly threw his phone at the desk of a junior aide while reprimanding the individual. Martin and the DNC declined the Times’ invitation to comment on the matter.

Around the DNC headquarters, which has been staked as collateral, Martin has allegedly been making dark jokes about his ouster and expressing concerns about leaks and a potential mutiny.

“Ken needs help — H-E-L-P,” former acting DNC chairwoman Donna Brazile told the Times. “And if he’s reluctant to say it, I’m here to help him ask. It’s hard. It’s very difficult.”

Some Democrats are publicly calling for Martin to throw in the towel.

California Rep. Sam Liccardo (D), for instance, tweeted on Sunday, “Ken Martin must resign. As Democrats, we have become too captured by failing strategies. We must fail forward, and pivot. The urgency of this moment will not reward — and our children will not forgive — torpidity.”

The DNC’s humiliation was compounded further this week by the revelation that besides the $75,000 or more the organization is paying in interest on the $15 million October loan, it was scammed out of nearly $29,000 last year, reportedly by an email scammer pretending to be Martin.

A senior FEC campaign finance and reviewing analyst issued a request to the DNC on July 8, 2025, for information pertaining to a “misdisbursement” totaling $28,860.92 referenced in a monthly report that “appears to be related to an apparent unauthorized disbursement of Committee funds.”

The DNC said in response that the “identified transaction was the result of fraudulent activity by an external third party.”

A committee staffer received a fraudulent email from an unknown individual claiming to be Martin in February 2025 — just days after Martin became chairman — and made a hefty payment to the fraudster, NOTUS reported.

The DNC promptly reported the transaction to its bank, Wells Fargo, but was reportedly able to recover only $7,000 of the cash. The staffer is no longer with the DNC, according to NOTUS.

“This was a one-off mistake that was promptly caught and addressed, and no similar issues have occurred since,” DNC spokeswoman Mia Ehrenberg said.

In addition to throwing away money it can’t afford to lose, the DNC is grappling with the party’s historic unpopularity.

According to an Economist/YouGov poll conducted last month, 54% of Americans hold an unfavorable opinion of the Democratic Party. Among those over 29, the numbers are even worse for the party.

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​Democratic national committee, Ken martin, Republican national committee, Donna brazile, Federal election commission, Politics 

Ask almost anyone why America seems angrier than it did a generation ago, and you’ll hear the usual suspects: social media, partisan politics, cable news. But what if another culprit has been hiding in plain sight all along — inside the songs we play every day?

A study recently published in Scientific Reports suggests our playlists may tell us more about the country’s moral trajectory than we realize. Researchers analyzed nearly 400,000 songs spanning six decades, tracking how often lyrics invoked virtues such as care, loyalty, and compassion versus themes of cheating, revenge, vice, and harm.

Nobody racks up a billion Spotify streams with a breakup anthem called ‘I Respect Your Boundaries and Wish You Well.’

The results were difficult to ignore.

Monetize the misery

Lyrical themes centered on betrayal, cruelty, and moral transgression have surged, while old-fashioned virtues like loyalty, empathy, and basic decency have steadily faded. Grandma’s favorite crooner asked for your hand in marriage. Today’s streaming superstar wants to key your car, burn down your house, and monetize the misery.

The statistics read like a rap sheet for the Billboard charts. References to cheating and betrayal rose by more than 70%. Themes of degradation climbed by over 60%. Meanwhile, expressions of genuine care steadily declined. The charts increasingly reward revenge, resentment, and contempt while rewarding compassion far less than they once did. We have moved a long way from “We Can Work It Out” to “I hope you choke on your lies.”

Naturally, the researchers include the obligatory academic disclaimer: Correlation does not equal causation. Fair enough.

The real question isn’t whether every listener imitates every lyric. It’s whether hundreds of millions of people, absorbing the same emotional scripts year after year, gradually reshape the emotional climate of a culture.

RELATED: Pop star Olivia Rodrigo hosts all-female music fest to fund Planned Parenthood; ‘I am so ecstatic’

Michael Le Brecht II/Disney/Getty Images

Despair in D

Music has never been mere background noise. It reinforces emotional habits. Songs teach us which reactions deserve applause, which resentments should be nurtured, and which kinds of people become heroes or villains. They don’t dictate behavior, but they help define what feels normal.

For anyone who still insists lyrics are just harmless poetry, consider the grunge explosion of the early 1990s. That era produced extraordinary music, but it also made alienation, despair, and emotional detachment strangely glamorous. Grunge didn’t invent teenage angst, but it undeniably gave it a soundtrack and, for many young listeners, an identity.

If a generation could absorb that emotional atmosphere through music, it isn’t unreasonable to wonder what six uninterrupted decades of increasingly cynical and vengeful lyrics might accomplish.

Betrayal with a beat

Of course, the counter-argument deserves serious consideration. Perhaps musicians are simply cultural weather vanes rather than cultural architects. When public trust collapses, institutions weaken, and family life frays, songwriters naturally gravitate toward darker material. Popular music may simply be documenting a society already in decline. The songs are less the explosion than the soundtrack playing while the building burns.

Even if that’s true, it still leaves us with an uncomfortable feedback loop. Society grows harsher. Music reflects that harshness. The music then normalizes it for the next generation, making cruelty ordinary and contempt emotionally familiar.

We also can’t ignore the incentives of the modern attention economy. One doesn’t have to become a card-carrying Marxist to recognize that outrage is profitable. Streaming platforms, much like social media, reward intensity over restraint. Nobody racks up a billion Spotify streams with a breakup anthem called “I Respect Your Boundaries and Wish You Well.” Audiences crave betrayal, public humiliation, vengeance, and emotional spectacle because those emotions command attention.

Did pop music single-handedly make America meaner? Probably not.

But for more than half a century, our most popular songs have steadily sung less about forgiveness, loyalty, sacrifice, and reconciliation and more about revenge, narcissism, betrayal, and score-settling.

Culture is an ongoing conversation. If, decade after decade, the soundtrack of everyday life increasingly celebrates contempt over compassion, we shouldn’t be surprised when public life begins to sound the same way.

​America, Attention economy, Lyrics, Music, Pop music, Public life, Science, Anger, Civility, Culture 

Christopher Nolan will likely not want to meet his hero.

The blockbuster filmmaker cited one woman’s specific translation months ago as a source of inspiration for his adaptation of “The Odyssey,” but those remarks have completely backfired now that the author has seen Nolan’s film.

‘The writing is abysmal. None of the characters has convincing motivation for their actions or words.’

‘Nothing convincing’

Nolan told Empire magazine in November how much he loved Emily Wilson’s 2017 translation of the historic text.

“I think it’s the Emily Wilson translation that begins, ‘Tell me about a complicated man,'” Nolan recalled. “The genius of the character, the cleverness, the inventiveness of him, that was a huge part of what interested me. He’s not just a soldier. He’s an amazing strategist, a very wily person.”

Despite the flattering citation, Nolan’s adoration was not reciprocated by Wilson at all, who burned his adaptation at the stake in a 4,000-word review.

In a lengthy reaction titled “An Uncomplicated Man,” Wilson eloquently pummeled the film for being noisy, emotionless, and poorly written.

Wilson said the film lacked many of the elements that make a poem great, while having “nothing convincing” to say about the history, war, or relationships of the time.

“It lacks psychological, emotional, political, and ethical depth,” Wilson detailed. “Its narrative structure is gimmicky. The writing is abysmal. None of the characters has convincing motivation for their actions or words. There are no sex scenes, and all the food looks horrible.”

Wilson then directly addressed Nolan’s reference to her translation, before bluntly stating, “I would be ashamed to have written any part of this script.”

RELATED: Christopher Nolan’s ‘Odyssey’ is peak Hollywood elitist: ‘He’s so snooty’

Jackie Molloy for the Washington Post/Getty Images

Noise complaint

Despite audiences complaining about the casting of the film — which included a woman (Elliot Page) playing a pivotal male role — viewers still came out in droves to help Nolan continue his pursuit of keeping movie theaters alive and well.

“The Odyssey” released to a whopping $123 million domestic opening, earning over $650 million worldwide to date. This, off of a $250 million budget.

However, all the praise in the world could not save Nolan from the scathing review offered by his inspiration, who said she could not escape the noise of the film “without a tub of wax for my ears.”

“I was exposed to the full din of thumping sticks, staffs, swords and clashing armour, thunderbolts, crashing waves, grunts, screams, toppling palaces, and burning temples,” Wilson wrote, continuing a theme of describing the film as an audible assault.

She continued, comparing the film to “an elaborate Fourth of July fireworks display — and with about the same level of narrative and emotional depth.”

RELATED: America needs heroes who do not apologize for being heroes

Aalok Soni/Getty Images for Universal Pictures

Bang for your buck

Wilson did find room at the end of her review to praise the film’s release for making the source material popular again and for “bringing audiences back to cinemas.”

She wrote that it was still an event to celebrate which has resulted in translations of the story, including her own, “flying off the shelves.” Still, this was after she labeled the movie an underdeveloped piece of art that failed to deliver.

“The film’s vision is too confused, its characters too underdeveloped, to deliver what it half-promises in terms of big ideas — although it is very good at conveying big bangs and big giants.”

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​Christopher nolan, The odyssey, Emily wilson, Entertainment 

HBO’s exclusive content app is diving headfirst into what viewers are calling a brain-frying form of entertainment.

HBO Max, the network’s streaming app, announced on Tuesday that it will roll out a new feature that utilizes its iconic content. Unfortunately for the network, reactions to the news are not just overwhelmingly negative, they’ve been outright atrocious.

‘Tik-Tok and Instagram really fried peoples brains.’

Short cuts

Jumping into the world of TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram, HBO Max has decided to implement a short-video feed of its exclusive content, which includes massively popular titles like “The Sopranos,” “Entourage,” and “Sex and the City.”

Subscribers will now be able to doomscroll vertical videos on the app, HBO said in a press release, “customized to individual tastes and preferences based on watch history.”

In an X post about the announcement — which was far more popular than HBO’s own post — readers quickly piled on the network, calling the change an attempt to pander to those with a short attention span.

“The destruction of humanity’s attention span is a bad thing, actually,” John Monaco replied.

“Shows you how much attention span has declined over the years … I’m really worried about future generations,” another man commented.

RELATED: Hollywood’s Bleeding

Thomas Fuller/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images

Scroll with it

Reactions were harsh, with multiple users calling the feature an attempt to appeal to “retards” and even comparing the feature to cocaine addiction.

“I literally know very few people who have quit short form scrolling style video, reels etc,” a California man wrote. “This is a huge problem. And the younger people really don’t know what life was like before it, so that’s also a problem. Its worse that cocaine.”

“Tik-Tok and Instagram really fried peoples brains,” a movie-related podcast account added.

However, HBO disagrees.

Deepna Devkar, HBO’s senior vice president for machine learning, revealed that not only is the company excited about the new feature, its clips are being created using artificial intelligence.

“We’re thrilled to launch this application of AI to accelerate the creation of these clips and look forward to quickly expanding to make even more of our amazing content offering discoverable through this new feature,” Devkar said in the announcement.

RELATED: OnlyFans models are offended by Sydney Sweeney mocking their degeneracy on her TV show

Malcolm Ali/WireImage

Search me

While some suggested HBO simply “make good shows again,” other readers believe the move would be a net negative by getting viewers used to short-form content, theoretically discouraging them from watching the TV series that are available on the app.

HBO Max isn’t the only nonsocial platform knee-deep in the scrolling game though. Netflix similarly expanded its own vertical clips feed earlier this year to include shorts from its library as a way to push new and old content.

At the same time, HBO Max announced a second new feature, a “conversational search experience,” which helps users find content based on wider search terms, as opposed to having to enter the title of a show or movie.

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​Hbo, Streaming, Netflix, Entertainment 

Earlier this week, a 31-year-old man was arrested in Paris after stabbing three women, one of whom was pregnant, with kitchen knives. Even though video footage of his detainment captured him saying, “It is Allah who commanded me,” Interior Minister Laurent Nunez claimed the motive of the attack was unknown.

“You rolled your eyes, didn’t you? … I know you did,” says Glenn Beck.

But France isn’t the only European country that has seen recent terror attacks.

Just a few days before the Paris knife attack, 21-year-old Abdul Ballout drove a van into a Berlin Pride event, killing one woman and injuring dozens before attacking with a machete; police shot him dead the next day after he charged at officers with a sharp object.

“He was already convicted of planning at least one terror attack, but then he was let out conditionally. … He was assigned to complete … anti-terrorism or anti-radical classes,” says Glenn’s head writer and researcher, Jason Buttrill.

Glenn argues these attacks aren’t isolated but are actually symptoms of something much deeper and even more sinister: “the red-green alliance” of socialist Marxists and Islamist movements.

“I believe the red-green alliance is a death cult,” he says, warning that if the Democratic Party doesn’t recognize it is “in bed with” a coalition that “[wants] total destruction of everything” America stands on, the consequences the nation will suffer are dire.

Glenn then tells the story of Michel Foucault, the influential gay French philosopher who enthusiastically supported the 1979 Iranian Revolution, only for the new regime to almost immediately start executing homosexuals.

Foucault, he argues, was wrong to refuse to take back or even caveat his original praise. In his 1979 essay on the Iranian Revolution, he never named the executions, never admitted he had been wrong about the regime he praised, and never took his support back.

“He should have written, ‘I went to Tehran, and I mistook intensity for justice. I saw men willing to die, and I assumed that anyone willing to die for a thing must be right about that thing. … The government I praised is now hanging men for what I am. I was wrong. This is not going to end well,”’ says Glenn.

But that admission, he explains, never came for the same reason today’s progressive LGBTQ activists refuse to acknowledge they’re supporting groups who would execute people like them the moment they gained power: “An honest mind treats being wrong as information. A weak one treats it as injury.”

“So how is [Foucault] actually wrong? Three ways, and they’re still on the market today,” says Glenn.

Number one: He mistook passion for morality.

“He judged a movement by how it felt to the people inside instead of by what it would do to the people underneath it,” says Glenn. “Passion is not a moral argument. Everyone who has ever built a gallows was passionate.”

Number two: He rejected Western liberal institutions — courts, rights, rule of law — as mere “masks that power wore.” But when a revolutionary movement actually showed up to tear those institutions down, Foucault had already discarded the only “ruler” he might have used to judge what replaced them.

“If everything is a mask, then you can’t tell the difference between a constitution and a firing squad,” says Glenn.

Number three: He ignored warnings. When an Iranian woman wrote to him at the time of the Revolution and told him he was romanticizing men who would soon put men like him in prison, he doubled down on his support.

“He was warned. This is not about philosophy; this is about character. It’s about intentional, self-imposed ignorance or blindness,” says Glenn, highlighting Foucault’s stubborn refusal to correct the record.

The same three mistakes, he warns, are being made by today’s socialist Marxists who have formed an alliance with Islamists — but we need to be very calculated in how we challenge them, or we risk further entrenching their support.

To hear Glenn’s advice regarding how to effectively engage and challenge this misled group, watch the video above.

Want more from Glenn Beck?

To enjoy more of Glenn’s masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis, and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Glenn beck, Europe, Paris, Berlin, France, Germany, Islam, Marxism, Socialism, Blazetv show 

The Federal Communications Commission is set to ban foreign products in two specific categories that affect national security.

On Monday, the FCC released its determination that also revealed a glimpse into what the United States military has up its sleeves in terms of autonomous warfare.

‘The US military is already pursuing advanced robotics for autonomous breaching.’

The United States has decided to ban “Foreign-Produced Advanced Robotic Devices,” citing that they are often equipped with sensors, light detectors, and other technology that “collect and maintain sensitive data on their surroundings.”

The national security brief noted that such data must be protected and maintained in the United States, and with that, foreign-made robots cannot be trusted.

At the same time, the summary determination stated that the government believes “advanced robotic devices such as Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs) and quadrupeds will be essential to the modern battlefield.”

The document continued, describing just what type of missions robots will be involved in through the armed forces.

“The U.S. military is already pursuing advanced robotics for autonomous breaching, resupply missions, force protection, and offensive strike.”

It was also noted that unmanned ground vehicles being used in “current conflicts” have been able to “inflict casualties while offsetting the effects of exquisite conventional capabilities.”

RELATED: The FCC just banned foreign-made routers — here’s which ones might be stealing your data

CFOTO/Future Publishing/Getty Images

The FCC summarized its ban with supplemental claims that “advanced robotic systems create extensive vulnerabilities and vectors for attacks that can manipulate the data and physical operation of the advanced robotic system.”

It is for that reason, they said, that relying on foreign-produced advanced robotics presents “unacceptable supply chain and cybersecurity vulnerabilities.”

Second on the FCC’s list was a ban on “Foreign-Produced Power Inverters.”

The government agency explained that power inverters convert direct current electricity into alternating current electricity and facilitate the connection of certain DC energy sources — like solar panel — into the predominantly AC-based U.S. energy grid.

Therefore, it was the FCC’s determination that foreign-made products of this type could threaten “sectors critical to national security,” “cybersecurity,” and overall, the safety of Americans.

RELATED: ‘Anti-clanker’: Why millions of people are cheering this android’s humiliation

Zeng Hui/Xinhua/Getty Images

The FCC explained that introducing foreign-made power inverters could render the equivalent of 46 nuclear power plants useless if they were to be used in an attack. Approximately 46 gigawatts of electric power on the U.S. grid relies on inverters and will reportedly account for a larger part of new power generation moving forward.

These statements were among many related to the introduction of massive power-sucking sources like data centers, which the FCC said are putting further strain on an already weak grid. It was the U.S. government’s determination that the grid needed to be protected from foreign intervention before it is too late.

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​Federal communications commission, Power grid, Power inverters, Robots, Tech 

The Democrat mayor of St. Paul who once confessed on the floor of the Minnesota House that she is “an illegal in this country” now finds herself at the center of an entirely new controversy.

In June 2025, then-state Rep. Kaohly Her (DFL) told her colleagues that her father got her family into America from Laos by falsifying immigration paperwork. A few months later, Her — now a U.S. citizen and a vociferous critic of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement — was elected mayor of St. Paul.

‘The mayor has deep respect for city employees.’

Like her father, Her also apparently has a strained relationship with the law — or at least with law enforcement.

The City of Saint Paul has hired Resolute Law, an outside law firm, to investigate Mayor Her over allegations of sexual harassment against St. Paul Police Chief Axel Henry and other city employees, reported the Minnesota Star Tribune.

Chris Madel, the attorney who is representing Chief Henry, noted in an April 1 letter to City Attorney Irene Kao that the police chief had decided to designate himself as a formal complainant against the Democrat mayor “for illegal employment practices against City employees, including himself.”

The letter accuses Her of using “one or more mobile phones to communicate inappropriate, and, indeed, unlawful text messages” to city employees, including an alleged message — accompanying an image of a police officer’s face superimposed on a baby’s body — about giving someone “a good weinering.”

Her’s office did not immediately respond to Blaze News’ request for comment.

RELATED: Tim Walz gets TORCHED over dolls with ‘swappable genitals’ meant for kids as young as 4: Report

Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Madel demanded that the city take “all steps necessary to perform a full filesystem extraction” of each of Her’s mobile phones, which would provide investigators with access to her text messages, photos, videos, and emails.

Madel said that Henry had made the decision “after becoming aware that the Mayor’s conduct has extended beyond isolated incidents and has included sexual harassment of subordinate City employees, including members of the Saint Paul Police Department. Recognizing both the seriousness of that misconduct and the vulnerability of those directly affected, he is concerned that, absent a formal complaint, the behavior will continue unchecked and may expose others to retaliation for speaking out.”

Henry’s attorney told Alpha News that the chief is attempting to hold the leftist mayor accountable “because it’s the right thing to do. And he just helped crack a triple homicide in under four hours — that’s the work he’s focused on right now: keeping citizens safe.”

A spokeswoman for the foreign-born mayor’s office told KSTP-TV, “To protect confidentiality and the integrity of the process, the City will not comment on an active investigation. The mayor has deep respect for city employees and regrets any unintended impact her actions may have had.”

While Her is now supposedly remorseful, this may not be her first rodeo.

Shirly Yang, who apparently served with Her for years on the board of the National Kidney Foundation in the Gopher State, recently sought a restraining order against Her for alleged intimidation and harassment. According to Yang, whose petition was ultimately denied by a Ramsey County court referee in January, the mayor allegedly inundated her with inappropriate messages, frequently of a sexually explicit and intrusive nature.

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​St paul, Minnesota, Democrat, Kaohly her, Politics 

Over the past 15 years, America has abandoned just about every social rule, every kind of etiquette, and every normative behavior that used to make public interaction bearable. I’ve decided it’s time to open Uncle Josh’s Finishing School. Unlike the establishments of yore that taught society girls the finer and fussier points of manners, my school will concentrate on remedial education.

Today, we will be reviewing the rules of the road. Matriculants, open your desks and take out your copy of the Uniform Vehicle Code and your state Department of Motor Vehicles’ manual for new drivers. We will be referring to these texts.

I call this a ‘box-in,’ and drivers do it every time I’m on I-89. It’s not just annoying and inconsiderate to camp in the passing lane, it’s illegal in half the country.

Learn to ‘Code’

The Uniform Vehicle Code is a model law. It’s not an actual state or federal law. It’s a universal template on which every state bases its rules of the road.

Your state has a driver’s handbook through its Department of Motor Vehicles. These are nearly identical from state to state. The only exceptions will be local idiosyncrasies, such as New York City’s ban on turning right on red.

For this article, we’ll use the Vermont manual. Your state’s manual will have nearly identical laws and rules.

This lesson is for all of you. Whether you’re my Boomer grandmother, my Gen X peer, a Millennial, or Gen Z, many of you have forgotten the basic rules of the road.

Road rules are not just about being nice. They’re the difference between life and death. While it’s true that millions of foreigners and illegal aliens have flooded our roads with dangerous, unskilled driving, we Americans are barely better.

Automotive anarchy

Here’s how it looks from a big picture perspective. Over the past 10 years, but much more rapidly since “COVID,” I’ve noticed that American drivers are acting as though all the road rules they knew their whole life just disappeared.

All of a sudden, no one knows who has the right-of-way at a four-way stop with a sign. All of a sudden, no one understands that a red light means “stop” — they sail through a solid red light not looking in either direction. All of a sudden, no one remembers that the left lane on an interstate is not a travel lane but a lane for passing.

I don’t think Americans have actually forgotten these things. Instead, I suspect our culture’s lurch toward selfish narcissism, accelerated by the psychosis of our response to “COVID,” has led to people just not caring about anyone but themselves.

Trouble is, that selfish attitude won’t protect the selfish driver. It’s not just the other guy in the other car who could get hurt — the selfish driver could die too.

Let’s review the most neglected rules of the road.

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Matt Himes

Right-of-way at 4-way stops

Imagine an intersection with cars at all four corners. They’re all stopped at a stop sign. Who goes first? Let me tell you what this is like in Vermont. This is a blue/progressive state, and that mindset infects everything, including how people walk in stores or drive on streets. It’s a baffling mixture of people trying to be “nice” to other drivers in a way that seems more about showing off “being nice” than it is about making driving safer and more predictable.

At that four-way stop in Vermont, you will see all four cars inching/stopping/inching for up to 10 seconds. Then, someone at one of the four forks will start waving another driver through. That’s the “being nice” part. But it’s a trap. No one else at the intersection remembers that right-of-way passes to the right, so you can’t predict if you’ll get T-boned.

This isn’t “nice.” It’s dangerous. The reason for having road laws is to give universal predictability. Ignoring road laws means that no driver can predict what another driver will do. This is begging for a wreck.

Here’s how you know who goes first. This is taken from the Vermont DMV manual. It is the same right-of-way in every state in America:

The first driver to arrive at the four-way stop has the right-of-way. If there is confusion, then:The driver on the right has the right-of-way when there are two drivers at the intersection.If there are more than two drivers, you will have to make eye contact with someone and “negotiate” who is the first to go.After the first person goes, the right-of-way goes clockwise, to the right.

Right-of-way at T-intersections

The driver on the “through road,” the road that does not terminate at a stop, has the right-of-way.That means if you’re on a road that ends at a T, the traffic on the other road, the “through” road, has the right-of-way. You must stop, even if there is no stop sign.

Right-of-way at unmarked intersections

When two roads merge, either with a T, or by curving together and becoming one road, the “through” traffic on the main road has the right-of-way. If you are on the access road approaching the main road, you do not have the right-of-way. You must yield to traffic on the through road.

Left-lane ‘camping’ on the interstate

This is a particular annoyance to me as a Vermont driver. We have only one major interstate, Eisenhower Interstate, I-89. This means I-89 gets, for us, “a lot” of traffic. It’s the only efficient way to get through much of the state. I have to drive 40 miles to get to a home improvement store, for example, and I must take I-89 if I don’t want to have to go 30 miles an hour through villages if I take Route 2.

But I-89 only has two lanes in each direction. That means that if driver Gloria is “camping” in the left/passing lane, driver Gloria has arrogated the entire interstate to herself. She forces every driver behind her to be unable to pass her as she does five miles below the speed limit, matching her speed to the truck in the right-hand travel lane.

I call this a “box-in,” and drivers do it every time I’m on I-89. It’s not just annoying and inconsiderate to camp in the passing lane, it’s illegal in half the country.

That’s right. It is illegal to use the left lane as a travel lane in at least half of U.S. states. Do you know the law in your state?

Even if it’s legal in your state to use the left lane as a travel lane, it’s a poor choice. It’s rude and inconsiderate to other drivers. Put yourself in their shoes. Remember how it’s frustrating to you to be prevented from passing because driver Gloria feels like camping in front of you and a line of cars. Don’t do that to other drivers.

Inconsiderate behavior like this is a major cause of the breakdown in civility, and it also provokes dangerous road-rage incidents.

A plea to the police

The good will of people willing to be responsible for themselves only goes so far. We need active law enforcement too.

To my eye as a driver, local and state police are doing a poor job. Despite the fact that cellphone use (not just calls, but texting and reading on the phone) has skyrocketed, most police I notice spend most or all of their traffic enforcement time doing the old-school “pull over and hide on the highway and nab speeders.”

I don’t see any evidence that police are taking the other, growing dangers more seriously. Have you seen cops enforcing traffic infractions like left-lane camping, stealing right-of-way at intersections, or pulling over Jayden who’s piloting a Nissan Armada while looking down at his iPhone?

Sure, it’s harder to detect and enforce against distracted driving than it is to nab someone on the radar. But there has to be a way to do it better.

​Rules of the road, Driver’s ed, Driving, America, Etiquette, Safety, Intervention 

On Wednesday morning, a much anticipated hearing featuring Dr. Anthony Fauci began as he appeared before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. It is Fauci’s first appearance before a legislative body since Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) released the diary Fauci kept using his government email account. The session quickly erupted into fireworks, as Chairman Paul had Anthony Fauci’s attorney removed for not following the directions of the chair.

Fauci used his own opening statement to defend his decades in government, noting that he had testified before or briefed Congress “well over 200 times” during his almost 40 years running the National Institute of Allergy and Infections Diseases and framing that record as proof he “believe[s] in and respect[s] the value of legitimate congressional oversight.”

‘The COVID lockdown … could never have been inflicted without you aiding and abetting the crime.’

He wasted no time going after Paul, accusing him of an “unhinged obsession” with trying to see him “behind bars.” Fauci framed the whole hearing as bad faith, saying it was designed to get him to “say something — anything — that could vindicate” Paul’s public pledges.

He also went after the publication of his email diary directly, calling it a move “aimed at embarrassing and intimidating me.”

In his opening statement, Paul reminded the room that Fauci only showed up “under duress” and later baited him on the record: “Let the record record that the witness has refused to answer whether there’s a folder in front of him.”

“The COVID lockdown … could never have been inflicted without you aiding and abetting the crime,” Paul said.

Invoking his Fifth Amendment right, Fauci said, after Paul began direct questioning, “under the advice of my attorneys, I will invoke my right under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution to refrain from answering your questions.”

RELATED: Puppy love: Diary exposes Fauci’s crush on Julia Roberts

Things then boiled over when one of Fauci’s attorneys tried to jump in mid-hearing. Paul cut him off cold — “Sit quietly and don’t say another word. … You are not recognized” — before warning him a second time that he would be removed if he spoke again.

The lawyer kept talking anyway. “Security, please remove him from the room,” Paul ordered. The standoff dragged on for over a minute before security pulled him out and the room broke into applause.

Democrat Gary Peters, the committee’s ranking member, tried to intervene on the attorney’s behalf. Paul overruled him on the spot.

The Fifth Amendment plea helps Fauci stay out of legal jeopardy. Former President Joe Biden’s preemptive pardon for Fauci covers offenses from 2014 through the pardon’s issue date, tied to his government service — but legal experts and lawmakers agree it does not protect against future perjury or obstructive conduct in compelled testimony.

Paul made clear days earlier that there was an easy way out: “There’s no risk to perjury if you tell the truth.” Fauci could admit to past falsehoods, destroyed records, or a one-sided presentation of the science, Paul said — “the only thing he can’t do is lie again.” Paul had also predicted the outcome, telling reporters ahead of time that Americans “would be very disappointed” if Fauci pleaded the Fifth — which he just did.

For more on Fauci’s COVID cover-up, check out BlazeTV’s six-episode docuseries “The Coverup.”

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​Congressional hearing, Covid, Fifth amendment, Oversight, Pardon, Rand paul, Politics 

On Saturday, a 10-foot shore-break wave slammed into Seabright State Beach in Santa Cruz, California, and pulled a young boy under the water. A 16-year-old lifeguard went in anyway — a decision that, within days, would land him an invitation to the White House.

The footage runs about two minutes: the young boy disappearing under whitewater, the lifeguard disappearing with him, both surfacing again — still together — before going under once more.

‘Truly the best of America.’

Beachgoer Scott Vander Dussen caught it on his phone from start to finish.

Other swimmers tried to help and got thrown back for their trouble before a second lifeguard finally reached the pair.

NBC Bay Area identified the lifeguard as a high school student; his name is Ryder Williams.

Vander Dussen said there was no warning. One minute the water was ordinary; the next, conditions “caught a lot of people off-guard,” and the boy was gone. He said he doesn’t think the boy would have come home that night without the lifeguards who were there.

RELATED: Hero grandpa ferociously attacked by bison in viral video reveals the split-second decision that ‘saved grandson’s life’

– YouTube

The child was checked by paramedics and released to his parents.

According to Fox News, a woman claiming to be Ryder’s mother has spent the days since fielding an outpouring she didn’t ask for. She turned down a GoFundMe, saying, “He was just doing the job that he absolutely loves.” She suggested instead that people give to Santa Cruz County’s Junior Guards program, where Ryder trained.

The Guardian spoke to Ryder’s father, Shane, after the incident. “I almost started crying because how determined he was to save that boy’s life makes me so proud,” Shane Williams said during an interview.

It didn’t stay a local story for long. Eric Trump reposted the footage, calling it “truly the best of America” and saying the teen deserved the country’s highest civilian honor.

Then came the president himself. In a post on Truth Social, Trump said he plans to bring Ryder and his family to the White House — and perhaps the boy he saved — to receive a “High Civilian Honor.”

“Very brave, he deserves it,” Trump added.

“I got the chills watching this,” Trump Administrator for the U.S. Agency for Global Media Kari Lake said on social media. “So many heroic, incredible men putting themselves in danger to save a life. God bless them all — especially the 16-year-old lifeguard.”

“PROOF the world still needs strong, courageous men!” Chad Prather chimed in, adding that the lifeguard is a “true American hero.”

The rescue has also revived a running argument in Santa Cruz over how lifeguards get classified. Ryder’s mother is among those who think lifeguards working coastlines like this one should be recognized as first responders.

Ryder, a first-season lifeguard, was already back at his post the next day — back to business as usual, according to KION Central Coast.

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​Lifeguard, White house, Donald trump, Politics, Rescue