Suspected provocateur specifically stated, ‘We’re here to storm the capitol. I’m not kidding.’ In a new mini-documentary diving into Jan. 6, investigative journalist Lara Logan [more…]
Category: blaze media
Liberal media spins ‘homicide’ narrative after ICE detainee death — but DHS sets the record straight
A detainee died after attempting to take his own life while in federal immigration custody at a detention facility in El Paso, Texas, according to the Department of Homeland Security. But that was not what the Washington Post and other liberal outlets originally reported.
On Thursday evening, WaPo shared an article on social media, reporting that a local medical examiner might soon classify the death of Geraldo Lunas Campos at the Camp East Montana facility on January 3 as a “homicide” and that another detainee had witnessed the man being “choked to death by guards.”
During the intervention, Campos ‘violently resisted’ staff and continued trying to harm himself, the DHS said.
The DHS offered a different version of events.
The DHS described Campos as a criminal illegal alien and a convicted child sex predator. Agency officials said detention security staff immediately intervened when Campos attempted suicide.
During the intervention, Campos “violently resisted” staff and continued trying to harm himself, the DHS said. In the ensuing struggle, Campos “stopped breathing and lost consciousness.” Medical personnel were called to the scene and attempted resuscitation before emergency medical technicians pronounced him dead at the facility.
ICE said it takes the health and safety of all detainees seriously and that the incident remains under active investigation, adding that more details “are forthcoming.”
Blaze News reached out to the Washington Post for comment.
ICE CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP via Getty Images
According to the DHS, Campos was arrested by immigration authorities July 14, 2025, during a planned enforcement operation in Rochester, New York.
The DHS said he entered the United States in 1996 and has since been convicted of multiple felonies such as sexual contact with a child under 11, criminal possession of a weapon, reckless driving, possession of a controlled substance, and sale of a controlled substance.
RELATED: Historic ICE hiring surge adds 12,000 as agency kicks off 2026 with major busts
Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images
An immigration judge ordered Campos removed from the United States on March 1, 2005. The DHS said he was not removed at that time because the government was unable to obtain the necessary travel documents. ICE later transferred him to the Camp East Montana detention facility on Sept. 6, 2025.
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Ice, Suicide, Montana, Illegal immigration, Illegal alien, Geraldo lunas campos, Politics
Jeep just pulled the plug on the hybrids — and no one is saying why
Jeep once bet big on electrification. The pitch was simple: Keep everything that made a Jeep a Jeep — capability, toughness, identity — while adding electric efficiency. For a brief moment, that bet worked.
The Wrangler 4xe didn’t just sell; it dominated. It became the best-selling plug-in hybrid in the U.S., proof that electrification could succeed when it respected consumer priorities instead of lecturing buyers. The Grand Cherokee 4xe followed, extending the same formula into a more refined family SUV without stripping away Jeep’s DNA.
Jeep owners are famously loyal. They tolerate compromises in ride and refinement for capability and character. What they won’t tolerate is silence.
Stellantis had managed what many automakers could not: Electrify without alienating loyal customers.
And then, almost overnight, they vanished.
Without a trace
Without warning or meaningful explanation, the Wrangler 4xe and Grand Cherokee 4xe disappeared from Jeep’s website. They can’t be ordered. EPA ratings for future model years are missing. Dealers are under stop-sale orders. More than 320,000 vehicles are tied up in recalls involving serious safety risks.
This is not how a confident automaker behaves. So what happened?
The 4xe lineup wasn’t a side project. It was central to Stellantis’ North American strategy — key to meeting fuel-economy rules while keeping Jeep profitable. The Wrangler 4xe, in particular, became a regulatory and marketing success story. Until reality caught up.
At the center is a massive recall affecting more than 320,000 Wrangler and Grand Cherokee 4xe models due to a high-voltage battery defect that increases fire risk. That alone is enough to halt sales and shake confidence.
Compounding the problem is a separate recall involving potential engine failure caused by sand contamination. Together, these aren’t isolated issues; they point to deeper quality-control problems in vehicles meant to represent Jeep’s future.
Alarming distinction
Owners have been raising concerns for months — electrical faults, warning lights, charging failures, erratic performance. Consumer Reports recently named the Wrangler 4xe the most unreliable midsize SUV in its annual survey, an alarming distinction for a brand built on durability.
In some cases, fixes amount to a software update. In others, the battery pack fails validation and must be replaced entirely. That difference matters. High-voltage batteries are among the most expensive components in any vehicle, and replacing them at scale creates serious financial strain — even for a global automaker.
For consumers, it raises uncomfortable questions about long-term ownership, resale value, and whether risks were passed on before these vehicles were truly ready.
RELATED: Hemi tough: Stellantis chooses power over tired EV mandate
Global Images Ukraine/J. David Ake/Getty Images
Good on paper
Plug-in hybrids were sold as the sensible middle ground — the stable bridge between internal combustion and full electrification. On paper, the Wrangler 4xe looked ideal: 375 horsepower, strong torque, and about 21 miles of electric-only range for daily driving.
What buyers didn’t sign up for was uncertainty.
The implications extend beyond Jeep. Stellantis invested billions in batteries, EV platforms, and software-driven vehicles. The 4xe lineup wasn’t optional; it was essential. When a segment leader quietly pulls its products, it sends a message that the challenges are deeper than advertised.
It also exposes the growing gap between political mandates and engineering reality. Automakers were pushed aggressively toward electrification before infrastructure and consumer demand were ready. Some products were rushed to meet timelines. When expectations collide with reality, trust erodes fast.
With regulatory pressure easing, hybrids are no longer a necessity — and Stellantis’ commitment to plug-ins appears to have cooled.
Loyalty test
Jeep owners are famously loyal. They tolerate compromises in ride and refinement for capability and character. What they won’t tolerate is silence. Removing vehicles without explanation feels less like caution and more like avoidance. Existing owners worry about support and resale value. Future buyers are questioning whether plug-in hybrids are really the smart compromise they were promised.
Stellantis may eventually fix the recalls and relaunch the models. But perception matters, and damage has already been done.
If Jeep wants consumers to believe in its electrified future, it will need more than quiet fixes and lifted stop-sales. It will need transparency, accountability, and proof that innovation doesn’t come at the expense of reliability.
Because hiding information isn’t leadership — and Jeep, of all brands, should know that.
Jeep, Auto industry, Lifestyle, Hybrids, Stellantis, Ev mandate, Align cars
Driver doing over 100 miles per hour manages to ‘black out,’ ‘turn off’ license plate while evading cops, police say
A motorist traveling over 100 miles per hour on New Year’s Eve apparently used a tactic you just don’t see every day to avoid identification — and while giving law enforcement the slip.
The California Highway Patrol in Dublin indicated that around 8:20 a.m. the driver of a black Chevrolet Camaro evaded a CHP officer on the westbound lanes of Interstate 580, west of Interstate 680. Dublin is about 40 minutes southeast of San Francisco.
‘Looks like y’all need faster cars.’
The officer observed the car “traveling at speeds exceeding 100 miles per hour,” the CHP said, adding that it had a license plate that was “black with yellow or white writing.”
But the most eye-popping detail would seem to be the CHP’s assertion that “the driver was able to ‘black out’ or ‘turn off’ the plate.”
“Please, if you saw this and have information that will help us track down this vehicle, we would appreciate it!” the CHP implored readers.
The Auto Wire had the following to say about the vehicular oddity:
The unusual tactic has raised questions about how the plates were altered. Authorities have not confirmed whether the Camaro was equipped with a digital license plate or a custom modification designed to obscure identification. Either possibility presents concerns for law enforcement, particularly if such technology or modifications are being used to avoid accountability during traffic violations or more serious crimes.
About 8,000 comments and counting have appeared under the CHP’s Facebook post about the unorthodox incident — and let’s just say law enforcement has not escaped a thorough roasting:
“Looks like y’all need faster cars,” one commenter wrote.”If you got gapped, you can just say that, bro,” another user offered before adding, “no shame here.””Props to the driver that got away,” another commenter noted while adding a laughing emoji.”He escaped because he was a better driver in a faster car at higher speeds than whatever random cop went after him,” another user said. “If by some miracle you do catch him, offer that guy a job.”
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California highway patrol, Speeding, License plate, Weird news, Dublin, Disappearing license plate, License plate turned off, Driver at large, Crime
Antitrust panic helped kill an American robotics pioneer
Antitrust regulators claim to protect competition. Their decision to block Amazon’s acquisition of iRobot did the opposite. It helped drive an American robotics pioneer into bankruptcy last December and pushed it into the arms of a Chinese creditor.
Antitrust law is supposed to defend consumers and prevent monopoly abuse. In this case, regulators killed a deal that could have kept iRobot alive, preserved American jobs, and strengthened a U.S. company facing brutal Chinese competition. Instead, the collapse of the acquisition forced iRobot into a court-supervised restructuring in which Shenzhen Picea Robotics — its largest Chinese creditor and key supplier — will take the company’s equity and cancel roughly $264 million in debt.
Ultimately, the acquisition’s collapse pushed iRobot into a deal with its largest Chinese creditor.
iRobot began in 1990, founded by roboticists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The company built military and space exploration products before it introduced the Roomba in 2002, the device that turned home robotics into a household category. For years, iRobot stood as a rare American success story in consumer robotics.
Then the market shifted. Chinese manufacturers poured in with cheaper models, tighter supply chains, and rapid iteration. iRobot’s share price peaked in 2021, then slid hard over the next year. The company sought a lifeline and found one in Amazon, which agreed to acquire iRobot for roughly $1.7 billion.
That deal made strategic sense. iRobot needed capital, scale, and distribution power to compete against Chinese rivals such as Roborock, Ecovacs, Dreame, and Xiaomi. Amazon could have provided all three. Consumers likely would have seen faster innovation, deeper device integration, and lower prices, while iRobot kept more of its footprint and engineering talent intact.
Regulators saw a different story. The European Commission objected on antitrust grounds and signaled it would block the acquisition. The commission argued the deal could restrict competition in robot vacuum cleaners by allowing Amazon to disadvantage rival products on its marketplace. American critics piled on, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who framed the acquisition as an attempt to buy out competition, along with privacy fears about Roomba’s mapping technology.
Facing regulatory opposition, Amazon and iRobot terminated the agreement in January 2024. Amazon’s general counsel, David Zapolsky, warned that the decision would deny consumers faster innovation and more competitive prices, while leaving iRobot weaker against foreign rivals operating under very different regulatory constraints.
The warnings proved accurate. After the deal collapsed, iRobot announced deep cost-cutting, including a 31% workforce reduction. The company shifted more production to Vietnam to compete on cost. Chinese brands continued to eat the market.
By December 2025, iRobot filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and announced a restructuring deal that hands control to Shenzhen Picea Robotics. According to iRobot’s own announcement, Picea will acquire the equity of the reorganized company through the court process and cancel about $264 million in debt.
RELATED: Why Trump must block Netflix’s Warner Bros. takeover
Photo by Mandel NGAN/AFP via Getty Images
That outcome should haunt every regulator who claimed to defend competition. Regulators blocked an American acquisition and ended up delivering a storied American company to a Chinese creditor. They did not preserve a competitor. They helped bury it.
The iRobot collapse exposes a central problem with modern antitrust enforcement: Officials often substitute fear-driven hypotheticals for real-world consequences. They imagine a future in which Amazon squeezes competitors and consumers pay more. They ignore the present in which Chinese firms gain market power, American companies lose ground, and U.S. workers pay the price.
Markets discipline failure quickly. Regulators rarely pay for their mistakes. They can block a deal, watch a company fall apart, and declare victory because they prevented a theoretical harm.
This case produced the opposite of the intended result. Regulators killed a merger that could have strengthened an American company against Chinese competition. They weakened competition in the robot vacuum market by removing one of the few U.S.-based pioneers from the field. They also shrank the number of meaningful paths forward for iRobot until only one remained: a takeover by the company’s Chinese lender and supplier.
Policymakers should learn the right lesson. Antitrust action should not operate as a reflex against size or success. Regulators should measure outcomes, not slogans. If officials claim they protect competition, they should not celebrate decisions that end in bankruptcy and foreign control.
Irobot, Antitrust, China, Amazon, Regulations, Opinion & analysis, Roomba, Elizabeth warren, Competition
Melania’s bold AI message to America’s youth: ‘Use AI as a tool, but do not let it replace your personal intelligence’
Appearing at the “Zoom Ahead: AI for Tomorrow’s Leaders” virtual event from the White House on Friday, Melania Trump addressed the rapid advancement of AI technology, highlighting both its current capabilities and the potential risks and opportunities it may present in the future.
Thanking Zoom founder Eric Yuan for hosting the event, the first lady praised the company’s leadership in the tech space and connected the discussion to what she described as her broader “mission.”
Mrs. Trump said AI has expanded access to creative tools in ways that were previously unimaginable, allowing young people to explore fields such as film, fashion, art, and music.
“Your support directly advances my mission to prepare America’s next generation to use AI to enhance their education and ultimately their careers,” Mrs. Trump said.
She told the audience they were “fortunate” to be living in what she repeatedly described as “the age of imagination,” a new era shaped by artificial intelligence.
“The age of imagination is a new era, powered by artificial intelligence, where one’s curiosity can be satisfied almost magically in seconds,” she said.
RELATED: AI isn’t killing writers — it’s killing mediocre writing
Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images
Mrs. Trump said AI has expanded access to creative tools in ways that were previously unimaginable, allowing young people to explore fields such as film, fashion, art, and music from their own homes.
“For the first time in history, the young girl dreaming of becoming a fashion designer and the young boy who wants to stand up his school animated superhero series can do so from their own home,” Trump said.
She emphasized that curiosity has always been central to human progress, pointing to writers, scientists, architects, and artists who challenged unanswered questions and the status quo.
“Every giant at some point in time questions the status quo,” she said. “Their singular vision pushes humanity in a new direction.”
She noted, however, that the power of the technology actually lies in the human “imagination.”
“Artificial intelligence provides all the tools needed to implement your creative vision today,” she said.
“But what do you need to start? You need to harness your imagination.”
She encouraged students and creators to focus on developing the ability to ask meaningful questions and to think critically beyond the information AI can provide.
RELATED: Can artificial intelligence help us want better, not just more?
Brooks Kraft/Getty Images
The first lady stressed that while AI can generate content, it cannot replace human purpose.
“Although artificial intelligence can generate images and information, only humans can generate meaning and purpose,” she said.
She concluded by urging the audience to treat AI as a tool rather than a shortcut, encouraging intellectual honesty and personal responsibility in how the technology is used.
“Use AI as a tool, but do not let it replace your personal intelligence,” Mrs. Trump said.
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Politics, Melania trump, Trump, Ai, Artificial intelligence, Technology, Zoom
Jason Whitlock: Stephen A. Smith is a part of a controlled ‘clown show’
From allegedly false claims about Stephen A. Smith’s basketball background to what Jason Whitlock calls a lack of basic sports knowledge and writing ability, the BlazeTV host argues Smith’s success isn’t accidental.
Rather, it’s the result of a system that rewards obedience over independent thinking, particularly among black men.
“Stephen A. Smith, as I have exposed to you all on this show — his background, his narrative, his story: It’s all a fabrication. He wasn’t a college basketball player at Winston-Salem State. He didn’t knock down 17 straight three-pointers and earn a scholarship at Winston-Salem State,” Whitlock begins.
“You’ve seen me expose all of that. You saw Stephen A. Smith get triggered by me exposing all of that. You saw this man snap and put on a 45-minute profanity-laced tirade because I explained to you all — I read his book. We’ve done the research. We’ve gone through all these different lies,” he continues.
Whitlock believes that Smith is nothing more than a “fraud” who is “unqualified for all the things he’s been given.”
“They take someone with very limited talent, give them positions and jobs and a platform that they can’t do on their own,” he says, noting that even as a sportswriter, Smith “wrote at like an eighth-grade level” and “doesn’t know or follow sports in a real way.”
“Claims to be a New York Knicks fan, doesn’t know who’s on the roster, thinks you can kick a field goal on third down — and if you miss it, you can re-kick it on fourth down. That’s who has been installed at the top of the sports media landscape,” Whitlock explains.
“This is all intentional,” he continues. “Black men who can think for themselves, who have some sort of intellectual evolution, need not apply for the clown show that is being run.”
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Upload, Sharing, Camera phone, Video, Video phone, Free, Youtube.com, Fearless with jason whitlock, Fearless, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Stephen a smith, Winston salem state, Stephen a smith lies, Stephen a smith book, Jason whitlock vs stephen a smith
Google’s new plan: To learn everything about you from your online shopping
At some point, Google went from “don’t be evil” to “never mind.” The evidence is in its latest, duplicitous, and deceptive set of control mechanisms over online commerce.
Google’s vision involves a Universal Commerce Protocol, which allows its AI to access retailer client histories on its customers (all without human acknowledgment or accountability). The Universal Commerce Protocol leverages its shopper data to monitor and cross-reference between retailers the habits of individuals and adjust prices based on the AI bot’s understanding/projection of the shopper’s financial, personal, and psychological situation.
What seems to be happening is that online retailers have taken the AI bait. They’ve been sold on the purchase, implementation, and reliance upon so-called AI agents, which are designed to handle all possible aspects of internet commerce. It feels inevitable even though it isn’t. Either way, it’s happening. Our internet experience, even now, is being massively overwritten to effect the least-human outcomes possible.
Its grabbing up of data is cloaked, misdirected, or buried under mountains of legalese or made intentionally difficult to ascertain.
The truth is there’s been negligible-to-nonexistent customer service for most big corporations for almost a decade. Lose a box with Fed Ex and try to get an English-speaking human on the phone if you doubt this assertion. The differences in the now-unfolding AI era are mainly going to come down to the fact that whereas once a human was involved somewhere in the online experience, the new era will be almost entirely bot-derived, bot-managed, and bot-determined.
According to Lindsay Owens, who breaks all this down in a viral X post, “As one Google exec explained, it allows retailers to ‘offer custom deals to specific shoppers.’ If you’ve granted consent or the agent identifies you via identity linking, Direct Offers uses your conversation to trigger specific offers. At first it might recognize you as a ‘high value’ customer and show you a 30% coupon instead of 10%, without having to extend the same thing to everybody. But Google says the plan is to use the agent’s persuasive power to encourage shoppers to ‘prioritize value over price.’ Put simply, not only does it want you to spend more, it targets you specifically as someone likely to agree to it.”
RELATED: Google has had access to your docs longer than you realize. Here’s how to kick it out.
Photo by Samuel Boivin/NurPhoto via Getty Images
For Google, which despite making everyone angry and churning out increasingly less impressive products for the last decade, the move from not evil to blithely diabolical is proved out insofar as all of its grabbing up of data is cloaked, misdirected, or buried under mountains of legalese or made intentionally difficult to ascertain. Legerdemain involving layering, shunting, enveloping, winding, and overly technical language is everywhere in the description of its Universal Protocol, and levels of fleecing the client heretofore unimaginable are now standard in the era of no responsibility or accountability corporate AI.
Owens, the executive director of Groundwork, a Washington, D.C.-based organization build to “change economic policy and narrative in order to build public power, break up concentrations of private power, and deliver true opportunity,” finishes her epic X thread with a stark conclusion. “By bundling Google ad targeting and conversational data with retailer history and third-party broker profiles, the Agent creates a perfect surveillance feedback loop. And Google isn’t the only one building wallet-seeking chatbot missiles.”
The ruthless logic of “line go up” has been coded into the machines we have come to depend upon, and resale of the data ensures the obliteration of privacy. Of course, we were warned innumerable times about this inevitability, but the shocking facts point to our complicity, or docility, with respect to even caring about the obliteration.
Tech, Google, Online shopping
Kamala Harris buys $8.15M seaside mansion after fearmongering about rising sea levels
Former Vice President Kamala Harris spent years fearmongering about so-called climate change. Her recent seaside acquisition suggests she may not have been as serious about the supposed threat as she previously let on.
During her first failed presidential campaign where she proposed the U.S. blow $10 trillion on tackling the professed problem, Harris wrote, “Our oceans are warming. Sea levels are rising. Pollution is threatening our air and water. Droughts are hurting our crops. Fires are burning our forests. Extreme weather is destroying our communities. We are poisoning the planet.”
‘To live in a coastal community is to live on the front lines of the climate crisis.’
Harris previously pushed legislation that would annually award $50 million in grants to various entities for the purposes of “carrying out climate-resilient living shoreline projects” and, in her words, “mitigat[ing] against sea level rise.”
When announcing in 2023 that the Biden-Harris administration was recommending $562 million in funding to make communities and the economy more resilient to the alleged climate change, Harris told a crowd at the University of Miami, “To live in a coastal community is to live on the front lines of the climate crisis.”
The Washington Free Beacon highlighted that the Biden-Harris administration also pushed a study the same year that claimed that “24%-75% of California’s beaches may become completely eroded” due to sea-level rises.
Despite Harris’ participation in the rising-sea hysteria that proved fellow Democrat Al Gore a poor prognosticator, she has reportedly purchased an $8.15 million oceanside mansion in Malibu, California.
RELATED: Al Gore wrong again: Study delivers good news for Arctic ice trends, bad news for climate hucksters
Photo by Roxanne McCann/Getty Images.
A Zillow listing for the 4,000 square foot, four-bedroom home indicates that the property has a pool, a hot tub, a sauna, a cold plunge, a professional gym, a landscaped water feature, a “private putting and chipping green with a bunker,” a guest house, and “breathtaking ocean, island, and city views.”
The property, which sold on Dec. 2, is located in Point Dume, an affluent neighborhood with private, gated beaches. According to the New York Post, the community is populated by Hollywood and Silicon Valley elites.
Harris, who is reportedly contemplating a third White House bid, did not respond to Blaze News’ request for comment.
Fortunately for Harris and contrary to her past claims about rising sea levels, a study published last year in the Journal of Marine Science and Engineering indicated that the average sea level rise in 2020 was roughly 0.059 inches a year, which works out to about 6 inches per century.
One of the paper’s co-authors told the Post in September, “This is significantly lower than the 3 to 4 mm/year often reported by climate scientists in scientific literature and the media.”
Such a rate might explain why Al Gore’s 2006 prediction of a 20-foot rise in the global sea level “in the near future” has yet to manifest.
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Climate, Climate change, Sea level rising, Climate alarmist, Alarmism, Sea level, California, Kamala, Kamala harris, Democrat, Radical, Marxist, Enviromarxist, Malibu
From ‘hands up, don’t shoot’ to ‘drive, baby, drive’
The shooting death of Renee Macklin Good in Minneapolis, Minnesota, has quickly become a rallying point in the broader political battle over immigration enforcement under the Trump administration.
It should also be a lesson for the rest of us to wait for all the facts before making judgments and especially to beware of media narratives that try to simplify complicated events.
When journalists and commentators repeat an unverified transcription as fact, they do more than simplify a complex event. They create a moral narrative that can endanger real people.
Videos of the shooting, which took place on January 7, have been widely circulated, including one taken by Jonathan Ross, the ICE agent who fired the fatal shot. You would think that since the shooting, or the circumstances surrounding it, are on video, it would be easy to determine responsibility for Good’s death.
But instead, we have evidence once again that eyewitnesses — in this case all of us who have watched the videos — cannot be depended upon to get the story straight.
I am talking in particular about the near-universally repeated narrative that Good’s wife, Becca, shouted, “Drive, baby, drive!” in the split second before Good was killed. The phrase appears to have traveled with early write-ups of the Alpha News-distributed agent-perspective video, then hardened into “fact” as larger outlets repeated it. That goes for everyone from right-wing Just the News (“Drive, baby! Drive, drive!”) to left-wing CNN (the more common “Drive, baby, drive!”).
From the time I first read this representation, I began publicly questioning the interpretation by posting comments online. I’ve listened to the audio hundreds of times by now, and there is no way I can hear those words. Instead, I watch Becca Good hear an officer shout, “Get out of the f**king car” at her wife, try the passenger door handle and realize it is locked, and then recognize that Renee is preparing to accelerate. At that point, she screams either “Do not drive!” or more likely “Don’t drive!”
Not only do the words fit the audio pattern better, but they also make more sense as a response to the circumstances. Yet throughout the media, everyone repeats the “drive, baby, drive” narrative without any hesitation. I later heard commentator Megyn Kelly argue that Becca Good should be arrested — even suggesting felony liability — based on the assumption that she urged her wife to flee.
Kelly went so far as to say that Becca Good should be in custody now, but that claim depends entirely on a transcription that may not be accurate. What if the wife never even said, “drive, baby, drive” at all? What if it was all just a media invention?
It’s not like that has never happened before. Do you remember “hands up, don’t shoot”?
That was the media narrative to describe the shooting of Michael Brown by a Ferguson, Missouri, policeman in 2014. The progressive left picked up the battle cry and accused Officer Darren Wilson of killing the teenager while he was in the act of surrender.
It wasn’t true, but it took weeks for the truth to come out — that Brown had approached Wilson in his patrol car and tried to wrestle the officer’s gun away from him. Shooting Brown was the only way for Wilson to protect himself and others. Yet because of the media narrative, Wilson was put in danger of arrest and of worse — as angry mobs in Ferguson sought justice based on a fairy tale.
Now, 12 years later, another shorthand narrative was out of control. Unable to find any outlet that had questioned the transcription as I had, I turned to an AI-based audio analysis tool, ChatGPT, to examine the clip more rigorously than the human ear alone allows.
Using slowed playback and spectrogram analysis, it reported its results. Bottom line (short answer):
The audio does not support “drive baby drive.”It is far more consistent with “don’t drive” (or “do not drive”) spoken urgently.I would rate confidence moderate to high, given the recording quality.
Asked why “drive, baby, drive” does not fit the sound signature on the audio, ChatGPT responded:
I isolated the quoted moment from the clearest clip available to me and examined it as a time-frequency spectrogram (a standard way to visualize speech). The widely repeated phrase “drive baby drive” doesn’t match what’s in the recording. The utterance is too short for three words, and the audio lacks the distinct consonant bursts you would expect for “baby” (two clear “b” onsets). The sound pattern is more consistent with a prohibitive command such as “don’t drive” or “do not drive,” delivered urgently.
RELATED: Renee Good had 4 gunshot wounds, including in the head, new report shows
Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
I’m not asking anyone to treat AI as an oracle — only to notice what happens when the slowed audio and the spectrogram don’t match the confident captioning. Perhaps ChatGPT and I are both wrong. But I don’t think so. After repeated playback, I could not hear anything resembling the word “baby.” And if the argument is that the audio portion of the video recording is too ambiguous for a definitive conclusion, then that point should have been made to the hundreds of media outlets that ran with the “drive, baby, drive” narrative — not with me for questioning it.
Deciding whether Officer Ross was justified in shooting Renee Good does not hinge on what Becca Good said in a moment of panic. But public judgment — and calls for criminal punishment — clearly have. When journalists and commentators repeat an unverified transcription as fact, they do more than simplify a complex event. They create a moral narrative that can endanger real people.
If the audio is ambiguous, that ambiguity should have been reported as such from the beginning. If it is not, then the words attributed to Becca Good deserve correction. Even if I’m wrong about the exact words, the larger point stands: If the audio is ambiguous, it should never have been presented as a definitive quote — and certainly not used to justify calls for prosecution.
In cases like this, restraint is not just appropriate. It is the responsibility that journalists owe their readers. And readers should demand the same restraint from those who claim to inform them.
Editor’s note: This article was originally published by RealClearPolitics and made available via RealClearWire.
Ice, Minneapolis, Renee good, Hands up don’t shoot, Media narrative, Ice shooting, Opinion & analysis, Media myths, Media bias, Immigration and customs enforcement, Mass deportations, Law and order
Sara Gonzales rips new autistic Barbie doll: ‘We need to end DEI in toys’
Mattel released a Barbie doll this past week that has sparked an important discussion about what representation looks like in doll form — and why a pretty girl wearing headphones and a cute outfit might not be representative of a severe autism diagnosis, or why we shouldn’t be celebrating something we can try to understand and prevent.
“President Trump ended DEI in the government, and I was really, really, glad about that, but it appears there was more work to be done. We need to end the DEI in toys,” BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales says on “Sara Gonzales Unfiltered.”
In Mattel’s press release on the new Barbie doll, it writes, “The autistic Barbie doll features elbow and wrist articulation, enabling stimming, hand flapping, and other hand gestures that some members of the autistic community use to process sensory information or express excitement.”
It also writes that her eyes are “shifted slightly to the side, which reflects how some members of the autistic community may avoid direct eye contact.”
“I’m not making fun of people with autism. I actually think it’s terrible. And I’ve done a lot to try to help get us to the place where we can figure out what is causing autism, but we are at this weird place where the left is like, ‘Actually it’s great if people are autistic. Actually I love that my family member’s autistic. I hope we get more autistic people,’” Gonzales comments.
“I want to solve what’s happening to people. I want to solve why so many people are being diagnosed with autism, why so many people can’t make direct eye contact, why so many people need noise-canceling headphones,” she continues.
“It’s absurd. It’s absolutely absurd,” she adds.
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‘Pegged as a pedophile sympathizer’: Pro-LGBTQ founder of Montessori school accused of grooming, exploiting child under 13
The founder and board president of a new K-12 Montessori school in Illinois has been arrested on charges of grooming and exploiting a young child.
On January 9, Effingham police officers moved quickly to arrest 32-year-old Dakota “Kody” Czerwonka of Montrose after receiving a report that a student at Crossroads Montessori School had received “inappropriate electronic messages.” Czerwonka was “immediately identified” as the suspect, Effingham PD said in a statement.
He even unsuccessfully ran for the Illinois House in 2020 on a platform of environmental, economic, social, LGBTQ+, and racial ‘justice.’
Details of the case are scarce, but court records show Czerwonka has been charged with grooming and exploiting a child under 13/exposing self, both Class 4 felonies. He is scheduled to appear in court again on January 29.
Prosecutors also filed to deny Czerwonka pretrial release from custody. At his initial court appearance on Monday, the court agreed with the petition, claiming that Czerwonka poses “a real and present threat to the community and … the minor victim” that “no condition or combination of conditions can mitigate.”
Effingham police confirmed that they “support” his ongoing pretrial detention.
“After reviewing the content of the case after it was reported to our Department, Officers immediately identified a very real safety risk and promptly effected an arrest of the subject, thereby eliminating any further opportunities for this individual to be in contact with other students or children. I’m very pleased with their efforts. They showed dedication to ensuring the safety of our community through these actions,” said a statement from Police Chief Kurt Davis.
The office of an attorney who appeared with Czerwonka in court did not respond to Blaze News’ request for comment.
Czerwonka has a long history of far-left political activism. He even unsuccessfully ran for the Illinois House in 2020 on a platform of environmental, economic, social, LGBTQ+, and racial “justice,” according to an X profile for his independent campaign.
Posts from that account express support for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.). One post calls to “tear … down” the Electoral College.
Another X account linked to Czerwonka includes sexually charged images as well as LGBTQ+ propaganda. In 2020, Czerwonka even bragged that he had been “pegged as a pedophile sympathizer” on another social media platform for praising “Cuties,” a controversial movie previously available on Netflix that sexualizes young girls.
Crossroads Montessori School just opened last fall. In a July Facebook post, the school gave a short introduction of Czerwonka, describing him as someone who “brings a deep passion for empowering students through authentic Montessori education.”
“Kody has worn many hats.. teacher, nonprofit leader, advocate.. and now leads Crossroads with a vision to build a student-centered learning environment grounded in curiosity, independence, and compassion. Outside the classroom, Kody enjoys hiking, film, kayaking, and learning something new every day,” the post continued.
“He believes education is most powerful when it’s collaborative: not just teaching students, but growing alongside them.”
The school did not respond to Blaze News’ request for comment.
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Czerwonka, Effingham, Illinois, Crossroads montessori school, Montessori, Politics
Judges now veto Trump prosecutors after the Senate stalls confirmations
One of the core executive powers is the authority to prosecute criminals. Article II of the Constitution assigns “the executive power” — all of it — to the president of the United States. In practice, the power to execute the laws against those who have violated them is delegated by the president to the attorney general, the Department of Justice she heads, and the 93 U.S. attorneys spread across the country.
Yet since he took office for the second time last January, President Trump and his attorney general, Pam Bondi, have had a heck of a time getting their people in place.
The criminal prosecution work of the US attorneys’ offices does not abate while Washington plays out its slow-walking games.
Of the roughly 50 U.S. attorney nominations the president has sent to the Senate, fewer than half — just 19 — had been confirmed by December 15, and all of those but three were confirmed en masse in October, some 10 months after Trump took office. Although another 13 were confirmed en masse on December 18, 14 are still awaiting confirmation as we approach the one-year mark of Trump’s second term.
A good bit of the holdup is caused by the Senate’s “blue-slip” process, whereby nominations will not be considered unless both senators from the nominee’s home state return a blue slip allowing the nominee to be considered.
Originally designed to allow input from the elected senators who presumably are most familiar with the nominee’s qualifications and temperament — the “advice” part of the “advice and consent” process mentioned in the Constitution — the refusal to return a blue slip has become an obstructionist tactic deployed by Democratic senators bent on blocking as much of Trump’s agenda as they can.
But the criminal prosecution work of the U.S. attorneys’ offices does not abate while Washington plays out its slow-walking games, and the president of the United States — the nation’s top executive and chief law enforcement officer, who has the constitutional duty to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed” — needs to have people in charge of those offices.
RELATED: The ‘blue-slip block’ is GOP cowardice masquerading as tradition
Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Democratic obstruction
The Constitution’s default rule for the appointment of U.S. attorneys is presidential nomination followed by Senate confirmation. But because U.S. attorneys are “inferior officers” in the Constitution’s language, Congress can allow for appointments by the president alone, by the heads of the executive departments, or by the courts of law. It has done so by allowing the attorney general to appoint “interim” U.S. attorneys for up to 120 days to fill vacancies.
But after the 120-day period expires, the interim can remain in charge of the office only if the district court in that jurisdiction approves. Six of the U.S. attorneys appointed to interim positions have been rejected by their respective district courts: Bill Essayli in the Central District of California, Julianne Murray in the District of Delaware, Sigal Chattah in the District of Nevada, Alina Habba in the District of New Jersey, Ryan Ellison in the District of New Mexico, and John Sarcone in the Northern District of New York. Not surprisingly, five of these district courts are overwhelmingly stacked with Democrat-appointed judges, another outgrowth of the more aggressive “blue-slip” policy that has been deployed by Democratic senators in the last decade.
The Nevada District Court has seven judges, for example, and all seven were appointed by either President Obama or President Biden. It’s the same situation with the Northern District of New York, where all five judges on that court were appointed by Obama or Biden. The New Jersey District Court has 17 judges, and all but two (both George W. Bush appointees, not Trump appointees) were appointed by either Obama or Biden. The Central District of California has 28 judges, and fewer than one-third were appointed by Republicans. And five of the seven federal judges in New Mexico were appointed by Obama or Biden.
Alina Habba, who brought the indictment against Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.) for interfering with Immigration and Customs Enforcement enforcement operations, was famously disqualified by the District Court in New Jersey after the cumulative 120-day period expired. And Lindsey Halligan — the interim U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia who obtained the high-profile indictments of former FBI Director James Comey for allegedly lying to Congress and of New York Attorney General Letitia James for allegedly falsely claiming a home in Virginia as her personal residence in order to obtain a more favorable mortgage interest rate — was disqualified by her local district court after the 120-day interim period in that office expired.
The bigger obstacle
The Department of Justice has said it will challenge these disqualifications on appeal. One issue will be whether the 120-day limit on the interim appointment authority is cumulative or successive. That is, if someone is appointed as interim U.S. attorney and then resigns before the expiration of the 120 days, does the attorney general get to appoint a new, different interim to fill the new vacancy for another 120 days, or does the new interim appointee only get to serve until the original 120-day clock expires?
The practice has been the latter, but that leaves the president without someone to exercise his executive authority in charge of the office, as long as the obstruction tactics in the Senate hold. That seems to be a big threat to the president’s ability to take care that the laws be faithfully executed and therefore a big Article II executive authority problem.
An even bigger obstacle for Trump, though one that has not received much attention, is the separation-of-powers problem lurking in this statutory scheme, which requires approval by the district court at the conclusion of the 120-day period.
Yes, the Constitution’s text allows for the appointment of inferior officers by the courts of law, which would technically allow Congress to create a scheme whereby the courts appoint the prosecutors who prosecute cases before them.
There is nothing in the records of sparse debate during the 1787 federal convention to suggest the drafters had such an interbranch appointment authority in mind however. Rather it would seem more likely that they intended inferior executive officers to be appointed by the president alone, or the heads of the executive departments, and inferior judicial officers to be appointed by the courts of law.
RELATED: Ketanji Brown Jackson still can’t define ‘woman,’ yet rewrites sex law
Photo by Arturo Holmes/Getty Images for ESSENCE
When it upheld the independent prosecutor law in the 1988 case of Morrison v. Olson, which had provided for the appointment by a “Special Division” of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, the Supreme Court rejected that interbranch argument, but it also pointed out that the independent prosecutor statute was designed to allow for investigation and prosecution of high-ranking officials in the executive branch, and the interbranch appointment process therefore avoided the obvious conflicts of interest.
No such conflict exists in the run-of-the-mill appointment (or rejection) by district courts of interim U.S. attorneys at the expiration of the 120-day interim period. The interbranch appointment authority raises serious separation-of-powers concerns, and the Supreme Court has been particularly solicitous of them in recent years. It also raises serious concerns about the president’s ability to take care that the laws be faithfully executed when the people executing them are not the ones he has chosen.
A century ago, in the case of Humphrey’s Executor v. the United States, the Supreme Court upheld congressional restrictions on the ability of the president to remove executive branch officials. But already on the Supreme Court’s docket this term is a case, Trump v. Slaughter, in which most observers rightly predict that it will overrule that old, New Deal-era case and restore a large measure of control of the executive branch to the head of that branch, the president — the only member of the entire executive branch that we the people actually elect.
If the Slaughter case ends up slaughtering the bad constitutional law from Humphrey’s Executor, it does not take much imagination to conclude that the question of judges appointing prosecutors who appear before them — that is, those officials who exercise the core executive function of prosecuting crimes — should also be in for a very serious reconsideration.
Editor’s note: A version of this article appeared originally at the American Mind.
Executive power, Federal judges, Trump nominations, Attorneys general, Democrats, Senate, District courts, Opinion & analysis, Donald trump, U.s. attorney, The courts, Article ii, Humphrey’s executor, Trump v. slaughter, Supreme court
From historic dream to living nightmare: A TRUE haunted plantation story
Haunted houses are prime material for horror movies, but is there any truth behind the idea? Can physical spaces really be inhabited by evil spirits?
On this episode of “Strange Encounters,” a podcast on biblical spiritual warfare, BlazeTV host Rick Burgess interviews Eric Davis about his bone-chilling book “Deliverance at Springhill Plantation.”
The book follows the true story of Eric and his wife, Cindy, and their paranormal experiences after purchasing what they thought was the plantation home of their dreams.
After two decades of grinding through a failing marriage, an antebellum-era plantation sitting on 34 acres of rolling green property in Alabama seemed like the perfect place for Eric and Cindy — both history buffs and antique collectors — to reconnect and begin anew. But they were hardly settled before the horrors started unfolding.
One morning shortly after moving in, Eric saw a moving fog — like “dry ice” — traveling from the barn to the old hospital on the property, where the original owner, who was a doctor, used to treat wounded soldiers during the Civil War.
“There was an absolute feeling of absolute evil all over me. I felt the electricity of evil,” he says.
A short while later, Eric saw a physical manifestation of a demon near the same barn. Eric was sitting on the front porch watching his wife go out to feed the cats, when suddenly he saw a man with “long, white hair” dressed in Civil War-era clothing approach her. At first, Eric thought it was an oddball neighbor, but when he made eye contact with the being, it “[disappeared] into a puff of smoke.”
But then things got even darker. One morning while sitting on his couch, Eric was overcome with a sudden and deep hatred for his wife. “I would have loved to seen her dead,” he confesses.
Eric’s animosity toward Cindy was so tangible, the entire family recognized it as demonic oppression. That night, they walked through the home burning sage, anointing doors with oil, and reading aloud from Psalm 91.
“I’m anointing the doors and screaming for [the demons] to get out of my house and get out of our lives,” Eric recounts.
Then Eric walked to the top of the staircase, where there was a “small cubby hole door.”
“I felt a big time pressure behind that door, and I jerked the door open. Naomi [Eric’s daughter] put the sage in. I put my head in there and screamed, ‘Get out of here in the name of Jesus!’ And in the back of my attic was a very, very loud scream. It was like a woman screamed,” he recounts.
“I heard the sounds of barking dogs in the house. … The sage would be lit, and all of a sudden, this cold draft of air would just blow it right out. … It took probably two hours to get the smoke out of my house, but at the end of that night, everything was gone.”
The next several months were uneventful, and Eric’s family settled back into everyday life, believing the demonic activity had been driven out for good.
Then one day, Zoe, the family dog, started randomly whining and growling. “I turn, and out of the wall in my bedroom within six foot of me appears a black figure floating. … It very much looked almost like the Grim Reaper the way it looked. It was dark. It was levitating. It had sleeves. It had a hood. Had no face inside it, no hands, no feet,” Eric tells Rick.
“I screamed, ‘Get out in the name of Jesus!’ … I chased it downstairs and out of the house, and it left.”
At this point, Eric was utterly crushed in spirit by the warfare waged against his family. Having nowhere to turn, he “looked up to the night sky” and cried out, “God, where are you?”
“And suddenly this peace comes on me. I don’t know how to explain it. This peace was on me, and I heard one word,” says Eric.
That word was “church.”
Even though Eric and his family were believers, it had been many years since they’d belonged to a local congregation.
Eric reached out to a local church and told one of the people on staff what was going on inside his home. After Sunday service one day, several members of the church came over and “went to war in [the] house.”
Eric, who was standing outside with his family, says he could “feel [the demons] as they’re leaving.”
One of the women in the church group then shared a word the Lord had given her.
“She said there’s unforgiveness in this house,” says Eric.
“I pointed at Cindy, and Cindy pointed at me, and we released forgiveness toward each other. And when that happened, everything broke.”
“That was the root” that was permitting the darkness to temporarily flee but come roaring right back, Eric explains. “You can rebuke Satan in the name of Jesus all day long, but if you’ve got unrepented unforgiveness in your heart, nothing’s going to change,” he says.
But final deliverance for the Davis’ home wouldn’t come until eight months later after one final demonic siege.
To hear how Eric’s harrowing tale ends, watch the full episode above.
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Strange encounters, Rick burgess, Burgess, Blazetv, Blaze media, Demonic activity, Demonic possession, Christianity, Spiritual warfare
Darwinism is a dead end — and biologists know it
For more than a century, Darwinism has enjoyed a peculiar privilege. It is not merely taught as a scientific theory; it is treated as a final authority. Question it, and you are not mistaken — you are suspect, a heathen guilty of fidelity to first principles.
And yet the deeper one looks, the less sense it makes.
Darwinism is not merely incomplete; it is internally inconsistent. It claims to explain life while excluding what life most plainly displays.
Dr. J. Scott Turner, an American physiologist with decades of serious biological research behind him, is not a Bible-thumping believer or a culture-war activist. He is a scientist who followed the evidence where it led — and discovered that modern Darwinism could not follow him there, a conclusion he shared with me in a recent interview.
‘Marvelous contrivances’
The trouble, Turner explains, began with a quiet but decisive shift. Darwin’s original theory centered on organisms — living, striving creatures with what Darwin himself called “marvelous contrivances.” Modern Darwinism replaced them with something colder. Genes took center stage. Organisms were pushed aside.
Neo-Darwinism, Turner argues, became “a form of gene determinism embedded in a statistical framework that largely shoved organisms off the stage.” What disappeared with them were the qualities that make life recognizably alive: “intentionality, intelligence, and purposefulness.” What passed for progress was, in fact, reduction.
Christians have long sensed this loss, even without the language to name it. They were told that purpose was an illusion, design an accident, and meaning a projection — that life was nothing more than chemistry with better branding. Turner’s work shows what happens when that story is taken seriously.
Termite testimony
His research on termite colonies posed a problem Darwinism could not absorb. The termites were not merely adapting to their environment. They were building it — massive mounds precisely regulated for temperature and humidity, engineered for their own survival. The environment was not selecting them. They were shaping it.
“The old idea that organisms adapt to environments is only half the story,” Turner explains. “Organisms also adapt environments to themselves.” This is not unique to termites. Coral reefs, beaver dams, and human cities all tell the same story. Life has always been an active force, not a passive one.
Once organisms shape the conditions of their own survival, the Darwinian account begins to strain. Selection still operates, but it is no longer blind or passive. It is infused with preference — with direction, with desire.
Darwinism has no language for that.
Faced with obvious design — termite mounds, bird flight, the cantilevered structure of mammalian bones — modern Darwinism retreats into qualifiers. Design becomes “apparent” design. Purpose becomes “as if” purpose. Intelligence is reduced to coincidence wearing a lab coat.
RELATED: Science’s God-denying narrative just got crushed again
Mongkolchon Akesin/iStock/Getty Images Plus
Darwin vs. design
Turner refuses the dodge. “I couldn’t support the notion of ‘apparent’ design or ‘apparent’ intentionality any more,” he says. “These weren’t illusions. They were fundamental properties of life.”
That refusal has consequences.
Darwinism is not merely incomplete; it is internally inconsistent. It claims to explain life while excluding what life most plainly displays. It demands silence precisely where the evidence speaks.
This is why Turner concludes — without theatrics or bitterness — that Darwinism cannot be true. Not because evolution is false, but because Darwinism lacks the conceptual tools to describe what evolution actually entails.
The hardest line Darwinism draws is at meaning.
Turner is blunt about this. Darwinism’s deepest limitation is not scientific but metaphysical. It operates within what he calls an “epistemic bubble” — a closed system that refuses to admit evidence challenging its assumptions.
That is not how science advances. It is how dogma survives.
An overdue truce
Christians are often told that faith and science are natural enemies. Turner’s work suggests something more unsettling: the conflict was never necessary. It was constructed.
Between militant Darwinism and intelligent-design polemics lies a broad, neglected middle ground — one Turner openly occupies, along with scientists and philosophers like Stuart Kauffman and Terrence Deacon, as well as researchers working on the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis — who accept evolution while rejecting the dogma that purpose and agency are illusions.
Here, intelligence is neither smuggled in from theology nor erased by materialism. It is treated as a real feature of living systems.
This view has ancient roots. Turner describes himself as an Aristotelian — not an atomist, reducing life to particles and chance, nor a Platonist, locating purpose outside the world altogether. Aristotle began with what could be observed: living things striving toward ends. That vision sits comfortably alongside religious belief, which has always held that life is ordered, directed, and intelligible. Turner’s approach simply takes life as it appears — purposeful, directed, alive.
For Christians, this matters.
A world without purpose is corrosive. It erodes responsibility, dignity, and moral meaning. It tells us that desire is a delusion and intention an error — that life is busy, but empty.
Darwinism promised a grand explanation. What it delivered was a grand refusal. And yet faith remains — not as an intrusion, but as a witness to reality.
Faith, J. scott turner, Evolution, Darwinism, Creationism, Christianity, Extended evolutionary synthesis, Interview
Jesus, Trump, Charlie Kirk reportedly named role models by elementary students — but school staffer allegedly squashes picks
Elementary school students in Kansas reportedly chose the likes of Jesus, President Donald Trump, and Charlie Kirk as role models during an assignment — but a guidance counselor reportedly squashed those picks, KWCH-TV reported.
The incident at Marshall Elementary School in Eureka took place in late October, the station said, citing a civil rights complaint the American Center for Law & Justice filed Tuesday.
‘This action undermines trust between schools, students, and parents.’
The ACLJ is representing a parent and an elementary school student in the case, KWCH said.
The station reported that a guidance counselor assigned sixth-grade students to call out their role models in a project called “Find Your Voice” while one student designated as a “student teacher” wrote the names on a board.
The ACLJ provided the following narrative of what it said happened, KWCH noted:
“When a student identified Charlie Kirk as a role model, [the guidance counselor] got very uncomfortable and refused to allow this name to be written on the board, yelling that he was ‘not a hero,’ and that he was not a role model. The student teacher had already started writing Charlie Kirk’s name on the board, and was ordered by [the guidance counselor] to remove it. When another student selected President Donald J. Trump as a role model, [the guidance counselor] reiterated her prohibition even more angrily, stating that students could not write political or religious figures on the board, and in fact excluded political and religious topics altogether. However, [the guidance counselor] permitted other controversial figures to be listed as heroes.”
The station said it spoke with a Eureka parent of a sixth-grade student who recalled that another student wanted Jesus as a role model, but that choice also was not allowed as part of the assignment.
RELATED: Yet another SoCal HS teacher allegedly embroiled in anti-Trump controversy — this time it’s over a student’s MAGA clothing
The ACLJ’s complaint accuses the school district of religious discrimination, political/viewpoint discrimination, violation of free speech rights, and retaliation, KWCH noted.
Oh, and the law firm also accused the powers that be of encouraging students to not tell their parents about the incident, the station said.
Specifically, the ACLJ called out “egregious conduct in engaging in viewpoint-based discrimination against students who identified conservative political figures as role models, and the subsequent directive instructing students not to report concerns to their parents,” KWCH reported.
In addition, the ACLJ maintained that while students were allowed to list whomever they wanted in their written assignments, they were prohibited from calling out the names of “religious or political heroes publicly on the board,” the station said.
The ACLJ further argued that “the selective prohibition created immediate confusion among students about whose voices were valued and whose were not,” KWCH said.
More from the station:
The group also called out school’s response to what happened, saying that the administration claimed that prohibiting political and religious figures from being discussed in the “Find Your Voice” activity was in the name of being “inclusive and neutral.”
The American Center for Law & Justice particularly took issue with an alleged instruction for students to bring concerns to teachers or the principal first, not directly to their parents.
The ACLJ said the directive “instructing children not to report concerns to their parents … violates fundamental principles of parental rights, educational ethics, and child safety,” KWCH added.
The Eureka school board reportedly addressed the issue during a Dec. 8 meeting and met in executive session, the station said. However, the ACLJ said “no public response was provided, no corrective action has been announced, and the violations continue to remain unaddressed,” KWCH reported.
U.S. Rep. Ron Estes of Kansas’ 4th Congressional District, which includes Eureka, shared the following on social media about the controversy, the station said:
“It’s alarming to hear of a Kansas teacher silencing students’ voices in the classroom. Schools shouldn’t be a place where a teacher’s political beliefs are forced onto students. This is a violation of their constitutional rights and does not represent Kansas schools’ fundamental principles.
“Parents should have the confidence in schools to allow their children to grow and engage in classrooms that support their children’s ideas and opinions. This action undermines trust between schools, students, and parents. I do not condone this type of political censorship in any school.”
Marshall Elementary School Principal Stacy Coulter noted the following in response to the civil rights complaint and a request to discuss the issue, KWCH reported:
“We are aware of this incident and are always working with families and our school staff to make sure every learning activity is a positive and encouraging experience for every student.
“We are unable to comment on the individuals involved because of our commitment to the privacy of our students and employees. This information is also protected by confidentiality laws. Thank you for your understanding.”
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Civil rights complaint, American center for law and justice, Jesus, Charlie kirk, Donald trump, Elementary school students, Role models, Assignment, Kansas, Education, Discrimination, Politics
FEMPIRE STRIKES BACK: Kathleen Kennedy leaves ‘Star Wars’; is it too soon for fans to celebrate?
“Star Wars” fans may be celebrating a bit too early when it comes to Kathleen Kennedy’s departure.
Kennedy headed Lucasfilm for 14 years, controlling iconic franchises like “Star Wars” and “Indiana Jones.”
‘After destroying a beloved modern myth … Kathleen Kennedy is finally stepping down.’
Fans rejoiced online as Disney announced Kennedy will be replaced by two executives: chief creative officer Dave Filoni and Lynwen Brennan, president and general manager. Filoni will be president at Lucasfilm, while Brennan will be co-president.
Director Filoni’s pairing with Brennan was described by Variety as a move that suggests Disney wanted to pair a strong filmmaker with a person who has a solid sense of budgets.
However, despite what appears to be good news for “Star Wars” fans, Kennedy’s tenure is not exactly coming to a screeching halt.
One to ‘Grogu’ on
Kennedy will still serve as a producer for two theatrical “Star Wars” films, the first being 2026’s “The Mandalorian and Grogu.”
This is the same wing of the franchise’s universe that fired former MMA fighter and actress Gina Carano for speaking out against mask mandates.
Additionally, Kennedy will produce “Star Wars: Starfighter,” which is set for a 2027 release.
RELATED: ‘Put a chick in it, make it lame and gay!’ ‘South Park: Joining the Panderverse’ review
Photo by Gerardo Mora/Getty Images for Disney
That didn’t seem to bother detractors like Babylon Bee editor Joel Berry, who posted, “After destroying a beloved modern myth and replacing it with a 14-year, malice-filled tantrum against the patriarchy, Kathleen Kennedy is finally stepping down. Finally.”
Cartoonist George Alexopoulos joked that Kennedy put the franchise “in a grave.”
Others screamed from X’s rooftops that “Star Wars” is now “free” and is “going to be amazing.”
Put a chick in it
X owner Elon Musk even jumped into the mix by simply posting a clip from “South Park: Joining the Panderverse.”
The 2023 episode was internationally recognized for hilariously mocking the downward spiral of Disney’s intellectual properties at the hands of Kennedy. The episode showed Kennedy demanding the diversification of every character Disney had to offer, changing movies to ensure they had “lame,” gay, and female characters, no matter how unsuccessful they were.
The cartoon popularized the phrase, “Put a chick in it! Make it lame and gay!” as a way to describe needless and forced diversity in media.
RELATED: Male ‘Star Wars’ fans attack women, Kathleen Kennedy says ahead of latest woke series ‘The Acolyte’
Your worshipfulness
Disney CEO Bob Iger praised Kennedy in a statement on her way out, saying “We’re deeply grateful for Kathleen Kennedy’s leadership, her vision, and her stewardship of such an iconic studio and brand.”
During her time at Lucasfilm, Kennedy has been criticized by fans not only for her film choices, but for comments that she made toward them.
In 2024, Kennedy accused fans who were unhappy with the show “The Acolyte” of attacking women online.
“I think a lot of the women who step into ‘Star Wars’ struggle with this a bit more. Because of the fan base being so male dominated, they sometimes get attacked in ways that can be quite personal.”
While adding that she too has been a victim, Kennedy alluded to the fact that some of the fans were bigots.
“I stand by my empathy for ‘Star Wars’ fans. But I want to be clear. Anyone who engages in bigotry, racism or hate speech … I don’t consider a fan.”
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Align, Star wars, Woke, Patriarchy, South park, Put a chick in it, Disney, Entertainment
Another ICE shooting in Minnesota — and it’s the left fanning the flames
There was another ICE shooting in Minnesota, but while leftist politicians and media try to spin it to incriminate ICE, BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales points out that they’re the ones fanning the flames.
“Things are not cooling down, cooling off in Minneapolis, in Minnesota. It’s actually just intensifying because there was another person shot by ICE in Minneapolis, and you’re getting the exact same reaction from the left that you would expect,” Gonzales comments.
According to a statement from the Department of Homeland Security, “Federal law enforcement officers were conducting a targeted traffic stop in Minneapolis of an illegal alien from Venezuela who was released into the country by Joe Biden in 2022.”
When the subject attempted to flee the scene, he crashed into a parked car — and then fled on foot. When the ICE officer caught up to him, the subject not only began to resist and assault the officer, but two more subjects came out of a nearby apartment and began attacking the officer with a snow shovel and a broom handle.
While the officer was being attacked, the original subject got loose and began hitting the officer with the shovel or broom handle. As the officer was beginning to fear for his life, he fired a defensive shot to defend himself and hit the immigrant in the leg.
“He was being attacked by three people, only fired one shot. That’s way more restraint than I would show. Way more restraint than I would show. … At this point, you have so many people going after ICE. You have so many people who mean to cause them harm. To me, it would be justifiable self-defense,” BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales comments on “Sara Gonzales Unfiltered.”
And while Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey (D) is now claiming that he’s never encouraged anything other than peace in his city, Gonzales has the receipts.
“Let’s be very clear,” Frey began in a recent press conference. “I’ve seen conduct from ICE that is disgusting and is intolerable. We don’t use the word ‘invasion’ lightly. What we are seeing is thousands, plural, thousands of federal agents coming into our city.”
“They are not here to cause safety in this city. What they are doing is not to provide safety in America. What they are doing is causing chaos and distrust. And I have a message for ICE. To ICE, get the f**k out of Minneapolis. We do not want you here,” Frey continued.
“That’s very peaceful,” Gonzales comments. “That’s very, very peaceful rhetoric coming from Jacob Frey. … He’s not the one trying to generate attention or controversy or fan the flames. That’s not him. In fact, he and all of the elected officials in Minnesota have done nothing but try to promote peace.”
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New ‘Star Trek’ DEI disaster flops despite airing for free: A ‘huge, gay, glee club middle finger’
Paramount Plus gave away a very expensive product for free.
After reports that “Star Trek: Starfleet Academy” cost between $10 million and $20 million per episode to produce, the network bizarrely posted the entirety of its premiere episode on YouTube, likely in hopes of garnering interest from a wider audience.
‘He goes to Starfleet Academy, makes a ton of friends, and they help him be OK with who he is.’
However the typically popular franchise hardly made a big splash, with just over 85,000 views in the first 24 hours. While the city-sized viewership would be nothing to scoff at for an independent operation, reviewers were shocked by the numbers, revealing that during its premiere, the show allegedly hit a peak of just 1,316 concurrent viewers.
Set phasers to ‘slay’
The show has been heavily criticized for its obvious diversity push, with sci-fi author Brad Torgersen even calling it a “huge, gay, glee club middle finger to everyone who liked” the franchise, back in December. Torgersen blamed “theater kids” for ruining the franchise as well.
Since its debut, it has become even more apparent how deep the production went down the diversity rabbit hole. One scene was described as cadets being “required to get DEI training.” In the scene, an instructor tells her students that being in the academy means “being open to the people around you” as a student is questioning his colleagues’ identities.
Photo by Taylor Hill/FilmMagic
The instructor is played by actress Tig Notaro, whose real name is Mathilde O’Callaghan Notaro.
Notaro has previously described seeing her 5-year-old son in rainbow-colored clothing — particularly for gay pride — as “incredible” and even apologized for not being active in gender politics until it affected her.
Space cadet
Series creator Alex Kurtzman has not shied away from revealing the show’s devotion to diversity either.
“I think we’re not slowing down on representation in any way,” Kurtzman said according to Comic Book Club. “We’re certainly planning like representation is at the beating heart of [‘Star Trek’ creator] Roddenberry’s vision, and we’ve already done the work of bringing it to that new place.”
“So there’s really no reason to change course there,” he added.
The cast of characters also has an obvious and plainly stated agenda. The same outlet reports that a new lesbian couple will be introduced in the series, and the Klingon character, played by actor Karim Diane, will have his sexuality “explored.”
Here to make friends
Diane alluded to as much in a recent interview posted on the show’s official Instagram page.
“He doesn’t like to battle. He wants to love people and heal people and save people,” he said about his character. “He goes to Starfleet Academy, makes a ton of friends, and they help him be OK with who he is.”
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Other cast members include Zoe Steiner, who has shown up nearly nude to press junkets, and even late-night host Stephen Colbert.
Colbert announced his participation in the series in October and appears in 10 episodes as the Digital Dean of Students, which serves as a comic relief voiceover. He has already been mocked for his “absolute cringe” voice work in at least one scene.
Before the show aired, it was picked up for a second season by Paramount Plus.
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Align, Star trek, Starfleet academy, Dei, Diversity, Woke, Lgbt, Paramount, Entertainment
Biden’s faith attacks backfire: Support for religious liberties soars to record high under Trump, new report shows
Against a backdrop of mounting attacks on churches, the Biden administration worked ardently to curb religious liberties wherever they came into conflict with the left’s radical agenda.
For example:
the Biden Equal Employment Opportunity Commission implemented a rule requiring employers — including Christian organizations — to accommodate workers’ efforts to abort their unborn children;the EEOC attempted to force Christians to pay for employees’ sex-rejection mutilations; the Biden Department of Health and Human Services attempted to bar Christian providers who hold biblical and scientifically grounded views about sex and marriage from the foster-care system; and under Biden, a Catholic, the FBI characterized conservative Catholics as potential domestic terrorists and proposed to infiltrate Catholic churches as “threat mitigation.”
It’s clear from the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty’s latest Religious Freedom Index that unlike the administration voted out of power in 2024, the American people overwhelmingly — and increasingly — support religious liberties.
‘Our nation still believes that our first freedom belongs at the heart of our culture; not as a source of conflict, but as a foundation for overcoming it.’
Over the past six years, Becket has tracked public opinion on religious freedom. The legal group’s index for 2025 published on Friday registered the highest cumulative score for public support of religious freedom to-date — 71 on a scale from 0 to 100 where 0 indicates complete opposition to religious liberty and 100 indicates robust support.
This amounts to a dramatic shift, especially when compared to 2020, when the composite score was 66.
Whereas in 2020, 52% of respondents agreed that religious freedom is inherently public and that Americans should be able to share their faith in public spaces, that number jumped to 57% in the latest RFI.
There was an even bigger shift when it came to support for parents’ ability to opt out of public school curricula they believe to be inappropriate — a jump from 63% in 2021 to 73% in 2025.
RELATED: 6 ways I’m using 2026 to deepen my relationship with God
Photo by ANOEK DE GROOT/AFP via Getty Images
When asked specifically about the Supreme Court’s June 2025 ruling in Mahmoud v. Taylor, 62% of respondents signaled support for the high court’s decision to side with the Maryland parents who wanted to protect their children from LGBT propaganda in Montgomery County Public Schools.
On the question of whether public funding for education should be available to all families, including those who choose religious schools, 77% of respondents said they were mostly or completely in favor.
The report noted that “although this year’s Index found that Americans have cooled on the benefits of religion to society and are skeptical of institutions, they unify around the simple principles of religious freedom for all, even in difficult cases that invite scrutiny or controversy.”
A clear majority, 58%, of Americans said they support the right of a Christian baker to decline to make cakes that conflict with her sincere religious views.
Sixty-one percent of respondents said that the First Amendment’s guarantee of the free exercise of religion should protect Catholic priests from having to break the seal of confession as would have been required by Washington state Democrats’ now-enjoined Senate Bill 5375.
There was markedly less support for the Christian counselor in the case Chiles v. Salazar who challenged Colorado’s prohibition on so-called “conversion therapy” for non-straight youth. Only 47% expressed support for her ability to provide talk therapy to children to help them overcome their gender dysphoria.
“Year after year, the Index has made clear that religious liberty remains one of our most cherished values,” Mark Rienzi, president and CEO of Becket, said in a statement obtained by Blaze News.
“Even amid deep divisions, our nation still believes that our first freedom belongs at the heart of our culture; not as a source of conflict, but as a foundation for overcoming it,” continued Rienzi. “The work before us is to see that freedom protected for our children and theirs in the years to come.”
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Faith, Abide, Religion, Christianity, Christian, Society, Becket, Religious freedom index, Freedom, Liberty, First amendment, Politics
Scandal-plagued mayor arrested for serious sex crimes — including alleged sodomy of a minor
A St. Louis-area mayor obsessed with race and swamped with lawsuits has been arrested — and the accusations against him are horrifying.
On Thursday, Mayor Michael Cornell of Riverview, Missouri, was arrested and charged with nine felonies: four counts of second-degree statutory sodomy, three counts of first-degree sodomy or attempted sodomy, and one count each of first-degree harassment and possession of child pornography — film/videotape.
‘Tell me why we’re being sued because you made sexual advances to an employee and when he refused, you fired him.’
As of Thursday afternoon, Cornell remained in custody on a $1 million, cash-only bond.
The statutory sodomy charges relate to repeated incidents between 2016 and 2017 of alleged sexual contact with a teenager under 17 years of age, KSDK reported.
Prosecutors claimed that Cornell has also attacked three adult males: one between 2016 and 2017, one in May and September 2024, and one just last month.
Police worry that other victims, including minors, may be out there.
“In these types of cases with this type of behavior, based on the victims that we’ve talked to, it’s possible that this is a predatory type of behavior. And we’re concerned that if he was willing to do it to a minor, there may be other minors that we’re just not aware of,” St. Louis County Police Lieutenant Colonel Jerry Lohr said, according to KSDK.
A bond hearing has been scheduled for next week, and a preliminary hearing has been scheduled for February 18, KSDK said.
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Bill Oxford/Getty Images
Cornell, 39, has been inundated with accusations since before he was elected mayor in April 2024. He currently faces litigation related to sexual harassment, wrongful termination, gender discrimination, fostering a toxic work environment, and jokes on social media.
A former Riverview alderwoman also filed a suit after Cornell allegedly ordered her to be placed in handcuffs after she mentioned the sexual harassment allegations against him at a town hall meeting last February.
“I held up the court papers. I said, ‘Tell me why we’re being sued because you made sexual advances to an employee and when he refused, you fired him,'” Regina Davis said, according to KMOV, which has covered the accusations against Cornell extensively.
At least seven lawsuits have been filed against Cornell in just two years, the outlet noted.
Cornell has also recently made bizarre claims about members of the KKK vandalizing both public and private property in Riverview.
“I am writing to inform you of the disturbing markings and threats against the City of Riverview and its residents by racist and cowardly KKK affiliates throughout the night. Over the past six months, alarming KKK and hate-related markings or destruction of City property and churches in Riverview have been reported,” he posted to Facebook in December.
Additionally, Cornell issued KMOV a rambling seven-page letter on city letterhead, referring to not only the alleged KKK problem, but other wild allegations, including that the chief of police had orchestrated “conspiracies to blow my head off, commit a mass shooting, and then kill himself.”
Former Riverview Police Chief Thomas Tumbrink filed a lawsuit against Cornell and other officials in June, alleging wrongful termination.
In response to a request for comment on the lawsuits, Cornell told KMOV: “Just let the system play that out, and you just follow the facts, you understand? We’re not here to be choked in with the smoke. When the smoke clears, a lot of facts. And if you are someone with some type of integrity, follow the facts.”
Cornell’s bio on the Riverview website evinces a man obsessed with race and overly impressed with his resume. The first paragraph of many notes his “unmatched knowledge, courage, and strength, he has broken barriers and shattered ceilings at such a young age counting back over 20 years.”
Cornell also brags about his call for “environmental justice” and greater “integrity” and “transparency.”
Among other accomplishments, he claims to be the “youngest and First African American” chairman of the Riverview Board of Trustees and that in 2022, he became a “State Licensed Private Investigator.”
A public records request to the state law enforcement licensing agency revealed that Cornell had a peace officer license that has since “expired.” Cornell pled guilty to one count of impersonating an officer in 2017, but his record was later expunged, KMOV said.
Through a public records request, Blaze News learned that while Cornell has been registered to vote in Missouri since at least September 2020 and has cast a vote 10 times since then, he is not registered with a particular political party.
Riverview City Hall did not respond to a request for comment.
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Riverview, Missouri, St. louis, Michael cornell, Politics