Category: blaze media

Jennifer Siebel Newsom, the wife of Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom, blamed evangelical Christians and other conservatives for not allowing progressives to redefine what pro-life means.

The resurfaced video gathered attention as Gavin Newsom’s suspected run for a presidential campaign continued.

‘They’re living in this silo, this evangelical, conservative silo that, ultimately, is just pulling us back as a country to a time and a place where we don’t deserve to be.’

Jennifer Newsom made the comments in an interview with Elex Michaelson from 2022.

“I appreciate that so many people, so many progressives, are leaning into redefining what pro-life is really about, and that’s what we’re doing in California,” she said. “You know, pro-life is about prenatal care and universal preschool and universal after-school and universal health care and taking care of foster kids and feeding, you know, universal meals and child care. Like, that’s pro-life. It’s not conception.”

She went on to accuse evangelicals and conservatives of holding back the pro-abortion effort.

“They’re living in this silo, this evangelical, conservative silo that, ultimately, is just pulling us back as a country to a time and a place where we don’t deserve to be, and we’re not going to be,” she continued. “Because honestly, young women and fathers of daughters are awake now, and they’re woke, and they’re not going to let us go back.”

She added that she has “so much hope because of that, and obviously California has a huge responsibility to lead.”

The video was posted to social media, where it garnered more than 1.5 million views.

RELATED: Rose McGowan claims Gavin Newsom’s wife tried to get her to bury Harvey Weinstein allegations

Jennifer Newsom also made headlines when she recently scolded reporters for ignoring her pro-abortion event and asking unrelated questions.

“We just find it incredulous [sic] that we have Planned Parenthood here, and women are 51% of the population,” she said.

“And the majority of the questions — all of these questions — have really been about other issues. … You wonder why we have such a horrific war on women in this country and that these guys are getting away with it. Because you don’t seem to care,” she added.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Jennifer siebel newsom, Jenn newsom woke abortion, Woke abortion, Gavin newsom’s wife, Politics 

Officials in Boston are celebrating the highest graduation rates in their history after significantly lowering standards for students and hiring “equitable grading policy” consultants, according to a bombshell analysis.

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu (D) announced earlier in March that the graduation rate at Boston Public Schools had reached a new record high of 81.3%. The previous high had been 81%.

‘The increase in graduation rates is more the result of policy changes than of students’ rising academic achievement. And it comes at the expense of students’ readiness for the real world.’

“I say every day around the city that our top priority is making Boston a home for everyone, and that has everything to do with our young people, our schools, school communities, and opportunities for families in Boston,” Wu said at a press conference. “That is the story behind these numbers.”

But another story behind these numbers says that the figure just represents grade inflation and that actual student achievement results have not improved at all.

An analysis from City Journal of the Manhattan Institute found that other metrics showed no improvement despite the allegedly inflated graduation rates.

BPS students did not score any better on the math and reading portions of the SAT, according to the analysis. Math scores for lower income students declined by 5%, even as their graduation rates improved.

Reading and math scores for English language learners fell by 9% and 13%, respectively, as their graduation rates improved by an astounding 21%, the analysis claimed.

And only about 40% of BPS 10th-graders meet expectations for reading and math in the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System testing, both of which are lower than those from 2019, it said.

While Wu claimed they had not lowered student expectations or moved goalposts to artificially jack up graduation rates, the City Journal report claimed they had done just that.

One policy had teachers assign “incomplete marks” rather than give students failing grades, and the district spent $120,000 on education consultants who advocated for “equitable grading policies.”

RELATED: School credit ‘recovery’ plans are apparently being misused for racial equity — and disadvantaging students even more

Critics are noting that many schools are offering “credit recovery” programs where students are able to make up failing grades with minimal effort, allowing them to move on to the next grade will remaining woefully uneducated.

“The increase in graduation rates is more the result of policy changes than of students’ rising academic achievement. And it comes at the expense of students’ readiness for the real world — a cost that the students themselves will ultimately pay,” the report concluded.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Grade inflation, Boston public schools failures, Mayor wu is horrible, Fake graduation rates, Politics 

President Donald Trump is throwing his full support behind the proposed SAVE America Act, framing it as a once-in-a-generation opportunity to overhaul U.S. elections and restore public confidence in their right to vote.

And he’s not going to let those who oppose it off so easily.

“The Save America Act is one of the most IMPORTANT & CONSEQUENTIAL pieces of legislation in the history of Congress, and America itself. NO MORE RIGGED ELECTIONS! Voter I.D., Proof of Citizenship, No Rigged Mail-In Voting (We are the only Country in the World that allows this!), No Men in Women’s Sports, No Transgender MUTILIZATION of our Children,” President Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.

“Only sick, demened, or deranged people in the House or Senate could vote against THE SAVE AMERICA ACT. If they do, each one of these points, separately, will be used against the user in his/her political campaign for office — A guaranteed loss!” he added.

“We have one chance to secure elections,” BlazeTV host Liz Wheeler says on “The Liz Wheeler Show.” “Do you remember what it felt like sitting in front of your television, watching on X as election results in 2020 rolled in? Do you remember the outrage that you felt as we saw anomalies, what appeared to be lawbreaking activity, happen before our very eyes?”

“So I challenge you today. This is what we should challenge our senators today. How many of those anomalies on that ill-fated evening in November of 2020 could have been prevented by the provisions that now exist in the SAVE America Act?” she continues.

“And for those on both sides of the aisle, on the left and on the right, who contend that anomalies are not proof, are not evidence, of fraud, OK. If no fraud existed whatsoever in any way, shape, or form, then why oppose the SAVE Act?” she asks.

“If it won’t change the outcome because no fraud existed — fraud played no part in those elections — then the SAVE Act couldn’t change the outcome,” she says, adding, “so you couldn’t possibly oppose it on any reasonable grounds, could you?”

Want more from Liz Wheeler?

To enjoy more of Liz’s based commentary, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​The liz wheeler show, Liz wheeler, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, President trump, Donald trump, Republicans, Save america act, Save act, Save act debate, President donald trump, President donald trump election 

A video has been circulating widely on social media showing what appears to be a couple of Michigan school employees on a school bus engaged in what the district called alleged “professional misconduct,” WJBK-TV reported.

The station went a bit further, deeming what went on inside the yellow and black vehicle apparent “X-rated activities.”

‘My God, such total disrespect to both themselves and others.’

WJBK spoke to a mother who called herself Katie — and who was a reluctant cinematographer.

The station said Katie was at the Chesterfield Township Walmart last week when she caught two individuals who turned out to be school employees on the bus. Chesterfield Township is about 45 minutes northeast of Detroit.

She told WJBK the first thing she noticed was intense motion, initially believing they were simply cleaning the seats — but the movement kept up.

“I’m an adult, so I kind of put two and two together,” Katie noted to the station.

With that, she captured the incident on video, noting to WJBK, “I grabbed that just to have proof that what I’m seeing is what I’m seeing.” Katie then reported it to the Macomb Intermediate School District, the station said.

Blaze News is not linking to the unedited clip because of its inappropriate content. WJBK’s news video below, however, included a heavily blurred clip of the incident:

RELATED: School district speaks out after now-former employee, 22, accused of sending nude photos of herself to 14-year-old boy

No children were aboard the school bus during the incident, WJBK said, and the school district is investigating the employees in question and has placed them on leave.

“What if my kids rode that bus?” Katie asked the station. “I wouldn’t be aware of what’s going on, on that bus.”

Commenters under WJBK’s video report shot back reactions that ranged in tone from humorous to disgusted.

“That’s gross [for real] tho,” one user wrote. “Kids sit there.””Nasty,” another commenter said. “Where [children] sit. You can’t wait or find somewhere else. That’s gross.””Engaging in sexual activity … on a school bus … in the broad open day … in a parking lot?” another user observed. “My God, such total disrespect to both themselves and others. This type of behavior is unacceptable, and neither one of them should ever drive a school bus again. No buses for that matter. Damn shame. But none in their game.”

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Education, Michigan, School district employees, Investigation, Macomb county, School bus, Employees on leave, Politics 

The Texas family of a 9-year-old girl is grieving her loss after she died from attempting a social media challenge.

Curtis and Wendi Blackwell told CBS News that their daughter JackLynn loved karaoke and wanted to become a singing star.

‘You could check on your kid, it could be kid-friendly videos, and then three minutes later it could be totally something dark because of the algorithms they start creating.’

“It was just the three of us, three amigos. We did everything together,” Curtis Blackwell said.

They recalled the horror of the last day they saw their daughter alive in the back yard of their home in Stephenville.

“Normal morning, tickle her to wake her up to get ready for school,” the mother said.

“She goes out to play like she always does, out in the yard. I noticed it’s kind of quiet — quieter than it should’ve been,” Curtis Blackwell said. “Then I saw her kind of around the corner that goes to the carport, saw her hair. I said, ‘JackLynn!’ I thought she was bending over playing because she was always in that area playing, but she wasn’t playing.”

His daughter had a cord around her neck when he found her.

“I found her unconscious. She was leaned into the cord,” he added. “I tried to do everything I could to save her. I got her off the cord. I tried to give her CPR until the first responders got there. It was the most terrifying, shocking thing I’ve ever seen. It was horrible to see my daughter in such a vulnerable state because of something so senseless.”

They believe that she was trying the dangerous “blackout” challenge that has caused other deaths and grievous injuries to others. It involves choking oneself in order to obtain a euphoric high.

“My mom told me that JackLynn had shown her a video before of a guy doing that with the cord. My mom told her, ‘Don’t you ever do that,'” Curtis Blackwell added.

About 80 people have died from the challenge.

“She’s our beautiful angel now,” Wendi Blackwell added.

RELATED: Family says their 10-year-old boy died from attempting a dangerous TikTok challenge

The Blackwells said they want more accountability for social media companies over the dangerous trends.

“You could check on your kid, it could be kid-friendly videos, and then three minutes later it could be totally something dark because of the algorithms they start creating,” Curtis Blackwell said. “There’s too many of these kids lost for these companies not to be held accountable in my eyes.”

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Curtis and wendi blackwell, Death of jacklynn blackwell, Social media challenge death, Online challenge death, Politics 

Are demons more likely to attack Christians when they’re vulnerable? According to BlazeTV host Rick Burgess, the answer is yes.

On a recent episode of “Strange Encounters,” Rick shared a deeply unsettling encounter he had with what he believes were demons while preaching to thousands of men at a convention in 2021.

Rick admits that at the time of his speaking engagement, he was overworking himself, neglecting his home life, and was physically and spiritually worn out.

“I think I opened myself up for this battle … because I was wore down,” he confesses.

When he took the stage to speak, he immediately sensed that something wasn’t right.

“I just could sense pretty quick that there was just kind a darkness. There was an oppressive spirit that was there,” he recounts.

Rick opened his speech by sharing the story of his son’s tragic death. As he “got to the part about [his] wife holding the lifeless body of [their] son,” he saw something strange among the grim audience members: a group of men with “wicked” and “distorted” faces laughing at him at the back of the convention center.

“I’m literally talking about the death of my son and this gruesome scene, and they’re laughing at me,” he says.

Shocked, Rick stopped his speech and asked, “Do you think this is funny?” but the men “just kept laughing.”

He moved on with his speech but later circled back to look for the men who had laughed at his son’s death, but he could never locate them again in the crowd.

“I keep looking to find them, and they’re not there. So then I realize … there’s a spiritual war going on in here,” he says.

After his speech concluded, Rick inquired about the mysterious group and even physically sought them out, but he never could find them. Even stranger, no one he spoke to had any recollection of seeing or hearing laughing men.

“I couldn’t find any evidence of them at all,” he says.

In the end, Rick came to this sinister conclusion: “I was being mocked by demons about the death of my son.”

To hear more details from his harrowing story, watch the full episode above.

Want more from Rick Burgess?

To enjoy more bold talk and big laughs, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Strange encounters, Strange encounters with rick burgess, Rick burgess, Spiritual warfare, Demonic oppression, Blazetv, Blaze media, Blaze podcasts 

It took less than a minute. Not for the show to find its rhythm — that never arrived — but for viewers to reach for the remote.

A more generous critic would say “Saturday Night Live: UK” stumbled out of the gate. Someone actually grounded in reality would say it arrived DOA, was resuscitated by optimism, flatlined again during the opening credits, and spent the rest of its run time as evidence that nobody in the commissioning process had ever actually watched British television.

The live format, in particular, punishes British reserve. The Brits, much like the Irish, don’t do collective euphoria on command.

The opening sketch — a Downing Street caricature so limp that it needed medical attention — felt like it was written by people who had heard of the place the way most people have heard of Uzbekistan: aware that it exists, entirely unclear on the details. Keir Starmer reduced to a bed-wetting schoolboy: accurate enough, but executed with all the surgical precision of a drunk toddler.

Satire requires stones. This was neutered at conception

Fey’s lemon

The host was former “SNL” head writer Tina Fey — parachuted in to anchor the spin-off in the history of television’s most durable comedy franchise.

Rather than evoking “Saturday Night Live,” however, her appearance called to mind “30 Rock” — Fey’s own sitcom about a sketch comedy show flailing within an absurdly corporatized NBC.

She stood there less like a master of ceremonies than like a faintly embarrassed consultant, as if tasked with explaining why this seemingly gratuitous product was actually a masterstroke of synergy and brand extension. You could almost hear the Jack Donaghy pitch behind it: familiar logo, international rollout, scalable format. Somewhere between the greenlighting and the greenroom, the only premise that mattered — making people laugh — had been quietly lost.

The audience noticed immediately. They always do. Forty seconds. One minute. Five, if you were feeling charitable. The reactions weren’t angry. They were worse. They were bored. There is no harsher verdict for comedy than indifference.

Stupid and sublime

It wasn’t always this way, of course. “Saturday Night Live” was once genuinely great. Not good. Not fine. Great. Belushi, Aykroyd, Eddie Murphy — dangerous, deranged, alive. Bill Murray doing a sort of dollar-store Sinatra. Chris Farley destroying every piece of furniture within reach. Phil Hartman doing impressions so precise that the subjects should have taken it personally. They probably did.

These were performers who understood that live television was a dare, not a format, and they took it every single week. Comedy that felt like it could go wrong at any moment, and sometimes did, and was better for it. Sharp, stupid, sublime in equal measure.

Those days are long gone — the show swallowed by Trump derangement syndrome and the passive-aggressive ritual of swiping at conservatives until the writers’ room mistook a political position for a punch line.

In its prime, it was still political, but at least it was anchored in something real — American culture, fast, furious, and occasionally brilliant. If today’s “SNL” is but a degraded facsimile of the show in its prime, this transatlantic fiasco is a facsimile of that facsimile: edges blurred, ink fading, soul entirely absent.

RELATED: 9 must-have devices for detecting leftist threats in your area

CBS Photo Archive/Monika Graff/Getty Images

Fawlty hour

The failure here is structural, not superficial. British comedy is built on irony, understatement, and a very specific species of darkness. “Fawlty Towers.” “Brass Eye.” “The Office.” “I’m Alan Partridge.” Comedy that watches you squirm and enjoys it. Comedy that finds the precise point of maximum discomfort and builds a home there. Comedy forged in restraint and bad weather, in class anxiety and institutional distrust, in the particularly British conviction that authority is always, at some level, ridiculous. You cannot import that.

If British comedy runs on slow-burning cringe and the precise calibration of discomfort, the “SNL” format runs on volume — loud, broad, relentlessly American, built around celebrity cameos and political impressions that reset with each news cycle and evaporate by Sunday morning.

Hiring Lorne Michaels doesn’t transplant the institution any more than putting a McDonald’s in a country farmhouse makes it rural. The live format, in particular, punishes British reserve. The Brits, much like the Irish, don’t do collective euphoria on command. They do collective embarrassment, the kind that makes you leave the room on someone else’s behalf, change your name, and book a one-way ticket to the aforementioned Uzbekistan.

Nothing much

Crucially, nobody asked for this. Nobody petitioned. Nobody wrote in. Sky’s decision to commission eight episodes before a single one had even aired suggests the company was already nervous — hedging against failure by pretending it was a plan.

The deeper problem is one of fundamental incompatibility — a cultural mismatch so obvious that it’s almost impressive that no one in the commissioning process named it aloud. Or perhaps they did and were overruled by someone with a spreadsheet. Comedy, at its best, feels dangerous. This felt focus-grouped. Safe. Sanitized. A show that promised the sun, moon, and stars but instead delivered, with full confidence and considerable expense, a urine-scented underpass.

Of course, the next episode could be great. Revelatory. The best television in years. But judging by the first, almost anything else would have been better. Including nothing. Nothing would have been better. Nothing, at least, doesn’t waste your Saturday night.

​Saturday night live uk, Television, Culture, Lorne michaels, Tina fey, Sky news, Kier starmer, Review 

The Department of Homeland Security is calling on Chicago officials to enforce an immigration detainer on a man accused of shooting and killing a freshman college student.

Eighteen-year-old Loyola University Chicago student Sheridan Gorman went out with friends to the Tobey Prinz Beach early in the morning on Thursday to see the northern lights.

‘We are gravely disappointed by the policies and failures that allowed this individual to remain in a position to commit this crime.’

A 25-year-old man named Jose Medina-Medina approached Gorman while wearing a mask, and when she tried to flee, he allegedly shot and killed her, according to a DHS statement.

DHS said Medina-Medina is a criminal illegal alien from Venezuela and blamed the former Biden administration for his presence in the U.S.

“Medina-Medina should have never been in our country, but was RELEASED into our communities by the Biden administration,” the agency said on social media. “He was then released AGAIN following an arrest for shoplifting in Chicago, Illinois.”

The family of the victim also blamed government failures for Gorman’s death.

“We are gravely disappointed by the policies and failures that allowed this individual to remain in a position to commit this crime,” a family statement reads. “When systems fail — whether through release decisions, lack of coordination, or unwillingness to act — the consequences are not abstract. They are real. And in our case, they are permanent.”

Medina-Medina was charged with first-degree murder and gun charges but did not appear in court because of his continuing hospitalization. Prosecutors indicated to Judge Luciano Panici that the suspect is being treated for tuberculosis.

RELATED: ‘Cold-blooded’ illegal alien murdered 15-year-old who was trying to stop him from raping his mother, ICE says

Acting Assistant DHS Secretary Lauren Bis excoriated the former administration in statement about the incident.

“Sheridan Gorman had her whole life ahead of her before this cold-blooded killer decided to end her life. She was failed by open border policies and sanctuary politicians who RELEASED this illegal alien TWICE before he went on to commit this heinous murder,” Bis said.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Sheridan gorman killed, Illegal alien murderer, Biden releases illegal alien murderer, Jose medina-medina, Politics 

A left-wing member of the Los Angeles City Council is getting hammered for her hypocrisy in hiring police officers for her event while pushing to deny similar protection for her residents.

Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez has campaigned against the police, but the California Post discovered that she hired a large police presence when it came to her event celebrating Mexican Independence Day.

‘Apparently, she has no problem spending taxpayer dollars for her safety but opposes doing the same for the residents she represents. It is time for change in Council District.’

Hernandez pushed to “abolish” police and to divert police funding toward investing “in housing, economic mobility, education, child care, and public health infrastructures.”

But surprisingly, when she needed security for a celebration of Mexican Independence Day at City Hall in September, Hernandez hired 13 armed LAPD officers for the event at a cost to the taxpayer of $135,000 in overtime pay.

The event, titled “El Grito 2025,” was expected to include about 500 attendees, which means Hernandez paid about $270 for police protection for each person for just that one day. The per capita spending on police for the entire year is about $420, according to the Vera Institute of Justice.

She also advocated that police be unarmed when providing security for the City Council and advocated for a “mediation-based model” for cops.

The Post found that Hernandez voted in 2025 against the City Council contract that authorized using the LAPD for special events like the Mexican Independence Day event she publicized.

The Los Angeles Police Protective League condemned Hernandez for her hypocrisy.

“It should come as no surprise that some politicians act like hypocrites, but Eunisses Hernandez takes the cake,” reads a statement from the union’s board of directors to the Post.

“Hernandez has repeatedly voted to defund and disband the police, yet she saw nothing wrong with requesting police security at a community event to keep herself and others safe,” the union added.

RELATED: Police release body-cam video after lawsuit over 9-year-old who was handcuffed at school

Photo by Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

“Apparently, she has no problem spending taxpayer dollars for her safety but opposes doing the same for the residents she represents. It is time for change in Council District,” the union concluded.

Hernandez says in her biography that she’s the daughter of Mexican immigrants and a community organizer.

Hernandez did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​La council member eunisses hernandez, Hypocrite la anti-cop democrat, Mexican independence day, Defund the police hypocrites, Politics 

When BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock sat down with Cam Newton on “4th & 1,” the result was more than just a heated debate; it was a revealing and surprising dialogue — despite their well-known differences.

The pair engaged in a respectful conversation that left Whitlock with the feeling that it was a rare moment where two opinionated men with fundamental disagreements were able to understand each other.

“I’m so glad that I agreed to appear on Cam Newton’s ‘4th & 1’ program,” Whitlock begins. “It was an opportunity for me to show a fuller picture of myself, takes me out of my comfort zone, and was an opportunity for me to get a bit more insight into Cam Newton.”

“I thought it was a very healthy discussion. I thought it was a very entertaining discussion. I thought it was a very authentic discussion, and I tip my hat to Cam Newton,” he continues.

Whitlock points out that not only was it “authentic” but that it was one of the first times he’s seen two black men who have almost nothing in common ideologically — and have a fair amount of tension in their relationship to boot — sit down together and have a “respectful” conversation.

And Steve Kim agrees, telling Whitlock that he “really enjoyed that interview.”

“On a global scale, this is like Reagan and Gorbachev coming together, and you guys tore down that wall. I actually think you guys might have a little bit, dare I say it, a friendship,” Kim jokes.

“I can honestly say, at least from what I observed … I thought he came away with a clearer understanding and a heightened respect for you, Jason, as a person, after that conversation,” he adds.

Shemeka Michelle also believes the pair had an “excellent conversation,” but she admits there were moments of frustration.

“There were times that I was on the edge of my seat, a little bit frustrated by Cam’s explanation, and I feel like he wasn’t bending sometimes the way I wanted him to bend or actually understand your point of view,” Michelle tells Whitlock.

Michelle also notes that she saw a different side of Whitlock in the interview.

“When you’re on ‘Fearless,’ I don’t think you’re very confrontational. Like there are times when I think you could have body slammed a few people. I’m not going to name any names. Like you really could have given them a verbal body slam, but you were kind,” Michelle says.

“But this time, I feel like you didn’t do that. You were in a different space, and I just saw a different Jason,” she adds.

Want more from Jason Whitlock?

To enjoy more fearless conversations at the crossroads of culture, faith, sports, and comedy with Jason Whitlock, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Fearless with jason whitlock, Fearless, Jason whitlock, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Cam newton, 4th and 1 podcast, National football league, The nfl, Cam newton vs jason whitlock, Cam newton interview 

One of personages repeatedly targeted for erasure in the American left’s violent iconoclasm in 2020 has at last found asylum on the White House grounds, thanks to President Donald Trump and some other unrelenting American patriots.

Toppling giants

Liberals appear to have no issue raising and keeping statues in public spaces so long as they are culturally, morally, and/or historically subversive.

Take, for example, the golden statue of a horned monster that was erected atop the Appellate Division of the New York State Supreme Court in January 2023.

The dehumanized figure — which Pakistani-born propagandist Shahzia Sikander purportedly designed to capture the “spirit” of the movement seeking to legalize abortion across the United States — was celebrated by radicals in and outside the courthouse. Claire Bishop, professor of art history at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, excitedly told the New York Times, “Maybe she can help channel us back to reinstating Roe v. Wade.”

Another statue that liberal activists not only tolerated but celebrated was the ram-headed Baphomet statue the Satanic Temple installed at the Iowa Capitol along with a satanic altar ahead of Christmas that same year.

While evidently unperturbed by demonic imagery, liberal activists have evidenced an aversion in recent years to sculptures reminiscent of America’s proud past, noble beginnings, and Christian character.

‘These monuments matter.’

Amid the Black Lives Matter-bannered deracination campaign of 2020, radicals vandalized and/or toppled — in many cases through official actions — numerous statutes across the country, including those depicting Spanish missionary Junípero Serra and Presidents Theodore Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln, and George Washington.

Christopher Columbus — the Italian “Admiral of the Ocean Sea” who sailed under the Spanish flag and whose four transatlantic voyages set the stage for American civilization — was one of the 2020 iconoclasts’ most popular targets.

RELATED: Satan is real — whether his depraved fashion-world followers believe it or not

Karl Merton Ferron/Baltimore Sun/Tribune News Service via Getty Images

In Baltimore, masked thugs marched through the city’s Little Italy neighborhood on July 4, 2020, then toppled a Columbus statue dedicated in 1984 by former Mayor William Donald Schaefer and President Ronald Reagan — a destructive act brushed off by city officials.

After tearing down the statue and jumping on the broken Italian Carrara marble likeness of the explorer, the cheering mob threw the remains into the harbor.

The incident took place just days after President Donald Trump, then in his first term, issued an executive order aimed at protecting such statues from destruction — an order where he stated that extremists’ “selection of targets reveals a deep ignorance of our history, and is indicative of a desire to indiscriminately destroy anything that honors our past.”

Stoop and build ’em up

Some Americans proved unwilling to let the tide wash away American history.

Tilghman Hemsley, a local painter, sculptor, and fisherman, hired a dive team to recover the broken pieces, which were taken to his family’s art studio. Hemsley’s son, Will, used scans of the recovered pieces to create a replica of the 13-foot statue.

The New York Times reported that the recreation project received $30,000 from the National Endowment for the Humanities, which awarded funds in October 2020 “to help repair and restore statues of iconic historical figures that have been damaged or vandalized, and to construct new ones, in an effort to revitalize public interest in American history in advance of the nation’s 250th anniversary in 2026.”

Bill Martin, an Italian-American businessman, told the Washington Post that he and his allies also chipped in, raising and spending over $100,000 on the recovery and restoration efforts.

John Pica Jr., the president of Italian American Organizations United — the group that not only commissioned and owned the original statue but reportedly backed the reconstruction efforts — told the Associated Press that he was contacted in 2025 by a middleman who indicated the White House was seeking a statue of Columbus.

RELATED: Blue-state city leans into battle against ACLU over archangel Michael statue honoring police

Will Hemsley. Amy Davis/Baltimore Sun/Tribune News Service via Getty Images.

Basil Russo, president of the Conference of Presidents of Major Italian American Organizations, had reportedly reached out to the Trump administration after Baltimore officials refused to install the replica in public.

‘In this White House, Christopher Columbus is a hero.’

“Columbus statues have long stood as symbols of pride and cultural identity for more than 18 million Americans of Italian descent,” Russo said in a statement.

“For over a century, Columbus’ legacy helped Italian immigrants navigate prejudice and hardship, serving as a source of unity and belonging as they built new lives in this country,” Russo continued. “Columbus Day itself emerged in the aftermath of the 1891 New Orleans lynching, when 11 Italian immigrants were killed by a mob of thousands, an event that prompted a national effort to promote the acceptance and assimilation of Italian Americans. This history remains central to why these monuments matter.”

Working in coordination with the Italian American Organizations United, the COPOMIAO gifted the statue to the White House.

On Sunday, the statue — which was reportedly transported to the White House by Tilghman and Will Hemsley along with Randsallstown resident Jeff Bayer — was installed on the north side of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, next to the White House.

Trump thanked the COPOMIAO in a letter on Sunday for its “incredible generosity in gifting the Federal Government a beautiful statue of Christopher Columbus,” noting that he is “truly honored that this magnificent statue will now sit on the grounds of the White House.”

The president said further that the statue will “stand as an eternal memorial to courage, adventure, and the noblest aspirations of the human spirit as well as the extraordinary pride of our wonderful Italian American community.”

White House spokesman Davis Ingle told the Times in a statement Sunday, “In this White House, Christopher Columbus is a hero, and President Trump will ensure he’s honored as such for generations to come.”

Tilghman Hemsley told the Baltimore Sun that the statue’s installation “was very climactic and it was very fulfilling.”

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Iconoclasm, Iconoclast, Christopher columbus, Donald trump, White house, Statue, History, Deracination, Monuments, Historical, Black lives matter, Blm, Hemsley, Politics 

Val Kilmer would have wanted it this way, the late actor’s daughter claims.

Kilmer was originally cast in the film “As Deep as the Grave” in 2020 but grew too ill to participate in the production.

The actor’s battle with throat cancer saw him never make it to set, with the 65-year-old tragically passing in 2025.

However, that will not stop him from being in the movie.

‘It was very much designed around him.’

Writer and director Coerte Voorhees said that Kilmer was indeed the actor he had wanted to play the role of Father Fintan, a Native American Catholic priest.

“It was very much designed around him. It drew on his Native American heritage and his ties to and love of the Southwest,” Voorhees said, per Variety. Kilmer is reportedly Cherokee, German, Irish, and Swedish.

“I was looking at a call sheet the other day, and we had him ready to shoot. He was just going through a really, really tough time medically, and he couldn’t do it,” the director recalled.

Now through a deal with Kilmer’s estate and cooperation from his family, the star of “The Doors” and “Batman Forever” will posthumously appear on screen again.

RELATED: Val Kilmer: Two movies to celebrate the late actor’s peculiar ‘Genius’

Kilmer’s family “kept saying how important they thought the movie was,” the director stated, and that Kilmer “really wanted to be a part of this.”

As such, Kilmer’s estate was allegedly compensated according to SAG Guidelines, People reported.

Website Greenslate states actors must be paid their typical rate for any time saved using an “employment-based digital replica” of the performer. Therefore, it is likely that Kilmer’s estate would be paid the actor’s going rate as if he were alive.

However, consent is not required for changes made to the production using AI, which of course limits actor control (or in this case, the estate’s) in terms of the final product.

Daughter Mercedes Kilmer has openly supported the use of her father’s likeness, Variety reported, claiming her father was a “deeply spiritual man” who connected with the film’s “story of discovery and enlightenment.”

RELATED: 50 Cent will open a film studio in the Deep South, not Hollywood, to create ‘stories that need to be told’

Val Kilmer 2004. Photo by Mark Mainz/Getty Images

“He always looked at emerging technologies with optimism as a tool to expand the possibilities of storytelling,” Mercedes added. “This spirit is something that we are all honoring within this specific film, of which he was an integral part.”

Kilmer’s son is also reportedly in favor of the AI representation of his father.

It is important to note that in 2022, Kilmer said he was “grateful” to work with tech company Sonantic, which recreated his voice for the “Top Gun: Maverick” sequel.

“A phrase we often hear is ‘having a creative voice.’ But I was struck by throat cancer. After getting treated, my voice as I knew it was taken away from me,” Kilmer said, per Men’s Health. “But now I can express myself again, I can bring these dreams to you, and show you this part of myself once more. A part that was never truly gone, just hiding away.”

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Return, Ai, Artificial intelligence, Actor, Likeness, Estate, Hollywood, Ai actor, Tech 

While President Donald Trump tries to navigate high-stakes peace talks with Iran, Israel appears to have gone rogue.

Trump announced Monday morning that he would temporarily postpone strikes against Iranian power plants and energy infrastructure while the two powers continue peace talks. Trump categorized the negotiations as productive, saying they were a “great start for Iran to build itself back.”

This is not the first time Israel has launched strikes while the United States was mediating peace talks.

“We have had very, very strong talks,” Trump said. “We will see where they lead.”

Trump also said the negotiations would positively impact countries in the region, including Israel. Despite Trump’s attempts to find an off-ramp, Israel has continued conducting military ambitions in the region.

RELATED: ‘TOTAL RESOLUTION’: Trump orders temporary suspension amid Iran peace talks

Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Mere minutes after Trump announced he ordered the Department of War to postpone strikes, Israel announced that it had launched a military campaign targeting Iran’s infrastructure.

The Israeli Defense Forces confirmed they struck several “Iranian terror regime headquarters” in Tehran as well as key military manufacturing facilities.

A senior Israeli official told Axios that they were aware of mediation efforts by several countries but that they were surprised by Trump’s remarks Monday, saying they “did not know things were moving that fast.”

When reached for comment about whether Trump had foreknowledge of the strikes, the White House directed Blaze News to Trump’s remarks to a press gaggle on Monday morning. The Department of War did not respond to a request for comment.

This is not the first time Israel has launched strikes while the United States was mediating peace talks.

RELATED: Trump’s hilarious response after intel reportedly tells him Iran’s new supreme leader might be gay

Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Most recently, Israel struck Iranian power plants that prompted a series of retaliatory strikes that hit Qatari LNG gas fields last week. Trump took to Truth Social to claim that the United States had no foreknowledge of the Israeli strikes that led to military action against another American ally.

Additionally, Trump made Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu apologize to the Qatari prime minister in a trilateral phone call last September after Israel attacked Hamas leadership in Qatar, threatening ongoing peace talks.

Trump similarly claimed that Netanyahu approved the strikes without American foreknowledge, criticizing Israel for “unilaterally bombing inside Qatar, a Sovereign Nation and close Ally of the United States, that is working very hard and bravely taking risks with us to broker Peace.”

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Donald trump, Department of war, Benjamin netanyahu, Bibi netanyahu, Israel, Iran, Palestine, Ceasefire, Peace talks, Qatar, Iran war, Idf, Politics 

In a case stemming from a protest over a decade ago, the Supreme Court delivered a decision this week about qualified immunity.

The Supreme Court on Monday ruled in Zorn v. Linton that a Vermont state police sergeant is entitled to qualified immunity in a case brought by a protester following a dispute at the Vermont Capitol in 2015.

‘We reverse.’

In an unsigned per curiam opinion, the majority reversed the decision of a lower court, which had sided against the police officer’s use of force in the case: “The Second Circuit held that Zorn was not entitled to qualified immunity.

“We reverse,” the SCOTUS opinion stated.

RELATED: The next big Supreme Court shift might not be abortion or guns

Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

The case revolves around a protest at the Vermont governor’s inauguration on January 8, 2015. Shela Linton, a protester participating in an organized sit-in at the state Capitol building to demand universal health care, “anticipated being forcibly removed.”

After some other protesters were removed by police officers, Sergeant Jacob Zorn approached Linton and attempted to get her to comply. When she resisted, Zorn unlinked her arms from the human chain the protesters had formed, “put [her arm] behind her back in a rear wristlock, and twisted her arm.”

Linton alleged that Zorn’s actions resulted in “physical and psychological injuries including post-traumatic stress disorder,” the opinion stated.

Officials enjoy qualified immunity “unless their conduct violates clearly established law,” the opinion said. The bar for finding an official in violation is quite high since it generally demands both a precedent in case law as well as a “high degree of specificity.”

The Supreme Court’s ruling argued that the lower court relied too heavily on a 2004 case, Amnesty America v. West Hartford, which itself arguably did not clearly establish that the specific use of force employed by Zorn violated the Constitution: “Reasonable officials would not ‘interpret [Amnesty America] to establish’ that using a routine wristlock to move a resistant protester after warning her, without more, violates the Constitution.”

Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissented from the majority opinion and was joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson. The dissenting opinion held that “the Second Circuit did not err in holding that Zorn is not entitled to qualified immunity at this stage. At the very least, the decision below was not so wrong as to warrant the ‘extraordinary remedy of a summary reversal.'”

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Politics, Supreme court, Scotus, Vermont, Constitution, Second circuit court, Jacob zorn, Shela linton, Fourth amendment 

Despite his reported confession to placing explosive devices at two sites on Capitol Hill on Jan. 5, 2021, Brian Cole Jr.’s physical dimensions, gait, posture, and mannerisms are at stark odds with video clips of the hoodie-clad bomb suspect first released by the FBI more than five years ago.

A full analysis of the hoodie-wearing suspect has been complicated by poor video quality, a manipulated video frame rate, black-and-white images, and cropping of some of the original footage. A careful viewing of the substandard video, however, still reveals clues that don’t fit the allegations that Cole is the bomber.

‘Two eyewitnesses … described the gray hoodie suspect as a white male.’

Blaze News analyzed video of the hoodie suspect released by the FBI, photographs and video of Cole, and evidence culled from independent investigations. This analysis indicates stark physical differences between Cole and the hoodie suspect, including the manner of walking, body shape and features, eyesight, shoe size, neck length, and mannerisms.

Cole, 31, of Woodbridge, Va., won’t be back in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., until April 21 for a status hearing on the two explosives-related felony charges that have kept him behind bars since his Dec. 4 arrest. He awaits a ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals on his challenge to the detention order that is keeping him behind bars until trial.

Brian Cole Jr. denied involvement in the pipe-bombs case for two hours in an FBI interrogation, then changed his story, the DOJ claims. FBI, Prince William County Police Department photos

The FBI says that after two hours denying involvement in the pipe-bomb case, Cole suddenly gave a detailed confession during a Dec. 4 interrogation. His defense team, however, retorted in an appeals court filing seeking his release from custody that their client “contests each of the government’s factual claims.”

The hoodie-clad suspect went to some length to conceal identity, including a COVID-style face mask and a ball cap, but tools — including forensic podiatry and gait analysis — can shed valuable light on the investigation.

One of the most glaring conflicts in the case is an eyewitnesses who described the hoodie suspect as being a white male. Cole is black.

At a January hearing of the U.S. House Select Subcommittee on the Remaining Questions Surrounding Jan. 6, Chairman Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.) said information received from the FBI leaves key questions unanswered.

“There are still critical details regarding this case that must be understood,” Loudermilk said at the opening of the first and only hearing since the subcommittee was impaneled in September 2025.

“The FBI operational updates note two eyewitnesses who described the gray hoodie suspect as a white male. Did this influence the FBI’s investigation?”

Blaze News examined the charges against Cole to see if his arrest and prosecution fit with the case history and facts developed by independent investigators. The list of conflicts, problems, contradictions, and lingering questions is extensive — and growing. This is Part 3 of our series. Part 1 was published Jan. 16, and Part 2 was published Feb. 6.

Autism disclosure a game-changer?

Among the most telling clues offered in Cole’s defense was the disclosure by his attorneys that he is afflicted with autism spectrum disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Each condition manifests in unique ways that can aid in identifying an individual on video or explain seemingly odd behaviors like wiping a cell phone back to factory settings more than 940 times over a three-year period, as Cole did.

Motion-based intelligence becomes especially useful in a case like the Jan. 6 pipe bombs where a suspect tries to disguise appearance by wearing oversized clothing, covering the face with a scarf, gaiter, or mask, or wearing a ball cap or other type of head covering under the sweatshirt hood. Clues can still be culled from the evidence.

Gergely Hanczar, a London-based expert in gait analysis, says the human body betrays itself, providing clues even if a person is trying to disguise identity. “Your body is a snitch,” Hanczar wrote in a recent Substack column.

“Before a single word is spoken, bodies have already decided what they want,” wrote Hanczar, an expert in biometric identification using digital tools. “The dilation of a pupil, a micro-adjustment of posture, the involuntary synchrony of breath are signals no sensitivity training can rewrite.

The gait of pipe-bomb suspect Brian Cole Jr. is starkly different from the hoodie-clad suspect sought by the FBI since January 2021.

“We are uncomfortable with movement-based intelligence probably because it exposes the primal reality of our hierarchies,” he wrote. “The body does not care about political correctness. It communicates a truth your lawyer would advise you to bury.”

Cole’s comportment and physical presence differ in many ways from the hoodie-clad suspect, from eyesight to manner of walking.

Cole does exhibit traits and mannerisms, however, that are consistent with those identified in research as common to individuals with autism spectrum disorder. A defense expert in the case provided an affidavit to the court in January stating that Cole suffers from autism and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

‘Criminals cannot hide their gait.’

According to the American Psychiatric Association, autism is a highly diverse neurodevelopmental disorder that manifests as “persistent social impairment, communication abnormalities, and restricted and repetitive behaviors.” According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the prevalence of autism among children age 8 rose from 1 in 150 in the year 2000 to 1 in 31 in 2022.

The abnormalities found in autistic individuals were documented as far back as 1943 in a pioneering study by psychiatrist Dr. Leo Kanner, who profiled 11 children who displayed a “powerful desire for aloneness and sameness.” Kanner noted some of the children he profiled “were somewhat clumsy in gait and gross motor performances.”

Cole observed on body camera

There is ample video of the hoodie suspect on Capitol Police security cameras to use for comparisons. Police video of Cole at the scene of a 2024 Virginia traffic accident provides valuable clues about his physical demeanor that can be contrasted with the original suspect, a Blaze News analysis showed.

The 48-minute bodycam video, obtained by Blaze News under a Freedom of Information Act request, shows Cole interacting with a Prince William County Police Department officer and another driver. Cole’s vehicle rear-ended a pickup truck owned by a local church. The video has short segments that show Cole walking and standing.

The video shows that Cole walks with an outward foot angle, a stance sometimes referred to as a duck walk. The outward angle of his feet was also evident when he was standing and not in motion. An outward foot angle was not seen with the hoodie-clad bomb suspect in the footage that captured the masked bomber walking on Capitol Hill the evening of Jan. 5, 2021.

A relative told Blaze News that Cole has long had the outward foot angle in his walk.

Based on more than 20 minutes of video showing the hoodie suspect, that individual tends more to an inward foot angle, often referred to as being pigeon-toed. At several points during the walk around Capitol Hill on Jan. 5, the feet of the hoodie suspect cross over each other when their stride width is minimal. This is sometimes called “tightrope walking” or line walking.

The crossover of feet is especially noticeable in perhaps the most famous piece of video of the bomb suspect striding south on Rumsey Court before making a hard turn right toward the Capitol Hill Club. The hoodie suspect walked with a consistent, definitive right-leg drag — seen across more than 20 minutes of video.

These characteristics are not present in the limited amount of public video that shows Cole’s gait.

A 2024 research study of older children and adolescents with autism found that they had greater step width than the control subjects with no autism. Common traits in autistic individuals included shorter step length, increased cadence, and wider step width, according to the study, published in the journal Sports Medicine and Health Science.

The authors said the unusual gait patterns seen in autistic individuals were in part compensation for lower-extremity weakness.

‘I know him by his walk.’

“This unique gait pattern may represent a movement strategy used by the individuals with ASD to compensate for the weakness associated with their knee extensor muscles,” the study said. “Individuals with [autism spectrum disorder] who demonstrate these unique gait deviations may face reduced postural stability and an increased risk of fall-related injuries.”

“Risks related to muscular and coordination deficits may be exacerbated as movement difficulty increases (e.g., running, stepping stairs, carrying school bags),” the study said.

Cole appears to have a shorter stride than the hoodie suspect. The independent investigator known online as Armitas estimated the hoodie suspect’s stride (two consecutive steps) at 57 inches. Video and video stills of Cole at the 2024 accident scene show a fairly compact stride length compared to the hoodie suspect, he said.

Cole showed a pronounced lean of his head and neck, often to the left but sometimes to the right, both standing and walking, the video showed. The hoodie suspect shows no such posture on the FBI video. Cole tended to walk with his torso leaning forward, and he kept his arms close to his body while walking and standing, video showed.

He also exhibited a posture sometimes crudely referred to as “duck butt,” with a forward torso and a protrusion of the rear. A 2018 study in the journal Frontiers in Psychology found that children with autism showed a greater forward tilt of the pelvis throughout the gait cycle compared to a control group.

A 2025 study from Greece said motor impairments affect up to 80% of individuals with autism spectrum disorder. The study, which reviewed findings from 17 research papers on autism and gait, said “individuals diagnosed with ASD generally demonstrate reduced coordination.”

Children with autism, the study said, tend to have “a less fluid and more effortful gait.”

‘Agents wondered if the injury could have accounted for the odd gait seen on security footage.’

Cole’s shoes appear much larger than the Nike Air Max Speed Turf shoes worn by the hoodie-clad bomb suspect. In late December, Blaze News took measurements of the sidewalks and gutter pan along the Virginia street where Cole’s traffic accident occurred and of the sidewalk trod by the hoodie suspect outside the DNC building on Jan. 5. Based on those measurements, Cole’s feet are as large as size 12.5 — substantially larger than those of the hoodie suspect.

It appears that Cole’s feet are also disproportionately large for someone who stands 5 feet, 5 inches or 5 feet, 6 inches tall. The hoodie suspect’s feet, however, appear proportionate to that individual’s 5-foot, 7-inch frame.

Witnesses describe Cole’s walk

Two witnesses who have observed Cole’s gait over the span of at least a decade in his hometown told Blaze News that Cole’s walk is vastly different from that of the hoodie suspect.

Sunny Sandhu, owner of a 7-Eleven store on Minnieville Road in Woodbridge, not far from the Cole family home, said he has watched Cole come to and go from the store a “a minimum of two to three times per week” during at least a 13-year period.

After Cole’s arrest, Sandhu said he watched the FBI video of the hoodie suspect walking down an alley to place the second pipe bomb near the RNC.

“I go, ‘No way. The kid doesn’t walk like that,’” Sandhu said. “This kid has no confidence in his stride at all.”

Cole has a “goofy walk” that does not resemble the FBI’s bomb suspect, Sandhu said. “There’s no way.”

‘He was always very robotic and socially awkward.’

Cole was a consistent regular at the 7-Eleven, always asking for two Cokes and a pizza, Sandhu said.

“Every time he came in here, it was always the same thing, same routine,” Sandhu told Blaze News in an interview. “Always had his headphones on. Always made it the same order, bought two Cokes and a pizza.”

A law enforcement source who lives in the same area as the Cole family told Blaze News that he saw Cole on a regular basis out walking his little dog in the neighborhood. He described Cole’s demeanor as “awkward.”

“We were super surprised to hear he was the subject arrested for the Jan. 6 pipe bombs,” the source told Blaze News. “The immediate thought was: There is no way he had the mental ability to plan and prepare something like that. He was always very robotic and socially awkward around the neighborhood.

“My second thought was, seeing how he behaved around the neighborhood, how could he function in downtown D.C.?” the source said. “I had no doubt he was the wrong guy and complete doubt that the FBI did a proper investigation to identify him.”

A Blaze News reporter and an investigator who witnessed Cole walk into a February court hearing in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., said Cole’s gait appeared distinct from the hoodie suspect’s.

Eyesight appears different

In the Virginia bodycam video, Cole kept his phone about six to eight inches from his face, indicating a likely nearsighted condition.

The hoodie suspect, in contrast, held the cell phone in the lap while sitting on the park bench behind the DNC building. This was about two feet from the eyes, which could indicate that Cole’s eyesight is significantly different from the eyesight of the hoodie suspect.

History of gait analysis

The FBI and state and local law enforcement agencies have used gait analysis in a variety of investigations. In fact, the FBI used gait analysis early in the pipe-bombs case to help rule out a suspect, according to “Injustice,” a 2025 book by two Washington Post reporters.

The FBI’s investigation of who purchased the same Nike Air Max Speed Turf sneakers worn by the hoodie suspect led the bureau to a gym employee who lived in the area near the crime scenes.

“The person came under further scrutiny after he initially lied to agents about a leg injury, according to people familiar with the investigation,” wrote Carol Leonnig and Aaron Davis. “Agents wondered if the injury could have accounted for the odd gait seen on security footage.”

The FBI later concluded that the man had no other possible ties to the case and ruled him out as a suspect, Davis and Leonnig wrote.

More recently, gait analysis was used on security footage in the February 1 disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, mother of NBC “Today” show co-anchor Savannah Guthrie.

Gait analysis has been used in criminal cases in the West as far back as the 1830s. In an 1837 case in London, burglary suspect Thomas Jackson, 36, was convicted based in part on a policeman’s testimony describing his gait, according to the 1840 Central Criminal Court Minutes of Evidence.

Patrolman George Cheney told the court that he arrested Jackson on March 1, 1837, charged with the burglary of Heath and Company. Security guard William Meagle detained Jackson after discovering him overnight on the main floor of the building.

Two police officers identified burglary suspect Thomas Jackson by his gait in this 1837 case in Great Britain.Central Criminal Court Minutes of Evidence

“I have not a doubt of his being the man — I know him by his walk,” Cheney said in court testimony. “When he was remanded, I had to take him backwards and forwards three or four times, and he had a limp in his walk, having had an accident, and I know his features.”

Police constable Philip Parish told the court that Jackson had a “bow leg.” Sergeant George Teakle said the suspect had suffered a broken leg. “I observed him rather limp on one side,” Teakle recounted. “I said, ‘You have had a broken leg.’ He said, ‘I have not.’”

Forensic gait analysis has been used in criminal cases in the U.K. much longer than in the United States. It is sub-specialty of forensic podiatry. Forensic podiatrist Michael Nirenberg described forensic podiatry as “the application of sound and researched podiatry knowledge and experience in forensic investigations, to show the association of an individual with the scene of a crime.”

Nirenberg has testified in several criminal trials, using gait analysis and footprint and footwear evidence to tie defendants to crime scenes.

His testimony was key to the conviction of an armed robbery suspect in Wayne County, Tenn., in January 2017. Three men robbed the Berrys One Stop convenience store. Detectives did not find any physical evidence such as fingerprints or DNA. One of them did notice something peculiar about one man on surveillance video: his walk.

FBI officials search Brian Cole Jr.’s 2017 Nissan Sentra for evidence in the Jan. 6 pipe-bombs case, in Woodbridge, Va., on Dec. 4, 2025.Andrew Leyden/Getty Images

Detective Dusty Malugen asked Nirenberg to compare the robbery surveillance video to video of a subject who came into the convenience store days before the crime. Nirenberg found a match by observing the men.

“You can see how he’s walking,” Nirenberg told the Journal & Courier newspaper. “His feet and knees are out-toed. You can see the way his head is positioned on his shoulders. His head hangs forward.”

Nirenberg’s analysis was presented to a local grand jury, which indicted a suspect. Confronted with the evidence, the man confessed to the robbery and rolled over on his two accomplices. All three were sent to prison.

Nirenberg assisted police and the FBI with gait analysis in the April 2016 murder of Missy Bevers, 45, a fitness instructor in Midlothian, Texas. That case remains unsolved.

AI and forensic gait analysis

The use of artificial intelligence to analyze the movements of individuals shown on surveillance video is an emerging method that claims up to near-perfect accuracy. Europe-based consultant Cursor Insight says its gait-recognition system achieved 98.3% accuracy using video of a single gait cycle, measuring only thigh and shank flexion angles of both legs.

Using other factors such as segment lengths and analyzing several gait cycles can increase accuracy to 99.9% or higher, the company reported in a 14-page case study.

The AI-powered gait analysis has advantages over biometrics such as facial recognition, which often fails when the subject is far away, covered in darkness, or wearing a face mask, the case study said.

“Our AI-powered gait-analysis technology can transform seemingly worthless video into reliable forensic evidence,” the case study said. “Even when facial recognition fails — we can identify individuals by analyzing body dimensions, body pose, and motion patterns such as walking or running.”

‘Cole contests each of the government’s factual claims.’

Nirenberg said gait analysis will become a more prominent part of criminal investigations.

“The admission of video evidence in criminal matters will continue to grow, and with it, those perpetrating crimes will increasingly take measures to conceal their identity,” he wrote in Criminal Justice magazine. “Even so, criminals cannot hide their gait. This is a significant fact for attorneys on both sides of a criminal case.”

A U.S. intelligence community source told Blaze News that gait recognition technology is much farther advanced in China.

“Gait recognition will eventually be used as the most important law enforcement tool in identifying criminal suspects from the increased proliferation of CCTV,” the source said. “The downside is that it will also be used by authoritarian governments in establishing their social credit scores — tracking jaywalkers in crowded cities and other such undesirable behaviors.”

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Jan. 6 

The male accused of punching and knocking out a female crossing guard in the Philadelphia area last week ended up running from the law for four days and over 500 miles before his arrest in South Carolina.

Darby Borough Police on Friday announced the arrest of 27-year-old Rashiem Russell and said he is charged with aggravated assault, simple assault, stalking, recklessly endangering another person, terroristic threats, and harassment.

‘He may have been upset with having to wait for her to cross children off of the school bus there.’

Cops say Russell — who stands 5 feet, 9 inches tall and weighs 235 pounds — assaulted a school crossing guard last Monday in an incident caught on video.

The assault took place outside Walnut Street Elementary School in Darby Borough during dismissal around 3:30 p.m. as students looked on, WPVI-TV reported.

Police said the guard told detectives that Russell was driving aggressively as she helped students cross the street and that she ordered him to stop, the station noted.

Russell then parked his car, chased down the guard, and hit her, knocking her unconscious, WPVI reported, citing court records. The suspect then took off.

Darby Borough Police Chief Joe Gabe told WPVI in a previous story that it is believed the suspect may have been angry about waiting in traffic: “He may have been upset with having to wait for her to cross children off of the school bus there.”

Gabe added to the station that the suspect was yelling profanities as he drove through the intersection prior to the attack: “When he was approaching her, he was yelling more obscenities at her before he grabbed her and struck her in the face.”

RELATED: ‘Disgusting’: Thug caught on video punching female crossing guard in face, knocking her out as elementary schoolers watch

While WPVI and other news outlets say Russell is 29, authorities — including Darby Police — say he’s 27.

Philadelphia Police on Wednesday stopped Russell’s 2009 gold Nissan Altima; two females — but not Russell — were inside, the station said, citing court documents.

One female told detectives that Russell fled to South Carolina, WPVI reported.

“The information was credible. So at that point we started scouring what possible connections, family members he may have, and we determined there was a very close family member in the city of Darlington, South Carolina,” U.S. Marshals Supervisory Deputy Robert Clark said, according to the station.

Darlington is just over 530 miles from Darby Borough.

RELATED: 3 females dragged Philly crossing guard off bus when she tried to escape brutal beating, detective says; suspects arrested

Russell on Monday morning was still behind bars in the Florence County Jail, records show. He is awaiting extradition to Pennsylvania, WPVI said.

Pennsylvania state Sen. Anthony Williams (D) had offered a $5,000 reward in the case, the station said: “As soon as the crime was solved, they showed and wanted their $5,000, and they will get their $5,000.”

The crossing guard suffered both physical and emotional injuries but is recovering, the station said. However, she has resigned from her position as a crossing guard and wants to remain anonymous, WPVI added.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Suspect arrested, Pennsylvania, Darby borough, Crossing guard, Elementary school, Male punches crossing guard, Rashiem russell, Aggravated assault charge, South carolina, Darlington, Crime 

We measure influence in the U.S. military by rank, command, sacrifice, and decorations. Another kind of influence never shows up in an evaluation report or an after-action review. It lives in barracks humor, in whiteboard scrawl, and in the jokes told seconds after a blast, when nobody knows what else to say.

For more than four decades, that language included Chuck Norris, who died Thursday at 86.

In a culture that trains people to suppress fear and keep vulnerability under lock and key, humor becomes one of the safest ways to admit the stress everyone carries.

To most Americans, Norris was a martial artist and action hero. To generations of service members, he also became the centerpiece of a strange, durable mythology. The Chuck Norris jokes — absurd, hyperbolic, endlessly recycled — turned into more than throwaway lines. They became part of the emotional vocabulary of military life.

My combat deployment was no exception. Chuck Norris jokes covered bathroom walls, T-barriers, and whiteboards. They showed up during rocket attacks, after sniper fire, and in the lulls between incoming mortar fire. In a world built on danger and uncertainty, those ridiculous one-liners delivered something surprisingly useful: familiarity, laughter, and a brief reminder of invincibility.

That mattered more than civilians might think.

Humor in combat rarely counts as trivial. It works as a pressure valve. It functions as resilience. In a culture that trains people to suppress fear and keep vulnerability under lock and key, humor becomes one of the safest ways to admit the stress everyone carries. A joke can cut the tension without breaking bearing.

The Norris myth worked because it exaggerated what warfighters hope to find in themselves and in each other: strength, competence, endurance, and an almost supernatural refusal to lose. “Chuck Norris doesn’t do push-ups. He pushes the Earth down.” The line was silly on purpose. The more impossible the joke, the better it mocked the impossible situations young Americans were asked to endure.

Over time, the jokes became a kind of oral tradition. They passed from senior NCOs to new enlisted troops, from one unit to the next, from one deployment cycle to another. Like much of military culture, they traveled informally. They still carried meaning. They created continuity between those who served before and those serving now.

RELATED: Here are some of the funniest ‘Chuck Norris facts’ memes fans have shared to honor his memory

Frederic J. Brown/AFP/Getty Images

That’s how military culture often works. Doctrine and discipline matter, but shared rituals, symbols, and humor hold people together under pressure. The public tends to focus on the formal parts of service — uniforms, medals, salutes, speeches. The glue usually looks less official and more human.

It may sound odd to credit a pop-culture figure with shaping the inner life of the armed forces. Anyone who has deployed knows morale survives on unexpected things: coffee, music, dark humor, inside jokes, nicknames, and familiar reference points that make hardship feel survivable.

Chuck Norris became one of those reference points.

Warfare changes. Technology changes. The human side changes slower than people like to admit. Young Americans still deploy far from home. They still face fear, boredom, grief, and danger. They still need shared ways to absorb the psychological shock that comes with those experiences.

Whether the next generation inherits Chuck Norris jokes or builds a new mythology misses the larger point. Cultural touchstones endure because they give people a common language for courage. They turn anxiety into laughter. They remind troops that toughness isn’t only physical; sometimes toughness means smiling in the middle of chaos.

Norris did not shape strategy or write doctrine. But for a remarkable span of time, he held a small, steady place in the culture of the people who carried America’s wars.

That’s a real legacy.

Rest in peace, Chuck Norris.

​Opinion & analysis, Chuck norris, Memes, Jokes, Military, Mythology, Obituary, In memoriam, Combat, Deployment, Fear, Oral tradition, Armed forces, Philanthropy, Action hero, Culture, Entertainment, Movies 

A prolonged funding standoff in Washington is beginning to hit Americans where it hurts — at the airport. With the Department of Homeland Security still unfunded, tens of thousands of Transportation Security Administration workers have gone weeks without pay.

The lack of pay is now contributing to long lines and staffing shortages across the country, and BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey’s father, Ron Simmons, argues that the Democrats are to blame.

“This is something that the Democrats are holding up. Any of you that are on spring break or coming off spring break while you’re listening to this, and you had these terrible long lines at some of your airports, then blame the Democrats,” Simmons says on “Relatable.”

“And if you live in a blue state, call your Democrat senator’s office. This is so crazy. They think they’re doing something to ICE, but what most people don’t know, this doesn’t even affect ICE or border security,” he says.

“Those were funded through the Big Beautiful Bill for the next three years. There’s $170 billion of funding already set aside for them. This, essentially, the biggest thing it hurts is TSA. Fifty thousand TSA employees have gone without a paycheck, at least one, and coming up on going without two paychecks,” he continues.

However, Simmons doesn’t believe the strain on TSA will last much longer.

“I do think they’re going to end up cutting a deal on this one pretty quickly because I’m sure the pain that some of these senators are feeling from their constituents is getting more than they want to bear,” he says.

Want more from Allie Beth Stuckey?

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

​Relatable with allie beth stuckey, Relatable, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Ron simmons, Tsa, Department of homeland security, Transportation security administration, Airport lines, Airport security, Democrats vs republicans 

On a recent episode of “The Drive with Lauren and Karl,” we ended up talking about two very different corners of car culture: a hyper-realistic driving simulator developed by our guest, automotive journalist Mike Harley, and the latest wave of Hollywood car movies built around classic, analog machines.

At first glance, those topics have nothing in common.

Traditional sims feel artificial, with exaggerated inputs and inconsistent feedback.

But taken together, they point to something bigger: Driving is splitting into two worlds. One is becoming more digital, more controlled, and more simulated. The other is maxing out on the emotional, physical experience that made people fall in love with cars in the first place.

A new kind of driving experience

Harley is co-founder of Idaho-based Marble Labs, the company behind new driving simulator XP1.

More than 10 years in the making, XP1 eschews the old-fashioned arcade mechanics in order to replicate real driving — how a car responds to steering input, braking, weight transfer, and grip. That may sound like what simulators have always promised, but most drivers know the difference immediately. Traditional sims feel artificial, with exaggerated inputs and inconsistent feedback.

XP1 is trying to change that.

Instead of force-feedback approximations, it uses a physics-based model designed to behave like an actual vehicle. The goal is simple: Make what you’ve learned behind the wheel of a real car carry over naturally into the simulation.

That has promising real-world applications. A teenage driver can practice without risk. A senior driver can regain confidence without the pressure of real traffic. An enthusiast can work on technique — braking, cornering, control — without paying for tires, fuel, or repairs.

And it doesn’t require a five-figure investment. Harley built it to run on a standard PC with a basic, affordable wheel-and-pedal setup.

That matters, because as driving becomes more expensive, more regulated, and in some cases less accessible, simulation starts to look less like a novelty and more like a practical tool.

The limits of going digital

But even as simulation improves, it highlights what can’t be replicated. You can model physics, recreate vehicle dynamics, and simulate environments.

What you can’t fully reproduce is emotion.

That came up repeatedly in our conversation when we shifted from simulators to real-world vehicles — especially performance cars. Automakers like Lamborghini and Porsche have already started pulling back from plans to go fully electric in certain segments, not because they can’t build fast EVs, but because something is missing.

Sound, vibration, feel. In other words, the mechanical connection between driver and machine.

A car that goes from zero to 60 in under two seconds is impressive. But if it does it silently, without drama, without feedback, many drivers — especially enthusiasts — find the experience incomplete.

RELATED: No new cars under $50K? Thank the government

NurPhoto/Getty Images

Hollywood still gets it

If you want to see where car culture still lives, look at what Hollywood is making.

Car correspondent Josh Hancock dropped by to show that studios get that driving is an emotional experience, not just a technical one. The upcoming reboot of “The Rockford Files” is reportedly looking at classic Pontiac Firebirds. The success of “F1” has already sparked a sequel. “Days of Thunder” is returning. New films like “Crime 101” are built around analog cars — Camaros, Challengers, V8 sedans — shot with practical effects, not just digital ones.

Filmmakers understand something the industry sometimes forgets: People don’t connect with cars purely because they are efficient. They connect with them because they feel something when they drive them.

And that’s something simulation, no matter how advanced, is still chasing.

Two paths forward

What’s emerging is not a replacement of one world by another, but a split.

On one side, driving becomes more digital:

simulators for training and practice; electric vehicles focused on efficiency and performance metrics; and increasing reliance on software and automation.

On the other side, driving remains physical:

internal combustion engines, especially in enthusiast segments; vehicles designed around feel, not just function; and cultural reinforcement through movies, media, and lifestyle.

These two paths can co-exist; in fact, they probably have to.

By reducing costs and expanding access to training, simulations can help drivers improve. But no amount of virtual sophistication can replace the reason people care about driving in the first place.

The bottom line

Technology is changing how we drive — and in some cases, whether we need to drive at all.

But it hasn’t changed why people care about cars.

The rise of advanced simulators like XP1 shows how far digital driving has come. The resurgence of analog car culture in movies shows how much of the experience still depends on something real.

You can listen to the full episode of “The Drive with Lauren and Karl” featuring Mike Harley below:

​The drive, Xp1, Driving simulator, Lifestyle, Culture, Tech, Hollywood, Muscle cars, Align cars 

More than willing to hold Americans’ ease of travel hostage, Sen. Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) and his Democratic allies in the U.S. Senate initiated a partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security last month, conditioning the passage of the FY2026 DHS appropriations bill on restrictions to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection operations.

This Democratic denial of funding that has survived over four votes on theme has manifested in long lines and headaches at airports across the country — especially at Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, which urged travelers on Monday morning to “arrive at least 4 hours early” on account of Transportation Security Administration staffing constraints and the correlated “longer than normal wait times at security checkpoints.”

‘We thought we would be safe enough.’

While advising passengers to allow at least four hours for security screenings, the airport presently recommends budgeting additional time for checked baggage.

According to the airport traffic rankings released last year by Airports Council International, Hartsfield-Jackson was the busiest in North America, boasting over 108 million passengers and 796,224 aircraft movements in 2024.

On Sunday, only four of the 18 TSA screening lanes were open at America’s busiest airport, reported CNN. The general boarding line was reportedly backed up past the atrium, wrapped around the baggage claim, and jutting out the door at the drop-off area.

The frustration and uncertainty were apparently too much for some would-be travelers to bear. Police reportedly had to escort one woman out after she suffered an apparent panic attack.

RELATED: ‘I messed up’: LaGuardia Airport shut down after deadly collision

Photo by Megan Varner/Getty Images

“We thought we would be safe enough but … it’s just insane,” Oliver Wanner from Minnesota told CNN. Wanner arrived at the airport at 4 a.m. ET for a 7:30 a.m. flight — but still ended up trapped in the line.

Aaron David, a traveler who was attempting to collect his bags on Sunday, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the experience was “absolute insanity and chaos.”

Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens (D) announced on Sunday that help from Homeland Security Investigations and ICE was on the way, starting Monday morning.

The announcement came just days after President Donald Trump stated, “If the Democrats do not allow for Just and Proper Security at our Airports, and elsewhere throughout our Country, ICE will do the job far better than ever done before!”

“According to federal officials, these personnel will be assigned to support operational needs directed by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), including line management and crowd control within the domestic terminals,” said Dickens. “Federal officials have indicated that this deployment is not intended to conduct immigration enforcement activities.”

“Our Administration remains hopeful the Federal Government can soon find a way to fully fund TSA and pay their employees to resume standard operations at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport — and all airports we connect to,” added Dickens.

To “help ease the burden on TSA officers who continue to serve” despite Democrats pulling TSA funding, the city of Atlanta and the Hartsfield-Jackson airport have been providing TSA officers with meal vouchers, free parking, free public transit passes, and discounted food options at airport concession stands.

Despite the support measures, around 30%-40% of agents have called out in recent days, reported WSB-TV. While some workers are not showing up after going weeks without pay, others have reportedly just quit.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Atlanta, Lines, Waiting, Democrats, Department of homeland security, Ice, Donald trump, Schumer, Traveling, Travel, Airport, Airports, Dickens, Tsa, Flying, Politics