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A stand-up comedian says fellow little person Peter Dinklage is guilty of hypocrisy for criticizing Disney over the use of dwarf actors in the “Snow White” remake.

The box office bomb garnered few moviegoers but plenty of meme mockery when it launched amid constant denigration by its own star, Rachel Zegler.

‘It’s not up to his cultural standards of what a dwarf should do.’

Zegler turned off audiences by consistently explaining that the movie avoided an out-of-date story concept while progressing to a world where Snow White doesn’t need a man.

Heigh-ho, heave-ho

The movie’s universally reviled CGI seven dwarfs certainly didn’t help matters. Disney made the last-minute switch from live actors when “Game of Thrones” star Peter Dinklage lambasted the studio for daring to use actual dwarfs.

The backlash from dwarf entertainers was swift, expressing outrage that the uber-successful Dinklage essentially got at least seven actors fired.

Now stand-up comic and actor Brad Williams is calling out Dinklage for giving himself a pass when it comes to allegedly “offensive dwarf roles.”

Speaking with podcaster Chris Van Vliet, Williams said that while he was jealous of Dinklage’s talent, his disdain for the actor comes from his obvious hypocrisy that no one is speaking about.

“[Dinklage] came out and was really angry that the live-action ‘Snow White’ movie was going to use real dwarf actors, and he thought that was offensive. If someone else gets work, that’s really offensive to him,” Williams began. “It’s not up to his cultural standards of what a dwarf should do to be a respected member of this business.”

‘Toes’ before bros?

Meanwhile, said Williams, Dinklage’s own resume includes “the most offensive movie to little people ever made”: the abysmal 2002 film “Tiptoes.”

RELATED: Woke ‘Snow White’ remake lost way more money than you could ever imagine

The film stars Gary Oldman as a dwarf, an effect achieved by the actor playing “on his knees” with his arms tied back.

“[He] doesn’t look like a little person at all,” Williams explained.

“You can’t be in ‘Tiptoes’ …. and then come out and try to take work from dwarf actors and say, ‘You can’t play the role of a dwarf because it’s considered offensive.’ To whom? To you?”

While joking that Hollywood is “not writing” many roles for little people, the comedian screamed that he would have loved to be in the movie.

“Yes! Literally the role I was born to play, genetically,” he laughed.

Shortchanged

Dinklage’s influence over the film did not please fellow dwarf actor Dylan Postl either, who said last year that Dinklage was putting at least a dozen little people out of work in what would have been the role of a lifetime.

“What gave him the voice for all of our community?” Postl asked.

Stuntmen and stand-ins could have been employed for the dwarf roles as well, Postl and Williams agreed.

RELATED: ‘It’s not right!’ Actor Dylan Postl blasts Disney for not casting dwarfs for ‘Snow White’ in the name of ‘progression’

Williams’ notion that “Tiptoe” “looks like a ‘Saturday Night Live’ sketch” was the exact sentiment shared by comedians Bert Kreischer and Tom Segura when they brought up the film to one of its stars, Matthew McConaughey.

Watching the movie trailer for the first time more than 20 years later, McConaughey called it a “wild concept” that drew a lot of talent.

“We knew it was a soap opera,” he remembered, saying the cast was thinking, “If we straight-face this, it can be really funny and also might actually make you drop a tear.”

McConaughey and the comedians joked at the swing-and-miss nature of the trailer, agreeing that it “doesn’t look real.”

McConaughey assured the duo, however, that it was indeed a “real production” and he actually “showed up to work” to film that movie.

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A Georgia teacher has been arrested and accused of sexually assaulting a child, police said. The teacher — a married mother of two — is now facing a divorce filing from her husband, according to court records.

Danielle Weaver, a 29-year-old teacher in Leesburg, turned herself in to the Lee County Sheriff’s Office on Feb. 18 after arrest warrants were obtained by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation on Feb. 17.

‘During the course of the inquiry, investigators identified Weaver as the suspect and confirmed the alleged victim is a juvenile student enrolled at the school.’

Weaver was booked into the Lee County Sheriff’s Office Jail. She was later released on a $50,000 bond, according to WALB-TV.

Weaver was charged with child molestation and improper sexual contact by employee, agent, or foster parent, according to a statement from the GBI.

Georgia law defines child molestation as:

When such person does any immoral or indecent act to or in the presence of or with any child under the age of 16 years with the intent to arouse or satisfy the sexual desires of either the child or the person; or by means of an electronic device, transmits images of a person engaging in, inducing, or otherwise participating in any immoral or indecent act to a child under the age of 16 years with the intent to arouse or satisfy the sexual desires of either the child or the person.

Under Georgia law, those convicted of a first offense of child molestation face a minimum prison sentence of five years and a maximum of 20 years in prison.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said in the statement that the Leesburg Police Department requested the GBI to “assist with an investigation into allegations of inappropriate contact between a teacher and a juvenile student at Lee County High School” on Feb. 4.

The GBI statement noted that officers with the Leesburg Police Department responded to a request from Lee County High School administrators to investigate the allegations against the teacher.

“Investigators identified Weaver as the subject and identified the victim as a juvenile student at Lee County High School,” the GBI stated.

RELATED: Middle school teacher hit with 22 charges of sex abuse of 13-year-old — went from ‘mother figure’ to ‘monster’: Court docs

WALB obtained the following statement from the Lee County School System:

We, at the ninth-grade campus, can confirm that there is an ongoing legal investigation involving law enforcement concerning the alleged conduct of a former staff member who is no longer working for the district. Upon discovering the allegations, school and district leadership acted immediately to ensure the safety and well-being of students, as well as to conduct a thorough investigation.

The investigation into the potential teacher sex scandal is “active and ongoing,” the GBI said. Once the investigation is complete, “the case file will be given to the Southwestern Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office for prosecution,” according to the GBI.

According to court records reviewed by the New York Post, Weaver’s husband filed for divorce a day after her arrest. Weaver’s husband was granted temporary custody of their two daughters, according to court documents.

According to court filings, the husband is seeking a divorce because the marriage is “irretrievably broken.”

The Lee County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.

Anyone with information regarding the case is urged to contact the GBI Regional Investigative Office at 229-931-2439 or the Lee County Sheriff’s Office at 229-759-6012. Anonymous tips can also be submitted by calling 1-800-597-TIPS (8477).

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Iran’s state broadcaster was taken over on Sunday, according to reports, by what appeared to be a coordinated cyber operation airing messages from President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urging Iranians to rise up against their government.

The interruption struck feeds operated by Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, including its widely viewed TV3 channel. Viewers inside Iran recorded the moment on their phones, and the footage quickly spread across social media.

‘Unleash the glorious and prosperous future that is close within your reach.’

Video circulating online show clips featuring Trump and Netanyahu accompanied by Persian subtitles calling on citizens to take action against the ruling regime.

The disruption reportedly lasted roughly 30 seconds before the signal cut to black and regular programming resumed.

RELATED: Israeli officials say Khamenei is dead. Update: Trump confirms.

Photo by Roberto Schmidt/Getty Images

Video widely shared on X shows Trump at a podium wearing a “USA” cap, delivering remarks translated into Farsi. In the video Trump encouraged Iranian citizens to “seize control of your destiny” and “unleash the prosperous and glorious future that is close within your reach.”

Netanyahu’s segment, according to clips and reposts, described what he called a once-in-a-generation opportunity for Iranians to change their government and cast off what he referred to as the yoke of tyranny.

Iranian authorities have not publicly confirmed the intrusion or identified who was responsible. There has been no official statement from IRIB acknowledging the disruption.

Conservative commentator Nick Sortor wrote that Iran State TV had reportedly been hacked and was showing a message from President Trump calling on Iranians to rise up against the regime. His post quickly amassed tens of thousands of likes and more than a million views.

RELATED: ‘Painful days’: Iran kills US troops as Trump threatens decapitated Iranian regime

Photo by Roberto Schmidt/Getty Images

Satellite monitoring groups and regional outlets reported the disruption based on viewer videos and feed anomalies, though independent verification of the source of the intrusion remains limited.

If confirmed as an external cyber operation, the intrusion would mark a rare instance of a foreign leader’s call for regime change appearing on a state-controlled television network inside an authoritarian country. During the Cold War, Western governments used outlets such as Voice of America to broadcast into countries behind the Iron Curtain. Interrupting a regime’s domestic television feed would represent a more direct form of information warfare than traditional cross-border broadcasting.

For now, Iranian state television has resumed normal programming.

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Fox News anchor Shannon Bream may look like the perfect picture of health on the outside, but she’s no stranger to illness and pain.

In a battle that nearly broke her physically, emotionally, and spiritually, Bream tells BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey about a mysterious nighttime episode that soon became a years-long ordeal that left her desperate for answers — and ultimately relying on faith when medicine seemed to fail.

“Several years ago, I woke up one night with excruciating pain in one eye, and it was bizarre. I’m stumbling around the bathroom looking for eye drops, I try like a compress, a washcloth on it,” Bream tells Stuckey.

“And I thought, what have I done while I’m sleeping? This is so strange. And kind of thought of it as a one-off. And that went on for a while. A few weeks later, a few months into it, I’m now getting this pain in both eyes,” she explains.

Bream got to the point where she couldn’t sleep and suffered from double vision and migraines on top of the eye pain.

When she went to a specialist, she only got worse.

“I’m now to where this, as crazy as this sounds, I’m carrying eye drops with me everywhere, at the gym, from machine to machine, even in the shower. Like water touching my eyes hurt. And there was just this mystery about it,” she tells Stuckey.

“I go back to the specialist and say to him, ‘I’m really struggling. I can’t sleep’ … and I just told him, ‘I’m kind of barely holding on right now, and I need some answers.’ And he said to me, ‘You know, you’re very emotional.’ And I always describe it as feeling like I needed somebody to throw me a life preserver, and he threw me an anchor. And I just went under,” she continues.

And this helplessness led to Bream feeling as though it “would be so nice to just go to sleep.”

“The Lord knows how much I’m struggling, just to wake up in heaven. Like, just be done with this. I can’t fathom another 40 years of my life living like this. There were times I couldn’t fathom 40 seconds. I mean, I just was in such excruciating pain all the time,” she explains.

But before Bream gave up, she prayed for another doctor — and God provided.

“When he came in, he said, ‘Oh, I know what you have.’ He hadn’t looked at my eyeballs, had done none of that. And it was this weird hopeful feeling that I really had not had in almost two years at that point,” Bream explains.

“It’s called Map-dot-fingerprint dystrophy, which is a mouthful,” she tells Stuckey, noting that while there’s no cure, surgery and therapy the doctor provided were helpful.

“So much bittersweet there because it really deepened my faith in so many ways. Made me much more empathetic and just grateful to be on the other side of that,” she adds.

Want more from Allie Beth Stuckey?

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

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Statutory rape, sexual abuse of a child, assault on a child causing death, and manslaughter are some of the criminal illegal aliens documented by the Deptartment of Homeland Security.

The Trump administration is continuing the mass deportation of illegal aliens despite challenges in court from illegal alien advocates and left-wing politicians.

‘ICE arrested child killers, pedophiles, murderers, and other despicable criminals across the country.’

“March 1, 2026, marked the 23-year anniversary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Under President Trump and Secretary Noem, DHS is finally putting Americans first,” said Deputy Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis in an email release to Blaze News.

“Over the weekend, ICE arrested child killers, pedophiles, murderers, and other despicable criminals across the country,” she added.

Among those on the list was Miglan Elvin Alvarado-Martinez from El Salvador, who was convicted for assault on a child causing death in Los Angeles, California.

Fernando Melendez-Ramirez was convicted for first-degree criminal sexual penetration of a child under 13 years old in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and is an illegal alien from Mexico.

Alfonso Santillan-Sanchez was convicted for third-degree rape, unlawful imprisonment, and second-degree assault with a deadly weapon in Yakima, Washington. He is originally from Mexico.

Here’s a list of the other cases from the release:

Rigoberto Lopez-Aguilar, a criminal illegal alien from Mexico, convicted for identity theft: using to avoid arrest and driving while intoxicated in Fauquier County, Virginia. Rogelio Cruz-Ramirez, a criminal illegal alien from Mexico, convicted for dangerous drugs, assault, and possession of a weapon across Texas.Diego Mejia-Canales, a criminal illegal alien from Honduras, convicted for three counts of possession of child pornography in Louisa, Virginia.

DHS has reported that 622,000 illegal aliens were deported from the U.S. in 2025, and it estimates that over two million other illegal aliens have voluntarily self-deported during that time.

RELATED: Illegal alien transvestite prostitute jumped from 2nd floor while fleeing from police: report

Critics on the left have lambasted the administration over reports of detentions against some illegal aliens without violent criminal histories. DHS has pushed back with lists of the worst of the worst criminal aliens and also with government statistics.

In February 2026, DHS argued in a statement on social media that many illegal aliens deported without violent criminal convictions recorded in the U.S. have horrific convictions in other countries.

“We will stop at nothing to remove these public safety threats and Make America Safe Again,” the agency added.

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The Department of Transportation has moved to shut down another 550 commercial driver’s license schools amid a new focus on crashes involving foreign nationals with U.S. non-domiciled CDLs.

‘For too long, the trucking industry has operated like the Wild, Wild West, where anything goes and nobody asks any questions.’

The DOT announced on February 18 that it discovered the “sham CDL training schools” violated the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s safety standards. The agency issued notices of proposed removal from the FMCSA’s national training provider registry.

The DOT found that some noncompliant schools used fictitious addresses and employed unqualified instructors who lacked the necessary licenses and permits for the vehicles they were teaching students to drive. In other cases, these schools provided training with vehicles that were not appropriate for the instruction being offered. Some training providers even admitted to investigators that they failed to meet their state’s requirements.

FMCSA Administrator Derek Barrs said, “If a school isn’t using the right vehicles or if their instructors aren’t qualified, they have no business training the next generation of truckers or school bus drivers.”

One of the schools on the DOT’s proposed removal list reportedly provided training to school bus drivers.

The DOT informed Blaze News that these schools have not yet been closed, as they are still within the 30-day period to either provide evidence of compliance with federal safety standards or indicate their intention to complete the corrective actions specified by the FMCSA. However, the agency stated that it has already closed 6,500 CDL training schools.

RELATED: 18-wheeler speeding the wrong direction on highway was driven by — you guessed it

Photo by Kevin Carter/Getty Images

The findings resulted from the FMCSA mobilizing over 300 investigators and conducting more than 1,400 on-site sting operations over five days. While 448 schools were issued a notice of proposed removal, 109 training providers voluntarily removed themselves from the FMCSA’s Training Provider Registry.

An additional 97 training schools remain under investigation for similar alleged violations.

RELATED: ‘Couldn’t read … road signs’: Video shows trucker driving the wrong direction on highway — Sec. Duffy responds

Photographer: Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg via Getty Images

“For too long, the trucking industry has operated like the Wild, Wild West, where anything goes and nobody asks any questions,” DOT Secretary Sean Duffy stated. “The buck stops with me. Under President Trump, my team is cracking down on every link in the trucking chain that has allowed this lawlessness to impact the safety of America’s roads. American families should have confidence that our school bus and truck drivers are following every letter of the law and that starts with receiving proper training before getting behind the wheel.”

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In a video posted to X, Vinny Martorano, a multimedia journalist for the Sinclair-owned Austin CBS affiliate, was handed a phone during a livestream at the Texas Capitol and shown what appeared to be a message from station management. According to the brief exchange caught on camera, the instruction was to avoid focusing on celebrations in the street, where demonstrators were chanting and thanking former President Donald Trump following the U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran.

Martorano glanced at the message, looked back toward the crowd, and responded, “All right. Well, I am,” before continuing his report.

‘A large group of people in front of the Texas Capitol are celebrating the coordinated strike against Iran early this morning.’

The 30-second clip quickly spread across social media, racking up hundreds of thousands of views within hours. Many users framed the moment as evidence of media bias and praised Martorano for refusing to downplay a pro-Trump rally.

RELATED: UK prime minister reverses course, allows US use of British bases for strikes on Iran

Photo by Cheng Xin/Getty Images

The alleged text Martorano received didn’t stop him from reporting what was happening.

When the livestream continued, Martorano opened his on-air report by noting that reactions across Austin were mixed.

“There are a lot of mixed opinions across Austin about the joint attack between the United States and Israel against Iran that happened earlier this morning,” Martorano said. “Some people, like this group behind me, are thanking Trump and the United States government for following through with this attack against Iran, while other people across the city say there needs to be more peace in the Middle East.”

Martorano made additional posts, covering the celebrations.

RELATED: Israeli officials say Khamenei is dead. Update: Trump confirms.

Photo by Natalia Campos/Getty Images

“A large group of people in front of the Texas Capitol are celebrating the coordinated strike against Iran early this morning,” one of his posts read. “Some people I spoke with moved to Austin from Iran.”

Eric Daugherty, chief content officer of Right Line News, praised Martorano for his honest reporting despite alleged pressure to do the opposite. “THAT’S how you do it!”

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As events continue to unfold in the Middle East in the aftermath of Operation Epic Fury and Operation Roaring Lion, military leaders have provided some crucial updates to the events of this weekend.

The United States and Israel launched a joint attack on Iran at approximately 1:15 a.m. ET on Saturday morning, according to a U.S. Central Command post summarizing the first 24 hours of the operation. Since the beginning of the operation, the attacks have continued consistently, and Iran has repeatedly retaliated.

‘May Almighty God watch over you, and may His providential arms of protection extend over you. GODSPEED WARRIORS — and keep going.’

On the first day of the attacks, President Donald Trump confirmed that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in a series of strikes on Saturday.

“Khamenei, one of the most evil people in History, is dead,” Trump wrote. “This is not only Justice for the people of Iran, but for all Great Americans, and those people from many Countries throughout the World, that have been killed or mutilated by Khamenei and his gang of bloodthirsty THUGS. He was unable to avoid our Intelligence and Highly Sophisticated Tracking Systems and, working closely with Israel, there was not a thing he, or the other leaders that have been killed along with him, could do.”

RELATED: ‘Painful days’: Iran kills US troops as Trump threatens decapitated Iranian regime

US CENTCOM/Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images

Trump announced on Sunday afternoon that he was informed that the U.S. had destroyed and sunk nine Iranian naval ships, “some of them relatively large and important.” He added that “we are going after the rest — They will soon be floating at the bottom of the sea, also! In a different attack, we largely destroyed their Naval Headquarters.”

U.S. Central Command, which is responsible for the territory in which the conflict has unfolded, released a press statement on Monday morning regarding “an apparent friendly fire incident” in Kuwait.

The brief statement reported that three United States F-15E Strike Eagles, flying in supporting of Operation Epic Fury, were “mistakenly shot down by Kuwaiti air defenses” during an active combat situation involving Iranian aircraft. The press release confirmed that all six aircrew ejected, were safely recovered, and are in stable condition.

Another major event includes the bombing of a girls’ elementary school in Iran. According to the New York Times, at least 175 people, presumably mostly children, were killed in a bombing attack in southern Iran.

“The Minab school incident has no comparison with any other incident,” said Pirhossein Kolivand, the head of Iran’s Red Crescent, in a video posted on social media on Sunday. “Even in Gaza,” he added, there had not been such a high number of students killed simultaneously, and he called the attack “a unique and bitter incident,” according to the New York Times.

The attack does not appear to be intentional, however. The school, NYT reported, is adjacent to a naval base of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps. Further, the school was once connected to the naval base and was only disconnected from it in 2016.

On Monday morning, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth gave a direct message to the Joint Force. Hegseth said, in part, “We are not defenders anymore — we are warriors, trained to kill the enemy and break their will. History is watching. Be the force you swore to be: focused, disciplined, lethal, and unbreakable. We will finish this on America First conditions of President Trump’s choosing — nobody else’s. As it should be.”

“May Almighty God watch over you, and may His providential arms of protection extend over you. GODSPEED WARRIORS — and keep going,” Hegseth concluded the address.

The efficiency of the military operation has apparently even surprised the president.

In an interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier on Monday, President Trump detailed the success of the operation in decapitating Iran’s senior leadership. He explained that dozens of senior leaders were gathered for breakfast with the ayatollah, thinking it was safe because they were gathered in broad daylight, Fox reported.

“It was 49 leaders that were taken out. That was going to take four weeks, we thought, to get rid of the Iranian leadership. And it’s always, you know, if they hide, it’s a lot longer than four weeks. And they would have been hiding,” Trump told Baier. “We were shocked when we heard what was going on. We knew exactly what was happening and where.”

The operation, despite its apparent overwhelming success, has come at a tragic cost, however. U.S. Central Command reported that as of 7:30 a.m. ET, “four U.S. service members have been killed in action.” The number of deaths was previously three. “The fourth service member, who was seriously wounded during Iran’s initial attacks, eventually succumbed to their injuries.”

The identities of the fallen are being withheld at this time.

Additionally, trade is expected to be stalled due to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz in response to the U.S.-Israeli strikes. The Independent reported Sunday that Iran has closed the Strait of Hormuz, a major shipping channel for crude oil, fuel, and liquefied natural gas.

Euronews reported that natural gas prices have already surged on Monday in response to the conflict. Further, QatarEnergy announced that it has decided to stop LNG production at one of the largest natural gas fields in the world, North Fields, citing the conflict.

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​Politics, Pete hegseth, Us military, Operation epic fury, Department of war, Kuwait, Iran, Israel, Us centcom, Us central command, Qatar, Qatarenergy, Strait of hormuz, President trump, Donald trump, Iran war 

In protest of President Trump’s State of the Union address, Democrats held their own “People’s State of the Union” featuring Joy Reid — and BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales was easily able to infiltrate it before getting kicked out after trolling the former MSNBC host.

“Now obviously, President Trump is the troller in chief, and I just try to learn from him like a young Padawan. And I just thought, you know what? I’m gonna do a little trolling as well,” Gonzales explains.

While there, Gonzales squeezed in some interviews with the audience — one of whom was dressed in an inflatable cat suit.

“So do cats, is their official position that they don’t like Donald Trump?” Gonzales asked the cat attendee.

“They definitely don’t like this guy,” the cat responded, holding a sign of JD Vance.

Another man was holding a sign that read, “MAGA is Putin’s tool.” When Gonzales asked how MAGA is Putin’s tool, the man responded “Figure it out. If you can’t figure it out, you’re part of the problem.”

“I mean, I feel like you would want to educate people as to exactly how that is,” Gonzales shot back, adding, “You don’t want to educate people? … How much you were paid to be here tonight?”

“Fifty bucks and a bottle of Crown Royal,” he answered.

“Really? Does George Soros pay that to you?” she pressed, before he yelled back, “Fascist maggot, get the f**k out of here.”

After briefly heckling Reid, who took the stage and immediately began celebrating Kilmar Abrego Garcia, Gonzales was kicked out of the event — missing a performance by Reid and another woman singing.

“You guys can hear the claps,” Gonzales comments, adding, “There’s nobody there.”

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Michael Jordan is now dominating a new sport, and has started off 2026 by breaking records.

Jordan’s 23XI racing team settled an antitrust lawsuit with NASCAR in December, after alleging the racing organization is a monopoly that uses unfair practices to decide which teams are guaranteed participation.

Now that Jordan’s team has acquired that guaranteed (chartered) status, they have hit the ground running and immediately set an all-time record in 2026.

‘It’s time for change.’

In the 77 years of NASCAR racing, no team has ever won the first three races of a season until Jordan’s 23XI team. Astoundingly, driver Tyler Reddick has won the Daytona 500, EchoPark Speedway, and the Circuit of the Americas to start the 2026 season, despite having zero first-place finishes in all of 2025.

“It’s time for change,” Jordan told Fox NASCAR reporter Jamie Little after the race. “Time for change, and the guys feel the same thing. Tyler came in with the most pressure, I guess. Everybody expected him — or he had a chance — to win three in a row, and that’s the hardest one to win. He kept to his strategy, and man, the guys put together a great car.”

Jordan gave all the credit to his team and drivers, saying, “I just put up the money. I’m just a competitor.”

“That’s what it’s about — winning.”

RELATED: Michael Jordan sues NASCAR but is dealt major legal blow just 2 days before his driver competes in Cup Series championship

Just under Reddick at the top of the standings is another one of Jordan’s drivers, Bubba Wallace. Wallace drives car No. 23, representing the number Jordan made famous during his time in the NBA with the Chicago Bulls.

Reddick drives car No. 45, a number Jordan briefly wore when he came out of retirement in 1995, before switching back to 23 in the playoffs that year.

“It’s one race, but it was so important, so fitting that we were able to get three in a row and make history,” Reddick said after the race, per NBC Sports. “Just trying to remember everything that I knew was going to be important there at the end and just tried to minimize the mistakes.”

RELATED: It’s personal: Michael Jordan is more charitable than the media tells you

Photo by Logan Riely/Getty Images

Jordan’s lawsuit, which included team Front Row Motorsports, challenged NASCAR’s charter program that consists of 36 charter teams who are guaranteed to compete in the field of 40 for each race.

The remaining four spots are decided by a rather complex system that differs depending on the race. In general, non-chartered teams typically compete in a qualifying race or win a spot based on their qualifying time.

As Fearless reported in 2024, Jordan’s side argued that the unpredictability of being an non-chartered team meant the possible loss of drivers and sponsors from week to week, while binding the teams to the specific series (NASCAR), its tracks, and suppliers.

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​Fearless, Racing, Michael jordan, Nascar, 2026, Stock car, Daytona 500, Sports 

A Reuters/Ipsos poll that concluded on Sunday revealed that the joint U.S.-Israeli regime-change strikes are unpopular with most Americans.

While Republicans are apparently more supportive of the military campaign than their counterparts, the new poll found that such support is largely conditional and far less than for the Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts.

The new polling is consistent with surveys conducted last month, which indicated that Americans were not particularly keen on the prospect of a new series of U.S. military strikes against Iran.

For instance, an SSRS/University of Maryland poll, conducted from Feb. 5 to Feb. 9, found that 21% of respondents favored an attack, 49% were opposed, and 30% were unsure. An Economist/YouGov poll found that 28% of respondents supported and 48% opposed the U.S. taking military action in Iran.

Despite strong public headwinds, the U.S. joined Israel in hammering the Shiite nation anyway, destroying numerous military assets and assassinating top Iranian officials over the weekend while sustaining numerous casualties.

According to the new Reuters/Ipsos poll, 27% of respondents said that they approved of the strikes, 43% signaled disapproval, and 29% said they weren’t sure.

‘We expect casualties.’

Broken down by party affiliation:

55% of Republicans approved of the strikes, 32% said they were unsure or skipped the question, and 13% said they disapproved;7% of Democrats said they approved, 19% said they were unsure or skipped the question, and 74% said they disapproved; and19% of individuals in the “other” camp said they approved, 38% said they were unsure or skipped the question, and 44% said they disapproved.

The support for the present conflict pales in comparison to American support for the Iraq war prior to and following the March 20, 2003, invasion.

A poll conducted by the Washington Post and ABC News just prior to the invasion of Iraq found that 71% of Americans supported going to war. An Ipsos-Reid poll conducted in the two days leading up to the invasion found that roughly nine in 10 Republicans and half of Democrats supported going to war.

The Pew Research Center revealed days later that “support for the decision to go to war has remained steady at about seven-in-ten since the fighting began.”

A total of 56% of respondents said that Trump “is too willing to use military force to advance U.S. interests.” Nearly a quarter of Republicans — 23% — agreed with this statement.

RELATED: Columbia University distances itself from ‘death to America’ student group

US Central Command

The poll found that 42% of Republicans would be less likely to support the military campaign against Iran if it leads to “U.S. troops in the Middle East being killed or injured.”

U.S. Central command indicated that as of Monday morning, four American service members had been killed in action.

Six more service members were nearly killed on Sunday in an apparent friendly-fire incident in which three U.S. F-15E Strike Eagles were shot down over Kuwait. CENTCOM noted that all six aircrew personnel “ejected safely, have been recovered, and are in stable condition.”

In an interview on Sunday with the New York Times, President Donald Trump discussed the casualties sustained so far in the conflict and suggested that there will likely be more.

“Three is three too many as far as I’m concerned,” Trump said. “If you look at projections — they do projections — it, you know, it could be quite a bit higher than that.”

“We expect casualties,” Trump added.

The Reuters/Ipsos poll also found that 45% of respondents, including 34% of Republicans and 44% of independents, would be less likely to support the campaign if domestic gas or oil prices spiked.

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​Polling, Poll, Iran, Iran strikes, War, Donald trump, Iranian, Tehran, Khamenei, Republican, Midterms, Foreign entanglements, Intervention, Regime change, Regime change war, Politics 

The last month has brought renewed attention to crime lords allegedly stealing $3.5 billion from California’s hospice system. Congress and the Trump administration are investigating, and rightly so. The dying deserve dignity, not to have their safety net looted.

But hospice is not the only target — and not every thief wears a ski mask.

The federal government does not have to accept California’s bookkeeping tricks.

Across California, politicians and their allies exploit Medicaid — a federal program meant to help the poor — to paper over budget holes they created. They do it through a bureaucratic “shell game” that shifts billions while patients and taxpayers pick up the tab.

The mechanism is called an intergovernmental transfer. Local public providers or government agencies spend Medicaid funds. The state then counts that spending as its own and uses it to draw matching federal dollars. When that money arrives, the state sends it back to the same providers as higher reimbursements. Those providers end up receiving more than they originally spent, even though the state did not put up additional state funds.

This scheme has driven ambulance reimbursements into the stratosphere.

Between 2022 and 2024, the cost of publicly funded ambulances in California soared from $339 to $1,168 per trip. The state now asks for 2026 reimbursements to rise to more than $1,600. That increase means more than $1,200 per ambulance ride that does not go to patient care. It pads the state’s books and props up obligations like California’s failing pension system.

This is not a straightforward street scam. It is worse: legalized looting with official letterhead.

Families pay the price. Patients pay the price. Honest providers pay the price.

Imagine what that extra $1,200 per ride could do if it went where Medicaid dollars are supposed to go: patient care, staffing, equipment, response times. Now imagine what happens when ambulance companies that are not connected to the right politicians cannot compete and start shutting down. When that happens, the people harmed will not be the insiders who designed the system. It will be the sick, the poor, and the vulnerable.

I know what it means to depend on a functioning safety net.

My brother has level 3 autism spectrum disorder — the most severe diagnosis. He is nonverbal. He cannot feed himself, dress himself, or use the bathroom without help. My parents cannot leave him home alone because he can wander into danger. Keeping him safe requires 24-hour supervision.

My parents knew what that meant. They also knew they wanted him at home, not in an institution.

Medicaid and In-Home Supportive Services, which helps cover the cost of at-home care, made that possible. Those programs kept our family together. They gave my parents a way to provide love and stability that no facility can replicate.

It has still been hard. The work never ends.

RELATED: Dr. Oz exposes alleged fraud in Los Angeles — so Gavin Newsom calls for investigation into his ‘racially charged’ claims

Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images

My brother’s diagnosis hit my parents like a crisis. They answered with courage. They had more lucrative opportunities elsewhere, but they stayed with the Army because it was the only employer that could guarantee my brother’s access to health care.

We are a military family. We understand service and sacrifice. We also understand the moral bargain behind safety-net programs: Taxpayers step up so that families in crisis do not collapse.

That bargain fails when politicians treat Medicaid as a slush fund.

These financial shell games cost taxpayers billions and create nightmares for families like mine who follow the rules. This is not robbing Peter to pay Paul. This is robbing Peter and leaving Paul on the street.

Americans should be sickened by the heartlessness of anyone who steals from programs designed to serve the vulnerable — whether the thieves are organized crime syndicates or the well-connected insiders who know how to work California’s bureaucracy. Hospice exists so that people can die with dignity. Ambulances exist to get patients to care quickly. Neither exists to generate money for the state and its chosen beneficiaries.

Here is the good news: Congress and the Trump administration have started digging into hospice abuse. The bad news is that those investigations and policy changes can take years.

Ending Medicaid ambulance intergovernmental transfer abuse could be done in a matter of days.

The federal government does not have to accept California’s bookkeeping tricks. President Trump can direct federal agencies to stop approving these inflated reimbursement schemes and demand reforms that put patients first. One signature could force California to stop gaming Medicaid and start serving the people the program was built to help.

​Opinion & analysis, California, Gavin newsom, Fraud, Medicaid, Ambulance, Reimbursements, Red tape, Shell game, Autism, In-home support services, Accounting, Hospice, Waste fraud and abuse 

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced Sunday that the U.K. will allow the U.S. to use British military bases for limited defensive strikes targeting Iranian missile sites, reversing an earlier refusal amid escalating U.S.-Israeli operations against Iran.

In a prerecorded video statement released through official channels, Starmer said the decision was made to prevent Iran from launching missiles across the region that could kill civilians, endanger British nationals, and strike uninvolved countries.

‘Over the last year alone, they have backed more than 20 potentially lethal attacks on UK soil.’

“The United States has requested permission to use British bases for that specific and limited defensive purpose,” Starmer said. “We have taken the decision to accept this request to prevent Iran firing missiles across the region, killing innocent civilians, putting British lives at risk, and hitting countries that have not been involved.”

RELATED: Israeli officials say Khamenei is dead. Update: Trump confirms.

Photo by Jonathan Brady-WPA Pool/Getty Images

Starmer emphasized in a previous announcement that the U.K. is not participating directly in offensive strikes, which began in late February targeting Iranian military facilities, nuclear sites, and senior leadership. Instead Britain has focused on defensive actions, including intercepting Iranian missiles aimed at allies in the Gulf.

Starmer also acknowledged the danger the Iranian regime poses: “Even in the United Kingdom, the Iranian regime poses a direct threat to dissidents and to the Jewish community.” He continued, “Over the last year alone, they have backed more than 20 potentially lethal attacks on U.K. soil.”

RELATED: ‘Painful days’: Iran kills US troops as Trump threatens decapitated Iranian regime

(Photo by Jonathan Brady-WPA Pool/Getty Images)

Starmer described Iran’s actions as increasingly reckless and dangerous and said the decision is consistent with international law under the doctrine of collective self-defense. The government published a summary of its legal advice supporting that position.

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​International politics, War, Iran, Uk, Starmer, Uk prime minister, Military, Politics 

I was living in Brooklyn at the time. I was 40-ish. I went home to Oregon for the Christmas holidays, and one of my siblings suggested we go skiing.

We were a skiing family when we were kids. In my teens, I skied nearly every weekend for several months of the year. I got pretty good at it and have fond memories of those days.

I remembered a doctor on TV saying something like: ‘Most injuries I see are older people trying to do things they did when they were young.’

But I had not skied or ridden a chairlift in 20 years. The idea of going again seemed really fun. Why hadn’t we thought of this before?

Toys in the attic

Most of my old ski stuff was still around my parents’ house. I found my slightly rusted skis in the attic. My old Nordica ski boots still fit. I dug up some musty ski gloves and a ski hat and some old goggles. I wasn’t going to look fashionable or current, but I had the necessary stuff to ski down the mountain.

I would be like the eccentric older guys I occasionally rode the chairlift with when I was a teenager. Guys with ancient-looking skis and out-of-date parkas and mittens. Skiing wasn’t a social activity for them. They didn’t mind looking out of place. They were just there for the skiing.

Runnin’ up that hill

My siblings and I drove up to Mt. Hood Meadows and bought our lift tickets. We rode up the chairlift, which all by itself was thrilling.

To actually ski felt weird at first. I did a couple of snow-plow turns, then a couple of real turns, and then I was more or less back to form.

The ski trails were mostly the same. I remembered them from high school. But other things had changed. The skis were shorter and oddly shaped. People wore helmets. There were snowboarders to contend with. And of course, everyone was younger and speedier than I remembered.

After a couple easy runs, I was feeling pretty confident. I decided to check out some of the more difficult trails. So I dragged my brother over to one of the black diamond runs.

Looking down into it, I was shocked by how steep and formidable it looked. I used to ski down this? And then some 12-year-old shot past me and went flying straight down the face of it.

I decided against following him, and instead we found a trail that went along the ridge. Here we encountered a “jump.”

This was not a jump like you see on TV, where you do two back flips and a triple twist. This was a little bump off to the side of the trail, where if you could build up enough speed, you might go two or three feet into the air and land six feet from where you started.

Still, I’d loved jumps when I was a kid. My body reacted to the sight of it so strongly, I immediately sped up and steered right at it.

Unfortunately, it turned out to have a badly shaped landing. You basically stopped dead when you hit. I nearly rolled forward out of my ski boots. It was so jarring, I felt queasy in my stomach.

And then I had to get out of the way, so someone else could have that same experience.

Slow your roll

So that’s how it went. I found that I got bored cruising the easy runs. But whenever I tried something hard, I was outmatched.

After lunch, I made the decision to stick to the intermediate runs. I would do like the other middle-aged people, carving wide, graceful turns, taking it easy, getting into that elder-skier groove.

But then my problem became speed. Each time I did a run, I went a little faster. Soon, I was going a little too fast. But I couldn’t resist that downhill racer sensation.

And then I fell. I don’t know how. I must have “caught an edge.” One moment, I was leaning into a turn, and the next, I was face-planted into the hard pack.

I came to my senses with a face full of snow and my skis, hat, and goggles scattered all around me.

My brother pulled up behind me. He was scared. He said my wipeout looked bad. I told him it felt bad. Though as far as I could tell, I wasn’t seriously injured.

I sat there for several minutes, making sure I was OK. Then I rose to my feet. Eventually, I put my skis back on. Very gingerly, we made our way down.

But by the time we reached the chairlift, I felt fine. I was OK. And there was still time for a couple more runs. I assured my brother I could continue. And we got back in line.

RELATED: I was a ‘problem student’ — until all-male Catholic school let me be a boy

Alex_Bond/Bettman/Getty Images

Dazed and confused

Riding the chairlift was when I realized something wasn’t right. My brain seemed slow. I couldn’t seem to focus. I would look at things and not really see them. Everything felt weird and slowed down and unreal.

I must have a concussion, I thought. So I gave myself a simple concussion test. What was my phone number? I thought about it. I thought about it more. I had no idea.

What about my address? What city did I live in? I couldn’t seem to hold any clear thought in my head.

I explained to my brother what was happening. He was concerned. We did one last easy-does-it run. Then we headed home.

Dark night of the soul

That night, back at my parents’ house, I did the concussion protocols. I stayed awake for 12 hours, took aspirin, drank water, lay on the living room couch, perfectly still, with a dark towel over my eyes. I now had a very sore neck and back. I could barely move. I probably had whiplash.

I was OK in the end. But that was a scary day. As I lay silent and still on the couch, I remembered a doctor on TV saying something like: “Most injuries I see are older people trying to do things they did when they were young.”

That was definitely me. I guess I learned my lesson. But I’d also learned the lesson that — for me at least — the desire to do those things, even when I KNEW I SHOULDN’T DO THEM, could be overwhelming.

In other words, it was best for me to stay off the ski slopes entirely. And maybe take up some new activities, things I’d never done before. Like softball. Or surfing. Or golf. Activities where memories of youthful glory wouldn’t get me into trouble.

​Lifestyle, Skiing, Sports, Men, Aging, Blake’s progress 

Columbia University — an institution whose radicalism frequently spills out into the streets of Manhattan — is trying to distance itself from Columbia University Apartheid Divest after the coalition of student extremists echoed Iranian dictator Ali Khamenei’s go-to motto following his assassination on Saturday.

CUAD, a coalition of anti-Israel student groups that purportedly operates “outside of the purview of a registered student organization,” didn’t take the news of Khamenei’s death particularly well, calling it “devastating news.”

‘Columbia has not, and will not, recognize or meet with the group.’

In another social media post, which has since been deleted, the student group wrote, “Marg bar Amrika.”

This Persian phrase, which means “Death to America,” was one of the dead ayatollah’s go-to slogans.

“The slogan and shout of ‘Death to the U.S.’ by the Iranian nation has strong logical and rational support and stems from the Constitution and fundamental thoughts that brooks no injustice and oppression,” Khamenei stated a decade ago. “This slogan means death to the policies of the U.S. and arrogant powers and this logic is accepted by every nation when explained in clear terms.”

CUAD noted in a subsequent tweet that was taken down by Elon Musk’s X for violating the platform’s rules, “X forced use[sic] to delete our ‘marg bar amrika’ tweet in order to gain back access to our account but the sentiment still stands.”

RELATED: ‘Painful days’: Iran kills US troops as Trump threatens decapitated Iranian regime

Photo by Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu via Getty Images

The university — which had its accreditation threatened last year over its alleged “indifference towards the harassment of Jewish students” and is paying the federal government over $220 million to settle investigations into alleged discrimination on campus — rushed to denounce CUAD’s “violent, abhorrent language.”

Columbia emphasized that “‘CUAD’ is not a recognized student group and is not affiliated, in any fashion, with the University”; “the matter has been referred to law enforcement for further investigation”; and “there is no evidence, at this point, that anyone currently in control of this social media account is a Columbia student, staff, or faculty member.”

While it is unclear who presently mans the radical group’s social media accounts, Mahmoud Khalil — a Syrian-born radical and former Columbia University graduate student who is presently fighting potential deportation by the Trump administration to Algeria — previously identified himself as a spokesman for CUAD.

The university, which has been home to anti-U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement protests in recent days, noted that it denounced the group last July, making clear “Columbia has not, and will not, recognize or meet with the group that calls itself ‘Columbia University Apartheid Divest’ (CUAD), its representatives, or any of its affiliated organizations.”

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​Iran, Khamenei, Columbia university, Divest, Apartheid divest, University, School, Radical, Radicalism, Islam, Iranian, Death to america, New york city, Politics 

Early Sunday morning, a foreign-born radical armed with a pistol and a rifle allegedly opened fire outside Buford’s Backyard Beer Garden in Austin, killing two individuals and wounding 14 others.

Authorities indicated that the now-dead suspect, identified as 53-year-old Ndiaga Diagne, drove around the area several times in an SUV before taking aim through a vehicle window at patrons outside the bar.

‘This act of violence will not define us.’

Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis noted during a press conference on Sunday that after the initial shooting, the suspect parked his SUV nearby, then opened fire with a rifle on unsuspecting pedestrians. Police intercepted the suspect as he made his way down East 6th Street and fatally shot him.

Once the dead suspect’s vehicle was identified, the APD’s bomb squad ensured that there were no explosives present.

Austin Mayor Kirk Watson lauded the work of the first responders and police officers who rushed into action on Sunday morning, noting that they “saved countless lives.”

While law enforcement is still investigating the shooter’s motives, Alex Doran, an active special agent with the FBI’s San Antonio field office, noted that “there were indicators … on the subject and in his vehicle that indicate potential nexus to terrorism.”

RELATED: Fetterman joins GOP lawmakers in praise of Iran strikes; Massie joins Democrats in condemnation

Photo by Stephanie Tacy/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Doran would not comment on the nature of those “indicators.” However, a law enforcement official told CNN that the dead suspect was wearing a shirt with an Iranian flag design on it as well as a hoodie emblazoned with the text, “Property of Allah.”

A law enforcement official told the New York Times that a Quran was recovered from the suspect’s vehicle.

The Department of Homeland Security reportedly indicated that Diagne entered the U.S. on a B-2 tourist visa in March 2000 and was naturalized in April 2013, seven years after his marriage to an American citizen.

A law enforcement official familiar with the investigation told CNN that the suspect, who was arrested in 2022 on a charge of collision with vehicle damage, is originally from the Sunni Muslim nation of Senegal.

On Sunday afternoon, federal and local authorities reportedly raided a house outside Pflugerville, roughly 30 miles north of the shooting, where the suspect apparently resided.

While officials did not immediately name the victims, University of Texas at Austin President Jim Davis said in a statement on Sunday that among those impacted by the shooting are “members of our Longhorn family.”

Ryder Harrington, a Texas Tech Red Raider, was ultimately identified by loved ones as one of the decedents.

A GoFundMe page raising funds for the Harrington family noted that “Ryder was a beloved son, brother, and friend whose kindness and presence touched countless lives. From the moment he joined our brotherhood, he brought a light that was impossible to ignore.”

Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows (R) noted, “From all accounts, Ryder was exactly the kind of young man who made a difference without even trying — full of life, loyal to his friends, proud to be a Red Raider and a Texan, and someone who showed up for the people around him.”

“This act of violence will not define us, nor will it shake the resolve of Texans,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) said in response to the shooting.

“To anyone who thinks about using the current conflict in the Middle East to threaten Texans or our critical infrastructure, understand this clearly: Texas will respond with decisive and overwhelming force to protect our state,” added the governor.

Abbott indicated further that on Saturday, he directed the Texas Military Department to activate service members to work with federal and state partners to “safeguard our communities and critical infrastructure” and tasked the Texas Department of Public Safety and Texas National Guard with intensifying patrols and surveillance.

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​Crime, Islam, Senegal, Terrorism, Shooting, Austin, Texas, Abbott, Iran, Iran strikes, Radicalism, Extremism, Mass shooting, Ndiaga diagne, Politics 

Imagine someone walks into your town with a proposition: Rezone large swaths of residential and farmland. Hand out tax breaks. Let us build ugly, noisy facilities for chatbots — facilities that will devour nearly a quarter of the power supply.

Then, before you run him out of the room, he adds a final promise: Do not worry. We will pay our own way.

Argue about the projections if you want. Do not tell the public they will not pay more for data centers. They already do.

That is the rope-a-dope Americans are supposed to accept from the government-tech oligopoly, even as politicians insist that data centers will not cost the public a dime.

Sensing a growing backlash against the data-slop colonization of rural America, President Trump promised during the State of the Union that every data center company will pay its own way. Awareness of the problem helps. The president’s pledge does not.

Facts on the ground point in the opposite direction: consumers already pay for data centers, the economics make “paying their own way” implausible at scale, and the industry fights efforts to put that promise into law.

The scope of the problem

The hyperscale build-out being stacked on top of roughly 4,000 existing facilities is not a “burden” on the grid. It is an industrial-scale demand shock.

MIT Technology Review reports that AI alone could soon consume as much electricity as 22% of all U.S. households. Boston Consulting Group projects data center energy needs of up to 1,050 terawatt-hours annually by 2030 — about 120 gigawatts on average. That figure exceeds current U.S. nuclear capacity by roughly 23%.

To put it in plain terms, the United States has about 97 gigawatts of nuclear capacity across 94 reactors. If the high end of OpenAI’s hyperscale ambitions materializes, those facilities alone would require roughly 36% of total U.S. nuclear capacity.

Now scale it out. Clearview estimates that if the 680 planned data centers get built and become operational, they would require the energy equivalent of 186 large nuclear power plants.

That should end the fantasy that these companies can “pay their own way” while drowning in debt, burning cash, and chasing thin margins.

These are not last decade’s data centers, either. Bloomberg reports that only 10% of facilities today draw more than 50 megawatts. Over the next decade, the average new facility will draw well over 100 megawatts. Nearly a quarter will exceed 500 megawatts, and a few will top 1 gigawatt.

Electricity is only the first bill. This demand shock forces major grid upgrades: transmission lines, transformers, substations, and capacity expansions. Utilities do not eat those costs. They pass them on to taxpayers — that is, us.

Wood Mackenzie estimates that AI-driven build-outs will push transformer demand beyond supply by about 30% this year, driving costs up and delaying projects. Consumers will pay for that, too.

RELATED: How data centers could spark the next populist revolt

Photo by Jim West/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

We already pay for data centers

Consumers already pay. Any serious fix starts with admitting it.

Yet Interior Secretary Doug Burgum has the nerve to tell Americans that nobody has paid higher prices because of data centers.

Grid operators say otherwise.

Bloomberg reports that in areas within 50 miles of significant data center activity, wholesale prices have risen by as much as 267% over five years, with more than 70% of recorded price spikes occurring near that activity. Dominion, the largest utility in Virginia — home to “Data Center Alley” — cited data center demand as a factor in proposing a base-rate increase that would add $8.51 a month to typical residential bills in 2026 and another $2 a month in 2027. That comes after rates already surged 13%.

Then look at PJM, the nation’s largest grid. Monitoring Analytics, PJM’s independent market monitor, says consumers will pay $16.6 billion to secure future power supplies from 2025 through 2027, with about 90% of that bill tied to projected data center demand. Monitoring Analytics called it a “massive wealth transfer” from consumers to the data center industry.

Costs spread across state lines. Maryland transmission infrastructure helps serve Northern Virginia’s data centers. In Baltimore, some residents have seen steep bill increases over three years, with additional increases anticipated starting mid-2026. Across the PJM region, capacity charges spiked 833% for the 2025-2026 period as supply struggled to keep up with these behemoths.

Texas faces its own version. ERCOT expects data center demand to exceed 22,000 megawatts by 2030, which could push wholesale rates up 22% or more, even before population growth enters the equation.

Argue about the projections if you want. Do not tell the public they will not pay more for data centers. They already do.

That reality explains why the industry resists any effort to put teeth behind its “we will pay our own way” pledge. Oklahoma state Rep. Jim Shaw (R) introduced HB 3724, which would have required data centers to pay their own way. Every Republican on the committee voted it down.

So the next time the pitch arrives — that you will not pay a dime extra once the facilities go live — treat it as marketing, not math.

Do not trust. Only verify.

​Opinion & analysis, Artificial intelligence, Ai data centers, Power grid, Nuclear power, Water, Zoning, Farmland, Housing, Supply and demand, Big tech, Donald trump, Costs, Affordability, Electricity bills, Mit technology review, Nuclear capacity, Texas, Maryland, Baltimore, Oklahoma, Jim shaw 

It’s been a little over a year since President Trump began his second term and enacted a wave of tariffs that rattled the global economy. After observing the impacts, Glenn Beck is finally ready to say three words: “I was wrong.”

For years, he opposed tariffs, believing that free markets were the answer. And while he still believes free markets are the ideal — as they’re “not just efficient” but also “moral” — he realizes in retrospect that they cease to work when the players cheat. Tariffs, he admits, are “not a sin” but a necessary “strategy” to protect American industry from nations that are attacking its economy through trade.

On this episode of “The Glenn Beck Program,” Glenn explains his change of heart.

He first recaps history: America’s founders funded the government mainly through tariffs instead of income taxes, and Abraham Lincoln and early Republicans used them to protect young industries and build the nation into an industrial powerhouse. Tariffs only got a bad name after the 1913 income tax shift and the 1930 Smoot-Hawley tariffs (blamed for worsening the Depression), while post-World War II free trade succeeded because the U.S. dominated the global economy.

But that era of “effortlessness, American dominance” has ended.

“Here’s what I failed to see,” says Glenn. “Free trade works when all of the players are playing free. … It works when your trading partners are not subsidizing industries, manipulating currencies, stealing intellectual property, weaponizing supply chains, using slave labor.”

“There comes a time when you then have to look at it and say, ‘OK, wait a minute, wait a minute — now we own the markets, but everybody else has weaponized trade against us. And now we’re hollowing out our own industrial base; we’re financing our adversaries’ rise,’” he adds.

Today he sees “the bigger picture that Donald Trump is doing with tariffs.”

“I have had very long conversations with the president about tariffs. He has been remarkable … because he’s been honest,” says Glenn.

“He has the vision to see the world economically as it truly is, but also the vision to see economically, business-wise, how it can be,” he explains.

“[Trump] understood tariffs are not just punishment and higher prices, OK? You use tariffs strategically as leverage, as negotiation — tariffs as industrial policy without the bureaucracy; tariffs used strategically, not universally; tariffs used as a tool to bring trading partners to the table; tariffs being used to build domestic capacity.”

Glenn highlights Trump’s repeated claim that foreign countries have committed to investing $18 trillion in U.S. factories since the start of his second term (roughly half the national debt).

“Let’s say half of that is true. That’s pretty remarkable. You know what that will do? That will rebuild our industrial base, which we hollowed out because we didn’t have tariffs!” he exclaims.

To hear more, watch the video above.

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​The glenn beck program, Glenn beck, Trump, Trump tariffs, Tariffs, Blazetv, Blaze media 

On Friday, in an open letter to the 119th Congress, I joined more than 100 economists and public policy experts from universities, think tanks, and businesses across the country urging practical reform of the Highway Trust Fund. Our message is straightforward: Congress can — and should — take incremental, bipartisan steps now to put the fund on a stable, sustainable path.

The Highway Trust Fund long embodied a simple user-fee compact: People who use the roads pay for them. That bargain delivered predictable funding and reinforced fiscal discipline.

Congress has repeatedly patched the shortfall with transfers from the general fund, which papers over the problem while weakening the principle that made the system durable.

Now the system is fraying. Fuel taxes have not kept pace with inflation, rising construction costs, or improved fuel efficiency. Electric and hybrid vehicles — a growing share of the fleet — often contribute little or nothing through fuel taxes. Congress has repeatedly patched the shortfall with transfers from the general fund, which papers over the problem while weakening the principle that made the system durable.

Congress does not need to solve every long-term challenge in one bill. It can make meaningful progress in the next surface transportation reauthorization, which lawmakers must pass by Sept. 30.

First, lawmakers should reinforce the user-pay principle by ensuring all road users — including drivers of electric and hybrid vehicles — contribute a fair share through transparent, enforceable mechanisms. Fairness demands no less. When some users effectively get an exemption, the burden shifts to everyone else or to taxpayers at large.

Second, Congress should improve price sensitivity. Heavy commercial vehicles impose disproportionate wear and tear on highways and bridges. User fees should better reflect vehicle weight and road impact. That change would improve fairness and send clearer economic signals about infrastructure costs. A system that reflects actual use and damage is more rational — and more defensible.

Third, legislators should evaluate a transition from per-gallon fuel taxes to mileage-based user fees. A well-designed road-usage charge would ensure payments reflect miles driven and vehicle characteristics.

Any transition must preserve the core user-pay principle while avoiding disproportionate burdens on low-income households, small businesses, and farmers. State pilot programs show mileage-based systems can protect privacy and maintain public trust. Congress should build on that experience rather than delay modernization.

Fourth, Washington should reduce reliance on general-fund bailouts and set clearer expectations for revenue reform in the next major reauthorization cycle. Temporary patches undermine fiscal responsibility and create uncertainty for state planners and private investors.

RELATED: Trump is getting the job done for American truckers

Photo by Chris Kleponis/Polaris/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Revenue reform alone will not secure the system. Transportation infrastructure now depends on digital systems that guide vehicles and manage logistics. America’s economy relies heavily on GPS-enabled positioning and timing. Disruptions to systems overseen by the U.S. Department of Transportation would ripple across freight networks, emergency services, and daily commutes.

China and Russia have shown the capability to interfere with satellite systems and GPS signals. A prolonged outage would cost billions of dollars per day. Vehicles sold in the U.S. should incorporate tested backup positioning technologies to guard against such threats.

Supply-chain security also demands attention. Chinese firms such as BYD and CATL dominate global battery production. The concentration of manufacturing — and embedded telematics — in companies subject to influence by the Chinese Communist Party raises legitimate concerns about espionage and strategic vulnerability.

The U.S. should expand domestic battery production and charging infrastructure, reducing dependence on foreign-controlled systems that can compromise data security and resilience.

Finally, Congress should pursue sensible federal deregulation to reduce the needlessly high cost of transportation projects — and require state and local partners to do the same. Streamlined permitting, faster reviews, and fewer duplicative requirements would stretch every Highway Trust Fund dollar and deliver projects faster.

These proposals are not partisan. They are practical steps rooted in fiscal responsibility and national security. A stable source of funding for roads is not merely a budget issue; it is essential to economic competitiveness, national mobility, and public safety. By reinforcing the user-pay principle, modernizing revenue mechanisms, protecting digital infrastructure, and strengthening supply chains, Congress can signal a shared commitment to safeguarding America’s transportation future.

The 119th Congress has an opportunity to restore the Highway Trust Fund’s integrity. Lawmakers should seize it.

​Opinion & analysis, Highway trust fund, Funding, Gas taxes, Mileage tax, Fee for service, Transportation department, Transportation funding, Infrastructure, Interstate, Bridges, Roads, Fuel efficiency, Electric vehicles, Congress, Budget 

Japan transformed from an expansionist military power to a pacifist state within a decade after World War II, adopting a firmly non-nuclear posture after suffering atomic bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Yet Japan possesses one of the most advanced civilian nuclear infrastructures in the world, technically capable of creating nuclear weapons.

As debates in the United States intensify over alliance commitments and burden-sharing, questions about the credibility of America’s extended deterrence are growing. If that credibility weakens, Japan may find itself increasingly alone in deterring China, North Korea, and Russia.

As Japan becomes more militarized, nuclear pacifism may begin to be replaced with nuclear realism.

Japan is already reinterpreting elements of its postwar restraint, evident in the modernization of the Japan Self-Defense Forces and the acquisition of long-range counterstrike capabilities for “deterrence by punishment.” Will Japan do the same with nuclear weapons?

The nuclear threshold is near

Japan lacks nuclear warhead expertise, dedicated delivery systems, and secure nuclear testing infrastructure, but it does have the industrial, material, and financial resources to begin a nuclear weapons program.

Japan possesses full-scale nuclear fuel cycle facilities, accumulating over 45 metric tons of separated plutonium, enough to make thousands of nuclear weapons. Japan is projected to increase reliance on fast breeder reactors; these reactors produce more plutonium than they consume.

Japan is also building facilities that eliminate the need to outsource its spent fuel for reprocessing, allowing Japan to domestically produce separated plutonium. Some analysts estimate that Japan could develop a small nuclear arsenal within a year.

Despite Japan’s nuclear latency, it has not crossed the nuclear threshold. Other than public consensus and constitutional restraints, Japan is held back by technical and financial costs. Japan needs to develop nuclear weapons design expertise, delivery systems, and secure infrastructure, all financially and politically costly endeavors.

Furthermore, Japan’s civilian nuclear facilities operate under International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards. That makes it difficult to run a clandestine nuclear weapons program. While the costs are substantial, they are not prohibitive for a country with Japan’s industrial and technological capacity. Given its advanced nuclear power program and infrastructure and increasingly sophisticated military, Japan can develop the technical requirements for a nuclear weapons program in short order.

Hedging nuclear bets

Japan is a nuclear latent power, so the central issue is intent. Japan adopted what strategists call “insurance hedging,” entailing a cost-benefit analysis of U.S. extended deterrence to determine whether relying on U.S. nuclear weapons is worth the risk of Japan not having its own. Should U.S. extended deterrence fail or be perceived as too weak, Japan will claim insurance by developing nuclear weapons for its own protection.

Japan became an insurance hedger for two reasons: It wants the option to develop nuclear weapons and does not want to forgo U.S. extended deterrence. Japan relies on U.S. extended deterrence for security, but pursuing nuclear weapons could remove Japan from America’s nuclear umbrella.

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Photo by Tajh Payne/US Navy via Getty Images

Insurance hedging allows Japan to stay within U.S. extended deterrence while preparing for the possibility of abandonment or failure by the United States. Nuclear latency serves as leverage. If U.S. security guarantees weaken, Japan would retain the ability to respond independently.

Nuclear latency was always the plan

Japan’s nuclear latency is not an accident. As early as the 1950s, Japan deliberately preserved nuclear latency while relying on the United States for deterrence. Japan understood the deterrence value of nuclear weapons, especially in a security environment surrounded by nuclear powers and potential nuclear powers.

For Japan, the United States would serve as its nuclear deterrent, which allowed Japan to maintain its pacifist posture. Nuclear pacifism is still dominant in Japanese strategic culture, but as Japan becomes more militarized, nuclear pacifism may begin to be replaced with nuclear realism.

If U.S. extended deterrence no longer offers Japan the protection it needs, and domestic consensus against nuclear weapons is resolved, Japan could shift in favor of nuclear weapons. To create the JSDF, Japan reinterpreted Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution; Article 9 is an explicit “Renunciation of War” mandating that Japan never maintain “war potential.” Japan once reinterpreted Article 9 to build the Self-Defense Forces. Reinterpreting nuclear pacifism would be far more controversial, but not unprecedented.

Editor’s note: This article was originally published by RealClearDefense and made available via RealClearWire.

​Japan, Nuclear weapons, Nuclear power, Usa, China, Military buildup, Japan self defense forces, Pacifism, Nuclear deterrence, Opinion & analysis, National defense, Self-defense, War, Pacific ocean