Category: blaze media

An illegal immigrant was arrested on Saturday in connection with the murder of a teen cheerleader at Edna High School in Texas, according to police.

The Edna Police Department and the Texas Rangers arrested Rafael Govea Romero in Schulenburg, Texas. The Edna Police Department said in a statement that the arrest was done through the coordination of several agencies, including nearby police departments, Texas Rangers, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Romero was taken to the Jackson County Jail and charged with the capital murder of 16-year-old Lizbeth Medina.

The Edna Police Department noted that Romero is an “undocumented male.”

“Although Romero is apprehended, we recognize Lizbeth’s family and friends are grieving and will still need support from the community,” Edna Police Chief Rick Boone stated.

Lizbeth Medina was found dead in her apartment on Dec. 5. Medina’s dead body was discovered in a bathtub by her mother.

Jacqueline Medina, Lizbeth’s mother, got worried after she hadn’t heard from her for several hours.

“I decided to go look for her. And I kept calling her phone nonstop, and it would take me straight to voicemail… I called a bunch of people and nobody knew anything. It wasn’t until I walked into the restroom that I was on the phone with my friend asking him to come help me look for her – is when I [saw] her foot, and it was in the bathtub. And so I opened the curtains. There she was,” Medina told Fox News.

As Blaze News previously reported, “Medina says their apartment was broken into a few weeks prior to the death of her daughter, and she believes it might be related.”

The distraught mother asked, “I don’t understand why. My God, why would they do this to her? She’s such a beautiful, smart, and amazing girl. There’s moments where I just can’t take it. And then there’s moments where I feel like I need to be strong for her.”

“I just want everybody to know that that was an amazing child,” Medina said. “She wasn’t a normal teenager getting in trouble for doing crazy stuff. She was very mature for her age. She was a caring and loving person who, as far as I know, and from the messages I received, she changed a lot of people’s lives. I just want everybody to remember her that way and not the way that she was taken from me.”

“I lost it. She was my world, my everything. … Everything I do was for her,” Medina said.

“It should have been a great day because she was involved in the Christmas parade. She was going to be with the cheer squad,” Jacquelin noted.

Medina said her daughter was “murdered in cold blood.”

She is “praying for justice” for her slain child.

“Someone dared to go in and just rip my daughter away from me, it just kills me,” the grieving mother stated. “I just want answers to why they would do this to an amazing little girl who would never hurt anyone, wouldn’t dare to hurt anyone.”

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16-year-old Texas cheerleader found dead by mother; allegedly murdered after apartment break-in

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​Edna cheerleader, Teen girl killed, Texas cheerleader killed, Cheerleader murdered, Murder, Crime, Illegal immigrant, Illegal immigration, News 

A hoarder in Houston was apparently found dead buried beneath four feet of debris inside his townhome on Friday. The man was discovered after residents became alarmed over a “foul odor.”

The Daily Mail reported that the body of a decomposed man in his 70s was discovered in a Houston townhome on Friday. Residents became concerned after they had not seen the man in months. Houston fire officials and police responded after neighbors said that the odor had become too foul to ignore.

The authorities said that the condition of the home was so poor that they had to get assistance from Texas EquuSearch on Friday in order to locate the man’s body. Responders showed up to the home fully equipped with gloves, masks, and Hazmat suits. They apparently located rats and piles of debris that made it difficult to traverse the home.

Tim Miller, founder of Texas EquuSearch, said “[y]ou think you’ve seen everything, and then you realize you haven’t.”

Neil Zimmerman, a neighbor, said “I don’t understand how anyone could live in those conditions.” Zimmerman is apparently a board member of the homeowner’s association at the Shadow Pines Townhomes.

KTRK-TV reported that residents in the area were aware of the man’s hoarding issue. They said they attempted to help the man with the situation until the state agency noted that they intended to exterminate what he said were his pet rats.

Luis Miranda, another HOA board member, said “[w]hen I knocked, as soon as I opened the screen, I could smell the foul odor.”

Board members noted that the HOA will likely be responsible for footing the bill to clear out the townhome. They stated that they wish they could have helped the man sooner, according to a report.

“It is super sad. Nobody is here to claim him or check up on him,” Miranda said. “I feel like we did what we could, but we just had nowhere else to go. We tried the city. We just couldn’t get help for him.”

Experts have stated that the prevalence of hoarding has increased since the pandemic, and they have suggested it could be due to grief, anxiety, and the ease of one-click shopping.

Dr. David Nathan, a psychologist at Allina Health in Minneapolis, said: “As the pandemic was a very difficult experience for all involved, we saw increased rates of all stress reactions, and that includes increases in hoarding behaviors.”

The body was removed by the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences. The cause of death is still unknown and will be determined by a medical examiner.

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As shoppers look for just the right Christmas gift for their family and friends this holiday season, the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office recently revealed that there is a “very sophisticated” gift card scam that could have a nationwide impact.

The New York Post reported that the sheriff’s office carried out an anti-theft retail operation that resulted in 285 felony and misdemeanor arrests in just a single week. The operation was primarily focused on big box stores, where gift cards are especially prevalent.

Among those captured was a Chinese national who had accumulated thousands of Target and Apple gift cards.

“During our recent retail theft Operation Bad Elf, detectives observed an individual, later identified as Ningning Sun, acting suspiciously near the gift cards in the payment aisles in a Sacramento Target store,” the sheriff’s office stated in a press release.

Investigators apparently watched on as Sun took all the gift cards off the rack in a Target and stuff them inside his jacket. And then he replaced the gift cards with “another set of seemingly identical ones.”

Fox News Digital reported that members of the sheriff’s office followed Sun outside before making the arrest.

Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Amar Gadhi said “[t]hat guy blew up like a piñata at a kid’s birthday party, spilling out gift cards from his jacket.”

Following the arrest, the authorities discovered thousands of gift cards stuffed into Sun’s car. Gandhi noted that the suspect would steal gift cards and carefully remove the glue that covers the bar codes on the cards. Then, he would allegedly record the PINs, re-seal the bar codes with similar glue and return the cards to the shelves.

A press release stated: “[The] investigation revealed Sun was part of a scam that tampered with gift cards, scanned the bar code and stole money from the gift card as money was loaded on them. Victims are completely unaware it is happening, and the money is often siphoned to an offshore account within seconds. Their investigation revealed that the operation spanned across California and several regions nationwide.”

Customers would then walk into the store and purchase the tampered gift cards and load money onto them. However, the money customers believed was loaded on the card was actually transferred to a bank account. Gandhi mentioned that it is believed that the funds were transferred to a Chinese bank.

“It’s going to go unreported because are you going to confront somebody who gave you a $0 gift card? No, that’s rude. And then you’re sitting there fat, dumb and happy, thinking, ‘Oh, I did something nice for somebody,’ not knowing that your money’s gone,” he said.

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Elon Musk reinstated the X social media account of Alex Jones early Sunday. Jones had been banned for five years from the social media platform previously known as Twitter.

Musk asked on Saturday: “Reinstate Alex Jones on this platform? Vox Populi, Vox Dei.”

“Vox Populi, Vox Dei” is a Latin phrase meaning “the voice of the people is the voice of God.”

With nearly 2 million votes, more than 70% overwhelmingly declared that Jones should have his X account reinstated.

“The people have spoken and so it shall be,” Musk tweeted after the poll ended.

— (@)

Speaking on concerns regarding Jones spreading misinformation, Musk declared, “It is a safe bet that Community Notes will respond rapidly to any AJ post that needs correction.”

Early Sunday morning, Jones made his first action on his reactivated X account by reposting controversial influencer Andrew Tate.

Jones retweeted a post from Tate that read: “To show respect to Alex Jones for his triumphant return and to show respect to Elon being a hero – tell a globalist to get f***ed today.”

InfoWars noted, “Expect a post soon from Alex on @RealAlexJones.”

Jones was banned from Twitter in 2018 for violating the company’s “abusive behavior policy” by the social media company’s prior management.

Musk previously hinted that he would not reinstate Jones because Jones falsely claimed on his InfoWars show that the Sandy Hook mass shooting was a hoax.

In November 2022, Megaupload founder and former CEO Kim Dotcom urged Musk to reinstate Jones in a Twitter post. Kim Dotcom conceded that Jones “f***ed up with Sandy Hook,” but that the InfoWars host apologized and “got a lot of ‘conspiracy theories’ right.” Kim Dotcom argued, “If serial liars like Biden and Trump are allowed on Twitter then Alex Jones should be allowed too.”

Musk responded, “My firstborn child died in my arms. I felt his last heartbeat. I have no mercy for anyone who would use the deaths of children for gain, politics or fame.”

Jones filed for bankruptcy in December after a judge ordered him to pay $1.5 billion to the families of the victims of the 2012 shooting that killed 20 children and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

It appears that the official InfoWars X account is still suspended since being banned in 2018.

Musk also used an X poll in November to decide to reactivate the social media account of former President Donald Trump. The Tesla CEO also reactivated the suspended accounts of Kanye West and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.).

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​Alex jones, Twitter, X, Elon musk, Conspiracy theories, Conspiracy theorist, Social media, Censorship, Andrew tate, News 

A former teacher in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, who has been accused of having sexual relations with a student, was granted bond. Then, a disturbing detail was revealed.

Jackson County Sheriff Captain Kristen Johnson testified, saying “[h]e (James Donald Hawkins II) said that they had made plans to go to Louisiana to elope, and things were moving faster than they originally expected,” according to WLOX.

During her testimony, Jackson said Hawkins, 38, had sex with the 17-year-old victim at his home and in the parking lot of the Walmart in Ocean Springs.

Hawkins, who previously taught physics at a high school in the Ocean Springs school district, was arrested on November 30 and charged with felony sexual battery.

The authorities stated that the investigation is still ongoing and that more charges could be on the way.

The New York Post reported Johnson said “[t]he victim said that it began in the springtime of 2023 before the last school year ended,” adding that “[a]ccording to Mr. Hawkins, he admitted they had sex approximately one time a month, including at his house and in her car.”

The home that Hawkins apparently had the sexual encounter in was the same house that he shared with his wife and their toddler, according to the Sun Herald.

Hawkins’ bond was apparently set for $150,000, and the judge went on to say that he needed to stay away from the student and her family.

School officials released a statement, saying that the accusations made against the former teacher were “disturbing and intolerable.”

“OSSD is deeply troubled by the arrest and charges announced today by the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department involving one of our teachers,” the school district said.

“James Hawkins was terminated from OSSD when district officials were informed of his arrest and subsequent charges by the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department this evening.”

Hawkins had been teaching at Ocean Springs High School for over a year. Before the high school job, he worked in physics as a graduate student at Mississippi State University, according to LinkedIn.

His profile mentioned that he completed his bachelor’s degree at Mississippi State between 2005 and 2019. Following completion of the degree, he reportedly worked as a professors’ assistant and physics lab graduate teaching assistant.

Hawkins’ lawyer, Cameron McCormick, and the school district did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

However, the school district confirmed to local news outlets that Hawkins had been terminated following the revelation.

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​News 

The United Nations’ Commission of Inquiry has come under fire by Israel’s ambassador to the UN, who stated that the group is incapable of carrying out a fair investigation. The group has been tasked with investigating Hamas’ crimes of sexual abuse and rape that took place on October 7.

Fox News Digital reported that Israel’s Ambassador, Gilad Erdan, said “Israel has zero trust in its findings and its illegitimate activities. Its ‘investigation’ into the terror organization’s sexual crimes against Israeli women on Oct. 7 is akin to Yahya Sinwar, the head of Hamas in Gaza, investigating its crimes.”

Erdan has long held that the UN holds a bias against the Jewish state.

“The commissioners’ pre-existing prejudice against Israel is abundantly clear,” Erdan said. “They have denied Israel’s right to be a member of the U.N., they have undermined the accepted working definition of antisemitism, and they support the boycott of Israel.”

Last week, Blaze News reported that Gal Gadot — best known for playing “Wonder Woman” — stated that the UN had failed the female victims of Hamas’ attack, writing on Instagram: “We claim we stand against rape, violence against women. We will not let women be victimized and then silenced. We say we believe women. Stand with women. Speak out for women.”

“On October 7th, the world witnessed Hamas carrying out its violent plans in real time. Within hours of the October 7th attack, the first blood-chilling video emerged of Shani Louk being paraded naked and defiled by her proud assailants,” Gadot wrote on the social media platform, referring to Shani Louk, the German-Israeli tattoo artist who was kidnapped by Hamas.

Gadot continued: “Yet two months later women are still hostage to these rapists and the world has failed to call this situation what it is: an urgent emergency that demands a decisive response.”

“This is our moment as women and allies of women to act. I am beseeching all those who have done so much for women’s rights globally – from the UN, to the human rights community, to please join in the demand that Hamas release every single woman hostage immediately – not after the next round of international mediation, not after another day. These women cannot survive another moment of this horror.”

Erdan’s position on the UN was apparently shared by Anne Bayefsky, director of the Touro Institute on Human Rights at the Holocaust, who said that “[t]here is no possibility whatsoever that the COI will investigate anything about Israel in a fair manner. This isn’t speculation, it’s fact.”

The genesis of the COI comes from a 2021 UN resolution, which stated: “On 27 May 2021, the Human Rights Council held a special session on ‘the Grave Human Rights Situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem’ and adopted the resolution ‘Ensuring respect for international human rights law and international humanitarian law in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and in Israel.'”

Bayefsky has apparently written about the COI, stating the Navi Pillay, chairwoman of the COI, has supported anti-Semitism in the past.

“The three individuals on this so-called ‘inquiry,’ starting with Pillay herself, are utterly biased,” Bayefsky said. “That’s precisely why they were selected in the first place. Their personal records demonstrate rank antisemitism.”

“They are running an antisemitic inquisition, not an investigation. And the only reason they have a sudden interest in the horrifying reality of Palestinian Arab rape of Jewish women and girls is because their faux legal charade is at risk of even greater delegitimization.”

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A new report recently revealed that Yale University is apparently handing about grades in the A-range like they are candy. An estimated 78.97% of all the grades given to undergraduates at the prestigious university fell within the A-range.

The surprising development has left both students and faculty alarmed that high grades appear to have lost their value, according to the New York Times. Shelly Kagan, a philosophy professor, said: “When we act as though virtually everything that gets turned in is some kind of A — where A is supposedly meaning ‘excellent work’ — we are simply being dishonest to our students.”

The grade report was put together by economics professor Ray Fair, who noted that the increase in grades started during the COVID-19 pandemic. And it has continued to rise since then, with students averaging a 3.70 GPA, up from 3.60 in 2013-2014. The details of the study were first shared with the Yale Daily News.

Fair told the Daily News: “Some thought [the COVID effect] would be temporary, but it has more or less persisted. [It’s] probably the faculty going easier on students because COVID was a pain.”

“The report simply documents the history of grading at Yale … It gives the ‘current state of grading’ and I think the numbers are straightforward to interpret.”

Fox News Digital reported that one Yale student, Gustavo Toledo, who is studying political science and intends to pursue law school, suggested the sudden inflation of grades across campus could over-saturate the job market, making it more difficult for high-performing students to stand out among their peers.

“If Yale and other Ivy League institutions start getting these reputations for grade inflation, students who were already feeling pressured to get these high G.P.A.s will then feel that their work is sort of devalued,” Toledo said. “This obviously doesn’t help.”

The report also noted that the A’s given to students depended on the class. A total of 52.39% of students enrolled in economics courses received an A, whereas a staggering 92.37% of students received an A in History of Science and Medicine and Public Health courses.

The Times noted that Yale is not the only school giving easy A’s to its students. A report provided in October from Harvard University’s Undergraduate Office revealed that 79% of grades given during the 2020-2021 school year fell within the A-range. This comes after Claudine Gay, president of Harvard, appeared before Congress to give account for the sudden uptick in anti-Semitism on campus.

As with Yale, there were dramatic differences between A’s given in engineering and science courses versus humanities courses. The Harvard Crimson reported: “The proportion of A-range grades given in the 2020-21 academic year varied significantly by division: 73 percent in the Arts and Humanities, 65 percent in both the Sciences and Social Sciences, and 60 percent in courses at the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.”

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Legendary filmmaker Steven Spielberg finally decided to speak out about Hamas’ terrorist attack against Israel on October 7. The comments surfaced in a feature published by the Shoah Foundation earlier this month.

The Shoah Foundation was founded by Spielberg in 1994, and its mission is to “give opportunity to survivors and witnesses to the Shoah — the genocide of the Jews — to tell their own stories in their own words in audio-visual interviews, preserve their testimonies, and make them accessible for research, education, and outreach for the betterment of humankind in perpetuity.”

Spielberg also announced the launch of the Countering Antisemitism Through Testimony Collection initiative in an effort to gather and collect testimonies from survivors from the attacks launched by Hamas, according to The Wrap.

In the feature, Spielberg said “I never imagined I would see such unspeakable barbarity against Jews in my lifetime,” which is a statement that has not been shared by many in Hollywood.

The foundation has already collected testimony from survivors of the Holocaust, or the Shoah, for a number of decades. Spielberg went on to say, “Holocaust survivors are the most courageous and brave among us, and their accounts are a lasting testament to the resilience of the human spirit.”

“Both initiatives — recording interviews with survivors of the October 7 attacks and the ongoing collection of Holocaust testimony — seek to fulfill our promise to survivors: that their stories would be recorded and shared in the effort to preserve history and to work toward a world without antisemitism or hate of any kind,” Spielberg went on.

It appears that Spielberg was prompted to make a statement after thousands of Holocaust survivors wrote him a letter, demanding that he speak out about the atrocities committed against the Jewish state on October 7.

David Schaecter, of the Holocaust Survivors’ Foundation USA, stated in the letter: “I, along with countless other Survivors, are so heartbroken that, since October 7, 2023, you have not spoken out and publicly taken a stand against terrorism, against Hamas and the millions who celebrate the shedding of Jewish blood.”

“Mr. Spielberg, ‘Schindler’s List’ was about one man having the moral courage to risk his life to save others,” the letter went on. “We are not asking you to risk your life. We are asking you to use your voice.”

“Take it from those of us who were subjected to the most brutal and deadly anti-Semitism of all time: It will never go away, and Jews will never be safe until Israel is safe and secure.”

Schaecter made reference to Spielberg’s own 1993 film about the life and actions of Oskar Schindler, a German business owner who saved the lives of thousands of Polish Jews during Hitler’s rule during World War II.

It is still unclear why Spielberg decided to wait almost two months to make a comment about the slaughter of 1,200 Israelis, and the abduction of 240 others.

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The United Nations has been lecturing everyone not to eat meat for years and is expected to soon release a report calling for reduced meat consumption. Yet in a hypocritical development, meat is prominently featured on the menu at the United Nations’ COP28 climate summit.

Fox News reported, “Among the food options offered for attendees are The Hungry Hub, which offers beef and meat; Philly Jawn by Ghostburger, which offers burgers and Philly cheesesteaks; Swaggers, which offers smoked ribs and smoked wagyu burgers; and Mattar Farm Live Cooking, which serves ‘unbelievable smoked meats’ and ‘melt-in-your-mouth BBQ.'”

Despite offering a bevy of meat options at the United Nations climate summit, the U.N.’s Food & Agriculture Organization is set to publish its first-ever global food systems’ road map during an upcoming COP28 session, which will demand countries like the United States to eat less meat.

The Business Standard reported, “The global food systems’ road map to 1.5C is expected to be published by the United Nations’ Food & Agriculture Organization during the COP28 summit next month. Nations that over-consume meat will be advised to limit their intake, while developing countries — where under-consumption of meat adds to a prevalent nutrition challenge — will need to improve their livestock farming, according to the FAO.”

The FAO told Fox News, “FAO emphasizes the critical need for an innovative plan and a concrete package of solutions to overhaul agrifood systems. The Global Roadmap is positioned as a strategic tool to demonstrate that accelerated climate actions can transform agrifood systems, simultaneously addressing food security and nutrition challenges today and in the future without breaching the 1.5 degrees threshold. In this roadmap, FAO is urging for good food for today and tomorrow.”

On the United Nations website, the organization advises people to ditch meat for a “healthy planet.”

“Eating more vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds, and less meat and dairy, can significantly lower your environmental impact,” the U.N. declares. “Producing plant-based foods generally results in fewer greenhouse gas emissions and requires less energy, land, and water. Shifting from a mixed to a vegetarian diet can reduce your carbon footprint by up to 500 kilograms of CO2e per year (or up to 900 kilograms for a vegan diet). “

The United Nations also demands people eat less meat in a post titled: “Food and Climate Change: Healthy diets for a healthier planet.”

“Animal-based foods, especially red meat, dairy, and farmed shrimp, are generally associated with the highest greenhouse gas emissions,” the article reads.

“Meat production often requires extensive grasslands, which is often created by cutting down trees, releasing carbon dioxide stored in forests,” the U.N. warns. “Cows and sheep emit methane as they digest grass and plants. The cattle’s waste on pastures and chemical fertilizers used on crops for cattle feed emit nitrous oxide, another powerful greenhouse gas.”

In yet another post, the U.N. calls on “high-income countries” to eat less meat.

“Meat and dairy can be important sources of protein and micronutrients, particularly in lower-income countries where diets lack diversity,” the article states. “But in most high-income countries, shifting to more plant-based foods promotes better health and significantly lowers your environmental impact compared to the average meat-based diet.”

Rep. Mike Flood (R-Neb.) blasted the “global elites” for their “hypocrisy.”

“The hypocrisy of the global elites never ceases to amaze,” Flood began. “They’re the same ones who want working people to swear off flying at all while they get to travel to glitzy conferences on private jets to push a radical green agenda.”

“COP28 putting meat on the menu just proves that we need beef and all kinds of meat to help feed the world,” said Flood – a member of the Congressional Beef Caucus. “And that’s why I’ll keep fighting the U.N. and the global elites who are trying to kill meat production, which would only shatter the world’s food security and end an age-old way of life for millions of farmers and ranchers around the world.”

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​Climate change, Hypocrisy, Meat, Cop28 climate summit, Climate crisis, News 

A Florida man was playing with fire when he went on a date with a woman he met on Tinder. Police said the Tinder date went up in flames when the Florida woman set a man she met on the dating app on fire.

Destiny Lenai Johnson, 25, was arrested on Nov. 25 and charged with three felonies of attempted murder, first-degree arson, and aggravated battery causing great bodily harm, according to Miami-Dade County records.

The pair attempted to ignite a spark by meeting up when Johnson reportedly invited the man to meet her at a hotel near Miami. A burning desire allegedly motivated the man to visit Johnson around 5 a.m. on Nov. 25 at the Holiday Inn Express & Suites hotel in Kendall, Florida.

Johnson approached the man’s vehicle while carrying what appeared to be a gallon water jug, according to the arrest report.

The man had the hots for the woman until she purportedly asked him for money to fix her car.

The Miami Herald reported, “After the man gave Johnson the $60 he had on him, he said her demeanor changed rapidly, yelling, ‘You guys are out to get me.’ She then poured a yellow liquid that smelled like gasoline from the jug onto the front passenger seat of his vehicle, the man told police.”

During the heated encounter, “ignitable fluid” reportedly spilled on the man. Johnson is accused of igniting the fluid with a lighter – setting fire to the interior of his SUV, his right arm, and herself.

The man told police that he jumped out of the vehicle and rolled on the asphalt to extinguish the flames burning his body.

The man said he took out his firearm because he was in fear that the woman would attempt to set him on fire again. Johnson allegedly fled the fiery crime scene, and the man went to the front desk at the hotel to call the police.

Miami-Dade Fire Rescue rushed the man to HCA Florida Kendall Hospital.

According to USA Today, “A 911 call was made a few hours later from less than a mile away about a naked woman with burns saying that she blew up a vehicle.”

Police located Johnson and she was taken to the same hospital.

Johnson allegedly told police that she was a victim of sex trafficking.

Johnson pleaded not guilty to the charges. Judge Lody Jean ordered her not to have any contact with the alleged victim and she was denied bail.

The suspect is currently being held at the Miami-Dade County’s Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.

Johnson is scheduled to appear in court on Dec. 18.

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​Crime, Florida crime, Florida woman, Tinder, Dating, News 

A California man was found guilty of brutally murdering his sex therapist ex-girlfriend – who once was the fiancée of Drew Carey’s.

Gareth Pursehouse, of Playa del Rey, was convicted of first-degree murder for the killing of Amie Harwick. On Wednesday, Pursehouse was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.

Pursehouse, 45, allegedly broke into Harwick’s home, waited for as many as four hours for her to get home, and attacked her.

Pursehouse reportedly murdered Harwick, 38, by throwing her over a third-floor balcony at her home in the Hollywood Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles around 1:00 a.m. on Feb. 15, 2020, prosecutors said. Harwick fell 20 feet and landed in the backyard patio, according to court documents. Police said they could hear Harwick faintly breathing.

Harwick died at a hospital two hours later.

The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office determined that the woman died from “blunt force injuries of the head and torso” and that there was evidence of “manual strangulation.”

Pursehouse and Harwick had dated years earlier for about 18 months. Harwick obtained a restraining order against him in 2012.

WABC reported, “The prosecutor said Pursehouse was a ‘man who couldn’t move on,’ and noted that Harwick had written an email to herself and sent text messages to friends indicating that she was scared of Pursehouse after randomly seeing him at an event about a month earlier and rebuffing his subsequent attempts to stay in contact with her.”

Harwick was a therapist who advised married couples and was a published author who wrote about sex and relationships.

Harwick was once briefly engaged to comedian and “The Price is Right” host Drew Carey.

In April 2020, Carey said, “After Amie’s murder, I took a week off. Really, I couldn’t function. My first day back we taped the high school show for ‘Kids Week.’ It was all high school kids. It was my very first show back, and everybody knew what happened to me. And so I took time during the break to talk to these kids.”

Carey said of Pursehouse killing Harwick, “I wish he never did it. I wish he never met her. I really try to practice instant forgiveness and unconditional love. The closest you can get to that, the better you are.”

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Ex-boyfriend gets life in prison for murder of therapist Amie Harwick

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​Murder, Celebrities, Drew carey, Crime, Amie harwick, News 

University of Pennsylvania President Elizabeth Magill resigned on Saturday following her disastrous testimony during a congressional hearing on campus anti-Semitism. UPenn Board Chair Scott Bok also resigned on Saturday.

“I write to share that President Liz Magill has voluntarily tendered her resignation as President of the University of Pennsylvania,” Scott L. Bok – the chair of the Penn Board of Trustees – stated on Saturday. “She will remain a tenured faculty member at Penn Carey Law.”

The message included a quote from Magill that read: “It has been my privilege to serve as President of this remarkable institution. It has been an honor to work with our faculty, students, staff, alumni, and community members to advance Penn’s vital missions.”

Bok also tendered his resignation.

“Today, following the resignation of the University of Pennsylvania’s President and related Board of Trustee meetings, I submitted my resignation as Chair of the University’s Board of Trustees, effective immediately,” Bok said in a statement. “While I was asked to remain in that role for the remainder of my term in order to help with the presidential transition, I concluded that, for me, now was the right time to depart.”

Bok noted that Magill, as well as the presidents of Harvard and MIT, made a very “unfortunate misstep” during their congressional testimony.

Bok added, “Following that, it became clear that her position was no longer tenable, and she and I concurrently decided that it was time for her to exit.”

Bok said Magill was “worn down by months of relentless external attacks” and “not herself” during the congressional testimony.

Magill has been ripped to shreds for the remarks she made during a congressional hearing investigating anti-Semitism on college campuses.

Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) bluntly asked Magill if “calling for the genocide of Jews violate[s] Penn’s rules or code of conduct? Yes or no?”

Magill responded, “If the speech turns into conduct, it can be harassment. Yes.”

Magill later added, “It is a context-dependent decision.”

Stefanik chewed out Magill, “This is unacceptable. Ms. Magill. I’m gonna give you one more opportunity for the world to see your answer. Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate Penn’s code of conduct when it comes to bullying and harassment? Yes or no?”

The former UPenn president replied, “It can be harassment.”

Magill’s unassertive responses ignited a firestorm of criticism.

Magill attempted to walk back her comments the day after her testimony.

“There was a moment during yesterday’s congressional hearing on antisemitism when I was asked if a call for the genocide of Jewish people on our campus would violate our policies,” Magill said in a damage-control statement. “In that moment, I was focused on our university’s long-standing policies aligned with the U.S. Constitution, which says that speech alone is not punishable,” Magill said. “I was not focused on, but I should have been, on the irrefutable fact that a call for genocide of Jewish people is a call for some of the most terrible violence human beings can perpetrate. It’s evil — plain and simple.”

Magill conceded that calls for the genocide of Jewish people “would be harassment or intimidation.”

Magill’s counterparts at Harvard President Claudine Gay and Massachusetts Institute of Technology President Sally Kornbluth have also faced a barrage of condemnation for saying that calls for a genocide of Jews would depend on the “context” if it violated the code of conduct at the universities.

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BlazeTV’s Sara Gonzales and her show, “The News & Why It Matters,” has come under the watchful eye of Big Tech for the second time this year. Gonzales’ production team was apparently informed that her YouTube channel was given a strike and barred from posting any new content for a full week.

Following the development, Gonzales posted a video to X, explaining that she had been barred from posting any content for the next seven days. However, BlazeTV is making Gonzales’ videos available for free in the meantime.

Gonzales wrote: “The COMMIES over at @YouTube gave me a strike for asking how someone can be both non-binary and transgender. (???) We’re banned for a week, so @BlazeTV is making the episodes available for FREE in the meantime! SCREW YOU, YOUTUBE.”

— (@)

When Blaze News reached out to Gonzales about the debacle, she took aim at YouTube, saying: “YouTube is happy to allow leftists who demean and insult conservatives daily on their platform, but the moment you question the alphabet mafia, they accuse you of hate speech.”

“YouTube is determined to censor my channel because we’re speaking truth not only about the dangers of gender transition, but about the medical industrial complex, the truth about January 6th, etc.,” Gonzales continued.

She went on: “I’ve been demonetized since April, and recently was finally up for re-monetization. After I re-applied for monetization, I received a strike on content I had done months ago questioning how one could be both non-binary and transgender. The timing is pure coincidence, I’m sure.”

“They will eliminate whatever threatens the radical leftist narrative, target conservatives, threaten their livelihoods, and sleep like a baby at night.”

Back in April, Blaze reported that YouTube appeared to have launched a campaign against prominent conservative voices in order to stamp out criticism of transgenderism. Among those targeted were Gonzales, podcaster Tim Pool, and Daily Wire personality Matt Walsh.

At the time, Gonzales posted to X, writing: “My YouTube channel had 3 videos removed today and received a strike for telling the truth about transgenderism. @Timcast just had 2 videos removed on his channel. They demonetized @MattWalshBlog’s entire channel. They want to censor us out of existence.”

— (@)

Gonzales initially mentioned that she was exploring the possibility of moving over to Rumble, but she noted that it was ultimately not her decision to make.

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The principal at New York City’s Trinity Middle School reportedly told parents that he could not be sure that Hamas was a “terrorist organization,” going on to suggest that the students should make their own determinations about the Palestinian group.

Jason Ford’s comments about the status of Hamas comes after the Palestinian group launched a surprise attack against Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 people and abducting 240 more. The Jewish state retaliated by declaring war, executing ground and air missions in Gaza.

While the two sides agreed to a temporary ceasefire at the end of last month, the fighting has resumed. The conflict in the Middle East has resulted in a cultural battle in the West, with students in colleges and universities across the U.S. siding with Hamas and other pro-Palestinian causes. Some of them have even called for violence against Jewish people.

The New York Post reported that Ford, who has worked at the $64,000 per year private school since 2017, made his remarks to parents during a Q&A session last month.

One parent asked: “Are you clear with the kids that Hamas is a terrorist organization? You mentioned they’re a group.” The recording of the session was apparently obtained by the Post.

Ford responded to the parent by stating that “language is important. I have talked to them and said there are ways in which Hamas is viewed as a terrorist organization, part of it is I want it to be the case that they get to make their own conclusions.”

However, it is uncertain how middle school children are supposed to effectively make determinations about a complex conflict such as the war between Israel and Hamas.

Blaze News reported last month that many young people in the U.S. derive many of their anti-Israel positions from TikTok and Instagram, which raises questions about the influence of these social media platforms on middle school children.

While Ford’s comment passed without incident, one parent noted that “[t]his isn’t a close call,” seeming to suggest that designating Hamas as a terrorist organization is not up for debate. A representative for the school said that Trinity Middle School was “clear in its condemnation of Hamas and the attacks on October 7, 2023.”

It is unclear why Ford was not forthcoming with the school’s policy during the parent meeting. The Post noted that the school did not respond to whether they would allow their students to take the same interpretive approach to other groups, such as Al-Qaeda or ISIS.

The report mentioned that Ford did not immediately respond to request for comment.

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Bill Maher, host of “Real Time,” blasted universities such as Penn and Harvard for siding with Hamas and playing host to students he characterized as “useful idiots.” Maher’s comments come as Harvard University President Claudine Gay recently appeared before Congress to account for the sudden rise in anti-Semitism on campus.

Maher kicked off the segment with FIRE CEO Greg Lukianoff, asking him about the organization’s ranking system of colleges and universities concerning free speech. Harvard and Penn reportedly appear at the bottom of a list of 250 schools throughout the U.S.

“So these are two of the colleges who are now on Team Hamas,” Maher said. “Is that a coincidence? Or what is the connection?”

Fox News Digital reported that Maher listed off a series of slogans heard during pro-Palestinian rallies on school campuses, including “intifada,” which the host described as a vague term analogous to “jihad.” However, he went on to mention the use of the phrase, “From the river to the sea,” which he suggested was “a little more genocide-y.”

“But, you know, let’s give the benefit of the doubt – that could be ‘Well, we just want the Jews to move and not die,'” Maher said. “And then there’s the phrase ‘by any means necessary.’ Okay, now I’m kinda peeing my pants.”

Concerning the term “intifada,” Lukianoff mentioned that the term is “absolutely protected” by free speech, but he qualified his statement by saying that it could also be used as a threat or harassment, which is when it can become a problem.

“It was kind of embarrassing to watch these university presidents of the top institutions in the country not being able to answer that clearly,” Lukianoff said.

“What irks me is that look, I’m always going to be on the side ‘as far as you can push free speech,'” Maher said. “What bothers me is the double standard… Say they don’t want to say ‘Kill the Jews,’ but I certainly have heard chanted ‘F**k the Jews, f**k the Jews.’”

“I cannot think of any other group that you can say ‘f**k the blank’ and have it be acceptable,” Maher added.

Later on in the segment, Maher referred to the college students at these prestigious universities as “useful idiots,” going on to say that the “bigger scandal here is that these are the biggest, most esteemed colleges in the country and they’ve raised a bunch of f**king idiots.”

“Do I really think they want to wipe out the Jews? I don’t, but, you know, they live by these buzzwords and what they read on TikTok,” Maher continued. “They want to be an ‘ally,’ an ‘ally’ of people who have more melanin and less money. That’s what you have to be, an ally. Don’t think of it more than that.”

Maher did not stop there. He continued by jabbing at his “dear liberal friends” who are glued to “MSNBC” and read “The New York Times,” who have consistently dismissed what has been playing out on college campuses in recent years.

“If anything good that has come out of this, it’s that now you see what we’ve been talking about. We were not making it up!” Maher said.

Fox News Digital reported that they reached out to Harvard and Penn for comment on Maher’s claims, but they have not yet responded.

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​News 

An Oakland-based coffee shop recently issued an apology after a video cropped up on social media of staffers apparently blocking a Jewish woman from using the restroom and spewing anti-Israel comments.

The video showing the incident was apparently removed by X account @StopAntisemites, at the request of the victim in the situation. However, the account stated that Farley’s Coffee — the business in question — issued an apology following the incident, claiming that they are currently in the process of “taking corrective action.” But it is still not clear if any of the employees involved in the debacle have been fired.

— (@)

Fox News Digital reported that the Jewish woman recorded the coffee shop’s employees standing in front of the restroom door, asking her to leave the establishment. The employees apparently did not want the woman to record the graffiti scrawled inside the restroom, which equated fascism and Zionism. The staffers also accused the woman of “misgendering” an employee.

In the video, one employee told the woman, “We’ve given you all your food. You’ve eaten, you’re holding up s**t.”

However, the woman insisted that she wanted to go into the restroom. However, one employee claimed that the restaurant was private property, saying “I need you to leave.”

A second employee told the woman, “I know Israel loves taking private property and saying it’s their own, but you gotta head…”

The woman responded, “You’re not going to let me go into the restroom?”

One of the employees then claimed that the woman had misgendered one of them. The woman said that she “patroned” the location, insisting that she had a right to use the restroom.

The debacle continued until the woman was, eventually, allowed to enter the restroom.

Farley’s Coffee issued an apology on their Instagram page following the incident, writing: “Dear Valued Community, In response to the recent incident at our family-owned cafe, we want to offer an acknowledgement and a sincere apology. As context, hate speech graffiti was written in our bathroom. We do not support hate speech; this does not reflect our values. After a customer used the bathroom and wished to return to document the graffiti, they were initially denied access and then allowed to re-enter to document the graffiti.”

“The staff handled the situation poorly and we apologize for this error and the distress caused to the customer. We’ve taken corrective measures with our staff and removed the offensive graffiti. We’re not anti-Semitic; we value diversity and inclusivity. We’re committed to ongoing staff training for a safe and welcoming environment. Thank you for understanding that we are a small business doing our best to operate a community business in a difficult environment.”

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​News 

The Hollywood home of Keanu Reeves was raided by burglars earlier this week, multiple reports say.

A spokesperson for the Los Angeles Police Department said officers responded to an anonymous call about trespassers at the home of the “John Wick” star around 7 p.m. on Wednesday. However, LAPD officers did not find anyone at the “Matrix” star’s home in Hollywood Hills.

Then around 1 a.m. on Thursday, police responded to an alarm that was tripped at the celebrity’s home.

Investigators reviewed security camera footage that reportedly showed multiple men in ski masks smashing a window and entering the property. The perpetrators allegedly fled the crime scene before police arrived.

“According to our sources, the culprits took one firearm from the home before making a run for it. It’s unclear if anything else was taken, but Keanu was not home at the time,” TMZ reported.

Los Angeles Magazine noted, “LAPD is currently investigating if the initial call was someone scouting the property to see the police’s response time out to the house.”

Authorities are still investigating the incident.

This isn’t the first time that the celerity home of Reeves was the target of intruders.

In September 2014, his home was infiltrated by two intruders in two days.

Reeves was awoken around 4 a.m. to find a woman sleeping in his library chair.

TMZ previously reported, “Keanu calmly approached her and began speaking to her. She explained she was there to meet him. He very calmly called 911 and obtusely told the dispatcher cops needed to roll quick.”

Police arrived at the 59-year-old actor’s home and allegedly took the woman into custody and she was taken for a psych evaluation.

The day after the bizarre fan encounter, a second woman illegally entered his house when Reeves was not home.

The 50-year-old woman purportedly slipped into the house through a door left unlocked by the cleaning crew inside.

Law enforcement officials told TMZ the woman took a shower in his house and went skinny dipping in the pool. The cleaning staff alerted Reeves, who then contacted police.

In February, Reeves and his partner, Alexandra Grant, were granted a restraining order against a 38-year-old man who is accused of stalking, harassing, and trespassing on the actor’s property.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, “The order describes the individual as a transient stranger with no permanent residence, but who has ‘engaged in an ongoing course of alarming and harassing/threatening conduct’ since November 2022.”

The man, Bryan Dixon, allegedly went to Reeves’ home and wore a “suspicious and alarming” backpack, which included a DNA testing kit that was “apparently intended to use on Mr. Reeves in a delusional attempt to prove they are blood-related.”

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A student at New York University was apparently suspended and lost her scholarship after it was discovered she had taken down posters featuring Israeli hostages who had been abducted by Hamas terrorists on October 7. She was also denied campus housing until fall 2024.

Hafiza Khalique spoke with BreakThrough News, saying that “[b]ecause I was suspended, I would have to move off campus after the semester, essentially kicking me out of the dorms, leaving me unhoused, and also denying me access to any higher education until fall 2024.”

BreakThrough News kicked off the segment by suggesting that colleges and universities across the country have been “unleash[ing] a wave of repression against pro-Palestinian student groups.”

Business Insider reported that Khalique was suspended on November 13 after a video went viral on social media of her tearing down posters of missing Israelis. She blamed “right-wing” news outlets for apparently showing the footage, which ultimately led to her suspension.

— (@)

“I faced relentless backlash from right-wing media news outlets for weeks, most calling for me to be jailed, expelled, deported, assaulted, and to be sent to Gaza,” she said. However, she apparently failed to mention how pro-Palestinian student groups and faculty have validated Hamas’ slaughter of 1,200 Jews during the October 7 attacks.

Washington Square News obtained an email from the Office of Student Conduct, which stated Khalique had violated the Student Conduct Policy and its Non-Discrimination and Anti-Harassment protocols.

“The posters related to the recent attacks by Hamas, which targeted Jewish and Israeli people, and the posters displayed victims of those attacks,” the email said.

Khalique attempted to justify her actions by saying that she tore down the posters because she believed they were “propaganda,” and that the mainstream media had deliberately tried to “whitewash” the conflict in the Middle East.

As a result, she kicked off a GoFundMe to gather financial support to continue her higher education “due to financial barriers.”

“At that time after October 7, over 1,000 Palestinians had been killed – these posters were used as a tool to justify the U.S. orchestrated and U.S. backed genocide of Palestinians,” her GoFundMe page says.

“Its primary intention was to provoke students, and it worked. That very night, photos and videos circulated social media, and by the next morning, right-wing media, news outlets, influencers, celebrities, and zionist platforms were calling for my firing, expulsion, deportation, and death.”

At the time of this report, Khalique has raised $6,980 of her $10,000 goal on GoFundMe.

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​News 

Following pressure from Republican lawmakers, the Universities of Wisconsin announced on Friday that it had frozen diversity positions, dropped an affirmative action program, and aimed to make space for a position focused on conservative thought at its flagship campus in Madison.

Conservatives have long criticized the Universities of Wisconsin institution for leaning too far left, but Democrats have insisted Republicans have made an overt effort to block pay raises for the faculty at the university, according to GMToday. However, the cultural battle over diversity playing out in Wisconsin is representative of the same issues cropping up in colleges and universities across the U.S.

Assembly Republican Speaker Robin Vos, who reportedly brokered the deal with UW, said that “[i]n recent years we’ve seen a growing emphasis on concepts that amplify ideas of division, exclusion and indoctrination on our campuses.”

“Our caucus objective has always been aimed at dismantling the bureaucracy and division related to DEI and reprioritizing our universities towards an emphasis on what matters — student success and achievement,” Vos continued.

Back in June, Republican lawmakers chose not to release funding for a new engineering building at the flagship campus. And Vos, in October, blocked pay raises for employees across the university system until the institution reeled back spending on positions that specifically promoted diversity.

CBS News reported the university agreed to freeze diversity hires until 2026 and move 43 diversity positions to focus on “student success.” The university is also set to eliminate any statement on its application forms that allude to diversity.

The university is also prepared to make way for a position on campus that would focus on conservative thought. The position would replace a position that was specifically meant to recruit diverse faculty.

As far as incoming students are concerned, UW-Madison will reportedly be forced to accept any student who finished in the top 5% of their class at a Wisconsin high school. Additionally, students who finished in the top 10% of their class at a Wisconsin high school would be guaranteed admission to the system’s regional campuses.

The university, in exchange, would receive the necessary funds for pay raises of its faculty. It would also receive around $200 million to build an engineering building and renovate dorms.

However, some within the university system do not appreciate the trade-off, with Vincent Filak, a journalism professor at UW-Oshkosh, saying: “We just sold out a lot of the BIPOC community in the UW system for a couple building projects and some low-end raises.”

“I’d give up my raise if it would have stopped this.”

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After noting that President Joe Biden is not growing younger, will not increase in popularity, and is not picking a different running mate, “Charlamagne tha God” called for Biden to provide the nation the “ultimate Christmas gift and step aside.”

Speaking on “The Daily Show,” Charlamagne said that Biden believes he has the election “in the bag, but the polls say otherwise.”

He then quipped that he wants the president stepping up to defeat Trump “the way I want him stepping in to defend me at a bar fight. I appreciate you caring but I don’t like our chances,” he said.

While there are several other Republicans vying for the opportunity to become the 2024 GOP presidential nominee, Trump is far and away the frontrunner, according to polls.

While Marianne Williamson and Democratic Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota are also vying for the Democratic presidential nod, polls indicate that Biden holds a decisive lead. The incumbent, who is already the oldest president in U.S. history, would be 86 by the end of a second term. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had been seeking the Democratic nomination but then switched to an independent presidential bid.

When Biden was asked recently whether he thinks there are Democrats other than him who could defeat Trump, he replied that there are “probably 50.”

— (@)

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