Housing prices have locked millions of working- and middle-class families out of the market. Congress, prodded by President Trump, has finally started to respond. The opening move is the 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act — and corporate America, along with its think-tank megaphones, is already howling.

In January, on the one-year anniversary of his return to the White House, Trump signed an executive order directing his Cabinet to lay out rules that would ban large financial firms from buying up massive chunks of single-family housing.

Some Republicans are treating the legislation as if it’s ‘Liz Warren’s bill.’ It isn’t. It’s exactly the kind of policy populist conservatives have wanted for years.

It was a smart move. Private equity has targeted entry-level homes in fast-growing markets, paying cash and converting starter neighborhoods into permanent rental pools. The D.C. commentariat loves to point out that institutional ownership is “small” nationally. That argument obscures the real numbers. The harm is local, concentrated, and immediate — exactly where young families are trying to buy.

Wall Street’s favorite targets sit in the Sun Belt: Atlanta, where a 2024 Government Accountability Office study put the share of single-family rental homes owned by investors at 25%; Jacksonville and Tampa, where the shares stood at 21% and 15%; Charlotte at 18%; and Phoenix at 14%. Other major targets include Dallas, Indianapolis, Nashville, Orlando, and Raleigh, North Carolina.

Trump put a human face on the policy during his State of the Union address.

“With us tonight is Rachel Wiggins, a mom of two from Houston,” he said. “She placed bids on 20 homes and lost all of those bids to gigantic investment firms that bypassed inspection, paid all cash, and turned all those houses into rentals, stealing away her American dream.”

Then he made the point that matters: Executive orders don’t last.

“Now I’m asking Congress to make that ban permanent, because homes for people — really, that’s what we want. We want homes for people, not for corporations.”

That line is the essence of the fight. Most executive orders are glorified press releases. Sure, agencies can move the levers of government. But regulations can be reversed as quickly as they’re written. Congress makes law. In a rare moment of bipartisan agreement, Republicans should lock in what works and build from there.

Three weeks after the address, the Senate passed its version of the bill, 89-9-1. It’s a compromise package, as any major bill must be without a filibuster-proof majority. Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee Chairman Tim Scott (R-S.C.) and Ranking Member Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) negotiated it. Now it’s in the House, where senators warn that gutting the compromise could kill the whole effort for the year.

The backlash from the think-tank world came quickly. The American Enterprise Institute’s Ed Pinto complained the bill “would turn what has been a legal and permissible activity … into a suspect activity heavily regulated by the U.S. Treasury.” American Compass founder and chief economist Oren Cass had the correct response: That’s not a rebuttal so much as a basic definition of public policy.

“The observation that Congress has identified an activity that has been permissible and is proposing to give an agency authority to regulate it is not an argument against the proposal,” Cass wrote on X.com.

“Sometimes public policy is good.”

The ever-irrelevant Cato Institute went farther, insisting it makes no sense for “corporations” to buy homes “to the detriment of other people.” The quotation marks do most of the work there. Corporate money doesn’t buy up neighborhoods out of charity.

“The interests of the American family and corporations diverge when it comes to housing prices,” Terry Schilling, president of the American Principles Project, told the Brief. “Their interest is to increase the housing costs so they can make more money, period. And if that’s not it, they’re not a very good corporation.” (Disclosure: I serve on the APP’s board of directors.)

House Republicans have their own skeptics. Some are treating the legislation as if it’s “Liz Warren’s bill.” It isn’t. It’s the first tiny step Congress has taken in years to confront inflated home prices and the corporate churn making starter homes harder to buy. It’s exactly the kind of policy populist conservatives have wanted for years.

Some conservatives also argue that Washington shouldn’t interfere. But Washington already interfered — it built the corporate legal structure that shields institutional players in ways ordinary families and small businesses cannot possibly match. Pretending the market is “pure” now is a choice, not a principle.

Large investors do play a role in housing finance and construction. Nobody denies that. But families form the foundation of stable towns, neighborhoods — and nations. A first home is how families build wealth, put down roots, and get ahead.

“Let me put this in a way Republicans can understand,” Schilling said with a grin. “We need a preemptive strike against the corporations that are jacking up our housing prices.”

Corporate ownership of single-family homes isn’t a passing blip. It’s a growing problem — and one Congress can start clipping now if House Republicans will back the president and pass the Senate’s proposal.

“My administration,” Trump declared in February, “will take decisive action to stop Wall Street from treating America’s neighborhoods like a trading floor and empower American families to own their homes.”

One bill won’t fix the housing market problem. But Congress can take a first step — and prove it still knows the difference between market orthodoxy and the American dream.

Sign up for Bedford’s newsletter
Sign up to get Blaze News editor in chief Christopher Bedford’s newsletter.

​Opinion & analysis 

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) is facing scrutiny online after hosting a Ramadan iftar at City Hall. Critics worry this event is a sign of a shift in American culture.

A video of the gathering quickly went viral after it was shared by a purported attendee, who tagged City Hall in the post and called the event an iftar, the evening meal during Ramadan when Muslims break their fast. The video shows Muslim attendees performing prayers, chanting “Allahu Akbar,” and sharing a meal while seated on prayer rugs beneath the U.S. and city flags.

‘Genuinely speechless. Stun locked. We’ve come a long way from 9/11.’

The timing intensified the criticism. Just last weekend, 18-year-old Emir Balat and 19-year-old Ibrahim Kayumi allegedly attempted to detonate explosives as part of a suspected ISIS-inspired terrorist attack outside the mayor’s residence.

Jeremy Carl, a senior fellow at the Claremont Institute and former U.S. deputy assistant secretary of the interior, said of the Mamdani iftar video, “The Great Replacement is happening in front of your eyes.”

Author and news commentator Oli London posted, “New York has fallen.”

Political commentator Jason Jones added, “I can’t believe this is happening in the same city as 9/11. They didn’t even have to fire a single shot.”

RELATED: Counter-protester lights explosive amid anti-Mamdani protest, utters ‘Allahu Akbar’ — but NYC mayor rips ‘bigotry and racism’

Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images

The citizen-journalism account Autism Capital posted: “Genuinely speechless. Stun locked. We’ve come a long way from 9/11.”

Mamdani, the city’s first Muslim mayor, has not publicly responded to the criticism. Mamdani’s office did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.

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

​Politics, Mamdani, New york city, Mayor, Muslim, Isis, Mamdani is communist 

One does not usually think of the Patagonian desert or the Andean highlands as front lines of a strategic threat.

But geography has a way of asserting itself in surprising places.

In the dry, thin air of Neuquén, Argentina, or the high-altitude silence of Amachuma, Bolivia, the landscape is being remapped by high-gain dish antennas operating in S-, X-, and Ka-bands. They are described as instruments of science, part of a “Global South” solidarity that promises peaceful modernization and multipolar governance.

In the vocabulary of space systems engineering, however, these sites are something else entirely: They are the “ground segment,” the nervous system that makes a satellite controllable and its data harvestable.

In recent decades, the distinction between civilian and military space has effectively collapsed.

Because the Earth rotates and orbits are indifferent to national boundaries, a space program requires a global footprint to maintain a reliable contact window. To command a spacecraft or manage sensitive telemetry, one needs a station on the other side of the globe to fill the coverage gap. In recent decades, China has found this “other side” in Latin America, accumulating a geographically distributed set of access points, some operated through joint ventures, others through 50-year leases.

A ground station translates geography into data flows and turns orbital motion into actionable schedules, providing the ability to track satellites, receive their transmissions, and map space objects as a strategic inventory. These functions are logistical accelerators: They shorten delays and stabilize communications. They are militarily meaningful even when they are not overtly militarized.

Consider the Neuquén deep-space station in Argentina. The 2014 Cooperation Agreement, registered with the United Nations, is a masterpiece of legal clarity and operational opacity. It grants China broad tax exemptions and includes a clause stating that the Argentine government “will not interfere with or interrupt” the station’s normal activities. The term of the agreement is 50 years. While a 2016 Additional Protocol stipulates that the facility is exclusively for nonmilitary use, the enforcement mechanism is nonexistent. Argentina has no physical oversight of the station’s operations; the host state owns the territory but lacks visibility into the software configurations, encryption layers, and the routing of the signals being collected. The station is a “black box” protected by treaty.

RELATED: Russia’s and China’s superweapons are stunning the world. The US is struggling to catch up.

Photo by GREG BAKER/AFP via Getty Images

In recent decades, the distinction between civilian and military space has effectively collapsed. Contemporary militaries depend on satellites for navigation, intelligence, and command-and-control. The ground facilities that return that data occupy a gray zone where science and security share the same hardware and the same personnel. This is what the U.S. Department of War calls “military-civil fusion”: the strategy of building military requirements into civilian infrastructure. The same 35-meter antenna that downlinks images of a distant nebula can eavesdrop on a competitor’s satellite or provide the tracking data necessary for counterspace targeting.

The institutional arrangements reinforce this interpretation. The Neuquén site is managed by the Xi’an Satellite Control Center, which operates under China Satellite Launch and Tracking Control General. Western analysts note that CLTC was previously integrated into the PLA Strategic Support Force’s Space Systems Department. While a 2024 restructuring replaced the Strategic Support Force with a new Information Support Force, the strategic logic remains the same: tight integration of civilian and military capabilities under party-state direction.

In Bolivia, the dynamic takes on a different hue, one of national prestige and financial dependency. The Amachuma ground station, while serving Bolivia’s communications satellite, also enables Beijing to surveil skies far beyond its own borders. The project arrived as a package: infrastructure plus credit, training, and political symbolism. It is a 21st-century iteration of dependency theory, where development arrives as a structural constraint. Whoever controls the “black box” controls not only the capability but also the narrative of what that capability is doing.

The story repeats across the continent with minor variations. In Venezuela, ground stations like El Sombrero are physically embedded in military-adjacent geography, located within the Captain Manuel Ríos Aerospace Base. In Chile and Brazil, the infrastructure is softer: scientific collaborations and radio telescopes that can track near-Earth objects and improve space situational awareness, a foundational requirement for modern warfare.

China’s 2025 policy paper on Latin America frames these projects as aerospace cooperation and an invitation to join the International Lunar Research Station. It uses a rhetoric of solidarity against unilateral bullying. By contrast, the 2026 House Select Committee report sees an integrated network that boosts the PLA’s warfighting capacity. This divergence results from the dual-use nature of the technology and the secrecy surrounding it. When the evidence is encrypted or contractually insulated, knowledge becomes a matter of which authority one trusts.

Whoever can shorten the cycle from sensing to command gains the edge in a crisis. Latin America has become a geographically valuable extension of China’s ground segment, filling gaps in its coverage. These stations may not be actively engaged in military operations at the moment. One may nevertheless question why an infrastructure capable of such functions is being embedded so deeply, and so quietly, into the soil of the Western Hemisphere.

​Tech 

The American dream of owning a home — a yard, a fence, a stake in the neighborhood — is slipping out of reach for many young adults. Policymakers keep treating this as a pure affordability problem. Prices, interest rates, and down payments are all important, but the real culprit lies beneath the numbers: family formation, especially marriage.

First-time buyers made up just 21% of home purchases last year, the lowest share on record. The median first-time buyer is now 40 — up from 33 in 2021 and 29 in 1981. Census data show homeownership for Americans ages 25-34 at about 35%, roughly 19 percentage points lower than in 1980, when mortgage rates were much higher.

We keep treating the symptoms and ignoring the disease.

Affordability helps explain some of that decline. Housing is cyclical, and prices will soften if government stops inflating asset bubbles. But a newer analysis argues the bigger driver is cultural, not fiscal: the drop in marriage.

American Enterprise Institute scholar Scott Winship analyzed census data for the Institute for Family Studies and found that most of the generational decline in young homeownership tracks the collapse in marriage. While overall homeownership among Americans under 35 sits around 35%, the rate for young married couples remains about 63%.

“As recently as 2023, 63% of young married couples were homeowners,” Winship wrote. “That was the same as in 1983 and only 3 percentage points lower than at the height of the 2000s housing bubble. The 2023 rate was also higher than in any year through 1970 and any year from 1985 to 1999.”

That should change the argument. The big generational slide in homeownership hasn’t hit married couples the same way. The bigger collapse is marriage itself. The share of Americans ages 25-34 who are married fell from about 67% in 1980 to about 37% in 2025 — a 30-point drop. That’s the hole in the bucket.

So the answer shouldn’t just be “more programs.” It should address the cultural drivers behind the marriage collapse — because no housing bill can substitute for family formation.

That’s why the usual Washington approach misses the point. After decades of affordability initiatives dating back to the Clinton era, homeownership still hasn’t surged. Yet Republicans in the Senate just passed Elizabeth Warren’s housing bill — another expansion of HUD programs that would rope more people into an inflated market while rewarding the same political class that helped inflate it.

RELATED: Elizabeth Warren’s housing fix could make home buying even tougher

Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

We keep treating the symptoms and ignoring the disease.

In the long run, the country won’t face a shortage of houses. The baby boom generation holds a huge share of the housing stock. Those homes will enter the market as boomers age and pass away, often transferring to heirs. The deeper question is whether the next generation will form families stable enough to buy them — and want them.

So, why is marriage declining?

Contrary to a popular assumption, it’s not mainly the housing crisis depressing family formation. The bigger driver is spiritual and cultural: a rejection of God and biblical values. Rising costs can pressure families at the margins. But a slightly higher child tax credit won’t reverse a collapse that began generations ago with the decline of worship and the rise of a culture that treats marriage as optional.

Europe has run the experiment. Many countries tried generous incentives — paid leave, universal child care, expanded benefits — and still can’t restore stable birth rates. Money can ease sacrifice. It can’t create the desire for marriage and children.

But faith can.

Institute for Family Studies senior fellow Brad Wilcox has noted that the birth rate for religiously oriented people has never fallen below replacement. A large Harvard study found that frequent religious service attendance (more than once a week) correlates with a 50% lower divorce rate compared with those who never attend. Strong marriages create the conditions for stable family life — and stable homeownership.

Anyone raised in an orthodox Christian or Jewish home learns the opening chapters of Genesis early: Marriage and children aren’t lifestyle accessories. They’re duties bound up with meaning, responsibility, and love. Faith-based communities also create thicker social bonds and clearer norms — including a dating pool that doesn’t feel like a battlefield.

A new Pew Research survey shows worship and practice dropping across every region over the last two decades. In the South, only 51% say they pray daily — still the highest region, but down 14 percentage points in a decade. The share of religiously unaffiliated Southerners rose to about a quarter of the population. In the West, 35% report no religious affiliation.

That decline makes the marriage decline easier to understand — and it helps explain why young homeownership is falling with it.

If we want more young Americans to buy homes, we should stop pretending this is only about interest rates and HUD programs. We need cultural repair. We need marriage. And to rebuild marriage, we need to rebuild the house of God.

​Sunday school, American dream, Affordability crisis, Housing crisis, Republicans, Marriage rates, Faith, Tax credits, Opinion & analysis, Elizabeth warren, Senate, Corporations, Blackstone, Housing and urban development, Economics 

Just weeks after New York legalized physician-assisted suicide, a tragic case out of Canada should stop Americans cold.

Kiano Vafaeian died under Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying program. He was 26. Reporting suggests his family was not notified beforehand. After a severe car accident at 17 derailed his plans, he struggled with physical and mental health challenges. He also lived with Type 1 diabetes and lost vision in one eye.

Will we measure human worth by convenience, health, and achievement? Or will we defend human dignity from conception to natural death?

His family is devastated. His mother told reporters, “We never thought there would be a chance that any doctor would approve a 22- or 23-year-old at that time for MAID because of diabetes or blindness.” But one did.

And the system isn’t slowing down. Canada is on track to surpass 100,000 assisted-suicide deaths before the program reaches its 10-year anniversary — a staggering number for what was sold as a narrow policy for the terminally ill.

The left calls this “compassion.” But once a society treats life as conditional, moral boundaries blur fast.

Kiano’s mother issued a warning every lawmaker should hear: “We don’t want to see any other family member suffer, or any country introduce a piece of legislation that kills their disabled or vulnerable without appropriate proper treatment plans that could save their lives.”

None of this should surprise us. A culture that treats abortion as the solution to inconvenience will eventually treat death the same way. The pro-life movement has warned for decades that when a society declares life disposable before birth, it becomes easier to declare it disposable after birth too.

Once suffering — even ordinary suffering — becomes the test of whether life is worth living, the list of “acceptable” deaths expands. The disabled. The depressed. The chronically ill. The elderly. Canada is already living that logic, and the United States is starting to flirt with it.

But life and hope don’t come from despair. They come from courage — the kind displayed by mothers like Kiano’s who refuse to let hardship write their children’s endings.

That courage still shows up every day. Last month, on the first day of the Lenten 40 Days for Life campaign, the first baby saved was on Long Island, New York. A mother arrived at an abortion facility intending to take abortion pills. After encountering volunteers peacefully praying outside, she chose life.

That decision points to a truth pro-lifers see constantly: Hope outweighs despair.

RELATED: The winning message is the one pro-lifers keep avoiding

Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images

History is full of people born into hardship who built families, communities, and civilizations. Our ancestors endured wars, poverty, disease, and loss — and still understood that life was not the problem to be solved.

Today, our culture sells a darker story. It tells young people suffering makes life meaningless. It tells women children are burdens. It tells the sick and elderly their worth depends on productivity and independence. It teaches people to fear dependence more than they fear death.

If difficulty becomes the standard for deciding who deserves to live — or even be born — eventually no one qualifies.

The West is already sliding into what sociologists call a “demographic winter”: collapsing birth rates, shrinking populations, and cultural exhaustion feeding a doom spiral. A civilization that stops believing life is a gift stops creating it — and starts finding reasons to end it.

That’s why assisted suicide isn’t just an end-of-life policy debate. It’s a civilizational question. Will we measure human worth by convenience, health, and achievement? Or will we defend human dignity from conception to natural death?

We cannot let Canada’s hopeless logic take root here. Nationally — and in every state — we must fight for life at every stage. We should work for fewer families grieving like Kiano’s and more families celebrating.

When life becomes conditional, no life is safe. When life is received as a gift, even in the hardest moments, hope wins.

​Assisted suicide, Maid program, Canada, Demographic winter, Abortion, Culture of death, Pro life, Opinion & analysis, Euthanasia, 40 days for life 

Texas state Rep. James Talarico handily defeated Rep. Jasmine Crockett in the Texas Democratic primary for Senate — and BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales is not thrilled.

“He really seems to love trans kids, like to an unhealthy degree,” Gonzales says on “Sara Gonzales Unfiltered.”

And he made that clear in an appearance on “A Superbloom Podcast,” where the host asked Talarico to tell her something that he loves “that’s not family or friends.”

“I love, I’m just saying this because it’s on my mind, the trans children who showed up yesterday at the state Capitol to advocate for their humanity. They shouldn’t have to, but it was an inspiration to watch,” Talarico responded.

In another clip of Talarico, he explains that “trans children are God’s children made in God’s own image.”

“There’s nothing wrong with them. Nothing at all. They are perfect. They are beautiful. And they are sacred. Bullying children is immoral. It’s a sin. A special kind of sin,” he continued.

“Yes, I agree. God designed them how they were born, and that’s how they should stay,” Gonzales comments.

But that’s not the end of Talarico’s pro-trans commentary.

“I want to acknowledge that our trans community needs abortion care too. Defending trans Texans is something that we have to do every day at the state Capitol. And you better believe I’ll be giving sermons on that too,” Talarico said.

“Oh we know you will,” Gonzales says. “We know you’re going to give the sermons on the trans kids because he has himself an obsession.”

Want more from Sara Gonzales?

To enjoy more of Sara’s no-holds-barred takes on news and culture, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Sara gonzales unfiltered, Sara gonzales, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, James talarico, Trans agenda, Transgender children, Jasmine crockett, Gender dysphoria 

A high school student is accused of stealing a car and then raping a panhandler who refused to have sex with him, according to Florida police.

Jamarcus Giscombe, 18, picked up the panhandler at a street median in front of a Circle K on North Goldenrod Road in Orlando on Wednesday, according to the Orange County Sheriff’s Office.

The woman was able to escape and run to a Wawa convenience store while completely nude.

Giscombe allegedly told her to perform a sexual act on him, and when she refused, he repeatedly beat her.

The woman was able to escape and run to a Wawa convenience store while completely nude. She asked a bystander to call 911.

She described the car as having a fuzzy pink cover on the steering wheel.

Prior to that call, police had been called on a stolen car report at the Colonies Condos on North Goldenrod Road in Winter Park.

A witness described to WESH-TV what he heard when the car was stolen.

“All I heard was a big boom, so I peeked out my window, and I seen somebody pulling off,” the witness said. They hit the white car, and then they made a left. … I said, ‘What’s going on?’ I didn’t know. And then he swerved off, and then I looked, and then I seen all these women and all these kids come out screaming, ‘He stole my car.'”

Deputies were able to recover the vehicle about a mile from where the reported sexual assault took place.

They tied Giscombe to the 2011 blue Chevrolet Cruze through the distinctive steering wheel cover as well as blood found inside the car.

The suspect is a student at Brevard County High School.

RELATED: Homeless man allegedly choked 13-year-old at school bus stop until Good Samaritan beat his face with a toolbox

He told investigators that the panhandler had asked him to engage in a sex act when he stopped at the red light, according to police.

Giscombe was charged with sexual battery with deadly weapon or deadly force, false imprisonment, aggravated battery with great bodily harm, and third-degree grand theft of a motor vehicle.

He is being held without bail at the Orange County Jail.

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

​Jamarcus giscombe arrest, Rape of a panhandler, Rape homeless woman, Florida high school rape, Crime 

A possible terrorist attack at Old Dominion University was ended by heroic students who “subdued” and killed the suspect, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

One person was killed and two others were wounded when the suspect identified as Mohamed Bailor Jalloh allegedly opened fire at the campus in Norfolk, Virginia.

‘The students who subdued him and rendered him no longer alive. I don’t know how else to say it.’

FBI Director Kash Patel praised the students that took down the alleged terrorist.

“The shooter is now deceased thanks to a group of brave students who stepped in and subdued him – actions that undoubtedly saved lives along with the quick response of law enforcement,” he wrote on social media.

He went on to say the attack is being investigated as an act of terrorism.

“Our Joint Terrorism Task Force is fully engaged, embedded with local authorities, and providing all resources necessary in the investigation,” he added.

FBI Special Agent in Charge Dominique Evans confirmed the account at a media briefing.

“There were students that were in that room that subdued him, and rendered him no longer alive,” she said. “I don’t know how else to say it. But they basically were able to terminate the threat.”

RELATED: ISIS-inspired? Here’s what we know about the weekend NYC terror attack suspects.

Jalloh was arrested and plead guilty to attempting to provide material support for ISIS, according to Evans. He was sentenced to prison in Oct. 2017 and released in 2024.

The suspected shooter was also a former member of the Army National Guard.

“By putting the idea of this murder plot into religious terms, and by suggesting that murdering members of the US military would be a path to heaven, the defendant showed how strongly committed he was to the deadly ideology” of the Islamic State, said prosecutors at the time.

This is a developing story.

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

​Terror attack, Old dominion university attack, Students subdue terrorist, Mohamed bailor jalloh, Politics 

Five food stamp recipients have filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture over new restrictions on purchasing junk food, soda, and energy drinks with taxpayer money.

The Trump administration ordered the restrictions on “non-nutritious” items in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

‘When I shop for food, I have to read the ingredient list on everything I buy to try to figure out if I can use SNAP to buy it.’

The National Center for Law and Economic Justice as well as Shinder Cantor Lerner filed the lawsuit at the behest of the recipients from Colorado, Iowa, Nebraska, Tennessee, and West Virginia.

“The food restriction waivers contain no exceptions for individual medical, nutritional, or household circumstances,” the lawsuit reads. “Instead, the food restriction waivers place on recipients and retailers the responsibility for determining whether a particular product is a permissible SNAP purchase under each state’s altered definition of ‘food.'”

Supporters of the new restrictions say that taxpayer funds should not be spent on snacks and other unhealthy foods, while critics say the restrictions are unfair to recipients and confusing.

One plaintiff said her daughter suffers from “avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder,” and the restrictions don’t allow her to buy the food that she can ingest.

“Her physicians have advised Plaintiff Johnson to provide her daughter with whatever foods she is able to eat in order to avoid nutritional deterioration and invasive medical intervention,” the lawsuit reads.

Another plaintiff named Marc Craig from Iowa said the new restrictions confuse him.

“I am finding Iowa’s food restriction waiver extremely complicated to navigate,” he said. “When I shop for food, I have to read the ingredient list on everything I buy to try to figure out if I can use SNAP to buy it. I still get to the register only to be told I cannot use SNAP to buy everything I have selected.”

Another plaintiff said sugary drinks were important to him as a sufferer of diabetes.

“I would have told USDA that many people have medical or personal reasons for the foods and drinks they choose, Nieves Aragon said.

“For me, certain drinks can be lifesaving. When my blood sugar drops, I need something like juice or a sugary drink immediately to raise it and prevent a dangerous situation,” he added.

RELATED: Able-bodied 38-year-old man goes viral for response to Trump food stamp restrictions: ‘That’s some bulls**t!’

“The practical effect,” the plaintiffs said, “is to destabilize food access for every SNAP participant in the affected states.”

“Once again, the Trump administration is making it up as they go along and disregarding the damage. We are asking the Court to immediately block implementation of these unlawful food restriction waivers,” said Katharine Deabler-Meadows, a senior lawyer for the National Center for Law and Economic Justice.

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

​Snap recipient lawsuit, Snap restrictions on snacks, Trump bans snap candy, Lawsuit on snap restrictions, Politics 

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton claimed the Republican-backed SAVE America Act could prevent millions of married women from voting.

“Are you one of nearly 70 million American women who changed their names when they got married? Republicans in Congress want to make it harder for you to vote. Tell your senator to oppose the SAVE Act,” Clinton wrote in a post on X.

“This is so crazy,” BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey’s father, Ron Simmons, comments on “Relatable.”

“First of all, there are provisions,” he says, explaining that they have “other ways to reconcile” a mismatched ID and birth certificate when you vote.

“You can sign an affidavit. You can bring other proof of information, your marriage license, that type of thing. No issue with that,” he explains, pointing out that women who want to travel via airplane after getting married face similar issues.

“If you go to the airport and your ID doesn’t match the name on your ticket because you’ve gotten married, then what are they going to do? You can’t fly. So, what do people do? They get that taken care of,” he adds.

And according to stats released by the White House, a majority of the American people support voter IDs — regardless of political party.

“Eighty-five percent agree only U.S. citizens should vote in our election. But if you listen to some of the far-left woke, they don’t believe that. The mayor of New York doesn’t believe that. A lot of people don’t believe that,” Simmons says.

“Remember that most things that seem crazy, it’s a loud minority that’s doing it. Sometimes that’s on the far left, sometimes that’s on the far right,” he 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.

​Relatable with allie beth stuckey, Relatable, Allie beth stuckey, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Ron simmons, Save america act, Save act, Hillary clinton, The far left, Democrats 

A top judge in New York was met with outrage after he said voters needed to support judges who would give more lenient sentences to criminals.

New York state Republicans have filed a complaint against Chief Judge Rowan Wilson over comments he made at a panel discussion at the CUNY School of Law in Queens in February.

‘Your political opinion means nothing when you’re in that robe on the bench. Your politics should have nothing to do with the way you render a decision.’

The panelists were discussing a Democratic proposal to allow convicted criminals to request another sentencing hearing after serving 10 years. It’s called the Second Look Act.

Wilson mocked voters against the proposal as “stupid” and said judges should be more lenient on criminals.

“They hurt somebody maybe very seriously in the past, but they have come to be a very different person. And now we are spending a lot of money to keep them in prison. That’s stupid,” he said.

“It’s a very hard thing, I think, given the current sentencing framework, to get judges at the moment of sentencing, to think, ‘Oh, I should think about this fact that there isn’t a re-sentencing available,'” he added.

Wilson also cited a case where a judge referred to a defendant as an “animal” who should be “locked up” for the rest of his life. He called the comments “very distressing.”

Republicans accuse Wilson of breaking ethics rules.

“Your political opinion means nothing when you’re in that robe on the bench. Your politics should have nothing to do with the way you render a decision,” said New York state Sen. Anthony Palumbo (R), who is also a ranking member of the judiciary panel. “We think it definitely warrants review. This is not us being dramatic or hysterical.”

A spokesperson for the Office of Court Administration disagreed and said Wilson’s comments did not violate ethics rules.

“It is appropriate for the Chief Judge to express his views on pending legislation that affects the court system,” Al Baker said.

RELATED: ‘Activist judge’ rules Trump appointee doesn’t have authority to order mass layoffs at Voice of America

“It is also appropriate for him to speak publicly about proper judicial temperament and values,” he added, “and to encourage New Yorkers to stay informed about the conduct of the judges serving their communities and to participate in the processes by which those judges are elected or appointed.”

Wilson has been the chief judge of the New York Court of Appeals since 2022 and was praised as the first African-American chief judge in New York. He could face removal from the bench by the State Commission on Judicial Conduct, or he could simply get a private admonishment.

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

​Chief judge rowan wilson, Ethics charge against rowan, Second look act in new york, Lenient liberal sentences, Politics 

President Donald Trump has backed a social media gun activist for the election of the 23rd congressional district in Texas after the Republican incumbent backed out of the race.

Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales was forced to drop out after evidence surfaced that he had cheated on his wife with a staffer named Regina Santos-Aviles. Santos-Aviles later committed suicide by lighting herself on fire at her home in Uvalde.

‘I had a lapse in judgment, and there was a lack of faith. And I take full responsibility for those actions.’

Brandon Herrera is a gun manufacturer and YouTuber known as “the AK Guy” who challenged Gonzales in 2024 and lost by fewer than 400 votes.

“Brandon is strongly supported by many Highly Respected MAGA Warriors in Texas, and Republicans in the U.S. House. As your next Congressman, he will work tirelessly to advance our MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN Agenda,” the president wrote on Truth Social Wednesday.

Herrera will face attorney and former elementary school teacher Katy Padilla Stout, the Democratic candidate for the seat. Democrats didn’t previously believe the seat could be flipped, but with the incumbent falling, they see an opportunity to seize the advantage.

“Brandon will fight hard to Grow the Economy,” the president continued, “Cut Taxes and Regulations, Advance MADE IN THE U.S.A., Unleash American Energy DOMINANCE, Safeguard our Elections, Champion School Choice, Keep our Border SECURE, Stop Migrant Crime, Support our Brave Military, Veterans, and Law Enforcement, and Protect our always under siege Second Amendment.”

Trump added, “HE WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN!”

RELATED: ‘The appropriate decision’: Scandal-ridden Tony Gonzales ends re-election bid after admitting to affair

Gonzales, a father of six children, admitted to the affair after sexually explicit texts he allegedly sent to Santos-Aviles were leaked to the media.

“I made a mistake. I had a lapse in judgment, and there was a lack of faith. And I take full responsibility for those actions. … I’ve asked God to forgive me, which he has, and my faith is as strong as ever,” he said in a podcast interview.

The congressman’s conduct is being investigated by the House Ethics Committee.

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

​Trump backs brandon herrera, Rep. tony gonzales scandal, Regina santos-aviles self immolation, Staffer lights herself on fire, Politics 

Rising tensions with Iran sent oil markets into panic. What happens if the conflict escalates?

“So we get these times in the markets, in periods of great uncertainty, where you have real information that is uncertain, right? You don’t know, with 20% to 30% of the world’s oil going through the strait of Hormuz, if that is going to be cut off entirely,” financial expert Carol Roth tells Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck.

“Then that is exacerbated by financial markets, and there are two pieces to that. One is just when there are these periods of uncertainty, sometimes you get, from hedge funds that have large positions and sometimes levered positions in the market, something called de-grossing, where they just get rid of everything and they go to cash, and they go, ‘We’re just going to sit and wait out and see what happens,’” she explains.

“And then you get the algorithms, and the algorithms are jumping on headlines, which are rapidly changing and uncertain, and other algorithms are following those first algorithms. So you get this exacerbation of volatility, something where … uncertainty and fear drives an outcome in the market, and then it becomes exacerbated by the dynamics of the financial market,” she adds.

Roth notes that the “good news” is that these tend to be “short-lived.”

“Because once there becomes a price mismatch between what certain people think is reality and the prices that are reflected,” she tells Glenn, “then greed drives in, they buy things up, and the prices kind of stabilize.”

But Glenn wants to unpack the “worst-case scenario.”

“Worst-case scenario: This drags on, this gets ugly. They find a way to mine the strait of Hormuz or whatever, and they shut it down. What will that do to the price of oil?” Glenn asks Roth.

“I mean, that’s a blowout. Minimum $120 to $150 a barrel. And if it really, you know, gets bad, I’ve seen a few analysts call that up to $250,” Roth answers.

“But let me give you some good news. The likelihood of that is sort of priced right now at like a 20% chance. So 80% chance that doesn’t happen,” she adds.

Want more from Glenn Beck?

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

​The glenn beck program, Glenn beck, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Oil prices, Strait of hormuz, Oil, Iran, War with iran, Carol roth, President trump, The trump administration, Donald trump 

Are youth sports quietly replacing church in American life?

Sports analyst Danny Kanell recently shined a light on this question when he suggested that youth games shouldn’t start before 9 a.m. on Sundays — and maybe shouldn’t be occurring on Sundays at all.

“He’s got two young daughters that are potential volleyball stars. And Sunday morning, Danny put out a video over X that complained about, ‘Man, what am I doing at 7:30 in the morning?’” BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock comments, before playing the clip.

“We need to save youth sports. We need to save parents from youth sports, because I’m here at a volleyball tournament and it is 7:40 on a Sunday. We need to enforce some laws that you cannot start youth sports games on the weekends before 9:00 a.m.,” Kanell began.

“And how about no sports on Sundays? How about that one? Let’s put those laws into effect,” he added.

“I’m in full agreement with Danny,” Anthony Walker tells Whitlock. “I have seen, over my lifetime, sports just invade family life. And when I look at the scriptures … the scriptures tell us in Acts chapter 2 that they all who believe were together. They had all things in common. They fellowshipped together. They broke bread from house to house together. They were real community together.”

“And that was what was primary, you know, their families and the church community was primary, and everything else is secondary. We now live in a situation where we’re trying to squeeze in the family time. We’re trying to squeeze in the fellowship and worship time,” he continues.

“I actually think that’s the attitude we should all take,” T.J. Moe agrees.

“In fact, America used to take this as a whole. You know, going back … from the beginning of our founding till about 1960, we had something called blue laws, where you couldn’t go in and go shopping for anything that was nonessential because we believed in the Lord’s day,” Moe explains.

And when it comes to sports, it’s not just parents and their kids whose Sundays are being hijacked.

“Sunday is now NFL day. It is not the Lord’s day in America, and I think that is destructive and awful,” Moe adds.

Want more from Jason Whitlock?

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

​Fearless with jason whitlock, Fearless, Jason whitlock, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Anthony walker, Tj moe, Church, Sports, Danny kanell, Religion, Sunday service, Nfl, Football 

Hollywood actress Katherine Heigl has lashed out at online trolls who lambasted her for merely attending a charity event at the president’s Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida.

Heigl went to her first red carpet event in two years to attend the Wine, Women & Shoes annual fundraiser on Sunday but was immediately criticized by many on the left.

‘F**k her and anyone attending maga-lago for any reason.’

Many accused Heigl of supporting President Donald Trump since his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, was a co-chair of the event.

“I’ll give you this: All of you people who had weirdly intense, knee-jerk hatreds of Katherine Heigl 20 years ago were right,” progressive activist Jonathan Cohn responded.

“OMFG Katherine Heigl is a C**t. Who knew!!!” author Lorraine Evanoff replied.

“If you’re not appalled by pedo Trump, then you’re complicit. Don’t hide behind the dogs,” one user said on the X platform.

“Supporting Nazis. So many orgs that aren’t run by white supremacists. This is a choice,” another detractor said.

“F**k her and anyone attending maga-lago for any reason,” another response reads.

The actress fired back at her critics in a statement to Variety.

“Animals don’t vote,” she wrote. “The only room they don’t like is the euthanasia room at a shelter. They are completely at the mercy of us, and they have no voice of their own.”

She went on to say that animal advocacy is a deeply personal issue for her.

“Anyone who knows me knows that protecting animals is one of my greatest passions,” Heigl continued. “My mother, Nancy, and I have spent years advocating for animals through the Jason Heigl Foundation. As a society, we should all come together to protect the voiceless and the innocent. This should not be a polarizing issue.”

She also personally responded to many comments on social media.

RELATED: Liberals blame homophobia for man on video tossing brick at gay club in NYC. Police arrested a gay man for the crime.

Photo by Christopher Polk/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images

The organizers of the event said they raised $5.5 million for a no-kill animal shelter.

Heigl is best known for her role in the popular “Grey’s Anatomy” television series.

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

​Katherine heigl, Liberals spew hatred, Celebrities at mar-a-lago, Greys anatomy actor, Politics 

Musician Gene Simmons minced no words when asked about Hollywood’s opinions on current political matters.

During a street interview in Beverly Hills on Tuesday, the KISS co-founder was asked about how other celebrities have commented on the recent American bombings in Iran.

‘Nobody’s interested in your opinions.’

Specifically, a reporter from TMZ asked Simmons about Ben Stiller and others criticizing President Trump “over this war thing.”

Tongue lashing

From the jump, Simmons was ready to let everyone know what he thinks.

“Yeah. Because everybody in the world should listen what actors and comedians say because they’re so qualified,” the rock star said sarcastically.

“Basically, shut the f**k up,” he firmly stated. “Do your art, and shut up. Nobody’s interested in your opinions. That includes me, who I vote for, [and] who I like.”

Simmons, now 76, then posed a simple question to celebrities:

“Who the f**k do you think you are?”

RELATED: KISS frontman Gene Simmons takes on Tim Tebow critics who attack player’s faith

Ruffalo rebuffed

The musician may have put some thought into the topic beforehand, showing that even after 50 years as a platinum-selling artist, he still seemingly has his feet on the ground.

“People in America work hard for their living, and they don’t want to be lectured to by people who live in mansions and drive Rolls-Royces. It’s time for everybody in the entertainment industry to shut their piehole and just do your art. Nobody cares what you think. I don’t,” he added.

Simmons, real name Chaim Witz, then targeted actor Mark Ruffalo — who is rather outspoken about his left-wing politics — and gave another sarcastic rebuff.

“What will Mark Ruffalo … what does Mark think about politics? I don’t care,” he confirmed, telling the reporter that celebrities should likely stay out of politics, or instead, one should “go to Kylie Jenner and ask her what she thinks of the war so far.”

RELATED: Fox News permanently bans Kiss frontman Gene Simmons for crude behavior, report says

Photo by Alex Kent/Getty Images

Pot, meet kettle?

Simmons has made public statements that could be considered political, however. For example, he chimed in during the COVID-19 era and said, “If you’re willing to walk among us unvaccinated, you are an enemy,” telling listeners of the Rock N Roll Channel to “stay away from evil people who don’t care about your health.”

KISS released it’s first studio album in 1974, releasing an album near-annually until 1992. The band’s time wound down with albums in 1997, 1998, 2009, and 2012.

According to the RIAA, KISS has sold more than 25 million album copies and has the most gold-certified records (30) of any group ever.

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

​Align, Kiss, Celebrities, Hollywood, Mark ruffalo, Trump, Iran, Protesting, Left wing, Entertainment 

A former University of Kentucky cheerleader is facing a significantly more serious charge after a medical examiner made a gut-wrenching discovery in connection with the death of her newborn.

As Blaze News previously reported, Laken Snelling was arrested in August after her newborn baby was found dead.

‘[Snelling] said that she believed the baby to be dead and wrapped the baby up like a burrito and laid next to it [on] the floor because it gave her a little comfort in the moment.’

At the time of her arrest, Snelling was a senior at the University of Kentucky and a member of the STUNT team, which finished second at last year’s NCAA competition. Snelling has since withdrawn from the school.

Citing the arrest record, WLEX-TV reported that Snelling “admitted to giving birth” to the baby during an interview with police.

Court records USA Today obtained reveal that Snelling told police she gave birth to a baby around 4 a.m. Aug. 27, and the newborn “fell into the floor of her bedroom.”

The affidavit said Snelling informed investigators that she did not believe the newborn baby boy was breathing or alive, and she passed out approximately 30 minutes later.

When Snelling woke up, she “quickly got up” and saw “the baby turning blue and purple,” according to the affidavit.

“[Snelling] said that she believed the baby to be dead and wrapped the baby up like a burrito and laid next to it [on] the floor because it gave her a little comfort in the moment,” court docs said.

Snelling “admitted to concealing the birth by cleaning any evidence, placing all cleaning items used inside of a black trash bag, including the infant, who was wrapped in a towel,” the arrest record stated.

Snelling was initially charged with abuse of a corpse, tampering with physical evidence, and concealing the birth of an infant.

WLEX cited court documents that stated Snelling was on “home incarceration with no ankle monitor” at her parents’ residence in Tennessee since September.

Snelling entered a not guilty plea to the original charges.

However, she’s now facing a new charge in light of the medical examiner’s recent report.

RELATED: Florida woman allegedly tried to sell baby daughter for $500 outside an H&R Block, then abandoned infant

WLKY-TV reported that the Kentucky Medical Examiner’s office determined the baby was born alive and his cause of death was asphyxia by undetermined means.

Fayette Commonwealth’s Attorney Kimberly Baird noted, “Baby Snelling was born alive and then died from asphyxia through unknown means. So that’s what we needed to make sure about.”

On Tuesday, a Fayette County grand jury indicted Snelling on a new charge of first-degree manslaughter as well as the previous charges of abuse of a corpse, tampering with physical evidence, and concealing the birth of an infant.

Baird told WKYT-TV that the grand jury was “given the information about homicide, the four levels of homicide, and then deliberated and decided that manslaughter first degree was the charge that should come out of the grand jury.”

According to the University Herald, Snelling faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted of first-degree manslaughter. If convicted on the other three charges, Snelling faces up to an additional 11 years in prison.

Kentucky law defines first-degree manslaughter as when a person intends to cause serious physical injury to another person and causes death; intends to cause death but does so under extreme emotional disturbance; or intentionally abuses a person under age 12 and causes death.

Her previous charge of abuse of a corpse is a class D felony that carries a prison sentence of between one and five years.

An arrest warrant has been issued for Snelling, and she’s scheduled for arraignment in Fayette County at 8:30 a.m. April 10, according to WKYT.

The Lexington Police Department did not immediately respond to Blaze News‘ request for comment.

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

​Laken snelling, Cheerleader arrested, Kentucky, Kentucky crime, Mom kills daughter, Mom kills baby, Mother kills baby, Crime 

A Florida woman who tried to get a trend going to encourage shooting MAGA supporters was found guilty by a federal jury and now faces up to five years in prison.

Desiree Doreen Segari, 41, of Sarasota posted a video to TikTok calling on people to shoot at supporters of the Make America Great Again movement, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

‘Put them back in their basements, make them scared again to be racist, homophobic, and terrible just awful [expletive].’

“So if we all get our guns and use our Second Amendment right … and you see somebody with a MAGA hat, ‘pew pew,’ that’s what we do. That’s the way; it’s the only way,” Segari said on the video, according to the statement.

While saying “pew pew,” the woman made shooting gun gestures with her hands.

“Put them back in their basements; make them scared again to be racist, homophobic, and terrible just awful f**king pieces of s**t,” she added.

“MAGA people deserve to be terrified and scared to walk in the streets because they should know that real Americans are gonna f**king kill them,” Segari said.

She added the hashtag “see MAGA pew pew MAGA” on the post and wrote, “Starting a new trend, hope it catches on. Please spread the word. Share this video. Repost it. Use the hashtag all over the internet. Let’s go guys. It’s time to fight back in a potentially effective manner.”

In case there wasn’t enough evidence against her, Segari posted a second photo reiterating her intention.

“See MAGA pew pew MAGA, see MAGA pew pew MAGA, see MAGA pew pew MAGA so these [expletive] know we ain’t here to play,” she added.

Segari’s video was posted to social media, where it was widely condemned.

RELATED: ‘He is no victim’: Sister of man shot by Border Patrol in Arizona tells anti-ICE protesters to stop defending him

She was indicted in Sept. 2025 and later found guilty by a federal jury of interstate communication of a threat to injure.

Segari is scheduled to be sentenced on May 5.

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

​Desiree segari convicted, Tiktok threats against maga, Liberal threat against maga, Social media political threats, Florida woman threat maga tiktok, Politics 

James Talarico, the Democratic nominee hoping to succeed Republican John Cornyn in the U.S. Senate, routinely concern-mongers about traditional Christian views and their influence on American society.

For instance, Talarico stressed during his recent interview with CBS late-night host Stephen Colbert the supposed need to confront “Christian nationalism” — a catchall term he and other radicals use to describe their ideological foes who also happen to be Christian in a nation almost entirely founded by Christians and where today over six in 10 adults are Christian.

The hypocrisy of Talarico’s criticism was highlighted in an excerpt of one of his sermons that resurfaced this week.

‘Christian nationalism is a threat to democracy.’

Talarico — a part-time Presbyterian seminarian who has attempted to use scripture to justify abortion, protested the public display of the Ten Commandments, voted against sparing kids from sex-rejection mutilations, and claimed there are six sexes — discussed the separation of church and state during a sermon at his home church on June 30, 2024.

After criticizing those on the Christian right for supposedly politicizing their faith, Talarico effectively admitted he does the same thing.

“My faith in Jesus leads me to reject Christian nationalism and commit myself to the project of a multiracial, multicultural democracy where we can all freely love God and fully love our neighbors,” said the Democrat.

“My politics grows out of my faith.”

RELATED: David French catches flak for claiming Talarico, a pro-abortion Democrat, ‘acts like a Christian’

Non-straight activist flag hanging prominently from Biden White House. BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images.

“Democracy is a Christian value, and Christian nationalism is a threat to democracy,” added Talarico, fretting that some of the Christian Americans with whom he disagrees seek, in Jesus’ name, to ban homosexual “marriage” and the slaying of unborn babies.

Talarico stated in the portion of the sermon that has gone viral, “It’s been said before that when fascism comes to America, it’ll be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross. Christian nationalists use Christianity to protect their own social, political, and economic power.”

The X account for the National Republican Senatorial Committee noted that Talarico made these remarks while standing in front of a cross wrapped in a so-called “Intersex-Inclusive Progress Pride Flag,” complete with the purple “intersex” symbol. While waging lawfare against traditional Christians, the previous administration hoisted the same colors at home and abroad.

Second Amendment activist and leftist-protest survivor Kyle Rittenhouse commented, “Bro just outted himself.”

The same excerpt from Talarico’s sermon was shared unironically in 2024 by the Austin chapter of the LGBT activist group Human Rights Campaign, a group that has advocated for policies that infringe upon the religious liberties of Christians and Christian groups.

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

​Religion, Faith, Christian, Christianity, Texas, Senate, James talarico, Flag, Christian nationalism, Election, Midterms, Talarico, Heretic, Abortion, Lgbt, Pride, Trans, Transgender, Politics 

Space enthusiasts will have to wait even longer to see man set foot on the moon for the first time since 1972.

The delays are an interesting chapter in a book of American space exploration that has featured stranded astronauts, Elon Musk, and celebrity forays in recent years.

The lunar landing task would fall under Artemis IV, which has a launch date of early 2028.

In 2024, Boeing astronauts were stranded in space and had to be rescued by Musk’s SpaceX program.

2025 saw headlines from the widely mocked New Shepard program, backed by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos. The all-female celebrity jaunt traveled to the Karman line, known internationally as the official boundary of space, grabbing attention while actual female astronauts were simultaneously in orbit conducting space operations.

At the same time, 2025 was meant to be the year NASA’s Artemis III would land astronauts near the South Pole of the moon for the first time. Now, that target has been pushed back and the mission seems increasingly distant.

RELATED: Is real-life ‘Star Wars’ America’s manifest destiny?

Photo bty CBS Photo Archive/Getty Images

Not only is Artemis III still not ready, but Artemis II hasn’t even launched yet. Artemis II was planned as a crewed lunar orbit aimed at testing systems before the lunar landing. NASA gave it a mission window of late 2024.

However, in 2024, NASA pushed Artemis II back for the first time to September 2025, while Artemis III (the human landing) received a new window of September 2026. After more delays, the 10-day Artemis II mission has since been scheduled for no earlier than April 2026, but the lunar landing mission will be delayed even longer than expected.

Now, Artemis III is scheduled for mid-2027. Its official mission page states that it will launch by 2028. However, the parameters have now shifted and this mission will no longer complete a lunar surface landing at all.

That feat has since been bumped to another mission, according to NASA.

RELATED: Actresses Olivia Munn and Olivia Wilde mock all-female trip to space: ‘Is it historic that you guys are going on a ride?’

Photo by CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP/Getty Images

The space program will certainly not be making any believers with its latest announcement in early March, which stated that the lunar landing task would fall under Artemis IV, which has a launch date of early 2028.

According to the announcement, NASA plans to launch another lunar surface mission, Artemis V, by the end of 2028, followed by subsequent annual missions thereafter.

“This mission also is when NASA is expected to begin building its moon base,” NASA claimed.

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

​Return, Space travel, Nasa, Spacex, The moon, Lunar landing, 1969, Challenger, Moon landing, Tech