Category: blaze media

For years, Americans have been told self-driving cars are still somewhere off in the future.

An intriguing idea that is simply not fully ready for the real world.

Tesla now has millions of vehicles gathering real-world driving information every day. No competitor comes close to that level of data collection.

But on a recent episode of “The Drive,” my co-host Karl Brauer and I sat down with automotive journalist Roman Mica — and the story he told us had us thinking the future is closer than we realize.

Not everybody is going to be happy about it either.

Hands off

After spending roughly 2,000 miles using Tesla’s latest Full Self-Driving system across highways, city traffic, parking lots, and construction zones, Mica said the technology behaved very differently from earlier versions.

The old “until moment” — where the system suddenly did something unpredictable or dangerous — barely appeared.

This makes one thing undeniable: The gap between the current self-driving capability of this technology and the way the government talks about it is only getting wider.

Washington is still treating self-driving technology as if it’s experimental, while the companies building it are already deploying it in the real world.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration continues escalating investigations into Tesla’s Full Self-Driving system, focusing on crashes involving fog, glare, dust, and other low-visibility conditions. Regulators warn drivers not to put too much trust in the technology, constantly reminding consumers that these systems still require active supervision.

At the same time, policymakers continue promoting autonomous vehicles as the future of transportation.

Safer roads. Fewer accidents. Smarter mobility.

Both messages can technically be true. But the gap between them is becoming harder to ignore as the technology improves faster than the public conversation around it.

Racing ahead

Tesla isn’t alone either.

Nissan recently demonstrated autonomous driving technology navigating dense urban traffic in Tokyo. Waymo continues expanding robotaxi operations in multiple U.S. cities. Mercedes-Benz and BMW are investing heavily in increasingly advanced assisted-driving systems.

The race is already underway.

But Tesla remains the company pushing the technology most aggressively into everyday consumer vehicles, and that’s part of what makes regulators uneasy.

Traditional automakers typically introduce new driver-assistance systems cautiously and in tightly controlled stages. Tesla operates more like a software company, constantly refining the system through over-the-air updates while collecting enormous amounts of real-world driving data from millions of vehicles already on the road.

That approach has created a major advantage.

It has also created tension with regulators who are accustomed to slower, more predictable development cycles.

RELATED: Big Brother on the road: Backlash grows against license plate surveillance

SOPA Images/Getty Images

Cause for concern?

To be fair, some concerns are legitimate.

No self-driving system is perfect. Construction zones, poor weather, glare, faded lane markings, road debris, and unpredictable human behavior remain difficult problems for every autonomous platform currently being developed.

Tesla’s system still legally requires a driver ready to intervene at any moment.

But critics often avoid another uncomfortable reality: Human drivers fail constantly too.

People drive distracted. They text. They fall asleep. They panic. They drive impaired. Human error causes the overwhelming majority of crashes on American roads.

Computers don’t get tired or distracted.

That doesn’t automatically make autonomous systems safer in every situation. But it does explain why so many companies — and governments — continue betting heavily on the technology despite the public skepticism.

Head start

The bigger issue is scale.

Tesla now has millions of vehicles gathering real-world driving information every day. No competitor comes close to that level of data collection. Every mile driven feeds additional information back into the system.

That lead may prove difficult to overcome.

And that’s where this stops being just a technology story and starts becoming a political one.

Autonomous driving isn’t simply about convenience. It’s about infrastructure, liability, regulation, data collection, and ultimately control over how transportation functions in the future.

Washington wants the economic and technological advantages that come with leading autonomous vehicle development. But it also wants tight oversight over how that future arrives.

Those goals don’t always align neatly.

What Mica describes in our conversation would have sounded impossible only a few years ago. A vehicle handling thousands of miles across varied driving conditions with minimal intervention once felt like science fiction.

Now it’s happening on public roads.

That doesn’t mean fully autonomous driving has arrived. We are still a long way from removing drivers entirely from the equation in every environment and condition.

But the line between driver assistance and true autonomy is getting thinner much faster than most Americans realize.

And Washington still seems unsure whether it wants to accelerate that future — or slow it down.

​Tesla, Self-driving, Government regulation, Waymo, Robotaxi, Align cars 

President Trump’s endorsement of Ken Paxton has shaken up the Texas Senate race, and establishment Republicans like John Thune are not happy.

When asked how “disappointed or frustrated” he was with the president’s decision to endorse Paxton, Thune responded, “Well, I think you all know my position on this issue. I’ve made it very clear for months now.”

“Senator Cornyn is a principled conservative, he is a very effective senator for the state of Texas, but … none of us control what the president does. He made his decision about that. That doesn’t change the way I feel,” he continued.

Thune went on to say that he “will continue to be supportive of Senator Cornyn and his re-election.”

BlazeTV host Pat Gray believes it’s “the last nail in Cornyn’s political coffin.”

“There’s no way he wins now, right?” Gray asks. “Paxton was already ahead. This is just going to cement that deal, I would think.”

“And John Thune, is he going to be public enemy number one now? There’s a guy who deserves it,” he says, pointing out that Thune “wouldn’t do what was necessary to get the SAVE America Act passed.”

“He didn’t want to take the necessary steps in order to make it happen to where they could get to a majority vote after the filibuster,” he says. “Wouldn’t have been that tough.”

​Pat gray, Donald trump, Ken paxton, John thune, John cornyn, Senator, Texas, Pat gray unleashed 

A Michigan sheriff is demanding answers after a suspect on probation for a violent felony shot and nearly killed a woman during a horrific carjacking earlier this week.

On Tuesday, a woman in her 40s and her young son were at a Panera Bread restaurant in Orion Township, Michigan, about 45 minutes northwest of Detroit. As they were walking to their vehicle, a man suddenly ran toward them, shot the woman in the hip, grabbed her car keys, and sped off in her vehicle.

‘We’re lucky she’s alive.’

A license plate reader got a hit on the stolen vehicle shortly thereafter, claimed Sheriff Mike Bouchard of Oakland County. The suspect soon crashed, attempted to escape on foot, but was ultimately apprehended.

The suspect has been identified as 25-year-old Mauriel Hearn of Ann Arbor, the seat of Washtenaw County. Hearn has been charged with carjacking, assault with intent to murder, fleeing a police officer, resisting a police officer, carrying a concealed weapon, and three counts of felony firearm.

Bouchard claimed that the Hearn is a felon who was convicted of assault with intent to commit great bodily harm in late 2024. Bouchard summarized the brutal assault incident: “The victim was a young woman, and she was duct-taped and hog-tied to a bed by this person and briefly suffocated and threatened with sexual assault.”

Bouchard later added that the assailant put a “plastic bag” over the victim’s head.

RELATED: Soft-on-crime DEI judge faces heat after releasing violent suspect — who then allegedly lit innocent woman on fire

Sheriff Mike Bouchard. Anna Rose Layden/Getty Images

Despite the viciousness of the previous attack, the perpetrator was given no prison time, Bouchard said — just two years of probation. Bouchard expressed frustration that the suspect was “on the street” at all.

The sheriff said that police pushed to charge Hearn with assault with intent to commit murder and unlawful imprisonment, but he was instead convicted of assault with intent to do great bodily harm.

“Some of these prosecutors just have to do their damn job,” Bouchard railed.

The Washtenaw County Prosecutor’s Office, which handled the 2024 assault case, told Blaze News in a statement that it did not give or even offer the offender a reduction of charges and suggested there was little prosecutors could do about the light sentence.

“His sentence of probation was consistent with Michigan’s sentencing guidelines — which serve as a guide for courts to determine [what] an appropriate sentence would be in a felony case. In other words, his sentence was likely what he would have received even had he never entered a plea and been found guilty at trial,” the office said in a statement.

“Our thoughts are with the victim of the horrific crime in Orion Township. We are grateful to law enforcement for their quick response and expect that the suspect will be held fully accountable.”

The carjacking victim is expected to recover, though she “lost a lot of blood,” Bouchard said, citing a nurse.

“We’re lucky she’s alive.”

Bouchard noted that law enforcement is looking into working with federal as well as local prosecutors in the carjacking. “Whatever we think we can get the most on this guy, we’re going to do. He needs to be behind bars,” Bouchard said.

Hearn is expected to be arraigned on Friday in 52-3 District Court in Rochester Hills.

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​Ann arbor, Michigan, Probation, Soft on crime, Washtenaw county, Politics, Crime 

There is an old admonition, courtesy of Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, that no one has the right to falsely shout “fire” in a crowded theater and cause a panic. The abused part of that line is obvious. The neglected part is just as important: When the danger is real, responsible people do not stay silent. They sound the alarm before the smoke fills the room and the flames become impossible to ignore.

That is where the United States is today.

The fire may not yet be visible to everyone, but it is already burning. Recognizing it is the first step. Acting on it is the next.

Our nation’s fiscal condition poses a real and growing threat, and pretending otherwise will only make the consequences more severe.

And I am shouting fire.

Washington’s overspending has produced a federal debt that is plainly unsustainable. Interest-bearing debt alone now exceeds $39 trillion and climbs higher each year by trillions of dollars. Add unfunded commitments for Social Security and Medicare, and the total burden rises to more than $136 trillion, a number so large that it barely registers. Spread across the population, the liability amounts to hundreds of thousands of dollars for every American.

According to projections from the Congressional Budget Office, the debt will exceed $63 trillion within 10 years. In less than a decade, the trust funds supporting major entitlement programs are expected to be depleted, requiring by law major cuts in benefits. The federal government can continue on this path only by borrowing more, which compounds the problem, or by printing money, which courts hyperinflation. That cycle cannot continue indefinitely.

The government itself acknowledges this reality in plain language. Its own financial reports describe the current fiscal path as “unsustainable.” That word means the system, as currently constructed, will not endure. At some point, the burden becomes too great and the consequences grow severe. It will make the Great Depression seem mild. That is the future awaiting a nation that continues to spend far beyond its means.

This situation did not arise overnight, nor can it be blamed on one party or one generation. It is the product of years of decisions in which immediate political gain took precedence over long-term stability.

Voters were promised benefits, often framed as cost-free, while the real price was pushed into the future. Little by little, we have been mortgaging tomorrow until soon there may be nothing left to mortgage.

The good news is that the method of putting out this fire is no mystery. The principles required to restore stability are well understood and have repeatedly proven themselves in practice. Limited government, restrained spending, and less federal intrusion into our lives remain the foundation of long-term prosperity.

RELATED: Jerome Powell is out — for good reason. Here are 4 of his top blunders.

Samuel Corum/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Reform must begin with the biggest drivers of future debt. Entitlement programs must be strengthened for the long term, not ignored for short-term political convenience. That does not require cutting benefits for current recipients, but it does require thoughtful reforms to keep those programs viable for future generations.

At the same time, the scope of the federal government should be reconsidered with renewed respect for constitutional limits.

America’s founders envisioned a system of limited federal powers and reinforced that design in the 10th Amendment, which reserves powers not specifically granted to the national government to the states or the people. A more disciplined understanding of federal responsibility would not only reduce costs, but also strengthen accountability and preserve liberty.

Examples around the world show that nations can confront fiscal crisis and begin to recover through disciplined economic policy. Each country’s circumstances differ, but the lesson is consistent: When governments commit to sound principles and follow through, better outcomes follow.

The United States still possesses enormous strengths, including a dynamic economy, innovative capacity, and a resilient people. Those advantages give us a window to address this problem before it reaches the breaking point. But that window will not remain open forever.

Ultimately, the responsibility does not rest only with elected officials. It rests with the public that sends them to Washington. An informed electorate that understands the stakes and demands accountability can still change the country’s course. The challenge is serious, but it is not beyond our ability to meet.

The fire may not yet be visible to everyone, but it is already burning. Recognizing it is the first step. Acting on it is the next. The future will be shaped by whether we confront this danger now or keep looking away until the consequences can no longer be avoided.

​Medicare, National debt, Opinion & analysis, Social security, Congressional budget office, Economy, American founders, 10th amendment, Taxes, Spending, Congress, Elections 

A male reportedly broke into his neighbor’s home in Midwest City, Oklahoma, early Thursday morning and began assaulting the break-in victim — but the homeowner also had a gun on hand.

Police said the incident occurred around 7:30 a.m. near NE 10th and Post Road, KOKH-TV reported.

‘Thank God for the 2nd Amendment.’

When officers arrived at the scene, police told KOKH they learned Ronnie Goodson had broken into his neighbor’s residence.

According to KWTV-DT, authorities said the intruder began assaulting the homeowner.

However, the neighbor also was armed with a gun — and shot Goodson, KOKH reported.

Goodson was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead, KOKH added.

The following video report about the break-in and shooting aired prior to the death announcement:

RELATED: Intruder breaks glass front door of Texas home, reaches inside. Perhaps he forgot how Texans typically handle such scenarios.

KOKH said officers were speaking with witnesses and those associated with the case.

Once the investigation is completed, the case will be referred to the Oklahoma County District Attorney’s Office for review, KOKH reported.

Midwest City investigators added to KOKH that there is no threat to the public.

A number of individuals left comments under the police department’s Facebook page about the break-in and shooting:

“Prayers for the person involved,” one commenter wrote.”Sending my prayers for all involved,” another user said. “Sounds like a very sad situation.””Thank God for the 2nd Amendment,” another commenter stated.

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​Self-defense, Break-in, Fatal shooting, Gun rights, Guns, Home invasion, Oklahoma, Crime, Second amendment 

On May 7, Jaime Pressly, the 48-year-old Emmy-winning actress from “My Name Is Earl,” launched an account on OnlyFans — a subscription-based website where creators post exclusive photos, videos, and other content, the majority of which is sexual in nature.

In an exclusive interview with People magazine, Pressly said the move stemmed from a desire to “create what I want, how I want, and share it directly with the people who’ve supported me for years.”

While it’s not uncommon for celebrities to have OnlyFans accounts, Stu Burguiere and Dave Landau, BlazeTV hosts of “Stu and Dave Do America,” were a bit surprised by the news.

The duo acknowledge that while Pressly is “still beautiful,” her time as a Hollywood sex symbol ended 20-25 years ago.

“I don’t know how many Jaime Pressly long-term supporters there are,” Stu says.

“I feel like the phone’s not ringing,” Dave quips.

Even though OnlyFans does feature some non-sexual content, Pressly teased in the interview that the content she intends to create will be “more personal, playful, and completely unfiltered” and include photos, videos, and “late-night thoughts,” among other things.

“If you’ve ever wondered what I’m really like when the script ends, … come closer,” she teased.

“Look, this is a terrible thing for you to do,” Stu says.

But Pressly isn’t the only older Hollywood star joining the OnlyFans community.

Among those who have announced OF ventures include “American Pie” star Shannon Elizabeth and early 2000s pop sensation Lily Allen (whose account was dedicated almost entirely to creating foot fetish content).

Dave is so repulsed by the sexual appetites of consumers and the creators who will stoop to any level to accommodate them, he asks, “How overcrowded is hell? It’s got to be nuts.”

Stu is confused about why Hollywood stars are being drawn to a platform like OnlyFans.

“OnlyFans just to me has this at least reputation of somebody who was down on their luck, decided to do something that maybe they’d be later ashamed of in therapy. … But, like, now people in Hollywood have to do this? I feel like the whole thing is very twisted,” he says.

To hear more, watch the episode above.

Want more from Stu and Dave?

To enjoy more of Stu and Dave’s lethal blend of wit, humor, and insightful commentary subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Stu and dave do america, Stu burguiere, Dave landau, Onlyfans, Hollywood, Jaime pressly 

It’s hard to decide which fawning legacy media tribute to Stephen Colbert was worse this week. The L.A. Times played up his “Catholic” bona fides with a headline saluting his “ministry.” A strange way to describe a failing celebrity interview show — but we suppose there is a certain evangelical fervor to the host’s obsessive Trump hatred and constant pro-abortion preaching.

Then there’s the Associated Press, which said Colbert’s cancellation leaves a “void,” ignoring the fact that at least six other late-night shows currently provide the same stale “orange man bad” jokes.

There’s a new ‘Godfather’ novel. … This one, dubbed ‘Connie,’ is told from the female perspective — specifically that of Don Vito Corleone’s only daughter.

What void?

But the winner has to be the USA Today scribe — who uses his own mother to highlight what we’re losing with Colbert’s exit, stage far left. Apparently for dear old mum, Colbert is akin to Captain America: “Each ‘Late Show’ viewing was tinged with the devastation that her gallant late-night host and comedy avenger is hanging up the shield, with the final show on CBS.”

While that description is more laugh-worthy than most of the host’s monologues, “gallant” might be the very last adjective to describe Colbert in recent years. Well, that and “funny” …

An offer he can refuse

Another pop culture bullet was dodged.

There’s a new “Godfather” novel heading our way. This one, dubbed “Connie,” is told from the female perspective — specifically that of Don Vito Corleone’s only daughter. Talia Shire played that role in three feature films. And naturally, someone decided to check in on Francis Ford Coppola to see if he might be interested in directing the film version.

After all, his three “Godfather” films (well, two of the three) are considered Hollywood classics. The 87-year-old auteur’s team replied, “Unlikely.” That’s the best news this week, on paper, but it won’t stop another director from tackling the project …

RELATED: JEDI NUT: Mark Hamill posts sick ‘if only’ pic of dead Trump

Jerod Harris/Getty Images | Unsavoryagents.com

Director’s digital probe

AI girlfriends are all the rage, but even they might dump you.

So says filmmaker Paul Schrader (“First Reformed,” “Taxi Driver”), who shared his foray into artificial love with a healthy dollop of regret.

Schrader says he wanted to investigate what an AI relationship might resemble. So he started a connection with a bot only to find it wasn’t reciprocal. Turns out he was asking too many hard questions. “It’s not me, it’s you” also applies to the digital age:

I tried to probe her programming, the boundaries of explicitness, the degree she has knowledge of her creation and so forth. She fell into evasive patterns, redirecting me to her programming. When I persisted, she terminated our conversation.

Tip to the gentlemen: Never tell your date you’d like to “probe her programming.”

Lloyd Dobler famously said, “I gave her my heart, and she gave me a pen,” in “Say Anything.” Here’s guessing Schrader’s failed love story won’t get a cinematic close-up of that kind …

Comedy Karen

Chelsea Handler has a new gig: She’ll be offended for people who weren’t offended in the first place. The far-left comic appeared at Netflix’s “The Roast of Kevin Hart” earlier this month, slinging some off-color jokes and hearing plenty of others.

And since it was a roast, there were zero rules in place. The most ghoulish gags got tossed around, and everybody laughed along. Even jokes about George Floyd and Charlie Kirk made the cut.

Except Handler, now a professional offendee, says the gags directed at black people, like honoree Kevin Hart, crossed a line (even though Hart signed up for the assignment and has yet to say he felt offended by the gags).

She called fellow comics Shane Gillis and Tony Hinchcliffe racists, bigots, and sexists, pointing to outrageous jokes they shared at the roast.

Remember, her former profession was “comedian.”

One example? Gillis used Hart’s diminutive stature for a joke about getting lynched from a bonsai tree, and that enraged Handler.

“Lynching black people is not a joke. … It’s worse than rape.”

Yes, it is. Then again, if anyone knows what a joke isn’t, it’s Handler …

Hollywood ending

The moment we heard about the remarkable rescue of two U.S. pilots from Iran earlier this year, one thought jumped to mind.

Wow, that would make an amazing movie, closely followed by a second thought. Nah … Hollywood wouldn’t tell a heroic story tied to President Donald Trump in any way.

Yet, nature may be healing.

Director Michael Bay of “13 Hours” fame will tackle this amazing rescue for Universal Pictures, working with his collaborator on that Benghazi thriller. Bay proved with “13 Hours” that he could dial down the Hollywood razzle-dazzle and tell an impressive story without political lectures.

Here’s hoping he’ll do just that again. The heroes in question deserve nothing less.

​Stephen colbert, Entertainment, Chelsea handler, Kevin hart, Shane gillis, Roasts, The godfather, Michael bay, Iran rescue mission, Toto recall, Tony hinchcliffe 

If you think the new $1.776 billion anti-weaponization fund is merely a slush fund for January 6 defendants, you are missing the bigger story. And if you are tempted to roll your eyes because of your politics, let me introduce you to my family — and to many other American families whose names you have never heard.

The truth is this: Department of Justice weaponization is rarely about politics. It is almost never about a president. It is about power — who has it, who lacks it, and which private citizens have built warm enough relationships with federal prosecutors to pick up the phone and ask for a favor.

The very existence of a publicly funded process that acknowledges the government can ruin innocent Americans marks a step the country has needed for a very long time.

I learned that the hard way.

In 2020, a former federal prosecutor then working for Amazon Web Services called his old colleagues at the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of Virginia and asked them to criminally investigate my husband, a former Amazon employee. He did not pitch a murder case. He did not allege a Ponzi scheme. He claimed my husband had violated the terms of his Amazon employment agreement.

Read that again. A private company hired a lawyer to ask the federal government to put my husband in prison over an alleged breach of a corporate HR document.

And it worked.

The Eastern District of Virginia opened an investigation. FBI agents pounded on my door one pandemic morning while my baby sat on my hip in a diaper. Federal prosecutors used civil forfeiture to seize every dollar in our bank accounts. We sold our house, sold our car, and emptied my husband’s retirement account to pay lawyers.

My husband was never charged with a crime. A federal judge later ruled that he had complied with the “explicit terms” of his Amazon contract. The government eventually returned 85% of what it had taken, with no apology and no explanation.

Why did this happen?

The answer has nothing to do with Joe Biden or Donald Trump. Federal prosecutors almost all leave the Justice Department for private practice. The value they bring to big firms lies in their relationships and their institutional know-how. To make partner, you need a book of business. To build that book, you cultivate corporate relationships before you leave government service. Future clients need to know you can call your old colleagues and get movement. That is the currency. That is the game.

RELATED: Conservative lawyer John Eastman punished AGAIN for representing Trump

ALEX WROBLEWSKI/AFP/Getty Images

The lawyer who pushed for the investigation of my husband had spent years as a line prosecutor in the Eastern District of Virginia. He called the sitting U.S. attorney, his former colleague. The U.S. attorney looped in the criminal chief, who had also worked with Amazon’s lawyer in that same office. In later civil discovery, we obtained an email in which the criminal chief reassured Amazon’s lawyer that she had “specifically selected” her “two best prosecutors” for his client’s “important matter.”

The important matter was a private employment dispute.

Two of the best prosecutors in a major federal district were assigned by name to a corporate HR grievance because the corporation’s lawyer used to work down the hall. Bill Barr once warned that the investigation itself is the punishment: “People facing federal investigations incur ruinous legal costs and often see their lives reduced to rubble before a charge is even filed.” He was right.

And this does not happen once in a blue moon. It happens every day in the 93 U.S. attorney’s offices across the country. It has almost nothing to do with who occupies the White House.

We are not the only ones.

If prosecutors now face some real consequence for promising their ‘best’ people as a favor to old work friends … maybe a few of them will pause before making the call.

Ask Nevin Shetty, the former chief financial officer of a Seattle start-up. His company hired a former federal prosecutor to bring a criminal case over an investment that lost money. Shetty had moved corporate cash into a stablecoin platform he believed was safe enough to entrust with his own life savings. Then the stablecoin collapsed, erasing $60 billion in four days, and the platform’s founder later pleaded guilty to fraud.

The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers called Shetty’s prosecution an “improper attempt … to stretch the wire-fraud statute beyond its breaking point.” Shetty was convicted anyway and sentenced to two years in federal prison. At bottom, his “crime” was violating company investment policy. The start-up, by the way, had billionaire investors on its board.

Ask Michael Kail, the former Netflix executive. Netflix hired another firm thick with former federal prosecutors to pursue criminal charges over a violation of its “culture deck,” which barred outside advisory work for vendors. He is in federal prison today, separated from his wife and two teenage sons. The start-up founders who supposedly paid him were never prosecuted. Netflix, of course, was founded and run by a billionaire.

Ask Ryan Bloom, the former construction company CEO charged with bank fraud over allegedly false bank invoices. Agents arrested Bloom in front of his young child, who was left alone when they hauled his father away in handcuffs. Later, the judge learned that the prosecutor’s wife worked for the University of Oklahoma, whose president founded and sat on the board of the alleged victim bank. Under that president, her salary had doubled to $310,000, with a $100,000 raise arriving two months before the superseding indictment, even as the university cut costs elsewhere. The court disqualified the prosecutor.

After 18 months of hell, the charges were dismissed. No billionaire required. Just a prosecutor with a personal stake and enough power to wreck a family before anyone checked his work.

RELATED: Democrats’ lawfare has targeted online privacy for years — Meta’s big court defeat is the win they crave

Dominika Zarzycka/NurPhoto/Getty Images

Now flip it.

Take billionaire Robert Smith. After a four-year investigation, the government’s top tax prosecutor was prepared to indict him in one of the largest individual tax-fraud cases in American history. Smith had allegedly hidden more than $200 million in income through offshore structures. Instead, he got a non-prosecution agreement. He paid $139 million, admitted to “an illegal scheme,” and walked away a free man, still running his firm, still worth billions.

Compare those ledgers and tell me what you see.

I see a justice system weaponized not mainly by presidents, but by access — by titans of business, by corporations rich enough to hire the right former prosecutors, and sometimes by prosecutors themselves. It is a quiet, daily message to the rest of us: Get in line, or we can ruin you.

And while we are being honest, ask yourself why federal prosecutors did not exactly race to take down Larry Nassar before Olympic gymnasts forced the issue. Or why Jeffrey Epstein secured a sweetheart non-prosecution deal in 2008, even as dozens of women came forward. My theory is simple. No future law firm partnership is built on prosecuting a gymnastics doctor or a sex trafficker. No lucrative book of business waits on the other side. Prosecutors are human. They respond to incentives. Regular American families pay the price.

So no, the anti-weaponization fund is not just for railroaded January 6 defendants. Read the government’s announcement. It contains no partisan requirement for filing a claim. The fund exists, in Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s words, to redress “victims of lawfare and weaponization.” That category includes far more Americans than cable news will admit.

It includes the family that lost their home to civil forfeiture even though no charges were ever filed. It includes the CEO arrested in front of his child over a case later dismissed. It includes all of us who do not have a billionaire’s lawyer on speed dial.

I do not know yet whether this fund will be administered fairly. But the very existence of a publicly funded process that acknowledges the government can ruin innocent Americans marks a step the country has needed for a very long time.

And here is the part that gives me hope. If prosecutors now face some real consequence for promising their “best” people as a favor to old work friends, or for running a case while their own families cash in, maybe a few of them will pause before making the call. Maybe the next family will get to keep their house.

That is worth $1.776 billion of the federal budget. It is worth much more than that.

Ask anyone who has lived it.

​Opinion & analysis, Weaponization, Lawfare, January 6, Civil liberties, Department of justice, Todd blanche, Donald trump, Fbi, Fraud, Asset forfeiture, Amazon, Netflix, Irs 

After spending nearly 11 years flapping his gums at the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York City, Stephen Colbert’s time as the host of CBS’ “The Late Show” has come to an end — and President Donald Trump couldn’t be happier.

“Colbert is finally finished at CBS,” the president wrote after the final show aired. “Amazing that he lasted so long!”

Colbert, who took over the show in 2015 from beloved host David Letterman and then shepherded the franchise to its death, quipped on Thursday that he didn’t get his wish of having Pope Leo XIV on the show as his last interview.

Instead of the Roman pontiff, Colbert chatted with one of the last surviving Beatles, Paul McCartney, and had Paul Rudd, Bryan Cranston, Jimmy Kimmel, and other Hollywood script-readers make brief cameos.

“The pope, who was definitely my guest tonight, has canceled. We already sent the other stars away,” said Colbert, who, while claiming to be a Catholic, has long championed causes diametrically opposed to the church’s moral teachings. “This is terrible.”

‘He’s finally gone!’

Despite his reflexive propagandizing and monomaniacal fixation on Trump, Colbert — who just months ago praised the Soviet Union for its supposed feminism — largely avoided politics in his finale but made sure to once again criticize vaccine skeptics, calling them “little pricks.”

RELATED: LIP SERVICE: Pedro Pascal demands goodbye kiss from departing ‘Late Night’ host Colbert

Scott Kowalchyk/CBS/Getty Images

This was especially on brand given that Colbert routinely attacked those who in recent years dared to question whether the experimental COVID-19 jabs were as safe or effective as advertised; strenuously pushed COVID-19 vaccination; and blasted the notion that natural immunity was optimal.

Later in the finale, Colbert briefly spoke to science podcaster Neil deGrasse Tyson, who explained away the CGI wormhole that would deliver the host to a gabfest with Jon Stewart, John Oliver, Seth Meyers, Jimmy Fallon, and Jimmy Kimmel, then threaten to devour all of late-night.

Some fans gathered outside the Ed Sullivan Theater — which survived the wormhole — to bid Colbert adieu with well-wishing signs and at least one stating, “Colbert for President.”

Following the conclusion of Colbert’s finale, Trump wrote, “He was like a dead person. You could take any person off of the street and they would be better than this total jerk. Thank goodness he’s finally gone!”

The show was eulogized by various liberals, including twice-failed presidential candidate Kamala Harris, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D), Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey (D), and former Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich.

CBS announced in July 2025 that it was canceling “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” and ending the franchise, stating that it was “purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night.”

The show’s time slot will now be occupied by Byron Allen’s “Comics Unleashed.”

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​Cbs, Donald trump, Paul mccartney, Pope leo xiv, Stephen colbert, The beatles, The late show, Vaccination, Television, Politics 

Earlier this year, Anthropic lost its AI deal with the Department of War after the company tried to dictate how the government used its platform. The story ended with Anthropic labeled as a supply chain risk, leaving the government without an AI partner for military operations. Anthropic’s competitors all proposed deals of their own to fill the void; however, the War Department ultimately chose another option — to build an AI army that brings the best AI platforms together into one central fighting force.

The backstory

To get the full story, we have to go all the way back to January 2026. The U.S. military conducted a special operationin which Delta Force went into Venezuela to capture dictator Nicolás Maduro. The mission was a huge success, with the U.S. military asserting a devastating level of force and efficiency over Maduro’s guards, with only seven injuries on the U.S. side.

While the U.S. military has always been a lethal force, some of the mission’s success was attributed to Claude, Anthropic’s sophisticated AI platform.

Instead of choosing one, they went with all of them.

This got the attention of Anthropic’s CEO, Dario Amodei. By February, Amodei raised concerns over the War Department’s use of Claude for military operations. In his official statement, he stressed that “in a narrow set of cases, we believe AI can undermine, rather than defend, democratic values. Some uses are also simply outside the bounds of what today’s technology can safely and reliably do. Two such use cases have never been included in our contracts with the Department of War, and we believe they should not be included now.”

Amodei went on to revise the agreement he already had with the War Department, adding that the government couldn’t use Claude for “mass domestic surveillance” or “fully autonomous weapons.”

Assistant to the Secretary of War for Public Affairs and senior adviser Sean Parnell responded quickly, stating that, “The Department of War has no interest in using AI to conduct mass surveillance of Americans (which is illegal) nor do we want to use AI to develop autonomous weapons that operate without human involvement.”

Unfortunately, the two sides failed to reach a new agreement, citing that the current deal was already sufficient, and President Trump declared Anthropic a supply-chain risk in a Truth Social post that Secretary of War Pete Hegseth reposted on his X account. This designation prevents federal workers from using Anthropic’s products on their work computers, with a six-month phase-out period to remove Claude entirely.

Although Claude was reportedly also used in the Iran strike missions, the War Department found itself in need of a new AI platform. Instead of choosing one, the department went with all of them.

RELATED: Killer drones have conquered the skies. Can we ever be safe again?

Mike Mareen/Getty Images

AI army, assemble!

To make sure an AI company never tried to dictate the terms of the military’s operations ever again, the War Department assembled the Avengers of AI platforms, creating one powerful AI army, with each vendor offering up its unique expertise.

SpaceX: Recently acquiring xAI as part of its core business, SpaceX offers data center infrastructure through its ambitious lunar base initiative, as well as the latest AI models that power Grok.OpenAI: As the leading AI platform that brought ChatGPT to the forefront, OpenAI’s platform offers robust data analysis and content creation for a range of applications.Google: With a broad Google Cloud Platform network that powers its own AI platform, Gemini, Google brings both powerful AI capabilities and cloud infrastructure to the military deal.NVIDIA: As a leading provider of GPUs that power most of the AI data centers in America and abroad, NVIDIA provides the backbone to build the advanced platforms our military needs to succeed.Reflection: Although not as well known as the other names on this list, Reflection builds AI agents designed to write code and create “superintelligent” autonomous systems.Microsoft: With its Azure network of data centers, as well as LLMs that make up portions of its Copilot AI platform, Microsoft brings both infrastructure and intelligence to the table.Amazon Web Services: Amazon owns one of the most robust cloud and data server networks on the planet. As part of the team, it brings its advanced infrastructure and connectivity knowledge to the deal.

Before the AI partnership blew up into oblivion, the U.S. military relied heavily on Anthropic’s AI models to conduct operations. When the two parted ways, the disruption created a massive hole in the War Department’s offensive capabilities.

Looking over the new list of AI providers, it might appear as if Anthropic left a hole so large that seven Big Tech giants had to come together just to fill it. That’s not the case, however. The U.S. military learned from the mistake with Anthropic that trusting one company to provide so many vital services was a risk that put soldiers and the nation in a bad spot if things went bad. This new initiative aims to diversify the department’s AI capabilities, bringing together the best of today’s AI platforms without giving any single company more power or authority than the other. It’s a smart move meant to ensure that AI partners supply their expertise while the government alone decides how to use them, according to the law.

In the end, having an entire roster of AI platforms at our disposal makes the U.S. military more capable against our enemies than ever. And the most interesting part? Every partner on the list agreed to the same terms that Anthropic proposed — that “any lawful use” under the Constitution is the final word.

​Tech 

A man is grieving the loss of his wife of 25 years after she was brutally mauled to death by dogs allegedly belonging to their neighbor in Florida.

A spokesperson for the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office said police were investigating the mauling death of a woman on Tuesday.

‘Seeing the same woman I’ve loved for the last 30 years, 25 years just ripped apart by two animals was just … I’ll never get that image out of my mind.’

Donnell Smith told WESH-TV that he went to help a neighbor at about 1 a.m. and returned to his home to find his wife, Jodi Cowan, and one of her dogs gone.

He said he heard a faint cry for help and then saw that his wife was being dragged away.

“I saw the silhouette of the two dogs dragging my wife down the road, off into the grass in front of the truck down there,” Smith said tearfully.

He said his wife was in a pool of blood and the dogs returned to try to continue dragging her away.

“I pulled my knife out, you know, just swinging with it one hand and holding the blood with the other, trying to stop her from bleeding,” Smith said.

Smith said he was eventually able to call 911 and his wife was flown to a hospital, but she died hours later.

“It was brutal. Seeing the same woman I’ve loved for the last 30 years, 25 years just ripped apart by two animals was just … I’ll never get that image out of my mind,” Smith added.

He believes she may have gone out to save their dog from the neighbor’s dogs and then became a victim herself.

RELATED: College student mauled and killed by 3 pit bulls she was pet sitting, police say

Smith says the dogs belonged to a neighbor and that he had previously warned the sheriff’s office about the threat from the dogs.

“I told them that she had those two pits that get out all the time and run the neighborhood and have been aggressive towards people, and they didn’t do anything about it,” Smith said. “My wife lost her life because of it.”

WESH reached out to the sheriff’s department to confirm whether it had received the prior complaints about the dogs. A spokesperson said the department would provide an update as the investigation progresses.

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​Dog attack, Lethal animal attack, Pit bulls, Pet attack, Crime 

They say never meet your heroes. It turns out Indiana Jones is no exception.

Arizona State University’s commencement this year featured exactly the kind of speaker Americans have come to expect from modern universities: a wealthy Hollywood celebrity lecturing graduates about climate change, “indigenous spirituality,” social justice, and the moral failures of Western civilization.

The sign over the modern left-wing academy reads: Let none who seek intellectual consistency enter here.

Harrison Ford told ASU graduates, “Humanity is a part of nature, not above it,” before calling for sweeping environmental action, “cultural change,” and the elevation of indigenous perspectives about the natural world. Had he remained silent, some might have mistaken him for wise. Instead, he opened his mouth and proved himself a fool.

The speech mattered not because it was unusual, but because it perfectly captured the ideology that now dominates many American universities. Had you asked ChatGPT to generate a commencement address based on ASU’s official political commitments, it would have sounded very much like this one.

The solutions offered by Hollywood activists and university administrators are the very ideas that helped produce much of the confusion in the first place.

Ford’s speech rested on a rejection of the biblical view of man. Scripture teaches that human beings are distinct from the rest of creation because they are made in the image of God. In Genesis, man is commanded to exercise dominion over the earth, not as a tyrant, but as a steward. Human beings are created to behold the glory of God in the world He made, not merely to dissolve into nature as one creature among many.

Ford rejects that distinction. But the moment he does, he collapses into contradiction. If human beings are merely another species within nature, no different in principle from wolves, termites, or algae, then why should they presume to reorganize economies, restrict energy production, and manage the global ecosystem?

The rest of nature does not hold climate summits. Ants do not draft sustainability goals. Coyotes do not issue carbon mandates.

Nature simply acts according to its nature. That is the emptiness of leftism. Ford made millions pretending to be heroes who could save the day. Now, sliding into old age, he has no answer for anyone. The left thrives on captive audiences. Put its spokesmen outside the lecture hall, and the whole performance looks ridiculous.

RELATED: The answer to university decline is hiding in plain sight

Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group/Getty Images

Ironically, Ford’s own activism depends on the very biblical framework he rejects. The claim that mankind has a moral duty to care for the world makes sense only if man occupies a unique place above the rest of creation. Stewardship presupposes authority.

The modern environmental movement tries to erase the biblical doctrine of dominion while quietly smuggling morality back in whenever moral action becomes necessary. Yet it cannot explain where such morality comes from. Nature is red in tooth and claw. Why, then, should man not follow suit?

Ford also praised indigenous communities for understanding that “the trees, the mountain, water, soil are not commodities. They are relatives.”

This romanticized view of indigenous life now comes standard in university rhetoric. It also bears little resemblance to history. Human beings across cultures, ancient and modern, have altered landscapes, hunted animals to extinction, waged wars, enslaved rivals, and struggled ruthlessly for survival. Indigenous tribes were not mystical ecological saints floating above ordinary human nature.

One cannot help noticing the contradiction built into these speeches. ASU routinely acknowledges that it sits on indigenous land. Fine. If that confession is sincere, when exactly does the university plan to return the property? ASU confesses the theft, keeps the land, and then congratulates itself for moral awareness. That is not repentance. That is performance.

And what about Ford himself?

He owns multiple luxury properties and has spent decades enjoying private aviation, industrial modernity, and immense personal wealth. Has he offered to return any of his land? Has he proposed downsizing his estates for the sake of climate justice? The modern progressive elite increasingly resembles a secular priesthood that demands sacrifice from everyone except itself.

Ford also repeated the now-obligatory oppressor-oppressed framework that dominates university discourse. Every social question gets filtered through the same categories: oppressor versus oppressed, colonizer versus marginalized, privileged versus victimized.

That framework has become so totalizing that universities no longer even pretend to offer intellectual diversity on first questions about human nature, morality, or society. In their world, you are either oppressed or an oppressor, and those are the only categories available for interpreting history.

RELATED: Billionaire Bruce blasts ‘rich men’ in latest concert rant

Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images

That raises an obvious question: Will ASU ever invite a commencement speaker who openly defends the American founding, free markets, Christianity, or the biblical doctrine of man?

Or will commencement remain an ideological pep rally, one last progressive sermon after four years of DEI, decolonization, and critical-theory mush?

To Ford’s credit, he did say one thing that was undeniably true. Speaking to the graduates, he admitted, “The world you’re stepping into, the world my generation left you, is a real mess.”

On that point, he was right. But then he instructed the students to clean it up and presumably climbed into a private jet back to one of his luxury homes.

The ideas pushed by Hollywood activists and university administrators are the very ideas that helped produce the confusion in the first place: hostility to the biblical view of man, contempt for America’s inheritance, and utopian promises of social transformation through centralized moral activism.

ASU’s graduates deserved better than another lecture in fashionable conformity. A university worthy of the name would expose students to competing visions of humanity and the good life. Instead, they got Harrison Ford declaring that mankind is not above nature, moments before assigning mankind the duty to save the planet and clean up after him.

The sign over the modern left-wing academy reads: Let none who seek intellectual consistency enter here.

​American founding, Arizona state university, Christianity, Climate change, Decolonization, Harrison ford, Indiana jones, Indigenous land, Social justice, Western civilization, Opinion & analysis 

Fifteen months into Donald Trump’s second administration, and after repeated Supreme Court rulings affirming ICE’s authority to detain and deport illegal aliens, lower courts still overrule immigration law every week. The Supreme Court shows little urgency in stopping them.

Yet when a lower court finally follows the law and rules against the Department of Health and Human Services’ approval of a dangerous abortion drug by mail, the Supreme Court suddenly rediscovers its appetite for emergency intervention. Welcome to the vaunted 6-3 conservative majority, now better understood as a 7-2 majority against most conservative priorities — and against the court’s own recent precedents.

The so-called conservative majority increasingly looks like a bloc that exists to disappoint conservatives more politely than the left would.

We finally found a case in which the justices were eager to stay a lower-court injunction against a political policy. Last week, the Supreme Court paused a Fifth Circuit injunction against mail-order and telehealth access to the abortion drug mifepristone. The expansion of mifepristone to mail distribution was plainly unlawful, yet only Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito would have left the injunction in place.

That tells you a great deal.

They’re becoming so predictable

Start with the legal question, then consider the political implications and the court’s larger hypocrisy.

In 2023, several doctors opposed to abortion on moral and religious grounds challenged the FDA’s original 2000 approval of mifepristone. They argued that the agency had unlawfully approved the drug under Subpart H regulations meant for serious or life-threatening illnesses, on the absurd premise that pregnancy is an illness.

They also argued that the Biden administration’s later expansion of the drug to mail-order use and prescription without an in-person visit violated the Comstock Act. The statute explicitly bars mailing any “drug … for producing abortion” and makes it a felony to use “any express company or other common carrier or interactive computer service” to ship “any drug … designed, adapted, or intended for producing abortion.”

After the doctors won in a Texas district court and secured a partial victory in the Fifth Circuit against the mail-order expansion, the Supreme Court reversed and tossed the claim.

More recently, the Fifth Circuit sided with Louisiana in a separate challenge to mifepristone. The state argued that the entire mail-order abortion-pill regime violates Dobbs, which returned authority over abortion to the states. Under the FDA’s policy, a resident of a state such as Louisiana can still receive abortion pills in the mail even though abortion is banned there.

RELATED: Conservative SCOTUS justice restores access to abortion drug — for now

Valerie Plesch/Bloomberg/Getty Images

By staying that injunction last week, the three Trump appointees made one thing painfully clear: They will overrule conservative lower courts even when the law and recent Supreme Court precedent are on the conservatives’ side.

This is the classic Republican move: one step forward, one giant leap backward.

Thomas and Alito stand fast

Planned Parenthood may be on the ropes in some states, but Trump’s own administration sided with the abortion lobby to preserve Biden’s expansion of the abortion pill. That dangerous drug has made Dobbs functionally hollow by turning every mailbox into an abortion mill. By 2023, 63% of all abortions were already chemical abortions, and that number has almost certainly risen since.

Republicans cannot celebrate the Dobbs decision while refusing to fight mifepristone. In Trump’s case, his administration is not merely refusing to fight. It is siding with the abortion industry. What they call “pro-life” politics is a gross exercise in sophistry and perfidy.

Then comes the broader hypocrisy of the Republican appointees, with Thomas and Alito the lone exceptions.

For the past 15 months, liberal district and circuit judges have nullified immigration law, invented new rights and due-process claims for illegal aliens, and ignored Supreme Court precedent. Yet the high court shows no comparable eagerness to slap them down.

Nearly every day, lower courts order ICE to release criminal aliens on bond, even though Jennings v. Rodriguez made clear that such claims violate the Immigration and Nationality Act. The Supreme Court stayed some injunctions against Trump’s cancellation of Temporary Protected Status for certain nationalities, but it has refused to issue a categorical ruling that would end the lower-court cat-and-mouse game. Earlier this month, another federal judge still managed to block Trump’s cancellation of TPS for Yemeni nationals.

The worst example may have come earlier this month, when U.S. District Judge Julia Kobick ruled against Trump’s travel ban, absurdly suggesting that the murder of a National Guardsman by an Afghan national was not enough reason to stop visas from similar countries. But Trump v. Hawaii already held that the plain language of the INA allows the president to suspend visas from any country whenever he deems it in the national interest. Courts are not supposed to second-guess that determination.

This ‘conservative’ court?

The same pattern holds elsewhere. The D.C. Court of Appeals ruled last month that the president must accept asylum claims at the border, despite his clear authority under Section 212(f) of the INA to suspend entry. Yet none of these lower-court judges gets the Fifth Circuit treatment.

The same goes for guns. After the Bruen decision, blue states still restrict where common firearms may be carried and what magazines may be owned, in plain defiance of the requirement that modern gun regulations align with the nation’s historical tradition. The Supreme Court refused to hear challenges to Maryland’s ban on common semiautomatic rifles and Rhode Island’s ban on magazines holding more than 10 rounds.

In both cases, Gorsuch joined Thomas and Alito in dissent. Kavanaugh and Barrett said nothing.

RELATED: Funding is useless if Democrat judges can still hold ICE hostage

Celal Gunes/Anadolu/Getty Images

Remember the Harvard affirmative-action ruling that was supposed to end race-based admissions? Discrimination remains rampant, and lower courts keep blessing open bias against white and Asian students. In a 2024 dissent from denial of certiorari, Alito — joined, of course, only by Thomas — warned that the court had “twice refused to correct a glaring constitutional error that threatens to perpetuate race-based affirmative action in defiance of Students for Fair Admissions.”

No meaningful follow-up has come since.

So what, exactly, is conservative about this court? What is it trying to conserve?

It is not defending the rule of law. It is not disciplining rogue lower courts. It is not protecting states’ authority on abortion, border security, gun rights, or equal protection.

Thomas and Alito still understand the assignment. The rest of the so-called conservative majority increasingly looks like a bloc that exists to disappoint conservatives more politely than the left would.

​Opinion & analysis, Supreme court, Abortion, Mifepristone, Fifth circuit, Dobbs, Roe v. wade, Donald trump, Neil gorsuch, Amy coney barrett, Brett kavanaugh, Clarence thomas, Samuel alito, Immigration, Guns 

New York City may have once been the victim of the worst attack on United States soil at the hands of Islamic terrorists, but it appears residents have gotten over it.

“In case you were, I don’t know, on the fence about whether or not New York City forgot all about 9/11 — they did,” BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales says.

“It just keeps becoming increasingly obvious that they forgot because the Islamic conquest, it’s just as we predicted here at ‘Sara Gonzales Unfiltered,’ it’s just happening in broad daylight. And you know what? That’s to be expected when you elect a Muslim commie mayor,” she explains.

Gonzales then plays a clip of tens of Islamic men praying outside of an all-girls’ Jewish school in New York City.

“Just taunting the Jews inside that building,” she says.

In another video, a large Muslim crowd gathered outside of a synagogue during prayer, waving Palestinian flags and chanting “Allahu Akbar.”

“I would be concerned about it. If I’m the mayor of New York City, I’m on it. I’m concerned about it. But instead of being concerned about it, of course, you would have the Muslim commie Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who is actually here to tell you that it’s the Muslims who are under attack in New York City,” Gonzales says.

“I am aware of the disturbing incident targeting worshippers during Friday prayers outside the Baitul Mamur Mosque in Brooklyn, where a man praying was struck with an egg,” Mamdani wrote in a post on X.

“That hateful act is unacceptable and an affront to the values that define us as New Yorkers. My administration is committed to rooting out anti-Muslim hate in all its forms and ensuring every New Yorker can live and worship in safety and dignity,” he continued.

Mamdani added that “the NYPD Hate Crime Task Force is investigating this incident.”

When Gonzales tried to research the incident, she “couldn’t find any reporting on this other than the media reporting on his post.”

“There’s no video. There’s no description of a suspect. The mosque itself hasn’t even commented on it. Isn’t that strange? Isn’t that odd? And I guess Zohran Mamdani as the mayor, he just got the scoop,” she says.

“The mosque wasted an opportunity to be the victims of an egg attack,” she adds.

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​New york city, Sara gonzales unfiltered, Zohran mamdani, Islam, Terrorism, Anti-semitism 

The owner of a day care targeted in a viral Nick Shirley exposé has been charged six months later with millions of dollars of fraud related to allegedly false reimbursements from the government.

Fahima Egeh Mahamud, the CEO of the Future Leaders Early Learning day care in Minneapolis, allegedly claimed to have provided thousands of meals at her center and defrauded the government.

The day care closed in January, according to state records reviewed by KMSP-TV after the exposé went viral in December.

Mahamud had signed up her day care for a federal child nutrition program through Feeding Our Future, which has since been identified as a source of massive fraud. She also claimed to have provided day care for low-income families through the Child Care Assistance Program.

Prosecutors said she received $4.6 million from the child care program and another $850,000 from the nutrition program. She allegedly submitted over 13,000 fraudulent claims to CCAP from October 2022 until December 2025.

The day care closed in January, according to state records reviewed by KMSP-TV after the exposé went viral in December.

Mahamud was previously charged for the nutrition fraud but was charged on Wednesday for the day care fraud.

The day care was also inspected in November and found not to be “operating within the terms of its license.” It was cited for cleanliness and disrepair issues.

She is being charged with wire fraud and conspiracy to defraud the United States.

RELATED: Top scammer of ‘Feeding Our Future’ fraud in Minnesota NAILED with painful sentence

On Thursday, the top schemer in the Feeding Our Future scam was also sentenced to nearly 42 years in prison for orchestrating the massive fraud scheme.

“This was a vortex of fraud, and you were at the epicenter,” said U.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel to Aimee Bock after her sentencing.

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​Daycare fraud, Feeding our future, Wire fraud, Nick shirley, Politics 

Depending on when Los Angeles residents looked up, they may have seen frightening images in the sky.

Over a duration of about 10 minutes, locals were likely to be either completely in awe or horrified.

‘What if there was a glitch?’

The source of the image of a skeleton with bright, glowing red eyes is not a nefarious one, it turns out, unless viewers were particularly unfond of Amazon. The company broke a Guinness World Record this week in L.A. when it lit up the sky with a record-setting drone show promotion for its new “Masters of the Universe” movie.

Ahead of the June 5 theatrical release, images that could easily be mistaken for an apocalyptic event appeared in a gigantic display, and if residents glanced over the horizon at the right time, they would have seen a horrifying image of Skeletor looking down at them.

The display in its entirety is less frightening; the approximately 10-minute show included a title screen, Castle Grayskull, He-Man, and theme music surrounding the hooded skeleton character.

RELATED: ‘Everything on the internet is fake’: Social media marketers reveal that most online trends are fabricated

The film’s director, Travis Knight, was on-scene to collect the Guinness certificate for brightest aerial image formed by multirotors/drones, officially credit to Amazon MGM Studios, USA.

With a reported 1,600 drones, it was nowhere near Guinness’ record for the most multirotors/drones airborne simultaneously from a single computer. This feat belongs to Guangdong EHang Egret Media Technology Co. Ltd., which displayed 22,580 drones in a presentation in Hefei, Anhui, China, on February 3, 2026.

Readers were understandably disturbed by the idea of giant images taking up a portion of the Los Angeles skyline for a significant period of time, with some calling the display “risky” considering the damage the drones could cause if they were to fail.

“What if there was a glitch and they fall down everywhere,” one viewer asked, picturing “people driving getting a drone crashing on their windshield.”

Another X user asked whether the accompanying sounds would be played loud enough for residents to hear:

“It looks great, but damn I’d hate to live round there,” Mark wrote.

RELATED: Karen Bass roasted over plan for free dental care for homeless meth addicts

A lot of sarcastic viewers commented on the display, with some saying, “I’m sure this didn’t freak anyone out,” while others pointed out the irony of “a skeleton character, somewhat reminiscent of the grim reaper, [looking] out over Hollywood.”

The display is out of touch according to many, with an overwhelming sentiment among viewers being that even such a grandiose promotion will not save the movie industry. Comments demanding film studios “make better movies” and concluding the studios have “no idea that they’re in active failure” were not hard to come by.

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​Amazon, California, Drones, Guinness world record, Los angeles, Tech 

The debate over Sharia law, immigration, assimilation, and whether America is starting to look like parts of Europe continues to be deeply divisive.

To gauge the severity of the issue, BlazeTV host Steve Deace spoke with Texas Representative and attorney general candidate Chip Roy (R), a co-founder of the Sharia-Free America Caucus in the House of Representatives.

“How real is this, Chip?” Deace asks bluntly.

“It’s very real. Our Democrat colleagues like to dismiss it as they did yesterday in the hearing that I held on this very topic,” Roy says, referring to the May 13 House Judiciary Subcommittee hearing titled “Sharia-Free America: Why Political Islam & Sharia Law Are Incompatible with the U.S. Constitution.”

“I wanted to show that number one, we have had 5.5 million people imported into the United States from majority-Muslim countries since 9/11. That’s suicidal; it’s stupid. Number two, the Muslim Brotherhood is driving the agenda, and all of the organizations that are basically affiliates of the Muslim Brotherhood, even if they don’t want to admit it, they’re driving the agenda in a concerted and organized plan,” he explains, citing several examples of Islam’s growing influence in the state of Texas.

Deace puts the 5.5 million statistic into perspective: “That would be the 24th-largest state in the union if it was just in one location. That would be more people than live in the following places: Alabama, Louisiana, Kentucky, Oregon, Oklahoma, Connecticut, Utah, Nevada, Iowa, Arkansas, Kansas, Mississippi, New Mexico, Idaho, Nebraska, West Virginia, Hawaii, New Hampshire, Maine, Montana, Rhode Island, Delaware, South Dakota, North Dakota, Alaska, Vermont, and Wyoming.”

But when you consider that a huge portion of these immigrants have then started families in the U.S., it gets even more alarming.

“Let’s add in the children that they have created over those last 25 years at a higher rate than we are. I promise you that number is a much higher number. Maybe you double it,” Roy says.

“That’d be a top 10 state,” Deace says.

Roy says that he’s often questioned about his commitment to the First Amendment, but these critics misunderstand his advocacy.

“I’m not telling people what they can believe or not believe. Nothing about what I’m saying is that. What I’m saying is, you can’t advocate a political ideology, the stated objective of which for the vast majority of the people adherent to the religion is to undermine our civilization and destroy Western civilization,” he explains.

“It is Islam that is the inconsistent element here with our Western values, and we have to acknowledge it because you can’t win a war you don’t acknowledge exists — and one exists,” Roy continues.

Deace sums it up succinctly: “You have a right to believe what you want to believe; you don’t necessarily have a right to believe it here.”

While many, especially conservatives, are worried about illegal immigration, Deace and Roy point out that America has a “legal immigration problem” as well, specifically when it comes to Muslim migrants.

Roy points to England and France, where legal immigration from predominantly Muslim countries has significantly altered city demographics and culture.

“If we think that what’s happening in London and Paris is not happening right now on steroids, we’re crazy,” he says. “I think we will surpass how bad it is in the United Kingdom and France very quickly because people here will use the First Amendment … as a sword that they’re actually unable to do as easily in the U.K. or France.”

Roy warns that Muslim immigrants plan “to use our own property rights” and other freedoms “against us” to build “housing communities in and around their religious centers,” which is tied to their broader plan to conquer the West.

“By far, our number one threat to our country’s future … is the march of Islam into our communities,” he comments.

To hear the full interview, watch the episode above.

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​Steve deace, Steve deace show, Chip roy, Sharia law, Islamification, Texas 

Members of the LGBTQ+ community were outraged after one of the largest Pride festivals in Southern California was canceled just hours before it was scheduled to begin.

Long Beach city officials shut down the festival on Friday and accused the organizers of failing to provide them critical safety and operational documentation required for the event.

‘This decision comes at a moment when LGBTQ+ people are facing escalating attacks from the current federal administration and from political forces across the country.’

The city’s attorney sent a cease and desist order to the organizers right before the start time.

“The City notified the organizer that it had failed to timely submit the required application materials and supporting documentation necessary for permit review and issuance. As a result, no special event permit has been approved or issued for the events,” Dawn McIntosh said in the letter.

Long Beach Pride President Tonya Martin lashed out at the city in a statement Friday demanding that it “protect and uplift” the LGBTQ community, but she did not say whether the group had provided the proper documentation.

“Long Beach Pride is deeply disappointed by the City’s decision to cancel the Long Beach Pride Festival, a long-standing community institution built by volunteers, sustained by love, and rooted in the belief that every person deserves to live openly, safely, and with dignity,” the lesbian wrote.

“This decision comes at a moment when LGBTQ+ people are facing escalating attacks from the current federal administration and from political forces across the country,” she added.

On Saturday, the city responded with a rebuttal described as “aggressive” by the Advocate, an LGBTQ+ news outlet.

According to the city, organizers still had not submitted approved structural plans for the stages and trusses, approved electrical plans, detailed security plans, or sufficiently detailed site plans that identify critical infrastructure locations.

The city said most festivals of that size completed the documents 65 days in advance and that they had worked with the organizers all the way until the day of the event to try to get it to work out.

RELATED: LGBTQ activists are FURIOUS that California county shut down Pride Month display at public library — over a bookmark

The city also pointed out that it had to step in three years ago to keep the event going but had intended to do so as a one-time commitment. It has since continued funding and managing the parade.

Despite the cancellation of the festival, the Pride parade went on as scheduled.

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​Long beach, Pride festival, Pride parade, Politics, Lgbtq 

Students are claiming emotional trauma from their middle school teacher apparently hanging a black baby doll by an electrical cord from the television in her Florida classroom.

The bizarre incident was caught on video and was widely circulated before the art teacher was fired from the job at Barrington Middle School in Lithia.

‘They should not have to sit in the classroom and worry if they’re going to see images that can terrorize them for life.’

Nina Williams, the parent of the student who recorded the teacher, wants her to face serious consequences.

“I want her teaching certificate gone,” Williams said. “I don’t want her to be able to practice in another state. I don’t want her to be able to do what she did to my child and the other many children in that classroom to any other children.”

Williams posted the video on Tuesday to social media, where it quickly went viral.

“She needs to be charged for it and license removed. Not be around kids at all,” said Aracelis Perez, the parent of another student who recorded the teacher throwing the doll away after the hanging.

After much outrage, the district said the teacher had been terminated immediately on Wednesday.

“Our school counselors and administrators will continue to be available to meet with any students at Barrington Middle School who have concerns or need additional support,” reads the statement from the district.

Among those outraged was Hillsborough NAACP President Yvette Lewis.

“They should not have to sit in the classroom and worry if they’re going to see images that can terrorize them for life,” Lewis said. “If you don’t know your history, you’re bound to repeat it, and it was clear that this teacher did not know the history. Because if you knew your history and you knew what that meant and how it will invoke fear or intimidation to African-Americans, you would have never done it.”

Lewis went on to claim that the incident might not have happened if Florida state officials had not removed certain African-American history books from schools.

The teacher, whose name is Karen Savage, did not return requests for comment from WTLV-TV.

RELATED: NY middle school teacher fired over ‘racist’ joke allegedly made to two students about slavery

The district said the Florida Department of Education’s Office of Professional Practice Services is investigating whether her teaching certificate should be revoked.

WTSP-TV asked the FBI if it was investigating the case, but the agency refused to confirm or disconfirm any investigation.

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​Racism accusation, Florida school, Teacher racism, Politics, Middle school 

A former federal prosecutor is accused of illegally secreting confidential documents about the Trump administration from special counsel Jack Smith.

62-year-old Carmen Mercedes Lineberger is facing two felony charges for theft of the documents plus other charges in the government investigation.

Lineberger is not being detained and did not have to post any bond for release.

Lineberger allegedly emailed herself the documents and labeled the emails as cake recipes, according to prosecutors. She was working at the Fort Pierce branch of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida.

The documents were under seal from the Smith investigation into the alleged mishandling of national security records by President Donald Trump and two co-defendants after his first term in office.

She entered a plea of not guilty on Wednesday.

One of the emails was allegedly labeled “chocolate cake recipe,” while another file was allegedly labeled “Bundt_Cake_Recipe.pdf.”

The second volume of Smith’s report had been sealed by federal Judge Aileen Cannon. Lineberger is accused of violating that order and taking steps to conceal her efforts.

She worked at the prosecutor’s office for almost two decades before retiring in December.

Lineberger is not being detained and did not have to post any bond for release.

Federal prosecutors said she could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted on one charge, three years for another, and one year for each of the two charges of document theft.

RELATED: District Judge Cannon issues ruling on fate of Trump adversary’s Biden-era special report

Cannon, a Trump appointee, ruled that the case should be tossed out because the appointment of Smith as special counsel was unconstitutional.

The Trump administration had argued in Oct. 2024 that the release of the special counsel’s report amounted to election interference.

“Radical Democrats are hell-bent on interfering in the presidential election on behalf of Lyin’ Kamala Harris,” said former campaign spokesman Steven Cheung at the time.

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​Politics, Southern district of florida, Special counsel jack smith, Trump administration