Category: blaze media

Hundreds of students waving U.S. and Chinese flags greeted President Donald Trump in Beijing as he stepped off Air Force One for his historic visit to China on Wednesday.

Also in attendance to greet the president was Chinese Vice President Han Zheng as well as Foreign Affairs Vice Minister Ma Zhaoxu. Trump will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping at a pivotal time in the ongoing war in Iran.

‘We used to be taken advantage of for years with our previous presidents. And now we’re doing great with China.’

The president arrived with a large entourage that included tech billionaire Elon Musk, who had a falling out with Trump last June before restoring their relationship recently.

The visit to China is a first for a sitting U.S. president in nearly 10 years, when Trump visited last.

“We’re the two superpowers,” Trump said to reporters at the White House before departing on the trip. “We’re the strongest nation on Earth in terms of military. China’s considered second.”

The president went on to say that he didn’t think they would discuss Iran much because the war is “very much under control.”

Along with Musk, the president brought a large group of business leaders that included Jensen Huang of Nvidia, Tim Cook of Apple, Larry Fink of BlackRock, and others from the following companies:

Boeing;Goldman Sachs;Meta;Micron;Qualcomm;Illumina;Mastercard;Visa;Cargill;Citi;Cisco;Coherent; andGE Aerospace.

The trip had been delayed because of the Iran war.

“I have a great relationship with President Xi,” Trump said to reporters in the Oval Office. “We’re doing a lot of business, but it’s smart business. We used to be taken advantage of for years with our previous presidents. And now we’re doing great with China. We make a lot of money with China.”

The president’s trip to China will last until Friday.

RELATED: California mayor abruptly RESIGNS — after admitting to spying for China

There will be an official welcome ceremony on Thursday with Jinping.

The president also forcefully rejected a peace plan offered by Iranian officials on Monday, calling it “garbage” and “unacceptable.” He went on to assert the ceasefire was “on life support.”

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​Trump visits china, Trump vs xi jinping, Elon musk, Business leaders, Politics 

The fact that marriage in America is on the decline is concerning, but few people understand how deep the problem goes.

Recent data shows the dismal marriage numbers in the United States. The percentage of married couples, average age at which couples are marrying, and number of children are all in catastrophic decline. The numbers represent a dramatic collapse in the institution that serves as a foundation for successful civilizations.

Conservatives will often place the blame on a lack of individual virtue, and there is plenty of truth to that claim, but the most important factors are baked into the structure of our society in a manner that Republicans are terrified to address.

Once birth control and abortion made pregnancy a choice instead of an inevitability, everything shifted.

When a movement refers to itself as “conservative” you would think the preservation of marriage would be its top priority. However, when marriage does receive any attention from conservative pundits and politicians, it is in the form of glib advice directed at young men telling them to get out of their parents’ basement and stop playing video games.

Part of the marriage problem is certainly the lack of initiative on the part of young males, but this is also the easiest and most cowardly attempt to explain away the issue. Our culture encourages placing the blame on young men, who are one of the few groups that can be attacked without consequence. The real answers require taking on far more sacred cows.

When conservatives are feeling a little more adventurous, they will admit that some aspects of our economy are antithetical to family formation.

The fact that the average age of first-time homeowners is pushing past 40 signals how difficult achieving stability for young families has become. College is now required for even the most entry-level jobs, and the cost keeps exploding, consuming the capital that once went into a starter home.

The costs of health care and food continue to skyrocket so that most households require two incomes, forcing mothers to work, while the price of child care also increases rapidly. The economic issues are real and important, but even they do not tell the whole story.

Love, duty, and honor are all factors that hold our social bonds together, but it is dependence that makes them necessary in the first place and continues to undergird them when everything else falls away.

RELATED: Adults are refusing to grow up, and their children are paying the price

Matt Stroshane/Walt Disney World Resort/Getty Images

Modern people do not like to hear this fact because they believe that maximizing freedom and independence is the ultimate good, but there is a point at which autonomy rips society apart.

Men are, of course, dependent on many things, but women, due to their biological vulnerability, were always directly dependent on men.

Women are physically weaker, less aggressive, become pregnant, must care for children, and regularly need the direct intervention of others to ensure their safety and security. Women could not work outside the home while pregnant or raising children, so they remained dependent on their husbands’ income.

People will have sex — we are hardwired to pursue it — so the reality was that women and men needed to get married early to secure the safety of mothers and their children. Family formation was part of the rhythm of life. It was largely unavoidable, and this kept marriage rates among young people relatively high.

Once birth control and abortion made pregnancy a choice instead of an inevitability, everything shifted. Single women became a larger part of society, and the state expanded its reach to provide them with broader physical and economic protections.

The newly emancipated woman needed her own stream of income, and corporations were more than happy to provide it. Women doubled the labor pool, driving down wages. In large bureaucratic organizations, where compliance is key, the more agreeable nature of women is considered an asset in a way that it would not be in a more entrepreneurial economy.

Advantages were built into every level of our system to help elevate women due to the perceived biases that existed when mothers were expected to stay home. Universities gave priority to women, who now earn more degrees than men. Corporations gave hiring priority to women, who now make up a majority of their workforce.

Government assistance and scholarship programs were established to ensure that working mothers did not fall through the cracks. It is not that women stopped getting married — every female must be married at some level — they simply became dependent on the men running the government and corporations instead of traditional husbands.

Women do not date men who earn less than they do, even if they think of themselves as independent. Deep down, females know that in the modern world, income signals status and status means protection.

RELATED: Universal basic income is a dangerous delusion

Blaze Media Illustration

Even in our hyper-feminist culture, women still know they could become mothers at any time and naturally seek out protection and stability. The push to elevate women in education and hiring meant that the percentage of well-paying jobs going to men shrank. This resulted in men being systematically removed from the pool of attractive marriage prospects.

Dwindling prospects for both education and career have already set young men on the path to downward mobility, but the lack of prospects for marriage was the nail in the coffin. These changes, coupled with the one-sided nature of divorce and child custody law, means that many men no longer see a reason to bother dating.

Women initiate 70% of divorces in the United States. The truth is that women who do not need men do not marry when they are young and are far more likely to divorce if they do.

To be clear, this is not to absolve men of their responsibility. Both sexes made this mess, both sexes are to blame, and both will need to do hard work to fix the problem.

Men must have the drive and vitality to make something of themselves, no matter what situation they find themselves in. But in the rare instances where conservatives are even willing to address the marriage crisis, they save all their criticisms for young men because they are the culturally approved target.

There are no easy answers to the chaos that modernity has visited on the dating and marriage landscape, but the structural issues are real, and telling men to “get it together” does nothing to change that. Until conservatives are willing to be as honest with women as they are with men about our situation, nothing will improve.

​Marriage decline america, Birth control abortion, Divorce rates, Birth rates, Marriage rates, Fertility crisis, Conservatives, Women in the workplace, Opinion & analysis 

President Donald Trump’s nominee to replace Jerome Powell as the chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve was approved by a vote in the U.S. Senate Wednesday.

56-year-old Kevin Warsh, a lawyer and financier, becomes the wealthiest chairman of the Fed after the Republican-controlled Senate voted 54 to 45 to confirm him.

‘He will go down as one of the GREAT Fed Chairmen, maybe the best!’

Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) was the only Democrat to vote in favor of Warsh’s confirmation.

Warsh is expected to support the president’s demand to lower interest rates despite his previous opposition to dropping rates. He has justified his change of heart by arguing that artificial intelligence will so drastically increase productivity that it will give the Fed room to lower rates.

“I have known Kevin for a long period of time, and have no doubt that he will go down as one of the GREAT Fed Chairmen, maybe the best,” Trump said on social media in January. “On top of everything else, he is ‘central casting,’ and he will never let you down.”

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said Warsh had “sucked up to Donald Trump to snag his dream job” at the Fed.

“The Senate should not be aiding and abetting Donald Trump’s illegal takeover of the Fed by installing his chosen sock puppet as chair,” she added. “It’s an invitation for corruption and for economic catastrophe. We have the power to stop it, and we should be using that power.”

The president has intensely criticized Powell for refusing to lower rates.

“We should have the lowest interest rate anywhere in the world. Jerome Powell has done a terrible job. And frankly, I don’t think he could do a worse job. He’s called everything wrong,” Trump said to reporters in July.

He has referred to Powell as a “knucklehead” and a “stupid guy” and has accused him of committing fraud while overseeing a billion-dollar renovation of the Fed’s offices in Washington, D.C.

Powell has denied the allegations and tried to defend the Fed against charges of politicization.

“We’re never going to be influenced by any political pressure,” Powell said in April 2025. “People can say whatever they want. … That’s not a problem, but we will do what we do strictly without consideration of political or any other extraneous factors.”

RELATED: Trump bashes Fed chair after inflation report drops: ‘He’s a knucklehead. Stupid guy.’

Some have argued that Warsh will not be able to significantly change the policy at the Federal Reserve by himself, as the interest rates are determined by a full vote of the Fed governors.

On Tuesday the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that inflation had spiked to 3.8%, likely as a result of increasing oil prices from the war on Iran.

Warsh is married to Jane Lauder, the billionaire heiress to the Estee Lauder fortune.

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​Jerome powell replacement, Kevin warsh, Federal reserve chair, Fed interest rates, Politics 

Democrat state Rep. Justin Pearson is already back in the news after a video of the Tennessee politician calling a state trooper a “stupid motherf**ker” went viral.

But in the latest video, Pearson appears to be a changed man.

In a video from a graduation ceremony, Pearson thrashes around, dancing on stage in front of a cross, leading BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock to comment that it appears Pearson has “caught the Holy Ghost.”

“I’m almost speechless, Jason, and I speak for a living,” Anthony Walker tells Whitlock, calling Pearson’s actions “performative.”

And Walker does not believe Pearson has “caught the Holy Ghost.”

“Evidence of the Holy Spirit truly in your life and transforming you is going to be a transformed life. Your conversation is going to be different. Your conduct is going to be different. Your whereabouts, where you choose to go, is going to be different. Something will be evident that you used to behave in a sinful manner,” he explains.

“So it’s performance, and you know, unfortunately, we live in a performance-rewarding society,” he adds.

Shemeka Michelle is in agreement.

“It is performative. It is an act. And he failed,” she says, noting that the audience is applauding in the video.

“Most of them are probably women who just don’t have the discernment that’s necessary to be able to sniff out a fraud. He’s a fraud. Plain and simple,” she adds.

Want more from Jason Whitlock?

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

​Anthony walker, Blaze media, Blaze news, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Blaze podcast network, Blaze podcasts, Blazetv, Blazetv host, Democrat, Evidence, Fearless with jason whitlock, Fraud, Graduation ceremony, Holy ghost, Holy spirit, Jason whitlock, Jason whitlock harmony, Justin pearson, Performance, Shemeka michelle, State trooper, Tennessee, The blaze, Viral 

“Come with me if you want to live …”

That line from 1991’s “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” proved ironic in more ways than one.

Author Glenn Reynolds begins his new book, ‘Seductive AI,’ by citing this forgotten thriller.

A T-800 robot (played by Arnold Schwarzenegger) tries to protect Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) from the looming AI revolution. They both know humanity’s survival depends on her son living long enough to lead the human resistance.

The “Terminator” franchise remains Hollywood’s biggest red flag against the rise of AI. The all-powerful Skynet future is coming, and humanity may crumble as a result.

Wait … is that on screen or off?

The “Terminator” franchise isn’t the only time Hollywood warned us what could happen if we let AI grow unchecked. The following films offered their own predictions on how computer-generated intelligence could bring society to its knees — or simply leave us so disconnected that we don’t even bother with fellow humans.

Looking back, these disparate films have become scarier than Freddy, Jason, or Art the Clown … combined.

‘Her’ (2013)

– YouTube

Who wouldn’t fall in love with an AI software that sounded like Scarlett Johansson? This sci-fi parable stars Joaquin Phoenix as a lonely soul on the cusp of divorce. He decides to give his computer’s operating system a female voice (Johansson), and the two begin a digital courtship.

Naturally, the main character’s love life suffers as a result. He feels increasingly comfortable confiding in “Samantha,” even though she’s not flesh and blood.

“Her” underwhelmed at the box office, but its prescient look at computer-based romance has taken on an ominous tone given recent headlines.

‘Ex Machina’ (2015)

– YouTube

A computer programmer (Domhnall Gleeson) wins the chance to spend a week with a scientist (Oscar Isaac) who has created a near-perfect AI robot named Ava (Alicia Vikander). The programmer’s task? Determine if he can tell if the robot is real or synthetic by challenging it to the best of his abilities. What neither man realizes is that Ava has a surprise or two in store, using the unsuspecting humans for her own selfish purposes.

Wait, robots can be selfish?

The film’s minimalist effects proved sublime (and Oscar-winning), but the sophisticated storytelling is the main attraction. Once more, artificial humans pose a genuine threat to our species, at least on a small but significant scale. That leaves us vulnerable to our baser instincts.

RELATED: ‘Crawl’: Killer gators make for gruesome guests in overlooked creature feature

Paramount Pictures

‘M3GAN’ (2022)

– YouTube

This slick horror-comedy has the perfect solution for a young girl dealing with the loss of her parents. At least on paper.

Meet M3gan, a sophisticated AI robot designed by Cady’s aunt (Allison Williams). The creepy bot is meant to give Cady support through her pain. M3gan is almost too good to be true, until it starts lashing out at anyone it thinks is trying to hurt the grieving girl.

No computer program can replace a loved one, and the healing process requires more than a few cute AI prompts. That’s the serious side of “M3GAN,” a genre romp with a decidedly nasty sense of humor. The film became an unlikely smash, partly because it hit theaters just as AI’s real potential started to emerge.

The sequel, “M3GAN 2.0,” bombed by betraying the story’s core themes and, perhaps, reminding us how close to reality this franchise became in just three short years.

‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ (1968)

– YouTube

“I’m sorry, Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that.”

The best science fiction stories transport us years, if not decades, into the future. Director Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece delivered the ultimate AI warning, an avuncular program named HAL designed to do our bidding.

We all know HAL has other plans, turning this space yarn into a cautionary tale like few others.

‘Blade Runner’ (1982)

– YouTube

The line between humans and replicants blurs beyond recognition in this sci-fi stunner that bombed during its initial release. Harrison Ford, tasked with erasing androids who pose a threat to humanity when they go rogue, is torn when he meets Sean Young’s beguiling character.

She’s beautiful, even intoxicating. But is she human? We know Rutger Hauer’s villainous character is all nuts and bolts, but his soulful dialogue suggests an AI creation of consequence.

The film doesn’t reflexively take humanity’s side, leaving us with uncomfortable questions about our tech-centric future.

‘Colossus: The Forbin Project’ (1970)

– YouTube

Author Glenn Reynolds begins his new book, “Seductive AI,” by citing this forgotten thriller. The film features a supercomputer built to prevent nuclear war, a noble mission that soon goes sideways. The bot becomes sentient, reaches out to its Russian counterpart, and decides it knows what’s best regarding the fate of humanity.

The film’s chilling coda must have seemed like pure fantasy at the time. No longer.

​Entertainment, Culture, Ai, Tech, 2001: a space odyssey, Blade runner, Her, Movies, Reviews, Recommendation 

Boomer’s a good boy, locating an old man who had gone missing in Florida.

On Saturday, the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office received a report that Ray Cornett, a 96-year-old man described as an “endangered person,” had gone missing near his home in Lutz, about 15 miles north of Tampa.

‘Good boy! Good boy, Boomer!’

The area around Cornett’s home is swampy and covered with trees and other overgrowth, and temperatures in the area were expected to hit almost 90 degrees F. So finding Cornett quickly was of the essence.

Bodycam footage posted to HCSO social media accounts shows that deputies arrived in the area around 6 p.m. on Saturday. By 6:11, a deputy had leashed up K-9 Officer Boomer and introduced him to Cornett’s scent by allowing Boomer to sniff some of Cornett’s belongings.

“Find him!” the handler commanded.

Boomer did not need much prompting. He quickly sprang into action, video showed, and eventually made his way to the woods.

Within 10 minutes, Boomer had found his man. “He’s right here!” the handler exclaimed at 6:21.

“Good boy! Good boy, Boomer! Good boy, Boomer!” he added.

According to the HCSO social media post, Cornett was found about 200 yards or so from his home. He was “returned home safely” and is believed to be unharmed.

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​Florida, Boomer, K-9 officer, Hillsborough county, Politics 

For years, Christian parents have been fighting a digital war with good intentions but ineffective tactics. A dad buys a “safe phone.” A mom installs parental controls. They disable browsers, hide passwords, and pray their 13-year-old outsmarts a trillion-dollar industry that hired neuroscientists specifically to outsmart him.

He learned to swipe before he learned to use a spoon. He finds a work-around in approximately four minutes. A friend has unrestricted internet. A VPN appears. Pornography arrives before puberty. By the time many Christian parents realize what happened, the battle is already inside the home, inside the mind, and, often, inside the soul.

That is why Radiant Mobile matters. For the first time in a long time, somebody in tech seems willing to admit a truth modern America desperately avoids: Children shouldn’t have unlimited access to everything on the internet.

America didn’t accidentally become spiritually exhausted.

That used to be common sense. But common sense, much like leg room in coach, is in short supply. Today, saying a 12-year-old shouldn’t be one click away from OnlyFans is treated like medieval extremism. Meanwhile, the average child today carries more explicit material in his pocket than Caligula could have dreamed up on his worst weekend.

Previous generations hid Playboy magazines under mattresses. Modern kids can access industrial-scale degeneracy between algebra class and soccer practice.

And Christians are supposed to shrug and call this “progress.”

A better approach

Radiant’s approach differs because it addresses the problem at the infrastructure level. A network-level filter, which Radiant offers, works differently from ordinary parental controls. The blocking happens through the mobile network itself, not just on the phone. For some content types, the block can’t be switched off; others are blocked by default. In simple terms, the bad material never even reaches the device. The bouncer turns it away before it gets in line. That is far more effective than playing endless whack-a-mole with apps.

That matters enormously, because most parental controls today are basically digital duct tape. They depend on constant supervision, endless updates, and children voluntarily obeying restrictions in a culture built around rebellion and temptation.

A dumb phone sounds nice in theory until reality kicks in. Modern schools require apps. Sports teams use group chats. Banks require authentication. Employers expect smartphones. Even churches livestream events, organize through apps, and communicate digitally. Telling families to simply “go backward” technologically isn’t realistic for most Americans.

If a father found strangers wandering into his house every night, he wouldn’t hand his kids a pamphlet on personal safety. Any sane, sensible, loving father would lock the door, install a deadbolt, and start pricing shotguns. Modern internet culture has spent years mocking that instinct as controlling or oppressive. But protecting children from predators is the most fundamental job of any parent.

And yes, pornography is predatory.

RELATED: Los Angeles is drowning in filth. Spencer Pratt has an app for that.

Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images

The research on this is overwhelming. Pornography rewires the brain, destroys marriages, fuels addiction, damages intimacy, lowers empathy, and increasingly introduces children to violent and degrading content at shockingly young ages. Churches know this firsthand. Pastors counsel marriages shattered by secret addictions. Youth leaders watch teenage boys become numb, isolated, anxious, and detached from reality. The culture keeps offering weak solutions because the culture doesn’t actually want the problem solved.

Big Tech profits from addiction. Social media platforms profit from outrage. Pornography platforms profit from loneliness. The modern digital economy feeds on temptation the same way casinos feed on gambling addiction. America didn’t accidentally become spiritually exhausted. Entire industries make fortunes keeping people distracted, stimulated, angry, lustful, and emotionally dependent on screens. People, sometimes shamefully, carry on.

Christians have every right to push back.

Back to normalcy

Critics will inevitably scream about censorship and freedom. But every family already filters values every single day. Parents decide who their children spend time with, which movies they’re allowed to watch, what music plays in the car, what food goes on the plate, and what time the lights go off at night.

Nobody with more than a few functioning neurons calls that censorship. Nobody calls it tyranny.

Adding the internet to that list is just a matter of consistency. Schools decide what websites students can access. Libraries curate material by age. Television once had standards strict enough that even cartoon characters wore pants. Somehow, civilization survived that horrifying oppression.

Besides, no one is forcing secular Americans to buy this service. Radiant exists because millions of Christian families are exhausted by constantly fighting a culture that increasingly treats moral boundaries as abusive.

There’s no such thing as a perfect parent, and there’s certainly no such thing as a perfect child. But most American parents aren’t chasing perfection. They’re just trying to hold the line long enough for their kids to have a childhood worth remembering, worth cherishing.

That shouldn’t be controversial.

If you don’t build it, they will leave

There’s also something deeper happening here: a crossing of the Rubicon, of sorts — Christians entering technology rather than merely complaining about it. For decades, the church’s posture toward the digital world has been a mix of suspicion, hand-wringing, and the occasional sermon about screen time. Building actual tools is a different posture entirely. If believers refuse to build alternatives, their children will simply inherit systems designed by people who openly despise Christian morality.

The internet that many adults defend so passionately isn’t exactly producing a flourishing civilization. America has record numbers of men over 30 who have never been on a date, fertility rates in free fall, rising depression, fractured families, and children whose attention spans now resemble caffeinated squirrels. Perhaps unrestricted digital access wasn’t the utopian breakthrough we were promised. We opened Pandora’s box and found a sordid collection of deepfakes, men masquerading as women, AI girlfriends, rage-bait, livestreamed breakdowns with sponsorship, and influencers selling anti-aging serum to 10-year-olds.

Christian families don’t need to apologize for wanting guardrails, nor do they need permission from cultural elites to protect their homes. A society that childproofs bleach bottles while handing 12-year-olds unrestricted smartphones is, in many ways, a sick one.

Radiant Mobile won’t save America. And Christ saves people, not phone plans. But building technology designed to protect families, rather than exploit them, is a huge step in the right direction.

​Tech 

A Texas Democrat seeking re-election in November has been arrested — again.

Early Saturday morning, police in Texas City responded to a report of a car parked in the left lane of Highway 3. Around 1:30 a.m., they discovered Harris County Treasurer Carla Wyatt (D) fast asleep in the driver’s seat of a vehicle parked with the engine running and its hazard lights on, according to reports citing court documents.

‘This arrest is for a subsequent offense/arrest of Driving While Intoxicated.’

Reports claim the officer opened the door and turned off the ignition for safety reasons before waking Wyatt up. When the officer asked her where she was, she claimed both that she was “in heaven” and in Houston, court documents said, even though Houston was more than 40 miles away.

According to court documents, Wyatt also told the officer she was in the area for a conference in Galveston later that morning. She initially claimed she had had one glass of wine at home around 10 p.m. the previous night but later changed her story and said she’d had two glasses of wine.

The cop smelled alcohol and noticed that Wyatt was not steady on her feet, the documents indicated. She also expressed uneasiness about taking a field sobriety test on account of a previous foot injury.

Wyatt was arrested and charged with driving while intoxicated, a Class B misdemeanor. She was released on $3,000 bond and is scheduled to appear in court again on June 26.

Neither Wyatt nor her attorney responded to a request for comment from Blaze News.

RELATED: Play stupid games: Tennessee GOP makes Democrats pay a heavy price for childish tantrums over redistricting

Mark Felix/Bloomberg/Getty Images

A bond addendum signed by the investigator notes that “this arrest is for a subsequent offense/arrest of Driving While Intoxicated.”

Indeed, Wyatt was similarly charged with DWI in December 2023 after reportedly registering an astonishing blood alcohol level of between 0.365% and 0.367%, more than four times the legal limit.

According to the Houston Chronicle, Wyatt allegedly violated the terms of her probation in that case, once in January 2024 and once in March 2024. Nevertheless, the case was dismissed in August after she completed a pretrial diversion program.

Then in December 2025, Wyatt was arrested again, this time for alleged burglary of a vehicle. A grand jury declined to indict her in connection with that case in April.

Wyatt, 56, was first elected to be Harris County treasurer in 2022. She is running for re-election in November and is among the 2026 candidates listed on the Harris County Democratic Party website.

The HCDP did not respond to a request for comment.

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​Harris county, Democratic party, Texas, Carla wyatt, Politics 

A now-former high school counselor in North Carolina has been arrested for allegedly having sex with a student at the school, according to police.

Asheboro Police Department officers on Friday arrested 39-year-old Amber Elizabeth Walker, according to the arrest warrant WFMY-TV obtained.

‘Asheboro City Schools is aware that a former employee of the district has been taken into custody in connection with alleged inappropriate activity.’

Walker was charged with two felony counts of sex act with a student, the arrest warrant said. Walker faces up to 94 months in prison if convicted on both charges, WFMY reported. During Monday’s hearing, prosecutors petitioned the court to hold Walker without bond.

Walker’s attorney argued that his client isn’t a flight risk because she resides in Guilford County, where her 2-year-old son and her parents live, WXLV-TV reported. Her attorney also noted that Walker poses no risk of reoffending, as the school district no longer employs her.

However, the judge said the charges against Walker are considered violent offenses under Iryna’s Law, which means a defendant cannot be released on an unsecured bond or written promise, WXLV reported. Iryna’s Law was enacted in October 2025 in response to the brutal killing of 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska on a Charlotte commuter train.

According to the Duke Chronicle, the main provisions of Iryna’s Law are to “enforce stricter pretrial release conditions, mandate mental health evaluations for some defendants, and expedite the process for implementing capital punishment.”

Walker’s secured bond was set at $50,000, and the judge ordered her to have no contact with the victim.

Walker was “crying throughout the hearing,” according to WFMY.

Walker was a counselor and girls’ basketball coach at Asheboro High School, according to WFMY.

Multiple posts on the official Asheboro High School Facebook account from 2019 and 2021 identify Walker as “Coach Walker” while congratulating the girls’ basketball team.

RELATED: ‘Monster’ guidance counselor admits to sexually abusing underage girl; promised to leave husband and kids for victim: Police

Police said they received a tip on Friday accusing Walker of engaging in sexual activity two days before with an underage student at the school, WFMY reported. Police said detectives “quickly developed evidence confirming the allegation” and took Walker into custody within hours of receiving the potentially damning accusations.

WXII-TV reported that the school district hired Walker on Feb. 26, 2018, and Asheboro City Schools fired her Friday. The school district said in a statement that it will “continue to cooperate with appropriate authorities as necessary.”

“Asheboro City Schools is aware that a former employee of the district has been taken into custody in connection with alleged inappropriate activity,” the school district said in a statement WFMY obtained.

The New York Post reported that just two months ago, Asheboro City Schools urged college-aspiring students to contact Walker for scholarship opportunities.

Walker is scheduled to appear in court on May 26. The Asheboro Police Department and the Randolph County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to Blaze News‘ request for comment.

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​Child sex crimes, Amber elizabeth walker, Amber walker, Crime, School counselor sex scandal, School counselor student sex scandal, North carolina 

California Governor Gavin Newsom has announced a partnership with the nonprofit Baby2Baby with plans to give every newborn delivered in participating hospitals 400 diapers for free — but there’s a catch.

The diapers aren’t actually free, and in fact, they’re actually much more expensive.

“Having free diapers for kids sounds wonderful, right?” BlazeTV host Stu Burguiere asks.

“It does, but I’m guessing that they cost three times as much as buying them at the store,” co-host Dave Landau comments.

And Dave is almost right.

In a post on X, Peter Basios broke down Newsom’s $20 million dollar plan, arguing that it would be cheaper to give “every low-income new mom $100 cash and [tell] her to go to Costco.”

“100,000 babies × 400 diapers = 40 million diapers,” Basios wrote. “$20,000,000 ÷ 40,000,000 = $0.50 per diaper. Now walk into any Costco in California and you can buy the same quality diapers for .12 to .15 cents each!”

“That’s $48 to $60 for 400 diapers,” he continued. “So the state is paying 8-10x more per diaper than a regular family buying in bulk.”

“He is saving you money by charging you four times for the diaper cost,” Dave jokes.

“We took it out of your taxes, but they’re free,” he adds.

Newsom’s wife is also reportedly linked to the nonprofit.

“You have to just say, from a stance of just being fortunate and things falling in the right place, what a great thing that all of this extra money that’s going to this organization just happens to benefit his wife,” Stu says.

“It’s almost like it’s racketeering,” Dave comments, adding, “in the sense that it is.”

Want more from Stu and Dave?

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​Baby2baby partnership, Blaze media, Blaze news, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Blaze podcast network, Blaze podcasts, Blazetv, Blazev, California governor gavin newsom, Costco diapers, Dave landau, Expensive diapers, Free diapers, Lowincome new moms, Newsoms wife involvement, Nonprofit organization, Stu and dave do america, Stu burguiere, Taxpayer money, The blaze 

A Florida teacher is accused of kissing a male student for about six minutes and groping him — then on another occasion unzipping the victim’s pants and performing a sex act on him.

According to an arrest report WPLG-TV obtained Monday, Leroy Wright Jr., 46, of Miami was arrested last week on charges of offenses against students by authority figures, unlawful sexual activity with a minor, and depiction of obscene material involving a minor.

‘He is too educated for that. No. Not my friend.’

Police said someone emailed the principal of Miami Jackson Senior High School on April 28 saying that Wright — a reading teacher at the school — was “having a relationship” with a student, WPLG reported.

The principal on Thursday submitted a “personnel investigative model report” to the Miami-Dade County Public Schools Office of Professional Standards, and the report was subsequently submitted to the Miami-Dade Schools Police Department, the station said.

Police on Thursday interviewed the person who emailed the principal, and that person identified the victim to them, WPLG said.

Police said they interviewed the victim at his home in the presence of his mother, and the student said he first met Wright at the beginning of the school year when Wright asked him to join the Freshman Club, for which Wright was the adult sponsor, the station said. Police said the student joined the club, WPLG added.

The victim claimed the first sexual incident occurred April 29 when he hugged Wright as he was exiting Wright’s classroom, the station said.

Police said the student claimed Wright hugged him back and then kissed him for about six minutes while groping him, WPLG reported.

On May 1, Wright again kissed the student and groped him, the station said, citing authorities.

WTVJ-TV reported that the victim said he was in Wright’s car three days later, and while they were stuck in traffic, Wright unzipped the victim’s pants and performed a sexual act.

Police said Wright was informed prior to his arrest that the victim’s cell phone had been “forensically examined,” WPLG reported.

Wright was booked into jail Friday and remained there Wednesday morning, jail records indicate.

WPLG said Wright will appear before a judge Wednesday.

RELATED: Former teacher, 26, accused of having sex with 16-year-old male student

One neighbor told WPLG she couldn’t believe the charges against Wright, who holds a PhD: “He is too educated for that. No. Not my friend.”

The school district released a statement over the weekend, WPLG reported, adding that the statement confirmed Wright would be fired.

“The type of behavior this individual is accused of will not be tolerated, as it runs contrary to the professional conduct we expect from all employees,” the statement read, according to WPLG. “The district has initiated employment termination proceedings and will ensure the individual is precluded from seeking future employment with the district. At M-DCPS, the safety and well-being of all students remain our top priority.”

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​Florida, Miami, Bad teacher, Child sex abuse, Leroy wright, Miami-dade county public schools, Offenses against students by authority figures, Unlawful sexual activity with a minor, Depiction of obscene material involving a minor, Kiss, Grope, Jailed, Crime 

The eBay board of directors did not seem pleased with GameStop’s CEO on Tuesday, firmly rejecting an offer from last week that was followed by continued online antics.

GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen offered $55.5 billion for the online auction site last Sunday, saying that with his expertise, eBay could become a rival to Amazon.

‘We have concluded that your proposal is neither credible nor attractive.’

This was followed by a series of comical posts on X by Cohen, who wrote messages like, “I’m selling stuff on eBay to pay for eBay.”

The CEO was selling memorabilia from video games and even GameStop signs before he was eventually suspended from the online marketplace.

On Tuesday, eBay announced that its board of directors was rejecting GameStop’s “unsolicited, non-binding acquisition proposal.”

“Dear Mr. Cohen,” eBay wrote in a press release. “The board, with the support of its independent advisers, has thoroughly reviewed your proposal and has determined to reject it.”

“We have concluded that your proposal is neither credible nor attractive,” eBay added.

Cohen’s proposal to buy 100% of eBay was valued at $125 per share in a 50/50 deal comprised of cash and GameStop’s own stock.

RELATED: GameStop’s next act? Becoming a ‘legit competitor’ to Amazon. How the company plans to do it is crazy.

The formal offer from Cohen promised to reduce costs at eBay by at least $2 billion within 12 months. He intended on cutting the marketing budget in half while slicing $300 million off of product development and reducing administrative costs by $500 million, among other moves.

In its formal rejection though, eBay went on the defensive, saying it remains a “strong, resilient business that has delivered meaningful results over the past several years.”

“eBay’s board is confident that the company, under its current management team, is well-positioned to continue to drive sustainable growth, execute with discipline, and deliver long-term value for our shareholders,” the company added.

Paul S. Pressler, eBay’s chairman of the board of directors, specified the reasons for their rejection, such as the “uncertainty” of Cohen’s financial proposal, the impact it may have on “long-term growth and profitability,” and how GameStop governs its own C-suite.

RELATED: Debit card company promises to pay your bill … sometimes: ‘Buy now, pay maybe’

While the degree of animosity shown by eBay seems unusual, it comes after Cohen made several antagonistic posts, like asking eBay to please respond to his customer service inquiries.

“On phone with customer support @eBay. please respond @eBay,” Cohen wrote on X.

Cohen then called stock sales by eBay “insiders” into question, and he mocked the company’s lack of customer service on social media.

“You’d think with 2.4 billion in marketing spend, they could login to X,” he wrote.

At the time of this writing, Cohen had not made any additional public statements regarding eBay’s rejection.

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​Ebay, Ecommerce, Gamestop, Gaming, Marketplace, Online business, Proposal, Return, Tech 

The winner of Nebraska’s Democratic Party U.S. Senate primary race on Tuesday came away with a landslide victory, despite her plans to drop out of the race before the November general election in a scheme to clear a path for a yet another candidate to take on Republican incumbent Sen. Pete Ricketts in the deep-red state.

Cindy Burbank defeated Democrat opponent William Forbes, receiving 89% of the vote, after accusing Forbes of being a plant for Ricketts.

‘I have no expectations of being able to win in November.’

“Pete Ricketts, who is running for reelection, is putting in a candidate loyal to him in the DEMOCRATIC primary — to split the vote against him, so he wins easily. He’s running an anti-abortion activist named Bill Forbes, who has posted in support of Pete Ricketts!” Burbank’s campaign website states.

Independent Dan Osborn is also challenging Ricketts in November and appears to be Burbank’s preferred candidate.

Burbank claimed that Ricketts “knows he’s losing to Dan Osborn and this is his plan to cheat his way to victory.” She argued that Osborn “deserves a fair shot against Ricketts” in the upcoming general election.

The Nebraska Democratic Party, which originally planned not to field a nominee, similarly claimed that Forbes was a Ricketts “spoiler and fake Democratic candidate.” The party stated that its strategy was to secure Burbank’s victory and then have her withdraw from the race to allow Osborn to compete against Ricketts “one-on-one.”

After Burbank won Tuesday’s primary, she reconfirmed to the New York Times that she plans to drop out.

“I don’t want to split the ballot,” Burbank wrote. “I have no expectations of being able to win in November.”

RELATED: The insane dirty tricks Democrats are using to win this bright-red Nebraska Senate seat

Pete Ricketts. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Forbes, who denied being a spoiler candidate, argued that he has been “a Democrat my entire life.” He referred to Burbank as a “self-admitted placeholder and a disloyal hack being used as a tool to sabotage the Democratic primary and clear the path for another insider.”

RELATED: Republicans receive another grim midterm forecast

Dan Osborn. Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call Inc./Getty Images

Ricketts won Tuesday’s Republican primary, securing roughly 82% of the vote.

A Democrat-aligned Tavern Research poll indicated that Osborn has the highest chance of beating Ricketts in a one-on-one election. Among those surveyed, 47% stated they would vote for Osborn, while 42% selected Ricketts. However, in a race against Burbank, Ricketts led, receiving 48% of the vote compared to Burbank’s 39%.

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​News, Nebraska, Cindy burbank, Bill forbes, William forbes, Pete ricketts, Dan osborn, Nebraska democratic party, Politics 

In a recent podcast appearance, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) made some shocking comments regarding billionaires and the founders of our country — and BlazeTV host Pat Gray is not surprised.

“Speaking of stupid Democrats, holy cow,” Gray says, playing a clip of AOC.

“There’s a certain level of wealth and accumulation that is unearned, right? You can’t earn a billion dollars. You just can’t earn that,” the congresswoman said on “It’s Open with Ilana Glazer.”

“You can get market power, you can break rules. You can do all sorts of things. You can abuse labor laws. You can pay people less than what they’re worth,” she continued.

“Since you didn’t earn that, you have to create a myth of earning it,” she added.

AOC went on to claim that “there are very few real archetypes” of “what America is all about.”

“I think about the civil rights and voting rights movement and how black Americans really created democracy in this country,” she said.

“White Americans have to be eliminated from every aspect of this society,” Gray comments, shocked.

“Anything good that happened in America didn’t come from white people. They’re all evil and bad, and they have oppressed and murdered their way to prominence,” he adds.

“You’re familiar with the father of our country, right?” executive producer Keith Malinak chimes in, showing a photo of George Washington that’s been updated by activists to have darker skin.

“George Washington, Black Lives Matter,” he adds, laughing.

Want more from Pat Gray?

To enjoy more of Pat’s biting analysis and signature wit as he restores common sense to a senseless world, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Bill gates, Billionaires, Black americans, Black lives matter, Blaze media, Blaze news, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Blaze podcast network, Blaze podcasts, Blazetv, Blazetv host, Civil rights movement, Congresswoman alexandria ocasio cortez, Father of country, Founders of country, George washington, Labor laws, Pat gray unleashed, Podcast appearance, Society, Stupid democrats, The blaze, White americans, White people 

Dressing up like a dog is apparently too degrading for some OnlyFans creators.

On the show “Euphoria,” Sydney Sweeney’s character has taken on the ridiculous task of doing pornography in order to pay for $50,000 worth of flowers for her wedding. The insane storyline has Sweeney posing as a dog and dressing as a baby — portrayals that have some involved with the subscription-based website up in arms.

‘You have to really grow and nurture a fan base.’

Leathers report

Several women who make money from the overwhelmingly pornographic fan site reacted to Sweeney’s scenes in a set of comments to Hollywood-centric outlet Variety. The women accused Sweeney’s character of being an over-the-top and rather unbecoming representation of a porn actress.

Scenes that showed Sweeney dressed as a baby or an animal have already disturbed regular audiences on their own, but the content was seen as “ridiculous and cartoonish” by these apparent industry professionals.

“There’s so much that they have her doing that is not even allowed on OnlyFans, and that alone is infuriating,” Sydney Leathers, an OnlyFans veteran, told Variety. “The age-play stuff, where she’s dressed as a baby in a diaper, for example. Credit card processors have very strict rules that you have to abide by, and the rules are getting stricter all the time.”

Former “Boy Meets World” star turned porn actress Maitland Ward said Sweeney was only perpetuating “stereotypes that sex workers have no moral compass and that they will do anything for money.”

RELATED: ‘DISGUSTING’: Megyn Kelly rips into ‘Euphoria’ clip with Sydney Sweeney

Monica Schipper/Getty Images

Lewd awakening

Calling it “beyond troubling,” Ward argued that any idea that sex work is connected to abuse is false.

“There’s always this untrue stigma that somehow sex work is synonymous with sex trafficking and abuse. And they just said, let’s make a joke of it. That is so funny. I’m not laughing.”

Ward reportedly makes at least $100,000 per month from OnlyFans and also reportedly does traditional pornography.

Same goes for Alix Lynx, another nude actress and OnlyFans creator, according to Variety. She stated that there were actually some good ideas hidden in the “Euphoria” script.

“When [Sweeney] goes to the influencer’s house to get video, coming from a marketing background myself, I thought, ‘OK, that’s f**kin’ smart. That’s a great formula.'”

However, Lynx said that it’s only a myth that being attractive and performing lewd acts are a ticket to the top.

RELATED: Sydney Sweeney spurns Cosmo girl’s desperate ‘MAGA Barbie’ bait

– YouTube

Naked ambition

“It’s portrayed that if you just dress up and do crazy s**t, you’ll instantly make money,” she explained. Another idea that “you just have to be hot and have big boobs and you’ll instantly cash out,” is also allegedly a myth, she claimed.

“It doesn’t work like that. You have to really grow and nurture a fan base.”

All the women Variety spoke with reportedly argued that it is too difficult to start an OnlyFans page and garner a grassroots following; women must first have a large online fan base. The task of building a subscriber base to pornographic content was described as a near-impossible feat.

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​Align, Entertainment, Moral compass, Sex workers, Stereotypes, Porn actress, Onlyfans, Television, Sex work, Pornography, Feminism, Lifestyle 

If you think this is just another oil headline, think again. This one hits your wallet directly, every time you start your car.

The United Arab Emirates, one of the most powerful players inside OPEC, is walking away from the cartel. That’s a huge change to the system that has controlled oil prices and, by extension, what Americans pay at the pump for more than half a century.

The UAE’s departure exposes long-standing tensions inside the group. Some countries have followed production limits; others have ignored them.

And for drivers already dealing with high gas prices, this matters more than anything coming out of Washington right now.

Market mover

For decades, OPEC has operated as a coordinated force, adjusting production to influence global oil prices. Less supply meant higher prices. More supply meant relief, but only when it suited the producers. It was never a true free market; it was controlled output designed to protect revenue.

Now one of the few countries that actually had the power to move markets is stepping away.

The UAE isn’t just another member. It is one of the rare producers with real spare capacity, the ability to quickly increase output and stabilize supply during disruptions. Alongside Saudi Arabia, it helped anchor OPEC’s influence. Take that away, and the cartel doesn’t just weaken; it loses control of the narrative.

So why should the average driver care?

Because this could be one of the first real signs that global oil pricing is shifting away from centralized control and back toward competition. And when competition increases, prices tend to come down.

Dire Strait?

But don’t expect that relief overnight.

Here’s the reality drivers are dealing with right now. Gas prices in the U.S. are already elevated, sitting above $4 per gallon in many areas. That’s not just about oil supply; it’s about geopolitics. Tensions tied to Iran and disruptions around the Strait of Hormuz, one of the most critical oil shipping routes in the world, are driving volatility and keeping prices high.

That’s the immediate pressure on your fuel bill, not the UAE’s decision — at least not yet.

The UAE exit is a medium-term shift. It means the country is no longer bound by OPEC production quotas. It can pump more oil if it chooses, and it has made it clear it wants to expand output significantly. More oil supply should push prices lower, but only if that supply actually reaches the market.

Mehmet Yaren Bozgun/Anadolu/Getty Image

And that’s the catch drivers need to understand.

Volatile for a while

Oil prices don’t drop just because more production is possible. They drop when that oil is flowing freely, refined, and distributed. If geopolitical tensions continue to disrupt shipping lanes or production, the added supply won’t fully offset the pressure.

That’s why, in the short term, volatility is still the story.

So let’s answer the question every driver is asking: Will this lower gas prices? And when?

In the next one to two weeks, probably not. Prices will continue to react to global tensions more than anything else. But within two to six weeks, that’s when things could start to change. That’s typically how long it takes for shifts in crude oil prices to filter down to what you pay at the pump. If the UAE ramps up production and tensions ease even slightly, drivers could start seeing prices move down by late May into June.

We’re not talking about a sudden return to cheap gas, but a drop of 20 to 50 cents per gallon is realistic if conditions line up. For families commuting daily, running businesses, or planning summer travel, that kind of relief will help. And yes, this ties directly into the broader automotive landscape.

High fuel prices don’t just affect what you pay at the pump. They influence what people buy. When gas spikes, consumers start rethinking vehicle choices, holding off on larger SUVs, reconsidering trucks, or delaying purchases altogether. Automakers feel that shift immediately, especially as they try to balance EV investments with ongoing demand for gas-powered vehicles.

When prices ease, even slightly, it stabilizes that decision-making. It gives consumers more flexibility and helps normalize the market. That’s why this OPEC fracture isn’t just an energy story; it’s an automotive story.

RELATED: GM slams brakes on electric trucks as reality crashes the EV party

Bill Pugliano/Getty Images

Priming the pump

Looking farther out, the bigger implication is what happens to OPEC itself.

The UAE’s departure exposes long-standing tensions inside the group. Some countries have followed production limits; others have ignored them. That imbalance has been building for years, and now it’s starting to break apart. When a cartel loses discipline, it loses its ability to control prices.

That’s good for drivers, but it comes with a trade-off.

Less coordination means more volatility. Prices could swing more sharply in response to global events. That’s not ideal for consumers or automakers trying to plan ahead, but it does reduce the ability of a centralized group to keep prices artificially elevated.

There’s also a strategic shift happening behind the scenes. The UAE wants flexibility, not restrictions. The country is investing in expanding production capacity and positioning itself to produce more oil, not less, in the years ahead. That aligns more with a competitive market than a controlled one.

For the United States, that could quietly become a win. More global supply, less cartel control, and increased competition all point toward lower energy costs over time. But again, timing is everything, and right now, geopolitical instability is still the dominant force.

So here’s the bottom line for drivers. The UAE just weakened one of the most powerful forces controlling global oil prices. That opens the door to lower gas prices and more competition. But in the short term, the same geopolitical risks that pushed prices higher are still in play.

If tensions ease and supply increases, you could see relief at the pump within weeks. If not, expect more of the same volatility that’s been hitting your wallet every time you fill up. Either way, this isn’t just another oil story. It’s a shift that will play out on American roads, in dealership showrooms, and, most importantly, at the pump.

​Energy costs, Free market, Gas prices, Lifestyle, Oil production, Saudi arabia, United arab emirates, Align cars 

Tennessee state Republicans passed a new congressional map last week that, applying the logic of the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent Callais ruling, carves up a Democrat-held district that was the product of a racial gerrymander. They managed to do so despite obstruction and gross incivility from their Democrat colleagues.

Tennessee state Rep. Justin Jones, for instance, walked around the chamber blowing a bullhorn in the faces of lawmakers and subjecting them to potential noise-induced hearing loss. Jones — a Democrat who was caught on film throwing a traffic cone at a driver during a 2020 Black Lives Matter blockade — also set fire to a printout of the Confederate flag and repeatedly accused Republicans of racism.

‘Maybe next year we’ll explain the basics like “don’t start fires in the Capitol.”‘

Democrat state Sen. Charlane Oliver — the radical who threatened riots in 2024 over the passage of a bill she didn’t like — danced atop her desk in the chamber, yelling and holding up a banner that said, “No Jim Crow 2 Stop the Steal.”

Some of the Democrats yelled and chanted while Republicans calmly conducted the work at hand, while another got testy with police, barraging a Tennessee Highway Patrol trooper with insults while interfering with an arrest.

Evidently, actions still have consequences in the Volunteer State.

Republican Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton notified Democratic House Minority Leader Karen Camper on Tuesday that members of the Democratic Caucus should expect to receive individual letters removing them from all standing committees and subcommittees in the statehouse, “except where membership is required pursuant to Rule 65 of the House Rules.”

RELATED: South Carolina GOP poised to erase district of geriatric Democrat who got Biden elected

Madison Thorn/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Sexton cited as cause Democrats’ actions “aimed at disrupting the democratic and legislative processes and creating disorder on the House Floor, including, but not limited to:

Interlocking arms in the well of the House; Blocking aisles on the House Floor; Instigating and encouraging disruptions of the legislative process in coordination with paid protestors and attendees in the gallery, including the distribution of earplugs to a member of your caucus;The use of prohibited props and noisemakers on the House Floor; Demonstrating a lack of respect toward fellow members seeking recognition to speak on legislation; andFlagrant disregard for the Permanent Rules of Order of the House.”

Rather than reflect on whether they went too far again or shouldn’t bemoan the loss of a racial gerrymander, state Democrats condemned the committee-removal consequence, painted themselves as victims, and descended farther into lunacy.

Minority Leader Camper said in a long-winded, reality-averse statement that the passage of the new map “felt like being stabbed in the back, then having the knife pushed in deeper and turned to finish the job.”

The minority leader then engaged in several paragraphs of what could only be described as partisan-hack numerology.

Camper, convinced there was a “symbolic scheme behind the handling of debate during this extraordinary session,” said:

there were supposed to be 47 minutes of debate on each side, which was somehow “a clear nod to the 47th President”;the duration of the “debate allotments” when it came to the “debate structure surrounding changes to election law,” when added up, would have “totaled 54 minutes — a nod to 1954, the year of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education Decision“; andthe addition of 47 plus the time allotments also associated with the debate equals 74 — clearly a nod to 1974, the “year Harold Ford Sr. became the first Black member of Congress elected from Tennessee in the modern era.”

In conclusion to her embarrassing numbers game, Camper suggested that her protest last week was ultimately aimed at ensuring that these numbers wouldn’t add up — that there would instead be only 44 minutes of debate on the redistricting legislation in honor of the 44th president, Barack Obama.

“We are hurt. We are disappointed. But we are not intimidated,” wrote Camper. “And no committee assignment will stop us from fighting for democracy, voting rights, constitutional freedoms, and the people of Tennessee.”

State Rep. Justin Pearson — the Democrat who interfered with an arrest on Thursday and called a THP trooper “stupid motherf**ker” and “boy” — whined on X, “Speaker of the TN House Cameron Sexton just removed me and every Democrat — and therefore every Black elected official in the state legislature from any committee we served on. This move strips nearly 2 million Tennesseans from [sic] the representation they deserve in TN state leg.”

The Tennessee House GOP said of the Democrats’ responses, “Of course now they’re playing victim. Maybe next year we’ll explain the basics like ‘don’t start fires in the Capitol.'”

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​Charlane oliver, Confederate flag, Congressional map, Democratic caucus, Democrats, House minority leader, House rules, Justin jones, Racial gerrymander, Tennessee, Us supreme court, Numerology, Radicalism, Leftism, Nashville, Karen camper, Embarrassing, Lol, Redistricting, Gerrymander, Callais, Politics 

Online scams are nothing new, yet they still account for a rising degree of theft year over year. According to new numbers released by the Federal Trade Commission, social media users in particular were tricked out of a staggering $2.1 billion — eight times higher than in 2020 — and these losses could get even worse as criminals tap into AI to execute more sophisticated cyberattacks. Here are the biggest social media scams to look for and what you can do if it happens to you.

Biggest social media scams of 2025

The FTC’s report identified three main traps that tricked social media users out of billions of dollars:

Investment scams accounted for half of the total losses last year. These scams usually involve get-rich-quick schemes where “influencers” sell courses that show victims how to make money by investing in the stock market. In some cases, scammers create chat groups filled with other supposed investors who all proclaim the benefits of the program, when in reality, they’re part of the scam too. Ultimately, victims end up paying for these courses, or even provide funds to be invested on their behalf, with no real payoff on the other side.

Don’t click on social media ads. Ever.

Shopping scams came in second place, accounting for 40% of the reported losses on social media. These scams typically feature an ad to a product that’s too good to be true — either the price is lower than usually advertised, or the link clicks away to an unknown third-party site instead of a trusted retailer. From here, scammers convince users to provide their payment information, stealing the money while leaving shoppers with a cheaper product than they thought they were getting, or in many cases, no product at all.

Romance scams, also known as catfishing, involve users who create fake online accounts so that they can target other users and foster a false relationship. Once the victim falls head over heels to the point that they would do anything for their supposed lover, the catfisher will request money for some kind of unexpected crisis, typically involving a broken-down car, a shattered phone, or a family member suddenly passing away. The victim sends the cash, the catfisher pockets the money, and they’re never heard from again — or worse, they try to get more money later.

How to protect yourself from social media scams

Luckily, there are several ways to avoid these scams as you surf your favorite social media sites.

First, limit who can see your posts and friends on social media. Most platforms let you set your profile as “private” or limit public access by making adjustments to the settings page. Some social media apps also bar strangers from sending you private messages. Once your account is locked down, both scammers and AI agents will have a harder time finding you to execute targeted scams.

RELATED: New call center tech beats ‘bias’ by masking Indian accents

L-R: Wodicka/ullstein bild/Getty Images; Taylor Weidman/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Second, be careful who you trust online. It’s OK to form friendships with people you meet on social platforms, but refrain from sharing personal information or buying products, services, or courses from anyone you don’t know in person. Many online scammers make their careers out of falsely befriending or romancing unsuspecting users just to squeeze them for cash. As a general rule of thumb, don’t trust anyone on social media unless you can verify they are the person they claim to be and that they are worthy of that trust.

Third, don’t click on social media ads. Ever. Especially avoid ads that showcase expensive products sold for a staggeringly large discount. Instead, go to the manufacturer’s webpage or find the same product in a trusted online store. If the manufacturer is actually hosting a deal, you should see the same discounted price on an official page, and if the price doesn’t match, chances are even greater that the unknown store with the great deal is trying to deceive you. To be safe, always buy from a trusted online retailer or the manufacturer itself.

Fourth, never provide personal information to anyone online, even if it seems harmless — that includes your mother’s maiden name, first pet, hometown, first car, etc. All of these are typically answers to the security questions that protect many of your online accounts that a criminal would love to hack.

Finally, if you do run into a scam online, stop what you’re doing and report it to the FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov. This way, you can help them track down fraudsters and protect other users from losing hundreds or thousands of dollars to social media thieves.

​Scams, Social media, Ai, Personal information, Tech 

Across the country, cities and counties are implementing temporary moratoriums on new data center construction. My city of Cheyenne, Wyoming, is no exception. Petitions are now circulating asking the city to adopt a one-year moratorium as constituents question the long-term impacts of rapid expansion.

While these concerns have been present for some time, the proposed annexation of 1,260 acres of ranch land west of the city has intensified skepticism about whether large-scale data center development actually benefits our community.

What happens when existing data centers need more power than their private substations can supply?

Cheyenne currently has 12 fully operating data centers. When these facilities arrived, Black Hills Energy implemented a tariff requiring large data users — those with electricity loads above 13 megawatts — to build their own substations and pay for their own power. This system was designed to shield residents and small businesses from rate increases. In the short term, it made sense.

The long-term question, however, is what happens when existing data centers need more power than their private substations can supply? If they must tap into the main power grid, the system in place that protects ratepayers could be strained. Before we approve a dramatic expansion of this industry, we need to study potential impacts to the power grids.

Water usage is another important question. According to the Cheyenne Board of Public Utilities and Cheyenne LEADS, all local data centers currently use around 1.2% of Cheyenne’s total water supply.

This low figure is possible because most new facilities use closed-loop cooling systems. However, projections suggest Cheyenne could someday host 40 to 70 data centers. Even with efficient systems, scaling up at that magnitude requires answers about flushing cycles, chemical additives, long-term cumulative water draw, and environmental impacts.

These questions are reasonable and very important for a community in a semi-arid region.

Security considerations must also be part of the discussion. Loudoun County, Virginia, hosts more than 200 data centers, but its proximity to Washington, D.C., and major federal facilities provides a level of deterrence that Cheyenne does not share.

Wyoming is one of the most rural states, so a dense cluster of data centers could present an attractive target for hostile actors. Our region’s missile sites were intentionally hidden and widely dispersed. Data centers built closely together inside a city make a very large target.

RELATED: The terrifying scale of the data center land-grab

Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg/Getty Images

We must also consider the impact on agriculture — one of the cornerstones of Cheyenne and Laramie County’s economy. A data center requires the usage of at least 225 acres or more of land, according to the World Resources Institute.

Rising land values driven by industrial demand could potentially price out ranchers and farmers, accelerating the loss of agricultural land. In 2025, according to the Wyoming Farm Bureau, agriculture contributed $163 million to Laramie County’s economy, the second highest in Wyoming.

Undermining that sector would have long-term consequences far beyond the next development cycle.

This discussion is not about rejecting data centers altogether. They play a role in national security and economic diversification. Most of the data centers currently operating or under construction in Cheyenne’s business parks have been net positives.

The real question is how many facilities Cheyenne can responsibly support without compromising our infrastructure, safety, agricultural industry, or quality of life.

For these reasons, I have sponsored a 12-month moratorium on new data center construction. This pause gives our city the time to analyze future power needs, water demand, land use, and security implications before committing to a future we cannot reverse.

​Data centers, Data center water use, Wyoming, Cheyenne, Water usage, Power grid, Ai, Agriculture, Opinion & analysis 

When BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales stumbled upon a flyer for a Muslim water park event in Grand Prairie, Texas, she was disturbed to find that it was “Muslims only” and immediately reported on it.

The city promptly shut it down.

After Gonzales interviewed the organizer of the event, who was shocked to find that Gonzales was critical of her Muslim-only event at a publicly funded park, the organizer’s husband sent Gov. Greg Abbott (R) and Gonzales a message.

“Now he is trying to fight all of this with some videos of his own,” Gonzales says, “very interesting videos, very poorly done.”

“The governor of Texas is attacking my family, and I’m sick of it. Two days ago, Greg Abbott forced the city of Grand Prairie to cancel our Eid event at Epic Waters. For the past two years, my wife and I rented out the entire park so Muslim families could celebrate Eid in a modest environment,” the man said.

“Then Islamaphobes got ahold of a private flyer and twisted it into something it was never meant to be. We never banned other religions and even changed the wording to ‘modest dress only’ to make that crystal clear,” he continued.

“But Greg Abbott, he don’t care about facts. He fueled the flames of hatred, empowered these hate-filled politicians, and turned my family into a political target. Now we’re receiving death threats and harassments because of it,” he said. “But hear me clearly. I’m not going to back down.”

He also warned that he would be taking “hate-filled politicians down.”

“It was the city who decided … they weren’t going to actually agree with your religious discrimination that you quite literally did,” Gonzales says.

However, he didn’t just go after Abbott. He also went after Gonzales herself.

“My life is in danger. And I think I just figured out why,” he said.

“I found the woman who claims to be the person who wrote the story — the super Islamophobe herself,” he said, sharing a photo of Gonzales.

“My wife’s information gets spread online on purpose by her to her hateful followers. People start targeting my family. Death threats start coming in. So I DM her directly. The DM she showed in her video, but it’s not the whole DM. Sara, you left out a really important part,” he continued.

He went on to ask viewers to “comment DM” on his video if they want to see the “full DM.”

“Somebody asked me, ‘How you going to take down Governor Abbott?’ It starts with these bigoted, hateful, racist, Islamophobe podcasters who the government is employing to sow seeds of division between Americans and spew hate. We take them down first,” he continued.

“It starts with her,” he added.

“If the government’s paying me for this,” Gonzales laughs, “the check got lost in the mail.”

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.

​Blaze media, Blaze news, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Blaze podcast network, Blaze podcasts, Blazetv, Blazetv host, City shutdown, Eid event, Epic waters, Event organizer, Grand prairie texas, Greg abbott, Islamophobe, Modest dress only, Muslim water park, Muslims only, Religious discrimination, Sara gonzales, Sara gonzales unfiltered, The blaze