Category: blaze media

Mother’s Day has a way of sneaking up on people. One minute it’s April; the next, you’re rummaging through a half-empty scented candle shelf in CVS wondering whether “Tuscan Sunset” or “Nantucket Rain” better expresses your appreciation for the woman who gave you life.

Fortunately, the best last-minute Mother’s Day gifts often are not things at all.

Experience gifts also have the advantage of arriving instantly via email. Even if you’re down to the wire, they are still thoughtful because they require planning and shared time.

In fact, depending on your mother’s age, the last thing she may want is more stuff. Many parents eventually reach a stage of life when they are actively trying to simplify, downsize, declutter, or quietly distribute decades of accumulated possessions.

What they often appreciate more are gifts involving time, competence, memory, thoughtfulness, or shared experience.

A carefully planned lunch. A framed family photograph. Help organizing old pictures. Tickets for something months away. A promise to finally fix the technology problems everyone else in the family avoids.

The best gifts from adult children acknowledge a simple reality: Eventually, your role in your parents’ lives shifts. At a certain point, being helpful, attentive, and present matters more than buying another object that winds up in a closet.

Here are 10 last-minute Mother’s Day gifts that are still personal.

1. ‘Coupons’ but for tech support

Every mother has probably received a homemade coupon book at some point. Usually it promised things like “one free hug” or “breakfast in bed.”

Harder to pull this off as an adult — unless you offer something actually helpful.

Many parents quietly live with low-level technological chaos: three different remotes, passwords scattered across sticky notes, thousands of family photos somewhere in the cloud but nowhere anyone can actually find them.

Here’s where you come in. Some sample “offers”:

“I will finally fix the printer situation.”“I’ll set up your streaming passwords properly.”“I’ll organize all the family photos.”“I’ll clean up your phone storage.”

And if you’re not so tech-capable yourself, you can always hire someone to do it for you.

Of course, there’s no need to limit yourself to digital chores. Maybe there are some old paint cans that have been sitting on the side of the house for a decade, or maybe an unused garden bed needs to be brought back to life.

Yes, these gifts are more practical then sentimental, and that’s the point. Children eventually become useful — what better day to acknowledge this than Mother’s Day?

2. Tickets for some future event

One reason many last-minute gifts feel hollow is that they lack intentionality. A future event instantly solves that problem.

The key is specificity: not “We should go to a concert sometime,” but “I bought tickets for June 14.”

Experience gifts also have the advantage of arriving instantly via email. Even if you’re down to the wire, they are still thoughtful because they require planning and shared time.

These could be tickets to a concert, baseball game, or theater production; a botanical garden membership; enrollment in a cooking class; or reservations for afternoon tea.

In many cases, the anticipation becomes part of the gift itself.

3. A real letter

Not a text. Not a greeting card with two rushed sentences crammed beneath someone else’s poetry. An actual letter.

For many mothers, especially those with adult children, this may be more meaningful than almost any purchased object.

You don’t need to make it overly sentimental. In fact, it’s often better if it’s specific and grounded.

Memories you still think about.Things you understand now that you didn’t as a child.Family traditions you appreciate more with age.Sacrifices you failed to notice at the time.Funny stories only the two of you remember.

One advantage of getting older is realizing that ordinary family moments were not ordinary at all.

Print the letter and put it in an envelope. Include an old photograph if possible. Physical objects still matter.

4. Plans you made yourself

Many family gatherings supposedly “for Mom” still require mothers to organize them.

This year, remove her from the logistics entirely. Pick the restaurant. Coordinate schedules. Make the reservation. Handle transportation if necessary. Inform everyone where to be and when. The competence is part of the gift!

And it doesn’t necessarily have to be expensive. A carefully planned brunch at home can be more thoughtful than an overcrowded prix-fixe restaurant meal booked in a panic.

The important thing is that she experiences the day rather than managing it.

5. A family ‘podcast’ recording

One of the strangest things about adulthood is realizing how many stories you never asked your parents about.

How did they meet? What was their first apartment like? What do they remember about their own parents? What did family holidays look like when they were children?

A surprisingly meaningful Mother’s Day gift is simply deciding to record these stories before they disappear. The good news is that this requires almost no technology. An iPhone on the kitchen table is enough.

You could record a conversation with just your mother or both parents together. Gather siblings or grandparents, or even create a recurring “family podcast.”

The point is not production quality. In fact, part of the charm is hearing ordinary interruptions: laughter, people talking over each other, someone making coffee in the background.

Years from now, those details may matter as much as the stories themselves.

6. A portrait sitting

It may sound extravagant or old-fashioned, but commissioning a portrait — even a relatively simple charcoal sketch or watercolor — has become surprisingly accessible.

And unlike most gifts, it creates both an experience and an heirloom.

Some artists now work from photographs with quick turnaround digital commissions, while others offer live sittings that can be scheduled for later in the summer. The point is not necessarily museum-quality realism. In many cases, the charm comes from the act itself: setting aside time to sit still and be looked at carefully.

For mothers especially, who are often the family member behind the camera rather than in front of it, a portrait can be unexpectedly personal.

Even if the finished work arrives later, the commission itself can be given immediately — and is far more thoughtful than another last-minute gift basket.

7. A framed family photo

Most families now possess thousands of photos, and almost none of them exist anywhere outside a phone.

That’s why one of the best last-minute Mother’s Day gifts is often simply turning digital memories into physical objects again.

The easiest version is also one of the most effective: pick a genuinely good family photo, print it properly, and frame it.

You don’t need to wait for shipping, either. Places like FedEx Office, CVS, and Walgreens offer same-day photo printing at many locations. A thoughtfully chosen black-and-white candid photo in a simple frame will usually mean more than a generic store-bought decoration.

If you have slightly more time, photo books have become remarkably easy to make online. Services like Shutterfly, Mixbook, and Artifact Uprising let you assemble albums in an evening using photos already sitting on your phone.

The key is curation. Don’t dump 300 random images into a template. Pick a theme: vacations, grandchildren, pets. One thoughtfully assembled album often becomes something people revisit for years.

RELATED: Chuck Norris: Martial arts legend who submitted to a mother’s prayers

Sunset Boulevard/Getty Images

8. A fresh citrus subscription

Subscription gifts often fail because they seem generic — another monthly box filled with novelty snacks or products nobody would have purchased voluntarily.

The better approach is much simpler: Think about what your mother already genuinely enjoys eating or drinking, then find the best recurring version of it.

For some mothers, that might mean coffee from a favorite local roaster. For others it could be cheese or good olive oil.

The key is matching the gift to her actual habits rather than your idea of what a “gift” should look like.

Importantly, a subscription gift does not need to physically arrive on Mother’s Day itself in order to be thoughtful. In some ways, the delayed arrival is part of the appeal. Instead of a single rushed delivery, the gift becomes something she can look forward to weeks later.

One especially good option for citrus lovers is Marmalade Grove, a California citrus farm that ships seasonal fruit boxes directly to customers. A surprising number of people have never tasted truly fresh citrus picked close to ripeness, and the difference can be dramatic.

9. One excellent thing she would never buy herself

Last-minute shopping becomes much easier once you stop trying to find the “perfect” gift and instead follow a simpler rule: Buy one genuinely excellent version of something she already uses.

Not flashy luxury, but just an upgraded everyday object she would appreciate but probably never purchase for herself: exceptionally soft pajamas, a high-quality chef’s knife, beautiful garden shears, quality stationery.

Bonus: This often lends itself to a last-minute stop at a local business, whether it’s a gardening store, a paper store, or a kitchen goods supplier.

10. A gift in her name

Donating to charity “in someone’s name” can sometimes seem impersonal — the sort of thing corporations do instead of buying Christmas gifts.

But done thoughtfully, it can also be deeply meaningful. The key is specificity and personal connection.

Instead of donating to a massive abstract nonprofit, think about the causes, institutions, or traditions your mother genuinely cares about: a local pregnancy center, a veterans’ organization, local food banks, missionary work.

For religious families, one especially meaningful option is arranging a Mass intention or prayer offering on her behalf.

Like many of the best last-minute gifts, the point is not the amount of money involved. For many mothers — especially religious mothers — one of the greatest satisfactions is seeing their children carry forward the values they tried to instill in them.

​Family, Framed family photo, Gift guide, Last-minute gifts, Lifestyle, Provisions, Mother’s day 

For years, the public has been sold a false narrative: Children who experience gender distress must be affirmed — socially, hormonally, and even surgically — or they will suffer devastating mental health consequences.

However, now that some time has passed, the data shows a very different picture.

The treatments being presented as lifesaving are not addressing the pain and root problem whatsoever.

A large-scale Finnish study tracking young people referred for gender dysphoria found that the primary driver of poor mental health outcomes was not gender identity itself, but underlying psychiatric conditions.

Even more unsettling, medical interventions such as hormones and surgeries did not demonstrate a clear reduction of suicide risk.

In other words, the treatments being presented as lifesaving are not addressing the pain and root problem whatsoever. The current model of treating gender-confused youth is not delivering on its promises.

When I was a teenager, I was subjected to coercion to “become” a boy because my doctors and counselors peddled this as the solution to all of my problems. Turns out, it wasn’t.

I vividly remember walking into many doctors’ and therapists’ offices. I was depressed, had an eating disorder, and grew up in a tumultuous environment as a kid. That combination is usually a recipe for disaster. The root cause wasn’t that I was trans; it was that I had been through several traumatic experiences that no teenager or adolescent should face.

I am a detransitioner, meaning I am someone who went through the processes of “gender-affirming care” and have now reverted to identifying with my biological sex — a woman.

My experience is just one of many. Several of my friends and peers have experienced the same coercion and pressure to “accept” that they are another sex.

The Finnish study is not alone, however. It also aligns with another study done in the U.K., which found that the evidence for pediatric gender medicine is “remarkably weak” and that young patients often present with complex mental health needs requiring comprehensive psychological care, not surgical mutilation.

Together, these studies show a clear picture: The way that we currently handle this issue is completely wrong.

Children who present with distress, a rough home life, and being chronically online are often put on a conveyor belt of social transition, puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and irreversible surgeries.

Even more outrageous is that some of these can get approved in a doctor’s office without the consent of a parent or guardian. To do this behind parents’ backs and to encourage secrecy surrounding their social transition should be a crime.

RELATED: DEI went into hiding — but remains as dangerous as ever

Carl Lokko/Getty Images

The result of these practices has been disastrous for trust in our institutions, our health care system, and our school districts. Escalating these so-called treatments only further amplifies their harmful effects.

Hormonal interventions affect bone density, fertility, and long-term endocrine function. Surgical interventions are irreversible. These are serious medical decisions being made for patients who are, by definition, still developing.

My fight for justice is not simply about my own experience, although I have been through hell and back. It is fundamentally a question of ethics in medicine that the legal system must answer.

The evidence is stacking up against the false narrative that trans surgeries equate to lifesaving care. Children placed on this path often do not and will not fully understand its consequences until years later. By then, the damage has already been done.

Without action in every state, every medical institution, and every governing body, there will be continued pressure to worship an ideology with no scientific backing. The data is no longer in question. The evidence is settled. I believe the consensus is clear: We must end this abominable practice immediately.

​Gender dysphoria, Puberty blockers, Trans surgeries, Biological sex, Trans agenda, Gender ideology, Identity crisis, Detransitioner, Opinion & analysis 

Democrat James Talarico wasn’t always a politician.

When he was 21 years old, he was a sixth-grade teacher — and considering the comments he has made about transgender children in the past, BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales believes it’s worth digging into.

Gonzales found an old Facebook page dedicated to “Mr. Talarico,” where his 11- and 12-year-old students could gather to ask questions.

“This is already weird to me, in my opinion, to create a Facebook page for your students, because they’re 11. They shouldn’t be on Facebook,” Gonzales says.

But it gets worse.

“James Talarico frequently encouraged his young sixth-grade students to call his cell phone if they have any questions,” Gonzales explains, pulling up an old post from 2012.

“Read Chapter 11 in Hunger Games this weekend. Activity 2.11 is due on Monday. Call my cell or comment on this post if you have any questions,” Talarico’s post reads.

“How was he able to keep his employment doing this publicly?” Gonzales asks, pointing out that he even left his personal phone number on some posts.

“I’m just interested in asking what the hell was going on at that school, in that class, where Mr. Talarico is inviting 11- and 12-year-olds to call him on the phone,” she says, pointing out that in any other situation, his behavior would be a “red flag.”

“At worst, it is predatory behavior. At best, it is horrible judgment and horrible boundaries with young children,” she adds.

In another post on his Facebook page, Talarico wrote, “Looking forward to spending my birthday with the 6th grade boys at UT tomorrow!”

“Is that normal for a 21-year-old male? Gonzales asks. “Is that normal for a 21-year-old male to post on Facebook?”

“That is weird,” she adds.

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.

​Democrat james talarico, James talarico, Predatory behavior, Sara gonzales, Sara gonzales unfiltered, Transgender children, Red flag, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Come and take it, Come and take it with sara gonzales 

Louisiana police say that an alert police officer realized something was off with a girl who was found in a car belonging to a man accused of public urination.

The harrowing incident unfolded on Saturday when officers of the St. Gabriel Police Department made contact with a 39-year-old man identified as Lionel Moore.

Moore was convicted in 2005 of indecent behavior with juveniles in Iberville Parish but failed to register as a sex offender several times.

St. Gabriel Police Chief Kevin Ambeau said officers found that Moore had warrants out of East Baton Rouge for failure to register as a sex offender after checking his driver’s license.

Then one officer made eye contact with the girl in his car and grew suspicious.

“Captain on the scene noticed her characteristics. She was dressed older than she was, at 17,” Ambeau said.

She also gave him different birth dates that did match her age. The teenager then confessed to have been with Moore for nearly three years.

Police determined that the girl had been reported missing by her mother in 2024.

“My captain was able to get the mom’s number, and we contacted the mom, who had moved out of state,” Ambeau added.

Police called on the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services to help with the teenager.

Moore was convicted in 2005 of indecent behavior with juveniles in Iberville Parish but failed to register as a sex offender several times. He was taken into custody over the felony warrant.

RELATED: 16-year-old girl disappeared from Tennessee hotel — and was found hundreds of miles away with man she met online, cops say

Ambeau said they are now trying to determine if the teenager was being forced into sex trafficking. They are utilizing facial recognition technology on images from police body cameras and searching for her on sex trafficking sites.

“I been here all my life, and I’m 62 years old, and I ain’t never of heard of nothing like this,” said Jeffery Ben, a resident of St. Gabriel. “That’s bad.”

St. Gabriel is a city of about 6,677 residents in southern central Louisiana.

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

​Public urinator had missing girl, Girl missing for 3 years, Sex offender found with missing girl, Louisiana missing teenager, Crime 

The Trump administration refused to allow FISA Section 702 to lapse for even one day, calling it a vital tool for counterterrorism. However, when it comes to ensuring Immigration and Customs Enforcement has the necessary tools to remove alien criminals without enduring endless lawfare by sanctuary judges, there seems to be no such reservation.

Simply throwing more money at ICE in the budget reconciliation bill without changing policy will not alter the current landscape of failed deportation promises.

Trump has won numerous cases from the Supreme Court on issues pertaining to due process, detention, and bond hearings, yet the lower courts continue to defy those rulings.

On the same day House Republicans, at the behest of the White House, rushed passage of the FISA reauthorization, they passed the Senate budget reconciliation bill, which offers ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Protection $75 billion in mandatory funding for the remainder of the presidency.

It is understandable why Trump would want to use his last party-line bill to front-load ICE funding in the face of Democrat opposition, but what is the purpose of funding ICE if it can’t even deport violent illegal aliens without lawfare? Why is the White House opposing efforts from House conservatives to expand reconciliation?

Sadly, the Trump administration has signaled that it is largely done with mass deportations and seeks to focus on what it refers to as “the worst of the worst.” So we will certainly remove all of the criminal aliens before his term expires, right?

Wrong!

Bryan Rafael Gomez, a Dominican illegal alien who was released into the country in 2022, was arrested by ICE Boston on April 4, following a warrant for murder charges in his home country. Yet Judge Melissa DuBose, a radical Biden appointee, ordered him released and claimed his detention was unlawful.

Cases like this one are occurring on a daily basis, and despite the unambiguous language of statute and endless Supreme Court victories stating that ICE is permitted or even required to apprehend, detain, and remove these people, radical lower court judges just come back with slightly different plaintiffs and rule the same way.

As of February, illegal aliens have filed more than 18,000 habeas petitions during Trump’s second term challenging their detention in federal courts. It’s more than the number of such challenges filed over the last three administrations put together.

What these filings are designed to do is remove cases from immigration courts and bring them into Article III courts where American rights are often erroneously applied to people litigating their way into status after final removal orders.

RELATED: The founders gave us the remedy for rogue state judges: Impeach

BrianAJackson/Getty Images

The entire purpose of a habeas petition was to give people a safety valve if they have a prima facie claim of being a citizen or a case of mistaken identity. But illegal aliens are now using habeas to block every removal, no matter how clear it is that the person is here illegally and even when they have a criminal record.

Earlier this year, U.S. District Judge John deGravelles granted habeas petitions and ordered the immediate release of four illegal aliens from ICE custody at Louisiana State Penitentiary, despite final removal orders. Who were the cast of characters?

Ibrahim Ali Mohamed (Ethiopia): Convicted of sexual exploitation of a minor (child sex crime/pedophilia). Entered/released into the U.S. under Biden policies; removed order issued September 2024. Luis Gaston-Sanchez (Cuba): Convictions for homicide, assault, resisting an officer, concealing stolen property, and two counts of robbery. Removed order from 2001.Ricardo Blanco Chomat (Cuba): Convictions for homicide, kidnapping, aggravated assault with a firearm, burglary, robbery, larceny, and selling cocaine. Removed order from 2002.Francisco Rodriguez-Romero: Convictions for homicide and a weapons offense. Removed order from 1995.

Three months later, these individuals, with convictions of rape, murder, assault, and robbery, remain in the country indefinitely.

In March, U.S. District Judge Susan Richard Nelson ordered the release of Carlos Antonio Flores-Miguel, a confirmed MS-13 gang member, from ICE custody. He had multiple illegal re-entries/deportations and was initially released into the U.S. under Biden policies in 2022.

ICE arrested him in Minneapolis on January 20, after he violently resisted (punching/kicking officers and grabbing an ICE officer’s gun holster).

Trump cannot spend the remainder of his term counting the number of the worst of the worst being deported on one hand, and even having many of those deportations hampered.

The time has come to use budget reconciliation to defund any federal court case granting a habeas petition to illegal aliens unless there is a claim the individual is a citizen or of mistaken identity. Why has Trump never supported Texas Republican Rep. Chip Roy’s effort to include this in reconciliation?

RELATED: How Republicans have failed to defund sanctuary cities for a generation

J. David Ake/Getty Images

To the extent this provision was ignored in last year’s bill, it is indefensible not to include it in this year’s bill now that we see deportations being ground to a halt.

Even if Trump or congressional Republicans are squeamish about applying this to every case, at a minimum they must block review of cases involving criminal aliens — at least for lower courts.

The notion that we can rely on the Supreme Court is absurd. Trump has won numerous cases from the Supreme Court on issues pertaining to due process, detention, and bond hearings, yet the lower courts continue to defy those rulings.

Years after the Trump v. Hawaii ruling made it clear the president can suspend immigration and visas from various countries, a new lower court judge issued an injunction against it. The same thing is happening with judges granting Temporary Protected Status despite Supreme Court rulings to the contrary.

So far, in neither Trump term has there been an effort from the White House to use reconciliation or any other must-pass bill to defund sanctuary cities, change any immigration laws, or jurisdiction-strip the courts.

These are all fiscal provisions that should be included in reconciliation. What is the point in throwing funding at ICE if it is legally hampered and the White House continues to abide by lawless lower court orders?

Then again, as we saw with FISA reauthorization, Trump seems to fight for what he wants. Perhaps if conservatives reallocated the defunded monies from sanctuary cities and judges to an ICE ballroom, it would get the attention of the man who promised 10 years ago to end illegal immigration.

​Counterterrorism, Democrat judges, House republicans, Ice funding, Illegal aliens, Illegal immigration, Immigration laws, Lower courts, Mass deportations, Sanctuary cities, Supreme court rulings, Trump administration, White house, Budget reconciliation, Chip roy, Trump, Opinion & analysis 

Reality TV star Spencer Pratt demolished his Democratic competition in a combative debate Wednesday evening in the Los Angeles mayoral debate.

Pratt went after Nithya Raman, who is aligned with the Democratic Socialists of America, after she tried to claim success in her efforts to ease the homelessness crisis as a city councilwoman.

‘I blame this person for burning my house and my parents’ house and my town and all my neighbors down.’

Pratt brutally mocked the “Inside Safe” program touted by Raman during the debate.

“First off, Inside Safe, I like to say Inside Safe makes all of us outside, unsafe,” Pratt joked.

“The reality is, no matter how many beds you give these people, they are on super meth,” Pratt added. “They are on fentanyl. The DEA statistic says 93% of this is a drug addiction problem. I will go below the Harbor Freeway tomorrow with [Raman] and we can find some of these people she’s going to offer treatment for. She’s going to get stabbed in the neck!”

Pratt also went on the attack against incumbent Democratic Mayor Karen Bass, whose incompetence allegedly led to his house being burned down in the Pacific Palisades fires. Raman accused Bass and Pratt of working together to elbow her out of the race.

“First off, Mayor Bass and I are definitely not working together,” Pratt responded, to which Bass replied by laughing.

“I blame this person for burning my house and my parents’ house and my town and all my neighbors’ down,” Pratt jabbed.

He slammed both Bass and Raman of perpetuating the same old leftist policies that had led to a severe decline in living standards in Los Angeles.

Pratt appears to be making inroads despite running as a Republican with an electorate overwhelmingly identifying as Democrat. One report found that he had been able to raise more campaign funds than either of his competitors.

RELATED: This underdog candidate’s app will expose the politicians to blame for LA’s shocking filth

Raman had previously been compared to the socialist upstart Zohran Mamdani, who pulled an upset victory to gain the New York City mayor’s office. After a stammering incompetent appearance on the debate stage, Raman’s campaign is facing heavy criticism.

“What really surprised me is how rough of a night Nithya Raman had,” Dustin Gardiner of Politico said to KNBC-TV. “She was struggling with some of her answers. The moderators were struggling to get her to answer some of the yes and no questions.”

Gardiner said people believing Pratt would “faceplant” in his first political debate were wrong.

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

​Karen bass, Spencer pratt, Democratic socialists, Nithya raman, Politics 

Philadelphia police said a male confronted a woman in a store last month, spit on her, physically attacked her, and caused injuries to her — and the brutal beatdown was recorded on surveillance video.

Police said the assault took place around 11 p.m. April 22 in the 4000 block of Market Street in the University City neighborhood.

‘He has no heart, no heart.’

Police said after the confrontation, the argument between the two escalated, and the male spit on the woman and repeatedly punched her in the face before knocking her to the floor of the store.

Police said the woman suffered several injuries due to the attack.

The male left the store in an unknown direction, police said.

RELATED: Gang of juvenile males chase college student into dorm, physically attack victim, go on rampage. It all happens around 3 a.m.

“Oh no, my God, oh, I’m so hurt to see it,” Linda Lofton of West Philadelphia said in an interview with WXTF-TV. “He has no heart, no heart, and everyone has a mother [or a] sister [or an] aunt. … Oh, it’s horrible.”

Rasheedah of South Philadelphia added to the station, “Why these men gotta attack women? There’s other ways to resolve conflict. It’s just so sad to see.”

Police added to WXTF that the victim has been connected with victim assistance and advocacy services.

“I’m quite sure she’s traumatized by what happened, so hopefully she’ll get the help that she needs,” Rasheedah added to the station.

Police said if you see the suspect, do not approach — instead call 911 immediately. To submit a tip via telephone, dial 215-686-TIPS (8477). Police said community members can use this electronic form to submit tips anonymously and that all tips will be confidential.

Police also said those with any information about this crime or suspect can contact the Southwest Detective Division at 215-686-3183/3184.

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

​Physical attack, Assault, Philadelphia, Male beats up female, Police, Suspect at large, Store, Spit, Crime 

The attempted carjacking of a family in Texas was perpetrated by a man not legally in the U.S., according to Garland Police.

Video shows 30-year-old Jose Ramirez calmly walking up to the white sedan on Sunday and beginning a struggle with a father in an attempt to steal his car, as Blaze News previously reported.

‘You could definitely tell that he was not in his right state of mind.’

Ramirez crashed his car into two vehicles and then tried to steal several other cars in a parking lot in Garland before spotting the family’s sedan, according to police.

The father of the family got into an altercation with Ramirez, who was able to get into the driver’s seat as some of the family members ran from the vehicle.

The father was able to shoot Ramirez from outside the car through the passenger’s side. Ramirez was transported to a hospital, where he later died.

Police later identified the man as a Mexican national who was not a resident of Garland.

They also said the father was not likely to be charged because he appeared to shoot the man in self-defense.

A witness named Tatiana Starks pulled out her cell phone and was able to record Ramirez before he walked toward her on the way to the family’s car.

Videos of the altercation were widely circulated online.

RELATED: Democrat stunned to find criminal past of teen who allegedly carjacked her: ‘Shocked me to my core’

“You could definitely tell that he was not in his right state of mind,” said Starks, who worked at a smoke shop near the incident. “I’m just glad that the man was able to protect himself and his family.”

Police said the father who shot Ramirez cooperated with their investigation.

“It’s just a blessing that the kids and the family walked away with no injuries,” Starks added.

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

​Garland carjacking shooting, Illegal alien crime, Dad shoots carjacker, Carjacker killed, Politics 

A wild video has gone viral showing an alleged drunk driver steering her car up on a sidewalk and seemingly chasing a child riding a dirt bike in Washington state. The “crazy” suspect also was accused of burglarizing a nearby residence after nearly mowing down the boy.

The Spokane County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement that deputies responded to a report of a reckless and aggressive driver in Cheney just after 6 p.m. April 28.

‘She was smashing the front door, and she stumbled off because she looked so drunk.’

“During the incident, the suspect drove up on the sidewalk and attempted to hit a juvenile riding a bike,” police stated.

The statement read, “The driver chased the juvenile on the sidewalk before reentering the roadway and leaving the area.”

Deputies spoke with witnesses and watched cellphone video a neighbor recorded of the incident. The video shows a motorist behind the wheel of a silver Ford Focus driving down a residential street and honking the horn. Suddenly, the driver steers the car up on the sidewalk and accelerates toward a child riding a dirt bike, the viral video shows.

“This woman is crazy,” the neighbor is heard saying in the video the sheriff’s office released Monday.

“She’s trying to run this … oh my God … You’re kidding! Oh my God,” the person recording the wild video is heard screaming.

RELATED: ‘How much have you had to drink tonight, Wally?’ Former police chief dragged from car, arrested for DUI in wild bodycam video

Police said the child was not hit or injured during the “extremely dangerous incident.”

Within 25 minutes of the initial report, police were alerted about a potential burglary nearby. Police said they were notified around 6:30 p.m. in regard to a “reported residential burglary” about a mile away from the driving incident.

“The victim, who was not home, said he was watching a suspect on his live security system trying door handles, and it was unclear if the suspect entered the residence,” the sheriff’s office stated.

Deputies went to the location of the reported break-in and noticed a silver Ford Focus parked in the driveway. Police identified the suspect as 56-year-old Wendy A. Clemente.

“She explained she took her dog for a ride, looking for other dogs to socialize with,” police said of Clemente.

Law enforcement said Clemente told investigators she noticed dogs fenced in the yard at the residence, and she stopped. According to the statement, Clemente confessed that she didn’t know the homeowner but “denied entering or attempting to enter his residence.”

The homeowner disputed Clemente’s claims and said she was “stumbling around” and “bouncing off trees” on his property. The homeowner, 48-year-old Lloyd Gaines, told the Daily Mail, “She was smashing the front door, and she stumbled off because she looked so drunk. She fell off my porch and face-planted.”

Gaines told the news outlet that Clemente entered his home and did “rustle through” his belongings, “tossed stuff around,” and examined his wife’s jewelry but didn’t steal any items. Gaines said he and his wife were not at home when Clemente allegedly entered their residence; his Ring doorbell camera notified him.

The statement read, “Despite indicators that Clemente was impaired, she denied drinking alcohol or consuming any drugs, but later changed her story and admitted to drinking alcohol.”

When police informed Clemente that she was under arrest for driving under the influence, she reportedly put up a fight.

“While trying to put her in the back of a patrol car, she resisted and even tried to kick a deputy,” according to police.

Deputies “eventually” restrained her in the back of the police vehicle. Deputies secured a search warrant to obtain a sample of Clemente’s blood for testing. Clemente said she didn’t recall the alleged incident with the child, police said.

Clemente was booked into the Spokane County Jail and charged with first-degree attempted assault, DUI, and first-degree criminal trespass.

At the arraignment the following day, Spokane County Superior Court Commissioner N. Swennumson ordered Clemente released on her own recognizance without needing to post bond, according to police.

The New York Post reported that Clemente pleaded not guilty to all the charges. The Daily Mail reported that Clemente is a U.S. Army veteran.

The Spokane County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office did not immediately respond to Blaze News‘ request for comment.

Clemente is scheduled to appear in court on May 20.

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

​Viral video, Wild video, Video, Drunk driver, Dui, Drunk driving, Crime, Washington state, Spokane county sheriff’s office 

When “The Breakfast Club” host Charlamagne tha God commented on the latest assassination attempt against President Trump, he appeared to empathize with the shooter — and Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck called him out on it.

Glenn pointed out that Charlamagne’s take sounded like a justification for political violence and Charlamagne went on the defense, accusing Glenn of skewing his argument and being unable to empathize with struggling Americans.

And while Glenn still is “sure” Charlamagne tha God is “a pleasant man,” he believes he had a poor response.

“You know who Glenn Beck is, right? Y’all know who Glenn Beck is, right? He was recently having a conversation on his radio show, I believe, about some of my comments in regards to the shooting that happened at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner,” he began.

“My comments were simple. There is no place for political violence in our society. None. I don’t condone it, but I think we do ourselves a disservice when we don’t talk about how people can become radicalized. And the reality is the Trump administration has caused so much pain to people’s everyday lives that some folks are fed up and willing to risk it all,” he continued.

“I don’t agree with vigilante justice,” he added. “I don’t think political violence is the answer, but we have to have honest conversations about how these people are being radicalized. Glenn Beck knows this.”

“I really like you,” Glenn responds, “but I think you’re an idiot on this.”

Glenn points out that while Charlamagne denounces the violence, he then uses the word “but” to say he understands it.

“You see what happens when you use the word ‘but’?” he asks, demonstrating, “‘I’m against assassination, but I can understand how one got there’ is not nuance. It’s surrender with a smile.”

“Once you grant the logic, you’ve already seated the assassin at the table of legitimate debate. There is no seat at the table for the assassin. You’ve told the next killer that his grievance is human and understandable, even if his bullet becomes regrettable,” Glenn explains.

“That’s not compassion,” he says, adding, “That is your darker self putting on a suit, calling it insight.”

Want more from Glenn Beck?

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

​Assassination attempt, Blaze media, Blaze news, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Blaze podcast network, Blaze podcasts, Blazetv, Charlamagne tha god, Glenn beck, Political violence, Radio host, The blaze, The glenn beck program, Trump administration, Trump assassination attempt, Vigilante justice, White house correspondents 

Far-left Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington state has admitted to undermining the embargo against Cuba, which some interpreted as a serious criminal violation.

The Trump administration has forbidden oil tanker shipments to the Communist-ruled island after the daring military arrest of Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro in early January.

She called the humanitarian situation in Cuba a ‘crisis beyond imagination’ due to the US embargo.

Jayapal admitted that she attempted to orchestrate oil shipments despite the embargo while on a congressional delegation to Cuba.

“As many of you know, I traveled to Cuba as part of a congressional delegation last month,” she said during remarks in Seattle recently. “It is part of my role to see how U.S. foreign policy is actually affecting the people in the countries where that policy is being implemented.”

She called the humanitarian situation in Cuba a “crisis beyond imagination” due to the U.S. embargo.

“I was in conversations with the ambassadors from Mexico and some other places … trying to figure out how to get oil there,” Jayapal said after returning to the U.S.

She went on to say she met with various political officials, including Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel.

When her comments went viral on social media and many accused her of violating U.S. law, she replied by justifying her actions.

“Breaking news: Members of Congress meet with ambassadors of other countries every day. That’s literally our right and responsibility,” Jayapal wrote sarcastically.

She has not been charged or investigated over the accusations.

RELATED: Democratic Rep. calls for ‘reparations’ for migrant kids separated from families at the border

Some suggested she was violating the Logan Act, a 1799 restriction against U.S. citizens negotiating with foreign countries that are in conflict with the U.S.

Former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy said that prosecuting Jayapal under the Logan Act was unlikely and that she should face political accountability instead.

“There has never been a conviction under it — in fact, there have only been two indictments, the last one about 174 years ago,” he told Fox News Digital.

“There would be no criminal case,” he added, “unless it can be shown that she took some action that violated, or aided and abetted a violation of, the sanctions.”

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

​Rep. pramila jayapal, Logan act violation, Us embargo on cuba, Woke squad member, Politics 

Jia Bei Zhu, the Chinese national linked both to the secret California biolab discovered in 2022 and the biolab discovered earlier this year in Las Vegas, is finally reaping the whirlwind for his crimes on American soil.

The Justice Department announced on Wednesday that a jury has convicted Zhu on one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, eight counts of substantive wire fraud, two counts of distributing adulterated and misbranded medical devices, and one count of making a false statement to the Food and Drug Administration.

‘He flouted the lawful authority of the FDA and deliberately deceived the public.’

While he now faces the possibility of decades in prison, Zhu has evaded justice for at least a decade.

The British Columbia Supreme Court determined in 2016 that Zhu and several companies he controlled had conspired to steal confidential technology from a Colorado-based company, partly with the intention to sell said technology in China.

Facing over $270 million in damages and prison time, the IP-stealing fraudster fled Canada in 2015, then entered the United States — “unlawfully,” according to the DOJ — where he continued to rip off Americans.

The jury in the Chinaman’s latest trial was presented with evidence that, once stateside, Zhu founded a company in California with his romantic partner, Zhaoyan Wang, called Universal Meditech Inc.

With the help of employees hired through the Fresno County Economic Development Corporation who “would not ask any questions,” Zhu, Wang, and others at UMI conspired from August 2020 through March 2023 to import faulty COVID tests from China — the origin of the disease — then sell those faulty tests to Americans based on numerous false representations, prosecutors claimed.

RELATED: CCP BLOCKS $2 billion American takeover of Chinese-founded AI company

Las Vegas Metro Police Department footage screenshots

They falsely claimed that the tests were authorized by the Food and Drug Administration, were made in the U.S., were made in connection with a certified medical lab, and worked.

Zhu managed to rake in nearly $4 million selling over 1 million malfunctioning COVID tests.

According to the DOJ, Wang was charged in connection with the scheme but evaded arrest by fleeing to China.

Zhu’s scheme first came to light when one of his victims filed a civil lawsuit in 2022, prompting an inspection of UMI’s Fresno facility — an inspection which the DOJ said not only demonstrated UMI’s inability to properly manufacture COVID tests but proved the company to be nothing more than “an unsanitary warehouse that was far below established quality standards for facilities that house medical devices.”

Once again, Zhu attempted to escape justice, moving UMI from Fresno to Reedley and changing its name to Prestige Biotech Inc.

When the FDA began investigating him, Zhu lied about his immigration status and identity, claiming to be Qiang “David” He. Zhu also said he knew nothing about UMI or PBI.

The discovery of Zhu’s Reedley biolab in early 2023 ushered in the end of the Chinaman’s years-long grift.

Months after a code enforcement officer noticed a hose sticking out of a supposedly vacant warehouse in the heart of Reedley — a clear violation of the municipality’s building code — local officials executed a search warrant on March 16, 2023.

Inside, they found lab equipment, trace narcotics, roughly 1,000 mice that were genetically engineered to mimic the human immune system, and faulty medical devices subject to an FDA health embargo along with “blood, tissue, and other bodily fluid samples and serums; and thousands of vials of unlabeled fluids and suspected biological material,” according to a congressional report.

Zhu was arrested on Oct. 19, 2023.

While in custody, police raided another one of the Chinese national’s properties, this time a Las Vegas residence managed by an Israeli national currently in the U.S. on an E-2 visa. The FBI said more lab equipment was discovered at the scene, including a “bio-safety hood, a bio-safety sticker, a centrifuge, multiple refrigerators, red-brown unknown liquids in gallon-sized containers, and refrigerated vials with unknown liquids.”

Eric Grant, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of California, said that the verdict in Zhu’s case “holds the defendant accountable for actions that exploited a public health crisis for his own gain. He flouted the lawful authority of the FDA and deliberately deceived the public by repackaging low-quality, foreign-made test kits at a time when accuracy and reliability were critical.”

Grant added, “This conduct, tied to the unlawful operations uncovered at the Reedley laboratory, put lives at risk.”

The House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party has confirmed that Zhu is a Chinese citizen associated with communist regime-linked companies as well as with Chinese military-civil fusion entities.

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

​China, Chinese communist party, Chinese national, Covid tests, Fda, Food and drug administration, Fresno county, Immigration status, Jia bei zhu, Justice department, Las vegas, Medical devices, Wire fraud, Zhu, Public health crisis, Communist, Chinese, Reedley, Biolab, California, Radical, Fugitive, Politics 

The powerful Virginia Democrat at the center of a federal raid operation issued a defiant statement accusing the Trump administration of political persecution.

Numerous law enforcement vehicles were seen outside the dispensary owned by Democrat state Senate President pro tempore Louise Lucas as well as her offices in Portsmouth on Wednesday.

Many outlets reported that the investigation related to political corruption allegations as well as the possible sale of illegal marijuana products.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation said only that agents were serving a “court-authorized search warrant.”

Lucas has not been charged but issued a statement posted to social media.

“I am not backing down, and I will keep fighting for the people of Portsmouth and the Commonwealth of Virginia,” the 82-year-old said.

“What we saw fits a clear pattern from this administration: when challenged, they try to intimidate and silence the voices who stand up to them,” Lucas added in part.

“I have never been afraid to stand up to Donald Trump or anyone else that has tried to undermine our democracy.”

Many outlets reported that the investigation related to political corruption allegations as well as the possible sale of illegal marijuana products.

Lucas opened the Cannabis Outlet near her offices in 2021. The shop sells CBD and hemp products.

She also implied that the raids were political payback for her support of a redistricting effort in order to boost Democrats’ control of the U.S. Congress. The referendum is in legal limbo after being challenged in court.

Contrary to her assertion that the law enforcement action was politically motivated, the Associated Press reported that the investigation began under former President Joe Biden, a Democrat.

Democrat Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger was asked whether she stood by the senator, but the governor offered only a vague statement.

RELATED: MASSIVE fed operation under way to CRUSH cartel’s ‘notorious open-air drug market’ in LA

“Well, certainly I am aware of the law enforcement action that occurred in Portsmouth, and I am awaiting more details to become public before weighing in with any strong public comment,” Spanberger said. “And as more information becomes available, I look forward to making further comment.”

Virginia House Speaker Don Scott (D) cautioned against hasty conclusions.

“Right now, there is far more theatrics and speculation than actual information available to the public,” Scott said.

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

​Fbi raids, Marijuana dispensary, Top virginia democrat, Redistricting battle, Politics 

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) is going all in on taxing the rich.

The governor recently proposed a new pied-à-terre tax as a matter of “fairness.” The tax, which would affect nonresident owners of high-end New York City properties, is a surprising reversal in support of a tax proposal by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D). Hochul had previously rejected the proposal.

While the rhetoric around this tax may resonate politically, the policy itself is a textbook case of how populist tax schemes can undermine investment, distort housing markets, and ultimately leave the city worse off.

Albany’s ingenuity in thinking up new modes of taxation is unparalleled.

“Those who benefit from the city without living in a full-time capacity should contribute to the costs that it takes to run the city: public safety, world-class parks, amenities, the roads, the subway system,” Hochul says in the video.

She continues, “I believe it will protect working New Yorkers and ensure that everyone who has an address in New York City is investing in its continued success.”

Hochul may be well attuned to the clamor of politics, but she is tone-deaf to sound economics.

Nonresident owners of New York City real estate already pay taxes — roughly $45,000 to $65,000 on a pied-à-terre with a market value of $5 million — while hardly benefiting from the public services their tax dollars fund. They also pay consumption-based taxes and fees when in New York City.

Nonresidents who own a business in the city also contribute revenue to the city budget.

The pied-à-terre tax has obvious defects in that it is arbitrary, distortionary, and status-dependent. It will likely lead to valuation challenges and maneuvers to keep properties below the $5 million threshold.

Applied only to nonresidents, it would create strong incentives to avoid the tax by altering residency status or otherwise manipulating the property title to obscure de facto property ownership.

For the most expensive real estate, the tax will lower property values — and thus property-tax liability — even though, certainly, “that effect gets distorted when the future tax burden on the property depends on the identity of the purchaser,” notes City Journal.

Taxing these nonresidents into calling New York City home is a poor welcome from the governor. Nevertheless, it suggests that her zeal to tax “New Yorkers,” unlike Mamdani’s, has subsided.

RELATED: Mamdani is moving from one failed promise to another

kena betancur/AFP/Getty Images

New York State already has the least competitive tax structure in the nation and the nation’s highest state and local tax collections per capita. From its “tax benefit recapture” provision to taxing many remote nonresidents under its “convenience of the employer” rule, Albany’s ingenuity in thinking up new modes of taxation is unparalleled.

The latest data shows that New York lost $9.9 billion in adjusted gross income (AGI) between 2022 and 2023 — a net loss of taxable income not readily evident from migration trends. Specifically, Manhattan, while gaining tax filers on net, lost $922 million in AGI.

In 2023, the top 1% (about 93,000 people) contributed roughly one-third of state tax revenue, supporting 20 million residents, according to Empire Center. With the nation’s third most progressive state tax system, New York has paved its own road to insolvency by chasing out high-net-worth taxpayers.

Sobered by plain budget facts, Hochul has begun pleading with wealthy New Yorkers to “go down to Palm Beach and see who you can bring back home.” She has opposed Mamdani’s “tax the rich” surtaxes on high-earning city residents and corporations, but not the city’s fiscal indulgence.

New York City spending has grown by more than 50% over the past decade — roughly 12% to 14% after inflation — even as the city’s population has declined slightly. This year, New York City’s spending is about $10 billion higher than that of the entire state of Florida.

Gov. Hochul misunderstands the core problem underlying the city’s fiscal plight. Rhetoric alone will not convince current and former wealthy New Yorkers that the state’s political leadership recognizes they have paid their fair share after all.

​Kathy hochul, New york governor, Property ownership, Taxation, Taxes, Taxing the rich, Economic disaster, New york city, Piedaterre tax, Opinion & analysis 

Britney Spears’ days of making surreal headlines appear to be far from over, as the pop icon has now pleaded out of a DUI charge — which has now been downgraded to a legally murky “wet reckless.”

The plea keeps Spears out of more serious trouble for now, but with a year of probation and restrictions on drug possession, BlazeTV hosts Stu Burguiere and Dave Landau aren’t convinced she’ll stay out of trouble.

“I would love to know what a ‘wet reckless’ is,” Dave comments.

“My understanding, Dave … is that it is basically a DUI except they don’t want to call it a DUI,” Stu explains.

A report from TMZ explains that there are “conditions to the plea,” which include her being “placed on 12 months’ probation” and “cannot possess drugs without a valid prescription.”

“Again, this could be a problem,” the article reads. “As we reported, Britney has gone to Mexico more than once to get Adderall.”

However, Dave points out that “technically, no one can do that.”

“I feel like it was just police officers screwing with TMZ because they know they don’t know anything about the law. Just like, ‘ Yeah, it’s a wet reckless,’ and she can’t have drugs without a prescription. No heroin without a prescription now for Britney,’” Stu jokes.

“Basically, everybody likes the videos of her half naked in her house juggling knives, so they don’t want to put her in jail,” Landau adds.

The pair also point out that it’s a little ridiculous for Spears to go all the way to Mexico to get Adderall.

“You really should just talk to your doctor and say that you need to focus. And if they don’t need proof, you could just show your entire life as being Britney Spears, and they might agree with you,” Landau jokes.

“Seriously, that’s not a real excuse. You don’t go to Mexico to get Adderall,” Stu agrees.

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.

​Adderall prescription, Blaze news, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Blaze podcast network, Blaze podcasts, Blazetv, Blazetv hosts, Britney spears, Dave landau, Drug possession, Dui, Dui arrest, Dui charge, Pop icon, Probation, Stu and dave do america, Stu burguiere, The blaze, Tmz report, Wet reckless 

A Florida mother is accused of kicking a youth football player on the field during a game, and she actually screamed, “I’m the one who got hit!” during her arrest.

Lee County Sheriff’s Office deputies on Saturday responded to the game at Brooks Park in Fort Myers after they “became aware of a large brawl located in the middle of the field,” NBC News reported, citing Detective Nicholas Cittadino’s arrest report.

‘They said you hit a kid!’

Parents ran onto the field to intervene, and a witness reported seeing a woman repeatedly kicking a juvenile male, NBC News said, citing the report.

The news network added that, according to the report, witnesses “quickly identified a white female who was leaving the area to have been a suspect of a battery on a juvenile.”

Renee Lynn Lambert, 34, was booked on suspicion of cruelty to a child without great bodily harm and resisting an officer, the news network said, citing the report.

The sheriff’s office identified Lambert as a “mother” who was “interfering with a Pop Warner youth football game and kicking a juvenile player.”

RELATED: Florida HS football coach of ‘significant size’ accused of fighting several students at once

Sheriff’s office bodycam video of Lambert’s arrest shows her arguing with deputies.

“So you’re mad at them for hitting me?” Lambert, dressed in a football jersey, asked.

“I’m mad at an adult for attacking a kid,” a male, presumably a deputy, responded. “Stop! You’re detained right now!”

“No, I’m not,” Lambert replied. “Goodbye.”

An apparent struggle ensued, and Lambert is heard on video hollering, “Get your hands off me! I’m the one who got hit!”

Lambert appeared to identify her attacker as a player wearing a No. 9 jersey.

“So where’s No. 9? Go get No. 9!” Lambert argued, presumably about one of the football players.

As Lambert is led away in handcuffs, the male speaking behind the bodycam video is heard telling her, “They said you hit a kid!”

But Lambert shot back, “And the kid hit me!”

RELATED: Brawl erupts after 200 ‘rowdy’ teens gather at shopping mall carnival; teen jumps on cop’s back, another elbows cop in head

The sheriff’s office said that while Lambert “claimed a child hit her with a helmet prompting her to fight back,” officials added that her claim “was later disproven.”

NBC News, citing the arrest report, said at least one witness, identified as Andre Valdes, backed up a player’s allegation that he was on the ground when Lambert kicked him in the leg.

The news network said Lambert couldn’t immediately be reached for comment at publicly listed phone numbers and email addresses associated with her.

RELATED: Parents of fighting students actually enter Philly HS and get physically involved in the fracas, forcing hour-long lockdown

Renee Lynn Lambert. Image source: Lee County (Fla.) Sheriff’s Office

Lambert’s jail records indicate she was booked Saturday at 8:47 p.m. and released Sunday at 12:20 p.m.

There was no bond information, but her next hearing is scheduled for June 1, jail data shows.

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

​Adult female attacks child, Arrest, Bodycam video, Cruelty to a child, Florida, Fort myers, Lee county sheriff’s office, Pop warner, Renee lynn lambert, Resisting arrest, Youth football game, Crime 

The actor famous for portraying a sci-fi hero cast himself as a villain with his latest anti-Trump post and got nailed with fierce backlash.

On Wednesday, Mark Hamill posted on BlueSky, the progressive social media platform, a denunciation of President Donald Trump with an image of the president lying in a grave.

‘This kind of rhetoric is exactly what has inspired three assassination attempts in two years against our President.’

“If Only — He should live long enough to witness his inevitable devastating loss in the midterms, be held accountable for his unprecedented corruption, impeached, convicted & humiliated for his countless crimes,” Hamill wrote.

“Long enough to realize he’ll be disgraced in the history books, forevermore,” the “Star Wars” actor added with the hashtag “Don the con.”

The image appeared to be an outdated death wish from 2024 and was immediately excoriated on social media.

“Mark Hamill is one sick individual. These Radical Left lunatics just can’t help themselves,” reads a statement from the White House Rapid Response team. “This kind of rhetoric is exactly what has inspired three assassination attempts in two years against our President.”

“I think Mark Hamill belongs in jail. He is using his notoriety to wish harm on the President. That only bolsters the crazed lunatics, who might act upon such a wish,” one user responded on the X platform.

“Damn in this photo Trump looks as dead as Mark Hamill’s career has been for the last 30 years,” another reply reads.

“He is a sick individual. So sad to see a movie hero turn into such an ugly soul,” another detractor said.

The tone-deaf post from Hamill comes at a time when Washington, D.C., is still reeling from an attempt on the president’s life at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner and a shooting at the National Mall after the vice presidential motorcade drove by.

RELATED: George Lucas strikes back at woke critics of Star Wars

Hamill also recently appeared in a video with former President Barack Obama promoting his presidential library in Chicago.

“A Star Wars-themed ad for the Obama Library — a library which looks like a fragment of the Death Star,” one commentator joked.

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

​Star wars actor mark hamill, Trump death wish, Actors vs trump, White house lashes out, Politics 

In our modern world, it is very common to conflate motives we do not understand with some form of mental illness. This is understandable when it comes to horrific crime. A serial killer is so violent and twisted that it is hard for us to comprehend his actions, and there is certainly a fair amount of mental illness that is a factor.

Today, however, people often use this explanation when it comes to political disagreements. Abortion, hatred of Christians, the mutilation of children — these beliefs are so horrible that they can only possibly be explained by a malfunctioning brain. But that is not the only explanation. The other option is that some people have a very different set of values that drive them to pursue goals we view as evil.

Our differences are not based on mental illness but fundamental beliefs about right and wrong.

The average American would like to avoid this truth, because it comes with an unnerving conclusion: Your political enemies are not crazy; they are sane people who hate you and want to hurt you.

As sophisticated and modern people, we tend to avoid language that implies some form of objective metaphysical truth. Evil is a concept that conjures up images of old churches, judgmental Sunday-school teachers, and medieval peasants trying to explain a drought.

We have the technology and understanding to explain everything in the world around us. Explanations that call on unseen forces or divine intervention are no longer required. In this thoroughly materialistic view, humans are simply animals with more sophisticated brains. Any undesirable behavior, therefore, can be understood as a malfunction of that brain.

There is no evil; there is only mental illness.

Modern Americans are universalists in a very strange sense. We assume that our values, beliefs, and customs are the default for all humans everywhere. Americans believe that all our assumptions about the way life ought to be lived are arrived at through individual human rationality, so if another person has a functioning brain, he will, of course, come to the same conclusion.

When we are confronted with someone who has very different understandings or goals, it is assumed that something has happened to his faculties of reason.

We try to argue with these people in hopes that rational debate will help them see the error of their ways. If debate does not work, we begin diagnosing the dissenting individual with all kinds of pathologies that explain why he doesn’t see the world the way we do. The explanation for divergent morals or goals is always a defective mental process, never a genuine difference in how we view the world.

The obsession with material explanations accounts for half of this phenomenon, but the other half is explained by our desperate need to avoid real conflict.

One of the major selling points of liberalism was the reduced need for violent conflict by removing existential questions from the political arena. Who is right about God? What is the ultimate good? To what end should we orient our society? These are all important but dangerous questions. The answers are exclusive and all-encompassing.

These are the things that people are willing to kill and die for, so better to make them off-limits and focus on something everyone can agree on — making more money and increasing the standard of living.

RELATED: The liberal guide to committing national suicide

Blaze Media Illustration

The desire to end the terrible wars that were fought over religion or identity is entirely understandable, and it is difficult to argue that the focus on economic cooperation did not produce significant benefits, but this was always a trade-off that could never last.

We may like to pretend that we are too advanced and sophisticated to get hung up on these primitive concerns, but under the surface, they continue to define us. Those conflicts do not disappear, and when they re-emerge, you have stripped your civilization of the tools needed to identify and address them, which is exactly what we are seeing now.

Americans no longer have the moral language to discuss good and evil, so they simply apply a clinical diagnosis to their opponents instead. Believing a radical leftist is mentally ill is far easier than addressing the alternative. If the progressive is a perfectly sane person and still wants to take your son if you do not chop off his genitals, then the calculus for what must be done changes radically.

Differences of opinion can be navigated as long as two parties share the same moral assumptions and the same goals. But if there is a fundamental difference in what is considered good or evil — if two groups seek radically opposed outcomes — then no amount of rational debate will ever resolve the core issue.

If our differences are not based on mental illness but fundamental beliefs about right and wrong, then a disturbing conclusion emerges. When rational debate is no longer an option, then the only solution left is the same one our unsophisticated ancestors came to for centuries — one group must win and the other must lose.

In the best scenario, this means an exercise of power from the winning side that allows it to rule over the other, forcing its way of life upon the defeated foe. In the worst scenario, this means violence and war until one side is no longer willing to fight to defend its way of life.

In either case, this is a return to an existential understanding of politics. The stakes are no longer higher taxes or lower taxes, but survival.

It should be said that mental illness is real and can be a factor in some political trends, but the idea that half of Americans are crazy because they do not share your political views is absurd. The truth is much darker: We are at least two societies, with mutually exclusive understandings of morality and purpose, trapped in one country.

The theoretical neutrality of the liberal system allowed this drift to occur under the surface, but the differences have become too extreme to ignore. Both sides have their own internally consistent understanding of the world, but they are entirely incompatible with each other.

One side is going to win, one side is going to lose, and the winning side is going to impose its way of life on the other. There is no way to avoid this reality, and obscuring the truth with comforting fictions about mental illness only ensures that you will be the side that loses.

​Mental illness, Political disagreements, Radical leftist, Americans, Good and evil, Liberalism, Politics, Political enemies, Opinion & analysis 

A newly released Department of Justice task force report is confirming concerns that religious Americans — particularly Christians — were unfairly targeted by their own government. And Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon has seen it herself.

“We’ve been compiling this stuff for a while now, and I experienced this type of anti-Christian and really anti-religious bias as a lawyer in private practice over the last several years,” Dhillon tells Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck on “The Glenn Beck Program.”

“I’ll just give you one example. Our government, not just the DOJ but, you know, various aspects of the government, viewed people seeking religious accommodations to not have to get the COVID vaccination if they were government employees as not legitimate,” she explains.

“They basically internally labeled all of those accommodation requests illegitimate,” she adds.

The Supreme Court Bostock ruling, Dhillon explains, “basically made it illegitimate for any person employed by the government to have a Christian viewpoint on gay marriage and issues like that, which are very much spiritual and religious in nature.”

“And so, there was just a complete lack of respect for the Christian,” she adds.

Dhillon explains that according to a FACE Act weaponization report, “disparaging remarks were made by DOJ prosecutors in [her] department” regarding “a magistrate judge being a Catholic, keeping people of faith off of juries, and going after and seeking sentences that were more than double for Christian protesters outside abortion clinics than for really domestic terrorists going after pro-life centers in Florida.”

“So these disparities were marked, they were open, they were written down in emails. And thank goodness that we have a president today who is not just dedicated to changing that but to also documenting what happened so that people should feel ashamed to do this to other people of faith in our country because our country is founded on faith,” she continues.

“And specifically,” she adds, “on the Christian faith.”

Want more from Glenn Beck?

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

​The glenn beck program, Abortion clinics, Antichristian bias, Assistant attorney general, Biden, Bostock ruling, Catholic, Christian protesters, Christian viewpoint, Christians, Covid vaccination, Department of justice, Domestic terrorists, Face act, Faith, Gay marriage, Harmeet dhillon, President, Prolife centers, Religious accommodations, Religious americans, Spiritual issues, Supreme court, Task force report, Weaponization report 

The Justice Department is holding the feet of a weak-on-crime Democratic prosecutor to the fire over an apparently discriminatory policy that requires special treatment for criminal noncitizens when making charging and plea decisions.

Fairfax County Commonwealth Attorney Steve Descano, elected to office in 2019 with the help of backing from a pair of George Soros-funded organizations, has developed a reputation for failing to bring illegally present suspects to justice, in at least one instance with deadly consequences.

‘That’s a perversion of justice.’

For instance, Descano’s office dropped a felony charge last year against Wilmer Osmany Ramos Giron, an illegal alien from Guatemala who was accused of abducting and strangling the mother of his child.

Owing to a sweetheart plea deal agreed to by Descano’s office, Ramos Giron — who was previously deported on multiple occasions and arrested repeatedly on gun-related charges — served only two months at the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center.

The light-touch from Descano’s office has also set the stage for tragedy.

Abdul Jalloh is an illegal alien from Sierra Leone who, according to the Department of Homeland Security, has been arrested over 30 times on charges of rape, malicious wounding, assault, drug possession, identity theft, trespassing, larceny, firing a weapon, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, and pick-pocketing.

After Descano’s office dropped numerous cases against Jalloh — including two involving malicious wounding charges and another involving an assault and battery charge — the convicted felon allegedly stabbed to death an American citizen, 41-year-old Stephanie Minter of Fredericksburg, on Feb. 23.

RELATED: The homicidal empathy of the left’s immigration policies

Abdul Jalloh (l), Wilmer Osmany Ramos Giron (R). Fairfax County Police Department and U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement, respectively

The Victims Rights Reform Council said in a complaint filed last month on behalf of the victim’s mother, Cheryl Minter, that police repeatedly warned Fairfax County prosecutors about Jalloh’s behavior prior to the stabbing, noting that he demonstrated a “blatant disregard for human life” and was a “danger to the community,” WJLA-TV reported.

A Fairfax County police major reportedly wrote to one of Descano’s underlings, Fairfax County Chief Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Jenna Sands:

I wanted to bring Mr. Jalloh’s release to your attention, because Mr. Jalloh is one of the repeat (and violent) offenders we discussed when we met. I wanted to get your background on why he is out so soon and ask if his prior suspended sentence (of I believe 5 years) was pursued by your office? Unfortunately, based on MTV Station’s numerous dealings with him, it is not a question of if, but rather when he will maliciously wound (or worse) again. My role of keeping the public safe, prompts me to follow up on his status.

Jalloh was convicted of a malicious stabbing in 2023. Although sentenced to seven years in prison, he had five years suspended.

In a letter on Wednesday, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon notified Descano that she has authorized a full investigation to determine whether his office has “engaged in unlawful discrimination in violation of Title VI and the Safe Streets Act and whether [his office] is engaged in a pattern or practice of law enforcement misconduct that deprives persons of rights, privileges, or immunities secured or protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States.”

Dhillon said the investigation centers on a policy requiring special treatment for illegal aliens that was authorized by Descano and adopted by his office in December 2020.

The controversial policy, titled “Guidelines for Plea Bargaining, Charging Decisions, and Sentencing,” requires that assistant attorneys consider:

“Immigration consequences where possible and where doing so accords with justice”; “The collateral immigration consequences of the specific crime(s) the defendant is charged with”; and”The detrimental impact that deportation/removal has on the families and communities those removed or deported leave behind.”

This policy was hardly a secret.

Descano vowed on a recently scrubbed page of his website not only to provide a “safe place for everyone, regardless of their immigration status,” but to “take immigration consequences into account when making charging and plea decisions.” He added, “If two people commit the same crime, but only one’s punishment includes deportation, that’s a perversion of justice and not a reflection of the values of Fairfax County.”

While some Virginians — like Cheryl Minter — might prefer to see Descano prioritize throwing murderers, rapists, and other criminals in prison, the Democratic attorney noted that “avoiding the unnecessary destruction of [migrant] families and communities will be a top priority.”

Descano — who believes “tough-on-crime policies are short-sighted” — confirmed his receipt of Dhillon’s notice on Wednesday and stated, “My policies are fair, legal, and reflect the values of my community.”

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

​Descano, Immigration status, Migrant families, Steve descano, Virginia prosecutor, Trump justice department, Illegal immigration, Illegal alien, Murder, Rape, Rapist, Murderer, Virginia, Democrat, Radical, Soft on crime, Soros, Prosecutor, Prosecution, Criminal noncitizen, Noncitizen, Foreigner, Politics