Category: blaze media

A sanctuary state governor is refusing to confirm whether he will honor an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainer request against an illegal alien accused of fatally shooting a college student.

Sheridan Gorman, an 18-year-old college student at Illinois’ Loyola University Chicago, was attacked at around 1 a.m. on Thursday when she was out on a walk with friends to view the northern lights.

‘We are calling on Governor JB Pritzker and Chicago’s sanctuary politicians to commit to not releasing this criminal illegal alien from jail back into American neighborhoods.’

Jose Medina-Medina, an illegal alien from Venezuela, approached Gorman while wearing a mask and armed with a gun, according to the Department of Homeland Security. When Gorman attempted to flee, Medina-Medina allegedly fired his gun, shooting Gorman. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

The DHS reported that Medina-Medina was apprehended by U.S. Border Patrol agents in May 2023 but was released into the country under the Biden administration. He was again released from custody the following month after he was arrested in Chicago for allegedly shoplifting.

On March 22, the DHS asked Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) not to release Medina-Medina from custody a third time and instead honor ICE’s arrest detainer.

RELATED: College student went to Chicago park to see northern lights — and was lethally shot by illegal alien suspect, DHS says

JB Pritzker. Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images

The Federalist reported Monday that Pritzker’s office refused to say whether his administration would honor ICE’s request.

“Our thoughts are with the family, friends, and Loyola University community grieving the senseless murder of Sheridan Gorman,” a spokesperson for Pritzker’s office told the Federalist.

“Violent crime has no place in our streets, and we expect the alleged perpetrator to be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law,” the spokesperson continued. “The Trump administration needs to stop politicizing heinous tragedies and instead focus on real solutions, like reinstating federal funds to prevent violence that support our public safety efforts.”

RELATED: Parents enraged over adult illegal alien allegedly molesting Virginia high school girls

Photo by Mostafa Bassim/Anadolu via Getty Images

Medina-Medina is facing several charges, including first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder, aggravated assault, and unlawful possession of a firearm.

“Sheridan Gorman had her whole life ahead of her before this cold-blooded killer decided to end her life. She was failed by open border policies and sanctuary politicians who RELEASED this illegal alien TWICE before he went on to commit this heinous murder,” DHS Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis stated. “We are calling on Governor J.B. Pritzker and Chicago’s sanctuary politicians to commit to not releasing this criminal illegal alien from jail back into American neighborhoods.”

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​News, Chicago, Illinois, Jb pritzker, J.b. pritzker, Pritzker, Immigration and customs enforcement, Ice, Department of homeland security, Dhs, Immigration crisis, Illegal immigration crisis, Immigration, Illegal immigration, Jose medina-medina, Sheridan gorman, Sanctuary policies, Sanctuary state, Sanctuary cities, Sanctuary states, Sanctuary, Politics 

A quadruple amputee who is also a professional cornhole player is accused of fatally shooting his car passenger, according to numerous reports. But how could he have fired a gun?

Two people flagged down police officers in La Plata, Maryland, at 10:25 p.m. Sunday, the Charles County Sheriff’s Office said. La Plata is about 35 miles south of Washington, D.C.

‘It’s early in the investigation, but there’s no evidence to suggest anyone else was involved in the shooting and that he acted alone.’

Officials said a preliminary investigation revealed the two people in question were in the back seat of a car when the driver — Dayton James Webber, 27, of La Plata — shot and killed the front-seat passenger during an argument.

Officials said Webber pulled over and asked the two passengers to help pull the victim out of the car — but the two witnesses refused, exited the car, and left the scene.

Webber then fled with the victim still in the car, officials said, adding that all the occupants of the car are known to each other.

A search began, and nearly two hours later, a resident of Charlotte Hall, Maryland, called 911 to report a body in a yard, officials said.

Officers responded and found the victim — Bradrick Michael Wells, 27, of Waldorf — who was pronounced dead at the scene, officials said.

Charles County Sheriff’s Office detectives obtained an arrest warrant for Webber and found his car in Charlottesville, Virginia, officials said.

Webber was found at a nearby hospital seeking treatment for a medical issue, officials said.

Upon Webber’s release from the hospital, officers with the Albemarle County Police Department arrested Webber, officials said.

Webber soon was arraigned in the District Court of Maryland for Charles County, WTTG-TV reported, adding that he was charged with first-degree murder, second-degree murder, use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, and two counts of first-degree assault.

RELATED: All-out brawl … at a cornhole tournament fundraiser? Sadly, yes: ‘Alcohol and beanbags do not mix’

WTTG, citing a statement of charges filed by Det. M. Bigelow of the Charles County Sheriff’s Office, said Webber picked up two people from work in a vehicle with Wells already in the front passenger seat.

While the vehicle was in motion, an argument broke out between Webber and Wells, the station said, citing the documents.

The two witnesses told police that Webber pulled out a firearm and shot Wells twice in the head during the argument, WTTG reported.

The statement of charges also indicates that Webber soon pulled the vehicle over and asked the passengers to remove Wells from the car, but they refused, exited the vehicle, and flagged down a police officer, the station said. Webber drove off with Wells still inside the car, WTTG said.

Around 12:41 a.m. Monday, a Charlotte Hall resident found Wells’ body on the side of a road, the station said, citing the documents.

The statement of charges notes that both witnesses from the car positively identified Webber as the shooter and Wells as the victim, WTTG reported, which provided the basis for the murder and assault charges against Webber.

Police have not explained how Webber — a quadruple amputee — was able to drive a car or fire a weapon, the station said.

“It’s early in the investigation, but there’s no evidence to suggest anyone else was involved in the shooting and that he acted alone,” Diane Richardson of the Charles County Sheriff’s Office told WTTG in a statement.

However, the station in its story included links to videos posted on social media that WTTG said “do appear to show Webber shooting rifles and 9mm handguns.”

The station, citing reports, said Webber underwent quadruple amputation as a baby after a blood infection.

What’s more, WTTG said Webber is a professional cornhole player in the American Cornhole League.

“That’s one of the great things about our sport, how accessible it is, and how we like to say anyone can play, anyone can win, because if you want to put your mind to it, you want to put the time into practice, you can become competitive,” ACL Commissioner Stacey Moore told Fox News Digital earlier this month, according to the station.

Those who have more information about this case are asked to call Det. R. Johnson at 301-609-6453, WTTG said.

Tipsters who want to remain anonymous may contact Charles County Crime Solvers by calling 1-866-411-TIPS, the station said, adding that tips also can be submitted online at www.charlescountycrimesolvers.com or by using the P3Intel mobile app.

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​Murder charge, Maryland, Arrest, Dayton james webber, Cornhole, Charles county sheriff’s office, La plata, Fatal shooting, Virginia, First-degree murder charge, Argument, Crime 

Delta Air Lines is apparently pressuring members of Congress to restore funding to Transportation Security Administration agents amid the ongoing Department of Homeland Security shutdown.

The decision by Democratic lawmakers to withhold funding for DHS has resulted in lengthy airport security lines, particularly in Atlanta, which is home to Delta’s headquarters. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, one of the world’s busiest airports, has advised air travelers to arrive at least four hours before their scheduled flights.

‘It’s ridiculous to see them being used as political chips.’

Meanwhile, the callout rate for the airport’s TSA agents reached 41.5% on Sunday, according to the DHS.

TSA agents have not received their full paychecks since Feb. 14. They received partial paychecks on Feb. 28, missed their next pay period on March 13, and are set to miss their second full paychecks on March 27.

Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian called the situation “inexcusable” during a March 17 interview with CNBC.

“It’s inexcusable that our security agents, our frontline agents, that are central to what we do, are not being paid. And it’s ridiculous to see them being used as political chips,” Bastian stated. “So yeah, we’re outraged.”

“If there’s a call to action here, and I think over 90% of the American public support those people getting paid, ask our folks right here in Washington to do their job. Get our people paid. They can do it,” Bastian added.

RELATED: Trump adds new condition to ICE airport plan in DHS shutdown fight

Ed Bastian. Photographer: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Delta appears to be pressuring Congress members to act by suspending a special benefit typically granted to them.

The airline announced that it has halted its dedicated flight assistance service for Capitol Hill legislators, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution first reported.

“Due to the impact on resources from the longstanding government shutdown, Delta will temporarily suspend specialty services to members of Congress flying Delta,” a statement from the company reads, according to the AJC. “Next to safety, Delta’s No. 1 priority is taking care of our people and customers, which has become increasingly difficult in the current environment.”

Members of Congress will be treated like all Delta travelers, according to their SkyMiles status, a spokesperson told the news outlet.

RELATED: ‘Absolute insanity’: Democrats’ DHS shutdown has travelers lining up outside Atlanta airport

Photo by Charly TRIBALLEAU / AFP via Getty Images

Last week, Bastian joined nine other aviation CEOs in an open letter to Congress, stressing the importance of paying TSA agents. Leaders of American Airlines, Southwest Airlines, and United Airlines also signed the letter.

“Americans — who live in your districts and home states — are tired of long lines at airports, travel delays and flight cancellations caused by shutdown after shutdown,” the letter reads. “Yet, once again air travel is the political football amid another government shutdown.”

“First, leaders should immediately come together to reach an agreement to fund the Department of Homeland Security,” it continues. “Then they need to act so this problem never happens again.”

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​News, Tsa, Dhs, Department of homeland security, Transportation security administration, Atlanta, Hartsfield-jackson atlanta international airport, Ed bastian, Delta airlines, Delta air lines, Delta, Air travel, Airport, Dhs shutdown, Politics 

An American hostage has been released by the Taliban after more than a year in custody.

Fox News reported Tuesday that Dennis Coyle, an American academic who spent nearly two decades in Afghanistan before being detained by the Taliban without charges, has finally been released after more than a year in near-solitary confinement.

‘Today, Dennis is on his way home.’

Coyle, 64, was taken from his home in Kabul in January 2025.

“The United States welcomes the release of American citizen Dennis Coyle, who was wrongfully detained in Afghanistan for more than a year,” Special Envoy for Hostage Affairs Adam Boehler said in a statement to Fox News.

RELATED: Suspect in National Guard shooting was part of CIA-backed unit that hunted down Taliban commanders

Photo by Wakil KOHSAR / AFP via Getty Images

Earlier this month, Secretary of State Marco Rubio designated Afghanistan as a state sponsor of wrongful detention, writing on social media, “The Taliban continue to use terrorist tactics to seek policy concessions, but it won’t work under this administration. The Taliban must release Dennis Coyle, Mahmood Habibi, and all Americans unjustly detained in Afghanistan.”

On Tuesday, Rubio celebrated Coyle’s release as “a positive step towards ending the practice of hostage diplomacy.”

“Earlier this month, I met Molly, Amy, and Patti as they asked for help freeing their brother Dennis Coyle from detention in Afghanistan. Today, Dennis is on his way home. We thank the UAE and Qatar for their support,” Rubio said on social media.

Coyle’s family told Fox News that Coyle had been working legally as an academic researcher to support language communities in Afghanistan.

He was seized on January 27, 2025, just days after another American, Ryan Corbett, was released at the start of President Trump’s second term, CBS News reported on the anniversary of Coyle’s detention.

Afghanistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced Coyle’s release on social media. A section of the translated post on X reads: “[The release] has further strengthened the atmosphere of trust between the two countries. Likewise, it expresses the hope that both countries will, in the future, find ways to resolve the remaining issues through mutual understanding and constructive dialogue.”

Habibi’s status is unclear. The U.S. government, including the House Foreign Affairs Committee, claims he was taken hostage by the Taliban in August 2022. The State Department has offered a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to his whereabouts.

CBS News reported in January that the Taliban denies that they arrested him.

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​Politics, Dennis coyle, Afghanistan, Taliban, Mahmood habibi, Ryan corbett, Marco rubio, Secretary of state, State department, President trump, Trump, Trump administration, Ministry of foreign affairs 

Even though the COVID-19 pandemic is quickly fading into a distant memory for many Americans, BlazeTV host Matt Kibbe refuses to let the unanswered questions from that corrupt era fade into obscurity. His docuseries “The Coverup” is both a deep dive into COVID fraud and lies and a demand for accountability.

In episodes 1-5, Kibbe teamed up with a number of experts and whistleblowers — Stanford professor of medicine and current NIH Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.), former coronavirus task force adviser Scott Atlas, molecular biologist Dr. Richard Ebright, and Twitter Files journalist Matt Taibbi. Together, they exposed the gamut of COVID-era scandals, including widespread censorship, risky gain-of-function research, suspicious behind-the-scenes White House dynamics, Anthony Fauci’s smoking-gun history of funding dangerous virus experiments, and the network of health bureaucracies that together formed a pandemic industrial complex.

The series now arrives at its sixth and final installment: “The Separation of Science from State.”

It stares at one of the most consequential unanswered questions of our time: What is the true origin of the virus — and why has it been so difficult to nail down the answer?

In this episode, Kibbe partners with science writer and former House of Lords member Matt Ridley. A longtime advocate for scientific innovation and institutional trust, Ridley initially dismissed the lab-leak theory, but after weighing the mounting evidence — from genetic anomalies in the virus to inconsistencies in early reporting — he arrived at a conclusion that shocked him: “This isn’t a conspiracy theory. This is a conspiracy.”

Episode 6 explores how the “natural origin” narrative became gospel — and why it was so aggressively protected.

The evidence paints a far more complex picture. From genetic anomalies and a bat virus with a suspicious name change to sick mine workers whose samples ended up in a Wuhan lab and the flow of U.S. dollars into risky gain-of-function research, the narrative the world was told to accept and never question starts to unravel in surprising ways.

Together, Kibbe and Ridley pull back the curtain on how one story took over, how inconvenient questions were silenced, and how everyday researchers refused to let the truth stay buried.

Episode 6 of “The Coverup” is available now on BlazeTV. If you’re not already a subscriber, join the BlazeTV family today. Use code LABLEAK to get $40 off your subscription.

​Blazetv, Blaze media, Blazetv specials, The coverup, Matt kibbe, Covid-19, Covid corruption 

More details and responses have emerged after tragedy struck New York’s LaGuardia Airport on Sunday night.

Blaze News previously reported that an Air Canada Express CRJ-900 plane operated by regional partner Jazz Aviation struck a Port Authority Airport Rescue and Firefighting vehicle that was responding to a separate incident.

‘I feel like the pilots saved our lives.’

The incident, which occurred between approximately 11:40 p.m. and 11:47 p.m. on Sunday, according to multiple official sources, was likely caused by “multiple failures,” according to a lead investigator.

An air traffic controller could be heard saying, “I messed up,” shortly after the incident, which killed both pilots and hospitalized 41 other people, including the two workers in the emergency vehicle involved in the collision.

RELATED: ‘I messed up’: LaGuardia Airport shut down after deadly collision

The air traffic controller was coordinating the response to another, unrelated issue with a United Airlines flight across the tarmac. There were reports of a strange odor.

National Transportation Safety Board chair Jennifer Homendy appeared on “Fox & Friends” Tuesday and said that “we have a lot of questions” about the incident. She said it was “too early” to begin casting blame on any one actor involved.

“We have found in all of our investigations that it is not a single error that led to a terrible tragedy,” Homendy said.

“It takes multiple failures to occur for an accident like this. So we’re going to look very comprehensively.”

Thirty-two of the 41 injured had been released from the hospital as of Monday morning, Kathryn Garcia, executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, said during a press conference. However, she reported that there were some serious injuries as well.

Many of the passengers of the flight told reporters that they felt they owed their lives to the late pilots, who did everything in their power to prevent a worse collision.

The New York Post reported that Rebecca Liquori told CNN on Monday that she is “forever indebted” to pilot Antoine Forest and first officer Mackenzie Gunther.

“I feel like the pilots saved our lives,” Liquori told CNN’s Erin Burnett on Monday. “They’re the reasons I was able to make it home safe to see my boys, and my heart goes out to their families.”

Jack Cabot, another passenger, had similar thoughts on the incident. “Right as we hit the ground, we kind of felt, like, the brake was pretty hard, and we all felt something was wrong,” Cabot told the CBC News Network. “And then, it was just this sudden, overwhelming, like, panic, because we’d hit something, and there was nobody in control.”

LaGuardia reopened at 2:00 p.m. on Monday, though Runway 4, the scene of the crash, is expected to be closed for longer due to the investigation and removal of debris.

There will reportedly be a more detailed press conference on Tuesday, though Homendy told Fox that “conclusions will take time.”

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​Politics, Laguardia airport, Laguardia, Jennifer homendy, Rebecca liquori, Antoine forest, Kathryn garcia, Port authority of new york and new jersey, National transportation safety board, Air traffic controller, United airlines 

The Latin patriarch of Jerusalem has announced that at least some traditional Holy Week observances have been canceled or postponed as the military conflict in the Holy Land rages on.

On Sunday, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa issued a statement to note that the ongoing war in the region and the “restrictions” imposed as a result will not permit the faithful “to experience the traditional Lenten journey in Jerusalem.”

‘The empty tomb is the seal of the victory of life over hatred, of mercy over sin.’

In particular, the traditional Palm Sunday procession from Jerusalem to the Mount of Olives has been canceled, he said. The Chrism Mass, a Mass traditionally offered during Holy Week, during which a bishop consecrates sacred oils, has been “postponed to a date to be determined.”

Pizzaballa claimed that he is working with “competent authorities” as well as leaders of other Christian churches to find a way for the public to “celebrate the central mystery of our salvation” during Holy Week. However, since “the situation is constantly evolving,” decisions will still be made “on a day-to-day basis,” he added.

The Catholic churches within the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, which covers Israel, Palestine, Jordan, and Cyprus, will remain open, his statement noted.

The cardinal then called on Christians to turn to prayer.

“The harshness of this time of war, which affects us all, today bears the added burden of not being able to celebrate Easter together and with dignity. This is a wound that adds to the many others inflicted by the conflict. But we must not allow ourselves to be discouraged. Though we may not gather as we would like, let us not give up prayer.”

Pizzaballa then invited the faithful everywhere to recite the rosary on March 28 “to implore the gift of peace and serenity, especially for those suffering because of the conflict.”

He closed the announcement by offering a message of hope: “Easter, which we celebrate in the name of Christ’s passion, death, and resurrection, reminds us that no darkness, not even that of war, can have the last word. The empty tomb is the seal of the victory of life over hatred, of mercy over sin.”

RELATED: Israel launches strikes on Iran as Trump calls for de-escalation

Mostafa Alkharouf/Anadolu/Getty Images

Meanwhile, the Custody of the Holy Land issued a statement Saturday to note that the community of Franciscan friars at the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre have “never ceased, day or night, to carry out the scheduled celebrations, the rites, the daily processions, and the liturgical prayers according to the provisions of the Status Quo.”

However, the Custody also admitted that the situation remains in flux on account of the military strikes.

“At the present time, it is not possible to make any predictions regarding the celebrations of Holy Week. The Custody of the Holy Land remains in constant dialogue with the competent authorities and with the other Churches responsible for the Holy Sepulchre. As soon as clear indications are available regarding the celebrations, official communications will be issued through the institutional channels,” the statement said.

President Donald Trump has indicated that the U.S. is close to meeting its “objectives” regarding the strikes in Iran and that he is considering “winding down our great Military efforts in the Middle East.” He even said Monday that the U.S. and Iranian officials had discussed “A COMPLETE AND TOTAL RESOLUTION OF OUR HOSTILITIES.”

However, even as Trump suggested that peace might be on the horizon, Israel launched a series of strikes on “Iranian terror regime headquarters” in Tehran, casting doubt on imminent peace.

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​Basilica of the holy sepulchre, Chrism mass, Donald trump, Holy land, Holy week, Jerusalem, Latin patriarchate of jerusalem, Mount of olives, Pierbattista pizzaballa, Pizzaballa, Politics 

Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma went outside the world of politics to fill the Senate seat of newly confirmed Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin.

On Tuesday morning, Stitt tapped energy executive Alan Armstrong following Mullin’s Senate confirmation Monday night. Mullin is now set to be sworn in Tuesday afternoon to replace current DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, who leaves the department on March 31.

‘He’s a strong business leader.’

Stitt first praised President Donald Trump in a press conference Tuesday morning, applauding him for selecting Mullin to head the DHS. He also congratulated Mullin before naming Armstrong as his temporary replacement.

“I’m incredibly proud now to announce that my pick as the next U.S. senator of the state of Oklahoma is Mr. Alan Armstrong,” Stitt said at the press conference.

RELATED: Trump’s new DHS pick sails through Senate confirmation despite lone GOP defection

Stitt referred to Armstrong’s extensive career in the energy industry, serving as CEO and president of Williams Companies, a Tulsa-based energy firm. He later stepped down to serve as executive chairman of the board of directors at Williams Companies last year and previously chaired the Department of Energy’s National Petroleum Council.

“He’s a strong business leader who understands the power of free markets and limited government,” Stitt said. “He’s spent his career fighting for Oklahoma’s energy industry and providing affordable, reliable energy to all of America.”

RELATED: Trump adds new condition to ICE airport plan in DHS shutdown fight

F. Carter Smith/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Armstrong will serve the short remainder of Mullin’s term, which ends in January 2027.

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​Donald trump, Kevin stitt, Oklahoma, Markwayne mullin, Kristi noem, Dhs, Department of homeland security, Senate republicans, Oil, Energy, Alan armstrong, Politics 

A kooky segment by a team of radio hosts turned awkward when they were confronted by a Catholic interviewer.

Three radio hosts performed in a “rage room” recently and were seen smashing statues of both Jesus and Mary in what was meant to be a comical segment showcasing the stress-relieving benefits of participating in the group activity.

‘That would be inappropriate.’

“We had a ‘Rage Room’ because we were beating the blue out of the Monday,” said Eva De Roo, a host from Studio Brussel in Belgium.

“People could text us, like, ‘I have a really a blue Monday because my car broke and everything,’ and [we say], ‘Okay, we’ll smash something for you,'” the host continued as her colleagues chuckled.

However, reporter Colm Flynn — from the EWTN Global Catholic Network — was interested to find out whether the hosts were willing to smash statues of religious figures that represent other faiths.

“I know you laugh, but do you think that for many listeners, they would find that so deeply offensive to take a bat and to smash Jesus into pieces?”

“That’s a very good question,” host Sam De Bruyn replied.

“I think in Belgium, not really. We’re not a very religious country.”

De Bruyn also qualified the sketch by saying all the statues they smashed were “already broken.”

That’s when Flynn turned the tables.

RELATED: Parthenope’s Revenge

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

“Let me ask you this: If you were doing the video again, would you smash a symbol of the prophet Muhammad?”

De Bruyn replied, “That is a very dangerous one,” before De Roo jumped in.

“No, because that would be inappropriate,” she claimed, noting that there are many Muslims in Belgium.

Flynn said, “There are Christians, too. I know the pope visited Belgium recently.”

De Roo and colleagues then clarified that they thought the stunt was okay because they were raised in the “Christian tradition.”

With the hosts floundering, the reporter jumped to the third host, Dries Lenaerts, and asked if he would smash a Star of David.

RELATED: Satan is real — whether his depraved fashion-world followers believe it or not

Leisa Tyler/LightRocket/Getty Images

“Uhh, I wouldn’t do it. I wouldn’t do it,” Lenaerts quickly replied.

De Bruyn said being raised Catholic gave the group more leeway to perform such an act and that it would be harder to do so about a religion “you know nothing about.”

The reporter, who revealed that he covers religion for major networks, did not let the group off the hook.

“You see that hypocrisy: Jesus Christ statue, smash it in two, but [you] never [see it] for Muhammad or for anything to do with the Jewish faith.”

The hosts, specifically De Bruyn, went on to defend their actions by describing their publicly funded audience as “very alternative” and “not “very religious in any way.”

However, De Roo soon jumped in to apologize, said the hosts did not think about the activity very much beforehand, and claimed that any offense they cause to listeners is often discussed on the air.

Broadcaster VRT Studio Brussel later issued another apology for the video, saying the company “misjudged the ‘Blue Monday’ sketch.”

Spokeswoman Yasmine Van der Borght said the team apologized for what was “intended to be a humorous action, and they have underestimated how sensitive religious symbols can be. They understand that this was hurtful to some people and would make different choices today.”

The apology concluded, “VRT believes it’s important that all of its employees show respect for every religion. We are not concerned with comparing religions, but with dealing with everyone’s beliefs with care.”

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​News, Radio, Belgium, Eu, Europe, Religion, Faith, Catholic, Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Politics 

A Colorado school employee has been accused of sexually abusing a 13-year-old student, and authorities believe the employee is on the run from law enforcement.

The Greeley Police Department said in a statement that officers on Feb. 12 responded to reports that a Greeley-Evans School District 6 staff member sexual assaulted a 13-year-old student.

‘This can get me fired.’

Police identified the staffer as 34-year-old Brenda Meza.

“During the investigation, it was determined Meza engaged in continuous sexual abuse of the minor for several months,” police said.

The New York Post reported that Meza could face 12 felonies, including sexual assault of a child, internet luring of a child, and tampering with physical evidence, as well as one count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

However, Meza now may be on the run. Police said attempts to contact Meza have been “unsuccessful.”

Police questioned Meza’s husband during a March 11 traffic stop, but he said he didn’t know where his wife was — and that he was on his way to the Mexican border, according to Post.

Meza was a staff member at Franklin Middle School at the time of the accusations.

KDVR-TV obtained a letter that school Principal Suzette Luster sent to parents of students.

“Student safety and security is always our first priority. We are very sorry if these allegations have negatively impacted our school, staff, and students,” Luster said.

Luster also noted, “If your student needs extra support during this time, please reach out to our counseling office.”

Meza was placed on administrative leave on Feb. 12 and terminated on Feb. 25, according to KDVR.

Citing the letter, KDVR reported that Meza was hired in February 2020.

“While employed at the middle school, she worked as the school secretary, assisted with club games and coached cross-country, and had also served as a substitute for a year beforehand,” according to KDVR.

Luster also said in the letter that police told her investigators believe Meza has fled the state to avoid prosecution.

RELATED: 5th-grade teacher — accused of having ‘sexual conversation’ with child under 12 — now slapped with far more shocking charges

According to an arrest affidavit the New York Post obtained, Meza told police during an interview that the teen discovered her Instagram during Thanksgiving break last year.

According to the affidavit, Meza sent photos of her buttocks and breasts after the 8th-grader at Franklin Middle School messaged her pictures of his genitals.

During the interrogation, Meza told investigators that she and the boy “got super close to each other … almost the point of having sex,” the affidavit said.

In January, Meza met the boy at a Walmart parking lot, where they consumed ready-to-drink cocktails and marijuana before having sex for the first time, the affidavit said.

Police later found photos of the school secretary and the student inside a car showing the boy drinking alcohol and holding marijuana, court documents said.

Meza had sex with the student two more times over the next few weeks, according to the Post.

The Post, citing police, also reported that Meza “allegedly bragged that the victim’s manhood was bigger than her own husband’s …”

The affidavit stated that Meza sent several “I love you” text messages to the boy and told the teen she would get jealous if she caught him talking to female classmates at school.

Franklin Middle School received an anonymous tip about the alleged child sex abuse on Feb. 12.

The Post reported that school officials confronted Meza about the allegations, and she confessed to her husband that she “got high” and had creepy interactions with a student.

The husband called police after his wife’s alleged admission, the Post reported.

The affidavit said Meza admitted to knowing the boy’s age and texted the alleged victim, “This can get me fired.”

Greeley Police told Blaze News on Monday that Meza is still at large and that there are no updates on the case. Greeley Police also told Blaze News that Meza wasn’t arrested when police interviewed her Feb. 12 because it’s a “complex case” and that they were still working on compiling evidence and interviewing victims and potential witnesses. Greeley Police added to Blaze News that when officers went to arrest Meza about a month later, she was gone.

The investigation is ongoing.

Officials said those with information regarding the case or where Meza can be located should call the Greeley Police Department at 970-502-2186.

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​Brenda meza, Child sex crimes, Child sex abuse, Child sexual assault, Teacher sex scandal, Teacher student sex scandal, Bad teacher, Colorado, Crime 

A notorious abortionist who was serving time for multiple murders, including three infants and a patient, died on March 1 at 85 years old.

Kermit Gosnell was a former West Philadelphia doctor who was convicted in 2013 and was serving multiple life sentences for first-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter in connection with disturbing and horrific criminal cases.

‘Over the years, there were hundreds of “snippings.”‘

A jury determined that Gosnell cut the necks of babies who were born alive during illegal procedures and caused the death of a woman who died during an abortion at his clinic. He faced additional charges related to violations at the clinic.

Gosnell repeatedly conducted illegal abortions beyond Pennsylvania’s 24-week limit, according to former employees. They alleged that he delivered babies that were still moving, whimpering, or breathing. He referred to the method he used to kill the newborns as “snipping” their spines.

“Over the years, there were hundreds of ‘snippings,'” a 2011 grand jury report read. “Most of these acts cannot be prosecuted, because Gosnell destroyed the files.”

Gosnell’s clinic became known as the “house of horrors.”

RELATED: NPR reportedly nixes ad calling Kermit Gosnell an ‘abortion doctor.’ The reason is sadly comical.

The site of Gosnell’s clinic. Photo by Mark Makela/Corbis via Getty Images

A 2010 investigation revealed that Gosnell had been trafficking prescription drugs from his clinic. Investigators discovered bags and bottles containing fetuses, jars filled with body parts, bloodstained furniture, and unsterilized medical instruments. He later pleaded guilty to 12 federal drug charges related to operating a pill mill, which resulted in an additional 30 years in prison and a $50,000 fine.

RELATED: Case of abortionist accused for years of killing born-alive babies now in the hands of the FBI

Sculptures of infants’ hands placed outside the site of Gosnell’s clinic. Photo by Mark Makela/Corbis via Getty Images

At the time investigators raided Gosnell’s clinic, state authorities had failed to conduct routine inspections of all of its abortion facilities for 15 years.

Gosnell was being held at State Correctional Institution Smithfield in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania. He died at a hospital outside of the prison system earlier this month, according to a spokesperson with the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections. The cause of his death has not yet been revealed.

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A foreign national, who may have entered the United States illegally, is charged with orchestrating an alleged multimillion-dollar health care fraud scheme.

Anar Rustamov, a 38-year-old man from Azerbaijan who previously lived in Sunnyvale, California, was indicted by a federal grand jury on Thursday for allegedly submitting $90 million in bogus medical equipment claims.

‘Fraudsters are depriving vulnerable citizens of basic social services and stealing billions of your tax dollars, and bringing them to justice is exactly the kind of work we expect from the task force.’

The Department of Justice described the alleged scheme as “large-scale fraud targeting federal health care funds distributed through the Medicare Advantage program.” The agency stated that it “appears” Rustamov illegally entered the U.S.

Rustamov executed the alleged fraud through an entity that he created, according to the indictment. From October 2024 through June 2025, he allegedly submitted thousands of false claims to Medicare Advantage Organizations offering Medicare Part C benefit plans. The claims were submitted on behalf of unsuspecting beneficiaries for medical equipment, including blood glucose monitors and orthotic braces, the indictment stated.

The defendant hired a company to assist with registering his California corporation in 2024, according to court records. He leased office space, though it was “not a legitimate” Durable Medical Equipment provider office but was “used as a façade to receive mail,” the court filings read.

Rustamov allegedly sought over $90 million in bogus reimbursements for equipment that was neither provided, needed by patients, nor authorized by a medical provider.

RELATED: Haitian fraudster gets comeuppance from Trump judge

J. David Ake/Getty Images

Court filings revealed that Rustamov allegedly received at least $648,000 from Medicare Part C insurers.

According to the DOJ’s Friday announcement, Rustamov remains at large. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 for each violation. He was indicted on 14 charges, including health care fraud, aiding and abetting, and laundering of money instruments.

United States Attorney Craig Missakian, who announced the charges, stated, “When the administration declared a war on fraud, it meant to target exactly this kind of conduct. Rustamov participated in a scheme to steal nearly $100 million in taxpayer funds from a program intended to help those who truly need medical care.”

“Anyone who believes they can make easy money by defrauding such programs should know that we will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to identify, investigate, and prosecute such fraud and abuse,” Missakian added.

RELATED: ‘Minnesota was big but California is even bigger’: Nick Shirley uncovers staggering alleged fraud right under Newsom’s nose

Spencer Platt/Getty Images

In mid-March, President Donald Trump established the Task Force to Eliminate Fraud to advise the president and coordinate efforts to combat widespread fraud, waste, and abuse of federal benefits. Vice President JD Vance serves as the task force’s vice chairman.

A spokesperson for Vance told Blaze News, “Fraudsters are depriving vulnerable citizens of basic social services and stealing billions of your tax dollars, and bringing them to justice is exactly the kind of work we expect from the task force.”

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Benjamin Netanyahu has recently come under fire for his comments comparing Jesus Christ to Genghis Khan at a recent press conference — but like most clips that go viral, it doesn’t tell the full story.

“Unfortunately and unhappily, Jesus Christ has no advantage over Genghis Khan because if you are strong enough, ruthless enough, powerful enough, evil will overcome good, aggression will overcome moderation,” Netanyahu said.

“So you have no choice. If you look at the world as it is today, you have to be blind not to see that the democracies led by the United States have to reassert their will to defend themselves,” he added.

While many conservatives were in an uproar after hearing Netanyahu’s comments, BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey believes that some nuance and context are required in order to understand what he meant.

“He’s quoting an American historian, Will Durant, he was a Catholic. He turned into an agnostic as an adult. And his 1968 book, you see that actually at the beginning of the full clip, that he is quoting this book called ‘The Lessons of History,’” Stuckey says, before reading the full clip.

“Nature and history do not agree with our conceptions of good and bad; they define good as that which survives, and bad as that which goes under; and the universe has no prejudice in favor of Christ as against Genghis Khan,” Durant wrote.

Netanyahu later clarified on X that the outrage was “fake news” regarding his “attitude toward Christians” and that he “did not denigrate Jesus Christ.”

“A morally superior civilization may still fall to a ruthless enemy if it does not have the power to defend itself. No offense was meant,” the prime minister added in another post.

“Now I disagree that he is insulting Jesus Christ here. He actually seems to me to be making an effort to caveat what he’s saying, that unfortunately he says, unhappily, it’s not the way of Jesus that wins wars,” Stuckey says.

“However, it was also an unfortunate way to make his point because the quote, I think, is a misunderstanding of the Christian worldview. We do serve a Jesus who tells us, ‘Blessed are the peacemakers, blessed are the meek, blessed are the poor in spirit,’” she continues.

“The characteristics of the Christian life are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control. But there is also the just war theory that Christian thinkers over time have taught that asserts that there are good reasons to wield violence in defense of the innocent against the wicked,” she adds.

Stuckey points out that in the Old Testament, there was a demand for war and violence by God.

“I’m not saying that the Old Testament is a justification for America’s wars,” Stuckey says, adding, “It is to say and to point out that one cannot state that in principle God is always against war and violence.”

Want more from Allie Beth Stuckey?

To enjoy more of Allie’s upbeat and in-depth coverage of culture, news, and theology from a Christian, conservative perspective, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

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Contemporary software has to contend with the distributed system, the concurrent program, and the stateful service: domains in which unlucky timing and subtle concurrency produce rare, timing-sensitive failures that are difficult to reproduce. We are living in a software crisis that Edsger W. Dijkstra identified decades ago: the realization that testing can demonstrate the presence of bugs but never their absence. In this environment, a bug can be a ghost, a “Heisenbug” that vanishes the moment you attempt to observe it.

One response to this difficulty is a paradigm known as deterministic simulation testing, which attempts to impose a repeatable order upon a medium that is naturally entropic. In DST, the system under test is moved inside a simulated environment in which every major source of nondeterminism (the clocks, the thread scheduling, the randomness, the faults) is brought under control. The goal is to treat reproducibility as a first-class product requirement. In the same way that a scientific laboratory makes repeatability a condition for knowledge, DST makes repeatability part of the description of software failure. A bug is not only found but can be reliably replayed and interrogated.

The experimental world is made harsh so that the real world becomes easier.

A deterministic simulator is an epistemic instrument. The real world of computing is not deterministic, but one can create a deterministic micro-world in which events are rendered legible. The power of this practice comes from building a tool in which time, I/O, and failure are modeled.

FoundationDB was an early example of this approach. Its engineers designed a simulator capable of running an entire cluster in a single-threaded process. They replaced physical interfaces with shims and replaced a production run loop with a time-based simulation. They fed the system enough randomness to explore diverse behaviors but kept that randomness replayable by making the pseudo-random seed part of the control.

The practical implication is a form of information compression: the cause of a complex failure, which might otherwise require a sprawling and unwieldy production history to understand, is instead encoded in a small artifact: a seed, a schedule trace, a fault plan. The actual execution path can then be systematically varied into nearby possible paths through different seeds or fault injections. It is a machine for disciplined counterfactual reasoning.

We have moved away from the era of hand-designed illustrative cases toward a systematic exploration of execution space. This shift began with property-based testing, in which one states general properties and lets the machine search for counterexamples. The QuickCheck library pioneered this approach, focusing on “shrinking” or finding small counterexamples to make failures tractable, seeking to show not just that a property fails, but why it fails in a simple, telling case.

RELATED: Yes, there’s an AI hive mind, and it’s making us dumber

Yuuji/Getty Images

In the 2020s, this lineage has converged with the practice of virtualization. Antithesis frames the process as “multiverse debugging.” The company offers an interactive replay environment in which engineers can “time-travel,” inspecting past and future points of a run, or engage in counterfactual analysis, experimenting freely within a deterministic universe without losing the reproduction.

This differs from record-and-replay debugging, which captures a single observed history. Modern DST aims to generate many plausible histories and then provide the tools to branch and replay within them.

DST reframes the ethos of chaos engineering. While the Chaos Monkey tool injects failures into a production system to increase resilience, DST relocates that experimentation under turbulence into a controlled simulation. The failures are amplified, but the risk to a production service is zero, and every discovery is perfectly reproducible.

The design of these systems also acknowledges the human element — what we might call attention design. In a world where triage is hard and problems are multiple, Antithesis aims to help teams fix the new things first, using novelty as a salient guide. The company uses statistical narratives, such as survival-style plots, to estimate how much more testing is needed to be confident that a bug is truly gone. This is testing as workflow governance.

Ultimately, the promise of DST is an intensified form of accountability. If failures are perfectly reproducible, causes are no longer lost in the fog of a one-time occurrence. It changes organizational expectations about how quickly trust can be earned. We see this in high-stakes fields such as blockchains, in which the Cardano Foundation uses DST to test its node software. DST is a disciplinary technology that reshapes what counts as responsible work and what kind of evidence is demanded from an engineer, constructing a world in which time, faults, and concurrency are ordered into inspectable objects.

DST allows the developer to produce stable, revisitable histories. In this simulation-first regime, the experimental world is made harsh so that the real world becomes easier. It is a way of reclaiming some measure of trust from a digital world that is increasingly unreliable.

Disclosure: Stephen is an investor in Antithesis. He otherwise receives no compensation from the company.

​Tech 

Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma has been confirmed by the Senate to head the Department of Homeland Security just weeks after President Donald Trump tapped him for the role.

Trump recruited Mullin to replace current DHS Secretary Kristi Noem in early March after a string of personal and political controversies. Noem will continue to serve in the role until March 31.

Despite Paul’s defection, Mullin secured support from some Democrats.

Mullin’s nomination sailed through the Senate in a 54-45 vote Monday night with Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky being the lone GOP “no” vote after the two shared a heated exchange during a confirmation hearing.

Paul called out Mullin for allegedly calling a vicious assault against Paul that left him with broken ribs “completely understandable.” Mullin in turn said if he had something to say he would just “say it directly to [his] face,” arguing that Paul likes to “fight Republicans more than you work with us.”

RELATED: Trump adds new condition to ICE airport plan in DHS shutdown fight

Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

Despite Paul’s defection, Mullin secured support from some Democrats. Sens. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania and Martin Heinrich of New Mexico voted with Republicans to confirm Trump’s nominee.

It’s typical for senators to overwhelmingly confirm a Senate colleague to a Cabinet position despite their political affiliation, so the limited Democrat support potentially indicates how divisive DHS has become. While Mullin was confirmed on a near party-line vote, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a former senator from Florida, was unanimously confirmed by his colleagues back in January 2025 to serve in the Trump administration.

Mullin is now set to take on the task of resolving the partial DHS shutdown that has withheld funding from key agencies like TSA and FEMA since February 14. As a result of the Democrats’ partial shutdown, airports across the country are seeing massive security lines and constant flight delays.

RELATED: ‘Freaking snake’: Trump’s new DHS pick faces major roadblock from lone Republican

Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

Senate Democrats allowed DHS funding to lapse after the shootings of anti-ICE agitators Alex Pretti and Renee Good. Notably, the partial shutdown does not affect the immigration agencies Democrats seek to dismantle. Mullin’s Democrat colleagues are also demanding changes to immigration enforcement like deploying body cams and removing face coverings, all of which he will have to negotiate in his new role.

Mullin is now expected to be sworn in at the White House Tuesday afternoon.

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An Ohio Republican Supreme Court candidate is facing scrutiny after claiming on the campaign trail that she was never nominated by a Democrat, despite evidence to the contrary.

Former Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Colleen O’Donnell’s comments have raised questions about her transparency and credibility in a crowded May primary. The upcoming race offers Republicans the chance to unseat the state’s last Democratic justice, Jennifer Brunner, and secure a 7-0 conservative majority on the court.

‘Ohio voters deserve clear, factual information about the record of anyone seeking a seat on the Supreme Court of Ohio.’

Former Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R), who refused to vote for either presidential candidate in the 2016 election and announced his endorsement of Democrat Joe Biden in the 2020 election, appointed O’Donnell in May 2013 to fill a vacancy on the Franklin County Common Pleas Court. She lost her re-election bid to a Democrat in 2022. In August 2023, the Biden administration appointed O’Donnell as a U.S. immigration judge in Laredo, Texas.

“In Laredo, I faced the worst of the worst — drug traffickers, human smugglers, and violent gang members,” O’Donnell stated when announcing her Ohio Supreme Court run in October. “I was proud to protect our communities from dangerous individuals, but I was also frustrated by how broken the system was. Too often, laws weren’t enforced. That lawlessness still echoes across our courts today.”

During a January interview, O’Donnell stated that she was “assigned to serve” in Laredo, which she noted was “about 1,500 miles from my home and my family here in Columbus.”

“I was presiding over asylum cases day after day after day. And I honored my oath and obligation to interpret the immigration law with impartiality and with integrity and resolve those asylum cases as efficiently as I could,” she said.

O’Donnell explained that she left the Laredo position “after six or eight months,” adding that the travel and time away from family were “pretty difficult.”

Her campaign website describes her as “a constitutional conservative with extensive judicial experience at every level of government.” It notes that as a U.S. immigration judge, she “handled illegal entry and asylum cases during the height of the border crisis.”

O’Donnell’s website claims that she “enforced the law as written,” “never once granted asylum,” and “consistently ordered the removal of illegal aliens from our country.”

RELATED: Chris Christie absolutely trashes John Kasich after former Ohio GOP governor speaks at DNC

Photo by BRYAN R. SMITH/AFP via Getty Images

In early March, the Ohio Conservatives PAC accused O’Donnell of lying to voters about her immigration judge appointment.

The PAC shared an audio clip of O’Donnell’s speech from a March 2 lunch with legislators event for the Greene County Republican Party, during which she accused her opponents of “mischaracterizing” her background and qualifications.

“Because I value transparency and the truth, I want to be crystal clear: I was never appointed by Joe Biden, or any other Democrat, to serve as an immigration judge, or in any other role I’ve ever had in my career,” O’Donnell stated in the clip.

Two event attendees confirmed the authenticity of the audio to Blaze News.

One of those individuals, Setys Kelly, who is running for State Central Committee, told Blaze News, “I’m thankful that the Republican Club of Greene County has these meetings that give you a chance to ask these questions of the candidates. And more people should take advantage of that because that’s how you find out the things that you want to know, instead of somebody repeating it on Facebook or social media — you never really know if it’s true. But you can ask the question here and hope to get a final answer.”

A Department of Justice notice from August 2023 confirmed that the Democratic administration of then-President Joe Biden appointed O’Donnell.

“Today, Attorney General Merrick B. Garland officially appointed the following individuals as immigration judges,” the DOJ notice reads, listing 38 names, including “Colleen O’Donnell.”

The PAC further highlighted O’Donnell’s claim that she never granted asylum.

“O’Donnell claims she never granted asylum one time. Well, that could be because she only served for a handful of months and quit before she completed her entire training program and probationary period,” the PAC stated, contending that it was unlikely she oversaw any case from start to finish.

“For the last eight months Colleen O’Donnell has lied to Republicans about her appointment to the Biden Department of Justice,” Cameron Brady, a spokesman for Ohio Conservatives PAC, told Blaze News. “The record shows that during her very brief stint for the Biden administration, she wasn’t a tough on the border judge, but rather just another Biden flunky taking marching orders to catch and release dozens of illegal immigrants into the interior of our country. O’Donnell’s forced to lean on her four-month stint as an immigration judge because unlike her three opponents who are actually judges, O’Donnell has been unemployed for going on three years.”

Immigration judge record

A Department of Justice Executive Office for Immigration Review dataset of O’Donnell’s decisions as an immigration judge shows that in roughly 25% of the hearings in which the person appeared, O’Donnell ruled in their favor, allowing them to remain in the country rather than be deported.

In two of the 14 credible fear review cases she ruled on, O’Donnell overturned immigration officers’ decisions that the individuals lacked credible fear. Doing so allows individuals to pursue asylum or other forms of deportation protections.

In nine cases, she granted relief from removal, enabling those individuals to remain in the U.S. through some form of approved protection or status change. The available judicial datasets do not specify the exact type of relief granted; however, they may include options such as asylum, cancellation of removal, adjustment of status, or other forms of relief.

In one case, where the individual may not have been eligible for full asylum, O’Donnell ruled that deportation to his or her home country would pose a danger, thereby permitting the individual to stay in the U.S.

Two other cases were terminated without a deportation order, which can occur when the government withdraws charges, the charges are defective, or the individual qualifies for legal status through an alternative pathway.

O’Donnell’s campaign declined requests to clarify these rulings, only insisting that she never granted asylum.

“Colleen O’Donnell had a distinguished career as a Common Pleas Court judge and federal immigration judge, where she never once granted asylum. Our campaign team will not dignify these kinds of allegations. We have no further comment on this matter,” Amy Natoce, O’Donnell’s campaign adviser, told Blaze News.

RELATED: JD Vance’s half-brother becomes another casualty of Tuesday’s electoral bloodbath, losing Ohio race in a landslide

Photo by Mostafa Bassim/Anadolu via Getty Images

Ohio Republicans react

In the Republican primary for Ohio Supreme Court, O’Donnell is running against three other candidates: Andrew King, Jill Flagg Lanzinger, and Ronald Lewis. The election is scheduled for May 5. The winner will face off on November 3 against Brunner, who currently holds the seat.

Lewis, a judge on Ohio’s Second District Court of Appeals, told Blaze News, “Although I am not in a position to make a judgment on the truthfulness of this particular statement from Ms. O’Donnell, I do believe it would be valuable for Republican primary voters to receive a thorough explanation from O’Donnell on how she was appointed to the position, how her tenure as an immigration judge went, and how she arrived at the decisions she made while serving in that role.”

“The enforcement and application of immigration law was certainly different in 2023 than it has been since the inauguration of President Trump, and voters deserve to know O’Donnell’s role in immigration enforcement during her time as an appointee in the Department of Justice during Merrick Garland’s tenure as director,” Lewis added.

King, a judge for the Ohio Fifth District Court of Appeals, said in a statement to Blaze News, “The next justice needs to be rock solid in their judicial background and philosophy. I am the type of constitutional conservative judge Trump would appoint. We need a judge who the Trump administration would appoint, not a judge that the Biden administration did appoint.”

State Rep. Meredith Craig (R), who has endorsed King, told Blaze News, “Ohio voters deserve clear, factual information about the record of anyone seeking a seat on the Supreme Court of Ohio. It’s a matter of public record that Merrick Garland, serving as Attorney General under Joe Biden, appointed Colleen O’Donnell.”

“And the facts don’t stop there. According to available case data, Colleen O’Donnell presided over 110 immigration cases, transferring 35 into the interior of the United States. Of those, 28 involved individuals who were never detained or were released. This aligns with what has commonly been described as ‘catch-and-release’ policies during the Biden administration,” Craig continued. “These are facts voters can and should consider as they evaluate candidates for one of the highest courts in our state.”

Flagg Lanzinger and the Ohio Republican Party did not respond to a request for comment.

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Are you guilty? That depends. Are you white? Then yes, you are guilty. But whiteness is no longer the only offense. Believe in God? Believe Christ saves sinners? Believe in objective morality, the rule of law, or marriage between one man and one woman? Then skin color hardly matters. You are guilty anyway.

Guilty of what? Guilty of the sins of history, the inequities of the present, and whatever new offense the racial racketeers invent tomorrow. At least that is what grifters like Ibram X. Kendi and Robin DiAngelo have spent years selling to America, often for staggering sums underwritten by universities eager to flatter the ideology. Arizona State University, where I teach, has offered classes on the problem of whiteness. ASU’s Barrett Honors College teaches the evils of settler colonialism.

You, Mr. and Mrs. Taxpayer, are footing the bill for Struggle Session 101.

That is the backdrop for “White Guilt,” the new documentary from Shelby Steele and his son, Eli Steele, which premieres this week at ASU. Shelby Steele, a senior fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution and recipient of the National Medal of the Humanities, has spent decades writing about race, multiculturalism, and affirmative action. In his 2006 book “White Guilt,” he argued that racial moralism had become a tool for gaining power over others rather than a path toward justice.

The film appears at a moment when Americans have begun to see more clearly how much of the modern racial industry depends on intimidation, guilt, and fraud.

Steele understands the temptation from the inside. As a young man, he felt drawn to the black power movement. His parents had been active in the civil rights movement, and he wanted to help his community. But he came to see that race blame solves nothing. It degrades everyone it touches. Blame wielded by race remains racism, no matter who aims it or who absorbs it.

The better question, Steele argues, asks what it means to live as a free and responsible person. What happens when an individual takes responsibility for his own choices? What kind of life becomes possible when dignity comes from agency rather than grievance? That moral vision sits much closer to the American ideal than the racial spoils system now preached across much of higher education.

Steele rejects the fashionable claim that slavery was America’s original sin. The deeper sin, he argues, is the use of race to gain power over others. That temptation did not die with Jim Crow. It adapted. It migrated into institutions, party politics, nonprofits, and university bureaucracies. Today it thrives in classrooms where professors insist they do not teach racism while teaching students to judge one another by skin color, ancestry, and inherited guilt.

That fraud has paid well.

Black Lives Matter offered perhaps the clearest recent example. In the wake of Michael Brown’s death in Ferguson, BLM became a moral brand for affluent liberals, activist professionals, and corporate America. Shelby and Eli Steele explored the lie at the movement’s foundation in their earlier film, “What Killed Michael Brown?” Their new film picks up a related question: How did the language of anti-racism become such a lucrative racket?

The answer is not hard to find. Much of the left’s social justice industry runs on a simple formula: Manufacture guilt, divide people by race, promise absolution, then collect money, influence, and institutional power. Sell moral panic to well-intentioned Americans, then invoice them for redemption.

RELATED: The campus isn’t ‘misunderstood.’ It’s mismanaged — on purpose.

Artur Widak/NurPhoto/Getty Images

Want to end racism? Write a check. Sign the DEI pledge. Sit through the seminar. Keep your head down while the consultants explain that your skin makes you complicit and your silence proves your guilt.

The strategy stays simple. Divide humanity into categories. Teach each group to resent the others. Tell people that the brokenness of the world is not a permanent feature of fallen life but the fault of their neighbors. Then arrive as the enlightened manager who can fix it all, for a fee. That formula has wrecked poorer countries for generations. Now left-wing elites have imported it into American life, dressed it up in therapeutic language, and sold it as virtue.

Anyone who has spent time around a university classroom knows the script. A professor begins with a banal truth: The world is filled with injustice. The class nods. Then comes the poisonous turn: Would you like to know who is to blame? Look around the room. Identify the oppressor. Assign the guilt. Require ritual silence from some students and ritual confession from others. Repackage humiliation as education.

And you, Mr. and Mrs. Taxpayer, are footing the bill for Struggle Session 101.

Instead of surrendering to this politics of racial hatred, envy, and managed guilt, Americans should recover a better ideal. Freedom means more than license. It means responsibility. It means building a life through choice, discipline, and moral agency rather than through grievance and tribal score-settling. Whether the world crowns that life a success or a failure, it still belongs to you. No race hustler can take that from you.

“White Guilt” premieres March 25 at 6 p.m. at ASU Tempe in Bateman Physical Sciences F Wing, Room 166.

​Opinion & analysis, Black lives matter, White guilt, Shelby steele, Eli steele, Documentary, Antiracism, Grift, Ibram x. kendi, Whiteness, Struggle session, Michael brown, Ferguson, The left, Black power, Dei pledge, Diversity equity inclusion, Freedom, Jim crow, Arizona state university, Racism, Robin diangelo 

Food delivery app company DoorDash has revealed a new way for couriers to make money.

In a blog post on Thursday, the company introduced DoorDash Tasks, a method for users to earn cash by feeding its artificial intelligence systems.

‘These are the kinds of real-world problems we’ve been solving for over a decade.’

The tasks range from innocuous to voluntarily intrusive. DoorDash listed example tasks like taking photos of a restaurant’s food to help showcase the menu to customers, photographing a hotel entrance so future couriers know the drop-off location, or even helping a delivery bot that may have tipped over or otherwise lost its way.

At the same time, DoorDash said it was piloting a new stand-alone app for users to “complete activities like filming everyday tasks or recording themselves speaking in another language.”

According to a report by Bloomberg, this more specifically refers to users filming themselves doing household chores like washing dishes, loading a dishwasher, or folding laundry.

The audio and video thus captured will reportedly be used to train DoorDash’s AI models as well as the company’s partners’. This likely means that data will be sold or shared to partners in the reported sectors: retail, insurance, hospitality, and technology.

RELATED: Former NFL player melts down after old ‘Caucasian’ mistakes him for an Uber Eats driver

Chelsea Guglielmino/Getty Images

An example of a paid video submission’s instructions, cited by Bloomberg, included a dishwashing task that asked the worker to use a body camera pointed down toward the hands as the worker scrubbed and rinsed at least five dishes. The user was asked to hold each clean dish steady in the frame for at least a few seconds.

This could be used to train a robotics firm’s robot slave army to recognize certain objects from a specific point of view.

DoorDash showcased an image of a sample task, which included going to a local grocery store to take pictures of the current stock on the shelves.

“It’s simple: you can’t deliver to a door you can’t find or get someone milk if you don’t know what’s on the shelf,” said Ethan Beatty, DoorDash’s GM of tasks.

“These are the kinds of real-world problems we’ve been solving for over a decade, and we realized the same capabilities that helped us could help other businesses too. The goal of Tasks is to help more businesses understand what’s happening on the ground and gather new insights, all while giving Dashers a new way to earn on their own terms,” Beatty added.

RELATED: How to be bored — and 4 more real-world skills you can give your kids

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Pay is shown up front for the tasks and is determined based on the required effort and complexity of the job.

The tasks, and their accompanying app, are currently available only in some areas in the United States. California, New York City, Seattle, and Colorado are excluded.

DoorDash said that since 2024, more than 2 million tasks have already been completed.

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People don’t wear nice clothes to funerals anymore. Some still do, I’m sure, but many don’t. I haven’t been to a funeral in quite some time — thank God — but I’ve heard enough, and seen enough driving past graveyards, to know something is off in 2026.

You see it outside funeral homes and churches, near the hearse, gathered around an open grave: untucked shirts, jeans, sweatshirts, tennis shoes. People dressed for a quiet night on Netflix, not a solemn goodbye.

Can we really take death seriously if we won’t even take the clothing for a funeral seriously?

Dying custom

Why is it important to wear something nice to a funeral?

At first, the question feels almost offensive — or at least it does to me. My instinct is to snap, “Because it is.” You’re probably the same. Most of us never thought about it. The most obvious social norms rarely come with explanations. They’re absorbed, not argued for — like gravity or the sunrise.

Of course you dress up for a funeral.

But somewhere along the way, that assumption slipped. Now it has to be explained why a tie and leather shoes matter when you go to bury the dead.

When you attend a funeral, you are “paying your respects.” But is there much respect in showing up in jeans and sneakers? No. Some clothes are more formal than others, and some signal more respect than others. Not all clothes are equal. That’s simply how it is. Showing up to a funeral in a hoodie isn’t neutral — it’s a failure to honor the moment.

More than that, it’s a kind of disrespect. It doesn’t take much to put together a decent outfit. It isn’t unreasonable to ask someone to put their best foot forward for a single day. It doesn’t even have to be expensive. If you’re broke — and I’ve been — there’s always Goodwill. Twenty bucks gets you a shirt, pants, even shoes.

Last holdout

Dressing poorly for a funeral is a choice. It used to be a rare one. Now it’s common.

And it isn’t happening in isolation. It’s the endpoint of a broader culture that prizes informality and unconcern.

That culture starts small: not doing more than you have to, not dressing properly unless required, valuing comfort above all else. Casual Friday becomes casual every day. Soon enough, no one dresses up anywhere. And eventually, even the last holdouts — weddings and funerals — give way. For funerals, that day may already be here.

I don’t mean to sound overly gloomy, but there is something especially sad about this particular form of decline. Dressing down means one thing at the grocery store or the DMV. It means something else entirely when we are burying the dead.

It’s connected, I think, to the fact that we still bother with funerals at all — that religious traditions have long-prescribed rituals for burial and mourning. Those rituals reflect a belief that death matters, that it should be marked with care and seriousness.

Can we really take death seriously if we won’t even take the clothing for a funeral seriously?

Maybe not.

RELATED: Back to Black: We need a return to mourning etiquette

Wisconsin Historical Society/Getty Images

Dust to denial

There’s a more sobering truth beneath all this: Funerals themselves are becoming less common. More people are skipping them entirely — opting for cremation, informal memorials, or nothing at all. Sometimes it’s just an obituary. Sometimes not even that. I’ve seen it.

Some say it’s about cost — that funerals are too expensive. I’m not convinced. When people care about something, they find a way. If they cared about funerals, they would have them. If they cared about dressing properly, they would do that too.

The harder truth is that many simply don’t care.

The culture of informality and unconcern seems harmless at first — just more casual manners and a little less effort before leaving the house. But it doesn’t stay contained.

It spreads. It draws more of our lives into its orbit, and eventually there are no suits at the funerals, and then finally, no funerals at all.

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A Florida man was arrested for allegedly meeting with a minor to have sex, and law enforcement officials believe there may be dozens of other victims.

Aaron Starbird, 42, was arrested in a police sting from Sept. 2025, where an undercover officer was posing as an underage boy on dating apps.

The victim was able to point out Starbird and said how they communicated through an app.

Starbird sent explicit files to the officer he believed to be a boy. Investigators gathered information from communications spanning several weeks and obtained numerous search warrants.

Police performed a traffic stop on Starbird’s vehicle on Nov. 2025 and confiscated his cell phone. He claimed in police interviews that he tried to stop communicating with online juveniles after finding out their ages.

In December, Starbird was arrested by the Orange County Sheriff’s Office for the following slew of charges:

Ten counts of unlawful possession of materials depicting sexual performance by a child;One count of solicitation of a minor via a computer; andOne count of obscene material transmitting information harmful to minors.

In February, the state charged Starbird with one count of solicitation of a minor via a computer and 12 others related to child sex abuse material.

Investigators were able to tag about 77 videos that were indicative of child pornography and were able to identify one of the victims. When that victim was questioned, the victim was able to point out Starbird and said how they communicated through an app.

That victim was 14 years old when he was allegedly molested by Starbird.

RELATED: Elementary school teacher allegedly possessed thousands of files of child sex abuse material

Police are working to identify what they believe could be as many as 30 other victims.

Starbird was a former employee of Orlando Health.

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