Category: blaze media

Radical Democratic state Sen. Scott Wiener may have sworn off campaign support from law enforcement unions in California — yet these same unions are still financing Wiener’s anti-cop and pro-LGBTQ agenda.

Wiener, 56, has sparked disgust and outrage across America since he joined the California Senate a decade ago. Since then, he has advocated for:

lessening the criminal penalties associated with HIV-positive prostitutes;exempting some adults who had oral or anal sex with minors from automatically registering as sex offenders;making California a “refuge” for parents who want to subject their kids to gender-related medical interventions banned in other states;eliminating mandatory minimums for opioid trafficking and other drug crimes; andS.B. 627, aka the No Secret Police Act, prohibiting most law enforcement officers in California from wearing masks that many believe protect them from doxxing.

‘Scott Wiener has shown throughout the years that he is no friend of law enforcement.’

Wiener has not even tried to hide his animus against cops. In June 2020, at the height of George Floyd hysteria, he pledged not to “accept contributions from law enforcement unions going forward.”

“Our policing/criminal justice system is broken & needs drastic change,” he claimed at the time.

“This system kills/harms countless people, esp people of color. We need to do more & I’m committed to this fight,” he added.

And yet police union dollars are still flowing his way.

How? The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Caucus Leadership Fund, a political committee for the California Legislative LGBTQ Caucus. Wiener currently sits on the caucus and previously served as chair.

Since January 2020, the respective political action committees of the Peace Officers Research Association of California, the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, and the California Association of Highway Patrolmen have donated a whopping $210,000 total to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Caucus Leadership Fund, state records show.

During that same period, state filings show that the LGBT caucus fund donated $11,000 directly to Wiener’s campaign committees and spent an additional $27,000 in independent expenditures supporting his 2020 re-election bid.

The leaders of the California Legislative LGBTQ Caucus; the chair of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Caucus Leadership Fund; and representatives from PORAC, CCPOA, and CAHP did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.

In addition to his seat on the LGBT caucus, Wiener also currently serves as chair of the state Senate Elections and Constitutional Amendments Committee and just a month ago killed a bill that would have barred anyone who “has ever been required to register as a sex offender” from running for elective office in California.

The bill passed 60-0 in the California Assembly, where Democrats outnumber Republicans 60 to 19.

Wiener voted against the bill because he thought it ought to apply only to Tier 3 registrants, the worst sex offenders.

Of note, Tier 1 offenses can include misdemeanor child pornography. Just this year, Rene Campos, a registered sex offender who pled no contest to possessing obscene matter depicting a minor in sexual conduct, nearly qualified to run for Fresno City Council but failed to gather the necessary 20 signatures.

Campos confirmed to Blaze News that he fully intends to “run again.”

“Does equal protection still mean equal protection when the person invoking it is unpopular? Under the same sun, no one is above the law — and no one should stand outside its protection,” Campos wrote in an email. “I believe every person stands equal before the law.”

RELATED: Fresno candidate’s registered child sex offender status sparks outrage after city council campaign launch

Rene Campos. California Sex Offender Registry screenshot

Many rank-and-file members of law enforcement have been frustrated that so much union largesse has been dedicated to Democrats like Wiener who seemingly make cops look like the bad guys and sex offenders look like victims.

Sgt. Tony Romo, who has spent nearly 40 years as a deputy and a detective in Los Angeles, told Blaze News that he resigned from the board of the Los Angeles County Professional Peace Officers Association in 2023, partially because the group was “selling out the members” with some of its “relationships with politicians.”

Romo claimed that lawmakers in Sacramento are passing bills that “handcuff” police officers and that police unions are helping facilitate this anti-cop legislation through financial support.

“These bills are being passed, and the unions are basically getting rolled over on [them]. And they’re not fighting the leadership. They just kind of want to go to status quo,” Romo explained.

Sgt. Tony Romo. LA County Sheriff’s Department

Romo also claimed that while he was still on the board, the L.A. County PPOA discussed donating to Wiener even after Wiener renounced all police union support in June 2020. Each time Wiener’s name came up, Romo and another board member would immediately reject it because of Wiener’s anti-cop activism, Romo said.

“Scott Wiener has shown throughout the years that he is no friend of law enforcement. Absolutely, he’s more of a nemesis to law enforcement. And if he had it his way, there would be probably no law enforcement. So it’s our duty to support our membership, and it’s not to support any senator, assemblyman, congressman that is doing the exact opposite of that,” Romo said.

State filings show PPOA donated $21,000 directly to Wiener’s re-election campaigns between June 2016 and July 2018 but has not made a direct donation to Wiener’s campaigns since.

Sen. Wiener is now running for the congressional seat former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D) has held since 1987, representing most of San Francisco.

Wiener’s campaign and PPOA did not respond to a request for comment.

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​California, California senate, Nancy pelosi, Scott wiener, Politics 

The president’s executive order “Ushering in the Next Frontier of Quantum Innovation” arrived in language that sounded both urgent and inevitable. Americans have always needed a frontier. Close the continental one and you get the endless frontier of Vannevar Bush, who argued in 1945 that basic science was the territory left to settle.

Now, 81 years later, the covered wagons are cryostats … and the territory is quantum.

Hype is a strategic tool for securing funding.

And what, exactly, is quantum? We’ll get to that.

President Trump signed executive order 14413 on June 22, 2026. The stated goal is to make the United States the world’s quantum “superpower,” a word that does not appear in the order itself but in the accompanying fact sheet, in which ambitions are permitted to be louder. The order proper is more bureaucratic and more interesting, directing the creation of a national quantum strategy within 180 days and demanding technical specifications for a scientifically transformative quantum computer within 90 days. It orders sensor deployment plans extending to September 2028 and establishes the Quantum Computer for Application Development and Discovery Science effort, which aims to deliver at least one machine to a Department of Energy facility where real scientists can use it for real problems. The order is less a building than a set of blueprints.

Federal quantum policy is actually not new. Spending on quantum information science rose from $456 million in fiscal year 2019 to over a billion by 2023. The 2018 National Strategic Overview had already laid out grand challenges, workforce initiatives, and international cooperation frameworks. A 2009 vision document warned, with admirable prescience, that quantum technologies could render existing data-protection schemes obsolete. The new order tightens this apparatus. The posture shifts from encouragement to expectation, from “let us coordinate” to “let us specify what we are building and whether it works.”

Confidence or con?

Quantum computing has suffered from a particular condition: The distance between what is promised and what is delivered is large, and the people doing the promising know it. Physicists have acknowledged, in terms more candid than one might expect, that hype is a strategic tool for securing funding. DARPA, not an institution given to sentiment, created a Quantum Benchmarking Initiative whose purpose is to determine whether anyone’s machine can actually do something worth its cost by 2033. The executive order’s insistence on specifications, benchmarking centers, and public assessment institutions is therefore a response to a credibility problem. The government is trying to build institutions that can tell the difference between a breakthrough and a press release.

RELATED: Smartphone and laptop prices are rising. Buy now before they go higher.

Crovik Media/Getty Images

The underlying physics explains why quantum computing is so difficult. A qubit, the fundamental unit of quantum information, can exist in a superposition of states, which permits certain computations to proceed in ways unavailable to classical machines. The trouble is that qubits are extraordinarily fragile. They decohere; their gates fail; their measurements are imperfect. The central engineering challenge is error correction: combining many noisy physical qubits into fewer, cleaner logical qubits whose effective error rates are low enough to be useful. Google reported a 101-qubit surface code that exceeded the lifetime of its best physical qubit by a factor of 2.4. Microsoft and Quantinuum demonstrated logical qubits with better-than-physical error rates on a trapped-ion processor.

These are genuine achievements, but are only way stations, and the order reflects an awareness that a useful quantum computer cannot be defined by qubit count alone. Instead, such a computer must be described in terms of gate fidelity, decoder latency, circuit depth, error-correction overhead, and performance on actual workloads. The romance of the blackboard gives way to the actuality of engineering and manufacturing.

The break and the fix

Trump’s order treats quantum as a material civilization project, with supply-chain analyses, foundry access, domestic component development, and critical minerals, speaking of readiness, deployment, and trusted supply chains. Quantum policy is now a cousin of semiconductor policy, another domain in which the distance between theoretical capability and industrial reality turned out to be the whole story. The order also folds in workforce provisions: recruitment strategies, labor-market tracking, apprenticeships, and a network of national training institutes. Talent, chips, standards, and secrecy are treated as a single policy field.

There is a tension at the heart of the order. On the same day as the president’s signature, the White House issued a companion order on advanced cryptographic attacks. The reason is straightforward and unsettling. A sufficiently powerful quantum computer could break the public-key cryptography on which much of modern privacy, commerce, and infrastructure depends. NIST finalized its first three post-quantum cryptography standards in August 2024. Migration, the agency stresses, must begin now. The government is doing two things simultaneously: accelerating the technology that could undermine the current architecture of trust and building a new architecture of trust designed to survive the technology it is accelerating. The government has decided that the technology is too important to forgo and too dangerous to leave unsecured.

​Tech, Quantum, Computing 

An Amber Alert on Monday led to the shooting death of a man who allegedly abducted a 13-year-old girl from her home in Ocala, Florida.

The Marion County Sheriff’s Office said that 45-year-old Jason Castillo had been identified as a possible suspect after the Amber Alert for Juliet Louise Arioso was issued in the morning.

Castillo was shot by 8 sheriff’s deputies and 1 officer while they tried to take him into custody.

Police believe Castillo had abducted Arioso from the Shady Road Villas community between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.

At about 5:20 p.m., deputies spotted the red 2021 Hyundai Santa Fe and tried to pull Castillo over, but he refused and tried to speed away.

Officers performed a precision immobilization technique, commonly known as a PIT maneuver, that disabled the SUV on U.S. Highway 441.

Castillo was shot by eight sheriff’s deputies and one officer while they tried to take him into custody.

He was transported to a hospital, where he was later declared dead.

Arioso was found safe and returned to her home.

Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods later said that a citizen notified police when they saw the car described in the Amber Alert, and police were also aided by a license plate reader.

Woods said Castillo produced a handgun when the officers confronted him. The video they released shows him pointing the gun at police.

“I couldn’t be more proud of my deputies,” Woods said. “When that little girl needed them, they answered the call. They worked every lead, used every tool available, and they didn’t quit until she was safe.”

RELATED: Texas man arrested in connection to 12-year-old who went missing after getting into strange truck in the middle of the night

Castillo’s family released a statement about his death.

“We love him regardless of what he has done over the years no matter what a loss is a loss! Don’t take this as we supported his acts. But we did care about him and wished him better. I grew up with him as a huge part of my close family and it really sucks knowing he is gone,” the statement reads.

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​Amber alert, Child abduction, Florida man, Officer shooting, Crime 

As the shooting war with Iran enters its sixth month, the United States continues to smash Iran’s military — and lose the information war in Iran, at home, and around the world.

American forces can strike targets across Iran and hit Tehran’s regional allies, especially the Houthis in Yemen. By every conventional military measure, Iran is taking severe losses. Yet a growing domestic and international audience believes Tehran is fighting the United States to a standstill.

The Iranian officials would earn an A in my information-warfare seminar. Too many American officials would earn an F

It is not. But Iran is winning the argument over what the war means.

Too many senior American officials still treat television — whether broadcast or streamed — as a record of an event rather than a battlefield in its own right. The War Department approaches global visual media as if it were still 1991 and Desert Storm. That must change.

U.S. military planners still tend to think in Clausewitzian terms: War is politics conducted through the controlled application of violence. That formulation reflected the technology of the early 19th century. It does not account for an information age in which images cross the globe in milliseconds and political effects can precede, outweigh, or even replace battlefield effects.

I call this form of conflict SOFTWAR: the hostile use of global visual media to shape another society’s will by changing its view of reality. Three colleagues and I have taught this form of warfare to generations of students at U.S. war, staff, and intelligence colleges since the early 1990s. Too few American institutions adapted.

Iran did. Its military and intelligence apparatus has embraced the concept since at least 2003 and even adopted the American-coined term in its own publications and influence operations.

That helps explain why the United States has spent billions of dollars over five months while Iranian drone and missile attacks — and Tehran’s televised defiance — continue. Washington is using Cold War systems and industrial-age doctrine against an asymmetric enemy organized for the infosphere.

Iran’s theocratic dictatorship is fighting a four-dimensional guerrilla war across land, sea, air, and information. Its military losses have limited its ability to retaliate directly against U.S. forces. Its remaining attacks are therefore chosen less for battlefield effect than for global media impact.

Oil tankers and cargo ships in the Strait of Hormuz, a desalination plant and power station in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil hub, a liquefied natural gas facility in Qatar, a U.S. communications center in Jordan, and American naval facilities in Bahrain all produce frightening images and headlines.

RELATED: The only Iran plan that doesn’t end with a 20-year hangover

Marcin Golba/NurPhoto/Getty Images

Iran times its scattered counterattacks for its own early-morning hours so the images arrive during the American prime-time news cycle. The objective is not merely to damage a target. It is to shape the story told about the war here, there, and everywhere.

The United States helps Tehran by concentrating almost exclusively on visible military targets while leaving the regime’s domestic television system intact. Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting continues to push the mullahs’ account across dozens of television channels and through its official news operation.

Washington destroys weapons and commanders but fails to contest the information environment that gives those losses political meaning. It has not destroyed the transmitters and replaced the regime’s message with one aimed directly at the Iranian people.

Those people are the regime’s real engine: a population that has endured repression and the reported killing of tens of thousands of anti-government demonstrators. Outside the relatively small number of Iranians with access to Starlink, the United States has no coherent way to speak to them at scale.

America does not lack the technology. The military weakened its own capacity. In 2024, it retired the EC-130J aircraft of the 193rd Special Operations Wing, the only U.S. airborne radio and television broadcast platform. The aircraft were judged too vulnerable for modern combat, but no announced drone replacement has taken over the mission.

The result is overwhelming kinetic power without a direct means of reaching the Iranian public. It is the doctrine of a mechanic who responds to an engine-warning light by cutting the wire to the bulb. The warning disappears. The engine keeps failing.

Meanwhile, Iranian propagandists study the American audience, especially younger people hostile to the Trump administration, and target them with AI-generated Lego-character videos. The goal is to unite disparate factions, erode domestic support for the war, and influence the midterm elections.

America needs a genuinely four-dimensional military capable of operating on land, at sea, in the air, and throughout the infosphere. Information warfare should organize and direct the campaign, with kinetic operations supporting strategic influence objectives — not the other way around. Iran already understands the hierarchy.

RELATED: Memo to Hegseth: Military education needs a strategic makeover

Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu/Getty Images

Its officials also understand presentation.

When Iranian military figures such as Brigadier General Ebrahim Zolfaghari or Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps spokesman Abolfazl Shekarchi address the public, they are usually seated behind a desk with the Iranian flag visible. Their uniforms are immaculate, their beards trimmed, and their faces dramatically lit. Most important, they look through the camera lens directly at the audience. This is television 101.

Viewers who speak no Farsi still receive the intended message: discipline, seriousness, and defiance.

American military spokesmen too often squander the same opportunity. They ignore, disdain, or have never learned the skills needed to communicate effectively on television.

General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is informed and capable. But at his Pentagon press conferences, his televised manner resembles a squadron commander consulting his notes while briefing the weather to the first three rows.

He should address the millions watching beyond the room. Put the camera a few feet away, frame him from mid-bicep to just above the head, and have him look through the lens to establish direct eye contact with the intended audience. Reporters can sit to either side. The difference would be immediate.

Admiral Brad Cooper, commander of U.S. Central Command, makes a similar mistake. He often appears in green camouflage designed to defeat electro-optical observation — including television — rather than the Navy service uniform designed to convey authority, experience, and command. He also stands too far from the camera for viewers to read his face.

His folksy Ozzie Nelson manner may work before Congress or the Navy League. It does not put an enemy on his heels.

RELATED: The future of warfare is not what you think

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth should know better. The former Fox News host needs a tighter camera shot and a visual style designed for wartime communication rather than his old television demographic.

His current presentation is crowded with distractions: a tight European-cut suit, patterned tie, clashing flag pocket square, and hair product that makes his scalp glisten under studio lights. His deep-set eyes require careful lighting. Without it, viewers may read strain or evasiveness where none exists.

Alfred Hitchcock understood the rule: Dress the leading man simply and light him properly so the audience watches the man rather than the costume. Cary Grant in “North by Northwest” remains the model.

The Iranian officials would earn an A in my information-warfare seminar. Too many American officials would earn an F — and three hours of detention.

That needs to change right now.

The United States is not losing the military contest with Iran. It is losing the contest over what the world believes the military contest means.

A nation can destroy every designated target and still lose the war if its enemy controls the images, timing, and story. Information warfare is not an elective. It is the core course.

America, so far, is failing.

​Iran, Opinion & analysis, Pete hegseth, Tehran, Television, United states, War department, Yemen, Information war, Propaganda, Dan caine, Brad cooper 

Two summers ago, our team at the Oversight Project sat in a conference room asking the same question as the rest of the country: How were they running the government with a broken president?

That was before Joe Biden’s complete malfunction on the debate stage. Even then, we were confident he could not sustain a full re-election campaign. We began examining whether state election laws would permit Democrats to replace him after key ballot deadlines. Leaked Democratic National Committee memos showed that the prospect had already alarmed both pro- and anti-Biden factions.

The silence on the tapes speaks loudly. It suggests knowing and willful conduct, not an innocent paperwork mistake.

As a clip of Biden stumbling played on the television, someone asked the lawyer’s question: How were they moving paper through the White House, and could Biden even sign it?

After a brief silence, someone answered: Probably an autopen. Let’s find the documents and calendars and figure it out.

The rest became what President Trump has called the scandal of the century: congressional investigations, Justice Department and White House inquiries, evidence of the extraordinary lengths Biden’s aides took to conceal his condition, and even the rearrest of violent felons who should never have received autopenned commutations.

Accountability, however, has remained elusive.

Which is infuriating. What happened during the Biden years was wrong, harmful, and in many instances unlawful. The Constitution vests presidential authority in one person. That person must possess both the capacity and the awareness to authorize official acts. The entire system depends on fixing responsibility on the president whom the voters chose.

That did not happen. For a country that has spent decades lecturing the world about democracy, the Biden presidency became an embarrassment at home.

Monday brought a measure of accountability. After more than two years of litigation, the Biden tapes were released to the American people.

Joe Biden and his well-funded legal team fought us in federal district court and on appeal. We won both times. Biden could have asked the Supreme Court to intervene, but he finally surrendered. His lawyers had so much time and money that they devoted pages of legal filings to posts from my X feed and that of my colleague Jeff Clark, apparently hoping to discredit us before the court. I will always enjoy knowing that the Biden team paid an aspiring left-wing lawyer to study my unvarnished thoughts.

RELATED: Biden audio tapes have just been released — and it’s not good for Joe

Mandel Ngan/Pool/Getty Images

What does the release of the tapes mean?

First, it pushes the timeline of Biden’s decline back to 2016 and 2017.

The recordings capture Biden’s interviews with ghostwriter Mark Zwonitzer while the two worked on Biden’s memoir, “Promise Me, Dad.” They were made within six months of Biden leaving the vice presidency. On the tapes, Biden forgets the name of Rep. Jim Clyburn, the man who would later rescue his 2020 campaign. He repeatedly says, “I’m so confused” and, “I can’t remember.”

The good days and bad days that defined his presidency were already apparent in 2017. The recordings contain so many pauses and verbal stalls that Biden sounds like a dial-up connection trying to buffer.

That helps explain why the 2020 campaign used COVID-19 as cover to keep him in the basement. Had Biden been forced to speak publicly and off the cuff throughout that campaign, his decline might have become as obvious then as it was during the 2024 debate. Democratic leaders knew they were selling damaged goods long before the public finally saw the label.

Second, the tapes raise serious questions about special counsel Robert Hur’s investigation into Biden’s handling of classified information.

Hur declined to prosecute, concluding that a jury would view Biden as a “sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.” Yet the recordings reveal conduct more serious than Hur’s public account suggested.

At several points, Biden acknowledges that the material before him may be classified. The audio then cuts to long stretches of silence redacted for national security reasons. These are not isolated interruptions. Classified redactions cover substantial portions of the recordings.

The transcripts indicate that Biden disclosed information involving the CIA, the Defense Department, and other sensitive national security matters to a ghostwriter who lacked both a security clearance and authorization to receive it. Biden made those disclosures while pursuing a book deal worth $8 million.

The silence on the tapes speaks loudly. It suggests knowing and willful conduct, not an innocent paperwork mistake. The recordings justify a fresh examination of whether Hur’s investigation was designed to uncover the full truth or to contain a politically explosive scandal.

RELATED: Biden freed killers with a pen he didn’t even hold

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Third, the tapes open the door to criminal inquiries.

Biden told the American people that he “did not share classified information” with his ghostwriter. The tapes contradict that statement. Knowing and willful disclosure of national defense information to an unauthorized person can constitute a federal crime. Unlike a witness with a failing memory, a recording does not need to testify.

The inquiry should not stop with Biden. His White House mobilized in 2024 to discredit Hur for accurately describing the president’s mental condition. Officials who knew the truth attacked the special counsel for saying it aloud. The autopen scandal was institutional, and accountability must extend to the aides who enabled, concealed, and benefited from it.

Investigators must reconstruct the timeline carefully. Biden was plainly diminished in 2016 and 2017, though he deteriorated further by 2024. What was his mental state when he removed classified documents from secure facilities? Did he understand that he was disclosing protected information when he said as much on tape? How did Hur evaluate intent at the time the alleged offenses occurred rather than at the time of his later interview?

Those questions demand answers.

The tapes always belonged to the American people. The Oversight Project merely delivered them to their rightful owners.

America can never again permit a presidential administration to operate by mechanized fiat. Only one person may exercise the powers of the presidency. That person must know what he is authorizing, accept responsibility for it, and actually possess the confidence of the voters who put him there.

​Autopen, Joe biden, Oversight project, Justice department, Robert hur, Classified documents, Donald trump, National security, Opinion & analysis 

Donald Trump turned a White House dinner joke into one of the most controversial statements possible, as his joke clearly left his victim fuming — but she couldn’t say anything about it without damaging the left’s belief system.

BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales calls it “the greatest joke” he’s had, before playing a clip of the president honing in on CNN host Kaitlan Collins.

“But I want to personally congratulate CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on receiving her award. It was all about me, it’s a fake. She shouldn’t get the award. It was a fake. But I didn’t mind. I said, ‘Kaitlan, congratulations.’ But it was fake,” Trump began.

“There’s no question about it. But she’s a young, attractive woman. She never smiles. I said, ‘Kaitlan, do you have a smile? Smile. You have a nice position. You’re at CNN fake news. You should be a happy person. So smile, Kaitlan,’” he continued.

“I thought Kaitlan had really made it big with a major new sponsorship, but then I informed her that it wasn’t her on the Bud Light can,” he said, adding, “It was Dylan Mulvaney.”

“Now,” Gonzales comments, laughing, “what’s so brilliant about this joke is that they can’t actually complain about the joke without proving that they’re transphobic. How are you going to explain what exactly is offensive about this joke?”

“Because if you want to accept leftist logic, Dylan Mulvaney is just as beautiful of a woman as Kaitlan Collins,” she says, noting that according to the left, “trans women are real women.”

When Collins was questioned about the joke following the dinner, she ignored the questions and walked away.

“They couldn’t be too offended,” Gonzales says, adding, “to protect the trans people.”

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.

​Donald trump, Dylan mulvaney, Kaitlan collins, Sara gonzales, Bud light, Blazetv show, Lgbt 

A Michigan husband and father is suspected of fatally shooting his wife and six children before taking his own life last week, authorities said.

Ottawa County Sheriff’s Capt. Jake Sparks said investigators believe that 47-year-old Kristopher Karolkiewicz killed his wife, 39-year-old Amanda Karolkiewicz, and their six children — four boys, ages 15, 12, 11, and 5, and two 11-year-old girls — before killing himself.

‘This is an unspeakable tragedy that we may never completely understand.’

“The manner of death for Amanda and the six children was ruled homicide. The manner of death for Kristopher has been ruled suicide,” Sparks stated.

Deputies assisted firefighters at 11:42 a.m. Friday responding to a call about a house fire in the Riverwood neighborhood of Grand Haven, which is on the coast of Lake Michigan and a little over 30 minutes west of Grand Rapids.

Firefighters entered the two-story residence and discovered eight people dead in various rooms. Investigators later determined that all of the victims had suffered gunshot wounds before the blaze was set.

Autopsies confirmed the identities of the deceased as Kristopher and Amanda Karolkiewicz and their six children, four of whom were the couple’s biological boys; their two girls had been adopted. The children’s names have not been released.

“This is an unspeakable tragedy that we may never completely understand … but we’ll do our best to find the answers and to honor the memory of those victims,” Sparks pledged.

Investigators believe Kristopher used a handgun in the killings; no suicide note has been found so far.

RELATED: Deadly Seattle shooting: Arrested suspect is just 15 years old; cops say there were 2 other suspects — 1 killed, 1 unknown

While the official cause of the fire remains under investigation, preliminary evidence indicates it was intentionally set after the killings, Sparks shared. Investigators found multiple areas where the fire appeared to have been ignited, including the home’s first floor and basement.

“I can tell you that no suspects remain at large in this incident at this time. The investigation at this point shows that this was a murder-suicide with the fire being started after the murders,” Sparks said.

The family’s pets, including several dogs and at least one cat, also died in the fire.

Sparks noted that the violence may have commenced the night before and continued into the early morning hours, with neighbors having reported smelling smoke early in the day, though a precise timeline is still being established.

The motive remains unknown.

The American Heart Association confirmed that “Kristopher Karolkiewicz was an employee … from September of 2023 until earlier this month, July 2026, when his employment ended,” WWMT-TV reported.

Amanda worked as a substitute teacher at Grand Haven Area Public Schools, WDIV-TV reported. District Superintendent Kristin Perkowski called the tragedy a “devastating incident.”

“It is with deep sadness that we acknowledge reports of a devastating incident in Grand Haven Township earlier today involving the loss of multiple lives, including several school-aged children,” she wrote, according to WZZM-TV.

Amanda also was a children’s author, and a biography from one of her books notes that her passions were “special needs and trauma-informed advocacy, mindfulness, reading, dining out, traveling, and exploring the Lake Michigan shoreline.”

Steve and Becky Lawwill, the parents of Amanda and the grandparents of the six children, issued a statement Monday to WWMT saying, “Our daughter Mandy was a kind and devoted soul who loved her family and her students.”

“We treasured every moment we had with her and her six children, and words cannot adequately express our devastation,” the Lawwills added. “We pray for God’s peace and comfort as we grieve their deaths and honor their lives.”

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​Handgun, Homicide, House fire, Michigan, Suicide, Grand haven, Fatal shootings, Crime 

The Trump administration’s changes to food welfare benefits are forcing grocery markets in Las Vegas, Nevada, to fire workers and reduce their store hours.

Many on the left have decried the changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which restricted benefits from people who are able to work or don’t have disabilities.

‘You can tell that everybody’s panicking, and that’s what everybody’s talking about is how they’re going to feed their families.’

According to the KVVU-TV report, the cuts are affecting stores so much that they are making drastic decisions.

“I think we’re just in a world of trouble right now,” said Mario Berlanga, the owner of Mario’s Westside Market.

He said his sales have decreased by 30% compared to a year ago, forcing him to shorten hours.

“Over 20 people have lost their job because there’s just no business,” he added.

He said he’s never seen anything like this in the 27 years of the shop’s existence, and families are panicking over the cuts.

“When you’re used to feeding your family of four or five with $200 and now you have to do it with $80 — you really watch and see what you can pick up,” Berlanga added.

“You can tell that everybody’s panicking, and that’s what everybody’s talking about is how they’re going to feed their families,” he continued.

Another owner told KVVU that the cuts had affected more than half of his shoppers at his Eastside store.

“Now all the homeless people come in here, they don’t have money,” the owner said. “All of them were thirsty.”

He has also cut hours and laid off a worker.

County Commissioner Tick Segerblom told KVVU that the cuts were hitting his district hard because many low-income wage-earners use the benefits to supplement their food purchases.

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

The City of Las Vegas also released a statement about the cuts.

“The changes to the SNAP program are federally mandated, and the city does not have control over them,” officials said. “The city understands that these changes have been difficult not only for businesses but also for those in need who rely on these federal programs. The city has worked to get the word out about programs to assist those in need, such as local food pantries and charities.”

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​Trump administration, Supplemental nutrition assistance program, Food stamps, Welfare, Economy, Politics 

What started as a plan to track license plates has evolved into something far more expansive, according to automotive expert Lauren Fix. And on “Stu and Dave Do America,” she warns that the rapid expansion of surveillance technology is only getting worse.

“So, you’ve heard about the Flock cameras. Why do they call them ‘Flock’? That’s my first question. Are we the flock?” Fix asks, before answering, “Oh, yes we are. We are the sheep, and they are controlling us.”

“The truth is, they’re supposed to track your license plates, but they don’t. They track the car, the picture of your car, the bumper sticker on your car, … wherever you’ve been. Do you have a cargo container on your roof? Do you have a bike rack? Do you have a dent? Do you have a scratch? All of that is being tracked,” she continues.

“And it’s not just at one intersection. It’s at every intersection,” she adds.

And Americans aren’t happy with the heightened surveillance.

“One guy got arrested for sitting in a lounge chair. Like, he brought a folding chair out and on a pole like you would use in a pool, he put a piece of cardboard in front of the camera, and he got arrested for obstructing justice,” Fix explains.

“So, again, it was a misdemeanor, but it’s still all B.S.,” she says. “So, the bottom line is, why do you need to have these cameras on the roads?”

But they’re not just on the roads.

“They’re in parks. They’re in schools. They’re at Home Depot. They’re on every single FedEx truck. And don’t worry, they just put it on 400,000 school buses that are supposed to stop when people bypass the bus, where kids are loading and offloading,” Fix explains.

“They’re supposed to take a picture of that person, and you get a ticket,” she continues, noting that the families bringing their children out to the bus are then being photographed too.

“But it gets worse. So many people have complained about these Flock cameras that many cities, including Los Angeles, said, ‘You know what?’ The city of Los Angeles said, ‘We’re going to cancel our contract. Instead, we’re going to go with another company called Axon,’” she says.

This company, Fix warns, makes Flock cameras “look like child’s play.”

“They’ve moved it to the whole next level. They have gone even farther, and they’re making contracts with people that have ended their Flock camera systems,” she explains.

“They will be putting their cameras on every single light post. No permits, no requirements, just putting them on every single light post. That’s about 450 million around the world. And that means every light post on every street will have a camera,” she continues.

Fix claims there’s also a link between the new “kill switch” in cars and this new surveillance system.

“These dots are connected, and I will tell you, you’re not going to be happy,” she adds.

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​Dave landau, Flock cameras, Home depot, Kill switch, Lauren fix, License plates, Los angeles, Stu burguiere, Surveillance technology, Blazetv show 

A gun violence prevention program in Orlando, Florida, that received $1.5 million of federal funding abruptly closed down on Thursday after several controversies, including the arrest of a “neighborhood change agent.”

Operation New Hope CEO and President Reggie Fullwood said in a message to the group’s community partners that it had “suspended” operations and terminated all “neighborhood change agents,” as well as peacekeepers, mental health therapists, and job coaches.

Prosecutors said the leaks resulted in lost evidence, unrecovered assets, and at least one suspect fleeing arrest.

A source told WESH-TV that the situation was discussed on Friday at the Orlando City Hall.

“Since assuming responsibility for the contract in January, we have encountered numerous employee arrests, significant breaches of trust, and a lack of accountability that have compromised the integrity and effectiveness of the program,” Fullwood said.

He confirmed to WESH that a former state juvenile justice probation officer who was arrested for allegedly leaking information to drug traffickers worked for the organization as a change agent.

Crystal Lawson, 32, was fired by the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice in February 2022 over a battery charge. Lawson had been given access to the state’s court records database at her job, and that access was not shut off after she was fired.

An arrest warrant indicated that Lawson was making dozens of unapproved searches on the database and that secret search warrants from the database ended up in the hands of fentanyl traffickers.

Investigators traced the leaks to a person nicknamed “Mel Baby” — and identified him as Melvin Lawson, the father of Crystal Lawson. He allegedly bragged about having the unauthorized access to the state records.

Prosecutors said the leaks resulted in lost evidence, unrecovered assets, and at least one suspect fleeing arrest.

Lawson could face up to 560 years in prison over the 113 felony counts of computer crimes and one other felony count.

RELATED: Social media influencer arrested after mom’s terrifying discovery of cellphone video of her 2-year-old daughter

Lawson was given a bond of $10,000 per felony count, which added up to $1.14 million.

She posted bond and was released.

WESH indicated that it was unclear whether the allegations against Lawson were connected in any way to the Community Violence Intervention program.

The city launched the CVI program in 2022, and Saving Our Streets began operating as part of that mission in 2023. In 2024, the program expanded after receiving a $1.5 million grant from the U.S. Dept. of Justice.

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​Federal funding, Violence prevention, Florida, Fentanyl, Crime 

President Donald Trump aired some of his frustrations with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu just ahead of a scheduled meeting at the White House.

The joint U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran began 151 days ago, and while the president has expressed his interest in ending the conflict, many stumbling blocks lie in the path toward peace.

‘I don’t need Bibi to tell me that. Bibi’s telling me that because he wants me to stay involved.’

Trump was questioned during an interview via telephone with Fox News about comments Netanyahu made referring to Pickaxe Mountain, a suspected Iranian nuclear site.

“Well, I don’t need Bibi to tell me that. Bibi’s telling me that because he wants me to stay involved,” Trump said, using Netanyahu’s nickname.

“We have the finest, because of the space wars, we have the greatest cameras in the world. We know exactly what’s going on. But no, I heard Bibi announce that. I said, ‘Why didn’t you just tell it to me? Why do you have to announce it to the world?'” he added.

“I know exactly what’s going on at ⁠Pickaxe,” he said. “It’s not a big problem.”

He went on to say that he would “take out” the supposed Pickaxe facility if Iran continues to reject a peace deal.

“We took out their ⁠nuclear sites, and we’ll have to take out Pickaxe if we don’t make a deal,” he said. “If we don’t make a deal, we’ll take it out very easily.”

Video of the president’s comments can be viewed on the Fox News YouTube channel.

The meeting between Netanyahu and Trump lasted about an hour and is said to have been very positive.

“It was a conversation marked by full partnership, mutual support, and a shared understanding of our common objective: to ensure that Iran does not obtain nuclear weapons, as well as other goals,” Netanyahu said after the meeting.

RELATED: Inside the rift: Trump claims Netanyahu has ‘no f**king judgment’ after strike threatens Iran peace deal

The president, meanwhile, said talks with Iran stalled over disagreements about nuclear weapon development.

“We can be in the midst of a beautiful discussion, and they’ll come out and say, … ‘We didn’t discuss nuclear,'” the president said while speaking to Fox News. “Well, that’s all we discuss, because they’ll never have a nuclear weapon. They understand that. And we have had some very good talks.”

He reiterated his threat to resume military strikes on Iran unless a deal is reached.

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​Donald trump, Benjamin netanyahu, Iran, Nuclear threat, Politics 

Last week in Canada, Toronto police stopped a Rebel News digital billboard truck after a passerby called in a possible hate crime — simply because of what the billboard said.

The billboard boasted a paid advertisement from the Canadian Women’s Sex-Based Rights, which advocates for women’s safety in sports.

“Not for speeding, not for a bad tail light, but officers were responding to a complaint about the message on the side of the truck being a hate crime,” Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck says, shocked.

The message on the truck read: “Women and girls deserve safety on the field, privacy and dignity in the locker room, and fairness on the podium.”

The billboard also included a claim that men are competing in women’s sports, alongside a website address and a call to sign a petition.

“That’s it. That’s the crime in Canada,” Glenn says.

“Now, police investigated. They didn’t take any enforcement action. They let the truck drive away. Rebel News says this is the second time now in Toronto police have gone over a truck with paid advertisement, and the outcome doesn’t change what happened because the investigation is the sentence,” he continues.

“Remember, governments can make your life a living hell. Somebody made a phone call, cruisers rolled, officers stood on the pavement deciding whether the sentence about locker rooms was a criminal act,” he adds.

And what this means, Glenn explains, is that “if you’re thinking about putting an advertisement up on the side of a truck, you’re now risking the next police stop.”

“That cost gets paid no matter what the charge is,” he says.

“You may disagree with the ad, that’s fine. You might agree with it, that’s fine. Think it’s wrong about the science, wrong about the numbers, wrong about the whole question. Fine. That’s what you’re supposed to do with an argument you think is bad,” he continues, “You beat it.”

“Nobody was threatened. Nobody was told to go and do violence to anybody. A group of women bought advertising space to make a claim about the rules of sports in this country.”

“That’s an argument, and now it’s, you know, over before it even begins,” he adds.

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​Glenn beck, Hate crime, Rebel news, Transgender, Womens rights, Lgbt, Canada, Blazetv 

Kids in the Salamanca City Central School District were almost a pilot program for a robot tech company.

The fight is not over for the Salamanca, New York, residents though, as the state could push through the robo-teacher program after making a few adjustments.

‘[This] marks the beginning of a new era.’

On Friday, the school district announced that its pilot project with company Realbotix, which operates “AI-powered robots for companionship, entertainment, and customer service,” has been paused.

The pilot is “currently on hold while we work through enhanced student data privacy agreements with [the] New York State Education department,” the school district wrote.

The district planned to use literal fembots; a female robot named Sally with a “lifelike appearance,” New York Focus reported. With silicone skin and long, brown hair, the robot would remain in a seated position and have a wide range of upper-body movements and facial expressions.

Students would then be reduced to numbers — described as identification codes — when interacting with the robot. The codes would allow the robot to pull up data about the child’s learning history, allegedly providing personalizing support based on their past communication.

RELATED: Can you trust a machine to decide if a human wrote this?

Patrick T. Fallon/AFP/Getty Images

The robot, which came with a $57,590 investment, was planned for release this fall and is coupled with an AI teacher’s assistant program that students can interact with on a laptop through an avatar.

Realbotix CEO Andrew Kiguel told the New York outlet that the children will be able to interact with the robot teacher in the following manner:

“They’ll be able to say, ‘Hey, I’m student number 1234,’ and then the robot will be like, ‘Hey, we were talking about this yesterday, do you want to continue that conversation?'”

Kiquel claimed the deployment of the robot would be “a landmark moment for both AI and humanoid robotics.”

The CEO then claimed the use of the robot will be the new normal.

“Salamanca marks the beginning of a new era where humanoid robots and intelligent AI assistants become standard tools in STEM education.”

RELATED: Thousands of lawyers caught using AI — and it’s only getting worse

Patrick T. Fallon/AFP/Getty Images

State Education Commissioner Betty Rosa reportedly had sent a letter to the district superintendent saying that the state “remains concerned about the effect that a humanoid robot may have within a high school classroom.”

Rosa added, “Many parents, teachers, and stakeholders are understandably concerned about the presence of artificial intelligence technology in classrooms, particularly when it involves robots that resemble humans.”

Kiguel said that while his company respects “any decision the school makes,” they stand “firmly behind [the program] as a supportive tool designed to assist teachers and students, not replace them.”

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​Robots, Artificial intelligence, New york, High school, Tech 

Data centers are quickly becoming the drivers of key economic sectors, and in some cases, they are making up more than half the market.

Depending on the source, the U.S. already has somewhere between 1,200 and 4,600 data centers, and with many more in the pipeline, they will continue to bring good tidings to their surrounding areas.

‘So much investment is financed by the free cash flow of hyperscalers.’

The question remains as to whether or not these data centers become a permanent fixture in the U.S. economy; if they don’t, cutting the cord could have devastating effects.

First and foremost, the country’s GDP has been greatly affected by data center construction. The Apollo Academy reported last May that data center construction had added one percentage point to GDP growth in Q1 2025.

By March 2026, ABC Carolinas had attributed approximately 0.2% all of GDP growth in 2025 to data center construction, citing Goldman Sachs. In a $32 trillion economy, that fraction of a percentage actually equates to more than $60 billion.

Narrowing the scope, much of the boost comes from the massive investment in these projects. So much so that breaking ground on data centers has risen to $50.7 billion seasonally adjusted annual rate, based on U.S. Census Bureau data.

This makes data centers the main driver of and the biggest chunk of all office construction. In fact, if construction on data centers suddenly halted, half of the industry would disappear overnight.

RELATED: America needs an artificial intelligence coalition, not an AI fortress

Mario Tama/Getty Images

General office construction was $43.8 billion SAAR at the same time in April and is still a smaller figure than data center construction even when combined with other categories, such as financial offices.

Total private office construction spending is a reported $97.4 billion SAAR, meaning data centers account for about 52%. In fact, Bloomberg reported in June that data centers are responsible for 2.3% of all construction spending in the United States.

Anirban Basu, chief economist at Associated Builders and Contractors, told outlet Data Center Knowledge that unlike other sectors, data center construction is not nearly as impacted by high materials costs or borrowing because “so much investment is financed by the free cash flow of hyperscalers, who are desperately pursuing global AI dominance.”

“The fact that data center construction spending exceeds that of traditional office spending reflects both the magnitude of the artificial intelligence investment supercycle and a lagging office market hampered by still pervasive remote work and elevated project financing costs,” Basu said.

RELATED: The electric vehicle market is out of gas — you can guess who’s freaking out

Natalie Behring/Getty Images

Research from Brookings in May showed that data centers have a large impact on local jobs as well. The report claimed that counties see private employment increase by 4% to 5% in five to six years after their first large data center.

This also causes an increase in construction employment at 11% and a 22% increase in IT jobs. Workers also see modest wage gains of about 3% to 4%, while at the same time, there is no significant effect on the costs of homes.

However, the study stated that while job creation certainly does happen, it is less than the industry claims, by about three times.

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​Data centers, Construction, Economy, Tech 

Intense bodycam video shows the moment a police officer saved the life of a Texas toddler after the child was choking and unresponsive. The hero officer credits Jesus Christ for enabling a “miracle” in saving the young child’s life.

Southmayd Police Department announced in a statement on Facebook that police responded to reports of a “medical emergency involving a 23-month-old child who was reportedly choking and had stopped breathing” at approximately 12:50 a.m. last Tuesday.

‘Jesus, he definitely was there with me, kept me calm, helped me to be able to think through the processes of what I needed to do.’

Police said the female toddler was “unconscious, unresponsive, and not breathing,” plus she was seen with blood coming out of her mouth and nose.

Southmayd Officer Scott Barrett is seen on police bodycam video responding to the incident and administering emergency assistance.

“Without hesitation, officer Barrett took custody of the child and immediately began administering age-appropriate back blows in an effort to dislodge the suspected airway obstruction,” police stated.

Authorities noted that the girl had at least a partially blocked airway, but Officer Barrett’s actions enabled the toddler to breathe again.

Sherry Steward, the child’s grandmother, told KXII-TV: “It’s like she’s convulsing, so I run and get her, and she’s solid purple, and I realized she’s choking. Blood was coming out of her mouth. Blood was coming out of her nose. She was just non-responsive.”

Emergency personnel from the Whitesboro Emergency Medical Service arrived at the scene shortly after and rushed the child to the Texoma Medical Center for further evaluation and treatment.

Southmayd Police Chief Jeff Laughlin and Lieutenant Michael Aguirre later visited the child’s family and said the relatives were grateful for the quick and effective response by police.

Police noted that the girl is expected to make a full recovery.

RELATED: Police bodycam video shows Florida man offering cops alcohol during car chase that ends with suspect getting tased

Barrett recalled the crazy situation and explained the challenges of attempting to rescue a choking toddler.

“They’re just smaller, you know, and you don’t want to hurt the child by putting all that force on their abdomen and everything,” Barrett told KXII. “We’re taught to tilt the child over and to just do back blows, firmly, and that’s what I did.”

Barrett also credited Jesus Christ for assisting him during the life-threatening incident. “I was praying Jesus would keep me calm during the whole thing and remember my training,” Barrett stated.

Barrett credited his faith for enabling him to save the young child.

“Praise God, she started breathing,” Barrett explained. “She started whimpering a little bit, and you could tell she was breathing at least a little bit.”

Barrett added, “Jesus, he definitely was there with me, kept me calm, helped me to be able to think through the processes of what I needed to do.”

“He worked a miracle, in my opinion,” Barrett told KXII. “I was just his instrument. Without the training and Christ … who knows what would happen.”

Barrett stayed at the hospital until the child was released and then visited the family the following day at their home, according to KXII.

Barrett said of the toddler recently released from the hospital, “The little girl was out running around like nothing even ever happened.”

“I got to hold her. She let me hold her, which was cool, at least for a little bit before she wanted to go back to Mom,” he added. “But it was awesome seeing her smiling and playing and running around.”

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​Jesus christ, Texas, Politics 

Flock’s downfall has a beneficiary, and it might not be your privacy.

As of July 21, more than 50 U.S. municipalities have canceled or rejected contracts for Flock Safety public cameras.

Cities are switching to a public safety tech company already inside these departments in smaller roles: Axon.

The trend away from this particular brand of license plate readers is part of a wave that includes 39 terminations in just the first five months of 2026 alone.

Earlier this month, the LAPD allowed its three-year contract to expire as concerns over data sharing and privacy continued to plague the department. LAPD’s chief information officer, Dean Gialamas, told the LA Times that the department would not be using Flock Safety until it gets a new contractual relationship “ironed out.”

Smaller cancellations have also stacked up: Monroe County, Indiana, voted to terminate its contract about a year early, and Pea Ridge, Arkansas, dropped its program over public pushback.

But it isn’t really a rollback. Cities are switching to a public safety tech company already inside these departments in smaller roles: Axon.

RELATED: We’re winning the fight against Flock — but the surveillance isn’t going away that easily

Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post/Getty Images

LAPD’s patrol cars already run Axon body cameras and tasers, with the company supplying basic automatic license plate recognition software for its in-car cameras well before Flock’s exit, though Axon’s own LAPD contract was also set to expire at the end of July.

Austin shows that this pattern predates the current wave entirely: When the city canceled Flock in 2025, the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s own write-up noted Austin “still makes use of ALPRs via its contract with Axon,” meaning the cancellation never touched the Axon relationship running alongside it.

Denver dropped Flock in February for a $150,000 Axon deal, going to 50 cameras instead of 110. Douglas County, Colorado, did the same last week, its sheriff flipping to a 10-year, $23 million Axon contract after defending Flock publicly not long ago.

Weekly told Axios “trust was lost” between the sheriff and Flock, citing the company’s handling of privacy and policy concerns.

Syracuse shows how messy the handoff can get. The city’s breakup with Flock took eight months and involved an Axon contract approved in February, Flock’s street access revoked in March, a deadline Flock missed, and police who kept using the old readers anyway until a reporter asked why.

The last Flock camera was confirmed gone only in mid-July, but as of July 23, Axon’s readers still hadn’t been switched on, pending a usage policy the department hadn’t yet posted.

Separate Flock cameras run by Syracuse University and Destiny USA aren’t subject to any council or voter approval at all.

Though Axon is winning the biggest departments, Motorola Solutions, Rekor, Genetec, and Verkada are all being evaluated as Flock alternatives by cities running requests for proposal, including Richmond and Saratoga, California.

On July 25, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) announced a bill cutting federal money to any city running these cameras, the third bill out of the House in recent weeks.

Tennessee Republican Rep. Tim Burchett’s H.R. 9800 is vendor-neutral: It bars any federal agency from buying, accessing, or contracting for ALPR, facial recognition, or biometric ID systems used for “persistent or mass surveillance.”

Blaze News reached out to Flock Safety and Axon for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

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​Facial recognition, Flock cameras, Mass surveillance, Police officers, Syracuse university, Thomas massie, Politics 

The Trump administration is threatening action against a Maryland county after parents alleged their child was transitioned behind their backs.

Parents sued Anne Arundel County Public Schools on July 8, alleging that unidentified high school staff secretly “socially transitioned” their child.

‘The school was secretly helping their daughter pretend to be male.’

The Departments of Justice and Education issued a joint statement — entitled “Trump Administration Cracks Down on School Districts Secretly ‘Transitioning’ Students and Hiding it from Parents” — accusing the school district of violating parental rights.

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act gives parents the right to review their children’s educational records. FERPA also empowers parents to request amendments to those records and control how they’re disclosed.

The DOJ and Education Department allege the Maryland school denied parents records access relevant to their child’s supposed social transition.

“When the parents approached school administrators about the matter, the principal declined to provide details about the student’s ‘gender transition,’ and the assistant principal refused to turn over the child’s relevant records,” according to the joint statement. “These policies and practices unlawfully impeded the parents’ ability to exercise their FERPA rights when it mattered most.”

America First Legal and Consovoy McCarthy PLLC are representing the anonymous parents in Maryland’s U.S. District Court.

RELATED: Tim Walz gets TORCHED over dolls with ‘swappable genitals’ meant for kids as young as 4: Report

Vuk Valcic/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images

Identified as the Does, the parents discovered that “the school was secretly helping their daughter pretend to be male” after they received an email referring to their daughter by male pronouns, according to the joint statement. They previously educated their daughter “according to their religious beliefs that God creates each person as male or female, that sex is based on biology rather than internal self-perception, and that sex cannot be altered,” the parents’ lawsuit states.

“When confronted by the Does about this conduct, AACPS personnel first tried to lie and then, when that didn’t work, insisted that their actions complied with AACPS policy,” the lawsuit states.

“AACPS wrongly believes that it has greater authority than parents to control and direct the upbringing of students. AFL is eager and willing to correct this notion,” senior counsel at America First Legal Ian Prior told Blaze News. “Parents have a fundamental right to know what is happening with their children at school, and they have every right to stop government officials from pushing radical gender ideology on their children.”

“AFL is proud to stand with the Does as they fight to protect their daughter and vindicate their constitutional rights.”

AACPS did not respond to a request for comment. The Department of Education referred Blaze News to the DOJ.

AACPS policy, linked to the district website as of Tuesday afternoon, holds that information about a student’s gender identity can be considered “confidential medical information” and encourages staff to address students by their preferred pronouns.

“Let this serve as notice to every school district in the country: FERPA is not optional,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon told Blaze News. “The Department of Justice will enforce it to the maximum extent of the law, and any district that hides a child’s sensitive information from their own parents should expect immediate federal action.”

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​Department of education, Department of justice, America first legal, Harmeet dhillon, Maryland, Politics 

In 2016, I got a call from my editor at Simon & Schuster in New York. The company was putting out a new edition of my first novel, “Girl” (1994), and redoing the cover and interior design, in preparation for its re-release.

A new edition is usually a happy occasion for a writer. If your book is still relevant after 20+ years, that’s an accomplishment.

Books have a moral authority that TV, TikTok and YouTube lack. And we all know how leftists crave moral authority.

On the phone, my editor told me that besides a new cover, the company had some young editors look at the text as well.

At first, I didn’t understand. Why would they review the text after 20 years?

She explained that these editors were recent college graduates who had studied racism, sexism, and the latest critical theory. Their job was to ensure that Simon & Schuster didn’t accidentally publish something inappropriate or hurtful to unrepresented minorities or aggrieved groups.

Sense and sensitivity

This definitely sounded unusual to me. But I wasn’t worried. “Girl” had been considered “edgy” in its time, but it had sold well and been made into a movie. It had been translated into several languages.

I assumed whatever controversy it had generated was now deemed to be within the bounds of acceptability.

So I was surprised and alarmed when she told me these new editors had some issues with “Girl.”

In this way, I was introduced to the possibility that progressive activists — “sensitivity readers” — could literally edit your book.

Because “Girl” was 20 years old, I was given the option of declining any major changes. Therefore, no real damage was done.

But it was a scary omen for the future. If they were scrutinizing older books in this way, what would they do to books that hadn’t been published yet?

RELATED: My parents ‘arranged my marriage’ at 16; maybe I should have taken them up on it

Harold M. Lambert/Getty Images

10 years on

Recently, I came across a new nonfiction work that addresses this trend in publishing: “That Book Is Dangerous! How Moral Panic, Social Media, and the Culture Wars Are Remaking Publishing.”

In this compelling book, young literary scholar Adam Szetela goes into great detail about the arrival of “sensitivity readers” and the other forms of Orwellian madness that descended on the publishing industry shortly after Trump took office.

It is quite entertaining to read and gives countless examples of how ridiculous and convoluted leftist ideology has become in the book business.

During this period, writers, editors, fans, and bloggers accused each other of racism, sexism, white supremacy, homophobia, and every other imaginable transgression. Careers were destroyed, people were fired, first-time authors saw their dreams dissolve before their eyes. And this over things like, “Is a white writer allowed to describe a black character?”

It was the ultimate purity spiral. It was a circular firing squad!

The left eats itself

When I first heard about “This Book Is Dangerous,” I assumed young Szetela was a conservative. Who else would write such a book?

But no: He has a Ph.D. in English literature from an Ivy League university (Cornell). Which means he’s required to be left of center.

So he’s not writing from the point of view of “look at these crazy cultural Marxists trying to destroy our culture.”

No, he’s trying to reel in his leftist peers because he can see how much damage they are doing to their own (and his) cause!

It’s satisfying to read books where leftists tell on themselves, where by some fluke they stumble onto the truth, then are forced to denounce that truth, and then realize they are attacking themselves!

It’s like watching a dog chase its tail. “Hey Fido, that tail you’re biting? That’s you.”

Influencing the youth

Another thing we learn from “That Book Is Dangerous!” is how much of this cultural warfare was waged inside the young adult and children’s genres.

Surprise, surprise, it turns out that socialist/progressive/DSA types really want to control what young people are exposed to.

And one way they do that is through books. Especially books that get read to them by their parents or recommended by their teachers at school.

Books have a moral authority that TV, TikTok and YouTube lack. And we all know how leftists crave moral authority. Even when they have to denounce each other to get it.

Politicized Publishing Inc.

So yeah, I recommend “That Book Is Dangerous!” It’s a good read and a vindicating experience for anyone who has dealt with the now fully politicized publishing industry.

My own relationship with that industry quickly deteriorated in the years that followed this situation. Not that I had any say in the matter. Once Trump was elected, heterosexual white guys were mostly unwelcome in mainstream publishing.

This was the publishing industry’s petty revenge on American men for daring to vote for Trump.

As for myself, I felt lost without my mainstream writing career. But eventually I found new writing opportunities, where I feel much more at home and in sync with my colleagues.

​Books, Censorship, Cultural marxists, Dei, Entertainment, Leftism, Progressive activists, Publishing, Publishing industry, Review, Sensitivity readers, Simon & schuster, This book is dangerous!, Young adult books, Blake’s progress 

The case of Shiloh Hendrix has become one of the most polarizing free-speech controversies in the country after Hendrix, a Minnesota woman, went viral after using the N-word during a confrontation at a Rochester playground.

Now, Hendrix has been found guilty on one count of disorderly conduct related to her interaction with the man who recorded the incident.

While BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock doesn’t condone Hendrix’s actions, he doesn’t like what this means for free speech — and he doesn’t believe that a woman should be charged for using a word that the black community uses all the time.

“A woman in Minnesota got into a screaming argument with a grown man in a public park. She said an ugly, sinful word, and yesterday the state of Minnesota made her a criminal for it,” Whitlock explains, adding, “I’m about to tell you why she is not the one you should be afraid of. The government is.”

While activists and even the attorney general of Minnesota wanted to charge Hendrix with a hate crime, Whitlock points out they couldn’t get a hate crime.

“Because in the United States, there is no criminal law against hateful speech,” he says, noting that instead, they went for disorderly conduct.

“The only count they convicted her on was the argument with the grown man who filmed her. Sentence, 90 days, suspended, a fine, community service, no cell, no bars. They didn’t punish her for what she said to a boy. They punished her for arguing with a man,” he explains.

“They didn’t need to jail her. They needed to label her. They needed a word in an argument between two adults to become a crime,” he adds.

However, the word she’s being punished for using is a word that’s repeated all the time in the black community.

“Here’s the lie the rappers and mainstream media sell you,” Whitlock says. “That the word changes based on who’s holding it. That in a bigot’s mouth, it’s a weapon, but in a rapper’s mouth, it’s culture. That the color of a man’s skin launders that word clean.”

“I have never believed that. Not once. It’s a lie. The word is the word. It’s poison coming out of a racist in a park. And it’s the same poison coming out of a stage in front of 20,000 kids who chant it all the way home,” he continues.

“Melanin does not sanctify it. A beat behind it does not baptize it. If it’s a sin, and it is, then it’s a sin in every mouth,” he adds.

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​Free speech, Minnesota, Whitlock, Shiloh hendrix, Blazetv show 

Despite Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) posting another photograph of himself, the governor of his state is demanding more evidence of McConnell’s well-being.

Democratic Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said in a letter dated Monday that McConnell should resign if he’s unable to prove that he can continue to serve.

‘Provide proof of your capacity to serve, or resign.’

“President [Donald] Trump is stuck in a war of his own making and has greatly strengthened the very country he claims is a threat,” Beshear wrote.

“Prices continue to rise, crushing Americans who are working hard but not getting ahead. Americans’ voting rights are being eliminated by the Supreme Court and threatened by congressional action. All while you are absent and refuse to communicate clearly and directly to the people you serve,” he added.

“As Governor of the state you serve, I am calling on you to directly and verbally address the people of Kentucky and provide proof of your capacity to serve, or resign,” Beshear concluded.

McConnell’s office did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.

The 84-year-old senator was hospitalized on June 14 after a fall that left him briefly unconscious and has also had a bout with pneumonia, according to his office. His absence from the Senate and public life has led many to speculate that his condition is far more grave than his office is admitting.

A month after he entered the hospital, McConnell’s office released a photograph depicting the senator and his wife, Elaine Chao, on his hospital bed. On Monday, he released a second photograph and said he was recovering at a rehabilitation center.

RELATED: Mitch McConnell’s replacement might be chosen in court first

Beshear also reportedly sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), asking him to begin the process of removing McConnell unless McConnell provides evidence that he is healthy enough to continue in office.

If McConnell is forced to resign, his seat stays empty until a special election can determine his successor. The governor, who is a Democrat, is not legally allowed to temporarily fill the seat, as is the case in some other states. However, some have argued the governor might contest the law in court.

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​Mitch mcconnell, Andy beshear, Kentucky, Politics