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Minnesota is hardly the only state whose kindness to migrants from the third world has been abused. Michiganders, too, have apparently opened their arms to foreign-born fraudsters who are more than happy to steal from their host state’s most vulnerable residents.

Nkechy Ezeh, a woke Nigerian who served as a professor at Aquinas College until 2023, has pleaded guilty to wire fraud in a scheme that bled taxpayers for $1 million and forced an organization that funded early learning initiatives for poor kids to close.

‘Her theft of millions of dollars intended for the most vulnerable of children was brazen, all-encompassing, and unconscionable.’

Ezeh could face up to 20 years in prison for the fraud charge and another five years for tax evasion — a charge to which she also pleaded guilty on Wednesday.

In the years since she migrated to the U.S., Ezeh has complained about “structural racism” while being showered with awards and opportunities.

In 2018, for instance, the West Michigan Woman Brilliance Awards named her woman of the year. In 2020, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer appointed Ezeh to the executive committee of Michigan’s Early Childhood Investment Corporation. In 2021, Aquinas College honored the Nigerian fraudster with its Distinguished Service Award.

The acclaim and upward mobility evidently weren’t enough for Ezeh, who decided to live a jet-set lifestyle at taxpayers’ expense.

According to a 2023 whistleblower complaint, Ezeh used various interrelated organizations to funnel hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars to herself as well as to friends and family members while serving as CEO of the Early Learning Neighborhood Collaborative.

RELATED: Somali terror group cashing in on your tax dollars? Minnesota’s child-care fraud whistleblowers warned about a decade ago.

Photo by Matthew Horwood/Getty Images

The ELNC was a nonprofit in Grand Rapids that Ezeh — who claimed in a 2022 profile that “injustice makes me cry” — founded with the purported aim of providing state “funding, advocacy, and high-quality early childhood educational services to families, children, and neighborhoods that are more ‘at-risk or vulnerable.'”

The complaint filed against Ezeh indicated that she funneled funds from the ELNC with the help of the nonprofit’s bookkeeper, Sharon Killebrew, who secretly paid herself nearly $1 million between June 2017 and April 2023.

Court documents reviewed by WOOD-TV indicate that Ezeh not only created nearly $500,000 in fake invoices with Killebrew but created two fake day-care businesses to funnel hundreds of thousands of dollars to herself and others.

Ezeh reportedly used some of the stolen taxpayer money to pay for trips to Hawaii, Liberia, and Nigeria for herself and others.

ELNC sued Ezeh and Killebrew in September 2023, but by that time, the damage was done. ELNC had to close its doors on account of the financial impact of the duo’s embezzlement and fraud, which meant the loss of both 35 jobs and a source of support for numerous Michigan families.

According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Clay Stiffler, the victims of the the fraud committed by Ezeh — who has been touted as a “champion for poor black and brown kids” — “were mostly children of color under the age of five years old, 72% of whom lived below the federal poverty level in some of the poorest neighborhoods in Kent County, Kalamazoo, and Battle Creek.”

Killebrew initially insisted she was innocent, claiming she “didn’t steal anything.” However, when confronted with the mountain of evidence to the contrary, she pleaded guilty in June. Killebrew was sentenced to 54 months in prison and ordered to pay restitution.

Like her accomplice, Ezeh initially denied her guilt but has since admitted to embezzling over $1 million.

The Nigerian fraudster’s attorney, Mary Chartier, told MLive/the Grand Rapids Press, “Ms. Ezeh is committed to taking full responsibility and accountability for her actions. She is deeply remorseful to anyone who has been negatively impacted.”

Amy DeLeeuw, the president of the apparently defunct nonprofit, stated that she was “disappointed by Nkechy Ezeh’s failure to meaningfully articulate the nature and scope of her criminal misconduct during her change of plea hearing today. Her theft of millions of dollars intended for the most vulnerable of children was brazen, all-encompassing, and unconscionable.”

“To date, Nkechy has made no effort to repay any of the millions of dollars she stole from ELNC,” continued DeLeeuw. “I trust Nkechy’s demeanor at today’s hearing did not go unnoticed by Chief Judge Hala Jarbou. I and the board will have more to say in our victim impact statement and look forward to her sentencing hearing on May 13.”

Ezeh has reportedly agreed to pay $1.4 million in restitution to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Early Head Start programs and other agencies that gave grants to the ELNC as well as nearly $400,000 in back taxes to the Internal Revenue Service.

Whitmer’s office did not respond to Blaze News’ request for comment.

Aquinas College confirmed that Ezeh retired in May 2023 and told Blaze News that the college is not in a position to comment on Ezeh’s outside endeavors.

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​Minnesota, Michigan, Grand rapids, Nkechy ezeh, Nigeria, Nigerian, Fraud, Fraudsters, Ezeh, Early learning neighborhood collaborative, Daycare, Scam, Fraudster, Politics 

With the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, now in full swing, leaders from around the world are clamoring for the spotlight. And the Democratic governor of California is no exception.

In a video he shared on Tuesday morning, Gov. Gavin Newsom went on an unhinged rant against President Donald Trump, who is expected to give an address on Wednesday.

‘Diplomacy with Donald Trump? He’s a T. rex. You mate with him or he devours you.’

The video, a composite of several edited soundbites in a loud hallway, features Newsom railing against Trump in a myriad of attacks, including with some novel comparisons.

RELATED: Trump pulls US out of ‘racist’ UN forum pushing ‘global reparations agendas’

Photo by Lian Yi/Xinhua via Getty Images

Newsom demanded that European leaders “stop being complicit”: “I can’t take this complicity. People rolling over. I should have brought a bunch of knee pads for all the world leaders.”

Newsom called the world leaders’ handling of Trump’s dealings on the global stage “embarrassing,” adding strangely, “Diplomacy with Donald Trump? He’s a T. rex. You mate with him or he devours you. One or the other.”

The California governor then threw the Trump derangement syndrome kitchen sink at his crowd of listeners: “This guy is a wrecking ball. … It’s code red. And you guys are still playing by an old set of rules. … He’s unmoored. It’s the law of the jungle. It’s the rule of Don. And I hope it’s dawning on the world what we’re up against. I mean, this is serious. This guy, he’s not mad; he’s very intentional. But he’s unmoored, and he’s unhinged.”

Mustering all of his bravado, Newsom demanded of world leaders: “Have some spine. Have some goddamn balls.”

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​Politics, Gavin newsom, Newsom, California, California governor, Davos, World economic forum, Tds, Wef, Donald trump, President trump, World leaders 

An actress known for black exploitation movies said that she remembers seeing lynchings when she was a child in Ohio — but her claims were contradicted by history as well as math.

Pam Grier made the claims during her guest appearance on “The View,” and the co-hosts did not push back on the bizarre story.

‘At least make up a story that’s halfway believable.’

“You faced a lot of racism growing up in Columbus, Ohio. How did that shape you?” Sunny Hostin asked.

“Phew! Well, the military wouldn’t allow black families to live on the base, so you had to live in an apartment. And you couldn’t take a bus. You couldn’t afford a car. You walked. Your dads walked to the base,” Grier said.

“And sometimes we would go from tree shade to shade to get back to the apartment, my brother and I and my mom with bags,” she added. “And my mom would go, ‘Don’t look, don’t look, don’t look,’ and she would pull us away because there’s someone hanging from a tree.”

Grier appeared emotional, and the audience gasped at her story.

“And they have a memorial for it now where you can see where people were and left,” she continued. “And it triggers me today to see that a voice can be silenced and if a white family supported a black, they’re going to get burned down or killed or lynched as well.”

While Ohio does have a horrible history of racial lynchings, the last record of such an incident was from 1911, which makes it impossible for Grier’s story to be accurate.

Many critics lashed out at her online after video of the tale was posted to social media.

“I am 78. I grew up in Columbus Ohio. Bulls**t story,” one X user responded.

“It is amazing that she can lie so boldly without no push back. … You know who believes this slop? Middle aged single leftist white women who will believe ‘lived truths’ over facts,” another detractor replied.

“It’s important to learn history so that when you lie, you can at least make up a story that’s halfway believable,” another critic said.

RELATED: Jasmine Crockett melts down on ‘The View’ over ‘racist’ jab from JD Vance — and claims Republicans are disturbed by her

A community note attached to the video pointed out that Grier was born in 1949, nearly four decades after the last lynching in the state. And while there is a plaque in Columbus to remember two victims of lynching in the downtown of the city, those incidents were from 1896.

Grier is best known for her roles in “blaxploitation” movies in the 1970s, including “Coffy” and “Foxy Brown.” She is celebrated as one of the first female action stars.

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​Pam grier on lynchings, The view lies, Lynchings in ohio, Online backlash, Politics 

Women’s basketball is not doing great, and BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock believes it has a lot to do with the feminist attitude of the players — which has led to the failure of making their new Unrivaled basketball league a must-watch.

This new league is a three-versus-three women’s basketball league that WNBA players started last year to play in their off season.

“This is year two. The ratings have absolutely collapsed. There’s 50, 60 thousand people watching these Unrivaled basketball games. Last year, I think 2, 300, 400 thousand people were watching. It is a horrendous product, … and it’s not surprising to me that it would collapse,” Whitlock explains on “Fearless.”

“Players in the WNBA are causing the collapse of the WNBA, causing the collapse of women’s sports. This is an inside job by the actual players in women’s athletics. They are destroying themselves and their own league. They are destroying women’s sports,” he adds.

Whitlock believes this is a reflection of “matriarchal leadership.”

“They’re not leaders; they’re chaos agents. … They are actually destroying themselves,” he says.

Whitlock also points out that almost all of the famous women in sports — save Caitlin Clark — have adopted the gender-fluid, race-worshipping, lesbian lifestyle — making them horrific role models for young girls.

“Because Caitlin Clark didn’t fit the lesbian stereotype, she hadn’t adopted the lesbian lifestyle, and because she’s white, the lesbians and the jealous, angry black women have ganged up on her, pushed her out, and made all sports fans deal with, like, ‘Who are these people we’re supporting?’” Whitlock explains.

And this phenomenon is not central to just basketball, but also women’s soccer players like Megan Rapinoe.

“Do I really want Megan Rapinoe as a role model for young girls? These women are insane,” Whitlock says. “And so, I’m sitting here applauding the collapse of the WNBA.”

“This Unrivaled league and the ratings are an embarrassment,” he says. “They’re a statement about how little interest there actually is in women’s basketball beyond Caitlin Clark.”

Want more from Jason Whitlock?

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

​Camera phone, Upload, Video phone, Free, Sharing, Video, Youtube.com, Fearless with jason whitlock, Fearless, Jason whitlock, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Megan rapinoe, Caitlin clark, Wnba, Unrivaled basketball league, Wnba ratings, Womens basketball 

To invoke the “Manhattan Project” is to summon a particular ghost: one of total mobilization, of scientists sequestered in secret rooms, of a national destiny forged in the heat of a singular, technological breakthrough by a threatened country. In the 1940s, the location was Los Alamos; in 2026, it is a secure laboratory in Shenzhen. Here, the objective is not a nuclear chain reaction, but the etching of light onto silicon at a scale so small it defies the physical properties of the air we breathe.

The technology is extreme ultraviolet lithography. To the uninitiated, it is a manufacturing process; to the Chinese state, it is the choke point that must be cleared if the nation is to thrive. For years, Washington operated under the assumption that the complexity of these machines — monstrous contraptions the size of city buses, requiring the synchronization of molten tin droplets ionized by lasers 50,000 times a second — would remain a Western monopoly, a “Silicon Shield” guarded by the Dutch firm ASML. That assumption, like so many others in this decade, has proved precarious.

If China succeeds, it will have neutralized the West’s major lever.

The machinery of this mobilization is vast. At the top sits the Central Science and Technology Commission, directed by Ding Xuexiang, a man whose proximity to President Xi Jinping signals that the semiconductor is no longer a matter of commerce, but of national interest. The strategy is one of “brute-force innovation.” In this world, the tech giant Huawei coordinates a web of institutes and thousands of engineers, a private entity acting as a limb of the state.

There is an urgency in the way the talent was gathered. Since 2019, Beijing has been luring Chinese-born engineers back from foreign firms with signing bonuses of $700,000 and the promise of a place in history. When they arrive, they disappear. To protect the project’s secrecy, these returnees work under false identities, wearing fake ID badges and using aliases even among their colleagues. They operate with military-like discipline; scientists sleep on-site at laboratories, barred from returning home during the work week, their phone access restricted as if they were handling the codes to a nuclear missile silo.

One thinks of the “Two Bombs, One Satellite” program of the 1960s, the earlier state-directed campaign that yielded China’s first atomic and hydrogen bombs. The rhetoric is the same: the patriotic return of the diaspora, the vanquishing of foreign embargoes through indigenous innovation. The narrative is of national rejuvenation, of overcoming “past humiliations” by proving that the mind cannot be embargoed. In early 2025, the prototype emerged. It is, by all accounts, crude and enormous, filling nearly an entire factory floor in Shenzhen, a stark contrast to the refined, bus-sized machines of the West. However, it is operational, generating the 13.5 nm ultraviolet light beam necessary to etch circuits at the 5 nm scale and below.

RELATED: Chinese elites paying American surrogates to breed ‘mega-families’

Photo by CHRISTOPHE ARCHAMBAULT/AFP via Getty Images

The technical challenge of EUV is a kind of high-stakes alchemy. Because 13.5 nm light is absorbed by glass and even air, it must travel in a vacuum and be focused by specialized multilayered mirrors with atomic-level precision. To achieve this without the help of Western suppliers such as Germany’s Zeiss, the Chinese relied on obsessive, focused resourcefulness. They scoured secondary markets for old equipment; they salvaged components from older ASML machines; they acquired restricted parts from Japanese firms Nikon and Canon via intermediaries.

Perhaps most revealing is the “SWAT team” of 100 young engineers assigned to take these machines apart and put them back together. Each desk is monitored by a camera as they meticulously reverse-engineer components, a process of “training through deconstruction.” The scene is of Ph.D.s poring over discarded machinery like puzzle pieces, striving to unlock the nuances of a technology they were never meant to have. The result is a proof of concept that observers had believed was a great many years away.

We are witnessing the early phase of a race for AI chips. If the 20th century was defined by oil reserves and nuclear arsenals, the 21st will be defined by computing power and silicon fabs. The U.S. has responded with the CHIPS and Science Act, investing over $50 billion to reshore production, while simultaneously attempting to choke off China’s access to the most advanced tools.

Yet there is a quandary in this decoupling. The semiconductor supply chain is global and interdependent. An ASML machine is a mosaic of components from Japan, Germany, and the U.S. By forcing China toward self-sufficiency, the West may be inadvertently creating the very monster it fears: a China capable of producing advanced chips on entirely China-made machines, “kicking the United States 100% out of its supply chains.” The goal is a “digital Iron Curtain,” where two separate technological stacks, one Chinese-led, one Western-led, operate in parallel, neither reliant on the other’s hardware or software.

For now, the project remains a work in progress. Mass-producing 2-5 nm chips in China is likely still years away, perhaps 2030 or beyond. The machines must be refined; the optical mirrors remain a weak point. Yet the significance of the prototype is not its current efficiency, but its existence, which demonstrates an irreversible commitment to Chinese technological independence.

The air in Shenzhen is thick with techno-optimism and a quiet, state-sanctioned fervor. When a Chinese chip startup recently went public, its stock soared 693%, a sign of a public that views each new milestone as a victory against a foreign blockade. This is the intersection of technology and national pride. If China succeeds, it will have neutralized the West’s major lever. If it fails, the U.S. may extend its lead. The breakthroughs, however, feel inevitable to those inside the project. They are playing a long game, one where the cost — in billions of dollars, in the isolation of their brightest minds, in the fracturing of the global order — is simply the price of admission.

​Tech 

Democrat U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota uttered a profanity to describe the United States amid ongoing Immigration and Customs Enforcement activities in Minneapolis.

During a Democrat-led Saturday event titled “Kidnapped and Disappeared: Trump’s Deadly Assault on Minnesota,” Omar ripped Republicans and President Donald Trump over ongoing ICE operations.

‘There is no circumstance in which she should refer to our country in this way.’

“It is appalling for our colleagues on the other side of the aisle to be OK for the president to carry out retribution here in Minnesota. It is appalling for our Republican colleagues to be OK for there to be cell detentions in ICE for American citizens,” she said.

Omar added: “It is appalling for them to be OK for there to be checkpoints in American cities where people are asked for their papers. And it is appalling for Americans to have to carry their citizen papers only to be told they are not sure if those papers are correct.”

Then the native Somali opened her potty mouth: “I don’t wanna curse, but those of us who escaped places like that? The one place where we thought we would never experience this is the U.S. [sic] goddamn States.”

Omar also said that “we should all be ashamed that it is the United States that is allowing for this to take place, and it is being … broadcasted to the rest of the world, where people are calling and saying, ‘Are you sure this is America?’ I am ashamed, and we must do everything that we can to bring back the America we all escaped into.”

You can check out video of Omar’s tirade below. Her profanity describing the U.S. comes just after the 1:20 mark in case you’re not in the mood to endure the whole thing:

The White House Rapid Response account on X ripped Omar for her profane description of the U.S., insisting that “there is no circumstance in which she should refer to our country in this way. It is beyond disrespectful — it is appalling, disgusting, and SICK. SHAME ON HER!”

Republican U.S. Sen. Mike Lee of Utah reacted on X by saying “no member of Congress should *ever* refer to our country as the ‘U.S. G—— States.’ What should be the consequence of saying that?”

Elon Musk answered Lee, suggesting “whatever the penalty is for treason” — to which Lee noted, “That one carries a pretty stiff penalty.” The penalty for treason against the U.S. can be death.

While Trump didn’t directly reference Omar’s profane description of the U.S. in a Sunday Truth Social post, the president did call her a “fake ‘Congresswoman'” and a “constant complainer who hates the USA” who “knows everything there is to know. She should be in jail, or even a worse punishment, sent back to Somalia, considered one of the absolutely worst countries in the World. She could help to MAKE SOMALIA GREAT AGAIN!”

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​Ilhan omar, Minneapolis, Ice, United states of america, Curse word, Profanity, St. paul, Minnesota senate building, Democrats, Goddamn, Donald trump, Mike lee, Elon musk, Politics 

OpenAI says it will not sell user data to advertisers, but that does not mean it won’t sell advertisers to its users.

Users of ChatGPT’s free online service are about to experience the end of a golden era, with the company saying it is going to “level the playing field” for advertisers.

‘We never sell your data to advertisers.’

OpenAI said it will allow “anyone to create high-quality experiences” to help users “discover options they might never have found otherwise.”

This is the long way to announce that it will now start serving ads to users at the bottom of their ChatGPT conversations.

“We plan to test ads at the bottom of answers in ChatGPT when there’s a relevant sponsored product or service based on your current conversation,” the tech company said in a press release.

The company provided an example of what users can expect to see, showcasing an ad for hot sauce at the bottom of a user prompt for Mexican food ideas for a dinner party; the ad takes up about 40% of the user’s phone-screen space.

In what are likely to be used as work-arounds for an ad-free experience, OpenAI listed the few occasions in which it will not serve ads.

RELATED: Microsoft CEO: AI ‘slop’ is good for you — or at least for your ‘human potential’

Photo by Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Users who are under 18 years old or believed to be under 18 will not be served ads. Neither will users who are discussing “sensitive or regulated topics like health, mental health, or politics.”

Included in the introduction of ads was convincing the users their data would be safe. Therefore, OpenAI noted that ads would not influence the answers that ChatGPT provides, and user conversations will be kept “private from advertisers.”

“We never sell your data to advertisers,” the company wrote.

This was a key feature of OpenAI’s “Ad Principles,” which sought to convince readers that implementing ads is part of its mission to ensure its platform “benefits all of humanity” and makes AI more accessible.

Business, Enterprise, Plus and Pro subscriptions will not include ads. That means users will have to fork over at least $20 per month to avoid them; those using ChatGPT for free or under the $8/month Go plan will see them.

RELATED: Grok’s deepfake scandals are putting America’s future at risk

Photo by Indranil Aditya/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Much of OpenAI’s announcement focused on how the new ads will actually help the user, explaining that they will be more helpful and tailor-made than “any other ads.”

While this may push some users to free platforms, some may enjoy the ability to speak directly with the interface to make purchasing decisions, even though this may inevitably result in users being pushed to buy certain products.

“Conversational interfaces create possibilities for people to go beyond static messages and links. For example, soon you might see an ad and be able to directly ask the questions you need to make a purchase decision,” OpenAI wrote.

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Republican Rep. Julia Letlow of Louisiana officially launched her campaign to oust Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) just days after securing an endorsement from President Donald Trump.

Trump came out in support of Letlow on Saturday, calling her a “Big Star” who would embrace the MAGA agenda. Although Republican operatives like the National Republican Senatorial Committee customarily endorse the incumbent, Cassidy’s controversial votes may have cost him the support of the president.

‘I am confident I will win.’

“I’m honored to have President Trump’s endorsement and trust,” Letlow said in a post on X. “My mission is clear: to ensure the nation our children inherit is safer and stronger.”

“This United States Senate seat belongs to the people of Louisiana, because we deserve conservative leadership that will not waver.”

RELATED: ‘Federal dollars should not pay for abortion, period’: Sen. Cassidy doubles down on Hyde, abortion pill restrictions

Shawn Thew/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images

While the race is shaping up to be a contested Republican primary, the NRSC is letting the chips fall where they may.

The Senate Republicans’ campaign arm is holding off from spending money on Cassidy, whom the NRSC endorsed, because “Louisiana will be won by a Republican regardless” and because the group doesn’t want to oppose the president, according to a source familiar with the NRSC’s decision-making.

RELATED: GOP senator warns Republicans will lose future elections if party continues to ‘idolize’ Trump

Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images

Notably, Cassidy was one of the few Republicans who voted to go forward with Trump’s second impeachment trial in 2021, later voting to convict the president. Despite this, Cassidy remains confident about his race.

“I’m proudly running for re-election as a principled conservative who gets things done for the people of Louisiana,” Cassidy said after Trump endorsed Letlow. “If Congresswoman Letlow decides to run I am confident I will win.”

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​Julia letlow, Bill cassidy, Louisiana, Donald trump, John thune, Senate republicans, Nrsc, National republican senatorial committee, Maga mandate, Trump impeachment, Politics 

Over the weekend, the Patriarchs and Heads of the Churches in Jerusalem released a statement reaffirming their authority in the land of Israel against proponents of Christian Zionism and other “damaging ideologies.”

The statement, published on Saturday, reaffirmed Christian leaders’ devotion to the Christian flock in the Holy Land. It condemned ideologies like Christian Zionism, which “mislead the public, sow confusion, and harm the unity of our flock.”

‘You don’t have to support the nation-state of Israel, but if you do, you can do so without adhering to the relatively novel theology of Christian Zionism.’

Christian Zionism is the belief in the continuity between the Israel of the Bible and the modern state of Israel.

The church leaders condemned the “political actors” who have been “welcomed at official levels both locally and internationally.” They described these dealings as “interference in the internal life of the church.”

RELATED: Hoosiers QB Fernando Mendoza gives ‘all the glory to God’ ahead of national championship

Photo by Mostafa Alkharouf/Anadolu via Getty Images

The letter continued, “These undertakings have found favor among certain political actors in Israel and beyond who seek to push a political agenda which may harm the Christian presence in the Holy Land and the wider Middle East.”

As a result, the Patriarchs and Heads of Churches in Jerusalem “reiterate that they alone represent the Churches and their flock in matters pertaining to Christian religious, communal, and pastoral life in the Holy Land.”

On Monday, the Daily Wire’s Michael Knowles explained his position on Christian Zionism in response to the Patriarchs’ statement.

Knowles, an outspoken Roman Catholic, explained that the joint statement issued by the Christian leaders over the weekend is essentially a reiteration of church teaching, such as a statement from 1985 from the Vatican.

The Vatican invites Christians to understand the Jews’ religious attachment to the land of Israel “without however making their own any particular religious interpretation of this relationship.”

Knowles signaled his wholehearted agreement with the next passage of the Vatican’s notes, which he said “underscores the point”: “The existence of the State of Israel and its political options should be envisaged not in a perspective which is in itself religious, but in their reference to the common principles of international law.”

Knowles said that this line of thinking is “why I would not call myself a Zionist, or a Christian Zionist.”

He continued, “It’s not because I don’t like the Jews, and it’s not because I don’t even support the state of Israel. As I think I’ve made clear, I am broadly supportive of the nation-state of Israel. But I am broadly supportive of it not because I believe in the principles of Zionism, which makes certain historical claims and religious claims that I just don’t think are true.”

Knowles also said that he doesn’t think that just because a people lived on a plot of land many years ago, it entitles them to the land today. “If that were the case, we would have to turn Mount Rushmore over to the Lakota Sioux. I don’t believe any of that.”

He finally clarified that most of his support for the nation-state of Israel is negative — that is, he doesn’t like the alternatives, referring to other nations in the region like Iran and other Muslim groups. “The current options in the Holy Land are not great.”

Staking his position clearly near the end of the clip, Knowles said, “You don’t have to support the nation-state of Israel, but if you do, you can do so without adhering to the relatively novel theology of Christian Zionism.”

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​Politics, Michael knowles, Daily wire, Christian zionism, Zionism, Israel, Patriarchs and heads of churches in jerusalem, Christianity, Catholic, Roman catholic, Vatican 

A 12-year-old boy struck a woman in her face with a screwdriver in a robbery over the weekend, Seattle police said.

Just before 7 p.m. Saturday, officers responded to a robbery near 23rd Avenue South and South Jackson Street and found an injured 43-year-old woman, police said.

‘Are they going to release him again so he can kill someone next time? Just curious.’

Police determined that a juvenile suspect wearing a “hot pink ski mask” had just robbed the woman at the Amazon Fresh store, police said.

The suspect “attacked the victim, hitting her multiple times in the face with his hands,” police said, after which he struck the woman in the face with a screwdriver.

The suspect rifled through the victim’s handbag in a parking garage — and then returned to the victim and assaulted her again before running off, police said.

While police located the suspect, he fled from them on foot, police said.

RELATED: 3 males — ages 8, 11, 12 — steal car, crash into house; driver, 11, says he learned how to steal cars from YouTube: Cops

However police recognized the suspect based on previous interactions — as well as his age and unique clothing description — and went to his family’s house and got a search warrant for his arrest, police said.

Officers took the suspect into custody without incident and recovered the screwdriver, police said.

The suspect was booked into juvenile detention at the Judge Patricia H. Clark Children & Family Justice Center.

Commenters under KCPQ’s video report about the incident were livid:

“Some woke judge will let him go and say we need [to] utilize restorative justice,” one commenter said. “It is a joke. Zero accountability in Seattle.””Arrest the parents, too, or whoever the guardian is!” another user insisted.”Are they going to release him again so he can kill someone next time?” another commenter wondered. “Just curious.””Where did a 12yo even get the idea of armed robbery in his head?” another user asked.”Charge that little demon as an adult,” another commenter suggested.

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​12-year-old boy, Arrest, Police, Robbery, Screwdriver assault, Seattle, Crime 

Radicals participating in a so-called “ICE Out Action” stormed a Christian church on Sunday in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

The interlopers — ex-CNN talking head Don Lemon and a motley crew of leftists hailing largely from Nekima Levy Armstrong’s Racial Justice Network, Black Lives Matter Minnesota, and BLM Twin Cities — not only lashed out at a pastor over his apparent role at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement but intimidated parishioners, drowned out sound of worship with their propaganda, and pressured the prayerful to condemn ICE.

The Justice Department has indicated that criminal charges for possible Freedom of Access to Clinics Entrances Act and KKK Act violations are imminent. Despite the clear language of the relevant statutes, some Democrats have defended the mob action, indicating that churches are viable targets for further desecration.

‘When they find out that someone that’s supposed to be speaking for the community in church is found out to be in ICE … they have the right to go in there.’

When asked whether the DOJ has a case against the anti-ICE radicals who disrupted Minnesota Christians’ lawful exercise of religious freedom in a place of worship, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison (D) told CNN’s Erin Burnett on Monday, “Under this DOJ, wrongdoing has nothing to do with whether they’re going to focus or investigate you. So I wish in a normal time I would say no; I’d say this is First Amendment activity.”

After she suggested that “the optics of going into a place of worship are not necessarily great,” Burnett asked the Muslim Minnesota AG whether he was frustrated “that it happened this way.”

RELATED: ‘You are on notice!’ Don Lemon backs anti-ICE radicals who stormed Saint Paul church — but DOJ vows reckoning

Nekima Levy Armstrong, the radical who led the intrusion into the church. Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images.

Ellison avoided answering the question, suggesting he was instead frustrated by the number of ICE agents operating in his crime-ridden jurisdiction and the possibility that troops might be deployed to Minnesota.

Rep. Adelita Grijalva (Ariz.), a co-sponsor of a resolution to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and a recent participant in an anti-ICE operation, is another Democrat who evidently figures churches are fair game for intimidation campaigns.

On a CNN appearance Monday, Grijalva justified the mob action, suggesting that the supposedly ICE-affiliated pastor “now knows what it’s like to have his daily life and privacy interrupted. This is a daily occurrence in our immigrant communities — being followed, being kidnapped, us out of our schools, churches, and hospitals.”

The Democrat congresswoman underscored that she did not think it was a step too far for “protesters” to go into churches, noting, “I think that when they find out that someone that’s supposed to be speaking for the community in church is found out to be in ICE, like a federal agent that is running ICE in their communities, they have the right to go in there.”

“Churches have always been an open door,” continued Grijalva. “And from my understanding in the videos that I saw, those protesters were not violent in any way.”

‘No cause — political or otherwise — justifies the desecration of a sacred space.’

Numerous Christian leaders and organizations evidently see things differently and have advocated for legal consequences in response to the intrusion.

Pastor Paul Chappell, president of the West Coast Baptist College, stated, “We condemn the actions of Don Lemon and the group of activists who stormed Cities Church today in St. Paul, Minnesota, in clear violation of the FACE Act. Christians everywhere should demand that the Department of Justice arrest those who participated. We must protect religious liberty in this country.”

“This group trespassed on private property and willfully obstructed Christian worship,” said Kevin Ezell, president of the North American Mission Board. “No cause — political or otherwise — justifies the desecration of a sacred space or the intimidation and trauma inflicted on families gathered peacefully in the house of God.”

Ezell added, “What occurred was not protest; it was lawless harassment.”

Albert Mohler, the president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, called the mob action not only a “desecration” but an “unspeakably evil intrusion.”

Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon stressed on Sunday that houses of worship are not public forums for the protests of radicals but spaces “protected from exactly such acts by federal criminal and civil laws.”

“We don’t want to prejudge, but I think it is fair to say that I saw multiple federal criminal incidents yesterday, and there will be charges,” Dhillon told Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck. “It’s only a question of when we can get a judge to sign off on arrest warrants and exactly what the charges would be.”

“We will not let this happen to another church in the United States. It is un-American, unacceptable, and there is a zero-tolerance policy for it at this DOJ,” added Dhillon.

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​Keith ellison, Adelita grijalva, Minnesota, Minneapolis, St. paul, Cities church, Church, Black lives matter, Racial justice network, Nekima levy armstrong, Face act, Kkk act, Christian, Bigotry, Anti-ice, Ice, Immigration, Customs, Enforcement, Dhillon, Politics 

Despite an appalling violent crime problem in Chicago, Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker has signed a bill protecting convicts, making it easier for them to get past hiring filters and find jobs in Illinois.

On Saturday, Pritzker signed the Clean Slate Act, which will enable officials to seal non-violent criminal records for over 1.7 million people in Illinois, Fox 32 Chicago reported.

Just last month, Gov. Pritzker fortified the state’s sanctuary laws.

The new law will require eligible records to be sealed by 2029.

The law applies only to non-violent convictions and dismissed or reversed charges and arrests. More serious crimes, such as sexual violence, DUI, or any crimes that require sex offender registration, are not eligible for automatic sealing.

While this particular law excludes violent felonies, it comes at a time when violent incidents on Chicago trains are making national headlines.

Moreover Pritzker has a long history of siding with suspected law-breakers over victims. In 2023, cashless bail became the law of the state, thanks to the SAFE-T Act he signed previously. Just last month, he fortified the state’s sanctuary laws, prohibiting federal immigration agents from conducting operations near courthouses, hospitals, university campuses, and day-care centers.

RELATED: Chicago Bears may leave city over rift with Democrat leadership

John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images

The Clean Slate Act is celebrated by the Democrats as a jobs initiative, since many businesses use background checks to filter out candidates with prior convictions. Once the records are sealed, that traditional filter will be less robust, allowing potential former convicts to remain in the running.

“There is no reasonable public safety justification for making it hard for returning citizens to get a job or housing or an education,” Pritzker said, according to Fox 32. “It’s a policy guided by punishment rather than rehabilitation.”

The Clean Slate Initiative lists Pennsylvania, Utah, New Jersey, Connecticut, Michigan, Delaware, Virginia, California, Oklahoma, Colorado, Minnesota, and New York as states that have passed legislation that meets their criteria for Clean Slate laws. Washington, D.C., is also listed.

The criteria include automation of record sealing, including arrest and misdemeanor records. The Clean Slate Initiative also includes a “strong recommendation for laws to include eligibility of at least one felony record.”

Sheena Meade, CEO of the Clean Slate Initiative, stated: “Our coalition partners — including Live Free Illinois, the Illinois Coalition to End Permanent Punishments, the Workers Center for Racial Justice, Impact for Equity, and Code for America — and bill sponsors Rep. Jehan Gordon-Booth and Sen. Elgie Sims have shown the resolve, persistence, and heart needed to drive real change.”

The new law will take effect June 1.

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​Politics, Jb pritzker, Blue states, Illinois, Illinois governor, Clean slate law, Clean slate initiative, Criminals, Sheena meade 

On January 12, the Wall Street Journal published an exclusive report claiming that President Trump is less than thrilled with Attorney General Pam Bondi.

According to the article, he has complained privately to aides repeatedly in recent weeks, describing Bondi as “weak” and “ineffective” at enforcing his agenda, specifically when it comes to the Epstein files, prosecuting people like former FBI Director James Comey and New York AG Letitia James, and pursuing the shadow figures who orchestrated Biden’s phony 2020 presidential victory.

This is music to many conservatives’ ears. From their perspective, MAGA has waited a year in vain for the heads of D.C.’s slimiest swamp creatures to roll, as was a campaign promise. To discover that Trump himself is perhaps also displeased with the DOJ’s lack of prosecutions is encouraging.

However the report is coming from a mainstream outlet, so a healthy degree of skepticism is necessary, says BlazeTV host Liz Wheeler.

Regardless she feels that the contents of the Wall Street Journal’s report are “very realistic” and “very plausible.”

“It seems like a summary of what you and I have experienced throughout the year,” she says.

According to the article, President Trump told the Wall Street Journal, “Pam is doing an excellent job. She’s been my friend for many years. Tremendous progress is being made against radical left lunatics who are good at only one thing: cheating in elections and the crimes they commit.”

“All right, so how do we analyze this article?” asks Liz. “Is this true? Is President Trump finally growing tired of Attorney General Pam Bondi?”

While she acknowledges that “it is true that Pam Bondi has been loyal to President Trump for many years, and that makes the situation perhaps personally a little more awkward,” the reality is President Trump has to decide “whether Pam Bondi is an effective attorney general, not whether she’s a loyal friend.”

And the facts don’t lie.

As early as February 2025, it was clear to Liz that Bondi “does not tell the truth to the American people” after she gave Liz and other conservative influencers those “infamous white Epstein binders” that contained no new information on the convicted child sex trafficker.

Bondi’s ineffectiveness has “become more obvious as the summer passed and the fall passed and the new year passed,” says Liz.

“Tulsi Gabbard handed Attorney General Pam Bondi on a silver platter a case against John Brennan and the Obama cronies that fabricated the intelligence community assessment to claim that Russia helped President Trump defeat Hillary Clinton … and what accountability have they faced?” she asks.

“Trump’s administration controls the Department of Justice. We should be seeing indictment after indictment after indictment. And yet what have we seen? We’ve seen nothing.”

To hear more of Liz’s commentary, watch the video above.

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​The liz wheeler show, Liz wheeler, Blazetv, Blaze media, Donald trump, Pam bondi, Doj, Wsj, Wall street journal, Trump bondi, Epstein files 

President Donald Trump got a thunderous applause from the attendees at the College Football National Championship game in Miami, Florida, during the national anthem on Monday night.

The president waved and smiled at the crowd as “American Idol” winner Jamal Roberts belted out the song at Hard Rock Stadium Monday.

‘God bless the talented players and dedicated coaches, the families who love and support them.’

Trump had released a statement about the game prior to the event.

“At its best, college football reflects our timeless American values of family, freedom, unity, and hard work and represents the pinnacle of our national spirit,” Trump said in the statement.

“Melania and I congratulate the Indiana Hoosiers and the Miami Hurricanes on making it to the College Football Playoff National Championship,” he added. “God bless the talented players and dedicated coaches, the families who love and support them, and the faithful fans who cheer them on. May the best team win!”

Many videos showed the loud applause for Trump when he appeared on the video screen at the stadium during the performance.

Beside him stood daughter Ivanka Trump with others behind her. Deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, and the president’s adviser Boris Epshteyn also accompanied the president.

Also in attendance was Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is a fan of the Miami Hurricanes.

The White House posted a short video of the applause for the president during the game.

RELATED: Liberals spew hatred at NFL player for pointing at Trump after touchdown and doing his dance: ‘Yousa hoe a** n***a’

The Hoosiers went on to defeat the Hurricanes in a score of 27 to 21.

Trump has attended the College Football National Championship game twice previously, once in 2018 and again in 2020.

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​Trump at football game, College football national championship, Audience applauds trump, Trump sports, Politics 

Marriages rarely end over one argument. They fall apart through a long breakdown in communication, a growing inability to resolve disagreements, and the slow realization that two people no longer walk toward the same future.

Healthy marriages don’t require full agreement on every subject. They require compromise on the decisions that shape daily life: money, children, priorities, responsibilities. They also require shared goals.

No tidy divorce court exists for a nation-state. We share one flag, one legal framework, and one public square.

When those goals diverge — and neither side will realign — the relationship becomes unsustainable. The law calls the condition “irreconcilable differences.”

America now lives in that condition.

We remain bound under one nation, one Constitution, and one civic home. But we no longer share a common purpose. We no longer share a common story about what the country is, why it exists, or whether it deserves to endure.

This conflict no longer turns on tax rates or regulatory policy. It turns on the legitimacy and direction of the American experiment itself.

The modern left no longer argues about how to preserve the American system. It treats the system as the problem. Democratic leaders and activists call for “fundamental transformation,” flirt with socialism, and talk about the founding less as a flawed but noble legacy than as a moral failure that demands replacement. In that worldview, America doesn’t need reform. America needs erasure.

The right still believes the country can be repaired and preserved. The left increasingly treats the country as something to dismantle.

This rupture shows up in concrete ways. In 2021, the National Archives placed a “harmful language” warning on the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence — the documents that define the nation. That doesn’t signal ordinary partisan dispute. It signals contempt for the country’s moral foundation.

Socialism sits at the center of this divide. It contradicts the American system at its roots. America rests on the premise that rights come from God, not government. Socialism elevates the state over the individual and makes rights conditional on political approval. It centralizes power in the name of enforced equality — “equity.”

RELATED: Americans aren’t arguing any more — we’re speaking different languages

Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images

America protects private property as an extension of liberty. It channels ambition into innovation and prosperity. Socialism treats success as a social offense and demands equality of outcome. When people refuse to surrender the fruits of their labor, socialism turns to coercion. Coercion requires centralized authority. Centralized authority punishes dissent.

The pattern repeats: less freedom, greater dependency, and a governing model incompatible with constitutional self-rule.

The irony remains hard to miss. The left calls Donald Trump “Hitler” while cheering figures like New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, an avowed socialist. Yet the Nazi Party sold itself as the National Socialist German Workers’ Party — a collectivist project built on centralized power and state control.

The same left often excuses Antifa, a movement built on intimidation, street violence, and political enforcement designed to silence opposition. Those tactics don’t belong to liberal democracy. They belong to regimes that fear debate.

Even basic reality has become contested. The left and right can’t agree on something as elemental as what a man or a woman is. The Supreme Court recently showcased the collapse when ACLU attorneys arguing sex-based discrimination refused to define “woman.” When a society refuses to name biological facts that every civilization once treated as obvious, compromise collapses with it.

This crisis goes deeper than polarization. It reaches the level of knowledge itself. The left increasingly treats biology, history, and moral limits as malleable social constructs. The right still believes objective reality binds us all.

These aren’t normal disagreements. They describe incompatible worldviews. And incompatibility carries consequences.

During the COVID era, polls found majorities of Democrats willing to endorse coercive measures against the unvaccinated, including house arrest. Nearly half supported imprisoning people who questioned vaccine efficacy. Those numbers didn’t represent a fringe. They revealed a growing comfort with state force in service of ideological conformity.

After Trump’s 2016 election, many friendships survived political conflict. By 2020, after years of dehumanization — after constant accusations of “Nazism” aimed at ordinary voters — many of those relationships broke. The political battle stopped sounding like disagreement and started sounding like moral extermination.

RELATED: Washington, DC, has become a hostile city-state

Photo by Astrid Riecken For The Washington Post via Getty Images

In September 2025, someone assassinated Charlie Kirk. Large segments of the left didn’t just rationalize the killing. Many celebrated it.

After Scott Adams died following a long fight with cancer, prominent voices responded with mockery instead of decency. People magazine ran a headline labeling him “disgraced.” Even death became a political verdict.

This is what irreconcilable differences look like at a national scale.

A country cannot endure when one side believes the nation stands as fundamentally good — worthy of preservation and reform — while the other believes it stands as irredeemably evil and must be dismantled. Marriages end when partners stop seeing each other as allies and start treating each other as enemies.

Nations fracture for the same reason.

America cannot solve this the way a couple dissolves a marriage. The Constitution binds us to one civic order. No clean separation awaits. No tidy divorce court exists for a nation-state. We share one flag, one legal framework, and one public square.

When irreconcilable differences exist but separation remains impossible, the danger grows.

Only three paths remain: recommitment to constitutional principles, enforced coexistence through expanding coercion, or escalation into open conflict as dehumanization becomes normal.

Pretending this amounts to another election cycle, another policy dispute, or another cable-news food fight invites catastrophe. A nation cannot survive when its people no longer agree on what it is, why it exists, or whether it deserves to continue.

Unlike a failed marriage, America can’t walk away.

​Opinion & analysis, National divorce, Civil war, Red states, Blue states, Marriage, Unity, Division, Left vs. right, American founding, Declaration of independence, Constitution, Compromise, Socialism, America, Equity, Communism, Donald trump, Hitler, Zohran mamdani, Transgender agenda, Supreme court, Woman, What is a woman, Equal protection, Voters, Charlie kirk assassination, Scott adams, Dehumanization, Language, Survival 

Iran’s streets continue to erupt in one of the most intense nationwide uprisings since the 1979 revolution. Thousands have been killed, tens of thousands arrested, and a brutal regime crackdown with live fire, mass detentions, and a near-total internet blackout has largely smothered visible protests for now. And yet whispers of regime fragility grow louder.

But there’s more to this story than meets the eye. Iran’s real vulnerability, says Glenn Beck, lies not in its inability to squash a protest movement but in its oil-dependent economy, propped up by shadowy deals that could unravel overnight.

Glenn breaks it down brilliantly with a simple, chilling apple farmer analogy that exposes how global banks and China’s “teapot” refineries have kept the regime afloat through sanction-skirting barter schemes … until the buyer suddenly says “no more.”

Glenn’s story begins with an apple farmer named Mo and an apple buyer named Ming.

“[Mo] starts out small. He has a few trees, a few crates. He works hard and everything, and he reinvests all the time. He plants more trees. He buys more land. He takes out loans for trucks and storage and refrigeration,” Glenn begins.

His business keeps growing and then “one day something incredible happens. A massive single grocery chain [run by Ming] picks up Mo’s apples — not a few apples, all of the apples. Which is good because what I didn’t tell you about Mo is he thinks he’s a good guy, but he’s pissed every other apple store off in the world,” he continues.

Ming tells Mo his plans to “refine” the apples into “apple cider and apple juice.” Mo, thrilled that now “demand is guaranteed,” expands even more.

“The trucks are financed. The warehouses are leased. The future looks locked in,” says Glenn.

But then one day, everything comes to a screeching halt. Suddenly “Ming says, ‘Yeah, we can’t take any more apples. We’re at capacity.”’

This news wrecks Mo’s world – without Ming, there’s nothing to keep his business empire afloat.

Almost immediately, apples begin to pile up, and the trucks loaded with supplies are parked. Then “the police are like, ‘Why are all these trucks on the sides of the roads?’ … Then they realize, ‘Wait a minute, you don’t have a license to ship apples. In fact, you don’t have a license on this truck,”’ Glenn continues.

It turns out Mo hasn’t been making any money from his apple farm because Ming has been paying him in equipment and infrastructure the entire time. Mo’s business collapses immediately because he never actually owned anything.

“The banks did,” says Glenn — not because they trusted Mo but because they trusted Ming, who took out the insurance policies.

“Ming is actually the refinery in China, and Mo is the oil in Iran,” he finally reveals.

The banks and insurance companies knew that China couldn’t legally purchase Iranian oil because there’s an embargo on it. But they were perfectly fine with a barter system — where China provided goods, services, and infrastructure in exchange for oil. As long as there was “no money changing hands,” the banks would sign.

This prospect is already enough to give Glenn “a brain aneurysm,” but sadly the story takes an even darker turn.

“The farmer Mo — he has sons, and each one ran a different part of his farm,” he says, returning to his analogy.

Ming’s sudden decision to bail stirs up tension in Mo’s family.

“One son says, ‘Sell the land while it’s worth something.’ Another says, ‘No, hold on — the store might come back.’ Another one says, ‘No, you know what? I’m not with either of you’ and starts moving equipment out of the barn in the middle of the night, and he’s just going to get onto a plane and disappear at some point,” says Glenn.

“This is when countries go down because each son stops asking how do we save the farm, and they start asking how do I get out before it collapses. The farm doesn’t change hands in a ceremony. It just empties out.”

It starts with Mo’s sons, then the farm workers, and then the security team. Protests erupt outside Mo’s gates, and he is forced to cope with the fact that his apple farm has rotted from the inside out.

“This is what’s happening in Iran,” says Glenn.

To hear more of his analysis, watch the video above.

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​The glenn beck program, Glenn beck, Iran, Iran protests, China, Iran oil, China oil, Blazetv, Blaze media, Glenn, Beck 

A witness to a sexual assault of an 8-year-old boy at the Houston Texans stadium led to the arrest of a 21-year-old employee, according to Houston police.

The boy’s mother said that her son was washing his hands when he was directed into the bathroom stall by the worker, who then followed him into the stall.

‘I keep thinking about that Good Samaritan. I’m almost begging for the chance to shake that man’s hand and thank him.’

The suspect was identified by police as Ushay Marquise Nixon, who worked for Aramark as a restroom attendant at the time. The family said that Nixon acted inappropriately toward the child, who realized something was wrong and ran out of the stall.

A bystander saw some of the interaction and sought out the boy’s parents to let them know something happened to him.

“He had such concern in his voice. You could tell,” said the mother of the boy. “He kept saying, ‘I don’t know, it didn’t look right. I don’t know if you’re OK with that type of thing, I’m not.’ He just kept repeating himself. So you could sense the concern in his voice.”

When the boy said that a worker pulled his pants down in the bathroom, his father jumped into action and took the boy back to the restroom area, where he pointed out Nixon.

Nixon tried to hide in a supply closet, but police were able to detain the man after being called by the father.

Police said Nixon was charged with indecency with a child and posted surveillance video from the incident on their social media account. Prosecutors said in court that he had been accused in two similar cases but that those were dismissed after family members refused to press forward.

RELATED: 14-year-old rescued from 3 men who allegedly forced her into prostitution after she went missing from stadium bathroom

The boy’s father wants to thank the witness who stepped in.

“I wasn’t able to protect him that day, but he protected himself,” the father said. “And I keep thinking about that Good Samaritan. I’m almost begging for the chance to shake that man’s hand and thank him.”

“We would love to thank him,” the boy’s mother said.

Aramark said in a statement that Nixon was no longer with the company and that the company was cooperating fully with police.

The family has also sued Aramark for hiring an accused pedophile as a restroom attendant.

Police are looking for witnesses to the incident, including the Good Samaritan, to step forward to aid their investigation.

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​Bathroom sexual assault, 8 year old sexually assaulted, Nrg stadium assault, Ushay marquise nixon, Crime 

What should have been a peaceful Sunday service at Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, turned into a political ambush. Roughly 30 anti-ICE protesters pushed into the sanctuary mid-worship, chanting slogans and confronting church leaders as families tried to pray.

Disgraced former CNN anchor Don Lemon was there, too, livestreaming the chaos.

If activists can storm a church mid-service, scream at families, and then hide behind the First Amendment, the standard becomes simple: The loudest mob sets the rules.

The Department of Justice has opened a formal investigation and signaled that federal protections for houses of worship may apply. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon noted on the “Glenn Beck Program” that the activists’ conduct could implicate the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act, which bars intimidation, obstruction, and interference with the free exercise of religion in places of worship. The protesters may have also violated the Ku Klux Klan Act, a post-Civil War law that makes it illegal to terrorize and violate the civil rights of citizens.

According to multiple reports, the demonstrators were tied to the Racial Justice Network and aimed their protest at a church leader they accused of working with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The protest followed rising tensions in Minnesota after the fatal shooting of anti-ICE activist Renee Nicole Good during a confrontation with federal agents.

Lemon framed the entire spectacle as civic virtue. He insisted he was “not an activist, but a journalist” and argued that protest inside a church remains constitutionally protected speech.

The footage tells a messier story.

Video released after the incident shows Lemon interacting with the group beforehand, appearing familiar with organizers and the plan. One outlet described the operation as “Operation Pull-Up.” That undercuts the narrative Lemon later pushed — that he simply arrived to document an event that unexpectedly “spilled” into a worship service.

Intent matters. So does outcome. The outcome looked like this: a sanctuary overrun, a service derailed, congregants shaken, and children crying while activists shouted and gestured at the pews.

That is far from “peaceful assembly.” It is targeted disruption.

The First Amendment protects speech. It does not grant a roaming license to invade private spaces and commandeer them for political theater. Rights have edges because other people have rights too. Worshippers do not lose their liberty because activists feel righteous.

That basic distinction keeps a free society from collapsing into a contest of intimidation.

RELATED: Americans aren’t arguing any more — we’re speaking different languages

Photo by Heather Diehl/Getty Images

This case matters because it tests whether the country still draws that line. If activists can storm a church mid-service, scream at families, and then hide behind the First Amendment, the standard becomes simple: The loudest mob sets the rules. Next week it will be another church. Then a synagogue. Then any gathering that activists decide deserves punishment.

The Justice Department is right to examine the FACE Act here. Congress passed it to stop coercion dressed up as protest — the use of obstruction and intimidation to prevent Americans from exercising basic freedoms. That principle doesn’t change because the target shifts from an abortion clinic to a church sanctuary.

The press corps’ selective outrage makes the problem worse. Cultural elites demand “safety” and “inclusion” in every other arena, but many of them treat Christian worship as an acceptable target. They police speech in classrooms and boardrooms, then shrug when activists shout down prayer.

That double standard signals something deeper than hypocrisy. It signals permission.

Lemon’s defense captured the rot in one sentence: Making people uncomfortable, he said, is “what protests are about.” Fine. Protest often makes people uncomfortable. But discomfort does not justify trespass. It does not excuse intimidation. It does not cancel someone else’s right to worship in peace.

A society that cannot protect sacred spaces will not protect much else for long. If the law refuses to punish conduct like this, the lesson will spread fast: Invade, disrupt, harass — then claim virtue and dare anyone to stop you.

America does not need a new normal where mobs treat churches like political stages. It needs consequences.

​Opinion & analysis, First amendment, Freedom of speech, Freedom of religion, Don lemon, Protests, Cities church, St. paul minnesota, Face act, Ku klux klan act, Racial justice network, Harmeet dhillon, Civil rights, Justice department, Cnn, Glenn beck, Operation pull-up, Activists, Church, Ice, Ice raids, Mass deportations, Renee nicole good, Intimidation, Disruption, Prayer, Harassment 

Minnesota state Senator Omar Fateh called for the governor to issue an eviction moratorium to help his “neighbors” who are having a tough time making ends meet under the threat of deportation.

The Trump administration has increased immigration enforcement efforts in Minnesota after more and more evidence of government welfare and relief fraud in the Somali community.

‘Our neighbors are terrified to leave their homes, go to work and many are now struggling to make ends meet.’

Fateh said in a statement on social media Monday that Democratic Gov. Tim Walz should place restrictions on evictions to help those affected by the crackdown.

“Minnesota is in an emergency. Our neighbors are terrified to leave their homes, go to work and many are now struggling to make ends meet,” he posted.

“Minnesotans are already stepping up to help their neighbors in need — it is time for the governor to enact an eviction moratorium,” he added.

Many on social media reacted with scorn to the suggestion.

“Go to work? You mean scam and fraud? That is not real work,” one critic responded.

“If they are terrified, they are illegal or commiting fraud[.] Sane law abiding citizens aren’t terrified,” another replied.

“Another scam in the works!” another detractor said.

A similar moratorium was demanded by unions in Los Angeles to protect illegal immigrants from evictions over their inability to continue to work while being hunted by federal immigration enforcement agents.

Fateh, a son of Somali immigrants to Minnesota, is best known for his failed campaign for Minneapolis mayor. Democratic-Farmer-Labor Mayor Jacob Frey took the office with nearly a 6% margin over Fateh in November.

RELATED: Minnesota news outlet is getting wrecked over story on Somali migrants’ economic impact on Minnesota

Walz has also been accused of obstructing investigations into the Somali fraud in Minnesota, though he has denied the allegations and claimed to have ordered criminal probes into the schemes.

Republicans in Minnesota have already drawn up articles of impeachment against Walz.

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​Omar fateh, Minnesota eviction moratorium, Minnesota somali fraud, Deportation threats, Politics 

Police in Redlands, California, said officers responded to a call of shots fired shortly before midnight Thursday at a home in the 1500 block of Church Street. Redlands is about 15 minutes southeast of San Bernardino.

Police said the homeowner arrived at his residence and armed himself with a handgun before checking his house — after which he confronted an intruder, who pointed a shotgun at the homeowner.

‘Mr. Carrion should have been IN Church, not ON Church Street.’

The homeowner won the gun battle.

Police said the homeowner shot the intruder and then immediately exited the residence to call 911.

Arriving officers cleared the home and followed a blood trail that led to the back yard, where they found the suspect suffering from a single gunshot wound, police said.

What’s more, the suspect had property from the home on his person, police said.

Police also recovered the shotgun, which the suspect found inside the home in question, authorities added.

RELATED: Armed, masked crooks trying to steal car encounter gun-toting homeowner, cops say — and the homeowner isn’t playing around

Image source: Redlands Police

Daniel Torres Carrion, 52, of Redlands was arrested for attempted robbery, burglary, and assault with a deadly weapon and transported to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, police said.

Carrion later was discharged from the hospital and booked at West Valley Detention Center, where he was being held in lieu of $300,000 bail, police said.

Those with information about the incident or other suspicious activity are asked to contact Redlands Police Dispatch at 909-798-7681, ext. 1, KTLA-TV reported.

Nearly 400 comments have hit the police department’s Facebook page in regard to the shooting as of Monday night. The following are a few highlights:

“Give the homeowner a cigar!” one commenter exclaimed. “Fantastic, I’ll be glad to help buy another box of shells.””It’s why I carry,” another user acknowledged. “I don’t have to go find my gun in the house; it’s on my hip.””Mr. Carrion should have been IN Church, not ON Church Street,” another commenter quipped.”Wonder how long before the burglar’s family is in the news complaining that the homeowner should have just let him rob the place?” another user wondered. “That he had no right to shoot him.””Stand your ground! Protect your person and property!” another commenter declared.

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​Crime thwarted, Homeowner shoots intruder, California, Redlands, 2nd amend., Guns, Gun rights, Arrest, Attempted robbery, Burglary, Assault with a deadly weapon, Crime