Chinese woman evades warrant for vehicular manslaughter after horror wreck caught on camera A Chinese woman fled back to her homeland after allegedly killing her [more…]
Category: blaze media
Hegseth delivers verdict on military helicopter pilots’ flyover at Kid Rock’s mansion
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has weighed in after Kid Rock received some special visitors at his Tennessee mansion overlooking Nashville over the weekend. The video Rock posted, which garnered millions of views on social media, sparked mixed reactions from supporters and detractors as well as the president himself.
Rock’s video showed him standing outside by his pool clapping and saluting as an AH-64 Apache helicopter hovered near the residence. A second helicopter can momentarily be seen flying in the background of the video as well.
‘Carry on, patriots.’
In a statement to Blaze News Tuesday afternoon, U.S. Army spokesman Maj. Montrell Russell reported that the pilots were suspended pending the investigation:
The Army has confirmed that on March 28, two Apache helicopters from the 101st Combat Aviation Brigade at Fort Campbell conducted a flight in the Nashville area that has attracted public and media attention. This incident is now under an Army Regulation 15-6 administrative investigation. The personnel involved have been suspended from flight duties while the Army reviews the circumstances surrounding the mission, including compliance with relevant FAA regulations, aviation safety protocol, and approval requirements.
However, Sec. Hegseth responded to Rock’s X post, reversing the threat of investigation as well as the pilots’ brief suspension.
RELATED: Kid Rock catches heat for viral Apache helicopter social media video — Army launches investigation
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
“Thank you @KidRock. @USArmy pilots suspension LIFTED. No punishment. No investigation. Carry on, patriots,” Hegseth wrote.
President Trump, speaking from the Oval Office on Tuesday, seemed unsure whether the pilots should have done the flyover, the Daily Mail reported. He added, however, “I like Kid Rock, maybe they were trying to defend him, I don’t know.”
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Politics, President trump, Kid rock, Tennessee, Apache helicopter, Ah-64, Fort campbell, Montrell russell, Pete hegseth, Us army, Secretary of war
Why I support ICE as the son of an immigrant
You’re the son of an immigrant. How could you support ICE?
Someone recently asked me this question. This same person also felt that I should be supporting the No Kings protest. It showed me how effective the Democratic Party has been at framing these issues to Democrats’ advantage.
It is naïve to think that those who are willing to skip the process to come here illegally will automatically follow the laws once they arrive.
I lovingly and jokingly say my mother is a fresh-off-the-boat immigrant. She met my father in the Philippines during the Vietnam War. They fell in love and got married in the United States.
She grew up in abject poverty and had an idealistic view of the United States while growing up. Her country, the Philippines, was liberated by the United States twice: once in the late 1800s from Spanish colonial rule, and again during World War II from imperial Japanese rule.
She has more pride in being American than almost any other American I know.
She understands that the United States offers more than any other country in the world. It is something that the children and grandchildren of immigrants often forget. Thankfully, her children didn’t. She supports ICE and President Trump, and I think I can explain why.
For legal immigrants, the rule of law is incredibly important. Many of them come here for the simple reason that the rule of law in their countries broke down. Money misspent, officials and law enforcement taking open bribes, and government tyranny are some of the many reasons an immigrant would decide to come here.
Others in her family followed my mother’s journey, but they followed the legal process. Some had to wait years before coming. To them, seeing someone skip the process, skip the interviews, and skip the sponsorship requirements to come here while others they know are still patiently waiting is an insult.
ICE prioritizes removing convicted criminals, gang members, and repeat offenders. This is common-sense protection for our communities and families. It is naïve to think that those who are willing to skip the process to come here illegally will automatically follow the laws once they arrive.
Not everyone in the world likes us. Some openly call for our death and destruction. Some are motivated to hate by their religion, some by strict adherence to an economic or social ideology.
Immigrants can understand the importance of examining those who wish to live here, for those may bring the evils they hoped to escape.
Illegal immigration places downward pressure on wages. Many legal immigrants take jobs in sectors such as construction, hospitality, and caregiving. Enforcement of immigration laws helps those who came here legally and comply with our laws to earn a fair wage.
What about the costs of housing and health? If you know the basic economics of supply and demand, you understand the negative impact illegal immigration can have.
Legal immigrants also understand that illegal immigration brings bad actors who can negatively taint the positives of immigration and turn a populace against those who followed our process.
RELATED: Memo to Trump: Stop negotiating and ramp up deportations
Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
Unfortunately, failing to enforce immigration laws leads to the bias of lumping all immigrants in the illegal category. Recent immigrants value the long-term viability of the American dream. Many feel a duty to support the laws that made their success possible. For them, supporting ICE is a natural and easy thing to do.
For the same reasons, supporting the No Kings protests is silly. Let’s start with the obvious: We don’t live under a king, and Trump was democratically elected. The executive branch is constitutional, and checks and balances still exist. Even though an immigrant and the son of an immigrant may disagree with these No Kings protests, we understand that people are allowed to protest, and the fact that protests are allowed is incredibly important. We did not see anyone stopping them from speaking out or deplatforming them on social media.
Perhaps we should be unhappy with the president’s foreign policy decisions? I think I’ll defer to the majority of the Venezuelans and Iranians living here. I can also not overlook the checkered and violent tyrannical past of a theocratic government that openly chants “Death to America.”
The United State has elections, and these protesters might be surprised at the results. Their protests reminded many immigrants of the importance of voting.
Ice, Immigration, Legal immigration, Illegal immigration, Deportations, Border security, Trump, Dhs, Separation of powers, Opinion & analysis
Trump makes history at SCOTUS birthright citizenship hearing
President Donald Trump has made history at a Supreme Court hearing on Wednesday about his executive order to end birthright citizenship, reports say.
On Wednesday morning, Fox News reported that Trump arrived at the Supreme Court and that Attorney General Pam Bondi was expected to join him. With this attendance, Trump has become the first sitting president to witness Supreme Court oral arguments.
‘One of the many Great Scams of our time!’
Trump’s Executive Order 14160, signed on Inauguration Day, could impact roughly 225,000 individuals born each year.
The executive action states that “citizenship does not automatically extend to persons born in the United States: (1) when that person’s mother was unlawfully present in the United States and the father was not a United States citizen or lawful permanent resident at the time of said person’s birth, or (2) when that person’s mother’s presence in the United States at the time of said person’s birth was lawful but temporary … and the father was not a United States citizen or lawful permanent resident at the time of said person’s birth.”
Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday that he plans to attend the Supreme Court hearing.
“Because I have listened to this argument for so long,” Trump stated.
He argued that birthright citizenship was not intended for “Chinese billionaires, or billionaires from other countries, who all of a sudden have 75 children … becoming American citizens.”
RELATED: SCOTUS gives Trump a unanimous victory on persecution claims in asylum cases
Al Drago/Getty Images
“This was about slaves,” Trump continued, adding that birthright citizenship was implemented at the end of the Civil War.
“The reason was, it had to do with the babies of slaves and the protection of the babies of slaves. It didn’t have to do with the protection of multimillionaires and billionaires wanting to have their children get an American citizenship,” he said. “It is the craziest thing I’ve ever seen.”
When asked about the Supreme Court justices, Trump responded, “I love a few of them. I don’t like some others.”
Win McNamee/Getty Images
In a post on social media, Trump called birthright citizenship “one of the many Great Scams of our time!”
Around 9:30 a.m. Eastern on Wednesday, Trump’s motorcade was spotted leaving the White House en route to the Supreme Court.
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News, Donald trump, Trump, Trump administration, Trump admin, Supreme court, Scotus, Birthright citizenship, Immigration crisis, Illegal immigration crisis, Immigration, Illegal immigration, Politics
Glenn Beck TORCHES Senate leader John Thune for TWO-WEEK vacation
On the 41st day of the shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security, members of Congress decided it was time to fly home for their spring recess despite failing to reach a deal to reopen the agency.
And Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck couldn’t be more upset with our politicians — especially Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.).
“He gets onto a plane, and he is out. Friday morning, he is gone. He makes a deal in the middle of the night knowing that the House is not going to accept this. So when the House gets it, they’re like, ‘No, we’re not doing this. We’re not doing this,’” Glenn explains, asking, “And what happened?”
“He’s on a two-week vacation now. They have stopped working in the Senate for two weeks,” he says.
Glenn points out that Trump can use his power to make a difference.
“The president has the ability to call back into special session and convene the Senate in the Constitution. It’s article 2, section 3. And he can do it on extraordinary occasions,” Glenn explains.
“Well, I don’t know how you define extraordinary, but let me try. Let’s see. We’re at war with the number one terrorist state in the world. Millions have come in from God only knows where, and we don’t know where they are. Fifteen-hundred terror cells came in from that terror state. We don’t know where they are,” he continues.
“Domestic terror is on the rise. The American people are shut up in airports, long, long lines. We have ICE doing that job, which means they can’t go out and do their other job. I don’t know what ‘extraordinary means’ is, but I think extraordinary, extraordinary occasions means like what we’re going through right now,” he adds.
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The glenn beck program, Glenn beck, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, John thune, Dhs shutdown, Department of homeland security, Congress, Senate, President trump, Trump administration
America returns to the moon: How to watch Artemis II launch
NASA is counting down to the launch of Artemis II on Wednesday, the first time in more than 50 years the space agency has sent a crewed mission to the moon.
After suffering a series of significant setbacks last year, NASA is ready to go with the crewed lunar orbit and prepping their systems for launch.
‘Engineers are powering up flight hardware … and preparing the rocket’s cryogenic systems.’
NASA has a targeted launch time of 6:24 p.m. ET, with a window that extends to 8:24 p.m. ET.
Online viewers can watch on NASA’s YouTube channel (below) and alternatively C-SPAN, which requires a registered account.
In person, Artemis II will launch from Kennedy Space Center’s LC-39B platform in Merritt Island, Florida.
RELATED: ‘Near-impossible’: NASA reveals plans for moon and Mars landings
The Artemis II mission is a crewed lunar orbit that will test landing systems for future missions to the surface.
Artemis III is set for mid-2027, while Artemis IV is targeted for early 2028 and will include a lunar landing.
Artemis V is to include another lunar landing, aimed at launching by the end of 2028, which NASA previously said is when it expects to “begin building its moon base.”
The last lunar mission by NASA was Apollo 17 in December 1972.
RELATED: America’s historic return to the moon suffers ANOTHER setback
Miguel J. Rodriguez CARRILLO/AFP/Getty Images
The Artemis II crew includes NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, along with Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen.
“Engineers are powering up flight hardware, checking communication links, and preparing the rocket’s cryogenic systems for the precise fueling sequence required to load hundreds of thousands of gallons of super-cooled liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen,” NASA said in a countdown press release.
If any weather or technical issues arise that would delay the launch, NASA has a second launch window of 7:22 p.m. to 9:22 p.m. ET on Thursday, Today reported, with 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Friday serving as a final window.
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Return, Nasa, Artemis ii, Lunar mission, Space launch, Nasa mission, Artermis, Lunar landing, Moon mission, Tech
Trump says Iran asked for a ceasefire — but the US has one major condition
President Donald Trump says Iran’s “new regime” has asked the United States for a ceasefire just over a month into the conflict, but the commander in chief still has one major hang-up.
Trump said Wednesday he would consider the ceasefire only if the Strait of Hormuz, which controls about 20% of the world’s oil supply, is reopened. This announcement comes the morning of Trump’s highly anticipated address to the nation, which is slated to take place at 9:00 pm Eastern Time.
‘We will consider when …’
“Iran’s New Regime President, much less Radicalized and far more intelligent than his predecessors, has just asked the United States of America for a CEASEFIRE!” Trump said in a Truth Social post Wednesday. “We will consider when Hormuz Strait is open, free, and clear.”
“Until then, we are blasting Iran into oblivion or, as they say, back to the Stone Ages!!!”
RELATED: ‘Delayed courage’: Trump tells allies to fend for themselves amid oil crisis
Ian Forsyth/Getty Images
This development comes just a day after Trump urged American allies who have been impacted to fend for themselves and get their own oil. He also criticized countries like the United Kingdom and France for their inaction throughout this conflict, saying they will have to “start learning how to fight for [themselves].”
“All of those countries that can’t get jet fuel because of the Strait of Hormuz, like the United Kingdom, which refused to get involved in the decapitation of Iran, I have a suggestion for you,” Trump said in the Truth Social post Tuesday. “Number 1, buy from the U.S., we have plenty, and Number 2, build up some delayed courage, go to the Strait, and just TAKE IT.”
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Donald trump, Iran, Iran war, Ceasefire, Oil, Strait of hormuz, Truth social, No new wars, Politics
Senate Republicans tried to cave on Trump’s agenda
White House official James Blair telling House Republicans to stop talking about mass deportations was the noise. Senate Republicans cowing to Democrats and putting Immigration and Customs Enforcement funding in serious jeopardy was the signal. No one should be surprised that weak-kneed Republicans took their cue from the White House’s wishy-washy stances on the topic.
Too many elected Republicans actually want the opposite of mass deportation, and the White House gave them the political space to do just that.
There is no massive corporate or mega-donor coalition rallying behind the cause of national sovereignty, but there most certainly is one bankrolling the cause of cheap labor.
What the Senate did in the dead of night last week was a grievous mask-dropping moment — equally objectionable in both its form and substance. Senators thought they had cover from the White House to cave to Democrat demands to split off ICE and Customs and Border Protection funding from the larger Department of Homeland Security funding bill.
Whether Republican Senators actually had that blessing from the White House, or whether they were simply reading the tea leaves from months of creeping separation from the mass deportation promise, remains unclear. Nevertheless, in the dead of the night, Republicans threw ICE and CBP under the bus by sending the House a funding bill covering all of DHS except those two agencies.
Senate Democrats immediately declared victory — as they should have — and Senate Republicans headed to the airport. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) would be spotted at Disney World shortly after.
What happened next is when things started getting good. The Trump base, for lack of a better term, freaked out on the internet. By the time House Republicans woke up, they realized they had a massive problem on their hands. The White House saw the writing on the wall as well, abandoned any implicit or explicit support for the Senate bill, and pulled the proverbial rug out from under Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) and his colleagues.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) announced and secured opposition to the package and had the House return a 60-day continuing resolution to the Senate that restored funding levels across the entire Department — including ICE and CBP.
Now we wait. The Senate is on a two-week vacation and has given no indication it will return early to deal with the bill, or that it would even support the House version. The clock ticks, the agencies hang in limbo, and the people who engineered this mess have retreated to their beach houses and theme parks.
RELATED: The SAVE America Act won’t be enough to save the GOP from a midterm bloodbath
Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg/Getty Images
Trump voters who sent the president back to the White House based on his signature promise to “carry out the largest mass deportation in American history” can enjoy a temporary victory. The retreat on the cause had seemed to be in full swing. For a brief moment, the tide appears to have reversed, but a single funding skirmish won is by no means the end of the war.
How can a president who sailed back into the White House on the promise of mass deportations — a cause still supported by the majority of Americans — and armed with a legislative package investing more than $40 billion in that cause, now find himself in a situation where ICE funding is placed in jeopardy?
Mind you, mass deportations haven’t even meaningfully begun, with only some 350,000 deportations occurring in 2025 against a backdrop of over 10 million illegal crossings during the Biden years. There are two main reasons for this gap between mandate and execution.
First, a great many elected Republicans are wildly out of step with their own voters. Elections aren’t always about winning votes, they’re often about winning donations to fund the grift and graft attendant to a system where arguably the most important thing in politics is the size of a war chest.
There is no massive corporate or mega-donor coalition rallying behind the cause of national sovereignty, but there most certainly is one bankrolling the cause of cheap labor. The sensibilities of many elite donors are offended by the very topic of enforcement. They are far more comfortable debating marginal tax rates or trading in lofty foreign policy abstractions than confronting the basic question of who gets to live in this country and on whose terms.
Second, the president, either by perception or by reality, has distanced himself from the campaign promise of mass deportation. That distance has issued a permission slip to those who want to buck the cause. It has given cover to the opportunists, the corporate-minded, and the quietly resistant.
President Trump could clear up that confusion in an instant if he so wished with a single unambiguous statement, a sustained public push, an explicit demand that Congress fall in line.
RELATED: The Democrats unconditionally surrendered the shutdown — the GOP might screw it up anyway
Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images
In the aftermath of the anti-ICE riots in Minneapolis, a senior elected Republican told me that Democrats were going to be unable to resist the temptation to reignite their “defund ICE” plank, just as they overstepped post-BLM with “defund the police.” I smiled and nodded and resisted the urge to point out the obvious: that while that was correct, they would have more than a few Republicans along for the ride.
That is the uncomfortable reality that too many Trump supporters have been slow to fully reckon with. The opposition to this agenda does not live only on the left side of the aisle: it lives in Senate Republican conference rooms and in the calculated silences of members who have perfected the art of sounding like conservatives while voting like Democrats. The mask slipped last week, and it is worth keeping it off.
It is important to sustain the momentum and public expectations that this funding fight has dragged to the forefront of the national political conversation. Trump supporters saw the opposition drop its mask, and it had an (R) next to its name.
Many in Thune’s caucus have long benefited from only privately opposing key aspects of President Trump’s mandate, speaking in the right accent on the right issues just long enough to evade detection. That racket depends entirely on operating in the dark. Keeping the spotlight on is the path forward.
They do not have a viable political option in openly opposing mass deportation, and the moment the base makes that cost explicit, the calculus changes. Make it explicit.
Ice, Mass deportations, Dhs, Senate republicans, Trump, House republicans, Government shutdown, Rino, Dhs funding, Cbp, Opinion & analysis
The Trump phone is coming: Inside the delays, the attacks, and what to expect
Trump Mobile, an MVNO cell service provider operated by Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, was on track to launch its first Android phone by the end of 2025. However, after the T1 Phone launch date slipped to later this year, opportunists on the left pounced for political clout. Democrats officially filed an FTC complaint claiming false advertisement around the T1 Phone, though the statement looks more like a ploy to waste taxpayer money, discredit the FTC, and antagonize the Trump administration with a pointless witch hunt to please their base.
The complaint
Leftists are no strangers to wasting the money of hardworking Americans, and this time, they’re doing it in the name of consumer protection.
In January, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and the usual cadre of Democrat noisemakers (Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), Sen. Adam Schiff (Calif.), and Sen. Ed Markey (Mass.), to name a few) filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission accusing Trump Mobile of “potentially deceptive practices” around the unreleased T1 Phone. Their claim is that the Trump Mobile website uses vague language to describe the phone’s design and manufacturing roots, calling into question whether or not it will actually be made in America. The press release also compares Trump Mobile’s actions to “bait-and-switch tactics” for missing its launch deadlines throughout the last half of 2025.
The fact that Trump Mobile hasn’t shipped the T1 Phone doesn’t mean that the device isn’t coming.
It’s a clever dispute, positioning Warren and company as thoughtful lawmakers who are trying to protect the unwitting MAGA supporters who preordered the T1 Phone with a $100 deposit, but the truth is a little more devious. In fact, Warren wrote the quiet part loud and proud in bold letters, revealing the complaint to be “a critical test of the FTC’s independence.” Democrats aren’t looking to protect consumers from a device that is still set to launch later this year. They’re trying to see if they can assert their power and control over the FTC and its Trump-appointed chairman, Andrew Ferguson.
So far, Ferguson has refused to take the bait, already ignoring one letter from Warren back in August 2025. The FTC had until February 14, 2026, to respond to the Democrats’ allegations and decide whether an investigation into Trump Mobile is necessary. So far, no public response has been forthcoming. Presumably, if nothing else is happening behind the scenes, Democrats will take the rebuff as evidence of systemic corruption inside Trump’s Federal Trade Commission.
Product delays are common in tech
While Democrats do what they do best — grandstand for the public in hopes that someone takes their charade seriously — there are some simple facts about product launches that can’t be ignored. For starters, research firm Gartner found in a 2019 survey that 45% of new products are delayed past their original launch dates. On the flip side, only 55% of products launch on time. For a company that aims to bring its first product to market, delays are likely.
Why? Because there is a lot of work that goes into launching a smartphone. You need capital to fund the project, an R&D team to design and test the phone, manufacturers for every component as well as an assembly facility to put it all together, and certification by the FCC for the device to be sold in the USA.
JianGang Wang/Getty Images
If any one of these cogs in the machine is delayed or falls through, launch dates can move back by months or more. The fact that Trump Mobile hasn’t shipped the T1 Phone doesn’t mean that the device isn’t coming or that false advertising was used to swindle early buyers. It’s merely proof that the company needs more time to navigate the production process.
Where is the T1 Phone now?
To know for sure, we reached out to Trump Mobile for comment on the delays, new launch date, and Warren’s FTC complaint, but we did not receive a response before this article was set to be published. That said, all evidence indicates that the T1 Phone isn’t canceled. Trump Mobile is still accepting preorders with a $100 down payment, and the website says that the device is set to launch “later this year.”
As for the Democrats’ FTC complaint, it’s just another example of Elizabeth Warren’ s ongoing witch hunt against President Trump, as her White House ballroom investigation drags on with much mockery and ridicule. Clearly, Warren and her Democrat colleagues aren’t to be taken seriously.
Tech
VIDEO: Woman twerks during arrest after she and 2 others allegedly stormed flight over baggage fee: ‘Enjoy prison, baby’
Three woman were arrested for allegedly storming onto a plane flight after a disagreement about being made to pay baggage fees.
Social media video captured the chaos as the three women were led in handcuffs through the Miami International Airport on Sunday evening.
‘Record! We have receipts that we paid! Record! Thank you, sir!’
The three women were identified as 30-year-old Nafisa Dockery, 21-year-old Dionjana Cochran, and 26-year-old Davana Cochran.
They were waiting to board a plane bound for Philadelphia when a Frontier Airlines worker noted that they were trying to sneak on with an additional carry-on bag. The employee asked them to step out of line and pay for the bag, to which they responded with a verbal confrontation.
The worker told them they may be removed from the flight, and they responded by rushing on the plane through a door marked as restricted.
After police arrived, the women refused to leave the plane, leading the police to deboard all of the passengers. At one point, Dockery allegedly spat on a person.
The trio continued to resist police orders despite being warned that they would be charged with trespassing, and they were eventually dragged off the plane.
All three were later charged with trespassing.
Video showed Davana Cochran twerking for a few moments and then slapping her own butt in the airport until an officer jerked her back up by the handcuffs.
At one point, an onlooker’s voice can be heard saying to one of the women, “Enjoy prison, baby!”
“Record! We have receipts that we paid! Record! Thank you, sir!” Dockery yelled as she was led away.
In addition to trespassing after being given a warning, the trio were charged with resisting an officer without violence, according to arrest records.
Dockery was also charged with battery.
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Frontier miami plane altercation, Dockery cochran plane arrest, Arrest over luggage fees, Women arrested at airport, Crime
Predatory gambling apps are using loopholes to avoid state laws
For this year’s March Madness, the action goes far beyond the court: Millions of teenagers too young to step into a Las Vegas casino are placing college basketball bets on prediction market platforms.
It’s the latest form of legally dubious gambling, a growing “campus frenzy” in which unsafe and unregulated sports betting sites are masquerading as investment.
People as young as 18 can wager nationwide, even in the 11 states where online sports gambling remains illegal.
As moms, we take nothing more seriously than the obligation to protect our kids and communities. Prediction markets do the opposite: They exploit college students by luring them into sports “event contracts” through shady marketing, financed fraternity parties, and social media influencers.
Passed off as merely predictions of who will win a game or tournament, these contracts are sports gambling in disguise. They should be regulated as such, treated the same as the online sports betting that has proliferated nationwide since the Supreme Court effectively legalized it in 2018.
By skirting state and tribal laws, prediction markets are offering unregulated sports betting without consumer protections or age minimums, avoiding state gambling taxes that fund important education and infrastructure programs. An estimated $657 million state gaming tax dollars have been lost since prediction markets waded into the sports arena.
At Moms for America, we proudly joined the new Gambling Is Not Investing coalition to make sure this pernicious trend is reversed — and that prediction markets’ sports event contracts are stopped until they comply with state gambling laws.
Our cause is made more urgent by the unrelenting growth of prediction markets. They seem to be everywhere, with people betting — sometimes with alleged inside information — on everything from elections to developments in the U.S. war against Iran.
But athletics drive the action. Sports regularly account for over 85% of volume on Kalshi, one of the two major prediction market platforms along with Polymarket, according to a 2025 report from Keyrock and Dune Analytics.
Since early 2024, the report found overall monthly volume on prediction markets has surged from under $100 million to more than $13 billion.
Prediction markets are exchange platforms in which people trade event contracts based on predicting the outcomes of future events. They offer many of the same bets as sportsbooks, including moneyline, spread, player props, and over/under outcomes.
Yet even though they clearly constitute sports betting, prediction markets claim they are regulated by the federal Commodity Futures Trading Commission rather than state gambling agencies. This claim allows their gambling activities to be rebranded as “trading,” or “investing” — and means that people as young as 18 can wager nationwide, even in the 11 states where online sports gambling remains illegal.
RELATED: Arizona files 20 criminal charges against Kalshi for flouting state gambling laws
Scott Olson/Getty Images
Since most states with legal online sports betting restrict it to people 21 and older, this loophole has created a “three-year window” for prediction markets to target the 18- to 20-year-old crowd.
As the Wall Street Journal put it in a recent expose, Kalshi and Polymarket are aiming their marketing “at an eager group of users that isn’t known for financial discretion: college students.”
The targeting has not been subtle: Both platforms have been paying student influencers and creators on TikTok and Instagram to promote them, while Polymarket has offered to help fund parties for fraternities in exchange for signing up users.
The platforms are taking advantage of a troubling trend: extensive gambling among teenagers just short of college. Common Sense Media, which recently surveyed more than 1,000 U.S. adolescent boys ages 11 to 17, found that nearly half of 17-year-olds gambled in the past year.
This exploitation of our youth must stop. Since prediction markets clearly promote gambling, they should be regulated by state gambling agencies that enforce safeguards and compliance standards.
A number of states, correctly seeing prediction market platforms as “sports gambling in disguise,” are asserting their regulatory authority in federal courts.
As March Madness heats up, the NCAA recently urged the CFTC to suspend college sports offerings in prediction markets until the agency implements stronger regulations.
Amid the various calls for action, we urge the public to weigh in. Tell your elected officials and state leaders that prediction markets should not be a back door for unregulated sports gambling.
Gambling, Online betting, Sportsbetting, Polymarket, Kalshi, Casinos, March madness, Moms for america, Cftc, Opinion & analysis
‘Wars and rumors of wars’: Glenn Beck warns this could be the end of days — but are we too distracted to see it?
The ongoing war between Israel, the United States, and Iran has Christians, Jews, and Muslims all asking the same question: Are we witnessing the end of days?
“There is a description of these times at the end of the Bible. It’s ‘wars and rumors of wars,”’ says Glenn Beck, “and that’s the way everything kind of feels right now.”
Christians, he explains, witness the “upheaval, apostasy, calamity, [and] moral collapse” and wonder if Jesus is getting ready to return; Jews see “Israel restored in their land, surrounded by enemies” and anticipate the coming of their promised Messiah; Muslims “hear this language of oppression and chaos and deception and war and ask whether is Trump the Dajjal” — the evil one who will hasten the Mahdi’s return.
“What’s happening here?” Glenn asks.
“The world’s great faiths are not suddenly agreeing on every doctrine. They’re doing something more haunting than that. They are all staring at the same storm — each from a different tower.”
And yet at the same time, we live in an age of distraction.
“We are all distracted by notifications. We are hypnotized by politics. We are consumed by work. We’re buried in debt. We’re entertained to death. We’re arguing about personalities while the foundations of the world shake beneath our feet,” says Glenn.
“The deepest question,” he says, “is not whether this is the end of days. The deepest question is: If it were the end of days, would we even notice?”
Glenn fears that the majority of people are “too busy scrolling, too busy branding [themselves], too busy chasing comfort, too busy treating the soul like an afterthought” to even notice the potential stakes of what’s going on around us.
“I’ve been thinking about this a lot over the last few weeks, and it is important that you hear me,” he says.
“If there’s even a possibility that this is such a time, then our conversations are absurd. We should be talking less about who won the clip-of-the-day war and more about whether we are right with our maker; less about endless outrage machine and more about repentance and forgiveness and courage and discipline and empathy and mercy.”
Glenn acknowledges that over the past 30 years of his media career, he has been “looking ahead,” “connecting dots,” “seeing patterns,” and making predictions about what’s on the horizon. Some of these hypotheses were “not right,” he confesses, but others have been scarily accurate.
From 9/11 and the 2008 financial crisis to the peculiar alliance of Islamists, Marxists, and anarchists to “topple the Western world” and the AI takeover, Glenn has hit the nail on the head with many of his predictions.
He credits this prescience largely to the Holy Spirit.
“I don’t take credit for the moments that turned out right because I know they were not engineered or reasoned out by me,” he says.
Right now, in light of the chaos in the Middle East and the moral decay all around us, Glenn has another message he believes was given to him “fully formed” with “a weight and a clarity and an urgency” that can only be spiritual.
“Time matters right now in a way that is hard to explain with any kind of chart or data. The world is not falling apart randomly,” he says.
A time is coming, he warns, that will be marked by intense hardship and deep confusion. “If you’re not grounded in something deeper than what’s happening right now, you can and will get lost,” he says.
The good news is that no matter how “difficult the road becomes, the story doesn’t end in darkness.”
“There is something on the other side that is glorious and worth enduring for something better than what anyone has ever known, but getting there requires preparation — not just in what you store or plan, but in who you are,” says Glenn.
“We have to double our work on telling the truth, leaving your sins, loving your children fiercely, like they’re the only thing that matters. Honor your vows. Pray like heaven is real. Read the ancient words again. Stand down from hatred. Step away from the lie that politics will save only what repentance can save,” he pleads.
To hear more, watch the video above.
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The glenn beck program, Glenn beck, Iran war, End times, End of days, Blazetv, Blaze media, Glenn beck predictions, Blaze, Christianity, Antichrist, Mahdi, Muslims, Jewish faith
Digital trade corridors can fix our outdated supply chain
Trade policy still thinks in terms of borders. Supply chains moved on long ago.
The old model wasn’t wrong. When production was mostly national and exports crossed a frontier once on their way to market, managing trade at the border made sense. But that’s no longer how things work.
If information has already been verified once, why should anyone have to re-create it at the next border?
In North American manufacturing, intermediate goods move back and forth across borders at multiple stages of production. In automotive, a single component can cross the same frontier three or four times before final assembly. No one sat down and designed it that way — it’s just what efficiency ended up producing.
Every crossing still triggers the same rituals: compliance checks, data submissions. All that costly friction adds up.
Governments haven’t been idle. Digitization, single windows, paperless trade — these have all helped. But they mostly improve individual touchpoints. They don’t really change how the system works end to end.
Trade policy is still organized around discrete events: a declaration filed, an inspection completed, a shipment released. That was fine when trade itself was simpler. Now the harder problem is managing trust, data, and compliance across an entire journey, through multiple agencies, multiple jurisdictions, and the same goods crossing borders more than once.
Digital trade corridors are an attempt to deal with that reality. The formal definition sounds technical, but the idea isn’t complicated. A DTC connects existing systems so that they can share information without forcing everyone onto the same platform.
Put more plainly: If information has already been verified once, why should anyone have to re-create it at the next border? Yet that’s exactly what usually happens today.
Fixing that changes quite a bit. Regulators don’t just see a shipment when it arrives; they can see its history. That allows them to assess risk earlier and more precisely. And when that happens, the usual trade-off between control and speed starts to look less inevitable than we have assumed.
One group that would notice the difference immediately is smaller firms. Large multinationals can absorb compliance costs. They have the teams and systems to do it. Smaller exporters don’t. When things like classification, origin, and documentation are built in to the corridor itself and offered as services, those fixed costs start to spread out.
There’s a bigger shift under way, and it doesn’t get discussed nearly as much as it should. Governments and industries are experimenting with what you might call joint production zones — arrangements in which different stages of production are deliberately spread across countries that are trying to align their regulatory approaches.
RELATED: America’s elites trusted global trade. Japan trusted reality.
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Pharmaceutical supply chains are already being set up this way, with different stages distributed across allied countries. In shipbuilding, Korean and American firms have started collaborating on projects in which modules are built in one place and assembled in another. What has been missing is the connective tissue to make it run smoothly.
That’s where DTCs come in. By allowing compliance and provenance data to move with the goods and to be reused rather than re-created, they make frequent cross-border movement workable at scale.
There is, predictably, a sovereignty concern. The worry is that deeper integration means less control. But that assumes that the current system actually provides strong control. In reality, point-in-time checks at the border offer only a snapshot. What corridors provide is more like a continuous record. In many cases, that strengthens oversight.
None of this is especially mysterious from a policy perspective. Electronic trade documents need to be recognized across borders. Data standards need to line up; there is already a base to build on. Participation can be tiered so that more reliable actors get smoother treatment. The harder part is treating this as infrastructure rather than as a series of pilot projects.
Trade policy has a habit of lagging behind how trade actually works. That’s not new. What is different now is the scale of the gap. Supply chains have already reorganized themselves around a cross-border reality. The administrative systems haven’t caught up — and the costs of that mismatch are starting to show.
Global supply chain, Supply chains, Global trade, Trade policy, American manufacturing, Exports, Imports, Digital trade corridors, Opinion & analysis
‘Feeding Our Future’ scam artist agrees to plea deal with a slap-on-the-wrist sentence
A man who admitted to enriching himself in the “Feeding Our Future” scam was facing up to three years in prison but got a slap on the wrist after agreeing to a plea deal.
Abdul Abubakar Ali claimed to have served up about 1.5 million meals and collected federal funds through the Federal Child Nutrition Program, but prosecutors said he didn’t actually serve any at all.
‘Public trust in government programs has been undermined’ by the scheme.
In Oct. 2022, he agreed to plead guilty to one charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Prosecutors said he paid $92,500 in restitution so far and provided valuable information to investigators. He also took responsibility for his actions.
Both the defense and prosecutors asked the judge for a sentence of probation, but the judge sentenced Ali to a year and one day in prison on Monday.
U.S. District Court Judge Nancy Brasel said that his role was too egregious for a probation sentence. She noted that he completely made up the meal count rather than exaggerated them and that he had recruited another person in the scheme.
“Public trust in government programs has been undermined” by the scheme, she added.
More than $3 million was stolen through the scheme, which transferred the money to S & S Catering and laundered the money through Franklyn Transportation, a shell company.
Ali has agreed to turn himself in to federal prison on June 2.
The Trump administration has sent federal investigators to Minnesota in order to probe federal funding fraud, especially from members of the Somali community.
While some have criticized the effort as being animated by racism, others point out that dozens have already been arrested and convicted in the fraud schemes in Minnesota.
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Jason Whitlock: Ryan Clark PLATFORMS ignorance while dissing Cam Newton
When BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock was invited onto Cam Newton’s “4th & 1” podcast, he wasn’t expecting to have such an eye-opening and civil conversation.
However, not everyone else saw it that way.
“Ryan Clark is arguing that Cam Newton interviewing, engaging with me was platforming evil,” Whitlock says, before playing a clip of Clark briefly explaining his position.
“I don’t want to platform evil. I don’t want to platform hate. I don’t want to platform dissension just because,” Clark said on “The Pivot” podcast.
Whitlock points out that one of Clark’s issues with him has been his questioning of ESPN host Stephen A. Smith’s past.
“Me questioning a journalist about things they’ve said publicly,” Whitlock scoffs. “That’s where Ryan Clark draws a line in the sand.”
“Cut out all the phoniness and fakeness. Ryan, you don’t like me … because I called out the BS of you going on national TV pretending to cry because some white woman your son doesn’t know, you don’t know, allegedly called him the N-word,” Whitlock comments.
“That was some fake BS you did for clicks, for attention,” he continues, “the same thing you’re accusing Cam Newton of doing.”
“Ryan Clark, you’re a hypocrite,” he says. “If I’m evil and you’re good, the world is upside down.”
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‘Supergirl’ star expects backlash because fans have ‘weird ownership of women’s bodies’ — the responses are hilarious
The star of the upcoming “Supergirl” movie is already raising hackles with her comments about society having “weird ownership of women’s bodies.”
Australian actress Milly Alcock, 25, made the comments in an interview with Vanity Fair just ahead of the release of her feature film based on the well-known comic book character.
‘These movies are so bad that they have to start attacking the fans before the movie even comes out.’
Alcock was asked if she was prepared to face the ire of fans of the character who may object to her portrayal. She pointed back to her experience as a young actress in the prequel series of the “Game of Thrones” franchise.
“It definitely made me aware that simply existing as a woman in that space is something that people comment on. We have become very comfortable having this weird ownership of women’s bodies,” she said.
“I can’t really stop them. I can only be myself,” she added.
The odd statement was posted to social media, where many fulfilled her prediction by responding with mockery.
“The movie is NOT OUT yet but they’re already crying about bigotry and sexism. Right on f**king cue,” one popular response reads.
“These movies are so bad that they have to start attacking the fans before the movie even comes out,” another detractor said.
“Strange how she doesn’t say anything about how much she loves the character. It’s all about her. That’s what repels fans,” another user replied.
“If I were a production company I would gag these crazy people before they tank their movies. Let them tank on their own,” another critic said.
“The Supergirl TV show had many seasons and was pretty well loved. Some of these hollywood folk have their head up their asses so far they’re breathing methane,” another said.
RELATED: How Hollywood tries to masculinize femininity — and makes everyone miserable
On the other hand, some did agreed with her comment.
“I mean, she’s not really wrong, people have already been making weird comments about Milly, from saying she’s ‘not sexy enough’ to straight-up body shaming her, so that kind of proves her point about how people feel entitled to judge women in these roles,” one commenter said.
‘Supergirl’ comes out in theaters on June 26.
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Supergirl actress feminist, Milly alcock, Supergirl movie backlash, Liberal actresses, Politics
Grandma says she lost her home and car after being arrested for fraud — police admit they made a mistake based on AI
North Dakota cops admit that they made a mistake when they arrested a Tennessee grandmother for fraud based on a tip from a facial recognition program that uses artificial intelligence.
Angela Lipps, 50, said she was stuck in jail for months and lost her home, her car, and even her dog. She is now living with neighbors and is considering legal action against the police department.
‘We should have done that,’ Zibolski admitted.
Now-retired Fargo Police Chief Dave Zibolski admitted that “mistakes” were made but fell short of apologizing to the woman falsely imprisoned.
Zibolski passed the buck onto the West Fargo Police Department, which he said had purchased an artificial intelligence program without notifying the Fargo police at the executive level.
Investigators were trying to identify a suspect in a bank fraud case when they ran an image from a fake ID through the facial recognition software. The software identified Lipps as a match for the suspect, and they passed the information to Fargo police, which neglected to submit surveillance videos to their approved state-run facial recognition hub.
“We should have done that,” Zibolski admitted.
He said the program used by the West Fargo police has been prohibited from police use, and he has implemented additional restrictions on the use of such software.
Zibolski was asked why he didn’t apologize to Lipps, and he said the investigation was ongoing. He also appeared to imply that she may still be involved in the fraud somehow.
“We do not know definitively who’s involved and who’s not at this juncture,” he said.
Lipps was arrested in Tennessee in July 2025 and was extradited to Cass County, North Dakota, on October 30. She was in jail for a total of five months, released only after she obtained an attorney who produced bank records showing she was in Tennessee at the time of the crimes she was accused of.
The charges were dismissed on Christmas Eve.
West Fargo Chief Pete Nielsen told Flag Family News: “The West Fargo Police Department was involved in the investigation of an unauthorized use of personal identification case. The primary person of interest in this case matched similar incidents that took place in the City of Fargo.”
Nielsen added: “The facial recognition software identified a potential suspect with similar features to Angela Lipps. That intelligence information was then shared with the Fargo Police Department, at their request, in relation to their open cases.”
Zibolski also claimed that Fargo police learned about Lipps’ arrest on December 5. However, Cass County Sheriff Jesse Jahner claimed that Fargo police knew she was in custody much earlier, and emails obtained by Valley News Live revealed that Fargo police may have known about the arrest in July.
Zibolski announced March 11 that he was retiring as police chief after 40 years in law enforcement. His retirement was official on Friday.
RELATED: Former volleyball coach used artificial intelligence to groom teenage girl for sex, police say
Lipps’ predicament has made national headlines and led to a GoFundMe donation page to help her recover her former life. She has since garnered $76,000.
“Once our department knew about her arrest, they immediately addressed it,” Fargo Mayor Tim Mahoney said. “We will continue to look at our process.”
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‘The View’ co-host has bizarre response to ‘lifelong progressive’ Whitney Cummings refusing to vote for pedophiles
The co-hosts of “The View” steered into an awkward moment after comedian guest Whitney Cummings joked that she had been forced to lower her voting standards to avoid pedophiles.
The exchange unfolded on the Tuesday episode while the gals were criticizing second lady Usha Vance, who indicated that she and her husband, Vice President JD Vance, do not always “agree” on every political topic.
‘I just mean, like, who doesn’t think kids are hot? I’m voting for that person!’
Cummings jokingly said that her only standard in voting was to support non-pedophiles, and Joy Behar mistakenly took that to mean Cummings was criticizing Republicans.
“I’ve got some blowback before for criticizing — I’m a lifelong progressive. I had blue hair and rescue pit bulls!” Cummings said. “I also think there’s something very patriotic about criticizing your own party and pointing out hypocrisies within your own party.”
Behar then asserted that Democrats criticize their party all the time. Cummings agreed and then continued to weigh in on Mrs. Vance’s comments.
“For her to feel a little bit like doesn’t know where she is, I think there’s a lot of people who do feel like this, and they don’t have the time we necessarily all have to be looking at the news all day and be figuring out what’s right and wrong,” Cummings continued.
“There’s days where I’m just like, ‘I don’t know anymore.’ I’m just literally at the point where my party, the person I’m voting for is anyone not a pedophile, whoever’s not a pedophile!” she added to laughter and applause from the audience. “Is anyone not attracted to children?”
“Which party is that you’re talking about?” a bewildered Behar asked. “The Republican Party?”
“I just mean, like, who doesn’t think kids are hot? I’m voting for that person!” Cummings tried to clarify.
At this point, Whoopi Goldberg steered the conversation away from Behar’s inability to get a joke.
An edited version of the exchange was posted to social media, where it was widely circulated.
The entire segment showing Behar’s stalwart effort to ruin Cummings’ point can be viewed on the show’s YouTube channel.
Cummings has been very open about her journey from a progressive to becoming more friendly to conservative policies after getting engaged and having a baby. She ridiculed the Democratic Party for nominating Kamala Harris, lambasted liberal hypocrisy with Joe Rogan, and mocked the Los Angeles Fire Department for hiring on lesbians.
“You had me at, ‘We’re not racist, everybody’s equal,’ diversity, but then it turns into diversity but not diversity of thought!” she said in Jan. 2026.
“Hold on, you know, we don’t believe in gender, but we need a female president. And you’re like, huh?” she added.
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‘Socialists and geriatrics’: Alex Stein INFILTRATES No Kings
Alex Stein spent the weekend navigating multiple events across Texas, where he had some extremely strange encounters — including one where he claims to have been “sexually assaulted” by a transgender man.
His first stop was the No Kings protest in Dallas, which he tells BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales was full of “socialists” and “geriatrics.”
“If you had to summarize what you saw into two words, what would that be?” Gonzales asks Stein.
“Socialists and geriatrics,” he tells Gonzales. “There was a lot of young people for the Mamdani vibe, and then everybody else was 70. … There was a woman that stopped me that went to school with my dad. My dad’s 71 years old.”
“I kept getting hit by elderly people,” Stein says, showing a clip of him being swarmed by angry protesters.
While Stein didn’t enjoy being attacked by protesters, he wasn’t surprised that he was.
“They’re impulsive. They’re on SSRIs, so they’re out of touch with reality, and they just kind of react. That’s probably how they treat their, you know, caretaker at the retirement home,” Stein says.
Stein also braved a “furry” convention in Dallas, and what he saw there wasn’t much better.
“I had more trepidation at the furry fiesta than I did at the No Kings protest, because everybody knows these people are lunatics, and you and I have gone to all these child drag shows where they’re trying to groom kids,” Stein tells Gonzales.
“It felt like a bunch of adults that are doing this cosplay as an animal, but they were trying to relate to kids. It was very weird. The vibes in there, you know, was something that was kind of indescribable. … Like a gay event but not gay. Even weirder than a gay event,” he continues.
But that wasn’t Stein’s last stop.
“There was another place where they were letting their freak flags fly. … I feel like this was your Super Bowl weekend, Alex,” Gonzales says, referring to a “Trans Day of Visibility” rally in Dallas where Stein was “sexually assaulted” by a transgender “man.”
“That was new and a first for me to get kissed at the trans rally. I’d never seen that in my life. And you know, it really kind of exposes them for being perverts and creeps and making everything about sex,” Stein says.
“They have autogynephilia. They’re doing it because they have some sort of sexual perversion. Like they’re sexually motivated to do this,” he continues. “So honestly, I shouldn’t be surprised that I got sexually assaulted at the ‘Trans Day of Visibility.’”
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Sara gonzales unfiltered, Sara gonzales, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Alex stein, Trans day of visibility, Transgenderism, Trans activists, No kings dallas protest, Dallas no kings protest, Furry fiesta
Mural of Iryna Zarutska outside gay bar to be removed as Democratic mayor stokes outrage mob
A mural honoring slain Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska will be removed after an outrage mob deluged a gay bar with complaints.
The office of Providence Mayor Brett Smiley, a Democrat, made his opposition to the mural clear on Sunday. Smiley then released a statement Monday morning.
‘All of this political vitriol being kicked up has removed Iryna’s humanity from her story.’
“The murder of the individual depicted in this mural was a devastating tragedy, but the misguided, isolating intent of those funding murals like this across the country is divisive and does not represent Providence,” reads the statement from the mayor’s office. “I continue to encourage our community to support local artists whose work brings us closer together rather than further divides us.”
Artist Ian Gaudreau began painting the mural outside a prominent LGBTQ+ club in downtown Providence last week with the aid of a fund supported by tech billionaire Elon Musk. Gaudreau told WJAR-TV that he didn’t intend it to be political.
“I want everybody to know that my intention with the mural was to lower the temperature,” the artist said.
One resident named Jennifer Cross told WJAR that she supports the mural.
“Here in Rhode Island, in Providence, this is what we’re about,” Cross said. “We should be accepting of everything and take politics aside, honor all of the people who need to be honored, and just stop. I know the divisiveness of today’s politics … but stop. Let it go forward. She needs to be honored.”
Others in Providence, known as the Creative Capital, opposed it.
“Where are the murals for everybody that died from Black Lives Matter? I don’t see any of those,” said one woman who spoke to WJAR. Notably, the words “Black Lives Matter” were painted in bold colors on Washington Street in Providence in 2021.
By Monday afternoon, news broke that the project had been canceled.
“We heard you PVD. We are deeply and sincerely sorry for everything that has taken place over the past week,” reads a statement from the owners of the Dark Lady bar. “After reflecting and learning, we have made the decision to discontinue this project and will move forward with removal as soon as possible. We remain committed to fostering unity, safety, and care for all members of our community, and we will continue to listen, learn, and act with those values at the forefront.”
The decision was excoriated by state Republican Minority Leader Sen. Jessica de la Cruz.
“This isn’t a vulgar or explicit mural. It’s a portrait — a face — memorializing a victim. The First Amendment exists to protect expression like this, even when it’s uncomfortable,” she wrote on social media.
“Ordering it removed isn’t leadership. It’s censorship. Hard to square ‘No Kings’ rhetoric with acting like one. You don’t get to be the Creative Capital if creativity needs permission,” she added.
RELATED: Axios gets obliterated online for unbelievable framing of stabbing death of Ukrainian refugee
Zarutska was 23 years old and returning home from her job at a pizza shop when she was brutally stabbed to death without provocation by a black suspect who was caught on security video. The suspect charged with the murder has a long history of criminal arrests and mental illness. Musk responded by donating $1 million to a fund dedicated to painting murals in her honor across the country.
“All of this political vitriol being kicked up has removed Iryna’s humanity from her story,” Gaudreau said. “And I think we’d all do better to remember that.”
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Iryna zarutska mural, Providence mayor opposes mural, Zarutska mural shut down by liberals, Zarutska mural on gay bar, Politics
4 Republicans join Democrat effort to shield 350,000 Haitians from deportation
Four Republican lawmakers joined Democrats’ effort to keep 350,000 Haitians from losing their deportation protections.
Haiti was initially designated as a country with Temporary Protected Status by the Obama administration in 2010, following an earthquake that killed over 200,000 people and injured another 300,000. The administration contended that the 18-month designation was necessary because Haiti’s critical infrastructure had been severely impacted.
‘For more than a year, my bill to extend TPS for Haiti has sat without a vote in the House of Representatives. That’s unacceptable.’
Following that initial designation, Haiti’s TPS status was extended and redesignated many times, with officials citing national disaster recovery, gang violence, and instability.
Under President Donald Trump, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem terminated TPS for Haiti, announcing that the designation would expire in February 2026.
The DHS estimated that roughly 353,000 Haitian nationals and other foreign nationals who last resided in Haiti hold TPS.
Noem’s DHS declared that “there are no extraordinary and temporary conditions in Haiti that prevent Haitian nationals (or aliens having no nationality who last habitually resided in Haiti) from returning in safety.”
“Moreover, even if the Department found that there existed conditions that were extraordinary and temporary that prevented Haitian nationals … from returning in safety, termination of Temporary Protected Status of Haiti is still required because it is contrary to the national interest of the United States to permit Haitian nationals … to remain temporarily in the United States,” the DHS stated.
Maria Elvira Salazar: Al Diaz/Miami Herald/Tribune News Service/Getty Images. Brian Fitzpatrick: Oliver Contreras/Bloomberg/Getty Images. Mike Lawler: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images. Don Bacon: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
However, in February, a judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia stayed the termination, allowing the TPS designation to remain in effect.
Rep. Laura Gillen (D-N.Y.) previously introduced H.R. 1689, a bill that would require DHS to designate Haiti for TPS for 18 months.
Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) presented a discharge petition in January to compel the House to vote on Gillen’s bill.
On Friday, the discharge petition received exactly the 218 House signatures required to move forward, after four Republicans — Reps. Maria Elvira Salazar (Fla.), Brian Fitzpatrick (Penn.), Mike Lawler (N.Y.), and Don Bacon (Neb.) — joined Democrats in signing it.
RELATED: Noem prepares to deport 500,000 immigrants from one long-troubled island
Al Diaz/Miami Herald/Tribune News Service/Getty Images
“Throughout the nation, Haitians are parents, workers, caregivers, faith leaders, business owners, and children who are deeply rooted in our communities, essential to our economy, and are shamefully at risk of being deported to an island grappling with a devastating humanitarian crisis,” Pressley stated. “Today we are a critical step closer to saving lives and delivering the protections they deserve.”
The House will vote on Pressley’s discharge resolution within the coming weeks. If it passes, lawmakers will hold a vote on H.R. 1689.
Lawler, who co-sponsored H.R. 1689, referred to the bill as “bipartisan legislation,” insisting that the situation in Haiti remains “dire” due to “rampant gang violence, political instability, and a worsening humanitarian crisis.”
“For more than a year, my bill to extend TPS for Haiti has sat without a vote in the House of Representatives. That’s unacceptable,” Lawler stated after signing Pressley’s petition.
Salazar also released a statement in response to her decision to support the discharge petition.
“From Haiti to Venezuela, we have to get this right,” Salazar wrote in a post on social media. “TPS exists for a reason, to protect people who cannot safely return home.”
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