Category: blaze media

Fairfax County officials are facing heavy criticism after the suspect in a violent domestic dispute and an attack on a cop turned out to be an illegal immigrant who was never prosecuted despite allegedly attacking his wife in April.

Officers responding to a domestic disturbance call attempted to arrest Nehemia Fuentes Banegas on Tuesday after he allegedly stabbed himself while threatening his wife. Fuentes Banegas then allegedly fled on foot, hid in a bush, and lunged for a police officer’s service weapon in a frenzied ambush, according to police.

‘3 in 10 residents of the county are immigrants.’

Fuentes Banegas was shot by officers in the ensuing struggle, though the bullet only grazed his shoulder. He is being held without bond at the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center.

Fuentes Banegas was previously cited for reckless driving and driving without a license, according to court records. His race was recorded as white.

Fuentes Banegas is a Honduran national who illegally entered the country in 2022, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

“This criminal illegal alien from Honduras attacked a law enforcement officer and attempted to take the officer’s gun,” DHS spokesperson Lauren Bis said in a statement. “He has now been charged with attempted disarming of a law enforcement officer.”

“ICE is calling on Governor Abigail Spanberger and her fellow sanctuary politicians to commit to not releasing this dangerous criminal from jail,” she continued.

RELATED: DOJ goes to special court to send mother of terrorists back to Afghanistan

Fairfax County J&DR Court Database

In 2021, Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano signed a procedure memorandum barring cooperation with federal immigration authorities.

“To improve community safety, restore trust, and ensure all have equal protection of the law, employees of the Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office shall not assist federal agents with civil immigration enforcement,” the memo reads.

The document also notes that “3 in 10 residents of the county are immigrants.”

Descano Chief of Staff Laura Birnbaum acknowledged that Fuentes Banegas recently faced other criminal charges. A warrant reveals he was accused of “imped[ing] the blood circulation or respiration of another person by knowingly, intentionally, and unlawfully blocking or obstructing the airway … resulting in wounding or bodily injury.”

“Nehemia Fuentes faced charges earlier this year, but his wife, the victim in the case, indicated to prosecutors and other officials at a hearing in May that she did not want to prosecute at the time,” Birnbaum told Blaze News. “This kind of outcome is not uncommon in situations involving domestic violence, where prosecutors have little recourse if a case hinges on a victim’s testimony or cooperation.”

Commonwealth of Virginia/Warrant of Arrest

Birnbaum directed Blaze News to Sheriff Stacey Kincaid when asked if authorities notified ICE after Fuentes Banegas’ initial arrest.

“As required by statute, whenever an undocumented person is booked into the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center, ICE is notified that person has been taken into custody,” a sheriff’s office spokesperson told Blaze News.

The Fairfax County Police Department directed Blaze News to its press release when reached for comment.

“As they were responding to the scene, they encountered both the husband, our suspect, running from the scene and the wife pointing out to our responding patrol officers that, ‘Yes, that is in fact my husband,’” Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis said in a press conference.

“Our suspect takes his right hand, he grabs the firearm that the police officer had in his hand,” Davis said. “The officer, obviously startled, discharged his firearm three times.”

A trial date has yet to be set. ICE has lodged a detainer for Fuentes Banegas, a DHS spokesperson told Blaze News.

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​Department of homeland security, Illegal immigrant, Law enforcement officer, Police, Immigration and customs enforcement, Virginia, Politics 

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) is championing his new government-run grocery stores, claiming they’ll bring lower prices and better access to food in underserved neighborhoods.

But Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck — as well as 50 chambers of commerce — see something very different.

“Fifty chamber of commerces voted this week to sue the city of New York. Fifty chamber of commerces. Not 50 CEOs, 50 chambers,” Glenn begins, noting that they’re suing over the $70 million being used to open five government grocery stores, one per borough.

Mamdani is promising these stores will feature a 30% discount.

“I want you to think now as a person that owns a small store or a bodega. Do the arithmetic that every bodega owner in Queens did the second they heard that. A grocery store is one of the thinnest businesses in America,” Glenn says.

“One to 2% net margin. You come with your cart, and you’re paying $100. The man behind the counter clears $1.50. The store clears a $1.50. We went to the store. I think we spent like $350. They’re making less than five bucks off of me,” he continues.

“Why? Because he has to pay the rent and the landlord. He has to pay the property taxes through that rent,” he adds.

Meanwhile, the city-run grocery store doesn’t pay any rent.

“It doesn’t pay property tax. It can’t go out of business because losing money is not failure for a government store. It’s a budget line,” Glenn says.

“One analysis this week projected the city loses about 28 cents on every dollar those stores will ring up. Twenty-eight cents in loss. So the competition is not between two grocers. It’s between a grocer and a grocer’s tax collector,” he adds.

And this isn’t the first time this has been tried in recent history.

“Kansas City ran a small version of this in 2024. The city-supported grocery store lost the state close to, I think, it was like $900,000. The nonprofit that was brought in to run it ended up suing the city over the condition of the store,” Glenn explains.

“So what would work?” he asks.

The answer, he says, is to “stop looking at collectives.”

“Feed the person, not the storefront,” he says, adding, “put money in the hands of the family.”

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​New york city, Zohran mamdani, Glenn beck, Grocery stores, Socialism, Blazetv show 

Officials say they are investigating cyberattacks against municipal systems in Minnesota for possible links to Iranian groups.

Minnesota officials previously revealed that state water operations were targeted by cyberattacks on Sunday and Monday.

‘I don’t think there was an Iranian cyberattack. I think Minnesota ought to get its act together.’

On Thursday, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency warned water and wastewater operators that they could be similarly attacked.

CISA said there was a significant increase in the attacks on “programmable logic controllers” involving outside actors changing passwords and locking out the operators. The agency urged operators to remove the PLCs and other operational technology from the internet as soon as possible.

“This activity has resulted in boil water notices and sustained manual operations,” CISA said.

The CISA warning did not mention Iran or Minnesota, but U.S. officials told ABC News that investigators were trying to determine if the hostile regime was responsible for the cyberattacks.

The preliminary suspicion was first reported by the New York Times.

CISA recommended even the most rudimentary of digital security practices, including enabling password protections and changing default passwords.

President Donald Trump, when asked about the possibility of the attacks coming from Iran, blamed Minnesotan officials instead.

“I don’t think so. I think that Minnesota is behind it,” the president said to reporters. “You know who is behind it? Minnesota. Because they’re grossly incompetent. I don’t think there was an Iranian cyberattack. I think Minnesota ought to get its act together.”

He went on to say there would be more revelations about corruption in Minnesota coming from his administration.

RELATED: New study: One Chinese cyberattack could make your taps run dry

“Cyberattacks against critical infrastructure require a coordinated, whole-of-government response,” said John Israel, Minnesota’s chief information security officer, in a statement.

“This incident demonstrates why Minnesota has invested in strong cybersecurity capabilities and partnerships” he added. “Our response worked as intended, enabling agencies at every level of government to rapidly coordinate, contain the incident, and help prevent more serious impacts to critical services.”

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​Cyberattack, Iran, Minnesota, Donald trump, Politics 

Todd Blanche is aiming to be the next attorney general of the United States. Standing in his way are the Epstein survivors who say he brushed them off, two senators with nothing left to lose, and a questionable connection to one of Epstein’s closest partners in crime.

On the second day of Blanche’s confirmation hearing earlier this month, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said a meeting with survivors needed to happen before he would vote to confirm Blanche. Survivors weren’t having a stand-in — they wanted Blanche and got him that same afternoon, pressing him on compensation, prosecutions, and unaddressed leads.

Blanche interviewed Maxwell and granted her immunity for her statements.

Blanche reportedly said only the FBI could open new investigations and that he couldn’t make commitments that day.

Dani Bensky, who has been identified as one of Epstein’s victims, described a frustrating meeting with Blanche, telling CNN, “He danced around his wording, repeatedly interrupted us, and could not commit to anything that would demonstrate good faith or begin to restore trust.”

That’s the survivors’ side of Blanche’s trouble.

The other side is a $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization” fund tied to Trump’s May settlement with the IRS, which Blanche has since declared dead — though concerns, raised chiefly by Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Tillis, remain regarding the possibility of a revival of the fund.

RELATED: Trump BLASTS Cornyn and Tillis for holding AG nomination HOSTAGE

Oliver Contreras/AFP/Getty Images

These threads have spelled trouble for Blanche — as has his connection to Jeffrey Epstein’s convicted partner in crime, Ghislaine Maxwell. On Wednesday, the Senate unanimously passed a resolution declaring that Maxwell, the convicted sex trafficker who aided Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse of underage girls, should never receive a presidential pardon — though it carries no legal force.

Last year, as deputy attorney general, Blanche interviewed Maxwell and granted her immunity for her statements.

In her floor remarks, Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), who introduced the resolution earlier this year, cited a report that Blanche had floated the idea that Maxwell’s attorney “might expect something in return for her candor.”

Rosen said she was pushing for a vote now specifically because Senate Republicans are inching toward confirming Blanche as permanent attorney general.

RELATED: DAMNING report at prestigious academy finds Jeffrey Epstein — and 46 other alleged abusers — molested students

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

Trump, for his part, has floated another option entirely: pulling the nomination and resubmitting it after Cornyn’s and Tillis’ terms end in January, when neither will still be in the chamber to block it.

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​Attorney general, Ghislaine maxwell, Jacky rosen, John cornyn, Thom tillis, Todd blanche, Politics, Fbi, Jeffrey epstein 

A man set out to scale Montana’s tallest mountain, but he suffered a gruesome injury along the way. Yet still, the man miraculously hiked 10 miles down the mountain.

KTLA-TV reported that 32-year-old David Cifaldi and two hiking companions were crossing Montana’s ominous Froze-to-Death Plateau and approaching the summit of Granite Peak on the morning of July 20.

‘A couple of inches the other way, and this would be a different story.’

The Mountain Guides, a hiking website, said that Granite Peak is Montana’s highest summit with an elevation of 12,803 feet.

“This formidable mountain is located in the heart of the remote and scenic Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness, just north of Yellowstone National Park,” according to the Mountain Guides, which noted, “Granite Peak is considered by many to be the most difficult high-point summit after Denali.”

Cifaldi suffered a grisly injury from a freak hiking accident during his arduous trek: He was impaled by his own steel-tipped trekking pole.

The Associated Press reported that a 44-inch steel-tipped pole “passed through the flesh beneath Cifaldi’s left arm, missing any vital organs, and protruded from his back.”

Cifaldi proclaimed that he needed to get off the mountain.

“I was like, ‘We’ve got to get off this mountain.’ And they’re both like, ‘I don’t know about that,'” Cifaldi told the AP.

Cifaldi joked, “‘Tis but a flesh wound.”

Cifaldi, a wound care nurse in Montana, and his friends considered getting a helicopter to rescue him on the mountain. However, they decided that a helicopter rescue would be very expensive.

“Search and rescue coming to help you is free. The flight’s not,” Cifaldi explained.

“That was a factor in me deciding to self-rescue,” Cifaldi continued. “But the fact that I had two experienced great friends with me and we had the ability to contact search and rescue if something went wrong made that a lot more of an easy decision.”

The quick-thinking Cifaldi stated, “I think my nurse brain clicked on. As soon as I was able to self-assess and establish that this was not life-threatening right now, I was pretty convinced I was going to get off that mountain under my own power.”

(WARNING: Graphic video)

RELATED: Hero fishermen save 38 dogs on the verge of drowning in Mississippi lake

The group utilized a satellite-based communication device to inform local authorities that they planned to rescue Cifaldi themselves.

Stillwater County Search and Rescue team commander Ty Williams told the Associated Press that the first emergency call about Cifaldi was received at around 9:44 a.m. on July 20.

“There was no danger to anybody else. He didn’t want our help, and so we’re not going to essentially violate his rights or go against his wishes by forcing our help on him,” Williams stated.

However, the impaled hiker would have to hike approximately 10 miles and descend about 5,000 feet to travel to a trailhead where Cifaldi’s friend had parked a vehicle, according to the Associated Press.

A GoFundMe campaign launched to help Cifaldi financially said, “David navigated the plateau’s snowfields and boulder fields, made his way down past Mystic Lake, and reached the trailhead entirely under his own power — never once complaining, staying in remarkably high spirits. Near Mystic Lake, he even asked one of us to hike ahead and warn other hikers, so no children would have to see the wound.”

It took the group more than six hours to get to the friend’s vehicle, and then they transported Cifaldi to a local clinic.

Doctors at the clinic informed Cifaldi that he would need more advanced medical treatment when he returned to his hometown of Billings, Montana. The AP reported that Cifaldi’s friends drove him for treatment at the St. Vincent Regional Hospital — where Cifaldi works as a nurse.

Doctors were able to remove the pole from Cifaldi.

The friend with the vehicle, Jesse Ross, credited Cifaldi’s confidence for conquering the challenge of hiking down the mountain with such a severe injury.

“The only reason it was possible at all was his confidence,” Ross told the AP. “Who are we to say anything? He’s the medical person. Our job is just to support at that point.”

Cifaldi declared, “I think 99 times out of a hundred I would make the same decision.”

The GoFundMe campaign, which raised nearly $10,000, said Cifaldi may require surgery, missed time from work, and now faces “significant medical bills for an injury that happened while doing something he loves.”

Cifaldi told KSL-TV, “I feel very lucky. A couple of inches the other way, and this would be a different story.”

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​Montana, News, Survivor story, Politics 

The WNBA posted a video on its social media accounts earlier this week, and it may be one of the worst decisions the league has ever made.

The league, already shrouded in controversy over athlete statements and abuse of star Caitlin Clark, seemingly can’t afford to keep taking losses. Another hiccup on Wednesday, however, showed once again that the WNBA is not learning its lesson.

‘We recognized that the post missed the mark.’

Before a game between the Atlanta Dream and Dallas Wings, the WNBA posted a video that almost any sports fan would immediately recognize as inappropriate. The video shows two of the league’s more popular players betting on the outcome a game.

Dream forward Angel Reese and Wings guard Paige Bueckers are featured in a self-shot video — plastered across WNBA accounts — in which Reese is holding cash, joking with Bueckers about betting on their game.

“Imma see you next week on Wednesday. … I know y’all gonna lose, but if y’all lose … if y’all win, you get the $400,” Reese films herself saying to Bueckers.

Reese later explains that if her team wins, “You owe me $400.”

The video is framed as being fun and cute, with Bueckers being asked on the night of the game if she remembers her bet with Reese, suggesting that there was plenty of thought behind the editing.

Once fans started calling out the content, the WNBA quickly deleted the video and issued an apology.

RELATED: WNBA All-Star weekend proved Caitlin Clark only player fit to be face of the league

“While the social media post was intended to be lighthearted, WNBA players are well aware of the league’s policies prohibiting betting on WNBA games and receive training every year reinforcing those policies,” the WNBA said in a statement to the New York Times.

The league continued, “We recognized that the post missed the mark, removed it shortly after it was published, and addressed the matter internally.”

“We will also use this as an opportunity to re-emphasize with the players involved that conversations about wagering on WNBA games, even when intended as a joke, can have negative consequences,” the WNBA added.

The WNBA’s 2026 collective bargaining agreement explicitly states that wagering “money or anything of value on the outcome” of any WNBA game can result in a “fine, suspension, and/or dismissal and disqualification from any further association with the WNBA.”

Rules for the NBA, the parent company of the WNBA, are similar, stating that any player who wagers is subject to “a fine, suspension, expulsion, and/or perpetual disqualification.”

The NBA does enforce its rules, and shocking gambling scandals have rocked the league recently, resulting in court cases and lifetime bans. NBA champions Chauncey Billups and Damon Jones were arrested last October after being allegedly tied to a mafia-backed gambling ring,

Former Miami Heat player Terry Rozier was arrested this year on bribery and conspiracy charges related to gambling, while Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter was banned for life over gambling in 2024.

Perhaps the most famous example of a professional athlete getting banned from his sport for betting on himself is Major League Baseball player Pete Rose in the late 1980s.

RELATED: How the WNBA’s hottest star became the left’s newest headache

Alexa Alejandro/FIBA/Getty Images

The WNBA’s egregious error comes at a bad time for the league. In addition to issues with the league’s social media team and players, even owners are under the spotlight for the wrong reasons.

Seattle Storm co-owner Celeste Keaton was suspended for five games for confronting and cursing at teen girls who were supporting Indiana Fever player Sophie Cunningham after she said men shouldn’t be allowed in women’s sports.

Women’s sports activist Jennifer Sey shared her thoughts on the Keaton controversy with Blaze News.

“Is five games enough?” asked Sey. “Plenty of people are saying no. They’re calling for her removal from ownership, a far longer ban.”

Sey called the suspension a sign of a cultural shift, adding that “protecting teenage girls from grown adults who treat basic reality as a moral offense should not be controversial.”

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​Wnba, Basketball, Nba, Gambling, Sports 

49ers coach Kyle Shanahan is insisting that a momentary distraction behind the wheel caused a crash between him and a young woman and left him with a broken nose, broken ribs, a broken hand, and stitches in his face.

And while it appears that he is taking accountability for his actions, BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock isn’t buying the official story.

“This Kyle Shanahan story has gotten even more interesting to me,” he says.

“He holds a private, no-cameras-allowed press conference, or question-and-answer deal, with the local reporters in the Bay Area. No national media, no cameras,” he continues.

“What are we doing here?” he asks, pointing out that his injuries don’t quite match the accident.

“He’s going 20 miles per hour in an area that he knows is difficult terrain, and he’s reaching for his phone and he breaks his nose. He breaks three ribs. He breaks a hand. 40 stitches in his face,” Whitlock says.

“When I start thinking about it, it’s like somebody beat this man up, and I don’t believe it was the Tesla. I don’t believe it was the airbags in a Tesla or a Mercedes. I come away from yesterday even more suspicious,” he explains.

“So you’re saying this is Tiger Woods Thanksgiving 2009,” Steve Kim comments. “That’s kind of what you’re insinuating here. You said ‘beat up.’”

“And think about it. I can understand if you’re all tore up. You got bandages. Your nose is probably all busted. So you’re saying this is what you’re theorizing without saying it. His wife found out something and she took a nine iron to him,” he adds.

While Whitlock doesn’t believe it’s exactly like Tiger Woods, he does point out that “when you go to these lengths” to keep the story private, something feels off.

“It just doesn’t smell right to me,” he says.

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​Kyle shanahan, Jason whitlock, San francisco 49ers, Football, Nfl, Blazetv show 

Nick Shirley, the independent journalist who exposed widespread welfare fraud at Somali-run child care centers in Minnesota, recently took to the streets of New York City to ask Americans about the rise of socialism in the United States.

And some of the answers he received were downright jaw-dropping.

‘The idea of a criminal is like a little bit funny to me.’

While walking through Manhattan’s Greenwich Village, Shirley approached a young woman sitting on a park bench. During their conversation, she described herself as “pretty pro-communism” and said she was “not certain what prisons are actually doing for our society.”

“I’m pretty pro getting rid of prisons,” she added.

When Shirley asked where criminals would go if prisons did not exist, the woman replied, “Well, do I want criminals out in the open? Sure. I’m fine with that because the idea of a criminal is, like, a little bit funny to me.”

Shirley then raised a more specific question, asking whether someone convicted of raping a woman should be free to walk the streets.

RELATED: Democratic socialist leader goes on Fox and admits every extreme thing they want to do

“I think my answer is yes,” she responded.

“I’m not sure, like, them going to jail is a solution to, like, whatever’s going on inside their heart.”

The woman added that she had been “raped,” explaining that she wouldn’t want the man to whom she referred to as her “rapist” behind bars either.

Another young woman whom Shirley interviewed leaned into the argument that communism has never truly been implemented.

“Communism as it is in the Marx-Engels ‘Communist Manifesto’ has never been implemented in society,” she said, adding that China, the Soviet Union, Cuba and Venezuela “aren’t real forms of communism” but rather, in part, the “byproduct of American interventionism.”

Shirley also spoke with a man working on his laptop, which displayed a sticker reading, “This machine kills fascists.”

The man expressed his support for the rise of communism and socialist ideas in the United States, pointing to Greenwich Village’s long history of embracing the ideology.

“I think it’s a good thing,” he said. “You’re in the home of democratic socialists in Greenwich Village. This is where it began and where it’s thrived … and I hope it spreads through the country.”

RELATED: Owner of day care in Nick Shirley’s exposé now charged with FRAUD costing millions

Finn Gomez/Getty Images

When Shirley suggested that eliminating government fraud could free up resources without raising taxes, the man rejected the idea.

“Just because some thieves are stealing some stuff doesn’t mean that we should stop the system and stop taxing people and stop helping people,” he said. “Just because some people cheat doesn’t mean you should wipe out the system.”

Shirley cited a recent study by the Citizens Budget Commission that found New York lost nearly $11 billion in tax revenue over the past year as millionaires and billionaires relocated. But the man was unpersuaded.

“I don’t believe those numbers. Everybody wants to be here, so there’s no reason for them to leave.”

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​Billionaires, Communism, Criminals, New york city, Nick shirley, Prisons, Socialism, Politics 

Newly released bodycam video from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department shows deputies fatally shooting a knife-wielding male who authorities said stabbed a deputy last month in a Lancaster parking lot.

The video was released Tuesday; the incident occurred June 20 after deputies responded to a 911 call, KABC-TV reported.

‘Stop reaching.’

“Hey, I just want to make a report of a guy with some knives, swinging them in public,” the caller told a dispatcher, KABC said, citing an audio recording the sheriff’s department released.

Surveillance video shows three sheriff patrol vehicles arriving at the scene, the station said, adding that authorities said the suspect — identified as Robert Castro — is seen in the video walking away from the deputies and across a parking lot.

“Before Deputy #1’s patrol vehicle came to a stop, Castro turned and rapidly walked in the deputy’s direction,” the sheriff’s department said in a statement, according to KABC. “Castro then ran at Deputy #1, drew a knife, stabbed the deputy, and Deputy #1 discharged his service weapon.”

A second deputy also opened fire and then checked on the other deputy, who was bleeding from a stab wound, authorities said, according to the station.

Investigators said the body camera video shows Castro removing a knife from his pocket before the stabbing, KABC reported.

Following the initial confrontation, the second deputy is heard ordering Castro not to move, the station said.

“When Castro moves his hand, Deputy #2 commands him to ‘Stop reaching,'” the sheriff’s department said, according to KABC, adding that the second deputy then opens fire.

Castro was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead, the station reported, adding that the injured deputy also was taken to a hospital and treated for the stab wound.

Authorities said Castro was in possession of three knives at the time of the incident, KABC noted.

RELATED: Knife-wielding male enters BBQ restaurant ‘frightening customers and staff’ — and then concealed-carrying patron steps up

Image source: Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department

“Following notification of this incident, DOJ’s California Police Shooting Investigation Team initiated an investigation in accordance with AB1506 mandates,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office said in a statement last week, KABC reported.

After the state’s Department of Justice investigation is complete, it will be turned over to the department’s Special Prosecutions Section within the Criminal Law Division for independent review, the station said, citing a news release.

You can view the full sheriff’s department video here.

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​Bodycam video, Knife-wielding male, Fatal shooting, Officer involved shooting, Crime, Los angeles 

Democrats in Maine have swapped one radical U.S. Senate nominee with a whole lot of personal baggage for another — this time, a nominee who shares a great deal more in common with his romantic “partner” than a house and children.

Graham Platner advanced from the Maine Democratic primary on June 9 and enjoyed the continued support of various Democrats including Rep. Seth Moulton (Mass.), Rep. Ro Khanna (Calif.), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), and Sen. Ruben Gallego (Ariz.), even after it was revealed that he sent at least six women sexually explicit texts while married; previously identified as a communist; branded rural white Americans as racists and all cops as “bastards”; mocked Jesus and the Virgin Mary; and adorned himself with an apparent Nazi tattoo.

Second cousins only share 3.125% of their DNA.

Platner’s campaign was nuked earlier this month by a sexual assault accusation made by a woman he dated several years ago. Platner officially withdrew from the race on July 10.

Troy Jackson — a former state senator who was rejected by voters in the Democratic gubernatorial primary on June 9 — won the nominating convention to replace Platner on Saturday.

Jackson was once a defender of the unborn and the institution of marriage. Now, like Platner, he is a bona fide leftist who supports Medicare for all, wealth redistribution, the radical LGBT agenda, the abolishment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, late-term abortion, and codifying abortion rights nationally.

And like Platner, Jackson has some skeletons in the closet.

Recent reports have, for instance, painted him as an individual with anger management issues, and his hot temper got the better of him on at least one occasion. His campaign confirmed that during a private meeting inside the state Capitol, he hurled a plastic water bottle. Multiple sources alleged to CNN that he was aiming at a female lawmaker at the time.

RELATED: Democrats have a MAJOR problem going into the midterms: Men

Ryan Murphy/Getty Images

The Maine Wire’s Steve Robinson, citing tipsters from Jackson’s hometown of Allagash and genealogical records, revealed on Thursday that the bottle-chucker is also a cousin-lover of sorts.

Troy Jackson and Lana Pelletier — his live-in significant other and the mother of his two sons — reportedly share the same great-grandparents: Thomas Pelletier and Edith Thibodeau. According to the Wire, Thomas and Edith’s daughter Albertine was Troy’s grandmother, and their son was Lana’s grandfather.

In other words, the Democrat and his romantic partner are second cousins.

These second cousins — reportedly identified in family records as the children of first cousins — have never legally married, although they could under Maine law, which allows first cousins to marry, but they must provide a doctor’s certificate of genetic counseling.

Whereas first cousins share, on average, 12.5% of their DNA from common relatives, second cousins share only 3.125% of their DNA, according to the International Society of Genetic Genealogy.

The Jackson campaign did not reply to a request for comment from Blaze News.

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​Us senate, Troy jackson, Graham platner, Maine, Democratic party, Politics 

Everyone knows cigarettes are full of chemicals: nicotine, tar, carbon monoxide, and a long list of others you probably do not want anywhere near your lungs.

Now researchers are wondering whether smokers are also inhaling plastic.

A new study published in the European Heart Journal found that people with a history of smoking were almost six times as likely to have microplastics in their blood. Smoking was the only factor that still predicted the presence of microplastics after researchers adjusted for heart disease, inflammation, air pollution, and other variables.

The study looked at 61 patients undergoing heart procedures at two hospitals in Italy. Nineteen were suffering serious heart attacks, 20 had chronic coronary disease, and 22 had normal coronary arteries. Researchers found microplastics in 84.2% of the heart attack patients.

Microplastics are also in the air we breathe.

By comparison, they found plastic particles in 40% of the patients with chronic coronary disease and 31.8% of those with normal arteries.

But the smoking numbers were even harder to ignore. Every heart attack patient with a history of smoking had plastic in their blood. None of the nonsmokers with normal arteries did.

Patients who both smoked and had high long-term exposure to fine-particle air pollution all tested positive for microplastics. Among nonsmokers with lower pollution exposure, just 12.5% tested positive.

Not just the filters

That does not prove cigarettes are directly injecting plastic into your bloodstream. This was a small study, and the researchers cannot say exactly where the particles came from.

Still, the connection is strong enough to raise an uncomfortable question: Are smokers literally smoking plastic?

Cigarette filters are usually made from cellulose acetate, which is a type of plastic. Public health researchers have increasingly described discarded filters as a major source of microplastic pollution.

The World Health Organization has warned that cigarette filters contain microplastics and eventually break down into smaller particles after they are discarded.

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

Moor Studio/Getty Images

But the plastic found in the patients’ blood was mostly polyethylene, the material commonly used in grocery bags, bottles, food packaging, and countless other everyday products. So the cigarette filter itself may not be the main source.

Another possibility is that smoking makes it easier for plastic particles already floating in the air to get into the body. Microplastics are not just in water and food. They are also in the air we breathe. Smoking repeatedly pulls particles deep into the lungs while damaging the body’s normal defenses. It harms the cilia and mucus-clearing systems that are supposed to catch and remove unwanted material.

In other words, cigarettes may not be creating all of the plastic. They may simply be opening the door.

A disturbing clue

Once the particles get through the lungs, they can enter the bloodstream.

Researchers found microplastics in blood taken directly from the coronary circulation, the blood vessels that feed the heart. Heart attack patients had the highest concentrations and the widest variety of plastic particles. They also had higher levels of inflammation.

That matters because one of the big questions surrounding microplastics is whether they are simply passing through the body or actively causing damage. Scientists suspect they may contribute to inflammation, oxidative stress, and damage to blood vessels. But human research is still in the early stages.

A 2024 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found microplastics and nanoplastics embedded in plaque removed from patients’ carotid arteries. Patients with plastic in their plaque were more likely to suffer a heart attack, stroke, or death over the next three years.

That study did not prove that plastic caused those outcomes. Neither does this one. There are plenty of reasons to be cautious.

The new study involved only 61 people. Just 19 were having heart attacks. The researchers did not fully measure diet, drinking water, packaging exposure, occupation, or every other possible source of microplastics.

They also tracked whether someone had a history of smoking, not exactly how much he smoked or how recently.

So this is not proof that every drag from a cigarette fires plastic particles straight into your arteries, but it is a disturbing clue. Smokers in this study were far more likely to have plastic in their blood. Every smoker suffering a heart attack tested positive.

Cigarettes already come with enough reasons to quit. You can apparently add “possibly smoking plastic” to the list.

​Health, Microplastics, Cigarettes, Smoking 

Colorado’s Energy Code Board has published its Model Low Energy and Carbon Code. The standards are sold as an efficiency measure. In practice, they lock years of new mandates into every home built in the state — and every mandate raises the price of housing.

Colorado lawmakers and utilities increasingly blame AI data centers for rising electricity bills. Data centers consume enormous amounts of power, and their growth deserves scrutiny. But they are a convenient scapegoat for a broader and more durable source of higher housing costs: state and local building and energy codes.

Policymakers who genuinely want cheaper housing should stop pretending affordability can survive endless mandates.

Colorado’s 2022 Building Greenhouse Gas Emissions law required local governments to adopt “electric-ready” and “solar-ready” provisions beginning in 2023. The new low-carbon model code tightens those requirements further.

In practice, every new home must be wired for a 208/240-volt electric-vehicle charger and sized to accommodate a future heat pump, electric water heater, and induction stove — whether or not the buyer wants or ever installs them. Multifamily projects must reserve charging spaces as a matter of course.

These requirements arrive well ahead of consumer demand. Fewer than 2% of vehicles on American roads are fully electric, while EVs and plug-in hybrids combined accounted for only about 7% of new vehicle sales in early 2026. Yet builders must oversize electrical panels and run extra copper wiring for a future many buyers may never use.

Builders aren’t absorbing those costs. They’re added to the mortgage.

New York offers another example. In 2023, the state passed the All-Electric Buildings Act, banning fossil-fuel hookups in most new residential construction and extending the requirement to commercial buildings later in the decade. A legal challenge and pressure over housing affordability forced Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration last year to delay enforcement pending an appellate ruling.

The cost is substantial. New-construction electrification requires heat pumps, all-electric appliances, additional labor, and upgraded electrical systems. An analysis commissioned by the New York State Association of Realtors estimated an added cost of $12,000 to $23,000 per unit.

State regulators argue that all-electric homes may save money over time. Builders and realtors dispute those projections. Either way, long-term operating savings do not erase the upfront price. That initial cost determines whether a project can be financed, whether it gets built, and whether a buyer can qualify for the mortgage.

RELATED: Holy cow, the climate crowd is full of bull

Michael Ciaglo/Getty Images

California shows what happens when supply restrictions accumulate for decades. The state’s median home value exceeds $775,000, more than twice the roughly $370,000 national median. Restrictive zoning, prolonged approvals, high fees, and litigation risk have already constrained supply. California’s 2025 Energy Code, effective in 2026, pushes new buildings further toward electric systems and tighter performance standards.

Supporters argue that electrification lowers emissions, reduces utility costs, and is cheaper to install during construction than to retrofit later. Some of that may be true. It still does not justify forcing every buyer to pay for electrical capacity and equipment he may never use.

If EV readiness and full electrification reliably paid for themselves within a few years, builders in competitive markets would advertise them as selling points. Builders adopted granite and quartz countertops, recessed lighting, smart thermostats, and other features because buyers valued them enough to pay. The need for a statewide mandate suggests the economics remain unattractive for many households.

Mandates also erase trade-offs. A first-time buyer may prefer a smaller electrical panel and a lower price. A retiree may have no intention of owning an electric vehicle. A rural homeowner may rely on propane or natural gas because it is cheaper or more dependable. Energy codes deny those buyers the option to decide which features justify the cost.

RELATED: Unaffordable housing is still ruining the party

Cemile Bingol/iStock/Getty Images

Data centers are an easy villain because their electricity demand is visible, concentrated, and new. Building codes are quieter. They spread smaller costs across every new house, apartment, and commercial project for years. That makes them less dramatic — and potentially more damaging.

A data center may strain one region’s grid. A statewide building mandate raises the cost of every new unit built under it.

Policymakers who genuinely want cheaper housing should stop pretending affordability can survive endless mandates. Colorado, New York, and California are showing what happens when officials demand more equipment, more wiring, and more compliance while insisting that homes remain affordable.

Voters should hold lawmakers accountable for codes that raise construction costs long after the current AI buildout slows. Housing does not become affordable through promises. It becomes affordable when governments stop forcing buyers to purchase features they neither chose nor need.

​Data centers, Opinion & analysis, Affordable housing, Colorado, Green energy, Solar panels, Electric vehicles, California, New york 

Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and LGBT activists in the Michigan legislature were dealt a massive defeat on Thursday after a lengthy battle over a law that threatened to ruin counselors who help gender-confused children by compassionately grounding them in reality, not affirming delusions.

Luke Goodrich, senior counsel at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and attorney for the counselors, said in a statement, “This is a major victory for children, counselors, and common sense.”

‘Michigan is now admitting its law is unconstitutional.’

“Kids who are hurting deserve compassion, not a one-way ticket to harmful drugs, hormones, and surgery,” added the attorney.

Democrats in Michigan and Colorado put smiles on fellow LGBT activists’ faces in recent years by passing laws prohibiting so-called “conversion therapy” for minors.

Under Democrats’ House Bills 4616 and 4617 in Michigan and House Bill 19-1172 in Colorado — which defined “conversion therapy” as efforts to “change an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity” — psychiatrists and mental health care providers who failed to indulge delusions or affirm homosexual inclination could face disciplinary actions, lose their licenses, and/or receive enormous fines.

Of course, these laws did not similarly prohibit gender ideologues from encouraging confused kids in therapy sessions to embrace the delusion that they are actually members of the opposite sex or to undergo sex-rejection medical procedures.

RELATED: Oregon’s war on confused children, by the numbers: It’s REALLY bad

Alex Kraus/Bloomberg/Getty Images

After ratifying her state’s version of the prohibition on reality-affirming counseling in July 2023, Whitmer stated, “We are banning the horrific practice of conversion therapy in Michigan and ensuring this is a state where you can be who you are.”

“As a mom of a member of the community and a proud, lifelong ally, I am grateful that we are taking action to make Michigan a more welcoming, inclusive place,” added Whitmer, whose daughter identifies as a lesbian.

The following year, a licensed Catholic therapist living in Lansing, Emily McJones, and the Catholic Charities of Jackson, Lenawee, and Hillsdale Counties filed a federal lawsuit against Whitmer and the state of Michigan, arguing that HB 4616 constituted an attempt to control counselors’ speech that violates several constitutional protections.

“It violates the Free Speech Clause because it regulates speech based on its content and viewpoint and cannot satisfy strict scrutiny,” said the complaint. “It violates the Due Process Clause because it employs vague, undefined terms that invite arbitrary and selective enforcement. And it violates the Free Exercise Clause because it targets religious speech and interferes with the right of parents to direct the religious upbringing of their children.”

The lawsuit noted further that the law harms children, not only because it deprived them of the compassionate counseling they need but forced counselors “to ‘affirm’ children in the belief that they were born in the wrong body and help them undergo permanent, life-altering medical procedures that many will come to regret.”

The plaintiffs suffered an initial setback in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan, where Judge Jane Beckering — an appointee of former President Joe Biden — denied their motion for a preliminary injunction and claimed that therapy amounts to conduct rather than protected speech.

In December 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit reversed the Biden judge’s decision. The case was subsequently kicked back to the district court, which issued a preliminary injunction against the law.

The final resolution of the matter was, however, put on the back burner pending the result of the Supreme Court’s decision in Chiles v. Salazar regarding the law in Colorado. On March 31, SCOTUS determined that Colorado’s ban “regulates speech based on viewpoint” in violation of the First Amendment.

In light of the decisions by the Supreme Court and the Sixth Circuit, the district court in Michigan delivered a final ruling on Thursday, permanently banning the enforcement of Whitmer’s controversial law.

“The Court hereby DECLARES that HB 4616, as applied to licensed mental health professionals engaged in therapy that consists exclusively of talking, violates the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution,” Beckering wrote in her final judgment. “The Court hereby PROHIBITS Defendants, their successors, agents, and all those acting in concert with them from enforcing HB 4616 against licensed professionals who engage in therapy that consists exclusively of talking.”

“Michigan is now admitting its law is unconstitutional,” said Goodrich. “Its surrender confirms that the Constitution and the best available science are on the side of counselors who help children find peace with their bodies. States still trying to censor that care should take note.”

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

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​Colorado, First amendment, Gretchen whitmer, Lgbt, Michigan, Politics 

Congress just passed one of the most significant housing reforms in decades, but the fine print tells a more complicated story.

While the new law prevents large corporate landlords from purchasing additional existing single-family homes, it leaves a major exception intact: Companies can still build and own entire rental communities from the ground up.

And Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck is sounding the alarm.

“Two weeks ago, the biggest housing bill in decades became law,” he begins.

“Here’s what it does do,” he explains, “If you’re a company and you own more than 350 single-family homes, you are not allowed to buy up any more of America’s existing houses. Wall Street is now barred from bidding against your daughter on a starter home. That is really good news.”

However, there is an exception.

“If a company builds a neighborhood of houses designed as rentals from the foundation up, it can own every last one of them,” he says. “So American Homes for Rent now expects every dollar of its growth this year to come from new construction.”

And while the bill comes with good news, Glenn points out that the bad is enough to keep Americans down.

“Go to a home auction, and watch two bidders on the same house. A family and a company, the same house, same price. May the best offer win. Who’s going to win? The company is,” he explains.

“The company wins every time. Every single time. And the starter home disappears. And the people who are doing this, they’re not evil. All they’re doing is arithmetic,” he continues.

“Now, that’s not a moral failure of the buyer, it’s a design feature of the tax code,” he adds.

Want more from Glenn Beck?

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

​Congress, Glenn beck, Housing bill, Housing reforms, New construction, Wall street, Blazetv show 

Political campaigns have a rhythm. At first, the questions are easy: Who raised the most money? Who landed the biggest endorsement? Who dominates the headlines? Consultants love this stage because it allows them to declare winners before most voters have begun paying attention.

Then the race changes.

The primary is no longer simply a contest over money, endorsements, or online attention. It is becoming a test of who understands what comes next — and who has prepared to govern through it.

Momentum gives way to scrutiny. Personality must give way to policy. Candidates who looked inevitable begin answering questions about their records, judgment, and ability to govern.

Florida’s Republican primary for governor has reached that stage.

Only a few months ago, the race appeared nearly settled. U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds had President Donald Trump’s endorsement, national attention, and a fundraising operation that dwarfed the rest of the field. Political insiders spoke of inevitability as though Republican voters had already rendered their verdict.

Donalds remains the front-runner. That position deserves acknowledgment — and scrutiny. Increased attention has brought new questions about his record, campaign, and legal controversies. Voters and the courts, where appropriate, will decide those issues. But they are now part of the race, whether his supporters welcome them or not.

James Fishback entered the race as an energetic outsider with a strong social media operation and a talent for commanding attention. He has proved capable of generating enthusiasm and headlines. Campaigns, however, eventually demand more than velocity.

Voters begin asking harder questions: Can this candidate govern? What’s the plan? How would bold promises become legislation and administration?

Those questions have become more urgent as Fishback defends himself against a legal challenge to his eligibility under Florida’s constitutional residency requirement. Fellow Republican candidate Jay Collins brought the challenge. Fishback disputes the allegations and says he meets the requirement. Whatever the outcome, the case has introduced uncertainty into a campaign built largely on momentum and personality.

Collins faces a different test.

A decorated Green Beret with a compelling personal story, Collins entered the race with credentials few could dismiss. Yet campaigns turn on trust as much as biography. Critics have questioned whether his rhetoric and financial support align, particularly on hyperscale data centers and real estate development. Collins has defended his positions, but the dispute illustrates how quickly Republican voters now demand consistency between campaign language and governing priorities.

That leaves the most overlooked candidate in the field: Paul Renner.

Renner lacks Donalds’ financial advantage and has not relied on celebrity, inevitability, or viral attention. Instead, he has offered voters something less theatrical and potentially more consequential: a governing program.

Voters may disagree with parts of his First 100 Days agenda, but it is a road map rather than a collection of applause lines.

Renner has addressed property insurance, affordability, infrastructure, parental rights, election integrity, illegal immigration, and Florida’s response to the emerging artificial intelligence economy. More important, he has tried to show how those priorities connect.

RELATED: ‘It’s past time’: Florida launches investigation into Fauci

Pedro Portal/El Nuevo Herald/Tribune News Service/Getty Images

That is where the race is changing.

Florida Republicans have spent years fighting over freedom. They are now asking how to preserve the quality of life that freedom was supposed to protect.

How does Florida keep teachers, firefighters, nurses, sheriff’s deputies, and young families from being priced out of the communities they serve? How can the state welcome investment without overwhelming roads, utilities, and water supplies? How should it embrace artificial intelligence while protecting property rights, local communities, and natural resources? How can growth enrich Floridians rather than merely raise their cost of living?

Those are real governing questions, not merely campaign slogans.

The next governor will inherit one of America’s fastest-growing states and most dynamic economies. He will also inherit rising insurance costs, strained infrastructure, rapid population growth, technological disruption, and mounting pressure on the affordability that helped make Florida attractive.

The primary is therefore no longer simply a contest over money, endorsements, or online attention. It is becoming a test of who understands what comes next — and who has prepared to govern through it.

Momentum changes. Fundraising advantages narrow. Polls rise and fall. Eventually, voters stop asking which candidate can win and start asking which candidate should govern.

Florida’s Republican primary has finally reached that question. The candidate who answers it most convincingly may discover that the race was never as settled as the consultants claimed.

​Governor, Opinion & analysis, Trust, Primary, Florida, Byron donalds, James fishback, Jay collins, Paul renner 

In 1993, I moved to an industrial city north of Prague, about 30 miles from the Czech/German border. Usti nad Labem had been around for almost a thousand years, but after half a century of socialist dictatorship, anything old had been replaced with hideous prefab housing estates and pollution-spewing chemical plants. It did have an old church from the 14th century, but I never went inside. It was just a relic of a time when being stupid and superstitious was the only option.

I had gotten a job teaching English to engineers at a local natural gas distribution company. I was a 22-year-old Ivy League liberal arts graduate. I had no experience or knowledge worth sharing, of course, and my students were older, with careers and families, and they treated me with deference anyway, as well as with kindness and hospitality. In return, I pitied them as hopelessly trapped in their small lives. I was meant for something bigger. I had no idea what, but I figured it would announce itself eventually.

Within seconds of meeting a girl at a party, he realized they had been lovers in prerevolutionary France, until he was garroted for trying to rescue her from prostitution.

East of Eden

I fell in with the small community of foreigners in town — about 10 Americans along with a few Brits and Canadians — but kept my distance. They weren’t the kind of friends I had in mind for myself — they were too provincial and unsophisticated.

Especially strange to me was a hulking gentle giant from Los Angeles named Chad. He was pushing 30 and lived off savings he had accumulated from a series of showbiz-adjacent jobs, including sales for a porn video distributer and caretaking an old Beverly Hills mansion now used for film shoots.

The mansion had been the site of a lurid, high-society murder-suicide in the ’20s and was haunted. He told us of strange encounters he’d had there alone late at night, the distant sound of piano music, which abruptly stopped as he moved toward it; a heavy, nauseating feeling of malice that descended upon him in certain rooms, the eerie sensation of being shoved.

These stories held our attention, but they didn’t seem like a big deal to him. He had always been particularly sensitive to the supernatural, he said, and he had an endless supply of anecdotes bearing this out.

‘Star 80’

There was overwhelming mutual attraction he shared with a girl within seconds of meeting her a party, only to realize they had been lovers in prerevolutionary France, until he was garroted for trying to rescue her from prostitution. He had vivid explorations of the lost city of Atlantis in lucid dreams, leaving him with an aching sense of being in exile. He was a connoisseur of 1970s femininity and could talk at length about the unearthly beauty and spiritual depth of murdered Playboy Playmate Dorothy Stratten, whose distinct presence he could often feel, no matter where he was in the world.

I found all this unforgivably hokey. And I felt it reflected badly on me and my future. But I had to admit he was funny and intelligent. We became friends, even though I secretly regarded him with detached, ironic amusement. I enjoyed the matter-of-fact, unpretentious way he delivered even his boldest claims. Once, in one of my regular hungover tailspins of anxiety, I asked him if he wasn’t afraid of nuclear war. He sighed with slight exasperation and explained that obviously the higher beings protecting Earth would never allow it.

This idea didn’t reassure me, but his relaxed, confident demeanor did. And I began to realize that maybe thinking crystals were nonsense didn’t make me a better person. Even if Chad weren’t the conduit to the spirit world he claimed to be, he was uncommonly empathetic and perceptive when it came to other people, which is why we all liked to be around him. Whereas my constantly shifting sense of who I was and what it all meant kept me in a state of agitated self-obsession.

RELATED: Jesus in the temple (of progressivism): What I learned watching Portlanders debate a street preacher

NurPhoto/Getty Images

Under the bridge

I was too educated to believe that evil left some kind of spiritual mark on a place, but just 50 years ago, this city I used as the backdrop for my inner drama had been ceded to Hitler. Then, it was bombed by Americans. And just after the war, it was the site of a brutal massacre, in which a mob of Czechs attacked their ethnic German neighbors, shooting and stabbing some 100 men, women, and children and throwing them off the town bridge. Maybe Chad was a kook, but at least he made me consider that there might be something at stake in this world. That it mattered what we did and even what we thought. That transcendent good and evil were real and could touch us.

These abstract musings lost their appeal when Chad moved back to California and I moved to Prague. I was finally where the action was. Here the visionaries weren’t so gauche as to talk about communing with the dead or the melancholy of old souls lost in the slipstream of time. They were there to summon the coming techno utopia, which required optimism and an eagerness to let go of the past.

I was on board, but I was also undisciplined and easily discouraged. Everywhere I looked I saw monuments to martyrs: the heretic priest burned at the stake, the ordinary civilians killed in the doomed uprising against the Nazis, the young medical student who set himself on fire to protest the Soviet occupation. Their resolve, like my frantic strivings, seemed meaningless in the face of oblivion.

Settling down

The obvious cure for this self-indulgent, existential dread was to move to New York City and get serious about my life. I temped and lived in cramped apartments in cool neighborhoods and got a low-paying but status-signaling media job. I ran into an old college girlfriend with a sensible career and many of the same friends I’d had. We got married and had children, and we relocated to her hometown of L.A., which I’d heard so much about from Chad.

Chad had moved to a small town outside Sacramento with a wife and son. My wife and I were still in the thick of it, upwardly mobile and cultured, with high expectations for ourselves and our kids. It went without saying that we were good, tolerant people. Church was an occasional, unobtrusive reminder to be grateful and give back. We didn’t have any commitments that might make things awkward with our friends or put us at odds with our community.

I was comfortably settled but still imagined myself as on the verge of transformative, clarifying success. Until one day I didn’t. I wasn’t special, my kids would soon abandon me, and I was going to die. I tried to ease the panic with therapy, running, and Ram Dass videos on YouTube.

Auto-da-Facebook

A goth girl I did plays with in high school re-emerged on Facebook as a devout Catholic stay-at-home mom and pro-life activist. After a few pointless arguments, I calmed down and started reading everything she posted without comment. It was fascinating to imagine being so gullible and narrow-minded. I watched videos she linked to and read books she mentioned. I embedded myself in this bizarre, backwards culture.

A few months later, I was sitting in my car, saying the rosary for the first time, just to see what would happen. I guess I showed her.

I entered the Catholic Church about a year later. Just before the COVID lockdowns, I got a call that Chad had had a massive stroke. We hadn’t been in touch for years. I gave money to his recovery fund and got added to a text group of friends and family who unselfconsciously offered their prayers and invoked the healing power of God’s mercy. I was surprised at how natural I felt doing the same. And how praying actually felt like doing something helpful. I still include him in my daily rosary.

Maybe it’s just guilt that I haven’t written or called, but I like to think he can pick up on it somehow. If so, I hope he humors me, like I humored him 30 years ago.

​California, Catholic, Ivy league, Los angeles, Rosary, Therapy, Culture, Lifestyle, Faith 

The peace and quiet of a residential street in Southern California was shattered on Wednesday evening when police shot and killed a man they watched allegedly shoot and kill a kidnapped victim after a car chase.

Video captured of the shocking incident shows the driver of the car getting out of his vehicle after being pulled over by police, then calmly walking back to the trunk and shooting someone lying inside.

‘It is disturbing. … Apparently there was a victim inside there who had been kidnapped.’

San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department deputies were dispatched to a home on Monteverde Drive in Chino Hills at about 10:14 p.m. over a report of gunshots and screaming, according to a press release.

While they were responding, they saw the suspect driving away at a high speed and attempted to pull him over.

He refused and led them on a chase that ended on Wandering Ridge Drive. Officers ordered the occupants out of the car, and a passenger complied and was taken into custody.

The driver did not comply.

After the driver fired into the open trunk, he was shot and killed by deputies.

“It is disturbing,” sheriff’s spokeswoman Gloria Orejel said. “Apparently there was a victim inside there who had been kidnapped from the previous Monteverde address.”

Police found a male victim in the trunk and attempted to revive him and the shooter, but they were both declared dead at the scene. They indicated that the officers were not aware of the person in the trunk before the shooting.

An investigation found that the victim had been shot and kidnapped from the Monteverde Drive address. No deputies were injured in the incident.

RELATED: Florida man who allegedly abducted 13-year-old gets shot and killed by 9 officers

The vehicle involved was a Nissan Altima with an Oregon license plate.

“I was shocked, to be honest,” said Gregory Uthus, a resident of the neighborhood. “This doesn’t happen in Chino Hills.”

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​High speed chase, Surveillance video, Police shooting, Kidnapping, Crime 

In “The Picture of Dorian Gray,” Oscar Wilde imagines a portrait that records the corruption its subject refuses to see in himself. Dorian hides the picture because its truth is unbearable. The concealment is physical, but the deeper act is spiritual: Self-deception protects him from self-knowledge.

Anthony Fauci’s Wednesday appearance before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs supplied a modern version of Wilde’s image. Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment 111 times.

The legal questions are serious. The philosophical question is more intimate: How does Fauci live with himself?

The constitutional privilege against self-incrimination is fundamental. The government bears the burden of proving guilt. A witness need not assist the prosecution by supplying evidence against himself, and a jury ordinarily may not treat a criminal defendant’s silence as proof of guilt.

But Fauci’s silence invites a question larger than criminal liability. What does a public official do when the legal right not to answer collides with the moral obligation to confront his own record?

Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas) have raised a narrower legal question. If President Biden’s pardon protects Fauci from prosecution for the conduct under examination, the basis for invoking the Fifth Amendment may be considerably weaker. Congress can also compel testimony after an appropriate grant of immunity. Those questions belong to lawyers and courts.

Cruz, meanwhile, accused Fauci of showing “contempt for Congress and contempt for the American people.” He argued that Fauci’s diaries reveal private doubts about the “wet market” explanation for COVID-19 and private satisfaction over persuading Democrat officials to keep schools closed while publicly distancing himself from those decisions. The consequences for millions of children, Cruz said, will last a lifetime.

Other controversies surrounding Fauci’s tenure at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases deepen the moral inquiry. NIAID funded research using human fetal tissue derived from elective abortions, including projects intended to create “humanized” mice for disease research. The Trump administration later restricted NIH scientists from acquiring new fetal tissue. One widely discussed study involved grafting fetal scalp tissue onto mice. The study appeared in Scientific Reports in 2020.

The legal questions are serious. The philosophical question is more intimate: How does Fauci live with himself?

The answer may be that he does so by dividing himself. There is the public Fauci, who speaks with certainty and moral authority, and the private Fauci, whose diaries preserve doubts, calculations, resentments, and self-justifications.

Self-deception tells a person that he has done nothing wrong. Self-justification supplies the explanation for everyone else. The first lie protects the conscience. The second protects the reputation.

“Taking the Fifth” can therefore become more than a legal act. The constitutional privilege is legitimate. The existential temptation it symbolizes is not: the desire to avoid the truth because the truth would collapse the identity one has built.

RELATED: ‘It’s past time’: Florida launches investigation into Fauci

Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call Inc./Getty Images

A divided person does not merely conceal himself from others. Eventually, he loses the ability to recognize himself. Public statements serve one purpose, private reflections another, and the distance between them becomes a permanent feature of the soul.

Why keep a diary at all? Even teenagers know that diary locks are flimsy and private pages may someday be read. The impulse to record what one cannot say publicly suggests that self-deception never quite succeeds. A person may hide the portrait, but he still returns to the attic.

Fauci’s diary resembles a secular confessional. He did not confess to God or seek absolution from anyone beyond himself. He recorded his private account before the highest authority his worldview appears to recognize: Anthony Fauci.

That arrangement offers no forgiveness because it requires no repentance. The same man supplies the accusation, the defense, the verdict, and the pardon.

Wilde understood that self-deception cannot preserve the soul forever. The portrait keeps changing even when no one looks at it. The mind can suppress guilt, rename pride as duty, and call self-protection public service. But every evasion leaves another mark.

At some point, only two paths remain. One leads through truth, repentance, and the surrender of the false self. The other leads deeper into silence, because every answer threatens the structure of excuses holding the person together.

That is the existential Fifth: not the lawful refusal to incriminate oneself before the state, but the lifelong refusal to testify honestly before one’s own conscience.

​Anthony fauci, Fifth amendment, Ted cruz, Rand paul, Covid, Lockdowns, Picture of dorian gray, Niaid, Plead the fifth, Fauci diaries, Opinion & analysis 

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) promised to tax the rich, and he is keeping that promise. His newly announced pied-à-terre tax would impose an annual levy on many pricey second homes — and comes with a dose of public shaming.

“In true commie fashion — Muslim commie fashion — the new mayor of New York City, Zohran Mamdani … he’s like, ‘How can I go further and further commie?’ And so he just keeps outdoing himself,” BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales comments on “Sara Gonzales Filtered,” before playing Mamdani’s initial announcement of the tax.

“When I ran for mayor, I said I was going to tax the rich. Well, today we’re taxing the rich. I’m thrilled to announce we’ve secured a pied-a-terre tax. The first in New York’s history. This is an annual fee on luxury properties worth more than $5 million whose owners do not live full-time in the city,” Mamdani said in a promotional video.

“They’re not actually taxing you for land and for homes that are supposed to be yours once. They’re taxing you twice, because who are you to have so much wealth that you have two homes? Who are you to work hard and enjoy the rewards of all of your hard work?” Gonzales asks, adding that “in true Muslim commie fashion, he’s gloating about it.”

In a post on X, Mamdani wrote: “If you have a second home in New York City worth more than $5M, check your mailbox when you’re back in the five boroughs — because you’ve got mail.”

“Today, we sent notification letters to property owners, letting them know that our new pied-a-terre tax is coming soon. The best city in the world deserves the best parks, libraries, and schools in the world. That’s only possible when we all pay our fair share,” he added.

“This certainly is going to put a bow on the destruction of New York City,” Gonzales says.

But Mamdani didn’t just notify the property owners. He “actually put out a hit list,” including all the names and addresses of those who could be hit with the new tax in a searchable database.

“He is doxxing you guys for the world to see,” Gonzales comments, noting that on the list are celebrities like Anna Wintour, Cynthia Nixon, and Woody Allen.

“It’s just insane how badly he wants to just doxx these people for working hard,” she adds.

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​Sara gonzales, Zohran mamdani, Muslim, Tax the rich, New york city, Cynthia nixon, Woody allen, Anna wintour, Piedterre tax, Communism, Blazetv show 

A 23-year-old who has been volunteering as a Little League umpire for a decade is getting rewarded with a chance to officiate the league’s World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.

James Farque of Summerville, South Carolina, said he umpired his first game at age 13 after realizing he was not equipped to advance very far as a player in the sport.

‘I pride myself on volunteering and giving back to the community.’

“I realized I would not excel at the high school level, so I still wanted to stay connected to the game, so I started umpiring,” Farque said. “Umpired my first game [at age 13] and haven’t stopped since.”

He told WCIV-TV that he’s proud to be called up to the Little League Baseball World Series.

“This is every Little League umpire’s dream,” he added. “It’s a tremendous honor; there’s only 20 people each year that are chosen.”

His performance at four games of the contest will determine whether he gets assigned further spots. He said he is going to try not to be intimidated by the bright lights of the ESPN coverage of the event.

“That’s a big aspect of everything. Big mental side of umpiring is being in the spotlight,” Farque said. “Then again, it’s just another baseball game. Anytime you step on the field, it’s just another baseball game. Just a higher stage in front of more people.”

He said that volunteering as an umpire is how he gives back to the community.

“Little League is run by volunteers. It prides itself on volunteerism,” Farque added. “I pride myself on volunteering and giving back to the community.”

RELATED: Actress who played mom in ‘Little Big League’ now has a son playing Major League Baseball nearly 30 years later

Farque said that he has aspirations to make it to college baseball or the major leagues, but he’ll always return to the Lowcountry of South Carolina where he’s from.

“I don’t think I can ever hang it up. Even if I do the championship game at Williamsport, I still have this to come back to,” Farque said.

“The local level is what I enjoy the most, getting to mentor these kids and the sense of community around here,” he added.

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​World series, Little league, Baseball, Feel good story, Human interest