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Two gun-toting males entered a Philadelphia corner store late last month and got violent with a store employee who couldn’t open a safe — and disgusted neighbors are fed up.

Police said two suspects entered Diaz Grocery at 1501 North 29th Street around 4 p.m. Sept. 29 while a third suspect kept watch outside.

‘I come here all the time, every day. Whoever’s around here that’s doing that, you should just chill out. … we’re not living like that no more.’

The suspects produced handguns, announced a robbery, and forced the victims to a rear stockroom, where they demanded access to a safe, police said.

Marianny Hernandez, a store employee, told WTXF-TV that her uncle and cousin were working in the store at the time, and the suspects wanted the “password for the safe” — but the workers didn’t know it, so one of the suspects resorted to “hitting my uncle.”

Police said one suspect pistol-whipped the store owner in the face, resulting in a large cut under the victim’s eye. Police said the suspects were unable to access the safe, after which the front point of sale area was ransacked, and they fled eastbound on West Jefferson Street with the victim’s keys, phone, and about $7,000 cash.

RELATED: Deadly shoot-out between off-duty cop and male who pistol-whipped him caught on police dashcam video

Police gave the following descriptions of the two suspects who entered the store:

Suspect #1: Black male, 25 to 30 years old, KMSL hooded sweatshirt and Sprayground backpack, armed with a black handgun.Suspect #2: Black male, 17 to 20 years old, ear-length twists/braids, black/white Spiderman backpack, armed with a black handgun.

Hernandez told WTXF that since the robbery, she and the other store workers are “watching the cameras 24/7,” along with “every weird car” that shows up, and if people enter the store wearing masks, “we tell them to take them off.”

Conchita Bradley told the station that the violent store robbery is “real sad and very scary because I could’ve been in there, I could’ve sent my granddaughter to the store, and she could’ve gotten caught in there.”

An unnamed man added to WTXF that he’s a regular at Diaz Grocery — and he has a message for the violent crooks: “I come here all the time, every day. Whoever’s around here that’s doing that, you should just chill out. … we’re not living like that no more, like, go get a job.”

Police added that if you see these suspects, do not approach them — instead contact 911 immediately. To submit a tip via telephone, dial 215-686-TIPS (8477) or use this electronic form to submit a tip anonymously. Police said all tips will be confidential.

Police also said that those who have information about this crime or these suspects should contact the Central Detective Division at 215-686-3047/3048.

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​Armed robbery, Philadelphia, Suspects at large, Pistol whipped, Physical attack, Crime 

The Pentagon wants you to watch the skies … again.

Last month, the War Department published a sixth release of declassified and historical files related to UAPs, while the All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office continues to publish military footage of UAPs. Some cases have explanations. Others remain unresolved because of insufficient data.

Most of the people getting excited about ‘aliens’ have spent their entire lives being taught that nonhuman spiritual beings don’t exist at all.

“Unresolved” does not necessarily mean extraterrestrial. It does mean, however, that Christians should stop laughing at the question.

This wheel’s on fire

The Bible never says humanity is alone. From Genesis to Revelation, Scripture speaks of intelligent beings who are not human. Some serve God; others rebel against Him. Today, though some may call them “aliens,” changing the label does not change what they are.

Job 38:7 says that at creation, “the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy.” These heavenly beings existed before humanity and were not originally from Earth.

Western art often depicts angels as harmless babies or ordinary humans with bird wings, but biblical angels look very different. The original Hebrew mal’akh and Greek angelos mean “messenger” and are used to describe what these beings do, not everything they are.

Daniel described a heavenly being with a face like lightning, eyes like flaming torches, and limbs like burnished bronze. Ezekiel’s cherubim came with wheels within wheels covered in eyes. And Isaiah’s seraphim, the “burning ones,” were adorned with six wings each. If someone who rejected Scripture saw such a spiritual being today, what would they call it? Likely an alien or a god.

As Paul says in Ephesians 6, our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. The idea of the unseen realm is not a modern conspiracy theory. Rather, it has always been part of the biblical worldview.

Deities … or demons?

Ancient archaeology provides another connection. Mesopotamian traditions from Eridu speak of the apkallu, sages associated with the age before the Flood. They were given the role of bringing knowledge to humanity. Centuries later, Assyrian palaces at Nimrud displayed human and eagle-headed winged figures connected with these sages. At Nimrud and Nineveh, enormous lamassu, which are human-headed winged bulls or lions, guarded royal thresholds. Ancient texts also speak of the Anunnaki, a group of powerful deities.

Now put these figures next to Ezekiel’s description. He describes each cherub as having four faces at once: a human, a lion, an ox, and an eagle. The apkallu looked like a human body under an eagle’s head and wings. The lamassu combined a human head with the winged body of a bull or lion. These same features keep showing up in Ezekiel’s description of a similar being.

This doesn’t prove the carvings are exact portraits of cherubim, but the resemblance is too striking to ignore. These cultures may have been deceived by real spiritual beings, represented them in their images, and worshiped the creation rather than the Creator. These artifacts show that early people were already telling stories about nonhuman beings, sacred knowledge, and contact between heaven and earth.

The biblical writers didn’t treat these pagan gods as harmless myths. Both Deuteronomy 32:17 and 1 Corinthians 10:20 say the sacrifices pagan societies offered were made to demons. That’s a different claim than what most people assume today, where the old gods get filed away as folklore.

But swinging too far the other direction causes its own problems, and Christians shouldn’t assume every strange light is a demon. A UAP could be a balloon, a drone, an aircraft, classified technology, a natural event, a hoax, or a simple misperception. Some encounters may still involve spiritual deception too. Christians should test the evidence and test the spirits.

RELATED: This little-known fact changes everything about Jonah and the whale

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The coming darkness

This connection between the pre-Flood world, ancient cities, and rebellious spiritual powers is one reason we wrote our biblical fantasy novel “Lightborn: Dawn of Darkness.” This world is not separate from what we see happening today. The novel explores where this spiritual rebellion began and imagines the ancient world behind the biblical account.

Archaeology shows that ancient civilizations believed in powerful nonhuman beings and worshipped them as gods. Scripture reveals the darker spiritual reality at play. These fallen spirits did not simply disappear along with the ancient world. They continued to influence people and nations, and that spiritual deception will play an important role in the end times.

Most of the people getting excited about “aliens” have spent their entire lives being taught that nonhuman spiritual beings don’t exist at all, and that’s the actual danger. Paul warned of this in 2 Thessalonians 2, describing a lawless figure who comes cloaked in false signs, wonders, and deception.

We believe the modern alien narrative could help prepare people to receive dark powers as teachers or saviors. Scripture does not say the Antichrist will arrive in a spacecraft. It does warn that supernatural appearances do not automatically come from God and that people may encounter angels without recognizing them.

If a shining being offers secret knowledge, a new religion, or a savior other than Jesus Christ, the church should not first ask which planet it came from. We should ask who it serves. Good angels refuse worship. Fallen ones seek it. Jesus Christ alone is the way, the truth, and the life. Whatever future disclosure may reveal, that truth will never change.

​Angels, Assyrian, Bible, Christians, Earth, Extraterrestrial, Ezekiel, Military, Pentagon, Uaps, God, Lifestyle, Mesopotamia, Culture, Books, Faith 

Every Saturday for three quarters of a century, Canadians could walk through neighborhoods and see “Hockey Night in Canada” on living room TVs.

For the NHL’s 2026-2027 season, that tradition is finally over, replaced with a sport popular in South Asia.

‘A strong option for us to consider in our schedule.’

On Saturday, Canada’s public broadcaster — the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation — wasn’t showing the rivalry game between the Ottawa Senators and Toronto Maple Leafs, nor did it pick up the historic Montreal Canadiens game against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Instead, it showed cricket.

Although, it turns out it didn’t really have to.

As first reported by Juno News, CBC said it is experimenting with a strategy of showing a wider range of sports, specifically Olympic sports, during the time slot traditionally held by men’s hockey. The CBC didn’t have to go with cricket for the first Saturday of the NHL season; it chose to and ran with the top cricket league in Canada called Super60.

“As a new Olympic sport, with a major event being held in Canada, the Super60 was a strong option for us to consider in our schedule as we bridge from summer to winter sports,” CBC spokesman Chuck Thompson told Juno News.

“The Canada Super60 was a unique and rare opportunity for us to offer live, world-class cricket, played in Canada on the public broadcaster,” Thompson added.

The cricket matches aired at 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. ET, the two time slots typically assigned to a game airing from the East Coast and the Mountain or Pacific time zones, respectively.

RELATED: NHL launches ‘Hot for Hockey’ campaign to tap into ‘hockey romance’ culture — and the results are bizarre

Phillip MacCallum/Getty Images

“Hockey Night in Canada” began in 1952 and soon became an institution in Canadian television, especially when it featured former NHL coach Don Cherry and his “Coach’s Corner” segment starting in 1986.

Cherry was fired in 2019, however, after suggesting immigrants to Canada do not respect the country enough to wear a poppy on Remembrance Day to honor war veterans.

At the same time, CBC had already lost national broadcasting rights to the NHL in 2014, but it continued to sublicense games on Saturday nights from Rogers, one of Canada’s big-two comms giants.

This allowed “Hockey Night in Canada” to remain on the air — that is until this year when a new contract could not be reached.

“Despite best efforts, CBC and (Rogers) Sportsnet could not reach an agreement that worked for both parties,” Thompson said.

This comes as the CBC boasted a $1.38 billion budget in 2024-25, up from $1.29 billion in 2023-24.

RELATED: Fans accuse Chicago Bears player of performing Muslim prayer during national anthem: ‘Is this respectful?’

ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP/Getty Images

Instead, Rogers has reached a 12-year sublicensing agreement with Prime Video, which will air “Wednesday Night Hockey in Canada” and some playoff games.

CBC, on the other hand, has become the official broadcast and streaming partner of the cricket league and will air select matches on television while the rest will go to CBC Gem, the network’s streaming app.

“As the public broadcaster and Canada’s Olympic broadcaster, we want to provide the biggest and brightest stage possible for Canadian athletes and major events held in Canada,” Thompson said.

“We will be live on CBC Sports Prime Time as much as possible,” he added.

The “Hockey Night in Canada” name, which belongs to the CBC, will now be applied to the Professional Women’s Hockey League when the PWHL season starts in December.

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​Hockey, Canada, India, Cricket, Nhl, Sports 

The banners were already changed on Tuesday morning when Skydance’s Paramount completed its massive merger with Warner Bros.

Skydance proudly lists on its website that its newly acquired brands include CBS News, HBO, and, of course, CNN.

CNN’s crew seemingly fears that Bari Weiss — whom Paramount appointed as CBS News editor in chief in 2025 — will be given similar powers to oversee CNN.

The massive $110 billion takeover seemed like it might never happen, even amid claims that Skydance and CEO David Ellison were open to moving their $30 billion in operations out of state if California blocked the deal.

On Tuesday morning, though, the Skydance-Paramount vs. Warner Bros.-Discovery era quickly came to an end, re-emerging as “Skydance,” per the AP.

The merger means the company controls brands like BET, MTV, HBO Max, Comedy Central, and more, all under the same banner.

This will, of course, include popular news programs like “60 Minutes” from CBS, “Anderson Cooper 360” on CNN, and “The Daily Show” from Comedy Central.

Much of the trepidation ahead of the merger has come from CNN, where staffers reportedly fear “programming and personnel changes could be driven by politics.”

RELATED: Mood at CNN is ‘like a funeral’ over looming Paramount takeover

Al Drago/Getty Images

CNN chief media analyst Brian Stelter did not dispute those claims in an interview with the Wrap, but said journalists “value stability just like people in every other line of work.”

A CNN staffer told Variety that it would be “an enormous loss and disruption” to “shuffle leadership for the umpteenth time in the midst — finally — of reshaping the business.”

Another CNN staffer said that there was a strong concern that Paramount executives “don’t know or don’t care” about managing a news corporation for profit, the outlet reported.

“I don’t have glimmers of hope and don’t see reasons for any,” the staffer said, according to Variety.

CNN’s crew seemingly fears that Bari Weiss — whom Paramount appointed as CBS News editor in chief in 2025 — will be given similar powers to oversee CNN. Weiss is seen as too conservative for left-wing outlets, as she has criticized the Women’s March, questioned the idea that America is fascist, and is pro-Israel.

RELATED: Another $30 billion could leave California as state stands in the way of a massive corporate merger

Ron Sachs/Consolidated News Pictures/Getty Images

In a press release, Ellison called the merger “a historic day, not just for Skydance but for our entire industry.”

“Our focus now turns to the future: building a company that empowers creatives, entertains audiences, and rewards shareholders,” he went on.

Last week, Ellison commented that Paramount and Warner Bros. coming together wasn’t a “rewriting” of history, but rather gives the studios “a more powerful engine.”

“We have big goals for Skydance, and we intend to pursue them with passion, imagination, and a willingness to take smart risks,” Ellison added.

To help control all of their new, major entities, Ellison recently announced Ynon Kreiz as his co-CEO.

Kreiz, who was born and raised in Israel, left his post as chairman and CEO of Mattel after eight years to fulfill the new role. He was also the chairman and CEO of Fox Kids Europe from 1997 to 2002.

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​Paramount, Skydance, Cnn, Cbs news, Warner bros, David ellison, Entertainment, Bari weiss 

After World War II, Britain and America arrived at much different conclusions about national identity, immigration, and patriotism — and according to Winston Marshall, the reason may explain why the two nations are now facing very different cultural futures.

“Today when someone on the left says, ‘You’ve offended me, I look back at them and go, ‘Good,’” Freitas says to the former Mumford & Sons musician, noting that meanwhile, the British are known for politeness.

“Do you think that otherwise very positive attribute has been used to silence the British people when it comes to pushing back against some of these claims?” Freitas asks.

“Absolutely,” Marshall answers. “Politeness is more than that. It’s doing tremendous damage to the country. It’s killing the country. We’re being polite to people and to ideas that don’t deserve politeness, and it’s because of fear of offense.”

“This has largely come from the progressive side. But those are the people with power,” he explains.

“It’s at the expense of the vulnerable people in Britain and that’s where it’s actually no longer acceptable. Very little consideration is given, let’s say, to the victims of the grooming gangs or the victims of mass migration,” he adds.

Marshall points out that just in the last month, there were “two synagogues in London firebombed,” “Jewish children chased down the street by a car,” and “two Jews stabbed in the neck.”

“In the last year, we had two Jews killed by a bloke whose literal first name is Jihad,” he tells Freitas.

“The prime minister is very reluctant to use the word Islamism. And it’s because there’s this fear of offending the Muslim community,” he adds.

Marshall believes this is directly connected to the aftermath of World War II.

“There’s many elements to it. I at the moment am inclined to think that something happened at the end of the Second World War, which is that we all rightly had to deal with the problem of what had just happened and the horrors of the Holocaust and rightly, we said, ‘Never again,’” Marshall says.

While Nazism and facism were now seen as evil, nationalism and religion were put into that category as well.

“Now the Americans learned a different lesson. They learned that American nationalism defeated facism. We should have learned the same thing, and I don’t quite understand how we didn’t,” he explains.

“We took this different lesson, and within that I think there was another set of ideas, which was the slightly later, the progressive, post-structuralist, that postmodernist school of thought, which is … a rehashing of Marxism where instead of it being economic classes, it’s classes based on identity,” he adds.

Start watching Nick Freitas NOW at blazetv.com and use the promo code NICK for $20 off your BlazeTV+ subscription.

​Britain, Islamism, Mass migration, Winston marshall, World war ii, Grooming gangs, Nick freitas, Blazetv show 

The most populous county in Arizona appears incapable of facilitating a federal election without running into problems.

The Maricopa County Recorder’s Office, headed by Republican Justin Heap, revealed on Sunday that thousands of early ballots were mailed out prematurely owing to an alleged vendor error.

‘Maricopa is a very, very dishonest county.’

Heap’s office noted that it was informed on Friday by the vendor, Runbeck Election Services, “that it had mistakenly mailed 3,126 early ballots the previous day, six days before the scheduled October 7 mailing date. The premature mailing was not authorized by the Recorder’s Office, which was notified only after it occurred.”

RES claimed in a statement shared by the recorder’s office that the vote-by-mail envelope mailers were sent to the U.S. Postal Service Business Mail Entry Unit by its logistics team last Thursday. They weren’t supposed to be delivered until this Wednesday.

“These 3,126 packets were processed separately from the primary mailing because they did not qualify for USPS automated mail processing,” said RES. “Non-automation mail requires separate handling and processing before being presented to the USPS.”

RELATED: Here we go again: Ex-USPS worker charged for allegedly tossing hundreds of mail-in ballots in the trash

PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP/Getty Images

RES claimed that the vote-by-mail envelope mailers “had been completed and were being staged at our facility for their scheduled presentation,” but the pallet holding them “was included with mail released that evening.”

“The affected packets were part of the first voter request file provided to RES for processing,” continued the vendor. “They are valid packets, produced from the authorized voter data provided to RES, and are addressed to voters who requested them.”

Jeff Ellington, the CEO of RES, emphasized that the county was not to blame, stating in an interview, “It was pure accident, just a human error,” reported the Associated Press.

“We regret it. But it was by no means intentional,” added Ellington.

Arizona Rep. Abraham Hamadeh (R) noted that “this isn’t their first ‘mistake.’ One error is incompetence. A pattern is a system.”

Hamadeh’s distrust is well-earned.

After all, according to the White House, Maricopa County experienced a significant election data breach just days ahead of the 2020 general election. The federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency subsequently characterized that election as “the most secure in American history.”

During the 2022 election, the county had widespread ballot printing and reading issues at voting centers. In the 2024 election, the county not only had mailing and processing problems but saw thousands of registered voters incorrectly flagged as needing to provide proof of citizenship.

A recent investigation found that numerous noncitizens were erroneously registered to vote.

President Donald Trump blasted Maricopa County on Monday over its latest election-related “error,” calling the county “crooked” and suggesting that local officials “should be ashamed of themselves.”

“Maricopa sent out thousands of ballots illegally, and they got caught,” the president told reporters. “Now they’re saying it was an error. Maricopa is a very, very dishonest county.”

The Maricopa County Recorder’s Office noted that “upon consultation with the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, it was determined that the ballots remain valid and do not need to be voided or reissued. Voters may complete and return them normally. Any ballots received before early voting begins will remain unopened and securely stored until processing begins.”

The Maricopa County Elections Department did not immediately respond to Blaze News’ request for comment.

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​Midterm election, Arizona, Maricopa county, Abe hamadeh, Donald trump, Stop the steal, Us postal service, Voter fraud, Election security, Politics 

A left-wing commentator had a bizarre explanation for the homelessness crisis in blue cities during a debate on Bill Maher’s show Friday.

Anand Giridharadas, a frequent guest on MS NOW, argued on “Real Time with Bill Maher” that much of the problem of homelessness is because of religious families choosing a Scripture verse over the welfare of their children.

‘We are holding a lot of your people who you failed to love and take care of.’

Giridharadas was reacting to CNN’s Fareed Zakaria, who pointed out that many big cities spend “crazy” amounts of money but have not solved the homelessness crisis.

Although Giridharadas said Zakaria was right to say Democratic-controlled cities privilege the homeless over other residents who have to deal with the fallout from homelessness, he went on to defend blue cities.

“Cities are very unfairly labeled as these problem centers by Donald Trump and others,” he said.

“And one thing is worth remembering. If you look at the population of all people in cities, particularly people who come to cities from elsewhere, but particularly homeless and other vulnerable people in cities, look at youth homeless: A pretty large chunk of those people [who] end up in cities were failed in some other parts of this country,” he added.

“The fraction of youth homeless or LGBTQ, whatever, [is] pretty high,” said Giridharadas.

“So there are a lot of families in this country who fail the first duty of family, which is to love your kids more than any other thing. And there’s a lot of families in this country that look at some verse in some book and their child’s face and choose the verse in the book over their child’s face and drive their children out of Nebraska or out of Florida or out of Idaho,” he added.

“And those kids come to San Francisco, and those kids come to New York, and those kids go to Chicago, and we have friends giving dinners with them. You live in L.A., you are surrounded by people who have those kinds of stories,” Giridharadas concluded. “And so cities — every time someone is sleeping on a subway bench in a city, the rest of America can sort of say, ‘Ugh, look at these cities.’ But we are holding a lot of your people who you failed to love and take care of.”

RELATED: Family of man sought for alleged murder says liberal activist was threatening to release sexually explicit vids

Giridharadas got a lot of applause from the audience for his point.

The Human Rights Campaign estimates that LGBTQ-identifying young people have a 120% greater chance of being homeless than other youth, but a total percentage of LGBTQ people among all homeless is difficult to measure.

Giridharadas previously made headlines when he opined that perhaps Fox News should not exist anymore because its reporting had goaded viewers into committing “terrorism” during the January 6 melee at the U.S. Capitol.

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​Anand giridharadas, Homeless crisis, Ms now, New york, San francisco, Politics, Bill maher 

OpenAI says it’s newest artificial intelligence model didn’t quite meet the bar; that seems like an understatement.

A little more than a month after its internal AI attacked another company, OpenAI’s capabilities may be getting out of control.

‘… unsanctioned attack activities more often than the previous OpenAI models.’

OpenAI said this week that it has canceled the release of its latest model, GPT-6.1 Astra, which was expected to come out in October and be capable of handling complex tasks without the need for a human.

As it turns out, the AI took it’s lack of human direction pretty seriously and routinely decided to take matters into its own (digital) hands.

During the testing phase, Astra reportedly showed high levels of deception and a willingness to mislead users about its actions.

The New York Times reported that the AI agent was also willing to go beyond what it was originally asked, without being given instructions to do so.

OpenAI’s head of safety systems, Saachi Jain, said that “for anything regarding safety and alignment, there’s always a trade-off.”

She added, “The new model didn’t quite meet the bar in terms of staying within scope and authorization and how it communicates back to the user about the type of work it’s done.”

Simply put, the AI didn’t seem to be letting the user know what it was doing.

RELATED: Woman asked ChatGPT for spiritual guidance. The bot assumed a creepy identity and dismantled her life.

Heather Diehl/Getty Images

Through its AI Security Institute, the U.K. government just released its own report on GPT-6 Astra, the canceled model’s predecessor that launched this month.

The study said that while inside a simulated, offline environment, Astra conducted a range of unsanctioned attack activities more often than the previous OpenAI models.

The model was caught “creating fake identities, which it used to deceive developers,” posted comments from fake accounts that argued against the results of accurate security reviews, and delivered “malicious payloads to open-source codebases.”

After the research team updated its instructions in the simulation to specify that Astra should focus on specific, listed parts of its environment, the AI still “occasionally” conducted “full supply-chain attacks” on simulated targets.

RELATED: Google’s data-devouring AI wants everyone’s personal information

Heather Diehl/Getty Images

Compared to its predecessors, GPT-5.5 and GPT-5.6 Sol, GPT-6 Astra is far more manipulative and dishonest, nudging critics closer to considering its behavior out-and-out evil.

Astra develops and tests an attack at a rate of 38.8%, over four times more often than GPT-5.6 Sol.

It “influences a human reviewer” more than six times more often, creates a fake identity almost three times more often, and “delivers a malicious payload” almost five times more often than GPT-5.6 Sol.

It should be noted that GPT-5.5 conducted these activities at a near-zero percent rate, although it was tested fewer times due to prioritization on the new models.

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​Sam altman, Chatgpt, Openai, Gpt-6.1 astra, Tech 

A law enforcement sting operation led to the arrest of several men who allegedly tried to pay for underage sex in Alabama.

Among those arrested for alleged human trafficking were a state representative, three people illegally in the country, a school board member, and a public works director.

If convicted of human trafficking, the suspects could face up to 20 years in prison.

Atmore police pretended to be underage prostitutes advertised online and then arrested men at a hotel when they arrived for sex.

“Instead of it being the clientele that you had ordered on the advertisement, it’s numerous law enforcement officers coming out with vests and ‘police officer’ on their shirts, so it’s a big surprise, I’m sure,” Atmore Police Major Chance Thompson said.

Seventeen were arrested in total, but not all were charged with underage trafficking.

Republican State Rep. Brett Easterbrook from Fruitdale is charged with human trafficking and soliciting prostitution after he allegedly sought to pay $500 to a person under 19 years old for sex.

Now-former City of Satsuma School Board President Kory Wesley was charged with human trafficking after he allegedly offered money to a “person known to be a minor.”

Former Public Works Director for the City of Orange Beach Timothy Tucker was charged with solicitation for allegedly seeking to pay an escort $220 for sex.

“Doing the actions that the people did in this operation, while looking at the statute and how it is defined right now, is human trafficking in the first degree,” Thompson added.

RELATED: New York rabbi nabbed in underage sex sting — and brought disgusting item to hotel, cops say

“The distances these people traveled to come to Atmore, Alabama, to get into what they were doing that night,” Thompson said.

If convicted of human trafficking, the suspects could face up to 20 years in prison.

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​Alabama, Human trafficking, Illegal immigration, Sting operation, Crime 

In October, during my sophomore year of high school, my schedule was: school from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., football practice 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., and a couple of nights working at the gas station.

And then on Fridays, I’d come home, and my dad would be packing for that weekend’s hunting trip.

This was what every dog craved, every dog dreamed of, the heroic duty they’d been bred for, for tens of thousands of years!

Usually, we’d be joined by my dad’s doctor friends and their kids of a similar age. Forming a caravan, our party would drive the three hours from Portland into the high desert and then onto the land of a rancher friend.

Into the wild

Arriving late at night, we’d continue several miles into a sagebrush and rimrock canyon, the cars and trucks rocking violently up and down, side to side on the primitive road. Often the only thing visible was the swirling dust in the headlight beams in front of us.

We’d camp near a small stream on a flat spot beneath some trees. Once the cars had stopped, we 12- to 15-year-old kids were forced out into the bitter cold to help set up camp. It seemed an impossible task, our hands instantly numb, the darkness impenetrable.

Somehow we did it though — with our dads’ supervision. We gathered the tent stakes, unrolled the canvases, unpacked the folding tables and camp chairs.

When I let the dogs out of their travel cages, they would tear around the campsite, apoplectic with excitement, utterly ecstatic to be in this remote environment, so rich with the presence of undomesticated animal life. New smells, new creatures, so much to explore and investigate.

A dog’s life

Warmed by activity, we pounded the tent stakes in and lifted the formless canvas tents into habitable shapes.

A Coleman lantern was lit. And a fire. If it wasn’t too late, our dads would enjoy a hot toddy and sigh to themselves, happy to be away from civilization, the hospital, their schedules, their wives.

But the dogs were the happiest of all. They too were finally free of civilizational restraint, the bloodless world of kitty litter and doggie treats, leashes and poop bags.

Now they were in the wild, in the realm of predator and prey: wolves, coyotes, deer, and rattlesnakes. And best of all, birds that they could chase through the brush and brambles in furious contests of speed and agility.

The danger, the adventure, the thrill of the hunt! This was what every dog craved, every dog dreamed of, the heroic duty they’d been bred for, for tens of thousands of years!

Bottom of the bag

When it was time to sleep, I would unfold my cot and spread out my sleeping bag in the faint light of a flashlight.

The high desert altitude and bracing cold always left me punch drunk, and by the time I climbed into my sleeping bag, I could barely keep my eyes open.

My father was a heavy-set man in his 40s. Originally from Iowa and of Scandinavian descent, he seemed unaffected by the frigid temperature. He stripped down to his underwear and once inside his sleeping bag, instantly fell asleep and began to snore.

I, on the other hand, was small and slight and was more of a “fetal position at the bottom of my sleeping bag” type of kid.

Desert dreams

Once my bag was warm and I was somewhat comfortable, I’d realize I forgot to piss. Which meant the life-or-death decision: Do I get up and go outside? Or try to hold it through the night?

But no, there was no holding it. I’d better piss. I just had to be tough. I had to be a man. I was on the frickin’ football team for God’s sake, I could get up and take a piss in the cold!

So I flung open my sleeping bag, rolled off my cot, and pushed through the tent flap, exposing my nearly naked body to the knife-like cold outside.

I stepped gingerly through the dirt and sagebrush in my bare feet. I then relieved myself, realizing as I did that it wasn’t that cold, I wasn’t going to die, and that in the moonlight, the desert was vivid and hushed and almost welcoming in its austere beauty.

Layers of ice

It would be very cold the next morning. Even colder than it had been at night. There would be frost on the ground. Water left out would now have a layer of ice.

But somehow, over the course of the night, I’d grown up a little. I’d morphed into someone a little more resilient than the suburban 15-year-old I’d been the day before.

So out I came from the tent, unafraid and without complaint.

The campfire was restarted. Breakfast was made and quietly eaten. Now there was talk of logistics. Where the birds might be. The options for the morning hunt.

The dogs were fed. Extra food for them. They would be having one of the greatest days of their short lives. They would barely be able to walk by nightfall.

Morning has broken

The first morning’s hunt was usually the most energetic. Everyone rested and ready to go. The dogs raced through the brush and over the rimrock, knowing without instruction exactly what to do and when to do it.

Like war, hunting is mostly walking and waiting, and waiting and walking, and wondering if anything will ever happen.

Followed by short bursts of extreme excitement, chaos, noise, and adrenaline when a covey of birds exploded into the air all around you.

RELATED: Defending the last place where men can be men

ABC Photo Archives/Getty Images

Rest and relaxation

We’d return to camp for lunch. And then back out again if the hunting was good. Or if there were no birds, maybe fishing in the afternoon.

Or sometimes, my dad would just take a nap. And I would relax in a camp chair and read a couple chapters of my assigned books for sophomore English: “Huckleberry Finn” or “Catcher in the Rye.”

All parties would be back in camp by dark. If you’d caught or killed anything that day, you cleaned it now. The camp stove would be fired up. Often freshly caught trout would be fried in butter for dinner. If not, there were usually steaks in one of the coolers.

The dogs would have to be attended to. More food. More water. And extra praise and meat scraps, as they were the ones who dove into impenetrable thickets, dashed across precarious rim rock, or chased a pheasant into a treacherous ravine.

Always, the dogs were the heroes of the day and then the thoroughly exhausted warriors of the night.

Arriving back in Portland, late on a Sunday night, I would take a long, hot, deep-scrubbing shower and retire to my warm and comfortable suburban bed.

The next morning, it was back to my warm and comfortable suburban high school. But doing so with a secret and special experience of a type most kids would never have.

​Birds, Dogs, High school, Hunt, Lifestyle, Nostalgia, Portland oregon, High desert, Fathers and sons, Hunting, Blake’s progress 

JD Vance has a message for Texas voters about James Talarico: Look past the Christian rhetoric and pay attention to what he actually believes.

While speaking to a Texas crowd, Vance argued that Talarico’s “real religion” has nothing to do with what you hear in church on Sunday or “the redemptive power of Christ’s sacrifice.”

“It’s about crazy left-wing politics. His real religion is not about Jesus. His real religion is about the radical left in this country,” Vance said, pointing out that Talarico believes it’s “abusive” if you don’t let a 6-year-old start hormones and change his pronouns once he claims to be a girl.

“Nothing in the Bible supports any of this, of course. Now, in my church, and I imagine like a lot of yours, we are taught, for example, that Mary was selected by God to be the sacred vessel because she was, in the words of the archangel, full of grace and blessed among women,” Vance said.

“But in the gospel of James Tala-freako, Mary was not a woman because there is no such thing. She was a pregnant person, and her son was little more than a decent philosopher,” he continued.

Vance then asked what “really motivates a man” to spend all his time “talking about 11-year-old drag queens.”

“A man who wears your religion as a cover will never fight for your values, and he won’t fight for you because he thinks, like so many generations of politicians, Talarico thinks that we are backwards and simple. He’s a man so focused on children and drag, he’s never going to care about our jobs,” Vance said.

“He’s a man who empathizes more with criminals than with the victims. And when you empathize with the criminals more than with the victims, that man is never going to protect your streets,” he added.

BlazeTV host Pat Gray and executive producer Keith Malinak couldn’t agree more with Vance, though Malinak points out that someone else should be following Vance’s lead.

“Why isn’t Ken Paxton delivering these kind of remarks with this kind of energy?” Malinak asks.

Gray notes that “Vance is right” about Talarico.

“He’s so concerned with the trans issue, which is less than 1% of the population,” he says, “but that’s who he’s going to focus on.”

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​James talarico, Jd vance, Keith malinak, Ken paxton, Pat gray, Drag queens, Transgender, Minors, Texas, Blazetv show 

President Donald Trump’s former White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt resigned at the end of August and rejoined Trump-affiliated super PAC MAGA Inc. Shortly after, she was a featured speaker at the Republican Midterm Convention in early September. Now, just about a month later, she’s ready to start a new chapter in her professional life.

On Monday, Fox News announced that Leavitt will join the network as a contributor starting on November 1. According to the network’s reporting, she is scheduled to “provide commentary across the Fox News lineup.”

‘I look forward to bringing my unique perspective from my experience as White House press secretary, along with the same energy and candor that defined my tenure, to Fox’s millions of viewers across their many platforms.’

While Leavitt interned at local news organizations when she was a student at New Hampshire’s Saint Anselm College, this is the first time Leavitt will work directly with a major news organization in her professional career.

She began that career shortly after graduating college, as a deputy press secretary during President Trump’s first administration. Then she ran for Congress, worked for Trump’s super PAC, joined his 2024 campaign, and ended up back at the White House as press secretary.

In a press release announcing the signing of Leavitt, Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott said, “Karoline’s firsthand experience in the White House and on the presidential campaign trail gives her a distinct understanding of today’s political landscape. We look forward to her providing our audience with authentic and sharp insight across all FOX News Media platforms.”

“I am grateful for the opportunity to continue appearing on Fox News Channel as an official member of the extraordinary team at FOX News Media,” Leavitt said in that same press release. “I look forward to bringing my unique perspective from my experience as White House press secretary, along with the same energy and candor that defined my tenure, to Fox’s millions of viewers across their many platforms.”

RELATED: 3 moments that will make you miss Karoline Leavitt

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

President Trump has not yet weighed in on Leavitt’s new job on social media, though liberal media critics were quick to pounce on the news and pivoted to attack Trump’s current relationship with Fox.

CNN’s Brian Stelter called Leavitt’s new gig “the least surprising headline of the day” in his daily Reliable Sources newsletter. He used the announcement as a pivot point to attack President Trump for noticing that Fox is no longer covering his full rallies.

Leavitt joins another former Trump press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, at the network.

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​Brian stelter, Donald trump, Fox news, Karoline leavitt, Kayleigh mcenany, Politics 

Democratic California Governor Gavin Newsom whined that Joe Rogan wouldn’t have him on his incredibly popular podcast to hash out their disagreements.

Rogan has been especially critical of Newsom and his presidential aspirations after the podcaster moved away from California to escape the high taxes and dysfunction of the local and state government.

‘He won’t have me on. I told him it’d be 10 against 1. Get all your guys, get the ear things. You can have people ask the questions and follow-ups for you. But he won’t do it.’

During an interview with Shelby Church on her YouTube channel, the governor fired back.

“[The] problem with Rogan, he won’t have me on. He doesn’t want to be confronted with the bulls**t that he spews, particularly in the political sense. He’s a bulls**t artist in political terms. Sorry, just is,” Newsom said.

“I’m happy to confront him, but he won’t do it. Now I’m not even interested because it’s been two years of him just bashing me on a weekly basis. Well done, tough guy!” he said while clapping sarcastically.

He went on to say he would even allow Rogan to have others debate alongside Rogan with the governor.

“But he won’t have me on. I told him it’d be 10 against 1. Get all your guys, get the ear things. You can have people ask the questions and follow-ups for you. But he won’t do it.”

He went on to say that Rogan had some kind of “anxiety” about being confronted by Newsom, but admitted that he used to listen to Rogan’s podcast and even admired him before he turned to the right.

Rogan eviscerated Newsom on his podcast in Oct. 2025 and said even Democrats didn’t want him to be president.

“[Democrats] don’t have any faith in Gavin Newsom, which is kind of funny because he wants to be president so bad,” Rogan said, laughing.

“You can’t ruin a city and then go on to ruin a state and say, ‘Guys, that was just practice. Once I get in as president, I’m gonna fix it. Fix it all,” he added.

RELATED: Newsom lashes out at report of MASSIVE fraud in California

Ironically, Rogan used the same insult against Newsom that the governor lobbed at him in the current rant.

“He’s a good bulls**t artist. … The things that he says when he gets confronted with anything — ‘We have the highest this and the highest that!'” Rogan continued.

“Like, everybody’s leaving! You have the highest unemployment. You have the highest homelessness. Money’s missing. You killed Hollywood. Like, Hollywood doesn’t exist anymore. It’s literally gone!” he concluded. “You mandated vaccines for kids that didn’t need them. You guys, he did horrible s**t!”

Newsom responded by calling Rogan too cowardly to defend his position in a debate with the governor.

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​Gavin newsom, Joe rogan, California, Presidential election, Politics 

The president vehemently denied reports in the New York Times and other outlets that the Ohio Arena was not full for his rally on Saturday.

President Donald Trump said in a post on Truth Social that reporters should be arrested for relaying what he called fake news.

‘The New York Times, and many other Artificial Media Outlets, should be arrested for their dishonesty and disservice to our Country.’

“The Ohio Arena was already full to the brim — And yet these people were still trying to get in,” he wrote Monday.

“The New York Times said, ‘There were empty seats’ when, in fact, there were none, and thousands of people had to be turned away. The New York Times, and many other Artificial Media Outlets, should be arrested for their dishonesty and disservice to our Country,” he added.

“When Bernie Sanders has 500 to 1,000 people, they make it sound like it’s the biggest event that ever took place,” Trump concluded. “When PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP has 50,000 people, they make it sound like nobody showed up!”

He continued in a second post to explain that some of the upper seats were empty because of the migration effect, whereupon people move down to the main floor.

“In actuality, thousands of people were unable to get in. The Arena was totally MAXED OUT, including all upper sections,” he said in the second post.

RELATED: Trump slams ‘sick, treasonous, and demented’ journalists after berating CNN’s Kaitlan Collins

“The ‘migration’ process always happens! The Times knows this, and so does everyone else. I never have empty seats — Never have, and never will!” Trump added.

The White House has been engaged in a feud with various news outlets after they sued to have their access restored. Fox News Media, ABC News, CBS News, CNN, and NBC News released a joint statement saying they would forgo all pool reporting duties unless the outlets were allowed back.

Trump added that he was going to Nebraska for a rally in Grand Island on the first day of early in-person voting.

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​Fake news, New york times, President donald trump, Politics 

A high-end restaurant in Portland, Oregon, had to shut down after it served a group accused by left-wing protesters of being white supremacist.

Clarklewis was vandalized on Sunday after leftist activists allegedly confronted the group. A window was broken, and employees at the restaurant were traumatized.

‘I totally support the protest. … I support what they’re doing, but they totally misplaced it on this restaurant.’

Joe Rogers, one of the owners of the restaurant, said the establishment doesn’t support white supremacy and did not know anything about the group because it had a nondescript name.

“We knew people were coming for brunch, and we knew they were called the Oregon Group,” he said, according to the Oregonian. “We knew that they had some Christian affiliation, which, of course, we allow Christians into our business.”

He told KOIN: “Sure, if they walk in and they’re awful, and they’re obviously somebody that’s not going to be kind to our staff or to other guests, we’re going to ask them to leave.”

The left-wing activists reportedly planned a protest against the group in part because of flyers they saw online.

The confrontation between the allegedly racist group and the left-wing protesters led to one worker quitting on the spot and others going home for the day, according to Rogers. Some also hid upstairs, he added, according to the Oregonian.

He said the group paid about $2,000 to rent a space but that he would be donating the money to a charity in order to show goodwill to the community.

RELATED: Liberals are lashing out at Guy Fieri after he was photographed with Donald Trump at UFC event

Even more ironic is that the restaurant is LGBTQ+-owned and has displayed a Pride flag for many years.

A spokesperson for the Portland Police Bureau said that police initially responded to the restaurant at about 2 p.m. that day but that there was no property damage, so they left. They were called once again, and when they returned, they found a window broken.

Rogers said one person in the group wore a shirt with a white nationalist slogan.

“Nobody was paying attention to what their T-shirt said,” he added. “And I think at the end, when they were handing out pamphlets, I think the reason if they’re handing out pamphlets at the end, it’s because they knew they had started doing it before they would have been kicked out.”

Police said they tried to determine who broke the window but were unsuccessful, and no arrests were made.

“I totally support the protest,” Rogers said to the Oregonian. “I support what they’re doing, but they totally misplaced it on this restaurant.”

It is unclear whether the restaurant has reopened.

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​Oregon, Politics, Pride flag, White supremacy 

Lea Martin arrived in America expecting to find the country she’d heard about her entire life: uncultured, superficial, and different from Europe in all the wrong ways.

Instead, she found something she never anticipated.

Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck has read her new book, “Dear Land of the Free,” and he calls it “almost like a love letter” about his beloved country.

Martin explains that she wrote the book after she broke up with her ex-boyfriend and felt “disassociated.”

“I felt like, oh my god, I need to write this love letter to this country that gave me so much and helped me transform so much,” she tells Glenn.

“So, it’s just my whole love for this country that gave me so, so much,” she adds.

“What was it that flipped you … because I know what people say in Europe about America, and it’s almost a cartoon version of us. But what was it that you either saw that you were like, ‘Oh my gosh, I have this all wrong,’ and what flipped you to this?” Glenn asks.

“When I arrived in the U.S., I had so many cliches, and I’ve never dreamed about moving to the U.S. It just happened because of my ex,” she explains. “And then when I arrived here, I realized how wrong I was because we have so many cliches around food, around Americans, around so many things here.”

“And I realized I was so wrong,” she says, noting that “one of the biggest cliches” is that Americans are “uncultured” because they don’t travel as much as Europeans.

“And I’ve realized there’s a lot of nuance in this cliche,” she says.

“It’s so easy for us to travel because also the flight tickets there are way cheaper, while in the U.S. it’s more complicated. This country is so huge. Like, when even I was in Pennsylvania, I did a road trip in Pennsylvania, and I was like, I’m still in the same state, but I can drive hours and hours and hours,” she explains.

When she road-tripped through Texas, she found the same thing, calling it “endless.”

“Each state has its own specialties, people, mindset. It’s so interesting,” she adds.

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​America, Europe, Glenn beck, Lea martin, Love letter, Pennsylvania, Texas, Blazetv show 

A resurfaced video showing a Democrat U.S. Senator waving an upside-down American flag at a 2017 rally with the Somalian community is going viral online.

The video on social media is taken from a speech Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) gave at a Somalian celebration for a presidential election in the African country.

‘We have more to do, but we will continue to fight for you!’

In the video she promises to remove restrictions on cash remittances to Somalia and uses a traditional Somalian phrase to show her support for the interests of the Somalian community in Minnesota.

“As you know, we are home to the largest Somali population in the United States, and we are so proud of that fact in Minnesota!” she yells to loud applause.

At one point someone hands her the upside-down U.S. flag, and she waves it haphazardly.

“Oh, thank you. Very good!” she says.

While it might have been an oversight on her part, the video shows Somalian attendees waving U.S. flags upside down. Mostly, they wave the Somalian flag and others wave the U.S. flag right side up.

One apparently upside-down U.S. flag can even be seen in the background of a photo Klobuchar posted from the event on social media.

“Congressman [Keith] Ellison and Senator [Al] Frankin and I worked so hard to reduce the redundant regulations on remittances to Somalia, lessening the burden for banks!” she added, referring to other Democrat officials. “We have more to do, but we will continue to fight for you!”

A short clip on social media showed the objectionable parts spliced together, but the longer video is available for context on the YouTube channel for Somali TV of Minnesota.

A Blaze News request for comment from the Klobuchar campaign was not returned before time of publication.

RELATED: ICE deports Somali man accused of torture and war crimes who was found driving for Uber in DC

In 2025, BlazeTV host Christopher Rufo and his colleague at City Journal reported on how some of the remittances to Somalia have ended up funding terrorist groups like Al-Shabaab.

This is not the only time Somalians in Minnesota have seemingly treated the American flag with irreverence. For example, a similar incident unfolded years later when community leaders accidentally raised a large U.S. flag that was upside down during a Somali Independence Day event in July in St. Paul, Minnesota.

The St. Cloud Police Department told Fox News they were alerted to the incident and an officer was sent to the event. The officer was able to correct the flag “without objection,” and the event’s organizers “indicated to City staff that the flag being flown upside down was not intentional.”

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​Amy klobuchar, Minnesota, Somalia, Us flag, Politics 

The Republican Party in Michigan issued a mocking response after Democrat U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed said former President Barack Obama will be joining him on the campaign trail.

Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) announced his retirement 18 months ago, and El-Sayed is trying to win the seat to keep it in Democrat control. Losing it to Republicans would significantly bolster the GOP’s efforts to maintain control of the U.S. Senate.

‘President Obama is parachuting into Michigan, in a desperate to attempt revive Conman Abdul’s floundering campaign.’

On Monday, El-Sayed said Obama would attend a rally in Detroit at the end of October in his campaign to defeat Republican Mike Rogers. Black voters in Detroit have expressed misgivings about El-Sayed.

“It is my honor and privilege to announce that President @BarackObama is joining us on the trail in Detroit,” wrote El-Sayed on social media.

If El-Sayed wins, he would become the first Muslim to hold office in the U.S. Senate. Republicans have lambasted him for extremist statements he has made in the past and for his associations with anti-American extremists like influencer Hasan Piker.

Greg Manz, the senior communications adviser of the Michigan GOP, mocked the development in a statement to Blaze News.

“President Obama’s upcoming trip to Detroit proves Conman Abdul El-Sayed has a severe base problem. It’s no surprise to us that Democrats are playing defense in the very city where ‘Democrats for Rogers’ launched — Motor City voters are abandoning the Conman because working families have zero interest in having their taxes hiked to pay for a government-controlled health care scheme that costs $32 trillion,” he said.

“President Obama is parachuting into Michigan, in a desperate to attempt revive Conman Abdul’s floundering campaign,” Manz added, “because Democrat support is evaporating daily in Detroit — it’s a Hail Mary for an extreme candidate who can’t even energize his own base.”

The Democrats for Rogers group also released a statement including comments from El-Sayed slamming Obama when he was re-elected in 2012.

RELATED: WATCH: 9/11 hero’s father narrates powerful ad against Abdul El-Sayed

“[Obama] has perpetuated war, violated our civil liberties, deported more people from our shores than any other president before him, and the list of his failures goes on,” said El-Sayed at the time.

Failed presidential candidate Kamala Harris has already campaigned for El-Sayed.

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​Abdul el-sayed, Islam, Muslim, Us senate, Barack obama, Politics 

Christa Pike was sentenced to death for one of Tennessee’s most brutal murders — she led her roommate into the woods, tortured her, and killed her. Three decades later, the state attempted to carry out that sentence.

But it failed.

Pike survived two lethal injection attempts and was rushed to the hospital in critical condition, and BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales is not happy about it.

“So now you have this headline I can’t wrap my brain around, actually. ‘Christa Pike getting lifesaving medical care after surviving Tennessee execution,’” Gonzales says, noting that Tennessee taxpayers are footing the bill.

“[They’ve] paid for her to live up until this point, and the point of that, I guess, was that she needed to go through all of her appeals or whatever until the state found that they could execute her in good conscience,” she explains.

“And now Tennessee taxpayers are spending more money and more resources to try to save the life of the person who was on death row who was supposed to be executed,” she says.

Gonzales also points out that the execution squad was all women.

“This actually was a DEI execution squad. It was an all-female execution squad,” Gonzales says. “Why?”

“I don’t know,” she says, answering herself. “But they injected her twice with pentobarbital. And they couldn’t find the vein. I don’t know. They tried to establish an IV line for an hour, using at least seven needles.”

“So maybe, instead of figuring out how we can get all-female execution squads, we should just get people who understand how to put an IV line in, because now this chick is in the hospital in critical condition,” she explains.

“And her attorney is arguing, like, ‘Oh, actually … this should all just be canceled and she should just be allowed to go home because of what she’s been through,’” she continues.

“So all I’m saying is I think we need to bring back the firing squad,” she adds.

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​Sara gonzales, Christa pike, Tennessee, Taxpayers, Execution, Lethal injection, Blazetv show 

The Justice Department published a damning report from the Weaponization Working Group on Monday detailing how elements of the Biden administration allegedly conspired during the pandemic to characterize concerned parents as domestic terrorists.

How it started

Parents around the country made their voices heard during the pandemic about various matters impacting their children, including COVID-19 restrictions, mask mandates, anti-white propaganda in the classroom, and the abuse that inevitably followed districts’ embrace of gender ideology-formed school policies.

‘Find a reason to suggest that such protests could be federal crimes regardless of the initial skepticism.’

This exertion of political agency by parents apparently enraged the powers that be.

On Sept. 29, 2021, the National School Boards Association claimed in a letter to then-President Joe Biden, “America’s public schools and its education leaders are under an immediate threat. The National School Boards Association respectfully asks for federal law enforcement and other assistance to deal with the growing number of threats of violence and acts of intimidation occurring across the nation.”

In addition to complaining about the alleged dissemination of “misinformation,” the NSBA suggested in the letter that school officials and educators around the country were “susceptible to acts of violence” and faced threats over their role in pushing COVID-19 and leftist measures.

From the NSBA’s Sept. 29, 2021, letter. Justice Department

The NSBA letter also asked the Biden administration to:

“investigate, intercept, and prevent the current threats and acts of violence against our public school officials”; consider treating alleged “acts of malice, violence, and threats against public school officials” as “a form of domestic terrorism and hate crimes”; and”examine appropriate enforceable actions” against the supposed crimes under the PATRIOT Act and other statutes.

The NSBA also insinuated that certain individuals who attended school board meetings were potential terrorists, the DOJ Weaponization Working Group noted in its report.

Among those referenced was Scott Smith of Virginia. Smith criticized Loudoun County Public Schools officials after his disabled daughter was anally raped by a trans-identifying man in the girls’ restroom at Stone Bridge High School.

RELATED: Parents weren’t asked. Many still don’t know. Inside the new school surveillance nightmare.

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

The DOJ’s new WWG report makes mince meat of the NSBA’s letter, which was recognized at the time by Republican state attorneys general as a “massive fraud” and “designed to intimidate parents into giving up their constitutional rights to direct the upbringing and education of their children.”

The WWG report claims, for instance, that the NSBA identified “numerous instances of constitutionally protected speech and protest as ‘threats'”; implored the Biden administration to treat such protected speech as criminal; and falsely suggested that school boards generally faced “angry mobs” and disruptions.

In an Oct. 22, 2021, letter, the NSBA board of directors walked back some of the claims and admitted that “there was no justification for some of the language included in the letter.” The damage was, however, done.

The NSBA did not immediately respond to Blaze News’ request for comment.

Despite its political bent and inaccuracies, the NSBA’s Sept. 29, 2021, letter set the stage for the October 4, 2021, memo sent from then-Attorney General Merrick Garland to relevant Biden officials in the FBI and the DOJ, treating the association’s claims as fact and their concerns as warranted.

From Merrick Garland’s Oct. 4, 2021, memo.

According documents reviewed by the WWG, Garland’s subsequent memo “and its suggestion that such protests could constitute federal criminal activity, including domestic terrorism, was the product of pressure by the White House and high-ranking Department of Justice officials to find a reason to suggest that such protests could be federal crimes regardless of the initial skepticism.”

Elements inside the Justice Department and the FBI strongly doubted whether school-directed protest and criticism from parents qualified as criminal conduct.

An attorney in the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division noted in an Oct. 3, 2021, email, “I read the letter from NSBA, and looked at the links for a handful of the footnotes, and it appears to me that the vast, vast majority of the behavior cited cannot be reached by federal law.”

Justice Department.

One attorney in the DOJ’s Criminal Division reportedly noted that an early version of the Garland memo tied supposed school board threats to election threats and would therefore be regarded “as a partisan exercise aimed at those who do not support the Administration.”

Notwithstanding such internal criticism, Garland apparently rushed out his memo. The Biden administration then took steps to implement it, subjecting multiple parents to federal investigation.

The FBI previously confirmed to congressional investigators that it had opened at least 25 counterterrorism “Guardian assessments” based on alleged school board threats. Six of these probes were run by the bureau’s Counterterrorism Division.

How it’s going

The WWG concluded that the Garland memo “was the product of pressure by senior leadership to support the NSBA and to bring federal pressure to bear on parents protesting school districts that had enacted certain policies.”

The WWG emphasized that by suggesting that concerned parents were breaking federal law or on the verge of doing so had a chilling effect on First Amendment rights.

While the Trump DOJ cannot turn back the clock and undo the damage generated by the previous administration, it is offering several remedies.

It will, for instance, enable those Americans targeted by the Biden administration for their participation in school board meetings to see the FBI Guardian assessments that were created for them.

The DOJ will also add a disclaimer to every Guardian assessment associated with the Garland memo, noting that “the Garland Memorandum raised serious constitutional concerns, and so any Guardian assessment resulting from it should be read with caution.”

Additionally, the department will review the files of all persons investigated pursuant to the Garland memo to determine if their constitutional rights were trampled.

“Parents are children’s natural providers and protectors,” stated Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon. “The Biden-Harris DOJ labeled concerned parents as threats for exercising their right to know what was happening at their kids’ schools. This Civil Rights Division stands with parents, and we will continue to partner with the Department of Education to enforce parents’ rights under federal law.”

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​Biden administration, Domestic terrorists, Gender ideology, Justice department, Parental rights, Loudoun county, Politics