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Haunted houses are prime material for horror movies, but is there any truth behind the idea? Can physical spaces really be inhabited by evil spirits?

On this episode of “Strange Encounters,” a podcast on biblical spiritual warfare, BlazeTV host Rick Burgess interviews Eric Davis about his bone-chilling book “Deliverance at Springhill Plantation.”

The book follows the true story of Eric and his wife, Cindy, and their paranormal experiences after purchasing what they thought was the plantation home of their dreams.

After two decades of grinding through a failing marriage, an antebellum-era plantation sitting on 34 acres of rolling green property in Alabama seemed like the perfect place for Eric and Cindy — both history buffs and antique collectors — to reconnect and begin anew. But they were hardly settled before the horrors started unfolding.

One morning shortly after moving in, Eric saw a moving fog — like “dry ice” — traveling from the barn to the old hospital on the property, where the original owner, who was a doctor, used to treat wounded soldiers during the Civil War.

“There was an absolute feeling of absolute evil all over me. I felt the electricity of evil,” he says.

A short while later, Eric saw a physical manifestation of a demon near the same barn. Eric was sitting on the front porch watching his wife go out to feed the cats, when suddenly he saw a man with “long, white hair” dressed in Civil War-era clothing approach her. At first, Eric thought it was an oddball neighbor, but when he made eye contact with the being, it “[disappeared] into a puff of smoke.”

But then things got even darker. One morning while sitting on his couch, Eric was overcome with a sudden and deep hatred for his wife. “I would have loved to seen her dead,” he confesses.

Eric’s animosity toward Cindy was so tangible, the entire family recognized it as demonic oppression. That night, they walked through the home burning sage, anointing doors with oil, and reading aloud from Psalm 91.

“I’m anointing the doors and screaming for [the demons] to get out of my house and get out of our lives,” Eric recounts.

Then Eric walked to the top of the staircase, where there was a “small cubby hole door.”

“I felt a big time pressure behind that door, and I jerked the door open. Naomi [Eric’s daughter] put the sage in. I put my head in there and screamed, ‘Get out of here in the name of Jesus!’ And in the back of my attic was a very, very loud scream. It was like a woman screamed,” he recounts.

“I heard the sounds of barking dogs in the house. … The sage would be lit, and all of a sudden, this cold draft of air would just blow it right out. … It took probably two hours to get the smoke out of my house, but at the end of that night, everything was gone.”

The next several months were uneventful, and Eric’s family settled back into everyday life, believing the demonic activity had been driven out for good.

Then one day, Zoe, the family dog, started randomly whining and growling. “I turn, and out of the wall in my bedroom within six foot of me appears a black figure floating. … It very much looked almost like the Grim Reaper the way it looked. It was dark. It was levitating. It had sleeves. It had a hood. Had no face inside it, no hands, no feet,” Eric tells Rick.

“I screamed, ‘Get out in the name of Jesus!’ … I chased it downstairs and out of the house, and it left.”

At this point, Eric was utterly crushed in spirit by the warfare waged against his family. Having nowhere to turn, he “looked up to the night sky” and cried out, “God, where are you?”

“And suddenly this peace comes on me. I don’t know how to explain it. This peace was on me, and I heard one word,” says Eric.

That word was “church.”

Even though Eric and his family were believers, it had been many years since they’d belonged to a local congregation.

Eric reached out to a local church and told one of the people on staff what was going on inside his home. After Sunday service one day, several members of the church came over and “went to war in [the] house.”

Eric, who was standing outside with his family, says he could “feel [the demons] as they’re leaving.”

One of the women in the church group then shared a word the Lord had given her.

“She said there’s unforgiveness in this house,” says Eric.

“I pointed at Cindy, and Cindy pointed at me, and we released forgiveness toward each other. And when that happened, everything broke.”

“That was the root” that was permitting the darkness to temporarily flee but come roaring right back, Eric explains. “You can rebuke Satan in the name of Jesus all day long, but if you’ve got unrepented unforgiveness in your heart, nothing’s going to change,” he says.

But final deliverance for the Davis’ home wouldn’t come until eight months later after one final demonic siege.

To hear how Eric’s harrowing tale ends, watch the full episode above.

Want more from Rick Burgess?

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​Strange encounters, Rick burgess, Burgess, Blazetv, Blaze media, Demonic activity, Demonic possession, Christianity, Spiritual warfare 

For more than a century, Darwinism has enjoyed a peculiar privilege. It is not merely taught as a scientific theory; it is treated as a final authority. Question it, and you are not mistaken — you are suspect, a heathen guilty of fidelity to first principles.

And yet the deeper one looks, the less sense it makes.

Darwinism is not merely incomplete; it is internally inconsistent. It claims to explain life while excluding what life most plainly displays.

Dr. J. Scott Turner, an American physiologist with decades of serious biological research behind him, is not a Bible-thumping believer or a culture-war activist. He is a scientist who followed the evidence where it led — and discovered that modern Darwinism could not follow him there, a conclusion he shared with me in a recent interview.

‘Marvelous contrivances’

The trouble, Turner explains, began with a quiet but decisive shift. Darwin’s original theory centered on organisms — living, striving creatures with what Darwin himself called “marvelous contrivances.” Modern Darwinism replaced them with something colder. Genes took center stage. Organisms were pushed aside.

Neo-Darwinism, Turner argues, became “a form of gene determinism embedded in a statistical framework that largely shoved organisms off the stage.” What disappeared with them were the qualities that make life recognizably alive: “intentionality, intelligence, and purposefulness.” What passed for progress was, in fact, reduction.

Christians have long sensed this loss, even without the language to name it. They were told that purpose was an illusion, design an accident, and meaning a projection — that life was nothing more than chemistry with better branding. Turner’s work shows what happens when that story is taken seriously.

Termite testimony

His research on termite colonies posed a problem Darwinism could not absorb. The termites were not merely adapting to their environment. They were building it — massive mounds precisely regulated for temperature and humidity, engineered for their own survival. The environment was not selecting them. They were shaping it.

“The old idea that organisms adapt to environments is only half the story,” Turner explains. “Organisms also adapt environments to themselves.” This is not unique to termites. Coral reefs, beaver dams, and human cities all tell the same story. Life has always been an active force, not a passive one.

Once organisms shape the conditions of their own survival, the Darwinian account begins to strain. Selection still operates, but it is no longer blind or passive. It is infused with preference — with direction, with desire.

Darwinism has no language for that.

Faced with obvious design — termite mounds, bird flight, the cantilevered structure of mammalian bones — modern Darwinism retreats into qualifiers. Design becomes “apparent” design. Purpose becomes “as if” purpose. Intelligence is reduced to coincidence wearing a lab coat.

RELATED: Science’s God-denying narrative just got crushed again

Mongkolchon Akesin/iStock/Getty Images Plus

Darwin vs. design

Turner refuses the dodge. “I couldn’t support the notion of ‘apparent’ design or ‘apparent’ intentionality any more,” he says. “These weren’t illusions. They were fundamental properties of life.”

That refusal has consequences.

Darwinism is not merely incomplete; it is internally inconsistent. It claims to explain life while excluding what life most plainly displays. It demands silence precisely where the evidence speaks.

This is why Turner concludes — without theatrics or bitterness — that Darwinism cannot be true. Not because evolution is false, but because Darwinism lacks the conceptual tools to describe what evolution actually entails.

The hardest line Darwinism draws is at meaning.

Turner is blunt about this. Darwinism’s deepest limitation is not scientific but metaphysical. It operates within what he calls an “epistemic bubble” — a closed system that refuses to admit evidence challenging its assumptions.

That is not how science advances. It is how dogma survives.

An overdue truce

Christians are often told that faith and science are natural enemies. Turner’s work suggests something more unsettling: the conflict was never necessary. It was constructed.

Between militant Darwinism and intelligent-design polemics lies a broad, neglected middle ground — one Turner openly occupies, along with scientists and philosophers like Stuart Kauffman and Terrence Deacon, as well as researchers working on the Extended Evolutionary Synthesis — who accept evolution while rejecting the dogma that purpose and agency are illusions.

Here, intelligence is neither smuggled in from theology nor erased by materialism. It is treated as a real feature of living systems.

This view has ancient roots. Turner describes himself as an Aristotelian — not an atomist, reducing life to particles and chance, nor a Platonist, locating purpose outside the world altogether. Aristotle began with what could be observed: living things striving toward ends. That vision sits comfortably alongside religious belief, which has always held that life is ordered, directed, and intelligible. Turner’s approach simply takes life as it appears — purposeful, directed, alive.

For Christians, this matters.

A world without purpose is corrosive. It erodes responsibility, dignity, and moral meaning. It tells us that desire is a delusion and intention an error — that life is busy, but empty.

Darwinism promised a grand explanation. What it delivered was a grand refusal. And yet faith remains — not as an intrusion, but as a witness to reality.

​Faith, J. scott turner, Evolution, Darwinism, Creationism, Christianity, Extended evolutionary synthesis, Interview 

Elementary school students in Kansas reportedly chose the likes of Jesus, President Donald Trump, and Charlie Kirk as role models during an assignment — but a guidance counselor reportedly squashed those picks, KWCH-TV reported.

The incident at Marshall Elementary School in Eureka took place in late October, the station said, citing a civil rights complaint the American Center for Law & Justice filed Tuesday.

‘This action undermines trust between schools, students, and parents.’

The ACLJ is representing a parent and an elementary school student in the case, KWCH said.

The station reported that a guidance counselor assigned sixth-grade students to call out their role models in a project called “Find Your Voice” while one student designated as a “student teacher” wrote the names on a board.

The ACLJ provided the following narrative of what it said happened, KWCH noted:

“When a student identified Charlie Kirk as a role model, [the guidance counselor] got very uncomfortable and refused to allow this name to be written on the board, yelling that he was ‘not a hero,’ and that he was not a role model. The student teacher had already started writing Charlie Kirk’s name on the board, and was ordered by [the guidance counselor] to remove it. When another student selected President Donald J. Trump as a role model, [the guidance counselor] reiterated her prohibition even more angrily, stating that students could not write political or religious figures on the board, and in fact excluded political and religious topics altogether. However, [the guidance counselor] permitted other controversial figures to be listed as heroes.”

The station said it spoke with a Eureka parent of a sixth-grade student who recalled that another student wanted Jesus as a role model, but that choice also was not allowed as part of the assignment.

RELATED: Yet another SoCal HS teacher allegedly embroiled in anti-Trump controversy — this time it’s over a student’s MAGA clothing

The ACLJ’s complaint accuses the school district of religious discrimination, political/viewpoint discrimination, violation of free speech rights, and retaliation, KWCH noted.

Oh, and the law firm also accused the powers that be of encouraging students to not tell their parents about the incident, the station said.

Specifically, the ACLJ called out “egregious conduct in engaging in viewpoint-based discrimination against students who identified conservative political figures as role models, and the subsequent directive instructing students not to report concerns to their parents,” KWCH reported.

In addition, the ACLJ maintained that while students were allowed to list whomever they wanted in their written assignments, they were prohibited from calling out the names of “religious or political heroes publicly on the board,” the station said.

The ACLJ further argued that “the selective prohibition created immediate confusion among students about whose voices were valued and whose were not,” KWCH said.

More from the station:

The group also called out school’s response to what happened, saying that the administration claimed that prohibiting political and religious figures from being discussed in the “Find Your Voice” activity was in the name of being “inclusive and neutral.”

The American Center for Law & Justice particularly took issue with an alleged instruction for students to bring concerns to teachers or the principal first, not directly to their parents.

The ACLJ said the directive “instructing children not to report concerns to their parents … violates fundamental principles of parental rights, educational ethics, and child safety,” KWCH added.

The Eureka school board reportedly addressed the issue during a Dec. 8 meeting and met in executive session, the station said. However, the ACLJ said “no public response was provided, no corrective action has been announced, and the violations continue to remain unaddressed,” KWCH reported.

U.S. Rep. Ron Estes of Kansas’ 4th Congressional District, which includes Eureka, shared the following on social media about the controversy, the station said:

“It’s alarming to hear of a Kansas teacher silencing students’ voices in the classroom. Schools shouldn’t be a place where a teacher’s political beliefs are forced onto students. This is a violation of their constitutional rights and does not represent Kansas schools’ fundamental principles.

“Parents should have the confidence in schools to allow their children to grow and engage in classrooms that support their children’s ideas and opinions. This action undermines trust between schools, students, and parents. I do not condone this type of political censorship in any school.”

Marshall Elementary School Principal Stacy Coulter noted the following in response to the civil rights complaint and a request to discuss the issue, KWCH reported:

“We are aware of this incident and are always working with families and our school staff to make sure every learning activity is a positive and encouraging experience for every student.

“We are unable to comment on the individuals involved because of our commitment to the privacy of our students and employees. This information is also protected by confidentiality laws. Thank you for your understanding.”

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​Civil rights complaint, American center for law and justice, Jesus, Charlie kirk, Donald trump, Elementary school students, Role models, Assignment, Kansas, Education, Discrimination, Politics 

“Star Wars” fans may be celebrating a bit too early when it comes to Kathleen Kennedy’s departure.

Kennedy headed Lucasfilm for 14 years, controlling iconic franchises like “Star Wars” and “Indiana Jones.”

‘After destroying a beloved modern myth … Kathleen Kennedy is finally stepping down.’

Fans rejoiced online as Disney announced Kennedy will be replaced by two executives: chief creative officer Dave Filoni and Lynwen Brennan, president and general manager. Filoni will be president at Lucasfilm, while Brennan will be co-president.

Director Filoni’s pairing with Brennan was described by Variety as a move that suggests Disney wanted to pair a strong filmmaker with a person who has a solid sense of budgets.

However, despite what appears to be good news for “Star Wars” fans, Kennedy’s tenure is not exactly coming to a screeching halt.

One to ‘Grogu’ on

Kennedy will still serve as a producer for two theatrical “Star Wars” films, the first being 2026’s “The Mandalorian and Grogu.”

This is the same wing of the franchise’s universe that fired former MMA fighter and actress Gina Carano for speaking out against mask mandates.

Additionally, Kennedy will produce “Star Wars: Starfighter,” which is set for a 2027 release.

RELATED: ‘Put a chick in it, make it lame and gay!’ ‘South Park: Joining the Panderverse’ review

Photo by Gerardo Mora/Getty Images for Disney

That didn’t seem to bother detractors like Babylon Bee editor Joel Berry, who posted, “After destroying a beloved modern myth and replacing it with a 14-year, malice-filled tantrum against the patriarchy, Kathleen Kennedy is finally stepping down. Finally.”

Cartoonist George Alexopoulos joked that Kennedy put the franchise “in a grave.”

Others screamed from X’s rooftops that “Star Wars” is now “free” and is “going to be amazing.”

Put a chick in it

X owner Elon Musk even jumped into the mix by simply posting a clip from “South Park: Joining the Panderverse.”

The 2023 episode was internationally recognized for hilariously mocking the downward spiral of Disney’s intellectual properties at the hands of Kennedy. The episode showed Kennedy demanding the diversification of every character Disney had to offer, changing movies to ensure they had “lame,” gay, and female characters, no matter how unsuccessful they were.

The cartoon popularized the phrase, “Put a chick in it! Make it lame and gay!” as a way to describe needless and forced diversity in media.

RELATED: Male ‘Star Wars’ fans attack women, Kathleen Kennedy says ahead of latest woke series ‘The Acolyte’

Your worshipfulness

Disney CEO Bob Iger praised Kennedy in a statement on her way out, saying “We’re deeply grateful for Kathleen Kennedy’s leadership, her vision, and her stewardship of such an iconic studio and brand.”

During her time at Lucasfilm, Kennedy has been criticized by fans not only for her film choices, but for comments that she made toward them.

In 2024, Kennedy accused fans who were unhappy with the show “The Acolyte” of attacking women online.

“I think a lot of the women who step into ‘Star Wars’ struggle with this a bit more. Because of the fan base being so male dominated, they sometimes get attacked in ways that can be quite personal.”

While adding that she too has been a victim, Kennedy alluded to the fact that some of the fans were bigots.

“I stand by my empathy for ‘Star Wars’ fans. But I want to be clear. Anyone who engages in bigotry, racism or hate speech … I don’t consider a fan.”

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There was another ICE shooting in Minnesota, but while leftist politicians and media try to spin it to incriminate ICE, BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales points out that they’re the ones fanning the flames.

“Things are not cooling down, cooling off in Minneapolis, in Minnesota. It’s actually just intensifying because there was another person shot by ICE in Minneapolis, and you’re getting the exact same reaction from the left that you would expect,” Gonzales comments.

According to a statement from the Department of Homeland Security, “Federal law enforcement officers were conducting a targeted traffic stop in Minneapolis of an illegal alien from Venezuela who was released into the country by Joe Biden in 2022.”

When the subject attempted to flee the scene, he crashed into a parked car — and then fled on foot. When the ICE officer caught up to him, the subject not only began to resist and assault the officer, but two more subjects came out of a nearby apartment and began attacking the officer with a snow shovel and a broom handle.

While the officer was being attacked, the original subject got loose and began hitting the officer with the shovel or broom handle. As the officer was beginning to fear for his life, he fired a defensive shot to defend himself and hit the immigrant in the leg.

“He was being attacked by three people, only fired one shot. That’s way more restraint than I would show. Way more restraint than I would show. … At this point, you have so many people going after ICE. You have so many people who mean to cause them harm. To me, it would be justifiable self-defense,” BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales comments on “Sara Gonzales Unfiltered.”

And while Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey (D) is now claiming that he’s never encouraged anything other than peace in his city, Gonzales has the receipts.

“Let’s be very clear,” Frey began in a recent press conference. “I’ve seen conduct from ICE that is disgusting and is intolerable. We don’t use the word ‘invasion’ lightly. What we are seeing is thousands, plural, thousands of federal agents coming into our city.”

“They are not here to cause safety in this city. What they are doing is not to provide safety in America. What they are doing is causing chaos and distrust. And I have a message for ICE. To ICE, get the f**k out of Minneapolis. We do not want you here,” Frey continued.

“That’s very peaceful,” Gonzales comments. “That’s very, very peaceful rhetoric coming from Jacob Frey. … He’s not the one trying to generate attention or controversy or fan the flames. That’s not him. In fact, he and all of the elected officials in Minnesota have done nothing but try to promote peace.”

Want more from Sara Gonzales?

To enjoy more of Sara’s no-holds-barred takes on news and culture, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Video phone, Sharing, Camera phone, Free, Video, Upload, Youtube.com, Sara gonzales unfiltered, Sara gonzales, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Jacob frey, Ice shooting, Evil ice agents, Minneapolis mayor jacob frey, Minnesota shooting, Minneapolis shooting, Anti ice rhetoric, Come and take it with sara gonzales, Come and take it 

Paramount Plus gave away a very expensive product for free.

After reports that “Star Trek: Starfleet Academy” cost between $10 million and $20 million per episode to produce, the network bizarrely posted the entirety of its premiere episode on YouTube, likely in hopes of garnering interest from a wider audience.

‘He goes to Starfleet Academy, makes a ton of friends, and they help him be OK with who he is.’

However the typically popular franchise hardly made a big splash, with just over 85,000 views in the first 24 hours. While the city-sized viewership would be nothing to scoff at for an independent operation, reviewers were shocked by the numbers, revealing that during its premiere, the show allegedly hit a peak of just 1,316 concurrent viewers.

Set phasers to ‘slay’

The show has been heavily criticized for its obvious diversity push, with sci-fi author Brad Torgersen even calling it a “huge, gay, glee club middle finger to everyone who liked” the franchise, back in December. Torgersen blamed “theater kids” for ruining the franchise as well.

Since its debut, it has become even more apparent how deep the production went down the diversity rabbit hole. One scene was described as cadets being “required to get DEI training.” In the scene, an instructor tells her students that being in the academy means “being open to the people around you” as a student is questioning his colleagues’ identities.

RELATED: Comedian Whitney Cummings mocks liberal hypocrisy: ‘We don’t believe in gender, but we need a female president’

Photo by Taylor Hill/FilmMagic

The instructor is played by actress Tig Notaro, whose real name is Mathilde O’Callaghan Notaro.

Notaro has previously described seeing her 5-year-old son in rainbow-colored clothing — particularly for gay pride — as “incredible” and even apologized for not being active in gender politics until it affected her.

Space cadet

Series creator Alex Kurtzman has not shied away from revealing the show’s devotion to diversity either.

“I think we’re not slowing down on representation in any way,” Kurtzman said according to Comic Book Club. “We’re certainly planning like representation is at the beating heart of [‘Star Trek’ creator] Roddenberry’s vision, and we’ve already done the work of bringing it to that new place.”

“So there’s really no reason to change course there,” he added.

The cast of characters also has an obvious and plainly stated agenda. The same outlet reports that a new lesbian couple will be introduced in the series, and the Klingon character, played by actor Karim Diane, will have his sexuality “explored.”

Here to make friends

Diane alluded to as much in a recent interview posted on the show’s official Instagram page.

“He doesn’t like to battle. He wants to love people and heal people and save people,” he said about his character. “He goes to Starfleet Academy, makes a ton of friends, and they help him be OK with who he is.”

RELATED: Trump fatigue: Golden Globes host on why she kept jokes politics-free

Other cast members include Zoe Steiner, who has shown up nearly nude to press junkets, and even late-night host Stephen Colbert.

Colbert announced his participation in the series in October and appears in 10 episodes as the Digital Dean of Students, which serves as a comic relief voiceover. He has already been mocked for his “absolute cringe” voice work in at least one scene.

Before the show aired, it was picked up for a second season by Paramount Plus.

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​Align, Star trek, Starfleet academy, Dei, Diversity, Woke, Lgbt, Paramount, Entertainment 

Against a backdrop of mounting attacks on churches, the Biden administration worked ardently to curb religious liberties wherever they came into conflict with the left’s radical agenda.

For example:

the Biden Equal Employment Opportunity Commission implemented a rule requiring employers — including Christian organizations — to accommodate workers’ efforts to abort their unborn children;the EEOC attempted to force Christians to pay for employees’ sex-rejection mutilations; the Biden Department of Health and Human Services attempted to bar Christian providers who hold biblical and scientifically grounded views about sex and marriage from the foster-care system; and under Biden, a Catholic, the FBI characterized conservative Catholics as potential domestic terrorists and proposed to infiltrate Catholic churches as “threat mitigation.”

It’s clear from the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty’s latest Religious Freedom Index that unlike the administration voted out of power in 2024, the American people overwhelmingly — and increasingly — support religious liberties.

‘Our nation still believes that our first freedom belongs at the heart of our culture; not as a source of conflict, but as a foundation for overcoming it.’

Over the past six years, Becket has tracked public opinion on religious freedom. The legal group’s index for 2025 published on Friday registered the highest cumulative score for public support of religious freedom to-date — 71 on a scale from 0 to 100 where 0 indicates complete opposition to religious liberty and 100 indicates robust support.

This amounts to a dramatic shift, especially when compared to 2020, when the composite score was 66.

Whereas in 2020, 52% of respondents agreed that religious freedom is inherently public and that Americans should be able to share their faith in public spaces, that number jumped to 57% in the latest RFI.

There was an even bigger shift when it came to support for parents’ ability to opt out of public school curricula they believe to be inappropriate — a jump from 63% in 2021 to 73% in 2025.

RELATED: 6 ways I’m using 2026 to deepen my relationship with God

Photo by ANOEK DE GROOT/AFP via Getty Images

When asked specifically about the Supreme Court’s June 2025 ruling in Mahmoud v. Taylor, 62% of respondents signaled support for the high court’s decision to side with the Maryland parents who wanted to protect their children from LGBT propaganda in Montgomery County Public Schools.

On the question of whether public funding for education should be available to all families, including those who choose religious schools, 77% of respondents said they were mostly or completely in favor.

The report noted that “although this year’s Index found that Americans have cooled on the benefits of religion to society and are skeptical of institutions, they unify around the simple principles of religious freedom for all, even in difficult cases that invite scrutiny or controversy.”

A clear majority, 58%, of Americans said they support the right of a Christian baker to decline to make cakes that conflict with her sincere religious views.

Sixty-one percent of respondents said that the First Amendment’s guarantee of the free exercise of religion should protect Catholic priests from having to break the seal of confession as would have been required by Washington state Democrats’ now-enjoined Senate Bill 5375.

There was markedly less support for the Christian counselor in the case Chiles v. Salazar who challenged Colorado’s prohibition on so-called “conversion therapy” for non-straight youth. Only 47% expressed support for her ability to provide talk therapy to children to help them overcome their gender dysphoria.

“Year after year, the Index has made clear that religious liberty remains one of our most cherished values,” Mark Rienzi, president and CEO of Becket, said in a statement obtained by Blaze News.

“Even amid deep divisions, our nation still believes that our first freedom belongs at the heart of our culture; not as a source of conflict, but as a foundation for overcoming it,” continued Rienzi. “The work before us is to see that freedom protected for our children and theirs in the years to come.”

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​Faith, Abide, Religion, Christianity, Christian, Society, Becket, Religious freedom index, Freedom, Liberty, First amendment, Politics 

A St. Louis-area mayor obsessed with race and swamped with lawsuits has been arrested — and the accusations against him are horrifying.

On Thursday, Mayor Michael Cornell of Riverview, Missouri, was arrested and charged with nine felonies: four counts of second-degree statutory sodomy, three counts of first-degree sodomy or attempted sodomy, and one count each of first-degree harassment and possession of child pornography — film/videotape.

‘Tell me why we’re being sued because you made sexual advances to an employee and when he refused, you fired him.’

As of Thursday afternoon, Cornell remained in custody on a $1 million, cash-only bond.

The statutory sodomy charges relate to repeated incidents between 2016 and 2017 of alleged sexual contact with a teenager under 17 years of age, KSDK reported.

Prosecutors claimed that Cornell has also attacked three adult males: one between 2016 and 2017, one in May and September 2024, and one just last month.

Police worry that other victims, including minors, may be out there.

“In these types of cases with this type of behavior, based on the victims that we’ve talked to, it’s possible that this is a predatory type of behavior. And we’re concerned that if he was willing to do it to a minor, there may be other minors that we’re just not aware of,” St. Louis County Police Lieutenant Colonel Jerry Lohr said, according to KSDK.

A bond hearing has been scheduled for next week, and a preliminary hearing has been scheduled for February 18, KSDK said.

RELATED: Noncitizen Kansas mayor accused of voter fraud has cast dozens of ballots since 2000, documents show

Bill Oxford/Getty Images

Cornell, 39, has been inundated with accusations since before he was elected mayor in April 2024. He currently faces litigation related to sexual harassment, wrongful termination, gender discrimination, fostering a toxic work environment, and jokes on social media.

A former Riverview alderwoman also filed a suit after Cornell allegedly ordered her to be placed in handcuffs after she mentioned the sexual harassment allegations against him at a town hall meeting last February.

“I held up the court papers. I said, ‘Tell me why we’re being sued because you made sexual advances to an employee and when he refused, you fired him,'” Regina Davis said, according to KMOV, which has covered the accusations against Cornell extensively.

At least seven lawsuits have been filed against Cornell in just two years, the outlet noted.

Cornell has also recently made bizarre claims about members of the KKK vandalizing both public and private property in Riverview.

“I am writing to inform you of the disturbing markings and threats against the City of Riverview and its residents by racist and cowardly KKK affiliates throughout the night. Over the past six months, alarming KKK and hate-related markings or destruction of City property and churches in Riverview have been reported,” he posted to Facebook in December.

Additionally, Cornell issued KMOV a rambling seven-page letter on city letterhead, referring to not only the alleged KKK problem, but other wild allegations, including that the chief of police had orchestrated “conspiracies to blow my head off, commit a mass shooting, and then kill himself.”

Former Riverview Police Chief Thomas Tumbrink filed a lawsuit against Cornell and other officials in June, alleging wrongful termination.

In response to a request for comment on the lawsuits, Cornell told KMOV: “Just let the system play that out, and you just follow the facts, you understand? We’re not here to be choked in with the smoke. When the smoke clears, a lot of facts. And if you are someone with some type of integrity, follow the facts.”

RELATED: ‘Experience your first orgasm’: Rabid Trump-hater allegedly packs sex toys for ‘date’ with supposed 11-year-old

Cornell’s bio on the Riverview website evinces a man obsessed with race and overly impressed with his resume. The first paragraph of many notes his “unmatched knowledge, courage, and strength, he has broken barriers and shattered ceilings at such a young age counting back over 20 years.”

Cornell also brags about his call for “environmental justice” and greater “integrity” and “transparency.”

Among other accomplishments, he claims to be the “youngest and First African American” chairman of the Riverview Board of Trustees and that in 2022, he became a “State Licensed Private Investigator.”

A public records request to the state law enforcement licensing agency revealed that Cornell had a peace officer license that has since “expired.” Cornell pled guilty to one count of impersonating an officer in 2017, but his record was later expunged, KMOV said.

Through a public records request, Blaze News learned that while Cornell has been registered to vote in Missouri since at least September 2020 and has cast a vote 10 times since then, he is not registered with a particular political party.

Riverview City Hall did not respond to a request for comment.

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On the timeline of making America great again, two dates in 2015 stand out for anyone who backed Donald Trump before it was safe to do so.

On June 16, 2015, Trump came down the escalator in New York City and announced his run for president. The political class laughed. Conservative pundits mocked him. Commentators treated the whole thing as a stunt. A lifelong Democrat running as a Republican? A celebrity billionaire developer? Please. What a “clown.”

Scott understood something most people never learn: Bad reviews from bad people are good reviews. He also understood how to grieve with honor instead of self-pity.

Then came August 13, 2015.

That day, Scott Adams — the creator of “Dilbert” and a best-selling personal development author — published a blog post that reframed the entire race in a single phrase:

Usual frame:
Donald Trump is a clown.
Reframe:
Donald Trump is a clown genius.

That was Adams’ title: “Clown Genius.” And his point was simple: Trump wasn’t improvising. He was persuading. Adams wrote that Trump’s “value proposition” was to “Make America Great,” which meant selling the world on America again — what Adams called “good brand management.”

It sounds obvious now. It didn’t sound obvious then.

Adams became one of the first major nonpolitical public figures to say out loud what millions of Americans were starting to suspect: Trump wasn’t a joke. The joke was the people pretending they couldn’t see what was happening.

“Clown Genius” by Scott Adams, accessed via the Internet Archive

That post didn’t just defend Trump. It gave people permission. It gave tens of millions of everyday Americans cover to voice support for the one candidate the establishment of both parties hated more than anyone they had seen in decades. Adams called it before the polls did, and he kept calling it.

And, in the process, he helped change the course of human history.

He later packaged Trump’s persuasion methods into a book-length case study, “Win Bigly.” And famously, he assigned Trump a 98% chance of winning in 2016 — at a time when most of the media treated the idea as laughable.

Adams paid for that courage.

When he backed Trump in 2015, he didn’t just lose polite invitations. He lit his career on fire. He traded lavish speaking fees, safe corporate fame, and establishment approval for permanent exile from respectable opinion.

In October 2025, Adams described the price in stark terms:

When I decided … to back Trump … I sacrificed everything. I sacrificed my social life. I sacrificed my career. I sacrificed my reputation. I may have sacrificed my health. And I did that because I believed it was worth it. … I’m really happy I lived long enough to see it. It was worth it. … It was worth it to be right.

Independent journalist and filmmaker Mike Cernovich made the point even more bluntly. Adams could have kept quiet, kept the corporate speaking gigs, and died richer. Instead, he chose the lonely road and earned something bigger than money. He became a legend.

For millions, Scott Adams was more than a cartoonist or a commentator. Worldwide, listeners of Scott’s daily show, “Coffee with Scott Adams,” knew him as our “internet dad.” If Trump is the father of MAGA, Scott is its honorary stepfather.

People didn’t just read him. They listened to him. They learned from him. They built confidence from his willingness to say what others wouldn’t.

President Trump made America great again. Scott Adams made Candidate Trump plausible in the first place.

After a long, public battle with prostate cancer, Scott Adams died on Tuesday, January 13. He was 68.

President Trump responded with a tribute that said more than many will admit.

— (@)

“Sadly, the Great Influencer, Scott Adams, has passed away. He was a fantastic guy, who liked and respected me when it wasn’t fashionable to do so. He bravely fought a long battle against a terrible disease. My condolences go out to his family, and all of his many friends and listeners. He will be truly missed. God bless you Scott!”

I’m one of those listeners and friends. More than that, I was Scott’s editor, and I remain the publisher of the Scott Adams library. He brought me on as a contributing editor for “Reframe Your Brain,” a book that has helped thousands of readers apply his signature “reframes” to work, money, relationships, and even faith.

As of this writing, “Reframe Your Brain” is the No. 1 best-seller on Amazon.

RELATED: Glenn Beck remembers Scott Adams: ‘A philosopher disguised as a stick-figure artist’

Phil Velasquez/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images

Near the end of his life, Scott also made a quiet but meaningful choice. He accepted Pascal’s Wager — the simple risk-reward logic that faith in Jesus Christ is worth the bet. He pinned that profession to the top of his X.com profile in his final statement.

Scott was a father figure to me in the most practical sense. I asked his advice the way a son asks his dad. He was happy to oblige. That’s who he was: sharp, funny, and eager to be useful.

Now critics will rush in to re-litigate his controversies, including the 2023 livestream that helped get “Dilbert” pulled from newspapers. I wrote the truth for Newsweek at the time, after his remarks triggered an organized effort to kill his book deal and erase him from public life.

I worked with an author on a not-quite-banned book recently. Dilbert creator and bestselling author Scott Adams had his long-running comic strip ended by multiple newspapers and his forthcoming book contract canceled over some hyperbolic remarks on race that were intended to stir up discussion. Scott Adams’ books were twice banned, but Amazon reversed the decision. … Adams then went to his audience and let them know that there were people who didn’t want his book published, and they responded by buying it, en masse. Sales shot up.

Scott understood something most people never learn: Bad reviews from bad people are good reviews.

He also understood how to grieve with honor instead of self-pity. As he wrote in “Reframe Your Brain”:

When you experience the death of a loved one, your instincts push you into feeling tragedy, loss, and pain. Once you have had enough of that, and when you are ready, start tossing these five words around to release some of the pain: Gratitude. Respect. Honor. Privilege. Service.

Scott Adams lived those words. And now he belongs to the ages.

Scott won bigly.

Thank you, Scott.

​Opinion & analysis, Scott adams, Obituary, In memoriam, Dilbert, Donald trump, Clown genius, Cancel culture, Cancer, Reframe your brain, Win bigly, Christianity, Pascal’s wager, Maga 

As Minnesota begins to resemble its 2020 self after the Immigration and Customs Enforcement shooting of Renee Nicole Good and widespread Somali fraud, a discussion of Trump invoking the Insurrection Act has been circulating — and BlazeTV host John Doyle is a fan.

“Sometimes you can use power in ways that are counterproductive obviously. However there are also absolutely instances where it is counterproductive to not use power, when it is necessary to use power. I believe this is one of those cases,” Doyle explains.

“If the left is allowed to run wild, it is only going to embolden them. These are people who are entropic by nature, and it’s going to just create more public resistance to mass deportations, everything’s just going to get uglier,” he continues.

However Doyle points out that if the Trump administration actually cracks down on what he calls a “criminal resistance,” the left will have to “realize that it’s not winning.”

“It’s going to lose energy. These people are paper tigers. Like, if the average left-wing dysgenic freak is scared to interfere with ICE, having seen so many of his, like, gay, race, communist comrades getting arrested, getting pepper-sprayed, physically harmed, whatever, he’s going to have second thoughts about doing this whole revolutionary larp,” Doyle says.

And Doyle believes the movement is already losing energy.

“Where was the resistance, right, when Trump won in 2024? You remember when Trump won in 2017, 2016? They had fires in D.C. … they were burning stuff in D.C. at the Inauguration. Where was that in 2024? Where were all the Antifa riots during his campaign rallies?” Doyle asks.

“What about after he won, you know, throughout the city? Where was our women’s march? Like the energy just is not there. The radical left, of course, is still around because these people are on welfare. They’re taking hormones. Like their job is to be that,” he continues.

“They do maintain a sort of presence, right? However, it’s not as prominent as it used to be. That is good, as it would turn out. You actually win by winning,” he adds.

Want more from John Doyle?

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​Upload, Sharing, Camera phone, Video, Video phone, Free, Youtube.com, The john doyle show, John doyle, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Insurrection act, President trump, Left wing unrest, Renee nicole good, Ice 

President Donald Trump reaffirmed his commitment on Friday to the U.S. acquiring Greenland, hinting that he may impose economic pressure on reluctant nations to secure their backing.

Trump has argued that the acquisition of Greenland is imperative to America’s national security and stated that he would consider imposing steep tariffs on countries that do not support the U.S. taking control of the island.

‘We’re talking to NATO.’

Trump participated in a roundtable on Friday morning, during which he said he had pressured President Emmanuel Macron of France to raise prescription drug prices. If Macron refuses to comply, Trump has threatened to place a 25% tariff on all French imports.

Trump, who declared himself the “tariff king,” explained that he made the same threat to the “top 10 countries,” including Germany, to lower U.S. drug prices. He stated that the tariff hike would have been roughly seven times more than what the countries would pay by raising their drug prices. He noted that all of the countries he contacted agreed to his request, securing “Most-Favored-Nation” pricing.

“And I may do that for Greenland too,” Trump remarked. “I may put a tariff on countries if they don’t go along with Greenland because we need Greenland for national security. So I may do that.”

RELATED: Rubio reportedly reveals Trump’s plan to acquire Greenland to bolster US defense

Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images

In separate comments on Friday outside of the White House, Trump told reporters, “NATO has been dealing with us on Greenland. We need Greenland for national security very badly.”

“If we don’t have it, we have a big hole in national security, especially when it comes to what we’re doing in terms of the Golden Dome and all of the other things. We have a lot of investments in military,” he added.

“We’re talking to NATO.”

RELATED: JD Vance visits Greenland to make the case for annexation: ‘We can’t just bury our head in the sand’

Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Last week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio explained that the administration has aspirations to purchase Greenland from Denmark.

“The United States is eager to build lasting commercial relationships that benefit Americans and the people of Greenland,” a State Department spokesperson previously told Blaze News. “Our common adversaries have been increasingly active in the Arctic. That is a concern that the United States, the Kingdom of Denmark, and NATO Allies share.”

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​News, Greenland, Donald trump, Trump, Trump administration, Trump admin, France, Germany, Drug prices, Prescription drugs, National security, Marco rubio, Tariffs, Tariff, Politics 

A leftist congressional candidate launched a lousy attempt to further conflate President Donald Trump with literal Nazis, but failed miserably.

Candidate Mark Davis of Florida sounded the alarm Thursday, noting the website “Nazis.us” redirects users to the Department of Homeland Security page. Davis implied that he stumbled upon this website and urged supporters to “give them a donation.”

‘I pointed it directly at Kristi Noem’s department.’

“OK, I think I have it figured out….if you go to Nazis.us it takes you to our DHS website because, of course it does,” Davis said in a post on X. “It just makes sense. Whoever did that, give them a donation.”

Despite his attempt to frame the Trump administration as Nazis, X users quickly found out that Davis was actually the one who created the website.

RELATED: Florida Panthers praise Trump during White House visit: ‘Nothing beats this’

Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

After getting brutally ratioed in his comment section, Davis changed his tune and openly admitted that he purchased the domain himself.

“If Kristi Noem and donald trump didn’t know my name before, they damn sure do now,” Davis said. “I bought nazis.us. I pointed it directly at Kristi Noem’s department. And now the whole damn world is watching. I just held up a mirror … and they hate their reflection. And it’s a middle finger they can’t erase. You want to cry about ‘decency’? Then maybe don’t prop up fascists while killing women, immigrants and the working class. You built this. I’m just handing out the receipts.”

RELATED: ‘Lectern guy’ from Jan. 6 running for election in Florida to promote ‘MAGA principles’

Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images

Davis, who is running in a deep-red district represented by Republican Congressman Vern Buchanan for over a decade, continued his unhinged rant on X, even urging people to divorce their spouses if they support Trump.

“If your husband or wife still supports trump, leave them. Divorce them. Kick their sorry f**king ass to the curb,” Davis said.

“They backed a pedophile. They cheered for a wannabe dictator. They watch this country burn … and f**king clap[.] And if they chose the rapist who wants to end elections, they don’t deserve your loyalty. Or your home. Or your f**king silence. They f**ked the country. Don’t let them f**k your life too.”

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​Mark davis, Donald trump, Florida, Florida republican, Florida democrat, House of representatives, Congress, Dhs, Department of homeland security, Kristi noem, House republicans, House democrats, Nazi, Leftist, Politics 

New information has surfaced regarding the January 7 death of Renee Nicole Good, who was shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer after obstructing a deportation operation and ultimately endangering the officers’ lives.

The Minnesota Star Tribune reported that Good suffered four gunshot wounds, contradicting earlier reports of the January 7 incident that said she had three gunshot wounds.

Good was brought out of the vehicle to a snowbank and then the sidewalk to get ‘separation from an escalating scene involving law enforcement and bystanders.’

Citing the Minneapolis Fire Department’s incident report acquired through a state Data Practices Act request, the Tribune reported that paramedics found Good unresponsive, not breathing, and with an “inconsistent” and “irregular” pulse.

Good was brought out of the vehicle to a snowbank and then the sidewalk to get “separation from an escalating scene involving law enforcement and bystanders,” the Tribune wrote.

RELATED: ‘That’s what the Bible tells us’: Renee Good’s former in-law surprises CNN host with his message

Photo by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU / AFP via Getty Images

According to the Star Tribune, the incident report said that Good had two gunshot wounds to her right chest, one on her left forearm, and one “with protruding tissue on the left side of [her] head.”

Blood was flowing out of her left ear, according to the outlet’s summary of the report.

Lifesaving efforts were given at the scene of the shooting, in the ambulance on the way to the hospital, and at the hospital, Hennepin County Medical Center. These efforts were stopped around 10:30 a.m.

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​Politics, Renee good, Renee nicole good, Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota star tribune, Police report, Ice, Immigration and customs enforcement 

Four articles of impeachment have been filed against Minnesota Democrat Governor Tim Walz, and BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales believe not only that it has been a long time coming, but that far more needs to be done to rectify his actions.

“A person whose name is always synonymous with Somali fraud, it seems — sorry, I guess legally I have to say, like, ‘allegedly,’ seems like things are coming back to bite him,” Gonzales says on “Sara Gonzales Unfiltered.” “Of course, I’m talking about Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.”

“Now, I would say, if the left wants to constantly impeach Donald Trump over nothing, we should probably impeach all of them over the things that they did that are actually crimes,” she continues.

The four articles that have been filed against Tim Walz include Article I: Violation of Oath of Office through Concealment of Fraud; Article II: Interference with Oversight and Investigations; Article III: Prioritizing Political Considerations Over Lawful Administration; and Article IV: Failure to Steward Public Funds.

“The only way in which he gets away with this is that it’s Democrat-run in Minnesota and the Democrats just won’t ever do this to one of their own. That’s the only way, because all the receipts we’ve gone over ad nauseum, like, the receipts are there that he did all of these things,” Gonzales says.

Walz has also dropped out of the next gubernatorial race, which he claimed he was doing to get to the bottom of the fraud.

“Tim Walz is like, ‘I’m dropping out to help get to the bottom of’ why he was such a facilitator to fraud, I guess,” Gonzales mocks, before playing a clip of Walz making the excuse.

“Every minute that I spend defending my own political interest would be a minute I can’t spend defending the people of Minnesota against the criminals who prey on our generosity and the cynics who want to prey on our differences,” Walz announced.

“So I’ve decided to step out of this race, and I’ll let others worry about the election while I focus on the work that’s in front of me for the next year,” he added.

“Oh, okay. It’s all the other people who are the problem,” Gonzales says.

“Now, obviously, I think Tim Walz should be impeached. I actually like President Trump’s idea better, which is that he just needs to be hauled away in handcuffs, which is what he posted on Truth Social,” she laughs.

“That is my president,” she adds.

Want more from Sara Gonzales?

To enjoy more of Sara’s no-holds-barred takes on news and culture, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

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50 Cent is going from sin to sanctity.

Hot on the heels of his recent Netflix documentary on the debauched downfall of hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, the rapper turned producer is set to release an urban crime drama inspired by the life of fourth-century Ethiopian monk Moses the Black.

Even in our compromised state, saints remain scandalous and alluring precisely because they cut against our deepest desires and despair.

Fans of Fox Nation’s “Martin Scorsese Presents: The Saints” will remember the violent bandit turned desert-dwelling ascetic as one of the series’ most fascinating subjects. Officially recognized by Pope Leo XIII in 1887, the former slave has long been venerated as the patron saint of nonviolence and is widely praised as a symbol of the power of peace and repentance.

Out for blood

“Moses the Black,” a loose retelling of that story set against the backdrop of modern-day Chicago, follows Malik (Omar Epps), a gang leader fresh out of prison and seeking to avenge his murdered friend.

Complicating his quest his is grandmother, an Orthodox Christian who gives him an icon of St. Moses, whom she describes as a “saint who was also a gang member.” Haunted by frustration, loss, and a lifetime of sins, Malik starts having visions of the saint, who warns him that the bloody path he has embarked upon is one he will regret.

“Moses” — which also features hip-hop notables Wiz Khalifa and Quavo — makes for an interesting companion piece to director Yelena Popovic’s previous outing, 2021 St. Nektarios biopic “Man of God.” Where that film depicts sanctity as something preserved through obedience and suffering, “Moses” imagines it reclaimed from disorder.

Mean streets

Malik navigates an inner city filled with dealers and enforcers locked into violent criminal lives, casually killing rivals or shooting up funerals over petty grudges. These sequences are among the film’s darkest and do not soften their portrayal of brutality or drug use.

“Moses” is clearly a personal project for the platinum-selling artist born Curtis Jackson, whose own background mirrors Malik’s. Raised by a single mother in Jamaica, Queens — herself a drug dealer who was murdered when he was 8 — Jackson entered the drug trade at a young age. After barely surviving an attack by a rival in 2000, Jackson released his debut “Get Rich or Die Tryin'” in 2003.

Although that album cemented Jackson’s association with the violence and materialism of gangsta rap, its cover found him wearing a jewel-encrusted cross necklace. The tension between survival and transformation is one Jackson understands firsthand.

As he has said:

I believe in God. I didn’t survive being shot nine times for nothing. I didn’t claw my way out of the ‘hood just ’cause it was something to do. I know I’ve got a purpose, a reason for being on this planet. I don’t think I’ve done everything I’m supposed to do yet. But I do know this: I ain’t going nowhere ’til I’ve done it all.

Redemption song

There is something unsettling and compelling about the lives of saints. Even in our compromised state, they remain scandalous and alluring precisely because they cut against our deepest desires and despair. The film’s greatest strength is its depiction of how Catholics and Orthodox Christians turn to saints during moments of trial, seeking models of repentance and change — models Malik strains toward but does not easily inhabit.

RELATED: Blaze News original: 6 more pro-Trump rappers

Steven Ferdman/GC Images/Getty Images

The film’s ambitions, however, exceed its budget. Extensive handheld camerawork — whether a stylistic or budgetary choice — sits uneasily beside green-screen flashbacks and CGI-heavy desert scenes. The rough Chicago footage clashes with these elements, and the film might have benefited from a tighter focus on Malik’s interior struggle. Exaggerated performances from the supporting cast further push many scenes into melodrama.

Despite its “faith-based” trappings, “Moses the Black” is emphatically not a family film. It includes graphic violence, coarse language, and crude sexual innuendo, narrowing its audience to those inclined to receive its warning. Still, its central claim — that mercy extends even to the gravest sinners — lands with force in a culture starved for hope.

“Moses the Black” will be released through Fathom Entertainment on January 30.

​Moses the black, 50 cent, Entertainment, Culture, Movies, Orthodox christianity, Omar epps, Hip hop, Faith, Review 

Boys playing on the girls’ soccer team? It’s the American way.

That’s the bizarre message of a new ad in which a motley assemblage of actors and athletes lecture the viewer on the importance of allowing male high school athletes to compete against females.

‘Time and time again, we see powerful politicians fixate on trans kids.’

Released Monday, the 30-second clip kicks off the ACLU’s “More Than a Game” campaign, which seeks to draw attention to two Supreme Court cases the organization brought challenging state bans on transgender-identified biological males playing women’s sports.

‘Free’-for-all

In the spot, celebs ranging from soccer player turned activist Megan Rapinoe to actors Naomi Watts and Elliot (née Ellen) Page deliver feel-good, fact-free slogans like, “Supporting trans youth isn’t just about sports. It’s about freedom.”

The ad also claims that transgender children are “the living, breathing fabric of this country.”

“Sports are for every kid who wants to play — including trans youth,” the ACLU wrote in a message underneath the clip.

RELATED: ACLU’s Alligator Alcatraz lawsuit CRUSHED: Trump judge smacks down liberal bid to close facility meant for illegal aliens

Targeting ‘trans’

The group simultaneously released a petition against what it calls the Trump administration’s “attacks” on “trans kids.”

“Over the last several years, politicians across the country have targeted trans people and our families — and under the Trump administration, these attacks have only gotten more unconscionable and cruel,” the organization wrote in a statement accompanying the petition.

“One of their most consistent targets? Trans student athletes. Time and time again, we see powerful politicians fixate on trans kids and attempt to ban them from playing school sports with their friends.”

Without providing any citations, the ACLU claimed children have been subjected to “invasive and demeaning sex testing” which has allegedly resulted in “all of us [being] less safe and free to be ourselves.”

As of this writing, the petition has secured some 23,500 of the 25,000 signatures it seeks.

RELATED: Pro-transgender Seattle Kraken jersey enrages NHL fans: ‘Feel some trans joy’

Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images

Ban wagon

Other notable personalities to appear in the ACLU’s commercial included former WNBA player Sue Bird, current WNBA player Brianna Turner, actress Kara Young, and fashion designer Willy Chavarria.

Following oral arguments Tuesday, a majority of the justices signaled skepticism toward the challenges, suggesting the bans are likely to be upheld. The Court is expected to issue a formal ruling by late spring or summer.

​News, Align, Celebrities, Transgenderism, Scotus, Supreme court, Entertainment 

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) is pushing back against what he sees as growing uncertainty in Washington over abortion policy, rejecting any flexibility on federal abortion funding and warning against loosening long-standing pro-life protections.

“Federal dollars should not pay for abortion, period,” Cassidy told Blaze News.

‘The president is the straw that stirs the drink. He needs to be engaged. If he’s not, we won’t get a deal. If he does get engaged, we can get a deal.’

Cassidy made the remarks in response to questions from Rebeka Zeljko of Blaze News following a Senate hearing that examined chemical abortion and federal health policy.

President Donald Trump said pro-life advocates may need to be “flexible” on the Hyde Amendment, a decades-old provision that prevents taxpayer dollars from being used to pay for most abortions.

RELATED: Pro-abortion doctor gets dismantled by Hawley on men and pregnancy: ‘I don’t know how we can take you seriously’

For many conservatives, Hyde has long been viewed as one of the final federal safeguards limiting government involvement in abortion.

“I’m still not quite sure what he meant by that,” Cassidy said of Trump’s remarks, noting that the White House later appeared to walk them back. “Because he backed off on it a little bit.”

As chair of the Senate Health Committee, Cassidy said the larger concern is not campaign rhetoric but policy decisions that, in his view, have quietly expanded abortion access through the back door, particularly with the abortion drug mifepristone.

“It’s not like Tylenol,” Cassidy told Blaze News.

Cassidy pointed to Biden-era changes that allow mifepristone to be prescribed without an in-person doctor visit, a shift he said removed basic medical and ethical guardrails.

“This pill is only supposed to be given up to 10 weeks of pregnancy. If a woman who’s at 20 weeks of pregnancy takes the pill, she could have a complication, a terrible complication. A woman with an ectopic pregnancy can have a complication.”

Cassidy also warned that the lack of oversight has opened the door to coercion and abuse.

RELATED: ‘Massive betrayal’: Republicans, pro-life groups push back on Trump’s call to loosen key abortion restriction

Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

“The fact that you can go online, click in your name as Michael Smith — not a female, but Michael Smith — you can get a pill and then give it to your girlfriend without her knowledge, or force her to take it, is wrong,” he said.

He argued that returning to pre-Biden rules would restore physician oversight, protect women from medical harm, and ensure that abortion is not treated as a routine, consequence-free decision.

Cassidy was also asked about recent reporting that the Trump administration restored tens of millions of dollars in Title X funding to Planned Parenthood after a lawsuit was dismissed.

Cassidy said he had not reviewed the specifics of the report but made his position clear.

“I voted for Planned Parenthood to be defunded,” he said.

The funding move has raised alarms among pro-life advocates, who argue that even restricted federal dollars ultimately prop up the nation’s largest abortion provider. The decision has added to frustration within the conservative base, particularly as chemical abortions now account for a growing share of procedures nationwide.

RELATED: California’s abortion ‘trauma’ sanctuary: Newsom refuses to extradite accused doctor to ‘pro-life’ Louisiana

Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images

Cassidy confirmed he is part of a group engaged in ongoing discussions with the White House as health care negotiations continue, including talks tied to the Affordable Care Act.

‘The president is the straw that stirs the drink,” Cassidy said. “He needs to be engaged. If he’s not, we won’t get a deal. If he does get engaged, we can get a deal.”

While Cassidy said he remains hopeful the administration will ultimately strengthen pro-life policies through regulatory action, he acknowledged growing concern among conservatives that early promises are being tested by bureaucratic inertia.

Asked about reports of rising abortion rates since the overturning of Roe v. Wade, Cassidy said the issue goes beyond legislation.

“We [members of Congress] are a reflection of culture,” he said. “We need our culture to change.”

Cassidy pointed to pregnancy resource centers, adoption services, and community support as the real front lines of the pro-life movement.

“It isn’t a congressman or a senator that makes that decision,” he said. “It is the people in our communities.”

For now, Cassidy is drawing a clear line: no flexibility on Hyde, no normalization of chemical abortion, and no retreat from the pro-life safeguards conservatives have fought decades to secure.

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​Politics, Abortion, Abortion pill, Mifepristone, Pro-life, Baby, Children, Unborn children, Abortion rights, Abortion rights activists, Drugs, Pills 

The Stanley Cup champions were not shy about showing their support for President Trump.

The Florida Panthers visited the White House to celebrate their second-straight league championship over the Edmonton Oilers.

‘I’m so proud to be an American, and I’m so proud to be here with you.’

Trump praised the team on Thursday, shaking hands and listing accomplishments as he remarked that many of the players and staff would be participating in the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy, many of them representing the United States.

Before accepting gifts from the players, the president introduced team owner and billionaire Vincent Viola, who made the Panthers’ support for the administration indisputable.

“I’m going to make it pretty clear that we are honored to be here, we are honored to be here with you as the president,” Viola said, keeping his words short.

Then star player Matthew Tkachuk took the podium to relish being an American at the White House.

“I want to say on behalf of the whole organization, mainly the players, we are so honored to be here. Being an American … nothing beats this, I’m so proud to be an American, and I’m so proud to be here with you,” Tkachuk said, motioning to Trump.

RELATED: Video: Golfer attacks NHL fighter, learns valuable lesson: ‘You’re not a tough guy!’

Tkachuk noted the pain and effort that is required to win a Stanley Cup, stating, “Winning, it takes a toll, you pay a price for it.”

The 28-year-old certainly relished the moment and said he looked forward to wearing the red, white, and blue at the Winter Olympics.

“Representing you and the millions back here, next month at the Olympics, will be one of the highlights of my life as well,” he told the president.

Defenseman Seth Jones then presented President Trump with a Stanley Cup ring, captain Aleksander “Sasha” Barkov gave the president a No. 47 jersey, and Tkachuk presented Trump with a golden hockey stick.

As the team dispersed, an orchestral version of “We Are the Champions” by Queen played as Trump walked off the stage.

RELATED: Gov. DeSantis trolls Canada over lack of Stanley Cup wins as Canadian tourists pour into Florida despite claims of boycott

Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

The Panthers kept the Stanley Cup out of the hands of Canadian teams for yet another year with their second-straight win over the Oilers and their third-straight appearance in the finals.

No Canadian team has won the cup since the 1993 Montreal Canadiens. Interestingly Florida’s other team, the Tampa Bay Lightning, appeared in three-straight finals before the Panthers and won two also.

Oilers captain Connor McDavid, who is widely regarded as the best player in the world, has split fans in recent years for defending the highly controversial gay pride nights in the NHL.

“It’s not my call, but obviously it’s disappointing,” he said in 2023. “I certainly can’t speak for every organization. … I know in Edmonton, we were one of the first teams to use the Pride tape,” the star boasted.

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While there have been mixed reactions to the January 3 capture of Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro by the U.S., few have shown greater support for the move than opposition leader Maria Corina Machado.

On Thursday, Machado visited President Donald Trump at the White House and presented him with her Nobel Peace Prize, which she won in October.

‘María presented me with her Nobel Peace Prize for the work I have done.’

When asked in a Fox interview why she gave her medal to the president of the United States, Machado had a simple answer: “Because he deserves it.”

“It was a very emotional moment. I decided to present the Nobel Peace Prize medal on behalf of the people of Venezuela.”

RELATED: Venezuelan freedom fighter wins Nobel Peace Prize — and she immediately dedicates it to Trump for his support

Photo by Drew ANGERER/AFP via Getty Images

The medal was presented to Trump in a large golden frame with text that reads: “To President Donald J. Trump in Gratitude for Your Extraordinary Leadership in Promoting Peace Through Strength.” The text further calls the award a “Personal Symbol of Gratitude on behalf of the Venezuelan People.”

After the meeting, Trump wrote on Truth Social: “María presented me with her Nobel Peace Prize for the work I have done. Such a wonderful gesture of mutual respect. Thank you María!”

A White House official confirmed to CNBC that Trump intends to keep the medal.

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​Politics, Maria corina machado, President trump, Nicolas maduro, Venezuela, Nobel peace prize, White house, Trump, Donald trump 

A day-care worker in Minnesota confessed to “intentionally suffocating” an 11-month-old boy who died last fall, police told WCCO-TV, adding that it was “an attention-seeking act.”

Theah Loudemia Russell, 18, is in custody and will face a second-degree murder charge and other charges, Savage Police Chief Brady Juell told the station, which added that formal charges were expected to be filed Thursday.

Authorities investigating Russell’s background found ‘a documented history of attention-seeking behavior,’ including ‘nonsensical’ 911 calls, fire-starting, and ‘erratic behavior toward other children,’ Juell added to the station.

A 911 call came from Rocking Horse Ranch in Savage on Sept. 22 reporting that a child — later identified as 11-month-old Harvey Muklebust — was not breathing, WCCO said.

Authorities responded, and the boy was taken to a hospital where he later died, the station said.

Three days before, Savage police responded to Rocking Horse Ranch on a report of an unresponsive 4-month-old, the chief told WCCO. In addition, just two hours before the 911 call about the 11-month-old boy, the same 4-month-old child was found unresponsive, but police were not called, the station said.

RELATED: Day-care worker accused of child abuse; father of alleged victim posts images of 1-year-old son’s mangled face

Juell told WCCO that Russell’s “behavior and actions at the scene immediately raised suspicion, drawing investigative focus to her as the primary person of interest.”

Authorities investigating Russell’s background found “a documented history of attention-seeking behavior,” including “nonsensical” 911 calls, fire-starting, and “erratic behavior toward other children,” Juell added to the station.

Following a three-month investigation, Juell told KTSP-TV a clear pattern emerged: Russell was involved in all three incidents at the day care, had the last contacts with the children before the incidents occurred — and exhibited suspicious behavior in the immediate aftermath of each incident.

Russell in an interview with police confessed to “intentionally suffocating” Muklebust and the other child “in an attention-seeking act,” Juell told WCCO, adding that she “confessed to the attempted murder of our first victim on two occasions and to the murder of Harvey Muklebust.”

Russell had worked at the day care for only three weeks before the boy’s death, Juell noted to the station.

WCCO said that after the infant’s death, Rocking Horse Ranch owner Lisa Weiss told the station she had no comment.

The Minnesota Department of Human Services said it suspended Rocking Horse Ranch’s license on Sept. 23 but that the suspension is under appeal.

Russell on Friday was listed on the inmate roster at Scott County Jail. She’s also facing felony assault charges, jail records show.

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​Murder charge, Assault charge, Day-care center, Minnesota, Arrest, Confession, 11-month-old victim, Crime