Category: blaze media

I recently traveled to Georgia to speak at an event. The trip out went smoothly. For the return, I arrived at the Atlanta airport early for a flight to Denver, then Bozeman.

That was the itinerary. The weather had prepared a competing proposal.

Back on the interstate, the bus lurched through every curve and pothole. By dawn, the airport was in sight. We perked up. Too soon.

Storms in Denver delayed us in Atlanta for an hour and a half. Once airborne, we took a longer route around the weather, only to learn that Denver was no longer an option.

We diverted to Grand Junction, which is not Denver.

I cannot blame the airline for the weather. Colorado has never shown much interest in coordinating its thunderstorms with commercial aviation.

In Grand Junction, we sat on the tarmac another hour awaiting news.

I will not identify the airline. I will only say its name rhymes with “reunited,” which none of us were with our schedules, connecting flights, or remaining optimism.

By the time a plan emerged, the pilots had timed out. Several flight attendants had timed out. Before long, most passengers had emotionally timed out as well.

With no hotel rooms available, the airline announced that three buses would take us the nearly 250 miles to Denver.

On the bus, passengers offered plans for Denver. Someone suggested that we pray for the sweet embrace of death.

Granted, that passenger was me. But still, somebody said it.

Heading into the Colorado darkness toward the Rockies, there was a mild discussion about renaming ourselves the Donner Party.

Somewhere east of Grand Junction, our bus began breaking down. The driver limped into a gas station parking lot.

RELATED: What Montana taught this Southern storyteller about shutting up

Karla Ann Cote/NurPhoto/Getty Images

We needed a replacement. We waited another hour and a half.

“Where are we?” someone asked.

“One of Dante’s circles,” I muttered.

The gas station sat beside a dark river that, by then, I could only assume was the Styx. I scanned the water for Charon. His ferry seemed more dependable than our bus.

Eventually, word came that another bus was being sent. We had started with three. Now a fourth was coming to our rescue.

“Oh yay,” I sighed. “The fourth bus of the Apocalypse.”

When it arrived, the absurdity developed a liability problem.

One passenger was a man with disabilities. Neither bus was accessible. Airport personnel had helped him onto the first, but at the gas station, we had no equipment and no trained crew.

Thankfully, my wife, Gracie, was safe at home in Montana. After 40 years of caring for her, I recognized the unspoken assumption: Exhausted passengers with no equipment would somehow transfer this gentleman.

But “we’ll figure it out” is not a safe plan.

One wrong move could have sent him or one of us to the emergency room, with a deposition to follow.

I called the local paramedics and asked for trained help. They eagerly arrived and got him safely onto the replacement bus.

Despite the sighs, dark jokes, and a smattering of words unsuitable for an airport announcement, nobody came to blows, left anyone behind, or became the star of an airport video.

When the transfer was complete, I told the paramedics to send the bill to the airline. While they were at it, they could add my consulting fee.

Back on the interstate, the bus lurched through every curve and pothole. By dawn, the airport was in sight.

We perked up.

Too soon.

At the airport, our driver hit the clearance sign warning that the bus was too tall. The sign, unlike most of the evening’s arrangements, proved accurate.

He backed away and found another way in. We could see the terminal. Several of us pleaded to walk.

One even whimpered.

OK, that was me too.

By then, it seemed the airport simply did not want us there.

RELATED: The myth of the ‘good person’

Calvindexter/Getty Images

Inside, airline staff began sorting out missed connections. An agent was helping me when another came to the desk and said, to no one in particular, that a passenger was unhappy and she wasn’t going to deal with the person.

I don’t know what had happened between them. But after our night, I was surprised she’d found only one.

As Election Day approaches, I keep thinking about that gas station and a bus full of strangers.

Many people feel stranded, waiting for somebody who promised to get them where they need to go. Promises count, and people should be held to them. But at 2 o’clock in the morning, the man at risk could not wait for the people who had sent us down that road to reappear.

Our driver knew who to call for another bus. I knew who to call for trained help. The paramedics came. The rest of us waited when all we wanted was to get moving.

Strangers worked together, and the man came with us.

We can disagree about the route, the driver, and whose job it was to send the bus. When someone is at risk, we can still pull together, find help, and wait until everyone is aboard.

United was printed on our tickets.

By dawn, I knew the difference between putting it on a ticket and putting it into practice.

​Airport, Bus, Denver, Disabilities, Travel, Weather, United airlines, Cancelled flights, Opinion & analysis 

The education of America’s youth is rapidly changing, as more and more parents recognize the failures of the public school system and take matters into their own hands.

“I think the odds that education is going to completely change in America over the next five to 10 years are very high, because we are seeing individuals want to take individual responsibility over raising their kids,” PragerU CEO Marissa Streit tells Glenn Beck.

Now that an abundance of high-quality alternatives are available, the days of relying on “the experts” for resources are over.

“I think what we call the educational industrial complex is going to now see a complete alternative economy. There’s going to be a new economy in education that is created thanks to technology,” says Streit.

Glenn is thrilled to see the shift, because much of what public schools have been teaching he calls downright “hair-raising.”

After a “deep dive” into America’s education system, Streit says she found that the issues are well beyond “woke books,” critical race theory, and progressive teachers’ unions.

“The new Trojan horse that I want to warn everybody against is ethnic studies,” she tells Glenn.

Streit says ethnic studies, which began in California, is now in about 26 states. She warns it “creates this paradigm of the oppressor versus the oppressed, rejecting the concept of individualism and the power of the individual and pushing collective grievance.”

To illustrate, she displays a book that is used and recommended in some ethnic-studies circles titled “Lessons in Liberation: An Abolitionist Toolkit for Educators.”

The resource was produced by the Education for Liberation Network — a radical “education for liberation” coalition — and Critical Resistance, a prison abolition group co-founded by communist Angela Davis and Ruth Wilson Gilmore.

While the book covers many subjects, the chapter Streit finds most offensive covers a concept called “adultism” — which frames adults as oppressors and children as the oppressed.

“Let’s say you’re an adult and you tell your daughter that she should probably restrain from having sexual intimacy with someone while she’s still a child. When you do that, according to this lesson plan in this tool kit … you are a totalitarian oppressor because you should allow the child to make their own decision,” she explains.

“Let’s say you tell your child to not dress a certain way because it’s inappropriate. You’re engaged in this pejorative adultism. The parent knows nothing. The government knows everything, and the government tells the child that they are their own sovereign selves,” Streit continues.

But the book doesn’t stop at villainizing the traditional parent-child relationship, she says; it also whitewashes gangs and terrorists.

“There’s a chapter about how gangs and terrorists are really not that bad because it’s their way to express themselves. Specifically they say that people of color need to express themselves through gangs,” says Streit.

She then holds up a 2025 Chicago Teachers Union May Day packet that she says “trains teachers” to prepare students for “communist May Day.” One prompt asks, “What hardships are people in your community facing since Donald Trump was re-elected in November?” Others have students discuss identifying and resisting fascism, tyranny, and authoritarianism.

Streit explains that these teacher resources are deliberately designed to be “the path of least resistance,” so that educators have easy, ready-to-teach materials that require virtually no effort on their part.

“Whether you’re teaching K-2, 3rd-5th, or 6th grade and up, you have a file that will tell you exactly what to teach, and it will recommend books,” she explains.

Streit says she is often asked how any American publication company could possibly put such materials into print, but publishers are often part of the same pipeline as the unions creating the resources.

Scholastic, she says, is a crucial component of the circulation of materials centered around woke ideologies, including “critical race theory [and the] Reconquista movement — the idea that we stole the land from Mexico and therefore we have to allow people to reconquer it.”

She points to a 5th-grade Scholastic Gold title called “The Land of the Cranes,” which follows a girl whose family is held in ICE detention and treats crossing the border and resisting immigration enforcement as a righteous return to ancestral land.

It all boils down to “money and power,” says Streit.

“You have the teachers’ unions and the NGOs creating tool kits. The tool kits guarantee the publishers that they will sell the books that are recommended in the tool kits. And so every year the publishers are going to make all this money as long as they keep up with the political agenda. … The entire complex supports each other,” she says.

To hear more about the spreading rot in America’s public school system, watch the video above.

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​Critical race theory, Ethnic studies, Glenn beck, Prager university, Blazetv show 

Federal immigration officials implied that a Guatemalan man accused of horrific crimes involving a 14-year-old girl is illegally in the U.S.

Marion County prosecutors say 20-year-old Alexis Pinto led Indiana police on a high-speed chase that led to his car being submerged in Fall Creek in Indianapolis.

‘Because sanctuary cities refuse to work with ICE law enforcement, criminal illegal aliens are released from jails into American communities to commit more crimes.’

The Sept. 13 incident left a 14-year-old female passenger with “catastrophic” injuries.

Pinto was already being sought on child sex criminal warrants involving the same teen girl when he crashed the car.

The man was allegedly driving a stolen car when an Indiana State Police trooper spotted him traveling westbound on Interstate 70, according to a probable cause affidavit.

The trooper tried to stop the car, and Pinto instead tried to flee at speeds between 90 and 100 miles per hour.

Pinto drove into opposite traffic on Interstate 65 before losing control and tumbling the car into Fall Creek.

He was swimming away from the submerged car and told arriving police that someone else was inside.

The girl was transported to a hospital with “catastrophic” injuries, and doctors described her prognosis as “grim.”

Pinto was also hospitalized before he was booked into jail. He was charged with felonies including resisting law enforcement resulting in catastrophic injury, criminal recklessness, and auto theft.

A statement from Immigration and Customs Enforcement indicated that Pinto had been previously arrested for assault and called him an illegal alien.

“ICE Chicago’s Indianapolis suboffice officers lodged an immigration detainer with the Indiana State Police and Marion County Jail against Alexis Pinto, 20, of Guatemala, on Sept. 13, 2026,” read the ICE statement.

RELATED: ‘Cold-blooded’ illegal alien murdered 15-year-old who was trying to stop him from raping his mother, ICE says

“Pinto was convicted of second-degree assault on Feb. 4, 2026,” the statement continued.

“The safest way to arrest and remove criminal illegal aliens from our streets is by honoring immigration detainers,” ICE added. “Because sanctuary cities refuse to work with ICE law enforcement, criminal illegal aliens are released from jails into American communities to commit more crimes.”

Court documents said Pinto had picked up the 14-year-old girl in Newark, New Jersey, and took her to Baltimore, Maryland, to live with him.

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​Sanctuary cities, Illegal alien crime, Child sex crimes, Politics 

A political ad against Democrat candidate Abdul El-Sayed is being called one of the most powerful ads of this election period.

The video shows El-Sayed, who is running for U.S. Senate in Michigan, refusing to disavow the disturbing views of socialist streamer Hasan Piker, who has said that America “deserved” the 9/11 terror attacks.

‘I’m not here to disavow people’s views.’

“Some of you have heard about my son. His name was Todd Beamer,” says David Beamer as photos flash of happier times with his son.

“He had little boys age 3 and a half and 1 and a half. He had a wife, Lisa. She was five months pregnant,” he adds.

Todd Beamer was on the infamous United Flight 93 when Islamic terrorists hijacked the plane with intentions of crashing it into a prominent building, perhaps the U.S. Capitol. He was famously overheard on the phone call with a phone operator before passengers decided to confront the hijackers.

“They took a vote and decided, ‘We need to fight back,'” his father says in the video.

“Then they responded to him, and he said, ‘OK. Let’s roll,'” phone operator Lisa Jefferson recounts.

Todd Beamer’s actions and those of the passengers and crew likely saved many American lives. The plane crashed in a Pennsylvania field instead of hitting its intended target.

“Those 43 people on Flight 93 were not victims. They were killed in action,” continues David Beamer.

“When I hear anyone suggest America deserves 9/11, my question is: Who would say that?” he concludes.

The ad continues with comments from Piker on livestreamed video defending the terrorists’ actions.

“America deserved 9/11, dude. I’m saying it!” Piker said in 2019.

It concludes with El-Sayed refusing to reject Piker’s views.

“Abdul, are there are any views that Hasan holds that you disavow?” asks a reporter.

RELATED: Ocasio-Cortez REFUSES to distance herself from extremist influencer

“I’m not here to disavow people’s views,” El-Sayed says in the video.

Many online reacted emotionally to the political ad, which called on voters to reject El-Sayed and support Republican Mike Rogers.

In August, El-Sayed did refer to Piker’s comments as “dumb” but did not say whether he would stop campaigning with the streamer.

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​9/11 anniversary, Abdul el-sayed, Hasan piker, Mike rogers, Political ad, Politics 

A male on parole is accused of breaking into a California home in broad daylight last week.

The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office Emergency Communications Center said it received a 911 call from a resident in the 3900 block of Walnut Street in Eureka just after 4:30 p.m. last Monday reporting that he shot a male who had forcibly entered his home.

The victim was not injured during the incident, officials said, adding that he was not arrested in connection with the shooting, either.

The resident reported that suspect fled the area on foot toward Walnut Drive, officials said, adding that deputies responded to the scene, along with officers from the Eureka Police Department.

A male matching the suspect’s description was located in the area of W Street and Glatt Street suffering from a gunshot wound, officials said.

Emergency medical personnel who were already staged in the area responded and transported the suspect to a local hospital for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries, officials said.

The suspect was identified as 30-year-old Taren Joseph Ray Aubrey of Eureka, officials said.

Based on evidence recovered at the scene, along with victim and witness statements, officials said deputies determined that Aubrey had forcibly entered the home before being shot.

Upon being released from the hospital, Aubrey was taken to the Humboldt County Correctional Facility and booked on the following charges, officials said: burglary, felon/addict in possession of a firearm, unauthorized entry of an occupied dwelling, and violation of parole.

RELATED: Florida female allegedly tries breaking into home before dawn; homeowner warns her that he’s armed — but she won’t go away

Image source: Humboldt County (Calif.) Sheriff’s Office

The victim was not injured during the incident, officials said, adding that he was not arrested in connection with the shooting, either.

The victim was in fear for his life when Aubrey was shot, officials said, citing evidence gathered during the investigation.

The case has been forwarded to the Humboldt County District Attorney’s Office for review, officials said.

Those with information regarding this case are encouraged to contact the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office at 707-445-7251 or the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office Tip Line at 707-268-2539, officials said.

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​California, Home invasion, Parolee, Arrest, Humboldt county sheriff’s office, 2nd amendment, Guns, Gun rights, Self-defense, Homeowner shoots intruder, Crime 

President Trump announced Friday that CNN, MS NOW, and Politico were banned from the White House, effective immediately.

By Saturday morning, the ban was real. Reporters from all three organizations were turned away from the White House grounds. Press passes were disabled or confiscated, Reuters reported. By Monday morning, the media companies were filing lawsuits.

The First Amendment establishes a floor. A president who professes devotion to free speech should aim higher.

The reaction from plenty of people on the right was predictable: Good! About time! A friend of mine reposted Trump’s announcement on Facebook with three words: “Late but welcome.”

I understand the sentiment. I don’t share it.

The institutional press has spent years torching its own credibility. CNN can be grossly unfair. Politico can be tendentious. And MS NOW is simply unwatchable. Reporters make mistakes, protect narratives, follow ideological fashions, and regularly publish garbage. Trump is perfectly entitled to say so.

But none of that answers the question: What should government do about it?

The First Amendment issue here is more complicated than the knee-jerk reactions suggest. Reporters possess no free-floating constitutional right to enter the Oval Office, fly on Air Force One, join the presidential press pool, or demand an interview with the president.

The courts have never said otherwise.

In fact, the White House won an important round last year when the Associated Press sued after being excluded over its refusal to adopt “Gulf of America.” In a June order, two D.C. Circuit judges concluded that restricted presidential spaces such as the Oval Office, Air Force One, and Mar-a-Lago are not First Amendment forums. The White House therefore retains considerable discretion over which journalists get in — even, the judges said, on the basis of viewpoint.

Brian Stelter can hyperventilate all he likes. CNN does not own a chair in the Oval Office.

But the same ruling reaffirmed an older rule.

When the White House opens press facilities generally to “bona fide journalists” — the Brady Briefing Room, for example — access cannot be denied arbitrarily or because officials dislike a journalist’s speech. That principle goes back to the D.C. Circuit’s 1977 decision in Sherrill v. Knight.

Trump has now gone well beyond leaving CNN out of the Oval Office pool.

RELATED: CNN says Trump press ban is illegal — then the Trump team THROWS DOWN fiery response

Graeme Sloan/Getty Images

He has revoked ordinary White House access for entire news organizations because, by his own account, he objects to their journalism. “They purposely write negative news,” he said Friday.

Lawyers can argue about where precisely the First Amendment line falls. Presidents are better off staying well away from it.

Especially presidents who have spent years railing against censorship, government pressure on social media companies, and official efforts to suppress disfavored speech.

Trump began his second term with an executive order declaring government censorship undertaken to advance a “preferred narrative … intolerable in a free society.” Vice President JD Vance went to Munich weeks later and delivered a speech excoriating European governments for restricting disfavored speech.

Those principles are tested by speech you despise, not speech you welcome.

You cannot hate the media enough? Fine. Hate them.

Read somebody else. Watch somebody else. Mock them. Refute them. Support media companies that don’t hate your guts. Put every mistake the other guy makes on blast. When CNN or MS NOW botches a story, make them eat it for a month.

Bad journalism has a remedy in a free country: more speech.

Once government begins imposing penalties because officials despise the journalism, the question changes. It is no longer whether CNN deserves contempt. It is what power you are willing to give the state. Me? Not very much.

Barack Obama’s White House confronted the same temptation in 2009. Administration officials complained that Fox News operated more like an arm of the Republican Party than a news organization. When the White House tried to exclude Fox from a pool interview with a Treasury official, the other networks objected and threatened to pull out. The administration backed down.

Good.

Fox did not suddenly become acceptable in Obama’s sight. The administration stopped trying to settle an argument with a news organization by manipulating access.

Ronald Reagan had a better formulation. He had plenty of righteous complaints about hostile press coverage, but he called the antagonism between presidents and reporters “the friction of freedom.”

RELATED: So much for ‘Reliable Sources’!

Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for WarnerMedia

A year later, Reagan acknowledged that presidents naturally try to use the press to their advantage and avoid situations that hurt them. The press could take care of itself, he said, and so could the president.

His preferred epitaph for a president’s relationship with reporters was simple: “He gave as good as he got.”

That’s about right.

Nobody is asking Trump to admire CNN or pretend bad journalism is good journalism simply because reporters invoke the First Amendment.

Fight them. But fight them with words. They call it the bully pulpit for a reason.

And forget CNN for a moment.

Every presidential practice sets a precedent. Anyone cheering presidential punishment of a despised news organization today should decide whether he wants the same rule administered someday by a president who thinks Fox News, Blaze News, or some other right-wing outlet traffics in “negative news.”

That isn’t an argument for CNN. It’s an argument for us.

The safest rules governing government power are the ones you can tolerate when your enemies administer them.

Trump may ultimately prevail on some of the constitutional argument here. The D.C. Circuit has already recognized broad presidential authority over access to restricted spaces. Revoking ordinary White House credentials because of hostile coverage presents a different question.

The First Amendment establishes a floor. A president who professes devotion to free speech should aim higher.

CNN doesn’t need defending. The principle does.

Let them in anyway.

That’s the friction of freedom.

​Brian stelter, Censorship, Cnn, Donald trump, Fake news, First amendment, Free speech, Ms now, Opinion & analysis, Politico, Ronald reagan 

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is taking action to limit the impact of Muslim immigrants on her country.

Italy has taken on millions of immigrants from majority-Muslim countries because of its accessibility to boats carrying migrants across the Mediterranean Sea.

‘In Italy, no one, in the name of a real or supposed tradition, can decide that a young woman must hide herself.’

On Sunday, Meloni said that the country will ban burqas in schools and also limit the number of foreign students allowed in each class.

“You must go to ⁠school with your face uncovered, and in Italy, no one, in the name of a real or supposed tradition, can decide that a young woman must hide herself,” she said at an annual gathering of the youth in her party.

“A measure will soon be presented to a Cabinet meeting to legally establish a maximum number of foreign students per class,” Meloni added. “It also requires parents of foreign students facing serious difficulties integrating into the school system to learn Italian and bans burqas and niqabs in schools.”

About 12 in every 100 students in Italy are not citizens, according to one research study cited by NBC News. She argued that foreign students would have a tougher time integrating in schools with too many other foreign students.

“If there is only ⁠one child in a class who doesn’t understand Italian, that child will likely be able to learn the language and integrate quickly with the help of classmates and teachers,” Meloni continued. “However, if the number of children who don’t understand the language becomes large — or even ⁠the majority — that is no longer integration; it is neglect.”

Meloni was elected four years ago in part by Italians wanting a harder line against illegal immigration, and she has pressed for those policies despite criticism from the left.

She did not indicate what the numerical limit of foreign students might be.

BlazeTV host Steve Deace responded to the proposed ban in comments to Blaze News.

“It took a few years, but Meloni is finally living up to all her based rhetoric leading up to her election,” he said.

RELATED: MASSIVE PROTEST against illegal migrants OVERRUNNING tiny Spanish province: ‘Enough, Ceuta won’t give up!’

CAIR did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.

Meloni previously threatened to shut down an immigration agreement with Spain after illegal migrants from Morocco overran the border of the Ceuta province in northern Africa.

“The images coming from Ceuta are shocking and demonstrate, once again, that uncontrolled illegal immigration poses a real threat to the security of Europe’s borders,” read a translated post from Meloni on July 30.

“We will not yield an inch on the issue of illegal immigration,” she added.

The immigrant population in Italy has skyrocketed from about 423,000 in 1985 to about 5.8 million in 2024.

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​Giorgia meloni, Illegal immigration, Italy, Muslims, Islam, Burqa ban, Politics 

The smart TV on your wall isn’t just for watching shows and movies. It also might be spying on you. A bombshell report claims that some smart TVs are recording living room conversations, storing unencrypted transcripts, and sucking up other private data, all for “advertising” purposes. Here’s what you need to know and how to stop it.

During a two-hour video posted by Gamers Nexus, editor in chief Steve Burke argued that LG’s smart TVs can suck up an enormous amount of information about their users.

If you own a smart TV of any kind whatsoever, you’re still not completely safe.

“We were able to retrieve plain-text transcripts of voice conversations and inputs from the TV,” Burke claimed. His team also maintained that audio and video could be recorded and saved to a remote device, even while the TV was disconnected from the internet.

While the alleged conversation-recording capabilities would be the most alarming discovery, users could also face siphoning of other personal data. Burke said his test LG TV scoured his data network and saved an entire list of smart devices that were also linked to the same Wi-Fi address, including iPhones, Android devices, Apple Watches, routers, printers, PCs, and more. Burke further claimed it also marked down the IP address for the host network, as well as the individual IP addresses of the other located devices, and marked down the TV’s geographical location and the names of other nearby Wi-Fi networks.

That would amount to just about all the information available to the device.

Ultimately, Burke and others suggest, LG compiles this information and sells it to advertisers so that they can serve customers targeted ads through their LG Ad Solutions network. Gamers Nexus further claims, however, that LG and its partners aren’t the only ones that can access this data. Hackers may also get ahold of it through “remote code execution” vulnerabilities where they take control of a TV and manipulate its behavior.

To be clear, LG denied all of Burke’s claims. The company pushed back forcefully.

The claims made in the recently published video are not true. LG TVs process voice data only when the voice button on the remote control is pressed and held or when a wake word such as “Hi LG” is recognized after the user has activated the Far-Field voice recognition feature. Other than these instances, the TVs do not collect or record ambient conversations. (If the wake word is not recognized, no voice data is transmitted to the server; the audio processing for wake word detection is performed locally on the device and is immediately deleted.)

So where does this leave users?

RELATED: Your smart TV may be watching you back: NEW report reveals troubling details

Pat Gray Unleashed

At this point, whether or not you might worry about LG smart TVs in your home that might be recording your conversations, you might think you’re in the clear because you have an other-branded TV on the wall. Unfortunately, if you own a smart TV of any kind whatsoever, you’re still not completely safe.

Shortly after Burke published the initial video alleging LG’s surveillance machine, the Verge, a longtime mainstream tech media outlet, claimed that all smart TVs track their users through automatic content recognition. Built into most modern TVs, ACR monitors your screen to see what you watch. It can also capture audio and video from viewing sessions and send them to a server to help the TV provider deliver content recommendations or sell targeted ads.

Granted, ACR isn’t nearly as invasive as LG’s audio surveillance discovery is claimed to be, but it still proves that, at the very least, your viewing habits are being watched and monetized out from under you.

That brings us to the solution. If you own an LG TV and you’re wondering what to do next, here are some tips that can help.

Wipe and restore your smart TV as new. This process is a little different, depending on the year of your LG TV, but the goal is ultimately the same. We want to wipe any local data your TV already captured and stored, including surveillance data.Disconnect your TV from the internet. Cut off Wi-Fi access and unplug any ethernet cables attached to the back panel. If your TV can’t connect to the internet, it can’t transmit surveillance data. That said, Gamers Nexus discovered that LG TVs still capture conversations while disconnected, and they can relay transcripts if that connection is ever restored, so ensure you keep your LG TV away from your Wi-Fi for good.Give your TV a new brain. Since you now effectively turned your smart TV back into a dumb TV, you can get back some smart functionality by connecting a separate streaming device, preferably without ACR. Non-ACR options include the Apple TV and the Google TV Streamer, while Fire TV and Roku both come with ACR technology built in.

The best way to stop smart TV companies from spying on you is not to own a smart TV at all. However, new dumb TVs are hard to find these days, especially in larger form factors. At the very least, if you do plan to buy a new TV soon, shop carefully, and watch as events unfold.

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​Advertisers, Privacy, Spying, Tech, Surveillance 

Questions have swirled about Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar’s past for years, but one reporter from LindellTV finally had the guts to ask her these questions on camera.

Alison Steinberg stopped Omar in a congressional hallway and pressed her on a claim that BlazeTV host Pat Gray’s been waiting for.

“I have been waiting for this particular confrontation with Ilhan Omar for a long time. A long time. Somebody actually finally did it,” he says, before playing a clip of the tense encounter.

“Hi congresswoman, Tom Homan said that you’re under criminal investigation for immigration and marriage fraud,” Steinberg said, asking, “Any comment on that?”

“No, I don’t have a comment for that,” Omar responded through laughs.

“If there’s some marriage fraud,” Steinberg continued, “Can you just tell us straight up, did you marry your brother?”

“Absolutely not. What a ridiculous thing to ask,” Omar said, before adding, “Did you marry your brother?”

“Absolutely not,” Steinberg responded, but she wasn’t done.

“Why are you being criminally investigated?” she asked, to which Omar said, “I am not.”

Steinberg then pressed Omar as to whether or not Tom Homan, who has said otherwise, is a “liar.”

“He is, he’s been saying some dumb s**t like you,” Omar said angrily.

Gray couldn’t be more impressed with the young reporter.

“That’s great,” he says. “That’s not easy to do. That might look easy to do, but it isn’t.”

“Straight up,” he adds, “‘Did you marry your brother?’”

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​Alison steinberg, Criminal investigation, Ilhan omar, Immigration fraud, Lindell tv, Pat gray, Tom homan, Blazetv show 

Joe Biden has been out of office for almost two years now — so why does everything still feel so expensive?

As midterm elections draw nearer, that’s the question on the top of American minds, and BlazeTV host Ron Simmons has some answers.

While prices are up, Simmons points out that this all began under Biden, where “prices rose about 21%.”

“That’s over 5% a year. And since that time, since the second administration of President Trump, they’ve grown a little over 2% a year, about 2.5% a year,” he explains.

“When prices grew to 21%, so if something cost a dollar and then when Biden left it cost a $1.20, it didn’t go back down to a dollar when President Trump got elected,” he says.

“What he has done, and his administration have done, is they’ve just reduced how fast it’s increasing,” he adds.

Simmons explains that prices will go down when demand goes down.

“If you remember back to 2008, 2009, when they had the huge housing crisis, well, in 2007, do you know what interest rates were for mortgages at that time? Guess what they were. They’re right what they are right now, a little over 6%,” he explains.

“People lost their jobs and things, and there was more supply than there was demand,” he continues. “So they dropped interest rates and they brought interest rates down, probably too low, honestly — artificially low — and so you could buy a house at a 3% mortgage.”

“Then when the economy got better, and the fact that we pumped a lot of unnecessary money into the economy, interest rates went up because there ended up being more demand than there was supply,” he adds.

When the demand is high, the interest rates remain high.

“Now, what we don’t want to happen is another huge recession, obviously, but just remember how this happened,” he says, pointing out that Democrat policies have led us here.

“Housing has become dramatically more expensive during the Biden years,” he continues, noting that the Heritage Foundation has reported that the cost of financing a medium-priced home has risen 114% since 2021.

“At the same time, consumer prices have risen about 20%, which we talked about, and it costs about $13,300 more per year to purchase the same house, interest-rate-wise, than it did in 2021,” he says.

“Immigration was a part of this,” he explains. “When they opened the floodgates, more people coming into the country means there’s more demand for goods and services, and that increased the cost of living and housing.”

However, Simmons points out that the most expensive cities — San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Jose, New York, and Boston — are all run by Democrats.

“So just remember when you’re voting this time,” he adds.

Want more from Allie Beth Stuckey?

To enjoy more of Allie’s upbeat and in-depth coverage of culture, news, and theology from a Christian, conservative perspective, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Biden administration, Donald trump, Economy, Housing crisis, Inflation, Prices, Recession, Ron simmons, Midterms, Blazetv show 

An interview to mark the start of the NHL season went off the rails when an activist reporter hammered one of the league’s greatest players of all time with political questions.

Almost two weeks before the games start to count, Washington Capitals forward Alexander Ovechkin was talking to the media when an ESPN reporter started pelting him with question regarding a recent political ad he had been a part of.

She’s ‘got an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court for abducting Ukrainian children.’

Ovechkin, the NHL’s all-time goal-scoring leader — yes, he has scored even more goals than Wayne Gretzky — was featured in a pro-Russia ad for President Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party in the lead-up to the elections last weekend.

Although Ovechkin simply stood in the background during the ad, ESPN reporter Robert Klemko — who is half-Ukrainian — went after the hockey player about the details of the filming, asking if he informed his team before the video shoot.

“No,” Ovechkin replied, per Klemko’s recollection of the interview.

The reporter then told Ovechkin his appearance in the commercial “feels to people like a pro war stance.”

“I don’t think it’s a pro war,” Ovechkin reportedly replied. “I think it’s just support what’s happening in Russia. I want the peace and love for everybody. It doesn’t matter who you are, American, Russian, or Ukrainian.”

After Klemko claimed the war would “be done soon” if Putin stops the invasion, he later asked if Ovechkin would support Russia “no matter what.”

The 41-year-old replied, “Well, I’m gonna live there, yeah.”

This prompted the ESPN journalist to ask an inflammatory question: “So if they’re responsible for a genocide, you would support the genocide?”

Ovechkin asked for a translation of “genocide” from a member of his media team, a note corroborated by different outlets. He then replied, “Oh. I would say, like, I’m, I hope it’s not gonna, it’s not gonna be like that.”

RELATED: Sophie Cunningham defends Sydney Sweeney — but admits she ‘morally’ has a problem

In a clip from CTV News, Ovechkin told reporters he is going to move back to Russia when he retires from hockey.

“I’m going to stay there. I’m going to live there. My kids are going to live there.”

Regarding the political ad, Ovechkin stated that he’s “for peace and love” and that he hopes “everything’s going to be okay.”

He revealed when he was asked to do the commercial, he simply replied, “Yes.”

“So, simple as that,” Ovechkin said.

Outlet HockeyFeed said Klemko then “pressed” Ovechkin after the group press conference and attempted to tell the player what his involvement in the ad “really signals.”

Ovechkin continuously gave statements like “I’m not in politics,” and “I don’t know who that is” in regard to certain people featured in the ad, but Klemko pressed forward and asked the Russian if he felt he was perpetuating propaganda.

“It mimics messaging Russians get that says Ukraine is responsible for being invaded by Russia,” Klemko wrote.

“I can’t say who’s right and who’s wrong,” Ovechkin responded soon thereafter.

Klemko said he told Ovechkin that one of the people in the ad is “Maria Lvova Belova,” who, he said, “got an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court for abducting Ukrainian children.”

Ovechkin said he didn’t know who that person is.

RELATED: Charles Barkley defends WNBA, but says ‘race’ and ‘sexuality’ are behind Sophie Cunningham clashes

Sasha Mordovets/Getty Images

Klemko’s subsequent article for ESPN, published Thursday, cited University of Maryland “senior scholar” Sarah Oates, who directly stated that Russia is “perpetuating a genocide on Ukrainian people.”

“Putin has said Ukraine and Ukrainians have no right to exist. And this is a key reason for the invasion. Ovechkin supports Putin, he supports the Russian regime, and that means he supports genocide,” Oates claimed.

After his questions about genocide, Klemko said the media relations team ended his interview with Ovechkin.

Capitals general manager Chris Patrick later told ESPN that if Ovechkin had told the franchise about the ad, the organization would have “worked to avoid the situation very hard. And I doubt we’d be standing where we’re standing right now if he had run it by us.”

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​Nhl, Alexander ovechkin, Espn, Russia, Ukraine, Hockey, Sports 

Despite intense protests and warnings about a “slippery slope,” Canada’s liberal government legalized medically assisted suicide nationwide in 2016.

As critics predicted, the so-called Medical Assistance in Dying program — recognized by Canada’s Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer as a cost-saver for the country’s immigration-strained and eugenicist-founded health care system — has been grossly liberalized over the past decade, become a leading cause of death and claiming the lives of ineligible victims.

‘This is murder.’

The family of an 83-year-old Christian woman who was allegedly killed by lethal injection without proper consent in a MAID procedure has filed a complaint with the Office of the Chief Coroner of Ontario, sounding the alarm about the euthanasia regime.

Brigitte Kranendonk noted in a July 21 post on Facebook that her German-born grandmother, Brigitte Stegemann, a resident of the Pearl — a long-term care facility in Cannifton, Ontario — was diagnosed earlier this year with untreatable stage 4 stomach cancer.

While Stegemann could have potentially survived for years, a meeting was held several months ago to discuss the possibility of MAID, Kranendonk said.

“At that time, GG clearly stated that she did not wish to pursue it. As a devout Christian, she explicitly expressed that MAID conflicted with her personal beliefs and faith,” Kranendonk, who held legal power of attorney for Stegemann, claimed on Facebook.

The grandmother was approached on two occasions about pursuing MAID while her granddaughter was on a 10-day vacation, the Facebook post claimed, then visited on July 7 for a MAID assessment by a physician identified in Kranendonk’s complaint as Catherine Koester.

The Christian Canadian think tank Cardus noted in an August 31 report that unlike most first-world nations, Canada requires only one written request for euthanasia and one witness to that request and does not legally require communication with a patient’s family members about the patient’s medical history and state of mind.

RELATED: Priest breaks hip — now Canada apparently wants him dead

Universal Images Group/Getty Images

During the July 7 assessment, Stegemann allegedly failed to evidence soundness of mind — “GG repeatedly provided objectively incorrect answers to basic, factual questions about her own life and immediate family” — and signaled distress while family members protested the evaluation, Kranendonk claimed.

‘They saw an opportunity.’

Among the questions the elderly Canadian apparently got wrong was a query about how many siblings she had. While the actual answer was 13, Stegemann said that she had none, according to her granddaughter.

Despite Stegemann’s apparent disorientation, the physician allegedly found her fit to make the MAID decision, then informed the family that the procedure would take place just days later.

Kranendonk suggested to the Daily Mail that her grandmother’s final moments were a horror show, alleging that a gloveless nurse who supposedly treated the family members contemptuously had repeatedly failed to tap the right vein in one arm for the deadly IV before switching to the other arm and beginning the prodding anew.

“There was a phenomenal amount of blood,” said Kranendonk, who indicated that Stegemann had wept bitterly in the lead-up to her final day. “It is all over my Oma’s arm, it is all over her nightie, soaking through her pillow, all over the sheets, there is so much blood.”

According to Kranendonk, the doctor entered the room on July 10, explained to Stegemann that she was going to administer some “medicine,” and after 10 minutes, the woman was pronounced dead.

“She was a vulnerable human being, and they saw an opportunity,” added Kranendonk.

Kranendonk’s complaint to the province’s chief coroner, which was obtained by Canadian combat veteran and MAID critic Kelsi Sheren, states that in the case of her grandmother’s demise, there was a “severe failure of statutory safeguards, procedural requirements, and patient consent protocols.”

In addition to Stegemann allegedly lacking the capacity to make the decision to pursue MAID, the complaint alleges that “care home staff actively initiated private MAID discussions and facilitated the completion and witnessing of official application paperwork in secret, deliberately bypassing” the patient’s legal power of attorney. It also alleges that the euthanasia took place without verbal confirmation from Stegemann.

“One of our greatest ethical concerns is that GG [Stegemann] had explicitly declined MAID, stating it violated her Christian faith,” Kranendonk said in her Facebook post. “Once a vulnerable patient explicitly declines this path, the facility should never have targeted her for re-evaluation behind closed doors while her primary advocate was away — especially when the facility had no trouble contacting [Kranendonk] daily for minor, routine care decisions.”

Blaze News did not immediately receive comment from Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s office, Ontario Health at Home, the Pearl, or Dr. Koester.

While the Office of the Chief Coroner told Blaze News that it “does not share details related to any death investigation,” it noted that “the MAiD Review Team (MRT) reviews every MAiD death reported in the province to ensure compliance with all federal legislative and regulatory requirements. This includes reviewing the MAiD Death Report submitted by the practitioner, confirming completeness and accuracy of the information, and directly contacting a representative of the deceased to identify any issues or concerns.”

Kranendonk — who greatly regrets not applying for a legal injunction to halt the procedure — told the Daily Mail that she is also appealing to the Patient Ombudsman and Belleville Police in an effort to determine whether what happened to her grandmother was legal.

A spokesman for Belleville Police told the Daily Mail, “This incident is currently open and under investigation with our Criminal Investigations Division. We are unable to provide any additional information at this time.”

The death of Brigitte Stegemann has attracted international attention, especially in the United States.

Utah Sen. Mike Lee (R) wrote, “The intersection of assisted suicide and socialized medicine results in state-led horrors, treating the young, old, infirm, and distressed as disposable people. We must never allow this barbarity to spread in America.”

“This … is … evil,” tweeted Sen. Ted Cruz, a Republican born in a Canadian province that has recently taken some steps to rein in Canada’s sick experiment.

Normalcy advocate Robby Starbuck emphasized that “this is murder. Canada murdered this woman.”

Jason Kenney, Canada’s former conservative defense minister and Alberta’s 18th premier, said that the tale of Stegemann’s demise is an indictment of the Canadian Supreme Court’s “decision to trample on its own precedent, and the democratic decisions of Parliament, by opening the floodgates to killing the elderly and the infirm. If the claims made here are credible, the Crown must charge those responsible for the murder of Brigitte Stegemann.”

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​Canada, Euthanasia, Health care, Medical assistance in dying, Mike lee, Ontario, Socialized medicine, Ted cruz, Politics 

Various news outlets, including Fox News, have agreed to suspend pool reporting at the White House as a way to protest the president’s news ban.

On Friday, President Donald Trump accused CNN, MS NOW, and Politico of peddling fake news and banned them all from the White House.

‘If they had credibility, I wouldn’t be sitting here right now.’

In response, ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC, and Fox News announced on Monday that they had suspended White House TV pool reporting.

“This is to advise that, effective today, the TV pool will not be covering events designated as pool coverage of the President,” Fox News Washington bureau chief Bryan Boughton wrote in an email obtained by Politico.

“This follows the White House’s position preventing CNN from fulfilling its assigned pool duties. There will be no replacement pool put in place,” he added.

Fox News Media, ABC News, CBS News, CNN, and NBC News also released a joint statement about the suspension.

“The public has a vital interest in receiving accurate, independent information about its government. No administration should restrict a news organization because it objects to its reporting,” the group wrote.

Many noted that CNN had defended Fox News in 2009 when former President Barack Obama had limited its access. Fox News returned the favor in 2018 when Trump shut out a CNN reporter.

The president justified his ban in comments to reporters Friday.

“I don’t want them in my office. I don’t want them here,” he said.

“The ban is because they are fake news, they cannot write the truth,” he added. “If they had credibility, I wouldn’t be sitting here right now.”

RELATED: CNN says Trump press ban is illegal — then the Trump team THROWS DOWN fiery response

The president had also threatened to expand the ban to include other outlets such as the New York Times and the Washington Post.

In a post Monday on Truth Social, the president compared fake news to a “cancer” afflicting the country.

“It is corrupt, purposeful, pervasive, fully coordinated, and totally out of control,” he wrote. “It is a threat to our National Security, and must be stopped, NOW!”

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​Fake news, Fox news, White house, Politics, Donald trump 

Feminism has sold women the lie that “patriarchy” is a crisis that’s followed their female ancestors throughout the centuries — but BlazeTV host Nick Freitas believes the real crisis isn’t too many men ruling.

Rather, it’s those who refuse to.

And author Jeremy Pryor couldn’t agree more.

“The word patriarchy is actually very recent,” Pryor tells Freitas. “It’s sort of like less than 100 years old. It was actually invented by people on the left to really attack the idea of there’s too many men. And so they came up with this word.”

“The word patriarch is extremely old. The word patriarchal is very old. The word patriarchy, that’s a fairly new word,” he explains, noting that he’s “wrestled” with whether or not to “embrace” it.

“Because part of what they mean by that is the oppression of a class of people, primarily powerful men over women and over everyone else in society, and we got to smash the patriarchy,” Pryor says.

The word means “ruling father,” and he says he “cannot imagine something more important” than “helping fathers understand that they need to begin to rule families.”

“There’s nothing better for women and for children,” he tells Freitas. “The worst thing that happens to women and children is when men decide to abandon that responsibility.”

“And so what a patriarch is, is somebody who takes that responsibility very personally and very seriously, somebody who doesn’t just protect and provide but also sets a vision for the family,” he adds.

And this is a natural way for men to behave, as Freitas notes that “men crave legacy.”

However, modern culture has seen family legacies take a hit.

“When you turn the family into something that basically is a temporary occupation,” Freitas says, “that eventually breaks down, and then your kids put you in a home. … If I want to build something that’s going to last, well then I build where I think it’s going to last, not where I know it’s by design supposed to break apart and do its own thing.”

“Making the Argument with Nick Freitas” is available on BlazeTV+, YouTube, and major podcast platforms.

Start watching Nick Freitas NOW at blazetv.com and use the promo code NICK40 for $40 off your BlazeTV+ subscription.

​Jeremy pryor, Legacy, Nick freitas, Patriarchy, Feminism, Patriarch, Men, Fatherhood, Blazetv show 

Patrick Clancy held out hope for his 8-month-old son Callan after Lindsay Clancy strangled him and his siblings — 5-year-old Cora and 3-year-old Dawson — in January 2023, according to a “60 Minutes” interview that aired Sunday.

He said he returned to his Duxbury, Massachusetts, home from an errand to find Lindsay lying in the back yard; her throat and wrists were cut — and she was paralyzed after jumping from an upstairs window, CBS News reported.

‘There was a time where I didn’t think I would live to see my 35th birthday. And I was completely fine with it.’

Patrick, 36, said he found his children strangled in the basement; Cora and Dawson were dead — but Callan was hanging on and was airlifted to Boston Children’s Hospital, the news network noted.

“I really thought there was a chance that Callan would live,” Patrick said in the interview. “I remember just thinking, ‘Just give me one. Just give me one kid, and I would raise him as best I could, and I would give him the best life I possibly could. I’d tell him about his brother and sister.’ And I was holding out hope for that.”

Callan’s heart continued to beat for four days, according to “60 Minutes.”

“I got to hold him. I got to lay down next to him,” Patrick revealed. “And he died in my arms.”

In the following days, CBS News said Patrick wrote tributes to each of his three children — and decided to publicly forgive Lindsay, who’s now his ex-wife.

“I saw headlines that said, you know, ‘Killer Mom,’ and ‘Baby Murderer,’ ‘Monster.’ And none of them were accurate,” Patrick noted in the interview. “I believe that it was her mental illness that caused that. So I shared those words.”

The news network said Lindsay never asked Patrick for forgiveness, but Patrick gave it to her anyway.

CBS News said Patrick and Lindsay both brought medical malpractice lawsuits against health care providers who treated Lindsay — and while some have denied wrongdoing, others haven’t yet responded to the claims.

Patrick noted to “60 Minutes” that he believes he “did the best I could with what I had at the time. And I live with the outcome. I live with it every day.”

He also shared that shortly after his children’s deaths “there was a day where I, really without thinking, I drove by their school, and it was at the exact time that all of their friends were getting dropped off, and I … just couldn’t be there anymore.”

RELATED: Lindsay Clancy murder trial hits huge speed bump (UPDATE)

JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP/Getty Images

Patrick was asked in the interview if he had suicidal thoughts. His reply? “There was a time where I didn’t think I would live to see my 35th birthday. And I was completely fine with it.”

He added that he no longer could stay in Duxbury, and in April 2023, he moved to New York City where he sought anonymity, CBS News reported.

“Five weeks after I moved to New York, on May 26, I had to figure out how I’m going to celebrate Callan’s first birthday,” Patrick shared in the interview, his eyes welling up. “And how do you celebrate your son’s first birthday months after he’s passed away? And so I go to St. Patrick’s Cathedral, I light a candle, and I said, ‘I love you buddy.’ And I walk out on 5th Avenue, and I stared crying my eyes out. And nobody cared … and I thought, ‘This is where I need to be. I can grieve.'”

Patrick added that before moving from the family house in Duxbury, he kept a number of items that reminded him of his children: Interviewer Ross Douthat mentioned a stuffed “baby sloth that Cora carried everywhere; a photo of Callan wearing a bow tie almost bigger than him; [and] Dawson’s battered and beloved helicopter.”

You can view the entire “60 Minutes” interview here; the below clip is a summary of its content:

RELATED: Lindsay Clancy murder trial fireworks: Defense attorney wants 1 juror kicked out, tells judge his jury instruction is ‘soft’

By this April, Patrick was remarried to Rachel Danis, a New York City fertility doctor, CBS News said.

Danis told the news network that she met Patrick in January 2024 in a New York City run club and got to know each other over coffee.

“Pat pulled out his phone to pay, and I noticed this adorable photo of children as the wallpaper,” Danis shared with CBS News. “And I just asked, ‘Who are those cuties?’ And Pat said, ‘Those are my kids.’ And then I think I asked if they live in Massachusetts, and Pat said, ‘They died.’ And this is just at the cashier.”

Danis noted in the “60 Minutes” interview that she tried to “take some of the weight from Pat.”

“I can’t bring his kids back,” she noted. “But if I can honor them and allow Pat to grieve but also just continue to honor them in the present, I guess that’s all I can do.”

What’s more, the couple shared with “60 Minutes” that they’re starting a family — and Patrick is preparing to one day tell his future child about their older siblings, Cora, Dawson, and Callan.

“I think every parent can agree, you have different relationships with your kids, but they’re all your kids,” Patrick said, according to CBS News. “And I can’t wait to tell them about their brothers and sister.”

During Lindsay Clancy’s murder trial over the summer, Patrick testified and found himself at the center of an online swarm of sleuths and influencers dissecting every detail of the case, developing theories that portray him as uncaring, unfaithful — and even the murderer of his children, CBS News reported.

“It’s painful to see. And it makes it difficult to be in public, and it’s possible that some of those people, after seeing lie after lie after lie, they start to believe it, and that’s what we’re left with,” Patrick said in the “60 Minutes” interview.

CBS News reported that one of the catalysts for theories about Patrick was his apparent stoicism on the witness stand, but Patrick said testifying was difficult — and that he experienced a “massive, traumatic panic attack” on the second day of his testimony.

“They put me in an ambulance,” Patrick noted in the interview. “They offered me some medication, but I said, ‘I don’t want it, because I want to go back, and I want to finish this so I can be done with this.’ And I went back, and I finished the testimony.”

Lindsay Clancy’s trial ended with a hung jury earlier this month.

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​Lindsay clancy, Patrick clancy, 60 minutes, Mom killed children, Massachusetts, Murder, Crime 

Did an ICE agent spin up a wild story after shooting a Venezuelan national in Minnesota early this year? Or has he been scapegoated by a state filled with “rage” over immigration law enforcement in general?

Both federal and Hennepin County prosecutors have formally charged Christian Castro, 52, for allegedly lying to investigators, but one of his attorneys, David Lindenmuth, told Blaze News that his client has been unfairly targeted by “rabid” officials looking for someone to blame for other controversies associated with Operation Metro Surge.

‘He was in pursuit of people in a vehicle who fled. … There was a person on that porch that apparently had a weapon at some point.’

“They went through some pretty serious things up there with the federal law enforcement being sent up there. There’s a couple of high-profile deaths,” Lindenmuth said. “And because of that, I think that what happened, to be quite honest … [is] Mr. Castro is basically the one that they chose to prosecute.”

Lindenmuth did not name names regarding the “high-profile deaths,” but the incident involving Castro occurred just one week after Renee Good was fatally shot on January 7.

On January 14, the Department of Homeland Security reported that an unnamed federal immigration officer had “fired a defensive shot to defend his life” during an immigration operation in Minnesota.

The officer had sustained a brutal attack, during which three individuals “ambushed” him and struck him with a “broom handle” and a “snow shovel,” the DHS claimed on January 14.

Now, however, the Department of Justice claims the officer made the whole thing up. On September 2, a federal grand jury indicted Castro on six counts of making a materially false statement.

RELATED: Trump threatens Insurrection Act after ambushed ICE agent shoots illegal alien: ‘Put an end to the travesty’

Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

The federal indictment claims that on January 14, Castro told the FBI that while he was attempting to arrest one man, a second “unknown man grabbed a red broom off the front porch,” “a third unknown man came out of the house, grabbed a black snow shovel,” and all three ganged up on him.

Castro then claimed that “he tried to block strikes from the broom to his face with his left hand and reached for his gun,” according to the indictment. The men then bolted for a nearby residence, and Castro “lifted his back off the ground and fired one round from his gun in the general direction of the men at the same time they started running.”

Castro estimated to the FBI that he struggled on the ground with the original subject, identified as “A.A.,” for “approximately three minutes,” the indictment said.

According to federal prosecutors, none of Castro’s claims are true. Instead, prosecutors claim: No one struck Castro with a broom or a snow shovel at that time; there was no third person involved; Castro was standing when he shot through the front door of the duplex residence, where the two men had already hidden themselves; and the scuffle on the ground lasted only 11 seconds.

A probable cause statement from Hennepin County indicated that, following a 911 call, Minneapolis police took “remote-control of a city camera” and angled it at the residence in time to capture much of the incident.

Castro’s bullet struck one subject, identified as Julio Sosa-Celis in news reports but referred to as “J.S.-C.” in the federal indictment. Sosa-Celis was wounded in the leg but has recovered from his injury.

The indictment describes J.S.-C. as a 24-year-old “citizen of Venezuela” who resided in the duplex.

The probable cause statement claimed that at the time of the shooting, Sosa-Celis and A.A. “were residing in Minnesota lawfully, having been granted ‘Temporary Protected Status’ by the United States Department of Homeland Security.”

Sosa-Celis was arrested shortly after the incident, but all charges against him have since been dropped.

Though Lindenmuth admits that Castro “fired his weapon” that fateful night, Lindenmuth insisted that Castro is “innocent” and “had no intent to lie to federal agents.”

“The federal government has to prove that Mr. Castro lied to them, and then the state government has to prove that he actually committed a crime,” he explained to Blaze News. “The facts as I understand them is that he was in pursuit of people in a vehicle who fled, right? They fled. Then they fled on foot. There was a person on that porch that apparently had a weapon at some point.”

In the county probable cause statement, the original subject of the operation — whom the federal indictment referred to as “A.A.” — admitted to investigators on January 14 that he fled from the agents in his vehicle because “he feared for his life” and led them on a 25-minute chase. Once he arrived at his residence, he made a run for the front door but “slipped on the ice” and was then “tackled” by the ICE agent.

Video of the incident also shows that prior to the shooting, Sosa-Celis “stepped onto the front lawn of the home holding a snow shovel,” the probable cause statement indicated.

Castro was originally indicted by the Hennepin County district attorney back in May on four counts of second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon and one count of falsely reporting a crime.

He was arrested following the federal indictment and booked into Hennepin County Jail. Jail records show only the state charges.

Castro pled not guilty to the federal charges on Friday. He was released from jail after posting a $200,000 bond.

Castro is scheduled to appear in court again for the state charges on November 3. The DHS has suspended him without pay, Lindenmuth confirmed.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota, the DHS, the Hennepin County Prosecutor’s Office, and the office of Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison (DFL) did not respond to requests for comment from Blaze News.

RELATED: Anti-ICE aid fund in Minnesota shuts down — and you can probably guess the reason why

Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Lindenmuth characterized the charges as a miscarriage of justice against a devoted American patriot who has been turned into a “political pawn” by bad actors.

“Mr. Castro was a 13-year veteran in the Army, a combat veteran deployed to Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom, where he received a 100% disability rating as a result of his service for 70% for PTSD, 30% for traumatic brain injury, where he was hit by the last wave of a suicide bomber on the American embassy over there. And so this is a person who was injured serving his country,” Lindenmuth claimed, adding that Castro has also spent a decade as an immigration officer.

“He has given his life to serving this country, and he’s not [been given] the benefit of the protections of the presumption of innocence. … Basically he’s being tried out in public by the state of Minnesota, and it’s sad to see.

“That’s not how we’re supposed to operate.”

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​Department of homeland security, Minnesota, Department of justice, Immigration and customs enforcement, Politics 

More school districts are banning smartphones and AI use in classrooms, and more parents are understandably pleased. They picture learning environments returning to the good old days of pen and paper and actual eye contact.

But don’t pop the champagne just yet. Behind the crackdown, school administrators are building a corporate surveillance dragnet that would make a Cold War spy agency blush.

This diabolical system routinely harvests sensitive personal details about your home life.

American children are growing up inside an all-knowing, all-seeing system bankrolled directly by local tax dollars. A recent report from the Brookings Institution reveals that 88% of teachers report their schools use student monitoring tools on classroom devices.

Worse yet, 42% of those teachers confirm the tracking follows kids right out the front door and directly into their bedrooms after the final bell rings. The local school board effectively installed electronic ankle monitors on America’s children — all in the name of educational progress and student safety, of course.

A secret scandal

The process usually starts with a sneaky sales representative who convinces a school board to purchase thousands of cheap laptops or tablets for daily use. To keep kids off video game sites, administrators install intrusive software like GoGuardian, Bark, or Gaggle. These platforms record search histories. They read private messages and log physical coordinates. They track keystrokes in real time. Digital hall pass apps log the exact minute a child leaves a classroom to use the drinking fountain or restroom, generating a permanent, timestamped record of students’ daily body functions. Although America is not China, what’s happening in Beijing is now happening in Boston.

Parents were never asked for their consent. Under federal law, they don’t have to be. School boards signed multiyear software contracts with private operators without sending a single permission slip home to mom and dad. Intoxicated by their own sense of importance, administrators assumed absolute authority over your child’s digital activity, completely bypassing traditional parental rights.

This diabolical system operates under the wonderful promise of keeping kids safe, yet it routinely harvests sensitive personal details about your home life. Powerful algorithms scan student emails, private documents, and home web searches for keywords related to mental health, domestic arguments, and more. When an automated system flags a few words typed late on a Sunday night, it generates an instant alert sent directly to school officials or local police departments. A teen typing out a frustrated diary entry on a school-issued laptop suddenly finds a police car parked in the driveway for a late-night wellness check.

RELATED: They just announced the ultimate freedom phone — and getting your hands on it won’t be easy

Bloomberg/Getty Images

The information these devices generate doesn’t stay safely locked inside the principal’s office file cabinet. Third-party software companies store student location records and behavioral histories on commercial cloud servers. Many of these tech vendors reserve the right to share broad student metrics with data brokers, software developers, and research institutions of questionable merit. The private details of your child’s daily routine become valuable fuel for commercial products, helping train corporate algorithms on your family’s personal habits without your knowledge.

Restoring privacy

Few things in life are guaranteed, but one certainty is that surveillance tech always expands beyond its original purpose. Systems initially built to block bad websites now use computer cameras to track eye movements and score attention levels during standardized state tests. Automated systems process this data to generate risk scores for individual students, flagging kids as potential troublemakers before they even finish middle school. A minor behavioral mark recorded on a classroom tablet can become a permanent digital footprint that follows a child throughout his academic years.

This is not healthy, and it’s certainly not an environment that any sane parent should want his child educated in. It must stop, but it won’t happen without a clear plan and the will to enforce it.

Restoring privacy to the American classroom requires direct, decisive action from parents and local communities. Parents can immediately opt their kids out of school-issued laptops by submitting formal written requests to school principals. They are well within their rights to demand traditional paper textbooks, physical workbooks, and standard notebooks instead. Concerned voters must show up at local school board meetings to demand strict district rules that ban student tracking outside school hours, forbid third-party data sharing, and require mandatory written parental consent before any new software enters a building.

Genuine freedom depends on raising independent children who know what it means to live without an overseer monitoring their every move. If parents fail to draw a firm line now, the public school system will help raise a generation of compliant citizens who accept constant surveillance as just another part of everyday life. Again, America is not China. But step inside schools across America, and the comparison suddenly looks far less absurd.

​Surveillance, Tech 

Arizona Cardinals defensive back Kei’Trel Clark became the second Muslim player to receive a fine from the NFL in the past week or so.

Following a letter from the league, the 25-year-old is searching for answers, but he probably doesn’t have to look too hard.

‘I got to report to God at the end of my days on the day of judgement!’

Clark posted the NFL’s correspondence on his Instagram page, telling him he was “in violation of the NFL Uniform and Equipment Rules.”

“Specifically, you displayed a personal message on your eye black,” the letter continued, per the Instagram story cited by the Daily Mail.

Clark was spotted on the field on September 13 against the Los Angeles Chargers wearing the message “Glory Be 2 God …” with a peace sign in the middle.

This message appears to directly violate Rule 5, Section 4, Article 8 of the NFL rulebook, which states, “Players are prohibited from wearing, displaying, or otherwise conveying personal messages” during game day when the player is visible to the stadium or television audience.

As a result, Clark was fined $6,651.

Clark shared a screenshot of the letter with a picture of himself, writing, “I need answers. 6.6k for Giving God the Glory.”

He later added, “I got to report to God at the end of my days on the day of judgement! I’ll always give God the Glory and out loud. All good.”

RELATED: The NFL says it could expand with multiple teams — and you won’t like where they’re going

Kenneth Richmond/Getty Images

At the same time, Houston Texans linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair was fined following a loss to the Buffalo Bills for having the name “Hind Rajab” written on his eye black during the game on September 13, per Fox News.

Hind Rajab is the name of a 5-year-old Palestinian girl who was allegedly shot and killed in her family’s car by Israeli forces in 2024 during the Israel-Palestine war.

For that, Al-Shaair received an $11,492 fine.

On Sunday, Al-Shaair was spotted during warm-ups wearing a different message on his eye black: “Wafaa Akila.” A translation through Arabic123.com says Wafaa means “completeness, fulfillment, and loyalty,” while Akila means “a woman who is thoughtful and articulate in expressing her views and opinions on important matters.”

Any fines for that message could be announced later this week.

Al-Shaair was also fined $11,593 in January for wearing “Stop the Genocide” on his eye black during a playoff game. He told reporters at the time he knew he was in violation of the rules.

“I knew that that was a fine. I understood what I was doing,” he said before expressing some confusion.

“But I was told that if I wore that in the game I would be pulled out the game, so I think that was probably the part I was confused about.”

RELATED: Travis Kelce duped by Indian illegal immigrant in massive Ponzi scheme

Brooke Sutton/Getty Images

Clark did not appear to be fined for wearing eye black in September 2025 that read, “Inshallah …,” one of his many public expressions of his Muslim faith.

In a 2025 Instagram post he wrote, “I put my heart into this $h!t, it’s always been bigger then me. Only Allah Knows.”

As well, the front of his Instagram page contains Arabic writing that, when translated by Google, reads, “In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.”

It also features links to photos of Quranic passages.

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​Nfl, Football, Islam, Muslim, Sports 

Pollsters and prediction markets are prophesying overwhelming Democratic success in the midterm election, which is now seven weeks away. CNN admitted in a recent analysis, however, that those hoping for a blue tidal wave might be left greatly disappointed in November.

Doom and gloom for the GOP

Polymarket presently suggests that Democrats have a 62% chance of taking the U.S. Senate and a 92% chance of taking the House. Kalshi similarly forecasts Democrats taking over the House and Senate.

‘It’s going to be close.’

According to the Economist’s latest midterm forecast, Democrats have a 93% chance of flipping the House and securing a 238-197 majority, and a 59% chance of taking the Senate.

The latest New York Times/Siena poll shows Democrats enjoying an eight-point edge on the generic ballot.

A recent NBC News poll found that while the Democratic Party is viewed more negatively than both President Donald Trump and the Republican Party, 50% of respondents favored Democratic control of Congress.

RELATED: The cost of living is coming for Congress

The Kansas City Star/Tribune News Service/Getty Images

Pollster Nate Silver argued on Sunday that the idea of the Senate as a “toss-up” is “misaligned with the long history of strong opposition performance in midterm elections, especially when the incumbent president is as unpopular as Trump.”

Blue disappointment?

In light of recent polling, the average price of gasoline sitting at an estimated $4.44 per gallon, and the sense that the midterm vote serves as a referendum on Trump’s policies, hope is mounting on the left that a blue wave will wash away the Republican trifecta in Washington.

That hope may, however, be unfounded.

CNN political analyst Ronald Brownstein suggested just over a week ago that Democrats might not be in a position to exploit the president’s waning public approval, Americans’ economic woes, and growing political discontent.

In addition to noting that many Democratic candidates are not attracting the numbers of voters who disapproved of Trump in 2018 and 2020, Brownstein wrote that despite disenchantment among some voters on the right, few appear willing to turn coat.

“The share of non-MAGA Republicans who say they are still voting for Republicans this fall is about 20 points higher than the portion who approve of Trump’s performance,” Brownstein wrote, citing GOP pollster Micah Roberts’ analysis of CNBC survey data.

“There are a lot of people who may think, ‘I don’t like Trump but … I don’t agree with the policies of the other party and where they would take us,'” said Roberts.

While Republican voters might not cast votes for Democratic candidates, Brownstein noted that the GOP still faces the possibility that disenchanted Republican voters might decide not to vote at all — a big problem given the enthusiasm among likely Democratic voters.

Voter enthusiasm might threaten Republicans’ hold on power; however, the GOP’s redistricting efforts have placed breakers before any blue wave.

After all, far fewer House seats are competitive now than were in 2018, and 13 House Democrats must now defend districts where Trump netted at least five points more than his share of the national vote, said Brownstein.

The CNN analyst cast greater doubt on Democrats’ senatorial ambitions, noting that “of the Republican-held seats Democrats are most seriously contesting, Maine is the only one in a state that supported Harris; North Carolina is the sole other state on the Senate map where Harris even came close. Trump prevailed by double digits in every other state whose Senate seat Democrats are targeting.”

Thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court’s June ruling in National Republican Senatorial Committee v. Federal Election Commission, the GOP — not similarly hard up for cash like the Democrats — also enjoys a financial advantage Brownstein reckons could be wielded to limit Democratic gains.

National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Richard Hudson told the New York Post earlier this month that instead of a blue or red wave this November, there will be “30 knife fights in 30 dark alleys.”

“It’s just a handful of races, but every one of them will be decided by a few thousand votes. It’s going to be close,” added Hudson.

The Cook Political Report projects that the GOP and the Democratic Party are set to win 208 and 205 House seats, respectively, and marked 21 seats as toss-ups.

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​Cnn, Polling, Midterm election, Blue wave, Senate, House, Republican party, Democratic party, Donald trump, Politics 

Radicals waving foreign flags and leftist signage flooded the streets of North Austin on Sunday following a nonfatal shooting involving a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer and a Venezuelan national.

As the sun set on a day full of anti-ICE rhetoric from Democratic officials, including Austin Mayor Kirk Watson, protesters turned violent, prompting a crackdown from Texas Department of Public Safety troopers.

The shooting

The shooting took place just before 1 p.m. on Sunday in the 8000 block of Anderson Square.

‘I am ready to Melt ICE.’

Austin-Travis County EMS Rob Luckritz noted that the individual who caught the bullet — identified by his immigration attorney as 28-year-old Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, a Venezuelan national allegedly working as a DoorDash driver — had stable vital signs but was nevertheless taken to Dell Seton Medical Center in “serious condition.”

A video live streamed around the time of the shooting and reviewed by the New York Times captures the sound of screeching tires and a collision, then pivots to show a damaged Corolla driven by Perez stopped next to an SUV driven by an ICE officer, the NYT reported. The vehicles can be seen on the video facing in opposite directions.

In a different video obtained by ABC News that shows the aftermath of the shooting, Perez can be heard claiming in Spanish that he was shot for failing to “brake,” the outlet reported.

RELATED: The mass-deportation promise is disappearing

Masked radical throws a rock at law enforcement at an anti-ICE demonstration in Austin on Sept. 20. Brandon Bell/Getty Images.

Homeland Security Investigations is now investigating the shooting with the help of the FBI.

According to the Department of Homeland Security, the individual shot on Sunday is an “illegal alien from Venezuela, who illegally entered our country under the Biden administration and had a final order of removal, during a law enforcement operation today in Austin, TX.”

Perez received treatment at the hospital and was transferred into ICE custody.

The Democratic reflex

Following the shooting, Austin Mayor Kirk Watson joined other Democrats in presuming the worst and attacking ICE, stating, “I am very angry and extremely disappointed that a person was shot on the streets of Austin by ICE. While I’m angry and disappointed, I’m not surprised. This has happened in other cities. With the rogue nature of ICE and the chaos we’re seeing fomented by ICE, there’s no reason to be surprised.”

Texas Rep. Greg Casar (D) also seized the opportunity to remind everyone that he loathes federal immigration enforcement, stating, “The horror has come to our city: ICE has shot a person in Austin this morning.”

“Just like Americans have from Minneapolis to Houston, Austinites will speak out peacefully against this deadly mass deportation machine. ICE has been terrorizing our country for far too long. We will not be silent,” added Casar, the son of immigrants.

Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) tweeted, “Trump has allowed ICE to flood our streets and put our communities in harms [sic] way again and again and Governor Abbott is complicit every time.”

Anchor-baby Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.) accused the DHS of being the “biggest threat to our collective safety” and noting, “I am ready to Melt ICE and dismantle DHS!”

While admittedly short on information, Texas state Rep. Vikki Goodwin (D) stated, “This violence cannot continue.”

The restoration of order

As Democrats took turns attacking ICE online, a horde of anti-ICE demonstrators rallied near the scene of the shooting, waving signs that said, “Stop ICE murder,” “F**k ICE,” “Moms against ICE,” “Justice 4 Wilber,” and “Abolish ICE.”

The mob grew increasingly unruly, not only lobbing rocks and other projectiles at law enforcement but attempting on multiple occasions to march on the taped-off site of the shooting. The Texas Department of Public Safety troopers responded by firing pepper balls toward the radicals while Austin police officers in riot gear stood ready.

After deploying tear gas, tackling some rioters, and successfully dispersing the mob, whose assembly was declared unlawful, troopers left the scene around 11 p.m., reported NBC News.

Blaze News reached out to the Texas Department of Public Safety and the DHS for comment but did not immediately receive responses.

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​Austin, Riot, Texas, Illegal immigrant, Venezuela, Deportation, Politics, Immigration and customs enforcement