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Rural Illinois near the Indiana border, about an hour south of the bright lights of Chicago, is dotted with small cities with the hometown feel for which the Midwest is well known. With small populations and low crime, police officers in these areas are familiar faces who are revered for their service to their community.

But in this region is at least one cop, Officer Quincy Spears, who has bounced around from department to department, carving out a lengthy career in law enforcement in spite of a troubling track record that dates back decades.

‘He’s a bad person, and he shouldn’t be wearing a badge.’

Internal affairs investigations at Watseka Police Department, where Spears is still believed to be employed, seem to have escalated since Blaze News began looking into complaints against Spears in early September.

In response to public records requests, the City of Watseka told Blaze News on September 4 that its police department did “not have any complaints against Officer Spears.” The city reiterated on October 9 that the police department did “not have any email communications regarding Quincy Spears” and that he had “no disciplinary records” there.

By October 29, the city had discovered email complaints and incident reports about Spears that it sent along to Blaze News, and WCIA had reported that “multiple” Watseka police officers were under investigation by the Illinois State Police. While Police Chief Eric Starkey declined to identify the officers involved, he confirmed to WCIA that they have been on leave since July.

Screenshot of letter sent to Blaze News

Screenshot of letter sent to Blaze News

A public records request to Watseka asking for Spears’ work-related gas receipts through October 24 revealed that Spears had been submitting receipts for his patrol work regularly until September 28, when the submissions abruptly stopped.

Despite the breadth of accusations against him, Quincy Spears did not respond to repeated requests for comment from Blaze News.

Who is Quincy Spears?

Quincy Spears is a 47-year-old native son of this area, born in Kankakee, Illinois, according to an application he completed for the Manteno Police Department in March 2006, and currently living in Momence, about 10 miles east of Kankakee. Spears married in 2002, and he and his wife have at least two children.

Spears began his career in law enforcement “right after” he graduated high school in 1997, he wrote on the Manteno application.

‘Ptlm. Spears Incidents’

That career got off to a rough start. Spears admitted on the application that he had been “asked to resign” from his job as a corrections officer at the Kankakee County Detention Center after less than a year “for horseplaying on the job.”

Since that brief stint at the correctional facility, Spears has worked either part-time or full-time for police departments in four different Illinois municipalities: Grant Park, population 1,300; Momence, population 3,100; Manteno, population 9,200; and most recently, Watseka, population 4,700.

The vast majority of that time, more than 15 years, was spent with the Manteno Police Department, according to the Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board.

The accusations against Spears are rather wide-ranging and start from his earliest years as an officer. In 2005, he ignored direct instructions from his supervisor and administered a breathalyzer test on a subject who “did not appear at all intoxicated and was cooperating fully,” according to a report that appeared to be signed by the then-chief of Momence PD.

According to another document titled “Ptlm. Spears Incidents,” believed to have been created by Manteno PD, Spears:

hit a parked car just before 1 a.m. in February 2008,had a “dog bite” incident at his residence in February 2012,”blew” a stop sign in front of a fellow officer on an “unknown date and time,”and was involved in two disturbances and one alleged “fight” at various bars while off duty.

RELATED: Corrupt cops, silent press: Legacy media ignores Capitol Police’s decades of corruption

Screenshot of police documents

‘Without her consent’

Perhaps the most alarming accusations against Spears relate to his treatment of women. Blaze News first learned of Spears after a father in Momence reached out to express concerns about Spears’ alleged harassment of his daughter.

Though nearly 30 years old, the man’s daughter has special needs, and Spears, a fellow Momence resident, routinely makes comments to her while she walks to and from work that make her “uncomfortable,” the man explained to Blaze News.

‘On several occasions,’ Spears ‘placed his hands between her legs near her vagina,’ one woman claimed.

“He drives by in his golf cart and, you know, wolf-whistles and harasses and yells her nickname at her all the time and basically does not leave her alone,” said the father, who asked not to be named.

The father indicated that his daughter does not have the wherewithal to defend herself against this alleged treatment. “She just kind of puts her head down and keeps walking,” he said. When the father confronted Spears about the comments, Spears “laughed it off,” the man recalled. “He thought I was joking.”

The father noted that while these alleged instances occur while Spears is off duty, his daughter knows Spears and recognizes him as a police officer.

RELATED: Minneapolis cops say Derek Chauvin should get a federal pardon: ‘Railroaded’

Heather Freinkel/Getty Images

To the best of the father’s knowledge, Spears’ alleged comments to his daughter, while unwelcome, have never been sexually explicit or crossed the line into inappropriate physical contact. Other women in the area have told a different story.

In a report filed with Manteno PD on March 7, 2018, two adult sisters told officers that Spears had repeatedly touched them inappropriately under the guise of affectionate friendliness.

On “numerous occasions,” Spears had “placed his hands on her breasts and buttocks without her consent,” one woman said, according to the report. She claimed he does so “in a joking manner … often while hugging, greeting, or approaching her.” She estimated he had done so “at least 100 times over the past several years.”

When he touches her rear end, Spears “doesn’t just put his hands on it but puts it [as] deep and low in between her legs as he can,” she claimed.

Her sister added that “on several occasions,” Spears “placed his hands between her legs near her vagina,” the report said. Both women claimed they asked Spears to stop, but the behavior continued.

The first sister also insisted she had seen Spears similarly “groping” other women, sometimes with “their husband or boyfriend” standing nearby. Though the men objected, Spears “uses his status as a police officer to intimidate or deter them from taking it any further,” she claimed.

Despite their apparent discomfort with Spears, the women declined to file a formal complaint, telling officers they “did not want him to lose his job and cause problems for his family.” Their allegations were first raised by a concerned uncle.

The “Ptlm. Spears Incidents” document also mentions a “battery call” to the department made after Spears allegedly “was kissing a women [sic] on the neck and she burnt him with a cigarette and ended up punching him.” According to the incident report, Spears had called the police but later declined to press charges. The female involved was described in the report as one of Spears’ “family members.”

Momence Mayor Chuck Steele, who has known Spears for more than 30 years, described Spears as “touchy-feely” with women and said he would never hire Spears for the Momence department under any circumstances. “He’s a bad person, and he shouldn’t be wearing a badge,” Steele told Blaze News.

‘Allegedly intoxicated and exhibiting obnoxious behavior’

Spears’ file is also filled with reports of disturbing behavior related to alcohol consumption and public intoxication.

The “Ptlm. Spears Incidents” document mentioned above references a bar “fight” on February 27, 2010. Even though no physical altercation appears to have taken place that night, Spears’ behavior before and after the alleged “fight” nonetheless infuriated cops.

Spears was ‘unprofessional and hostile toward both the clerk and the cook who had prepared his order’ because of an apparent ‘dispute over a coupon,’ the attendant claimed.

Hours before the bar “fight” incident, Spears called off sick for a shift that was scheduled to begin at 6 a.m. the following day. When the sergeant on duty arrived at the bar about the “fight” at about 1:15 a.m., less than five hours before Spears’ scheduled shift, he saw Spears “drinking alcohol” and speaking “with slurred speech and appear[ing] to be intoxicated,” the sergeant documented.

Even though he was supposed to be sick, Spears pled his case about his role in the alleged “fight,” claiming that a white male “aggressor” at the bar had insulted Manteno police as “a bunch of p**sies” and called him the N-word, the sergeant reported.

A short time later, after the sergeant had left to attend to a different case, Spears called the sergeant and insisted on reporting for his scheduled shift. After some back-and-forth, the sergeant eventually had to threaten Spears with a breathalyzer before Spears agreed not to come in.

RELATED: The carnage no one talks about: Drunk driving and illegal aliens

ANGHI/Getty Images

The “Ptlm. Spears Incident” document, likely drawn up by Manteno PD, also alleged Spears had called his police chief “while in a ditch drunk,” had “called numerous officers highly intoxicated while off-duty,” and even that he had his firearm owner’s identification “suspended” at an unknown date and time after he was transported to the hospital because he was “extremely intoxicated and … Suicidal.”

Spears was also involved in off-duty incidents at bars in December 2023 and January 2024, according to documents from Watseka PD.

Then on January 27, 2025, a gas station attendant approached a Momence cop who happened to be pumping gas to report an incident involving Spears. The attendant recalled that Spears arrived to pick up a food order in an “allegedly highly intoxicated state” and proceeded to cause “a scene,” the cop wrote in the “Incident Report Involving off duty Officer Spears Quincy.”

Spears was “unprofessional and hostile toward both the clerk and the cook who had prepared his order” because of an apparent “dispute over a coupon,” the attendant claimed, according to the cop’s summary.

The attendant further claimed that it “was not the first time” Spears had entered the store “allegedly intoxicated and exhibiting obnoxious behavior,” the report said.

‘You have some racist black people’

None of the many troubling allegations mentioned above prompted the disciplinary hearing that resulted in Spears’ voluntary resignation from the Manteno Police Department after 15 years on the force.

The two incidents that did lead to the hearing involved his interactions with fellow officers.

‘I never felt more discriminated on in my entire life as a black man.’

The first occurred on December 17, 2020, when a sheriff’s deputy confronted an off-duty Spears outside his home after the deputy reportedly witnessed Spears speeding and failing to signal.

The situation escalated quickly, with Spears demanding to know, “Do you know who I am?” and the deputy warning that the situation could turn into a traffic stop if Spears “continued to talk to [him] that way,” according to the deputy’s statement. Tensions seemed to dissipate a bit after Spears mentioned he was a Manteno officer, and the deputy ultimately left without recording anything or filing an initial report since it was not an official traffic stop.

Spears, however, did not drop the incident. Instead, he called Sgt. Andy Mackin, the Manteno midnight shift supervisor, at around 3 the next morning, more than four hours later, to complain about the deputy’s behavior, and the two spoke for “approx. three hours,” according to Mackin’s statement.

Mackin noted that Spears said “multiple times” that he wanted the deputy “fired” for his actions, which Spears claimed amounted to racial profiling.

“I never felt more discriminated on in my entire life as a black man as that frickin’ day there,” Spears railed during the April 2021 disciplinary hearing, which can be heard in full here. “That’s one of the reasons why African Americans do not complain about the police because of crap like that.”

Though Manteno Chief Alan Swinford noted at the hearing that the deputy involved is also black, Spears was not deterred, replying: “Chief, you have some racist black people as well when it comes to [the] African-American community, as we all know.”

RELATED: White liberals: Stop using ‘racism’ to excuse black crime

Screenshot of photo featuring Officer Quincy Spears and a K-9 officer on the Grant Park Police Department Facebook page

Despite admitting during the hearing that he hoped someone would train the deputy on “how to properly talk to people,” Spears vehemently denied calling for the deputy to be fired, decrying Mackin’s statement that he had as “a bald-face lie.”

The second incident that led to his departure from Manteno PD related to apparent attempts to use his status as a police officer to influence a case involving a friend who had been pulled over for an alleged DUI in March 2021. Spears contacted the deputy involved in the stop as well as other law enforcement personnel to see whether he might convince them “to reduce or drop charges” against his friend, Manteno PD claimed in the notice of allegations.

“Quincy asked if there … was anything I could do to help [redacted] out, since he was his guy,” the deputy wrote in a statement.

During the disciplinary hearing, Spears repeatedly insisted he could not “recall” mentioning anything about the “charges” his friend may have been facing to any of the involved personnel.

Manteno PD did not respond to Blaze News’ request for comment.

‘Not representative of a professional police officer’

Spears resigned from Manteno PD effective June 30, 2021. By November of that year, Spears had already landed a full-time job with the Watseka Police Department.

Momence Mayor Chuck Steele told Blaze News that he spoke with the then-mayor of Watseka to warn him about Spears before the police department hired him. “Don’t even think about putting him in as chief or even anything,” Steele recalled saying. “I said, ‘I’d be afraid to have him. You’re going to end up in lawsuits.'”

It seems Mayor Steele was right as Spears’ behavior did not appear to change.

In December 2023, Spears walked into Momence PD, asking for a job application. When the officer on duty, Sgt. Jeffrey Crocker, directed him to the online application portal, Spears became incensed, contacting Mayor Steele and two city aldermen to complain about Crocker’s alleged mistreatment of him.

‘I have no legal basis for disciplining his off-duty conduct.’

According to statements given to Momence Police Chief Patrick Siemsen, Spears told Mayor Steele that Sgt. Crocker appeared “pissed off that he had to deal with” him and treated him “like a piece of s**t, like a second-class citizen.”

Then-Alderman Romel Huddleston, who is black, told Chief Siemsen that Spears had approached him at a bar two days after the incident and accused Sgt. Crocker of racism. Spears “was attempting to play the ‘Race Card’ and gain sympathy,” Huddleston indicated, according to Siemsen.

Spears also interrupted another alderman out on a date to lodge similar complaints about Crocker, Siemsen reported. Spears then apparently scribbled his version of events on a yellow legal pad and gave it to the alderman. A copy of that note was included in Siemsen’s report.

The note, aptly described as “difficult to understand,” is believed to read: “Tom I went in to apply I talked to Crocker he was so unprofessional, look at his body cam. This might hurt me to be a officer.”

Screenshot of incident report

Frustrated with the man-hours and expense associated with investigating Spears’ allegations of mistreatment, Siemsen filed a formal complaint with the Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board, accusing Spears of “knowingly and intentionally” making “a false complaint” against Crocker.

“Mr. Spears’ conduct and behavior was egregious, highly unprofessional, unethical, and not representative of a professional police officer,” Siemsen wrote.

Jeremy Douglas, then the Watseka police chief, seemingly shrugged his shoulders, claiming that Spears’ comments were a matter of “opinion” and therefore “protected by the First Amendment.” “I have no legal basis for disciplining his off-duty conduct,” Douglas wrote Siemsen in a letter reviewed by Blaze News.

Huddleston did not respond to a request for comment.

Blaze News sent Watseka PD a series of questions about the vetting process associated with hiring Spears and officials’ level of awareness regarding the allegations against him. We also called and left a message following the news report about the officers under investigation. The department did not respond.

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North Carolina police said that a 13-year-old accused of killing his grandmother charged at police with a two-by-four piece of lumber when they tried to arrest him.

The Hoke County Sheriff’s Office said it responded to a call for a wellness check at a home on Pearce Place in Raeford at about 9:20 a.m. on Thursday.

‘I can’t even imagine how this happened, truthfully. … I never once saw any of the kids angry about anything. They just seemed like happy, normal kids.’

A second 911 caller said a woman was found unresponsive in the home. Emergency medical services responders pronounced her dead at the scene.

The woman was identified as 68-year-old Connie Linen.

During the investigation into her death, detectives identified her 13-year-old grandson as a suspect, and he was charged with first-degree murder as numerous law enforcement agencies searched for him.

Police said they located the teen inside a stolen car that belonged to his grandmother.

The teen ran away from the car on foot from behind an abandoned mobile home on Black Road in Cameron. Police gave chase and followed him into the woods.

The teenager allegedly charged at police with a two-by-four from a nearby home. Police fired at the teenager and struck him.

He died at the scene, according to the Lee County Sheriff’s Office.

RELATED: Man sentenced to 50 years for ‘staggering’ torture of daughter, including force-feeding of laxatives

A neighbor named Bailey Arndt who had recently moved there said she was shocked by the incident.

“It’s so cliche to say that, but you don’t expect to see it on your own street,” Arndt said. “I just pray for them, that they find peace and find a way to cope with all of this.”

Another neighbor said Linen was nice and friendly, and her grandchildren were always well-mannered and respectful.

“Everybody seemed pretty happy. I can’t even imagine how this happened, truthfully,” he said. “I never once saw any of the kids angry about anything. They just seemed like happy, normal kids.”

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The proposition that would allow Democrats in California to further manipulate congressional districts has passed easily, just minutes after polls closed at 8 p.m. local time.

Both the New York Times and the Associated Press almost immediately called the contest. Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom had campaigned for the proposition on the basis that it would help combat redistricting schemes in Texas to help Republicans gain seats in Congress.

‘What Proposition 50 represents to those that have been bullied … to those that are concerned about not only themselves but each other, our community, the city, our state, our nation, and, for that matter, what we represent to rest of the world.’

Proposition 50 was the only item on the ballot in California.

Former Republican California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger came out forcefully against the plan and campaigned to persuade against voting for the proposition.

California spent hundreds of millions of dollars sending 23 million ballots out to the California electorate. It’s expected that five more Democrat seats will be gained in the U.S. Congress because of the proposition.

The president blasted the proposition earlier on Tuesday in a post on social media.

“The Unconstitutional Redistricting Vote in California is a GIANT SCAM in that the entire process, in particular the Voting itself, is RIGGED. All ‘Mail-In’ Ballots, where the Republicans in that State are ‘Shut Out,’ is under very serious legal and criminal review,” he wrote.

Newsom characterized the proposition as a referendum against Trump’s policies, including on immigration.

“People are on edge. Communities of color are on edge. Folks scared to death to go out trick-or-treating the other night, scared to walk their dogs, go to a playground, or go to a park or go to a loved one’s funeral because they might be disappeared on the basis of what they look like, where they congregate, the language they speak,” he said to a group of supporters.

RELATED: ‘He did horrible s**t!’ Rogan rips into Newsom’s presidential aspirations — and he fires back

“The essence of this moment, what Proposition 50 represents to those that have been bullied, to those that have been demeaned, to those that feel powerless, to those that are concerned about not only themselves but each other, our community, the city, our state, our nation, and, for that matter, what we represent to rest of the world,” he added.

“That’s what Prop. 50 represents,” Newsom concluded.

Polling prior to the election had the proposition ahead with the support of about 56% in one poll, while only 43% said they would vote against the measure.

“Donald Trump asks for 5 seats and [Texas Gov.] Greg Abbott automatically bends the knee,” wrote Newsom in a post from July.

“The 2026 election is being rigged. California won’t sit back and watch this happen,” he added.

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The controversial Democrat who was caught wishing death on a Republican and his children has astoundingly won the election to be Virginia’s attorney general.

Incumbent Republican Attorney General Jason Miyares was unable to defeat former Virginia Del. Jay Jones despite a damaging scandal involving death-threat texts.

‘Are we going to pass the test of decency?’

The contest was called for Jones at about 9:50 p.m. local time by Fox News, only a few hours after the polls closed in Virginia at 7 p.m. local time.

The campaign was the most expensive in U.S. history for a state attorney general’s race. Republicans spent $21.9 million and Democrats spent $14.9 million on the race, according to AdImpact. CNN exit polls showed Miyares winning men by 18 points, 40-58, but Jones winning women by 12, 55-43.

The contest was roiled by the texts from Jones, which were obtained and released by National Review. The messages were sent in August 2022 about then-Virginia Speaker of the House Todd Gilbert (R). Republicans demanded that Democrats withdraw their endorsements for Jones, but many resisted and Jones remained in the race.

“Three people, two bullets,” read the text from Jones. “Gilbert, hitler, and pol pot.”

He added, “Gilbert gets two bullets to the head… Spoiler: put Gilbert in the crew with the two worst people you know and he receives both bullets every time.”

He reportedly went on to wish harm on the Republican’s children as well.

Jones did not deny writing the texts in an initial statement responding to the report.

“Like all people, I’ve sent text messages that I regret, and I believe that violent rhetoric has no place in our politics,” Jones wrote in statement to WTVR-TV.

“Let’s be clear about what is happening in the attorney general race right now,” he continued. “Jason Miyares is dropping smears through Trump-controlled media organizations to assault my character and rescue his desperate campaign. This is a strategy that ensures Jason Miyares will continue to be accountable to Donald Trump, not the people of Virginia. This race is about whether Trump can control Virginia or Virginians control Virginia.”

He later apologized and took responsibility for the texts.

RELATED: Democrat Jay Jones tries to pivot debate away from vile texts wishing death on a rival’s kids — but Virginia AG won’t let him

A Fox News exit poll found that 46% of Virginia voters said the texts were disqualifying. Others said they were concerning but not disqualifying or that they hadn’t heard enough about the texts.

Miyares is 49 years old and was the first Hispanic American elected to statewide office in Virginia.

He called on Jones to step down from the campaign during their fiery debate, but the Democrat refused.

“Are we going to pass the test of decency?” Miyares asked the voters in his final statement.

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Democrat candidate Zohran Mamdani became the first openly socialist candidate to sweep the New York City mayoral race Tuesday night.

Mamdani secured 50% of the vote, while independent candidate and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo won 41.4%, according to the Associated Press. Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa, who was widely regarded as a spoiler candidate for Cuomo, won just 7.7% of the vote.

His brazen embrace of socialism raised eyebrows across the political spectrum.

Current New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) did attempt to run for re-election, but eventually dropped his bid in September.

RELATED: Is Trump meddling with Mamdani’s candidacy?

Photo by Hiroko Masuike-Pool/Getty Images

Mamdani consistently campaigned on progressive policies, offering a socialist antidote to New Yorkers who struggled with affordability. Some of these policies include rent freezes, free buses, city-run grocery stores, and free child care.

Although this clearly appealed to residents of America’s most expensive city, his brazen embrace of socialism raised eyebrows across the political spectrum. Despite living in Brooklyn, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D) declined to say whether he voted for the Democrat candidate.

Zohran’s candidacy created a unique alliance between President Donald Trump and Cuomo. Leading up to the election, Trump urged New Yorkers to vote for Cuomo instead of Mamdani or even Sliwa, the Republican candidate.

RELATED: Zohran Mamdani’s Soviet dream for New York City

Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

“I would much rather see a Democrat, who has had a Record of Success, WIN, than a Communist with no experience and a Record of COMPLETE AND TOTAL FAILURE,” Trump said in a Truth Social post Tuesday. “He was nothing as an Assemblyman, ranked at the bottom of the class and, as Mayor of potentially, again, the Greatest City in the World, HE HAS NO CHANCE to bring it back to its former Glory!”

“We must also remember this — A vote for Curtis Sliwa (who looks much better without the beret!) is a vote for Mamdani,” Trump added. “Whether you personally like Andrew Cuomo or not, you really have no choice. You must vote for him, and hope he does a fantastic job. He is capable of it, Mamdani is not!”

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The Republican candidate for the Virginia governor’s office was unable to defeat Democrat candidate Abigail Spanberger.

The election was called by the Associated Press as well as the New York Times by about 8 p.m. local time, only an hour after the polls closed at 7 p.m.

Polling showed Spanberger had a large lead on the Republican throughout nearly the entire contest.

Winsome Earle-Sears, the state’s lieutenant governor, tried to gain ground by attacking Spanberger over damaging leaked texts from attorney general candidate Jay Jones. He had called for the death of a Republican colleague and his children in the texts, and while Spanberger condemned the message, she refused to rescind her endorsement.

Earle-Sears also gained some traction when a white Democrat protester created a sign with a racist message against the Republican.

“Hey Winsome, if trans can’t share your bathroom, then blacks can’t share my water fountain,” the sign read in all caps.

However, polling showed Spanberger had a large lead on the Republican throughout nearly the entire contest. At one point an average of polls had the Democrat ahead by 7.4 points, with as much as a double-digit lead in some polls.

RELATED: Nancy Pelosi has unbelievable response to Democrat candidate who issued death wish against Republican

The Earle-Sears campaign suffered with conservatives, and her earlier attacks on President Donald Trump kept him from ever endorsing her campaign

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Democrat Virginia state Sen. Ghazala Hashmi was elected to serve as Virginia’s lieutenant governor Tuesday night, defeating Republican strategist and radio host John Reid.

Hashmi won the election with 53.4% of the vote, while Reid garnered 46.3%, according to the Associated Press. Of the three major Virginia elections, this is the second race called in favor of the Democrats.

Polls had Reid and Hashmi polling neck and neck.

Although the race was projected to be neck and neck into election night, Hashmi pulled ahead by over 145,000 votes.

RELATED: Democrat holds a healthy lead for Virginia governor, but one scandal could throw downballot races

Photo by Max Posner for the Washington Post/Getty Images

Throughout the election cycle, Virginia Democrats were plagued with scandals related to violent and extreme rhetoric. Attorney General candidate Jay Jones infamously fantasized about murdering his political opponents, and Hashmi was on the record tolerating explicit content in children’s classrooms.

“One of my concerns is violence. We seem to focus on sexually explicit material,” Hashmi said in a video obtained by Blaze News. “I don’t really care about that.”

“We teach the books that other people try to ban,” Hashmi said.

RELATED: Exclusive: Virginia GOP candidate blasts ‘out of touch’ Democrat rival for pushing trans ideology on kids

Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Despite this, polls had Reid and Hashmi polling neck and neck.

Reid spent his time on the campaign trail focusing on the economy, lowering taxes, and slashing regulations, as well as defending law enforcement. Reid repeatedly called out Hashmi’s progressive track record.

Hashmi made abortion access a core value for her campaign despite Virginia’s lenient laws that allow abortion up to the third trimester. Hashmi also campaigned on tightening gun restrictions, as well as pitching herself as the anti-Trump candidate.

Although these social issues are not a priority for most of the state’s voters, Virginians ultimately cast their ballots in Hashmi’s favor.

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Democrat candidate Rep. Mikie Sherrill was elected to serve as New Jersey governor Tuesday night, defeating Republican candidate Jack Ciattarelli.

Sherrill narrowly won with 56.9% of the vote, while Ciattarelli secured 42.5%, according to the Associated Press. Although Trump made strides in New Jersey during the 2024 election, his popularity did not translate to other Republican candidates in the state.

The morning of the election, multiple bomb threats were made.

Leading up to the election, Ciattarelli managed to close a nearly double-digit polling Democrat advantage into low-single-digit race. Despite Ciattarelli’s growing momentum in the final weeks of his campaign, the Republican lost his third bid for governor of the Garden State.

RELATED: Republican candidate narrows the gap in NJ governor race with the help of key Dem endorsements

Adam Gray/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The morning of the election, multiple bomb threats were made across seven counties, disrupting voters at various poll sites, including five counties with the largest numbers of registered voters. Despite the threats, law enforcement did not find any devices, and an arrest was made in connection with the threats.

Voting resumed safely in the state following the threats, and residents eventually elected the New Jersey Democrat to helm the state.

While Ciattarelli ran with a key endorsement from President Donald Trump, the Republican also secured the support of many local Democrats, including Garfield Mayor Everett Garnto, who changed his party affiliation from Democrat to Republican in the same announcement.

RELATED: NJ’s blue wall may be cracking in governor race, new poll shows — GOP hopeful racks up Democrat endorsements

Photo by Kena Betancur/Getty Images

“It’s not just Republicans who are crying out for change,” Ciattarelli told a crowd following Garnto’s endorsement. “It’s unaffiliated, independent voters and, yes, even moderate Democrats who’ve come to the realization that this current administration has failed.”

Sherill also secured a high-profile endorsement from former President Barack Obama, who praised her “integrity, grit, and commitment to service.”

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Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett is well aware she’s one of the right’s favorite left-wing politicians — but it may not be for the reasons she believes it to be.

“I would argue that as much as I go against him, I would imagine that I get some of those folk too,” Crockett told Politico’s Dasha Burns of President Trump on “The Conversation” podcast.

“I remember when we were doing our art competition in my district, and obviously it’s open to all the kids in the district, and I remember a father coming up to me and telling me, ‘I appreciate you for doing this competition. My daughter loved participating. I am a Republican, but I love you,’” she said.

“I have been in all kinds of cities and airports and otherwise where people walk up to me, and of course, they don’t have an ‘R’ on their forehead, but they tell me that they have a difference when it comes to politics, but they love me,” she continued.

“And so, I think it is that that actually concerns him, and it is a reason that he wants to make sure that he is doing everything that he can to stop us. But honestly, he only elevates us. It only makes people look at us and say, ‘Man, if he’s threatened by, you know, AOC, who’s still in her 30s, and me, who’s still technically in my early 40s, two women that are in the House, they must be doing something right,’” she added.

BlazeTV host Pat Gray believes these “Republicans” may love Crockett for another reason.

“They love you ’cause you’re so ridiculous,” Gray says on “Pat Gray Unleashed.” “We want you out there as the face of the party.”

“So, she’s doing the exact opposite of what Kamala is doing. She’s trying to show, ‘Look, everybody [in] my party, I have far reach into the Republican Party. I can do this thing. Make me your nominee,’” executive producer Keith Malinak chimes in.

“Please,” Gray laughs, “do it.”

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A Massachusetts man in September walked into a New Bedford emergency room holding a bloody knife in his hand and claiming that a serial killer had stabbed his girlfriend to death, according to multiple reports. But the man now faces life in prison.

Tyler Baglini, 32, reportedly had a history of mental health issues and substance abuse, according to his attorney. After Baglini allegedly experienced an “episode” on Sept. 20, his girlfriend urged him to get help.

‘But I know the truth. I know how savage, how horrific, and how violent his actions were.’

Citing court documents, People magazine reported that Baglini’s girlfriend — 31-year-old Kerri Fidalgo — sent a text message to Baglini at 9:57 a.m. Sept. 20 that read: “Tyler, we can talk later. After you get checked out. You need help. You need to get better. You’re having an episode and you’re paranoid. Everything will be OK, but you need help. I love you. I care about you. Please.”

Police said Baglini wrote back: “Goodbye, I really loved you and I forgive you. Time to go to hell; you were the best thing that ever happened to me.”

Citing court documents, WPRI-TV reported that Baglini appeared at St. Luke’s Hospital at 12:39 p.m. and used a public phone there to call his parents multiple times — as well as Fidalgo twice. Baglini told family and his girlfriend that he was checking himself in for mental health issues — but he didn’t and left the hospital at 12:53 p.m., according to court documents.

Prosecutors said Baglini sent a photo of a knife to Fidalgo around 3:40 p.m.

Baglini later that afternoon reportedly staggered into the emergency room of St. Luke’s while holding a bloody knife and claiming that a serial killer had stabbed his girlfriend to death.

A prosecutor said Baglini’s “kitchen knife” had “blood on the blade,” according to WJAR-TV.

WPRI added that Baglini entered the hospital just before 5 p.m. and said the stabbing took place at her Atlantic Street apartment.

Fidalgo’s oldest sister, Kaila Whalen, reportedly became alarmed when police showed up that afternoon to do a welfare check on her sister.

“As my Portuguese-speaking grandmother fired questions at me in panic, I brushed her off and ran downstairs to Kerri’s apartment, desperate to understand what was happening,” Whalen told WPRI. “I had no idea what I was about to walk into. I didn’t know I would find my sister lying on her living room floor, motionless, surrounded by her own blood.”

Whalen added to WPRI that she remembered seeing her sister’s eyes open and her hands raised as if she was trying to protect herself, which Whalen told the station is an image that will haunt her for the rest of her life.

Whalen recounted to WPRI, “No one should ever have to find someone they love like that. I was frozen in horror, screaming. My mind was racing, but [my] feet wouldn’t move.”

Still, she was able to run back upstairs for the officers, who called for backup and began CPR, according to WPRI.

“I remember how frantic and forceful it seemed, like it was hurting her. It was too much to bear, so I dropped to my knees in her kitchen and begged God to spare her life. I have never felt so hopeless — so useless,” Whalen recalled to WPRI.

Assistant Bristol County District Attorney Karen O’Sullivan said Fidalgo had been stabbed 14 times in the neck, head, and torso, and her injuries were consistent with attempts to defend herself, according to the Herald News.

Fidalgo was rushed to St. Luke’s Hospital, where she was pronounced dead, according to the police report.

RELATED: ‘It’s all my fault’: Father’s chilling confession leads deputies to car trunk with his 4 dead children inside, police say

The Bristol County District Attorney’s Office said Baglini was arrested Sept. 20 and charged with murder.

Boston.com reported that Baglini was held overnight at Saint Luke’s Hospital for psychiatric evaluation.

Last week at the sentencing hearing, Fidalgo’s mother unleashed her fury on Baglini.

“I have watched him sit here in this courtroom, quiet and timid, as if he couldn’t possibly have done what he did,” Melissa Fidalgo, Kerri’s mother, told the judge before sentencing, according to the Boston Globe.

“But I know the truth. I know how savage, how horrific, and how violent his actions were,” she continued, according to the Globe. “I hate that he thought he had the right to take my daughter’s life. I hate that he took her from us, from the family that loved her so deeply, from the future she was building, and from the world that was brighter because she was in it.”

Baglini’s attorney, Michael Hussey, said during sentencing that his client has a history of substance abuse and mental health issues that were “probably of little concern to anyone in this room, and probably of little value to this court.”

Judge Raffi N. Yessayan responded, “Whatever other issues he may have, he’s a batterer. He’s a domestic abuser. I look at his record, and that’s clear. That’s why I didn’t let him hide in the corner.”

Baglini pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. The judge sentenced him to life in prison with the possibility of parole in 25 years, court records show.

Kerri’s youngest sister, Jazelle Fidalgo, described her sister as “a mother, role model, protector, and best friend.”

“Whenever I needed advice or comfort, she was the person I called,” Jazelle told WPRI. “She made me feel safe. She believed in me more than anyone ever could. She pushed me to chase my dreams and see my worth, and to never give up on myself. She was the person who stood by me through everything — my shoulder to cry on and my source of strength when I didn’t have any left.”

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From the get-go, Blaze Media has been bringing you unfiltered, pro-America content from some of the best voices in conservative media. And we’re only getting bigger.

On November 7, we welcome investigative firebrand and founder of American Reformer Christopher Rufo — alongside ex-academic renegade and CEO of Passage Publishing Jonathan Keeperman, aka Lomez — to ignite the front lines in our war on woke culture.

“Rufo & Lomez” is your new go-to podcast for all things politics, culture, and controversy. From dissecting the news, discourse, culture, and art through an anthropological lens to revealing the power structures, taboos, and hidden narratives shaping the modern world, this fiery duo will bring raw, no-holds-barred energy from start to finish. Expect incendiary debates, revelatory deep dives, and unapologetic takedowns that arm you with the truth in an era of elite strongholds.

In anticipation of the show’s launch, we encourage you to subscribe to “Rufo & Lomez” on YouTube for instant access to every episode.

We can’t wait for you to join the fray this Friday with “Rufo & Lomez” — it’s going to be intense, intellectually biting, and rebellious in all the right ways. We’ll see you there.

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There’s no doubt that President Trump’s recent “60 Minutes” interview with Norah O’Donnell was really a master class in negotiation — as his answers left the interviewer speechless and unable to criticize him.

“I know you have said that Xi Jinping wouldn’t dare move militarily on Taiwan while you’re in office, but what if he does? Would you order U.S. forces to defend Taiwan?” O’Donnell asked the president.

“You’ll find out if it happens. And he understands the answer to that,” Trump responded.

“Why not say it?” she asked, before pressing further and asking Trump what he means by “he understands.”

“Why not communicate that publicly to the rest of us? What does he understand?” she asked.

“I can’t give away my secrets. I don’t want to be one of these guys that tells you exactly what’s going to happen if something happens. The other side knows, but I’m not somebody that tells you everything because you’re asking me a question,” Trump responded.

“But they understand what’s going to happen. And he has openly said and his people have openly said at meetings, ‘We would never do anything while President Trump is president,’ because they know the consequences,” he added.

Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck is impressed with Trump, but the interviewer — not so much.

“Presidents never say that. They never say that. Can you imagine? What a stupid question that is,” Glenn says on “The Glenn Beck Program.”

And Trump’s strategy has been working wonders internationally.

“The Democrats won’t say it, but everybody has always said, ‘I wish we just had a good negotiator on our side. Wouldn’t it be nice if we had somebody who looked at the country like a business and could just run it like a business and knew how to negotiate?’” Glenn says.

“We have the best negotiator I think we’ve ever had. I can’t think of anybody who’s better than that,” he adds.

Trump was also questioned by O’Donnell about ICE raids

“Americans have been watching videos of ICE tackling a young mother, tear gas being used in a Chicago residential neighborhood, and the smashing of car windows. Have some of these raids gone too far?” she asked.

“No, I think they haven’t gone far enough because we’ve been held back by the judges, by the liberal judges that were put in by Biden and by Obama,” Trump responded firmly.

“You’re OK with those tactics?” O’Donnell asked, shocked.

“Yeah, because you have to get the people out. You know, you have to look at the people. Many of them are murderers. Many of them are people that were thrown out of their countries because they were, you know, criminals,” Trump said.

“It is such a popular issue to get rid of people who are violent criminals in this country,” BlazeTV host Stu Burguiere says, and Glenn agrees.

“Seventy percent of the American people agree with the ICE raids. Seventy percent. No matter what the mainstream media makes it look, that’s the latest poll,” he says.

Want more from Glenn Beck?

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

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Karine Jean-Pierre, the former White House press secretary under the Biden administration, is facing more criticism over her disastrous book tour.

Jean-Pierre began her tour in October to promote her new book, “Independent: A Look Inside a Broken White House, Outside the Party Lines.” She has been relentlessly mocked, even by those on the left, for repeatedly mentioning identity politics.

‘Lady, please do your book tour and then shut the f**k up! Please.’

During an October 29 episode of “Piers Morgan Uncensored,” the Young Turks’ Cenk Uygur and Katie Miller, a former deputy press secretary and wife of U.S. Homeland Security adviser Stephen Miller, found rare common ground criticizing Jean-Pierre for frequently mentioning that she identifies as a black LGBT woman.

“I don’t care about her skin color or sexuality, but my God, she cares about it,” Morgan stated after playing several clips of her book tour interviews. “When people talk about DEI and they look at the way she’s been handling her book tour, all they’re hearing is identity politics.”

Miller agreed, contending that Jean-Pierre was not qualified for the press secretary job.

“I do totally cringe. I hate to say it, but I half agree with Katie here,” Uygur replied, clarifying that he did believe Jean-Pierre was qualified, but adding, “She’s obsessed with identity politics, and I can’t stand it.”

RELATED: Karine Jean-Pierre’s memoir ROASTED: A review so savage, Glenn Beck wants to hug the critic

Former President Joe Biden, former White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Jean-Pierre was confronted about Miller’s and Uygur’s criticisms during a Tuesday episode of the podcast “Higher Learning.” Host Van Lathan asked Jean-Pierre to explain why she feels it is important to identify herself as a “black, queer woman.”

“If anything, I get criticized for saying I’m a black, queer woman. I don’t get shielded from saying I’m a black, queer woman,” she replied. Jean-Pierre claimed that mentioning her identity puts “more of a target” on her.

“It pisses me off that people who have not walked in my shoes, who have no idea who I really am as a person, get to tell me how I get to identify myself or not,” she continued. “You can’t tell me how I get to call myself. Like, screw you.”

RELATED: Karine Jean-Pierre’s humiliating book tour is even worse than you think

Karine Jean-Pierre. Photo by Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images for SiriusXM

On Sunday, political analyst James Carville mocked Jean-Pierre for dodging a question during an interview with the New Yorker “because she’s a black, lesbian female.”

“Lady, please do your book tour and then shut the f**k up! Please,” Carville said.

Former Biden spokesperson Andrew Bates also voiced disagreements with Jean-Pierre. During a Monday interview with Spectrum 1 News, Bates said he “disagree[d] with the reasoning that she has put forward for leaving the party,” referring to Jean-Pierre’s decision to identify as independent after Democrats “betray[ed]” Biden.

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The great British statesman Enoch Powell observed nearly 50 years ago: “All political lives, unless they are cut off in midstream at a happy juncture, end in failure, because that is the nature of politics and of human affairs.” Dick Cheney is no exception to Powell’s hard rule.

Our newspapers and publications in the coming days will be rife with surreal and false remembrances of the former vice president, who died Tuesday, age 84.

Surreal, because Democrats who spent a lifetime vilifying the man will laud him in death as a great statesman who opposed President Donald Trump and the populist right, while members of his own party will hold his legacy in significantly lower esteem.

Fake, because political commentators are incapable of remembering a time before Trump and can only “remember” the past by projecting their present emotions onto it.

When reviewing the former vice president’s complete antipathy for President Trump, it’s difficult to see it as having been anything but deeply personal.

Before many of my colleagues seem able to remember, Cheney was the consummate political badass, an archetype of ruthlessness, a meme before the meme wars. His economics and foreign policy deserve their exile from today’s Republican Party, but in his day, he bucked hard against the Republican urge to compromise with the rising American left and showed little sympathy for the wails of his opponents.

Cheney refused a role as polite, controlled opposition. He wielded political power without apology and helped rebuild the executive authority and culture Trump and the populists now wield to great effect. In a final irony, Cheney’s arrogance abroad — using military power to secure American energy interests and spread democracy — achieved neither. Instead, his failures cleared the way for the populist revolt that remade his party beyond recognition.

First, Dick Cheney the badass. He left Wyoming for Yale on a scholarship — and quickly flunked out. Undeterred, he returned — and flunked out again. Yale decided he wasn’t cut out to be a Yalie after all.

Despite his considerable intelligence, young Cheney headed back west, took a job as a power-company lineman, and began dating Lynne Ann Vincent, the woman who would become his wife of 61 years.

But his time back in Wyoming didn’t start off so well. Five days before the 2000 election, when news broke that George W. Bush had been arrested for drunk driving a quarter-century earlier, Cheney trumped his boss (for the first of many times), revealing he had two DUIs. It was Lynne, the more disciplined scholar, who convinced him to get his act together and go back to school.

“Lynne, after spending a semester in Europe, had graduated summa cum laude from Colorado College,” Cheney later wrote about those early days. “And I was sleeping off a hangover in the Rock Springs jail.”

After earning his degree, Cheney went to Washington, where his lifelong friend Donald Rumsfeld recruited him into Richard Nixon’s White House. When President Gerald Ford made Rumsfeld defense secretary, Cheney succeeded him as White House chief of staff.

After Ford’s defeat in 1976, Cheney ran for Congress. At 37, he suffered the first of five heart attacks while campaigning — but still won, beginning a five-term House career that ended when President George H.W. Bush named him secretary of defense. In this role, he successfully prosecuted the Gulf War.

After Bush’s loss to Bill Clinton in 1992, Cheney left public life, only returning after Bush’s son tapped him to find the best possible vice president for his ticket. In typical Cheney fashion, he found himself — and accepted the oft-derided job only if it came with a broad and influential portfolio of responsibilities.

Haunted by what he saw as the post-Watergate diminishment of the presidency, Cheney spent eight years under George W. Bush pushing for a more muscular executive branch. He championed an aggressive, sometimes vicious foreign policy, restrained the administration’s more liberal impulses, and redefined the modern presidency for a generation.

But the years in Washington didn’t tame the old Wyoming lineman’s temper. During a Senate-floor photo op in 2004, he told Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) to “go f**k yourself.” Charles Krauthammer wrote one of the better columns on the incident, calling it one of the great political moments of the era. When the comedian Dennis Miller brought it up in 2010, Cheney grinned and called it “sort of the best thing I ever did.”

His scowling visage became a fixture in the deeply Democratic press of the 2000s. When C-SPAN caught him lurking in the bushes while Bush delivered a Rose Garden address, the images instantly went viral. Far from shrinking from his villainous reputation — he embraced the nickname “Darth Vader” — the vice president reveled in the left-wing media’s scorn.

One of his lasting frustrations was his boss’ refusal to pardon Scooter Libby — the longtime aide wrongly accused of leaking a CIA agent’s identity. Bush and Cheney’s relationship never recovered.

By all appearances, Cheney seemed the sort of man who might have welcomed Donald Trump’s rise. He came from a blue-collar state, and the administration that followed his had toyed with prosecuting him for war crimes. Barack Obama’s attorney general, Eric Holder, even flirted publicly with the idea. Trump, in contrast, pardoned Cheney’s friend Libby during his first term.

Yet Cheney chose a different course — one that would define, and in many ways tarnish, his legacy.

His hostility toward Trump wasn’t ideological; it was personal. Trump had done much that Cheney once claimed to value: building close ties with Israel’s hawkish leadership, confronting Iran, reasserting U.S. dominance in the Western Hemisphere, and strengthening NATO by forcing European allies to pay more for their own defense. Their disagreements on trade hardly explain Cheney’s claim that “in our nation’s 246-year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic” than Trump.

The truth is that beyond simply challenging the foreign-policy blob consensus, Trump was the first Republican candidate for president since Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) to explicitly attack the Bush administration’s record on 9/11, Iraq, and Afghanistan. As president, Trump completely disavowed the reckless and destructive decades of war in the Middle East and Central Asia.

When Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) joined Democrats in their campaign to destroy Donald Trump after the events of Jan. 6, 2021, the Republican base mocked her and unceremoniously ejected her from power. She lost her leadership post, her primary, and the loyalty of the movement her father helped build. That humiliation cut deep. For a man as proud — and prideful — as Dick Cheney, the rejection did not sit well.

His bitterness during Trump’s first term hardened into something darker. Cheney lent credibility to the Russia hoax and, in one of his final political acts, endorsed Kamala Harris. It was a sad, almost tragic coda to a long and consequential career.

In the end, Cheney fulfilled Enoch Powell’s old truth about politics — one he would have recognized but never admitted. “All political lives, unless they are cut off in midstream at a happy juncture, end in failure.” Powell’s words have echoed through this story from the start, but they fit Cheney too perfectly to ignore.

He left politics the way he lived it: defiant, scowling, and unwilling to bend. The man who once told a U.S. senator to “go f**k yourself” had one final message for the movement he ultimately could not control. Rest in peace.

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U.S. sales of Pfizer’s Comirnaty shots have taken a nosedive since the Trump administration updated its immunization schedules last month and dropped the universal collective recommendations for COVID-19 vaccines.

The pharmaceutical company’s revenues for the third quarter of 2025 are down 6% — amounting to a $1 billion drop — compared to the same stretch the previous year.

‘CDC’s 2022 blanket recommendation for perpetual COVID-19 boosters deterred health care providers from talking about the risks.’

Pfizer indicated in its latest earnings statement that “the operational decrease was primarily driven by a year-over-year decline in COVID-19 product revenues largely due to lower infection rates impacting Paxlovid demand as well as a narrower vaccine recommendation for COVID-19 in the U.S. that reduced the eligible population for Comirnaty.”

Sales of Comirnaty were down 25% in the United States, and sales of Paxlovid, an oral antiviral medication that treats mild-to-moderate COVID-19 in adults, were down 52%.

When his agency dropped the universal recommendation last month for Comirnaty — a controversial vaccine used at a time of population-wide immunity to treat an endemic virus fatal in roughly 1% of confirmed cases — Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Acting Director Jim O’Neill stated, “CDC’s 2022 blanket recommendation for perpetual COVID-19 boosters deterred health care providers from talking about the risks and benefits of vaccination for the individual patient or parent. That changes today.”

RELATED: Naomi Wolf continues to expose COVID vaccine: ‘A depopulating technology’

Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images

The CDC’s decision came just months after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration forced Pfizer to slap a damning warning on its Comirnaty vaccine noting the estimated unadjusted incidence of heart conditions following administration of the 2023-2024 formula of the shot, as well as the longitudinal results of a 2024 study concerning cardiac manifestations and outcomes of vaccine-associated myocarditis in American youths.

The FDA also required Pfizer to describe the new safety information in the adverse reactions section of its vaccine information insert such that it now notes that “the estimated unadjusted incidence of myocarditis and/or pericarditis during the period 1 through 7 days following administration of the 2023-2024 Formula of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines was approximately 8 cases per million doses in individuals 6 months through 64 years of age and approximately 27 cases per million doses in males 12 through 24 years of age.”

While the FDA has approved the drug for use in individuals who are 65 years of age and older or 5-64 years old who suffer from at least one underlying condition putting them at high risk for severe outcomes from COVID-19, it revoked the emergency use authorization for the shot in August.

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla reportedly suggested on a Tuesday call with analysts that the company is looking for opportunities outside the United States, stating that the company’s catalog of vaccines constitute a “key area of focus in international markets.”

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With socialist candidate Zohran Mamdani poised to become New York City’s next mayor, BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales is sounding the alarm on what she says could be a “major catastrophe.”

“As well as the polls can tell, he is about to win as mayor in New York City. And, you know, you might think, like, ‘Well, let’s just let him run this New York City, this leftist s**thole, into the ground. Just let him do that. You get what you vote for, that’s fine,’” Gonzales says on “Sara Gonzales Unfiltered.”

“Well, the problem is that his policies could bankrupt the city, which we’ve already talked about, and he could have just another mass exodus from New York, which would really spell trouble for the state,” she continues.

And a mass exodus could definitely be in the cards if he wins, as indicated by a new Daily Mail poll that asked New Yorkers if they plan to stay or leave if Mamdani gets elected.

Nine percent of those who answered the poll said that they would “definitely leave.”

“You’re like, ‘Oh, it’s only 9% — 59% said they would stay; 25% said they would consider leaving. Only 9% said that they would definitely leave.’ But 9% of New Yorkers is 765,000 people. I mean, that would be one of the biggest mass exoduses in American history,” Gonzales says.

“Now, then you take into consideration that 25% who are considering leaving. If they left, that’s 2.12 million people leaving New York City. Now, you’re talking about an economic collapse for the city, just because Zohran Mamdani wins,” she continues.

But it gets worse, because it’s not going to be the poor that are leaving.

“His plan to tax the rich is behind this. The top 1% of earners in New York pay around half the city’s income taxes. So, who is going to pay for all of this s**t if all of the top earners are leaving?” Gonzales asks.

“We already saw this play out in places [like] California. When you rely on the top 1% of earners and the top 1% of earners actually have a whole lot of income, disposable income, to just move — if you elect a radical Muslim communist, they’re just going to do that. And then you won’t be able to tax them,” she continues.

“So, how is he going to pay for all of this free s**t — the government-run grocery stores, the free buses? I’ll use air quotes because we all know none of this is actually free. Then all the other city services are going to start circling the drain. You’re going to have fewer funds for police, for fire, for transit,” she says.

“Then comes real estate issues. You’ll have a rise in vacancies. The property values, in turn, are going to plunge. The lenders are going to get hit. More rich people are going to snap up properties across the country, which is going to cause real estate to rise everywhere else,” she adds.

And all of this will lead to “New York City becoming unrecognizable as the global powerhouse that it once was.”

“We’re talking about a major catastrophe here,” she adds.

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The United Services Automobile Association is one of the most venerable names in banking and insurance, a company that prides itself on its service to members of the military and their families. In recent years, however, USAA has run into serious financial trouble due to a combination of mismanagement, fashionable diversity, equity, and inclusion policies, and the firm’s increasing reliance on incompetent and untrustworthy H-1B workers, most of whom are from India.

A significant number of current and former USAA employees have come forward to discuss what they describe as a toxic workplace culture, which has led to an alarming number of employee suicides, and the company’s outsourcing of critical functions to H-1Bs and Indian consultancies, putting at risk the financial data of its customers, which include high-ranking members of the U.S. armed forces.

What began as a cost-cutting strategy in the early 2000s now threatens the stability of an institution long trusted by veterans.

Insiders granted anonymity to avoid retaliation say USAA’s decline began in the 2000s under then-CEO Robert G. Davis, who outsourced IT and other core functions to H-1B contracting firms such as Tata Consultancy Services. Those firms imposed contracts requiring USAA to maintain minimum staffing levels, creating chronic overstaffing. Idle contractors were reportedly assigned “busywork” to meet quotas, with conference rooms converted into laptop farms where workers sat “packed like sardines.”

One insider described the result as “incredibly incompetent” operations. Projects that U.S.-based employees could complete on time were instead handed to H-1B contractors who often lacked the necessary skills and required retraining.

From cost-cutting to collapse

At the same time, USAA repeatedly laid off American staff and replaced them with foreign workers, driving labor costs higher and eroding institutional knowledge. Davis retired abruptly in 2007, but his successors continued his policies, expanding USAA’s offshore footprint with new IT centers in Guadalajara, Mexico, and Chennai, India.

Insiders say H-1B contractors at USAA often lack basic programming skills, compounding inefficiency. In one case, a credit card processing problem baffled contractors for six months until the company brought back a retired American employee, who solved the problem in a matter of days. The constant visa turnover worsens the issue. Skilled H-1Bs leave after six years, draining institutional knowledge. Turnover is even higher at USAA’s Guadalajara facility, where Indian employees reportedly fear cartel violence.

Bureaucratic bloat magnifies these problems. Each team has dual directors, and many systems rely on outdated software. That dysfunction has drawn scrutiny from federal regulators, who fined USAA for failed audits and violations of anti-money-laundering laws. Those failures forced the company to sell off divisions, including real estate, and pushed USAA into persistent losses through much of the decade.

Customers have also felt the effects. Many complain that poorly trained H-1B staff struggle to handle basic service requests. One customer said resolving a fraud alert took hours — and that he now contacts USAA’s top executives directly to get results.

Security risks and cultural decay

USAA’s growing dependence on H-1B contractors and overseas labor has created potential security and compliance risks, according to multiple insiders. The company has outsourced anti-money laundering work to Tata Consultancy Services, which reportedly performs much of that work in India. As a result, the personal financial data of U.S. service members and veterans may be stored or processed abroad.

USAA also shares customer data — including names, addresses, and birth dates — with LexisNexis, with no option for customers to opt out. One customer said he only discovered this practice after receiving a notice in the mail.

RELATED: The visa that ate America’s tech jobs

subodhsathe via iStock/Getty Images

Inside the company, these policies have coincided with a marked decline in morale. Mass layoffs of veteran employees have preceded at least three suicides, including one who shot himself in a company parking lot. A former director described intervening to stop another potential suicide. Tensions intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic, when USAA defied Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s executive order banning vaccine mandates.

Employees describe a sharp cultural shift away from USAA’s traditional military ethos toward a mishmash of corporate diversity programming. The company has hosted Diwali celebrations and mandatory DEI events while facing allegations of religious discrimination against Christian employees. One former employee has taken a case to arbitration. Internal surveys reportedly show employee satisfaction at just 33%.

An institution on the brink

Analysts say the company’s reliance on foreign labor and internal instability have eroded its reputation for customer service and financial stewardship. What began as a cost-cutting strategy in the early 2000s now threatens the stability of an institution long trusted by veterans.

Whether USAA can recover will depend on its ability to restore confidence — both among employees and the members it was established to serve.

​Opinion & analysis, Usaa, H-1b visas, India, Cheap labors, Unemployment, Wages, Laptop farms, Banks, Insurance, Outsourcing, Incompetence, Diversity equity inclusion, Woke capital, Woke business, Robert g. davis, Tata consultancy services, Jobs americans will do, Contractors, Cartel violence, Guadalajara cartel, Anti-money laundering laws, Audits, Big tech, Customer service 

Some polling locations were targeted by bomb threats on Election Day, but officials said that no voting was disrupted because of the incidents.

The New York Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation said they were investigating an “elaborate swatting attempt” at some New York City polling locations.

County officials then said that the threats were all ‘malicious, intimidation-driven acts intended to disrupt the democratic process.’

Police sources said that “terroristic” threats were sent via email about the polling locations at Washington Heights, the West Village, and Midtown.

At the same time, New Jersey police were responding to bomb threats in at least seven counties.

New Jersey Lt. Gov. Tahesha Way also serves as the state’s highest election official and said there were “no credible threats” and encouraged voters to resist intimidation.

“We are doing everything in our power to protect voters and poll workers and coordinate closely with state, local and federal partners to ensure a smooth and safe election,” she added. “We encourage every eligible voter to exercise their right to vote before 8:00 p.m. today.”

Polling sites in Bergen, Essex, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth, Ocean, and Passaic Counties all received the emailed bomb threat, according to N.J. Attorney General Matthew Platkin.

“Law enforcement officers have responded at each affected polling place, and they have worked swiftly to secure these polling locations and ensure the safety of every voter,” Platkin added in a statement. “Some of these polling locations have already reopened to the public. At others, voters will be directed to a nearby polling location to cast their ballot.”

County officials then said that the threats were all “malicious, intimidation-driven acts intended to disrupt the democratic process” but assured voters that polling sites were safe and secure.

RELATED: DHS: Deadly Dallas ICE shooting came a month after bomb threat at same office

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said the Dept. of Justice was responding to the threats.

“We are on it. This Dept. of Justice is committed to free, fair and safe elections,” she wrote on social media.

Some New Jersey schools were closed for the day out of an abundance of caution over a threat made to a polling site at a high school.

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Attorney General Pam Bondi revealed on Tuesday further disturbing details about the Biden administration’s Operation Arctic Frost, which targeted at least nine Republican lawmakers.

‘It was a clear effort by the Biden White House and the Biden DOJ to go after the president.’

Documents previously published by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) exposed that the operation sought the private cellphone records of Republican politicians.

The investigation into Arctic Frost unveiled that the Biden administration provided Trump’s phone to special counsel Jack Smith, Bondi announced on Tuesday.

“During the Arctic Frost Investigation, we found that Special Counsel seized President Trump’s government-issued phone,” Bondi wrote in a post on X.

Bondi called the action by the Biden administration “UNPRECEDENTED.”

“In addition, Special Counsel subpoenaed all of President Trump’s PERSONAL phone records,” she continued. “We can never again allow this kind of government weaponization in America.”

RELATED: Liberal media remains DEAD SILENT on Biden FBI’s Arctic Frost operation against conservatives

Attorney General Pam Bondi, President Donald Trump. Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Bondi stated that the latest findings were provided to Congress.

Conservatives flooded Bondi’s post with comments asking if any arrests would follow these new revelations, expressing that many are tired of the political theater and want to see justice served.

“Why not move forward with charges?” one X user asked. “Why hand it to Congress … so it can die in committee and resurface as campaign soundbites? We’re tired of the theater. We want accountability.”

“America is sick and tired of talk,” another user wrote. “We want major arrests and long prison terms. I really do not know how else to make this more clear. Our guy has a MUG SHOT, his personal home was raided by armed law enforcement with shoot to kill orders. He has had multiple attempts on his life.”

RELATED: ‘Not. One. Story.’ Liberal news outlets’ silence regarding Biden’s ‘enemies list’ is deafening

Special Counsel Jack Smith. Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt reacted to Bondi’s announcement during Tuesday’s press briefing.

“I think this is just further evidence of the egregious overreach and weaponization of government that took place under the previous White House against then-former president and now-President Donald J. Trump,” Leavitt said. “It was a clear effort by the Biden White House and the Biden DOJ to go after the president.”

The Department of Justice declined to comment beyond the AG’s statement.

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​News, Pam bondi, Department of justice, Attorney general, Donald trump, Trump, Trump administration, Trump admin, Jack smith, Biden administration, Biden admin, Biden, Joe biden, Politics 

In the lead-up to Election Day in New York City on Tuesday, President Donald Trump posted several attacks on Democrat mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, who is expected to win despite his socialist views.

On Tuesday morning, Trump posted: “Any Jewish person that votes for Zohran Mamdani, a proven and self professed JEW HATER, is a stupid person!!!”

Mamdani, whom Trump called a “100% Communist Lunatic” back in June, is considered to be the front-runner heading into the election, particularly after he gained the endorsement of New York Governor Kathy Hochul and other Democrat leaders.

RELATED: LGBTQ champion Zohran Mamdani faces backlash over photo with ‘anti-homosexuality’ Ugandan lawmaker

Photo by Samuel Corum/Getty Images

On Monday afternoon, Trump threatened to withhold all extra federal funds in the event that Mamdani wins the election “because of the fact that, as a Communist, this once great City has ZERO chance of success, or even survival! It can only get worse with a Communist at the helm, and I don’t want to send, as President, good money after bad.”

The post continued: “His principles have been tested for over a thousand years, and never once have they been successful. I would much rather see a Democrat, who has had a Record of Success, WIN, than a Communist with no experience and a Record of COMPLETE AND TOTAL FAILURE. He was nothing as an Assemblyman, ranked at the bottom of the class and, as Mayor of potentially, again, the Greatest City in the World, HE HAS NO CHANCE to bring it back to its former Glory!”

Trump also told voters that they “have no choice” but to vote for former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, since “a vote for Curtis Sliwa [R] is a vote for Mamdani.”

Trump’s criticisms of Mamdani, which date back at least to late June, ramped up in the last week. On October 29, Trump said, “The more people learn about Mamdani, the less they like him!”

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​Politics, New york city, Curtis sliwa, Andrew cuomo, Zohran mamdani, Mayoral race, Election day, President trump, Truth social, Far left, Mamdani, Islam, Communist