Category: blaze media

The United States is a wonderfully strange place that has entered a remarkably bizarre era.

The Wall Street Journal recently noted the growing appeal of big, muscular arms among women. On its own, it sounds like a harmless, somewhat ridiculous trend. But the veiny flexes are only the most visible part of a broader cultural shift.

The female body becomes another declaration of independence: stronger, harder, more imposing, less vulnerable.

Look around any busy gym in America, or spend five minutes scrolling Instagram, and the directives handed down to young women seem to have completely flipped. Women were once told they should no longer have to conform to male expectations to achieve genuine success. Internet culture somehow turned that promise inside out. Now the fashionable ideal increasingly resembles a female version of masculinity: bigger muscles, more tattoos, even the deliberate rejection of conventional beauty rituals through shaved heads.

The ideal is no longer merely to be desirable. It is to look completely untouchable.

‘Resistance’ training

This transformation has acquired an unmistakably political dimension. Writing in the Washington Post last year, columnist Karen Attiah described gaining 20 pounds of muscle through powerlifting. Attiah argues that muscles and femininity are perfectly compatible and reports receiving plenty of admiring attention from men. But her conception of femininity is heavily politicized. Connecting women’s growing enthusiasm for muscularity to abortion restrictions, male violence, and the revival of traditional gender roles, she wrote, “At a time when the rights of women, particularly Black women, are under attack, we need to return to the basics — to be grounded in our agency, physical power, and transformational energy.”

Attiah is hardly alone. Writing in Women’s Health last year, personal trainer Lacee Lazoff declared that lifting weights is a feminist act of rebellion. She described grunting, developing calloused hands, and lifting heavy weights as ways of defying traditional expectations of femininity. Even a trip to the gym, apparently, can become another skirmish in the war against the patriarchy.

There is a curious irony here. For decades, feminists argued that a woman’s worth should not be determined by her appearance. Now, in certain feminist circles, appearance has become a political statement in its own right. A muscular back is an act of resistance. A shaved head is a declaration of independence. Even the size of a woman’s biceps can apparently tell us something about her commitment to dismantling the patriarchy.

Women were supposed to be liberated from having their bodies scrutinized. Instead, they are being invited to turn those bodies into ideological billboards.

Trying on toxicity

Fitness culture is especially enthusiastic about this transformation. Building a wide back, heavy upper trapezius muscles, a thick neck, and bulging biceps is sold not simply as exercise but as empowerment. The female body becomes another declaration of independence: stronger, harder, more imposing, less vulnerable.

The disconnect becomes even stranger when you consider the way masculinity itself is discussed. Traditional male behavior is endlessly scrutinized for signs of toxicity, aggression, dominance, and emotional repression. Yet many of the same outward qualities — toughness, physical intimidation, extreme independence, indifference to approval — are celebrated when women cultivate them.

Somehow, masculinity becomes problematic in men and empowering in women. Female strength once meant endurance, patience, wisdom, competence, fortitude. A mother could be extraordinarily strong without feeling compelled to acquire the neck of an Olympic weightlifter. Increasingly, however, strength must be visible before it counts — and preferably visible on Instagram.

RELATED: Stallone’s ‘Steps’ looks back on the long, brutal road to ‘Rocky’

United Archives/Getty Images

Muscle mates

Women spend hundreds of hours dragging heavy sleds, curling dumbbells, counting grams of protein, and sculpting bodies designed to project an aura of absolute self-sufficiency. Add the sleeve tattoos, buzz cuts, and permanent don’t-talk-to-me expression, and the aesthetic communicates something before a word has been spoken: I require nothing from anyone.

Perhaps that feels liberating. But it leaves remarkably little room for femininity. And then comes the sales pitch that may be hardest to swallow: that men are supposed to find the whole package irresistible.

Human attraction is obviously more complicated than a checklist, and plenty of men like athletic women. But cross-cultural research on mate preferences has consistently found that men place greater importance on physical attractiveness in a long-term partner than women do. Both sexes, meanwhile, value qualities such as dependability and emotional compatibility. There is little reason to believe that a new fashion for bulging biceps has fundamentally rewritten these preferences.

None of this means women should organize their lives around pleasing men. It does mean we should stop pretending male attraction has been culturally reprogrammed because an influencer said “strong is sexy.”

If you’re a female reader skeptical of the point, consider the inverse. Would you feel genuinely attraction to a man who deliberately adopted every traditionally feminine aesthetic he could find? Imagine him stepping out in floral sundresses and pearl anklets. Picture him borrowing your crop tops, straightening his hair, spending two hours applying liquid eyeliner before heading to a sports bar, then asking whether he should start carrying a tiny micro-purse for his perfume and lip oil.

Perhaps somebody is into it; most women probably aren’t.

Sexual difference has proven remarkably stubborn despite decades of attempts to explain it away. Men and women can obviously borrow from one another, and nobody is suggesting that women should avoid barbells or men should avoid moisturizer. But a culture supposedly devoted to freeing women from male standards has arrived at a curious destination: It increasingly congratulates women for looking and behaving more like men.

To be clear, fitness is attractive. A strong, sculpted female body can be beautiful. But there’s a considerable difference between looking fit and looking as though you could throw your boyfriend through drywall.

​Female masculinity, Femininity, Gender roles, Gym culture, Masculinity, Powerlifting, Women, Womens health, Mate preferences, Culture, Feminism, Lifestyle 

Actress Selma Blair was arrested after she allegedly tried to open the door on a plane flight and bit a flight attendant.

The 54-year-old was arrested Sunday after the Delta flight landed in New York, according to TMZ.

‘Delta has zero tolerance for unruly or unlawful behavior, as the safety of our customers and crew always comes first.’

She allegedly punched one attendant and bit another one.

The flight had taken off from the Los Angeles International Airport.

Blair’s representative released a statement to Variety.

“Selma experienced a medical emergency that led to the alleged conduct. Upon landing, she received immediate medical attention and is currently in stable condition.”

One of the two flight attendants reporting injuries was transported to a hospital for treatment.

Delta Airlines released a statement to Variety about the incident.

“Delta has zero tolerance for unruly or unlawful behavior, as the safety of our customers and crew always comes first,” the statement reads.

Despite the chaos of the alleged incident, the flight was not affected and landed ahead of time.

Variety reported that the Federal Bureau of Investigation is looking into the incident, according to its sources.

Blair had a previous medical incident on a plane that she attributed to mixing a glass of wine with a pill.

RELATED: Actress Alyssa Milano caught spreading gun misinformation after Texas shooting

“It was horrible and frightening, and I had empathy for myself actually afterwards because it was actually so out of character for me, especially because I’m a mother,” she said at the time.

Blair is best known for her role in the movie “Legally Blonde.”

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​Celebrities, Selma blair, Tmz report, Crime 

In Shirley Jackson’s 1948 story “The Lottery,” a town selects one resident by chance and stones the victim to death. The killing is arbitrary by design, a ritual nobody can justify beyond the fact that it has always been done.

Much of the modern Western imagination now approaches capital punishment through a similar lens: not as justice, but as officially sanctioned cruelty. That suspicion fits an older philosophical claim associated with Thrasymachus in Plato’s “Republic”: Justice is “the advantage of the stronger.” Rulers make the rules, call them just, and use them to serve their own interests.

A culture that recognizes only victims, never sinners, will mistake punishment for cruelty and forgiveness for an unnecessary apology.

I have been surveying arguments for and against publicly broadcasting the execution of Nidal Malik Hasan, the former Army psychiatrist who murdered 13 people and wounded 32 others at Fort Hood in 2009. The Army has scheduled his execution by firing squad for Dec. 3. The Pentagon announced plans to livestream it, although President Trump has said he will decide whether the broadcast goes forward.

Thoughtful conservatives disagree about livestreaming an execution. To understand the objections, I asked people on X to list the arguments they had heard. What stood out was how often the discussion framed morality in terms of consequences rather than the goodness of justice itself.

The broadcast might make Hasan a martyr. Terrorists might use the footage to recruit. Children might encounter it online. It likely would not deter another crime.

Those concerns deserve consideration. But consequences do not exhaust moral reasoning. Consequentialism judges an action by its results. Utilitarianism, one version of consequentialism, weighs overall welfare against suffering. Under that framework, justice can become merely a tool for producing desirable outcomes.

As a philosophy professor, I want to ask a prior question: What if justice is good in itself?

Consider two tests. Would punishing a guilty murderer become pointless if it deterred nobody? Would punishing an innocent person become right if doing so deterred thousands? If your answers are no, you already recognize a moral standard that consequences alone cannot supply.

Justice means giving people their due. A worker deserves his paycheck because he performed the work. His employer cannot justify withholding it by explaining how much happier the company would be with the extra money.

The same principle applies to wrongdoing. Someone who deliberately murders the innocent deserves punishment. The murdered cannot be brought back. That does not mean nothing remains to be done.

Justice is not personal revenge. It is deserved punishment imposed under lawful authority. Justice requires established guilt, proportionate punishment, and limits on the state. It forbids punishing the innocent even when doing so would be popular or useful.

Justice is good in itself. Seeing justice done is a good thing to behold.

Yet our culture increasingly treats punishment as the villain. We learn the offender’s grievances, childhood wounds, and social disadvantages. The victims fade into the background. Understanding how someone became cruel may be valuable. Explanation, however, does not become exoneration.

RELATED: Why America’s enemies always target Western civilization first

The New York Historical/Getty Images

Michel Foucault’s influential “Discipline and Punish” examined punishment through the workings of power, discipline, and social control. That analysis encourages suspicion of institutions claiming to administer justice. But identifying abuses of power does not establish that justice itself is merely domination.

Indeed, if justice is nothing more than power, why condemn the powerful for being unjust? The person demanding recompense for a wrong appeals to something beyond the wrongdoer’s preferences. He expects us to recognize that he was owed better. He is claiming that the oppressor is objectively guilty.

None of this settles the livestream question. The state must justify both a punishment and the manner in which it carries that punishment out. Public accountability and acknowledgment of victims matter. So does the distinction between solemn judgment and entertainment, along with the prohibition against gratuitous cruelty.

The justice of Hasan’s punishment does not depend on how spectators respond to it. But neither does a just punishment automatically make every possible way of displaying it wise. The question is whether the state administers justice rightly.

The debate therefore reveals more than disagreement about a camera. It reveals uncertainty about whether anyone truly deserves punishment and whether it is good to see justice enacted. If justice must always prove its usefulness before we acknowledge its goodness, then justice has already lost its authority.

The effort to undermine human justice may also serve a larger purpose: undermining divine justice. Human courts are fallible and limited to this life. Their imperfection does not erase the idea of judgment; for Christians, it points beyond them to the perfect justice of God.

RELATED: If mental health experts can’t identify murderers, what’s the backup plan?

SeventyFour/Getty Images

When a culture treats every offender as ultimately an innocent victim, divine judgment will appear monstrous. God becomes the angry villain while the sinner is merely doing his best. A story long associated with Bertrand Russell captures the posture: Asked what he would say if confronted by God after death, Russell reportedly complained that God had not provided enough evidence.

Scripture presents a different picture. God’s revelation leaves humanity “without excuse,” and before His judgment “every mouth may be stopped.” It is right to stand in awe and fear of God as the perfect judge.

“The wages of sin is death.” Without that truth, the cross becomes unintelligible.

Christ was publicly crucified. He was innocent, yet Christians believe the sins of his people were laid on him. He paid the debt we owed and canceled the record that stood against us. A culture that cannot see justice as good in itself will specialize in justifying its sin and condemning the Judge. It will also lose sight of what the cross means for sinners.

A culture that recognizes only victims, never sinners, will struggle to understand either justice or grace. It will mistake punishment for cruelty and forgiveness for an unnecessary apology.

Justice is good in itself. Its goodness does not depend on applause, deterrence, or our comfort. Until we recover that truth, we will misunderstand both the courtroom and the cross.

​Capital punishment, Consequences, Courtroom, Entertainment, Execution, Firing squad, Forgiveness, Fort hood, God, Grace, Justice, Livestream, Pentagon, President trump, Punishment, Sin, Sinners, Victims, Opinion & analysis 

Near the beginning of Alejandro González Iñárritu’s “Digger,” oil baron Digger Rockwell (Tom Cruise) is briefing the president and his Cabinet.

Digger, preoccupied with his terminally ill cat, has just set off a calamitous global environmental disaster and is meeting with the president to mitigate the fallout.

None of us, not even the most rational people, is immune to the power of emotional messaging.

The president, played by a slimmed-down John Goodman, is an over-the-top blowhard. He’s an amalgam of Donald Trump, both Bushes, and every villainous conservative politician in the history of cinema. He is flanked by a comically weak vice president, a square-jawed racist general, and a sycophantic Bible-thumping preacher.

It was funny, and I was mesmerized by the production design and cinematography. But I thought, “Why the lazy stereotypes?”

I knew Iñárritu was smarter than this, and I knew Tom Cruise wouldn’t settle for anything less than excellence. So why was the story driven by the lead character’s stupidity? Why were the other characters such hackneyed tropes? It didn’t make sense.

Then the plot twisted. My jaw dropped, and I spent the next two hours on the edge of my seat, hypnotized by what might be the greatest film of a generation.

“Digger” is an incredible film for many reasons. First, the entire cast is brilliant, and this is the best performance of Tom Cruise’s career.

There’s more to admire in the writing, Richard Johnson and Dennis Gassner’s production design, Emmanuel “Chivo” Lubezki’s heroic cinematography, the sound design and editing, and Jacqueline West’s costumes. Every aspect of the movie serves to complete the gestalt.

But what makes this film truly great is that it is unlike anything that has come before it. People ask whether it is comparable to “Dr. Strangelove” or “Citizen Kane,” but those are the wrong analogies. The closest comparison might be the moment in “The Wizard of Oz” when Toto reveals that the Wizard is merely an ordinary man behind the curtain.

Another curious thing about “Digger” is that it is executed so masterfully that it strikes an implicit bargain with its audience: Don’t spoil it. So I’m not going to ruin it for you.

And no, it’s not a movie about climate change or the oil industry. The environmental catastrophe is merely a plot device, and the stated climate science “facts” are laughably absurd, which I suspect is by design.

RELATED: Netflix ‘adapts’ Steinbeck’s ‘East of Eden’ — and Satan gets a sympathetic makeover

Emilio Madrid/Getty Images

“Digger” is a film about the power of storytelling, but not in the way you think. It is about the nature of performative political hate and how our elites shape the narrative to let us believe we’re winning even as the world around us falls apart.

The film is a devastating critique of politicized art, which has not only become normalized but has provided endless fodder for political commentators on both sides of the aisle.

But “Digger” can’t be easily categorized through an ideological lens. And since it is an indictment of the entire infotainment complex, small wonder critics gave it a lukewarm reception.

Warner Bros.’ marketing campaign didn’t do “Digger” any favors. Unable to reveal the real plot, the trailers were misleading. Tom Cruise’s promotional blitz could only concentrate on the film’s technical triumphs, of which there are many. It’s a shame more people didn’t turn out, but there is no way to explain the plot without revealing the twists, which don’t stop coming until the credits roll.

There’s a scene in the middle of the film where Digger offers the scientist Ganesh (played by the great Riz Ahmed) a piece of bluefin sashimi. Ganesh declines, citing moral concerns over declining bluefin tuna populations.

Digger tells Ganesh a story. It’s about the man who raised the tuna and how lovingly he cares for them. Among other things, the fish farmer gives the tuna daily massages and even sings to them.

Elated by the heartfelt story, Ganesh relents and eats the sashimi. But then we learn that the tale of the tuna farmer is a complete fabrication. Digger has no idea where the tuna came from. He just knows it’s delicious.

The point is that a good story, told artfully, can overcome rational resistance or moral objection.

RELATED: Did these 6 movies about Satan accidentally summon him to their sets?

Sunset Boulevard/Getty Images

This is a lesson I learned working in media and advertising. First, take an emotion. It could be anything: love, hate, fear, jealousy. The specific emotion isn’t important.

What matters is surrounding that emotion with a story and then connecting the story to whatever product or concept you’re selling.

If you do it correctly, and if you tell the story artfully, you can get anyone to gladly swallow anything you put in his mouth. You can also get him to look the other way while you pick his pocket, make him chant for the death of a (most likely) innocent man, or trick him into mistaking cathartic laughter for victory.

Digger gives Ganesh a lesson in the basics of propaganda. And none of us, not even the most rational people, is immune to the power of emotional messaging.

That’s what “Digger” is about. The story is full of emotion, it is artfully told, and the ending will leave you elated.

But it will also give you a new sense of dread about the world outside the theater door, and perhaps you will begin to pay attention to the man behind the curtain.

​Advertising, Climate change, Climate science, Elites, Oil industry, Propaganda, Storytelling, Tom cruise, Media, Digger, Tropes, Cinema, Opinion & analysis 

On October 6, at an Ottumwa, Iowa, City Council meeting, former council member Matt Dalbey — a member of The Satanic Temple of Iowa — delivered the opening invocation. In it, he addressed the “dark father,” referred to the “Luciferian impulse to eat of the tree of knowledge,” and concluded with the words “It is done. Hail Satan.”

Despite the Satanic Temple’s claims to be non-theistic, local pastor Rick Bick called it a curse on the city that needed to be reversed.

BlazeTV host of “Strange Encounters” Rick Burgess agrees. Even though he believes the Satanic Temple “really is more of an agnostic movement” designed to test the limits of “freedom of religion,” he nonetheless takes invocations of Satan as matters of spiritual seriousness.

Council Member Bill Hoffman, however, disagreed with Bick, saying, “I’m a Christian man with Christian values. That doesn’t mean I don’t want to observe his First Amendment right. It just means that I want to use my rights not to observe that.”

Rick agrees with this sentiment too, but with a caveat.

“I’d certainly agree with that, but I think that we think that somehow freedom of religion would include something as dark and blasphemous as this, and honestly, if you look at the history of our country, it just never did,” he says.

“The Establishment Clause was designed for one thing and one thing only,” Rick explains, “that we would not have a government-sanctioned denomination of the Christian faith.”

“You find nowhere in our history — nowhere — that anybody outside of Christianity was ever allowed to have a devotion” or “pray,” he adds.

Our founding fathers, he says, made this clear.

“We know that Thomas Jefferson … didn’t believe in the miracles of the Bible, but even he said that the separation of the church and the state is a one-way wall and is protecting the Christian church from the government, not the government from the influence of Christian values,” Rick says.

“So for us to think that our Constitution allows for satanic prayer at any kind of government meeting is just not true. It was never the intent because [the founders] never did it. They didn’t even allow other religions,” he continues. “All that was allowed was Christianity, and this was more of a discussion that we’re not going to have an official denomination — not that anybody with any claim of a religious belief can now have the floor.”

As for Dalbey’s prayer, Rick believes it doesn’t matter if he worships Satan or not; the words he speaks still hold power.

“I would give him a stern warning,” he says.

“He’s playing with a very dark powerful force that is real, whether he believes it or not. And if you choose to be agnostic, well, then it’s the same thing as being a satanist, because there is no middle ground. You’re either for God and you stand with God and you believe in the one and only living God or you don’t.”

To hear more, watch the episode above.

Want more from Rick Burgess?

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​Establishment clause, Freedom of religion, Rick burgess, Satanic temple, Blazetv show 

The ongoing feud between the mainstream media and the Trump administration has opened up another field of battle after the Justice Department confirmed a criminal investigation.

Five news outlets rebelled against the White House after President Donald Trump banned three outlets for what he said was fake news reporting.

‘Group boycotts among commercial competitors can violate the Sherman Act.’

ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC, and Fox News said in a joint statement in September that they would not resume their pool reporting duties to cover the president.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Justice said five news outlets were under investigation after they boycotted the White House pool report.

“Members of the television press pool have boycotted covering White House events. Group boycotts among commercial competitors can violate the Sherman Act,” the spokesperson said. “The Antitrust Division is simply investigating to determine whether these news organizations have violated the antitrust laws.”

Trump attorneys argued previously in a filing that the three outlets had failed to meet basic “standards of professionalism and decorum expected of those given access to the White House Complex.”

The president elaborated on the ban in comments to reporters.

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

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

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​Donald trump, Fake news, Justice department, Mainstream media, White house, Politics 

Former music pastor and “American Idol” contestant Caleb Flynn will spend the rest of his life in prison for murdering his wife, Ashley.

Flynn was convicted on October 5 of murder, felonious assault, tampering with evidence, and other charges.

“Prosecutors said and successfully argued that Flynn killed Ashley because he wanted out of their marriage and he was having an affair. He shot her while she was asleep in their Tip City, Ohio, home in February 2026 while their two young daughters were in the house,” BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey says.

Flynn was having an affair with a younger church intern named Alleigha Botner, who testified that Flynn said he “hated” and “wanted to kill her.”

A letter from Flynn’s daughter was read in court, in which she told her father to “repent to God,” as his “time isn’t over.”

And Stuckey believes this is the important part of the case.

“Those last lines are from a place of love and grace from his daughters. They want their dad to be restored to God. They want his repentance because they want him to be forgiven. They don’t want him to go to hell. That is love,” she says.

“Those are wise girls. Obviously, there was a lot going on in their home, but the Holy Spirit has filled them,” she continues.

“Just pray for those girls,” she adds.

While his wife’s parents told Flynn in court that they forgave him, they “asked the judge for the maximum sentence because they desired absolute earthly justice for Ashley.”

“What they’re communicating is 100% correct,” Stuckey says. “They’re releasing bitterness. They’re releasing malice. They’re saying, ‘I don’t own this any more. I’m not holding this. I’m not holding this burden. And I want you to repent, and I want you to be reconciled to God.’”

“At the same time, you need to be punished by the law. The law was invented by God. The government was invented by God,” she continues. “The government’s responsibility to execute the law and execute murderers, by the way, was invented by God.”

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​Caleb flynn, Allie beth stuckey, Ashley flynn, Forgiveness, Church, Repentance, Blazetv show 

How should America execute a convicted terrorist who turned his weapon on his fellow soldiers?

Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck says that while it should be about more than carrying out a sentence, the execution of the Fort Hood shooter should not be televised.

“We live in a society that already diminishes death so much. I don’t want it on TikTok,” Glenn says, explaining that exposing the public to an execution will “rot our souls.”

“It needs to be dignified. … And it needs to send a very strong message. Just killing him will not send the message. Killing him at Fort Hood is a very good thing. Sends a message that America is serious,” he explains.

“This was a guy who betrayed his country and went into his own company, went in at Fort Hood and shot up people in Fort Hood, including his own people that served in uniform with him. That needs to be seen by Americans, and we need to know that we do not tolerate it,” he adds.

However, the most important message that needs to be sent is to the Muslim world, which Glenn believes needs to see that “we don’t buy in to your false god.”

“It’s a false god if you think that you’re going to get virgins for killing innocents. So we don’t buy in to your false god, and we are not afraid of your false god, and we are not afraid of you,” he says.

“We’re not playing your game,” he continues. “We’re not going to be called Islamophobic.”

Glenn points out that an all-female firing squad would send an even stronger message: “If you actually believe that you’re not going to get your virgins because you’ve been killed by a woman, then I will insult you every day by killing those monsters … with a woman firing squad.”

Want more from Glenn Beck?

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​Fort hood, Glenn beck, Islamophobic, Muslim, Execution, Blazetv show 

An ambulance rushed Sean Combs, the infamous rap icon, away from federal prison after he suffered a head injury, according to a TMZ report.

Combs was sentenced to 50 months in federal prison after he was convicted a year ago of two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution related to “freak-offs” at hotels and his home.

‘Pretty much the day he arrived, the party started …’

The hip-hop music mogul injured his head at the Fort Dix prison in New Jersey and was taken from the prison by ambulance around 1 a.m. Saturday, TMZ said, citing prison sources.

The outlet said it could not confirm whether Combs was taken to a hospital.

He was conscious and speaking when returned to prison hours later, TMZ added, citing officials; it’s unclear how he was injured.

Combs was punished at the prison after getting into a fight with another inmate in July, the outlet said, adding that more recently officials discovered he was breaking prison rules to obtain banned amenities.

Four men who spent time in the same unit as Combs told NBC News that he received Chinese massages and allegedly a contraband phone while others cooked and cleaned for him.

“This is not some normal s**t you see in jail. This is some rich s**t,” one man said. “It looks crazy, but again, it’s Diddy.”

One of the men said he drank Hennessy with Combs. Guards reportedly smuggled the stash of liquor into the prison.

“Hell yeah, I drank with him,” the man said.

Combs allegedly is spending thousands of dollars to level up his living conditions in prison.

“Pretty much the day he arrived, the party started,” said one of the sources.

A spokesperson for Combs called it normal prison life.

“The continued scrutiny of every mundane detail of Sean Combs’ life in prison has reached the point where the media characterizes ordinary prison life as news,” the spokesperson said. “The only real news is that Sean continues to serve his sentence while awaiting the court’s decision on his appeal.”

RELATED: White House vehemently denies TMZ report about Trump possibly setting Sean Combs free

A Bureau of Prisons spokesperson said the agency would not comment on any specific prisoner’s conditions.

“Like all correctional agencies, contraband, particularly cell phones, narcotics, and weapons, remains a constant challenge, and we continue to tackle the problem of contraband being introduced into our facilities,” the spokesperson said.

Combs originally was scheduled for release in January 2028, but the release date has been pushed back to March 2028.

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​Sean combs, Federal prison, Sex crimes, Crime 

State exams are meant to test students’ aptitude and gauge their understanding of the curriculum. But what happens when the grading system fails? Texas found out the hard way when an AI-powered grading system led to rampant grading errors and a huge recount.

AI makes mistakes. This disclaimer is stamped on almost every query when you interact with the top frontier chatbots on the market. Yet society continues to trust AI with increasingly more important tasks. This time, Texas put it in charge of grading students on the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness exams, and the results went as you might expect.

As people become increasingly more distrustful of AI, they’re more likely to question the results of anything that AI touches.

The AI-powered grading system initially made headlines in 2024 when Texas announced that the state would save $15 million by replacing human graders with a “technology similar to ChatGPT” on some portions of the state exams. The system adopted a hybrid approach, relying on humans to score the multiple choice questions while AI graded the larger open-ended written section.

If at any time, AI displayed a “low confidence” message about the score it gave to a student, the responses were to be flagged so that a human could review them. However, if AI is confident in its response — as chatbots often are when they hallucinate or outright lie — no such notification would reach the humans at the top.

During a limited trial test in December 2023, educators noticed that their students received a “drastic increase” in failing scores. If students or parents wanted to request a rescore, it would cost them $50 out of pocket, unless the new score was higher than the original — then the fee would be removed.

At first, the state of Texas only received 2,758 rescore requests by spring of 2024 — a sizeable number, considering that rescore requests were a rare phenomenon at the time. However, this number continued to climb, jumping to a staggering 21,620 rescore requests by 2025. By 2026, the number reached 64,489 rescore requests — that’s up to $3 million in out-of-pocket costs from parents looking to get better scores for their children.

Estimated costs of future rescoring currently sit at $15-$20 million.

After human graders reviewed the tests, the number of corrections doubled year over year and 13,300 scores — or approximately 20% — improved overall. At the same time, none of the scores were lowered.

RELATED: The AI backlash is going viral. Here’s how Trump wants to fix that.

Devrimb/Getty Images

While this appears to be a clear failure of the AI-powered grading system, further review shows a discrepancy for both machine and man. Out of the recorded errors, 58% came from AI, while 42% came from human mistakes. This essentially means that even if AI was removed from the grading system, grading errors would possibly improve, but they wouldn’t go away entirely.

This story, though, does lead to an interesting thought experiment: Even though AI and human errors were both present, the fact that AI was employed to grade the larger written portions of the exams made students and parents too leery to trust their final scores, thus leading to the jump in requests. As the people become increasingly more distrustful of AI, they’re more likely to question the results of anything that AI touches. Until hallucinations are a thing of the past, this is simply a side effect of an AI-powered world.

As for the Texas school system, one must wonder if the extra money it set out to save is worth the trouble, distrust, and future rescore requests that are almost certain to plague the state for years to come. So far, Texas has no plans to suspend automated AI grading at this time.

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​Artificial intelligence, Chatbots, Educators, Errors, Hallucinations, Recount, School system, Texas, Tech 

A 35-year-old male accused in the ambush killing of a Philadelphia police officer over the weekend was arraigned Sunday morning on 76 charges and ordered held without bail, Fox News reported, citing court records.

Eric Lewis faces charges including murder, homicide of a law enforcement officer, attempted murder, 10 counts of attempted homicide of a law enforcement officer, aggravated assault, terroristic threats, and other offenses, the cable news network said, adding that Lewis’ next court date is scheduled for Oct. 26.

Pennsylvania state Rep. Amen Brown (D), who lives near the shooting scene, told KYW Lewis allegedly said during his arrest that he wished he had killed more officers.

Lewis is accused of shooting two police officers, killing one and wounding the other, early Saturday morning in the 100 block of North 52nd Street in West Philadelphia, KYW-TV reported, citing District Attorney Larry Krasner.

Philadelphia Police Officer Shane Seiber was killed, Fox News said, adding that the 40-year-old was a father of two and an Air Force veteran who served 10 years with the Philadelphia Police Department. Seiber is survived by his wife, 7-year-old son, and 3-year-old daughter, the cable news network added.

“He fought valiantly, but he lost his life today,” Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel said at a Saturday news conference, Fox News noted. “His wife was able to be by his side before he passed, as well as his family.”

The wounded officer, a 33-year-old father of five, was shot 12 times and initially listed in critical condition, Fox News said, adding that his condition has since been upgraded to stable.

The shooting unfolded around 12:20 a.m. when the two officers responded to a report of a man with a gun, the cable news network said, adding that police said the officers located an armed man on a porch.

The officers then came under “significant gunfire” after reaching the porch, police told Fox News, adding that other officers and a SWAT team arrived soon after and found both officers on the porch suffering from gunshot wounds.

The cable news network said more gunfire followed, after which authorities declared a barricade situation before Lewis was taken into custody.

Pennsylvania state Rep. Amen Brown (D), who lives near the shooting scene, told KYW Lewis allegedly said during his arrest that he wished he had killed more officers.

Police told Fox News that Lewis was in possession of two handguns and a shotgun; one of the handguns belonged to an officer wounded in the attack.

Krasner at a Saturday news conference declined to say if Lewis fired the officer’s handgun or how he obtained the other firearms, the cable news network said.

Krasner added to Fox News that nothing in Lewis’ criminal background would have prevented him from obtaining a firearm.

RELATED: Two Chicago police officers shot in ‘ambush’ attack; suspect in custody

Lewis is an employee of the Philadelphia Water Department and has a criminal history dating to 2012, the cable news network said, citing Pennsylvania court records it reviewed.

Court records show Lewis was convicted of theft and receiving stolen property in 2012 and convicted of gun-related offenses and simple assault in 2013, Fox News said, adding that he received probation in both cases.

Lewis pleaded guilty in 2018 to disorderly conduct involving fighting and again was sentenced to probation, the cable news network reported.

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​Philadelphia, Fatal shooting, Police officers shot, Ambush, Arrest, Crime 

The Trump administration recently targeted Microsoft over its use of foreign-worker visas, accusing the tech giant of laying off thousands of American employees while continuing to recruit overseas. It is a confrontation long overdue.

Firing thousands of citizens via HR emails while simultaneously begging the government for new workers from overseas is a shameless business model. Microsoft axed 6,000 domestic workers last year. During that same period, the company snagged 6,300 H-1B visas and secured nearly 3,000 green cards. The corporate PR department insists that these filings were mostly routine extensions for current staff, but that claim deserves plenty of scrutiny. A company liquidating its domestic workforce should be forced to stand in the light and explain why its foreign hiring machinery runs at full speed. Corporate entities love to wrap themselves in the American flag when asking for tax credits, then toss it in the trash the moment cheap foreign labor offers a marginally better quarterly margin.

A cruel joke played on middle-class taxpayers.

Washington let giant technology conglomerates dictate national labor policy for decades. Keith Sonderling at the Department of Labor noted that the handful of tech companies under scrutiny have requested nearly 3 million foreign workers since 2009. That figure represents a massive structural exploit rather than a temporary patch for specialized talent shortages. Successive presidential administrations treated Silicon Valley’s hiring wish lists like Holy Scripture. Bureaucrats took corporate claims of talent scarcity at face value and ignored the economic incentives driving the requests. Executive suites realized long ago that importing a workforce is far more profitable than paying local market rates. Washington finally stopped treating corporate convenience as a national strategy, and the current administration deserves genuine credit for that.

The psychological mechanics of the H-1B system offer a rather sobering look at corporate control. JD Vance ruffled feathers by calling visa holders indentured servants. The language may be slightly hyperbolic, but the overall thesis is sound. When an H-1B worker loses his job, a 60-day countdown to deportation begins immediately. That legal sword of Damocles hanging over an employee’s neck instantly changes the workplace dynamic. A worker bound to his employer by immigration status rarely complains about mandatory overtime. He doesn’t challenge executive decisions. He doesn’t demand aggressive pay raises. Tech giants proudly parade their progressive credentials, yet they actively cultivate a workforce rendered docile by the threat of exile.

RELATED: Vance unveils huge crackdown on replacing American workers with foreigners

Aaron Schwartz/Bloomberg/Getty Images

American graduates spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on computer science degrees, only to find the door to entry locked. Families take on crippling debt. Students live on cheap noodles for four years, and young engineers enter the market ready to build software. Tech giants bypass those local graduates entirely, claiming that the domestic talent pool is inadequate. Some hyper-specialized roles genuinely require rare global experts, but the vast majority of visa requests cover standard engineering roles that local graduates can easily perform. Corporate recruiters simply prefer candidates who can’t easily quit for a competitor down the street. Expecting American citizens to fund higher education while big tech imports entry-level labor is a cruel joke played on middle-class taxpayers.

Silicon Valley insists on enjoying every benefit of American society while rejecting every basic duty to American workers. Microsoft relies on government-funded basic research and capital markets protected by American law. The moment public officials ask Microsoft to prioritize domestic hiring, executives cry foul and lecture the public on global competitiveness. It’s all very rich and incredibly infuriating.

Global corporations want American security without American allegiance. A company is entirely free to operate in foreign markets. It is not entitled to use the federal government as a low-cost staffing agency.

Federal immigration policy exists to protect the host country, not to maximize the net profit of a software monopoly. For decades, the system placed the entire burden of proof on the domestic worker. The American engineer had to prove he was worthy of employment while tech firms enjoyed automatic access to foreign talent pools. Reversing that burden forces corporations to prove actual domestic labor shortages before printing more visas. Federal policy must serve the public interest, not act as a perpetual subsidy for corporate HR departments.

America simply cannot beat economic rivals like China by treating domestic talent development as a low-priority chore. Building AI models requires long-term investment in local universities. It demands apprenticeships and specialized training programs. Relying on foreign labor indefinitely removes any incentive for tech companies to invest in domestic talent. Corporations treat American workers as disposable assets to be cut during lean quarters and ignored during rapid expansions. The country can’t maintain a technological edge when its primary economic powerhouses treat their own citizens as financial liabilities.

The ongoing showdown between federal regulators and Microsoft signals a necessary break from too many years of corporate welfare masquerading as immigration policy. The federal government finally called Silicon Valley’s bluff, forcing executives to justify why they handed thousands of pink slips to local workers while international recruitment desks stayed open around the clock. American labor laws should benefit the people living under them, not the balance sheets of multinational corporations. It turns out corporations can survive without unlimited access to cheap imported labor, and watching them scramble to justify their hiring practices should satisfy anyone who believes American workers must always come first.

​H-1b visas, Tech 

A 45-year-old male fatally shot seven of his relatives and one family friend in an Erie, Pennsylvania, home, on Friday, police told the Associated Press.

The gunman took his own life, the AP said, adding that authorities have not released his name. One of the victims was eight months pregnant, police said in a news conference video.

‘They were a lovely family. Who would have thought this would ever happen?’

Erie Police Chief Rick Lorah said the gunman was related to seven of the victims, while the eighth victim was a friend of the pregnant woman, the outlet added. Police have not made the names of the victims public, the AP noted.

A man whose 1-year-old daughter Amarianna was among the shooting victims told the outlet Sunday that the gunman was a grandfather who never seemed distressed.

“I think that was a front for him,” Julius Windham told the AP while standing at a memorial to shooting victims, who also included a 5-year-old boy.

“Him every day, him smiling and being just — you would think … nothing like that would happen,” Windham added to the outlet.

Mourners on Sunday placed candles, flowers, and stuffed animals outside the home where the man opened fire shortly before 5 p.m. Friday, the AP said, adding that Windham wore a T-shirt with pictures of the women and children and the words, “Forever In My Heart.”

“Words can’t even explain what I’m going through right now,” Windham added to the outlet. “But I gotta be strong for my community, you know what I’m saying? My family, my daughters, my sons, everybody.”

Chief Lorah said video and audio evidence investigators recovered included muffled gunshot sounds coming from inside the home just before two “distressed” women arrived and began pounding on the door, according to the AP, which added that the gunman came out of the house, shot them as they ran toward him, and then returned inside the house.

RELATED: Male, 25, accused of shooting to death his mother, father, brother, and brother’s girlfriend

Responding officers found the two women dead outside, the outlet said.

Police deployed a drone and robot, the AP said, adding that officers then went inside the home and found the bodies of the 5-year-old boy and 1-year-old girl on the first floor; two more women and two young men in a stairwell; and the shooter on the second floor.

“Out of respect for the victims and the families, I will not discuss the details of what our officers encountered inside that home,” the chief said at a news conference, according to the outlet.

Lorah declined to discuss a motive for the shooting but suggested mental health could be a factor, the AP said, adding that the chief noted that investigators would talk to relatives and examine the cell phones of the women who were killed outside the home.

“They knew something was going on at that house,” Lorah also said, according to the outlet. “We have to figure out what that is.”

Nicole and Debra Eller, whose best friend was among the victims, told the AP they have known the family for more than 30 years. Nicole Eller added to the outlet that the shooter “was a good guy, and then he started going downhill with everything.”

“They were a lovely family. Who would have thought this would ever happen?” Debra Eller added to the AP. “Oh my gosh, this is so upsetting. This should have never happened to her or the kids or anybody. His grandchildren, his kids, how can you do that?”

The outlet added that Erie Mayor Daria Devlin (D) at a Saturday news conference told the victims’ families she was “so deeply sorry. What happened to you was horrific, and there is nothing that any of us can say today that will make this any easier. … Our entire community is with you; we’re grieving with you. And we are here to support you.”

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​Fatal shooting, Mass shooting, Erie, Pennsylvania, Crime 

The U.S. Department of Justice has announced another round of alleged election crimes, including one case involving an illegal alien.

A DOJ press release on Monday documented the details of the charges that involved people from Pakistan, Portugal, France, Peru, Jamaica, and Cuba, among others.

‘Criminals who disrupt the integrity of America’s elections will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.’

68-year-old Forrest Scott Woody of Hendersonville, North Carolina, was charged for allegedly voting twice in the 2024 election, once in North Carolina and once in Alabama, according to a press release from the DOJ.

78-year-old permanent legal resident Silvia Delgado Phelps from Peru was charged for allegedly voting in multiple elections in Baldwin County, Alabama, despite not being a U.S. citizen.

48-year-old Hacina Saadi, described by the DOJ as an illegal alien from France, was charged “by information with voting by an alien during the 2024 election.”

Two lawful permanent residents from Pakistan and another lawful permanent resident from Portugal were similarly charged.

42-year-old Staciann Pollion Davis, a lawful permanent resident from Jamaica, was charged for allegedly voting in the general election in Clarke County, Alabama, despite Davis not being a U.S. citizen.

64-year-old Andre’s Garcia, a lawful permanent resident from Cuba, allegedly voted in at least 15 elections, including at least 13 federal elections, over the last 20 years.

59-year-old Cary Ann Patterson, a lawful permanent resident from Britain, allegedly voted in at least 10 elections as an alien, based on records from the Gallia County Board of Elections in Ohio.

RELATED: 3 people arrested for election FRAUD ring targeting homeless people in Los Angeles, says FBI

A 69-year-old from Pakistan was arrested for allegedly voting in at least six elections, while a 63-year-old from the Philippines was arrested for allegedly illegally voting. Both were charged in the Northern District of Ohio.

“Under President Trump, criminals who disrupt the integrity of America’s elections will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” read a White House post about the announcement.

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​Department of justice, Immigration, Election crime, Voted fraud, Politics 

Police in Lansing, Michigan, are investigating whether the deaths of five men along the Lansing River Trail over roughly the past year may be connected. They have not ruled out the possibility of a serial killer.

All victims were white homeless males between the ages of 22 and 70 who died within the same mile stretch of the 20-mile trail. Four of the five cases involved apparent blunt-force trauma to the face or head, with no weapon recovered. Several of the victims were found under or near bridges, and police believe the attacks likely happened overnight or in the early morning while the men were lying down or sleeping.

BlazeTV hosts Stu Burguiere and Dave Landau discussed Lansing’s predicament on a recent episode of “Stu and Dave Do America.”

Dave views the situation through his dark comedic lens. “It’s very suspicious because the deaths are not related to diabetes, alcoholism, or just generalized despair, so it’s a very good chance.”

“I mean, those are the three very far leading causes of death in Michigan,” Stu jokes.

Dave points out that the reporting on the Lansing deaths uses the word “unhoused” instead of homeless to describe the five victims.

“[White liberals] prefer the term unhoused because somehow that means that it’s the exact same word,” he says.

“I will say the one thing that’s different about it is homeless is like, ‘hey, I want to have a home and I don’t have one.’ Unhoused is ‘we’re supposed to house you and we’ve forgotten to,”’ says Stu.

The duo then play a video from Lansing police Chief Rob Backus, who told reporters: “One question that we are being asked is, ‘Do we have a serial killer in Lansing?’ What we need the public to know is that we are investigating all of these cases. They are all active investigations, and we are looking at the idea or the possibility that these may be related cases.”

“Probably a good idea when it’s the same mechanism,” says Stu sarcastically.

“I don’t feel like the serial killer thing is happening that much any more, though,” he adds.

“It was the bees’ knees in the ’70s and ’80s,” laughs Dave.

To hear more, watch the episode above.

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​Dave landau, Police investigation, Serial killer, Stu burguiere, Blazetv show 

A program identified by the Trump administration as a potential significant source of fraud may be getting a major overhaul.

Last Wednesday, the Department of Homeland Security announced a proposed rule that could change a major “pipeline” for nonimmigrant students to get jobs in the United States.

‘A $70,000 university-paid fee could dramatically shrink it and potentially make OPT unworkable for a large number of international graduates.’

The DHS has proposed a new rule regarding the Optional Practical Training, a contingent program often used by nonimmigrant students with F-1 visas to find temporary employment within the United States.

If finalized, the new rule would place a significant financial burden on universities if and when they decide to recommend a student for OPT.

“Optional Practical Training was never meant to be a back door into the American workforce, a subsidy for cheap labor, or a prize for those who game the system,” a DHS spokesperson said in a press release.

“DHS is upskilling OPT to require foreign students to justify their worth to employers. American workers should not have to compete against a program that has been turned into a pipeline for cheap foreign labor.”

RELATED: JD Vance announces MASSIVE crackdown on companies and universities replacing Americans with foreigners

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

The higher barrier would, the administration argues, potentially decrease the amount of fraud within the program, which has reportedly suffered issues such as “problematic worksites and ‘pay-to-stay’ visa schemes.”

The new rule would also add an extra $30,000 fee for additional OPT windows, meaning a student who is granted OPT, for example, during their program and again after the completion of their program would need to have the university recommend him or her both times and pay the base $70,000 plus the additional $30,000 fee.

The rule and the press release emphasize that the fees would be connected not to the employers to which these students are sent, but to the universities who are recommending them.

According to the proposal, the fees collected will be deposited in the Treasury of the United States.

Many have called for an overhaul of the OPT program for a significant amount of time, not least among them Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.).

In November 2025, Sen. Schmitt highlighted the “severe problems” with the OPT program, and his request to re-evaluate the program gained some traction within the Trump administration.

Schmitt called the OPT program, which was established through DHS regulations rather than a statute, a “back door into the U.S. job market for foreign workers,” adding that it “incentivizes colleges to become ‘visa mills.'”

Then-DHS Secretary Kristi Noem replied to Sen. Schmitt at the beginning of this year, writing that DHS was re-evaluating the program.

Rahul Reddy, an immigration lawyer at Reddy Neumann Brown PC, stressed that this was an “extraordinary” change that could possibly go into effect around graduation season next year.

“In practical terms, the proposal does not formally abolish OPT,” Reddy wrote. “But a $70,000 university-paid fee could dramatically shrink it and potentially make OPT unworkable for a large number of international graduates.”

The DHS will accept public comments before the rule is made final. Members of the public can view the proposed rule on the Federal Register website and submit comments until November 9.

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​Department of homeland security, F1 visas, Foreign labor, Immigration lawyer, Kristi noem, Trump administration, United states, Eric schmitt, Politics 

Popular comedian Shane Gillis outraged many on the left during his monologue on “Saturday Night Live” over the weekend, and a high-profile actor is leading the charge.

Gillis touched upon many subjects in his monologue, but one story especially triggered leftists: when he criticized women for dressing like “whores” at gyms.

‘They are not objects. They are superior human beings to men, OK? And I’m sorry if this gets me in trouble with the internet, but f**k!’

“I haven’t been to the gym in so long, I didn’t know women just dress like whores now,” said Gillis.

“Look, I’m sorry, there’s no other way to describe [it]. Have you seen it? I’ve seen it. The shorts. Have you seen the shorts? There’s neon … they’re like artificial bait-colored [shorts], and the wrinkles go around the cheeks and all combine at the butthole. And don’t look! You’re not allowed to look.”

“For real, don’t look because they are filming. I’m in the background of like 10 TikToks right now,” Gillis joked.

While his joke got a large laugh from the audience, leftists had a different reaction: outrage.

“Women wearing short shorts at the gym does not make them whores. It makes the men calling them whores misogynists. There’s a difference there. By the way, I’ve seen more men’s nipples at the gym than I’ve ever seen women showing their bodies off,” actor Dan Levy of “Schitt’s Creek” fame said in a video on Instagram.

“But I’m speechless that something like that can exist on live national television. And to be perfectly honest, more men need to be standing up in opposition to it, because it’s complacency that has created the environment in which women are sexually assaulted, and it’s a ‘conversation’ as opposed to a ‘crime,'” he added.

He went on to say that men would treat women as objects because of speech like that from Gillis.

“They are not objects. They are superior human beings to men, OK? And I’m sorry if this gets me in trouble with the internet, but f**k!” Levy concluded.

RELATED: Liberals are trying to CANCEL funnyman Nate Bargatze for what he did on Sunday

Gillis has a history of being canceled by “Saturday Night Live.” He was hired on as a cast member in 2019 and then abruptly fired after the woke mob unearthed clips from his podcast they said were homophobic and racist.

His popularity has exploded since then, and his return five years later to host “SNL” enraged the critics who wanted him permanently canceled.

Saturday’s show was his third time hosting.

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​Shane gillis, Saturday night live, Comedy, Politics, Lifestyle 

The “ongoing criminal investigation” into Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) seems to have escalated Monday morning, as Homeland Security Investigations agents raided her residence in Washington, D.C., Fox News has reported.

Fox News reported that agents raided Omar’s residence in connection with the immigration paperwork Omar’s late father filled out on her behalf when she was a child.

‘This enforcement action is part of an ongoing federal criminal investigation.’

Omar was born in Somalia in October 1982, according to her congressional biography. She claimed in a 2018 interview that she became a naturalized U.S. citizen before she turned 18.

Rumors have swirled for nearly a decade that Ahmed Nur Said Elmi is Omar’s biological brother and that she married him to help him remain in the U.S.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin even seemed to confirm those rumors during the Republican midterm convention last month.

“We know that she married her brother to try to bring him to the United States,” Mullin told podcaster Benny Johnson September 10. “We know he lives now in London.”

Mullin confirmed an “investigation” into Omar and that “something’s gonna happen.”

RELATED: DHS secretary: Ilhan Omar married her brother, and consequences are coming

A few days after Mullin’s comments to Johnson, border czar Tom Homan confirmed the “ongoing criminal investigation” into Omar.

“If someone committed immigration violation, if someone committed marriage fraud or anything like that, regardless if they’re a congressman or not, no one’s above the law,” Homan said September 13.

According to Fox News, multiple people wearing HSI jackets were seen outside Omar’s D.C. residence Monday morning at around 6 a.m. The DHS and the DOJ are both involved in the investigation, Fox said.

“Today in the Washington, D.C., area, Homeland Security Investigations executed a judicially authorized search warrant secured by the Department of Justice. This enforcement action is part of an ongoing federal investigation,” a DOJ spokesperson told the outlet in a statement.

A TV broadcast of the report had a slightly different statement: “This enforcement action is part of an ongoing federal criminal investigation.”

Fox could not confirm whether Omar was at the residence at the time of the raid.

Multiple attempts to reach Omar’s office were unsuccessful. Omar’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

This is a breaking story.

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​Markwayne mullin, Ilhan omar, Fraud, Tom homan, Politics 

Despite refusing to work with Republicans on a bipartisan bill for election integrity, Democrats are sounding the alarm about election integrity.

And Hollywood celebrity Mark Ruffalo is leading the charge.

“Now we need to be on guard for what we may not see coming: Elon,” Ruffalo began.

“That’s the cybersecurity of these elections. And while I’m not an expert, I’ve been talking to experts, and the one thing I’ve heard repeatedly is that there is a vulnerability of the votes when they’re transferred from the polling places to the county headquarters and then to the state,” he continued.

“Now that’s three times those tallies are being transferred over the internet … over our phones. We know that these systems are vulnerable,” he added.

“Oh, I thought it was ludicrous to even bring it up,” BlazeTV host Pat Gray laughs.

“Then when the Republicans are in power, then they flip and then it goes back and then, I mean, stop,” executive producer Keith Malinak says.

“He just made Trump’s point on the voting process,” Gray adds.

“So they should be able to get together and have a bipartisan solution on fixing our voting system,” Malink agrees. “Hey, how’s that Save Act coming?”

But Ruffalo wasn’t done.

“We’ve got to run to January,” he said passionately to the crowd. “We’ve got to make sure our people get seated. They’re going to try and stop them. They’re going to try and stop us. They’re going to try and stop us from taking our country back. And we’re not going to let them.”

“Trump, we’re not letting ya,” he added, before yelling, “Hands off our f**king vote.”

And Ruffalo wasn’t the only one, as Robert De Niro also got behind the podium to make a similar, angry statement.

“When masked and armed ICE thugs stalk our polling places, what do we say to them? Keep your f**king hands off our vote,” DeNiro said. “And when that coward, that piece of s**t, Donald Trump, tries to take our voice and power away, what do we tell him?”

“Hands off our vote,” he yelled.

Gray isn’t having it, calling both Ruffalo and DeNiro, “Despicable buffoons.”

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​Donald trump, Election integrity, Mark ruffalo, Pat gray, Robert deniro, Blazetv show 

Your car may know more about you than you realize.

A series of federal lawsuits involving Honda, Toyota, Volkswagen, General Motors, and Ford alleged that vehicle infotainment systems downloaded and permanently stored private text messages and call logs from phones connected to the car.

For some users, GM collected precise location information as often as every three seconds.

The cases were dismissed. But not because a court established that the technology couldn’t do what the plaintiffs claimed.

Disappearing data

In the GM case, for example, the district court said the plaintiffs had not alleged sufficient injury under Washington’s privacy law. It also noted that they had not alleged GM itself reviewed, used, or even had the ability to retrieve the data stored in the vehicle.

So the case did not establish that GM was secretly reading drivers’ texts. But neither did the dismissal answer the underlying technological question. The plaintiffs alleged that the infotainment system itself automatically downloaded and stored text messages and call logs from connected phones, and the court did not rule that this collection wasn’t happening.

That uncertainty is part of what makes modern connected cars so difficult for consumers to understand. Your phone talks to your car. Your car talks to manufacturer servers. Companion apps talk to still more companies.

Figuring out exactly what information is moving — and where it ends up — can be surprisingly difficult.

A new study from researchers at Northeastern University and Consumer Reports gives us a better idea.

Researchers tested 21 late-model vehicles and 30 companion smartphone apps. Nineteen of the 21 vehicles contacted at least one outside third party over Wi-Fi. The recipients included some of the biggest technology companies in the world.

The phone apps created even more connections.

Seven of the 30 apps transmitted sensitive identifiers such as VINs, email addresses, phone numbers, or precise location to companies associated with advertising and analytics. Researchers also found that pairing a manufacturer’s app with the vehicle could substantially increase the number of outside companies receiving data.

And then we get to insurance.

Driver’s dossier

General Motors provides one of the clearest documented examples of what can happen once driving data leaves the car.

GM offered a feature called OnStar Smart Driver that let customers monitor their driving habits.

According to the Federal Trade Commission, GM and OnStar were also collecting precise location and driving-behavior information from millions of vehicles and selling that information to third parties, including consumer-reporting agencies.

The data could get remarkably specific.

The FTC said it included hard braking, speeding, and late-night driving. For some users, GM collected precise location information as often as every three seconds.

Consumer-reporting agencies including LexisNexis and Verisk then used GM driving data to compile reports on individual drivers. The FTC says insurance companies used those reports to set rates and, in some cases, deny coverage.

We aren’t talking about targeted ads or some mysterious data broker knowing which coffee shop you visit. We’re talking about directly influencing what you pay for car insurance.

One consumer complained to GM that when he signed up, he understood that OnStar would track him. He had not understood that the information could be passed along to a third party and affect his insurance bill.

GM has since shut down Smart Driver and ended its telematics relationships with LexisNexis and Verisk. The company said it discontinued the program following customer feedback.

The FTC didn’t stop there. In January, it finalized an order requiring GM to obtain affirmative consent before collecting or sharing certain connected-vehicle data and barring the company for five years from sharing covered geolocation and driver-behavior information with consumer-reporting agencies.

RELATED: 6 modern car technologies that make driving worse

Bill Pugliano/Getty Images

Behind the screens

That’s harder to answer than you might expect.

The Northeastern researchers built a Faraday enclosure at Consumer Reports’ Connecticut test facility to block cellular signals and isolate the Wi-Fi traffic coming from the vehicles. They then watched where the cars and their companion apps tried to connect.

While they could identify many of the companies receiving traffic, they couldn’t always see what was inside it; much of the communication was encrypted.

That is not evidence that every transmission contained sensitive personal information. It does mean even researchers specifically studying the problem sometimes can’t tell exactly what information is moving between a modern car and the companies it contacts.

For the owner, there is even less visibility.

You buy the car. You download the app. You agree to the terms. Maybe you activate remote start, navigation, emergency assistance, or one of the dozens of other connected features now built into new vehicles.

Most people aren’t thinking about the advertising and analytics companies behind the screen.

Why would they be?

Connected works both ways

None of this means connected-car technology is inherently bad.

Emergency assistance needs to know where your vehicle is. Navigation requires location. An app that lets you start the car remotely obviously has to communicate with it.

But there is a big difference between collecting information necessary to provide a feature and allowing that information to begin circulating through an ecosystem the owner barely knows exists.

And consumers shouldn’t have to become privacy lawyers to discover the difference.

Before activating connected services, I would want to know some fairly basic things.

What is the car collecting?

Who gets it?

Can they sell or share it?

Can I turn the collection off?

And could any of this wind up in a consumer report used to make decisions about me?

For years, the connected car was sold as safer, smarter, and more convenient, and maybe it is. Just remember: The connection works both ways.

​Car infotainment systems, Car insurance, Modern connected cars, Smartphone apps, Driving data, Lifestyle, Privacy, Big tech, General motors, Ftc, Automotive