Category: blaze media

A CNN news anchor issued an on-air correction after she incorrectly stated that the alleged ISIS-inspired attack outside of New York City’s Gracie Mansion over the weekend targeted Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D).

“Two Republicans say Muslims don’t belong here after an attempted terror attack against New York’s mayor, Zohran Mamdani, and the House speaker, Mike Johnson, says nothing, really, to condemn those comments,” Phillip stated on Tuesday.

‘I incorrectly said that the bombs that were thrown by ISIS-inspired suspects in New York over the weekend were directed at Mayor Mamdani.’

Phillip was referring to the attack allegedly carried out by Emir Balat, 18, and Ibrahim Kayumi, 19, who were accused of igniting homemade explosive devices. One of those devices was allegedly thrown at a group of demonstrators protesting Islamic takeover of the city, and the other device was allegedly dropped near police officers. Both devices failed to detonate, and no injuries were reported.

Phillip released a correction in a post on X the following day, writing, “The bombs thrown in New York City over the weekend by ISIS inspired attackers was thrown into a crowd of anti-Muslim protestors and not specifically targeted at Mayor Mamdani. That wording was inaccurate and I didn’t catch it ahead of time. I apologize for the error.”

A community note was tacked onto Phillip’s post, reading, “The use of the word ‘specifically’ implies Mamdami [sic] may have been a target when this is factually incorrect based on every report and testimony from the two terrorists themselves. Bombs were thrown at protestors and police in order to injure/murder as many civilians as possible.”

RELATED: ISIS-inspired? Here’s what we know about the weekend NYC terror attack suspects.

Abby Phillip. Photo by Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images

Phillip was also apparently forced to issue an on-air correction for her “mistake” later that day.

“I incorrectly said that the bombs that were thrown by ISIS-inspired suspects in New York over the weekend were directed at Mayor Mamdani. They were not,” Phillip told CNN viewers.

Phillip took “full responsibility” for failing to catch the error.

RELATED: Leaked intel warns of Iran’s potential revenge plot to unleash terror on US soil: Report

Photo by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU / AFP via Getty Images

CNN was also criticized this week for publishing a post that appeared to romanticize the terrorist bombing attempt.

“Two Pennsylvania teenagers crossed into New York City Saturday morning for what could’ve been a normal day enjoying the city during abnormally warm weather,” the now-deleted post read. “But in less than an hour, their lives would drastically change as the pair would be arrested for throwing homemade bombs during an anti-Muslim protest outside of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s home.”

CNN retracted the post, releasing a statement claiming that it “failed to reflect the gravity of the incident.”

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​Cnn, Abby phillip, Media bias, Zohran mamdani, Emir balat, Ibrahim kayumi, Muslim, Islam, Terror, Isis, New york city, New york, Nyc, Politics 

A Canadian human rights tribunal in British Columbia has ordered a former school trustee from Chilliwack to pay $750,000 in damages for insisting there are only two genders.

The tribunal ruled that Barry Neufeld’s public comments about transgender and nonbinary people constituted discrimination under the province’s Human Rights Code.

‘I spent all my career working with special, at-risk kids — kids who had horrible backgrounds, who suffered all sorts of trauma and abuse. I have nothing but compassion for them.’

The case stems from a 2017 Facebook post in which Neufeld criticized gender-transition treatments for children. Teachers’ union groups later filed human rights complaints alleging that his statements created an unsafe work environment for some employees. The dispute wound its way through mediation attempts, court challenges, and tribunal hearings for several years before the ruling.

Transgender denialism, it seems, can carry serious consequences.

Stunned by decision

When I recently caught up with Neufeld, I asked whether he even had that kind of money.

He laughed off the idea. In fact, he says he doesn’t even own the land his trailer sits on.

Neufeld served as a school trustee for 26 years and worked as a probation officer for 25. He says he knows the criminal justice system well, but nothing prepared him for a human rights tribunal ruling that he must pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for expressing his views.

The moment he heard the decision, he says, he was stunned.

“I couldn’t believe it,” Neufeld told me. “It was preposterous. I didn’t think that the tribunal would go along with it, but they did. In some ways it’s a blessing in disguise, because if they had only ordered $75,000, nobody would have paid attention. But this woke everybody up.”

The case has drawn national attention and criticism from across the political spectrum, including commentary in the Globe and Mail. Supporters have stepped forward to help fund Neufeld’s legal defense — something he says he never needed to rely on before.

‘I just think they’re deluded’

In Canada, disputes over gender identity are often handled not in criminal courts but in provincial human rights tribunals. While Canada’s Criminal Code does not make misgendering a crime, tribunals have ruled that refusing to use a person’s preferred pronouns can constitute discrimination.

According to Neufeld, the tribunal determined that his comments amounted to hate speech because he rejected the concept of “nonbinary” and other gender identities.

“They explained to me that it was hate speech because I denied the existence of nonbinary and all the other genders,” he said.

“And I said, ‘I don’t deny their existence. It’s not existential denialism. I just think they’re deluded.’ They said, ‘That’s hate speech.’”

RELATED: ‘Trans’ alleged school shooter in Canada: Did police put politics before public safety?

Paige Taylor White/Getty Images

Chilling effect

The ruling has also unsettled another another Chilliwack school trustee. Laurie Throness, a former member of the B.C. Legislative Assembly, stepped down from his position after concluding that he could be the next target.

For Neufeld, this chilling effect is by design. “The purpose of such a high penalty was to scare everybody else [and to say] that if you commit blasphemy against our gender religion, you will lose everything. And it’s starting to work.”

For his part, Neufeld insisted his criticism was always directed at ideas — not people.

“I never threatened any person,” he said.

“I constantly was confronting ideas — especially gender ideology. And they countered by saying because I use the word ‘gender ideology,’ I’m hiding behind that to disguise my hate of transgender people. I don’t hate transgender people either. I have compassion and sympathy for them.”

Protecting children

What concerns him, he said, is the promotion of gender ideology to children.

“Forcing these ideas on young children is what has kept me motivated to constantly be speaking out against them.”

Despite the tribunal ruling, Neufeld said he believes public opinion is shifting.

“They’re losing the battle,” he said. “They know it. B.C. is one of the last jurisdictions in the world to hang on to this. … They’re backing away from it in many countries in Europe and many states in the United States.

“I don’t hate anybody,” he added.

“They’re blowing in the wind if they think they can convince the world that I’m a hateful person, because I’m not. I spent all my career working with special, at-risk kids — kids who had horrible backgrounds, who suffered all sorts of trauma and abuse. I have nothing but compassion for them.”

No ‘wrong’ bodies

But Neufeld worries about what he sees as the consequences of encouraging young people to believe they were born in the wrong body.

“When you start telling them that all their problems are caused because they’re born in the wrong body, you screw up their minds,” he said.

He also questioned the medical dimension of youth gender transitions.

“What are the side effects of these drugs that you’re giving kids?” he asked.

Neufeld says parents ultimately need to reclaim authority over decisions affecting their children.

​Trans, Transgender ideology, Sogi, Sogi laws, Canada, Lifestyle, Culture, Censorship, Lawfare, Barry neufeld, Education, Letter from canada 

Last weekend, an attempted bombing occurred outside Gracie Mansion, the official residence of New York City’s Muslim mayor, Zohran Mamdani (D). During a heated clash between anti-Islam protesters and a group of counterprotesters, two teenagers from Pennsylvania — 18-year-old Emir Balat and 19-year-old Ibrahim Kayumi — allegedly threw two improvised explosive devices toward the crowd.

Fortunately, neither bomb detonated, and no one was injured. Both Balat and Kayumi were arrested and charged with attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, using a weapon of mass destruction, transportation of explosive materials, and unlawful possession of destructive devices.

TPUSA Frontlines photojournalist Gabriel Victal was present at the scene when the attack occurred. But the attempted bombing, he says, “wasn’t the first instance” of violence.

On this episode of “The John Doyle Show,” Victal gives his first-person account of the incident, sharing on-the-ground observations you won’t hear from mainstream outlets.

“There were other scenarios where basically [the counterprotesters] were beating the crap out of right-wing journalists that they discovered were ‘Zionist.’ They were chasing them out, saying, ‘He’s a Zionist. Get out of here,”’ Victal recounts.

It was when he and his partner were editing this footage that the attempted bombing occurred.

“We were editing that footage, and out of nowhere … I see this Muslim individual jump the fence, which he was not supposed to cross, and, you know, a big kind of smoke comes out. … Everybody’s looking around, saying, ‘Bomb bomb bomb!’” he tells Doyle, laughing that despite the chaos, his “first instinct as a journalist [was to] start recording.”

One of the people yelling “bomb” was a “transsexual,” who immediately began trying to assist the alleged attacker after he was apprehended, Victal reports.

“Didn’t that same transsexual also yell to the guy when he was apprehended something like, ‘Who’s your emergency contact?’” asks Doyle.

“Yes. … This happens all the time,” says Victal. “Every time someone on their side, where they perceive to be an ally of theirs, they are always trying to get them out of trouble.”

“Every time we’re in Minneapolis, it’s the same thing,” he says. “Somebody gets arrested for, you know, punching a police officer or attacking a journalist or whatever it may be, and they’re always trying to defend them, have them call [Monarca Rapid Response]” — a community-run rapid response team that mobilizes specifically for sightings of federal immigration enforcement activity.

“Then there are lawyers who will go out of their way to defend these people,” Victal adds.

To hear more details of his firsthand account, watch the full interview above.

Want more from John Doyle?

To enjoy more of the truth about America and join the fight to restore a country that has been betrayed by its own leaders, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​The john doyle show, John doyle, Gabriel victal, Tpusa, Nyc bombig attempt, Zohran mamdani, Nyc, Antifa violence, Blazetv, Blaze media 

A pair of trans-identifying women enjoying the support of the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit last month in hopes of forcing Kansas to indulge their delusions by letting them use men’s restrooms and false sex markers on state-issued IDs.

‘This bill protects girls and women.’

Rather than oblige the plaintiffs in thwarting the will of voters as expressed by supermajorities in both chambers of the Kansas legislature, a state judge denied the women’s most pressing request on Tuesday.

The bill, the veto, the law

Kansas Republicans passed a bill earlier this year requiring the designation of restrooms and locker rooms in public buildings for use by only one sex and mandating certain official state-issued documents to reflect the ID-holder’s actual sex.

This, of course, enraged radical LGBT activists such as Kansas state Rep. Abi Boatman (D), a man pretending to be a woman, who suggested that the reality-affirming bill was dehumanizing; Human Rights Campaign president Kelley Robinson, who called the bill an act of “cruelty”; and Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly, who vetoed the bill last month.

Kelly’s veto proved fruitless as the state Senate overrode it in a 31-9 vote on Feb. 17. Their Republican colleagues in the state House followed suit the next day in a decisive 87-37 vote.

The governor bemoaned the override, claiming that “this is a poorly drafted bill with significant, far-reaching consequences.”

State Rep. Carolyn Caiharr (R), among those who voted to override the veto, stated, “Our young women deserve to have restrooms and locker rooms where they can undress without men in the room. This bill protects girls and women, the ones feminists used to claim to stand for,” reported the Kansas Reflector.

RELATED: VIDEO: Trans-identifying teen and alleged accomplice make ‘sociopathic’ jokes after arrest for attempted murder

Photo by Andrea Domeniconi/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Kansas House Speaker Dan Hawkins (R) stated, “This isn’t about scoring political points, but doing what’s right for women and girls across our communities.”

The new law took effect once it was published in the register on Feb. 26, resulting in the invalidation of roughly 1,700 driver’s licenses and 1,800 birth certificates.

The lawsuit

A pair of trans-identifying women represented by attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit on Feb. 26, alleging that the law “violates the Kansas Constitution’s guarantees of personal autonomy, privacy, equality under the law, due process, and free expression. It also violates the Kansas Constitution’s single-subject and clear title requirements.”

The lawsuit claimed that the two biological women, identified by the pseudonyms Daniel Doe and Matthew Moe, would suffer harm “because they will not be able to utilize a driver’s license with their correct gender marker or access public restrooms that accord with their gender identity.”

The trans-identifying ladies requested that Douglas County District Judge James McCabria block and declare the new law both unconstitutional and unenforceable.

The response

Judge McCabria refused on Tuesday to grant the women a temporary restraining order against the law while their case proceeds, writing, “A court that is too quick to assume too much about the facts or possible impacts of a law risks the appearance of either political bias or a lack of appreciation for the value and importance of the full, fair deliberative process in such circumstances.”

The judge apparently didn’t buy the plaintiffs’ claim that they may face “reprisal by employers and acquaintances that may not know their biological gender but learn of it by forced use of assigned restrooms or incidental disclosure by use of their identification documents.”

McCabria declined “the invitation to presume” that every employer or acquaintance would in every instance respond to the discovery of the women’s true sex with harassment or disfavor. He also rejected the assumption that “every restroom visit is fraught with the potential for violence or embarrassment if this law is not immediately suspended.”

The judge directed the parties involved in the case to appear in court later this month.

Harper Seldin, an attorney for the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project, stated, “This is a devastating, but hopefully temporary, setback for our clients and transgender people across the state of Kansas.”

Although the law merely prevents individuals from carrying untruthful driver’s licenses and invading private spaces intended for members of the opposite sex, Seldin claimed it threatens trans-identifying individuals’ “ability to hold a job, go to school, or go about their daily lives.”

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​Kansas, Transgender, Trans, Identificiation, Drivers license, Drivers licenses, Restrooms, Bathrooms, Lgbt, Lawsuit, Aclu, Culture war, Radical, Radicalism, Politics 

On November 9, 2024, the Associated Press called Arizona for Donald Trump. Arizona was the last state the media called — four days after Election Day. As Arizona Senate president, I know that kind of delay can’t happen again. Voters deserve timely results, especially in a pivotal battleground state.

The outcome of the presidential race became clear in the early hours of election night, November 6. But Arizona’s slow count still invited unnecessary angst — and would have fueled mistrust if the margin had been tighter. It doesn’t have to work this way. That’s why we’re looking at common-sense, bipartisan reforms that improve transparency and speed without compromising integrity.

If the governor won’t work with the legislature on meaningful reforms, we will take this directly to the voters in the November general election.

Florida shows what’s possible. Over the past few cycles, Florida has counted the vast majority of ballots within hours of polls closing. Races get called, electoral votes get assigned, and the country moves on.

Florida didn’t arrive there by accident. The “hanging chads” debacle of 2000 forced the state to rebuild confidence through clearer rules and cleaner procedures. In 2024, more than 3 million Floridians voted by mail, more than 5 million voted early, and more than 2.5 million voted on Election Day. Florida counted 99% of those ballots before midnight. That’s a standard Arizona should meet.

So what does Florida do differently?

First, Florida keeps clear lanes for voting: vote by mail, early voting, and Election Day voting. Each lane has its own procedures, and voters understand the differences.

Second, Florida limits Election Day drop-offs. Vote-by-mail ballots can be returned at early voting locations, but on Election Day they must be delivered to the supervisor of elections — Florida’s equivalent of Arizona’s county recorders — not dropped at every polling place.

Third, Florida removes needless envelope handling for in-person early voting. Envelopes belong with vote-by-mail ballots, not in-person voting. Early in-person voters use the same ballots and the same tabulators used on Election Day — they just vote during the early window.

Fourth, Florida posts key numbers on election night. Counties must report how many vote-by-mail ballots they have received and how many remain uncounted. That kind of transparency reduces speculation and stops the “How many ballots are still out there?” spiral that frustrates voters across the country.

RELATED: The common-sense case for nationalizing US elections

Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images

My team and I — joined by state senators, representatives, and county officials — met with Florida’s secretary of state to discuss how Arizona could adopt similar reforms. I hope Democrats and county officials will join this effort. Election integrity, transparency, efficiency, and certainty shouldn’t be partisan. Too often, they have turned into a Republican-versus-Democrat fight, with the left resisting reforms that would give voters more confidence in the process.

Consider a bill my Republican colleagues and I pushed in 2023 and again in 2025. It required voters who held on to their mailed ballots until the Friday before Election Day to meet the same voter ID requirements as other voters when dropping those ballots off. The bill would also have reduced the burden of signature verification on hundreds of thousands of ballots — one major reason Arizona results can take days, even weeks.

Both times, it passed the legislature on party-line votes and Governor Katie Hobbs (D) vetoed it. Her veto message offered little justification, claiming only that the bill didn’t “meaningfully address the real challenges facing Arizona voters.”

That pattern has repeated. Even with growing support for faster election-night results — including an unlikely endorsement from a columnist at one of Arizona’s major newspapers — the governor and her allies have refused to consider reforms that would deliver timely results and clearer transparency.

Arizona voters deserve better than delays and uncertainty. If the governor won’t work with the legislature on meaningful reforms, we will take this directly to the voters in the November general election. If Democrats won’t fix what’s broken, Arizonans will.

Republicans in the Arizona legislature have reintroduced bills to reform our system. We should tailor solutions to Arizona, but nobody should fear mirroring a model that works. Florida proves that speed and integrity can coexist.

Election integrity, transparency, and timely results aren’t red or blue issues. They’re American issues. Arizona has an opportunity — and an obligation — to deliver results voters can trust, on election night.

​Arizona, Elections, Voting by mail, Election day, Katie hobbs, Republicans, Democrats, Opinion & analysis 

Imagine an Iranian warship minding its own business in the Indian Ocean, when, out of nowhere, a mean and abusive American submarine appears and starts launching torpedoes for no reason except sheer cruelty. At least, that’s how one professor I recently encountered retold the story. In his telling, the United States isn’t merely mistaken or imprudent. It’s the villain in a cartoon morality play, cast forever as the bully.

Others insist that President Trump’s actions toward Iran can only be explained by domestic political distraction — specifically, an alleged effort to divert attention from the Epstein files. Their reasoning runs like this: Trump once speculated that Barack Obama might attack Iran for political reasons. Therefore — through a piece of logic that would embarrass a first-year philosophy student — Trump must now be doing precisely that himself.

We believe — correctly — that free speech requires tolerating ideas that are foolish, offensive, or absurd. But the First Amendment does not require taxpayers to finance those ideas.

The pattern keeps repeating. In January, a handful of progressive philosophers of religion flooded social media to denounce ICE based on fake reports. American Christians, they declared, must allow unrestricted immigration as a requirement of loving their neighbor. Point out that the passages they cite presuppose conversion to the faith, and the conversation pivots quickly from political lecturing to hostility toward Christian scripture itself.

My own social media was full of posts by progressive philosophers repeating Democrat talking points. One notable example is philosopher Eleonore Stump, who reposted fake stories about Liam Ramos, fake images of ICE shootings, and emotional pleas disconnected from reality and rooted in what is now called suicidal empathy.

It would make a perfectly acceptable comedy routine if it weren’t so serious — and so sad.

Why professors hate America

Why are so many American professors so anti-American?

They live in a country that pays them well to teach their particular flavors of Marxist progressivism. They enjoy robust constitutional protections for speech and inquiry. They’re free to invent theories so eccentric that they wouldn’t survive a staff meeting at a moderately sensible insurance company.

And yet they hate America.

The late philosopher Roger Scruton coined a useful word for this condition: oikophobia — the fear or hatred of one’s own home.

Spend 10 minutes browsing faculty social media — especially in the humanities — and you’ll meet it. In their telling, virtually any other country can do no wrong, while the United States can do nothing right.

RELATED: Do they hate Trump — or do they just hate America?

Photo by Joseph Prezioso / AFP via Getty Images

The logic of learned helplessness

They lament how the “benevolent” ruler of Venezuela was removed by the bullying United States. If they concede he was a tyrant, they pivot to a different objection: Are we supposed to go around removing every tyrant in the world?

Consider the move. Because a nation cannot eliminate all evil everywhere, it must refrain from opposing evil anywhere.

It’s a curious moral theory — and it tends to apply only when America, or a conservative administration, acts. In their personal lives and domestic politics, these same professors preach incrementalism. Don’t let the perfect become the enemy of the good. Progress, they assure us, comes in steps.

But when Donald Trump — or conservative America generally — is behind an action, oikophobia kicks in and the reasoning faculty abruptly shuts down.

TDS as a virtue

Recently, James Carville, a sometime professor of political science at Tulane University and a political consultant to various governments abroad, publicly took the Lord’s name in vain by asking God not for national unity or wisdom but for more Trump derangement syndrome. He cheerfully admitted he hates Trump and wants to hate him more.

That’s more than just political spite. It’s a descent into madness, wrapped in a violation of the third commandment.

This posture has become standard in fields such as political science and the humanities. It feels less like argument than a kind of intellectual surrender — what the apostle Paul describes in Romans 1 as being given over to a “debased mind.”

When intellectuals lose the capacity for judgment, the results don’t stay confined to faculty lounges. They spill into institutions, into students, into culture — and into policy.

Why are we paying for this?

The strangest feature of this situation is that we keep employing these people — often with public funds.

Professors at private universities are one thing. Private institutions can hire whomever they please. But many of the loudest performances come from state universities, where salaries are paid by taxpayers.

Americans have tolerated this out of respect for the First Amendment. We believe — correctly — that free speech requires tolerating ideas that are foolish, offensive, or absurd.

But the First Amendment does not require taxpayers to finance those ideas.

Allowing someone to speak differs from obligating the public to underwrite his lectures.

From oikophobia to self-hatred

Oikophobia rarely appears in isolation. It grows out of something deeper — what you might call autophobia: a kind of self-hatred.

Professors who despise their country often despise the civilization that produced it — and, eventually, even themselves. You can see the self-contempt in the ideas they teach: young people urged to reject their own bodies, treat biological reality as an inconvenience, and even mutilate themselves in pursuit of identities constructed from will alone.

Civilizations that teach their children to hate themselves don’t flourish for long.

RELATED: My court fight over DEI at Arizona State isn’t culture-war noise

Photo by Robert Alexander/Getty Images

The post-Christian academy

Another pattern shows up if you spend enough time around these professors: Many were raised in some form of Christianity and later rejected it.

Occasionally they will speak of Jesus as one teacher among many. More often they reject him outright. That rejection isn’t incidental. It’s seed corn. It grows into the rest of the hostility.

The America they prefer is an America stripped of its Christian foundations — an America dissolved into a global moral neutrality where Western civilization stays perpetually on trial and every other tradition receives the presumption of innocence.

In their view, just as America can do nothing right, Christians can do nothing right either.

Meanwhile, almost any spiritual alternative — no matter how strange or historically troubling — earns enthusiastic approval. “Who are you to judge?” becomes the only commandment they reliably enforce.

I recall one professor raised in a conservative Baptist home who later converted to what she proudly called “hedonic atheism.” She recounted — with real excitement — paying to sit on the dirt floor of a shaman’s tent and ingest hallucinogenic mushrooms to “open the doors of perception to other dimensions.”

Christianity: rejected. Mushrooms with a witch doctor: enlightenment.

The simple solution

Future historians may look back at this era with bewilderment. They’ll ask how a prosperous civilization came to subsidize an entire class of intellectuals devoted to explaining why that civilization was uniquely wicked.

Has anything like it happened before?

Perhaps.

But most civilizations eventually discovered a simple solution. They stopped paying for it.

​State schools, Trump, Tds, Roger scruton, Oikophobia, Patriotism, Democrats, Public universities, Opinion & analysis 

Leaving trash in your car might seem like a personal problem.

In Hilton Head, South Carolina, it can now bring fines of up to $500 — or even 30 days in jail.

Governments routinely regulate safety equipment, emissions standards, and parking behavior. Regulating how clean the inside of a car must be moves into far less settled territory.

A new local ordinance allows authorities to penalize situations where garbage inside a vehicle could provide food or shelter for rats. What might sound like an odd local rule has sparked a broader question about government authority, vague enforcement standards, and whether similar laws could eventually spread to larger cities already struggling with rodent infestations.

Rat’s nest

The ordinance took effect February 1 as part of the town’s effort to control a growing rat problem. Hilton Head’s municipal code places vehicles under the same sanitation rules that apply to buildings, treating them as potential environments where rodents could find food or shelter.

The rule appears in a section addressing “conditions affording food or harborage for rats.” Under the ordinance, it is unlawful to allow garbage or rubbish to accumulate in any building, vehicle, or surrounding area if it could provide food or shelter for rodents.

For drivers, the penalties are significant. Violations can bring fines of up to $500, jail time of up to 30 days, or both. Each day the violation continues can count as a separate offense, meaning penalties could quickly multiply.

The ordinance is framed as a public health measure. Garbage accumulation can attract rodents, and Hilton Head’s code treats vehicles the same way it treats buildings if trash creates conditions that could support infestations.

The challenge is how broadly that standard could be applied.

RELATED: Per-mile driving taxes: The latest way to punish those who drive the most?

Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images

A little litter?

The law does not define how much trash qualifies as “accumulating garbage,” nor does it spell out how enforcement officers should determine whether a vehicle could realistically attract rodents. A few empty coffee cups or fast-food wrappers might look harmless to one person but like a sanitation problem to another.

In practice, enforcement would likely occur in situations where trash is visible from outside the vehicle or discovered during other routine enforcement actions, such as parking violations or abandoned-vehicle inspections. The ordinance itself provides little guidance on how those decisions should be made.

Pest control

That ambiguity raises a broader question.

If a local government can regulate the interior condition of a private vehicle in the name of pest control, how far does that authority extend?

Cities like New York and Los Angeles already struggle with well-documented rat infestations. New York City alone spends tens of millions of dollars annually on rodent mitigation, expanding sanitation enforcement and imposing stricter trash-handling rules.

In cities under pressure to show results, the temptation to expand enforcement tools is real. If Hilton Head’s ordinance survives legal scrutiny, other municipalities dealing with rodent problems could see it as a model.

Test case

That possibility raises an uncomfortable policy question.

Vehicles are private property, even when parked on public streets. Governments routinely regulate safety equipment, emissions standards, and parking behavior. Regulating how clean the inside of a car must be moves into far less settled territory.

There are also practical questions the ordinance does not answer.

Would a car parked temporarily on a street face the same scrutiny as a vehicle abandoned for weeks? Could a citation be issued immediately, or would drivers first be given an opportunity to correct the problem?

For now, motorists in Hilton Head are the test case.

But drivers elsewhere — especially in cities already battling rat infestations — should pay attention. Regulations often start small, aimed at solving a specific problem in a specific place. Over time, those rules can expand in ways few people originally anticipated.

And when government authority moves into new territory, it rarely retreats on its own.

​Hilton head, Lifestyle, Rats, Law, Messy cars, Privacy, Align cars 

Two Florida teenagers arrested on charges of alleged murder were allegedly caught on video laughing and giggling to each other about their plot from a police cruiser.

Isabelle Valdez, 15, and Lois Lippert, 14, were arrested on Jan. 23 after police received a tip about their alleged plan to resurrect the Sandy Hook elementary school killer by murdering a schoolmate.

‘I thought I was going to get sent to the [expletive] psych ward. That’s why I was so excited about everything.’

The video shows Valdez making jokes and Lippert laughing despite the very serious allegations that were made against them by the Altamonte Springs Police Department.

Valdez identifies as a transgender person and goes by the name “Jimmy,” according to court records.

After police contacted school officials about the tip, Valdez was questioned by the vice principal of Lake Brantley High School in Altamonte Springs. She allegedly admitted to the murder plot and handed over a backpack with a knife, gloves, trash bags, and wipes.

Valdez said that she heard voices in her head telling her to kill the victim in order to resurrect Adam Lanza, who murdered his mother, 20 grade-school students, and others before committing suicide in 2012.

In the police video released to the public, they joke about wearing makeup for a mugshot.

“I was going to do my makeup this morning for the mugshot, but I couldn’t find anything,” Valdez said. “It’s over.”

“Yeah, it’s over. It doesn’t matter if you look good or not,” Lippert replied.

“Why are you touching me with your butt?” Valdez said in another reported interaction.

“This is such a bonding experience! I love it!” Lippert said.

At another part, Valdez said, “I thought I was going to get sent to the [expletive] psych ward. That’s why I was so excited about everything.”

They also talk about the blood pact to bring back Lanza as well as their speculation about who snitched on them. Prosecutors said the teens planned to slit a student’s throat in the bathroom and then drink his blood.

“I don’t feel guilty for my actions,” Valdez said in the recording.

Prosecutors showed the video at a hearing to oppose bail for the pair, and a judge agreed. The two will stay in jail while the case progresses.

RELATED: Activists want food delivery man to be charged with hate crime after lethal shooting over ‘misgendering’ of transgender woman

The mother of the teenager who was allegedly targeted in the murder plot said it has crushed their sense of security.

“I was destroyed, and I still am. It is never going to be the same,” the mother told WFTV-TV. “When you read the report and how planned out it was … it is very hard. I have broken down a lot. I still break down at work. I still have fear.”

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​Trans-identifying murder suspect, Isabelle "jimmy" valdez murder plot, Adam lanza resurrection plot, Crime, Lois lippert murder plot 

The war in Iran has entered its second week, and the Trump administration is fighting on two fronts: the physical battlefield and the narrative one.

Most Americans expected U.S. firepower to dominate, and it has. Seven American service members have died so far, but Iran has suffered far heavier losses in lives and materiel. Even those surprised by the damage Iran managed to inflict on U.S. allies can see the basic reality: Tehran is outmatched. The real question was never whether the United States had superior force. The question was whether the administration could sustain support long enough to translate force into victory.

Trump built a foreign policy around brief, decisive action in America’s interest. He should stick with it — and finish this war — while the window for narrative victory remains open.

That challenge matters more for Trump than for most modern presidents. He was never an isolationist. His second-term foreign policy has relied on limited but highly effective strikes rather than long occupations. He has projected power through single bombing runs and midnight raids, then exited before the mission metastasized into a nation-building project. Skeptics of foreign intervention grumbled, then quieted down when operations stayed brisk, competent, and contained.

That becomes more difficult when “contained” turns into weeks and potentially months.

“Boots on the ground” has become the clearest public marker of commitment. If the conflict remains primarily air and naval, most voters will still read it as limited engagement. Costs will rise and gas prices will sting, but casualties will likely remain comparatively low. A sharp show of force followed by a clear exit would keep the war from becoming a long-term liability. Whether he intended it or not, Trump has likely gambled the remainder of his term on avoiding that trip wire.

The Iranians know it. So does the administration.

That’s why Tehran keeps daring Washington to deploy ground troops. Iran’s leaders don’t believe they can beat American infantry in a straight fight. They’re betting the war loses support the moment U.S. ground forces start taking steady casualties.

George W. Bush enjoyed a powerful rally-around-the-flag boost after 9/11, and his administration spent months building a public case for war. Trump has no comparable national trauma to unify the country, and his administration did not spend much time laying out the necessity of this war before it began. That means his narrative window of victory is narrower by default — and it can close fast.

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth appears to understand the dynamic, but he also understands a basic rule: You don’t win wars by announcing what you will not do. If the administration takes ground troops off the table, it tells Tehran that patience equals victory — that holding out long enough will force America to go home.

So Hegseth keeps the option alive. Practically, that means he keeps getting dragged into briefings where he must say ground deployments remain possible. The media treats that as the headline. Anxiety rises. “Boots on the ground” starts to feel inevitable, even when it remains only a contingency. The administration takes a beating in the public mind with every news cycle.

RELATED: America First can’t survive an Iran quagmire

Blaze News Illustration

Wars have always had a narrative battle, but the pace has changed. News doesn’t arrive weeks later in a paper or even once a night on television. It hits phones all day, in an endless stream of micro-skirmishes designed to create dread and exhaustion.

No one really doubts U.S. military superiority. Iraq and Afghanistan proved that military superiority is not enough. America toppled regimes quickly, then watched “mission accomplished” become a punch line for years of occupation and nation-building.

Trump hinted recently that operations in Iran are nearly complete. If true, that’s the right direction. The old supreme leader is dead, along with many key figures, and the new supreme leader already may have been gravely injured. Iran’s naval and air capacity has been degraded. Tehran has isolated itself further by striking a range of U.S. allies. Trump could declare meaningful victory now and begin drawing down forces, preserving the very pattern that kept his base — skeptical of intervention — largely onside: quick, effective strikes with limited U.S. casualties.

Trump has also said Israel will have a say in when the war ends. It shouldn’t.

The United States is sovereign. It is also the senior partner in a conflict Israel could not possibly execute alone. The administration has already acknowledged that Israel’s decision to strike materially reshaped U.S. war planning. That is a mistake not to repeat. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has made clear that long-term regime change is Israel’s goal. If Israel wants that objective, it should secure it on its own terms.

Trump built a foreign policy around brief, decisive action in America’s interest. He should stick with it — and finish this war — while the window for narrative victory remains open.

​Opinion & analysis, Iran, Donald trump, Information warfare, Media bias, Boots on the ground, Air power, Strait of hormuz, Oil, Energy, China, Terrorism, Narrative, Pete hegseth 

Detroit Police, responding to a report of the explosion of a pipe bomb, said they found a person dead by electrocution and another who was injured.

They later determined that the man and woman had been allegedly trying to steal copper wiring from an abandoned school building before the shocking incident.

‘These wires can be live, lot of voltage, thousands of watts going through there, and this is what could very well happen to you.’

Police responded at around 3 p.m. to the report of a bomb explosion at Brainard Street and 3rd Avenue near Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

They transported the injured person to a hospital but did not release whether the woman or the man was the deceased person they found.

Authorities are working to notify the family of the two people.

Detroit Police Deputy Chief Franklin Hayes warned about the risks of utility theft from the scene of the death.

“For those that may be thinking about the very, very dangerous decision of utility theft, to steal copper wire, this is what happens,” Hayes said.

“These wires can be live, lot of voltage, thousands of watts going through there, and this is what could very well happen to you if you decide to … make the decision to steal,” he added.

RELATED: Man electrocuted to death after being pushed onto subway tracks in downtown Baltimore, police say: ‘That’s evil, that’s totally evil’

The U.S. Dept. of Energy estimates that copper theft costs U.S. businesses as much as $1 billion per year and is on the rise.

One study found that there were about 32,000 instances of copper theft between 2010 and 2012 alone.

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Police are investigating a possible hate crime incident on the UC Irvine campus in California after a black student was allegedly attacked by five white teens on e-bikes.

The alleged altercation occurred on Feb. 27 at the university’s Arroyo Vista Housing complex, according to the UC Irvine Police Department.

‘Since the incident, the victim has been placed on bed rest and has returned home because he no longer feels safe remaining on campus.’

The Black Student Union released a statement recounting the events of the alleged attack.

According to the statement, the white teens falsely claimed that the student spat on them after a school event and then chased after him on their e-bikes as he rode a scooter.

They allegedly shouted racial slurs against the student until one of them rode his e-bike into him.

“The situation escalated when one of the juveniles of the group attempted to ram the victim off the road,” reads the statement from the Black Student Union. “Using the front of his bike tire, he struck the back of the victim’s scooter and part of his leg. This resulted in torn skin, bruising, and an infection of the victim’s ankle.”

The teens let up the chase after the student ran into the Rosa Parks House and called police, the student union said.

“Since the incident, the victim has been placed on bed rest and has returned home because he no longer feels safe remaining on campus,” the group added.

The teens scattered after the incident, but an officer was able to detain a suspect at a parking structure. Police described one suspect as a teen between 16 and 17 years old and another who is 14 years old.

RELATED: White couple recounts vicious racist attack police call a hate crime

The student union demanded that school officials take action to ensure the safety of black students on campus.

“Incidents like this cannot be tolerated, and they will continue to occur if the administration fails to respond with urgency and accountability,” it added.

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While the newly crowned mayor of New York City has done his best to distance himself from association with radical Islamists, an examination of his wife’s social media activity revealed that she herself may hold slightly more radical beliefs.

Rama Duwaji, a Syrian-American activist who married Mamdani in 2025, allegedly liked multiple Instagram posts cheering on Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 assault.

“She apparently … has [allegedly] liked a post that referred to the October 7 rapes as a hoax,” “Pat Gray Unleashed” executive producer Keith Malinak tells BlazeTV host Pat Gray and co-host Jeff Fisher.

But when Mamdani was questioned on his wife’s social media activity, he didn’t appear to be concerned.

“This is an off-topic question. I’d like to know what your reaction was to the article in the Jewish Insider that was posted about your wife’s social media activity, and what I’m wondering is, you know, you’re an elected official; she is not. Is it anybody’s business? And is it fair to question you about it?” a reporter asked Mamdani.

“You know, my wife is the love of my life, and she’s also a private person who has held no formal position on my campaign or in my city hall. I, however, was elected to represent all eight and a half million people in this city,” Mamdani answered.

“And I believe that it’s my responsibility because of that role to answer any questions about my thoughts and my policies and my decisions,” he added.

“I love how the reporter who’s asking him the question tried to give him the out on the question,” Gray says.

“Let’s face it, this is an anti-American couple,” Gray says, “who just happens to be in a really important position.”

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Actress Rachel Zegler says that her race is a consistent issue when being cast for major movie roles.

Whether it was Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story” or Disney’s “Snow White,” Zegler says she’s received criticism for not being enough of either ethnicity of the roles she has played.

‘When you’re two things, you’re simultaneously nothing.’

While many would argue that Zegler’s constant criticisms of the traditional “Snow White” story — like calling Prince Charming a “stalker” — were the main drivers of the movie’s failure, Zegler says it is her refusal to “assimilate” that causes viewers discomfort.

Skin deep

In an interview with Harper’s Bazaar, she implied that she was told she was not white enough for “Snow White” and not Puerto Rican enough to play Maria in “West Side Story.”

“I was told I wasn’t enough of one thing for ‘West Side Story’ and too much of another for ‘Snow White,'” she said.

Zegler called it a “confusing time” in her early twenties, despite being only 25 years old now, and played to her Colombian background; she was born in New Jersey, with Colombian and Polish parents.

“I grew up proud of being Colombian — eating the food, wearing the dresses, drinking the coffee, doing all the things that were so intrinsic to who I was as a kid and who I am as an adult,” Zegler said.

However, the actress then claimed that being biracial is actually what gets her overlooked.

RELATED: Comic calls out Peter Dinklage: ‘You were in the most offensive movie to little people ever made’

Photo by Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic

Comfort zone

“I do think there’s an argument to be made that, in the public eye at least, when you’re two things, you’re simultaneously nothing,” she added. “But I refuse to assimilate for anybody else’s comfort.”

While Zegler seemingly takes issue when it comes to audiences or studios noticing her ethnicity, she has certainly focused on her Colombian background a lot as a cause for celebration.

She told People in 2021 that she grew up in a “very Colombian American household” and loved being “surrounded by the biggest amount of Latinos I’ve ever been surrounded by” while filming “West Side Story.”

At the same time, she claimed that studio executives “kept calling to ask if I was legit,” in reference to being Colombian.

It was strange to have “a bunch of white executives have you prove your identity to them,” she told the L.A. Times in 2025.

RELATED: Woke ‘Snow White’ remake lost way more money than you could ever imagine

Photo by Jesse Grant/Getty Images for 20th Century Studios

Race rhapsody

In 2023, she joined forces with fellow Disney princess Halle Bailey to once again bask in the joy of being around certain races. She called it “beautiful” when Bailey remarked on working with an “all-black” cast, before calling her role as “Snow White” a “huge moment” for those who share her ethnicity.

Despite her recent interviewer purposely trying to pull her into a political debate, Zegler was described as not being willing to discuss politics but still acknowledged, according to the writer, that what’s happening in the United States is “very difficult to witness in real time.”

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Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D) broke ranks with her longtime colleague, retiring Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), by endorsing a rival candidate over Hoyer’s handpicked successor, marking a potential final clash in their complex alliance.

Pelosi and Hoyer first crossed paths as Capitol Hill interns in the 1960s. Hoyer was elected to Congress in 1981 and Pelosi in 1987. By the late 1990s, the two began vying for leadership roles, with Pelosi defeating Hoyer in 2001 to become the House minority whip.

‘I’m beyond honored to have her support in this campaign.’

Despite previously heaping praise on Pelosi, Hoyer suggested that he would have won if Pelosi “hadn’t been a woman or from California.”

“Gender and geography in this case were overwhelming. C’est la guerre,” he said.

In 2006, Pelosi snubbed Hoyer by backing his opponent for majority leader, but Hoyer won despite her lack of support.

Hoyer then spent two decades as one of the highest-ranking House Democrats, second only to Pelosi.

RELATED: Nancy Pelosi announces retirement after nearly 4 decades in Congress

Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Hoyer, 86, announced his retirement in January as a representative for Maryland’s 5th Congressional District after serving 23 terms. He endorsed his former campaign manager Adrian Boafo as his successor.

Instead of announcing her support for Boafo in the packed congressional race, Pelosi seized the opportunity to use her endorsement to seemingly pay back former U.S. Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn, who was credited with protecting her on Jan. 6, 2021.

Pelosi announced her endorsement of Dunn on Wednesday, stating, “My friend Harry Dunn is a true American hero and exactly the right person to represent Maryland in Congress.”

She claimed that he “bravely defended our democracy from Donald Trump’s violent MAGA mob. Since then, Harry’s been called to do everything he can to protect Marylanders and all Americans from extremists like Donald Trump.”

“Few leaders have done more to defend our democracy and stand up to Donald Trump than Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi,” Dunn stated in reaction to Pelosi’s endorsement. “Her leadership helped deliver historic progress for the American people. I’m beyond honored to have her support in this campaign.”

Pelosi, who has also announced her retirement, will end her term in January 2027. She previously backed Dunn in his failed 2024 congressional run for Maryland’s 3rd District.

RELATED: Harry Dunn’s account of January 6 does not add up. At all.

Harry Dunn, Nancy Pelosi. Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Dunn gained prominence for his testimony about defending the Capitol on Jan. 6. However, a Blaze News investigation found that Dunn gave false and conflicting statements on the witness stand concerning his interaction with a group of Oath Keepers. His testimony ultimately led to their imprisonment.

Dunn, who has since retired from the U.S. Capitol Police, has used his platform since Jan. 6 to publish a memoir, run for political office, and establish a political action committee named Dunn’s Democracy Defenders, which aims to fund Democrat candidates to defeat President Donald Trump, who Dunn has claimed is a threat to democracy.

“The outrageous truth is that Dunn’s lies are easily disprovable by anyone who examines the evidence. Far from the hero he portrays himself to be, when he was not hiding on January 6, 2021, Dunn was needlessly and recklessly screaming at and otherwise confronting protesters who posed no threat to him, violating official protocols and procedures. Other officers repeatedly had to intervene to calm him down,” Blaze News investigative reporter Steve Baker wrote in a 2023 analysis of Dunn’s account of Jan. 6.

“It is unfortunate that the media is celebrating the many lies in Dunn’s book, but the real tragedy is that this unstable man’s testimony in a federal trial was instrumental in the conviction and sentencing of several Americans to years in federal prison,” Baker added.

Maryland’s congressional primary race is scheduled for June 23, and the general election is November 3.

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An actress who starred in one of Quentin Tarantino’s biggest films says his writing is “creepy.”

Rosanna Arquette, 66, is taking issue with “Pulp Fiction” more than 30 years after its release, telling the press that she is “over” how Tarantino includes the use of the N-word in his scripts.

‘Do you feel this way now? Very possibly.’

In an interview published by the Times on Saturday, Arquette said that while “Pulp Fiction” is a great piece of cinema, aspects of Tarantino’s writing should not be considered art.

“It’s iconic, a great film on a lot of levels,” she began. “But personally I am over the use of the N-word — I hate it. I cannot stand that he [Tarantino] has been given a hall pass. It’s not art, it’s just racist and creepy.”

Q’s A

The strong critique garnered near-immediate response from Tarantino, who wrote a letter to Arquette on Monday taking shots at her for showing a lack of “class” and “honor.”

“I hope the publicity you’re getting from 132 different media outlets writing your name and printing your picture was worth disrespecting me and a film I remember quite clearly you were thrilled to be a part of?” Tarantino recalled.

RELATED: Satan struts at Paris Fashion Week — here are the 3 most demonic designers

Photo by Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images for TCM

“Do you feel this way now? Very possibly. But after I gave you a job, and you took the money, to trash it for what I suspect is very cynical reasons, shows a decided lack of class, no less honor,” the director continued.

“There is supposed to be an esprit de corps between artistic colleagues. But it would appear the objective was accomplished,” Tarantino concluded.

The letter, published by Variety, ended simply with “Congratulations” before the sign-off “Q.”

No ‘Fiction’ friction

Strangely enough, Arquette had reunited with “Pulp Fiction” cast members as recently as April 2024 for a 30th anniversary screening at the TCL Chinese Theatre without issue.

Regarding Tarantino’s use of the racial slur, Samuel L. Jackson, who has starred in six of his films, has repeatedly defended the director’s dialogue choices. Not only has Jackson said, “There’s no dishonesty in anything that [Quentin] writes or how people talk, feel, or speak [in his movies],” but he also stood up for his colleague by comparing him to other art forms.

“When you have a song that says N-word in it 300 times, nobody says s**t,” he said in 2019.

RELATED: ‘Juvenile war porn’: Halo voice actor wants out of Trump administration hype video

Photo by Ernesto Ruscio/WireImage

Sour taste

Arquette played “Jody” in “Pulp Fiction,” the wife of heroin dealer Lance. She told the Times that she is still sour about the movie because she was denied a box-office percentage.

“I’m the only person who didn’t get a back end [a share of the takings]. Everybody made money except me,” she said, blaming producer Harvey Weinstein rather than Tarantino.

Arquette was one of Weinstein’s original accusers of sexual coercion.

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​Align, Movies, Film, Racism, Hollywood, Tarantino, Entertainment 

Last year, Republican Reps. Andy Ogles (Tenn.) and Randy Fine (Fla.) urged the Department of Justice to investigate and pursue denaturalization of Zohran Mamdani over unsubstantiated claims that he misrepresented or concealed material facts on his 2018 naturalization application.

While the DOJ never publicly responded to the letters, BlazeTV host Liz Wheeler thinks an investigation is warranted.

“I’m going to make the case for you that Zohran Mamdani may not be a valid U.S. citizen,” she says.

On this episode of “The Liz Wheeler Show,” Liz dives into the nitty-gritty of Mamdani’s naturalization application, the federal law that allows revocation of citizenship obtained through fraud or concealment, and the specific evidence she believes proves he may have lied in order to obtain citizenship.

Liz begins by citing federal law 8 U.S.C. § 1451: “If naturalized citizenship is ‘illegally procured or procured by concealment of a material fact or by willful misrepresentation,’ then it is the responsibility of the United States government to instigate denaturalization proceedings.”

“What, if you omitted that fact, would constitute a willful misrepresentation?” she asks.

Liz then displays the blank Application for Naturalization (Form N-400) used between 2016 and 2019 — the version Zohran Mamdani would have completed in 2017 — and reads aloud two questions she claims he might have answered dishonestly:

1. “Have you ever been a member of or in any way associated (either directly or indirectly) with: A, the Communist Party, B, any other totalitarian party, or C, a terrorist organization?”

2. “Have you ever lied to any U.S. government officials to gain entry or admission into the United States or to gain immigration benefits while in the United States?”

Liz argues that three key pieces of evidence could make Mamdani’s naturalized citizenship eligible for denaturalization: his 2017 public praise of the U.S.-designated terrorist group the Holy Land Five, his “direct association with communist Roy Singham’s groups like the Party for Socialism and Liberation,” and his longstanding membership in the Democrat Socialists of America, which Liz says “seek a totalitarian government … through violence.”

“So the option here is binary,” she says. “Either the application that he submitted was fraudulent, or the approval of the application … was fraudulent.”

To hear Liz’s full in-depth breakdown of Mamdani’s disturbing history, watch the episode above.

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Police departments in California have been warned that Iran may be seeking to strike the West Coast with drones as the U.S.-Israeli strikes continue in Iran.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation issued the alert at the end of February, according to an ABC News report.

‘As of early February 2026, Iran allegedly aspired to conduct a surprise attack using unmanned aerial vehicles.’

“We recently acquired information that as of early February 2026, Iran allegedly aspired to conduct a surprise attack using unmanned aerial vehicles from an unidentified vessel off the coast of the United State Homeland, specifically against unspecified targets in California, in the event that the U.S. conducted strikes against Iran,” the alert reads.

If Iran has been planning these drone strikes since “early February 2026,” then those plans predate the U.S.-Israeli military campaign against Iran, which began in late February.

“We have no additional information on the timing, method, target, or perpetrators of this alleged attack,” the FBI added.

Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office offered a brief statement about the report.

“The Governor’s Office of Emergency Services is actively working with state, local, and federal security officials to protect our communities,” the statement reads.

The Pentagon has confirmed that the U.S. is deploying suicide drones against Iran patterned after drones used against Ukraine and supplied to Russia by Iran.

“These low-cost drones, modeled after Iran’s Shahed drones, are now delivering American-made retribution,” reads a statement from U.S. Central Command.

After Iran began using those drones against U.S. forces in the Persian Gulf, military leaders requested assistance from Ukraine to counteract the drones, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

RELATED: ‘American-made retribution’: US ‘suicide drones’ deployed against Iran are based on tech from Iranian drones used in Ukraine

When reporters questioned President Donald Trump on Wednesday about whether he was concerned about possible Iranian strikes on U.S. soil, he downplayed the threat.

“No, I’m not,” he responded.

The attacks against Iran have led to a spike in oil prices in the U.S., which threatens to damage Republicans’ chances in the midterms to hold on to control of Congress.

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Former NBA player Jalen Rose has made some bold claims — that salary caps in professional sports and restrictions preventing athletes from entering leagues straight out of high school are a “residue of slavery.”

“The only sports that have salary caps are black led, first off. So that’s basketball and football. Those [are] the only sports with salary caps. Baseball, golf, NASCAR, tennis, you can keep naming. … That’s the first thing,” Rose explained on “Joe and Jada Unfiltered.”

“The second thing is they have no after-high-school restriction. And so that’s a residue of slavery, is because we’re going to get money off of you for multiple years for free,” he adds.

“A residue of slavery is probably Jalen Rose’s IQ at this point. That’s probably the residue of slavery that he’s referring to here,” BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock tells Steve Kim and Jay Skapinac on “Fearless.”

“It just drives me crazy that sports conversation is this stupid, this racialized. The National Hockey League has the harshest salary cap in all of sports. The top players probably making $7, $8, $9 million dollars. NFL players making $40, $50, $60 million dollars,” he adds.

“So here’s the other thing. When he brings up tennis and golf, guys, if I’m not mistaken, aren’t those guys’ winnings really their salary cap? Like if you win 10 tournaments, you’re probably going to get more than a guy that finishes in 18th place. That’s just the last time I checked,” Kim chimes in.

“It’s probably my whiteness, guys, coming through here, but I just really resent the implications that slavery is somehow tied into guys making multimillion-dollar generational wealth to play a game for a couple months a year for like 10 years of their life,” Skapinac adds.

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The president has announced a massive deal to open the first oil refinery in the U.S. in 50 years in order to seek energy “dominance.”

President Donald Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Tuesday that the refinery would be built in Brownsville, Texas, and bring thousands of jobs to the region.

‘This is what AMERICAN ENERGY DOMINANCE looks like. AMERICA FIRST, ALWAYS!’

“THIS IS A HISTORIC $300 BILLION DOLLAR DEAL — THE BIGGEST IN U.S. HISTORY, A MASSIVE WIN for American Workers, Energy, and the GREAT People of South Texas!” he wrote. “Thank you to our partners in India, and their largest privately held Energy Company, Reliance, for this tremendous Investment.”

He credited the streamlining of permits and lowering taxes under his “America First” agenda for attracting investments to the U.S.

“A new Refinery at the Port of Brownsville, will fuel U.S. Markets, strengthen our National Security, boost American Energy production, deliver Billions of Dollars in Economic impact, and will be THE CLEANEST REFINERY IN THE WORLD,” he added.

The refinery is being developed by America First Refining and will be designed to process shale oil.

“The United States has a surplus of light shale oil but a shortage of refining capacity designed to process it,” said America First Refining president Trey Griggs.

RELATED: ‘BEWARE!’ Trump threatens Iran with violence ‘never seen before’ over reported mines in Strait of Hormuz

“This is what AMERICAN ENERGY DOMINANCE looks like. AMERICA FIRST, ALWAYS!” Trump concluded.

The announcement came after oil prices spiked folllowing the military strikes on Iran by the U.S. and Israel. Crude oil jumped to nearly $120 a barrel on Monday but has dropped to $84 since then.

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Stabbing suspects are seen laughing and smiling on surveillance video apparently after they ganged up on a lone victim in a Maryland mall restroom.

Montgomery County Police in a Monday news release said a male victim around noon Feb. 4 entered the Wheaton Mall in the 11100 block of Veirs Mill Road and went to a restroom.

‘And you wonder why I need a 30-round magazine?’

While inside the restroom, police said seven suspects armed with knives approached him, assaulted him, and stabbed him in the arm before leaving the scene.

The victim suffered non-life-threatening injuries and received medical treatment at an area hospital, police said.

Police said they are looking for five unknown Hispanic juvenile males and two unknown black juvenile males; authorities are calling the incident a first-degree assault.

Police released video below showing surveillance clips of the suspects in the mall. One clip shows the suspects entering a restroom and then running out of the restroom and down a hallway. A subsequent clip shows some of the suspects smiling and laughing as they walk down what appears to be the same hallway.

RELATED: Blaze News original: 19 nauseating times cowardly thugs ganged up on — and savagely beat up — lone victims

Police said those with information regarding the suspects or this crime are asked to visit the Crime Solvers of Montgomery County website at www.crimesolversmcmd.org and click on the “www.p3tips.com” link at the top of the page or call 1-866-411-8477.

Police added that a reward of up to $10,000 is being offered for information that leads to the suspects’ arrest, and tips may remain anonymous.

A number of commenters under WJLA-TV’s Facebook post about the incident posted rather pointed reactions:

“They won’t be smiling for long,” one user declared.”This is why I go NOWHERE without my legal semi-automatic hole puncher,” another commenter said. “This story would have read very different[ly] with a few obituaries and some shiny personalized bracelets for the rest. Sharing is caring.””And this is why I stay strapped,” another user noted.”And you wonder why I need a 30-round magazine?” another commenter offered.”That’s why we carry our guns and MUST use them at times like this … stopping threats, teaching lessons to filthy criminals, [deterring] crime, and protecting ourselves,” another user said. “It’s time We The People make it like the good [old] days.””That’s when you draw your pistol and tell them about the lack of wisdom in bringing a knife to a gunfight,” another commenter stated.

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​Montgomery county police department, First-degree assault, Juveniles, Maryland, Stabbing, Wanted, Wheaton mall, Crime