Category: blaze media

The modern administrative state has perfected the art of turning basic human relationships into a never-ending nightmare. In modern America, even the simplest family matters can become exercises in paperwork and official permission. But what happened to an Ohio mother crosses into truly disturbing territory.

When Andrea Mauk’s 18-year-old son, Damon, died suddenly, he was not a registered organ donor. Andrea had raised him as his primary custodial parent. His biological father was long estranged, played little role in his upbringing, and, according to Andrea, didn’t even appear in his hospital files.

Federal investigators concluded that at least 28 patients might not have been dead when the procurement process began.

Yet Andrea says that while she was briefly out of cellphone service, hospital and organ procurement organization staff turned to Damon’s biological father. Roughly 30 minutes after attempting to reach her, she says, they obtained a single phone “yes” from him authorizing the recovery of Damon’s eyes and tissue. Some of that tissue would ultimately make its way as far as Argentina.

Who decides?

For conservatives who still believe the family is the primary unit of society, the story raises disturbing questions about parental authority and consent. Under Ohio’s version of the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act, both parents of an adult child occupy the same level of priority for authorizing donation.

If one parent gives permission, the gift can proceed unless that parent or the procurement organization knows the other parent objects. The law requires officials to consider which relatives are “reasonably available,” but that determination depends partly on whether they can be contacted in time to act within existing medical constraints.

That leaves enormous weight resting on a deceptively simple question: How long is reasonable when a mother doesn’t even know someone is seeking permission to recover parts of her child’s body?

“In my son’s entire medical record, his father was never listed. He was not an emergency contact, HIPAA release, and we have no idea how he was even contacted,” Andrea explains.

Her parents showed up at the hospital after community members tipped them off, but nobody mentioned donation. Even when Andrea called the hospital directly, she says, staff kept her in the dark. As part of the process, Andrea says the OPO had Damon’s father complete a detailed medical history questionnaire about a son he barely knew. If accurate, that raises an obvious question about how reliable such a medical history could possibly have been.

Organ trade

Follow the money, and the picture becomes far more disturbing. Americans are accustomed to seeing organ donation as an act of pure altruism. But the system also has a powerful commercial dimension.

When someone dies without registering as an organ donor, the UAGA allows certain family members to authorize donation on the person’s behalf. At the same time, federal regulators measure OPOs partly by their donation and transplantation rates, creating an obvious institutional incentive to secure authorizations. OPO performance can ultimately determine whether an organization retains its certification and service area. Critics fear those incentives can turn a grieving family’s decision into another performance metric — all within a system where some OPO executives collect compensation exceeding half a million dollars a year.

The loophole lies in the world of “anatomical gifts” — the industry’s clinical term for donated skin, bone, ligaments, eyes, and other tissue. Federal law prohibits the outright sale of human tissue for transplantation, but permits organizations to charge for its recovery, processing, storage, transportation, and distribution. In other words, the tissue itself cannot legally carry a price tag, but nearly everything done to it after donation can. The result is a peculiar system in which the donor receives nothing, yet donated tissue can generate substantial revenue as it moves through nonprofit and commercial organizations.

“My son’s eyes were sold to an international hospital in Argentina and his skin and ligaments to a biologics research company,” Andrea notes. “This has become a multibillion-dollar industry.”

Legally, the industry distinguishes between selling human tissue and charging for the services required to recover, process, and distribute it. For a grieving mother who never authorized the donation in the first place, that distinction may understandably seem rather academic.

RELATED: RFK Jr. decertifies Kentucky organ harvesting outfit accused of ignoring signs of life in ‘donors’

L-R: BSIP/Universal Images Group/Getty Images; SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images

‘Questionable consent’

Nor are concerns about the procurement system confined to Andrea’s case.

Last year, the Department of Health and Human Services examined 351 cases in which organ donation had been authorized but ultimately not completed. Federal investigators found concerning features in 103 of them, including what HHS described as “questionable consent practices.” Seventy-three patients showed neurological signs inconsistent with organ donation, and federal investigators concluded that at least 28 patients might not have been dead when the procurement process began. HHS ordered corrective measures and broader changes intended to strengthen safeguards throughout the system.

The concerns have persisted. In March, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services issued new guidance explicitly requiring that families be given appropriate time to make informed donation decisions without coercion. CMS said the action followed reports of OPOs rushing parts of the process and pressuring grieving families.

Andrea’s own search for answers eventually took her all the way to the Ohio Supreme Court. The public records litigation concerned records surrounding Damon’s death and the handling of his personal property, including $1,500 in cash and an iPhone reportedly given to a man identifying himself as Damon’s father — not the legality of his father’s authorization of the donation. Andrea ultimately won a partial victory and $2,000 in statutory damages over improperly withheld or redacted records.

She says she also had to go through probate proceedings simply to obtain access to some of her son’s files. Two years and thousands of dollars later, Andrea says she is still trying to reconstruct exactly what happened to her son and why.

The traumatized and understandably furious mother says she has repeatedly called and emailed Rep. Max Miller (R-Ohio), a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, but has received no substantive response in 18 months.

‘Damon’s Law’

But all is not lost. Andrea is now campaigning for a package of reforms she calls “Damon’s Law,” aimed at strengthening informed consent and family protections in the organ- and tissue-donation system. As I write, more than 16,000 citizens have signed a Change.org petition calling on Congress to enact those reforms. That pressure must grow until lawmakers have no option but to act.

Andrea’s proposed reforms demand basic transparency and accountability across the board. She wants states to require DMVs to tell drivers more clearly what organ and tissue donation actually entails, rather than allowing a one-time registration to remain in force indefinitely without requiring the donor to reaffirm it.

That’s not a hypothetical concern. Under Ohio law, once someone registers as a donor through a driver’s license, identification card, or vehicle registration, the authorization remains effective until affirmatively withdrawn. The donor doesn’t have to reaffirm the decision at renewal, and even expiration or cancellation of the license itself doesn’t invalidate the gift.

And even withdrawing that gift may not mean what an ordinary person assumes it means. Ohio law expressly distinguishes between revoking an anatomical gift and refusing to make one. A donor’s revocation “is not a refusal” and therefore does not necessarily prevent an authorized relative from approving a donation after death. By contrast, a formal, unrevoked refusal generally bars other people from making the gift.

The distinction may make sense to a lawyer; whether the average Ohioan understands it when checking — or unchecking — a box at the DMV is another question entirely.

Andrea also wants lawmakers to establish clearer rules for family authorization, so that an estranged biological parent cannot make such an irreversible decision without the parent who actually raised the deceased even being given a meaningful chance to object. Andrea Mauk wants a system she believes failed her family to be reformed.

Any decent, sane American should want families to know what they are consenting to — and to have a meaningful say before the decision becomes irreversible. Without serious legislative fixes, the system that failed Andrea and Damon will remain perfectly capable of doing the same thing to another family.

​Organ donation, Organ donor, Organ procurement organization, Parental authority, Body parts, Lifestyle, Health, Parental rights, Medicine, Make america healthy again 

Glenn Beck believes that President Trump has the power to reset the world order — but his success all depends on one critical thing.

“What do you think that that success hinges on? Like, what’s the if?” BlazeTV host Liz Wheeler asked him on “The Liz Wheeler Show.”

“God,” he replied tearfully.

Change can only happen, Glenn says, if people adopt the humble heart posture of “Your will, not mine.”

To illustrate his point, he shares a heartfelt story from his son’s childhood.

“My son was … probably 8 or 9, and he was afraid to do something, and I brought him into my office,” Glenn recounts, describing how the walls were filled with pictures of his personal heroes.

“I said, ‘Son, I know you’re afraid to do something, but why do I have all of these pictures of these people on my walls?’ And he said, ‘Because they were all heroes, and they did the hard things, and they weren’t afraid,”’ he continues.

Glenn then gently corrected his son: “I’ve read the diaries of these people. I’ve studied these people. … All of them were afraid. … They were risking everything they loved — every single one of them. But they did it anyway because there’s something bigger than them.”

That bigger something was “truth.”

“If we can humble ourselves enough to get to the point to where it’s more important for me to fight this now, to fight for the truth, so my children don’t have to do it, and I’ll take on the consequences … we save the world — not just the nation. We save the world,” says Glenn.

But this selfless mission requires something: “a deep abiding faith in God.”

And the world is depending on America to have that faith so that it can stand for truth.

“After talking to all of these leaders over in Europe, it’s clear to me, and they said it to me, ‘America is the only hope. Without America, we are all lost,’” Glenn tells Liz, reflecting on his recent trip to the U.K. where he attended a Tommy Robinson rally.

“We’re the only hope. Will we remember that? Be grateful for what we do have, and stand to protect it so our children have a chance at a more peaceful world tomorrow,” he says.

To hear more of Glenn’s powerful take, watch the video above.

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​America, Donald trump, Glenn beck, God, Liz wheeler, Truth, Blazetv show 

President Donald Trump told an enthusiastic group of supporters that he would declare another U.S. territory in the Middle East after the military operation in Iran is completed.

The fate of the Strait of Hormuz is still in limbo, 167 days after the U.S. and Israel began a joint military operation to strike at Iran’s nuclear capabilities and leadership.

‘We have the blockade. No ships get through unless we want them to …’

Trump appeared confident at a rally as he touted the many victories of his administration before making the astonishing promise to seize control of the Strait of Hormuz.

“We’re bringing the prices way down; look at what’s happening! Coming way down,” said the president. “And after we finish defeating Iran, which is being very badly defeated, pretty soon I’ll be declaring the Hormuz Strait a territory of the United States.”

The president laughed and got thunderous applause from those in attendance at the Nassau County Police Academy Center for Training and Intelligence in Garden City.

“Essentially that’s what — we have the blockade. No ships get through unless we want them to,” he added. “And how about Venezuela? Venezuela was a one-day war, and now we work great with them.”

Video of the president’s comments was posted to social media.

CBS News notes that the strait is traditionally treated as a open waterway despite it being split between Iran and Oman at its narrowest point.

RELATED: That time Marco Rubio warned the Iranian regime against ‘suicidal’ closing of the Strait of Hormuz

Control of the strait has become a contentious issue between Iran and the president, as they both seek a peace deal to end the military operation.

The president has insisted that any nuclear capabilities be ruled out for Iran, while the Islamic regime has demanded that the country be allowed to charge a toll on the many tankers and other ships that cross through the key trade route.

If the Trump administration agrees to such a toll, it could mean tens or hundreds of billions of dollars going to the Iranian regime.

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​Iran, Islamic regime, Middle east, President donald trump, Strait of hormuz, War, Politics 

The mayor of a Massachusetts city was arrested on Friday morning after prosecutors say he illegally funneled federal money into his political campaign as well as toward his personal tax debt.

Lawrence Mayor Brian DePeña, a 61-year-old Democrat, allegedly received more than $1 million worth of pandemic relief cash under the assumption that it would be used to prop up his small business.

‘I know I’m bothering you a lot, but I have no other option. Only you can give me what I need,’ he allegedly texted.

Instead, DePeña allegedly used that cash to pay off his IRS and campaign debts and to make high-interest payments on other properties he owned, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Massachusetts.

“This was emergency financial assistance meant to be a safety net for struggling businesses, not Mr. Depena’s [sic] own personal ATM,” said FBI Special Agent Ted Docks.

The mayor applied for the low-interest loans for a car and tire shop he owned named Tenares Tire Services Inc. After receiving more than $1.5 million, he allegedly misused $883,000 of it to pay off high-interest loans related to properties separate from the tire shop.

The press release included several text messages allegedly made by the mayor seeking help from his accountant and financial adviser to obtain the loans.

“Brother, call me, I’m in trouble. I don’t want to pressure you, but I don’t have time to wait for this loan. I’m in your hands,” DePeña allegedly wrote, translated from Spanish.

“I know I’m bothering you a lot, but I have no other option. Only you can give me what I need,” he allegedly wrote in another text.

The mayor was arrested on charges of wire fraud and money laundering, the press release said.

“Mayor DePeña was elected to be a leader for the City of Lawrence. He was looked up to and trusted by his constituents, but he betrayed that trust through his alleged corruption and lies,” read a statement from United States Attorney Leah Foley. “Today’s arrest is just another example of our determination to root out fraud by anyone, even public officials and holding elected officials accountable.”

RELATED: Pro-reparations Illinois Democrat indicted in FRAUD SCAM along with her daughter and husband

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

DePeña was first elected as mayor in 2021 and was re-elected to a second term in 2025. Prior to that he had been a member of the Lawrence City Council from 2016 until 2021.

The Benefit and Voter Fraud Team was established in Massachusetts as part of the efforts to support “the administration’s war on fraud and … the work of the vice president’s Anti-Fraud Task Force and the Department of Justice’s National Fraud Enforcement Division,” according to an announcement from Foley’s office in March.

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​Fraud, Task force to eliminate fraud, Massachusetts, Covid fraud, Crime, Politics 

Rep. Cory Mills (R-Fla.) is in the primary fight of his life after a string of scandals have damaged his public profile.

With Primary Election Day just days away, Mills has already lost the support of one of the most popular Republicans in his state: Gov. Ron DeSantis.

‘Earning only 28% support as an incumbent should already be extremely concerning to Mills.’

On Friday, DeSantis was speaking at a press conference at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University when he was asked about the 7th Congressional District, which Mills currently represents. DeSantis made his thoughts about Mills abundantly clear:

“I have not endorsed Cory Mills, and I do not support Cory Mills,” DeSantis replied.

Mills’ office did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.

RELATED: Rep. Cory Mills under investigation AGAIN — this time from the DOJ

Recent polling shows that many of Mills’ constituents seem to agree with DeSantis. A Victory Insights poll released last Friday reveals that Mills holds about a 6% lead over challenger Ryan Elijah, 28.3% to 22%, and the poll even classified the race as “Lean – Ryan Elijah.”

“Mills is in trouble, not just with the law, but also with the voters of District 7,” the Victory Insights polling analysis read. “Earning only 28% support as an incumbent should already be extremely concerning to Mills.”

The analysis pointed to Mills’ recent legal troubles, the unified support behind Elijah, endorsements for Elijah from other members of the Florida Republican congressional delegation, and the undecideds souring on Mills as other reasons for Mills to panic.

Still, Mills has at least one strong Republican ally in his corner: President Donald Trump. Back in February, Trump endorsed Mills’ re-election bid, calling Mills “an America First Patriot and Tremendous Champion for the Great People of Florida’s 7th Congressional District!”

As Blaze News has reported at length, Mills has been accused of stolen valor, converting to Islam, and even of threatening to release revenge porn of ex-girlfriend Lindsey Langston, a former Miss United States.

A few weeks ago, news broke that the Department of Justice had opened an investigation into Mills, though the nature and scope of the investigation is unclear. Some reports indicate that it relates to Mills’ finances.

The primary election in Florida is Tuesday, and early voting has been underway for days.

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​Cory mills, Ron desantis, Donald trump, Florida, Politics 

After the birth of her second child, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has made the decision to leave the White House — however she will remain one of his top outside advisers.

“It’s not that surprising when she just had another baby,” BlazeTV host Pat Gray says on “Pat Gray Unleashed.”

“All of those mothering instincts start kicking in and then they’re not doing their job all of a sudden. And that’s exactly what happened,” he adds.

And she will be missed, particularly by President Trump.

In a post on Truth Social, he wrote: “Our wonderful White House Press Secretary, and one of my most trusted aides, Karoline Leavitt, will be departing her role at the end of the month so she can spend more time with her beautiful young children and family, a decision I totally understand and respect!”

“Karoline will now be one of my top outside advisors, and an influential voice within the Republican Party, as we work to defy History, and conclusively win the Midterm Elections. Karoline has been a real leader in the White House, and has done a phenomenal job fighting for Justice, Liberty, and Freedom, since 2018, including our Historic Re-Election Campaign of 2024. Karoline has been one of the best White House Press Secretaries in the History of the Office,” he added.

“Not that many people can stand up to the press like Karoline Leavitt. So good at it. Really good. Young, smart, looked good in her position. And now she’s gone,” Gray says.

However, Kris Cruz points out that the truth might be a little messier.

“The word on the street is there was an argument on Marine One a couple nights ago where her and Trump got in a heated argument,” Cruz explains.

“In a leaked video from last night, she looks visibility isolated during a tense Marine One exchange with Trump and another woman. Hours later, she’s out,” Cruz reads from a post on X, which shows the video.

“She does not look happy,” executive producer Keith Malinak comments.

“Well, she’s missing her babies,” Jeff Fisher adds.

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​Donald trump, Karoline leavitt, Marine one, Maternity leave, Pat gray, Truth social, Blazetv show 

U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro has announced criminal charges against a woman who allegedly vandalized the World War II monument in D.C. and posted video of herself apparently in the act.

Pirro noted her personal interest in the charges against Melissa Farris in a statement released Friday about the vandalism.

‘Our beautiful World War II Memorial was just hit. … Where do these animals come from???’

“Vandalizing our World War II Memorial is a despicable attack on a sacred monument honoring the Americans who fought and died for our freedom. Those Americans include my father and grandfather,” said Pirro in a post on social media.

Farris allegedly spray-painted messages on the memorial in pink paint and also allegedly put a sudsing agent into the waters of the fountains. “I’m here. I done did it,” she appears to brag on video.

“Clean hands Dirty $” was the message scrawled in spray-paint, WJLA reported.

Pirro went on to say that Farris was charged in a federal district court with depredation against the property of the United States as well as destruction of veterans’ memorials.

President Donald Trump noted the vandalism in a post on Truth Social.

“Our beautiful World War II Memorial was just hit by Spray Painting Vandals,” he wrote Friday morning. “THERE CAN BE NO GREATER INSULT TO THOSE AMERICAN HEROES WHO DIED IN WORLD WAR II. First the Reflecting Pool, now this. We are on their trail! Where do these animals come from???”

The president linked the war memorial vandalism to the damage allegedly done to the new lining that was sprayed into the reflecting pool at the Lincoln Memorial. Pirro dropped charges against a man accused of damaging the lining, claiming that contractor errors were to blame for the damage.

RELATED: Swastika and racial slur found on fence at elementary school in SoCal town

Trump was reportedly furious at Pirro, who blamed the debacle on Interior Sec. Doug Burgum.

Farris could face up to 10 years in prison if convicted, according to Pirro.

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​Crime, Donald trump, Jeanine pirro, Social media, Vandalism, World war ii, Politics 

The 911 operators of New Orleans are not happy about what they are calling irresponsible journalism.

The conflict stems from a report that accused the emergency service providers in the city of using artificial intelligence — instead of humans — to respond to emergency calls.

‘No, New Orleans 911 is NOT replacing humans with AI.’

The article in question was originally titled “New Orleans will use AI to answer 911 calls instead of a human,” from the Shreveport Times.

The outlet said the Orleans Parish Communication District, which handles emergency and public safety calls for the city, was testing out a new tool to reduce the intake volume for dispatchers.

Citing “over a thousand emergency calls a day,” the paper stated that while the AI was originally implemented in April for non-emergencies, the AI is now answering 911 emergency calls for Louisiana’s largest city.

In response, the OPCD called the report “extremely misleading & inaccurate, and “containing numerous errors of fact.”

A press release from the organization titled “No, New Orleans 911 is NOT replacing humans with AI,” refuted the claim that officials are exchanging staff members for artificial intelligence and offered an explanation for how their “AI call-triage” tool works.

That’s where the automated responses come in.

OPCD said that when all operators are busy and a 911 call comes in from within 200 meters of an already-reported incident, the AI tells the callers they have reached New Orleans 911 and asks if they are calling about the same case.

RELATED: Surveillance pricing is here — and this surprising state is saying NO

Don Juan Moore/Getty Images

“If the caller responds with anything other than ‘YES’ (in any language), they are returned to the 911 call queue to speak with a human,” the organization wrote.

If the caller does say “Yes,” the AI tells the caller that the incident is already known and that if the caller is involved or has further information to stay on the line. The call is still logged and the normal audio and data still recorded, the OPCD stated.

Although OPCD described the story as “irresponsible,” the Louisiana paper’s description of the program was seemingly not as egregious as one would imagine. The Times described the triage as a system that assesses incoming calls to provide immediate feedback to callers.

“This is intended to handle the increase of calls that are related to one incident,” the Times said.

RELATED: Infamous cyberattackers claim their next shocking victim — using a decades-old trick

Jung Yeon-je/AFP/Getty Images

In fact, the outlet outright stated that the AI “will not be used to handle emergency calls, only to direct such calls to a human dispatcher.”

One discrepancy was that the program had started in just April, but OPCD said it has been in use since the fall of 2023.

Nonetheless, OPCD said the Shreveport Times failed to properly fact check its “incredibly inflammatory story,” while labeling such acts “irresponsible” and “unprofessional.”

Following the OCPD’s complaints, the Shreveport Times has updated its article and title. The article now reads, “New Orleans hoping limited AI use could speed response for emergencies,” with the following note:

The original version of this story did not meet our editorial standards. We are conducting a thorough review and implementing immediate measures to strengthen our process. We regret the error and any distress it may have caused. This story will be updated as additional facts or information warrant.

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​Artificial intelligence, 911, 911 dispatch, New orleans, Louisiana, Tech 

The Democrats’ plot to seize control of the U.S. Senate may not get any help from the voters in Michigan if the latest polling results hold until Election Day.

Republican Mike Rogers has a narrow lead over Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed, but other results in the Fox News poll show some strength on the left that may show up at the ballot box.

‘El-Sayed being down by that 4-point margin is the weakest that any Democrat has polled at this point in a Senate race this entire century.’

Fifty-one percent of respondents back Rogers while only 47% say they are voting for El-Sayed, but that lead is within the poll’s margin of error.

However, Democrats are much more interested in voting in the election generally, to the tune of a 15-point advantage over Republicans.

El-Sayed was able to defeat establishment candidate Rep. Haley Stevens in the Democratic primary by 1% despite polling showing that she competed better against Rogers.

CNN election analyst Harry Enten found that El-Sayed’s support is historically low among Democrats vying for the U.S. Senate.

“El-Sayed is significantly weaker than these other Democrats who are running, and I will also note, I went back, and I tried to find every single poll I could find at this point in previous Michigan Senate campaigns in the 21st century,” he said. “I believe that El-Sayed being down by that 4-point margin is the weakest that any Democrat has polled at this point in a Senate race this entire century.”

Political science professor Robert Shapiro of Columbia University says Democrats should be encouraged by the poll despite the narrow Rogers lead.

“First, it’s an encouraging sign that he is not trailing badly in the polls given how he is readily painted as an extremist and vehemently anti-Israel,” Shapiro said to Newsweek.

RELATED: El-Sayed PURGED more than 100 YouTube videos expressing FRINGE beliefs — and they have resurfaced

“It is trite to say it but true that the election will be all about turnout,” he added. “Turnout of the MAGA base and anti-leftist Republicans versus a fired up Democratic voting base that is fed up and angry with how they see Trump and his Republican congressional lackeys have not only failed to perform effectively on the inflation and affordability front, but have made things worse overall with the misguided war against Iran.”

El-Sayed is the first Muslim to be nominated for a seat in the U.S. Senate.

Rogers sailed into the Republican nomination unopposed after previously serving as a congressional representative for Michigan and losing a U.S. Senate race in 2024.

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​Democrats, Us senate, Michigan, Abdul el-sayed, Muslim, Politics 

The biggest threat facing the West, says BlazeTV host Nick Freitas, is much bigger than wokeism.

“Wokeism is more of a smoke screen for something much more dangerous and much more comprehensive,” he says.

What is fueling progressivism and America’s growing wave of democratic socialism is an insidious ideology called “third worldism” — the framework that divides the world into Western “oppressors” and Global South “victims” with the explicit goal of decolonizing and dismantling the West.

Europe, Freitas explains, “planted the seeds” of third worldism decades ago, and today we’re watching the horrific fallout.

“I don’t say this hyperbolically: Europe may already be lost,” he says.

The United States, however, still has time — but not much. The signs that we are catapulting toward the same demise are more abundant than most realize, Freitas explains.

“What I think a lot of people don’t seem to understand is that when you actually look at the total number of democratic socialists that have been elected to local, state, or federal positions within the United States, it’s actually far larger than people think,” he says, noting that there are currently “about 250 elected officials.”

“Americans need to understand this, because they think it’s isolated to a couple of pockets of just crazy insane blue districts, and it’s not. It’s far more pervasive,” he adds.

But what’s perhaps more disturbing is the DSA’s stated goals on its website.

“When you look at the DSA website, when you look at what they’re actually advocating for, you actually see the same language that is used by third worldists,” says Freitas. “DSA’s own international committee explicitly organizes around global solidarity and anti-imperialism — not domestic wokeism.”

But what does that actually mean?

It means, Freitas reads from the DSA website, “the full decolonization of all occupied lands of the United States, self-determination and full sovereignty for Hawaii; Puerto Rico; [American Samoa]; [Guam]; Northern Mariana Islands; Virgin Islands; and to all indigenous nations whose ancestral lands are within current U.S. borders; as well as to the independence to [sic] all overseas territories and dependencies controlled, occupied, or otherwise exploited by the USA.”

In other words, they “don’t want the United States to exist,” says Freitas, explaining that the DSA’s objective is “not really to get everything back the way it was” but to “to destroy and undermine the West.”

But the terrifying part is that the DSA is downplaying its radicalism in order to gain popularity and power.

“When Mamdani went on to Jon Stewart’s show and said that socialism is basically just Social Security and public libraries … but then you look at the language that he uses or the organizations he associates with, and it becomes very clear,” says Freitas. “They want the dismantling of the United States.”

To hear more, watch the episode above.

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

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

​Nick freitas, Democratic socialism, Zohran mamdani, Third worldism, Blazetv show 

Faced in recent years with accusations of racism, Greater Manchester Police — like other law enforcement institutions in the United Kingdom — embraced DEI in the extreme, not only prioritizing race and ethnicity as factors in its hiring decisions but setting racial quotas.

The force, whose chief constable denies the existence of two-tier policing and anti-white animus on the force, was met this week with yet another reminder that diversity is not their strength.

‘The victim is our priority.’

Mohammad Hassan, a 23-year-old student officer in training at GMP described as “of Asian-Pakistani ethnicity,” was arrested in West Yorkshire over the weekend and charged on Monday with rape and other crimes.

According to the GMP, officers received a call at 10:18 p.m. on Saturday “where a woman could be heard to be in distress in a vehicle in the Manchester area.” Police tracked down the vehicle — but when they approached, the driver fled.

The suspected driver was later identified as Hassan, who was “off-duty” at the time and driving “his personal vehicle,” GMP said. He was arrested “on suspicion of kidnap, rape, and dangerous driving.”

Ewan Cooper, a senior crown prosecutor, alleged during a hearing on Tuesday at the Stockport Magistrates’ Court that on the night of the rape, Hassan drove at speeds of up to 120 mph.

After a high-speed chase down the M62 highway, police finally stopped and arrested Hassan.

RELATED: ‘Beyond evil’: Nightmarish report reveals full scale of mass Islamic rapes of ‘250,000’ white British girls

ANDREW YATES/AFP/Getty Images

Hassan has been formally accused of oral rape, kidnap, strangulation, sexual assault, theft of mobile phone, and dangerous driving.

Assistant Chief Constable Mark Dexter said in a statement, “The victim is our priority, and we are ensuring she continues to receive specialist support. Criminal proceedings must now take its course without interference.”

“I understand, and share, the feeling among the public and our thousands of hard-working, decent staff who will have seen this news,” continued Dexter. “Proceedings are underway and necessary action will be decisively taken within the regulations.

Dexter added that the GMP’s Professional Standards Directorate conducted a review and found that Hassan’s “vetting was completed without any reason for concern.”

The Pakistani trainee, who did not enter a plea this week, has been suspended and has been referred to the Independent Office for Police Conduct for an investigation. He is due in Manchester Crown Court for a hearing on Sept. 15.

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​Greater manchester police, Police, England, Rape charges, Pakistan, Politics 

A coach in the Little League World Series delivered a speech on the mound on Wednesday that is being labeled the greatest of all time.

During a West Region tournament game between Arizona and Hawaii, Arizona had a 2-1 lead in the top of the fourth inning. That’s when Coach Drew Breivogel visited his pitcher on the mound.

‘This is a baseball game, right?’

Little League teams from across the globe compete every year to become world champions, and the pressure can be overwhelming for many of the young players, who are all ages 10 to 13 years old.

Pitcher Camden Burke of Chandler National Little League in Arizona seemed to be feeling the heat when Breivogel came to speak to him. What happened next was unexpected.

“I’m so proud of you. I’ve known you since you were 8,” Breivogel said, as ESPN microphones picked up his comments. “Not a lot of people get to see the fruit of the labor that you put in, right?”

The coach went on, “Remember Zacchaeus in the Bible? Someone planted that tree 30, 40 years prior so he could climb up into it. Salvation — we’re talking salvation. This is a baseball game, right?”

In an effort to help the young player relax, the coach seemed to be letting Burke know there are more important things in life than the outcome of the game.

“If you walk the next five guys, Jesus is still Lord,” Breivogel continued.

“If you strike out the next five guys, guess what: Jesus is still Lord. Okay? I love you. Have some fun,” he concluded.

A post that showed the exchanged labeled the coach’s speech “the greatest [Little League] mound visit of all time,” and had already been viewed more than 10 million times at the time of this writing.

RELATED: Texas pastor issues two challenges for men today: ‘Putting it into action bears fruit’

Although Burke had the lead, he was already 82 pitches into his night, a lot for even a major league hurler. This no doubt had an effect as Kawaihau Community Little League of Hawaii scored four runs in the inning.

Neither team scored in the remaining innings, and Hawaii took home the victory, 5-2, eliminating Arizona from the tournament.

The speech was not without controversy, however. Several responses criticized the coach for not talking strategy or offering the boy pitching advice.

“How about a scouting report?” Tim Earle replied, suggesting the coach should have given “some advice about mechanics.”

RELATED: ‘She didn’t wait until it was easy’: Victim of brutal injury from male athlete praises Sophie Cunningham

Dylan Buell/Getty Images

Another widely viewed remark accused the coach of “using TV to make himself look good [.] He knew he was Mic’d up, that was his BIG moment.”

Although the coach received a lot of support, detractors of his speech were split between those who found it to be inappropriate for the situation and those who preferred the coach to dish out strategy during his time at the mound.

Neither the coach nor the player has addressed the memorable moment.

Hawaii will play Southern California in the West Region championship Friday at 9 p.m. ET. The winner will advance to the elimination tournament.

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​Baseball, Christianity, Faith, Arizona, Hawaii, Sports 

BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey went head-to-head with progressive political commentator Monte Mader in a wide-ranging Jubilee debate over abortion, feminism, same-sex marriage, and the role of Christianity in American public life.

Mader approached the debate as a critic of the conservative Christian worldview she once embraced, while Stuckey defended her positions from a biblical Christian perspective.

‘Christians … have the right and the responsibility to bring the fullness of our worldview into the public square, into the voting booth.’

The hour-long “Face Off” centered on four claims: whether Christians must oppose abortion, whether patriarchy or feminism is at odds with Christ’s teachings, whether Christians can affirm same-sex marriage, and whether America can rightly be considered a Christian nation.

Across all four subjects, the debate repeatedly returned to a larger disagreement: What authority should Scripture have over Christian moral beliefs, and how much influence should those beliefs have in American public life?

Abortion and personhood

The debate opened with Stuckey’s claim that “Christians must oppose abortion.”

Mader challenged that position by pointing to disagreements over abortion throughout Christian history and arguing that bodily autonomy should allow a woman to decide whether to continue a pregnancy.

Stuckey rejected the idea that historical disagreement determines whether abortion is morally permissible.

“I’m really not interested in all of the people throughout church history who were wrong about a number of things,” Stuckey said.

“My argument is that killing an innocent person is always wrong.”

For Stuckey, the critical issue is personhood. She argued that drawing the line anywhere after conception creates an arbitrary standard for determining which human beings have rights.

“I think the morally safest, and of course the biblically safest too, position is to say, ‘You know what? All human beings no matter how small, no matter how young, no matter their location, are people that have rights,'” Stuckey said.

Mader countered by repeatedly returning to bodily autonomy, arguing that the life developing in the womb does not supersede the rights of the woman carrying it.

RELATED: Paxton intervenes to help save surrogate baby from abortion

Courtesy Jubilee

Feminism, patriarchy, and the role of women

The second section centered on Mader’s contention that “patriarchy, not feminism, is at odds with Christ’s ministry and teaching.”

The two agreed that Jesus elevated the dignity of women and that Christianity should not be used to excuse abuse. Their disagreement centered on whether biblical distinctions between men and women inherently create inequality.

Stuckey described herself as a traditional complementarian and affirmed the teaching in Ephesians that husbands and wives have distinct roles. Mader argued that complementarianism can create unequal power structures, particularly when churches reserve spiritual authority for men.

The disagreement eventually returned to abortion and why Stuckey believes many Christians reject modern feminism.

“We disagree on abortion being a civil right, and that is exactly why you see the demonization of feminism because your equality boils down to the right to kill your child inside the womb,” Stuckey told Mader.

Can Christians affirm same-sex marriage?

The third portion produced perhaps the debate’s clearest theological divide.

Stuckey argued that Christians cannot affirm same-sex marriage as morally good while remaining consistent with Scripture. She also distinguished that claim from questions about how government should regulate marriage.

“My claim is not even about the legislation of same-sex marriage,” Stuckey said. She argued instead that it is not “biblically viable” for a Christian to support the idea that same-sex marriage is “moral and good and right and holy.”

Mader challenged Stuckey’s interpretation of Scripture, pointing to different forms of marriage found in the Old Testament and noting that Jesus’ comments about a man and woman becoming one flesh came in response to a question about divorce.

Stuckey later clarified that she was not claiming Christians who affirm same-sex marriage cannot be saved.

“You can’t be a Christian and affirm same-sex marriage and be correct,” she said, adding that all Christians will ultimately discover they held incorrect beliefs about some theological questions.

Stuckey cited Genesis, Jesus’ teachings, Romans 1, 1 Corinthians 6, and Ephesians 5 in defending marriage between a man and a woman as the consistent biblical model.

Should Christian beliefs influence American law?

The final section moved directly into the relationship between Christianity and America.

Mader argued that America is “not and will never be a Christian nation,” defining Christian nationalism as the belief that the country is fundamentally Christian and that government should promote Christian identity and values through civil life and legislation.

Stuckey agreed that America has no established national religion and affirmed the principle of separation of church and state. She rejected, however, the idea that Christians should be expected to separate their worldview from their politics.

“It’s impossible to create a law outside of a moral worldview,” Stuckey said.

She argued that every voter brings moral assumptions into political decisions and that Christian beliefs should not be uniquely excluded from the public square.

“Christians also have the right and the responsibility to bring the fullness of our worldview into the public square, into the voting booth,” Stuckey said.

Mader countered that religious freedom also requires protecting Americans from having another person’s religious convictions imposed upon them through government.

The discussion eventually returned to abortion and gender, with Mader arguing that progressive positions can be grounded in science and data rather than religious doctrine. Stuckey disputed the idea that progressive politics involve a neutral, worldview-free position.

“Either everyone can bring the fullness of their worldview into legislation and we duke it out and see what wins, or no one can,” Stuckey said.

RELATED: Texas pastor issues two challenges for men today: ‘Putting it into action bears fruit’

Courtesy Jubliee

A deeper disagreement over biblical authority

The biggest divide of the debate was not any single political issue. It was the authority each side believes Scripture should have over those issues.

Mader challenged conservative Christian interpretations of the Bible from outside the faith tradition she once embraced, often appealing to historical context, bodily autonomy, civil liberties, and modern understandings of science and sexuality.

Stuckey repeatedly returned to Scripture as authoritative for Christians, even when its teachings conflict with prevailing cultural beliefs.

That disagreement carried directly into politics. Mader argued that separation of church and state should prevent religious convictions from being imposed through law. Stuckey countered that no political movement legislates from a worldview-free position and that Christians have the same right as anyone else to bring their convictions into the public square.

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​Abortion, Allie beth stuckey, Christianity, Christian nationalism, Faith, Politics 

Former Vice President Kamala Harris, the 2028 presidential front-runner, recently criticized the SAVE America Act because it would require people to prove their citizenship when registering to vote.

Well, yes.

Sometimes the strongest argument for legislation comes from the people trying to defeat it.

Requiring someone to establish that he is a U.S. citizen before being added to the voter rolls is not some hidden provision critics just uncovered. It is the point of the bill.

The SAVE America Act would require documentary proof of U.S. citizenship before registration for federal elections. Harris meant that as an indictment. Supporters see it as the safeguard at the heart of the legislation.

Recent events are making the distinction harder to dismiss.

Last month, the Department of Homeland Security warned election officials in California, New Jersey, Nevada, and Pennsylvania that tens of thousands of noncitizens appeared on state voter rolls.

Less than a week later, New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill (D) acknowledged that roughly 6,600 noncitizens had been registered because of what she called a “software glitch.”

Calling it a software glitch may explain how it happened. It does not answer the more important question: Why did the system allow it to happen at all?

New Jersey does not prove that every state has the same problem, and an erroneous registration is not the same thing as an illegal vote. But it does demonstrate the basic case for prevention rather than cleanup.

How long did the vulnerability exist? Why was it not caught sooner? And why should states wait until ineligible registrations occur before verifying eligibility?

The New Jersey episode becomes even more revealing because lawmakers had already spotted the weakness.

In May, state Sens. Jim Beach (D) and Kristin Corrado (R) introduced bipartisan legislation intended to prevent New Jersey’s Motor Vehicle Commission from prompting people to register to vote after they had already indicated they were not U.S. citizens.

Think about that for a second.

The software glitch did not invent the vulnerability. It exposed a problem legislators were already trying to fix. That is precisely why supporters of the SAVE America Act want safeguards at the front end of registration, before election officials are left explaining how ineligible names reached the rolls.

As Texas Public Policy Foundation Chief National Initiatives Officer Chuck DeVore wrote in “How to Ensure That Only Citizens Vote,” “When non-citizens vote for any reason, citizens’ votes are diluted and thus disenfranchised.”

RELATED: The SAVE America Act cannot save this electorate

Bill Pugliano/Getty Images

The argument is not that eligible Americans should face needless obstacles. It is that citizenship should be established before someone is placed on a federal voter roll, protecting the weight of every lawful ballot.

That position is hardly outside the mainstream.

A recent Fox News poll found that 83% of registered voters favored requiring photo identification to register and 77% favored requiring it to cast a ballot.

Most Americans appear to regard verification as a reasonable expectation, not an extraordinary burden. Which makes the Democrats’ position even stranger.

Earlier this year, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Democrats support voter ID.

Then came the vote. Senate Democrats opposed Ohio Republican Sen. Jon Husted’s voter ID bill, which would have required voters to present valid identification before receiving a ballot in federal elections.

So what exactly do they support?

The debate has become almost comically inverted. Critics say proof of citizenship goes too far. Democrat leaders say they support voter ID. Then, when a voter ID requirement reaches the Senate floor, they vote against it.

Meanwhile, New Jersey has supplied a real-world example of what happens when verification comes too late.

Kamala Harris meant to make the case against the SAVE America Act. Instead, she described exactly why its supporters want it.

The contradiction now extends well beyond Harris: Democrats say they support verification while opposing the mechanisms designed to perform it.

Sometimes the strongest argument for legislation comes from the people trying to defeat it.

​Kamala harris, Opinion & analysis, Save america act, Voter registration, Department of homeland security, Citizenship, Democrats, Voter fraud 

Actor Hugh Laurie was quick to respond to recent accusations about his views on men playing in women’s sports.

While Laurie’s popular character on his hit show “House” was highly sarcastic, Laurie wasn’t joking around when it came to this controversial idea. However, his initial remarks only confused readers who were ready to jump to his defense.

‘You started it.’

Tit for tat

It all started when Laurie posted some statistics about the “broigus” in professional basketball.

“99.9% of the world are, effectively, ‘women,'” Laurie wrote. Adding that “an American man between 20 and 40 years of age and 7 feet tall or more, there’s a 17% chance you’re already in the NBA.”

There was no shortage of replies from X users that interpreted Laurie’s comment as meaning that he supports ungendered sports categories, an argument mirrored by scientist Neil deGrasse Tyson in recent years.

This included writer Graham Linehan, who wrote, according to Grok, “You don’t have to ACTUALLY be House to say this is unfair and wrong. Or maybe you do.”

Laurie was quick to vehemently put any assertions to bed.

“Firstly, f**k off,” the actor replied. “Secondly no, I don’t believe men should compete against women. I thought I’d made that pretty clear. If you’d looked.”

That wasn’t the end though.

RELATED: WNBA gives awful update after meeting to establish gender eligibility rules

Arch enemy

Linehan not only asked why Laurie was so hostile if he agreed, but he suggested that the actor, “Just say that you support Sophie Cunningham in her fight for fair sports and stop trying to be arch.”

Laurie made it clear, “Yes, I support Sophie Cunningham. And you, some of the time,” he told Linehan.

As for the unpleasantries, Laurie simply stated, “You started it.”

“‘Cowardly’ to ‘f**k off’ is the going rate of exchange around here,” Laurie explained, definitively.

As mentioned though, Linehan was not the only person to read into Laurie’s comments as being a sign he has the exact opposite beliefs he later espoused. To the 67-year-old’s credit, he took time to kindly respond to many accusations.

RELATED: WNBA team co-owner FINED and SUSPENDED for cursing out teen fans of Sophie Cunningham at Seattle game

Scott Humbert/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal/Getty Images

Vodka thoughts

“It was just an observation — not even mine — about that particular sport,” Laurie told one reader.

“It was an observation, that’s all. Carry on,” he said in response to another critique.

Laurie gave a more pointed response to a woman who said she had interacted with him over a review of his show in the past. The woman went on to point out more immutable characteristics that differentiate men and women.

It was when speaking to her that the actor said that his point was being made by “my vodka bottle,” and he was simply trying to assert that basketball has “a single characteristic — greater than any other sport I can think of.”

“I just find that amazing,” he added. “I also find it amazing that no one else finds it amazing.”

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​Hugh laurie, House, Transgenderism, Women’s sports, Entertainment 

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) may be navigating a new chapter in her personal life, but Alex Stein sees an opportunity.

After her reported split from her longtime fiancé, Stein is reviving his years-long public tangle with the congresswoman.

“Well, this is a great day for me,” Stein tells BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales on “Sara Gonzales Unfiltered.”

“Other than the fact that AOC likes to murder babies in the womb, and, you know, she wants to import a million illegal immigrants, she’s not half bad. I mean, if we’re just being intellectually honest, like, she’s decently good looking,” he continues.

“And you know what, Sara, as much as we make fun of her, and when it comes to politics, it’s not the smartest person that gets elected. It’s a popularity contest, and she’s incredibly popular,” he adds, pointing out that the democratic socialist also recently said that “Woke 1 was crazy” in reference to the “rhetoric” the left used in 2020.

And as AOC potentially gears up to run for president in 2028, Stein says that it’s not too “far of a pivot for her to start using some of those talking points and become moderate.”

“I really believe, other than a few cultural war issues like abortion and immigration, she’s going to be universally liked,” he says.

“I’m not here to kiss AOC’s butt, but just I think she froze those eggs because she does want to have babies, and she’s the only Latina that’s almost 40 years old that’s never been pregnant in American history,” he adds.

“You have a very long history, a long and sordid and complex history with AOC,” Gonzales says, before playing an old clip from Inside Edition.

“Congresswoman AOC is calling out the creepy guy who hassled her on the steps of the Capitol,” a reporter says, as video shows Stein smiling at the camera.

“You look very beautiful in that dress. You look very sexy. Look at that booty on AOC. That’s my favorite big booty Latina,” Stein said, still grinning.

“The firebrand liberal New York Democrat was heading to work with an aide and her fiancé and dog when she was heckled. She turned to confront the guy, then flashed him a sarcastic peace sign,” the reporter continued.

“I love it, my favorite AOC. Nice to meet you AOC, look how sexy she looks in that dress,” Stein said.

AOC quickly took to social media to call the interaction a “deeply disgusting incident.”

“If you look at Riley in that video,” Stein tells Gonzales, “he doesn’t do anything. He just keeps walking their little pooch, you know, the little dog. He doesn’t go and get in my face. So she realized that he’s not an alpha male.”

“And I would believe, and I just speculate this, that she wants an alpha male,” he adds.

Want more from Sara Gonzales?

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​Alex stein, Alexandria ocasio-cortez, Big booty latina, Democratic socialist, Sara gonzales, Woke, Fiance, Blazetv show 

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) endorsed Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan in Minnesota’s Democratic Senate primary in May, claiming that the anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement defender of child sex-rejection surgeries “fights from the heart and knows how to win.”

Warren appears to have gifted Flanagan with something even better than her endorsement: not being a real Indian.

‘Elizabeth Warren is doing a land acknowledgment on Flanagan’s head.’

The Massachusetts senator spent decades masquerading as an American Indian for apparent personal gain. Warren:

claimed “American Indian” status on her State Bar of Texas registration card while working at the University of Texas School of Law;compelled University of Pennsylvania Law School to list her ethnicity as “Native American” rather than “white”; was identified as an American Indian at Harvard Law School; and contributed recipes to the 1984 cookbook “Pow Wow Chow,” described as a compilation of “recipes passed down through the Five Tribes families.”

When first running for the U.S. Senate in 2012, Warren told reporters, “Being Native American has been part of my story, I guess, since the day I was born.”

The sham was exposed, however, thanks in part to President Donald Trump, who famously challenged Warren, whom he called “Pocahontas,” to get a DNA test to prove she is Native American. The results revealed that she is only 1/1,024th Native American, if at all.

RELATED: Here are North America’s top 5 fake Indians

David Paul Morris/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Warren’s identity crisis has presented Flanagan with an opportunity to characterize her potential win in November as historic.

Although she was raised by her white mother, Flanagan appears to have embraced the cause of her late father, Marvin Manypenny — an American Indian sovereignty activist who grew up on the White Earth Reservation in Minnesota.

While Flanagan has certainly played up her Indian heritage throughout her political career, she is leaning especially hard into it ahead of the midterms.

The Senate candidate — who in 2020 joined Warren at the Democratic National Convention’s Native American Caucus meeting — recently donned her bead earrings and told the transvestite Minnesota state representative formerly known as Christopher Finke (DFL) that she is a member of White Earth and her “family is the Wolf Clan.”

Flanagan’s campaign site similarly emphasizes her identity, stating, “Born into an Indigenous and Irish family, Peggy is Ojibwe and a member of the White Earth Nation. Her Anishinaabe name means ‘speaks in a loud and clear voice woman.'”

In a July 15 post, Flanagan wrote, “In almost 250 years, there’s never been a Native woman serving in the U.S. Senate. I’m thinking of my daughter — who just got her first jingle dress — and whether or not she will see Indigenous women in all parts of our government.”

After Flanagan won her party’s nomination on Tuesday, her campaign fundraising operation sent out a variation of this message, stating, “Friend, in almost 250 years, there’s never been a Native woman serving in the U.S. Senate. It’s time to change that,” reported the New York Post.

Flanagan’s quest to take Warren’s unofficial former title prompted some mockery online.

“Has anybody checked on Elizabeth Warren?” the Republican Party wrote on X.

Michigan College Republicans shared an AI illustration of Warren weeping in traditional Native American attire.

“Elizabeth Warren is doing a land acknowledgment on Flanagan’s head,” joked New York Post columnist Kirsten Fleming.

Warren’s office did not respond to Blaze News’ request for comment.

The Republican set to face off with Flanagan in the general election is Michele Tafoya, an award-winning sports journalist who wants tax cuts, the deportation of foreign fraudsters and illegal aliens, stronger elections, and men out of women’s sports.

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​Elizabeth warren, Peggy flanagan, Minnesota, Indian, Senate, Politics 

A Florida male threatened and began beating up a homeowner in a Fort Pierce mobile home park earlier this week, but police said the victim pulled a gun, fired once, and ended the threat.

The shooting occurred at 9 p.m. Wednesday at the Seminole Mobile Home Park, WPEC-TV reported.

The sheriff told WFLX-TV the victim ‘shot the suspect … point blank in the chest.’

St. Lucie County Sheriff Richard R. Del Toro told the station the two men knew each other and had been involved in a dispute that included verbal arguments and threatening text messages.

Investigators said the 37-year-old suspect — who has yet to be identified — made several threats before showing up at the home of the 22-year-old man, WPEC noted.

Deputies said the 37-year-old knocked on the front door and was let inside before a brawl broke out, the station said.

Investigators said the suspect pushed the 22-year-old homeowner and punched him several times in the stomach, WPEC reported.

“The victim disengaged … pulled out a handgun, shot one time, and the threat was over,” Del Toro told the station.

The sheriff told WFLX-TV the victim “shot the suspect … point blank in the chest.”

The suspect was taken to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead, WPEC reported.

“It’s not fair, because my son has no father now. He’s 5 years old, and what am I gonna tell him? We didn’t even get to say goodbye,” Naomi Pallarez, the girlfriend of the man who died, told WPEC.

Del Toro told WPEC the homeowner remained at the scene and cooperated with investigators; the homeowner’s girlfriend and sister also were inside the residence and provided corroborating statements.

Deputies recovered the handgun after executing a search warrant at the residence, WPEC said.

No charges have been filed against the homeowner, WPEC reported, adding that investigators are working with the State Attorney’s Office to determine if the shooting falls under Florida’s stand-your-ground self-defense law.

“Obviously, you have to be in defense of yourself, but at the same time, you have to be in fear for your life anytime you’re going to use deadly force,” Del Toro added to the station.

More from WPEC:

The sheriff said the suspect had a criminal history, including drug-related and resisting-officer charges, domestic violence-related charges, and three felony convictions. He stressed that the man’s criminal history was not a reason for him to be killed.

The suspect’s name has not been released because investigators have not yet notified his next of kin, WPEC said.

“I am very much heartbroken,” Pallarez told WPEC. “And now I’m a single mom.”

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​2nd amendment, Florida, Guns, Gun rights, Self-defense, Fatal shooting, Mobile home, Stand your ground law, Crime 

The summer before my freshman year of college, my 18-year-old brain was wholly devoted to two things: relishing the last delicious bits of time with high school friends and the equally important endeavor of curating the perfect dorm room aesthetic.

The “it” color that summer was mint green. My chosen vibe was (I giggle as I write this) “shabby chic” — because there’s nothing like a 168-square-foot cinder-block prison cell draped in lace and florals.

Hiring an interior designer to curate a perfectly polished, bespoke dorm room robs a girl of the trial-and-error experience of honing her unique brand of beauty.

Once my Pinterest mood board was created, I enlisted my poor mother, who — bless her — cheered and abetted all my fantastical pursuits, to help. I dragged her to various home goods retailers, craft stores, and antique malls until we had what we needed to realize my vision of weathered elegance

When move-in day arrived, we utterly transformed the sterile gray box into a twinkle-lit sanctuary. Floral craft paper taped over cinder blocks became “vintage wallpaper.” Ornate gold picture frames hung with Command hooks created a “gallery wall.” Gauzy fabric thumbtacked into drop ceiling tiles served as a “bed canopy.”

I know what you’re thinking: This is ridiculous.

Reader, I couldn’t agree more. It was ridiculous — but it was fun, wildly creative, and one of my most cherished memories to date.

Judge me if you must, but hold your scrutiny until I tell you what some students are doing with their dorm rooms today.

A growing trend that is delighting some and incensing most involves hiring professionals to create custom “home” designs for college students. In other words, dorm room interior design is now a legitimate professional service.

Inside the full-service dorm design experience

What does hiring a dorm room interior designer involve? As it turns out, quite a lot.

It begins with a consultation — sometimes, depending on the company you opt for, multiple consultations. This is where the details of the project are ironed out: room dimensions, timelines, budgets, and, most importantly, vibes. Identifying and capturing one’s stated personal style is, of course, at the heart of these operations.

Then comes procurement.

But most of these designers, certainly the high-end ones, aren’t plucking knickknacks off Target and TJ Maxx shelves. “Mainstream” and “mass-produced” tend not to be in the vocabularies of the Southern belles who make up the overwhelming majority of dorm room designers’ clientele.

It’s only natural that an elevated experience would involve elevated items — and that’s exactly what most of these designers purchase or commission on behalf of their clients. A combination of custom headboards, made-to-fit cabinets, accent walls, and high-end furniture pieces paired with custom drapes, original artwork, monogrammed textiles, and specialty lighting ensure that each girl (or exceedingly rare male) gets a luxurious and one-of-a-kind living space.

Shelly Gates, the founder of Mary Margaret Designs, a design firm specializing in college dorm rooms, works directly with a “carpenter, seamstress, and handyman” to pull off her elaborate custom work.

“It definitely takes a village to get those dorm rooms together,” she told House Beautiful.

And it’s no wonder. Here’s an example of a dorm room she decorated at the University of Alabama:

Designer Ginger Curtis put it more bluntly to the New York Times: “We’re moving away from Ikea and getting the opposite of fast furniture.” Ginger is the founder of Urbanology Designs, a high-end Dallas-based interior design firm that has expanded into decorating luxury college dorm rooms because the demand is there.

Is it really, though? Is there actually a viable market for dorm room interior design?

Oh, yes — but with one critical distinction.

The demand is real — and growing

For starters, shelling out cash for dorm rooms is trending upward. The National Retail Federation projects college students and their families will spend a record $103.5 billion on back-to-school supplies this year — up from $88.8 billion the year prior. $14 billion of that is expected to be spent on dorm room or apartment furnishings alone.

Is this increase in expected spending caused by higher prices? Without a doubt — but the fact that there are now several companies specializing in transforming standard dorm rooms into luxury suites suggests that rising expectations are also a factor.

Business does seem to be booming for these niche designers, too.

Mary Margaret Designs, Gates explained in the same House Beautiful interview, started as a summer side hustle when she was a teacher. But when the business “exploded,” she made it her full-time gig. According to the Independent, she “now has a wait list stretching two to three years.”

Eden Bowen Montgomery, founder of dorm room design firm Essentials with Eden (a hilariously ironic name), had built such an empire by 2024 that she had to hire a seasonal staff of 25 employees.

But it’s important to note that this particular design service is not trending across the nation. Its popularity is specifically concentrated in the South. Montgomery, Gates, Curtis, and Dawn Thomas (After Five Designs founder and pioneer of the high-end dorm room design trend) are all based in the South and primarily serve large Southern state schools, including Ole Miss, the University of Alabama, Louisiana State University, Mississippi State, and Southern Methodist University in Texas.

It’s not lost on me that all of these schools are famous for their intense Greek-life cultures. I’m not here to cast aspersions on sororities, but I think it’s fair to say that the modern ones are not known for cultivating the values of moderation or restraint. It fits that the exclusive clubs notorious for choreographed RushTok dances and five-figure designer rush outfits would also sustain a thriving dorm-room design industry.

RELATED: This new app for new moms is a game-changer

ArtistGNDphotography/Getty Images

Delivery, installation, and the big reveal

The entire elaborate design process wraps up with transportation and installation. A delivery truck packed full of custom furnishings and décor arrives on campus along with the designer and an install team, who ensure that the lucky girl(s) has a thrilling turnkey experience. Here’s an example of the final stages from Mary Margaret Designs:

But the cherry on top, of course, is the big reveal, where the girls are often filmed reacting to their renovated dorm rooms. This filming process is worth noting, I think, because it captures what almost certainly fuels the entire dorm room design industry and the sorority culture it primarily serves: Instagramability. For a tragic majority of today’s youth, an exciting experience is only that if other people are watching.

Here’s an example of the grand finale from Thomas’ After Five Designs:

The price tag

Now for the really fun part: the bill. What do these dramatic dorm room makeovers cost?

It’s a spectrum, but on the low end, roughly $5,000 per student. According to the New York Times, a full room makeover from Essentials with Eden will run parents “about $10,000 per room ($5,000 per student)”; Curtis’ Urbanology averages between “$7,000 to $8,000, though the costs can grow much higher.”

Mary Margaret Designs, says People magazine, “charges between $5,000 and $20,000 to make over collegiate living spaces.”

As the New York Times aptly put it, college living has acquired “the Gilded Versailles Touch.”

The part that actually bothers me

I’m not going to bore you with the obvious critique: that dorm room interior design that costs more than some home down payments is nauseatingly extravagant. Nor will I indulge in the predictable lament that such obnoxious luxury sets kids up for crushed expectations in a world where AI gobbles up industries like potato chips and home ownership is out of reach for the majority of young Americans.

Instead, I want to focus on a less evident but equally important problem. Wanting a fabulous dorm room isn’t the issue for me. I think the introduction of this article makes that quite clear. Rather, the problem is that hiring an interior designer to curate a perfectly polished, bespoke dorm room robs a girl of the trial-and-error experience of honing her unique brand of beauty.

You may think it’s not that deep, but I would argue aesthetics are actually key to a woman’s identity. Embodying and cultivating beauty in the world is central to the female experience. It’s not that men don’t care about or play a role in matters of beauty, but there’s a reason home décor shops, Sephoras, and craft stores are frequented primarily by women.

This lifelong search for our own brand of beauty starts when we are toddlers trying on our mother’s heels and lipstick. In middle school, it looks like rearranging our rooms and deciding between the leopard and the floral headband. In high school, it’s experimenting with different eyeliner styles. And in college, it’s obsessing over what our first home apart from our parents will look like. It’s a journey that never ends — and one that’s crucial for becoming a confident, original woman.

It’s not trivial to search for one’s personal aesthetic, but it is deeply hollow to outsource that creative process to someone else, especially in our formative years — trading messy uniqueness for vanilla perfection. A girl’s sense of style should be forged in hot pink fire, not in design rooms.

​College students, Dorm room interior, Female identity, Southern schools, Instagramability, Sorority, Greek life, College, Lifestyle, Culture 

Chinese nationals and U.S. citizens saying “I do” with their fingers crossed behind their backs, all to exploit the U.S. immigration system? The Department of Justice says it’s true.

On Wednesday, the DOJ announced it had busted one of the largest marriage fraud rings in U.S. history — over 1,000 sham marriages arranged to secure green cards for foreign nationals, primarily citizens of the People’s Republic of China, run like a business for a decade.

‘Anyone willing to lie, cheat, or steal their way to legal immigration status is a direct threat to America’s national security.’

The DOJ claims the scheme, which ran from at least 2016 through July 2026, was based in New York City with marriages arranged across the U.S. and as far away as China.

According to the DOJ, three roles kept it running: facilitators who found foreign clients, recruiters who found U.S. citizens, and assistants who filed the paperwork. Officiants, attorneys, tax preparers, and insurance agents were also in the fold — a full-service fraud economy.

Facilitators charged foreign nationals up to $100,000 apiece, paid U.S. citizens up to $30,000 in installments, and paid recruiters commissions of up to $5,000 per referral, the DOJ claimed. The DOJ estimates the alleged network collected tens of millions of dollars.

Couples would often meet for the first time immediately before getting a marriage license, then stage wedding ceremonies and photographs to make the unions look legitimate, the DOJ claimed.

Afterward, participants allegedly manufactured further evidence — staged photos, joint bank and utility accounts, joint tax filings, and insurance policies. They also submitted green card applications with false statements and were coached to mislead immigration officials during green card interviews, the DOJ claimed.

RELATED: Birth tourism is only the beginning

U.S. Department of Justice

Attorney General Todd Blanche said couples even signed prenuptial agreements waiving marital rights — no estate claims, no child support, nothing. One clause allegedly read: “Both parties live independently and must not interfere with each other.”

The defendants identified in the DOJ press release are: Amy Cheng, Xiao Mei Chan, Christine Lu, Jing Yan Ye, Xiao Yan Chen, Gang Zheng, Anthony Cheng, Michelle Duenas, Angela Duenas, Sigrid Cetino, and Erika Johnson. They range from 26 to 72 years old and represent nearly every New York City borough as well as Westchester County.

Each defendant was arrested Wednesday and faces up to 15 years combined — five for conspiracy to commit marriage and immigration fraud and 10 for conspiracy to encourage unlawful residence of aliens.

The bust also lands the week after President Trump signed a pair of executive orders targeting birth tourism — part of what officials describe as a broader push against people gaming the immigration system.

RELATED: Trump takes another BIG swing at birthright citizenship and birth tourism

U.S. Department of Justice

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Joseph Edlow said, “Anyone willing to lie, cheat, or steal their way to legal immigration status is a direct threat to America’s national security.”

U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Jamie McDonald said the government is now weighing whether to revoke the green cards it already granted through the scheme.

This isn’t the first Chinese-linked alleged sham-marriage bust the administration has touted this year. In February, 11 people were charged in Jacksonville, Florida, for allegedly paying Navy sailors up to $35,000 to marry Chinese nationals — and, in some cases, bribing base personnel for military ID cards.

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​Birth tourism, Department of justice, Foreign nationals, National security, New york city, Us citizens, Politics