An apparent fetishization of religious “diversity” had officials in an Iowa city permit a satanic invocation prior to conducting official business on Tuesday. While many at the meeting appeared willing to put up with the infernal appeal, one Christian man stood up and spoke out.

How it started

Ottumwa, a city in Southeast Iowa, adopted a policy on Jan. 20 allowing for invocations to be given at the start of official city council meetings.

‘That’s not welcome here.’

“This policy is intended to acknowledge and express the City Council’s respect for the diversity of both organized and unorganized religious denominations, as well as other faiths, belief systems, or the lack thereof, represented and practiced among the citizens of the City of Ottumwa,” the policy states.

Per the policy, invocational speakers are to be “selected without preference to any specific religion, belief, faith, or ideology, from amongst a diverse pool of Ottumwa citizens” and are asked not to proselytize, disparage other beliefs, and to keep their invocation under two minutes in length.

Summoning the devil

Matthew Dalbey, a former Ottumwa city council member, seized upon the opportunity not only to offer a prayer down to the devil but to violate the city’s policy by taking a general dig at the beliefs of others.

“Let us pray,” started Dalbey. “Dear dark father, let us stand now unbowed and unfettered by arcane doctrines born of fearful minds in darkened times. Let us embrace the Luciferian impulse to eat of the tree of knowledge and dissipate our blissful and comforting delusions of old.”

RELATED: Inside the mind of a Catholic exorcist: Fr. Chad Ripperger talks shop with Shawn Ryan

Dalbey is a member of the Iowa chapter of the Satanic Temple. While Dalbey told KTVO-TV that he and other members of the Satanic Temple don’t actually believe in Satan or worship him, the anti-Christian group and its members certainly behave as though they do.

After all, in recent years, the Satanic Temple has erected statues of Baphomet on government property around Christmastime; offered expectant mothers telehealth abortion services and promoted an “abortion ritual”; challenged pro-life legislation; distributed satanic literature to children; publicly performed “unbaptisms”; held a demonization ceremony in protest of the canonization of the Catholic Spanish priest Junípero Serra; and promoted euthanasia and pornography.

After imploring the devil to help the Iowans present to turn against ancient beliefs and deriding “arbitrary social norms,” Dalbey championed “agnosticism in all things” and called for opposition against any “arbitrary authority that threatens the personal sovereignty of one or all.”

The radical concluded his prayer with “hail Satan.”

Righteous indignation

New Life Center Pastor Rick Bick refused to let the satanic prayer go unchecked.

Bick — who made an invocation prior to a council meeting earlier this year and is set to do so again in December — declared, “Let’s just reverse that curse that was just put on our city.”

“That ending with, ‘hail Satan’ and ‘hail dark god’?” continued the pastor. “That’s not welcome here.”

‘I am a Christian man with Christian values so I chose not to participate.’

Bick reiterated that the satanic prayer was a curse on this city and noted, “Most of you know that, and we just need to stop and reverse it.”

Ottumwa Mayor Benjamin Foote attempted to defuse the situation by calling for a “moment of silence to reflect on whatever it is we need to reflect on at this time.”

Cara Galloway, the council member who cast the lone vote against the invocation policy in January and reportedly warned about the inevitability of a satanic prayer, noted at the end of the meeting on Tuesday that selectively objecting to invocations now may expose taxpayers to legal liability.

The City of Ottumwa issued a statement on Tuesday, noting, “It is very clear that many of you have watched at least the first two minutes of the October 6 City Council meeting.”

The city underscored that it “cannot discriminate against a denomination and everyone that is invited to perform the invocation has followed the correct protocol.”

Councilman Bill Hoffman told Blaze News, “We as elected officials are not aware of the content before hand. In my opinion, I do not believe this one invocation expresses the beliefs of most of Ottumwa.”

“Personally as a councilman, I only speak for myself, I did not stay in the room during the invocation as I do not agree with the content,” continued Hoffman. “I am a Christian man with Christian values so I chose not to participate, and I stepped into the hallway and did a personal prayer to God for strength and wisdom for myself and to watch over our city.”

Other members of the council and Mayor Foote did not immediately respond to Blaze News’ requests for comment.

The satanic invocation has prompted widespread outrage.

“WTF,” tweeted BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales.

Former NCAA swimmer Riley Gaines wrote, “Jesus, come back now.”

BlazeTV host Steve Deace suggested, however, that it is par for the course in the Hawkeye State: “To be fair, Democrat candidate for congress @SarahforIowa does preside over Satanic weddings.”

Sarah Trone Garriott, a leftist Lutheran minister who is presently running against Republican Rep. Zach Nunn, has helped oversee at least one “wedding” for satanists. In 2023, she discussed her efforts to accommodate disciples of the fallen on their big day, going so far as to consider readings about the devil “to make them feel more comfortable.”

As of Thursday morning, Blaze News’ Poll Watch has Nunn with a 6-point lead.

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​Satanic temple, Faith, Religion, Iowa, Christianity, Satanism, Prayer, Politics 

Apple Watch is many things — a techie timepiece, a notification aggregator, and perhaps a vital lifeline in an emergency. While some medical events are impossible to predict, you might be surprised to know that you have more early detection tools within reach than you think. Here are six features on Apple Watch that could save your life.

From the early days of Apple Watch, the Cupertino tech giant has focused heavily on fitness features to prolong longevity. Heart rate tracking, exercise goals, and activity badges can all help users lead healthier, more active lives. We’re not talking about those today, though. We’re looking at a set of features that can help you detect health problems you didn’t know you had and, in some cases, alert emergency services if you become incapacitated during a serious medical event.

It can tell you things you didn’t know about your body so you can seek care before an alert becomes a serious event — or worse.

To make the most of this guide, you’ll need a compatible Apple Watch, as well as a paired iPhone. However, the first couple of items are also iPhone-centric, so even if you don’t have all the necessary hardware, you can still enjoy some extra peace of mind.

Medical ID

Medical ID is the hub where you can store all of your important medical information — your name, age, medications, allergies, list of emergency contacts, health conditions, height, weight, and any other notes you wish to include.

To set up Medical ID, open the Settings app on iPhone, tap on “Apps” at the bottom, then “Health,” and finally, “Medical ID.” Then select “edit” in each section to add your information.

Not only is this a neat record to track your own health data, but Medical ID is also easily accessible to anyone who can reach your phone. Why? Because if you’re having a medical event, a stranger, a paramedic, or a health care worker may need quick access to your health conditions to help figure out what’s wrong. To bring up Medical ID, power on any iPhone from the lock screen, let the passcode fail to authenticate, then tap “Emergency” in the bottom left corner, and tap “Medical ID.”

Emergency SOS

Emergency SOS works well in two situations. If you’re having a medical event and you’re still conscious, or if you’re in trouble and in need of emergency services, trigger the emergency command. Your phone will automatically dial 911 and alert your emergency contacts that something is wrong. This way, you’re connected to the people who matter most so that they can come to your aid if you’re in a dangerous situation.

To set up Emergency SOS, open the Settings app, tap on “Emergency SOS” near the bottom of the page, and comb through the settings. This part is important — you can customize the emergency call trigger to dial when you hold and release the side button and the volume button together, or simply when you push the power button five times in a row. Choose the option you’re most likely to remember during a medical event.

Make sure your emergency contacts are added to this page so that they receive your SOS alerts alongside emergency services.

RELATED: After a decade-long wait, Apple Watch just got the one feature it always needed most

Apple Watch Series 12/Apple

Crash detection

While we’re in the Emergency SOS section, find Crash Detection near the bottom of the screen. This feature uses your iPhone and Apple Watch to measure jarring movements via their internal sensors. If the motion is severe enough that the devices think you’ve been in a car accident, they will begin a noisy countdown to let you know that they’re about to call emergency services on your behalf.

If you’re awake and unharmed, you can disable the alarm before the call goes out. However, if you’re unconscious, a call will be made to emergency services and your emergency contacts. This will let them know that you were in an accident and that you need help.

Crash detection is available on Apple Watch Series 8 and up.

Fall detection

In addition to crash detection, your watch uses the same sensors to estimate if and when you suddenly fall off your feet and hit the ground. If the impact is hard enough, your phone will send an alert that it’s about to dial emergency services and your emergency contacts. If you didn’t actually fall, or if you survived the fall without a critical injury, you can dismiss the alert. However, if you’re unconscious or severely injured, the call will go through and help will be on the way.

To enable fall detection, open the Watch app on iPhone, tap “Emergency SOS,” and check that “Fall detection” is turned on.

Fall detection is available on Apple Watch Series 4 and up.

Heart notifications

The heart rate sensor on Apple Watch isn’t just meant for tracking activity and workouts. It also monitors your heart throughout the day, and it’s sensitive enough to pick up on slight rhythm changes, sometimes before you’re even aware they’re happening.

High heart rate alerts will tell you if your heart exceeds a certain limit — 120 BPM by default — while you’re at rest. If you receive this alert, you could be stressed, dehydrated, or you may be having a serious heart event, like atrial fibrillation.

Low heart rate alerts do the opposite — they’ll tell you when your heart rate dips too long, which is 40 BPM by default. An extremely low heart rate at rest could signify a problem with one of your medications, certain medical conditions like hypothyroidism, or heart disease.

Irregular rhythm notifications measure your heartbeat, looking for signs of atrial fibrillation where your heart beats out of rhythm. Brief episodes of AFib may not be an emergency, but if you receive this notification often, it’s best to see your doctor for a thorough checkup.

Hypertension notifications analyze your heart rate data for silent signs that you have high blood pressure. Apple’s software notes that not everyone who has high blood pressure will fit into their detection algorithm, but many people do. If you get this alert, it’s best to monitor your blood pressure daily for several weeks and let your doctor know if you have a real problem.

To enable heart notifications, open the Watch app on iPhone, scroll to the bottom and select “Apps,” then choose “Heart.” Then on this screen, make sure each feature is enabled.

Irregular rhythm detection is only available on Apple Watch Series 4 and up, while hypertension notifications are exclusively for Series 9 and up.

RELATED: Someone else’s Apple Watch might start spying on your conversations

bombuscreative/Getty Images

Sleep apnea

Sleep apnea, or an event where you briefly stop breathing at night, is a silent killer, and approximately 80% of patients don’t know they have it. Luckily, Apple Watch can help shed some light on any potential breathing issues you have at night.

Simply wear Apple Watch to bed, and it will monitor your breathing rate and oxygen levels to identify potential problems. If sleep disturbances are detected, it will let you know the next morning. While one or two breathing alerts may not indicate a chronic issue, regular alerts should prompt a visit to the doctor. You’ll likely want to get a formal sleep study to confirm whether or not you have sleep apnea so that you can treat it properly.

Sleep apnea alerts are available on Apple Watch Series 9 and up.

A real lifesaver

As you can see, Apple Watch isn’t just a fancy piece of jewelry or an expensive gadget that pairs with your phone. It can be a critical lifeline between you, your health, and emergency services. Even more importantly, it can tell you things you didn’t know about your body so you can seek care before an alert becomes a serious event — or worse.

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​Apple watch, Tech 

#IAmJaneDoe is trending after sexual assault allegations were levied against seven fraternity members at Cornell University by one woman, known as Jane Doe.

While TikTokers across the globe have picked up the story and have begun speaking out in defense of the young woman, BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey points out that social media outrage is not a substitute for due process.

“You’ve met Jane Doe before,” one TikToker said, in protest of the accused. “You might not have realized it at the time, but you have. You may have passed her in the street. She could have poured the milk into your coffee or helped deliver your wife’s baby, read your kid a story.”

“You might have said good morning to her on a walk,” she continued. “There’s a chance that Jane Doe has smiled at you as you’ve held open the door. Jane could even live in your house. She could put the kettle on after a long day, always know where your keys are, but has never made it known that she is Jane Doe.”

Another TikToker said that it broke her heart that “the guy that invited her to the frat house that night was her friend.”

She went on to claim that Jane Doe was a “minor,” which Stuckey explains is not true.

“She wasn’t a minor. I just want to say that. She wasn’t a minor. She was under 21. She was illegally drinking,” she says.

“These men were not her friend,” she continues.

“None of these men were her friend, because this is not what friends do. This is not what people do who respect another human being, respect women, respect anyone. They should have helped her get a ride home. If they noticed that she was intoxicated, they shouldn’t have propositioned her for group sex.”

However, Stuckey notes that “she also shouldn’t have participated.”

“She shouldn’t have been there. She shouldn’t have been doing drugs. She shouldn’t have been drinking. She shouldn’t have consented to any of this,” she says.

“Am I saying that she is responsible for every bit of it? Am I saying for sure that there was never a time that she couldn’t consent? I don’t know,” she answers. “Am I saying that because she said once that is saying yes every single time and so there is no part of the night where she became a victim?”

Stuckey explains that while she’s “not saying that for sure,” you also “can’t say anything for sure.”

“That is the point that I am making, that it is her word against these men’s word,” she says.

“And I will not just assume that she is correct because she’s a woman or she is correct because she is an accuser,” she adds.

Want more from Allie Beth Stuckey?

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

​Allie beth stuckey, Cornell university, Due process, Tiktok, Cornell 7, I am jane doe, Blazetv show 

Prices once reflected the product and the market. Increasingly, they can also reflect what a company knows — or thinks it knows — about you.

Surveillance pricing uses personal data, behavioral tracking, and algorithms to estimate what a consumer may be willing to pay. If the system can infer that you are in a hurry, financially stressed, or unlikely to walk away, your vulnerability can become part of the calculation.

Companies watch us. We deserve tools to watch them back and make exploitation costly.

Websites, apps, and data brokers can collect or infer information from searches, purchases, location, browsing history, and even mouse movements. Combined, those signals can build a detailed profile of what you want and how price-sensitive you may be.

The Federal Trade Commission began investigating this market in 2024, issuing orders to eight companies. Its initial findings showed that intermediaries serving at least 250 clients could use granular data to tailor prices, discounts, and product offers. The FTC cautioned that its published examples were “hypothetical.”

Surveillance pricing differs from ordinary dynamic pricing, in which prices move with inventory, time, or demand. Surveillance pricing is personal: the price, discount, financing term, or product placement can vary according to a consumer profile or group. The change may be subtle — a withheld discount, a costlier product ranked first, or a different financing offer.

The idea is older than the AI boom

In 2012, a Wall Street Journal investigation found that Staples.com displayed different prices after estimating customers’ locations. Shoppers near an OfficeMax or Office Depot were more likely to receive discounts; those farther away could see higher prices for the same item.

In 2015, ProPublica found that the Princeton Review offered the same online tutoring package for $6,600 to $8,400 depending on ZIP code. Residents of heavily Asian ZIP codes were 1.8 times as likely to receive the higher price, even in lower-income areas.

The company said the pricing reflected regional business conditions rather than race. Regardless, the outcome shows how supposedly neutral data can produce serious demographic disparities.

RELATED: Seattle votes to ban grocery ‘surveillance pricing.’ Your data shouldn’t set your food bill.

urbazon/Getty Images

Orbitz also experimented with showing Mac users pricier hotel options first after finding they were more likely to book luxury rooms. It did not charge Mac and PC users different prices for the same room, but the lesson was clear: Even device type can become a signal about what a customer may spend.

More recently, a 2025 Consumer Reports investigation found that Instacart’s AI-enabled pricing experiments offered different prices for identical groceries at the same stores and times. About three-quarters of tested products varied, with some differences reaching 23%. The investigation did not show that personal profiles determined who received which price, and Instacart later ended the program. But the experiment showed just how easy it was to target basic needs.

Your urgency can become valuable data

The troubling question is what happens when individualized pricing meets urgency.

A search for an emergency plumber at 2 a.m., last-minute airfare after a family crisis, or a baby thermometer at midnight may signal that waiting is not an option. Searches for eviction help, payday loans, or emergency medical care can reveal pressure without a company ever seeing a pay stub or medical record.

Economist Benjamin Shiller showed why such information could be valuable. In a 2020 economic model using browsing data to estimate willingness to pay for Netflix, personalized pricing increased simulated profits by 12.99%, versus roughly 0.25% using demographics alone. It was a model, not proof of a retailer secretly charging desperate consumers more, but it showed the commercial value of behavioral data.

Data brokers have long packaged financial vulnerability. A 2013 Senate investigation found categories such as “Rural and Barely Making It,” “Retiring on Empty” and “Credit Crunched.” The report warned that such lists could appeal to sellers of high-cost loans looking for people who need quick cash.

RELATED: Welcome to the new traffic stop, where it’s your word against AI’s

VCG/VCG/Getty Images

The balance of power shifts

Two people can see different prices, discounts, products, or financing offers on the same website and each assume everyone else received the same thing. Algorithms do not need a field labeled race, age, sex, or income to make sensitive inferences; ZIP code, device type, location, and shopping behavior can act as proxies.

Targeted pricing is not inherently abusive. It could reward loyal customers or offer discounts to families under pressure. The problem is secrecy: Sellers can know far more about buyers than buyers know about the offer in front of them.

That imbalance can turn personal data into a tool for extracting the highest price a consumer will accept. It also weakens comparison shopping when prices quietly change according to profiles the shopper cannot see.

Transparency is the minimum

Companies should disclose when personal data or AI materially shapes a price or offer and identify the categories of information involved. Regulators have a role, but entrepreneurs can also build independent tools that compare prices across accounts, devices, and locations.

Companies watch us. We need better tools to watch them back.

When a company knows you are desperate, that desperation should never become a hidden advantage it can use against you.

​Ai, Algorithms, Data brokers, Prices, Exploitation, Ftc, Groceries, Discounts, Personal data, Opinion & analysis 

A 17-year-old girl told Mississippi police she was walking down the street in Cadet just before midnight on Thursday when she was kidnapped by one man and assaulted by him and another man.

The first man allegedly grabbed her and dragged her into a home, where he and another man raped the girl.

Detectives said they found a blonde hair when processing his boxers.

Deputies made a forced entry into the home at about 2 a.m. on Friday after the two men refused to follow orders in their native language.

Oscar Antonio Baltodano Lopez locked himself in a bathroom and only complied after being threatened with a firearm, police said.

Detectives noted that Lopez was wearing clothing that matched a description given by the victim. He also refused to hand over his boxers or allow a DNA swab. Detectives said they found a blonde hair when processing his boxers.

Another man in the home identified as Benjamin Santez Lopez told police he was home all night and denied having any sexual contact with the girl.

Police arrested the two men and booked them into the Washington County Jail without bail.

KSDK-TV reported that the two men are illegal aliens, and police said they could face deportation after the criminal prosecution process was completed.

Police believe a substance found at the home was methamphetamine.

RELATED: Transient illegal alien equipped a ‘rape dungeon on wheels’ to attack women in mountains of California, police say

Baltodano Lopez was charged with first-degree rape, first-degree sodomy, kidnapping, possession of a controlled substance, and resisting arrest, while Santez Lopez was charged with first-degree sexual abuse and first-degree sodomy.

A third illegal alien was taken into custody but was not charged.

There was no indication of where the illegal aliens are from originally.

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​Mississippi, Methamphetamine, Rape, Illegal immigration, Politics 

Every day, Americans send nearly 10 billion emails. Somewhere in that mountain of messages sits a job application, a customer complaint, a school announcement, a bill, or another annoying update from an organization you intended to unsubscribe from five years ago. Most people assume that when they hit send, their message has every chance of reaching its destination. They trust the system to deliver it. That trust deserves scrutiny.

The Republican Party has a $117 million reason to ask questions.

The distinction matters far beyond Republican fundraising.

A new study by researchers at the University of Iowa and the University of Alabama estimates that Republican fundraising lost $117 million in donations during two periods last year, when Gmail’s spam filters actively diverted campaign emails from supporters’ inboxes. Researchers found that first-time donations fell during those periods. They also reported that inbox placement returned to normal after Google stopped using the Spam URI Real-time Blocklist blacklist in September 2025.

Google disputes the study’s methodology, and the research doesn’t establish that political bias caused the filtering. But you don’t need to be a genius or a tinfoil-hat-wearer to connect the dots. Google’s algorithms may be neutral in theory; in practice, however, they have opened up a substantial, and all too predictable, gap in trust. Since the dark days of the Biden years, platform bias is less a conspiracy theory than a documented pattern. Today, elevated skepticism of dismissive claims is hardly unreasonable.

A double-edged sword

Google operates a service used by roughly 90% of the U.S. population. Some 75% of American adults use Gmail. Google’s spam filters perform a necessary job. Nobody wants an inbox packed with fake invoices, phishing attempts, miracle cures, or emails from an incredibly generous Nigerian prince. Spam filtering protects users from fraud and saves them time.

The trouble begins when a system designed to keep garbage out also blocks legitimate messages. A campaign email can disappear into a spam folder without the sender knowing why. The recipient may never realize that a message was sent. Everyone involved can go about their day believing that nothing happened.

That is a remarkable amount of power for a company to exercise through a setting most users never touch.

A government censor has to issue a ban, block a website, or punish a publisher. A technology company, by contrast, can affect what people see through an ordinary technical decision. The message is technically deliverable, yet it may never reach the person expected to receive it.

The distinction matters far beyond Republican fundraising. A small business can spend years building a customer list, only to discover that its emails are reaching fewer people. A charity can ask supporters for donations and wonder why the response has fallen. A local organization can send details of an event that nobody seems to know about.

The sender may blame a bad subject line or a weak appeal. The recipient may assume the sender has gone quiet. The platform sits between them, and neither party necessarily knows what happened.

And a double standard?

For conservatives, the new study raises an obvious concern about political communication. Campaigns depend on supporters receiving updates, invitations, and requests for help. If an email provider’s filtering decisions affect one party’s messages more than another’s, the consequences could reach beyond fundraising.

The same standard must apply to Democrats, Republicans, independents, and organizations with no political affiliation. A free society depends on people being able to communicate with one another. Private companies have a legitimate role in protecting users from scams. But their decisions should be open to meaningful scrutiny when they have major consequences.

With arguably the most consequential midterms in recent history just around the corner, we ought to ask a rather simple question: Who gets to decide which voices reach the American voter?

Google says its protections apply equally to everyone. Users can mark messages as spam. They can block senders or unsubscribe from unwanted emails. Those measures give people some control over what arrives in their inboxes. They offer less help when a legitimate message has already been filtered out.

RELATED: Seattle votes to ban grocery ‘surveillance pricing’. Your data shouldn’t set your food bill.

urbazon/Getty Images

Google’s new verified-sender program for political campaigns and political action committees raises another question. The program allows participating senders to reach inboxes at a higher rate if they meet Google’s policies. Sender verification can help protect users from impersonation and fraud. That is a reasonable goal.

The public still deserves to know how the program works. People also deserve to know what standards govern participation and whether the same rules apply consistently. Verifying a sender and giving that sender preferential access to an audience are very different things. Users should be able to understand the distinction.

Every reader has a stake in this matter. Email carries information that can affect daily life. A missed job offer can cost someone an opportunity. A filtered school announcement can leave a parent scrambling. A misplaced medical appointment reminder can create an expensive headache. Nobody wants to have to explain to a doctor that Gmail ate the appointment.

The $117 million estimate is a symptom of a broader issue. A handful of ridiculously powerful, notoriously deceptive companies control important routes through which Americans communicate and conduct business.

That power calls for transparency and a meaningful way to challenge unjustified decisions. Conservatives who believe in competition and individual choice have a particular reason to question a system in which so many people depend on a few private gatekeepers.

Americans can hit send whenever they like. The more important question is whether the intended recipient will ever see what they sent.

​Tech, Spam 

A Mexican national was arrested for allegedly trying to smuggle a “staggering” amount of methamphetamine in at least one of the fuel tanks of a semitruck.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection told Blaze News the incident unfolded on Sept. 29 at about 11 a.m. when U.S. Border Patrol agents of the San Diego sector stopped a northbound semitruck on Interstate 15 in California.

‘The vigilance of our agents, the reliability of our K-9 units, and our strong multi-agency partnerships are vital to dismantling these illicit smuggling operations and keeping deadly drugs off our streets.’

A Newton-Azrak Border Patrol Station agent and his K-9 partner detected characteristics of liquid methamphetamine and had the truck transported to the station.

A hazardous response crew safely extracted the liquid from the tank.

The 115 gallons of liquid was found to weigh about 962 pounds and tested positive for methamphetamine.

CBP officials estimated the street value of the narcotics to be about $1 million.

The semitruck was seized by Border Patrol, and the driver was turned over to Homeland Security Investigations.

“This massive seizure of liquid methamphetamine highlights the lengths these transnational criminal organizations will go to smuggle hard narcotics into our communities,” said Justin M. De La Torre, chief patrol agent for the San Diego sector of the U.S. Border Patrol.

Photographs from the investigation showed the barrels of methamphetamine that were seized as well as the tank that was cut open.

RELATED: 6 people found dead in boxcar in Texas border town, police say

U.S. Customs and Border Protection

“The vigilance of our agents, the reliability of our K-9 units, and our strong multi-agency partnerships are vital to dismantling these illicit smuggling operations and keeping deadly drugs off our streets,” he added.

The K-9’s name is Loki.

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​Methamphetamine, Us customs and border protection, Smuggling, California, Us-mexico border, Politics 

In the wake of sexual assault allegations at Cornell University, the victimization of women on college campuses has returned to the public conversation.

Cornell’s 2025 state-mandated sexual misconduct survey reported that 35% of undergraduate women said they had experienced sexual assault since arriving at the university. The undergraduate response rate, however, was only 13%. Cornell’s presidential task force itself warned that the low response rate limits estimates and makes the results difficult to interpret.

People will sacrifice their daughters on the altar of the university for status. Imagine what else they will sacrifice.

If you take the headline number at face value, though, sending your daughter to Cornell sounds insane.

Conservative parents correctly tell a parallel story about the ideological and spiritual dangers of college. They complain that universities teach women to hate men, become atheists, sleep around, embrace progressive politics, and borrow enormous sums for degrees of dubious value. Everyone has seen the meme: a smart, pretty, well-adjusted high school graduate goes off to college and returns tattooed, purple-haired, pierced, and wearing a “down with the patriarchy” T-shirt.

Yet both sides keep sending their daughters.

The left describes campuses as rape factories. The right describes them as camps for progressive indoctrination. Still, liberal and conservative parents drill their daughters for the SAT, pack their schedules with extracurriculars, hire admissions consultants, and sweat over essays for the privilege of attending places like Cornell.

And that privilege is expensive. At 2026-2027 rates, four years of tuition at Cornell’s endowed colleges would approach $296,000 before housing, dining, books, and other expenses. New York residents in Cornell’s state contract colleges get a discount, but four years of tuition still comes to roughly $199,000.

Why would parents fight so hard for access to institutions they routinely describe as dangerous?

The easy answer is that neither side believes its own rhetoric. That is too simple. Conservatives and progressives exaggerate, but many genuinely believe the dangers they describe.

The better answer is status.

For most of American history, college was attended by a small minority. It was a finishing school for elites, a pipeline into the learned professions, and an ivory tower for scholars. Most Americans did not need a bachelor’s degree to enter respectable middle-class work.

The G.I. Bill dramatically expanded access after World War II. Federal aid and student lending expanded it further. As attendance grew, the degree increasingly became more than an education. It became a credential.

The Supreme Court’s 1971 decision in Griggs v. Duke Power Co. accelerated that logic. Griggs did not ban aptitude tests, as is sometimes claimed. It held that employment practices with discriminatory effects had to be justified by business necessity and job relevance. Broad employment tests became legally riskier, while a college degree became a convenient screening tool.

RELATED: The ‘Cornell 7’ case should terrify every father of boys

Spencer Platt/Getty Images

That doesn’t mean Griggs single-handedly created credential inflation. It did not. But the larger phenomenon is real. Employers began requiring bachelor’s degrees for jobs that previously did not need them, turning the diploma into a proxy for intelligence, discipline, conformity, and class position.

Eventually the credential became self-reinforcing. A degree was valuable because employers demanded one, and employers demanded one because so many desirable applicants had one.

The result is familiar. Jobs once open to high school graduates now ask for bachelor’s degrees. Jobs once open to bachelor’s graduates increasingly prefer master’s degrees. The education itself may have little relationship to the work, but the credential still sorts applicants.

The economic incentive is only part of it. College has become a rite of passage for the professional class. Parents want the sweatshirt, the move-in photos, the graduation pictures, and the reassuring sense that their children have entered the respectable world. The name on the diploma matters because other people recognize it. The campus experience matters because other high-status people shared it.

A student who attends Cornell does not merely buy classes; she buys membership in a hierarchy that exists long after commencement. This is why attacks on higher education so often fail to change family behavior. Parents can hate the professors, mock the administrators, and denounce the politics while still fearing that opting out will leave their children below the people who stayed in.

College also confers something money alone cannot buy: entry into a social network.

Elite universities connect students with other ambitious, well-connected people. Fraternities, sororities, internships, fellowships, alumni networks, and campus organizations create relationships that can shape careers for decades. Even if every lecture were useless, the network would retain enormous value.

That is why parents who despise universities still want their children admitted to them.

The pressure is especially strong for daughters because women now dominate higher education. Women make up a clear majority of undergraduate enrollment and earn about 59% of bachelor’s degrees. Whatever conservatives may think about the culture of universities, telling a daughter to skip college can mean telling her to surrender access to the credentialed professional world in which many of her peers will compete.

This is the trap.

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Progressives may believe campuses expose women to unacceptable rates of sexual assault. Conservatives may believe universities corrode faith, family, and femininity. Both groups understand that status institutions control access to other status institutions.

That contradiction reveals something deeper than hypocrisy.

Status is the one commodity that is always zero-sum. People are status-seeking creatures, and institutions that confer status therefore acquire enormous political power. If Cornell can make parents compete for the privilege of paying hundreds of thousands of dollars while those same parents describe the campus as dangerous, then Cornell has something more valuable than an educational product.

It has the power to certify who belongs.

Conservatives spend enormous energy winning arguments about college. They complain about ideology, debt, useless majors, campus sex, and administrative bloat. Then they celebrate when their daughter gets into an Ivy.

That should tell them something.

People will sacrifice their daughters on the altar of the university for status. Imagine what else they will sacrifice.

If conservatives truly want to win the political battle, they should spend less time arguing with institutions that confer status and more time building institutions capable of conferring status themselves.

​Higher education, Cornell 7, Sexual assault, Left wing, Ivy league, Gi bill, Conservatives, College, Opinion & analysis 

The tea leaves are spelling doom for France. Roughly €3.6 trillion in public debt, rapidly approaching budget decisions, and political unrest in the streets indicate collapse is on the horizon.

To calm the riots, politicians are pitching debt cancellations, but Glenn Beck sees the writing on the wall — the same writing that preceded Greece’s catastrophic crash in 2009.

Roughly a year after the killing of a 15-year-old boy by a police officer that sparked mass riots, “The new government opens up the books and admits the old government lied: The deficit was not what they said; it was more than double that,” says Glenn.

“All markets stopped lending to Greece. And on May 5, 2010, the day before Parliament voted on its first bailout, a general strike filled the streets. It was chaos,” he continues.

Amid the unrest, a “neo-Nazi party called the Golden Dawn” and “a coalition of Marxists and Maoists and Trotskyists” rose to political prominence. From the latter emerged Alexis Tsipras, who became prime minister after promising to tear up the bailout. He called a referendum, and 61% voted no, but he signed a third bailout — one “with harsher terms than the ones the people had just rejected” — anyway.

“That’s how the story ends with Marxists every time,” says Glenn.

“Three bailouts, 289 billion euros, the largest rescue of any country in history — and the Greek economy shrank by 25%; unemployment hit 27%; and for the young, it was over 40%. A whole generation got on planes and left,” he continues.

The only reason Greece is even still standing today, he explains, is because “[Germany] could afford to save it.”

But France, Glenn says, is in a predicament far worse than the one that nearly destroyed Greece. “Greece’s whole debt was 300 billion euros. France is 3.6 trillion euros. That’s more than 10 Greeces combined.”

And even worse, this time, there’s no lifeguard to pull the drowning country out of the deep end of the swimming pool.

America certainly can’t do it, Glenn argues. “We’re $40 trillion in debt. For 80 years when the world got in trouble, it always looked at us … but a lifeguard who can’t swim is just another body in the water.”

The truth, he says, is that all the lifeguards are gone.

“What happens when the world can’t bail everyone out — when it isn’t one small country that lied about the books but three or four of the biggest ones that told the truth but kept spending anyway because they had absolutely no discipline?” he asks.

“Here’s what happens. The same thing that happened in Athens, except nobody comes to rescue.”

France, Glenn argues, is a “dress rehearsal” for what could come to America. Between our own debt and the planted “seeds” of the Marxist-Islam coalition, he fears destruction is knocking on our door.

“The good news is the seed is not a harvest,” he says. “Greece came back. 2019, the Greeks voted out the Marxists.”

“The thing you have to remember is Greece had time and had somebody else’s money to buy it. We only have ours.”

To hear more, watch the video above.

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​Debt crisis, France, Glenn beck, Blazetv show