The future of commerce is not some complex algorithm; it’s essentially the same as it has been since the 1980s.

That’s the gambit of a hugely successful new company putting up numbers that rival tech’s biggest.

Its latest valuation is a monstrous $20 billion, which is already a huge leap from its October 2025 numbers. The company has nearly doubled its valuation in those 10 months, up from $11.5 billion which secured an investment of $225 million.

That $11.5 billion valuation came less than a year after the company raised $265 million in January 2025 off of a $4.97 billion valuation.

This all means that the commerce app has quadrupled its value in about 18 months, something very rarely seen in its sector.

And that has the industry buzzing.

‘We only exist to the extent that we provide our customers a lot of value.’

Meet Whatnot. It’s based on an incredibly simple idea. Picture a cable channel with a 1-800 number, but it’s a livestream on your smartphone or computer.

That simple difference is what sets the livestream auction app apart from that staple of late-20th-century television, the home shopping channel. The buy-from-home TV programs exploded into popularity with the introduction of the Home Shopping Network back in 1982.

Whatnot has sellers present their items just as they did on TV back in the day, urging viewers of the livestream to buy before the time runs out.

As the Next Web puts it: “The urgency of a live sale, the countdown, the banter, the scarcity, does work that a static product page never could.”

RELATED: Dumpster-diving women claim they make $5,000 per month off discarded Louis Vuitton wallets and Michael Kors bags

Whatnot co-founder and CEO Grant LaFontaine. Eugene Gologursky/Getty Images for Fast Company

The Next Web reported that the company handled about $8 billion worth of livestream sales over the past year in North America and Europe alone, which helps justify its massive valuation to backers, markets, and industry insiders.

Looking at the backers, perhaps it should have been obvious Whatnot would enjoy a big upward trend: Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia, Lightspeed, and Google’s CapitalG are all involved.

Those investment firms are strongly associated with the venture capital scene, and indeed the only other companies making the same kinds of leaps in valuation as Whatnot are in the tech space. Companies like OpenAI, SpaceX, Nvidia, Tesla, and ByteDance are some of the comparable valuations in recent history, some of which far exceed a 4x jump.

The spike is largely driven by Whatnot’s rampant consumer base, which logs an insane amount of time on the app.

RELATED: BRONCO BUSTED: I caught Ford sneaking my data — and uncovered an even bigger threat

Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for ReedPop

Co-founder and CEO Grant LaFontaine wrote in 2024 that buyers spent more than 80 minutes per day on the app that year.

Grant previously worked in product roles at YouTube and Facebook and co-founded Kit, a merchandising company that was acquired by Patreon in 2024.

LaFontaine said in May that success comes down to being willing to put in hard work while also being willing to be wrong.

“We only exist to the extent that we provide our customers a lot of value,” he told Fast Company.

“If you want to build a customer-centered culture,” the CEO added, “you have to actually follow through on building one and inject it everywhere you possibly can in the organization.”

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​App, Whatnot, Valuation, Shopping, Big tech 

A child sex sting operation in a Minnesota suburb of Minneapolis led to the arrest of two dozen men who allegedly sought to pay for sex with children.

Even more alarmingly, the Blaine Police Department said Friday in a Facebook post that nearly 400 people responded to the online advertisement they had set up in the operation.

‘These operations are a critical tool used by law enforcement agencies nationwide to stop crimes against children.’

Police said the two-day operation was intended to protect minors from “exploitation” and targeted those seeking to “engage in illegal activity involving underage youth.”

The 24 arrested allegedly “offered to pay for illegal sexual conduct with a person they believed to be a juvenile.”

They were booked into the Anoka County Jail on suspicion of prostitution.

Police said at least one person arrested was already a registered sex offender and others were repeat offenders.

“Everyone arrested will appear in court, where release conditions will be determined,” police said.

A total of 368 people responded to the advertisement in the online sting.

“These operations are a critical tool used by law enforcement agencies nationwide to stop crimes against children and deter violent or harmful behavior directed at youth,” police said.

RELATED: Middle school assistant principal allegedly tried to pay for sex with 13-year-old — but it was a sting operation

Blaine Police were aided in the operation by nine law enforcement agencies, including the U.S. Secret Service, Homeland Security Investigations, and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.

Blaine is a city of about 70,000 residents.

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​Minneapolis, Child sex sting operation, Online predators, Crime 

Climate change policy might be due for a change itself.

Seventeen state financial officers have signed on to a letter urging the Securities and Exchange Commission to scrap Biden-era climate-related disclosure rules. The rules would require publicly traded companies to undertake costly environmental reviews to report their greenhouse gas emissions and other climate change metrics.

‘Americans want the SEC focused on protecting markets and investors, not turning our capital markets into a vehicle for climate activism.’

Responsible for managing billions of public dollars, the signatories argue that climate disclosure standards are an “unlawful expansion of the administrative state” poised to hamper private sector economic growth. Those standards are also referred to as the “Final Rules.”

“As stewards of public pension and treasury assets, we are acutely sensitive to costs borne by the companies in which public funds invest — costs ultimately passed to shareholders, including the beneficiaries we serve,” the signatories wrote. “The Commission’s own economic analysis estimates that rescinding the Final Rules could generate annualized savings of approximately $4.9 billion, and a total cost savings on the order of $7.9 billion.”

The SEC adopted the climate disclosure rules in March 2024. Opponents launched numerous legal challenges which were consolidated in the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. The agency itself stayed the rules in April 2024 awaiting legal resolution, but President Donald Trump’s election resulted in the stay becoming permanent. The SEC under Acting Chairman Mark Uyeda declined to defend the rule in March 2025.

Though never enforced, the rules remain on the books.

RELATED: Texas slams breaks on data center projects as Abbott orders sweeping industry audit

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

The rules wouldn’t just be expensive to implement. They might also be illegal to enforce.

“The Trump SEC is right to rescind the climate disclosure rule and refocus the agency on its fundamental responsibility of protecting investors and maintaining fair, orderly, and efficient markets,” Utah Treasurer Marlo Oaks told Blaze News. “For years, the ESG movement sought to use the SEC to advance a climate agenda through disclosure mandates that went beyond material financial information and imposed unnecessary costs on businesses and investors. Rescinding this rule returns the SEC to its proper role as a neutral financial regulator focused on protecting investors and facilitating markets.”

Environmental, social, and governance standards are investment criteria used to assess a private company’s adherence to climate mandates and emissions regulations.

The SEC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

If successful, the rescission would be the latest in a long string of regulatory rollbacks during Trump’s second term. The Environmental Protection Agency under Lee Zeldin nixed the Obama-era endangerment finding in February.

As the law of the land since 2009, the ruling categorized carbon emissions as pollutants under the Clean Air Act and subjected them to federal regulation.

“The financial officers are right to support the Trump Administration’s efforts to rescind the Biden-era climate disclosure rules,” American Energy Institute CEO Jason Isaac told Blaze News. “Washington bureaucrats shouldn’t be weaponizing financial regulations to pressure companies into advancing far-left ESG policies that Congress never approved.”

“Americans want the SEC focused on protecting markets and investors, not turning our capital markets into a vehicle for climate activism,” Isaac added.

The letter was submitted ahead of the August 3 comment deadline regarding the rule’s potential rescission.

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​Donald trump, Environmental protection agency, Joe biden, Lee zeldin, Securities and exchange commission, Politics 

Fauci thought we would forget; now he’s desperately trying to rewrite history.

The infectious disease “expert” has shifted his story on gain-of-function research and the lab leak theory — but longtime Democrat Bill Maher isn’t letting him off the hook.

“He was caught in actual lies,” Maher said. “He was telling people — and the big issue to me is the origin of this, which is very important. How did it start? And he was telling people up front when it first began, ‘It was from the wet markets. That’s a conspiracy theory if you say it escaped from the lab.’”

Maher pointed out that the release of Fauci’s diary by Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has proven that he “knew better,” and he blames not only Fauci but the extremely partisan split on how to handle the pandemic.

“If we weren’t so partisan, we could just say gain-of-function research,” he said. “Obama told him not to do it. I would always have said don’t do it. But it’s a viable debate. It’s a reasonable debate. Should we soup up something that’s bad, this bacteria, to study it?”

“We could have had that debate in a rational way,” he continued. “We didn’t want to do that because why? Because we make everything about race.”

Maher recalled that during the pandemic, no one was allowed to say it “escaped from the lab because that was the racist point of view” and would mean “the entire Asian continent would have been somehow complicit in this because it escaped.”

“It was ridiculous, but that is where they went,” he added.

“Welcome to reality. Seriously, welcome to some common sense,” BlazeTV host Pat Gray comments on “Pat Gray Unleashed.”

“He’s starting to see the Democrat Party for what it is,” he adds.

Want more from Pat Gray?

To enjoy more of Pat’s biting analysis and signature wit as he restores common sense to a senseless world, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Anthony fauci, Bill maher, Conspiracy theory, Democrat party, Lab leak theory, Pandemic, Race, Wet markets, Pat gray, Rand paul, Blazetv show 

A Democratic congressional candidate in Hawaii was caught on a viral video confronting beachgoers before being knocked unconscious by an MMA-trained man after allegedly threatening to put a woman in the hospital.

The Maui Police Department stated that the confrontation took place at Keawakapu Beach in South Kihei when a 61-year-old man asked 40-year-old Kirill Basin to lower the volume of his music, Hawaii News Now reported.

‘Watch your f**king mouth.’

“Basin allegedly threatened the man by implying he had a firearm and would shoot the victim’s wife,” according to Hawaii News Now.

Basin is seen on video yelling, “I told him if he wants to go to the hospital, come here!”

Someone is heard saying, “It’s over,” to which Basin temporarily agrees.

However, seconds later Basin screams: “Hey, f**k you! F**k you!”

A man urges Basin to stop, but the Democratic candidate replies: “What are you gonna do?”

Basin then seems to threaten a woman, apparently saying he would “put [her] in the ground.”

A woman calls Basin a “child,” to which he responds: “I’m a child. I’m 40 f**king years old.”

The video, with millions of views online, shows Basin allegedly threatening to put the woman “in the hospital” and then calling her a “bitch.”

A man is seen confronting Basin moments later.

The man, Kama Homan, told Hawaii News Now, “I’m like, maybe I should intervene, and then as I got closer and closer, he was just getting more irate and violent and then saying stuff.”

Homan claimed Basin threatened him by saying, “I’m going to hurt you.”

Video shows the two men getting into a physical altercation and Basin swinging a chair at Homan, who then quickly countered by punching Basin.

“He put his hands on me, and as soon as he tried to shove me, I hit him with a left and a right, and that’s when he stumbled and fell over the chairs,” Homan explained.

Basin appears to lose consciousness after falling backward following the punch.

Homan is seen telling Basin to “wake up.”

“Watch your f**king mouth, haole boy,” Homan tells Basin. Merriam-Webster defines haole as a person “who is not descended from the aboriginal Polynesian inhabitants of Hawaii.”

Homan said he used his mixed martial arts training to knock out Basin.

“Just block it and go for the KO. Just protect myself, which is why I had my hand up and then I adjusted to block the chair,” Homan told Hawaii News Now.

Fox News reported, “Once Basin regained consciousness, he told someone he was ‘going to jail’ before walking away.”

Moments later, Basin reportedly charged toward Homan while shouting obscenities.

The situation escalated when Basin pulled out a knife and threatened multiple people before tossing the weapon into the ocean, according to the Maui Police Department.

Homan said, “He ended up pulling the knife out on me after the altercation, and that was obviously a game changer when I knew he was off.”

Homan claimed that the weapon was a 5-inch switchblade, which he found and turned over to police.

Basin’s attorney, Brandon Segal, argued, “There’s no evidence in any of these videos that have been circulated tremendously that he ever had a knife in his possession. He never had a firearm in his possession.”

Basin was arrested on Saturday and charged with two counts of first-degree terroristic threatening. Basin’s bail was set at $1 million, according to county officials.

Segal called the bail amount “outrageous.”

“These are just allegations,” Segal asserted. “My client has a presumption of innocence.”

The judge ordered Basin to have no contact with Homan and four other people involved in the incident, according to Fox News.

Basin is scheduled to appear in court for a preliminary hearing on Thursday.

RELATED: Former MMA fighter beats battery charges after court said he acted in self-defense during Florida bar fight caught on viral video

The mission statement on the “Kirill for Congress” website states: “Fighting. With Aloha.” Basin moved to Maui during the COVID pandemic, according to a section on the site titled “Living here. Fighting here.”

Basin’s arrest arrived just days before the Democratic primary for the 2nd Congressional District of Hawaii, which is set to occur on Saturday.

Basin is running against three other Democrats, including incumbent Jill Tokuda.

The Honolulu Civil Beat noted that Tokuda’s challengers are “all relatively unknown candidates” and pointed out that “longshot” Basin was “arrested in May for pulling a gun on county workers in a government building.”

Tokuda told Hawaii News Now that her opponent carried out a “very violent act” and noted that it’s “not even his first one.”

As Blaze News previously reported, Basin entered a county building in Wailuku in late May and started “brandishing a firearm and engaged in a verbal altercation with county employees,” according to Maui PD.

Basin was arrested and charged with felony first-degree terroristic threatening.

Basin denied that he brandished a firearm or made any threats.

“According to Mr. Basin, the item being referenced was an unloaded pellet gun inside his backpack, with no pellet magazine in it,” Basin’s campaign told Blaze News at the time. “He states that it was never removed from the backpack, and that the individual making the accusation only saw it inside the bag.”

Just two days before that incident, Basin had to be forcibly removed from a South Maui town hall meeting after he engaged in “a verbal altercation with Council Member Tom Cook and staff members,” according to police.

Jared Agtunong, Cook’s executive assistant, obtained a temporary restraining order against Basin within two hours of the incident.

Agtunong said in his petition, “I did not answer Basin’s phone call, but he left a message telling me that I’m a piece of trash, said I should think of my family, and insisted I call him back.”

Agtunong added, “In additional texts sent on the same day, Basin wished me luck with prison, then at 9:00 p.m., Basin’s text said, ‘You’re f**ked.'”

In an Instagram post shared in June, Basin detailed his history while pleading for Joe Rogan to invite him to be a guest on “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast.

“Joe Rogan, I am Kirill Basin, a Ukrainian-born immigrant, NYU Law graduate, former public defender, civil liberties advocate, father, small business owner, and Democratic candidate for Congress in Hawaii’s Second Congressional District,” Basin wrote.

Basin boasted, “I’ve taken on the police — professionally — and won.”

Basin’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment by Blaze News.

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​Hawaii, Crime, Democratic party, Politics 

The controversial architect of the U.S. response to the coronavirus pandemic will have to turn over documents related to the shutdown, according to Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier.

Uthmeier said that Dr. Anthony Fauci is being investigated for possibly profiting personally from the pandemic lockdowns that damaged the U.S. economy and had other major deleterious consequences.

‘This is wrong and it could go towards a deceptive trade practice, fraud, public nuisance, you name it.’

Fauci was excoriated by many of his critics for pleading his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination numerous times while testifying before Congress last Wednesday.

“We issued a formal subpoena to Dr. Fauci under Florida state law seeking a breadth of documents ranging to what he knew, when he knew it, his doubts about the safety and efficacy of vaccines that he’s out there promoting,” Uthmeier said in an interview on Fox News Wednesday.

“And we’re really focused in on his self-dealing. Evidence has come to light he was trying to personally profit off of this,” he added. “This is outside of his government duties, his official role. He’s trying to pursue book deals, awards, getting connected with high rollers that might help him come into millions and millions of dollars.”

The attorney general said much of the evidence comes from the diary entries recently released by Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Rand Paul (R-Ky.).

“This is wrong, and it could go towards a deceptive trade practice, fraud, public nuisance, you name it,” Uthmeier added. “I think there’s many aspects of Florida law that now are implicated.”

Fauci’s attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.

RELATED: Former Fauci adviser INDICTED for allegedly hiding emails about the origins of COVID

“Government officials, they have a lot of immunities. They have protections when they’re doing their job, but when somebody like Dr. Fauci is lying and deceiving the American people, pushing out directives and mandates that he privately questions as unsafe, and he’s deriving a profit from it, that raises larger legal questions,” Uthmeier continued.

“We will get to the bottom of it. We will leave no stone unturned,” he promised.

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​Anthony fauci, James uthmeier, Subpoena, Covid, Florida, Politics 

Amir Hassan posted a gracious video on Wednesday accepting defeat in the Republican primary for Michigan’s 8th Congressional District.

The candidate got an enthusiastic endorsement from President Donald Trump but lost to fellow Republican Tom Smith, who had dropped out of the race and backed a third candidate.

Hassan is the first congressional candidate with a Trump endorsement to lose in this cycle.

Smith, a retired engineer, told Politico he will return to the campaign and work to defeat first-term incumbent Democrat Rep. Kristen McDonald Rivet.

“I look forward to working with Speaker [Mike] Johnson and the entire Republican team to expand our House majority and advance President Trump’s America First agenda to lower costs for working families and make America affordable again,” Smith said in a statement.

The political unknown raised very little money for the campaign, and in July he was forced to report his meager $1,850 donations in a handwritten note to the Federal Election Commission, claiming to have had issues signing into the online portal.

A Republican strategist who commented anonymously to Politico said that Trump’s pick had “clear flaws as a candidate” and opined that the GOP base rejected him because they were “reluctant to support a dude named Amir Hassan.”

Hassan is a Navy veteran and former law enforcement officer from Flint.

Rivet was mocked last year by the National Republican Congressional Committee when she sauntered into oncoming traffic in order to escape a tough question.

RELATED: Democratic Party has become so crazed, far-left AG Dana Nessel is avoiding convention over safety fears

“I fell short last night. I make no excuse. It was a tough race,” Hassan said in his video. “I always think of conservative values, and the biggest conservative value is we don’t make excuses.”

He went on to endorse the winner and called on the voters to flip the 8th District.

Politico reported that Hassan is the first congressional candidate with a Trump endorsement to lose in this cycle.

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​Michigan, Midterms, Republican party, Donald trump, Politics 

The Flock camera debate turns physical.

A candidate running for Tennessee’s 2nd Congressional District is now facing felony charges after authorities say he admitted to shooting down four automated license plate reader cameras — including at least one made by Flock Safety, the surveillance company at the center of a growing national privacy fight.

‘Gotta ban these dadgum things.’

Last week, Adam Lee Heimerman, 37, of Lenoir City, was arrested and charged with four counts of felony vandalism.

According to the Blount County Sheriff’s Office and Maryville Police Department, Heimerman admitted to investigators that he used a gun to shoot four automated license plate reader systems over the span of nine days in July.

According to a statement from police, the damaged cameras were first discovered on July 25 — three in Blount County and one in the City of Maryville — prompting a joint investigation by the two agencies.

Officials said evidence showed Heimerman accessed one of the systems from the “property of a house of worship” while a church service was under way.

RELATED: The truth about Flock cameras: ‘We are the sheep, and they are controlling us’

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

The congressional hopeful is now being held at the Blount County Correctional Facility on bonds totaling $40,000, with a hearing scheduled for 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday in Blount County General Sessions Court.

Since his arrest, Heimerman has received a remarkable amount of support.

A GoFundMe started on Friday has raked in over $12,000 from more than 360 donors.

Rather than focus on the felony vandalism charges, the fundraiser casts Heimerman as a longtime Tennessean standing up for personal freedom, privacy, and government oversight, with the money earmarked for his defense attorneys.

RELATED: Flock off, Axon on

Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc/Getty Images

Heimerman is running as an independent candidate for Tennessee’s 2nd Congressional District, facing off against Democratic candidate Michaela Barnett and Republican incumbent Tim Burchett.

Burchett, one of Congress’ loudest critics of Flock, has been blunt about his objections to the technology. He previously told reporters that lawmakers “gotta ban these dadgum things,” arguing that Americans should never have to choose between safety and liberty.

He recently introduced a bill that would bar federal agencies from buying or accessing automated surveillance systems and that would prevent state and local agencies from using federal funds to purchase them, citing Fourth Amendment concerns.

Under Burchett’s proposal, counties could still contract with Flock — they’d just have to pay for the privilege themselves.

Barnett, the Democratic candidate, has also spoken out against Flock cameras and other mass surveillance tools — although, as one outlet dryly noted, she has not proposed destroying them.

Asked by Military.com about Heimerman’s case, Barnett’s campaign stood by the underlying grievance but condemned the method. “The answer is not the unsafe discharge of a weapon in public spaces,” Barnett said.

Beyond Heimerman’s case, in neighboring Knox County, Mayor Glenn Jacobs — the former WWE wrestler known as Kane — put a hold on the local sheriff’s plan to install 270 Flock cameras, arguing the technology raises Fourth Amendment concerns.

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​Federal agencies, Felony charges, Fourth amendment, Government oversight, License plate reader, Tennessee, Us house, Vandalism, Mass surveillance, Tim burchett, Politics 

Governors Spencer Cox (R-Utah) and Kevin Stitt (R-Okla.) are giddy at the prospect of working with Democrats to import more migrants.

Cox pledged himself to the National Governors Association Task Force on Immigration Policy alongside longtime Trump critic Stitt, Wes Moore (D-Md.), and Matt Meyer (D-Del.) in a Bloomberg interview on Saturday. The four shared a bipartisan love-fest before slamming federal immigration policy and ICE.

‘States that did not face the invasion Texas confronted should not dictate terms that reopen the door.’

“We all care — Republicans and Democrats — about a secure border,” Cox said.

“We were together in February and having a conversation about immigration, and we were all shocked at the level of bipartisanship, cooperation, and agreement,” Cox said. “We were really stunned that everybody had kind of the same opinions on what needed to be done.”

Those “same opinions” seemed to revolve around the agribusiness, construction, and hospitality lobbies’ labor demands. It’s an approach that sees illegal immigration as a workforce resource rather than a crime.

“The reason I set this task force up is because I realized by talking to my colleagues that they’re having the same issues,” Stitt told Bloomberg’s Christina Ruffini. “They’re having the calls from their workforce community — whether it’s agriculture, whether it’s construction or hospitality — and they’re saying we’re overthinking this issue. Let’s actually have the governors issue workforce permits.”

The NGA’s approach mirrors a recent bill introduced by Sen. John Curtis (R-Utah) that would allow states to control their own work visa policies and circumvent federal immigration enforcement.

RELATED: Pro-amnesty Utah Republican introduces last-ditch bill to import more migrants

Heather Diehl/Getty Images

“I’m wondering if you think the way ICE and DHS have been going about this process has been effective, by a show of hands,” Bloomberg asked the governors.

Neither Republican governor raised his hand.

When asked about his concerns with Trump’s approach, Cox pointed to “the violence and the deaths that we’ve seen” amid Minnesota enforcement actions, calling them “deeply problematic.”

Cox refused to vote for Trump in 2016 or 2020. He intended to withhold his vote again in 2024, but finally relented after Trump was nearly killed in Butler, Pennsylvania.

In 2022, Charlie Kirk called for Cox’s expulsion from the Republican Party after the governor supported keeping trans-identifying male athletes in women’s sports.

“We’re not using common sense right now,” Stitt continued.

“I’ll give you a perfect example. We had a person from Vietnam that’s been in Oklahoma City for 25 years, legally in the United States, with a green card, working at Hobby Lobby,” Stitt said.

“Twenty-five years ago, they got caught smoking marijuana. At that time, they self-deported, then came back legally. … They’ve been a great citizen chasing the American dream, but they’ve been picked up for deportation now.”

Stitt received Trump’s endorsement and fundraising aid in 2022, but endorsed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in the 2024 primaries. Trump later referred to him as a “RINO Governor” and requested intermediaries tell Stitt to “go f**k himself,” according to NOTUS.

Cox and Stitt may have found common ground with Democrat governors, but at least one Republican governor, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, disagrees with them on this issue.

“Governor Abbott will not support proposals that create new incentives for illegal entry or that treat those already here unlawfully as a ready labor pool. Texas jobs belong to Texans,” Abbott spokesperson Andrew Mehalaris told Blaze News. “States that did not face the invasion Texas confronted should not dictate terms that reopen the door.”

An agenda for the NGA Task Force on Immigration Policy has yet to be released.

Cox, Stitt, Moore, Meyer, and the NGA did not respond to requests for comment.

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​Kevin stitt, Oklahoma, Spencer cox, Utah, Immigration, Politics 

Residents of Massachusetts will have to live with more illegal aliens among them after the Democrat-controlled government passed the “strongest” protections against Immigration and Customs Enforcement yet.

Gov. Maura Healey (D-Mass.) signed the Protect Act on Wednesday in a ceremony at an economic development agency in the city of Chelsea.

‘ICE is so wrong in what it’s doing, and ICE needs to be stopped, here in Massachusetts and around this country, just stopped in its tracks.’

Healey claimed the law included the “strongest” protections for illegal aliens against ICE.

“I think we can agree that we need immigration reform in this country,” Healey said to reporters. “We can agree we need controls at the border. We can also agree that ICE is so wrong in what it’s doing, and ICE needs to be stopped, here in Massachusetts and around this country, just stopped in its tracks.”

The bill will restrict ICE agents from performing civil immigration arrests without a warrant at courthouses, schools, child care centers, and health care facilities.

Healey said the fear of ICE operations has led the immigrant community in Chelsea to stop going to doctor appointments and to take their kids out of school. Chelsea schools have reported a decline in attendance.

She also claimed that ICE agents at courthouses have kept witnesses and others from showing up to their hearings.

“This is what ICE is doing to our people and our neighborhoods,” Healey said. “All of this done by ICE agents, who are untrained, unqualified, and unfit to do their jobs.”

RELATED: Sheriff pushes back against edict from New York governor to END cooperation with ICE

The Trump administration has increased immigration enforcement this summer, leading to a record number of detentions for the month of July, according to records obtained by CBS News.

“The Protect Act is the strongest law in the country to protect people from ICE, and to protect public safety,” Healey concluded.

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​Department of homeland security, Immigration and customs enforcement, Illegal immigration, Politics, Maura healey 

The 37-year-old male accused of starting the devastating Old Trails Fire in Spokane, Washington — which has displaced more than 60,000 people since Saturday — was convicted of killing his father in Arizona, officials told KPNX-TV.

The station, citing records, said Aaron Farinacci was convicted over a decade ago of manslaughter and aggravated assault after killing his father.

‘It was citizens who were paying attention to their surroundings, being aware and willing to step up and say something, that led to the relatively quick apprehension of Mr. Farinacci.’

Farinacci was released from prison six years ago, KPNX said, and he was arrested Monday on a first-degree arson charge.

“Mr. Farinacci is a convicted felon out of the state of Arizona,” Spokane County Sheriff John Nowels said, according to the station. “Major crimes detectives in Spokane County were able to identify him. They developed probable cause and determined the origin of the fire was indeed exactly where the witnesses had seen Mr. Farinacci kneeling in the grass earlier that day.”

According to the sheriff, a witness said Farinacci was bending down near some grass and looked nervous — and then the witness said smoke was coming from the area soon after, KPNX reported.

The sheriff added to the station that Farinacci was carrying waterproof matches and butane when he was arrested.

Spokane County Jail records indicate that Farinacci remained behind bars Wednesday on a $1 million bond.

“As it happens in so many critical cases, it was citizens who were paying attention to their surroundings, being aware and willing to step up and say something, that led to the relatively quick apprehension of Mr. Farinacci,” Sheriff Nowels said, according to KREM-TV.

RELATED: Video: Thug throws Molotov cocktail at man in wheelchair, setting him on fire — right in front of police headquarters

Documents show that Farinacci pleaded guilty to shooting and killing his father in October 2010 amid a domestic dispute, KREM reported in a separate story.

Farinacci, 21 years old at the time, was in the dining room with his mother and adoptive father when he got into an argument with his father over doing the dishes, KREM said, citing records.

More from KREM:

The man then retreated into his parents’ bedroom, and his father followed, opening the bedroom door with a key. Documents show that Farinacci armed himself with a gun kept in the room and shot his father, striking him in the face, and then shot him again in the back as his father turned to leave.

Farinacci ran from the scene and then “shot himself in the chest with the same gun he used to shoot his father,” according to documents.

Farinacci told police that the shooting was an accident and that he felt he “deserved to be sentenced to prison as he took someone’s life.”

Farinacci was convicted of manslaughter and aggravated assault in 2012, KREM said, adding that records show he was released from prison in 2020 and discharged from probation in 2024 while living with a girlfriend in Washington state.

Farinacci, a Spokane resident, has no previous history of arson, KREM said.

The Old Trails Fire has become the most destructive fire in Spokane history, KREM added, forcing more than 60,000 people to evacuate and burning down at least 700 homes.

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The WNBA’s Atlanta Dream held a Barbie Night on Monday in celebration of star player Angel Reese getting her own doll, but Reese’s pregame comments are what stole the show.

With her mini-me sitting on the table in front of her, Reese made a bold claim for the ages that brought more unneeded politics into a league that could sorely use a break.

‘I didn’t have dolls that really look like me.’

Barbie basics

Reporters were lobbing softball questions to Reese before the game, with one journalist referring to the player as “Barbie” before asking how it feels to be the first Atlanta-based athlete to have a doll modeled after her.

“It feels amazing,” Reese replied. “To be at first always means a lot. Especially [since] there’s a lot of women that have come before me.”

Following up with another beach ball, the reporter asked, “What were some of the dolls you played with when you were little?”

Reese immediately turned to identity politics for her answer:

“Honestly, I didn’t have a lot of dolls because I didn’t have dolls that really look like me much,” the baller claimed. “And that’s why I kind of really wanted to make sure this was super intentional because, now that they have a doll that that looks like you and nails and hair, but also you can be a killer on the court as well. So that was something that was important for me when getting the doll.”

Reese’s baffling claim defies all known Barbie history, which launched its first black doll named Francie in 1966, billed as Barbie’s cousin. Christie followed in 1968, Barbie’s friend. Creator Mattel then went against its own storyline in 1980 when it released Black Barbie.

RELATED: WNBA coach counter-protests Sophie Cunningham with ‘trans kids’ shirt — Caitlin Clark responds

Doll partisans

Reese was born in 2002, the same year several major doll lines featured prominent black characters. This included Bratz doll Sasha and My Scene doll Madison. My Scene released a Jamaican line of dolls in 2003 as well.

In 2005, music group Destiny’s Child (which included Beyonce) had its own Barbie dolls.

These dolls are not cherry-picked; the examples are widespread.

Reese’s new doll is part of the Barbie Signature lineup that is now sold at $38 each on Mattel’s website. Other dolls in the same line include one modeled after singer Miley Cyrus, astronaut Ellen Ochoa, and Juneteenth activist Opal Lee.

NBA icon LeBron James even has a Barbie doll too.

RELATED: WNBA deletes ‘lighthearted’ video that would actually get players in other leagues banned for life

Paras Griffin/Getty Images

Celebrity thoughts

Reese’s statement is reminiscent of bold celebrity claims in recent years that likely sounded groundbreaking during inner monologues, only to be laughable when they were verbalized.

This includes actor Jennifer Lawrence’s 2022 idea that “nobody had ever put a woman in the lead of an action movie” before her “Hunger Games” films. This was debunked in seconds when viewers pointed to Sigourney Weaver in 1979’s “Alien” or the many subsequent “Resident Evil” and “Underworld” movies.

In 2024, action star Lucy Liu claimed that before her film “Charlie’s Angels,” the media “had never before had three women on a magazine cover.”

“They didn’t even know how to do it. It was such a strange thing for women to collaborate and be seen as colleagues and friends,” she added.

This claim ignored the history of the original “Charlie’s Angels,” who shared not only a 1976 cover of People magazine but also Time magazine that same year. Liu went on to make false statements about female television leads as well.

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