Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) introduced two new bills on Thursday targeting child exploitation through surrogacy and held a press conference with fellow Republican Reps. Tim Burchett of Tennessee and Randy Fine of Florida to discuss the details.

“We are here because we are concerned about the safety and the welfare of children — and, in particular, the use of surrogacy to get around [the law],” Perry said.

‘Children are not pets. Children are not property.’

Perry’s legislation is twofold. The first bill closes a dangerous loophole that allows registered sex offenders to legally obtain children through surrogacy agencies, and the second bars foreign nationals from using American surrogacy agencies to obtain U.S. citizen children altogether.

Protecting kids from creeps

The first bill, the Protecting Kids from Creeps Act, was sparked by a recent case in Pennsylvania.

Brandon Riley-Mitchell, a former high school chemistry teacher, pleaded guilty to felony child pornography charges after sending more than 12,000 texts to a 16-year-old student, soliciting nude photos, and sending roughly 20 nude images of himself.

He served time in prison and was designated a registered Tier I sex offender. Then, he and his male romantic partner obtained a newborn through surrogacy — legally.

The couple set up a GoFundMe to fund the surrogacy, seemingly without disclosing Mitchell’s sex offender status to donors.

RELATED: ‘There is no mama’: Two homosexuals taunt surrogate baby crying for his mother: VIDEO

Pennsylvania State Police

York County District Attorney Tim Barker confirmed to Newsweek that there was nothing prosecutors could do. Unlike adoption, which requires background checks, home studies, and court approval, private surrogacy agreements operate with virtually no oversight. Mitchell found the gap and walked right through it.

Perry’s bill slams that door shut with serious penalties.

Any sex offender who knowingly enters into a surrogacy agreement would face a mandatory minimum of 20 years in federal prison. Surrogacy agency employees who knowingly facilitate such a deal would face the same. Agencies that act recklessly would face a minimum of 10 years, would lose their 501(c)(3) status, and would be permanently barred from receiving federal grants.

The bill defines “sex offender” broadly — covering anyone who is, or ever was, required to register under the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act.

Rep. Burchett didn’t mince words about the importance of the bill.

“A sex offender — these dirtbags — we need to send them all to hell, but they’ve got no right to obtain a child through surrogacy. They lost that right when they committed a disgusting crime that put them on this list,” Burchett said.

Burchett closed with Scripture. “Jesus said, ‘How you treat the least amongst you is how you treat me,'” Burchett said.

Preventing foreign exploitation of US surrogacy

The second bill, H.R. 9132, which Perry said already has co-sponsorship, targets a separate but equally alarming problem: foreign nationals — including citizens of adversarial nations — using American surrogacy agencies to have children with U.S. citizenship.

Perry framed it plainly: “International commercial surrogacy, birth tourism — it’s a national security threat. It invites immigration fraud and malfeasance, and most importantly, it is an ethical, moral imperative — because we are allowing, if not facilitating, child endangerment.”

Perry pointed specifically to wealthy Chinese nationals exploiting the system. He cited the case of a Chinese man who fathered more than 100 children through U.S. surrogacy.

Other accounts describe Chinese men having surrogate children raised by nannies. One California agency owner described helping a client who wanted more than 200 children to build a family enterprise.

“There’s a mansion in California where people roll up to it like it’s a drive-thru and pick up these babies and send them to China,” Perry said. “This is horrific. And it’s horrific that it’s happening in the United States of America. Yet it is.”

Reportedly, more than 107 Chinese-owned surrogacy agencies are currently operating in Southern California alone. The issue was also addressed in a letter from Sens. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Rick Scott (R-Fla.) to then-Attorney General Pam Bondi. Children born through these arrangements automatically receive U.S. citizenship — making them eligible to vote, access sensitive government positions, and eventually sponsor their foreign parents for immigrant visas.

Perry noted that even China has banned surrogacy domestically.

“We don’t want to be creating spies with American passports who are raised in China and have their allegiance to the Communist Party of China,” Perry said.

“If you live in one of these countries and you want to have a surrogate child, do that in your country. Don’t come to America.”

When Blaze News asked Perry whether he expects pushback from California Democrats, given that 107 Chinese-owned agencies are reportedly operating in their back yard, he didn’t hold back.

“I do expect a response from California Democrats. Unfortunately, they could have introduced this legislation — these things were occurring in their back yard. They were easy for us to find. Apparently, they not only don’t care about it, they’re good with it,” Perry said.

“Look, we’re on the high ground here. Doesn’t matter what the response is. I don’t know how you can defend sending children — newborns — to pedophiles.”

The bill would void any surrogacy contract between an American surrogate and a foreign national prospective parent and impose up to 10 years in prison on brokers who facilitate such agreements. Rep. Perry says the bill includes an exception for married couples of whom at least one prospective parent is a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident.

“Families are important to Americans, and we want to enable that,” Perry said. “But it also doesn’t oppose restrictions to ensure surrogacy or IVF clinic channels aren’t exploited by foreign nationals without allegiance to the U.S. or current and former sex offenders. That’s what we’re trying to get after.”

Rep. Fine offered a pointed summary: “Surrogacy is a special, almost holy procedure. … But like so many things in our culture, this noble, special, almost holy process where someone gives of themselves to make someone else a parent has been perverted and bastardized for those who would seek to do evil.”

“Children are not pets. Children are not property,” Perry said.

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​Politics, Surrogacy, Sex offenders 

Better 30-plus years late than never?

Ted Danson committed one of the most outrageous blackface routines ever in 1993. The “Cheers” star was dating Whoopi Goldberg at the time, and the two appeared at the New York Friars Club, a comedians’ hangout.

The tour’s stage visuals included the group’s crow logo dressed as Uncle Sam. The crowd spontaneously began chanting, ‘USA, USA!’

His mission? Roast Goldberg, then a legitimate star and recent Oscar winner for “Ghost.” Except Danson wasn’t, and still isn’t, a stand-up comic. So he went for “performance artist,” dressing in full blackface to riff on interracial couples and related themes.

Regrets, Danson has a few, even though Goldberg helped write his jokes.

“Your intentions do not matter. The impact you have on people is what matters,” he told super woke comic W. Kamau Bell on the latter’s podcast.

The moment never rose to the level of career cancellation. Few stars have worked more than Danson over the decades. He keeps finding long-running TV shows like “The Good Place,” “Becker,” and, most recently, “A Man on the Inside.”

Now, if we can only get Jimmy “Karl Malone” Kimmel canceled …

No Joy in ‘View’-ville

Did Joy Behar just get Wally Pipped?

Pipp famously played first base for the New York Yankees in the 1920s, but he took a day off to battle a headache issue. His replacement? Lou Gehrig, the “Iron Man” who went on to play 2,130 straight games for the team.

Joy Behar voluntarily stepped aside from “The View” this week to work on her play, “My First Ex-Husband,” set to bow on the West End.

Behar’s blend of ugly banter, misinformation, and ignorance seems impossible to replace, even temporarily.

Enter Kara Swisher, a far-left journalist known for covering the tech beat. And, boy, did she bring it during her “View” debut. She compared Secretary of War Pete Hegseth to a talk show host, suggesting he lacked combat experience.

That ignored Hegseth’s decorated military career, including two Bronze Star Medals, two Army Commendation Medals, and the Joint Commendation Medal.

Later, Swisher said Scott Pelley’s dismissal from “60 Minutes” was an attack on the media, not the fallout from publicly blasting his bosses. Finally, she ran to senatorial hopeful Graham Platner’s defense after the Maine resident’s wife had to bail him out of a gross sexting scandal.

Watch your back, Joy. Swisher is swinging a hot bat in the on-deck circle …

RELATED: D-Day drama ‘Pressure’ celebrates forgotten values

Alex Bailey/Focus Features

Nothing to Crowe about

You’d think peaking in the 1990s would bring a bit of humility to a band.

Not for the Black Crowes, who broke out in a big way with songs like “She Talks to Angels” and “Jealous Again.” The band is back on the road, but a recent Florida tour stop became a prime example of rake stepping.

The tour’s stage visuals included the group’s crow logo dressed as Uncle Sam. The crowd spontaneously began chanting, “USA, USA!”

Rather than lean into the sentiment or simply smile over fans having a blast, lead singer Chris Robinson lectured them, according to TMZ. From the stage he snarked, “Thanks for the geography lesson. … I don’t know what you have to be so proud of right now.”

That landed poorly with the crowd, so he doubled down amid the boos and walkouts.

“For those of you f**king booing us, some of us are not afraid. And we most assuredly are not f**king ignorant.”

Here’s guessing his band won’t be playing that Freedom 250 concert, either …

Quentin unchained

This former video store clerk has had enough of Hollywood dreck, thank you. Except he’s so stuck on his 10th and “final” film that he’s not personally helping matters.

Quentin Tarantino penned a blistering essay this week on the current state of the Hollywood movie. Spoiler alert — it stinks, to paraphrase Jon Lovitz’s “Critic” character.

Since the pandemic, for me anyway, it seems almost impossible for a new movie to come out that I don’t pick to death. Flaws, implausibilities, audience pandering, miscast performers, or just plain stupid s**t usually torpedoes every new movie coming out of the flavorless sausage factory that used to call itself Hollywood.

Yikes.

Tarantino has pledged to stop making movies after he completes his 10th film. He seems stuck on number nine, following the roaring success of 2019’s “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.”

His planned final film, “The Movie Critic,” got scrapped in 2024. He’s gotten plenty of criticism for overusing the “N-word” on-screen and featuring too many feet close-ups over the years. Maybe penning a screenplay without his signature tics is proving harder than he thought.

​Jimmy kimmel, Kara swisher, Pete hegseth, Quentin tarantino, Scott pelley, Toto recall, Whoopi goldberg, Joy behar, Entertainment, Gossip, Hollywood, Lifestyle 

In the same week that a potential New World screwworm outbreak threatens Texas cattle, prompting a major response from the Department of Agriculture, Google has become the object of public ire as it attempts to move forward with a new mosquito experiment in a couple of states across the country.

As part of the project to “stop bad bugs with good bugs,” Google’s Debug program aims to release millions of sterile mosquitoes in order to combat and eradicate disease-carrying mosquitoes, the “deadliest animal on the planet.”

‘We do not consent to this experiment. Do not release the modified mosquitoes in our State.’

While the thought of fighting mosquitoes by releasing millions more mosquitoes may seem counterintuitive, the Sterile Insect Technique, as it is called, has proven effective in other bug species, including the aforementioned screwworm.

A singular species of mosquito, the Aedes aegypti, is responsible for most of the cases of diseases like dengue, Zika, yellow fever, and chikungunya. The program seeks to target this particular species in the hopes of drastically reducing the population of disease-carrying mosquitoes.

RELATED: Flesh-eating parasite found in Texas cattle has USDA on high alert

Michael Rakim/Washington Post/Getty Images

The technique is simple: Scientists will infect male mosquitoes, which cannot bite, with a naturally occurring bacteria called Wolbachia. The infection makes it impossible for the male mosquitoes to breed with wild female mosquitoes, though they will still seek them out and attempt to mate. The female will still lay eggs, but they will not hatch.

Scientists believe that this will cause a generational decline in this species of mosquito, thus reducing the risk of disease spreading to humans.

Google also says that this is more effective than spraying pesticides because the male mosquitoes can find them “in places that pesticides could never reach.” They are also building technology and monitoring systems to more efficiently target the invasive populations.

Google’s plan, however, has been met with significant pushback from the public during its approval process with the Environmental Protection Agency, particularly this week.

Google filed an experimental use permit application dated from December 2025 for permission to use the Wolbachia bacteria in male mosquitoes. This particular application seeks a trial period of two years in Florida and California. Google would release 16 million sterile mosquitoes infected with the bacteria into each state in year one, and 16 million more mosquitoes in each state in year two.

This particular application targets the species Culex quinquefasciatus, as opposed to Aedes aegypti, the species identified on the Debug website. It is important to note that Aedes aegypti is targeted in Debug’s international projects, while the domestic work in America targets different species.

The EPA published a notice in early May after deeming the application to have “regional and national significance.” The deadline for submitting a public comment is Friday. Readers can submit a comment to the EPA here.

The public has taken notice as hundreds of comments have flooded in the days and weeks leading up to the deadline. The comments have been overwhelmingly negative, with some begging to stop Google from moving forward.

“We do not consent to this experiment. Do not release the modified mosquitoes in our State,” one anonymous commenter said.

“I am vehemently opposed to any tech corporation releasing any mosquitoes in Florida or California, this is not to be taken lightly. This is not without serious possible consequences, and should not be done by [a] huge corporation, without consent and prior knowledge of the populations most affected. This is Frankenscience!!” another commenter said.

“I believe allowing corporations to recklessly tamper with my local Florida ecosystem (lifelong Floridian) is dangerous and frankly unconstitutional. This decision has not been put forth to the residents of Florida and California, and will be done against our wills. I urge the EPA to reject this proposal and create regulations banning corporations from doing similar actions in the future. Thank you,” a third commenter wrote.

As of this writing, this federal register filing received 377 comments. A similar application from Google targeting a different species with the same bacteria and whose public comment period closed on May 20 received only six comments.

This second application seeks approval for use in California, Florida, and New Jersey as well.

Debug announced last month that it expanded its research and development operation to Singapore in the first international expansion of the program’s capabilities.

Both federal register applications are awaiting EPA approval.

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​Department of agriculture, Environmental protection agency, Public comment, Research and development, Unconstitutional, Politics, Mosquitoes 

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested several violent criminal illegal aliens on Thursday, according to a Department of Homeland Security press release exclusively obtained by Blaze News.

The DHS highlighted five recent arrests and commended the efforts of ICE officers despite ongoing criticism from sanctuary politicians.

‘If you see an ICE officer, thank them for their service.’

“Yesterday, they arrested rapists, violent assailants, and drug traffickers,” stated DHS acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis.

“Despite their best efforts to keep our communities safe, sanctuary politicians continue spreading falsehoods about the men and women of ICE law enforcement and ICE facilities around the country,” Bis continued. “If you see an ICE officer, thank them for their service.”

Federal immigration agents arrested Esteban Morales-Cruz, an illegal alien from Mexico. He was previously convicted of lewd acts with a child under 14 years old in Santa Ana, California.

RELATED: ‘Violent agitator’ savagely bit ICE agent during riots in New Jersey, says DHS

Esteban Morales-Cruz. Image source: Department of Homeland Security

Gabriel Olivares, an illegal alien from Argentina, was also nabbed by ICE agents. His rap sheet includes a prior conviction for sodomy in Goshen, New York.

Gabriel Olivares. Image source: Department of Homeland Security

ICE captured a Guatemalan national, Wilson Avila-Perez. The criminal illegal alien was convicted of assault, domestic violence, and forgery — possession of a forged instrument in Phoenix, Arizona.

Wilson Avila-Perez. Image source: Department of Homeland Security

Immigration agents arrested Juan Carlos Herrera-Salazar, an illegal alien from Mexico who was convicted of selling heroin and cocaine in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Juan Carlos Herrera-Salazar. Image source: Department of Homeland Security

DHS also noted ICE’s arrest of David Livingston Attoh. The illegal alien from Ghana was convicted of aggravated identity theft and conspiracy to commit bank fraud in Baltimore, Maryland. Attoh was sentenced to three years in federal prison after pleading guilty to participating in a bank fraud conspiracy, according to a press release from the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office.

RELATED: Democrat governor files ‘frivolous’ lawsuit to shut down ICE facility

David Livingston Attoh. Image source: Department of Homeland Security

“Our ICE law enforcement officers truly are the best of the best. They put their lives on the line every day to arrest the worst of the worst,” Bis said.

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​News, Department of homeland security, Dhs, Immigration and customs enforcement, Ice, Illegal immigration, Immigration enforcement, Politics 

A historic battle is taking place in Southwest Colombia involving two native tribes that date back hundreds of years.

The conflict has caught eyes around the world for its use of “traditional” weapons among the groups, which included people hurling stones before escalating to more deadly means.

‘Differences should not be resolved through confrontations.’

While there is no consensus on the pre-Hispanic history of the Misak, the tribe of around 21,000 is in a dispute with the Nasa peoples, who also existed before Spanish arrivals and now are believed to have a population of around 240,000.

According to Colombian magazine Revista Sur, members of the Guambía Indigenous Reservation (Misak) and the Pitayó Reservation (Nasa) went to battle for several days over the ownership of an 800-hectare area in Silvia, Colombia, about 10 hours south of Medellin.

The Misaks reportedly believe the land should be theirs by ancestral right and have accused the Nasa of illegally occupying the land for three months.

Videos of the tribal warfare have surfaced online, with one pointing out the use of “traditional weapons” garnering millions of views.

Outlet El Pais also noted that the conflict escalated from what originally consisted of people “using stones and sticks.”

RELATED: Rep. Anna Paulina Luna to file charges against Code Pink co-founder after alleged ‘assault’ — and there’s video

Soon, the clashes escalated to machetes, firearms, and even explosive devices, according to El Tiempo. Motorcycles and homes were also torched, with Colombian military eventually sent to calm the dispute.

However, AA has since reported six people are dead and more than 100 have been injured in the clash. The region has reportedly been plagued with illegal drug production and past territorial disputes, which have sometimes included forcible detainments of individuals by opposing groups.

Despite what the Misak have claimed, the National Land Authority has sided with the Nasa people, saying in March that the Authority knew there would be tension over the decision.

“There are no ‘defeated towns’ or ‘winning towns,'” the ANT reportedly said. “There are valid colonial titles, formalized reservations, and an institutional duty of the ANT to find solutions that respect agrarian regulations.”

RELATED: 4 Republicans vote with Democrats to rebuke Trump on Iran war

JOAQUIN SARMIENTO/AFP/Getty Images

Although the ANT included in its ruling that any Misak who lived in the area could not be displaced or “dispossessed,” 500 of the tribe members have been in the Colombian capital of Bogota since mid-May to complain about the government decision.

The Misak people are reportedly seeking guarantees about land they consider to be in their possession.

The Ombudsman’s Office reportedly called for calm and said that “differences should not be resolved through confrontations.”

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​Tribes, News, Colombia, Native, Indigenous people, War, Lifestyle 

Spencer Pratt has been portrayed by the left-wing media as a one-time reality star villain with no experience, but BlazeTV host Liz Wheeler did a little digging into the Los Angeles mayoral candidate’s past — and there’s much more to him then his critics are letting on.

“What is Spencer Pratt’s experience?” Wheeler asks. “Well, most people say none. He just kind of has a good idea of what he might do. He has some connections. Or they might say a reality TV star, a villain on television.”

However, Wheeler explains that his experience is actually “a track record of being majorly successful based on his own ingenuity and hustling.”

“Spencer Pratt graduated from USC with a degree in political science, so politics is not totally foreign to this man. He, yes, he starred on a reality TV show, ‘The Hills,’ but he also created and executive produced another reality TV show called ‘The Princes of Malibu’ on Fox,” she explains.

This, Wheeler says, proves he is a “successful businessman.”

“That’s not just nepotism. You have to get ratings with your show, which means it has to be clever. It has to be good. You have to be able to pitch it and show why viewers are going to like it,” she explains, pointing out that this is only a “fraction of his experience.”

“After his reality TV days, he became a community advocate and a citizen journalist. He filled a void in Los Angeles in the Pacific Palisades after his home and his parents’ home and his neighbors’ homes all burned down,” she says.

“He documented the reality of what was happening, what it was like, what had happened to him in the Pacific Palisades in the aftermath of the fires. This is when the mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, was dancing in Ghana,” she adds.

Wheeler explains that Pratt’s ability to “identify a void” and “being a citizen journalist at a time when politicians in the mainstream media were gaslighting the entire country about what happened in the Pacific Palisades Fire” is necessary to be a politician who actually creates change.

“On top of serving that need, which is a form of entrepreneurship, he then took his wife, whom, by the way, he’s been married to for a long time … took his wife’s 15-year-old music … and he brought it back to life,” she explains.

“I’m talking last year and the year before. And he made this 15-year-old album an international hit. It reached number one on iTunes and number two on Billboard Dance. It was charting in Europe, in the U.K.,” she says.

“This is Spencer Pratt’s experience,” she continues, adding, “He took things that weren’t, and he created them. He took things that were broken, and he exposed them. He took things that were dead and brought them back to life.”

Want more from Liz Wheeler?

To enjoy more of Liz’s based commentary, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Heidi montag, Karen bass, Liz wheeler, Los angeles, Pacific palisades, Spencer pratt, The liz wheeler show 

American Catholics kicked off the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage in St. Augustine, Florida, over the Memorial Day weekend. In the days since, pilgrims from numerous dioceses have joined the procession — the theme of which is “one nation under God” — along its roughly 2,000-mile route, which threads most of the original 13 colonies.

The procession, which began just days after the similarly themed multidenominational Rededicate 250 event at the National Mall, will ultimately conclude over the 4th of July weekend in Philadelphia, where pilgrims will honor the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

The “perpetual pilgrims” will also carry the Eucharist — which Catholics hold to be the real and substantial presence of Jesus Christ — through the national capital on Saturday.

‘We ask God to bless the United States.’

“This procession is both an act of faith and a prayer for the country: that amid division and uncertainty, Americans remember that human dignity, freedom, and unity are rooted in something greater than politics or ideology,” said Jason Shanks, president of the National Eucharistic Congress, in a statement obtained by Blaze News.

Fr. Charles Trullols, director of the Catholic Institute Center, which has partnered with the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage, will receive the consecrated host at the Basilica of Saint Mary in Alexandria on Friday evening. He will then begin this leg of the pilgrimage and carry the Blessed Sacrament through the night, blessing Virginia and the District of Columbia along the way.

The procession will resume on Saturday morning and weave through the streets of Washington — stopping at the Saint John Paul II National Shrine, then ending at “America’s Catholic Church,” the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception for Mass.

Pilgrims will be led on Saturday by the Metropolitan D.C. Police.

“It is a great joy to bring the Body of Christ to the streets of our nation’s capital,” said Fr. Trullols, whose organization has held Eucharistic processions in the national capital annually since 2023, in a statement obtained by Blaze News.

“A Eucharistic procession is a public expression of our devotion and belief in the True Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. This year’s procession is especially meaningful to me, as Pope Leo XIV leads a Eucharistic procession this weekend in my home country of Spain, which historically suppressed Eucharistic processions in the 1930s.”

RELATED: Pope Leo XIV recognizes martyrdom of Christians slaughtered by Spanish leftists

Basilica of the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. Robert Knopes/UCG/Universal Images Group/Getty Images

“As we approach America’s 250th birthday, we join the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage in remembering and giving thanks for being One Nation Under God,” continued Fr. Trullols. “We ask God to bless the United States and pray that hearts be set aflame with love for [the Eucharist,] the Source and Summit of the Christian life.”

The pilgrimage has been placed under the patronage of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, the first American citizen to be canonized as a saint.

Cabrini, the youngest of 13 children, was a nun who founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart in Italy to take care of poor kids in schools and hospitals. She continued this mission in the United States, founding 67 institutions, including orphanages and hospitals. Years after becoming a citizen, she succumbed to complications from dysentery at one of her hospitals in Chicago.

Next week, as part of the broader religious celebrations coinciding with honors paid to America on her 250th birthday, U.S. Catholic bishops plan to consecrate the U.S. to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

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​Catholic, America, 250, Declaration of independence, Washington, Dc, Christian, Eucharist, Prayer, Pilgrim, Pilgrimage, Politics 

A person who took a recent viral video caught something suspicious about several barrels next to a highway: They were watching him.

When a citizen pulled off to the side of an Arizona highway, he saw yellow barrels that are seemingly inconspicuous, but upon closer inspection, he saw they had slots carved out for multiple camera lenses.

‘Often the same systems employed by state and local law enforcement nationwide.’

The cameras tucked in the barrel were pointed in both directions and had a power source plugged into them that the man in the video claimed “just goes off in the distance.”

What are they?

The video has been viewed more than 1.5 million times on X, and while it is unclear exactly where the barrels are located, they match the description of setups along U.S. Route 60, east of Apache Junction, Arizona. This remote stretch over 100 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border is where is where Border Patrol authorities are setting up automated license plate recognition cameras.

As reported by AZ Mirror, the disguised cameras look so much like traffic/construction markers — they indeed are construction markers, just with holes cut out — that the Arizona Department of Transportation asked Customs and Border Protection to stop using them because they could confuse drivers.

RELATED: Big Brother on the road: Backlash grows against license plate surveillance

Plate readers are often “disguised along highways in traffic safety equipment like drums and barrels,” the Associated Press wrote in November 2025.

The AZ Mirror further noted that cameras have been spotted in orange traffic cones, yellow barrels, speed trap signs, and on the backs of overhead highway signs.

The same style of barrels in the viral video appears in CBP documents and permits dating back as far as 2019, with the documents providing a breakdown of the solar-powered cameras that go inside the barrels, complete with a battery and cellular unit.

“USBP monitoring equipment will be placed in the barrel and weighed down by sand. Barrel camera will have a power supply with solar panel placed thirty feet from the white line [at the road],” read a 2019 permit.

Another set of documents showed the same technology being used in cylindrical cones typically seen for road construction.

RELATED: License plate readers or surveillance? The number of AI cameras in the US is shocking

David L. Ryan/Boston Globe/Getty Images

Why are they there?

The AP reported last year that CBP has been tracking license plates to catch human smugglers as far back as 2017 in “an area of interest or smuggling route.”

“Once the investigation is complete, or the illicit activity has stopped in that area, the covert cameras are removed,” a document stated.

The CBP’s mission is “complex and relies on a layered mix of personnel, technology, and infrastructure to detect illicit activity while supporting lawful trade and travel,” the federal agency said, per the AZ Mirror.

The statement explained that the CBP approach uses license plate readers that are “often the same systems employed by state and local law enforcement nationwide” to identify threats and disrupt criminal networks.

Border Patrol said it does not provide the operational applications of its license plate readers to the public, nor does it disclose the specific number or locations of its cameras, citing “national security reasons.”

Who is monitoring them?

KOLD 13 News in Arizona, like other outlets, reported that Flock Safety cameras have been operating in Arizona regions like Sierra Vista and South Tucson. However, while these two jurisdictions ended their contracts with the surveillance company in May, Flock has operated many of the cameras being used by CBP.

The AP reported that while Flock is one of several companies used by border agents, CBP had access to at least 1,600 of Flock’s license plate readers across 22 states at one time.

As previously reported by Blaze News, Flock is used by more than 5,000 law enforcement agencies and has more than 100,000 ALPR cameras deployed in the United States.

Other camera companies being used by Border Patrol include Rekor and Vigilant Solutions. Rekor launched in 2019 with an announcement that it had recorded a whopping 30 million plate reads per week.

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​Border patrol, Human smuggling, Arizona, Surveillance state, Tech 

A Florida woman has been arrested after authorities said her two dogs fatally mauled a neighbor. There had reportedly been over a dozen complaints about the dogs before the fatal dog attack.

Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey announced the arrest of 29-year-old Linda Cutler at a recent press conference. Cutler was charged with manslaughter in connection with the death of 50-year-old Jodi Cowan, who reportedly was mauled to death by Cutler’s dogs.

‘We have a complete cultural meltdown where everybody’s got these big pit bulls, and nobody’s taking proper care of them.’

Judge David Koenig initially considered a $250,000 bond for Cutler but ultimately revoked it due to a prior arrest, ordering her to remain in jail, WKMG-TV reported.

Brevard County jail records show Cutler was previously charged with grand theft of a motor vehicle, possession of a controlled substance, and failure to appear.

In the early morning hours of May 19, Cowan was walking her own dog in her neighborhood in Cocoa.

Ivey said that’s when Cutler’s dogs climbed over a fence and “brutally” attacked Cowan.

“The dogs identified as Max and Mako climbed over the owner’s fence and began to brutally attack and maul Cowan, forcing her to the ground, viciously attacking her, and eventually dragging her across the ground for quite some distance,” Ivey said during the press conference.

Ivey stated that a neighbor’s surveillance camera caught the dogs charging toward Cowan before attacking her.

As Blaze News previously reported, Cowan’s partner of 25 years discovered her in a pool of blood as the dogs continued to try to drag her away.

Cowan’s partner, Donnell Smith, told WESH-TV he left his home to help a neighbor around 1 a.m., and Cowan and her dog were gone when he returned.

Smith said he heard a faint cry for help and then witnessed Cowan being dragged away by the animals.

“I saw the silhouette of the two dogs dragging my wife down the road, off into the grass in front of the truck down there,” a tearful Smith explained.

Smith recalled, “I pulled my knife out, you know, just swinging [it with] one hand and holding the blood with the other, trying to stop her from bleeding.”

“It was brutal. Seeing the same woman I’ve loved for the last 30 years, 25 years just ripped apart by two animals was just … I’ll never get that image out of my mind,” Smith noted.

Smith called 911, and Cowan was transported to the hospital but succumbed to her injuries about four hours later, according to Sheriff Ivey.

Smith believes his wife may have lost her life because she was attempting to rescue her own dog.

“They must have been chasing our little dog, and she went to save her little dog, to get him,” Smith said. “And then they switched their attention to her when she tried to get them off our little dog.”

Smith told WESH that he had previously alerted the sheriff’s office about Cutler’s dogs.

“I told them that she had those two pits that get out all the time and run the neighborhood and have been aggressive toward people, and they didn’t do anything about it,” Smith stated. “My wife lost her life because of it.”

RELATED: Beloved elderly fire department member mauled to death by pack of pit bull-mix dogs; owner charged with murder, animal abuse

WESH-TV reported that there were “more than a dozen calls made to animal control” regarding complaints about Cutler’s dogs dating back to 2024.

Cutler was issued four citations after two calls about dog bites in January and February 2024, according to WESH.

A complaint in 2025 claimed the dogs killed an outdoor cat.

WESH reported that one of the dogs bit someone on April 14, 2026, and the individual was taken to an emergency room.

Other calls focused on Cutler’s dogs running loose in the neighborhood.

WKMG-TV reported that the earlier incidents were not about the two dogs involved in the deadly mauling.

“It’s also important to note that during the early calls from 2024 through November of ’25, the calls at Cutler’s residence were related to other dogs, as the two dogs involved in this attack were puppies back then,” Ivey stated.

A neighbor told WESH, “We have a complete cultural meltdown where everybody’s got these big pit bulls, and nobody’s taking proper care of them.”

The neighbor added, “It is constant that dogs are running loose, and I understand that dogs are property, and the county is limited on what they can do, but a lady is dead.”

Ivey said, “Linda Cutler had specific and documented knowledge that her dogs repeatedly got out of her yard and additional knowledge that her dogs were attacking humans and had actually bitten someone.”

Ivey said Cutler “took minimal action to prevent her dogs from getting out of her yard.”

During the investigation, agents took a sworn statement from Cutler, who admitted that her dogs “routinely” escaped her yard and had to “repeatedly” return to her home, according to Ivey.

Sheriff Ivey said that Cutler confessed that she knew that one of her dogs previously had bitten another person, and her dogs were becoming “more and more aggressive, even toward her.”

Cutler claimed that she installed an additional fence, but knew there were holes through which her dogs escaped the yard, the sheriff said.

Ivey added that Cutler was staying at a beachfront hotel when officers with the Melbourne Police Department arrested her on the manslaughter warrant while responding to a separate “disturbance” involving her and others at the hotel.

Ivey said of Cutler, “Oh, and to make matters worse, when she was taken into custody, she feigned having a heart attack, and had to be, by policy, transported to a nearby hospital for evaluation.”

Sheriff Ivey is seen on video escorting Cutler into the Brevard County Jail, where he tells her, “Hope you enjoyed your time at the beach because you’re not going to be going back.”

Cutler replies, “What is the purpose of that?”

The sheriff fires back, “A woman is dead, and two dogs are about to be euthanized because of your uselessness.”

The Brevard County Sheriff’s Office said the dogs are expected to be euthanized.

When asked if Smith would ever forgive Cutler, he said, “I’ll have to think about that one. I’m not vindictive towards her. I don’t want anything evil happening to her, but to forgive her is gonna take a little work.”

The Melbourne Police Department and the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to Blaze News‘ requests for comment.

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​Florida, Florida crime, Florida woman, Pit bulls, Pitbulls, Dog attacks, Dogs, Animals, When animals attack, Mauling, Crime 

As the results trickled in for candidate Spencer Pratt, he projected confidence that not only did he already beat out Nithya Raman to make the runoff against incumbent Karen Bass — but he’s also confident Bass will be an easy opponent.

“Spencer Pratt is kind of already assuming he’s into this runoff,” BlazeTV host Stu Burguiere says, before playing a clip of Pratt talking to reporters before the results were all in.

“Are you going to debate Karen Bass again?” a reporter asked Pratt. “And what do you want to tell her if she sees this?”

“You know, I loved debating her on NBC. I look forward to a couple more on NBC and Fox. We can do debates every Friday if she would like because this actually became my most favorite thing to do,” Pratt responded.

“I hope she’s ready, because I literally could not be more excited,” he added.

“It is usually a good thing for a politician, Dave, to debate the dumbest people around them. So I think Spencer Pratt is in a good position here,” Stu says.

“It has helped a lot of people in the past. So I think it’s a very good idea,” co-host Dave Landau agrees, though he adds, “unfortunately, in California, I’m not sure if it’s going to help.”

“Yeah, it’s still going to be tough in Los Angeles for Spencer Pratt to win because when you have a situation where it’s two Democrats and one Republican, their votes get kind of split up,” Stu says.

“When you go the opposite way, and you have one Republican versus one Democrat, it’s very difficult to win in a city like this, especially in an election time that’s probably going to be pretty difficult for Republicans generally,” he continues.

“Pratt though is looking at this positively, Dave. He’s trying to take a positive spin on what is to come here in the next few months,” he adds.

In an interview following the latest election results, Pratt exclaimed that “obviously God wanted five more months” of him “exposing all the failures of our mayor.”

“So it’s going to be a fun ride. I hope she’s ready,” he said, adding that he was “born for this.”

“As far as debates go and going up against her and just trying to show track record,” Dave comments, “he’s got it in the bag.”

“As far as the, you know, votes that come in the bag in the middle of the night, those are the ones that I’d have to worry about,” he adds.

Want more from Stu and Dave?

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​Stu burguiere, Dave landau, Karen bass, Nithya raman, Spencer pratt, Los angeles, Mayoral race, Stu and dave do america 

Once you go black, you never go back.

But once you go blackface, you have to revisit it endlessly — at least if you’re Ted Danson.

Kimmel’s embrace of the tradition had been especially enthusiastic; the comic donned full-body makeup to play NBA star Karl Malone in a ‘Man Show’ sketch.

More than 30 years after donning minstrel makeup for a Friars Club roast of then-girlfriend Whoopi Goldberg, the “Cheers” actor’s face is still red.

“I need to and want to apologize for the rest of my life,” Danson said during a recent appearance on comedian W. Kamau Bell’s podcast. He went on to describe his tasteless gag as “so arrogant and stupid.”

Friars pan

The racially risque routine occurred in 1993 at New York’s Hilton Hotel, where Goldberg served as guest of honor and Danson appeared as roastmaster. According to contemporary reports, Danson’s routine included race-based jibes, references to his relationship with Goldberg, jokes about mixed-race children, and repeated use of racial slurs.

The act was hardly an unqualified success, offending both audience members and — once word spread — the wider public. Then-New York Mayor David Dinkins (D) reportedly left before the event ended, while television host Montel Williams publicly criticized the performance.

While Danson didn’t respond to the immediate backlash, Goldberg leaped to his defense, arguing that critics simply didn’t get typical roast humor. She added that the outre humor was in line with her own taboo-breaking career.

“We were not trying to be politically correct. We were trying to be funny for ourselves,” she said.

Goldberg also said she had contributed to the material and had even directed Danson to the makeup artist responsible for his Al Jolson-style look.

From ‘Cheers’ to jeers

“Poor Whoopi Goldberg has had to defend me over the years,” the 78-year-old told Bell, adding that he now thinks her defense doesn’t lessen his guilt.

“Your intentions do not matter. The impact you have on people is what matters,” he said.

Unlike today’s popular celebrity roasts, which are filmed and broadcast for public consumption, the 1993 gathering was meant only for those in attendance. While photographs from the roast remain widely circulated, little footage from the event appears to be publicly available.

A 1999 documentary about the Friars Club includes an audio snippet of Danson’s entrance, followed by raucous laughter from the crowd.

RELATED: Druski ‘whiteface’ skit EXPOSES racist double standard

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Sitcom shuffle

Danson’s apology is itself a throwback to the headier days of 2020, when the country’s George Floyd-inspired racial reckoning had Hollywood scrambling to erase any incidents of blackface in popular TV shows.

Affected programs included “The Office,” “Community,” “Scrubs,” and “The Golden Girls,” as well as “30 Rock,” which had a total of four episodes featuring blackface.

Late-night hosts also got into the act, with both Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel apologizing for their antiquated antics. Kimmel’s embrace of the tradition had been especially enthusiastic. While his Oprah Winfrey impersonation required face paint only, the comic donned full-body makeup to play NBA star Karl Malone in a “Man Show” sketch.

Softened-up shock jock Howard Stern infamously donned blackface while impersonating Danson not long after the roast, adding an exaggerated “black” accent for good measure. Although he didn’t apologize directly, he did admit it made him “cringe.”

He added that he didn’t think he was a “bad guy” and that he had “evolved and changed” thanks to therapy.

​Blackface controversy, Celebrity roasts, Friars club roast, Whoopi goldberg, Lifestyle, Ted danson