While the criminal case against the man accused of murdering Iryna Zarutska proceeds through the federal court system, one attorney representing the defendant is also running for office — as a Democrat.

On September 25, just over a month after Zarutska was brutally slain on a North Carolina subway, Joshua Snow Kendrick was appointed to be “learned counsel” to the man accused of murdering her: Decarlos Brown Jr. Kendrick was added to the defense team, U.S. Magistrate Judge Susan Rodriguez wrote, because defendants in capital cases have the right to an attorney who is “sufficiently experienced in providing representation in death penalty eligible offenses.”

Thus far, Kendrick has released few details about his platform.

The appointment has kept Kendrick busy. He has filed motion and after motion on behalf of Brown, including two motions in January to prevent the release of police bodycam video and other evidence to the media.

Yet Kendrick has still found time to launch a political campaign for the state House of South Carolina. Election records confirm that on March 26, Kendrick filed to run as a Democrat for South Carolina House District 22.

The email address that Kendrick included in his filing is the same email address listed on some of the motions filed in Brown’s capital murder case.

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

RELATED: Crucial detail about Iryna Zarutska’s suspected murderer may ease online outrage after ‘incompetency’ ruling

Peter Zay/Anadolu/Getty Images

The deadline to file to run for office in South Carolina this year has already passed, so Kendrick is set to sail through the Democratic primary on June 9 unopposed. But if incumbent state Rep. Paul Wickensimer can prevail in the Republican primary, he will be a formidable opponent for Kendrick come November.

District 22 is located just outside downtown Greenville and is considered solidly Republican. Wickensimer defeated his Democratic opponent by a decisive 60%-39.8% margin in 2024, and a Republican has held the seat since at least 2012, according to Ballotpedia.

Ballotpedia and BallotReady pages for Kendrick list only the 2026 South Carolina House District 22 race, suggesting he has never run for political office until now.

Thus far, Kendrick has released few details about his platform.

His ActBlue donation page reads:

Chip in today to support me for South Carolina House of Representatives. I am running to give you a voice in your government. It’s time to stop being ignored by our elected officials.

The website for the South Carolina Democratic Party lists Kendrick as the Democratic candidate for District 22 but otherwise gives no information about him. The party did not respond to a request for comment.

Decarlos Brown was declared mentally incompetent in the state case against him but still faces a federal charge of one count of committing an act causing death on a mass transportation system. If convicted, he could receive the death penalty.

H/T: Matt Van Swol

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​Iryna zarutska, Decarlos brown, Joshua kendrick, South carolina, Democratic party, Politics 

Ranked as the most popular digital payment service on the planet, Apple Pay is trusted by 785 million users to carry out both online and in-store transactions worldwide. Today, it accounts for 14.2% of all payments made online, with user adoption expected to climb through 2030, but should users trust it? A new bombshell revelation proves that Apple Pay is vulnerable to unauthorized transactions, and it has been broken for half a decade, with no software patch in sight.

The Apple Pay heist of the century

In mid-April, popular tech YouTuber Marques Brownlee (aka MKBHD) met with a researcher at Veritasium to conduct an experiment. The goal? To steal $10,000 from Marques’ Apple Pay account without his authorization — no password authentication, no FaceID detection, nothing.

The entire process takes less than 10 seconds.

The heist was pulled off using nothing but a MacBook, a burner phone, a wireless NFC reader called a Proxmark, and Marques’ iPhone, which was locked, secured, and seemingly impenetrable by Apple’s security standards.

Yet, as you can see in the live demonstration, Veritasium did the impossible. They initiated a transaction that successfully moved $10,000 out of Marques’ iPhone and into Veritasium’s account, much to the surprise of MKBHD himself.

How to steal $10,000 from Apple Pay

Later in the video, Veritasium explains how the flaw works.

First, the target iPhone must sit atop the Proxmark (the wireless NFC reader), which acts as a middleman between the target iPhone and the actual card reader. The Proxmark tricks the iPhone into thinking it is talking to a typical card reader — the same kind you tap with your phone or card at a grocery store — and requests the amount of money set by the hacker, in this case $10,000. The iPhone recognizes the request and sends the transaction data over to be processed on the connected MacBook, which then sends the data to a nearby burner phone that serves as the payment recipient device. The transaction is automatically verified through Apple’s Express Mode (which doesn’t require user authentication), and the payment is complete, removing the money from the target iPhone sitting on the reader and putting it into the hands of the hacker.

Although there are several steps involved, the entire process takes less than 10 seconds, or about as long as it would take to issue a legitimate wireless payment at a store with Apple Pay.

The shocking part? This major Apple Pay flaw was originally found all the way back in 2021, and there is still currently no remediation in place. Every iPhone with Apple Pay enabled is potentially vulnerable, and a hacker could theoretically steal the entire debit card sum or credit card limit of the main card in your Apple Wallet.

Are you at risk?

There are several important factors to determine whether you are in any danger of NFC-related theft.

First and foremost, the hack detailed in the video only works on Apple Pay. That means if you own an Android device, you are safe. Google Pay and/or Samsung Pay are not affected by this exploit.

If you own an iPhone, there is one more factor that will determine your risk. The hack requires you to have a Visa credit or debit card set as the default card in your wallet. It will not work if payments default to a Mastercard!

How to protect yourself from this Apple Pay exploit

To change your default card, open the Wallet app, hold your finger on the card you want to set, and drag it to the bottom of the card stack until you see the full face of the card displayed. To remove a card, tap on the card, then select the three dots in the top right corner, followed by “Card Details.” Scroll to the bottom of the page and select “Remove Card” to wipe it from your phone.

Screenshots by Zach Laidlaw/Apple Wallet on iOS 26

Since this bug has existed for half a decade, chances that Apple will patch it any time soon are slim. However, MKBHD is highly respected in the tech community, and his new high-profile coverage of the exploit may be enough to get Apple’s attention for a future fix.

Until then, you can keep yourself safe simply by tweaking your default card settings or removing your cards altogether.

​Tech 

An armed dad of a family of eight was forced to shoot a man who tried to drive away with his car while his family members were still in the backseat, according to Texas police.

The harrowing incident unfolded on Sunday in the parking lot near Highway 66 and Dairy Road in Garland and was captured by surveillance video.

‘You could definitely tell that he was not in his right state of mind.’

Police said the would-be carjacker crashed his car into two vehicles and tried to gain access to other cars before zeroing in on the white sedan.

Video shows him in a peach shirt walking nonchalantly toward the family’s vehicle before immediately getting into a physical altercation with the father. The two struggle for about a minute before he’s able to force his way into the driver’s seat.

The father runs to the other side of the car and shoots the man still in the car.

The would-be carjacker died at a nearby hospital, and police said they are still trying to identify him.

“You could definitely tell that he was not in his right state of mind,” said Tatiana Starks, a witness who works as the manager of a smoke shop near the incident. “I’m just glad that the man was able to protect himself and his family.”

Starks said she began recording the man after seeing him trying to get into several vehicles.

“He, like, tried to get into several different cars,” she said.

Video of the incident from surveillance and Starks were included in the KDFW-TV news report.

RELATED: Democrat stunned to find criminal past of teen who allegedly carjacked her: ‘Shocked me to my core’

Police said they do not expect to file charges against the father because he would not have known if the carjacker was armed at the time.

“It seemed to be self-defense,” Lt. Pedro Barineau said to KDFW. “It kind of all happened, like, really fast.”

KDFW reported that police did not recover a weapon from the attempted carjacker, only a gun from the father.

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​Carjacker shot and killed, Dad shoots carjacker, Texas armed self-defense, Video of garland shooting, Crime 

Recently, the abortion fight had a very interesting speed bump.

On May 1, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals handed down a ruling temporarily reinstating the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s older in-person dispensing rules for mifepristone, meaning the drug could no longer simply be prescribed through a telehealth visit and mailed directly to a woman’s home.

Then on May 4, Justice Samuel Alito issued an administrative stay temporarily blocking that order and restoring telehealth and mail distribution of mifepristone while the Supreme Court reviews emergency appeals from the drug manufacturers.

Much of the modern abortion machine depends not merely on legality, but on frictionless access, speed, and streamlined distribution.

Before anyone treats the Fifth Circuit as a crushing victory or the Supreme Court stay as a crushing defeat, it is worth slowing down and looking at what this short-lived legal tug-of-war actually revealed.

There is some good in this ruling, there is some bad in this ruling, and there is one ugly truth that ought to sober anyone who actually wants equal justice for the unborn.

The good

This brief legal battle exposed two facts.

First, modern chemical abortion has become dependent on administrative convenience. Mifepristone is the abortion industry’s preferred first drug in the standard two-pill abortion regimen because it makes the process cleaner, more predictable, and more efficient.

It works by blocking progesterone, the hormone necessary to sustain pregnancy, thereby beginning the death process in the womb. Twenty-four to 48 hours later, a second drug — misoprostol — is taken to induce contractions and expel the dead or dying child.

The Fifth Circuit did not stop chemical abortion by mail, but it did briefly interfere with the abortion industry’s preferred method of remotely prescribing and mailing that first drug. Even that narrow disruption was enough to trigger immediate panic, legal scrambling, and emergency appeals.

That panic shows how much of the modern abortion machine depends not merely on legality, but on frictionless access, speed, and streamlined distribution.

The second fact is just how thin these celebrated legal victories really are. Within three days, the Supreme Court had already suspended the order. So if there is any good here, it is simply that Americans got a brief glimpse at both the abortion industry’s dependence on convenience and the judiciary’s inability to do anything more than create temporary procedural turbulence.

The bad

Chemical abortion was not outlawed. Telehealth abortion was not abolished. Mail-order abortion was not damaged in any lasting or comprehensive sense.

One particular drug in the standard regimen briefly faced restored in-person dispensing requirements. That was all.

Even had the Fifth Circuit order remained in place, abortion providers were already prepared to adjust. Misoprostol can be used by itself as an abortion method. Providers can alter prescribing practices. The abortion industry has never shown itself to be incapable of adapting.

Women may still obtain abortion pills, providers may still facilitate chemical abortions, and mail-in abortion still remains. The machinery of child killing was never prohibited. One preferred cog in the machine was briefly adjusted. That is all.

RELATED: The judgment behind the abortion numbers

SUZANNE CORDEIRO/AFP/Getty Images

The ugly

The ugliest part of this ruling is not legal, but moral. Because once again, America is being taught to celebrate procedural management in place of equal justice.

The central question before any civilized legal system should be painfully simple: Does the child in the womb possess the same right not to be intentionally killed as every other innocent human being?

Neither the Fifth Circuit ruling nor the Supreme Court stay answers yes. Neither criminalizes the act of chemical abortion, recognizes the unborn child as a rights-bearing victim, or places the mother or provider under homicide law.

This entire legal fight is over whether one preferred poison may move through one preferred channel under one preferred federal rule.

That is not equal protection.

It is the same perverse legal language America has spoken for decades: not that the child must not be killed, but that the child may be killed under approved procedural conditions while judges supervise the administrative details.

That is the ugly truth.

This week’s courtroom chaos may restrict one preferred abortion protocol on Friday and restore it on Monday, but it leaves the underlying legal fiction untouched — that some humans may still be intentionally destroyed so long as the state is satisfied with the process.

​Supreme court, 5th circuit court of appeals, Abortion, Abortion debate, Chemical abortion, Pro life, Anti abortion, Mifepristone abortion pill, Opinion & analysis 

A “Sunday Funday” lakeside party went off the rails after 23 people were injured just outside Oklahoma City in a mass shooting.

According to reports, three people were in critical condition, four were listed as serious, and no arrests have been made.

BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock points out that the flyer for the party showed young men smoking weed — which should have served as a warning to attendees.

“At some point we have to acknowledge and admit that any time there are large groups of young black people — and by young, that may stretch all the way up to age 40 and under — that there’s going to be violence,” Whitlock says.

“And that’s a very uncomfortable thing to say, but this is the price of a matriarchal, fatherless culture — this type of chaos and violence,” he continues, showing clips of the party that were uploaded to social media.

One clip shows women bent over and twerking all over the party, while other attendees dance around them to rap music.

“We see these videos constantly. And there’s no national conversation. There’s no outrage. There’s no violence in the streets. There’s no protests. There’s no nothing,” Whitlock says. “It blows my mind.”

“If no one else wants to talk about it, we will,” he adds.

While the media constantly report on mass shootings carried out by young white men, they often ignore those that are happening much more often.

“Once a week we see one of these videos — every weekend in Chicago. I can’t ignore it, and I can’t false equivalence it and say, ‘It’s just the same as mass school shootings, and you won’t talk about that,’” Whitlock explains.

“I’m just not going to play into it,” he adds.

Want more from Jason Whitlock?

To enjoy more fearless conversations at the crossroads of culture, faith, sports, and comedy with Jason Whitlock, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​Blaze media, Blaze news, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Blaze podcast network, Blaze podcasts, Blazetv, Critical condition, Fatherless culture, Fatherlessness epidemic, Fearless, Fearless with jason whitlock, Jason whitlock, Jason whitlock harmony, Mass shooting, Mass shootings, Matriarchal culture, Oklahoma city, Rap music, School shootings, Sunday funday, The blaze, Twerking, Violence in the streets, Young black people 

Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota did not meet the deadline set by a Minnesota state committee to produce documents related to its investigation into the “Feeding Our Future” fraud scandal.

The House Fraud Prevention and State Agency Oversight Committee of Minnesota took a vote on Tuesday to subpoena the congresswoman, but it failed by falling short by just one vote.

‘This is one of dozens, if not hundreds of things we are investigating. We have had hundreds of whistleblower reports. They continue to come in weekly.’

Minnesota state Rep. Kristin Robbins, a Republican member of the committee, excoriated Omar in comments to Fox News.

“It shows her continued disdain for the taxpayer,” she said. “She feels like she’s above having to answer for her involvement in the fraud and her responsibility as a member of Congress who … passed the bill that took the guardrails off the school nutrition program that led to the conditions that enabled Feeding Our Future.”

Robbins said committee members reached out to Omar several times and had not received a response.

She tied the fraud to Omar passing the MEALS Act in March 2020. At least 65 people have been convicted in relation to the massive fraud ring at Feeding Our Future.

“I do think the subpoena is important. This is one of dozens, if not hundreds of things we are investigating. We have had hundreds of whistleblower reports. They continue to come in weekly,” Robbins added. “Even though the committee will no longer have official hearings, we will continue to investigate these whistleblower reports and webs of fraud.”

Robbins said she would seek to have Republicans in the U.S. Congress seek a subpoena against Omar next.

“I don’t know if they are, but they would have the same authority ,and it’s still relevant to them because it’s a federal program that’s been swindled,” she said. “So I don’t know if they would be willing to do it, but it’s worth asking.”

A Blaze News request for comment to Omar’s office was not immediately answered.

RELATED: ‘Feeding Our Future’ scam artist agrees to plea deal with a slap-on-the-wrist sentence

“Democrat Ilhan Omar has shown her disdain for the taxpayers. She believes she’s above answering for her role in the Feeding our Future fraud,” Robbins wrote on social media. “We’ve sent her multiple letters and invites, but zero response from Ilhan Omar — what is she hiding?”

Republicans have also questioned Omar’s suspicious growth in assets as reported in her financial disclosures. After months of criticism, Omar released a revision that significantly lowered the amount of reported assets by millions of dollars.

Robbins is also running for Minnesota governor.

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​Rep ilhan omar of minnesota, Feeding our future scam, Omar fraud allegations, Politics, State rep kristin robbins