A Minnesota male admitted to killing and dismembering two former girlfriends in what has been called “heinous acts of cruelty.”

On Thursday, 41-year-old Joseph Steven Jorgenson of Woodbury appeared in a Ramsey County courtroom to plead guilty to two counts of second-degree murder. Woodbury is about 15 miles east of St. Paul.

‘I was very drunk at the time, and yes — in the heat of the moment — I was … yes [trying to kill her].’

Jorgenson is scheduled to appear in court on Feb. 28 for sentencing and is expected to be sentenced to 40 years in prison for each woman’s death — the maximum allowed by law. The sentences likely will be served concurrently.

“These heinous acts of cruelty took the lives of two young women and forever altered the future of their friends and family,” Ramsey County Attorney John Choi said in a statement. “We commend the diligent work of those in law enforcement as well as our staff who worked tirelessly to bring about charges leading to convictions supported by the available evidence and, ultimately, a measure of closure for each victim. We extend our heartfelt sympathies to their surviving family and friends.”

Jorgenson will go to prison for decades for killing 34-year-old Manijeh “Mani” Starren and 33-year-old Fanta Xayavong.

Starren’s father reported her missing to police on May 1, 2023.

In June 2023, police found the remains of Starren in a storage facility in Woodbury. The slain woman was discovered in a cooler and large backpack inside a storage locker, according to police.

Investigators allegedly determined that Jorgenson had a romantic relationship with Starren.

Police reportedly identified Jorgenson as the last person to have been seen with Starren — and the primary suspect in her disappearance.

The Minnesota Star Tribune reported that surveillance footage showed Jorgenson entering and leaving Starren’s apartment 28 times. He allegedly was seen on video carrying two duffel bags and a suitcase to a pickup truck in April 2023.

Surveillance video allegedly showed Starren running from her apartment on April 21, 2023. Police said footage captured Jorgenson running after Starren, grabbing her, and pushing her back inside the apartment. Prosecutors said there is no footage of Starren ever leaving her home again.

KARE previously reported that investigators suspect Jorgenson used Starren’s bank card to purchase a large quantity of cleaning supplies from a nearby Dollar Tree store.

After obtaining a search warrant for Jorgenson’s Google account, police discovered searches on how to clear cookies from an Android phone, what police do with missing person reports, and “lime for soil,” according to the complaint.

Multiple people who had visited Jorgenson’s Twin Cities-area home between July and September 2021 told authorities that his house smelled “terrible,” the complaint also said.

The Associated Press reported that investigators found keys inside Jorgenson’s home, which led law enforcement to a storage facility in Woodbury. Authorities said they found dismembered human remains in two separate coolers and a large duffle bag inside Jorgenson’s storage unit.

The Ramsey County Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed — based on dental records and tattoos — that the remains were of Starren.

Jorgenson was arrested and charged with Starren’s murder in June 2023.

After learning that Jorgenson had been charged in Starren’s death, a tipster contacted law enforcement regarding the disappearance of Xayavong.

Xayavong — another former romantic partner of Jorgenson — was last seen alive in July 2021.

NBC News reported that Xayavong’s remains were found on July 6, 2023, in a storage unit in Coon Rapids — approximately 25 miles northwest of St. Paul.

The medical examiner determined Xayavong’s cause of death to be “multiple sharp and blunt force injuries” and was classified as a homicide, according to the Pioneer Press.

During the trial, Jorgenson said he choked Starren to death after she asked him to leave her apartment.

Jorgenson told the courtroom that he was drunk and arguing with Xayavong before striking her in the head with his knee.

“I was very drunk at the time, and yes — in the heat of the moment — I was … yes [trying to kill her],” Jorgenson said of Xayavong’s murder. “I did feel bad about it immediately afterward, but my intent at that time was to kill her.”

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Attorney General Merrick Garland touted the U.S. Department of Justice’s commitment to the “civil rights and civil liberties of everyone in this country” and expressed pride in the arrest of 1,583 people on the fourth anniversary of the Jan. 6 protest and riot at the U.S. Capitol.

The DOJ, in the final Jan. 6 statistical report under Garland’s tenure, said the FBI has arrested 1,583 people on Jan. 6 charges across four years. Nearly 320 people were arrested in the past year alone. More arrests and filing of charges are expected before President-elect Donald J. Trump takes the oath of office on Jan. 20. It is widely anticipated that Trump will pardon Jan. 6 defendants.

‘My family has been devastated by the government over the last four years.’

Garland praised the DOJ prosecutors and other staff who carried out the massive investigation and prosecution of J6ers.

Staff “have sought to hold accountable those criminally responsible for the January 6 attack on our democracy with unrelenting integrity,” Garland said. “They have conducted themselves in a manner that adheres to the rule of law and honors our obligation to protect the civil rights and civil liberties of everyone in this country.”

Garland’s take was at odds with the sentiments of Jan. 6 defendants who took to social media on the fourth anniversary.

“This has been a difficult four years, not just for me, but for people all across this country,” said Marine Corps veteran Christopher Kuehne in a video he posted on X. “My family has been devastated by the government over the last four years. The consistent persecution, the jail sentences, the loss of life in our family, and it’s because of people like you that I’m still carrying on.”

Kuehne and his wife, Annette, lost their unborn child the day after an FBI SWAT team raided their Kansas home in 2021. He is still on home detention after being released from his 75-day prison sentence in November 2024. He accepted a plea agreement on one count of obstruction of law enforcement during a civil disorder.

Incomplete death count

In a statement released by the DOJ, Garland lamented “the five officers who lost their lives in the line of duty” as a result of Jan. 6, 2021. He did not name the officers.

No police died on Jan. 6.

Capitol Police Officer Brian David Sicknick, 42, died on Jan. 7 after suffering two strokes that the medical examiner ruled were of natural causes.

Capitol Police Officer Howard Liebengood, 51, and Metropolitan Police Department Officers Jeffrey Louis Smith, 35; Gunther Paul Hashida, 43; and Kyle Hendrik DeFreytag, 26, died by suicide in the seven months after Jan. 6. Their departments and the DOJ have recognized the deaths as being in the line of duty. All were working on Jan. 6, 2021.

Garland did not mention the four Donald J. Trump supporters who died on Jan. 6: Ashli Elizabeth Babbitt, 35, who was killed by USCP Lt. Michael L. Byrd; Rosanne Marie Boyland, 34, who died of asphyxiation after a stampede in the Lower West Terrace Tunnel; Kevin Greeson, 55, who died of cardiac arrest; and Benjamin J. Philips, 50, who died of a stroke.

Bystanders use bicycle racks as a makeshift gurney to carry a lifeless Benjamin J. Philips to an ambulance on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.U.S. Capitol Police CCTV

Nor did Garland mention the five Jan. 6 defendants who took their own lives during the prosecution of their cases: Matthew Lawrence Perna, 37; David Kennedy Homol, 55; Nejourde Thomas “Jord” Meacham, 22; Mark Robert Aungst, 47; and Christopher Stanton Georgia, 53.

Geri Perna, Matthew Perna’s aunt who has lobbied Congress for reform of the DOJ, said the fourth anniversary of Jan. 6 has been difficult.

“J6ers will get their lives back,” Perna told Blaze News. “I lost Matt and my brother. They are never coming back. I feel cheated.”

Matthew Perna hung himself in his garage in February 2022 shortly after learning that the DOJ planned to seek years in prison for his four guilty pleas. Geri Perna said the D.C. judicial process wore her nephew down and left him with a broken heart.

Matthew Perna with his grandfather, Henry Perna, and during an online business presentation. Despondent over his treatment by prosecutors, Matthew Perna hung himself on Feb. 25, 2022.Photos courtesy of Geri Perna

His father, Lawrence Perna, was crushed by Matthew’s death, Geri Perna said.

“Matt’s dad deteriorated before my eyes and is dead, two years after Matt,” Geri Perna said. “I will never get over it.”

Lawrence Perna, 68, died on July 26, 2024, in Port Charlotte, Fla.

“After Matthew’s death, Larry became a prayer warrior for many January 6 defendants who were unjustly persecuted,” Geri Perna wrote in her brother’s obituary. “He talked regularly with several people and texted often.

“He offered encouragement and kept their names next to his Bible on his daily prayer list,” she wrote. “He knew the pain of losing a child all too well and didn’t want anyone else to experience this heartache.”

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A former neonatal intensive care unit nurse at a Virginia hospital has been charged in connection to mysterious injuries that a newborn baby suffered. Officials warned that several babies suffered suspicious injuries at the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit.

On Thursday, 26-year-old Erin Elizabeth Ann Strotman, of Chesterfield County, Virginia, was arrested and charged with malicious wounding and felony child abuse. If convicted, Strotman faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison for the felony child neglect charge and 20 years for the malicious wounding charge, according to Shannon Taylor — Henrico County Commonwealth’s attorney.

‘They failed strictly on multiple levels with multiple different families.’

The Henrico County Police Division said in a statement that it is “utilizing all available resources to ensure a thorough investigation into this matter,” including “reviewing dozens of videos from inside the NICU.”

Police are investigating an alleged incident that occurred at the NICU of the Henrico Doctors’ Hospital in Richmond on Nov. 10. Authorities did not reveal the name of the alleged victim or the nature of the injury.

However, officials said there could be numerous victims.

The Henrico Doctors’ Hospital said in a statement, “There has been an ongoing investigation into fractures sustained by patients in our NICU.”

The hospital stressed that the individual arrested is a “former employee.”

“We are both shocked and saddened by this development in the investigation and are focused on continuing to care for our patients and providing support to our colleagues who have been deeply and personally impacted by this investigation,” the hospital’s statement read. “We are grateful to those colleagues, who have dedicated their professional lives to the care and safety of our patients, as well as to law enforcement and the other agencies who have worked aggressively and tirelessly with us on this investigation.”

Strotman was being detained at the Henrico County Regional Jail West and being held without bond. She is scheduled to appear in court on March 24.

Despite Strotman being charged in only one case, the Henrico County Police Division noted that “detectives are re-examining the 2023 and 2024 cases as part of this broader investigation.”

The New York Times reported that an investigation was launched after three babies were discovered with “unexplained fractures” in the newborn care unit of Henrico Doctors’ Hospital in late November and December of last year.

Citing the Henrico Doctors’ Hospital, Law & Crime reported that similar incidents occurred in 2023 involving four babies.

One of the babies who allegedly suffered a suspicious injury in 2023 was Noah Hackey. The newborn’s father, Dominique Hackey, told WTVTR-TV that Noah and his twin, Micah, were born prematurely at the hospital in August 2023 and spent time together in the NICU.

Hackey explained to the outlet that Noah had discoloration in his left leg at around two weeks old, which an X-ray determined to be a tibia fracture.

The family filed a report with Child Protective Services.

Child Protective Services said in a letter that Noah suffered level 1 physical abuse “by an employee of the Henrico Doctor’s Hospital NICU.”

Level 1 physical abuse includes “those injuries/conditions, real or threatened, that result in or were likely to have resulted in serious harm to a child.”

Hackey declared, “They failed strictly on multiple levels with multiple different families, and they need to be held accountable as well because that shouldn’t have happened. If they were suspicious of some person enough to let them go, they shouldn’t have brought them back. They failed, simple as that.”

Henrico Police Chief Eric D. English said, “We appreciate the families’ and public’s patience as we work as thoroughly and expeditiously as possible to investigate every piece of evidence in connection to these cases. I would also like to acknowledge the unwavering efforts of our detectives who continue to comb through hundreds of hours of footage and extend my sincere gratitude to Henrico’s Child Protective Services (Department of Social Services), the Henrico County Commonwealth Attorney’s Office, Virginia State Police, the Virginia Department of Health, and the Office of the Attorney General for their assistance in this matter.”

Anyone with information about possible incidents related to the case are urged to contact Henrico Police Detective M. Lynch at police@henrico.gov or submit tips anonymously via Crime Stoppers at 804-780-1000.

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From the time she was a child, Sage Steele wanted to be a sportscaster. And after years of climbing the ladder, she landed her “dream job” at ESPN in 2007.

Nearly 17 years later, however, it all came to a screeching halt when Steele left the sports network after settling lawsuits she filed against both ESPN and its owner, Disney.

What happened to make Steele leave the job she loved at one the top sports networks in the world?

Anyone who watches ESPN and/or Disney already knows the answer to that question. Wokeness is what happened.

“These [ESPN] executives talk so much about DEI and, you know, inclusiveness and accountability and accepting, and then when it came time for me to have my own opinions off the air on my private time — I never crossed that line; I was a sportscaster, not a political analyst — that’s when I got punished. And when I got punished for being me when the others were allowed to talk about abortion on an NBA show, that’s when I said, ‘Okay, enough,’” Steele told Blaze News Tonight’s Jill Savage and Matthew Peterson at AmericaFest two weeks ago.

What opinions did Steele share that landed her in hot water with the network? It all started when on a podcast with Jay Cutler, Steele expressed her displeasure with being forced to get the COVID vaccine.

“That day that I recorded that podcast — mid-September 2021 — was the last day possible for me to become fully vaccinated to comply with ESPN/Disney’s vaccine mandate policy. I waited to the very last moment to get it because I was contemplating walking away from my entire career over the jab,” she recounted. “I didn’t have the ability to walk away financially, nor did I want to (I love my job), and so I literally came [to Cutler’s podcast] from this stupid grocery store where I had gotten my shot sobbing because I felt forced.”

When Cutler asked her about the bandage on her arm and her tears, she candidly told him the truth: “I think it’s sick and scary for any company, employer, business to force their people to do something to their bodies.”

Before she knew it, her assignments were taken away, and she was suspended and taken off the air. Thankfully, she didn’t bend the knee.

Although Steele calls the events that led to her departure from ESPN as “devastating,” she is grateful for the new path it has set her down.

“I have this crazy platform just from talking about sports. What a waste it would have been to stay quiet,” she told Jill and Matthew.

She is also glad to have her name removed from a company that due to “timing issues” didn’t broadcast the National Anthem at the Sugar Bowl last week, even though it was sung by New Orleans native Samyra in the wake of the Bourbon Street terrorist attack that left 14 dead.

In response to the scandal, Steele tweeted the following.

To hear more about Steele’s tumultuous exit from ESPN and the exciting path she’s leading now, watch the clip above.

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​Blaze news tonight, Blaze news, Blaze media, The blaze, Blazetv, Jill savage, Sage steele, Espn, Disney, Woke espn, Woke disney, Vaccine mandate, Vaccine mandate protest 

“Shark Tank” investor Kevin O’Leary said that he was working on a deal to save the popular TikTok social media platform from being banned in the U.S. over privacy concerns.

Republican lawmakers have banned TikTok from being used by state and federal employees after numerous reports that the platform collects and funnels sensitive information from users to the communist government of China. The company has denied the reports and is fighting a bill that would force divestment from ByteDance, a Chinese company with ties to the communist government.

‘The Supreme Court is gonna turn this down! Watch it happen.’

O’Leary revealed Monday while speaking on Fox Business that he was trying to save TikTok with a syndicate of investors who want to meet the government’s demands for the platform.

“What’s going to happen here? We don’t have to shut TikTok down. It just has to change ownership to abide by American laws as deemed by an order of Congress,” said O’Leary.

He went on to say that a purchaser may need to rewrite the algorithm and get the Department of Defense to approve the changes to safeguard Americans from spying concerns.

“This isn’t just about buying TikTok’s U.S. assets. It’s about something much bigger: protecting the privacy of 170 million American users. It’s about empowering creators and small businesses. And it’s about building a platform that prioritizes PEOPLE over algorithms,” he wrote on social media.

O’Leary also criticized the owner of TikTok for trying to oppose the ban by appealing to the Supreme Court.

“This company is living in a dreamland thinking the Supreme Court of the United States is going to uphold spyware against its American people. Ain’t going to happen!” he added.

TikTok has challenged the platform ban on the basis that it would be an infringement on free speech rights.

“The Supreme Court is gonna turn this down! Watch it happen,” he concluded.

The interview with O’Leary can be viewed on the video on the Fox Business YouTube channel.

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Another apparent champion of Islamic terrorism has been outed on campus, this time at Kent State University.

The Middle East Media Research Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based watchdog group, recently
shared a video containing excerpts from a pair of sermons given by radical Kent State math lecturer Nader Taha — one reportedly recorded on Nov. 10, 2023, and the other recorded last month.

Just weeks after the Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attacks on Israel, Taha, an imam
affiliated with the Islamic Society of Akron and Kent, suggested in a sermon that Israel had routinely “disgraced” the Al-Aqsa Mosque, “so your brothers and sisters in Gaza responded.”

“The faces of the children of Israel will be so humiliated — Allah says that,” Taha subsequently states in the edit of the video shared by MEMRI. “What do you want more than the humiliation of faces than what you have seen nowadays?”

Taha suggested further in his November address that Israel will spend billions of dollars to demonstrate its democratic nature, but “it will backfire on them. … Then they shall be defeated and overpowered, and that’s what we have seen, dear brothers.”

‘References to the October 2023 massacre are abhorrent and stand in stark contrast to our institutional commitment to peaceful dialogue.’

In the second sermon, reportedly recorded on Dec. 13, 2024, Taha says, “To be honest with you, Gaza — they planted the seed of freedom in the heart of not just only the Muslim world but the whole world. From their steadfastness, from the way they sacrificed, and they defeated that myth. Before that, it was [said by] all: ‘Oh, Israel, the fourth-strongest army in the world, it is undefeated. They were able to defeat five Arabic armies in less than six hours.'”

Campus Reform
noted that Taha was referring to the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, which was fought over a period of six days between Israel and Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria.

“And yet,” continued Taha, “in the Al-Aqsa Flood, we have seen miracle after miracle after miracle.”

Hamas and its sympathizers
refer to the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks on Israel that left 797 civilians and 379 security personnel dead by the code name “Operation Al-Aqsa Flood.”

Kent State University
issued a statement on Jan. 2 condemning Taha’s remarks as “antisemitic” and noting that “references to the October 2023 massacre are abhorrent and stand in stark contrast to our institutional commitment to peaceful dialogue, as well as our core values of kindness and respect.”

“Now more than ever, and especially in light of the tragic attack in New Orleans, we call for understanding and dialogue as the path to avoiding violence and destruction,” continued the university’s statement. “The remarks were not made on a Kent State campus, nor as part of any official event or program.”

Journalist Toni Airaksinen
indicated that Taha is apparently still scheduled to begin teaching four courses at the university later this month.

Blaze News reached out to the university about Taha’s status as a lecturer but did not immediately receive a response. Taha similarly did not immediately respond with comment.

Recent pro-Hamas protests and riots on campuses across the country
revealed that Taha is anything but an outlier, even on university faculties.

Blaze News
previously reported that Joseph Massad, a professor of modern Arab politics at Columbia University who has a special interest in “theories of nationalism, sexuality, race, and religion” and regularly contributes to the Middle East Eye, is set to teach a course on Zionism despite referring to Islamic terrorism as “resistance” and insinuating that the victims of the Oct. 7 attack were “cruel colonizers.”

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A new documentary about former and future first lady Melania Trump will hit the theaters, offering an “unprecedented, behind-the-scenes” look at the popular figure.

Melania is credited as an executive producer on the film that is scheduled to be released later this year in theaters, according to a release from Amazon Prime Video. The movie will be directed by Brett Ratner.

‘We are excited to share this truly unique story with our millions of customers around the world.’

Filming for the documentary began in December after Trump won the most recent election.

“Prime Video will be sharing more details on the project as filming progresses and release plans are finalized,” read a statement from an Amazon spokesperson. “We are excited to share this truly unique story with our millions of customers around the world.”

Critics saw the announcement as part of a suspected campaign by Amazon founder and owner Jeff Bezos to repair his relationship with the president-elect after previously feuding in public statements. Bezos plans to donate $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund and traveled to Mar-a-Lago to meet with him very soon after Trump won the election.

The soon-to-be first lady has largely stayed out of the limelight in recent years, but in September, she agreed to her first sit-down interview in two years to talk about the assassination attempts against her husband.

“They were miracles, really,” Melania said to Ainsley Earhardt. “I think something was watching over him. I think it’s almost like [our] country really needs him.”

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A New York City official appeared to defy Democrat Mayor Eric Adams’ deportation agenda by urging people to donate to a nonprofit organization providing free legal aid to illegal aliens.

Elizabeth Vladeck, the general counsel for the city’s Department of Education, shared a post on X in December encouraging donations to the Florence Immigration & Refugee Rights Project.

‘Bucking the mayor behind his back.’

She wrote, “Your support is essential in furthering our mission to provide free legal and social services to detained adults and unaccompanied children facing immigration removal proceedings. Make a gift to the Florence Project today!”

Vladeck’s post linked to the nonprofit’s donation page. The webpage read, “You can stand with immigrants – make a gift today!”

According to the organization’s website, it provides assistance to “detained immigrants” facing immigration removal proceedings by offering “pro bono legal and social services.”

A Department of Education source told the New York Post, “You have a senior member of the administration, the top attorney for the city’s largest agency, who is basically bucking the mayor behind his back.”

The Department of Education defended Vladeck’s post on social media, telling the Post that she created it “on her own time.” The department insisted that Vladeck followed proper employee protocol.

David Bloomfield, an education professor at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Grad Center, told the news outlet, “Her call to support the organization is consistent with DOE policies to uphold immigrant student rights, and to hold immigration authorities to their legal obligations.”

Vladeck did not respond to a request for comment and City Hall did not have a comment, the Post reported.

Roughly two weeks before Vladeck’s social media post, Adams met with President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming border czar, Tom Homan.

While Adams has stated that he does not back Trump’s mass deportation plan, he pledged to help the administration remove illegal aliens who have committed violent crimes in the U.S.

Homan reported that the meeting with Adams “went great.”

“He gets it. And today he proved that as the mayor of New York City, he’s more concerned with public safety than politics,” Homan told Fox News’ Sean Hannity.

“He wants to help ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] look for national security threats. He wants to help ICE find over 340,000 missing children, which many of them are going to be in the city,” he added.

Adams’ plan to talk with Homan prompted a protest outside City Hall, where activists urged the mayor to “reject Homan” and “family separation.” One protester accused Adams of “cozying up to the Trump administration.”

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If you look up the “deep state,” you’ll find that it’s still labeled as a political conspiracy theory.

“What deep state? How dare you say there’s a deep state!” mocks Glenn Beck, mimicking the mainstream media and certain government officials, who have repeatedly denied the existence of such a nefarious network.

But now a Democrat from North Carolina is advocating for the creation of a deep state to fight Trump in his second term.

Glenn plays a clip of Congressman Wiley Nickel (D-N.C.), who he calls “the moron from North Carolina,” arguing that Democrats need to form the U.S. version of Britain’s shadow government to oppose Trump.

“As Democrats, we simply failed to convince the American people we have better ideas to solve their problems, but we do. Now, we need to dust ourselves off and get ready to fight,” Nickel began. “We can’t let Donald Trump’s extreme MAGA agenda go unanswered or unopposed. Zone defense isn’t going to work. We’re going to have to go man-on-man, so here’s an idea for how to organize our opposition: We need to borrow from our British friends and appoint a shadow cabinet to fight back against the worst abuses of a second Trump administration.”

“What he’s proposing here out in the open on the official record would be the American version of the U.K.’s shadow cabinet by naming the top-down elected agents that secretly will run our country through the administrative deep state because they lost because they couldn’t convince you that those were good ideas but they know better,” explains Glenn.

Except — Nickel’s proposal is “already being done,” which is why “things never change no matter how you vote,” he adds, noting that many people are probably angry at Nickel for “[saying] the quiet part out loud.”

Glenn points to how the deep state is currently doing everything in its power to sabotage Trump before he takes office.

“Last month Sen. Mike Lee posted on X how the top down was trying to pre-sabotage Trump’s presidency. It included a full-year resolution that would prevent Trump from cutting programs from the Biden administration, more Ukraine funding and extension authority,” “a farm bill that has a five-year extension so no one like RFK Jr. could do anything to any of our food, and tons of other things that will neuter the administration before it can get a chance to make a single change,” he says.

On top of that, certain governors are preparing to oppose Trump in every way possible.

“Gavin Newsom opened a special session in California to get ready to fund the resistance to Donald Trump,” says Glenn.

Further, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs, as well as governors of other states are vowing to resist Trump’s mass deportations efforts.

“Blue states are about to go full-on resistance,” says Glenn.

To hear Glenn’s full breakdown of the deep state’s sabotage plan, watch the clip above.

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Dartmouth men’s basketball has withdrawn its petition to unionize after more than a year of legal battles.

The petition was first filed in September 2023 and eventually voted on in March 2024, passing with a 13-2 vote in favor of becoming part of the Service Employees International Union Local 560 chapter.

The union then began representing the Dartmouth players, as they already work with other campus employment blocks.

After the team made their decision, Dartmouth refused to enter collective bargaining with the athletes and made a clear statement that it does not consider the athletes as school employees.

‘This will absolutely kill college sports.’

According to On3, the players filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board in response and argued that Dartmouth was not bargaining in “good faith.”

Former college football coach and Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) said at the time that a move to unionize would “ruin” college sports.

“They’re going to kill the goose that laid the golden egg — all these athletes are — because it pays for everything. Scholarships are paid — men and women — but there’s a lot of people that don’t bring in money to universities,” Tuberville explained.

“What’s going to happen here is you’re going to see groups of people [that are] going to try to unionize and then it’s going to spread across the country. We’ve been fighting it here. [Democrat] Joe Manchin and I did an NIL bill that was bipartisan, but it kept unionization out, but the Democrats wanted it in,” Tuberville continued.

Tuberville further expressed that he believed college athletes are “not employees.”

“These students are student-athletes. And if you want the federal government involved and ruin something, you try to make the student-athletes employees. Soon the federal government will get involved, unions will get involved, and it will be a total disaster.”

“This will absolutely kill college sports,” he added.

— (@)

Just before the new year, Dartmouth men’s basketball withdrew their petition to unionize, with Local 560 president Chris Peck announcing the move while still attempting to put a positive spin on the situation.

“[The athletes] have pushed the conversation on employment and collective bargaining in college sports forward and made history by being classified as employees, winning their union election 13-2, and becoming the first certified bargaining unit of college athletes in the country.”

The union also condemned Dartmouth for choosing “not to respect the team’s decision” nor federal labor laws by “refusing to bargain, thus violating their own Code of Ethical Business Conduct.”

The letter went on, per Front Office Sports’ Amanda Christovich, “While our strategy is shifting, we will continue to advocate for just compensation, adequate health coverage, and safe working conditions for varsity athletes at Dartmouth.”

The local union said it represents 500 workers from Dartmouth College including, power plant, custodial, security, and athletic department workers, among others.

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Even though hope has come in the form of Donald Trump, Americans still face a nightmarish reality.

Glenn Beck shares three current stories that terrify the living daylights out of him.

1. “The United States government has lost trillions of dollars, and they don’t know what happened to them.”

For example, “the White House can’t find $6.2 billion sent to Ukraine,” and the U.S. Treasury is “unable to track $5 trillion just from the pandemic spending,” says Glenn.

“How much of that is just in people’s pockets? … How many people have done things that they should not have done?” he asks, pointing to “the intelligence agencies, the FBI, the Department of Justice,” “the pharmaceutical companies, [and] just plain old business people” as likely culprits.

“It is a cesspool,” says Glenn, who predicts that with the changes Trump has promised to bring, “it’s going to get very, very,
very dangerous,” considering how powerful and influential many of these agencies and individuals are.

2. “Australian lab reports losing 323 deadly virus samples.”

If you took COVID-19 out of the equation, this information would be disturbing. However, after the way our government handled the pandemic, the news is downright terrifying — especially when whispers of this mysterious “disease X” have already begun to circulate.

The World Health Organization has been using the term as a placeholder for a hypothetical pathogen that could kick-start another pandemic.

But after COVID, “no one’s even going to believe a disease X threat if it happens,” says co-host Stu Burguiere.

3. “In a war against China, the U.S. runs out of missiles in a matter of weeks, according to the House Committee.”

“I think personally that this is … one of the things Ukraine is about — depleting our missiles, depleting our ability to defend ourselves,” says Glenn, noting that “they never refilled the strategic oil reserve.”

However, it could also be because we’re trying to get rid of outdated technology before we rebuild.

“Today’s aircraft carriers are the horses of WWI,” says Glenn, explaining that after WWI, Europe’s horse population was nearly exterminated because the four-legged creatures didn’t stand a chance against tanks and machine guns.

Similarly, in a modern war, “aircraft carriers are going to be swarmed by drones.”

“Everything that we have is outdated,” says Glenn. “I’m wondering if part of this — in a positive way — is, ‘Let’s get rid of all of this stuff because we have to rebuild.”’

“There is a possibility that that’s what we’re doing because the next war that is going to be fought is … going to involve artificial intelligence; it’ll probably involve robotics — actual on-the-ground robots and drones in the sky,” he predicts. “It will be terrifying.”

To hear more on each story, watch the clip above.

Want more from Glenn Beck?

To enjoy more of Glenn’s masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis, and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos,
subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

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The hosts of “The View” appeared to agree with an unhinged rant by co-host Sunny Hostin about the rioting at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.

Sunny Hostin made bizarre comparisons to express her outrage that some people weren’t incensed enough about the alleged violence by supporters of President-elect Donald Trump in 2021.

‘I say no! You don’t move on because January 6 was one of the worst moments in American history!’

“I think we need to find moral clarity in this country. I just remember that after January 6 you had someone like [Republican Senate Leader] Mitch McConnell placing the blame on January 6 squarely where it belongs, on Donald Trump’s shoulders,” said Hostin.

“And then you start to see people backtrack that and losing their moral center. You had Condoleezza Rice, I believe, on this very show saying, ‘You know, we need to move on from January 6,'” she continued. “I say no! You don’t move on because January 6 was one of the worst moments in American history!”

The audience applauded in support of her exclamation.

“When you think about the worst moments in American history, like World War II, things that happened at the Holocaust, chattel slavery,” Hostin added. “We need to never forget because the past becomes prologue if you forget any race.”

Video of Hostin’s comments was widely circulated on social media.

Democrats tried to make the events of Jan. 6 a central part of their argument against Trump in the 2024 presidential election, but polling showed that Americans were far more concerned about illegal immigration and the economy, especially as related to high inflation.

Also on Monday, Trump’s presidential victory was confirmed by Congress without any incident. Vice President Kamala Harris certified the results in her official capacity as president of the Senate.

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Team USA hockey won its second-straight gold medal at the IIHF World Junior Championship with a stunning 4-3 overtime victory against Finland.

The annual international tournament for athletes 20 years old or under, but typically played by teens, saw the American team smash Switzerland (7-2) in the quarterfinals and the Czech Republic (4-1) in the semifinals before 18-year-old Teddy Stiga scored the game winner late last night.

What stole the show, however, was video of the young athletes belting out “The Star-Spangled Banner” as their flag was raised alongside the Finnish and Czech colors.

With their hair slicked back and excitement pouring out of their bodies, the boys sang the national anthem arm-in-arm as the camera occasionally cut to patriotic fans in the stands.

The championship was Team USA’s seventh gold medal overall, winning their first in 2004. This was the first time Team USA has won back-to-back gold, as well.

Photo by Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images

‘There’s no system for tired hockey players.’

As team captain, Ryan Leonard lifted the championship trophy, and some of the crowd at the Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa, Canada, booed and jeered at their rival opponents.

This was a particularly rough year for Team Canada, after its world junior team made history for becoming the first Canadian team since 1981 to place outside the top four teams in the tournament in consecutive years.

Canada has won 20 gold medals in total, with back-to-back titles of its own in 2022/2023 and two separate five-year championship runs between 1993-1997 and 2005-2009.

The Canadian squad was heavily criticized for not practicing enough, and as reported by Sportsnet, they didn’t practice after a loss to Latvia, a loss to the United States, and also on the day of their last game where they lost 4-3 to the Czechs.

Coach Dave Cameron said this was due to the team being “exhausted.”

“There’s no system for tired hockey players,” Cameron said.

This was truly a bizarre excuse given that all their opponents played the same amount of games and had to travel from locations like Latvia, Slovakia, Sweden, and Switzerland.

Players are also mid-season in their professional or junior hockey careers.

A notable omission from the tournament was Russia, which has won gold four times since the fall of the Soviet Union (which won eight of its own), after being banned over the Russian-Ukraine War in 2022. Russia was consistently one of the top contenders in any international ice hockey tournament before it was kicked out of competitions by the International Ice Hockey Federation.

Belarus was also banned.

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The Orleans Parish district attorney’s office has been rocked by violence since ringing in 2025. Not only did an Islamic terrorist apparently murder more than a dozen people in New Orleans on New Year’s Day, but just days later, an assistant district attorney reportedly took his own life.

Around 9 p.m. on Saturday, the New Orleans Police Department received a report about a man who had been found with an “apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound,” an initial police report said, according to WWL. First responders then arrived at the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s Office on South White Street in New Orleans and soon afterward declared the victim dead.

The victim was later identified as Ian Kersting, an assistant district attorney. He was just 34 years old.

‘There will be members of our staff who will require time to cope and heal.’

The DA’s office released two statements about Kersting’s death, WVUE reported. The first statement described Kersting as “a beloved member of our office” and offered love and condolences to Kersting’s family and friends.

“It’s important that we support each other right now, and we ask the media respect the privacy of the individuals impacted,” the first statement added.

The second statement indicated that office business would be suspended on January 6 to give staff time to grieve. Grief and trauma counselors will be available to “the entire OPDA team … in the wake of an unexpected tragedy,” the second statement said.

“We extend our deepest gratitude to the judges of Criminal District Court and Juvenile Court, as well as the Orleans Public Defenders, for their extraordinary compassion and humanity during this challenging time, as there will be members of our staff who will require time to cope and heal.”

The office will resume normal operations on Tuesday, the statement noted.

Kersting had been practicing law about four years at the time of his death. He was admitted to the Louisiana bar in October 2020 and later joined the Sexual Assault Kit Initiative at the DA’s office. SAKI works closely with NOPD on sex-related investigations in which DNA evidence is involved, WVUE reported.

Kersting’s suicide comes on the heels of the horrific massacre of a crowd of people still celebrating in the French Quarter in the early-morning hours of New Year’s Day. According to reports, at around 3:15 a.m., 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar of Texas came speeding down Bourbon Street in a rental truck and mowed down dozens of pedestrians there.

At least 15 people died and 35 were injured.

Jabbar, who soon afterward died in a shoot-out with police, had an ISIS flag in his possession at the time of the incident, the FBI confirmed.

Reports from acquaintances and family indicate that Jabbar had been behaving strangely recently on account of his Muslim beliefs. Dwayne Marsh, who is married to Jabbar’s ex-wife, said Jabbar was “being all crazy” in recent months, “cutting his hair” after converting to Islam.

Jabbar’s brother, Abdur, however, said that Jabbar had converted some time ago. “As far as I know he was a Muslim for most of his life,” Abdur said.

“What he did does not represent Islam. This is more some type of radicalization, not religion.”

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An illegal immigrant has been charged with sexually molesting a 5-year-old girl inside her Florida home.

Nicolas Jose Francisco, 25, was arrested Friday and hit with two counts of sexual battery of a child under 12. He was being held without bail in the Palm Beach County Jail.

Francisco later ‘apologized and admitted his behavior and actions were wrong,’ deputies said in the arrest report.

Francisco — who reportedly is from Guatemala — worked for the girl’s family for more than a year and “gained their trust,” according to the arrest report. He’s accused of sexually abusing her on two occasions.

WFLX-TV reported that the girl told police on Dec. 13 that Francisco molested her in the garage and in bathroom of the family’s home. Francisco allegedly called the little girl into the garage, where she said he “touched her flower,” which is what she called her private area, WPEC-TV reported.

In the second alleged incident, the girl said Francisco took her to the bathroom, where he purportedly exposed himself to her and touched her inappropriately.

While recalling her accounts of the alleged incidents, the girl sobbed to a case worker with the Florida Department of Children and Families, according to the arrest report.

Francisco initially alleged that the accusations were false and that the family made up the allegations because he “was an undocumented immigrant.”

What’s more, Francisco reportedly told deputies with the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office that he touched the girl “by mistake both times.” The suspect claimed he was trying to help the girl go to the bathroom.

However, investigators noted there is no bathroom anywhere near the garage.

Francisco later “apologized and admitted his behavior and actions were wrong,” deputies said in the arrest report.

Jibby Ciric — senior director of Strategic Impact for the Center of Child Counseling — told WPTV-TV that “in sexual abuse cases, in many cases, it’s the people that the child knows.”

Ciric also theorized that perpetrators “often try to normalize and diminish the effects of what they have done.”

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Vice President Kamala Harris, who spent the entirety of her presidential campaign labeling her opponent a threat to democracy, officially certified President-elect Donald Trump’s election on Monday following his landslide victory on November 5.

As vice president, Harris also serves as president of the Senate, leaving her with the responsibility of certifying the electoral results. Despite her humiliating electoral loss, Harris vowed on Monday that she would follow through with the certification.

‘CONGRESS CERTIFIES OUR GREAT ELECTION VICTORY TODAY — A BIG MOMENT IN HISTORY,’ Trump said in a Monday post on Truth Social. ‘MAGA!’

“Today, I will perform my constitutional duty as Vice President to certify the results of the 2024 election,” Harris said. “This duty is a sacred obligation — one I will uphold guided by love of country, loyalty to our Constitution, and unwavering faith in the American people.”

“The peaceful transfer of power is one of the most fundamental principles of American democracy,” Harris said. “As much as any other principle, it is what distinguishes our system of government from monarchy or tyranny.”

Although the certification process has historically flown under the radar, Trump’s electoral loss in 2020 threw the congressional procedure into a tailspin when he urged former Vice President Mike Pence to block the certification. Trump, and many of his supporters, believed that the 2020 election results were fraudulent and invalid, famously prompting a protest at the Capitol grounds on January 6, 2021.

This time around, there has been no such protest. Capitol Police pre-emptively established a perimeter surrounding the Capitol, the House office buildings, and the Senate office buildings. They also used additional police departments, including the New York Police Department, ahead of the certification.

“CONGRESS CERTIFIES OUR GREAT ELECTION VICTORY TODAY — A BIG MOMENT IN HISTORY,” Trump said in a Monday post on Truth Social. “MAGA!”

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Unions representing thousands of New York City Fire Department firefighters are pressing the city to carve out congestion toll exemptions for its emergency responders.

The new congestion toll went into effect on Sunday, charging drivers of passenger vehicles $9 to enter Manhattan at or below 60th Street from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays and 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekends. During off-peak hours, the toll drops to $2.25.

‘Deal with the aftermath.’

The fees are expected to increase over time. Passenger vehicle drivers will be charged $12 by 2028 and $15 by 2031.

The FDNY unions argued that the fee must be waived for its firefighters or the city risks delayed emergency response times, warning it could be the “difference between life and death,” the New York Post reported.

The unions claimed firefighters were likely to leave their cars at home to avoid paying the costly fees, which could impact response times if they are called to a location outside their zone.

During a Sunday press conference, Andrew Ansbro, president of the Uniformed Firefighters Association of Greater New York, addressed the unions’ concerns about the congestion toll.

Ansbro said, “All we were asking for was an exemption for our members bringing their vehicles into the zone. Those vehicles are regularly used to transport firefighters to and from their detail to another firehouse, which is a shortage in one spot, and they need them somewhere else.”

The unions explained that this situation occurs approximately 200 times daily throughout New York City. About 2,000 firefighters are working at any given time in the city, and most of them bring their vehicles to work with them, the unions said.

Firefighters would be forced to carry their bulky, 85-pound equipment on the public transit system or hope to catch a ride with a higher-up in an FDNY vehicle, the unions contended.

They further argued that relying on FDNY vehicles could cost taxpayers millions. Additionally, the unions claimed the congestion toll could lead to an additional $1.8 million in overtime pay.

They also argued that the congestion toll would generate additional traffic in the areas surrounding the zone as drivers try to circumvent it to avoid the fines.

Ansbro said, “We have a lot of members that are saying, ‘You didn’t want us to bring our vehicle into the city. Deal with the aftermath.'”

“This is not just a logistical issue — it’s a public health crisis in the making,” he added.

Ansbro called the congestion toll an “unfair tax burden” on the city’s firefighters and residents.

Jim Brosi, president of the Uniformed Fire Officers Association, explained that the unions did not request “an entire fire department exemption.”

“We didn’t ask for an entire civil service exemption. We asked very specifically for the people who are working in here, so they don’t retire, so that they don’t transfer out, so we don’t lose institutional knowledge,” he remarked.

Mayor Eric Adams’ (D) office told WNYW, “Ensuring public safety is a top priority for the Adams administration. We do not expect any negative impacts to the department’s ability to respond to emergencies.”

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A violent quartet of teenage females beat and tried to rob a 71-year-old woman in a Brooklyn subway as she was headed to church on New Year’s Day — but the outnumbered victim wasn’t about to lay down for the youthful mob.

Linda Rosa — a retired Metropolitan Transportation Authority computer operation worker who lives in East New York – got off a No. 3 train at Hoyt Street just after 6 p.m. and had just passed through a turnstile when one of the four females tried to grab her purse, she recounted to the New York Post.

‘I grabbed her braids and twirled them around my right hand, and then I pulled her down.’

Rosa told the paper her inner reaction was, “Oh, no, this is not going to happen today.”

Another female also tried to grab Rosa’s purse and actually asked her, “Oh, you want to fight?”

But Rosa wouldn’t let go of her property.

“The first person kept fighting,” Rosa recalled to the Post in a Friday interview. “She punched me in my face, and I have my glasses on, and I have a cut on my nose. When she punched me in my face, my glasses flew to the floor.”

She continued to the paper, “Meanwhile the other young lady was still trying to distract me to get my pocketbook or go into my purse, to snatch something out of my purse.”

Rosa told the Post one of the attackers grabbed a pocket pouch containing her ID and medical records, after which Rosa upped the intensity of her self-defense.

“I was still wrestling with the first person,” Rosa told the paper. “Then I was trying to kick her in between her legs, but my leg wouldn’t stretch far enough, so I believe that’s when I fell … and then she stomped on me.”

Plenty of fight in her

One might assume she would have simply covered up and hoped the attack would end soon — but the opposite happened.

“I got an impression in me that she was going to stomp me again, but she was going to aim towards my head,” Rosa explained to the Post. “So I got up right away, and with that, I grabbed her braids and twirled them around my right hand, and then I pulled her down. She had her head down. Then the other young lady said, ‘Let her go.’ And I said, ‘Oh, no, I’m not letting her go.’”

‘I thank God I didn’t have a heart attack and a stroke and die!’

The paper said Rosa yelled for help — and the teen who grabbed her pocket pouch dropped it and came at her.

Think the victim cried “uncle” at that point? Not on your life.

Rosa told the Post she pulled off the same move on the second female with her free hand: ” I grabbed her hair and twisted it around my left hand. So I had them both facedown … [like] rams when they’re getting ready to fight.”

The other females repeatedly screamed at Rosa to set their comrades free, the paper said: “Let them go! Let them go!” But the Post said Rosa refused and again yelled for help: “I need assistance! I need assistance!”

Finally, she let go of the two attackers and began picking up her belongings from the floor, the paper said. Then the defeated crew ran up the subway steps as Rosa told them she was going to call the police, the Post reported.

More from the paper:

Rosa — who retired from the MTA in 2016 after working for the agency for about 42 years — then headed to the nearby Brooklyn Tabernacle Church, where the staff tended to her and called 911.

She was taken to The Brooklyn Hospital Center for treatment.

Rosa said she is thankful she wasn’t hurt worse.

“Thank God they didn’t have no weapons,” she noted to the Post. “I thank God I didn’t have a heart attack and a stroke and die!”

You can view a video here showing the suspects going through subway station turnstile.

‘I forgive them’

The paper said Rosa’s attackers were still on the loose Friday, but the target of their botched robbery told the Post, “I forgive them. They do not know what they do. They don’t know what they did. It’s just teenagers acting foolish.”

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​Crime thwarted, Elderly woman, New york city, Teenage females, Physical attack, Subway, Brooklyn, Fighting back, Courage, Attempted robbery, Crime