Suspected provocateur specifically stated, ‘We’re here to storm the capitol. I’m not kidding.’ In a new mini-documentary diving into Jan. 6, investigative journalist Lara Logan [more…]
Indiana Jones found the lost ark of campus clichés
They say never meet your heroes. It turns out Indiana Jones is no exception.
Arizona State University’s commencement this year featured exactly the kind of speaker Americans have come to expect from modern universities: a wealthy Hollywood celebrity lecturing graduates about climate change, “indigenous spirituality,” social justice, and the moral failures of Western civilization.
The sign over the modern left-wing academy reads: Let none who seek intellectual consistency enter here.
Harrison Ford told ASU graduates, “Humanity is a part of nature, not above it,” before calling for sweeping environmental action, “cultural change,” and the elevation of indigenous perspectives about the natural world. Had he remained silent, some might have mistaken him for wise. Instead, he opened his mouth and proved himself a fool.
The speech mattered not because it was unusual, but because it perfectly captured the ideology that now dominates many American universities. Had you asked ChatGPT to generate a commencement address based on ASU’s official political commitments, it would have sounded very much like this one.
The solutions offered by Hollywood activists and university administrators are the very ideas that helped produce much of the confusion in the first place.
Ford’s speech rested on a rejection of the biblical view of man. Scripture teaches that human beings are distinct from the rest of creation because they are made in the image of God. In Genesis, man is commanded to exercise dominion over the earth, not as a tyrant, but as a steward. Human beings are created to behold the glory of God in the world He made, not merely to dissolve into nature as one creature among many.
Ford rejects that distinction. But the moment he does, he collapses into contradiction. If human beings are merely another species within nature, no different in principle from wolves, termites, or algae, then why should they presume to reorganize economies, restrict energy production, and manage the global ecosystem?
The rest of nature does not hold climate summits. Ants do not draft sustainability goals. Coyotes do not issue carbon mandates.
Nature simply acts according to its nature. That is the emptiness of leftism. Ford made millions pretending to be heroes who could save the day. Now, sliding into old age, he has no answer for anyone. The left thrives on captive audiences. Put its spokesmen outside the lecture hall, and the whole performance looks ridiculous.
RELATED: The answer to university decline is hiding in plain sight
Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group/Getty Images
Ironically, Ford’s own activism depends on the very biblical framework he rejects. The claim that mankind has a moral duty to care for the world makes sense only if man occupies a unique place above the rest of creation. Stewardship presupposes authority.
The modern environmental movement tries to erase the biblical doctrine of dominion while quietly smuggling morality back in whenever moral action becomes necessary. Yet it cannot explain where such morality comes from. Nature is red in tooth and claw. Why, then, should man not follow suit?
Ford also praised indigenous communities for understanding that “the trees, the mountain, water, soil are not commodities. They are relatives.”
This romanticized view of indigenous life now comes standard in university rhetoric. It also bears little resemblance to history. Human beings across cultures, ancient and modern, have altered landscapes, hunted animals to extinction, waged wars, enslaved rivals, and struggled ruthlessly for survival. Indigenous tribes were not mystical ecological saints floating above ordinary human nature.
One cannot help noticing the contradiction built into these speeches. ASU routinely acknowledges that it sits on indigenous land. Fine. If that confession is sincere, when exactly does the university plan to return the property? ASU confesses the theft, keeps the land, and then congratulates itself for moral awareness. That is not repentance. That is performance.
And what about Ford himself?
He owns multiple luxury properties and has spent decades enjoying private aviation, industrial modernity, and immense personal wealth. Has he offered to return any of his land? Has he proposed downsizing his estates for the sake of climate justice? The modern progressive elite increasingly resembles a secular priesthood that demands sacrifice from everyone except itself.
Ford also repeated the now-obligatory oppressor-oppressed framework that dominates university discourse. Every social question gets filtered through the same categories: oppressor versus oppressed, colonizer versus marginalized, privileged versus victimized.
That framework has become so totalizing that universities no longer even pretend to offer intellectual diversity on first questions about human nature, morality, or society. In their world, you are either oppressed or an oppressor, and those are the only categories available for interpreting history.
RELATED: Billionaire Bruce blasts ‘rich men’ in latest concert rant
Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images
That raises an obvious question: Will ASU ever invite a commencement speaker who openly defends the American founding, free markets, Christianity, or the biblical doctrine of man?
Or will commencement remain an ideological pep rally, one last progressive sermon after four years of DEI, decolonization, and critical-theory mush?
To Ford’s credit, he did say one thing that was undeniably true. Speaking to the graduates, he admitted, “The world you’re stepping into, the world my generation left you, is a real mess.”
On that point, he was right. But then he instructed the students to clean it up and presumably climbed into a private jet back to one of his luxury homes.
The ideas pushed by Hollywood activists and university administrators are the very ideas that helped produce the confusion in the first place: hostility to the biblical view of man, contempt for America’s inheritance, and utopian promises of social transformation through centralized moral activism.
ASU’s graduates deserved better than another lecture in fashionable conformity. A university worthy of the name would expose students to competing visions of humanity and the good life. Instead, they got Harrison Ford declaring that mankind is not above nature, moments before assigning mankind the duty to save the planet and clean up after him.
The sign over the modern left-wing academy reads: Let none who seek intellectual consistency enter here.
American founding, Arizona state university, Christianity, Climate change, Decolonization, Harrison ford, Indiana jones, Indigenous land, Social justice, Western civilization, Opinion & analysis
Trump’s Supreme Court keeps finding ways to fail his voters
Fifteen months into Donald Trump’s second administration, and after repeated Supreme Court rulings affirming ICE’s authority to detain and deport illegal aliens, lower courts still overrule immigration law every week. The Supreme Court shows little urgency in stopping them.
Yet when a lower court finally follows the law and rules against the Department of Health and Human Services’ approval of a dangerous abortion drug by mail, the Supreme Court suddenly rediscovers its appetite for emergency intervention. Welcome to the vaunted 6-3 conservative majority, now better understood as a 7-2 majority against most conservative priorities — and against the court’s own recent precedents.
The so-called conservative majority increasingly looks like a bloc that exists to disappoint conservatives more politely than the left would.
We finally found a case in which the justices were eager to stay a lower-court injunction against a political policy. Last week, the Supreme Court paused a Fifth Circuit injunction against mail-order and telehealth access to the abortion drug mifepristone. The expansion of mifepristone to mail distribution was plainly unlawful, yet only Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito would have left the injunction in place.
That tells you a great deal.
They’re becoming so predictable
Start with the legal question, then consider the political implications and the court’s larger hypocrisy.
In 2023, several doctors opposed to abortion on moral and religious grounds challenged the FDA’s original 2000 approval of mifepristone. They argued that the agency had unlawfully approved the drug under Subpart H regulations meant for serious or life-threatening illnesses, on the absurd premise that pregnancy is an illness.
They also argued that the Biden administration’s later expansion of the drug to mail-order use and prescription without an in-person visit violated the Comstock Act. The statute explicitly bars mailing any “drug … for producing abortion” and makes it a felony to use “any express company or other common carrier or interactive computer service” to ship “any drug … designed, adapted, or intended for producing abortion.”
After the doctors won in a Texas district court and secured a partial victory in the Fifth Circuit against the mail-order expansion, the Supreme Court reversed and tossed the claim.
More recently, the Fifth Circuit sided with Louisiana in a separate challenge to mifepristone. The state argued that the entire mail-order abortion-pill regime violates Dobbs, which returned authority over abortion to the states. Under the FDA’s policy, a resident of a state such as Louisiana can still receive abortion pills in the mail even though abortion is banned there.
RELATED: Conservative SCOTUS justice restores access to abortion drug — for now
Valerie Plesch/Bloomberg/Getty Images
By staying that injunction last week, the three Trump appointees made one thing painfully clear: They will overrule conservative lower courts even when the law and recent Supreme Court precedent are on the conservatives’ side.
This is the classic Republican move: one step forward, one giant leap backward.
Thomas and Alito stand fast
Planned Parenthood may be on the ropes in some states, but Trump’s own administration sided with the abortion lobby to preserve Biden’s expansion of the abortion pill. That dangerous drug has made Dobbs functionally hollow by turning every mailbox into an abortion mill. By 2023, 63% of all abortions were already chemical abortions, and that number has almost certainly risen since.
Republicans cannot celebrate the Dobbs decision while refusing to fight mifepristone. In Trump’s case, his administration is not merely refusing to fight. It is siding with the abortion industry. What they call “pro-life” politics is a gross exercise in sophistry and perfidy.
Then comes the broader hypocrisy of the Republican appointees, with Thomas and Alito the lone exceptions.
For the past 15 months, liberal district and circuit judges have nullified immigration law, invented new rights and due-process claims for illegal aliens, and ignored Supreme Court precedent. Yet the high court shows no comparable eagerness to slap them down.
Nearly every day, lower courts order ICE to release criminal aliens on bond, even though Jennings v. Rodriguez made clear that such claims violate the Immigration and Nationality Act. The Supreme Court stayed some injunctions against Trump’s cancellation of Temporary Protected Status for certain nationalities, but it has refused to issue a categorical ruling that would end the lower-court cat-and-mouse game. Earlier this month, another federal judge still managed to block Trump’s cancellation of TPS for Yemeni nationals.
The worst example may have come earlier this month, when U.S. District Judge Julia Kobick ruled against Trump’s travel ban, absurdly suggesting that the murder of a National Guardsman by an Afghan national was not enough reason to stop visas from similar countries. But Trump v. Hawaii already held that the plain language of the INA allows the president to suspend visas from any country whenever he deems it in the national interest. Courts are not supposed to second-guess that determination.
This ‘conservative’ court?
The same pattern holds elsewhere. The D.C. Court of Appeals ruled last month that the president must accept asylum claims at the border, despite his clear authority under Section 212(f) of the INA to suspend entry. Yet none of these lower-court judges gets the Fifth Circuit treatment.
The same goes for guns. After the Bruen decision, blue states still restrict where common firearms may be carried and what magazines may be owned, in plain defiance of the requirement that modern gun regulations align with the nation’s historical tradition. The Supreme Court refused to hear challenges to Maryland’s ban on common semiautomatic rifles and Rhode Island’s ban on magazines holding more than 10 rounds.
In both cases, Gorsuch joined Thomas and Alito in dissent. Kavanaugh and Barrett said nothing.
RELATED: Funding is useless if Democrat judges can still hold ICE hostage
Celal Gunes/Anadolu/Getty Images
Remember the Harvard affirmative-action ruling that was supposed to end race-based admissions? Discrimination remains rampant, and lower courts keep blessing open bias against white and Asian students. In a 2024 dissent from denial of certiorari, Alito — joined, of course, only by Thomas — warned that the court had “twice refused to correct a glaring constitutional error that threatens to perpetuate race-based affirmative action in defiance of Students for Fair Admissions.”
No meaningful follow-up has come since.
So what, exactly, is conservative about this court? What is it trying to conserve?
It is not defending the rule of law. It is not disciplining rogue lower courts. It is not protecting states’ authority on abortion, border security, gun rights, or equal protection.
Thomas and Alito still understand the assignment. The rest of the so-called conservative majority increasingly looks like a bloc that exists to disappoint conservatives more politely than the left would.
Opinion & analysis, Supreme court, Abortion, Mifepristone, Fifth circuit, Dobbs, Roe v. wade, Donald trump, Neil gorsuch, Amy coney barrett, Brett kavanaugh, Clarence thomas, Samuel alito, Immigration, Guns
Muslims are conquering NYC — but Zohran Mamdani says THEY’RE the victims
New York City may have once been the victim of the worst attack on United States soil at the hands of Islamic terrorists, but it appears residents have gotten over it.
“In case you were, I don’t know, on the fence about whether or not New York City forgot all about 9/11 — they did,” BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales says.
“It just keeps becoming increasingly obvious that they forgot because the Islamic conquest, it’s just as we predicted here at ‘Sara Gonzales Unfiltered,’ it’s just happening in broad daylight. And you know what? That’s to be expected when you elect a Muslim commie mayor,” she explains.
Gonzales then plays a clip of tens of Islamic men praying outside of an all-girls’ Jewish school in New York City.
“Just taunting the Jews inside that building,” she says.
In another video, a large Muslim crowd gathered outside of a synagogue during prayer, waving Palestinian flags and chanting “Allahu Akbar.”
“I would be concerned about it. If I’m the mayor of New York City, I’m on it. I’m concerned about it. But instead of being concerned about it, of course, you would have the Muslim commie Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who is actually here to tell you that it’s the Muslims who are under attack in New York City,” Gonzales says.
“I am aware of the disturbing incident targeting worshippers during Friday prayers outside the Baitul Mamur Mosque in Brooklyn, where a man praying was struck with an egg,” Mamdani wrote in a post on X.
“That hateful act is unacceptable and an affront to the values that define us as New Yorkers. My administration is committed to rooting out anti-Muslim hate in all its forms and ensuring every New Yorker can live and worship in safety and dignity,” he continued.
Mamdani added that “the NYPD Hate Crime Task Force is investigating this incident.”
When Gonzales tried to research the incident, she “couldn’t find any reporting on this other than the media reporting on his post.”
“There’s no video. There’s no description of a suspect. The mosque itself hasn’t even commented on it. Isn’t that strange? Isn’t that odd? And I guess Zohran Mamdani as the mayor, he just got the scoop,” she says.
“The mosque wasted an opportunity to be the victims of an egg attack,” she adds.
Want more from Sara Gonzales?
To enjoy more of Sara’s no-holds-barred takes on news and culture, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.
New york city, Sara gonzales unfiltered, Zohran mamdani, Islam, Terrorism, Anti-semitism
Study Links PFNA and PFOSA to Accelerated Epigenetic Aging in Middle-Aged Men
(NaturalNews) A study published in Frontiers in Aging in February 2026 has linked two per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) â perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA) a…
Strength Training Linked to Longer Telomeres and Slower Cellular Aging, Study Finds
(NaturalNews) Regular strength training may slow biological aging at the cellular level by preserving telomere length, according to findings discussed in recent lit…
Carrots: A Nutrient-Dense Root Vegetable with Multiple Health Benefits
(NaturalNews) A Cheap, Affordable, and Nutritious SuperfoodCarrots have long been a staple in kitchens worldwide, but according to recent reports, they are gainin…
Study: DASH Diet Improves Multiple Markers of Metabolic Syndrome
(NaturalNews) A new meta-analysis published in Frontiers in Nutrition has found that the DASH diet improves nearly all markers of metabolic syndrome, according to t…
UAE and Israel Establish Joint Defense Acquisition Fund, Officials Say
(NaturalNews) The United Arab Emirates and Israel have established a fund to jointly acquire and develop new weapons systems, according to one current and one forme…
Former Qatari PM: Israel spent decades trying to drag the U.S. into war with Iran
(NaturalNews) A former Qatari prime minister accuses Israel of a decades-long campaign to push the U.S. into war with Iran, claiming Netanyahu sold Washington o…
Putin Concludes Beijing Visit With 42 Bilateral Agreements, Stronger Russia-China Ties
(NaturalNews) Russian President Vladimir Putin concluded a two-day official visit to Beijing on May 20, 2026, after extensive talks with Chinese President Xi Jinpin…
The Silver Singularity: A review of the book that sees through the matrix
(NaturalNews) “The Silver Singularity’s” core thesis is that AI itself is not the primary threat to humanity. Rather, the danger comes from “human elites” who a…
Where did the term âultra-processed foodâ come from?
(NaturalNews) The term “ultra-processed food” did not emerge from a government conspiracy, some fear-mongering nutrition site, or a corporate marketing board. It ca…
Iran formally tightens its grip on the Strait of Hormuz, making U.S. military intervention a lost bet for global energy markets
(NaturalNews) The Strait of Hormuz has become the worldâs most dangerous chessboard, and Iran just moved its pieces into position. By formally defining administra…
Possible deadly virus exposure at NIH lab raises new biosecurity concerns
(NaturalNews) A National Institutes of Health employee at a Montana lab may have been exposed to Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, a disease with no cure and up …
Owner of day care in Nick Shirley’s exposé now charged with FRAUD costing millions
The owner of a day care targeted in a viral Nick Shirley exposé has been charged six months later with millions of dollars of fraud related to allegedly false reimbursements from the government.
Fahima Egeh Mahamud, the CEO of the Future Leaders Early Learning day care in Minneapolis, allegedly claimed to have provided thousands of meals at her center and defrauded the government.
The day care closed in January, according to state records reviewed by KMSP-TV after the exposé went viral in December.
Mahamud had signed up her day care for a federal child nutrition program through Feeding Our Future, which has since been identified as a source of massive fraud. She also claimed to have provided day care for low-income families through the Child Care Assistance Program.
Prosecutors said she received $4.6 million from the child care program and another $850,000 from the nutrition program. She allegedly submitted over 13,000 fraudulent claims to CCAP from October 2022 until December 2025.
The day care closed in January, according to state records reviewed by KMSP-TV after the exposé went viral in December.
Mahamud was previously charged for the nutrition fraud but was charged on Wednesday for the day care fraud.
The day care was also inspected in November and found not to be “operating within the terms of its license.” It was cited for cleanliness and disrepair issues.
She is being charged with wire fraud and conspiracy to defraud the United States.
RELATED: Top scammer of ‘Feeding Our Future’ fraud in Minnesota NAILED with painful sentence
On Thursday, the top schemer in the Feeding Our Future scam was also sentenced to nearly 42 years in prison for orchestrating the massive fraud scheme.
“This was a vortex of fraud, and you were at the epicenter,” said U.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel to Aimee Bock after her sentencing.
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
Daycare fraud, Feeding our future, Wire fraud, Nick shirley, Politics
Vast image ‘reminiscent of the grim reaper’ appears over Los Angeles
Depending on when Los Angeles residents looked up, they may have seen frightening images in the sky.
Over a duration of about 10 minutes, locals were likely to be either completely in awe or horrified.
‘What if there was a glitch?’
The source of the image of a skeleton with bright, glowing red eyes is not a nefarious one, it turns out, unless viewers were particularly unfond of Amazon. The company broke a Guinness World Record this week in L.A. when it lit up the sky with a record-setting drone show promotion for its new “Masters of the Universe” movie.
Ahead of the June 5 theatrical release, images that could easily be mistaken for an apocalyptic event appeared in a gigantic display, and if residents glanced over the horizon at the right time, they would have seen a horrifying image of Skeletor looking down at them.
The display in its entirety is less frightening; the approximately 10-minute show included a title screen, Castle Grayskull, He-Man, and theme music surrounding the hooded skeleton character.
The film’s director, Travis Knight, was on-scene to collect the Guinness certificate for brightest aerial image formed by multirotors/drones, officially credit to Amazon MGM Studios, USA.
With a reported 1,600 drones, it was nowhere near Guinness’ record for the most multirotors/drones airborne simultaneously from a single computer. This feat belongs to Guangdong EHang Egret Media Technology Co. Ltd., which displayed 22,580 drones in a presentation in Hefei, Anhui, China, on February 3, 2026.
Readers were understandably disturbed by the idea of giant images taking up a portion of the Los Angeles skyline for a significant period of time, with some calling the display “risky” considering the damage the drones could cause if they were to fail.
“What if there was a glitch and they fall down everywhere,” one viewer asked, picturing “people driving getting a drone crashing on their windshield.”
Another X user asked whether the accompanying sounds would be played loud enough for residents to hear:
“It looks great, but damn I’d hate to live round there,” Mark wrote.
RELATED: Karen Bass roasted over plan for free dental care for homeless meth addicts
A lot of sarcastic viewers commented on the display, with some saying, “I’m sure this didn’t freak anyone out,” while others pointed out the irony of “a skeleton character, somewhat reminiscent of the grim reaper, [looking] out over Hollywood.”
The display is out of touch according to many, with an overwhelming sentiment among viewers being that even such a grandiose promotion will not save the movie industry. Comments demanding film studios “make better movies” and concluding the studios have “no idea that they’re in active failure” were not hard to come by.
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
Amazon, California, Drones, Guinness world record, Los angeles, Tech
‘The march of Islam’: Chip Roy tells Steve Deace America will surpass France and England in the Islamization of the West
The debate over Sharia law, immigration, assimilation, and whether America is starting to look like parts of Europe continues to be deeply divisive.
To gauge the severity of the issue, BlazeTV host Steve Deace spoke with Texas Representative and attorney general candidate Chip Roy (R), a co-founder of the Sharia-Free America Caucus in the House of Representatives.
“How real is this, Chip?” Deace asks bluntly.
“It’s very real. Our Democrat colleagues like to dismiss it as they did yesterday in the hearing that I held on this very topic,” Roy says, referring to the May 13 House Judiciary Subcommittee hearing titled “Sharia-Free America: Why Political Islam & Sharia Law Are Incompatible with the U.S. Constitution.”
“I wanted to show that number one, we have had 5.5 million people imported into the United States from majority-Muslim countries since 9/11. That’s suicidal; it’s stupid. Number two, the Muslim Brotherhood is driving the agenda, and all of the organizations that are basically affiliates of the Muslim Brotherhood, even if they don’t want to admit it, they’re driving the agenda in a concerted and organized plan,” he explains, citing several examples of Islam’s growing influence in the state of Texas.
Deace puts the 5.5 million statistic into perspective: “That would be the 24th-largest state in the union if it was just in one location. That would be more people than live in the following places: Alabama, Louisiana, Kentucky, Oregon, Oklahoma, Connecticut, Utah, Nevada, Iowa, Arkansas, Kansas, Mississippi, New Mexico, Idaho, Nebraska, West Virginia, Hawaii, New Hampshire, Maine, Montana, Rhode Island, Delaware, South Dakota, North Dakota, Alaska, Vermont, and Wyoming.”
But when you consider that a huge portion of these immigrants have then started families in the U.S., it gets even more alarming.
“Let’s add in the children that they have created over those last 25 years at a higher rate than we are. I promise you that number is a much higher number. Maybe you double it,” Roy says.
“That’d be a top 10 state,” Deace says.
Roy says that he’s often questioned about his commitment to the First Amendment, but these critics misunderstand his advocacy.
“I’m not telling people what they can believe or not believe. Nothing about what I’m saying is that. What I’m saying is, you can’t advocate a political ideology, the stated objective of which for the vast majority of the people adherent to the religion is to undermine our civilization and destroy Western civilization,” he explains.
“It is Islam that is the inconsistent element here with our Western values, and we have to acknowledge it because you can’t win a war you don’t acknowledge exists — and one exists,” Roy continues.
Deace sums it up succinctly: “You have a right to believe what you want to believe; you don’t necessarily have a right to believe it here.”
While many, especially conservatives, are worried about illegal immigration, Deace and Roy point out that America has a “legal immigration problem” as well, specifically when it comes to Muslim migrants.
Roy points to England and France, where legal immigration from predominantly Muslim countries has significantly altered city demographics and culture.
“If we think that what’s happening in London and Paris is not happening right now on steroids, we’re crazy,” he says. “I think we will surpass how bad it is in the United Kingdom and France very quickly because people here will use the First Amendment … as a sword that they’re actually unable to do as easily in the U.K. or France.”
Roy warns that Muslim immigrants plan “to use our own property rights” and other freedoms “against us” to build “housing communities in and around their religious centers,” which is tied to their broader plan to conquer the West.
“By far, our number one threat to our country’s future … is the march of Islam into our communities,” he comments.
To hear the full interview, watch the episode above.
Want more from Steve Deace?
To enjoy more of Steve’s take on national politics, Christian worldview, and principled conservatism with a snarky twist, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.
Steve deace, Steve deace show, Chip roy, Sharia law, Islamification, Texas
Pride president outraged at California city officials for abruptly canceling festival — then officials fire back
Members of the LGBTQ+ community were outraged after one of the largest Pride festivals in Southern California was canceled just hours before it was scheduled to begin.
Long Beach city officials shut down the festival on Friday and accused the organizers of failing to provide them critical safety and operational documentation required for the event.
‘This decision comes at a moment when LGBTQ+ people are facing escalating attacks from the current federal administration and from political forces across the country.’
The city’s attorney sent a cease and desist order to the organizers right before the start time.
“The City notified the organizer that it had failed to timely submit the required application materials and supporting documentation necessary for permit review and issuance. As a result, no special event permit has been approved or issued for the events,” Dawn McIntosh said in the letter.
Long Beach Pride President Tonya Martin lashed out at the city in a statement Friday demanding that it “protect and uplift” the LGBTQ community, but she did not say whether the group had provided the proper documentation.
“Long Beach Pride is deeply disappointed by the City’s decision to cancel the Long Beach Pride Festival, a long-standing community institution built by volunteers, sustained by love, and rooted in the belief that every person deserves to live openly, safely, and with dignity,” the lesbian wrote.
“This decision comes at a moment when LGBTQ+ people are facing escalating attacks from the current federal administration and from political forces across the country,” she added.
On Saturday, the city responded with a rebuttal described as “aggressive” by the Advocate, an LGBTQ+ news outlet.
According to the city, organizers still had not submitted approved structural plans for the stages and trusses, approved electrical plans, detailed security plans, or sufficiently detailed site plans that identify critical infrastructure locations.
The city said most festivals of that size completed the documents 65 days in advance and that they had worked with the organizers all the way until the day of the event to try to get it to work out.
The city also pointed out that it had to step in three years ago to keep the event going but had intended to do so as a one-time commitment. It has since continued funding and managing the parade.
Despite the cancellation of the festival, the Pride parade went on as scheduled.
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
Long beach, Pride festival, Pride parade, Politics, Lgbtq
Florida art teacher fired after video shows her hanging black baby doll in her classroom
Students are claiming emotional trauma from their middle school teacher apparently hanging a black baby doll by an electrical cord from the television in her Florida classroom.
The bizarre incident was caught on video and was widely circulated before the art teacher was fired from the job at Barrington Middle School in Lithia.
‘They should not have to sit in the classroom and worry if they’re going to see images that can terrorize them for life.’
Nina Williams, the parent of the student who recorded the teacher, wants her to face serious consequences.
“I want her teaching certificate gone,” Williams said. “I don’t want her to be able to practice in another state. I don’t want her to be able to do what she did to my child and the other many children in that classroom to any other children.”
Williams posted the video on Tuesday to social media, where it quickly went viral.
“She needs to be charged for it and license removed. Not be around kids at all,” said Aracelis Perez, the parent of another student who recorded the teacher throwing the doll away after the hanging.
After much outrage, the district said the teacher had been terminated immediately on Wednesday.
“Our school counselors and administrators will continue to be available to meet with any students at Barrington Middle School who have concerns or need additional support,” reads the statement from the district.
Among those outraged was Hillsborough NAACP President Yvette Lewis.
“They should not have to sit in the classroom and worry if they’re going to see images that can terrorize them for life,” Lewis said. “If you don’t know your history, you’re bound to repeat it, and it was clear that this teacher did not know the history. Because if you knew your history and you knew what that meant and how it will invoke fear or intimidation to African-Americans, you would have never done it.”
Lewis went on to claim that the incident might not have happened if Florida state officials had not removed certain African-American history books from schools.
The teacher, whose name is Karen Savage, did not return requests for comment from WTLV-TV.
RELATED: NY middle school teacher fired over ‘racist’ joke allegedly made to two students about slavery
The district said the Florida Department of Education’s Office of Professional Practice Services is investigating whether her teaching certificate should be revoked.
WTSP-TV asked the FBI if it was investigating the case, but the agency refused to confirm or disconfirm any investigation.
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
Racism accusation, Florida school, Teacher racism, Politics, Middle school
Study: Thyme Oil Inhalation May Reduce Asthma Symptoms
(NaturalNews) A clinical trial conducted in Turkey has tested the effects of inhaled thyme (Thymus vulgaris) essential oil on asthma symptoms among hospitalized pat…
