Democratic Sen. Ruben Gallego of Arizona had a telling response to the allegations in a New York Post report that he had been sexually involved with at least two staffers in the House of Representatives.

Gallego, who is a close friend of Eric Swalwell, told NBC News when questioned about the report that he was not going to engage in “gossip.”

One source called the allegations a part of a ‘pattern of mistakes and missteps and judgment calls’ from the Democrat.

The Post report cited three sources confirming the two relationships, including one source saying they heard it firsthand from the 46-year-old senator.

Gallego reportedly admitted to the relationships with aides of Texas Democrats to one source, while another source said they had recently learned about the incidents.

A third source also confirmed the report.

The relationships allegedly occurred during the time Gallego was a House representative. The sexual interactions were consensual, and Gallego was not married at the time, according to the sources.

Gallego is considered a possible presidential candidate, but these allegations and any other potential scandals may derail that hope.

One source called the allegations a part of a “pattern of mistakes and missteps and judgment calls” from the Democrat, and the source bluntly wondered if there were more scandals coming.

“What else could there be out there?” the person asked.

One of the women involved was reportedly in her 20s and much younger than Gallego at the time.

Gallago’s friend Eric Swalwell was accused of sexual harassment and had to drop his gubernatorial campaign as well as step down from Congress. Speculation swirled as to whether Gallego knew about those allegations before they were public and whether he had his own peccadilloes.

Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida claimed in April to have heard of four women who claimed to have had inappropriate or unwanted attention from the senator. At the time, he responded by denying the “right-wing conspiracies peddled by far-right activists like Anna Paulina Luna, the White House, and their allies” and calling for an apology.

RELATED: Gay couple arrested on child sex abuse allegations — and they have 5 young sons

Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) avoided questions about the report.

Gallego did not respond to a request for comment from the Post, nor did the two House staffers reportedly involved.

The senator was also among the Democrats who rescinded their endorsements of Graham Platner, the former senatorial candidate in Maine, over sexual assault accusations.

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​Anna paulina luna, Eric swalwell, Ruben gallego, New york post, Sexual relationship, Politics 

After a reported shooting in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Wednesday night, the Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office said deputies responded to the 5900 block of South 59th West Avenue.

Arriving deputies spoke with the homeowner, who said the suspect — later identified as 37-year-old Joshua Arena — came onto the property, threatened to steal the homeowner’s truck, and told the homeowner he would kill him if he resisted, officials said.

‘The truck owner was within all right[s] to have ended his life.’

The homeowner told deputies he turned to go back inside his house, but Arena followed him into the residence, officials said.

With that, the homeowner grabbed a baseball bat and struck Arena, and the two began fighting, officials said.

The fight continued outside, and the homeowner told deputies Arena turned and charged at him again.

But the homeowner fired a single shot and hit Arena in the thigh, officials said.

RELATED: Man allegedly catches burglar taking TV from his wall, turning and reaching into bag — then homeowner ends heist with his gun

Joshua Arena. Image source: Tulsa County (Okla.) Sheriff’s Office

Officials said Arena was transported to a hospital for treatment before being booked into the Tulsa County Jail on complaints of first-degree attempted robbery by force, first-degree burglary, and assault and battery. Arena’s jail record does not show the assault and battery charge but indicates his total bail is $70,000 for the other two charges.

A number of commenters under the sheriff’s office Facebook post about the incident wrote that Arena was “lucky”:

“He’s jerking the trigger. Needs to start dry firing,” one commenter said. “At least he cut meat and stopped the aggressive behavior.””He’s lucky,” another user said. “Those who know shoot center mass.””He’s lucky it wasn’t someone with a gun who was properly trained to use that gun,” another commenter said.”I see a lot of people in this area scoping out people’s places,” another user said. “They walk around, but my dogs don’t allow them to even look over to us.””The face of FAFO ladies and gentlemen,” another commenter said. “He’s one of the lucky ones!””That’s a face that knows he’s lucky to be alive, and he’s grateful for it,” another user said. “I applaud the homeowner for executing the lawful steps with proficiency. Nice job!””The truck owner was within all right[s] to have ended his life,” another commenter said.”Lucky homeowner didn’t put one between his eyes,” another user said.

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​2nd amendment, Baseball bat, Gun rights, Guns, Homeowner shoots attacker, Oklahoma, Self-defense, Shooting, Tulsa, Tulsa county sheriff’s office, Arrest, Crime 

A gang of federal judges installed a past appointee of former Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee in the role of U.S. attorney for the Western District of Washington state on Wednesday. President Donald Trump made sure, however, that the judges’ pick didn’t last long in the position.

“District court judges can appoint a temporary U.S. Attorney, and POTUS can fire them,” acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement. “WDWA judges abandoned the time-honored process of consultation with the administration so that the selected U.S. Attorney is qualified to serve in the administration.”

‘Glad he was fired right away.’

Quick background

The Biden Department of Justice announced on March 1, 2021, that it had appointed Tessa Gorman as acting U.S. attorney for the Western District of Washington. Shortly after retaking office, President Donald Trump kicked Gorman to the curb.

In October, Trump named a notoriously tough immigration judge, Charles Neil Floyd, as the new attorney. U.S. attorneys are normally nominated by the president, then confirmed by the Senate. In the case of Floyd, Trump never forwarded the nomination to the Senate.

Interim U.S. attorneys are allowed to serve for only 120 days if not confirmed by the Senate or extended indefinitely by the district court for the district concerned. The Trump administration took steps, however, to ensure that Floyd would remain the top dog in the Western District by keeping the top post vacant, then having the DOJ appoint Floyd first assistant U.S. attorney on Feb. 2.

Federal judges in Seattle, who already announced that they would seek to fill the position of the Western District’s U.S. attorney, began taking applications in March.

One-hour appointment

The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington — comprising 17 federal judges, 10 of whom were appointed by Democratic presidents — issued an unanimous order on Wednesday naming Roger Rogoff as the U.S. attorney for the district.

RELATED: Justice Amy Coney Barrett describes SWATTING attack against her family

First Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles Neil Floyd. U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington.

The order — which was signed by David Estudillo, a U.S. district judge appointed by former President Joe Biden — claimed that the intent behind Rogoff’s appointment was to “ensure the integrity and effective administration of justice in this district.”

Rogoff was sworn in before 8 a.m. at the federal courthouse in downtown Seattle on Wednesday, then went to meet with Floyd, reported the Associated Press. Rogoff told KING-TV that by 8:34 a.m., he had received an email informing him that he had been removed from the post per the president’s instruction.

Blanche announced at 5:11 p.m. ET that “Roger Rogoff has been fired by the President.”

This turn of events ruffled the feathers of Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.).

Murray lashed out at the administration on X, writing, “Within an HOUR after being legally appointed by the federal judges as Western WA’s top prosecutor, Trump fired Roger Rogoff. Not because he isn’t qualified (he is), but because the President wants a sock puppet who puts Trump above the rule of law.”

Murray noted further in a release, “Roger Rogoff’s [sic] is eminently qualified — throughout his career, he has demonstrated an outstanding commitment to public service, and he was appointed legally by the federal judges in the Western District of Washington. He should have never been fired, but the president wants to appoint an out-of-touch extremist who will put Trump over the rule of law.”

Keith Swank, the sheriff of Pierce County, Washington, took Murray’s characterization of Rogoff as “qualified” as a clear indicator “he’s a political hack.”

“Glad he was fired right away after the stunt the leftist judges did,” wrote the Republican sheriff.

Rogoff, who told the Associated Press he is considering suing over his termination, said, “The fact that the judges of this district — most of whom I’ve spent my career appearing in front of, or trying cases against, or working with — believed that I was the right person to do this work is just really humbling and amazing.”

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​Activist judge, Department of justice, Donald trump, Federal court, Patty murray, Seattle, Us attorney, Us district court, Washington, Politics 

Rachel Griffin Accurso, better known as Ms. Rachel, the creator behind the massively popular baby and toddler learning YouTube channel, is in hot water with conservatives yet again. Not only does the 43-year-old Zohran Mamdani-supporting professing Christian incorporate LGBTQ+ themes into her children’s videos and voice support for a number of left-wing causes, she now apparently is soft-pedaling Islam.

Last week, Accurso faced fresh conservative criticism for praising hijabs worn by kindergarten girls in a Minnesota public school graduation video that President Trump and accounts like End Wokeness highlighted as an example of heavy Muslim/Somali cultural influence in schools.

On July 7, she posted the following message on Instagram:

On a recent episode of “Relatable,” Allie Beth Stuckey exposed the “cultural and moral relativism” behind Ms. Rachel’s claim that “hijabs are beautiful.”

Allie begins by giving credit where it’s due.

“I know for a lot of you that Ms. Rachel has really helped your child learn speech and articulation and different, you know, social cues and different things like that, so I don’t want to take that away from you,” she says, “but she has also become more outspokenly political, and she is a huge purveyor of something called cultural and moral relativism.”

“In her efforts to be all-inclusive, she glosses over the very real moral differences and moral problems with ideologies like Islam,” she continues.

Religions, Allie explains, are not all the same — and Islam is the perfect example.

“I think it’s OK for people to say, ‘Hmm, why would a 5- and 6-year-old be required according to their religion to abide by a modesty standard that forces them to cover up their hair for fear of lust from a male?’” she says, calling it understandably “disturbing for a lot of people.”

Allie acknowledges that some of what Ms. Rachel says in her Instagram post is “absolutely true” — especially the part about “[treating] every person with kindness and respect.”

But is forcing a little girl to cover her entire body kind or respectful?

Allie argues no, stating that “little children, and especially little girls, are victims of Islamic ideology.”

“[The hijab] is not meaningful to them. This is something that they are forced to wear because of Islamic standards of modesty, saying that a woman showing her hair is indecent,” she notes.

She also says that the Prophet Muhammad — the founder of Islam — “married a 6-year-old girl and reportedly consummated the marriage when she was 9 years old.”

Allie criticizes Ms. Rachel’s claim that wearing a hijab is the same as wearing a cross necklace. “Wearing a cross like a symbol of Jesus’ victory over death is not the same thing as a little 5-year-old girl being forced to wear a modesty garb over her hair.”

“This kind of philosophy reflects the cultural relativism, the moral relativism that I actually think is very dangerous [and] has led us to a really bad place and has led us to this toxic empathy, this feeling, this guilt that we have to allow on the same footing every single ideology into our country or else you’re a bad person,” she continues, noting that it’s just “Western nations” that seem to push this pernicious dogma.

She points out the inconsistency in Ms. Rachel’s professed Christian faith — she claims Christ but undermines biblical truths by pushing the ideology that “every culture has its own same level of validity” and “that there is no absolute truth” and “no objective morality.”

Not only does this perspective reject the Christian view of God’s authority, it also invites chaos into the culture.

“It’s a nice theory until you are the victim of an injustice; you’re the victim of an assault; you’re the victim of murder; you’re the victim of rape; you’re the victim of theft. Then suddenly, there really is immorality, and immorality needs to be punished,” says Allie.

To hear more of her deep dive into Ms. Rachel’s latest scandal, watch the episode above.

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​Relatable, Allie beth stuckey, Ms. rachel, Islam, Hijab 

When Democrats lost the 2024 election to Donald Trump, it couldn’t have been clearer that a big reason for their failure was their relentless anger toward young white men — as they even launched a $20 million effort to discover where they went wrong with these men.

However, while this should have been what BlazeTV host Auron MacIntyre calls a “golden opportunity for the GOP to secure the loyalty of young men for a generation,” conservatives are instead “setting the opportunity on fire.”

“In a recent Fox News interview, the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, blamed the rise of democratic socialism on Gen Z. She said that young people were raised with a silver spoon in their mouth, called them lazy, and suggested sending them to Cuba or Iran,” MacIntyre explains.

Leavitt, who MacIntyre notes “married a millionaire real estate developer more than 30 years her senior,” only made things worse when she tried to defend her comments.

“The message to young people was unmistakable: Your concerns are not legitimate, and we despise you for expecting us to fix anything,” he says.

While there are lazy men in all generations, young white men have a uniquely treacherous hill to climb when it comes to success.

“Young men, especially young white men, have been systematically excluded from educational institutions, corporate hiring, and promotion. These statements aren’t just speculation or resentment. They’re provable fact,” MacIntyre says.

“We have the data. We know what’s going on. And this is the predictable result of decades of cultural indoctrination and civil rights enforcement that trained institutions to prefer women, immigrants, and minorities whenever possible. That has real consequences,” he continues.

“Men who can’t secure education, employment, and status are less likely to marry or form families, no matter how often our culture repeats slogans about equality,” he adds.

But it’s not just empty slogans about equality that are causing the rift.

“Housing has become another barrier,” MacIntyre says. “The average first-time home buyer is now approaching middle age. Young men can’t build wealth as their parents did or provide the stability women often want before marriage.”

“One factor is simply welfare for seniors. Many older Americans failed to save adequately for retirement and now depend on the inflated value of homes they bought decades ago. President Trump has explicitly said he doesn’t want housing prices to fall for that reason,” he explains.

“That’s a deliberate choice to sacrifice young men’s development and family formation to protet older asset holders,” he adds.

Want more from Auron MacIntyre?

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​Democrats, Donald trump, Gop, White house, Fox news, Karoline leavitt, The auron macintyre show, Auron macintyre 

Golfer Bryson DeChambeau was scratching his head only three weeks ago, wondering how much worse things could get for him.

In response, the 32-year-old posted a somber video just days after missing the cut at his third-straight major event, the U.S. Open.

‘One year later, everybody says I’m the worst.’

Currently ranked 37th in the world, DeChambeau did not finish the U.S. Open, ultimately placing worse than No. 72 in June. In May, he missed the cut, placing below No. 100 at the PGA Championship. Same goes for the Masters Tournament in April, where DeChambeau failed to crack the top 54.

The golfer, known for his epic power, posted a video on his YouTube channel after his latest swing and miss and made no excuses to his fans.

“Ultimately, it comes down to me making better decisions,” DeChambeau said, analyzing swing after swing in a 30-minute look at his recent play. Throughout the video, DeChambeau promised fans he would work harder and that he had no choice but to get better.

Whether through talent or sheer determination, DeChambeau has immediately stormed back at the Open at the Royal Birkdale Golf Club in Southport, England.

DeChambeau finished Thursday’s first round with a 67 with five birdies. Sitting at -3, the lead is still in sight for DeChambeau, with a lot of golf left to play.

RELATED: ‘This country backed our team’: Praise for US Soccer pours in as players promise brighter future

Kate McShane/R&A/Getty Images

After his round, DeChambeau said he thought he “did a really good job” of being “incredibly strategic,” something he may not have focused on in the past.

The California native added that his goal was to “hit more fairways” but said his performance was “definitely satisfying.”

“Any time you get off to a great start, it’s awesome, but there’s three more days, dude. There’s still a lot of golf to be played. But ultimately, from my perspective, I was really excited about the way I played,” he explained.

In his video analysis, DeChambeau said he wanted his putting to be less “erratic,” despite still having best drives off the tee at previous tournaments.

“We could say it’s unlucky. We could say judgment. We could say bad swings and all that,” he continued, but he added that “better decisions” were the solution.

RELATED: WNBA star says black women are ‘amazing’ and deserve equality in strange, race-riddled rant

As for his mentality, DeChambeau said he hasn’t been distracted by running his YouTube channel or complications with the PGA Tour’s competitor, LIV Golf.

He did touch on the highs and lows of fame, however. DeChambeau stated that he has seen the heights he can reach, culminating in events like golfing with the president in 2024.

“I put one foot in front of the other and keep going,” he concluded. “There’s not much more I can do than that. Just last year, this time, before the U.S. Open, I was one of the best major championship performers in the world. Come one year later, everybody says I’m the worst. It just is what it is. It’s life, it’s golf. Things don’t always go your way.”

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​Golf, Pga tour, Bryson dechambeau, Sports 

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has claimed in a federal filing that substances that looked like methamphetamines were found in the van of an illegal alien who was shot and killed in Houston.

The death of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo on July 7 by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent led to nationwide protests by critics of the immigration enforcement policies of President Donald Trump.

An officer claims to have seen ‘three plastic bags containing a white crystal-like substance in the middle of the dash.’

An FBI search warrant affidavit filed Tuesday said that bags of “white crystal-like substance” believed to be “consistent with methamphetamine” were found in the van Araujo was driving.

The affidavit said investigations sought authorization to search the van for evidence of possession with intent to distribute controlled substances and simple possession, along with other drug charges.

The filing said Araujo was driving the “target vehicle” with three passengers when ICE agents attempted the traffic stop. Araujo drove over a median after refusing to follow orders. The ICE officers followed policy and did not pursue the van and instead relocated it on Canal Street before attempting another stop.

The affidavit says only that an ICE agent shot and killed the driver, but it does not indicate the reason for the shooting.

An officer claims to have seen “three plastic bags containing a white crystal-like substance in the middle of the dash between the driver and passenger side of the vehicle,” while standing outside of the van. Photos supporting the officer’s claims were included in the affidavit.

The substances were also packaged such that they appeared ready for “distribution, manufacturing, and possession,” the affidavit said.

Democratic Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare told CNN he didn’t believe the substances identified by the FBI were illicit drugs. He said he had unreleased information and added that the FBI was likely to test the substances in the coming days.

RELATED: President of Mexico VOWS to take action over lethal ICE shooting of illegal alien in Houston

ICE said previously that Araujo had “weaponized” his vehicle against agents, leading to the shooting death. The three passengers in the vehicle dispute that characterization, according to Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-Texas).

Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said that the Texas Rangers were investigating the lethal shooting.

The DHS had paused traffic stops in the wake of the death of Araujo as well as that of Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Biddeford, Maine, days later. The president very soon after overturned that decision and said the traffic stops would continue.

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​Federal bureau of investigation, Immigration and customs enforcement, Methamphetamines, Traffic stop, Immigration, Politics 

Last night, Manhattan’s David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center hosted the annual ESPY Awards, honoring the top athletes, teams, and sports performances of the year.

As a first-time host, Marcello Hernández kicked off the ceremony with a comedy monologue that mixed sports with jokes about immigrants, American culture, and race.

‘Sports without immigrants is just cornhole.’

Saturday Night Live cast member Hernández, who is of Dominican and Cuban descent, began by shouting out last year’s host, Shane Gillis, joking that Gillis was watching from home “like a true American — on his couch, drinking a beer, while a Hispanic guy does his job.”

He then praised immigrant athletes, declaring, “Immigrant athletes are what make sports great because at the end of the day, sports without immigrants is just cornhole.”

Joking about America’s habit of calling its sports champions “world champions,” Hernández said the FIFA World Cup is “the time when American sports fans remember what the word ‘world’ means,” adding that they typically think it just means “the U.S. and one team from Toronto.”

RELATED: ‘This country backed our team’: Praise for US Soccer pours in as players promise brighter future

He also took aim at the “white sport” of hockey, saying, “You know how I know hockey is a white sport? No matter what you do, the worst thing that happens is, ‘Go to time-out for two minutes.’”

“Latino people watch hockey, and when they see them put those guys in the box for two minutes, the Latino people are like, ‘He gonna do it again. He didn’t learn anything from that.’”

Congratulating WNBA players on their new collective bargaining agreement, Hernández poked fun at the league’s lesbian athletes.

“There’s a lot of new money in the WNBA, man, opening up the door to a new reality show: ‘Basketball Husbands … and Wives.’” He added after a pause, “But mostly wives.”

Not even Knicks superstar Jalen Brunson was safe from the butt of a joke.

Referring to Brunson winning an NBA championship with his father, Rick Brunson, as an assistant coach, Hernández said it proved “that nepotism, like most things, is way cooler when a black guy does it.”

RELATED: NFL legend Chris Johnson, father of 4, reveals devastating diagnosis: ‘I can’t even hold a cup’

Mike Coppola/Getty Images

While Hernández’s remarks provided the evening’s opening entertainment, the show ultimately returned to celebrating the athletes and teams who defined the past year.

Among the night’s biggest winners were the New York Knicks, who took home Best Team; Shohei Ohtani, who won Best Single-Game Performance; and Jalen Brunson, who earned Best Athlete — Men’s Sports.

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​Athletes, Teams, Politics, Saturday night live, Sports, Espn, Marcello hernandez, Shane gillis, Comedy 

Some Republicans have mastered the art of the bad deal, suggests a new State Leadership Initiative report exclusively given to Blaze News.

State Leadership Initiative’s new “Corporate Welfare” report suggests that corporate subsidies inadvertently fund “cultural and economic campaigns designed to destroy conservative communities.” Republican-run states have spent at least $148 billion on corporate subsidies since 2015, according to Good Jobs First.

‘Red states are writing the biggest checks to their biggest enemies.’

“Many of the largest subsidy recipients actively undermine the communities and industries that subsidize them — through ESG mandates, replacement of domestic labor with H-1B workers, DEI regimes, supply-chain favoritism toward China, and open hostility,” according to the report.

Some of those subsidies are going to banks and asset management firms. These firms employ environmental, social, and governance standards that emphasize climate metrics when deciding where to invest.

“Major banks and investment firms that receive state deposits and tax incentives have implemented lending policies that strangle coal, oil, and natural gas projects,” the report states. “JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, and Citigroup — all recipients of various state incentives — have committed to ‘net-zero’ financing that effectively blacklists fossil fuel development.”

JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, and Citigroup were all previously members of the United Nations-backed Net-Zero Banking Alliance. The banks quietly departed the coalition after President Donald Trump’s 2024 re-election.

“Tech companies impose ESG requirements on their supply chains that penalize manufacturers, agriculture, and energy producers in red states,” the report states. “Amazon, Google, and Microsoft — all major subsidy recipients — demand carbon accounting and ‘sustainable’ practices from suppliers that make it harder for red-state businesses to compete.”

Outlining its climate goals through 2030, Microsoft’s 2025 Environmental Sustainability Report touts that its “large-scale … suppliers are required to transition to 100% carbon-free electricity for their delivered goods and services.”

‘They use their market power to export California climate policy into states that explicitly rejected it.’

“The corporate welfare in our energy industry means taxpayers end up getting screwed twice. Federal and state dollars incentivize the financing and installation of crappy Chinese wind and solar, so corporations go out of their way to get the free money,” Power the Future Executive Director Daniel Turner told Blaze News.

“Politicians create a problem, spend your money to fix said problem, make everything worse, and then have the nerve to ask you to re-elect them. We fought a revolution over less.”

RELATED: The GOP’s 2028 ticket math is already brutal

David Ryder/Getty Images

Over 57,000 Amazon positions have been affected by layoffs or restructuring since 2022, according to CNBC.

The Seattle-based giant had over 13,500 H-1B visa petitions approved in 2025.

An H-1B visa is often the first step for someone pursuing permanent residency in the United States. Once secured, an employer may begin the Program Electronic Review Management process on the employee’s behalf. If successful, the employee is granted permanent labor certification and a green card.

“[Amazon] has mastered the art of gaming the Department of Labor’s PERM process — posting job advertisements deliberately designed to exclude qualified Americans, ensuring they can claim no domestic workers are available and justify importing cheaper foreign replacements,” according to State Leadership Initiative VP and report author Thomas Murray. “Texas handed Amazon hundreds of millions in subsidies. Amazon responded by laying off thousands of Texas workers while filing for tens of thousands of H-1B visas to import cheaper foreign labor.”

“Before sponsoring a foreign worker for permanent residency, an employer must test the labor market — advertise the role, run specific recruitment steps, and certify that no qualified, willing U.S. worker was available,” Murray told Blaze News. “The gaming happens when a company designs that recruitment to be technically compliant while ensuring few or no Americans actually apply.”

In an April press release, Amazon stated that it “had more than 86,000 full- and part-time employees [in Texas] and supported more than 90,000 indirect jobs in 2025.”

Apple and Meta were both previously pursued by the Department of Justice for similar alleged citizenship-status discrimination. The DOJ claimed that Apple required physical rather than electronic applications for PERM jobs to hide them from public view and keep them off its hiring websites.

In November 2023, Apple paid $25 million to settle DOJ allegations that it violated the Immigration and Nationality Act’s anti-discrimination statutes. Meta paid $14.25 million in 2021 following a similar DOJ investigation.

Meta, Apple, and Microsoft did not respond to requests for comment from Blaze News.

Murray noted the distinctions between Apple and Amazon’s alleged PERM strategy.

“Public DOL disclosure data shows Amazon filing tens of thousands of PERM applications across its entities, a large share at entry-level prevailing-wage tiers that are hard to square with a ‘no qualified Americans’ claim — and using the same recruitment patterns (generic ads, mail-in-only, roles never posted to its own careers site) that DOJ has already penalized at Apple and Facebook,” Murray told Blaze News. “Amazon hasn’t yet been sued over this.”

According to Good Jobs First, Amazon has received at least $18 million in tax incentives in Texas since Gov. Greg Abbott (R) took office in 2015. Most Texas tax breaks are managed at the municipal level and are not required to disclose valuations, according to the state’s Local Government Code.

State Leadership Initiative’s report calls for subsidies over $25,000 to be included in a mandatory disclosure database.

“Texas uses performance-based incentives to attract major investments and create jobs for Texans. The governor’s focus is on expanding opportunity and good-paying jobs for Texas workers and families,” Abbott press secretary Andrew Mahaleris told Blaze News. “In January, he directed all Texas state agencies and public universities to immediately freeze new H-1B visa petitions and review current usage to ensure taxpayer-funded jobs go to Texans first.”

Todd Kirkland/Getty Images

Abbott’s action follows Trump’s September 2025 “Restriction on Entry of Certain Nonimmigrant Workers” proclamation, which applied a $100,000 fee to new H-1B applications.

“It’s a fairly common practice for governments to use incentive agreements to encourage companies to create jobs in their communities that generate tax revenue and drive economic activity,” Amazon Vice President of Economic Development Holly Sullivan told Blaze News. “And if we enter into an agreement like that, we take it seriously and work hard to create every job we projected. The way these agreements are structured means that we only receive benefits from them if we do our part.”

Clauses tying benefits to performance — often referred to as “clawback” clauses — are common for incentive agreements, though typically enforced at state or local government discretion.

State Leadership Initiative recommends Republican-run states expand the scope of their clawback provisions to safeguard their independence and economies.

“We’ve invested more than $1.8 trillion in the U.S. since 2010 and employ more than one million people across the country —no U.S. company has created more jobs than Amazon in the last decade,” Sullivan said.

Penalizing energy production via lending and supply-chain restrictions would automatically nullify incentive agreements under the proposed policy from State Leadership Initiative.

Scaling H-1B visa filings or outsourcing by 10% amid layoffs of 100 or more U.S. employees would also cancel state-level agreements should the report’s recommendations be adopted.

“The current crisis in red states demands we recognize that the problem has evolved beyond what traditional economic analysis anticipated,” the report concludes. “The corporations now receiving the largest subsidies take taxpayer dollars and use them to replace American workers, destroy American industries, and assault American culture.”

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​Apple, Department of labor, H1b visas, Microsoft, Red states, Republicans, Energy production, News, Greg abbott, Politics 

A “Lord of the Rings” star was questioned by a reporter as to why there are so many white actors in the trilogies.

Andy Serkis, the iconic British actor who played Gollum and is now reprising the role, was forced to answer for the original work in an interview with the BBC.

‘I don’t think we will be doing a politically correct … version of the film.’

#ShireSoWhite

Entertainment reporter Colin Paterson prefaced Serkis’ answers with a declaration that “The Lord of the Rings” was made before “colorblind casting became common” and had “almost entirely white lineups.”

Fearing the new movies might be the same, Paterson asked Serkis: “Why?”

Serkis immediately cited the original works, created by author J.R.R. Tolkien, who “himself was influenced a lot by Norse mythology; there’s a lot of that feeling.”

Readers will know there exists plenty of supplemental literature written by Tolkien where he specifically describes how and why the characters look the way they do.

“The Shire feels very, very much like a very white, you know …” Serkis said, his thought trailing off. The actor then backed his LOTR team and crew and plainly explained why some might find the hobbits indifferent to our modern-day affinity for diversity.

“They’re not very concerned about what goes on beyond the borders of the Shire, but they know they don’t want people coming in.”

RELATED: ‘Star Wars’ creator George Lucas finally weighs in on AI — and his comments will surprise you

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Monster mash

While Serkis admitted, “Yes, there have been criticisms,” he mostly parried off his interviewer’s queries with a final statement on the matter.

“This particular film is somewhat acknowledging that. But we don’t think we will be doing a politically correct, just-casting-for-the sake-of-casting-and-ticking-boxes version of the film,” Serkis stated. “So, it’s only where relevant basically.”

When the Tolkien story hit Amazon as “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power,” it was widely mocked for casting black actors as dwarves and elves.

It also took major liberties with Tolkien’s monsters, recasting orcs from soulless creatures bred solely for war into family-oriented beings yearning for peaceful lives.

RELATED: ‘Known for its racism’: Netflix blasted for synopsis of beloved Hollywood classic

Barry Brecheisen/WireImage

Poor lore

Reporter Will Witt described the show’s changes in 2022 as an attempt to warp what the author stood for, “good triumphing over evil, western values, and Christianity.”

“Tolkien’s lore and description of his characters and timelines … prove that these characters are cast wrong,” Witt wrote.

The BBC has argued that Peter Jackson’s 2001 film trilogy was cast according to the conventions of the time, rather than as a strict reflection of Tolkien’s descriptions. Under that view, the films’ overwhelmingly white cast says more about early-2000s filmmaking than the source material itself.

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​Entertainment, Andy serkis, Lord of the rings 

When Congress expelled former Rep. George Santos (N.Y.), whose fabricated life story once dominated headlines, the internet performed its little eulogy — diva down, rest in power.

Two years later, the resurrection arrives precisely on schedule, because Santos is back. And this time, it’s as a reality TV contestant on the fifth season of Fox’s “Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test,” a military-themed endurance contest filming in the Malaysian jungle, Fox announced Wednesday.

‘I took my fat behind off the coach and tried something new!’

The show subjects contestants to chemical gassing and other military-themed challenges, including a claustrophobic, high-pressure search of an underground bunker to find crucial military weapons and a supply load retrieval while suspended 300 feet above the jungle floor.

Santos announced the news on social media.

“I took my fat behind off the coach and tried something new!” he wrote in a post on X along with a promotional image of himself kneeling in the wild. “And it changed EVERYTHING! I can’t wait to share this experience with y’all!”

He won’t be doing it alone. Santos will compete against 14 other celebrities, including former NBA player Matt Barnes and actress Ruby Rose, on a season Fox is promoting as the “ultimate test of physical, mental, and emotional resilience.” The season premieres September 24 at 9 p.m. ET on Fox, with episodes streaming the next day on Hulu.

RELATED: George Santos bids a ‘fabulous’ farewell, surrenders for prison sentence

Bing Guan/Bloomberg/Getty Images

The casting caps a wild few years for Santos. Elected to the House from New York in 2022 as a Republican, he ran on a résumé that was almost entirely fiction: a Baruch College degree he never earned, a Wall Street pedigree at Goldman Sachs and Citigroup neither bank had any record of, a stint as a star volleyball player during that same nonexistent college career, and a grandmother who fled the Holocaust.

Genealogists found his grandparents were born in Brazil, and Santos, who is Catholic, later clarified he had meant “Jew-ish.”

A House Ethics Committee report later found “substantial evidence” he’d funneled donor money into personal spending — Hermès, Ferragamo, OnlyFans, Botox. He served less than a year before Congress expelled him — only the sixth member in history — while he faced charges for stealing from donors, drawing unemployment while employed, and lying about his wealth.

He pleaded guilty, had his sentence commuted by President Trump after 84 days in prison, and briefly floated another House run before abandoning it for lack of funds.

His post-political life has stayed just as eventful. Last month, prediction market Kalshi reportedly reported him to federal authorities after he claimed he would attend Trump’s State of the Union, then allegedly bet against his own attendance — a claim Santos called “preposterous.”

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​Congress, George santos, House ethics committee, Reality tv, Social media, State of the union, Donald trump, Politics