A former New Jersey special education teacher was skewered by a judge while being sentenced for sexually assaulting an underage student, according to multiple reports.

In January, 45-year-old Allison Havemann-Niedrach of Jackson pleaded guilty to aggravated sexual assault as part of a plea deal, according to NJ.com.

‘I don’t have the vocabulary to describe how serious and disturbing it is.’

On Aug. 28, Havemann-Niedrach was sentenced to 12 years in state prison, according to court records.

NJ.com, citing records, reported that Havemann-Niedrach will have to serve more than 10 years and two months before she’s eligible for parole.

Patch Middletown reported that Havemann-Niedrach was ordered to surrender her teaching license, barred from future public employment, placed under parole supervision for life, and required to register as a sex offender under Megan’s Law.

The judge also ordered Havemann-Niedrach to never contact the victim or his family.

The Asbury Park Press reported that Havemann-Niedrach was indicted on seven counts — including endangering the welfare of a child, endangering the welfare of a child by way of the manufacture of child sexual abuse materials, official misconduct, and sexual assault — but additional charges were dropped as part of a plea deal with prosecutors.

The victim said the sexual abuse was “like a nightmare,” which caused him sleeping struggles and issues with his grades, according to the Asbury Park Press.

“For two or three years, I thought it was my fault,” the victim told the court, but added, “I forgive her for what she did.”

Havemann-Niedrach told the judge, “I apologize profusely for my actions. I am moved by his forgiveness.”

The victim’s mother, speaking through a Spanish-to-English translator, told the judge that no child should suffer what happened to her son and that she hoped justice would be carried out.

The judge berated Havemann-Niedrach for sexually assaulting the 15-year-old student.

State Superior Court Judge Jill G. O’Malley proclaimed, “You are his trauma. You ruined him.”

The judge pointed out that the victim had contemplated suicide in the summer of 2024 after revealing the abuse he endured.

“This is not a single episode of abhorrent behavior,” O’Malley continued.

The judge said Havemann-Niedrach had groomed the boy months before the relationship became sexual, according to the Asbury Park Press.

RELATED: Substitute teacher who authorities say sent nude photos of herself to 14-year-old middle school student learns her fate

As Blaze News reported in June 2024, Havemann-Niedrach was a teacher at Freehold Intermediate School, which educates students in grades six through eight.

Havemann-Niedrach had worked for the Freehold Borough School District since 2022, according to her LinkedIn page, which has since been deleted.

The former teacher describes herself as a “passionate, results-driven, and sincere educator. Poised and competent and thrives in performance-driven environments. Demonstrated history of a ‘do what it takes’ work ethic, and true differentiated instruction.”

The Asbury Park Press reported that Havemann-Niedrach began to show up at the victim’s sporting events and his place of work, “bringing him food and buying him gifts, including a sex toy” in the fall of 2023.

The Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office said Havemann-Niedrach started sexually abusing the student around January 2024.

Blaze News previously reported, “The Monmouth County Prosecutor Special Victims Bureau and the Freehold Police Department reportedly discovered more than 25,000 text messages between the teacher and the student.”

Assistant Monmouth County prosecutor Danielle Zanzuccki said the thousands of text messages between Havemann-Niedrach and the 15-year-old student included the exchange of sexually illicit photos and videos.

During the detention hearing, Zanzuccki described Havemann-Niedrach as being “obsessed” with the boy.

Investigators said the former teacher sexually abused the victim at her house and at hotels from January 2024 through June 2024.

Superior Court Judge Vincent N. Falcetano stated during a detention hearing in July 2024: “Clearly, this is a very, very serious and disturbing offense.”

“I don’t have the vocabulary to describe how serious and disturbing it is,” Falcetano said. “It’s predatory, it is a breach of trust, it crosses the line. As a special education teacher, she should have known that line is even closer than for a regular teacher.”

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​Teacher arrested, Teacher student sex scandal, Grooming, Bad teacher, New jersey, Jail sentence, Crime 

Following the Aug. 21 collapse of the trade talks between Canada and the U.S., both parties have made efforts to attract talent from the other side of the border.

Whereas Washington, D.C., wants to lure money-making Canadian businesses, Ottawa appears keen to recruit woke academics — including a self-identified specialist in “trans philosophy” and a liberal “media scholar.”

Talia Bettcher will supposedly work ‘with community partners to develop new frameworks for understanding trans experiences.’

On Sunday, President Donald Trump stated, “Let all Canadian Companies that are doing business with America move to the United States, immediately.”

Just three days before, the Canadian government announced over $541 million Canadian in research funding for prospective recruits to Canadian universities. This recruitment campaign is part of a $1.7 billion Canadian initiative that Ottawa launched in December “to attract and support more than 1,000 leading international and expatriate researchers.”

The Carney Liberal government noted that recruiters were looking at academics in multiple fields including AI, cybersecurity, health, “environment and climate resilience,” and “democratic and community resilience.”

The Canadian government noted on Thursday that roughly $504 million in Canadian taxpayer dollars would be used over the next eight years to float 64 newly recruited researchers and roughly $37 million would be used to recruit “63 Emerging Leaders over the next year.”

According to Canadian state media, 48 of the professors recruited so far are coming from the United States. Each professor will reportedly receive approximately $500,000 or $1 million Canadian in funding annually toward their research for eight years.

RELATED: A conservative group broke no laws. Police warned its convention venues anyway. This is free speech in Canada now.

Melanie Joly. David Kawai/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Canada Minister of Industry Melanie Joly made a not-so-subtle jab at the U.S. when making the announcement, stating, “At a time when parts of the world are turning away from science, Canada is doubling down. Attracting top talent will deliver breakthroughs that improve Canadians’ lives and advance Canada’s position as a global leader in science and innovation.”

When asked whether the initiative amounts to Canada poaching talent from U.S. Ivy League schools, Joly said, “The U.S. administration is taking its own decisions and we’re taking ours.”

Among the academics whom Canada has recruited are individuals Americans might be happy to see go, including so-called “media scholar” Ethan Zuckerman.

In a blog post Thursday about his planned move from the University of Massachusetts Amherst to McGill University in Montreal, Zuckerman accused the Trump administration of attacking immigrants; whined about the recent backlash against the “Censorship Industrial Complex”; and fretted about his “physical footprint.”

Talia Bettcher, another woke scholar recruited with Canadian taxpayer money, is leaving California State University for the University of Waterloo, where he will supposedly work “with community partners to develop new frameworks for understanding trans experiences.”

Bettcher, a man who has masqueraded as a woman since attending the University of California, Los Angeles, in the 1990s, is a Canadian-born gender ideologue who has long lived in the U.S. as a permanent resident. While stateside, he has made a career out of penning self-referential attempts at normalizing transvestism, presented as “trans philosophy.”

Charmaine Dean, the Trinidadian vice president for research at the University of Waterloo, said on Thursday that Bettcher’s “selection through this highly competitive process underscores the outstanding quality and impact” of his research.

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​Canada, Transgender, Mark carney, Donald trump, Trade war, Politics, University 

A Las Vegas jury deliberated for only three hours on Monday before returning a guilty verdict in the shooting death of rap icon Tupac Shakur in 1996.

The jury found Duane “Keffe D” Davis guilty of one charge of murder with the use of a deadly weapon after the weeks-long trial.

Davis said in his memoir that he was riding in the front seat of the car used in the shooting and passed the gun to someone in the back seat.

Nevada prosecutors cited numerous times when Davis openly bragged about orchestrating the death of Shakur, including in an interview with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Shakur, whose real name was Lesane Crooks, was shot and killed while riding in a BMW with Marion “Suge” Knight. His death was a blow to the hip-hop world and has sparked countless speculation and conspiracy theories.

The case had gone cold until Davis wrote a tell-all memoir in 2019, which reopened the case. Jurors heard evidence that the shooting was the result of a gang feud between the Mob Piru Bloods and the South Side Compton Crips.

Shakur and Knight were associated with the Bloods, while Davis was a prominent leader in the Crips gang.

Prosecutors said Davis had ordered the September 7, 1996, killing and provided the gun used in the drive-by shooting. Davis said in his memoir that he was riding in the front seat of the car used in the shooting and passed the gun to someone in the back seat, but did not say who the person was.

Shakur was critically injured and died days later at a hospital.

A rap fan named Jessica Martin, who sat through the entire trial, expressed her emotions to the Associated Press.

“It was kinda hard for me to feel so happy at the same time knowing someone is going to jail for so long,” Martin said as tears welled up in her eyes. “But then I looked over at Tupac’s family and it reminded me of everything they’ve gone through. It’s really emotional.”

RELATED: Trump says Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs requested a pardon for prostitution charges

Davis interrupted the hearing to inform the judge that he would be appealing the ruling, to which the judge responded that he would need to be sentenced first. He faces life in prison when sentenced.

Shakur has become a folk hero in the black community over his political activism and the mystery surrounding his death — a mystery officially solved in a jury room Monday.

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​Black community, Conspiracy theories, Guilty verdict, Murder charge, Tupac shakur, Crime 

An NFL trainer warns that new data is revealing more about concussions than was ever known before.

Myths surrounding concussion assessment and recovery still persist to this day, and they can stand in the way of getting proper treatment.

‘It is not necessarily an emergency situation.’

Kayla Parker, an athletic trainer with the Denver Broncos and official trainer of the NFL team’s cheerleaders, wants parents to know that risking brain trauma to participate in youth athletics is going to have more negative lingering effects than actually sitting out to recover.

Parker spoke with Blaze News and revealed that a lot of discussion and amateur analysis surrounding head injuries can be much further off the mark than some may realize.

“If you even suspect you have a concussion, sit it out. It’s not worth it,” Parker advised.

If a child, or adult, is indeed concussed and gets hit a second time within a 48-hour window, Parker warns that the brain can suffer from “second-impact syndrome,” which could potentially result in death.

The faster an athlete is removed from activity following a suspected concussion, the faster he typically comes back, Parker explained.

Concussion myths

It’s not always an emergency.

“If you suspect your kiddo or yourself have a concussion, it is not necessarily an emergency situation. You don’t need to rush off to the emergency room,” the trainer detailed.

A typical concussion protocol in an emergency room will include a CT scan, but that is to rule out a possible brain bleed.

“Outside of that, they don’t have anything else for them,” Parker said.

RELATED: The ‘youth sports industrial complex’ is destroying young bodies — NFL doctor speaks out

Scott Taetsch/Getty Images

Another long-held myth is to never let a concussed person fall asleep.

“That is definitely a myth,” Parker said in response. “When we suspect a concussion, they are absolutely allowed to go to sleep.”

At the same time, Parker said that a loss of consciousness is actually only prevalent in around 10% of concussions. Moreover, it is not an indication of seriousness either.

“It really doesn’t dictate how fast they’re going to come back from that concussion. We’ve seen those athletes come back faster than the ones that never lost consciousness at all. It’s going to be the previous medical history that’s really going to dictate how well they do coming back from the concussion.”

With concussion history and existing medical conditions as main drivers of ongoing health problems in many professional athletes, Parker said concussion prevention is the obvious goal for both kids and adults. However, “There is nothing that will 100% prevent a concussion.”

Another myth, one perpetuated in recent years, is that increased padding on the outside of a football helmet can help reduce concussions. This has been seen with the use of Guardian Caps.

But this is giving a “false sense of security,” the trainer said.

Chiefly, Parker added, “We are very concerned about preventing brain bleeds and skull fractures, and that is truly what helmets were originally designed to do.”

RELATED: ‘Just follow the money’: NFL doctor reveals why so many players are getting injured

Justin Edmonds/Getty Images

New knowledge

Parker’s work with the Broncos cheer team has expanded her depth of knowledge for different types of injuries. In that same vein, an important part of the job for the trainer is keeping up with new data and information surrounding concussions.

With that has come a new understanding of how young athletes are growing up and the possible effects screen time is having on their brain.

Vision problems have been consistently tracked as part of head trauma recovery, with recent studies — cited by Parker — suggesting that prolonged screen exposure has been “associated with symptoms such as visual fatigue, dizziness, and imbalance.”

When asked directly if excessive screen use can make a person more susceptible to a concussion, Parker replied:

“That is yes, that’s essentially what I’m saying. … It is something that they’re currently studying.”

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​Concussions, Denver broncos, Football, Kayla parker, Nfl, Screen time, Sports 

I got in an argument once with a guy who was dismissing white, Anglo-Saxon culture, saying it was overrated and overrepresented. He thought Americans needed to learn about other cultures, and other artists, who were just as good, if not better.

I was like: better than Beethoven? Better than Shakespeare? Better than Led Zeppelin?

In ‘The Tempest,’ there was no basic reality. Characters could become invisible if they felt like it. They could live for years on desert islands without food.

I said: Even if these other artists were as good, I didn’t grow up within those artistic traditions. Those artists aren’t my ancestors. That isn’t the culture I was born into!

A sense of shame

I don’t remember how the argument ended. But I remember as I walked away, feeling uneasy. I felt like a fraud.

The truth was: I knew very little about Beethoven or his music, except for his short piece “Fur Elise,” which I was forced to learn on the piano when I was 9.

I did know a lot about Led Zeppelin. They were my favorite band through my teen years. I’d read all the biographies. I’d seen all the movies. I knew all the songs. I was pretty much a superfan.

And then there was the small problem of Shakespeare, one of the greatest literary figures in the Western tradition. That problem was … I’d never read any of his plays.

How hast thou not read any of my plays?

As a child, we had a beautiful collection of Shakespeare’s complete works prominently displayed in our living room.

I wasn’t intimidated by this collection. Or worried by it. At some later date, I would be old enough and smart enough to read them.

But that date came a little sooner than I expected. My sophomore year in high school, my English class was assigned “The Merchant of Venice.”

OK, I thought. I’ve got this.

I procured the play. I opened it to the first page. I started to read, and … I got nothing.

I was instantly lost. What were these people talking about? I couldn’t make any sense of it, whatsoever.

How dost thou not grasp my meaning?

The first issue was: I didn’t know half the words. Like, what exactly does “ado” mean? The words I did know weren’t in a logical order. I also didn’t know when the sentences stopped or started.

Another obstacle: All the characters in “The Merchant of Venice” were Italian. There was Salerio and Stephano and Solanio and Salarino. How was I supposed to keep these people straight?

Ghosts, goblins, etc.

“The Tempest,” which we also read my sophomore year, was even more difficult. There were nonhumans to contend with. There were ghosts, spirits, witches, sprites. What exactly was a “sprite”?

In “The Tempest,” there was no basic reality. Characters could become invisible if they felt like it. They could live for years on desert islands without food. Ships could be moved great distances via medieval teleportation. A dashing prince could be drowned in a stormy sea and then reappear in someone’s cave, alive, refreshed, and in all his regal finery.

RELATED: ‘The American Book of Fables’: A feast of the imagination and spirit for readers of all ages

Sophia Institute Press

Higher education

Needless to say, I had to fake my way through high school Shakespeare. In college, I avoided any class with the great bard on the syllabus.

But then I became a writer myself. Which created an ethical problem. How could I participate in the English literary tradition if I had no knowledge of its most fundamental works?

Guidance of the Lambs

Fortunately, many years later, in a used bookstore, I came across a paperback book called “Tales from Shakespeare” by Charles and Mary Lamb. Which was first published in … 1807!

This was a very old book. And yet the edition I was holding had been published just a few years before.

That meant that “Tales from Shakespeare” had been in print for more than 200 years! It was nearly as popular as the Sweet Swan of Avon himself!

“Tales” turned out to be prose renderings — short stories — of 20 of Shakespeare’s greatest works. It was originally intended for children, to prepare them for the actual texts.

So here was a case of “explain it to me like I’m 5,” but the 1807 version!

Just for children?

Naturally, I assumed these simplified prose versions of the plays would be of no use to me as an adult.

But reading the Lambs’ version of “The Tempest” right there in the bookstore, I felt immediately how authentic and compelling it was. The Lambs’ version was far superior to any CliffsNotes or academic synopses I’d read. (And I’d read a lot.)

Maybe it was because Charles and Mary Lamb were such ardent fans, were British, and better understood Shakespeare’s time and place.

Whatever the reason, these “tales for children” had a kind of magic to them. Which explained why they were still being read today. It felt like Shakespeare’s original genius was somehow present in these simple retellings of his plays.

Over the years, I have consulted this book many times. These children’s versions make the plays come to life. Finally, I was getting a real sense of William Shakespeare the writer: his personality, his humor, his trippy psychedelic side.

Go forth and defend the West!

So the next time you’re defending the Western canon from some woke, bicoastal, mid-wit, make sure you’ve read Charles and Mary Lamb’s “Tales from Shakespeare.”

Once you’ve felt the true genius of Shakespeare in your heart (via the Lamb family), you will have no trouble vanquishing the enemies of the West!

​Culture, Education, Shakespeare, Woke, Lifestyle, English literature, Western canon, Blake’s progress, Led zeppelin 

Just hours before leaving office, former President Joe Biden issued a pardon for Anthony Fauci, granting the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases a pass for possible federal crimes going back to Jan. 1, 2014.

The pardon’s 10-year span seems to be anything but arbitrary.

‘Anthony Fauci, in his role as NIAID director, repeatedly and flagrantly, misfeasantly, violated US government policies.’

Florida Sen. Ashley Moody (R) asked Fauci during a congressional hearing on July 29, “Did you specifically ask that it be dated back to the beginning of 2014?”

As he had more than 100 times that day, Fauci declined to answer, citing the Fifth Amendment.

Nevertheless, Moody persisted, “I’m just very interested why it was this date. Did it have anything to do with the fact that 2014 was also the year that the NIAID or [National Institutes of Health] began funding EcoHealth Alliance’s ‘Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence’ grant?”

RELATED: First domino to fall? Fauci’s ‘consigliere’ pleads GUILTY to role in COVID cover-up

While Fauci dodged Moody’s question, Dr. Richard H. Ebright, a molecular biologist at Rutgers University, revealed the damning significance of the pardon’s start date to Christopher Rufo and Jonathan Keeperman on the Tuesday episode of BlazeTV’s “Rufo & Lomez.”

“I can say that Anthony Fauci approved a research grant that supported high-risk virus discovery research and very high-risk virus gain-of-function research on SARS coronaviruses in Wuhan, China, starting in 2014,” Ebright told Rufo and Keeperman.

In 2014, EcoHealth Alliance — the now-defunct organization that was run by debarred British zoologist Peter Daszak, a Fauci ally — sub-awarded the NIH-NIAID grant for the project “Understanding the Risk of Bat Coronavirus Emergence” to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, where dangerous experiments were conducted on coronaviruses.

Screenshot of documents obtained via FOIA by The Intercept

“I can also say that Anthony Fauci, in his role as NIAID director, repeatedly and flagrantly, misfeasantly, violated U.S. government policies that were put in effect in 2014 to protect the public from laboratory-generated pandemics — specifically a pause that was put in place in October 2014 that precluded federal funding of gain-of-function research on influenza viruses, MERS viruses, and SARS viruses,” Ebright claimed.

In the wake of several biosafety incidents at federal research facilities, the Obama White House and the Department of Health and Human Services announced on Oct. 17, 2014, that the government was “launching a deliberative process to assess the potential risks and benefits associated with a subset of life sciences research known as ‘gain-of-function’ studies.”

During this deliberation period, government funding was paused for new studies involving gain-of-function experiments on influenza, SARS, or MERS viruses. In addition to cutting off funding, the Obama administration urged researchers presently engaged in gain-of-function experimentation to “voluntarily pause their research while risks and benefits are being reassessed.”

The HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System website shows that the grant to EcoHealth Alliance was secured from the NIAID just months before the pause and that it continued receiving taxpayer funds well into the pandemic.

Ebright claimed further that while the federal pause “most definitely covered the research in that grant proposal,” Fauci and his office “continued the funding in flagrant violation, open violation of the pause.”

Ebright noted that the first Trump administration ended the 2014 pause on funding for gain-of-function research and conditioned new approvals on greater scrutiny “about proposed research involving enhanced potential pandemic pathogens,” or P3CO.

“Anthony Fauci personally approved for renewal the grant that was started in 2014, was approved for renewal in 2019 in violation of the P3CO policy. It was approved without the required HHS secretary-level review,” claimed Ebright.

“Anthony Fauci funded research that directly contributed to the cause of COVID, … to 20 million deaths, and $25 trillion in economic damages,” Ebright claimed in summary.

“It is plausible, I think, likely that the date of the pardon specifically matches the beginning of the approval of that grant and the series of misfeasant events beginning in late 2014 that continued the funding in violation of U.S. government policies.”

Blaze News did not immediately receive a response from a legal representative for Fauci.

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​Christopher rufo, Rufo & lomez, Anthony fauci, Peter daszak, Ecohealth alliance, National institutes of health, Politics, Gain of function 

It’s seldom a good time for a tech company when a regulatory body comes knocking at the door.

For ChatGPT, Reddit, and Roblox, the European Commission is offering no solace with its latest decision to regulate the platforms.

‘ChatGPT, Reddit, and Roblox will now be held to a higher standard of scrutiny.’

At the end of August, the European Union’s division on Tech Sovereignty, Security, and Democracy decided that it will grant itself access to the backends of the three tech giants by labeling them with a special designation.

“We have designated ChatGPT as a Very Large Online Search Engine and Reddit and Roblox as Very Large Online Platforms under the Digital Services Act. They now have four months to comply with additional DSA obligations,” the commission wrote on X.

By January 2027, the platforms are required to assess and mitigate any “systemic risks” that come as a result of their services or algorithms, the EU wrote in a press release.

This includes how the platforms are used to disseminate illegal content, any “negative effects on minors,” the physical and mental “well-being” of users, and effects on “electoral processes and public security.”

At the same time, the designation gives the European Commission the ability to “assess the functionalities” behind the services and any related systems they may be operating.

RELATED: Florida government orders removal of ALL Flock cameras on state roads

Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images

The commission justified its designations by describing ChatGPT as a “hybrid service” that qualifies as an online search engine.

Reddit was described as a discussion-based platform used to create, share, and interact with content, while Roblox was considered similarly, but with gaming.

“As these services enable users to disseminate third-party content to the public, they qualify as online platforms” under the EU’s Digital Services Act, the press release stated.

“These new designations mean that ChatGPT, Reddit, and Roblox will now be held to a higher standard of scrutiny and accountability in the European Union, in line with their large impact on our citizens and society,” said Henna Virkkunen, a Finnish politician who serves as the executive vice president for Tech Sovereignty, Security, and Democracy.

“We continue to watch the digital landscape closely and will not hesitate to designate any platform that meets the threshold for enhanced supervision under the Digital Services Act.”

RELATED: Trump drops divisive ‘Truth’ bomb about data centers, and even some MAGA voters won’t be happy

Photo Illustration by Thomas Fuller/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images

Other companies that received designation from the EU as Very Large Online Platforms or Very Large Online Search Engines include Ali Express, Pinterest Europe, TikTok, X, and several Irish versions of companies like OpenAI, Meta, Microsoft, LinkedIn, and Google.

Ireland is typically chosen for multinational companies due to significantly lower corporate tax rates, which sit at 12.5% versus a European average of 19%.

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​European union, Reddit, Chatgpt, Roblox, Tech 

Washington eliminated the federal EV tax credit. California didn’t waste much time replacing it.

Earlier this month, Gov. Gavin Newsom launched MyFirstEV, a new state program offering first-time zero-emission vehicle buyers $3,500 off a new vehicle or $1,750 off a used one, right at the point of sale.

Instead, somebody with no intention of buying an EV is helping pay for someone who does. And MyFirstEV doesn’t even reserve that help for people who couldn’t otherwise afford the car.

And Californians apparently noticed. Tesla’s allocation of MyFirstEV money was exhausted almost immediately. According to Tesla, buyers had to place their orders between August 3 and August 7 to qualify, and the company now says its allocated funds have been depleted.

California split

The federal government spent years offering buyers a tax credit of up to $7,500 to encourage electric vehicle adoption. Congress eliminated the credit, ending it for vehicles acquired after September 30, 2025. California’s response was essentially to build its own version.

The state has committed $135.5 million to MyFirstEV, with participating automakers matching California’s contribution dollar for dollar. That creates a combined $271 million for first-time zero-emission vehicle buyers. On a new vehicle, California puts up $1,750 and the manufacturer contributes another $1,750. Used vehicles can receive $1,750, also split between the state and participating manufacturer.

Automaker participation is voluntary, but it’s telling that manufacturers are willing to put up their own money to keep these incentives alive.

They have plenty invested in the EV transition. Automakers spent billions on battery plants, retooled production lines and new electric models in anticipation of a rapid shift toward EVs. Consumers haven’t always moved as quickly as government planners and automakers expected. Now Washington has removed one of the financial incentives supporting that transition, while California is putting another one in its place.

RELATED: Think the EV mandate is over? One state has other plans.

Steven Gottlieb/Bloomberg/Getty Images

No cap

The rules get more interesting the closer you look.

MyFirstEV is limited to Californians buying or leasing their first zero-emission vehicle. If you already bought an EV, installed a Level 2 charger in your garage, loved the experience, and now want another one, you don’t qualify.

But someone buying his first EV can qualify regardless of income.

New vehicles generally must have an MSRP of $50,000 or less, while used vehicles must sell for $25,000 or less through participating manufacturers’ pre-owned programs. But CalMatters reports that automakers headquartered in California aren’t subject to the same vehicle price cap.

So California has created an EV subsidy with rules that can favor California-based manufacturers.

Why subsidize?

And Sacramento isn’t stopping with vehicle rebates. On August 18, Newsom announced another $95.2 million for electric charging and hydrogen-fueling infrastructure as California continues its push toward zero-emission transportation.

Which leaves me with a pretty basic question: If EVs are ready to compete on their own merits, why do taxpayers still need to subsidize their purchase?

I’m not anti-EV. If an electric vehicle fits your life, buy one. They’re quiet, quick, increasingly capable, and inexpensive to operate in the right circumstances. If you want a hybrid, buy that. If a gasoline pickup works best for your family or business, buy that instead.

Give consumers choices and let them decide.

Instead, somebody with no intention of buying an EV is helping pay for someone who does. And MyFirstEV doesn’t even reserve that help for people who couldn’t otherwise afford the car.

Supporters can point to Tesla’s experience and say the program is working. Buyers moved quickly enough to exhaust the company’s allocation within days.

But I’d ask the obvious question: If buyers were lining up quickly enough to burn through the money in five days, why did they need the subsidy?

California has answered Washington’s retreat from EV subsidies by spending state money to keep them going. Californians can decide whether that’s what they want their government doing.

The federal EV subsidy may be gone, but in California, taxpayers are still picking up the tab.

​Automakers, California, Ev mandate, Gov gavin newsom, Hybrid, Tesla, Taxpayers, Lifestyle, Rebates, Consumer choice, Automotive 

Women on social media have been crossing lines left and right that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago, and as BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales has noticed, it just keeps getting worse.

“Obviously, I have spoken out about the brain rot that takes place because of social media,” Gonzales says on “Sara Gonzales Unfiltered,” calling it a “double-edged sword.”

“Social media can be really great and used for really great things, and you know, you get to see the side of stories that the news, you know, the mainstream media doesn’t want to show you,” she says.

However, social media has also exposed the darker side of people.

“But then it also brings out this just like, you know, the TikTok girls who are throwing ice in their bathtubs because they want to be like Lindsay Clancy because they low-key just hate their kids,” she explains.

“Now, you have an entirely new unhinged level where people think it’s cute to make abortion announcements,” she adds, before showing a post from an Instagram user who goes by “Black Girl Chica.”

Chica posted a picture with an announcement that read, “Baby Cancelled. Due date was April 14, 2027.”

A onesie laid out next to the announcement read, “Mommy changed her mind, daddy wasn’t s**t.”

“The words fail me at this point. Words actually fail me. And if that wasn’t bad enough, there were people encouraging her in the comments,” Gonzales says.

“It ain’t never been smart to bring kids into a world of chaos. Good for you lol,” one user commented.

“Laugh out loud,” Gonzales mocks. “Ha, ha, ha. It’s so funny that you killed your own child.”

“The point is, we have just, in 2026, reached just total levels of depravity when it comes to women killing their own children. You’ve got Lindsay Clancy and the women who are just, you know, loving her, and then you have this,” she continues.

“We really need to rethink how we’re using social media and why,” she adds.

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​Sara gonzales, Lindsay clancy, Abortion, Tiktok, Social media, Influencer, Motherhood, Blazetv show 

It’s been almost a full year since Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk was assassinated at Utah Valley University. In that time, numerous liberals have outed themselves as bloodthirsty extremists, expressing joy over the murder of the young father of two.

The Lone Star State made abundantly clear that it would not tolerate such extremism — especially not among public servants and those charged with educating the youth.

‘The Court’s order is not what we were hoping for.’

This evidently vexed American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten and the Texas American Federation of Teachers, who announced a lawsuit in January challenging the crackdown on Texas educators’ public expression of pro-assassination sentiments.

The lawsuit did not go over as planned.

How it started

Two days after Kirk was assassinated, Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath sent a letter to district superintendents, warning that his agency was aware that some Texas public school educators had posted or shared “reprehensible and inappropriate content on social media” about Kirk and his death.

A Klein Independent School District employee had, for instance, apparently called Kirk a “racist, homophobic, a misogynist, transphobic nasty person.” A high school teacher in the Midland Independent School District allegedly told students that Kirk “deserved what he got.”

“In response to such posts, I am referring all documentation of educators that have proliferated such vile content to TEA’s Educator Investigations Division,” wrote Morath. “Such posts could constitute a violation of the Educators’ Code of Ethics, and each instance will be thoroughly reviewed to determine whether sanctionable conduct has occurred and staff will investigate accordingly.”

RELATED: WaPo ordered to rehire anti-white radical fired over Charlie Kirk assassination comments

Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath. Rick Kern/Getty Images for Alpha School.

Morath emphasized that free speech is a fundamental right but does not “give carte blanche authority to celebrate or sow violence against those that share differing beliefs and perspectives.”

AFT President Weingarten and TAFT President Zeph Capo announced a federal lawsuit against the TEA and Morath on Jan. 6.

The lawsuit claimed that Morath’s Sept. 12, 2025, letter violated the First Amendment rights of Texas AFT members “because it is impermissibly vague, overbroad, and chills their protected speech.”

“Sadly, Texas officials, unlike their colleagues in Utah, decided to exploit the tragedy of Mr. Kirk’s senseless murder, rather than deescalate,” said Weingarten, a leftist who was instrumental in keeping schools shuttered in 2020.

“Their actions are a transparent effort to smear and shame educators, divide our communities, and deny our kids opportunities to learn and thrive. They are a state-sponsored attack on teachers because of what they thought were private comments to friends and family.”

How it’s going

U.S. District Judge Alan Albright, an appointee of President Donald Trump, delivered the TAFT bad news late last month, dismissing the lawsuit due to lack of standing.

In his Aug. 21 ruling, Albright noted that the teachers’ union failed to show standing because its members’ injuries, “to the extent they exist, are not traceable” to Morath and his letter.

The Trump judge rejected the premise from TAFT that Morath’s letter constituted a new policy. After all, the letter identified “current, in-place policies,” “did not announce any new policy or expand any existing policy,” and simply stated that the commissioner would refer to the appropriate authority content that potentially violated the Educators’ Code of Ethics.

“Thus, any harm Plaintiff’s members suffered was due to the already existing Code of Ethics, the current investigatory process of the Educator Investigations Division, the in-place State Office of Administrative Hearings’ process, or the like,” wrote Albright.

As for the suggestion that Morath was responsible for radical educators’ visitation by consequence over their vile comments, Albright noted, “These injuries can only be caused by the in-place policies and procedures, none of which were altered by the Morath Letter.”

While Albright dismissed the case, he did so without prejudice, meaning the TAFT could refile.

“The Court’s order is not what we were hoping for and we disagree with its conclusions,” the TAFT said in a statement to KXAN-TV. “The order is based on a unique factual situation, and we do not believe it creates precedent that will harm Texas AFT members in the future.”

The TEA and Weingarten’s ATF did not immediately respond to Blaze News’ requests for comment.

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​American federation of teachers, Assassination, Charlie kirk, Turning point usa, Texas education agency, Randi weingarten, Texas, Politics