BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales‘ crusade against H-1B visa abuse in Texas not only has alleged fraudsters panicking and closing up shop but has prompted meaningful crackdowns by state and federal officials.

Those officials poised to nab the kinds of fraudsters targeted by Gonzales’ investigations might soon be able to hit them with greater penalties.

‘Hopefully we’ll make them think twice about doing this.’

On Thursday, just days after lauding Gonzales for “bringing this to the surface,” Rep. Beth Van Duyne (R-Texas) introduced legislation that would increase penalties for certain violations of the H-1B visa program, Blaze News has exclusively learned.

The congresswoman told Blaze News that American workers have been “losing opportunities and having wages drastically cut because some bad actors, employers, were actually wanting to break the law to get cheaper labor, and one of the ways that they were doing that is to abuse the H-1B visa program.”

“Hopefully, we’ll make them think twice about doing this,” added Van Duyne.

Currently, the secretary of labor is permitted to impose a civil penalty of up to $5,000 per violation should an employer engage in willful violations of the H-1B program’s conditions, willful material misrepresentations in an H-1B attestation, and/or retaliation against employees who disclose suspected H-1B violations.

The penalty is $35,000 per violation if it involves the termination of an American worker employed within 90 days before or after the filing of a visa petition.

Van Duyne said on “Sara Gonzales Unfiltered” last week that the current fines amount to little more than a “slap on the wrist” — that a $5,000 fine is hardly a deterrent for H-1B employers when they’re saving tens of thousands of dollars by importing a foreign worker instead of hiring an American.

RELATED: BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales’ investigation has Indian H-1B sponsor panicking

Van Duyne’s H-1B Visa Fraud Crackdown Act would raise the maximum per-violation fines from $5,000 to $100,000 and from $35,000 to $250,000, respectively.

The congresswoman told Blaze News that “the $100,000 penalty is already federal law for falsifying information to the government,” so “we were just being consistent.”

“You guys have to pass that!” Gonzales told the congresswoman.

“Hit them in the pocket book. Make it hurt because they have no problem doing that to the American worker that they’re undercutting and displacing.”

Additionally, the new bill would bar H-1B employers who willfully commit violations from sponsoring new visas for at least five years, or 10 years in the event that an American worker was displaced. Presently, those penalties are two years and three years, respectively.

Gonzales said in a statement to Blaze News about Van Duyne’s bill, “Any meaningful steps to crack down on the fraud and over abuse of the H-1B visa system is very welcome. It’s a great first step, and Congress needs to act to make sure that we can end, or at the very least, reform this corrupt system once and for all.”

“This is why I’ve been working so hard to expose the fraud in the H-1B visa system, to make sure that appropriate action is taken.”

While she noted that wage suppression and fraud shouldn’t be partisan issues, Van Duyne told Blaze News that Democrats will likely oppose the bill in part because they are keen on “flooding their areas with people who are here legally or illegally to make sure that they’re not losing their power and losing their congressional district seats because of populations.”

In April, Van Duyne and fellow Texas Republican Reps. Pat Fallon, Ronny Jackson, and Brandon Gill sent a letter to members of the Trump administration, urging them to “provide recommendations to Congress, if necessary, on statutory or regulatory changes to close loopholes and restore integrity to the H-1B program.”

The congresswoman, who has been working with U.S. Immigration and Citizenship Services and the Department of Labor on this issue, told Blaze News that “one of the things that we requested in the letter was to give us ideas of legislatively what we could do,” and this bill “was one of of the things that the administration suggested that we enact.”

Van Duyne, appreciative of the Trump administration and the work of “independent journalists like Sara Gonzales,” told Blaze News that there are additional related bills in the works.

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​H-1b visa, Visa, Immigration, Sara gonzales, Congress, Fraud, Politics 

It knows what you are eating, it knows when you’re awake.

Those are the apparent benefits of new Samsung smart fridges, which look more like gigantic phone screens than they do refrigerators.

‘Being able to glance at what’s inside right from the screen or my phone …’

With a 32-inch display and the ability to tell homeowners what is inside their fridge, the Samsung fridges offer endless technological capabilities seldom seen in something that is simply supposed to keep food cold.

However, with a six-foot-tall smart device comes the need for internet connectivity and, of course, mandatory updates.

When users of the product went to open their smart fridges last week just before a holiday, they noticed they had suddenly lost power and stopped functioning.

South Korean outlet Star News reported that dozens of fridge owners saw blank screens after the update, or text that read “Checking SmartThings app during update,” or “offline.”

Standard fridge owners are used to seeing nothing on their appliance doors; for smart fridge owners, however, the lack of an operating system display and absent LED lights meant their fridges weren’t powered and weren’t keeping their food cold.

To make matters worse, the report stated that in some cases all cold air had escaped the fridges completely.

RELATED: ‘We have compromised the FBI’: Pokemon lovers boast of shocking hack on federal website

SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg/Getty Images

The affected products predominantly included Samsung Bespoke AI 4-Door refrigerators released in 2024 or later.

These fridges are described as using artificial intelligence to monitor its contents, and the AI can track expiry dates or suggest recipes for the user. This is, of course, made capable through the use of internal cameras that work with Google Gemini and an “AI Food Manager.”

One review suggested the “item tracking save[s] serious time and cut[s] down on forgotten, expired groceries.”

“Being able to glance at what’s inside right from the screen or my phone makes meal planning seamless,” the review added.

The gigantic display screen also makes it possible to watch videos or listen to music from the refrigerator, with another user stating that they like to use the fridge screen to monitor their security cameras.

RELATED: Confusing repairs? Foreign menu? Your iPhone camera app just got a lot more helpful

SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg/Getty Images

When some users reached out to Samsung to get emergency repairs, some were allegedly told that “employees have left for the day, making immediate action impossible.”

Further consumer reports said there was no mention of activating an emergency response team, even though inquiries had allegedly led customers to being told that an engineer visit was required for repair.

However, Samsung has since responded to the incident saying they had “activated an emergency response protocol, and its service centers are taking immediate action to address this issue.”

“The issue has been limited to Korea, with no impact identified to overseas markets,” Samsung told Ars Technica.

The statement concluded, “It occurred September 22nd afternoon due to an error during Samsung’s internal testing related to a refrigerator software update. Samsung immediately suspended the testing upon receiving reports of the issue.”

The incident happened just before South Korea’s Chuseok holiday break, which was celebrated September 24-26 this year.

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​Artificial intelligence, Smart fridge, Samsung, South korea, Tech 

While lawmakers try to cram down restrictive age verification laws that would implement nationwide digital ID to use devices, AI, and the internet, Big Tech is fighting back by giving parents more control on their platforms. Apple is the latest to join the effort with new child safety features for iOS 27.

Child safety was one of the headlining announcements when Apple unveiled iOS 27 at WWDC this past spring, and now that the operating system is widely available for iPhones 11 and up, you can enable these on your child’s device right now.

Apple’s new child safety features in iOS 27 are all about parental control and responsibility.

To set up a new child account with the latest child safety features in place, you must establish a “family” within your iPhone. To get started, open the Settings app, tap on your iCloud account at the top, then tap “Family.” Next, select “Create Child Account” and input your child’s name and date of birth.

You’ll be prompted to input your child’s iCloud email address or create a new one, along with a password that you and your child can remember. You can choose to keep this password to yourself or share it with your child.

Lastly, you can choose whether you receive a notification on your phone or on your child’s phone if your child tries to sign in on another device with his or her Apple account. It’s best to set this to alert your phone number, just so you’re aware if your child tries to use a separate device.

Child Safety Features in iOS 27/Zach Laidlaw

Once everything is set up, you now have new controls to govern your child’s account:

Content Restrictions let you restrict your child’s content access based on his or her age range. This affects which apps they use (like social media), shows they watch, books they read, and more. You can also limit which sites they visit, either opening them up to the entire web or requiring your permission before they visit a new site.Communication Safety monitors his or her device for any content that isn’t age-appropriate, including images and videos that contain adult themes or violence.Communication Limits ensure that your child can only share phone calls or messages with specific people that you choose.Apps and Website Activity shows how much time your child spends on his or her phone and gives you the ability to limit app usage from day to day. You can even pause screen time during certain times of the day, like during school when they should be in class, or summertime when they should be outside.Screen Distance monitors how closely your child uses his or her phone to their face and sends an alert if the phone is too close, hopefully preserving their eyes.Ask to Buy alerts you every time your child wants to buy or download an app, song, or movie, giving you the power to approve or veto the decision.

You also have the option to share your child’s location from his or her phone to yours. Enable this so you always know where your child is through the Find My app. This is especially useful if your child attends school and participates in extracurricular activities.

And that’s it. Your child is now protected based on the parameters you set. You can also change these parameters at any time, choosing to add more restrictions or loosen them as circumstances change and your child grows older.

To tweak the parameters, go back to the Settings app, tap on the “Family” tab beneath your name at the top, choose your child, and make adjustments accordingly.

RELATED: Not all new iPhones are worth it. This one blows them all away.

iPhone 18 Pro Max Models/Apple

Apple’s new child safety features in iOS 27 are all about parental control and responsibility. It’s up to parents to decide what their kids can and can’t see, and for families in Apple’s product ecosystem, these tools go a long way to provide meaningful guardrails without government overreach.

As for Android users, Google has taken steps to add more parental features as well, with a new API that offers “age-appropriate experiences” to users. It’s not nearly as robust as Apple’s offerings here, but at least both companies are moving in the right direction.

Apple’s new child safety features are available in iOS 27. Install it on your device now for instant access, plus you get other features like the new Siri, a more accessible Visual Intelligence, and custom Safari alerts.

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​Ios, Iphone, Parental controls, Safety, Tech 

A popular Christian influencer couple was arrested for allegedly abusing a 14-year-old girl, according to Texas police.

39-year-old Seth Michael Day is accused of sexually and physically assaulting the girl after a high school teacher noticed injuries to her face and head.

The girl said she had suffered numerous instances of abuse and reported some of them but that Heather Day had lied to officials in order to cover it up.

The teacher reported the injuries to the Keene police, who interviewed the girl. She claimed to have suffered ongoing abuse by Day and said he injured her with a cell phone.

After receiving treatment at the Cook Children’s Medical Center, she also said that Day had sexually assaulted her.

In the last incident of abuse on Sept. 22, the girl said Day assaulted her while his wife, Heather Marie Day, was in the home.

Police said they found evidence of the physical and sexual assaults at the Days’ home after obtaining a search warrant.

The girl said she had suffered numerous instances of abuse and reported some of them but that Heather Day had lied to officials in order to cover it up.

She allegedly told the victim that she had an autoimmune disease called hereditary angioedema, which causes swelling. Police noted that swelling would not explain the the injuries the victim had.

Records show the Days were both booked into the Johnson County jail but were released on bail of $100,000.

Heather Day hosts a Christian podcast, and the couple have authored several books, including one titled “I’ll See You Tomorrow.”

Seth Day is also a professor at Southwestern Adventist University, but he was placed on administrative leave after his arrest.

RELATED: ‘Pure evil’: Gay couple raped adopted baby boy before brutally killing him

“We are fully cooperating with law enforcement,” the university said in a statement that indicated the allegations did not involve its students, staff, or other members of the faculty.

“The safety of our University community remains our first priority. We will share additional details as appropriate,” the university added.

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​Search warrant, Sexual assault, Law enforcement, Christianity, Christians, Crime 

“Phobos” is Greek for “fear.” In modern times, “phobia” has come to mean an irrational fear. Presumably a rational fear is based on a reasonable risk.

Is arachnophobia (fear of spiders) irrational? There are nearly 54,000 species of spider, but only 1% are dangerous to us. So a general phobia of spiders is irrational, but a fear of black widows isn’t. And there is a reason my Australian friends tap their shoes upside down before putting them on — funnel-web spiders like shoes, and they are deadly.

The risk of being a victim of terrorism is small. But if it happens in the West, it’s likely to be by a Muslim with Islamist motives.

The United States and Europe have seen plenty of terrorist attacks and murders by non-Muslims, but for motives that were political, not religious. For Muslim fundamentalists, or “Islamists,” there is no separation between politics and religion.

In this list of suicide bombings from the University of Chicago, the culprits appear to be nearly all Muslims, with motives that are likely jihadist. Muslims, with either premeditated Islamist motives or mental illness or a mix of both, have committed bombings, shootings, stabbings, and vehicle assaults in Europe and the United States.

Here are a few.

Europe

2004, Madrid: Terrorists set off bombs in four trains, killing 191 people.2005, London: Four suicide bombers killed 52 people on three Underground trains and one bus.2015, Paris: Coordinated suicide attacks killed 130 people, notably at the Bataclan theater.2016, Brussels: Suicide bombers killed 34 people at the Zaventem Airport and a metro station.2016, Nice (France): A man drove a truck through a seaside promenade, killing 86 people.2017, England: Suicide bombers killed 22 people at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester.2024, Germany: A man stabbed and killed three people and wounded more.

The United States

2009, Fort Hood: A U.S. Army major shot and killed 13 people and wounded 30.2013, Boston: Tsarnaev brothers killed three people and wounded hundreds with bombs.2015, Chattanooga: A man killed five people at a military recruiting center.2015, San Bernardino: A couple shot and killed 14 people and wounded 22.2016, Orlando: A man shot and killed 49 people and wounded 53 at the Pulse Nightclub.

The risk of being a victim of terrorism is small. But if it happens in the West, it’s likely to be by a Muslim with Islamist motives. Our educators, media, and politicians would pretend otherwise.

RELATED: New York Times gets ROASTED over bizarre framing of alleged terror attack on plane — and the Times responds

Jack Guez/AFP/Getty Images

The Daily Telegraph reports that in Britain, many of those too young to remember it are “barely aware of the context and the details of the [9/11 terrorist] plot.” Schoolteachers don’t teach the plain truth to avoid offending parents, allowing absurd conspiracy theories to take root — such as that the United States or Israel blew the Twin Towers up as a pretext to launch a war in the Middle East.

In a 2016 poll of 3,000 British Muslims, 31% thought the United States was behind 9/11. Seven percent said it was “the Jews,” and only 4% blamed al-Qaeda or Muslim terrorists. In America, no one 30 or older can ever forget what happened. But some of these students interviewed by Young Americas Foundation are unaware of who carried out the attacks and why.

True, most American youth are ignorant of all history due to abysmal K-12 education standards. Sometimes popular culture fills the gap. There are hundreds of movies, from “Apocalypse Now” to “Platoon,” about Vietnam. There are thousands about World War II.

But for 9/11, very few. An ABC miniseries, “The Path to 9/11,” was shown once in 2006 and never again. It’s not available to stream, though I found a DVD on Amazon and a blurry YouTube bootleg.

In the U.S., any criticism of Islamism is quickly labeled “Islamophobia” by groups like the Council on American-Islamic Relations. But there is no official, government-endorsed definition of that term. Americans’ free speech is protected by the First Amendment to our Constitution, but Britain and many other countries have only limited protection.

In Britain, the Labour government downplays Islamic extremism for fear of offending the Muslim votes it depends on.

The British government created a Working Group on Anti-Muslim Hatred to define “Islamophobia,” but they deleted all the comments and contributions by outside groups to the effort. Why? Critics allege that they would show Islamists were influencing the new definition, which could one day result in prosecutions. One Conservative member of Parliament warned the government that “there is a serious risk that this definition could lead to limitations on freedom of speech, criminalize language and prevent the discussion of religious ideas — creating a de facto blasphemy law.”

But of course, there already is a de facto blasphemy law all over Europe — with the possible penalty being death.

Written Islamic religious tradition prohibits depicting the Muslims’ prophet. In 2005, the Danish magazine Jyllands-Posten published cartoons that did so. Ambassadors from 11 Muslim-majority countries, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and the Arab League all protested to the Danish government. Street protests took place in Denmark, Australia, Canada, the U.K., the United States, and elsewhere.

Danish Muslim groups (unsuccessfully) tried to get the magazine prosecuted for blasphemy.

That year, the clear political cost of crossing Islamist red lines was made clear all over the West. Soon enough, so was the physical cost.

RELATED: Osama bin Laden is dead. His strategy is still working.

CNN/Getty Images

In 2006, the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo put a cartoon of the Muslim prophet Muhammad on its cover and reprinted the Danish cartoons along with new ones. In 2015, Islamist terrorists killed eight journalists and staff and two police officers at the magazine’s offices in Paris.

In 2020, French teacher Samuel Paty was killed and beheaded by an Islamist fanatic because he had used a cartoon from Charlie Hebdo in teaching a class on free speech.

In 2021, a teacher in England used one of the Charlie Hebdo cartoons to illustrate a lesson on free speech and blasphemy. Doxxed and threatened with death, he went into hiding and is still under police protection. The school suspended the teacher and apologized.

Salman Rushdie wrote “The Satanic Verses” in 1988. A year later, Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Khomeini put out a fatwa (religious decree) ordering all Muslims to kill him and anyone involved with the book’s publication. Italian and Japanese translators of the book, and its Norwegian publisher, were stabbed by assailants in the following years.

Rushdie was protected by the British government at great expense. But in August 2022, while giving a talk in upstate New York, he was stabbed and nearly killed by Hadi Matar, a Muslim attempting to carry out the 35-year-old fatwa.

To have a fear of all Muslims may not be rational, but to have a fear of Islamism surely is. Trying to define Islamophobia so broadly as to limit free speech — and then ban it under threat of fines or prison — doesn’t make that reality go away.

​Arachnophobia, Blasphemy, Charlie hebdo, Conspiracy theories, Europe, Free speech, History, Islamism, Islamist, Islamophobia, Muslim, Opinion & analysis, Phobos, Salman rushdie, Terrorism 

Despite multiple documented admissions that she did kill her three children, Lindsay Clancy’s lawyer, Kevin Reddington, recently argued that “there’s no evidence” of these admissions.

BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales is so disgusted by Reddington’s sudden shift, she names him “a close second for worst person of the year” behind Clancy, who Sara believes acted in a “premeditated manner.”

“Nobody, including Lindsay Clancy’s lawyer, Kevin Reddington, nobody really disputed that Lindsay Clancy killed her children, that she strangled her children to death. … He was trying to get her a not-guilty plea by reason of insanity,” she says.

To prove it, she plays two clips.

The first captures Reddington mid-trial arguing, “She knows that she killed these children. We’ll sit here, listen to their evidence, but I suggest to you that the issue for consideration is what was going on in that woman’s mind.”

The second clip features him in a CBS News interview, saying, “No one is discounting the horrific loss of those kids, let alone Lindsay Clancy, who is well aware and lives with that every day.”

“So obviously, there’s no disputing it. This was not in question. Anyone who watched the trial knows this was just an assumed fact the entire time,” says Sara, “and now all of a sudden out of nowhere, Kevin [Reddington] has himself some amnesia.”

But that’s not Reddington’s only crime in her book.

“On top of all of that, this lawyer, Kevin Reddington, has, I guess, made it his life’s mission to go after the holdout juror who prevented Lindsay Clancy from being found not guilty,” Sara adds.

She explains how Reddington even asked the judge to investigate the holdout juror, but the motion was postponed to a later hearing. When Reddington was called out for attacking the holdout juror, he acted like the accusations were overblown, arguing, “I filed one motion and said nothing.”

But Sara has the receipts — and they suggest otherwise.

She plays a clip of Reddington bashing the holdout juror to reporters after the mistrial was declared on September 4.

“They know that they were robbed by one man for whatever his agenda was who stole seven weeks of the life of these other jurors that were so attentive, so beautiful, so wonderful. … And I got a funny feeling that they would have gone on for another week if they had to. So I hope that guy can sleep well at night,” he said.

In an interview with Fox News, he also said, “The biggest misconception is that this individual is referred to as the holdout juror. He in fact is the obstructionist juror.”

“So because he had convictions about Lindsay Clancy’s guilt, he is somehow an obstructionist,” Sara quips.

To see the clips of Reddington and hear more of Sara’s commentary, watch the episode above.

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.

​Sara gonzales, Lindsay clancy, Blazetv show, Kevin reddington 

Two mothers said their teen boys were sent racist insults via social media by a 13-year-old who is now facing felony charges.

Kisha Jenkins and Kiara Shaw told WLS-TV that their sons, both age 13, were sent messages on Snapchat that included their photos as well as racist insults and threats.

‘He called him a monkey, said he was going to do some nasty things to him, said he was going to sell him on Facebook.’

Oswego, Illinois, police announced that the juvenile who allegedly sent the messages is facing a hate crime charge and other felonies.

“Hate, discrimination, racism, and even the threats that were in that message should never be tolerated, and you have to stand for something,” said Shaw.

The two reported the messages to their kids’ school as well as the police.

“With my son, he called him a monkey, said he was going to do some nasty things to him, said he was going to sell him on Facebook,” she added.

Jenkins said her son was significantly affected by the messages.

“My child was, you know, very upset by it. He was very disturbed by it. He also felt threatened by it,” she said.

The superintendent of Oswego School District 308 responded in a message to the district’s families.

“This moment must be a catalyst for change. It must be the reason we talk more deeply with young people about how they use technology, about the value and weight of their words,” wrote Dr. Andalib Khelghati. “A post can take seconds to share and a lifetime to repair.”

He went on to ask parents to talk to their children about their messages online.

“I am asking something of every one of you: Please talk with your students. Ask them what they see online. Ask them how they would respond if they saw someone being targeted. Remind them that their words matter, that silence can feel like agreement, and that reaching out to a trusted adult is always the right thing to do.”

RELATED: Swastika and racial slur found on fence at elementary school in SoCal town

Jenkins said she also sympathized with the family of the child who allegedly sent the messages.

“I don’t feel good on either part that my son has to deal with this, nor that the parents of this boy, who I know, have to deal with this situation because it’s heartbreaking,” she added.

Oswego police indicated that the boy appeared in court on Friday.

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​Hate crime, Racial slur, Racism, Social media, Politics, Crime