A 37-year-old man was arrested for battery after allegedly touching himself inappropriately while creeping behind a female employee at a Florida store.

On Friday the Miami-Dade Sheriff's Office released some of the disgusting details at a media briefing.

'It is pretty shocking that he would do something like this in front of the camera and in front of kids and anyone looking.'

Officers responded to the Ross clothing store on Southwest 56th Street on Aug. 17 at about 4:15 p.m. for a report of a battery.

The alleged perpetrator had fled, but police found the victim as well a witness.

The witness said that the man was touching himself while the female worker was stocking shelves at the store.

"The male just happened to get into an area where she was working at and took a liking to her and started taking pictures, as we see on the video of her, of her buttocks and getting close to her," said Lead Detective Diego Mendoza.

"The witness went to loss prevention about this, and when she came back, she saw the subject getting directly behind the victim, who was crouching down on the floor, and he sprayed her," he adds.

Some news reports say that the man ejaculated onto the worker, but others say he sprayed her with an "unknown liquid." WTVJ-TV reported that police were DNA testing the liquid, which was described as "cloudy" and "sticky."

Police said they were able to identify a suspect as Sean Edward Uribe based on the witness picking him out of a lineup. He was arrested a week later a the office of his probation officer.

Mendoza said Uribe had been arrested previously for similar incidents.

"This is not the first time he has done this," he said. "He is well known to our unit. But it is pretty shocking that he would do something like this in front of the camera and in front of kids and anyone looking."

RELATED: Camera shows DoorDash driver allegedly masturbating at woman's door after delivering food

Mendoza said the latest charge would be a felony because of the previous convictions.

"My concern is that he is doing this to a number of women across Miami-Dade County," he added. "I am sure multiple females are not even aware he has done that to them. I am sure this guy has done this multiple times to multiple people and multiple females all over Dade County."

Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Mindy Glazer set his bond at $10,000 and ordered a public defender to represent him.

Uribe lives with his mother, according to CBS Miami.

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For years, a handful of powerful corporations have wielded control over the nation’s food supply, with small farmers and ranchers being hit the hardest.

Now, the Trump administration says it is finally taking action.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins tells Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck that president Trump “will arguably go down in history as the most pro-rancher, pro-farmer president in American history.”

And under this administration, Rollins explains that officials are fighting “decades of massive consolidation in agriculture, offshoring of our food supply in agriculture, the loss of hundreds of thousands of farms and ranches.”

“There is no national security, there is no freedom, unless we can feed and fuel ourselves,” she adds.

And Glenn, who operates a ranch himself, is no stranger to this struggle.

“I’ve got to go to Denver to sell my cows. I can’t get them processed, really, in my state because I don’t process enough meat. … People can’t go and process their beef in our state and then sell them to the local grocery store,” he explains.

“Which, you know, I don’t understand the people on the left. They’re for these big huge conglomerates. And then on top of it, they understand farm to table,” he says. “How do they not understand that same concept with beef and chicken?”

Glenn also points out that “85% or almost 90% of all beef is processed through these big four.”

“It was not like that 20 years ago. It’s never been like this. This is a massive monopoly,” he says, before asking, “Are you going to make it easier for people to be able to build processing plants in their own states and get state inspections?”

“Yes,” Rollins answers.

“What we have done over the last year is really invested in small and midsize packing. So that a co-op, a group of farmer-owned — we’ve got some great examples of this, by the way, around the country that are building this out with the help of USDA grants and loans,” Rollins says.

“And there is an opportunity here. … A few weeks ago, Tyson announced the closure of three of their plants. They’re shifting a lot of their processing. … That opens up, Glenn, about 20% of the market for smaller and midsize companies to come in. American-owned, to rebuild and to catch some of that market that is now opening up,” she continues.

“So as tough as that decision was, that announcement was — I actually think the long-term implications are very positive for this industry,” she adds.

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Common sense versus crazy is the defining feature of today’s politics.

On immigration, the choice is between enforcing the law and tolerating policies that burden U.S. workers and communities. On elections, the SAVE America Act has exposed the same divide: More than 80% of Americans support voter ID, yet Democrats continue to resist basic election-integrity safeguards.

Do lawmakers recognize biological reality and protect children from irreversible treatment, or do they protect the establishment that branded dissent dangerous?

But one contrast between Republicans and Democrats this cycle is even more fundamental: whether government should recognize biological sex as real.

That fight now runs through women’s sports, military readiness, and the treatment of children suffering from gender dysphoria. Common sense says boys are boys, girls are girls, and children should not be rushed into life-altering medical interventions. The alternative is crazy.

For years, the gender-medicine establishment told vulnerable children that puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries could align their bodies with an internal identity. Too often, institutions presented those interventions with more certainty than the evidence justified.

U.S. Rep. Bob Onder (R-Mo.) wants Congress to answer that problem with H.R. 7651, the Chloe Cole Act, which targets providers where accountability is most likely to be felt: civil liability.

The bill would create a federal cause of action allowing patients and families to sue medical providers that prescribed puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones or performed sex-rejecting surgeries on minors.

Chloe Cole, the bill’s namesake, is a detransitioner and activist who says she was pushed toward irreversible treatment without clear, informed consent. Her own malpractice case has made her one of the most prominent critics of pediatric gender medicine.

The legislation also arrives as institutions that once claimed broad consensus are facing harder scrutiny. The Trump administration filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission against the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, challenging claims about medical necessity and insurance coverage.

RELATED: Taxpayers paid $9.6 million for a gender ideologue's puberty-blocker study. She hid it. Now we know why.

L-R: Luis Soto/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images; Michael Tullberg/Getty Images

In a recent legal filing, WPATH described portions of its guidance as “opinion” rather than binding scientific consensus. That distinction is important. Parents were told for years that the science was settled. Now the institutions involved are emphasizing judgment, interpretation, and professional opinion.

Malpractice cases are moving too. In the Varian case, a jury awarded $2 million in damages over a sex-rejecting surgery. Individual lawsuits may expose failures one patient at a time. The Chloe Cole Act would be a major step toward stopping this industrial-scale profiteering once and for all.

As Congress returns for its pre-midterm September sprint, the choice is once again common sense versus crazy. Do lawmakers recognize biological reality and insist on caution before children undergo irreversible treatment, or do they protect a medical and political establishment that insisted for years that dissent itself was dangerous?

Congress has already seen versions of the same fight. Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) is leading the charge to define men and women clearly under Title IX. Before the August recess, Heritage Action key-voted an amendment from Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) to codify President Trump’s “Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness” order requiring service members to serve in accordance with their biological sex.

The legislation asked Congress to say something extraordinarily simple: Men serve as men, and women serve as women. Every Democrat who voted on the amendment went on the record against it.

The Chloe Cole Act offers another clean vote. Members can side with children and families seeking accountability for irreversible medical treatment or with the institutions like the billion-dollar transgender lobby that told the country for years that common sense had to yield to crazy.

The owners of a brewery in North Carolina shut down a drag show intended to raise funds for illegal aliens after allegedly receiving death threats.

Teri Lippy said they contacted law enforcement but could not determine whether the threats were credible, so they decided to stop the event to protect their employees.

'They posted it everywhere, and people started harassing both us and the venue.'

The "Drag Brunch for a Cause" program had been scheduled for Sunday at Eleven Lakes Brewing in Cornelius until critics campaigned to stop the event.

The drag show was described as a family-friendly fundraiser for the Carolina Migrant Network, a nonprofit group that provides legal services to illegal aliens for free.

About 100 tickets had been sold for the event before it was posted to social media by the popular account "Libs of TikTok."

"Eleven Lakes Brewing, a business in North Carolina, is hosting an ‘all-ages’ drag queen show to raise money for illegal aliens," the account wrote on the X platform. "Yes, this is real. They want to groom your children while donating money to fund foreign criminal invaders. Would be a shame if they went viral!"

Melissa Easley, who works with the event's lead sponsor, implied that the threats were tied to the Libs of TikTok post.

"They started advertising it as a children’s drag event," Easley said about the campaign. "They posted it everywhere, and people started harassing both us and the venue."

Lippy claimed that critics had twisted the meaning of the event and said that parents could bring in children without paying for an extra ticket.

"Nice brewery. Looks like it would burn down easy," was one threat she says they received via email.

"All of a sudden, physical and death threats started coming to both the venue and us," Easley added.

RELATED: Drag queen defends shows for children, says drag shows teach kids 'there are no boundaries'

Easley remains defiant, however.

"They may have won this battle, but we’re not going away," she said. "We are regrouping, and this event will happen."

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Michigan Democrats are finding themselves in a bit of an uncomfortable spot after Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed’s ties to far-left activist and streamer Hasan Piker are becoming a growing issue in the general election campaign.

At a recent campaign event for El-Sayed, Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) pleaded with reporters to stop focusing on Piker and instead discuss El-Sayed’s candidacy, insisting Republicans were using the controversy to divide Democrats.

“I’m done,” Dingell said. “This election is about what’s going to happen when we elect Abdul to the United States Senate.”

“So don’t any reporter ask me again about Hasan Piker; it’s not what November is about,” she continued.

“Republicans are trying to make it, they’re trying to divide us, and we got to stop letting them try to divide us. I don’t agree with Hasan Piker on a lot of stuff, and I really don’t agree with him on some of the woman things he said,” she added.

“Nice try,” executive producer Keith Malinak says on “Pat Gray Unleashed.” “No, he’s yours. Own him.”

“He got El-Sayed through the primary, and now they want to disown him for the general. No,” Malinak continues, “No, he’s yours.”

“Also, you got in bed with the DSA,” BlazeTV host Pat Gray chimes in. “You got in bed with Hasan Piker. I’m sorry. We’re not the ones dividing you. You did this to yourself.”

“This is the best thing that’s ever happened to Republicans,” he adds.

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New York City police gunned down a woman who had attacked random strangers with a knife in Times Square on Monday.

Cellphone video captured the moment that police surrounded the woman, who lunged at them while armed with two knives.

Police were able to recover two knives at the scene.

Police said the 49-year-old woman began the "unprovoked and random" knife attack on strangers near 41st Street and Seventh Avenue.

She allegedly stabbed a 68-year-old man in his abdomen as the victim walked out of the subway with his wife. He was hospitalized for treatment of his injuries.

A second victim was identified as 32-year-old Erin Piacenti of Chester, New Jersey, who died of her injuries.

Witnesses flagged down officers who confronted the woman for about four minutes.

The officers "gave her numerous commands to drop the knife," said NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch.

"During the encounter, she told the officers, 'I'm not dropping anything. I would rather kill both of you.' She repeated, 'I will kill you,'" Tisch added.

Officers deployed Tasers, and other officers shot at the woman, which can be viewed on the graphic cellphone video.

She was hospitalized and later declared dead, Tisch said.

The woman was later identified as Pamela Cisneros of Queens, who had a documented history of mental illness, according to Tisch. She added that police were able to recover two knives at the scene.

RELATED: Video allegedly shows man stuffing body parts into suitcase after dismembering stepfather

Piacenti worked as a vice president at Bank of America.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) thanked police at the media briefing.

"I want to thank the NYPD officers who stepped in and prevented a horrific attack from becoming even worse," the mayor said. "This is what the men and women of this department do every single day to keep our city safe."

He added that body-camera footage from police would be released after an investigation.

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Virginia Democrat Gov. Abigail Spanberger's attempts to disrupt cooperation with federal immigration enforcement efforts have been temporarily blocked by a federal judge.

U.S. District Judge Robert Payne said in his ruling Monday that the federal government would likely succeed in the lawsuit against the restrictions on federal cooperation.

'My office strongly disagrees with the judge’s order and will urgently file a motion to stay this ruling and appeal.'

Payne, an appointee of President George H.W. Bush, issued a preliminary injunction against the order while the case continues going through the legal process.

The Trump administration argued that the Virginia law violates the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution as well as the Contract Clause.

Spanberger had signed the law, and Attorney General Jay Jones began cracking down on the Greene County sheriff for continuing to work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and aiding in 50 arrests.

The order from Payne will allow law enforcement officials and state prisons to cooperate with ICE operations, but not for new agreements to be made.

Jones said he would appeal the order from Payne.

"My office strongly disagrees with the judge’s order and will urgently file a motion to stay this ruling and appeal the temporary injunction," he wrote in a statement, according to the Virginia Mercury.

Jones argued that the state had the right to order state officials against cooperation.

"The General Assembly was well within its legal authority to pass this law and to put statutory requirements in place to ensure Virginia’s already resource-constrained localities and law enforcement agencies are not devoting critical resources toward carrying out responsibilities that rest solely with the federal government," he added.

RELATED: Democratic congressman claims he forced ICE to back off from arrest at courtroom

The Department of Homeland Security had vehemently criticized Spanberger after she signed the restrictions on ICE cooperation.

"The heroes of ICE will continue to arrest and remove criminal illegal aliens across the Commonwealth while Governor Spanberger RELEASES them from jails into Virginia communities to commit more crimes and create more victims," the statement read.

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Few series have a tighter grip on young female readers than Sarah J. Maas’ romantasy juggernaut “A Court of Thorns and Roses."

The wildly popular series follows Feyre Archeron — a human huntress pulled from a starving village into the faerie courts of Prythian, where she is drawn into immortal politics, ancient magic, and a romance that remakes her.

But Allie Beth Stuckey has concerns about this BookTok obsession that has so many women, including Christian women, in a chokehold. On this episode of “Relatable,” the BlazeTV host dives into the viral series and the romantasy genre and explains why they’re delivering far more than just entertainment.

“Despite what Maas says … about her hypersexual novels being quote ‘more than smut,’ the picture that she paints of relationships, of morality, of sexuality, and the world [is] not neutral … and it's certainly not biblical,” says Allie.

“These kinds of romantasy novels are having an effect on how women, even Christian women, view men and view marriage, which then has an impact on children, has an impact on society,” she continues.

While Allie is a fan of reading fiction, she believes Christians need to stay away from all of Maas’ series and other authors who write similar novels not only because many are “pornographic” and thus contradict Philippians 4:8’s call to entertain only wholesome thoughts but also because they erode the reader’s “perception of reality” — especially when it comes to relationships.

Allie plays a clip of Maas telling “Call Her Daddy” host Alex Cooper that she’s proud that her books help women leave their abusive husbands.

“Obviously we believe that if you have an abusive husband that you and your children should go and be protected … but there is a question of what Sarah J. Maas considers abusive,” says Allie.

“I think we've expanded the definition of abusive to include things that were never before seen as abusive, so when she's talking about women leaving their husbands, I'm like, well, is it really because of abuse, or is it because their husband could not live up to this fantastical depiction of what love should look like or what a romantic partner should look like?” she asks.

To illustrate her point, Allie recounts a TikTok post from a fan of the books, explaining that the series motivated her to get a divorce.

“She said that reading the novels helped her realize that she deserved an explosive, passionate, adventurous life in love,” Allie recaps.

In a Reddit post, a Maas fan wrote, “Rereading [‘A Court of Mist and Fury'] and realising it’s ruined my perception of love because I don’t think I could ever meet a man who would be as devoted and loving towards me as Rhys was to Feyre.”

“You’re right, because he’s not real,” says Allie bluntly.

These examples capture one of her biggest issues with Maas’ books and the romantasy genre in general: They set readers up to have unrealistic expectations about romantic relationships.

“Comparing real-life people — fallible human people who deal with sin and get tired and get distracted and have their own things going on in life … to a mystical creature, and you're mad that your boyfriends haven't stacked up to that? That is very disturbing,” says Allie.

“We are seeking, it seems like as a culture, a frictionless life with frictionless relationships — no inconvenience, no discomfort, no sanctification, no working hard, no getting through things, but just ‘I deserve, I deserve, I deserve sunshine,”’ she continues.

The irony, of course, is that these readers can’t offer the same perfection they seek.

“Think about yourself for a second,” says Allie. “Is that what you offer to a man? Do you offer perfection? Do you offer unconditional and unwavering sunlight at all times? Is that who you are?”

“No, it's not who any of us are. It's not who I am. We're all imperfect people, and yet I do think that women have become more and more used to, at least online, like, holding men to a standard that you do not hold yourself,” she continues, highlighting the Lindsay Clancy supporters whose “unending compassion” for the woman who killed her three children would likely never extend to mentally ill men guilty of similar crimes.

The idea that “women are always victims no matter what,” she argues, has poisoned many women — and that includes those who leave their husbands or give up on relationships because real-life men can’t compare to fictional ones who are “tall, dark, and handsome” and love and act perfectly.

In the "A Court of Thorns and Roses" series, the male protagonist Rhys, Allie explains, is “described as the most beautiful man imaginable,” “the most powerful man in the world … yet is somehow always emotionally available and vulnerable for Feyre,” is “protective and chivalrous,” and “encourages her independence and helps enable her be able to protect and defend herself.”

“Is that so hard, men? Is that so hard to be the ruler of the world and also emotionally available and accessible at all times?” Allie jokes. “Come on. Women aren't asking for much.”

To hear more of her analysis, watch the episode above.

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Activist actor Mark Ruffalo is going to live by the petition and die by the petition.

The 58-year-old has been more entrenched in politics than filmmaking in recent history, and now he is merging his two worlds together by taking direct shots at a Hollywood studio.

'There is nothing anti-Semitic about recognizing that fact.'

Hulk accuse

Ruffalo is vehemently against the $110 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery by Paramount Skydance, and he attempted to take the latter's executives to task recently the best way he knows how: the open letter.

The actor started with Oracle, the company owned by Larry Ellison, who also has a controlling stake in Paramount Skydance. Ruffalo posted a video of Oracle Executive Vice Chair Safra Catz talking about helping the Israeli military in its war against Palestine. According to Variety, Ruffalo then said the executive "revels in what we now have come to see as a genocide, which was built on an apartheid system of oppression powered by Oracle."

Ruffalo then went on to criticize Ellison and the merger, saying it could cost Hollywood between 4,500 and 14,500 jobs.

A spokesperson for Paramount fired back, saying the company is "troubled when anti-Semitic tropes are invoked in purported service of a business dispute."

"Words like 'genocide' and 'apartheid,' applied to a corporate transaction, aren't just wrong — they're a bridge too far, and they cheapen the very real suffering those words are meant to describe," the letter added.

Ruffalo, an artist scorned, responded with another strongly worded diatribe, telling over 31 million readers on X that he has "deep love and respect" for Jews.

"Everything I know about acting, activism, and humanism has been profoundly shaped by the Jewish friends, colleagues, and loved ones who have been integral and family throughout every point of my life," he declared.

RELATED: HULK HYPOCRITE: $35 million man Ruffalo stumps for socialism

Another fight, another letter

More than 170 "Jewish figures" signed a letter of support for Ruffalo, backing him in the face of "false and dangerous weaponization of charges of anti-Semitism."

The letter went on to say that others like Ruffalo are simply being "brave enough to point out the obvious: that the assault on the Palestinian people and the assault on our liberties at home are deeply interconnected, and there is nothing anti-Semitic about recognizing that fact."

Whether Ruffalo battles pro-Israel forces or corporate mergers, he seems to always have time for an online-letter battle. In fact, he is fresh off a different letter-based foray with federal immigration authorities.

RELATED: Celebrities demand ICE send illegal immigrants back ... to your neighborhood

Oracle CEO Safra Catz, September 2025. Alex Wong/Getty Images.

Million-dollar baby

In April, Ruffalo signed yet another letter that urged the federal government to shut down one of it's immigration detention centers in Texas.

The letter demanded children be released and illegal immigrants be allowed to roam about the United States until trial. This of course would have sent its illegal immigrant detainees back into American neighborhoods, but the letter nonetheless proved fruitless and the Dilley ICE detention center remains open.

Ruffalo's politics have him spinning in so many directions that he is supporting socialists and battling capitalists while starring in new movies.

While the actor may be signing declarations left and right, his latest role in "Spider-Man: Brand New Day," which had one of the biggest openings of all time, paid him a reported $8 to $12 million.

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What if a heart transplant could be scheduled weeks in advance? Not because a donor volunteered, but because a prisoner was selected to die?

Epoch Times senior editor and "Killed to Order" author Jan Jekielek explains that this is happening right now — and it’s happening in China.

“This really is a kind of next level form of organ trafficking, the most extreme example I’m aware of. And the key part is that it happens at scale” Jekielek tells BlazeTV host Liz Wheeler on “The Liz Wheeler Show.”

And it’s nothing like a “normal situation,” where an organ transplant begins with a recipient who needs a transplant and waits for an organ donor to have a catastrophic accident.

“What happens is someone has to have a catastrophic accident, OK? And then that person, we need to believe that they’re not coming back. An ethics team makes that decision,” Jekielek explains, pointing out that the organ donation system in America was decertified in the past year because they “got too easy on making that decision.”

“If you transplant for someone that is coming back, you’re killing that person,” he says.

In America, you also have to find someone whose organ will be compatible with your body so that your body doesn’t reject it.

“In communist China, it works very differently,” he continues, explaining that in his book, he profiles a whistleblower who was a professor of transplant surgery.

“He had a patient who basically told him, this is in 2005, ‘I’m tired of waiting. They’ve organized a heart for me in two weeks, scheduled,’” he says.

“That catastrophic accident is scheduled,” he adds.

That, Jekielek says, is the first “red flag.”

“And the second red flag, how are you getting that perfect match in two weeks, right?” he asks, before explaining that certain groups of citizens were dehumanized and incarcerated in China for refusing to be “re-educated.”

“So they have prisons, black jails, re-education through labor camps, labor camps, all sorts ... and this is what sets up the unique situation for this killed-to-order type of organ harvesting, forced organ harvesting,” he says.

“So because you have this dehumanized group, masses of them are incarcerated, and this is how you get the two weeks,” he explains, “because what they do is they start blood typing and tissue typing and organ scanning those people that are in prison.”

“And now when that transplant tourist comes with their 100 or 200 grand to buy that new heart, you see they can get it in two weeks because their so-called donor is actually an innocent prisoner of conscience, and they’ve been pre-matched,” he continues.

“That unique set of combination of variables already exists in the system, and that person can then be shipped and killed to order,” he adds.

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While many believe Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) is positioning herself for a presidential run, she refuses to separate from extremist influencer Hasan Piker.

Piker is a far-left communist who defends Muslim terrorists and has even said America deserved the 9/11 attacks, but many Democrats have found it difficult to condemn him.

'And young people are engaging in mediums and conversations that we have a responsibility to attend to and be responsive to. ... Millennials are not, you know, punk kids anymore.'

Ocasio-Cortez was given the chance to reject Piker's extremism when confronted by CNN chief congressional correspondent Manu Raju about Abdul El-Sayed, the Islamic Democratic Michigan candidate for the U.S. Senate.

"Do you think that Abdul El-Sayed needs to do more to disavow Hasan Piker, given how big of an issue he's become?" Raju asked.

"I do not think that a Twitch streamer is what the people of Michigan are concerning themselves on," she replied. "So I think that what they want to hear all of us talk about is how we're going to make their lives more affordable."

The left-wing congresswoman had responded similarly when challenged by Jonathan Karl on ABC's "This Week" early in August.

"Is he somebody that should have a role in the progressive movement going forward?" Karl asked.

"I think when we look at our elections that have happened, we have lost young people. Much hay was made about the fact that we lost young men in the last election, and many of the same consultants that are wringing their hands today were the same ones talking about how we need to go on 'Joe Rogan,'" she replied.

She said that Democrats should not be participating in "cancel culture" over Piker.

RELATED: 14 times 'unhinged' Democrats have called for political violence

"I think the fact of the matter is, is that Democrats can go on 'Joe Rogan,' Democrats can go on Fox News, Democrats have a responsibility to build a winning coalition. And young people are engaging in mediums and conversations that we have a responsibility to attend to and be responsive to."

She added, "Millennials are not, you know, punk kids anymore."

El-Sayed similarly said about Piker, "While politicians and pundits try to make this race about a Twitch streamer, we’re going to be talking about gas, groceries, good schools, and health care. Because that’s what Michiganders keep asking about."

Piker appeared to be supportive of a possible presidential run for Ocasio-Cortez in 2028, and polling shows her near the top for the Democratic nomination.

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California Democrats want to make President Trump's Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents unemployable.

The California Senate passed the Get the Feds Out Act on Sunday, banning immigration enforcement agents from virtually all public-sector roles in the state. It now awaits the signature of Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom.

'They should be grateful that ICE officers stepped up to keep criminal illegal aliens off of California’s streets.'

The state Assembly voted to advance the bill 53-21 in May and concurred with Senate amendments on Monday.

“Since the inauguration of President Donald J. Trump on January 20, 2025, immigration enforcement agents have carried out an indiscriminate mass terror campaign against innocent men, women, and children across the nation,” the bill reads.

Assemblyman Mark Gonzalez and Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, who authored the bill, crafted the legislation to specifically target ICE agents serving under the Trump administration.

Though primarily intended to prohibit ICE agents from becoming California police officers, Gonzalez and Rivas made the bill expansive enough that it excludes them from any public employment.

With few exceptions, under the bill, any ICE officer or contractor involved in immigration enforcement between January 20, 2025, and January 20, 2029, would be ineligible for employment with the state as well as all California cities, counties, and other public entities. If signed into law, the bill will take effect January 1, 2028.

“We have the fourth-largest economy in the world because of our immigrant and undocumented community, and they’re being penalized and targeted by the Trump administration,” Gonzalez told the L.A. Times on Tuesday after the bill passed the state legislature. “This package of immigrant bills that we’ve sent [to the governor] is trying to say that we are here to defend you.”

Gonzalez and Rivas did not respond to requests for comment.

RELATED: Democrat candidate admits he's 'utterly unqualified,' wants a promotion anyway

Blake Fagan/AFP/Getty Images

Newsom doesn't actually need to sign the bill for it to become law, according to the California Constitution. Bills that reach the governor's desk at the end of the legislative session sit for 30 days. If the governor takes no action on it, the bill is automatically enacted as if it were signed.

Newsom's office did not respond when asked whether he would sign the bill, though he has been consistently critical of ICE. The governor has previously referred to the agency as "not law enforcement," a "secret police," and Trump's "private police force."

ICE expanded its operations in Newsom's back yard after Trump took office. Between January 2025 and July 2026, ICE arrested over 50,000 people in California, according to records acquired by UC Berkeley Law and UCLA’s Deportation Data Project.

“We have immigration laws for a reason. And they do have to be enforced, just like we have our laws that we pass here, and we expect them to be enforced by our law enforcement officers,” Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher said in a May hearing about the bill. “This bill is blatantly unconstitutional.”

California is already struggling to keep cops.

Department staffing peaked in 2008 and has declined since. Head count dropped sharply after 2020, with about 3,600 officers leaving the force in just two years. Staffing levels remain below pre-pandemic and pre-Black Lives Matter riot levels.

RELATED: How good cops end up funding California's Scott Wiener and his radical LGBTQ, anti-police agenda

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

“Our concern, again, is we have many agencies throughout the state who are short, extremely short, sometimes 28% short on manpower, which is dangerous, not only [for] the officers but the community,” Peace Officers Research Association of California President Randy Perry told the state Senate in July.

Sacramento is California’s most understaffed police department, with 43% of necessary positions unfilled, according to PORAC.

"Many of ICE’s new recruits are former law enforcement officers, military, or former ICE officers who retired or quit under President Biden because they were frustrated about not being able to do their jobs," a DHS spokesperson told Blaze News.

“California sanctuary politicians are casting federal law enforcement as villains while ICE officers are being targeted, threatened, and doxxed simply for doing their jobs," the spokesperson said. "They should be grateful that ICE officers stepped up to keep criminal illegal aliens off of California’s streets."

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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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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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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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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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On August 22, 38-year-old Minnesota resident Bonnie Pierce ran back into her burning duplex building for her young daughter Grace. Firefighters found her unresponsive and shielding the toddler. Both were carried to safety, but Bonnie died of her injuries two days later. Grace, however, is expected to make a full recovery thanks to her mother’s sacrifice.

“That's the whole story, and it doesn't need anything added to it. What an amazing story. What an amazing mom,” says BlazeTV co-founder Glenn Beck.

This story of a mom who died a hero, he notes, is probably unknown to many people because “cameras always go where the fight is,” and “there isn't anything to argue about” when it comes to Bonnie.

“You know where the cameras are? The cameras are in two courtrooms,” says Glenn.

One of those courtrooms is in the Bronx, where last week 26-year-old Dimone Fleming was found not criminally responsible for the 2022 stabbing of her two sons, three and 11 months, due to postpartum psychosis.

The other courtroom is in Massachusetts, where Lindsay Clancy’s jury is currently deliberating. In 2023, the mother of three killed her children — 5, 3, and 8 months — with exercise bands. She has pleaded not guilty, arguing she was not criminally responsible due to postpartum psychosis.

“Let me tell you what those cases have in common, and it is not the diagnosis,” says Glenn.

“There is such a thing as a mother genuinely, medically, out of her mind. Postpartum psychosis is real. It's rare, and it's savage, and it turns a person into somebody they are not,” he continues, “And the women that it happens to, they're not villains; they're casualties.”

But “evil,” he argues, is just as real.

“And that evil has learned to speak the language of illness because that's the language that gets you out of it,” Glenn explains, emphasizing that the juries in both of these cases have experienced incredibly heavy burdens — especially for “ordinary citizens.”

“It's hard because we all agree on the standard. Every single one of us — the prosecutor and the defense attorney and the psychiatrist and the grandmother in the gallery. Nobody in that room is arguing what a mother is supposed to be,” he continues.

What a mother should be, Glenn says, is a “rare” standard because “it’s not in dispute.” What makes these two trials so incredibly difficult is that the juries must decide “whether [these mothers] could still reach [that standard].”

“The standard is the reason there's a trial at all, and I'd submit to you that the standard doesn't live in a law book or a diagnostic manual,” says Glenn. “It got carried out of a burning bedroom in St. Paul, Minnesota, just a few days ago by a firefighter who found a toddler underneath a woman's body.”

In our modern society where people can’t even define what a mother is, Bonnie Pierce makes it plain, he says: “It's the thing that gets between the fire and the child every time — without a meeting, without a poll, without weighing the options. In about four seconds, she's down on her knees, feeling the floor for her child in the dark.”

To hear more, watch the video above.

Want more from Glenn Beck?

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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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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!

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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