When it comes to artificial intelligence, the Trump administration has made its position clear: America will not choke innovation with red tape.

That instinct is understandable and, in many ways, correct. AI is moving fast, and heavy-handed regulation could do real damage. If the United States cripples its own companies, China will gladly take the advantage. And no one on the right wants blue-state politicians using AI rules to smuggle “woke” ideology into the next generation of powerful models.

The goal should be straightforward: Build an American AI future in which freedom is embedded from the start, and constitutional guardrails shape the systems that will increasingly shape us.

As White House AI adviser David Sacks recently put it, “We don’t like seeing blue states trying to insert their woke ideology in AI models, and we really want to try and stop that.”

Fair enough.

But what happens when resistance to bad regulation hardens into resistance to any regulation at all?

That question is now surfacing in Utah, where the White House is reportedly opposing a Republican-sponsored AI transparency bill. The fight may sound parochial, but it raises a much larger question: Do conservatives have the discipline to protect constitutional liberty in the AI age?

Utah isn’t California

The Utah proposal is not a European-style crackdown. It would not impose speech codes, mandate ideological compliance, or try to centrally plan the AI economy.

At its core, the bill focuses on transparency and accountability. It would require frontier AI companies to disclose serious risks, plan for safety in advance, report major problems, and protect whistleblowers who raise alarms.

That’s far from radical.

If the administration’s AI strategy is to stop progressive states from embedding political orthodoxy into algorithms, Utah’s bill does not belong in that category. The measure is about making sure the companies building extraordinarily powerful systems acknowledge the risks up front and take responsibility when things go wrong.

Treating that effort as if it were blue-state social engineering confuses two very different problems. There is a real difference between using AI regulation to enforce ideology and asking powerful firms to level with the public about systems that could reshape society.

The myth of an ‘unregulated’ AI market

Another uncomfortable truth lurks beneath this debate: AI is not operating in anything like a free-market vacuum.

The European Union has already enacted its sweeping AI Act. That regulatory regime will not stop at Europe’s borders. American companies that operate globally will feel its force, and American users will feel the downstream effects.

If the United States adopts a posture of total federal non-engagement, it will not preserve a neutral market. It will hand the regulatory initiative to Brussels.

That would be a serious mistake. Europe does not regulate with American constitutional principles in mind. It regulates through a bureaucratic worldview that prizes centralized control over freedom. If Washington refuses to establish clear guardrails rooted in our own constitutional tradition, foreign regulators and multinational firms will fill the void.

Power without constitutional guardrails

AI is quickly becoming part of the infrastructure of modern life. These systems increasingly shape how information flows, how public opinion forms, and how daily choices get nudged.

That is power.

We have already watched major corporations use private power to shape public life. Social-media companies moderated, suppressed, and curated speech in ways that tilted public debate. Large firms adopted ESG frameworks that embedded political priorities into lending, hiring, and investment. In both cases, powerful institutions pushed ideological outcomes without a vote being cast or a law being passed.

Nothing suggests AI will escape those pressures.

RELATED: If AI isn’t built for freedom, it will be programmed for control

gorodenkoff / Getty Images

The companies building frontier systems carry their own assumptions, incentives, and cultural biases. If those assumptions get baked into foundational models — and those models then get integrated into education, finance, media, hiring, and governance — ideological influence will move from the margins to the infrastructure of society.

Yes, clumsy central planning would hurt innovation and weaken America’s position against China. But the answer cannot be blind faith that market incentives alone will protect liberty. That asks a great deal of institutions that have already shown a willingness to steer political and cultural outcomes in their preferred direction.

The real challenge is making sure extraordinary technological power develops inside a framework that respects constitutional rights, individual liberty, and personal autonomy.

A pro-liberty AI framework

The Trump administration is right to resist ideological manipulation in AI models and to oppose sweeping regimes that would handicap American innovation while China races ahead.

But someone will shape the boundaries of this technology. The only real question is whether those boundaries reflect American constitutional principles or the preferences of foreign regulators and corporate boards.

Red states such as Utah should be treated as allies in that effort, not obstacles. They can serve as proving ground for approaches that protect transparency, due process, free expression, and individual autonomy without strangling innovation.

Artificial intelligence will shape the next century more than any single statute. Total non-engagement may sound pro-growth, but in practice it leaves the foundational rules of the AI era to someone else.

The goal should be straightforward: Build an American AI future in which freedom is embedded from the start, and constitutional guardrails shape the systems that will increasingly shape us.

A family of foreigners visiting California were kicked out of the famed La Jolla Cove in San Diego after they were caught allegedly harassing the sea lions.

Visitors and tourists to the cove are warned to avoid the sea lions, but unruly behavior has led some activists to call on the state to shut down access to human beings in order to protect the animals.

'Why shouldn't I give you a citation for kicking an animal?'

On Sunday, San Diego photographer Jim Grant said he witnessed one such incident and recorded a San Diego City park ranger kicking out a group of people from the Cove.

"He was giving a really, really stern warning to a couple of kids about throwing things," said Grant to KNSD-TV. "Finally he told the mother, 'Woman in the brown jacket, come to the top of the stairs.'"

The video shows the mother interacting in broken English with the ranger.

"Where are you guys from?" the ranger asks.

"China," the mother says.

"China? In China, do you guys throw dirt at the animals too?" he asks.

"Why shouldn't I give you a citation for kicking an animal?" the ranger asks later on.

He decided not to give the family a citation but did follow through with kicking them out of the Cove.

Grant said he's never seen anyone kicked out of the Cove in decades of shooting photos there.

The woman got off easy. Harassing sea lions is a violation of the Marine Mammal Protection Act and carries a punishment of up to $30,000 per violation and up to one year in prison.

RELATED: Man decapitated sea lion on Christmas and rode away on e-bike with its head, California officials say

"The Cove is not your personal petting zoo, and it's not the wild, wild west. There are federal regulations that are put there for a reason," Grant added.

In July 2024, video captured at the Cove showed sea lions charging at beachgoers and causing a panic. Experts said that they were not actually chasing people but were likely just looking for a suitable place to mate.

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Jared Hudson is a former Navy Seal, a devoted Christian, a current Republican candidate running for the U.S. Senate seat in Alabama, and the founder of Covenant Rescue Group, a nonprofit dedicated to combatting human trafficking and child exploitation through law enforcement training; operations to rescue victims and arrest perpetrators; and advocacy.

On a recent episode of “Strange Encounters,” Hudson joined Rick Burgess to dive into today’s darkest headlines — Epstein, child exploitation, cultural depravity, and political corruption — and ultimately connect them to the bigger reality of spiritual warfare.

During their conversation, however, Hudson told Rick something that genuinely shocked the BlazeTV host: After years of infiltrating the child exploitation industry, there’s an even darker underworld operating in the United States.

Since Covenant Rescue Group kicked off in 2019, Hudson and his team have seen things most of us can’t even begin to imagine.

“I mean, we’ve seen guys having sex with 18-month old babies — their own children,” he says.

And yet, Hudson says his work in D.C. politics has shockingly exposed him to even deeper levels of depravity.

“I feel [depravity] more now in the politics side that I’ve gotten involved in running for U.S. Senate than I do in the child exploitation side,” he told Rick, who was taken aback by this declaration.

“You just said that you have sensed demonic activity [in politics] more ... than you’ve even seen in Covenant Rescue with human trafficking and child exploitation. So, why would that be?” he asks.

Hudson explains that dealing with child exploitation, while undeniably monstrous, is in some ways easier because it’s still “taboo” and widely opposed.

“Look at the outcry from both sides of the aisle on this Epstein stuff, right?” he says.

Even though there are fringe groups that want to destigmatize pedophilia by pushing it “into a sexual orientation,” by and large, “we are, as a society, not past protecting children,” he explains.

Hudson compares that to the D.C. swamp, which runs on “partiality.”

“Everybody within politics, even if they disagree with exploitation or whatever, they show partiality,” Hudson says.

And where partiality thrives, so does depravity, he explains, citing James 3:16-17: “For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice. But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.”

“Career politicians, even if they claim to be Christians, they sell access ... and they’re partial to donors,” Hudson says, arguing that these politicians disregard those who “can’t write [them] a max donation check,” “support a super PAC,” or “put [them] on a platform that’s going to reach a 100,000 people.”

“They’re partial to their club as opposed to the people they’re elected to represent. And you have a bureaucracy that’s in place, and you have these elitists that are in place that think that they can buy ... your position, buy you, buy access to you ... and own [you],” he explains.

This kind of systemic corruption isn’t occasional or confined to certain groups — it’s baked into the structures and normalized at every level.

“It’s across the board for everything — congressmen, even the president,” Hudson says.

“Everything’s for sale,” Rick echoes.

To hear more, watch the full episode above.

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Affordability has become a problem for nearly every American. Inflation and the rising cost of living keep chewing through paychecks, and the old markers of the American dream — home ownership, small-business ownership, a secure retirement — feel farther out of reach than they have in years.

Some people respond by demanding more government involvement in daily life. President Trump has taken the opposite view: The government should step back.

Success will not come only from repealing rules. It will come when regulators stop seeing entrepreneurs as problems to manage and start seeing them as partners in growth.

Within days of returning to office, Trump signed two major executive orders aimed at saving money for business owners and taxpayers alike: Unleashing Prosperity Through Deregulation and the much-discussed DOGE initiative. Their core principle was simple: For every new federal regulation, agencies should eliminate 10 old ones.

One year later, the results are real.

I have spent that year on the front lines of the fight against unnecessary regulation as a regional advocate in the Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy. Congress established the office in 1976, but it has taken on renewed life under the current administration.

My team and I have spent the past year meeting with small-business owners — many still trying to recover from the economic damage of the COVID lockdown era — to identify ways the federal government can serve as a partner instead of a roadblock.

Nationwide, our team has met with more than 12,000 businesses.

The full report is available publicly, but the top-line results from the past year are straightforward:

• We flagged more than 300 regulatory issues for federal regulators.
• We helped influence changes to 23 federal regulations affecting millions of businesses.
• We saved small businesses nearly $110 billion in unnecessary regulatory costs.

That last number is significant, but it also shows the scale of the broader problem. Federal regulation costs the U.S. economy more than $3 trillion a year by some estimates — roughly 12% of GDP. Much of that burden falls hardest on smaller firms that cannot absorb legal and compliance costs the way large corporations can. Meanwhile, the Code of Federal Regulations has swollen from a few thousand pages decades ago to more than 180,000 pages today.

For small businesses, that kind of regulatory sprawl is not an abstraction. It is a threat.

Big companies can keep in-house counsel, compliance officers, and HR departments on payroll. A family business, a contractor, or a startup working out of a garage cannot. Excessive regulation tilts the playing field toward the largest players and against the very people most likely to create new jobs and local wealth.

For too long, federal rulemaking has treated small-business owners as an afterthought. We once heard that giant firms were “too big to fail.” Today, many small businesses face a different reality: they are becoming too small to succeed.

RELATED: Republicans and Democrats are in revolt — for very different reasons

Douglas Rissing/Getty Images

One of the most effective tools we have built to push back is the SBA’s Red Tape Hotline — 1-800-827-5722 — which allows small-business owners to speak directly with federal staff about regulatory burdens and offer suggestions for reform. Through that hotline, we have heard from thousands of people we could not have reached in person.

Our broader goal is to improve the regulatory climate for every business owner in the country. But even saving a mom-and-pop shop a few billable hours with an attorney can make a real difference.

In one especially memorable case, SBA staff helped a toy company in Mississippi clear a shipment through Customs and Border Protection in time for December — literally saving Christmas for that business.

The philosophy behind this work is the same one that guided me as mayor of Riverton, Utah, where I recently completed two terms. Riverton has grown because we kept taxes, fees, and regulations low enough for businesses to thrive. Companies came, jobs followed, and the city’s sales-tax revenue doubled during my time in office. Watching that same pro-growth approach work at the national level has been deeply rewarding.

Still, this is only a first down, not a touchdown.

Success will not come only from repealing rules. It will come when regulators stop seeing entrepreneurs as problems to manage and start seeing them as partners in growth. If we can make that shift, we can do more than trim costs. We can make the American dream attainable again.

A Columbia University student and online influencer was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Thursday but was released by the end of the day through the machinations of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

The mayor posted on his social media account that he had secured the release of Elmina "Ellie" Aghayeva after speaking to President Donald Trump via phone call.

'He has just informed me that she will be released imminently.'

"Just got off the phone with President Trump," the mayor wrote. "In our meeting earlier, I shared my concerns about Columbia student Elmina Aghayeva, who was detained by ICE this morning. He has just informed me that she will be released imminently."

Aghayeva is originally from Azerbaijan and has grown a large following on Instagram by documenting her life as a student.

The student's attorney claimed that the ICE agents were able to detain her after pretending to be looking for a missing person in order to gain access to the Columbia campus. The Department of Homeland Security disputes the allegation.

Earlier in the day, Mamdani had met with the president at the White House to pitch a proposal to ease the housing crisis.

"Hi guys. I am so grateful for everyone of you. I just got out a little while ago. I am safe and okay," Aghayeva wrote on Instagram after her release.

"I am so sorry, but I am in complete shock over what happened and my phone is blowing up with calls from reporters," she added. "I need a bit of time to process everything. I will come back soon but please don't worry."

RELATED: Viral video shows alleged arson attack on rumored ICE facility in Kansas City — mayor expresses his outrage against ICE

A Blaze News request for comment from the White House was not immediately answered.

A DHS spokesperson said her student visa had been terminated in 2016 after she failed to attend classes.

Aghayeva lists her preferred pronouns as she/her on Instagram. She is majoring in neuroscience and political science.

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A brawl broke out late last week after a police chief dressed in street clothes tried to arrest a high school girl who allegedly was causing trouble amid a protest against Immigration and Customs Enforcement — and now some residents in the southeastern Pennsylvania borough of Quakertown want the chief to resign.

The Bucks County Courier Times said a probable cause affidavit provides the first official police account of what led to the arrest of five Quakertown High School students.

'Everybody was confused because nobody knew it was a policeman. He was in regular clothes. We were just like, "Why is the man attacking us?"'

At least 35 students participated in the Friday walkout to protest ICE, the Courier Times said, citing the affidavit.

Quakertown police had been monitoring the protest “from a safe distance” and assisting with road closures after students left the high school campus and headed into the downtown business district, the paper said.

More from the Courier Times:

Early in the protest Friday police allege they noticed a large group of protesters move into the road in the 100 block of East Broad Street, and a girl kicked a white pickup truck on the passenger side several times and hit the side mirror with her hand, the affidavit said.

Protesters also threw “ice balls” at vehicles, stood on public benches, and police approached the group and requested they protest respectfully, and keep the sidewalk clear, the affidavit said.

In a statement issued Friday, Quakertown police alleged student protesters threw snowballs at vehicles, kicked cars, and “damaged property such as tearing a side mirror from a car.”

The police statement also said that additional officers were called to the scene when confrontations with students escalated “and some individuals assaulted officers.”

However, the paper said witnesses and protesters alleged that motorists followed the students and revved their engines, blew exhaust fumes at them, and yelled taunts at the students.

The Courier Times, citing the affidavit, said students who continued walking toward Front Street were yelling obscenities “at the officers and in general."

RELATED: Praise rolls in for high school suspending hundreds of students over anti-ICE walkout: 'Adults are taking charge'

Police said a 15-year-old female protester was seen "numerous times" walking in the road, including in front of moving vehicles and blocking traffic, and she was warned to stay on the sidewalk, the paper reported.

An officer allegedly ordered the girl to come across the street to be detained, and when she started to walk away from him, the officer grabbed her arm, the Courier Times said, citing the affidavit.

With that, other teen protesters confronted the officer and pulled the girl away, which allowed her to slip into the crowd, the paper said, citing the affidavit.

The officer radioed for assistance, the affidavit said, after which Quakertown Police Chief Scott McElree, 72, and a sergeant arrived at the scene. The officer pointed to the girl he was trying to detain, and McElree allegedly attempted to arrest her — but a boy was pulling her away, the affidavit added.

More from the Courier Times:

After McElree grabbed the boy, he pulled away and struck the chief in the head with his cell phone multiple times, the affidavit said.

The boy was eventually taken to the ground and placed in custody after he intervened again attempting to keep McElree away from the 15-year-old girl, according to the document.

Multiple teens encircled McElree and began to punch and hit him including the 15-year-old girl that police were originally attempting to detain, the affidavit said.

The paper, citing the affidavit, added that a sergeant saw another teen boy dressed in black come up behind McElree and hit him three times on the right side of his face and rib area. With that, the sergeant grabbed the teen, took him down, and placed him in handcuffs, the Courier Times said.

RELATED: Juvenile hit by car at student anti-ICE protest in Florida

Another police officer saw a girl hit McElree in the head with her backpack while the chief was on the ground grappling with a female protester, the paper said, citing the affidavit.

What's more, a detective who responded to the scene allegedly saw a girl punch McElree in the head, after which the detective caught the girl and placed her on the sidewalk, where she allegedly kicked him several times while being handcuffed, the Courier Times said.

The girl whom police originally wanted to detain was taken into custody, the paper said, adding that her attorney, Ettore "Ed" Angelo, on Tuesday denied his client had any physical contact with McElree.

In all, five students were arrested and taken to juvenile detention.

Three of them were released Tuesday, the Courier Times said, adding that the status of the remaining two is unknown, and the Bucks County District Attorney's Office has released no information as of Tuesday. The DA's office on Thursday did not immediately respond to Blaze News' question regarding how many students have been released.

Authorities have not released their names, ages, and charges since they're juveniles, but the paper said it confirmed that at least two of the students face felony aggravated assault charges.

RELATED: Video shows brawl after high school walkout protester allegedly hit pro-ICE man — and the man is charged with child abuse

The Courier Times, citing the affidavit, said McElree was treated at a hospital for nonspecific injuries. The paper added that his face was covered in blood as he left the scene; however, in a cellphone video posted to social media he's heard telling an officer that he was "fine."

Since the melee, McElree has been facing increasing backlash, including calls for him to resign. One of the issues is that the chief was not in uniform and allegedly did not identify himself as a police officer, the Courier Times said.

Ashley Orellana, a Quakertown High School senior and friend of one of the arrested students, told WPVI-TV that "everybody was confused because nobody knew it was a policeman. He was in regular clothes. We were just like, 'Why is the man attacking us?'"

Orellana attended a hearing Tuesday to support one of the defendants, the station said, adding that Robert McMillion, who witnessed his younger sister's arrest, also was in attendance.

"The chief, the unmarked man, he just started attacking us first, and something should be happening to him instead of the kids," McMillion told WPVI.

At a borough council meeting Monday night, parents and community members called for McElree to resign or be fired, the station said.

RELATED: Girl says she fought 'old,' 'racist' man with MAGA hat at ICE protest — and excuses fellow teen brawlers

Meanwhile, the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania alleged that McElree violated his commitment to "serve and protect" his community amid the incident, WHYY-TV reported.

"By all accounts, including abundant video evidence, there were no issues at the demonstration until Quakertown police arrived and incited violence," Witold Walczak, legal director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania, told the station in a statement.

Walczak added to WHYY that "the police should have been there to facilitate the demonstration, ensuring that the students could safely exercise their rights to assemble and speak out freely as guaranteed by our Constitution. They failed. In abandoning his job and his mission on Friday afternoon, Chief McElree effectively was acting as a counter-protester, albeit one with the ability to arrest people. Quakertown deserves better."

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President Trump’s State of the Union address has been championed by conservatives everywhere, but BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey took issue with one part of his address: his promotion of IVF.

During the address, Trump lauded his new pharmaceutical website, Trump RX, by introducing Catherine Rayner, “the very first customer ever” to get a discount on IVF drugs.

“For five years, she and her husband have struggled with infertility, and they turned to IVF. One drug has been costing Catherine $4,000 to purchase. But a few weeks ago, she logged onto the Trump RX website and got that same drug that cost $4,000, got it for under $500,” Trump said proudly.

“Catherine, we are all praying for you, and you’re going to be a great mom,” he added.

“I think that Trump’s heart is in the right place here. He probably has not grappled with the ethics of IVF. The vast majority of people, Christians and non-Christians, have not grappled with the ethics of IVF. And so he’s thinking, more babies the better,” Stuckey comments.

While Stuckey admits that infertility is a real struggle, she doesn’t believe that IVF is an ethical solution.

“The problem with in vitro fertilization is that it’s not good for the woman’s body, and it almost always creates embryos that are eugenically tested in a lab and then discarded, or they’re indefinitely frozen. We have over a million embryos on ice right now that have been abandoned that might be adopted one day by strangers and that’s a more redemptive option,” she explains.

But that won’t save all the embryos that will just be thrown in the trash — especially those that might be flagged for potential abnormalities.

“And as you guys know, it’s possible when you go through IVF to choose the gender that you want to give birth to, it’s possible to get them tested for abnormalities like Down syndrome, discard the ones that are not graded highly enough,” Stuckey says.

“The only way to be able to procreate without any ethical quandaries whatsoever is within the context of marriage between one man and one woman through sex. Adoption is a beautifully redemptive option. But surrogacy, egg-selling, sperm-selling, IVF, which basically asks the child to sacrifice its own well-being, its own health, in some cases its own life on behalf of adult desires. That is disordered,” she continues.

“And so, that was the one part of the speech that I can think of that I really did not agree with,” she says.

“And in fact, if Congress is trying to pass a law that would have us fund IVF, I will be calling my representatives, my senators, and I will be encouraging you to do the same because I don’t want to fund more slaughter of babies.”

“More embryos, unborn lives are killed through the IVF industry than through the abortion industry every year. That really matters,” she adds.

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A Christian teacher said he sought a religious exemption when he was ordered to read an LGBTQ book to his first-graders, and he was threatened with termination instead.

Eric Rivera told WZTV-TV that the book conflicted with his religious beliefs because it depicted a girl being raised by two fathers.

'I believe that that is not what God designed a marriage to be and a family to be.'

Rivera said that initially the KIPP Antioch College Prep Elementary School where he taught offered to allow him a co-teacher to read the book to the children and then called him into the principal's office.

That's where he was allegedly given a "final warning" to teach the book or lose his job.

"I refused to read a book that had two fathers on the cover and one daughter," he explained. "I believe that that is not what God designed a marriage to be and a family to be."

The book is titled, "Stella Brings the Family," by Miriam B. Schiffer.

He claims that he had no prior disciplinary history before the LGBTQ incident. He was reassigned to teach technology before he was moved yet again to teach kindergarten.

"I still have the fear in me that I could lose my job for anything that I do based on my religious beliefs," Rivera added.

The teacher is now represented by the First Liberty Institute, which sent a demand letter to the school asking for an accommodation based on Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. It was sent Feb. 17 and gave the school 10 days to respond.

The institute also expressed concerns that parents may not have been properly informed about the LGBTQ lesson, but WZTV said that accusation was not yet independently verified.

The teacher wants to return to teaching first grade but refuses to teach the lesson.

"I just want the whole curriculum to be shown to the parents in a way where they can actually understand," Rivera said.

RELATED: Florida Christians win $70K over anonymous complaint against tiny cross displayed in their yard

The charter school falls under the jurisdiction of the Tennessee Charter School Commission, which released a statement to WZTV.

"All public charter schools must follow the same Tennessee academic standards as traditional public schools, and while they do have flexibility selecting curriculum and materials, they must still be aligned with those same state standards," the commission said in its statement.

"All schools are required to comply with the prohibited concepts law and must provide a form on their website for reporting violations," it added. "The Commission provides a form for submitting complaints related to the prohibited concepts law as well as any other violations of charter school law on our website. Teachers and staff at charter schools are employees of the school or charter operator and as such all personnel matters are handled by the school."

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A Manhattanite's comment about a homeless woman reportedly urinating on a public train led to a massive debate about whether public urination is a charming example of city life and culture.

The person, identified only as Daniela, said her husband had been "traumatized" by the public urination, to which many responded by accusing them of being bigoted and fascist.

The two of them were immediately ridiculed for not appreciating the deep cultural value of public urination.

"My husband was on a crowded train yesterday when a homeless woman got on, pulled down her pants, and peed all over the train in front of everyone," Daniela wrote.

"He hasn't stopped talking about it for the past 24+ hrs. It is the single most traumatizing thing that's happened to him in nyc," she added.

The two of them were immediately ridiculed for not appreciating the deep cultural value of public urination by the homeless.

"You live one of the most coddled lives in the history of the human race and all you do with your world-historic luck and comfort is snivel and whine and waste oxygen," responded a user identifying as an Antifa member.

Another responded, "Wow your husband must lead an extremely boring life."

"If seeing someone experiencing mental distress is the most traumatizing thing that's ever happened to him, has your husband considered to stop being a weak little bitch?" another critic replied.

Others, however, saw it as an example of lawlessness that erodes residents' quality of life.

"This is a great example of [something] that doesn't show up in crime statistics but INFINITELY degrades quality of live and gives a sense of lawlessness to the city," one response reads.

Another debate thread led to the conclusion that the man's trauma showed why the nuclear family must be destroyed.

"I've been on the subway with homeless people that peed, screamed, all sorts of stuff. it was mildly uncomfortable but truly didn't impact my day in any way. maybe your husband needs to toughen up," replied a user identifying as Antifa, anti-Zionist, and democratic socialist.

"Agree that this probably isn't the single most traumatizing thing someone could see in a city but it's still not normal or OK and the left shouldn't act like it is. we all deserve to live in functioning cities where public displays of anti social behavior are not tolerated," one user responded.

"Having a baby really changed my mind about this stuff (unwell people experiencing episodes on public transit). I went from 'whatever, look the other way' when I was just a sturdy adult man on my own, to being like 'f**k f**k this guy is gonna kill my baby strapped to my chest,'" another user replied.

"'Having a baby made me fascist' is a real phenomenon. That's why we must abolish the nuclear family," a bizarre response reads. "Homeless ppl have children too, homeless ppl are sometimes children. And instead of thinking of them as human, you’re falling into racist and classist anxieties."

RELATED: City councilman gets into physical altercation with gay bar manager after urinating on door in downtown Los Angeles

Others made almost no sense at all.

"Right, the only way a person squatting down & pissing on the floor of a subway train would catch your attention would be if you're staring at people," reads one response to the original post. "Are you deliberately trying to be an asshole? Should a woman also 'stop staring' if a guy on the subway waves his d**k at her?"

The original tweet garnered more than 5.8 million views.

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Johnny Knoxville is not a regular human being, and his latest interview has cemented that fact.

The "Jackass" series and movie star sat down with Rolling Stone, marking 25 years since his famous cover shoot with the outlet.

'The whole world was closing in, and ... I have a lot of sympathy for myself then.'

As a fifth "Jackass" movie is in the making, the new "Fear Factor: House of Fear" host discussed his greatest stunts, production hurdles, and even brain injury fallout. However, what is grabbing attention online is Knoxville's brief emotional breakdown during the interview.

No bull

After discussing what it feels like to have an eyeball come out of its socket — with Knoxville describing his vision at the time as "fuzzy" TV lines — host Alex Morris asks the stuntman if there was one stunt he thought he would never get to do again.

At 54 years old and 16 concussions deep, the Tennessee native got choked up before answering.

"I don't want to get emotional. I can't. God damn. I hate when this happens," Knoxville begins, fighting back tears.

"No, this is good. I was gonna ask when the last time you cried was," the reporter says, trying to comfort her guest.

Then Knoxville reveals the source of his pain:

"I can't mess around with bulls anymore."

Confused, Morris follows up, "And that — you're, and that makes you emotional?"

"Yeah. It's terrible," he replies, before getting deeper into the emotional reality of a stuntman.

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'Steer'ing his thoughts

The host asks Knoxville why that makes him cry; was it the thought of his art form being limited by injury or the memory of catastrophic brain damage?

"No, I just want to play with them," the actor reveals. "And I'm trying not to — trying not to indulge in those thoughts."

Although the bull-induced injury was not the source of his emotional pain, Knoxville takes time to go into detail about the five- to six-month period during which he suffered from "catastrophic thinking" and "ruminating" thoughts.

"The whole world was closing in, and ... I have a lot of sympathy for myself then, because your brain's feeding you such terrible information. And people outside were telling me like, 'Your brain's playing tricks on you.' I'm like, no, no, it's happening. [But] nothing's happening."

The same brain that comes up with stunts like being shot with riot control munitions and balancing a teeter-totter around a charging bull apparently turned its back on Knoxville. He describes his recovery time as his "creative brain turned against me" while his mind "just fell off a cliff."

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Photo by FOX via Getty Images

Please, Clapp

Other parts of the discussion briefly touched on former Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.) attacking the "Jackass" brand in 2001, as well as Knoxville's upbringing in a Southern Baptist Church in the 1970s.

Real name Philip John Clapp, born 1971 in Knoxville, Tennessee, the action star said that the fire-and-brimstone talk was too much for him to handle at a young age.

"You know, you're 7, 8, just having to go and sit there and be quiet and listening about burning in hell. And I'm like, 'Wow.'"

"It was a lot," he adds. "I think that's why, maybe one of the reasons I hate being told what to do so much."

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In a nearly three-hour interview released on February 20, Tucker Carlson pressed U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee on several topics, including biblical claims to land “from the Nile to the Euphrates," Gaza civilian casualties, U.S. aid to Israel, and Christian Zionism, resulting in heated exchanges. The interview highlighted a divide within conservative America over U.S. foreign policy priorities, particularly the balance between "America First" principles and strong support for Israel.

On a recent episode of the “Steve Deace Show,” host Steve Deace spoke with Huckabee about his recent interview with Carlson.

“Overall, how did you feel it went?” Deace inquires.

“Our interaction in the interview was just fine. I didn't understand a lot of the things that he was going with in terms of the questions, and it was very frustrating because normally when he has someone on his show, he gives them about 65% of the time and he takes about 35%. … But with both Ted Cruz and me, he interrupted constantly; he went off on tangents,” says Huckabee.

Deace then turned to the section of the interview that drew the most attention. Carlson referred to a Bible verse in Genesis 15 promising Abraham's descendants land "from the Euphrates to the Nile," an area encompassing much of the modern Middle East, and asked Huckabee whether this verse implies Israel has a divine right to that entire territory today.

In response, Deace said that Huckabee said that it would "be fine" but immediately added that Israel has no such endeavor.

“[Tucker’s] side of the argument absolutely seized on this. … Some of these nations, I think, have even released statements in response,” says Deace, offering Huckabee a chance to “clarify” and “react.”

“He was badgering me, trying to get me to say that Israel was going to try to do a conquest from the Euphrates to the Nile … and finally I said, tongue in cheek, ‘Yeah, they can have the whole thing,”’ says Huckabee. “Now then immediately what I said was ‘Tucker, Israel is only wanting to keep the land of Canaan, the land that they have.”’

He went on to emphasize that Israel has no plans to expand beyond its current borders into Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, or even Gaza.

“Tucker clipped from that one statement, and then he marketed that all over the Arab world, where he apparently has some very strong contacts. Well, they got all spun up and did a blanket condemnation of what I had said,” Huckabee explains.

“If you missed the last part of my answer, of course it kind of looks like that I said, ‘Yeah, just let 'em have the whole part’ — flippantly acting as if, ‘Yeah, that's fine with me.’ If you took it in its context, listened to the whole answer, you come away with a completely different view.”

To hear more of Deace and Huckabee’s conversation, check out the full interview above.

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The grandson of the man who created Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups said Tuesday that the Hershey Company has not contacted him following his public criticism of the brand. He also accused company leadership of arrogance toward the Reese family.

On Feb. 14, Brad Reese, the grandson of H.B. Reese, who created Reese’s in 1928, wrote an open letter expressing concern about alleged ingredient changes associated with the Reese’s brand.

“How does The Hershey Company continue to position REESE’S as its flagship brand, a symbol of trust, quality and leadership, while quietly replacing the very ingredients (Milk Chocolate + Peanut Butter) that built REESE’S trust in the first place?” Reese wrote.

During an appearance on “The Glenn Beck Program,” host Glenn Beck referred to the dispute as the “chocolate wars” before pressing Reese on whether the company had responded to his concerns about changes with Reese’s.

‘I mean, talk about a conflict of interest.’

“Nothing. Zero,” Reese said.

“They are so arrogant and condescending to anybody, especially in the Reese family, I find, unless they want something from you,” Reese said.

Hershey said in a statement: “As we’ve grown and expanded the Reese’s product line, we make product recipe adjustments that allow us to make new shapes, sizes, and innovations that Reese’s fans have come to love and ask for, while always protecting the essence of what makes Reese’s unique and special: the perfect combination of chocolate and peanut butter.”

Reese told Beck that tensions with company leadership date back years. He said he “kind of burned ... bridges” after helping stop the proposed sale of Hershey in 2002.

“You have to understand, the Reese family has been creating the wealth there,” Reese said, arguing that the family has long played a role in building the company’s value.

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Photo by Rick Loomis/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

He also discussed what he described as internal conflicts involving the Hershey Trust and past corporate leadership. Reese referenced a cousin who previously served as general counsel for Hershey and later became president of the Hershey Trust Company, which controls the Hershey Company. According to Reese, his cousin worked to “clean up” issues within the trust and the company.

Reese then turned to what he described as a missed “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” when Hershey pursued a $19 billion acquisition of Cadbury Schweppes. He said the deal was “locked up” before it ultimately fell through and Kraft acquired Cadbury instead.

Reese alleged there were conflicts of interest involving former executives and advisers tied to competing bids during that process.

“I mean, talk about a conflict of interest,” Reese said.

He also questioned whether corporate decisions driven by profitability are sustainable “long-term.”

“Wall Street loves when you increase your margins at whatever cost to the public,” Reese said. “It’s long-term, is what I’m getting at. Is this going to not work out long-term?”

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Photo by Rick Loomis/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

Reese framed his concerns as rooted in protecting what he views as his grandfather’s original legacy and questioned whether current corporate decisions serve the long-term interests of the brand.

Hershey did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.

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The House Oversight Committee's first closed-door hearing with the Clintons concerning their ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein encountered a brief snag moments into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's deposition.

Members of the committee traveled to Chappaqua, New York, this week to depose Hillary Clinton and former President Bill Clinton, after months of back-and-forth negotiations and a vote finding the two in contempt of Congress.

'Hillary is trying to get out of answering questions about Epstein because of a picture. Does this sound desperate to you?'

Hillary Clinton was scheduled to testify under oath on Thursday and Bill Clinton on Friday.

After initially defying congressional subpoenas and then pressing the committee to hold public hearings, Hillary Clinton's team abruptly halted Thursday's closed-door deposition when a photograph of her from the session was leaked on social media.

The picture of Clinton was shared by political commentator Benny Johnson, who stated that it was provided to him by Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.).

"This is the first time Hillary has had to answer real questions about Epstein. Clinton does not look happy," Johnson wrote.

RELATED: Bill and Hillary Clinton to testify under oath about Jeffrey Epstein this week

Photo by Melina Mara - Pool/Getty Images

A short time later, Nick Merrill, a Clinton adviser, exited the deposition hearing to address the media. He explained that the session had been temporarily paused after a photograph was posted to social media, which he described as being "against chamber rules that were read at the top of the meeting."

Johnson responded to Merrill's announcement by highlighting the inconsistency: Clinton had advocated for a public hearing, yet her team was displeased with the release of a photograph.

"The deposition is being filmed and will be released in full. Hillary wanted it to be done LIVE on TV. Rep. Boebert gave me permission to post a photo she took before the hearing started with credit," Johnson wrote in a post on X. "Hillary is trying to get out of answering questions about Epstein because of a picture. Does this sound desperate to you?"

Boebert replied to Johnson's comments, defending him for posting the photo of Clinton.

"Benny did nothing wrong," she wrote, adding that the deposition had proceeded after the temporary pause.

Ahead of Thursday's deposition, Clinton posted her opening statement on social media. She insisted that she has no information regarding Epstein's criminal activities or those of co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell.

"As I stated in my sworn declaration on January 13, I had no idea about their criminal activities. I do not recall ever encountering Mr. Epstein. I never flew on his plane or visited his island, homes or offices," Clinton wrote.

RELATED: Former Clinton official to quit Harvard University position amid backlash for Epstein ties

Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images

She accused House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) of refusing to hold any public hearings regarding Epstein.

"You have held zero public hearings, refused to allow the media to attend them, including today, despite espousing the need for transparency on dozens of occasions," she stated.

Comer has not ruled out holding public hearings, but has insisted that initial depositions will be behind closed doors.

Maxwell previously stated that she had gone to the Clintons' Chappaqua home "a few times." Maxwell also attended the wedding of the Clintons' daughter in 2010.

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An adviser at the U.S. State Department posted photographs from a visit from right-wing U.K. activist Tommy Robinson on Wednesday and outraged many politicians across the pond.

Joe Rittenhouse, a senior adviser at the Consular Affairs bureau of the State Department, posted the images and called Robinson a "free speech warrior."

'We need to engage this administration on the difference between that and incitement to violence and racial hatred.'

British politicians immediately lambasted the visit as an affront to U.S-U.K. relations. Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, has a history of criminal convictions related to his activism against mass immigration and Islam.

"The World and the West is a better place when we fight for freedom of speech and no one has been on the front lines more than Tommy," Rittenhouse added. "Good to see you my friend!"

Robinson posted a video of himself interviewing Republican Rep. Randy Fine of Florida and made the rounds to speak to many media outlets on the right.

Meanwhile, back in Britain, the politicians fumed.

"Yaxley-Lennon is being touted around Washington as a ‘free speech warrior.’ We need to engage this administration on the difference between that and incitement to violence and racial hatred," said Labour MP Emily Thornberry, chair of the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee. "There should be no place in any democracy for the latter."

Labour MP Alex Ballinger said in a statement to Politico he was "disappointed" that the State Department had hosted a "convicted criminal" and "far-right agitator."

"Having worked alongside U.S. diplomats for many years, I suspect many of them will be embarrassed about it too," he said.

Labour MP Phil Brickell called the meeting a "complete outrage" and accused Robinson of peddling "racist tropes" in the past.

"The guy holds no elected role," Brickell added and questioned what basis the U.S. government had to recognize him.

A spokesperson for the State Department told Politico that Robinson visited "in an unofficial capacity on a tour."

"The government needs to send a clear signal to the U.S. president that this is unacceptable," said former Foreign Office Minister Catherine West, who went on to call the meeting "incredibly alarming."

She added, "For the U.K.’s key ally to do so is frankly disgraceful."

On the other hand, a spokesperson for the U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer downplayed the visit.

The spokesperson said Robinson was "not a representative of the U.K." and added that the meeting was "a matter for the U.S. administration" and "not for me to speak to."

RELATED: Tommy Robinson has the last laugh after politically motivated terrorism arrest

Robinson went on to mock the negative coverage of his visit by some in the media.

"I posted a photo at the US State Department earlier, the legacy media have been falling over each other to condemn my visit, devastated that their decades of slandering is now transparent," he wrote. "Their power is gone."

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President Donald Trump announced in May that he was nominating Dr. Casey Means to become surgeon general.

Trump said that Means, a tech entrepreneur and Stanford-educated doctor who has long criticized the exploitative nature of the health care system, has "impeccable 'MAHA' credentials" and would help Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. "reverse the Chronic Disease Epidemic, and ensure Great Health, in the future, for ALL Americans."

It became painfully clear over the course of Means' nomination hearing on Wednesday that some lawmakers are anxious about her MAHA views on vaccines and other profitable pharmaceuticals.

'Devil's in the details.'

Chairman Bill Cassidy (R-La.) — whom Open Secrets indicated has raised over $1.3 million from the health professional industry and $712,000 from the pharmaceutical/health product industry in campaign contributions since 2019 — noted that "some [parents] have been scared to vaccinate their children because they've been told incorrectly that vaccines cause autism."

Cassidy asked Means whether she believes "vaccines, whether individually or collectively, contribute to autism."

Means, who told lawmakers that she thinks vaccines "save lives," responded, "The reality is that we have an autism crisis that's increasing, and this is devastating to many families, and we do not know as a medical community what causes autism."

Means noted that the Trump administration is investigating the matter and suggested that "until we have a clear understanding of why kids are developing this at higher rates, I think we should not leave any stones unturned."

Cassidy rushed to suggest "there's been a lot of evidence showing they're not implicated."

While Means accepted such alleged evidence exists, she emphasized that "science is never settled."

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) — who ranks in Open Secrets' "Top 20 Member Recipients of Money from Pharmaceuticals / Health Products, 1990-2024" — similarly pressed the issue, trying unsuccessfully to get Means to refute Kennedy's July 2023 assertion "that autism comes from vaccines."

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Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Image

In her questioning, Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.) focused on one vaccine in particular: the hepatitis B shot, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention under previous administrations recommended for all American children but as of this year recommends only on an individual basis.

Means has suggested in years past that "hepatitis B vaccine at birth is a crime."

When Blunt Rochester generalized her concern and asked whether Means thought it was "unethical and dangerous" to hypothetically withhold life-saving vaccines from children, Means noted, "I don't believe that Dr. Jay Bhattacharya or the HHS would be interested in withholding" them and stressed that the "devil's in the details."

Democratic Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), who has received over $600,000 from the health professional industry since 2019, grilled Means over her past criticism of hormonal birth control and its overuse — which has been linked to increased risk of breast and cervical cancers and other medical issues.

After Murray concern-mongered over Means' suggestions that hormonal birth control is consumed "like candy" and poses "horrifying health risks" to women, Means said, "I'm curious if you're aware of what the side effects of hormonal contraception are."

Means suggested further that while such medication should be "accessible to all women," women should be having thorough conversations with their doctors to ascertain "whether they are higher risk for side effects when prescribed the medication."

Kennedy noted at the time of Means' nomination that she "will help me ensure American children will be less medicated and better fed — and significantly healthier — during the next four years. She will be the best Surgeon General in American history."

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Texas Republicans are escalating their efforts to take on illegal immigration, and Rep. Brandon Gill is leading the charge. While BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales is thrilled with his efforts, she’s well aware that her state is not even close to being out of the woods.

“Texas is kind of under siege right now,” Gonzales says to Gill.

“It is, and at this point, I believe we have 42 members of Congress in the Sharia-Free America Caucus. So it’s growing rapidly. We’re adding new members every single day,” Gill explains.

“This is a big issue. It’s not going away any time soon. And it’s our job as elected representatives to address it — and address it in a candid and straightforward way, which is to say that there are cultural incompatibilities here that we need to be aware of,” he tells Gonzales.

"I think our immigration system needs to reflect these, and I think we need to be determining who comes into our country. And we need to protect our culture,” he continues, pointing out that immigration is also one of the issues that touches everything else.

“It touches the quality of schools, the quality of health care, the cost of living, the cost of housing. I mean everything,” he adds.

Gill was also recently behind the Somalia Immigration Moratorium Act, which imposes a 25-year moratorium on immigration from Somalia into the United States.

And while much of the left is outraged by Gill’s moratorium, one member of Congress may have a little more disdain for him than the rest.

“Does Ilhan Omar give you the stink eye whenever she sees you?” Gonzales asks.

“Usually it’s much worse than that. I was giving a speech on the House floor about this bill in particular. And she was in the audience, and she was screaming. I could barely hear what she was saying, but she was … calling me names and all kinds of stuff,” he tells Gonzales.

“So she’s not a big fan of me, I will say,” he adds.

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Two Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers are being lauded as heroes after they saved the life of a 4-year-old boy who almost drowned in a Minnesota hotel pool.

The officers were off duty and eating their lunch on Friday when a panicked mother asked them to save her son, according to a statement from the Department of Homeland Security.

'If our agents had not been there and stepped up, this would have been a tragic outcome.'

The two immediately provided CPR to the boy before Plymouth Police officers arrived and took over the emergency revival of the boy. After 10 minutes of additional CPR, the boy began breathing on his own. He was reported to be awake and alert after being transported to a local medical center.

The DHS included a letter from police that said the ICE officers had likely saved the child's life by attending to him immediately.

"In a situation like this, the first few minutes of emergency aid and quality CPR are critical. Without the quick response and professional actions [of the ICE officers], the outcome of this event would have likely been tragic," read the statement from the police.

They said that one of the ICE officers "tried to downplay" their heroic actions.

"On behalf of the Plymouth Police Department, I want to extend our thanks and gratitude for the efforts [of the officers] in saving the life of a 4-year-old boy," the department continued. "Much more than being in the right place at the right time, the ability to work effectively and efficiently in a chaotic and emotional scene is admirable. Truly excellent work."

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Police said the boy went into the pool to retrieve a toy and was under water for about five minutes before he was rescued.

"I want to take a moment to commend the heroism and swift action taken by these agents to save the life of a sweet, innocent child," read a statement from Deputy Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis. "If our agents had not been there and stepped up, this would have been a tragic outcome."

Plymouth is a suburb of Minneapolis, Minnesota.

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A recent Fortune magazine article made waves with a grim admission: After more than $30 billion spent flooding classrooms with laptops and tablets, standardized scores keep sliding. Worse, neuroscientists now link more classroom screen time to lower performance. The device meant to modernize learning may be helping to unmake it.

Schools rushed into a technological revolution without asking the most basic question: What does this do to a child’s mind? Many teachers saw the answer firsthand and in real time. Administrators and “experts” ignored them because the fad sounded like “progress.”

A concerted push to remove screens from classrooms needs to begin now. Put the devices where they belong: limited tools, not the center of learning.

I taught history and civics in Florida public schools as the laptop trend took hold. Computers had sat in classrooms since my own childhood, but they played a supporting role. A few desktops in the back helped with research. A computer lab handled bigger projects. Most learning still happened on paper with books, notes, and conversation.

Then the Chromebook arrived: cheap, durable, limited, and perfect for one thing — living inside a web browser. Suddenly a district could put a machine not just in every room but in the hands of every student.

Buzzwords beat judgment

Public-school administrators love buzzwords. “Technological literacy” sounds noble, as if every ninth grader is training for Silicon Valley while working on their grammar assignment. Google did not just sell discounted laptops. It supplied a full ecosystem: Docs, Sheets, Slides, Classroom. The whole apparatus of schooling migrated into Alphabet’s software suite. Few people in the system asked why a private company wanted to become the operating system of childhood.

The laptop push also fit the religion of metrics. District offices love anything that produces dashboards, timestamps, and “engagement” graphs. A worksheet completed on paper frustrates the spreadsheet priesthood. A worksheet completed on a Chromebook generates data. The device did not just enter the classroom; it entered the managerial imagination, where metrics matter more than minds.

Once laptops became ubiquitous, the problems announced themselves. The deeper the integration, the harder it became to control.

Cheating became routine. Students searched answers in seconds. The larger problem went beyond quizzes. Googling replaced thinking. Kids refused to read because they assumed a quick search and a copy-paste counted as “learning.” Wikipedia became the default authority. Students stopped vetting anything because they treated the first search result as truth. Even writing shifted. Instead of building an argument, students stitched together paragraphs from the internet and hoped the teacher felt too tired to fight.

RELATED: The world changed, and now we homeschool

Cemile Bingol via iStock/Getty Images

The distraction machine

Schools tried parental controls. Teenagers treated those controls as a challenge. When thousands of bored adolescents share a building, they collaborate. A new filter went up; within days, kids found a workaround. Soon the screens again showed games, movies, even pornography — during class, in plain view, behind a pretense of “work.”

Students used shared Google docs as a covert messaging system. They gossiped, bullied, and planned actual crimes while keeping a document open to look studious. My school eventually held assemblies to remind students that everything typed into a document leaves a record and that bragging about criminal activity or sexual escapades can end up as evidence.

All of that raised another issue: privacy and capture. Google did not subsidize devices and software out of corporate charity. By making Google search and Google apps the center of a child’s information life, the system trained dependency. Google finds the truth. Google organizes the truth. Google presents the truth. A student’s education happens inside a Google ghetto. Pretend the company is not collecting that data if you want, but the incentives cut the other way.

Screens also fed the attention crisis. Administrators told teachers to stop showing videos longer than three minutes without pausing to explain because students could not stay focused. The device that was supposed to expand horizons kept shrinking attention spans. Teachers began competing with the entire internet for a child’s attention, and no lesson plan can win that contest for long.

Locked into the system

The system made escape difficult. Florida went all-in on Chromebooks and tied them to everything. Standardized tests moved entirely onto laptops. “Test prep” software got woven into daily coursework. Students with accommodations or limited English got pushed toward the device as a universal crutch. Denying a Chromebook got treated as denying an education. Teachers who resisted risked discipline.

I reached a point where my students mattered more than compliance. I rebuilt my classroom around paper, books, and discussion. Students used Chromebooks only for mandated testing and accommodations we could not meet otherwise.

The shift showed results fast. Students engaged more. Distraction dropped. Discipline improved. More assignments got finished. Grades rose.

Then COVID-19 struck.

RELATED: America’s new lost generation is looking for home — and finding the wrong ones

Wavebreakmedia via iStock/Getty Images

Remote learning turned the screen into the classroom itself. Even Florida, which resisted lockdown hysteria, shifted much of schooling online. Learning fell off a cliff. The lockdowns devastated achievement, but the damage did not end when students returned in person. After COVID, it became nearly impossible to pry students, parents, and administrators away from screen-based schooling. Digital integration became mandatory. No exceptions.

Now the corporate press arrives to play cleanup. Reporters discover the failure well after the money has been spent, the infrastructure has hardened, and a generation has been trained to treat a browser as a brain.

A way back

Public education is stuffed with managerial drones who chase consensus and trends while ignoring what helps students. The bureaucracy will keep this program alive through sheer inertia even as evidence piles up. Parents and lawmakers need to force a reset: paper-based instruction as the default, screens as a tightly limited accommodation, and tests that reward reading and writing instead of clicking. Districts should stop outsourcing childhood to Big Tech, stop laundering ideology through “digital citizenship,” and start treating attention as a scarce resource worth defending.

A concerted push to remove screens from classrooms needs to begin now. Start with elementary grades. Bring back books. Bring back handwriting. Bring back sustained attention. Put the devices where they belong: limited tools, not the center of learning.

Kids learn slower, but they learn for real.

Outrage has erupted as people have learned that a child sex offender has launched a bid to land a seat on a city council in California.

Rene Campos, who recently launched a bid to represent District 7 in Fresno, California, is facing some pushback over a highly concerning conviction not too long ago.

'I was raised in Fresno by a mother who taught me to protect the vulnerable, tell the truth even when it costs you, and never tolerate abuse of power.'

Campos was arrested in 2018 and later pled no contest to a misdemeanor charge of possession of child sex abuse material, according to court records. In October, he pled no contest to failure to register, records indicate.

However, the New York Post reported that he is perfectly eligible to run for office under California law.

RELATED: 'Sadistic' PA man sexually assaulted and cut 13-year-old girl at California motel after grooming her on Discord, feds say

Bill Oxford/Getty Images

This fact has sparked outrage at the prospect of a convicted child sex offender holding a seat of power. Others pointed out other obvious absurdities in the potential arrangement.

Nav Gurm, a small business owner and attorney who is opposing Campos for the District 7 seat, noted: "If someone is a registered sex offender, they can't be on campus at a school site; how are you going to be able to fulfill the duties of the job?"

Campos told ABC 30: "I believe Fresno deserves leaders who are honest from the very beginning, not the end. Going into this, I am putting my life out there."

Campos gave some information on his campaign website about his upbringing and the "values" he brings to the table, including "protecting the vulnerable": "I was raised in Fresno by a mother who taught me to protect the vulnerable, tell the truth even when it costs you, and never tolerate abuse of power. Those values didn't come from politics — they came from life."

While Campos claimed in the interview that he will not be running from his past, a review of his campaign website yielded no direct mention of his criminal past. Instead, there is one brief mention of a "legal situation that has been fully resolved" in the frequently asked questions section of the site.

Campos seemingly first announced his candidacy in late January, according to his Facebook page.

The primary election is scheduled for June 2.

Campos' campaign did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.

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President Donald Trump campaigned on a promise of revitalizing American jobs, and Michigan Democrat Gov. Gretchen Whitmer acknowledged his role in recent economic developments during her 2026 State of the State address.

Whitmer publicly thanked Trump while speaking in the Michigan House of Representatives chamber at the state Capitol in Lansing on Wednesday.

Trump praised Whitmer, saying she had done an 'excellent job' and calling her 'a great person.'

“Michigan is open for business. New factories making batteries, cars, chips are opening in Marshall, Lake Orion, Holland, Bay City, Calumet, Hemlock, Ann Arbor, and Delta Township. A new fighter mission is coming to Selfridge Air National Guard Base in Macomb County,” Whitmer said.

RELATED: 'This is disgraceful': Mamdani raked over the coals for attack on NYPD

Photo by Kenny Holston-Pool/Getty Images

She added, “Probably not on the bingo card, but I want to thank President Trump for his work on this.”

Her remarks were met with applause from the chamber.

The public show of appreciation follows multiple reported meetings between Whitmer and Trump at the White House, where the two have discussed manufacturing investment, tariffs, and the Selfridge Air National Guard Base mission. During one Oval Office appearance, Trump praised Whitmer, saying she had done an “excellent job” and calling her “a great person.”

RELATED: 'Sham businesses': Vance announces the halt of Medicaid funds to Minnesota over alleged fraud

Photo by Mandel NGAN/AFP/Getty Images

One earlier White House visit drew national attention after Whitmer was photographed shielding her face from cameras. Her latest remarks in Lansing, however, marked a visible shift, as she openly credited the president during a high-profile statewide address.

The recent industrial expansion across Michigan, along with the Selfridge announcement, shows strong collaboration between the Democrat governor and the Republican president on key economic priorities.

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