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by Blaze Media Sep 22, 2026

House Democrats get BAD NEWS about their foothold in Missouri

Liberals thinking that they may have won the congressional redistricting battle in Missouri might be headed for a major upset.Missouri lawmakers repealed the Show-Me State's 2022 congressional map last year and passed legislation, HB 1, enacting new congressional boundaries — effectively changing Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver's Kansas City-based district into a Republican-leaning seat.'Only use of the 2025 map complies with the Constitution.'While Democrats melted down over their likely loss of an additional seat in the House, the liberal advocacy group People Not Politicians and its executive director, Richard von Glahn, organized a campaign aimed at forcing the state to hold a referendum on the bill and sued the state to prevent the 2025 map's use in the midterm election.The case was kicked up to the Missouri Supreme Court, which unanimously ruled on Sept. 3 that the map must be approved by voters in a November referendum before being used — despite Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins previously determining that "the Missouri Constitution does not authorize a referendum on congressional redistricting plans passed by the General Assembly."President Donald Trump said in response to the Sept. 3 ruling, "This is a Dark Day for 'Justice' in Missouri!"However, an 8th Circuit Court of Appeals panel comprising three Republican-appointed judges delivered Republicans a win on Monday, ruling that "Missouri’s current plan to use the 2022 map in the November 2026 general election violates the Constitution. Only use of the 2025 map complies with the Constitution and federal law." RELATED: CNN analyst pours cold water on Democrats' dream of a political takeover in November Tribune News Service/Getty ImagesThe appellate court's ruling is in response to a lawsuit filed against the state earlier this month by Rep. Robert Onder (R), Republican congressional candidate Richard Brattin, and a pair of voters. The lawsuit argued that the use of the 2022 map in the November 2026 general election would transform their congressional districts from the August primary election, thereby violating the Elections Clause and the Equal Protection Clause.U.S. District Judge Stephen Clark, a Trump appointee, found that the plaintiffs were likely to succeed on their claims and blocked Missouri from using any congressional map other than the 2025 map advanced by HB 1; however, the U.S. Supreme Court paused Clark's order.To the liberal group's chagrin, the 8th Circuit affirmed the district court on Monday, noting in its majority opinion that "if the 2022 map is used in the November 2026 general election, some Missouri voters will have more say than others on who represents them in Congress."The court noted, for example, that:more than half of the Missourians living in the Fifth Congressional District under the 2025 map used in the August 2026 primary election — 57% — will find themselves in other districts if the 2022 map is used in the November 2026 general election. ... As a result, a majority of residents in the Fifth Congressional District had no voice in who will appear on their November 2026 ballot; they will be forced to choose from nominees selected by a minority of residents in the district as well as voters who are no longer in the district.The court noted further that using the 2025 map would "lead to the least amount of confusion for voters subjected to a string of changes this month."The 8th Circuit has given the U.S. Supreme Court until Monday at 5 p.m. to weigh in. Absent an intervention from the high court, Secretary Hoskins and local election authorities have been directed to begin implementing the 2025 map.Richard von Glahn said in a statement obtained by the New York Times, "Officials should stop wasting taxpayers’ money on pointless legal action and instead focus on administering our elections."Von Glahn noted that he will file an emergency appeal to the Supreme Court.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

by Blaze Media Sep 22, 2026

Is college even fun any more?

The day I left for college was easily the most exciting day of my life.First, I was going to the East Coast. I had been raised in Portland, Oregon, which was a pleasant, normal town to grow up in.I think of my own parents watching me board that airplane in 1979. How excited I was. How bittersweet — and yet satisfying — for them that I was getting this incredible opportunity.But to be back east! Near Boston and New York! To live where it snowed in the winter and the leaves turned colors in the fall.East Coast people were smart and sophisticated. The men wore suits; the women wore high heels. People took trains from city to city, like in the movies.A big music fan, I imagined myself hanging around at CBGB or Newbury Comics in Boston.Everything about the East seemed intellectual, fashionable, advanced and elevated. I couldn’t wait to get there.The Prestige Secondly, the school I was going to was highly rated! It would be full of smart and interesting students from all over the country. Hopefully, I could keep up or at least wouldn’t embarrass myself.But when I arrived — in 1979 — I found I wasn’t as lucky as I thought. My particular college was at the vanguard of pre-woke “political correctness.”The professors were all former 1960s radicals. Feminism was on the rise. Activist students were constantly “outraged” by the most insignificant things. Anything non-PC was “abhorrent” or “egregious.”Classic American collegeFortunately, there were some normal kids there too. I joined a popular campus band my freshman year and traveled to less-annoying colleges to play dances and parties.Just being that age and being part of that East Coast collegiate culture was incredibly fun: exploring this older, more historic part of the country. Meeting all kinds of people. Making all kinds of friends.As people were fond of saying: “College is the best four years of your life.” Which at the time seemed undeniable.The anxiety of higher learningBecause of this, at the end of every summer, I watch various friends and acquaintances prepare to send their kids to college.But I can tell by their faces and the way they talk that this is not the experience it once was. The parents are worried. The kids seem hesitant. Everyone is thinking about rising costs, scholarships, loans, and career considerations.Going to college is not the freeing and exhilarating experience it once was. Now it is a business decision. A risk vs. reward scenario.Strong and wrongBesides being insanely expensive, most universities have become strongholds of leftism, feminism, and DEI sensibilities. Censorship is rampant. Woke-ism is brutally enforced.Now, the main goal of college life is to avoid “harm,” prevent “trauma,” and create “safe environments.”College is no longer a chance to spread your wings. It’s not about intellectual exploration and personal growth. For most people, it is a pathway to a career.For men, that means studying engineering, computer science, and math. So they can build things.For women, it means gender studies, sociology, and whatever ideological subjects are trending at the moment. So they can manage people.98 DegreesCollege is now a slog. Something to get through. “A degree” is the main objective. A bigger paycheck is the ultimate goal.If you’re a white male, your college will likely find you guilty of something. You will be forced to acknowledge that guilt and show repentance.You will also be expected to step aside to let disadvantaged groups go ahead of you, to make up for your sins of the past.If you don’t step aside, you will be run over. Or reported. Or #metooed.RELATED: The cure for liking socialism? Visiting a socialist country L-R: The author in East Berlin, 1984; Cuba, 2007. Blake Nelson; Matt Cardy/Getty ImagesDemography is destinyRapid demographic change is also reshaping higher education. College is no longer a gathering of young people who share a similar culture and background.Now, every culture in the world is at your school. And often in the same or greater numbers than you are.At the same time, your own traditions are devalued. Core Western civilization courses are now considered problematic.As a consequence, many people advise high school graduates to reconsider a liberal arts education altogether. They urge young men to go to trade schools or other specialized forms of practical education.Thank you, Mom and Dad!I don’t know what I would do if I had a child just graduating from high school.I think of my own parents watching me board that airplane in 1979. How excited I was. How bittersweet — and yet satisfying — for them that I was getting this incredible opportunity.Now what does that scene look like? Anxious parents. Stressed-out kids. More pressure. Less adventure. All of it heartbreaking.

by Blaze Media Sep 22, 2026

Breast cancer too elitist? Muslim Democrat El-Sayed claims the disease affects those with 'social power and privilege'

Cancer research is usually an issue everyone can agree on, but Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed begs to differ.In a resurfaced 2012 essay written by El-Sayed, he questioned the level of federal funding dedicated to breast cancer research and criticized what he called the “pink-ribbon lobby.”BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales is shocked that the Democrat levied an attack at those trying to research the devastating, and sometimes fatal, disease.“Cancer sucks,” Gonzales says. “That should be a thing that we can all agree on and all move on with. But unfortunately, there is a Democrat who took the hardline stance that trying to stop people from dying from breast cancer is too elitist for him. He doesn’t support it.”“He railed against ‘disturbing’ funding for breast cancer research because the disease affects people with quote ‘social power and privilege.’ You couldn’t make this up if you tried,” she explains.“He denounced the pink-ribbon lobby in an essay published during breast cancer awareness month,” she continues, adding, “So he really, really hates trying to solve and eliminate breast cancer.”El-Sayed complained that cancer diverts “federal funding away from studying other serious diseases.”“This so-called ‘pink-ribbon lobby,’ he says, has convinced everyone that they’re going to die from breast cancer,” Gonzales explains.“Not everyone is going to die,” she continues. “I don’t think they ever said anything like that. But it’s a problem in this country. Can we just agree to that, Abdul? Can we just agree that no one should die from breast cancer? Can we agree that we want less deaths from cancer?”As for El-Sayed’s absurd claim that the disease affects those with “social power and privilege,” Gonzales likens it to the lockdown measures taken during the COVID pandemic.“This is like COVID when it could attack you when you were standing up but not when you were sitting down at a restaurant. I guess breast cancer is the same way,” she says, adding, “It only seeks out people with power and privilege.”Want more from Sara Gonzales?To enjoy more of Sara's no-holds-barred takes on news and culture, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

by Blaze Media Sep 22, 2026

Terror threat strikes Missouri archdiocese ahead of pre-sainthood Mass for Fulton Sheen

Tens of thousands of Catholics are set to attend the Mass of beatification — the last step before sainthood — for the late Archbishop Fulton Sheen in St. Louis on Thursday.Roughly a week ahead of the celebration, over which Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle will preside, the Archdiocese of St. Louis was issued a terrorist threat.'We pray for an end to the hatred.'According to St. Louis County prosecutor Melissa Price Smith's office, 32-year-old Jeremiah Robinson of St. Genevieve allegedly stated in a TikTok video on Sept. 15 that he was two minutes away from the archdiocese's offices and that "God had instructed him to use no discernment and that 'everyone who walks into that church is guilty and to kill them.'"Robinson allegedly posted a second video to social media once in the parking lot of the archdiocese offices in St. Louis and turned the camera to show the buildings, evidencing that he was indeed close.Robinson claimed in the second video that he was instructed "to leave no one breathing," Smith's office alleged.The Archdiocese of St. Louis did not immediately respond to Blaze News' request for comment.The FBI National Operation Center brought the videos to the attention of the Shrewsbury, Missouri, Police Department, and the archdiocese offices were promptly evacuated.RELATED: How a new Texas parish reminds us that the age of Christian martyrs is not over PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP/Getty ImagesAfter a sweep of the building involving bomb dogs, police determined that the site was safe.Robinson was slapped on Sept. 16 with a first-degree felony charge of making a terrorist threat and booked into the St. Louis County Justice Center on a $100,000 cash-only bond.Brecht Mulvihill, the archdiocese's executive director of communications, said in a statement obtained by EWTN News, "First, we wish to extend our gratitude to the law enforcement officers who responded immediately to this incident, especially to the Shrewsbury Police Department.""The safety and well-being of the men and women who serve the Church are of the utmost importance, and we pray for an end to the hatred and threats of violence that have become so regrettably prevalent on social media," added Mulvihill.Catholic churches across the country have been repeatedly targeted for arson, vandalism, and violent attacks in recent years.For instance, a trans-identifying gunman shot up a Catholic church full of children in Minneapolis on Aug. 27, 2025, injuring 17 and killing two children, ages 8 and 10.In May, a 40-year-old man claiming to be the "chosen one" allegedly shot up Genevieve’s Catholic Church in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Fortunately, no one was injured in the drive-by shooting.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

by Blaze Media Sep 22, 2026

‘TOYS’ STORY: Overgrown ‘kids’ fuel iconic retailer's massive comeback

“I don't wanna grow up / I'm a Toys ‘R’ Us kid.”America's most famous toy retailer taught generations of American children that maturity was something to avoid.'We're seeing toys increasingly function as hobbies.'Customers 'R' oldTurns out they listened.Adults and teenagers are now driving an unexpected boom in the U.S. toy business, accounting for nearly 60% of the industry's growth during the first half of 2026, according to market research firm Circana. The industry posted its strongest first half in six years.And Toys “R” Us is betting big on its grown-up kids.The once-bankrupt retailer is adding 120 stand-alone stores to its existing 40, quadrupling its U.S. footprint to 160 locations in a single holiday season — a 300% increase.The expansion will also use select locations to introduce Creator Studios, where influencers and brands can unveil new products and host "toy reveals," the company said in a press release.It's remarkable growth for a brand that closed every one of its U.S. stores just eight years ago.But the more interesting comeback may be happening among its customers.That same Circana report reveals that households without children now account for 55% of U.S. toy sales. Sales to those households grew 16% during the first half of 2026 compared with the same period last year and have now outpaced sales from households with children — although only slightly.And the fastest-growing customers aren't the 10-and-under set.Sales to teenagers ages 12 to 17 jumped 33%, while sales in the 18-and-older category rose 25%. Together, teenagers and adults accounted for nearly 60% of the industry's growth during the first half of the year.In other words, the people fueling the toy boom are old enough to drive themselves to the toy store.RELATE: How Europe turned illegal immigration into a 5-star vacation package Andrew Burton/Getty Images Hobby lobbyWhat has changed isn't simply who's buying toys. It's what counts as a toy.Pokémon and Magic: The Gathering trading cards are among the industry's biggest properties, alongside familiar franchises including Marvel, Star Wars, LEGO, and Barbie.Circana's Kristen McLean says consumers are increasingly drawn to “collectibles, sensory toys, licensed products, and hobby-oriented play.”“We're seeing toys increasingly function as hobbies, fandom ecosystems, and social experiences rather than traditional children's products,” McLean said.That helps explain why adult-only households have become such a lucrative market. A LEGO set, collectible figure, or box of trading cards can occupy essentially the same place in an adult's budget that model trains, sports memorabilia, or other hobbies once did.RELATED: Is charging your EV really cheaper than buying gas? Andrew Burton/Getty Images 'Toys' storyToys “R” Us isn't merely opening more stores to take advantage of the shift. Select locations will include what the company calls Creator Studios, spaces where influencers and brands can launch products and stage “toy reveals.”It's a striking reinvention for a retailer whose apparent demise once looked like another casualty of the internet age.Toys “R” Us filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2017 while carrying billions of dollars in debt and closed its remaining U.S. stores the following year.The brand subsequently attempted several comebacks, eventually coming under the control of WHP Global in 2021. It opened a flagship location in New Jersey and later established Toys “R” Us sections inside Macy's stores.Meanwhile, the revival has extended well beyond the United States. Toys “R” Us now says it operates through more than 1,680 stores and e-commerce businesses across 37 countries, generating more than $2 billion in annual retail sales.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

by Blaze Media Sep 22, 2026

The Lion, the Witch, and the Worldview War

The internet already knows what to do with the news that Meryl Streep will voice Aslan in Greta Gerwig’s forthcoming “Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew”: Get angry. It fits the logic of rage-bait: All publicity is good publicity.There has already been plenty of fury. It is as if the creative team opened its first meeting by asking, “There is a huge built-in Christian audience for Narnia. How can we alienate it as quickly as possible?” But I want to ask the prior question: What exactly is “The Magician’s Nephew” about, and why can’t a radical leftist understand it?The central problem in Narnia is not that the wrong group has power. It is rebellion against the good Creator.That question is vital because director Greta Gerwig is not merely illustrating a book. She is interpreting one. And there is no such thing as interpretation without a worldview.Netflix has scheduled Gerwig’s film for theatrical release on February 12, 2027, and streaming on April 2. Meryl Streep has been confirmed as Aslan’s voice. Gerwig says she wanted someone capable of communicating profundity, gravitas, pathos, joy, and childlike wonder. But neither Gerwig nor Netflix has said that Aslan has been rewritten as a lioness, so the claim that she has created a “translan” gets ahead of the evidence.The controversy gives us an opportunity to return to Lewis and ask how we find a text’s meaning. The answer applies well beyond Narnia to the current cultural conflict.“The Magician’s Nephew” begins with Digory and Polly discovering that Digory’s ridiculous Uncle Andrew has developed magical rings that can transport people between worlds. They arrive in the wonderfully strange Wood Between the Worlds, a quiet forest filled with pools. Each pool opens into another world.Lewis was far ahead of Marvel’s multiverse.Digory makes a spectacularly bad decision. In the dead world of Charn, he rings a forbidden bell and awakens Queen Jadis. We eventually learn that Jadis destroyed everyone in her world rather than surrender power. She used the “Deplorable Word,” annihilating Charn’s population and leaving herself as its solitary ruler.That detail is important.Jadis’ defining characteristic is not that she is a strong woman. Lewis gives us plenty of admirable women in his books. Her defining characteristic is autonomous will. She would rather destroy a world than acknowledge a limit on herself. In modern terms, Lewis wrote a third-wave feminist before the term existed.RELATED: You can’t handle the movies anymore Warner Brothers/Getty ImagesDigory and Polly accidentally bring her to Earth. When they try to remove her, they end up transporting Jadis, Uncle Andrew, a cab driver, and his horse into another world.They arrive at the beginning of Narnia, as Aslan creates it.Lewis is hardly being subtle.And this is where the current controversy becomes interesting.Aslan is not simply a powerful lion who happens to be the good guy. Lewis explicitly rejected that reduction. He described Narnia as a “supposal”: What might Christ be like if there really were a world like Narnia and Christ entered that world to save it?Lewis went farther: “The whole Narnian story is about Christ.”That means an interpreter who approaches Narnia primarily through contemporary categories of gender, power, oppression, and liberation will see a different story from the one Lewis wrote.This does not require sinister motives. It is simply how worldviews work. Culpability begins when an interpreter treats her worldview as a license to overwrite the text. Gerwig’s film has not yet been released, so its faithfulness to Lewis remains a question, not a verdict.Show the same story to a Marxist, a Freudian, a Christian, and a postmodernist, and each will notice different things. The Marxist sees class. The Freudian sees repression. The postmodernist sees power. Lewis sees creation, fall, temptation, sin, judgment, grace, and redemption.The danger comes when the interpreter stops interpreting the author and starts rewriting him. For the radical leftist, words no longer disclose an objective meaning; they become material to rearrange in service of a political goal. On Lewis’ terms, that is sinful autonomy: Reality itself becomes an obstacle to the will.Apply the same interpretive habit to the Constitution, marriage, or gender. Fixed meaning and objective reality become obstacles to the desired result. As a colleague of mine argues, the impulse is to “burn it down” and impose one’s will on the rest of us.And “The Magician’s Nephew” may be the worst possible Narnia book in which to make that mistake, because it rebukes autonomous power wielded by the creature against the Creator. It shows the barrenness of Jadis’ feminism: autonomous will severed from the Creator and therefore incapable of creating anything.Consider Jadis again. A modern interpretation might reduce the conflict to rival forms of power. Here is the imposing lion claiming authority over a new world, and here is the formidable woman who refuses to submit.But that completely misses Lewis.RELATED: CS Lewis: Angry atheist surprised by God John Chillingworth/Picture Post/Hulton Archive/Getty ImagesAslan and Jadis are not rival politicians competing to run Narnia. Aslan creates. Jadis consumes.Aslan gives creatures their being. Jadis destroys creatures who interfere with her will.Aslan establishes an order to which creatures belong. Jadis believes reality ought to bend to her desires.That is why the Christian distinction between Creator and creature matters so much. The central problem in Narnia is not that the wrong group has power. It is rebellion against the good Creator.Which brings us back to Meryl Streep.I understand why Christians object to giving the voice of Lewis’ male Christ figure to a woman. Aslan’s identity is not arbitrary. Lewis chose a male lion, called him “he,” and made him a king as his imaginative answer to the question of Christ entering another world.But I am even more interested in what Aslan will say than in what Aslan will sound like.The proper test of the adaptation is straightforward: Will Gerwig allow Lewis’ world to remain Lewis’ world?Every artist interprets through a worldview. Faithfulness does not require pretending to have none. It requires humility: the willingness to enter another writer’s world without claiming the right to recreate its moral order.I have seen the same conflict as a professor among radical activists. A teacher who denies the basic structure of reality cannot teach students to become wise or find meaning.The same humility is required of us. We do not enter God’s world as its creators.

by Blaze Media Sep 22, 2026

The future belongs to people who believe in one

The future will be different from today.The cars will be different. The clothes will probably look worse. Our phones might still be little black bricks with touch screens, but there will be new applications and new platforms for the dissemination of information. Some cities will grow, some will shrink, new suburbs will be built, and already dying small towns will finally collapse.There aren’t many logical reasons to have children in 2026. We don’t need them to work the farm or provide free labor at the shop.We have a tendency to imagine the future as essentially the present but a little farther away, with some higher numbers at the end of the date.But nothing stays the same forever.People grow old and die. New people are born. And the people who inhabit the future won't simply have different names from the people alive today. In some important ways, they will be different kinds of people, because they will disproportionately be the descendants of the people who chose to have children now.The end of the somethingWe are, in some way, at the end of something, even though we can't clearly see it yet.The fertility collapse is too big, includes too much of the developed world, and is happening over too long a period of time for us to perceive the whole thing at once. The world's population is still growing, but fertility has fallen below replacement level across much of the world, and dozens of countries have already reached their peak populations.People aren't having kids like they used to. Or, more precisely, certain people aren't having kids like they used to.In America, liberals are having fewer children than conservatives. A 2026 study using decades of General Social Survey data found a widening fertility divide by political orientation, with the difference becoming especially pronounced among more recent generations.Another recent survey found conservatives reporting 1.40 children on average compared with 1.09 for liberals. That sounds like a small gap until you realize it amounts to nearly 30% more children — and demographic differences compound with every generation.Running on emptyThe average secular, centrist Democrat Boomer might have had two kids in 1982 because that's just what you did. Today, his kids might have dogs.We don’t yet see the impacts of the asymmetrical population collapse because we are still at the very tail end of secular liberals reproducing. But eventually the tail will disappear, the gas will run out, the engine will slow, and we will see a future of different people.Sometimes I meet with older people who never had children or older secular centrist Democrats who had two kids but whose children haven’t decided to do the same. I wonder if they are able to see the self-eliminating tendencies of their general worldview or if they give any thought to why exactly their children haven’t chosen to become parents as they did and if, perhaps, in hindsight they might reflect that there were flaws in raising them the way they did.Sometimes I find myself someplace where the average age is 64, and I wonder if the people realize what that means. It’s not that they should be lying awake at night sweating bullets because they aren’t replacing themselves. We can only do so much in this world, and some problems are bigger than us. But I do wonder if they realize that the future will be different in part due to their choices regarding procreation and child-rearing.RELATED: Why 3 kids are easier than 1 Daily Herald Archive/Getty ImagesWhy bother?There aren’t many logical reasons to have children in 2026. We don’t need them to work the farm or provide free labor at the shop. So we who have children today have them for deeper reasons. Sometimes they are outwardly religious ones, like the imperative to be fruitful and multiply. Sometimes they are less religious ones based loosely on culture or love of family. And sometimes it’s just hundreds of little signals that add up gradually to form a general attitude toward family life.“We’d love to have more.”If you are in the conservative world in any way, this is a phrase you are well acquainted with. You have heard it said too many times to count, and you have probably said it quite a few times yourself. It’s just what you say after a conversation about a baby, a new car to accommodate another kid, or any other funny story about family life.It’s a short little sentence, but it being a sort of default thing to respond with very acutely illuminates the difference between the liberal world and the conservative one in 2026.In the liberal world, this is not a phrase that is uttered naturally. There is no presumption that (of course!) you want more children. At best, children are viewed neutrally, and at worst, they are considered kind of a buzzkill for what could be a life of “freedom” and higher earning potential. On that side of the political world, it is simply not a cultural assumption that children are a blessing and the more the better.Betting on the futureBut that attitude is dying, literally. It doesn’t seem like it yet, I know. It’s slow. We are still over-saturated with young people born to the types that wouldn’t have kids today. We are still in the middle of that very long population bottleneck, and the ship is still coasting though the gas has just about run out.But over time — a very long period of time — the attitudes of those who don’t care for a world of children will slowly dissipate and become less potent. They are self-eliminating, after all. That’s not opinion; it’s a cold fact of reality that we all see clearly now. The only people who will exist in the future will be people born to those who believed children are good, that the more life there is, the better, and the future should be one that is full of humans.I’m optimistic.

by Blaze Media Sep 22, 2026

Texas man reports foul smell permeating his entire home — police make gruesome discovery next door

Texas police say that the decomposing body of a 68-year-old man would have gone undiscovered if his neighbor had not reported the foul smell permeating his home.The neighbor, who only wanted to be identified as Lekan, resorted to calling on KHOU-TV to seek relief from the odor that has driven him from his condominium unit.Bizarrely, the unit where the man died is not adjacent to Lekan's unit, and it is a mystery as to how the odor is spreading to his home. Lekan said that he noticed flies and an odor when he returned from a work trip on Friday to the One Orleans Place condo community near Jeanetta Street in Houston."I saw flies by the door, and then I was wondering what's there," he said. "So I got closer. I could smell the stench."The odor continued through the weekend and forced Lekan to call his landlady, call the HOA, and eventually dial up 911.Firefighters searched the building and found the decomposing body of his neighbor, according to police. There were no signs of foul play.Although officials removed the body, Lekan said the odor continued and then began permeating everything in his unit."My food, my clothing. And I'm sure the furniture," he said. "I don't know how I'm going to deal with that."He was forced to rent a hotel room to escape the odor but says he cannot afford the extra expense.Bizarrely, the unit where the man died is not adjacent to Lekan's unit, and it is a mystery as to how the odor is spreading to his home. KHOU reporter Michelle Choi had to move their interview outside the unit because of the smell. But while they were reporting on the incident, some signs of relief arrived for Lekan.RELATED: Gruesome discovery made in Florida man's backyard after he sent photo of his missing father to his mom, police say They saw a biohazard cleanup crew was working on cleaning the unit where the man died, and Houston Health Department workers also responded to the complaint from Lekan.KHOU said they are seeking answers from the city, the landlady, and the condo association."My home means everything to me," said Lekan. "My home is my sanctuary."Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

by Blaze Media Sep 22, 2026

Where did 'teen takeovers' come from?

“Teen takeovers” have gone from a social-media spectacle to a serious public-safety issue. While the name conjures images of high schoolers innocently hanging around a drive-in à la "American Graffiti," at its core, this phenomenon is about sowing violence and chaos — and leaving communities to deal with the consequences.The 2026 Wisconsin State Fair concluded its final evening with a massive brawl, during which violent “teens” swarmed the park and beat unassuming fair guests. One man was kicked and beaten as he lay in the fetal position. Earlier this summer, a teen takeover at a Chipotle in Washington, D.C., forced frightened patrons to scramble as youths began throwing chairs and screaming.This is a natural consequence of an America that has glamorized injustice.In cities across the nation, the same pattern of brutality has emerged: Swarms of young, primarily black teenagers will suddenly invade a public space to fight, threaten police, destroy private property, and occasionally get involved in shootings.This is happening because over the past decade, our public institutions have encouraged black Americans to see themselves as perpetual victims of so-called systemic discrimination. As Spencer Klavan points out in his analysis of the fast-evolving political climate, “Wokeness in all its form is grievance politics.” Activists expanded DEI programs, decried America’s alleged systemic racism, and pushed for prison-abolition movements and reparations.The behavior at teen takeovers is an outgrowth of the so-called peaceful demonstrations Black Lives Matter encouraged during the height of the George Floyd protests. Though the BLM movement has gradually lost traction — its corruption is widespread, and policies like abolishing the police are unpopular — its cultural influence endures.Constant exposure to BLM has shown young people that if they commit wanton acts of violence en masse, they can get what they want. They can hop fences, smash windows, blast music, and brawl in the streets — and Democratic politicians will then attack peaceful citizens, demanding that they give away their livelihood and communities to correct “systemic injustices.”The messaging BLM has promoted is irresponsible. Photos of cars, businesses, and school buses burning became regular fixtures online starting in the summer of 2020. Young people became convinced that, regardless of their lawless actions, they were morally superior to police officers and authority figures. They were taught that violence is a virtue because racism infects all public institutions. Teen takeovers are the result of a generation of children who believe that trashing public spaces is the righteous response of the unheard.RELATED: Sanctuary cities’ get-out-of-jail fail Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu/Getty ImagesBLM activists and “ICE Out” advocates have collectively turned protesting into an activity that’s considered as acceptable as going on a picnic. Young people are joining teen takeovers because they think they are owed the space to be violent, a lesson that Woke 1.0 normalized. For too many Americans, senseless rampaging is seen as a legitimate pastime for bored, testy teens.This is a natural consequence of an America that has glamorized injustice. A recent study linked transgender ideology with increased support for political violence. Gen Z is more likely to attend protests, especially among those who support LGBTQ and climate-change movements. A similar study from the U.K. revealed that young people are more supportive of civil disobedience than members of previous generations.The adulation of grievance politics culminates in a deeply nihilistic culture. The teen takeovers aren’t pursuing a righteous social cause — they’re aggressive reactions against civil society itself.When previous generations protested, they mostly maintained a level of respect for their communities and even obeyed the law in some cases. But thanks to the radicalism of Woke 1.0 — pushed by BLM — young people don’t feel as though they owe anything to the people and places where they grew up. They aren’t concerned with building a future or honoring their forefathers. The past decade of politics gave young Americans a permission structure in which anarchy comes with little to no consequences.Americans have become accustomed to seeing entire city blocks burning, looting, and street fighting. The danger is that younger generations see disorder not as a public menace, but as the essence of freedom.Editor’s note: This article was originally published in the American Mind.

by Blaze Media Sep 22, 2026

Border Patrol RESCUES Chinese and Mexican nationals locked into train car by smugglers, CBP says

Border Patrol agents rescued four illegal immigrants who had been found locked inside a railcar in Texas, according to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection. CBP said exclusively to Blaze News that two other migrants had been found in a similarly locked railcar just one week previously, but one was deceased. 'No one should believe the lies of smugglers who say they can provide safety, because they only care about the money they can gain by exploiting vulnerable people.' The rescued migrants were identified as three Mexican nationals and one Chinese national. They were discovered just before dawn on Sept. 16 by Border Patrol agents of the Uvalde station who were inspecting freight cars at a secondary rail near Knippa. A Border Patrol canine alerted agents about an autorack car carrying automobiles. When they inspected it, they found four people locked inside without any means of escape. The migrants were taken to the Uvalde Station for processing, according to CBP. The incident was the fourth time in recent weeks that illegal aliens were found locked into autorack train cars at the Del Rio sector, including the lethal incident on Sept. 11. On Sept. 7, agents rescued three others locked into a train car at the same secondary rail. And on August 30, they rescued eight people locked inside a train car, including a child, at that rail. "This is the work of criminal alien smugglers who have no regard for human life," said Anthony "Scott" Good, a Del Rio Sector chief patrol agent. "Doors on freight cars are locked externally, and migrants are trapped for an indefinite amount of time without food or water," he added. "No one should believe the lies of smugglers who say they can provide safety because they only care about the money they can gain by exploiting vulnerable people." RELATED: Tactical agents arrest 'active scout' in Arizona near Mexico border, says CBP U.S. Customs and Border Protection The Homeland Security Investigations office is still investigating the lethal Sept. 11 incident.The Sept. 7 incident involved a Mexican national, one Nicaraguan, and one Honduran, according to CBP. "Attempts to make illegal entry via trains have historically had tragic results," said Good after that incident. "U.S. Border Patrol urges anyone considering such rash action to understand their decision could result in disaster." Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

by Blaze Media Sep 22, 2026

America’s education system has a ‘new Trojan horse’ — and it’s conditioning kids to turn on their parents

The education of America’s youth is rapidly changing, as more and more parents recognize the failures of the public school system and take matters into their own hands.“I think the odds that education is going to completely change in America over the next five to 10 years are very high, because we are seeing individuals want to take individual responsibility over raising their kids,” PragerU CEO Marissa Streit tells Glenn Beck.Now that an abundance of high-quality alternatives are available, the days of relying on “the experts” for resources are over.“I think what we call the educational industrial complex is going to now see a complete alternative economy. There's going to be a new economy in education that is created thanks to technology,” says Streit.Glenn is thrilled to see the shift, because much of what public schools have been teaching he calls downright “hair-raising.”After a “deep dive” into America’s education system, Streit says she found that the issues are well beyond “woke books,” critical race theory, and progressive teachers' unions.“The new Trojan horse that I want to warn everybody against is ethnic studies,” she tells Glenn. Streit says ethnic studies, which began in California, is now in about 26 states. She warns it “creates this paradigm of the oppressor versus the oppressed, rejecting the concept of individualism and the power of the individual and pushing collective grievance.”To illustrate, she displays a book that is used and recommended in some ethnic-studies circles titled “Lessons in Liberation: An Abolitionist Toolkit for Educators.”The resource was produced by the Education for Liberation Network — a radical “education for liberation” coalition — and Critical Resistance, a prison abolition group co-founded by communist Angela Davis and Ruth Wilson Gilmore.While the book covers many subjects, the chapter Streit finds most offensive covers a concept called “adultism” — which frames adults as oppressors and children as the oppressed.“Let's say you're an adult and you tell your daughter that she should probably restrain from having sexual intimacy with someone while she's still a child. When you do that, according to this lesson plan in this tool kit … you are a totalitarian oppressor because you should allow the child to make their own decision,” she explains.“Let's say you tell your child to not dress a certain way because it's inappropriate. You're engaged in this pejorative adultism. The parent knows nothing. The government knows everything, and the government tells the child that they are their own sovereign selves,” Streit continues.But the book doesn’t stop at villainizing the traditional parent-child relationship, she says; it also whitewashes gangs and terrorists.“There's a chapter about how gangs and terrorists are really not that bad because it's their way to express themselves. Specifically they say that people of color need to express themselves through gangs,” says Streit.She then holds up a 2025 Chicago Teachers Union May Day packet that she says “trains teachers” to prepare students for “communist May Day.” One prompt asks, “What hardships are people in your community facing since Donald Trump was re-elected in November?” Others have students discuss identifying and resisting fascism, tyranny, and authoritarianism.Streit explains that these teacher resources are deliberately designed to be “the path of least resistance,” so that educators have easy, ready-to-teach materials that require virtually no effort on their part.“Whether you're teaching K-2, 3rd-5th, or 6th grade and up, you have a file that will tell you exactly what to teach, and it will recommend books,” she explains.Streit says she is often asked how any American publication company could possibly put such materials into print, but publishers are often part of the same pipeline as the unions creating the resources.Scholastic, she says, is a crucial component of the circulation of materials centered around woke ideologies, including “critical race theory [and the] Reconquista movement — the idea that we stole the land from Mexico and therefore we have to allow people to reconquer it.”She points to a 5th-grade Scholastic Gold title called “The Land of the Cranes,” which follows a girl whose family is held in ICE detention and treats crossing the border and resisting immigration enforcement as a righteous return to ancestral land.It all boils down to “money and power,” says Streit.“You have the teachers' unions and the NGOs creating tool kits. The tool kits guarantee the publishers that they will sell the books that are recommended in the tool kits. And so every year the publishers are going to make all this money as long as they keep up with the political agenda. ... The entire complex supports each other,” she says.To hear more about the spreading rot in America’s public school system, watch the video above.Want more from Glenn Beck?To enjoy more of Glenn’s masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis, and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

by Blaze Media Sep 22, 2026

Alleged illegal alien crashes with 14-year-old he is accused of sexually assaulting — leaving her in 'catastrophic' condition

Federal immigration officials implied that a Guatemalan man accused of horrific crimes involving a 14-year-old girl is illegally in the U.S.Marion County prosecutors say 20-year-old Alexis Pinto led Indiana police on a high-speed chase that led to his car being submerged in Fall Creek in Indianapolis.'Because sanctuary cities refuse to work with ICE law enforcement, criminal illegal aliens are released from jails into American communities to commit more crimes.' The Sept. 13 incident left a 14-year-old female passenger with "catastrophic" injuries.Pinto was already being sought on child sex criminal warrants involving the same teen girl when he crashed the car.The man was allegedly driving a stolen car when an Indiana State Police trooper spotted him traveling westbound on Interstate 70, according to a probable cause affidavit.The trooper tried to stop the car, and Pinto instead tried to flee at speeds between 90 and 100 miles per hour.Pinto drove into opposite traffic on Interstate 65 before losing control and tumbling the car into Fall Creek.He was swimming away from the submerged car and told arriving police that someone else was inside.The girl was transported to a hospital with "catastrophic" injuries, and doctors described her prognosis as "grim."Pinto was also hospitalized before he was booked into jail. He was charged with felonies including resisting law enforcement resulting in catastrophic injury, criminal recklessness, and auto theft.A statement from Immigration and Customs Enforcement indicated that Pinto had been previously arrested for assault and called him an illegal alien."ICE Chicago’s Indianapolis suboffice officers lodged an immigration detainer with the Indiana State Police and Marion County Jail against Alexis Pinto, 20, of Guatemala, on Sept. 13, 2026," read the ICE statement.RELATED: 'Cold-blooded' illegal alien murdered 15-year-old who was trying to stop him from raping his mother, ICE says "Pinto was convicted of second-degree assault on Feb. 4, 2026," the statement continued."The safest way to arrest and remove criminal illegal aliens from our streets is by honoring immigration detainers," ICE added. "Because sanctuary cities refuse to work with ICE law enforcement, criminal illegal aliens are released from jails into American communities to commit more crimes."Court documents said Pinto had picked up the 14-year-old girl in Newark, New Jersey, and took her to Baltimore, Maryland, to live with him.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

by Blaze Media Sep 21, 2026

Male on parole accused of breaking into home in broad daylight. But gun-toting homeowner isn't having a bit of it.

A male on parole is accused of breaking into a California home in broad daylight last week.The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office Emergency Communications Center said it received a 911 call from a resident in the 3900 block of Walnut Street in Eureka just after 4:30 p.m. last Monday reporting that he shot a male who had forcibly entered his home.The victim was not injured during the incident, officials said, adding that he was not arrested in connection with the shooting, either. The resident reported that suspect fled the area on foot toward Walnut Drive, officials said, adding that deputies responded to the scene, along with officers from the Eureka Police Department. A male matching the suspect's description was located in the area of W Street and Glatt Street suffering from a gunshot wound, officials said.Emergency medical personnel who were already staged in the area responded and transported the suspect to a local hospital for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries, officials said.The suspect was identified as 30-year-old Taren Joseph Ray Aubrey of Eureka, officials said.Based on evidence recovered at the scene, along with victim and witness statements, officials said deputies determined that Aubrey had forcibly entered the home before being shot.Upon being released from the hospital, Aubrey was taken to the Humboldt County Correctional Facility and booked on the following charges, officials said: burglary, felon/addict in possession of a firearm, unauthorized entry of an occupied dwelling, and violation of parole.RELATED: Florida female allegedly tries breaking into home before dawn; homeowner warns her that he's armed — but she won't go away Image source: Humboldt County (Calif.) Sheriff's OfficeThe victim was not injured during the incident, officials said, adding that he was not arrested in connection with the shooting, either.The victim was in fear for his life when Aubrey was shot, officials said, citing evidence gathered during the investigation.The case has been forwarded to the Humboldt County District Attorney’s Office for review, officials said.Those with information regarding this case are encouraged to contact the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office at 707-445-7251 or the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office Tip Line at 707-268-2539, officials said.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

by Blaze Media Sep 21, 2026

WATCH: 9/11 hero's father narrates powerful ad against Abdul El-Sayed

A political ad against Democrat candidate Abdul El-Sayed is being called one of the most powerful ads of this election period.The video shows El-Sayed, who is running for U.S. Senate in Michigan, refusing to disavow the disturbing views of socialist streamer Hasan Piker, who has said that America "deserved" the 9/11 terror attacks.'I'm not here to disavow people's views.' "Some of you have heard about my son. His name was Todd Beamer," says David Beamer as photos flash of happier times with his son."He had little boys age 3 and a half and 1 and a half. He had a wife, Lisa. She was five months pregnant," he adds.Todd Beamer was on the infamous United Flight 93 when Islamic terrorists hijacked the plane with intentions of crashing it into a prominent building, perhaps the U.S. Capitol. He was famously overheard on the phone call with a phone operator before passengers decided to confront the hijackers."They took a vote and decided, 'We need to fight back,'" his father says in the video."Then they responded to him, and he said, 'OK. Let's roll,'" phone operator Lisa Jefferson recounts.Todd Beamer's actions and those of the passengers and crew likely saved many American lives. The plane crashed in a Pennsylvania field instead of hitting its intended target."Those 43 people on Flight 93 were not victims. They were killed in action," continues David Beamer."When I hear anyone suggest America deserves 9/11, my question is: Who would say that?" he concludes.The ad continues with comments from Piker on livestreamed video defending the terrorists' actions."America deserved 9/11, dude. I'm saying it!" Piker said in 2019.It concludes with El-Sayed refusing to reject Piker's views."Abdul, are there are any views that Hasan holds that you disavow?" asks a reporter.RELATED: Ocasio-Cortez REFUSES to distance herself from extremist influencer "I'm not here to disavow people's views," El-Sayed says in the video. Many online reacted emotionally to the political ad, which called on voters to reject El-Sayed and support Republican Mike Rogers.In August, El-Sayed did refer to Piker's comments as "dumb" but did not say whether he would stop campaigning with the streamer. Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

by Blaze Media Sep 21, 2026

Trump picked the wrong way to fight fake news

President Trump announced Friday that CNN, MS NOW, and Politico were banned from the White House, effective immediately.By Saturday morning, the ban was real. Reporters from all three organizations were turned away from the White House grounds. Press passes were disabled or confiscated, Reuters reported. By Monday morning, the media companies were filing lawsuits.The First Amendment establishes a floor. A president who professes devotion to free speech should aim higher.The reaction from plenty of people on the right was predictable: Good! About time! A friend of mine reposted Trump’s announcement on Facebook with three words: “Late but welcome.”I understand the sentiment. I don’t share it.The institutional press has spent years torching its own credibility. CNN can be grossly unfair. Politico can be tendentious. And MS NOW is simply unwatchable. Reporters make mistakes, protect narratives, follow ideological fashions, and regularly publish garbage. Trump is perfectly entitled to say so.But none of that answers the question: What should government do about it?The First Amendment issue here is more complicated than the knee-jerk reactions suggest. Reporters possess no free-floating constitutional right to enter the Oval Office, fly on Air Force One, join the presidential press pool, or demand an interview with the president.The courts have never said otherwise.In fact, the White House won an important round last year when the Associated Press sued after being excluded over its refusal to adopt “Gulf of America.” In a June order, two D.C. Circuit judges concluded that restricted presidential spaces such as the Oval Office, Air Force One, and Mar-a-Lago are not First Amendment forums. The White House therefore retains considerable discretion over which journalists get in — even, the judges said, on the basis of viewpoint.Brian Stelter can hyperventilate all he likes. CNN does not own a chair in the Oval Office.But the same ruling reaffirmed an older rule.When the White House opens press facilities generally to “bona fide journalists” — the Brady Briefing Room, for example — access cannot be denied arbitrarily or because officials dislike a journalist’s speech. That principle goes back to the D.C. Circuit’s 1977 decision in Sherrill v. Knight.Trump has now gone well beyond leaving CNN out of the Oval Office pool.RELATED: CNN says Trump press ban is illegal — then the Trump team THROWS DOWN fiery response Graeme Sloan/Getty ImagesHe has revoked ordinary White House access for entire news organizations because, by his own account, he objects to their journalism. “They purposely write negative news,” he said Friday.Lawyers can argue about where precisely the First Amendment line falls. Presidents are better off staying well away from it.Especially presidents who have spent years railing against censorship, government pressure on social media companies, and official efforts to suppress disfavored speech.Trump began his second term with an executive order declaring government censorship undertaken to advance a “preferred narrative ... intolerable in a free society.” Vice President JD Vance went to Munich weeks later and delivered a speech excoriating European governments for restricting disfavored speech.Those principles are tested by speech you despise, not speech you welcome.You cannot hate the media enough? Fine. Hate them.Read somebody else. Watch somebody else. Mock them. Refute them. Support media companies that don’t hate your guts. Put every mistake the other guy makes on blast. When CNN or MS NOW botches a story, make them eat it for a month.Bad journalism has a remedy in a free country: more speech.Once government begins imposing penalties because officials despise the journalism, the question changes. It is no longer whether CNN deserves contempt. It is what power you are willing to give the state. Me? Not very much.Barack Obama’s White House confronted the same temptation in 2009. Administration officials complained that Fox News operated more like an arm of the Republican Party than a news organization. When the White House tried to exclude Fox from a pool interview with a Treasury official, the other networks objected and threatened to pull out. The administration backed down.Good.Fox did not suddenly become acceptable in Obama’s sight. The administration stopped trying to settle an argument with a news organization by manipulating access.Ronald Reagan had a better formulation. He had plenty of righteous complaints about hostile press coverage, but he called the antagonism between presidents and reporters “the friction of freedom.”RELATED: So much for ‘Reliable Sources’! Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for WarnerMediaA year later, Reagan acknowledged that presidents naturally try to use the press to their advantage and avoid situations that hurt them. The press could take care of itself, he said, and so could the president.His preferred epitaph for a president’s relationship with reporters was simple: “He gave as good as he got.”That’s about right.Nobody is asking Trump to admire CNN or pretend bad journalism is good journalism simply because reporters invoke the First Amendment.Fight them. But fight them with words. They call it the bully pulpit for a reason.And forget CNN for a moment.Every presidential practice sets a precedent. Anyone cheering presidential punishment of a despised news organization today should decide whether he wants the same rule administered someday by a president who thinks Fox News, Blaze News, or some other right-wing outlet traffics in “negative news.” That isn’t an argument for CNN. It’s an argument for us.The safest rules governing government power are the ones you can tolerate when your enemies administer them.Trump may ultimately prevail on some of the constitutional argument here. The D.C. Circuit has already recognized broad presidential authority over access to restricted spaces. Revoking ordinary White House credentials because of hostile coverage presents a different question.The First Amendment establishes a floor. A president who professes devotion to free speech should aim higher.CNN doesn’t need defending. The principle does.Let them in anyway.That’s the friction of freedom.

by Blaze Media Sep 21, 2026

These smart TVs are accused of tracking users, amassing their data — and selling it

The smart TV on your wall isn’t just for watching shows and movies. It also might be spying on you. A bombshell report claims that some smart TVs are recording living room conversations, storing unencrypted transcripts, and sucking up other private data, all for “advertising” purposes. Here’s what you need to know and how to stop it.During a two-hour video posted by Gamers Nexus, editor in chief Steve Burke argued that LG’s smart TVs can suck up an enormous amount of information about their users. If you own a smart TV of any kind whatsoever, you’re still not completely safe.“We were able to retrieve plain-text transcripts of voice conversations and inputs from the TV,” Burke claimed. His team also maintained that audio and video could be recorded and saved to a remote device, even while the TV was disconnected from the internet.While the alleged conversation-recording capabilities would be the most alarming discovery, users could also face siphoning of other personal data. Burke said his test LG TV scoured his data network and saved an entire list of smart devices that were also linked to the same Wi-Fi address, including iPhones, Android devices, Apple Watches, routers, printers, PCs, and more. Burke further claimed it also marked down the IP address for the host network, as well as the individual IP addresses of the other located devices, and marked down the TV’s geographical location and the names of other nearby Wi-Fi networks.That would amount to just about all the information available to the device.Ultimately, Burke and others suggest, LG compiles this information and sells it to advertisers so that they can serve customers targeted ads through their LG Ad Solutions network. Gamers Nexus further claims, however, that LG and its partners aren’t the only ones that can access this data. Hackers may also get ahold of it through “remote code execution" vulnerabilities where they take control of a TV and manipulate its behavior.To be clear, LG denied all of Burke's claims. The company pushed back forcefully.The claims made in the recently published video are not true. LG TVs process voice data only when the voice button on the remote control is pressed and held or when a wake word such as "Hi LG" is recognized after the user has activated the Far-Field voice recognition feature. Other than these instances, the TVs do not collect or record ambient conversations. (If the wake word is not recognized, no voice data is transmitted to the server; the audio processing for wake word detection is performed locally on the device and is immediately deleted.)So where does this leave users?RELATED: Your smart TV may be watching you back: NEW report reveals troubling details Pat Gray UnleashedAt this point, whether or not you might worry about LG smart TVs in your home that might be recording your conversations, you might think you’re in the clear because you have an other-branded TV on the wall. Unfortunately, if you own a smart TV of any kind whatsoever, you’re still not completely safe.Shortly after Burke published the initial video alleging LG’s surveillance machine, the Verge, a longtime mainstream tech media outlet, claimed that all smart TVs track their users through automatic content recognition. Built into most modern TVs, ACR monitors your screen to see what you watch. It can also capture audio and video from viewing sessions and send them to a server to help the TV provider deliver content recommendations or sell targeted ads.Granted, ACR isn’t nearly as invasive as LG’s audio surveillance discovery is claimed to be, but it still proves that, at the very least, your viewing habits are being watched and monetized out from under you.That brings us to the solution. If you own an LG TV and you’re wondering what to do next, here are some tips that can help.Wipe and restore your smart TV as new. This process is a little different, depending on the year of your LG TV, but the goal is ultimately the same. We want to wipe any local data your TV already captured and stored, including surveillance data.Disconnect your TV from the internet. Cut off Wi-Fi access and unplug any ethernet cables attached to the back panel. If your TV can’t connect to the internet, it can’t transmit surveillance data. That said, Gamers Nexus discovered that LG TVs still capture conversations while disconnected, and they can relay transcripts if that connection is ever restored, so ensure you keep your LG TV away from your Wi-Fi for good.Give your TV a new brain. Since you now effectively turned your smart TV back into a dumb TV, you can get back some smart functionality by connecting a separate streaming device, preferably without ACR. Non-ACR options include the Apple TV and the Google TV Streamer, while Fire TV and Roku both come with ACR technology built in.The best way to stop smart TV companies from spying on you is not to own a smart TV at all. However, new dumb TVs are hard to find these days, especially in larger form factors. At the very least, if you do plan to buy a new TV soon, shop carefully, and watch as events unfold.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

by Blaze Media Sep 21, 2026

Did you marry your brother? Reporter confronts Ilhan Omar on marriage scandal

Questions have swirled about Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar’s past for years, but one reporter from LindellTV finally had the guts to ask her these questions on camera. Alison Steinberg stopped Omar in a congressional hallway and pressed her on a claim that BlazeTV host Pat Gray’s been waiting for.“I have been waiting for this particular confrontation with Ilhan Omar for a long time. A long time. Somebody actually finally did it,” he says, before playing a clip of the tense encounter.“Hi congresswoman, Tom Homan said that you’re under criminal investigation for immigration and marriage fraud,” Steinberg said, asking, “Any comment on that?”“No, I don’t have a comment for that,” Omar responded through laughs.“If there’s some marriage fraud,” Steinberg continued, “Can you just tell us straight up, did you marry your brother?”“Absolutely not. What a ridiculous thing to ask,” Omar said, before adding, “Did you marry your brother?”“Absolutely not,” Steinberg responded, but she wasn’t done.“Why are you being criminally investigated?” she asked, to which Omar said, “I am not.”Steinberg then pressed Omar as to whether or not Tom Homan, who has said otherwise, is a “liar.”“He is, he’s been saying some dumb s**t like you,” Omar said angrily.Gray couldn’t be more impressed with the young reporter.“That’s great,” he says. “That’s not easy to do. That might look easy to do, but it isn’t.”“Straight up,” he adds, “‘Did you marry your brother?’”Want more from Pat Gray?To enjoy more of Pat's biting analysis and signature wit as he restores common sense to a senseless world, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

by Blaze Media Sep 21, 2026

Italy to BAN burqas in schools and limit number of foreign students, says PM Giorgia Meloni

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is taking action to limit the impact of Muslim immigrants on her country.Italy has taken on millions of immigrants from majority-Muslim countries because of its accessibility to boats carrying migrants across the Mediterranean Sea.'In Italy, no one, in the name of a real or supposed tradition, can decide that a young woman must hide herself.'On Sunday, Meloni said that the country will ban burqas in schools and also limit the number of foreign students allowed in each class. "You must go to ⁠school with your face uncovered, and in Italy, no one, in the name of a real or supposed tradition, can decide that a young woman must hide herself," she said at an annual gathering of the youth in her party. "A measure will soon be presented to a Cabinet meeting to legally establish a maximum number of foreign students per class," Meloni added. "It also requires parents of foreign students facing serious difficulties integrating into the school system to learn Italian and bans burqas and niqabs in schools."About 12 in every 100 students in Italy are not citizens, according to one research study cited by NBC News. She argued that foreign students would have a tougher time integrating in schools with too many other foreign students. "If there is only ⁠one child in a class who doesn’t understand Italian, that child will likely be able to learn the language and integrate quickly with the help of classmates and teachers," Meloni continued. "However, if the number of children who don’t understand the language becomes large — or even ⁠the majority — that is no longer integration; it is neglect."Meloni was elected four years ago in part by Italians wanting a harder line against illegal immigration, and she has pressed for those policies despite criticism from the left.She did not indicate what the numerical limit of foreign students might be.BlazeTV host Steve Deace responded to the proposed ban in comments to Blaze News. "It took a few years, but Meloni is finally living up to all her based rhetoric leading up to her election," he said. RELATED: MASSIVE PROTEST against illegal migrants OVERRUNNING tiny Spanish province: 'Enough, Ceuta won't give up!' CAIR did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.Meloni previously threatened to shut down an immigration agreement with Spain after illegal migrants from Morocco overran the border of the Ceuta province in northern Africa. "The images coming from Ceuta are shocking and demonstrate, once again, that uncontrolled illegal immigration poses a real threat to the security of Europe's borders," read a translated post from Meloni on July 30. "We will not yield an inch on the issue of illegal immigration," she added.The immigrant population in Italy has skyrocketed from about 423,000 in 1985 to about 5.8 million in 2024.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

by Blaze Media Sep 21, 2026

ESPN reporter asks Alex Ovechkin if he would 'support the genocide' of Ukraine — Ovechkin doesn't budge

An interview to mark the start of the NHL season went off the rails when an activist reporter hammered one of the league's greatest players of all time with political questions.Almost two weeks before the games start to count, Washington Capitals forward Alexander Ovechkin was talking to the media when an ESPN reporter started pelting him with question regarding a recent political ad he had been a part of.She's 'got an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court for abducting Ukrainian children.'Ovechkin, the NHL's all-time goal-scoring leader — yes, he has scored even more goals than Wayne Gretzky — was featured in a pro-Russia ad for President Vladimir Putin's United Russia party in the lead-up to the elections last weekend.Although Ovechkin simply stood in the background during the ad, ESPN reporter Robert Klemko — who is half-Ukrainian — went after the hockey player about the details of the filming, asking if he informed his team before the video shoot."No," Ovechkin replied, per Klemko's recollection of the interview.The reporter then told Ovechkin his appearance in the commercial "feels to people like a pro war stance.""I don't think it's a pro war," Ovechkin reportedly replied. "I think it's just support what's happening in Russia. I want the peace and love for everybody. It doesn't matter who you are, American, Russian, or Ukrainian."After Klemko claimed the war would "be done soon" if Putin stops the invasion, he later asked if Ovechkin would support Russia "no matter what."The 41-year-old replied, "Well, I'm gonna live there, yeah."This prompted the ESPN journalist to ask an inflammatory question: "So if they're responsible for a genocide, you would support the genocide?"Ovechkin asked for a translation of "genocide" from a member of his media team, a note corroborated by different outlets. He then replied, "Oh. I would say, like, I'm, I hope it's not gonna, it's not gonna be like that."RELATED: Sophie Cunningham defends Sydney Sweeney — but admits she 'morally' has a problem In a clip from CTV News, Ovechkin told reporters he is going to move back to Russia when he retires from hockey."I'm going to stay there. I'm going to live there. My kids are going to live there."Regarding the political ad, Ovechkin stated that he's "for peace and love" and that he hopes "everything's going to be okay."He revealed when he was asked to do the commercial, he simply replied, "Yes.""So, simple as that," Ovechkin said.Outlet HockeyFeed said Klemko then "pressed" Ovechkin after the group press conference and attempted to tell the player what his involvement in the ad "really signals."Ovechkin continuously gave statements like "I'm not in politics," and "I don't know who that is" in regard to certain people featured in the ad, but Klemko pressed forward and asked the Russian if he felt he was perpetuating propaganda."It mimics messaging Russians get that says Ukraine is responsible for being invaded by Russia," Klemko wrote."I can't say who's right and who's wrong," Ovechkin responded soon thereafter.Klemko said he told Ovechkin that one of the people in the ad is "Maria Lvova Belova," who, he said, "got an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court for abducting Ukrainian children."Ovechkin said he didn't know who that person is.RELATED: Charles Barkley defends WNBA, but says 'race' and 'sexuality' are behind Sophie Cunningham clashes Sasha Mordovets/Getty ImagesKlemko's subsequent article for ESPN, published Thursday, cited University of Maryland "senior scholar" Sarah Oates, who directly stated that Russia is "perpetuating a genocide on Ukrainian people.""Putin has said Ukraine and Ukrainians have no right to exist. And this is a key reason for the invasion. Ovechkin supports Putin, he supports the Russian regime, and that means he supports genocide," Oates claimed.After his questions about genocide, Klemko said the media relations team ended his interview with Ovechkin.Capitals general manager Chris Patrick later told ESPN that if Ovechkin had told the franchise about the ad, the organization would have "worked to avoid the situation very hard. And I doubt we'd be standing where we're standing right now if he had run it by us."Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

by Blaze Media Sep 21, 2026

The real reason everything is expensive and what you can do

Joe Biden has been out of office for almost two years now — so why does everything still feel so expensive?As midterm elections draw nearer, that’s the question on the top of American minds, and BlazeTV host Ron Simmons has some answers.While prices are up, Simmons points out that this all began under Biden, where “prices rose about 21%.”“That’s over 5% a year. And since that time, since the second administration of President Trump, they’ve grown a little over 2% a year, about 2.5% a year,” he explains.“When prices grew to 21%, so if something cost a dollar and then when Biden left it cost a $1.20, it didn’t go back down to a dollar when President Trump got elected,” he says.“What he has done, and his administration have done, is they’ve just reduced how fast it’s increasing,” he adds.Simmons explains that prices will go down when demand goes down.“If you remember back to 2008, 2009, when they had the huge housing crisis, well, in 2007, do you know what interest rates were for mortgages at that time? Guess what they were. They’re right what they are right now, a little over 6%,” he explains.“People lost their jobs and things, and there was more supply than there was demand,” he continues. “So they dropped interest rates and they brought interest rates down, probably too low, honestly — artificially low — and so you could buy a house at a 3% mortgage.”“Then when the economy got better, and the fact that we pumped a lot of unnecessary money into the economy, interest rates went up because there ended up being more demand than there was supply,” he adds.When the demand is high, the interest rates remain high.“Now, what we don’t want to happen is another huge recession, obviously, but just remember how this happened,” he says, pointing out that Democrat policies have led us here.“Housing has become dramatically more expensive during the Biden years,” he continues, noting that the Heritage Foundation has reported that the cost of financing a medium-priced home has risen 114% since 2021.“At the same time, consumer prices have risen about 20%, which we talked about, and it costs about $13,300 more per year to purchase the same house, interest-rate-wise, than it did in 2021,” he says.“Immigration was a part of this,” he explains. “When they opened the floodgates, more people coming into the country means there’s more demand for goods and services, and that increased the cost of living and housing.”However, Simmons points out that the most expensive cities — San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Jose, New York, and Boston — are all run by Democrats.“So just remember when you’re voting this time,” he adds.Want more from Allie Beth Stuckey?To enjoy more of Allie’s upbeat and in-depth coverage of culture, news, and theology from a Christian, conservative perspective, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.