Nebraska voters heading to the polls on Tuesday are facing a convoluted Senate primary in which both parties are trading accusations of spoiler candidates intended to manipulate the November general election.

Incumbent U.S. Senator Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.) is up for re-election and defending his seat in the Tuesday primary against several Republican challengers.

‘We must vote for Cindy to knock fake Forbes out of the Primary Election to allow Osborn to take on Ricketts.’

Meanwhile, the Democrat primary election has sparked controversy, with candidate Cindy Burbank accusing her competitor, William Forbes, of being a Ricketts plant.

“Pete Ricketts, who is running for reelection, is putting in a candidate loyal to him in the DEMOCRATIC primary — to split the vote against him, so he wins easily. He’s running an anti-abortion activist named Bill Forbes, who has posted in support of Pete Ricketts!” Burbank’s campaign website states.

Burbank claimed that Ricketts planted Forbes because he is concerned that he will lose his re-election bid in the November general election to independent candidate Dan Osborn.

“He knows he’s losing to Dan Osborn and this is his plan to cheat his way to victory. We can’t let that happen,” Burbank’s website reads.

Burbank accused Forbes, a pastor who previously voted for President Donald Trump, of being “a ‘fake’ Democrat,” stating that Osborn “is a good man, a working man, a strike leader, and someone we can trust.”

“He deserves a fair shot against Ricketts.”

RELATED: Republicans receive another grim midterm forecast

Pete Ricketts. Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Osborn previously ran a strong 2024 race against Sen. Deb Fischer (R), losing by less than seven percentage points. Although he did not win, he garnered 66,000 more votes than former Vice President Kamala Harris (D) received in Nebraska in the presidential election against Trump.

The Nebraska Democratic Party echoed the accusation that Ricketts “planted his spoiler and fake Democratic candidate.” The party expressed concern that a Forbes win over Burbank would split votes between Forbes and Osborn in the general election, giving Ricketts a greater chance of victory.

The NDP, which originally planned not to field a nominee, stated that the strategy was to ensure that Burbank won the primary. Burbank would then presumably withdraw before the general election to allow Osborn to compete against Ricketts.

“We must vote for Cindy to knock fake Forbes out of the Primary Election to allow Osborn to take on Ricketts one-on-one in the General Election. This is the path to send Ricketts and his millions packing. This is the way to break the one-party rule in Nebraska,” the NDP wrote.

NDP chair Jane Kleeb wrote in a post on X in July 2025 that the party planned to support Osborn, believing he was the best chance to beat Ricketts in the deep-red state.

The New York Times reported that Burbank “confirmed that she planned to exit the race after the primary, assuming that Mr. Osborn submits enough signatures to qualify for the November ballot.”

“I will stay in until it is obvious that I cannot win in November, and I will drop out,” Burbank told the Times.

Osborn accused Ricketts of reverting to “classic dirty tricks” to win re-election.

“Unfortunately for Ricketts, Bill Forbes’ Trojan-horse campaign is doomed,” an Osborn campaign manager told KETV.

Forbes denied being a plant, telling the outlet that he is a “real Democrat in the mold of JFK and Ben Nelson — tough, practical, and focused on working families instead of coastal lunacy.”

“What flies in radical California dies in Nebraska. Voters here want a strong Democrat who reaches across the aisle and actually unites people — not another phony independent puppet like Dan Osborn,” Forbes said.

Ricketts’ campaign has denied having any role in the Democrat primary.

The Nebraska Republican Party responded to the Democrat plot by filing a complaint to have Burbank removed from the ballot, arguing that she was not a “good-faith” candidate because she had no intention of serving in office. Burbank challenged that removal attempt, and the Nebraska Supreme Court ultimately ruled to reinstate Burbank, stating that the deadline to consider such complaints had passed.

RELATED: Republican Indiana state senator has no regrets about redistricting vote

Dan Osborn. Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call Inc./Getty Images

Legal Marijuana NOW Party candidate Mike Marvin was also accused of being a spoiler in the race after Burbank paid his $1,740 filing fee on the last day for candidates to file, according to the Nebraska Examiner.

She confirmed to the outlet that she paid his filing fee after witnessing “the secretary’s people refusing to take Mike’s check because it was for 10 dollars too much.”

“It pissed me off, and I paid for it. … I’ve never met Mike,” Burbank told the Nebraska Examiner. “If Ricketts can throw his money around, then so can I!”

When asked why Burbank paid his filing fee, Marvin told the outlet that he had “no idea what is happening.”

“I keep waiting for the check I wrote to clear,” Marvin stated. “I don’t even know Cindy Burbank.”

Marvin denied being a plant, writing in a Facebook post, “No one has hired me to do this; that is slanderous.”

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​News, Pete ricketts, Nebraska, Cindy burbank, William forbes, Bill forbes, Dan osborn, Donald trump, Trump, Nebraska democratic party, Democratic party, Jane kleeb, Nebraska republican party, Mike marvin, Politics 

After losing his home in the Palisades Fire, former reality star Spencer Pratt launched a viral mayoral campaign ad blasting Los Angeles leadership — and while Liz Wheeler isn’t the biggest fan of celebrities getting political, she believes there is something different about him.

“I confess: I am not typically a fan of celebrities who, just because they’re bored after the peak of their career, dip their toe in politics. I’m not typically a fan of that,” Wheeler says.

“However, Spencer Pratt might be a little bit different,” she admits, before playing Pratt’s viral campaign ad, which he reportedly shot in a few hours on a very limited budget and which has millions of views on X alone.

“This is where Mayor Bass lives,” Pratt begins, standing in front of a mansion. “You notice something?”

“They don’t have to live in the mess they’ve created — where you live,” he says, before showing a homeless encampment.

Pratt goes on to reveal where he now lives after the Palisades Fire: in a trailer.

“This is where I live. They let my home burn down. I know what the consequences of failed leadership are. That’s why I’m running for mayor — for my sons and the rest of us Angelenos that want to stop these corrupt politicians from destroying our city,” he continues. “We are going to get the golden age of Los Angeles back.”

“The best part of this will be how immediately obvious that it becomes to everyone in the country — not just to residents of Los Angeles, not even just to California residents, but to everyone in the country, people on the right and the left, how immediately obvious it becomes that disgusting, dangerous, degrading cities like Los Angeles are not inevitable,” Wheeler comments.

“They are, in fact, a deliberate political choice that the Democrats make intentionally to hurt you and to control you. This is also why Democrats are not going to fight fair. They cannot let Spencer Pratt win, because they cannot have the American people, by and large, understand that disgusting, dangerous, degrading cities are a deliberate political choice that Democrats have made intentionally to harm and to control you,” she continues.

“And this is why we, the American people — even those of us who don’t live in Los Angeles — must help Spencer Pratt win in any way that we can offer our assistance,” she adds.

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​Blaze media, Blaze news, Blaze online, Blaze originals, Blaze podcast network, Blaze podcasts, Blazetv, California, Celebrities, Corrupt politicians, Democrats, Failed leadership, Golden age, Homeless encampment, Leadership, Liz wheeler, Los angeles, Mayor bass, Political, Residents, Spencer pratt, The blaze, The liz wheeler show, Viral campaign 

A repeat offender who’s accused of seriously wounding two in a brazen daytime shooting Monday in Cambridge, Massachusetts, seemed headed for a long stretch in prison after he pleaded guilty in 2021 to firing at police officers in Boston.

You see, prosecutors wanted Tyler E. Brown to serve at least 10 years in prison for shooting at cops the year before, the Boston Globe reported.

‘I am a firm believer that when Mr. Tyler Brown gets out, he will hurt, or worse, kill someone.’

However, the paper said Judge Janet L. Sanders imposed a sentence of five to six years in state prison, with credit for about 18 months he’d spent in custody while the case was pending.

After just a few years behind bars, Brown was released back into the community, WFXT-TV reported.

Brown on Monday allegedly shot two people with a rifle on a Cambridge street not far from Harvard and MIT, the Globe said. The victims remained hospitalized Tuesday with life-threatening injuries, officials told the paper.

RELATED: 19-year-old thug reportedly violated bond at least a half dozen times before being accused of murder — while out on probation

Brown was shot by a state trooper and an armed civilian, the Globe said, and remained at an area hospital.

Officials on Monday said Brown is expected to face two counts of armed assault with intent to murder and firearms offenses, the paper reported.

Forget how angry officials likely are over Monday’s shooting given that Brown might otherwise have been behind bars. Law enforcement was outraged back in 2021 over Brown’s lighter sentence — records show he was already on probation for a stabbing and witness intimidation at the time, WFXT noted.

One officer even predicted Brown would return to violence once he was released.

“I am a firm believer that when Mr. Tyler Brown gets out, he will hurt, or worse, kill someone,” one officer involved in the 2020 shooting wrote in an impact statement, according to WCVB-TV. “Probation apparently means nothing to Mr. Tyler Brown, nor does the value of life.”

Gregory Long, the department’s superintendent in chief at the time, said in a statement after Brown’s August 2021 sentence that “the Boston Police Department is extremely disappointed in this sentence,” the Globe reported.

Long, according to the paper, added that “this sentence does not reflect the magnitude and seriousness of the offense committed by this individual. Acts of violence such as this in our city streets require and demand adequate accountability.”

Even George Soros-backed Rachael Rollins — the Suffolk district attorney at the time — wasn’t happy with the judge’s sentence.

“My office recommended a significant sentence for Mr. Brown given the nature of his offenses and the trauma and harm he inflicted,” Rollins said, according to the Globe. “I am disappointed in the sentence that was imposed.”

As Blaze News previously reported, Rollins in 2023 announced plans to resign as Massachusetts U.S. attorney after she was accused of leaking “sensitive DOJ” information to the press in an effort to influence an election in favor of a fellow Democratic colleague.

More from the Globe:

Brown, now 46, had only been out of jail a few months on May 16, 2020, when he opened fire at several officers who had responded to a report of a man with a gun who was threatening people on Northampton Street in the South End. He was arrested after he fled to Massachusetts Avenue, where he shot at officers who returned fire, the Globe reported.

He pleaded guilty the following year to eight charges, including armed assault with intent to murder, attempted assault and battery by means of discharging a firearm for firing at a Boston police officer, and three counts of assault with a dangerous weapon for pointing a firearm at additional responding Boston police officers, officials said.

Prosecutors said they had sought a sentence of 10 to 12 years, followed by five years of probation. At the time of the shooting, Brown was on probation for a 2014 conviction for assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, a knife, and witness intimidation, records show.

In relation to Monday afternoon’s shooting, Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan told WFXT in a separate story that an active shooter situation was under way when officers arrived at the scene in Cambridge, noting that the suspect “was already traveling down the middle of Memorial Drive, cars were stopped in traffic, … and he was actively firing in an erratic fashion at various vehicles along the road.”

RELATED: Thug reportedly with 131 prior arrests just got charged with setting homeless man on fire while victim slept

Two victims in separate vehicles were struck by gunfire, including a municipal bus driver who reportedly drove himself to the hospital after he was shot in the head, WFXT said.

Authorities added that a state police trooper — as well as a civilian described as a former Marine licensed to carry a firearm — moved toward the suspect while shots were being fired, WFXT said.

Officials said the suspect was struck multiple times in the lower extremities and treated at the scene, WFXT added.

Ryan noted that motorists abandoned their vehicles and ran in multiple directions as the shooting unfolded, WFXT reported, adding that some people reportedly took cover underneath their cars.

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​Cambridge, Judge janet l sanders, Lenient sentence, Massachusetts, Police, Rachael rollins, Repeat offender, Sentencing outrage, Shooting, Tyler e brown, Violent history, Crime, Politics 

Some Democrats refuse to believe their lying eyes, no matter how many attempts are made on Donald Trump’s life.

Despite a wounded Secret Service agent, a room full of witnesses evacuated from the premises, and video footage of a gunman on a rampage, a sizeable number of Democrats still do not believe anyone tried to kill President Trump at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner last month, a new poll shows.

According to a NewsGuard poll released Monday, 24% of respondents overall and 34% of Democrats believe the WHCD shooting was staged. Even 13% of Republicans believe it was staged.

Just 38% of respondents believe that all three attempts were real.

Those between the ages of 18 and 29 were the most likely to believe the event was staged.

And that’s not all. The poll also revealed that many Americans — 12% of respondents — believe that all three Trump assassination attempts are fake. At 55%, Democrats represent a majority of those who hold that belief.

Just 38% of respondents believe that all three attempts were real.

RELATED: 11 of the most shocking security breaches in US Secret Service history

Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Of note, would-be assassin Thomas Crooks was shot and killed by federal agents in Butler, Pennsylvania, in July 2024, but not before he struck Trump in the ear, murdered one man, and critically injured two others.

Would-be assassin Ryan Routh is serving a life sentence in federal prison after setting up a sniper’s nest near the sixth hole of the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach two months after the Butler shooting.

On Monday, the same day the poll was released, suspected WHCD shooter Cole Allen pled not guilty to one count of attempting to assassinate President Donald Trump, one count of assaulting a federal officer with a deadly weapon, and two counts of a gun charge.

Allen also faces the possibility of life in prison if convicted.

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​Donald trump, Assassination attempt, White house correspondents’ dinner, Butler, Politics 

As the United States navigates a fragile ceasefire in its conflict with Iran, the price of oil has remained volatile and high. Brent crude, the international benchmark, was trading at $104.21 per barrel at market close on Monday, nearly 57% higher than its pre-conflict price. Inflation has risen as a result and is in a territory it hasn’t been since 2023, according to an analysis by NBC News.

On Tuesday morning, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its monthly Consumer Price Index update for April. It reported that inflation in April was 3.8%.

A vast majority of Americans don’t trust either party to fix the economy.

The bureau stated in a press release that the rise in energy costs is responsible “for over 40% of the monthly all-items increase.”

In its report on the April inflation numbers, NBC News noted that in Friday’s April jobs report, average hourly earnings rose by 3.6% over the past year. This marks the first time since 2023, during the Biden administration, that wages have not kept pace with inflation.

Despite the runaway inflation of the Biden years, Democrat congressional leaders pounced on the inflation news. House Budget Committee Ranking Member Brendan Boyle (D-Penn.) said in a statement, “From his tariff taxes to his disastrous war in Iran, President Trump is making life even harder for American families. Today’s inflation data confirms what everyone can see: Costs are out of control.”

Republicans, on the other hand, are focused on the growth in jobs and the economy in general and reminding voters of the Biden-era inflation. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-Mo.) said, “While inflation has come down substantially since the 21% spike in prices seen when Democrats controlled all of Washington, American families are still looking for additional relief, and that is why Republicans acted to deliver the largest tax cuts in American history.”

Smith further highlighted the growth in GDP and hope that the new chairman of the Federal Reserve would be “a leader over monetary policy who understands that high interest rates have held back the true economic potential of our country.”

RELATED: The SAVE America Act won’t be enough to save the GOP from a midterm bloodbath

A consensus seems to be brewing among investment experts that unlike the broad-based inflation of the early part of the Biden presidency, this inflation could truly be transitory if energy prices come down.

“The report still showed only limited evidence of fully broad-based second-round inflation effects,” said Arielle Ingrassia, an investment specialist at Evelyn Partners, according to IFA magazine.

“That leaves the overall picture closer to an energy and transport shock than a full inflation spiral — at least for now.”

The inflation release Tuesday coincides with findings from a new CNN/SSRS poll that shows “roughly two-thirds of Americans say that Trump’s policies have worsened economic conditions in the country. And Trump’s approval rating stands at 30% on the economy, a career low,” according to CNN.

But Democrats do not fare well in this new polling either. A vast majority of Americans don’t trust either party to fix the economy.

As the nation heads into a midterm election being shaped by redistricting battles, Americans’ perceived economic outlook will continue to be a determining factor for the control of both the House and Senate in November.

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​Biden administration, Bureau of labor statistics, Consumer price index, Inflation, Interest rates, Iran, Jobs, President trump, Wages, Politics 

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) has a new solution for urban poverty: government-run grocery stores.

The plan, announced as part of his first 100 days in office, would spend roughly $70 million creating city-owned supermarkets across New York, beginning with a flagship location in East Harlem. The stores would operate through private contractors under city oversight, with subsidized staples — cheaper eggs, cheaper bread, cheaper basics — guaranteed by government rather than market competition.

Fast food, the supposed cheap fallback of the food-deprived, has out-inflated inflation itself and is now closer to a sit-down dinner than a quick bite.

Mamdani justifies this spending by invoking a persistent, infrequently examined assumption of liberal policymakers: that cities in America are riddled with blighted urban zones where fresh produce and healthy groceries remain frustratingly out of reach.

These are called “food deserts.”

Hunger games

Never mind that a quick look around the proposed East Harlem site reveals multiple grocery stores within walking distance, including produce markets sitting blocks from where the city plans to spend tens of millions constructing another one.

Yet the language persists. Reading recent coverage of America’s “food deserts,” you would be forgiven for thinking we have all woken up in the back half of “The Road,” scavenging tin cans in ash-choked ruins while a feral child clutches our pant leg.

ABC News informs us that 17 million Americans live in a federally designated food desert, a term so bleak it sounds like it should come with a Pulitzer and a black-and-white photo of a barefoot kid staring into the middle distance.

Tara Colton of New Jersey’s Economic Development Authority calls food deserts a product of structural racism, neighborhood redlining, and disinvestment — three abstractions stacked into one sentence, which is the literary equivalent of a turducken. Malcolm Gladwell is taking notes.

To be clear, there are real people in these stories who deserve real help. Take Knoxville, for instance, where an elderly disabled woman with a walker needs three to four hours to buy groceries. There are many like her. No car, no one to call when the fridge needs to be restocked.

But is that really a food problem, or is it a loneliness problem in disguise? A what-happened-to-neighbors problem? Whatever it is, it isn’t fixed by the nearest Kroger relocating two blocks closer, but by a person with transportation and 20 free minutes.

Couch-bound

Which brings us to the definition itself, because the definition is where this whole conversation instantly falls apart. Per the USDA, a food desert is a low-income area where residents live more than one mile from a supermarket in a city or 20 in the country.

The rural number is its own conversation. The urban one deserves a closer look. One mile. That is the apocalyptic threshold, the line past which we reach for the language of famine and structural decay. One mile is the distance between your couch and the place you were going to walk to anyway before you decided to “treat yourself” to DoorDash. There are CrossFit gyms charging $200 a month to make people walk farther than that carrying objects on purpose.

Then there is the part the hellscape correspondents won’t touch. A Big Mac combo now averages $9 nationally. A large pizza that feeds two or three people runs $15 to $20 before tip and delivery fee and the mysterious “service charge” that has crept onto every receipt in America. A medium fries alone is $4 now, a price point that used to get you the whole meal. Fast food, the supposed cheap fallback of the food-deprived, has out-inflated inflation itself and is now closer to a sit-down dinner than a quick bite.

Shop right

Meanwhile, in the so-called desert, a bag of dried lentils is $1.79. A pound of rice is a dollar. A dozen eggs, even after the great egg panic, is around $4 and gives you a week of breakfasts. Frozen vegetables, the great equalizer of American nutrition, run $2 or $3 at any Dollar Tree, which, surprise, exists in basically every “food desert” I’ve ever set foot in. A whole rotisserie chicken at Walmart is $5.97 and feeds a family for two days. A can of black beans is a dollar. An onion is 50 cents.

So when an able-bodied 28-year-old with a working car and a smartphone tells me he can’t eat healthy because he lives in a food desert, what he means is he doesn’t want to. He wants the Crunchwrap Supreme combo for $9. He wants the door to open and the food to be hot and the wrapper to crinkle.

That’s a preference, not a famine. Calling it a crisis is an insult to people who actually are in one — like, say, the woman with the walker — because it lumps her struggle in with some slob’s Tuesday-night laziness and gives both the same vocabulary.

Fertile ground

Either way, the term “food desert” seems deliberately designed to invoke panic. Maybe so taxpayers will look the other way when, say, New Jersey passes a $240 million Food Desert Relief Act and starts paying restaurants to deliver hot meals.

But there are no ash plumes. No one is barbecuing cats or plucking ducks from ponds. Well, very few are.

Battlefield Farm, a Knoxville nonprofit, understands this. It doesn’t tweet about food apartheid. Instead, it grows actual collards and drives them to actual people in an actual van. The company is planning a low-cost grocery store.

That’s the thing about real problems. They tend to have real, boring solutions, and they tend to require us to acknowledge reality before we can do anything about them.

The 53 million Americans the USDA classifies as having “limited” food access are not all starving in a wasteland. Most of them are within walking, biking, or one-bus distance of a place that sells apples and carrots. Most of them know this, and a lot of them are cooking meals right now. The ones who genuinely cannot get there need rides, ramps, and delivery — not a fatalistic op-ed painting America like a Ken Burns documentary nobody asked for.

​Food deserts, Make america healthy again, Zohran mamdani, Nutrition, Health, Battlefield farm, New jersey, Lifestyle 

Former President Joe Biden was stumbling long before he took office. He fell behind in the first three Democratic primary elections of 2020, placing fourth, fifth, and second, respectively.

James Clyburn, South Carolina’s lone Democratic congressman, is credited with turning things around for the campaign and propping Biden up by delivering him a timely endorsement and South Carolina’s delegates.

Now, Biden’s political crutch is poised to lose his own footing.

‘This fight is a straightforward, fair election versus Democrat manipulation.’

During a heated meeting on Tuesday, lawmakers on the South Carolina House Constitutional Laws Subcommittee discussed legislation that, if successfully passed by both chambers of the legislature and ratified by the governor, would ultimately redraw the Palmetto State’s congressional maps and eliminate Clyburn’s district.

During the public testimony portion of the meeting, wild-eyed opponents accused Republican lawmakers of engaging in “fascism,” killing democracy in the state, disenfranchising black voters, and diluting liberal voting power.

South Carolina Lt. Gov. Pamela Evette, among those who alternatively spoke in support of the legislation at the meeting, stated, “We have both the duty and the opportunity to maximize our conservative stronghold and ensure our people receive the representation they deserve, grounded in faith, freedom, family values, safe communities, and economic prosperity.”

RELATED: Virginia Democrats trying to force through illegal power-grab make ANOTHER humiliating mistake

South Carolina State House

“This fight is a straightforward, fair election versus Democrat manipulation,” Evette added.

The subcommittee ultimately signaled support for the legislation in a 3-2 vote that prompted heckles from the peanut gallery.

The full South Carolina House Judiciary Committee subsequently took up the matter.

Ahead of the state lawmakers’ meeting, President Donald Trump noted on Truth Social, “I’m watching closely, along with all Republicans across the Country who are counting on their Elected Leaders to use every Legal and Constitutional authority they have to stop the Radical Left Democrats from destroying our Country, including leveling the playing field against their decades of egregious Gerrymandering and Census Rigging.”

“South Carolina Republicans: BE BOLD AND COURAGEOUS, just like the Republicans of the Great State of Tennessee were last week!” Trump continued. “Move the U.S. House Primaries to August, leave the rest on the same schedule. Everything will be fine. GET IT DONE!”

Clyburn, now serving his 17th term and seeking re-election, is furious over the prospect of losing power.

In a series of tweets last week, the Democratic congressman complained, “Republicans are trying to break apart South Carolina’s 6th District. Not because voters demanded it, but because Donald Trump requested it.”

“This fight is bigger than one district,” Clyburn continued. “It’s about whether our democracy belongs to the people, or to politicians who change the rules when they don’t like the results. We cannot let them succeed.”

Clyburn was first elected to represent South Carolina’s 6th district after its borders were redrawn with the intention of making it a majority-black district.

Republicans are empowered to augment Clyburn’s district as the result of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Callais, where the high court struck down Louisiana’s 2024 congressional map as an unconstitutional racial gerrymander and made clear that redistricting should effectively be color-blind.

Clyburn briefly dropped the alarmist shtick during a recent CNN interview, where he admitted that he could potentially still get re-elected in a district that’s not a racial gerrymander.

The 85-year-old Democrat suggested further that other Democratic candidates could benefit from new maps, telling talking head Jake Tapper, “When they finish with the redistricting, there will be the possibilities of at least three Democrats getting elected here in South Carolina to the United States Congress.”

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​Callais, Clyburn, Democratic congressman, Former president joe biden, Jake tapper, James clyburn, Lt gov pamela evette, President donald trump, Racial gerrymander, Republican lawmakers, South carolina, State house, Subcommittee, Us supreme court, Politics 

The chances of a socialist democrat becoming mayor of Los Angeles appeared to collapse after Spencer Pratt obliterated her during their recent debate.

Pratt crushed City Councilwoman Nithya Raman when she tried to claim that her policies had succeeded in easing the homelessness crisis in L.A., and the moment went viral on social media soon afterward.

‘Before any polls or punditry, prediction markets quantified exactly what we all saw with our eyes: the Titanic hitting an iceberg.’

Although polling since the debate has not yet been released, the Kalshi prediction market documented that Raman’s chances to win the election have absolutely cratered.

At one point in late April, Kalshi predicted that Raman had an astounding 64% chance of winning the mayoral race. After the debate on Wednesday, her chances precipitously dropped to 14% — a loss of 50 percentage points.

Much of that may have been her unsteady and unsure performance during the debate. When challenged on homelessness, Raman stumbled after Pratt beat her down.

“The reality is, no matter how many beds you give these people, they are on super meth,” Pratt explained about the homelessness crisis. “They are on fentanyl. The DEA statistic says 93% of this is a drug addiction problem. I will go below the Harbor Freeway tomorrow with [Raman], and we can find some of these people she’s going to offer treatment for. She’s going to get stabbed in the neck!”

While some have doubted the value of prediction markets, BlazeTV host Stu Burguiere explained how they can be a leading indicator before polling can be completed.

“This is something that prediction markets do incredibly well,” he said. “Before any polls or punditry, prediction markets quantified exactly what we all saw with our eyes: the Titanic hitting an iceberg.”

He also pointed out that the large drop in her support was even worse than that of former President Joe Biden just before he dropped out of his re-election campaign in 2024.

“Joe Biden only dropped about 15 percentage points after his debate. That’s how bad she was,” said Burguiere of Raman.

RELATED: LA Times torched for trying to disqualify Pratt for mayor — because his home burned down

Raman has also pulled out of another mayoral debate, though she was preceded by incumbent L.A. Mayor Karen Bass and Pratt as well. The debate has since been canceled.

Polling before the debate had Pratt in second place with 10% support and Bass in first place with 25%, but another 40% remained undecided, keeping the election up in the air.

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​Los angeles mayoral election, Spencer pratt, Pratt vs nithya raman, Prediction markets, Politics 

Christian persecution is happening around the world, and in some places that you would never expect — including Mexico.

Open Doors US CEO Ryan Brown tells BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey that his organization has a World Watch List that tracks persecution across the globe, and what’s happening inside America’s southern neighbor is shocking, to say the least.

“One of the very also present realities there are with the cartels and organized crime,” Brown tells Stuckey, explaining that the cartels target Christians because the church is “bad for business.”

Christianity hurts the cartels, as it keeps young men from getting drafted into their ranks as well as stops potential drug or alcohol users from buying what they make their living on.

This is why many cartel leaders view the Christian church as a threat, and sometimes they “strike with violence” in retaliation.

One Christian church, Brown explains, was targeted by the cartel for not doing as they said.

“The cartels came in one night … with guns ablazing … and, you know, forced people out with the clothes on their back. They corralled them in a school building and held them captive there, wouldn’t allow them to escape, wanted people to see that they were being held there,” he recalls.

“There was one bucket in the middle of the room to utilize as the bathroom for a period of 10 days. No water provided. They had to drink water from puddles,” he continues.

There’s also an area of several states in Mexico called “the circle of silence.”

Geographically these states form a circle and represent an area where Christianity and Catholicism are not heavily represented.

“So, you know, there is not a strong presence of the church there to vocalize and to make the message of the gospel known. So, that’s one area of silence,” Brown tells Stuckey.

“They want no presence of Christianity there. They want it to be silenced,” he adds.

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​Captive hostages, Cartel leaders, Cartel targets, Christian persecution, Circle of silence, Gospel message, Mexican cartels, Mexico, Open door, Organized crime, Presence of church, Relatable with allie beth stuckey, Ryan brown, Silencing christianity, Targeted church, World watch list, Threat to cartel, The blaze, Blazetv, Blaze news, Blaze podcasts, Blaze podcast network, Blaze media, Blaze online, Blaze originals 

The Virginia Supreme Court sent Democrats into conniptions with a ruling on Friday striking down as unconstitutional a ballot measure that would have all but guaranteed their party another four seats in the U.S. Congress.

Democrats’ desperation to force through their illegal power-grab in the wake of the 4-3 decision now has them considering truly extreme options, including lowering the retirement age for justices on the Old Dominion’s high court, purging its current lineup, and stacking it with liberals.

‘Baby steps.’

While their comrades plot alternative ways of disenfranchising millions of Republican voters in Virginia, Democratic state officials are trying to get the U.S. Supreme Court to revive their gerrymandering initiative.

The Democrats behind the likely doomed petition are, however, having difficulties with spelling and differentiating between disparate courts.

Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones, House Speaker Don Scott, and President Pro Tempore of the Virginia Senate Louise Lucas filed a joint motion late on Friday asking the Old Dominion’s Supreme Court to delay its order invalidating the gerrymander referendum and the corresponding constitutional amendment proposed on the ballot while they appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Former Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares (R) highlighted a glaring spelling error in the court filing, which was submitted by state Solicitor General Tillman Breckenridge. Near the top, Virginia House of Delegates was spelled “Virgnia House of Delegates.”

RELATED: Democrats propose purging Virginia Supreme Court so they can force through illegal power-grab

Mike Kropf-Pool/Getty Images

Miyares wrote, “If you are going to appeal to SCOTUS maybe don’t misspell Virginia?”

Other keen observers — including Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon — pointed out that in the document, “senator” was spelled “sentator.”

Miyares continued: “This is a motion that has zero chance to succeed and is [a] Hail Mary to save face after wasting $70 million in political money and $10 million in taxpayer money on an illegal, unconstitutional gerrymandering amendment. This motion will be declared dead on arrival.”

Democratic Virginia officials — evidently willing to test Miyares’ theory that their motion “will be declared dead on arrival” — filed an emergency application on Monday with the U.S. Supreme Court, requesting a stay of the Virginia Supreme Court’s decision that they claimed was “deeply mistaken on two critical issues of federal law with profound practical importance to the Nation.”

The emergency application not only contained the Democratic officials’ previous embarrassing spelling mistakes but a brand-new error on the first page, referring to an “emergency application to the Supreme Court of Virginia,” rather than the Supreme Court of the United States.

“Good News: Dems managed to spell Virginia correctly,” Miyares wrote on Tuesday. “Bad News: They sent their emergency application to SCOTUS to the wrong court. Baby steps.”

U.S. Supreme Court

Miyares’ quip aside, the Virginia Democrats managed to get their mistitled petition to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Even still, Edward Whelan, a legal scholar and senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, discovered other possible problems. “Very weird that cover page states ‘On Emergency Application to the Supreme Court of Virginia,'” noted Whelan. “That’s the styling for a petition for a writ of certiorari, but it makes no sense to say that the emergency application is ‘to’ the Supreme Court of Virginia.”

But the greater blunder, suggested Whelan, is that the Democratic petitioners do not appear to be asking for the right relief.

“Even if the Supreme Court were to grant Virginia’s emergency application for a stay (it won’t), that would still leave in place the lower-court injunction that the state supreme court affirmed,” wrote Whelan.

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​Appeal, Assistant attorney general, Democrat, Democrats, Emergency application, Gerrymander, High court, Humiliation, Jay jones, Legal scholar, Political money, Richmond, Spelling error, Supreme court, Unconstitutional ballot measure, Us congress, Us supreme court, Virginia, Virginia attorney general, Virginia supreme court, Politics 

A large group of teenagers on e-bikes allegedly ganged up on a man who was riding a scooter with his wife on the boardwalk in Huntington Beach, California, over the weekend — and kicked and stomped him and hit him in the face with a glass bottle, KTLA-TV reported.

The Huntington Beach Police Department confirmed to KTLA that a report was taken in connection with the incident, which occurred around 8 p.m. Saturday in the area of 103 Pacific Coast Highway.

‘Come here on Friday night, on Saturday night. … It’s chaos; it’s terror.’

Sam El-Said — a business owner — told the station he and his wife were riding home when he noticed a few hundred teens, many of them with e-bikes, gathered on the beach, the boardwalk, and a nearby grassy area.

El-Said told KTLA he slowed down to navigate through the crowd, when someone threw a glass bottle that hit him in the face; he added to the station that bottle either shattered on impact or was already broken, and it left him with minor injuries.

After he stopped and got off his scooter to see what happened, El-Said told KTLA someone knocked him to the ground from behind, after which as many as six teens kicked and stomped him while he was down.

Cellphone video caught the final moments of the alleged attack, and it shows one teen dressed in a dark Playboy hoodie being pulled away from the victim, who was on his hands and knees in the sand.

Some teens are heard hooting and laughing on video during the aftermath of the attack.

KTLA said that when El-Said rose to his feet, blood was running down his face, red marks were visible near his left temple and cheekbone, and blood also was on the fingers of his left hand.

RELATED: Mom of teen thug arrested after body-slamming, head-stomping much smaller girl says he’s a ‘humble,’ ‘quiet’ Christian

Police told the station that El-Said was able to detain one of the teens involved, and that teen was arrested and cited for misdemeanor battery.

Authorities told KTLA that the victim declined medical treatment at the scene.

El-Said, who also suffered a black eye, noted to the station that he and his wife moved to Huntington Beach three years ago for a better quality of life — and the incident demonstrates to him that law enforcement needs to take a stronger stance against such crime.

“Come here on Friday night, on Saturday night, to this very spot and see what this looks like,” he told KTLA. “It’s chaos; it’s terror. If nothing happens and things don’t change, we’re going to keep seeing incidents like what happened to me, but far worse.”

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​California, E-bikes, Ebikes, Huntington beach, Man attacked, Misdemeanor battery, Physical attack, Teen arrested, Teen mob, Crime 

The U.S. Dept. of Justice announced that the mayor of a city in Southern California has agreed to plead guilty to operating as a spy for China for two years.

Arcadia Mayor Eileen Wang agreed to resign from office after she was federally charged with acting as an illegal agent for a foreign country, according to statements on the city’s website.

‘How many more are there?’

“Mayor Wang admitted to acting as a foreign agent from at least 2020 through 2022 — promoting PRC propaganda in the U.S. and acting at PRC’s direction to promote their interests,” wrote FBI Director Kash Patel on social media. “She has agreed to resign from office and plead guilty.”

Wang pled guilty in federal court in Los Angeles on Monday and now faces 10 years in prison, the New York Post reported.

Wang ran a website called the U.S. News Center that claimed to be a resource for the local Chinese-American community along with Yaoning “Mike” Sun.

Sun was Wang’s campaign manager and fiancé. Both admitted to receiving and executing “directives from PRC (People’s Republic of China) government officials to post pro-PRC content on the website.” They also “sometimes sought approval from PRC government officials to circulate other pro-PRC content,” the DOJ said in the plea agreement, according to ABC News.

In one example from Nov. 2021, Wang wanted to promote an article about the Chinese and Russian ambassador calling on Americans to respect the “democratic rights” of the PRC, the DOJ said.

A statement from the Arcadia City Manager Dominic Lazzaretto said that none of the spying activity was conducted while Wang was in office.

“We understand this news raises serious concerns, and we want to be direct with our community about what we know and where we stand,” wrote Lazzaretto on the city’s website.

“The allegations at the center of this case, that a foreign government sought to exert influence over a local elected official, are deeply troubling,” he added. “We want to be clear: This investigation concerns individual conduct, and the charges are for conduct that ceased after Ms. Wang was sworn into office in December 2022.”

Lazzaretto indicated no city actions need to be invalidated despite accusations that the mayor worked as a spy for China.

“Following an internal review, we can confirm that no city finances, staff, or decision-making processes were involved,” he added.

Sun had been arrested in Dec. 2024 on suspicion of conspiring with Chen Jun, aka John Chen, a Chinese national who had been convicted of federal crimes, as previously reported by Blaze News. Sun was convicted and sentenced to four years in prison in Jan. 2025.

RELATED: Retired Air Force major allegedly trained Chinese pilots — spying, hacking network involved

The alarming development bolstered critics of China, who warned about communist-funded infiltration into American society, including local governments as well as institutions of learning.

“How many more are there?” wondered Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah.

“Individuals elected to public office in the United States should act only for the people of the United States that they represent,” said John Eisenberg, the assistant attorney general for National Security.

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​Arcadia mayor eileen wang, Chinese spy convicted, Communist china infiltration, Socal chinese spy, Politics 

The Department of War has begun releasing the UFO files — and the most recent footage has left Americans questioning what they’re really seeing.

Ross Patterson of the “Drinkin’ Bros Podcast” tells BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales that conversations he’s had with insiders over the years have left him convinced that something far stranger may be happening behind the scenes.

“I’ve got some insight into this. It’s super weird,” he says, recalling a conversation with the late producer John Brenkus, who used to “host all of those UFO shows on Sci-Fi Channel for years.”

“I asked him, ‘Hey, let’s get real here. What’s the actual sitch?’ And he goes, ‘Look, do I think they’re manned by an alien, like a person?’”

“He goes, ‘No, I think the tech is so advanced. If they’re sending things here, … you don’t need to man that,’” he explains.

Patterson likens it to manning a drone, where there’s no risk of an occupant being injured.

And while he admits he’s “not a conspiracy dude,” he explains that some of the “crazier stories” he’s heard from “friends over there” involve “communication” with other “beings” over the years.

“They have a unique way of talking,” he tells Gonzales, noting that according to his source, it took years to figure out a code in order to communicate.

“I said, ‘Well, what were the conversations like?’” he recalls. “And they said it was mostly about energy and how they were able to use magnetic fields.”

While Patterson admits he doesn’t “know what’s real and what’s not,” there are a few theories he’s entertaining regarding the files — one of them being that their release is a “cover-up” to distract from the Epstein files.

“But I don’t know,” he says, adding that another theory is that “Hollywood has always been in communication with the White House and then pumping out movies to get Americans used to what’s coming.”

The most recent example is a new Steven Spielberg film about an alien encounter that will be released in June. The film is called “Disclosure Day,” which Spielberg himself said is “more truth than fiction.”

“He didn’t expand on it,” he adds.

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