Sergeant Derek Rogers, a 22-year veteran of the Canadian military who played trombone for the Canadian Central Command Band, took his wife of 20 years on a trip to Maine in 2002. It was the last trip they would take together because a pair of siblings of Sioux descent savagely beat Rogers to death while he was taking a stroll on the beach near the cottage his family rented.

On Tuesday, radicals in Bangor, Maine, elected one of Rogers’ killers, Angela Walker, to city council.

‘That’s my past.’

The 2,231 voters who cast ballots for Walker and the leftist group that endorsed her, Food and Medicine, were evidently willing to give her a pass for her history of violence and deception.

After all, it’s public record that Walker killed Rogers — a soldier known for his charity and devotion to the Salvation Army — participating in his bludgeoning and lethal force-feeding by sand, according to investigators. It’s also a matter of public record that she attempted to blame the killing on an innocent woman named Aimee Pelletier, who investigators later determined had not been at the scene.

Walker and her brother, Benjamin Humphrey, were originally charged with murder following the discovery of Rogers’ body by a fisherman on July 31, 2002.

When Humphrey pleaded guilty to manslaughter the following year, the victim’s sister, Lorna Simard, said, “I don’t feel that any plea bargain is justice,” reported the Associated Press.

Simard was ultimately denied the full measure of justice twice as Walker also managed to strike a plea deal.

RELATED: Candidate arrested for allegedly breaking into GOP rival’s Ohio home — just days before Election Day

Staff photo by Gregory Rec/Portland Press Herald via Getty Images

Walker pleaded guilty in 2003 to perjury as well as to killing Rogers in exchange for a reduced charge of manslaughter.

Robert Crowley, then-justice of the Maine Superior Court, reportedly sentenced Walker to 10 years in prison and gave her a five-year suspended sentence for committing perjury.

While Walker claimed that Rogers prompted her violent reaction by allegedly calling her a “squaw” — a claim Rogers’ family suggested was utter nonsense — Crowley emphasized the victim’s innocence, noting, “He didn’t do anything to contribute to his death, yet he lost his life.”

During her successful political campaign, Walker told the Bangor Daily News, “One of the big reasons that I want to run is because I feel like, with my lived experience and the work that I’ve done in a few different agencies in the area, that I can bring concerns of community members to City Council.”

The same perjurer who apparently helped stuff sand down a soldier’s throat until he died added that she hopes to “be the voice for people that can’t speak up or don’t speak up.”

As for Rogers’ horrific slaying, Walker said, “That’s my past. I don’t live there anymore, and I’m a different person.”

Former Bangor City Council chairwoman Sarah Nichols was among those who endorsed Walker, claiming “Angela has achieved positive results in her own recovery and has played a key role in projects that connect many people to crucial resources, supporting their recovery success.”

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An effort to restrict drag shows from performing sexually in front of children on public property was upheld by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday.

BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales praised the ruling as the vice president of the Texas Family Project, an organization that was involved in crafting the language of the bill.

‘To be clear, Texas children will not be sexually indoctrinated on our watch.’

“Texas Family Project has worked tirelessly to expose the ‘all-ages’ drag shows happening across the state because we knew no one would believe that scantily clad grown men were performing strip-club routines in front of young children unless we showed them directly,” she wrote in a statement to Blaze News.

“We worked with legislators to craft language that would hold up on appeal, and we are so thrilled with today’s long-awaited outcome,” she added. “To be clear, Texas children will not be sexually indoctrinated on our watch.

The ban had been blocked by a lower-court judge, but two of the three judges on the appeals panel ruled to restore the ban while the case proceeds through the court process.

The judges disagreed whether the performances were protected free speech under the First Amendment.

“We have genuine doubt … that pulsing prosthetic breasts in front of people, putting prosthetic breasts in people’s faces, and being spanked by audience members are actually constitutionally protected — especially in the presence of minors,” wrote Judge Kurt Engelhardt, joined by Judge Leslie Southwick.

Judge James Dennis partially dissented from the ruling.

“Drag — a costumed, choreographed, and frequently parodic performance that speaks in the idiom of gender — plainly participates in that protected tradition,” wrote Dennis. “The majority’s effort to collapse an entire art form into a few salacious acts turns these principles on their head.”

The ruling directs the lower court to review the case in light of a Supreme Court ruling on social media, but allows the ban to stay in place while the process plays out.

RELATED: Revolting discoveries from ‘all-ages’ Texas Pride festivals parents NEED to see

The Texas Family Project also released a statement about the ruling on social media.

“Texas law that prevents children from attending sexually explicit drag shows is now in effect!” read the statement. “We have worked for years exposing these events all over the state and the hard work has paid off! Thank you for your continued support of our mission.”

Judge Engelhardt was appointed by President Donald Trump, while Southwick was appointed by former President George W. Bush. Judge Dennis was appointed by former President Bill Clinton.

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​Drag shows in front of children, Family friendly drag show, Texas drag show ban, Politics, Sara gonzales 

The illegal alien whom a Wisconsin judge allegedly helped to evade Immigration and Customs Enforcement received his sentence for a criminal conviction following months in custody.

On Wednesday, Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, 31, was sentenced to time served and will be deported after being arrested by federal officials in Milwaukee in April.

Prosecutors claim Dugan escorted Eduardo and his lawyer out of the courtroom through a back door.

He pled guilty on September 4 to re-entering the United States, WTMJ reported.

U.S. District Judge Pamela Pepper handed down the sentence at a hearing on Wednesday following a plea deal including a promise to never return to the United States.

RELATED: Masked anti-ICE agitators are in for a rude awakening as new DHS policy goes into effect

Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images

According to the AP, Judge Pepper told Flores-Ruiz: “I very much hope you can find a way to make a living back home rather than coming back here.”

Flores-Ruiz will remain in custody until his deportation.

Flores-Ruiz’s attorney, Martin Pruhs, told the AP that his client was awaiting deportation in “the near future” but declined to provide further comment.

The full story, however, started more than seven months ago.

In March, ICE agents were alerted that Flores-Ruiz was due in court for three counts of battery. At a court appearance the following month in connection with the battery charges, Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan allegedly interfered with federal ICE agents who were attempting to arrest Flores-Ruiz at the conclusion of his hearing.

Prosecutors claim Dugan escorted Flores-Ruiz and his lawyer out of the courtroom through a back door on April 18. Flores-Ruiz was able to flee the agents on foot before his apprehension.

The following week, FBI Director Kash Patel announced Dugan’s arrest for obstruction, saying, in part, “Thankfully, our agents chased down the perp on foot, and he’s been in custody since, but the Judge’s obstruction created increased danger to the public.”

Dugan was indicted in May, and U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman denied a motion to dismiss the charges against her in August.

“There is no basis for granting immunity simply because some of the allegations in the indictment describe conduct that could be considered ‘part of a judge’s job,’” Adelman wrote in the order, according to WTMJ.

Dugan’s trial is scheduled for December 15.

Flores-Ruiz pled no contest to one count of battery in October. He was sentenced to time served in that case as well.

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Democratic lawmakers in the Illinois legislature have passed a bill that would legalize doctor-assisted suicide across the state.

The bill now awaiting Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker’s signature, SB 1950, originally started out as a measure concerning sanitary food preparation. The bill was, however, hollowed out then repurposed. Instead of keeping consumers healthy, the language was changed to expedite death — authorizing a qualified patient with a terminal disease to demand that their doctor prescribe a lethal dose of medication, thereby ending “the patient’s life in a peaceful manner.”

Catholic leaders in the state are among the bill’s loudest critics.

‘Now, they can prescribe death.’

In May, Cardinal Blase Cupich, the archbishop of Chicago, wrote, “I have to ask why, in a time when growing understanding of the deteriorating mental health of the U.S. population — and particularly among our youth — caused the country to create the 988 mental health crisis line, we would want to take this step to normalize suicide as a solution to life’s challenges.”

Cupich stressed that the Illinois legislature should explore options that instead “honor the dignity of human life and provide compassionate care to those experiencing life-ending illness.”

Bishop Thomas John Paprocki of the Diocese of Springfield stated after legislators ignored Cupich’s counsel and passed the bill in a 30-27 vote on Friday, “It is quite fitting that the forces of the culture of death in the Illinois General Assembly passed physician-assisted suicide on October 31 — a day that, culturally, has become synonymous with glorifying death and evil.”

RELATED: The total state will kill you for being old

Blaze Media Illustration

“It’s also ironic that these pro-death legislators did it under the cloud of darkness at 2:54 a.m. Make no mistake: killing oneself is not dying with dignity. Doctors take an oath to do no harm. Now, they can prescribe death,” the bishop continued. “Physician assisted suicide undermines the value of each person, especially the vulnerable, the poor, and those with disabilities.”

The Illinois Catholic Conference warned on Wednesday that the legalization of assisted suicide in Illinois will put the “state on a slippery path that jeopardizes the well-being of the poor and marginalized, especially those in the disability community and have foreseeable tragic consequences.”

The dangers and fallout of legalized assisted suicide are hardly hypothetical.

North of the border, Canada is weeks away from publishing its sixth annual report on so-called medical assistance in dying. While the official numbers have yet to be released accounting for all MAID deaths in 2024 nationwide, provincial data appear to indicate another year-over-year increase in state-facilitated slayings.

The federal government under former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau passed the Medical Assistance in Dying Act in 2016, legalizing euthanasia nationwide. Originally, applicants had to be 18 or older and suffering from a “grievous and irremediable medical condition” causing “enduring physical or psychological suffering that is intolerable” to them.

The state-facilitated suicide program has since been grossly liberalized such that the country’s eugenicist-founded health care system can now effectively execute those struggling with anxiety, autism, depression, economic woes, PTSD, and other survivable issues.

In its first year, MAID offed 1,108 Canadians. That number tripled the following year, and by 2021, the number had climbed to over 10,000 assisted-suicide deaths in a single year.

The Canadian think tank Cardus revealed last year that “MAiD in Canada is no longer unusual or rare. Federal predictions about the expected frequency of MAiD have significantly underestimated the numbers of Canadians who are dying by this means.”

As of 2022, MAID was tied with cerebrovascular diseases as the fifth leading cause of death in the country. The following year, state-facilitated suicide claimed the lives of 15,343 individuals, accounting for 4.7% of all deaths in the country.

‘Feeling like a burden can play on a patient’s decision to request and receive a MAiD death.’

Authorities in Nova Scotia, a province of just over 1 million souls, indicated to Blaze News that it saw a drop in completed MAID slayings last year. Whereas there were 380 slayings in 2023, there were allegedly only 169 in 2024, with 286 active cases and 71 recorded natural deaths prior to MAID.

This appears to be the exception, not the rule.

The nation’s more populous provinces have alternatively seen continued increases in MAID slayings.

British Columbia’s 2024 euthanasia data, for instance, indicate that there were 3,000 state-facilitated suicides in the province last year. While most of the victims were over the age of 65, 1.5% of those slain were between the ages of 18 and 45 and individuals who were not dying. In fact, among the conditions cited as reasons and/or contributing reasons for MAID were “frailty,” dementia, mental disorders, and unstated neurological conditions.

The Euthanasia Prevent Coalition noted that MAID deaths in B.C. were up over 8% from the previous year and accounted for 6.7% of all deaths in the province last year.

Alberta, a province of just over 5 million souls, recorded 1,117 deaths in 2024, representing a year-over-year increase of 14.3% and making its total MAID kill count 5,646 victims since 2016.

Data obtained by the MAiD in Canada Substack indicate that in 2024, Ontario had 4,957 deaths, representing an increase of 6.8% and making its grand total 23,333 victims since 2016.

Quebec reportedly had 6,058 MAID deaths last year, representing an increase of 6.4% and making its grand total over 26,000 victims since 2016. In addition to the growing number of deaths, there is apparently a growing cohort of doctors willing to dish out lethal doses in Quebec. A recent government report indicated that over 2,000 physicians were involved in the slayings, representing an 11% increase over the previous year.

Rebecca Vachon, health program director at Cardus, told Blaze News that “based on current reporting from the most populous provinces, we expect to see more than 16,500 ‘medical assistance in dying’ or euthanasia deaths in 2024, which is an increase from the 15,343 deaths reported in 2023. This will likely result in MAiD deaths constituting 5% of total deaths in Canada that year, which, as Cardus discussed in a report released last fall, is a far cry from the expectations set by the courts that MAiD would be for exceptional cases only.”

RELATED: ‘Stone-cold communism’: Canadian government seizes hospice center when staff refuses to allow euthanasia

Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images

The Canadian government released a report in 2020 indicating that the previous year, MAID resulted in a net cost reduction of over $86 million for provincial governments. The report additionally noted that further liberalization of the MAID program under Bill C-7, which was passed in March 2021, would result in an additional $62 million reduction in costs.

When asked whether MAID is being championed in part as a way to cut costs for Canada’s immigration-strained health care system, Vachon told Blaze News, “Regardless of intentions, the pressure that feeling like a burden can play on a patient’s decision to request and receive a MAiD death should not be understated.”

“For instance, Canadian MAiD providers report that almost 50% of the patients they helped die in 2023 reported feeling they were a burden on others — up 10% from the previous year,” Vachon said.

‘Illinois should be a state that offers compassion, care, and hope — not death — as the answer to human suffering.’

Polls conducted by Cardus in partnership with the Angus Reid Institute found that 62% of Canadians fear that those who are financially or socially vulnerable may consider state-facilitated suicide because of difficulties accessing adequate care, Vachon indicated.

The fear is justified given that 42% of all MAID deaths from 2019 to 2023 involved people who required disability supports. Of those victims, over 1,017 never received those supports.

“Canadians deserve care that alleviates their suffering and prevents it from becoming ‘unbearable,'” Vachon said.

Blaze News has reached out for comment to Prime Minister Mark Carney’s office as well as to the leaders of the New Democratic Party and Conservative Party, Don Davies and Pierre Poilievre.

While the slope has been greased in Canada and in states such as California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Vermont, and Washington, there’s still hope that Pritzker may reconsider, especially after he noted on Monday, “It was something that I didn’t expect and didn’t know it was going to be voted on, so we’re examining it even now.”

Rather than sign the bill, the Illinois Catholic Conference has implored Pritzker to “expand and improve on palliative care programs that offer expert assessment and management of pain and other symptoms.”

Bishop Paprocki noted, “Pray for Gov. Pritzker to reject this legislation. Illinois should be a state that offers compassion, care, and hope — not death — as the answer to human suffering.”

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Tucker Carlson’s interview with Nick Fuentes was supposed to be explosive. It wasn’t.

Far from normalizing Fuentes or advancing his strange brand of “right-wing” politics, the two-hour conversation exposed him as a shallow, aggrieved figure without the intellect or maturity to lead anything. Carlson didn’t destroy Fuentes with debate. He did something worse: He made him boring.

Fuentes built his notoriety as a young “influencer” who mixes nationalism with online provocation. He’s outspokenly racist, anti-Semitic, and obsessed with pushing the limits of shock. And he’s managed to attract a following among disaffected young men — the “Groypers.”

Fuentes’ interview marks his peak — and his decline. Once the outrage fades, he’ll return to obscurity.

In recent years, Fuentes has tried to rebrand himself as something somewhat more serious. He talks about immigration breaking working families, foreign wars enriching elites, and a culture that mocks masculinity. Those themes resonate because they tap real frustrations that many Americans share.

But Fuentes offers no coherent moral or political vision. Others — better read, more disciplined, and far less toxic — make similar arguments with insight and integrity. The late Charlie Kirk, for example, famously wanted nothing to do with Fuentes and his followers for precisely that reason.

The grudge-filled path

Carlson’s interview focused less on ideas than on Fuentes’ grievances. He recounted his early days as a libertarian campaigning for Ted Cruz in 2015, his shift to Trumpism, and his viral rise after a debate with a leftist opponent. Soon he was clashing with prominent conservatives, especially the Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro.

According to Fuentes, Shapiro and his allies sabotaged his career and drove him into exile on the “dark web.” At no point does Fuentes wonder whether Shapiro recognized instability and immaturity in him — or simply concluded that he wasn’t worth the investment.

Like many in his Gen Z cohort, Fuentes mistakes online engagement for substance. Without outrage, he has nothing. He’s poorly educated, reads little, and shrugs off legitimate criticism. The result is a young man trapped in perpetual adolescence, angry that the world won’t take him seriously.

Carlson’s indulgence

Carlson tries to humanize Fuentes, appealing to Christian charity and the value of learning from failure. But Fuentes clings to his score-settling. His list of enemies includes not just Shapiro but Charlie Kirk, Joe Kent, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) — and even Carlson himself, though he gets a temporary reprieve for offering the platform.

Carlson also attempts to rationalize Fuentes’ anti-Semitism, giving him space to “clarify.” Fuentes insists he doesn’t hate Jews personally — he just opposes Judaism as a “force against Western civilization.” He repeats conspiracy theories about Jewish control of institutions and denies the Holocaust.

Carlson pushes back, but only mildly. Both men protest that they “don’t hate Jews” and have Jewish friends, as if that were exculpatory. It isn’t. The exchange casts neither in a good light.

Empty provocateurs

The rest of the interview dissolves into incoherence. Fuentes casually praises Joseph Stalin, of all people, before the conversation fizzles. Carlson’s attempt to recast Fuentes as a misunderstood outsider backfires. The result is a portrait of a man whose only real claim to relevance is being disliked — and even that feels undeserved.

Carlson’s indulgence of fringe figures is becoming a pattern. Andrew Tate. Darryl Cooper. Now Fuentes. Each enjoys a sizeable online following built on provocation and grievance. And each, when pressed, collapses into self-pity and incoherence. These men are charlatans and grifters who don’t challenge the establishment; they merely rehearse falsehoods and conspiracy theories to raise their profiles among mostly lonely, disaffected young men.

RELATED: Tucker Carlson, Nick Fuentes, and the war for the conservative soul

Photo by NurPhoto via Getty Images

The decline of two brands

Fuentes’ interview marks his peak — and his decline. Once the outrage fades, he’ll return to obscurity, remembered mostly as a cautionary tale about what happens when empty charisma meets unearned confidence.

Carlson, meanwhile, risks following him down that path. His willingness to platform attention-seekers may boost short-term clicks, but it erodes long-term credibility. Each indulgence costs him a little more trust.

The tragedy isn’t just Fuentes’ wasted potential. It’s the spectacle of one of the right’s most talented communicators lending his megaphone to a man who long ago proved himself unworthy of it.

​Nick fuentes, Tucker carlson, Groypers, Charlie kirk, Opinion & analysis, Anti-semitism, First amendment, America first, Gen z, Loneliness, Young men, Andrew tate, Daryl cooper 

The mayor of a Kansas town who won re-election on Tuesday has been accused of election fraud for allegedly voting despite being a noncitizen.

Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach (R) announced the charges against Jose “Joe” Ceballos, the mayor of Coldwater, on Wednesday. The 54-year-old is a permanent resident of the U.S. but not a citizen, according to Kobach, and is a citizen of Mexico.

‘In large part, our system right now is based on trust. … In this case, we allege that Mr. Ceballos violated that trust.’

“Joe Ceballos, who garnered nearly 83% of the vote Tuesday for a second term as Coldwater mayor, was charged with three counts of voting without being qualified and three counts of election perjury,” Kobach said. “Both are felony offenses.”

“In Kansas, it is against the law to vote if you are not a U.S. citizen. We allege that Mr. Ceballos did it multiple times,” Kobach added.

If found guilty, Ceballos could face nearly five years in prison and a $200,000 fine.

“In large part, our system right now is based on trust,” Kobach said. “Trust that when the person signed the registration or signs the pollbooks saying that he’s a qualified elector or that he is a United States citizen, that the person is telling the truth. In this case, we allege that Mr. Ceballos violated that trust.”

The president of the Coldwater City Council released a statement before Kobach’s press conference on Facebook.

“While the recent allegations involving the mayor are understandably concerning, we will allow the proper legal process to take its course before making any further comments,” Britt Lenertz said. “It’s important that we respect both due process and the integrity of our local government.”

Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab said during the press conference that new resources provided by President Donald Trump allowed the administration to check voters’ citizenship status.

“They could be a legal resident, but they’re not a citizen, and we want to make sure that gets clarified,” said Schwab said. “If they voted, then it’s a crime. And we have run that system; we’re currently verifying. We don’t want any false positives, but, Attorney General, be prepared to be busy.”

RELATED: Online outrage erupts over video of illegal alien’s arrest in DC — then the horrific charges against him are revealed

The city attorney for Coldwater said that Ceballos raised some red flags after seeking citizenship status in February.

“He’s been a registered voter since 1990. He applied for citizenship in February of this year and, through that, raised the issue of whether he was a legal citizen,” said Skip Herd.

Ceballos was first elected mayor in 2021 and ran unopposed for re-election in 2025. The city attorney will determine whether he will be eligible to continue as mayor.

“As a mayor, he’s done a wonderful job,” continued Lenertz. “As a city councilmember, he’s done a wonderful job. He’s always put our community first in everything he does.”

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Zohran Mamdani is the first Muslim mayor of New York City, and while BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock is not happy, he’s also not surprised.

“He gets to say whatever he believes. He gets to come off as authentic. He gets to describe in detail, ‘If I’m the mayor, here’s what I want to do; here’s how I want your lives to change; here are the things that I think will improve New York City,” Whitlock says.

“But if you’re on the conservative side, if you’re on the biblical conservative side, they have framed up the conversation that if you say what you think should happen, you’re racist. If you say, ‘Man, we’ve got too many Muslims over here. Man, how did 80,000 people from Somalia end up in Minnesota? How did Ilhan Omar rise to power? Why are there people, lawmakers of ours, that have dual citizenship? How come we can’t execute an America First agenda?’” he continues.

“If you ask those questions, you’re intolerant, you’re racist, you’re anti-Semitic, and most of these people don’t want to deal with the consequences,” he adds.

And because most on the right fear being called these names, they don’t stand behind their true beliefs — and they’re less likely to win elections.

“The left gets to proudly, boldly, speak their worldview. The right has been trained that if you speak your worldview too boldly, we’ll do you the same way we did Trump. Here’s Donald Trump. He’s friends with every black rapper and celebrity and athlete for years, but we framed him up as a racist,” Whitlock says.

“Here’s Charlie Kirk, a devout Christian. We framed him up as racist. We can do it to you. And there’s been bullets fired at Donald Trump. There’s been attempts to incarcerate the man. And Charlie Kirk was shot in broad daylight in front of basically all of America and all the world,” he continues.

“And most people don’t want to pay that price. They don’t. They want to carry the cross only so far,” he adds.

Want more from Jason Whitlock?

To enjoy more fearless conversations at the crossroads of culture, faith, sports, and comedy with Jason Whitlock, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

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Second-year defensive end Marshawn Kneeland scored the first touchdown of his career on Monday night against the Arizona Cardinals. The Dallas Cowboys player recovered a blocked punt in the end zone, and although his team lost 27-17, it was the biggest play of his career.

With one sack and 12 tackles this year, the former Western Michigan player was certainly performing better statistically in his sophomore season than last year, after the Cowboys drafted him 56th overall in second round of the 2024 NFL Draft.

‘I still feel like she’s there watching over me.’

This made the Cowboys’ announcement Thursday that Kneeland is now deceased even more shocking.

“It is with extreme sadness that the Dallas Cowboys share that Marshawn Kneeland tragically passed away this morning,” the team said, per ESPN. “Marshawn was a beloved teammate and member of our organization. Our thoughts and prayers regarding Marshawn are with his girlfriend Catalina and his family.”

Sadly, Kneeland’s mother also recently passed away.

RELATED: LA Dodgers pitcher Blake Treinen puts Christian faith front and center during World Series: ‘Make heaven crowded’

After a successful college career, Kneeland was preparing for the NFL Draft when his mother passed away suddenly.

As reported by the Dallas Morning News, she passed from an undisclosed illness. Kneeland said at the time that he just found a way to manage the loss and said he always told her he would make it to the NFL.

“She’s still with me,” he said. “I got this urn of her ashes I carry with me everywhere. I still feel like she’s there watching over me.”

Kneeland subsequently carried the ashes in a necklace following the draft.

After the announcement of Kneeland’s sudden death, fans were understandably shocked.

“Bro scored a touchdown Monday night and 3 days later he’s gone. Life is crazy. I feel horrible for his family and friends,” one fan wrote on X.

“Rest in peace man, he had such an insanely bright future,” another fan replied.

Another noted that it was “hard to find the right words right now.”

The poster added, “Marshawn Kneeland wasn’t just an incredible athlete he was the kind of person who lifted everyone around him.”

‘… a pain I can hardly put into words.’

Kneeland’s agent, Jonathan Perzley, released a much more personal statement on the loss of his “dearest friend”: “I am shattered to confirm that my client and dearest friend Marshawn Kneeland passed away last night,” Perzley said, according to TMZ.

“I watched him fight his way from a hopeful kid at Western Michigan with a dream of being a respected professional for the Dallas Cowboys,” he added. “Marshawn poured his heart into every snap, every practice, and every moment on the field. To lose someone with his talent, spirit, and goodness is a pain I can hardly put into words.”

RELATED: Is Michael Jordan’s NBA halftime series a flop or a gold mine of insight?

— (@)

Frisco Police issued a subsequent press release saying that Kneeland’s death was being investigated as a suicide.

“A man was found deceased from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound following an outside agency vehicle pursuit that led to a multi-agency search in Frisco,” the department wrote on X.

The release said that reports indicated Kneeland had fled the scene of a car crash after evading troopers on the Dallas Parkway.

“During the course of the search, officers received information that Kneeland had expressed suicidal ideations,” Frisco PD wrote.

Kneeland was later located just after 1:30 a.m., dead by “what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound.”

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Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is working on identifying and tackling the root causes of America’s obesity epidemic. In the meantime, the Trump administration wants to make sure that Americans have access to affordable diabetes and weight-loss drugs, specifically glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists, better known as GLP-1 drugs.

To this end and as part of his months-long campaign to bring most-favored-nation prescription drug pricing to Americans, President Donald Trump has struck a deal with pharmaceutical giants Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk, the manufacturer of Ozempic, to cut prices on their weight-loss drugs in exchange for Medicare coverage.

A senior administration official indicated on Thursday that since Trump issued his most-favored-nation pricing executive order in May, GLP-1 drugs “have been top of mind” — not just because of the pharmaceuticals’ apparent cardiometabolic benefits “but also because this is, again, an issue of fairness.”

RELATED: How MAHA can really save American lives

IM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images

Per the terms of Trump’s deal with the two companies, “starting oral doses of GLP-1s will cost just $149 for everyone on Medicare, Medicaid, or Trump Rx,” said an official. “That’s roughly 1/9th of today’s list price.”

For Medicare, the manufacturers have reportedly agreed to reduce prices on GLP-1 drugs that are currently used for diabetes and other covered conditions to $245 per month across all other doses, added the official.

Savings generated by these price reductions will apparently be used to provide new coverage for GLP-1 drugs to patients struggling with obesity who face high metabolic or cardiovascular risk at the same monthly cost of $245.

As of 2020, over 100 million American adults were obese, and more than 22 million adults suffered from severe obesity, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

While the adult obesity rate reportedly declined from 39.9% in 2022 to 37% this year — representing roughly 7.6 million fewer obese adults — Gallup recently indicated that diagnoses of diabetes have reached an all-time high of 13.8%.

Amid the glut of diabetes cases, there has been a significant increase in the number of U.S. adults who report taking GLP-1 drugs — from 5.8% in February 2024 to 12.4% in the latest quarter of 2025. The three-year decline in obesity among most age groups appears to correspond with the embrace of the weight-loss drugs.

When asked roughly how many patients on Medicare and Medicaid would be impacted by these changes, another administration official noted that in Medicare, around 10% of the population will be eligible for the standard access. While the drugs are approved for a much broader population, access has been constrained for “patients that will benefit clinically from it.”

There will reportedly be three tiers of patients in Medicare who will have access to these drugs for the purposes of addressing obesity and driving “cardiometabolic improvement”: those with a body mass index greater than 27 kg/m² suffering from pre-diabetes or established cardiovascular disease; patients with a BMI greater than 30 who have uncontrolled hypertension, kidney disease, and/or heart failure; and individuals with a BMI exceeding 35.

‘We do not believe that GLP-1s or drugs alone are somehow some silver bullet.’

“This is about making America healthy again,” said the second official. “This is about preventing strokes, this is about preventing heart attacks, and this is about preventing end-stage renal disease.”

The officials acknowledged, however, that cheaper drugs do not amount to a long-term solution to the problem of obesity.

“Make no mistake: We’re in a war against obesity. We do not believe that GLP-1s or drugs alone are somehow some silver bullet to make the … country healthy again,” said one official. “They are an important jump-start.”

In exchange for their cooperation, the pharma giants are gaining additional access to beneficiaries who wouldn’t otherwise be covered by Medicare for obesity indications, certainty from the Trump administration on its approach to drug pricing moving forward, and a commitment to invest in American manufacturing.

One Trump administration official told reporters that this initiative is expected to ultimately be cost neutral, stating, “This is really a win-win on all sides — for taxpayers, for Medicare beneficiaries, as well as for the companies.”

Last month, Trump announced an agreement with AstraZeneca that would guarantee every state Medicaid program across the country most-favored-nation drug prices on the pharma giant’s products. The previous month, he announced a similar deal with Pfizer.

“In case after case, our citizens pay massively higher prices than other nations pay for the same exact pill, from the same factory, effectively subsidizing socialism [abroad] with skyrocketing prices at home,” Trump said in a statement. “So we would spend tremendous amounts of money in order to provide inexpensive drugs to another country. And when I say the price is different, you can see some examples where the price is beyond anything — four times, five times different.”

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​Donald trump, Obesity, Fat, Glp-1, Kennedy, Rfk, Health, Drugs, Most favored nation, Pharma, Pharmaceuticals, Eli lilly, Novo nordisk, Politics