Vice President JD Vance attended the 2026 March for Life in Washington, D.C., on Friday, during which he announced that the Trump administration had launched an investigation into Planned Parenthood affiliates.

The crowd began to chant “JD” as Vance stepped onto the stage. He recalled that his first speech as vice president was at last year’s March for Life.

‘You should not be able to commit fraud and use taxpayer money for abortion.’

“Some of you may remember that in my remarks last year, I told you all, one of the things I most wanted in the United States of America was more families and more babies. So, let the record show, you have a vice president who practices what he preaches,” Vance said, referring to the recent announcement that he and second lady Usha Vance are expecting their fourth child.

Vance credited Trump for selecting Supreme Court justices who delivered “the most important Supreme Court decision in my lifetime,” Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

Vance argued that Trump “shattered a 50-year culture of disposability … that treated human life as expendable the moment that it became inconvenient.”

“He empowered our nation and our movement to build a culture of life from the grassroots up. … Our vision is simple: We want life to thrive in the United States of America,” the vice president continued.

“We’re not trying to argue to the Supreme Court anymore. We are trying to argue to our fellow citizens that we must build up that culture of life,” he added.

RELATED: Nash Keen’s life proves the unborn deserve the law’s protection

Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Vance pledged that pro-life supporters have an ally in the Trump administration.

The vice president announced that the administration on Thursday launched a fraud investigation into Planned Parenthood affiliates for “millions of dollars” in Paycheck Protection Program loans that were “unlawfully received and unlawfully forgiven by the Biden administration.”

“You should not be able to commit fraud and use taxpayer money for abortion,” Vance remarked.

He also mentioned a “historic” expansion of the Mexico City Policy to block international organizations that promote or perform abortion abroad from receiving taxpayer money.

Ahead of Vance’s speech, the March for Life played recorded remarks from President Donald Trump.

“For 53 years, students, families, patriots, and believers have come to Washington from every corner of the country to defend the infinite worth and God-given dignity of every human life,” Trump told attendees. “Six years ago, I was proud to be the first president in history to attend this march in person. Since then, we have made unprecedented strides to protect innocent life and support the institution of the family like never before — there’s never been anything like it.”

“Under the Trump administration, we’re strongly defending religious liberty. We’re bringing back faith in America. We’re bringing back God,” Trump added.

RELATED: ‘Federal dollars should not pay for abortion, period’: Sen. Cassidy doubles down on Hyde, abortion pill restrictions

Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

A Thursday press release from the Small Business Administration stated that the agency is reviewing more than $88 million in PPP loans provided to Planned Parenthood affiliates. The agency noted that it sent letters to 38 Planned Parenthood organizations requiring documentation proving their eligibility to receive the relief funds.

Melanie Newman, Planned Parenthood’s chief external affairs officer, issued a statement responding to the SBA’s action.

“Planned Parenthood member organizations follow the law — and previous investigations prove it,” Newman stated. “These latest politically motivated intimidation tactics are about the Trump administration finding every possible avenue to shut down Planned Parenthood health centers and make it harder for people to get high-quality health care from their trusted Planned Parenthood provider. That’s it.”

“And that’s what the Trump administration and its allies are focusing on today: shutting down Planned Parenthood health centers. Meanwhile, all across the country, people can’t afford to see a doctor; the hospitals they rely on are closing; even basic groceries are too expensive,” Newman said. “That’s what the Small Business Administration should be working on: making people’s lives better. Instead, they’re hellbent on making them worse.”

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​News, Jd vance, Vance, Trump administration, Trump admin, Donald trump, Trump, March for life, Washington dc, Dc, Pro-life, Abortion, Planned parenthood, Culture of life, Politics 

When BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales decided to knock on the door of a home that she believes to be committing H-1B fraud, she wasn’t sure what she was going to find. And what she stumbled upon was strange, to say the least.

“The Indian scammers, news alert, they didn’t like it so much,” Gonzales jokes.

In a video of the confrontation, Gonzales is standing on the doorstep asking where the H-1B workers who are working for the company — whose address happens to be a residential home — are, while an Indian man, who appears to be the homeowner, steps outside and threatens to call the cops.

This company is called Qubitz Tech Systems LLC, which has 13 H-1B visas approved.

“Somebody is knocking on my door and then they are like threatening me,” the man said into his phone after dialing 911.

“I’m not threatening you, sir,” Gonzales responded.

And Gonzales is confident that this is just the tip of the iceberg with how much fraud there is going on in America.

This also isn’t the only company that appears to be committing H-1B fraud. 3BEES Technologies is another Texas company Gonzales looked into, which had 27 H-1B visas approved between 2022 and 2025.

When Gonzales went to the address listed for this particular company, she found an empty, under-construction office space with no signs of life.

“We exposed how many people, as it turns out, are creating phony companies, shell companies, so that they can import thousands upon thousands of workers into our country and then come here and suck up all of our resources,” Gonzales says.

“This problem doesn’t exist in a vacuum,” Gonzales says. “There are probably an insane amount of companies who are pulling this off. They’re going completely undetected by the government. Which, my question to the government is, where is USCIS on this matter?”

“If little old me can just go on the government website and pull these addresses and match them up and see if it looks legit, why isn’t the government doing that?” she asks.

“Look around you, look around your communities,” she says, adding, “tell me that this isn’t a much larger issue that’s happening intentionally by using loopholes and gaps in our visa system.”

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While video game player demographics are split almost down the middle — 53% male and 47% female — the gap is vastly wider when it comes to esports. Men dominate the category, taking up 95% of the available spots in game tournaments, while women only account for 5%. So what happens when a skilled male player gets paired with a less experienced group of girl gamers with a $12,000 grand prize on the line? Naturally, they kick him off the team in the name of misogyny.

What happened?

On January 18, 2026, streamer Kingsman265 went live on his channel as he met up with several other players in preparation for a Marvel Rivals tournament with a prize pool of $40,000, with $12,000 going to the winning team to be split among four players. As a rank 1 player himself, Kingsman265 had his eyes set on the prize money, which he planned to use to pay his college tuition, and he actually had a solid shot at winning it. However, during a practice match before the tournament, he quickly realized that his teammates were more interested in feminist politics than in winning.

Proof that he knew what he was doing, his warnings were positioned as insults.

The rest of the team was composed of three female players named Cece, Zazzastack, and Luciyasa. Kingsman265 quickly suggested a change to the team’s character lineup, recommending that they run a triple support setup to give their team the best shot at victory. The pushback was immediate, as the female players rejected his warnings, opting to play with characters they were familiar with instead of using a loadout that was more effective, especially in a tournament setting.

Things went downhill from there. Tensions rose at several points throughout the video, with Cece telling him to shut up after he pleaded his case for a triple support setup, even after he explained that they would lose without it. Another teammate told him to “shut the f**k up” after they lost a practice match, a moment that vindicated Kingsman265, as it displayed the team’s vulnerabilities in real time. Then Cece ended with “this is f**king getting annoying” as Kingsman265 continued to urge the team to change their strategy, to no avail.

The team went their separate ways to play ranked games apart for the night. Shortly after, Kingsman265 learned that he was kicked out of the tournament entirely by the organizer, BasimZB, for his allegedly “toxic” behavior. Basim later admitted that he made the wrong decision based on “misinformation” from Cece and her team.

Kingsman265 was ultimately relegated to the sidelines for the Marvel Rivals tournament, leaving him behind to watch his team get knocked out in the first round, proving that his instincts around their character lineup were correct.

The fallout

As the male gamer in this situation, Kingsman265 was made to look like the bad guy. He was unceremoniously kicked out of the tournament due to his “toxicity” in ganging up on three girl gamers as he tried to spur them to victory. Instead of recognition that his skills, knowledge, and ranking were proof that he knew what he was doing, his warnings were positioned as insults.

RELATED: 25 years later, the gaming console that caused so much chaos is still No. 1

Photo By Eduardo Parra/Europa Press via Getty Images

It wasn’t until Kingsman265 posted his video of the practice match, along with a conversation between Cece and himself dubbed the Cece Files, that the truth came to light. Not only did Cece and her team want Kingsman265 to be banned from the tournament, but they conspired to remove him, claiming that “there are plenty of people in line who are just as good. Kingsman, like everybody else, is replaceable.”

The aftermath was swift, with the internet quickly turning on the female team in favor of Kingsman265. Despite telling anyone who saw the video not to harass Cece and company, the message exchange between them shows that the internet has no tolerance for liars. She begged Kingsman265 to take down the video — or, at the very least, cut out the incriminating parts that made her and the team look guilty — but he refused, noting that it was a legitimate video. Cece lost several sponsorship deals and partnerships for her behavior.

All’s well that ends well

The whole debacle cost Kingsman265 his shot at a $3,000 grand prize to help pay off his college debt, but what came next was even sweeter. Once he was exonerated of any wrongdoing, Kingsman265 saw a huge boost to his channel, netting 139,000 followers on Twitch (and counting), 10,000 paying subscribers, and instant acceptance into the Twitch Partner Program, which will allow him to earn money for streaming online. As an added bonus, he received more than $3,000 in donations from supporters, surpassing the amount he would have earned from winning the Marvel Rivals tournament, and Marvel Rivals developer NetEase even sent him credits to buy skins for his character.

The good guy won in the end, leaving the all-girls team with a major loss in the tournament, loss in internet clout, and loss in their streaming careers. All of it could have been avoided if they had not made Kingsman265 out to be the toxic misogynist that he wasn’t, but if that had happened, his own gaming career wouldn’t be rocketing through the stratosphere at this very moment.

What happens online lives forever — the lies that are told and the truth that comes through in 4K — and the consequences are unavoidable. This is why it is always important to keep your receipts when tension erupts on the internet. You never know when you’ll have to defend yourself against cheats and liars who think they control the narrative.

​Tech, Culture 

The Australian Open has become about politics instead of tennis, thanks to one reporter’s questions.

As men and women have won matches at the tournament in Melbourne, Australia, a male reporter has consistently popped up to ask players about their feelings about current U.S. politics.

‘We are very diverse, we are a home of immigrants.’

“I’ve been asking a lot of the American players just how it feels to play under the American flag right now. And I’m curious how you feel,” the man asked No.4-ranked Amanda Anisimova on Wednesday, with noted vocal fry.

Anisimova was praised for shutting the questions down, but it turns out the same reporter has asked the same divisive question to at least four other American tennis players.

The Women’s Tennis Association’s No.6-ranked Jessica Pegula faced almost the same question on Wednesday, though more specifically about living in Florida.

Pegula’s answer likely won’t please nationalists as much as Anisimova’s did.

“Personally Florida’s been, I think, OK. I think Florida, there’s a big melting pot of different people from all over, in Florida,” the 31-year-old went on. “So I feel like especially me being in South Florida, near Miami, I mean, there’s people of all over the country that come to move to Florida, and there’s a lot of international people that are there. I don’t know if that’s maybe why you kind of get a lot of different cultural differences in a good way honestly.”

RELATED: ‘I don’t think that’s relevant’: American tennis star shuts down reporters fishing for anti-Trump answers

The reporter, who is alleged by several outlets such as Breitbart and Yahoo to likely be the Athletic’s Owen Lewis, has not publicly confirmed he has asked the questions despite sharing that he has been in Australia covering the event.

Next up was men’s No.9-ranked Taylor Fritz from California, who on Thursday had just completed a second-round win. Fritz buried his head in his hands as he answered the question, albeit reluctantly.

“Not sure what we’re, like, specifically talking about, but there is a lot going on in the U.S., and I don’t know, I feel like whatever I say here is going to get put in a headline, and it’s going to get taken out of context,” he groaned. “So I’d really rather not do something that’s going to cause a big distraction for me in the middle of the tournament.”

On Thursday, No.9-ranked female Madison Keys from Illinois faced the reporter. Her reaction was much more progressive than her compatriots, saying, “I’m not a fan of divisiveness, and I think the beauty of the U.S. is we are a mixing pot.”

“We are very diverse, we are a home of immigrants. And I hope that we can get back to those values,” she added.

RELATED: ‘It’s not fair’: No. 1 women’s tennis player states obvious truth about transgender athletes in women’s sports

No.3-ranked woman and Florida native Coco Gauff took it a step further by bringing race politics into the mix with her response.

Gauff initially said she feels “a bit fatigued talking about it.”

She then claimed, “It is hard, also I think, being a black woman in this country and having to experience things, even online.”

She argued that “marginalized communities” are being affected, and the only thing she can do is “donate and speak out.”

Gauff then cited the fact that she posted a Martin Luther King Jr. video online recently and said, “We must keep moving forward,” as an example of her activism.

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​Tennis, Trump, Australia, Americans, Woke, Journalist, Politics 

Everyone who lived in Dallas five years ago remembers the record-setting snowstorm in February 2021, and with a forecast that suggests similar weather coming up this weekend, many people aren’t taking any chances.

The storm in 2021 shut down the city for nearly a week, thanks to the roads icing over and limited equipment to respond to a weather event of that magnitude. Power outages shook the state, and disastrous accidents were caused by ice on the highways.

These factors, among others, led to shortages at the grocery stores, a fact many people have now recalled as they look at the upcoming forecast.

I found myself on a quest to find fruit, primarily apples and bananas, for smoothies on what could likely be one of the busiest days for area grocery stores this year. Here are some of the photos I took, which reminded me not so much of February 2021 as of March 2020, the beginning of the pandemic — yes, including carts full of toilet paper.

These photos were taken at an Aldi and a Walmart in Irving, Texas, on the evening of January 22, 2026.

Aldi

The shelf usually stocked with bread was almost entirely bare at AldiCooper Williamson

The bagel shelf, opposite the larger bread shelf, was similarly picked clean. Cooper Williamson

Before Aldi, I got most of my other groceries at Sam’s Club, which was packed but largely well stocked — except for the shopping carts. There were no shopping carts in the reserves at the entrance; they were all being used or in the parking lot.

As I waited in line for a slice of pizza before I began my shopping, I watched helplessly as a man snuck up and grabbed the cart that I had parked near the cafe. Back to the parking lot for another one.

The meat aisle was nearly empty.Cooper Williamson

Luckily, I had done most of my shopping at Sam’s Club and didn’t need any sandwich materials. Aldi was nearly clean out of all of them.

RELATED: Here’s what SHOCKED liberals the most when they tried to panic-buy guns in California

The bacon, butter, and yogurt sections.Cooper Williamson

But Sam’s wasn’t immune to the panic-buying hive mind that had overtaken all of Dallas. I was at Aldi because Sam’s too had been raided of all of its apples and bananas.

The best the stores had to offer at this point were some of the worst relatives of these coveted fruits.

There was not a single case of bottled water left in the store. Cooper Williamson

From a distance, I thought I had found the key ingredient for my smoothies after much searching. However, to my disappointment, what I thought were bananas turned out to be plantains — and there were no bananas in the store whatsoever.

No bananas to be found in the grocery store; only some ripe plantains. Cooper Williamson

Despite my failure to find bananas at Aldi, I had come too far and would not be denied. I ventured to Walmart, which proved to be even more chaotic than Aldi.

Walmart

Forced to park all the way in the back of the parking lot due to the crowds, I didn’t know what to expect as I walked into Walmart. Walking in, however, I quickly surmised that it would be similar to, if not worse than, Aldi. I ended up looking around the aisles to see what people were grabbing at the highest rate. Here are some of the Dallas snowstorm preppers’ favorites.

The poultry section was cleaned out. Cooper Williamson

Several varieties of milk were missing. Cooper Williamson

Like Aldi, the usually full aisle of bottled water packages was barren. Cooper Williamson

Americans love their vegetable oil. Cooper Williamson

Finally, I circled back to the produce section. At first, I was worried that I wouldn’t find any bananas when I saw entire shelves that looked like they had been raided hours before.

Crates of assorted fruits, some entirely empty. Cooper Williamson

The vegetable display showed which vegetables Americans would be willing to part with for a week or so. Cooper Williamson

However, in the midst of the empty shelves sat a display of bananas. Even this display, though stocked, was missing half of its capacity.

Caught up in the exciting moment of discovery, I forgot to get a photo of them, though I gladly spent the 86 cents for a bunch and readily made my way home after a long five hours of shopping.

The panic consensus

As I sit here writing this article on the morning of January 23, sipping on a green smoothie (bananas, apples, and all), I wonder whether this is the new reality. I wonder whether every time the forecast warns of a snowstorm, Southern states like Texas will overreact like the last few times we have gotten a storm forecast.

I complained earlier that it took me most of an evening to get all of my shopping done. While it’s true that I am a picky eater and not a very efficient shopper, it is astounding that it took going to four stores (yes, I also went to the Kroger near the Aldi to get romaine and apples for the smoothie) over the course of five hours to find a bunch of bananas.

In bad weather, it is true that the roads are only as safe as the people driving the cars. Growing up in Colorado, a place that gets a lot more snow, I always found it strange that Texas can’t handle a few inches of snow. And I also don’t remember people panic-buying food and water like they were preparing for a hurricane before the pandemic.

Perhaps this is just another reminder that the preppers aren’t as crazy as people make them out to be. I certainly don’t want to repeat my quest to the grocery store on the eve of the next cold front moving through Dallas.

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​News, Walmart, Aldi, Covid, Grocery stores, Storm prep, Grocery, Winter storm, January 2021, March 2020, Lifestyle, Freezing texas 

China’s aggression in the Indo-Pacific no longer comes in bursts. It has become dangerous and systematic for America.

A recent long-range patrol by Chinese forces, conducted alongside Russia, prompted Japan to scramble fighter jets. It marked the latest in a string of incidents after months of heightened Chinese military activity around the Senkaku Islands.

If Washington and Tokyo keep strengthening this partnership, they can make the Indo-Pacific more difficult for Beijing to bully and far more stable for everyone who depends on it.

These shows of force don’t happen by accident. China uses them to normalize military pressure, probe red lines, and test the unity of U.S.-led alliances.

This latest episode also made one thing clear, at least: The Trump administration is watching closely.

In a visible show of solidarity with Tokyo, U.S. strategic bombers joined Japanese fighter aircraft for high-profile drills. Days earlier, Chinese military aircraft conducted takeoffs and landings inside Japan’s air defense identification zone and shadowed Japanese aircraft with their radar off near Okinawa. Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s State Department expressed concern and reaffirmed its commitment to a “strong and more united” U.S.-Japan alliance.

Washington increasingly recognizes what Tokyo has understood for years: China’s behavior doesn’t just destabilize the region. It challenges the security order that has kept the Indo-Pacific from tipping into open conflict.

That reality puts a premium on reliable partnerships. No partnership matters more than the U.S.-Japan alliance.

Nowhere does that matter more than Taiwan. China’s large-scale military exercises, dubbed Justice Mission 2025, have pushed tensions in the Taiwan Strait to the highest levels in decades. Beijing aims to intimidate Taipei, warn off “external interference,” and alter the status quo through pressure rather than persuasion.

The Trump administration’s National Security Strategy arrived in that environment. While headlines still focus on Europe and the Middle East, the document makes the administration’s priorities clear: The Indo-Pacific remains central to U.S. strategy.

The NSS describes the Indo-Pacific as a critical economic hub that accounts for nearly half of global GDP. It commits the United States to a “free and open” Indo-Pacific by securing sea lanes and upholding international law.

RELATED: Inside China’s plan to beat the US at big tech forever

MF3d via iStock/Getty Images

That framework didn’t start in Washington. Japan first advanced the concept of a free and open Indo-Pacific, and the region later adopted it through partnerships such as the Quad — the informal grouping of the United States, Japan, India, and Australia.

Rather than announcing a new direction, the NSS reinforces a familiar one: Alliances form the core of deterring China. Unlike the Trump playbook in Ukraine, the administration treats alliances as the bedrock of Indo-Pacific security against Beijing’s expanding military reach.

Japan sits at the heart of that network.

China pressures Japan across its waters and airspace, making Tokyo a frontline state. Japan also serves as the United States’ indispensable partner in the region, with basing, interoperability, and shared strategy that no other ally can match at the same scale. Under new conservative leadership, Japan has begun acting with urgency.

Japan’s defense minister, Shinjiro Koizumi, has emphasized that urgency, warning that the country now faces its most severe security environment since World War II. Japan has deepened coordination with the U.S. and other like-minded partners while strengthening its military capabilities by accelerating security reforms and easing restrictions on defense equipment transfers.

Japan has also moved up its plan to raise defense spending to 2% of GDP — from 2027 to now. That headline matters less than where the money goes.

Tokyo has prioritized capabilities suited for a long-term, high-risk environment: unmanned aerial vehicles, expanded surveillance platforms, and submarines equipped with vertical-launch missile systems.

RELATED: Hypersonic missiles are the new arms race. Can America catch up?

Photo by GREG BAKER/AFP via Getty Images

Japan’s objective looks straightforward. It aims to become a more capable military partner that complements U.S. forces rather than relying on them by default. That shift aligns with President Trump’s demand that allies reduce dependence on American power by strengthening their own defense industries and readiness.

The U.S.-Japan alliance has also moved beyond drills and declarations toward defense-industrial cooperation. Expanded maintenance and repair coordination, along with eased export controls, have begun laying the groundwork for a durable security partnership.

This collaboration marks a shift from rhetoric to endurance. Aligning strategy with industrial capacity won’t eliminate risk. It will raise the cost of Chinese coercion and reduce the chances that Beijing miscalculates.

Koizumi has stressed that 80 years after World War II, the U.S.-Japan alliance still embodies reconciliation and remains the best instrument to deter China’s rising aggression.

If Washington and Tokyo keep strengthening this partnership — in capability, production, and resolve — they can make the Indo-Pacific more difficult for Beijing to bully and far more stable for everyone who depends on it.

​Opinion & analysis, China, U.s.-japan alliance, Pacific, Islands, Tariffs, Deterrence, Globalism, Strategy, Gdp, Imperialism 

​Culture, Humor, Quick draw, Politics, Culture war, Death, Family, Social security 

When Justine Damond was shot by a Somalian police officer in Minneapolis, there were no riots or protests in her name.

Damond, a white woman, had called the police for help, but when they showed up, she was shot instead. The Somalian officer who fired his weapon claimed to have been spooked.

“For these people — for Black Lives Matter, for these left-wing agitators — it’s never about the victims. It’s not really about violence or injustice. It’s about the system. It’s about the belief that these activists have that America and its institutions are oppressive and unjust,” BlazeTV host Allie Beth Stuckey comments on “Relatable.”

“And anyone who upholds these institutions, like the church — especially the Protestant church in America, who is still overwhelmingly conservative — is seen as an enemy,” she says, explaining that this was the entire reason former CNN anchor Don Lemon alongside Black Lives Matter activists stormed a church in protest of the ICE shooting of Renee Good.

“This demonstration … was not about Renee Good, or even the Somalians, or even any of the illegal aliens there. These were just — the exposing of the Somalian fraud, the killing of Renee Good — they were the trigger incidents used by these activists to justify terrorizing Christians and conservatives and anyone who stands in their way,” Stuckey explains.

“2020 wasn’t about George Floyd. 2026 is not about Renee Good. Understand this. It is about intentionally sowing chaos to ultimately weaken America and Western civilization. That is what George Soros and all of his funded initiatives and groups want to do,” she says.

Stuckey points out that the protest at Cities Church was livestreamed by Black Lives Matter — a group that received $90 million from the Soros-backed Tides Foundation just a few years ago.

And according to the New York Post, the Invisible Twin Cities group, which received $7.8 million from George Soros Open Society Foundations between 2018 and 2023, is behind the anti-ICE protests in Minneapolis.

“They’re not good people,” Stuckey says. “So you have to think: Why would they fund anti-ICE protests? It’s because they hate America. America stands in the way of what they want to do.”

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Republican lawmakers, the Arizona Police Association, and the Trump administration castigated Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes (D) this week over her suggestion that it may be reasonable to shoot masked U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

Mayes made no secret of her contempt for ICE in her interview with KPNX-TV’s Brahm Resnik, suggesting, for instance, that ICE officers are engaged in “thuggish, brutish behavior” and causing chaos, confusion, and anxiety in Minneapolis.

‘How do you know they are a peace officer?’

“It’s a combustible situation, let’s be clear about that,” said Mayes. “It’s a combustible situation being caused by ICE right now, wearing masks.”

After noting that she was “outraged and sickened” to see ICE agents outside her building and claiming that “real cops don’t wear masks,” the Democrat — who is seeking re-election — made a point of stressing that Arizona is a “stand your ground state.”

“We also have a lot of guns in Arizona,” she said with a smile.

“You know, it’s kind of a recipe for disaster because you have these masked federal officers with very little identification, sometimes no identification, wearing plain clothes and masks, and we have a stand your ground law that says that if you reasonably believe that your life is in danger and you are in your house or your car or on your property, that you can defend yourself with lethal force.”

Resnik pumped the brakes and said, “I want to be careful with that and understand what you are saying because you know how that could be interpreted.”

RELATED: Anti-ICE radical who took credit for the invasion of Minnesota church ARRESTED by feds

(Photo by Mostafa Bassim/Anadolu via Getty Image

“But it’s the fact,” said Mayes.

While Mayes clarified that you still cannot gun down peace officers in the Grand Canyon State and that she was not giving anyone license to start doing so, she appeared to give would-be killers an excuse, stating, “How do you know they’re a peace officer?”

“If there’s a situation where somebody pulls out their gun because they know Arizona is a stand your ground state, then it becomes ‘did they reasonably know that they were a peace officer?'” said Arizona’s top law enforcement officer.

When Resnik once more pressed her for clarification that she was not “telling folks you have license if you are threatened,” Mayes said, “Well,” and smirked.

“No,” she continued, “but again, if you’re being attacked by someone who is not identified as a peace officer, how do you know?”

Republican Arizona Rep. David Schweikert noted, “Let’s not pretend this was some careful legal seminar.”

“This was the attorney general of Arizona freelancing a scenario where bullets start flying and then shrugging it off as ‘just the law.’ That is reckless on its face,” wrote Schweikert. “If your job is to enforce the law, you do not go on TV and hand out a permission structure for violence, then act surprised when people hear it as a green light. Words matter. Especially when they come from the state’s top lawyer.”

Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen (R), who is running for state attorney general, noted, “Mayes should be fully aware of her dangerous rhetoric — and how people will construe, apply, and execute her comments. Mayes’ comments were reckless, dangerous, and disqualifying.”

The Arizona Police Association also condemned Mayes’ remarks, emphasizing that “words from elected officials matter.”

APA Executive Director Joe Clure stated that the Democrat’s framing was “deeply troubling and dangerous” especially as “law enforcement officers at every level including state, local, and federal agencies do not always wear traditional uniforms” — including members of Mayes’ own investigative teams.

“This does not diminish their legal authority or status as law enforcement,” said Clure. “Publicly speculating about how someone might legally justify shooting an ICE agent sends a dangerous and irresponsible message, particularly in an already tense and polarized environment.”

Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told the New York Post, “This is [a] direct threat calling for violence against our law enforcement officers — this kind of rhetoric is going to get someone killed.”

Blaze News has reached out the Justice Department for comment.

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​Us immigration and customs enforcement, Ice, Arizona, Kris mayes, Attorney general, Murder, Subversion, Insurrection, Ice agents, Dhs, Politics 

I had been living in New York for several years, writing young adult novels. But I wanted to move to Los Angeles. I needed a change of scenery, and I wanted to try screenwriting.

A friend connected me to a guy who had spent several years in L.A. pursuing film and TV writing. I called the guy and told him my plan.

The hair dye felt like it was burning my scalp. After I rinsed it out, my whole head glowed. Did it make me look younger? I guess it did. But it also made me look like a clown.

He said: “How old are you?”

I said 49.

He said, “That’s too old. You can’t be 50 in Hollywood. You’ll need to lie about your age.”

Then he asked me if I had gray hair. I said I did. He said I would need to dye it.

I said, “But George Clooney has gray hair. Doesn’t it look distinguished?”

He said I would definitely want to dye it. “Everyone dyes their hair in L.A. Get a good hairdresser.”

*******

He continued relating his experiences. He listed the dangers of Hollywood. They steal your ideas. They lie. They pretend to be your friend. I would need a good lawyer, and a manager, and an agent.

Most of this I already knew. But the “you can’t be 50 in Hollywood” part: I hadn’t heard that before.

Reelin’ In the Years

After we hung up, I thought about the age problem. I had already “adjusted” my age once while I was writing young adult novels.

I did this after attending a book festival, where I saw that all the other young adult authors were generally in their 20s and 30s. I was at least a decade older than most of them.

So I shaved five years off my Facebook age. Just in case anybody looked. And then I did the same thing when I filled out the publicity questionnaires for my publisher.

But the age problem got worse when I arrived in L.A. The first screenwriter I met with was 24 and looked like he was in high school. When I got home from that meeting, I went on Facebook and shaved three more years off my birthday.

When I did this, a little notice popped up, informing me that this would be the last time I would be allowed to change my birthday on Facebook.

So now, I was 41 according to Facebook, 44 according to my New York publisher, and 49 according to my driver’s license and the IRS.

This was a lot to keep track of. It made for some awkward moments on first dates.

Gray matters

It didn’t take long to realize that in Hollywood — where lying is considered “self-care” — what people really judged you on was your looks.

So then I considered my appearance. My hair was pretty gray. Should I try dyeing it?

I went to Ralphs and bought a box of Clairol Nice’n Easy hair dye. I went for espresso brown, which seemed closest to my original hair color.

I set up shop in my bathroom. I put on the gloves and followed the instructions on the box, mixing the chemicals and smearing them onto my head. It was a messy business.

The hair dye felt like it was burning my scalp. After I rinsed it out, my whole head glowed. Did it make me look younger? I guess it did. But it also made me look like a clown.

*******

I flew back to New York soon after, and a female friend immediately noticed the change. She said: “It’s true what they say; you look 10 years younger!”

That was nice to hear. But I was alarmed that she noticed it instantly. From 50 feet away.

Another friend didn’t believe me when I told her it was dyed. She had to look closer and touch it until she saw that I was telling the truth.

I was still trying to get used to it myself. Every time I saw my reflection, I startled myself. Who’s that guy with the dye job?

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Blake Nelson

Pro tips

Back in L.A., I spotted a sign in a hair salon near my apartment: “Dye and Haircut $80.” Maybe this was the solution: getting your hair dyed by a professional.

I would like to say this was a luxurious, pampering experience. It was not. The hairdresser roughed me up pretty good. And then I had to sit there for 40 minutes, in sight of people walking by the window, with a giant plastic covering over me and my thinning hair wrapped in tin foil.

And then, after all that, it looked no different from the Clairol dye job I had given myself for $9.99!

*******

Still, I stuck with it, re-dyeing it every six weeks — like it said on the box — for most of a year.

During this time, I kept a watchful eye out for other men with dyed hair. I was definitely not alone. At the beach, you would see aging “surfer dads” with dyed blonde hair and a skateboard under their arms. It wasn’t a terrible look. As long as you wore Vans and board shorts.

And of course, men who were on TV or acted in movies always dyed their hair. I’d see these men everywhere. Or I’d see guests on late-night talk shows who looked like they had just had it done an hour before. Their hair had that blurry, fresh-dye glow.

I became skilled at spotting dye jobs on either sex. I hadn’t realized how many women dyed their hair: basically all of them, after about 30.

The good news was that nobody thought less of a man for dyeing his hair. This was Los Angeles. Dyeing your hair meant you had a job.

All is vanity

This wasn’t the case on the East Coast. New York City was the land of the silver fox. Being a well-dressed, gray-haired, 50-year-old male was highly desirable. It meant you were rich!

In fact, it was in New York that a couple of female friends intervened and informed me that the hair-dye thing wasn’t working. I looked better being gray.

After that, my vanity took over, and when I returned to L.A., I shaved my head and released myself back into middle age.

Once I let myself go gray again, another Los Angeles acquaintance told me she thought I looked much better. She said the dye job made me look untrustworthy, like a used-car salesman.

*******

So that was a relief. But the real relief didn’t come until many years later, when I retired from writing and went back home to Portland and returned to total normalcy.

In retirement, I didn’t have to be young; I didn’t have to be cool. I could just be an old, gray-haired person like everybody else.

Though on Facebook — thanks to its birthday-changing restrictions — I remain a slightly younger and livelier version of myself.

​Hollywood, Lifestyle, Culture, Screenwriting, Writing, Aging, Blake’s progress 

A Chicago female recently was arrested in connection with an alleged string of beatings that took place after she allegedly failed to appear in court for an earlier battery case, CWB Chicago reported.

Records show that 37-year-old Diamond Miller failed to appear in court on a pending misdemeanor battery charge on Dec. 2, the outlet said, adding that court records show that Judge Peter Gonzalez ordered the court clerk to send Miller a postcard reminding her of her court dates rather than issuing a warrant.

Miller allegedly struck the woman in the face with a broken beer bottle, the outlet said, adding that the woman began bleeding immediately and suffered cuts to her face and a deep cut to her bottom lip.

Later that month, Miller allegedly went on a physical attack spree.

Prosecutors said that while she was “in AWOL status” from the pending misdemeanor battery case, Miller allegedly attacked three people within minutes near Pulaski Road and Cermak Road around noon on Dec. 21, CWB Chicago reported.

The first attack occurred on a southbound CTA #53 Pulaski bus after a 33-year-old man asked Miller to quiet down so he could hear his wife during a phone call, the outlet said, citing prosecutors during a detention petition.

Miller approached the man and struck him in the face “with great force,” causing him to experience “pain and dizziness,” CWB Chicago said, citing the filing. The bus driver stopped at Pulaski and Cermak and called police and EMS, the outlet noted.

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Diamond Miller. Image source: Chicago Police Department

Prosecutors said Miller exited the bus and walked to a nearby bus shelter, the outlet reported.

At 12:17 p.m., a second victim and her friend approached the shelter, where Miller was acting erratically and telling them to give her space, the outlet said, citing prosecutors. The victim and her friend walked away — but Miller allegedly followed them, CWB Chicago said. The victim told police that while she stood on the sidewalk with her back turned, Miller approached from behind and struck her in the face with a white plastic bag that contained a hard object that felt like ice, the outlet said, adding that the victim called 911.

Miller returned to the bus shelter minutes later, when a 54-year-old woman — the third victim — and her 74-year-old mother approached while switching bus lines, CWB Chicago said, citing prosecutors. The detention filing said Miller yelled at them and accused them of following her, according to the outlet. The daughter helped her mother — who uses a walker — away from the shelter, but Miller allegedly followed them and continued yelling, CWB Chicago said.

The daughter saw a CTA bus idling on the corner and asked the driver if her mother could board and wait until the next bus arrived, but the driver declined, the outlet said, citing the filing. As the woman and her mother walked away, Miller allegedly struck the woman in the face with a broken beer bottle, the outlet said, adding that the woman began bleeding immediately and suffered cuts to her face and a deep cut to her bottom lip.

The second victim saw the attack on the third victim and recorded part of it with her phone, the outlet said, citing prosecutors.

The first victim — the man from the bus — was taken to St. Anthony Hospital for treatment of minor injuries, CWB Chicago said, adding that prosecutors said the third victim received five stitches.

Police said they arrested Miller at 12:50 p.m. the same day and charged her with three felony counts of aggravated battery and one misdemeanor count of aggravated assault of a person older than 60.

Judge Robert Kuzas detained Miller, CWB Chicago said.

Records indicate Miller was booked into Cook County Jail on Dec. 24, and she has no bond. Her next court date is Feb. 19, jail records say.

CWB Chicago said Miller spent three days in jail in connection with four retail theft cases in October. A fifth retail theft case was dropped in November, the outlet said, even though Miller didn’t appear in court. However, records indicate the store’s representative didn’t show up for court, either, the outlet noted. A separate misdemeanor battery case was dropped in August, CWB Chicago added.

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​Physical attacks, Unprovoked attacks, Chicago, Arrest, Jailed, Aggravated assault charges, Aggravated battery, Police, Cook county jail, Crime