A former teacher in Kentucky — who was accused of asking her underage lover to kill her husband — has learned her fate for sexually assaulting a jailed minor.

In April, 28-year-old Elena Bardin was arrested and initially charged with three counts of sexual abuse, solicitation of murder, and distribution of obscene material, according to a court records citation People magazine obtained. Following her arrest, Bardin was hit with three counts of unlawful transaction with a minor.

‘I know you say you’ll take care of him, but shouldn’t someone else do it so suspicion is miles away from you?’

Kentucky State Police said in an April statement that Bardin “solicited a male juvenile at the Adair Juvenile Detention Center to kill her husband.”

But a jury acquitted Bardin of the charge of soliciting the teen to murder her husband.

However, in September, Bardin was convicted of one count each of first-degree sexual abuse, unlawful transaction with a minor, and distribution of obscene material to a minor.

People said the defendant’s estranged husband, Michael Bardin, and the alleged victim both testified against Bardin for the prosecution.

Last week, a judge sentenced Bardin to four years in prison for first-degree sexual abuse, 10 years for unlawful transaction with a minor, and 12 months for the distribution of obscene material to a minor; the sentences are to be served concurrently. Bardin also was ordered to register as a sex offender for 20 years, according to Court TV.

During sentencing, Circuit Judge Samuel Spalding noted there were 193 pages of “letters, pictures, and everything else,” which he described as “juicy.”

“The letters you sent … they were juicy, they were things you’d see in a triple-X movie, and completely inappropriate, obviously, and I think you know that, for a young man that age,” Judge Spalding stated, according to WKRC-TV.

Spalding continued, “And for an educator, it was incumbent upon you to set a better example. I will say, though, the 193 pages of letters, pictures, everything else, it depicts a very intelligent and articulate young woman who was clearly articulating her thoughts and desires to this kid.”

RELATED: Ex-middle school teacher — guilty of 21 counts of sex crimes against daughter’s underage babysitter — learns her fate

Bardin — a reported mother of a 5-year-old girl — had been an English teacher at the Adair County Juvenile Detention Center, where the victim was detained.

The Kentucky State Police said, “Evidence also revealed that Ms. Bardin had subjected the juvenile to illegal sexual contact and provided him with sexually explicit images of herself.”

Citing testimony from Bardin’s supervisor at the juvenile detention center, the judge added that the former teacher had been warned to end the relationship and stay away from the teen. Judge Spalding reportedly stressed that the student had been moved to another section of the detention center.

“And, ma’am, not only did you not heed that advice and stop, it looks to me like you actually doubled down on the behavior after that, and that is concerning,” Spalding alleged.

Prosecutors accused Bardin of having a sexual relationship with the 17-year-old student who was detained at the juvenile facility.

The Kentucky State Police stated, “On March 27, 2025, the Adair Juvenile Detention Center conducted a routine search of juveniles’ living units where letters and explicit material were found in a male juvenile’s possession sent by an Adair County School teacher assigned to the facility.”

The Union-Bulletin reported, “According to prosecutors, in one of the letters confiscated by investigators, Bardin talks about oral sex and having sex in the boy’s cell.”

“I hope you enjoyed that. I did,” Bardin reportedly wrote in a letter to the minor, according to the Union-Bulletin.

Another letter written by Bardin allegedly said, “I know you say you’ll take care of him, but shouldn’t someone else do it so suspicion is miles away from you? IDK, I’m going to miss you so (redacted) bad tonight. You look so handsome today, love. I love you.”

In April, the Lexington Herald-Leader reported that the Adair County school district listed Bardin — with her first name spelled “Elana” — as a teacher at the Adair Learning Academy, which is part of the Adair Youth Development Center.

The youth development center operates in conjunction with the regional juvenile detention center, the Herald-Leader said, citing the Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice. Adair Superintendent Jason Faulkner told the paper that Bardin was an employee of the district and that she had been terminated.

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Democrats appeared thrilled when they thought the Epstein files were finally going to take President Donald Trump out, but BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales points out that instead, it appears that the president has “been playing 4D chess all along.”

“They didn’t realize they were just going to fall into a trap of implicating themselves,” Gonzales says, before playing a clip of Democratic House Delegate Stacey Plaskett — who is from the Virgin Islands, where Epstein Island was — doing just that.

When the last batch of Epstein documents came out, the Washington Post even noticed that Plaskett and Epstein would text quite often.

“In fact, they were texting in the middle of congressional hearings, and he ended up coaching her on how to get dirt on President Trump during a hearing of Michael Cohen’s testimony,” Gonzales explains.

“The irony is not lost on me that they kept trying to get Trump with Jeffrey Epstein. I mean, it turns out, Jeffrey Epstein at every direction hates his f**king guts. Like, he hates Donald Trump. So, the idea that they were best buds … he clearly hates Donald Trump,” she continues.

Plaskett has since tried to defend herself, and it didn’t help her case.

“I got a text from Jeffrey Epstein, who at the time was my constituent, who was not public knowledge at that time that he was under federal investigation, and who was sharing information with me,” she said on the House floor.

However, in 2008, Epstein was serving a sentence for a prostitution case.

“We all knew in 2019 that Jeffrey Epstein was a bad guy,” Gonzales says, pointing out that Plaskett even admitted this to CNN, appearing unable to keep her story straight.

“I believed that Jeffrey Epstein had information, and I was going to get information to get at the truth. If individuals are not involved in illegal activity, extending his criminal enterprise or his financial enterprise or all of those things, I think that we need to look at what people are doing moving forward,” Plaskett said.

“Wait, let me just better understand that. What is that point? Because at the time, he was a known sex offender, and it had been detailed all the sexual abuse,” the CNN anchor replied.

“There are a lot of people who have done a lot of crimes, and as a prosecutor, you get information from people where you can,” Plaskett replied.

And House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) made sure to defend Plaskett when he was being grilled on her admission on CNN — but Gonzales points out it’s likely just because he also was “in bed” with Epstein.

One email reveals that Democrat fundraisers invited Epstein to an event to meet privately with Hakeem Jeffries, which meant his campaign was soliciting money from Epstein.

“Dear Jeffrey, we are thrilled to announce that we are working with Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, one of the rising stars in the New York Congressional delegation. Sometimes referred to as ‘Brooklyn’s Barack,’” the email read.

Another section of the email asked Epstein to reach out if he “would like to get an opportunity to get to know Hakeem better.”

“The fact that he was groveling for support, financial support, from a convicted child predator,” Gonzales scoffs. “Like, these are bad people.”

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The horrific attack on a woman on a public train in Chicago has garnered angry responses from many — but the Democratic mayor was not one of them.

The 26-year-old victim is in critical condition after a man doused her with a liquid at about 9:30 on Monday night and then lit her on fire on the CTA Blue Line train. The man fled from the scene, and police later arrested 50-year-old Lawrence Reed as a suspect.

‘The issue is violent misdemeanor offenders & how to stop. Be part of the solution, Mayor.’

When asked to comment on whether the suspect should have been on the streets in the first place, Mayor Brandon Johnson initially called it an “isolated incident,” according to a Chicago Tribune reporter.

“This is an isolated incident, and I don’t see this as some sort of trend. And again, the level of accountability that has to happen in this moment, I trust that the federal level will do its part,” Johnson said.

“As awful and as horrific as this tragedy is, this is an isolated incident. As we continue to invest more in our public transportation system, we want people to feel safe,” he added, “and that’s why I’m doing my part to ensure that these investments are getting right to the people.”

Many on social media thought his response was not proportional to the depth of pain the innocent victim suffered.

“Downplaying this as an isolated incident is absolutely insane,” replied Carter Christensen, a communications strategist for ActBlue.

“Brandon Johnson’s minimization of a woman being randomly set on fire on Chicago’s public transportation system is absolutely appalling,” another user responded on social media.

“Loop Punchers hurting women too. The issue is violent misdemeanor offenders & how to stop. Be part of the solution, Mayor,” another response reads.

“Some dude in Chicago with 49 prior arrests lit a woman on fire in public. But somehow this dips**t can’t say he should have been in jail,” another response reads.

“Yes it’s an isolated incident but maybe if his f**king city doesn’t stop releasing these pieces of s**t then it can quickly go from isolated to infrequent until it becomes a common incident,” another added.

Reed has reportedly been arrested more than 70 times in Cook County alone and has at least 13 convictions.

RELATED: Man allegedly lit random woman on fire on Chicago train — suspect had numerous previous arrests

Johnson offered more serious comments at a press conference later where he expressed “shock and horror” at the attack.

“This is an absolute failure of our criminal justice as well as our mental health institutions. This individual was charged with dozens of felonies over the past three decades,” Johnson said. “He was clearly seriously mentally disturbed and was a danger to himself and to others. The system that we had failed to intervene. … We’re also praying for her family at this time. This is a horrific tragedy that should have never happened.”

Reed is facing federal terrorism charges over the incident. Police have since said they have evidence that he filled a bottle with gasoline at a gas station just 20 minutes before the attack.

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A woman found with hateful political messages written on her body with gruesome injuries was not a victim of a heinous attack, but she plotted the hoax herself, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.

Twenty-six-year-old Natalie Greene was found bound up with zip ties with numerous slashes and “Trump whore” written on her stomach on the night of July 23, according to a press release. The Rutgers student was working for Republican U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey at the time.

They also obtained a photograph of the design for the body modification that Greene requested from the scarification artist. They matched the wounds photographed by an officer.

Greene allegedly told investigators that she and a friend were attacked by three armed men on a trail at the Egg Harbor Township Nature Reserve in New Jersey.

When police arrived, they found her yelling, “He has a gun! He has a gun!” and crying loudly.

She was also found with the message “Van Drew is a racist” written in marker on her body.

Greene was transported to a hospital for treatment, where officers took photographs that were included in the criminal complaint.

Investigators grew suspicious when Greene’s friend appeared agitated when asked to provide keys to the car they drove to the nature reserve, a Maserati sport utility vehicle. After gaining access to the car, they found black zip ties as well as duct tape inside.

RELATED: Dem who blamed Trump for ‘Hinduphobic’ messages has been arrested for alleged race hoax

Image source: U.S. Dept. of Justice press release screenshot composite

Police then obtained cellphone data from the pair and saw that Greene had driven to the studio of a “scarification artist” in Pennsylvania just before the reported assault.

After obtaining data from their phones, investigators saw that someone had googled “zip ties near me” from her friend’s phone as well. They were able to garner evidence that she purchased the zip ties on the day of the alleged attack at a Dollar General store.

Investigators said they obtained evidence from the scarification studio that showed Greene paid $500 for body modifications just hours before the alleged attack. The studio requires clients to provide identification and sign a consent form prior to services performed.

They also obtained a photograph of the design for the body modification that Greene requested from the scarification artist. They matched the wounds photographed by an officer.

Drew’s office released a statement about Greene to the New Jersey Globe.

“While Natalie is no longer associated with the congressman’s government office, our thoughts and prayers are with her and hope she’s getting the care she needs,” the statement read.

RELATED: Activists blame Trump for ‘kidnapping’ of mom for deportation — feds say it was a hoax

Image source: U.S. Dept. of Justice press release screenshot

Greene was charged with conspiracy to convey false statements and hoaxes and making false statements to federal law enforcement. Each count carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison as well as a fine of $250,000 and three years of supervised release.

She was released on a $200,000 unsecured bond after her arraignment on Wednesday.

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The Department of Transportation issued a warning on Thursday to Pennsylvania that it is at risk of losing tens of millions of dollars in federal funding, according to a department press release obtained by Blaze News.

The DOT sent a letter to Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) and state DOT Secretary Michael Carroll stating that the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration uncovered “evidence of procedural and programming errors” in the state’s issuance of non-domiciled commercial learner’s permits and driver’s licenses.

‘Joe Biden allowed tens of millions of illegals to pour into our country through open borders, including a suspected terrorist who Pennsylvania then allowed to get behind the wheel of a semitruck.’

Pennsylvania issued CDLs with expiration dates beyond the foreign nationals’ lawful presence in the country, according to the DOT. Further, the state was accused of issuing licenses without requiring drivers to provide proof of lawful presence in the U.S. The department also stated that other non-domiciled CDLs were issued to lawful permanent residents who were eligible for regular CDLs.

Of 150 records reviewed by the FMCSA, two instances were found in which PennDOT issued non-domiciled CDLs with expiration dates that extended beyond the drivers’ lawful presence. The FMCSA uncovered four cases in which the department failed to provide evidence that it required drivers to present lawful residence documents. Lastly, the FMCSA identified two instances in which the department issued a non-domiciled CDL to individuals who were eligible for a regular CDL.

The DOT noted that 12,400 drivers hold an unexpired non-domiciled CLP or CDL issued by Pennsylvania.

The federal department demanded that Pennsylvania take “immediate corrective action” or risk the decertification of its CDL program and losing certain federal-aid highway funds. The corrective action includes an immediate pause on the issuance of all non-domiciled CLPs and CDLs, as well as an internal audit to identify procedural errors. Pennsylvania is also required to identify and void all unexpired non-domiciled CLPs and CDLs that were improperly issued.

RELATED: ICE takes down alleged ‘wanted terrorist’ illegal alien trucker

Josh Shapiro. Photo by Kyle Mazza/Anadolu via Getty Images

Failure to comply may lead to the DOT withholding $75,500,000 in funding for fiscal year 2027.

Thursday’s warning is part of the DOT’s greater effort to crack down on road safety and national security concerns related to the flood of illegal aliens that joined the trucking industry amid the Biden administration’s open-border crisis. The DOT has already withheld funds from California over similar violations.

RELATED: Newsom’s state ‘caught red-handed’ illegally issuing thousands of commercial driver’s licenses to foreign truckers: DOT

Akhror Bozorov. Image source: Department of Homeland Security

“Under President Trump, this department is taking every measure to ensure dangerous foreign drivers aren’t illegally operating 40-ton vehicles on American roads,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy stated. “Joe Biden allowed tens of millions of illegals to pour into our country through open borders, including a suspected terrorist who Pennsylvania then allowed to get behind the wheel of a semitruck. I will continue to fight to get these dangerous drivers off our roads to protect American families and support our national security.”

Duffy’s statement presumably referred to Akhror Bozorov, a 31-year-old truck driver from Uzbekistan who was recently arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The agency stated that Bozorov was accused of belonging to a terrorist organization. He was issued a non-domiciled CDL with REAL ID by Pennsylvania.

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Over 50,000 climate alarmists from across the globe climbed aboard fuel-guzzling planes, boats, and automobiles and traveled to Belém, Brazil, this month to attend the 2025 United Nations Climate Change Conference.

On the second-last day of anti-American diatribes and globalist pearl-clutching over the supposed crisis that Bill Gates recently admitted “will not lead to humanity’s demise,” the conference went up in smoke, at least partly.

‘The world is watching Belem.’

Footage circulating online shows a hectic scene: of flames erupting in the pavilion area of the Hangar Convention and Fair Center of the Amazon, where nations and various NGOs had set up their public-facing stands; of security guards blowing whistles and shooing panicked delegates and observers away; and of some individuals attempting to extinguish the growing inferno as it ate a hole in the roof.

One person in the office of the summit presidency confirmed that the blaze had been contained within about 30 minutes, the New York Times noted.

“Firefighters and security teams responded promptly and continue to monitor the site,” Cop30 organizers said in a statement obtained by Le Monde.

It’s presently unclear what started the fire. No injuries have been reported.

RELATED: Bill Gates does stunning about-face on climate ‘doomsday’ claims: ‘This view is wrong’

Photo by PABLO PORCIUNCULA/AFP via Getty Images

The fire proved to be the latest of several issues affecting the conference.

For instance, torrential rainfall at the outset of the conference flooded the entrances to the venue and left certain meeting areas soaked. There were reportedly also complaints of non-functional restrooms and oppressive heat.

In addition to complaining about “inadequate air-conditioning in venue areas” and the “poor condition of the delegation offices provided,” Simon Stiell, executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, whined in a Nov. 12 letter to Andre Correa do Lago, the president of COP30, that the conference’s security was substandard. According to Stiell, hundreds of protesters had damaged property and injured staffers.

COP30 was embroiled in scandal even before it began as the result of the local government’s decision to cut a four-lane highway through tens of thousands of acres of protected Amazon rainforest to ensure that COP30’s participants would enjoy easy motorized transit in and out of the hosting city.

Hours before the fire began, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged negotiators to reach an “ambitious compromise” on an anti-fossil-fuel agenda, stating, “The world is watching Belem.”

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Netflix’s thriller “A House of Dynamite” very much wants to teach us something about the folly of waging war with civilization-ending weapons. The lesson it ends up imparting, however, has more to do with the state of contemporary storytelling.

The film revolves around a high-stakes crisis: an unexpected nuclear missile launched from an unspecified enemy and aimed directly at Big City USA. We get to see America’s defense apparatus deal with impending apocalypse in real time.

It seems the best Ms. Bigelow, Mr. Oppenheim, and the team at Netflix can offer up is a lukewarm ‘nukes are bad, mmkay?’

Triple threat

“Revolves” is the operative word here. The movie tells the same story three times from three different vantage points — each in its own 40-minute segment. From first detection to the final seconds before detonation, we watch a bevy of government elites on one interminable red-alert FaceTime, working out how to respond to the strike.

This is the aptly named screenwriter Noah Oppenheim’s second disaster outing for the streamer; he recently co-created miniseries “Zero Day,” which features Robert De Niro investigating a nationwide cyberattack.

That series unspooled a complicated and convoluted conspiracy in the vein of “24.” “A House of Dynamite” clearly aims for something more grounded, which would seem to make accomplished Kathryn Bigelow perfect for the job.

And for the film’s first half-hour she delivers, embedding the viewer with the military officers, government officials, and regular working stiffs for whom being the last line of America’s defense is just another day at the office … until suddenly it isn’t. The dawning horror of their situation is as gripping as anything in “The Hurt Locker” or “Zero Dark Thirty.”

Then it happens two more times.

On repeat

In Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night,” Duke Orsino laments a repetitive song growing stale: “Naught enters there of what validity and pitch soe’er, but falls into abatement and low price.”

Or put another way, the tune, not realizing its simple beauty, sings itself straight into worthlessness.

And somehow, this manages to be only part of what makes “A House of Dynamite” so unappealing. Our main characters — including head of the White House Situation Room (Rebecca Ferguson), general in charge of the United States Northern Command (Tracy Letts), and the secretary of defense (Jared Harris) — offer no semblance of perspicacity, stopping frequently to take others’ feelings into account before making decisions, all while an ICBM races toward Chicago. From liftoff to impact in 16 minutes or less, or your order free.

Missile defensive

So thorough is this picture of incompetence that the Pentagon felt compelled to issue an internal memo preparing Missile Defense Agency staff to “address false assumptions” about defense capability.

One can hardly blame officials when, in the twilight of the film, we’re shown yet another big-screen Obama facsimile (played by British actor Idris Elba) putting his cadre of sweating advisers on hold to ring Michelle, looking for advice on whether his course of action should be to nuke the whole planet or do nothing. The connection drops — she is in Africa, after all, and her safari-chic philanthropy outfit doesn’t make the satellite signal any stronger. He puts the phone down and continues to look over his black book of options ranging “from rare to well done,” as his nuclear briefcase handler puts it.

And then the movie ends. The repetitive storylines have no resolution, and their participants face no consequences. The single ground missile the U.S. arsenal managed to muster up — between montages of sergeants falling to their knees at the thought of having to do their job — has missed its target.

Designated survivors — with the exception of one high-ranking official who finds suicide preferable — rush to their bunkers. The screen fades to black, over a melancholy overture. Is it any wonder that audiences felt cheated? After sitting through nearly two hours of dithering bureaucrats wasting time, their own time had been wasted by a director who clearly thinks endings are passé.

No ending for you

If you find yourself among the unsatisfied, Bigelow has some words for you. In an interview with Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, she justified her film’s lack of a payoff thusly:

I felt like the fact that the bomb didn’t go off was an opportunity to start a conversation. With an explosion at the end, it would have been kind of all wrapped up neat, and you could point your finger [and say] “it’s bad that happened.” But it would sort of absolve us, the human race, of responsibility. And in fact, no, we are responsible for having created these weapons and — in a perfect world — getting rid of them.

Holy Kamala word salad.

RELATED: Phones and drones expose the cracks in America’s defenses

Photo by dikushin via Getty Images

Bigelow-er

For much of her career, director Kathryn Bigelow has told real stories in interesting ways that — while not always being the full truth and nothing but the truth — were entertaining, well shot, and depicted Americans fulfilling their manifest destiny of being awesome.

That changed with Bigelow’s last film, 2017’s “Detroit,” a progressive, self-flagellating depiction of the 1967 Detroit race riots (final tally: 43 deaths, 1,189 injured) through the eyes of some mostly peaceful black teens and the devil-spawn deputy cop who torments them. “A House of Dynamite” continues this project of national critique.

But what, exactly, is the point? It seems the best Ms. Bigelow, Mr. Oppenheim, and the team at Netflix can offer up is a lukewarm “nukes are bad, mmkay?” This is a lecture on warfare with the subtlety of a John Lennon song, set in a world where the fragile men in charge must seek out the strong embrace of their nearest girlboss.

It’s no secret that 2025 carries a distinct “end times” energy — a year thick with existential threats. AI run amok, political fracture edging toward civil conflict, nuclear brinkmanship, even the occasional UFO headline — pick your poison. And it’s equally obvious that the internet, not the cinema, has become the primary arena where Americans now go to see those anxieties mirrored back at them.

“A House of Dynamite” is unlikely to reverse this trend. If this is the best Hollywood’s elite can come up with after gazing into the void, it’s time to move the movie industry to DEFCON 1.

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