A 17-year-old boy is on trial for allegedly shooting to death an elderly couple that had hired him to do odd jobs around their home in Mississippi.

Cordarius Hobbs was arrested by Simpson County Sheriff’s deputies after an hours-long standoff on June 3 when they were called to the residence near Mendenhall.

Less than a week after Hobbs was taken into custody to face charges for double murder, his two brothers were involved in a massive manhunt.

The incident unfolded after three contractors went to the home of 75-year-old Bill Blair and his 71-year-old wife, Carol Blair, to install a generator at about 10 a.m.

They said they noticed that the door to the wife’s car was left open and there were multiple guns on the seats, according to a Mississippi Bureau of Investigation investigator.

An hour and a half later, they called the Simpson County Sheriff’s Department for a welfare check on the Blairs.

A half hour later, at noon, deputies arrived and tried to push through a screen door to find gunshots being fired at them. That began a standoff between police and the alleged shooter, which lasted for about two hours.

Hobbs tried to flee from the home on foot, but police were able to capture him. They said he was wearing all black and holding a bag but did not have a weapon when captured. He was also shot during the incident, but his injuries were not life-threatening.

According to investigators, 280 bullet casings were found inside the home, as well as three guns, which all belonged to Bill Blair.

Inside the home they found Carol Blair in a fetal position in a bedroom with three gunshots to the back of her head. Bill Blair was found lying on his back in the kitchen with three gunshots to his face.

Hobbs was charged with two counts of capital murder along with a burglary count, four counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, four counts of aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer, and two counts of aggravated assault on individuals 65 or older.

The family of the victims said they had hired Hobbs to clean up around the home.

RELATED: Suspect in brutal beating of Trump supporter in San Diego identified as neighbor — and victim’s medical update is devastating

The Blairs’ pastor told KPTV-TV they were the “sweetest couple” and one was rarely seen without the other nearby.

“They loved the Lord, and it was evident in their life. … You knew that they were just good people that would help anyone,” Pastor Andy Fullington said.

Less than a week after Hobbs was taken into custody to face charges for double murder, his two brothers were involved in a massive manhunt after an officer was shot during a traffic stop.

Cortavious Lawayne Hobbs, 18, and Cortavion Dewayne Hobbs, 19, got into a shoot-out with police and were later found hiding underneath a house, prosecutors said.

Covington County Deputy Yates Rodney, who was critically wounded, is still undergoing treatment for his injuries.

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​Double murder, Standoff, Massive manhunt, Brutal murder, Elderly couple, Crime 

Most of us like to think we would be willing to die for a great cause, granted the courage. A harder question is whether we would be willing to spend 20 years losing for one.

More than two centuries ago, a young British politician named William Wilberforce confronted exactly that question. His answer changed the moral character of an empire.

‘You have the far greater honour of being a Representative for the Lord, in a place where many know him not.’

Young, wealthy, and well connected, Wilberforce entered Parliament at just 21 years of age, quickly earning a reputation as one of the finest orators in Britain. Charming, witty, and socially connected, he was hardly known for disciplined seriousness. The writer and socialite Madame de Staël called him “the wittiest man in England.”

Everything changed after a profound Christian conversion in 1785.

Amazing grace

Politics suddenly seemed worldly, perhaps even incompatible with genuine discipleship. Wilberforce reluctantly considered resigning his seat in Parliament and entering the ministry. Had he done so, history might remember him — if at all — as an obscure Anglican clergyman.

Before making his decision, however, he visited St. Mary Woolnoth, a modest parish church in the City of London, to seek the advice of its rector, the Rev. John Newton.

Newton urged him to stay. Parliament, he insisted, was not an obstacle to Wilberforce’s calling. It was his calling.

That counsel carried unusual weight. Newton, known mainly today as the author of the hymn “Amazing Grace,” had once captained slave ships himself, enriching himself along with his country. His repentance forced him to confront an evil that Britain had conveniently learned to ignore.

It would become the defining cause of Wilberforce’s life.

Accidental abolitionist

Wilberforce did not set out to become the face of the abolition movement. After his conversion, he found himself drawn into a growing circle of evangelical reformers increasingly alarmed by the slave trade.

At Barham Court in Teston, the Kent home of Sir Charles and Lady Middleton, he listened to James Ramsay, a former naval surgeon who described the horrors he had witnessed in the Caribbean. Around the same time, Thomas Clarkson and the Quaker abolitionists were traveling the country interviewing sailors, surgeons, and former slaves, collecting physical evidence from slave ships, and assembling what would eventually amount to some 900 pages of testimony.

They had built an overwhelming case but lacked one crucial thing: a champion inside Parliament.

Encouraged by his friend William Pitt, now prime minister, Wilberforce accepted that role. Clarkson would gather the evidence. Wilberforce would lay it before the nation.

‘We can no longer plead ignorance’

In 1789, standing not far from where visitors stand today outside the Palace of Westminster, Wilberforce rose in the House of Commons to deliver what would become one of the most famous speeches in British parliamentary history.

“The nature and all the circumstances of this trade are now laid open to us,” he declared. “We can no longer plead ignorance.”

The slave trade was, in his words, “so enormous, so dreadful, so irremediable” that he had determined he would “never rest” until it was abolished.

The three-hour speech was a triumph. Newspapers praised its eloquence. Many believed abolition was now inevitable.

Instead, opponents shifted the battle from the moral arena to the procedural one.

The powerful West India lobby argued that the evidence was incomplete and demanded further hearings. Parliament agreed. More witnesses were summoned. More testimony was taken. Months slipped away. When time ran out, the debate was adjourned until the following session.

The next year the matter disappeared into a select committee. Then a general election dissolved Parliament, forcing much of the process to begin again.

By the time the House finally voted in 1791, nearly two years had passed since Wilberforce’s celebrated speech.

The result was crushing. His first abolition bill was defeated by 163 votes to 88.

The cause had not been defeated by a single great rebuttal; it had been slowly drained of momentum through delay.

‘Scandal from the Christian name’

Wilberforce could have accepted the verdict as proof that the country simply was not ready. Instead, he rose and made a promise that would define the rest of his public life.

Never, never will we desist till we have wiped away this scandal from the Christian name, released ourselves from the load of guilt under which we at present labour, and extinguished every trace of this bloody traffic.

Notice what troubled him most.

Slavery was not merely an economic mistake or a political embarrassment.

It was “a scandal” upon “the Christian name.” Britain claimed to be a Christian nation while enriching itself through the buying and selling of human beings. That contradiction could not simply be managed. It had to be removed.

And so Wilberforce returned, again and again. He introduced new motions, reopened old debates, and refused to let the issue disappear beneath the next political crisis.

Meanwhile, the defeat of 1791 energized the public. Hundreds of thousands of Britons signed petitions demanding abolition. An estimated 400,000 people — many of them women directing household purchases — joined a nationwide boycott of West Indian sugar produced by enslaved labor.

The pressure worked, and when Wilberforce returned to Parliament in 1792, immediate abolition suddenly appeared possible.

Wicked compromise

Then Henry Dundas proposed what sounded like a reasonable compromise. The trade, he agreed, was unjust. It should therefore be abolished — gradually.

With the insertion of a single word, Parliament transformed an urgent moral demand into an indefinite political process. On paper, Parliament had voted to abolish the slave trade. In practice, nothing changed.

The cause weakened further when Britain entered into war with Revolutionary France. Opponents of abolition portrayed reformers as dangerous radicals infected by French ideas. Government attention shifted toward financing the war and preserving stability at home.

Wilberforce’s motion in 1793 failed by just eight votes. Public enthusiasm faded. Thomas Clarkson collapsed from exhaustion and withdrew from active campaigning. Wilberforce increasingly found himself carrying the cause almost alone inside Parliament.

‘Permanently hurt’

Then came perhaps the cruelest setback of all. In 1796, after years of promises that the trade would be “gradually” abolished, Wilberforce made another determined push for immediate action.

The measure failed by four votes.

Afterward he learned that several reliable supporters had missed the vote because they had gone to a fashionable new Italian opera. His diary captured the heartbreak in a single sentence: “Enough at the Opera to have carried it. I am permanently hurt about the Slave Trade.”

Seven years after taking up the cause, Wilberforce appeared scarcely closer to success than when he had begun. The defeat left him physically exhausted and emotionally broken.

Stand firm

Once again, he turned to John Newton. More than a decade earlier, Newton had persuaded the newly converted Wilberforce not to leave Parliament. Now he offered a different kind of counsel.

He did not suggest success was just around the corner; instead, he challenged Wilberforce’s definition of success itself.

“You are not only a Representative for Yorkshire,” Newton wrote. “You have the far greater honour of being a Representative for the Lord, in a place where many know him not.”

It was a radically different way of measuring a political life.

Newton then pointed Wilberforce to one of Scripture’s great public servants.

“Daniel likewise was a public man,” he wrote, “and in critical circumstances. But he trusted in the Lord … and therefore though he had enemies, they could not prevail against him.”

Newton acknowledged that Wilberforce might never accomplish all the good he hoped for, but refused to judge the value of his work by legislative victories alone.

“Though you cannot do all the good you wish for,” Newton wrote, “some good is done, and some evil is probably prevented.”

RELATED: CS Lewis: Angry atheist surprised by God

John Chillingworth/Getty Images

Year after year

Wilberforce stayed. Over the next 11 years, one apparent breakthrough after another dissolved into disappointment. Some years Parliament rejected abolition outright. Other years it settled for minor reforms that regulated the trade rather than ending it. Constitutional crises, changes of government, renewed war with France, and shifting political alliances repeatedly pushed abolition to the margins.

In 1804, after fifteen years of labor, Wilberforce finally succeeded in carrying an abolition bill through the House of Commons. The House of Lords quietly buried it. Claiming they needed more time to examine the evidence, they postponed consideration until the parliamentary session expired.

It was, in essence, the same procedural tactic that had greeted his first great speech 15 years earlier. Yet Wilberforce again refused to conclude that delay meant defeat. Year after year he returned to the same chamber, made the same arguments, presented the same evidence, and asked the same question of his country.

Remaining at his post

Then, in 1806, everything changed. William Pitt was dead. A new government under Lord Grenville and Charles James Fox made abolition a priority rather than a private sympathy.

On February 23, 1807, after nearly 20 years of defeats, delays, compromises, and disappointments, the House of Commons voted overwhelmingly to abolish the British slave trade.

As members rose to cheer, Wilberforce remained seated with bowed head and tears streaming.

The applause was not for a brilliant speech delivered that evening. It was for two decades of quiet perseverance.

The victory belonged to many people: Thomas Clarkson, who gathered the evidence; John Newton, whose counsel twice kept Wilberforce at his post; the Quakers who organized, petitioned, and sacrificed despite having no seats in Parliament; and the hundreds of thousands of ordinary Britons who signed petitions and quietly changed their buying habits.

But none of them would have witnessed that day had Wilberforce concluded, somewhere along the way, that 20 years of apparent failure was enough.

Christians today still debate the best strategy for engaging an increasingly hostile culture. Some emphasize building institutions. Others speak of retreat. Those are important questions.

But Wilberforce reminds us of something more fundamental.

He never discovered the perfect political strategy. He never enjoyed ideal political conditions. He spent most of his public life with little prospect of victory. Yet he refused to postpone obedience until circumstances became favorable. He simply remained at the post God had given him.

Most of us imagine faithfulness as a single dramatic stand. Wilberforce reminds us that it often looks much quieter. Doing the same work, year after year, long after applause has faded, allies have drifted away, and success seems impossible.

That is how, by God’s grace, the moral character of an empire was changed.

​Converts, William wilberforce, Britain, Abolition, Slavery, Uk, John newton, Christianity, Parliament, Lifestyle, Faith 

“Citizen Vigilante,” a 2026 action thriller starring Armie Hammer, has sparked such intense controversy, Germany outright banned it.

The film centers on a vigilante who rebels against the government to target violent criminals and rapists (often portrayed as Muslim migrants) along with the corrupt officials enabling them. Maintaining his anonymity, he builds a massively popular social media presence, rallying the public against the reigning authorities.

“[‘Citizen Vigilante’] is being viewed with satisfaction in some communities,” Glenn Beck says, calling it “extraordinarily dangerous.”

Unlike other iconic anti-hero characters in films like “The Equalizer,” “Death Wish,” and “Pale Rider” who reluctantly step in to quell evil, Hammer’s character, Glenn says, not only “wants to” be a punisher of evil, but he compels others to join him in that endeavor.

Calling this film indicative of “an enormous moral shift,” Glenn warns that “the gunfighter that stays becomes the tyrant.”

Instead of washing the blood from his hands and “[riding] away in the sunset” after his mission is accomplished, Hammer’s character revels in his notoriety as a social media star and vows to continue his vigilantism until citizens learn to take justice into their own hands.

“This is a dangerous movie,” Glenn says.

“I think the whole point was to … point out actual things that are happening … like in the U.K. There are some very bad things that are happening because of mass illegal immigration. The governments are failing. They’re turning a blind eye to it,” adds Jason Buttrill, Glenn’s head researcher and writer.

He doesn’t believe, however, that Hammer’s vigilante character is presented as the solution to disorder and corruption.

“They showed that this is not a good guy. He’s a very bad guy. He’s an evil guy. If government fails to protect their people, if they allow these things to happen, there will be a Bubba effect, and you will not like the devil that shows up afterwards,” he explains.

Glenn agrees but fears that most spectators will miss this and interpret Hammer’s character as the answer to society’s ills.

“If you’re over in England or you’re in Germany, that stuff is happening,” he says, referring to how some governments are willfully enabling a breakdown of law and order by protecting and covering for violent criminals (especially migrants), while ordinary citizens suffer unchecked crime, two-tier policing, and suppressed criticism of mass immigration.

Glenn is deeply concerned that citizens suffering under this kind of soft totalitarianism will watch this movie and say, “Damn right — that’s exactly what should happen.”

But “you’re not gonna like the guy who shows up,” he warns.

To hear more, watch the video above.

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To enjoy more of Glenn’s masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis, and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

​The glenn beck program, Glenn beck, Citizen vigilante 

The owner of a Texas bakery said it was staying open for the Fourth of July out of fear and anger over the policies of the Trump administration, and many responded by calling for a boycott of the bakery.

Haley Popp used the Facebook account for the Hive Bakery in Flower Mound to issue a scathing attack on supporters of President Donald Trump after initially saying she didn’t feel like celebrating the holiday.

This is hardly the first time Popp has used her politics to rile up Republicans and get free marketing for her business.

“We expressed not wanting to celebrate the 4th this year, as we’re embarrassed, afraid, and disappointed in what this country has become,” reads the post on the bakery shop account.

“MAGA is adversarial. It’s a cult of unintelligent, rabid, immoral sycophants. Those conservatives who still have rational thought have left the MAGA movement. Those who remain and continue to support the most corrupt administration in our nations history, are here, wishing for our bakery to burn to the ground,” she added.

“Enjoy a little taste of this Americana,” she concluded. “We are open tomorrow from 10-6 as we refuse to observe this holiday. F**k this fascist regime and every single person perpetuating the downfall of our country. Still holding out hope for an AOC revolution.”

That post went viral after the popular Libs of TikTok account posted it on social media.

She has since claimed that the anger and hatred led to a response from liberals, who bought her T-shirts and ordered woke baked goods to show their support for her and their opposition to Trump.

But this is hardly the first time Popp has used her politics to rile up Republicans and get free marketing for her business.

In 2022, Popp posted pro-abortion messages from the bakery’s account and later posted screenshots of the angry responses she got. She said she had a line out the door and sold out of many items when liberals came out to support the bakery.

RELATED: Jimmy Kimmel’s sister-in-law slammed with backlash for reportedly bullying local business — over Spencer Pratt cookies

She told the Dallas Eater at the time that she had been very open about her support for “LGBTQ rights, Black Lives Matter, and women’s rights” since opening the bakery.

Then in 2025, she made the news again for the same thing. A WFAA-TV report said she profited greatly from the reaction of Trump supporters.

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​Fourth of july, Libs of tiktok, Texas, Boycott, Maga, Fascist, Facebook post, Politics 

A viral interaction between Fort Worth police and a Christian street preacher has caught the attention of the civil rights division of the U.S. Attorney’s office.

David Grisham and another member of his evangelical preaching team were confronted by a female police officer for their outreach to participants of a Pride event in Texas.

‘The Fort Worth Police Department responded, not by protecting his constitutional rights, but by threatening him with arrest and ultimately issuing a citation.’

Many objected to the officer’s actions on the basis that she appeared to be infringing on the evangelists’ free speech rights and right to religious expression. Video of the interaction was posted by the popular Libs of TikTok account.

“If someone is offended by your talking, then we have a problem,” the unidentified officer said.

“If they are offended by your speech … I will write you a ticket, and we’ll go from there,” she continued.

A second video shows other officers confronting Grisham.

Grisham was ultimately given a citation for “unreasonable noise,” which is intended to apply to noise from construction or animals, but is not limited to those sources.

Attorney C.J. Grisham, who has no known familial relation to the plaintiff, told the Christian Post that the officer failed to follow the ordinance.

“This ordinance was not followed because no officer performed a decibel check,” he said.

He also argued that the city’s decibel limit was unlawfully set beneath that set by Texas.

“Mr. Grisham was exercising his right to express his views on matters of significant public concern,” the attorney said. “The Fort Worth Police Department responded, not by protecting his constitutional rights, but by threatening him with arrest and ultimately issuing a citation.”

On Wednesday, Fort Worth Police spokesman Officer Buddy Calzada released a statement saying the issue began when the group “was using a bullhorn to amplify their voice.”

Calzada claimed police received complaints from business owners, told the group to stop using the bullhorn, and said the group refused to stop. He said the bullhorn was seized as evidence after the citation was issued.

“At no time did officers prevent any individuals from expressing their views,” Calzada added in a statement to the Christian Post. “Officers told the individuals they could continue exercising their rights without using an amplification device. However, the individuals willingly ceased protesting after the bullhorn was seized as part of the enforcement action.”

He went on to say the viral video did not accurately represent the entire interaction but also admitted the police officer made statements that “were not accurate.”

RELATED: Court victory for Christian mom banned from adopting foster children over religious beliefs on LGBTQ agenda

On Friday, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon responded on social media that the Justice Department would look into the incident.

“Troubling,” she wrote. “Our [civil rights] team is on it.”

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​Christian street preacher, Free speech rights, Libs of tiktok, Pride event, Fort worth police, Religious freedom, Politics 

Graham Platner officially filed to leave the race for one of Maine’s seats in the U.S. Senate on Friday after facing intense criticism for numerous scandals.

Democrats now have only 17 days under Maine law to find his replacement and take on the campaign to replace incumbent Republican Maine Sen. Susan Collins.

‘My name may have been on the ballot, but that ballot line belongs to the people of Maine.’

On Wednesday, Platner had posted a video excoriating the leaders of his own party and accusing them of betraying him in order to derail his far-left political agenda.

He continued that message in the statement he issued Friday.

“I write to formally withdraw my candidacy for United States Senate,” Platner wrote.

“People are desperate for change. For this broken system to be righted. For the American experiment to be furthered. Over the past eleven months, thousands and thousands of Mainers poured their hearts, time, and talent into a movement to deliver that vision. I will be forever grateful to them,” he added.

“And in submitting this letter today, I seek to further the movement we have built together and the future we believe in,” he said. “My name may have been on the ballot, but that ballot line belongs to the people of Maine.”

Platner had been accused of sexually assaulting a woman he dated about five years ago, which appeared to be the final straw for many Democrats who pulled their endorsements. He has vehemently denied the allegations.

RELATED: Donna Brazile gets CRUSHED online over bizarre reply to allegations against Graham Platner

Half a dozen Democrats have already announced their willingness to replace Platner as the Democratic nominee for an election that could decide the partisan control of the Senate after the midterm elections.

“F**k ICE. Free Palestine. Up the Hearts,” Platner concluded.

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​Democrats, Graham platner, Midterm elections, Sexual assault, Susan collins, Us senate, Politics