The Republican lieutenant governor of Texas says his party is going to have a tough time in the midterm elections unless Republicans stop bickering among themselves.

Dan Patrick was speaking about the expensive battle between two Republicans for one of the state’s seats in the U.S. Senate, according to the Texas Tribune.

‘We’re going to have a tough time holding the Texas House.’

Patrick said that whoever loses the runoff election on May 26 between incumbent Sen. John Cornyn and Attorney General Ken Paxton must endorse the winner or risk losing the seat — and possibly turn over control of the Senate to Democrats.

And if the candidates continue criticizing each other, they’ll even imperil Republican control of the state House as well, he added.

“Get over it and come together as one,” said Patrick. “We’re going to have a tough time holding the Texas House.”

President Donald Trump had already weighed in on the issue in March when he said on social media that he would eventually make an endorsement in the race and that the other candidate must drop out for the good of the party. So far, he has not publicly endorsed either Cornyn or Paxton.

A loss of Republican control of the U.S. House would deeply jeopardize Trump’s ability to continue passing his agenda in the latter end of his second term. It may even lead to another impeachment.

Patrick admitted that the Texas Senate, where he officially presides, is in safe hands, but added that Cornyn and Paxton must help keep the Texas House in Republican control.

Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows appeared to respond to Patrick on social media.

“We will not lose the Texas House,” Burrows said. “We will fight to retain every Republican seat. I look forward to the fall campaign where we get to talk about Texas’ prosperity under Republican leadership; and, I trust the voters of Texas to continue to vote for conservative government up and down the ballot!”

Texas House Democratic Campaign Chair Rep. Christina Morales took the opportunity to swipe at Patrick and the GOP.

“Dan Patrick is telling Republicans they’re in trouble in November, and for once, he’s telling the truth,” said Morales.

RELATED: Trump to intervene in Texas’ Senate race, anoint his preferred candidate

“Dan Patrick and Texas Republicans have spent years pleasing Trump, catering to corporations, and rewarding their wealthy donors while Texas families can’t afford groceries, can’t trust the power grid, and can’t access basic healthcare,” she added in part. “Their voucher scam is defunding our neighborhood schools. Our communities are being torn apart by Trump’s ICE raids that Republicans refuse to stand up against.”

Republicans got a boost in their effort to keep the U.S. House in their control on Tuesday when a Trump-endorsed candidate won a special election to fill the Georgia seat vacated by Marjorie Taylor Greene. While Democrats did not win the long-shot election, they seem to have made some inroads in the state.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Cornyn vs paxton, Dan patrick warning to republicans, Dem control of senate, Republican in-fighting, Politics 

A California man pleaded guilty on Monday to stealing millions of dollars in taxpayer funds through his participation in a prescription drug fraud scheme, the Department of Justice reported.

Paul Richard Randall, a 66-year-old man from Orange County, has admitted to submitting nearly $270 million in fraudulent claims to Medi-Cal, California’s version of the federal Medicaid program, from May 2022 to April 2023.

‘This guilty plea should send a message that this administration — consistent with the president’s war on fraud — will not turn a blind eye while criminals fleece taxpayers.’

As part of his plea agreement, Randall confessed that he and his alleged accomplices took advantage of Medi-Cal by exploiting a policy change. The government program suspended the requirement for health care providers to obtain prior authorization before delivering services and medications for reimbursement while transitioning its prescription drug program to a new payment system.

Randall billed Medi-Cal millions of dollars each month for dispensing high-reimbursement, non-contracted, generic drugs through a pharmacy, including some pain medications. One such medication was Folite tablets, a vitamin available over the counter.

The DOJ contended that of the $270 million billed, Medi-Cal paid more than $178 million for 19 drugs that were either medically unnecessary, not provided to the patients, or both.

The funds provided by Medi-Cal were laundered to a third party to pay kickbacks to Randall and his alleged co-schemers.

RELATED: Vance’s task force shutters 221 hospices in ‘fraud king’ Gavin Newsom’s California

Leon Neal/Getty Images

Randall has been in federal custody since June 2025 and pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud. He faces up to 30 years in prison. His sentencing hearing is scheduled for August 3.

One of Randall’s accomplices, Kyrollos Mekail, a 37-year-old from Moreno Valley, pleaded guilty in August 2024 to two counts of health care fraud. Mekail is awaiting sentencing.

A second alleged co-conspirator is charged with two counts of health care fraud.

RELATED: The Medicaid fraud problem is not going away

J. David Ake/Getty Images

“This defendant used a public health program as his personal piggy bank,” First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said of Randall. “This guilty plea should send a message that this administration — consistent with the president’s war on fraud — will not turn a blind eye while criminals fleece taxpayers.”

“Thanks to the leadership of President Donald Trump, the Department, working closely with the Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, is supercharging efforts to take down every fraudster and bring them to justice,” acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​News, Fraud, Waste fraud abuse, Waste fraud and abuse, Kyrollos mekail, California, Medi-cal, Medicaid, Paul richard randall, Bill essayli, Todd blanche, Health care fraud, Healthcare fraud, Politics 

Anthropic is sending out a warning that its artificial intelligence model is sophisticated enough to undo decades of research.

The company operates Claude, the AI chatbot that has been ripped off and turned into a free, public model, and is hoping to get together with a consortium of tech companies to button up the security measures ahead of its release.

‘It has found vulnerabilities, and in some cases crafted exploits.’

Anthropic’s Mythos model of Claude AI will only be available to 40 select companies to be used for the power of good, the company claims.

It represents “the starting point for what we think will be an industry change point, or reckoning, with what needs to happen now,” said Logan Graham, head of Anthropic’s vulnerability testing team.

The company fears that its new AI model is so good at finding cracks in cybersecurity that it must only be shared with companies it deems capable and responsible enough to prepare for possible attacks when Mythos goes public.

“This model is good at finding vulnerabilities that would be well understood and findable by security researchers,” Graham said. “At the same time, it has found vulnerabilities, and in some cases crafted exploits, sophisticated enough that they were both missed by literally decades of security researchers, as well as all the automated tools designed to find them.”

RELATED: How to power the AI race without losing control

Samyukta Lakshmi/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Anthropic will reportedly commit up to $100 million in credits for the project, meaning the amount of money it would typically charge for such a volume of its chatbot’s usage.

Labeled Project Glasswing, the initiative to shore up cybersecurity will grant Mythos access to handpicked companies chosen largely from Big Tech like Amazon, Apple, Google, and Microsoft. The group is rounded out by internet infrastructure and cybersecurity giants like Broadcom, Cisco, CrowdStrike, Nvidia, and Palo Alto Networks, along with financial titan JPMorgan Chase and key open-source nonprofit the Linux Foundation.

This is not the first time an AI company has warned its product is too dangerous for the public, and looking back, readers can gauge whether or not Claude may be as dangerous as its creators purport it to be.

In 2019, OpenAI sent out a warning ahead of its release of GPT-2, claiming that its capabilities — now vastly eclipsed by later models — could be used to mass-produce propaganda or misleading text.

As Wired reported at the time, OpenAI said GPT-2 was too risky to be released to the general public.

RELATED: Claude, Anthropic’s AI assistant, slammed by Elon Musk for anti-white responses to simple prompts

Claude has been in the news for alleged missteps, leaks, and accidental postings throughout the past year, and while it may not be a household name yet, it has raced its way through the tech sector as a go-to for “agentic” work building software, apps, and even companies.

In addition to its model being open-sourced and used by the general public for free, the company has been noted for “accidental” postings of its own code.

Anthropic “accidentally uploaded a file to a public repository that’s just meant to help developers understand how to use their product” and “exposed some of the source code of Claude,” reporter Aaron Holmes explained recently.

Proprietary information was further leaked in another alleged accidental posting, this time through a blog draft that revealed “internal source code.”

The company seems poised for consistent marketing battles, both willing and unwilling, from its high-stakes lawsuit against the federal government labeling it a supply chain risk to the blowback it has received from putting a woman closely linked to the cultish Effective Altruism movement in charge of its AI’s “Constitution.”

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Return, Cyber security, Chatbot, Ai, Anthropic, Claude, Chatgpt, Artificial intelligence, Tech 

A gun-toting Ohio man was arrested Saturday after he opened fire multiple times at a car full of juveniles after a “ding-dong ditch” prank on his Green Township residence, WXIX-TV reported, citing court records.

Police said they discovered shell casings and a semiautomatic pistol with a green laser at the home of 33-year-old Yarvis Godfrey in the 5000 block of Starvue Drive, the station said, citing an affidavit.

‘He doesn’t deserve what’s happening to him. He’s not a criminal at all. And I’m concerned for him and his family.’

WXIX said no one was hurt, but court records indicate that a bullet struck the vehicle the teens were in as they took off.

Godfrey is charged with felonious assault, improperly discharging a firearm at or into a habitation or school safety zone, and two counts of discharge of a firearm on or near prohibited premises, the station said.

Four juveniles told police they went to the home to “ding-dong ditch” it and banged on the front door before running back to their vehicle, WXIX said, citing the affidavit.

A neighbor of Godfrey’s said in a WXIX news video that “he’s got footprints on his door … I guess they were kicking it.”

The station said the teens drove to a nearby cul-de-sac, turned around, drove back up the street, and passed the home in question.

The teens told police they saw a man with a gun near the street, and all four described the gun as having a green light or laser, WXIX reported, citing court records.

The station said the suspect fired multiple shots, and the juveniles fled to another cul-de-sac.

The suspect, later identified as Godfrey, followed them to confront them when police arrived, WXIX said, citing the affidavit.

RELATED: ‘Ding-dong ditch’ goes sideways yet again as teen gets shot amid popular prank, officials say

Officers said they found a bullet hole in the trunk of the juveniles’ black Kia Rio, a second bullet hole in the siding of a nearby home, and a third bullet hole in the siding of another home, the station noted, citing court records.

Police said they also found a .45 caliber shell casing on the road in front of the home, WXIX reported.

Officers executed a search warrant on the home and said they found a .45 caliber black semiautomatic pistol with a green laser, the station said, citing the affidavit.

“Responding with a .45 caliber weapon is completely disproportionate,” Hamilton County prosecutors said in court Monday, WLWT-TV reported; prosecutors also requested a no-firearms order to be added to Godfrey’s bond.

Godfrey’s bond was set at $80,000 on all the charges, WLWT noted, adding that the judge granted the no-firearms order. Godfrey reportedly also is to have no contact with the juveniles.

During Godfrey’s arraignment, his attorney said Godfrey doesn’t know who the juveniles are, WLWT said, adding that prosecutors allege the group knows one of Godfrey’s children who lives in the home.

RELATED: ‘Ding-dong ditch’ prank ends with homeowner firing multiple rounds at car — and juvenile passenger getting shot, cops say

Police said Godfrey was taken to the Hamilton County Justice Center, but he didn’t turn up in a Thursday-morning check of the facility’s inmate roster.

Police said all juveniles involved were charged with disorderly conduct.

The same neighbor who spoke in the WXIX news video said of Godfrey, “He’s a really good man, and I hate to see what’s happening to him. He doesn’t deserve what’s happening to him. He’s not a criminal at all. And I’m concerned for him and his family. “

The neighbor added that Godfrey “was very angry. I think it had happened before. I think this was like the second time. … ‘I’m tired of them doing this to me’ is what he said.”

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Arrest, Ding dong ditch, Felony assault, Green township, Hamilton county justice center, Juveniles, Ohio, Shooting, Homeowner arrested, Homeowner opens fire, Crime 

Outrage spread online earlier this week after reports emerged that Iryna Zarutska’s suspected murderer was ruled incompetent to stand trial. Amid the outrage, however, a glimmer of good news came out for those invested in seeking justice in the high-profile case from August 2025.

Blaze News reported Wednesday that Decarlos Dejuan Brown Jr., the suspect in Iryna Zarutska’s senseless stabbing on the subway system in Charlotte, North Carolina, was deemed incompetent to stand trial. This news caused many to speculate that the suspect may escape punishment on a technicality.

‘How many more innocent people must we sacrifice for the sake of coddling and babying the absolute scum of the Earth?’

Many online commentators and even a foreign leader reacted to an X post from the New York Post on the development.

“The purpose of a system is what it does,” White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller said.

RELATED: Homeless schizophrenic man accused of stabbing Iryna Zarutska to death is ‘incapable to proceed’ to trial

Peter Zay/Anadolu/Getty Images

“If you’re competent enough to target a woman and murder her, you’re competent enough to stand trial, be found guilty, and receive the death penalty,” BlazeTV’s Allie Beth Stuckey responded.

The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh’s response summed up the outrage:

The whole idea of “incompetent to stand trial” is f**king nonsense. If you’re too “incompetent” to understand that you shouldn’t butcher an innocent woman on the train, you should die. Period. Arrest, convict, execute. You are not fit to be a part of human society. How many more innocent people must we sacrifice for the sake of coddling and babying the absolute scum of the Earth? Our ancestors had it right. They would have had this guy hanging from the gallows an hour after conviction. The old system of justice was light years better than this insane bulls**t we’re dealing with now.

El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele, who has cleaned up his country from crime quite effectively in recent months, said, “Impeach the corrupt judges.”

CEO of NXR Studios and Pastor Joel Webbon weighed in as well: “No one is too incompetent for the death penalty. All you have to do is sit there. He’ll do fine.”

While the outrage surrounding the murder case continues, the report from the New York Post’s headline did not mention separate federal charges against Brown that are unaffected by the findings of the state case. The Post did, however, mention this fact in the report.

The Western District of North Carolina U.S. Attorney’s Office made this key detail abundantly clear in its response to the Post on social media: “DeCarlos Brown is in federal custody on a federal indictment. The state proceedings, including any competency finding in those proceedings, are completely separate.”

Brown faces a federal charge of one count of committing an act causing death on a mass transportation system. If convicted, he could still face life in prison or even the death penalty.

“Crimes like this … affect everyone who relies on mass transportation to get to and from work and go about their daily lives,” U.S. Attorney Russ Ferguson said in September, “and federal charges are necessary to protect the public and ensure confidence in our transportation systems.”

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Politics, Us attorney, Iryna zarutska, Decarlos brown, Allie beth stuckey, Joel webbon, Matt walsh, Nayib bukele, El salvador, Western district of north carolina, North carolina, Blazetv 

President Donald Trump continues to bash NATO after meeting behind closed doors with Secretary-General Mark Rutte, further signaling that the alliance could be crumbling.

Trump has long been critical of NATO, claiming that allies routinely fail to pull their own weight. This sentiment has reached a fever pitch since NATO allies have refused to aid the United States during the war with Iran. As a result, Trump told these allies to fend for themselves during the energy crisis, and he has not backed down.

‘This was a very frank, very open discussion.’

Trump has openly floated the idea of withdrawing from the alliance altogether after having a “frank and open” discussion with Rutte in the White House on Wednesday.

“He is clearly disappointed with many NATO allies,” Rutte told CNN following the meeting. “And I can see his point.”

RELATED: ‘Delayed courage’: Trump tells allies to fend for themselves amid oil crisis

Mandel NGAN/AFP/Getty Images

“Clearly, this was a very frank, very open discussion,” Rutte added. “But also a discussion between two good friends.”

While Rutte kept his cards close to his chest, Trump took to Truth Social to tell the world exactly what he thinks of the alliance.

“NATO WASN’T THERE WHEN WE NEEDED THEM, AND THEY WON’T BE THERE IF WE NEED THEM AGAIN. REMEMBER GREENLAND, THAT BIG, POORLY RUN, PIECE OF ICE!!!” Trump said in a Truth Social post after the meeting.

“None of these people, including our own, very disappointing, NATO, understood anything unless they have pressure placed upon them!!!” Trump said in another Truth Social post.

Although Trump has continued to signal his strong disapproval of the alliance, no formal decision has been made about withdrawing from NATO.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Donald trump, Nato, Iran wr, Europe, Allies, Oil, Iran, Mark rutte, Truth social, Greenland, Piece of ice, Nato allies, Alliance, Politics 

For years, Washington insiders from both parties talked a big game about lowering health care costs. Yet somehow, the bills kept rising, families kept struggling, and the real power players in the system kept getting a free pass. Not anymore.

The Trump administration’s Department of Justice is finally taking aim at one of the biggest and most overlooked drivers of high health care costs: anticompetitive contracting by dominant hospital systems.

Hospitals are businesses first and foremost — and like any business, they’re out to maximize profits.

The recent lawsuits against giants like New York Presbyterian and Ohio Health are a clear signal that the era of unchecked hospital power is coming to an end.

Let’s be honest about what’s been happening. In city after city, hospital markets have quietly consolidated until competition barely exists. When nearly all metro areas have highly concentrated hospital systems, those systems use their leverage to lock in contracts that guarantee them top-tier placement in insurance networks while blocking efforts to guide patients toward more affordable care.

These so-called “anti-steering” provisions might sound technical, but their impact is simple: higher prices and fewer choices for American families.

When insurers and employers cannot design plans that reward lower-cost, high-quality providers, patients are forced into more expensive options whether they realize it or not. Workers pay more in premiums. Businesses face higher costs. Taxpayers pick up the tab through government programs.

What makes the Trump DOJ’s actions so important is that they are willing to challenge institutions that have long been treated as untouchable. Hospitals often enjoy a halo effect in their communities, and many do lifesaving work. But that does not give them the right to use their market dominance to shut out competition and inflate prices.

Hospitals are businesses first and foremost — and like any business, they’re out to maximize profits.

By going after these restrictive contracts, the administration is restoring something that has been missing from health care for far too long: real competition. When plans have the flexibility to exclude overpriced systems or steer patients toward better-value options, the entire market starts to work the way it is supposed to.

We already have evidence this works. Plans that avoid the most expensive hospital systems can significantly reduce costs — without negatively impacting the quality of the care being delivered — and even modest steering can deliver meaningful savings. In a system as large as American health care, those savings translate into billions of dollars and real relief for families.

Predictably, the corporate hospital industry is pushing back, claiming these lawsuits are misguided. But that is what you hear whenever someone finally challenges entrenched interests. The same voices that benefited from the status quo are now being asked to compete on a level playing field, and they do not like it.

RELATED: Tax-exempt hospitals are not putting their patients first

David M. Levitt/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Instead of protecting powerful institutions, the Trump administration is standing up for patients, workers, and employers who have been footing the bill for far too long. It is a reminder that markets only work when competition is protected, and that means enforcing the rules when they are violated.

For decades, Americans have been told that health care costs are just too complicated to fix. But sometimes the problem is simpler than the experts admit. When a few dominant players can write the rules, everyone else loses. President Trump and the Department of Justice are finally rewriting that script.

Draining the swamp is not just about Washington politics. It is about rooting out the hidden arrangements and insider advantages that drive up costs across our economy, including in health care.

By taking on anticompetitive hospital contracting, the Trump administration is proving that no industry is above scrutiny.

That is a win for competition, a win for affordability, and most importantly, a win for the American people.

​Trump, Healthcare costs, Hospitals, Hospital systems, Monopolies, Insurance, Insurance costs, Doj, Opinion & analysis 

The 2026 National Defense Authorization Act ratified by President Donald Trump in December is overhauling the draft registration process.

Under the new law, “every male citizen of the United States, and every other male person residing in the United States, between the ages of 18 and 26” will be registered for the draft automatically. The previous policy required young men to self-register within 30 days of their 18th birthday.

‘Undocumented immigrants are by definition not giving data.’

Craig Brown, the acting director of the Selective Service System since 2021, noted in a report earlier this year that automatic registration was among the top three transformational initiatives that his agency — which is tasked with registering men and maintaining a system that “rapidly provides manpower in a fair and just manner” — would pursue over the next five years.

Sure enough, the SSS submitted a proposed rule change to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs on March 30 titled “Automatic Registration.”

Per the SSS, “This statutory change transfers responsibility for registration from individual men to SSS through integration with federal data sources.”

The SSS strategic plan notes that implementation will be executed in alignment with Trump’s Executive Order 14243, which directed federal agency heads to ensure that federal officials “have full and prompt access to all unclassified agency records, data, software systems, and information technology systems — or their equivalents if providing access to an equivalent dataset does not delay access — for purposes of pursuing administration priorities related to the identification and elimination of waste, fraud, and abuse.”

It’s presently unclear whether automation with improved inter-agency data-sharing and the Department of Homeland Security’s boosted alien registration efforts will address the suspected under-registration of draft-eligible parolees, illegal aliens, legal permanent residents, and asylum-seekers.

RELATED: ‘Terrible betrayal’: Republican’s ‘compassionate’ immigration bill sparks intraparty clash

Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

The Oversight Project raised concerns last year about possible widespread criminal noncompliance by inadmissible aliens — concerns fueled in part by the absence of a surge in registrations during the Biden administration, according to data provided by the SSS to Congress.

These concerns were further fueled by documents hinting at an awareness behind the scenes at the SSS that the agency was failing to capture data on potential illegal alien registrants.

For instance, in an April 28, 2023, email obtained by the Oversight Project, SSS acting Director Brown noted that “undocumented immigrants are by definition not giving data. We get info on every male trying to legit stay in the country.”

Mike Howell, president of the Oversight Project, told Blaze News, “I have no idea how they plan on automatically registering so-called undocumented immigrants into the Selective Service. Given the fact that the DOJ seems not to care about charging the hordes of military-aged male illegal aliens who came in during the Biden administration with failure to register, which could put them in jail for up to five years, I doubt that it’s been considered in much detail or is even on the radar.”

Blaze News has reached out to the SSS for comment.

According to an SSS report to Congress, the registration rate for eligible men in 2024 was 81%. The report suggested that automating the process might help bolster registration rates.

Failure to register for the draft is punishable by a fine of up to $250,000 and/or five years in prison. An individual who “knowingly counsels, aids, or abets” another person not to comply with the requirement can be slapped with the same penalties.

Failure to register could also jeopardize immigrants’ U.S. citizenship, preclude offenders from receiving state-funded financial aid and job training, and cause ineligibility for various federal employment opportunities.

Editor’s note: Mike Howell is a contributor to Blaze News.

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

​Draft, War, Military, Selective service, Sss, Mike howell, Oversight project, Ndaa, President donald trump, Illegal aliens, Aliens, Politics