A Florida pastor, who previously was a public school employee, is accused of sexually battering a 14-year-old boy. The pastor was hit with several charges, including being an HIV-infected person having sex without informing a partner.

The Polk County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement that 42-year-old Timothy Chaneyfield was arrested on July 29.

‘We believe he’s a super-spreader.’

Chaneyfield was charged with four counts of an HIV-infected person having sex without informing a partner, three counts of lewd battery of a minor, three counts of traveling to meet a minor, three counts of interfering with custody of a minor, one count of unlawful use of a two-way communication device, one count of possession of marijuana, and five counts of possession of drug paraphernalia.

His bond is more than $350,000, the sheriff’s office said.

Police launched an investigation into Chaneyfield on July 28 after receiving a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children regarding his engagement in inappropriate contact with a child.

Police said Chaneyfield is a pastor at St. James United American Free Will Baptist Church in Winter Haven and a chaplain for Compassionate Care Hospice.

Police stated they interviewed a 14-year-old alleged male victim who said he met Chaneyfield on a dating mobile app and continued to communicate with him on Instagram.

The statement reads, “Chaneyfield picked up the victim on three consecutive days at the entrance to the victim’s subdivision, then drove the victim to his house in Winter Haven, where he had sex with the victim each day.”

The Polk County Sheriff’s Office said Chaneyfield called the alleged victim to tell the minor he wanted to continue the sexual relationship.

Chaneyfield told the boy he was traveling to Baltimore for work. Detectives determined that Chaneyfield was flying to Baltimore to preside over a funeral.

Polk County Sheriff’s Office detectives and officers with the Orlando Police Department arrested Chaneyfield at the Orlando International Airport when he returned to Florida from Baltimore on July 29.

Chaneyfield was booked into the Orange County Jail and transferred to the Polk County Jail on Aug. 1.

Police said Chaneyfield admitted to Polk County Sheriff’s Office detectives to having illicit sex with the teen.

The Polk County Sheriff’s Office added that “during a separate investigation, an adult male reported to the PCSO that he had sex with Chaneyfield and learned after the fact that Chaneyfield was HIV-positive.”

Police added, “Detectives confirmed that Chaneyfield is HIV-positive and is taking medication for the disease, and that Chaneyfield did not inform the adult victim, nor the child, about his HIV status.”

RELATED: Disney employee, corrections officer, deputy police chief, teachers, among 160 arrested in Florida during undercover operation targeting human trafficking

Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said during a Tuesday news conference that Chaneyfield is “dangerous.”

Judd said Chaneyfield “used the power and the persuasion of a well-recognized minister in order to groom children and apparently at least one adult … in order to have sex.”

“He’s a dope-smoking pedophile preacher,” Judd said.

“Timothy is HIV-positive,” Judd said. “He failed to tell this 14-year-old child that [he is] HIV positive, and he had unprotected sex with a child and exposed our 14-year-old victim to HIV.”

“The 14-year-old had no clue that he was having unprotected sex with an adult that was HIV-positive,” Judd explained.

Sheriff Judd said the adult who had sex with Chaneyfield is now HIV-positive.

“We believe he’s a super-spreader,” the sheriff stated.

Police said the teen was provided with medication for treating HIV.

“This guy’s nasty. He’s a menace to society, and he’s proven that,” the sheriff said of Chaneyfield.

“Jesus don’t like that, and he’ll have to answer for that one day to a court much higher than ours,” Judd continued.

Judd also said Chaneyfield has “no remorse.”

“He’s an evil man,” Judd stated.

“We fear that there’s other victims out there because he was very aggressive and very adamant about having sex with apparently adults or children,” the sheriff stated.

“I would be shocked if there weren’t other children victims out there,” Judd said.

Sheriff Judd pointed out that “we actually tried to catch him while he was in Baltimore because we didn’t even want him wandering the streets of Baltimore.”

However, Judd said his police department received “zero assistance” from authorities in Baltimore; a spokesperson for Judd identified the agency as the Maryland Transportation Authority Police, NBC News reported, adding that an MTAP representative could not be immediately reached for comment Wednesday.

A spokesperson for Polk County Public Schools told WTVT-TV that Chaneyfield worked as a substitute teacher for two years beginning in 2012, a paraeducator from 2014 to 2016, and a network manager from 2016 to 2024.

Chaneyfield previously worked at Crystal Lake Middle School, police said.

The school system stated, “We are thankful that the Polk County Sheriff’s Office arrested this individual to protect the community from any further harm. As always, we cooperate fully with law enforcement to protect students and staff.”

The Ledger reported that Chaneyfield also was a pastor at New Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church in Haines City in 2020.

Anyone with information regarding Chaneyfield is urged to contact the Polk County Sheriff’s Office at 863-298-6200.

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​Florida, Child sex crimes, Sexual battery, Polk county sheriff’s office, Hiv, Arrest, Pastor, Crime 

In light of Sophie Cunningham’s support for only women playing in women’s sports — not men dressed as women — Golden State Valkyries head coach Natalie Nakase used a recent press conference to defend the inclusion of men in women’s athletics.

BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock is tired of hearing it, mocking Nakase’s case for the inclusion of men on a women’s court.

“Sports is about belonging, inclusivity, authentic self, and that includes transformers,” Whitlock mocks Nakase, pointing out that “she equates her own story, her height, her ethnicity, door slam with a sex category invasion she never had to live.”

And that’s exactly what Nakase did, as she claimed that being criticized herself has led her to have empathy for transgenders.

“How I’m seeing it is if I could answer with like for me, sports, sports is about belonging. It’s about inclusivity. It’s about allowing everyone to be their authentic self. You know, I’m big on that just because I have been criticized for my height, for my ethnicity,” Nakase said.

“I’ve been in those, ‘you shouldn’t belong here,’ many times. And for me, I don’t want that space, especially Golden State, to ever feel like that. So I’m all about women, little girls, deserving to play, and that includes trans women. So I’m all about inclusivity,” she added.

“I’ve been called fat. … So that’s why I’m inclusive of pedophiles, because I’ve been called fat. Don’t you see? Once you’ve been called fat, you believe in pedophilia,” Whitlock mocks. “That’s the logic she’s unpacking.”

“This is just ridiculous. I can’t believe that we have reached a point in human civilization where this is a talking point and a topic. I don’t. I, for the life of me, can’t understand. I’m watching the footage right now. I would be dominating that league,” Jay Skapniac chimes in.

“I’m 6’3”. I’m in my 40s. I haven’t touched the ball in like seven or eight years. Like, give me two months. Get me out there. And I’m dropping triple-doubles nightly,” he adds.

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​Basketball, Coach, Golden state, Jason whitlock, Jay skapniac, Wnba, Womens sports, Transgenders, Sophie cunningham, Blazetv show 

As AI sweeps through your favorite devices, services, and apps, there’s one category that hasn’t gotten nearly as much attention (yet): robots.

Artificial intelligence is being crammed into all kinds of robot forms that are destined for consumers, from robot vacuums to doglike pets and even humanoid servants meant to live in your home and help you do chores.

The worst part? Many of these bots come from Chinese companies, prompting enough concern over national security and personal privacy that the Trump administration just handed down a new Chinese robot ban that is effective immediately.

What the ban entails

In late July, the Trump administration announced that it would ban U.S. imports on new intelligent robot products that hail from China. This is significant, since the ban covers most of the smart robot market. According to the Associated Press, China owns about 85% of this product segment, dwarfing American companies like Boston Dynamics with its lethal dog robot, as well as Tesla, which has yet to ship its Optimus humanoid robot that debuted in 2022.

A Roomba vacuum took revealing photos of a woman in her bathroom.

It’s important to note that the ban only covers new products bound for the United States. Any existing Chinese-developed robots that currently reside within our borders are allowed to stay. President Trump’s FCC used a similar tactic when it banned foreign-made Wi-Fi routers earlier this year, so it’s not unprecedented for these existing products to remain active for months or years after restrictions are put in place.

The Chinese robot ban includes a wide range of products, such as humanoid robots made by Unitree and Agibot; robot vacuums made by Roomba, Roborock, Ecovacs, and Dreame Technology; quadruped (four-legged) robots made by Xiaomi; and power inverters by Huawei (a company that is no stranger to U.S. bans during Trump’s first term) and Sungrow Power Supply.

In the FCC’s announcement, the agency cited national security as the primary reason for the ban, stating that “relying on foreign-produced advanced robotic devices presents unacceptable supply chain and cybersecurity vulnerabilities” for the nation.

China has a shady history with US tech

This should come as a shock to absolutely nobody, and when you consider how many tech innovations China has stolen from the U.S. over the years, it’s surprising that something like this didn’t happen sooner.

RELATED: Trump fumes as China pilfers top US tech — and goes unpunished

Niphon/Getty Images

Here is a brief rundown of China’s illicit activities around U.S. tech and intelligence.

Chinese AI companies were recently caught distilling data from American AI giants, including Anthropic, OpenAI, and more.A Chinese spy received a life sentence for swiping AI trade secrets from Google.Several Chinese websites are stealing users’ faces, hidden under the guise of putting people’s likenesses into movies, shows, and video games for fun.Chinese-made TikTok once posed a huge threat to the United States, ultimately leading to the sale of U.S. operations to a domestic joint venture to avoid an outright ban.Chinese hackers were caught stealing tens of thousands of State Department emails that were managed by Microsoft.And for the coup de grace, China led an election interference campaign and walked away with 220 million U.S. voter files, the largest compromise of election data in history, according to President Trump.

What makes Chinese robots so dangerous?

Unlike foreign-made Wi-Fi routers that only had the power to monitor your web traffic (which is bad enough), Chinese-made robots are even more invasive. Many of these devices come equipped with high-tech sensors like LIDAR that map every corner of your house and save the data to the cloud. Newer premium robot vacuums also have high-definition camera systems capable of snapping photos and recording video. Manufacturers claim that these are intended to help the vacuum “see” where it’s going and to steer around potential obstacles, like toys, shoes, and pets. Regardless of the reason, these cameras let the vacuum view your home and everyone in it, with real consequences.

In 2022, MIT Technology Review revealed that a Roomba vacuum took revealing photos of a woman in her bathroom. These images were sent to an AI startup company tasked with using captured data to train AI models, and somehow, several of them appeared in a private group on social media. When pressed about the incident, Roomba’s parent company claimed that the images came from modified devices given to company employees who agreed to share their data. Furthermore, consumer devices were never at risk of data exposures.

Whether employees willingly signed up to be filmed in intimate spaces or not, one glaring concern still stands for the rest of us. Robot vacuums are effectively surveillance systems that users invite into their homes for the simple convenience of never having to touch a manual vacuum cleaner again. Is this simple trade-off with Chinese spyware really worth it? You can judge for yourself.

If you do have a robot in your home

Although existing Chinese-made robots are still allowed to operate in the United States, you may think twice before letting one roam your home. If you want to get rid of your robot vacuums or other applicable products, you can always sell them on a third-party marketplace or dispose of them through an electronics recycling company.

And if you wish to keep your robot, just know that there are valid reasons they were banned from the United States.

​Chines robots, Tech, Chinese robots 

The group behind the Miss North Carolina USA contest says the decision to strip the title from 27-year-old Brittany Boltinhouse was a “difficult” one.

The Mexican-Honduran model from Beulaville posted messages years ago that the organization said went against its values.

She had warned that voting for Kamala Harris would risk turning America into a ‘third world country.’

Boltinhouse is also a supporter of President Donald Trump, though that wasn’t included in the organization’s statement.

“This decision was not made lightly,” the organizers said on Instagram. “It followed a thorough review of recently surfaced information and was based on the totality of the circumstances and our responsibility to preserve the integrity of the Miss North Carolina USA title and the values of our organization.”

The posts were not included, but the NC Beat documented that Boltinhouse used the N-word numerous times between 2017 and 2018, and referred to herself as “toxic.”

She had warned that voting for Kamala Harris would risk turning America into a “third world country” in another post and also shared a photograph of herself at a Trump rally, according to the Beat.

The discovery led to backlash from some who objected to her posts and called her a “self-hating, Trump-supporting, racist, ignorant women [sic] who does not speak for me or for any of the other ACTUAL PROUD HISPANAS.”

Miss USA Chairman and CEO Thom Brodeur said that “racism, homophobia, transphobia, [and] language that strips any person of their dignity” are against the organization’s values, but it’s unclear if he was referring to her posts or her support of the president.

“As an organization entrusted with selecting and preparing women to represent our states on the national stage,” the organization continued, “we must uphold the standards and values that our titleholders agree to embrace when accepting the honor of wearing the crown.”

The incident is even more bizarre considering that Trump once owned the Miss USA pageant before he became president.

RELATED: Former Miss North Dakota pleads guilty to day care fraud in Minnesota

Myla Hadley, the runner-up in the pageant contest, will take up the mantle of Miss North Carolina USA 2026.

Boltinhouse was the first Honduran model to win the Miss North Carolina USA title.

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​Donald trump, Miss usa pageant, Politics, Trump supporters 

The Federal Bureau of Investigation revealed Thursday that a hacker had been able to scrape voter data from the 2020 election in Maricopa County, Arizona.

FBI Director Kash Patel released a letter outlining that the hacker had allegedly confessed, but local prosecutors refused to file charges against him.

‘He kept the files stored at his home but destroyed them shortly before the FBI raided his home in Fountain Hills.’

The digital infiltration included an astounding 633,000 voter files, of which 930 were described as “sensitive voter information,” according to one FBI document. The sensitive voter information was described as “domestic violence victims, judges, and law enforcement officers.”

“He kept the files stored at his home but destroyed them shortly before the FBI raided his home in Fountain Hills,” the FBI director added.

Despite the suspect’s confession, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Arizona, the Arizona attorney general, the Maricopa County district attorney, and the Pima County district attorney all declined to prosecute, according to Patel.

Blaze News reached out to the respective offices of the U.S. attorney in Arizona, the Arizona attorney general, the Maricopa County district attorney, and the Pima County district attorney for comment.

RELATED: Trump accuses Democrat governor of MASSIVE election fraud

The case was thoroughly investigated by the FBI and was closed in 2023, according to another FBI document.

A White House official told the Center Square that investigators did not believe the hacker was working with foreign agents. The suspect expressed remorse, and no ballots or voter registrations were altered, according to the official.

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​Federal bureau of investigation, Kash patel, Maricopa county, 2020 election, Politics 

The conservative political class is committing one of the most disastrous acts of political malpractice in recent memory.

When Biden press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre chided Americans for complaining about the price of staples such as milk and eggs, she did serious damage to the Democratic Party. Many voters backed Donald Trump because they trusted him to address inflation and the broader affordability crisis. Now conservative pundits and influencers are repeating the same mistake, telling consumers that everything is fine and that only economic illiterates think groceries, gas, and housing cost too much.

Democrats lost because they cut themselves off from reality. Republicans have no reason to copy the strategy.

Elections are not won by lecturing voters that their problems are imaginary. This is Politics 101. Professional political actors adopting the strategy months before the midterms is both bizarre and dangerous.

Affordability is not a Democrat talking point or a socialist catchphrase. It is real, and it will dominate every foreseeable election. Republicans understood this when Biden occupied the White House. The problem did not disappear when Trump returned.

People can feel that the economy is not working for them. They can see the American dream drifting farther out of reach. Conservative pundits may produce charts, cite aggregate statistics, and explain that certain indicators look healthy. None of that will save the GOP any more than it saved Democrats who insisted that “Bidenomics” was working.

The party cannot dismiss this anger as a failure of messaging. Voters do not experience the economy as an abstraction. They experience it at the checkout counter, at the gas pump, when the insurance bill arrives, and when another year of saving still leaves a starter home beyond reach. Their judgment is concrete and entirely rational.

The price of some discretionary goods, such as flat-screen televisions, may have fallen. The essentials of ordinary life have not followed the same path. Food, health care, child care, education, insurance, housing, electricity, and gasoline remain punishingly expensive. Gross domestic product and a surging stock market may comfort those already winning in the economy, but they are poor measures of the daily experience of a family struggling to stay afloat.

Many of the underlying problems are nearly untouchable in a democratic system. The hard truth is that buying votes is often the optimal electoral strategy. No candidate wins by promising voters that their benefits will shrink, their home values will fall, and their taxes will rise.

Trump understands this better than anyone. He promised not to touch major entitlements, pledged to protect home values, and proposed eliminating taxes on tips. America may be on a slow collision course with fiscal disaster, but no politician wants to lose an election by volunteering to hold the bomb when it explodes.

RELATED: Stop ‘owning the libs’ and start owning institutions

Blaze Media Illustration

The American version of this problem has modern features, but the core dilemma is ancient. Large civilizations require immense resources. When rulers can no longer obtain enough through ordinary taxation, they manipulate the currency.

Roman emperors knew little of modern monetary theory, but they understood that reducing the precious-metal content of coins allowed the state to mint more of them. The apparent solution eventually helped destroy confidence in the currency and contributed to the collapse of hard money across much of Europe.

There is only so much Trump can do about structural inflation and accumulated debt. He can, however, avoid taking actions that make the problem worse.

Gasoline is the literal fuel of the economy. Higher prices punish voters at the pump and then reappear in the cost of every product that must be transported. Energy bills, food prices, and fuel costs hit households immediately and simultaneously. Voters will remember that squeeze more clearly than any lecture about macroeconomic fundamentals.

The war with Iran has taken on a disturbingly familiar shape. Its champions mocked anyone who warned that the conflict might last more than a few weeks. Now the country approaches a critical midterm election with no end in sight.

This was predictable. Once a war begins, the ability to control its scope and duration rapidly diminishes. Machiavelli put it plainly: “Wars begin when you will, but they do not end when you please.”

The same pundits who demanded war now tell voters they are stupid or selfish for noticing its economic consequences. They will inevitably blame any disastrous midterm result on the people who opposed the conflict, but the political reality is obvious.

The central issue is not that voters have developed a sophisticated position on Iran. Many probably care little about the strategic details. They care that everything costs more. Telling them they lack economic literacy has roughly the same electoral appeal as shooting a puppy on live television.

America has already spent tens of billions of dollars on the Iran war and depleted munitions stockpiles that will require years and billions more to rebuild. The Republican House also approved another $8 billion in loans for Ukraine, despite Trump’s promise to end that war immediately.

RELATED: Conservatives are blowing the easiest political win in America

Blaze Media Illustration

The United States does not have this money sitting in a vault. It must be taxed, borrowed, or created. Each method imposes a cost on Americans who receive little material benefit from these foreign conflicts.

The political system limits what Republicans can do about inflation. Ending vast expenditures on wars that do not improve the lives of voters is nevertheless the most obvious place to begin.

The road ahead is difficult, but many of the wounds are self-inflicted. The first step toward recovery is to stop repeating the behavior that caused them.

End funding for the war in Ukraine. Bring American forces home from the Persian Gulf. Stop telling voters that concern over rising prices is foolish, greedy, or manufactured by Democrats.

The GOP still has one advantage: Democrats remain deeply unpopular. Redistricting has improved the Republican electoral map, and the left continues to repel many ordinary voters. There may still be time to limit the damage or even regain momentum.

But first the war hawks must admit that they were wrong — again — and change course.

Democrats lost because they cut themselves off from reality. Republicans have no reason to copy the strategy.

​Affordability crisis, Democratic party, Donald trump, Inflation crisis, Gas prices, Economy, Opinion & analysis, Gop, American dream 

A man suspected of intentionally setting the fire that devastated a 173-year-old Brooklyn church was arrested early Wednesday morning after allegedly attempting to shoplift food from a Times Square CVS, according to police.

John Jones, 24, was taken into custody at approximately 1:39 a.m. by an off-duty NYPD officer working private security at the CVS at West 49th Street and Broadway after he allegedly tried to steal a sandwich and a Coca-Cola.

‘Now we understand it is intentional, which brings another layer of grief to myself, as well as the congregation and the community.’

While Jones was being processed on the petty larceny charge, officers discovered there was an outstanding warrant for his arrest in connection with the June fire that destroyed the historic South Bushwick Reformed Church.

Jones is charged with federal arson in connection to the blaze.

Investigators had been searching for Jones after surveillance footage allegedly captured him fleeing the area of South Bushwick Reformed Church shortly before flames erupted around 1:20 p.m. on June 19.

The three-alarm fire drew nearly 200 first responders and caused catastrophic damage to the landmarked church, including the collapse of its iconic steeple into the roof. The church was empty at the time, with only one firefighter suffering minor injuries.

RELATED: Fire that destroyed one of NYC’s oldest wooden churches was intentionally set, FDNY determines

South Bushwick Reformed Church, 1923.Eugene L. Armbruster/The New York Historical Society/Getty Images

Last month, the FDNY officially determined the fire to be incendiary, meaning it had been deliberately set, though the investigation remained ongoing.

“Now we understand it is intentional, which brings another layer of grief to myself, as well as the congregation and the community,” Pastor James E. Steward II previously told CBS News.

South Bushwick Reformed Church was built in 1853 and declared a city landmark by the Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1968. It was one of only eight surviving wooden landmarked houses of worship in the entirety of New York City, with the congregation itself dating back to Dutch settlers in the 17th century.

In the weeks following the fire, church leaders and preservationists fought to save what remained of the historic structure after the Department of Buildings initially moved toward demolition.

The city ultimately granted a temporary pause to allow engineers and contractors to pursue a stabilization plan for portions of the building, including its 1881 fellowship hall.

This week, Harlem’s Abyssinian Baptist Church donated $5,000 to aid in the recovery effort as church leaders continue evaluating whether the landmark can be rebuilt or partially restored.

“When we heard the news that South Bushwick Church had caught fire, we wanted to come from Harlem to let you know that we love you, that we care for you,” Rev. Dr. Kevin R. Johnson said. “Today we bring you a check of $5,000 on behalf of the members of the Abyssinian Baptist Church.”

Additionally, according to a criminal complaint filed by the Eastern District of New York, Jones was also arrested by NYPD on or about June 28 in connection with “a separate property destruction incident.”

The New York Post, citing sources, has since reported that Jones was accused of destroying a television at a Williamsburg restaurant, earning him a criminal mischief charge.

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​Arrest, Church, Crime, Federal charges, Fire, New york city, Surveillance footage, Politics 

Wisconsin Democrats have a new front-runner for the “most psychotic Democrat,” and BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales is sounding the alarm.

“There’s a lot of competition. I get it. But I just would like to introduce you to a new player. Her name is Francesca Hong,” Gonzales begins.

Hong is a self-described democratic socialist who is running for governor in Wisconsin. And she “could win,” Gonzales says, pointing out that she’s “taking charge at 94.3%” in the Democrat primary.

“Now, I mentioned this woman is like a crackpot psycho crazy person. The reason that I say that … because she apparently is a psycho by like the Norman Bates definition,” she adds, before playing a clip from an interview with Hong.

“I think a lot of my insecurities and my struggles with mental health really came from a sense of never really feeling like I belonged. There was a deep shame and fear that I didn’t want to be Korean, and I think that’s where a lot of the mental health struggle started,” Hong recalled.

“I deeply wanted to be American, and I felt shame that my parents sacrificed so much to be here and that wasn’t who I wanted to be,” she added.

Hong went on to explain that “isolation and loneliness led into a lot of despair and depression,” leaving her hospitalized her senior year of high school. Hong explained that she was diagnosed as bipolar.

“She’s also admitted to taking SSRIs and overdosing on lithium,” Gonzales says.

“I feel like that should be pretty disqualifying to say, ‘I should run as governor,’” she adds.

Despite formerly being a restaurant owner and chef, Hong has called tipping “racist” and also lamented serving others on holidays like Valentine’s day.

“If that wasn’t bad enough, she also hates Christmas,” Gonzales says.

In a 2019 post on X, Hong wrote: “IT bro who was working on ‘our’ computer remotely changed the background theme to snow and Christmas trees. I feel slightly attacked…”

But that’s not all, as in a now-deleted 2020 post on X, she wrote: “Cancel Thanksgiving. Should have done this in 1621. If it takes a worldwide pandemic for us to realize we should stop celebrating colonialism and the original superspreader event that killed Indegenous [sic] folx and women so be it.”

Even CNN’s Kaitlan Collins asked Hong about her past take on Thanksgiving, to which Hong responded, “I always think my hospitality background in owning a restaurant … to share conversation and build community is always a good thing, but Thanksgiving is also a time that’s incredibly painful for many people in our communities.”

Hong has also posted that she supports “defunding the police as a first step towards abolishing the police.”

And shockingly, it gets worse.

“I guess she wants to get away with calling for the assassination of President Trump, because she openly called for it on a Zoom call,” Gonzales says, before playing yet another damaging clip of Hong.

“In the restaurant industry, when we’re out of something, we say it’s 86’ed. And I’d say it’s about f**king time we 86 Trump. He represents the utter failure of our government to keep us safe from threats, both viral and systemic,” Hong said.

However, there is good news.

“People seem to be waking up to how much of an actual psycho she is. So much so that Republicans are now narrowly favored to win the general. 52% Republican, 48% Democrat,” Gonzales says.

“I will just say in closing,” she adds, “candidates like Francesca Hong are tearing the Democrat Party apart.”

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​Francesca hong, Sara gonzales, Colonialism, Wisconsin, Election, Government, Governor, Democrat, Blazetv show 

George R.R. Martin may be one of the last surviving big-name bloggers out there, but don’t expect him to channel that energy into book writing any time soon.

For years fans have been asking the author to finish “The Winds of Winter,” the sixth “Game of Thrones” book, and after more than 15 years, the novel still isn’t finished.

‘Getting old is no fun.’

‘Worst’ to come?

In a recent blog post titled “Better Late Than Never,” Martin revealed to fans what has been holding him back.

The 77-year-old first addressed the fact that he hadn’t posted on the blog since February, citing that he “kept falling further and further behind.”

The website itself, called “Not a Blog,” is a charming time capsule from the mid-2000s, complete with basic clip art, where Martin has historically shared inside information with fans.

This time around, he admitted to readers “This year has been… stressful, to say the least.”

“So much has been happening, it’s been overwhelming. Some great things, exciting things. Dreams coming true. But there have been nightmares too,” the author continued.

Martin then expressed that he has been having trouble dealing with his emotions surrounding death, a message he has communicated with fans previously.

“I have lost friends. Battled sadness and depression. The worst may be yet to come. I turned seventy-seven last September, and I tell you, getting old is no fun. But there have been amazing times as well,” Martin continued.

RELATED: ‘BURN IT ALL DOWN’: Firebrand feminist filmmaker calls for violent revolution

Craig Barritt/Getty Images

‘Short and rushed’

Martin cited some things to celebrate, like Emmy nominations for his “Game of Thrones” prequel called “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms,” which garnered nine chances to win a trophy.

“I hope to attend,” Martin said about the award ceremony. “But that depends on… well, on a lot of things.”

The vague blog entry did not reveal any progress for his last book. Instead, Martin offered that he would attempt to “catch up” on his blogs, but said that his posts “are likely to short and rushed.”

Summarizing his ups and downs, the beloved writer stated, “I suppose that’s just life. Of course, I knew that. If you’ve read my stories, you know that.”

RELATED: Sam Altman biopic actors break silence after Amazon drops film: ‘I don’t know who’s running everything’

Jason Merritt/Getty Images

Bleak geek

Comments from Martin in May 2025 were similar, but much more bleak, when he declared on his blog, “I will never finish WINDS, If I do, I will never finish A DREAM OF SPRING. If I do, it won’t be any good.”

Hinting at a replacement, Martin said, “I ought to get some other writer to pinch hit for me.”

But that’s where the darkness set in, with the writer bleakly addressing fans about his age,

“… I am going to die soon anyway, because I am so old. I lost all interest in A Song of Ice and Fire decades ago. I don’t give a s**t about writing any longer, I just sit around and spend my money.”

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​George r. r. martin, Game of thrones, Entertainment 

Kaitlyn Tracey — the 33-year-old Canadian “illegal alien” who was caught on video slapping a teen girl dressed in “patriotic” clothing the day before the Fourth of July on a New Jersey boardwalk — has received her comeuppance from the U.S. government.

Tracey entered a guilty plea to misdemeanor simple assault, which was part of a deal she made after her arrest following the fracas, the Toronto Sun reported.

‘She entered the United States on April 14, 2024, on a visa set to expire on September 6, 2024. In violation of our nation’s laws, she overstayed her visa and failed to depart.’

With that, a Texas immigration judge earlier this week ordered Tracey — dubbed the “Maple Leaf Menace” by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security — deported back to Canada, the Sun added.

Tracey also was sentenced to one day in jail but was granted time served, the paper said.

DHS said a video it posted on X last month shows Tracey slapping a teenager and that “this illegal alien who assaulted a teenager has no business being in our country.”

The video in question shows a red-haired female with tattoos and wearing a black baseball hat appearing to twice slap another female on a boardwalk and then walking away with a male.

Police said: “The female suspect began yelling at the female juvenile over patriotic-colored sweatpants with political wording. The female suspect was then seen on video striking the juvenile female, once to the body and once to the face, with an open hand. The female suspect then left the scene without being identified.”

While the victim of the alleged assault seen on the video was wearing shorts, she does appear to be wearing a tank top with the numbers “250” on the front — presumably in regard to America’s 250th anniversary celebrated on July 4. The incident occurred July 3.

The following video contains a partial clip of the alleged slaps:

RELATED: Video shows Canadian ‘illegal alien’ slapping teen; assault suspect ‘has no business being in our country’: DHS

Police department detectives conducted an investigation, and police said they identified Tracey on July 6 as the suspect in connection with the incident.

Tracey was charged with simple assault, endangering the welfare of a child, harassment, and obstruction, police said, adding that Tracey early on July 6 was taken into custody without incident, processed, and transported to Ocean County Jail.

Blaze News on the morning of July 8 checked Immigration and Customs Enforcement records, which showed Tracey was in ICE custody at its Delaney Hall Detention Facility in Newark, N.J.

“She entered the United States on April 14, 2024, on a visa set to expire on September 6, 2024,” the DHS added to Blaze News. “In violation of our nation’s laws, she overstayed her visa and failed to depart.”

“Under President Trump and Secretary Mullin, ICE is targeting the worst of the worst. Nearly 70% of ICE arrests are of illegal aliens charged or convicted of a crime in the U.S.,” the DHS added to Blaze News. “Our message is clear: If you come into our country illegally and break our laws, we will find you, we will arrest you, and we will deport you.”

Fox News said a man identifying himself on social media as Tracey’s husband, Matthew Geroni, disputed the allegations in an interview with NJ.com and said the incident was “blown out of proportion.”

Fox News added that Geroni told NJ.com: “A person like Kate does not belong in any facility. My wife has never been in trouble in her entire life. She’s never had any kind of situation like this. This one little situation that was really a nothingburger when it happened has been blown so out of control by conservatives online that it has caused my wife to be put in a detention center.”

More from Fox News:

Geroni also posted several emotional videos to social media after Tracey’s arrest, saying he was trying to find an immigration attorney and pleading for help.

“I need help. I don’t know what to do,” he said in one video. “I need an immigration lawyer. … I need my wife.”

Geroni also said he created a GoFundMe campaign to help pay for Tracey’s legal defense and immigration costs before it was removed from the platform. Before it was taken down, the fundraiser said it had been organized by friends to help cover Tracey’s legal expenses and immigration-related costs.

In another video, Geroni claimed the campaign was removed after what he described as a coordinated mass reporting campaign by a “Facebook group of MAGA supporters.”

But Fox News said a GoFundMe spokesperson disputed Geroni’s claim and noted that the fundraiser was removed for violating the platform’s policies.

“GoFundMe’s terms of service prohibit fundraisers for the legal defense of violent crimes,” the spokesperson said, according to the news network. “Consistent with this long-standing policy, the fundraiser was removed from the platform and fully refunded.”

Tracey’s defense lawyer, Francis Hodgson, told Judge Guy P. Ryan that Tracey “arrived here on a passport some years ago. She met her husband and didn’t leave, but while she was [here], she maintained employment and was a productive member of society,” according to the Sun.

Hodgson added that Tracey has “taken responsibility for her role in it, and this is a reasonable judgment, Judge, that is consistent with other similar-type matters that happen every day during the summer on this boardwalk,” the paper also said.

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​Crime, Deportation, Canadian, Kaitlyn tracey, Immigration judge, Simple assault, New jersey, Illegal alien, Politics 

A 20-year-old college student is accused of destroying Flock Safety cameras in a West Virginia town, but he’s getting support from hundreds online.

Wesley Jackson allegedly damaged cameras that were installed at the intersection of Chestnut Ridge Road and Suburban Court in Morgantown, according to the Monongalia County Sheriff’s Office.

‘Can’t be. He was helping me take care of my sick mother and 8 foster children at the time.’

Investigators said they were able to identify Jackson as a suspect through other business surveillance footage, information from a nearby license plate reader, and other records obtained through search warrants.

He identified an alleged accomplice during a police interview, and that man was also later arrested.

The nationwide furor over privacy issues related to Flock cameras manifested itself in the comments on the arrest, where many defended Jackson’s alleged actions and others offered humorous alibis for the accused.

“Y’all’re confused, this fine young man was rescuing my cat from a tree at the time of the incident,” read one comment on Facebook.

“This fine gentleman was actually with me burning a couch,” said another.

“So weird, he was preparing food for the soup kitchen at that time,” another commenter said.

“We were at a convention in DC doing a seminar on the 4th amendment,” read another reply.

“Can’t be. He was helping me take care of my sick mother and 8 foster children at the time,” replied another user.

“No way he could have done it, we was fishing that day,” recalled one commenter.

Video of some the comments were posted to social media.

“I was the flock camera. this is definitely not the guy that stole me,” replied one user.

RELATED: FIVE police officers FIRED and charged after allegedly abusing Flock surveillance system

Jackson was charged with two felonies: damage, destruction, or theft of equipment used by emergency responders and conspiracy to commit a felony.

He has pleaded not guilty to the charges. He was released on a $15,000 bond.

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​Flock cameras, Privacy issues, Surveillance state, West virginia, Politics 

Rep. Chuck Edwards (R-N.C.) insists there was nothing romantic about any of it.

He even told investigators he knows exactly what sexual harassment looks like, having once written corporate policy on it. The House Ethics Committee wasn’t convinced, citing 30 pints of ice cream, strip clubs, a gifted handgun, and a poem he couldn’t get through without crying.

Edwards called her ‘the most amazing woman’ who had ‘written a complex chapter in my heart that I will never stop reading.’

The married father of two dropped his re-election bid after “much prayer and reflection,” announcing the decision early Wednesday morning.

The announcement came after a House Ethics Committee report released Monday found substantial reason to believe Edwards may have violated House rules on sexual harassment and hostile workplaces through a sustained pattern of conduct toward two young female staffers — one hired at 19, the other in her early 20s.

The 25-page report documents gifts of jewelry worth over $1,000, designer purses, a laptop, a robotic vacuum, a KitchenAid mixer, vacations, and one-on-one dinners.

RELATED: Sen. Moreno goes nuclear on ex-son-in-law Rep. Miller

Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc/Getty Images

He reportedly skipped House votes to help decorate one staffer’s Christmas tree, booked her spa treatments, and took her to the casino, where he bought her drinks and paid for her to gamble.

According to the report, Edwards had roughly 30 types of ice cream delivered to her home. When she called that excessive, he replied, “You looked like you needed a lot of cheering up! My heart was breaking seeing you like that.”

In what appears to be a handwritten letter bearing his signature, Edwards called her “the most amazing woman” who had “written a complex chapter in my heart that I will never stop reading,” and he arranged for a singer to perform Ed Sheeran’s “The Hills of Aberfeldy” at her birthday as a message “from a special someone,” according to one of the staffers.

In his interview with the committee, Edwards reportedly said this was the staffer’s favorite song.

At her office going-away party, he read the poem aloud, crying as he did. Staffers present said they felt uncomfortable — something Edwards himself acknowledged in testimony.

The committee found the pattern especially troubling because Edwards’ voluntary message production, completed after what Edwards called a “costly and extensive search,” excluded over 400 texts with one staffer, plus a nine-month gap missing 400 more — including the ice cream photo and several texts that could be interpreted as romantic that surfaced anyway.

The panel found no evidence of sexual activity or explicit propositions, but it concluded a “reasonable observer” would read his pattern of behavior as advances and recommended the full House censure him — the first recommendation of its kind since 2010.

Edwards disputes the findings and denies impropriety, arguing the committee bypassed normal procedure and that “the report’s narrative rests, at several of its most consequential points, on inferences the record does not support, and in places affirmatively contradicts.”

Edwards said he would serve out the remainder of his current term.

The censure vote awaits the House’s return from recess on August 31.

Blaze News contacted Edwards’ office for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

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​House ethics committee, Congress, Scandal, Politics, Chuck edwards 

More revelations about the Crossfire Hurricane investigation appear to show just how far the deep state was willing to go to frame Donald Trump as a Russian asset.

The FBI officially opened the Crossfire Hurricane investigation into supposed Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election on July 31 of that year.

‘They knew what they were doing was wrong.’

The operation was a partisan frame from start to finish — launched on the basis of what federal prosecutor John Durham found to have been “raw, unanalyzed, and uncorroborated intelligence” at a time when “neither U.S. law enforcement nor the Intelligence Community appears to have possessed any actual evidence of collusion in their holdings.”

Declassified FBI documents released by the White House on Wednesday show that an investigative subcomponent of Crossfire Hurricane code-named “Oxferd Comma” involved floating the baseless notion that President Donald Trump was acting on the behalf of the Kremlin when he fired then-FBI Director James Comey in May 2017.

The FBI appears to have strategically incorporated misspellings like “Oxferd” and numerical substitutions for letters in order to counter Freedom of Information Act requests.

Trump fired Comey for his handling of the investigation into twice-failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server for official public communications and Comey’s perceived usurpation of the attorney general’s authority on July 5, 2016, when he announced that the case would be closed without prosecution.

Another deep-state smear job

Among the newly declassified documents is a partially redacted internal memo that shows that a week after Trump fired Comey, Bill Priestap, then-assistant director of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division, directed the bureau to launch a full investigation “based on an articulable factual basis that reasonably indicates that President Donald J. Trump may be or has been, wittingly or unwittingly, involved in activities for or on behalf of the Government of the Russian Federation which may constitute violations of federal criminal law or threats to the national security of the United States.”

The memo noted that the new investigation — marked as a “sensitive investigative matter” and built on the “predetermined criteria set forth by the CROSSFIRE HURRICANE investigative team” — would determine whether Trump and others obstructed or conspired to obstruct any associated FBI investigation and whether Comey’s termination was itself an instance of obstruction.

RELATED: Trump is continuing JFK’s war on communist subversion

Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images

The FBI memo quoted from an interview where Trump, discussing his decision to fire Comey, said, “This Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made up story, it’s an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election that they should have won.”

According to the memo, this “can be reasonably read to imply that the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation was a factor in President Trump’s decision to terminate Comey.”

The investigation, the launch of which former acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe and then-Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein were made aware, continued until April 2019.

Now in August 2026, the White House is highlighting previously released documents showing that this operation was launched despite the notion of Trump being a Russian asset having “already been widely dismissed by agents and analysts working for months beforehand on the Crossfire Hurricane case.”

For example, then-FBI Deputy Assistant Director Peter Strzok said in a May 19, 2017, email to Lisa Page that his “gut sense” was that “there’s no big there there.”

The White House also pointed out that by the time the Oxferd Comma investigation was under way, the FBI “had also learned that the original allegations of collusion came from Hillary Clinton’s campaign, were funneled to the FBI in a dossier written by a former British spy named Christopher Steele, who was paid by Clinton campaign’s law firm, and that the Steele dossier’s contents had mostly been uncorroborated or debunked and were part of a political dirty trick.”

FBI Assistant Director Ben Williamson said in a statement to Blaze News, “The weaponization that occurred against President Trump under prior regimes was inexcusable and wholly un-American. Director [Kash] Patel himself was the lead investigator who originally exposed the disgraceful Crossfire Hurricane scandal, and as director, he has released over 40,000 pages of documents to the public exposing similar malfeasance from former FBI leadership — a threefold increase from both his predecessors combined. As we’ve said repeatedly: Any individual who is found to have acted unethically or engaged in weaponization has been or will be fired from the Bureau and held accountable under the law.”

Everything in the dark

Jeff Clark, the vice president of litigation at the Oversight Project, suggested that “James Comey was well-known by his associates as liking Oxford commas, so they named the operation (clearly motivated by revenge in response to Trump firing Comey) as a hommage (Fr.) to their beloved Comey. But that doesn’t explain why it was deliberately misspelled as ‘Oxferd.'”

“I’m going to go ahead and guess that they did that to deliberately frustrate future FOIA requests if anyone in the outside world happened to hear about what they thought was ‘Operation Oxford Comma’ and then go in search of the documents,” continued Clark. Then the FBI could intake a FOIA request for that and say back truthfully ‘Sorry, no responsive documents.'”

After poring over the documents, Clark discovered that in addition to misspelling “Oxford,” the FBI “substituted in a zero ( 0 ) for an ‘o’ so that it’s not Comma, it’s C0mma.”

“Totally designed to foil FOIA requests. It should be investigated as an obstruction of justice,” said Clark. “You know, some real obstruction of an official proceeding. I consulted with a document expert. He measured the o-looking letter/digit in the document and concluded it was a zero.”

Mike Howell, the president of the Oversight Project, told Blaze News, “They knew what they were doing was wrong. They knew that because it was wrong. Shame on them and those who cheered them on.”

‘We are the cat. And the cat likes eating mice.’

When asked whether his government watchdog organization frequently encounters clearly intentional efforts to hide documents with misspellings, Howell answered in the affirmative and noted, “Keep in mind that in the FOIA obstruction by Fauci adviser [David] Morens, it was our FOIA being obstructed.”

“As you know, I try to always communicate on gmail because my NIH email is FOIA’d constantly,” Morens wrote to the top scientists involved in figuring out where COVID-19 came from, including Peter Daszak, the disgraced head of the now-defunct EcoHealth Alliance, which directed U.S. funds into the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

“Stuff sent to my gmail gets to my phone,” continued Morens, “but not my NIH computer.”

Howell noted further that “bureaucrats, particularly at high levels, are acutely aware that sophisticated investigative operations will target them. It is a game of cat and mouse. We are the cat. And the cat likes eating mice.”

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

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​Crossfire hurricane, Donald trump, Hillary clinton, James comey, Lisa page, Peter strzok, Deep state, Politics