Two Alabama high school football coaches resigned amid an uproar caused by disturbing practice videos that spread rapidly online, Breitbart reported.
Drew Gilmer, the head coach, and Adam Helms, the defensive coordinator at Hoover High School, made their exit following the unveiling of footage showing them engaging in inappropriate conduct with players.
The public's outcry and legal scrutiny surrounding the revelations led to their premature career conclusion at the high school.
Earlier this week, disturbing content surfaced on the internet, one particular video depicting a coach forcibly removing a student's helmet and another involving inappropriate gestures towards a player's face. These actions sparked immediate concern and resulted in the coaches being placed on administrative leave by Tuesday, only a few days after the videos first appeared.
Further footage showed a more aggressive incident where a coach pulled off a player's helmet and threw it, causing the teenager to topple over. These visuals alone fueled widespread distress within the community and among stakeholders.
The Hoover City School System, while refraining from naming individuals, recognized the severe impact these incidents had on all involved. A statement confirmed the immediate focus on safeguarding student and staff well-being.
Amidst growing outrage, the school system has emphasized its intention to extend its full support to affected football players and their current coaching staff, reinforcing their commitment to safety as paramount.
Alabama State Representative and attorney Juandalyn Givan, stepped forward to represent one of the players at the center of the controversy, specifically implicating Drew Gilmer in the inappropriate actions. The police have triggered an investigation with special emphasis on these grievances, led by the Hoover Police Department's Special Victims Unit.
"A video has gone viral depicting acts by the Hoover High School head football coach Drew Gilmer," stated Givan. "The acts committed are extreme and beyond bounds of decency expected from an educator," she added, highlighting the severity of the misconduct involved.
Public and legal backlash followed swiftly, with the community and parents demanding accountability and assurances that such behavior would be decisively dealt with.
"We are here as legal counsel for a family whose child has been subjected to an unacceptable ordeal," Givan commented, framing the legal angle her representation would pursue.
She pointed out the inappropriate physical contact described in the videos, which she deemed not only unlawful but also morally reprehensible.
"It has everything to do with what was depicted on the video, in an instance, that left pause and concern... not just in Alabama, but throughout the sports industry as a whole," Givan explained, indicating the potential broader implications of such behavior in sports.
Givan's charge against the coach suggested a violation not just of legal standards, but of the trust placed in educators by students, parents, and the community.
The abortion issue is set to dominate the 2024 election, from the White House down to state ballots, which is why some groups and officials are trying to make big moves ahead of November.
According to THV11, Arkansas state officials filed a briefing with the Arkansas Supreme Court requesting that it throw out a lawsuit regarding a briefing over a proposed amendment to the state's abortion laws.
Arkansas, like other deeply red states, has strict abortion laws on the books in the wake of the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
Arkansans for Limited Government (AFLG) initially filed a proposed abortion amendment, but are now suing over the proposed amendment being thrown out by the secretary of state.
Lawyers for AFLG claim that Secretary of State John Thurston "unlawfully rejected" their November ballot proposal, and have taken legal action as a result.
The outlet noted:
AFLG continues to assert in the lawsuit that they followed state law, turned in required documents multiple times, and should have been allowed additional time to provided any other documents needed.
The group claims that the state's Secretary of State office isn't treating all petitions equally, and provided an example from another group's petition.
The outlet added:
The group added to their case an email sent by the Secretary of State's Office to a group sponsoring a medical marijuana amendment.
The email said that the group failed to comply with submitting a list of paid canvassers, but will apply this during the cure period.
AFLG lawyers contend that the issue at hand is essentially the exact same, but they're not receiving the same opportunity for a cure period.
The briefing filed by Arkansas state officials wants the state's high court to throw out the case entirely, arguing "that the court doesn't have jurisdiction over the proposed ballot petition."
State officials also argue that Secretary of State Thurston followed proper protocols when he rejected the proposed amendment last month.
Thurston argued that the paperwork turned in by the group was missing key data regarding paid canvassers who worked to obtain signatures for the proposed ballot amendment.
Depending on how litigation plays out, if the group is able to get the proposal on the ballot, voters will decide whether or not to "expand abortion access up to 18 weeks as well as in instances of rape, incest, or fatal fetal anomaly."
Only time will tell what happens.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Brit Hume has admitted he's a conservative, once remarking, "No doubt about it. But I would ask people to look at the work."
That "work" he referenced includes a 23-year career with ABC News, where he worked on World News Tonight with Peter Jennings, Nightline, and This Week.
He was ABC News' chief White House correspondent for years. Then he was managing editor in Washington for the Fox News Channel, and anchored Special Report with Brit Hume.
His duties then took on the title of senior political analyst for Fox and for a time he anchored On the Record.
So conservative though he may believe himself to be, his work has spanned employers from conservative to liberal and many subjects over the years.
So many people still have regard his opinion.
And his opinion of Kamala Harris? "Giggling lightweight."
On social media this week, he said, "If VP Harris were a confident, competent candidate well-prepared to be president, she would be willing, even eager, to outline her plans and explain herself to inquiring journalists. But she is not. She appears afraid she'll remind people why so many came to regard her as a giggling lightweight."
Social media comments following Hume's conclusion ranged from a blast about him being a "racist, misogynistic, hack" to praise, in "Absolutely!"
The comments came as Harris essentially has shut out the media for nearly three weeks since the Democrat Party dumped Joe Biden under the bus and install her as the top liner on their 2024 election ballot. This was after Biden essentially had locked up the nomination by getting commitments from enough delegates in the coming convention to be nominated.
A recent demand for the resignation of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz by the Italian American Civil Rights League (IACRL) has stirred political controversy.
The IACRL has accused Governor Walz of racial insensitivity towards Italian Americans over his alleged inaction during the toppling of a Christopher Columbus statue.
The conflict began with the destruction of the Columbus statue during the 2020 riots, an event that the protesters deemed a symbolic rejection of colonial legacies. The Italian American community, however, viewed this as an attack on their cultural heritage.
Mike Crispi, a board member of the IACRL and a delegate for Donald Trump, took to social media to vocalize the community's frustration. He accused Walz of deliberately ignoring the imminent threat to the statue, thereby endorsing what he termed a "flagrant hate crime."
Crispi's accusations extended to labeling the Governor's governance as a showcase of "cultural Marxism," criticizing him for his passive response to the rioters and the perceived collusion with groups opposed to Italian American symbols.
The fallout included critical comments from Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, who, during a press conference, expressed no regret over the statue's fall and critiqued Columbus's controversial historical impact. Her remarks added fuel to the already heated debate.
Responses from state Republicans further intensified the controversy. They claimed that Walz’s office had foreknowledge of plans to dismantle the statue but chose not to act. This allegation suggests a possible negligence in protecting what many Italian Americans cherish as a symbol of their cultural identity.
During a subsequent address, Governor Walz acknowledged the legitimate frustrations of the protesters, hinting at the complex historical narratives surrounding Columbus's legacy, yet assured that the actions would not go without consequences.
The incident has reignited discussions about the representation and interpretation of historical figures in public spaces. Columbus, a figure simultaneously celebrated and criticized, embodies the broader conflicts in American historical narratives.
The Columbus Day celebration, initially a gesture of solidarity with Italian immigrants facing discrimination, now finds itself at the heart of a cultural contention that questions which histories are commemorated in public spaces.
Amidst the political uproar, voices within the Italian American community itself have shown divisions. Crispi’s dismissal of an Italian immigrant supporting Walz highlights the varied perspectives on Columbus's representation and what it symbolizes for different segments of the community.
This internal discord underscores the complexity of cultural identity and its intersections with political allegiances and historical interpretations.
The controversy surrounding Walz is likely to persist as the implications of his actions and the reactions from his administration are dissected by both supporters and critics. The IACRL's call for his resignation marks a significant escalation in the political discourse surrounding cultural heritage and political accountability.
The debate over the Columbus statue is not just about a single piece of bronze, but about how communities recognize and rectify historical grievances that continue to influence contemporary politics.
A federal judge has ordered Biden's Justice Department to respond to wrongful death charges from the family of Ashli Babbitt, the 35-year-old Air Force Veteran who was shot dead by a Capitol Police officer on January 6th, 2021.
Judge Ana Reyes, a Biden appointee, gave the DOJ until September 6 to answer charges of assault and battery, negligence, and wrongful death in the $30 million case.
The officer who killed Babbitt, Michael Byrd, was not charged by the DOJ and has faced no disciplinary action from Capitol Police.
Byrd shot Babbitt, who was unarmed, as she attempted to enter the Speaker's Lobby through a shattered glass window.
The Judicial Watch lawsuit accuses Byrd of causing Babbitt's wrongful death through negligence. This included failing to warn Babbitt, making a careless assessment of the threat she posed, and not providing timely medical care after shooting her.
Byrd would later admit that he shot Babbitt without seeing her hands "or assessing her intentions or even identifying her as female," the lawsuit states.
"A reasonably prudent officer in Lt. Byrd’s position would have been aware that, in fact, Ashli was unarmed, small in stature, and did not pose a threat of
imminent death or serious physical injury to Lt. Byrd or anyone else by merely climbing through the window," the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit also points to negligent supervision and training from Capitol Police, noting Byrd was known to "behave in a dangerous or otherwise incompetent manner" after he left his loaded gun - the same one that he used to kill Babbitt - unattended in a Capitol bathroom used by visitors.
The Biden Justice Department had the case moved from San Diego to Washington D.C., which has proven highly favorable to the DOJ in its January 6th cases.
Judge Reyes told Judicial Watch to file a brief supporting its motion to send the case back to San Diego, where Babbitt's husband lives.
Months after Babbitt was killed, the Justice Department cleared Byrd of criminal wrongdoing without interviewing him. The Capitol Police likewise determined he acted appropriately.
“Ashli Babbitt and her family deserve accountability and justice for her wrongful death on January 6. In short, there was no good reason for Lt. Byrd to ambush and shoot her,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.
“But the Biden Justice Department, rather than admit government wrongdoing, is doing its best try to ensure Ashli never gets her full day in court.”
A recently elected Democratic state lawmaker in California is leaving her party to become a Republican.
California State Senator Marie Alvarado-Gil said she no longer identifies with her old party, which has moved radically to the left in recent years.
“In the past two years that I’ve been working in the Senate, I have not recognized the party that I belong to,” she told The Steve Hilton Show. “The Democratic Party is not the party that I signed up for decades ago.”
She now joins the outgunned Republican opposition in California, which is dominated by liberal Democrats.
“It’s not a very popular decision to leave a supermajority party where perhaps, you know, you have a lot more power and ability,” she said. “But this is a decision that is right for the constituents that voted me into office.”
Alvarado-Gil represents a rural, Republican-leaning district in the state Senate that covers a swath of Central California, including Modesto and Turlock.
She faced a progressive Democrat in the general election, and won, after advancing from a non-partisan primary crowded with Republican candidates.
During her time in Sacramento, she has become known for an independent streak, especially on crime.
She told the Sacramento Bee that her "last straw" was when the Democrats undermined a set of tough-on-crime bills that she supported with "poison pill" amendments.
State Senate President Pro Tem Mike McGuire (D) said her decision “is disappointing for voters” who elected her in 2022.
“They trusted her to represent them, and she’s betrayed that trust,” he said in a statement. “One silver lining is MAGA Republicans are gaining a pro-choice, pro-LGBTQ+ rights, anti-Trump colleague. We wish her the best of luck.”
But Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones (R) applauded her independence.
"It takes courage to stand up to the supermajority in California and Marie has what it takes,” Jones said in a statement. “Her record on tackling crime, protecting communities from sexually violent predators, and prioritizing her constituents speaks for itself.”
Republicans often point to California as a cautionary tale of unchecked liberalism. Residents have fled the state over vagrancy, crime, and the high cost of living.
Recently, Governor Gavin Newsom (D) has started to crack down on the tent encampments that plague California's cities.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
A key member of Congress says that Kamala Harris's three-year tenure as the nation's "border czar" for the Joe Biden administration will go down as "one of the most catastrophic failures in American history."
When she was assigned by Biden to work on the "root" causes of the influx of illegal aliens after he literally trashed a long list of border security measures implemented by President Donald Trump to open the border up, the invasion exploded.
The Washington Stand said Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., delivered the "most catastrophic" verdict during an episode of Washington Watch.
"President Joe Biden turned responsibility for stemming the unprecedented flow of illegal immigrants into the United States over to Harris in a public event in March 2021, yet Republicans say she did little to nothing to honor that charge," the report explained.
"Give us the homework. Show us your work. Show us what meetings you had, what research you did. What fact-finding missions did you engage in?" Burlison charged.
Harris and her advocates, as soon as she replaced Joe Biden on the Democrat ticket, tried to claim that she never was the border czar or held those responsibilities, defying the printed and video evidence of exactly that assignment.
Now the House Oversight and Accountability Committee has begun looking into her efforts to effectuate "the worst border crisis in American history."
In a letter to U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials, members of Congress demand all the documents and communications with Harris's office about the southwest border or illegal immigration.
The report noted Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., separately has demanded Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas produce communications referring to Harris as "czar."
The records, and they're all bad, set by the Biden administration for illegal aliens breaking into the U.S. include 1,734,686 in 2021, 2,378,944 in 2022 and 2,475,669 in 2023.
The report noted, "Each entry has had massive consequences for U.S. citizens."
The Oversight Committee, in fact, said, "The mass illegal migration under the Biden-Harris [a]dministration has contributed to murders, sexual assaults, and serious bodily injuries committed against numerous Americans at the hands of illegal aliens."
Burlison said it was not just the open border that was the problem, but the Biden administration's messaging to the world.
"When you create handouts and other benefits for people who are able to get into the United States, you're only driving up the demand. I think that it's pretty obvious the root cause," he said.
Harris's record opposing a secure border is long and deep.
The report said, "At a June 2018 campaign stop on the Mexican border at San Diego, Harris charged that President Trump's border security policy constituted a 'crime against humanity.' In a November 2018 congressional hearing, she asked President Trump's nominee to lead ICE, Ron Vitiello, 'Do you see any parallels' between ICE and a 'domestic terrorist organization' such as the Ku Klux Klan. … and 'In 2018, 'Meet the Press' asked candidate Kamala Harris whether she agreed with her campaign supporters who held signs to 'Abolish ICE,' referring to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). When asked if she agreed, Harris replied. 'We've got to critically reexamine ICE and its role. … We need to think about probably think about starting from scratch."
The Oversight Committee said, "Vice President Harris's root causes approach to solving the border crisis has been an abject failure as encounters at the southwest border remain high. As the administration would freely admit, most root causes (poverty, corruption, violence, etc.) in those countries were long-standing and endemic, which raises the question of why apprehensions have risen since, if simply addressing root causes was the answer."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
A company that operates election vote counting machines and was put on defense during the 2020 presidential race in the United States with claims of wrong results now has had one of its officials indicted for allegedly bribing election officials in the Philippines to keep and expand its business there.
Business Insider reported the accusations including bribery and money laundering.
A number of theories arose during the 2020 election about whether vote counts were being manipulated. Smartmatic responded with lawsuits against those making the suggestions, while the defendants have argued that scandal, not defamation, caused the company to lose money.
But now American prosecutors allege Smartmatic's president is guilty of the scheming that happened in the Philippines.
It is Roger Alejandro Piñate Martinez, president and cofounder of Smartmatic, who is accused of faking invoices and contracts in the late 2010s to help pay $1 million to Andres Bautista, the former head of the Phillippine elections commission, the DOJ charged.
The company's name was all over doubts about the 2020 election, the Business Insider report said, "when allies of then-President Donald Trump falsely accused it — and rival election technology company Dominion Voting Systems — of rigging votes to benefit now-President Joe Biden."
The report noted, "In reality, Smartmatic's technology was used in only one county during the 2020 election, in Los Angeles. But the indictment can still help Fox News, Newsmax, and other defendants in Smartmatic's many defamation lawsuits."
The Business Insider explained, "According to the Justice Department, Piñate, along with another Smartmatic employee, laundered the funds by inflating the cost of each voting machine used in the 2016 Philippine election. The bribery scheme spanned bank accounts in Asia, Europe, and Florida, where the case was brought, prosecutors say."
Through the bribery of Bautista — a codefendant in the case — Smartmatic retained and expanded its election services in the 2016 election, prosecutors say.
The company, in a statement, explained, "No voter fraud has been alleged and Smartmatic is not indicted."
The company has still-pending lawsuits against Fox News, Newsmax, Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, and others. Some of the legal actions are being paid for by Democrat donors.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Virtually no one outside of the Democrat Party's agenda-driven core considers Kamala Harris the ultimate success.
Her "border czar" assignment from Joe Biden saw a complete collapse of the nation's southern boundary and millions of illegal aliens arrive.
What is associated with her is her penchant for word salads, such as her insistence that the significance of the passage of time is significant, and her shrewish cackle that has been ridiculed a hundred ways online, many of them not polite.
The Daily Caller News Foundation noted that "Several Georgia voters told Newsmax they couldn't recount a single Harris accomplishment over the course of her entire career."
"Washington Post politics reporter Amber Phillips noted there are only two achievements that 'could be reasonably called her accomplishments' alone," the report added.
Those would be her promotion of abortion and her vote that plunged the United States significantly deeper in debt with the approval of misnamed "Inflation Reduction Act," which actually spent trillions but didn't address inflation at all.
But now an adviser to Biden is insisting that Harris actually is one of the "greatest things" in Biden's legacy.
In a report at the Daily Mail, ex-Biden adviser Anita Dunn commented on the removal of Biden from the 2024 ticket and insertion of Kamala Harris into the top slot.
"You know, it was rough. And no reflection on the vice president because I think one of the greatest things about Joe Biden's legacy will be that he made sure that there was a pipeline in which Kamala Harris was going to be the natural person everyone turned to if something happened to him," she said.
"He ran because he believed he was the best person to beat Donald Trump. And because he also believed he was the best person to lead the country. Now, if he's not a candidate, he made it very clear that the second-best person was his vice president. And that is where we are now."
Gov. Tim Walz said then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi urged him to back off on his extreme pro-abortion positions in 2018 because they were too radical, Breitbart reported. This could come back to haunt the Minnesota Democrat as Vice President Kamala Harris recently tapped him to be her running mate.
Walz shared Pelosi's words with him in a speech at the Democratic Farmer-Labor Party convention. He was running for governor at the time and doubled down on his support for abortion from conception through birth.
"My record is so pro-choice Nancy Pelosi asked me if I should tone it down. I stand with Planned Parenthood," Walz told the crowd.
Gov. Tim Walz is so extreme on abortion that Nancy Pelosi once told him that he needs to “tone it down” & be more moderate.
Don’t vote for the ticket that will allow babies to die up until the moment of birth, and in some cases, even after birth. pic.twitter.com/FjtlEepfPg
— Kristan Hawkins (@KristanHawkins) August 6, 2024
There's no doubt that Walz is a pro-abortion zealot as he oversaw Minnesota legislation that made it the first state in the union to give blanket abortion rights to its citizens. The state expanded the already liberal law that allowed abortion through the second trimester.
This came after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, sending the issue back to the states. The Protect Reproductive Options Act conferred the "right" to birth control, sterilization, family planning services, and, of course, abortion up until birth.
When it was passed, the Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life called the PRO Act "extreme, inhumane, and harmful to women and children who deserve so much better." Cathy Blaeser, the organization's co-executive director, blasted the law's radical provisions.
"The PRO Act means a right to abort any baby for any reason at any time up to birth. It means that the elective killing of a human being in utero is perfectly legal even in the third trimester of pregnancy when the child can feel excruciating pain and could live outside the womb," Blaeser said.
"It means that parents have no right to know when their teenage daughter has been taken to undergo an abortion," she added. "Gov. Walz’s absolutist abortion policy puts Minnesota in the company of just a small handful of countries around the world, including North Korea and China," Blaeser charged.
The bill could have been tempered with exceptions and other provisions. Instead, every effort to change the law to protect women and unborn children was shot down.
MCCL noted that lawmakers "rejected dozens of amendments that would have made the bill less extreme." These amendments included a partial-birth abortion ban, exceptions to third-trimester abortions, and providing anesthesia to unborn babies who can feel pain.
"This law doesn’t just allow late abortion for medical emergencies or hard cases. It allows late abortion for any reason whatsoever, and it’s an open invitation to notorious late abortion practitioners to come to Minnesota to set up shop," Blaeser noted.
Shockingly, lawmakers wouldn't even require these procedures to happen in licensed hospitals. "Here in Minnesota, you don’t even need to be a doctor or have a licensed facility in order to perform abortions. The lack of guardrails to protect women and children is appalling," the MCCL co-executive director added.
Pelosi recognized that Walz's positions were out of the mainstream, even in the child-murder-obsessed Democratic Party. Now, Harris and Walz make up the most extreme pro-abortion ticket in the history of presidential elections, and this could end their campaign.