This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Bullying by teenagers causes inestimable damage across America. Sometimes victims have responded with extreme measures, up to and including suicide.
But now one state has adopted a plan that will hit back, really hard.
It will take drivers' licenses away from the offenders.
A report at EndTimeHeadlines calls it a "bold move to curb bullying."
Minors could lose their driving privileges for up to a year if found guilty of bullying or cyberbullying.
The law was signed by Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee in April and expands previous attempts to define the actions as offenses.
Rep. Lowell Russell, a Republican who sponsored the bill, said, "Most acts of violence or suicides are results of being bullied."
He said the issue came into focus when he encountered a parent whose son faced bullying and got inadequate support from his school.
If the licenses are suspended by a court ruling, the court notifies the Tennessee Department of Safety.
"For teens caught driving on a suspended license, additional penalties may apply," the report said.
The plan does offer access to required driving, such as to school, work or church, with a "restricted license" that involves a separate application and permission from the court.
Adam Lowe, another Republican supporter, it finally there are some "teeth" in attempts to suppress bullying.
The report explained, "The legislation is part of Tennessee's broader efforts to combat bullying and its associated risks, including youth violence and suicide. Last year, lawmakers expanded the legal definition of harassment to include bullying and cyberbullying, aiming to provide clearer guidelines for prevention."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
A social media personality is learning there are consequences to accusing a Christian camp, Camp Mystic, of being racist.
The web influencer has blasted "people who are donating and helping find the missing girls" in the Texas tragedy that resulted from a sudden downpour and a flash flood. More than 80 people, include dozens of children, have died as a result.
Libs of TikTok labeled the comments, "One of the sickest things I've ever seen."
An update suggested the commenter was being removed, permanently, from a Houston city board to which she had been appointed.
She said:
I know I'm probably going to get canceled for this but Camp Mystic is a whites-only girls Christian camp. They don't even have a token Asian. They don't have a token black person. It is a (sic) all-white white-only, conservative Christian camp. If you ain't white, you ain't right. You ain't getting' in. You ain't goin'. Period. And I think that context needs to be said in this matter. It's not to say that we don't want the girls to be found, whatever girls are missing or whatever right now. But you best believe, especially in today's political climate, if this were a group of Hispanic girls, especially with them being in east Texas, should be, most likely Hispanic, if this were a group of Hispanic girls out there, this would not be getting the type of coverage that they're getting. No one would give a f***. And all of these white people, the parents of these little girls would be saying things like they need to be deported, they shouldn't have been here in the first place, and yada, yada.
And before ya'll come at me. Before ya'll start leaving hate comments on my page about Oh these are just kids and they don't know no better (garble). Parents of these children who are choosing, and it is a choice in 2025. It is definitely a freaking choice. And to go into east G** **** Texas and to a (sic) all-white enclave, exclusionary, just for white people, with all the black people in east Texas, with all the Hispanic people in east Texas, somehow, some way, you have carved out an all-white, white only enclave, in east Texas, for your white children. Yah, I have a problem with that. I have a big problem with that. Once again, this is no shade to the girls. I hope they all get found, but once again, ya'll have to understand the climate that we're living in. They want you to have sympathy for these people. They want you to get out of your bed and come outta your home and go find these people, donate your money to go find these people. Meanwhile, they are deporting your family members, meanwhile, they are setting up concentration camps, and prisons for your family members. And I need ya'll to keep that in mind, before y'all get out there and put on your rain boots, and go find little girls.
Social media identified her as Sade Perkins.
Others posted images online showing that the camp is, in fact, not "whites-only."
Reports revealed Perkin's Tik Tok account soon was "down."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
A time-lapse video reveals how quickly the flash flood in Kerr County, Texas, on Friday developed.
Authorities say at least 82 people were killed in the catastrophe, and President Donald Trump issued a disaster declaration.
He said, ""These families are enduring an unimaginable tragedy, with many lives lost, and many still missing. The Trump Administration continues to work closely with State and Local Leaders. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem was on the ground yesterday with Governor Greg Abbott, who is working hard to help the people of his Great State."
The video shows the water's rise in just about half an hour.
Social media included comments:
"That's why they're called flash floods."
"The speed with which the waters rose is phenomenal."
"It's crazy that the time lapse is really only 30 min."
"Praying for the people of my home state… Those floods happen so fast."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
A federal appeals court has yanked the reins on a public schoolteacher who wanted to use his captive students to promote his own gender ideology.
It is the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that said the teacher is not entitled to a preliminary injunction that would allow him to promote his feminine pronouns to students, an agenda in violation of state law, while the fight continues.
Mat Staver, chief of Liberty Counsel, which has handled multiple cases involving demands from the transgender community, said, "Florida law is clear that employees, contractors, or students of a public K-12 educational institution may not be required to refer to other people using their preferred personal titles or pronouns if it does not correspond to their biological sex. In this case, the teacher's speech was government speech, not private speech, and there is no First Amendment claim against the law."
The appeals court vacated a lower court's preliminary injunction and sent the case back.
The case, Wood v. Florida Department of Education, involves a teacher at a public high school in Hillsborough County, Florida. He challenged the state law that prohibits him from using pronouns not consistent with his biological sex in the classroom.
"Wood was born a biological male but now identifies as a woman. Wood argued the law violated his First Amendment right to free speech and sought a preliminary injunction to prevent its enforcement," Liberty Counsel explained
A judge in an entry level court to the federal judicial system granted him that injunction, but that was reversed.
The appeals court "held that Wood had not demonstrated a substantial likelihood that the law infringed free speech rights. The court concluded that when Wood used preferred pronouns in the classroom, it was as a government employee, not as a private citizen. Therefore, Wood's speech was not protected under the First Amendment in this context," the report said.
"The First Amendment's protections extend to public school teachers and students, 'neither of whom shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.' But a teacher's right to speak is not without limits. One reason is that 'in addition to being a private citizen,' a teacher is 'also a government employee paid in part to speak on the government's behalf and convey its intended messages,'" according to Judge Kevin Newsom's majority opinion.
In 2020, Wood began insisting on pronouns including, "she" and "her," and included that in communications with students. But then in 2023, Florida adopted a law regarding that issue.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
As Texans continue to deal with Saturday's flash flooding that has claimed dozens of lives, the lieutenant governor of the Lone Star State is urging citizens not to give up hope for those missing.
"Do not give up," said Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick on "Fox & Friends Weekend." "Miracles can happen."
The death toll Sunday morning rose to 59, with 27 girls missing from Camp Mystic, a Christian summer camp along the banks of the Guadalupe River in Hunt, Texas.
Five girls staying at the camp have been confirmed dead. There were 750 attendees when floodwaters rose 26 feet in abut 45 minutes, slamming into the camp.
"The miracles that have happened," Patrick continued, "it's hard for me to talk about that because I'm also taking to the families of those who are missing. And right now they're focused on that. Miracles are tough. They expect and they hope and they pray. We stand on the rock of our faith through now."
"But there have been dramatic stories … Camp Mystic where camp counselors smashed a window open, we know this story from the girl who was telling her parents because they drove her back to Dallas.
"And they went out the window in their nightgowns. They walked in bare feet in neck-high water. These are little girls. They swam for about 10 or 15 minutes. Can you imagine? In the darkness and the rushing waters, and trees coming by you and rocks coming by you? And then they get to a spot on the land. They don't even know how they got to the next spot. And the helicopter came picked them up.
"Incredible stories of a young man saved his fiancée and her children and his mother. But he cut his arm through the glass that he broke. And we don't know what happened to him. But he said to the family, 'I can't go on. You have to go.' We're are gonna have a book of stories of incredible heroic actions."
Patrick noted, "Of all of these camps along this river, Camp Mystic was in the worst spot where the water came and hit it [from] multiple directions coming down. And that's where the 27 are missing."
He also praised the efforts of those involved in search and rescue, saying, "They will not give up. They will keep working beyond their shift."
In a post on X, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott detailed the destruction of Camp Mystic, saying: "It, and the river running beside it, were horrendously ravaged in ways unlike I've seen in any natural disaster."
"The height the rushing water reached to the top of cabins was shocking."
"We won't stop until we find every girl who was in those cabins," Abbott stressed.
President Donald Trump on Sunday said on Truth Social: "I just signed a Major Disaster Declaration for Kerr County, Texas, to ensure that our Brave First Responders immediately have the resources they need.
"These families are enduring an unimaginable tragedy, with many lives lost, and many still missing. The Trump Administration continues to work closely with State and Local Leaders.
"Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem was on the ground yesterday with Governor Greg Abbott, who is working hard to help the people of his Great State. Our incredible U.S. Coast Guard, together with State First Responders, have saved more than 850 lives. GOD BLESS THE FAMILIES, AND GOD BLESS TEXAS!"
Trump has agreed to send "all available resources" to Texas in the wake of the flooding.
"The president's been engaged since everything started happening," James Blair, White House deputy chief of staff, said on "Fox & Friends Weekend."
"The federal government led by President Trump is there for the state of Texas," Blair said. "He has agreed to send all available resources that are requested down to Texas."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
In a time when Americans face mounting student debt, stagnant wages and increasing job competition, a little-known government program continues to certify hundreds of thousands of permanent jobs for foreign workers, even when qualified U.S. citizens are available, willing and able.
The labor certification process known as "PERM" (Program Electronic Review Management) allows employers to sponsor foreign nationals for green cards only if no qualified U.S. worker is available. According to federal law, employers must first complete a good-faith test of the U.S. labor market, which includes specific recruitment steps such as two Sunday newspaper ads, internal postings and three additional recruitment methods from a Department of Labor-approved list.
But in practice, employers can exploit the outdated list of approved recruitment methods by avoiding major online platforms and even their own company career sites. Instead, they often use limited-access alternatives such as obscure job boards, local or ethnic newspapers, or short-duration radio ads that technically satisfy the rules on paper, but drastically reduce the chances that qualified U.S. workers will ever see or apply for the position.
In 2024, the Department of Labor processed 116,427 PERM applications to hire foreign workers, approving nearly 88% of them. Only 5.4% (6,364) were denied. This means tens of thousands of U.S. jobs were certified for foreign workers without a transparent or fair recruitment process. The Department of Labor publishes quarterly data on employer applications to sponsor foreign workers, including both H-1B and PERM filings, which offers insight into the hiring and immigration practices of U.S. employers and their immigration attorneys.
An analysis of PERM filings from 2020 to 2024 reveals how major U.S. technology companies use the green card sponsorship process to secure foreign labor for high-paying roles, often without conducting genuine or competitive hiring searches. The data show consistent reliance on minimal recruitment efforts, including outdated tactics like requiring U.S. applicants to submit paper resumes by mail.
These methods, previously flagged by the Department of Justice as barriers to American workers, were often used even by large tech companies like Amazon, Apple, Google and Workday.
For example, PERM-required job ads published in the May 9, 2021, print edition of the Mercury News instructed jobseekers to apply via postal mail, despite the fact that these companies already had digital hiring systems in place.
Similar tactics triggered a high-profile federal investigation involving Facebook – now Meta. In 2021, the Department of Justice and the Department of Labor reached a settlement with Facebook after alleging it had intentionally implemented PERM recruitment in a way to deter U.S. applicants. According to the complaint, Facebook did not post PERM roles on its public careers page and it required submission of resumes by physical mail, methods the DOJ concluded discouraged American workers from applying:
"Facebook created a separate hiring process for PERM positions that intentionally discouraged U.S. workers from applying. For example, while Facebook typically accepts applications online, it required that applications for PERM positions be submitted by mail only."
"Facebook used recruitment methods for PERM positions that were less effective than those it used for other positions, intentionally deterring U.S. workers from applying to positions that the company sought to fill with temporary visa holders."
As part of its settlement, Facebook was required to change its PERM practices, posting jobs on its public website, accepting electronic applications and using the same hiring processes for PERM roles as for other jobs. The company also agreed to federal oversight, employee training and regular reporting on its hiring activity.
Since then, industry reports on the platform Blind show that Meta has seen a rise in PERM denials, suggesting that when forced to conduct fair recruitment, companies do in fact encounter qualified American candidates.
The evidence is overwhelming that companies like Meta, Apple, Microsoft, Google and others, despite consistently lobbying for more foreign-worker visas on the basis of a so-called "talent shortage," are fully capable of finding qualified Americans when they are actually required to recruit them.
Indeed, when employers go to such lengths to avoid recruiting qualified U.S. workers, even under a program like PERM that explicitly requires a good-faith labor market test, their own actions contradict claims of a shortage. The evidence suggests it is not that they can't find qualified Americans, it's that they are deliberately avoiding them.
If this is happening in a program like PERM, which includes at least some legal safeguards and penalties, the risks are far greater under programs like H-1B and STEM OPT, which contain no such protections for U.S. workers. Without enforcement or accountability, these visa channels allow companies to bypass the domestic workforce entirely, undermining both the integrity of the labor market and the future of American employment.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Two American veterans working with the U.S.- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) have been injured in an attack while distributing aid to Palestinians.
As reported by Fox News, the two veterans are reportedly receiving medical treatment and are in stable condition. GHF said the Americans were "highly decorated" veterans.
"GHF has repeatedly warned of credible threats from Hamas, including explicit plans to target American personnel, Palestinian aid workers, and the civilians who rely on our sites for food. Today's attack tragically affirms those warnings," the organization wrote on X.
Despite the attacks, GHF vowed that it was still committed to the mission of delivering aid to Gazans.
The group later posted an image of grenade fragments left over from the attack, showing the weapons were packed with ball bearings, Fox reported. According to GHF Executive Chairman Rev. Johnnie Moore, the grenades were found to be of Iranian origin and have been "commonly used by Hamas."
"I am sorry to say also that today's terror attack on Americans is partly a byproduct of the legitimacy that many in the press and at the [U.N.] provide to Hamas – amplifying Hamas' lies about GHF every day, but also actively collaborating with Hamas," Moore wrote on X.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
A former Space Force officer's objection to the military's Biden-era COVID-19 vaccine mandate still haunts him over three years later.
WorldNetDaily spoke to Joshua Zermeno, a former officer who dedicated part of his career to space superiority, having served in the U.S. military for 13 years. In August 2021, Zermeno objected to then-Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin's military COVID-19 shot mandate, questioning both its "efficacy and legality." For this, he received two Letters of Reprimand (LORs) and a "Do Not Promote" recommendation that blocked his promotion to major. He was also banned from government buildings and required to work from home.
With his career collapsing in front of him, Zermeno attempted to voluntarily separate from the military in October 2021, but was told his separation was "not in the best interest of the Air Force and Space Force." In the week following this statement, he said base leadership initiated Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) action against him. Despite the rescission of the COVID-19 shot mandate in January 2023, he was passed over for promotion a second time. Seven months later, he was forced to separate from the military entirely.
Nevertheless, Zermeno would consider returning to Space Force, but has been offered "zero guidance" from the Department of Defense and the Air Force's Total Force Service Center, which manages Space Force matters.
The former Space Force officer said stories like his are among "the most censored topics globally." He pointed out, "Many service members and veterans have turned to social media to share their experiences, but censorship limits reach, and account deletions risk erasing these stories." Even his own X account has been "targeted and tagged with 'Visibility limited: this Post may violate X's rules against Hateful Conduct,' despite its professional content."
To counter the censorship, Zermeno published "DISOBEYING AN UNLAWFUL ORDER: A SPACE FORCE OFFICER'S FIGHT FOR FREEDOM" in June 2025. It was written "to preserve history of military's COVID-19 shot mandate permanently," he said, adding that his desire is for the book to reach current and future military leaders to "study, learn from, and prevent such mistakes from ever happening again."
He told WND, "Current and future military leaders must understand the mandate's impact on service members, families, force readiness, and national security to learn from these mistakes."
In the book, Zermeno reveals:
"This memoir is my raw, unfiltered reckoning: an exposé that dismantles the military's false narratives, revealing a mandate that crushed free thinkers who dared to question right from wrong. Its brutal side effect was a purge of some of the military's sharpest minds, leaving shattered lives across every branch through coercion, public shaming and ruthless career destruction. I was one of tens of thousands of individuals purged from service – skilled professionals whose training, experience and institutional knowledge can't be replaced by new recruits, a loss that weakened our military's readiness at a time when global threats demand strength."
According to Zermeno, "The COVID-19 mandate ranks among the gravest errors in military history and must not be forgotten." He adds, "Service members, force readiness and national security continue to feel its negative impacts," adding that "the mandate negatively affected tens of thousands of service members – hundreds of thousands, including spouses and children."
Because he continues to advocate for righting the wrongs associated with the mandate, it appears the attacks against Zermeno have not ended. Ten days after publishing his book, his current employer was contacted by the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA) to initiate a supplemental information request about his eligibility for Top Secret clearance.
He recently wrote about the ordeal on X:
For Zermeno, the inquiry from the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency is not a coincidence. He continues to wait to hear more from DCSA, as his second career – one that requires Top Secret clearance – hangs in the balance.
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Iran appears to be following the path of other repressive regimes that find their path into the future clouded and uncertain: Turning to attacks on its own citizens.
A report at Fox News describes the aftermath of the 12-day war between Israel and Iran, in which the rogue Islamic regime "appears to be turning inward – escalation repression with chilling speed."
It is Kasra Aarabi, director of IRGC research at United Against Nuclear Iran, who confirmed the Islamic Republic is accelerating toward a "North Korea-style model of isolation and control."
Iran, where its nuclear weapons facilities were decimated by the recent bombings from Israel and the U.S., long has insisted on obtaining nuclear weapons in order to "wipe" Israel off the map.
That, President Donald Trump and Israeli officials both said could not be allowed.
Now, Aarabi said, "We're witnessing a kind of domestic isolation that will have major consequences for the Iranian people. The regime has always been totalitarian, but the level of suppression now is unprecedented. It's unlike anything we've seen before."
A Fox source inside Iran said the repression now is "terrifying" and Aarabi described a population under siege from its own Islamic leaders.
"He described how citizens are stopped at random, their phones confiscated and searched," the report said.
"If you have content deemed pro-Israel or mocking the regime, you disappear. People are now leaving their phones at home or deleting everything before they step outside."
The circumstances are not unlike what exists in North Korea, long known as one of the most repressive regimes on earth.
"During the recent conflict, Iran's leadership imposed a total internet blackout to isolate the population, blocking Israeli evacuation alerts, and pushed propaganda that framed Israel as targeting civilians indiscriminately," the report said.
Aarabi described how the government there "deliberately cut communications to instill fear and manipulate public perception. For four days, not a single message went through. Even Israeli evacuation alerts didn't reach their targets."
Israeli, in its conflicts, warns civilians around the military installations it targets so they can evacuate.
Aarabi noted the regime is terrified of a development: "The surprising bond that had formed between Iranians and Israelis."
"At the start of the war, many Iranians welcomed the strikes. They knew Israel was targeting the IRGC — the very forces responsible for suppressing and killing their own people. But once the internet was cut and fear set in, some began to question what was happening," Aarabi said.
"That might be the only way they see to preserve the regime: by really tightening the screws on the Iranian people, to ensure that the Iranian population doesn't try to rise up and topple the regime," he told Fox News Digital.
Another factor that could develop, which has been used in North Korea, is a purge of officers and military, the report said.
And terrorism.
"The regime's three pillars — militias, ballistic missiles, and its nuclear program — have all been decapitated or severely degraded," Aarabi said. "That leaves only asymmetric warfare: soft-target terrorism with plausible deniability."
This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
The Department of Justice, under President Donald Trump, is serious about election integrity in the U.S.
It has confirmed that local elections officials who refuse to meet required security standards could face charges.
Trump determined in an order weeks ago the U.S. lacks election security and called for enforcement of an existing ban on foreign nationals voting in federal elections.
According to a report at the Washington Examiner, he also ordered the attorney general and Homeland Security secretary to "prevent all noncitizens from being involved in the administration of any federal election."
Now, DOJ spokesman Gates McGavick confirmed that, "The president's executive order speaks for itself, and the Department of Justice will leave no option off the table when it comes to promoting free, fair, and secure elections."
Charges against elections officials are rare, but analysts confirmed they could happen.
There was immediate pushback.
"The tactics we're seeing out of DOJ right now are building on what we've seen from anti-democracy groups for years," claimed Dax Goldstein, of the States United Democracy Center "They're rooted in the same lies about elections, and they're all meant to create noise and fear and concerns about issues with our elections that just don't exist. Our elections are safe and secure, and election officials are working to keep them that way."
All states claim their elections systems are secure, including Colorado. But that state was revealed to have posted pages of election system passwords online just ahead of the 2024 vote. Investigators gave Democrat Secretary of State Jena Griswold, under whose watch the passwords were posted, a pass.
Trump has claimed the 2020 vote was "rigged" and while exactly what "rigging" went on isn't certain, there were several undue influences that are believed to have changed the results.
One was that Mark Zuckerberg handed out, through foundations, hundreds of millions of dollars to local elections officials who often used it to recruit voters in Democrat districts.
But probably larger was the impact from the FBI's decision to interfere in the results by telling media corporations to ignore the stories about Biden family scandals detailed in the laptop computer abandoned by Hunter Biden at a repair shop, despite the fact the bureau knew the scandals were true.
Subsequent polling showed had that information been distributed generally to the voting public, enough voters would have withheld their support from Biden for him to lose.
"The New York Times reported that senior officials have directed DOJ lawyers to examine how a failure by state or local officials to follow security standards for electronic voting could be charged as a crime," the report said.
The DOJ already has been contacting elections officials around the nation for details about their systems.