In a shocking development, a former New Jersey teacher has admitted to sexually assaulting two students, according to authorities.Julie Rizzitello, 37, pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree sexual assault during a hearing held late last month before Monmouth County Superior Court Judge Jill G. O’Malley. 'The actions of this former teacher represent a betrayal of trust, not only to the victims, but to the entire school community.'"An investigation involving members of the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office Special Victims Bureau and Wall Township Police Department — assisted by the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office and Brick Township Police Department, and led by MCPO Detective Jose I. Rodriguez and Wall Township Police Detective Devin Corso — revealed that the criminal conduct by Rizzitello encompassed sex acts involving separate victims, taking place in three municipalities at various points over the course of several years," the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office stated in a press release last week.Superior Court Judge Marc C. Lemieux previously noted that Wall Township Public Schools Director of Human Resources Michael Scarano contacted the Wall Township Police Department to report an illicit relationship between Rizzitello and a student after a tip from a school district employee.Rizzitello — a former Wall Township High School teacher — was arrested without incident at her Brick Township home on July 3, 2024, according to the Coast Star.RELATED: She once was school 'counselor of the year.' Now she's accused of sexually assaulting student 100+ times, court docs say. A criminal complaint said Rizzitello was involved in a relationship with a student between May 18, 2024, and June 14, 2024.The relationship involved "oral and vaginal intercourse," according to a probable cause complaint.Rizzitello and the 18-year-old student had sexual contact in his car in Brick in May 2024, according to Fox News, which cited an NJ.com report that referenced an affidavit of probable cause. Officials said Rizzitello and the student also met at other locations, and she sent him nude photos, Fox News added.A second student allegedly came forward to authorities saying that he and Rizzitello had vaginal intercourse “at her residence in Brick Township" between Nov. 23, 2017, and Jan. 21, 2018. Fox News said the second victim was 17 at the time.During an interview with Det. Jose Rodriguez of the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office, the student reportedly provided pictures and text messages to corroborate the accusations. Sean O’Halloran — chief of the Wall Township Police Department — told the Coast Star, "The actions of this former teacher represent a betrayal of trust, not only to the victims, but to the entire school community.""I commend the courage of those who came forward and the dedication of our officers and partner agencies in bringing this case to justice," O'Halloran stated. "Protecting our youth is among our highest priority, and we will continue to work tirelessly to ensure that criminals are brought to justice to safeguard our residents and guests."Citing state pension records, the New York Post reported that Rizzitello was hired by the Wall Township Public Schools in 2013.Rizzitello is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 9, 2026. Prosecutors will pursue a 10-year prison sentence and require registration as a sex offender under Megan’s Law, parole supervision for life, and permanent forfeiture of public office, according to the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

President Donald Trump, determined to guide the nation into a new golden age, has gone to war with the private-public consensus that has sickened generations of American children and threatens future greatness.The president's battle strategy has finally come into full view.'I am so grateful that I work for a president that is willing to run through walls to stop this and to heal our kids.'Trump's Make America Healthy Again Commission, chaired by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., released on Tuesday its long-awaited directives and strategies for tackling chronic disease, protecting children from toxic exposure, and helping American families flourish.This report sets the stage for a shake-up that is sure to cause a great deal of consternation among medical establishmentarians, pharmaceutical reps, chemical magnates, and ultra-processed food manufacturers."We are now the sickest country in the world. We have the highest chronic disease burden of any country in the world, and yet we spend more on health care than any country in the world," Kennedy said during the public MAHA Commission meeting on Tuesday. "This is an existential crisis for our country."Kennedy added, "I am so grateful that I work for a president that is willing to run through walls to stop this and to heal our kids."RELATED: Trump establishes Make America Healthy Again Commission. Here's what it will do. Quick backgroundIn his Feb. 13 executive order creating the MAHA Commission, President Donald Trump noted, "To fully address the growing health crisis in America, we must redirect our national focus, in the public and private sectors, toward understanding and drastically lowering chronic disease rates and ending childhood chronic disease."Three months later, Trump's commission released an assessment report identifying four potential drivers of the rise in childhood chronic disease: poor diet largely tied to ultra-processed foods; aggregation of environmental chemicals including microplastics, fluoride, phthalates, bisphenols, and crop protection tools; lack of physical activity and chronic stress; and overmedicalization.The report suggested that the situation was rather bleak, noting:Over 40% of the roughly 73 million kids in the U.S. have at least one chronic health condition; 1 in 5 kids over the age of 6 is obese; 1 in 31 kids is impacted by autism spectrum disorder by the age of 8; Childhood cancer incidence has skyrocketed by over 40% since 1975;Pesticides, microplastics, and dioxins "are commonly found in the blood and urine of American children and pregnant women — some at alarming levels";Nearly 70% of an American child's calories come from ultra-processed foods; andStimulant prescriptions for ADHD, antidepressant prescription rates, and antipsychotic prescriptions for teens and/or children have exploded in recent decades.RELATED: The fruit of the US pesticide industry is poison Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty ImagesA Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson told Blaze News earlier this year that the May assessment was a "diagnosis," and the next step was to "develop policy recommendations, grounded in gold-standard science and common sense."Next stepsIn the newly released "Make Our Children Healthy Again" report, the MAHA Commission broke its strategic plan into four pillars: advancing research, realigning incentives, fostering private sector collaboration, and increasing public awareness.Deeper divesThe first pillar tasks various federal agencies with pursuing "rigorous, gold-standard scientific research to help ensure informed decisions that promote health outcomes for American children and families, as well as drive innovative solutions."For instance, the Department of Health and Human Services will — through the National Institutes of Health and in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — study the root causes of autism.The HHS, again working with the NIH, will also kick off a new vaccine injury program, investigating vaccine injuries "with improved data collection and analysis." Although this program will initially be housed at the NIH Clinical Center, the report indicated it could expand to centers around the country.Other research initiatives include:Closer looks at water contamination, including an Environmental Protection Agency review of new scientific information on the potential health risks of fluoride; A concerted effort by the HHS, NIH, and EPA to complete an evaluation of the risks and exposures of microplastics and synthetics;An HHS evaluation of the therapeutic harms and benefits of "current diagnostic thresholds, overprescription trends, and evidence-based solutions"; andThe formation of a mental health diagnosis and prescription work group at the HHS tasked with evaluating "prescription patterns for selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), antipsychotics, mood stabilizers, stimulants, and other relevant drugs for children."Blowing up the status quoThe realignment pillar of the MAHA Commission's strategy is by far the biggest and potentially the most consequential in the report.The report indicated that the HHS will continue its current work of eliminating harmful synthetic dyes and other additives from the food supply, addressing possible conflicts of interest at health-related federal agencies — such as those that prompted Kennedy's purge of the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices in June — and protecting "public health from corporate influence."The administration apparently also has a slew of regulatory and deregulatory initiatives in the works.Among the changes on the deregulatory front that Americans might soon see the fruits of is the elimination of mandatory reduced-fat requirements in federal nutrition programs; the elimination of barriers to small dairy operations selling their own milk products; and the FDA's abandonment of animal testing requirements.On the regulatory front and as foreshadowed in a Kennedy op-ed last year, the HHS will be pushing for greater accountability where direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical advertising is concerned.The HHS will work with the FDA, the Department of Justice, and the Federal Trade Commission to "increase oversight and enforcement under current authorities for violations of DTC prescription drug advertising laws."In a similar vein, the HHS and FTC will also explore potential industry guidelines to limit advertisements of unhealthy foods that target children.RELATED: RFK Jr. did what GOP cowards won’t Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images While the FDA will, on the one hand, update nutrient requirements for infant formula and ramp up screening for contaminants, it will also encourage companies to roll out new infant formulas. Meanwhile, the USDA and HHS will work to increase breastfeeding rates.The commission appears especially keen on ensuring that foods are accurately labeled; dietary guidelines are reflective of the current nutritional science; Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits are used for healthy food; and the legal loophole that apparently enables the food industry to add potentially unsafe substances to the food supply without government oversight is closed for good.The report indicated further that the CDC will update recommendations regarding fluoride — which has a retarding effect on children — and forever chemicals in the American water supply.Besides regulatory changes, the commission indicated that the HHS is set to undergo a "comprehensive reorganization" to create the Administration for a Healthy America, an outfit that will lead the federal government's response to the chronic disease crisis through "integrated prevention-focused programs."Blasting facts and shaking handsThe other two pillars in the MAHA strategy report concerning the promotion of public awareness and MAHA collaboration with elements of the private sector are both afforded relatively little real estate. Nevertheless, they contain a handful of proposals that could prove transformative.The planned efforts to raise awareness about the potential harms posed by exposure to pesticides, fluoride, sedentary lifestyles, drug abuse, and too much screen time may, for instance, end up yielding more immediate effects than some of the corresponding regulatory initiatives, which are sure to face legal challenges.RELATED: Study warns of possible link between world's most popular painkiller and autism Photo by Jennifer Polixenni Brankin/Getty ImagesThe section on fostering private-sector collaboration, the most diminutive section in the document, contains two plans that stand out. The first involves an education campaign aimed at improving health and fertility in men and women who are seeking to start families.In the interest of helping American families grow and remedying America's abysmal fertility rate, which hit an all-time low last year, the HHS is initiating the "Root Causes of Infertility Award Challenge Competition," which "seeks to identify new and existing solutions to prevent, diagnose, and treat root causes of infertility, including chronic reproductive health conditions, and provide answers to families, improve health outcomes, and ensure a brighter future for parents and infants across the U.S."The HHS will also develop an Infertility Training Center to help Title X clinics identify and treat for the underlying causes of infertility.The second plan that stands out in the private-sector collaboration section concerns working with the agricultural industry on new approaches and technologies that could reduce the amount of pesticides needed. This appears to be a consolation prize for those who wanted certain harmful pesticides banned outright."A lot of these 128 recommendations are things that I've been dreaming about my whole life," Kennedy said. "We have accomplished more already than any health secretary in history, and the accomplishments we're going to have by the end of the year are going to be historic and unprecedented."Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

President Trump has been intervening in crime-ridden cities across the country — and now may be looking to deploy the National Guard to Chicago.But does he have the authority to do so?“We have kind of three different ways this is playing out so far. You have, initially, the Los Angeles situation where he was intervening with some National Guard. There’s been a legal ruling on that. They said he’s not allowed to do that anymore. I’m sure that will go to the Supreme Court,” BlazeTV host Stu Burguiere explains on “Stu Does America.”“You have the D.C. situation, which, of course, there’s legal fights on that, I’m sure, as well, but it has a much more clear path to control over that. It’s a federal district,” he continues.“And then, finally, you have a potential of this expanding to many more cities like Chicago, Memphis, who knows where else,” he adds.The Democratic governor of Illinois, J.B. Pritzker, is not pleased.“The President of the United States is threatening to go to war with an American city. This is not a joke. This is not normal. Donald Trump isn’t a strongman, he’s a scared man. Illinois won’t be intimidated by a wannabe dictator,” Pritzker wrote in a post on X, in response to a screenshot of a Truth Social post from President Trump.The Truth Social post reads, “Chicago about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR,” with an image of Trump crouching in front of the city in flames. Text on the image reads “Chipocalypse Now.”“I’m not a huge fan,” BlazeTV host Pat Gray admits. “I’m not a fan of it at all.”Gray appreciated the president initially mentioning that he was going to ask the governor of Illinois to send the National Guard, which he says “would be the right way to do it.”“But he proceeded to say, ‘But I’m going to do it either way. I’m going to do it anyway, whether he agrees to it or not,’” Gray adds. “That’s just not the right way to do it. So I’m not a huge, huge fan of doing things in an unconstitutional way.”However, Gray sees D.C. slightly differently.“D.C.’s a little bit different animal because it’s not a state, and so they can federalize there. So I didn’t initially have a huge problem with that,” he says. “I didn’t think it was going to be a national, every city kind of thing.”Want more from Stu?To enjoy more of Stu's lethal wit, wisdom, and mockery, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt called out the mainstream media for turning a blind eye to the tragic death of Iryna Zarutska, a Ukrainian refugee who was fatally stabbed, allegedly by a repeat offender.Zarutska's life was cut short after 34-year-old Decarlos Brown allegedly stabbed the 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee on a train in North Carolina on August 22. Brown was later identified by local law enforcement and has since been charged with first-degree murder.'Many journalists in this room spilled plenty of ink trying to smear Daniel Penny ... but none of those same reporters lift a finger to write stories about an actual murderer.'This vicious stabbing was far from Brown's first alleged offense, having previously been arrested for over a dozen other crimes, including convictions for armed robbery and felony larceny."This is pure evil on full display," Leavitt said during Tuesday's press briefing. "The most enraging and unacceptable part of this story is that her death was entirely preventable. Decarlos Brown never should have been on that train that night."RELATED: Mainstream media turns a blind eye to vicious stabbing of young Ukrainian womanPress sec on the brutal murder of Iryna Zarutska: "Tragically, a public transportation system in a major American city was more dangerous than the active war zone that she left. Her death was entirely preventable." pic.twitter.com/pqPaB3k9Ap— TheBlaze (@theblaze) September 9, 2025 In the aftermath of the vicious attack, most outlets "shamefully and intentionally failed to report" on the tragedy, which Leavitt argued was because Zarutska's death was politically inconvenient for the largely liberal media. "Perhaps most shamefully of all, the majority of the media, many outlets in this room, decided that her murder was not worth reporting on originally because it does not fit a preferred narrative," Leavitt said. RELATED: Horrific video sparks outrage after young Ukrainian woman is fatally stabbed, allegedly by repeat offender Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images"Many journalists in this room spilled plenty of ink trying to smear Daniel Penny for defending a subway car from New York City, but none of those same reporters lift a finger to write stories about an actual murderer," Leavitt added. Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!