A grooming scandal that has been discussed for years in London is finally getting attention. MPs and London Assembly members are demanding an urgent investigation into grooming gangs in the city. They say authorities have failed to act on reports from survivors about the systematic abuse and exploitation of girls as young as 14. This comes after a BBC investigation uncovered stories of young women being drugged, assaulted by multiple men, and forced into sex work to pay off drug debts. These cases are similar to those in Rotherham and Rochdale, where thousands of girls were abused over many years. The letter, signed by figures such as Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp and former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith, was sent to Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood and London Mayor Sadiq Khan. It calls for the national inquiry into grooming gangs to focus on London. Khan has been criticized for saying there were “no reports and no indication” of organized abuse in the city and for not addressing questions about whether Muslim rape gangs have operated there. Critics now accuse him of ignoring the issue. The Metropolitan Police are reviewing 9,000 child sexual exploitation cases, with estimates suggesting that 2,000 to 3,000 involve grooming gangs. As in earlier scandals, most suspects are men of Pakistani heritage accused of targeting white English non-Muslim girls. Grooming gangs have operated for decades and have faced little interference, with group-based child exploitation dating back to at least the mid-1970s. Authorities often overlooked these crimes while focusing on other types of child abuse. The problem became widely known in the 1990s and 2000s, but institutional failures allowed it to continue. Nearly 100 trials and convictions have occurred in over 40 towns and cities across the U.K., including Rotherham, where more than 1,400 victims were identified between 1997 and 2013, as well as in Rochdale, Oxford, Telford, and Huddersfield. Despite this, London’s mayor has said there are no such cases, or none on the same scale, in the capital. This has led to public anger, especially as the Metropolitan Police review thousands of old cases. This issue has been ongoing for years. The grooming gang crisis in Britain reveals a pattern of organized groups, often made up of Muslims, targeting white working-class girls. Authorities sometimes dismissed these cases out of fear of being accused of racism or Islamophobia. In Rotherham, a 2014 independent inquiry found that police and social services ignored evidence for years because they worried about “community tensions” and being labeled as bigots. Whistleblowers were called racists. As a result, offenders acted without fear for years, while victims were ignored or blamed. Similar problems continue today. Labour recently adopted a definition of “anti-Muslim hostility,” replacing the term “Islamophobia.” Critics say this change could make it harder to discuss cultural or religious factors in these crimes. Using religious terms to describe grooming gangs might now be seen as problematic under the new guidelines, which could affect public debate and investigations. If journalists are accused of Islamophobia for reporting on grooming gangs, it could discourage important journalism. Americans, please take heed. The U.K.’s nightmare—decades of impunity shielded by political correctness—is a clear warning for your porous southern border and unchecked immigration. With millions crossing under prior policies, including coming from regions with similar attitudes toward women, the risk of imported grooming networks grows. In states like Minnesota and Michigan, vulnerabilities in certain communities have seen exploitation spikes, often downplayed amid cries of Islamophobia. FBI reports on human trafficking flag risks in migrant populations. Accusations of bigotry have stopped important discussions in the U.K., and a similar pattern is emerging in the U.S. If you put “inclusivity” ahead of safety, as U.K. authorities did, you risk making the same mistakes. Victims in London today, who have suffered greatly, were let down by a system afraid to offend. In the U.S., policies like sanctuary cities and diversity initiatives could lead to similar problems. This is about protecting children regardless of perpetrators’ backgrounds. Britain’s belated probe illustrates the cost of delay: shattered lives and damaged trust. For the U.S., the lesson is clear—vigorously enforce laws, rigorously vet immigrants, and defend free speech against smear tactics. Ignore the dangers, and your daughters will pay the price. We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post Americans, Learn From the UK’s Grooming Gang Scandal appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Sen. Marsha Blackburn released a draft framework for a national rulebook on artificial intelligence to codify President Donald Trump’s executive order. The Republican senator from Tennessee previously told The Daily Signal that Trump asked her to introduce the framework to establish a national standard on artificial intelligence. When asked by The Daily Signal if the White House supported the framework, a White House spokesperson said, “We continue to have productive conversations with legislators as we work with Congress towards delivering national AI legislation, as directed in the president’s Executive Order.” Blackburn’s framework aims to protect the four “C’s”: children, creators, conservatives, and communities. “Instead of pushing AI amnesty, President Trump rightfully called on Congress to pass federal standards and protections to solve the patchwork of state laws that has hindered AI innovation,” Blackburn said. “Now, Congress must answer his call to establish one federal rulebook for AI to protect children, creators, conservatives, and communities across the country and ensure America triumphs over foreign adversaries in the global race for AI dominance.” The bill incorporates bipartisan legislation introduced by Blackburn and other senators, the Kids Online Safety Act and the NO FAKES Act. Vice President JD Vance endorsed KOSA last month. We can unleash innovation and protect Americans from harm online at the same time. Thank you, @VP Vance, for calling attention to the need to pass the Kids Online Safety Act. There is a reason this bill has 75 Senate co-sponsors and the support of nearly 90% of American voters! pic.twitter.com/DArBaujosn— Sen. Marsha Blackburn (@MarshaBlackburn) February 17, 2026 The bill would place “a duty of care on AI developers in the design, development, and operation of AI platforms to prevent and mitigate foreseeable harm to users.” It requires online platforms, including social media platforms, to protect minors against content and features contributing to eating disorders, suicide, depressive disorders, physical violence, sexual exploitation, and more. The bill also establishes requirements for companies providing AI chatbot and companion services to protect kids. Blackburn’s framework enables the U.S. attorney general, state attorneys general, and private actors to sue to hold AI system developers liable for harms caused by the system’s defective design, failure to issue warnings, and unreasonably dangerous or defective product claims.  The post Blackburn Releases Framework for AI Rulebook appeared first on The Daily Signal.

FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—The organization that sets the agenda for the 130,000 school counselors across the U.S. just promoted a left-wing activist program that advocates for transgender ideology and critical race theory, according to a new report. “While the American people are actively rejecting the harms of transgender ideology, the invasion of women’s private spaces, and the culture of critical race theory, the American School Counselor Association is working overtime to install these very same radicalisms into our daughters,” Alvin Lui, president of the conservative group Courage Is a Habit, told The Daily Signal. The American School Counselor Association, which counts about 42,000 of the nation’s estimated 131,230 school counselors as members and which releases guidance for the entire profession, held a Feb. 19 webinar promoting the Lean In Girls program. The Sandberg Goldberg Bernthal Family Foundation, founded by former Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg, launched Lean In Girls as a leadership program for girls ages 11-15. “By leveraging its position of trust, ASCA is using the ‘Lean In Girls’ curriculum as a tactical cover to smuggle a divisive political agenda into our schools under the fraudulent banner of ‘mental health and leadership,'” Lui warned. He said the organization is “using its access to 11-year-old girls to install a curriculum that promotes men in women’s spaces and political agitation, all while telling parents it’s just a ‘leadership’ program.” “It is a massive betrayal of parental trust,” he concluded. The Courage Is a Habit report, first provided to The Daily Signal, exposes Lean In Girls’ support for transgender ideology and critical race theory. ciah_lean_in_girls_asca (2)Download Transgender Ideology During the webinar, “Confidence Counts: Leadership Skills as a Tier 2 Intervention for Girls,” Lean In Girls Senior Manager for Partnership Development Kelly Meredith urged school counselors to adopt the Lean In Girls program as part of the Multi-Tiered System of Support requirements for students who need behavioral or mental health support. Courage Is a Habit attended the webinar and told The Daily Signal that Meredith recommended the Lean In Girls program. The first step in following the program involves downloading the curriculum. The Daily Signal confirmed that, when downloading the curriculum, the facilitator handbook that Courage Is a Habit analyzed is the first document provided. “Facilitators require participants to question and deny the most basic biological truth: what a female actually is,” the Courage Is a Habit report notes. “The Lean In Girls Handbook includes additional resources from the Southern Poverty Law Center and GLISTEN (formerly GLSEN in activist circles) for ‘context’—two organizations notorious for pushing radical gender ideology over facts.” The handbook’s section on “Gender Inclusion” warns facilitators that “some teens in the program may identify strongly with being a girl, while others may be exploring their gender identity or may feel uncomfortable with the label ‘girl.'” The section recommends resources from the Southern Poverty Law Center, the British LGBTQ nonprofit Stonewall, and GLSEN (which rebranded to GLISTEN in February). The handbook recommends many resources from Learning for Justice, the education arm of the Southern Poverty Law Center. The SPLC gained its reputation by suing Ku Klux Klan groups into bankruptcy, but now it publishes a “hate map” plotting mainstream conservative and Christian groups alongside Klan chapters. Courage Is a Habit appears on the map alongside Moms For Liberty as an “antigovernment extremist group” and part of the “anti-student inclusion movement.” Much of the SPLC’s criticisms boil down to ideological disagreements. Learning for Justice, formerly known as Teaching Tolerance, has long promoted transgender ideology in schools. Lean In Girls Facilitator HandbookDownload Critical Race Theory Courage Is a Habit also faults the handbook for promoting critical race theory, the idea that American society is systemically racist despite the progress of civil rights laws and that it requires fundamental change to root out “white supremacy.” “Group facilitators are directed to rank themselves and each other on an intersectional hierarchy of oppression, a textbook critical race theory exercise that divides children by race, sexuality, and perceived victim status—all disguised as harmless ‘mental health’ support,” the Courage Is a Habit report states. The handbook’s section on “Counteracting Biases and Barriers in Group Settings” directs facilitators to “educate yourself about ways people with traditionally marginalized identities are stereotyped and treated unfairly.” While the handbook does not directly state that facilitators should rank themselves, it repeatedly encourages them to consider whether girls have “more or less social power.” “If parts of your identity give you more social power than your participants have, you may need to work harder to build trust,” the handbook states. This statement encourages facilitators to examine aspects of their identity and compare themselves to the identities of participants. The handbook also warns that “facilitators can accidentally harm teens” in various ways, and it recommends a resource on “microaggressions.” Critics, such as Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff, have warned that the idea of trying to protect students from microaggressions, words or phrases that might cause a small amount of harm unintentionally, represent part of a “safetyism” approach that encourages cognitive distortions, harming students long-term. This section also recommends resources from Learning for Justice. The Daily Signal has reached out to ASCA and the Sandberg Goldberg Bernthal Family Foundation for comment and will add to this story if comment comes in. The post Group That Sets Agenda for 130K School Counselors Pushes Woke Program appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Governor Patrick Bateman meets Sparkle Beach Ken says that California is a low tax state. Yes, really. At an SXSW conference Sunday in Austin, Texas Sunday, Gov. Gavin Newsom had the chutzpah to argue that, actually, Texas and Florida are higher tax states than California. “We have the most progressive tax rates in America,” Newsom said when asked about income inequality in his state. “… Texas taxes poor folks more than we tax our richest. The question for you is, who’s the higher tax state, California or Texas? Who are you for? Are you just for the 1% or are you for the 99%?” Fox News refuses to report the truth:Texas and Florida are the REAL high-tax states. pic.twitter.com/1PtCN5Uvj8— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) March 16, 2026 I’ll give the California governor credit for something; he certainly does have a gift for spinning blatantly ridiculous narratives with a straight face. He’s a natural politician, really. Unfortunately, the whole “California is actually a low tax state!” thing—as much as it flies in the face of common sense—needs to be addressed because Newsom keeps going with this message. I’m sure the legacy media will do their best to make that stick in the next few years. In making this low taxes argument, Newsom is forgoing the more reasonable but still incorrect Democrat assertion that their higher taxes are just the cost of all those wonderful services they provide. Even this is hard to believe these days because blue cities and states are often so incompetently run and are barely hiding the reality that taxpayer money is being used to pay off various patronage groups. No, Newsom really wants you to believe that all those Californians bailing out of the state, citing the high cost of living, are just deluded fools escaping a low tax paradise. Or perhaps they are fleeing Paradise and other towns after they burned down due to poor forest management—Er, I mean because of “global warming”—and the governor did little to help them rebuild. As a native Californian with plenty of family still living behind the iron curtain, I can assure you that the Golden State is not a low tax haven for anyone. Newsom is partly basing his claim on the state’s “progressive” income tax rates that hit the top 1% of income earners harder than other states like Florida and Texas. Texas and Florida don’t even have a personal income tax. He cited the Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy, a left-leaning nonprofit, to claim that “for the bottom 40% of families, California taxes are LOWER than states like Florida and Texas.” For the bottom 40% of families, California taxes are LOWER than states like Florida and Texas.In fact, 16 other states tax LOW-WAGE earners MORE than California taxes our HIGH-WAGE earners.The evidence is clear, and the numbers don't lie. pic.twitter.com/5M3PVCNEUZ— Governor Gavin Newsom (@CAgovernor) March 7, 2026 This assertion is both dubious and carefully calibrated to not reveal the full truth. The Washington Examiner noted that “the only reason California’s bottom 20% of income earners do not pay a higher percentage of their income in taxes than Texas’s bottom 20% is because California uses its tax code as a welfare system.” So, while Texas’ bottom 20% “pay nothing in income taxes, California’s bottom 20% received 2% of their income from Sacramento in the form of refundable tax credits.” Without those payments, the California bottom 20% pay more. They certainly get hit by other taxes like the highest in nation gas taxes that up the cost of driving, food, and most everything else in the state. And middle-income earners pay quite a bit more. Kiplinger rated the California tax burden for the middle class to be the fifth highest in the country, with middle income families “spending nearly 13% of their income on state taxes.” Whatever one can say about the rate of individual taxes, the overall tax burden in California, a better way of evaluating taxes, is much higher than places like Florida and Texas. As RealClearPolitics president Tom Bevan noted on X, a Wallethub 2025 analysis of tax burden by state listed California as the fourth highest. Florida and Texas were among the lowest tax burden states. This is just a blatant, verifiable falsehood. Here's a Wallethub 2025 analysis of the overall tax burden by state: California is 4th highest. Texas is 40th.Florida is 45th.https://t.co/Xb7L4eqGKW pic.twitter.com/thomUTA11S— Tom Bevan (@TomBevanRCP) March 16, 2026 Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis responded to Bevan’s post, citing the absurdity of Newsom’s argument that California has lower taxes than Florida. “Even people who like California governance acknowledge CA is a very high tax state: highest sales, income and gas taxes in the nation,” the Florida governor wrote. There are lies, damned lies and statistics.Then there is whatever you’d call the claim that California has lower taxes than Florida.Even people who like California governance acknowledge CA is a very high tax state: highest sales, income and gas taxes in the nation. https://t.co/C1P7Awvz7L— Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantis) March 16, 2026 California’s tax and regulatory environment have made the cost of living truly outrageous. Housing prices are sky high (thanks in part to the state’s sanctuary status). Gas prices are the highest in the country by nearly $2 a gallon thanks to the Democratic Party’s green madness. Almost nothing in California is affordable. Along with New York, the Golden State is the model for high taxes, low affordability, poor governance, and suicidal wokeness. Californians on the public dole muddle through. The rich look for tax havens while enjoying the nice climate and beautiful views. The politically connected get their cut. The middle-income folks ponder whether the weather is worth the trouble. But nobody who lives in the state really believes that the main advantage they have living in California is the comparably low taxes. Newsom can spin whatever nonsense he wants for the media, but when he says things are up, expect them to be down. The post Newsom Laughably Says California is a Low Tax State—Here’s the Truth appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., is leading the Senate effort to amend the SAVE America Act to include a suite of ’80-20 issue policies’ as pressure mounts on the upper chamber for more legislative wins. Under immense pressure from President Donald Trump and Republican voters, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has brought the SAVE America Act to the floor for an extended debate period. Schmitt is leading the effort to insert a number of policies—including a ban on transgender surgeries for minors—Trump wants made law into the SAVE America Act, a piece of election integrity legislation that would require proof of citizenship to vote and institute nationwide voter ID. “Protecting our children from destructive, irreversible gender mutilation surgeries is a priority for the overwhelming majority of Americans,” Schmitt told The Daily Signal. “President Trump has been clear that this provision to save American children must be included in the SAVE America Act.” In the lead up to the ongoing debate on the SAVE America Act in the Senate, the president has not only pushed for adding a number of conservative policies but for the Senate to pass the legislation using the talking filibuster, a procedural process that would circumvent the 60 vote cloture rule. In essence, Republicans are simply dragging out the normal process for considering a bill as they advance the SAVE America Act.‘I think we can win the argument’ on voter ID, @berniemoreno told me. ‘Make the Democrats go on the floor.’https://t.co/fo8nvbTLhD— George Caldwell (@GCaldwell_news) March 17, 2026 Schmitt’s substitute amendment to the SAVE America Act addresses the president’s desire to go big and be bold. While the current debate on the Senate floor is not a commitment to pass the SAVE America Act with the talking filibuster, it could push the Senate towards that process and get Democrats on record voting against 80-20 issues such as requiring voter ID, proof of citizenship for voter registration, securing mail-in ballots, banning men from women’s sports, and outlawing the transgender mutilation of children. “It would be a suicidal move for us as Senate Republicans, or Republicans in general, if we don’t put everything we’ve got into this,” Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, told reporters Wednesday. He continued, saying he hopes this debate will last “many weeks if necessary.” ?@BasedMikeLee on the SAVE America Act: “It would be a suicidal move for us as Senate Republicans, or Republicans in general, if we don't put everything we've got into this.”@DailySignal pic.twitter.com/86tVuaN53d— Virginia Grace McKinnon (@virginiagmck) March 18, 2026 “We look forward to putting the Democrats on record and showing just the lack of common sense they apply to so many of these issues that the American people agree with us,” Thune told reporters Tuesday afternoon. “It is a privilege to lead this fight,” Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., one of the Senate’s top advocates for banning transgender surgeries for minors, told The Daily Signal. “My amendment would ban so-called ‘gender-affirming care’ for minors nationwide to ensure protections for children are enshrined into law, and I am calling on every single Senator to support this common-sense effort,” Blackburn said. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., supports the transgender surgeries ban and is also seeking to ban men from women’s sports. His office confirmed they expect full support on this amendment from Tuberville’s Republican colleagues. We are in the fight of a lifetime.America’s 250th year is not just a celebration. It is a test—of whether we still have the courage to defend the republic we inherited, and whether we still have the will to fight for its future.The Senate must pass the SAVE America Act. pic.twitter.com/JqND7UYEE8— Senator Eric Schmitt (@SenEricSchmitt) March 18, 2026 Schmitt has introduced these as a single amendment, but they will also likely be voted on separately. The debate is expected to last 7-10 days, including late nights of debate, possibly even Saturday in session.   “I am looking forward to a vigorous, long, and spirited conversation on the floor of the United States Senate on these important issues,” Thune said on the Senate floor Tuesday, kicking off the extended SAVE America Act debate. “Can you imagine allowing a child not yet out of middle school to receive a medical procedure that will result in permanent mutilation of part of her body?” Thune asked on the Senate floor.   ? JUST IN: Senate Majority Leader John Thune throws full support behind Trump’s proposal to ban gender procedures for minors as part of the SAVE America Act."The SAVE America Act extends protections to these procedures for all children."pic.twitter.com/eTZtY32Xf8— Derrick Evans (@DerrickEvans4WV) March 17, 2026 “The SAVE America Act would extend protection from these procedures to all children, whatever state they live in,” the Leader continued.  The SAVE America Act has already passed the House. As have bills that ban men in women’s sports and ban transgender surgeries for minors. The Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2025 passed in the House in Jan 2025 by 218-206 with two Democrats breaking party lines to vote. The Protect Children’s Innocence Act passed in the House in Dec 2025 by 216-211 with three Democrats voting yea and four Republicans voting nay. Given how the House voted, it’s possible some of these votes in the Senate are bipartisan. The post Schmitt Leads Charge to Pack SAVE America Act With Conservative Wins appeared first on The Daily Signal.