Richmond SailFest kicked off last weekend as three sailing ships—Oosterschelde, Pride of Baltimore II, and Virginia—docked in the state capital. Richmond’s portion of the event was cohosted by the Virginia Museum of History & Culture and featured reenactors, history and art exhibits, cultural performances, and live music, plus a fireworks and drone show. “This summer is the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, and our museum has been spending the past almost 10 years now building up to commemorate this once‑in‑a‑generation event,” the museum’s director of public programs Sam Florer said. The Oosterschelde, a Dutch three-masted topsail schooner that was used in the Netherlands in the early 1900s, was one of the three ships making the voyage up the James. Another was the Virginia, a recreation of a pilot vessel that would have been used throughout the region in that same period. The third was Pride of Baltimore II, also a recreation of a topsail schooner, this one from the early 19th century. It arrived in Richmond flying an American flag from the period 1795 to 1818, a design that featured 15 stars and 15 stripes. That’s the same design that was used on the Star-Spangled Banner as it flew over Fort McHenry during the War of 1812. Courtesy of Rich Tucker This is all a part of Sail250 Virginia, which is bringing 10,000 officers, cadets and crews on more than 60 ships to the Commonwealth to forge closer ties between 20 nations and residents throughout the Chesapeake Bay region. The ships are also helping to explain why today’s American cities are located where they are. Richmond was founded at the fall line of the James River, which geologists define as “the edge of the Piedmont/Coastal Plain, where various rivers cross from hard bedrock to soft sediments.” During Colonial times, that meant the point where rocky rapids made it impossible for sea faring ships to go any further. “We were intercepted with great craggy stones that [stand] in midst of the river, where the water falleth so rudely and with such a violence as not any boat could possibly pass,” Capt. John Smith wrote after his first trip up the James. Other explorers were blocked on trips up the Potomac, the Appomattox, and the Rappahannock, leading to the founding of Washington, D.C., Petersburg, and Fredericksburg. The Sail250 Virginia celebration moves down the James River next weekend to Norfolk, with a larger display that will include a Parade of Sail and the 50th annual Norfolk Harborfest Celebration. The tall ships will depart on Tuesday, June 23, to sail for Baltimore. Richmond SailFest (Courtesy of Rich Tucker) We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of the Daily Signal.

Dr. Ben Carson has long seen God’s hand in his own life story—from overcoming poverty in Detroit to becoming one of the world’s most celebrated neurosurgeons, then serving as President Donald Trump’s first housing secretary. Now, through his American Cornerstone Institute, Carson is taking on what he sees as one of the most urgent challenges facing the country: the erosion of American history in the minds of its youngest citizens. Carson sat down with the Daily Signal at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on Sunday for the premiere of “Star Spangled Adventures: The Movie,” a feature-length animated film produced through his Little Patriots program. The film takes children on a journey through 250 years of American history—from the Revolutionary War to the 20th century—guided by Liberty the Eagle and featuring an all-star cast of voice actors, including Pat Boone, John Schneider, Kevin Sorbo, and Rich Little. All of the Little Patriots content is available free of charge at littlepatriotslearning.com. Speaking with the Daily Signal, Carson opened up about the Marxist influence he sees creeping into public schools, the providential moments in American history that he believes are being deliberately erased from textbooks, and why he thinks equipping young people with the truth about their nation’s founding is the most important fight of our time. A lightly edited transcript of our interview is below. Rob Bluey: We are here at the Kennedy Center with Dr. Ben Carson for the premiere of a new film, “Star Spangled Adventures.” Dr. Carson, thanks for joining the Daily Signal. Ben Carson: We always enjoy the Daily Signal because they try to tell the truth. Bluey: That is our mission. That is for sure. This is exciting. It’s the 250th anniversary of the United States. You have a new film that takes us back in history intended for young kids. Tell us what was the inspiration behind the film. Carson: The inspiration was the fact that so many Americans don’t know our history, and that’s problematic because there are forces that we see every day now pushing other types of government other than what was established by our Constitution. And it’s very easy to be captivated by them if you don’t actually know who we are and what we stand for and what our values are. So we wanted to create this series, Star Spangled Adventures. We started a couple of years ago with just five- to 10-minute vignettes of important things that happened in our history. And then we said as the 250th was coming up, why don’t we make this into a full feature-length film to cover the whole 250 years? And we started talking about it. A lot of people got behind it financially, which is the reason we were able to do all the things that we do at the Little Patriots program free of charge because of very generous patriotic Americans who understand that we’re still in a fight. There are those who want to fundamentally change our country to something else. And if we don’t equip our children with the right knowledge, they’ll go away thinking, “Oh, America’s a horrible place.” We had slaves and we put Indians on reservations and we treat people badly and all that crap. It’s not to say that some bad things didn’t happen, but we try to give the good, the bad and the ugly. And the fact of the matter is there’s a lot more good than there is bad and ugly. Bluey: Going to the heart of where you started with that, with the education of our kids, tell me how you see that having changed over the course of your lifetime from the time that you were in school and learning about American history to today. Carson: It’s changed dramatically. You have a situation now where many of the school systems have a large number of Marxists in them, and their belief is that children actually belong to the government, actually belong to the school system, and they have the right to do what they want to do, and their agendas they know frequently would not correspond with what the parents would want. So don’t tell the parents and just do what you want to do. And that was never the case when I was growing up. I mean, there was a good, strong relationship between the home environment and the school environment. And if we can get that moving in the right direction again, it would be a tremendous advantage, but that’s one of the reasons that you’ve seen the explosion in homeschooling and then private schooling. And a lot of the homeschools and private schools use the Little Patriots program because with each of our cartoons, there’s a teaching lesson that goes with it. So you can use it formally in schools, even some public schools are using it. And the important thing is also that you can make it a family affair because a lot of parents don’t know the stuff either. They have no idea who are these, but you make it fun together learning. When I show it to my grandkids or other little kids, they always say the next question is, “Can I see another episode?” Bluey: It’s great to see so many families here at the movie premiere today. What are some of the ways that parents can access the content and as you noted, it is free. So what’s the best way whether you’re a homeschooler or just somebody who wants to supplement a public school education? Carson: They can just go to littlepatriotslearning.com, or they can always go to the main website, americancornerstone.org. And just to talk about this particular event and the movie and how to access it and maybe be able to shorten your community, they can go to little… No, it would be starspangledadventures.com. Bluey: How did you, when you were working on the film, identify the moments in US history over the last 250 years that you wanted to showcase in the movie? Carson: We have historians. Dr. Amy Butler leads that effort, does a very good job of figuring out which are the most inspirational stories. Bluey: And you were able to recruit quite a star-studded cast of voice actors. What was it like working with some of them as they told some of these stories? Carson: They are great people. You go back to Pat Boone. Pat Boone is related to Daniel Boone. Just go back a couple of generations. He has a lot of fantastic stories to tell about his career and the kind of things that he did that were breakthrough events at that time. John Schneider talks a lot about getting into the character because he’s known obviously for his role in Dukes of Hazard, but he played a very bad character in The Have and Have Nots. But he did such a good job in all of them and he really is a patriot and he recognizes how valuable it is for us to educate our young people and to create patriots. Bluey: That’s fantastic. As you look ahead to July 4th, what are some of the ways that you’ll be celebrating America’s 250th birthday, and are there particular things in our nation’s history that stand out to you as pivotal moments? Carson: Boy, there’s so many of them. The Battle of Breed’s Hill, everybody calls it Bunker Hill, but it was really Breed’s Hill, the battle. Yet relatively few soldiers and they inflicted tremendous damage upon the British. The Battle of Long Island, George Washington was down to his last battalion and it looked like General Howe and the British had it all wrapped up and that was the end of this revolution with these silly Americans. And a very thick, dense cloud covering came down over the area. It lasted not only through the night but well into the next day, which gave Washington cover to sneak his men out. Those kinds of incidents are amazing. The bulletproof Washington. George Washington was a courier during the French and Indian War for General Braddock and all the other couriers were killed. Washington had two horses shot from beneath him, had four bullet holes in his overcoat, no flesh wounds. And many years later, Washington was in the area. He hadn’t become president yet, but one of the old Indian chiefs said, “Please take me to see this man.” And when he got there he said, “Sir, I’m an excellent marksman and I shot you 17 times and my men shot you.” And pretty soon I said, “Just stop wasting your bullets on this guy.” And I wanted to come and meet the man who’s protected by the great spirit above and would become the leader of a great nation. That story used to be in all of our history books and then it became politically incorrect so they took it out. But those kinds of things let you know that America was no accident and our founding document, the Declaration of Independence, says that our rights come from our creator. This is a marked difference from any other country. And look what happened. We went from a bunch of ragtag militiamen to the pinnacle of the world in record time and that was not a coincidence. So those kinds of things tell you that this is a very special place and we need to preserve it and we need to preserve the freedoms of it. And many people try to denigrate this country and say we’re systemically racist and we’re horrible to everybody else. But if that were the case, why are so many people trying to get in here? Bluey: That’s true. If I can end with a question about your own personal role, I understand you’re starring in the film itself. You’ve had an incredible life story as well. I mean, overcoming challenges in your younger years, becoming a well-known brain surgeon, obviously serving in government and the first Trump administration. What is the message that you would have for young people who maybe see the division in our country or the broken world that we live in to give them the hopeful positive note that they can have a future like yours? Carson: My message would be that everybody has a sphere of influence. You may not think you have a sphere of influence, but you do and you get to decide what you want to do with that sphere. Are you going to go along with the false narrative that anybody who disagrees with you is your enemy, or are you going to say, “It’s okay to disagree, and if two people agree about everything, one of them isn’t necessary.” Everybody say we just need to learn to talk to each other, but in your sphere of influence, you can be much more effective if you’re also knowledgeable. That’s key and that’s the pathway we want to get people started on. I hope that this film encourages people to read more and to find out what actually is the story of America. Who are these people? Why did they do what they did? Why did they give up so much? What were they trying to do and what responsibility do we have? Bluey: Dr. Ben Carson, thanks for speaking to the Daily Signal. Carson: Oh, it’s a pleasure.

June 15 (Reuters) — The U.S. Supreme Court turned away on Monday a gun industry challenge to a New York law that permits lawsuits against gun makers, wholesalers and dealers for endangering people’s safety through sales of firearms and ammunition. The justices declined to hear an appeal by an industry trade group, the National Shooting Sports Foundation, of a lower court’s ruling upholding the law, which New York calls a public nuisance statute. The group had argued that the law unconstitutionally conflicted with federal law. Gun companies including Smith & Wesson, Ruger, Beretta, Glock, Sig Sauer and Sturm joined the appeal. The Supreme Court in 2025 spared Smith & Wesson from a lawsuit by Mexico’s government accusing the company of aiding illegal gun trafficking to drug cartels. The New York law, signed by former Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo in 2021, requires the gun industry to use reasonable safeguards to protect against gun trafficking, theft and the use of “straw purchasers” who buy firearms for someone else. It allows civil lawsuits by New York state and local officials as well as members of the public. The National Shooting Sports Foundation said the law was preempted by a 2005 federal law called the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act that shields the gun industry from civil liability when its products are used in crimes. Under the U.S. Constitution’s Supremacy Clause, federal laws take precedence over state laws that conflict with them.  The Manhattan-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld New York’s law last year. Circuit Judge Eunice Lee, an appointee of Democratic former President Joe Biden, wrote that Congress intended to preserve “at least some causes of action” when a defendant’s knowing violation of federal or state firearms sales and marketing laws was a proximate cause of harm. Concurring, Circuit Judge Dennis Jacobs, an appointee of Republican former President George H.W. Bush, agreed that the New York law was not preempted, but accused state lawmakers of having “contrived a broad public nuisance statute that applies solely to gun industry members and is enforceable by a mob of public and private actors.” ‘Crushing’ Liability The appeal did not hinge on the Constitution’s Second Amendment protections of the right to keep and bear arms. But the trade group said laws such as New York’s imperil such rights by allowing lawsuits that could saddle companies with “crushing liability” for crimes they had nothing to do with. “This Court’s review is sorely needed to ensure that states hostile to Second Amendment rights cannot frustrate their exercise by trying to bankrupt the licensed (and heavily regulated) industry members that make the exercise of those constitutional rights possible,” it told the justices. The group also said the so-called “predicate exception” in the federal law at issue subjected the industry to liability only for failures to comply with specific obligations or prohibitions within its control. “The decision below blows a gaping hole in a statute that Congress enacted for the express purpose of protecting the firearms industry from exactly the kinds of lawsuits New York seeks to usher back in,” the group said, referring to the 2nd Circuit ruling. Supreme Court Precedent New York called the ruling consistent with the Supreme Court decision in the Mexico case, and that the predicate exception allowed liability for some “downstream acts” of third parties. It also said at least nine states have passed laws to satisfy the exception, and the Supreme Court should let challenges wind through the courts rather than declare New York’s law unconstitutional in every respect. The gun industry appeal was supported in filings by the National Rifle Association, 24 Republican state attorneys general and several dozen Republican members of Congress. The Supreme Court has expanded gun rights in three major decisions since 2008, when it found that the Second Amendment conferred an individual right to keep and bear arms. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Will Dunham)

President Donald Trump said he will not support the extension of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act unless it includes his voter ID bill, the SAVE America Act. “A few Dumocrats are against FISA, with or without Bill Pulte going to DNI, as Acting,” he wrote on Truth Social Sunday afternoon. “What kind of a deal is that. Besides, I’m against FISA if it doesn’t come with The Save America Act (Full version!) firmly attached to it.” The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act grants the federal government authority to surveil foreigners without a warrant, but conservatives argue the program can be used to spy on Americans and collect data. Section 702 of the act expired at midnight on Friday after Congress failed to reach an agreement on warrantless searches. Democrats said they would hold up an extension of the program until Trump picked a new nominee to serve as director of national intelligence. Trump had tapped federal housing director Bill Pulte to serve as acting intelligence director after Tulsi Gabbard resigned from the position to care for her husband, but members from both parties criticized the pick of Pulte. Last week, Trump announced Jay Clayton as his official nominee for the role.  Early Monday morning, Trump reiterated his opposition to extending FISA without the SAVE America Act included. “The Dumocrats want FISA because that’s what they used to go after me for three years during my First Term!” he said. I’m against FISA if it doesn’t come with The Save America Act (Full version!) firmly attached to it.” The SAVE America Act would require government identification and proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections and would also prohibit mail-in ballots, men in women’s sports, and transgender procedures for children. Rep. Julie Fedorchak, R-N.D., will introduce a bill later this week to fulfill the president’s wishes, Politico first reported. Her bill, the “SAVE America Through REAL ID Act,” will establish a grant program encouraging states to require federally mandated REAL IDs to vote. 

Is this the J.K. Rowling revolution? A new Gallup poll shows that fewer Americans believe it is moral for someone to change his gender. In 2021, 46% of Americans said it was morally acceptable, but five years later, only 38% of Americans think so. What happened? Well, there were swings among several demographics. Only 5% of Republicans now think gender transition is moral, down from 22%. Even among Democrats, there’s been a decline: 60% think it’s moral now, down from 67%. Middle-aged and older Americans are also rethinking their views. About half (51%) of 35- to 54-year-olds thought gender transition was moral in 2021. Only 40% agreed in 2026. Similarly, support among the 55-and-older crowd declined 14 percentage points, from 38% to 24%, during that same time period. But the most notable change, in my view, was among women. In 2021, half of women believed it was morally acceptable for someone to change his gender. Today, only 38% of women believe that—a drop of 12 percentage points. Apparently, a significant number of American women saw what it looked like when a man appropriated their gender—and decided their initial tolerance was misplaced. Perhaps it was seeing William Thomas, who prefers to be called Lia Thomas, tower over his competitor Riley Gaines, who tied with him for fifth place in a 2022 NCAA championship race. Maybe it was seeing Adm. and then high-ranking HHS official Richard Levine, who asks to be called Rachel, be picked as one of USA Today’s 12 Women of the Year in 2022. Perhaps it was hearing that in California, “men in state prisons, including violent felons charged with sex crimes and who have intact genitals, can request transfer to women’s prisons based on self-identification as transgender,” as a March Justice Department press release states. Maybe it was after a New Jersey Korean spa caved last year and now allows men to be present in nude women’s spaces after settling a lawsuit from a man who identifies as a woman. Perhaps no woman has taken more hate for raising concerns about gender transition than “Harry Potter” author Rowling. Rowling is hardly a social conservative: in 2007, eight years before the Obergefell Supreme Court decision, she announced that Albus Dumbledore, one of the most beloved characters in the children’s series, was gay. Yet her clear advocacy for women and refusal to kowtow to the woke doctrine that gender can be changed have made her a pariah. She has been denounced by numerous actors and other talent affiliated with the movies based on her books. There have been threats of boycotts of newer Harry Potter projects, including an HBO series based on the books. But, perhaps fortified by Rowling’s courage in refusing to cave on this matter, more women seem to be realizing they don’t need to glorify and praise gender transition or pretend they are comfortable with biological males in women’s spaces. Time and time again, Rowling has highlighted on X the effects the gender transition movement is having on women. Just this Thursday, she shared a video of a teenage girl wrestler who was sexually assaulted in the course of (unknowingly) wrestling with a biological male. “Appalling,” wrote Rowling. “I want those who champion men in women’s sport to explain why they’re happy to put girls at risk like this.” She recently criticized British Prime Minister Keir Starmer for appointing Harriet Harman as his adviser on women and girls, noting that Harman had said in 2022, “So as far as I’m concerned, women are women who are born women, but women are also women who are trans women.” In 2024, in the course of defending women’s right to women-only bathrooms and changing rooms, Rowling criticized a trans broadcaster, saying, “There isn’t a lady in this one , just a man revelling in his misogynistic performance of what he thinks ‘woman’ means: narcissistic, shallow and exhibitionist.” “India didn’t become a woman. India is cosplaying a misogynistic male fantasy of what a woman is,” Rowling also said. The broadcaster subsequently reported Rowling to the police for a hate crime. Rowling ultimately wasn’t charged. But the media coverage of her comments missed the main point: Rowling was defending women’s rights to keep them safe. “[A]llowing males into female-only spaces on the basis of their claim to be a women removes an obstacle that has hitherto been proven to increase women and girls’ safety,” she wrote. “88% of sexual crimes committed in changing/locker rooms happen in those that are unisex. Why? Because malign men don’t have to justify their presence near unclothed women and girls.” This is the type of concern that resonates with women. Interestingly, this year’s results are an outlier from the past several years. In 2023, 2024, and 2025, 47% to 48% of women thought it was morally acceptable to change one’s gender. Time will tell if the 2026 numbers are a blip—or the first indicator of a significant shift. If the shift persists, it’s likely Rowling’s influence played a critical role. At a real personal cost, she has been brave and outspoken on this issue, ensuring that society did not simply slide into a consensus of affirming gender transition. Now, seeing the effects of gender transition on society, more women seem to be waking up—and sharing her perspective.