A missing Virginia teenager was last seen with a 39-year-old man who once avoided serious prison time thanks to a sweetheart plea deal despite admitting to sexually abusing an 11-year-old boy. The Fredericksburg Police Department said Thursday that 17-year-old Autumn Van Zandt was last seen on May 19 traveling with career criminal Ronnie Reel and that they were potentially “attempting to travel out of state.” Reel faced previous criminal charges in July 2021 for child sex assault, but those charges were downgraded after the judge said that leftist Fairfax County Commonwealth Attorney Steve Descano’s office failed to turn in evidence on time.  Instead of facing life in prison for sodomy and aggravated sexual battery, Reel took a plea deal in September 2022 that released him for time served on a misdemeanor assault and battery charge. That plea deal emerged after a judge said that Descano’s office missed a deadline to turn over evidence to Reel’s legal team and could not include two recorded confessions as part of their case, Fox5 reported at the time.  “He was confessing every little detail that he did, and it was making me sick to my stomach,” Amber, the victim’s mother, said of the recording of her phone call with Reel. “It was horrible. He literally confessed to me why he did it.” Descano’s office disputed the judge’s ruling that they failed to properly provide evidence for the case in a timely manner, pinning the blame on the judge. His office told The Daily Wire that the judge “made a novel ruling that discovery was turned over too early yet denied the prosecutor’s motion to continue. We prosecuted the defendant based on the remaining evidence available.” “We acted immediately in response to this novel ruling, and notified all prosecutors that discovery must now be submitted again in Circuit Court  — even if it was already conveyed in a lower court … according to the law, the remedy for such a dispute is a routine continuance — which was sought by our prosecutor and denied,” Descano’s office said at the time.  The victim’s family disagreed.  “A man would be sitting in jail right now if they just didn’t assume. Because that’s what they did. They assumed it would be OK not to send in the paperwork again,” Amber said.   Descano, whose campaigns have been funded by George Soros groups, has long faced scrutiny over his handling of criminal cases. In recent months, his office has released multiple suspects who went on to be charged with murder.  His office released 32-year-old illegal immigrant Abdul Jalloh before he went on to be later charged with murdering 41-year-old mother Stephanie Minter. In a similar case, alleged MS-13 gang member Marvin Morales-Ortez was arrested for murder one day after being released by Descano’s office. Fredericksburg police are asking for anyone with information to send in tips. Van Zandt is described as standing 5 feet, 7 inches tall and weighing 135 pounds with brown hair and brown eyes. She was wearing a black top and jean shorts with a red purse and has a heart-shaped tattoo on the side of her hip. 

Hilary Duff graced the cover of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition this month and immediately turned heads while showing the world you don’t have to bare it all to be that girl. The child actress, icon, singer, and now mom of four told SI she would not pose in a bikini for the famous photoshoot. Instead, the 38-year-old opted for a more modest look. “Like, I have had four kids. I feel comfortable showing this. I don’t feel comfortable showing this,” Duff told Kylie Kelce, another mom of four, on the Not Gonna Lie podcast. “And they’re like, ‘Got it. Got it. Got it.'” The 2026 SI Swim issue officially dropped Tuesday https://t.co/6WtFaChAhf — Sports Illustrated (@SInow) May 12, 2026 Duff donned a white one-piece with a deep plunge neckline for the summer 2026 issue. Her hair was slightly wavy, reminding millennials of Duff’s often crimped locks on the hit Disney Channel show “Lizzie McGuire.” The makeup was a natural, glowy look, perfect for the occasion, as Duff posed at a sandy beach bar in South Caicos back in February. “The editor-in-chief is incredible. The photographer was who I wanted. It got to be my whole styling team, my hair and makeup,” she said. “They wanted me to feel my best.” But this shoot was about more than looking pretty. Duff told Kelce she wanted this shoot to represent how proud she was of her body after giving birth to four children and showing up for her family every single day. “My body’s worked really hard for me and produced an entire family,” Duff said. She shares her son Luca, 14, with ex-husband Mike Comrie, and three daughters, Banks, seven, Mae, five, and Townes, who turned two earlier this month, with husband Matthew Koma. In a previous interview with Time, Duff opened up about how her views on a woman’s body changed, especially after becoming a mother. “I obviously, you know, grew up during that time where all of us were trying to, like, disappear and be waifs, and that’s not natural for my body,” she said. “For most of our bodies, especially as we endure the hormonal changes or motherhood and pregnancy, and all of those amazing things that make us women, right? So stronger, not smaller is a huge, impactful statement that resonates with me.” Arguably the most popular magazine cover to be featured on, Duff, despite her confidence in her skin, was still intimidated to “model,” she told Kelce. “My first reaction was like, ‘sh*t’— I thought I’d get in, like, rip-roarin’ shape,” Duff said. “And I’m also, I’m not a model. I’m 5’2… had four kids… it scared me.” The pop star, who is touring this summer for the first time in almost two decades, decided to embrace the nerves and do the cover shoot. “At this stage in my life, I feel really proud of myself.”

Foreigners roaming the United States and wanting a green card must return to their home country to apply, closing a major loophole that contributed to the growth of the illegal immigrant population in the country, according to a new federal rule. The move shows that the United States is “returning to the original intent of the law to ensure aliens navigate our nation’s immigration system properly,” U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) spokesman Zach Kahler said in a statement Friday. Before the new rule came into play, immigrants who were in the United States for temporary work, tourism, or school could stay in the country while applying for a green card. As a result, the illegal immigrant population grew since many stayed in the country after being denied permanent residency. Their failure to depart forced federal authorities to hunt them down for deportation, according to USCIS. “This policy allows our immigration system to function as the law intended instead of incentivizing loopholes,” Kahler said. “When aliens apply from their home country, it reduces the need to find and remove those who decide to slip into the shadows and remain in the U.S. illegally after being denied residency.” When immigrants come to the United States under temporary terms, they shouldn’t use the visit as “the first step” in getting a green card, Kahler said. “Following the law allows the majority of these cases to be handled by the State Department at U.S. consular offices abroad and frees up limited USCIS resources to focus on processing other cases that fall under its purview, including visas for victims of violent crime and human trafficking, naturalization applications, and other priorities,” Kahler said. “The law was written this way for a reason, and despite the fact that it has been ignored for years, following it will help make our system fairer and more efficient,” he said. Some immigrants will be exempt if there are “extraordinary circumstances” in their case, according to USCIS. Around 500,000 immigrants overstayed their visa permissions as of September 2024, according to Homeland Security data. The latest action comes as the Trump administration looks to crack down on abuse of legal immigration programs. As part of the effort, USCIS is auditing naturalization cases, which has resulted in several foreign-born nationals accused of committing fraud or who are tied to terrorism losing their citizenship. The Trump administration has already denaturalized 15 individuals as of April and has filed a total of 35 denaturalization complaints.

Actress Michelle Pfeiffer detailed what she described as harrowing work conditions on the set of the Taylor Sheridan project “The Madison.” The 68-year-old star discussed it during an appearance on the Los Angeles Times podcast, “In Conversation,” earlier this week. “It was all a little bit rushed for everyone, and so there weren’t certain accommodations set up,” Pfeiffer said. “There is no bathroom, even the outhouse is not real. So there’s no AC, there’s no plumbing, there isn’t anything. But it is breathtakingly glorious.” “We didn’t really have trailers there, because they were shooting 360, so they couldn’t have a bunch of trailers around. So there’s really no place for us to sit,” she went on. “There was no bathroom nearby. There was no food. And in the winter, it was cold. It was like, ‘Could we have a heater?’ And in the summer, it was like, ‘Could I get an umbrella because the sun’s really intense?’” Pfeiffer stars in the Paramount+ neo-Western drama series “The Madison” along with Kurt Russell, Beau Garrett, Patrick J. Adams, Elle Chapman, Amiah Miller, Alaina Pollack, and Ben Schnetzer. The show’s description calls it, “a heartfelt study of grief and human connection following a New York City family in the Madison River Valley of Central Montana.” The show was filmed in Montana and Texas.  She’s not the first professional working on a Sheridan project to speak on the extreme set conditions. Cole Hauser, who worked on Sheridan’s massively popular “Yellowstone” series in addition to the spinoff project “Dutton Ranch,” had some thoughts about the challenging conditions in the latter. “Coming down there, it was just a totally different world,” he told Variety earlier this month.  “The weather was different. We started in July and August, and that was painful. It was 118 degrees, and you’re in all black, sitting on a horse. The trailers aren’t 200 yards away — they’re miles away. So you’re out there in the elements. Getting into that and being able to survive the first couple of months was a feat in itself.” “The Madison” premiered on March 14 and has generally positive reviews, with Pfeiffer in particular being praised for her performance.

TO: DNC Chair Ken Martin FR: Paul Rivera DT: December 2025 RE: The Autopsy Well, boss, here is the 2024 “autopsy” you requested. You’re going to love it. You and I both know it is a crock of sh*t. LOL. As you required, it explains everything except the cause of death. I blame the consultants. The pollsters. The turnout models. The field operation. The digital strategy. The messaging architecture. The sequencing of the paid media. And this is my favorite: Though we brutally outraised Trump, I even blame our fundraising. At one point, I believe I blame typography. Everybody gets tagged in here except us: the people who actually drove the car into the ditch. What else can we do? This was our second loss to the orange lunatic we compared to Hitler. If voters still picked him over us, we don’t want anybody asking the unhelpful question: “What if the problem was not the campaign?” Per your instructions, I was careful not to blame President Biden, may he rest in peace. History will record him as a noble statesman tragically overtaken by time, gravity, and stairs. The less we say about his condition, the less awkward it becomes that the entire party apparatus insisted, right up until the debate, that he was Abraham Lincoln pedaling a ten-speed. The worse we make Biden look, the less the blame falls on Kamala. And we can’t have her running again in 2028. That woman couldn’t finish a jigsaw puzzle if only one piece remained.    Still, she’s got a base. So, we portray her not as an incompetent candidate, but as the victim of insufficient “message definition,” “narrative permission structures,” and “surrogate deployment inefficiencies.” That’s all Washingtonese for: Nobody could figure out how to make her sound normal. I dream of the day we have put racism and sexism so far behind us that we can all concede that giggling Kamala was the world’s worst candidate, even though she was black and female! That day is not today. To be fair, the loss was not entirely her fault. For nearly a decade, our party convinced itself that demographic symbolism was a governing philosophy. We became so addicted to virtue signaling our superior status that we lost the ability to make ordinary human judgments about talent, right and wrong, and what is real. The good news? Many of our leaders now say they want to nominate a white, six-foot-two governor who talks like a football coach and eats meatloaf. Why? For the same reason they nominated Kamala: Not because they’ve abandoned identity politics, but because they believe America is still racist and sexist. Throughout the entire 192-page autopsy, as you asked, I never awakened the corpse. At no point do we ask if voters recoiled from a party culture that increasingly regarded them with contempt. We do not ask whether working-class Americans grew tired of being spoken to as though they were unenlightened villagers awaiting instruction from a faculty lounge. We do not ask if our anti-semitism and support for Hamas crossed any lines among average Americans. We do not ask whether constantly informing people they are privileged, fragile, colonizing, transphobic, or insufficiently fluent in the latest pronouns might eventually produce a backlash. We do not ask why young men rolled their eyes when we told them barbecuing was a toxic guy thing. We do not ask whether a party that spent years lecturing Americans about “their truth” accidentally lost touch with the truth. Instead, this autopsy bravely concludes that our real mistake was failing to produce enough short-form video content for TikTok. I scrubbed out God, character, and morality. I erased all the stuff about Democratic Party leadership during COVID. There is no point in reminding people of the years we spent lecturing them that they were selfish Neanderthals if they wanted to open their businesses, visit dying relatives, or send their children to school. At that time, which voters unfortunately recall, many of our party officials attended maskless dinner parties, enjoyed spas and salons, and participated in public street protests blessed by “the science.” These activities left the inconvenient impression that our movement had evolved into a kind of secular clerisy: morally superior, permanently credentialed, and exempt from pedestrian rules. Nevertheless, we are the party of democracy. It would not be prudent to include these points in this analysis. Instead, we focus heavily on “message fragmentation among emerging constituencies.” That tested better in focus groups than “people stopped trusting us when we lied to them.” Additionally, on no occasion do we touch the central moral problem: Modern progressivism asks Americans to believe obvious untruths in public as proof of moral goodness. It was for their own good, of course, but still, we asked voters to believe that men and women are interchangeable except when vaginas have special rights. That inflation would never happen, but if it did, it would be transitory. That the border was secure. That crime statistics mattered more than whether someone’s daughter was raped and murdered by an illegal alien. That biological reality itself was somehow negotiable as long as HR approved the language. Eventually, ordinary people figured that if our party asked them to deny what they could plainly see, it would probably lie to them about other things, too. So, as you directed, none of that gets a vowel or consonant here. What would be the point? In our party, anything close to normal is being devoured by status-seeking, power-hungry, cannibalistic children, feasting on the bones of yesterday’s centrism. Our party is not getting less socialist, radical, or authoritarian. We are reveling in those things. Why look in the mirror? What’s the point of self-reflection when AOC is what we see? As Pogo once said, “We have met the enemy and he is us.” There is no need to say that in this autopsy. So, I didn’t. Let’s blame the apparatchiks and say we didn’t spend enough on social media. Let’s attack Trump, call him Satan, and quietly hope he defines our party for the next hundred years. Boss, here is your autopsy. People are going to laugh at it. They are going to wonder why we spent so much money doing surveys and interviews to produce this wretched piece of taxidermy. But that’s the point, isn’t it? This autopsy is perfect when there is nothing we can fix. *** Alex Castellanos is a co-founder of Purple Strategies, a bipartisan public affairs firm, and appears regularly on Fox News.