Police arrested a heavily armed transgender-identifying man who they said had a history of threatening mass violence after he parked a car loaded with firearms outside a Las Vegas-area casino. Andrew Walsh of the Las Vegas Metro Police Department said Tuesday that law enforcement arrested 36-year-old “Allison” Howlett on Saturday on multiple charges, including “threats related to an act of terrorism.” Howlett was arrested outside of the Sunset Station Casino in Henderson after police received a phone call from his spouse claiming that he had stolen a vehicle full of weapons and had previously threatened “to commit suicide by cop and carry out a mass shooting.” Howlett faces charges including gun theft, theft of a car, resisting an officer with a gun, and making a threat of terrorism or false information about an act of terrorism. During a Tuesday briefing on the case, officers played a recording of a person purported to be Howlett making threats of mass violence.  “I swear to God, if the FBI doesn’t come f***ing arrest me, there’s gonna be a f***ing mass shooting,” a person reportedly identified as Howlett said in the recording. “There’s one day you’re gonna be pissing me the f*** off, and it’s gonna be the last f***ing straw.”  Howlett has denied any accusations that he wanted to hurt anyone or made previous threats of mass violence.  “Allison denied wanting to hurt anyone and denied making any prior threats to commit a mass shooting,” a police report obtained by the Las Vegas Review Journal said. “Allison stated that everyone is out to get her and are setting her up.” Henderson Police Department Chief Reggie Rader said that Howlett was found in a vehicle outside the Sunset Station Casino on June 27 with music loudly blaring and refusing to leave the car.  “The quick-thinking officers developed a plan to take her into custody as an opportunity arose when she reached for the water. Officers used that moment to gain control over her hands and remove her from the vehicle,” Rader said, using female pronouns for Howlett, who is listed as a male in booking records.  Rader played footage showing several police officers surrounding the car and pulling Howlett out. Rader said that Howlett had been sitting on a handgun and had access to a fully automatic machine gun in the back seat of the vehicle.  Investigators recovered 22 firearms and hundreds of rounds of ammunition, including multiple handguns and rifles, in the car. Later, they found an additional 30 firearms and thousands of rounds of ammunition at Howlett’s residence.  A judge has set bail for Howlett at $500,000. A preliminary hearing date is set for July 15. 

Congress is considering passage of the Kids Internet and Digital Safety Act (KIDS), a sweeping omnibus bill that would require age verification across much of the internet, restrict messaging for teens, ban certain app features, and grant the Federal Trade Commission a vague mandate to police “compulsive usage” on platforms. As with most power grabs in Washington, KIDS is framed as common-sense child protection. However noble it is to want age verification on the front-end of porn-sites, going down this road will have parents give up ultimate authority in their own households — authority they’ll never recover. The House package is, to its credit, a compromise for anti-tech activists. KIDS is a much narrower bill than the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), which was previously approved by the Senate. The controversial “duty of care” provision was cut out, which would have required social media companies to act in the best interests of the youngest users on their platforms. Again, sounds nice — until you consider that if this principle were applied everywhere in public life, every shopping center and downtown area would resemble a Chuck E. Cheese. House Speaker Mike Johnson has expressed reservations about KOSA. The act’s viability remains to be seen, as it currently sits stalled in the Senate. The false choice being offered by KIDS and the advocates boosting it is a world where children wander the online world with no guidance, and a censorship-surveillance regime that surrenders the privacy of all children and adults. Parenting today, like in all times prior, is kind of scary. Technology moves so fast, and as millennials start having children of their own, they remember the trouble they got into unsupervised on AOL Instant Messenger and in pre-Reddit chat rooms. Older parents with kids on their way to high school have been swimming in the deep end for years. By the time politicians took notice of the troubling trends on TikTok and began pressuring social media firms to offer more child-protection features, teens moved to Snapchat, Kik, Yubo, and even more discreet apps disguised as calculators. Congress is too slow to meaningfully protect kids or to pass legislation that is tech-savvy enough to understand where youths spend time online. That’s what parents are for, and they have a wide array of tools at their disposal that can help guide their kids online. Your internet service provider (Xfinity, Verizon, Spectrum, etc.) can block sites. Your mobile carrier can filter content as you see fit. If you want something more hands-on, companies like Bark, Gabb, and Pinwheel have nerfed smartphones designed specifically for kids, with built-in restrictions on downloads, screen time, and contact access. I used Bark to onboard my 13-year-old to using a phone, after intentionally raising her without access to any tech devices. The experience was excellent. Using AI-powered features, Bark would scan all webpages visited and any text messages sent or received for harmful content: nudity, suicidal ideation, mention of narcotics, and yes, curse words as well. It was helpful to me, as a parent, to know that one of her friends was using all sorts of ugly language that we don’t welcome into our home. Blocked. She also took an interest in Reddit and Quora upon getting the freedom to surf the web and get questions answered. Because I’d get notifications about that, I could have a conversation with my child about the reliability of these sites for quality information. Eventually, they got blocked. This was a helpful way for us to teach online safety at home and for the child to get comfortable using a phone, with all the new stresses it brings alongside additional freedoms. When we felt it was appropriate, she got a proper iPhone on the family plan. Apple’s parental controls — Screen Time, App Limits, Communication Safety — are easy to use and pretty effective. Any parent can restrict app downloads and require the child to request it first. That gives you time to vet an app and read about it before consenting. The iOS features allow parents to lock down web browsing, set bedtimes for phone use, and monitor messaging. These tools work. No congressman required. They’re also optional, which means you have to devote time to research, configuration, and enforcement. The number one thing stopping parents from protecting their children online is not the lack of tools or legislation; it’s the willingness to say “no” and learn about products already on the market to help them in what is, truly, a hard job. I don’t want to diminish how hard it is. But I also have never met a teenager who pays their own phone bill. Parents are in charge and have real power because they pay for the device and its internet connection. Every bill that moves through Congress is built on a timeless lie: that Americans are powerless in their private lives to affect change. The KIDS Act, like its earlier iterations, is no different. The Senate, but more importantly, America’s parents, should reject it. You already have all the power you need — use it. *** Stephen Kent is the media director for the Consumer Choice Center.

“Malcolm in the Middle” star Frankie Muniz announced on Wednesday that he and his wife are getting divorced, but that’s not the part fans are reacting to. Instead, they’re coming down on the TV star for the way he pitched the dissolution of his marriage, especially in light of the fact that the couple shares a 5-year-old child together. Originally, Muniz posted a video of himself and his soon-to-be ex-wife, Paige Price, dancing joyously to the song “Check Yes, Juliet.” Their son, Mauz, is seen dancing along with his parents. Many commenters pointed out that this was a strange way to announce such negative news and let their opinions be known in the comments.  Should have used “Take a chance on me” by ABBA pic.twitter.com/phrdl7D3aU — SaltDisney (@SaltDisney2) July 1, 2026 “Muniz deleted the bizarre video of him and his wife dancing to celebrate their divorce. But he reposted the same nauseous text,” Daily Wire podcast host Michael Knowles wrote in his reaction. “This is the most offensive part of liberal ‘morality.’ It’s not enough that we tolerate their sin and vice. They demand that we celebrate it.” “Divorce is profoundly evil. Sometimes people do it. There’s more we could do to limit it. But in a fallen world, it will occur. Such is life. But to ask that we celebrate it? It’s simply beyond the pale,” he added. Muniz responded to Knowles, arguing that he didn’t “celebrate” his divorce but rather celebrated “the fact that we’re both adults and can handle it like adults moving forward, amicably.” Muniz deleted the Instagram video shortly after posting it and replaced it with a different version of the announcement. Price weighed in, saying she thought that was the wrong move. “Frankie, I am so sorry that you felt the need to delete an old fun video of our family because people are so cruel to you. This world is so f*cked … divorce is bad, sure – it’s not like we’re excited about it … but we’re two adults who know how to be on the same team. I can’t believe people could scrutinize that,” Price wrote under the new post. The “Malcolm in the Middle” star wrote in the updated announcement on X, “Following a period of separation that we kept private, Paige and I have decided to move forward with ending our marriage. After 10 beautiful years together, we’ve grown in ways that made us realize our relationship feels most natural and strong as a deep friendship and as co-parents. We share an incredible son who remains the center of our world, and we’re both happier, stronger parents because of the love and growth we’ve shared.” The actor went on to say he is “endlessly grateful to Paige for everything she’s done for me and our family.”  “We’re closing one chapter with gratitude and opening the next with bright futures ahead, for us as individuals and especially for our son,” he wrote before adding the standard disclaimer for fans to respect his family’s privacy at this time.  Muniz began dating Price in 2016. The pair officially married in 2020 and had Mauz in 2021. 

The White House is renewing the pressure on federal immigration agents to massively increase arrest numbers. Multiple Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) sources told The Daily Wire that they’re back to working seven days a week as the Trump administration pushes for higher arrest numbers. ICE made more than 10,000 arrests during a recent five-day period, The New York Times reported Wednesday. Over the weekend, ICE agents across the country were “called into work on a mandatory 100% manpower work week surge effort,” one agency source said, adding that the “huge effort” was “pushed super last minute, destroying officers’ personal lives in the meantime.” The all-gas, no-brakes approach is “exhausting,” another agency source said. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images) The goal of the new effort is to sustain 2,000 arrests per day, up from 1,000 earlier this year, according to The New York Times. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) didn’t respond to a request for comment. A White House official confirmed that “numbers” are “increasing” as a “result of continued work by the administration on many different fronts.” “Of course, the White House works with their partners at different agencies to ensure the President’s agenda is being enacted. At the same time, the Secure America Act guaranteed funding for 3 years, hiring has continued to increase, the immigration courts are more streamlined, and ICE is operating more efficiently every day,” the official said. ICE was instructed to focus on increasing arrest numbers under the leadership of then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, leading to aggressive and flashy sweeps across cities like Minneapolis, Chicago, and Los Angeles. When Markwayne Mullin took the helm at DHS, he indicated there would be a softer approach to how the agency carries out its mass deportation plan. The shift came after two fatal shootings of anti-ICE protesters in Minneapolis by federal immigration agents. “We’re still enforcing immigration laws, we’re still deporting illegals that shouldn’t be here, we’re still going after the worst of the worst, but we’re doing it in a more quiet way because my goal in six months is to not have DHS on the lead story everyday,” Mullin said in April. Markwayne Mullin says his leadership style at DHS entails doing deportations “in a more quiet way.” pic.twitter.com/GZ5oe82hjg — Jennie Taer (@JennieSTaer) April 16, 2026 During a press conference Wednesday, Mullin announced that arrests and deportations are surging. “We’re seeing our arrest numbers come up, we’re seeing our deportation numbers continue to increase,” Mullin said. “Right now, we’re deporting on average over 3,000 individuals, actually the average has been for several weeks now over 3,200 individuals a day, 70% of those individuals we’re deporting have outstanding criminal charges on them or they’ve already been charged with a felony.” “So when we go after the worst of the worst, which is exactly what we’re doing, we’re saving lives,” Mullin said. Meanwhile, ICE’s detention population increased by 4,000 detainees with the facilities holding more than 63,000 illegal immigrants as of Tuesday, The New York Times reported. ICE leadership has applauded agency personnel for supporting the latest effort. “I want to personally thank each of you for your extraordinary efforts this past weekend,” Marcos Charles, Executive Associate Director of ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations, wrote this week in an email to agency staff, according to The New York Times. “Through your dedication, professionalism, and unwavering commitment to our mission, enforcement and removal operations achieved remarkable operational results,” Charles wrote. Last Year, White House adviser Stephen Miller instituted a 3,000 daily arrest quota for ICE, which tanked agency morale. ICE has since more than doubled its staffing levels by hiring thousands of new officers. The agency has also received a flood of billions of dollars in funding.

On July 4, 2026, American taxpayers celebrate the 250th birthday of our nation, but they’ll also begin giving money again to the largest abortion organization, Planned Parenthood. That’s unless Congress acts. Last summer, Congress included a one-year “defund” provision in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The law blocked Medicaid payments to certain abortion organizations for “the 1-year period beginning on the date of the enactment” of the law, July 4, 2025. Simply put,  Planned Parenthood and similar organizations were cut off from federal Medicaid reimbursement for one year. That year is coming to an end. Some Republican lawmakers apparently think this is a difficult political question. It is not. The whispered argument in Washington, D.C., is familiar: It is the summer of an election year. Do we really want ads saying, “Congressman X defunded Planned Parenthood”? Won’t Democrats accuse Republicans of taking away women’s health care? Won’t Planned Parenthood spend millions telling voters Republicans are extremists? Of course they will. That is the point. The attack ads are coming either way. Planned Parenthood Action Fund is publicly campaigning against House Republicans over defunding. Its own press room announced a new investment of nearly $2 million to keep House Republicans from “defunding” Planned Parenthood, after a prior $1.5 million campaign on the same issue. Its 2026 endorsements page says “the stakes could not be higher,” attacking President Donald Trump and Republicans, warning that anti-abortion lawmakers want to make the Medicaid defund permanent. Republicans face a choice. They can be attacked for defunding Planned Parenthood after actually defunding Planned Parenthood. Or they can be attacked for defunding Planned Parenthood after quietly letting the money flow again. The first option is a fight that can be won and is good public policy. The second is political malpractice. The case against funding Planned Parenthood does not require hyperbole. It requires reading Planned Parenthood’s own documents. Planned Parenthood is not a local charity that stumbled into politics. It is the nation’s largest abortion organization. Its 2024-2025 annual report lists 434,450 abortions committed, each of which is a precious child killed. The same year, they reported $832 million in government reimbursements and grants. It also lists tens of millions of dollars spent on explicit sexual education, public policy, and advocacy expenses. The organization says its health centers provide hormone therapy and other “gender-affirming” services. Its website lists estrogen and anti-androgen hormone therapy, testosterone hormone therapy, puberty blockers, surgery referrals, and transition support. Planned Parenthood has been described as the second-largest provider of gender hormone therapies in the United States. And they offer nothing to minors who regret transitioning. Add it up. Planned Parenthood kills hundreds of thousands of preborn children through abortion, pushes ideological sex education, provides gender-transition services, and then turns around to politically mobilize against the very lawmakers debating whether to subsidize it. This is the organization some Republicans are considering returning to the taxpayer trough. There is a saying in politics: You cannot beat something with nothing. True. But there is another lesson Republicans should’ve learned by now: You cannot appease a political machine into silence. If Republicans extend the defunding, Planned Parenthood and its allies will say Republicans defunded Planned Parenthood. That would be accurate. Fine. Let the argument be had honestly. If Republicans fail to extend the defunding, Planned Parenthood and its allies will still say Republicans defunded Planned Parenthood, threatened basic care, and tried to shut down clinics. The ads will not disappear. The mailers will not be recalled. The pro-abortion activists will not send thank-you notes. The only people who will notice the retreat are the voters Republicans count on to knock doors, write checks, make calls, and turn out in ugly political weather. That is the forgotten political cost here: base demoralization. For pro-life voters, defunding Planned Parenthood is not the ceiling. It is the floor. It is the least a Republican Congress can do. Many of these voters have accepted that change is hard and comes slowly. They have accepted imperfect bills, narrow margins, Senate rules, court fights, and half measures dressed up as strategy. But asking them to accept nearly a billion taxpayer dollars flowing back to the abortion industry, after Republicans had already stopped it for a year, is a different thing. Republicans should not fund their opposition. The ads are coming. The accusations are coming. The headlines are coming. Let’s at least reap the reward while bearing the cost. Defund Planned Parenthood and defend that defunding without flinching. Better to be attacked for taking the hill than mocked by your own voters for abandoning it. *** Noah Brandt is the Vice President of Communications & Government Relations at Live Action