In the heart of Nashville, Keith Urban found himself in a moment that turned a concert into a shared experience of healing and support. Continue reading…

Two United Airlines planes collided on the tarmac at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago on Friday. One plane’s wing clipped another plane’s rear stabilizer while taxiing, CBS News noted. United Airlines Flight 2652 from Jackson Hole, Wyoming, was taxiing to its arrival gate when it made contact with another United plane stopped on the tarmac. “UA2652 was carrying 113 customers and five crew members at the time of the incident. UA2652 is a Boeing 737, while the other plane involved was a Boeing 767, the airline specified,” Breaking Aviation News & Videos said. No passengers were on the second plane. Two United Airlines aircraft collided on the ground at Chicago O’Hare International Airport Friday afternoon. According to United Airlines, UA2652 was taxiing to its arrival gate when it made contact with the horizontal stabilizer of another United Airlines jet. The other jet… pic.twitter.com/QkQRtVGFlh — Breaking Aviation News & Videos (@aviationbrk) October 18, 2025 CBS News has more: Bill Marcus, who was flying home from Wyoming, said he didn’t feel the collision when the planes clipped each other. It wasn’t until after the pilot had told them there would be a delay to document something, and passengers saw more and more people gathering around the plane that he saw the right wing had clipped the rear horizontal stabilizer of another plane. “I was shocked that I didn’t feel something more, although when they separated the planes there was some shuddering,” he said. “I was glad that the pilot was professional, and everyone kept their cool, but it did make me think a little bit twice about what is going on. Is this an FAA situation? Is this a local taxiing situation? I’ve never had an issue like this in my life, and I fly quite a bit.” The collision caused a 40-minute delay before passengers could get off the plane. The airline did not specify what caused the planes to collide. ABC7 Chicago noted: None of the passengers of the taxiing aircraft were hurt, and the 113 passengers and five crew members were able to get off the plane normally, United officials said in a statement. WGN News provided additional coverage:

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The U.S. Marine Corps is set to celebrate its 250th anniversary at Camp Pendleton in Oceanside, California, led by Vice President JD Vance.

Democrat justice in the Democrat city of Charlotte-Mecklenburg. This week, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department held a press conference where they discussed the city’s latest crime stats. Overall crime is down, but there is a deeply concerning trend. More than half of those arrested for violent crimes having prior arrests, including teens, with one example being […] The post Over Half Arrested in Dem City Are Teens, One Was Arrested 111 Times appeared first on www.independentsentinel.com.

If you want to know what the American spirit is, don’t ask a politician. Ask the dad coaching Little League after a 10-hour workday. Ask the single mom who prays over the dinner table even when she’s not sure how she’ll pay the light bill. Ask the soldier who salutes a flag that too many in Washington now treat like a political prop instead of a sacred symbol. The American spirit was never about government. It was about grit, grace, and the stubborn belief that no matter who you are or where you start, you can build a life rooted in faith, family, and freedom. It’s the heartbeat of a people who crossed oceans, tilled soil they didn’t own, and risked everything for the promise of something better. Today, that spirit feels tested — maybe more than at any time in our lifetime. We live in a country where politics has become sport, truth has become optional, and too many Americans are told that our Founding ideals are relics of oppression rather than beacons of hope. Both parties have lost sight of who they work for. Both Democrats and Republicans “govern” like it’s a game or street fight. Somewhere between strategy and survival, the people get forgotten. I’ll say this clearly: I love America. And when you love something, you’re expected to be critical of it. If you didn’t love your kids, you wouldn’t discipline them. Love doesn’t mean silence — it means wanting the best for what you hold dear. My criticism of America isn’t born of cynicism. It’s born of conviction that we can do better because we are better. But here’s the thing: the American spirit isn’t dead. It’s just been buried under noise. And if you listen closely — past the headlines, the outrage, and the endless finger-pointing — you can still hear it. I heard it at a Buccaneers game this past weekend. I was still in the concession area grabbing a beer when the national anthem began. Without anyone saying a word, the entire concourse stopped. Vendors, fans, security guards — everyone froze in place. Hats came off. Conversations stopped mid-sentence. For ninety seconds, the chaos of modern life went silent, and every person stood shoulder to shoulder, facing the direction of a flag they couldn’t even see. That’s the American spirit. Not something choreographed or forced, but something instinctive. Reverence that lives deep in the bones of ordinary people. The American spirit is defiant and hopeful all at once. It’s rebellious in the best sense of the word. Our Founders didn’t wait for permission to pursue liberty — they acted on conviction. And they didn’t do it for fame or profit. They did it because they believed that human freedom was a divine calling, not a political gift. That belief came straight from Scripture: “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” That’s not just a verse — it’s the origin story of the greatest nation on Earth. Yet somewhere along the way, we traded that conviction for comfort. We let cynicism creep in. We started looking to politicians to fix what only character can. We looked to Washington for salvation when it should have started in our own homes, churches, and communities. We forgot that self-government begins with self-discipline. When Alexis de Tocqueville came to America nearly two centuries ago, he was astonished not by our government but by our people — by their faith, their voluntary associations, their instinct to help neighbors before the state ever arrived. That’s what made America exceptional. Not that we were richer or smarter, but that we were moral and free. Who needs to hear this? Honestly, everyone. The young person taught that America is something to apologize for. The middle-aged voter who’s stopped believing that anything can change. The elected official who’s forgotten that public service is a trust, not a brand. And yes, even the conservative who’s become so jaded by corruption and media manipulation that they’ve forgotten hope is a weapon too. We need to remember that pessimism never built anything worth keeping. Hope did. Faith did. The American spirit did. If we can define that spirit, we can reclaim it. And reclaiming it starts with three things: we return to God, we rebuild the family, and we rediscover community. No nation can sustain freedom without virtue, and no virtue survives long without faith. Our Founders knew this. John Adams said it plainly: “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people.” They didn’t separate church and state to erase faith from public life — they did it to protect the church from the state’s reach. Reclaiming the American spirit means bringing prayer back to dinner tables, courage back to pulpits, and humility back to our leaders. Every cultural rot you can name — crime, addiction, confusion, despair — can be traced to the breakdown of the home. A strong nation begins with strong moms and dads who teach their children that life has purpose, that truth exists, and that love isn’t license — it’s responsibility. You can’t legislate that. You can only live it. And the American spirit thrives in places Washington will never reach: small towns, ballfields, church pews, front porches. It’s where people still look each other in the eye and say, “How can I help?” instead of, “Who did you vote for?” Reclaiming that isn’t about nostalgia. It’s about survival. Because when you know your neighbor, you’re less likely to hate him. When you serve your church, you’re less likely to feel hopeless. And when you live with purpose, you stop waiting for politicians to deliver meaning they were never meant to provide. So yes, criticize the left for weaponizing victimhood. But don’t spare the right for losing moral courage. The problem isn’t just policy — it’s pride. It’s thinking we can restore the country through ballots alone without first reviving our souls. The American spirit was born in defiance of tyranny, but it survived through obedience — to God, to conscience, to truth. It’s not red or blue — it’s red, white, and blue. And it belongs to anyone willing to live by the creed our Founders staked their lives on: that freedom is worth the fight, that virtue is worth the cost, and that faith is worth the ridicule. We are not finished as a nation. We are being refined. And maybe that’s exactly what the American spirit has always been. Tested, but never broken; humbled, but never hopeless; faithful, even when the world mocks the faith itself. As we stand on the eve of America’s 250th birthday, let’s take that spirit seriously. We’re a ways removed from the fireworks and speeches of July 4th, but those celebrations will come soon enough. The question is: what kind of country will we be when that day arrives? Let’s make sure that when America turns 250, she’s not limping into it — she’s standing tall, proud, and faithful. Let’s be in the best spiritual, cultural, and moral shape we’ve ever been. That would be the greatest gift we could give to the generations who will inherit her next. Our anthem says it best: “The land of the free and the home of the brave.” Not the land of the perfect. Not the home of the comfortable. But of the brave — the men and women who choose hope over hate, sacrifice over cynicism, and God over government. That’s the American spirit. And it’s still alive. You just have to look around. Because it’s us. It’s We the People. Gates Garcia is the host of the YouTube show and podcast “We The People.” Follow him on Instagram and X @GatesGarciaFL. The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

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When Chuck Schumer first took federal office as a member of the House of Representatives in January 1981, the Monthly Statement of the Public Debt for December 1980 reported that the federal debt at the end of that year was $930.21 billion. As of Oct. 10 of this year, according to the U.S. Treasury, it was $37.885 trillion. During Schumer’s time in Congress—which has constitutional control over federal borrowing and spending—the federal debt has increased 40-fold. During President Joe Biden’s term—when Schumer served as Senate majority leader—the federal debt, as this column has noted before, increased at an average rate of more than $2 trillion per year. But when President Donald Trump’s “One Big, Beautiful Bill” came up before the Senate earlier this year, Schumer suddenly became a deficit hawk. “This is the biggest debt increase in U.S. history,” he claimed. “When interest rates go up, which the Republican bill will do because it makes the deficit even bigger, it will become more expensive for the working family to buy a home, a car, send kids to college, run a business—everything,” Schumer warned in a speech on the Senate floor. When the Republican-controlled House Budget Committee issued a report on its fiscal year 2025 budget proposal on June 27, 2024, it made a candid observation about the growing federal debt. “In a letter to Henry Lee in 1790, James Madison said ‘A public debt is a public curse,'” said this report. “Today, the Nation’s unsustainable debt and out-of-control deficit spending embodies this curse and poses the greatest long-term threat to the country’s future. “Both parties have contributed to creating not a Republican problem or Democrat problem, but an American problem,” it said. “The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects that over the next decade $20 trillion will be added to the national debt, and interest payments will more than double and become the third largest expenditure item in the Federal Government,” it said. “If leaders of this country do not act on the mathematical reality the Nation faces, one of two scenarios could emerge,” it said. “The country could see a slow and painful economic demise from sustained stagnation, or a swift and catastrophic sovereign debt crisis. Both scenarios would imperil the Nation’s future, making this the first generation of leaders to fail to leave the country better than they found it for their children. “The fiscal state of the Nation is unsustainable, but not unfixable,” it concluded. So, what happened to federal spending in fiscal year 2025? In its Monthly Budget Review released last week, the Congressional Budget Office reported that in fiscal year 2025, which ended in September, the net interest on the public debt exceeded $1 trillion for the first time in this nation’s history. Even though total federal tax revenues increased by $308 billion from fiscal 2024—climbing from $4.918 trillion to $5.226 trillion—federal spending rose nearly as much, growing from $6.735 trillion to $7.035 trillion. The result was a $1.809 trillion deficit. The $1.029 trillion that the government spent on net interest on the debt was almost nine times as much as the $115 billion spent on the Department of Homeland Security. On Sept. 19, 11 days before the end of fiscal year 2025, the House voted 217-212 for a short-term continuing resolution to keep the government funded until Nov. 21. Only one Democrat voted for this bill. The bill has been blocked in the Senate, where 45 Democrats led by Senate Minority Leader Schumer have repeatedly voted against bringing it to a final vote, which would require 60 votes. Eight days into the resulting government shutdown, Schumer gave an interview to Punchbowl News. “Every day gets better for us,” he said about the shutdown. “It’s because we’ve thought about this long in advance and we knew that health care would be the focal point on Sept. 30 and we prepared for it,” Schumer said. He was making an issue of the fact that the short-term continuing resolution passed by the House does not include an extension of “enhanced” premium tax credits for purchasing health insurance plans in the Obamacare marketplace. These “enhanced” credits—which, as explained by the Congressional Research Service, “expanded eligibility for and the amount of” the Obamacare premium tax credit—were enacted under President Biden. Under the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which Schumer voted for and Biden signed into law, these “enhanced” credits are set to expire at the end of this year. As calculated by the CBO, the Congressional Research Service report says, a permanent extension of this enhanced credit “would add approximately $350 billion to the budget deficit” over the next 10 years. According to the CBO’s numbers, 25.7% ($1.809 trillion) of the $7.035 trillion the federal government spent in fiscal 2025 was borrowed money. At the White House on Tuesday, Trump told reporters his administration now intended to permanently shut parts of the government. “So, we are closing up programs that are Democrat programs that we wanted to close up or that we never wanted to happen and now we’re closing them up and we are not going to let them come back,” Trump said. “We are going to have a list of them on Friday,” he said. This is the right approach to the debt problem. Now, America needs a Congress that will embrace it. COPYRIGHT 2025 CREATORS.COM We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post Some of the Government Should Shut Down for Good appeared first on The Daily Signal.

What Democrats Are Missing in Trying to Recapture Young People