Dozens of Democrat-run states have sued the Trump administration for refusing to utilize the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program’s (SNAP) contingency funds to issue food benefits during the government shutdown.

Democrat New York City Mayoral Candidate Zohran Mamdani denied President Donald Trump’s claims that he is a “communist” and promised to “fight” the president if he “comes after” the city.

Halloween is just a week away, which means it’s crunch time for figuring out a costume. And when it comes to find the funniest, scariest, and best ones, it makes sense that trick or treaters and adults alike turn to Google. People ‘google’ so much that the search giant’s name has become a verb. Embracing this honorary eponym, Google Trends has released a trove of data that not only reveals 2017’s most popular Halloween costume in the U.S. (Wonder Woman), but also breaks ideas down state by state. Tracking the best costumes using with up-to-the-minute search results, the Google Frightgeist tool can display the data in several ways. First, there are the top trending costumes, nationally, which as of this writing are: 1. Wonder Woman Cosplayer dressed as Wonder Woman attend the 2017 New York Comic Con on October 8, 2017 in New York City. John Lamparski — WireImage/Getty Images 2. Harley Quinn Comic Con attendees pose as Harley Quinn and Joker during New York Comic-Con 2015 at The Jacob K. Javits Convention Center on October 9, 2015 in New York City. Daniel Zuchnik — Getty Images 3. Clown A person dressed in a clown costume stands amongst attendees during the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade in Manhattan, New York, U.S., October 31, 2016. Andrew Kelly — Reuters 4. Unicorn A Unicorn of Super Geek League pose for a portrait backstage during the USC Lucky Festival on March 12, 2016 at The Tacoma Dome in Tacoma, Washington. Mat Hayward — Getty Images 5. Rabbit A dog dressed as Hugh Hefner takes part in the annual halloween dog parade at Manhattan’s Tompkins Square Park in New York U.S., October 21, 2017. Lucas Jackson — Reuters 6. Witch Witches take part in the the Spirit of Halloweentown parade in St. Helens, Ore., on October 7, 2017. The town was the set for the 1998 [f500link]Disney[/f500link] movie Halloweentown. Alex Milan Tracy — Sipa USA via AP 7. Mouse A group of four female college students dressed in costumes; one student as Minnie Mouse holding a phone taking a selfie, another student dressed in the purple, green, and face paint of the Joker, one student in the back dressed as a Minion, and the student most to the left wearing cat ears and cat makeup; all with smiling facial expressions, Halloween at Peabody Library, Johns Hopkins University, October 31, 2015. Courtesy Eric Chen. JHU Sheridan Libraries/Gado Getty Images 8. Pirate A participant wearing a costume of Jack Sparrow during the Torino Comics. It is a convention dedicated to comics, manga and relative merchandising. Daniele Baldi — Pacific Press LightRocket via Getty Images 9. Zombie Zombie at AMC’s The Walking Dead Booth at Comic-Con International 2017 – Preview Night held at San Diego Convention Center on July 19, 2017 in San Diego, California. Albert L. Ortega — Getty Images   Read the entire list @Fortune

Actors jumping out of dark corners just don’t satisfy anymore. With “The Walking Dead’s” zombie bloodbath drawing more than 15 million viewers a week, audiences demand more these days than a few quick startles out of Halloween haunted houses. Enter “extreme” haunted houses – also called “interactive” or “intense” haunted houses – which cater to the demand of increasingly desensitized patrons looking to be frightened to their core at Halloween. Some aim to terrorize and traumatize; others just want to give everyone a scary, but fun, time. Most designers of such events believe that while traditional haunted houses will always have their place, extreme events are shaping the future by evolving with today’s society to ensure everyone has ample opportunities to laugh, cry and scream his head off every Halloween. Here are some of the most unusual extreme Halloween events for 2014: 1. Blackout (18+) – New York City, NY; Los Angeles, CA Blackout, which pioneered the X-rated Halloween experience, relies on darkness, loud noises, nudity, sexual situations and violence to terrify its customers. Many call it the most extreme event in the country. In past years, patrons have ended up half-naked, bound and gagged, standing opposite a highway in full view of the world. Participants must be 18 or over, and they must sign a waiver. There is even a safety word for those who can’t take it. Though it’s been a solo experience up until now, this year guests will experience “Blackout: House” in groups. Creative director Josh Randall, continuing to “reinvent” what he describes as “more theater” than a haunted house, declined to say what will happen this year, noting only that the New York and LA versions will be nearly identical. 2. Alone (18+) – Los Angeles, CA If you’re looking for a mental test, Alone: An Existential Haunting will be unnerving. Co-creator Lawrence Lewis describes the event as a “blank canvas” onto which customers’ nightmares unfold. “We don’t utilize any fake blood or guts or crazy clowns or chainsaws,” he says. “We stick to the psychological fear that we are all built with internally and exploit that and let the mechanisms of fight or flight take over.” Another adults-only “waiver maze,” Alone gets very physical with its guests, adding in sexuality and personalized attention, including calling out patrons’ names. 3. McKamey Manor (21+) – San Diego, CA Arguably the most extreme haunted house, McKamey Manor is run by Russ McKamey and his girlfriend, Carol Schultz, who live to draw out deep, horrifying, emotional responses from people. This year’s grueling experiences are designed to last up to eight hours for one or two people per day. Special effects, animatronics, intense actors and purely disgusting interactive moments make this haunted house unique, and shivering, crying, passing out and being left in emotional shambles are not uncommon. So far, no one has made it through, and there is no safe word to escape – though McKamey pulls the plug when medically necessary. McKamey films his guests to make a “mini movie” of each experience. “It really is like watching somebody live their own horror movie right there, six inches in front of their face,” McKamey joyously explains. Some of its most extreme moments occur on a morgue table, including the use of a live tarantula. “You want to see true fear? You put live spiders crawling on somebody’s face, and the tears are just flowing down their eyes in silence. It’s like you’re watching a silent movie,” McKamey says. Though he says he’s invested more than half a million dollars into the event, McKamey doesn’t ask his guests for a dime – just a dog food donation for Operation Greyhound. He does it “for the love of the haunt,” simply wanting to put on the “biggest, craziest show” anyone’s ever seen. No wonder he has a waiting list of more than 17,000. 4. Freakling Brothers Gates of Hell (17+) and Victim Experience (18+) – Las Vegas, NV It’s a tough order to freak out Sin City, but the Freakling Brothers live up to their name with some of the most extreme haunted houses in the country. Co-creator JT Mollner describes their R-rated “Gates of Hell” as a “full contact haunted house” in which guests 17 and over are bombarded with profanity, violent situations and frequent touching. Its most intense scenes are “Faces of Death” moments, each depicting horrible ways to die, culminating with stepping into a death camp and “dying” by firing squad. But “Gates of Hell” is nothing compared to “Victim Experience,” designed to please a niche audience that wants to feel like it’s succumbing to traumatizing crimes. Limited to five tickets per night, the Victim Experience subjects patrons to intense physical contact, emotional torture, suffocation, waterboarding and simulated criminal sexual content. “I don’t know if I personally would pay to go through the Victim Experience,” says Mollner, noting that only 30 percent of patrons (mostly women) have made it through without using the safe word. 5. ScareHouse: The Basement (18+) – Pittsburgh, PA Not all extreme haunted houses are meant to traumatize. ScareHouserelies on science to dig deep into the psychology of the scare and leave guests with a new outlook on life. Dr. Margee Kerr, a sociologist and “fear expert,” used data to design the horrors found in ScareHouse’s The Basement. Set in the basement of a former Elks lodge, The Basement was designed to make people feel better. “It was meant to actually help people in a way – to challenge them to think about things that they had never thought about before,” said Kerr. “People don’t think anymore. We want people to think.” Through a series of theatrical vignettes, guests address fears that include claustrophobia, needles, electric shocks and doctors. The event also questions guests’ religious beliefs, a sensitive subject for many. But ScareHouse adheres to strict morals; it never depicts helpless females or sexual violence against women. Instead, women are some of its most aggressive and powerful characters. 6. Shocktoberfest: Naked and Scared Challenge (18+) – Sinking Spring, PA Beyond the intellectual, physical and downright disturbing, extreme haunted houses can tap into superficial fears – namely the fear of one’s own body. Shocktoberfest’s Naked and Scared Challengeallows guests to traverse a dark haunted house nearly nude, literally stripping off outer layers of protection. After a brief battle with the local township, creator Pat Konopelski decided he couldn’t allow guests to participate naked, so they wear the littlest of underwear. He said removing clothing makes the experience more “intrusive and personal and intimate.” They use special techniques and scare devices – water and air blasts among others – to heighten the experience. Coupled with near-freezing fall weather, it becomes quite a rush for those prancing through in their underpants. “When they have that layer of protection removed, that is a whole new sense that is now available to be entertained and exploited,” Konopelski said. 7. Queen Mary Dark Harbor – Long Beach, CA Aboard the historic Queen Mary cruise ship lies Dark Harbor, a Halloween event that this year is adding “Encounters” that center around the vessel’s real-life ghost stories. Director of entertainment events Steve Sheldon developed the idea of having guests explore areas of the ship they’ve never visited before, including the engine room, and adding interactive mind games along the way. Customers are sent on a ghost hunt gone wrong, required them to find their way out of the mess. Sheldon believes guests will walk away “entertained, scared, intrigued, wanting more.” 8. Terror Behind the Walls at Eastern State Penitentiary (7+) – Philadelphia, PA While most extreme haunted houses are aimed squarely at adults, Terror Behind the Walls gives kids an opportunity to join in the fun. Designed to raise funds to maintain the historic and reputedly haunted Eastern State Penitentiary, it has six traditional haunted houses. Last year they debuted a “more intense” option that allows actors to touch guests in a variety of inventive, fun and thrilling ways, at no additional cost. Those who opt in wear red glow stick necklaces so the actors can single them out in the haunted houses, particularly in the new “Machine Shop.” Guests may find themselves pulled into a prison cell and confronted by burly bald inmates threatening to shave their heads. Such one-on-one moments happen sporadically. More frequent touching includes actors brushing various body parts – never inappropriately – or stopping guests in their path to create some contact and a quick startle. Creative director Amy Hollaman went to great lengths to choreograph each touch and movement for maximum effect, never becoming repetitive. Children become part of it with their own smaller scale interactive adventures mid-haunt, such as crawling through a tree or digging in the dirt for a spider, which they get to keep. 9. Trapped at Knott’s Scary Farm (All Ages, Recommended for 13+) – Buena Park, CA The only big West Coast theme park to feature an extreme haunted house, Knott’s Berry Farm added Trapped to its lineup three years ago. The Halloween event is open to all ages, though it’s recommended for those 13 and over (minors must be accompanied by an adult). “We can’t go crazy extreme, nor do we want to, because it’s a theme park,” said Gus Krueger, design specialist for Knott’s Scary Farm. “But we definitely are able to push the limits here, and we’ve never gotten feedback that it’s not extreme enough.” Actors are hands-on, and guests must interact with them while walking through, remaining in scenes for several minutes instead of just passing through. In past years, Trapped has locked guests inside cages, sprinkled simulated “rat poop” on them, forced them to eat bugs and to receive shocks by touching water pouring out of electrical sockets to “complete the circuit.” The goal is to put guests in uncomfortable situations, but make it rewarding and fun. Krueger says the best reaction on the way out is, “Wow, that was cool, but that was so horrible.”

If you thought the only things killing people on Halloween night were needle filled apples and chocolates, think again. In fact, nobody has ever been killed by such a thing in the history of man or Halloween. While most cases of needles in the candy have been proven complete hoax, the phenomena has occured before but only resulted in minor injury. But what fun is that? Let’s take a look at some true Halloween horror stories where the victims weren’t so lucky! Bodies of suicide victims have been mistaken for Halloween decorations   On 26 October 2005, the corpse of a 42-year-old woman was left suspended in public view for hours in Frederica, Delaware, because her lifeless body was assumed to be yet another Halloween display. The unnamed woman hung herself from a tree located across a moderately busy road from some homes. Her body, suspended about 15 feet above the ground, could easily be seen from passing vehicles. State police spokesman Cpl. Jeff Oldham and neighbors said people noticed the body around 7:30 that morning but dismissed it as a holiday prank. Authorities arrived at the scene at 11:00 to begin the process of examining the scene and removing the body. The deceased lived about a quarter-mile from where her body was discovered. Similarly, in mid-October 2009 the decomposing body of a 75-year-old suicide victim sat undisturbed on the balcony of the deceased’s home in Marina del Rey, California, for several days because neighbors assumed it was merely part of a Halloween display: Mostafa Mahmoud Zayed had apparently been dead [for three days] with a single gunshot wound to one eye. He was slumped over a chair on the third-floor balcony of his apartment on Bora Bora Way, said cameraman Austin Raishbrook, who was on the scene when authorities were alerted to the body. Halloween decorations Neighbors told Raishbrook that they noticed the body [three days earlier] “but didn’t bother calling authorities because it looked like a Halloween dummy,” he said. “The body was in plain view of the entire apartment complex [and] they all didn’t do anything,” Raishbrook said. “It’s very strange. It did look unreal, to be honest.” An investigator with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said the case is an “apparent suicide,” and declined to comment further. These grisly accounts of suicides being mistaken for Halloween tomfoolery is the reverse of what we’ve previously seen: deliberate attempts at presenting spooktacular visual effects resulting in actual, accidental demises. All too often, young persons called upon to stage fake hanging scenes as part of scary tableaux have fatally miscalculated, thereby ending their lives. The Disappearance Of Hyun Jong ‘Cindy’ Song   Hyun Jong “Cindy” Song was a 21-year-old South Korean student attending Pennsylvania State University. In 2001, she dressed up in a bunny costume and attended a Halloween party at a nightclub in State College. After leaving the club, Cindy spent the next few hours hanging out with her friends before she was dropped off at her apartment at 4:00 AM. This was the last anyone ever saw of her. After Cindy was reported missing, a search was conducted of her apartment. There was no sign of any struggle, but many of her belongings, including the false eyelashes from her costume, were there, indicating that she had gone inside after being dropped off. But what happened to her afterward? Shortly thereafter, a witness reported seeing a woman resembling Cindy in the Chinatown district of Philadelphia. This woman was inside a vehicle with an unidentified male and crying out for help. A bizarre lead came about in 2003 when a Luzerne County man named Hugo Marcus Selenski was arrested after the remains of five people were found buried in his backyard. Even though none of these remains belonged to Cindy, an informant told police that Selenski and an accomplice named Michael Jason Kerkowski Jr. had abducted her. After Cindy was raped and murdered, the two men allegedly buried her body at another location. Kerkowski’s remains were found in Selenski’s backyard, and the informant claimed Kerkowski was murdered for keeping Cindy’s bunny ears as a souvenir. Thus far, no evidence was found to tie Selenski to Cindy’s disappearance, but in January 2014, the burned remains of a dozen more people were found buried on his property. It remains to be seen if any of them will be identified as Cindy Song. Halloween Poisonings   Tales of black-hearted madmen doling out poisoned Halloween candy to unsuspecting little tykes have been around for decades — they were part of my Halloween Trick or Treat! experience nearly forty years ago. And every year sees the same flurry of activity in response to such rumors: radio, TV and newspapers issue dark warnings about tampered candy and suggest taking the little ones to parties instead of collecting goodies door-to-door. Even Ann Landers published a column in 1995 warning us against the mad poisoner, saying, “In recent years, there have been reports of people with twisted minds putting razor blades and poison in taffy apples and Halloween candy.” It’s a sadness that a holiday so thoroughly and greedily enjoyed by kids is being sanitized out of existence in the name of safety. Sadder still is there appears to be little reason for it. Though I’ve yet to find evidence of a genuine Halloween poisoning, I have uncovered a few isolated incidents initially reported as random poisonings that, upon further investigation, turned out to be something else. Halloween Poisonings Let’s set the criteria for what constitutes a Halloween poisoning and then examine the famous and not-so-famous cases often pointed to as examples of this horror: To qualify as a Halloween poisoning, poisoned candy has to be handed out on a random basis to children as part of the trick-or-treating ritual inherent to Halloween. The act cannot be targeted to any one specific child. By far the most famous case of Halloween candy poisoning was the murder of eight-year-old Timothy Marc O’Bryan at the hands of his father, Ronald Clark O’Bryan, in Houston, Texas. The child died at 10 p.m. on 31 October 1974, as a result of eating cyanide-laced Pixie Stix acquired while trick-or-treating. To make his act appear more like the work of a random madman, O’Bryan also gave poisoned Pixie Stix to his daughter and three other children. By a kind stroke of fate, none of the other children ate the candy. The prosecution proved the father had purchased cyanide and had (along with a neighbor) accompanied the group of children on their door-to-door mission. None of the places visited that night were giving out Pixie Stix. Young Mark’s life was insured for a large sum of money, and collecting on this policy has always been pointed to as the motive behind this murder. Though the case was circumstantial (no one saw the father poison the candy or slip the Pixie Stix into the boy’s bag), Ronald O’Bryan was convicted of the murder in May 1975. He received the death sentence and was executed by lethal injection on 31 March 1984 (not on the poetically-just 31 October as is often recounted in off-the-cuff retellings of the case). he O’Bryan murder was an attempt to use a well-known urban legend to cover up the premeditated murder of one particular child. (Note that for this explanation of the boy’s murder to have been believed, the legend had to have been in wide circulation by 1974.) Though cold-blooded and horrible to contemplate, this crime still does not qualify as a genuine Halloween poisoning because there was nothing random about Timothy O’Bryan’s death. (The specter of the mad poisoner from the 1982 Tylenol murders was similarly employed by various murderers attempting to cover their tracks.) The Identity Of ‘Orange Socks’   On Halloween in 1979, the unidentified body of a young woman was found in a concrete culvert near Interstate 35, just outside of Georgetown, Texas. The victim appeared to be in her twenties and had been sexually assaulted before she was strangled to death. It seemed likely she was murdered that very same day and the only unique clue to her identity was a silver, oval-shaped ring on her hand. The victim was nude and the only garment of clothing she had on was a pair of orange socks. Since the young woman was never identified, “Orange Socks” became her nickname. ‘Orange Socks’ Years later, serial killer Henry Lee Lucas confessed to the murder of “Orange Socks.” He even stated that he had sex with her corpse after she was dead. However, Lucas did not know the woman’s identity. He claimed he picked her up while hitchhiking and only remembered that her name was “Joanie” or “Judy.” After being sentenced to death for the woman’s murder in 1984, Lucas recanted his confession in order to have his sentence commuted. Indeed, further investigation showed that Lucas was likely working in Florida on the day of the murder. Lucas was notorious for frequently confessing to murders he never committed, and no one is sure how many people he actually killed. Henry Lee Lucas died in prison in 2001, but “Orange Socks” is not the only unidentified murder victim that he has been connected to. A chainsaw-wielding ‘madman’ turns out to be a partygoer who’d gone to the wrong house.   A petrified resident frantically called police after a man dressed in ski goggles and salopettes turned up on his doorstep with a roaring chainsaw. Fearing he was about to be taken apart limb by limb the desperate “victim” dashed to the phone to alert officers of the impending bloodbath. But police who raced to the address in Atwater Close, Lincoln, last night arrived to find the chainsaw-wielding offender gone. It later transpired that the menacing character waving the 3ft-long power tool had in fact got the wrong address for a fancy dress party. Police said he had been intent on making a dramatic entrance to the soiree and was dressed as hell-raising rap star Eminem. Upon realising his mistake he skulked off into the night, chainsaw in tow. A Lincolnshire Police spokesman said: “The poor occupant was clearly frightened out of his skin. “The guy turned up at the door with the chainsaw running and must have looked terrifying. “Luckily he had simply gone to the wrong door. It must have been rather embarrassing for him.” Ever since 1992, when 16-year-old Japanese exchange student Yoshihiro Hattori was mistakenly killed in Louisiana after he knocked on the wrong door in search of a Halloween party (and the resident, mistaking him for an intruder, shot him to death), tales about party-goers dressed as characters from horror films being mistaken for real killers have seemed a little less funny. Nonetheless, such stories continue to pop up in the news every once in a while. The example quoted above — about a chainsaw-wielding man dressed in ski goggles and salopettes who accidentally turned up on the wrong doorstep and had the police called on him by the frightened resident — was reported by the British press in late October 2002 (but contained too little in the way of checkable details to make it easily verifiable). A chainsaw-wielding ‘madman’ (Salopettes, by the way, are high-waisted weatherproof pants upheld by built-in suspenders. Skiers, motorcyclists, snowmobilers, and others engaged in chilly outdoor sports, routinely don them for protection and warmth. To have a look at some different styles of them. In April 2008, the British press again reported an incident involving a masked, chainsaw-wielding party-goer whose presence startled area residents into sending the police after him: A man walking the streets of a town with a running chainsaw and a mask sparked a major armed police operation. Concerned residents dialled 999 after spotting the man walking along Churchill Road, Bicester, Oxfordshire. Armed police arrived but found that the man, whose chainsaw had no blade, was going to a fancy dress party as horror film character Jason. He was warned that he had to turn the saw off but allowed to continue to the party.A Thames Valley Police spokesman said: “He was warned about his actions and told he faced arrest or a fixed penalty notice if he did not turn the saw off.”It looks like he was in fancy dress but it was not a funny incident for worried residents.” Pins, needles, and razor blades have been found in trick-or-treaters’ loot   Halloween poisonings, many cases of tampered trick-or-treat loot involving the insertion of pins, needles, or razor blades have been documented. To my mind, these cases constitute a different class of tampering than poisoning for a couple of reasons. First, the expected level of harm is severely reduced: poison is an attempt to kill; a pin in an apple is an attempt to frighten or injure. Professor Joel Best reported that he’s been able to track about eighty cases of sharp objects in food incidents since 1959, and almost all were hoaxes. Only about ten culminated in even minor injury, and in the worst case, a woman required a few stitches. Compared to “eat something and die,” a couple of stitches barely registers on the scale. Pins, needles, and razor Second, the motivation for “pins and needles” tampering is different. As I said before, poison is an attempt to kill, but hiding a needle in an apple is almost always a prank, not a serious attempt to cause harm. (In those instances where such an insertion could be traced back to a specific person, it was almost always some kid intent on freaking out either his little brother or his parents or getting the community in an uproar as his version of a cute Halloween “trick”). Pranking (especially when it’s a scary or slightly mean one) is part of Halloween, and the various kids or young adults who’ve tampered with treats most likely never fully considered the potential consequences of the joke prior to embarking on it. (When presented with a matchless opportunity to throw a scare into a pesky kid brother, who stops to think that Junior might get hurt?) An incident that broke with this expected pattern occurred in Minneapolis in 2000, when 49-year-old James Joseph Smith was charged with one count of adulterating a substance with intent to cause death, harm or illness after it was determined he’d put needles in Snickers bars and handed them out to children on Halloween. A 14-year-old boy was pricked by a needle hidden in a bar he’d bitten into, but no one required medical attention. As author Jack Santino noted in his history of Halloween, “pins and needles” rumors began to supplant “poisoned candy” rumors in the mid-1960s, and nearly all such reports of such rumors proved to be hoaxes:

Halloween is all about the spooky and horror. From running wild after dark on streets crowded with ghosts, goblins and scary clowns, to curling up for a horror-movie marathon, it’s a holiday that loves to flirt with fear. But there is one dark force so horrifying that even on this haunting holiday we must resist its efforts to confuse and beguile us: the spread of fake stories on social media. To ward off the evil spirits of misinformation, be wary of these five commonly shared Halloween myths. Myth No. 1: People are poisoning the candy Razor blades. Poison. Pins. LSD. They’ve all been planted in Halloween candy over the years by sadistic adults intent on harming strangers’ children, we’ve been told. In recent years, images of nails and other foreign objects in Halloween candy have swept across social media. But the tales of tainted treats are urban myths. Joel Best, a professor of sociology and criminal justice at the University of Delaware, looked at reported incidents of “Halloween sadism” going back to 1958. Best said he was “unable to find a substantiated report of a child being killed or seriously injured by a contaminated treat in the course of trick-or-treating.” The only proven case of a child dying from poisoned Halloween candy occurred in Pasadena, Texas, in 1974. But Timothy O’Bryan’s father, not a stranger, put cyanide in the 8-year-old’s Pixy Stix. Ronald Clark O’Bryan, sometimes called the Candy Man and the Man Who Killed Halloween, was executed for the crime in 1984. Reported incidents are normally hoaxes. “Typically this is done by the kids,” Best said. Today it’s easy to stick something in your candy, whip out your phone, snap a picture and get it out on social media, he said. Of course, there’s no harm in checking the candy. At the very least, it’s a great excuse to sample the goods. And for many Americans it’s is a lot harder to swallow the idea that strangers aren’t poisoning random children than stories that they are. Myth No. 2: It’s open season on black cats If you believe what you see on social media, Halloween is like The Purge for black cats. The fear that people are adopting black cats to torture or sacrifice around the holiday is so great that some animal shelters don’t allow the animals to be adopted close to Halloween. The Animal Welfare League outside Chicago puts all black cats and black rabbits in a separate room about a week before Halloween and doesn’t put them back up for adoption until two days after, explained the league’s president and executive director Linda Estrada. Estrada concedes that animals, especially cats, are at risk of abuse all year. She said she puts away the black cats and rabbits at Halloween “just to be on the safe side.” “We don’t want to see even one animal fall into bad hands,” she said. She said a black cat was brought into the clinic the day after Halloween one year with initials burned onto its flesh. Concerns about the ritualistic torture of animals around Halloween were more widespread in the 1980s and 1990s, when fears of secret Satanic cults were at their zenith. Many shelters have since abandoned the policy of hiding black cats, and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals says, “There is no reason to believe that these cats are at risk.” “While it is true that animals too often become the victims of holiday pranks and cruelty, there is no reason to believe that witches are involved, or that shelters are a source,” the ASPCA website says. The group says shelters should follow normal adoption procedures at Halloween. “Continued publicity on this tends to make adoption counseling procedures look arbitrary and silly,” the ASPCA says. Myth No. 3: Satan is the reason for the season Many Americans believe Halloween is rooted in Satanic worship. For decades, Christian Broadcast Network founder Pat Robertson  denounced the holiday as a “demonic ritual” and “a night when the devil rejoices.” “Mother, don’t let your babies grow up to be demon worshipers,” Robertson advised in 2016, borrowing from Willie Nelson. “Don’t let them do it.” Robertson and some other pastors may see Satan’s hand in Halloween, tracing the holiday to pagan and druidic customs, but the devil is in the details. Some scholars trace Halloween’s roots to an ancient Celtic festival known as Samhain, which some say was associated with communing with the dead. Others, like Nicholas Rogers, author of Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night, argue very little is actually known about the feast beyond celebrating the harvest season. Rogers also says that people stopped celebrating Samhain long before “Satanism” was even a thing. “Satanism is essentially a Christian creation,” he said, and “incompatible with the polytheism of the ancient Celts.” Henry Kelly, a professor of English at UCLA and author of Satan: A Biography, said Halloween is best understood as a product of 18th-century folklore traditions of Scotland and Ireland. “Efforts to connect it with anything earlier are bogus,” Kelly said. The holiday’s strongest roots sprout from Catholic traditions. The name is derived from All Hallow’s Eve, the evening before All Saints’ Day two nights before All Souls Day. So, instead of worrying about the devil, Kelly advises evangelicals like Robertson to just “relax and have a good time.” Myth No. 4: It’s all about the pumpkins It’s hard to imagine Halloween without carving pumpkins to make jack-o’-lanterns. But the original jack-o’-lanterns were carved from turnips and carried a candle to represent a soul trapped in purgatory, according to Rogers. Rogers, a Halloween historian, said people in England would sometimes carry the turnips while “souling,” a ritual that included people going door-to-door to ask for food in exchange for prayers for the dead. One popular story behind the origin of the jack-o’-lantern stems from an Irish myth about “Stingy Jack” who conned the devil in a bar bet. Having angered both God and Satan with his antics, Jack was not welcomed in heaven or hell and was forced to walk the earth with only a burning lump of coal in a carved-out turnip to guide him. Myth No. 5: ‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow’ is a Halloween story Washington Irving’s story, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, has been called “one of the best known Halloween tales,” “New York’s ultimate Halloween story,” and “America’s Halloween carol.” Sleepy Hollow, N.Y., changed its name from North Tarrytown in 1996 to rebrand itself as a spooky tourist destination after General Motors closed its Hudson River plant. Halloween is the town’s peak season. The travel guideFodor’s says, “there’s no better place to celebrate the holiday than Sleepy Hollow.” The only problem: “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow had nothing to do with Halloween,” according to Kelly, the UCLA professor. The story never mentions Halloween, which was not widely known or celebrated in America when Irving wrote his tale. Brian Jay Jones, author of Washinton Irving: An American Original, says it’s a quintessentially Halloween story, all the same. “If Irving didn’t invent Halloween then he should have,”said Jones. Irving blended German and Dutch folklore to craft “the first real American horror story,” he said. While Irving may not have explicitly had Halloween in mind when he wrote Sleepy Hollow, the story is set in autumn and “feels like a Halloween story” because it is packed with the sights, sounds and tastes of the season, Jones said. Source : https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2017/10/18/there-no-razors-your-kids-candy-debunking-halloween-myths/738082001/

Representative Andy Ogles sent a second letter to attorney general Pam Bondi urgently asking her to investigate Zohran Mamdani’s naturalization documents. He believes Zohran lied by omission, and is not eligible to be a US citizen. He writes on X: I have just sent another letter to @AGPamBondi urging her to investigate Zohran Mamdani’s naturalization […] The post Rep. Ogles Pressures DOJ: Strip Zohran Mamdani of Citizenship appeared first on www.independentsentinel.com.

When Hollywood sends a message, chances are it’s from the Left. Or, in the case of Leonardo DiCaprio’s open borders screed “One Battle After Another,” the far, far Left. The same applies to horror movies. We’ve seen a wave of “socially conscious” horror in recent years, often with depressing results. Think the 2021 “Candyman” reboot, 2020’s “Antebellum,” and 2022’s “They/Them.”  Horror has always let storytellers send a message or two between the scares, often doing so without exclamation points. And, given the industry’s leanings, that rarely aligns with conservative world views. That doesn’t mean the films in question aren’t worth watching. Some message-minded movies remain essential Halloween fare. A few have themes that aren’t as neatly progressive as one expects. And, as faith-based movies continue to improve and expand their focus, we’re seeing thrillers that touch on heartland values. Really. “Nefarious” (2023) Soli Deo Gloria Releasing. Believe Entertainment. This spicy two-hander follows a psychiatrist (Jordan Belfie) trying to gauge a death-row inmate’s state of mind. Sean Patrick Flanery chews up the scenery in the very best ways as a prisoner who claims he didn’t commit the crimes in question. The Devil made him do it. Literally. “Nefarious” is now streaming on The Daily Wire. Based on the book “A Nefarious Plot,” by Steve Deace and backed by Glenn Beck, this indie Christian film eschews blood and gore tactics for spiritual scares. This smart, faith-based shocker shows the power of performance and dialogue over FX.  Produced by Soli Deo Gloria and Believe Entertainment, this is a Heartland friendly film, but still not suitable for younger audiences. “The Hunt” (2020) Blumhouse Productions. Universal Pictures. It’s the ultimate Culture War movie, but one where the shouting barely reflects what’s seen on screen. A group of privileged liberals kidnap and hunt conservatives for sport. Sound awful? It is, no doubt, and it’s remarkably bloody. Enter Betty Gilpin as Crystal, a feisty Republican who leads a rebellion after being kidnapped by the Hunt’s handlers. She’s the ultimate Final Girl, a resourceful gal who can’t help but gain the audience’s admiration. The third act turns silly, but its political message is surprisingly balanced. Let’s lower the temperature on the cultural conversation before it’s too late. Just five years after its controversial release, it seems we need that lesson even more. And, chances are, today’s media would likely skewer the film for that reason. “Get Out” (2017) Monkeypaw Productions. Blumhouse Productions. Universal Pictures. Jordan Peele went from half of a goofy Comedy Central pairing to horror auteur with this gem. An interracial couple (Daniel Kaluuya and Allison Williams) pays her family a visit, hoping to avoid any awkward exchanges. They get just the opposite as the clan endlessly kisses up to Kaluuya’s character. “I would have voted for Obama for a third term if I could,” brags Bradley Whitford, cast as the young man’s potential father-in-law. Then, slowly, we realize how this progressive family is using black people for nefarious purposes. The themes are unabashedly progressive, with whites exploiting blacks anew. Peele’s craftsmanship and affinity for horror shine through from the opening sequence. It’s as good as advertised. The biggest surprise? The film’s ending sets up a tired, evil white cop trope that never happens. Shocking. Truly. “Night Of The Living Dead” (1968) Image Ten Productions. Continental Distributing. Director George A. Romero’s zombie classic still has bite, but casting a black actor as its heroic lead (Duane Jones) proved shocking in the turbulent ‘60s. That wasn’t the only reason Jones’ performance left a mark. The film caps with a group of white hunters, disposing of random zombies stalking the land, accidentally shoot Jones’ character in the head. Romero never hid his progressive bona fides, but he suggested in interviews that the ending’s racial connection was unintentional. Subconscious or not, the film’s cultural potency is undeniable. So is its fright factor. The black and white original, shot on a tiny budget with no recognizable stars, remains an essential watch each October. “Dawn Of The Dead” (1978)  Laurel Group Productions. Dawn Associates. United Film Distribution Company. Romero, again, uses zombies for more than just brain-munching kills. This time, the undead have swarmed a Pittsburgh-area mall, forcing a small band of humans to scramble for safety. The horror guru’s visual masterstroke – stumbling, shuffling zombies roaming through an all-American mall, just as they did in their living years. The commentary on consumerism couldn’t be missed this time around, and it didn’t take a lecture or signpost to share it. He said as much via a 2010 interview: “If there’s something I’d like to criticize, I can bring the zombies out … I get the financing that way. So I’ve been able to express my political views through those films.”  “Invasion Of The Body Snatchers” (1956), (1978) SoloFilm Productions. United Artists. The 1956 original introduced us to “pod people,” replicated humans who looked like our friends and neighbors but without their humor, personality and heart. And they spread so fast across the culture. Social commentators connected the film to the McCarthy-era anxiety infecting the country at the time. They’re all around us! Beware! You could be one, too! Others suggested the pod people captured the Communist ethos – worker drones who cast humanity aside for the betterment of The State. Some of the best movies allow for any number of interpretations. Either way, the film endures as a horror classic. The 1978 remake is even better – chilling, creepy, and capped by an ending that’s both bleak and perfect. Once again, the story spoke to the paranoia of the times – post-Watergate, post-Vietnam – but could address big city fears and other societal ills. * * * Christian Toto is an award-winning journalist, movie critic, and editor of HollywoodInToto.com. He previously served as associate editor with Breitbart News’ Big Hollywood. Follow him at HollywoodInToto.com. The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

While Western activists chant “From the river to the sea” and governments wring their hands over Israel’s every defensive strike, a true genocide has unfolded in Sudan — and the global chorus of moral outrage has fallen silent. This week, the city of El Fasher, the last government-held capital in Darfur, fell to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) — a brutal militia descended from the Janjaweed death squads that terrorized Sudan two decades ago. The RSF, heavily armed and bankrolled by the United Arab Emirates, surrounded the city with an earthen wall, trapping some 250,000 civilians inside. Then came the bombers. Then came the slaughter. Witnesses describe summary executions, rape, and mass graves. One survivor told reporters, “We saw many of our relatives massacred. They were gathered in one place and killed.” Drone footage and social media clips show civilians forced to the ground and executed point-blank. Bodies lie strewn among burned-out vehicles — a modern echo of Rwanda’s horror. The United Nations did what it does best: issue statements. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk expressed “grave concern” over “ethnically motivated atrocities.” The World Health Organization condemned attacks on the last operational hospital. And then, predictably, the bureaucratic machine returned to its comfortable paralysis. Meanwhile, Sudanese corpses pile up, the death toll surpassing 150,000, with hundreds of thousands of children starving to death in what is officially recognized by the United States as genocide. The contrast to Gaza is stark. There are no leaflets warning civilians. No humanitarian corridors. No ceasefire resolutions are cycling through the Security Council every other day. No global protests demanding “Freedom for Darfur.” Just silence — and perhaps the occasional shrug from Western elites too busy moralizing about Israel. Join us now during our exclusive Deal of the Decade. Get everything for $7 a month. Not as fans. As fighters. Go to DailyWire.com/Subscribe to join now. Governor Minni Arko Minnawi, addressing his nation after El Fasher’s fall, delivered a defiant message: “This is not an end, but a beginning. From El Fasher, we begin again from zero… We are not advocates of war, but we have learned that peace is not a gift; it is built through steadfastness and dignity.” His words, equal parts grief and resolve, accused the international community of complicity through apathy: “Your silence has carved shame into the breast of history.” Minni Arko Minawi: From El Fasher Begins the Dawn of a New Nation in the Face of the UAE-Backed Rapid Support Militia (Janjaweed) In a powerful and emotional address delivered following the fall of El Fasher, Governor of Darfur Arco Mii Minawi vowed that Sudan’s struggle is… pic.twitter.com/QvIwcQWvsW — Sudanese Echo (@SudaneseEcho) October 29, 2025 Sudan’s de facto head of state, Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, confirmed the army’s withdrawal, saying it was the only way to “protect the remaining citizens.” His statement amounted to a bitter admission of defeat — and a warning that the RSF now controls all five Darfur state capitals, establishing a de facto regime of terror. The Western media’s indifference to this bloodbath would be stunning if it weren’t so predictable. The Telegraph rightly called it “a genocide that dwarfs Gaza,” yet the “Free Palestine” crowd — the self-anointed guardians of human rights — cannot muster a single demonstration for Sudan. Their compassion has borders, and those borders are political. The RSF’s campaign is not a war of defense but of annihilation — ethnic cleansing under a new flag. It’s the very definition of genocide. But since it doesn’t involve Israelis or fit the narrative of Western colonial guilt, the world averts its eyes. There’s no outcry from celebrities, no op-eds from Ivy League moral philosophers, no candlelit vigils in London or New York. Just muted headlines and fading interest. In his speech, Minnawi called on Sudan’s diaspora to rise up — to “rebuild from the ashes and create life from pain.” But even he must know that, for now, Sudan stands alone. The same global conscience that weeps over Gaza has turned its back on Africa’s dying children. And so El Fasher burns. The RSF marches on. And the world — the same world that accuses Israel of genocide — watches a real one unfold, in silence.