A man accused of raping multiple children over several years claimed he did “nothing wrong because it was in the Bible,” investigators said. Rector police, along with Clay and Greene County sheriff’s deputies, arrested Thomas Stokes, 49, Wednesday on multiple felonies including rape and introducing a controlled substance into the body of another person. Police […]

An Iranian cleric has called for the death penalty for protesters detained during a nationwide crackdown amid ongoing unrest against the Islamic regime. The cleric’s call follows President Donald Trump’s threats of U.S. intervention if protesters were met with violence. Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami’s sermon, which was broadcast by Iranian state radio, reportedly sparked chants from […]

The Baton Rouge Police Department announced this week that it will begin using a drone designed by military equipment manufacturer Lockheed Martin and Edge Autonomy, making it one of the first local police departments to use an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with a history of primary use in foreign war zones. Baton Rouge is now one of the first local police departments in the United States to deploy an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with such extensive surveillance capabilities — a dangerous escalation in the militarization of local law enforcement. This is a troubling development in an already long history of local law enforcement acquiring and utilizing military-grade surveillance equipment. It should be a cautionary tale that prods  communities across the country to be proactive in ensuring that drones can only be acquired and used in ways that are well-documented, transparent, and subject to public feedback.  Baton Rouge bought the Stalker VXE30 from Edge Autonomy, which partners with Lockheed Martin and began operating under the brand Redwire this week. According to reporting from WBRZ ABC2 in Louisiana, the drone, training, and batteries, cost about $1 million.  Baton Rouge Police Department with Stalker VXE30 drone Baton Rouge Police Department officers stand with the Stalker VXE30 drone in a photo shared by the BRPD via Facebook. All of the regular concerns surrounding drones apply to this new one in use by Baton Rouge: Drones can access and view spaces that are otherwise off-limits to law enforcement, including backyards, decks, and other areas of personal property. Footage captured by camera-enabled drones may be stored and shared in ways that go far beyond the initial flight. Additional camera-based surveillance can be installed on the drone, including automated license plate readers and the retroactive application of biometric analysis, such as face recognition. However, the use of a military-grade drone hypercharges these concerns. Stalker VXE30's surveillance capabilities extend for dozens of miles, and it can fly faster and longer than standard police drones already in use.  “It can be miles away, but we can still have a camera looking at your face, so we can use it for surveillance operations," BRPD Police Chief TJ Morse told reporters. Drone models similar to the Stalker VXE30 have been used in military operations around the world and are currently being used by the U.S. Army and other branches for long-range reconnaissance. Typically, police departments deploy drone models similar to those commercially available from companies like DJI, which until recently was the subject of a proposed Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ban, or devices provided by police technology companies like Skydio, in partnership with Axon and Flock Safety.  Additionally troubling is the capacity to add additional equipment to these drones: so-called “payloads” that could include other types of surveillance equipment and even weapons.  The Baton Rouge community must put policies in place that restrict and provide oversight of any possible uses of this drone, as well as any potential additions law enforcement might make.  EFF has filed a public records request to learn more about the conditions of this acquisition and gaps in oversight policies. We've been tracking the expansion of police drone surveillance for years, and this acquisition represents a dangerous new frontier. We'll continue investigating and supporting communities fighting back against the militarization of local police and mass surveillance. To learn more about the surveillance technologies being used in your city, please check out the Atlas of Surveillance.

The startup has partnered with Eli Lilly and enjoys the backing of some of Silicon Valley's most influential VCs.

Elon Musk's AI company had installed and operated 35 natural gas turbines without permits, something the EPA now says was illegal.

Think TikTok, but every single video you come across is a short episode of a fictional story.

She does her own stunts, too. Today, Megan Moroney released a new song called “Wish I Didn’t,” from her forthcoming album Cloud 9, which was accompanied by a very cinematic music video inspired by the 2005 movie starring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, “Mr. & Mrs. Smith.” You might also recognize her co-star, Dylan Efron, whose last name you probably recognize because he is the brother to Hollywood actor Zac Efron, notably of High School Musical fame. Dylan has been on reality shows like Season 3 of Peacock’s The Traitors, and more recently he finished in fourth place on Season 34 of Dancing with the Stars, alongside his professional partner Daniella Karagach, which is what I know him from, but he did a great job in this video and it sounds like they got their hands dirty in terms of doing some of the more involved stunts on their own. There’s a scene in the video where Megan jumps on him and they fight, and then Dylan smashes a plate over her head… I for sure thought that part was fake Hollywood magic of some sort, but it sounds like they actually did all of those things themselves. During a livestream talking about making the video, Megan said her knees were black and blue from bruises after filming… and she added that she “probably” had a concussion after getting the plate smashed on her head. I’m sure it was a special kind of plate (fun fact: they used to make them out of sugar) that’s made to easily break, but still… ouch: “Guys, the bruises on my knees after the fight scene… it was wild. Knees were black. It was the end of the day, and we literally only did it twice because I was exhausted. But yeah, we had a stunt coordinator and everything. I need to show y’all the plate getting smashed over my head, because it was… yeah I probably had a concussion over it, but anything for the music video.” To be fair, she also smashed a wine glass over Dylan’s head, and they had a stunt coordinator to make sure everything was done properly, but it sounds they really went all-in with the making of the video and it turned out great: | Megan talking about filming the “Wish I Didn’t” music video on Stationhead tonight! pic.twitter.com/PqRyEyVidx — Megan Moroney Tour & Updates (@megmoroneytours) January 16, 2026 You can watch it here: “Wish I Didn’t” Cloud 9 Tracklist 1. “Cloud 9” (Megan Moroney, Luke Laird, Jessie Jo Dillon, and Ernest Keith Smith)* 2. “Medicine” (Megan Moroney, Connie Harrington, Jessie Jo Dillon, and Jessi Alexander)* 3. “6 Months Later” (Megan Moroney, Ben Williams, Rob Hatch, and David “Messy” Mescon)* 4. “Stupid” (Megan Moroney, Amy Allen, and David “Messy” Mescon)* 5. “Beautiful Things” (Megan Moroney, Connie Harrington, Jessie Jo Dillon, and Jessi Alexander)* 6. “Convincing” (Megan Moroney, Connie Harrington, Jessie Jo Dillon, and Jessi Alexander)* 7. “Liars & Tigers & Bears” (Megan Moroney, Luke Laird, and Jessie Jo Dillon)* 8. “I Only Miss You (ft. Ed Sheeran)” (Megan Moroney, Ben Williams, Mackenzie Carpenter, Micah Carpenter, and Ed Sheeran)* 9. “Wedding Dress” (Megan Moroney, Ben Williams, and Colin Healy)+ 10. “Change of Heart” (Megan Moroney, Ben Williams, Mackenzie Carpenter, and Micah Carpenter)* 11. “Bells & Whistles (ft. Kacey Musgraves)” (Megan Moroney, Ben Williams, Mackenzie Carpenter, and Micah Carpenter)* 12. “Table for Two” (Megan Moroney, Ben Williams, Mackenzie Carpenter, and Micah Carpenter)^ 13. “Wish I Didn’t” (Megan Moroney, Emily Weisband, Hillary Lindsey, and Luke Laird)* 14. “Who Hurt You?” (Megan Moroney, Luke Laird, and Jessie Jo Dillon)* 15. “Waiting on the Rain” (Megan Moroney, Luke Laird, and Jessie Jo Dillon)*The post “Probably Had A Concussion”: Megan Moroney Did Her Own Stunts, Got A Plate Smashed Over Her Head In “Wish I Didn’t” Music Video first appeared on Whiskey Riff.

Finally performing the song they wrote over 20 years ago. In many ways, Jamey Johnson is a bit of an enigma, being one of those artists who seemingly bridge the gap between multiple different scenes and subgenres in country music today. Over the past few years, Johnson has seemingly effortlessly swung between the alliterative scene and the mainstream, making appearances with the likes of Riley Green on tour, Ella Langley and Randy Houser while also teaming up with Kaitlin Butts, Marcus King, Lily Meola and more. As we know, he’s scored a few hits in his day at country radio, with “In Color” being a Top 10 entry and his debut single, “The Dollar,” being a Top 15 hit. As a songwriter, Johnson has penned hits for other artists like George Strait’s “Give It Away” and Trace Adkins’ infamous “Honky Tonk Badonkadonk.” Though the song typically gets lambasted for its admittedly ridiculous lyrics and oftentimes gets credit as the unofficial start of bro-country upon its release, there’s no denying that the song is pretty fun and, most importantly to Johnson and cowriters, Randy Houser and Dallas Davidson, pretty successful. Appearing on Adkins’ 2005 album, Songs About Me, “Honky Tonk Badonkadonk” was released as the third and final single from the record on October 3, 2005. Though it wasn’t originally intended as a single, the track began receiving unsolicited airplay and debuted on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart at #58 in April 2005. By February 2006, after officially being sent to radio, it would peak all the way at #2, being blocked from the top spot by Carrie Underwood’s monster six-week #1, “Jesus, Take the Wheel.” Since then, it’s experienced a whole lot of success, often being played at nearly all bars and dance venues that have even a hint of country flair. From a numbers perspective, it’s been a smash in the streaming age. Along with its 89 million streams on Spotify alone, the track has sold over three million units, receiving a 3x platinum certification from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Back to Johnson and Houser writing the track, back on December 13th, the pair teamed up to FINALLY perform the track at a show in Las Vegas. And you can say what you will about the quality of the song itself and the potential floodgates it opened up in terms of bro-country, but I can’t help but love the pair finally performing the song live together. It also doesn’t hurt that it’s made Johnson, who has been a positive influence on a ton of artists throughout the decades, a whole lot of money. Watch here: How “Honky Tonk Badonkadonk” Was Written Earlier last year, Dillon Weldon, host of the Drifting Cowboy podcast, asked Johnson about the track and how he, Dallas Davidson, and Randy Houser came up with the idea for such an absurd title. The idea for the tune came up while they were drinking at the former Wildhorse Saloon, a famous downtown Nashville bar that is now Luke Combs’ Category 10 bar. “So yeah, we were at the Wildhorse Saloon one night. Randy Houser, Dallas Davidson, and I got together to drink some beer, and Rob Hatch was the bartender. He was a good bartender, but he would turn in some beer spills all night. Turns out he was spilling all of it in our glasses. We had a good deal worked out there. We were sitting over there drinking one night, watching that dance floor at Wildhorse Saloon. Every now and then, you could walk in there, and it was like a big old corporate party, and it was just kind of weird. The vibe was a bunch of people who worked together. Now they were going to hang out and drink together and watch each other dance and sh**.” Johnson shares that this was the kind of clientele at Wildhorse that night. As the evening progressed, just as they had expected, the corporate folks began to loosen up, which led to some great people-watching. “It took a few drinks to get in them to get it going, and we were sitting there catching the first parts of it, really busting loose. I was watching this gal that had quite a derrière. I mean, just in sheer volume. Quite a few ham sandwiches went into that.” Now, Johnson had quite a way with words during that interview with Weldon, describing the behind that inspired the song, but during a more recent interview with Big D & Bubba, he gave another poetic answer when describing the velocity of this woman’s behind. “A model, who had come to town to party for a couple of days. And this gal, she was unloadin’. She had a butt that looked like you just rammed a couple of beach balls down inside a pair of jeans. I was watching her… I was watchin’ her workin’ that thing around.”  At this point, the men in the room are giggling like high school little boys who just saw their first pair of boobs. Johnson continues: “She changed the order of the dance floor like everything was coming this way, they had to turn around and go back. She was up there dropping it down and hitting the floor with it and everything else, and I thought, ‘Damn!’ And about that time, either Randy or Dallas, one of them, said, ‘Badonkadonk.’ And the other one said, ‘Honky Tonk Bandonkadonk.’ And when I heard that, I just looked at them both and I said, I’m in…’”  The three men left the bar shortly after to go pen what would later become a cult classic. Johnson described in the Drifting Cowboy episode that the only actual hang-up the men had was on the “slam your grandma” and “Donkey Kong” lines, which is pretty funny that was a hang up given the ridiculous nature of the subject matter to start with: “The only hang-up in it was when Dallas said ‘Donkey Kong.’ I kind of, ‘Come on, man? What is that?’ He was like, ‘Nah, dude, you had this line like..’ My line was ‘slap your grandma,’ because it was something I heard growing up. I mean, we were just laughing at each other. Especially at my hang-ups on whether or not to put ‘Donkey Kong’ in this song.”The post WATCH: Jamey Johnson & Randy Houser Team Up For Performance Of “Honky Tonk Badonkadonk” Over 20 Years After They Wrote The Song first appeared on Whiskey Riff.

Guilty conscience, eh? Obviously there are all kinds of jokes these days about Garth Brooks being an actual murderer, thanks to comedian Tom Segura and his wife, Christina P, coming to the (inevitable, really) conclusion on their Your Mom’s House podcast that Garth is, in fact, a serial killer. Take a quick look at any mention of Garth on social media and you’ll immediately see that the comments are flooded with questions like “Where are the bodies?” and folks begging for closure for the families of his victims. But the song “Murder on Music Row” had nothing to do with an ACTUAL murder. Written by Larry Cordle and Larry Shell, and originally recorded by the writer’s bluegrass group Larry Cordle & Lonesome Standard Time, the song became a hit after it was covered by George Strait and Alan Jackson in 1999, despite the fact that it was never released as an official single. The “Murder on Music Row” is actually a metaphor for the Nashville music industry killing traditional country music in pursuit of commercial success and profit: “Nobody saw him running from sixteenth avenue.They never found the fingerprint or the weapon that was used.But someone killed country music, cut out its heart and soul.They got away with murder down on Music Row” Amen. Now, before I go any further, we need to take a look back at what was going on in country music at the time the song came out. When George and Alan’s version was released, we were 10 years removed from the emergence of the “Class of ’89,” a group of neo-traditional country singers who were widely praised for their classic country sound – guys like Clint Black, Travis Tritt, and of course, Alan Jackson himself. But through the ’90s, Garth Brooks was also becoming a mega-star, not necessarily for his traditional country sound but for his rockin’ shows that rivaled the massive productions typically found in pop and rock, as well as his sound that pushed the envelope for what was considered “country” at the time. (Of course when you compare it to some of today’s country, Garth’s music sounds country as hell, but that’s probably more of an indictment of where country is today than anything). At the time though, there were plenty who were critical of Garth and not happy that he was seemingly taking country in a more “pop” direction. It obviously wasn’t just Garth though. Shania Twain was also a massive superstar, and she blurred the line between country and pop more than anybody. And there were plenty of others who were pushing country to its outer edges (or so we thought) at the time. So “Murder on Music Row” wasn’t necessarily aimed at any particular artist. In fact it takes aim more at the Nashville machine, the record labels who sold out for money and the radio stations that replaced fiddle-and-steel soaked heartbreakers with more friendly pop hits. But when Garth heard the song it must have touched a nerve – because he thought it was about him. Songwriter Larry Cordle discussed his hit on the podcast Murder on Music Row, which is produced by the Nashville newspaper The Tennessean and isn’t just about the song, but about an actual music industry murder that occurred on Music Row in 1989. And he said that when he was coming up with an album cover for his version of the song, he chose a location on Nashville’s 16th Avenue, the street once famous for housing the major recording studios and labels that built country music. The album cover featured a man loading a steel guitar into a hearse, with chalk outlines of a man and a guitar on the street beside him. And in the background, there’s a sign for 16th Avenue. As it turns out, Cordle chose the location for a pretty simple reason: It was the only “16th Avenue” sign on the street. But on the corner of that street, just outside the frame of the photo, sat a building called Jack’s Tracks Recording Studio. The famous studio was owned at the time by producer Allen Reynolds – who produced music for, you guessed it, Garth Brooks. Garth had recorded many of his albums at Jack’s Tracks, and when he saw the cover for Cordle’s Murder On Music Row album, he immediately recognized the location of the photo – and thought that Cordle was trying to call him out with the song and the album cover. According to Cordle: “Garth Brooks had been trying to reach me, I heard one day. So when I called him, and I don’t think he meant it in a bad way, but he said, ‘Man, I couldn’t help but notice that that’s right up here by Allen’s… Are you trying to send me a message or something?’ I’m like, ‘Garth, it’s the only 16th Avenue sign in town that I could even find.'” Seems like Garth has been dodging those murderer accusations for longer than we’ve realized… Well obviously the song wasn’t written about Garth (at least not that Cordle will ever admit), but listening to it 25 years after it became a hit, it’s still as relevant today as it was back then. Oh, and that Jack’s Tracks studio just off to the side of the album cover? It was later bought by Garth Brooks, who renamed it Allentown Studios in honor of Allen Reynolds – and he still owns it today. The post Garth Brooks Thought The Song “Murder On Music Row” Was About Him: “Are You Trying To Send Me A Message?” first appeared on Whiskey Riff.