'He shows up every day'

Built-in customer base, distribution infrastructure and cost-saving incentives tailor-made for various industry companies As a leading global provider of oil and gas, Odessa, Texas, is now poised to become a manufacturing boomtown. Numerous advantages derived from the region’s historical expertise have fostered a perfect manufacturing environment for new, expanding, and relocating companies across multiple sectors. […]

The victims allege he fired a gun when they were in his car

Amber

The United States is a nation built on the principle of law and order. But today, we face an urgent threat from illegal alien criminal gangs infiltrating our communities and undermining the safety and security we hold dear. The rise of transnational criminal organizations like Tren de Aragua, originally from Venezuela, highlights the chaotic border situation and the urgent need for decisive action. Reports of human trafficking, drug smuggling, and violence linked to these gangs are becoming all too common. In Colorado, the Tren de Aragua gang has already been implicated in crimes ranging from jewelry store heists to shootings. Disturbingly, over 60 gang members were identified by U.S. Customs and Border Protection between 2023 and this summer. These are only those caught; many more have likely entered unchecked due to the Biden administration’s ineffective border policies. A task force was set up in Aurora, Colorado, to identify if the gang had criminally taken over apartment complexes within the city. It’s a fact that criminal illegal alien gangs and organizations prey on migrant communities. As the illegal immigrant community grows, there has been a spike in crime by the criminal element that exists within it. Sanctuary policies protect these criminals and keep Immigration and Customs Enforcement from successfully working with local law enforcement to identify and apprehend these criminal gangs. Some sanctuary politicians hide those arrested who are foreign-born, with some sanctuary city police departments even going so far as to intentionally not identify the place of birth of arrested criminals known to be illegally present in the United States. Yet more arrests occur, and it appears that illegal alien gangs have set up shop in numerous cities nationwide, leaving a path of chaos and crime. By shielding criminal aliens from enforcement, sanctuary policies create safe havens for those who prey upon migrant and nonmigrant communities alike. In Colorado, Tren de Aragua has been linked to a Denver jewelry store heist, with one of the gang members getting arrested in New Mexico and extradited back to Denver. A shooting in July in which four people were arrested is also believed to be linked to the gang. Just recently in mid-December, another 19 suspected Tren de Aragua gang members or associates were arrested in Colorado for extortion, violent assault, and kidnapping. The Biden administration’s open-border agenda has been responsible for releasing masses into the United States with insufficient vetting. This negligence not only endangers public safety but also strains local resources as these individuals gravitate toward large cities, often with the intent to commit further crimes. Yet the crime has not stayed in the larger cities but has spread to smaller towns. The tragic consequences are evident in cases like the one in Broomfield, Colorado, where an illegal alien, previously deported for multiple DUIs, was not turned over to ICE but was released by local law enforcement only to reoffend and take the innocent lives of a mother and son near Broomfield High School. Americans need urgent reform. The Tren de Aragua gang is a symptom of a larger failure perpetuated by ineffective border control and lenient sanctuary policies. In Aurora, efforts to track and curtail gang activities are met with increasing boldness from these criminal elements. For example, Tren de Aragua recently released a “green-light” notice to its members, encouraging them to shoot at law enforcement. It is imperative that we immediately secure our borders and thoroughly enforce immigration laws, including using immigration detention and deportations to protect American communities like Aurora. Sanctuary policies do not safeguard citizens; they protect the criminals who wish to harm them. It’s time to prioritize the safety of American citizens and legal immigrants alike by reversing harmful policies, promoting collaboration between ICE and local law enforcement, and reaffirming our commitment to being a nation governed by laws. The safety of our communities and our future as a sovereign nation depend on decisive action. And the time for action is now. The post Rise of Illegal Alien Criminal Gangs Prompts Urgent Call to End Sanctuary Policies appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Health officials in Louisiana announced Monday the first bird flu death in the United States. The elderly individual, who had underlying medical conditions, was exposed to the virus from a backyard flock and wild birds. There have been 66 reported cases of bird flu in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While the risk remains law, the CDC’s former director has urged Americans to take the virus seriously. Robert Redfield, who led the CDC during the first Trump administration, spoke with The Daily Signal last year about bird flu. He predicted bird flu, also known as H5N1, would be “much more catastrophic than the COVID pandemic.” Redfield served on a nonpartisan commission on China and COVID-19, which last year released a report, “Holding China Accountable for Its Role in the Most Catastrophic Pandemic of Our Time: COVID-19.” He spoke to The Daily Signal about its recommendations in July. An excerpt from our conversation is below. The full interview is available from “The Daily Signal Podcast.” Rob Bluey: Could you share with us about some of the steps that you think policymakers in Washington should take now that they’ve had the benefit of seeing your COVID-19 report and some of the findings? Robert Redfield: We need a 9/11-type commission to go through and really take this apart—a nonpartisan commission to really see what happened here, what went right, what went wrong, because I’m of the view, and some people may disagree with me, but I’m of the view that the most important national security threat that our nation has right now is biosecurity. I think it’s a time for our nation to step back and realize that the playing field has changed, similar to what happened when, say, the atomic bomb came into the theater, and we’ve really realized that nuclear and atomic issues had a central piece in our national security posture. Well, I’ll argue biosecurity needs to have that central piece. So, part of it is to go through … and take a good look at it. And really start to look at what is it that we need to do to be better prepared because I’m also of the point of view that we are going to have another pandemic. I do believe it’s going to be much more catastrophic than the COVID pandemic. I refer to the COVID pandemic as the lesser pandemic. The great pandemic is coming. ‘IT’S GOING TO BE CATASTROPHIC’: Why the Next Pandemic Will Be Worse Than COVID (The Daily Signal)The former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is warning Americans to prepare for the next pandemic, which he fears will be more catastrophic than COVID-19.… pic.twitter.com/xtINg37Oeh— Rob Bluey (@RobertBluey) July 9, 2024 I think it’s going to be a bird flu pandemic. You hear a lot about it. We have over 100 million chickens and turkeys infected in the United States already. But that virus likes to go in chickens and turkeys and ducks. It doesn’t really know how to go in humans yet. But it has moved into 27 different mammals in the United States, including dolphins and seals and polar bears and brown bears and black bears and skunks and mice. It’s in a lot of species. And it gets into those species, it’s trying to learn how to, “OK, how can I get in the species? OK, the next thing, how can I get that species now to transmit to itself?” All right? And eventually, there’ll be changes. We know that it only needs four amino acid changes. Four amino acids is all needed to take COVID bird flu that can’t infect humans to make it a bird flu that’s highly infectious for humans. Now, in biological terms, you may say four is not very many, but in biological, that’s a huge species barrier for it to overcome. That could take 10 years, 100 years, 500 years, who knows, OK? But if one does purposeful gain-of-function research, where I and the laboratory make those four amino acid changes, I can make this virus in months. And this is why I’ve called for a moratorium on gain-of-function research until we can have a broader public debate about it and how we can have it really much more regulated—if the society decides it needs to be done. I’m not convinced it needs to be done. I don’t think there’s really any benefit from it. Some of my colleagues disagree with me, but I think we shouldn’t do it until we know how we do it in a safe, responsible, and effective way and we clearly can’t do that at the present time. Bluey: Do you think it’s possible to have a 9/11-style commission and what would it take? Would it take a president to endorse that type of idea? Redfield: You need a president to want to provide the leadership for it, for sure, and you need Congress to really want to get behind it and let people see. I think it is a really important first step and we have now journalists on both sides of the spectrum calling for it. I know Chris Cuomo, who’s fairly liberal, is a very aggressive advocate now to get a 9/11 commission. And I think many of us, like myself and others, and now the commission report, believe it’s our first recommendation. So, I think it’s gonna be really important. I think people don’t realize COVID is here to stay. COVID is now the third or fourth leading cause of death in America. So, it’s not gone away. I’m still practicing medicine one and a half days a week. Seventy-five percent of my practice now is long COVID, which is probably about anywhere from 5% to 20%. We probably have about 15 million Americans right now who are significantly debilitated from long COVID. Good news, it’s likely going to get better over time with them. But the bad news, it’s quite a debilitating illness. And so, even though they may be frustrated with COVID and the policies … that went with it, I think they need to, we need to really get aggressive in recognizing—what I started saying—that the national security implications of biosecurity are substantial. And that when, and I don’t think it’s if, I think when bird flu learns how to go human to human, our nation and the world will go through really a catastrophic period of time that will make the COVID pandemic look like sort of grade school. So far we’ve had 888 individuals in the world since 2003 infected with what we call H5N1, which is the dominant bird flu that’s going around now. There’s some other viruses also. Of those 888 individuals, 52% of them died. So, it’s mortality, whereas COVID’s mortality was about 0.6%. Bird flu’s mortality is going to be north of 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%. It’s going to be catastrophic. And we can prepare by—and I’ve argued this, and I will continue to argue it. I think that since this is such a national security threat, we should have a response proportional to the threat. We have a Defense Department, which I spent 23 years in, that has a $900 billion-a-year defense group of which most of those resources are really to the private sector, to defense contractors to make sure that we have the defense capacity we need with planes and missiles and bullets and drones, etc. I will argue we need to build the same capacity, maybe not $900 billion worth, but we need to have a proportional to the threat response grounded in government. I would propose the Department of Energy and then most of it is private sector contractors that have antiviral drug development, that have vaccine development, that have diagnostics, that have preventive material that we can use to protect ourselves, and that also can predict what kind of medical devices that we would need for a respiratory. Many people don’t know, when COVID happened, it originally was causing a lot of respiratory deaths because that original virus liked to replicate in the lower lung. The current omicron and beyond goes upper airway, throat, so we don’t see the same degree of respiratory disease. But in early COVID, we had a lot of respiratory disease. And the one thing we found out right away, as did Italy, is we didn’t have enough ventilators. And so, Vice President [Mike] Pence very rapidly went up to Ford, up in Michigan, and asked the Ford company if they would shut down their car lines and turn it over to make ventilators so we’d have ventilators. We ought to do that prospectively. We shouldn’t be just sitting here saying, “Oh, this will never happen.” It is going to happen and we should be as prepared as possible to minimize the impact. And I will argue the No. 1 thing that we need to do is have a huge push on developing antiviral agents so that we have not just two that we have right now for COVID but that we have multiple antiviral agents that could be used that would be effective to minimize the impact that this virus has. Antiviral agents do two things. It can keep you alive, which is good thing. But antiviral agents can also change the infectivity of the individual, so they infect less people. And antiviral can also be used prophylactically so that if I take it, I’m less likely to have the virus actually successfully infect me. So we ought to be aggressive there. That’s our best defense. Vaccines are important, but as we know from COVID, they didn’t stop 1.1 million Americans from dying, all right? They did keep certain people alive, and we’ve saved a lot of lives, particularly the vulnerable. I’ve always been an advocate of vaccines for the vulnerable. I’ve never been an advocate for mandating vaccines. I think that was a big public health mistake, and I don’t think we should advocate vaccines for people that don’t have a risk for bad outcome, which is most of us under the age of 50. But if you’re old like me, 73 years old tomorrow or the next day, then my life can be saved by the vaccine. The post Former CDC Chief Warns Bird Flu Could Be ‘More Catastrophic Than COVID’ appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Just two months after the election of Donald Trump, Canada is on track to receive a Trumpian leader of its own—Pierre Poilievre of the Conservative Party.  Poilievre, a 45-year-old from the province of Alberta who has served in Canada’s Parliament for most of his adult life, is poised to become prime minister in the wake of Justin Trudeau’s resignation announcement. Trump may have been the straw that broke the back of Trudeau’s Liberal Party government. Since Trump’s election, Canadians have been up in arms over his tariff threats if Canada does not better control its border with the U.S., as well as his deliberate taunts of Canada becoming America’s “51st state.” Trump has only added fuel to the fire shortly after Trudeau’s announcement of his plans to resign, calling Trudeau the “governor” of the “Great State of Canada” on his social media site, Truth Social. With Trudeau’s government rapidly losing support amid Trump’s recent heavy-handed negotiations and the resignation of some of Trudeau’s top advisors, opposition leader Poilievre seized the moment to present himself as the Canadian antidote to Trump, mirroring the president-elect’s policy proposals with his own threats of aggressive trade policy. Economics were key to the downfall of Trudeau’s government, with the December resignation of Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland serving as the final nail in the coffin. Kelly Torrance, a Canadian member of the New York Post’s editorial board who has written on politics on both sides of the border for years, told The Daily Signal that Freeland departed amid disagreements over how to deal with Trump. “She did want to be more combative,” said Torrance. “She dealt with a Trump administration before and actually came through it quite well. But this time, she was more reticent. But there’s also the fact that she was about to present to Parliament documents showing Canada’s terrible fiscal position. And she really believed that change needed to be made to cut spending and deal with deficits.” It was precisely this weakness in the face of Trump’s threats that Poilievre zeroed in on in the midst of the government crisis. “President Trump yesterday made an unjustified threat of a 25% tariff on our already weak and shrinking economy,” said Poilievre in a press conference in December as Trump bemoaned Trudeau’s lack of preparedness.  “We need a plan. A plan to put Canada first on the economy and on security,” he said in a deliberate reference to Trump’s “America First” rhetoric. In many ways, Poilievre’s brand of free market capitalism combined with aggressive trade policy is identical to that of Trump.  Poilievre added, “What we actually need to do is stand up for our economy by axing taxes, unleashing free enterprise, having a massive boom in our energy and resource production, and standing up for our country against unfair tariffs abroad.” But Torrance told the Daily Signal that one must avoid completely equating Poilievre with Trump. “He is a conservative, but he does have a lot of those libertarian tendencies,” said Torrance of Poilievre. “And I think that plays well in Canada as well. Canada’s not as socially conservative a country as America.” Torrance added that Poilievre borrows from Trump but differs on key issues, such as his support of socialized health care. “Pierre has done a good job of taking some of what is really great about what Donald Trump has done and what’s been successful for him, but not becoming just, ‘Hey, I’m Canada’s Trump,’” she said. Poilievre is not alone in fighting fire with fire when it comes to Trump’s proposed tariffs. Ontario Premier Doug Ford threatened in early December to cut off energy to the United States in retaliation for Trump’s 25% tax on Canadian imports. “I’m sure the other provinces will as well,” said Ford. “We will use every tool in our toolbox to fight back.” It appears that Canada has been backed into a corner where the only response to Trump’s right-wing policies is to adopt right-wing policies of its own.  This hostile reaction to Trump’s election stands in sharp contrast to the vision presented by many on the right of an international populist uprising through which Trumpian figures might find common cause. Javier Milei of Argentina, for example, made the case in December for a “right-wing international” made up of leaders such as himself, Donald Trump, and Giorgia Meloni of Italy. “We could call ourselves a right-wing international … network of mutual assistance made up of all those interested in spreading the ideas of freedom around the world,” argued Milei at a Conservative Political Action Conference in Buenos Aires. Meloni has also cozied up to Trump in recent days, singing his praises after the two met at Mar-a-Lago Saturday. “Nice evening with @realDonaldTrump, whom I thank for the welcome. Ready to work together,” wrote Meloni on X after the meeting. Trump returned the praise by calling her a “fantastic woman” who has “taken Europe by storm” on social media. The varied responses of right-of-center politicians around the globe to Trump’s political comeback are perhaps merely distinct strategies through which these leaders promote the interests of their own nations. In contrast to Poilievre’s branding as a tough guy to take on Trump, Milei and Meloni have decided that a more friendly tone is a better strategy in dealing with the president-elect.  Their motives are easily discernible. The “dollarization” of the Argentinian economy was one of Milei’s main campaign promises. This will involve using the United States dollar as Argentina’s main monetary standard and refraining from printing the Argentinian peso. Thus, Milei has a vested interest in keeping Trump as an ally and working toward America’s prosperity. Meloni, on the other hand, is likely to feel the pressure of Trump’s tariff threats, as well as his demands that European nations contribute 2% of their gross domestic product toward funding NATO. Meloni has apparently decided that it is easier to catch flies with honey than with vinegar, joining Milei in calls for an ideological alliance of nationalists in the United States and beyond. By emphasizing a “Canada first” policy over an abstract idea of an international alliance against authoritarianism, Poilievre has chosen the opposite approach to that of Milei and Meloni. In his deliberate borrowing of Trump’s rhetoric on foreign policy, it is clear what Poilievre wants Canadians to see in him—a Canadian Trump to protect them from America’s Trump. Poilievre’s Conservatives will likely increase their share of seats in Parliament when elections are held this year, likely securing him the prime minister’s office. The post Canada’s Pierre Poilievre Makes Bid for Power as Canadian Version of Trump appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Fact-Checkers Call an Emergency Meeting as Meta Cuts Their Funding

A pro-life activist was detained by police for preaching the gospel outside of an abortion clinic in Ohio. Despite being hit with criminal charges, the Christian defiantly returned to the abortion clinic to present alternatives to pregnant women and save unborn lives. Zack Knotts and his wife spent three Saturdays in December preaching the gospel outside of the Northeast Ohio Women’s Center in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, roughly five miles from Akron. The Christian couple pled with pregnant women to choose life.'I will preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. I will warn people of the wrath to come if they don’t repent. But I always say that there’s good news. There’s hope for you in Christ.'Zack and Lindsay Knotts were at the abortion clinic to offer resources to pregnant women to hopefully sway their opinions about aborting their babies. “We have free resources available," Zack told the Daily Signal. "We contacted an adoption agency, a couple of pregnancy resource centers, and got some of their information. We have folders with literally everything they could need if they were able to come talk to us, and we hold it up in the air."The Knotts are so dedicated to their pro-life mission that they are willing to adopt a baby that would have otherwise been aborted. "One of the greatest things that we think we could do to demonstrate that is to adopt a child that would have otherwise been murdered, bring them into a family that will love them, will show them Christ, will give them everything that they need," Knotts stated. "Knowing God used us to save that baby, that would be the greatest thing in the world, the greatest victory of our lives," he explained. "To hold the baby that week the Lord used us to help stay alive."The Knotts have a 3-year-old of their own. Knotts was preaching the gospel from the sidewalk outside the Northeast Ohio Women’s Center on Dec. 28. “There’s hope in the gospel of Jesus Christ for all of you,” Knotts said. Lindsay Knotts captured video of the moment that police interrupted Zack and demanded, "You're coming with us." The officer accused Knotts of committing disorderly conduct. Knotts is compliant with the officer's commands; he walks to a police cruiser and gets inside the vehicle.Knotts vowed to sue the two officers, the police department, and the city of Cuyahoga Falls for violating his First Amendment rights. Lindsay is seen on video asking the officer what crimes her husband has committed, and the cop responds, "So we've had complaints that he's causing an inconvenience or alarm to another. We also have recordings of him doing that, and obviously the statute here in the city of Cuyahoga Falls — you're not allowed to do that — under disorderly conduct." The other officer is heard telling Zack that there have been "a lot of people complaining about you." Lindsay said of the incident, "My first emotion was just pure shock. He was standing there on the public sidewalk, pleading with these escorts, with the women, telling them about the good news of the gospel, that they can be forgiven, that we have free resources for them."Knotts was charged with disorderly conduct. According to the misdemeanor citation, Knotts “did knowingly generate noise by means of a megaphone causing [inconvenience] and alarm to passersby at the Women’s Clinic.”The Cuyahoga Falls disorderly conduct ordinance 509.03 (a) (6) states: "Generating or, being the owner or person in possession or control of a vehicle or premises by reason of employment, agency, or otherwise, permitting to be generated unreasonable noise or loud sound which is likely to cause inconvenience or annoyance to persons of ordinary sensibilities by means of a radio, phonograph, television, tape player, loudspeaker or any other sound amplifying device or by any horn, drum, piano or other musical or percussion instrument.”Knotts told Live Action, "The charge was based on the claim that my preaching ‘annoyed’ passersby, which is an entirely subjective basis for restricting free speech. This action was taken despite my clear constitutional right to free speech and religious expression, and we firmly believe it violates my First and Fourth Amendment rights."Zack explained, "I will preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. I will warn people of the wrath to come if they don’t repent. But I always say that there’s good news. There’s hope for you in Christ."Nonetheless, the Knotts defied the authorities and returned to the clinic this past Saturday to try to offer help to the pregnant women. During their most recent appearance at the abortion clinic, the Knotts were besieged by patient escorts who hoisted up large umbrellas and blared loud noises with kazoos in close proximity to the pro-life activists. The Knotts contend that the screeching of the musical instruments violates ordinance 509.03 (a) (6) — the same ordinance that Zack was cited for in his disorderly conduct charge.An Instagram video from Lindsay shows the confrontation by the clinic escorts. However, when a complaint was made to a Cuyahoga Falls Police Department officer regarding the noise of the kazoos, he responded, "The kazoos are not annoying you."After pointing out that the ordinance specifically says "musical or percussion instrument," the officer said he would still not enforce the ordinance until a local resident lodged a complaint. The officer claimed that because the pro-life activists were on the sidewalk, they "don't really qualify as a resident." Knotts told Blaze News, "The Cuyahoga Falls Police Department refused to enforce the same ordinance with the escorts that they enforced against me. There is clear partiality, and now we have a violation of my 14th Amendment rights.""I have always had tremendous respect for the police, but I do believe it is only fair they are held to the same standard all of us are held to and when they are wrong, there is accountability," Knott stressed to Blaze News. "If we don’t hold them accountable, then any oppression will only get worse. Subjective, arbitrary ordinances are unconstitutional and give police the ability to do exactly this — enforce the 'law' unjustly and with partiality. That’s always wrong, and it needs to change."The Cuyahoga Falls Police Department declined to provide a comment to the Daily Signal. During his first court appearance on Thursday, Knotts pleaded not guilty. He has a hearing scheduled for Jan. 9.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Ex-Pussycat Dolls member Kaya Jones has been speaking out about the disturbing side of Hollywood for years — but no one has listened. That is, until now. Jones had claimed the group was essentially a “a prostitution ring” as far back as 2017 and tells Alex Stein of “Prime Time with Alex Stein” that while she wasn’t physically forced to do anything, she was put in “a pretty precarious situation” where she was made to feel like there were no other options. “That’s pretty much why I left,” Jones says, adding, “I felt it was just too much abuse and too much of not what it’s about.” Stein notes that Jones’ former group’s name, “The Pussycat Dolls,” is overtly inappropriate in itself. “Do you think that they were trying to be sexually subversive by calling you guys the Pussycat Dolls?” He asks the singer. “It was so overly sexualized,” Jones answers. “Our name was sex, we sang about sex, we looked like sex. It was overkill for me.” “That’s a lot of the reason why I think I’m so vocal now. ... Look at how the music industry has turned into just a mess, and there’s no more inspiration because everything, just, we’re so desensitized, so now they’re going almost demonic and it’s like, that’s not hot either,” she continues. “Travis Scott,” Stein says, acknowledging one of what he believes is a demonic act in Hollywood. “They’re going full demonic. They’re basically doing satanic rituals.” “I believe these elites are doing weird stuff,” he continues. “They used to call it ‘satanic panic.’ Like, artists like Aleister Crowley, that’s actually been a thing in Hollywood for a long time where they’ve always kind of worshiped the devil and the occult.” “I think it was more behind the scenes though, cause I used to say, when I left the Dolls, ‘Everything was really evil.’ And people would be like, ‘What do you mean? Everything looks so glamorous,’” Jones says. “Now it’s so out there; there’s no hiding anymore,” she adds. “You said people can’t be forced to do anything. If you go to a freak off, are you forced to have anal sex with Puff Daddy?” Stein asks. “Well, no. If you’re held against your will,” Jones responds, explaining that “even Britney Spears has said she felt like she was trafficked” from lack of control over her own life. “It’s because you don’t have control over, you know, your car service doesn’t show up, and you get sent home with a gentleman from the event who’s an executive and you have to basically really excuse yourself at the end of the night — if you’re able to,” she says. “So I don’t think people can force you into something, but if they’re making it impossible for you, then, yeah, in a way it’s kind of forcing it,” she adds. Jones also was forced to sign contracts stipulating she “wasn’t allowed to say Jesus’s name” or clarify who she prayed to. “You’re never allowed to define who God is,” she says. Want more from Alex Stein?To enjoy more of Alex's culture jamming, comedic monologues, skits, and street segments, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.