Feel-Good Friday: Summer is Good for You Edition

Early Tuesday morning, singer Justin Timberlake was arrested on Long Island and charged with driving while intoxicated (DWI) following a traffic stop by a young officer who didn’t even recognize him. Also within in the last week, two illegal immigrants were charged with allegedly murdering 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray in Houston, Texas and the arrest of another illegal alien for the allegedly for raping and killing 37-year-old Maryland mom Rachel Morin. With the first case, the broadcast networks of ABC, CBS, and NBC have spent 15 minutes and 18 seconds during their flagship morning and evening news shows obsessing over the arrest of arguably an A-list celebrity. But on the latter cases, the same shows haven’t spent a single second. NBC’s Today and NBC Nightly News were the worst with nearly eight minutes (7:57), showing their muscle as a boozed up celebrity network. ABC’s Good Morning America and World News Tonight were a ways back at nearly four minutes (3:57) with CBS Mornings and the CBS Evening News just behind them at three minutes and 24 seconds. In contrast, these cases have received constant and substantive reports over the last week from our friends at the Fox Business Network, Fox News Channel, Newsmax, and NewsNation. Starting with Nungarayu’s murder, here’s our friend Jennie Taer of the New York Post with the details (click “expand”): Police in Houston have arrested two migrants from Venezuela for the murder of 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungaray, who was lured away from home, then strangled and dumped in a bayou. One of the suspects crossed the border illegally less than a month before the shocking murder, and was released into the US after claiming he feared for his life if he was sent back to his home country, sources told The Post. Johan Jose Rangel Martinez, 21, and Franklin Jose Pena Ramos, 26, were charged Thursday with capital murder. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) sources said Pena Ramos crossed into El Paso, Texas, on May 28. He was released soon after his interaction with border agents. (....) The second suspect, Rangel Martinez, crossed the border at El Pas on March 14 and was released with a court date in August, sources said. Our Jorge Bonilla first wrote this up for NewsBusters Thursday night and found that, while ABC, CBS, and NBC saw no reason to cover this, Spanish-language networks Telemundo and Univision were all over it. As for the horrifying murder and rape in Maryland, Baltimore Fox affiliate WBFF had the correct headline (unlike this from the AP on the Houston murder): “Illegal immigrant charged in killing of Harford County mother Rachel Morin”. The piece then explained, including the revelation that Morin’s alleged killer crossed the border illegally following another murder he committed in El Salvador (click “expand”): Law enforcement have arrested Victor Antonio Martinez-Hernandez in Tulsa for the killing of Rachel Morin, a Harford County mother of five who was found dead near a hiking trail in August of 2023. In a press conference announcing the arrest on Saturday, Harford County Sheriff Jeffery Gahler said that Martinez-Hernandez was arrested late Friday night and booked on Saturday morning; he is charged with first-degree murder and first-degree rape. “Five hours after meeting with [Morin’s] family and just before midnight our time, police in Tulsa Oklahoma assisted by our federal partners located and arrested Rachel’s murderer: Victor Antonio Martinez-Hernandez,” Sheriff Gahler said. Sheriff Gahler went on to say that Martinez-Hernandez is a “23-year-old citizen of El Salvador.” He said that Martinez-Hernandez crossed the border into the United States in February of 2023, and that he believes that Morin was not his first victim. “It is my understanding that this suspect, this monster, fled to the United States after the murder of a young woman in El Salvador a month earlier in January of 2023,” Sheriff Gahler said. “Once in our country, he brutally attacked a nine year old girl and her mother in a home invasion in March of 2023 in Los Angeles.” Baltimore’s NBC affiliate WBAL said in a Thursday article that the suspect’s been “charged with first-degree rape and murder after Morin’s body was found on Aug. 6, 2023, along the Ma and Pa Trail in Bel Air.” Despite these horrifying details that would seem right up the alley of networks given it’s facts seem straight out of a Lifetime movie, down to the narrative of an attractive, young mother being the victim. Alas, ABC, CBS, and NBC haven’t shown a care in the world on their top shows. Outside of the flagship AM and PM shows, CBS’s Sunday morning political talk show Face the Nation had two minutes and 21 seconds on Morin’s murder with host Margaret Brennan pressing Governor Wes Moore (D-MD) on that and the broader border crisis. Further, ABC’s America This Morning – which airs in most markets in the 4:00 a.m. hour — had a full, two-minute-and-11-second report Monday from correspondent (and former CNNer) Alison Kosik.

Adam Laxalt, the former Nevada attorney general and Mountain States Legal Foundation co-counsel denounced the Biden-led Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Fox Business. During the June 18 edition of The Bottom Line with Dagen and Duffy, Laxalt alerted Forbes Media chairman and editor-in-chief Steve Forbes and Fox Business anchor Jackie DeAngelis to the FAA’s embrace of discrimination in the name of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). Laxalt mentioned his law firm’s suit against the FAA, pointing out that the FAA’s abandonment of meritocratic hiring for DEI has endangered Americans.  “People assume that they are doing their job, they are inspecting these things and we're seeing this, we’re seeing Boeing is having problems, and we’re seeing all sort the of air traffic control problems where you have near miss on runways,” Laxalt said. “Anyone that’s flown in the last few years knows that almost every flight is delayed, almost every layover is delayed. And most this because of the air traffic control system that is broken.”  The former Nevada Attorney General emphasized that it didn’t have to be this way, referencing his lawsuit. “I looked on the website today, and on the top of it, they are trying to recruit air traffic controllers. And why is that? It’s because of the suit that we filed on behalf of nearly a 1,000 air traffic would be air traffic controllers that were not brought in because they were too white,” Laxalt added. “It’s these type of policies that the government has been involved in that is certainly making it less safe for us to fly. And to commute across this great country.” Mountain States Legal Foundation has fought alleged racial discrimination in the FAA for years. In their most recent lawsuit, Brigida v. U.S. Department of Transportation, they have battled for several air traffic controller applicants impacted by FAA hiring policies.  According to the Mountain States Legal Foundation, the FAA placed race above merit in hiring: “Thousands of qualified and highly-trained applicants, many of whom had spent years in school and had accumulated significant debt to pay for their educations, were turned away.” The law firm explained that the FAA abandoned its “skill-based system” for hiring air traffic controllers in favor of a “biographical questionnaire.”  Andrew Brigida, the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit, was one of several thousand CTI program participants who allegedly faced discrimination because he did not fit the FAA’s new preferred ethnic profile as determined by the “biographical questionnaire.” Conservatives are under attack! Conservatives are under attack. Contact ABC News (818) 460-7477, CBS News (212) 975-3247 and NBC News (212) 664-6192 and demand they report on the dangers of leftist DEI ideology infecting corporate America.

Pollster Frank Luntz is sounding the alarm for President Joe Biden's campaign. This week, the newest Des Moines Register poll showed that Donald Trump leads Biden by nearly 20 points in the Hawkeye State, 50% to 32% among likely voters. The last time a Republican won Minnesota in a presidential election was 1972 when then-President Richard Nixon won 49 of 50 states in the Electoral College. But that's not the big story in the Midwest, according to Luntz. Instead, polls from Minnesota are what the Biden campaign should be concerned about, he argued, because those polls show that Trump is turning Minnesota into a toss-up state. "To me, it's not that Donald Trump is winning so big in Iowa. That's not the story. It's that he's making it close in Minnesota," Luntz said on CNN. "Minnesota is a reliable Democratic state and votes Democrat in every presidential campaign and poll after poll. I see Trump within two or three points in Minnesota," he explained. — (@) The fact that few people are talking about Trump's performance in the Gopher State indicates the media misunderstands the political situation, Luntz went on to say. "I don't think the media understands exactly what's going on right now," Luntz said. "Yes, Trump dropped a few points after being found guilty on 34 felony accounts. But remember this: that would have destroyed any candidate as recently as 10 years ago. And the fact that Donald Trump is still even with, or in some cases, leading Joe Biden after being found guilty of 34 felonies?" "Oh my God! That is so significant," he exclaimed. Just how significant is it? The last time a Republican won Minnesota in a presidential election was 1972 when then-President Richard Nixon won 49 of 50 states in the Electoral College. That Trump could win it in November underscores Biden's problems.The first major turning point in the election may come next week.Trump and Biden are set to face off in Atlanta on June 27 for the first of two scheduled presidential debates. The performance of each candidate will likely make an impact on undecided voters, potentially propelling one candidate over the other in what has otherwise been a toss-up race.Biden is spending the next week at Camp David preparing for the debate. Trump, meanwhile, said this week that he is not underestimating his opponent. Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Media personality and former judge Judy Sheindlin recently slammed Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D) for wasting taxpayer dollars on his New York criminal trial against former President Donald Trump.During an interview with CNN's Chris Wallace, Sheindlin called Bragg's case against Trump "nonsense." 'You had to twist yourself into a pretzel to figure out what the crime was.'"I would be happier, as someone who owns property in Manhattan, if the district attorney of New York County would take care of criminals who were making it impossible for citizens to walk in the streets and use the subway, to use his efforts to keep those people off the street, than to spend $5 million or $10 million of taxpayers' money trying Donald Trump on this nonsense," Sheindlin stated during the episode of "Who's Talking to Chris Wallace.""That's my view. But I, as a taxpayer in this country, resent using the system for your own personal self-aggrandizement," Sheindlin continued, clarifying that she was referring to Bragg."You had to twist yourself into a pretzel to figure out what the crime was," she added. "He [Bragg] doesn't like him [Trump]. New York City didn't like him for a while."Wallace asked Sheindlin what she thinks of Trump. She paused momentarily and then replied, "What do I think of him? I think he was a good businessman, a real estate guy. And he was certainly terrific on 'The Apprentice.'""What did you think of him as president of the United States?" Wallace pressed."I don't think that Donald ever should have been president, and I don't think that Donald even thought that he was going to be president. I don't think so," Sheindlin responded. Last year, Bragg filed 34 felony counts of falsifying business records against the former president. At the end of May, a jury found Trump guilty on all counts. Trump's attorney, Todd Blanche, stated they had been "expecting" a guilty verdict from jurors. He said they plan to appeal."We're going to appeal, and we're going to win on appeal," Blanche remarked. "The goal is to appeal quickly and hopefully be vindicated quickly.""We didn't think we were gonna get a fair shake in Manhattan, and we didn't," he added.Bragg was asked to testify before Congress about his prosecution of Trump. Bragg's general counsel indicated that he was "committed to voluntary cooperation," but he refused to attend a June 13 session before the House Judiciary Committee, citing "scheduling conflicts."House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) stated that the committee would subpoena Bragg and Matthew Colangelo, one of the lead prosecutors in the case, if they did not voluntarily testify.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

AYFKM? James Woods Puts Biden Administration on BLAST for Its New Communications Director

The Skinny on SCOTUS - 6-21-24 Edition: We've Got Guns, Hearsay, Sentences, Spouses, and Water Fights

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio are former President Donald Trump's top vice-presidential picks for the 2024 election, and Burgum and Vance are in the lead, reported NBC News.

Billionaire twin brothers Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, co-founders of the cryptocurrency exchange Gemini, say they each donated $1 million in bitcoin to Donald Trump.

Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., introduced a bill that would eliminate the Biden administration's Electric Vehicles Working Group, a panel he said is charged with forcing "green transportation" on Americans, the Washington Examiner reported Friday.