The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has opened an investigation into Media Matters, a left-leaning watchdog journalism organization. The FTC began its probe Wednesday into the Democrat-aligned organization behind studies on hateful and antisemitic material on X, two people familiar with the matter told The New York Times (NYT). The regulator reportedly sent a letter to […]

'Harvard Belfer Center is one of these Heart of Darkness places'

'Because of one person’s actions, two families are left to grieve'

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reaffirmed America’s commitment to making all the materials for the “Golden Dome” missile-defense shield domestically. “We’re going to defend America with great American companies,” Hegseth told The Daily Signal on Thursday. “We’re committed patriotically to the defense of the homeland.”The U.S. plans to build a “Golden Dome” to guard against missile attacks, President Donald Trump announced Tuesday. The United States has provided significant funding for Israel’s missile-defense system, known as the “Iron Dome,” and Trump says the technology that now exists is further advanced from what the U.S. used to help Israel build its system. Hegseth said America has “some of the best technology, software companies, defense architecture companies in the world.”“They’re going to be involved in ‘Golden Dome,’” he said, “and we’re going to work through that.”Hegseth spoke to reporters on the tarmac after his trip to Fort Bragg, North Carolina.According to the defense chief, the “Golden Dome” is a generational investment “to ensure we keep our people safe.” The post Hegseth Vows to Involve ‘Best’ US Companies in Missile-Defense ‘Golden Dome’ Construction appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Until this past weekend, there was only one place you had a chance to see all of Virginia’s living governors come together in the same place, and that was at the inauguration of the next one. But on May 17, in commemoration of the anniversary of the Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling desegregating schools and commemorating Virginia’s role in that case, there they all were, Democrats and Republicans sitting together, sharing the commonality that comes from being part of a group of only 74 Virginians that includes names like Payne and Jefferson. All were there except for one glaring absence, especially considering the occasion. Nowhere to be found was the United States’ first black governor, not to mention a descendant of slaves and the first black governor of a former Confederate state, L. Douglas Wilder. Nowhere to be found at the university, Virginia Commonwealth University, where the event was held and where his name graces the School of Government and Public Affairs. The ceremony was put together to commemorate the role Virginia’s Barbara Johns played in this historic ruling that led to the end of government policies that kept students “separate but equal” based on their skin color, which wasn’t actually “equal” at all. Her civil rights case—Davis v. County School Board of Prince Edward County—would later become one of the five cases consolidated into Brown. I know what you are thinking, Wilder, over all the others, should have been there. But he stayed away in protest of Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s executive orders to dismantle diversity, equity, and inclusion policies at Virginia’s colleges and universities. Wilder has called it “insensitive” to demand the dismantling of programs that conservatives and other critics say are just reverse racism under the banner of being “anti-racist.” Wilder compared it to “living in a third-world country.” Strong words from a man who shocked the commonwealth just four years ago when he said he was going to be voting for Youngkin over his own party’s candidate, Terry McAuliffe, in 2021’s gubernatorial race. A black immigrant woman whose family came up from poverty and is trying to join Youngkin and Wilder as the 75th member of that club of Virginia governors (and be the first female to do so) is Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears. Sears has been assailed for a fundraising email that said, “Slaves didn’t die in the fields so that we can call ourselves victims today.” Horace Cooper from the black conservative policy group Project 21 says that if you accept the premise of DEI’s defenders that it simply is an economic tool created to incentivize companies into offering equal access to minorities in jobs and education, then it can be seen at best as redundant in a post-14th Amendment world. However, Ibram X. Kendi, the Boston University professor and author of the seminal work used to build the DEI agenda, “How to Be an Antiracist,” has written, “The only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination.” In fact, DEI does advocate for more discrimination. That sounds much different than the brave leadership and individual accountability Wilder has repeatedly called on young leaders in the black community to exhibit—like 16-year-old Barbara Johns once did. The post Wilder Boycotts Desegregation Commemoration Over Youngkin’s DEI Policies appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Adrian Huizenga stood on Thursday afternoon outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C., where less than 24 hours earlier, a couple—Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim—were fatally shot.   “It’s just so sad, just heartbreaking that … you see this rhetoric and this antisemitic violence going on that is very clearly targeting Jewish people,” Huizenga, 26, who knew Milgrim in a work context as young professionals in Washington, told The Daily Signal.   “We as a country should all be able to stand against this kind of violence and hate,” Huizenga said at a gathering outside the museum Thursday afternoon honoring Lischinsky, 30, and Milgrim, 26.    Speaking as a Christian, Huizenga said, “I love Jesus, and Jesus was Jewish, and so the Jewish people are a really important part of my Christian faith.”   Adrian Huizenga (Virginia Allen/The Daily Signal) The gathering was organized by Philos Catholic, an arm of the Philos Project, to bring Christians and Jews together in the wake of the shooting.   “We’re absolutely devastated by what happened last night and wondering what else has to happen for the West to wake up,” Simone Rizkallah, the director of Philos Catholic, told The Daily Signal.  Simone Rizkallah (Virginia Allen/The Daily Signal) Lischinsky and Milgrim worked at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, and Lischinsky planned to propose to Milgrim in Jerusalem next week. The couple was leaving an event at the small museum Wednesday evening when they were shot. Elias Rodriguez, a 30-year-old from Chicago, shouted “free, free Palestine” as law enforcement took him into custody immediately after the shooting. He has been charged with first-degree murder. “For him to be taken away from us so soon is really shocking,” Francis de Beixedon, 23, said of Lischinsky, who he met only weeks before at a program for young national security professionals in Washington. Jessica Costescu, 23, also met Lischinsky at the same national security program and said he was “genuinely such a great person,” adding, “it is just heartbreaking to see that antisemitism does not rest, and it’s real, and it’s in our nation’s capital, and if this isn’t a wake-up call, I don’t know what else is.”  Jessica Costescu (Virginia Allen/The Daily Signal) Anna Beth Havenar lived in Israel for a few years and had just arrived in Washington from Atlanta on Wednesday night for a brief vacation with a friend when she heard about the tragic shooting.   Even though Havenar and her friend did not know the couple, she said they “wanted to do something.”   “I hate that these things are happening so often,” Havenar, 31, said, adding, “We have to speak out. That’s the only way these things change.”   Anna Beth Havenar (Virginia Allen/The Daily Signal) While many in the crowd, including Havenar, professed to be Christian or Jewish, some Muslims were also in the crowd and condemned the killings. “My heart really, really breaks for this horrendous event, and killing of innocent people is not justified at all, and the people who are doing this, they’re … barbaric,” Hina Akhtar, 41, a professing Muslim and volunteer with the American Muslim & Multifaith Empowerment Council, told The Daily Signal.   Hina Akhtar (Virginia Allen/The Daily Signal) The Metropolitan Police Department announced Thursday that it will increase its presence at religious institutions across Washington out of an abundance of caution. U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi says authorities believe the shooter acted alone, but the investigation is ongoing.     The post ‘Heartbreaking’: Young People Honor Couple Slain Outside Jewish Museum appeared first on The Daily Signal.

What Did You Think 'Final Solution' Meant?

Glenn Beck hosted Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California on "The Glenn Beck Program" Thursday, where the two reached across the aisle to share some friendly disagreement, as well as some areas of common ground. Khanna is one of few Democrats who refrains from acting as an ideologue and is willing to talk to those he will likely disagree with. Whether it's DOGE cuts or nuclear energy, Khanna has no problem breaking from his party's messaging. "You've got a lot of followers, and look, at the end of the day, we're all Team America," Khanna told Beck. "We have differences of opinion, but this country has gone down a place of greater and greater division. And I do hope that the next generation, whether that's JD Vance, Rubio, myself, others, that we find some way of turning that around."'They didn't talk a lot about my rights. They talked about my responsibilities.'RELATED: Vance tells Glenn Beck Congress needs to 'get serious' about codifying DOGE cuts Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty ImagesKhanna's veneration for our country's founding makes him stand out within his party. Rather than condemning the roots and the history of our nation like some of his fellow Democrats, Khanna says he was raised to appreciate and value America. "Our common, defining moment as a nation is the Constitution and the Bill of Rights as interpreted through the Declaration of Independence," Khanna said. "The biggest blessing I had, as a son of immigrants born in Philadelphia in our bicentenary, is I got to go to a school that taught American history and gave me a reverence for this country.""My parents said, 'Ro, you won the lottery,'" Khanna added. "They didn't talk a lot about my rights. They talked about my responsibilities." Beck and Khanna had their fair share of respectful back-and-forth on subjects such as the 14th Amendment and immigration. One area of agreement Khanna pointed out was about the role of government with respect to asset forfeiture. "Progressive Democrats like me and libertarians in the Freedom Caucus often align, saying that the government shouldn't come in and be able to take things from citizens without due process," Khanna said. "I believe that's the essence of who we are as a people, that yes, you have inalienable rights endowed by God, and that's who makes citizens."RELATED: Trump's 'big, beautiful bill' narrowly passes the House, notching another win for Johnson Photo by Paul Morigi/Getty ImagesKhanna also departed from his Democratic colleagues on the border, admitting that it was a weak point of their party platform. "Someone said it's like a knock-knock joke," Khanna said. "You say, 'Knock, knock. Who's there?' The American people just want to know who's there, who's at the border, just like you would when coming to someone's house and making sure that people are vetted before they come in. That seems to be a very reasonable a place. We can agree.""But I also believe that people here, now that they're here, if they're paying taxes, and you and I may disagree with this, if they're paying taxes, if they're working hard, and ... if they've been here that there should be some path to at least legalization," Khanna added. Khanna insists that, above party, all people should be skeptical of their politicians. At the same time, Khanna said that the state of our divided politics is not due to a lack of skepticism, but rather to a lack of trust. "Skepticism is healthy," Khanna said. "I get concerned if there were town halls and people weren't asking hard questions, weren't criticizing their politicians. But I think there's a difference between skepticism and what's happened now, which is just the loss of trust, the sense that people aren't in it for the country, aren't in it for the public good."Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

A former Republican primary opponent to Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida was sentenced to prison for threatening to hire a "Russian-Ukrainian hit squad" to kill her. William Robert Braddock III was charged with one count of interstate transmission of a true threat to injure another person in 2024 over the threat that was recorded in a phone call. 'Luna is a f**king speed bump in the road. She’s a dead squirrel you run over every day when you leave the neighborhood.' Luna had accused Braddock of stalking her and wanting her dead during the campaign in 2021. Braddock was recorded speaking to a political activist when he threatened to contact his "Russian-Ukrainian hit squad” and have her killed. “I really don’t want to have to end anybody’s life for the good of the people of the United States of America,” he said on the call that was obtained by Politico. “That will break my heart. But if it needs to be done, it needs to be done. Luna is a f**king speed bump in the road. She’s a dead squirrel you run over every day when you leave the neighborhood.”However, there was no evidence that the Marine veteran took any actual steps to fulfill the threat. Luna went on to win the primary election for Florida's 13th Congressional District and also won the general election. She has since won a re-election campaign. Braddock was sentenced to three years in prison. RELATED: Anna Paulina Luna forcefully rejects ‘s**t hit piece’ implying ‘something distasteful’ between her and Trump Photo by Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call Inc. via Getty Images Officials said that Braddock flew to Thailand once the investigation began before eventually settling in the Philippines, but he turned himself in to law enforcement in Manila in 2023. He was brought to the U.S. to face trial in 2024. Luna's office released a general statement about death threats to the congresswoman when Braddock was charged. “Female members of Congress are disproportionately targeted for stalking, violence, and harassment compared to their male counterparts," said a Luna spokesperson to HuffPost. "This alarming trend points to a broader and more disturbing issue of violence in the political arena." Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Forget the new Call of Duty game, forget Marathon, forget even Battlefield 6 - Splitgate 2 is the multiplayer FPS game I’ve been the most hyped for. The first game’s blend of Halo and Portal was amazing, but despite the great gameplay, it didn’t have the infrastructure or content stream to go the distance. Splitgate 2 is looking to change that, and today sees the start of its open beta which contains almost everything you’re going to get in the full game later this year. Plus, the Splitgate 2 open beta has no end date, and all your progress will carry over when 1.0 arrives. Continue reading Huge Splitgate 2 open beta arrives with a Halo Forge style map editor MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best FPS games, Best free PC games, Best multiplayer games