'Try spelling it out'

A unique and beautiful mountain-dwelling frog has been bred in captivity and released in the wild—the culmination of years of work by scientists and conservationists. Dwelling in rainforests at higher elevation in southeast Queensland and northern New South Wales states in Australia, the red and yellow mountain frog was one of 110 priority species the […] The post Endangered Red and Yellow Mountain Frogs Are Bred for First Time–Years of Work to Save the Species appeared first on Good News Network.

News Resident Evil Paul Walter Hauser Joins Cast of Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil Movie Hauser joins Austin Abrams on the call sheet. By Vanessa Armstrong | Published on September 17, 2025 Screenshot: Marvel Studios Comment 0 Share New Share Screenshot: Marvel Studios Barbarian and Weapons writer-director Zach Cregger is chugging along with his next project, a film based on the Resident Evil video games, which he co-wrote with Shay Hatten. We already knew that Austin Abrams, who was recently in Cregger’s Weapons and who will also play Jay (the young man who gets swallowed by a whale) in the upcoming movie Whalefall was on board to star in the Resident Evil adaptation. And today, Deadline broke the news that First Steps’ Mole Man (pictured above), aka Paul Walter Hauser (Cobra Kai, The Naked Gun, The Afterparty) will also be in the film. Details on Cregger’s movie, which he’ll also be directing, are sparse. Cregger did say recently, however, that the movie would be more like Evil Dead 2 than the other movies already out based on the Resident Evil franchise. What role Hauser is playing is also unknown, as is Abrams’, though odds are good that Abrams will be our protagonist just trying to get somewhere and survive. Cregger, in fact, has called it “a real time foot journey, where you just go deeper and deeper into the depths of Hell.” Perhaps Hauser will be Abrams’ sidekick on this totally calm, uneventful journey? We’ll have to wait to find out! Almost a year, in fact; on September 18, 2026, we’ll be able to settle into our theater chairs with a big bucket of popcorn to see the totally low-key, non-scary movie where absolutely nothing bad or stressful happens to Hauser or Abrams. [end-mark] The post Paul Walter Hauser Joins Cast of Zach Cregger’s <i>Resident Evil</i> Movie appeared first on Reactor.

Books book reviews The Library at Hellebore by Cassandra Khaw Is a Vicious Dark Academia One of Cassandra Khaw’s most fascinating, horrifying worlds to date—and a great place for new readers to meet their brilliant mind. By Martin Cahill | Published on September 17, 2025 Comment 0 Share New Share Alessa Li has a problem. Well, several problems. She has been forcibly relocated to Hellebore Technical Institute for the Gifted, which wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world if it wasn’t literally one of the worst places in the world—an academy for the dangerously powerful, those for whom ruin runs in their veins, many of them one bad day away from unleashing apocalypse. She’s been paired with a roommate who she cannot stand and whom she may have quite possibly murdered (we’ll come back to that); she has a magic within her, and it is hungry, maybe just as hungry as Alessa is for escape; and to top it all off, she’s currently trapped in the library at Hellebore with a handful of students who survived the school-wide massacre, as the staff has suddenly moved to literally devour every student present.  Hey, Dark Academia genre? Cassandra Khaw just said, “Bet?” and pushed all their chips into the middle of the table. If you’ve read Khaw’s work before, then you know what you’re in for: compulsive, complicated, contradictory characters each trying to navigate the otherworldly circumstances of their lives. Prose that sizzles and spats. Worldbuilding that is sublime, imagery that will make your jaw tense with the beautiful grotesquerie described, and a story that will make you pissed for these characters, and mourn their losses. And let me tell you, there are losses. Lots of ‘em. But that’s also what makes this book so special, and what elevates this beyond a gory pick-em-off story is the tenacity of hope, the value of trying to survive even when the odds are against you, and making peace with the inevitable.  It’s no secret that Khaw fulfills the promise of the premise, that while these students are trapped in the Library, with a hungry faculty salivating outside, well… not everyone gets out alive. Forced together to survive in terrible circumstances, this group of students do their best to do right by each other, (most of them, anyway). Among the remaining students are an illegitimate son of Lucifer, a chosen voice for an eldritch force, a hive mind drone losing herself to the creature within, an augur who reads his own entrails, and of course, our Alessa, whose dangerous power lives in her body, and is of bodies, specifically, manipulation of yours, hers, and anyone within reach, down to the cellular level. But for all that the Faculty are waiting for these students to sell each other out, manipulate, maim, and sacrifice the others to save their own skin, the majority of them really try not to.  Buy the Book The Library at Hellebore Cassandra Khaw Buy Book The Library at Hellebore Cassandra Khaw Buy this book from: AmazonBarnes and NobleiBooksIndieBoundTarget Khaw has crafted an engaging, bittersweet collection of outsiders, whose otherness is literalized by their enrollment in Hellebore. While there are some that fit the bill of Darwinian fuck-you survivalists, Alessa and those she spends the most time with understand that they’re in community with each other— that here, at the very least, they can all recognize in each other some spark of humanity, even as their humanity might very well be fading as they face gods, monsters, and magic. And Alessa, bless her, may be a prickly, irritable, bit of an asshole, but even she sees the moment for what it is: If they’re going to die, they’re not going to do it to each other. And if they’re going to go out, they’re going to go out swinging. Khaw provides texture to this thesis in many ways; some students are little beacons of hope, while others are slick opportunists, with many in between these poles. But, they all want to live. And Alessa, despite not wanting to be, becomes the glue keeping them together and united as long as possible; for someone who has been through the wringer and seen the worst, Khaw paints Alessa kindly; it may be because of that horror that she can see the value in working together as long as possible, to say fuck the monsters, we’re not throwing each other to the wolves. In a book with this much blood and guts, the most heart we see is in the actions of Alessa and her comrades as they work to make it through the worst of situations as best as possible. It’s like what if Star Trek’s Kobayashi Maru was a writhing, conglomeration of souls intent on devouring you.  One of my favorite aspects of the novel is the timeline maneuvering that Khaw deftly engages in; we meet Alessa at, technically, the scene of a crime where she supposedly murdered her roommate. Then we find ourselves in the Library, suddenly trapped. And then we’re back at the very beginning, when she first arrives at Hellebore where all of this story starts. The time-hopping took me a few chapters to get used to, but once you see the pattern, it becomes an irresistible device with which Khaw paints a bittersweet picture of Alessa’s reluctant friendships, her frustrating attempts to escape, the growing dread of the Faculty as their hunger becomes less and less hidden, and how the past influences the present dire situation. It’s really brilliantly done, and scene after scene, this story shines like blacklight in a blood-spattered parlor.  The Library at Hellebore is a fantastic place for new readers of Khaw to meet their brilliant mind, which worked like hell to give us one of the most fascinating, horrifying worlds of theirs to date. (I haven’t even mentioned The Librarian yet; let’s just say you don’t want to owe a late fee to this being.) Through Alessa’s sharp, incisive point of view, the world of Hellebore is brought to life—her dry and wry observations, her tactical and dextrous perspective when her back is against the wall. Alessa’s voice is that of a predator who knows larger, hungrier beasts lurk nearby. And through her sharp-as-nails spirit and her tenacious heart, we see that when you’ve been on the outside your whole life, when the world wants to eat you, it’s always worth standing up and trying to survive. And The Library At Hellebore and Cassandra Khaw ultimately teach us this: Even if you get eaten, that doesn’t mean you have to let yourself be swallowed. At least, not without a fight. [end-mark] The Library at Hellebore is published by Nightfire. The post <i>The Library at Hellebore</i> by Cassandra Khaw Is a Vicious Dark Academia appeared first on Reactor.

Excerpts Epic Fantasy Read an Excerpt From The Lost Reliquary by Lyndsay Ely A divinely blessed warrior bound to the last living goddess plots deicide to win her freedom. By Lyndsay Ely | Published on September 17, 2025 Comment 0 Share New Share We’re thrilled to share an excerpt from The Lost Reliquary, the first book in a new epic fantasy series by Lyndsay Ely, publishing with Saga Press on October 21. The Devoted Lands was once home to many gods. Now, after centuries of brutal wars, only Tempestra-Innara, the Enduring Flame, remains.As a divine warrior, Lys is outwardly loyal to her goddess. If she dreams of deicide, that’s her business. When a routine heretical execution erupts into a near-fatal assassination attempt on Tempestra-Innara, Lys sees a glimmer of hope for her freedom.Lys is chosen to hunt down the heretics and find an ancient reliquary with the power to kill a god. Annoyingly, she’s not alone. Paired with Nolan, a warrior from a rival cloister who is as pious as he is determined, Lys must feign devotion if she hopes to keep her own god-killing ambitions within reach.But as they pursue the heretics linked to the assassination, Lys uncovers a world with more possibility—and peril—than she ever anticipated. One When they whisper, we wake… Every divine execution begins pretty much the same: with me, bored and sweaty, staring down at the worn patch that sits before the altar of Tempestra-Innara, last living goddess of the Devoted Lands. I hate that spot. Even from the highest gallery of the Cathedral, it stands out like a stain, darker than the stone surrounding it, burnished smooth over centuries by the knees of countless devoted, conquered, and condemned.  The Cathedral’s apse curls around it like an embrace, oil lamps on spidery chains flickering among the golden, bejeweled bones that line the walls. Some of those bones’ owners knelt too. I’m not sure they would have taken it as a compliment, having their flesh stripped away, skeletons gilded and set with gemstones, but that’s the honor the Goddess bestows upon their worthiest of enemies: a tacky eternity as the Cathedral’s most striking décor. From this angle, I can’t quite see my favorite skull—the one with its front teeth missing and jeweled daggers in its eye sockets—but it’s there. I named it Alastair. Like the apse, the Cathedral is crowded with bodies, but fleshy living ones, which is why I am melting like a damn cake left in the sun. Even as high above them as my fellow Potentiates and I are, practically wedged into the skeletal ribbing of the vaulted ceiling, there’s no relief.  It must be worse in the gallery below ours, which, despite the upcoming entertainment, remains sparsely occupied by our superiors in the Orders—some huddled Priors oozing bureaucracy, a pair of Bellators in their snappy military garb, one rather wilted-looking Cleric of the Blood. And I can’t imagine the pure torture on the floor, where a lagoon of onlookers churns endlessly, their perfumes and sachets long ago congealed into a smothering overripeness that I can practically taste. Somehow the corporeal bouquet does nothing to temper the unwashed-armpit smell of my helm. We may not put on our ceremonial armor often, but the least the Dawn Cloister attendants could do is give it a good airing out before we do. “At this rate,” I say under my breath, shifting uncomfortably as a tickle of sweat runs down the small of my back toward my swampy nethers, “we’ll be dead before the condemned is.” To one side of me, Jeziah lets out a brief yip of laughter, as fox-like as the creature his helm depicts. On the other, Morgan is silent, but I can sense the simmering annoyance beneath her hawk, which stares unflaggingly at the Cathedral’s apse. It would probably take me literally exploding into flames to break her focused, ever-obedient attention. “Lys!” I turn my head slightly at the hiss of my name, down the line of my fellow Potentiates to where a warning expression flashes beneath Prior Petronilla’s hood. There and gone, her face shadowed again, but the message is clear. Especially when her attention snags fleetingly on the gallery directly across from us, where the Potentiates of the Dusk Cloister stand: Do not embarrass us. But if the Dusk Potentiates or their Prior noticed my indiscretion, they give no indication, as straight and still as the statues honoring our distinguished predecessors that line the halls of the Cathedral complex. Buy the Book The Lost Reliquary Lyndsay Ely Buy Book The Lost Reliquary Lyndsay Ely Buy this book from: AmazonBarnes and NobleiBooksIndieBoundTarget We are a mirrored set, the gold-trimmed ebon gray of their armor contrasting with the polished red and gold of ours in a perfect theatrical duality. I don’t know the names or faces of the Dusk acolytes, and they don’t know ours. Until we join the higher Orders, we are nameless, faceless things to everyone outside our Cloister, our sole purpose to train and learn to serve the Goddess to the highest degree. Within the Dawn, competition to be the best is fierce. But Prior Petronilla never lets us forget that, no matter how we excel, the Dusk Potentiates might be that much better, that much more devoted. But anonymous or not, pitted against one another or not, we are all the children of Tempestra-Innara. Their Chosen. Every one of us once knelt on that infamous spot below and received the gift of the Goddess’s blessing: our communion of blood. A shiver runs through me. But not from the memory. Tempestra-Innara has arrived. Instinctively, I stand straighter, discomfort forgotten as a sudden, diminishing sensation takes me. I am small, smaller even than when I first beheld them, when their gift trickled its way over my lips and into my veins. That shared blood sings now, their holy presence like a rush of fever as the bones in the apse shift, revealing the hidden door to the Goddess’s sanctum in the Cathedral spire. Below, the crowd cries out with pleasure, fear, awe. They clutch the reveries that hang around their necks—tiny representations of the holy flame wrought in gold, silver, marble—and reach out for a touch that will never deign to grace them. There is no acclimating to the arrival of the Goddess, not even for those with their divine gift. They glide forward. At the edge of the dais that marks the boundary between the apse and the Cathedral’s nave, the Goddess stops and raises their hands. Flames appear, filling their palms with a clean, white blaze. I feel the trembling in my legs again. Many in the crowd fall to their knees. I hear whimpers. I see tears. I get it. For most, it’s their first time this close to the Goddess’s glory. Do they see the same thing I do? The unnerving amalgamation of flesh and divinity, familiar and alien at the same time? Describing Innara, the chosen vessel, is easy enough: tall and slight of frame, with a light complexion and brown hair. But that is not a description of Tempestra. They tower. They radiate. They glow with the cold brightness of a full moon, their tresses flowing with the power of a river swollen by spring thaw. And their flames… even from a distance the flickering tongues of divinity feel hungry with a need to cleanse the impure. When they whisper, we wake… The prayer begins without need for a cue, a rising swell of voices. At their command, we follow. In their light, we are seen… we are judged… My lips move automatically, reciting words I’ve known longer than I can remember, brought to my village by soft-tongued clerics long before a Bellator’s forces arrived to deliver their enlightenment in a more bellicose manner. May their blessed flame find purity of faith, or else leave cinder and ash. Jeziah once told me he thought the air seemed thinner at the end of a prayer. Lighter, as if something has been burned out of it. And as this one tapers off, Tempestra-Innara lowers their hands, letting their flames extinguish before they address the crowd. “Bring forward the condemned.” They don’t waste time getting down to business. Which I appreciate, since the initial shock of their arrival has faded, and now I feel the sticky sweat again. The massive doors at the front of the Cathedral swing open, admitting a welcome rush of cool air. The condemned in question has probably been waiting just beyond them for ages, but there’s an order to these sorts of things. An anticipatory fear that needs to be constructed, a level of threatening theatricality that must be reached. After all, anything less than a showy execution is simply an invitation for further insurrection. The man’s name is Emmaus. He stumbles as he’s dragged down the center aisle by the rope around his neck, hampered by chains binding his ankles and wrists. The restraints hardly seem necessary; even from a distance, he moves feebly, bruises covering his exposed skin, barely keeping upright. Not that it earns him any sympathy from the onlooking crowd. They hiss and spit, rancor as thick as their perfumes. Because common criminals don’t get divine executions. Because Emmaus is more than that—he’s a heretic. And a proficient one at that. He and his coconspirators have murdered magistrates and clerics, and eluded the Goddess’s forces for nearly two years. Until they sent Andronica. One hand gripping Emmaus’s rope, Andronica saunters her way to Tempestra-Innara, not a trace of humility in her razor-sharp gaze. As the Goddess’s Executrix, such things are below her. My fellow Potentiates and I briefly break our static vigil to tap the sigil of the Dawn Cloister on our shoulders. Respect for the Executrix, who was once one of us. They are the Goddess’s right hand, their hunter, their blade. We are all stronger, faster, more resilient than a normal person, thanks to the Goddess’s gift. Our senses are sharper, our wounds quicker to heal. We can call the divine flame (some, like me, with less competency than others). But of all the paths a Potentiate will follow—Bellator, Prior, Arbiter, Cleric of the Blood—the position of the Executrix is the most revered. The most desired. And utterly out of reach. Andronica is still in her prime, radiating with vitality. But nothing, save the Goddess, lasts forever. Andronica yanks the rope, sending Emmaus to his knees. A reverie escapes his tattered shirt, a simple painted plaster pendant in the style favored by the lower classes. And by heretics. Easy to smash quickly if one needs to hide their spiritual inclinations. That Andronica has allowed Emmaus to keep wearing it is a clear mockery. Even with my divinely assisted eyesight, I can’t tell which dead god Emmaus is so devoted to that he risked ending up exactly where he is now, but it doesn’t matter. One is as damning as another. And ridiculous. There are no other gods, not anymore. Tempestra-Innara killed the last of their siblings well over a century ago. All that’s left are beliefs that refuse to die too. “Mother.” Andronica bows. “As you commanded, as you entrusted me to do, I have brought you the heretic Emmaus.” Tempestra-Innara inclines their head slightly. “And for that, my daughter, you have my thanks and love. Emmaus.” The Goddess speaks the name with a measure of respect. More than he merits, but it’s there nonetheless, a minute concession from a victor whose triumph was never in question. “You are guilty of treason and heresy. For that, you will die with greater honor than you deserve, by the hand of divinity.” Emmaus laughs, a creaking, defiant sound that sends a ripple of offended gasps through the crowd. “You may be divine…” I’m damn near impressed by the venom he summons. “But you are not my goddess.” More scandalized murmurs, cut off by a single word from Tempestra-Innara. “Heretic.” The sound shivers through the Cathedral, curdling my guts. Even Morgan flinches a little. The humanity in Tempestra-Innara’s features slips away, turning as cold as a marble statue’s. “I am the only goddess.” No one, save Andronica, is unaffected by the declaration. She smirks a little, beaming with devoted pride. Then, almost indifferently, she turns and kicks Emmaus in the side. He lets out a cry of pain, worse than the blow warranted, which makes me suspect it’s not the first kick his ribs have taken lately. “I should have cut out his tongue to gift you, Mother,” Andronica says. “If he speaks again, I will.” But Emmaus doesn’t quiet. Instead, he reaches for his necklace and wraps his hand around the pendant. His lips begin to move, and though he speaks too quietly to make out, I know a prayer when I see it. I almost laugh. Fool. I’m not the only one who anticipates the Goddess’s rage. The whole Cathedral collectively holds its breath, waiting for the inevitable execution, which, if it might have been merciful before, sure won’t be now. Divine execution might be an honored way to die, but it’s not a pleasant one. Displeasure hardens the Goddess even further as they raise their hands again. But Emmaus doesn’t falter when the flames reappear. He continues to pray, rocking slightly as he brings the necklace to his lips and kisses it. Making peace with the last moments of his life. At least, that’s what I think. Until I see his fist tighten. Until I hear the faint, chalky crunch an instant before Emmaus throws his head back. It all happens so quickly. Even Tempestra-Innara doesn’t have time to react. Suicide by poison. A syrupy moment passes as Emmaus stands and smiles—no, grins, lips blackened by whatever was secreted in the necklace. Mocking. Triumphant. I smirk beneath my helm. Maybe Emmaus isn’t as much a fool as I thought. Silence falls on the Cathedral. Not even Andronica moves, waiting, prudently, for the Goddess to react, to say something. This execution has turned into a colossal fuckup. Someone will have to bear the fault of it. Tempestra-Innara does not speak. Nor do they move. And for the first time, I glimpse something I’ve never seen on the Goddess’s face. Something that must be anything else, because it can’t possibly be what I think it is. Fear. The Goddess strikes—a divine blow, unnatural in its speed. A blow that should leave Emmaus in as many pieces as his reverie. A blow that Emmaus blocks. Cries erupt from the crowd as Emmaus grips the Goddess’s wrist with one hand and snatches their neck with the other. A blade swings—Andronica’s—but Emmaus glides beneath it, landing a kick that sends the Executrix flying. With unsettling vigor, Emmaus laughs. Impossibly, his bruises have disappeared, and he doesn’t move like a man with shattered ribs. Instead, he stands tall as his fingers tighten further. A truncated cough escapes the Goddess. Then, abruptly, he begins to wheeze. To choke. The heretic pitches forward, eyes squeezing shut as he loses his grip on Tempestra-Innara. Freed, the Goddess stumbles backward, the look on their face… I don’t need to see it clearly to know something is truly wrong. Especially not when Emmaus’s eyes open again. All humanity there is gone. In its place is blackness, oily and fetid. A darkness that spreads, bubbling over Emmaus’s face, pouring from his nose and mouth in a hideous gush. One that starts to consume him. To change him. Emmaus raises his arms, flesh disintegrating as spears of the grim effluvia burst from what used to be his hands, sharpening to a point as they plunge into Tempestra-Innara’s shoulder, stomach, thigh. The Goddess screams, a sound that grates across my soul. I cannot look away from the horror below, blood pounding in my ears even as it seems to drain out of me. What I am seeing shouldn’t be possible. Cannot not be possible. And yet, the blackness continues to grow. Faster even than my stunned disbelief as I watch Emmaus about to succeed in doing what I have secretly dreamed of since the first time I knelt on that worn Cathedral floor: Killing Tempestra-Innara. Excerpted from The Lost Reliquary, copyright © 2025 by Lyndsay Ely. The post Read an Excerpt From <i>The Lost Reliquary</i> by Lyndsay Ely appeared first on Reactor.

Washington, D.C. is out of step with the rest of the nation on criminal justice—especially when it comes to holding violent juveniles accountable. But that’s a problem lawmakers are trying to fix. On Tuesday, the House of Representatives approved a measure to allow juveniles 14 and older to be tried as adults for select crimes. Now, that measure comes before the Senate, offering it a chance to align the nation’s capital with the majority of the country. Under current city law, juveniles 16 and up can be prosecuted in adult court for select crimes—but that’s a rarity.  Need proof? Between 2013 and 2023, when armed juveniles committed thousands of violent crimes, only 176 were prosecuted in adult court.  From 2018 to the present, a supermajority of carjackings in the district were committed by 14-16-year-olds. Roughly 73% of those carjackings involved guns. That makes the status quo totally unacceptable.  Most juveniles who commit crimes, especially first-time nonviolent offenders, belong in juvenile court, where the focus is on rehabilitation. In Washington, D.C., though, juvenile offenders with long criminal records are coddled in juvenile court, even when they have a history of violent crime. And even when they’re held “responsible” for their conduct, they often serve their “sentences” at home.  The House’s proposal to try juveniles as adults in certain cases attempts to change that. Proponents argue that it will curb violent crime, noting that nearly 200 juveniles arrested for violent offenses in Washington, D.C. last year had alreadyfaced prior violent crime charges. “I am advocating and have advocated for jurisdiction over juveniles 14, 15, 16, 17,” said Jeanine Pirro, U.S. Attorney for the district. “They need to be brought into the criminal court so we can prosecute them.” Not everyone shares her opinion, though. Last week, Washington, D.C. Councilmember Brooke Pinto called the congressional bills “dangerous and rushed,” arguing they would “harm the District’s public safety ecosystem.” It’s the radical D.C. city council, which has defended the current juvenile policy and opposed federal intervention, that is responsible for the status quo.    Over the past few years, the ideologically leftist council has consistently opposed any attempt to strengthen law enforcement or prosecute and imprison criminals, opting instead to reflexively support soft-on-crime policies. In 2023, for instance, while crime was rising in the capital, the council lowered almost every mandatory minimum sentence, rejecting wholesale any notion of deterrence. In reality, nearly everystate allows minors younger than 16 to be tried as adults in at least some circumstances, according to The Interstate Commission for Juveniles. Alaska, California, and South Dakota are the only exceptions. Half of the states—including Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, and Minnesota—allow 14-year-olds to be tried as adults for select crimes. Ten other states, including New York, allow juveniles under 14 to be tried as adults for the most heinous crimes. And Washington State and Montana allow 12-year-olds to be tried as adults.  In other words, almost 75% of states allow juveniles 14 or younger to be tried in adult court for the most violent crimes. This national trend proves how out of step the district is on this issue. “We don’t have to live under this Left-wing anarcho tyranny where criminals terrorize innocent people,” observed Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Tex., last week. “And that includes juveniles.”  He’s correct.  This isn’t the first time Congress has had to rebuke the D.C. city council and local leaders for their imbecilic criminal laws. In 2023, for instance, a total of 62 Democrats in the Senate and House of Representatives joined Republicans in striking down a D.C. provision that, among other changes, would have significantly reduced the maximum penalty for crimes such as armed hijacking.  As one of us (Stimson) wrote here, the same witless council voted to “reform” the local criminal code by eliminating mandatory minimum sentences for all crimes except first-degree murder.  For some Democrats in the Senate, the upcoming vote might raise uncomfortable questions about why they accept (or even support) trying 14- and 15-year-olds as adults in their own states but resist that same policy in the nation’s capital. After all, many of the Democratic lawmakers who intervened vis-à-vis the 2023 D.C. reforms come from states that allow juveniles to be prosecuted as adults.  For example, in 2004, while chief prosecutor for Hennepin County (Minneapolis), Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., supported the state’s decision to transfer a 15-year-old charged with murder and assault from juvenile court to adult court for prosecution. Two years later, Klobuchar again backed trying a 15-year-old in adult court for sexually assaulting a three-year-old, and likewise supported transferring another 15-year-old accused of fatally assaulting and robbing a 61-year-old man. From 1991 to 2011, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., served as the attorney general of Connecticut—another state that allows 14- and 15-year-olds to be transferred to adult court. In 1995, under his tenure, the state passed legislation requiring “automatic transfer” of juveniles aged 14 and older for felonies like murder and manslaughter and allowed “discretionary transfer” for felonies like burglary and arson. According to one study, Connecticut prosecutors secured 209 discretionary transfers to adult court between 1997 and 2002, with the number of annual transfers steadily increasing from 1997 to 2000. In 2001, a Connecticut attorney argued a case before the state’s Supreme Court to uphold the transfer of Michael Skakel to adult court for the murder of 15-year-old Martha Moxley. That case drew national attention because Skakel was the nephew of Robert F. Kennedy’s widow Ethel Kennedy, and he wasn’t tried for the 1975 murder until 2002.  Klobuchar and Blumenthal aren’t the only Democrat senators previously involved in prosecuting juveniles as adults. In May 2014, while Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., was Nevada’s Attorney General, state prosecutors charged 15-year-old Turner Bronson as an adult for shooting and killing his older brother. “The age didn’t matter, under the law [in Nevada] right now, if you’re eight or older and you commit the crime of murder, you are charged as an adult,” explained District Attorney Steve Wolfson. These examples are revealing for multiple reasons. First, they show that treating violent juveniles as adults is nothing more than a standard—and often necessary—practice across much of the country, used by Democrats and Republicans alike when their positions demand they address violent juvenile crime rather than simply moralize about it. Second, they demonstrate that Washington, D.C.’s refusal to adopt similar measures is yet another indication of how out of step local leaders are—one that comes at a time when residents face rising threats from repeat offenders and one of the highest homicide rates in the country. Perhaps most telling of all, of the 31 Democratic senators who voted to reject the city council’s dangerous reforms in 2023, eight come from states that allow 15-year-olds to be tried as adults, including Sens. Bennet, Blumenthal, Hassan, Hickenlooper, Shaheen, and Wyden. At least 10 come from states that authorize 14-year-olds to be tried as adults, including Sens. Baldwin, Coons, Kaine, Klobuchar, Peters, Smith, Schumer, Stabenow and Warner. Five come from states that allow 13-year-olds to be tried as adults, including Sens. Cortez Masto, Gillibrand, Ossoff, Rosen, and Schumer. And at least three come from states that allow 12-year-olds to be tried as adults, including Sens. Cantwell and Murray. The Senate now faces a clear choice: either allow the city council’s ideological resistance to override common sense or bring D.C. law in line with national norms. A vote to lower the transfer age would signal that protecting public safety comes first. It would end the double standard that treats D.C. as an exception to rules that lawmakers support at home. And it would be a long-overdue step toward reforming the criminal justice system in the nation’s capital.  The post It’s Time for the Senate To Lower the Age of Criminal Responsibility in DC appeared first on The Daily Signal.

A conservative student organization is sending letters to the leaders of every college and university in the country, calling on them to sign a free-speech contract pledging to protect right-leaning students on their campuses.   Young America’s Foundation, a conservative nonprofit led by Republican former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, announced Wednesday it is asking college officials to pledge to protect all students and their right to free speech, regardless of political ideology. The free-speech contract—dubbed a Contract for Safe Campus Dialogue—says leaders in higher education must ensure conservatives are welcome to speak on campus, allocate appropriate security so everyone on campus is safe, and ensure that all school faculty, staff, and administrators support students equally, regardless of their political views.  “Public colleges and universities have a legal obligation to comport with the First Amendment’s constitutional protections for free speech and association,” Walker wrote.  The letter comes in the wake of the Sept. 10 assassination of conservative student organizer Charlie Kirk.  “The politically motivated murder of activist, husband, and father Charlie Kirk should serve as a wake-up call to the higher education community,” Walker wrote. “It is beyond high time that colleges and universities acknowledge that they have a special responsibility to create a safe environment for the free and open exchange of ideas and open inquiry on their campuses,” the letter states.  Like Kirk’s Turning Point USA, YAF hosts events with high-profile speakers on university campuses year-round, including political figures, such as Ben Shapiro, Isabel Brown, Greg Gutfeld, Jesse Watters, Kristan Hawkins, Kellyanne Conway, Stephen Miller, and Mike Pompeo.    Walker said that YAF, which was founded in 1960, is ready to join every other conservative organization working on college campuses to ensure safety, saying it won’t back down from the right to free speech. YAF will “be stronger than ever,” he said, meaning increasing the number of conservative speakers on campuses.   The letter and contract will be sent to the leader of every higher education institution and every chair of their governing boards.   YAF comprises student activists from middle school to college. They are present on more than 2,000 campuses across the country. It is committed to values such as individual freedom, strong national defense, free enterprise, and traditional values.  The post Conservative Group Calls on Universities to Protect Student Free Speech on Campus appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Hilarious: Mamdani Refuses to Endorse Hochul After She Endorsed Him

The body of conservative activist Charlie Kirk wasn’t even in the ground yet when ABC co-host Joy Behar decided to go back to spewing inciting rhetoric against President Trump and conservatives. During Wednesday’s episode of The View, Behar proclaimed that America was “screwed” and moderator Whoopi Goldberg proclaimed that she didn’t know how long the Constitution would last. And not a single person on set seemed to reflect on their hyperbolic doomsaying given recent events. An exasperated Behar interjected during their conversation about the Senate hearing of FBI Director Kash Patal to fret about the future of the country: BEHAR: You know. I'm sorry, I feel as though-- GOLDBERG: Take a breath. Take a deep breath. Take a breath, Joy, take a breath and tell us. BEHAR: I feel like we're trapped in a bad movie, like you've got these incompetent people running the government and we're like a bunch of sitting ducks. You've got the puppy killer. You've got the signal cake guy, what's his name, Hegseth. “I mean, there's no end to the incompetency that we are experiencing as Americans!” she shouted. “So, I can almost not even talk about individual situations like this, because the overall picture and the elephant in the room is that we're screwed!” Goldberg tried to talk Behar off the ledge by arguing that “it takes a lot to ruin a country” but Behar wasn’t having it: GOLDBERG: No, we're not screwed because – BEHAR: I know you say that every day but I feel like we are. GOLDBERG: I say it every day, and yet we are still standing. BEHAR: Just barely. GOLDBERG: Yeah, but we're up. We’ve been – Listen, lots of us have be down. We know where down is. It takes a lot to ruin a country. It takes a lot to ruin a country. Because people wake up and they start to go, ‘You know what? I don't like what I'm seeing.’ BEHAR: Well Whoopi, it's only since January! GOLDBERG: Yes. BEHAR: I mean he's got another three years to go.     Goldberg proceeded to go on a bizarre rant about how people were giving up on libraries and were barrowing books from their neighbors if they needed information. “People are making changes and adapting in a situation that is meant for us to give up…It is put out there; they are doing things to grind us down,” she decried. She also expressed relief that the Constitution seemed to holding up against Trump, but expressed concern that she didn’t know for how much longer: And I see people bending but I don't see anybody breaking. I don't see people breaking and that is what gives me the strength to keep standing, because, you know, they come for us all the time. But we're standing and we're still here and God bless the Constitution. She's holding. I don't know for how long. But she has not broken yet. Goldberg hinted at an ominous “alternative” for if the situation in America became untenable in her eyes: GOLDBERG: So that's why -- that's why I remain – Because if I make a decision that says this is not handleable, what’s the alternative? SARA HAINES: What's the alternative? GOLDBERG: What is the alternative? A dark and disgusting proposition given a leftist extremist just assassinated a conservative activist and other liberals were celebrating it and urging for more. The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read: ABC’s The View September 17, 2025 11:07:43 a.m. Eastern (…) JOY BEHAR: You know. I'm sorry, I feel as though-- WHOOPI GOLDBERG: Take a breath. Take a deep breath. Take a breath, Joy, take a breath and tell us. BEHAR: I feel like we're trapped in a bad movie, like you've got these incompetent people running the government and we're like a bunch of sitting ducks. You've got the puppy killer. You've got the signal cake guy, what's his name, Hegseth. SUNNY HOSTIN: Noem. BEHAR: You've got the brain worm. You’ve got – I mean, there's no end to the incompetency that we are experiencing as Americans! So, I can almost not even talk about individual situations like this, because the overall picture and the elephant in the room is that we're screwed! [Applause] SARA HAINES: Well, Alyssa -- GOLDBERG: No, we're not screwed because – BEHAR: I know you say that every day but I feel like we are. GOLDBERG: I say it every day, and yet we are still standing. BEHAR: Just barely. GOLDBERG: Yeah, but we're up. We’ve been – Listen, lots of us have be down. We know where down is. It takes a lot to ruin a country. It takes a lot to ruin a country. Because people wake up and they start to go, ‘You know what? I don't like what I'm seeing.’ BEHAR: Well Whoopi, it's only since January! GOLDBERG: Yes. BEHAR: I mean he's got another three years to go. GOLDBERG: Well, I don't know what we've got, except that I'm pretty sure that the people are taking care of the business at hand for them. If they're in need of something, they're going to neighbors. If they want books or they want information, they don't have to go to the library, they can go to next-door neighbors and get the information. People are making changes and adapting in a situation that is meant for us to give up. It's meant -- it's put out there. It is put out there; they are doing things to grind us down. And I see people bending but I don't see anybody breaking. I don't see people breaking and that is what gives me the strength to keep standing, because, you know, they come for us all the time. But we're standing and we're still here and God bless the Constitution. She's holding. I don't know for how long. HOSTIN: I don't know for how long. GOLDBERG: But she has not broken yet. HAINES: Yes. [Applause] GOLDBERG: So that's why -- that's why I remain – Because if I make a decision that says this is not handleable, what’s the alternative? HAINES: What's the alternative? GOLDBERG: What is the alternative? (…)

MSNBC’s Chris Hayes used his Tuesday All In show to look back to Monday when Vice President JD Vance guest-hosted The Charlie Kirk Show after Kirk was brutally assassinated. As Hayes tells it, Vance was echoing anti-Semitic ideas when he criticized an article in The Nation because that outlet is funded by George Soros. Hayes tried to argue that Vance’s reliance on the article in question fails to show a vast left-wing conspiracy to commit acts of political violence, “And in the complete absence of any evidence of any vast plots. Vance, instead, singled out an opinion column published by The Nation that criticized Kirk's cultural legacy while also condemning the violence that killed him.”     That condemnation by Elizabeth Spiers was not exactly the strongest, “I do not believe anyone should be murdered because of their views, but that is because I don’t believe people should be murdered generally, regardless of who they are or what they’ve done. I am against the death penalty, pro–gun control, and believe war is a failure of humanity, not a necessary byproduct of it. Kirk was fine with murder as long the right people were dying.” Elsewhere, Spiers tried to say that writing a positive history of Kirk’s life would be akin to trying to claim Joseph Goebbels was a good family man. Nevertheless, Hayes continued, “It was then the vice president of the United States called for a war on the free press and its supporters in rhetoric that echoed anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.” In a clip, Vance was shown declaring, “There is no unity with the people who fund these articles, who pay the salaries of these terrorist sympathizers. [Jump Cut] Did you know that the George Soros Open Society Foundation and the Ford Foundation, the groups who funded that disgusting article justifying Charlie's death? Do you know they benefit from generous tax treatment? They are literally subsidized by you and me, the American taxpayer, and how do they reward us? By setting fire to the house built by the American family over 250 years.” We’re supposed to believe that because Vance criticized a specific Jewish individual’s political activity, he was flirting with Jewish money tropes. That is, of course, ridiculous. It is completely understandable why a man with an Indian wife and biracial children would be angry at an article accusing his murdered friend of being an “unrepentant racist.” For his part, Hayes was reduced to using a reductio ad Orbanum, “Those words echo a lot of what Viktor Orban in Hungary has said, as he has gone after George Soros and independent institutions of civil society. I mean, that's the vice president of the United States grossly mischaracterizing an article he seemed not to read, spinning it into part of a vast and false conspiracy, saying there's no unity with the other side.” Yes, technically, Spiers didn’t applaud Kirk getting murdered. She did, however, call Kirk all sorts of nasty names under the guise of simply telling the truth. If someone murdered whoever the liberal equivalent to Charlie Kirk is and then some conservative outlet ran an article trashing that person, would Chris Hayes seek unity with that person and their benefactors? No, of course he wouldn’t. Meanwhile, Hayes omits the part of Vance’s podcasting duties where he said not even two minutes earlier, “We can thank God that most Democrats don’t share these attitudes, and I do.” Here is a transcript for the September 16 show: MSNBC All In With Chris Hayes 9/16/2025 8:04 PM ET CHRIS HAYES: And in the complete absence of any evidence of any vast plots. Vance, instead, singled out an opinion column published by The Nation that criticized Kirk's cultural legacy while also condemning the violence that killed him. It was then the vice president of the United States called for a war on the free press and its supporters in rhetoric that echoed anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. JD VANCE: There is no unity with the people who fund these articles, who pay the salaries of these terrorist sympathizers. [Jump Cut] Did you know that the George Soros Open Society Foundation and the Ford Foundation, the groups who funded that disgusting article justifying Charlie's death? Do you know they benefit from generous tax treatment? They are literally subsidized by you and me, the American taxpayer, and how do they reward us? By setting fire to the house built by the American family over 250 years. HAYES: Those words echo a lot of what Viktor Orban in Hungary has said, as he has gone after George Soros and independent institutions of civil society. I mean, that's the vice president of the United States grossly mischaracterizing an article he seemed not to read, spinning it into part of a vast and false conspiracy, saying there's no unity with the other side.