Ex-felon city official received 'clean slate' from state program

Stories of “deconstruction” among millennials who grew up in the 1990s have become so common they’re rather passe. Men and women my age are expected to talk about how purity culture, Promise Keepers, and Focus on the Family scarred them for life. I, for one, am grateful for our past evangelical overlords, however. The Christian conservative movements of the 1980s and 1990s weren’t perfect, but they kept traditional values alive in a way that benefited me, and this week one of the absolute giants in that movement passed away. James Dobson James Dobson, 89, went to join his heavenly father on Thursday. He left behind a loving family and a tremendous legacy for American Christians struggling to respond to family breakdown and a hostile culture. Dobson fought the Sexual Revolution in the 1970s by emphasizing marriage and family. He founded Focus on the Family in 1977 in California, and moved it to Colorado Springs, Colorado, in 1991. That city became known as “The Vatican of the Religious Right,” with Dobson as the implied pontiff. The title seemed rather apt. Dobson spearheaded the movement to bring conservative Christianity to politics. He helped found the think tank Family Research Council in 1981, family policy councils that lobby state governments, and Alliance Defending Freedom, a premier conservative Christian law firm. He fought against abortion and for the traditional definition of marriage. Dobson eventually stepped down from Focus on the Family, handing the reins to Jim Daly in 2010. He continued writing and speaking on the radio until his death. My Story I grew up in Golden, Colorado, just north of the Protestant Vatican. I have fond memories listening to Focus on the Family’s radio program, “Adventures in Odyssey,” and my parents read Dobson’s books. I grew up attending Focus-aligned Promise Keepers conferences, which encouraged men to be faithful husbands and fathers. My parents encouraged me to remain celibate until marriage, and I believe that has made my marriage and family stronger. Lessons from Focus on the Family helped me follow the “success sequence,” completing high school, entering the workforce, and delaying having kids until getting married. Research bears out my experience that this path isn’t just a way to avoid poverty but a road to fulfillment. I grew up in a Christian family open to books like “Harry Potter,” but my parents shielded me from inappropriate content and inoculated me from harmful ideologies as I grew older. American culture has a great deal to offer, but much of it has become hostile to conservative values. Parents cannot trust schools to teach reading, writing, and arithmetic without inserting climate, race, and transgender orthodoxy. These ideologies also enjoy a stranglehold in the legacy media, academia, Hollywood, and big business, despite President Donald Trump’s recent success in weakening that grip. Dobson, long before Trump, understood that conservatives have to take the cultural fight to the Left, and cannot sit back as the Sexual Revolution redefines love, marriage, and what it means to be human. Critics faulted Dobson’s movement for showing insufficient compassion to people struggling with same-sex attraction and gender confusion. While I doubt both the sincerity and the veracity of this complaint, I agree that Christians should emphasize God’s compassion—he offers eternal life through faith in Jesus to all sinners, both people like me and people who experience temptations different from mine. However, the LGBTQ movement presents a false gospel, one that places “Pride” above following God’s commandments. The gospel is open to all sinners who repent, but it doesn’t celebrate same-sex marriage. It offers hope to those struggling with gender confusion, but does not endorse the idea that God made a mistake when he created us male and female. The same hostility my generation feels toward purity culture also drives a hatred of the institutions Dobson strived to create. Defending Dobson’s Legacy The Southern Poverty Law Center smears many groups Dobson helped found—the Family Research Council, Alliance Defending Freedom, and many family policy councils—as “hate groups” worthy of inclusion on a “hate map” alongside Ku Klux Klan chapters. A terrorist used this map to target the Family Research Council in 2012. The SPLC once defended itself from claims that it is “anti-Christian” by noting that it did not put Focus on the Family on that “hate map.” This year, however, it did put Focus on the map, undermining its own defense and revealing that it is indeed an anti-Christian organization. Many of the SPLC’s targets have helped me personally, and I believe they are fighting an important fight in America today. That’s why I wrote my first book, “Making Hate Pay: The Corruption of the Southern Poverty Law Center.” In my own small way, I aim to repay some of my debt and to further Dobson’s legacy by exposing such attacks and creating space for conservative Christians to share our values in the public square. The post James Dobson Had a Profound Impact on My Life, But Not for the Reasons Our Culture Might Think appeared first on The Daily Signal.

Editor’s note: This is a lightly edited transcript of today’s video from Daily Signal Senior Contributor Victor Davis Hanson. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to see more of his videos. Hello, this is Victor Davis Hanson for The Daily Signal. I, each week, drive about 425 miles round trip from my farm residence in Central California to Stanford University’s Hoover Institution. And over the last 20 years, I’ve noticed that it is not just that the California infrastructure has gotten much worse as the population has incrementally increased to 41 million people. We have an infrastructure of the 1970s, when we had 20 million people. And now we have twice the number of people driving and the infrastructure is even worse than it was 50 years ago. And we may have somewhere around 100 million cars or 140 million cars, the estimates range, in California register. But what I’m getting at is this: It’s very dangerous now to drive on California freeways. There are either two lanes or three lanes, maximum. And we’ve had a new trend where truck drivers will get in the middle lane, on a three-lane freeway, and just stay there. And then you have two lanes of solid truck traffic and only one lane—in the left, if it’s three lanes—for cars. The truck drivers seem not to be as respectful of traffic as in the past. I bring this up because an illegal alien, Harjinder Singh from India, crossed over into the United States illegally in 2018. And he was ordered to leave. He ignored that during the Biden administration. He was issued a work permit that was revoked by the Trump administration later when it came in. But that’s controversial, but what is not controversial? Singh, who could not read or speak English, essentially, could only identify one or two traffic signs, for some reason was given a work permit. But more importantly, he was given a California driver’s license, even though he was known to be an illegal alien and not proficient in English. And California thinks that as the home of the most illegal aliens in the country—a state in which 27% of the people were not born in the United States and it has the largest sanctuary city infrastructure, where they do not comply with Immigration and Customs Enforcement requests to deport criminal illegal aliens—that it’s unique and it’s self-contained. It’s not. People that it grants licenses to or residence to, who are here illegally and are not familiar with traffic laws, they go all over the United States. So, what happened this past week, Singh was driving a semi-truck in Florida, and for some reason he decided—a major thoroughfare—that he was just going to make a U-turn and cut across the divider and go in the opposite direction, in the middle of fast-moving traffic. And so, the inevitable happened. As he’s making this turn, his own camera shows him nonchalantly looking around as a car has no choice but to hit his semi-trailer. And two people were killed instantly. The third died in the hospital. What was very disturbing was the expression on Singh’s face. It was calm. He looked around. It was almost as if, “Oh. I made a U-turn. Somebody hit my truck. I wonder what happened?” He didn’t get out and try to help anybody. He stood at the side of the road, finally. But why was he driving? He was driving because California issued him a license when they knew he was an unlawful resident of the United States and he was not proficient in English, at least enough to be able to read rudimentary traffic signs and signals. In other words, he killed three people. And he’s now charged with vehicular manslaughter because of the lax policy of California. What I’m getting at is, when I drive, I see a lot of drivers like that. I don’t know what their immigration status is. I don’t know where they’re born. All I know is that there are so many trucks on the California freeway. The infrastructure is so poor and this generation of truck drivers does not abide by the prior courtesies and policies of previous generations of truck drivers. It makes driving in California an experience like “Road Warrior” or “Mad Max.” And the trucks dominate, sometimes, all the lanes for periods of time on California freeways. And more importantly, they drive outside of California. So, California Gov. Gavin Newsom is in a fight with President Donald Trump—back and forth—who issued him a temporary work permit. But I think Gavin Newsom, who champions the cause of unlawful immigrants, is going to lose that argument against Donald Trump, who tries to deport them. But more importantly, it’s beyond controversy. Gavin Newsom’s California issued this man a driver’s license. This man was not a U.S. citizen. He was not here legally, and he could not read or write English, apparently. And the wages of that, we found out in Florida, were the death of three innocent people. And no remorse. No apologies on the part of California or Gavin Newsom. Bottom line: California is dangerous to itself, in a myriad of ways, but it’s also dangerous to everybody outside of California because its pathologies are not contained within its borders. We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post California Gives Illegal Truck Driver a License—3 Americans Pay the Price appeared first on The Daily Signal.

FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—The State Department is condemning a Biden-appointed federal judge’s ruling barring the Trump administration from using the president’s latest travel ban to deny visas to foreigners from certain countries. U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan, a 2024 appointee of then-President Joe Biden, ruled Thursday that the State Department cannot rely on the 19-country ban to refuse to process applications for winners of the Diversity Visa lottery who would lose their visas if not issued by the end of September. “Another example of wrongful judicial overreach aimed at curtailing this Administration’s strong and unwavering efforts to keep Americans and our communities safe,” Tommy Pigott, principal deputy spokesman for the State Department, told The Daily Signal. Sooknanan’s ruling still allows immigration authorities to deny the foreign citizens entry to the U.S. by turning them away at a port of entry or instructing airline officials in those countries to refuse to board them. “We will continue to relentlessly work to ensure the president of the United States is able to use every tool he has available, including visas, to finally bring oversight to who we allow to visit our country,” Piggot said. The travel ban fully restricts people from Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen from entering the United States. It also partially restricts U.S. entry for citizens of Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela. The Trump administration’s lawyers asked Sooknanan to accept the “long-standing practice” of the State Department refusing visas to people whose entry would be blocked by a presidential order. In response, the judge cited a Supreme Court decision from last summer that limited the power of agencies to rely on their own interpretations of the law. This is the latest example of federal judges blocking the president’s agenda. Judges have blocked Trump’s orders on diversity, equity, and inclusion; releasing the Epstein files; defunding Planned Parenthood; ending birthright citizenship; and more. The post State Dept. Blasts Ruling Against Using Travel Ban for Visa Denials as ‘Judicial Overreach’ appeared first on The Daily Signal.

President Donald Trump has pledged to “make D.C. safe again,” with a federal intervention to stop crime in the nation’s capital. To emphasize the point, Trump is doing a ride along with law enforcement around Washington Thursday night. “I’m going to be going out tonight, I think, with the police and with the military, of course. So we’re going to do a job. The National Guard is great. They’ve done a fantastic job,” Trump said to radio host Todd Starnes, noting that he hoped that by focusing on crime in the district. he would trigger more cities to follow his lead. Trump’s actions could mark a real turnaround for Washington and many other big cities in the United States plagued by crime and disorder. The Left is livid. The media is having its usual mental breakdown over Trump’s actions, portraying the move to clean up the nation’s capital as authoritarian, a prelude to fascism (which is always just around the corner in America but always seems to land in Europe). The legacy media and left-wing Democrats should be worried, but not over their phantom concerns about tyranny. They should be worried about the likely success of Trump’s policies, which appear to be having an immediate, positive impact on stopping crime in D.C. The city just had a full week without a murder, which is unusual in the high-crime summer months. And other crimes seem to have momentarily decreased too. ? BREAKING: Stunning new data was just released showing that after President Trump’s Washington DC takeover, carjackings plummet by 83%, robbery by 46%, violent crime by 22% and car theft by 21%.In 7 days. Democrats said this was impossible and DC had no crime issues – they… pic.twitter.com/HOzbGppgad— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) August 19, 2025 I think the federal takeover of Washington could be a prelude to something much bigger. In a sense, the district crime issue is like the border problem. For years we were told that the historic crisis at the border that began nearly the day Joe Biden became president, was unresolvable. It was a product of obscure “root causes” that never seemed to be rooted out. Then, suddenly and mysteriously, the problem was not only alleviated the moment Trump returned to the White House, but we also witnessed border crossing numbers hit historically low levels. Again, this happened almost instantly. What the American people saw was that the crisis was a choice. The whole time we could have stopped the rampant violation of our laws. The only thing that changed is that an administration was willing to enforce those laws and made its intent to do so crystal clear. We have a similar choice about crime and chaos in our big cities. The crime that they suffer is not just part of the reality of urban living. That’s the lie the Left wants you to believe so they are never held accountable for their terrible policies. Washington, D.C., is exactly the kind of left-wing city that chose its dysfunction. It’s done so while obnoxiously demanding that we should give the city even more power nationally by making it a state. This despite the fact that it’s demonstrated quite clearly that it struggles to govern itself. In 2023 Congress had to intervene to stop the city from loosening penalties for people who’ve committed carjackings while the city was going through a carjacking crisis. Even the Biden administration knew that was a bit of a problem and signed off on the congressional override. And even though the massive crime spike that began after the George Floyd riots in 2020 is subsiding in Washington and elsewhere, the nation’s capital is hardly a “safe city.” Though, you would think it’s practically a utopia given how many on the Left have been talking about it in recent days. But touting Washington’s possibly cooked crime stats as an indication that all is hunky dory in the nation’s capital is a bit like saying that Mordor is nice now that Mount Doom is only percolating hot magma and sulfurous fumes in the air instead of erupting. The District of Columbia had a homicide rate of 27.3 per 100,000 people in 2024. This is supposed to be great news for the city since it had been at a staggering 39.4 in 2023. But going from the seventh circle of hell to the fourth circle of hell isn’t much to celebrate. For comparison, New York City, at the closest it’s ever been to a real life “Escape From New York,” reached 31 homicides per 100,000 people in 1990. So, the district is as “good” now as New York was at its worst, when it was still inspiring movies and popular media focused on its crime problem. But here’s the actual good news. New York proved that cleaning up a crime-ridden city was quite doable with a significant change in policies. Mayor Rudy Guiliani ushered in a crime fighting revolution by focusing on order, arresting criminals, and prosecuting them (something the district’s leaders say doesn’t work). Graffiti was cleaned up, homeless people were moved off the street and into shelters, panhandlers and prostitutes were aggressively removed from Times Square, the squeegee men were banished to the nether realm. The result was that by the early 2000s, New York of all places was one of the safest big cities in the country. It has since backslid from those halcyon days, and may soon descend much further, but the template is there for how to tackle the crime issue. Washington, D.C., doesn’t have to be a crime-ridden nightmare. It doesn’t have to be a place where you just hope you get lucky and avoid being victimized. The disorder and crime in the district have been the product of many bad choices. Those choices were made by the leftists who run the city council, the mayor, the police chief, the courts, and all the powers that be in Washington. No longer. There may finally be something resembling justice and a lot more safety in the nation’s capital. The post Trump’s Aim to ‘Make DC Safe Again’ Sends Message to Democrat-Run Cities appeared first on The Daily Signal.

The rapper best known for the viral megahit song "Old Town Road" was arrested and hospitalized after he was recorded dancing through Los Angeles in his underwear at night.A witness saw a man appearing to be Lil Nas X walking nearly naked and began recording him from their car. The video was obtained by TMZ and published online.'Gimme that phone so I can throw it! I'm gonna throw it far away so you never see it again!' The rapper, whose real name is Montero Lamar Hill, allegedly charged at police who were responding to calls of a nude man walking in public in the San Fernando Valley. Police suspected the man was overdosing and requested the aid of firefighter-paramedics.Police sources told KNBC-TV that Hill also threw some punches at police during the altercation. He was hospitalized and is expected to be booked on suspicion of misdemeanor battery on a police officer.The TMZ video shows the man identified as Hill laughing and dancing while clad only in underwear and cowboy boots. At one point, he puts an orange traffic cone over his head."It's gonna be a beautiful sunrise!" he says at one point before reaching out for the cell phone."Gimme that phone so I can throw it!" the man says. "I'm gonna throw it far away so you never see it again!"RELATED: Artist collective that created Satanic Lil Nas X sneakers are selling 'eat the rich' popsicles for $10 each At other points he snaps his fingers, sings, laughs, and makes shooting gestures."Don't miss your party tonight. Why are you still here?" he adds.Hill became incredibly popular with the success of "Old Town Road," but many of his fans turned on him after the openly gay performer dropped a video for another song that featured him giving a lascivious lap dance to Satan in hell.He also sold stylized sneakers with satanic themes, including a drop of human blood.TMZ said the rapper's representatives did not respond to a request for comment.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

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