Andrew Kolvet dispels misinformation and helps honor Charlie Kirk’s legacy

More than 400 employees at the Department of Housing and Urban Development were issued layoff notices on Friday, primarily targeting an office that pushed left-wing ideology, a department official told The Daily Wire. The federal government has been shut down for more than two weeks, with only “essential” workers reporting for duty, as Democrats refuse to grant a temporary funding extension unless Republicans add in new funding. The Trump administration said in a court filing that some 4,000 workers across seven agencies should be laid off instead. A HUD official said the largest office targeted by the 442 layoffs at that agency is the Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity office, which the official said became the tip of the spear for left-wing initiatives under former president Joe Biden. The office is tasked by law with enforcing the Civil Rights Act and processing complaints from people who say they were discriminated against in housing due to disability, race, sex, national origin, and other characteristics. The office’s budget was increased by 20% under Biden and employed nearly 600 people, yet was so focused on issues like transgenderism and dubious theories about systemic racism that it failed to process complaints about more straightforward discrimination, the official said. For example, the Biden administration became obsessed with the theory that racist home appraisers might be estimating homes owned by blacks at lower values than those owned by whites. The dubious theory is undermined by the fact that appraisers often don’t know the race of a homeowner, and the process is driven by formulas such as comparisons to similar, recently-sold homes. Meanwhile, when a double-amputee was blocked by his homeowners association from widening his driveway to accommodate his wheelchair, the Biden administration let his complaint about disability discrimination languish for two years, until the Trump administration intervened as an example of the kind of clear-cut discrimination that the office should be laser-focused on stamping out, the official said. Such complaints are required by law to be processed within 100 days, but the office missed that deadline more than 70% of the time, a 2024 inspector general report found. In another case, HUD’s Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity office conducted an investigation that claimed that the city of Chicago was racist against blacks and foreigners because it helped create a recycling center in the Southeast Side. The suggestion was that it was “environmental racism” to put a polluting industry in a neighborhood with many black and brown people. Then-mayor Lori Lightfoot called it “absurd” and “dared the federal government to enforce its ruling that the city’s planning and zoning laws were discriminatory,” Block Club Chicago reported at the time. Lightfoot folded just before leaving office. The office was poised to use similar logic to drastically change the everyday lives of hundreds of millions of Americans through a rule that held that minimum lot sizes were also discriminatory planning and zoning. That is, the “Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing” rule would effectively abolish the suburbs, which are characterized by single-family homes on lots of specific sizes, by withholding huge sums of federal funding unless towns and counties allowed lots to be subdivided without restriction, and for dense housing to be built anywhere. The logic was that it’s racist to not have apartments everywhere, because blacks like to live in apartments – even though the majority of Americans of all races live in the suburbs, and presumably choose to do so because they like that level of density, and want to keep it that way. The rule was introduced at the end of Barack Obama’s presidency and repealed by Trump, then re-introduced by Biden and repealed again by Trump, all before it was able to transform the fabric of America wholesale. The HUD official said the Trump administration supports the office’s true mission and wants to re-focus on it, saying the Biden administration had begun focusing on factors that don’t appear in the Civil Rights Act, including transgenderism and a lack of ability to speak English. HUD communications will now appear only in English, which does not constitute discrimination based on national origin, the official said. Affected employees were given notice that layoffs would take effect in 60 days, commencing a byzantine process. The official declined to say whether employees would return to work until that time should the government shutdown end, but noted that the agency has been planning the layoffs for months, and that they were not ordered by the White House. Layoffs elsewhere also focused on offices that the Trump administration believes were not aligned with administration priorities, including 1,400 at the Internal Revenue Service, as well as 466 at the Department of Education and 187 at the Department of Energy.

There’s a reason why musicals are so popular. There’s something so magical about a world where talented folks break out in song at the drop of a hat. Usually, those kinds of things don’t happen in real life — but there are always exceptions. And a whole group of restaurant goers in Paris got to witness one of these moments for themselves thanks to a group of talented musicians, including a violin prodigy. While dining at Le Rouge et le Verre, folks got to enjoy Julien Cohen’s beautiful melodies on the piano. This alone was breathtaking. But then a young boy with a violin joined him, and the entire room was in awe. Just when the crowd thought this seemingly impromptu performance couldn’t get any better, an opera singer joined them. Witness this stunning restaurant performance in the viral video below! Professional Pianist, Violin Prodigy, and Opera Singer Join Forces “No one in that restaurant will ever forget that evening. Musicians doing it for the sheer pleasure,” someone points out in the comments. Another person adds, “I don’t care if this was staged or not, this has to be one of the greatest videos I have seen in a very long time. Why does this even move me to tears and goosebumps?? The music, the musicians, the audience, the atmosphere, everything. Amazing. LOVE it!” That last commenter isn’t the only one who feels that way. While the musicians in the video likely coordinated this moment, the patrons had no idea this was going to happen. That alone makes moments like this oh-so-magical. Speaking of which, Julien isn’t the only musician to orchestrate such special moments… For example, there’s the time someone joined pianist Emil Reinert for his performance at a café in Germany. There’s also the time a little girl’s request for the piano player at a train station ended up stunning everyone. You can find the source of this story’s featured image here! The post 10-Year-Old Violin Prodigy Joins Pianist & Stuns Entire Restaurant — Then Opera Singer Steps In! appeared first on InspireMore.

Anyone who grew up with a family dog will be the first to tell you what an amazing experience it can be. Plus, it’s been proven that having a pet can help kids with their emotional development. They can also give parents an opportunity to help their kids learn all of the responsibilities that come with having a four-legged friend. That said, there are certain rules that parents should consider in order to keep both their pet and kids safe. Most parents have some kind of rules around their kids and pets. That said, Meghan Graham is especially thorough. This is likely the case, in part, because of her experience as a dog trainer. Luckily, this caring mom is more than happy to share her family’s pet rules. Check them out in the video below! @lula_and_meg Teaching kids rules around dogs isn’t just about safety — it’s about building respect and trust for a lifetime. When kids know how to act, dogs feel calm and happy, and everyone gets to enjoy a loving, worry-free friendship.#dogcontent #kidsanddogs #dogmom#familydog #dogtrainerlife ♬ original sound – do Thoughtful Dog Trainer Shares the Rules She and Her Kids Follow to Keep Their Pet and Themselves Safe and Happy! There is oh-so-much to love about dogs. It’s no wonder people can get so caught up in their cuteness that they forget pets have boundaries like people. But as Meghan’s video shows, these rules aren’t meant to restrict the fun of having a pet. On the contrary, they help keep everyone safer and happier! “Teaching kids rules around dogs isn’t just about safety — it’s about building respect and trust for a lifetime,” Meghan writes in the caption of her post. “When kids know how to act, dogs feel calm and happy, and everyone gets to enjoy a loving, worry-free friendship.” You’d be amazed by what all a dog can do with the right training. For example, there’s a golden retriever who learned how to “read” signs! You can find the source of this story’s featured image here! The post Mom Shares List Of “Rules My Kids Have” Around Their Dogs & They’re Lessons All Parents Can Learn From! appeared first on InspireMore.

Once again, the New York Times is coming to the defense of the ghouls who celebrated the assassination of conservative Turning Point USA leader Charlie Kirk. Reporter-at-large Eli Saslow journeyed to Texas Hill Country for the latest epic, a 3,000-word sob story about a fired female firefighter, that got major, three-column play across the prime news real estate of Sunday’s front page: “She Hated Kirk. He Resolved to Make Such People Pay.” And again left unmentioned: The left cancelling people’s reputations and getting them fired over far less offensive things during the Covid and Black Lives Matter-fueled hysteria of 2020. That phenomenon also overtook the New York Times, driving out opinion staffer Bari Weiss and former opinion editor James Bennet from the Times opinion page during that sinister “social justice” era, whose consequences we are still enduring. Saslow focused on 55-year-old Mike Arnold, former volunteer mayor of Blanco, Texas, who got back into conservative politics by calling out liberals expressing glee online after the assassination of Christian conservative activist Charlie Kirk on a college campus in Utah. In the weeks since Kirk’s murder, millions of Americans have engaged in an internet war, flooding one another’s feeds with accusations and attacks that begin onscreen and spill into the real world in places like Blanco, a town of 2,100 in Texas Hill Country. Hundreds of people have been doxxed, fired or threatened for social media posts that were perceived as callous or celebratory in the wake of Kirk’s death. A historic act of political violence has unleashed a wave of new threats, deepening the cycle of division in a nation splitting into two hostile sides. …. But now Arnold scanned through Facebook and saw little of that love in evidence. Some people on the far left were laughing about Kirk’s murder in gleeful videos; others on the right were plotting vengeance. President Trump was saying he “hated” his opponents — that “we just have to beat the hell out of them” — and the longer Arnold scrolled, the more he came to identify with the president’s anger. If a group of Americans was willing to celebrate a coldblooded murder, then there was no line left to step over. So far so good. But Saslow then piled on still more sympathy to the ghouls who mocked or celebrated Kirk’s murder, after years of the paper ignoring vicious cancellations by liberals, including Danielle Meyers, who "worked as a paramedic and a firefighter in rural Comal County, and she was leading a training for a half-dozen colleagues on ways to detect internal trauma" when she learned the news. ....She returned her attention to the cadaver, but the other paramedics remained in a fog, rewatching the video, cursing, praying for Kirk and consoling one another as Meyers stood by herself. She was used to being isolated. She was one of only a few women in a fire department of about 100 employees, and even though she tried to fit in by sleeping at the firehouse two nights each week — even though she had won E.M.T. of the Year, passed all the fitness tests, registered as a Republican, collected guns and voted for Trump in 2016 — she was always defined by the ways she stood apart. A vegetarian. A bisexual. A single woman with dyed pink hair and facial piercings among a sea of mostly white, Christian, conservative men. More excuses were made for Meyers: She felt personally attacked by Kirk's language ...It seemed to her as if the entire internet had transformed into a shrine. Kirk was a martyr, a hero, a genius, an angel, a saint. She hadn’t posted on her private Facebook page in weeks, but she was tired of censoring herself for the benefit of others. And this was how Meyers bravely expressed herself online. “Good riddance,” she wrote on Facebook, a few hours after Kirk’s death. “Thoughts and prayers to the other guy.” And so it began. To his credit, Saslow ran down some of Arnold’s beefs, including “newcomers from Austin and San Antonio” bringing their intolerant liberal politics into his rural community and also some of the performative cruelty Arnold found in postings from the tolerant left, including “I’m happy he’s rotting in hell.”

The mysterious deaths of four people, including two children, at a home in San Francisco may have been a result of financial distress the family underwent in recent months.Police said the bodies were found on Wednesday at the residence at Monterey Boulevard at about 1:25 p.m., according to KRON-TV.'My brother and his two precious daughters were victims of a horrific crime.'They were later identified as 57-year-old Thomas Russell Ocheltree, his daughters 12-year-old Alexandra Ocheltree and 9-year-old MacKenzie Ocheltree, as well as 53-year-old Paula Truong. Neighbors and relatives said the couple was married and the kids were their children. Police did not release much information on the investigation and indicated the remains were being investigated by the medical examiner.Bob Ocheltree, the brother of the deceased man, appeared to suggest in comments to KRON that Truong was the cause of the deaths."My brother and his two precious daughters were victims of a horrific crime," he said Friday. "Our family is shocked and devastated, as you can imagine."A person close to the family told KRON that they owned several successful businesses in San Francisco, including a luxury auto repair shop and a number of Vietnamese coffee shops. The person knew the family for about a decade but wished to remain anonymous. The person added that the family had faced financial hardship, and records showed that they took out a $2.2 million loan against their home in 2022. The home went into foreclosure in 2024.RELATED: Remains of 4 dead infants found abandoned in recently vacated house, police sources say The incident was called "suspicious" by the San Francisco Police Department, which turned the investigation over to its homicide unit.Police said there was no threat to the public and the incident was an isolated event.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

One of the new changes in iOS 26.1 Beta 3 is an updated Apple TV icon, thanks to the fact that Apple has ditched the Plus and rebranded Apple TV+ to Apple TV.