The one-party rule of ‘Democratic Kings‘ in Maryland continues to reveal an optically displeasing truth about these leftist activists masquerading as competent politicians, who are anything but, and their epic mismanagement of state finances has only occurred because of limited oversight into their radical agendas.

Fox Baltimore reports that a state legislative audit uncovered major concerns about the oversight of billions of dollars spent by Democratic Gov. Wes Moore and his rudderless leftist allies in Annapolis, who champion everything from failed climate-crisis policies to wokeism to gender identity agendas to social justice and criminal justice reforms, as well as protecting illegal aliens (new voter base) – this is anything but ‘Maryland First’…

“Most recently, a state audit revealed 42 state offices spent a total of $8.5 billion last year with minimal oversight. That audit came on the heels of a State Highway Administration audit detailing $360 million in unauthorized spending for federal projects, and a separate Social Services Administration audit revealing a lack of protections for foster care children in Maryland,” Fox Baltimore wrote in a report. 

Taxpayers Protection Alliance president David Williams told Fox Baltimore journalist Jeff Abell, “It’s a problem that almost $9 billion is going to these entities and we just don’t know where the money is going.”

Williams expressed serious concerns over the findings, pointing out, “This is supposed to be a system of checks and balances. We know the checks have gone out but there are no balances to be sure the money is being spent wisely.”

He called for increased oversight, saying, “If you’re receiving taxpayer money, there has to be full accountability, and this is billions of dollars we’re talking about.”

The lack of oversight in Maryland comes as no surprise, given that the state suffers from a disastrous one-party rule of far-left Democrats who care more about upholding the globalist framework of climate-crisis and illegal alien policies. 

Moore’s photo next to dark-money-funded NGO emperor Alex Soros makes it all the more clear why he and Maryland Democrats operate with a globalist framework in the first place.

The result of one-party rule has been a ballooning deficit, soaring taxes, a credit rating downgrade, and a continued large-scale exodus of residents fleeing to red states as Maryland quickly loses its charm and is on track to transform into the next “Illinois 2.0.” On top of the financial failures, power grid mismanagement has collided with surging data center demand, sending power bills through the roof.

Another Democrat-run state under scrutiny this week is Minneapolis, where far-left Gov. Tim Walz seemingly ignored his Somali voting base that looted taxpayers in billion-dollar welfare fraud schemes – with some of the funds allegedly ending up in the hands of overseas terror networks.

If Maryland and Minneapolis have oversight problems, imagine what’s happening in all the other Democrat-run states.

By Brian Martucci of UtilityDive

Summary:

• U.S. data center power demand could reach 106 GW in 2035, BloombergNEF said Monday in one of the more aggressive load growth estimates to date. The U.S. had about 25 GW of operating data centers in 2024, Bloom Energy said earlier this year.
• BloombergNEF’s latest forecast is 36% higher than its previous prediction, released in April. The jump is due in part to the higher average size of the 150 significant U.S. data center projects announced in the past year, over a quarter of which are larger than 500 MW, BNEF said.
• The Energy Information Administration, which tracks demand for the federal government, generally only publishes detailed projections out two or three years, and few other analyses have attempted firm forecasts as far out as 2035.

BNEF’s report comes as some energy industry analysts and executives warn that an artificial intelligence bubble or speculative data center proposals could be fueling excessive load growth projections. 

A report from Grid Strategies released last month said utility forecasts of 90 GW additional data center load by 2030 were likely overstated; market analysis indicates load growth in that time frame is likely closer to 65 GW, it said. 

A July report from the Department of Energy estimated an additional 100 GW of new peak capacity is needed by 2030, of which 50 GW is attributable to data centers. Those facilities could account for as much as 12% of peak demand by 2028, according to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

BNEF’s data center project tracker shows the industry diversifying beyond traditional data center hubs like Northern Virginia, metro Atlanta and central Ohio into exurban and rural regions served by existing fiber-optic trunk lines for data traffic.

A map of under-construction, committed and early-stage projects shows gigawatts of planned data center capacity spreading south through Virginia and the Carolinas, up through eastern Pennsylvania and outward from Chicago along the Lake Michigan shore. More data centers are also planned for Texas and the Gulf Coast states.

Much of the capacity is poised to materialize on grids overseen by the PJM Interconnection, the Midcontinent Independent System Operator and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas. BNEF predicts PJM alone could add 31 GW of data center load over the next five years, about 3 GW more than expected capacity additions from new generation. 

With the expected surge, the North American Electric Reliability Corp. warned late last year of “elevated risk” of summer electricity shortfalls this year, in 2026 and onward in all three regions. 

Some experts disputed NERC’s methodology, however. MISO’s independent market monitor said in June that the group’s analysis was flawed and that MISO was in a better position than grid regions not expected to see exponential data center growth, like ISO New England and the New York Independent System Operator. 

Other technology and energy system analysts expect a significant amount of proposed data center capacity to dissipate in the coming years due to chip shortages, duplicative permit requests and other factors. 

In July, London Economics International said in a report prepared for the Southern Environmental Law Center that meeting projections for U.S. data center load in 2030 would require 90% of global chip supply — a scenario it called “unrealistic.” 

Patricia Taylor, director of policy and research at the American Public Power Association, told Utility Dive earlier this year that it’s common for data center developers to “shop around” the same project across neighboring jurisdictions. 

Still, U.S. grid operators face an “inflection moment” as they balance the desire to accommodate large-scale data centers with the obligation to ensure reliable service for all customers, BNEF said.

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

A federal judge on Dec. 2 ordered the Trump administration to stop making warrantless immigration arrests in the District of Columbia without probable cause.

Judge Beryl Howell of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia said the plaintiffs made a strong case that immigration officers have been arresting immigrants without warrants or conducting assessments to determine if each individual poses a flight risk.

Federal law states that an officer can arrest an immigrant without a warrant “if he has reason to believe that the alien so arrested is in the United States in violation of any such law or regulation and is likely to escape before a warrant can be obtained for his arrest.”

“Defendants’ systemic failure to apply the probable cause standard, including the failure to consider escape risk, directly violates the clear statutory requirement,” as well as Department of Homeland Security (DHS) regulations implementing the law, Howell said in an 88-page decision.

Howell ordered the Department of Homeland Security and its divisions, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement, to stop making warrantless arrests without an individualized determination of whether the person is likely to escape before a warrant can be obtained and that the person being arrested “is in the United States in violation of law or regulation regulating the admission, exclusion, expulsion or removal of aliens.”

The Department of Justice, which represents agencies in legal cases, and the DHS did not return requests for comment on the ruling.

CASA, a Maryland-based organization that sued along with individuals who have been arrested in the nation’s capital in recent months by immigration officers, did not respond to a request for comment.

The lawsuit stated that federal agents have been “indiscriminately arresting without warrants and without probable cause District residents whom the agents perceive to be Latino” without warrants and without individualized assessments that those being arrested are illegally in the United States or likely to escape before agents can obtain a warrant.

“In some cases, officials belatedly realize that there is no legal basis to hold in custody the individual whom federal agents arrested without any individualized assessment and release them,” it stated. “Even those released from detention experience significant physical and psychological harm from their arbitrary arrest and detention, and they fear that they will experience those harms again.”

Federal officials said in court filings that, in carrying out President Donald Trump’s order to make the District of Columbia safer, they have been arresting people identified as being illegally in the country, and that Howell should not enter a preliminary injunction.

“Plaintiffs assert that ICE has a pattern and practice of acting otherwise, but that evidence consists of their individual arrest experiences, pseudonymous third-party anecdotes, and third-party statements by immigration attorneys,” officials stated. “At most, those declarations describe varying, unconnected encounters, not an official, routinely applied, district-wide warrantless arrest pattern and practice. Plaintiffs thus have not even shown an unlawful law enforcement policy—let alone that they face a ’real and immediate’ threat of being harmed by it.”

Earlier this year, a federal judge in Colorado and a federal judge in California issued similar rulings. Another judge in California ordered officers not to stop people based on factors such as race. The Supreme Court put that order on hold.

Jack Smith has been called to the House for a deposition before the House Judiciary Committee, after Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) fired off a subpoena to the former special counsel. 

In a Wednesday letter to Smith, Jordan instructed him to show up before the House committee on Dec. 17 at 10am ET.

“Due to your service as Special Counsel, the Committee believes that you possess information that is vital to its oversight of this matter,” Jordan wrote in the letter to Smith which he also posted to his X account. “Based upon communications with your counsel, we understand that you are available to testify at a deposition” on the aforementioned date. 

Jack Smith Subpoenaed. pic.twitter.com/hjqInNjGSG

— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) December 3, 2025

As the Epoch Times notes further, Jordan’s subpoena also included a request for communications and documents connected to Smith’s investigation as special counsel, which involved charges being brought against President Donald Trump in two cases.

Smith had charged Trump in Washington over his challenging the results of the 2020 election, and charged him in Florida with illegally retaining classified documents. Trump had pleaded not guilty to the charges, while Smith ultimately dropped both cases.

Weeks before Trump took office a second time, Smith released a report in January that defended his special counsel investigation and the charges that were brought. The former special counsel argued that the charges were dropped due to a longstanding Department of Justice policy that discourages the prosecution of sitting presidents, but stressed that he believed in the merits of the charges.

“It is equally important for me to make clear that nobody within the Department of Justice ever sought to interfere with, or improperly influence, my prosecutorial decision making,” Smith said in the Jan. 7 letter that was sent to then-Attorney General Merrick Garland.

The Department of Justice under the Biden administration also never sought to “improperly influence my decision as to whether to bring charges” against Trump, Smith said.

The allegation that “my decisions as a prosecutor were influenced or directed by the Biden administration or other political actors is, in a word, laughable,” he also said.

The House Judiciary Committee has already sent several letters to Smith so far this year, including one in October that alleged Smith may have obtained phone records of sitting Republican lawmakers as part of his investigation. Several former members of Smith’s team have testified or have been called to testify before the Judiciary panel, Jordan has said.

In a letter sent to Smith, Jordan wrote at the time that his “testimony is necessary to understand the full extent to which the Biden-Harris Justice Department weaponized federal law enforcement.”

“As the Special Counsel, you are ultimately responsible for the prosecutorial misconduct and constitutional abuses of your office. Your misdeeds were so flagrant that the Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility confirmed to the Committee in November 2024 that it had opened an inquiry into the tactics of your office,” Jordan wrote.

In his first public remarks since leaving the government, Smith told a panel hosted by former FBI counsel Andrew Weissman that allegations he was operating in a politicized manner are incorrect. Smith also said he was concerned about attempts to demonize career DOJ officials to score political points.

The Epoch Times contacted Smith’s legal team for comment on Dec. 3.

Authored by Travis Gillmore via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

President Donald Trump will eliminate fuel standard regulations imposed by President Joe Biden when he signs an executive order on Dec. 3 in the Oval Office.

His directive will reduce the number of miles a vehicle must travel on a mile of gasoline, a move that will mitigate car price increases of about $1,000 and save Americans approximately $109 billion, according to administration officials.

Representatives from Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis are expected to join the president for the signing ceremony.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, a division of the Department of Transportation, oversees the Corporate Average Fuel Economy regulations—enacted by Congress in 1975 to reduce fuel consumption by setting miles per gallon standards for vehicles.

A difference of opinion in recent administrations—with Democrats preferring electric vehicles and pushing to increase fuel efficiency for gas-powered vehicles, while Trump’s presidencies have focused on reducing costs and regulations—resulted in a series of policy reversals.

Biden strengthened fuel economy standards in June 2024 by 2 percent annually for passenger vehicles and light trucks.

Increases of 8 to 10 percent annually were proposed for some new vehicles.

President Barack Obama ramped up standards and set a goal in 2012 of achieving 54.5 miles per gallon for light passenger vehicles by 2025.

Trump rolled back Obama’s initiatives in 2020 during his first term in office.

The president also rescinded California’s electric vehicle mandate, which sought to ban the sale of gas-powered vehicles by 2030, when he signed three related congressional acts on June 12, including one that revoked the Golden State’s ability to impose tailpipe emissions limits.

Trump signed dozens of executive orders since taking office in January, including one called “Unleashing American Energy,” aligned with his agenda of increasing domestic energy production and limiting regulations that he said are negatively affecting the economy and driving inflation.

This is a breaking story and will be updated.

Polymarket, the crypto-based prediction market platform, has officially launched a U.S.-focused app following approval from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). 

Against all odds.

Polymarket’s U.S app is now being rolled out to those on the waitlist.

We’re launching with sports — followed by markets on everything. pic.twitter.com/WOoVMszrqc

— Polymarket (@Polymarket) December 3, 2025

The move lifts nearly four years of restrictions preventing American users from participating in its blockchain-powered prediction markets.

Initially available in the App Store under the sports category, the app allows U.S. users to place bets on sports events, with plans to expand into other markets including proposition bets and election wagers. 

The app is opening access gradually, inviting users from a previously established waitlist, though not all applicants have received invitations yet.

As Bitcoin Magazine details below, Polymarket bypassed the traditional, multi-year CFTC registration process by acquiring QCEX, an already-registered platform, for $112 million in July. 

The company received a no-action letter from the CFTC in September, allowing it to resume operations legally in the U.S. after its 2022 settlement over unregistered event contracts.

Polymarket’s CFTC approval

In November, Polymarket secured an Amended Order of Designation from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), allowing it to operate as an intermediated trading platform under the full set of federal rules for U.S. exchanges. 

We’re thrilled to share that we’ve received CFTC approval for intermediation, paving the way for seamless access to polymarkets through registered brokers & financial institutions.

Coming soon to a trading platform near you. pic.twitter.com/2m72ZwCdtA

— Polymarket (@Polymarket) November 25, 2025

The approval enabled the platform to onboard brokerages and customers directly, allowing users to trade through futures commission merchants (FCMs) and access traditional custody, reporting, and market infrastructure.

To comply with the CFTC’s requirements, Polymarket upgraded its systems, introducing enhanced market surveillance, supervision policies, clearing procedures, and Part 16 regulatory reporting. 

The platform remains fully subject to the Commodity Exchange Act and other CFTC regulations, including self-regulatory obligations.

The platform had been barred from operating in the U.S. in 2022 after offering unregistered derivatives contracts. Its return followed the acquisition of QCEX, a regulated contract market and clearinghouse, for $112 million, which enabled the company to bypass a lengthy registration process.

 Earlier this year, the platform also introduced support for direct bitcoin deposits, allowing users to fund accounts with BTC alongside stablecoins like USDC and USDT.

The platform has attracted significant investor interest. In November, reports indicated that Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), owner of the New York Stock Exchange, is considering a $2 billion investment that could value Polymarket between $8 billion and $10 billion. 

Earlier funding discussions reportedly placed the company’s valuation at $12–15 billion. Investors also include 1789 Capital, backed by Donald Trump Jr.

Polymarket’s competitors, such as Kalshi, are also expanding, with Kalshi recently Kalshi raising $1 billion at a $11 billion valuation, doubling value in under two months

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

MSNBC pundits unleashed hysterical race-baiting smears Wednesday after President Trump clamped down on unchecked migration from failed states.

The network, actually called MSNOW now, is in full panic mode, accusing Trump’s tough immigration enforcement of being a “white nationalist agenda” designed to “make America WHITE again.” 

The leftist network’s meltdown comes amid ICE operations targeting Somali migrants in Minnesota, where Trump has vowed to root out threats to American safety and culture.

In a segment on “Chris Jansing Reports,” Princeton University professor and MSNBC contributor Eddie Glaude Jr. railed against Trump’s policies, claiming they stem from a belief that “social cohesion isn’t possible if you have all this immigration” from diverse groups. 

Glaude didn’t hold back, declaring Trump’s approach is “part of a white nationalist agenda” and insisting the goal is “to make America White again.”

🚨 JUST IN: MSNBC is sounding the alarm that President Trump’s anti-3rd world policies will “make America WHITE again”

“It’s a white nationalist agenda!”

“There’s a belief social cohesion isn’t possible if you have all this immigration!”pic.twitter.com/t4woh1GhfD

— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) December 3, 2025

The rant followed Trump’s pointed criticism of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), the Somali-American congresswoman, whom he called “garbage” along with fraudster Somalis in Minnesota.

Jansing amplified the drama, highlighting Omar’s status as “the first woman of color ever elected to represent her state in Congress” and “one of only three Muslim members of congress serving right now.” 

Glaude escalated the rhetoric, calling Trump’s language “blatant racism” and intolerable from a president. He argued that describing American citizens as “garbage” reveals a deeper agenda: “This clear idea that America has to remain a white republic and if it’s not then we are going to hell.” He urged viewers to reject this “vision” outright.

This isn’t the first time Glaude has lobbed such accusations. Back in May, he told MSNBC’s “Deadline” that Trump was pushing a “white nationalist agenda” to a “hate-filled base.”

In July, he claimed ICE’s mission under Trump was to “make America white again” during nationwide raids.

And in June, he compared ICE agents to “slave catchers,” suggesting Trump supporters revel in the “dark” spectacle.

The latest outburst aligns with broader media hysteria over Trump’s immigration overhaul. As we previously highlighted, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem recommended a full travel ban on countries “flooding our nation with killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies,” expanding on existing restrictions on 19 high-risk nations like Afghanistan, Haiti, Somalia, and Venezuela.

Trump’s administration has already paused migration from Third World countries, halted two million asylum claims, and axed Temporary Protected Status for hundreds of thousands from Haiti and Somalia. Border Czar Tom Homan is ramping up deportations with 10,000 new ICE agents, while self-deportations have surged to 1.6 million.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt defended the moves, stating, “If you don’t align with the values of the United States, and you don’t respect our country, our culture, our laws, and our people, you are not welcome here.”

Critics like MSNBC paint these as racist, but the reality is stark: Under Biden, over 20 million entries from failed states overwhelmed communities, fueling crime, welfare abuse, and cultural clashes. Trump’s  policies aim to reverse that damage, prioritizing citizens over invaders.

MSNBC’s obsession with race-baiting ignores the real victims—American families burdened by unchecked migration. 

Your support is crucial in helping us defeat mass censorship. Please consider donating via Locals or check out our unique merch. Follow us on X @ModernityNews.

Authored by Matthew Vadum via The Epoch Times,

A former Jan. 6 defendant who alleges he was repeatedly abused in custody is suing the federal government for almost $18 million.

Ryan Samsel of Bristol, Pennsylvania, was convicted in September 2024 of civil disorder-related offenses in connection with the civil disturbance at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and was incarcerated and awaiting sentencing when President Donald Trump pardoned him on Jan. 20 of this year.

The civil legal process in Samsel’s case was initiated when the Department of Justice (DOJ) was served with a notice under the Federal Tort Claims Act on Nov. 28, his attorney, Peter Haller, told The Epoch Times. A tort is a wrongful act or infringement of a right that gives rise to civil liability.

To sue under the Federal Tort Claims Act, a claimant has to file an administrative claim with a federal agency within two years after the injury takes place. The agency then has six months to settle or deny the claim. The plaintiff then has six months after the claim is denied or the agency fails to respond to the claim to file a civil lawsuit against the federal government in federal district court.

The document that begins the process, known as a Standard Form 95, states that Samsel is seeking $17,980,000 from the federal government for personal injuries suffered from January 2021 through January 2025.

Samsel, now 42, was found guilty of “assaulting Officer C.E. with a deadly or dangerous weapon and inflicting bodily injury,” during the civil unrest at the U.S. Capitol, the DOJ said last year.

The DOJ said Samsel was also convicted on felony charges of civil disorder, assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers, as well as assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers using a dangerous weapon.

Haller said his client disputes the criminal allegations and that the officer identified as C.E. suffered no injury, which he said was clear from a magnetic resonance imaging scan and other medical evaluations.

Samsel alleges he was subjected to physical abuse while in custody at facilities operated by the DOJ and the U.S. Bureau of Prisons in the District of Columbia, New York, and Virginia.

There were 62 “separate assaults and other torts committed against Mr. Samsel while in the custody of the United States, as well as cruel and unusual punishment,” Haller said in the legal filing.

“Given the severity, duration, and documented multiplicity of the abuses suffered by Mr. Samsel, he is likely to be recognized as the most tortured individual by the Federal Government in recent American history,” the attorney said.

The form states that during Samsel’s four-year federal detention, he suffered 62 torts that “reflect a continuous scheme to physically and mentally harm him throughout his imprisonment and continuously deny him necessary medical treatment for serious vascular issues that pre-existed prison as well as for most injuries sustained from attacks by corrections officers during prison.”

The form said Samsel was held in custody for almost seven months but was not indicted until Aug. 25, 2021, which was “in clear violation of due process.”

As a result of his incarceration, Samsel suffers from “permanent physical impairment stemming from multiple documented injuries sustained during his incarceration.” Among those injuries are a dislocated jaw, broken right orbital bone, broken nose, lacerations, contusions, and acute kidney damage, “all resulting from coordinated assaults by correctional staff and other inmates,” the form said.

He still suffers from partial loss of vision in his right eye, persistent pain, and swelling related to his injuries, and needs ongoing medical attention for eye and chest injuries, blood clots, and thoracic outlet syndrome, according to the form.

In addition, he suffers panic attacks and “other uncontrollable emotional consequences,” as well as physical deterioration, chronic pain, and high cholesterol that came about as a result of his prolonged confinement and inadequate nutrition while in custody, the form said.

In November 2021, Samsel was forced to sit in a restraint chair for about 17 hours, where he was on public display for local schoolchildren to see him through a window. While in the chair, he was left in his own waste and developed a blood clot, according to a table of torts attached to the form.

From January to August 2021, Samsel was placed in a segregated unit for Jan. 6 prisoners in which the lights were on at all times. He was denied exercise and showers. He suffered sleep deprivation for about seven months, the table said.

Haller said his client received three “major beatings” from corrections officers and in two different prisons he was housed in closet-sized rooms.

Haller said the abuse his client experienced was comparable to the experiences of prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad, Iraq, more than two decades ago.

Reports of alleged widespread torture and abuse of prisoners held by U.S. forces at Abu Ghraib during the 2003 Iraq war first emerged more than 20 years ago, when leaked photos appeared to show detainees being forced into humiliating positions.

“The parallel of Ryan’s torture to that of Abu Ghraib is remarkable–17 hours in a restraint chair with students as witnesses, multiple beatings by officers, multiple multi-month stretches in solitary with lights on 24/7, a broom closet for a cell, housed in a high security floor of [Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York] with murderers who stabbed him, starvation, repeated humiliation,” Haller told The Epoch Times.

“These forms of severe mental and physical abuse, disorientation and humiliation were all applied against Ryan Samsel just as they were against the prisoners of Abu Ghraib; the only meaningful difference is that in Abu Ghraib, Arab and Middle Eastern terrorists generally suffered torture for a year or less—whereas Ryan Samsel was tortured for four years,” Haller said.

The Epoch Times reached out to the DOJ for comment. No reply was received by publication time.

Southern California’s ABC7 reports that an F-16 fighter jet has crashed near Naval Air Weapons Station (NAWS) China Lake.

#BREAKINGNEWS: San Bernardino County firefighters responding to reports of crash possibly involving F-16 aircraft near China Lake https://t.co/Dh7bmvLASE

— ABC7 Eyewitness News (@ABC7) December 3, 2025

Breaking911 has posted what appear to be images of the aftermath of the jet crash.

Reports of an F-16C Fighting Falcon from the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds crashed near Trona Airport, south of Death Valley, California. The pilot reportedly ejected safely, suffered minor injuries, and was taken to a Ridgecrest hospital. pic.twitter.com/Nl9xRjcC6G

— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) December 3, 2025

“F-16 Thunderbird 5 photographed with its last takeoff before it crashed in Trona, CA. Insane to see six of them take off from Nellis and only five returned. I’ll try to post the images later of the Thunderbird’s last takeoff. This is just a picture of the screen from my camera,” photographer Kelvin Cheng wrote on X.

F16 Thunderbird 5 photographed with its last takeoff before it crashed in Trona, CA. Insane to see six of them take off from Nellis and only five returned. I’ll try to post the images later of the Thunderbird’s last takeoff. This is just a picture of the screen from my camera pic.twitter.com/rJaIfXpLHN

— Kelvin Cheng (@kelvinkccheng) December 3, 2025

Developing…

Authored by Gabrielle Temaat via The College Fix,

Nine out of ten undergraduate students think that “words can be violence” at least “somewhat,” according to a new Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression survey. 

The poll also showed that ideological gaps between left-leaning and right-leaning students are widening.

When respondents were asked how much the statement “words can be violence” describes their thoughts, 47 percent answered with “completely” or “mostly.” Twenty-eight percent said it describes their thoughts “somewhat,” and 15 percent said “slightly.”

Additionally, around 59 percent of students said “silence is violence” describes their views at least “somewhat,” though only 28 percent said it describes their thoughts “completely” or “mostly.” 

“When people start thinking that words can be violence, violence becomes an acceptable response to words,” FIRE Chief Research Advisor Sean Stevens said in a news release following the poll. 

“Even after the murder of Charlie Kirk at a speaking event, college students think that someone’s words can be a threat. This is antithetical to a free and open society, where words are the best alternative to political violence,” Stevens said. 

The poll also showed that moderate and conservative students have grown less supportive of disruptive or violent tactics to stop campus speakers, while liberal students’ support for those tactics has stayed the same or risen slightly compared to the spring. 

At the same time, moderate and conservative students have become more open to allowing controversial speakers, while liberal students have maintained or increased their opposition to those speakers.

In particular, opposition among liberal students “increased considerably” to a speaker who previously said “The police are just as racist as the Ku Klux Klan” and “Children should be allowed to transition without parental consent,” according to the survey report. 

FIRE conducted the survey in collaboration with College Pulse to evaluate campus free speech after Charlie Kirk’s Sept. 10 assassination at Utah Valley University. The poll contained 21 questions and was given to 2,028 undergrads to gauge their comfort with a range of sensitive topics.

Half of the students surveyed said Kirk’s assassination has made them less willing to attend or host controversial events on campus, and about 20 percent reported feeling less comfortable even going to class.

A majority of students said the incident made no difference in their willingness to speak up on controversial political topics in class. However, 19 percent said they felt a “great deal” less comfortable 26 percent said they felt “slightly” less comfortable.