Day: January 12, 2026
Female Athletes, Republican AGs Rally To Defend Women’s Sports At SCOTUS
‘I’m pissed off … that we’ve reached a point where we seemingly have an entire political party who has diminished and erased our rights as women,’ said Riley Gaines.
Naked woman ‘trying to be a mermaid’ in neighbor’s pond charges at deputy who deploys taser — which has ‘no effect’: Police
A nude Louisiana woman trespassed into a pond on her neighbor’s property to go skinny-dipping in an attempt to be a “mermaid,” according to police. The female suspect reportedly refused to comply with officers’ commands, prompting police to deploy a taser.
The Union Parish Sheriff’s Office said in a Wednesday statement that officers were dispatched to a residence in the Linville community of Marion in November regarding a trespassing complaint.
‘Sutton was taken to the ground, where she continued to resist detention and began kicking and punching the deputy.’
The caller told police that the neighbor was screaming while standing in a driveway. The caller claimed to have warned the suspect to stay off the property.
“Upon the patrol deputy’s arrival at the location, the suspect was located swimming, nude, in a pond on the caller’s property,” police said.
Police identified the suspect as 41-year-old Erin Elizabeth Sutton of Marion.
Sutton initially refused to exit the pond or speak with the deputy, telling police she was “trying to be a mermaid,” according to the statement.
After repeated commands, Sutton eventually exited the pond. Due to the cold conditions, EMS was called to evaluate Sutton.
A deputy gave Sutton a blanket and attempted to escort her inside a residence to warm up, when the suspect suddenly charged toward the officer, according to police.
“After several commands, Sutton refused to comply, and the deputy deployed a taser, which had no effect,” the statement read.
Police added, “Sutton was taken to the ground, where she continued to resist detention and began kicking and punching the deputy.”
After Sutton was restrained, EMS transported her to a local hospital for medical treatment. Police said Sutton “threatened to kill deputies and paramedics” while being transported to the hospital.
Because Sutton required medical treatment at the scene, deputies obtained arrest warrants at a later date. A Third Judicial District Court judge signed off on the warrants.
Sutton on Tuesday turned herself in to the Union Parish Sheriff’s Office.
Sutton was arrested on three felony counts of resisting an officer with force or violence, two felony counts of public intimidation, two felony counts of battery on a police officer, a misdemeanor charge of disturbing the peace/drunkenness, and a criminal trespassing misdemeanor charge.
Sutton’s bond was set at $62,000. The sheriff’s office on Monday told Blaze News that Sutton was still behind bars.
Fox News reported that it was not immediately clear if Sutton has retained legal representation.
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Sen. Mark Kelly responds to censure from Pete Hegseth with a lawsuit
Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona says he filed a lawsuit against Department of War Sec. Pete Hegseth on Monday.
Hegseth has accused Kelly of committing sedition by suggesting that members of the U.S. military should refuse to comply with orders from the administration. Kelly has said that he intended only for members to refuse unlawful orders.
‘I filed a lawsuit against the Secretary of Defense because there are few things as important as standing up for the rights of the very Americans who fought to defend our freedoms.’
Hegseth had ordered Kelly’s military retirement pay to be cut and censured the senator, who is a retired U.S. Navy officer.
“Pete Hegseth is coming after what I earned through my twenty-five years of military service, in violation of my rights as an American, as a retired veteran, and as a United States Senator whose job is to hold him — and this or any administration — accountable,” said Kelly in a statement on social media. “His unconstitutional crusade against me sends a chilling message to every retired member of the military: if you speak out and say something that the President or Secretary of Defense doesn’t like, you will be censured, threatened with demotion, or even prosecuted.”
He went on to accuse Hegseth of trying to intimidate other critics of the administration by targeting Kelly.
Kelly concluded, “Today, I filed a lawsuit against the Secretary of Defense because there are few things as important as standing up for the rights of the very Americans who fought to defend our freedoms.”
The lawsuit lists Hegseth, the Defense Department, and the U.S. Navy as defendants.
President Donald Trump had also accused Kelly of committing sedition by his comments.
“It was sedition at the highest level, and sedition is a major crime. There can be no other interpretation of what they said!” the president wrote on social media.
RELATED: Pete Hegseth orders investigation into ‘catastrophic’ withdrawal from Afghanistan under Biden
Hegseth had said that Kelly might face additional punishment over his comments.
“Captain Kelly’s status as a sitting United States Senator does not exempt him from accountability, and further violations could result in further action,” Hegseth said. “These actions are based on Captain Kelly’s public statements from June through December 2025 in which he characterized lawful military operations as illegal and counseled members of the Armed Forces to refuse lawful orders.”
A Blaze News request for comment to the Department of War was not immediately answered.
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‘We will deport these thugs’: Rubio’s State Department revokes 100,000+ visas in 2025, putting Biden’s numbers to shame
The Trump administration has intensified its efforts to enhance vetting of foreign nationals entering the U.S., resulting in a record number of visa revocations.
The Department of State announced that in 2025, it revoked over 100,000 foreign visas, including 8,000 student visas and 2,500 specialized worker visas. That figure is more than double the number of visas that were revoked in 2024 — 40,000 — under former President Joe Biden’s leadership.
‘The Trump administration will continue to put America first and protect our nation from foreign nationals who pose a risk to public safety or national security.’
Foreign nationals whose visas were canceled included those who had encounters with U.S. law enforcement for criminal activity, the State Department reported.
“We will continue to deport these thugs to keep America safe,” the department stated.
The majority of those revoked by the State Department were for business and tourist travelers who overstayed their visas, Fox News Digital reported.
Some students and specialized workers who had their visas revoked also reportedly lost their legal status.
RELATED: Trump admin to vet all visa holders — revoke and deport threats to America
Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
Half of the specialized workers whose visas were revoked had previously been arrested for drunk driving; 30% for assault, battery, or confinement charges; and 20% for theft, child abuse, substance abuse and distribution, and fraud and embezzlement charges.
A department spokesperson told Fox News Digital that nearly 500 students lost their visas for charges related to drug possession and distribution.
The State Department announced in August plans to review all of the more than 55 million current visa holders to uncover potential ineligibility, such as overstays, criminal activity, public safety threats, and ties to terrorism.
RELATED: Trump strips 4,000 student visas over first 100 days — 90% flagged for ‘serious’ crimes
Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
“The Trump administration will continue to put America first and protect our nation from foreign nationals who pose a risk to public safety or national security,” State Department principal deputy spokesperson Tommy Piggott told Fox News Digital.
During a press conference last month, Secretary of State Marco Rubio addressed the administration’s increased efforts to revoke and deport foreign nationals.
“Who you allow to visit your country should reflect the national interest. We said that from the very beginning,” Rubio told reporters.
“There are some times we’ll deny people visas because of activities they’ve undertaken overseas,” he continued. “Other times it’s people that have visas but are in the United States doing things that run counter to our national interests. And the law gives us the right — and, in fact, I would argue, the obligation — to remove people like that from our country.”
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Exclusive: Bessent tells Rufo — ‘When the bear trap snaps,’ Minnesota fraudsters and complicit officials will face justice
While fraud rings in Minnesota’s Somali community have been under federal investigation for years, it was investigative journalist and BlazeTV host Christopher Rufo’s reporting that brought the billion-dollar scandals to national attention. Back in November 2025, Rufo published a report titled “The Largest Funder of Al-Shabaab Is the Minnesota Taxpayer,” in which he and co-author Ryan Thorpe alleged that billions of taxpayer funds were being stolen through schemes in Minneapolis’ Somali community and that millions of those funds were being funneled to the Al-Shabaab terror group in Somalia.
Rufo’s reporting sparked massive federal action, including revoking Temporary Protected Status for Somalis, surging Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations, freezing child-care funds, and ramping up prosecutions. Most notably, it led Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to visit Minnesota in January 2026 and launch major FinCEN probes into hawala businesses, IRS audits, and enhanced transfer reporting.
In this exclusive BlazeTV interview with Rufo, Bessent shares what his team’s investigations have revealed about Minnesota’s Somali fraud operations and what steps the Treasury is taking to ensure it stops.
Bessent says his team’s investigations confirmed that the fraud schemes were “bigger than anyone thought” and that money — either excess government-issued funds or stolen funds — are indeed being sent illegally out of the country.
One positive result of the investigations into Minnesota’s fraud rings, however, is that they will provide a “model” for future investigations in the other 49 states.
“Just because of the population sizes — California, Illinois, New York — that what’s going on [in Minnesota] is a microcosm of what’s going on there. And it’s like someone on the panel said today: Benefits have been turned into businesses. It is a cottage industry of teaching people how to form multiple LLCs, how to game the system, how to move money around,” says Bessent, pledging to “follow the money” and explore “recoveries” for cheated Americans.
Rufo calls these predominantly Somali-orchestrated fraud rings Minnesota’s “open secret.” Fraudsters were successful largely because they knew that the cultural standard of “Minnesota nice” and politicians’ “fear of being called racist” would result in the turning of blind eyes everywhere.
“What do you think the right attitude should be as you look at these frauds moving forward?” he asks.
“Clearly the governor’s office does not want to do investigations. So we just want the facts. We want to see where they lead, and we want to put the bad guys in jail,” says Bessent.
Further Minnesota’s soft-on-crime policies that “incentivize” criminality need to be addressed. “You could steal hundreds of thousands, millions of dollars, and under the Minnesota laws, you might not even get jail time. You might get a series of paroles,” Bessent adds.
“We have the ability to bring in IRS enforcement, and they don’t monkey around. So the incentive is going to be to stop this.”
Rufo then posed the question that conservatives nationwide are eagerly awaiting an answer to: Will we finally see any big names face justice?
“From [Gov. Tim Walz] on down appears to be at a minimum to have turned a blind eye. There are rumors circulating around this building right now that in fact some have been complicit in these schemes. Is that something your office is looking into?” he asks.
“That’s part of following the money. There are evidently some disturbing tapes of AG Ellison in meetings with people who donated to him calling for political favors to stop the investigations. So we’ll see,” says Bessent.
“And Chris, I can guarantee you when the bear trap snaps, we’re going to get these folks.”
To hear the rest of Rufo’s exclusive interview with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, watch the video above.
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‘Despicable’: Woman accused of posing as grieving parent of dead Camp Mystic girl to bilk donors
Deadly flash floods swept the Lone Star State’s Hill Country region on July 4, killing at least 135 people, including 27 people at Camp Mystic.
Among those who perished at the Christian camp outside Hunt, Texas, was Chloe Childress, an 18-year-old counselor remembered by her family for her “contagious joy, countless friends, unending faith, and unimaginable energy.”
While Wendie and Matthew Childress were dealing with the sudden loss of their daughter, a Florida woman was allegedly impersonating the bereaved parents online in an attempt to make a quick buck.
‘This is bottom feeding.’
Maitlin White, a 28-year-old with ties to Crestview, Florida, has been charged with two felony counts of online impersonation. White allegedly pretended to be Matthew Childress and created SpotFund and GoFundMe pages where she solicited public donations to support the fallen teen’s family.
“Using a young woman’s tragic death to scam people is despicable,” wrote Harris County Precinct One Constable Alan Rosen.
RELATED: The insane little story that failed to warn America about the depth of Somali fraud
Maitlin White. Courtesy of the Office of Harris County Constable Pct 1 Alan Rosen.
Dane Schiller, a spokesman with the constable’s office, told MySA that Childress’ family reported the accounts, which first appeared on the crowdfunding platforms on July 8.
“Right out the gate, they [the family] called it to our attention and said, ‘We have nothing to do with this,'” said Schiller.
Rosen announced on July 11 that his office had launched an investigation into a case where a scammer was pretending to be Matthew Childress. While the fraudulent pages were promptly shut down, Rosen indicated the GoFundMe donation page had already brought in approximately $1,500.
After shutting down the pages, authorities reportedly tracked banking and online records back to White, who Schiller indicated admitted to the fraud scheme on a phone call with officials.
“This is bottom feeding, seeking to exploit people’s emotions and abuse the memory of a young woman who died in such a horrific tragedy all to make a quick and illegal buck,” stated Rosen. “Such cruelty to the family, as well as our entire community will not be tolerated.”
GoFundMe said in a statement obtained by KRIV-TV that it has “zero tolerance for the misuse of our platform and bad actors who seek to take advantage of the generosity of others,” adding that they “acted quickly to remove the fundraiser back in July, refund donors, and ban the account from future fundraising on GoFundMe.”
The crowdfunding platform indicated that the alleged fraudster was unable to access the funds.
White, who is reportedly not yet in custody, is hardly the only person who allegedly exploited the tragic flood.
For instance, a number of liberals tried to put a political spin on the deaths of American children, in one case insinuating that the parents of the dead were racists.
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Astronomers spot white dwarf star creating a colorful shockwave
Astronomers have observed a white dwarf – a highly compact Earth-sized stellar ember – that is creating a colorful shockwave as it moves through space, leaving them searching for an explanation.
LTO summons motorist who used blinker, siren in QC
The Land Transportation Office (LTO) has summoned the owner and driver of a black Volkswagen Jetta who went viral on social media for his alleged unauthorized use of blinkers and sirens and for pretending to drive a diplomat”s car to get out of a traffic jam.
LOOK: Glowing, short-lived lava fountain on Mayon”s crater shoots up to 100 meters
The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) on early Tuesday morning observed a short-lived incandescent lava fountain that shot up to a height of 100 meters at the summit crater of Mayon Volcano amid its continued unrest under Alert Level 3.
