Day: December 30, 2025
USC coach Lincoln Riley blames Notre Dame for ending 96-year rivalry with shocking scheduling change
The USC-Notre Dame college football rivalry won’t return in 2026, and Trojans head coach Lincoln Riley is pointing the finger at the Fighting Irish.
Pollster Nate Silver shocked by Democratic unwillingness to ‘admit they f—– up’ in 2024
Pollster Nate Silver criticized a large swath of the Democratic Party for not admitting to any mistakes made during the 2024 election in a Semafor interview.
Ex-teacher accused of possessing 500+ child porn images — second arrest deepens case
A former teacher in Texas has been accused of inappropriate sexual contact with a child and possession of child pornography. Just days after the substitute teacher’s arrest, her alleged boyfriend was also arrested for child sex crimes.
On Dec. 19, Madison Paige Jones was reportedly charged with one count of aggravated sexual assault of a child, two counts of indecency with a child sexual contact, and one count of possession of child pornography.
Jones is accused of having more than 500 visual depictions of child pornography in her possession.
According to Ellis County Sheriff’s Office jail records, Jones is being held on a $90,000 bond.
The Midlothian Police Department said in a statement that officers were “dispatched to investigate a report of a potential sexual assault involving a child” on Dec. 17.
Law enforcement reportedly zeroed in on the former 30-year-old substitute teacher and arrested her.
KDFW-TV reported that the Midlothian Independent School District said Jones worked as a substitute teacher four times in the past year at Heritage High School and Baxter Elementary School.
According to the district, Jones substituted for one day at Heritage High School on Nov. 19 and for three days at Baxter Elementary on Oct. 28, Oct. 29, and Nov. 3. The New York Post separately reported the same dates, citing the district.
The San Antonio Express-News reported that Jones is accused of possessing more than 500 visual depictions of child pornography.
The school district said there is no indication that the charges are connected to Jones’ work as a substitute teacher and that preliminary information shows none of the alleged conduct occurred on a Midlothian ISD campus or during a school-related activity.
CBS News reported that the Midlothian Independent School District said in a statement that its process for monitoring employee criminal history “functioned as intended” and that the district was notified quickly by the Texas Department of Public Safety.
The district said the substitute teacher is no longer employed and that it followed required reporting procedures with the Texas Education Agency.
Police said detectives with the Criminal Investigation Division continued the investigation and identified a second suspect, Zackery Dondlinger, 37, of Happy, Texas.
Authorities arrested Dondlinger on Dec. 23 in Loving County, Texas, according to police.
The sheriff’s office said Dondlinger was charged with sexual performance by a child and is being held at the Winkler County Detention Center awaiting arraignment.
Citing the Midlothian Police Department, CBS News reported that Jones and Dondlinger were in a dating relationship.
Law enforcement agencies involved in the investigation include the Midlothian Police Department, the Ellis County Children’s Advocacy Center, the Texas Department of Public Safety, the Texas Office of the Attorney General’s Fugitive Apprehension Unit, and the Loving County Sheriff’s Office. Authorities said the investigation is ongoing.
Anyone with information related to this case is urged to contact Midlothian Police Detective Dawson Frazer at 469-672-0056.
The Loving County Sheriff’s Office, the Ellis County Children’s Advocacy Center, and the Texas Office of the Attorney General’s Fugitive Apprehension Unit did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.
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The DEI era is ending — and America’s elite institutions may be dying with it
The reign of diversity, equity, and inclusion over America’s elite institutions is coming to an end — and BlazeTV hosts Christopher Rufo and Jonathan “Lomez” Keeperman believe those institutions may be coming to an end as a result.
But it’s not necessarily not a bad thing.
“That 10-year period … the BLM era, let’s call it. Did any of these institutions get better? … Did the journalism at the Times and the Post and the Atlantic improve? Were there sparkling, important, seismic essays that emerged in this 10-year period? … Did Hollywood produce better movies?” Rufo asks.
“The answer is absolutely not,” Lomez answers. “This isn’t even debatable. It is self-evidently the case that everything has gotten worse that these institutions were responsible for producing, and you can measure this along any metric you want.”
“Those things are dying, dead, in decline. What is doing better?” Lomez asks. “Well, all the places that these white men fled to. Crypto, you know, the frontiers of AI and tech, where they could find places to still ply their talents.”
“What happens to these institutions?” he asks. “I think we just let them — they sort of have to die.”
However, Lomez does believe there will be a “silver lining.”
“There has to be some reason this is happening and some way to make it better. And the answer I’ve come up with … these institutions actually needed to decline. They were already potentially in a sort of moment of secular decline anyway, and that this has freed a bunch of talent to go do other things,” he explains.
“I do believe these people and these impulses are going to find their way toward something productive,” he says. “And this is what’s going to arise out of this moment.”
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Migrant from Ghana hid in Nativity scene to avoid police, mayor says
A bizarre scene unfolded in a small town in southern Italy when the mayor said that he noticed that one of the “three wise men” figures in the public Nativity scene appeared to be moving.
Galatone Mayor Flavio Filoni wrote about the incident in a post on Facebook on Dec. 10. He says that he was admiring the Nativity scene set up by the town’s tourism office when he made the startling discovery.
Rather than a wise man, the man was a foolish criminal migrant from Ghana, according to Filoni.
“I noticed a presence I had initially mistaken for part of the scene. A detail that seemed harmless, but turned out to be decisive,” Filoni wrote.
A comical image of the scene shows the man trying to blend in among the mannequins of the holy display.
Rather than a wise man, the man was a foolish criminal migrant from Ghana, according to Filoni. He had previously been sentenced by a court in Bologna to nine months in prison but reportedly fled before completing his time. When he hid in the scene, the man was being sought for allegedly assaulting an officer and resisting arrest.
Filoni said law enforcement officials were able to capture the man without difficulty.
“A result that confirms, once again, how fundamental it is to place full confidence in the day-to-day work of those who guarantee safety and legality,” added the mayor.
RELATED: ‘Why would somebody have such hate?’ Churchgoers stunned at Nativity display vandalism
“A sincere thank you to all the women and men who guard our territory with competence, attention and dedication,” Filoni said.
Galatone is a small town of about 15,000 residents in the Lecce province of southern Italy.
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Trump says US struck drug-linked site in Venezuela: ‘We hit them very hard’
President Donald Trump said Monday that the U.S. military carried out a strike on Venezuelan territory, which he described as the first land-based attack in an escalating conflict tied to alleged narco-terrorism.
Trump made the remarks to reporters at the White House before a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He said the strike targeted a dock area that he claimed was used to load boats transporting drugs.
‘Two nights ago we knocked that out. So we hit them very hard.’
“It doesn’t matter, but there was a major explosion in the dock area where they load the boats up with drugs, so we hit all the boats, and now we hit the area,” Trump said. “It’s the implementation area — that’s where they implement. And that is no longer around.”
When asked by a reporter whether additional strikes had occurred inside Venezuela, Trump declined to comment.
The Pentagon provided no details and referred all questions to the White House.
The president offered further details during a radio interview with WABC, saying the strike occurred two nights earlier and targeted what he described as a major shipping facility.
“We just knocked out — I don’t know if you read or you saw — they have a big plant or big facility where they send the, you know, where the ships come from,” Trump said. “Two nights ago we knocked that out. So we hit them very hard.”
The operation would represent the first direct U.S. strike on Venezuelan land during the current confrontation. The Trump administration has previously ordered strikes against vessels it says are operated by narco-terrorist groups smuggling drugs into the United States.
Critics of the administration have questioned those allegations and accused the U.S. government of acting unlawfully, including claims by human rights organizations that the strikes could constitute war crimes. Administration officials have rejected those accusations.
Tensions escalated earlier after the United States seized a Venezuelan oil tanker that administration officials alleged had violated U.S. embargo restrictions. Trump later ordered what the administration described as a full blockade of tankers traveling to and from Venezuela.
RELATED: Venezuelan freedom fighter wins Nobel Peace Prize — and immediately dedicates it to Trump
In response, Venezuelan officials announced military exercises that they said were intended to prepare the country to defend against a possible U.S. invasion aimed at removing President Nicolás Maduro from power.
Trump has previously said the United States could take military action to reclaim oil interests that were nationalized by Venezuela’s socialist government decades ago.
“It’s about — they took our oil, they took it, and they also sent millions of people in here from jails into our country,” Trump said in the WABC interview. “Some of the worst people on Earth.”
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PBB Collab 2.0: Boys invite girls to New Year ball with creative promposals
The boys made the girls feel extra special in the latest episode of “Pinoy Big Brother: Celebrity Collab Edition 2.0.”
Beyonce declared a billionaire by Forbes magazine
US singer Beyonce is now a billionaire, Forbes magazine said Monday, becoming only the fifth musician to achieve such a milestone.
Identity and individuality: Fashion creatives reflect on 2025 trends and what’s next in 2026
In the Philippines, where seasons are fewer and dressing is often dictated by climate and occasion, how a garment is worn is more important than what”s “in.”
‘Shake, Rattle & Roll: Evil Origins’ frames horror as a generational cycle
“Shake, Rattle & Roll: Evil Origins” marks a shift for the long-running horror franchise by structuring its story across three time periods–1775, 2025, and 2050–while revealing that all three segments are linked.
