Author: mfnnews
Canadian Pride fest president resigns after backlash for comments on transgender athletes in women’s sports
Pride festival organizer Wendi Nicholson resigned amid criticism over comments on transgender women in elite sports as the IOC considers new athlete eligibility policies.
EXCLUSIVE: Catholic bishops chided for sowing ‘confusion’ on deportation stance
An American Catholic group chided some bishops for sowing “confusion” on the church’s official stance on enforcement and called for a “more complete conversation on immigration.”
‘Protector’ father of nine slain after minor crash spirals into deadly road rage clash
Father of nine Jason Elola killed in Castro Valley road rage incident after birthday party. Family seeks justice as suspect released pending investigation.
DOJ orders lawyers to report judicial ‘obstacles’ in immigration, antifa cases
Federal prosecutors must report judicial system obstacles in cases involving assaults on law enforcement, antifa investigations and doxing by Friday.
Trump Will Order DOJ To Investigate Epstein’s Links To Bill Clinton, Major Banks
‘Now that the Democrats are using the Epstein Hoax’
Michelle Obama Lashes Out At White People During Interview For New Book
‘Our hair comes out of our head naturally in a curly pattern’
’Trey didn’t have a car’: ‘Airplane!’ director David Zucker on humble origins of ‘South Park’ empire
The creators of “South Park” didn’t always know it would become a hit — let alone one of the longest-running shows in the history of television.
Just ask Hollywood veteran David Zucker, who hired Trey Parker and Matt Stone shortly before the duo — and the foul-mouthed kids they created — became household names.
‘They were also unsure of if “South Park” would ever work.’
Zucker — who directed seminal spoof comedy “Airplane!” along with his brother Jerry and the late Jim Abrahams — recalled that when he first met the University of Colorado grads in the mid-1990s, they were still very much struggling filmmakers.
Ride share
“They came to my office and I met with these guys, and Trey didn’t have a car,” Zucker said.
Despite their precarious finances, the duo already had a feature film under their belt — 1993’s “Cannibal! The Musical” — as well as animated short “The Spirit of Christmas,” which would soon land them a deal for “South Park.”
Impressed with their talents, Zucker hired Parker and Stone to do a video for Universal executives commemorating the studio’s recent purchase by Canadian beverage giant Seagram.
The duo turned in “Your Studio and You,” a side-splitting send-up of 1950s industrial videos crammed with cameos by the likes of Steven Spielberg, Sylvester Stallone, and Michael J. Fox.
Hedging their bets
Zucker remembered the young newcomers in 1997 when casting the leads for his longtime passion project, “BASEketball.” By then Parker and Stone had made a second film, “Orgazmo,” a comedy about a Mormon missionary (Parker) turned porn star turned superhero. With a $25 million budget and major studio backing, Zucker’s project represented a major step up.
And while the two were then deep in production on the show that would launch their careers, they assumed it would die a quick death once it aired. So they agreed to star in “BASEketball.”
“They were also unsure of if ‘South Park’ would ever work,” said Zucker. “This was a hedge against, you know, Trey having to get his car fixed.”
Upon premiering in August 1997, “South Park” was an instant hit, requiring Parker and Stone to shoot “BASEketball” while simultaneously maintaining their grueling TV schedule.
RELATED: ‘Naked Gun’ creator David Zucker offers ‘Crash’ course in comedy
Rookie year
While Zucker had already written a script for “BASEketball” — inspired by an actual sport he and some friends “invented on my driveway” during the 1980s — he relied on his Gen X collaborators to punch it up for the younger “South Park” fan base.
“They probably wrote about a third of it, and you know, a lot of that stuff, because I didn’t know what kind of language went on between … 20-somethings,” Zucker explained. Both the actors were in their late 20s at the time.
One of Parker and Stone’s most significant additions to the script was helping with the “psych-outs” — tasteless insults “baseketball” players hurl at an opponent in hopes of making him miss a shot.
All-star lineup
Such tactics were never used by the real-life players, whom Zucker described as “all these guys who later became, you know, heads of studios and heads of agencies” — a roster including director Peter Farrelly (“There’s Something About Mary” and “Dumb and Dumber”), former CAA head David “Doc” O’Connor, and former Fox Television Group chair Gary Newman.
RELATED: ‘South Park’ roasted Trump — and the White House is not happy
1998: “South Park” creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone star in the movie “BASEketball.” Getty Images
Zucker noted that he is emphasizing the “psych-out” element in a new “BASEketball” pitch: a reality show featuring teams of comedians playing the sport while tearing each other down.
As for his old “BASEketball” buddies, Zucker said he recently visited their office to get a 10-minute preview of their new movie, “Whitney Springs,” a live-action comedy musical starring rapper Kendrick Lamar as a black man working as a slave re-enactor at a living history museum who discovers his white girlfriend’s ancestors “owned” his ancestors.
“They showed me 10 minutes of it, and it looks great,” said Zucker.
Trump administration nails California with lawsuit against ‘brazen power-grab’
The proposition granting the Democrat-controlled legislature authority to redraw California’s congressional districts won by a decisive margin, but the Trump administration is suing to stop the gerrymandering scheme.
On Thursday the Department of Justice filed to join a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the law that would allow Democrats to possibly flip five Republican seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.
‘Race cannot be used as a proxy to advance political interests, but that is precisely what the California General Assembly did with Prop. 50.’
Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom lauded the proposition’s passage as a victory for Democrats against President Donald Trump.
Trump officials fired back that the scheme violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution based on evidence that Democrats were redrawing districts along racial demographic lines.
“Race cannot be used as a proxy to advance political interests, but that is precisely what the California General Assembly did with Prop. 50,” said Deputy Assistant Attorney General Jesus Osete. “Californians were sold an illegal, racially gerrymandered map, but the U.S. Constitution prohibits its use in 2026 and beyond.”
Newsom campaigned for Proposition 50 on the basis that it gave Californians a chance to fight back against the Trump administration and foil the president’s plans. The endeavor proved successful, as the proposition passed with 64.6% of the vote in support and only 35.4% voting in opposition.
“The essence of this moment, what Proposition 50 represents to those that have been bullied, to those that have been demeaned, to those that feel powerless, to those that are concerned about not only themselves but each other, our community, the city, our state, our nation, and, for that matter, what we represent to rest of the world,” said Newsom. “That’s what Prop. 50 represents.”
Trump suggested that Democrats had rigged the contest on the day of the election.
“The Unconstitutional Redistricting Vote in California is a GIANT SCAM in that the entire process, in particular the Voting itself, is RIGGED,” the president wrote on social media. “All ‘Mail-In’ Ballots, where the Republicans in that State are ‘Shut Out,’ is under very serious legal and criminal review.”
RELATED: Gavin Newsom tries to hit Trump administration on energy prices — and gets humiliated online
“California’s redistricting scheme is a brazen power-grab that tramples on civil rights and mocks the democratic process,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi of the lawsuit. “Governor Newsom’s attempt to entrench one-party rule and silence millions of Californians will not stand.”
Newsom’s office responded to the lawsuit on social media.
“These losers lost at the ballot box and soon they will also lose in court,” read the statement.
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NFL player apologizes over backlash for doing Trump dance: ‘I did not mean to offend anyone’
A Detroit Lions player says he is sorry if he hurt anyone’s feelings.
The Lions crushed the Washington Commanders 44-22 in Landover, Maryland, on Sunday, in a game that featured a flyover from President Trump in Air Force One.
‘It had nothing to do with who the president was.’
The event included the president in the commentary booth, and Trump swore in members of the military over a chorus of boos from Commanders fans.
Fans were likely equally as perturbed when Lions wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown celebrated a touchdown with Trump’s signature dance, which was a massive trend among athletes in 2024.
Evidence of displeasure from fans was apparent on social media following the game. Detractors called Brown “a f**king disgrace” and a “hoe ass n***a,” while claiming he is “supporting an orange racist, sexist, felon currently stopping people from receiving food.”
On Wednesday, St. Brown took to his podcast to address the controversy. His brother, Equanimeous, brought up the “elephant in the room” less than six minutes into the episode.
“You had a touchdown celebration. Talk about it,” Equanimeous prompted his brother.
Amon-Ra then immediately apologized.
“First of all, if I offended anyone, I do apologize. I did not mean to offend anyone. It was just we’re having fun,” he said on the “St. Brown Podcast.”
The 26-year-old added, “If any president was at that game — if they had a dance, I would have done it. It had nothing to do with who the president was.”
While it seemed that St. Brown was deliberately fence-sitting, he commented on the historic nature of Trump’s appearance at the Commanders’ venue.
“Even after the game, I found out — someone told me that was the first game that a president has been to in over 40 years. So first regular-season game, which is crazy,” he said.
The receiver said the controversy was simply a case of him and his teammates “having fun doing the dance”; “nothing more, nothing less.”
Backing his brother, Equanimeous equally described the “quick shimmy” as “nothing serious, nothing political.”
Trump has become intertwined with the Commanders franchise during his second term, as the team hopes to move back to D.C. and a $2.7 billion stadium.
Trump, the NFL, and D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) praised the plans in May while announcing that the city would also host the 2027 NFL Draft.
The president subsequently threatened to suspend the whole deal if the Commanders refused to change their name back to the Washington Redskins. The team abandoned the moniker in 2020, going as the Washington Football Team until rebranding as the Washington Commanders in 2022.
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Crush the H-1B program: MTG’s proposed bill aims to stop companies from depressing American wages with foreign workers
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) plans to introduce a bill to eliminate a controversial visa program.
On Thursday, Greene announced that she would propose legislation to “aggressively” phase out the H-1B program, which allows foreign nationals to enter the U.S. to fill “specialty occupations.”
‘My bill will take away the pathway to citizenship, forcing visa holder to return home when their visa expires.’
The requirements of the program state that the individual must provide “theoretical and practical application of a body of highly specialized knowledge.” However, critics of the program argue that it has been exploited to flood the U.S. labor market with foreign labor, resulting in fewer jobs and depressed wages.
“For far too long, Big Tech, AI companies, hospital systems, and corporations across the board have abused this system to undercut hard working Americans,” Greene said in a statement provided to Blaze News.
She explained that her bill would eliminate the program to ensure American workers are prioritized in every industry.
“I believe in the strength, talent, and incredible potential of the American people,” Greene declared.
RELATED: The H-1B system is broken. Here’s how to fix it.
President Donald Trump. Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Greene stated that the bill would allow only one exception: a 10,000-per-year cap on visas issued to medical professionals. However, she noted that even this exception would be phased out over a 10-year period.
“My bill will also restore the original intent of the visa, for it to be temporary. These visas were intended to fulfill a specialty occupational need at a given time. People should not be allowed to come and live here forever,” Greene said in a video posted to X. “My bill will take away the pathway to citizenship, forcing visa holder to return home when their visa expires.”
RELATED: Trump admin announces major H-1B visa abuse investigation, but critics want more
Lori Chavez-DeRemer. Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
President Donald Trump, during an interview with Fox News that aired this week, expressed support for the H-1B program, stating that it is essential for bringing in individuals with specific talents and for training American workers in those specialized areas.
In a separate interview, U.S. Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer told Fox Business, “There are companies who are using the H-1B visa program, who are abusing the program. What we want to make sure is we’re always protecting the American worker.”
“We will clamp down on these companies who are abusing and depressing wages and not protecting the American worker first,” Chavez-DeRemer added.
“We don’t need to import a foreign workforce when we have brilliant Americans ready to work and ready to succeed,” Greene said in a statement provided to Blaze News. “My bill shuts down the corrupt H-1B pipeline and puts Americans first again, just like we should’ve been doing all along.”
“The impact of this bill will be massive — Americans securing good paying jobs will also help the housing market. They will no longer have to compete with legally imported labor on visas.”
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