Category: Breitbart
Beloved basketball coach, wife identified as victims of fatal crash allegedly caused by illegal alien truck driver
Authorities have identified two of the three victims in a fatal crash in California last week involving an illegal alien truck driver.
‘If California had complied with the Secretary’s emergency rule, … he would have never been able to get behind his big rig.’
Clarence Nelson, a 76-year-old Pomona high school basketball coach, and his wife, Lisa Nelson, 69, were killed after a semitruck plowed into several vehicles on the I-10 freeway in Ontario on Tuesday, Fox News Digital reported. Four others were injured.
“This week, our community was deeply saddened by the tragic incident in the City of Ontario,” state Senator Susan Rubio (D) said. “It’s heartbreaking to learn that two of the lives lost were from my district — Pomona High School basketball coach Clarence Nelson and his wife, Lisa.”
“As a teacher, I know how a loss like this ripples through an entire school community,” she stated. “My heart goes out to their families, the Pomona Unified School District, and everyone mourning this tremendous loss.”
The driver of the truck, Jashanpreet Singh, is a 21-year-old Indian national in the United States illegally. He was suspected of speeding while being under the influence of drugs at the time of the crash.
The California Highway Patrol arrested Singh, and he is facing charges of driving under the influence of drugs and causing bodily injury and gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated.
Singh pleaded not guilty on Friday. His next court appearance is scheduled for November 4. Singh requires an interpreter for his upcoming hearing, ABC News reported, citing court filings.
RELATED: The shocking details behind another fatal illegal alien truck crash
Photographer: David Peinado/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Immigration and Customs Enforcement placed an arrest detainer against Singh. According to ICE, he crossed the U.S.-Mexico border in 2022 and was released into the country by the Biden administration.
The Department of Transportation accused California of violating federal law by issuing Singh a commercial driver’s license.
In September, DOT Secretary Sean Duffy announced the results of a Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration audit that found “systemic non-compliance” among driver’s licensing agencies in several states, including California. Duffy ordered a pause of California’s issuance of non-domiciled CDLs, requiring the state to identify all unexpired licenses that fail to comply with regulations.
In mid-October, the DOT stated it was withholding roughly $40 million in federal funds from the state over its failure to comply with English language proficiency standards for commercial drivers.
“If California had complied with the Secretary’s emergency rule and prevented the upgrade of this individual’s driving privileges earlier this month, he would have never been able to get behind his big rig,” the DOT stated about the deadly crash involving Singh.
The department claimed that California initially issued Singh a non-domiciled CDL in June. However, it noted that because Singh was 20 years old at the time, his license included a “K restriction” that limited his driving to intrastate operations.
On October 15, when Singh turned 21, California removed the K restriction without applying the stricter standards DOT announced in its September final rule.
Photographer: David Peinado/Bloomberg via Getty Images
“If California had complied with the Secretary’s emergency rule and prevented the upgrade of Singh’s driving privileges, Singh would have been required to return to the DMV (on or after October 15) to have the ‘K’ restriction removed and upgrade his CDL,” the DOT stated. “At that time, Singh would have been subject to the emergency rule and found ineligible to retain the non-domiciled CDL due to Singh’s status as an asylum seeker.”
The California DMV told Blaze News that the federal government approved Singh’s employment authorization, which it claimed was valid through August 2030. The DMV stated that it verified Singh’s documents using the federal Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements system, also known as SAVE. It also acknowledged that on September 26, the DOT issued an interim final rule that changed eligibility requirements.
“MISINFORMATION ALERT: The state does not determine commercial driver’s license eligibility,” the California State Transportation Agency wrote in a post on social media. “The FEDERAL government approves and renews all FEDERAL employment authorization documents that allows individuals to work and obtain commercial driver’s licenses.”
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The next Pearl Harbor will be digital — and made in Beijing
Recent reports from “60 Minutes” have pulled back the digital curtain on a sobering truth. China is no longer just stealing data; it is mapping America’s weaknesses— its grids, its ground, its very geography. Retired General Tim Haugh, former head of both the NSA and U.S. Cyber Command, revealed that Chinese hackers have infiltrated American computer networks to an astonishing degree. They have targeted everything from utilities and pipelines to phone systems and local water plants. Even Littleton, Massachusetts, a town of barely 10,000, was hacked. The FBI found Beijing’s fingerprints deep inside its water and electric control systems.
It’s often said that wars are fought for territory. What’s new is that the territory no longer needs to be conquered; it can be connected.
If “they’re willing to go after that small provider that doesn’t have a national security connection,” Haugh said, “that means every target is on the list.” He’s right. In the cyber age, you don’t need to drop bombs to cripple a nation. You only need to flip the right digital switch.
Beijing could trigger chaos — blackouts, water contamination, grid failures — forcing Washington to fight panic while fighting a war.
The threat has moved beyond networks and into the soil itself. Chinese state-linked companies have quietly bought hundreds of thousands of acres of American farmland, often near military bases, data centers, and missile silos. It’s not agriculture but access.
Former national security official David Feith, who has served in both Trump administrations, warned that China’s land purchases could become launchpads for espionage or even sabotage. With today’s technology, a few shipping containers, drones, or concealed transmitters on “farmland” could paralyze a base or poison a water supply. “It’s an entirely new way of war,” Feith told “60 Minutes.”
Consider the precedent. In Ukraine, drones smuggled across borders struck Russian bombers. What’s near can strike what’s vital. The same principle applies here, where the developing pattern is unmistakable. From hacking Littleton’s utilities to purchasing property beside Air Force bases in North Dakota and Wyoming, Beijing’s strategy is not a flurry but a campaign measured in decades.
China doesn’t improvise; it incubates. Twenty-five-year plans are routine. Its slow, subterranean siege against American security marries patience with precision. Even crypto mines have become camouflage. So-called “data centers” owned by Chinese-backed firms are colossal power drains, often located near military facilities. Feith warns that they can be used to spy on communications or overload local grids.
Why does China do this? Not for trade or treasure, but for leverage in crisis. General Haugh calls it pre-positioning: If conflict erupts in the Indo-Pacific, Beijing could trigger chaos at home — blackouts, water contamination, grid failures — forcing Washington to fight panic while fighting a war.
There’s a dark brilliance to it. Attack the ordinary to paralyze the exceptional.
The battlefield is now your back yard. Across the United States, cyber leadership posts sit vacant and agencies remain demoralized. General Haugh himself was dismissed after Laura Loomer accused him of disloyalty for having served under Biden. It was political theater when what was needed was practical strength. You can loathe Biden and still love the republic; the two are not mutually exclusive. But partisanship has become a kind of paralysis, blinding so many to the broader threat.
RELATED: Chinese SIM farms are radicalizing Americans and destabilizing society, intel experts say
Photo by Handout / Contributor via Getty Images
So what should the Trump administration do?
First, secure the land before it secures you. Close the loopholes that let adversaries buy acreage near sensitive sites. Twenty-nine states already restrict foreign land ownership; make it 50. Ownership of soil is sovereignty. Selling it to a strategic foe is suicide by acreage.
Second, treat cyber defense like civil defense. Rebuild the firewall of faith in government competence. Incentivize companies to modernize their systems and share intelligence. For too long, agencies have hoarded information like monks guarding manuscripts. They should be arming every county, every company, every citizen with the tools to repel an attack.
Third, punish corporate complicity. Any American firm fronting for Chinese capital should face criminal penalties. Beijing doesn’t buy farmland to grow corn. It buys it to grow control.
Fourth, revive deterrence through dominance. China respects strength and exploits hesitation. The administration must make it clear that interference with its utilities or infrastructure will meet a proportional — or greater—response. The Great Firewall cuts both ways.
Finally, restore competence at the top. Reinstating seasoned experts like Haugh or empowering a new cyber czar with wartime authority would signal that the era of political purges in defense agencies is over. A nation that cannot trust its guardians will soon be guarded by its enemies.
Still, the challenge isn’t only technical. It is one of will and vigilance. Americans have grown used to comfort, assuming safety is permanent. But as these reports show, peace without preparation is just permission to be plundered.
And yet there’s a faint humor in our hubris. We let Chinese-backed crypto farms bloom beside missile bases and then wonder why the lights flicker. We ban plastic straws to “save” the planet, but sell farmland to the very regime paving it over.
Faith teaches that temptation often comes disguised as opportunity. The same is true in geopolitics. The common assumption is that China invades. Wrong. It integrates. And by the time we notice, it’s already inside the gate, serving sweet-and-sour sovereignty with a side of spyware.
America must wake up. The next Pearl Harbor won’t come by sea or sky. It will come through dead screens, dry taps, darkened cities, and finally dead bodies.
The tools to prevent that silence exist. The question is whether we have the discipline to use them. Because the greatest danger isn’t what China can take. It’s what America might give away, one password, one acre, one act of indifference at a time.
‘Last Days’ brings empathy to doomed Sentinel Island missionary’s story
It would be easy to demonize John Allen Chau, the Christian missionary who died while trying to bring the Bible to a remote tribe. The 26-year-old could have introduced new diseases to the North Sentinel Island community, causing serious harm. He also vowed to invade a community that craves isolation above all.
Now imagine a Hollywood film capturing Chau’s short, dramatic life. The industry isn’t known for sympathetic close-ups on faith, to be generous.
‘Whenever we go into places where we’re not comfortable, the first thing is, “I have to impose my point of view. Here’s my worldview.”‘
Yet veteran director Justin Lin (“Star Trek Beyond,” the “Fast & Furious” franchise) took a less expected path in bringing the young man’s life to theaters.
Justin Lin. Photo: Giles Keyte
Quick to judge
“Last Days” stars Sky Yang as John, a determined Christian who vowed to do something remarkable with his life. He risked everything to travel to the North Sentinel Island, hoping to share Jesus Christ’s message.
The story ended tragically, but Lin’s film portrays Chau as a kind-hearted lad whose complicated life led him to his fate. Lin isn’t a Christian, but he treated the material with care and empathy. That wasn’t his first reaction.
“It’s very easy to judge and dismiss. That’s what I did when the story broke,” Lin told Align of the initial news reports, the kind of “hot take” that swiftly decried Chau’s fateful decision. “It didn’t sit well with me that I was so quick to judge and dismiss him.”
A father’s story
An Outside Magazine feature on Chau’s life had a powerful effect on the filmmaker. The story shared Chau’s father’s perspective on his late son, among other details.
That rocked Lin.
“I have a teenage son. As a parent, I know exactly what he was going through, how you’re trying to impart your wisdom, make sure they’re not going through any hardships,” he said. “What I learned from that article was that if you do it on your timeline, and your son is not ready, you just miss each other.”
The project didn’t involve fast cars or intergalactic travel, but the change of pace spoke to the veteran filmmaker.
“I really wanted to try something different,” added Lin, even if he wouldn’t have the kind of blockbuster budget at his back.
“It’s going to be a run-and-gun, small crew,” he imagined before reading more from the real Chau’s diary. “In John’s writing, he was clearly inspired by adventure novels and Hollywood films. … I’m going to honor that and be the signpost for our film. … It’s an intimate story, but it has to feel like a big Hollywood film.”
He called in some professional favors to give the film a Tinsel Town sheen that otherwise might not have been feasible.
RELATED: Pistol-packing rabbi targets anti-Semitism in action flick ‘Guns & Moses’
Still courtesy Pictures from the Fringe
Fresh perspectives
Lin approached Chau’s faith delicately, while acknowledging the dubious decisions he made along the way. A mid-film romance ends unexpectedly, for example, allowing for fresh perspectives on Chau’s quest.
That balance came via an extensive effort on the director’s part.
“Whenever we go into places where we’re not comfortable, the first thing is, ‘I have to impose my point of view. Here’s my worldview.’ I made that commitment early on to say, ‘No,’” he said. “Taking three years of my life [for this film] … was to connect with his humanity.”
More with less
“Last Days” looks as lush as a $100+ million film, the kind that Lin routinely delivers. He didn’t have those resources nor an A-list cast to bring John Chau’s life to the big screen. Yang is a minor revelation, while Ken Leung’s turn as the young man’s father is heartbreaking.
Lin has a knack for doing more with less.
“I made a credit card movie for $250,000, and that movie opened the door and gave me all these opportunities,” said Lin of “Better Luck Tomorrow,” his 2002 breakthrough made by maxing out his personal credit limit. The film earned $3.8 million theatrically, a tidy sum given the budget. Hollywood swiftly came calling.
“Last Days” may have an indie sensibility, but Lin still felt the pressure to “nudge” the film in certain directions. The real Chau refused to be “boxed in” by society, yet the film industry tried to do just that with the film.
“Can you make this a Christian movie?” he recalled of the behind-the-scenes chatter about “Last Days.” … I didn’t understand or even appreciate that kind of nudge. … ‘If you really wanna be marketable, you should do more of this.’ Those conversations for me ended very quickly.”
“That is a challenge with independent films … the temptation. … ‘If I give you all this money, can you cast my son?’ Those are all choices you encounter,” he said.
Lin will find himself on more familiar ground with the upcoming “BRZRKR,” based on the Boom! Studios comic book co-created by Keanu Reeves. The “John Wick” star served as an angel investor in “Last Days.”
“I didn’t grow up wanting to make action movies, but I ended up enjoying the process,” he admitted.
The public got a sneak peek at “Last Days” during the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, months before its Oct. 24 theatrical rollout. The post-screening Q and A left him hopeful he had accomplished what he had set out to do with the film.
“Five minutes in, they could find a common bridge in [the film],” Lin recalled. “We need that now more than ever.”
