Category: Daily Caller
Trump attends college football national championship
President Trump on Monday attended the College Football Playoff National Championship in Florida taking place on the Martin Luther King, Jr., federal holiday. Trump, who has been at Mar-a-Lago over the long weekend, was in attendance to watch the Indiana Hoosiers battle the Miami Hurricanes at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Fla., alongside family…
Democrats Take Over State, Immediately Move To Soften Crime Laws
state House’s Courts of Justice Committee is weighing soft-on-crime legislation
Hoosiers QB Fernando Mendoza gives ‘all the glory to God’ ahead of national championship
When it comes to his role in Indiana’s unlikely rise to the top of college football, Hoosier quarterback Fernando Mendoza knows just who to thank: “the man upstairs.”
“I really give a lot that I have accomplished this season in my life to the Lord and really give thanks to God. … Give all the glory to God,” Mendoza told reporters ahead of tonight’s 2026 National Championship against the University of Miami.
‘I really give a lot that I have accomplished this season in my life to the Lord.’
Team effort
At the press conference Saturday, the recent Indiana University transfer stressed that his success was a team effort — a team that includes the priests at his Catholic parish in Bloomington.
“I’m a Catholic man,” Mendonza told reporters. “And they’ve done so much to help me, whether it’s confession or just [being] able to talk or just Mass every Sunday.”
This is not the first time Mendoza has credited the men of the St. Paul Catholic Center.
Christmas gift
On Christmas Eve, the 22-year-old brought them his 2025 Heisman Trophy. Mendoza won the award — which honors the nation’s top college football player — on December 15, thanks in part to the 41 touchdown passes he threw for the Hoosiers this season.
Recalling the moment, Mendoza said, “I think it was really important to take it over [to] those guys, especially those guys who have been great religious mentors to myself.”
RELATED: Charity, miracles, and high tech — here’s how these monks built a massive Gothic monastery
Chasing a dream
In his Heisman acceptance speech, Mendoza thanked God for giving him “the opportunity to chase a dream that once felt the world away” and vowed to live up to the honor.
Mendoza, who attends Mass weekly and says he prays before every game, also thanked his younger brother Alberto, currently Indiana’s backup quarterback. Calling Alberto his “lifelong teammate,” Mendoza described him as the one person he could trust to “get through a tough day, tough play, [or] tough game.”
“I love you, bro. I love you and thank you for always giving it to me straight no matter the circumstance.”
The NCAA national football championship airs from Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida, at 7:30 p.m. ET on ESPN.
Ellen DeGeneres Fires Off Tone-Deaf, Self-Indulgent Minneapolis Post
She placed herself in the center of the conversation
‘Ripped the camera out of my hand’: Minneapolis cops shrug after Nick Sortor claims ‘Somali thugs’ rob him, drag him by car
Independent conservative journalist Nick Sortor has in recent weeks shone an unflattering light on the thuggery of anti-ICE rioters and imported grifters in Minneapolis.
The efficacy of his reportage — which led on Thursday to at least one arrest — appears to have made him a prime target for radicals who have circulated his image for street-identification purposes, mobbed his vehicle, and attacked another journalist whom they mistook for Sortor.
‘At least Minneapolis Police haven’t erroneously arrested me … yet.’
Sortor shared footage taken by fellow journalist Cam Higby on Sunday revealing the latest lengths radicals have gone to stop him: stealing his camera and dragging him down the sidewalk.
“A group of Somali thugs just ROBBED me of my $1,000 camera in the Cedar Riverside neighborhood of Minneapolis,” Sortor indicated in a Sunday evening X post. “Then they DRAGGED ME DOWN THE STREET as my hand got trapped in their door handle.”
Footage of the incident shows a black-clad woman wearing a face covering approach Sortor’s vehicle on the driver’s side, grab the journalist’s camera through his open window, and take off running.
Photo by STEFANI REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images
In the video, Sortor — who told Blaze News the “Somali thief reached IN to my vehicle and ripped the camera out of my hand, breaking the wrist strap” — quickly exits the vehicle and chases the woman on foot.
“The Somali mob then ran interference for them as I tried getting it back, giving the thief time to flee,” said Sortor.
Video confirms that while attempting to capture the apparent thief — who climbed into a red Kia — Sortor is obstructed by multiple shrieking onlookers and then nearly tackled to the ground by a black male wearing a mask.
Sortor appears to get his hand stuck in the door handle of the fleeing suspect’s vehicle such that when it accelerates down the sidewalk, the journalist is dragged alongside it for a considerable distance.
After the suspect flees the scene, a shaken up and bloodied Sortor tells his associate, “They just stole my camera.”
Women in face coverings and other apparent critics of Sortor encircle the journalist as he makes his way back to his vehicle, ordering him to leave. One of the women admits on camera that they followed Sortor to the scene.
Footage shows a Minneapolis police officer telling the journalist after the incident that he should leave the area and that individuals were calling the department to accuse Sortor of harassment.
“We don’t need this stuff to keep happening,” says the officer. “This level of hostility, obviously, it’s not going away.”
When asked how his treatment by radicals and police in Minnesota has compared with his treatment in Portland, Sortor told Blaze News, “Much like Portland Police, Minneapolis Police submit to the mob and have been completely neutered by the left-wing government out here. However at least Minneapolis Police haven’t erroneously arrested me … yet.”
Sortor was arrested when covering an anti-ICE demonstration on Oct. 2 in Portland, Oregon. After determining that it couldn’t make a disorderly conduct charge stick, the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office declined to pursue the case. Sortor indicated last month that he plans to sue the City of Portland for allegedly violating his civil rights when targeting and arresting him.
Sleuths have alleged that the vehicle in which the suspect fled the scene is registered to an individual whose address is listed as the SpectrumWorks Center in Spring Lake Park, Minnesota. Blaze News was unable to reach the autism support center for comment.
Cam Higby noted that “it’s the owner of the vehicle who’s address is allegedly the autism center. The robber may have hopped in someone else’s vehicle.”
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
Alex Ovechkin and most of Washington Capitals players skip Pride Night ritual
Washington Capitals players from outside North America may not be as used to Pride Nights as other athletes.
On Saturday night, the Capitals celebrated alternative sexual lifestyles with their “All Caps All Love” night, posting rainbow and transgender flags ahead of their gay-memorabilia auction.
‘We proudly stand with the LGBTQ+ community.’
After the NHL banned themed jerseys in 2023, some fought for the right to use rainbow-colored stick tape, and won. That is how select Capitals players decided to show their gay pride on Saturday night against the reigning champion Florida Panthers, but as the teams took the ice, viewers noticed only eight of the Capitals’ 20 dressed players took part.
John Carlson, Nic Dowd, Brandon Duhaime, Hendrix Lapierre, Connor McMichael, Dylan Strome, Logan Thompson, and Trevor van Riemsdyk were the eight players spotted on video and cited in an article by outlet Russian Machine Never Breaks.
However, missing from the group was captain, and the NHL’s all-time scoring leader, Alexander Ovechkin.
RELATED: Pro-transgender Seattle Kraken jersey enrages NHL fans: ‘Feel some trans joy’
Photo by Scott Taetsch/Getty Images
Interestingly, all of the players that participated were from either the United States or Canada; none of the Capitals players born overseas participated in the stunt.
This included center Aliaksei Protas from Vitebsk, Belarus, left winger Ivan Miroshnichenko from Ussuriysk, Russia, defenseman Martin Fehérváry from Bratislava, Slovakia, and defenseman Rasmus Sandin from Uppsala, Sweden.
Despite their leader and biggest star not participating in their festivities, the Capitals went all out in their support for certain sexual preferences with promotional videos and statements.
“We proudly stand with the LGBTQ+ community, and celebrate the importance of inclusion every day,” Strome, from Mississauga, Canada, said in a team video.
RELATED: Florida Panthers praise Trump during White House visit: ‘Nothing beats this’
Photo by Scott Taetsch/Getty Images
“It was great,” Dowd of Huntsville, Alabama, said in a post-game interview. “Every year we’ve put this on, guys lean into it and support it, and I thought it was another good night. I thought the Caps did a great job of showcasing it.”
The team also hosted the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, D.C., on the ice that night, but that was not enough to push them ahead of the Panthers, and the Capitals lost 5-2.
Fans in Seattle were recently outraged and piled plenty of backlash onto their Seattle Kraken team for supporting transgenderism with a themed logo, which inexplicably featured a unicorn drawn by a tattoo artist who said “queerness” inspires her work.
“Being able to be in Seattle surrounded by the queer community and being exposed to the queerness I never got to experience growing up, it inspires my work a lot,” the artist said.
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
