Over the Fourth of July weekend, a soccer coach was killed in Minneapolis, a young man was shot and left fighting for his life, and a 300-person gathering broke into gunfire in northeast Minneapolis two hours after police had already broken it up once, according to police.
Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher says it all traces back to a Somali gang problem that barely existed three years ago and now spans the metro.
'Great kids.'
The numbers are stark. According to Fletcher, there have been 14 Somali homicides and more than 100 gang-related shootings in the last two years, across roughly a dozen gangs. One Minneapolis officer told Fletcher 20% of Minneapolis homicides are now tied to Somali gangs.
Fletcher is careful to scope it though: Out of roughly 100,000 Somalis in Minnesota, only about 300 young people are actually involved in gangs, and 97% of Somali youth are, in his words, "great kids." But he warns that 300 could grow to 900 without intervention.
Investigators say it isn't drug turf or cash driving the gang growth — the gangs haven't moved into heavy trafficking. It's status, flexed for an audience — stunts at graduations and the State Fair, posted on social media, with weapons increasingly fitted with switches that make them fully automatic. Kids as young as 12 are reportedly out until 1 or 2 a.m. with no one tracking where they are.
"It's all about showboating. It's all about ego for 99% of it," said Benjamin Seidl, an investigator with the sheriff's office.
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The July 4 weekend itself, which police call their busiest weekend of the year, was unusually violent even by Minneapolis standards — one dead, four injured overnight Saturday into Sunday. Alpha News counted a half-dozen more shootings and assaults within hours, plus fatal violence in the suburbs.
Minneapolis City Council Member Jamal Osman — "the first Somali-American council vice president in Minneapolis history," according to his bio — said he was "dismayed and deeply disappointed" by Fletcher's remarks, arguing Somali youth deserve investment and dignity, not a talking point. Fletcher, who's worked in the Somali community since 2010, has stood by the message.
A community meeting is scheduled for July 21 at the Ramsey County Sheriff's Office patrol station in Arden Hills.
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Every July Fourth, announcers retell the same origin story before Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest: In 1916, four immigrants on Coney Island settled an argument over who was the most patriotic American by seeing who could eat the most hot dogs in 12 minutes. James Mullen, an Irish immigrant, won with 13.
It never happened.
‘A hot dog is like a pop idol. Hot dogs are cute.’
The story was invented in the early 1970s by two Nathan's press agents, Max Rosey and Mortimer Matz, who needed a brand-new publicity stunt to make the contest look like a decades-old American tradition.
In 2010, Matz admitted to the New York Times: "In Coney Island pitchman style, we made it up." A Nathan's spokesman later confirmed the company "had no evidence of the contest" before Matz and Rosey got involved.
The fabrication came well embellished. The dates weren’t even fixed yet — early contests popped up near Memorial Day, Labor Day, and once in April. Some versions of the legend cast entertainer Jimmy Durante as a competitor, judged by Eddie Cantor and Sophie Tucker.
According to a former president of Nathan's, the real first contest happened in 1972. "We'd honestly wait for a couple of fat guys to walk by and ask them if they wanted to be in a hot dog contest," said Wayne Norbitz, who served as president for 26 years.
Nathan's still markets the event as an unbroken tradition dating back to 1916. It's a strange irony for a holiday built around an honest declaration.
Six-time champion Takeru Kobayashi, known as "The Tsunami," was once asked point-blank whether a hot dog counts as a sandwich.
"No! No. You have to have a lot of respect for hot dogs. It's completely different. First of all, the hot dog is American. Sandwiches are not American. They're different. Second of all, a hot dog is like a pop idol. Hot dogs are cute. It's a pop image — everyone knows what a hot dog is."
Anthony Bourdain called the bun "a ballistic delivery system" and warned that ordering a "hot dog sandwich" at any respectable stand would get you reported to the FBI. The National Hot Dog and Sausage Council agrees, officially classifying the hot dog as its own category rather than a subtype of sandwich.
Maybe the only thing more mythical than Nathan's 1916 origin story is the idea that anyone has actually settled what a hot dog is.
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During a tense meeting on Tuesday, conservatives pleaded with the Frisco City Council to halt the construction of a two-story, 43,575 square-foot mosque and torpedo plans to build Hindu and Jain temples in the area.
Texas native Larry Brock, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel and pardoned J6er, noted that he is well acquainted with the Islamist worldview, in part because he lived under Sharia law for seven years while working for Saudi Arabia. He, like other opponents who raised concerns with the city council, emphasized that such a worldview is at odds with the one that still predominates in the United States.
'I don't want to bring any mosque to Texas ever.'
Brock went farther in his criticism, suggesting that by approving the relevant projects recommended by the city’s planning and zoning commission, city councilors would be putting themselves and the city at risk of unlawfully "aiding and abetting a terrorist organization and providing them material support."
Edward Jacob Lang, a pardoned J6er from Florida wearing a tactical vest, similarly sounded off against Islam and accused the Frisco City Council of "selling out this country" and "inviting the enemy to eat at the table with you."
After Lang railed against the perceived ascendancy of alien cultures in Texas and was escorted out while screaming that he would burn down a mosque if he lived in Texas, Joel Tenney — an Iowa evangelist in a 10-gallon hat — asked what it meant to be Texan and suggested that mosques are representative of a worldview incompatible with America.
Tenney, an outspoken supporter of President Donald Trump, claimed at the outset that he came from "Texas royalty" — that he apparently not only descended from Sam Houston, the first and third president of the Texas Republic, but from frontiersman Davy Crockett.
The evangelical preacher claimed further that he was "kidnapped and held hostage in 2021 by Islamists in the Middle East while on a missions trip to take care of the Coptic widows and fatherless," apparently referring to the families of the Coptic martyrs beheaded by ISIS in Libya.
After signaling that he had deep roots in the state and good cause to resent Islam, Tenney stated, "I don't want to bring any mosque to Texas ever. We shouldn't have one here. It's incompatible with what it means to be an American."
Tenney, convinced that the construction of mosques and pagan temples would change the "structure and the fabric" of the state, insinuated that the ideal way forward for Muslims in America is conversion and assimilation, citing his Indian sister-in-law's transformation from a Muslim migrant into a Christian, English-speaking, naturalized patriot.
Brandon Burden, the "lead prophet" at Kingdom Life, echoed this sentiment, stressing that Muslims "need to assimilate into the culture and not take it over."
Some speakers pushed back against such criticism during the meeting.
Muslim Frisco resident Yameen Ahmed, for instance, condemned "anti-Muslim rhetoric" and said, "I hear lies that we are terrorists, rapists, and fraudsters. I reject every one of these lies."
Yoga Gudivada, formerly of India, attempted to reassure Frisco residents that the planned Hindu temple would be mutually beneficial, stating that "it will serve the broader Frisco community."
The city councilors chose ultimately not to challenge the zoning commission's recommendations, thereby enabling the mosque and temple projects to advance on sites zoned decades ago for future places of worship.
Frisco Mayor Jeff Cheney said that there was no legal basis to appeal the planning decisions.
"Planning and zoning's role is to execute on the ordinances and policies that the governing body of the city council has put in place. They have done their job here," said Cheney. "The case has met all of the requirements that city council, and city councils before, have put in place and they approved it under an administrative act."
Richard Abernathy, an attorney for the city, said that if the council instead overturned previously decided zoning decisions, it would expose itself to lawsuits, reported the Dallas Morning News.
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David McGuinty, Canada's liberal defense minister, boasted late last month that the DEI-ed Canadian military had surpassed its regular force recruiting target for the second consecutive year, enrolling 7,310 new members in fiscal year 2025-26. That brings the total of full-time military members to 67,827. Another 25,054 souls are in the reserves.
"The Canadian Armed Forces' continued recruiting success signals more than progress — it reflects a renewed strength at the core of our military," said McGuinty.
'I think we are representative of the Canadian demographic.'
What McGuinty neglected to mention in his optimistic press release was that nearly 20% of these recruits aren't actually Canadians, thanks to a 2022 decision by then-Trudeau Defense Minister Anita Anand — the daughter of Indian migrants — to drop the military's citizenship requirement.
It has become abundantly clear that having multitudes of permanent residents from the third world join up in exchange for expedited naturalization isn't so much a value added as a massive liability.
A damning and confidential Canadian Forces Leadership and Recruit School report that was authored by Lieutenant-Colonel Marc Kieley and obtained both by Juno News and the National Post highlights some of the various problems foreign recruits have created for the military.
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The report, which was also leaked online, notes that in Quebec's first noncitizen Francophone platoon, only 48% managed to graduate and there were constant ethnic clashes, specifically between the Cameroonian and Ivory Coast candidates.
More generally, noncitizen recruits in the Canadian military — some of whom had been in the country for only three months — have demonstrated a profound lack of "respect toward women" superiors and peers.
"For many candidates, it is the first time they have lived with members of a different sex, and for some it is also the first time they have been expected to treat women as their peers," said the report. "Platoons are also reporting inter-candidate cultural frustrations, with lack of respect towards women being the most common concern."
Some foreigners apparently also have issues taking orders from younger superiors.
"Older candidates from certain cultural backgrounds are also more likely to experience friction when responding to younger CFLRS instructors due to cultural hierarchies based on age," said the confidential report.
In addition to a failure of baseline competency, ethnic infighting, communication issues, and a rampant disrespect for women and junior officers, foreigners also have unrealistic expectations going into their training.
The report noted, for instance, that a "surprising number of permanent resident candidates believed they would simply go home after basic training" and that foreigners in officer training "are more likely to imagine a CAF officer position as a public service job, rather than a military occupation."
Physical fitness is also an issue for those recruits McGuinty is hoping will renew the Canadian military's strength. Permanent residents failed the initial basic training fitness screening test last year at a rate of 14.79% compared to 7.89% for citizens within the same period.
There has been some internal pushback.
According to the report, "On French (officer) platoons, where permanent residents have made up 50%-80% of all candidates, there have been more emotional responses, with Francophone staff openly raising the question of whether it is appropriate for officer commissions to be granted to non-Canadian citizens."
Commodore Pascal Belhumeur, a spokesman for the Canadian Department of National Defense, told the National Post, "I think the Canadian Armed Forces that we are recruiting is a representation of Canadian society now."
According to Statistics Canada, 23% of the persons presently in Canada are immigrants.
"If you look at the number of Canadians that are foreign-born and the number of people who we’re bringing into the Canadian Armed Forces, I think we are representative of the Canadian demographic," said Belhumeur, adding that the military is "proud to reflect the diversity of Canadian society."
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The controversial Trump-backed Gold Card visa program not only claimed to offer immigrants “residency in record time,” but promised up to $1 trillion toward reducing national debt.
However, during a heated congressional hearing, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has revealed that only one applicant has been approved so far.
“The process was recently resolved with DHS who runs the program, and they do a $15,000, the most serious vetting and analysis of any potential applicant in the history of the government. Usually it was $600. These pay $15,000 for an extraordinary vet,” Lutnick explained.
“So they have approved recently one person, and there are hundreds in the queue that are going through the process, but this is a new program, and they’ve just set it up, and they wanted to make sure they did it perfectly, and so we’ve worked through that,” he added.
“Sounds pretty rigorous if only one person has been OK'd for this,” BlazeTV host Pat Gray comments, shocked.
“I mean, no matter what you think of the program, that’s a failure, right?” he continues. “And I think the program would have been pretty good if we could have raised a trillion dollars.”
“Maybe it’s because DHS was closed and couldn’t do anything,” Jeff Fisher chimes in, adding, “But again, I’m OK with no one coming in.”
To enjoy more of Pat's biting analysis and signature wit as he restores common sense to a senseless world, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.
The internet icon known as the Scottish axe girl gave testimony in the trial of a man accused of attacking her last August.
Following her testimony, a judge lectured the young girl about possessing the weapons in the first place.
'Come here, sexy. I'll show you how to have a good time.'
The case goes back to the summer of 2025 when the 13-year-old girl was captured on video brandishing an axe and a knife in Dundee, Scotland.
Blaze News previously reported on allegations that a man had attacked the young girl after making sexual comments. Scotland Police stated than an adult man and woman had been charged in relation to the incident, along with a young girl.
The accused have since been identified as 22-year-old Ilia Belov and 20-year-old Nadjedzha Belova; both were charged with violent offenses against a group of girls between 12 and 14 years old. The man is also accused of following four young girls, according to the BBC, but he denies the allegations.
During Belov's trial last week, the teen girl testified that the man repeatedly said, "Come here, sexy. I'll show you how to have a good time."
The girl said the remarks made her "angry," so she "turned around and shouted at him."
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The 13-year-old also testified that a woman approached the group and threw the girl's sister to the ground, which is when the girl tried "to go for" the woman but was pushed by the man.
The child then accused the adult male of pushing her on the head, which hit a handrail, and the adult female of kicking her sister "in the head."
The girl told the defense attorney that it was at this point she brandished the axe and knife from her waistband, which was when she was filmed.
Defense lawyer Larry Flynn claimed that his client, Belov, did not start the incident and was simply responding to comments that were made to him. He also claimed that the witness called Belov an "immigrant," but the young girl denied the allegation.
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After the young girl presented her testimony, Sheriff Tim Niven-Smith — the judge presiding over the trial — told her she shouldn't have been carrying weapons in the first place.
"I hope you reflect that it's not a good idea to carry weapons in the city of Dundee," he reportedly said.
"There is no such thing as a defensive weapon; there are only offensive weapons," he added.
According to U.K. law, it is an offense to carry "a bladed or sharply pointed article" in public. Although there are carveouts for a "reasonable excuse," such as work, religion, or costume, the application of these rules can be strict.
According to the Inspectorate of Prosecution in Scotland, a government oversight agency, a gardener was convicted for possessing an axe in the door of his car because it was not stored in a tool bag in the trunk with his other tools.
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A federal grand jury indicted several Louisville, Kentucky, residents on February 4 for their alleged involvement in illegally selling driver's licenses to immigrants.
Melissa Moorman, a former clerk at Louisville's Nia Center Licensing Branch, stated that she alerted her supervisor and the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet in October 2024 that several of her co-workers were involved in a fraudulent scheme.
'As alleged in the indictment, this fraudulent scheme involved kickbacks and bribes leading to numerous legally present, non-US citizens obtaining unlawfully issued drivers licenses.'
Moorman told WDRB in August that her colleagues sold licenses to illegal immigrants who could not otherwise legally obtain them, charging them $200 per license. She claimed they were unlawfully selling these licenses four or five times per day for at least two years at multiple driver's licensing branches across the state.
"The employees were being paid under the table," Moorman previously told WDRB. "I immediately let my supervisor know."
Moorman stated that two co-workers began using her computer login to issue licenses illegally after her supervisor instructed her to share her login information, as not all employees had their own.
Moorman claimed that fraudulent Social Security cards and birth certificates were being used to issue driver's licenses and permits to illegal immigrants who never took any driving tests. She further claimed that her co-workers' scheme skipped Homeland Security background checks.
Shortly after reporting the alleged fraud scheme, Moorman claimed, she was fired.
KYTC claimed in a court filing that Moorman was terminated "for legitimate, non-discriminatory reasons not causally related to the alleged whistleblowing activity."
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A February 10 press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Kentucky unveiled criminal charges against five Louisville residents for alleged fraud and money-laundering offenses.
Donnita Wilson, 32; Aariel Matthews, 27; Lazaro Alejandro Castello Rojas, 37; Robert Danger Correa, 41; and one other individual who has not yet been arrested were charged with mail fraud, honest services mail fraud, unlawful production of identification documents, money-laundering conspiracy, and other offenses.
Wilson and Matthews previously worked at the Nia Center office, according to the indictment. Rojas and Correa did not work at any licensing agency but are accused of recruiting and escorting noncitizens to driver's license appointments at the Nia Center.
Rojas and Correa "gained the trust" of the noncitizen applicants "because they professed to know the process or even implied an association with the DMV, spoke the same language, and often had the same or similar countries of origin," the indictment read, adding that most of the applicants "were unfamiliar with processes and procedures for obtaining driver's licenses in Kentucky, and many had difficulty communicating in English."
Federal prosecutors argued that the defendants solicited illegal fees of $200-$1,500 from individuals applying for driver's licenses, promising expedited services, including avoiding lines and bypassing testing requirements.
The applicants were allegedly led to believe the process was legal, according to prosecutors.
The indictment insisted that the driver’s license applicants were legally present, non-U.S. citizens.
"This indictment represents the culmination of an investigation into a scheme by Kentucky Transportation Cabinet employees and others to illegally circumvent Kentucky's process for issuing driver's licenses, thereby issuing invalid licenses to lawfully present, non-U.S. citizens who had not first demonstrated their qualifications to drive on our roads," U.S. Attorney Kyle Bumgarner stated.
"Proper vetting of individuals seeking a driver's license is a prerequisite to ensuring the safety of Kentucky's roadways and ensuring the legitimacy of state-issued identification. As alleged in the indictment, this fraudulent scheme involved kickbacks and bribes leading to numerous legally present, non-U.S. citizens obtaining unlawfully issued drivers licenses."
Blaze News reached out to Kentucky Democrat Gov. Andy Beshear's office to request clarity concerning whether any of the licenses were issued to illegal immigrants or used to register to vote. The governor's office referred Blaze News to its press release, which stated that the "indictment does not involve issuing licenses to people illegally present in the country."
"During a routine review of credentials applications, KYTC officials identified a number of irregularities and revoked 1,985 credentials. KYTC immediately contacted law enforcement, which began an active criminal investigation," the press release read.
An attorney for Rojas declined to comment, citing the ongoing nature of the case.
The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet and attorneys for Moorman, Wilson, Matthews, and Correa did not respond to a request for comment.
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In a recent poll from Pew Research Center, a whopping 71% of Democrats said they favored requiring photo ID to vote — a shocking departure from what Democrats like Chuck Schumer appear to believe.
“We’ve got to get this done and we’ve got to get it done very quickly. The SAVE Act is an abomination. It’s Jim Crow 2.0 across the country. We are going to do everything we can to stop it,” Schumer told reporters.
“How is it Jim Crow to ask for ID, a picture ID? That’s what the SAVE Act is. That you’d be required to have picture ID to go in and vote or to register to vote and then to vote. OK, that is not unreasonable,” Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck explains.
“You need a photo ID to get a driver’s license to drive a car, or to renew your driver’s license, or replace your lost license, get a learner’s permit. You need a photo ID to rent a car, to pick up a rental car, even if you prepaid it, to buy car insurance, to file auto insurance claims, to register your vehicle, transfer your vehicle's title,” he continues.
But that’s not all, as Glenn also points out that you need a photo ID to get a parking permit, use car sharing apps, buy an airline ticket in person, to board a commercial flight, and enter the TSA pre-check.
“Is it Jim Crow to ask for photo ID as they scan your eye? Is it racist to ask for photo ID when you check a bag at the airport or when you rent a U-Haul truck or a moving truck, buy a bus or a train ticket in person? Is that really ‘no blacks'?” Glenn asks.
“No blacks can ever go on the bus or the train or an airplane. Really? Really? No, it’s just too hard for them to get a photo ID,” he says, joking, “What a racist.”
And of course, the list of reasons one might need a photo ID is never-ending.
“You want to open a bank account. You want to withdraw a large amount of cash. You want to cash a check, even your own check at many banks ... you need a photo ID to deposit cash, to wire money,” Glenn says.
“But let’s get into your daily life of just housing. You want to rent an apartment, you need a photo ID. No blacks have ever rented an apartment? Really? No Hispanics, no blacks. It’s racist to say we need a photo ID voting, because you can’t get a photo ID somehow or another,” he continues.
“Yet you need one to rent a house or an apartment or to apply for public housing,” he adds.
To enjoy more of Glenn’s masterful storytelling, thought-provoking analysis, and uncanny ability to make sense of the chaos, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.
The library of a Republican president refers without an apparent second thought to the need to reconstruct society through government intervention in order to defeat "class interests."
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