Blog

Seattle to pay $30M for teen death in anti-cop CHOP zone — because ambulances wouldn’t go there

The city of Seattle has been ordered to dole out $30 million to the dad of a teen who died from a gunshot wound inside a Black Lives Matter occupation zone in 2020 after first responders refused to enter the protest area.

The Emerald City was found liable by a jury Thursday of botching its emergency response to the still-unsolved shooting of Antonio Mays Jr., 16, on June 29 inside the Capitol Hill Organized Protest (CHOP) zone — a movement that was established in response to George Floyd’s death at the hands of cops in Minneapolis, Minn., two weeks earlier.

The verdict came after an unusually long 12 days of deliberations by the 12-person jury — which only needed 10 to agree rather than a unanimous decision. Civil cases only require jurors to find claims were proven by the “preponderance of the evidence” — or over 50% probability — unlike a criminal case which requires jurors to find guilt “beyond a reasonable doubt.”

Keep reading

A City Fined Her Over $100,000 for Parking on Her Own Grass. The Florida Supreme Court Won’t Hear Her Case.

What price should someone pay for three minor code violations?

For Sandy Martinez of Lantana, Florida, the answer is: over $165,000, plus interest, a sum so high that selling her house would be insufficient to pay off the debt, according to her complaint filed against the city in 2021. The Florida Supreme Court effectively closed the door on the case in December when it declined her appeal and left in place a decision that ruled the fines were not “excessive.” But Martinez’s little-known story is a microcosm of the broader debate over what, exactly, transgresses the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on fines that are unconstitutionally severe, especially as local governments are known to rely on such penalties to raise revenue.

Whether there is a disconnect between common sense and the law is open to interpretation. The bulk of her debt—over $100,000—comes from a parking job.

Keep reading

Black mother ruined life of white boy by lying that he was racist bully who forced her son to drink urine, netting family $120k on GoFundMe

A black mother who said her son was forced to drink urine by a racist bully was ordered to pay millions in damages for intentionally smearing his name.

SeMarion Humphrey, an eighth grader at Haggard Middle School at the time, was allegedly forced to drink urine and was racially abused during a sleepover with a group of classmates in February 2021, triggering a police investigation.  

Humphrey’s mother, Summer Smith, claimed her son was taunted and called the N-word, in addition to a number of homophobic slurs, and that some of the boys shot him with a BB gun during the sleepover in Plano, Texas. 

After a clip from the sleepover went viral, Smith, and her attorney Kim Cole, raised nearly $120,000 on GoFundMe to help pay for his ‘therapy and private schooling.’

Humphrey’s mom targeted Asher Vann – a white student who was hosting the sleepover – and ran his name through the mud in a bid to get ‘justice’ for her son. 

Smith posted on her public social media for Vann to be expelled from school, causing him to receive death threats and fear for his life.

Now five years later, a diverse Texas jury ruled that Smith and Cole must pay $3.2 million in damages to Vann for the smear campaign they triggered.

Vann, now 18, was never charged for the alleged racial bullying – and when the claims were brought up in court, police and teachers testified that the kids were simply playing stupid pranks on one another.

Vann’s lawsuit came to civil trial in October 2025, where the jury was ruled that Smith and Cole exploited the incident to rake in thousands of dollars in donations. 

According to records obtained by the Free Beacon, Smith put a mere $1,000 of the staggering GoFundMe pot toward her son’s assets – pocketing the rest for herself.

The account statements reveal the remaining funds were spent on luxuries, including a designer dog, dining and travel, cell phones and car payments.

‘I was getting death threats from thousands of people on social media,’ Vann told Free Beacon, who is now a freshman in college.

‘People leaked my address and my name. During one of the protests, they walked all the way to my house and threw bricks through my house.’

Vann and his family sued Smith and Cole for invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress, which the jury ruled in Vann’s favor.

‘It was scary. These were adults, and I was in middle school at the time. Full-grown adults were rushing my house and causing harm to it,’ Vann told the outlet.

‘What if I was home and they saw me? They could have ripped me from my home and beaten me. It was very scary.’

Criminal charges were initially launched against the boys because of the BB gun claims, but Plano Police Department Officer Patricia McClure testified that there wasn’t enough probable cause for the charges, the outlet reported.

Keep reading

Inside Strum: How a Subscription Platform Funds Ukraine’s Neo-Nazi Azov Brigade

One of the most persistent myths in Western political thought is the idea that the United States and its European allies are principled opponents of fascism and totalitarianism. This doctrine, which many Washington elites believe at an almost religious level, has served as the basis for the ongoing proxy war in Ukraine. Numerous politicians from both sides of the proverbial aisle have accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of being a Nazi or a fascist. However, when the United States allows Neo-Nazi-linked Ukrainian organizations like the Azov Brigade to receive support, this undermines their narrative.

Now, after American and European taxpayers have already paid billions for Ukraine’s war, the Azov Brigade is attempting to extract more money from Westerners via a subscription service called “Strum.” But before discussing Strum, it is important to examine what the Azov Brigade is and why it requires additional funding in the first place.

The Azov Brigade (formerly known as the Azov Battalion and Azov Regiment) has been mired in controversy since its founding. The organization was founded in 2014 by Andrey Biletskyi, a political activist with ties to Neo-Nazi movements. The Azov Brigade began as an amalgamation of radical movements including the Patriot of Ukraine gang which “espoused xenophobic and neo-Nazi ideas, and was engaged in violent attacks against migrants, foreign students in Kharkiv and those opposing its views.” Following the Maidan Revolution, oligarchs and elements of the Ukrainian government backed the organization which was then incorporated into the National Guard of Ukraine. In 2016, the UN alleged that the Azov regiment violated international law due to its documented mass looting of civilian homes, its targeting of civilian areas, and its treatment of prisoners. During the Siege of Mariupol, the group was heavily involved in the fighting on the Ukrainian side though it eventually surrendered to Russia. In 2023, the Azov Regiment was reorganized into the Azov Brigade.

With resources dwindling and rampant foreign military aid corruption, Azov has increasingly relied on donations from individuals and companies. According to reporting from Svidomi, which included interviews with founders and project managers, a new project, Strum, has become the “driving force” behind the Brigade. The platform operates as a subscription service like Netflix or Spotify, but with some substantial differences and additional features.

Keep reading

Inside Minneapolis’s ICE Watch Network

In less than a month, two “ICE watchers” have been shot and killed by immigration enforcement agents in Minneapolis. On January 24, a federal agent shot and killed 37-year-old Alex Pretti, a Veterans Affairs ICU nurse. His death follows that of Renée Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, who was killed on January 7.

Both Pretti and Good participated in “ICE watching,” an anti-immigration-enforcement tactic that can involve tracking ICE agents, filming arrests, and alerting other activists of enforcement actions. While participants frame ICE watching as a “community safety” measure, these tactics often place untrained civilians in direct, high-stakes confrontation with armed federal agents.

In Minneapolis, one key organizer of these activities is “Defend the 612.” The group, the membership of which apparently included Renee Good, oversees a massive network of Signal chats dedicated to monitoring and protesting ICE activity. It has become the beating heart of the city’s resistance to federal immigration enforcement. (The group’s name refers to the Minneapolis area code.)

City Journal reviewed Defend the 612’s trainings, entered its Signal network, and traced its organizational support. Our reporting reveals that members and related officials have encouraged protesters to impede law enforcement; pushed civilians toward legally and physically risky confrontations; and helped mobilize a counterprotest that turned violent.

The group’s growth threatens to stoke the city’s already-raging fire.

Keep reading

Utah father rescues his four kids from Croatian orphanage after mom took them out of US over doomsday fears

Four children finally returned home to Utah after they were allegedly kidnapped by their mother, who feared an impending apocalypse. 

Elleshia Anne Seymour, 35, sparked an international manhunt in December when her ex-husband, Kendall Seymour, realized she had taken Landon, 11, Levi, eight, Hazel, seven, and Jacob, three, to Europe to escape the ‘end times.’

The mom reportedly brought the youngsters to live with another woman, Lovie McVeigh, and her 13-year-old son, who later realized the family was the subject of an international manhunt. 

She was then arrested in Croatia, where she is now being held on suspicion of violating children’s rights. The four youngsters were temporarily left in legal limbo in an orphanage in the city of Dubrovnik.

They have since been released into Kendall’s custody, he shared in an update to an online fundraiser he had set up to help with his and his fiancée’s trip to Europe on January 29.

Finally, on Sunday, he shared that ‘WE ARE TAKING THE KIDS HOME!’

Kendall explained that Social Services in the country informed him and his fiancée, Heather, that they had concluded their investigation into the kidnapping, returned the youngsters’ passports and ‘gave us the go-ahead to pick up the kids from the children’s group home in the morning.’

That included Kendall’s children, the three eldest, and Jacob, Seymour’s child from another marriage, over whom Kendall received power of attorney.

Keep reading

Iowa Dem Accepts $250K from Epstein-Linked Billionaire Who Stayed at Townhouse, Flew to Island

A $250,000 campaign contribution to Iowa State Auditor and gubernatorial candidate Rob Sand (D-IA) was made by LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, whose visits to Jeffrey Epstein’s private island, New York townhouse, and New Mexico ranch are documented in emails released by the Department of Justice.

The Iowa GOP flagged the donation in a February press release, pointing to Hoffman’s well-documented history with Epstein. Hoffman, a longtime Democrat financier and founder of LinkedIn, is featured in Justice Department documents detailing plans to visit Epstein’s private island, his New Mexico ranch, and his Manhattan townhouse. One email from Epstein’s assistant about a 2014 itinerary includes the note, “Reid will take a Virgin America flight… to Fort Lauderdale,” part of travel arrangements described elsewhere in the documents as a trip to Epstein’s private island, Little St. James.

Further emails released by the DOJ show Epstein telling his assistant, “I have [Reid’s] passport. Found in the gift bag they had given me.” In another, Epstein casually references Hoffman in correspondence with Elon Musk, inquiring about holiday plans at St. Barts. Neither Hoffman nor any other figures mentioned in the documents have been charged with any crime related to Epstein.

Despite Hoffman’s past admissions — including acknowledging his visit to Epstein Island and a planned overnight stay at Epstein’s New York townhouse in 2014 — he has defended the interactions as being associated with MIT fundraising efforts. He later told the Wall Street Journal, “It gnaws at me that, by lending my association, I helped his reputation… I am sorry for my personal misjudgment.”

Hoffman helped fund E. Jean Carroll’s defamation lawsuit against Donald Trump through a nonprofit organization he primarily financed, according to court disclosures. He has also funneled money through various progressive nonprofit networks, including the Good Information Foundation—an organization accused by attorney Preston Moore of offering payments to social media influencers to produce anti-Trump content, in apparent violation of federal tax law governing 501(c)(3) groups. In 2024, Hoffman’s longtime political adviser, Dmitri Mehlhorn, reportedly emailed journalists suggesting that the assassination attempt on Trump may have been staged—suggesting it was a “classic Putin play”—and urged the media to explore the theory publicly.

Iowa Republicans are calling on Sand to address the Hoffman contribution directly. “Will he return the money, or is this who he really answers to? Iowans deserve to know,” said Iowa GOP spokesperson Jade Cichy.

This donation follows a $50,000 contribution Sand previously accepted from Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, a billionaire Democrat described by the Iowa GOP as “one of the most liberal governors in the country,” whose administration has enacted policies including taxpayer-funded gender transitions for minors, sanctuary protections for illegal immigrants, a no-cash-bail law, and some of the strictest gun control measures in the nation.

Keep reading

SHOCK: Democrat Rep. Nadler Says Americans Would Be “Justified” in Shooting Masked ICE Agents 

Democrat Rep. Jerrold Nadler (NY) on Tuesday said Americans would be justified in shooting masked ICE agents.

“What is really the major problem in this country today is the fascism in our streets,” Nadler said during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday.

“The attacks on American citizens by masked hoodlums. If you were attacked by a masked person, you might think you were being kidnapped,” Nadler said.

“You’d be justified in shooting the person to protect yourself,” Nadler added.

Nadler referenced the fatal shooting of Renee Good, the anti-ICE agitator who tried to run over an ICE agent in Minneapolis.

DHS agents also fatally shot Alex Pretti, an armed anti-ICE agitator who impeded an immigration operation and resisted arrest.

“We see people being shot! For what? For driving a car?” Nadler said.

“We see these ICE goons breaking into people’s homes without a warrant. You see them drag out a man – an American citizen in his underwear in the snow without even permitting him to get dressed!” Nadler said.

Keep reading

House Report: EU Pushed Tech Giants to Police US Speech

A newly released report from the House Judiciary Committee reveals a coordinated effort by European Union regulators to pressure major technology companies into enforcing censorship standards that extend far beyond Europe’s borders.

The findings, drawn from thousands of internal documents and communications, detail a long-running strategy to influence global content moderation policies through regulatory coercion and the threat of punishment under Europe’s Digital Services Act (DSA).

The Committee’s latest publication, “The EU Censorship Files, Part II,” coincides with a scheduled February 4 hearing titled “Europe’s Threat to American Speech and Innovation: Part II.”

We obtained a copy of the report for you here. 

According to the materials, European officials have been meeting privately with social media companies since at least 2015 to “adapt their terms and conditions” to align with EU political priorities, including restricting certain kinds of lawful political expression in the United States.

Internal records from TikTok, then-Twitter, and other firms show that the Commission’s so-called “voluntary” DSA election guidelines were in fact treated as mandatory conditions for doing business in Europe.

Keep reading

One Glance at Jasmine Crockett’s Website Tells You Everything You Need to Know About Her Senate Campaign

Democratic Rep. Jasmine Crockett’s (TX-33) campaign website tells you everything you need to know about her bid to become Texas’ next senator.

And what it tells you is almost nothing.

Over the past decade, we have seen a weird trend in which people pretend to run for office without actually trying to win to gain notoriety and fame. I’ve learned to spot such performative politicking, and one red flag is how their campaign websites are set up.

If you head over to Crockett’s campaign website, you will see how little there is to her candidacy. Her home page features a statement from the lawmaker explaining that she is running because she believes “Texas deserves a Senator who will be an independent voice for all 30 million Texans — not a rubber stamp or party line vote for Donald Trump.”

Okay, fine. That’s what you’d expect from a Democratic candidate. When you click on her “About” page, you are treated to a quick overview of her political career and learn that she is “a battle-tested fighter for the people” who has “gone toe-to-toe with Trump, Abbott, and Paxton.”

She promises that she “will fight hard for you and your loved ones and get Texas back on track.”

The question is: How?

That’s where the red flag is. There is absolutely no mention of policy on her website. No idea of what legislation she will introduce. Zilch. Nada. Nothing.

Keep reading