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JOHN YOO: The left’s war on the Supreme Court just hit a terrifying new low
Last week, the New York Times divulged a fresh trove of confidential internal memoranda between the Supreme Court justices. The documents allegedly show that Chief Justice John Roberts and his conservative colleagues have abused the Court’s technical procedures to block the agenda of Democratic presidents and to favor Republicans. While this accusation can only succeed by ignoring the broader context of the Court’s work, it heralds the latest progressive attack on the Court as a stabilizing institution in our national politics.
In February 2016, the Court temporarily blocked the Obama administration from enforcing its "Clean Power Plan." While the Court would eventually strike down the grand plan to rewire America’s energy grid when it reappeared in its Biden guise, in February 2016 the justices only issued an emergency stay to freeze the government plan before lower courts could rule.
The order, which prompted dissenting votes from the liberal justices, garnered little attention at the time but allegedly marked the birth of the "shadow docket." Using this new procedure, the Court now intervenes quickly to issue emergency orders that can halt executive action before lower court review, which can effectively stop liberal presidents’ agendas in their tracks.
The New York Times alleges that secret memos show this 2016 decision came about not because of concerns over the Obama administration’s abuse of power, but because of Chief Justice Roberts’ campaign against a liberal president. The report claims that Roberts "acted as a bulldozer in pushing to stop Mr. Obama’s plan to address the global climate crisis" and that the memos show the chief justice to be "angry" and "irritated" with the government.
The Times report leaves out many important facts in order to portray the Court as using the shadow docket to pursue a partisan agenda. It claims the order represented a sharp break from Court practice, when in fact the justices regularly use this procedure to review capital executions and even granted such a stay in the Little Sisters of the Poor’s challenge to Obamacare just a few years earlier. The Times suggests that the conservative Roberts Court uses these stays to stop Democratic presidents. It does not provide examples of the Court’s use of the same emergency stays to frustrate parts of President Trump’s agenda as well. The Court, for example, has issued stays against Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelans and against his dispatch of federal troops to inner cities.
The emergency stays do not represent an unprecedented weapon wielded by a conservative Court, but rather a response to executive branch regulations that seek to achieve their objectives before courts can intervene. In the Clean Power Plan case itself, the Obama administration hoped that its regulations would force the energy industry to decide on the massive investments required before the case could reach the Supreme Court.
JACKSON-KAVANAUGH TENSIONS SURFACE IN CANDID EXCHANGE OVER SUPREME COURT 'SHADOW DOCKET'
But the Times report represents a greater affront than just a leak about procedural tussling within the Supreme Court. Last week’s leak of the Court’s memos represents the third breach of the Court’s confidential deliberations in the last four years. It began with the leak — for the first time in American history — of a draft Supreme Court opinion in Dobbs in 2022, which overturned Roe v. Wade. It continued with a 2024 New York Times story based on documents and interviews that detailed the deliberations behind Trump v. United States, which held the former president immune from federal prosecution for his official acts.
These leaks represent the latest escalation in the use of political tactics against the Court. The Court has never had a draft opinion leak to the press; indeed, it is difficult to recall any leak of an opinion occurring at any federal court, ever. But leaking is all too common at the White House, cabinet agencies and Congress, even of the most sensitive, classified information. The Dobbs leak itself triggered harassment of the conservative justices at their homes and culminated in an assassination attempt against Justice Brett Kavanaugh in the hopes it would change the outcome of the vote.
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These leaks and the accompanying political pressure undermine the independence and integrity of the federal courts under our Constitution’s separation of powers. While liberals once defended the judiciary as an engine for social change in the wake of Brown v. Board of Education, which struck down racial segregation, they have recently turned against the Supreme Court as Republican presidents have sought to appoint judges committed to originalist principles. Conservatives, meanwhile, have held a far more skeptical attitude toward the Court’s claim of supremacy in interpreting the Constitution. Nevertheless, the Court deserves a robust defense not because of its view on abortion, but because it stands as a valuable institutional limit on simple majority rule.
Progressives are taking unprecedented measures against the justices because of their specific votes on abortion, transgender rights or presidential power, regardless of the logic or reasoning of their opinions. Liberals support or attack the Court based on how decisions affect the interests of the groups — minorities, women, environmental organizations — that compose their political coalition. The only difference between a judge and a politician is that politicians don’t get to wear robes.
Progressives find law and facts to be mostly smoke and mirrors. Courts should not reach correct outcomes by interpreting the law; instead, progressives say, they should make policy due to the inherent malleability of language and the rapid changes in society and the economy. To them, judges enjoy raw political power in determining society’s winners and losers.
These leaks threaten the careful line between law and politics. They make the Court an object in the arena of electoral politics. They also threaten to turn the Court into a political actor internally. If leaks become the norm in important cases, clerks could begin disclosing the Court’s internal arguments and votes, the changing coalitions around different drafts, and even the thought processes of individual justices. Justices might take explicit political factors into account in their decisions.
For progressives who claim they are defending our institutions from a renegade president, their attacks on the Court deliberately undermine one of the core elements of our constitutional order.
Once-charming mountain escape now battling homelessness homeowners say turned postcard city into no-go zone
For years, Asheville, North Carolina, marketed itself as a mountain escape known for breweries, boutique hotels and Blue Ridge views. But residents and critics say a different reality has taken shape in the wake of Hurricane Helene: panhandling at intersections, public intoxication, encampments and an unsafe downtown.
Carl Mumpower, a private practice clinical psychologist, lifelong Asheville resident and former City Council member who served from 2001 until 2009, said the city’s current challenges stem from decisions made over decades.
"Asheville began its efforts to address homelessness at least three decades ago. This effort accelerated in the early part of this century with the first ‘Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness,’" Mumpower told Fox News Digital.
"That plan was ill advised but passed with a super-majority. At the time, I suggested to the council that any plan that removed personal accountability from the helping equation was doomed to fail."
LEFTIST LAWMAKERS WANT TO MAKE HOMELESS ENCAMPMENTS A NATIONWIDE CRISIS
Mumpower said the city has continued down the same path ever since.
"That plan and subsequent plans have failed with equal enthusiasm. Homelessness, drug abuse, and related crimes have increased relentlessly under the watch of local homelessness experts and a governing body that is dominated by liberal Democrats and those with an even more extreme view to the left. That lack of balance — the last conservative on the council was in 2009 — has led to a myopic repeat of errors."
He also argued that city leaders relied on ideas that were not grounded in practical solutions.
"As regards homelessness, Asheville has a persisting history of pursuing fantasized interventions over more realistic, measurable and trackable solutions."
The Asheville-Buncombe Continuum of Care, the local, government-supported coalition responsible for coordinating federal homelessness planning and services in Asheville and Buncombe County, said homelessness in the region is at its highest level on record in its latest count.
Data from the group’s 2026 Point-in-Time survey found 824 people experiencing homelessness, a 9.1% increase from 2025. That included 334 people living unsheltered, up 1.8% from the prior year. Nearly 500 others were in shelters or transitional housing, a rise the Continuum of Care attributed partly to expanded emergency shelter and transitional housing capacity.
These "fantasize interventions," Mumpower said, were accompanied by the city’s pursuit of defunding the police department.
"The council’s political dismantling of the police department — resulting in a 40% reduction due to retirements and resignations — has had a dramatic impact on crime in Asheville," he said. "Most ‘smaller’ crimes are no longer enforced or realistically tracked, and return on investment costs have skyrocketed. We have officers who earned over $150,000 in overtime last year due to manpower shortages. Enforcement is not possible without adequate, motivated personnel."
"The direct impact on residents is increased and unenforced crime, direct exposure to intoxication and violent street behaviors, and burdensome taxes and fees to chase the recycled program pretenses."
Mumpower said many local residents have simply stopped going downtown.
"The single most common phrase uttered by county and surrounding area residents is ‘I don’t go downtown anymore - it’s nasty, crazy, and scary,’" he said.
He said tourism also suffers when disorder becomes more visible in the city center.
"Tourism is impacted, and those we attract are often coming here not as families, but as partiers seeking to join the fray."
The issue has taken on added urgency in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, which devastated parts of western North Carolina in September 2024.
Michael Whatley, a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in North Carolina, said the storm worsened hardship in the region and exposed failures in the government response.
"The biggest issue set that we’ve been dealing with, obviously, is the hurricane relief coming on the heels of Hurricane Helene and the fact that the Biden administration and Roy Cooper, when he was governor, failed miserably to help that situation in terms of following the hurricane," Whatley told Fox News Digital.
Whatley said that the administration’s clearance of relief funds will assist residents to get back on their feet.
"As part of President Trump’s government response, $1.4B was made available by HUD for housing relief," Whatley said. "And there also has been over the last month or so a lot of movement with FEMA in terms of the disaster relief that they’re providing to homeowners there."
"We’re certainly not ready to hang up a mission accomplished sign by any stretch of the imagination. But federal relief that has been put into Western North Carolina is substantially more than has ever been given into North Carolina as a result of any storm by the federal government."
In a statement to Fox News Digital, the City of Asheville said that officials continue to focus on public safety.
"This month we launched the Asheville Police Department's Downtown Plan which will essentially double police patrols downtown – increasing day and overnight patrols and, in some cases, responding along with trained mental health counselors. Our REST Team program is an operational response to mitigate the effects of homelessness," the city said. "It uses specially trained Asheville Fire Department staff to engage with concerned residents and people experiencing homelessness to problem-solve and connect them to resources."
A city spokesperson also noted that officials expanded their panhandling ordinance and continue working with community partners like the Asheville Downtown Association and its ADID program.
Fox News Digital has reached out to Cooper's campaign, the Asheville's mayor office and the police department for comment.
Inside Seattle’s open-air drug crisis as fentanyl ravages city and activists bail out alleged criminals
SEATTLE — Seattle’s fentanyl crisis is impossible to hide from public view, with open-air drug use, rising overdose deaths and struggling addicts highlighting the challenges facing city leaders and community advocates.
Hector, an addict, told Fox News Digital that he has been having a "hard time" and that the most common drug used in the area is "Fetty," and cautioned young people to stay away from it.
"The younger people, don't waste their lives on drugs," Hector said. "It's a waste of time, waste of money, waste of life."
We Heart Seattle, an organization founded by Andrea Suarez in the fall of 2020 to clean up public spaces and offer resources to people in need, has tried to help Hector multiple times.
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Suarez told Fox News Digital that she believes the city, which recently elected socialist Mayor Katie Wilson in November, is not doing enough to address the crisis.
"We are the only outreach agency that's actually advocating for people to be held accountable for their own safety and the safety of others," Suarez said. "Because the culture here is very hands-off, live and let live. And drug users are people too, and we're the problem. We caused the trauma because of systemic racism and poverty and capitalism and, like, all this ideology has just taken such a stronghold in Seattle, that it's more of a do-nothing attitude by our politicians and that activists are so loud here that they will even bail people out of jail who are very harmful to the community because they are anti-incarceration of any kind."
In an internal email obtained by Fox News Digital, Seattle Police Chief Shon Barnes wrote that "all charges related to drug possession and/or drug use will be diverted from prosecution to the Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) program," but Wilson denied claims that her administration was changing drug enforcement policy.
Suarez said the city should pursue stronger policies to address the crisis.
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"So if you make that penalty stronger, and you can arrest a person for tenting and using narcotics in a park, suddenly six months or a year in jail may deter you from using in a public space and also accept help," Suarez said.
"As outreach workers, you know, why do we get burned out? Because we can't make a difference without teeth, without law, without law enforcement," she continued. "So better legislation and stiffer penalties around using in these shared spaces and holding the low barrier properties like tiny houses and hotels and permanent supportive housing that allow drug dealers and drug using within their properties, that if they are a nuisance to the community, they should be fined and would force a good neighborhood agreement."
Local outlet KOMO News reported on April 16 that the Syringe Services Program Health Survey found that in 2021, 93% of respondents reported injecting drugs. By 2025, however, 90% said they had smoked drugs in the previous week, while injections had dropped to 44%.
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The Roosevelt News, another local outlet, reported last year that King County recorded 1,067 drug poisoning deaths in 2023 due to fentanyl, a 47% increase from the previous year.
According to the Addictions, Drug, and Alcohol Institute at the University of Washington, opioid overdose death rates in King, Pierce, and Spokane Counties more than quadrupled between 2002-2004 and 2024-2025.
The United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) reported in November that the agency seized roughly 3.4 million potentially lethal doses of fentanyl from the two drug trafficking groups targeted in investigations in the Western District of Washington.
JOHN KERRY’S RITZY BLUE CITY NEIGHBORHOOD ROCKED AS DRUG ADDICTS ‘OVERRUN’ COBBLESTONE STREETS
"Hardcore people that were big-time opioid users that ran the streets for years and years, if not decades, will tell you that drugs on top of drugs isn't how you help a drug addict," Suarez said. "Abstinence is how you help if you truly want to help, not thousands of dollars of medication. Often that ends up being a subsidy for the drug addict, only really just to kind of enable them and entrap them into addiction further, which we've seen firsthand as well."
Suarez also stressed that the work of some local left-wing activist groups is making it more difficult to curtail homelessness and crimes committed by those looking for quick cash to get their next fix. She told Fox News Digital that these groups are often against incarceration of any kind, regardless of the alleged crime.
The Northwest Community Bail Fund (NCBF) in Seattle, along with other similar groups, often pays bail for individuals unable to afford it, aiming to reduce the harms of the cash bail system. These groups, highlighted in a CBS News story, claim that cash bail disproportionately affects low-income individuals.
Victims of violent crime have previously complained that these groups have bailed out people that are a danger to the public.
Similar to Hector, Erica is another addict that Suarez and We Heart Seattle have been trying to help.
"So this is a common barrier to accepting services and treatment is Erica doesn't want to be separated from her dog under any circumstances," Suarez said. "So even though we've offered to provide kenneling for her … we will pay for people to get their dogs kenneled while they go to treatment. And she was like, ‘Absolutely not.’ So she's got two amputated fingers, living on a sidewalk, frostbitten nose."
Suarez said that the tearing down of a pavilion and picnicking area at Dr. Jose Rizal Park in Seattle is symbolic of the current drug crisis.
"This pavilion is very, very bittersweet to talk about this, because this pavilion was recently torn down because it was untenable with drug use, fire damage. People were just filleted over here," Suarez said. "It looked like a tombstone. And so the neighbors advocated for it to get demolished as the roof was burnt down. And so this is what's left."
Only stubs of the pavilion and scorched cement remain.
"It really is very symbolic of what has become of our parks in Seattle with this type of a view, children's playgrounds nearby, that drugs and fentanyl use and their civil liberties are really taking precedence and priority, really priority over the civil liberties," Suarez added. "And so this was very, very hard to see this get demolished, just not even a couple months ago."
Fox News Digital reached out to Wilson and King County Public Health for comment but did not immediately receive responses.
Radical activist groups circle wagons around Southern Poverty Law Center amid federal charges
Left-wing nonprofits are rallying behind the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) as the self-described "beacon of hope" for "fighting white supremacy" faces federal fraud charges.
In a blog post written by National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Senior Policy Advisor Mel Wilson, Wilson said, "it is important that we stand with and support The Southern Poverty Law Center until the legal travails are complete — with full confidence that SPLC will be vindicated."
Below her commentary, Wilson listed a number of "coalition members" that are standing with SPLC and are a part of "The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights."
The list included more than one hundred non-profit organizations.
SPLC INDICTMENT BUILDS MOMENTUM FOR BESSENT'S TREASURY TO PROBE PARTISAN NONPROFITS
Separately, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) issued a press release defending SPLC, saying that it stands with the nonprofit, and accusing the Department of Justice of "targeting" the organization.
"This reported federal targeting of SPLC appears to be a transparently political attack on the rule of law meant to undermine the vital role civil rights groups play in countering hate groups. This is unacceptable and must not stand," CAIR’s statement read.
"We encourage all Americans and elected officials to stand in solidarity with the SPLC and all other organizations dedicated to the protection of civil rights," the statement continued.
CAIR was named a co-conspirator during The Holy Land Foundation (HLF) trial from 2007-2008, where five members of the HLF were convicted of conspiracy to provide material support to a terrorist organization, providing material support, money laundering and tax fraud after allegations that HLF funneled $12.4 million to Hamas in the early 2000s.
While CAIR never faced charges and was only named by prosecutors during the trial, the FBI cut ties with the nonprofit following the case.
SEC. NOEM SAYS HOMELAND SECURITY WILL FREEZE GRANTS TO NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS
Fox News Digital reached out to NASW but did not receive a response.
Federal authorities announced earlier this week that the Southern Poverty Law Center, known for civil rights litigation and racial justice, was indicted by a federal grand jury for allegedly funneling millions to members of violent extremist groups like the Ku Klux Klan, Aryan Nations and the National Socialist Party of America (American Nazi Party).
According to the SPLC’s Form 990 filing with the IRS, the 501(c)(3) tax-exempt charitable organization posted roughly $129 million in total revenue in fiscal year 2024 with nearly $800 million in total assets.
The organization says that the money was for informants to report back to SPLC and provide information about the groups and their inner workings.
The indictment said that one alleged informant, who was paid $270,000, shared "racist social media posts" under SPLC supervision, and that the nonprofit "helped organize transportation to events" during the deadly 2017 "Unite the Right" event in Charlottesville, Virginia.
"These individuals risked their lives to infiltrate and inform on the activities of our nation's most radical and violent extremist groups," SPLC Interim President and CEO Bryan Fair said in a video statement. "When we began working with informants, we were living in the shadow of the height of the civil rights movement, which had seen bombings at churches, state-sponsored violence against demonstrators, and the murders of activists that went unanswered by the justice system."
In 1994, an investigative series by the Montgomery Advertiser examined the financials of SPLC at the time, finding that the founder was heavily focused on fundraising for the nonprofit, running the organization like a business or corporation. It also found that the salaries of SPLC were high, and that the nonprofit raised significantly more money than it spent.
The Montgomery Advertiser was a finalist for the 1995 Pulitzer Prize in Explanatory Journalism due to the series on SPLC.
SPLC co-founder Joe Levin rejected the paper’s claims at the time.
DOJ SAYS SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER FUNNELED $3M+ TO WHITE SUPREMACIST AND EXTREMIST GROUPS
Margaret Huang, who served as the CEO of the nonprofit until her resignation last summer, made $522,000 a year as reported by Charity Watch, which gave SPLC an "F" rating in May 2025 "due to it having six years' worth of available assets in reserve."
The indictments also raise questions about whether SPLC donors were misled on how their money was being spent, including payments made to members of the KKK and other extremist groups.
"The SPLC indictment is legally valid, well-pleaded, and built to survive motion practice, former federal prosecutor and legal expert Andrew Cherkasky told Fox News Digital. "The wire fraud counts rest on specific, quoted solicitations telling donors their money would be used to 'dismantle' violent extremist groups, paired with the material omission that more than three million dollars flowed to the leaders, fundraisers, and organizers of those very same groups."
Cherkasky noted that paying informants is not illegal, and that journalists, watchdog groups and the government regularly use them. But he noted "a nonprofit is criminally liable for the acts of its agents committed within the scope of their duties and for the organization’s benefit."
"A high-level SPLC employee coordinated payment for documents stolen by a paid source who twice burglarized an extremist group’s headquarters, and a different source was paid six thousand dollars to falsely confess to the theft," Cherkasky explained. "If proven, that is sponsored criminal conduct directed from inside the organization, and it carries institutional exposure that extends beyond the criminal counts to potential loss of tax-exempt status, civil liability to victims, and fiduciary exposure for directors and officers."
FBI Director Kash Patel said Tuesday that SPLC was not honest or transparent with its donors.
"They lied to their donors, vowing to dismantle violent extremist groups, and actually turned around and paid the leaders of these very extremist groups — even utilizing the funds to have these groups facilitate the commission of state and federal crimes," Patel said. "That is illegal — and this is an ongoing investigation against all individuals involved."
Fox News Digital reached out to SPLC, but did not receive a response.
Giants make big NFL Draft trade to secure wide receiver Malachi FIelds amid heightened attention
The New York Giants stayed aggressive during Day 2 of the NFL Draft. After starting the night with only one scheduled pick, the Giants executed a bold trade to secure Notre Dame wide receiver Malachi Fields.
Head coach John Harbaugh and general manager Joe Schoen traded back into the third round to snag Fields at No. 74 overall. To move up, the Giants sent their fourth-round pick (No. 105), fifth-round pick (No. 145), and a 2027 fourth-rounder to the Cleveland Browns.
Fields brings massive frame and vertical ability to the offense. The 6-foot-4, 218-pound receiver averaged 17.5 yards per catch last season. He provides a large target for quarterback Jaxson Dart and fills the void left by free agent departures like Wan’Dale Robinson.
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Earlier in the evening, the Giants addressed the defense with the 37th overall pick. They selected Tennessee cornerback Colton Hood.
Hood is a physical, high-motor defensive back who recorded 20 solo tackles and 13 pass breakups in 2024. Analysts praise his ability to disrupt routes and challenge receivers at the catch point. He joins a revamped secondary featuring Deonte Banks and Paulson Adebo.
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The Giants have become one of the most discussed teams of this year’s draft, after surprising many fans with the selections of linebacker Arvell Reese at No. 5 and offensive lineman Francis Mauigoa at No. 10.
The selections prompted mixed reactions by fans and pundits, as some argued the team should have taken star safety Caleb Downs with one of their top 10 picks, as Downs was later taken by the rival Dallas Cowboys at No. 11.
The Giants are entering year one of the Harbaugh era, looking to get back to credibility after a decade plus of ineptitude.
Military Olympians honored at the Pentagon, against backdrop of Iran war
A group of 10 American Olympians who serve in the U.S. military were honored at the Pentagon on April 17.
War Secretary Pete Hegseth, between leading the efforts in the war on Iran, found time to meet with the athletes for a ceremony to honor their accomplishments in the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics. All 10 were members of the high-performance U.S. military-sponsored World Class Athlete Program (WCAP).
"It's not every day you get invited into Sec. War's office," U.S. bobsledder Frankie Del Duca told Fox News Digital. "We had a good conversation about the Army."
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Del Duca was the Team USA Olympic flag bearer in Cortina back in February. As an American of Italian descent, it held a special cultural significance to him and his family that he had the honor in Italy.
Del Duca is also a U.S. Army infantryman.
"I'm infantry," he said. "There's different assignments I can take as I gain experience. I am grateful for the opportunity to serve. I'm very proud to serve our country, and I love our country and America."
Hegseth himself was an Army infantry officer who served in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay.
But so far Del Duca has only ever done athlete work for the military, enlisting in 2019 and training as a bobsledder at Lake Placid, New York. But as a WCAP athlete, he will serve in a military-related role as well.
"We've had members of WCAP that have been in the Army first... and then we have some that maybe do that after," Del Duca said, adding that he falls into the "after" group.
"Where I may be stationed next, and where I may, different assignments, where I might end up, I'm going to take those same lessons that I've learned and apply them to that next unit. So it's something that I'm very grateful for and proud of. And I hope that spreads throughout our country. I hope it shows that we're together and that we're resilient, and that we're fit and we're ready."
Del Duca is a young father of two sons who are each less than four years old.
"It's made me a better father," Del Duca said of his experience in the Army. "I have two sons, [ages] one and three, they keep me on my toes."
Other branches of the military are represented well in the WCAP, especially the Air Force.
Team USA skeleton athlete Kelly Curtis, who was also honored at the ceremony, is preparing for deployment right back to Italy after competing at the Milan Cortina games.
"I'm going back to the 31st communications squadron at Aviano Air Base," Curtis told Fox News Digital. "I'm a knowledge operations technician... it's basically like an information traffic cop."
Curtis says she has a lineage in her family, on her mother's side, that includes servicemembers in every American war dating back to the Revolutionary War.
She thought her brother would take on the call of duty for her generation. And he did, but she soon learned she be joining him.
"I didn't think I would be able to serve in the military," Curtis said. "When this opportunity came around when I got good enough at my sport. I was looking at the Army program, but upon talking with my brother who had also served in the Air Force, I decided to give it a go for the Air Force."
Now, as she continues her family tradition of serving in the U.S. military during a time of war, she takes great a sense of honor in the importance.
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"I don't think any particular time is more honorable than an other," she said. "When I took the oath of enlistment, you sign up to defend your country, and that's something that I take seriously. The work that I do with the World Class Athlete Program is different, it's a softer diplomacy, so I don't see a lot of what my colleagues might see...
"There's honor all around when you sign up to defend your country."
The WCAP program delivered a medalist for Team USA at 2026, including Air Force women's bobsledder Jasmine Jones.
Jones became a viral social media sensation for an interview with Fox News Digital when she expressed great pride in representing the U.S. on the world stage, at a time when many Americans craved patriotism among their Olympians.
And then Jones went on to win bronze in women's bobsled, alongside teammate Olympic legend Kaillie Humphries, helping Humphries become the most decorated bobsled athlete in history.
Jones was honored for her medal during the Pentagon ceremony.
"I was honored to be recognized by Secretary Hegseth after medaling in Cortina and to share that moment representing my country," Jones told Fox News Digital.
"Being an Airman allows me to serve in more ways than one, and I’m grateful for that opportunity. The unity within our WCAP team is strong. We lead by example, support one another, and continue pushing each other to reach our fullest potential."
Meanwhile, the military as a whole continues historic operations in the Middle East behind the leadership of Hegseth and President Donald Trump.
Hegseth warned Friday that the U.S. military "will shoot to destroy" any Iranian ships that are laying mines in the Strait of Hormuz.
"President Trump has authorized the United States Navy to destroy any Iranian fast boats that attempt to put mines in the water or disrupt passage through the Strait of Hormuz, to shoot and kill," Hegseth said. "Our commanders have clear rules of engagement. If Iran is putting mines in the water or otherwise threatening American commercial shipping or American forces, we will shoot to destroy. No hesitation. Just like the drug boats in the Caribbean."
Hegseth also said that Iran’s "battered" military, specifically the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, has been "reduced to a gang of pirates with a flag."
HEGSETH DECLARES 'DECISIVE MILITARY VICTORY' OVER IRAN
"They cloak their aggression in slogans, but the world now sees them for what they are -- criminals on the high seas. They don't control anything. They're acting like pirates, acting like terrorists. They're the ones who lay indiscriminate mines, who shoot at random ships, who killed 45,000 of their own people, innocent protesters, in the course of weeks, their own people. They are the bad actors," Hegseth said.
"The vessels that the Iranians seized in recent days, a couple of them, they're not American ships, they're not Israeli ships. They're just random ships where they drove their little speedboats up to and shot at those ships with AK-47's. Anyone with a speedboat, a gun and the wrong intentions can do that. They know that we, the United States of America, control the flow of global shipping, and we know that they know. Their real navy is at the bottom of the Arabian Gulf," Hegseth added.
Trump and his administration have repeatedly made it clear they are looking for a peace agreement with Iran, and have expressed optimism about reaching one soon.
Hegseth also said Friday that, "Iran has a historic chance to make a serious deal, and the ball is in their court."
"Either way, the War Department stands ready for what comes next. Locked and loaded," Hegseth added.
The remarks come after a scheduled second round of U.S.-Iran talks in Islamabad failed to materialize this week. Vice President JD Vance and the rest of the U.S. delegation never departed. Reports indicated the Iranians said they would not negotiate again in person until the U.S. stopped its blockade.
Vance, U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump's son-in-law, traveled to Pakistan for the first round of talks with the Iranians earlier this month, but no deal was reached.
Fox News Digital's Greg Norman-Diamond, Landon Mion, Emma Bussey, Efrat Lachter, Alex Nitzberg and Jasmine Baehr contributed to this report.
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MIKE DAVIS: Southern Poverty Law Center: A tale of a racism scam
Since the 1970s, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has characterized itself as an organization that combats extremist groups like the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). This week, because of an indictment that Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel secured through stellar leadership, we learned that SPLC wasn’t fighting the Klan — but funding it using generous donations from people who thought they were helping fight racism.
James Alex Fields, a White supremacist, ran over and killed a Jewish woman named Heather Heyer at the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017.
Following the attack, the SPLC doubled its income, using the event to fundraise and claiming it needed more money to combat racism. Yet, thanks to the indictment, we learned that SPLC allegedly paid people to attend the rally and provided transportation.
The rally also spawned the "very fine people" hoax. Left-wing critics falsely claimed that President Donald Trump called neo-Nazis "very fine people." In reality, the president said that there are very fine people on both sides of the debate over removing statues of historical figures like Gen. Robert E. Lee.
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Following the discourse, former President Joe Biden asserted that the Charlottesville event spurred him to run for the presidency in 2020, and even served as the vehicle for Biden's "Soul of America" campaign theme.
The SPLC is also accused of paying people to post racist materials on online forums, fueling racial hatred. The organization sold its donors a bill of goods, doing exactly the opposite of what it promised.
Over a decade, millions of dollars in donations to SPLC went to hate groups like the Klan and Aryan affiliates. According to the indictment, the SPLC funneled this money through fictitious groups such as "Fox Photography" to mask the true source of the donations. In addition to donor fraud, the SPLC is also accused of lying to banks about its transactions.
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This indictment is profoundly important because the SPLC has played a significant role in American politics, especially in recent decades. The group labeled others as "extremists" and "hate groups," and government agencies like the FBI relied on those designations.
That is why the FBI began investigating Moms for Liberty, a group of concerned mothers who attended school board meetings and voiced objections to parts of school curricula. Thanks to the SPLC, the FBI investigated the group as a potential domestic terrorist organization.
Then-FBI Director Christopher Wray absurdly said that White supremacy was the biggest domestic threat — a claim SPLC instigated.
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Turning Point USA and Charlie Kirk were also labeled by the group as "extremists" just months before a deranged leftist assassinated Kirk.
The SPLC gave the same designation to mainstream groups like the Family Research Council and Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF). The ADF has argued before the U.S. Supreme Court, along with federal and state courts, hundreds of times to protect Americans' constitutional freedoms. Yet, according to the SPLC, the ADF is in the same league as the Klan — a group the SPLC allegedly funded.
While raking in donations from some of the largest corporations in the world — including Apple, JPMorgan and MGM Resorts — the SPLC sought to deplatform and debank people and groups it deemed "extremists."
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The SPLC met with PayPal as part of its debanking efforts and urged Amazon not to sell conservative books. The SPLC also participated in social media censorship on platforms like Twitter before Elon Musk's acquisition, urging Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram to ban those with views the SPLC disagreed with.
The group targeted advertisers for conservative shows, branding Fox News' Laura Ingraham "the high priestess of hate." Ingraham has had a distinguished media and legal career, having clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas on the U.S. Supreme Court. The SPLC attempted to destroy Ingraham because she represented a threat by articulating the case for conservatism.
If the indictment is accurate, the SPLC was running one of the biggest cons in American history. To secure donations, the SPLC fomented racial division because not enough genuine division existed.
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In reality, America has made such enormous strides toward equality that SPLC had to fund a fabrication to convince people the nation is racist. The SPLC must be held accountable, not only for donor fraud, but for the far more serious offense of poisoning American public discourse.
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The SPLC led Americans to believe racism was prevalent when, according to the indictment, the SPLC was causing much of the problem. Blanche and Patel heroically exposed the scam, and a superseding indictment hopefully will follow.
SPLC executives must pay a severe legal price for this monstrosity, which, in addition to the alleged massive donor and bank fraud, has done incalculable damage to public discourse.
The indictment is a wonderful start on the road to accountability, and people must go to prison for this unconscionable charade.
Emails reveal reality TV crew’s behind-the-scenes access to sheriff now leading Nancy Guthrie probe
FIRST ON FOX: The Pima County Sheriff’s Department worked closely with a reality TV crew to provide footage and access to deputies — including video of arrests and use-of-force incidents that raised internal concerns — according to emails obtained by Fox News Digital.
The emails also reveal that the head of the department's homicide and cold case units had been rotated out in the year before the suspected abduction of Nancy Guthrie from her home in Tucson's Catalina Foothills. Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of "Today" co-host Savannah Guthrie, is believed to have been kidnapped months after filming for the show ended.
A June 18, 2025 email from show producer Amanda Riley shows she asked for the contacts of the sergeants running several units. In a reply two days later, Capt. Robert Koumal informed her that "the department has experienced some rotational re-assignments since last year," and revealed that the leader of every team she'd asked about had changed.
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More than 220 pages of emails between PCSD officials and the show's producers show behind-the-scenes exchanges in the creation of a reality show featuring a sheriff's department that would soon become a household name as the Guthrie case played out. Her whereabouts remained unknown as of Friday.
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Some incidents included use-of-force and other behavioral concerns, including discussions over whether to provide bodycam where deputies were swearing to the show. In one case, authorities appeared concerned about an altercation in which the involved deputy didn't start recording until after the fight with a suspect had ended.
Read the emails:
The emails were shared between members of the PCSD, its public information office, and producers from Twenty Twenty Productions, who worked on the A&E show, "Desert Law." The series focuses on law enforcement in Pima County's Sonoran Desert.
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While the TV crew went on a series of ride-alongs with PCSD patrols, show producers were generally interested in bodycam and other police-obtained video. They asked for a public information officer to be available to drive a marked SUV in order to create background footage, known as "B-roll." Koumal agreed in a July 1 email, suggesting a deputy "take our new Tahoe."
The producers also requested information from an infamous local case, the 1996 murder of Gary Triano.
Triano died in an explosion in the Catalina Foothills after his wife, Pamela Phillips, hired a hitman to plant a pipe bomb in his Lincoln Town Car. It exploded while he was driving home from a golf course. Friends and family were waiting to surprise him with a birthday party.
She was convicted in 2014 and is serving a life prison sentence, as is the bomber, Ron Young, who was arrested after a 2005 episode of "America's Most Wanted."
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Koumal, the captain overseeing the sheriff's community services division and records management, also sent out a note encouraging deputies to proactively reach out to the show producers "if any incidents occur."
Producer Tom Olney praised the cooperation, writing, "thank you as ever for all your continued support, its amazing and absolutely the best I've ever received from any law enforcement department!"
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He also repeatedly voiced concerns about the wait time for bodycam records and offered to discuss ways to expedite and prioritize the footage to meet show deadlines. In some cases, he asked for his newer requests to be replaced ahead of older ones, a request that officials granted at least once.
It's unclear from the provided emails whether any of the TV crew's requests took priority over those from the public.
It would be unusual for records keepers to allow certain requesters to skip the line. Typically, agencies process public records requests on a first-come, first-served basis.
The emails were sent between July and December 2025, well before the abduction of Nancy Guthrie, whose Feb. 1 disappearance from her home in the Catalina Foothills remains unsolved. PCSD is the lead agency on that case.
King Charles' food preferences revealed by former royal chef ahead of Trump's White House state dinner
When King Charles and Queen Camilla join President Donald Trump at the White House, the state dinner’s high-stakes menu is expected to dazzle.
On March 31, Buckingham Palace announced that the king and queen would travel to the U.S. to celebrate the 250th anniversary of American independence. Trump said they would visit from April 27 to 30. A state banquet will take place at the White House on April 28.
Darren McGrady, who was a personal chef to the late Queen Elizabeth II, Princess Diana and her sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, also cooked for Presidents Ford, Reagan, Clinton and both Presidents Bush. He told Fox News Digital that the British royal family can expect "the best of America" to be served.
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"I wouldn’t expect to see clotted cream on this banquet menu from President Trump, because that’s British produce," McGrady explained.
"America has some incredible produce. But having said that, the palace would have been in touch, saying, ‘King Charles is not a great lover of chocolate, but the queen loves chocolate.’ Anything with chocolate on the menu, Camilla will love.
"If there’s a cheese course, the king will adore that, as he loves cheese. He also loves honey, grilled vegetables, risottos and especially lamb. There’s incredible lamb here. He would be honored if there was lamb."
When it comes to food, impressing the monarch is far simpler than you might expect, according to McGrady.
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"For the king, it’s local produce," he said. "It’s seeing goods coming into season, like asparagus, artichokes, peas, spinach and broccoli. The king would absolutely be thrilled if any of those were on the menu."
Royal commentator Amanda Matta agreed.
"These events are tightly choreographed but also meant to feel warm and welcoming," she explained. "Charles has long taken an interest in food, particularly seasonal ingredients. So, a thoughtfully curated American menu would absolutely appeal to him. Unlike a British state dinner, which retains a lot of continental French inspiration, a U.S. state dinner will feature a menu that’s American right down to its core."
Matta shared that the White House "will absolutely" consult on dietary restrictions and known preferences to impress the royals.
"King Charles doesn’t eat foie gras, for example, and the royals are known to abstain from things like red sauces, garlic, or curry for practical reasons," said Matta. "The meal needs to be elegant but not overly complicated, and easy to eat while conversing. That means no handheld dishes, no messy dishes, nothing too experimental and nothing that risks embarrassing guests. But the menu is ultimately the host’s call, making the choices very much a diplomatic flex."
"This is the host nation’s moment to showcase its cuisine, domestic production, agriculture and identity," Matta continued. "Every course, every wine pairing, every ingredient will be chosen to send a message about American excellence. That said, it’s not unusual for subtle nods to the guests to be woven in. We might also see a British-inspired dish or dessert, or ingredients that reference the U.K. in some way."
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Helena Chard, British broadcaster and photographer, told Fox News Digital she wouldn’t be surprised if one of Charles’ favorites is served to woo the king.
"I would expect herb-crusted organic Virginia lamb with copious amounts of humble vegetables," she said. "Minted organic peas sit at the top of the vegetable hierarchy. King Charles is obsessed with peas. Both Charles and Camilla adore artisan cheese and are partial to a slice of organic apple tart."
It won’t just be the best of American cuisine doing the impressing. What’s in their glasses will be just as carefully chosen.
"The royal family would always have wine, beautiful wine, served at state banquets," said McGrady. "And I know the White House does too. Prince Philip, when he came for a banquet, even at the White House, wouldn’t drink any wine. He would have a beer. A glass of stout was his favorite.
"But it’s all about making the guests feel welcome. And for President Trump hosting the banquet here, it’s about making King Charles feel welcome. There may be a nod to something British, but I think on the whole, the table is going to be very, very American."
And if Charles’ beloved lamb is served, McGrady said it’s expected that only the best will be on the menu. He recalled going through every single ingredient and dish to ensure there were zero blemishes ahead of a dinner. He described that as "the standard."
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Chard warned that there are certain ingredients that would be off limits.
"Royal protocol dictates that garlic and shellfish are strictly off the menu," she said. "The menus will be planned weeks in advance. Much thought will be given to each course, especially as the king continues cancer treatment. Three test menus are drawn up, with the chosen option released 24 hours before the banquet."
But the real magic happens after dinner, said Matta.
"The dinner itself is only part of the evening," she explained. "A U.S. state dinner follows a fairly predictable rhythm: an arrival ceremony, a receiving line, cocktails, the formal meal, toasts or speeches and then entertainment.
"There might even be a musical performance when, after dinner, guests mingle more freely. The post-dinner revelry has also given us iconic moments over the years, like Diana dancing with John Travolta in 1985. It wasn’t part of the Reagan administration’s official program, but it became the defining image of the night."
Camilla is also expected to wear a tiara in the royal couple’s attempt to charm audiences.
"She’ll likely choose something that carries cultural significance in an American context," said Matta. "Or perhaps she’ll choose to nod back to Queen Elizabeth II, bringing back pieces she wore on her own visits to the White House. This could include the Girls of Great Britain and Ireland or Queen Alexandra's Kokoshnik. It must be said they are fan favorites among royal watchers."
"At its core, the goal of a state dinner at the White House is straightforward: relationship-building at the highest level and a chance for the American hosts to show that they can still cater to royalty at a high level," Matta shared. "We might see Queen Camilla dancing with President Trump, or Melania in the arms of King Charles."
"I wouldn’t rule anything out!" she added.
US turns to drones after retiring minesweepers to reopen Strait of Hormuz amid Iran crisis
The U.S. is racing to reopen the Strait of Hormuz as Iran threatens one of the world’s most critical shipping lanes, testing a Navy that has recently retired most of its dedicated minesweepers and is now relying on a smaller fleet of unmanned systems to do the job.
President Donald Trump has warned Tehran against further escalation and signaled the U.S. is prepared to act to keep the strait open, while Iranian forces have laid mines and threatened commercial traffic in the narrow waterway that carries a significant share of global oil.
The confrontation is now testing a weakness in the Navy’s mine-warfare posture. As the U.S. moves to reopen the Strait of Hormuz after Iranian mining threats, it is doing so after retiring most of the ships once dedicated to that mission and while still relying on a limited mix of legacy vessels and newer unmanned systems to clear one of the world’s most critical shipping lanes.
At the current moment, any mine-clearing effort is unfolding amid an active standoff in the strait. The U.S. has imposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports, while Iran has responded with attacks on commercial vessels, seizures of ships and threats to close the waterway entirely.
At least several commercial ships have come under fire in recent days, and both sides have intercepted vessels as they attempt to move through the chokepoint, underscoring the risks facing any operation to restore traffic.
Iran has tied further negotiations to the lifting of the U.S. naval blockade, while Washington has insisted on security guarantees and reopening the strait, leaving little immediate path to a deal.
The operation comes after a major shift in how the Navy handles mine warfare. The service retired its four Bahrain-based minesweepers last year, ending a decades-long presence of dedicated mine-hunting ships in the Middle East.
At the start of the current crisis, the Navy’s remaining minesweepers were based in Japan, not the Persian Gulf, and newer littoral combat ships equipped for mine countermeasures were not all positioned in the region.
Multiple news outlets have reported Iran has laid at least a dozen mines in the strait, citing intelligence assessments, though some estimates put the number higher.
Now, as the U.S. moves to reopen the strait, some of those assets are being brought back in. Two Avenger-class mine countermeasure ships, USS Chief and USS Pioneer, were tracked sailing west from Southeast Asia toward the Middle East in recent days as preparations for mine-clearing operations ramp up.
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The shift has left the Navy relying on a mix of legacy ships being surged into theater and newer unmanned systems designed to detect and neutralize mines.
"To be honest, that the minesweepers retired was never a concern to me, because we had brought in newer technology," retired Vice Adm. Kevin Donegan, who previously commanded the Navy’s 5th Fleet, told Fox News Digital.
But analysts say the Navy is still working through a transition as it replaces its older minesweepers with newer systems.
"We’re sort of at this nadir of the Navy’s mine sweeping capacity," Bryan Clark, a defense analyst at the Hudson Institute, told Fox News Digital.
Clark said the Navy has spent years developing unmanned systems to replace legacy ships, but currently has a limited number of those systems available for large-scale operations.
U.S. forces are not sending ships blindly into minefields. Instead, the operation begins with a wave of unmanned systems scanning the seabed to identify potential threats.
Underwater drones — some torpedo-shaped — are deployed in grid patterns to map the ocean floor and detect objects that could be mines, using high-resolution sonar to distinguish them from debris.
"They kind of look like torpedoes and they map the bottom," Donegan said.
In parallel, surface drones tow sonar systems through narrow lanes, while helicopters equipped with sensors scan for mines closer to the surface, allowing the Navy to build a detailed picture of what is actually in the water.
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But identifying mines is only the first step.
"The mine neutralization part is really the long leg of the process," Clark said.
Once a mine is located, operators deploy remotely controlled systems to disable it — either by detonating it in place or puncturing it so it sinks. Even then, the danger is not fully removed.
"You’ve got to then retrieve this thing with EOD personnel," Clark said, referring to explosive ordnance disposal teams tasked with clearing debris that can still pose a hazard to passing ships.
Clearing mines remains a slow and methodical process that can stretch timelines depending on how many devices are in the water and how they are deployed.
The Pentagon has told Congress the effort could take as long as six months, according to a Washington Post report.
Clark said recent war-gaming suggests U.S. forces could identify and begin neutralizing mines within weeks, but fully removing them from key shipping lanes could take significantly longer.
"The finding part, you could do within a couple of weeks," he said, adding that neutralizing mines could take additional time and that removing debris and ensuring lanes are completely safe could extend operations into months.
Donegan cautioned that timelines are difficult to predict, in part because U.S. forces must first confirm whether mines are actually present in the areas Iran has claimed.
"When somebody says they mined it, you have to go validate if that’s even true, and that takes time," he said.