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Top conservative group unveils full-court press in key battleground state to expose ‘shocking’ Dem platform
FIRST ON FOX - CEDAR RAPIDS, IA : One of the largest pro-life organizations in the country is pouring time and resources into the high-stakes battleground of Iowa, making the case that voters of all backgrounds will be "shocked" to know where the Democratic Party stands on abortion.
Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America’s ground game has knocked on over 172,000 doors in Iowa promoting the Republican ticket in the Hawkeye State. Additionally, the group has a planned digital spend of $650,000 to go along with a $1.35 million spend from the Women Speak Out PAC, SBA’s super PAC, to contact voters in the Iowa universe.
"The scale of SBA Pro-Life America’s voter contact program is among the largest in the nation and certainly the largest in the pro-life movement," SBA President Marjorie Dannenfelser told Fox News Digital.
Fox News Digital was on the ground in Iowa with SBA canvassers in Cedar Rapids on Tuesday, where the team passed out flyers and spoke to voters in support of Iowa Republican Sen. Ashley Hinson and hammered the abortion positions of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Rob Sand.
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"Our goal really is just to inform voters," SBA field rep Amy Elizabeth told Fox News Digital. "Most people we're finding are pro-life, regardless of the way that they vote and we want to make sure that they're aware of the candidate's views on abortion and pro-life and we wanna make sure they're making knowledgeable and informed decisions when they go to the polls."
Literature passed out by the canvassers calls Sand "wrong for Iowa families" while arguing that he will "do everything in his power to overturn Governor Kim Reynolds’ pro-life legacy" and "even supports painful late term abortions. The literature also promotes Hinson as the "pro-life champion" that Iowans "need in DC."
Elizabeth told Fox News Digital that the conversations with voters on the ground have been effective.
"Some of my favorite conversations have come from people who normally wouldn't vote the same way that I would vote," Elizabeth explained. "They're not typically conservative voters. They are a little bit more liberal leaning. But when we really are open to having conversations together and I can share with them some information about the candidates that they typically would vote for, they are very surprised and they're very shocked to hear how those candidates feel on some issues that are important to them."
NEW MIDTERM BATTLEGROUND TAKES SHAPE AS PARTIES BUILD ELECTION ARMIES
Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America and Women Speak Out PAC announced in August that their Iowa voter-contact program had surpassed 100,000 visits to voters’ homes in the Des Moines, Davenport and Cedar Rapids areas. The groups said the effort is targeting persuadable and low-turnout voters ahead of November’s elections, with the goal of defeating Democrats they describe as "pro-abortion" and electing candidates who support abortion restrictions.
Nationwide, Dannenfelser says SBA will ultimately reach 10.5 million voters during this election cycle, including 4 million at their front doors in person.
"Our hardworking field team has been on the ground in key battleground states, educating voters about the Democrats’ radical agenda of all-trimester abortion -- anytime, for any reason, paid for by taxpayers -- even when babies can feel pain," Dannenfelser said.
"Polling shows the vast majority of Americans reject this, and our team at the doors is finding it true visit after visit. One conversation at a time, we are changing hearts, minds, and votes. We focus on Republicans, Democrats, and Independents that can be persuaded and low-propensity, pro-life voters. All these groups are shocked by Democrats’ extremism on abortion."
A third of Republicans would be less likely to vote in the midterms if they believe that the GOP has abandoned the abortion issue, according to polling released earlier this year, suggesting that driving pro-life Republicans to vote will play an important role in the party's hopes to retain control of Congress in November.
America’s multi-billion tech boom comes into focus as 7 key states put it to a midterm test
The rapid buildout of data centers powering America’s artificial intelligence (AI) boom is heading to the ballot box this November, as voters across the country weigh measures that could shape where and how the massive facilities are built.
Voters will decide 34 data center-related ballot measures across seven states — California, Florida, Illinois, Kansas, Nevada, Ohio and Wisconsin.
The measures come as states elsewhere have considered or imposed limits on development, underscoring how quickly data centers have become a political flashpoint.
A Fox News national poll conducted last month found voters struggling to reconcile AI’s potential benefits with the economic and environmental costs of the data centers that power the technology.
8 EVERYDAY THINGS THAT WOULD QUIT WORKING WITHOUT DATA CENTERS
More than seven in 10 voters (71%) opposed building AI data centers in their area, including 46% who strongly opposed them. More than half (52%) supported building them in remote locations, while 44% opposed.
Overall, 60% of voters had a negative view of AI, compared with 37% who viewed it positively. That 23-point gap has more than doubled since a July Fox News poll.
The Fox News poll also found a partisan divide over AI and data centers. Voters with favorable views of AI leaned Republican, while those with unfavorable views leaned Democratic.
The divide was even sharper over data centers, with Republicans performing better among voters who supported them and Democrats among those who opposed them.
That partisan split comes as AI policy emerges as a growing fault line in Washington and on the campaign trail.
AI IS SUPERCHARGING POLITICAL AD WARS. BUT VIRAL DOESN’T MEAN VICTORIOUS
President Donald Trump has opposed wide-ranging federal regulation of the AI industry and warned that the U.S. cannot allow China to win the technology race.
But as the midterms approach, the debate over AI and the data centers powering it is playing out in races across the country.
In Texas, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who previously courted major tech investments, recently ordered a pause on data center permitting and grid connections pending an audit. Democratic challenger Gina Hinojosa has supported temporary moratoriums.
‘BACKWARDS AND POOR’: TRUMP SLAMS COMMUNITIES BLOCKING DATA CENTERS
Meanwhile, in the state’s Senate race, Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton and Democratic state Rep. James Talarico have battled over tax breaks for the industry.
In Ohio, the debate is playing out both on the campaign trail and at the ballot box. The state has 20 data center-related measures across 17 jurisdictions this November — more than any other state and more than half of the 34 measures going before voters nationwide.
Democratic Senate challenger Sherrod Brown has attacked Republican Sen. Jon Husted over data center development. Trump, campaigning for Husted, defended the industry’s economic potential.
"Look, there’s so much money to be made for Ohio, you can’t just turn them off," Trump said.
Global South wants to head north and Ceuta invasion was just the latest example
Back in August 2023, hundreds of foreign nationals rushed the U.S. border in separate incidents at official crossing points in Brownsville and El Paso, Texas. DHS officers put up physical barriers and stopped traffic over the Gateway International Bridge. On the Mexican side, the military intervened to stop further mass attempts by aliens to enter the U.S. illegally.
For those who have already forgotten, we very recently had hundreds of thousands of inadmissible aliens pouring over our border every month. Why did they come in the millions from 2021-2024 and only a few hundred today? Policy choices. Former President Joe Biden and his Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas were lamentably successful at creating made-up "lawful pathways" and circumventing our laws to parole or release as many aliens into our country as possible. The effects will last decades.
We saw an echo of the Biden border recently in the Spanish city of Ceuta, in North Africa. In July, more than 72,000 non-Spaniards bum-rushed the border while Morocco did little to stop them. The majority were Moroccans, who mostly went home within a few days. But 10,000 or more were from sub-Saharan Africa or claimed to be minors, or both.
SPAIN DEPLOYS MILITARY AFTER THOUSANDS OF MIGRANTS OVERWHELM BORDER ENCLAVE, AT LEAST 18 DEAD
Spain is now stuck with processing them under Europe’s insanely soft asylum policies, which will likely result in many being taken to mainland Spain. The success of even a minority of these invaders to access Europe will encourage many more to try.
President Donald Trump ended Biden’s open-borders policies. Since he took office, there have been zero "catch-and-release" cases at the border, the Department of Homeland Security says. Trump also ended Biden’s reckless and illegal mass parole programs. Some aliens still sneak in without being caught, but far fewer now that the Border Patrol has the time and manpower to look for them and the mandate to detain them.
TRUMP ADMIN MARKS 15 STRAIGHT MONTHS WITH ZERO BORDER RELEASES AS APPREHENSIONS PLUNGE 94%
Trump’s prompt action stemmed the manmade disaster that allowed up to 10 million illegal aliens into our country with no vetting and little chance of qualifying for asylum. But Trump can’t change the demand-side of the mass migration equation. The world still has plenty of poor, dysfunctional countries.
True, there have been some success stories. Elections across Latin America including Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, and Peru have replaced leftist leaders with conservative ones, which augers well for security and prosperity in our hemisphere.
TANVI RATNA: LATIN AMERICA'S RIGHT TURN IS REDRAWING THE UNITED STATES' BACKYARD
In El Salvador, President Nayib Bukele has drastically reduced crime and improved the economy such that the country is desperate for workers. The U.S. taking out Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and replacing him with a more cooperative, if still leftist, leader should improve that country’s economy and allow millions to return home safely.
But elsewhere in Latin America, Africa and Asia, bad governments, weak economies, and high fertility continue to make people want to leave. The U.S. remains a favored destination.
So does Europe, where the native population is slowly being supplanted by mass migration from the "Global South." This is no conspiracy theory; it’s an observable demographic phenomenon.
The U.N. High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) estimated that at least 1,200 migrants in Ceuta could be eligible for asylum in Spain. UNHCR, along with the International Organization for Migration, used millions in U.S. money to channel illegal migration from across the world via Latin America into the U.S.
MIGRANT CRISIS PUSHES ITALY TO RESTORE BORDER CHECKS WITH SPAIN, TESTING EUROPE'S OPEN-BORDER SYSTEM
Claiming asylum so they can get into Spain and the larger EU is what motivates people rushing into Ceuta, just like those who used to rush the U.S. border. They want jobs and better prospects, including generous welfare benefits. But the vast majority are not persecuted at home in the way required to qualify for asylum. They’ll admit as much themselves, at least until the asylum process begins and they have to make up a story and stick to it.
One illegal migrant to Ceuta from Chad, Mohamed Yaqoub, told an AP reporter that "The most important thing for us is to get the papers," so that he could achieve his goal of studying in France. If he were truly seeking asylum, Yaqoub would have done so in the first safe country he reached outside Chad. He not only didn’t, he admits he won’t even stay in Spain once he gets "papers," he’ll go to France.
Demand to migrate from the Global South to the richer countries is insatiable. But housing, healthcare and welfare benefits are limited. Many EU member countries have structural budget deficits and debt caused by their economies failing to grow while the costs of socialist healthcare and pension systems rise.
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The United States is largely in the same boat. Now, like Europe, we have evidence that the typical illegal or low-skilled legal migrant results in a net fiscal loss over his lifetime – thus not saving Social Security, but sinking it.
Let Ceuta and Brownsville, be a warning to us to never let the Biden border happen again.
HUGH HEWITT: The midterms are one month out — you need to know the stakes
The short answer: If a "blue wave" materializes, the nation’s national security will be greatly compromised and almost no new federal judges or cabinet appointments of any kind will occur. The sort of defense spending the country definitely and urgently needs will not be appropriated, and if he becomes majority leader in the Senate, Chuck Schumer will shut down confirmations of almost all nominees from President Trump.
What difference would those changes make?
On the one hand — the hand that keeps a history textbook open — the answer is "not much." People expecting a "blue wave" may be disappointed that one or both of the houses of Congress don’t flip on election night, but even if they do, a different kind of disappointment awaits the Left
LEE CARTER: POLLS SAY DEMOCRATS COULD SWAMP REPUBLICANS. AS A POLLSTER, I HAVE A QUESTION
First, even the rosiest of scenarios for the left doesn’t give Democrats veto-proof majorities in both legislative chambers, the sort of one-party governance that, for example, that has wrecked California. Divided government is a recipe for repeating government shutdowns which can annoy and even destroy some things, but cannot bring about fundamental change.
Democrats in D.C. cannot make all of America into California or New York without at least partisan control of all three branches of government and even then the sort of change the Democratic Socialists of America demand — abolition of the Senate and packing the Supreme Court are two of their "must haves" — require at least super majorities and probably Constitutional amendments.
The fever dreams of the Left are thus going to remain unfulfilled for a very long time, because, no matter how often the "No Kings" canasta parties gather, the Constitution is very strong and doesn’t yield to fits of high revolutionary passion. It was built with the danger of precipitous legislative action in mind and, because deliberation is a feature, not a bug, of our constitutional order, it is rare indeed when anything happens fast.
But significant damage would be done nonetheless, especially to national security spending. A lame duck Congress run by Republicans could try and pass a three-year defense appropriation, but if it can’t get that done between November 4, 2026, and January 3, 2027, the American military will be subject again to the sort of national security self-harm done during the years of "the Sequester."
Democratic control of the Senate is also almost a guarantee that not a single federal appeals court or Supreme Court nominee would pass through a Chuck Schumer-managed Senate. Schumer would simply roll tape of then-Senate Majority Leader McConnell announcing "no hearings, no votes" in the aftermath of the untimely death of Justice Scalia. Schumer will argue that McConnell set the precedent.
The optics of the different situations between McConnell’s refusal to move Merrick Garland forward in 2020 and those that result if a narrow Democratic Senate majority in 2027 blocks a vote on a Supreme Court nominee might be dramatic enough to wear down Democrats' resolve for revenge, but probably even a terrible look would not budge such a boycott and certainly not in 2028. Schumer would also likely refuse to allow votes on non-judicial Trump nominees no matter how far out the next election. His hold on the job of leader would be gone the instant he permitted a floor vote on any nominee of consequence, unless he was certain of the votes to defeat that nominee.
MAJORITY LEADER THUNE WARNS CHUCK SCHUMER 'LIVES IN FEAR' OF SOCIALISTS TAKING OVER DEMOCRATIC PARTY
We also know that the hard-left of the Democratic Senate nominees this year — Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan, James Talarico in Texas, Peggy Flanagan in Minnesota, Sherrod Brown in Ohio, Chris Pappas in New Hampshire and Mary Peltola in Alaska — will be united with the anti-defense doves already in the Democratic caucus. What the country must have — a budgeted demand signal for the defense-industrial base — will flicker out. The rebirth of American shipbuilding will disappear too, even as China’s Communist Party cheers on the smothering blanket of big government regulation of AI/SI descending on its competitors in the United States.
So a "blue wave" would do great damage, but there are some things such a wave could not do.
President Trump’s continued command of the American military would be unimpaired, for example, nor would such a wave wipe out the re-mooring to the Constitution that has been ongoing at the Supreme Court for the past decade.
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So a blue wave would be very bad news, but it wouldn’t overturn the Republic. GOP candidates are on firm ground with warnings about the mess that would follow giving majorities to Democrats but should avoid hysteria. Our adversaries abroad who are hoping for a Democratic wave should also remember that President George W. Bush ordered "the surge" after Republicans got "thumped" in 2006. If the rump regime in Iran is counting on Democrats to save it from Trump, they could not be more wrong.
Vote Republican to keep the country defended and the Constitution intact. But don’t do so because the Republic is in peril. It’s not. Yet.
Hugh Hewitt is a Fox News contributor and host of "The Hugh Hewitt Show" heard weekday afternoons from 3 PM to 6 PM ET on the Salem Radio Network, and simulcast on Salem News Channel. Hugh drives Americans home on the East Coast and to lunch on the West Coast on over 400 affiliates nationwide, and on all the streaming platforms where SNC can be seen. He is a frequent guest on the Fox News Channel’s news roundtable, hosted by Bret Baier weekdays at 6pm ET. A son of Ohio and a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Michigan Law School, Hewitt has been a Professor of Law at Chapman University’s Fowler School of Law since 1996 where he teaches Constitutional Law. Hewitt launched his eponymous radio show from Los Angeles in 1990. Hewitt has frequently appeared on every major national news television network, hosted television shows for PBS and MSNBC, written for every major American paper, has authored a dozen books and moderated a score of Republican candidate debates, most recently the November 2023 Republican presidential debate in Miami and four Republican presidential debates in the 2015-16 cycle. Hewitt focuses his radio show and his column on the Constitution, national security, American politics and the Cleveland Browns and Guardians. Hewitt has interviewed tens of thousands of guests from Democrats Hillary Clinton and John Kerry to Republican Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump over his 40 years in broadcasting. This column previews the lead story that will drive his radio/ TV show today.
America’s debt crisis threatens our children’s future. We the People need to fix it
If your house were on fire and your children were inside, you would not shrug and say that you are only one person and therefore powerless. You would run toward danger because the people you love were at risk and because waiting would be an act of surrender. America is facing a different kind of fire. It is a fiscal fire, and our children and grandchildren are already inside the house.
Some have heard warnings about the national debt for so long that they conclude nothing terrible ever happens. Others believe a single voice cannot possibly matter. Some do not think the problem is serious. Others assume that because the United States remains the world’s strongest economy, nothing can bring us down.
Those habits of mind ignore how different this moment is from anything we have faced before. The national debt has now surpassed $40 trillion, a sum so large it is almost impossible to hold in the mind and a burden of roughly $117,000 for every man, woman and child in the country. The size of the number is daunting, but the direction of the path is what should keep us awake.
WASHINGTON IS DRIVING AMERICA TOWARD A DEBT CRISIS WE CAN'T IGNORE ANY LONGER
The federal government continues to spend more than it collects, and deficits stretch into the multi-trillion-dollar range year after year with no end in sight. Social Security and Medicare carry unfunded obligations measured in the tens of trillions, and there is no serious plan to close the gap. The trust funds will be exhausted in a few years, and current law would then force major benefit cuts.
Interest costs already exceed $1 trillion a year and consume more than one fifth of total federal revenue, and that share is growing. The Government Accountability Office says the federal government is on an unsustainable fiscal path that poses serious economic, national security and societal challenges. These are not partisan talking points. They are mathematical realities, and they make today unlike any earlier chapter in our history.
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At some point, debt stops being an abstract figure in a government report and becomes a direct threat to the economy. Investors will eventually lose confidence and stop buying our debt at rates we can bear. That is when the Ponzi structure collapses and a fiscal crisis arrives. We cannot wait for that day as if surprise will make the outcome more honorable.
America’s greatest economic strength has always been its people, the men and women who work, save, invest, build businesses, raise families and solve hard problems. We inherited an extraordinary country from previous generations. We have a moral obligation to leave our children and grandchildren a country at least as strong as the one we received, not one that is bankrupt.
$50 TRILLION IN DEBT IS NOT A DISTANT THREAT. AMERICA IS SPEEDING TOWARDS IT
There is no painless way out of a problem this large. Getting government spending and deficits under control will mean restraint, entitlement reform, stronger growth and choices that some voters will dislike. Those choices still must be made while there is time, because the pain of discipline now is small next to the wreckage of a failed financial system, when savings shrink, credit dries up, businesses fail and even basic government promises will be harder to guarantee.
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The answer ultimately rests with "We the People." Congress will not fix the problem because economists produce another report, or one president gives another speech, or because one political party suddenly discovers fiscal virtue. It will happen when the American people understand how serious the danger is and demand that Congress repair the mess it has created. That is the power of our voices and our votes. One citizen will not change Washington. Millions of individual decisions can become a political force that Congress cannot ignore.
Our house is on fire. Once we recognize and accept that reality, we will act. The remaining question is whether we will act before the damage becomes irreversible. Our children and grandchildren are counting on us. We should not leave them in a burning house.
SEC MARCO RUBIO: The West forgot what made it great. We must rediscover our roots before we lose them
On Wednesday, I traveled to the Pnyx, a hillside overlooking the towering columns of the Acropolis in Athens. There, I delivered a simple message: The West is at a crossroads. The decisions we make in the next decade will define the next century – and determine whether our civilization maintains its place at the head of the world, or resigns itself to a future of servitude and decline.
For thousands of years, the Parthenon has stood as a testament to the Western spirit, captivating the imagination of our civilization’s artists, philosophers, and statesmen. The American Founding Fathers were fascinated by classical antiquity: The most commonly cited author in the Federalist Papers was Plutarch, the Greek biographer of Greece and Rome’s greatest men. The legacy of ancient Greece is carved into the architecture of our capital city itself, immediately visible in the famous columns and domes of Washington, D.C.
We all know the familiar history. Athens gave us democracy. Plato and Aristotle gave us Western philosophy. The Greek city-states shaped our ideas of citizenship, law and republican government.
But our debt to Greece runs deeper than any particular political system or theory.
Ancient Greece was the birthplace of all the essential qualities that would come to define the West: fierce individuality and relentless ambition; restless curiosity, creativity, and invention; an insatiable desire for adventure, glory, and exploration, straining to test the limits of what man can know and do.
What the West inherited from classical Greece is not just the ambition to explore the unknown; it is the conviction that the unknown can be known.
The Greeks believed the world could be observed, measured, mapped and understood. That conviction became the foundation of Western science, medicine and philosophy. It prepared the fertile soil for Christianity to take root and flourish into European Christendom, and helped form a civilization with a distinctive understanding of truth, virtue, beauty, duty and the natural order – carrying a code that dictates how men ought to live, and objective standards and ideals to strive towards.
THE BEDROCK OF AMERICAN LIBERTY WAS LAID IN JERUSALEM
The ancient Greeks organized their civic life around the pursuit of those ideals. They believed men should strive and compete for excellence in athletics, war, art, philosophy, statecraft and every other field of human endeavor. The classical Greek city was an arena for great men to test and prove themselves through perpetual contest and struggle – to be the best, the strongest, the most beautiful, straining to surpass all those that came before.
WHY AMERICA’S NEXT 250 YEARS CAN BE GREATER THAN ITS FIRST 250
These are the qualities that shaped the West, pushing its descendants to create and achieve things that others could not – distinguishing us from the many cultures of the world where stability and subsistence were the highest ends of life.
But today, too much of the West has come to feel ashamed of the very things that made us exceptional. Over time, we began to view our achievements as an embarrassment; our power and prosperity became a source of guilt. So we opened our borders, outsourced our once-great industries, and allowed our militaries to wither and decay. And with every passing year, we transferred more of our sovereignty to global bureaucracies beyond our control.
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Other nations were all too happy to fill the vacuum left by our weakness. They continued competing for territory, resources and influence, building up their own wealth and power in our stead.
Today, we find ourselves at an inflection point – not just in the United States, but across the whole of Western civilization.
TANVI RATNA: EUROPE SAYS TRUMP MADE AMERICA UNRELIABLE. THE TRUTH IS TOUGHER
Under President Donald Trump, the United States has chosen to take back control of our national destiny: rebuilding our defense, reindustrializing our economy, and fighting to dominate the technologies and industries that will define the future.
It is our sincere hope that the rest of the West will choose the same path.
There are encouraging signs across Europe. Defense spending is rising. Manufacturing and industrial capacity are returning to the center of political debate. European nations are beginning to recognize that sovereignty, borders, and military power are not relics of an irrelevant past, but prerequisites for a decent future.
AS AMERICA MARKS 250 YEARS, OUR GREATEST CHAPTERS ARE STILL AHEAD OF US
We do not believe the transatlantic friendship should be zero-sum. Quite the opposite: our vision is of an alliance whose strength is greater than the sum of its parts. We are many nations, but one civilization – born in Athens, forged in Rome, baptized in Christendom. Together, we must build an alliance capable of confronting the threats of our age.
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To do so, we must rediscover the spirit of the men who built the Parthenon, and rekindle the fire that was first lit in Athens millennia ago.
Ancient Greece does not just offer a glimpse of our institutions in their earliest form; it shows us an image of ourselves.
It shows us that ours is the inheritance of great heroes, and that we should be proud – fiercely proud – of where we came from. The story of our civilization is the greatest story ever known to man. But we must fight to defend it.
Together, the nations of the West can choose to reject decline, defend our shared heritage, and defeat the dangers of our time.
Former corrections officer accused of killing wife, forcing kids to help
A former Missouri probation and parole officer who later worked at a state correctional center allegedly killed his wife in front of some of his children, even making some of the youngsters help him abuse their mother.
Jonathan G. Houston, 44, was arrested after one of his children called 911 from a hotel and discreetly whispered to dispatchers that her father had "captured" her and her six siblings and had physically abused them for years, according to charging documents, KOMU reported.
Deputies responded to the report and found the children on Sunday at the Baymont Inn & Suites in Kingdom City.
One of the children told the deputies that their father had strangled their mother while some of the children were present 10 months earlier, according to the documents. Another child, who also recalled witnessing the strangulation, said her father told her he planned to kill her mother, who was later identified by deputies as 37-year-old Aunika C. Houston.
During that attack, Houston was allegedly gripping his wife by the throat when he forced one child to pour hot water down the woman's legs and another child to cover her mouth to muffle her screams, the documents show.
Houston had locked his three youngest children in the bathroom and instructed the children in the room to play loud music, so others could not hear their mother's screams, according to court records, KOMU reported.
The man allegedly put his wife’s body in a trash bag and threw it into a dumpster on the hotel's property.
The woman was never reported missing after the killing.
"Aunika Houston was originally from the State of California and is believed to have been residing in the Central Missouri area for the past several years. Her next of kin has been notified," the Callaway County Sheriff’s Office said in a press release.
Houston allegedly admitted to investigators that he killed his wife and had planned the killing in advance, according to the charging documents.
"There is no danger to the community. This seems to be an act of domestic violence and it's very unfortunate for everybody involved," Chief Deputy of the Callaway County Sheriff’s Office Curtis Hall told KOMU.
"At this point we’re 48 hours afterwards on a crime that we’re already 10 months behind on," Hall said. "We have to be mindful of what we can release and what we should release."
Houston was charged with first-degree murder and first-degree kidnapping. He is being held without bond.
His children were taken into protective custody, deputies said.
He is also being investigated in connection with an alleged sexual assault and assaults involving other victims, according to deputies.
San Diego Padres season ends in disaster after offense completely collapses against Milwaukee Brewers
Well, so much for the Padres.
San Diego’s season came to a crashing halt Wednesday night as the Milwaukee Brewers slammed the door shut at Petco Park. Game 3 offered a brief pulse, but the Padres' offense flatlined when it mattered most in a season-ending 3-1 Game 4 defeat.
Milwaukee moves on to face the Dodgers in the NLCS after LA eliminated the Braves earlier Wednesday, while the Padres get sent straight to the couch.
LOS ANGELES DODGERS ARE BACK IN THE NLCS FOR THIRD STRAIGHT SEASON AFTER WIN OVER ATLANTA BRAVES
The Padres loaded the bases with two outs in the first, but Xander Bogaerts popped out to leave everyone stranded. That squandered chance bit San Diego two innings later when Garrett Mitchell ripped an RBI single off Walker Buehler to put Milwaukee ahead.
Fernando Tatis Jr. provided the lone spark in the third, crushing a solo home run off Robert Gasser to tie it 1-1.
CLOSER MASON MILLER HITS PATERNITY LIST 45 MINUTES BEFORE THE PADRES' SEASON IS ON THE LINE
Remarkably, that swing was the final hit of the night for San Diego’s miserable offense. The bats went completely cold for the remaining six innings.
Jackson Chourio lined a two-out RBI single in the fifth, and Sal Frelick added a sac fly in the sixth to make it 3-1.
Meanwhile, Brewers reliever Aaron Ashby carved through three hitless innings to keep San Diego completely suffocated.
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The dagger came in the eighth.
With a runner on, Manny Machado launched a 107-mph missile to deep center field that sent Petco Park into a frenzy.
It looked like a game-tying two-run bomb.
But Garrett Mitchell tracked it down, leaped at the wall, and robbed Machado on the warning track.
Trevor Megill slammed the door in the ninth, striking out the side to seal the 3-1 victory and send Milwaukee to the NLCS.
Tee times await, boys.
Send us your thoughts: alejandro.avila@outkick.com / Follow along on X: @alejandroaveela
Anti-Israel protesters label Mamdani a 'traitor,' accuse him of 'genocide' outside Oct 7 vigil
A group of anti-Israel protesters on Wednesday targeted New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, calling him a "traitor," accusing him of "genocide" and claiming he "cannot weaponize being brown anymore."
The crowd of more than 100 demonstrators marched from City Hall to Union Square, where a vigil was held to mark the anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks in Israel. The vigil was organized as an evening of mourning for those killed in the Oct. 7 attacks and the bloodshed that followed, including Israelis and Palestinians.
The anti-Israel crowd was just outside the barricades of the Israelis for Peace Vigil, beating on drums and attempting to drown out the speakers, according to City & State New York.
Mamdani was at the vigil and held a candle as protesters threw various insults at him, including accusations of genocide and "selling all your people out."
ANTI-ISRAEL GROUPS RALLY ACROSS US ON OCTOBER 7 ANNIVERSARY, CHANTING 'LONG LIVE THE INTIFADA'
"Zohran, what do you say? How many kids did you kill today?" the protesters shouted, according to the outlet.
"700,000 dead. Mamdani, your hands are red!" they also chanted.
"Traitor, traitor, come on out! You sold all your people out!" the group was also heard chanting.
The crowd also shouted: "Zohran, you can’t hide. We charge you with genocide!"
"We don’t care about where you’re from. You cannot talk about being Muslim anymore. You cannot weaponize being brown anymore. Identity politics can only get you so far," they said.
One protester also claimed to be a former intern for Mamdani, saying the mayor "was never working for the people."
Protesters also demanded that Mamdani take action against New York real-estate events that have marketed properties in Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which the demonstrators characterize as "stolen" Palestinian land, according to City & State New York.
"Mayor Mamdani, take a stand. Stop the sale of stolen land," the group chanted.
The protesters also called for abolishing the City University of New York's Board of Trustees, whose members are largely appointed by the mayor and governor. Protesters have previously accused the board of ignoring demands to divest investments linked to Israel and criticized its handling of anti-Israel demonstrations on campus.
Despite the protesters' accusations of genocide on Wednesday, Mamdani is a longtime critic of the Israeli government's actions in Gaza and has denounced its treatment of Palestinians in the aftermath of the 2023 attack.
MAMDANI SAYS IT WAS 'STRANGE' GETTING CALLED OUT BY NETANYAHU AFTER CALLING FOR HIS ARREST
In a statement on Wednesday, Mamdani condemned Hamas’ attack as a "horrific war crime" while also characterizing Israel’s subsequent military operation as a genocide.
"The suffering did not begin nor end that day," he wrote. "It instead continued through the Israeli government’s devastating, ongoing genocide in Gaza in which it has killed more than 74,000 Palestinians — including more than 21,000 children."
Israel has rejected accusations that it is committing genocide in Gaza, saying its military targets Hamas and other terrorist groups while seeking to minimize civilian casualties.
The mayor's statement sparked bipartisan backlash, with Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., calling it "egregious and insulting."
"There are 364 days of the year to focus on that. This is a day that should just be focused on what was by all agreement a horrific terror attack," Goldman, who is Jewish, told Politico. "What the mayor’s statement did today was to blame Israelis for the attack that they suffered three years ago. Regardless of what you actually think of the conflict and what’s happened either since or before, there’s no excuse for victim blaming."
Texas executes Jamaal Howard despite concerns over lethal injection drug used in failed Tennessee execution
A Texas man convicted of killing a convenience store clerk during a robbery was executed Wednesday evening after the Supreme Court declined to halt the execution, despite his attorneys raising concerns about the lethal injection drug used in a failed execution attempt in Tennessee last week.
Jamaal Howard, 46, was pronounced dead at 8:03 p.m. He was sentenced to death for the 2000 killing of 42-year-old Vickie Swartout in Silsbee, Texas.
Prior to Howard's execution, his attorneys pointed to the failed execution of Tennessee death row inmate Christa Pike, who survived two doses of pentobarbital on Sept. 30, arguing that the same drug Texas planned to use could pose similar risks.
"Texas should not be eager to follow in Tennessee’s footsteps; a stay would keep that from happening," Howard's attorneys argued in their filing.
CHRISTA PIKE'S ATTORNEYS SAY SHE'S IN CRITICAL CONDITION AFTER BOTCHED LETHAL INJECTIONS
The Supreme Court rejected Howard's emergency appeal without explanation. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was the only justice to publicly dissent, Fox News reported.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals had previously rejected two requests to stop the execution based on concerns about the drug's use.
According to The Associated Press, as the pentobarbital began taking effect Wednesday evening, Howard took a couple of breaths and gasped.
Howard then began making snoring sounds, coughed and resumed the snoring sounds, which grew progressively quieter. His movements reportedly stopped entirely after around 30 seconds, and he was pronounced dead 19 minutes later.
Howard's attorneys also said in court filings that they had requested information about the dose of pentobarbital the Texas Department of Criminal Justice planned to use to carry out the execution.
The concerns stemmed in part from Pike's execution attempt, during which she reportedly survived two doses of pentobarbital.
Howard's execution took place the same day a Tennessee judge granted a request from Pike's attorneys to order the Tennessee Department of Correction to preserve evidence connected to the failed execution attempt.
According to the Death Penalty Information Center, Pike is the first person to survive a lethal injection in the modern era.
CHRISTA PIKE EXECUTION FAILURE SPARES MURDERER WHO BAILED VICTIM OUT JUST TO KILL HIM
Howard's attorneys also argued before the Supreme Court that his execution should be halted because he was intellectually disabled. However, the state said his attorneys had not presented evidence establishing that he met the legal criteria for intellectual disability.
Howard was convicted of capital murder in the killing of Swartout, who was shot once in the chest during a convenience store robbery.
Howard, who was 20 years old at the time, also took $114 from the cash register during the robbery.
Fox News Digital's Michael Ruiz and The Associated Press contributed to this report.