A Washington, D.C., health care lobbyist is facing dozens of child pornography charges after allegedly videotaping up the skirts of women and a 16-year-old at a popular Northern Virginia mall.
Shawn Gremminger, 44, was arrested Aug. 27 at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and is being held without bond, according to the Fairfax County Police Department.
<a href="https://www.politico.com/influence">POLITICO</a> reported that the veteran lobbyist served as president and CEO of the National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions until Sept. 4.  He is facing 34 total charges, including 30 counts of possession of child pornography, one count of production of child pornography, and one count of unlawful creation of an image of a minor (all felonies), along with two misdemeanor counts of nonconsensual filming. 
The investigation into Gremminger, who lives in Fall Church, Virginia, started on Aug. 16 after distressed patrons called police to report a man using his phone to record up the skirt of an 18-year-old woman shopping for clothes. Mall surveillance footage reportedly caught Gremminger explicitly recording another 18-year-old woman at a different store before being confronted, according to charging documents cited by POLITICO.
In a separate incident the day before, Gremminger allegedly targeted a 16-year-old girl inside Victoria’s Secret while visiting the mall with people POLITICO reported appeared to be his ex-wife and daughter.
<a href="https://wjla.com/news/local/ex-healthcare-ceo-hit-with-30-child-porn-charges-after-alleged-secret-recordings-in-tysons-virginia-shawn-gremminger-fairfax-county-unlawful-recording">According to 7News</a>, one of the victims and a family member confronted the man during one of the incidents, but he fled before police arrived. Detectives used automated license plate reader technology to track down the wealthy DC executive.  
Following his arrest at the airport, police seized and searched Gremminger’s electronic devices. 
“During a search of Gremminger’s electronic devices, detectives discovered evidence indicating there may be additional victims,” local police said in a statement. “Detectives are asking anyone with information about these incidents or who believes they may have been a victim to contact our Major Crimes Bureau at 703-246-7800, option 3.”
Gremminger is scheduled to appear next in Fairfax County General District Court on Oct. 21 for an adjudicatory hearing on the two nonconsensual filming charges, <a href="https://www.ffxnow.com/2026/09/15/just-in-health-care-coalition-leader-charged-with-illegally-filming-teens-in-tysons-stores/">Fairfax County local news</a> reported. A hearing on the felony charges – including unlawful filming of a minor and production of child porn charges – is set for Nov. 20. A separate hearing on the child pornography possession charges is scheduled on Dec. 2, local media reported.  
The National Alliance of Healthcare Purchasers Coalition <a href="https://www.nationalalliancehealth.org/news/national-alliance-of-healthcare-purchaser-coalitions-shares-leadership-update/">confirmed Tuesday</a> the company moved quickly to terminate Gremminger. 
“The Board of Governors took immediate action to fire the former president and CEO,” the National Alliance said, <a href="https://www.nationalalliancehealth.org/news/national-alliance-of-healthcare-purchaser-coalitions-shares-leadership-update/">adding</a> that the charges are “unrelated to the organization’s members, funders, finances, programs or operations.”
On Sept. 4, Chief of Staff Jenny Goins was named interim president and CEO.
The organization said it will continue working with its members and partners while advancing its mission to improve “value, quality and accountability” across the health care system.

e8582209-e5b1-45be-a42f-d36061d51a06-youtubethumbnail1280x720April242026at12.24.111standardyoutubethumbnail1280x7203

DC Lobbyist Arrested For Child Pornography

child pornography

fairfax county

lobbying

shawn gremminger

virginia

An affluent Virginia school district located just miles from where Islamic terrorists crashed a plane into the Pentagon issued guidance for its teachers to not “associate” the devastating 9/11 attacks “with Islam or Muslims.” 
Guidance from Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia told its teachers to be prepared to combat “anti-Muslim bias” in the classroom and to not connect the attacks with any religious motivation. The guidance, <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/pentagon-witness-blasts-virginia-school-districts-vanilla-9-11-teacher-guide">obtained</a> by FOX News, was issued ahead of the 25th anniversary of the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people. 
Fairfax County is located outside Washington, D.C., and just miles away from where the 9/11 terrorists crashed a plane into the Pentagon, killing over 180 people. 
“Expressions of racism, hate, and bias must not be tolerated in the classroom. Consider how you might prepare to stand against anti-Muslim racism in your classroom,” the guidance said. “Consider the classroom conditions that you can build to create safe spaces for Muslim and Middle Eastern students.”
The guidance also instructed teachers to not “associate the 9/11 attacks with Islam or Muslims” and “ignore statements rooted in bias, hate, and racism.” 
“Do not focus a commemorative learning experience about 9/11 on an examination of Islam. Students deserve consistent and meaningful learning about world religions, and about Muslim perspectives and contributions, throughout their K-12 experience,” the guidance said. “But teachers who decide to take a deep dive into world religions as part of their 9/11 lesson unintentionally send the harmful message that Islam, or all Muslims, are responsible for these terrorist attacks.”
Evidence shows that the 19 terrorists behind the attacks were motivated by their adherence to Islam. Writings <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/18/AR2007111800569.html">found</a> from one of the hijackers show him praying for “guidance” and “help” and demonstrate that he believed he would be “entering paradise” after dying in the attacks. Another document found from the hijackers discussed the history of Islam and Muhammad waging war against non-Muslims. 
While recognizing that the attacks were carried out by Al Qaeda, the guidance from Fairfax County said its ideology should not be linked to “Islam or to Muslims as a religious community.” Teachers were also told to “intentionally include Muslim Americans among the heroes, helpers, and victims represented in your teaching about 9/11.”
The school district told FOX News that it was committed to remembering the victims and creating an “inclusive” school environment. 
“We remember the victims, their families, the survivors, and everyone whose lives were forever changed. We honor the first responders whose courage and sacrifice continue to inspire us,&#8221; the district said. &#8220;FCPS remains committed to creating an inclusive environment in our schools where all students feel welcome and respected as we strive to provide a world-class education and workplace.&#8221;
Reacting to the guidance, Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) said it should be “ripped up.” 
“On the 25th anniversary, Democrats are trying to downplay the EVIL of 9/11. ISLAMIC TERRORISTS MURDERED 2,977 AMERICANS,” he posted on X. “That shouldn’t be controversial. It’s a damn fact. This ‘guide’ should be ripped up and thrown in the garbage, along with every other socialist rewrite of history.”
While Virginia officials cater to Islamic sensibilities, Texas recently <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/red-state-history-classes-could-soon-teach-the-radical-islam-behind-9-11?author=Jacob+Wheeler&amp;category=undefined&amp;elementPosition=2&amp;row=3&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+News&amp;rowType=Vertical+Carousel&amp;title=Red+State+History+Classes+Could+Soon+Teach+The+Radical+Islam+Behind+9%2F11">moved</a> to approve new curriculum standards that teach about the religious motivations behind 9/11 and the violent history surrounding Islam’s rise. The teaching would include the“Prophet Mohammed’s brutal military campaigns against Jewish and Christian tribes, the normalization of slavery, and the taking of female captives as harem slaves.&#8221;

A plane crashed into the Pentagon

School District Tells Teachers To Not Link 9/11 Attacks With Islam, Fight ‘Anti-Muslim Bias’

islam

school curriculum

september 11 attacks

tommy tuberville

Officials in Arlington County, Virginia, have set aside $50,000 in taxpayer funds to pay families whose loved ones have been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Last week, the Arlington County Board voted 4-0 to set aside the funds for families whose primary wage earner was taken into ICE custody, <a href="https://www.arlnow.com/2026/09/08/families-of-wage-earners-detained-by-ice-to-receive-up-to-2k-from-arlington-county/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to ARLnow.
Each family can receive up to $2,000 and will not be required to provide proof that their family member was deported, ABC7 <a href="https://wjla.com/newsletter-daily/arlington-county-sets-aside-50k-aid-families-ice-detainees-primary-wage-earner-immigration-enforcement" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>. The board will also not require families to share employment records.
The vote came in response to an ICE operation that took place last month across Washington, D.C., Virginia, and Maryland that resulted in the arrests of roughly 1,300 illegal immigrants. Nearly 400 of the detainees had either been convicted of or charged with crimes in the United States, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
&#8220;I&#8217;m very proud of us for doing this,&#8221; Arlington County Board Member Maureen Coffey said of the board&#8217;s decision to create the fund.
&#8220;This investment in our families is about the urgency we have seen in our community in the last month,&#8221; Arlington County Board Chairman Matt de Ferranti said. &#8220;And we are going to respond with care, and we are going to respond proudly. That&#8217;s what this $50,000 is toward with Thrive.&#8221;
The board has tasked Arlington Thrive, a nonprofit organization that provides financial aid to Arlington families, with distributing the funds, according to ABC7.
&#8220;We are valuing the families of those who have been displaced and removed,&#8221; de Ferranti said.
Months before approving the payments, the board raised property taxes on the average homeowner by nearly $500, according to ABC7. The average renter is also expected to see rent increases of more than $300 as a result of the tax hikes.
DHS responded to the county&#8217;s latest action in an <a href="https://x.com/DHSgov/status/2097467550665724287">X post</a> Tuesday, saying that &#8220;under left-wing leadership, crime pays.&#8221;
The county board voted last year to bar the Arlington County Police Department from notifying ICE about the arrests of illegal immigrant gang members or terrorists, according to ABC7.
The board also <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Fcq17tWJak" target="_blank" rel="noopener">instructed</a> residents to call 911 if they observe ICE on the streets.
Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D) has also instituted several anti-ICE measures, including actions barring state authorities from working with ICE.

A goup of 122 deported Guatemalans arriv

Sanctuary Officials To Shell Out Thousands In Taxpayer Dollars To Families Of Illegal Immigrants

abigail spanberger

arlington county

illegal immigration

sanctuary city

After weeks of watching women in pink gather outside of a Massachusetts courthouse in support of child-killer Lindsay Clancy, America’s mothers finally have a real victim to rally for: Karyann Parkinson. The Virginia mother of five is a casualty of an overzealous criminal justice system and is serving a suspended six-month prison sentence.
Parkinson didn’t brutally murder anyone, but she was convicted last week of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. She landed on the state’s abuse and neglect registry because she allowed her five-year-old son to walk half a mile to a pond in order to collect goose feathers.
Writing on the case for Reason, the queen of free-range parenting Lenore Skenazy explained, “A passerby saw Sam and alerted security. One of the community&#8217;s security guards escorted the boy back and gave Parkinson an earful. Pretty soon there were three cop cars, just as many cops, a security vehicle, and two Child Protective Services (CPS) workers at Parkinson&#8217;s door.”
Some important context: Parkinson was pregnant in June in Virginia when this much law enforcement showed up and lectured the mother of five on basic parenting. It’s no wonder she lost patience, and fast. Who among us wouldn’t lose her temper at such an overreaction in the face of a rational parenting decision?
Parkinson didn’t get in this much trouble because she actually put her son at risk. She ran afoul of the law because she got mouthy. Skenazy wrote, “She admits she was upset with the guard and asked him where in the homeowners-association rules it says that a child can&#8217;t walk by himself. The guard said it was against the law anyway and called the police. When the first cop arrived, Parkinson told him, &#8216;I don&#8217;t have any interest in talking to you.&#8217; This did not make things go smoother. The cop called for backup and summoned CPS.”
Parkinson didn’t come to the decision to give her kindergarten-aged son freedom lightly. She was, like Skenazy, a committed and ideological “free-range parent,” of the belief that giving kids freedom is a vaccine for any host of issues plaguing most of today’s youth, from anxiety to depression.
Skenazy reported, “In Virginia, Parkinson spent one summer interning at the Institute for Justice and another working in the law office of former Virginia state Sen. Jill Vogel (R–Winchester). Vogel was actually co-sponsor of the reasonable childhood independence law that passed in Virginia, unanimously, in 2023.”
The bill says that neglect is only when you put your child in serious, obvious danger. What was the “obvious danger” exactly?
The irony here is that the same week the news broke that Parkinson is only avoiding jail time “pending good behavior and compliance with CPS&#8217; conditions,” Clancy, the Massachusetts mother of three, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/lindsay-clancy-trial-ends-in-mistrial-after-defenses-hail-mary-attempt">escaped</a> a murder conviction after admitting to killing her three children.
It’s a frustrating and infuriating time to be a mother: those of us fighting to do it right, working to give our kids confidence and independence, are swimming upstream, one cranky security guard and patrol officer away from prison. Meanwhile, Clancy is comfortably tucked away not in prison, but instead in a mental facility.
There’s another contrast between these two mothers. Parkinson’s crime, if you want to call it that, came from believing her child was capable of more than the adults around him thought he was. She was willing to go against a parenting culture that increasingly treats children as both extraordinarily fragile and burdensome.
That culture has produced an entire vocabulary around how exhausting children are because we’re required to over-parent to such a degree. “Because kids.” “Mommy needs wine.” “Touched out.” “Overstimulated.” Children are simultaneously too vulnerable to walk down the street alone and so emotionally demanding that their mothers are expected to organize their entire lives around managing them.
Clancy herself participated in an attachment-parenting Facebook group, where she once described her son, who was three when she killed him, as “the most difficult human being” and wrote that “everything he does is a battle.” In photographs of the crime scene, beside a bloodied knife sat a wine mug <a href="https://nypost.com/2026/07/27/us-news/bloody-knife-other-grisly-evidence-photos-revealed-during-lindsay-clancys-murder-trial-opening-arguments/">bearing</a> the words “Because kids.”
There is something deeply broken about a parenting culture that treats childhood independence as criminal while treating maternal resentment of children as so ordinary that we put jokes about it on t-shirts and coffee mugs.
If American mothers are looking for a reason to put on matching shirts and rally behind one of our own, we’ve been standing outside the wrong courthouse. Our solidarity belongs with the mother being punished for believing in her child, not the mother celebrated as a victim after killing hers.
***
Bethany Mandel (<a href="https://x.com/bethanyshondark" target="_blank" rel="noopener">@bethanyshondark</a>) is a homeschooling mother of six. She podcasts at the Mom Wars and writes for its <a href="https://themomwars.substack.com/">Substack</a>.
This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/introducing-upstream-a-lifestyle-and-culture-section-of-the-daily-wire" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Upstream,</a> The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.

GettyImages-1298874820

America’s Broken Parenting Culture Criminalizes Independence

child protective services

free range parenting

lindsay clancy

opinion

parenting culture

While Massachusetts mother Lindsay Clancy waits for 12 jurors to decide whether she should be held criminally responsible for killing her three children, a Virginia mother landed on her state&#8217;s child abuse and neglect registry for letting her son take a walk.
<a href="https://reason.com/2026/09/02/virginia-mom-gets-6-month-suspended-jail-sentence-for-letting-5-year-old-walk-to-the-pond/">Karyann Parkinson</a> told her 5-year-old son, Sam, that he could walk down the street in their gated community in Williamsburg, Virginia, to look for feathers. They had walked down that same street together hundreds of times, she said — including six times that morning — and at eight months pregnant, Parkinson just wanted to stay home and get lunch ready, so she allowed Sam to walk by himself.
That short walk quickly set off a chain of events: someone saw the boy and alerted one of the community security guards, who took Sam home and scolded Parkinson for allowing him to walk alone, Reason Magazine reported. He also reportedly told Sam that his mother was wrong to allow him out alone and that bad people might do something to him if he didn&#8217;t have an adult with him.
&#8220;This scared the crap out of him,&#8221; Parkinson explained.
Later, a police officer arrived, and Parkinson made it clear she&#8217;d had enough: &#8220;I don&#8217;t have any interest in talking to you.&#8221;
And then the cavalry showed up: multiple police and Child Protective Services (CPS) workers arrived at her home to investigate.
Parkinson called her husband to come home, and he did. &#8220;I told [the authorities] that kids need to be able to take reasonable risks in order to grow up non-anxious,&#8221; her husband said.
Police charged Parkinson with &#8220;contributing to the delinquency of a minor.&#8221; CPS investigated her for abuse and neglect, and because it ultimately found the allegations to be &#8220;substantiated,&#8221; it placed Parkinson on the state&#8217;s child abuse and neglect registry. She will remain there for seven years.
After a judge convicted her on the above charge, he immediately suspended the sentence — but even though she will serve no jail time pending good behavior, the punishment for the mother is a steep one, and her conviction remains.
The fact that her name is on the child abuse and neglect registry likely means that she will be barred from volunteering at her children&#8217;s schools. Her conviction could also prevent her from getting her law license — she&#8217;d also been preparing for the bar exam when the incident occurred.

child in the rain collecting autumn leaves, view from the back

Mom Lands On Abuse Registry For Letting Her Kid Take A Walk

karyann parkinson

parenting

In a surprising move, sanctuary authorities in Virginia handed an illegal immigrant convicted of groping multiple girls over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Monday.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/feds-call-out-sanctuary-policies-after-illegal-immigrant-accused-of-groping-multiple-girls" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Israel Christopher Flores-Ortiz</a>, 19, of El Salvador, groped multiple female students at a Virginia high school and was sentenced to just 360 days behind bars and two years of probation for his crimes. When ICE learned of his arrest in March, the agency lodged a detainer with the Fairfax County Sheriff&#8217;s Office — an agency notorious for releasing illegal immigrants from custody — asking officials to transfer him to federal custody.
On Monday, the sheriff&#8217;s office handed Flores-Ortiz over to ICE.
Sean Kennedy, a member of the Fairfax County Criminal Justice Advisory Board and president of Virginians for Safe Communities, applauded the sheriff&#8217;s move to comply with ICE&#8217;s request but warned that it is likely not indicative of a broader policy change.
&#8220;It&#8217;s a good thing that the Fairfax County Sheriff followed Virginia law in this case and assisted in the orderly transfer of custody of this convicted groper criminal alien. But one case does not prove that Fairfax County has come to its senses on this,&#8221; Kennedy told The Daily Wire.
&#8220;Just a few months ago, the County Board refused to even consider amending its sanctuary policies for the violent criminals and sex predators. I&#8217;m pleased but not optimistic anything will change as long as the county board, who controls the sheriff&#8217;s budget, protects criminal aliens at the expense of both American citizens and immigrants themselves, who are most often the victims of criminal aliens,&#8221; he said.
The Fairfax County Sheriff&#8217;s Office confirmed to The Daily Wire on Monday that &#8220;the inmate was released to ICE.&#8221;
An ICE spokesperson later told The Daily Wire that agents arrested Flores-Ortiz &#8220;following his release from the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center&#8221; on Monday.
Flores-Ortiz crossed the border illegally in 2024, when federal authorities released him into the United States, according to ICE.
He ended up attending Fairfax High School, where roughly a dozen girls accused him of groping them in the school&#8217;s hallways. Some of the girls said he placed his hands between their legs and touched their private areas.
While serving his sentence for the gropings, an immigration judge ordered his deportation on Aug. 10, ICE said.
The agency intends to hold him until he is deported from the United States.
&#8220;Flores-Ortiz had been in the FCADC since March 25 serving his sentence for sexually assaulting nine high-school students. Flores-Ortiz illegally entered the United States in 2024 and was RELEASED into the country under the Biden administration,&#8221; the ICE spokesperson said.
&#8220;Flores-Ortiz will remain in ICE custody pending his removal from the country. Under the leadership of President Trump and Secretary Mullin, criminal illegal aliens are not welcome – especially those who harm our American communities,&#8221; the spokesperson said.

Untitled design – 2026-04-10T083347.927

In Shocking Move, Sanctuary Authorities Surrender Illegal Immigrant Child Groper To ICE

Sanctuary Authorities Shockingly Hand Illegal Immigrant Child Groper Over To ICE

politics

sanctuary policy

You don’t get to break the rules to rewrite the rules. Virginia Democrats learned that lesson the hard way earlier this year with their failed push to redistrict. <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2026/08/26/maryland-redistricting-ruling-01050812">Now Maryland Democrats are getting the same education.</a>
An <a href="https://marylandreporter.com/2026/08/26/judges-tosses-redistricting-amendment-but-md-supreme-court-must-rule-ballot-language-is-hard-to-understand/">Anne Arundel County judge ruled</a> that Maryland lawmakers unlawfully placed a constitutional amendment on the November ballot to clear the way for another congressional redistricting.
Judge Robert Thompson found lawmakers missed the statutory deadline for putting the measure on the ballot, the ballot language was misleading, and the amendment violated Maryland’s constitutional requirement that an amendment address only one subject.
If this failure to follow the rules sounds familiar, it should.
I spent eight years in the Virginia Senate and four years as Virginia’s attorney general where I <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/amend-virginias-constitution-to-ban-gerrymandering/2019/01/03/163e4884-0eae-11e9-831f-3aa2c2be4cbd_story.html">dealt firsthand with the constitutional and federal requirements governing redistricting</a> and defended Virginia’s redistricting plans following the 2010 Census.
Redistricting is political by nature. Legislators fight over maps; parties fight over partisan advantage, and courts are frequently asked to referee. But one rule applies regardless of which party has the votes: You follow the Constitution.
That is precisely what went wrong in Virginia.
Virginia’s Constitution requires any proposed constitutional amendment to pass the General Assembly twice, with a House of Delegates election occurring between those votes. The intervening election serves an important constitutional purpose, giving Virginians an opportunity to hold their representatives accountable before those legislators take the second step toward changing the state Constitution.
Virginia Democrats, however, took their first vote on a redistricting amendment after early voting in the 2025 House elections had almost ended. By then, more than 1.3 million Virginians had already cast their ballots. Those voters could not weigh legislators’ positions on an amendment the General Assembly had not yet approved.
The proposal then went to voters with ballot language describing it as a measure to “restore fairness” to Virginia’s congressional elections. That was not neutral ballot language, but bald-faced advocacy.
The <a href="https://www.dailysignal.com/2026/04/27/virginia-redistricting-court/">Virginia Supreme Court ultimately vacated the referendum</a>. In May, the court held that the General Assembly had violated the Virginia Constitution and thus the resulting referendum was legally invalid. The U.S. Supreme Court subsequently declined to disturb that result.
That should have been a warning to politicians everywhere. Winning enough legislative votes does not give you permission to disregard the rules governing how a constitution is changed.
Maryland didn’t get the memo.
Maryland Democrats called a special legislative session and pushed through a constitutional amendment to remove state constitutional redistricting standards, including compactness and respect for natural boundaries, from congressional districts. The amendment would also authorize the legislature to give Maryland’s highest court original jurisdiction over challenges involving congressional maps.
The political stakes are obvious. Democrats already hold seven of Maryland’s eight congressional seats. Changing the constitutional framework could make it easier for lawmakers to draw out the remaining Republican-held district in a future mid-decade redistricting.
Like in Virginia, the effort faced a fundamental obstacle: Maryland had already enacted a July 1 deadline for certifying statewide ballot questions. The General Assembly acted in August.
Judge Thompson concluded that lawmakers were bound by that deadline.
But he didn’t stop there. He also found the ballot language misleading because voters were told the amendment merely “clarifies” Maryland’s Constitution. And he concluded that combining changes to congressional redistricting requirements with a separate alteration to the Maryland Supreme Court’s jurisdiction violated the state Constitution’s single-subject requirement.
The court&#8217;s concerns extended beyond timing. It found defects in the process, the amendment itself, and the information presented to voters.
The court ordered Question 3 removed from the November ballot, although that order has been stayed while Maryland appeals. Maryland’s highest court will now decide whether Judge Thompson got the law right.
Whatever happens on appeal, the parallels with Virginia are impossible to ignore. In both states, lawmakers sought greater freedom to redraw congressional maps, while constitutional safeguards stood in the way of their preferred outcome. And in both states, lawmakers treated those safeguards less like binding rules and more like obstacles to maneuver around.
That reverses the proper relationship between political power and constitutional limits.
A constitution exists precisely because political majorities cannot always be trusted to restrain themselves. It establishes rules that remain binding even when they are politically inconvenient. If a legislative majority can disregard constitutional procedures whenever it believes its political objective is important enough, then those procedures aren’t safeguards at all.
Voters should also be wary when politicians seeking to change redistricting rules are the same officials who could benefit from the resulting maps.
I have seen redistricting from both the legislative and attorney general sides. I don’t pretend that redistricting is apolitical, and neither should anyone else.
Both Republicans and Democrats seek political advantage. Elections have consequences, and legislatures have legitimate constitutional authority to redraw districts.
But such authority has limits. A legislative majority is not a constitutional blank check.
If politicians want to change their state constitution, they have to follow it. They don’t get to ignore inconvenient deadlines, sidestep required procedures, combine unrelated constitutional changes, or sell voters political advocacy disguised as neutral ballot language.
Virginia Democrats tried to push beyond that line, and the Virginia Supreme Court stopped them. Now Maryland Democrats have run into their own constitutional roadblock.
Maryland’s Supreme Court will have the final word on this particular case. But lawmakers on both sides of the Potomac would do well to remember a much simpler rule:
You don’t get to break the rules to rewrite the rules.
***
Ken Cuccinelli served as the 46th Attorney General of Virginia and Acting Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. He is Chairman of Heritage Action’s Election Transparency Initiative.

US-NEWS-MD-REDISTRICTING:BZ

How Democrats Botched The Rules To Rig The Election Maps

gerrymandering

ken cuccinelli

maryland

redistricting

Crews began removing the final three Confederate-linked statues from the grounds of the Virginia State Capitol on Friday after Democrats buried a provision in the budget that set up the removal.
The statues depict Confederate General Thomas &#8220;Stonewall&#8221; Jackson, Confederate General and two-time Virginia Governor William &#8220;Extra Billy&#8221; Smith, and Confederate Army surgeon Dr. Hunter Holmes McGuire. Capitol Square has <a href="http://www.vacapitol.org/statues.htm">displayed</a> Jackson&#8217;s statue since 1875, McGuire&#8217;s since 1904, and Smith&#8217;s since 1906.
Former state Sen. Adam Ebbin (D-Alexandria) introduced legislation earlier this year directing the state to remove the statues. It passed the Senate but died in a House committee before lawmakers resurrected the plan during state budget negotiations, WTVR Richmond <a href="https://www.wtvr.com/news/local-news/richmond/removing-confederate-statues-capitol-square-aug-28-2026#google_vignette">reported</a>.
Virginia gifted the Confederate statues to the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation, according to the Department of General Services.
&#8220;Stonewall&#8221; Jackson is one of the Confederacy&#8217;s most iconic generals. His actions at the First Battle of Bull Run helped lead the Confederates to a major victory early in the Civil War. A separate monument to Jackson that had stood on Richmond&#8217;s Monument Avenue since 1919 was removed in July 2020 during the protests and riots that followed George Floyd&#8217;s death.
Smith took over as a commander of Confederate troops after their commander died, despite acknowledging that he had little knowledge of battlefield tactics.
McGuire served as a surgeon in the Confederate Army who worked to save numerous lives. After the war, he served as the president of the American Medical Association, as <a href="https://x.com/BlueBoxDave/status/2093375266240213425">pointed out</a> by Fox News Digital columnist and West Virginia resident David Marcus.
&#8220;I guess Woke 1.0 is still with us, after all,&#8221; Marcus <a href="https://x.com/BlueBoxDave/status/2093373688548651133">said</a> of the statue removal, referencing a comment made by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) when she was pressed about radical leftist priorities like defunding the police. “I have a local city councilman that has this saying, ‘Woke 1 was crazy,&#8217;” AOC said.
Marcus added, &#8220;It’s interesting that the people who tore down statues, renamed schools, and banned mascots, are furious that the inviolable name of Lake Ontario could ever be altered.&#8221;
The Left has aggressively pushed for the removal of statues depicting Confederate figures — and sometimes even Founding Fathers — since 2015. The movement to remove depictions of American history gained steam in 2017 after the deadly Charlottesville rally and in the summer of 2020 following the death of George Floyd and the ensuing riots. Public <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-protests-poll/a-majority-of-americans-want-to-preserve-confederate-monuments-reuters-ipsos-poll-idUSKCN1B12EG/">polls</a> during that time showed that a plurality of Americans <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/confederate-statues-removal-polls_n_599de056e4b05710aa59841c">favored</a> keeping the statues in place despite the Left&#8217;s campaign to tear down historic monuments.
Despite the public opposition to taking down the monuments, around 90 Confederate statues were <a href="https://cwmemory.com/recent-confederate-monument-removals/">removed</a> in 2020 alone. Ten monuments were torn down by rioters that year. From 2020 to 2024, a total of 123 Confederate monuments have been taken down across the country, including 38 in Virginia.

Civil War Statues

Dems Use State Budget To Remove Final Confederate Statues From Capitol Grounds

confederate monument removal

stonewall jackson

virginia state capitol

An illegal immigrant from El Salvador allegedly sold fentanyl to students near a high school in Virginia who later overdosed from the narcotic.
Isaac Melendez-Carranza, 31, allegedly sold the pills to Park View High School students who overdosed in May, authorities said. At the time, he already had a deportation order, which an immigration judge issued on July 18, 2024, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) told The Daily Wire.
The two students survived the overdoses after receiving doses of the opioid antidote Narcan.
Border agents caught Melendez-Carranza when he crossed the Rio Grande near Hebbronville, Texas, in May 2016, DHS said. He bonded out of federal custody in July 2016 before going on to allegedly commit his latest crimes.
On Thursday, local authorities arrested Melendez-Carranza following the execution of search warrants where they seized suspected narcotics and cash, the Loudoun County Sheriff&#8217;s Office <a href="https://sheriff.loudoun.gov/m/newsflash/home/detail/10821" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> in a statement.
“We found that the subject in question, Isaac Melendez-Carranza, actually had over 100 fentanyl pills with him at the time, in addition to several thousand dollars,” Loudoun County Sheriff Mike Chapman <a href="https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/northern-virginia/suspected-drug-dealer-arrested-in-connection-to-loudoun-county-student-overdoses/4145731/">told</a> News4. “So, looked to me like he was getting ready to do another delivery to somebody.”
“He came in the country illegally 10 years ago, and so you know, had that not happened, maybe this would have never happened. So, just so you know, DHS – there&#8217;s a detainer on him,” Chapman said.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) lodged a detainer with the Loudoun County Jail on Thursday, asking local authorities to hand the Salvadoran national over to the feds if he is to be released. The Trump administration has faced challenges in working with local authorities in Virginia to arrest illegal immigrants accused of crimes and has blamed the commonwealth&#8217;s Democratic governor, Abigail Spanberger, for enacting sanctuary policies.
&#8220;ICE will work to ensure this criminal is REMOVED from our nation,&#8221; DHS <a href="https://x.com/DHSgov/status/2092042816390070392" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> in an X post on Monday.
Following Melendez-Carranza&#8217;s arrest, the Loudoun County Sheriff&#8217;s Office warned the public that &#8220;one pill can be deadly&#8221; and that &#8220;fentanyl is an extremely potent synthetic opioid, and even a small amount can cause a fatal overdose.&#8221;
&#8220;Illicit pills and powders may contain fentanyl without the user’s knowledge, making experimentation or taking a pill obtained from an unknown source especially dangerous,&#8221; the sheriff&#8217;s office said.
&#8220;Parents, caregivers, and students are encouraged to talk openly about the dangers of illicit drugs and counterfeit pills. If you suspect someone is experiencing an overdose, call 911 immediately,&#8221; the office added.
Melendez-Carranza is charged with two counts of distribution of a controlled substance and one count of sale of drugs near certain properties. He is being held without bond.

Untitled design – 2026-08-25T101504.876

Illegal Immigrant With Deportation Order Sold Fentanyl To Students Who Later Overdosed

fentanyl

Where I live, tucked in the Virginia woods in D.C.&#8217;s outer suburbs, a body being found stabbed to death and doused in gasoline is virtually unprecedented. The murder was unsolved, and the killer could be lurking in any of our backyards.
I don&#8217;t typically go on Nextdoor, the hyperlocal social media app designed to bring neighbors together to discuss issues like community safety, but this seemed like exactly what it was made for. Everyone there was on edge.
Its users are already a notoriously jumpy bunch. Every Fourth of July, someone will invariably write that they think they heard gunshots. A man once pleaded with people on his block to stop using their fireplaces in the winter because the smoke coming from chimneys assaulted his nose on his afternoon walks.
Yet when an arrest was made, I could find no stand-down notification on the platform. So I took it upon myself to calm them with a one-sentence message: &#8220;A 19-year-old illegal immigrant has been arrested for stabbing the woman in Great Falls Park.&#8221;
Suddenly, the trembling fear of these residents of a wealthy D.C. enclave reversed. People who endlessly discussed the best way to rat on a neighbor with a barking dog to their HOA turned into gargoyles that took a blasé view of cold-blooded murder.
&#8220;Do you post every time a person from another race commits a crime? Or every time a U.S. citizen commits a crime?&#8221; a woman wrote.
&#8220;There have only been nine murders in Fairfax this year,&#8221; another said, as if that made it no big deal.
On a platform where a large portion of the posts are literally &#8220;I saw a fox, should I be concerned?&#8221; &#8220;I heard a loud noise&#8221; or &#8220;I lost my dog,&#8221; the threshold for alerting neighbors was suddenly revised: A literal murder in our backyards should go unexamined.
Someone posted a picture of white males and wrote, &#8220;These so called citizens kill more than any immigrant.&#8221; Similar posts followed, saying that residents of Fairfax County should instead be on the lookout for white men.
The fear they held hours prior was gone, along with any outrage that murder had crept into a peaceful place, or sympathy for the victim. Multiple people invoked an unnamed academic study which, they said, held that illegal immigrants are more law-abiding than Americans.
Of course, murder in Fairfax County is a rare enough thing that you don&#8217;t need an academic study: There had been eight people arrested for murder this year (one had two victims), so I replied by listing each of their names, along with their immigration status. Four were illegal immigrants. A fifth had a foreign name but an unknown immigration status. A sixth was a juvenile whose information was unknown.
I posted that list with no further comment.
Then I got an email that anonymous moderators had deleted my post for &#8220;discrimination.&#8221;
With the facts deleted, residents then suggested that the stabbing in our quiet community wasn&#8217;t at the hands of an illegal immigrant at all. After all, how could multiple sources fail to mention such an obviously significant fact if it were true?
&#8220;Where are you seeing he&#8217;s illegal? I&#8217;ve read several articles and not one said,&#8221; one said.
&nbsp;
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-1163297" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/nextdoor-suspension-526x576.jpg" alt="" width="526" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/nextdoor-suspension-526x576.jpg 526w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/nextdoor-suspension-274x300.jpg 274w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/nextdoor-suspension-768x841.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/nextdoor-suspension.jpg 1180w" sizes=" (max-width: 526px) 100vw, 526px" /></div>
&nbsp;
A killing in a town populated by Cabinet secretaries and Virginia&#8217;s former governor is a newsworthy event, so Fairfax County police chief Kevin Davis held a press conference. But when a reporter asked the killer&#8217;s immigration status, he, too, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFRpMgMAYOQ">refused</a> to say. (The future killer, we know thanks to federal authorities, had been apprehended when crossing the border, but the Biden administration <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/disturbing-details-emerge-after-illegal-immigrant-kills-mother-of-young-child">knowingly unleashed him</a> into the interior of the country instead of turning him back.)
Nextdoor&#8217;s moderators (the site literally encourages people to &#8220;report a neighbor&#8221; to its anonymous mods) seemed to be concerned that too many people were finding out the truth. A few hours after I posted the thread, I received another email saying my entire account had been &#8220;temporarily suspended&#8221; due to the original one-sentence post, and the whole thread was whisked into the ether.
&nbsp;
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-1163295" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/nextdoor-report-neighboir-561x576.jpg" alt="" width="561" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/nextdoor-report-neighboir-561x576.jpg 561w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/nextdoor-report-neighboir-292x300.jpg 292w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/nextdoor-report-neighboir-768x788.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/08/nextdoor-report-neighboir.jpg 772w" sizes=" (max-width: 561px) 100vw, 561px" /></div>
&nbsp;
Sean Kennedy, who runs a public safety nonprofit called Virginians for Safe Communities, postulated that the site may object to the language &#8220;illegal immigrant,&#8221; preferring euphemisms like &#8220;people who are unlawfully present.&#8221;
So he made a similar post without using the term.
His account, too, was banned.
It didn&#8217;t seem to be language they objected to — it was people knowing the facts at all. Those who posted the <a href="https://www.fox5dc.com/news/half-fairfax-county-homicide-suspects-2026-u-s-illegally">local TV story</a> &#8220;Half of Fairfax County homicide suspects in 2026 are in the U.S. illegally&#8221; also were sanctioned.
Illegal immigrant crime has become a hot-button topic in Northern Virginia because any clear-eyed view of crime in general will spot the wildly disproportionate connection — and Democrats&#8217; role in it. Just this week, we learned that an illegal alien and Islamic extremist who killed someone in Fairfax in 2019 fled the country after the local prosecutor, Steve Descano, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/islamist-immigrant-murderer-allowed-to-flee- country-was-given-48-hour-leave-from-mental-hospital">helped him get a foreign passport</a>.
Some Virginia residents have wondered: How can Fairfax residents keep voting for this? There are multiple reasons, but one is that they genuinely don&#8217;t know it&#8217;s happening.
Virginians elected Abigail Spanberger, a Democrat, for governor just months ago. On her first day in office, she signed an executive order ending cooperation between Virginia&#8217;s prisons and ICE. This has been the focus of a high-profile dispute every time one of these murders occurs, with Spanberger refusing to agree to turn the murderer over for deportation after his sentence.
Yet when the area&#8217;s congressman, Don Beyer, was asked about this horrific case, he didn&#8217;t defend the Democrat line — he pretended it wasn&#8217;t happening. &#8220;My understanding of the law is anyone who&#8217;s committed a serious felony is turned over to ICE,&#8221; he said.
If Democrats want to run on a policy that illegal immigrants should be able to enter the country at will, and be helped to stay even after they kill someone, that&#8217;s their right. But doing it while hiding it, and the effects, shouldn&#8217;t be.
Hyperlocal social media is a promising idea, but Nextdoor has bungled the chance for billions of dollars as badly as Virginia&#8217;s politicians bungled the chance to save four people&#8217;s lives this year. Nextdoor&#8217;s message that at least half of actual Americans aren&#8217;t welcome as customers might explain why it is <a href="https://about.nextdoor.com/press-releases/nextdoor-reports-second-quarter-2026-results">losing millions of dollars</a>. 
The site didn&#8217;t respond to a request for comment.
Ironically, people in our sleepy corner of Fairfax County will be better informed by The Daily Wire, a Nashville-based publication, than by one that&#8217;s supposedly hyper-local. Here&#8217;s the truth about every alleged murderer in Fairfax this year:
<ul class="ul-list" data-mark="*">
<li class="md-list-item">Abdul Jalloh, an illegal immigrant from Sierra Leone. Was arrested more than 30 times, but prosecutor Descano dropped the charges, enabling him to kill a stranger, Stephanie Minter, at a bus stop.</li>
<li class="md-list-item">Misael Lopez Gomez, a Guatemalan illegal immigrant, who allegedly beat a 3-month-old baby to death.</li>
<li class="md-list-item">Anibal Armando Chavarria Muy, a Guatemalan illegal immigrant who was arrested for stabbing a man to death.</li>
<li class="md-list-item">Alexis Antonio Cedillos-Campos from El Salvador, the illegal immigrant whose alleged murder was censored by Nextdoor</li>
<li class="md-list-item">Thapa Chhatra, whose immigration status is unknown and who was killed by police after stabbing three people</li>
<li class="md-list-item">An unknown juvenile</li>
</ul>
Only two 2026 murderers in Fairfax County are known to be Americans. One is Leland Jameson, a retired university professor and the only white man on the list. The other is Justin Fairfax — a black Democrat politician who served as lieutenant governor of Virginia and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/disgraced-democrat-used-his-kids-money-to-help-murder-their-mother">shot his wife</a> in April.

Fairfax County Police Department / Nextdoor

Nextdoor Kicked Me Off Its Platform For Telling People About A Murder

nextdoor

Authorities revealed that the illegal immigrant accused of killing the mother of a young child in Virginia grabbed a weapon and filled a bottle with gasoline before the fatal stabbing.
Salvadoran national Alexis Antonio Cedillos-Campos, 19, allegedly murdered Carmen Lizet Puch, 42, at a park in Great Falls, Virginia. During a press conference Wednesday afternoon, authorities shared that Cedillos-Campos and Puch worked together at a local restaurant and were involved in an &#8220;intimate relationship.&#8221;
Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis said the two planned to meet at the park on Monday morning. The night before the killing, Cedillos-Campos left the restaurant armed with a fixed-blade knife, black latex gloves, and a water bottle that he later filled with gasoline, all of which he took from the business, Davis said, adding that it was &#8220;all very premeditated.&#8221;
&#8220;He ended up siphoning gasoline out of his motorcycle. He filled the water bottle with gasoline after he dumped the water,&#8221; Davis said.
Authorities believe Cedillos-Campos fatally stabbed Puch inside her car before dumping her body in the parking lot.
&#8220;We know that our killer stabbed our victim repeatedly and eventually doused her in gasoline and tried to set her on fire. He was unsuccessful in the attempt to burn our victim,&#8221; he said.
The suspect confessed to the murder after his arrest in Prince George&#8217;s County, Maryland, Davis added. He is charged with second-degree murder, according to police.
Just before 7 a.m. on Monday, a jogger in the park discovered Puch&#8217;s lifeless body near her 2011 Honda Civic, according to 7News.
Cedillos-Campos crossed the border illegally near El Paso, Texas, in April 2024 and was quickly released into the United States, despite telling federal agents he wasn&#8217;t afraid to return to his home country, law enforcement sources told The Daily Wire.
In a statement Wednesday, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security accused Biden administration officials of &#8216;hand-delivering&#8217; Cedillos-Campos to Fairfax County before they &#8220;recklessly unleashed millions of unvetted illegal aliens into American communities and abused the law to do so.&#8221;
The spokesperson also called out Democratic Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger for turning her state into a &#8220;hotbed of illegal alien crime&#8221; by adopting sanctuary policies.
&#8220;During her first days in office, Governor Spanberger signed executive orders banning state cooperation with ICE as well as terminating 287(g) state and local agreements. We are urging Governor Spanberger to put her community first and turn over this criminal illegal alien to ICE,&#8221; the spokesperson said.

Untitled design – 2026-08-19T135559.931

Disturbing Details Emerge After Illegal Immigrant Kills Mother Of Young Child

crime

An illegal immigrant from El Salvador is accused of fatally stabbing a Virginia mother before dumping her lifeless body near a jogging trail in Great Falls, Virginia, The Daily Wire has learned.
Police in Fairfax County said Wednesday that authorities had arrested 19-year-old Alexis Antonio Cedillos-Campos in connection with the homicide of Carmen Lizet Puch. Cedillos-Campos crossed the southern border into El Paso, Texas, in April 2024 and was quickly released into the United States, law enforcement sources told The Daily Wire.
At the time of his border crossing, Cedillos-Campos said he did not fear returning to his native country of El Salvador, but he was released anyway, sources said.
A jogger discovered Puch&#8217;s body just before 7 a.m. on Monday near her 2011 Honda Civic, which was parked in the lot at Difficult Run Park along Georgetown Pike near Old Dominion Drive, according to 7News.
&#8220;In Great Falls, it’s probably one of the safest places ever in the world,&#8221; Clare, who was out hiking with a friend Tuesday, said. &#8220;To have something happen like that feels personal, scary.&#8221;
Authorities said more details would be provided Wednesday afternoon.
&#8220;There is no immediate indication that this was a random act,&#8221; Capt. Jason Chandler said during a news conference on Monday.
Puch was the mother of a young daughter and worked with Cedillos-Campos at Bitez restaurant in Herndon, according to NBC Washington. Cedillos-Campos allegedly stabbed Puch while she was inside her vehicle.
Abdul Anwari, the owner of Bitez, said he and his employees were shocked after learning of Puch&#8217;s murder, NBC Washington reported.
“I don&#8217;t know if you can process something like this. It&#8217;s not something you expect. It&#8217;s not something that anyone would ever want to happen,” he told News4. “But you know, we&#8217;re still taking it [a] minute at a time.”
Anwari said a fundraiser has been set up to support Puch&#8217;s surviving daughter.
“We have a GoFundMe account set up, but we&#8217;re actually doing, we are personally donating to the family as well,” Anwari said. “But anyone in the community that can help, obviously, this is going to go directly to the family, and as far as I&#8217;m concerned, it should go to the daughter and make sure that she&#8217;s OK.”
Puch&#8217;s family members, who live in New Jersey, immediately drove to Virginia after learning of her killing to take care of her daughter, according to NBC Washington.

Untitled design – 2026-08-19T100359.432

Illegal Immigrant Fatally Stabbed Mother And Left Her Lifeless Body In Park, Police Say

immigration policy

Menu