Special prosecutors representing Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares on Thursday moved to drop the criminal case against Loudoun County Public Schools’ former superintendent, Scott Ziegler, who was fired over a rape coverup.
Ziegler was already convicted by a jury in the case, but a judge overturned the conviction on a technicality, saying that although there was “ample evidence” to support the charge, it would have to be retried. Miyares’ office said it will no longer seek that retrial after LCPS settled a civil lawsuit with a teacher whose testimony was key in the case.
In October 2021, The Daily Wire reported that at a school board meeting over a proposed transgender policy, Ziegler dismissed concerns about safety by stating that no sexual assaults had ever occurred in Loudoun’s bathrooms, despite knowing that a boy wearing a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/loudoun-county-schools-tried-to-conceal-sexual-assault-against-daughter-in-bathroom-father-says">skirt and blouse allegedly raped </a>a ninth-grader in a girls bathroom just weeks prior. LCPS also filed false paperwork with the state concealing the incident. The policy was passed and the boy remained in the school system, despite the police charging him with rape. That allowed him to sexually assault a second girl in October. He was convicted on both counts.
A special grand jury was convened to look into Loudoun’s handling of sexual abuse, and it resulted in a felony perjury charge against the school’s then-spokesman, and two misdemeanors against Ziegler. One was for the false statement at the school board meeting, and the other was for allegedly firing a teacher, Erin Brooks, in retaliation for her speaking to the grand jury.
In September 2023, Ziegler was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/jury-finds-former-loudoun-county-superintendent-guilty-of-charges-stemming-from-trans-rape-coverup">convicted</a> of the latter charge, which carried a penalty of up to a year in jail. He showed up to his trial wearing nail polish and an earring. Prosecutors then <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/virginia-drops-remaining-criminal-charge-against-loudoun-superintendent-who-lied-about-rape" target="_blank" rel="noopener">dropped</a> the other charge, explaining that they were satisfied that he was now a convicted criminal and there was no need for the time and expense of a second trial. But that logic no longer held when the judge overturned the conviction on a technicality. Judge Douglas Fleming wrote that there was “ample evidence” to support Ziegler’s conviction in the Brooks case, but that it would have to be retried.
In June 2022, Brooks also brought a civil lawsuit seeking money over the same issue, suing LCPS and a principal. It settled last November, not long before the criminal retrial, which was set to take place next month. Miyares’ motion to close the case said “Since this Court’s ruling setting aside the earlier conviction, the complaining witness has resolved her civil suit against the defendant and the Loudoun County Public Schools. The complaining witness is grateful to the Office of the Attorney General for its efforts in obtaining the initial conviction, but now desires to put this entire matter behind her.” Brooks’ cooperation would have been key to securing another criminal conviction.
LCPS has a history of paying people who allege that they have been wronged by its employees in exchange for both not pursuing legal action and their silence. The Daily Wire is currently <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/daily-wire-sues-loudoun-schools-for-misusing-privacy-protections-to-hide-wrongdoing">suing</a> the district for its payouts to resolve allegations of wrongdoing against it, including the contracts with language such as secrecy clauses. LCPS has acknowledged that it is hiding at least 10 settlements since May 2023.
<div id="attachment_472476" style="width: 1210px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-472476" class="size-full wp-image-472476" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/12/rapist-pic1200.png" alt="" width="1200" height="651" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/12/rapist-pic1200.png 1200w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/12/rapist-pic1200-300x163.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/12/rapist-pic1200-1024x556.png 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2022/12/rapist-pic1200-768x417.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" />The Loudoun County Public Schools rapist / Social media screenshot</div>
Those include a settlement with the second girl assaulted by the rapist, which used an out-of-district court, the Alexandria Circuit Court, to conceal the deal and place the entire case under seal. In the FOIA lawsuit in Loudoun court, LCPS has refused to show even that judge a copy of the settlement, or disclose its dollar amount. Her family said after the grand jury released its <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/grand-jury-finds-virginia-school-bathroom-rape-handling-worse-than-known-rips-officials-intentional-amnesia" target="_blank" rel="noopener">fact-finding report</a> — leading to Ziegler&#8217;s <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/loudoun-school-board-fires-superintendent-who-lied-about-bathroom-rape" target="_blank" rel="noopener">firing</a> — that “since our daughter was assaulted, not one member of the school board, LCPS administration, or even our local high school leadership has reached out to check on how she is doing, lend any type of support or even apologize for what we are going through as a family. That alone speaks volumes to what we have endured throughout this ordeal.”
The school system&#8217;s indulgence in controversial politics has also been expensive for taxpayers — or its insurance company — through significant bills for the time of outside lawyers. LCPS responded to a FOIA request from The Daily Wire for legal bills with totals showing nearly $2 million to outside attorneys between the June 2021 rape and 2023. Missing were any payments to Ziegler’s attorneys, and LCPS ignored FOIA appeals questioning its completeness. Ziegler’s attorneys later filed a lawsuit against LCPS saying it had <a href="https://www.loudountimes.com/0local-or-not/1local/law-firm-representing-ziegler-says-lcps-owes-617k-in-legal-fees/article_798629dc-f906-11ee-9b1d-ff577cf00612.html">refused to pay his bills</a>, seemingly suggesting that Ziegler was on his own. Spokesman Dan Adams did not answer questions about the Brooks settlement for this story, which also asked its current position on whether Ziegler had to pay his own legal bills or not.
The former spokesman facing the felony perjury charge was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/loudoun-schools-honchos-in-perjury-trial-testify-they-cant-remember-almost-anything-about-rape-scandal">acquitted</a> after a parade of LCPS officials testified that they could not recall basic details of what had transpired.
Out of all of LCPS’ 15,000 teachers, Brooks was singled out for firing by Ziegler at a school board meeting in June 2022, prosecutors said. Ziegler told board members he fired Brooks for giving private information to a conservative activist, and for giving private information to the grand jury, school board member John Beatty testified. Ziegler’s alleged claim that Brooks had given information to a conservative activist turned out to be false, and it would be illegal to punish her for telling the truth to a jury she’d been subpoenaed by, prosecutors argued.
At trial, school board member Brenda Sheridan, a Democrat who was chair during the rape coverup, was asked under oath about Ziegler’s closed-door statements that amounted to a confession. She did not deny Beatty’s version, but instead refused to answer.

Scott Ziegler outside the Loudoun courthouse on September 28, 2023 / Daily Wire

Criminal Charge Against Loudoun County Superintendent Dropped After Victim Is Paid Off

Education

Loudoun County

Virginia

Democrats in Virginia have learned nothing from the outcome of the November elections. Even though voters overwhelmingly rejected the radical abortion ideology of Kamala Harris and other Democrats last fall, legislators in the Commonwealth continue to double down on the issue. In the opening week of the legislative session, Democrats <a href="https://www.vpm.org/news/2025-01-15/virginia-house-abortion-voting-rights-marriage-equality" target="_blank" rel="noopener">voted to advance</a> a constitutional amendment that would permit abortion at any point during pregnancy, for any reason, and to even remove common sense health protections for women and children, including parental consent. 
It&#8217;s a strong reminder for Virginia voters, like myself, when looking ahead to the high-stakes elections later this year. Out of all of the issues to focus on, it speaks volumes that Democrats chose expanding abortion from six months to all nine months to be one of the first votes of the Virginia House of Delegates.
Thankfully, however, we the voters have a say in bringing these out-of-touch, extreme politicians back to reality. In order for the amendment to make it to the ballot, the General Assembly must pass it again in next year’s session, meaning that we have an opportunity in November to vote out lawmakers who are pushing abortion at any time, for any reason.
That’s why we must send a clear message to reject this extremism.
This also comes at a time when the Democrat party wants to federally enshrine abortion nationwide, even though voters have clearly signaled they are not buying their brand of abortion radicalism. If Virginia legislators succeed in putting this form of abortion on the ballot, however, the Commonwealth could become one of the most radical states in the country for abortion and by far — become one of the most radical regions in the world, on par with communist countries like China and Vietnam. This goes to show just how beholden they are to their ideology, and how out of touch they are with the interests of Virginians.
Virginia already has one of the most extreme abortion laws in the country, which allows abortions for any reason up to the third trimester, well after the time a baby can survive outside of the womb. I’m currently in my eighth month of pregnancy. I’ve been seeing my baby’s face and unique movements on 3D/4D ultrasound for months now. She’s a living human being who wakes me up with her early morning kicks and who moves with approval when I consume our morning breakfast of apple juice and avocado toast. But sadly, many of the leaders in my own state, don’t recognize her life as worthy of protecting. Under Virginia’s proposed amendment, a baby in the womb, just like my little girl, could be aborted at any time, for any reason, even though she is more than likely to survive if I delivered early. 
Why are Virginia Democrats not satisfied with up to seven months’ worth of abortion-on-demand?
Sadly, it’s not just babies in the womb who will lose rights from the consequences of Virginia’s broad amendment, women will as well. This amendment also would strip health and safety regulations on abortion businesses and even take away informed consent laws.
Virginia could quickly become like Ohio and Michigan, where women are forced to endure the disastrous effects of extreme and broad abortion amendments. Right now, pro-abortion advocates are pushing to remove informed consent laws, 24-hour waiting periods, and the requirement for women to be seen by a licensed physician before obtaining an abortion — all under ballot measures the voters were deceived into approving. They’re also pushing for taxpayer-funded abortion.
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Oftentimes, we only think of abortion in terms of the rights of the child, but these measures strip away incredibly important health, financial, and informed consent laws that impact pregnant women and all taxpaying Americans.
If Virginia Democrats stay their course, all of us in the Commonwealth will be forced to endure the consequences of a broad and extreme ballot measure that allows unfettered access to abortion up to birth. That is not in line with the values of Virginians and does not belong anywhere near the top priorities of our government. Instead, legislators should focus on common sense measures that build out the state’s support network for women, children, and families.
Virginians must send a clear message to their legislators that late-term abortion for any reason is too extreme for us and our children.
* * *
Emily Erin Davis is a mom and the Vice President of Communications for Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Step Up – Virginia State Capitol

Virginia Democrats Push To Enshrine Abortion After The Sixth Month

Abortion

Democrats

LGBTQ

Opinion

Pro-Life Movement

The public utilities manager of Richmond, Virginia, a proponent of the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) agenda, resigned after the city endured a crisis that left many of the city’s residents without water for days.
April Bingham <a href="https://www.axios.com/local/richmond/2025/01/15/richmond-department-utilities-director-resigns">resigned</a> from her position as director of the Department of Public Utilities this week after residents of Virginia’s capital city were left without water for days following a snow storm. The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/virginia-residents-left-without-water-as-pro-dei-water-manager-sits-at-the-helm">reported</a> last week that Bingham, who is not an engineer, served as the member of a committee of an organization that works to “ingrain DEI as a cultural norm&#8221; as Richmond&#8217;s water infrastructure fell into disrepair.
Richmond Mayor Danny Avula said that her <a href="https://www.vpm.org/news/2025-01-15/april-bingham-scott-morris-danny-avula-richmond-public-utilities-director">resignation</a> was “amicable” and voluntary. “It came on the heels of a pretty intense week, as we have all been responding to this crisis, thinking about what is the path forward, what does the water plant need,” Avula stated.
The city also announced that Anthony “Scott” Morris, a professional engineer and the current director of water at the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, would take over as the interim Director of Public Utilities.
His professional experience provides a stark contrast with that of Bingham’s — she was the only water manager in her area who did not have a background in engineering.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Bingham is the only public utilities manager in her area without engineering experience and was appointed by Democrat mayor after running the department&#8217;s customer service wing.
Now she&#8217;s unable to say if the failures identified by the EPA led to Richmond&#8217;s water crisis. <a href="https://t.co/8DMVn3NR31">pic.twitter.com/8DMVn3NR31</a>
— Spencer Lindquist 🇺🇸 (@SpencerLndqst) <a href="https://twitter.com/SpencerLndqst/status/1877827678985732151?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 10, 2025</a></blockquote>
Under Bingham, The city’s water infrastructure was cited by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), including insufficient maintenance, corroded pumps, cracked filters, and outdated emergency response plans. Bingham refused to say whether or not the issues identified by the EPA contributed to the water system’s failure, but Dwanye Roadcap, the head of the Virginia Office of Drinking Water, said that some regulations had apparently been ignored.
“I can cite some regulations where we’ve got noncompliance with the regulations. That’s part of the reason why we’re out there. It’s part of the reason we’ve got a boil water advisory. It’s part of the reason why there’s no water pressure or insufficient water pressure,” Roadcap said in the midst of the crisis. “One of the things that we’re looking into is why the fail-safe systems and the redundant systems didn’t work, because you shouldn’t have this kind of problem.”
While the water infrastructure fell into disrepair, Bingham served as a member of a committee of an organization that works to “ingrain DEI as a cultural norm,” a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/virginia-residents-left-without-water-as-pro-dei-water-manager-sits-at-the-helm">Daily Wire report</a> found. Bingham is listed as an allyship and mentorship leader for the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee for the Virginia branch of the American Water Works Association (AWWA), a professional organization for water management officials.
The committee has <a href="https://www.vaawwa.org/305562/Page/Show?ClassCode=Page&amp;Slug=dei-resources">hosted talks</a> on “equitable decision making,” “building an inclusive work force,” and “advancing woman leaders through mentorship/allyship” while also <a href="https://www.vaawwa.org/documents/en-us/b3baf3b3-059e-4754-9d8e-a784254cc451/1">promoting</a> various different DEI resources.
Bingham, who earned a <a href="https://www.wric.com/news/taking-action/why-did-these-richmond-city-employees-make-more-than-mayor-stoney/">salary of $217,000</a> in 2023, was celebrated as “the first woman to serve in this critically important role” when she was first appointed by former Democrat Mayor Levar Stoney.

Richmond Water Crisis

Richmond, Virginia’s Pro-DEI Water Manager Resigns After Residents Left Without Water

Diversity

Equity

inclusion

After a snowstorm left Richmond, Virginia without water, all eyes are on the Director of the city&#8217;s Department of Public Utilities: a diversity, equity, and inclusion proponent who has overseen the dilapidation of the city&#8217;s water infrastructure.
April Bingham was named Richmond&#8217;s utilities chief by former Democrat Mayor Levar Stoney in December 2021, after 1 year and 11 months as deputy director of the department&#8217;s customer service division. Since taking the post, Bingham has dedicated herself to advancing the DEI agenda and is a member of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee for the Virginia branch of the American Water Works Association (AWWA), a professional organization for water management officials.
While Bingham has dedicated herself to advancing the DEI agenda, Richmond’s water facilities appear to have fallen into a state of disrepair. Under Bingham, The Environmental Protection Agency cited Richmond in 2022 for <a href="https://virginiamercury.com/2025/01/10/foia-friday-inspection-reports-reveal-past-issues-at-richmond-utility-amid-water-crisis/#:~:text=A%202022%20U.S.%20Environmental%20Protection,before%20the%20water%20crisis%20began.">various violations</a>, including insufficient maintenance, corroded pumps, cracked filters, and perhaps worst of all, outdated emergency response plans.
Bingham <a href="https://www.wtvr.com/news/local-news/richmond-water-plant-for-deteriorating-equipment-outdated-emergency-planning-jan-8-2025">refused</a> to say whether or not those issues contributed to the ongoing <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/08/us/richmond-water-crisis.html">water crisis</a>, which began Monday after a winter storm knocked out the power at a Richmond power plant. Mayor Danny Avula, who was sworn in on December 31st, was unable to say whether the Department of Public Utilities had taken all preventive measures to avoid the crisis.
But the head of the Virginia Office of Drinking Water, Dwyane Roadcap, explained that some regulations appear to have been flouted.
“I can cite some regulations where we&#8217;ve got noncompliance with the regulations. That&#8217;s part of the reason why we&#8217;re out there. It&#8217;s part of the reason we&#8217;ve got a boil water advisory. It&#8217;s part of the reason why there&#8217;s no water pressure or insufficient water pressure,&#8221; Roadcap charged. “One of the things that we&#8217;re looking into is why the fail-safe systems and the redundant systems didn&#8217;t work, because you shouldn&#8217;t have this kind of problem.”
Stoney, the mayor who selected Bingham, has <a href="https://x.com/LevarStoney/status/1816141526826709409">decried</a> the use of the term “DEI hire” as a so-called “racist dog whistle.” He appointed Bingham to her post despite her not having a degree or experience in engineering, setting her apart from the five public utilities managers in the surrounding areas, each of whom has a <a href="https://www.statswithsasa.com/2025/01/08/richmond-public-utilities-director/">background</a> in engineering. Bingham instead graduated from the University of Maryland with a business degree and from the University of Phoenix with a master&#8217;s in public administration.
Stoney <a href="https://freebeacon.com/national-security/slash-and-burn/">ran cover</a> for Democrat operatives who slashed the tires of Wisconsin Republican Party vans on Election Day 2004.
The city government has <a href="https://www.rva.gov/press-releases-and-announcements/news/mayor-stoney-appoints-april-n-bingham-head-department-public">boasted</a> that Bingham is “the first woman to serve in this critically important role.” Bingham, who <a href="https://www.wric.com/news/taking-action/why-did-these-richmond-city-employees-make-more-than-mayor-stoney/">earned</a> $217,000 in 2023, is <a href="https://www.vaawwa.org/page/diversity-equity-and-inclusion-committee">listed</a> as one of the Virginia AWWA’s leaders for mentorship and allyship. Bingham articulated her support for the DEI agenda in one graphic produced by AWWA in which she is quoted as saying that she would like to “close the gap of skilled workers within the water industry and create a path for the next generation of female leaders.”
<div id="attachment_856521" style="width: 682px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-856521" class=" wp-image-856521" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/April-Bingham-Graphic-300x167.png" alt="" width="672" height="374" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/April-Bingham-Graphic-300x167.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/April-Bingham-Graphic-1024x571.png 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/April-Bingham-Graphic-768x428.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/April-Bingham-Graphic.png 1072w" sizes="(max-width: 672px) 100vw, 672px" />Screenshot from AWWA</div>
“This has been an amazing day discussing, describing and dialoguing about DEI-A in the water sector,” Bingham said in a LinkedIn <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/posts/april-bingham-mpa-23219bb_this-has-been-an-amazing-day-discussing-activity-6975649262952947712-xsJx?trk=public_profile_like_view">post</a> celebrating a DEI event hosted by the AWWA and the Virginia Water Environment Association. Bingham also took to the platform to <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/posts/april-bingham-mpa-23219bb_dei-scholarships-to-waterjam-activity-7202668684102778880-HFID">advertise</a> a slate of DEI-oriented scholarships for water professionals to attend a conference.
The Virginia AWWA DEI committee <a href="https://www.vaawwa.org/305562/Page/Show?ClassCode=Page&amp;Slug=dei-resources">hosts talks</a> on &#8220;equitable decision making,” “building an inclusive work force,” and “advancing woman leaders through mentorship/allyship” while also <a href="https://www.vaawwa.org/documents/en-us/b3baf3b3-059e-4754-9d8e-a784254cc451/1">promoting</a> a wide range of DEI resources.
Among the DEI resources is a guide to transgender pronoun usage, a call for employees to “callout homophobia/biphobia/transphobia happening in the workplace,” and an explanation of how M&amp;M’s allegedly became more inclusive after the green M&amp;M mascot ditched her heels for sneakers.
<div id="attachment_856527" style="width: 752px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-856527" class=" wp-image-856527" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/M-and-Ms-300x174.png" alt="" width="742" height="431" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/M-and-Ms-300x174.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/M-and-Ms-991x576.png 991w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/M-and-Ms-768x446.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/01/M-and-Ms.png 1170w" sizes="(max-width: 742px) 100vw, 742px" />Screenshot from AWWA</div>
Bingham and the Richmond Virginia Department of Public Utilities did not respond to requests for comment.

April Bingham DEI

Virginia Residents Left Without Water As Pro-DEI Water Manager Sits At The Helm

Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI)

President-elect <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/donald-trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Donald Trump</a> said Thursday that he would release a report on the recent mystery drone sightings reported in New Jersey and other states once he takes office. 
Trump made the comments as he met with Republican governors at Mar-a-Lago, prompting several to chime in with their own reports of drone sightings. Last month, the FBI, FAA, and Pentagon said they identified no threats among the 500 drone sightings they had investigated based on public tips.
&#8220;I&#8217;m going to give you a report on drones about one day into the administration because I think it&#8217;s ridiculous that they&#8217;re not telling you about what&#8217;s going on with the drones,” Trump said, noting that drones had been spotted over his property in Bedminster, New Jersey. “It’s not only with me, [Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin] was telling me today that in Virginia they have drones all over the place too and nobody is reporting it.” 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
PRESIDENT TRUMP: &#8220;I&#8217;m going to give you a report on drones about one day into the administration because I think it&#8217;s ridiculous that they&#8217;re not telling you about what&#8217;s going on with the drones.&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/BnUBaAsBl6">pic.twitter.com/BnUBaAsBl6</a>
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) <a href="https://twitter.com/TrumpWarRoom/status/1877521790920020281?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 10, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Trump said he would issue a report on the drones “shortly” after his inauguration on January 20. 
“They don’t want to talk about it and nobody knows why,” Trump said. “That could be us sending drones, I hope that’s the case, us doing it and doing research and maybe they don’t want to talk about it from that standpoint. I hope it&#8217;s not an enemy, but we’re going to find out on the 21st.”
Referencing how much of the U.S. military and intelligence infrastructure is in Virginia, Gov. Glenn Youngkin said that drones had been flying over secure air space for the last two years. 
“For two years running we have had drone incursion over secure air space and we still don’t know why. And I think that’s absolutely unacceptable,” Youngkin said. “And I think President Trump and the new leadership coming in will work diligently to understand who’s behind this and what we do in order to stop the digital surveillance of all our secure infrastructure.”
Louisiana Republican Governor Jeff Landry said that his state had recently seen drones flying over its nuclear reactors but that the FAA had done nothing after they brought it to their attention. 
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Wyoming Republican Governor Mark Gordon added that he had also struggled to deal with drones being flown over critical infrastructure. 
“We have drones in Wyoming flying over our infrastructure as well,” he said. “And it&#8217;s incredibly frustrating that we not only have no way of knowing what it is, but nobody knows how to deal with them.”

President-Elect Trump Meets With Republican Governors At Mar-A-Lago

Trump Promises To Release Report On Mystery Drones After Taking Office

Air and Space

Donald Trump

Drones

Executive

Glenn Youngkin

Jeff Landry

Louisiana

Mar-a-Lago

National Security

New Jersey

Politics

Wyoming

A <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/virginia" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Virginia</a> NICU nurse has been arrested after at least seven babies suffered inexplicable broken bones.
Erin Strotman, 26, has been charged with felony child neglect and felony malicious wounding over injuries to one baby at Henrico Doctors&#8217; Hospital in Richmond, police announced Friday.
The maximum penalties for the two charges are 10 and 20 years in prison respectively, although authorities emphasized that they are still investigating the injuries to the other babies.
Three babies were hurt just weeks ago in November and December, and four more babies were previously injured during the summer of 2023.
The Henrico County Police Division <a href="https://www.wsls.com/news/local/2025/01/03/henrico-doctor-arrested-and-charged-in-connection-with-nicu-investigation/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> it is conducting a &#8220;thorough investigation&#8221; that includes reviewing &#8220;dozens of videos from inside the NICU.&#8221; Detectives are looking into the cases from both 2023 and 2024 as part of this &#8220;broader investigation,&#8221; police said.
Last month, a couple spoke out, <a href="https://www.wtvr.com/news/local-news/henrico-doctors-investigation-2023-dec-27-2024?ref=henricocitizen.com#google_vignette" target="_blank" rel="noopener">saying</a> Virginia Child Services informed them that one of their premature newborn twins, who had suffered a fractured leg, had been physically abused by a NICU employee.
“It’s my baby boy. I feel like I’ve done nothing to protect him and that hurts. It pisses me off,” Dominique Hackey, the twins&#8217; father, <a href="https://www.wtvr.com/news/local-news/henrico-doctors-investigation-2023-dec-27-2024?ref=henricocitizen.com#google_vignette" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> CBS 6 before Strotman&#8217;s arrest.
“Somebody needs to be held accountable for my son, for everybody’s kid, somebody needs to be held accountable, it’s too many in such a short period of time,” he said.
The injuries forced the hospital to stop admitting newborns to its NICU &#8220;out of an abundance of caution,&#8221; Henrico Doctors&#8217; Hospital <a href="https://people.com/woman-arrested-multiple-babies-suffer-unexplainable-fractures-same-virginia-hospital-8768674" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced</a> on Christmas Eve.
&#8220;While fractures occasionally happen with pre-term babies since they lack full fetal bone development, we are actively working to determine how these fractures occurred,&#8221; the hospital <a href="https://www.wric.com/news/local-news/henrico-county/henrico-doctors-hospital-stops-nicu-admissions-after-babies-found-with-unexplainable-fractures/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>.
On Friday, the hospital also confirmed a &#8220;former employee&#8221; has been arrested in connection with the NICU fractures.
&#8220;We are both shocked and saddened by this development in the investigation and are focused on continuing to care for our patients and providing support to our colleagues who have been deeply and personally impacted by this investigation,&#8221; Henrico Doctors&#8217; Hospital <a href="https://www.hcavirginia.com/locations/henrico-doctors-hospital/specialties/womens-care/labor-and-delivery#nicu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> in a statement.
&#8220;We are grateful to those colleagues, who have dedicated their professional lives to the care and safety of our patients, as well as to law enforcement and the other agencies who have worked aggressively and tirelessly with us on this investigation,&#8221; the hospital said.
The case eerily echoes that of Lucy Letby, the British neonatal nurse convicted of murdering seven babies around 2016. No deaths have been reported in the Virginia case, however.
She <a href="https://www.wric.com/news/local-news/henrico-county/former-nurse-makes-first-court-appearance-after-being-charged-with-child-abuse-in-henrico-doctors-hospitals-nicu-investigation/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">appeared</a> in court for the first time on Friday and is being held without bond and barred from contact with children. She is expected in court again on March 24.

Premature neonate in incubator

Virginia NICU Nurse Arrested After Seven Babies Suffer Broken Bones

babies

Child Abuse

Children

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On December 13, 1862, during the U.S. Civil War, the Union Army suffered its most calamitous and tragic defeat to date at the hands of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia on the frozen fields south of Fredericksburg, Virginia.
After taking over for the paradoxically arrogant yet timid Maj. Gen. George McClellan following the blood-letting at Antietam in September, the new Union Army commander Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside was tasked by President Lincoln to vigorously pursue and destroy CSA Gen. Robert E. Lee’s army now encamped in the Shenandoah Valley in that state. Despite harboring doubts about his own abilities as an army commander, the affable and dapper Burnside concocted a plan to dash due south and lay a pontoon bridge over the Rappahannock River at Fredericksburg. His aim was to get ahead of Lee’s army farther to the west and race for Richmond, the Southern Confederacy’s capital.
<div id="attachment_843789" style="width: 597px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-843789" class="size-large wp-image-843789" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/GettyImages-90001933-587x576.jpg" alt="UNITED STATES - CIRCA 1863: Warrenton, Virginia. Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside and staff officers (Photo by Buyenlarge/Getty Images)" width="587" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/GettyImages-90001933-587x576.jpg 587w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/GettyImages-90001933-300x294.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/GettyImages-90001933-768x754.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/GettyImages-90001933.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 587px) 100vw, 587px" />UNITED STATES &#8211; CIRCA 1863: Warrenton, Virginia. Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside and staff officers (Photo by Buyenlarge/Getty Images)</div>
But Burnside&#8217;s plan that relied on speed and surprise almost immediately went awry. The pontoon bridges needed to affect the river crossing were delayed by ten days. By the time they arrived and construction began, Lee had marched his army to Fredericksburg. The Rebels took up a nearly impregnable position south of the town on a rise called Marye’s Heights that presented the defenders with a commanding view of the city and open ground before them.
<div id="attachment_843801" style="width: 837px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-843801" class="size-large wp-image-843801" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/GettyImages-3090033-827x576.jpg" alt="13th December 1862: Union troops attempting to cross the Rappahannock river during the battle of Fredericksburg, Virginia. (Photo by MPI/Getty Images)" width="827" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/GettyImages-3090033-827x576.jpg 827w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/GettyImages-3090033-300x209.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/GettyImages-3090033-768x535.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/GettyImages-3090033.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 827px) 100vw, 827px" />13th December 1862: Union troops attempting to cross the Rappahannock river during the battle of Fredericksburg, Virginia. (Photo by MPI/Getty Images)</div>
Despite his plan being foiled — his anxious engineers found themselves laying the pontoon bridges under fire from Rebel snipers who occupied the town along the river bank — the unimaginative Burnside pressed forward anyway. Following a bombardment that all but destroyed the little town, Yankee troops marched over the bridges and fought their way through the streets, whereupon many shamelessly looted the abandoned homes and shops until officers could corral them back into their ranks. The Yankees then formed up for the doomed assault against Lee’s lines.
What the Union troops faced was the suicidal prospect of crossing a half-mile of open, sloping ground to assault a solid line of veteran Rebel troops massed behind the protection of both a sunken road and high stone wall backed by artillery lined hub-to-hub along the crest of the hill before them. While watching the lines of Union blue forming up to make their attack, Lee’s First Corps commander on the Marye’s Heights sector of the line, Gen. James Longstreet, asked his young artillerist, Col. E.P. Alexander, if he thought the position was defensible. Alexander assured him: “General, a chicken can’t live in that field when we open up on it!”
<div id="attachment_843811" style="width: 765px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-843811" class="size-large wp-image-843811" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/GettyImages-103011593-755x576.jpg" alt="A Union Army battery makes final preparations on the day before the Battle of Fredericksburg, on Marye's Heights, Virginia, USA, December 1862. (Photo by Kean Collection/Archive Photos/Getty Images)" width="755" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/GettyImages-103011593-755x576.jpg 755w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/GettyImages-103011593-300x229.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/GettyImages-103011593-768x586.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/GettyImages-103011593.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 755px) 100vw, 755px" />A Union Army battery makes final preparations on the day before the Battle of Fredericksburg, on Marye&#8217;s Heights, Virginia, USA, December 1862. (Photo by Kean Collection/Archive Photos/Getty Images)</div>
And so began a series of ill-advised charges up the slopes of Marye’s Heights by a Union Army that proved itself to be as brave as any army in any field; but they were doomed nonetheless. The Confederate lines were so concentrated that for every man at the wall shooting down into the slowly approaching Union lines, two stood behind them with loaded and rammed rifles at the ready to hand the marksman one weapon after another, giving the stone wall’s rate of fire the effect of a machine gun — with the same grisly efficiency. As Alexander predicted, whirring, bouncing projectiles fired from his overheating guns tore into the compact blue formations, killing and maiming groups of men with each round. Thousands of Union troops totaling six divisions were fed into the Rebel meat grinder, one brigade at a time.
Watching the slaughter from his vantage point above the fighting, Gen. Lee, his stirred warrior blood struggling for equilibrium with his humanitarian nature, offered somberly: “It is well that war is so terrible. We should grow too fond of it.”
<div id="attachment_843805" style="width: 468px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-843805" class="size-large wp-image-843805" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/GettyImages-3090032-458x576.jpg" alt="7th November 1862: Confederate General Robert E Lee (1807 - 1870) at the battle of Fredericksburg, Virginia. Lee was offered the command of the Union Army but although personally opposed to both slavery and secession, his loyalty to Virginia led to his taking command of the Confederate forces. (Photo by MPI/Getty Images)" width="458" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/GettyImages-3090032-458x576.jpg 458w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/GettyImages-3090032-239x300.jpg 239w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/GettyImages-3090032-768x965.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/GettyImages-3090032.jpg 815w" sizes="(max-width: 458px) 100vw, 458px" />7th November 1862: Confederate General Robert E Lee (1807 &#8211; 1870) at the battle of Fredericksburg, Virginia. (Photo by MPI/Getty Images)</div>
After fourteen assaults some 13,300 Union dead and wounded lay strewn in a veritable carpet of blue before the smoke-obscured Confederate lines (to the South&#8217;s 4,500, many of whom listed as &#8220;missing&#8221; had just slipped away to nearby homesteads for Christmas). Although he contemplated continuing the forlorn attack, Burnside was convinced by his corps commanders that any new assaults would be just as fruitless and bloody so he called the battle off. (Burnside actually wanted to lead a final charge himself, so distraught was he over the carnage he’d unnecessarily inflicted on an army he sincerely loved).
The Union attack against 2nd Corps Commander &#8220;Stonewall&#8221; Jackson&#8217;s more exposed lines east of Marye&#8217;s Heights situated in lower swampland on Lee&#8217;s right did actually make some progress, but this attack too was repulsed.
For two days in the bitter December cold, the shivering Union survivors trapped in the no-man&#8217;s land between the heights and the town, hunkered down on the frozen ground. Many shielded themselves from Rebels taking shots at them from behind the stone wall by piling up the bodies of their fallen comrades to act as macabre breastworks. Soldiers would always remember the sound of .566 rounds thudding into the stiff cadavers. At night the eerie lights of a rare Southern aurora borealis flashed overhead in the starry sky, which the Confederates took as a sign that God Himself was celebrating their astounding one-sided victory.
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The surviving Union troops eventually withdrew from the corpse-laden field and made it back through the town and across the Rappahannock to safety.
Col. Joshua Chamberlain of the 20th Maine recounted the retreat under the shroud of night. &#8220;We had to pick our way over a field strewn with incongruous ruin; men born and broken and cut to pieces in every indescribable way, cannon dismounted, gun carriages smashed or overturned, ammunition chests flung wildly about, horses dead and half-dead still held in harness, accoutrements of every sort scattered as by whirlwinds. It was not good for the nerves, that ghastly march, in the lowering night!&#8221;
After one more botched offensive in late January, during which his plans were foiled by a torrential rainstorm rather than Rebel bullets (forever remembered to history as the &#8220;Mud March&#8221;) Gen. Burnside resigned as army commander. He was replaced by Gen. Joe Hooker — Lincoln’s fifth new commanding general in two years.
When the Confederates re-occupied the shattered and ransacked Virginia town, Lee asked Jackson how they could put an end to this terrible war and all its needless desolation. “Kill them,” Jackson said coldly while surveying the ruins. “Kill them all!”
* * *
Brad Schaeffer is a fund manager and author of <a href="https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B07MQJBJSD" target="_blank" rel="noopener">three books</a>. His articles have appeared on the pages of Daily Wire, The Wall Street Journal, New York Post, New York Daily News, National Review, The Hill, The Federalist, The Blaze, Breitbart, Zerohedge and other outlets.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

The Mud March

‘It Is Well That War Is So Terrible’: The Battle Of Fredericksburg

'It Is Well That War Is So Terrible': The Battle Of Fredericksburg

Abraham Lincoln

American General

American History

Civil War

Confederacy

Robert E. Lee

U.S. Military

FAIRFAX, VIRGINIA — A state judge on Friday rejected a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/virginia" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Virginia</a> school system’s bid to stop a lawsuit alleging that its transgender policies discriminate against Christian students.
Several religious students challenged the school’s policies prohibiting the “deadnaming” or “misgendering” of transgender students, as well as policies allowing transgender-identifying students to use the bathroom of those of the opposite sex.
America First Legal (AFL), which argued the case for those students, <a href="https://aflegal.org/major-victory-court-rules-fairfax-county-public-schools-pronoun-and-bathroom-policies-violate-students-constitutional-rights/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> in a statement that the judge&#8217;s decision amounted to a &#8220;ruling that [Fairfax County Public Schools] FCPS’ pronoun policy punishing &#8216;misgendering&#8217; and bathroom policy based on &#8216;gender identity&#8217; violate students’ constitutional rights.&#8221;
In court filings, it said FCPS, one of the nation&#8217;s largest districts, had made its animus toward Christians clear, including that “rather than take the oath of office by swearing on a Bible, Torah, Koran, or other religious text (as is traditional), the current chair of the school board took his oath on <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/american-library-association-transgender-gender-queer-comics-schools" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gender Queer</a>.” (The school board chair, Karl Frisch, followed hardcore gay pornography on Twitter using the same account he used for school board campaigning, and once claimed that “Fairfax has a history of being an epicenter for right-wing religious <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/school-board-member-sworn-in-on-stack-of-gay-porn-instead-of-bible" target="_blank" rel="noopener">fanaticism</a>.”)
In court, FCPS focused on technicalities, saying that because the plaintiffs had not actually been disciplined for misgendering, they had no basis to sue. The plaintiffs’ attorney, Ian Prior, argued in court that they had engaged in “self-censorship” by avoiding using pronouns at all, and that a “credible threat of enforcement” was enough to infringe upon their rights.
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FCPS’s attorney, Noah Sullivan of the firm Gentry Locke, replied that self-censorship solved the issue. “Their religion does not require them to use pronouns or to talk to people at all,” he said.
He said the same applied to bathrooms: normal girls who didn’t want to encounter a transgender person in a bathroom could simply use single-stall bathrooms. “Using a common bathroom is not a tenet of their religion. They can just use a private bathroom,” he said.
Prior argued in court, “Their purpose is to make Christians check their constitutional rights at the door and submit to state-sponsored ideology. … Gender expansive’ students may use any bathroom. Therefore we’re treating gender nonconforming students more favorably than religious ones,” he said.
In a written filing, Sullivan wrote, “Petitioners have no right, at school, to refer directly to other students by pronouns those students do not accept. It is inherently disruptive and not protected speech within the school setting.”
The plaintiffs “were pressured to take a test that required them to answer true or false to the following assertion: ‘A student has a right to be called by their chosen name and pronoun.’ ‘True’ was the ‘correct’ answer,” court papers said.
Judge Brett A Kassabian rejected Fairfax County Public Schools’ bid to throw out the portion of the case dealing with pronouns, writing that “the Court overrules the Demurrer to Counts I, II, II, and IV.”
In an interview outside of court, Prior told The Daily Wire that the ruling shows that the judge has accepted his theory of the case, and if he proves facts consistent with it at trial, he is likely to prevail.
FCPS argued that the original girl who brought the case, who said she was followed into the bathroom by a “gender expansive” male, had since graduated, making the case moot. Younger students then joined the case, but FCPS argued that they shouldn’t be able to sue on the bathroom issue unless they could show that they had actually shared a bathroom with a transgender person. (The plaintiffs said they have sought out single-stall bathrooms, which has avoided that scenario.)
Kassabian said he did not think “generalized anxiety” about using a bathroom knowing that a biological member of the opposite sex could enter was sufficient to show damages, but that the plaintiffs could amend their complaint to address that, and that the girl who graduated could still be owed damages.
Prior said, in written arguments, that FCPS’s bathroom rule “creates a new class of students—‘transgender and gender-expansive students’—and provides them the right to live their daily life in accordance with their secular views of gender fluidity by giving them unrestricted access to the common restrooms [and] elevates this right over the rights of the Petitioners and all other students to live their daily lives in accordance with their faith by denying those students the right to use a common, sex-segregated restroom.”
Prior said that FCPS replaced “biological gender” with “sex assigned at birth” in its curriculum, and when a member of a curriculum committee objected, it removed her from the committee. “The Respondent cannot seriously claim that most mainstream religions do not believe that sex is determined at birth by God. Thus, its actions to delegitimize that belief through policy would inevitably have consequences for many, if not most, students at FCPS,” he wrote.
The school board cited Department of Education regulations equating “gender identity” with sex, and said federal law supersedes state law. “All nine [Supreme Court] justices said those portions that define sex as gender are likely unconstitutional,” Prior said, with Sullivan countering that “there is no formal judgement, courts can change their minds.”
Prior said the same federal regulations that FCPS said are the law of the land are likely to soon change. “The reality is that there’s a new administration coming in that interprets Title IX in a very different way,” he said.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/virginias-largest-school-district-put-a-kink-affirming-bondage-specialist-in-charge-of-reviewing-parent-complaints-about-books">Virginia’s Largest School District Put A ‘Kink-Affirming’ Bondage Specialist In Charge Of Reviewing Parent Complaints About Books</a>

The Charter Building, Uxbridge, United Kingdom. Architect: dn-a architecture, 2017.

Virginia Judge Greenlights Case On School’s Transgender Bathroom, Compelled Pronoun Policy

Courts

Social Issues

Transgender

As a Gen Z, pro-life woman, I voted for President-elect Donald Trump. It’s crystal clear why he won: the political Left’s empty platitudes and hollow tolerance talk was a façade, and the election results shredded their mask. My post-election experience thus far consists of being mobbed or threatened on campus, proving the hypocrisy of the Left’s claims of acceptance of all lifestyles. I identify as Pro/Life.
I’ve been fighting for pre-born lives for my entire college and adult career, debating abortion supporters’ &#8220;pro-woman&#8221; abortion arguments. I’m no stranger to ostracization from my peers, hateful messages, and even death threats. Maybe it’s because these people support an industry that kills pre-born babies to keep their doors open.
Two days after the election, the abortion Left’s chaotic response at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) to my campus tour, “Abortion is Violence,” proved my point about abortion supporters.
These “pro-woman” abortion zealots quickly surrounded me, yelling, spitting at me and my crew, stealing flyers and other display materials, leading to one arrest by campus police.
The conduct during my speech wasn’t much better; I walked into a room at full capacity of 160 people with more protestors waiting outside. Abortion supporters held signs with my face on them. They mocked, shouted, and insulted me, even telling me I should’ve been aborted.
One pro-abortion man came up to me and yelled:
“You should be eradicated! You should rot in the bowels of hell! You should die!” When a nearby person pleaded for civility, saying, “That’s a woman, respect the woman,” he replied, “My respect for women is very selective.”
Whatever happened to “I’m with her?”
And these same people wonder why Vice President Kamala Harris lost.
They say they support women, but only those women who agree with killing pre-born children, or perhaps men who identify as women who feel the same.
They want the freedom to spit, steal, and scream but don’t want Americans they disagree with to speak peacefully and engage in public discourse.
They say women should have the truth and resources to “make their own choice,” but blatantly lie about miscarriage care, Chemical Abortion Pill side effects, and fetal development.
Fortunately for us, people saw past the spin, and it cost Harris and the Democratic Party the Presidency, U.S. House, and U.S. Senate.
Voters had the choice of voting for the most radical, pro-abortion ticket in world history, and said NO. A majority of voters don’t want abortion up until birth, nor do they appreciate the senseless propaganda around it.
<ul>
<li><a href="https://studentsforlife.org/2024/01/16/new-sfla-sflaction-yougov-poll-shows-the-youth-vote-open-to-pro-life-perspectives-supports-services-for-mothers-rejects-the-biden-administrations-radical-agenda/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nine out of ten</a> youth voters want safeguards around Chemical Abortion Pills.</li>
<li><a href="https://lozierinstitute.org/pregnancy-centers-provided-over-350m-of-services-goods/#:~:text=Of%20the%20over%2016%20million,Knights%20of%20Columbus%E2%80%93Marist%20Poll." target="_blank" rel="noopener">91% of Americans</a> support Pregnancy Help Centers.</li>
<li><a href="https://harvardharrispoll.com/key-results-november-3/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Seven out of ten</a> Americans are against abortion after 15 weeks.</li>
</ul>
Late-term abortion extremism is not a winning argument, which is why abortion zealots don’t want civil conversation and critical thinking to spread nationwide. If open dialogue occurs, then people can clearly see how radical these beliefs really are.
At VCU, as I talked with students willing to listen, an aggressive mob of more than 200 abortion supporters shouted down the free speech of others. The online death threats I continued to receive became too severe for me to remain on campus, requiring my security as well as police to escort me to safety. Students took more of my flyers and ate them in my face as I walked through the mob.
Despite securing my physical safety, the online attacks continued as pro-abortion students made viral videos on <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTY1SBYm3/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">TikTok,</a> flooded by Instagram with horrific messages, and got my TikTok permanently banned.
But their efforts to silence my voice for the voiceless prove my point: these tactics wouldn’t be necessary if abortion extremism was popular. Their actions and insults against decent and good people solidify their perception as loudmouths who are intolerant of the beauty of life.
I’ve received countless messages from people saying I’ve helped change their minds on abortion. Millions of people have seen my content from my tour stops and seen the pro-life movement challenging the pro-abortion narrative shoved down our throats.
Even though the abortion Left’s ire rings loudly, the pro-life movement treks forward victoriously, with the hopes that Trump will stand up for our free speech rights so we can continue to protect the pre-born.
* * * 
<a href="https://studentsforlife.org/people/lydia-taylor-davis/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Lydia Taylor Davis</a> serves as a Spokesperson and Social Media Coordinator for Students for Life of America (SFLA). She tours college campuses nationwide speaking against intentional abortion &amp; creates pro-life social media content viewed by millions of people. 
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Young woman leading a demonstration using a megaphone

Pro-Abortion Mobs Threatened To Kill Me After The Election

American Universities

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The vast majority of each page on the voters&#8217; ballots in Fairfax County, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/virginia" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Virginia</a>, is written in foreign languages, making it difficult to locate the names of candidates.
Every line on the ballot appears in three different languages besides English. The foreign languages are intended to make it easy for people who are American citizens, but do not speak English at all, to participate in America&#8217;s election process.
But the result is a long and <a href="https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/elections/sites/elections/files/Assets/sample%20ballots/2024/2024-11-5/2024_Nov_FullBallots_Web.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">unwieldy ballot</a> that is difficult for Americans to decipher. The candidate&#8217;s name doesn&#8217;t even appear until seven lines below the bubble voters are supposed to fill in for that candidate.
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-824767" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/11/fairfax-ballot-2.png" alt="" width="772" height="782" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/11/fairfax-ballot-2.png 772w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/11/fairfax-ballot-2-296x300.png 296w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/11/fairfax-ballot-2-569x576.png 569w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/11/fairfax-ballot-2-768x778.png 768w" sizes="(max-width: 772px) 100vw, 772px" /></div>
In 2017, Fairfax County, which houses many federal bureaucrats and overwhelmingly votes Democrat, said it would print all ballots with four languages, including <a href="https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/publicaffairs/voter-information-now-available-four-languages" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Spanish, Vietnamese, and Korean</a>.
The federal government says that the Voting Rights Act of 1965, as amended in 2006, requires ballots to be printed in foreign languages where there are many foreigners with less than a fifth-grade education.
<a href="https://www.amiracist.com/?_gl=1*jtghwp*_gcl_au*ODQ1NjYzNTg2LjE3Mjg5MDk3OTE.*_ga*MTc2NzM0NDQ2NS4xNzI4OTA5Nzkx*_ga_CZKR9ZYKJP*MTczMDEyMDgwOS40OS4xLjE3MzAxMjA4MzkuMzAuMC4w" target="_blank" rel="noopener">MATT WALSH’S ‘AM I RACIST?’ NOW STREAMING ON DAILYWIRE+</a>
&#8220;Section 203 mandates that a state or political subdivision must provide language assistance to voters if more than five (5) percent of voting-age citizens are members of a single-language minority group and do not &#8216;speak or understand English adequately enough to participate in the electoral process,&#8217; and if the rate of those citizens who have <a href="https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2016-12-05/pdf/2016-28969.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">not completed</a> the fifth grade is higher than the national rate of voting-age citizens who have not completed the fifth grade,&#8221; the Census Bureau said in 2021. The same also applies if there are more than 10,000 people, but they make up less than 5%.
The Census Bureau determines which jurisdictions meet this criteria. The federal government did not require Fairfax to print in Korean, but it said it was adding the language because its population was close to the level that would trigger it.
That requirement was supposed to have been temporary and to have expired decades ago, but Congress has repeatedly extended the temporary provisions &#8212; with the 2006 amendment extending the language requirement to 2032.
Fairfax&#8217;s ballots also list the bubble next to the presidential candidate&#8217;s party, not name &#8212; a style that seems to encourage party-line voting and makes it difficult to even figure out which bubble is for which candidate. Donald Trump&#8217;s name, for example, appears seven lines of text below the bubble, amidst a sea of foreign characters.
Virginia&#8217;s Republican nominee for Senate, military veteran Hung Cao, came to the U.S. as a refugee from communist Vietnam.

Fairfax County, Virginia sample ballot

In D.C. Suburbs, Most Of The Ballot Is Written In Foreign Languages

Elections

Hung Cao

A career national security bureaucrat unleashed a wave of invective after overhearing a black woman in a Washington, D.C.-area coffee shop saying she planned to vote for former President Donald Trump.
Annetta Catchings, a former Republican candidate for mayor in Alexandria, Virginia, posted video of Patti Morrissey interrupting her private conversation after overhearing Catchings make a pro-Trump remark. Morrissey then went on a diatribe about how Trump is a felon and said “educated&#8221; people should not support him, citing her authority as a “35-year national security expert.”
According to a now-deleted <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/patti-morrissey-830862a/details/experience/?_l=en_US">LinkedIn</a> profile, Morrissey worked in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the State Department, and the Pentagon through 2019. After online sleuths identified her, Morrissey blamed criticism coming her way on Russia, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/patti.morrissey.10" target="_blank" rel="noopener">writing</a> on Facebook that “there is a lot of threatening (most likely Russian) trolling going on right now&#8230;make a record of it&#8221; before apparently deleting the post.
Catchings <a href="https://x.com/annetta_of/status/1852479289729400883">wrote</a> on X that Morrissey, seated at a nearby table in an Old Town Alexandria coffee shop, shouted at her after overhearing her say “As a conservative woman I could never vote for Kamala Harris because…”
The video shows Morrissey lecturing: “I’m shocked…. Educated women.”
“Educated? What does educated have to do with it?” someone with Catchings asked.
“It means you understand that someone who is a convicted felon who is a sex offender and accused of espionage, indicted for espionage,” Morrissey said.
“The only people who ever challenge me are white Democrat women,” Catchings replied.
Morrissey then grew angry, shouting “I am a thirty-five year national security expert! National security expert!”
“Oh, you’re so smart,” someone with Catchings said.
An apparent coffee shop worker then intervened, saying “Everyone can believe what they want to believe.”
Morrissey got up and leaned over her and said with disgust: “Absolute denial.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
“As a conservative woman I could never vote for Kamala Harris b/c,,,” What happened next was 3 separate attacks from this stranger! Her friend had to hold her back. I was called uneducated as she proceeded to give me her resumé.<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Unhinged?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Unhinged</a> <a href="https://t.co/q1jRO5yUNs">pic.twitter.com/q1jRO5yUNs</a>
&mdash; Annetta Catchings for Alexandria (@annetta_of) <a href="https://twitter.com/annetta_of/status/1852479289729400883?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 1, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Morrissey did not respond to a request for comment. But she wrote on Facebook that “This weekend the trolls taught me: Insisting our next President NOT be convicted of fraud, bribery &amp; sexual assault, and NOT be indicted on espionage charges and of inciting an insurrection makes you a &#8216;white liberal&#8217; and a &#8216;racist.&#8217;”
After working in federal roles through three years of the Trump administration, Morrissey left government to run a consulting firm called Global Foresight Strategies, which says it “helps government and private sector leadership anticipate and navigate the emerging impacts of global trends on regional security and stability.” Morrissey wrote on Facebook that she would soon be traveling to Ukraine.
“If you think the disinformation has been insane so far, it’s about to get much worse in these last four days,&#8221; Morrissey wrote in another Facebook post this week. &#8220;There will be an onslaught of lies from our strategic enemies to make it look like our election process is unfair and that the Democrats are cheating. brace yourself and don’t believe a word. And ask yourselves, why has Trump had seven phone calls with Vladimir Putin?”
She also echoed a false claim from CNN that Trump threatened Liz Cheney, misconstruing Trump&#8217;s observation that it is easy for politicians to support foreign wars they don&#8217;t have to fight in.
Morrissey’s political leanings were no secret during her time in ODNI, which advises the president on national security. She ran for state office in 2001 and 2003, and has continued to mingle with Democrat politicians, posting a photo of her meeting with Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine on September 24.
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-824197 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/11/patti-morrissey-linkedin-514x576.png" alt="" width="514" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/11/patti-morrissey-linkedin-514x576.png 514w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/11/patti-morrissey-linkedin-268x300.png 268w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/11/patti-morrissey-linkedin-768x861.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/11/patti-morrissey-linkedin.png 1172w" sizes="(max-width: 514px) 100vw, 514px" /></div>
Trump has repeatedly come under fire for observing that career bureaucrats like Morrissey are largely Democratic partisans, who could interfere with presidents with whom they disagree. Another former top ODNI official, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/vindmans-wife-mocks-trumps-near-killing-at-hands-of-fellow-ukraine-loyalist" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Eugene Vindman</a>, is running for Congress in Virginia as a Democrat. During the Trump administration, Vindman and his brother used their status as nonpartisan career officials to give themselves an air of credibility as they leaked information meant to damage Trump.
It&#8217;s difficult for presidents to fire career employees. But under Trump&#8217;s proposed <a href="https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2020-10-26/pdf/2020-23780.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Schedule F</a> designation, a president could more easily replace certain career employees who are in “positions of a confidential, policy-determining, policy-making, or policy-advocating character.&#8221;
This week, the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2024/11/02/federal-career-employees-watchlist-trump/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Washington Post</a> wrote that a conservative group, the American Accountability Project, created a “DHS Bureaucrat Watchlist” containing names of high-level career employees at the Department of Homeland Security who have openly expressed animosity towards conservative positions including border control, so that an incoming Trump administration could ensure that they do not thwart its initiatives.
“There are a large number of people in the administration who have dedicated their life work to helping migrants settle in the United States,” said the group&#8217;s founder, Tom Jones. “These people are not going to do it. They are actually going to undermine it.”
The Post said Jones identified them &#8220;largely using public social media comments, prior work experience and campaign finance records,” and that it caused them to &#8220;fear for their families&#8217; safety.&#8221;

Patti Morrissey

Former Intelligence Official Accosts Black Trump Supporter In DC Coffee Shop

Deep State

Peanut the Squirrel was more than just a social media sensation. He was also the namesake of an animal rescue run by the New York couple that adopted him.
Last year, Mark and Daniele Longo <a href="https://www.pnutsfreedomfarm.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">opened</a> P’Nuts Freedom Farm Animal Sanctuary, “a haven where neglected and homeless animals receive a second chance at life” named after their pet squirrel, who they rescued seven years ago. The sanctuary, which they say has helped 350 animals, was made possible in a large part by donations gathered through Peanut’s viral social media accounts.
Now that Peanut has been euthanized by New York State, Mark Longo worries the sanctuary may be in trouble.
“We’ve relied heavily on PNUT and his internet family to gather donations to help more animals,” Longo <a href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/DBwhVpdymnG/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;ig_rid=2d974739-6fb5-45c5-b805-ffd3a6adc4ce" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote on Instagram</a>. “I don’t even know how [we] will continue to fundraise for this nonprofit.”
Longo says he is uncertain why the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) chose to seize and euthanize Peanut after seven years, during which time there had been no complaints about Peanut. But according to Center For Consumer Freedom Managing Director Will Coggin, the DEC’s actions are inline with the misguided approach of the animal welfare movement.
“The death of Peanut appears to track with a broader trend in the animal rights movement of killing animals,” Coggin told The Daily Wire. “Sadly, many of these people have a ‘better dead than fed’ mentality.”
Coggin pointed to one “shocking” case of Maya the Chihuahua, who PETA employees allegedly took from a Virginia family’s front porch and euthanized.
Maya’s owner, Wilbur Cerate, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20141116095105/http://wavy.com/2014/11/12/man-claims-peta-stole-killed-family-pet/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told WAVY</a> at the time that security footage from his home shows two women exiting a PETA van that pulls up to his property, putting Maya in the van, and driving away. Cerate told WAVY that the women returned three days later with “a fruit basket and terrible news — Maya had been euthanized.”
<a href="https://www.amiracist.com/?_gl=1*jtghwp*_gcl_au*ODQ1NjYzNTg2LjE3Mjg5MDk3OTE.*_ga*MTc2NzM0NDQ2NS4xNzI4OTA5Nzkx*_ga_CZKR9ZYKJP*MTczMDEyMDgwOS40OS4xLjE3MzAxMjA4MzkuMzAuMC4w" target="_blank" rel="noopener">MATT WALSH’S ‘AM I RACIST?’ NOW STREAMING ON DAILYWIRE+</a>
Accomack County Sheriff Todd Godwin charged the workers with larceny, but the local commonwealth’s attorney dropped the charge.
According to Coggin, Peanut and Maya are just two of many animals who have suffered such fates.
“PETA euthanized 79% of the dogs and cats it took in last year at its ‘shelter,’ which state inspectors likened to a ‘euthanasia clinic,’” Coggin said.
Though PETA has national recognition, Center For Consumer Freedom data suggests that it’s smaller animal rescues like P’Nuts Freedom Farm that do the majority of actual rescuing.
The group <a href="https://consumerfreedom.com/2023/04/petas-25-year-anniversary-of-killing-pets/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">found</a> that PETA only adopted 58 animals in 2022, a 2.1% adoption rate. The nearby Norfolk Animal Care &amp; Adoption Center, it said, took in 4,337 animals that year, and had a euthanasia rate of just 10%.

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