Mississippi’s reading triumph is no miracle — it’s the future of education

A miracle defies the laws of nature.

This is why “the Mississippi Miracle,” the sobriquet for the extraordinary gains that students in the Magnolia State have made in reading in recent years, is a misnomer.

There’s nothing miraculous about a state that adopts phonics and that sets high standards for its kids getting better results in reading instruction.

This, to the contrary, is a predictable outcome, and a replicable one, as other Southern States that have taken up similar polices have shown.

Mississippi went from 49th in fourth-grade reading results on the National Assessment of Educational Progress about a decade ago to ninth in 2024. Click here to read more.

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ICE Arrests Illegal Alien Accused of Rape and Strangulation After Sanctuary New York City Set Him Free

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has arrested an illegal alien whose rap sheet includes arrests for rape and strangulation after a Democrat judge in sanctuary New York City set him free on drug charges.

On Monday, ICE officials announced the arrest of illegal alien Gerardo Miguel-Mora of Mexico in New York City. Miguel-Mora had most recently been arrested on larceny and criminal possession of stolen property charges.

Last week, Judge Sheridan Jack-Browne (D) in Brooklyn allowed Miguel-Mora to be released from jail despite ICE lodging a detainer against him so that he would not be released back into the community.

“These are the types of public safety threats New York Governor Hochul and Mayor Mamdani are releasing from their jails onto the streets to perpetrate more crimes and create more victims,” the Department of Homeland Security’s Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. Click here to read more.

 

Why Governors Are Opting-In To School Choice At Record Speed

It’s National School Choice Week in America, and the advancement of education freedom is sweeping the country.

Governors are opting-in their states to the new federal tax credit scholarship at rapid rates. The scholarship allows taxpayers to contribute up to $1,700 per year to a qualified non-profit scholarship-granting organization and receive a nonrefundable dollar-for-dollar tax credit. Organizations like ACE Scholarships award scholarships to K-12 students. Federal tax credit scholarships can be used for a variety of educational expenses, including tuition, fees, books, tutoring, transportation, and services for students with special needs.

The landmark legislation was fittingly signed into law on Independence Day last year by President Donald Trump as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill. Click here to read more.

 

There Are No Good Reasons To Subsidize Sports Stadiums. Governments Keep Doing It Anyway.

This year’s Super Bowl between the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots will feature several interesting story lines: Sam Darnold’s redemption arc, Mike Vrabel’s coaching job, and the Seahawks hoping to avenge themselves for the infamous Malcom Butler interception. With the betting line in Seattle’s favor at press time, it seems the public is hoping to cash in on a Seahawks win. But there are reasons why freedom-loving football fans should be cheering for New England: the Patriots are one of a handful of NFL teams that play home games in a privately funded stadium.

Of the NFL’s 32 teams, only five—the New York Giants, New York Jets, Los Angeles Chargers, Los Angeles Rams, and the Patriots—did not receive government subsidies to build their home stadiums. While it may now be common for ultrarich team owners to receive lavish subsidies to build new stadiums or upgrade existing ones, this hasn’t always been the case. Click here to read more.

 

FBI, Las Vegas police search home in investigation involving potential biological materials

Federal and local law enforcement launched a significant early-morning operation Saturday in northeast Las Vegas as part of an ongoing investigation into suspicious biological activity at a residential property.

Shortly before 6 a.m., teams from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department’s SWAT unit served a search warrant at a house on Sugar Springs Drive near North Hollywood Boulevard and East Washington Avenue, authorities confirmed.

The action drew a large response from multiple agencies and is expected to continue for some time.

Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill told reporters the investigation centers on evidence uncovered at the home that could point to a possible biological laboratory.

McMahill said investigators discovered “evidence of possible biological material, including refrigerators with vials containing unknown liquids.” Click here to read more.

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What’s the real poverty line? Don’t put your money on recent viral claims

A recent viral essay claims that a typical household needs $140,000 per year to live. The current official poverty line of $32,000 for a family of four, writes Wall Street portfolio manager Michael W. Green, amounts to “measuring starvation.”

The claim is startling, but economists say it doesn’t add up.

Dr. Jeremy Horpedahl says Green is wrong for three main reasons: He ignores changes and improvements in how poverty is calculated, drastically underestimates how much income Americans have, and dramatically overestimates how much people need to spend on basic items.

Scott Winship with the American Enterprise Institute notes that there are multiple measures of “poverty” done by the federal government. And no matter which one you pick, “far fewer Americans are poor today than in the past.” Click here to read more.

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No Marriage. No Babies. No Future. Will America Reverse Its Downward Trend?

A new report by the Congressional Budget Office shows that, absent immigration, America’s population will begin to shrink by 2030. As we approach the 250th anniversary of our nation’s founding, this projection underscores a hard truth: the collapse of marriage and family life represents the gravest threat to our great nation’s future.

That is why The Heritage Foundation has released the first in a series of special reports on “Saving America by Saving the Family.” The central argument is straightforward. Our country cannot afford to continue ignoring our declining marriage and birth rates, as lawmakers on both the left and the right have done for decades.

The discussion ranges from eliminating all marriage penalties embedded in welfare programs to new tax credits for married families, to offering public honors to couples for every decade they remain married. Click here to read more.

‘Melania’ Director Brett Ratner Gives First Lady ‘All the Credit’ for Documentary’s Opening Weekend Success

Melania documentary director Brett Ratner told Breitbart News in an exclusive interview – hours after the film hit theaters worldwide – that First Lady Melania Trump deserves “all the credit” for the picture’s historic opening weekend success.

Melania is set to haul in more than $8 million in its opening weekend, which would be the best at the box office for a documentary in the last decade. A humble Ratner told Breitbart News via a phone interview Saturday that he gives “all the credit” to the first lady, the film’s subject, for its extremely successful box office performance.

“I have to give all the credit to Melania because this was something that she came up with, even, obviously, before she met me. The fact that she had hired a feature director like myself to do a documentary was very surprising, and for me as well. But she said to me from day one, I want this to be very cinematic. Click here to read more.

 

Biggest revelations from final Epstein documents include lavish gifts to top Obama lawyer

Never-before-seen emails were included in the newly-released Jeffrey Epstein case files on Friday.

The emails from the U.S. Justice Department files show the convicted sex criminal gave former Obama White House counsel Kathryn Ruemmler luxury gifts, including a Hermes-branded Apple Watch, a $9,400 Hermes handbag, and a spa treatment package at the Four Seasons Hotel in Washington, D.C.

Correspondence between Washington Commanders and Philadelphia 76ers owner Josh Harris and Epstein were included in the latest files released.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that Harris had correspondence with Epstein after his guilty plea in 2008 for solicitation of prostitution with a minor, but prior to his arrest on child sex trafficking charges in 2019. Click here to read more.

 

New SNAP work requirements kick in for more states Feb. 1: What to know

New work requirements are expanding across more states Sunday for SNAP, the nation’s largest federal assistance program.

Starting today, adults between the ages of 18 and 64 without dependent children must work, participate in employment and training programs, or volunteer at least 80 hours per month to be eligible to receive SNAP benefits. Those who do not meet the requirement can receive benefits for only three months within a three-year period.

The new requirements expand work rules to additional groups that were previously exempt, including adults ages 55 to 64 and parents with children ages 14 or older. The law also eliminates prior exemptions for veterans, homeless people and individuals ages 18 to 24 who were in foster care when they turned 18, according to federal guidance. Click here to read more.

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Whitmer’s Michigan: Population increases by 0.27% from 2024 to 2025 — due entirely to migrants

Michigan’s population increased by a scant 0.27% between July 2024 and June 2025, due entirely to migrants, according to new U.S. Census numbers.

The state’s population stood at an estimated 10,127,884 in June 2025, or about 27,922 more residents than a year prior, despite nearly 5,000 more deaths than births.

Deaths over the year totaled 104,678, while there were 99,680 births, a deficit of 4,998, MLIVE reports.

Domestic net migration from other states totaled 1,796, while international migration was 30,706, which combined to offset the birth-death deficit by 27,992. That figure is roughly 10,000 less than the number of residents added between 2023 and 2024.

Without the international migration, Michigan’s population would have declined by about 3,202 residents, based on the Census figures. Click here to read more.

 

How a Kids’ Soccer Game Became a Child Welfare Case

Heather Bryant, a teacher in Park City, Utah, only learned that a Division of Child and Family Services (DCFS) worker had interviewed her three kids after the fact.

“I got a call from the DCFS investigator,” Bryant said in a phone call. “I was sitting at work and was absolutely knocked sideways by it. My hand was shaking—I couldn’t believe I was having this conversation.”

The investigator informed Bryant that someone had called DCFS to report overhearing a conversation between their son and Bryant’s middle son. The 8-year-old boys were talking about how Bryant’s 12-year-old son had been rough with them during a neighborhood soccer game.

This was labeled “child-on-child physical aggression during play” by the DCFS. Click here to read more.

 

Jury finds city of Seattle liable for teen’s death in CHOP zone; awards family $30-million

SEATTLE — A jury has awarded the father of a teen who was shot and killed in the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest (CHOP) zone in Seattle in 2020 approximately $30-million after finding the city was negligent in how it handled the weeks-long protest zone.

The family of Antonio Mays Jr., 16, filed a lawsuit alleging his death was the result of unsafe conditions in the CHOP Zone, which the city of Seattle had known about for weeks by the time he was killed in late June of 2020.

The lawsuit alleged Mays had been ‘lured’ into the CHOP zone by a statement from city officials who supported the CHOP zone during the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020. Click here to read more.

 

How The Military Gave A Homeless Lesbian’s ‘Minority Contracting’ Firm $19 Million

Rhonda Valles is an aspiring California musician who once played in a band with her ex-lover, Monica Salci. In between writing and performing songs, Valles and Salci formed a company that purported to make clothes.

The company never produced a stitch. The federal government paid it $19 million.

The spectacle demonstrates the absurdity of 8(a) contracting law, which requires that that 5% of all federal government contracts be “set aside” for minority-, women-owned, and other “disadvantaged” businesses. The program — which Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said this month has resulted in $100 million contracts going out the door without competitive biddingn nearly every day — has led to paydays for flagrant middlemen who use their disadvantaged status to win government contracts, only to subcontract the work to larger firms. Click here to read more.

 

Florida nurse’s license revoked after viral post promising to refuse anesthesia to ‘MAGA’ patients’

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced Thursday that Erik Martindale is no longer a registered nurse in the state, following a viral social media post in which Martindale reportedly vowed to refuse anesthesia to patients supporting the “MAGA” movement.

The decision comes after a week of intense public pressure and calls for disciplinary action spearheaded by the attorney general’s office. Martindale, a graduate of the University of Miami, drew widespread condemnation after a Facebook post circulated showing him in uniform with a message stating he would not provide anesthesia for “MAGA” surgeries or procedures.

“Effective today, Erik Martindale is no longer a registered nurse in Florida,” Uthmeier stated on X. “Healthcare is not contingent on political beliefs, and we have zero tolerance for partisans who put politics above their ethical duty to treat patients with the respect and dignity they deserve.” Click here to read more.

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