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The first day of jury selection in the case involving a Texas teenager accused of stabbing 17-year-old Austin Metcalf to death following a confrontation at a high school track meet was ushered in by demonstrators from both sides taking to the streets outside the courthouse, raising concerns about a potential outside influence impacting the jury. Karmelo Anthony, 18, is charged with first-degree murder stemming from Metcalf’s death. The case sparked outrage both in the local community and nationwide, with conversations surrounding race and self-defense rights taking center stage. On Monday, as prospective jurors arrived at the courthouse to be considered for selection, a crowd of demonstrators descended outside the court-ordered perimeter to voice their support for both sides of the case.AMERICA STILL CAN’T PUT DOWN THE RACE CARD. AND IT’S THE SHAME OF OUR NATION Positioned on opposite sides of the street, video footage shows the groups chanting, playing instruments and carrying signs both in favor and against Anthony – with the crowd of counter-demonstrators also carrying a large sign with Metcalf’s photo. “We declare, we decree, Karmelo is free,” supporters of Anthony can be heard saying outside the courthouse. FOLLOW THE FOX TRUE CRIME TEAM ON XThe presence of supporters from both sides presents a unique challenge for the attorneys seeking a fair trial in a case that has been marred by public perception and media attention, according to Texas defense attorney Larry Taylor.KAREN READ JUDGE SUED OVER ‘BUFFER ZONE’ KEEPING PROTESTERS AWAY FROM COURTHOUSE”It goes to reinforce potential negative biases, as well as potentially even create some new ones,” Taylor told Fox News Digital. “And so to walk by individuals who are angry or shouting, it could get into the mindset of a potential juror.” SIGN UP TO GET TRUE CRIME NEWSLETTERAs jury selection remains underway, Taylor noted that any indication that a potential juror has been impacted by the demonstrators could be grounds for removal. “If I see someone potentially nodding their head to the rhythm of a chant, it can be taken as something that they either agree with or have some kind of feeling toward,” Taylor said. “And that could potentially have that juror struck.”TRUE CRIME REPORTERS BLOCKED OUTSIDE COURTHOUSE WHERE KAREN READ IS ON TRIAL FILE FIRST AMENDMENT LAWSUITBefore the trial was set to be underway, a Texas judge issued a gag order in the case – effectively barring anyone involved in the trial from speaking to the media. Cameras, livestreams and video recordings are also banned from inside the courtroom, and demonstrators must stay outside of a specific perimeter surrounding the courthouse.LISTEN TO THE NEW ‘CRIME & JUSTICE WITH DONNA ROTUNNO’ PODCAST “[The judge] doesn’t want people coming up there in large numbers who feel that the case isn’t necessarily going their way, and they have some kind of reaction to that,” Taylor said. “You don’t want witnesses to be pointed out or to be harassed or threatened.” According to Taylor, the judge presiding over Anthony’s case must walk a fine line between protecting the demonstrators’ freedom of speech and the defendant’s right to a fair trial.TEXAS PRESS CONFERENCE IN AUSTIN METCALF KILLING DEVOLVES INTO CHAOS OVER TRACK MEET STABBING”You have the battle of the First Amendment versus the sanctity of the Seventh [Amendment],” Taylor told Fox News Digital. “Having access to the courts that is uninhibited and fair. So you have the judge weighing these constitutional rights and saying, ‘Okay, you have a right to protest, you have a right to be vocal, but I am going to set a distance away from my court so that I will have a fair and impartial jury.” LIKE WHAT YOU’RE READING? FIND MORE ON THE TRUE CRIME HUBThe possibility of allowing outside influences to impact the outcome of the trial could be monumental, as Taylor insists the judge must prioritize shielding the jurors from any potential biases. “If things go crazy, and demonstrators are threatening witnesses as they’re walking in, and people seem rattled, then the case just doesn’t flow,” Taylor said. “You’re setting yourself up for an appeal or a mistrial, and having to do this all over again.”AUSTIN METCALF’S SUSPECTED KILLER INDICTED ON FIRST-DEGREE MURDER CHARGE IN TRACK MEET STABBINGAnthony was indicted on the first-degree murder charge by a Collin County grand jury stemming from the alleged stabbing at a Frisco track meet on April 2, 2025.GOT A TIP?”For weeks, my team has been presenting evidence to the grand jury,” Collin County District Attorney Greg Willis said after the indictment. “Today, I summarized that evidence, and I asked the Grand Jury to return a first-degree murder indictment against Karmelo Anthony — which they did.””With that indictment, the case now moves formally into the court system,” Willis added.FOLLOW US ON XAnthony is accused of fatally stabbing Metcalf inside a Memorial High School team tent during the sporting event, with investigators alleging Anthony told Metcalf, “Touch me and see what happens,” before retrieving a knife from his bag. The alleged stabbing was due to a confrontation between the two teenagers, according to police.GET BREAKING NEWS BY EMAILImmediately after the incident, authorities said Anthony told responding officers he acted in self-defense, telling officers, “I’m not alleged, I did it.”MOURNING MOTHER, TWIN BROTHER OF SLAIN TEXAS TEEN SPEAK OUT: ‘LOST MY BEST FRIEND IN THE BLINK OF AN EYE’Mike Howard, Anthony’s attorney, has insisted that the details surrounding what lead up to the confrontation have not been disclosed to the public, and will be released in court.CLICK HERE FOR MORE US NEWS”We expect that when the full story is heard, the prosecution will not be able to rule out the reasonable doubt that Karmelo Anthony may have acted in self-defense,” Howard said following the indictment.WATCH: Father speaks out after son was stabbed to death at track meetAs the court prepares to hear opening statements in the case, Taylor said the presence of the demonstrators outside the courthouse could bring a sense of peace and support for both families.”Both families in essence have lost sons,” Taylor said. “Karmelo Anthony will never be the same – he could potentially be imprisoned. And so seeing supporters of your child gives hope to the family that actually lost their son. Seeing people out there in support of their son gives them a hope that justice will fall their way.” Fox News Digital reached out to Anthony’s attorney and the Collin County District Attorney’s office for comment. Fox News Digital’s Stepheny Price, Peter D’Abrosca and Kyle Schmidbauer contributed to this report.

South Korea and the United States launched new high-profile talks Tuesday to discuss the implementation of security agreements, including Seoul’s push to acquire nuclear-powered submarines.

Trump Slashes Tractor Tariffs In Bid To Revive Ag Belt Optimism

The Trump administration appears to be trying to inject new optimism across the nation’s farm belt following the China meeting last month, during which Beijing committed to making billions of dollars of new purchases of U.S. agricultural goods. The White House’s latest move is to reduce tariffs on tractors and combines, a policy shift aimed at easing cost pressures on farmers already squeezed by diesel, fertilizer, and machinery costs.

Late Monday, President Trump signed a proclamation slashing tariffs on imported agricultural equipment, including combines and harvesters, from 25% to 15% to lower costs for US farmers and manufacturers.

More color from the White House:

The Proclamation adjusts the tariffs on agricultural equipment, like combines and harvesters, as well as certain other equipment, from 25% to 15%.  

The Proclamation also expands the existing category of industrial equipment subject to a 15% tariff to include mobile industrial equipment, like bulldozers and forklifts, when imported from trade deal countries that are entitled to such treatment.

The Proclamation encourages foreign companies to use more U.S. steel and aluminum by allowing them to qualify for a 10% duty rate, if their capital equipment include at least 85% U.S. melted and poured or smelted and cast steel or aluminum by weight.

These tariff changes are temporary, lasting until December 31, 2027, to spur near–term investments that will rebuild the Nation’s industrial base.

The move is a clear attempt by the Trump administration to spur optimism across the nation’s farm belt following China’s commitments last month to purchase $17 billion annually in additional U.S. agricultural goods.

The latest reading of the US ag economy via the Purdue University/CME Group Ag Economy Barometer has been fading from a summer 2025 peak as trade wars and, now, the Gulf-related energy shock hurt farmers’ incomes.

Trump’s directive sent shares of the Japanese agricultural and industrial machinery company Kubota up 5% in Tokyo trading.

Efforts to boost farmer sentiment come ahead of the midterm election cycle, which is gearing up and is only 154 days away.

Tyler Durden
Tue, 06/02/2026 – 06:55

The annual June 1 kickoff to Pride Month came and went on Monday and the NFL’s X account that serves over 36 million followers and its Instagram account that serves 32 million followers did not mention the event.Let that sink in for a moment.The league accounts that, in the past years, have told fans that “football is gay,” that “football is lesbian,” that football is queer, transgender, bisexual and, for everyone, were silent on the issue. The National Football League’s social media accounts this year stuck to, well, football.The league posted about the Myles Garrett trade to the Los Angeles Rams. About the A.J. Brown trade to the New England Patriots. About Odell Beckham signing with the New York Giants. And Raymond Berry dying.So, this may mean something.Or nothing.EX-NFL STAR DEZ BRYANT SLAMS LEAGUE’S PRIDE MONTH MESSAGING: ‘FAR FROM RIGHT’For conservatives, Christians and others, it is a small victory they hope extends throughout the entire month and eventually to the league’s individual teams, most of which embraced Pride Month on its first day. Nine of the 32 teams did not recognize Pride Month on Monday.For some gay activists, the NFL’s action (or inaction) on social media on Monday means they’re hoping some admin corrects an oversight as early as Tuesday morning. Otherwise, it’s a big loss for those activists that want their sexuality celebrated and amplified by the country’s most popular sports league.Whatever it means, this is where we are in 2026: Corporations, small businesses, universities, individuals, and yes, sports leagues are being watched on the first day of Pride Month to see how they handle the divisive issue.We say divisive because there are no winners amid the scrutiny. Recognizing the month or opting out sends a message that upsets somebody regardless of the choice.TENNESSEE GOVERNOR SIGNS NUCLEAR FAMILY MONTH RESOLUTION AS CRITICS PUSH BACK ON EXCLUSIONSMajor League Baseball, the NBA and even the NHL recognized the start of Pride Month on Monday. The professional hockey league did so by changing its logo to rainbow colors — a betrayal of its own corporate branding.So, the NFL was different than its professional sports counterparts for at least one day. It was also different than it has been in the past when it did salute Pride Month on its first day and even once came up with celebrating LGBTQ history month.This doesn’t mean the NFL is no longer supporting gay issues. It supports those all year long on its website and via other means, including fundraising events and promotions. But this messaging omission this time — intentional or otherwise — was notable.As to the league’s teams, the nine teams that declined to mention Pride Month are generally the same group that have done so in the past.The New York Jets, Pittsburgh Steelers, Cleveland Browns, Cincinnati Bengals, Tennessee Titans, Kansas City Chiefs, Las Vegas Raiders, Dallas Cowboys and New Orleans Saints did not recognize Pride Month on social media. Most of those did not last year, either.And this is where we remind you, this is a snapshot in time. The NFL may offer a Pride Month nod in the coming hours or days after publication of this piece. The teams that opted out might as easily opt in over the coming days.The Indianapolis Colts, for example, have been back and forth on the Pride Month celebration posts the past two years. But they were the NFL’s first team to post about Pride Month this year.And why do we count? Because we live in an increasingly populist society where one side insists it must celebrate its sexuality and wants others to join in, and the other side has increasingly resisted and, in the extreme, believes the celebration of one sexuality over an entire month is insufferable.All one has to do is read the replies to the teams to understand both of those are so.It is also interesting that Pride Month and the corporate pandering it encourages create some strange dynamics. Example:WASHINGTON COMMANDERS, WHO ADVOCATE FOR GAY PRIDE, CELEBRATE MUSLIM HOLY DAYThe Washington Commanders, Philadelphia Eagles, Houston Texans and Minnesota Vikings are among the teams that saluted Pride Month on Monday.But that seemingly makes those teams seem quite conflicted on social media because in March they also celebrated the end of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of fasting, with a shoutout to Eid al-Fitr.The Vikings celebrated the Muslim holiday on X while the Texans and Eagles did so on Facebook.The Muslim religion, like Christianity and Judaism, has strict teachings against homosexuality.But the Commanders, Vikings and Eagles were not the only ones presenting a paradox to the celebration of gays with the orthodoxy of the Muslim religion on Monday.New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani posted a verbose (for X) post about how it would take more than a month to “honor the contributions of queer and transgender New Yorkers.”Mamdani was born in Uganda, is a Sharia Muslim and has consistently praised his home country while also publicly embracing his religious identity.Except that Uganda in 2023 enacted the Anti-Homosexuality Act that imposes life imprisonment for same-sex acts and the death penalty for aggravated homosexuality. And traditional Sharia treats homosexual acts as punishable offenses.Yes, quite inconvenient for someone celebrating the start of Pride Month.FOLLOW ARMANDO SALGUERO ON X: @ARMANDOSALGUERO

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un honored members of Naegohyang Women’s FC after the club won Asia’s top women’s club competition last month, state media reported Tuesday.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is expected to face tough questions on Capitol Hill this week as Congress threatens to curb President Donald Trump’s war powers, while the administration pushes for an end to the conflict with Iran.Rubio will testify in four congressional hearings on Tuesday and Wednesday on the State Department’s budget for the upcoming fiscal year. But the Trump official is likely to be grilled on the ongoing negotiations to end the war and whether the U.S. military campaign should continue against Iranian forces and the country’s nuclear capabilities. The U.S. and Iran have yet to agree on terms to end sporadic fighting. Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium, the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and potential sanctions relief have emerged as key sticking points in negotiations. President Donald Trump said Monday that he “couldn’t care less” if the stalled talks were over, in an interview with CNBC.TRUMP SAYS IRAN IS ‘NEGOTIATING ON FUMES,’ BELIEVES REGIME THOUGHT THEY COULD OUTWAIT HIM”I don’t care if they’re over, honestly,” Trump told the outlet. “If they’re over, they’re over. If they’re not, you know, I think they took too much time. Frankly, I thought they started to get very boring.”The president’s comments followed fresh rounds of fighting over the weekend that tested the fragile ceasefires in place since early April. The U.S. military has shown no signs of ending its blockade of Iranian ports while Tehran has continued to flex its hold over the Strait of Hormuz.Rubio’s Hill appearances come as both the House and Senate could advance legislation this week that would halt U.S. involvement in the war, absent congressional authorization.A successful war powers resolution would likely be a symbolic blow to the administration given an expected presidential veto and the lack of a veto-proof majority.GOP REP MASSIE JOINS DEMOCRATS IN OPPOSITION TO US IRAN STRIKESBut the president may suffer a political setback as a growing number of Republicans are souring on Trump’s handling of the war.In the House, Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., and Tom Barrett, R-Mich., have joined Democrats in voting to curtail the president’s war powers — and more GOP lawmakers could follow suit this week.The Trump administration has repeatedly argued that the 1973 War Powers Resolution requiring congressional oversight of military action infringes on the executive branch.Beyond the war powers debate, Rubio is also likely to face questions about Trump accepting a deal that stops short of dismantling Iran’s nuclear program. The Trump administration has repeatedly said it would never agree to anything that allows Iran to have a nuclear weapon. Some Republicans with hawkish national security views have warned Trump against agreeing to a deal that would let Tehran continue to project power across the region.”Our commander in chief needs to allow America’s skilled armed forces to finish the destruction of Iran’s conventional military capabilities and reopen the strait,” Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., wrote on social media in late May. “Further pursuit of an agreement with Iran’s Islamist regime risks a perception of weakness. We must finish what we started. It is past time for action.”Fox News Digital reached out to the State Department for comment.

Net Zero & Statism Deliver Stagnation: How Interventionism Undermined Growth In The UK & Canada

Authored by Daniel Lacalle,

Governments are terrible at picking winners and even worse at choosing losers. Net zero and interventionist “Keynesian” policies in Canada and the UK have proven that government intervention has created a worse outcome than anyone would have expected. The result is higher costs, distorted incentives, and weakened productivity growth, with increased dependency on fossil fuels to attend to peak demand, exactly what Austrian economists predicted.

What has been sold as a recipe for prosperity and “green growth” has in practice eroded affordability while failing to deliver stronger, sustainable expansion.

It is not surprising to see that the world’s examples of green interventionism, the UK and Canada, have become economic failures. Years ago, some argued that these policies needed time to prove their success. Now, it is not even debatable that the stagnation and recession in the UK and Canada are self-inflicted.

Net zero in Canada and the UK is not a single policy but an entire regime of targets, regulations, limits, subsidies, and new bureaucratic requirements.

The Canadian federal plan to reach net-zero emissions by 2050 combines rising carbon taxes, prescriptive regulations, technology mandates, and public investment schemes intended to steer capital away from fossil fuels and into politically selected “green” projects.

In the UK, the government’s “Net Zero Growth Plan” is also built on regulatory limits, spending commitments, and industrial policy designed to phase out conventional energy and reshape entire sectors through top-down planning.

This is a classic example of interventionism. The state attempts to override market price signals and entrepreneurial judgment to engineer a politically preferred energy and industrial structure and achieves the opposite of what it wants to deliver. Rather than relying on decentralized knowledge, competition, technology, and creative destruction, dispersed among millions of consumers and firms, net zero regimes assume that politicians and regulators know exactly which technologies should win, what the “right” energy mix ought to be, and how fast the transition should occur.

In an open market, prices and profits coordinate production across time, and entrepreneurs interpret prices as signals about real scarcities and consumer preferences. However, net-zero policies deliberately tamper with these signals. Carbon taxes, subsidies, and regulatory mandates change relative prices not because underlying preferences or scarcities changed but because policymakers decided that certain activities should be penalized and others subsidized. All this is justified by a completely ideological and unreliable assumption of externality costs, where governments present themselves as the ones that know precisely what those alleged externality costs are and try to push a pricing signal imposed through ideology, creating enormous distortions that, ultimately, end benefiting the “old” and “loser” industries.

Governments are not worried about the failure of these policies. Bureaucrats always believe that interventionism did not work because there was not enough of it. Therefore, they impose additional burdens and regulations while portraying themselves as the solution to the inflation and stagnation problems they have caused.

In both Canada and the UK, this has pushed vast amounts of capital into projects that are unprofitable and can only subsist due to policy support rather than genuine market demand. “Green industrial strategies” crowd out investment in other sectors, especially in traditional energy and manufacturing, even when those sectors still deliver higher value at lower cost to consumers. Austrian theory predicts that politicized credit and subsidies will generate malinvestment: projects that look viable under distorted interest rates and prices but which fail to cover their costs once the policy support is withdrawn or the fiscal burden becomes unsustainable.

Canadian long-run productivity growth has fallen from annual rates above 3% in the postwar decades to less than 1% since 2000, despite repeated waves of policy activism and “pro-productivity” rhetoric. Chronic underinvestment in business capital and weak technological progress as key drivers of this decline, suggesting that the policy mix has not created an environment for genuine, bottom-up innovation. The more that investment decisions depend on regulatory favor and subsidy access, the less they depend on entrepreneurial assessment of consumer wants and long-term profitability.

Net zero has also harmed affordability in exactly the way Austrian economists would expect when governments interfere with relative prices. Carbon pricing, renewable mandates, and restrictions on fossil-fuel projects increase energy costs directly by making reliable sources of power more expensive or scarce. These higher input costs then cascade through the economy to transport, food, housing, and manufactured goods, eroding real wages and living standards.

In both Canada and the UK, affordability has become a central political issue. Households face higher utility bills, fuel costs, and housing expenses, while governments insist that the transition is “pro-growth” and “pro-jobs.” From an Austrian viewpoint, this contradiction is unsurprising: when the state deliberately raises the cost of dominant energy sources and limits investment in efficient, market-chosen technologies, the outcome is necessarily higher prices and reduced real income for consumers, especially for low- and middle-income households.

The C.D. Howe Institute has calculated the costs of justifying public “stimulus” projects based on their benefits, showing that a typical public-services stimulus in Canada needs to create at least 73 cents in benefits for every dollar spent, while many infrastructure projects must improve productivity by at least 61 cents per dollar just to be socially acceptable. This illustrates how difficult it is for discretionary fiscal programs to deliver genuine, net productivity gains, especially when they are designed around political objectives like net zero rather than around consumer demand.

Loose money, loose budgets, weak growth

Energy policy is just one aspect of the overall narrative. Canada and the UK have also pursued aggressively expansionary fiscal and monetary policies recently, justified in the language of Keynesian stabilization and “stimulus.” Central banks slashed interest rates and expanded their balance sheets, while governments ran large deficits to finance transfer programs, public investment packages, and targeted subsidies.

Such policies create an artificial boom by pushing interest rates below their market level, encouraging borrowing and investment that are not backed by genuine savings. When combined with interventionist climate and industrial policies, the result is a double distortion: not only is the cost of capital suppressed by central banks, but its allocation is further skewed by political targets and bureaucratic criteria.

The persistent weakness of productivity growth in both countries reflects the outcome. Despite waves of stimulus and intervention, neither Canada nor the UK has returned to the trend growth rates of earlier decades. Research on why productivity is stuck in advanced economies shows that slow business investment, poor use of resources, and uncertain policies are major problems—exactly what Austrian theory warns about when governments try to control demand and manage entire industries.

At the same time, the loose monetary and fiscal stance has fueled asset inflation and housing booms, worsening affordability while doing little to raise real wages in line with living expenses. For Austrians, this pattern is predictable: credit expansion inflates asset prices and encourages leverage, while deficit spending diverts resources from productive private activity toward politically selected uses, without solving underlying structural obstacles to innovation and entrepreneurship.

The “dynamics of interventionism” described by Austrian scholars such as Frank Shostak and Huerta de Soto captures what is now playing out in Canada and the UK. Initial interventions—carbon pricing, subsidies, ultra-loose money—create side effects such as higher energy costs, misallocated capital, and inflationary pressures. Rather than rolling back the original policies, governments respond with further interventions: price caps, windfall taxes, rent controls, targeted transfers, and new stimulus packages.

More layers mean more complexity, uncertainty, and lobbying, which sucks talent and capital out of productive activity and into regulatory arbitrage and rent-seeking. In the end, the private sector becomes less about serving consumers and more about navigating the policy maze, bidding for subsidies, and changing business models based on political risk, not market signals.

This process tends to push mixed economies toward either more radical intervention and taxation, because the accumulating distortions and contradictions become unsustainable. Rising public debt, chronic productivity stagnation, and growing discontent over affordability are all signs that the current policy mix in Canada and the UK is reaching such a breaking point.

An Austrian approach to the problems of growth, productivity, and affordability in Canada and the UK would start from the opposite principle: radically reduce the role of the state in credit allocation, industrial planning, and energy choices. The goal would be to restore genuine price discovery in interest rates, energy markets, and capital allocation, rather than using central banks and fiscal policy to engineer demand and support politically favored sectors.

That would require ending the “permanent emergency” stance in monetary policy and allowing interest rates to reflect real-time preferences and savings, rather than central-bank discretion; rolling back net zero mandates, technology bans, and targeted subsidies allow entrepreneurs and consumers to decide which energy sources and technologies best serve their needs at the lowest cost; and moving from government spending based on political choices to a system with clear rules and less government involvement that safeguards property rights, upholds contracts, and maintains low and steady taxes and regulations.

Under such a regime, capital would no longer be herded into fashionable, subsidy-dependent projects. Instead, entrepreneurs would once again be guided by undistorted profit and loss, discovering the production structures that genuinely align with consumer preferences and technological realities. Over time, such an approach is the only path consistent with higher productivity, faster real wage growth, and true improvements in affordability.

In short, the disappointing growth and deteriorating affordability in Canada and the UK are not market failures; they are the predictable result of layering net zero interventionism on top of already inflationary, deficit-driven macro policy. The solution is not more of the same but a decisive shift back toward sound money, fiscal restraint, and genuine economic freedom.

Tyler Durden
Tue, 06/02/2026 – 06:30

“I was the chief of staff of the Gambino crime family.”That’s how Lewis Kasman describes his role at the side of legendary Mafia boss John Gotti.Kasman spent years with Gotti and the Gambino crime family and is now peeling back some of the secrets and revealing what that life was like at the top of the American Mafia.”I had a big toy chest in my attic in my house in Woodbury filled with millions of dollars in it,” he says, in amounts varying from $6 to $10 million, depending on the month, saying the Gambino family earned more than $100 million a year.EX-COLOMBO CRIME FAMILY CAPO REVEALS HOW GAS TAX SCHEME RAKED IN MILLIONS OF DOLLARS WEEKLY”I loved it. I loved it all. I loved the power…to have the boss’s ear, and I had unfettered access. It was amazing.”Kasman, who is now 68 years old, opens up about his friendship and working with Gotti for a Fox Nation exclusive documentary, “Gotti’s Guy,” which can be seen on the Fox Nation streaming site and Fox One.Throughout the late 1980s and early ’90s, as Gotti reigned over the underworld, Kasman was right there, in the inner circle. He was a familiar fixture accompanying the Don, the made men and Gotti’s lawyers. He was routinely referred to as “Gotti’s adopted son” by the news media and frequently interviewed and quoted defending Gotti during his various trials.In the Fox Nation program, Kasman describes how he grew up as “a Jewish kid on Long Island,” who went to sleep-away camp and had a bar mitzvah, to being the trusted sidekick and sounding board to the most infamous Mafia Don since Al Capone.”We had a brotherhood me and him,” says Lewis. “I had no agenda and he had no agendas. He just wanted my friendship and my voice to speak for him when he didn’t want to speak or couldn’t speak, because of his position.”Lewis says Gotti needed someone like him, an objective sounding board outside the circle of mobsters, who was loyal, direct and had no ax to grind.FORMER NY DETECTIVE MOONLIGHTED AS BONANNO CRIME FAMILY SOLDIER, HELPED FUEL MINI-MOB WAR, FEDS ALLEGE”I could go in places where John didn’t want to go, and I could talk to Skippers (Capos) the way John didn’t want to. As a boss, you have to carry yourself a certain way. He would never go and ask for anything. That was not John Gotti’s way.””I never crossed the line. See, I knew my boundaries. I had the most boundaries that anyone in life could have with John Gotti, and I knew my place. He trusted me and I trusted him.””He was a man’s man,” he says. “I used to say, Grandpa, you’re a legend in life. You’re gonna be a legend when you pass, but you’re a legend in reality. You are legendary now. I used to walk around the garment center, guys in trucks would honking their air horns. How’s the boss? How’s the chief? Wherever you would go, they loved this guy.” “He was a superstar, an A-lister celebrity. The crowds, the people, the pictures. It became surreal.”WATCH: FORMER MAFIA INSIDER REFLECTS ON JOHN GOTTI’S COURTROOM VICTORIES:But with time, Kasman reassessed his life and his role. He says back then, in his 20s and 30s, he had put aside his moral issues and ignored any ethical concerns about hobnobbing with Mafia murderers but now sees the error of his ways.”When I look back, you could disappear at any time,” he says. “He was the Mafia, and he was a killer, and he was a tough guy. Tough guy. Very tough guy.”‘MIND CHESS,’ NOT THREATS, CONVINCED REAL-LIFE SOPRANOS MOBSTER TO COOPERATE: RETIRED FBI AGENT”I did not lie to myself. I knew who he was, and I knew what he was capable of. But I wasn’t in fear of him. I respected him for who he was and the kind of Boss he was of that family. And if he was my father, my natural father, I couldn’t have loved him more.”During one of Gotti’s trials, his flamboyant lawyer Bruce Culter, called Kasman “one of the finest young men I know,” and said “he has a great friendship and business relationship with John Gotti.”But the Gotti family has had other names for their former friend.John A. Gotti, Gotti’s son, wrote scathingly about Kasman in his bestselling book “Shadow of My Father.”  He branded Kasman “traitorous scum,” a “turncoat,” who became “the adopted confidential informant of the FBI,” who is a “perjurer, thief and traitor” who turned on his father… and the Gotti family, by slipping false information to the Feds.After the elder Gotti died, Kasman got in trouble with the law and he became a confidential informant for the FBI, taping conversations with mobsters and at one time it turned out, Mr. Gotti’s wife as she recovered from a stroke.FIREFIGHTER PARAMEDIC LED SECRET LIFE AS MAFIA HITMAN BEFORE FAMILY FELL APART: SON”What infuriated me about Kasman,” Gotti’s son wrote, was “that he had recorded my mother on a visit with her, shortly after her stroke. She was recovering from brain surgery, and had been sedated. As directed by the FBI, are there no limits to what these low lives will do at the behest of their government masters? No.”Kasman admits he was directed by the FBI to secretly tape the younger Gotti, but says he wound up inadvertently wearing the wire on the visit to his mother. “It was a mistake,” he now says and deeply regrets it.In 1996, Kasman served six months in federal prison after pleading guilty to lying to a grand jury investigating the Gambino crime family. In 2010, Kasman again pleaded guilty to fraud and was sentenced to time served for obstruction of justice and money laundering. Gotti’s eldest daughter Angela was quoted as calling him “a piece of s—,” saying “somebody’s got all my father’s money. He was the one holding it.”Kasman now resides in Florida and leads a quiet life away from the streets of the city that were once Gotti’s turf.As for missing those halcyon days and the intense public interest surrounding Gotti, he is now wistful.”I don’t miss it,” he says. “I miss him.” “Gotti’s Guy” is now streaming on Fox Nation. Also, watch the second season of “Stories of the American Mafia” on Fox Nation.

SANTA MONICA, CA — A business leader and former city council candidate is reacting to Spencer Pratt’s surge in the Los Angeles mayoral race by pointing to crime, the recent wildfires, and the inhospitable business climate as the reason why voters are discontent with the status quo. “I think a lot of people are concerned about what’s happening, they really don’t know how to fix this, and I think the crime, the homelessness, the addiction, all the above behaviors of what’s happened in our city as politicians that are causing this, I think a lot people are seeing that,” John Putnam, the president of Putnam Brands & Putnam Accessory Group, told Fox News Digital.”And I think Spencer’s actually bringing the light in a real way. He’s pretty basic with his delivery of his issues and I think that’s resonating a lot. Even if you don’t want to vote for him, you’re listening, though and I think that’s resonating with a lot of people.”Putnam, a former candidate for Santa Monica City Council in 2024, told Fox News Digital that even though his town of Santa Monica doesn’t vote for LA mayor, the winner’s platform will have a “trickle down” effect all across the county.SPENCER PRATT ENTERS LA MAYOR RACE, ACCUSES CURRENT LEADERSHIP OF ‘CRIMINAL NEGLIGENCE’ OVER FIRE RESPONSE”California’s got a big issue, but the city, especially where we live, Santa Monica is a byproduct of what’s happened in Los Angeles and across the world,” Putnam said. “In Santa Monica alone, we’re a people driven economy. 80% of our revenue comes from outside this city. We need revenue being generated from people that are coming here to visit.”Putnam’s company, which he has run for 40 years, is based near downtown Los Angeles and he told Fox News Digital that it’s clear when you drive around the city that the business climate is being significantly handcuffed by crime, homelessness, high taxes, and other factors. “It costs so much to operate a business here,” Putnam said. “Out of 250 cities that were surveyed a few years ago, Santa Monica came in number one of being the most expensive place to do business and that’s because of all the regulation, all the other aspects.RESIDENTS IN EXCLUSIVE ENCLAVE DEMAND DEM MAYOR ACT ON CRIME SURGE”But on top of that, if you can’t create an inviting environment and a safe environment and a clean environment, there’s no hope. I mean, the bottom line, there is zero hope in that arrangement. So we have to do something quickly and the pain is there. We just as voters, hopefully will determine what we have to do to change that.”Crime has been a highly talked-about issue in the mayoral race between Pratt, incumbent Mayor Karen Bass, and progressive Councilwoman Nithya Raman. Putnam says that over the past few years, crime has gotten worse overall, despite statistics that say specific violent crimes are down. “There’s all sorts of stats, it’s worse, everyone’s trying to sugar coat it in different ways, but the stats are out there, they’re saying crime is down, I think violent crime is down across the country, but all this petty stuff is happening,” Putnam said.SPENCER PRATT ANNOUNCES LA MAYOR RUN ON ONE-YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF PALISADES FIRE THAT DESTROYED HIS HOME “It’s come in all neighborhoods. I mean you know it’s down in the south side of Los Angeles, east. It’s everywhere. You know even here in Santa Monica, we’re definitely being victims of this behavior of crime, and the drug addiction that’s running rampant in our city that’s causing this kind of criminal activity doesn’t really satisfy anyone. It doesn’t protect us. It doesn’t make us feel safe and it doesn’t help our community just to grow.”Roughly a year and a half ago, the Los Angeles area was devastated by wildfires in Altadena and the Pacific Palisades that killed 31 people. The Palisades fire crept within a few miles of Putnam’s home in Santa Monica and destroyed more than 6,000 structures, including Pratt’s home.Putnam told Fox News Digital that the fires, and criticism of Bass’s preparedness and response, is “definitely a point of every conversation” with Los Angeles residents as only a handful of homes have been rebuilt. “People are feeling left out, they’re not feeling like they’re being helped,” Putnam said. “I mean, their whole town, Altadena and Palisades were just destroyed. Beyond that, you had nail salons, you have all these hair salons, you had restaurants, these people are homeless from their businesses, their income and they aren’t getting the love and the attention they deserve, we need to come together and help those people.””That’s what’s frustrating. I think people are angry, but also just really concerned. And I think this is really, Spencer’s really done a good job of bringing that out and letting people know this is not acceptable and we have a choice here.”Pratt will face off in the mayoral primary on Tuesday night against Bass and progressive city council member Nithya Raman in an election where the top two candidates will move on to the November general election; however, if a candidate receives 50% of the vote, they become the next mayor outright.

Many shoppers routinely open a carton of eggs at the grocery store to check for cracks before buying them. But what if an egg cracks later in the car, or while being transferred to the refrigerator at home — is it still safe to eat?”The short answer is no. Cracked eggs should be discarded,” said Bill Marler, a food safety advocate and attorney based in Washington state.”Cracked eggs allow Salmonella to enter and grow inside the egg,” he told Fox News Digital. “The risk is significant. Cracked eggs are more likely to test positive for Salmonella than those with intact shells, even if the intact shells were dirty with feces.”‘I’M A HEART SURGEON, HERE’S WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT EGGS, YOUR HEART AND YOUR HEALTH’The size of the egg’s crack and how long it’s been there matter, according to Donald Schaffner, professor of food science at Rutgers University in New Jersey.”If the crack is small, and it happened recently, the possibility of any bacterial spoilage would be small,” Schaffner told Fox News Digital. “If the crack is bigger, or it happened a long time ago, the possibility that bacteria have entered the egg and begun to spoil would be larger.””The CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) recommends discarding cracked or dirty eggs entirely,” Marler added.Fully cooking an egg should eliminate any Salmonella risk, Schaffner said. Using newly cracked eggs in dishes that will be fully cooked is one option, he said. In his home, he’ll sometimes fully cook the eggs and feed them to his dogs.CLICK HERE FOR MORE LIFESTYLE STORIES”There is a small possibility that other pathogenic bacteria, besides Salmonella, might get inside the egg and start to grow,” he said. “Some of these bacteria make heat-stable toxins that would not be destroyed by cooking, but I think this is a very unlikely possibility.”Eggs are one of the leading sources of the roughly 1.35 million Salmonella infections the CDC estimates occur annually, according to Darin Detweiler, a food safety policy expert and professor at Northeastern University College of Professional Studies.Salmonella can cause fever, diarrhea and stomach cramps and typically goes away on its own, according to the Cleveland Clinic. Immunocompromised people, children, pregnant women and the elderly are at a greater risk of serious complications, Food & Wine reported.”Salmonella can sometimes infect a laying hen’s reproductive tract,” Detweiler told Fox News Digital. “When that occurs, the bacteria may be deposited inside the egg before the shell is formed. As a result, even an egg with a clean, intact shell can potentially contain Salmonella.”CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR LIFESTYLE NEWSLETTERFor this reason, some countries, including many European Union nations, have adopted widespread vaccination programs targeting Salmonella in poultry flocks, he said.Even when an egg is contaminated before the shell forms, the overall risk to consumers remains relatively low, Detweiler and Schaffner said.”The Salmonella are likely in the white of the egg,” Schaffner said. “Egg whites naturally contain preservatives that stop bacteria from growing. However, the egg white is separated from the egg yolk by a membrane. If this membrane breaks down, bacteria can move from the white to the yolk. The yolk contains none of these natural preservatives, and so the bacteria are able to grow in the yolk.”Schaffner added, “The good news is that it takes a while for this membrane to break down, and it breaks down more slowly under refrigeration conditions. This is part of the reason why we recommend that people refrigerate eggs.”TEST YOURSELF WITH OUR LATEST LIFESTYLE QUIZThe risk of cross-contamination on hands, surfaces and other foods is real, Marler said. “When in doubt, throw it out” is the safest approach, he said.”Clean, separate, cook and chill” are the four basic practices for preventing food poisoning, Schaffner said.