WND

An appeals court in Illinois has ruled that the zoning rules in the city of Rockford do not allow an abortion industry representative to set up its corporate activities inside a residential neighborhood.

The fight involves residents and homeowners who objected to the move by abortionist Dennis Christensen, his corporation, Rockford and its Zoning Board of Appeals.

The Thomas More Society represented the residents and homeowners.

Peter Breen, society head of litigation, explained, “The court’s ruling sends a crystal-clear message: zoning laws exist to protect our communities, and they must be enforced fairly and consistently, even when they impact the abortion industry.

“The court has exposed the Rockford Zoning Board’s flawed reasoning and upheld the rule of law, ensuring that businesses, even abortion businesses, cannot ignore the laws and may not set up shop wherever they want, including in the middle of quiet family neighborhoods filled with young children.”

The ruling is from the Illinois Appellate Court for the Fourth District.

The decision confirmed both Rockford officials and a lower court erred in allowing an abortion business to move into a residential neighborhood by calling itself a “home business.”

Christensen and his abortion corporation Rockford Family Planning Center in 2022 sought to convert a residential property, which originally allowed a homeowner to operate a home business. into an abortion business.

The ruling cited a long list of significant variances between the abortion business and the prior chiropractor’s home business, including that Christensen’s new business is not a “home business.”

Plaintiffs included Shawn and Lisa Rylatt who challenged the scheme for its rules violations, noise and reduced property values.

Some modern Americans claim not to fear death. On Nov. 15 last year, boxer Mike Tyson told a 14-year-old girl interviewing him that he has no fear of what happens after he dies.

When he was asked about his legacy after his death, Tyson told her: “It means absolutely nothing to me. I’m just passing through. I’m gonna die and it’s gonna be over. Who cares about legacy after that?”

So, death ends it all, and after that there’s nothing more? Such a view, widely held by some today, contrasts greatly with a Biblical worldview, the view that helped undergird much of the settling and founding of America.

The oldest city in North America is St. Augustine, Florida, founded in 1565. About half a century before, it was discovered by Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon.

He came to the shores of what is today Florida on Easter Sunday, 1513. In his native Spain, the cathedrals were filled with flowers to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. What the Spanish explorer saw were resplendent flowers in this new land.

So he called it the land of the flower … La Florida. The name stuck (without the “La,” of course).

Easter commemorates the time when Jesus Christ walked out of His own tomb. By His resurrection, He changed everything.

Even the day of the week He arose was changed. Sunday is the Lord’s Day. It is the day that hundreds of millions of people around the world worship Him in honor of His resurrection on that first Easter Sunday.

Even the Constitution talks about the length of days (Sundays excepted) congressional bills are under consideration to be signed by the president. Sundays excepted shows the founders honored the Lord’s Day, the Christian Sabbath.

Through the centuries many Americans also honor Jesus’ resurrection and His conquering death.

For example, one of the most visited houses in America is Mount Vernon, the home of George Washington, the father of America.
He is buried on the grounds there, and behind the stone coffins that bear his and Martha’s remains is a stone plaque that bears witness to Christ conquering the grave.

The plaque contains the Savior’s words from John 11:25-26: “I am the Resurrection and the Life, sayeth the Lord. He that believeth in me, though he were dead yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.” I have taken a photo of that plaque:

George Washington was a regular reader of the Bible (KJV) and the Book of Common Prayer (1662), which draws heavily from the KJV.

In 1755, the 23-year-old future president survived a military battle that was a massacre of British and American troops by the French and some Indians, in the greater Pittsburgh area. This was during the French and Indian War.

Washington was the only officer to survive that battle, and apparently there was no chaplain on hand, so George Washington led the funeral service for the slain British commander, Gen. Edward Braddock.

The young Virginian used the Book of Common Prayer funeral service that night by torchlight.

The service begins with the declaration of Jesus written above, from John 11, now found behind Washington’s sarcophagus.

Here are some of the other Scripture-based prayers he read that fateful night: “We meekly beseech thee, O Father, to raise us from the death of sin unto the life of righteousness; that, when we shall depart this life, we may rest in him, as our hope is this our brother doth; and that, at the general Resurrection in the last day, we may be found acceptable in thy sight; and receive that blessing, which thy well-beloved Son shall then pronounce to all that love and fear thee. … Grant this, we beseech thee, O merciful Father, through Jesus Christ, our Mediator and Redeemer. Amen.”

The Christian view is that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who came into this world for the purpose of redeeming lost humanity. He was fully divine and fully human. He was the only person who ever lived that was sinless.

But on the cross on Good Friday, He became sin for fallen humanity. He was punished for our transgressions. Then He was buried and sealed in a stone-cold tomb with a contingent of Roman guards outside His grave. But on Easter Sunday, He walked out of His tomb and changed all history in the process. It took many appearances to convince His disciples that He was really alive.

But they spread the message, despite great personal cost (including in many cases their own lives). This message of hope and the forgiveness it brings has now spread into all the world, and it continues to spread. It is a message of hope, relevant for all, including boxers, explorers and presidents.

Colorado and Vermont are unusually beautiful states, renowned for scenery and skiing, and in Vermont’s case, cheese and ice cream.

These Democratic-dominated enclaves also attract weird and destructive people who somehow find their way into power. California does not have a monopoly on this.

How else to explain their ongoing war on free speech, common sense and Christianity? Colorado, which got slapped down by the U.S. Supreme Court for persecuting Christian cake baker Jack Phillips, went after him again before the state Supreme Court finally ruled in his favor.

And, this past week, the Colorado House passed a bill that would criminalize anyone for not using transgender names in place of original names.

As Catholic League President Bill Donohue observes, this could lead to parents losing custody of their own children if they don’t go along with their child’s delusional identification with the opposite sex – or no sex.

On April 9, a Vermont Christian school was in a federal appeals court in New York City fighting for its life over its stand to keep girls’ sports for girls.

Two years ago, the girls’ basketball team at Mid Vermont Christian School forfeited a playoff game against a team that had a 6-foot, 3-inch male on it.

The state of Vermont came down on them like a ton of bricks. The Vermont Principals Association (VPA) barred the school from all sports and academic activities, including science fairs and student debates.

“Mid Vermont Christian School has every right to teach its beliefs to its own students. It cannot, however, impose those beliefs on students from other public and private schools,” the VPA said in true Orwellian fashion.

The U.S. District Court judge, an Obama appointee, agreed with the VPA, hence the school’s appeal of that ruling heard this week at the 2nd Circuit.

Alliance Defending Freedom senior attorney Ryan Tucker told me that he thought the hearing went well and was hopeful about the eventual outcome.

“The school believes that boys are boys and girls are girls, and the state disagrees, so it’s a constitutional issue.”

The Green Mountain State’s leftist regime probably sees this as a way to destroy the school once and for all. Most Christian schools would be in deep trouble if all families with student athletes, debaters and science lovers pulled out.

Can’t you just imagine Snidely Whiplash or Dr. Evil in Ben and Jerry hats and “Feel the Bern” sweatshirts rubbing their hands and saying, “Excellent!”

In Colorado, the House passed a bill on April 6 called the “Kelly Loving Act.” It prohibits “dead naming,” that is, using someone’s original name.

Jonathan Ray Loving, who adopted a female name, Kelly Loving, was murdered in 2022 at a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs. He and four others were killed by a nonbinary madman with an AR-15.

The state’s legislators have decided to blame everybody else for this.

Colorado Rep. Yara Zokaie, a Democrat who co-sponsored the House bill, credited the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) with making the argument to exclude parental-rights advocates from hearings.

The SPLC has long slandered conservative and Christian groups on its website’s “hate map” alongside neo-Nazis and skinheads.

“We don’t ask someone passing civil rights legislation to go ask the KKK for their opinion,” Ms. Zokaie said.

Like the legal attack on Mid Vermont Christian School, this is part of the left’s culture war against anyone who believes in traditional morality.

One of the nastiest weapons in their arsenal is “The Handmaid’s Tale,” which began its sixth and last season on the Disney-owned Hulu network on April 6.

Based on Margaret Atwood’s dystopic futurist novel, the series is a diatribe against conservative Christians, who are depicted as bloodthirsty totalitarians.

If you think that’s an exaggeration, here’s an excerpt from a glowing article on April 6 in The Washington Post: “It felt remarkably of the moment – depicting a terrifying future America under an authoritarian regime in which women have been stripped of their reproductive freedom and are forced into sexual slavery to bear children for the wealthy and powerful.”

In other words, the Post’s idea of Donald Trump’s America.

Wait. There’s more. The protagonist June and her daughter are “captives of the brutal theocracy of Gilead, where women get a finger cut off if they are caught reading, and ‘gender traitors’ (anyone not straight) are publicly hanged. Every month, June is ritually raped … all in the name of fulfilling biblical destiny and solving the world’s fertility crisis.”

This is not just some Mickey Mouse satire, but a full-throated slander of Christians by Hollywood’s privileged elites.

“As a TV writer, you make stuff up,” says the show’s top creative director, Yahlin Chang. “You imagine an alternative reality where bad [stuff] happens, and it’s really astonishing to see it all come to fruition in real life.” Really?

In the 1930s, Jews watched as Josef Goebbels’ propaganda machine depicted them as objects of ridicule, then as saboteurs, and finally as a dire threat to the German nation that required a Final Solution.

Ideas have consequences, and so do lawfare and hateful propaganda.

The good news is that the American public is fed up with all this, and it showed in the last national election. Despite the continued cultural barrage, the transgender madness is losing its grip.

And, as Easter approaches, it’s a good time to reflect on Jesus’ words: “I have said this to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

This column was first published at the Washington Times.

A “Saturday Night Live” skit has social media abuzz, as political conservatives praise the segment while progressives pan it.

The premise of the sketch involves two homosexual men who show up at a friend’s gathering with a small baby in tow – a surprise to the others in the room. As their friends question them about why, suddenly, the couple have a child, the men berate their questioners with phrases like, “You can’t ask that!”

Commentator Charlie Kirk posted an excerpt from the full video:

At this rate I might watch SNL again. The culture is shifting. This is hilarious and promising.

First time in 15 years I’ve seen the LGBT third rail be mocked on TV

WATCH

pic.twitter.com/WEOdR3iTER

— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) April 15, 2025

Many on X were encouraged that the longstanding comedy show was broadening its horizons regarding who it was OK to mock.

One user posted, “I have not laughed at SNL since I was 12. This was funny!”

A conservative woman was not impressed, stating, “SNL is just following the political winds after record low viewership. Let’s not support this smut. Make an alternate SNL that doesn’t need descriptive sexual humor. We can do better.”

Meanwhile, detractors were dismayed.

“Snl gay dad with baby sketch is awful. putting us back years,” replied one user.

“The people that want queer people dead already won, must you also validate them by trying to curry their favor? what are you doing. really,” said writer Ayesha Siddiqi.

Dan Caldwell, a top adviser to U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was escorted out of the Pentagon Tuesday after being identified in an investigation into leaks at the Department of Defense.

“The investigation remains ongoing,” a U.S. official told Reuters.

Jennifer Griffin of Fox News confirmed the report, saying Caldwell “was escorted from the building, being investigated for ‘unauthorized disclosure’ of classified information.”

“We can confirm the Reuters reporting is accurate, but we do not comment on ongoing investigations,” a senior U.S. official told Fox News.

Fox can confirm @Reuters reporting below. Top Hegseth advisor Dan Caldwell escorted from the building, being investigated for “unauthorized disclosure” of classified information.
“We can confirm the Reuters reporting is accurate, but we do not comment on ongoing investigations,”…

— Jennifer Griffin (@JenGriffinFNC) April 15, 2025

Reuters indicates a March 21 memo signed by Hegseth’s chief of staff, Joe Kasper, requested an investigation into “recent unauthorized disclosures of national security information involving sensitive communications.”

“Kasper’s memo left open the possibility of a polygraph, although it was unclear if Caldwell was subjected to one,” the report states.

Is the news we hear every day actually broadcasting messages from God? The answer is an absolute yes! Find out how!

Reuters says while Caldwell is not as high-profile as other Pentagon officials, he played a “critical role” advising Hegseth.:

His importance was underscored in a leaked text chain on Signal disclosed by The Atlantic last month.

In it, Hegseth named Caldwell as the best staff point of contact for the National Security Council as it prepared for the launch of strikes against the Houthis in Yemen.

Caldwell had drawn attention in Washington for past views that critics have called isolationist, but which advocates said sought to right-size America’s defense priorities.

A Marine Corps veteran who deployed to Iraq, Caldwell was quoted saying before going to the Pentagon that America would have been better off if U.S. troops had just stayed home.

“I think the Iraq war was a monstrous crime,” Caldwell told the Financial Times in December 2024.

He was also a skeptic of U.S. military assistance to Ukraine and advocated for U.S. retrenchment from Europe.

Caldwell has already locked down his X account, which now notes he works on “foreign policy, limited government and vets issues.”

JUST IN:

Dan Caldwell @dandcaldwell, one of the top advisors for US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth @PeteHegseth, was escorted out of the Pentagon today after being identified during an investigation into leaks at the Department of Defense.

You’ll recall, Dan Caldwell was… pic.twitter.com/vBKLf0HJBs

— Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) April 15, 2025

Caldwell is a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps and the Iraq War. He was deployed to Iraq with 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Following his military service, Caldwell worked for U.S. Rep. David Schweikert, R-Ariz., from 2011 to 2013.

As WND reported last month, Hegseth launched fiercely into the Atlantic for continuing to claim war plans were mistakenly shared on Signal with the magazine’s editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg.

“So, let’s me get this straight,” Hegseth posted on X.

“The Atlantic released the so-called ‘war plans’ and those ‘plans’ include: No names. No targets. No locations. No units. No routes. No sources. No methods. And no classified information.

“Those are some really sh*tty war plans.

“This only proves one thing: Jeff Goldberg has never seen a war plan or an ‘attack plan’ (as he now calls it). Not even close.

“As I type this, my team and I are traveling the INDOPACOM region, meeting w/ Commanders (the guys who make REAL ‘war plans’) and talking to troops.

“We will continue to do our job, while the media does what it does best: peddle hoaxes.”

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt also jumped into the fray, saying: “The Atlantic has conceded: these were NOT ‘war plans.’

“This entire story was another hoax written by a Trump-hater who is well-known for his sensationalist spin.”

The Atlantic has conceded: these were NOT “war plans.”

This entire story was another hoax written by a Trump-hater who is well-known for his sensationalist spin. pic.twitter.com/atGrDd2ymr

— Karoline Leavitt (@PressSec) March 26, 2025

PRIMETIME EXCLUSIVE: @KarolineLeavitt says @realDonaldTrump is fully confident in his National Security team. pic.twitter.com/EulCseWPiZ

— Jesse Watters (@JesseBWatters) March 26, 2025

Anna Bross, senior vice president for communications at the Atlantic, released a statement from the publication, indicating:

“Attempts to disparage and discredit The Atlantic, our editor, and our reporting follow an obvious playbook by elected officials and others in power who are hostile to journalists and the First Amendment rights of all Americans. Our journalists are continuing to fearlessly and independently report the truth in the public interest.”

Attempts to disparage and discredit The Atlantic, our editor, and our reporting follow an obvious playbook by elected officials and others in power who are hostile to journalists and the First Amendment rights of all Americans. pic.twitter.com/Lj4ng0Hy6n

— Anna Bross (@AnnaCBross) March 25, 2025

Follow Joe on X @JoeKovacsNews

‘Some really sh*tty war plans’: Pete Hegseth erupts over latest leak disclosure

(TOWNHALL) — Federal authorities arrested a man for allegedly threatening to assassinate Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and her husband.

Today, #FBI Atlanta arrested 25 year old, Aliakbar Mohammed Amin of Lilburn, GA for threatening communications against @DNIGabbard, @Potus, & @WhiteHouse. Bottom line, the FBI does not tolerate threats and will hold offenders fully accountable. pic.twitter.com/la5doFNMbU

— FBI Atlanta (@FBIAtlanta) April 12, 2025

The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on Monday charges against Aliakbar Mohammad Amin, 24, of Lilburn Georgia. He allegedly sent threatening text messages about Gabbard and her husband, Abraham Williams between March 29 and April 1, NBC News reported.

I told @CNN that @TulsiGabbard had credible, active threats against her and her family and they went ahead and doxxed her address anyway. https://t.co/VhTkMWHH5O

— Alexa Henning (@alexahenning) April 12, 2025

“Prepare to die, you, Tulsi, and everyone you hold dear,” one of the texts read, according to the release. “America will burn.”

California Democrat Rep. Laura Friedman has admitted House Democrats are coordinating every single week with far-left state attorneys general to weaponize the justice system against President Trump and his America First agenda.

Speaking to voters, Friedman bragged that House Democrats have established a so-called “litigation working group,” aka “shadow government,” comprised of approximately 75 sitting members of Congress who gather behind closed doors every week to craft legal strategies in conjunction with state AGs — the same AGs who have brought politically motivated lawsuits and investigations against Trump, his businesses, his allies, and his policies.

“Every single week, we have a litigation working group where a large group of us—and I’m talking maybe 75 members of the House—sit down with the AGs to talk about legal strategy,” said Friedman.

“This is all going on every single week behind the scenes. It is nonstop talk, nonstop introduction of bills and legislation, nonstop being on social media as much as we can without being throttled, without the crazy analytics, and doing all these things.”

WATCH:

Friedman’s admission lays bare the hypocrisy of a party that lectures about “democracy” while secretly colluding to subvert the will of the voters.

Their so-called “legal strategy” is nothing more than lawfare—a desperate attempt to cripple Trump’s ability to deliver on his promises, from restoring economic prosperity to draining the swamp. And who’s footing the bill for this circus? You, the American taxpayer.

It’s time to call this what it is: a scandal. House Democrats must be held accountable for this blatant abuse of power.

Republicans in Congress should launch an immediate investigation into this “litigation working group” and demand transparency about who’s involved, what they’re planning, and how deep this collusion goes.

The American people deserve answers, not more elitist schemes cooked up in D.C. backrooms.

[Editor’s note: This article originally appeared on The Gateway Pundit.com]

Democrats long have linked threats, specifically the threat of violence, to their opinions about their political foes.

Joe Biden once boasted if younger he would have taken Donald Trump out and beaten him up.

U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer stood in front of the Supreme Court and threatened justices would suffer the consequences if they ruled against his opinion.

The New York Post condemned the party for accepting their supporters’ “escalating calls for violence.”

That would be to include those protesting on behalf of murder suspect Luigi Mangione, accused of the shooting death of health care executive Brian Thompson.

One leftist messaging in Denver’s protest read, “Hands off or heads off.”

The Washington Examiner documented how a new study found that 55% of all self-identifying “liberals” confirm they believe killing President Donald Trump is “a justifiable means of pursuing their political goals.”

The report revealed, “This is the fruit of hysteria that Democratic politicians and their allies in the news media have nurtured in their followers for the past eight years. This is a political faction that considers ‘misgendering’ to be ‘literal violence,’ but it is one also building an assassination culture.”

To that end, comments by George Soros-linked Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner that Trump and his supporters should be “punched in the face as hard as possible” is just one of many.

But a report in the Daily Wire confirms it’s likely to rebound politically.

“The Republican Party of Pennsylvania told The Daily Wire on Monday that it asked the Justice Department to investigate Krasner over his March suggestion that Trump and his supporters were ‘fascists’ who needed to be ‘punched,’” the report said.

Krasner is running for his third term in office, but Pennsylvania GOP spokesman Greg Rothman told the DOJ, “Violence and threats are never acceptable, but they are particularly egregious when used as a political tool targeting the President of the United States of America and his supporters.”

The letter, obtained by the Daily Wire, said, “The safety of President Trump, Republicans, and the integrity of our American republic rely on threats like District Attorney Krasner’s being investigated and, if appropriate, punished to the fullest extent of the law.”

The letter suggested the investigation could focus on whether Krasner made a “potential criminal threat” against Trump.

Krasner, making the challenged comments, had fallen back on a common Democrat talking point: Trump and Republicans are Nazis.

He said, “Trump likes crime. Fascists like crime. Right-wing Republican MAGA people like crime and they like it because it gins up a crisis that doesn’t have to be, which allows them to scapegoat different groups of marginalized people so they can eliminate our rights. This is a very old playbook.

“I know exactly where we need to be with this one: loud, proud, standing up and in their faces. These are fundamentally fascists, and it will not do us any good to try to appease them. They are bullies who need to be punched in the face as hard as possible, and that is the only way that all the people around us who are so frightened will understand they can stand up, too.”

Tellingly, amid Democrat calls for violence, there have been two assassination attempts against Trump and at least one against a member of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Probably no situation could make more clear the dramatic upheaval that has happened under President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal aliens in America than the case where prosecutors are dropping gun charges against a suspect and the defense counsel may want them reinstated.

It is the case against Henrry Josue Villatoro Santos that U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel now have successfully asked a judge to dismiss.

He was accused of having an illegal firearm, according to a report from Fox News.

Magistrate William E. Fitzpatrick granted the motion for dismissal, but stayed it until Friday to allow Santos’ lawyer to decide whether he would appeal, to have the charge reinstated.

It’s because as Santos is accused of being a top MS-13 gang leader along the East Coast, and without the protection of a pending court case, he could be deported.

The DOJ has been asking that the case be dropped since early in April, shortly after his arrest.

Santos’ lawyer, Muhammad Elsayed, said during a court hearing the government hasn’t told him what would happen to his client once the charges are dismissed, “suggesting Villatoro Santos would like be ‘summarily deported’ without any due process,” the report said.

Elsayed also charged the DOJ’s decision on the case “came from high up in the Trump administration.”

“They have already determined the outcome, that he’ll go to the worst prison in the Western Hemisphere,” Elsayed claimed.

The judge said it is up to the prosecutors to determine their deliberative process, and perhaps Santos would need to bring a case with the Department of Homeland Security as a party.

Bondi has been succinct regarding the case, “As a terrorist, he will now face the removal process.”

Santos’ lawyer earlier told the court, “The United States government, at its highest levels, has been publicly and loudly propagating allegations that Mr. Villatoro Santos ‘is one of the top leaders of MS-13′ and ‘one of the leaders for the East Coast, one of the top in the entire country,’ claims made by Attorney General Pam Bondi at a high-level press conference on March 27, 2025.”

In another high-profile deportation case, that of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was deported even though he had a protective order aimed at preventing his deportation to El Salvador, the fight continues as the Supreme Court has ordered the government to facilitate his return, without explaining that requirement.

Further, El Salvado’s president said that will not happen, leaving a multitude of questions about how an administration is supposed to enter a foreign country and take back to the United States a prisoner the government there is unwilling to give up.

Is Returning García to the U.S.
Just an Exercise in Futility?
His Rare Protected Status Could Be Revoked
While He’s Still In Prison
Public Interest Law Professor John Banzhaf
George Washington University Law Schoolhttps://t.co/bpRmbMsVC3 pic.twitter.com/7O9oCiFhDg

— John Banzhaf (@ProfBanzhaf) April 15, 2025

A report at the Washington Examiner notes that return trip probably would be ineffectual anyway.

George Washington University Law School professor John Banzhaf said on social media it would be likely a wasted effort since the administration could easily change his immigration status and deport him again.

“Any such return might be nothing more than an exercise in futility,” he said. “There might be little purpose in flying him back if, upon his return to the U.S., his ‘withholding of removal’ status would very likely be immediately revoked.”

Reports reveal he entered the U.S. illegally in 2011 and has been described in court documents as a past member of the violent MS-13 gang, a declared terrorist group.

Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele told Trump this week he has no power to return him to the U.S.

“We’re not very fond of releasing terrorists into our country.”

‘Preposterous’: President of El Salvador scorches media for suggesting he send MS-13 gangster back to U.S.