Christian

Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough reveled in one moment from Wednesday’s Supreme Court hearing on birthright citizenship, when Chief Justice John Roberts flatlined President Donald Trump’s “caveman lawyer” with what the host called the “quote of the year.”

Roberts signaled skepticism as he heard oral arguments over the Trump administration’s bid to overturn a lower court decision blocking the president’s executive order aimed at ending birthright citizenship.

Representing the administration, Solicitor General John Sauer told the justices that the 14th Amendment, which guarantees citizenship to anyone born in the United States, has been wrongly interpreted over time.

Opening Thursday’s Morning Joe, however, Scarborough rolled back one clip that he beamed “wraps it all up” when, as Trump’s lawyer complained that “8 billion people” were “one plane ride away” from having a child with U.S. citizenship only for Roberts to quip: “It’s a new world. It’s the same constitution.”

As co-host Mika Brzezinski attempted to push on with commentary, Scarborough interrupted: “Can we just stop? Can we can we just stop for one second and just say, when you hear the quote of the year, you just want to just stop and you want it to wash over you. You want it to wash over you.”

“This is what we’ve been hearing [from the Trump administration], for oh-so-long now: ‘This is a new world. We have new challenges. It’s never been this bad. We’ve got to shred the constitution –’ and so yesterday, this poor John Sauer guy who we’re going to get to the point where he’s trying to explain to Neil Gorsuch why Native Americans don’t have birthright citizenship,” the host quipped.

Rounding on Sauer’s confrontation with Gorsuch, Scarborough said: “Maybe he just doesn’t know – it’s all so confusing, he’s just a caveman lawyer, how could he try to figure out whether people have been here hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years before white people even showed up, might have birthright citizenship.”

The host returned to Roberts’s clapback and continued: “But in this particular moment, Donald Trump’s solicitor general, he goes, ‘Well, you know, Mr. Chief Justice –’ well, now let me get that voice, right.

“‘Well, you know, Mr. Chief justice, this is a new world and there are new challenges,’” Scarborough said, pitching his voice to mock Sauer’s gravelly tone, before adding: “To which John Roberts said, ‘Well, you may be right. This may be a new world, but it’s the same old Constitution.’”

The host reacted: “I just, whoa! I mean, if there’s ever been a line that explains to the Trump administration how them setting their hair on fire and running around in front of TV cameras, in front of the White House, is performative nonsense when it comes to the Constitution of the United States of America, that exchange – ‘may be a new world, sir, but it’s the same old Constitution – that exchange really wraps it all up in a neat give and take.”

Watch above via MS NOW.

The post ‘Amazing Moment!’ Joe Scarborough Beams Over Justice Roberts’s ‘New World, Same Constitution’ Quip to Trump’s ‘Caveman’ Lawyer first appeared on Mediaite.

Longtime San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich will no longer work the sidelines, instead transitioning to a role as full-time team president.

Popovich, 76, has been the Spurs’ coach for nearly three decades. He first joined the team’s front office in 1994 before assuming the role of head coach in 1996. Popovich, widely regarded as one of the greatest coaches in the history of the sport, has more than 1,400 career wins in the regular season and led the Spurs to five NBA championships.

ESPN’s Shams Charania announced the news Friday morning.

“Gregg Popovich will no longer be Head Coach of the San Antonio Spurs and is transitioning full-time to Team President, sources told ESPN,” he said in a tweet. “The iconic Popovich is a Basketball Hall of Famer, the NBA’s all-time winningest coach, and led the Spurs to five championships.”

Popovich was not with the team for much of the 2024-25 season. In November, it was announced that he would be taking an indefinite leave from the team due to a “health issue.” The team later announced the illness in question was a mild stroke.

Shortly after that news, star center Victor Wembanyama said he was not worried about Popovich and expected his coach to return soon. In February, however, he met with the team to inform them that he would not be coming back to coach for the rest of the season. Two weeks ago, Popovich had another medical scare when he reportedly fainted in a San Antonio restaurant. Although he was taken to the hospital, Popovich was alert as he was loaded into the ambulance and returned home shortly after.

— —

The post JUST IN: Gregg Popovich to Step Down as Coach of the San Antonio Spurs — Will Transition to Full-Time Role as Team President first appeared on Mediaite.

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley got torn apart by critics for her refusal to cite slavery as a cause of the Civil War.

The former governor of South Carolina was asked at a town hall in New Hampshire on Wednesday night what she thought was the cause of the Civil War in the United States.

“Well, don’t come with an easy question,” Haley joked before saying, “I think the cause of the Civil War was basically how government was going to run, the freedoms and what people could and couldn’t do. What do you think the cause of the Civil War was?”

“I’m not running for president,” the man said, which led Haley to suggest the role of government was the primary catalyst behind the war.

“In the year 2023 it’s astonishing to me that you would answer that question without mentioning the word ‘slavery,’” the man eventually told Haley. To this, she retorted “What do you want me to say about slavery?”

“You’ve answered my question, thank you,” the man said, and Haley moved on.

Her comments subsequently went viral online over her refusal to acknowledge the reality, which most historians agree upon, that slavery was at the root of the political, social and economic factors that sparked the Civil War.

Haley was slammed by liberals and conservatives, from rival Republican campaigns to President Joe Biden and DNC Chairman Jaime Harrison, who called out Haley’s history of waffling on the Confederate flag.

It was about slavery. https://t.co/q9bTDvtPne

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) December 28, 2023

Not stunning if you were a Black resident in SC when she was Governor. Same person who said the confederate flag was about tradition & heritage and as a minority woman she was the right person to defend keeping it on state house grounds.

Some may have forgotten but I haven’t.… https://t.co/D0pFqngaeO

— Jaime Harrison (@harrisonjaime) December 28, 2023

They were hardly alone in their criticism, however:

Nikki Haley’s answer here is bizarre and wrong. I hope she will clarify her remarks. It’s too important – and too easy of a question to get wrong.

I support Haley and would like to hear her correct herself. Leaders admit when they’re wrong. https://t.co/VjHyx2sIiv

— Alyssa Farah Griffin (@Alyssafarah) December 28, 2023

This is such a bad answer. It’s such a pathetic answer. It’s such a cowardly answer. She’s afraid of telling her own base the truth. https://t.co/3q4rjayQRy

— Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) December 28, 2023

Yes, I think Nikki Haley embarrassingly answered the question about the root cause of the Civil War.

It’s also something to see the same people who wring their hands over Confederate statue/symbolism removal be all, “Why couldn’t she just say it? Too afraid to condemn it?!”

— Kimberly Ross (@SouthernKeeks) December 28, 2023

What’s notable about this is not what Haley may or may not really believe (if there’s even any such thing), but what her political instincts tell her: even acknowledging the reality of slavery will get her tagged as “woke.” https://t.co/oHLWtEqMqn

— David Roberts (@drvolts) December 28, 2023

This same person once took down the confederate flag when she was Governor of South Carolina. It says a lot about the condition of the Republican Party that she thinks mentioning slavery would be a political liability. https://t.co/hAsoJPPSZS

— Sarah Longwell (@SarahLongwell25) December 28, 2023

Yikes.

Local New Hampshire stations are already covering Nikki Haley’s disastrous town hall tonight where she declined to mention ‘slavery’ when asked “What was the cause of the Civil War?” pic.twitter.com/OxtXjrBrub

— DeSantis War Room (@DeSantisWarRoom) December 28, 2023

This is such a bad answer. It’s such a pathetic answer. It’s such a cowardly answer. She’s afraid of telling her own base the truth. https://t.co/3q4rjayQRy

— Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) December 28, 2023

She’s long forgotten the party of Lincoln. Another classic Nikki Haley move desperately pandering for that VP slot on the Trump ticket. https://t.co/wDRxa6hDLd

— Olivia of Troye (@OliviaTroye) December 28, 2023

And the “freedom” in this case was the freedom to own people. https://t.co/jMIQqQ85x1

— Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) December 28, 2023

——

The post ‘Pathetic’: Nikki Haley Slammed For ‘Bizarre and Wrong’ Answer to Question of Why the Civil War Started first appeared on Mediaite.

In a POLITICO interview, Volodymyr Havrylov also calls on Beijing to refrain from sending military supplies to Moscow.

Fox News host Tucker Carlson fired off a rant about expelled-then-reinstated Tennessee State Rep. Justin Pearson that was so racist, his critics declared it “Shockingly racist even for Tucker Carlson” — a mighty big claim.

Rep. Pearson is the Black lawmaker whom the Tennessee House voted to expel along with Rep. Justin Jones and Justin Pearson over a protest calling for gun reform in the wake of the shooting at Nashville’s Covenant School that killed six people. They spared Gloria Johnson, a 60-year-old white woman who participated in the protest. That disparity has been flagged by the Tennessee Three and others as a racist double standard.

On Wednesday, Pearson was reinstated to the legislature, days after Jones, too, was reinstated.

Also Wednesday, conservatives continued a collective freakout over the fact that Jones used to not have an afro, and now he has an afro, and he was less militant seven years ago in a student council campaign video than he is now.

On Wednesday night’s edition of the Fox News program Tucker Carlson Tonight, Carlson picked up that theme and ran with it in an opening monologue that, like I said, critics claimed was shockingly racist even for him.

Media Matters researcher Kat Abu flagged part of the rant in a tweet, writing, “Tucker’s starting tonight’s show with a wildly racist rant about @Justinjpearson” and adding the clip.

Disability advocate and Young Turks contributor Rayy Vana wrote, “This is shockingly racist, even for Tucker Carlson.”

This is shockingly racist, even for Tucker Carlson https://t.co/WDGZSZ0R1E

— Rayyvana (@RayyvanaTTV) April 13, 2023

Award-winning journalist Roland Martin wrote “White nationalist @TuckerCarlson showing his racist ways in trashing @Justinjpearson.”

White nationalist @TuckerCarlson showing his racist ways in trashing @Justinjpearson. “Tucker Carlson Says Black Lawmaker ‘Probably’ Got Into Bowdoin Because He’s Not White” https://t.co/W4dMHDmvLt

— rolandsmartin (@rolandsmartin) April 13, 2023

Anti-Trump Republican Tim Miller observed, “Some real investigative journalism on the Tucker Carlson show tonight. A man who used to wear a bow tie on TV as part of his schtick is observing that Justin Pearson sounded different, looked younger, and had a different hair cut when he was in college.”

Mediaite’s Michael Luciano noted the suggestion that Carlson made about Pearson’s race and his admission to an elite university and noted this isn’t new for Carlson:

It’s not the first time Carlson has suggested a prominent Black figure has gotten ahead because of their skin color. Last year he demanded to see Ketanji Brown Jackson’s LSAT scores after she was nominated to the Supreme Court – a demand he has made of no White nominee to the high court.

Racist though it was, though, was it really “This is shockingly racist, even for Tucker Carlson?”

As liberal pundit Keith Olberman observed in a tweet, that’s a pretty high bar:

How is this news

Tucker is wildly racist

His viewers are wildly racist

His channel is wildly racist https://t.co/X0qS8k0Stg

— Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) April 13, 2023

HOWEVER!

I give Carlson extra bigotry points for opening his rant with a casually hateful shot at trans people, comparing Rachel Dolezal’s infamous racial identification fraud with gender transition, then lumping his contrast of Pearson into that category.

And while people are keying in on the crack about Pearson’s skin color getting him into school — which was definitely racist, don’t get me wrong — there are more explicitly racist aspects to the rant that put it over the top.

Carlson’s rant about Pearson begins:

These are the trailblazers, the pathfinders, the Daniel Boones of progressive identity politics. One of them is a man called Justin Pearson. Pearson has been in the news recently for helping to facilitate an insurrection at the Tennessee State House. You may have seen him, But you may not know what Justin Pearson was like before his transition.

Back in 2016, Justin Pearson was an earnest young student at Boden, the whitest college in the whitest state in America, a place that costs 60 grand a year for no obvious reason, a rich kid school. Here’s what Justin Pearson looked like then as he ran for president of student government.

He then played a clip from Pearson’s campaign video, which went viral on the right and likely inspired Carlson’s screed. He continued:

“I want to bring everyone together,” said Justin Pearson, in a voice that if you close your eyes, you could easily imagine coming from a suburban orthodontist. Justin Pearson wasn’t White. That’s probably how we got into Bowdoin in the first place, but he did a fantastic impression of it. “What a nice young man. Has he considered the apprenticeship program at Citibank?”

That was the old Justin Pearson before his transition. Here he is now on the floor of the Tennessee Statehouse.

Pause for a second. This is Carlson explicitly equating attributes like formal speech and being “a nice young man” with Whiteness. It’s the kind of slip-up that Carlson is usually careful enough to avoid with some other sort of coded fig leaf, like “suburban orthodontist.”

After a clip of Rep. Pearson sporting an afro and speaking on the floor of the Tennessee House, which also went viral, Carlson again accuses young Pearson of being a “crypto-White kid” — explicitly racializing the contrast he’s drawing:

Justin Pearson has a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, everyone will do exactly what he wants or else face indictment by the Department of Justice. Justin Pearson has changed quite dramatically, as you can see. He transitioned from a crypto White kid into the modern incarnation of Martin Luther King, Jr. himself. It’s remarkable, really, but he’s not alone in that. You see this all the time. Everybody in the Democratic Party wants to be Martin Luther King at this point. Even Joe Biden, who during the famous march on Washington, was enjoying the many benefits of life as a college student in a racially segregated state. Now he’s MLK. They all are.

It actually gets worse, as he goes on to implicitly trash Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. by contrasting him with Malcolm X in extremely derogatory and loaded terms, saying “Malcolm X didn’t talk like a sharecropper. He spoke dignified, standard English. He wasn’t running a shakedown racket to fleece guilty White liberals.”

But it’s Carlson’s explicit quiet-part-loud slipup that does it for me. I have to agree. It’s shockingly racist, even for Tucker Carlson.

Watch above via Tucker Carlson Tonight.

The post ‘Shockingly Racist Even For Tucker Carlson’: Critics TORCH Fox News Host’s Rant About Expelled Black TN Rep. Justin Pearson first appeared on Mediaite.

If you’re sick of Elon Musk’s leadership of Twitter, here’s your chance. The “Chief Twit” is conducting a poll asking if he should step down, and he’s promised to abide by the results.

Musk faced loud backlash after Twitter announced a new policy on Sunday restricting the promotion of other competing social media platforms. In addition to the usual waves of mockery and accusations of hypocrisy that follow pretty much any move he makes, users pointed out potential legal violations of the new policy and its retroactive application to some accounts.

Shortly before he posted the poll, he was replying to other users’ complaints and suggestions. In response to one user who objected to Linktree and Instagram being restricted because they were intending to promote their business, not compete with Twitter, Musk replied “that seems reasonable.”

He then added that the policy would be “adjusted to suspending accounts only when that account’s *primary* purpose is promotion of competitors, which essentially falls under the no spam rule.”

“Twitter rules are now Calvinball,” tweeted Wired’s Alejandra Caraballo in response, referring to the game played by Bill Watterson’s beloved cartoon character Calvin, in which the rules are made up as he goes along.

Musk publicly announced the new policy approach. “Going forward, there will be a vote for major policy changes. My apologies. Won’t happen again.”

He then posted a poll, asking, “Should I step down as head of Twitter?”

“I will abide by the results of this poll,” he promised.

At the time of publication, over 5 million people had voted in the poll so far, with about 58% choosing “Yes” and 42% choosing “No.”

Musk then added with a warning. “As the saying goes, be careful what you wish, as you might get it,” he tweeted.

UPDATE 8:10 pm ET: In some additional tweets, Musk posted that he did not have a successor lined up and discussed several of the challenges the role presents.

—

The post Elon Musk Vows to Have Vote for ‘Major Policy Changes’ After Backlash — Then Posts Poll Asking If He Should Step Down first appeared on Mediaite.

It’s not Hunter Biden’s scalp they want. Rather, the House GOP caucus is poised to launch a two-year crusade to tarnish President Joe Biden’s character—and lower his poll numbers—just like they did with Hillary Clinton and the Benghazi hearings prior to her 2016 candidacy.

But things are different this time around—Democrats aren’t going to assume that voters can see through the partisan bluster, and are mounting a war room operation outside the White House. The Congressional Integrity Project (a pointed moniker, to be sure) will try to fend off the Republican barrage, and go on the offensive in the information war.

The existence of the newly revamped group, first reported by Politico, is an effort to mount a 21st-century war room with a response team that can “expose the political intentions behind the investigations targeting the White House,” says Leslie Dach, a senior adviser to the CIP, who is working with founder Kyle Herrig and longtime political activist Brad Woodhouse. All three have deep Democratic Party ties.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Former President Donald Trump has demanded Americans foot the bill for his “expenses” in a new filing that seeks to invalidate the January 6 Committee subpoena.

The January 6 Committee held its purported final hearing several weeks ago, which featured never-before-seen evidence and testimony, new footage of the attack from inside and outside the Capitol, and climaxed with a dramatic vote to subpoena Trump.

Trump is scheduled to be deposed by the committee on Monday after an attempt to delay his testimony. But in a last-minute filing Friday night, Trump’s lawyers threw everything including the kitchen sink at the order to testify:

Former President Donald J. Trump filed suit on Friday against the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, seeking to block the panel’s subpoena that required him to testify and hand over documents related to the effort to overturn the 2020 election.

The 41-page lawsuit, filed in federal court in Florida, comes just days before Mr. Trump was scheduled to appear before the panel for a deposition on Monday. The panel had been in discussions with Mr. Trump’s lawyers and had given them additional time to begin producing documents.

The suit seeks to declare the subpoena invalid for a variety of reasons, including that it is overly broad and unnecessary. Mr. Trump’s lawyers say the subpoena lacks a legislative purpose and infringes upon executive privilege and his First Amendment rights.

Toward the end of the suit is the fun detail that Trump and his lawyers want taxpayers to foot the bill for any subpoena-related costs. The suit demands “An award in favor of President Trump for his reasonable expenses, including attorney’s fees and costs incurred as a result of the Subpoena.”

As the New York Times notes, the delay this suit will likely cause could run out the clock for Trump if Republicans succeed in taking the majority in the House of Representatives and disband the committee, as they have promised to do.

The post NEW DEMAND: Trump Wants Americans To Pay His ‘Expenses’ Including Legal Fees in Suit Blocking Jan. 6 Committee Subpoena first appeared on Mediaite.

According to an FBI affidavit, the man accused of breaking into the San Francisco home of Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her husband Paul Pelosi confessed his actions were politically motivated.

Only Paul Pelosi, 82, was home when the break-in occurred just after 2:30 a.m. on Friday. During the incident, 42-year-old David DePape struck him with a hammer and fractured his skull, according to the criminal complaint. DePape has been charged in federal court with assault and attempted kidnapping. Meanwhile, Pelosi remains hospitalized after undergoing surgery.

Right-wing media has run wild with conspiracy theories based on initial reporting that turned out to be false. According to one early account, DePape was supposedly in his underwear during the attack. That is not true. Some outlets also reported that Pelosi knew his attacker. That the Speaker was not home at the time fueled rumors that the incident was prompted by some type of lovers’ quarrel while she was away.

One article to this effect published by the notorious unreliable Santa Monica Observer was even tweeted by new Twitter owner Elon Musk, who has since deleted the tweet.

DePape’s confession debunks this rumor, per the affidavit in the complaint:

DEPAPE stated that he was going to hold Nancy hostage and talk to her. If Nancy were to tell DEPAPE the “truth,” he would let her go, and if she “lied,” he was going to break “her kneecaps.” DEPAPE was certain that Nancy would not have told the “truth.” In the course of the interview, DEPAPE articulated he viewed Nancy as the “leader of the pack” of lies told by the Democratic Party. DEPAPE also later explained that by breaking Nancy’s kneecaps, she would then have to be wheeled into Congress, which would show other Members of Congress there were consequences to actions. DEPAPE also explained generally that he wanted to use Nancy to lure another individual to DEPAPE.

DePape explained he broke into the house through a glass door using a hammer. After he encountered Paul Pelosi, the Speaker’s husband managed to call police. When they arrived, both men were holding on to a hammer.

The affidavit added, “DEPAPE stated that he pulled the hammer away from Pelosi and swung the hammer towards Pelosi. DEPAPE explained that Pelosi’s actions resulted in Pelosi ‘taking the punishment instead.'”

Pelosi told authorities he does not know DePape.

The post READ: Paul Pelosi Suspect’s Confession Debunks Conspiracy Theories About Attack first appeared on Mediaite.

School board members are some of the most selfless public servants in Alabama. This accolade goes to the Alabama State Board of Education, and more specifically local school board members. These members are tasked with a very important mission but receive very little compensation for their time and efforts. They are indeed public servants.

The Alabama State Board of Education is a nine member body that sets public education policy for K-12 schools. The governor is an ex-officio member of the board and the remaining eight members are elected to four-year terms from single member districts of approximately equal population. There is no limit tothe number of terms a school board member may serve. The seats are partisan driven. Currently, our state school board hassix Republican members and two Democratic members.

Given the fact that members are elected, rather than appointed, it is somewhat surprising that our current eight members are so well-qualified and suited to be state school board members.

Dr. Wayne Reynolds, who represents District 8, best exemplifies this statement. He has a doctorate in education and has spent over four decades as an education administrator. He is retired and brings his experience and wisdom to the table. In his early years, Wayne was a decorated Vietnam War Veteran. He and his wife Carol reside in the Limestone/Madison area. Wayne is a Republican and was re-elected to his second four-year term earlier this year.

Marie Manning has just been elected to District 6, which is a Republican district. She will begin her first term in January. Prior to her recent election to the state school board, Marie served as Vice President of the St. Clair County Board of Education. During her stellar career in education, Marie was as a classroom teacher, vice-principal, principal and superintendent.

Dr. Yvette Richardson represents District 4 and is a resident of Montgomery. Yvette is a Democrat and was re-elected to another four-year term in the Democratic Primary.  She has a doctorate degree from the University of Alabama and has had a distinguished career in education.

Tracie West is a Republican member of the board from District 2. She was re-elected to a second four-year term in the Republican Primary. She hails from Auburn and, as would be expected from this area, is well-qualified and versed in education knowledge and policy. Prior to being elected to the state school board, Tracie served as a member of the Auburn City Schools Board of Education, including serving as president of that board.

There are four members up for re-election in 2024, Jackie Ziegler, Stephanie Bell, Tonya Chestnut, and Belinda McRae, provided all four decide to seek another term.

Jackie Ziegler of Mobile is a Republican board member and represents District 1. She was first elected in 2016, and is an experienced and successful educator. She is a graduate of the University of South Alabama. She was a classroom teacher, then longtime principal in the Mobile County School System. She is married to State Auditor Jim Ziegler.

Stephanie Bell, who represents District 3, is by far the most veteran member of the board having first been elected in 1994 and re-elected to eight consecutive terms. At the end of her current term, she will have served over 30 years. She is a stellar member, an asset to the board, and hopefully will run again.  Stephanie is a lifelong resident of Montgomery as is her husband.  ​

Dr. Tonya Chestnut, a native of Selma, is a Democrat and represents District 5. She has a doctorate in education and is the former Dean of Alabama State University College of Visual and Performing Arts.

Belinda McRae of Hamilton is the Republican board member for District 7. She is in her first term. Belinda taught English and art for 25 years in the Marion County School System and served on the Marion County Board of Education before being elected to the State School Board.

Choosing the State Superintendent is probably the most important task of the Alabama State School Board and the Board made an excellent choice when they selected Dr. Eric Mackey asAlabama State Superintendent of Education.  Dr. Mackey is a former school superintendent and former Executive Director of the State School Superintendents Association.

Most of our former governors did not take their ex-officio roleas seriously as Governor Kay Ivey. Governor Ivey has been a very active and dutiful member of the Alabama State School Board.  

In closing, allow me to not only give accolades to the state school board, but also a tip of the hat to all local school board members.

See you next week.

Authorities in southeast Alabama killed two rabid wild foxes after the animals made several “aggressive attack attempts” on officers and residents.

The foxes were spotted in Ozark by police officers from the city who responded to a call of the animals running loose, Police Chief Charles Ward told WDHN.

Alexander Lofgren, a caseworker in the office of Arizona Congressman Raúl Grijalva and a former U.S. Army combat engineer, was found dead after going missing with his girlfriend on a camping trip in Death Valley.

Authorities began searching for Lofgren and his girlfriend, Emily Henkel, on Tuesday after the two, described as experienced campers who often traverse remote areas, did not return from their trek Sunday as expected.

The Inyo County Sheriff’s Office confirmed Friday that authorities had been able to locate Lofgren and Henkel the day before using aerial reconnaissance. They were in a “very remote area of Death Valley National Park” perched on a steep ledge.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

Victoria Justice is making the leap from child actor to mature artist—and with her new starring role in Brian DeCubellis’ new art world drama Trust, she’ll leave you wondering why you hadn’t thought of her that way before.

A deliberate departure from her roles as a child actor on Nickelodeon series Victorious and Zoey 101, Trust stars Justice as Brooke, a married art gallery owner living in New York City with her newscaster husband Owen (Matthew Daddario). Though the union looks blissful on the outside, temptation arises when Brooke signs a new artist (Lucien Laviscount), while Owen is equally distracted by a graduate student named Amy (Katherine McNamara).

Justice, now 28 years old, plays a married woman for the first time. It's part of why she views the role as a progression from her days on Nickelodeon sets. “More adult subject matters are going to be what I’m interested in at this point,” she tells The Daily Beast. “That’s what I loved about this movie. It’s sexy, it’s this romantic drama thrill ride, and I love that it explores themes of temptation and infidelity. These are really interesting concepts to me.”

Read more at The Daily Beast.