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2 hours ago
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Oklahoma's Trump-Loving, Bible-Thumping Superintendent Faces Porn Probe
An investigation is underway in Oklahoma after a television screen in the MAGA state school superintendent's office reportedly showed a video of nude women during an executive session of the State Board of Education on Thursday. The images reportedly appeared on a screen in the office of Ryan Walters, Oklahoma's far-right Superintendent of Public Instruction. Walters previously told schools to teach the Bible and Ten Commandments, demanded students watch him pray for Donald Trump, and named transphobe Chaya Raichik to a state education committee. He also tried to use state money to purchase bibles for classrooms that matched the specifics of those marketed by the president and his family. As you might expect, Walters has led a crusade against 'pornography' in school libraries. Two members of the Oklahoma board of education said they were shocked at what they saw on the screen on Thursday. 'I was like, 'Those are naked women,'' board member Becky Carson told The Oklahoman. 'And then I was like, 'No, wait a minute. Those aren't naked, surely those aren't naked women. Something is playing a trick on my eye. Maybe they just have on tan body suits. … This is just really bizarre.'' 'I saw them just walking across the screen, and I'm like, 'no.' I'm sorry I even have to use this language, but I'm like, 'Those are her nipples.' And then I'm like, 'That's pubic hair.' What in the world am I watching? I didn't watch a second longer.' Carson told Walters to turn the video off. 'I was so disturbed by it, that I was like — very loudly and boastfully, like I was a parent or a teacher — I said, 'What is on your TV? What am I watching?' He was like, 'What? What are you talking about?' He stood up and saw it. He made acknowledgment that he saw it,' Carson said, according to NonDoc Media, an Oklahoma news website. 'And I said, 'Turn it off. Now.' And he was like, 'What is this? What is this?' So he acknowledged it was inappropriate just by those words. And he was like, 'I can't get it to turn off. I can't figure out how to turn it off.' And I said, 'Get it turned off.' So he finally got it turned off, and that was the end of it. He didn't address it. He didn't apologize. Nothing was said.' Carson and board member Ryan Deatherage said the video looked 'retro' and did not involve sexual intercourse. 'I don't know if he turned it off or switched the channel, I don't remember,' Deatherage told NonDoc. 'I was surprised that when he came back to the table, he was not apologetic. I didn't ever hear an apology for that being on, and he didn't seem to be fazed that it was on.' Republican state Senate President Pro Tempore Lonnie Paxton told Oklahoma Voice that the Office of Management and Enterprise Services is carrying out an investigation into the incident. 'This is a bizarre and troubling situation that raises serious questions about the events and what took place during yesterday's executive session at the Oklahoma State Board of Education meeting,' Paxton said in a statement. 'The accounts made public by board members paint a strange, unsettling scene that demands clarity and transparency.' Walters said the claims were a distraction. 'Some of these board members are blatantly dishonest and cannot hide their political agenda,' Walters told KOKH Fox 25. 'It is disappointing that they are more interested in creating distractions than getting work done for Oklahoma families.' Walters' communications director, Quinton Hitchcock, called the story a 'junk tabloid lie,' according to NonDoc. 'Regardless of if recent allegations are true, Oklahomans are in dire need of new leadership at the Oklahoma State Department of Education,' Oklahoma House Democratic Leader Cyndi Munson told KOKH Fox 25. 'These are serious allegations made by two members of the State Board and an expeditious third-party review is warranted,' Republican House Speaker Kyle Hilbert said in a statement. 'I urge the State Superintendent to unlock and turn over all relevant devices and fully cooperate with an investigation.' 'If no wrongdoing occurred, a prompt and transparent review should quickly clear his name,' he added. Last year, the Oklahoma State Department of Education's Library Media Advisory Committee — which includes Raichik, who runs the anti-trans Libs of TikTok social media account — attempted to ban The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini and The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls from Edmond high school libraries. The committee argued that the books are 'pornographic.' 'Edmond Public Schools not only allows kids to access porn in schools, they are doubling down to keep pornography on the bookshelves,' Walters said in a statement. 'Parents and kids should have the confidence of going to schools to learn. Instead of focusing on education, EPS has chosen to peddle porn and is leading the charge to undermine parents in Oklahoma.' The case went to the Oklahoma Supreme Court, which sided with Edmond Public Schools and allowed the books to remain on library shelves. The list goes on. In 2023, Walters reportedly emailed some Oklahoma lawmakers pornographic images, claiming they were available in schools. 'Don't just send me a bunch of graphic, sexually explicit photos without where it came from, or what did they do? That's kind of the problem I got with it,' state Rep. Mark McBride (R) told the local Fox outlet. More from Rolling Stone GOP Sen. Refuses to Admit Bush, Not Obama, Was President During Epstein's Plea Deal Trump Is Trying to Hide the Cost of Renovating His New Air Force One Supreme Court Lets Trump Enact His Authoritarian Agenda on Its 'Shadow Docket' Best of Rolling Stone The Useful Idiots New Guide to the Most Stoned Moments of the 2020 Presidential Campaign Anatomy of a Fake News Scandal The Radical Crusade of Mike Pence Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
GOP Sen. Refuses to Admit Bush, Not Obama, Was President During Epstein's Plea Deal
Sen. Markwayne Mullin tried to blame former President Barack Obama for Jeffrey Epstein's 2008 plea deal, despite Obama not being president at the time. Mullin made the comments while being interviewed by Jake Tapper on CNN's State of the Union on Sunday. First, Tapper and Mullin debated over whether the attorney general has the ability to release documents related to the Epstein investigation, with Mullin insisting that only judges have the ability to make that information public and Tapper arguing that there is additional information that Attorney General Pam Bondi could — and has promised to — release, yet she has not done so. Then Mullin made a bizarre claim that Epstein struck a deal in Florida in 2009, under President Obama. But that is factually incorrect, as Tapper pointed out. 'Remember there was a plea deal that was struck in 2009, way before I was in office, way before Trump was even considering it to be in office, way before Pam Bondi was office, way before Kash Patel was director,' Mullin said. '2009, there was a sweetheart plea deal that was made underneath the Obama administration with Epstein, and that sweetheart has not been exposed.' 'No, that's not right,' Tapper said. 'It's not? Well, when was the case heard?' Mullin asked. 'It was 2008… The U.S. attorney at the time was a guy named Alex Acosta,' Tapper said. 'He was a Bush appointee. He went on to become President Trump's secretary of labor. It all took place in 2008.' 'Who was in office at the time?' Mullin asked. '2008, George W. Bush,' Tapper said, reciting a well-known fact. But Mullin continued to insist on incorrect information. 'No, 2009 is when the case came out, and it was — and Obama was in office at the time,' Mullin said. 'It's not true. It's not true,' Tapper said. Mullin doubled down later in the interview. 'I will go back to what you're saying about it wasn't true,' Mullin said. 'The case was sealed in 2009. That's absolutely true. It was heard in 2008. It was sealed in 2009.' Tapper is correct, and Mullin is wrong. An executive summary report of the Epstein case by the Justice Department states that in the summer of 2008, then-U.S. Attorney Alex Acosta negotiated a non-prosecution agreement with Epstein in which the billionaire pleaded guilty to state charges in Florida for soliciting and procuring a minor for prostitution. Because of the deal, instead of serving a possible life sentence, he was sentenced to 18 months in a work-release program followed by 12 months of house arrest. Epstein was then allowed to leave the minimum-security facility for 12 hours a day to work at a foundation he had incorporated. Epstein was released after serving less than 13 months. He was also mandated to register as a sex offender and make payments to his victims. According to the Justice Department, Epstein began serving his sentence in Oct. 2008, and a judge unsealed the non-prosecution agreement in Sept. 2009. A lead prosecutor in the investigation, Marie Villafana, said in 2020 that Epstein's sweetheart deal was an 'injustice.' 'That injustice, I believe, was the result of deep, implicit institutional biases that prevented me and the FBI agents who worked diligently on this case from holding Mr. Epstein accountable for his crimes,' Villafana said. More from Rolling Stone Trump Is Trying to Hide the Cost of Renovating His New Air Force One Supreme Court Lets Trump Enact His Authoritarian Agenda on Its 'Shadow Docket' Trump's Senior Moments Are Getting Worse Best of Rolling Stone The Useful Idiots New Guide to the Most Stoned Moments of the 2020 Presidential Campaign Anatomy of a Fake News Scandal The Radical Crusade of Mike Pence
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Homeowners worried after several late-night arson attacks
An appeal has been launched after several arson incidents took place on one road. Pipers Close, in Haverhill, has been a target for four arson incidents in four weeks. Homeowners are concerned and police are looking for those responsible. In the first incident, a wheelie bin and 15ft of fencing were set on fire just before midnight on June 21. READ MORE: Number of Ipswich Town fans arrested last season revealed In the second incident on July 12 at 2.04am, a stationary, unattended trailer parked in a parking area was set alight. The third incident saw a wheelie bin set alight close to a home on July 14 at 12.10am. The final incident involved a garden gate and fence set on fire sometime between 3.15am and 3.28am on July 23. Suffolk police confirmed "numerous" inquiries had been made and evidence has been found, but no suspect/s identified.
