[FoxNews] Northampton DA says families want cases used to deter other youth from dangerous social media challenges
Two Pennsylvania teens are facing charges after prosecutors said they drove their friends on dangerous TikTok-inspired stunts, killing one and causing what are expected to be lifelong injuries to another.
While the district attorney’s office called out TikTok and Instagram by name, similar videos have appeared on other apps and social media sites as well.
A TikTok spokesperson said videos involving table and car surfing violate the company’s community guidelines and that 99.8% of them are removed proactively, and 92.4% of videos removed for violating the app’s rules are taken down before anyone views them.
The incidents were unrelated to one another and involved different stunts, but both happened in Northampton County, 85 miles west of New York City and 80 miles north of Philadelphia.
In one case, a 17-year-old died on June 1 while riding on top of a folding table tied to the back of his friend's car, according to Northampton County District Attorney Stephen Baratta. Prosecutors said the friend recklessly drove too fast and "whipped the rider sitting on the table into another parked vehicle, resulting in [his] death," Baratta's office said in a statement.
The victim in that case was identified as David Nagy, 17, FOX 29 Philadelphia reported.
In the other case, a 19-year-old woman allegedly drove through a parking lot with her 20-year-old friend "surfing" on her trunk on March 18. The woman on the trunk fell off and suffered "catastrophic head injuries that will be permanent in nature," Baratta's office said.
Baratta added that neither driver has a criminal record and neither victim's family is "calling out for incarceration." As a result, he said his office won't seek jail time for either of them if they agree to plea deals.
[FoxNews] The ADX 'supermax' prison houses some of the nation's most violent and dangerous criminals and terrorists
Eight federal inmates — once on death row for murders, including the killings of fellow prisoners, gang-related stabbings, and the slayings of two campers — have been transferred to a notorious "supermax" prison in Colorado, the Justice Department told Fox News Digital. The news comes as U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi looks to crack down on the previous administration's sweeping clemency actions.
The eight former death row inmates were transferred Tuesday to the U.S. Penitentiary Administrative Maximum Facility in Florence, Colorado, also known as "ADX," Justice Department officials confirmed.
They were among the 37 death row inmates whose sentences Biden commuted in late December — prompting criticism and complaints that the record clemency and commutation actions were done as a political "Hail Mary," and without proper vetting.
More of the death row inmates are expected to be moved to ADX, some within weeks, according to one individual familiar with the matter.
The 37 death row inmates commuted by Biden are all expected to be moved to the facility by "early next year," the Justice Department source told Fox News Digital.
The effort comes as Bondi and the Trump administration have sought to reverse some of the Biden administration's efforts on criminal justice reform for certain criminals, and instead moved to prioritize violent crime and cracking down on the nation's worst offenders.
Though a commutation cannot be fully reversed, Justice Department officials told Fox News Digital, Bondi has prioritized ways to penalize these individuals, in coordination with directives from Trump, and to ensure that the "conditions of confinement" are "consistent with the security risks those inmates present because of their egregious crimes, criminal histories, and all other relevant considerations," according to an earlier DOJ memo.
The eight inmates sent to ADX this week were each convicted of first-degree murder within federal jurisdiction.
Many had been convicted of crimes that were especially heinous or violent. One individual was convicted of murdering a married couple who was camping at a campsite in the Ouachita National Forest in July 2003.
Another was convicted of kidnapping, robbing, and murdering a 51-year-old local bank president by tying him to a concrete block and chain hoist, and tossing him off of a bridge and into a lake.
Many had also killed prisoners while serving time — a factor that can be used in weighing whether to transfer a convicted felon to a higher-security prison.
#2
....Oh, this is too, too sweet. ADX is about as close to Purgatory as the Federal Government has been able to come - if those lads who got their sentences commuted thought they were going back to gen pop, they shall be terribly, terribly disappointed.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] A huge wall of water smashed through a hotel reception as Super Typhoon Ragasa continues to lash Hong Kong, mainland China and Taiwan.
In footage shared on Facebook, an enormous surge of water dramatically demolished the glass doors of the Fullerton Ocean Park Hotel in Aberdeen, Hong Kong, immediately flooding the lobby.
People can be heard screaming, swearing, and clinging onto furniture in a desperate attempt to not be swept away by the water, which completely destroyed the hotel's interior.
Others can be seen falling over and being dragged away by the water's strong current.
The super typhoon, dubbed the 'King of Storms', is the world's most powerful tropical cyclone this year and is on course to make landfall in China today.
The death toll in Taiwan has risen to 15, and 124 are still missing, after Typhoon Ragasa caused a barrier lake to burst its banks, unleashing ferocious floodwaters in the eastern Hualien county.
Nearly two million people were last night evacuated from their homes in Guangdong province as the storm barrels closer towards China's most populous province where around 127 million people live.
Authorities in about a dozen Chinese cities have closed schools, businesses and transportation services today with the storm scheduled to hit between the cities Yangjiang and Zhanjiang tonight.
"Wow those tariffs are really killing us!"
[BEA]
Q2 2025 (3rd)
+3.8%
Q1 2025
-0.6%
Real gross domestic product (GDP) increased at an annual rate of 3.8 percent in the second quarter of 2025 (April, May, and June), according to the third estimate released by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the first quarter, real GDP decreased 0.6 percent (revised). The increase in real GDP in the second quarter primarily reflected a decrease in imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, and an increase in consumer spending. These movements were partly offset by decreases in investment and exports.
[USA Today] Starbucks will close 1% of its locations in the U.S. and North America and cut about 900 jobs as part of its Back to Starbucks transformation strategy, CEO Brian Niccol told employees Thursday, Sept. 25.
The specialty coffee chain will close specific locations "where we’re unable to create the physical environment our customers and partners expect, or where we don’t see a path to financial performance," Niccol said in a memo sent to employees and posted on the Starbucks blog.
Employees at those locations will be notifed this week and will be eligible for transfer to nearby locations, he said. The reduction in 900 "current non-retail partner roles" is part of the company's goal to "build toward a better Starbucks," Niccol said.
[NYPost] The Ivanpah Solar Power Facility in California’s Mojave Desert, which features three 459-foot towers and thousands of computer-controlled mirrors known as heliostats, cost some $2.2 billion to build. Construction began in 2010 and was completed in 2014. Now it’s set to close in 2026 after failing to efficiently generate solar energy.
In 2011, the US Department of Energy under President Barack Obama issued $1.6 billion in three federal loan guarantees for the project and the secretary of energy, Ernest Moniz, hailed it as “an example of how America is becoming a world leader in solar energy.”
But ultimately, it’s been more emblematic of profligate government spending and unwise bets on poorly conceived, quickly outdated technologies.
“Ivanpah stands as a testament to the waste and inefficiency of government subsidized energy schemes,”Jason Isaac, CEO of the American Energy Institute, an American energy advocacy group, told Fox News via statement this past February. It “never lived up to its promises, producing less electricity than expected, while relying on natural gas to stay operational.”
When Ivanpah began operating in 2014, it ranked as the world’s largest solar plant. It seemed like a viable solution to California’s renewable energy goals of employing affordable and efficient technology to reduce the need for fossil fuels.
Located near the California-Nevada border, 65 miles southwest of Las Vegas, the plant’s 5 square miles of desert were covered with some 173,500 heliostats, adjusted via computer to catch maximum rays. The computer-controlled mirrors can reflect light from the sun at temperatures that can reach 1,000 degrees in part of the installment.
“The idea was that you could use the sun to produce a heat source,” alternative energy consultant Edward Smeloff told The Post. “The mirrors reflect heat from the sun up to a receiver, which is mounted on top of the tower. That heats a fluid. It creates steam [that spins] a conventional steam turbine. It is complicated.”
Ivanpah was a cutting-edge idea for a while. But, as the market changed, it couldn’t compete with newer and less expensive forms of creating solar power.
“It simply did not scale up,” said Smeloff. “It’s kind of an obsolete technology [that’s] been outpaced by solar photovoltaic technology.” That tech uses semiconductor material to transform sunlight into energy in a streamlined process. The solar panels you see on many residential rooftops or in endless rows across the desert rely on the technology.
A statement from NRG Energy, the Texas-based company that was an Ivanpah partner and the largest investor, having put up $300 million, agrees with Smeloff’s view.
“When the power purchase agreements were signed in 2009, the prices were competitive, but advancements over time … have led to more efficient, cost-effective and flexible options for producing reliable clean energy,” a company statement read.
Steven Milloy, senior fellow at the Energy & Environmental Legal Institute and former Trump EPA transition team member, agrees.
“No green project relying on taxpayer subsidies has ever made any economic or environmental sense,” he said. “It’s important that President Trump stop the taxpayer bleeding by ending what he accurately calls the Green New Scam.”
#2
If circa 2010 solar isn’t viable in the sun-baked Mojave, it’s not likely to be viable elsewhere. It’s old tech, but we can’t afford an $1.5B upgrade every 15 years for marginally better output out of a facility that is irrelevant to base load.
Most of these initiatives were entirely scams or at least deeply flawed. Giving the Green Energy lobby a mulligan is rewarding them for ripping us off the first time. Entertaining new project proposals for improved fairy dust is codependent crap. Nukes yes. Windmills no.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
09/25/2025 7:01 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Sold on the Environmentally Safer than ______ Hype.
The DC Swamp and Elite were made $100's of Millions richer, using this Solar lie. In fact, certain Political candidates re-election funds saw BIG $$$$$$ donations. (see opensecrets.org)
Given, the actual MTBF & ROI for a typical home Solar panel is really around 10 years. Then the costs of Solar Panel Disposal, which is NOT Environmentally safe or neutral comes into play.
So, many owners, now see it as just another DC Scam.
BTW: Forbes Mag. had a good tech article a while back, google/D2D for it.
#6
Utility scale Batteries to handle bumps in demand is growing. Still has a way to go but eventually it will make solar and wind closer to being useful
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
09/25/2025 9:17 Comments ||
Top||
#7
Can we disconnect California for the same reason?
Posted by: ed in texas ||
09/25/2025 10:45 Comments ||
Top||
#8
Sold on the Environmentally Safer than ______ Hype.
Ignoring how many thousands die every year from sun exposure, cancers, sunstroke,...
It's not safe, its just nothing you can avoid unless you are a Morlock.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
