SOCIAL

Thousands of people rang in 2025 standing on the Brooklyn Bridge in freezing temperatures, phones out, waiting for fireworks that were never going to happen. The show they came for existed only in their feeds. Days before New Year's Eve, TikTok and Instagram accounts flooded social media with videos showing spectacular fireworks exploding over the Brooklyn Bridge. Some footage was pure AI fabrication. Other videos recycled genuine clips from Fourth of July celebrations, repac

Not all friendships are created equal. Some people will bleed you dry and act shocked when you finally cut them loose. Start with the emotional dumpers. You know the type. They show up, unload their entire psychological inventory like you're a storage unit, then bounce feeling refreshed while you're left processing their unresolved trauma. Venting and genuine emotional processing are different sports. One is screaming into the void for temporary relief. The other requires sit

Rome - Valentino Clemente Ludovico Garavani, legendary Italian fashion designer, has peacefully passed at the age of 93. Garavani opened a fashion house on Via Condotti in Italy. Known by the V logo, Valentino served as the creative director and influencer of the house from 1959 until around 2008. "Valentino Red" became a symbol of the fashion icon. His love for the color seemingly stemmed from the opera Carmen, a Spanish bel canto, that filled a stage with impressive red cos

Martin Luther King Jr. made history at thirty-five when he became the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. The Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded him the 1964 prize "for his non-violent struggle for civil rights for the Afro-American population." He was the twelfth American to receive it and only the second African American. His response to the honor revealed everything about his priorities. He immediately announced plans to donate the entire $54,123 prize to advancing

Across Texas—especially along the border—people continue to face intimidation and civil rights violations during encounters with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Even U.S. citizens have been wrongfully detained or questioned. These are difficult times, but knowing how to respond safely and lawfully can protect you and others. Here's what every Texan should understand—and share—about what to do if ICE appears at your door, your workplace, or stops you on the road. 1.

The world won't stop screaming. Every ping on the phone delivers fresh disaster. Every headline promises the end of something. Doomscrolling has become a reflex, and the brain can't process one crisis before three more arrive. The desperate need to fix something, control anything, takes over when the entire system seems built to self-destruct. Start here: figure out what's actually yours to manage. Most of what floods the news feed lives completely outside anyone's individual

The United States government will hand you a badge, a gun, and the authority to detain human beings after eight weeks of training. That's 336 hours. In Texas, you need 600 hours of supervised instruction before you're allowed to paint someone's fingernails. In 2025, during the Trump administration's hiring surge, ICE slashed training from six months to six weeks. Some reports put it at 47 days. Forty-seven. The number was allegedly chosen because Trump is the 47th president,

Grok just delivered the most delicious clapback in artificial intelligence history. Elon Musk's own chatbot, the one he built presumably to combat what he considers censorship on other platforms, just ranked him number one on its list of accounts spreading the most misinformation on X. The irony is equivalent to his net worth. Grok was asked to identify the five X accounts most responsible for spreading lies and misleading information. The AI analyzed aggregated data from 202

Every December, South Texas transforms into a retail battleground where American holiday shoppers face friendly rivals: Mexican nationals armed with shopping lists and crossing permits. Paisano season officially kicks off on Black Friday. Late November, early December is when families from across Mexico descend upon border cities like Laredo, Roma, Rio Grande City, McAllen, and Brownsville. They come bearing cash, dragging empty suitcases, and wielding determination that woul

Meet the Rutherfords. Sarah. Jesse. Rebecca. Jeremy. Most families have wholesome holiday rituals involving cookies, carols, or matching pajamas. The Rutherford family awards a golden gift bag to whichever sibling their mother likes best that year, then watches everyone else spiral into competitive madness. Rebecca Rutherford has built a minor social media empire documenting this annual bloodsport. Her TikTok account chronicles years of sibling warfare, complete with face pai

I'm watching caravans of vehicles with Mexican plates stream across the road all morning long. The Rio Grande Valley's retail corridors look like Black Friday stretched across an entire month. Parking lots overflow. Cash registers sing. Store managers scramble to restock shelves emptied by Mexican nationals doing their Christmas shopping north of the border. Está hasta a la madre. Everywhere you turn, there are Mexican nationals standing in line to buy what American people ca