Tennessee Department of Correction shows Christa Pike on Jan. 12, 2023.
Christa Pike is unconscious and on a ventilator after a botched execution late Wednesday evening, her attorneys said.
Christa Pike, 50, was sentenced to death for a 1995 fatal stabbing, torture and beating of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer.
An inverted pentagram was carved into Slemmer’s chest during the gruesome murder.
Pike was 18 at the time of the murder. Pike’s boyfriend, Tadaryl Shipp, was also convicted of the 1995 murder.
Earlier Wednesday, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals voted 2-1 to halt the execution to determine whether Pike’s allegations of childhood sexual abuse were taken into consideration during her death penalty sentencing.
Tennessee’s Attorney General immediately appealed to the Supreme Court. A few hours later, the Supreme Court allowed Tennessee to go forward with the execution.
The US Supreme Court allowed Tennessee’s execution of Christa Pike to move forward.
The drama wasn’t over yet because late Wednesday night, Christa Pike’s attorneys said that Tennessee executioners administered two syringes of pentobarbital and Pike was still alive.
Pike was snoring as she was strapped down to a gurney inside Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville.
She was later rushed to a hospital and is currently intubated.
Legal experts have warned that the Supreme Court has barred the execution of a condemned prisoner who is medically unconscious.
An unconscious or comatose person cannot be executed because they lack awareness, legal experts warned.
A Tennessee death row inmate remained unconscious on a ventilator Friday after surviving the state’s failed attempt to execute her this week, and her attorneys accused prison officials of ignoring months of warnings that the lethal injection could go catastrophically wrong.
“Christa remains critically ill and is receiving medical care for the devastating effects of Wednesday night’s events,” attorneys Stephen Ferrell and Luke Ihnen said in a statement Friday. “As detailed in today’s filing, Christa remains hospitalized following Wednesday night’s failed execution attempt.
“She is critically ill, unconscious, intubated and receiving breathing assistance through a ventilator,” they added. “She is being treated for the serious effects of the pentobarbital administered during the execution attempt, including significant injuries to both arms.”
The emergency motion paints a far more detailed picture of what Pike’s attorneys say unfolded inside the execution chamber.
Pike’s team contends the execution team struggled to establish IV access, using at least seven needles before administering two lethal doses of pentobarbital.
The motion says Pike arrived at the hospital with both arms “swollen, burned, and blistered.” It also says medical experts have compared pentobarbital to “bleach” or “Drano,” describing it as a highly caustic substance capable of burning skin, tissue and veins.
President Trump broke his silence on the former Cornell University student who claims she was drugged and raped by multiple fraternity members during a drug and alcohol-fueled sexual encounter in 2024.
New details of the alleged assault are still emerging, and New York Governor Kathy Hochul is now seeking to revive a criminal case against the Chi Phi fraternity members involved in the alleged assault.
Hochul announced on Thursday that she appointed James by executive order as a special prosecutor in the case, slamming the local DA’s office and the Cornell Police Department.
“Newly released information continues to raise serious questions about the investigation conducted by the Cornell Police Department and the decision by the Tompkins County District Attorney not to prosecute an alleged sexual assault on Cornell University’s campus in October 2024,” she wrote in a press release.
“This has, in turn, undercut my faith, and the public’s faith, in the District Attorney’s ability to effectively investigate and prosecute the case at this time.”
Tonight, I signed an executive order appointing Attorney General Letitia James as special prosecutor in the Cornell sexual assault case.
New information has raised serious questions about how this case was handled, and I’ve lost faith in the Tompkins County DA’s ability to… pic.twitter.com/R1YvXc3TPa
Some of the newest information we’re learning about the case is what the woman, identified as Jane Doe in her lawsuit against seven former Chi Phi members, told investigators about the 2024 incident that led to a decision not to file criminal charges.
Back then, she admitted that she “was super drunk” when she arrived at the frat house to meet a friend and that she “was pretty OK with all of this” when he propositioned her for three-way sex with another member of the fraternity, according to a transcript of her interview obtained by CBS. The woman had reportedly been drinking for several hours before arriving at the frat house, where she drank more, consumed ketamine with the men, and engaged in sexual intercourse.
According to Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten, Jane Doe did not withdraw her consent during the incident, and when she expressed concerns, the frat brothers “stopped and did not pursue what they were doing,” ABC reported.
And in the days following the alleged rape, she wrote in a text message to one of the defendants, according to CBS, “non(e) of the sexual stuff was illegal.” She reportedly also said she enjoyed the threesome with him and another man, then suggested they should smoke together without “the extra 5 billion men and ketamine.”
Still, she maintained that she was “pretty incapacitated” and could “say with 100% confidence I was raped.”
Left-wing professor and renowned feminist Camille Paglia is calling BS on the story, arguing “this is not a real rape.”
In an op-ed for the New York Post, Miranda DeVine likens the case to “the same lynch-mob hysteria as the notorious Duke lacrosse or ‘mattress girl’ hoaxes of old — only with social media making everything worse.”
When asked about Hochul and James’ attempt to revive the case against the seven men, who have already been deemed guilty by the public and doxxed, Trump suggested it’s what a lot of people are already thinking: a witch hunt.
“Well, Letitia James is a corrupt person. She’s totally corrupt, and I can’t imagine it. And I feel badly for whoever she’s looking at because they won’t get a fair shake,” Trump said. “Letitia James is a corrupt person.”
WATCH:
Trump also responded on Truth Social, sharing a monologue from the Will Cain show on Fox, where Cain blasts Hochul and James’ “malicious prosecution” and exposes the Democrats’ lies and MeToo hysteria over the alleged rape.
WATCH:
“Why would the Governor of New York, Kathy Hochul, appoint a Corrupt Prosecutor, Letitia ‘Peekaboo’ James, to represent the State in the highly controversial Cornell University rape case?” Trump wrote.
President Donald Trump speaks to supporters at a campaign rally in Durant, Oklahoma, on October 1, 2026, after severe weather forced him to make the trip from Texas by presidential motorcade instead of by air.
President Trump will deliver remarks tonight in Mobile, Alabama, on his final October rally blitz ahead of the November midterm elections.
This follows back-to-back rallies last night in Denton, Texas, and Durant, Oklahoma.
According to reports, the President’s campaign schedule will include as many as five to seven rallies a week during the October blitz.
Trump is also planning a rally in Dayton, Ohio, on Sunday.
Asked on Thursday why he is taking his message on the road to states where he won overwhelmingly in the 2024 election, including deep red Texas, Oklahoma, and Alabama, and Ohio, Trump told reporters, “Well, I won all of them by a lot. I’m going there just to make sure.”
“You know, you have to give back too,” he added, noting that he won all 77 counties in 2024, beating Ronald Regan’s record.
“I’m sort of going there to thank him, but they also have a very important governor’s race, but I think he’s in good shape because he won with my endorsement. He won the primary,” Trump added.
Trump is now in Alabama to campaign in two solid Republican races for GOP Senator Tommy Tuberville, who is running for governor against former Democratic Senator Doug Jones, and GOP Rep. Barry Moore running for Senate against Democrat Everett Wess.
Trump will break away from his tour of red states next week with plans for a stop near Baltimore, Maryland, on Tuesday.
Trump is scheduled to speak in Mobile, Alabama, at 6 pm CT.
Conservative Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito sat down with CBS News to discuss recent high-profile cases and the retirement rumors.
In June, NPR reporter Nina Totenberg sparked a firestorm after publishing an article claiming that Samuel Alito was retiring.
Totenberg claimed that the Supreme Court announced that Alito was retiring.
Nina Totenberg wrote: “Justice Samuel Alito, who wrote the Supreme Court’s opinion reversing Roe v. Wade, is retiring, the court announced on Tuesday.”
However, 10 minutes later, the NPR article was scrubbed and left with an editor’s note.
“This story has been taken down. It was published in error,” the note read.
Alito said that he does not plan to retire.
During a sit-down interview with CBS’s Jan Crawford, the 76-year-old justice said that he decided to remain on the court after considering whether he could still make a “valuable contribution.”
When asked if he thought about retirement after the end of the last term, Alito replied: “I thought about it. It’s something I think about — well, someone my age has to think about every term, but I thought that I could still make a valuable contribution which is why I became this justice and a judge in the first place so that was basically it.
Jan Crawford asked Alito if he would reconsider retirement every year.
“Yeah, I think I have to,” Alito said with a smile.
Ryan Hayward, 38, was arrested after allegedly driving his vehicle toward The Maine Wire reporter Joe Sokol (Credit: Penobscot County Jail/The Maine Wire)
The man who allegedly tried to mow down a conservative reporter with his vehicle, on camera, is now in custody.
Ryan Hayward, 38, of Bangor, was arrested Friday after police investigated the disturbing incident involving The Maine Wire reporter Joe Sokol outside the Bangor Comprehensive Treatment Center.
According to The Maine Wire, Hayward has been charged with:
Reckless conduct with a dangerous weapon
Criminal threatening with a dangerous weapon
Driving to endanger
Violating conditions of release
Local station WABI independently confirmed the charges, reporting that Bangor Police responded shortly before 8 a.m. Thursday to an erratic-vehicle complaint on Odlin Road. The caller reported that a man had allegedly attempted to run someone over outside a medical clinic.
And now comes the FAFO portion of the story.
The Gateway Pundit previously reported the shocking video of the confrontation. Sokol was filming from public property when a man in an SUV pulled up, accused him of “invading people’s privacy,” and drove off.
Moments later the same vehicle accelerated off the roadway and onto the grass where Sokol was standing. Sokol jumped clear. He was not hurt. Video shows the Jeep striking his camera equipment. He read the plate, Maine registration 841-LZD, into the camera.
The Maine Wire said the entire interaction was captured, including security footage from a nearby business. Editor-in-chief Steve Robinson later identified the driver as Hayward and said Hayward called him, apparently thinking he had reached police, and gave a roughly 10-minute interview that was turned over to investigators.
In that call, reported by The Post Millennial, Hayward denied he tried to kill anyone, then admitted the reporter “fired me up” and “disrespected me.”
He said he recognized Sokol from prior reporting and was angry about “the way he talks, like, bad about addicts and stuff.” He claimed he is a patient at the clinic and was on his way to get methadone. He hung up after realizing he was talking to a reporter, not a cop.
Robinson wrote on X that Hayward “admitted that he was extremely familiar with Joe, watched all of his content, and targeted him because of his politics.”
The Maine Wire reported that in a separate phone interview Hayward denied attempted murder but admitted his actions were motivated by disagreements with Sokol’s reporting.
Sokol later said on Facebook: “I just almost got murdered. All caught on tape.”
After the near-miss, Sokol confronted staff at the clinic and told them a patient had just tried to run him over. According to the outlet’s video, instead of calling police, a woman repeatedly ordered him off the property.
A federal judge on Friday blocked border wall construction in the Big Bend region in Texas.
US District Judge Kathleen Cardone, a George W. Bush appointee, issued a preliminary injunction blocking border wall construction in Texas’s Big Bend region and Big Bend National Park.
The scope of Judge Cardone’s order includes patrol roads, border barriers or related infrastructure.
Environmental advocacy group Center for Biological Diversity filed the lawsuit in April and argued that the border wall construction lacked approval from Congress.
Judge Cardone sided with the plaintiffs on Friday and stopped the bulldozing and road-clearing by contractors while the lawsuit makes its way through the courts.
A judge on Friday blocked further border barrier construction in the Big Bend region, approving an environmental group’s motion for a preliminary injunction.
At the end of Friday’s hearing, U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone asked the courtroom to remain calm while she read her order aloud from the bench.
She ruled that the plaintiffs’ constitutional claims to halt the construction were likely to succeed and her preliminary injunction against “ground-distrurbing activities” would remain in effect while the suit continued to play out in court.
The legal team at the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental advocacy group, filed the lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security and its secretary in April on behalf of the Friends of the Ruidosa Church, a nonprofit dedicated to preserving a historic church in Presidio County, and Danny William Miller, a Rio Grande river guide and landowner who stands to lose his property in Redford to the wall.
The lawsuit argues that the five contracted border wall projects in the region are unconstitutional for a range of reasons, including violating the constitutional separation of powers and depriving citizens of their land.
The Justice Department on Friday said it will not reopen its criminal investigation into former Fed Chair Jerome Powell.
Federal investigators in January opened a criminal investigation into Fed Chairman Jerome Powell.
Powell was under fire for the cost of renovating the Fed’s DC headquarters. The cost ballooned from $1.9 billion to $2.5 billion.
Last July, Jerome Powell was criminally referred to the Justice Department for prosecution.
Earlier this year, Judge Boasberg, an Obama appointee, quashed the Justice Department’s subpoenas issued to Fed Chairman Jerome Powell.
In April, the Justice Department dropped its criminal investigation into Jerome Powell.
Attorney General Todd Blanche on Friday said the DOJ will not reopen its criminal case into Jerome Powell, who currently sits on the Board of Governors at the Fed.
The Department of Justice will not reopen its criminal investigation into former Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell over the central bank’s overbudget multibillion-dollar headquarters renovation a department spokesperson told CNBC.
“We’re not reopening a criminal investigation into him,” Blanche told Bloomberg in an interview Friday.
Blanche did not rule out future Justice Department action in his interview. He told the outlet an independent audit of the renovation could prompt an investigation if it uncovers evidence of criminal wrongdoing.
His comments come days after the Federal Reserve’s inspector general found no reasonable grounds to believe that a federal crime had occurred requiring a referral to the attorney general, even as the watchdog faulted the central bank for major management and oversight failures that contributed to the project’s soaring costs.
The Justice Department’s decision comes after the Fed watchdog determined no criminality in the central bank’s renovation.
For most of us, Microsoft Office has been the go-to software for getting things done. Many of us use Word for documents, Excel for spreadsheets — and a lot of us use Outlook and PowerPoint.
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Pokrova, the Feast of the Protection of the Mother of God, honors Mary as protectress and coincides with Ukraine’s October 1 observances honoring its defenders and Cossacks.
On October 1, Ukrainian Orthodox and Greek Catholics, who together comprise 70.1 percent of the population, celebrate Pokrova, the Feast of the Protection of the Mother of God. Honoring Mary as protectress, the feast coincides with Ukraine’s Day of Defenders and Day of Ukrainian Cossacks, linking Christian faith with military service.
Theotokos means “Mother of God,” or literally, “God-bearer,” while Pokrova means “protection” or “covering.” According to tradition, the feast recalls a vision of Mary at the Church of Blachernae in Constantinople when invading Rus’ forces threatened the city. As the faithful prayed, Mary extended her veil over them as a sign of her protection and intercession.
Centuries later, the Ukrainian Cossacks adopted the Mother of God as their heavenly protectress. Ukrainians honor these soldiers and settlers as symbols of courage and freedom. Forming communities along the Dnipro River, they defended their people, elected leaders, and established the Cossack Hetmanate, a form of Ukrainian self-government.
The Cossacks built churches dedicated to Mary’s Protection, and Ukrainian icons portrayed her extending her mantle over Cossacks, soldiers, clergy, and families. Today, the October 1 observances carry that tradition forward, honoring Ukraine’s defenders and remembering those who have died.
Traditional Ukrainian images depict Mary extending her protective veil over Cossacks, who honored her as their heavenly protectress.
For many Americans, particularly those raised in the South, including this author, who grew up in Tennessee, Christian faith, military service, and patriotism are inextricably linked. In the Bible Belt, we were raised with religion, guns, the American flag, and an expectation that we would serve in the military.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has brought that religiosity back to the U.S. military with policies such as a Chaplain Corps overhaul, which scrapped the Army’s Spiritual Fitness Guide for mentioning God only once. He also directed chaplains to wear religious insignia instead of rank because, in his words, they are “first and foremost called and ordained by God.” He has hosted monthly worship services at the Pentagon since May 2025, the first of which was led by his pastor from Tennessee.
Across Ukraine, in cities like Sloviansk where drones and missiles fall day and night, Christians are reminded that Mary’s protection does not promise freedom from suffering. Through her intercession, believers ask God for strength, courage, and faith amid the suffering.
Nearly every building in the city has been hit, but a Protestant church miraculously remains intact despite drone strikes in its parking lot.
The majority of residents have left, including most wives and children sent to safety. Those remaining include men defending the city, families, and a handful of elderly babushkas who refuse to leave. They continue attending church regularly, keeping their faith.
When Free Burma Rangers, a U.S.-based frontline aid organization, visited the church, the group’s leader, David Eubank, encouraged the faithful to pray that God would change the hearts of the enemy and end the war rather than pray for victory.
His message reflected Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 5:44: “But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.”
At the church, a chaplain named Sergius spoke about his experience as a frontline soldier. He now carries a Bible and a Ukrainian flag to the front to encourage soldiers and remind them that Jesus stands with them.
The Rangers accompanied another chaplain, Alex, who takes food, prayers, and Bibles to the front every day, expertly navigating the bomb blasts. He did not want to send his family away, but when a bomb blew up a car in front of his house, he decided it was time. Now he remains without his family, serving God and frontline soldiers.
A true warrior for Christ, Alex is handy with a shotgun and a champion at shooting down drones. His most harrowing moment came when a drone chased his car. He drove at an unsafe speed along broken roads until he outran it. Alex lives the Word and risks his life to minister to others.
The Rangers and chaplains prayed with soldiers in defensive fighting positions and underground bunkers as explosions roared overhead. Alex described how the soldiers change from week to week. Those he visited the previous week are killed, wounded, or reassigned, and new soldiers arrive.
Free Burma Rangers founder, David Eubank, leads a devotion for Ukrainian soldiers on the front line. Photo by Antonio Graceffo.
Huddled in a concrete basement, soldiers paused their work to hear a sermon and pray with the chaplain and the Rangers. One soldier said he was not observant and initially showed no interest in participating. After the prayers, however, he opened up, saying his wife had left him and he had nothing to return to after the war. Broken families are another cost of the conflict.
Emerging from the cellar, Alex led the Rangers back to their vehicles, staying in the tree line to avoid being targeted. He would remain in his bombed-out home, which he now shares with another chaplain, continuing the service he felt called to perform.
The Rangers continued to the Carpathian Mountains to run a Junior Ranger program with Bible Orphan Ministry, a Ukrainian Christian organization. Its leader, 47-year-old Alla Vasilyeva, explained that the children were classified in Ukraine as “social orphans.” Their parents were not necessarily deceased. Many were unable or unwilling to care for them.
The children’s circumstances were a reminder that existing social problems persist during war and become amplified.
When reports of a severe airstrike arrived during the weeklong program, Vasilyeva shook her head, saying, “And now there will be more orphans.”
The next day, rockets hit the home village of the Bible Orphan Ministry volunteers. Reports came in with rising numbers of wounded and dead. Yet the volunteers remained with the orphans.
In Ukrainian religious art, the Theotokos, the Blessed Virgin Mary, is often depicted spreading her veil of protection over families and soldiers alike. The volunteers’ care for the orphans reflected that image of maternal protection.
After a week filled with love, learning about Jesus, first aid, physical training, self-defense, and art therapy, several children were baptized by Free Burma Rangers chaplains. The children then returned to homes that were not only broken by family dysfunction but also being bombed daily.
After the mission concluded, David Eubank reflected on the connection between faith and war as he traveled back to the conflict in Burma. A former U.S. Army Special Forces and Ranger officer who has spent more than 35 years providing help, hope, and love in war zones, he said resisting evil begins with examining ourselves.
“We know the line of good and evil is not between us and the enemy, it’s in our own hearts. So first we ask God to purify us and then we ask God to bless and change our enemies’ hearts. And then we ask God to help us stand for what’s true. So in the middle of that, we can be in combat and not be given over into hate. We can pray for our enemies to change.”
His prayer on the Feast of the Protection of the Theotokos linked military service with mercy for the enemy: “We can show mercy when they are defeated and we can have hope even when we’re defeated because we’re doing God’s work on earth as it is in heaven. This is my prayer for all of us.”
