Rubio Warns Russia that U.S. Patience on Ukraine War Is Running Out
Whether the Kremlin is serious about peace talks to end the Ukraine war will become clear soon, the secretary of state said.
Funeral services set for 3 boys who killed in Carpentersville house fire, funded by charity
Funeral arrangements have been set for the three children who died as the result of a house fire in Carpentersville last weekend, funded with money raised through a West Dundee-based charity.
The Rev. Phil Zilinski, pastor of Fox Valley Baptist Church, will lead the funeral service on Friday, April 11, for Xander Harland Corsello, 2, and his twin brothers, Kayden Virgil and Jayden Dante, 1, at his East Dundee-based church, according to an announcement posted by the Miller Funeral Home in West Dundee.
Visitation followed by the funeral will start at 11 a.m., the announcement said. The services are public but the burial will be private, according to Terrance “Duke” Seward, who runs the Taste the Love nonprofit with his wife, Rhiannon, which collected the money to cover the cost of the services and burial.
Jayden and Xander died during the March 30 fire at their home in the 1700 block of Kingston Circle. Kayden died later the next day at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood.
Three adults — the boys’ father, grandmother and grandmother’s boyfriend — were able to escape the fire, which started in the basement and caused about $350,000 in damage to the home and its contents, according to the Carpentersville Fire Department. The two men were treated at the scene for smoke inhalation and the grandmother hospitalized for smoke exposure.
The incident and deaths remain under investigation by the fire department and the Kane County coroner’s office. It was the first fatal fire involving children in Carpentersville since the 1990s, officials said.
“Thanks to everyone who contributed to cover these costs. This was driven by our community,” said Seward, who owns Duke’s Blues-N-BBQ in East Dundee with his wife.
Duke’s also plans to dedicate its annual blues fest in Carpentersville in June to the three children. As part of the event, Seward plans to will ask some of the musicians to play Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds” in the boys’ memory, he said.
Mike Danahey is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.
Northwestern and men’s basketball coach Chris Collins agree to contract extension through 2030
Northwestern and basketball coach Chris Collins have agreed to a two-year contract extension through 2030, the school announced on Friday.
Collins is the only coach in the program’s 120-year history to lead Northwestern to the NCAA Tournament. The Wildcats made it for the first time in 2017 and returned in 2023 and 2024 after five straight losing seasons.
Collins has a 194-190 record in 12 years. He is second on the program’s all-time wins list behind Dutch Lonborg, who was 236-203 from 1928 to 1950. The Wildcats finished 17-16 this past season after a 10-3 start and tied for 12th in the Big Ten at 7-13.
“Northwestern is my family’s home,” Collins said in a statement. “I am really proud of what we have built over the last 12 years with our basketball program and couldn’t be more excited to continue the journey together. I am grateful to President Michael Schill and (athletic director) Mark Jackson for their continued belief in me. We are all aligned to work to create even more history in the future. Go ’Cats!”
Jackson, who was hired away from Villanova in August, called Collins “one of the top coaches in the country.”
“While his on the court performance certainly warrants this extension, I’m more impressed with what Chris represents off the court, the way our student-athletes carry themselves as young men, the way they graduate from one of the top institutions in the world, and the overall culture that everyone connected to Northwestern Basketball buys into,” he said.
“Chris, with the help of so many, has created all of it, including an environment in Welsh-Ryan Arena that is second to none. The energy of our basketball program helps elevate all aspects of our athletic department.”
Collins’ name was linked to the opening at Villanova, which fired Kyle Neptune after three years three weeks ago and hired Maryland’s Kevin Willard. He has ties to Philadelphia, where his father Doug spent eight years playing for the NBA’s 76ers, but he also has a strong connection to the Chicago area.
Collins grew up about 10 miles from Welsh-Ryan Arena in suburban Northbrook and was chosen Mr. Basketball in Illinois. He went on to star at Duke and spent 13 years as an assistant under Mike Krzyzewski before taking over at Northwestern in 2013.
Northwestern, which hosted the inaugural NCAA championship game in 1939, finally made the tournament in Collins’ fourth season. The Wildcats won 24 games and beat Vanderbilt before losing to Gonzaga. But instead of emerging as a consistent winner, Northwestern went 60-90 overall and 26-71 in conference play over the next five years.
The heat on Collins was so high following the 2021-22 season that then-athletic director Derrick Gragg released a statement saying the coach would get at least one more year to turn around his struggling program. Northwestern went 22-12 and made the NCAA each of the next two seasons, and Collins got a three-year extension through 2028 two years ago.
Trump’s war on veterans targets program to help them keep their homes
The Department of Veterans Affairs is ending a program that has helped over 17,000 veterans attain homeownership. It is just the latest in a series of attacks and slights against veterans from President Donald Trump.
The VA announced on Thursday that it was putting an end to the Veterans Affairs Servicing Purchase Program. The program purchases defaulted mortgage loans for veterans facing financial hardship and then offers them as direct loans with a fixed 2.5% interest rate.
“Beginning May 1, 2025, VA’s Veterans Affairs Servicing Purchase Program [VASP] … will stop accepting new enrollees,” the VA said in a statement to NPR. “This change is necessary because VA is not set up or intended to be a mortgage loan restructuring service.”
Experts say this will create a crisis for veterans and their families.
“Halting the VASP program will increase the number of veterans facing foreclosure unless the VA and Congress implement a permanent partial claim option as soon as possible,” said Bob Broeksmit, president and CEO of the Mortgage Bankers Association, in a statement.
Trump has come under fire in the past after it was revealed—and verified by his then-White House chief of staff John Kelly—that he referred to deceased military veterans as “suckers” and “losers.” And he has repeatedly disrespected veterans: On Friday, Trump blew off honoring four U.S. soldiers who died in Lithuania during a training exercise to instead attend a Saudi-backed golf tournament at his country club.
The Biden administration launched the VASP program in April of last year after it was revealed that thousands of veterans were in danger of losing their homes after a program implemented at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic ended.
Then-VA Secretary Denis McDonough said at the time that the VA was “committed to doing everything in our power to help veterans avoid foreclosure.” Under Trump, that is no longer the case.
Congressional Republicans back Trump’s decision to cut off this lifeline for veterans.
In a joint statement Rep. Mike Bost of Illinois, chair of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs, along with Rep. Derrick Van Orden of Wisconsin), chair of the Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity, said, “We—along with many of our colleagues—had serious concerns about the impact VASP would have on not only the future of VA’s home loan program, but the mortgage lending business as a whole. Today, the Trump administration rightfully put an end to VA’s VASP program.”
The program’s closure is the latest in a series of attacks on veterans from the Trump administration. Under the auspices of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, the VA has cut staff—likely adding to wait times for veterans seeking care while also complicating efforts in dealing with day-to-day care issues.
Veterans have also been affected by the administration’s actions to cut thousands of government workers. These concerns were dismissed by then-Trump aide Alina Habba who told Fox News in March, “We have taxpayer dollars, we have a fiscal responsibility to use taxpayer dollars to pay people who actually work, that doesn’t mean we forget about our veterans by any means, we are going to care for them in the right way, but perhaps they’re not fit to have a job at this moment or are not willing to come to work.”
Habba has since been promoted to interim U.S. attorney for the district of New Jersey.
Democratic states sue NIH, RFK Jr. over canceled medical research grants
Democratic attorneys general in 16 states led by New York and Massachusetts sued the Trump administration Friday over the cancellation of millions of dollars in National Institutes of Health grants for medical research.
In March, NIH began to terminate millions of dollars in grant funding for previously approved research projects, including projects focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), LGBTQ+ health, and vaccine hesitancy, on the basis that the projects no longer align with NIH priorities.
But the agency did not define these terms or explain how they apply to the terminated research.
In a lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, the coalition challenged the administration’s “abrupt, unjustified, and illegal decision to revoke these funds,” as well as NIH’s suspension of the grant approval process.
“Massachusetts is the medical research capital of the country. Not only do our public research institutions rely on NIH funding for their groundbreaking research, job creation and academic competitiveness, but our residents depend on these studies to propel lifesaving medical advancements,” Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell said in a statement. “I won’t allow the Trump Administration to take unlawful actions that play politics with our public health.”
By law, NIH provides much of its support for scientific research and training in the form of grants to outside institutions. Since January, however, the administration has “engaged in a concerted, and multi-pronged effort to disrupt NIH’s grants,” the lawsuit alleges.
Those efforts have taken the form of across-the-board delays in the review and approval of otherwise-fundable grant applications and widespread terminations of already issued grants.
Collectively, the states involved in the lawsuit are awaiting decisions on billions of dollars in requested research funding, including millions of dollars in funding for projects that have already gotten the green light from NIH reviewers.
Typically, NIH grant applications must undergo two layers of review: by a “study section” of subject-matter experts who assess the scientific merit of the proposal and by an advisory council that considers funding availability and agency priorities.
Since January, the administration has canceled upcoming meetings for both of these review bodies and has delayed the scheduling of future meetings.
The lawsuit from the states asks the courts to restore the grant funding and ensure the government uses lawful procedures in determining funding.
It was filed against the NIH and its director, Jay Bhattacharya, as well as the Department of Human and Health Services and its secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
It follows a similar lawsuit filed earlier this week by a coalition of health researchers, unions and other stakeholders. That lawsuit was also filed in Massachusetts, making it likely they will be combined.
“Once again, the Trump administration is putting politics before public health and risking lives and livelihoods in the process,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a statement. “Millions of Americans depend on our nation’s research institutions for treatments and cures to the diseases that devastate families every day.
La policía británica acusa al comediante Russell Brand de violación y agresión sexual
Por JILL LAWLESS
LONDRES (AP) — La policía británica acusó el viernes a Russell Brand de violación y agresión sexual tras una investigación de 18 meses iniciada cuando cuatro mujeres alegaron haber sido agredidas por el controvertido comediante.
La fuerza policial Metropolitana de Londres informó que Brand, de 50 años, enfrenta un cargo de violación, uno de asalto indecente, uno de violación oral y dos de agresión sexual.
Los presuntos delitos involucran a cuatro mujeres y ocurrieron entre 1999 y 2005 en el centro de Londres y en la ciudad costera inglesa de Bournemouth.
La policía indicó que la investigación sigue abierta e instó a cualquier persona con información relevante a contactar a las autoridades.
En septiembre de 2023, los medios británicos Channel Four y el Sunday Times publicaron acusaciones de cuatro mujeres que alegaban haber sido agredidas sexualmente o violadas por Brand. Las acusadoras no han sido identificadas.
El comediante, autor y actor de “Get Him To The Greek” ha negado las acusaciones, afirmando que sus relaciones fueron “siempre consensuadas”.
Conocido por sus rutinas de conedia desenfrenadas y atrevidas, Brand presentó programas en radio y televisión, escribió memorias sobre sus batallas con las drogas y el alcohol, apareció en varias películas de Hollywood y estuvo brevemente casado con la estrella del pop Katy Perry entre 2010 y 2012.
En los últimos años, Brand ha desaparecido en gran medida de los medios de comunicación convencionales, pero ha acumulado un gran número de seguidores en línea con videos que mezclan bienestar y teorías de la conspiración. Recientemente dijo que se había mudado a Estados Unidos.
Brand debe comparecer en un tribunal de Londres el 2 de mayo.
Jaswant Narwal, del Servicio de Fiscalía de la Corona de Gran Bretaña, afirmó que los fiscales “revisaron cuidadosamente las pruebas tras una investigación policial sobre las acusaciones realizadas después de la emisión de un documental de Channel Four en septiembre de 2023.
“Hemos concluido que Russell Brand debe ser acusado de delitos que incluyen violación, agresión sexual y asalto indecente”, expresó Narwal.
“El Servicio de Fiscalía de la Corona recuerda a todos que los procedimientos penales están activos y que el acusado tiene derecho a un juicio justo”.
En enero, la BBC se disculpó con los miembros del personal que se sintieron incapaces de quejarse sobre la conducta de Brand debido a su estatus de celebridad. Brand tuvo dos programas de radio semanales en la BBC de 2006 a 2008 y trabajó periódicamente en varios proyectos a corto plazo.
La BBC reconoció que estaba “claro que los presentadores han podido abusar de sus posiciones” en el pasado.
___
Esta historia fue traducida del inglés por un editor de AP con la ayuda de una herramienta de inteligencia artificial generativa.
Líderes de México, Brasil, Colombia y Cuba estarán en cita de CELAC la semana próxima
Associated Press
CIUDAD DE MÉXICO (AP) — Los líderes de México, Brasil, Colombia y Cuba, entre otros países, estarán presentes en la próxima cumbre de la Comunidad de Estados Latinoamericanos y Caribeños que se celebrará en Honduras, una semana después de la irrupción en la economía global de los aranceles de Estados Unidos.
La presidenta hondureña Xiomara Castro informó en sus redes la presencia de estos mandatarios y su homóloga mexicana Claudia Sheinbaum confirmó su asistencia el viernes aunque dijo que sólo podrá estar presente en la cita un par de horas.
El encuentro tendrá lugar en medio de la tensión económica global provocada por la más reciente oleada arancelaria anunciada por Donald Trump y que afecta a la mayoría de los países convocados a Honduras excepto a México, por el tratado de libre comercio norteamericano, y Cuba, porque sobre la isla ya recaen sanciones económicas estadounidenses.
Además de temas de integración regional que siempre están presentes en estas citas, la migración previsiblemente será otro asunto que estará sobre la mesa. Muchos de los países presentes son Estados de origen o tránsito de migrantes y la migración hacia el norte del continente ha motivado numerosas amenazas y presiones del líder estadounidense.
Colorado Democrat Compares Parents Rights Groups to the KKK While Backing a Bill to Remove Custody Over ‘Misgendering’
A Democrat member of the Colorado House of Representatives justified excluding parental rights groups from discussions about a bill that would remove kids from parents’ custody for behaviors like “misgendering” and “deadnaming.”
She did so by comparing parental rights groups to the Ku Klux Klan in a hearing on Tuesday.
While witnesses in a hearing on House Bill 1312 said they had been working on the legislation for over a year, Jarvis Caldwell, a Republican member of the state House of Representatives, said that he only heard about it Monday.
“I really am curious about how much stakeholdering went on both sides of the issue and if parent groups that are not part of the LGBT community, if they were involved,” he said.
State Rep. Yara Zokaie, a Democrat, loudly condemned the idea of strategizing with parental rights groups on the bill.
“A well-stakeholded bill does not need to be discussed with hate groups, and we don’t ask someone passing civil rights legislation to go ask the KKK their opinion,” she quipped.
Another Democrat, state Rep. Javier Mabrey, said, “There’s no reason to go to the table with people who are echoing the hateful rhetoric going around about the trans community.”
What Does the Bill Do?
According to the bill summary, HB 1312 defines “coercive control” as including “deadnaming, misgendering, or threatening to publish material related to an individual’s gender-affirming health care services.”
“A court shall consider reports of coercive control when determining the allocation of parental responsibilities in accordance with the best interests of the child,” the summary adds.
These provisions would effectively require parents to endorse gender ideology in order to maintain custody of their own children in a dispute. Gender ideology teaches that a person’s internal sense of gender overrides his or her biological sex.
“Deadnaming” involves referring to an individual who claims to be transgender by the name that person has rejected. “Misgendering” involves referring to a person who claims to be transgender with the pronouns associated with their biological sex, rather than their preferred pronouns. “Gender-affirming health care” is a euphemism for experimental medical interventions designed to make a man appear female or vice versa.
Supporters frame the bill as an attempt to prevent anti-transgender discrimination.
“This bill is about ensuring that what we say exists with anti-discrimination is a reality for those who truly live life every day in fear of being discriminating against, retaliated against, harmed, harassed,” state Rep. Lorena Garcia, a Democrat who sponsored the bill, told The Denver Post.
Critics warn that a bill like this could make stories like that of California father Jeff Younger more likely in Colorado. Younger is battling in court to prevent his ex-wife from putting his son on experimental treatments to make him appear female.
“It prejudices the court by saying any non-affirmation of gender, anything short of actual celebration of the genital mutilation and the hormone therapy, the conversion, is discriminatory and is coercive control,” Rep. Ken DeGraaf, a Republican state house member, told The Daily Signal in an interview Friday. “It just prejudices the court in this civil arena.”
“This bill puts one parent waste-deep in a hole for the other one to start throwing stones at them,” he added.
Caldwell, the Republican who asked about stakeholders, told The Daily Signal that the bill creates a “legal imbalance that could lead to serious consequences for parents who do not affirm their child’s gender dysphoria.”
“I believe the ultimate intention of this bill is to make it impossible for a parent to get their child help when the child is gender confused by declaring such help as child abuse,” he added.
Heritage Action, a grassroots lobbying group, opposes the bill.
“This legislation seeks to impose radical gender ideology on Colorado families by penalizing parents for ‘misgendering’ or ‘deadnaming’ their children in custody disputes, effectively weaponing the state against parents who prioritize biological reality and constitutional rights over compelled speech,” Kristen Christensen, Heritage Action’s Colorado state director, told The Daily Signal. “It erodes local control by mandating schools abandon gender-based dress codes and forcing businesses to comply with subjective identity demands under the threat of fines.”
“This bill is an open assault on parent’s rights and free speech,” Christensen added.
Republican Criticism
Rep. Zokaie did not respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment about her remarks, and neither did the bill’s Democrat sponsors in the Colorado House or Colorado Senate, but two House Republicans condemned them.
“While I cannot speak for Rep. Zokaie, I can say that parental rights groups that are fighting for their children are not organizations that should be equated with hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan; this is completely inappropriate,” Caldwell told The Daily Signal in a statement Thursday. “These groups are focused on advocating for parental involvement and ensuring parents have the authority in their children’s upbringing, especially in educational matters.”
Caldwell further said the comparison uses “inflammatory labels that are only meant to create division” and “dismisses the valid concerns of parents.”
“Calling parental advocacy groups ‘hate groups’ is just their excuse to marginalize and ignore them while maintaining a pretense of moral superiority,” DeGraaf told The Daily Signal.
Where Does This Come From?
Parental rights groups have faced this kind of vitriol before.
The Southern Poverty Law Center brands parental rights groups “anti-government extremist groups” and puts them on a “hate map” with chapters of the Ku Klux Klan. The SPLC has long branded as “anti-LGBTQ hate groups” conservative and Christian organizations that oppose its activism on social issues. Last year, the SPLC branded an openly LGB organization, Gays Against Groomers, an “anti-LGBTQ hate group,” in part because it opposes sexually explicit materials in school.
Numerous scandals have roiled the SPLC. The SPLC has apologized to celebrated neurosurgeon and former secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson for branding him an “extremist” over his views on marriage. The group paid more than $3 million to settle a defamation lawsuit from a Muslim reformer it had branded an “anti-Islamic extremist.” A racial discrimination and sexual harassment scandal led the group to fire its co-founder, Morris Dees, in 2019. After that scandal, employees unionized, and now the SPLC faces accusations of “union-busting” for laying off union members.
Amid that 2019 scandal, a former employee called the “hate” accusations a “highly profitable scam.” Critics say the SPLC uses the “hate map” to exaggerate hate—terrifying donors into ponying up cash—and to demonize its political and ideological opponents.
DeGraaf, one of the Colorado Republicans, told The Daily Signal that his Democratic colleagues had cited the SPLC in previous legislative debates, despite its scandals.
He mocked Democrats’ citing of the SPLC.
“It says poverty, it’s southern. These people are for the oppressed,” he said, adopting the mentality of his opponents. “How dare you deign to question somebody with such a righteous name as the Southern Poverty Law Center?”
The post Colorado Democrat Compares Parents Rights Groups to the KKK While Backing a Bill to Remove Custody Over ‘Misgendering’ appeared first on The Daily Signal.
CHEESEHEAD (CARTOON AND COLUMN)
I never thought Democrats had a chance in Florida.
Two special elections for Congress were held in Florida, both being strong Republican seats. One was the seat vacated by Michael Waltz who left to join the Trump administration where he could leak classified information on Signal group chats with other morons.
Democrats thought the seat was competitive, but Republican Randy Fines won last night by 14 points.
In the other district, vacated by Matt Giggity Gaetz, Democrats outspent Republican Jimmy Patronis yet still lost by 14.6 points. What were they thinking running a candidate named Gay in Florida, in Matt Gaetz’s old district, nonetheless?
This gives Republicans and Trump a House advantage of 220 to 213.
As I said, I didn’t believe Democrats had a shot in Florida. One indicator was that Elon Musk didn’t campaign and drop millions of dollars into those races…like he did in Wisconsin.
Wisconsin’s Supreme Court is supposed to be non-partisan, so it’s not Democrats versus Republicans. It’s Liberal versus Conservative. The court had a 4-3 Liberal majority last night, and today, it’s still a 4-3 liberal majority.
This race was the most expensive judicial contest in US history, with $90 million invested in the race, with $25 million of that coming from Elon Musk alone. That’s probably just claw machine money for him, but he still didn’t get to snatch a state supreme court seat and probably spent $25 million to catch a plushie saying, “Keep on truckin’.”
Liberal Susan Crawford defeated Conservative Brad Schimel by ten points last night. It wasn’t even close. How did Elon in a cheesy cheesehead not work?
Why is the Democratic win in Wisconsin significant and the GOP win in Florida not?
The two districts in Florida were already Republican, and one of them is the most conservative fucknut district in the nation. How are Democrats supposed to win where voters are racist and stupid enough to send Matt Gaetz to Congress five times? They might be more racist and stupid than Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert’s voters. If anything, Democrats can take comfort in that the Republicans’ margins of victories were 15 percent lower in those districts than last November.
This is bad news for Republicans in the midterms because when Trump isn’t on the ballot, fewer MAGAts vote. Republicans should enjoy that 220-213 House majority while it lasts because it won’t. We’re not going to talk about the Senate today.
Wisconsin is significantly different. Trump won the state last November…barely. The friends I made last July in Milwaukee told me they were afraid he’d win the state, and he did by less than one percent.
Special elections usually have lower voter turnout, and last night’s in Wisconsin was predicted to be tight. That was another failed prediction because the Liberal won 55-45. That’s a 10-point Democratic win in a state that has been decided by less than one point in each of the past three presidential races.
When I heard Elon was spending big money in Wisconsin on a state supreme court race, I knew Republicans were scared. And when I heard Elon was going to personally campaign in Wisconsin for a state supreme court race, I knew Republicans were stupid. Has no one shown Elon his polls?
A new Harvard/Harris poll shows that 49 percent hate Elon while 39 like him. But maybe Elon didn’t see the poll and only listened to Trump, who posted to Shit Social after the poll results were released, “Wow!!! People are loving Elon, a GREAT PATRIOT. Nice to see!!! DJT.”
If that’s what convinced Elon to go to Wisconsin to take a giant dump, thank you, DJT, you shit-fire smoldering dumbass. Speaking of the walking orange turd, his polls are down too. In fact, the only newly elected president to have polls worse than Trump’s is Donald Trump.
The only president worse than Trump is Trump. We didn’t need a second Trump administration to remind us how fucking horrible and rancid the first one was. Seriously, America, what’s wrong with you?
The good news here is that none of this bodes well for Trump winning a third term if he’s somehow able to destroy the Constitution first. The other good news is, he’s going to lose the House in 2026. The bad news for us is that he’s still going to “legislate” through executive orders for the next four years.
I can’t make predictions about the 2028 presidential election because I’m not confident we’ll have an election or at least a fair one in 2028. Do you think Trump is going to serve his term without engaging in fuckery with the elections? He has already issued an illegal executive order changing rules on national elections. Since when can a president single-handedly change election laws?
Our future elections will have the same integrity as the elections in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. By the way, I predict that over the next four years, some government structure or land will be named after Donald Trump. He may do it himself with an EO. They may create a monument identical to the Washington Monument and name it the Trump Monument, except it’ll have to be a lot smaller.
GO HERE TO READ THE REST.
Visit Clay Jones’ website and email him at clayjonz@gmail.com.
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‘Find Your Fight:’ Activist’s Manual for Changemaking is a Rallying Cry and Wake-Up Call
By Michael R. Mantell, Ph.D.
Find Your Fight by Jay Ruderman isn’t just a book—I found it to be a rallying cry. A deeply personal, straight-to-the-heart call to action for anyone who feels that pull to create real, lasting change in the world. Ruderman, a lifelong champion of social justice and inclusion, doesn’t deal in vague ideals or abstract encouragement—he hands you the blueprint. This is about turning conviction into movement, passion into impact. It speaks clearly and is highly motivating.
What makes this newly released book stand out isn’t just its message—it’s the way Ruderman delivers it. He doesn’t just talk about the fight; he lives it. We need more of this. He brings the reader into his own journey, sharing both his victories and the roadblocks along the way. And that’s what makes it land so powerfully—his honesty, his experience, his unwavering belief that change isn’t reserved for the powerful or the well-connected. It’s for anyone willing to step up and claim their fight.
But this book isn’t just about his journey. Ruderman shines a light on other changemakers, proving that activism takes many shapes and forms. Whether your passion is disability rights, mental health, or any other social justice cause, this book doesn’t just inspire—it equips. It moves you from *caring* to *doing,” so essential today when many are on the sidelines of life. It’s time to do, not simply “stand with,” and Ruderman makes this case as clearly as can be.
Find Your Fight isn’t here to coddle you. It’s here to wake you up. To shake you out of waiting for the “perfect moment” and remind you that the time to act is now. If you’ve ever felt the urge to stand up for something bigger than yourself but didn’t know where to begin, this book hands you the map.
And Ruderman doesn’t stop at motivation—he offers a playbook. Some standout takeaways:
1. Choosing Your Cause with Heart: Passion is the fuel of activism. Ruderman drives home the point that when you fight for something you genuinely believe in, your conviction becomes contagious. Others feel it. Others join in.
2. The Power of Relentless Persistence: Ruderman echoes President Calvin Coolidge’s wisdom: “Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.” Change doesn’t happen overnight—it happens because people refuse to quit.
3. Becoming an Expert: If you’re going to advocate for something, *know your stuff*. Ruderman stresses that deep knowledge isn’t just an asset—it’s a necessity. Expertise earns credibility, influence, and, ultimately, results.
4. Finding Your People: No one fights alone. Ruderman highlights the power of collaboration—of bringing together people whose strengths complement your own, amplifying your impact through collective effort.
5. Not Being Afraid to Stir the Pot: Change is disruptive by nature. Ruderman reminds us that controversy isn’t something to fear—it’s often a sign you’re pushing society forward. The discomfort is part of the process.
Through personal passion and strategic action, Find Your Fight offers more than inspiration—it provides the tools to turn conviction into real-world change.
At its core, this book is part memoir, part manual—an unfiltered, hard-earned guide to activism straight from someone who’s been in the trenches. Ruderman lays it all out—the struggles, the wins, the lessons learned—so that you don’t just walk away thinking about change. You walk away creating it.
Michael R. Mantell, Ph.D. is a San Diego-based retired psychologist, best-selling author, international speaker, and a highly sought after cognitive behavioral coach whose actionable, valuable, and practical work has been featured on Fox News, ABC-TV, NBC-TV, CBS-TV, The New York Times, and The Huffington Post.
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