Category: US

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Luke Combs’ song almost went to a different country music legend.

During a recent interview with Country Now, Combs and some members of his team, Dan Isbell, Jonathan Singleton, Ray Fulcher, Chip Matthews and Rob Williford, discussed the origin of his song “Where The Wild Things Are,” from his most recent album, “Gettin’ Old.”

Isbell told the outlet, singer Eric Church “almost cut” the song, and it bounced around for a few years, with Isbell saying, “I couldn’t believe that song couldn’t land somewhere.”

“At the time, nobody was cutting story songs at all, really. I mean, outside of Eric Church, probably,” Combs said. 

LUKE COMBS JOINED DURING ‘FAST CAR’ PERFORMANCE BY 8-YEAR-OLD WITH CANCER: ‘I LITERALLY STOLE’ THE SHOW

The song is a story told from the perspective of a young man whose brother leaves their hometown and moves out West. Throughout the song, he tells tales of his brother’s adventures in his new life, “out where the wild things are,” only to find out at the end of the song, he ultimately passed away in a motorcycle accident.

Although Combs loved the song, he almost passed on it as he considers it “a really tough song to sing,” saying “we struggle with it even in studio.”

“I remember somebody telling me, I think it was when me and [Sean] Moffitt were still doing stuff, and I was telling him, ‘Well, we can’t do this, because I’m not going to be able to sing this thing live like this.’ And he was like, ‘Dude, we can’t dumb down the record. You’ll figure it out, like, we got to make it as good as we can, and you’re gonna figure it out. I promise.’ So I always remembered that,” Combs explained.

“I don’t know how that song never get cut, because it’s an awesome, awesome song,” he continued.

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While Church didn’t end up recording the song, he and Combs have worked together in the past on the song “Does to Me,” from Combs’ second studio album, “What You See Is What You Get.” 

Combs opened up to Taste of Country in November 2019 about how much it meant to him to collaborate with Church on the song, saying, “He’s been a big influence on me for a really long time.” 

“I loved this song when we wrote it back in 2016, and thought it sounded like a Church song. We joked about getting it to him, but at the time we had no way to get in touch with him,” Combs wrote on social media when promoting the song in January 2020. “A few years went by and we started thinking it may actually work.”

“I never wanted Eric to feel like it was something he had to be a part of, but thankfully he loved the song when I sent it to him, and helped us take it to another level,” he continued.

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In August 2023, Combs announced he was going on the road again, with the 2024 Growin’ Up and Gettin’ Old Tour, which is set to start in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in April.

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The two titans of the 2023 NFL season took a hit on Sunday, as the San Francisco 49ers and the Philadelphia Eagles suffered shocking upsets to give both teams their first losses of the year.

The 49ers’ streak of 15 regular-season wins was snapped at the hands of the Cleveland Browns, while the Eagles were hoping to build on another hot start to begin the season before they ran into the New York Jets.

For San Francisco, their game appeared to come down to two key areas: injuries and special teams. Running back Christian McCaffrey and wide receiver Deebo Samuel both left the game with separate issues. Quarterback Brock Purdy led the 49ers down the field on the final drive to set up a 41-yard field goal attempt, but rookie placekicker Jake Moody missed it, giving the Browns an unexpected 19-17 win.

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Meanwhile, the Eagles ran into a dynamite Jets defense. Quarterback Jalen Hurts was picked off three times and sacked twice as New York shut out Philadelphia in the second half to win 20-14.

The title of best team in the league is certainly now up for debate as the Kansas City Chiefs, Miami Dolphins and Detroit Lions all picked up wins to move to 5-1 on the season, as well.

Here are Sunday’s scores from around the league.

GIANTS MAKE DUBIOUS HISTORY IN HEARTBREAKING LOSS TO BILLS

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The Chicago Bears appear to be in a world of trouble.

After an electric victory over the Washington Commanders for their first win of the season, the Bears fell to the Minnesota Vikings 19-13 on Sunday and may have lost quarterback Justin Fields due to a dislocated thumb.

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Fields has shown spurts of great play. He had four touchdown passes in a loss against the Denver Broncos, as well as four touchdown passes against the Commanders. But conversely, he was sacked four times before he left the game on Sunday and added an interception to his total.

Bears legend Mike Singletary appeared on OutKick’s “Don’t @ Me with Dan Dakich” on Monday and expressed some optimism that Fields will eventually get things sorted out.

“I’ve learned that watching something from a distance you never really quite know the story, and I think Justin Fields, when I look at him, I see a quarterback that has a great future, if he could just get the pieces around him and have a little time,” Singletary told Dakich. “I think he’s gonna be special.”

RAIDERS’ ADAM BUTLER ‘UPSET’ BILL BELICHICK SILENT TOWARD HIM: ‘FELT DISRESPECTED’

Fields is in his third season with the Bears. He had his best year in 2022, when he threw for 2,242 yards and 17 touchdowns, as well as running for 1,143 yards and eight touchdowns. He received some NFL MVP votes, finishing tied for ninth with a few other players.

Singletary said Fields just needs time for his greatness to come to fruition.

“I really think, more so than time, it is being in a system long enough,” he said. “Sometimes a guy has different coordinators — when that changes, it kinda sets the clock back. I just think for Justin, just like any other quarterback, it’s just — there’s a time that’s gonna come into place as long as he continues to work, one day it’s gonna come together. Hopefully, sooner than later.”

This season thus far, Fields has thrown for 1,201 yards and 11 touchdowns. He also has 237 rushing yards and a touchdown on the ground.

With Fields’ latest injury, Chicago head coach Matt Eberflus said the quarterback is doubtful to play in the Bears’ upcoming game against the Las Vegas Raiders.

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On Oct. 13, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced that they had entered the outskirts of the Gaza Strip. As a Palestinian refugee myself, Israel’s forthcoming liberation of the Gaza Strip is long overdue. 

Hamas perpetrated a massacre when they violated Israel on Oct. 7, and in a spree of bloodcurdling violence, they tortured and raped children, women and the elderly, murdering over 1,300 and taking an estimated 150 hostages to Gaza for continuing abuse.

As a Palestinian, I find the actions of the terrorist group beyond abhorrent. During its brutal invasion, Hamas killed, injured and abducted scores of Muslim Israelis, including Bedouins. 

Hamas, the regime that just committed shocking genocide and used rape as a weapon of war, seized military control of the Gaza Strip from the weak forces of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and local warlords in 2007. Under their regime, LGBTQ+ Palestinians are executed and public music is prohibited. Even as Hamas misgoverns the Strip as a terrorist haven, it is a much-maligned Israel that, until this week, has provided large portions of the energy, food and medical supplies that keep it functioning. 

I’M IN THE FIELD FOR FOX IN JERUSALEM. I’VE SEEN HAMAS HORRORS AND IT HIT ME VERY HARD

Israel never wanted control of Gaza, and between Israel’s independence and 1967, it was controlled by Egypt, which never attempted to create a Palestinian state on its territory. Israel gained control of this territory during the 1967 Six-Day War but unilaterally departed under Ariel Sharon in the disengagement of 2005, withdrawing over 5,000 settlers. 

The beginning of the experiment in Gazan self-government was not auspicious; as soon as the Israelis departed, Palestinian looters stripped and destroyed the greenhouses and other productive enterprises left behind as a goodwill gesture. For the past 18 years, there has not been a single Israeli settler or soldier in Gaza.

Since that time, Hamas has engaged in a series of escalating provocations in short and sharp conflicts, largely featuring rocket attacks rained down on Israeli cities and, in a heartbreaking national trauma, the kidnapping of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in 2006, who remained a hostage to Hamas forces for five years. 

THE GROWING THREAT OF ANTISEMITISM IN AMERICA

In hindsight, this incident was an eerie premonition of the capture and enslavement of innocents that Hamas just carried out on a massive scale. Now, on top of sexual abuse and torture, it is feared that the hostages will be used for the same purposes as Hamas has long used the Gazan people: as human shields to protect Hamas military and political assets.

Take it from a Palestinian perspective, the unforgivable brutality Hamas just displayed against Israelis is what our population has experienced from these cold-blooded murderers and thugs for the past 16 years since they took control of Gaza in 2007. 

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In the days and weeks ahead, innocent Palestinian blood will be on the hands of Hamas as they pay a terrible price for their villainy, as Israel does everything in its power to bring its people home. Don’t fall for the tricks of antisemites perpetrating lies about who is responsible for this war; believe your own eyes and common sense: the raping, torture and murder that Hamas has committed is inexcusable, full stop. 

Gaza’s liberation is long overdue; please, Israel, deliver our people from the wicked power of Hamas.

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The shocking news came just over a week ago, on October 7: Iran’s proxy terror force Hamas had flooded across Israel’s border and within hours had slaughtered hundreds of Israelis.

While the Biden administration was no doubt shocked too, it shouldn’t have been surprised that its relentless appeasement of Iran is now exposed for the folly it is.

Others are noticing as well, which is why Biden is being pressured to re-freeze the $6 billion hostage ransom payment made to Iran last month. A good start perhaps, but it doesn’t address Biden’s months-long Iran sanctions relief campaign totaling more than $50 billion that only emboldened Tehran’s commitment to sponsor terrorism. 

HOUSE REPUBLICAN BILL BACKED BY OVER 100 LAWMAKERS WOULD REFREEZE $6 BILLION IN IRANIAN FUNDS

Congress should now demand an end to all of it, not just the $6 billion. 

Here’s why:

In May, White House Middle East Coordinator Brett McGurk secretly traveled traveled to Oman to pass a message along to Iran: America will pay the Ayatollah’s price to keep Tehran from producing weapons-grade uranium. Later that month, the Sultan of Oman traveled to Iran to broker the deal while the governor of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) — an institution subject to U.S. sanctions for its role in terror financing — unexpectedly departed for Washington. 

In June, leaks to Israeli media revealed the extraordinary concessions Biden made to the Ayatollah: Iran would “stop the process of enriching uranium to high levels” in exchange for sanctions relief.

3 THINGS US MUST DO TO AID ISRAEL AGAINST TERRORIST HAMAS

The Biden administration then issued a sanctions waiver to provide Iran with at least $10 billion frozen in Iraq – and allow the money to be deposited in Iranian bank accounts in Oman. 

Unnamed officials would soon admit the U.S. had already stopped enforcing oil sanctions on Iran – tacitly approving a million barrel per day increase in exports from Iran to China and generating tens of billions in annualized revenue. By the time the administration authorized the much-discussed $6 billion from South Korea, a full-blown appeasement and enrichment effort towards Iran had been underway for months.

BIDEN IS OUR $6 BILLION MIDEAST DISASTER THANKS TO HIS SUPPORT OF IRAN

This is why fixating only on the $6 billion obscures how Biden has financed Iran’s nuclear protection racket, emboldened its murderous regime, and enabled the mullahs to focus their resources on destroying Israel, the one country conducting operations to stop Iran’s quest for nuclear weapons. 

The Biden message sent to the ayatollah is that the U.S. fears escalation and will pay any price to avoid a direct confrontation. That was a green light for Iran to activate its terror subsidiaries and commence the kind of barbaric slaughter we witnessed last week. 

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While Biden’s words condemn Hamas’ heinous crimes against humanity, he continues to enrich Hamas’ parent company, Iran. And while Biden is correctly giving Israel the time, space, and resources it needs to prepare for Hamas’ destruction, he’s simultaneously giving Iran the time, space, and resources it needs to rebuild that which Israel destroys. 

With dozens of Americans living in Israel dead at Hamas’ hands, and many more missing or held hostage in Gaza, how can the president of the United States look those families in the eye and tell them it’s in America’s interest to appease the regime that sponsored this massacre? 

Does the White House still believe it can trust a handshake deal with the ayatollah to stop developing nuclear weapons even after their negotiating partner just sponsored a horrific slaughter?

Put simply, an anti-Hamas policy and pro-Iran policy cannot coexist. Reversing course starts by locking down all funds made available for Iran this year – in Iraq, Oman, and Qatar. It also includes enforcing oil sanctions already on the books, which the White House has refused to do. 

With only days remaining before the U.N.’s missile embargo on Iran expires, too, the administration and our European allies should be pressed to immediately trigger the snapback of all U.N. sanctions on Iran.

But after all that has happened, if the White House still won’t shut down its campaign of Iran appeasement, the Congress should show them how. 

Richard Goldberg is senior advisor at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a former National Security Council official.

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Everything is bigger in Texas — including the appetite for corn dogs.

The cornmeal-battered, deep-fried frankfurters are an all-American culinary curiosity, associated largely with state fairs from coast to coast. 

Nowhere is this passion for the classic state-fair fare more obvious, perhaps, than at the State Fair of Texas in Dallas, where the Fletcher family has been slinging crunchy-on-the-outside hot wieners since 1942. 

CELEBRITY CHEF ROBERT IRVINE SHARES HIS RIB ROAST RECIPE FOR THE UPCOMING CHILLY WEATHER SEASON

“It’s a family and a Texas tradition,” third-generation corn dog queen Amber Fletcher of Fletcher’s Original Corny Dogs said on Saturday, Oct. 14, while showing Fox News Digital the inner workings of her fiefdom of frankfurters. 

“They taste like my childhood and they taste like home,” she said.

Hundreds of thousands of Texans apparently feel the same way each year. 

Fletcher’s sold a record 583,000 corny dogs at the 2022 State Fair of Texas. 

The 2023 fair ends this coming Sunday. 

Sales at the 24-day annual festival, dubbed “The Most Texan Place on Earth,” represent 80% of Fletcher’s annual business.

Remarkably, every single one of the half-million-plus corn dogs — corny dogs in Texas parlance — are battered by hand. 

“The cornmeal batter recipe has never changed,” said Fletcher, while pointing to a pallet of commercial-sized cornmeal bags under the tent of one of the Fletcher’s serving stations.

The corn-meal mix is made by Shawnee Mills of Oklahoma. 

Fletcher’s hot dogs also uses a traditional family formula made by Standard Meats, though it has been tweaked over time, the owner said.

MEET THE AMERICAN WHO INVENTED THE ‘CLEAN, WHOLESOME’ CORN DOG

Fletcher’s employs about 200 people at its seven corny dog stands around the fairgrounds. The most famous is right under State Fair of Texas’ 55-foot-tall, booming baritone icon Big Tex.

This past Saturday proved a memorable one, even by the oversized standards of the State Fair of Texas. 

Fox News Digital spoke to Fletcher as festival-goers peered through special glazes to see the solar eclipse overhead.

Three people were shot at the festival later in the day; one man was arrested after an argument turned violent.

“I’m safe and back home,” Fletcher posted that night on Facebook. “Thank you so much everyone for the calls and texts.”

The history of the corn dog is rooted in some all-American ingenuity — and some controversy itself. 

Stanley S. Jenkins, a businessman, local politician and part-time inventor from Buffalo, New York, is widely considered the creator of the corn dog. 

He patented the equipment to deep-fry and skewer food in 1929. 

He described, in poetic detail, the incredible culinary delights made possible by his invention.

“I have discovered that articles of food such, for instance, as wieners, boiled ham, hard-boiled eggs, cheese, sliced peaches, pineapples, bananas and like fruit, and cherries, dates, figs, strawberries, etc., when impaled on sticks and dipped in a batter, which includes in its ingredients a self-rising flour, and then deep-fried in a vegetable oil at a temperature of about 390 F., the resultant food product on a stick or a handle is a clean, wholesome and tasty refreshment,” Jenkins wrote proudly on his patent application. 

Oregon hot dog concessionaires George and Vera Boyington trademarked the name Pronto Pup, their version of the corn dog, and began selling them in 1941 at the Pacific International Livestock Exposition in Portland. 

They sold 15,000 Pronto Pups that first year alone, according to the Pronto Pup website. 

The oddity’s success made news even on the East Coast. 

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The Pronto Pup is now most closely associated with the Minnesota State Fair, where more than 25 million have been consumed since 1947, according to Minnesota Public Radio.

The corny dog arrived at the State of Fair of Texas in 1942, courtesy of Neil and Carl Fletcher, who reportedly were unaware of the Oregon Pronto Pup.

Neil Fletcher is Amber’s grandfather; Carl Fletcher is her great-uncle.

“There’s something about the hand-dipped tradition, the fresh corny dog batter, the flavor of the hot dog that people keep coming back for 80 years,” said Fletcher. 

“It’s such a Texas tradition.”

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Twenty years ago this December, President George W. Bush signed the bipartisan Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003. In addition to creating the Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit, the bill created the Health Savings Account (HSA). 

Health Savings Accounts are sometimes criticized as being a tool for the wealthy, but in fact, 78% of the over 31 million Americans with an HSA have a household income of less than $100,000. That’s because the HSA is the most powerful retirement savings vehicle for the middle class ever created – even better than a 401K. 

Not only can the funds in the account be invested in stocks, bonds and funds, but they can also be withdrawn without penalty so long as they are spent on a qualified medical expense. This makes HSAs unique in that both the contributions and disbursements are tax free. 

Since 2004, over $100 billion has been saved tax free in HSAs and, according to a 2022 survey by Heath Equity (who operates HSAs), 63% of people with HSA feel confident they know how much they will need for retirement versus 48% without one. 

AMERICANS SAVE MORE IN HSAS, FIDELITY REPORTS HSA ASSETS EXCEED $16 BILLION

HSAs have also been a success in bringing market forces to health care. The same survey revealed that 65% of people with HSAs comparison shop before purchasing health care, compared to 58% who do not. Notably, the survey was taken before Trump administration price transparency rules went fully into effect. 

These successes notwithstanding, after two decades, it is time to update and modernize HSAs.

For instance, ObamaCare has driven up deductibles for high deductible health plans (HDHPs) well past the annual HSA contribution limit of $3,600, and even plans that do not qualify as HDHPs still come with significant out-of-pocket costs. 

More fundamentally, it is time to extend the benefits of HSAs to more people. Only 30% of Americans with employer provided insurance are eligible for HSAs, and the low-income populations that could benefit the most from the powerful savings advantages of HSAs are shut out from accessing them if they are enrolled in Medicaid. 

Fortunately, the House Ways and Means Committee advanced two bills recently that will significantly expand the benefits of HSAs to those currently with accounts and expand access to those benefits to more people. 

The HSA Modernization Act would allow significantly more people to own and contribute to an HSA. Currently, only individuals who are covered by a high-deductible health plan are allowed to own an HSA. This proposal would expand HSA eligibility by allowing individuals covered by Medicare, the Veterans Administration, the Indian Health Service, and ACA bronze and catastrophic plans to enroll in HSAs.

BIDENOMICS IS A BIG PROBLEM FOR SENIORS

The bill would also allow individuals to save more money every year for their health expenses. The proposal would double the amount of money Americans can contribute to HSAs from $3,850 for individuals and $7,750 for families to $7,500 and $15,000, respectively.

The HSA improvement Act would also empower individuals to gain access to innovative new health care arrangements. Under current law, the IRS prohibits HSA funds from being used for direct primary care (DPC) expenses. DPC is a subscription-based care model that improves patient health and lowers costs. This bill would repeal this harmful prohibition on DPC. 

The HSA Improvement Act also removes many of the bureaucratic penalties that prohibit married couples from utilizing their HSAs as a family unit and increase the range of mental health services eligible to be used with HSAs.

These two bills are significant steps forward. The House should pass the bills and send them to the Senate. But there is more to be done. 

Most importantly, we should extend the benefits of HSAs to low-income Americans. We can do so by allowing low-income Americans enrolled in Medicaid and ACA exchange plans to receive their Medicaid and ObamaCare subsidies as an HSA contribution. 

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We should expand upon a 2019 Trump administration IRS rule change that classified many health care services needed by people with chronic conditions as preventative services. This was an important change because preventative care is allowed to be covered by HDHPs before reaching the deductible. This makes HDHPs and the associated HSAs more attractive and practical for people with chronic diseases, and gives people with preexisting conditions additional protections. 

We should also explore allowing HSA funds to pay insurance premiums in the individual market. This would give Americans much more flexibility when changing or leaving jobs to find and afford coverage during the transition. 

The first step would be to remove all restrictions on HSA ownership, to allow any American, regardless of insurance status, to open an HSA, not just those with a HDHP. We should also find ways to synergize HSAs with Health Reimbursement Accounts (HRAs), such as allowing employees to transfer some of their remaining HRA funds to their HSA when changing jobs. 

There is no doubt that the U.S. health care market needs fixing. However, it wasn’t broken overnight, and it can’t be fixed overnight. The growth of Health Savings Accounts in America over the past 20 years is a positive step in the direction of a more patient and doctor driven system that improves quality of care and lowers costs. 

Passing the HSA Modernization Act and the HSA Improvements Act, along with additional reforms, will ensure continued progress for the next 20 years. 

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Bobby Jindal was the governor of Louisiana from 2008-2016. He chairs the Center for a Healthy America at the America First Policy Institute.

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The strange saga of an Alabama woman who faked her own kidnapping this summer came to a close last week as she received a one-year jail sentence. From the focus of concern and sympathy to facing incarceration and being maligned as a fabulist, 26-year-old Carlee Russell is the latest hoaxer to capture national attention.

Ted Williams, a Fox News contributor and former homicide detective, said these kinds of hoaxes are both frustrating to law enforcement and also hurtful to true crime victims. He added that “attention” is the primary motive for those who have committed these kinds of acts, the most famous being Jussie Smollett in 2019.

“Law enforcement officers will tell you that as demoralizing as investigations of victims faking crimes are, they still conduct each investigation to its conclusion,” Williams told Fox News Digital. “The primary reason for faking crimes are individuals desperately seeking attention. Fake victims of crimes are occurring more and more in present day society because of the rise of social media and other means of mass communications that gives these fake victims of crime the attention and platform they so desire.”

ALABAMA JUDGE ISSUES RULING IN CARLEE RUSSELL HOAX CASE

Hoover Municipal Court Judge Thomas Brad Bishop last week found Russell guilty on charges of false reporting of an incident and false reporting to law enforcement, both misdemeanors. The state recommended one year in jail, the maximum, which is six months for each charge. They also recommended a fine of $831 and restitution of $17,974.88.

Russell’s attorney Emory Anthony told reporters they would appeal the jail sentence but accepted the restitution payment. Anthony didn’t respond to an additional request for comment.

Russell dialed 911 on July 13 at around 9:34 p.m. to report a toddler walking along the southbound side of Interstate 459 near Birmingham, according to the Hoover Police Department. After the 911 call, Russell called a relative and then went to check on the alleged child, called her family to report she was checking on the youngster and then lost contact while the line remained open.

That started a media frenzy and frantic search for her, but she returned home on July 15 at around 10:45 p.m. near where police say she was seen walking along the sidewalk beforehand. She later claimed to police that she had been abducted and had managed to escape.

But police were unable to verify her claims, and in a statement Russell eventually made through her attorney to the police department, she admitted to never seeing a child on Interstate 459. Before that, more than $60,000 was donated to Crime Stoppers to help in the search for her, according to the New York Post. She also admitted to not being kidnapped and was slapped with false report charges.

CARLEE RUSSELL’S EX-BOYFRIEND BREAKS SILENCE AFTER ALABAMA WOMAN’S DISAPPEARANCE HOAX

“My client did not have any help in this incident. This was a single act done by herself,” the statement said. “My client was not with anyone or any hotel with anyone from the time she was missing. My client apologizes for her actions to this community, the volunteers who were searching for her, to the Hoover Police Department and other agencies as well and to her friends and family.” 

“I would love to say what Ms. Russell did was something new to the criminal justice system,” Williams told Fox News Digital. “We have found through the years that there are individuals who will make up criminal acts that never took place and as a result of that, they have a way of burdening the system.”

Hoover Police Chief Nick Derzis scolded Russell in a statement in August for creating unneeded “panic and alarm.”

“Her decisions that night created panic and alarm for citizens of our city and even across the nation as concern grew that a kidnapper was on the loose using a small child as bait,” he said, according to the Associated Press. “Numerous law enforcement agencies, both local and federal, began working tirelessly not only to bring Carlee home to her family but locate a kidnapper that we know now never existed. Many private citizens volunteered their time and energy in looking for a potential kidnapping victim that we know now was never in any danger.”

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