Category: US

Wisconsin parents spoke out forcefully Thursday night after a supposed “clerical error” threatened the seat of a conservative school board member. 

During a virtual board meeting for the Kenosha Unified School District, numerous parents rushed to defend Eric Meadows, who ran for office on the platform of parental rights.

“It is convenient that you are going to remove the most outspoken member of our board who speaks for the parents and answers parents’ emails,” one woman said, with another parent accusing the board of “railroading” Meadows and another calling for the board president to step down instead for the “egregious error.”

Meadows was told the vacant seat he won in 2022 was misrepresented as a three-year term instead of one year and he would have to step down in the spring. After hearing from supportive parents, the board voted 5-1 to give Meadows a one-year term.

Meadows joined “Fox & Friends” Friday to discuss the “clerical error” that threatened his seat on the school board.

OUSTED CONSERVATIVE SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER SLAMS ‘SUSPICIOUS’ TIMING OF ‘CLERICAL ERROR’ ENDING HIS TENURE

Eric Meadows is fighting to keep his seat on the Kenosha Unified School District board after a clerical error threatens to remove him after serving one year. (Fox News)

“It took me completely by surprise,” Meadows said. 

“It shocked me and it disappoints me. I think the voters are upset. Obviously, there’s a lot that have been speaking out on my behalf demanding that the voters’ intent be fulfilled and that I stay on the board for a full three years.”

Meadows’ attorney, Erick Kaardal, called the error an “unconstitutional power grab” and the district got called out on it. Kaardal said this was a major “election integrity violation” and that the board was going to appoint a replacement until an election could be held. 

“The community is very upset with the ineptitude of some of these mistakes that have been made. They’re forcing me to be punished for a mistake that somebody else made,” Meadows said. 

Whether he will serve three years is still up for debate, but Meadows had a decisive victory at Thursday’s virtual meeting.

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“We’re going to make sure Mr. Meadows serves the full three-year term he was elected to,” Kaardal added.

Fox News’ Taylor Penley contributed to this report. 

A Los Angeles man has been charged after he allegedly hijacked the Instagram accounts of female social media influencers, defrauding them and their friends and extorting them for money and sexually explicit video chats.

Federal prosecutors say Amir Hossein Golshan, 24, used a technique known as “SIM swapping” to fraudulently induce phone carriers to reassign his victims’ cellphone numbers to a phone he controlled. 

After obtaining control of the victims’ phone numbers, prosecutors allege, Golshan reset the password and codes for the victims’ social media accounts and sent them to a device he controlled. He faces charges of aggravated identify theft and two counts of wire fraud, among others.

Golshan has been in jail since his arrest Feb. 2. His arraignment was scheduled for Friday morning in United States District Court, the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Central District of California said in a statement. 

SUSPECT CONFESSES TO MURDER OF LA BISHOP, PROSECUTOR SAYS

Instagram app shown on an iPhone home screen (CyberGuy.com)

According to prosecutors, after SIM swapping their phone numbers, Golshan logged into his victims’ social media accounts and impersonated them to their online friends, requesting their cell phone numbers and stealing their accounts. Prosecutors say Golshan demanded money from his victims to restore their accounts, collecting approximately $15,000 in the process.

In one incident, an LA-based model and social media influencer, identified as “Victim 1,” said she received a direct message on Instagram from an account owned by one of her friends that asked for her phone number. After providing her number, Victim 1 found that her phone no longer connected to her cellphone network. Her carrier notified her via email that her account had been changed from her personal iPhone to a different iPhone number she did not recognize.

LA DA GASCON SUSPENDS PROSECUTOR FOR MISGENDERING AND ‘DEADNAMING’ TRANS CHILD MOLESTER ACCUSED OF MURDER

Illustration of a hacker (iStock)

It took the victim about two hours to regain control of her phone, only to find out she could not access her Instagram account because the password had been changed. In the meantime, Golshan was allegedly impersonating her on Instagram for an entire day and extorting her friends. 

In another case, Golshan SIM swapped a woman identified in court papers as “Victim 3,” took control of her Instagram account and demanded $5,000 from her. Later, he allegedly told the victim he would return her Instagram account if she initiated a video call and stripped for him.

SERIAL LA SEX ASSAULT SUSPECT WITH ‘DISTINCTIVE ODOR’ MET VICTIMS ONLINE, TRIED TO HIDE IDENTITY

A group of people pose for an Instagram selfie. (iStock)

If convicted, Golshan could face up to 20 years in prison for each wire fraud count, up to five years for each computer hacking-related count and a mandatory two-year prison sentence for the single count of aggravated identity theft.  

Golshan’s attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

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The FBI is investigating the matter. 

Assistant United States Attorney Andrew M. Roach of the Cyber and Intellectual Property Crimes Section is the prosecutor assigned to the case. 

TikTok accused the European Commission on Friday of failing to consult it over a decision to ban the Chinese short video sharing app from staff phones on cybersecurity grounds, a move subsequently followed by another top EU body.

The app, which is owned by Chinese firm ByteDance, is facing growing scrutiny from Western authorities over concerns that China’s government could use it to harvest people’s data. Beijing has regularly denied having any such intentions.

The EU executive and the EU Council, which brings together representatives of the member states to set policy priorities, said on Thursday staff will also be required to remove TikTok from personal mobile devices that have access to corporate services.

EUROPEAN UNION EXECUTIVES TEMPORARILY BAN TIKTOK FROM EMPLOYEE’S PHONES AS A CYBERSECURITY MEASURE

TikTok, which has in the past said that data on its service can not be accessed by Beijing, said it had not been told or contacted by either institution ahead of their decisions.

“So we are really operating under a cloud. And the lack of transparency and the lack of due process. Quite frankly one would expect, you know, some sort of engagement on this matter,” Caroline Greer, TikTok’s director of public policy and government relations, told Reuters.

TikTok claims the European Commission did not consult with company representatives before announcing a temporary ban on the app for all of its employees (REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo)

She said she could not respond to the bodies’ cybersecurity concerns because they had not spelled them out.

The European Commission pointed to EU industry chief Thierry Breton’s comments at a news conference on Thursday where he said the EU executive does not have to give reasons for decisions taken to ensure its proper functions.

“To suspend the use of TikTok is a purely internal decision for cybersecurity reasons to protect the Council General Secretariat’s (GSC) data and staff. As the GSC has no contractual relationship with TikTok, there is no obligation to consult or inform them,” an EU official said.

NORWEGIAN JUSTICE MINISTER APOLOGIZES FOR USING TIKTOK ON WORK PHONE

Greer said TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, who met Breton and other commissioners in Brussels in January, was “concerned and a little puzzled”.

“He has always been very available, you know, responding to the Commission … We have reached out for a meeting in whatever shape or form they would like that to happen.”

Other EU institutions should do their own research before making decisions on the app, Greer said.

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TikTok is banned on U.S. Senate employees’ government-owned devices and also in India. The European Parliament has not taken such a step.

North Carolina House Speaker Tim Moore and another lawmaker were unhurt after authorities said a pickup truck struck the sport utility vehicle they were traveling in on a Raleigh-area highway.

The pickup’s driver was charged Friday with impaired driving and other counts after Moore said his driver — a General Assembly police officer — turned on the emergency lights in the unmarked SUV on Thursday evening and followed the truck for several miles before it stopped. Several troopers and sheriff’s cruisers also converged on the road.

The suspect, identified by the state Highway Patrol as James Matthew Brogden, 38, of Goldsboro, was taken to WakeMed hospital for observation before going to the Wake County Detention Center and getting charged, a patrol statement said.

Moore said he, Rep. David Willis of Union County and Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Gurley were returning to Raleigh after a series of events in Wilson. The speaker’s security officer was driving the SUV west on U.S. Highway 64 near Knightdale around 9:30 p.m. when it was rammed from behind at least three times, Moore told reporters at the Legislative Building.

Moore praised his driver, Officer Jason Perdue, for controlling the SUV after it was struck and taking action on the road, which has a 70 mph speed limit. Moore said the truck stopped in the left lane of the highway about 6 miles later.

NORTH CAROLINA BILL THAT WOULD MAKE MEDICAL MARIJUANA CONSUMPTION LEGAL SET TO REACH SENATE NEXT WEEK

The North Carolina House Speaker and a lawmaker were uninjured after their SUV was struck on a Raleigh-area highway.

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“Thank God we’re all just all right,” Moore said, adding he saw nothing to indicate that he or his vehicle was targeted due to politics or his role in government. The General Assembly-owned SUV’s license plate resembles a private owner’s plate, with none of the specialized numbering that lawmakers’ personal vehicle plates receive.

“Many of us have been rear-ended by a car unfortunately in the past,” Moore said, “but when you’re moving at highway speeds and another car approaches you at higher rate of speed and it hits the car … you can imagine the kinds of things that are going through your mind at that point and its intention,” Moore said.

The Highway Patrol said Brogden was charged with several counts including DWI, speeding to elude arrest, hit and run, failure to reduce speed, resisting an officer and property damage. Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman said the case was being reviewed and additional charges are possible if appropriate.

Brogden was released Friday on unsecured bond, with a March 17 hearing set. A person answering the phone listed on a court document as the number belonging to Brogden said it was a wrong number and hung up.

Moore, a Cleveland County Republican now in his 11th term, has been speaker since 2015. Willis is in his second term.

Moore said they had visited Wilson Community College and a downtown revitalization effort and met with a veterans’ advocacy group. Moore said he also attended a campaign reception for a local lawmaker.

There is a poignant, but recognizable thing that happens to powerful men as they decline. They get bursts of irrational energy. An 85-year-old tycoon marries a stripper. On the face of it, the marriage does not make sense. Everybody groans. How is this arrangement going to work out for him really? How about for his children? 

The tycoon doesn’t care. He isn’t thinking long term. He’s reacting against what he feels inside, which is the steady loss of his power as a man. The faster that power recedes, the more frantically he asserts it. He is raging against the dying of the light. These last embarrassing decisions are, in fact, his death throes. It’s sad, really.

Unfortunately, what happens to men also tends to happen to the systems they create. For the last 80 years, our world has been governed by a system formed in the final months of World War II. Its features define our life: free and open global trade routes guaranteed by the U.S. Navy, a universal currency called the dollar and overseeing it all, one supreme power, the world’s largest economy, the United States of America.

ENERGY EXPERTS BASH KAMALA HARRIS OVER DUBIOUS ENERGY PRICE CLAIM: ‘COMPLETELY OUT OF TOUCH’ 

It’s been a great system in most ways, but for many reasons, including the passage of time, that system is dying. What comes next is not entirely clear, but how to influence it to America’s greatest possible advantage is the most important task that faces any U.S. government. Nothing else comes close to that. 

Sadly, the Biden administration, geriatric and irrational in its best moments, is not up to that task. No one in the White House even seems aware that the architecture of the world is changing. They call themselves progressives, but the Biden people think it’s 1961 when American power seemed unlimited. Just today, our elderly Treasury secretary scolded the Chinese government like a tardy servant. Shape up, China. We’ll send you back to the cellar. Watch this.  

JANET YELLEN: We have made clear that providing material support to Russia or assistance with any type of systemic sanctions evasion would be a very serious concern to us, and we will certainly continue to make clear to the Chinese government and to companies and banks in their jurisdiction about what the rules are regarding our sanctions and the serious consequences they would face for violating them.  

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen speaks during a meeting with Zambia’s President Hakainde Hichilema at the State House in Lusaka, Zambia, Jan. 23, 2023. (AP Photo/Salim Dawood)

We’re going to tell them what the rules are. Once they hear the rules, they’ll obey. Janet Yellen seems shocked and outraged that China has decided to align with Vladimir Putin in the war in Ukraine. It’s an outrage. It’s unbelievable. Who could have seen this coming? Well, almost everybody, actually. It was obvious to the world it was going to happen because it was always going to happen if we didn’t force a peace in Ukraine.

But somehow the Biden administration didn’t see this coming. Now that it has happened, now that the world’s largest country has joined with the world’s largest economy, which also has the world’s largest population, in order to fight a war against us, what do we do? Well, if you’re Janet Yellen, you just order them to stop. Stop it, you naughty Chinese, stop it. Otherwise, we will impose some serious consequences on you. We can’t tell you what they are, but trust us, they are serious. They might even include further statements of outrage. So, shape up Chinese people.  

Pretty amazing to watch, a lady who’s never been in a fistfight ordering the Chinese military around like she owns it. You can imagine the laughter in Beijing tonight. Next, we’ll have Admiral Rachel Levine wagging his perky finger at Chairman Xi. Surrender your arms, China, because transwomen are women. It’s all pretty amusing until you realize it’s real. Caught in the middle of a historic global pivot and one of those rare moments when everything changes forever, the Biden administration has decided to live in the past and to pretend that the United States is still capable of imposing unilateral decisions on the rest of the world because we said so. Here’s Joe Biden once again playing Churchill to Putin’s Hitler.  

PRESIDENT BIDEN: Freedom is priceless. It’s worth fighting for as long as it takes and that’s how long we’re going to be with you, Mr. President. For as long as it takes. 

JOHN KIRBY: As the president has said, and we’re going to support Ukraine for as long as it takes.  

KAMALA HARRIS: Again, the United States will continue to strongly support Ukraine, and we will do so for as long as it takes.  

YELLEN: As President Biden has said, we will stand with Ukraine in its fight for as long as it takes. 

CHINA BLAMES US GUN POLICIES FOR GLOBAL VIOLENCE, SAYS AMERICA EXPORTS ‘WOES AND INSTABILITY’ 

Silly, ineffectual buffoons. The world is laughing, the adults are laughing. and in this country it’s a measure of our media’s total corruption that no one ever asks anyone in the Biden administration what the United States is hoping to accomplish in Ukraine. As long as it takes to do what exactly?

Now, the original answer was, well, to push Russia back to where it was a year ago before it invaded Ukraine and that seemed like a reasonable and measurable objective. The public seemed behind that. Then, without fanfare or even official notice, the goal changed and became taking the Russian port of Crimea just because it would be nice to have that. Always, wanted it. Why not take it now?

Then the goal became overthrowing Putin and putting American tanks in Red Square because sure, we could manage Russia once we overthrow the dictator. We’re good at that. We did it in Iraq. We did it in Libya. Now the objective appears to be winning World War III against both Russia and China, a war that would, by definition, include the use of nuclear weapons and the deaths by incineration of hundreds of millions of people. 

At this point, there is no limit to the war in Ukraine. It is all that matters. The war in Ukraine is the focus of the entire U.S. government, all branches, both parties. It is also, as our own economy degrades as huge companies lay off thousands, the war in Ukraine is one of our main expenses. Here’s Janet Yellen to explain.  

YELLEN: Our economic assistance is making Ukraine’s resistance possible by supporting the home front, funding critical public services and helping keep the government running. In the coming months, we expect to provide around $10 billion in additional economic support for Ukraine.  

OK, so just to be clear, in case you weren’t listening carefully, and it’s hard to understand what she’s saying, but we have the transcript, that’s not 10 billion more in war aid. That’s to fund critical services in the government, which is Zelenskyy’s political party, which has banned a Christian denomination and arrested priests. That’s what we’re paying for. And leaving aside the aims, that’s still $10 billion more in tax dollars. That’s on top of the $113 billion that Congress has already approved. That’s $123 billion pledged to Ukraine in a year. And then when you add a thousand other off the book sources of aid, the entire intel world, you’re looking at perhaps $200 billion to Zelenskyy and his wife in 12 months. $200 billion! It’s truly crazy. How much money is that?  

US STATE DEPARTMENT HINTS AT ‘CONSEQUENCES’ IF CHINA PROVIDES LETHAL AID TO RUSSIA FOR UKRAINE WAR 

Well, to make it easier, let’s pretend we’d only spent 100 billion in Ukraine so far. We know we have. What can we do with $100 billion here in the United States. For one thing, and this is kind of in the news recently, we could modernize our rail system to avoid the thousand derailments we have every year and the mushroom clouds over Ohio that sometimes result from them. $100 billion is more than five times the entire discretionary budget of the Department of Transportation. There’s just 13 billion in the DOT’s budget for transit and less than $3 billion for Amtrak. Remember that? The artery that connects the cities on the East Coast. Then there’s the FAA. That’s the government agency that sought to prevent planes from crashing into each other and killing hundreds of Americans.  

The FAA got $20 billion in the last budget. $20 billion! So given that planes seem to be coming very close to hitting each other lately, it might be worth funding the FAA a little more. Oh, but no Zelenskyy’s political party needs it.

And then, of course, with that money, we could do things that matter long term, like building a wall along our southern border. We could build four of them for that. That would save, in addition to a lot of other things, hundreds of thousands of American lives by blocking drug traffickers from entering the country, and then you wouldn’t have a cartel war in Texas and Arizona, which we’re absolutely going to get.  

With $100 billion, we could pay off half the medical debt in the entire country. We could pay for two years of community college tuition for every young person in the United States. We could fund all out-of-pocket expenses for cancer patients for five years. That’s a lot of money. We could do a lot with it. Why isn’t Bernie Sanders doing the math on this? Why isn’t he even talking about it? Why is it left to some right-wing TV show to figure out what could be done with that money domestically? Bernie Sanders is all for saying that money to Ukraine and it turns out most so-called progressives are.  

FOX NEWS POLL: HALF SAY US SHOULD SUPPORT UKRAINE AS LONG AS IT TAKES 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addresses a joint meeting of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington on Dec. 21, 2022. (AP/Carolyn Kaster)

Sandy Cortez, voice of the people, she’s for it, too. It’s fascinating. Of course, we could also keep the money. That’d be useful. We need it. Our national debt is now over $31 trillion. It’s bigger than our GDP. Our debt is bigger than our GDP. In just the last 27 months, the Biden administration has increased the national debt by $7 trillion. How much is that? I mean, it’s an incomprehensible number, but here’s the context. It took 215 years from George Washington to George W. Bush to accrue that much debt. 

Interest payments on that debt have hit more than $400 billion this year. So, according to calculations by Pew, that’s $100 billion more per year than we spent on elementary and secondary education, disaster relief, agriculture and environmental protection combined. Within the next decade, interest costs on the debt will be greater than spending on national defense and Medicaid. Within 30 years interest payments will be the single largest expenditure in the entire federal budget, bigger than Social Security. And a lot of that debt, you should know well over a trillion dollars is owned by China, the country we’re now fighting in Ukraine.  

You see how this works? Most Americans do see how it works and they oppose it. They’re afraid of it. They should be. Polls show clearly they oppose it, but here’s the interesting thing. Neither party in Washington cares what their voters think. Here, for example, is Republican Michael McCaul. He is the Republican Party’s head foreign policy genius in the House, a man completely controlled by the intel agencies, but here he is on television explaining that in a democracy, it doesn’t matter what voters think.  

KAMALA HARRIS DISMISSES UNPOPULARITY AMONG DEMOCRATS AHEAD OF 2024: ‘POLITICAL CHATTER’ 

PAMELA BROWN: And a new poll is showing support among Americans for arming Ukraine is dropping. How concerned, Congressman McCaul, are foreign leaders you’re speaking to that American support for Ukraine, particularly within your own party, is weakening?  

REP. MICHAEL MCCAUL: I would say that support is still very strong and this delegation, this bipartisan, very strong support for Ukraine, I think we’re you’re seeing a split from the administration, though and I have to say, this is bipartisan as well, is that for the past year, we’ve been very slow in getting these weapons in the name of it being too provocative, whether it be stingers, javelins, these short range artillery, now longer range artillery attack ATACMS they can take out the Iranian drones in Crimea and also aviation like F-16. If we put this stuff in from the very beginning of this conflict, a year from now may have been very different.  

You’ll notice that whenever there’s a bipartisan consensus on something in Washington, it’s a bad idea. Usually, it’s the worst idea. There’s no bipartisan consensus on saving middle class America or rescuing rural Americans from fentanyl. There’s no bipartisan consensus on that. Nobody cares. The bipartisan consensus is that we should send the contents of the U.S. Treasury to a corrupt Eastern European country to facilitate World War III

And why is that? Well, the truth is, Washington is so dysfunctional that funding a war, destroying things is like the one thing they can do. And that’s why they love it so much, because they can get something done. Of course, it’s purely destructive.  

PUTIN SAYS CHINA HAS ‘AGREED’ ON PRESIDENT XI JINPING VISITING MOSCOW 

So, we wanted to talk to Congressman Michael McCaul of Texas, the foreign policy genius, more about this. You don’t care what your voters think, really? So, we asked to come on tonight. Why do you support a war that your constituents oppose? How does this benefit the United States? Were you proud that you helped Russia and China align in a bloc that’s more powerful than the United States? Is that good for us? How does that work, Congressman? 

He can’t make it, unfortunately. Congressman Mike Turner can’t come either. He represents Ohio. Senator Mitt Romney of Utah didn’t respond at all. Senators Lindsey Graham and Mitch McConnell were, of course, hard no’s. No way. We’re not going to answer questions. Shut up, we’ll do CNN first. 

You should know that everyone we just mentioned is a Republican. They can’t defend this, of course. Only a very tiny number of Republicans voted to stop this insanity before it destroys the economy of the United States and triggers World War III, and they’ve been punished for it. And a lot of Republicans care because on MSNBC, if you’re against World War III, you’re an agent of Putin. Watch. 

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Russian President Vladimir Putin gestures as he gives his annual state of the nation address in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2023. (Sergei Karpukhin, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

NICOLLE WALLACE: Ten House Republicans voted against military aid for Ukraine, the usual suspects, but I’ll read them out here: Andy Biggs, Dan Bishop, Warren Davidson, Matt Gaetz, Paul Gosar, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Thomas Massie, Ralph Norman, Scott Perry and Tom Tiffany. The point is Marjorie Taylor Greene and Vladimir Putin and too often than I think anyone would like to acknowledge, Tucker Carlson, are all on the same page.  

We’re on Putin‘s side. It’s funny how the people who hate the United States the most, spend the most time tearing it down – oh, it’s tainted by the original sin of slavery. It’s a terrible country! 1619 project – truly hate the United States, are the ones who accuse people trying to save the United States from being destroyed in a pointless war of siding with a foreign dictator. 

Ignore them. They do not speak in good faith. They’re liars.  

Bill France Sr. was born with a mind for business, a gift for people — and a need for speed. 

He turned those passions into a nationwide obsession with stock car racing. 

France founded the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing — NASCAR — 75 years ago this week, on Feb. 21, 1948, in Daytona Beach, Florida. 

NASCAR has grown into the world’s premier stock car racing circuit. “Big Bill,” as he was known, is the unquestioned godfather of the autosport.

MEET THE AMERICAN WHO FOUGHT AND BLED AT THE ALAMO BUT LIVED TO TELL ITS HEROIC TALE: SLAVE JOE

“His story is a great American success story,” NASCAR historian Ken Martin told Fox News Digital. 

“And NASCAR is the great American sport.”

Bill France Sr. in the pre-NASCAR days. France, a native of Washington, D.C., moved to Daytona Beach, Florida, in his 20s, ran an auto shop and raced cars before founding NASCAR in 1948.  (ISC Archives/CQ-Roll Call Group via Getty Images)

Stock cars, at least in the sport’s earliest years, were essentially production-model cars turned into racing vehicles. 

“Bill’s vision was to basically take cars from the assembly line and put them on the racetrack to see who built the better car, the faster car, the more durable car,” said Martin.

“His story is a great American success story.” — NASCAR historian Ken Martin 

“He knew Americans could relate to the vehicles on the racetrack. He also knew he could generate support from Detroit by pitting Chevys against Fords.”

Much as football is a largely American sports phenomenon — other countries dabble in it — stock car racing remains a largely American form of auto competition.

NASCAR LEGEND RICHARD PETTY TAKES ISSUE WITH TEAM OWNERS’ MOVES: ‘IT’S BEEN STRANGE TO ME’

Bill France Sr. was enamored with auto racing as a child and became a master of auto mechanics. He also had a passion for putting his mechanical skills to the test behind the wheels of race cars.

Bill France Sr. looks on from the track he created circa 1959 at the Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida.   (ISC Archives/CQ-Roll Call Group via Getty Images)

“He was a gearhead,” said Martin. “But also a competitor.”

France boasted mechanical knowledge, fearlessness behind the wheel, a towering physical stature (6 foot 5 inches) and a charismatic personal presence. 

He commanded respect from the toughest drivers in the nation — the proverbial backwoods moonshine runners who fueled the early pool of race-car drivers. 

“Well, let’s just say he ‘ran the show,'” NASCAR legend Richard Petty wrote in the foreword to “Big Bill: The Life and Times of NASCAR Founder Bill France Sr.,” a 2015 biography by H.A. Branham. 

“Let’s just say he ‘ran the show.’ — NASCAR legend Richard Petty of Bill France Sr. 

“It was ‘his show’ and I think that everybody that raced in NASCAR for him knew it was ‘his show.'”

“The big man had big dreams,” writes the International Motor Sports Hall of Fame, “and he made them come true.” 

Birthplace of NASCAR

Bill France Sr. was born on Sept. 26, 1909 in Washington, D.C., to William Henry France and Emma (Graham) France, his mother an immigrant from Ireland.

Bill France Sr., was an early open-wheel race driver long before he embraced the future with full-bodied stock cars. Here he shows off this Model T-based sprinter at a track in Maryland in 1931.  (ISC Archives/CQ-Roll Call Group via Getty Images)

He fueled his passion for speed as a teenager by racing his Model T at a wooden track in Laurel, Maryland.

He moved to Daytona Beach, Florida, in 1934 with his wife, Anne (Bledsoe) — a nurse and North Carolina native — plus their year-old son Bill Jr. with only “a set of tools and $25 cash,” according to one origin legend. 

MEET THE AMERICAN WHO WAS THE FIRST PAID PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL PLAYER: PUDGE HEFFELFINGER

All three Frances became transformative figures in NASCAR. 

Anne served as a longtime NASCAR executive. Bill Jr. took over NASCAR from his father, running the circuit from 1972 until 2000. 

Despite arriving in Daytona during the depths of the Great Depression, Bill Sr. landed a job working for local mechanic Saxton Lloyd. It was an opportunity for which France would show his gratitude years later. 

Fans react in 1940 as a driver rolls his car during a stock car race on the Daytona Beach-Road Course. Three races were held on the beach that year and were won by Roy Hall, Bill France (later the founder of NASCAR) and Buck Mathis. A special “ladies only” race was also held; it attracted 13 contestants, including France’s wife Anne. Evelyn Reed won the event.  (ISC Images & Archives via Getty Images)

He opened his own service station and become a prominent local mechanic while racing cars on Daytona Beach. 

The city’s legendary beach-street course raced two miles up the sand, turned on a ramp, then sped two miles back down State Route A1A on pavement before repeating the circuit.

Daytona Beach hosted its first beach-street race in 1936. France finished fifth as a driver, while serving as the pre-race mechanic for winning driver Milt Marion, behind the wheel of a Ford. 

“By 1938 the city realized they were not the best at promoting racing,” said Martin. “They asked France to help promote it.” 

Sports entertainment exploded across America in the years after the war.

World War II interrupted Daytona’s effort to become the hub of stock car racing. 

France put his mechanical abilities toward the war effort.

Before he became “Mr. NASCAR,” Bill France Sr. was a prosperous Daytona Beach garage owner and gasoline retailer. France’s gas station at 316 Main Street was also a haven for area racers anxious to have work performed on their race cars. This 1940s business card shows “Big Bill’s” inventiveness.  (ISC Archives/CQ-Roll Call Group via Getty Images)

“Bill Sr., at age 32, was not eligible for the draft and went to work building ‘subchasers’ at the Daytona Boat Works — a major employer of Volusia County residents,” writes biographer Branham. 

Sports entertainment exploded across America in the years after the war. The NBA was founded in 1946. Pro football expanded to the West Coast the same year when the NFL Rams moved from Cleveland to Los Angeles. 

France added stock car racing to the national menu of sports options.

The rival new All-America Football Conference was also founded in 1946, with familiar franchises such as the 49ers, Browns and Colts soon absorbed by the NFL. 

France added stock car racing to the national menu of sports options.

He led a meeting with other drivers, mechanics and auto enthusiasts in December 1947 at Streamline Hotel in Daytona Beach to make plans for a new professional stock car racing circuit with uniform rules, regulations and standards. 

A series of three meetings convened at the Streamline Hotel in Daytona Beach to establish criteria for professional stock car racing, leading to NASCAR’s formation. On Dec. 14, 1947: Front row, kneeling (L-R), Chick DiNatale, Jimmy Quisenberry, Ed Bruce, Jack Peters, Alvin Hawkins. Back row, standing (L-R), Freddie Horton, Sam Packard, Ed Samples (hidden), Joe Ross, Marshall Teague, Bill Tuthill, Joe Littlejohn, Bob Osiecki, Buddy Shuman, Lucky Sauer (hidden), Tom Galan, Eddie Bland, Bill France Sr., Bob Richards, Harvey Tattersall Jr., Fred Dagavar, Bill Streeter, Jimmy Cox.  (ISC Archives/CQ-Roll Call Group via Getty Images)

NASCAR was formed two months later, with France its chief executive. 

The site of the Streamline Hotel “stands to this day as a racing landmark,” says the NASCAR Hall of Fame. 

‘World Center of Racing’

Daytona was a magnet for speed enthusiasts in the earliest days of the automobile — long before France arrived and even before France was born. 

One of the gas stations Bill France Sr. operated in Daytona Beach, Florida, around the time NASCAR was formed in 1947 is shown here. (ISC Images & Archives via Getty Images)

“On the hard-packed sands of Florida’s east coast, the idea of racing automobiles became a reality in 1903,” writes Michael Hembree in “NASCAR: The Definitive History of America’s Sport.” 

“At Ormond Beach, north of Daytona, wealthy winter visitors to the resort area eyed the long flat beach stretches as an ideal landscape for tinkering with their toys.” 

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The region’s hard, flat beaches made it the perfect proving ground for daredevils of the day, who topped 200 miles per hour in the straight-shot speed efforts.

English racer Sir Malcolm Campbell astounded onlookers by reaching a record speed of 278.6 MPH on Daytona Beach in 1935, propelled over the land by an aircraft engine.

Auto enthusiasts soon found an even better proving ground out west: the Bonneville Salt Flats of Utah. 

The salt flats were harder, straighter and faster, without the inconvenience or even danger of rising tides.

Before the asphalt was laid, Bill France Sr., and members of his NASCAR staff parked these cars on a turn of the under-construction Daytona International Speedway in December 1958. France gambled nearly everything he owned in building the facility that is known as “The World Center of Racing.”  (ISC Archives/CQ-Roll Call Group via Getty Images)

Daytona lost one of its cash cows. It turned to racing as a way to replace the business lost to Bonneville, said Martin.

“Daytona was looking to plug a hole in its economy,” said Ken Martin, when it tapped France to help promote its beach-street races in the 1930s. 

English racer Sir Malcolm Campbell astounded onlookers by reaching a record speed of 278.6 MPH on Daytona Beach in 1935.

He took NASCAR off the beaches in the 1950, pushing the sport into its modern era.

He envisioned, planned and funded the racetrack of the future: Daytona International Speedway.

“France put his plans for the future of racing in Daytona Beach, Florida, in motion on April 4, 1953, with a proposal to construct a permanent speedway facility,” reports the speedway in an online account of its history.

“On August 16, 1954, France signed a contract with City of Daytona Beach and Volusia County officials to build what would become Daytona International Speedway, the ‘World Center of Racing.” 

The 2.5-mile speedway opened in 1959. Among its ground-breaking features: 31-degree banking turns that allowed race cars to maintain dramatic speeds in the turns.

The Daytona infield boasted a 29-acre lake — Lake Lloyd, named in honor of the mechanic who gave France his first job in Daytona. 

NASCAR driver Michael McDowell poses with his team as he competes at the annual Hot Rods & Reels Celebrity Fishing Tournament to benefit The Darrell Gwynn Chapter of The Buoniconti Fund to Cure Paralysis at Daytona International Speedway’s Lake Lloyd, Feb. 18, 2022. Lake Lloyd is named for Saxton Lloyd, a mechanic who gave Bill France Sr. his first job in Daytona. (James Gilbert/Getty Images for The Buoniconti Fund To Cure Paralysis)

France built an even larger track in Alabama, the 2.66-mile Talladega Superspeedway, in 1969.

“He had a vision for building these huge trace tracks, because he knew they’d handle high speeds and attract huge crowds,” said Martin. 

Daytona International Speedway, France’s speedway, remains NASCAR’s premier track. 

The circuit kicks off the new racing season each February with the Daytona 500. It’s also been the site of the sport’s most important events. 

Racing legend Dale Earnhardt won his first Daytona 500 after 20 attempts in February 1998 — “a major event” in NASCAR history by the beloved driver, said Martin.

“Dale Earnhardt’s death was a pivotal moment in (NASCAR) history.” — Ken Martin.

It’s also where Earnhardt was tragically killed in February 2001, on the last lap of the Daytona 500. 

“NASCAR has lost its greatest driver ever, and I personally have lost a great friend,” Bill France Jr., then NASCAR’s chairman, said in the aftermath.

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Earnhardt’s death was one of the first events that “blew up the internet,” to use a more recent term. The nationwide outpouring displayed over the internet proved Earnhardt’s popularity — and that NASCAR had become far more than just a regional phenomenon.

Dale Earnhardt checks out the view from the newly completed Earnhardt Grandstand during winter testing, two weeks before the Daytona 500, at Daytona International Speedway, Daytona Beach, in this file photo from Feb. 2001. He was killed on the last lap of the Daytona 500 on Feb. 18, 2001.  (Brian Cleary/Getty Images)

The tragedy at Daytona, said Martin, ultimately made NASCAR better and safer.

NASCAR moved the driver’s seat closer to the center of the vehicle, built a “cocoon” around the drivers, mandated head restraints and built soft-barrier walls to absorb some of the impact of a crash. 

“Earnhardt’s death was a pivotal moment in our history,” said Martin. “It made everyone refocus on safety.”

‘Something to do with all of this’

Bill France Sr. died on June 7, 1992, after battling Alzheimer’s disease. 

He was 82. 

NASCAR today is recognized as the world’s premier stock car racing circuit with a devoted fan base around the nation. 

Races have expanded far beyond NASCAR’s early southeastern base. NASCAR races are held from California to New England, and from Austin to Milwaukee. 

NASCAR founder and former CEO Bill France Sr., left, talks with a U.S. Secret Service agent regarding security for Vice President George H.W. Bush prior to the start of the 1983 Daytona 500 stock car race at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach. Bush served as the race’s honorary starter. (Robert Alexander/Getty Images)

About 2.5 million people attend NASCAR races each year, generating about $200 million in revenue, according to industry data. Millions more watch each race on television.

NASCAR inked an $8.2 billion, 10-year deal with Fox Sports and NBC Sports in 2015. 

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NASCAR was briefly publicly traded, but is once again run by the France family. 

“Big Bill” has enjoyed countless honors in the sports world. 

NASCAR founder and president Bill France Sr. walking down the raceway at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona, Florida, on Feb. 16, 1968.  (Eric Schweikardt /Sports Illustrated via Getty Images)

He’s a member of the International Motorsports Hall of Fame, the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America, the Automotive Hall of Fame, the Daytona Beach Stock Car Racing Hall of Fame and — of course — the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

“I think Bill Sr. would be proud of NASCAR today, proud of the fact that his son took it one step further than he did and proud that his grandson has taken it another step further,” Richard Petty wrote in “Big Bill: The Life and Times of NASCAR Founder Bill France Sr.”

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“Now, he wouldn’t have done it the same way, but he would have sat back and told you: ‘Yeah, I had something to do with all of this.’”

To read more stories in this unique “Meet the American Who…” series from Fox News Digital, click here.