Conservative mom reveals alleged vile texts from school board member’s husband

Danielle Bellomo, a mother of three and New Jersey conservative school board member, remembers the moment she first saw the text message that would change her life: “She can’t die soon enough.”

“When I read those words, ‘She can’t die soon enough,’ it stopped me in my tracks,” Bellomo told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview. “I always knew there was disagreement politically, but I never really wrapped my head around the fact that they actually wanted me dead.”

Bellomo, a Marlboro Township Board of Education member, mother of three and longtime community volunteer, is now at the center of a case that has shaken her suburban New Jersey district and sparked outrage across the parental-rights movement nationwide.

A Monmouth County judge this week extended a temporary protective order against Mitesh Gandhi, the husband of another school board member, after reading aloud a series of text messages allegedly written by him. The messages included a group chat titled, “This B—- Needs to Die.”

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In one of the text threads, Gandhi allegedly referred to Bellomo as “a lying c—” and wrote, “Mission is to just let her die by herself lol.”

Another viral message, part of what was dubbed “Nipplegate” in October, appeared to show former board candidate Scott Semaya typing during a public meeting, “Bellomo must be cold — her nips could cut glass right n” with a finger about to press the ‘o’ on his phone’s keyboard. 

Fox News Digital has reviewed screenshots of the alleged messages.

That image spread rapidly online last month, drawing condemnation from parents and even Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who called the comments “wrong and evil.” Two candidates involved in the chat later dropped out of the school board race.

“It surprised me that it reached that level,” Bellomo said. “But it didn’t surprise me that conservatives stand behind one another. The parental-rights movement is strong.”

Bellomo has spent more than a decade volunteering in Marlboro Township schools. She says she ran for the board to support curriculum transparency and parental rights, not to become a target.

“I got involved in the school boards because I’m an active volunteer in our community. I’ve been involved with the parent organization that I account for going on 12 years,” she said. “So I saw the school board as the next step in furthering my involvement in the community and I wanted it to enhance my children’s educational experience while they were in the K-3 district. I never imagined that it would have led to this.”

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The threats changed everything inside her home.

“My son is almost a teenager. He used to go places with his friends — now he asks if someone is going to come to our house,” she said. “My 8-year-old cries if she thinks I have a board meeting. My youngest keeps asking if I’m safe.”

Her oldest son saw the coverage of grown men sharing lewd messages about Bellomo’s body on social media.

“That was humiliating for him,” she said. “He’s a middle-schooler. His friends saw it. It has affected every part of our life.”

According to Bellomo, online hostility in town isn’t new, but she said she believes this has crossed into something far more serious.

“There’s always been Facebook drama, people arguing,” she said. “When I realized that there wasn’t just one, but two different communications and possibly, you know, who knows how many more where one communication is a group chat that was titled, ‘This B—- needs to die,’ and then the other is actually plans and that there’s a mission and the mission is to watch me die or to have me die alone…. It really just takes it to a whole different level. It’s like, this is not just normal disagreement.

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The judge overseeing the protective-order hearing refused to dismiss Gandhi’s request to end the order, allowing Bellomo’s protective order to continue through January, when a full trial will be held. 

Under New Jersey law, a harassment-related protective order can be extended if a judge finds an ongoing risk to the petitioner.

But at the criminal level, Bellomo says the Marlboro Police Department referred the case to the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office, which declined charges.

“I was disheartened, but not surprised,” she said. “We have a Democrat prosecutor. The police recommended charges, but he didn’t follow through.”

Bellomo says the most painful part has been the response, or lack thereof, from her own school district. One of the text threads, she claims, was sent during an in-person board meeting while she sat just feet away.

“Our township has policies. If someone is a threat, they’re not supposed to be allowed on school property,” she said. “Our superintendent, Dr. Michael Ballone, did nothing. Our board president, Brian Cohen, did nothing. They chose not to implement the policies that are already in place.”

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“The Marlboro Township Public Schools (MTPS) takes the safety and security of all board members, staff, students, and families extremely seriously,” Ballone wrote in a statement to Fox News Digital.

“Administration has responded accordingly to Mrs. Bellomo’s concerns, including her expressions of feeling unsafe by working with the Marlboro Police Department, the entity responsible for ensuring all Marlboro residents (including Board members) are protected. We also added to our internal safety protocols which cannot be disclosed publicly,” Ballone added. “MTPS believes in maintaining a secure environment for everyone.”

Two fellow board members, Annette Siewertand Valentina Mendez, were the only colleagues who stepped in, she said.

“They begged the superintendent to protect us,” Bellomo said. “They stood up publicly and asked for action. Nobody else did.”

Bellomo says she has already heard from dozens of women who say her situation has scared them away from public service.

“They say, ‘I could never go through what you’re going through,’” she said. “That’s heartbreaking. Local government should not require you to put your family at risk.”

“I used to go to every school event, every community activity,” she said. “Now I keep the kids home from things. I send my husband inside first to check if people are there who shouldn’t be. My life changed overnight.”

Bellomo said she believes the threats stem from her outspoken advocacy of curriculum and parental rights, issues that have divided school boards across the country.

“I was very transparent during my campaign,” she said. “I stand firmly for parental rights, local control and age-appropriate curriculum. And I’ve pushed back hard on some of the policies coming down from the state.” She added, “I think that made me a target.”

Despite everything, Bellomo said she has no plans to quit the board. 

“I absolutely want to continue,” she said. “This mission is too important. And I hope the district eventually implements the policies that are supposed to protect us.”

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What she wants most, she says, is to remind Americans that disagreement should never turn to calling for violence.

“We should be able to debate. We should be able to disagree,” Bellomo said. “But it should never rise to the level of wanting to hurt someone. We can do better than this.”

Gandhi, Semaya, Cohen and the county prosecutor’s office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Passengers blast ‘scam’ pricing as Amtrak celebrates 34.5M customer trips

As Americans begin their Thanksgiving travels, Amtrak has set a new record.

The company provided 34.5 million customer trips in fiscal year 2025, up 6% year over year.

“There’s a genuine interest in passenger rail travel throughout the country,” said Roger Harris, Amtrak’s president, in an interview with Fox News Digital. 

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“We’re working really hard to put a better product out there every day, increase capacity and get schedules that are more convenient for customers to take,” he also noted. 

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a recent press release that there’s a bright future ahead for transportation and trains.

“Faster trains, more affordable service and extended routes are opening up a new era of American rail,” said Duffy.

Amtrak will be introducing its new Airo trains in 2026, which will provide modern seating, bigger restrooms and a “contemporary food service experience.”

Harris said, “The Airo service that comes out next year is going to be replacing trains that are 50 years old.”

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With Thanksgiving nearly here, Harris said the all-time record they’re seeing embraces holiday travel as well.

“It’s the busiest time of year here at Amtrak,” said Harris. “We ask customers to try to pack light, because the trains are going to be really full.”

Passengers should remember that trains close two minutes before departure, he said. “You don’t want to leave it till the very last minute to get on the train.”

Harris said train travel is not as hectic as flying — there’s no need, for example, to show up two hours before departure. However, travelers should “plan on being there in time and getting on the train before we leave.”

Nearly 82 million people are expected to travel over Thanksgiving, according to AAA.

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Harris said people should book “as soon as” they know their holiday plans. 

“The good thing about Amtrak is that we’re very flexible in terms of our ticketing,” he said. “You’re also able to change your tickets on the app in case something comes up at the last minute.”

So far this month, there has been record cold weather in the East, lake-effect snow around the Great Lakes and unsettled weather across the West, according to FOX Weather.

Harris said Amtrak takes many measures to ensure winter travel is as safe and convenient as possible.

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“We do things like winterize the trains beforehand to make sure that they don’t freeze up,” he said. “That can be a problem in these extreme weather events. We also make sure our stations are properly maintained for things like slips and falls.”

He added, “It goes back to the whole point about being prepared, making sure that people get to the station in plenty of time, so that they don’t risk difficult weather conditions.”

Recently, some customers have taken to social media to call out Amtrak’s pricing.

“Amtrak is a scam,” wrote one individual on X. “Why [are] there $360+ tickets for the same route I paid $25 for yesterday?”

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Another user wrote, “I know Amtrak prices are famously fickle, but I think this is the funniest disparity I’ve ever seen.” The person shared a photo of a $20 train ticket — and another ticket priced at $236.

Harris said that “it’s true that with the tremendous interest we have in train travel today, trains are really full and that does have the impact of driving up prices.”

He also noted the company’s flexible pricing structures.

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“If you can travel on trains at less popular times a day, you can save money. So, we really suggest that people shop around before they buy their ticket.”

‘I feel so cheated’: JFK’s granddaughter faces rare terminal cancer at 35

Former President John F. Kennedy’s granddaughter, Tatiana Schlossberg, announced Saturday — exactly 62 years after JFK was assassinated — that she has terminal cancer.

The 35-year-old said she was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia, with a rare mutation called Inversion 3, soon after the birth of her daughter in May 2024, and doctors recently told her she probably has about a year to live.

“My first thought was that my kids, whose faces live permanently on the inside of my eyelids, wouldn’t remember me,” she wrote in an essay for The New Yorker. “My son might have a few memories, but he’ll probably start confusing them with pictures he sees or stories he hears.”

She said she “didn’t ever really get to take care of my daughter — I couldn’t change her diaper or give her a bath or feed her, all because of the risk of infection after my transplants. I was gone for almost half of her first year of life. I don’t know who, really, she thinks I am, and whether she will feel or remember, when I am gone, that I am her mother.”

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She said the diagnosis was shocking because she felt perfectly healthy.

“I did not — could not — believe that they were talking about me,” she wrote of the first talk of leukemia. “I had swum a mile in the pool the day before, nine months pregnant. I wasn’t sick. I didn’t feel sick. I was actually one of the healthiest people I knew.”

She said the cancer is mostly seen in older patients, and doctors frequently asked her if she had spent much time at Ground Zero in New York City. She had not.

Schlossberg, the daughter of Caroline Kennedy, JFK’s oldest surviving daughter, described in heartbreaking detail her months on end of different treatments to beat the cancer.

She went through a round of chemotherapy to “reduce the number of blast cells in my bone marrow,” then received a bone marrow transplant with the help of her sister.

She said after she went into remission and went home, she had no immune system and had to get all of her childhood vaccines again.

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Then she relapsed, her doctor telling her that leukemia with her mutation “liked to come back.”

At the beginning of the year, she joined a clinical trial of CAR-T-cell therapy, “a type of immunotherapy that has proved effective against certain blood cancers.”

That was followed by another round of chemotherapy and a second blood transfusion from an unrelated donor.

“During the latest clinical trial, my doctor told me that he could keep me alive for a year, maybe,” she wrote.

She also wrote of her concerns after her cousin, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whom she called an “embarrassment,” was nominated as secretary of Health and Human Services.

“Suddenly, the health-care system on which I relied felt strained, shaky,” she wrote. “Doctors and scientists at Columbia [Presbyterian hospital], including [her husband] George, didn’t know if they would be able to continue their research, or even have jobs.”

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She praised the rest of her family, whom she said sat at her bedside while she endured treatments and took care of her children.

Of her husband, urologist George Moran, she wrote, “He is perfect, and I feel so cheated and so sad that I don’t get to keep living the wonderful life I had with this kind, funny, handsome genius I managed to find.”

Her brother Jack Schlossberg, who is running for congress in New York, wrote on his Instagram on Saturday, “Life is short, let it rip.”

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Her mother’s cousin, Maria Shriver, shared the essay on Instagram, writing, “If you can only read one thing today, please make take the time for this extraordinary piece of writing by my cousin Caroline’s extraordinary daughter Tatiana. Tatiana is a beautiful writer, journalist, wife, mother, daughter, sister, and friend.”

Tatiana added in her essay, “For my whole life, I have tried to be good, to be a good student and a good sister and a good daughter, and to protect my mother and never make her upset or angry. Now I have added a new tragedy to her life, to our family’s life, and there’s nothing I can do to stop it.”

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Robert F. Kennedy Sr., her mother Caroline Kennedy’s uncle, was assassinated five years after JFK, and along with having two siblings who died in infancy, Caroline’s only surviving brother, JFK Jr., died in a plane crash in 1999.

Schlossberg’s grandmother, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, also died of cancer in 1994 of non-Hodgkin lymphoma when she was 64.

She finished her essay by saying she lives to be with her children now.

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“But being in the present is harder than it sounds, so I let the memories come and go,” she admitted. “So many of them are from my childhood that I feel as if I’m watching myself and my kids grow up at the same time.

“Sometimes I trick myself into thinking I’ll remember this forever, I’ll remember this when I’m dead. Obviously, I won’t. But since I don’t know what death is like and there’s no one to tell me what comes after it, I’ll keep pretending. I will keep trying to remember.”

Missouri educator who traded drugs for student encounters gets decade behind bars

A former substitute teacher in Missouri was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Wednesday after she was accused of giving students money, alcohol and drugs in exchange for sex.

Carissa Jane Smith, 31, of Dixon, was arrested last November on 19 counts, including statutory rape and sexual contact with a student, the Pulaski County Sheriff’s Office said at the time.

In September, Smith pleaded guilty to lesser charges of one count of endangering the welfare of a child, and two counts of sexual contact with a student, KRCGTV reported.

Smith worked in the Dixon School District as a paraprofessional and long-term substitute, the district said in a statement following Smith’s arrest last year. She resigned in August 2024.

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Smith would offer students money, marijuana and alcohol in return for sex or to allow her to perform oral sex, the sheriff’s office said in a probable cause statement.

Smith would allegedly meet with the victims at isolated places or while her husband was away for work.

Victims told investigators that Smith would have sex with them at her home or other locations “such as gravel roads or on the side of the road,” the sheriff’s office said. One victim said Smith asked him to have sex with her when he was in middle school.

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The victims told investigators that Smith told them not to tell anyone about their encounters or else she could get into trouble.

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One victim said Smith’s husband threatened them with a baseball bat after she told him they were trying to blackmail her with a video of her smoking marijuana with students, USA Today reported, citing the probable cause statement.

Smith’s sentence includes six years in the Missouri Department of Corrections for the charge of endangering the welfare of a child, and two years each for the sexual contact charges.

New car prices soar to historic high as buyers face mounting sticker shock

Car prices are trending up and the average cost of a new car is at an all-time high, approaching the $50,000 mark for the first time.

The average transaction price for a new vehicle in October was $49,105, according to data from Edmunds. That represents a year-over-year increase of 3.1%.

“This has been something that we’ve all been waiting for, I don’t think anyone was ever expecting the number to go down,” Ivan Drury, director of insights at Edmunds, told FOX Business. “It coincided with a high share of EVs being sold, so naturally, EVs being more expensive it kind of pushed us over the edge.”

“Strip all that away, there’s virtually no vehicle you can buy today that is cheaper than it was from last year, two years ago, five years ago,” Drury said. “The average age of trade-in toward a new car is like five and half to six years old right now. People who bought in 2020 and 2019, and especially 2019 for prices, they’re definitely in for sticker shock.”

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“If you’re a customer with a trade-in, and you haven’t been to the dealership for anything other than service in six years, you’re going to be floored by seeing the average transaction price being nearly $10,000 more than the last time you bought,” Drury added.

Average monthly payments on new vehicles sold in October saw a similar increase of 3.2% from a year ago and amount to $766 per month. Interest rates ticked slightly lower, as the average APR declined from 7% to 6.9% in October.

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Drury said there has been a noticeable downward trend with interest rates on new auto loans below 7% for the first time since last December, but noted that car shoppers with a six-year-old car likely had a loan that was around 4% or 5% – meaning a new auto loan will be noticeably more expensive to finance.

“The average interest paid over the life of a loan today, your average amount to be financed at $43,000; a 72-month term is the most frequent; you’re looking at like $9,500 in interest alone – so you’re not even paying for the car at that point, that’s a privilege to borrow,” Drury said.

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Auto dealers have increased the average discount available to buyers, though those have offered modest relief. The average discount was $1,985 in January, hit its highest level of the year to date at $2,262 in June, and was $2,240 in October.

“For dealerships, they are resorting back to providing discounts. They are getting money from automakers to put cash on the hood,” Drury said.

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“The average vehicle is sitting on a lot for about 60 days, which is considered acceptable for industry standards. But it also touches upon time on the lot, which dealers don’t want them sitting there that long because, while it’s acceptable – optimal is, of course, lower, the fewer days on the lot, the better for them,” he said.

CNN panel spars over lawmakers who told troops to ‘refuse illegal orders’

A CNN panel nearly erupted Thursday night as host Abby Phillip and her liberal guests clashed with conservative radio host Ben Ferguson over a video featuring Democratic lawmakers urging U.S. service members to disobey “unlawful” orders.

During the exchange, Ferguson insisted that the Democratic lawmakers were asking service members to disobey President Donald Trump’s orders in the video, prompting backlash from liberals on the panel and Phillip accusing him of lying.

“You cannot sit here and lie about that same video. That doesn’t work,” Phillip told Ferguson, pointing out that the lawmakers never explicitly told military members to disobey Trump.

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Six Democratic lawmakers — including Sens. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., and Mark Kelly, D-Ariz. — appeared in a one-minute online video Tuesday that urged military and intelligence community members to consult their consciences and refuse to obey “illegal” orders. 

The six lawmakers invoked their prior service while telling their audience that “the threats to our Constitution are coming from right here at home.”

Directly calling out the Trump administration, they added, “This administration is pitting our uniformed military and intelligence community officials against American citizens.”

“You must refuse illegal orders,” the lawmakers declared. 

Trump saw the video as a call to defy him and his Secretary of War Pete Hegseth.

Trump responded to the video on Thursday with a Truth Social post that stated, “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!” 

Progressives claimed Trump’s post amounted to a death threat against the six lawmakers.

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During the CNN panel, Ferguson called it a “ridiculous video that was put out by Democrats telling people in uniform to defy the president of the United States of America.” 

The comment sparked an uproar at the table, with panelists, like liberal political influencer Leigh McGowan, who insisted the video never made that claim.

The CNN host tried to stump her conservative guest: “But Ben, we just laid out that the video says you should not follow illegal orders. Do you think that members of the military should follow illegal orders?”

Ferguson said, “I think it’s pretty clear that this was an obvious video that was put out without any issue around it, saying, if you don’t like what the president’s doing — “

Phillip cut him off, saying, “That’s literally not what it says.”

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Former Biden advisor Neera Tanden jumped into the fray, telling Ferguson, “You’re not telling the truth.” The two began raising their voices as they sparred with each other.

Phillip rebuked Ferguson, stating, “The more you say it, it does not make it more true.” 

“You’re actually lying,” Tanden added.u

“We just played for people at home exactly what the video says,” Phillip said, adding, “Do not sit here and lie about that same video.”

Ferguson tried to respond, but Phillip interjected.

“The video did not say that they should defy the orders of the president,” she said. “It said that you cannot follow illegal orders. That’s in the Military Court of justice.”

Phillip has frequently fact-checked conservative guests on her show. In a recent interview with former MSNBC host Joy Reid, she said part of her job is correcting conservative guests who share misinformation or conspiracy theories.

“I mean, half my job sometimes is knowing what the latest conspiracy is. Yeah. So that if it comes up, I’m ready to address it. Because it happens a lot where people don’t even know that what they’re saying or what they’ve seen and believe is not true,” she said. 

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When asked for comment on Phillip’s remarks, the White House shared a clip of White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt telling reporters, “You have sitting members of the United States Congress, who conspired together to orchestrate a video messaged to members of the United States military — to active duty service members, to members of the national security apparatus — encouraging them to defy the president’s lawful orders.”

Leavitt added, “The sanctity of our military rests on the chain of command, and if that chain of command is broken, it can lead to people getting killed, it can lead to chaos. And that’s what these members of Congress, who swore an oath to abide by the Constitution, are essentially encouraging.”