Now, Erika is standing up for her rights as a victim.
CEO and Chair of the Board of Turning Point USA Erika Kirk speaks at the Turning Point’s annual AmericaFest conference, in remembrance of late right-wing political activist Charlie Kirk, in Phoenix, Arizona on December 21, 2025. (Photo by Olivier Touron / AFP via Getty Images)
According to paperwork filed by her attorney, Jeffrey Neiman, Erika is pushing back against delay tactics from Robinson’s legal team and invoking her right to a speedy trial.
“The Utah Code affords victims of a crime ‘the right to a speedy disposition of the charges free from unwarranted delay caused by or at the behest of the defendant,’” Neiman wrote, according to Yahoo! News.
“This Court is tasked with the critically important function of ensuring the Defendant has a fair trial, but this Court must also do so while balancing Mrs. Kirk’s right to a speedy trial and therefore this Notice invokes Mrs. Kirk’s rights under applicable Utah Code.”
Robinson appeared in court on Friday, but he did not enter a plea.
Tyler Robinson, accused of fatally shooting Charlie Kirk, appears during a hearing in Fourth District Court on December 11, 2025 in Provo, Utah. (Photo by Rick Egan-Pool/Getty Images)
During his most recent hearing, prosecutors said that they’d completed about 90 percent of the discovery process — meaning they’re just about ready to go to trial.
Robinson, however, hasn’t even faced a preliminary hearing.
Many were disappointed when he once again remained silent in court.
Kirk has mostly remained silent on the subject of Robinson, and this is the first time that she has taken any legal action with regard to his case.
Turning Point USA CEO Erika Kirk, widow of late right-wing political activist Charlie Kirk, speaks during Turning Point’s annual AmericaFest conference in Phoenix, Arizona on December 18, 2025. (Photo by Olivier Touron / AFP via Getty Images)
In the months since, countless conspiracy theories have emerged from media figures and social media users who believe either that Robinson did not act alone, or that he’s being scapegoated.
Erika has asked the rumor merchants to stop spreading misinformation, but other than that, she’s remained silent regarding the details of the case.
Stepping into a new role as CEO of Turning Point USA, Erika has been everywhere in recent months, hosting rallies, visiting the White House, and sitting for countless interviews.
Some say she’s exploiting her husband’s death. Others say she’s honoring his memory.
Whatever the case, she’ll likely be even more visible when Robinson’s trial eventually gets underway.
NOTN- Lawmakers, their families and members of the public are invited to gather today at Centennial Hall for the annual legislative welcome, marking the opening day of the Alaska Legislature.
The reception is hosted by the Alaska Committee with support from Travel Juneau, the City and Borough of Juneau and dozens of local businesses. Organizers say the event has been held for nearly three decades and is intended to offer a bipartisan welcome to legislators arriving in the state’s capital for the session.
“The Alaska committee was formed in 1995 and we’ve been doing the reception just about since the very beginning.” Said Wayne Jensen from the Alaska Committee, ”We want all the local community members to come and say hi and welcome to the Capital City. It’s their Capital City.”
According to Jensen, being the Capital City is both a privilege and a responsibility.
“’That responsibility is to be as friendly as we can, and as hospitable as we can and make everything work well for the legislators and the State government.” Said Jensen.
Travel Juneau, the city’s marketing organization, assists with coordination for the event, including catering and use of Centennial Hall, according to Liz Perry of Travel Juneau.
“What we do is, we’re your front and center alongside the Alaska committee, to help make those invitations for people to come down and visit the Capitol, take a look at the building itself. The building is historic, and have a chance to talk with their legislators, if they have not had the opportunity to do so in their hometowns, and promote this as a great Capital City.” Perry said.
Organizers said the welcome also serves as an opportunity to promote in-state travel, noting that many Alaskans from other regions, even Anchorage and Fairbanks, have never visited Southeast Alaska or the Capitol.
Local businesses and organizations will contribute food, gift bags and promotional items for legislators and staff. The city also participates by providing passes to local amenities such as Eaglecrest Ski Area, city pools and public transit.
“We prepare a bag for each one of the offices, and it’s just a way to say welcome to Juneau.” Perry said, “So it can be anything from artwork to books to candy, or an offer of some kind. And we look forward just to saying thank you to our legislators.”
Snow falls around the Alaska State Capitol in Juneau on Dec. 31, 2025. (Photo by Claire Stremple/Alaska Beacon)
Alaska schools, students and education funding will continue to be in focus in the 2026 legislative session set to begin on Jan. 20, but early signs show they are unlikely to be at the center of the political spotlight as they were last year.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy will not be pursuing education policy changes this year, according to a spokesperson with his office on Friday. Instead, he will focus on a state fiscal plan and the proposed development of the Alaska LNG gas pipeline, his office said.
Those policy changes were at the heart of Dunleavy’s objection to increased education funding last year, and he said they were essential to boosting student achievement. He called a special session in August for lawmakers to address his policy items, but legislators took no action other than overriding two of his vetoes.
One of those veto overrides was an historic win for education advocates: it restored a $700 increase to per student funding, known as the base student allocation, adding $50.6 million in education funding to the state’s budget.
Yet many Alaska school districts continue to face steep budget deficits, and struggle to address the rising cost of operations, school maintenance, teacher retention and lost of federal funding. The Anchorage School District — the state’s largest district — is grappling with an $80 million shortfall, however the district and the union representing teachers reached a tentative agreement over the weekend on a new three-year contract. There may also be changes on the federal level because the Trump administration has promised to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education.
Sen. Löki Tobin, D-Anchorage, and chair of the Senate Education Committee, said it is still unclear whether lawmakers will again take action this year to increase education funding through the base student allocation. Tobin also co-chairs the special task force on education funding created this year.
“It is difficult to know what the body is willing to do at this point in time,” Tobin said, as lawmakers are in transit back to Juneau this week, and caucuses are meeting to discuss policy priorities.
But Tobin said she anticipates some kind of funding increase to help districts keep up with inflation. “Inflation continues to be a pressing issue in the state, and we don’t want the gains we made by increasing the basic allocation by $700 this last budget cycle to diminish because of inflation,” she said.
Rep. Andi Story, D-Juneau is co-chair of the House Education Committee and agreed an inflation adjustment is a major priority. “We don’t want to lose any ground,” she said in an interview Friday, pointing out the increase to the BSA only added $20 per student more than the year before.
Dunleavy told reporters in December he hoped the legislature would pass a bill to launch a pilot program for schools run by Alaska Native tribes, known as tribal compacting, introduced last year. Tobin said the initiative is a priority, and said she supports tribal compacting statewide and wants to see greater tribal consultation and engagement throughout all districts.
Tobin said members of the task force recently made a visit to a school in Fairbanks with one of three boilers working — in subzero temperatures — and a plan to evacuate students if the last one failed. “That’s 726 students that will be displaced. It will be a huge hit to the Fairbanks education community,” she said. “It has the potential to really harm our students’ learning and what we need to do in Juneau, during this 34th legislature, to set us up for a long term solution on rebuilding our schools, is very much at the forefront of my mind.”
Tobin co-chairs the task force on education funding, which was established this spring to conduct an 18-month study and create policy recommendations for how the state funds schools. Members have expressed interest in a wide variety of policy initiatives: from revisiting the school funding formula, to investigating chronic absenteeism, to student performance and accountability measures, and policy changes sought by the governor like open enrollment and reading incentive programs. They are slated to deliver their recommendations at the start of the next legislative session in 2027.
Tobin said task force members have made visits to schools in Fairbanks, the Matanuska-Susitna, Anchorage and Kenai Peninsula boroughs, and have plans to visit Skagway, Juneau, Bethel and Western Alaska.
Republican leaders of the Senate and House minority caucuses did not respond to interview requests on their priorities for education.
Veto override for additional education funding still in question
Lawmakers could also take up another veto override vote within the first five days of the session. Last year, lawmakers passed a corporate tax bill tied to online sales in Alaska that could generate up to $65 million in revenue that would go to fund career and technical education and K-12 reading improvement programs. Dunleavy vetoed it in September.
Whether lawmakers will take up the override vote next week is unclear. At least 40 of 60 legislators are needed to override the governor’s veto within the first five days of the legislative session.
Tobin and Story, as education committee chairs, said the override vote and restoring additional education dollars is essential, especially for reading, and funding programs instituted by the Alaska Reads Act.
House Speaker Rep. Bryce Edgmon, I-Dillingham, said via text that the Majority caucus is meeting to discuss legislative priorities this weekend. “Protecting education and public safety items in the budget along with other core services will be a priority in an environment that will be fiscally constrained,” he said.
Edgmon did not confirm whether an override vote would take place, as of Thursday.
People gather near the post office during a protest, Sunday, Jan. 18, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
AP- The Pentagon has ordered about 1,500 active duty soldiers to be ready in case of a possible deployment to Minnesota, where federal authorities have been conducting a massive immigration enforcement operation, two defense officials said Sunday.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military plans, said two infantry battalions of the Army’s 11th Airborne Division have been given prepare-to-deploy orders. The unit is based in Alaska and specializes in operating in arctic conditions.
One defense official said the troops are standing by to deploy to Minnesota should President Donald Trump invoke the Insurrection Act, a rarely used 19th century law that would allow him to employ active duty troops as law enforcement.
The move comes just days after Trump threatened to do just that to quell protests against his administration’s immigration crackdown.
In an emailed statement, Pentagon chief spokesman Sean Parnell did not deny the orders were issued and said the military “is always prepared to execute the orders of the Commander-in-Chief if called upon.”
ABC News was the first to report the development.
On Thursday, Trump said in a social media post that he would invoke the 1807 law “if the corrupt politicians of Minnesota don’t obey the law and stop the professional agitators and insurrectionists from attacking the Patriots of I.C.E., who are only trying to do their job.”
He appeared to walk back the threat a day later, telling reporters at the White House that there wasn’t a reason to use it “right now.”
“If I needed it, I’d use it,” Trump said. “It’s very powerful.”
Trump has repeatedly threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act throughout both of his terms. In 2020 he threatened to use it to quell protests after George Floyd was killed by Minneapolis police, and in recent months he threatened to use it for immigration protests.
The law was most recently invoked by President George H.W. Bush in 1992 to end unrest in Los Angeles after the acquittal of four white police officers in the beating of Rodney King.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat and frequent target of Trump, has urged the president to refrain from sending in more troops.
“I’m making a direct appeal to the President: Let’s turn the temperature down. Stop this campaign of retribution. This is not who we are,” Walz said last week on social media.
For many months, people have wondered what Victoria and David could have possibly done to drive their eldest son into going no-contact with them.
Now, he’s laid it all out in the open. Even just the incidents surrounding his 2022 wedding are jaw-droppingly awful.
Brooklyn and Victoria Beckham attend the Victoria Beckham x YouTube Fashion & Beauty After Party on February 17, 2019. (Photo Credit: Victor Boyko/Getty Images for YouTube)
The fact that he’s spoken to his parents at all after his wedding is extremely gracious
On Monday, January 19, Brooklyn penned a lengthy explanation of his beef with his famous parents.
The 26-year-old confirmed existing reporting that one of the key points of contention was his mother, Spice Girls alum Victoria Beckham, misbehaving at his April 2022 wedding.
“My mum hijacked my first dance with my wife,” he wrote. It was a dance “which had been planned weeks in advance to a romantic love song.”
Brooklyn recalled: “In front of our 500 wedding guests, Marc Anthony called me to the stage.”
He continued: “Where in the schedule was planned to be my romantic dance with my wife but instead my mum was waiting to dance with me.” This sounds like a psychological horror film.
In his Instagram Story, Brooklyn Beckham described his mother hijacking his wedding — specifically, his first dance with his wife. This unforgivable act was, he says, just one of many. (Image Credit: Instagram)
“She danced very inappropriately on me in front of everyone,” Brooklyn described. “I’ve never felt more uncomfortable or humiliated in my entire life.”
This Carrie-at-the-prom moment sounds genuinely traumatic. Even an “appropriate” wedding hijacking can ruin the day.
Brooklyn added that he and his wife, Nicola, “wanted to renew our vows.” They did so in 2025.
He explained that they did this so we could create new memories of our wedding day that bring us joy and happiness” instead of “anxiety and embarrassment.”
If your silly prank is so ruinous that someone needs a wedding do-over, you shouldn’t really expect them to talk to you again. Especially if it’s only one piece of a long, ugly story.
Cruz Beckham, Nicola Peltz Beckham, Victoria Beckham, and Brooklyn Peltz Beckham attend the premiere of “Lola” at Regency Bruin Theatre on February 03, 2024. (Photo Credit: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)
He’s only speaking out because, otherwise, his parents control the narrative
There are no actual public videos of Victoria’s alleged total violation of her son’s wedding.
People had even dismissed reports of this exact thing taking place, in that it sounds like the behavior of a madwoman or the over-the-top antics of a soap opera villainess.
Few had imagined that it might be true. Unfortunately, that was only the beginning.
Around the time of Brooklyn and Nicola’s wedding, reports claimed that Nicola had rejected one of her mother-in-law’s designs for her wedding dress.
Nicola denied that publicly. She simply said that the atelier couldn’t complete the dress in time. It was tasteful and diplomatic. But, Brooklyn shared, it was not the whole truth.
No, Brooklyn Beckham does not wish to reconcile with his parents. Given the rest of his Instagram Story posts, that sounds very reasonable. (Image Credit: Instagram)
According to Brooklyn, his mother was going to make Nicola’s dress — but backed out “in the eleventh hour.”
He complained that both of his parents have been “trying endlessly to ruin” his relationship, seemingly both before and after they married. Even the night before the wedding, they allegedly emphasized to him that Nicola is “not blood” and “not family.”
The Beckham family brand also came into play, with his parents allegedly trying to pressure him into signing away the rights to his name in order for a larger payout.
“They have never treated me the same since” he refused, Brooklyn reported.
The Beckhams are sometimes regarded as the UK’s other royal family. The comparisons between Brooklyn and Prince Harry are obvious.
Brooklyn Beckham and Prince Harry out there reading Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents and I am in favour of it.
Honestly? Good for him to standing up for himself (but we’re sorry that he had to)
Brooklyn grew up in a spotlight that he never chose for himself.
His parents are intensely famous, are politically connected (David has been at Davos this where billionaires are scheming about the economy), and give the impression that the family brand has taken precedence over their son.
We’re sure that Victoria and David love their son. We’re equally sure that it’s clearly not enough.
Some adult children will simply put up with who their parents are and how they misbehave. Not all will.
If you want a continuing relationship with your kids, you should make better choices. A sense of parental entitlement can only go so far.
If strange food laws enter the chat, some wacky claims may come into play. We have the real answer about what law-abiding Minnesota dwellers can eat and when.
Mashed – Fast Food, Celebrity Chefs, Grocery, Reviews
