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Senate Democratic nominee James Talarico appears ready to bring a touch of Trotsky to Texas. In a video from a climate forum, Talarico is shown declaring capitalism an "oppressive system" linked with White supremacy and saying that it must be "dismantled" to achieve a better world. It is reminiscent of Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky, who denounced the "fundamental evil of the capitalist system" and called on citizens to free themselves from its oppression. The Democratic Socialists of America and radical sites have long called "to dismantle the capitalist state."

As a state representative, Talarico addressed the 2020 climate conference by the Austin chapter of the Sierra Club with other Texas House candidates. However, it was Talarico who roused the crowd with an attack on capitalism:

"I’m so thankful that you asked this question and also thankful that young activists have really drawn the link between climate change and White supremacy and capitalism in our country ... And I think only ending the ways that all three of those oppressive systems work together are we gonna be able to begin the process of dismantling them."

TALARICO’S ‘PROUD CAPITALIST’ ABOUT-FACE COLLIDES WITH RESURFACED CALL TO ‘DISMANTLE’ CAPITALISM

Talarico added criticism of Texas’s oil and gas industry, which he mocked as a dying industry "like being the leader in cassette tapes in the 1980s." He predicted with obvious satisfaction, "That industry is not gonna last."

Ironically, given his earlier promise of running a meatless, vegan campaign, opposing both beef and energy markets in Texas could well achieve the dismantling of the economy by default in Texas.

WATCH: UNEARTHED VIDEO SHOWS LEFTIST SENATE HOPEFUL CELEBRATING ANTI-FOSSIL FUEL GROUP'S ARRIVAL IN TEXAS

Talarico's views closely parallel socialist and communist talking points online. The Democratic Socialists of America has challenged people to "imagine the end of capitalism." Those words in The Democratic Socialists of America manifesto offer Americans a world without landlords, debt, mandatory work hours, and "food, education, energy, medicine, and transportation … are common goods and utilities."

The DSA is premised on the same stated objective of Talarico, declaring that there has to be "a revolutionary transformation to replace the capitalist social order based on exploitation and oppression."

JONATHAN TURLEY: DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISTS WANT TO REMAKE AMERICA IN THEIR IMAGE. THAT’S TERRIFYING

Other candidates have sought to pander to this radical mob. Recently, California Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom thrilled the mob by declaring that "nostalgia is not working," adding that "capitalism as we know it doesn’t work either."

In "Rage and the Republic," I discuss the rise of socialism and the coalition of politicians, pundits and professors in attacking capitalism as well as core institutions such as the Supreme Court. It is a crisis of faith on the 250th anniversary of the oldest and most successful republic in history.

SOCIALISM’S RISE INSIDE THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY NOW THREATENS THE AMERICAN DREAM

It is the 250th anniversary not only of the Declaration of Independence but of Adam Smith’s "Wealth of Nations." Smith's free-market theories were immediately embraced by the Founders as the perfect economic theory to match their political theory. They had declared the first Enlightenment Revolution based on a belief in natural rights that came from God, not governments.

However, those rights mean little without economic freedom. Capitalism offered citizens the ability to transcend class and social barriers, to advance as far as their skills and labor would take them.

MODERN CAPITALISM IS TURNING 250, TOO. WE NEED TO REMIND AMERICANS WHY IT’S IMPORTANT

Together, those political and economic theories created the most prosperous and stable democratic system in the world. That system is now under attack on both sides. Radicals are calling for the trashing of the U.S. Constitution and the discarding of our core constitutional values.

Even establishment figures from former Vice President Kamala Harris to Newsom now dismiss faith in core institutions as mere "nostalgia." Those of us who support the Madisonian democracy are derisively called "institutionalists" and constitutional "cultists."

JONATHAN TURLEY: DEM SOCIALIST RIPS ‘INSTITUTIONALISTS’ AS FAR LEFT TURNS UP HEAT ON DEFENDERS OF CONSTITUTION

The New York Times ran a column, "The Constitution Is Broken and Should Not Be Reclaimed," by Ryan D. Doerfler of Harvard and Samuel Moyn of Yale, calling upon citizens to "reclaim America from constitutionalism."

As these attacks on our constitutional system mount, a similar attack on capitalism is unfolding. In New York, Mayor Democrat Zohran Mamdani promised to show citizens the "warmth of collectivism" from free childcare to free buses to state-run grocery stores. Across the country, Mamdani allies are joining him in calling for the de-commodification of private property and the seizing of the means of production.

DSA CO-CHAIR MOCKED FOR PROUDLY CONFIRMING SOCIALISTS WANT TO ABOLISH THE SENATE, NATIONAL BORDERS, PRISONS

Polls show that these candidates are being propelled not by the working class, but by young, college-educated voters fresh out of the ideological echo chamber of higher education. They are armchair revolutionaries like Talarico, repeating socialist slogans with the same robotic rote delivery of a Young Pioneer camp.

As these videos surface, radical candidates from Michigan Democrat Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed to Talarico brush off their earlier comments as media allies attack any reporting on prior statements. New York Democrat Socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who is considering a run for president, recently called her own extremist statements "Woke 1."

SOCIALIST CANDIDATES CAN DELETE OLD POSTS, BUT THEY CAN'T ERASE THEIR RADICALISM

The transparent insincerity does not matter to their base. These figures have already shown their bona fides with extremist statements in the past. Talarico's desire to dismantle capitalism was not some slip of the tongue but a planned speech to fellow activists. To pivot now is considered to be mere packaging for uneducated and malleable dupes.

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Indeed, the Talarico campaign responded by simply declaring that Talarico is a "proud capitalist," though one staffer admitted that the comments were a bit "cringey." Being a "proud capitalist" who wants to "dismantle" capitalism is a bit like being an avid meat-eater who denounces meat consumption as killing the world and banning meat from his campaign."

Accordingly, when asked about past radical positions, these figures immediately deny or dismiss them. If you want to dismantle the constitutional or economic systems of the United States, a few white lies hardly seem of much consequence. After all, as Trotsky explained, "The end may justify the means as long as there is something that justifies the end." For these radicals, there is no greater justification than their own election.

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The U.S. Coast Guard recovered more than a ton of suspected marijuana worth over $2.4 million after crews intercepted a suspicious go-fast vessel during a patrol, military officials said.

Crews recovered 47 bales weighing a combined 2,082 pounds along the vessel's previous route, according to Joint Interagency Task Force South (JIATF-S).

Four people were detained in connection with the operation, JIATF-S said.

Officials said the seizure happened during a routine patrol after the crew of U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Escanaba detected "a suspicious go-fast vessel" and launched a boat crew to investigate.

NEWLY UNCLASSIFIED PENTAGON IMAGES SHOW SUSPECTED DRUG BOATS AS OFFICIAL ISSUES DEADLY WARNING

"The vessel stopped without further incident," JIATF-S said.

During follow-on operations, Coast Guard crews discovered what officials described as a "bale field" along the vessel's prior track and recovered the suspected marijuana, valued at more than $2.4 million.

"This mission required vigilance, professionalism, and seamless coordination from detection and pursuit to evidence recovery and search-and-rescue support," JIATF-S said.

WHITE HOUSE HIGHLIGHTS 'STEEPEST' EVER DECLINE IN US CASUALTIES FROM CARTELS AMID BOAT STRIKES

JIATF-S did not specify where the incident took place, but thanked the Coast Guard Cutter Escanaba and Joint Rescue Coordination Center Haiti for their "timely support, search assistance, and coordination throughout the operation."

The drug seizure comes amid the Trump administration's ongoing campaign targeting narcotics trafficking networks in the Western Hemisphere.

U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) touted the operation, saying the "bust is another demonstration of the United States' resolve to stop the flow of dangerous drugs into the homeland."

This week, SOUTHCOM said it conducted two operations in which U.S. forces intercepted and sank vessels in the Eastern Pacific that the military said were tied to Los Choneros, which it described as a violent narco-terrorist organization.

US KILLS TWO 'NARCO-TERRORISTS' IN STRIKE 2 MONTHS SINCE LAST ANNOUNCED ANTI-'NARCO-TRAFFICKING' ATTACK

The U.S. military has also been involved in a monthslong campaign launched by the Trump administration aimed at dismantling cartel-linked trafficking networks, including dozens of strikes in the Eastern Pacific and Caribbean targeting vessels it says are connected to "narco-terrorists."

The latest seizure follows another major Coast Guard drug bust off the coast of Puerto Rico last month.

The Coast Guard intercepted a suspected smuggling boat nearly 50 miles off the coast of the U.S. territory and discovered more than 7,000 pounds of cocaine worth about $54.5 million.

Five people aboard the suspected smuggling vessel were detained and taken into custody as part of that investigation.

Fox News Digital's Kelsie Cairns contributed to this report.

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The Trump administration proposed new regulations on Thursday to revoke the tax-exempt status of private schools and colleges if ​they use race in admissions, scholarships or other school-administered programs, the latest effort by the federal government to root out diversity initiatives in education.

The rules, proposed by the Treasury Department ‌and Internal Revenue Service, aim to end what administration officials argue is discrimination against white students in favor of students of color.

"Schools rebranding race-based preferences as equitable, inclusive, or diversity-enhancing does not change their discriminatory nature," Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a ​statement.

The proposal follows the Supreme Court's 2023 Students for Fair Admissions decisions, which prohibited most race-conscious admissions policies at colleges and universities.

DOJ OPENS PROBE INTO PRESTIGIOUS COLLEGE OVER ALLEGED DISCRIMINATION FAVORING MINORITY STUDENTS

Admissions, educational policies, scholarships and loans, athletics and "every other school-administered or ​school-supported program" would be covered by the Treasury's proposal.

It would apply to any program that considers race, color, or national or ethnic origin "for any purpose," including efforts to address past racial discrimination.

The ​Treasury estimated that the rules ​could impact as many ⁠as 18,000 schools at all education levels and 750,000 students who could be affected because they may qualify for race-based scholarships.

The proposal would not prevent private schools from having a ​religious mission, curriculum or program. Religious schools could continue to choose students ​based on religious ⁠affiliation, according to the Treasury.

The Treasury also said the proposal would not prohibit schools from helping disadvantaged students using race-neutral criteria, including income, geography or first-generation status.

The new proposal is subject to a public comment period and would likely spark legal challenges if ⁠adopted.

The American Association of University Professors, which advocates for academic freedom and has sued the administration ​to block funding cuts in the past, said it is considering legal action against the proposal.

"This is not neutral enforcement ‌of ⁠civil-rights law. It is an affirmative attempt to turn civil-rights law against the very people it was enacted to protect," AAUP President Todd Wolfson said in a statement. "For half a century, federal policy recognized that measures intended to dismantle entrenched racial exclusion are not equivalent to policies designed to preserve it."

DOJ OPENS PROBE INTO HARVARD'S FINANCIAL AID FOR ALLEGED DISCRIMINATION AGAINST AMERICAN STUDENTS

The administration has sought to eliminate ⁠diversity, equity and inclusion policies ​in K-12 schools and higher education since President Donald Trump returned to the White House in January 2025.

In addition to DEI, the administration has targeted educational institutions across the nation for issues such as race-based admissions and scholarships and alleged antisemitism on campus.

Trump has singled out Harvard University in particular with federal funding cuts, investigations ​and threats to the institution's tax-exempt status.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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The pessimists are wrong, and the numbers prove it.

While a chorus of commentators insists the American economy is faltering, businesses are seeing strong returns — and investing those dollars to grow. From record-breaking tax refunds this spring to surging business investment across every sector, the evidence of economic strength is overwhelming for anyone willing to look past the headlines.

American businesses aren't just investing — they're going on offense. Companies are purchasing equipment, upgrading technology, modernizing facilities and hiring people. They're planning for growth, not bracing for decline. And thanks to the Trump administration's tax reforms, they finally have the certainty and the incentives to put capital to work right now.

WHITE HOUSE ECONOMIST PROJECTS GDP GROWTH COULD TOP 5% AMID CAPITAL SPENDING BOOM

The One Big Beautiful Bill fundamentally changed the game. For entrepreneurs still sitting on the sidelines, the message couldn't be clearer: stop waiting. This is the year to invest. Every month you delay is a month your competitors are pulling ahead, taking advantage of provisions designed to reward exactly the kind of bold investment that builds lasting success.

Consider what's happened. The permanent restoration of 100% bonus depreciation lets businesses recover the full cost of qualifying investments immediately — not over years. That means a manufacturer can purchase new machinery, a restaurant can renovate its kitchen or a tech startup can upgrade its servers, and every one of them can deduct the full cost in the same tax year.

TRUMP'S TAX CUTS HAND REPUBLICANS A KILLER ARGUMENT FOR THE MIDTERMS

Section 179 has been expanded, letting small businesses deduct even more upfront. The IRS has even issued guidance to make the path clearer and give owners the confidence to move forward without hesitation.

Now look at what happened this spring. A Government Accountability Office report released Aug. 10 shows the IRS issued $296 billion in refunds during the 2026 filing season — a 17% jump from the previous year. That's $43 billion more flowing back into Americans' pockets.

REPUBLICANS BET HIGHER TAX REFUNDS WILL BOOST MIDTERM CHANCES AS BLUE STATES RESIST RELIEF

The average refund rose by $333, and the IRS processed more than 8 million additional refunds. The GAO attributed this surge, in part, to millions claiming new deductions created by the law — including provisions for qualified tips and overtime pay.

Let that sink in. Working Americans — waitresses, factory workers, overtime earners — are keeping more of what they earn because this tax code finally rewards work instead of punishing it. That's not a talking point. That's real money in real people's bank accounts. Money that gets spent at local restaurants, invested in home improvements, saved for college tuition and plowed back into the communities where these families live and work.

TRUMP HITS KEY BATTLEGROUNDS TO SELL TAX CUTS, BOOST GOP AHEAD OF MIDTERMS

The critics who keep telling you the economy is weak need to explain why businesses keep expanding. Why entrepreneurs keep taking risks. Why companies keep investing in productivity, hiring and growth. The answer is simple: they see opportunity. They see an economy gaining momentum, not losing it. While the doomsayers scroll through bad headlines, business owners are reading their balance sheets — and what they see is encouraging enough to act.

The Trump administration delivered tax policies that reward investment, protect working families and let Americans keep more of what they earn. When business owners know they can recover investment costs immediately, they act. When workers see bigger refunds because the tax code now values their tips and overtime, they spend, save and reinvest in their own futures and in their local economies.

LIZ PEEK: THE TRUMP ECONOMY IS DOING BETTER THAN THE MEDIA WANT TO ADMIT

Tax relief doesn't just sound good on paper. It translates directly into growth. The proof is in every business owner putting capital on the line right now — and in the billions returned to American taxpayers this year. When a company buys new equipment, expands a facility, hires another worker or opens another location, that's not speculation. That's commitment. That's confidence made visible.

The law also strengthens incentives for domestic innovation by allowing qualifying research and development expenditures to be deducted immediately. That means companies aren't just investing in what they already do — they're investing in what comes next. Favorable treatment for qualified production property gives manufacturers another reason to build here, expand here and hire here. America is open for business, and the tax code now reflects that reality.

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The businesses I work with aren't retreating. They're expanding. They're hiring. They're investing for the long term. That's not what a weak economy looks like. That's what an economy preparing to roar looks like.

Anyone still calling this economy weak isn’t paying attention to the right indicators.

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The Justice Department warned states they could lose billions of dollars in welfare funding if they do not report known illegal migrants to the federal government, according to a legal opinion released Wednesday.

The DOJ's Office of Legal Counsel said tates participating in two key welfare programs must require all state agencies to report individuals known to be unlawfully present to the Department of Homeland Security, a significant shift that the administration says will help enforce President Donald Trump's crackdown on illegal immigration. The opinion reverses a 1998 Office of Legal Counsel interpretation that limited the reporting requirement to agencies administering the programs.

Previously, only the state agencies that administered the funding for the welfare programs were required to report illegal migrants, while other state agencies that might be aware of these individuals, including colleges and departments of motor vehicles, were not subject to this mandate.

DHS BOSS REVEALS OVAL OFFICE PLAN TO 'WITHHOLD FUNDING' FROM SANCTUARY CITIES AFTER AGGRESSIVE NEW YORK BUST

"Failure to comply may lead to serious consequences, including loss of program funding," Deputy Assistant Attorney General Joshua Craddock said in a statement.

Since returning to the White House, Trump has taken an aggressive approach targeting both illegal and legal immigration.

The president's crackdown on illegal immigration has included deploying federal agents into cities across the country to conduct raids on migrant communities and increasingly partnering with state and local law enforcement and outside companies to locate suspected illegal migrants.

DOJ ACCUSES MARYLAND OF 'ACTIVE AND DELIBERATE EFFORT' TO PREVENT DEPORTATIONS OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS: LAWSUIT

The administration has repeatedly attempted to pressure Democrat-led states that have refused cooperation with federal immigration enforcement, including by threatening federal funding.

The shift could face legal challenges. Democrat-led states have already sued to block DHS from collecting personal details of people receiving funds under one of the programs, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families.

Courts have also limited some administration efforts to require the sharing of information on migrants with DHS. But in some cases, judges allowed federal immigration authorities to collect certain information, including Medicaid data.

All 50 states and Washington, D.C., participate in the reporting requirements tied to the two programs: Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and Supplemental Security Income.

Federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families grants exceed $16.5 billion annually, and Supplemental Security Income federal benefits exceed $60 billion annually.

Illegal migrants are not eligible for either program.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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For more than a quarter century, Venezuela was not merely poorly governed. It was captured by Cuban communist intelligence services. Russian arms entrenched it. Chinese loans stripped the country of sovereignty while the Chávez–Maduro regime looted Venezuela, wrecked the currency, and filled the prisons. The result was a failed state: mass exile, political prisoners, electrical blackouts, and a platform for America’s enemies in the Western Hemisphere. That history is what critics of the new U.S.–Venezuela energy agreement prefer to forget.

Last week, President Trump announced a historic oil partnership with Venezuela’s interim government. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth negotiated it. Interim President Delcy Rodríguez confirmed the core terms: 17 strategic fields holding more than 65 billion barrels, a production target above 1.5 million barrels a day, more than $100 billion in private investment, and large fiscal flows to Venezuela. Whether the final term is a generation or a century-scale U.S. stake, the meaning is the same. The United States has taken a secured interest in the resource that once financed communism in Cuba and subversion all over Latin America.

Previously, Venezuela’s oil was "sovereign" on paper and enslaved in practice—used to pay Cuban handlers, Russian weapons, and Chinese debt while Venezuelans fled. Sovereignty without property rights, honest courts, and a state that cannot be flipped by the Cuban communist regime is an empty word.

TRUMP TOUTS ACCESS TO 65 BILLION BARRELS OF VENEZUELAN OIL IN DEAL HE SAYS WILL SLASH GAS PRICES

Critics on the left call the deal colonialism. Hard-line Chavistas call it betrayal. Parts of the opposition call it illegitimate because an interim government signed it. Democratic Socialists who treated Maduro as a diplomatic inconvenience suddenly discovered constitutional piety about hydrocarbons. They share a fantasy: that a weak, cash-starved, institutionally gutted Venezuela can stay free if Washington keeps its distance.

History says otherwise: A vacuum in Venezuela is not filled by angels. It is filled by Cuban, Russian, and Chinese intelligence, along with the criminal networks, like the Tren de Aragua, that grew up under the Venezuelan socialist regime and extended through the Western Hemisphere. That axis produced the torture chambers, the refugee crisis, and the political prisons.

A long-term U.S. commercial stake—backed by American security interests—is insurance. It raises the cost of a second communist capture. It makes it harder for a future corrupt regime to re-nationalize the industry overnight and resume shipping the crude to Cuba in exchange for rebuilding the repressive apparatus. American companies built much of that industry in the twentieth century before Chávez confiscated it. The decay that followed was communist plunder. Reopening the oil fields under American capital and strategic oversight is how you prevent the next plunder.

RUBIO WARNS CUBA HAS INFILTRATED US WITH SPIES, CALLS COMMUNIST REGIME AN 'ESPIONAGE SUPERPOWER'

The deal must not become a substitute for liberty. Oil that merely finances the same repressive regime is not reconstruction. It is a richer dictatorship. Secretary Rubio has been clear since January, after the capture of Nicolás Maduro, that the United States would not occupy Venezuela. It would use leverage.

The plan has three overlapping phases: stabilization, so the country does not collapse into war; recovery, so Western firms enter on fair terms and the wrecked industry can be rebuilt; and transition, so Venezuelans recover a government that is representative and no longer an outpost of the Castro regime. That is the Donroe Doctrine in practice: the Monroe Doctrine updated for an era in which the threat is not a European monarch but the communist powers that treated Venezuela as a forward operating base. Trump had the courage to remove the dictator. Rubio now has the leverage to keep the country from sliding back.

Let’s look at the results on the ground.

FAMILIES SUE MADURO IN US, ACCUSE EX-PRESIDENT OF DIRECTING POLICE UNIT TIED TO EXTRAJUDICIAL KILLINGS

Maduro is gone. Oil once sold at discounted rates to bail out U.S. adversaries is being pulled toward market terms. Hundreds of political prisoners have left their cells, a feat that years of "engagement" failed to accomplish. An amnesty process exists to rebuild a nation fractured by a socialist dictatorship.

None of this is finished, but all of this was unthinkable under the policies the critics now miss. Those critics were content with failure dressed as prudence: mild sanctions, dialogue with a regime that denied an election it stole, and humanitarian gestures that let Cuban intelligence run Venezuela. They complain after a few months that the current progress is imperfect, but they would have waited another decade for a "perfect" transition that the Cuban regime would never have allowed.

MADURO ALLY DEPORTED TO US OVER ALLEGED BILLION-DOLLAR CORRUPTION SCHEME TIED TO OIL, FOOD PROGRAM

The oil agreement is a foundation, not a finish line. Every remaining political prisoner must be released, even as human-rights groups still count hundreds behind bars. Venezuela should also complete the dollarization that its citizens are vocally calling for. Venezuelans abandoned the Bolívar because socialism destroyed it. Formal dollarization would lock in stability, invite diaspora capital home, and make it harder for a future government to finance repression. Oil proceeds must be fenced off from the old patronage machine and audited. And stabilization cannot become a permanent excuse. Venezuelans need an electoral calendar and courts that are not controlled by the ruling, Diosdado Cabello-led socialist party..

Let’s be clear: The agreement is a major strategic and economic bet, but its precise duration, legal foundation and long-term enforceability remain unsettled.

TOP ENERGY TRADER HAILS TRUMP'S VENEZUELA OIL DEAL AS A 'GENERATIONAL WIN' FOR GAS PRICES

To those who shout "sovereignty": a nation whose oil financed Cuban tutelage was not sovereign. Partnership with the only superpower that has the capital, the technology, and the interest in enabling Venezuelans to be free is how sovereignty becomes real. 

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To those who say the interim government lacks legitimacy for long contracts: they are right that legitimacy must be completed at the ballot box. They are wrong that the alternative is idle oil fields and an open door to Cuba, China, and Russia. Contracts can be ratified by a future democratic congress. Collapse cannot.

Attacks on Marco Rubio are attacks on the only U.S. Secretary of State who has delivered results in Venezuela. Now is the time to finish the job, empty the prisons, dollarize, audit the revenue, and push for free elections. Do that, and this agreement will be remembered not as a bargain with a remnant of Chavismo, but as the moment Venezuela shut the door on communism.

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Convicted double murderer Mackenzie Shirilla suffered another legal setback after the Ohio Supreme Court denied her attorneys' request to reconsider its decision not to hear her latest appeal.

Shirilla, now 21, is serving two concurrent sentences of 15 years to life for killing her boyfriend, Dominic Russo, 20, and their friend, Davion Flanagan, 19, after prosecutors said she intentionally drove her Toyota Camry into a brick building in Strongsville, Ohio, in 2022.

Chief Justice Sharon Kennedy denied Shirilla's motion for reconsideration after her attorneys asked the state's highest court to revisit its June 23 decision declining to review her case, according to court records.

"It is ordered by the court that the motion for reconsideration in this case is denied," Kennedy wrote.

MACKENZIE SHIRILLA'S TEXTS SURFACE AS 'HELL ON WHEELS' DRIVER'S APPEAL COLLIDES WITH NETFLIX'S 'THE CRASH'

Tuesday's decision leaves intact a lower-court ruling that Shirilla's postconviction challenge was filed one day too late.

Shirilla's attorneys have argued that the missed deadline resulted from confusion over the filing timeline, including a calendar mistake involving the 2024 leap year.

The postconviction challenge sought to raise claims that Shirilla received ineffective assistance of counsel, including an argument that her trial lawyers failed to adequately investigate evidence that she suffered from Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome, or POTS.

Her attorneys have argued that the condition could have caused Shirilla to lose consciousness before the crash and potentially explain why she failed to brake before impact.

WATCH: MACKENZIE SHIRILLA’S FATHER CALLS HER ‘A DUMB 18-YEAR-OLD’ WHILE BERATING POLICE IN BODYCAM VIDEO

The defense previously said the condition was only "cursorily referenced" at trial despite Shirilla and her family allegedly putting her attorneys on notice about it.

The latest court decisions, however, have focused on whether Shirilla's postconviction petition was filed on time rather than the merits of those arguments.

Under Ohio law, a postconviction petition must generally be filed within 365 days after the trial transcript is filed in the court of appeals. The court determined that the relevant transcript was filed Oct. 24, 2023, making the deadline Oct. 23, 2024.

Shirilla filed her petition on Oct. 24, 2024, the 366th day.

Shirilla argued that the clock should have started later, when juvenile bindover transcripts were filed, and also pointed to the 2024 leap year. The appellate court rejected both arguments, finding that the statute refers to the "trial transcript," not supplemental juvenile-hearing transcripts, and that the law provides 365 days, not a calendar year.

IDAHO JUDGE GRANTS BRYAN KOHBERGER TWO HEARINGS NEXT YEAR AS ADMITTED KILLER SEEKS TO WITHDRAW GUILTY PLEA

Her attorneys later asked the Ohio Supreme Court to review the case. The state's highest court declined to accept jurisdiction June 23 before Shirilla's legal team asked the justices to reconsider that decision.

Shirilla's case has received renewed public attention following the release of Netflix's "The Crash."

Shirilla was convicted in 2023 after a bench trial of four counts of murder, four counts of felonious assault and two counts of aggravated vehicular homicide.

Prosecutors argued at trial that Shirilla intentionally drove into the building to end her toxic relationship with Russo and that Flanagan was an unintended victim who happened to be in the car.

NEW HAMPSHIRE SUPREME COURT OVERTURNS ADAM MONTGOMERY'S MURDER CONVICTION IN DAUGHTER HARMONY'S DEATH

Evidence presented in the case included surveillance video, vehicle "black box" data and evidence that Shirilla's car was traveling nearly 100 mph without braking before the crash, according to WOIO.

Shirilla has maintained that the crash was not intentional.

Her convictions were upheld on direct appeal in 2024.

Fox News Digital has reached out to Shirilla's attorney for comment.

Fox News Digital's Sarah Rumpf-Whitten contributed to this report.

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