Midwest
Mother who started nut butter company in basement is living 'American Dream'
Lea Hurley never thought the company she started in her basement would become her livelihood.
“American Dream started in my basement, way back in 2018,” Hurley told Fox News Digital in an interview from her home in Noblesville, Indiana.
At the time, Hurley was in the middle of a cancer battle and had developed many food intolerances. “Everything” made her sick, she said, except for a few things: turkey, rice and nut butter.
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It was that last one that ended up being the true game-changer, and not just for her physical health.
“I discovered I could make nut butter taste like dessert,” she said.
Lea Hurley of Indiana is founder and CEO of American Dream Nut Butter. (American Dream Nut Butter)
And instead of eating junk food, she made her own nut butters that would help satisfy her sweet tooth and didn’t make her ill.
“Not only did that help curb my sweet tooth, it really changed my body composition as well,” she said.
Formerly a personal trainer, Hurley began working her nut butters into her clients’ plans, “and they saw the same results that I did,” she said.
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“So my husband kept begging me to let him take it to a bodybuilding competition because we had a ton of friends who were competitors,” she said.
Initially, Hurley was hesitant and refused to let him, but that didn’t stop him.
“It was kind of a hit. Everybody loved it.”
“He took it without my knowledge, and it was kind of a hit. Everybody loved it,” she said.
Before long, people were coming to her house to fill their own mason jars with nut butter. She realized she should begin selling them herself.
‘Still remember the first order’
Hurley began posting her nut butters on social media and saw her following grow.
“I started out with 12 followers in 2018, and now we’re up to 200,000,” she said. “I can still remember the first online order that came in.”
American Dream Nut Butter had its first online sale in 2018. The company had its millionth in 2024. (American Dream Nut Butter)
That first order was so exciting that she and her family danced around the house, she told Fox News Digital.
In July 2024, American Dream Nut Butter made its millionth online sale.
“It’s kind of a crazy story, from starting from nothing all the way to what it is now,” she said.
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Hurley named her company American Dream because, for her and her family, “that’s what we feel like we’re doing.”
She said, “We’re living the American dream. We are the epitome of what that means, how people can go from nothing. And then, you know, with a little bit of opportunity and hard work and God’s grace, you can really make a difference.”
Hurley said she and her family are “living the American dream” ever since she turned her American Dream Nut Butter business into a company. (American Dream Nut Butter)
The company “has actually been like a godsend, because I would have been fired from my regular job with all the work I would have had to miss” due to her numerous illnesses, she told Fox News Digital.
‘Core ingredients’
The process of creating one of her products, she said, starts with a bit of math as well as high-quality ingredients. The protein powder in American Dream’s products is specially made for the company.
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“It starts with the core ingredients I’m using, making sure that those taste good first, and then getting the right ratio,” she said.
She then moves on to the “macros” of the product: the amount of carbohydrates, proteins and fats.
Hurley said she wants her nut butters “to taste like you’re almost eating the real thing.” (American Dream Nut Butter)
“I also want it to taste like you’re almost eating the real thing,” she said, as much as that is possible.
“There’s no protein brownie that’s going to taste just like a brownie. But I want to get it as close as possible without using artificial sweeteners because I really don’t like those,” Hurley said.
Aside from making nut butters, cookies and other protein-packed treats, American Dream’s other goal is “to try to help as many people as we can.”
One group especially close to her heart is veterans. American Dream has its own veterans and first responder program that the company has dubbed “American Heroes.”
“One of the things that the troops said they missed from home was junk food.”
“And every month, customers or ambassadors will nominate a veteran or first responder or active duty military for us to send a care package to. We do 100 of those a month,” she said.
For more Lifestyle articles, visit www.foxnews.com/lifestyle
Overseas troops receive “a big box full of goodies” in addition to nut butters and other American Dream products.
“One of the things the troops said they missed from home was junk food,” Hurley said.
American Dream’s “American Heroes” program sends out 100 care packages a month to troops, veterans and first responders, its founder said. (American Dream Nut Butter)
“So, along with our nut butters, we will pack things like Doritos and Pop-Tarts and cookies and all of the things that they requested, plus some fun things to do, like crosswords and things like that to kind of fill the time.”
Through making nut butters that are both nutritious and tasty, Hurley said she has uncovered what she believes is a gift from God.
“I don’t know exactly how I do it,” she said.
“I feel like everyone has different gifts from God, and this is my gift. It wasn’t until I started American Dream that I was like, ‘My gosh, I do have a God-given talent.’”
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Illinois
Ex-Illinois teacher awaiting deportation linked to Tren de Aragua mass shooting in Chicago: DHS
CHICAGO – A former Illinois teacher living in the United States illegally, who was allegedly involved in a 2024 Tren de Aragua mass shooting that killed three people at a Chicago house party, was arrested by federal authorities, officials said Monday.
Giovanna Mercedes Moreno Occhipinti, 32, an illegal immigrant from Venezuela with dual citizenship in Italy, was taken into custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on May 13, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said.
Occhipinti entered the U.S. in October 2021 under the Visa Waiver Program and was supposed to leave by Jan. 2, 2022. She overstayed her visa, DHS said.
On the night of the Dec. 2, 2024, shooting, she allegedly drove the two gunmen—Ricardo Granadillo Padilla and Edward Martinez Cermeno—to the scene of the crime, where five people were injured in addition to the three fatalities, authorities said.
“Although Chicago police arrested this illegal alien shortly after the shooting, sanctuary politicians released her from jail without notifying ICE,” DHS Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said in a statement. “Under President Trump and Secretary Mullin, DHS is doing the job that sanctuary politicians in Illinois refuse to do: putting the American people first and removing these dangerous criminals from our communities.”
Martinez Cermeno was released from ICE custody in January 2025 after a federal judge determined that federal prosecutors failed to meet their burden of proof to keep him incarcerated while awaiting trial.
Immediately after the shooting, authorities found multiple weapons in Occhipinti’s vehicle, DHS said. Authorities believe she helped Granadillo Padilla and Martinez Cermeno evade law enforcement after the attack.
The Chicago Police Department arrested Occhipinti on Dec. 5, 2024, on charges of unlawful use of weapons and other weapons offenses. However, she was released without ICE ever being notified under Chicago’s sanctuary policies, which protect illegal immigrants from federal immigration authorities.
The Cook County State’s Attorney’s office decided not to prosecute the suspects, DHS said, and Granadillo Padilla and Martinez Cermeno were eventually deported.
“Giovanna Mercedes Moreno Occhipinti’s actions were calculated and deliberate, leading to the loss of three lives,” said HSI Chicago Special Agent in Charge Matthew Scarpino. “I’m proud of our agents for pursuing this case to the end, ensuring that everyone who helped facilitate this mass homicide is brought to justice.”
Fox News was told by DHS that Occhipinti was a teacher at an unspecified school in the Chicago suburb of Elgin. Illinois officials have refused to cooperate with federal authorities and will not tell DHS the name of the school, Fox News has learned.
Occhipinti is being held at the Grayson County Detention Center in Leitchfield, Kentucky.
Read more at FoxNews.com
Women of 250 honors women past, present and future, including C.J. Walker
This video spotlights the initiative and includes a look at Madam C.J. Walker’s enduring influence while encouraging viewers to nominate women who have made a difference today.
As dozens of people and music filled Indiana Avenue, Sampson Levingston gestured to the scene around him as evidence of a return to the area’s history as a hub of Black life and music.
“This is what Indiana Avenue is supposed to be. Black people having a good time on a Saturday in the summer,” Levingston said. “That’s our history. That’s our story.”
The fifth annual Legacy Fest, organized by the Madam Walker Legacy Center, honored that story on June 19 and 20. A block party with food trucks, vendors selling one-of-a-kind jeweled hats and patchwork denim, jewelry, and live musical performances capped off the Juneteenth weekend. The day before, Grammy-winning producer Teddy Riley performed in the Walker Theatre.
The block circles the Walker Building, a triangular African Art Deco theater topped with a red sign easily spotted in Indianapolis’ skyline. The 1927 building is the last building still operating in its original state on a street once filled with Black-owned businesses but now dominated by fences and parking lots.
After being forced by a former downtown Indianapolis theater to pay a “Black tax,” Walker promised to build a theater without discrimination. The building was home to Walker Manufacturing Company and a 1500-seat theater, the only theater without race-based discrimination in the city at the time. The theater still regularly puts on shows and holds the Madam Walker Legacy Center non-profit responsible for and supported by the Legacy Fest.
“There’s a lot of BS going on in the world and the country. You can get sad about it and pout,” Levingston said. “Madam Walker addressed the issue.”
Levingston runs Walk & Talk, historic walking tours allowing participants to literally step into Indianapolis’ Black history. On June 20 he led a group away from the music and crowd of Legacy fest and around the block, stopping at historic centers of the community such as Lockefield Gardens and the former Second Christian Church. On the tour, Levingston spoke about the impact of redlining and zoning restrictions on reducing the neighborhood’s density and businesses. In the Green Book, a travel guide listing businesses safe for Black Americans, most Indianapolis stores listed are on Indiana Avenue. Now the block is mostly residential. A closed convivence store is vacant and the Second Christian Church is a single-family home.
“Imagine if they won’t let people borrow for decades and decades how much wealth that drips out of a community,” Levingston said. “That’s why when you walk around you just see parking lots.”
Julia A. Royston, a Legacy Fest block party vendor, has been publishing books for 18 years. Many of the books she publishes are centered on increasing representation and putting out voices other than traditional publishing houses.
“No matter what season of the world we’re in, there’s still an opportunity for us to tell our story our way,” Royston said.
Lucy Tobier is the politics reporting intern for the Indianapolis Star. She can be reached at lucy.tobier@indystar.com or on X at @TobierLucy
SPIRIT LAKE, Iowa (KUOO) – The Iowa Department of Natural Resources continues to recommend no swimming at one beach in the Iowa Great Lakes.
Iowa DNR officials say Crandall’s Beach on the north shore of Big Spirit Lake continued to have high levels of E. coli bacteria in the latest tests conducted last week.
The agency says Emerson Bay, which was on the list of recommended no-swimming locations a week ago, has been removed from the designation as the levels there had dropped below the advisory guideline. Ainsworth Beach on the south side of Big Spirit Lake, along with those at Gull Point, Pikes Point and Marble Beach, were all listed as safe for swimming.
Officials caution that bacteria levels can change quickly depending on weather and other conditions.
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