The American Dream is essentially rooted in attaining a quality education, Virginia Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin told attendees at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute’s RISE summit on Thursday.

Youngkin said he has made education similarly a bedrock of his tenure in Richmond, in that he is dedicated to improving the lives of Virginians and helping to offer the next generation a chance to live to their fullest potential.

“I wake up every morning, and I start a quiet time, because I need to first thank the Lord for putting me here… and I thank Him and say, ‘Please, Lord, what should I do today; how should I do it?’ – and education is always top of the agenda.”

“When we thoroughly analyze the elements that go into unleashing opportunity, to fulfilling the American Dream, the top of the list is education.”

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Youngkin said educating children with key skills is important, but that the paramount goal of a solid education is to infuse them with confidence and trust that they can pursue their life goals.

“And with that confidence comes the ability to innovate, to expand, to press envelopes, to create businesses, and of course to bring others along,” he said, adding that as of late in the U.S. – and in Virginia, prior to his 2022 inauguration – there is a cycle that has been broken.

Youngkin said he took over a state education system that was facing not only the close of a period of less-interactive cyber-schooling due to coronavirus pandemic lockdowns, but also a state where its scholastic “excellence had been eroded” over time.

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Proficiency expectations of students had been “watered down,” he recounted, and therefore, Virginia students were falling behind their peers on a national scale.

“What does that mean? Fewer correct answers on tests that translate into whether a student is proficient or not,” he said.

“That is reducing standards and Virginia went from having some of the top standards in the nation to having the lowest proficiency standards in the nation. You couple that with the accreditation process where proficiency was reduced or watered down as one of the inputs into accreditation.”

Youngkin called the result of such issues an “honesty gap,” or a disparity between what the public is being told and what is really happening in education.

The governor said he came into office in a state then ranked 44th of 50 in reopening schools post-pandemic.

“Was it any surprise that the learning loss in Virginia, among fourth graders, in reading and math, was the worst in the nation? No surprise. And so you have to go to work. And that’s where Secretary [Aimee] Guidera and the whole team reacted quickly with all of Virginia,” he said.

Multiple attempts to reach officials at the Democratic Party of Virginia by phone, as well as several 2025 statewide Democratic candidates, for comment were unsuccessful.

A North Carolina gator was filmed doing a “death roll” while law enforcement stubbornly wrangled him last week.

The Brunswick County Sheriff’s Office made a Facebook post about the incident on May 14. The reptile was spotted near Cape Fear Memorial Bridge in Wilmington after residents alerted law enforcement to the creature.

“Our deputies never know what they are going to be called to respond to!” the Facebook post began.

“Last evening, Deputies Branch, Sutton and Nichter responded to the base of the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge after receiving multiple calls about this big fella hanging out in the roadway,” the post added. “Deputies safely removed the gator TWICE from Highway 17S entering Brunswick County.”

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Video shows a group of officers pulling the gator with a rope attached to his snout. The alligator dragged against the pavement and refused to budge.

“It’s all fun and games…” one officer is heard saying.

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The officers noted that the reptile was growling during its death roll. (Brunswick County Sheriff’s Office via Facebook)

“He’s gonna death roll,” another one said before the gator flipped on its back and rolled over on his stomach. Gators usually death roll as a fighting tactic when they’ve caught prey.

“He’s growling, too, now,” an officer observed. The rest of the video shows the gator resisting the officers.

The gator was later released by North Carolina officers. (Brunswick County Sheriff’s Office via Facebook)

‘Thankfully, the alligator was saved from traffic on the highway and those traveling the highway were saved from the gator!” the Facebook post concluded. Thank you deputies for bravely wrangling that big alligator!”

Fox News Digital reached out to the Brunswick County Sheriff’s Office for additional comment, but did not immediately hear back.

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When Theresa Jones, a 56-year-old Louisiana mother of three and grandmother of seven, disappeared suddenly in February 2023, her daughter went on a frantic search.

Ashley Deese said she learned that her mother was missing from Union Parish on February 2 last year around 7 p.m. after Jones’ boyfriend contacted Deese asking whether she had seen her mother anywhere. She hadn’t.

Jones’ family reported her missing that day to the Union Parish Sheriff’s Office, which issued a missing persons report saying Jones had been last seen in the Evergreen community that Thursday wearing pink pajamas.

She left her phone and vehicle behind, the sheriff’s office said at the time. On February 3, the sheriff’s office conducted a K9 search in the area near Theresa’s home, but it did not turn up any evidence related to her disappearance.

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Less than a week later, on February 6, the sheriff’s office announced that her body had been located in a creek.

“Jones’ family contacted UPSO stating that they had found some clothing in a wooded area near her residence that may belong to Jones. Once on scene, deputies were informed that Jones’ body had been located, floating in nearby Edmonds Creek,” the sheriff’s office said at the time. “The body was recovered and has been tentatively identified as that of Theresa Jones. The Union Parish Coroner’s Office was contacted, and the body was sent for an autopsy.”

Deese clarified that she found her mother’s jacket, but her other clothing “from the waist down” was not located.

Jones’ daughters say that a Wisconsin-based psychic medium named Carolyn Clapper, founder of Next World Medium, had helped them locate their mother’s body in a wooded area. 

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“By February 4th, law enforcement had exhausted their search for Mom, using a canine unit,” Deese said. “My sister, Brittany, contacted Carolyn Clapper by phone on Sunday, February 5th, 2023, at 10:48 p.m. She answered immediately and without knowing any information regarding our mom’s case or even her name. Carolyn gave a 45-minute reading, pro bono.”

Clapper told Fox News Digital that she wanted to help the sisters because she heard their “desperation and worry and felt compelled to help.”

Ashley Deese found her mother deceased in Edmonds Creek in Evergreen, Union Parish, Louisiana. (Google Maps)

“I read for them for about 45 minutes pro bono. In that time, a lot of information came through,” Clapper said, “including specific details surrounding her disappearance, such as the location of personal items left behind, Theresa’s interpersonal relationships with others and specific landmarks.”

Deese said she had listened in on Brittney’s conversation with Clapper on mute during a three-way phone call because she had been “skeptical.”

“Carolyn gave us information that no one would have known unless they were there or knew our mom,” she said. “None of it could have been found on the internet or anywhere else. She described my mom, her personality, and the uniqueness of relationships with those close to her. She could see everything without us telling her anything.”

“Carolyn gave us information that no one would have known unless they were there or knew our mom.”

— Ashley Deese

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Clapper “described the exterior” of Jones’ home, “down to the color of her carpet and where everything was, including items that were left behind after she disappeared,” Deese said.

“At one point, Carolyn paused and asked Brittney if I was on the phone listening in on mute from another state. That freaked me out! How would she know that I was listening in on the reading on mute?” Deese said. “Brittney reassured her that it was only her on the phone, as not to break my cover. But Carolyn insisted that we both take thorough notes, because my mom was about to give us step-by-step instructions on where to find her body, and Carolyn said that I would be the one who would need to go find her, because I lived closest to her.”

Two Louisiana sisters say medium Carolyn Clapper found their mother, Theresa Jones, above, after she vanished on February 2, 2023. (Facebook)

Those instructions included using a compass to find “specific landmarks, including a “huge log” south of her starting location, where her mother’s body would apparently be located. 

Clapper said she was “shown step-by-step instructions on where to find Theresa’s remains.”

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“Beginning at Theresa’s home, Ashley would need to head south on foot until she reached the woodline, and then head southwest until she came to a huge, pronounced log. I was shown that the log would stop Ashley in her tracks. There would be a creek behind the log. This is where I saw Theresa’s remains,” Clapper said. ” I was shown Theresa’s body was nude from the waist down, and that her jacket wasn’t far from her remains.”

The day after her phone call with Clapper, February 6, Ashley went out with a friend to search the woods behind her mom’s house and used a compass app on her phone to follow Clapper’s directions until she apparently “came upon the huge log by the creeks,” which stopped Deese in her tracks as Clapper had apparently said it would.

“I had to stop because I felt sick and began vomiting. That’s when my friend found Mom’s remains just feet from the log in the creek, exactly where Carolyn told us she’d be,” Deese said, adding that she called Clapper later to share the news, and Clapper did another reading in which she described drugs that would eventually be found in Jones’ system “and what the toxicology, pathology and coroner’s report would later reveal.”

“I had to stop because I felt sick and began vomiting.”

— Ashley Deese

Authorities closed Jones’ case in August 2023, ruling her death an accidental drowning due to methamphetamine poisoning, as KNOE first reported, but Jones’ daughters disagree with that finding and say they want “justice.” They are urging officials to reopen Jones’ case.

“Even though Mom’s body was found nude from below her waist, no rape kit and no fingernail scraping [were] performed,” Deese said.

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When Clapper heard from Deese saying she had found their mother where Clapper said she would be, the medium said she felt “a mixed bag of emotions, as it always is” when she has “successfully located a missing person.”

“My first feelings were those of relief that she was found, and gratitude to Theresa’s spirit for guiding me to her body, followed by deep empathy, compassion and sadness for Ashley having been the one to have found her,” Clapper said, adding that she is not releasing more details at this time due to the sensitivity of the case, and due to the fact that law enforcement has not reached out to her directly to discuss her findings.

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The Union Parish Sheriff’s Office did not respond to an inquiry from Fox News Digital about Jones’ case.

“Repeated attempts by myself and Theresa’s daughters to connect with her local law enforcement were rejected,” Clapper said. “Despite my success in locating Theresa’s remains within 45 minutes, pro bono, over the phone from another state, following their search using a canine unit that failed to produce any new evidence or locate Theresa.”