Rayden Coleman, an 18-year-old from St. Helens, conjured up a master plan to follow ICE agents home and decapitate them. A local newspaper gives us Coleman’s message to a friend: “im sick and tired of it i’ve been preparing for a while now. but i gotta get on it im done just standing around im gonna get […] The post Teen Planned to Shoot ICE Agents, Maybe Behead Them appeared first on www.independentsentinel.com.

One Republican lawmaker wants the controversial H-1B visa program to be gone for good. Rep. Greg Steube (R-FL) introduced the Ending Exploitative Imported Labor Exemptions (EXILE) Act, which would change the Immigration and Nationality Act to no longer include the visa type, which the Republican argues will help the American workforce. “Prioritizing foreign labor over the well-being and prosperity of American citizens undermines our values and national interests,” Steube said in a statement. “Our workers and young people continue to be displaced and disenfranchised by the H-1B visa program that awards corporations and foreign competitors at the expense of our workforce. We cannot preserve the American dream for our children while forfeiting their share to non-citizens. That is why I am introducing the EXILE Act to put working Americans first again,” he continued. The congressman pointed out that the vast majority of H-1B visas are doled out to citizens of India and China. The H-1B visa program allows people to work in the United States for a “specialty occupation,” and it’s capped at 65,000 visas annually with another 20,000 for people with high levels of college education, like a master’s degree. The Trump administration has already made sweeping changes to the program, including imposing a $100,000 fee for the visa petition in many circumstances, as well as a rule changing how the visas are granted to ensure that more “higher-skilled and higher-paid aliens” will be given them. “The existing random selection process of H-1B registrations was exploited and abused by U.S. employers who were primarily seeking to import foreign workers at lower wages than they would pay American workers,” said U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services spokesman Matthew Tragesser in a December statement regarding the rule. “The new weighted selection will better serve Congress’ intent for the H-1B program and strengthen America’s competitiveness by incentivizing American employers to petition for higher-paid, higher-skilled foreign workers. With these regulatory changes and others in the future, we will continue to update the H-1B program to help American businesses without allowing the abuse that was harming American workers,” he continued. Criticism of the H-1B visa program is not exclusive to the Right, as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has also been a proponent of reform over labor concerns. “The primary purpose of H-1B and other guest worker programs is not to employ the ‘best and the brightest,’ but instead to replace American workers with lower-paid workers from abroad who often live as indentured servants,” Sanders wrote in a Fox News op-ed last year. “Not only is this program disastrous for American workers, it can be very harmful to guest workers as well, who are often locked into lower-paying jobs and can have their visas taken away from them by their corporate bosses if they complain about dangerous, unfair or illegal working conditions,” he added.

A new report details a serious allegation of sexual assault and a subsequent breakdown in institutional oversight within Washington’s Puyallup School District. The story centers on Kallie Keeler, a 16-year-old female sophomore wrestler at Rogers High School who has competed in the sport since early childhood. During a wrestling match on December 6, Keeler competed in the 190-pound weight class against an opponent from Emerald Ridge High School. Video from the bout appears to show Keeler in visible distress. According to her testimony, the opponent, a transgender-identifying boy, forcefully inserted his fingers into her private area during a move, causing her to feel violated and disoriented. Keeler later said she allowed herself to be pinned in order to end the match and escape the situation. 16-year-old Kallie Keeler didn’t even realize she was wrestling a boy. She didn’t find out until after she says he forcefully pushed his fingers into her vagina. The Puyallup (WA) School District is accused of burying her complaint – now there’s now a criminal investigation. pic.twitter.com/4LRo0ft0wI — Brandi Kruse (@BrandiKruse) February 10, 2026 “I didn’t really know what to do or how to handle that situation. I just wanted the match to be over,” Keeler said. Immediately after the match, Keeler told her mother what she said had occurred and attempted to locate her coach. It was only afterward, she said, that a coach from a different school informed her that her opponent had been permitted to compete in the girls’ division despite being a biological male. Keeler expressed a sense of double violation: first by the alleged physical assault, and second by the realization that she had been tricked into competing against a male athlete in a high-contact sport without her knowledge or consent. To assess whether the contact could have been accidental, reporter Brandi Kruse consulted wrestling experts with decades of experience. After reviewing the video, the experts concluded that the position executed did not require the type of contact alleged. They noted that in similar situations, a wrestler typically grips the opponent’s thigh or knee rather than making prolonged contact in a prohibited area. The most significant administrative issue centers on the Puyallup School District’s response. Despite Keeler reporting the incident immediately and her parents emailing coaches, the district reportedly took no formal action for nearly two months. This delay came despite Washington state law requiring school officials to report suspected sexual assault to law enforcement within 48 hours. The district did not report the incident to the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office until January 30, one day after the media contacted the district for comment. The Sheriff’s Office has since confirmed that an active criminal investigation is underway. Critics have accused district officials of remaining silent in order to protect what they describe as “radical gender ideology” at the expense of student safety and state law. Keeler continues to advocate for policy changes, asserting that biological males should not compete in women’s strength-based sports.

War Secretary Pete Hegseth gave a characteristically blunt answer Monday when asked about the “choke points” in the defense production pipeline. “You identified several policy changes the department was implementing to actually speed up and expedite some of the production,” a reporter said to Hegseth. “I was wondering, what are the specific choke points that you guys have encountered when it comes to regulations? What are the issues, what’s the hang-up at some of these production facilities, why have we seen delays on certain projects?” “A lot of the hang-up has been us,” Hegseth acknowledged. “If we don’t look at ourselves first, the way we do business, we’ve been impossible to deal with. A bad customer who year after year changes our mind about what we want or what we don’t want, and then we make little, small technological changes, which makes it more difficult for them to produce what they need to produce on time.” “So we have to fix our own house first,” he declared, “provide clarity, simplify the system, allow more people to access it, give that steady demand signal, which is what we’re doing with munitions. I encourage folks to look at the deals we’ve cut recently with Raytheon, with Boeing, with other companies, Lockheed, on Patriot missiles, on THAADs [Terminal High Altitude Area Defense systems], on other exquisite munitions. That’s groundbreaking stuff.” “Our department’s never done that,” he continued. “The Deputy Secretary, Steve Feinberg, is a whiz kid on these things, putting these deals together. The companies are investing because they know we’re going to be buying into the future. That’s just good business. We haven’t operated that well that way before. And then things like requirements, there’s mazes of requirements that this department has traditionally put on different systems and platforms that are impossible to navigate and by the time you navigate them, you’re five years behind the actual technology.” “So we’re going to companies and say, ‘Tell us what you can do based on the parameters of what kind of capabilities we’re looking for, say, in Indopaycom or Southcom or out in Europe, and let’s tailor it accordingly,’” he concluded. The U.S. Army recently finalized a multibillion-dollar deal with Lockheed Martin for the production of PAC-3 Missile Segment Enhancement (MSE) interceptors. This month, Raytheon signed five framework agreements with the U.S. Department of War to significantly increase production capacity and accelerate deliveries of several high-demand systems.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told senators on Tuesday that he visited Jeffrey Epstein’s Little Saint James Island with his wife and children in 2012, four years after Epstein pled guilty to procuring a minor for prostitution. During a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing, Lutnick was asked by Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) to confirm whether he visited Epstein’s island as was suggested in email correspondence that was recently made public in the Justice Department’s trove of Epstein files. Lutnick, who previously said that he cut off contact with Epstein after a troubling first encounter in 2005, confirmed on Monday that he had lunch on Epstein’s island in late 2012, alongside his wife and four children and another couple and their children. “Secretary Lutnick, I think you understand the root of concern here. It’s the way you described, very emphatically, your first encounter with him … [and] said you were disgusted and would never have any contact with him again,” Van Hollen said. “Did you, in fact, make the visit to Jeffrey Epstein’s private island?” Lutnick replied, “I did have lunch with him as I was on a boat going across, I was on a family vacation. My wife was with me as were my four children and nannies. I had another couple — they were there as well with their children — and we had lunch on the island. That is true, for an hour, and then we left with all of my children, with my nannies and my wife all together.” Lutnick added that he doesn’t remember “why we did it,” referring to the lunch with Epstein on his island, but said it was false “to suggest there was anything untoward about that.” The Trump official also said that he did not witness anything inappropriate when he was on the island with Epstein. Lutnick has not been accused of any wrongdoing in connection to Epstein’s crimes. Lutnick said he conducted his own search of Epstein files and found that his name appears in about 10 emails among the millions of pages of documents released by the Justice Department. He added that he would be willing to talk more about sharing his records related to Epstein with Congress. Epstein-related documents recently made public also appear to show Lutnick’s Wall Street firm emailing Epstein in 2011 in hopes of setting up a meeting. It’s unclear if that meeting took place. Lutnick told senators that he “did not have any relationship with” Epstein, adding, “I barely had anything to do with that person.” In an interview with the New York Post’s Miranda Devine last year, Lutnick said that after he and his wife first met Epstein in 2005, he vowed to never be in the same room as him. Lutnick told Devine that after he moved into a house next door to Epstein in New York, Epstein took Lutnick and his wife on a tour of his home. During the tour, Epstein pointed out the massage table “in the middle” of his home and made remarks about getting the “right kind of massage,” prompting Lutnick and his wife to leave, according to Lutnick. “In the six or eight steps that it takes to get from his house to my house, my wife and I decided that I will never be in the room with that disgusting person ever again,” the Commerce secretary added. “So I was never in the room with him socially, for business, or even philanthropy. If that guy was there, I wasn’t going because he’s gross.” After more came to light on Lutnick’s 2012 visit with Epstein, Democratic lawmakers, along with staunch Trump critic Thomas Massie (R-KY), criticized the Commerce secretary for appearing to change his story. “It’s now clear that Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has been lying about his relationship with Epstein. He said he had no interactions with Epstein after 2005, yet we now know they were in business together. Lutnick must resign or be fired. And he must answer our questions,” said Rep. Robert Garcia of California, the ranking member on the House Oversight Committee, which is investigating Epstein’s crimes and alleged ties to powerful people. Over the weekend, Massie called on Lutnick to “make life easier on the president … and just resign.” The White House told The Daily Wire on Tuesday that President Donald Trump remains confident in Lutnick’s ability to lead the Commerce Department. “President Trump has assembled the best and most transformative cabinet in modern history. The entire Trump administration, including Secretary Lutnick and the Department of Commerce, remains focused on delivering for the American people,” White House Spokesman Kush Desai said. A Commerce Department spokesman told The Daily Wire, “This is nothing more than a failing attempt by the legacy media to distract from the administration’s accomplishments, including securing Trillions of dollars in investment, delivering historic trade deals and fighting for the American worker. Mr. and Mrs. Lutnick met Jeffrey Epstein in 2005 and had very limited interactions with him over the next 14 years.”

Dr. Jeff Johnson, a Republican candidate for Minnesota governor, ended his campaign on Monday after his 22-year-old daughter was murdered over the weekend. Hallie Marie Tober, Johnson’s daughter, was stabbed to death on Saturday in her St. Cloud home. Police say they believe she was killed by her husband, who was found in the home with what appear to be self-inflicted knife wounds.  Johnson, a former city councilman for St. Cloud, suspended his campaign in the days following the tragedy, the Minnesota Republican Party said on Monday.  “There are no words that can adequately express the sorrow we feel for Jeff and his family. The loss of a child is unimaginable, and our thoughts and prayers are with them as they grieve this devastating tragedy,” the party said in a statement.  “Out of respect for his family and the enormity of this loss, Jeff has suspended his campaign for Governor of Minnesota,” the party added. “We ask all Minnesotans to join us in lifting up the Johnson family during this incredibly painful time.” On Sunday, the St. Cloud Police Department said that Hallie and her husband, 23-year-old Dylan Michael Tobler, were found in their locked apartment building when police responded to a call for emergency medical services. Hallie was dead when police arrived, and Tobler was injured.  “Based on the investigation, it is believed that Dylan’s injuries are self-inflicted and that he is the person responsible for Hallie’s injuries and death,” the police department said, adding that he was at St. Cloud Hospital in stable condition under the custody of law enforcement.  After his release from the hospital, police said that Tobler would be transported to Stearns County Jail to be held for homicide related charges. Police are still investigating the case with the assistance of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. Johnson was one of the Republican candidates vying to replace outgoing Democratic Governor Tim Walz. In a recent caucus, he took less than one percent of the vote. The top performers in the caucus were Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth, veteran Kendall Qualls, and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell.  On the Democrat side, Senator Amy Klobuchar launched a bid for governor after Walz announced he would not seek re-election amid scrutiny over his handling of suspected welfare fraud.