Ya gotta love it.  Writing from Pennsylvania, where outside my window sits 8-12 inches of snow, not to mention well below freezing temperatures with more snow coming in this direction, I scroll around and find no less than President Trump sharing my thought.  Here’s a sample headline from Forbes that appeared as the snow storm approached last week:  As 170 million Americans brace for major storm, Trump pushes global warming skepticism The story reports:  President Donald Trump mocked global warming Friday morning as the U.S. is set to encounter a far-reaching 'major winter storm' affecting more than 170 million Americans.  In a post on Truth Social, Trump said the country has rarely seen a winter storm like the one expected to begin Friday as he pushed climate change skepticism that has been frequent throughout his two presidencies, saying: 'Could the Environmental Insurrectionists please explain — WHATEVER HAPPENED TO GLOBAL WARMING?' Bingo! I would add to the President’s question by asking where all the media stories pushing global warming have gone. Instead, here’s but a small sample of the headlines actually out there:   From Fox 9 in Massachusetts: Bomb cyclone threatens US after majority of nation hit by massive snowstorm  From the BBC:  Heavy snow and ice to impact millions as winter storm sweeps across US  From USA Today: 13 dead as winter storm strikes broad swath of US and extreme cold moves in  From The Guardian:  US gripped by severe winter storm with snow, ice and plunging temperatures – as it happened  On and on and on goes the seemingly endless flood of stories from the mainstream media about the approach or arrival of a torrential snow storm combined, of course, with severe cold. And, quite notably, the mainstream media is pretty quiet about global warming. Where is it? Why in the world is there all this below freezing cold with all of that white stuff? The Associated Press reported on the snow....and AP's Seth Borenstein fact-check attacked Trump's mocking message. The scientists he found say Trump's all wrong.  But there is one story from The New York Times that deserves media attention. The headline:  America Officially Leaves the Paris Climate Agreement. For the Second Time.   The United States is the only country to pull out of the global agreement among nations to fight climate change. European diplomats say the U.S. reputation is suffering. The Times reports, without a trace of irony, this:  As of Tuesday, the United States is no longer a party to the Paris agreement on climate change, becoming the only country in the world to abandon the international commitment to slow global warming. In other words -- and there’s no secret here -- the liberal media, devoted as always to whatever is the current liberal media agenda,  is flooded with the hard (cold!) fact that here we are at the end of January, 2026 and all that snow that’s sitting around huge swaths of the country in below freezing temps is not going away anytime soon. In a situation like this the best thing for the liberal media is to…..just shut up on the subject of global warming.  Don’t ask where it went to. Don’t dispute all that falling white stuff and freezing cold. And when President Trump observes the obvious:  “Could the Environmental Insurrectionists please explain — WHATEVER HAPPENED TO GLOBAL WARMING?” Just…keep…quiet about what millions of Americans can see and feel for themselves. No sense taking on Trump when he clearly has the upper hand! And when it all goes away - as it will? When April showers bring May flowers? Then the media can hope that Americans will forget the whole thing and start running those global warming -is-killing-the-planet and the Trump administration needs to change its environmental policies stories. But until then? As the snow flies and the temperature plummets, the best thing the liberal media can do on the subject of global warming is just stay quiet. As quiet as a cold mouse. And wait for those warm April showers for the liberal media to get back to their mantra that global warming is doing us all in.

When it comes to the case against former CNN host Don Lemon’s alleged role in a recent takeover of a St. Paul church, the two most serious allegations against him are probably those that state he did not leave when the pastor asked him to and that he obstructed congregants as they tried to leave. However, neither ABC’s nor CBS’s Friday evening or Saturday morning news broadcasts reported on those details. While NBC mentioned the part about Lemon being asked to leave, it joined the other two in not explicitly mentioning the obstruction allegation, even if it showed footage of Lemon by the door. CBS reporter Matt Gutman was the most vocal against Lemon’s arrest on Evening News, declaring, “Tonight, Don Lemon defiantly addressing reporters after being indicted on that federal civil rights charge.”   On CBS's Friday evening newscast, Matt Gutman also ignores the most critical allegations against Lemon. He says "Don Lemon says this act of conventional journalism has landed him in federal court." pic.twitter.com/nrXnzsPh3S — Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) January 31, 2026   After showing video of Lemon at a press conference and from the day of the alleged crime, Gutman didn’t see what the big deal was, “Don Lemon says this act of conventional journalism has landed him in federal court.” Gutman then profiled co-defendant Georgia Fort, calling her a “Minnesota journalist,” but ignoring her role with the NAACP before playing some clips from Attorney General Pam Bondi and President Trump. On CBS Saturday Morning, colleague Ian Lee began by warning, “The Trump administration has journalist Don Lemon in its crosshairs. He's facing charges after following a group who disrupted a church service in Minnesota nearly two weeks ago. Lemon says he was reporting on the protesters who claim the pastor is also an immigration official.”   On Saturday, CBS rolled out legal analyst Robin Nunn to suggest the case against Lemon isn't that good, "Prosecutors have to show probable cause that there was an actual agreement to interfere with protected rights. Or physical obstruction under the FACE Act. Reporting on events… pic.twitter.com/sNQKFWZnDG — Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) January 31, 2026   After clips of Lemon and Bondi, CBS brought out legal analyst Robin Nunn to suggest the case isn’t that strong, “Prosecutors have to show probable cause that there was an actual agreement to interfere with protected rights or physical obstruction under the FACE Act. Reporting on events, even controversial ones, is just not enough.” Because CBS did not cite it, viewers were left with the impression the indictment doesn’t allege physical obstruction when it actually does. On ABC’s World News Tonight, Matt Rivers simply recalled “federal agents arresting former CNN anchor and now independent journalist Don Lemon and three more people in connection with this church protest in St. Paul, Minnesota. Anti-ICE protesters disrupting Sunday service nearly two weeks ago, where one of the pastors is also the director of an ICE field office. Lemon was inside covering that protest, interviewing church members.” The rest of Rivers’ segment featured dueling videos and quotes from Bondi, Fort, Lemon, and his lawyers. A truncated version of his report was given by Ike Ejiochi as part of Good Morning America’s Saturday recap of all things Minneapolis.   ABC did not cover in their Don Lemon report how he is alleged to have obstructed church goers when they tried to leave or that he himself did not leave when asked. Instead we got Matt Rivers simply claiming "Lemon was inside covering that protest, interviewing church members."… pic.twitter.com/jkNep4jRAD — Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) January 31, 2026   On NBC Nightly News, reporter Liz Kreutz, in her report, observed, “In Lemon's live stream from inside, you can see him interviewing congregates and a pastor who asked him to leave.” Both ABC and CBS did show B-roll footage of Lemon with the pastor, but viewers would have had no reason to know that the pastor asked Lemon to leave. By contrast, Kreutz showed the pastor telling Lemon, “I have to take care of my church and my family, so I ask that you actually would also leave this building.”   NBC's Liz Kreutz, by contrast, does report how Lemon was asked to leave and while not reporting on him allegedly obstructing the exits, she does play video of him arguably doing that. It wasn't all good, however, as she hyped, "Journalism rights groups blasting Lemon's arrest." pic.twitter.com/P0WbjDY0YL— Alex Christy (@alexchristy17) January 31, 2026   Kreutz then showed footage of Lemon by the door insisting to congregates, “I'm just chronicling. I'm a journalist. They’re activists.” It wasn’t all positive for Kreutz. She didn't mention that he is alleged to have obstructed the exit, and after a clip of Bondi, she hyped, “Journalism rights groups blasting Lemon's arrest. His attorney saying, ‘Don has been a journalist for 30 years, and his constitutionally protected work in Minneapolis was no different than what he has always done.’” Kreutz’s report would re-air on Saturday’s Today. Here are transcripts for the January 30 and 31 shows: ABC World News Tonight 1/30/2026 MATT RIVERS: And tonight, federal agents arresting former CNN anchor and now independent journalist Don Lemon and three more people in connection with this church protest in St. Paul, Minnesota. Anti-ICE protesters disrupting Sunday service nearly two weeks ago, where one of the pastors is also the director of an ICE field office. Lemon was inside covering that protest, interviewing church members. DON LEMON: I'm not part of the group. I'm just here photographing. I'm a journalist. RIVERS: Sources telling ABC News Lemon was arrested at a Beverly Hills hotel overnight where he was covering the Grammy Awards. Authorities also arresting independent journalist and NAACP Vice President Georgia Fort. GEORGIA FORT: Agents are at my door right now. RIVERS: She captured video showing masked agents peering through her front window. The journalist live streaming as she was taken into custody. FORT: When you can just be arrested for being a member of the press. We've seen all these violations. All right, guys, I've got to go, they're knocking. RIVERS: Late today, Fort was released from custody. Attorney General Pam Bondi saying the arrests happened at her direction, calling this in a social media post a quote, “coordinated attack at that church.” PAM BONDI: You have the right to worship freely and safely. And if I haven't been clear already, if you violate that sacred right, we are coming after you. RIVERS: Lemon's legal team firing back, calling it an “unprecedented attack on the First Amendment.” A federal judge had previously rejected the DOJ’s attempt to charge Lemon, finding “no evidence” of criminal behavior. But despite that judge's order, Lemon recently telling Scripps News he believed the DOJ would still try to charge him. LEMON: They will try to fit or retrofit something or go around a judge and just do it themselves. And it doesn't matter. And everything that they say pertains to protesters. I was not a protester. *** NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas 1/30/2026 LIZ KREUTZ: Tonight former CNN anchor turned independent journalist Don Lemon out of custody but facing federal civil rights charges after covering an anti-ICE protest inside a church near Minneapolis. Appearing in Los Angeles Federal Court today, Lemon charged with conspiracy to deprive rights and for violating a federal law that prohibits people from interfering with the right to attend religious services, a move Lemon's attorney calls an "unprecedented attack on the First Amendment." DON LEMON: I'm just here to chronicle and to get some answers. KREUTZ: The charges stemming from Lemon's coverage of this protest during a Sunday morning church service earlier this month where demonstrators say a pastor also worked as an ICE field director. LEMON: This shows you just how divided America is when you look at the protesters here and then you look at the people there praying. KREUTZ: In Lemon's live stream from inside, you can see him interviewing congregates and a pastor who asked him to leave. PASTOR: We're here to worship Jesus because that's the hope of these cities. That’s the hope of the world is Jesus Christ. LEMON: I’m going to be very respectful. Please don't push me. [jump cut] PASTOR: I have to take care of my church and my family, so I ask that you actually would also leave this building. KREUTZ: Lemon repeatedly identifies himself as a journalist. LEMON: I'm just chronicling. I'm a journalist. They’re activists. KREUTZ: But The DOJ is grouping Lemon, who has been critical of the Trump administration, and another independent journalist, who was also arrested, with the protest organizers. Federal authorities arresting Lemon, even after a judge had initially ruled there was insufficient evidence to do so. PAM BONDI: Make no mistake, under President Trump's leadership and this administration, you have the right to worship freely and safely, and if I haven't been clear already, if you violate that sacred right, we are coming after you. KREUTZ: Journalism rights groups blasting Lemon's arrest. His attorney saying, “Don has been a journalist for 30 years, and his constitutionally protected work in Minneapolis was no different than what he has always done.” *** CBS Evening News 1/30/2026 6:37 PM ET MATT GUTMAN: Tonight, Don Lemon defiantly addressing reporters after being indicted on that federal civil rights charge. DON LEMON: I have spent my entire career covering the news. I will not stop now. I'm just going to walk in. GUTMAN: Don Lemon says this act of conventional journalism has landed him in federal court. Tonight he is facing charges of disrupting a Minnesota church service nearly two weeks ago. LEMON: I'm not going to get in the middle of it because I'm not here as an activist. I’m here as a journalist. GUTMAN: Lemon followed demonstrators inside a church whose pastor was also an immigration official. Lemon was arrested last night in Los Angeles where he was covering the Grammys. Meanwhile, 1500 miles away— GEORGIA FORT: Agents are at my door right now. LEMON: Minnesota journalist Georgia Fort, who was also at the church, posted live as she was about to be arrested. Lemon has defended his actions that day. LEMON: I was there something chronicling what they were doing, which is what journalists do all the time. GUTMAN: But two days after that protest, President Trump called him out. DONALD TRUMP: Like Don Lemon, who is, you know, a loser, lightweight. I saw him, the way walked in that church, it was terrible. Reporter: When the Trump administration first tried to indict Lemon and Fort, it was rejected by two federal judges in Minnesota. Today, attorney general Pam Bondi said it was her decision to arrest the journalists. PAM BONDI: You have the right to worship freely and safely. And if I haven't been clear already, if you violate that sacred right, we are coming after you. LEMON: And I will not be silenced. I look forward to my day in court. GUTMAN: Tony, his day in court is February 9th in Minneapolis, just a short time ago, he said “no time is more important for a free and independent media” and that he will not stop now or ever. His attorney said they will fight this case vigorously in court, Tony. *** CBS Saturday Morning 1/31/2026 8:08 AM ET IAN LEE: The Trump administration has journalist Don Lemon in its crosshairs. He's facing charges after following a group who disrupted a church service in Minnesota nearly two weeks ago. Lemon says he was reporting on the protesters who claim the pastor is also an immigration official. DON LEMON: I'm not going to get in the middle of it it because I'm not here as an activist. I'm here as a journalist. LEE: Attorney General Pam Bondi said it was her decision to make the arrest. PAM BONDI: You have the right to worship freely and safely. And if I haven't been clear already, if you violate that sacred right, we are coming after you. LEE: Federal agents arrested Lemon in Los Angeles Thursday night along with three other people in Minnesota including a local journalist. LEMON: I have spent my entire career covering the news. I will not stop now. LEE: The indictment names Lemon and eight others alleging they conspired and launched a coordinated take over-style attack at a church. ROBIN NUNN: Prosecutors have to show probable cause that there was an actual agreement to interfere with protected rights or physical obstruction under the FACE Act. Reporting on events, even controversial ones, is just not enough.  

Last Wednesday night, a man rammed his car into Chabad Lubavitch World Headquarters, a world-renowned synagogue in Crown Heights, Brooklyn New York. His vehicle hit the building's entrance five times, and when it was over, police arrested 36 year old Dan Sohai and charged him with several hate crimes, including attempted assault, criminal mischief and aggravated harassment. Yet apparently it wasn't enough of a story for ABC's World News Tonight, or The CBS Evening News to cover on their respective broadcasts on Thursday evening, although both networks did report on the story on their morning news shows.  The NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas did make time for the story with a report that ran almost a minute and a half. Llamas led into it with his introduction of reporter Sam Brock. LLAMAS: Tonight terrifying moments when a man rammed his car into a Jewish Center in Brooklyn multiple times. He's being charged with 20 counts, including several hate crimes. NBC's Sam Brock explains what happened. BROCK: In the frigid cold an even more chilling sight. Video capturing a man repeatedly smashing his car into the global headquarters of the Jewish Chabad movement where thousands were celebrating... The NYPD quickly arriving and arresting a 36-year-old Dan Sohai. Amazingly, no one was injured... A Rabbi (Rabbi Yaacov Behrman) telling us earlier in the day the suspect asked Rabbinical students when the event was taking place. RABBI: We are facing probably in my lifetime the worst challenge to the safety of Jews. Then there are some truly bizarre circumstances that makes this story even more interesting.  BROCK: Three law enforcement sources telling NBC New York the suspect appears to have a history of emotional or mental issues. Two sources say he previously tried to convert to Judaism, even visiting this very center before. He is now being charged with several hate crimes. Nationwide, there has been a skyrocketing level of antisemitism for years. Brock then played a clip of the CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, Jonathan Greenblatt, who partially addressed the bigger problem, especially in New York . GREENBLATT: We've seen nearly a 900% increase the last nine years alone, and the state where the most incidents happened is New York, and the city where most incidents happened is New York City.  Over on Fox News, Special Report with Bret Baier also covered the attack, while giving it considerably less air time. Baier included it in his look at what Fox affiliates are covering around the country. BAIER: Fox 5 in New York as a suspect is in custody after police say he intentionally and repeatedly rammed his vehicle into the Chabad World Headquarters. Thousands of people were inside at the time. They say the Jewish site's doors were damaged. The driver said it was an accident and that he had been trying to park the vehicle. Authorities looking into that.  Obviously Baier left out the name of the driver and the fact that he had been charged with all of those hate crimes, but at least it received a mention. It makes one wonder what ABC and CBS were thinking in taking a complete pass on this. Would they have done the same for an attack on a Mosque or a Church? I would hope not, and they should not have bypassed this story either.

Few things better exemplify the inability of the left to tolerate contrary viewpoints than the recent struggle session framed as an "Internal Town Hall" when CNN CEO Mark Thompson was confronted by leftist staffers who claimed they were offended by the existence on their network of conservative commentator Scott Jennings. It seems they agreed with recent NewsNight guest Cameron Kasky, who arrogantly declared to Jennings that he was somehow not permitted to use the term "illegal alien" despite the fact it is a legal term written into immigration law.  #DealWithIt -- According to Oliver Darcy, someone whined and whined to CNN's Mark Thompson at the company town hall, demanding to know why @ScottJenningsKY is allowed to exist there... “Later in the town hall, Thompson fielded a range of other questions, including why in-house… — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) January 30, 2026 The left-leaning Daily Beast went into further detail about the CNN town hall/struggle session/confrontation on Friday with a story by Ewan Palmer revealing the deep level of angst felt by the staffers over the mere presence of Scott Jennings in "CNN Boss Confronted by Staff Over MAGA Pundit’s On-Air Behavior." CNN boss Mark Thompson was pressed by staff about why the network has not reined in MAGA mouthpiece Scott Jennings’ on-air rhetoric. Thompson hosted an all-hands meeting with CNN employees, giving them the opportunity to raise questions and concerns about the network’s current state and future. During the meeting, staff questioned the behavior of Jennings, who frequently gets into verbal spats with other CNN guests as a firebrand Trump loyalist. One area of concern was Jennings being allowed to describe undocumented immigrants as “illegal aliens,” a term that violates the network’s editorial standards, according to Status. So the very people who struggle to define "man" or "woman" feel qualified to declare legal terms embedded in the law to be taboo? Palmer also cited one of the liberal guests who has proven herself incapable of debating Scott Jennings on CNN demanding his removal despite the fact he is perhaps the main reason why many people tune into that network: Earlier this month, Democratic political operative Julie Roginsky published a critique of CNN for repeatedly inviting Jennings to appear on its shows. Writing in her Salty Politics Substack, Roginsky questioned why Jennings is allowed back on the network when he is “rude, dismissive, and antagonistic in ways that feel personal rather than substantive,” especially toward female guests. “CNN should ask itself a simple question: what is Scott Jennings adding that could not be accomplished by any number of conservative analysts who are capable of making arguments without bad-faith theatrics?” Roginsky wrote. “The answer, uncomfortably, appears to be conflict for conflict’s sake. Jennings reliably generates clips and provokes reactions. And in an era when cable news executives are chasing engagement metrics, that reliability seems to matter more than integrity.” "Rude, dismissive, and antagonistic." That is actually a description of many of the liberals, including Roginsky, who find themselves unable to rationally debate with Jennings. Of course, we also get the type of liberal who, finding himself unable to engage in debate, ends up helplessly mugging for the cameras with weird facial expressions which Jose Antonio Vargas did on Thursday's NewsNight while Scott Jennings was speaking. Tim Walz continues to publicly fantasize about starting another American Civil War, even calling Minneapolis the next “Ft. Sumter.” His desperation to be the modern Jefferson Davis is … a choice, I guess? pic.twitter.com/Chtgx0tmhk — Scott Jennings (@ScottJenningsKY) January 30, 2026

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Bureaucracy is where accountability gets diluted and common sense is quietly asked to wait outside for safety reasons.You can usually spot it by the signs. Laminated, taped, stacked one on top of another, each announcing a rule that probably once made senseArrows point in conflicting directions. Doors are locked “temporarily,” which often means indefinitely. A desk sits between you and the thing you actually need, staffed by someone whose job is to make sure you don’t get there the wrong way.We may not be able to change systems or bureaucrats, but we can change how they hook us into drama.Hospitals are particularly good at this.Clipboards multiply. Protocols overlap. Nobody is quite in charge, but everyone is certain about what you’re not allowed to do. Hospitals tend to amplify a familiar human impulse: gathering in herds, exchanging judgment for the illusion of safety.Caregivers encounter this constantly. Not because we seek it out, but because care requires proximity to systems that prize procedure over discernment. By the time we reach the desk, our tension is already high and our patience nearly gone.I found myself at a large teaching hospital with my wife, Gracie, as she prepared for a nine-hour surgery. We were staying with friends nearby. She had already been admitted, and the surgeon was clear about where I needed to enter so I could be with her in pre-op before they took her to surgery.By now, most surgeons recognize that I’m not new to this. Forty years of caregiving tends to cure naïveté. I can follow the jargon, ask informed questions, and handle graphic medical realities without flinching. That familiarity earns a certain trust once you reach pre-op, recovery units, or the ICU.The problem is getting there.Between the parking lot and the patient lies a layered world of desks, checkpoints, screens, and policies, staffed by people who don’t know your history and aren’t allowed to consider it.Which is how I found myself there with Gracie during her surgery, in the middle of COVID, a season I’ve come to think of as the high holy days of bureaucracy.It was bitterly cold that morning in Denver. Montana cold I can handle. Denver cold is another matter. I had already made the long walk from the parking area to the emergency room and was not eager to be sent back outside to circle the hospital again in the frigid early morning.At the ER security desk, I gave my wife’s name and said, “I’m here for her operation.”The guard checked the screen and said, “You have to use the front entrance.”“It’s closed,” I replied. “The surgeon directed me here.”“You have to use the front entrance.”I tried again, slower.Same result.So I asked, politely, “Ma’am, where did I lose you?”She repeated herself.Years ago, this is where I would have argued. Quoted instructions. Asked for a supervisor. Escalated things just enough to feel righteous while accomplishing nothing and raising my blood pressure.Decades of caregiving taught me that nothing useful is changed that way.So instead of arguing, I chose a different response. I met immovable force with irreverent restraint.Since I have a full head of white hair, and with great hair comes great responsibility, I adopted my best Leslie Nielsen deadpan and said calmly, “Ma’am, I’m board-certified in cranial proctology. They’re waiting for me in pre-op.”She blinked.Her eyes widened.She waved me through.RELATED: The reform every society needs: Stop mistaking shock for success Cienples / Getty ImagesIt later occurred to me that my last name may have served as the exclamation mark on the credentials I had just fabricated. Even nonsense, it seems, benefits from proper punctuation.I arrived in pre-op on time, smiling to myself.For the record, cranial proctology is not a recognized medical specialty, except perhaps in Washington, D.C., where demand appears chronic and widespread across multiple government buildings. My services, though sorely needed, remain unofficial.Caregivers live with enough real emergencies. We don’t need to manufacture new ones by turning every bureaucratic impasse into a confrontation. We may not be able to change systems or bureaucrats, but we can change how they hook us into drama.Not every obstacle deserves a skirmish. Some require restraint, a straight face, and conserving energy for what actually matters.A little humor, a lot of deadpan, and the ability to avoid getting pulled into someone else’s craziness go a long way toward living a calmer life as a caregiver.Maybe I’ll give it a try at the post office next.Or, God help us all, the TSA.

A far-left sheriff in Michigan has walked back some of her comments regarding federal immigration arrests in her jurisdiction.On Wednesday, Washtenaw County Sheriff Alyshia Dyer took to her Facebook page — which the Detroit News described as her "personal" page, though the account name is Sheriff Alyshia M. Dyer and shares the address, phone number, and website for the sheriff's office — to claim that four people had been arrested near school bus stops in Ypsilanti earlier this week just as schools were let out for the day.'ICE does NOT target schools for enforcement actions or bus stop locations.'"On Tuesday (1/27/26), we received multiple reports from community members that ICE detained a mother in front of her child in the Ypsilanti area, along with other residents," Dyer wrote. She also attached a parent letter from Ypsilanti Public Schools Superintendent Alena Zachery-Ross, claiming that "several parents in our community were taken into custody while off school grounds."Dyer added that "parents connected to local schools" may have been "targeted at a bus stop in Ypsilanti during student drop-off times." She noted that the arrests "did not occur on any school grounds."Dyer then blamed Immigration and Customs Enforcement because she could not "confirm details" about those reports: "Unfortunately, it is often difficult to confirm details, as ICE frequently provides no advance notice, does not contact Metro Dispatch, and leaves families, schools, and communities to process the impact on their own in the aftermath."RELATED: Woke 'pansexual' sheriff in Michigan excited to implement far-left agenda Photo by Jim Watson - Pool/Getty ImagesBy Thursday, ICE had slammed Dyer's allegations as "lies." "ICE does NOT target schools for enforcement actions or bus stop locations. To be clear, NO children were present during these arrests," the agency said in a statement to the Detroit News."Lies like these are just another reason why our officers are grappling with a 1,300% increase in assaults, a 3,200% increase in vehicle attacks and a staggering 8,000% uptick in death threats," the statement added.Dyer updated her claims on Thursday to note that she had spoken with "immigration enforcement leadership," who reassured her that they had not and will not "do any enforcement on school grounds, or school bus stops." She then passively blamed the officials for some kind of miscommunication."They have agreed to better communicate in the future when they leave Washtenaw County," she wrote.In the statement, ICE clarified that agents "were conducting targeted operations seeking to apprehend illegal aliens with final orders of removal from the United States." The agents tailed two vehicles leaving a targeted residence and then arrested four individuals during at traffic stop: Delmy Yamileth Molina Vasquez, Gissel Alejandra Pavon Nunes, and Elder Alberto Veliz-Mencia of Honduras and Carolina Hernandez-Aviles of Mexico.ICE database records confirmed that, as of Friday morning, the three women are detained in an ICE facility in Michigan, but Blaze News could not find any record for Veliz-Mencia. Whether any of the four individuals have criminal records unrelated to immigration is unclear.Crystal Campbell, director of operations at the Washtenaw County Sheriff's Office, told Blaze News in a statement: "The ICE arrests on Tuesday in Ypsilanti caused local panic and school communities to be extremely alarmed. As [Sheriff Dyer] shared in her post, this is why the agenda around how immigration enforcement is being handled has been so concerning."Campbell reiterated in her statement that the arrests caused "significant stress." "We don’t work with or assist in immigration enforcement, and any time they do come to the county, it causes tremendous stress and anxiety for the whole community," the statement concluded.Zachery-Ross' office did not respond to a request for comment from Blaze News.Dyer, who identifies as "pansexual," was elected in 2024 on a radical agenda. According to her campaign website, she pledged to prevent the Washtenaw County Sheriff's Office from "collaborating with ICE" and to provide the "undocumented" with driver's license documentation.The same month Dyer was sworn into office, the Ypsilanti City Council voted to discontinue saying the Pledge of Allegiance before meetings.H/T: David BondyEditor's note: This article has been edited after publication to include a statement from Crystal Campbell of the Washtenaw County Sheriff's Office.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

The Department of Justice announced the release of millions of new pages from the Jeffrey Epstein files on Friday.Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said the 3 million files were released on a website available to the public and included 180,000 images and 2,000 videos.'We did not protect President Trump. We didn’t protect or not protect anybody.'"Today’s release marks the end of a very comprehensive document identification and review process to ensure transparency to the American people," Blanche said at a media briefing.Blanche, who previously worked as a personal attorney to President Donald Trump, denied claims that the administration had protected the president."We did not protect President Trump. We didn’t protect or not protect anybody," he said.He said the DOJ review of the Epstein files was complete. More than 125,000 pages of the investigation had already been released before Friday.He also said that the White House had no involvement in the review of the latest documents."They had no oversight over this review," he added. "They did not tell this department how to do our review, what to look for, what to redact, what to not redact."RELATED: Bill and Hillary Clinton refuse to testify in Epstein probe — Republicans threaten contempt of Congress Republicans have threatened to hold Bill and Hillary Clinton in contempt of Congress after they refused a subpoena asking for documents related to the Epstein investigation. "We are confident that any reasonable person in or out of Congress will see, based on everything we release, that what you are doing is trying to punish those who you see as your enemies and to protect those you think are your friends," the Clintons said in a letter to Congress. This is a developing story. Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

The U.S. African Development Foundation, a foreign aid agency that poured millions of taxpayer dollars into African initiatives over the past four decades, desperately fought the Trump administration's efforts to dismantle the agency and audit its finances.It's now painfully obvious why there was so much resistance to transparency at the U.S. Agency for International Development-adjacent outfit.Months after government watchdog Judicial Watch sued the USADF for records regarding its expenditures and in the wake of allegations that agency officials were abusing their positions and misusing funds, the USADF's director of financial management, Mathieu Zahui, is now admitting wrongdoing.'The USADF Director of Financial Management's fraudulent acts betrayed the trust of the American people.'Zahui, an official who denied DOGE access to the agency's financial records last year, has agreed to plead guilty to taking secret payments and lying to federal law enforcement officers about those payments."Mathieu Zahui is charged with accepting payments from a government contractor and then abusing his position by directing USADF funds to that contractor for little-to-no work," Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department's Criminal Division said in a statement on Friday. "Corruption by senior officials representing the United States cheats American taxpayers and rigs the system against honest work."RELATED: 'STOP THE SCAMS!' Trump announces new office in DOJ dedicated to investigating fraud Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty ImagesThe Justice Department indicated in court documents obtained by Rikki Ratliff-Fellman, chief content officer for Glenn Beck, and shared with Blaze News that Zahui, 59, arranged for the USADF to pay vendors and contractors through a Kenya-based company owned by a government contractor Zahui has known since 1999."Zahui arranged for ADF to pay certain vendors and contractors through Company-1 rather than pay them directly," the DOJ noted in the filing. "Zahui then approved invoices for Company-1 and CC-1 that included mark-ups ranging from 17% to 66% on these pass-through invoices, even when Company-1 did no work justifying the mark-up."The company belonging to Zahui's associate submitted over 20 pass-through invoices for the African Development Foundation for which Zahui had USADF shell out at least $617,625.49. His associate's company allegedly kept $134,886.34 of that sum as a mark-up for "logistical support."Between 2019 and 2022, Zahui personally and directly received $12,000 in cash payments, the DOJ alleged.Zahui and his associate's company unsurprisingly failed to disclose the details of their little arrangement to the Bureau of the Fiscal Service, which oversaw and authorized USADF's payment to external parties.Adding insult to injury, Zahui told federal agents when interviewed in 2024 that he had never received any kickback from his friend's company.The USADF financial director has, however, since agreed to plead guilty to one count of accepting gratuities from his associate's company and one count of making a false statement to a federal law enforcement officer. He faces a maximum of two years in prison for the first charge and five years in prison for the second.Peter Marocco, former director of the Office of Foreign Assistance and USAID deputy administrator, wrote in response to the agreement, "USADF is garbage. A culture of defiant fraud, waste and abuse that must come to an end. This is only scratching the surface. Abolish it!""The USADF Director of Financial Management's fraudulent acts betrayed the trust of the American people," said Sean Bottary, the acting assistant inspector general at the USAID's Office of Inspector General.Zahui's guilty plea apparently will not be the end of the crackdown on USADF."There are active investigations as we dig deeper into the African Development Foundation's egregious and systemic fraud, waste, and abuse," Marocco told Blaze News. "After battling obstructionist efforts to block the president's executive order, the more we dig, we find evidence of intimidating whistleblowers and other outrageous conduct.""This rogue agency is rotten waste to the core, and it needs to be defunded," added Marocco.The USADF was one of the agencies President Donald Trump ordered the elimination of "to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law" in February 2025.Blaze News has reached out to USADF for comment.Editor's note: This story has been edited after publication to clarify how Blaze News obtained the documents and to add comment from Peter Marocco.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

The elderly man who was caught on video screaming, "Shoot me!" after falsely confessing to shooting Charlie Kirk has pleaded no contest to a third-degree charge of obstruction of justice.71-year-old George Zinn added to the chaos on Sept. 10 when Kirk was killed at Utah Valley University by claiming to have been the shooter. He was dragged away while his pants slipped to his ankles.'I want to put the past behind me and move forward.' After Zinn was questioned by police, they said they discovered child sex abuse material on his cell phone, which led to more charges.On Thursday he also pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, but denied in a statement to the court that he was a threat to children.Utah Fourth District Court Judge Thomas Low sentenced Zinn to up to 15 years for all of the charges. A parole board will ultimately decide how much time he spends in prison.Zinn helped incite conspiracy theories about the shooting, but he was known for being a nuisance at high-profile political and cultural events in Utah. He had more than two dozen previous arrests, the most serious one involving an alleged bomb threat made to the Salt Lake City Marathon by email.Police said that he admitted to trying to divert "the attention of multiple law enforcement officers from their efforts to secure the scene and find the actual shooter."22-year-old Tyler James Robinson was charged for the murder of Kirk based on a trove of evidence that included a confession note and extensive physical evidence. RELATED: Panel explodes into chaos after leftist influencer defends mocking Charlie Kirk's widow Zinn did not mention Charlie Kirk in his statement to the court asking for mercy."I want to put the past behind me and move forward," he said as he became emotional.Zinn's defense attorney, Carly Madsen, told the court that he never fit in and didn't get the help he needed."Never really got the love or attention he deserved," she added. "And never got the help he needed, resources that would that helped him years ago."Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!