Attorney General Pam Bondi fired a warning shot Thursday after a federal three-judge panel ruled, by a 2–1 margin, that California may use its newly minted congressional map — a voter-approved redraw designed to juice Democrats’ prospects in the 2026 midterms. Bondi made clear the fight is far from over, writing on X that California “impermissibly drew its new congressional map based on race,” calling the move unconstitutional and pledging that the Justice Department is reviewing “all legal options.” We disagree with yesterday’s 2-1 ruling on California’s redistricting map. California impermissibly drew its new congressional map based on race. That’s unconstitutional. We are reviewing all legal options. — Attorney General Pamela Bondi (@AGPamBondi) January 15, 2026 The ruling rejected challenges from state Republicans and the DOJ, both of which argued that the map violated the Constitution by using race — particularly to favor Hispanic voters — as a driving factor in redrawing district lines. The panel instead accepted California Democrats’ insistence that the map was drawn for nakedly partisan purposes, a distinction that has become legally decisive since the Supreme Court ruled in 2019 that partisan gerrymandering presents a “political question” beyond the reach of federal courts. Proposition 50, pushed aggressively by California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom and approved decisively by voters in November, could hand Democrats as many as five additional House seats. Newsom, widely viewed as eyeing a 2028 presidential run, framed the effort as retaliation for a Texas mid-decade redistricting plan backed by President Donald Trump. Republicans currently hold just nine of California’s 52 House seats, making the Golden State a tempting battlefield in the escalating national map war. Democrats celebrated the ruling as a win for voters, with Newsom dismissing the lawsuit as a “weak attempt to silence” them. Republicans were less sanguine. California GOP chair Corrin Rankin vowed an appeal to the Supreme Court, arguing that the dissenting opinion — authored by Trump-appointed Judge Kenneth Lee — more accurately reflected the law and the facts. Lee warned that at least one district was drawn using race “to curry favor with Latino groups and voters,” undercutting the majority’s claim that the map was purely partisan. The decision lands amid an increasingly brazen, state-by-state arms race over redistricting. Missouri, North Carolina, and Ohio have moved to redraw maps mid-decade, while a judge forced Republican-run Utah to adopt a Democratic-leaning district. Notably, the Justice Department has sued only California. The stakes are unmistakable. House Democrats need just a handful of seats to flip control of the chamber, potentially grinding Trump’s agenda to a halt and opening the floodgates to congressional investigations. With Republicans holding a razor-thin majority, California’s maps may prove decisive — or become the next front in a Supreme Court showdown over whether “partisan” gerrymandering is simply racial gerrymandering by another name.

President Donald Trump praised a “highly respected Minnesota judge” on Thursday after she declined to issue a restraining order against Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in the Democrat-run state. On Wednesday, Kate Menendez, a Biden-appointed U.S. District Court judge, rejected Minnesota’s request to temporarily block ICE from continuing immigration enforcement operations in the state as Minnesota’s lawsuit against the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement moves forward. “A highly respected judge declined to block I.C.E. operations in the very politically corrupt State of Minnesota. I.C.E. will therefore be allowed to continue its highly successful operation of removing some of the most violent and vicious criminals anywhere in the World, many of them murderers, from the State,” Trump said. “The great patriots of Law Enforcement will continue to make our Country safe. RECORD LOW CRIME NUMBERS!!!” Menendez said her decision did not indicate how she would ultimately rule on Minnesota’s lawsuit against the federal government, CBS News reported. “I think the issues are really important and I don’t want to suggest by not acting immediately one way or the other that I think they are unimportant,” Menendez said. “To the contrary, I understand this is important to everybody.” Minnesota argued that a two-week restraining order was needed to give the state time to prepare for the case, arguing that the 3,000 federal agents in Minneapolis and the surrounding areas are violating citizens’ rights. The federal government must respond to Minnesota’s lawsuit by January 19, and Judge Menendez denied a federal prosecutor’s request to postpone the date due to the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. Menendez said the case was too urgent to delay. Leftist Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison announced on Monday that the state filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration in an effort to stop its surge of federal agents into the state. Ellison described Trump’s immigration operation in Minnesota as an “invasion.” The lawsuit was filed just days after Minneapolis resident Renee Good was shot and killed by an ICE agent after she drove her vehicle toward him during a confrontation. The shooting death has sparked massive protests, which have continued for more than a week, and the Trump administration has deployed more federal agents to the city. Another ICE shooting on Wednesday night sparked more outrage in Minneapolis. A federal agent was ambushed and attacked by three people while attempting to detain a suspected Venezuelan illegal immigrant in the city’s Northside, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Trump also threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act on Thursday as demonstrations continued. “If the corrupt politicians of Minnesota don’t obey the law and stop the professional agitators and insurrectionists from attacking the Patriots of I.C.E., who are only trying to do their job, I will institute the INSURRECTION ACT, which many Presidents have done before me, and quickly put an end to the travesty that is taking place in that once great State,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Thank you for you [sic] attention to this matter!” LIVE UPDATES: Minnesota Dems Angry After Second ICE Shooting, Protesters Throw Fireworks At Police

There’s something about singing karaoke that’s so liberating. You chose the song and just how you want to sing it. If you’re good, people might start making requests. And the next thing you know, you’re the hit of the party. Of course, if it’s Kellyoke and you’re Kelly Clarkson, you’re always the best singer in the world. If we’re being honest, that’s our favorite kind of karaoke. No matter what she sings, Kelly positively nails it, no matter the genre. Fans often send in suggestions for what they’d like to hear. In the latest installment, Kellyoke took on KPop Demon Hunters, and naturally, she slayed. View this post on Instagram A post shared by The Kelly Clarkson Show (@kellyclarksonshow) “KPop Demon Hunters” Kellyoke is Just What We Need Kelly Clarkson sang What It Sounds Like from Kpop Demon Hunters during this week’s Kellyoke, and she sounded perfect. Kelly started slow before kicking the track into high gear. Per the usual, fans loved Kelly’s performance. “This is the best song in Kpop Demon Hunters imo! Makes me cry everytime, and now Kelly’s beautiful version,” someone gushed. “This is by far my favourite song in the film, and you NAILED it,” another person wrote. This fan could not get over KPop Demon Hunters getting the Kellyoke treatment. “Watching @kellyclarkson cover a K-Pop Demon Hunters track is the exact kind of high-octane emotional simulation my brain needs to function. I’m not saying this performance fixed my entire life, but it definitely just bumped my dopamine levels to a point where I might actually respond to the emails I’ve been ignoring for three weeks. It is the vocal agility and the unhinged joy for me. Pure cinema,” they wrote. “Ughhhh PERFECTION! Fearless and undefined is truly what this sounded like! Golden next??” A fan requested. This story’s featured image can be found here.

'A queer black woman is up here doing the job of two mediocre white guys'

The livestream suffered severe technical issues

'There's some bullets'

'Your deportation is likely if not certain.'

BREAKING OVERNIGHT... MORE PANDEMONIUM IN MINNEAPOLIS AFTER ICE AGENT SHOOTS VIOLENT ILLEGAL IN THE LEG... NYT: Federal Agent Shoots Man in Minneapolis, Prompting Tense Protests

The U.S. has “no idea” of the possible threat posed by some Afghan nationals admitted to the U.S. during the Biden administration, according to Sen. Josh Hawley.   About 200,000 Afghans were allowed into the U.S. during and after the U.S. withdrawal from the country in 2021 under President Joe Biden. Among those paroled, “we have no idea of their potential terrorist connections, and in many cases, we now have no idea where they are or what they’re doing, who they’re connected with, or what they’re capable of,” Hawley, R-Mo., said Wednesday at a Senate hearing on iden’s Afghan parolee program.   “Sadly, we’ve seen what some of them are capable of,” Hawley said, referring to Rahmanullah Lakanwal, the 29 year-old Afghan male charged with the shooting of two National Guard members in D.C. in November that killed one and seriously injured the other.   The Biden administration’s parolee program for Afghans was “hastily arranged,” Simon Hankinson, a senior research fellow in the Border Security and Immigration Center at The Heritage Foundation, told members of the Senate subcommittees on Border Security and Immigration and Crime and Counterterrorism at the hearing.  Among the “200,000 Afghans brought here under programs hastily arranged by the Biden administration since 2021, there are hundreds who should be deported,” Hankinson said. He added that gratitude to Afghans who served alongside the U.S. military during the nearly 20-year war does not automatically entail bringing them to the U.S..   “The U.S. had other options,” he told the senators, including the creation of a “safe zone in Afghanistan” in a region run by “warlords who oppose the central government.”   “Or instead of paying billions to bring Afghans to an alien country far from home, we could have paid neighboring countries, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Pakistan, or even India to take them in,” Hankinson added.  “These places have more in common with the Afghan culture, religion and way of life than any Western country.”   In the case of the Afghans resettled in the U.S. after the 2021 withdrawal, vetting lacked sufficient safeguards, often due to nonexistent information or the Taliban’s refusal to share information, Hankinson explained.   Lawmakers, including Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., argued for the importance of both vetting all foreign nationals paroled into the U.S. and honoring the service of those who assisted U.S. troops in Afghanistan–a sentiment shared by retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. Perry Blackburn.   The case against Lakanwal “does not represent the Afghan people I fought beside,” Blackburn told members of Congress.   Blackburn is the founder of AFGfree, a nonprofit seeing to “evacuate US Citizens, our partners and their families by land, sea or air” from Afghanistan, according to the group’s mission statement.   The Afghans “fought beside us, and they translated not just language, but culture. They helped us understand tribal dynamics, honor, and consequence,” Blackburn said, adding, “they bled, they died, they lived, [and] hey became like us.”   Nadim Yousify, a former Platoon Sergeant in the U.S. Marines, served as an interpreter for the U.S. in Afghanistan from 2010 to 2015.   “I committed myself to serving alongside Americans,” Yousify said, adding that because of his work with the U.S. military, he “became a target” of the Taliban in Afghanistan. After years of screening and vetting, Yousify was permitted to come to the U.S. through the Special Immigration Visa program.   Today, Yousify is a nursing student in the U.S. and says he wants to continue serving the country.   “I understand the concern raised in this hearing. National security matters. Public safety matters. No one who served alongside Americans, like I did, would ever dispute that,” Yousify said. He added, “one person’s crime should never erase the sacrifice of 10,000 who stood with the American service members under fire.”   Lakanwal worked under CIA direction in Afghanistan. Like thousands of other Afghans, he entered the U.S. in 2021 under Operation Allies Welcome.  Since the tragic shooting that left Beckstrom dead, President Donald Trump has paused the issuance of visas for Afghan nationals.    While witnesses and senators found consensus on the need for thorough vetting of foreign nationals entering the U.S., “successful vetting cannot predict future radicalization or action,” Hankinson said. “Admitting foreign nationals, however well screened, has inherent risk.”   The post ‘No Idea’ of Threat Posed by Afghan Parole Program, Senator Warns   appeared first on The Daily Signal.

On Wednesday’s night’s episode of “The Tony Kinnett Cast,” Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., said elected officials, such as Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., and Democrat Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz should “be afraid” of the Treasury Department’s investigation into recently reported fraud in Minnesota. During her interview, Mace added that she “is deeply frustrated” over the “lack of contempt charges” and “prosecutions” to those who participated in defrauding the government. “Here we have a sitting member of Congress, who’s allegedly done some pretty egregious things, a governor in Minnesota, who again, was alleged to have done some pretty egregious things, and his attorney general,” Mace said about officials who have yet to face charges. “Billions of dollars have been lost and defrauded of the American government,” Mace added. “You’ve got people implicated in this, including elected officials, and nobody ever goes to jail. That’s what’s wrong with the system, it’s a complete failure of the justice system all the way through, federal state and local.” Mace told Kinnett that Walz needs to be held accountable, even though Walz is not seeking another term as governor. “He is squeaking out at the end,” Mace said. “And we as the federal government have allowed him to do that.” However, while Mace stated that she has “lost a lot of hope in the federal government” for its inaction, she affirmed that she still has faith in the investigative abilities of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. Last week, Bessent announced that the Treasury Department would investigate the fraud in Minnesota. “When he says he’s going to do something,” Mace said of Bessent, “I really truly do believe he’s going to do that.” “[Bessent is] the last great hope that we have in this kind of scenario. He’s a very serious guy and Tim Walz and Ilhan Omar should be afraid of Scott Bessent,” Mace said. Mace also claimed that around 10% of the federal government’s budget could be tainted with “fraud, waste and abuse.” “If you could just take that away financially, imagine how much we can get in tax returns every year for hardworking middle-class Americans” Mace added. Ultimately, Kinnett asked the congresswoman if any safety rails could be put in place to prevent fraudsters from taking further advantage of American taxpayers, adding that there has been a “whole lot of nothing” happening in Congress. Mace said Congress should pass legislation that would stop all federal payments to fraudsters. “We should codify refusing payments. If you’re caught in this level of fraudulent abuse, payments should just cease,” Mace said. “You shouldn’t be allowed to have an activist judge, a woke leftist judge, to make decisions for Congress on the purse strings. We’ve allowed this to happen.” Walz and Omar did not respond to The Daily Signal’s request for comment on Mace’s statements. The post Mace Warns Walz and Omar To ‘Be Afraid’ of MN Fraud Probe appeared first on The Daily Signal.