If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. Thirty-four Oklahoma lawmakers have asked the state’s Supreme Court to halt a plan that would send every driver’s license and ID record into a privately operated national database. Their emergency petition seeks to stop Service Oklahoma, the state’s licensing agency, from connecting its records to a system run by the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, known as the State-to-State (S2S) network. We obtained a copy of the emergency petition for you here. The contention is whether Oklahoma should upload personal data, including names, birth dates, partial Social Security numbers, and license details, to a database controlled by a private organization rather than a state or federal government. This is a growing issue in the United States and elsewhere, and not enough people are paying attention to how many of these digital ID agreements work. This is about who controls the personal information tied to a driver’s license and how that data can be used once it leaves the state’s own systems. The legislators, led by Sen. Kendal Sacchieri of Blanchard and represented by attorney Wyatt McGuire, are asking for a court order to stop an upload planned for Presidents’ Day weekend, February 14 to 16, 2026. Sixteen senators and eighteen representatives joined the petition. Service Oklahoma intends to join AAMVA’s S2S system, which connects all participating states through a shared hub. This would make Oklahoma part of the same data-sharing network already used by most states for REAL ID purposes. The network’s central database is called the SPEXS database, short for System for Electronic Exchange of Driver Data. The REAL-ID hub connects state and Federal agencies, private commercial third parties and national database files in a centralized format. Once the data is uploaded, it will be continuously synchronized, meaning updates in Oklahoma’s system, such as a name change or license renewal, would automatically flow into the shared national file. What is REAL ID and why does it matter? The REAL ID Act is a federal law passed after 9/11 that sets security standards for driver’s licenses used for federal purposes like boarding a domestic flight or entering certain government buildings. States can issue either: REAL ID-compliant licenses, which meet federal standards and can be used for travel and identification at federal facilities, or Non-compliant licenses, which are valid for driving and identification within the state, but are not accepted for federal use. Oklahoma law deliberately preserves both choices so residents who prefer not to share data beyond state systems can opt for the non-compliant version. The legislators say the S2S upload would eliminate that choice since AAMVA’s rules require states to submit all license data, including that from non-compliant cards, to the same database. Those rules do not come from Congress or Oklahoma law but from AAMVA’s own membership terms. Who is AAMVA, and what is SPEXS? AAMVA is a nonprofit trade association that began in 1933 as a coordination group for state motor vehicle departments. Over time, it became the operator of the core systems linking states together for license verification and REAL ID compliance. SPEXS is AAMVA’s national driver database. It stores limited identifying data from every participating state and lets each state check whether someone already holds a license elsewhere. AAMVA presents it as a way to prevent duplicate licenses, but it effectively creates a shared national index of driver identities. Although AAMVA performs functions that resemble those of a government agency, it is not one. It is a private corporation that contracts directly with state agencies, usually without public bidding. This means the public has no guaranteed way to see what data is stored, who can access it, or how it might be shared with other entities. Lawmakers’ main arguments No legal authority: The petition argues that Service Oklahoma has no legislative authorization to share the data. State law, 47 O.S. § 6-110.3a, explicitly forbids releasing license or ID data except as required by the federal REAL ID Act, and that Act does not require states to join AAMVA’s network. Timing and oversight: The upload is scheduled just after the next legislative session begins, leaving little opportunity for lawmakers to debate or block it through normal lawmaking. The petition questions whether the timing was chosen to avoid oversight, as has reportedly happened in other states. Loss of state control: Once the data is uploaded, Oklahoma cannot retrieve or delete it. Other states and potentially federal systems can continue querying those records. Since AAMVA is private, federal agencies could obtain the data through subpoenas without notifying the state. Privacy concerns: The legislators warn that giving a private association the ability to route and manage state identity data poses long-term risks. They point out that AAMVA’s own Verification of Lawful Status (VLS) system already sends data to the Department of Homeland Security’s Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements. While that may serve administrative goals, it also means personal information travels through multiple systems with limited public visibility. Why it matters The outcome of this case will determine whether Oklahoma residents keep the right to keep their driver’s data inside state-controlled systems or whether participation in a national identity network becomes automatic. For privacy-minded Oklahomans, the difference is critical. Once personal data is replicated into SPEXS, it effectively becomes part of a national index that operates beyond the state’s legal reach. The legislators’ filing calls this an irreversible shift, a permanent change in who holds control over identity data. Across the country, other states have joined AAMVA’s network quietly, often without a public vote or debate. The question before the Oklahoma Supreme Court now is simple but important. Can a state agency transfer every resident’s identifying information to a private network without the explicit approval of elected lawmakers? For many Oklahomans, the answer may define how much control they and their state retain over one of the most personal forms of data, the driver’s license record that proves who they are. If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post Oklahoma’s REAL ID Rebellion Over Who Controls Your Driver Data appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

Cuba Starting to Get Those Venezuela Vibes

Violent crime – especially, homicide – has plummeted in the Nation’s Capital since President Donald Trump’s surge of federal law enforcement into the city last Fall, a trend that has continued into the new year. On August 11 of last year, Pres. Trump declared a crime emergency in the District of Columbia and began taking steps to end the threat to public safety there, in a city that should be a beacon of hope for people across the globe. “Though violent crime in D.C. was already trending down before Trump declared a crime emergency in August, the number of homicides plummeted afterward,” The Washington Post reported on Sunday: “In September, the first full month after the federal law enforcement surge, five people were killed — the lowest September figure since 2011.” …. “Homicides and robberies dropped by more than half during the surge, and the extra agents augmented a police force struggling with half-century-low staffing.” In 2025, D.C. police recorded 127 homicides, the lowest count in eight years, marking a significant decline from both 2024’s 187 total 2023’s two-decade high of 274. What’s more, public safety has continued to improve in 2026. After going three weeks without a homicide in January, the month ended with only two on the books – one of which was committed in 2025, but was not categorized a homicide until this year. “Well, it’s quite simple: take the bad guys out, crime goes down,” Fox News Legal Analyst Gregg Jarrett explained in an interview Monday, commenting on the improvement in public safety under the Trump Administration: “And you saw it in Washington, D.C., where it used to be Crime Central: staggering murder rate, more than 200 years. Suddenly, that plummeted when Trump poured in federal resources and sent in the National Guard. And, you saw violent crime drop 50% to a 30-year low. Homicides, robberies, dangerous assaults, carjackings – all of that dropped by 30-50%.” “The lesson is: when you take the career criminals out of action, of course the crime rate is going to drop. It’s common sense,” Jarrett said, regarding the increased number of prosecutions in the traditionally soft-on-crime city. “People were walking and living in fear in Washington, DC. Suddenly, that’s changed,” Jarrett said. Still, he cautioned, it’s unlikely that other crime-ravaged, Democrat-run cities will follow suit: “But, you can’t seem to tell that to blue cities, because their politicians care more about protecting criminals than innocent victims of crime.”

The unrest surrounding federal immigration enforcement in Minneapolis did not arise by accident. It is the product of a combustible mix: deliberate obstruction by Democratic officials, wall-to-wall legacy media coverage and two tragic incidents that were mishandled by senior figures inside the Trump administration. Together, these forces have produced exactly the chaos critics warned about — and have now forced the administration into a public course correction. On Tuesday, the administration announced that Gregory Bovino, the Border Patrol chief overseeing operations in Minnesota, has been removed from his post and is expected to return to El Centro, California. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is reportedly under intense scrutiny as well, following her department’s handling of two fatal encounters in which American citizens were shot by federal agents under disputed circumstances. Those failures have placed the administration on the defensive and handed political momentum to its opponents. But the story does not begin with those shootings. It begins with the systematic obstruction of federal law by Democratic leaders in blue states and cities. For months, Democratic officials have sought to block cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, while publicly pressuring the administration to scale back deportations altogether. This has collided with the political reality of immigration enforcement. While “mass deportation” has long been a feature of President Donald Trump’s rhetoric, public support has always been far more specific. Americans overwhelmingly favor removing illegal immigrants who commit serious crimes — rape, assault, arson and murder — not indiscriminate sweeps. Early in the administration, enforcement largely reflected that reality. Criminal offenders were the priority. But as blue states increasingly refused to cooperate with ICE, that strategy became harder to sustain. In jurisdictions that work with federal authorities, local police can flag immigration status after an arrest and transfer dangerous offenders to ICE custody safely inside jails. In sanctuary cities, that option disappears. The result is predictable. Suspects may be released back into the community, and ICE agents are forced to pursue targets in public spaces — knocking on doors, making street arrests, and triggering confrontations. Those confrontations produce protests, viral videos and disturbing images that dominate television screens. This is the paradox of law enforcement: Americans say they want law and order, but they recoil from seeing it enforced in real time. The work is messy, tense and often ugly. That discomfort is not unique to immigration enforcement. Police officers face similar backlash every time videos circulate showing them intervening on what is often the worst day of someone’s life. When those images include disputed deaths — particularly of American citizens — the effect is magnified. Media narratives quickly broaden from individual incidents to sweeping indictments of law enforcement itself. Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel offered a vivid example this week, portraying federal agents as “mask-wearing goons” committing “one atrocity after another” in Minneapolis. His monologue described families being terrorized, “babies being tear-gassed,” and Americans being targeted for little more than “having an accent or whatever.” It was a story designed to provoke outrage — and one that Democrats’ obstruction has helped make plausible. Kimmel went further, misrepresenting key facts surrounding the shooting of Renee Good, weaving partial truths into a broader fiction that framed the incident as emblematic of lawless tyranny. The Department of Homeland Security’s own missteps — prematurely labeling cases as acts of domestic terrorism — made that narrative easier to sell. But Kimmel’s conclusion was not limited to those failures. It amounted to a rejection of immigration enforcement itself. Equally misleading was his suggestion that this chaos is unfolding everywhere. It is not. The disturbances are concentrated in blue cities that refuse to cooperate with ICE. In red cities, where cooperation exists, enforcement occurs quietly and without spectacle. For voters trying to assess the situation honestly, the dynamic is deeply frustrating. State and local officials obstruct federal law, enforcement becomes riskier and more visible, and then federal agents are blamed when things go wrong. Public opinion, however, does not pause for nuance. As CNN analyst Harry Enten recently noted, ICE’s approval ratings have sharply declined. That political reality has now forced the administration to recalibrate. Border czar Tom Homan — long viewed as the most disciplined and clear-eyed voice on enforcement -- has been put front and center. From the beginning, Homan has emphasized investigations, lawful process, and de-escalation where possible. He has often appeared to be the adult in the room. Whether that recalibration succeeds will depend in large part on Minnesota’s leaders and Minneapolis officials. Democrats clearly sense momentum. They believe obstruction is paying dividends. That belief should give pause. History offers a warning. In 2020, police were vilified, departments were defunded, and law enforcement briefly became politically radioactive. Then crime surged, public opinion snapped back, and Democrats found themselves underwater on policing for years. Minneapolis may follow the same trajectory. Democrats may win the immediate battle — turning ICE into a temporary villain and shifting attention away from illegal immigration. But in doing so, they risk losing the war. When consequences arrive, voters tend to remember who dismantled enforcement, not who defended it. Ben Shapiro is a graduate of UCLA and Harvard Law School, host of “The Ben Shapiro Show,” and co-founder of Daily Wire+. He is a three-time New York Times bestselling author. 

A recent article from Life News centers on Becca Rea-Tucker, radical feminist and author of the pro-abortion book “The Abortion Companion: An Affirming Handbook for Your Choice and Your Journey,” openly celebrating her abortion — and BlazeTV host Steve Deace warns this is becoming a trend.“And you can see she’s wearing a T-shirt there. ‘Thank God for abortion,’” he says, reading her shirt. “That’s blaspheming of the Holy Spirit, I would argue, right there, the unforgivable sin with a middle finger up in the air. She wants you to know. She can’t wait to brag about it. She wants to shout her abortion,” Deace says.“Now I don’t know how many of the women that are killing their babies these days feel the way that Becca Rea-Tucker does. I just know I’m seeing more of Becca Rea-Tuckers than I’ve ever seen before,” he continues.Which is why Deace believes pro-lifers desperately need to work on their argument.“Let me walk you through an exercise. Wait a minute. So you think this thing inside of me that I just got pregnant with seven weeks ago, you think that’s a life?” Deace asks.“Should fully and completely and totally have all the benefits and accouterments and rights of a fully aged man in his prime?” he continues, using his 33-year-old executive producer Aaron McIntire as an example.“A child at 7 weeks, a zygote, a fetus at 7 weeks of development ought to have the full rights therein of a 33-year-old man in his prime, married with a couple of kids and a mortgage, paying the bills. They’re the exact same being. That’s what you guys think,” he says.“So if I pull out a gun right now and shoot Aaron, I should be punished. Maybe even given the death penalty. ... All right, I go across the street to Planned Parenthood to kill my kid. Nothing,” he adds.“You’re using that retarded messaging, and Becca Rea-Tucker is just laughing at you right in your face. And by the way, thumbing her nose at God and shaking her fist at God and everything else, right?” he asks.Deace notes that Tucker is also quite literally “flipping the bird at Christ,” while conservatives argue over whether or not she’s a victim of circumstance.“And you’re like, ‘Listen lady, were you abused?’ ... That looks like a criminal to me. Doesn’t look like much of a victim to me. If she’s a victim, then every criminal is. Marinate on that one. If she’s a victim, every criminal is,” Deace says.While he doesn’t have a solution to this issue because the right is “completely and totally politically asinine,” he does ask that conservatives ask themselves a question in response to the “shout your abortion” trend.“Why Becca Rea-Tucker is not the very definition of a murderess by your own admission. What’s the theological case for that?” he asks, adding, “Does one exist?”Want more from Steve Deace?To enjoy more of Steve's take on national politics, Christian worldview, and principled conservatism with a snarky twist, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb issued a temporary restraining order requested by 12 Democratic lawmakers to stop Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials from blocking surprise oversight visits by members of Congress.Democrats have claimed the surprise visits are part of the oversight function granted to Congress, but the Trump administration has resisted the claims and tried to restrict their visits.'The decision is a victory for accountability, congressional oversight and for the American people.'The Department of Homeland Security issued policy guidelines that required seven days' notice before such a visit to detention facilities, but Cobb struck those down.Cobb previously ordered that specific funds could not be used to shut out the oversight visits, but DHS issued a new policy that depended on funds from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed by Congress. They argued that this allowed them to circumvent the original finding.The judge disagreed.Democratic Rep. Joe Neguse of Colorado, who is one of the lawmakers who sued the government, praised the ruling on social media."The Court just granted a restraining order against the Trump administration in my lawsuit, Neguse et al. v. ICE et al.," he wrote. "The decision is a victory for accountability, congressional oversight and for the American people. I'll keep fighting to ensure the rule of law prevails."One such visit to the ICE detention center in Newark, New Jersey, in May led to the arrest of a Democratic mayor who was charged with trespassing. That charge was later dropped, and the mayor is now suing the interim U.S. attorney in New Jersey.However, federal interference charges against Democrat Rep. LaMonica McIver of New Jersey in the same incident went forward after she was accused of shoving an ICE officer. She faces 17 years in prison if convicted of the charges. RELATED: 'State-of-the-art': GOP congressman pre-empts Crockett's 'grandstanding' with glimpse inside ICE facility in Texas President Donald Trump weighed in on the charges against McIver on social media and denied allegations that they were politically motivated."Give me a break. Did you see her?" Trump wrote. "She was out of control! She was shoving federal agents. The days of that crap are over! We’re going to have law and order!"Cobb was appointed to the court by former President Joe Biden.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Anti-ICE Protesters in Minneapolis Blocking Roads, Checking IDs, and Running Plates

The Nation Nominates the City of Minneapolis for the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize

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Warning: Major Dem Meltdown Underway in TX as Senate Frontrunner Is Accused of Using 'Racist' Trope