SINCE DEREK CHAUVIN WAS PROSECUTED FOR KNEELING ON GEORGE FLOYD'S NECK, IT STANDS TO REASON THAT THE TWO BORDER PATROL AGENTS WHO SHOT A DISARMED ALEX PRETTI MUST ALSO BE PROSECUTED

Handling of Pretti investigation has some prosecutors on verge of quitting

Federal prosecutors in Minneapolis, frustrated by the response to the shootings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti, have suggested they could resign en masse.

 

By Perry Stein

 

 

 

 

 

The Washington Post

Jan 29, 2026

 

 

 

A video shows the officer in the grey jacket emerging from the scrum, holding a firearm that appears to match Pretti’s weapon. 

 

 

 

Federal prosecutors in Minneapolis have told U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen, the Trump administration appointee leading the office, that they feel deeply frustrated by the Justice Department’s response to the fatal shootings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti by immigration officers and suggested that they could resign en masse, leaving the office unable to handle its current caseload, according to two officials familiar with the office.

At least one prosecutor in the office’s criminal division has resigned since a meeting this week with Rosen during which the prosecutors aired their concerns, according to the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a personnel matter that has not been made public.

The threat of further resignations is the latest sign of how the federal judicial system in Minnesota has begun to crack under the strain imposed by the administration’s immigration enforcement surge in the state. On Wednesday, the chief federal district judge in the state wrote that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials had violated 96 court orders since launching the crackdown in Minnesota, dubbed Operation Metro Surge.

“ICE has likely violated more court orders in January 2026 than some federal agencies have violated in their entire existence,” Chief U.S. District Judge Patrick J. Schiltz wrote.

When asked for comment about the Minnesota prosecutors, a Justice Department spokesperson responded with Attorney General Pam Bondi’s February 2025 “zealous advocacy” memo that said attorneys would face discipline or termination if they are not “vigorously defending presidential policies.”

The U.S. attorney’s office in Minnesota has been in turmoil since the administration sidelined the office in the investigations around the shootings of Good and Pretti, who were shot 2½ weeks apart during confrontations with immigration officers in Minneapolis.

At least a half-dozen prosecutors in the office — including the second-in-command — resigned earlier this month after top Justice Department officials told prosecutors not to investigate the shooting of Good but instead try to build a case against her partner.

In the aftermath of those resignations, the Justice Department sent prosecutors from other Midwestern states to help deal with the swelling caseload in Minnesota. The severe staffing shortage in the office is expected to worsen in the coming weeks as more prosecutors from the office’s criminal and civil divisions resign.

The Minnesota U.S. attorney’s office is down to about half of its full staffing level of approximately 70 lawyers. At least some of the resignations occurred in the final months of the Biden administration before President Donald Trump took office.

When Pretti was shot by immigration officials on Jan. 24, Trump administration officials said the Department of Homeland Security would be leading the probe, prompting confusion and frustration among Minneapolis prosecutors who felt they should be involved.

The shootings of Good and Pretti were captured on cellphone cameras and have prompted outrage from Democrats and Republicans over Trump’s immigration crackdown.

Typically, a federal investigation into an officer-involved shooting would involve FBI agents as well as criminal and civil rights prosecutors. Any federal use-of-force investigation into an officer’s conduct is considered a civil rights investigation because the provision under which officers can be charged is a civil rights statute that covers deprivation of a person’s rights “under color of law.”

The Washington Post reported that the FBI briefly opened a civil rights investigation into the Good shooting before changing course.

Law enforcement officers are rarely charged for using lethal force, in part because the law provides significant leeway for officers to decide when use of force is needed. Law enforcement experts said that an accurate conclusion can only be reached, however, if officials examine all relevant state and federal laws and their application to the facts in the case.

The immigration crackdown has strained U.S. attorney’s offices across the country. On the criminal side, prosecutors are handling a surge in cases involving allegations of residents impeding immigration officers. And on the civil side, attorneys are being inundated with an influx of petitions from immigrants contesting their detainments.

The Justice Department is also facing staffing shortages at its Washington headquarters and in U.S. attorney’s offices across the country. In 2024, roughly 10,000 attorneys worked across the Justice Department and its components, including the FBI. In 2025, Justice Connection, an advocacy group that has been tracking departures, estimates that at least 5,500 people — not all of them attorneys — had quit the department, been fired or taken a buyout offered by the Trump administration.

The department has struggled to find qualified candidates to fill these vacancies.

HAMAS HAS NOT AGREED TO DISARM

Senior Hamas official: We never agreed to disarm, no one’s raised it with us directly

Moussa Abu Marzouk says, despite White House claims, that the group didn’t talk ‘for a single moment’ about giving up its weapons, stresses Hamas regime still in control in Gaza

 

By Lazar Berman

 

The Times of Israel

Jan 29, 2026 

 

Moussa Abu Marzouk

 

Senior Hamas official Moussa Abu Marzouk said Wednesday that Hamas never agreed to disarm, casting doubt on whether the terror group will fulfil a key US and Israeli demand included in the American-backed plan for postwar Gaza.

Abu Marzouk’s statement runs contrary to the insistence of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump that the terror group give up its weapons in the near future as part of the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire. Trump has repeatedly asserted that Hamas “promised” to lay down its arms, and has threatened the group over the issue.

Abu Marzouk also suggested Hamas has a de facto veto on any appointment to the new technocratic committee set up to run the Gaza Strip, and stressed that Hamas still rules over the part of the enclave that, in accordance with the ceasefire, is not under IDF control.

The comments came during an interview with Al Jazeera amid efforts to execute phase two of the US’s plan for the Strip, which envisions seeing Hamas disarmed and replaced as a governing force. The terror group has previously rejected disarmament.

“We haven’t discussed the weapons yet; no one has spoken to us directly about it. We haven’t spoken with the American side or the mediators on this issue, so we can’t talk about what it means or what the goal is,” Abu Marzouk told the Qatari outlet.

The senior official said a Hamas agreement to hand over its weapons “never happened, not for a single moment did we talk about the surrender of weapons, or any formula about destroying, surrendering, or disarmament.”

If Hamas was not disarmed in two years of war, “how can they obtain it through negotiations?” he asked.

Abu Marzouk indicated some disarmament was open for discussion, however, saying that at the negotiating table, “we will discuss which weapons will be removed, what will be removed, how they will be removed.”

His account contradicted that of Trump envoy Steve Witkoff, who said that senior Hamas officials told him and fellow Trump aide Jared Kushner, hours before the ceasefire was inked in October, that the terror group wanted to disarm.

Hamas has never publicly agreed to disarm

At least publicly, however, Hamas has never agreed to lay down its arms.

Trump’s 20-point plan for Gaza explicitly says that Hamas must give up its weapons, but the Hamas statement endorsing the plan contained significant conditions and did not directly mention disarmament.

Rather, the group said at the time that “other issues mentioned in President Trump’s proposal” — an apparent euphemism for disarming — would “be discussed within a comprehensive Palestinian national framework.”

Hamas, Israel and the mediating countries also signed a separate, one-page document in Sharm el-Sheikh the day before the ceasefire began. But that text focused specifically on the first phase of the Trump program, primarily the hostage-for-prisoners swap, while the terror group’s disarmament is envisioned as part of phase two.

Phase two — which has officially started, after the recovery this week of the body of Ran Gvili, the last slain Israeli held hostage in the Strip — calls for the day-to-day governance of Gaza to be handed from Hamas to the newly formed National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, or NCAG.

The 12-member, technocratic committee is headed by former Palestinian Authority deputy minister Ali Shaath. Several other bodies will oversee Gaza under the umbrella of the Board of Peace, a group of world leaders inaugurated by Trump last week.

Abu Marzouk stresses: Hamas still the governing force in Gaza

Israel’s defense establishment believes that Hamas — which currently controls just under half of the Strip — will soon formally relinquish authority to the NGAC. But an Israeli security official said Thursday that, de facto, the terror group will remain in control of that part of the enclave, at least for the short term.

In his interview with Al Jazeera, Abu Marzouk stressed that Hamas is currently running Gaza, presumably referring to that part of the Strip.

“The movement (Hamas) has restored order to the Gaza Strip to serve the Palestinian people and preserve their security,” he told the Qatari network.

Abu Marzouk hinted that Hamas has a veto over the NGAC, emphasizing that no one can enter Gaza without Hamas’s consent. At the same time, he said Hamas will facilitate the committee’s work and “provide security.”

The comments came after Netanyahu said in a press conference on Tuesday that the mission to disarm Hamas must come before the reconstruction of the devastated Strip.

“As I agreed with President Trump… there are only two possibilities: either this will be done the easy way, or it will be done the hard way, but in any case, it will happen,” Netanyahu said of disarmament, using a formulation he has employed previously, and specifying Gaza must be demilitarized before reconstruction begins.

Trump said Monday, after Israeli forces returned Gvili’s remains: “Now we have to disarm Hamas like they promised.”

A US official, briefing reporters this week, reiterated the Trump administration’s stance that Gazan operatives who agree to give up their weapons will be granted amnesty.

The official added: “They signed an agreement… If they decide to play games, then obviously President Trump will take other actions.”

The war in Gaza started on October 7, 2023, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists invaded southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostages. On October 10, 2025, a ceasefire agreement took effect that mostly stopped fighting and set into action a hostage-prisoner exchange.

The hostage crisis ended on January 26, 2026, with the recovery of the body of Gvili. His return marked the first time since July 20, 2014, that no Israelis, living or dead, were held hostage in the Gaza Strip.

NO REFERENCE MADE TO THE JEWS MURDERED IN THE HOLOCAUST

The emergence of Holocaust erasure

The world hasn’t learned the key point—that it was a uniquely monstrous crime aimed specifically at the extermination of the Jewish people. 

 

By Melanie Phillips 

 

JNS

Jan 29, 2026 

Jews from Czechoslovakia arrive at Auschwitz in 1944. To be sent to the right meant assignment to slave labor and to the left, the gas chambers.

 

International Holocaust Memorial Day has become a spur to write the Jews out of their own history.

The United Nations chose Jan. 27—the date of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration/death camp—to commemorate the Holocaust, the term that developed specifically to describe the Nazi genocide of the Jews.

Yet the message the United Nations posted on X on Tuesday omitted any mention of the Jews. It said: “The genocide started with apathy & silence in the face of injustice, and with the corrosive dehumanization of the other. Today and always, we need to remember this. And we must stand up for our shared humanity.”

The post was quoting from a statement issued by the U.N.’s High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, who also said that “a group of deluded killers inflicted unspeakable atrocities on millions of Jews and members of other minorities.”

As reflected in the U.N.’s abbreviated version of this statement on X, Türk universalized the Holocaust and thus blurred its real significance. But at least he mentioned the Jews. Others, shockingly, did not.

Throughout the day, the BBC’s news bulletins and presenters made no reference at all to the Jews murdered in the Holocaust. Instead, they referred to the “6 million people murdered by the Nazi regime.”

But the Nazis murdered many more people than that. Six million was the specific number of Jews who were exterminated, larger than any other group that suffered.

Later on Tuesday, after a storm of criticism, the BBC apologized for failing to mention the Jewish victims. But just think about the implications of that omission.

The BBC had in its collective head the universally known figure of 6 million, but nevertheless erased their Jewish identity. That isn’t just a careless mistake. It suggests something pathological and very dark indeed is at work in the BBC psyche.

And it was far from alone. A deeply disturbing example was the statement made on the day by U.S. Vice President JD Vance.

He said: “Today, we remember the millions of lives lost during the Holocaust, the millions of stories of individual bravery and heroism, and one of the enduring lessons of one of the darkest chapters in human history: that while humans create beautiful things and are full of compassion, we’re also capable of unspeakable brutality.”

Given his position, Vance will have crafted that statement with extreme care. Yet he carefully omitted any mention at all of the Holocaust’s Jewish victims, let alone their centrality to it.

And so, another baleful milestone has been reached. We’ve previously seen antisemitism and gaslighting of the Jews through Holocaust revisionism and Holocaust denial. Now we are seeing the erasure of the Jews themselves from the Holocaust, and therefore from both their own history and their presence in that episode in the history of the world.

That world clearly hasn’t learned the key point about the Holocaust—that it was a uniquely monstrous crime aimed specifically at the extermination of the Jewish people. Instead, the world learned something very different—that it demonstrated man’s general inhumanity to man.

Of course, many others perished in the Holocaust, including Poles, disabled people, gay people, Roma and Sinti. It’s right that their persecution should be commemorated, too. Nazism was a fanatical imperialist ideology that aimed to conquer and subjugate the whole of Europe and regarded various groups as subhuman.

But the driving force of the Holocaust was the Nazis’ obsessional and deranged intention to eradicate the Jewish people alone from the face of the earth. To that terrible end, it established an industrialized system of mass murder for the Jews.

It did not do that for any other people. The Final Solution was intended for the Jews alone. That’s what made the Holocaust of the Jews unique.

Yet those who established Holocaust education and memorialization have increasingly blurred this essential message, choosing instead to universalize it and thus obscure the singular victimization of the Jews.

The resulting message from much of this memorialization has been that anyone can be a Nazi. It was but a short step from there—for those intent upon exterminating the collective Jew in the State of Israel—to start calling Israelis “Nazis,” and to accuse Israel of perpetrating a “holocaust” or “genocide” of the Palestinian Arabs.

Mass murder is an evil wherever it takes place. The murder of tens of thousands of Iranians who have been rising up against their tyrannical regime is unconscionable.

But it’s not genocide, the deliberate and systematic destruction of a people because of their ethnicity, nationality, religion or race. That’s what the Iranian regime threatens against the Jews.

The modern world, however, does not accept that this is a distinction of any value. With moral responsibility and duty having been trumped by individual rights, dominant Western secular thinking has erased the significance of intention altogether, focusing instead on consequences.

One reason why Westerners argue so preposterously that Israel’s war of self-defense against genocide is itself genocide is that they’ve redefined the word as meaning merely “a lot of people who’ve been killed”—and necessarily of the kind of whom they approve or, at least, don’t disapprove, as with the Palestinian Arabs.

This has fed into the madness about Gaza, in which the serial lies about Israeli starvation, war crimes and the wanton killing of the innocent have become established as incontrovertible facts even though they are demonstrably the very opposite of the truth.

This madness has been further fueled by an unholy alliance between intersectional identity politics, liberal universalism, Islamist holy war and lightly buried Christian theological Jew-hatred.

In Britain, the number of schools commemorating International Holocaust Memorial Day has more than halved since Oct. 7 in the face of opposition from parents and pupils—many of these Muslims, but non-Muslims, too.

And it’s the madness over Gaza that not only ensured the Jews would be wiped out of statements made on this day, but has actually turned the Holocaust against them by accusing them of perpetrating a “holocaust” of the Palestinian Arabs.

In British Columbia, Canada, parliamentarian Yuen Pau Woo posted on X: “On this International Holocaust Remembrance Day, let us pledge that ‘never again’ means ‘never again,’ even when Israel is the perpetrator #Gaza.”

In Britain, Dov Forman, the grandson of a Holocaust survivor, found himself asked on BBC Radio’s flagship “Today” show what he’d say to the argument that, if we continue to talk about the Holocaust, “we need to talk about Gaza.” The interviewer went on: “What is the universal message you want to be heard on this Holocaust Memorial Day?”

Bad enough that this morally degraded equation puts the genocide of the Jews on the same level as Israel’s attempt to prevent another genocide of the Jews. Worse, Gaza is being used to wipe out the particularity to the Jews of the Final Solution.

Underlying all this erasure is the unmistakable, if incredible, belief that the Jews have no right to their claim of victimhood—because their tormentors view the memory of the Holocaust as a moral bludgeon that the Jews wield to gain special privileges, such as avoiding “legitimate criticism” over the “crimes” of Israel.

Accepting that the Jews are the world’s greatest and most enduring historic victims gets in the way of the only permitted narratives.

Palestinianism erases the Jews from their own history in their ancestral homeland. Universalism erases them from their history as victims in Europe. Anti-Zionism, which separates the Jewish people from the land that’s central to their ancient faith, erases Judaism altogether.

Erasing Jewish victimization is part of a global agenda by such people to erase the Jews—from their mind, from their conscience and from their world.

They won’t succeed. The Jewish Diaspora will need to change in the face of this onslaught, but Israel will emerge stronger than ever.

The more the West tries to erase the Jews, the clearer its suicide note becomes for the erasure of its own civilization.

GOOD HISTORY LESSON

The Greenland situation explained

There were some fraught days when U.S. President Donald Trump was threatening to use a big stick to take the island away from the Danes, but the situation seems to have settled down. 

 

By Clifford D. May 

 

JNS

Jan 29, 2026

 

 

“Summer in the Greenland Coast,” 1875, oil on canvas by Danish painter Carl Rasmussen.

 

Readers of a certain age will recall the late, great Tina Turner introducing her iconic performances of “Proud Mary” by informing her audience: “We never, ever do nothing nice and easy. We always do it nice and rough.”

U.S. President Donald Trump could say the same about his style of policymaking. Greenland is the most recent example.

Trump understands that the Arctic island is essential for America’s national security and that of Europe as well. Look at the globe from above. The shortest routes for long‑range Russian or Chinese missiles targeting the United States pass over the polar region. There’s also the Greenland‑Iceland‑UK (GIUK) gap, a key chokepoint through which Russian submarines must pass to reach the Atlantic.

Because Greenland is a self-governing territory of Denmark, an American ally, and because Trump is the world’s greatest dealmaker, it seemed to me from the start that if any international dispute could be solved with a deal, it’s this one.

Nevertheless, there were some fraught days when Trump was threatening to use a big stick—tariffs or even military force—to take Greenland away from the melancholy Danes. Could that have just been a nice-and-rough negotiating tactic? Demand the stars, settle for the moon?

Readers of a certain age will recall the late, great Tina Turner introducing her iconic performances of “Proud Mary” by informing her audience: “We never, ever do nothing nice and easy. We always do it nice and rough.”

U.S. President Donald Trump could say the same about his style of policymaking. Greenland is the most recent example.

Trump understands that the Arctic island is essential for America’s national security and that of Europe as well. Look at the globe from above. The shortest routes for long‑range Russian or Chinese missiles targeting the United States pass over the polar region. There’s also the Greenland‑Iceland‑UK (GIUK) gap, a key chokepoint through which Russian submarines must pass to reach the Atlantic.

Because Greenland is a self-governing territory of Denmark, an American ally, and because Trump is the world’s greatest dealmaker, it seemed to me from the start that if any international dispute could be solved with a deal, it’s this one.

Nevertheless, there were some fraught days when Trump was threatening to use a big stick—tariffs or even military force—to take Greenland away from the melancholy Danes. Could that have just been a nice-and-rough negotiating tactic? Demand the stars, settle for the moon?

Maybe, but to my relief (and that of the stock market) at the World Economic Forum in Davos last week, Mark Rutte, the extraordinarily capable secretary general of NATO, came up with a “framework” for a long-term agreement that appealed to the American president. “This solution, if consummated, will be a great one for the United States of America and all NATO nations,” Trump exulted on Truth Social.

If he had his druthers, Greenland would become an American territory like Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa and the U.S. Virgin Islands—the latter, it so happens, purchased from Denmark in 1917 for $25 million in gold coin.

But if Washington now leverages an expanded authority to detect, deter, and, if necessary, defeat threats on the world’s biggest island while Denmark retains sovereignty, history will record that as a significant Trump achievement.

And would it not be better—more Trumpian, really—for the United States to make the key decisions on Arctic defense, while other NATO members pick up most of the checks?

Additionally, four in 10 Greenlanders are government employees. Moving them from Copenhagen’s payroll to Washington’s strikes me as not ideal. As to the notion that the island should become America’s 51st state, based on the evidence at hand, Greenlanders are more likely to vote like Minnesotans than Alaskans.

I think it’s always interesting (and occasionally, useful) to know a bit about the history of lands involved in conflicts and controversies with the United States, as Trump told a group of oil executives: “The fact that they [the Danes] had a boat land there 500 years ago doesn’t mean they own the land. I’m sure we had lots of boats go there also.”

Here’s the backstory: Norse settlers, led by Erik Thorvaldsson—his madcap Viking buddies nicknamed him “Erik the Red”—reached southern Greenland around 985 C.E. That was a couple of centuries prior to the arrival of the Thule Inuit, ancestors of most modern Greenlanders. The Inuit had migrated from northeast Asia across the North American High Arctic. The fact that tribes with only primitive tools and weapons could survive in these environments and climates is a testament to human adaptability.

Speaking of climates, between 800 and 1300 C.E., there was the Medieval Warm Period, during which southern Greenland experienced temperatures mild enough to allow for limited agriculture, as well as grazing sheep and cattle.

 

 

Erik the Red: "The people will be more easily persuaded to move there if the land has an attractive name."

 

That said, the bright idea by “Erik the Red” of naming the island “Greenland” was as purposely deceptive as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D-N.Y.) “Green New Deal.” Back then, ice covered about 80% of Greenland. That percentage hasn’t changed—bovine flatulence and CO2 emissions from soccer moms’ SUVs notwithstanding.

The Little Ice Age began in the 14th century and continued until the mid-19th century. That chill was among the reasons that in the 15th century, the Norse settlers disappeared—most likely, headed for the balmier climes of Iceland and Scandinavia.

Fast-forward to 1940: The Germans conquered Denmark in a matter of hours. America sends troops to Greenland. After World War II, Norway became a founding member of NATO.

In 1951, the United States and Denmark signed the Defense of Greenland Agreement. During the Cold War, more than 6,000 Americans were stationed on the world’s largest island. 

Today, only about 150 members of the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force operate Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, focusing on missile warning.

The prospect of a new Greenland deal prevents what some argued could have been the collapse of NATO. I’m pro-NATO, but I think Trump is correct to insist that America’s allies be partners contributing to the collective security, not dependents.

Among the free-riders: Spain, Belgium and Canada.

And the United Kingdom needs to be called out. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has been eager to surrender another strategically vital island: Diego Garcia, in the Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean.

Since the 1970s, the United States and the United Kingdom have maintained a military base on Diego Garcia. But as an act of atonement for the sins of British imperialism, Starmer wants to surrender sovereignty to Mauritius, a speck of an island nation 1,300 miles away, east of Madagascar, which is increasingly being pulled into Beijing’s empire.

Trump characterized that as “great stupidity.” British conservatives, to their credit, are trying to block the giveaway.

Sometimes, one can say about a Trump policy what no one would say about a Tina Turner song, but which a wit once said about the music of Richard Wagner: “It’s better than it sounds.”

 

Originally published in “The Washington Times.”

ABUSE OF THE H-1B VISA BROGRAM BY TEXAS BUSINESSES

Ken Paxton launches crackdown on H-1B fraud in Texas after exposé by BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales 

Paxton thanks Gonzales for getting the ball rolling on the crackdown in the Lone Star State.

 

 

By Joseph MacKinnon

 

 

Blaze Media 

January 29, 2026

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton credited BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales on Wednesday with getting the ball rolling on a new and "wide-sweeping investigation into abuse of the H-1B visa program by Texas businesses."

Standing outside a seemingly vacant single-family home in Irving — the supposed office of 3Bees Technologies Inc., one of the companies Gonzales scrutinized in a damning report on possible H-1B fraud earlier this month — Paxton told the BlazeTV host, "Thanks to you, we're here today."

"We've started an investigation into three different companies that we think might be scamming people with these H-1B visas," said Paxton.

"Thanks to you, we've sent them questionnaires," continued Paxton. "They're called Civil Investigative Demands, and they're designed to find out what the truth is, what is actually happening, what are their actual practices. Are they defrauding consumers? Are they misguiding people as to what they're actually doing?"

Paxton has ordered the companies to provide documents identifying all of their employees, records detailing the specific products or services they provide, financial statements, and communications pertaining to company operations.

Although the Texas Attorney General's Office is currently looking at three businesses in North Texas, Paxton indicated that is the start of a much larger investigation.

The Texas attorney general expressed confidence that potential fraudsters will be flushed out, telling Gonzales, "It's not our first rodeo, and we will definitely find out what's going on."

"Any criminal who attempts to scam the H-1B visa program and use 'ghost offices' or other fraudulent ploys should be prepared to face the full force of the law," Paxton said in a statement.

"Abuse and fraud within these programs strip jobs and opportunities away from Texans. I will use every tool available to uproot and hold accountable any individual or company engaged in these fraudulent schemes," added the Texas attorney general.

Gonzales' exposé evidently also captured the attention of Gov. Greg Abbott (R).

Citing "recent reports of abuse in the federal H-1B visa program" and the "federal government's ongoing review of that program to ensure American jobs are going to American workers," Abbott directed all state agencies on Tuesday to "immediately freeze" new H-1B visa petitions.

In addition to pumping the brakes on new H-1B visas, Abbott demanded that public universities and various state agencies provide an account of how many H-1B visa holders they are currently sponsoring; the countries of origin of their sponsored H-1B visa holders; the expected expiration date for each sponsored visa; and the efforts taken to ensure that Texan candidates were afforded a reasonable opportunity to apply for each position filled by an H-1B visa holder.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services' H-1B Employer Data Hub indicates that over 41,500 H-1B visa beneficiaries were approved for fiscal year 2025 in Texas.

Qubitz Tech Systems, one of the companies Gonzales scrutinized in her report, had 12 H-1B beneficiaries approved last year. The company, whose visa job contact is Hari Madiraju, has apparently been hiring "software developers" from abroad for years.

When Gonzales went to the address listed for Qubitz in Frisco, Texas — a four-bedroom house in a residential neighborhood — she was greeted by a man responding to "Hari" who was clearly not happy to see her.

At the mention of Qubitz and its supposed employees, Hari called the police, which Gonzales welcomed.

Gonzales later paid a visit to Qubitz's supposed worksite. Instead of finding a dozen or more workers engaged in the kind of software development that supposedly requires foreign talent, she found a vacant prison-cell-sized room with a single chair and some folding tables.

"Pretty cramped working quarters for 12 H-1B workers," said Gonzales. "I'm not buying it."\

DOUBTFUL AUTHENTICITY

By Bob Walsh

 

I recently got some rumbles about a new Hallmark Movie Channel Christmas Movie.  The working title is CHRISTMAS IN ARKANSAS.

The plucky heroine is from down there.  Her name is Tanya and as the first member of her family to ever graduate from high school she moved out, made her way to New Hampshire and works for a PR firm specializing in political damage control.  She goes back home to convince her parents to sell the family hog farm and move to Westchester or Memphis or some other civilized place.  While down there she falls deeply in love with Leroy.  Trouble is Leroy is already married, to his cousin.  They have 1.5 children and he doesn't feel right about the prospect of dumping her before she graduates from high school.  So Tanya hooks up with Leroy's brother, Billy Ray.  He is a shift supervisor at the slaughter house and lives in a very nice double-wide on company property.  They get married, she gets a job at the slaughter house and they both wrench on ATVs on the side.  

They live happily ever after.  

AB1421 UP FOR VOTE TODAY

By Bob Walsh

 

 

 

It seems that CA AB1421 is up for a vote today.  If passed into law this proposal would tax drivers in CA at about 5-10 cents per mile for every mile they drive.  This is in ADDITION to the already extremely high CA gas tax.  

It is unclear what it's fate will be, though generally speaking the Democrat-Socialist super-majority in the CA legislature has never met a tax they didn't like.  It is even possible that Gavin would veto it because he still honestly thinks he has a reasonable chance to be the next President.

I will try to keep you in the loop on this one.

ELON SHIFTING SIDEWAYS

By Bob Walsh

 

 

Elon Musk announced today that the Fremont, CA. Tesla plant will stop producing cars in the very near future.  The older models that plant producers are no longer selling well.

The plant will start producing the next generation of humanoid robots.  

I am not sure how comfortable I am with that.

MATT MAHAN IS IN THE RACE

By Bob Walsh

 

San José Mayor Matt Mahan

 

Matt Mahan, the mayor of San Jose, has just announced that he is running for Governor in the formerly great state of California.

He is apparently going to try, probably with some success, to position himself as a moderate, or at least as not a psychotic, and hope that will get him into one of the top two spots when the primary is over.  

I am not sure how much of a moderate he truly is, but compared to the other Democrat-Socialists in the race he probably is.  He is a successful businessman and reasonably successful large city mayor.  He is not a "defund the police" nutter and he seems to recognize that chasing wealthy people and successful businesses out of the state is not a good overall fiscal strategy.  

There is less than five months until the California primary.  

INTERESTING NEW LEGISLATIVE PROPOSAL

By Bob Walsh

 

 

Recently the legislature of the formerly great state of California passed into law a bill that forbids the use of Non-Disclosure Agreements in regards to state business.  Pretty much EVERYBODY involved in the massive state capitol construction project, including construction workers, has had to sign one.  The info is controlled mostly by paid staff and nobody is talking about anything, especially cost.  I suspect the overruns will be massive.

The new proposal also puts the same no-NDA requirement on the governor and people who work for him.  Gavin says that it's OK, that he doesn't do any of that shit anyway.

It was not recorded whether or not his nose grew longer when he said it. 

REALLY INTERESTING POLL OUT OF CALIFORNIA

By Bob Walsh

 

Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco

 

 

A very interesting poll was just released to the media in CA.  The poll got about 650 people.  (The target is usually right around 1,000 if possible.)  Of those polled more than 58% were self-described as moderate, liberal or progressive.  69% stated that they voted for Harris last time around.

The two leaders in the poll were both Republicans.  Chad Bianco and Steve Hilton.  A significant majority of those polled, around 58%, asserted that CA is heading in the wrong direction.

I expect that the CA Democrat-Socialist organization is sweating big time.

GOVERNOR YOUNGKIN CORRECTS A WRONG ON HIS WAY OUT

By Bob Walsh

 

Glenn Youngkin  

 

Glenn Youngkin was the Governor of Virginia until a few weeks ago.  He corrected what many people viewed as a significant miscarriage of justice on his way out the door.

Back in 2024 Sgt. Wesley Shifflett was convicted of reckless handling of a firearm in the death of Timothy McCree Johnson, a suspected shoplifter.  He had been charged with manslaughter but acquitted of that charge.

Back in 2025 the governor granted Shifflett clemency, releasing him from prison.  He was granted a full and absolute pardon by Governor Youngkin last month.  The Fairfax County PD concluded at the time that Shifflett's shooting of Johnson was reasonable and in line with current department training.  The young man reached for his waist when ordered to hit the deck.  It turned out he was NOT armed.

REPORTER: 'MR PRESIDENT, IS KRISTI NOEM GOING TO STEP DOWN?'

By Howie Katz

 

“No. ... I think she’s doing a very good job. The border is totally secure. You know, you forget we had a border that I inherited where millions of people were coming through. Now we have a border where no one is coming through. They come into our country only legally.”

 

That's how President Trump responded to the reporter's question about Kristi Noem stepping down as he was about to leave on Tuesday for a speech in Iowa.

 

It is true that the border is now secure but how much did Noem have to do with that? Even if she's given credit for shutting down the border, that is overshadowed by what her ICE agents have been doing in Minnesota.

 

Yes, for sure, Noem is doing a very good job of helping the Democrats regain control of both the House and the Senate the coming midterm elections. 

 

Immediately after a disarmed Alex Pretti was shot to death by Border Patrol agents, Kristy Noem justified the shooting by falsely claiming that Pretti was "brandishing" a firearm and calling him a "domestic terrorist." 

 

Domestic terrorist? That term more fittingly describes Kristi Noem.

 

 

 

 

 

People all over the country have been demonstrating against Noem's ICE. Even though there have been no controversial ICE operations in Houston, about 100 people packed the city council chamber on Tuesday and shouted at council members to have the city end all cooperation with ICE.

Jeffrey Blehar called for the firing of Noem in Monday's issue of the conservative National Review.  He had some very good advice for Trump. Blehar wrote: "Any hope of Trump’s presidency clawing its way out of the hole it has dug for itself begins with firing Kristi Noem ... Preferably out of a rocket, and into the sun. Damage control is needed, and she is the most visible avatar of damage."

 

Members of Congress, both Democrats and Republicans, are calling for Noem to resign or to be impeached. 

 

Why does President Trump ignore the calls for Noem to be fired? I believe the only reason Trump continues to back up Noem is because his friend Corey Lewandowski has been shacking up with her. He's the one that asked Trump to appoint her DHS Secretary in the first place. Trump reportedly said it was the only thing Lewandowski ever asked him for.

 

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott recognizes that Noem has been a wrecking ball that is tearing the Republican Party apart and is damaging respect for law enforcement. He has called on Trump to "recalibrate" how ICE operates.

 

The Democrat Party was all but dead, that is until Kristi Noem helped in a big way to revive it.

FIRST EXECUTION THIS YEAR

Jealous killer's cold last words as he's executed for brutal murders of his ex and her new boyfriend

 

By Sonya Gugliara 

 

Daily Mail

Jan 28, 2026

 

Charles Victor Thompson had been on death row for more than two decades before he was executed on Wednesday

 

A scorned ex-boyfriend who gunned down his former flame and her new beau in a fit of jealous rage shared chilling final words as he was put to death. 

Charles Victor Thompson, 55, died by lethal injection inside the Texas State Penitentiary at Huntsville on Wednesday at 6:50 pm CST. 

He was the first criminal in the US to be executed in 2026. 

Thompson was convicted in 1999 for the slaying of Dennise Hayslip, 39, and Darren Cain, 30, at her north Harris County home a year prior.

Aside from the heinous killings, he was known for briefly pulling off an escape from the Harris County Jail in 2005. 

He sat on death row for 26 years before meeting his fate and unsuccessfully tried to dodge the ultimate punishment several times. 

'There are no winners in this situation,' he told witnesses after a spiritual advisor prayed over him for roughly three minutes - moments before he was administered a deadly dose of pentobarbital. 

Thompson added that his execution 'creates more victims and traumatizes more people 28 years later.'

'I’m sorry for what I did. I’m sorry for what happened, and I want to tell all of y’all, I love you and that keep Jesus in your life, keep Jesus first,' he eerily added. 

 

Dennise Hayslip, right , and Darren Cain, left, were murdered in April 1998

 

He gasped loudly for air as the nervous system depressant took effect then took roughly a dozen breaths that evolved into three snores.

The killer was pronounced dead 22 minutes after all movement ceased.  

'He's in Hell,' Cain's father, Dennis Cain, bluntly said after witnessing his son's murderer perish. 

Thompson and Hayslip were romantically involved for more than a year before the relationship nosedived into chaos, according to prosecutors. 

Thompson 'became increasingly possessive, jealous and abusive' and Hayslip left him after prolonged suffering,' according to court records. 

Hayslip and Cain were dating when Thompson busted into his ex-girlfriend's apartment at around 3 am on the doomed April day that they were killed in 1998. 

Cops were called to remove the agitated intruder from the residence, but he returned three hours later and fatally shot them both.

Cain died on the scene, while Hawslip passed away in the hospital a week later.

On Monday, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles denied clemency - one of Thompson's last chances at dodging capital punishment. 

 

Thompson was escorted from court in 2005 after he escaped from jail 

Dennise Hayslip is seen above with her son Wade when he was young

 

Thompson's plea to postpone the execution or be completely relieved of the fatal sentence was denied by the Court of Criminal Appeals on Tuesday. 

About an hour before he was executed, the US Supreme Court issued a brief order rejecting Thompson's final appeal for a lesser sentence.

Thompson´s attorneys had argued in filings with the Supreme Court that he was not allowed to refute or confront the prosecution´s evidence that concluded Hayslip died from a gunshot wound to the face.   

They claimed that Hayslip actually died from flawed medical care she received after the shooting that resulted in severe brain damage sustained from oxygen deprivation following a failed intubation.   

But the jury had decided under state law he was responsible for Hayslip's death because it 'would not have occurred but for his conduct.'

Hayslip's family sued one of her doctors, alleging that medical negligence during her treatment left her brain-dead. But a jury ruled in favor of the doctor in 2002. 

Thompson had his original death sentence overturned and a new punishment trial was held in November 2005. A jury again ordered him to die by lethal injection.

Shortly after his re-sentencing, Thompson infamously escaped from the Harris County Jail in Houston by strolling out the front door without deputy intervention. 

 

Thompson is pictured speaking to The Associated Press about how he brazenly escaped jail 

Dennise Hayslip is seen with her ex-husband Felix Hayslip and their son Wade before they divorced

 

He had sneakily slipped out of his orange jail jumpsuit after a meeting with his lawyer in a tiny cell, he later confessed to The Associated Press. 

Thompson left the unlocked room and flashed a fake ID badge he made from his prison ID card to get past the guards. 

He was later arrested in Shreveport, Louisiana, while trying to wire transfer money from overseas to flee to Canada.  

'I got to smell the trees, feel the wind in my hair, grass under my feet, see the stars at night. It took me straight back to childhood being outside on a summer night,' he recalled from his brief stint of freedom in 2005. 

The gut-wrenching nature of Thompson's actions, combined with his shocking jail escape, resulted in him being the subject of a 2018 episode of the 'I Am A Killer' docuseries. 

A Facebook group titled 'Friends of Charles Victor Thompson' had been fiercely advocating on his behalf, slamming the death penalty as inhumane.

'We have been denied by the Supreme Court. I have no words. The execution will go ahead. My heart is broken,' one member wrote shortly before the execution. 

However, Thompson's death signified the end of a horrifying era for the loved ones of the victims.   

 

Thompson is pictured above smiling from jail, as shared on a social media account in support of getting him off of death row

Texas’ execution chamber in Huntsville. Thompson died by lethal injection on the gurney seen above

'The Hayslip and Cain families have waited over 25 years for justice to occur,' prosecutors wrote in court filings.

'It's more of the end of a chapter and the beginning of a new one,' Wade Hayslip, Hayslip's grieving son, told USA Today before the execution. 

'I'm looking forward to the new one.'  

Wade trekked from Chicago to Houston to witness Thompson's death, claiming his life is 'the only thing he has left to offer in accountability for the lives he's destroyed.' 

Texas has historically held more executions than any other state, though Florida had the most in 2025 with 19. 

Ronald Heath, who was convicted of killing a traveling salesman during a 1989 robbery in Gainesville, Florida, is the next person scheduled to be executed in the US this year. He is set to die by lethal injection on February 10. 

According to the Death Penalty Information Center, there are 18 executions scheduled for this year.  

SINCE THE CAR SLAMMED INTO THE SYNAGOGUE REPEATEDLY, THIS WAS OBVIOUSLY A HATE CRIME

Car repeatedly slams into historic NYC synagogue in harrowing scene

 

By Jack Toledo 

 

Daily Mail

Jan 28, 2026

 

With its distinctive three gables, the red-brick synagogue at 770 Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn, N.Y., is one of the most iconic Jewish buildings in the world

 

A car was filmed repeatedly smashing into a historic New York City synagogue as horrified bystanders looked on.

The New York Police Department was called to Chabad Lubavitch World Headquarters in Brooklyn, where a dark Honda sedan slammed into the building at around 8.45pm on Wednesday.

Officials arrived at 770 Eastern Parkway and arrested the driver, who has not yet been charged, according to ABC 7.

The NYPD is still investigating whether the accident was intentional. No Injuries were reported.

Video footage of the incident was posted on X by Rabbi Yaacov Behram, which showed the Honda with New Jersey plates driving back and forth into an entrance way.

A group of men standing on leftover snow from the winter storm on January 25 near the vehicle scream and yell for others to get out of the way as the car smashes into the synagogue door at least three times.

The car seems to struggle to get traction on the ice, repeatedly ramming into the temple.

Towards the end of the clip, the group can be heard screaming 'police' as what appears to be a reflection of officials' emergency lights bounces off the snow.

 

Chabad Lubavitch World Headquarters in Brooklyn, was repeatedly smashed by a dark colored Honda sedan

Video footage captured the car slamming into the synagogue at least three times before officials arrived and arrested the driver

The historic synagogue at 770 Eastern Parkway - known to members of this deeply insular and intensely observant community as ‘770’ - is one of the most important religious sites in the city

 

A statement was released by the Anti-Defamation League of New York / New Jersey following the incident: 'We are deeply disturbed by reports of an incident that occurred tonight in Brooklyn.' 

'Just minutes ago, a car repeatedly rammed into 770 Eastern Parkway.This building is not only a synagogue, but also the worldwide @ChabadHeadquarters and a beloved symbol of Judaism around the world. @ADLis in touch with law enforcement and local partners on the ground. We are grateful to @NYPDNewsfor making a swift arrest and will update as we learn more.'

The Daily Mail has reached out to the New York Police Department for comment.  

New York is home to the biggest Hasidic population outside Israel and the historic synagogue at 770 Eastern Parkway - known to members of this deeply insular and intensely observant community as ‘770’ - is one of the most important religious sites in the city. 

It was once the base of Chabad rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, one of the most influential Jewish leaders of the 20th Century. The rabbi, who had fled Nazi Germany, spent four decades until his death in 1994 establishing a global network of schools and community centres, revitalising a Hasidic community devastated by the Holocaust. 

The synagogue is the same place where the infamous tunnels were discovered by the NYPD in January of 2024.

Nine of the tunnellers, aged 19 to 21, have been arrested for criminal mischief and reckless endangerment with connection to the 60ft secret tunnel.