Top Items:
Reuters:
Exclusive: White House uses USAID funds for budget director Vought's security, documents show — The White House budget office is using millions of dollars from the former U.S. foreign aid agency to pay for the security detail of Russell Vought, President Donald Trump's budget chief …
Discussion:
Mediaite, Mother Jones, Wonkette, New York Magazine, MS NOW, Crooked Media, Raw Story, The Independent and The Moderate Voice
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Carl Hulse / New York Times:
Congress Jets Off as D.H.S. Shuts Down — Despite a deadlock over funding for the agency, lawmakers left town and left Democratic and White House negotiators to try to work out a deal in their absence. — When a disruptive government shutdown nears, the Capitol is usually occupied …
Discussion:
The Hill, UPI, Salon, Townhall, FOX 10 Phoenix, CBS News and Joe.My.God.
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Washington Post:
With Congress gone, much of DHS is set to run out of money after midnight
Discussion:
Associated Press, Bloomberg, Federal News Network, NBC News, Vote Common Good, Migrant Insider, The Hill, KTVZ-TV, Washington Examiner and New York Sun
Chris Potter / 90.5 WESA:
Fetterman lone Democrat to support Homeland Security funding bill, as DHS shutdown looms
Fetterman lone Democrat to support Homeland Security funding bill, as DHS shutdown looms
Discussion:
New Jersey Online
Washington Post:
White House, RFK Jr. shake up health leadership after controversies — Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s health department is undergoing a major leadership overhaul. — The White House and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are shaking up the health department's leadership team ahead of the midterms …
Discussion:
Politico, The Hill, MS NOW and Joe.My.God.
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Joseph Choi / The Hill:
HHS shaking up top personnel to push Trump, MAHA priorities ahead of midterms — Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Thursday announced a reshuffling of top staffers in his department as the Trump administration looks to shore up health wins that can boost GOP success in the upcoming midterms.
Associated Press:
Feds investigating whether 2 ICE officers lied about the shooting of a Venezuelan man in Minneapolis — Federal authorities have opened a criminal probe into whether two immigration officers lied under oath about the shooting of a Venezuelan man in Minneapolis last month.
Discussion:
Bangor Daily News, CBS News, Straight Arrow News, NewsMax.com, Associated Press, Joe.My.God., Raw Story, The Independent, FOX 32 Chicago, KSTP-TV, The Hill and KVIA-TV
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Politico:
ICE says federal agents appear to have lied about confrontation that led to shooting … Agents had initially said that two men — Alfredo Aljorna and Julio Sosa Celis - assaulted them with a broom and a shovel before one of them shot Sosa Celis. … Local law enforcement and prosecutors are also investigating the incident.
Discussion:
NOTUS, New York Post, MS NOW, Washington Examiner, The Hill, Truthout, Raw Story, Mediaite, New Republic and CBS News
Washington Post:
ICE plans to spend $38.3 billion turning warehouses into detention centers — Documents released Thursday offer the most complete picture to date of the Trump administration's controversial and costly plan to overhaul immigrant detention using industrial buildings.
Discussion:
The Guardian, The Parnas Perspective, PennLive, Joe.My.God. and MS NOW
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Brittany Gibson / Axios:
ICE reveals $38B plan for immigrant mega-jails
ICE reveals $38B plan for immigrant mega-jails
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune, Reuters, WBUR, The Independent, Project Salt Box, NewsMax.com, Bloomberg and The National Pulse
Samuel Oakford / Washington Post:
The Don Lemon indictment: Video appears to contradict key claims — The former CNN anchor, now an independent journalist, faces criminal charges after covering a protest at a church in St. Paul last month — Video footage appears to contradict key aspects of a federal indictment's descriptions …
Discussion:
The Hollywood Reporter, twitchy.com, Deadline, NewsMax.com, The National Pulse and NewsNation
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New York Times:
Homeland Security Wants Social Media Sites to Expose Anti-ICE Accounts — The department has sent Google, Meta and other companies hundreds of subpoenas for information on accounts that track or comment on Immigration and Customs Enforcement, officials and tech workers said.
Discussion:
Joe.My.God.
C. Frances / The Intercept:
The Woman Alex Pretti Was Killed Trying to Defend Is an EMT. Federal Agents Stopped Her From Giving First Aid. — MINNEAPOLIS — The struggle that killed Alex Pretti began with a shove. It ended with gunshots. — In the final moments before he was shot and killed by federal authorities in Minneapolis …
Discussion:
New Republic
Jennifer Bendery / HuffPost:
What Minnesota Really Thinks Of The End Of Trump's ICE Surge — The mood in Minneapolis may not be what you would expect. — Border czar Tom Homan delivered the news on Thursday that Minnesotans living under federal occupation have been desperately waiting for: the end …
Discussion:
New York Times
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Jonah E. Bromwich / New York Times:
ICE Agents Menaced Minnesota Protesters at Their Homes, Filings Say
Nate Raymond / Reuters:
US judge orders Trump administration to facilitate deported college student's return — A U.S. federal judge on Friday ordered the Trump administration to facilitate the return of a Honduran college student who was deported in violation of a court order, a step the government had previously refused to take.
Discussion:
The Boston Globe, Associated Press, Al Jazeera, Raw Story and WBUR
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New York Times:
Meta Plans to Add Facial Recognition Technology to Its Smart Glasses — In an internal memo last year, Meta said the political tumult in the United States would distract critics from the feature's release. — Five years ago, Facebook shut down the facial recognition system for tagging people …
Jeff Cox / CNBC:
Consumer prices rose 2.4% annually in January, less than expected … The cost of goods and services rose at a slower annual rate than expected in January, providing hope that the nagging U.S. inflation problem could be starting to ease. — The consumer price index for January accelerated 2.4% …
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Colby Smith / New York Times:
U.S. Inflation Eased at Start of the Year
U.S. Inflation Eased at Start of the Year
Discussion:
The White House, NBC News, Wall Street Journal, The Daily Caller, The Washington Free Beacon, Jared's Substack, Washington Post, FOX 32 Chicago, Florida's Voice, NewsMax.com, Independent Women, Townhall, twitchy.com, CBS News, RedState, Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion, Honolulu Star-Advertiser, Denver Post, Newsweek, NOTUS, Axios, The Hill, PBS NewsHour and The American Conservative
New York Times:
‘I Just Want to Get Out of Here’: ICE Is Detaining Hundreds of Children … A 7-year-old in Oregon was seeking treatment for a nosebleed last month when immigration agents detained her and her parents outside a hospital emergency room. They were taken to a federal detention center in Texas for three weeks.
Discussion:
The Bulwark
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Finya Swai / Politico:
Trump pushes voter ID ‘whether approved by Congress or not!’ … Trump has been personally involved in efforts to tighten voter registration standards nationwide, backing the SAVE America Act — an updated GOP election bill that would overhaul federal voting rules.
Discussion:
New York Times, The Hill, Straight Arrow News, Democracy Docket, Scripps News, Al Jazeera, CNBC, The Independent, Fox News, Boston.com, Newsweek, Raw Story, NewsMax.com, Mediaite and CBS News
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Victoria Albert / Wall Street Journal:
The Battles Inside Kristi Noem's DHS: Five Takeaways From the Journal's Investigation — Criticism of the Homeland Security secretary's tactics exploded during the Minnesota immigration enforcement surge — Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has for months been the headline-grabbing …
Discussion:
Rolling Stone, New York Post, The Parnas Perspective, Reason, New Republic, So What, IJR, New York Magazine, The New World, Raw Story, Balloon Juice and LGBTQ Nation
ProPublica:
What Meetings Among Trump Lawyers Reveal About the FBI's Seizure of Election Records in Georgia — The Missouri prosecutor overseeing an investigation into the 2020 vote in Fulton County, Georgia, has taken part in meetings since last fall with lawyers tasked by President Donald Trump to reinvestigate his loss to Joe Biden.
Discussion:
Public Notice, New York Magazine and Honolulu Star-Advertiser
The Athletic:
President Trump pardons Hall of Famer Joe Klecko and four other former NFL players — Share full article — President Donald Trump pardoned former NFL players Joe Klecko, Nate Newton, Jamal Lewis, Travis Henry and the late Billy Cannon on Thursday, according to White House pardon czar Alice Marie Johnson.
Discussion:
The Guardian, Associated Press, New York Times, MLive.com, Breitbart, Washington Times, New Jersey Online, Mediaite, NewsMax.com, TheGrio, Blaze Media, The Hill, Fox News, MS NOW and OutKick
Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge:
Ring cancels its partnership with Flock Safety after surveillance backlash — Following mounting pressure and a questionable Super Bowl ad, the Amazon-owned company walked back its plan to integrate with the controversial law-enforcement technology company.
Discussion:
Associated Press, flocksafety.com, Breitbart, New York Daily News, Business Insider, Scripps News, The Ring Blog, RedState, Reason, KVIA-TV, The Hill, WATN, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, The Hollywood Reporter, Futurism, UPI, CBS News, Ars Technica, Techdirt, The Register, Variety, CNBC, Straight Arrow News and Mashable, more at Techmeme »
Andrew Solender / Axios:
Dems tell DOJ to “immediately cease” Epstein files “spying” — A trio of top House Democrats wrote to Attorney General Pam Bondi demanding that the Department of Justice “immediately cease” cataloguing members' searches of the unredacted Jeffrey Epstein files.
Discussion:
The Hill, Washington Examiner, NewsMax.com, Techdirt, Courthouse News Service, MS NOW, Semafor and ABC News
Collin Anderson / The Washington Free Beacon:
Former Penn President Liz Magill, Who Resigned in Disgrace After Disastrous Anti-Semitism Testimony, Named Dean of Georgetown Law — Liz Magill, the former University of Pennsylvania president who resigned in disgrace after arguing that calls for the genocide of Jews could be permissible under campus rules …
Discussion:
Georgetown University, Politico, Forbes, Above the Law and Jewish Insider
Wired:
Social Security Workers Are Being Told to Hand Over Appointment Details to ICE — The recent request goes against decades of precedent and puts noncitizens at further risk of immigration enforcement actions. — Workers at the Social Security Administration have been told to share information …
New York Times:
Justice Department Sues Harvard for Admissions Records — The Trump administration appears to have renewed its pressure campaign against Harvard since President Trump backtracked this month on a possible settlement with the Ivy League school. — The Trump administration sued Harvard University on Friday …
Discussion:
US Department of Justice, CNN, Politico, The Harvard Crimson, The National Pulse, The Daily Signal, Associated Press, Washington Times, Courthouse News Service, New York Post, UPI, Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion, The Hill, Washington Examiner, The Independent, Fox News, Joe.My.God., masslive.com and Bloomberg
Financial Times:
Rubio skips Ukraine meeting with European leaders in Munich — US secretary of state cancels attendance at last minute in move that EU official calls ‘insane’ — US secretary of state Marco Rubio has skipped a meeting with European leaders on the war in Ukraine, in a move seen …
Discussion:
Fox News, Bloomberg, Radio Free Europe/Radio …, The Daily Signal, UPI, Washington Times, KVIA-TV, The Kyiv Independent, France 24, NewsMax.com, Reuters, CBS News and Associated Press
Paul Krugman:
The MAGA Bubble Is Imploding — Americans aren't buying Trumpist gaslighting about the economy … Attorney General Pam Bondi's meltdown on Wednesday while being questioned the House Judiciary Committee was exceptional, even by this administration's rock-bottom standards.
Chris Marquette / Politico:
Gateway gets $30M in frozen funds, with more to come … “We have received an initial disbursement of $30 million from the federal government and expect to receive the full $205 million in reimbursement funds,” she said in a statement. “Construction remains paused for now …
Discussion:
New York Times, NewsMax.com, Bloomberg, New Jersey Online, New York Daily News, New Jersey 101.5, Joe.My.God. and E&E News
Alayna Treene / CNN:
Trump privately lashes out at GOP lawmakers over racist video blowback, sources say — Hours after refusing to apologize for a racist video posted to his Truth Social account, President Donald Trump hadn't let go. — He spent last weekend complaining to allies about Republicans who had condemned …
Discussion:
Raw Story
Jacob Owens / KVOA-TV:
Nanos pushes back on claims of withholding evidence in Guthrie case — TUCSON, Ariz. (KVOA) - Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos is pushing back on claims that he is withholding crucial evidence from the FBI in the Nancy Guthrie case. — Nanos denies the allegations, describing the report as “not even close to the truth.”

