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Thursday’s Mini-Report, 1.8.26
January 09 2026, 08:00

Today’s edition of quick hits.

* The latest on the deadly ICE shooting in Minneapolis: “Minnesota law enforcement officials said Thursday that the FBI is taking over the investigation of the fatal shooting of a Minneapolis woman by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent, despite initially agreeing to defer to a state unit that reviews use-of-force cases.”

* We’re learning more about the victim: “Renee Good, the Minneapolis woman who was fatally shot by a federal immigration agent blocks from her home, was remembered by the community she left behind for her compassion, kindness and warmth. … Good, 37, described herself as a poet, writer, wife and mother who was ‘experiencing Minneapolis’ on her personal social media accounts, which are now private.”

* John Sarcone III joins an ignominious list: “Yet another top federal prosecutor installed by the Trump administration is unlawfully serving in their role, this time in the Northern District of New York, a judge has found. That finding follows similar rulings against Lindsey Halligan’s tenure in the Eastern District of Virginia and against other purported top prosecutors in Nevada, New Jersey and California.”

* The White House continues to wing it in Venezuela: “President Trump said on Wednesday evening that he expected the United States would be running Venezuela and extracting oil from its huge reserves for years, and insisted that the interim government of the country — all former loyalists to the now-imprisoned Nicolás Maduro — is ‘giving us everything that we feel is necessary.’”

* Protests can, and often do, work: “Avelo Airlines will stop flying deportation charters for the Department of Homeland Security, ending its service for Immigration and Customs Enforcement after less than a year. Since publicizing its new business arrangement in April, the low-fare carrier faced protests, boycotts and backlash from travelers, flight attendant unions, local politicians and immigration activists.”

* Expulsion votes are rare: “On the first day of the 2026 legislative session, Nebraska lawmakers were asked Wednesday to consider a motion to expel a fellow senator accused of making a sexually-charged comment to a legislative staffer and touching her inappropriately during a session-end party last year. If lawmakers vote next week to expel the 59-year-old Sen. Dan McKeon, a Republican in the officially nonpartisan Nebraska Legislature, it will be the first time the body has ever done so.”

* When university philosophy professors are told to avoid Plato, academic freedom is losing: “Martin Peterson, a philosophy professor at Texas A&M University, was thunderstruck when he was told on Tuesday that he needed to excise some teachings of Plato from his syllabus. It was one way, his department head wrote in an email, that Dr. Peterson’s philosophy class could comply with new policies limiting discussion of race and gender.”

See you tomorrow.

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