Day: January 24, 2026
Graham Platner Solicits Donations for Maine Anti-ICE Group Led By Accused Somali Fraudsters
Senate candidate Graham Platner (D., Maine) urged supporters to donate to an anti-ICE group led by several Somalis tied to a nonprofit under congressional investigation for allegedly defrauding the state of millions of dollars in Medicaid payments. The day after ICE launched a statewide operation targeting illegal aliens in Maine, Platner promoted the Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition (MIRC), a taxpayer-funded nonprofit that touted its “ICE Watch Hotline” earlier this month. Its board has included Deqa Dhalac and Nathan Davis, who have been named persons of interest in a congressional probe over their leadership roles at Gateway Community Services Maine.
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‘State-of-the-art’: GOP congressman pre-empts Crockett’s ‘grandstanding’ with glimpse inside ICE facility in Texas
A Republican congressman from Texas pre-empted criticism from Democrats on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in his district after Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) announced that she would visit to oversee operations.
Crockett said the Dilley Detention Center near San Antonio was in her crosshairs after reports indicated that a 5-year-old was being sent to the facility after being used as “bait” by ICE agents.
‘Democrats are doing everything they can to spin the truth against law enforcement.’
The Department of Homeland Security has vehemently denied the claims and said that the boy had been protected by agents after his father fled from an immigration enforcement operation. An attorney for the family said the boy’s father had a pending asylum claim, but Vice President JD Vance contradicted that claim and said he was an illegal alien.
Democrats have used the media framing of the issue to hammer away at the administration.
“I am aware of reports that this precious 5-year old, Liam Ramos, who was kidnapped by ICE as he returned home from preschool in Minneapolis may be in San Antonio, Texas,” wrote Crockett Friday on her social media account.
“I will be visiting the Dilley Detention Center in San Antonio next week to conduct oversight and will demand answers on the whereabouts and well-being of Liam. If it were up to me, we’d be at the Dilley Detention Center RIGHT NOW getting answers. But let’s be clear about what’s really happening here: The Trump Administration is illegally blocking Members of Congress from conducting lawful oversight,” she added.
“We have an absolute right — under federal law and the Constitution — to enter detention facilities, unannounced, to ensure the safety and well-being of people in government custody,” Crockett continued. “I am outraged. My heart aches for Liam’s family. We will get answers.”
Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales of Texas posted a video of the facility to undermine any possible suggestion from Crockett that Ramos might be maltreated.
“In the coming days, you’ll see a lot of grandstanding by politicians at the Dilley ICE Center in my district, #TX23. It’s all for show,” he wrote on social media.
“I’ve been there & seen the state-of-the-art facilities & protocols that @ICEgov follows,” he added. “Our ICE agents & CBP personnel are doing their jobs, & yet again, Democrats are doing everything they can to spin the truth against law enforcement.”
RELATED: Trump admin blasts Ilhan Omar over ‘vile lie’ accusing ICE of using autistic child as bait
Among those on the left who have pounced on the story is failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
“Enforcing the law is one thing. Terrorizing a population, using children as pawns, is another. My heart aches for Liam Ramos and his family,” she wrote.
Clinton and her husband could face contempt of Congress charges after refusing a subpoena related to the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.
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‘Such an a**hole’: Mamdani rejects kids’ snow day despite brutal snowy forecast — and the backlash is fierce
Newly inaugurated New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is facing some criticism for saying he would not declare a snow day for children during a bitter winter snowstorm.
Democrat Gov. Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency for the entire state of New York on Friday, but the mayor said that students would be required to have online learning rather than a free day.
‘F**k him my kid will not be remote learning he will be building a snow man and some sleigh riding.’
“I know to the disappointment of any student that’s watching this right now, Monday is either going to be a remote learning day or it’s going to be an in-person school day,” Mamdani said Friday.
“It’s not going to be a traditional snow day. That is a determination we’ve made,” he added.
Forecasts say the city could be hit with as much as 18 inches of snow through the weekend, along with very cold temperatures.
Critics online responded with disapproval of the decision.
“I like this mayor but I do not like this! Give the kids a snow day!” said Cristóbal Alex of MSNBC.
“Snow days are an American pastime/tradition of happiness. So out of principle, he despises it and has to do the opposite,” read another response.
“Mamdani had an equity-focused agenda, but this is not equitable. Don’t forget too, the research has shown that students didn’t learn as much during virtual learning. This is just a wasted day that counts,” said another user.
“F**k him my kid will not be remote learning he will be building a snow man and some sleigh riding,” replied another critic.
“Mamdani is such an a**hole. No snow days?” read another.
“The forecasts don’t always get it right, but what is being predicted right now, whether it’s a foot of snow or even a little bit more, would be one of the biggest snowfalls that our city has seen in years,” continued Mamdani.
“Either late tomorrow evening or early Sunday morning, we are going to see snow start to begin to fall across our city,” he added. “It will fall and fall and then fall some more.”
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Matthew McConaughey: Choose God and family, not ‘participation trophies’
Matthew McConaughey doesn’t want participation trophies, and he doesn’t want success to be watered down.
The iconic actor recently gave a speech only he could deliver, forgoing giving traditional advice in favor of providing his own spiritual leanings that work for him.
‘I think in the West, because we want everyone to feel really great, participation trophies!’
The movie star was asked about how he critiques his performances on screen and how he gauges success.
“I know if I’m bogeying or if I’m birdieing. … I’ve seen myself on screen [and thought], ‘You’re kind of bulls***ting there,'” McConaughey told host Jay Shetty on his podcast.
Faking the grade
From there, McConaughey trashed the idea of expanded grade-point averages through extra credit.
“I’m not into extra credit. I don’t like 4.2 GPAs. That tells me, like, what happened? Are we, then, we’re not giving the right test? If 4.0 was the pinnacle, you know, that means not many people should be getting it, if anybody,” he explained.
The Texan said that with higher scores, institutions have either over-leveraged the original task or broadened the scope of scoring and therefore cheapened the credit.
“I think in the West, because we want everyone to feel really great, participation trophies! 4.2 GPA. Well, I feel better,” he said sarcastically.
It was from there that McConaughey began to explain where he seeks validation from, which was the true shining light of the discussion.
RELATED: Matthew McConaughey calls for ‘gun responsibility’ not gun control, goes on to demand gun control
Heavenly helpers
Aside from his wife and kids, McConaughey revealed he has a trio of people in heaven that he looks to for reactions — and God’s reaction through them.
“I have a council in the sky. Three people that are extremely important to me in my life: my dad, Penny Allen, and John Cheney.”
While the 56-year-old explained that Cheney is his old friend, it was not clear who Allen is.
“I see them, wink at them, talk with them, listen to them … run ideas by them, run decisions by them, and then I look up and see what their reaction is. And it’s been a very trusted council for me.”
This is a way to put “souls that are no longer with us” in “a heaven sense,” he explained. “They’re a conduit from God to me, and I have no expectations of them.”
In God he trusts
It doesn’t always go well for McConaughey, though. Sometimes his dad is “dancing in his underwear with a Miller Lite and a piece of lemon meringue pie,” he laughed, but sometimes “they’re not dancing,” and he has to figure out why.
RELATED: Matt Damon: Netflix dumbs down movies for attention-impaired phone addicts
Photo by PG/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images
The Uvalde, Texas, native said it is very important to him to not have a picture of God in his mind, as he does not want to minimize his meaning.
In the end though, this all leads to McConaughey seeking his own validation, he admitted.
“I try to measure how I counsel and referee myself off of some of the people I just brought up to you,” he told the host.
“That’s where I prove it.”
McConaughey added that he does not look too far outside his own circle, because those he knows are who he trusts.
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Vance crushes false narrative about ICE ‘arresting’ 5-year-old boy
An image was circulated widely this week showing a visibly upset preschooler wearing an oversized hat and Spider-man backpack standing in the company of federal immigration agents. Evidently loath to investigate the circumstances surrounding the photo and what it actually depicts, Democrats and other radicals rushed to condemn U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey (D), for instance, suggested ICE had treated the boy like a criminal, while twice-failed presidential candidate Kamala Harris wrote that he “is just a baby. He should be at home with his family, not used as bait by ICE and held in a Texas detention center. I am outraged, and you should be too.”
‘No one thinks that makes any sense.’
New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D) went a step further, accusing ICE of “kidnapping 5-year-olds and using them as bait” and suggesting the agency should be defunded.
The liberal media didn’t appear particularly eager to correct Democrats’ false narrative, which was incubated by woke officials with Columbia Heights Public Schools, where the child was reportedly enrolled.
During his visit to Minneapolis on Thursday, Vice President JD Vance gave the press a reality check, noting that anti-ICE propagandists glossed over some critical information about the incident.
“I actually saw this terrible story while I was coming to Minneapolis,” said the vice president.
“And I see this story, and I’m a father of a 5-year-old — actually, a 5-year-old little boy. And I think to myself, ‘Oh my God, this is terrible. How do we arrest a 5-year-old?'”
“Well I do a little bit more follow-up research, and what I find is that the 5-year-old was not arrested; that his dad was an illegal alien; and when they went to arrest his illegal alien father, the father ran,” said Vance.
Photo by Jim Watson – Pool/Getty Images
Vance told the Minneapolis crowd, “So the story is that ICE detained a 5-year-old. Well what are they supposed to do? Are they supposed to let a 5-year-old child freeze to death? Are they not supposed to arrest an illegal alien in the United States of America?”
The Department of Homeland Security indicated that when ICE attempted to arrest the boy’s father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, in the Minneapolis suburb of Columbia Heights on Jan. 20, the illegal alien from Ecuador “fled on foot — abandoning his child.”
Marcos Charles, the assistant director of enforcement and removal operations for ICE, indicated on Friday that after the illegal alien ditched his little boy and was arrested, ICE officers “stayed with the child. They cared for him, took him to get something to eat from a drive-thru restaurant, and spent hours ensuring he was taken care of. Again my officers did that. Not his father.”
Charles noted further that people inside the illegal alien’s apparent residence refused to open the door for the young boy and take him back.
According to DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin, the boy’s alleged mother was inside the house and would not let him in even after officers assured her that she wouldn’t be taken into custody.
Marc Prokosch, a lawyer representing the family, indicated during a press conference on Thursday that the boy and his father were reunited and are being kept together at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center, a family holding center in Dilley, Texas.
“Parents are asked if they want to be removed with their children, or ICE will place the children with a safe person the parent designates. This is consistent with past administration’s immigration enforcement,” said DHS.
The vice president further suggested that the argument that ICE cannot arrest illegal aliens who have children is unworkable given that’d mean “every single parent is going to be completely given immunity from ever being the subject of law enforcement.”
“That doesn’t make any sense. No one thinks that makes any sense,” said Vance.
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Tim Walz supporters urged to ‘rush’ donations to his legal fund amid DOJ probe
President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice opened an investigation into Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, and now the Democrat’s supporters are being urged to “rush” donations to his legal defense fund.
‘If you’re with me, please rush a donation to our legal defense fund and help ensure we can keep fighting for accountability, transparency, and justice.’
Reports surfaced last week that President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice is investigating Walz, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, and others for potentially violating a conspiracy statute related to statements they made about the deployment of federal immigration agents to the Minneapolis region.
Walz issued a statement following the reports, accusing the Trump administration of “weaponizing the justice system,” adding that “threatening political opponents is a dangerous, authoritarian tactic.”
Frey similarly accused the Trump administration of weaponizing the federal government “to intimidate local leaders for doing their jobs.”
The DOJ issued subpoenas on Tuesday to several Democratic officials, including Walz and Frey.
Tim Walz, Gwen Walz. Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images
The subpoenas, which both Walz and Frey confirmed they received, were connected to the DOJ’s investigation into whether the officials conspired to impede federal officers from carrying out their duties, according to CBS News.
On Friday, Alpha News reporter Liz Collin shared screenshots of an alleged Walz campaign notification, encouraging supporters to donate to the governor’s legal fund.
RELATED: Justice Dept. slaps Gov. Tim Walz, AG Ellison, Minneapolis Mayor Frey with subpoenas: Report
Photo by Christopher Juhn/Anadolu via Getty Images
“Last week, the federal government opened an investigation into me. … My job is to defend Minnesotans and the rule of law, and I’m sure as hell not backing down. But the road ahead is long, difficult, and expensive,” it reads.
“If you’re with me, please rush a donation to our legal defense fund and help ensure we can keep fighting for accountability, transparency, and justice,” the message reads, featuring a link that redirects to an Act Blue webpage where supporters can donate.
“BREAKING: The DOJ is investigating Tim Walz on baseless charges. Donate now to aid his fight,” the webpage states.
Blaze News has reached out to Walz’s office for comment.
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Fire hits residential area in Makati City
A fire hit a residential area in Barangay Tejeros in Makati City early Saturday.
Archaeologist believes he’s closing in on lost tomb of legendary Egyptian queen: ‘Could happen soon’
Egyptian archaeologist Zahi Hawass believes he’s closing in on Queen Nefertiti’s tomb in the Valley of the Kings, calling it the century’s greatest find.
Shoveling snow could pose dangerous health risk for one group, experts warn
Snow shoveling creates hidden heart strain similar to cardiac stress tests. Learn safer techniques and warning signs to protect your cardiovascular health.
