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Category: Politics

Sean Dunn, also known as ‘sandwich guy,’ found not guilty of assault

Sean Dunn, also known as ‘sandwich guy,’ found not guilty of assault

  The Associated Press reports: A former Justice Department employee who threw a sandwich at a federal agent during President Donald Trump’s law enforcement surge in Washington was found not guilty of assault on Thursday in the latest legal rebuke of the federal intervention. A viral video of the sandwich tossing made Sean Charles Dunn a symbol of resistance to Trump’s deployment of federal agents to combat crime in the nation’s capital. His misdemeanor acquittal is another setback for prosecutors,…

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Border patrol agent who shot Chicago woman multiple times boasted about his shooting skill

Border patrol agent who shot Chicago woman multiple times boasted about his shooting skill

Reuters reports: A federal agent who shot a Chicago woman multiple times after he said she struck his vehicle with her own bragged about his shooting skills in text messages with other agents, according to records presented Wednesday at a hearing in the case against the woman. U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agent Charles Exum shot U.S. citizen Marimar Martinez, who was warning others about immigration enforcement agents in Chicago’s Brighton Park neighborhood, five times on October 4, after their…

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‘Strung up and tortured’: Elizabeth Tsurkov recounts 2 ½ years being held hostage in Iraq

‘Strung up and tortured’: Elizabeth Tsurkov recounts 2 ½ years being held hostage in Iraq

The New York Times reports: They handcuffed her, hung her up from the ceiling and beat her senseless. They shocked her with electricity and forced her into positions that injured her back and shoulders. When she lost consciousness, they threw water on her face to wake her so the torture could resume. Elizabeth Tsurkov endured two and a half years of captivity in Iraq, held in solitary confinement by an Iran-backed militia. Ms. Tsurkov, 38, said it was a marathon…

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Tesla shareholders approve $1 trillion pay package for part-time CEO, Elon Musk

Tesla shareholders approve $1 trillion pay package for part-time CEO, Elon Musk

electrek reports: Tesla shareholders have voted once again to approve an absurd, biggest-in-history pay package for Tesla’s part-time CEO, Elon Musk. In doing so, they’ve voted to relinquish any control they could have had over the company, and instead to put it deeper into the hands of its largest saboteur. Tesla’s shareholder meeting is happening today, with several consequential proposals which shareholders have been voting on in the last several weeks. In that time, Tesla has been campaigning hard and…

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Zohran Mamdani: ‘We are an existential threat to billionaires who think their money can buy our democracy’

Zohran Mamdani: ‘We are an existential threat to billionaires who think their money can buy our democracy’

Time reports: Zohran Mamdani defeated a Republican, a fellow Democrat, and an army of billionaires when he emerged victorious in the New York City mayoral election on Tuesday. Mamdani, a self-described democratic socialist, will be the first Muslim to ever hold the position, and the youngest mayor in over a century. More than 2 million New Yorkers voted in the closely watched race, making it the largest turnout for a mayoral race in more than 50 years. With around 90%…

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Voters didn’t know what they were getting last November. Now they do — and they don’t like it

Voters didn’t know what they were getting last November. Now they do — and they don’t like it

G. Elliott Morris writes: The headline story from this year’s elections is simple: Democrats increased their support across the country and swept all the marquee contests in key states. Democratic Governor-elect Abigail Spanberger won Virginia by ~14 points, while Mikie Sherrill kept New Jersey blue by a double-digit margin. Georgia delivered two more statewide wins for Democrats, flipping both Public Service Commission seats for the first time in recent memory, and Pennsylvania elected a new Democratic lower-court judge (while keeping…

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Trump is an albatross the Republicans can’t shed

Trump is an albatross the Republicans can’t shed

Jamelle Bouie writes: As a presidential candidate, Donald Trump is a phenomenally effective vote-winner, capable of turning out millions of otherwise infrequent voters to deliver the White House and Congress to the Republican Party. But as president, Trump has been an albatross around the neck of his party. Consider his record as party leader. In the 2017 elections, Republicans suffered sharp defeats in the Virginia and New Jersey governor’s races, with Virginia Democrats sweeping all three statewide offices and winning…

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‘I have papers’: Child care worker detained by ICE officers inside a Chicago day care

‘I have papers’: Child care worker detained by ICE officers inside a Chicago day care

  The 19th reports: As parents dropped their children inside a Spanish immersion day care in Chicago Wednesday morning, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers stormed the building to detain a child care worker, a scene that before this year would have been unheard of in the United States. Child care centers were previously protected under a “sensitive locations” directive that advised ICE to not conduct enforcement in places like schools and day cares. But President Donald Trump removed that…

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Tech billionaire Marc Andreessen bet big on Trump and it’s paying off for Silicon Valley

Tech billionaire Marc Andreessen bet big on Trump and it’s paying off for Silicon Valley

By Jake Pearson This story was originally published by ProPublica For more than a decade, Silicon Valley venture capitalists have poured enormous sums of money into newfangled technology companies seeking to disrupt, and even supplant, the traditional financial system and sidestep its burdensome regulations. At the same time, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has policed that effort, going after such businesses for deceiving, overcharging or otherwise taking advantage of their customers by enacting rules, filing lawsuits and shutting down the…

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CBP agent reminisces about the sandwich that landed on his chest: ‘You could smell the onions and the mustard’

CBP agent reminisces about the sandwich that landed on his chest: ‘You could smell the onions and the mustard’

The Hill reports: The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agent struck by a sandwich in Washington, D.C., this summer testified Tuesday during resident Sean Dunn’s federal misdemeanor trial. CBP agent Gregory Lairmore, who was called as the government’s first witness, told jurors that the sandwich “exploded” on his chest, saying he could feel it strike even through his ballistic vest. “You could smell the onions and the mustard,” Lairmore said. Dunn doesn’t dispute that he threw the sandwich at…

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Israeli dissidents can show Americans how to be a good citizen when your country does terrible things

Israeli dissidents can show Americans how to be a good citizen when your country does terrible things

Masha Gessen writes: When your country pursues abhorrent policies, when the face it turns to the world is the face of a monster, what does that say about you? In my experience, it is strikingly easy to shrug off one’s responsibility for the country where one pays taxes, contributes to the public conversation and, at least nominally, has the right to vote, if that country is the United States. It seems one can just say “Not in my name” and…

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FBI warns that criminals are posing as ICE and urges federal agents to ID themselves

FBI warns that criminals are posing as ICE and urges federal agents to ID themselves

Wired reports: Criminals posing as US immigration officers have carried out robberies, kidnappings, and sexual assaults in several states, warns a law enforcement bulletin issued last month by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The bureau urges agencies to ensure officers clearly identify themselves and to cooperate when civilians ask to verify an officer’s identity—including by allowing calls to a local police precinct. “Ensure law enforcement personnel adequality [sic] identify themselves during operations and cooperate with individuals who request further verification,”…

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Dick Cheney’s war on terror paved the way for the rise of Trump and the destruction of democracy

Dick Cheney’s war on terror paved the way for the rise of Trump and the destruction of democracy

Spencer Ackerman writes: The week before Dick Cheney died, the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, one of the bureaucratic venues through which the most powerful vice president in U.S. history disfigured the country, informed Congress that it would have no say over Donald Trump’s rapidly coalescing military aggression against an oil-rich country. While self-styled War Secretary Pete Hegseth boasted over social media about treating the Caribbean fishermen that he insists without evidence are drug smugglers “exactly like al-Qaeda,” Office…

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‘Free speech protects the right to speak; it does not compel anyone to provide a megaphone for a Nazi’

‘Free speech protects the right to speak; it does not compel anyone to provide a megaphone for a Nazi’

The National Task Force to Combat Antisemitism, a project of @Heritage, has done valuable work. But free speech includes the right to associate—and not to. I cannot serve under someone who thinks Nazis are worth debating. Here is my resignation letter: pic.twitter.com/ccVHMdlDbO — Mark Goldfeder (@MarkGoldfeder) November 2, 2025 New York Post reports: One of the largest conservative think tanks in Washington, DC, has been roiled by its president’s embrace of Tucker Carlson after the conservative podcaster hosted white nationalist…

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Judge chastises DOJ lawyers for ‘waste of time’ in deposition of Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino

Judge chastises DOJ lawyers for ‘waste of time’ in deposition of Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino

Chicago Tribune reports: The deposition of Border Patrol Cmdr. Greg Bovino nearly ground to a halt last week as government lawyers repeatedly objected to questions by plaintiffs’ attorneys, including some about communications between Bovino and White House adviser Stephen Miller, court records obtained by the Tribune show. The impasse prompted attorneys for both sides to go before U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis in the middle of Bovino’s sworn testimony on Thursday, where lawyers for the Justice Department complained that Bovino…

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Trump at center of governing chaos through contradictory statements on SNAP payments

Trump at center of governing chaos through contradictory statements on SNAP payments

HuffPost reports: President Donald Trump said Tuesday that federal food benefits won’t be distributed until after Democrats agree to reopen the government. Hours later, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt contradicted the president, saying food benefits would go out after all. As of Tuesday afternoon, it was basically unclear what was going on, except that Donald Trump had placed himself at the center of governing chaos. In a Truth Social post on Tuesday morning, Trump said Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program…

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