ReportWire

Tag: large number

  • Orange County Democrats claim ICE is taking things too far in Central Florida

    [ad_1]

    ACCURATE SEVEN DAY FORECAST. NEW AT NOON DEMOCRATS IN ORANGE COUNTY ARE NOW CALLING ON PEOPLE HERE TO STAND UP TO ICE. IT ALL COMES AT A TIME WHEN THE IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT AGENCY IS REPORTEDLY INCREASING ITS PRESENCE IN CENTRAL FLORIDA. WESH TWO BOB HAZEN TELLS US LOCAL DEMOCRATS ARE HOPING MORE PEOPLE WILL ORGANIZE AND GET INVOLVED. THE ORANGE COUNTY JAIL SAYS THERE ARE MORE THAN 130 PEOPLE BEHIND BARS HERE RIGHT NOW WITH IMMIGRATION HOLDS, BUT NO LOCAL CHARGES AND DEMOCRATS HERE IN ORANGE COUNTY SAY ICE HAS GONE TOO FAR. I ASKED A UNITED STATES CITIZEN EVERY TIME I GO OUT, I’M LIKE, DO I HAVE MY PASSPORT CARD? SAMUEL VILCHEZ SANTIAGO CAME HERE FROM VENEZUELA. HE’S NOW A DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE FOR STATE HOUSE IN ORANGE COUNTY. HE AND A GROUP OF OTHER CANDIDATES AND COUNTY PARTY LEADERS CAME TOGETHER TODAY TO CALL ON PEOPLE TO JOIN THEM AND TRY TO PUSH BACK ON ICE. MY CALL TO ACTION TO YOU IS SIMPLE JOIN THE MOVEMENT. WESH TWO REPORTED LAST WEEK THAT ICE IS NOW LOOKING AT OPENING A FACILITY NEAR THE BEACH LINE IN ORANGE COUNTY, AND THERE HAVE BEEN REPORTS OF LARGE NUMBERS OF IMMIGRATION AGENTS RENTING HOTEL ROOMS. I GOT NUMBERS FROM THE ORANGE COUNTY JAIL SHOWING HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE BEING HELD ON ICE DETAINERS AS OF 5:00 THIS MORNING, THERE WERE 201 PEOPLE HERE WITH AN IMMIGRATION HOLD AND LOCAL CHARGES AND 138 PEOPLE WITH AN ICE HOLD AND NO LOCAL CHARGES. ACTIVISTS HERE SAY FAMILIES WHO HAD BEEN TRYING TO FOLLOW THE RULES NOW LIVE IN FEAR. THEY DIDN’T CALL ON PEOPLE TO CONFRONT ICE DIRECTLY, BUT THEY DO WANT PEOPLE TO GET INVOLVED. THERE ARE ORGANIZATIONS THAT ARE WORKING ACROSS THE COMMUNITY TO GET ACTIVE WITH, WHETHER THAT BE PROTESTS OR KNOWING YOUR RIGHTS OR BEING ABLE TO TRACK THE SITUATION AT HAND. EVERYBODY HAS A VOICE AND I ENCOURAGE THOSE WITH THE PRIVILEGE TO BE ABLE TO STAND UP IN THIS MOMENT, TO COME TO THE FOREFRONT OF THE FIGHT. COVERING ORANGE COUNTY IN ORLANDO, BOB HAZEN WESH T

    Orange County Democrats claim ICE is taking things too far in Central Florida

    Updated: 1:49 PM EST Jan 21, 2026

    Editorial Standards ⓘ

    Democrats in Orange County are urging residents to organize and oppose the increased presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Central Florida, as the agency reportedly plans to expand its operations in the area.Samuel Vilchez Santiago, a Democratic candidate for the state House in Orange County who immigrated from Venezuela, joined other candidates and county party leaders to encourage community involvement. Reports indicate that ICE is considering opening a facility near the Beachline in Orange County, and there have been accounts of large numbers of ICE agents renting hotel rooms.According to the Orange County Jail, as of 5 a.m. on Wednesday, there were 201 individuals held with immigration holds and local charges, and 138 people with ICE holds and no local charges. Activists express concern that families trying to comply with the law now live in fear. While the activists did not call for direct confrontation with ICE, they emphasized the importance of community involvement. “There are organizations that are working across the community to get active, whether that is protests, or knowing your rights or being able to track the situation in hand. Everyone has a voice and I encourage everyone with the privilege to come to the forefront of the fight,” Jarred Cornell said.

    ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. —

    Democrats in Orange County are urging residents to organize and oppose the increased presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Central Florida, as the agency reportedly plans to expand its operations in the area.

    Samuel Vilchez Santiago, a Democratic candidate for the state House in Orange County who immigrated from Venezuela, joined other candidates and county party leaders to encourage community involvement.

    Reports indicate that ICE is considering opening a facility near the Beachline in Orange County, and there have been accounts of large numbers of ICE agents renting hotel rooms.

    According to the Orange County Jail, as of 5 a.m. on Wednesday, there were 201 individuals held with immigration holds and local charges, and 138 people with ICE holds and no local charges.

    Activists express concern that families trying to comply with the law now live in fear.

    While the activists did not call for direct confrontation with ICE, they emphasized the importance of community involvement.

    “There are organizations that are working across the community to get active, whether that is protests, or knowing your rights or being able to track the situation in hand. Everyone has a voice and I encourage everyone with the privilege to come to the forefront of the fight,” Jarred Cornell said.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • 2 killed, 6 others injured in shooting in Mormon church parking lot in Salt Lake City, police say

    [ad_1]

    A shooting outside a church building in Salt Lake City killed two people and injured six others Wednesday, police said.The shooting took place in the parking lot of a meetinghouse of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, widely known as the Mormon church.Dozens of people were attending a funeral inside at the time. All the victims were adults.Police said they do not believe the shooter had any animus toward a particular faith.“We don’t believe this was a targeted attack against a religion or anything like that,” Salt Lake City Police Chief Brian Redd said.Police also do not believe the shooting was random. Authorities said no suspect was in custody.Brennan McIntire said he and his wife, Kenna, heard the gunshots from their apartment next to the parking lot while watching TV. He jumped off the couch and ran outside to check on things.“As soon as I came over, I see someone on the ground,” McIntire said. “People are attending to him and crying and arguing.”About 100 law enforcement vehicles were at the scene in the aftermath, and helicopters flew overhead.“This should never have happened outside a place of worship. This should never have happened outside a celebration of life,” Mayor Erin Mendenhall said.The church was cooperating with law enforcement and was grateful for efforts first responders’ efforts, a spokesperson said.“We extend prayers for all who have been impacted by this tragedy and express deep concern that any sacred space intended for worship should be subjected to violence of any kind,” Sam Penrod said in a statement.The church is headquartered in Salt Lake City, and about half of Utah’s 3.5 million residents are members of the faith. Churches like the one where the shooting occurred can be found in towns throughout the city and state.The faith has been on heightened alert since four people were killed when a former Marine opened fire in a Michigan church last month and set it ablaze. The FBI found that he was motivated by “anti-religious beliefs” against the church.

    SALT LAKE CITY —

    A shooting outside a church building in Salt Lake City killed two people and injured six others Wednesday, police said.

    The shooting took place in the parking lot of a meetinghouse of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, widely known as the Mormon church.

    Dozens of people were attending a funeral inside at the time. All the victims were adults.

    Police said they do not believe the shooter had any animus toward a particular faith.

    “We don’t believe this was a targeted attack against a religion or anything like that,” Salt Lake City Police Chief Brian Redd said.

    Police also do not believe the shooting was random. Authorities said no suspect was in custody.

    Brennan McIntire said he and his wife, Kenna, heard the gunshots from their apartment next to the parking lot while watching TV. He jumped off the couch and ran outside to check on things.

    “As soon as I came over, I see someone on the ground,” McIntire said. “People are attending to him and crying and arguing.”

    About 100 law enforcement vehicles were at the scene in the aftermath, and helicopters flew overhead.

    “This should never have happened outside a place of worship. This should never have happened outside a celebration of life,” Mayor Erin Mendenhall said.

    The church was cooperating with law enforcement and was grateful for efforts first responders’ efforts, a spokesperson said.

    “We extend prayers for all who have been impacted by this tragedy and express deep concern that any sacred space intended for worship should be subjected to violence of any kind,” Sam Penrod said in a statement.

    The church is headquartered in Salt Lake City, and about half of Utah’s 3.5 million residents are members of the faith. Churches like the one where the shooting occurred can be found in towns throughout the city and state.

    The faith has been on heightened alert since four people were killed when a former Marine opened fire in a Michigan church last month and set it ablaze. The FBI found that he was motivated by “anti-religious beliefs” against the church.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • California consumers get surprise sticker shock ordering imports online

    [ad_1]

    Every year, Ventura County resident Carlos Soto buys a Liverpool Football Club jersey for his son to celebrate the start of the soccer season. This year it was delivered with an additional bill of $107.

    “The UPS guy said he couldn’t release it unless I paid more,” said Soto, who owns the Historia Bakery Cafe in Thousand Oaks. “Until this tariff thing started, I’ve never, ever had a bill on top of my purchase.”

    Soto declined the payment and requested a refund for the jersey, which he bought from the team’s official website for around $150.

    Since President Trump reversed a decades-old tariff policy in August known as de minimis, online shoppers like Soto are sometimes getting hit with high, unexpected extra charges.

    De minimis used to allow goods valued at less than $800 to enter the country duty-free. The tariff exception applied to more than 1.30 billion packages sent to the U.S. from overseas in 2024, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

    Social media is full of reports of individuals struggling with surprise bills for their deliveries. On Facebook and elsewhere, buyers are venting about hundreds of dollars due on mouse pads, makeup and bridesmaid dresses. One person on Reddit faced a $4,700 fee on a specialized desk chair from Bulgaria.

    While the new fees are often already baked into product prices, some goods land in America without the tariffs being paid. That’s when the person receiving the package is expected to fork over the difference.

    Package delivery companies have been scrambling to educate consumers about the new tariff regime, but still, some are surprised.

    UPS, FedEx and DHL have each posted frequently asked questions and resources online to support customers who may owe tariffs on their items. Large numbers of customers are calling with complaints or confusion when presented with unexpected bills — UPS said it is working through a backlog of brokerage-related issues.

    “Our brokerage services are designed to ensure shipments comply with regulations [and] pay necessary duties and taxes,” said UPS spokesperson Jim Mayer. “If the shipper or receiver have not paid these costs, UPS generates a bill so the shipment can be released by Customs and Border Protection.”

    Mark Hartlidge, a small package compliance manager at UPS, called the changes this year a “rollercoaster ride” in one webinar hosted for customers.

    “If you import anything to the United States, you most likely have been impacted,” he said in July. “These changes can be very difficult to understand.”

    While large companies and online retailers have the staff and infrastructure in place to make the transition smoothly, smaller businesses that export directly to the U.S. are sometimes failing to inform consumers about the extra costs and when they are due.

    Washington, D.C., resident David Herr, who restores classic cars, recently ordered an auto part from Belgium for about $200.

    “I knew I was going to have to pay some import fee, but I had no idea what it was going to be,” Herr said. “I didn’t know if that was included in the price, or if that was going to be collected by customs or somebody else.”

    When Herr’s package arrived via UPS, the delivery driver presented him with a hefty charge of $493.

    “It’s kind of awkward how the fees are collected,” he said. “There’s not a lot of clarity on who’s collecting them and where they’re going.”

    The popular fast fashion website Shein, which is based in Singapore, advertises a guarantee that the price at checkout is the final price for the product.

    “There’s lots of chatter about tariffs, but here’s why you don’t need to worry about paying anything extra after checkout,” the Shein website says.

    Temu, another low-cost online retailer that previously relied on de minimis, states on its website that for its customers, there are “no import charges for all local warehouse items and no extra charges upon delivery.”

    Meg Moore, an avid online shopper from the Chicago area, said she plans to change her shopping habits.

    She had her eye on the annual beauty product advent calendar from the London-based brand Liberty, which retails for $365, but decided against it due to the tariffs.

    “They’ll add at least $100 just to send it here,” she said.

    De minimis, which is Latin for something of little importance, dates to 1938 when Congress passed the exception to boost trade and save the time of inspecting and calculating taxes on every package.

    Lawmakers increased the duty-free threshold from $1 to $5 in 1990 and again to $200 in 1993. Under the most recent threshold of $800, the number of packages entering the U.S. duty-free had skyrocketed.

    Trump has called the rule a “scam” that weakens American businesses and allows dangerous goods to enter the country without oversight. Packages that claim the exemption are not inspected as thoroughly by U.S. Customs personnel.

    Trump ended the so-called loophole for goods sent from China in May before eliminating the practice for goods from all other nations in August. Documents and gifts under $100 are still exempt from import taxes.

    Soto in Thousand Oaks decided to search for a Liverpool jersey in California. But he’s still waiting for the refund on the jersey he sent back.

    “When it comes to politics and government, I’ve always kind of turned away from it,” he said. “But this time it actually hurt my pocket.”

    [ad_2]

    Caroline Petrow-Cohen

    Source link

  • Trump and Hegseth declare an end to ‘politically correct’ leadership in the US military

    [ad_1]

    President Donald Trump revealed that he wants to use American cities as training grounds for the armed forces and joined Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Tuesday in declaring an end to “woke” culture before an unusual gathering of hundreds of top U.S. military officials who were abruptly summoned to Virginia from around the world.Hegseth announced new directives for troops that include “gender-neutral” or “male-level” standards for physical fitness, while Trump bragged about U.S. nuclear capabilities and warned that “America is under invasion from within.”“After spending trillions of dollars defending the borders of foreign countries, with your help we’re defending the borders of our country,” Trump said.Hegseth had called military leaders to the Marine Corps base in Quantico, near Washington, without publicly revealing the reason until this morning. His address largely focused on his own long-used talking points that painted a picture of a military that has been hamstrung by “woke” policies, and he said military leaders should “do the honorable thing and resign” if they don’t like his new approach.Meetings between top military brass and civilian leaders are nothing new, but the gathering had fueled intense speculation about the summit’s purpose given the haste with which it was called and the mystery surrounding it.Video below: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gives remarks in QuanticoAdmirals and generals from conflict zones in the Middle East and elsewhere were summoned for a lecture on race and gender in the military, underscoring the extent to which the country’s culture wars have emerged as a front-and-center agenda item for Hegseth’s Pentagon, even at a time of broad national security concerns across the globe.‘We will not be politically correct’Trump is used to boisterous crowds of supporters who laugh at his jokes and applaud his boasts during his speeches. But he wasn’t getting that kind of soundtrack from the generals and admirals in attendance.In keeping with the nonpartisan tradition of the armed services, the military leaders sat mostly stone-faced through Trump’s politicized remarks, a contrast from when rank-and-file soldiers cheered during Trump’s speech at Fort Bragg this summer.During his nearly hour-long speech, Hegseth said the U.S. military has promoted too many leaders for the wrong reasons based on race, gender quotas and “historic firsts.”“The era of politically correct, overly sensitive don’t-hurt-anyone’s-feelings leadership ends right now at every level,” Hegseth said.That was echoed by Trump, who said “the purposes of America military is not to protect anyone’s feelings. It’s to protect our republic.″″We will not be politically correct when it comes to defending American freedom,” Trump said. “And we will be a fighting and winning machine.”Loosening disciplinary rulesHegseth said he is loosening disciplinary rules and weakening hazing protections, putting a heavy focus on removing many of the guardrails the military had put in place after numerous scandals and investigationsHe said he was ordering a review of “the department’s definitions of so-called toxic leadership, bullying and hazing to empower leaders to enforce standards without fear of retribution or second guessing.”The defense secretary called for “changes to the retention of adverse information on personnel records that will allow leaders with forgivable, earnest, or minor infractions to not be encumbered by those infractions in perpetuity.”“People make honest mistakes, and our mistakes should not define an entire career,” Hegseth said. “Otherwise, we only try not to make mistakes.”Bullying and toxic leadership has been the suspected and confirmed cause behind numerous military suicides over the past several years, including the very dramatic suicide of Brandon Caserta, a young sailor who was bullied into killing himself in 2018.A Navy investigation found that Caserta’s supervisor’s “noted belligerence, vulgarity and brash leadership was likely a significant contributing factor in (the sailor)’s decision to end his own life.”Gender-neutral physical standardsHegseth used the platform to slam environmental policies and transgender troops while talking up his and Trump’s focus on “the warrior ethos” and “peace through strength.”Hegseth said the department has been told from previous administrations that “our diversity is our strength,” which he called an “insane fallacy.”“They had to put out dizzying DEI and LGBTQE+ statements. They were told females and males are the same thing, or that males who think they’re females is totally normal,” he said, adding the use of electric tanks and the COVID vaccine requirements to the list as mistaken policies.Hegseth said this is not about preventing women from serving.“But when it comes to any job that requires physical power to perform in combat, those physical standards must be high and gender neutral,” he said. “If women can make it excellent, if not, it is what it is. If that means no women qualify for some combat jobs, so be it. That is not the intent, but it could be the result.”Hegseth’s speech came as the country faces a potential government shutdown this week and as Hegseth, who has hammered home a focus on lethality, has taken several unusual and unexplained actions, including ordering cuts to the number of general officers and firings of other top military leaders.Hegseth has championed the military’s role in securing the U.S.-Mexico border, deploying to American cities as part of Trump’s law enforcement surges, and carrying out strikes on boats in the Caribbean that the administration says targeted drug traffickers.

    QUANTICO, Va. —

    Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth summoned hundreds of U.S. military officials to an in-person meeting Tuesday to declare an end to “woke” culture in the military and announce new directives for troops that include “gender-neutral” or “male-level” standards for physical fitness.

    Hegseth and President Donald Trump had abruptly called military leaders from around the world to convene at the Marine Corps base in Quantico, near Washington, without publicly revealing the reason until this morning. Hegseth’s address largely focused on his own long-used talking points that painted a picture of a military that has been hamstrung by “woke” policies, and he said military leaders should “do the honorable thing and resign” if they don’t like his new approach.

    Meetings between top military brass and civilian leaders are nothing new, but the gathering had fueled intense speculation about the summit’s purpose given the haste with which it was called and the mystery surrounding it.

    Admirals and generals from conflict zones in the Middle East and elsewhere were summoned for a lecture on race and gender in the military, underscoring the extent to which the country’s culture wars have emerged as a front-and-center agenda item for Hegseth’s Pentagon, even at a time of broad national security concerns across the globe.

    Video below: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gives remarks in Quantico

    During his nearly hour-long speech, Hegseth said the U.S. military has promoted too many leaders for the wrong reasons based on race, gender quotas and “historic firsts.”

    “The era of politically correct, overly sensitive don’t-hurt-anyone’s-feelings leadership ends right now at every level,” Hegseth said.

    He said he is loosening disciplinary rules and weakening hazing protections, putting a heavy focus on removing many of the guardrails the military had put in place after numerous scandals and investigations

    Hegseth said he was ordering a review of “the department’s definitions of so-called toxic leadership, bullying and hazing to empower leaders to enforce standards without fear of retribution or second guessing.”

    He called for “changes to the retention of adverse information on personnel records that will allow leaders with forgivable, earnest, or minor infractions to not be encumbered by those infractions in perpetuity.”

    “People make honest mistakes, and our mistakes should not define an entire career,” Hegseth said. “Otherwise, we only try not to make mistakes.”

    Bullying and toxic leadership has been the suspected and confirmed cause behind numerous military suicides over the past several years, including the very dramatic suicide of Brandon Caserta, a young sailor who was bullied into killing himself in 2018.

    A Navy investigation found that Caserta’s supervisor’s “noted belligerence, vulgarity and brash leadership was likely a significant contributing factor in (the sailor)’s decision to end his own life.”

    Hegseth used the platform to slam physical fitness and grooming standards, environmental policies and transgender troops while talking up his and Trump’s focus on “the warrior ethos” and “peace through strength.”

    Hegseth said the department has been told from previous administrations that “our diversity is our strength,” which he called an “insane fallacy.”

    “They had to put out dizzying DEI and LGBTQE+ statements. They were told females and males are the same thing, or that males who think they’re females is totally normal,” he said, adding the use of electric tanks and the COVID vaccine requirements to the list as mistaken policies.

    Hegseth said this is is not about preventing women from serving.

    “But when it comes to any job that requires physical power to perform in combat, those physical standards must be high and gender neutral,” he said. “If women can make it excellent, if not, it is what it is. If that means no women qualify for some combat jobs, so be it. That is not the intent, but it could be the result.”

    Hegseth’s speech came as the country faces a potential government shutdown this week and as Hegseth, who has hammered home a focus on lethality, has taken several unusual and unexplained actions, including ordering cuts to the number of general officers and firings of other top military leaders.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • After Charlie Kirk’s shooting, how will security change for polarizing public figures?

    [ad_1]

    Less than 24 hours after a bullet whizzed across a Utah college campus and claimed the life of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, polarizing figures from across the political spectrum swiftly canceled public events.

    Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) decided to postpone a North Carolina stop on the “Fighting Oligarchy” tour this weekend, while Trump allies Steve Bannon and Rudy Giuliani reportedly nixed plans for a New York gathering due to “increased security concerns.”

    Popular leftist Twitch streamer Hasan Piker, who was set to debate Kirk at Dartmouth College later this month, told Politico he would “wait for the temperature to lower” before holding in-person events again.

    Kirk’s assassination comes amid a spate of attacks on high-profile political figures — including two assassination attempts on President Trump — that security experts say will change the way large-scale political events are held, with open-air venues increasingly seen as risky.

    “In the current threat environment, outdoor venues for political events should be avoided at all costs,” said Art Acevedo, the former head of the Houston and Miami Police Departments.

    Even with a security apparatus as powerful as the U.S. Secret Service, experts say it is incredibly difficult to establish a firm perimeter at outdoor rallies with a large number of attendees. The gunman who opened fire on Trump in Butler, Pa., during the 2024 presidential campaign did so from more than 400 feet away. Kirk was shot from a distance of nearly 200 yards with a powerful bolt-action rifle.

    Kirk’s suspected killer, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, was arrested Friday morning, authorities said. Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said ammunition recovered and linked to the shooting had anti-fascist engravings on it.

    A PBS/Marist Poll conducted last year found 1 in 5 Americans believes violent acts would be justified to “get the country back on track.”

    Democratic lawmaker Melissa Hortman was killed alongside her husband at their Minnesota home in June by a gunman allegedly motivated by conservative politics. In April, police arrested a man who allegedly tried to set fire to Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s residence while the Democrat slept inside with his family.

    Politicians aren’t the only ones being targeted. The killing last December in Manhattan of a healthcare industry executive turned suspected gunman Luigi Mangione into an object of public fascination, with some applauding the act of vigilantism.

    With Americans increasingly viewing their political foes as enemy combatants, researchers who study extremist violence and event security professionals say Kirk’s killing on Wednesday could mark a turning point in how well-known individuals protect themselves.

    “The bottom line is, for public political and other figures, it is increasingly difficult to protect them anywhere, but even more so in an outdoor environment because it’s getting harder to screen people and devices in those open spaces,” said Brian Levin, a former New York City police officer and professor emeritus at the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at Cal State San Bernardino.

    Kirk was being protected by roughly a half-dozen Utah Valley University police officers and a handful of private security guards Wednesday, according to campus security officials. While that kind of presence might deter a close-quarters threat, snipers and other assailants with long-range capabilities would not be affected.

    Typically, security professionals seek to create three “rings of protection” around the focus of a public event, according to Kent Moyer, founder of World Protection Group, an international security firm.

    The inner ring often consists of barriers and security personnel meant to separate Kirk from the crowd immediately in front of him, not someone hundreds of yards away. In the middle ring, security guards positioned farther from the focus of the event monitor the temperature of the crowd and try to clock individuals acting strangely or becoming aggressive. An outer ring would serve to search bags and screen individuals before they enter the event.

    It did not appear there was any screening of attendees at the event where Kirk was killed, and it is legal to openly carry firearms on a college campus in Utah.

    Levin said he expects to see drones deployed at similar events in the future, an assessment seconded by Acevedo.

    “If you’re going to do an outdoor event you better make sure you have some kind of surveillance of rooftops,” Levin said.

    When doing risk assessments, Levin said, police and security professionals need to be cognizant that politicians themselves are no longer the sole targets for political violence.

    What Levin called “idiosyncratic actors” are increasingly likely to lash out at those connected to political and policy positions they find unjust. While Kirk was not a politician himself, he was a beloved figure in Trump’s orbit and his activist group, Turning Point USA, has often been credited with driving younger voters to support the president.

    “It’s not just elected officials. It’s pundits, it includes corporate people, people involved in policy and education,” said Levin.

    But a heavy security detail doesn’t come cheap.

    While elected officials are guarded by a range of federal and state law enforcement agencies, political influencers like Kirk must rely on their own vendors as well as security personnel hired by the venues they speak at.

    Levin warned that law enforcement assigned to political events should be on high alert for retaliatory attacks in the near future, given the “dehumanizing” rhetoric some have taken up in the wake of Kirk’s killing.

    Specifically, he pointed to Trump’s oval office remarks late Wednesday blaming Kirk’s death on “the radical left,” despite the fact that Kirk’s killer had not been identified at that time and federal law enforcement officials had not disclosed a motive in the shooting.

    Trump also rattled off a number of attacks on Republicans during his remarks, while making no mention of Hortman’s murder, the 2022 attack on the husband of U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, or the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol — all violent incidents carried out by people who espoused right-wing political values.

    “More and more people across the ideological spectrum, though more concentrated on the far hard right, think violence is justified to achieve political outcomes,” Levin said.

    [ad_2]

    James Queally, Richard Winton, Sandra McDonald

    Source link

  • Texas, Florida hit with far more ICE arrests than California. But that’s not the whole story

    [ad_1]

    Ever since federal immigration raids ramped up across California, triggering fierce protests that prompted President Trump to deploy troops to Los Angeles, the state has emerged as the symbolic battleground of the administration’s deportation campaign.

    But even as arrests soared, California was not the epicenter of Trump’s anti-immigrant project.

    In the first five months of Trump’s second term, California lagged behind the staunchly red states of Texas and Florida in the total arrests. According to a Los Angeles Times analysis of federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement data from the Deportation Data Project, Texas reported 26,341 arrests — nearly a quarter of all ICE arrests nationally — followed by 12,982 in Florida and 8,460 in California.

    Even in June, when masked federal immigration agents swept through L.A., jumping out of vehicles to snatch people from bus stops, car washes and parking lots, California saw 3,391 undocumented immigrants arrested — more than Florida, but still only about half as many as Texas.

    When factoring in population, California drops to 27th in the nation, with 217 arrests per million residents — about a quarter of Texas’ 864 arrests per million and less than half of a whole slew of states including Florida, Arkansas, Utah, Arizona, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Georgia, Virginia and Nevada.

    The data, released after a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the government, excludes arrests made after June 26 and lacks identifying state details in 5% of cases. Nevertheless, it provides the most detailed look yet of national ICE operations.

    Immigration experts say it is not surprising that California — home to the largest number of undocumented immigrants in the nation and the birthplace of the Chicano movement — lags behind Republican states in the total number of arrests or arrests as a percentage of the population.

    “The numbers are secondary to the performative politics of the moment,” said Austin Kocher, a geographer and research assistant professor at Syracuse University who specializes in immigration enforcement.

    Part of the reason Republican-dominated states have higher arrest numbers — particularly when measured against population — is they have a longer history of working directly with ICE, and a stronger interest in collaboration. In red states from Texas to Mississippi, local law enforcement officers routinely cooperate with federal agents, either by taking on ICE duties through so-called 287(g) agreements or by identifying undocumented immigrants who are incarcerated and letting ICE into their jails and prisons.

    Indeed, data show that just 7% of ICE arrests made this year in California were made through the Criminal Alien Program, an initiative that requests that local law enforcement identify undocumented immigrants in federal, state and local prisons and jails.

    That’s significantly lower than the 55% of arrests in Texas and 46% in Florida made through prisons or jails. And other conservative states with smaller populations relied on the program even more heavily: 75% of ICE arrests in Alabama and 71% in Indiana took place via prisons and jails.

    “State cooperation has been an important buffer in ICE arrests and ICE operations in general for years,” said Ariel Ruiz Soto, a Sacramento-based senior policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute. “We’ve seen that states are not only willing to cooperate with ICE, but are proactively now establishing 287(g) agreements with their local law enforcement, are naturally going to cast a wider net of enforcement in the boundaries of that state.”

    While California considers only some criminal offenses, such as serious felonies, significant enough to share information with ICE; Texas and Florida are more likely to report offenses that may not be as severe, such as minor traffic infractions.

    Still, even if fewer people were arrested in California than other states, it also witnessed one of the most dramatic increases in arrests in the country.

    California ranked 30th in ICE arrests per million in February. By June, the state had climbed to 10th place.

    ICE arrested around 8,460 immigrants across California between Jan. 20 and June 26, a 212% increase compared with the five months before Trump took office. That contrasts with a 159% increase nationally for the same period.

    Much of ICE’s activity in California was hyper-focused on Greater Los Angeles: About 60% of ICE arrests in the state took place in the seven counties in and around L.A. during Trump’s first five months in office. The number of arrests in the Los Angeles area soared from 463 in January to 2,185 in June — a 372% spike, second only to New York’s 432% increase.

    Even if California is not seeing the largest numbers of arrests, experts say, the dramatic increase in captures stands out from other places because of the lack of official cooperation and public hostility toward immigration agents.

    “A smaller increase in a place that has very little cooperation is, in a way, more significant than seeing an increase in areas that have lots and lots of cooperation,” Kocher said.

    ICE agents, Kocher said, have to work much harder to arrest immigrants in places like L.A. or California that define themselves as “sanctuary” jurisdictions and limit their cooperation with federal immigration agents.

    “They really had to go out of their way,” he said.

    Trump administration officials have long argued that sanctuary jurisdictions give them no choice but to round up people on the streets.

    Not long after Trump won the 2024 election and the L.A. City Council voted unanimously to block any city resources from being used for immigration enforcement, incoming border enforcement advisor Tom Homan threatened an onslaught.

    “If I’ve got to send twice as many officers to L.A. because we’re not getting any assistance, then that’s what we’re going to do,” Homan told Newsmax.

    With limited cooperation from California jails, ICE agents went out into communities, rounding up people they suspected of being undocumented on street corners and at factories and farms.

    That shift in tactics meant that immigrants with criminal convictions no longer made up the bulk of California ICE arrests. While about 66% of immigrants arrested in the first four months of the year had criminal convictions, that percentage fell to 30% in June.

    The sweeping nature of the arrests drew immediate criticism as racial profiling and spawned robust community condemnation.

    Some immigration experts and community activists cite the organized resistance in L.A. as another reason the numbers of ICE arrests were lower in California than in Texas and even lower than dozens of states by percentage of population.

    “The reason is the resistance, organized resistance: the people who literally went to war with them in Paramount, in Compton, in Bell and Huntington Park,” said Ron Gochez, a member of Unión del Barrio Los Angeles, an independent political group that patrols neighborhoods to alert residents of immigration sweeps.

    “They’ve been chased out in the different neighborhoods where we organize,” he said. “We’ve been able to mobilize the community to surround the agents when they come to kidnap people.”

    In L.A., activists patrolled the streets from 5 a.m. until 11 p.m., seven days a week, Gochez said. They faced off with ICE agents in Home Depot parking lots and at warehouses and farms.

    “We were doing everything that we could to try to keep up with the intensity of the military assault,” Gochez said. “The resistance was strong. … We’ve been able, on numerous occasions, to successfully defend the communities and drive them out of our community.”

    The protests prompted Trump to deploy the National Guard and Marines in June, with the stated purpose of protecting federal buildings and personnel. But the administration’s ability to ratchet up arrests hit a roadblock on July 11. That’s when a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order blocking immigration agents in Southern and Central California from targeting people based on race, language, vocation or location without reasonable suspicion that they are in the U.S. illegally.

    That decision was upheld last week by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. But on Thursday, the Trump administration petitioned the Supreme Court to lift the temporary ban on its patrols, arguing that it “threatens to upend immigration officials’ ability to enforce the immigration laws in the Central District of California by hanging the prospect of contempt over every investigative stop.”

    The order led to a significant drop in arrests across Los Angeles last month. But this week, federal agents carried out a series of raids at Home Depots from Westlake to Van Nuys.

    Trump administration officials have indicated that the July ruling and arrest slowdown do not signal a permanent change in tactics.

    “Sanctuary cities are going to get exactly what they don’t want: more agents in the communities and more work site enforcement,” Homan told reporters two weeks after the court blocked roving patrols. “Why is that? Because they won’t let one agent arrest one bad guy in the jail.”

    U.S. Border Patrol Sector Chief Gregory Bovino, who has been leading operations in California, posted a fast-moving video on X that spliced L.A. Mayor Karen Bass telling reporters that “this experiment that was practiced on the city of Los Angeles failed” with video showing him grinning. Then, as a frenetic drum and bass mix kicked in, federal agents jump out of a van and chase people.

    “When you’re faced with opposition to law and order, what do you do?” Bovino wrote. “Improvise, adapt, and overcome!”

    Clearly, the Trump administration is willing to expend significant resources to make California a political battleground and test case, Ruiz Soto said. The question is, at what economic and political cost?

    “If they really wanted to scale up and ramp up their deportations,” Ruiz Soto said, “they could go to other places, do it more more safely, more quickly and more efficiently.”

    [ad_2]

    Jenny Jarvie, Gabrielle LaMarr LeMee

    Source link

  • As FDA probes source of national E. coli outbreak, California firm recalls onion products

    As FDA probes source of national E. coli outbreak, California firm recalls onion products

    [ad_1]

    As the U.S. Food and Drug Administration investigates an E. coli outbreak associated with McDonald’s Quarter Pounders, major restaurant chains and food distributors are pulling raw sliced onions produced by Salinas, Calif.-based Taylor Farms.

    As of Friday, officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 75 people had been sickened and one person had died. The outbreak spans 12 states, with Colorado and Nebraska reporting the largest numbers of people fallen ill.

    Burger King and Yum!Foods pulled onions from their restaurants and products Thursday. Yum!Foods owns Taco Bell, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Habit Burger & Grill, and Pizza Hut.

    U.S. Foods, a major food processor and distributor, notified customers that the international food production giant Taylor Farms had announced a recall on four onion products “due to potential E. coli contamination.”

    McDonald’s has also pulled the onions, although it’s unclear whether those onions were sourced from Taylor Farms.

    Jannell Goodwin, a spokeswoman for the FDA, said no product has yet been determined to be the source of the outbreak.

    “Investigators are working to determine if the slivered onions or beef patties on Quarter Pounder burgers are the likely source of contamination,” the agency said in a statement.

    The CDC noted on its website that Taylor Farms initiated a voluntary recall of “some onions” and as a result, the risk to the public is very low.

    Other states where people have become ill include Kansas, Utah, Wyoming, and portions of Idaho, Iowa, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, and Oklahoma. McDonald’s has stopped its current supply of Quarter Pounders to these states.

    Bill Marler, a food safety attorney — who is representing two women from Nebraska who became ill in the outbreak — said dealing with “contaminated onions is becoming a bigger and bigger problem.”

    He said he’d been involved in a 2015 case that involved vegetables grown by Taylor Farms — which he described as one of the largest growers and processors of vegetables in the country. The company has production plants in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

    In that case, a celery-onion mix used in Costco chicken salad was causing people to get sick.

    He said that although the number of people involved wasn’t as large as the current McDonald’s outbreak, one of his clients required a kidney transplant because of the infection.

    “This is an interesting outbreak,” he said of the McDonald’s incidents.

    “They have a pretty damn clean record,” he said.

    Marler said such outbreaks are often associated with contaminated water.

    “Anytime you have an E. coli outbreak or salmonella outbreak, there’s going to be some animal nearby. Usually a cow,” he said.

    Those animals may have contaminated the water used for irrigation, or “they’re growing onions too close to a cattle feed lot, or something like that. Especially E. coli 157. You’re always going to find a cow nearby.”

    Taylor Farms did not respond to a request for comment.

    Marler also said it was very unlikely there would be a multi-state outbreak of E. coli from beef.

    “That would mean you’re undercooking hamburger in multiple locations,” he said.

    The CDC noted on its website that Quarter Pounder hamburgers are temporarily not available in some states while the fast food chain makes supply changes. It also said the company is working proactively with government investigators to confirm the contaminated ingredient.

    The agency said that Quarter Pounder beef patties and onions are unique to that sandwich, and not used in other menu items.

    They also urged anyone who thinks they may have E. coli poisoning to see a doctor.

    Symptoms, which usually appear three or four days after consuming the bacteria, include severe stomach cramps, diarrhea (often bloody), and vomiting. Most people recover within a week.

    CDC officials say some people can develop serious kidney problems, and may need to be hospitalized.

    [ad_2]

    Susanne Rust

    Source link

  • No shots for Spot? Study finds owners’ vaccine hesitancy can extend to pet dogs

    No shots for Spot? Study finds owners’ vaccine hesitancy can extend to pet dogs

    [ad_1]

    Individuals who are skeptical of vaccines for themselves are also more like to question the need or efficacy of getting shots for their four-legged companions, according to a recent study.

    In the study, published in the medical journal Vaccine, researchers asked 2,200 Americans their thoughts on vaccines and whether they were dog owners. If they were, respondents were then asked whether they would vaccinate their dogs for rabies.

    Approximately half of the pet owners surveyed expressed some degree of vaccine hesitancy — with 53% saying they believed vaccines administered to dogs were unsafe, ineffective or unnecessary, the study found.

    That group was 6% more likely to have dogs that were not vaccinated for rabies, and 27% more likely to oppose rabies vaccine mandates when compared with survey respondents who did not express vaccine hesitancy, according to predicted probabilities outlined in the study.

    Matt Motta, an assistant professor at the Boston University School of Public Health and one of the study’s co-authors, said he was not surprised to see some respondents express reluctance regarding canine vaccines, but was intrigued by the raw data.

    “I think we were pretty shocked at just how pervasive it is, and I think what I found even more shocking is how detrimental its health consequences might be,” Motta said.

    Rabies, though relatively rare, is almost always fatal in animals and humans alike, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, due to vaccines, it’s also highly preventable: Only a few human cases are recorded each year in the United States.

    “The rabies shot is the most important canine vaccination for protecting human health, and yet growing numbers of pet owners are skeptical of it,” the authors of the study wrote for Harvard Public Health.

    Most infections in humans are caused by domestic dog bites.

    California law requires all dogs over 4 months old to be vaccinated for rabies, and similar rules exist throughout most of the U.S.

    Dr. Jeanne Noble, an emergency medicine doctor and COVID-19 response director for UC San Francisco, attributed the recent uptick in vaccine hesitancy in part to the mandates imposed during the pandemic.

    “When public health officials used mandates to increase uptake of COVID vaccines, rather than sticking to broad education campaigns highlighting the tremendous benefits of the vaccine, while also acknowledging the small but measurable risks, we lost the trust of vaccine hesitant communities,” she wrote in an email. “These are folks that previously were cautiously abiding by vaccination recommendations for their children, and their pets, but are now opting out.”

    To build back that trust, Noble suggested meeting people where they are and having honest and complete discussions — answering their questions and concerns without minimizing their fears.

    The authors of the canine vaccine hesitancy study agree, and recommended paying special attention to pet owners.

    “Public health campaigns tackling vaccine hesitancy would do well to consider dog owners in their messaging, and consider drops in pet vaccination, especially for rabies, an important bellwether for gauging public trust in vaccines,” they wrote in their Harvard Public Health post.

    [ad_2]

    Jeremy Childs

    Source link