News roundup, 26 Jan 2026

- A US Border Patrol officer fatally shot a protester in Minneapolis on Saturday. The DHS claimed that he was undocumented and armed, and that he'd "violently resisted" when they attempted to disarm him. Minneapolis police chief Brian O'Hara says that, contrary to the claim that he was "undocumented", the victim was in fact a US citizen and lawful gun owner with a permit to carry. Other sources identify him as Alex Pretti, an intensive care nurse with no criminal record. More info, including video, may be found here and here, and few find the DHS' account credible. Multiple witnesses say that he did not brandish his weapon, and the video evidence appears to corroborate that. A bipartisan group of senators are calling for an investigation into Pretti's death.

- An elementary school in Minneapolis is sending out an urgent warning about offers of food support being used as bait by ICE. 

- The European Commission is opening an investigation into Elon Musk's X over allegations that the platform's AI tool, Grok, can be used to create fake sexual images of real people. This follows a €120 million fine issued to X over the fraudulent use of the blue checkmarks used by X to denote a "verified" account; the regulator concluded that the company did not meaningfully verify who was behind the accounts. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio responded by accusing Europe of "attacking and censoring" American companies; for my part I'd be happy to see X banned in Europe as it's become little more than an agent of far-right propaganda.

- Doug Ford is urging Ontarians to visit Michigan this summer. He dropped that suggestion in the midst of a press conference railing against the Carney government's decision to allow the import of Chinese cars without prohibitive tariffs; so much for "elbows up" I guess.

- A former police officer has been sentenced to seven years in prison after being convicted of numerous crimes including voiding tickets in return for bribes, drug trafficking, and sharing photos of a dead woman. That means the federal penitentiary; I'm guessing that he very much hopes that he gets sent out of province to serve his sentence.

News roundup, 28 Feb 2024

- The Kinew government continues to work on undoing the damage done by the previous government. They're looking to make it easier for nurses who have left the profession to return if they did so in the last 5 years. They also providing a new mandate for Efficiency Manitoba, which has failed to meet its most recent targets in reducing energy consumption.

- NDP MP Daniel Blaikie is resigning his seat to serve as Premier Kinew's senior adviser on intergovernmental affairs. Can't blame him, but I do hope that the party can come up with a good candidate for the byelection; false consciousness is a powerful force, and Poilievre is disturbingly good at exploiting it. And some misguided tactical voters will doubtless vote for the Liberals in order to stop the Cons, not understanding that in Elmwood-Transcona this would actually help the Tories rather than hurting them. It's possible, though, that Blaikie is just reading the writing on the wall; in addition to the aforementioned factors, under the new riding boundaries (which will be used for the general election, though not the byelection) most of the RM of Springfield will be included, which also favours the Tories.

- The Manitoba Nurses' Union is calling for the emergency ward at Health Sciences Centre to be equipped with metal detectors following numerous incidents involving weapons, most recently a stabbing last week. No doubt this will make some social justice types uncomfortable, as with the scanners at the Millennium Library, but it's probably a necessary evil, and apparently a similar move at Windsor General Hospital has been well-received.

- Alberta is making it harder to build solar and wind farms, even as they continue in their gung-ho push for more oil drilling. This is similar to what is happening in many places in the US. Perhaps not coincidentally, Danielle Smith recently gave a private audience to Wind Concerns, an organization noted for disinformation about climate change and clean energy.

- A disturbing number of Michigan residents don't see enough difference between Joe Biden and Donald Trump to care. This is ungood, because Michigan is a key swing state. Among other things, the state's large Muslim community is (understandably) quite dissatisfied with Biden's response the Gaza war. It's not that they think Trump is better, mind you, but it seems awfully short-sighted to say "well, my people are going to be screwed either way, so I won't bother comparing them on any other issues" and thus potentially allow Trump to win, ensuring that a lot more people are going to be screwed.

- Speaking of Michigan, many think that the major US automakers are woefully unprepared for an impending influx of Chinese-built electric cars.

- Lauren Boebert's teenage son has been arrested on numerous charges, following a string of thefts and related crimes.

- A bill before the Arizona legislature would allow the use of lethal force on someone trespassing on your property. Since migrants crossing the border usually end up on someone's private property, it's not hard to see who most of the victims of this bill would be. Fortunately Governor Katie Hobbs is expected to veto the bill in the event that it lands on her desk.

- Not quite in the Mexico City class, but the city of Morden, Manitoba is significantly short of water.

- Nearly 75 kilograms of cocaine, with an estimated street value of over $9 million, was found in some suitcases which entered the country earlier this month and were left unclaimed at Winnipeg International Airport.

- The Province of Manitoba is cutting ties with Spirit Rising House, a for-profit company that owns numerous foster homes, following revelations that the company was providing its wards with marijuana. Supposedly this was for the sake of harm reduction; there's a kind of logic to it but on the face of it this doesn't seem to be a good idea.

Owner of bridge scared of competition?

Sure looks that way:

Ottawa wants to lend $550-million (U.S.) to Michigan as the Canadian government seeks support for building a new bridge along the continent’s busiest commercial corridor, offering to help bail out a state ravaged by the auto sector’s slump.

Federal Transport Minister John Baird said Thursday that Ottawa is extending a lifeline to Michigan to jump-start the $5.3-billion megaproject called the Detroit River International Crossing, or DRIC.

But Patrick Moran, corporate counsel for Manuel (Matty) Moroun, the 82-year-old transport tycoon who owns the Ambassador Bridge that spans the Detroit River, said Canada is taking advantage of cash-strapped Michigan’s dire financial straits.

“Our state doesn’t have two nickels to rub together and we have crumbling roads all over, and yet our state is getting involved in building a new bridge,” Mr. Moran said in an interview. “Michigan is hard up for cash.”

The economic stakes are high – persistent bottlenecks on the Ambassador Bridge threaten to stall billions of dollars annually in trade. But Mr. Moran accused Canada of encroaching on Michigan's turf, warning that Ottawa will favour Canadians over Michigan residents for bridge construction jobs, and hundreds of Detroit homes are in line to be bulldozed to clear the way for the new Detroit-Windsor bridge.

He said Michigan shouldn’t be “selling out” its border to Canada when Mr. Moroun is willing to privately finance his own second span without dipping into the pockets of Canadian taxpayers.

From the Globe. Gee, do you think he might be worried about not collecting as much in the way of tolls? I'd think it would be better not to have both bridges owned by the same guy, no?

Religious extremists arrested in Michigan terrorist plot

And guess which religion this time? Hint -- it's not Islam:

Nine members of the Christian militia group Hutaree have been indicted on multiple charges involving an alleged plot to attack police, including seditious conspiracy and attempted use of weapons of mass destruction, the U.S. Attorney in Michigan announced this morning.

"Six Michigan residents, along with two residents of Ohio and a resident of Indiana, were indicted by a federal grand jury in Detroit on charges of seditious conspiracy, attempted use of weapons of mass destruction, teaching the use of explosive materials, and possessing a firearm during a crime of violence," according to the government's press release, which you can read in full below.

Source (h/t Blaque). It should be noted that the "weapons of mass destruction" referred to are "Improvised Explosive Devices with Explosively Formed Projectiles", which seems bit of a stretch (it's a far cry from nuclear or biological weapons). Still, this is serious business, and requires serious action on the part of the authorities.

The night the grow lights came on in Massachusetts

Lost in the shuffle in the coverage of Obama's victory (either a squeaker or a landslide, depending on whether you're counting popular vote or electoral college votes) is the fact that virtually every US election is accompanied by numerous referenda on various issues. In Massachusetts, and Michigan, the term could be "reeferendum":

Michigan became the 13th state to legalise marijuana for medical use, while Massachusetts decriminalised possession of one ounce or less of the substance, making the offence punishable with a citation and a $100 fine.

"Tonight's results represent a sea change," said Rob Kampia, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project, which backed the Massachusetts and Michigan ballot proposals. "Voters have spectacularly rejected eight years of the most intense government war on marijuana since the days of 'Reefer Madness.'"

Not every ballot initiative was so positive, of course. Final results are still pending, but it's looking like California may have the ignominious distinction of becoming the first US state to ban same-sex marriage after it was legal. Probably supported by folks whose preachers told them that they'd burn in hell if they voted No. Oh well, that's how America works, I guess.

Incidentally, remember those "militia" organizations that were so prominent during the Clinton years and faded into the background during the last eight years? (I use quotes around the word "militia" because really, as Chomsky points out, militias are raised by states; these are really private armies, or in some cases actual terrorists). In any case, expect to see these folks being a lot more visible in the next little while, because most of them are not going to be happy with Obama's win at all.

And bugsybrown reminds us that Bush will still be president for 76 more days from today, which gives him time to do an awful lot of damage.

Lose your house, lose your vote?

In some parts of the US, it might come to that:

The chairman of the Republican Party in Macomb County, Michigan, a key swing county in a key swing state, is planning to use a list of foreclosed homes to block people from voting in the upcoming election as part of the state GOP’s effort to challenge some voters on Election Day.

“We will have a list of foreclosed homes and will make sure people aren’t voting from those addresses,” party chairman James Carabelli told Michigan Messenger in a telephone interview earlier this week. He said the local party wanted to make sure that proper electoral procedures were followed.

State election rules allow parties to assign “election challengers” to polls to monitor the election. In addition to observing the poll workers, these volunteers can challenge the eligibility of any voter provided they “have a good reason to believe” that the person is not eligible to vote. One allowable reason is that the person is not a “true resident of the city or township.”

From here, via jk at iTulip. Of course, the Republicans secretly would love to make it official, and go back to the "good old days" when the vote was reserved for white male property owners. Fortunately, the legality of this move is being questioned:

“You can’t challenge people without a factual basis for doing so,” said J. Gerald Hebert, a former voting rights litigator for the U.S. Justice Department who now runs the Campaign Legal Center, a Washington D.C.-based public-interest law firm. “I don’t think a foreclosure notice is sufficient basis for a challenge, because people often remain in their homes after foreclosure begins and sometimes are able to negotiate and refinance.”

As for the practice of challenging the right to vote of foreclosed property owners, Hebert called it, “mean-spirited.”

Yeah, "mean-spirited" is one way to describe this.