Jilly_in_VA
Jilly_in_VA's JournalMayor Brandon Johnson tells DC crowd he will 'set up a pathway' to prosecute Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino
At a speech just blocks from the White House Wednesday, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said he would prepare the city for the future prosecution of Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino for creating “chaos” during the Trump administration’s surge of immigration agents in Chicago last year.
Bovino, who was the public face of Operation Midway Blitz, became a symbol of the incursion that led to the detention of 4,500 people in the Chicago area. As one of the few unmasked agents in the operation, Bovino chided area Democratic elected officials, angered a federal judge for his over-the-top tactics and threw tear gas canisters at protesters while cameras recorded him.
Bovino also became a fixture in the federal action in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area this month, before President Donald Trump sidelined him this week following the shooting deaths of two civilians at the hands of federal agents.
“It’s unfortunate,” Johnson said, “that it will take time for people to understand what a nasty individual he is.”
“Whether it’s litigation, whether it’s press conferences or whether it’s legislation, the next step that we’re going to have to try — and I’m committed to doing this — is how to set up a pathway for someone like Gregory Bovino to be prosecuted,” the Democratic mayor said at a National Press Club luncheon.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/28/mayor-brandon-johnson-hold-bovino-accountable/
Good luck with that, Mr.. Mayor, but I'm 100% behind you!
Nurses union stages candlelight vigil outside Chicago VA to honor Alex Pretti: 'Our job is to protect other people'
Four days after federal immigration agents shot and killed intensive care unit nurse Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, some 150 people gathered outside the Jesse Brown Department of Veteran Affairs Medical Center in Chicago Wednesday evening to mourn his death and demand the end of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Despite the evening’s bitter cold, attendees huddled together on patches of days-old snow as speakers, from local nurses to elected officials, paid tribute to Pretti and denounced the weekend’s shooting.
The vigil, organized by National Nurses United, was the second held outside the local VA center in as many days, with dozens convening at the South Damen Avenue facility Tuesday as uproar over Pretti’s death — the second at the hands of federal immigration officers in Minneapolis this month — mounts.
Standing at the outskirts of the crowd Wednesday, emergency room nurse Megan Calcagna said turning out to show support for Pretti and his family was the least she could do. When the 33-year-old Naperville resident, who’s worked as an ER nurse for the past eight years, saw what had happened to Pretti, she was horrified.
“As nurses,” Calcagna said, “our job is to protect other people.”
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/01/29/alex-pretti-vigil-chicago-nurse-ice-immigration-shooting/
“ICE messed with the wrong profession,” National Nurses United wrote on its website. “We nurses will fight to abolish ICE and bring about a vision for a healthy society based on nurses’ values of caring, compassion, and community.” Couldn't have said it any better myself, since I'm a retired RN.
Melania Trump documentary not showing in South African cinemas
Cinemas in South Africa will not be showing the documentary about US First Lady Melania Trump that is due to be released around the world on Friday.
The South African distributor Filmfinity has decided not to release it, its head of sales and marketing told the New York Times and South Africa-based website News24. The company was not explicit about the reasons behind the move.
The film, Melania, is not promoted on the websites of the country's main cinema chains. One Cape Town independent cinema contacted by the BBC said that it was called by Filmfinity and told not to list it.
Relations between the US and South Africa have seriously deteriorated over the past year.
(snip)
"Based on recent developments, we've taken the decision to not go ahead with a theatrical release in territory," Filmfinity's Thobashan Govindarajulu is quoted as saying by the New York Times.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c89q287qxelo
It would be truly hilarious if Slovenia would refuse to show it...
Bill Belichick: A Super Bowl god's fall from grace
While the New England Patriots prepare for their 12th Super Bowl appearance, their former head coach Bill Belichick - widely considered to be the greatest professional football coach of all time - finds himself in an unlikely position: defending his legacy.
Although Belichick has the most Super Bowl victories in NFL history, he received a phone call on Friday notifying him he would not be inducted into this year's Pro Football Hall of Fame class.
"Six Super Bowls isn't enough?" Belichick asked with disappointment, according to ESPN which broke the news, referring to his six wins with the Patriots.
The latest setback adds to a series of misfortunes for Belichick, who ended his nearly 50-year NFL coaching career on a losing streak, and, in a rather unexpected decision, left the pinnacle of American football to coach college students.
Just a few months ago, Belichick made his college football debut to a sell-out crowd of over 50,000 people packed into University of North Carolina's football stadium.
When he walked onto the field for the first time, the roar of tens of thousands of screaming fans erupted into the night sky.
But it didn't end well.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/clywp0wy21lo
The only reason he won that many Super Bowls was because he had Brady. When he had a lot less talented players, he fell flat on his tuchus. He's not that great a coach.
Maine indigenous organization trained 30 new doulas
Wabanaki Public Health and Wellness for the first time has trained about 30 doulas to help families leading up to and during birth as other birthing services across the state have ceased.
Lisa Sockabasin, co-CEO of the health organization based in Bangor, said she heard from concerned community members about the crisis of closing birthing centers across Maine, so Wabanaki Public Health and Wellness decided to help fill in the gaps.
Most of the participants in the late-September training were Indigenous, though some were not, she said. A tribal chief participated, as well as other community members. The trainers were Indigenous doulas from Canada.
Sockabasin said it is important to have Indigenous doulas in particular because they can incorporate cultural aspects into their work.
“It’s about that time being honored, being sacred. It’s a very spiritual time,” she said. “That birth is a ceremony.
Doulas are nonmedical care workers who provide educational, physical and emotional support to pregnant, birthing and postpartum people and their families. A 2023 survey of 45 doulas, conducted by the Maine Doula Coalition, found they were overwhelmingly female and white, and highly concentrated in southern Maine.
https://apnews.com/article/lisa-sockabasin-maine-wellness-public-health-general-news-648bcbd2290dbc197256ca108ee8bde3
This is extremely important, with the closing of birthing centers all across Maine (and the country). It is important, also, to train midwives, both indigenous and non-indigenous, for the same reason.
New Orleans City Council bans data centers for a year after concerns over potential development
The New Orleans City Council passed a yearlong ban on data centers in New Orleans and began an effort to clarify zoning regulations for new data center projects on Wednesday (Jan. 28). The vote will head off any data center development in New Orleans East, which has drawn concerns about energy and water consumption from neighbors and local politicians, including Mayor Helena Moreno.
Data centers are currently not defined in the Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance, according to Councilmember JP Morrell, who introduced both motions alongside Councilmember Jason Hughes. Morrell said that the city cannot ban data center developments permanently without a definition.
“In order to ban data centers you have to define them,” Morrell said. “When you don’t define an item, you create loopholes for it to exist.”
The council is making the move out of “an abundance of caution,” according to language in the motion issuing the ban. The moratorium, called an interim zoning district, takes effect immediately while the City Planning Commission starts a review process and makes recommendations on zoning uses for data centers.
https://apnews.com/article/new-orleans-data-management-and-storage-general-news-cd7b7c30b03609cd17096e82ec00b9e6
This has also recently happened in VA and WI, where governing bodies have voted against them.
Erin Jackson does not want to be the only Black woman to win Winter Olympics individual gold
When American speedskater Erin Jackson won the 500 meters at the Beijing Games four years ago, she knew, of course, that it was her first Olympic medal. She also was aware that it had been a while — 28 years, to be exact — since a woman from the U.S. finished first in that event.
What she had no idea about until days later: Jackson was the first Black woman, from any country, to claim an individual gold medal, in any sport, at any Winter Olympics.
Jackson definitely does not want to be the last.
“It was just really surprising, I guess, because I felt like, ‘How could that be?’” she said in an interview with The Associated Press at the U.S. Speedskating trials ahead of the Milan Cortina Games. “When you think about how many Winter Olympics we’ve had, I just thought it was really strange. I hope people can see my story and the stories of other Black women in winter sports and then, hopefully, we’ll have more coming up soon.”
They’re not there yet.
The 33-year-old Jackson is the only Black athlete among the 21 speedskaters on the long track and short track squads for the United States at these Olympics, although this could be the most diverse Winter Games roster the country’s had overall.
https://apnews.com/article/olympics-erin-jackson-speedskating-479ed4825b2968d3a25eadc4ec23bd07
NFL stars Travis and Jason Kelce help Laila Edwards' family attend her Olympic debut
It wasn’t easy for Laila Edwards’ parents, missing much of their daughter’s formative years developing into women’s hockey Olympian away from her roots in Cleveland Heights, Ohio.
Thanks to an outpouring of donations, including a major push from the hometown NFL brother tandem of Travis and Jason Kelce, they will be making the trip to join Edwards making her Olympic debut at the Milan Cortina Games next week.
A GoFundMe drive launched shortly after Edwards was named to the U.S. roster this month had generated more than $59,000 through Wednesday. The amount surpassed the goal of $50,000, and has the Edwardses making plans to bring up to 14 members of their immediate family, from maternal grandmother Ernestine Gray to Laila’s nephew Shiloh.
“Oh my goodness,” mother Charone Gray-Edwards said this week. “I was going to find words to describe the gratitude and appreciation. But I haven’t yet.”
https://apnews.com/article/laila-edwards-kelce-gofundme-6cff8a88de60a930b0d87befef28a31d
Lovely story, and go Badgers, or at least this one!
We are free!
Someone, we don't know who, came at 4:30 this afternoon and plowed our driveway. They didn't ask for money or anything, just plowed the driveway with their small John Deere tractor and left. Bless them, whoever they were! Now we can get out if needed! (I think I may know who it was, but not sure--our neighborDonnie, three doors up the road; he's done it before, bit it could have been anyone.)
Pressure grows on Stephen Miller after Alex Pretti killing but Trump unlikely to cut ties
Pressure is growing on the key White House senior adviser Stephen Miller over the killing of the intensive care nurse Alex Pretti by border patrol agents in Minneapolis and its politically divisive aftermath.
Miller, the architect of Donald Trump’s hardline immigration policy, finds himself in the rare position of being contradicted and excluded from crucial decisions by the US president.
About three and a half hours after the tragedy on Saturday, Miller used social media to describe Pretti, 37, as a “would-be assassin” who “tried to murder federal agents”. On Tuesday, when asked if he believed Pretti was an assassin, Trump said: “No.”
The president had held a two-hour meeting with the homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, in the Oval Office on Monday evening at Noem’s request. Miller was conspicuously absent.
Meanwhile, the Axios news site, citing four unnamed sources, reported that Miller was responsible for the Department of Homeland Security’s baseless claim that Pretti intended to “massacre” officers, parroted by Noem. “Stephen heard ‘gun’ and knew what the narrative would be: Pretti came to ‘massacre’ cops,” one of the sources said.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/28/stephen-miller-ice-minneapolis-trump
Shitler can't function without Herr Miller, and that's the truth!
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Gender: Do not displayHome country: USA currently
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