News

Summary

Bradley Bartell, a Trump voter from Wisconsin, started a GoFundMe to raise $3,000 for his wife Camila Muñoz’s bond after ICE detained her.

Muñoz, a Peruvian citizen, overstayed her work-study visa due to the pandemic and was seeking legal residency as Bartell’s spouse. She was arrested returning from a honeymoon in Puerto Rico.

Bartell continues to maintain that he does not regret voting for Trump.

Since Trump’s return to office, ICE has arrested over 90,000 immigrants.

An FBI agent who accused the bureau of political bias during Donald Trump’s first presidential term was arrested this week at a New York airport and charged with illegally disclosing confidential documents, court filings show.

Johnathan Buma, a 15-year FBI veteran and counterintelligence specialist, is accused of printing roughly 130 files from internal FBI networks in 2023 and sharing them with associates as part of a book he was writing about his career, according to a court filing.

The independent federal agency ordered Amazon in January to take several actions, including notifying customers who bought more than 400,000 items covered by recalls and giving refunds to those who could prove the products were properly disposed of or destroyed.

The order followed the commission’s unanimous determination last summer that Amazon was a “distributor” of faulty items sold on its website by third-party sellers and shipped through the company’s fulfillment service

But Amazon has long disputed it qualifies as a “distributor” of products offered by other sellers. In its lawsuit filed on March 14, the company maintained it serves as a “third-party logistics provider” and therefore should not be held liable for recalls of products that were made, owned and sold by others.

Aimee Bock — founder of Feeding our Future, the group at the heart of the plot — was one of 70 defendants charged in the overall case, which prosecutors said was the nation’s single largest fraud scheme against COVID-19 relief programs.

The Minnesota case has also drawn attention for an attempt to bribe a juror in an earlier trial and witness tampering in Bock’s trial, which began last month. Thirty-seven defendants have already pleaded guilty, while five were convicted in a group of defendants who were tried last year.

The jury also convicted a co-defendant, Salim Ahmed Said, owner of the now-defunct Safari Restaurant in Minneapolis.

Bock, 44, and Said, 36, were charged with multiple counts involving conspiracy, wire fraud and bribery. Said was also charged with money laundering. Bock allegedly pocketed nearly $2 million, while Said was accused of taking around $5 million. They both maintained their innocence and testified at trial.

Summary

Trump is planning to establish a militarized buffer zone along the southern border in New Mexico.

The plan involves deploying active-duty troops authorized to detain migrants crossing illegally, creating a military installation circumventing the Posse Comitatus Act.

Previous calls to militarize the border have been mostly rhetorical, but the current administration appears more determined.

Unlike past defense secretaries who resisted similar plans, Trump’s current defense secretary is expected to be compliant.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/31307644

Full Report.

What’s new?

Violence stemming from the drug trade plagues Latin America, despite decades of law enforcement campaigns involving police and the military. Criminal groups have risen in number, spread to previously unaffected countries and diversified their rackets. Competition among these groups for drug profits drives much of the violence afflicting these societies.

Why does it matter?

The U.S. is again demanding military-led offensives against criminal groups in the region, yet evidence from past crackdowns suggests that they have served to reconfigure supply routes, spur more complex criminal networks, accelerate efforts to corrupt state officials and generate spikes of violence that harm the most vulnerable.

What should be done?

Latin America should learn from its successes and failures. Better policing, economic alternatives to crime, restrictions on gun flows and, under specific conditions, negotiations with illegal groups should all play a role. Foreign states should recognise that it is counterproductive to demand tougher controls when they worsen violence.

Summary

Trump cut funding to Yale’s Humanitarian Research Lab, which was tracking Russian war crimes, including the abduction of 35,000 Ukrainian children.

A Yale source claims the U.S. State Department deleted key evidence, possibly hindering prosecution efforts and rescue missions. The data was crucial to the ICC’s case against Putin and others.

Trump, who recently met with Putin, has taken a pro-Russian stance.

Yale’s project had led to multiple indictments, but its shutdown raises concerns over legal and humanitarian consequences.

Psychos are harassing people based on appearances, impersonating ICE officers.

Charges include kidnapping, impersonating an officer, petty larceny, battery, and more.

Sick, sad, racist fucks.

WASHINGTON, March 19 (Reuters) - A federal judge on Wednesday allowed the takeover of the U.S. Institute of Peace by tech billionaire Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, after USIP accused members of Musk's team of occupying the building by force.

The emergency ruling came after members of Musk's team on Monday gained access with the help of police officers to USIP, an independent, nonprofit organization funded by the U.S. Congress and whose Washington headquarters sits just across the street from the U.S. State Department.

U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell said while she was troubled by the way DOGE had entered USIP with armed police, she was not going to order a temporary halt to DOGE's actions because there was too much confusion in the institute's emergency lawsuit.

"I have to say I am offended on behalf of the American citizens," Howell said, referring to the way in which DOGE had entered USIP. She said USIP staff had been treated "abominably."

Howell said, however, that USIP had not met the high bar for a temporary restraining order, but she wanted to have another hearing on the issue.

After a dramatic standoff in which a handful of USIP staff initially locked all the doors to the building to prevent DOGE agents getting access on Monday, the agents, with the help of police, expelled the institute's president, several staffers and an attorney from the building.

Howell described as "terrorizing" the use of armed law enforcement.

As horrifying images and accounts of maimed children and grieving mothers circulate online, media outlets in the U.S. spent the day trying to make sense of one of the most brutal single-day bombings of Israel’s war on Palestinians in Gaza.

Some explained Israel’s deadly airstrikes as a natural result of “fruitless negotiations” with Hamas, or as a bargaining tactic to “increase pressure on Hamas.” Other outlets simply repeated, without question or skepticism, Israeli and U.S. government claims that blame Hamas for the strikes

The first phase of the ceasefire, which took effect on January 19, included an exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners. But in that span, Israel continued military operations in Gaza, killing more than 150 Palestinians, including in a bombing that took the lives of journalists and aid workers. And at the start of the second phase on March 2, Israel continued to violate the agreement, refusing to withdraw its soldiers from the Philadelphi Corridor, a crucial crossing point between Gaza and Egypt.

Instead, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu went back on the deal and presented Hamas with an alternate plan: the continued military occupation of the territory, the continued release of hostages, and setting aside talks toward a permanent ceasefire.

Summary

The Trump administration defied a judge’s order to stop migrant expulsions to El Salvador, then told the judge to be more “respectful.”

Judge James Boasberg demanded details on the flights, suspecting the government ignored his orders. The administration refused, claiming judicial overreach and possible state secrets.

Migrants, allegedly gang members, were sent to a brutal Salvadoran prison under an old wartime law. Trump officials mocked the judge, and Chief Justice Roberts issued a rare rebuke.

The administration has appealed, with another hearing set for Friday.

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/58907227

"The space researcher was allegedly randomly checked on arrival, during which his professional computer and personal telephone were allegedly searched. Similarly, messages about the Trump administration’s treatment of scientists have been found."

Dane County Judge Susan Crawford and Waukesha County Judge Brad Schimel have traded attacks that have little connection with what Supreme Court justices actually do

Summary

The Department of Justice has removed 11 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) guidelines for businesses, including guidance on COVID-19 masking and accessibility requirements.

Pages detailing retail accessibility features and lodging accommodations were deleted from ADA.gov. The DOJ called the guidelines "unnecessary and outdated," citing a January executive order from Trump that blamed regulations for inflation.

Acting Assistant Attorney General Mac Warner claimed the removals would help businesses "pass on cost savings to consumers." This follows previous Republican efforts to limit ADA enforcement.

As CBS' parent company considers settlement of President Donald Trump's lawsuit against “60 Minutes,” America’s storied newsmagazine is pulling no punches in its coverage of the new administration.

These are the actions of an autocrat.