Marshall Worth January 23, 2026 |
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Here's today's roundup. |
EPA Commits to Ending Testing on Mammals
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Do you want to pay taxes to a government that conducts experiments on dogs? If the answer is no, we’re glad to report some good news.
The Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency has committed to ending testing on mammals within the decade, reversing Joe Biden’s decision to cancel the phase-out deadlines. The EPA originally set the goal during Donald Trump’s first term.
“This historic goal… got ditched almost instantly after [the president] first left office,” department head Lee Zeldin wrote on X. “We are now BACK ON TRACK and already reducing animal testing across the agency, getting the agency’s animals adopted, validating new non-animal methods, and recommitting to the 2035 deadline.”
The Biden administration subjected animals to inhumane experiments like “forcing lab mice to breathe handgun emissions, making obese rats inhale wildfire smoke, and poisoning puppies with pesticides,” according to the White Coat Waste Project. None of that aligns with “American values.” Read more. |
Congressional Candidate Sleeps Through Campaign Event
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We’re not sure if Joe Biden still follows politics. If he does, he’s surely feeling proud of Illinois congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh. She’s keeping his tradition of sleeping on the job alive.
Abughazaleh planned to attend a candidate forum hosted by a George Soros-backed group earlier this week, but missed the event because she slept through it. She said her narcolepsy, a condition that causes daytime sleepiness, made her slumber through her alarm.
"I ended up sleeping through alarms, calls, and even my campaign manager knocking on my door repeatedly,” the 26-year-old Democrat said in a statement.
We would never criticize someone for having a disease, and we respect Abughazaleh for putting herself out there as a candidate. Politics is a mean business, and entering it takes bravery. At the same time, it’s fair to wonder whether someone who can’t be trusted to stay awake should hold a seat in Congress. What if she’s unconscious during key votes or hearings? If we were Democrats, we wouldn’t love the idea. Read more. |
Former DEA Agent Sentenced for Aiding Drug Traffickers
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The Drug Enforcement Administration’s mission is to “enforce the controlled substances laws and regulations of the United States.” In other words, it exists to stop illegal drugs. One former agent seems to have missed the memo.
A New York judge on Wednesday sentenced retired DEA special agent Joseph Bongiovanni to five years in prison for protecting drug traffickers. A jury in 2024 convicted him on counts of obstruction of justice, conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to distribute controlled substances, and making false statements to law enforcement. He allegedly used his badge to aid his childhood friends who became prolific drug traffickers.
Although the jury acquitted Bongiovanni of his most serious charges, including an allegation that he pocketed $250,000 in bribes from the Mafia, his punishment is still less than the 15-year sentence prosecutors sought.
The convict also allegedly authored bogus reports, stole sensitive files, covered for a sex-trafficking strip club, and helped a high school teacher with his marijuana-growing side hustle. Read more. |
2.2 Million Illegal Immigrants Self-Deported in Trump’s First Year
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The Trump administration’s offer to pay illegal immigrants $1,000 to self-deport has worked.
2.2 million undocumented foreigners have “voluntarily self-deported” since January of last year, the Department of Homeland Security announced on Thursday. The figure brings the administration’s estimated total deportation count to nearly 3 million, as roughly 675,000 deportations have occurred through more aggressive means like ICE.
Kristi Noem announced the news on X, adding that the government is increasing the $1,000 self-deportation reward to $2,600 “to celebrate one year of this administration.”
“Illegal aliens should take advantage of this gift and self-deport,” she wrote. “Because if they don’t, we will find them, we will arrest them, and they will never return.” Read more. |
Zelensky Attacks “Weak And Indecisive” European Leaders |
Ukraine would probably not exist without the West’s over-the-top philanthropy. Volodymyr Zelensky does not seem grateful.
The unelected Ukrainian president blasted European leaders as “weak and indecisive” on Thursday, criticizing their disorganization in attempting to manage Russia, China, and Donald Trump.
“Instead of taking the lead in defending freedom worldwide, especially when America’s focus shifts elsewhere, Europe looks lost trying to convince the U.S. president to change,” Zelensky said in Davos. “What message does that send to Putin, to China – and even more importantly, what message does that send to Denmark, your close ally?” he added.
Zelensky’s assessment of European leadership’s disheveled state is obviously correct, but it’s awfully bold coming from him. Ukraine’s president publicly criticizing his funders is like a homeless man getting angry at a good Samaritan who gifted him a sandwich because he wanted a different flavor. Read more.
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Marco Rubio Receives Yet Another Job |
Secretary of State/National Security Advisor/USAID Administrator/National Archivist Marco Rubio’s responsibilities grew even larger on Thursday.
Donald Trump is putting Rubio in charge of America’s bid to bring the 2035 World Expo to Miami, stacking a new assignment onto the former senator’s already flooded schedule. Rubio’s home state of Florida wants to host the event, the president says, and he views the spectacle as a chance for “the next big milestone in our new Golden Age of America.”
At this point in the administration, it’s fair to wonder how every piece of news could affect Rubio’s responsibilities. The U.S. wants to acquire Greenland? Maybe he’ll lead the way. Usha Vance announces her fourth pregnancy? Perhaps the vice president needs a nanny, or someone to deliver the child. He really is a Swiss Army Knife. Read more. |
REPORT: Male Super Bowl Halftime Performer Plans to “Honor Queer Icons,” Wear Dress During Show |
The NFL’s decision to name Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny as 2026’s Super Bowl halftime performer upset untold numbers of football lovers. The Super Bowl is America’s game, but now its viewers will have to sit through a concert of Spanish songs.
According to a Thursday report, Bad Bunny’s español could be the least radical part of his show.
The artist reportedly plans to wear a dress as a tribute to queer icons and drag culture during the performance, and is completely unbothered that his stunt will turn fans’ stomachs into knots.
"Let them complain,” a source close to Bad Bunny said. “The dress is already being sewn."
We’ll be curious to learn how drastically NBC’s viewer count decreases during halftime, then goes back up when the third quarter begins. We know some Americans are into dudes in dresses, but the demographic that’s fired up for the Super Bowl unquestionably is not. Read more.
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What Is Happening in Florida? |
Florida earned a special place in conservatives’ hearts in 2020.
When most Western leaders lost their minds and assaulted civil liberties over China’s new virus, the state’s government stood strong in defense of personal autonomy, actual science, and common sense. The results spoke for themselves. Florida had a lower COVID mortality rate than New York, California, Illinois, Michigan, Massachusetts, and nearly every other state in the pandemic’s first year, and its population shot up by over 300,000 between April 2020 and April 2021.
The reason so many people upended their lives to relocate to the Sunshine State was simple. They sought the freedom all U.S. citizens are supposed to enjoy, but too many lived without. Things like the ability to worship, travel, make medical decisions, send their kids to school, and drive their beat-up cars down the highway without fear of overzealous politicians getting in the way. We know those sound like bare-minimum asks, but most Americans found them unattainable five years ago. Florida served as the shining city on the hill.
Fast forward to today, and the state is heading in a darker direction. Although still a nice place to live with generally above-average leadership, Florida has become the site of one of America’s most oppressive assaults on free speech.
You may have seen this video from earlier this week. It shows Miami police questioning a woman in her home over a Facebook message criticizing the city’s mayor. Did the post call for violence? No. Does the First Amendment protect it? It certainly appears so. But it didn’t matter. The city’s government sent its armed enforcers knocking on her door anyway.
For the sake of today’s exercise, let’s give Miami leadership the benefit of the doubt and pretend they really thought the social media post went beyond the limits of free speech. Even if that were true, the incident is hardly Florida’s most obscene assault on expression. Not even close.
Did you know that Ron DeSantis signed a hate speech law in 2023, banning the exact kind of speech the First Amendment exists to protect? Or that Florida’s State Board of Administration, nonprofit organizations, educational institutions, and local governments are prohibited from investing in companies that boycott Israel? What about the fact that, to secure state arts or cultural grants, applicants must pledge not to engage in such a boycott? Then, there was earlier this week, when state lawmakers advanced a bill banning the term “West Bank” in state government and public school materials, requiring the territory be referred to as “Judea and Samaria” instead.
We know those draconian laws relate to America’s “special ally” in the Middle East, which will elicit highly emotional responses. But none of this is really about Israel. It’s about America. How could the state that’s supposed to be the freest turn around and crack down on the most basic freedom, free speech, to please a foreign country? Such behavior directly contradicts what Florida and the United States are supposed to represent. It’s time to reverse course.
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January 23, 1968: North Korea captures a U.S. Navy intelligence vessel. DPRK patrol boats engaged the USS Pueblo during a coast surveillance, allegedly turning their guns on the lightly armed ship as it navigated international waters. The North Koreans opened fire as the Americans attempted to escape, wounding several crew members and the captain. North Korea took the 83-man crew hostage following its surrender, charging the men with spying within North Korea’s 12-mile territorial limit. The Americans resisted demands to sign fake confessions, instead raising their middle fingers at cameras and telling their captors the gesture was the “Hawaiian good-luck sign.” The stunt resulted in beatings. The crew remained kidnapped for 11 months until U.S. negotiators secured its release. The USS Pueblo remains in Pyongyang to this day. |
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