Uncensored Free Speech Platform

Key Senator won't fund DHS as ICE, federal agents enter his state
Same show, different day.

One of the key negotiators who helped end the last government shutdown won’t support a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding bill, further adding to the likelihood of another closure. 
Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, told CBS’ Face the Nation on Sunday that he could not support the current, six-bill funding package as is because it included the DHS funding bill. King was a pivotal figure in ending the last shutdown, and was one of only eight Senate Democratic caucus members to join Republicans to end it. 
King, like other members of the Senate Democratic caucus, is infuriated by the death of Alex Pretti, the 37-year-old nurse who was shot dead by a border patrol agent in Minneapolis on Saturday. 
ILHAN OMAR VOWS 'NOT TO GIVE ICE A SINGLE CENT' IN HEATED CONGRESSIONAL FUNDING FIGHT
Congressional Democrats have railed against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents entering Minnesota and elsewhere, but begrudgingly agreed to support the DHS bill until the chaos over the weekend unfolded.
"I hate shutdowns," King said. "I'm one of the people that helped negotiate the solution to the last — the end of the last shutdown, but I can't vote for a bill that includes ICE funding under the circumstances." 
King's resistance to the package comes after Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., announced that Senate Democrats would not support the legislation, increasing the odds of a partial government shutdown by the end of the week. 
SENATE DEMS REVOLT AGAINST DHS FUNDING BILL AMID MINNEAPOLIS CHAOS, HIKING GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN RISK
It also comes on the heels of ICE entering King’s home state of Maine for operation Catch of the Day, where Democratic Gov. Janet Mills is running to beat Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, in a pivotal Senate race that could determine the balance of power in the upper chamber.  
King argued that there was an "easy way out" of the funding snafu — Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., could separate out the DHS funding bill and let lawmakers vote on the remaining five bills.
SENATE DEMOCRATS REBEL AGAINST THEIR OWN LEADERSHIP OVER DHS FUNDING PACKAGE, INCREASING SHUTDOWN ODDS
However, should that happen, the House would still have to weigh in. The lower chamber won’t return to Washington, D.C., until next month, all but ensuring a partial government shutdown by Friday unless lawmakers can reach a compromise agreement. 
"Let's have an honest negotiation," King said. "Put some guardrails on what's going on, some accountability, and that would solve this problem. We don't have to have a shutdown."

(What’s Left of) Our Economy: So You Think Trump Tariffs are Undermining U.S. Manufacturing? Part 1
This feels like a quiet policy shift.

Everybody who knows anything about trade and manufacturing knows that U.S.-based industry is hurting thanks to President Trump’s latest tariffs, right?

So says Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman.

And University of Michigan economist Justin Wolfers.

And economist Carl Weinberg of High Frequency Economics.

And London’s venerable Economist.

And The New York Times.

And the Washington Post. 

And The Wall Street Journal.

And the Reuters news agency.

And the Bloomberg news agency.

And the progressive group Media Matters.

And they cite a lot of evidence for this proposition.  

Like manufacturing job loss (even though the sector has lost fewer workers so far during Trump 2.0 than it did during the comparable pre-tariff months during the last years of the pre-tariff-y Biden administration).

And like the monthly surveys issued by the Institute for Supply Management (even though they’re “soft data” and often don’t measure domestic industry’s hard data performance well at all).

But here’s some evidence that for some reason all have missed – even though arguably it’s the most important of all.  And that entails the growth of manufacturing output, adjusted for inflation.

According to last week’s report on U.S. gross domestic product (GDP – the most widely used measure of the economy’s size and how it changes), domestic manufacturing increased its after-inflation value added (the growth gauge used by the Commerce Department in its GDP reports) by 4.15 percent between the first and third quarters of 2025 (the latest available figures).  

That’s not only an all-time high.  It’s a faster rate of expansion than that achieved during the same period in 2024 (3.24 percent(, before the Trump 2.0 tariffs.  Does that sound like a sector of the economy on the ropes?

And you don’t need to take the Commerce Department’s word for it.  As the Federal Reserve reported earlier this month, between last February (the first full month of Trump 2.0) and December, domestic industry raised its production by 1.26 percent.  During the same pre-Trump tariff period of 2024, constant dollar manufacturing output fell by 0.83 percent.

Production isn’t the only measure of manufacturing’s health.  Moreover, the critics’ tight focus on jobs is entirely understandable.  After all, job holders – and losers – vote.  But should output be completely overlooked?  Especially since, even though higher output doesn’t automatically translate into higher employment, it’s tough to get how jobs get created without production (unless they’re subsidized)?  

At the same time, expanding output is far from the only evidence of domestic industry’s improving health – as I’ll make clear in Part 2.

Carney pushes back on Trump's 100% tariff threat over China trade deals with Canada amid tensions
This framing isn't accidental.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Sunday that Canada has no plans to pursue a free trade deal with China, pushing back against President Trump’s threat to slap 100% tariffs on Canadian goods.
Carney said Canada’s recent agreement with China only rolled back tariffs in a few sectors that had been hit in recent years and did not amount to a free trade deal. He noted that under the U.S.–Mexico–Canada Agreement, Canada has committed not to pursue free trade agreements with nonmarket economies without prior notification.
"We have no intention of doing that with China or any other nonmarket economy," Carney said. "What we have done with China is to rectify some issues that developed in the last couple of years."
Carney made his first official visit to China earlier this month as he and Chinese President Xi Jinping work together to forge an improved bond between their countries. The leaders reached an agreement that would allow up to 49,000 Chinese electric vehicles to enter the Canadian market at a lower tariff rate of 6.1%, Carney’s office said.
US TRADE REP SHRUGS OFF WORLD LEADERS’ SWIPES AT TRUMP AMID DAVOS BACKLASH
In 2024, Canada matched U.S. trade policy by imposing a 100% tariff on Chinese electric vehicles and a 25% tariff on steel and aluminum. China retaliated with 100% duties on Canadian canola oil and meal and 25% tariffs on pork and seafood.
Trump issued his tariff threat in a social media post, warning that if Carney "thinks he is going to make Canada a ‘Drop Off Port’ for China to send goods and products into the United States, he is sorely mistaken."
TRUMP WARNS CANADA OF 100% TARIFFS IF IT BECOMES CHINA'S 'DROP OFF PORT' WITH NEW POTENTIAL TRADE DEAL
In another post on Sunday, Trump claimed Canada is being taken over by China.
"China is successfully and completely taking over the once Great Country of Canada," Trump’s post read. "So sad to see it happen. I only hope they leave Ice Hockey alone!"
The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Schiff says he’s not giving ICE or Border Patrol ‘another dime’ after Pretti shooting
What's the endgame here?

Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) predicted that “Democrats are not going to fund” the Department of Homeland Security as an appropriations bill looms.

Schiff appeared on NBC News’s Meet the Press on Sunday to answer questions about how he will vote on the DHS funding bill. It is one of six appropriations bills to fund the government and narrowly passed the House of Representatives last week.

“Well, I’m not giving ICE or Border Patrol another dime, given how these agencies are operating. Democrats are not going to fund that,” Schiff said.

MASSIE SAYS CARRYING GUN ‘NOT A DEATH SENTENCE’ AS TRUMP OFFICIALS DEFEND PRETTI SHOOTING

Schiff was referencing the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti by a Border Patrol agent on Saturday, coupled with Renee Good’s shooting death by an ICE officer on Jan. 7. Schiff called for “an investigation of both of these killings” since Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem “has called these victims domestic terrorists without knowing anything.”

This interview comes as the deadline to fund the government, Jan. 30, is fast approaching. Should the Senate not reach a consensus on the bill, it will result in at least a partial government shutdown, which Schiff blamed on Republican senators.

“The government will shut down if Republicans insist that that be joined with other government funding. It will be a Republican decision,” Schiff said. “They’re in the majority if they want to shut down the government so they can perpetuate this violence.”

Schiff: I'm not giving ICE or border patrol another dime… Anyone who votes to give them more money to do this will share in the responsibility and see more Americans die in our cities as a result.
— Acyn (@Acyn) January 25, 2026

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) also promised to vote against the DHS bill, signaling that other Democratic senators will follow.

HOUSE COMMITTEE SUMMONS TOP IMMIGRATION OFFICIALS FOR OVERSIGHT HEARING

Democratic senators successfully shut down the government last year and set a record of 43 days. All six of the appropriations bills need to pass a 60-vote threshold, which requires cooperation from both parties to achieve.

Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) and Jack Reed (D-RI) suggested dropping the bill to instead pass the five remaining bills. Despite the approaching deadline, the Senate canceled votes on Monday due to a snowstorm in the District of Columbia.

Massie says carrying gun ‘not a death sentence’ as Trump officials defend Pretti shooting
Who's accountable for the results?

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) defended the “Constitutionally protected God-given right” to carry a firearm after a Minneapolis protester carrying a handgun was shot by a Border Patrol agent on Saturday.

The Trump administration is defending federal law enforcement after a shooting left Alex Pretti, 37, dead, with video showing he was disarmed before being shot multiple times. Pretti was helping another protester who had been shoved to the ground when an agent began pepper-spraying him from behind and wrestled him to the ground with the help of several other agents. During the struggle, an agent was seen carrying what appeared to be Pretti’s gun away, with the fatal shots being fired seconds later.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said on Fox News’s The Sunday Briefing that agents were reacting to someone shouting “Gun, gun, gun!” and FBI Director Kash Patel claimed on Fox News’s Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo that people can’t bring a firearm “loaded with multiple magazines” to a protest despite Pretti having a concealed carry permit. Noem had said on Saturday that Pretti was a domestic terrorist.

NOEM TELLS AMERICANS TO STAY ‘ALERT’ AHEAD OF MASSIVE WEEKEND SNOW STORM

First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Bill Essayli took to X on Saturday to address the shooting, claiming “there is a high likelihood” law enforcement will be “legally justified” in shooting people approaching them with a gun. His statement prompted a rebuff from Massie. 

“Carrying a firearm is not a death sentence, it’s a Constitutionally protected God-given right, and if you don’t understand this you have no business in law enforcement or government,” Massie said on X.

Carrying a firearm is not a death sentence, it’s a Constitutionally protected God-given right, and if you don’t understand this you have no business in law enforcement or government.
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) January 25, 2026

The National Rifle Association also pushed back on Essayli’s “dangerous and wrong” assessment of the shooting. The organization also said “responsible” people should await a full investigation instead of “demonizing law-abiding citizens.”

This sentiment from the First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California is dangerous and wrong.

Responsible public voices should be awaiting a full investigation, not making generalizations and demonizing law-abiding citizens.
— NRA …

Alex Pretti Was a Good Man at Time of Great Evil
Who's accountable for the results?

Log In

Email *

Password *

Remember Me

Forgot Your Password?

Log In

New to The Nation? Subscribe
Print subscriber? Activate your online access

Skip to content Skip to footer

Alex Pretti Was a Good Man at Time of Great Evil

Magazine

Newsletters

Subscribe

Log In

Search

Subscribe

Donate

Magazine

Latest

Archive

Podcasts

Newsletters

Sections

Politics

World

Economy

Culture

Books & the Arts

The Nation

About

Events

Contact Us

Advertise

Current Issue

Activism

/ January 25, 2026

Alex Pretti Was a Good Man at Time of Great Evil

The 37-year-old ICU nurse was killed helping another ICE victim. We must honor his sacrifice.

Joan Walsh

Share

Copy Link

Facebook

X (Twitter)

Bluesky Pocket

Email

Ad Policy

Flowers are left at a makeshift memorial in the area where Alex Pretti was shot dead a day earlier by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on January 25, 2026.
(Octavio Jones / AFP via Getty Images)

On Saturday morning in Minneapolis, federal agents murdered 37-year-old Alex Pretti, an intensive care unit nurse at a local Veterans Authority hospital. Pretti was trying to help a woman whom federal agents shoved violently to the ground. A fellow ICE observer, the woman flew a few feet through the air and landed hard; it had to hurt. “Are you OK?” Pretti asked her, according to bystanders. Those were his last known words. He kept trying to help the woman, and the agents kept trying to stop him, finally shooting him in the head at close range, execution-style, and then at least nine more times. (You can see videos, and a still photo of his execution I wish I hadn’t seen, all over social media.) Pretti died on the scene.

The last Minnesotan murdered in the federal occupation of Minneapolis, just more than two weeks ago, was Renee Good, a mother, a poet, and a lesbian, whose last words to her murderer, Jonathan Ross, were, “I’m not mad at you, dude,” as she smiled at him. According to his own phone video recording, Ross’s first words after he shot Good were “Fucking bitch.”

Much has been written about the misogyny behind the murder of Good, as well as the defamation of her wife, Becca. The Department of Justice is investigating Becca Good, not Ross, for her alleged activist ties. Renee seemed to die for the crime of being a happy lesbian with a spunky wife who was confronting ICE, respectfully, and with humor. In Becca’s last words before her wife’s murder, she told Ross to take a lunch break.

Current Issue

February 2026 Issue

Federal law enforcement officials are smearing Pretti, just like they did Good, claiming he was “brandishing” a weapon. (He was legally carrying a holstered pistol.) Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem called him a “domestic terrorist,” and Border Control commander at large Greg Bovino, the mini-Nazi, said he tried to “massacre law enforcement.” Multiple videos from multiple angles showed their claims to be slanderous lies.

How do we make sense of Pretti being murdered for coming to the aid of another female ICE victim? We don’t. Maybe it’s a coincidence, maybe it’s related. We know the fascists don’t want white people standing up for immigrants and other people of color, …

The Walz way
Law enforcement shouldn't be political.

(Scott Johnson) On taking office in 2019, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz was restrained by a one-seat Republican majority in the state Senate—until Covid hit in the spring of 2020. He declared a state of emergency on March 25, 2020, and ruled by decree for 15 months. Walz now characterizes President Trump as a “fascist,” yet it is Walz himself who has exercised one-man rule and obviously relished every minute of it.

Walz proclaimed the emergency on the basis of an allegedly sophisticated Minnesota Model projection of the virus’s course in the state. In fact, the projection reflected a weekend’s work by graduate students at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health. Relying on their research, Walz presented a scenario in which an estimated 74,000 Minnesotans would perish from the virus. The following week the Star Tribune reported that with the lockdown Walz ordered, 50,000 would die. It would have been preferable to address the virus through democratic means.

Walz destroyed jobs and businesses. He also impeded life routines, including family get-togethers and church attendance. Over Walz’s objection, the legislature finally terminated the era of one-man rule effective July 1, 2021. When the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center stopped counting in March 2023, the deaths of 14,870 Minnesotans were attributed to the virus. In 2020, by the way, I had to sue the Walz administration for excluding me from Health Department press briefings on Covid. It was something I said — a question I asked.

During the state of emergency, protests broke out in Minneapolis on Memorial Day 2020 following the death of George Floyd. That Thursday, rioters burned Minneapolis’s Third Precinct police station to the ground. Walz didn’t deploy the National Guard until the weekend. Riots, arson and looting throughout the Twin Cities caused at least $500 million in damage. Walz could not find it in himself to enforce the sacred protocols of Covid.

The damage caused by rioters now pales next to the state public-progams fraud committed by mostly Somali perpetrators in the Walz era. The Feeding Our Future case opened a window on the wide world of frauds. Federaal indictments in the Feeding Our Future case by itself have now been brought against 78 defendants. The newest of the 78 cases was charged on November 24. The 78 indictments have resulted in seven guilty verdicts, two acquittals, 50 guilty pleas, and five fugitives, with one deceased defendant. Thirteen unresolved cases await trial.

In all, the Minnesota Department of Education oversaw the payout of some $300 million to reimburse fictitious meals. Chief prosecutor Joe Thompson estimates that a full accounting of all the public-programs fraud that has occurred under the auspices of the Walz regime amounts to …

Why I Didn’t Report My Rape
Equal justice apparently isn't equal anymore.

Log In

Email *

Password *

Remember Me

Forgot Your Password?

Log In

New to The Nation? Subscribe
Print subscriber? Activate your online access

Skip to content Skip to footer

Why I Didn’t Report My Rape

Magazine

Newsletters

Subscribe

Log In

Search

Subscribe

Donate

Magazine

Latest

Archive

Podcasts

Newsletters

Sections

Politics

World

Economy

Culture

Books & the Arts

The Nation

About

Events

Contact Us

Advertise

Current Issue

The Weekend Read

/ January 24, 2026

Why I Didn’t Report My Rape

In 2021, six men sexually assaulted me in a Las Vegas hotel room. Something more than abolitionism prevented me from reporting the crime.

Anna Krauthamer

Share

Copy Link

Facebook

X (Twitter)

Bluesky Pocket

Email

Ad Policy

Rays from the setting sun break through storm clouds west of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino.
(Ethan Miller / Getty Images)

In the heart of Las Vegas, there’s a hotel with a phone that never rings. It’s been silent for over four years. The hotel, a huge casino resort, is busy. Guests check in and check out; gamblers come in the early evenings and stumble out the next morning; and hundreds of rooms are endlessly dirtied and then made clean again by hotel workers. But the phone remains silent. I like to think that the rotating check-in staff are always alert and prepared even for the call that they don’t know is coming. Meanwhile, all the way across the country in New York, I wake up every day and wonder if today is the day that I’ll finally make the hotel phone ring.

Of course, I know that isn’t true. The phone has rung countless times since that morning in June of 2021 that I checked out of that hotel, and nobody is waiting for my call. But to me, it’s frozen in time.

There in that hotel, a little over four years ago, I was raped by a group of men during a three-day trip I took to Las Vegas with two of my best friends. Of the rape, which lasted all night, I remember both too much and too little. I never did anything about it. I didn’t tell anyone who could have done something about it, either, such as the hotel staff or the Las Vegas police. I never considered taking any kind of action at the time, but ever since the possibility has haunted me as a particularly cruel version of a path not taken. And although in my mind, the hotel phone remains permanently available to my call, that isn’t true either—and in more ways than one.

With the passage of time comes the passing of statutory deadlines. There’s no room in the law for my personal combination of indecision, confusion, and avoidance. Put differently, the legal frameworks we have for processing crimes often conflict with our emotional and affective responses to those crimes. But more than anything, the passing of the statutes of limitations for pressing criminal charges against those men has forced me to confront the reasons why I never pursued legal action against them in the first place, although it hasn’t yet allowed me to accept that I never will. To me, there will always be a phone in a Las Vegas hotel waiting for my call.

The simple answer to the question of why I never reported the rape is that I believe in the abolition of police and …

Walz’s weekend, Star Tribune style
Be honest—this is ridiculous.

(Scott Johnson) In the Star Tribune Morning Hot Dish newsletter this morning, politics reporter Ryan Faircloth covers Tim Walz’s wild weekend under the headline “Minnesota fraud cases get national attention.” Bill Glahn would translate that as “Producing more news than can be consumed locally.” This is Faircloth’s summary (links omitted):

Good morning. DFL Gov. Tim Walz came under intense scrutiny last week as the national spotlight turned toward Minnesota and the fraud cases that have unfolded during his administration.

A front-page report from the New York Times, “How Fraud Swamped Minnesota’s Soe cial Services System on Tim Walz’s Watch,” highlighted one of the DFL governor’s top vulnerabilities as he heads into his re-election campaign. The report cites critics of the Walz administration who said “the fraud persisted partly because state officials were fearful of alienating the Somali community in Minnesota.”

Ryan Pacyga, a lawyer who has represented several defendants in the fraud cases, told the New York Times that some “became convinced that state agencies were tolerating, if not tacitly allowing, the fraud.”

“No one was doing anything about the red flags,” he said. “It was like someone was stealing money from the cookie jar and they kept refilling it.”

In an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, Walz was asked whether he takes responsibility for failing to stop fraud in the state.

“I take responsibility for putting people in jail,” Walz answered. “Governors don’t get to just talk theoretically, we have to solve problems. And I will note, it’s not just Somalis. Minnesota is a generous state, Minnesota is a prosperous state, a well-run state. We’re AAA bond rated. But that attracts criminals. Those people are going to jail. We’re doing everything we can. But to demonize an entire community on the actions of a few? It’s lazy.”

President Donald Trump has launched attacks against the state’s Somali community over the fraud cases.

Faircloth omits any mention of Walz’s failure to “put any people in jail” or any explanation why Trump might have called out Minnesota’s Somali community. I try to tell “the rest of the story” in the adjacent post.

The X post bbelow depicts the Star Tribune team on its way to cover the 2024 Democratic convention that nominated Tim Walz as Harris’s vice-presidential running mate. They were pretty spun up about it. A reminder: the publisher of the Star Tribune is a former Walz administration official.

Dems silent on Minnesota church disruption after pressing Bondi to use FACE Act on pro-lifers
Every delay has consequences.

The Democratic headliners of a letter sent just months ago that demanded Attorney General Pam Bondi "fully enforce" the FACE Act against pro-life demonstrators were silent when asked by Fox News Digital if the same emphasis should be put toward prosecuting the Minnesota church disruptors.
With Bondi now bringing FACE Act charges against the agitators disrupting a Baptist service Jan. 18, those Democrats who signed the letter may face a narrowing decision, publicly back the prosecutions under the FACE Act, break with the same attorney general they pressured in 2025, or remain silent as Republicans demand prosecutions in this aspect.
In March 2025, Democratic Reps. Sean Casten and Jan Schakowsky of Illinois and Jerrold Nadler of New York headlined the 75-member letter demanding that Bondi "fully enforce the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act and ensure women and health care providers are not threatened, harassed, or abused while trying to enter reproductive health care facilities."
Fox News Digital reached out by email and phone to the offices of Casten, Schakowsky and Nadler to ask whether they would similarly agree to have the law — originally spearheaded by "liberal lion" Ted Kennedy — be used in earnest as well against left-wing agitators who disrupted a Twin Cities church service in mid-January. 
MAGISTRATE JUDGE REJECTS CHARGES AGAINST DON LEMON IN CONNECTION WITH ANTI-ICE CHURCH PROTEST
One of the reverends at the Baptist church was reportedly connected with local Immigration and Customs Enforcemet (ICE) operations.
The three lawmakers did not respond when asked whether Bondi should similarly pursue federal FACE Act charges against the agitators or whether they had any further comment on the heckling of the minister by people like former CNN host Don Lemon.
Fox News Digital also reached out to as many of the other 72 Democrats listed as possible — including Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., Bonnie Watson-Coleman, D-N.J., and Steve Cohen, D-Tenn. — but received a response from only one. 
A representative for Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., acknowledged the inquiry and said they were "looking into" the matter.
MINNESOTA PASTOR CONDEMNS ANTI-ICE AGITATORS WHO INTERRUPTED SERVICE: ‘SHAMEFUL AND UNLAWFUL’
In their letter, the Democrats wrote that limiting the Department of Justice from enforcing "bipartisan law will put at risk the well-being and security of patients, providers, and others at reproductive health care facilities."
"Individuals have the right to freedom of speech and the right to peacefully gather to protest, " they …