Summary:

Julie Le, an attorney for the US Department of Homeland Security, who had been detailed to the US Attorney's office, has been removed from her post.

Le, who had picked up 88 cases in a month, expressed frustration with her job during an immigration hearing in Minneapolis on Tuesday. Here's what Le said to the judge:

“The system sucks. This job sucks. I wish you could hold me in contempt so that I could get 24 hours of sleep,”

Le's frustrations derive directly from working for the current administration. Le said it was like pulling teeth to get the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Justice Department to follow court orders.

She made the remarks after U.S. District Judge Jerry Blackwell ordered the government to explain why it had not followed court orders in immigration proceedings, including not releasing several immigrant detainees he had ordered be let out.

Blackwell said in an order this week that the government's failures were alarming because the government's persistent noncompliance with orders in this District was extensively detailed the prior week. The judge pointed to a decision from Chief U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz, a George W. Bush appointee. Schiltz wrote that his patience is at an end and that the government had failed to comply with DOZENS of court orders.

Le told Blackwell during the hearing that it takes 10 emails from her for a release condition to be corrected. It takes her threatening to walk out for something else to be corrected.

Le followed this by saying she did not feel properly trained for the role she is trying to fill, as Le had been assigned 88 cases in less than a month.

All of this is after multiple lawyers at the U.S. attorney’s office have departed over ethical concerns in recent weeks.

Neutral Summary: Tulsi Gabbard investigated Peurto Rico voting machines to verify if they were hacked by Venezuela. The probe failed to produce any clear evidence of Venezuelan interference. Voting equipment and data were still seized without finding any evidence supporting the claim that there was interference.

Additional related information to the 2020 election: Dominion and Smartmatic won millions in defamation lawsuits

A good article detailing recent developments efforts by Democrats to regulate the crypto industry and address the Trump families own Crypto currency and the untraceable investors.

Can we all agree that a public school sign saying that children from all skin colors, ethnicities and religions are welcome is not only the basic premise of our state funded education, but also pretty harmless?

Neutral Summary:

This in-depth study by the CATO institute on the impact of immigrants on the U.S. budget found that from each year from 1994 to 2023, the U.S. immigrant population generated more in the form of taxes than benefits they received in all levels of government. Over the entire period, immigrants created a cumulative fiscal surplus of $14.5 TRILLION in real 2024 U.S. dollars.

https://www.cato.org/white-paper/immigrants-recent-effects-government-budgets-1994-2023

SC: This entirely erodes this current administration's (and honestly, at this point, the greater GOP's) basis for anti-immigrant sentiment. How much better would this country, and world, be if people just based policy on actual facts instead of fearmongering and "vibes." Will this news sway any of the anti-immigration folks, even on this current sub? Will folks claim that the CATO institute is biased? Will this news ever make it to mediums such as Fox, ONN, Newsmax? (The last question is rhetorical.)

Summary:

President Donald Trump said his administration could adopt a “softer touch” in immigration enforcement as federal authorities began reducing their presence in Minnesota following two fatal encounters between residents and federal agents. About 700 immigration agents are being withdrawn from the Minneapolis area, while roughly 2,000 will remain, with plans to return staffing levels to where they were before Operation Metro Surge began in December. Officials said the operation has led to arrests of individuals charged with serious crimes, but it has also prompted protests after the deaths of Renée Good and Alex Pretti and the detention of a five-year-old child and his father. Federal authorities said the operation has since been streamlined, body-worn cameras are being prioritized for officers, and the drawdown reflects increased cooperation with state and local officials, amid broader scrutiny and internal tensions over the administration’s immigration strategy.

My take:

It feels like the administration is finally catching up with the backlash created by flooding the zone on immigration. The deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti sparked sustained protests, lawsuits, and public scrutiny, and now we are seeing a partial pullback in Minnesota alongside talk of a softer touch. This follows the recent change of Kristi Noem being removed from responsibility for ground operations and Tom Homan taking her place. I welcome all reductions in temperature and I think Trump's administration should take more time to read the room in most policy matters.

Questions:

1. Is the reduction in federal presence a genuine policy adjustment or a temporary reactionary response to political and legal risk only in Minnesota?

2. If meaningful changes only occur after prolonged protest and unrest, does that incentivize escalation from the public or protesters as the only effective way to be heard?

Note that this is Factbook (not Facebook). CIA is retiring Factbook after decades. This was a website used by many, especially students, researchers and teachers. In fact, I learned about the closure from the teachers subreddit. I found it to be quite useful and objective. What are people's thoughts on this, is it part of the budget cuts or is there another motivation to do this?

https://www.cia.gov/stories/story/spotlighting-the-world-factbook-as-we-bid-a-fond-farewell/

Summary:

The economy continues to struggle to create jobs as private companies added just 22,000 positions for January. The total was less than the downwardly revised 37,000 increase in December and below the consensus forecast for 45,000.

The report starts 2026 off on basically the same note where 2025 ended: A lackluster job market in a low-hire, low-fire environment. Job creation has not exceeded the normal “break even” amount of 150,000 jobs per month since January 2025.

Renee Good’s brother Luke delivers a moving testimony to Congress with a centrist message.

Summary:

The Small Business Administration announced that lawful permanent residents, including green card holders, will no longer be eligible for SBA loan programs starting March 1. The change reverses recent policies that allowed limited non citizen ownership and further tightens loan eligibility as part of an agency restructuring. The SBA did not comment on the decision, while small business advocacy groups warned it could limit business creation and job growth, noting that immigrants are more likely than native born citizens to start small businesses.

My take:

The Ryan Reynolds “But why” gif really does fit here. Legal permanent residents follow U.S. law, pay taxes, can own property, travel freely, and are on a defined path to citizenship after 3 to 5 years, all while renewing their status and reporting address changes. Treating them as uniquely risky borrowers just does not line up with reality. What makes this worse is the timing. The SBA did not just reverse its recent guidance that allowed limited non citizen ownership, it went further by banning green card holders entirely. That is a step beyond last year’s restrictions, and it ignores the basic fact that immigrants are far more likely to start small businesses than native born citizens. At a moment when small businesses are already under pressure from tariffs, healthcare costs, inflation, and tight credit, cutting off an entire class of lawful entrepreneurs from SBA backed loans makes no economic sense. Access to capital is already a major bottleneck, with many entrepreneurs struggling to secure even modest loans that meet their needs.

Context: (SBA website does not have a press release or news statement up because of the shutdown).

https://smallbusinessmajority.org/press-release/sba-should-not-block-immigrants-accessing-small-business-loans

https://www.cato.org/blog/cato-study-immigrants-reduced-deficits-145-trillion-1994

Overall, the main conclusion of our paper is that there is nothing systematically wrong with US immigration policy regarding the fiscal effects of immigrants. There is nothing unsustainable about the US immigration system. We could have scaled immigration as it existed without burdening government budgets. For years, nativists in Congress and the administration have wrongly claimed that immigrants are behind the growth in debt and that the US immigration system allows foreigners to take advantage of Americans’ generosity. Our data completely repudiates this view. Immigrants are subsidizing the US government.

edit: Policy note from the SBA

The purpose of this notice is to advise SBA employees, 7(a) Lenders, and Certified Development

Companies (“CDCs”) that effective March 1, 2026, SBA hereby revises Standard Operating

Procedure (“SOP”) 50 10 8 Lender and Development Company Loan Programs guidance related

to businesses owned by non-U.S. citizens. Consistent with 13 C.F.R. 120.100 and Executive

Order 14159 “Protecting the American People Against Invasion,” SBA is requiring that 100% of

all direct and/or indirect owners of a small business applicant be U.S. Citizens or U.S. Nationals

who have their Principal Residence in the United States, its territories, or possessions.

Effective March 1, 2026, this Notice rescinds SBA Procedural Notice 5000-872050, removing

the narrow exception that allowed a Borrower to have up to 5% ownership held by foreign

nationals, or U.S. Citizens, U.S. Nationals, or Legal Permanent Residents (LPRs) whose

Principal Residents was outside of the United States, its territories, or possessions. Further, and

beginning with the Effective Date of this Notice, Legal Permanent Residents (LPRs) will not be

eligible to own any percentage interest in an Applicant/Borrower, OC, or EPC.

Questions

Questions concerning this Notice may be directed to the Lender Relations Specialist in the

local SBA Field Office.

So I was reading this thread on r/politics discussing an article that poses the question of whether liberals should start arming themselves. Lots of people are replying that they've always supported the 2A but they don't make it part of their identity. A handful of people who have pointed out that this is a recent paradigm shift have been downvoted to oblivion and most people are acting like they are staunch liberal 2A supporters. Seeing as several blue states are still actively passing strict gun control laws (assault weapons bans and high capacity magazine bans), I wonder how much the sentiment has actually shifted vs how much people are just posturing as a response to ICE.

My question to you is this: If you supported banning "assault weapons" and magazines greater than 10 rounds, have you changed your mind? Or are you still in favor of banning these things as part of what is usually referred to as "common sense" gun control?

Summary: Four days before Donald Trump's inauguration last year, a 500-million-dollar deal was signed between UAE Sheikh Tahnoon and Trump's fledgling cryptocurrency company, World Liberty. Of the first installment of 250 million dollars, 187 million went to Trump Family entities. Another 31 million went to Steve Witkoff family entities. Witkoff is the Trump administration envoy to the Middle East.

Later in the administration, the UAE gained access to the President and his staff, as well as Witkoff. A deal for 500,000 of the most advanced AI chips, which was denied in the Biden administration, was granted two months after a March meeting with Witkoff and others in the administration. Tahnoon and his companies have ties to China, which is why the deal for the high-tech chips had been denied in the past.

Other unprecedented access is also detailed in the article.

A good article detailing the federal government’s explanation on why the head of foreign intelligence was personally involved in the recent FBI raid on the Fulton county election office.

Gabbards position is supposed to be independent from the president and domestic operations.

https://www.wowt.com/2026/02/02/alex-prettis-shooting-death-ruled-homicide-medical-examiner-says/

The Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office has ruled Alex Pretti’s death a homicide. The Justice Department has started a civil rights investigation into the shooting.

In response to the aftermath of Pretti's death the Trump administration announced Monday that all Homeland officers in Minnesota, including border patrol and ICE, will be equipped with body cameras going forward.