“The director of the Louvre in Paris has resigned, months after the high-profile theft of France’s crown jewels from one of the world’s most visited museums. Laurence des Carrs submitted her resignation to President Emmanel Macron, who praised her decision at a time when museum needed ‘calm and a strong new impetus to successfully carry out major projects involving security, and modernisation’. On the morning of 19 October last year, thieves used a stolen vehicle-mounted mechanical lift to gain access to the museum from a balcony close to the River Seine. The four main suspects have been arrested, but the eight prized pieces of jewellery, worth an estimated 88m euros (£76m, $104m) have not been recovered.” (02/24/26)
“In his State of the Union speech Tuesday, President Trump should boast of his triumphs this last year — and offer a frank and positive take on the work still ahead. The nation should see him as the happy warrior he deserves to be: cheerful, proud, upbeat. Trump began his second term full of optimism, promising ‘a golden age,’ reversing the misery and turmoil of the Biden years — and immediately started making good on his vows.” (02/24/26)
“A Boise, Idaho woman has been charged with malicious destruction of federal property by fire after prosecutors said she stole an ambulance, drove it into a building that houses U.S. Department of Homeland Security offices and then poured accelerant inside the property. Sarah Elizabeth George, 43, was scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday afternoon in U.S. District Court in Boise. In court documents, FBI special agent Daniel Ramirez said a suspect believed to be George stole a Canyon County Paramedics ambulance from St. Luke’s Hospital Emergency Center in the Boise bedroom community of Meridian late on Feb. 18. Ramirez said the suspect then drove the ambulance to a nearby parking lot, loaded at least two gas jugs and a plastic bag into the vehicle and then drove the ambulance through the front doors of a nearby office building before getting out and pouring the contents of the jugs on the lobby floor.” (02/24/26)
“Police in Mexico are searching a number of inmates sprung from a prison in Puerto Vallarta during a wave of attacks launched by the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) on Sunday. Puerto Vallarta, a beach resort on Mexico’s Pacific coast, was among the towns where the CJGN blockaded roads and torched cars in retaliation for the killing by security forces of their leader, Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, known as ‘El Mencho.’ During the unrest, armed men rammed one of the prison gates with a car, paving the way for 23 prisoners to escape, an official said. More than 70 people – including 25 National Guard members – were killed in the operation to capture El Mencho and the violence which followed.” (02/24/26)
“The US Supreme Court’s rejection of President Donald Trump’s singular policy on tariffs is a reason for some celebration. During the past year, using the so-called ‘shadow docket,’ the Roberts Court had ruled in Trump’s favor on an emergency basis 24 out of 28 times. But the mainstream media, and even much of the progressive media, is misinterpreting the tariff decision as demonstrating the Roberts Court’s independence and judicial neutrality. For example, the New York Times lead article by its chief legal correspondent Adam Lipnick was headlined, ‘The Supreme Court’s Declaration of Independence,’ … But the Roberts Court is not independent. Rather, when there’s a conflict between big corporations and Trump, it will side with the corporations.” (02/24/26)
“A coalition of Wisconsin school districts, teachers’ unions, advocacy groups, parents, students and others announced a lawsuit Tuesday against the state Legislature, alleging that it’s failing to fund public schools adequately. The lawsuit, filed Monday in Eau Claire County Circuit Court, argues that schools are in crisis, with high-needs students facing the greatest risk. It asks the court to adopt a new finance system that meets the needs of districts unless the Legislature and governor enact one first ‘in a timely fashion’. School funding lawsuits have been brought for decades in states across the country with varying degrees of success. Fights over how and whether to reshape Wisconsin’s complex school finance system have usually taken place in the Statehouse. Now it will move to the courthouse, where this challenge will almost certainly end up before the liberal-controlled Wisconsin Supreme Court.” (02/24/26)
“How do destructive ideas and bouts of collective madness so quickly become policy, law, and the status quo? After all, most have little public support– and are not Western nations supposedly rationally governed? There is usually a multi-step process on the road to these self-destructive fits of society-wide insanity. The suicidal impulse so often begins with left-leaning researchers in elite universities (i.e., the tenured in search of a novel, grant-getting theory). They begin insisting that a new existential threat requires immediate government intervention, novel legislation, ample funding, and public awareness of the impending danger. So out of nowhere, the public is warned that the scorching planet will be inundated by rising seas in a mere decade.” (02/24/26)
“Federal prosecutors in Washington have dropped their case against six Democratic lawmakers who released a video urging military servicemembers to refuse illegal orders. The decision – confirmed by the BBC’s media partner CBS News – follows US Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s office failing to secure a grand jury indictment against the six military and intelligence veterans. The justice department could still pursue the case in a different district, but there were no signs on Tuesday that it intended to do so. Pirro’s office had no comment. After the Democrats released the video, President Donald Trump called the lawmakers ‘traitors’ and suggested the video was an offence ‘punishable by death.’ He later said he was not threatening death for the six.” (02/24/26)
“For Eric Chornoby, leisure time is a ‘luxury’ he can’t afford. He’s a union postal worker from Detroit who hasn’t gone on vacation in five years. ‘Everyone told me our generation was getting it good. I did what I was supposed to do. But no matter how hard I try, I cannot get ahead,’ Chornoby said at a rally in Washington, D.C., on February 7. Chornoby, along with other workers from the American Postal Workers Union’s (APWU) Young Members Committee, traveled to the U.S. Capitol to attend the first-ever march for young workers. Today, the federal minimum wage sits at $7.25 an hour, and it hasn’t been increased since 2009. Many states and cities have doubled their minimum wages, but workers want to see an increase at the federal level that’s adjusted for inflation. In recent decades, workers have become the most productive they have ever been in history as wages have stagnated and corporations reached record-breaking profits.” (02/23/26)
“The former CEO of a San Francisco homeless services charity will be arraigned Tuesday on nine felony charges after prosecutors said she stole more than $1.2 million in public funds meant to keep people off the streets. Gwendolyn Westbrook, 71, raided the accounts of the United Council for Human Services while she had ‘near-exclusive financial control’ over the nonprofit serving homeless and low-income people, according to a statement Monday from the district attorney’s office. ‘Prosecutors allege that between 2019 and 2023, Ms. Westbrook engaged in unauthorized self-payments, improper cash withdrawals, and fraudulent reimbursement practices that diverted public funds for personal use,’ the statement said. She faces charges including misappropriation of public funds, grand theft and filing false California tax returns. Her arraignment was scheduled for Tuesday afternoon.” (02/24/26)
