“The Supreme Court will decide whether a 1988 privacy law spurred by the disclosure of a high court nominee’s video rental history should be applied to digital videos watched on a free website. The court on Jan. 26 agreed to review a lower court’s ruling that the Video Privacy Protection Act can’t be used to sue a sports website for sharing a user’s video-watching history with Facebook. After President Ronald Reagan nominated Robert Bork to the high court in 1987, a journalist obtained from his local video store a list of films Bork had rented. Congress responded by creating stiff penalties for any ‘video tape service provider’ who discloses personal information about their customers without consent.” (01/26/26)
“Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Monday said he had cancelled all Treasury Department contracts with the consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton, one of whose employees leaked the tax records of President Donald Trump, and the billionaires Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk, to media outlets. Booz Allen Hamilton’s stock price dropped by 8% on the heels of the Treasury Department’s announcement. The department said it currently has 31 separate contracts with Booz Allen Hamilton, totaling $4.8 million in annual spending and $21 million in total obligations. … The department noted that between 2018 and 2020, Booz Allen employee Charles Edward Littlejohn ‘stole and leaked the confidential tax returns and return information of hundreds of thousands of taxpayers.’ The data breach affected about 406,000 taxpayers, according to the IRS. Littlejohn, 40, pleaded guilty in October 2023 to one count of disclosure of tax return information.” (01/26/26)
“Senate Majority Leader John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, called on Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes to resign after she said people who feel [sic] they are in danger are legally allowed to shoot masked federal law enforcement officers. Mayes made these comments in an interview with 12News, where she said, ‘We have a Stand Your Ground law that says that if you reasonably believe that your life is in danger and you’re in your house or your car or on your property, that you can defend yourself with lethal force.’ … Her comments are ‘putting the lives of federal and local law enforcement officers engaged in such dangerous work at risk,’ the state senator explained. ‘She needs to recant her statement and resign in disgrace,’ Kavanagh said.” [editor’s note: Well, SOMEONE does – TLK] (01/26/26)
“Israel on Monday confirmed that the remains of Staff Sgt. Ran Gvili, the last Israeli hostage held in Gaza, have been recovered and returned home after 842 days. Gvili, who was 24 at the time of his death, served as an Israel Police officer and was killed during fighting on Oct. 7, 2023, after confronting Hamas terrorists near Kibbutz Alumim, according to a statement from the Hostages and Missing Families Forum. His body was later abducted to Gaza. … The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said following the completion of an identification process conducted by Israel’s National Institute of Forensic Medicine, in coordination with police and military authorities, that officials informed the Gvili family that their loved one’s remains had been identified and would be returned for burial.” (01/26/26)
“Gunmen opened fire at a soccer field in central Mexico on Sunday, killing at least 11 people and wounding 12, authorities said. Salamanca Mayor Cesar Prieto said in a statement posted to social platforms that the gunmen arrived at the end of a soccer match. … Four bags containing human remains were also found Saturday night in the same town. Guanajuato had Mexico’s highest homicide total last year. Much of the violence in the state is linked to conflict between the Santa Rosa de Lima gang and the Jalisco New Generation cartel, one of the most powerful in the Latin American nation.” (01/26/26)
“A federal appeals court has declined to reconsider a three-judge panel’s decision to uphold Alina Habba’s disqualification as the top federal prosecutor in New Jersey, paving the way for the Justice Department to take President Trump’s fight to retain loyalist U.S. attorneys to the Supreme Court. In a terse order Monday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit said the judges who ruled that Habba, a former personal attorney to Trump, was unlawfully appointed as U.S. attorney for New Jersey did not ask to rehear the case. A majority of judges voted against putting the matter in front of the full court, as well. … The decision keeps intact the panel’s ruling that Habba’s tenure became unlawful when she remained in the role after her 120-day interim term expired, despite the ‘novel series of legal and personnel moves’ the administration took to keep her in the job.” (01/26/26)
“Controversial former home secretary Suella Braverman has become the latest ex-Tory right-winger to defect to Nigel Farage’s Reform. After months of speculation, Ms Braverman, who once ran for the leadership of the Conservative Party, has joined her ally Robert Jenrick in switching parties. She was unveiled at a Reform rally for veterans in London as the party’s eighth sitting MP, having been a rare visitor to parliament in the last few months. … Speculation had been rife about Ms Braverman joining Reform since her husband Rael became a member last year, but it cooled when the party’s former chair Mr Yusuf issued a series of very personal attacks against her, which saw Mr Braverman quit the party in protest. A Tory source claimed: ‘Suella would have joined Reform sooner but the status of Rael was clearly a sticking point because they would have to let him rejoin the party as well.'” (01/26/26)
“A group of officers in Nigeria are set to face a military court after being accused of ‘plotting to overthrow the government’ of President Bola Tinubu last year, an armed forces’ statement has said.
Sixteen officers were arrested last October after what were described as ‘acts of indiscipline and breaches of service regulations.’ At the time the military dismissed rumours of an attempted coup, but following an investigation, the authorities have acknowledged that some of the 16 will go before a military judicial panel. Nigeria has a complex history of military involvement in politics, with multiple coups between 1966 and 1993, which has made allegations of coup‑plotting highly sensitive.” (01/26/26)
“USA Rare Earth shares rallied on Monday after the critical minerals startup announced that the Department of Commerce will take an equity stake. Commerce has issued a letter of intent that would provide USA Rare Earth with a $1.3 billion loan and $277 million in federal funding. USA Rare Earth will issue Commerce 16.1 million shares of common stock and 17.6 million in warrants. The U.S. government will have an 8% to 16% stake in the company depending on whether the warrants are exercised, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.” (01/26/26)
“It seems Sydney Sweeney will do almost anything to promote her upcoming lingerie line. In a video obtained by TMZ, the ‘Euphoria’ actress appeared to climb the iconic Hollywood sign in the dead of night in an effort to share a message ahead of the upcoming launch. Sweeney — wearing black cargo pants, a black hoodie and a black hat — hung a clothesline of bras over the sign all while being filmed. According to TMZ, Sweeney and her team received a permit from FilmLA to shoot near the Hollywood sign. However, they did not have permission to climb or touch the sign. In an email sent to TMZ, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce — which owns the intellectual property rights to use the image of the Hollywood sign — confirmed that Sweeney did not have clearance to go that far.” (01/26/26)
