Source: Christian Science Monitor
by the editorial board
“Americans have long struggled with notions of ‘local justice.’ Should state or federal laws sometimes bend to a community’s sensibilities and priorities? In Minneapolis, recent instances of violence by immigration enforcement agents, and sometimes by protesters, point to a federal-local split over immigration policies, not to mention which branch of law enforcement should investigate the violent acts. … Yet, for every standoff like the current one in Minneapolis, there are today examples of cooperation in implementing law – whether federal, state, or local.” (01/26/26)
“Because we are now living in an authoritarian state, it’s easy to assume that the CBP agents who killed Alex Pretti in cold blood with 10 shots will not be held to account. That’s wrong. Because ICE and CBP are withholding their identities, it might take a while to identify the killers. But the names will come out. Then they will in all likelihood be arrested, indicted and given a fair trial. After which, it’s a good bet that the culprits will go to jail. Why am I so certain that justice will be done? I spoke on Friday, before this shooting, to Philadelphia DA Larry Krasner, and he explained to me the way the system works. There’s nothing that prevents local police from arresting federal law enforcement when they commit crimes.” (01/25/26)
Source: David Friedman’s Substack
by David Friedman
“The conflict over immigration has become something close to a civil war, with the federal government blocking state action against federal agents arguably guilty of murder. The immediate source of the conflict is a sharp difference in attitudes to illegal immigration between the inhabitants of Minneapolis, possibly of Minnesota, and the executive arm of the federal government. The less immediate source is a broader political split between left and right, blue tribe and red tribe. The accepted way to deal with that situation is through the electoral system. … A better solution is federalism. For the current conflict, that means deporting illegal immigrants from Florida, where the state government supports doing so, ignoring them in Minnesota and California, where the state government and, I suspect, a substantial majority of the population, do not.” (01/25/26)
Source: Bluegrass Institute
by Levi Anderson & Caleb O Brown
“Kentucky can continue down the path of silent tax increases, temporary relief measures and growing taxpayer frustration or it can adopt a property tax system that works for everyone.” (01/26/26)
“America is in the grips of an epic gang war the likes of which it has never seen before. Masked and heavily armed thugs stock the streets of some of America’s biggest cities with total impunity, thousands of them, tossing houses door to door, dragging unarmed civilians screaming from their vehicles before shoving them into unmarked vans, lighting up anyone who dares to resist and straight up murdering people on camera before sauntering off from the scene of the crime like swaggering cowboys and daring shocked bystanders to do something about it … The gangs I’m talking about are not the Crips or the Bloods or MS-13. The gangs I’m talking about are far worse.” (01/25/26)
“The Trump administration may soon reduce highway robbery by 95% in Washington, DC. The Big Apple needs the same silver bullet because the city’s drivers could speedily be victimized by the biggest bureaucratic looting spree of the century. Trump’s Transportation Department proposes to ‘prohibit the operation of automated traffic camera enforcement in the District of Columbia,’ which would ban red-light, speed and stop-sign cameras. Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) is attaching a similar provision to congressional transportation legislation. The dispute over red-light and speed cameras goes to the heart of the question of how much harm politicians are entitled to inflict while they shake money out of citizens’ pockets.” (01/26/26)
