Source: The Intercept
by Nikita Mazurov

“Federal prosecutors on January 9 charged Aurelio Luis Perez-Lugones, an IT specialist for an unnamed government contractor, with ‘the offense of unlawful retention of national defense information,’ according to an FBI affidavit. The case attracted national attention after federal agents investigating Perez-Lugones searched the home of a Washington Post reporter. But overlooked so far in the media coverage is the fact that a surprising surveillance tool pointed investigators toward Perez-Lugones: an office printer with a photographic memory.” (01/21/26)

https://theintercept.com/2026/01/21/fbi-washington-post-perez-lugones-natansan-classified/

Source: The American Conservative
by Eldar Mamedov

“ollowing the Islamic Republic’s brutal crackdown on protests this past week, an air of inevitability continues to surround the possibility of American military intervention. But what would such an intervention look like? Voices in U.S. and Israeli media are once again floating the idea of breaking Iran apart along ethnic lines. … This is dangerous nonsense, and America First advocates of realism and restraint in U.S. foreign policy must unambiguously reject it. It is also déjà vu, reminiscent of the political atmosphere that preceded the Iraq debacle — and it promises an even more catastrophic failure in a country four times the size of Iraq.” (01/21/26)

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/partitioning-iran-would-backfire-spectacularly/

Source: Common Dreams
by Jordan Liz

“On a September morning, armed Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents broke in and raided the home of 15-year-old Marie Justeen Mancha while her mother was running an errand. They blocked the door, accused her of being ‘an illegal,’ and questioned Marie about her and her mother’s legal status. They are both US citizens. This break-in was part of a widespread sweep targeting Hispanic communities in southeast Georgia. The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) accused ICE of using ‘Gestapo-like’ tactics to trample ‘on the constitutional rights of every person of Hispanic descent who was unfortunate to be in their way.’ SPLC filed a class-action lawsuit against ICE on behalf of five US citizens. In addition to compensation for property damages, the lawsuit sought a court order to stop ICE from conducting similar raids in the future. Sound familiar? That occurred in 2006, 20 years ago.” (01/21/25)

https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/abolish-ice-and-dhs

Source: Washington Post
by Ramesh Ponnuru

“During the age of Trump, conservative thinkers have had a recurring tendency to daydream about what might be possible now that the old verities of the right have been unsettled. After Donald Trump won the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, two intellectuals hoped for ‘a conservative politics that stresses the national interest abroad and national solidarity at home.’ They went on to outline how Republicans could synthesize the best of pre-Trump conservatism with Trump’s most defensible impulses. I’ve advocated a similar version of nationalism and so find this vision appealing. But as Trump enters the second year of his second term, it is fair to say that it is still only a vision — and not one that has gotten much closer to materializing.” (01/21/26)

https://archive.is/pOKkY

Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Kerry McDonald

“Microschools and other new learning models make it easier for dissatisfied students and families to shift to a new school midyear.” (01/21/26)

https://fee.org/articles/these-schools-are-seeing-a-january-enrollment-surge/

Source: Liberal Currents
by Dennis Lytton

“The social welfare state, winning World War II, and building the liberal order after Trump.” (01/21/26)

https://www.liberalcurrents.com/fdrs-four-freedoms-and-the-second-bill-of-rights/