Random News: January 30, 2024

DISCLAIMER: Zak's Random News is very random and doesn't cover many things, and not everything may be accurate, because I'm just some guy. Go find a real news source.

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Good morning. It’s January 30, 2024, and it’s a Tuesday. Each year I have this trade show, the following week seems more akin to the Bataan death march than a typical work week. It’s been a good few weeks since I had a day off work, so it’s sort of understandable. Instead of complaining about it, I’ll give you all some news and hope the weekend arrives soon.

• Things remain ugly in the ongoing battle of the state of Texas versus the United States of America.
• In a municipal park previously used for family cookouts and Independence Day festivities, Texas National Guard Humvees carry rifle-toting troops and patrol newly erected gates. Along the riverbank, Gov. Greg Abbott (R) has ordered the state National Guard to deploy coils of razor wire, rusting shipping containers and dirt-filled barrels to declare his state’s sovereignty.
• Abbott seized the park in Eagle Pass this month and shut out U.S. Border Patrol agents who had long used the terrain as a staging point… a dangerous overreach of state power.
• The U.S. Supreme Court has ordered Abbott to allow Border Patrol agents to remove or cut wire to reach the river and aid migrants in distress. But now Abbott’s troops are installing even more wire, defying the order from the US.
• This will get worse before it gets better.
• Moving on.
• US House Republicans are trying to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, but it doesn’t seem to be gong well for them. Both the left and the right argue that the GOP is falling short of the constitutional standards to remove a Cabinet official from their post.
• Today, the House Homeland Security Committee will mark up its resolution claiming Mayorkas has committed high crimes and misdemeanors for his handling of the southern border, even though a number of constitutional experts have said the evidence does not reach that high bar.
• The controversial and frankly ridiculous move would make Mayorkas the first Cabinet secretary to be impeached in nearly 150 years.
• When you ask your Republican congressional rep why they’ve done nothing for you, they will point out that they spent most of their time and effort doing shit like this.
• Let’s move on.
• Charles Edward Littlejohn, a former contractor for the Internal Revenue Service who pleaded guilty to leaking tax information about former President Donnie Dump and thousands of the country's wealthiest people, was sentenced to five years in prison Monday.
• U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes imposed the maximum sentence, saying the crime targeted the nation's system of government and its democracy.
• Here’s the deal: what he did was wrong regardless of whom he did it to. You don’t get to pick and choose when a crime is justifiable based on who the victim is.
• In other news, a deep-sea exploration team may have found the wreckage of Amelia Earhart’s plane. The aviator disappeared over the central Pacific Ocean 87 years ago.
• Deep Sea Vision said this week that it had captured a sonar image in the Pacific Ocean that appears to be Earhart's Lockheed 10-E Electra aircraft.
• Wow.
• I want to talk about school bullying in the modern world.
• The family of a New Jersey teen who died by suicide after video of her being assaulted at her high school was posted online is suing the board of education and school officials.
• Adriana Kuch took her own life after she was attacked by other students in her high school and the video of the attack was posted online. The assault and the video led to her public humiliation and ultimate suicide.
• The video showed Adriana being struck with no warning in the face. Two students attacked her and two others recorded it. Four students were criminally charged.
• I’ll state for the record: yes, of course there was bullying when people my age were in school. But having it recorded and then put on social for others to laugh at you? That didn’t happen in the ‘80s.
• Please talk to your children and make sure they know that you will defend and support them. Also, if you or someone you know is in crisis, call 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. 
• Moving on.
• Russell Douglas Warren, 48, of Prudenville, MI was charged Sunday with threatening President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
• Authorities became aware of several threatening statements on X over the weekend, including some concerning the killing of the President of the United States, law enforcement agents, and the bombing of US government buildings.
• Hot tip: don’t do shit like that, no matter who the president is or what you think they’ve done.
• And now, The Weather: “Alcohol” by Dad Bod
• A monster Pacific storm will throw heavy rain and gusty winds at the West Coast of the United States this week, with most of the focus on California from Wednesday to Thursday. The upcoming storm will trigger an atmospheric river that can bring rain heavy enough to trigger flooding, mudslides and major travel disruptions.
• We’re probably gonna get sandbags ready.
• From the Sports Desk… former NBA point guard Rajon Rondo was arrested over the weekend for unlawful possession of a firearm, drug paraphernalia, and marijuana. Rondo was a four-time All-Star and a two-time NBA champion.
• Ugh.
• In other Sports Desk musings, this will be the first weekend without actual football games in a good while, being that weird week between the NFL conference championships and the Super Bowl.
• I am tied for third in my football pick ‘em pool, which means my choice for the Super Bowl will actually matter in some way. I want that third place trophy, dammit.
• Today in history… Charles I of England is executed in Whitehall, London (1649). Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, is ritually executed more than two years after his death, on the 12th anniversary of the execution of the monarch he himself deposed (1661). The Forty-seven rōnin, under the command of Ōishi Kuranosuke, avenge the death of their master, by killing Kira Yoshinaka (1703). In the first assassination attempt against a President of the United States, Richard Lawrence attempts to shoot president Andrew Jackson, but fails and is subdued by a crowd, including several congressmen as well as Jackson himself (1835). Yerba Buena, CA is renamed San Francisco, CA (1847). Japanese carmaker Mazda is founded, initially as a cork-producing company (1920). Adolf Hitler takes office as the Chancellor of Germany (1933). Civil Rights Movement leader Martin Luther King Jr.'s home is bombed in retaliation for the Montgomery bus boycott (1956). Tet Offensive launch by forces of the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army against South Vietnam, the United States, and their allies (1968). The Beatles' last public performance, on the roof of Apple Records in London (1969). The World Health Organization declares the COVID-19 pandemic to be a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (2020). 
• January 30 is the birthday of statesman/poet George Villiers (1628), lawyer/politician John Lansing, Jr. (1754), nun/saint Angela of the Cross (1846), US president Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882), actor Gene Hackman (1930), actress Vanessa Redgrave (1937), US vice president Dick Cheney (1941), singer-songwriter Marty Balin (1942), singer-songwriter Steve Marriott (1947), singer-songwriter/drummer Phil Collins (1951), golfer Payne Stewart (1957), singer Jody Watley (1959), NBA player Jalen Rose (1973), actor Christian Bale (1974), actress Olivia Colman (1974), actor Wilmer Valderrama (1980), and rapper/singer-songwriter Kid Cudi (1984).

That’s enough for now as I ease back into my news reporting. I’m still busy, by the way… lots of follow-up and follow-through after a big business event. I do need a day or two off. But really, my only goal for now is to make it through to the weekend without being pissy about it. Enjoy your day.