Random News: April 25, 2025

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 April 25, 2025, and if you can believe it, it’s a Friday once again! We’ve somehow lived through another week — and I assume everyone reading this is alive. If any wraiths or other supernatural beings are among my readership, on offense intended.

• Let’s jump right in.
• A batch of losses for the Dump administration yesterday. That means it was a good day for America and the world. Probably the whole-ass universe.
• U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly blocked Dumpy’s administration from immediately enacting certain changes to how federal elections are run, including adding a proof-of-citizenship requirement to the federal voter registration form.
• Dumples the Sad Clown had called for that and other sweeping changes to U.S. elections in an executive order signed in March, arguing the U.S. “fails to enforce basic and necessary election protections” that exist in other countries.
• But Kollar-Kotelly sided with voting rights groups and Democrats to grant a preliminary injunction to stop the citizenship requirement from moving forward while the lawsuit plays out.
• She also blocked part of Dumpy's executive order requiring public assistance enrollees to have their citizenship assessed before getting access to the federal voter registration form.
• In the interest of full disclosure, I’ll tell you that she denied other requests from a group of Democratic plaintiffs, including refusing to block Trump’s order to tighten mail ballot deadlines.
• She also denied the Democrats’ request to block Dump’s call for the DHS and DOGE to review state voter lists alongside immigration databases.
• So good news and bad news, but better than it could have been.
• Among others, it was the Democratic National Committee, the League of United Latin American Citizens, and the League of Women Voters Education Fund who had sued to block Dump’s unconstitutional bullshit order.
• It violates the Constitution’s Elections Clause, which gives states — not the president — the authority to determine how elections are run.
• Additionally, Dump does not have power over the independent U.S. Election Assistance Commission, which sets voluntary voting system guidelines and maintains the federal voter registration form.
• Moving on to more of that.
• Yesterday, a federal judge temporarily blocked Dump’s effort forbidding diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in K-12 public schools.
• Fuck off with that shit.
• This was via a lawsuit brought by the National Education Association and the American Civil Liberties Union, which accused Dumpy Wumpy of violating teachers’ due process and First Amendment rights.
• The background: in February, the U.S. Education Department told schools and colleges they needed to end any practice that differentiates people based on their race or they would risk losing their federal funding.
• States were given until Thursday — as in yesterday — to submit certification of their schools’ compliance, but some have indicated they would not comply with the order.
• Now the whole thing is on pause.
• RESIST HIS ASS. EVERY FUCKING TIME.
• Moving on.
• Here’s a fucking nightmare immigrant story.
• Ricardo Prada Vásquez is a 32-year-old Venezuelan man, working hard in Detroit delivering food. In January, Vásquez took a wrong turn onto the Ambassador Bridge, inadvertently crossing into Canada.
• So when he turned around, ICE detained him and then and deported him to El Salvador.
• Christine Sauve, policy engagement and communications manager at the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center, said, "We're concerned that, again, a wrong turn at the border really shouldn't mean that our neighbors are disappearing.”
• This has happened more than once. Last month, an undocumented mother from Guatemala was also detained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers after she too accidentally turned onto the Ambassador Bridge.
• Yesterday, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) said, ”A wrong turn should not lead to a disappearance and an erosion of someone's due process or being treated with human rights.”
• I agree.
• Continuing on immigration for a moment…
• US District Judge Stephanie Gallagher has ordered the Dump administration to return a 20-year-old Venezuelan asylum seeker deported to El Salvador, ruling the removal violated a court settlement protecting some young migrants with pending asylum claims.
• The person deported was part of a class action case filed in 2019 on behalf of individuals who arrived in the US as unaccompanied minors and later sought asylum.
• Gallagher — who was appointed by Dumpy, hee hee — issued the order directing the government to work with Salvadoran authorities to return the man to the United States. She also barred the removal of other individuals covered by the settlement agreement, which was finalized in November 2024.
• The is, of course, the second order directed to Dump to secure the return of a man from El Salvador to the US. She cited the precedent of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who the government admitted was wrongly deported.
• Let’s move on with a story from the “OMG What An Idiot” Desk…
• Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth — who works in the world’s most secure building running the largest defense force ever assembled in world history — had them install an internet connection in his office that bypassed all the Pentagon’s security protocols.
• It was so he could use the Signal messaging app on a personal computer.
• The existence of the unsecured internet connection is the latest revelation about Hegseth’s use of the unclassified app and raises the possibility that sensitive defense information could have been put at risk of potential hacking or surveillance.
• I want to be clear here… we’re talking about a regular-ass Internet line going to some ISP. The kind you can click the wrong link on that naughty site and get nasty viruses.
• Known as a “dirty” internet line by the IT industry, Hegseth’s office in the Pentagon now connects directly to the public internet where the user’s information and the websites accessed do not have the same security filters or protocols that the Pentagon’s secured connections maintain.
• The reason they’ve been used by actual spies in the Pentagon? Only if there’s a need to monitor information or websites that would otherwise be blocked, or so that the user would not show up as one of the many IP addresses assigned to the Defense Department.
• But like your WiFi or Ethernet at home, it can also can expose users to hacking and surveillance. And it would likely lack the record-keeping compliance required by federal law.
• Like the situation where Dumpy screamed about Hillary Clinton and her emails.
• So when some shit falls apart and U.S. soldiers die because of Hegseth’s sloppiness in communications, remember this note…
• “I have 100% confidence in the secretary. I know the president does and, really, the entire team does.” - Vice President JD Vance this week.
• Moving on.
• Sort of.
• Joe Kasper, Hegseth’s chief of staff, departed his post yesterday. That’s a pretty big thing.
• Per reports, Kasper leaves the role voluntarily and will become a part-time special government employee, though his exact role and title were not yet clear.
• Hegseth claims that Kasper is a “great American,” and was “certainly not fired.”
• Believe nothing from these people.
• Okay, now let’s keep on keeping on.
• A follow-up from a story we covered back in 2022. Yes, we’ve been doing Random News for nearly three years now.
• Yesterday, the convicted shooter in the 2022 Highland Park Fourth of July Parade, Robert Crimo III, was sentenced to life in prison without parole. 
• Judge Victoria Rossetti gave the shooter seven consecutive life sentences for the murder convictions, plus 50 years for each of the 48 attempted murder charges.
• He’ll be eligible for parole in… never.
• Good.
• Speaking of sentencing, it’s been a good while since I mentioned the name of George Santos, the disgraced congressman (R-NY) who is being sentenced today in Long Island.
• How many years he will spend in prison is expected to come down to how remorseful he is. His attorneys asked for the two year minimum sentence, citing his guilty plea in August 2024 to felony wire fraud and aggravated identity theft charges.
• A reminder: Santos admitted to filing false campaign finance reports, charging donors’ credit cards without authorization, and fraudulently receiving unemployment benefits, among other things. 
• But prosecutors have pointed out that despite Santos’ facade of repentance in the courtroom, he’s still out of social media even in recent weeks saying things like, “No matter how hard the DOJ comes for me, they are mad because they will NEVER break my spirit."
• So prosecutors requested a 87 month sentence. Ha ha.
• And now, The Weather: “The Wolf” by Witch Post
• Let’s do a chart. Why not?
• It’s April 1986, 39 years ago on this very day.
• I am just about six weeks from graduating from high school. Man, did I want out. Out of school, out of my house, out of my hometown. I was definitely skipping classes, abusing drugs and alcohol, and having unhealthy relationships. Good times.
• This is the top of the Billboard 200 albums chart at the time.
• 1. 5150 (Van Halen). 2. Whitney Houston (Whitney Houston). 3. Falco 3 (Falco). 4. Heart (Heart). 5. Dirty Work (The Rolling Stones). 6. Parade: Music From The Motion Picture Under The Cherry Moon (Prince And The Revolution). 7. Pretty In Pink (Soundtrack). 8. Promise (Sade). 9. Like A Rock (Bob Seger). 10. The Ultimate Sin (Ozzy Osbourne). 11. Scarecrow (John Mellencamp). 12. Different Light (The Bangles). 13. Riptide (Robert Palmer). 14. Brothers In Arms (Dire Straits). 15. Welcome To The Real World (Mr. Mister). 16. Play Deep (The Outfield). 17. Turbo 30 (Judas Priest). 18. No Jacket Required (Phil Collins). 19. Control (Janet Jackson). 20. Listen Like Thieves (INXS).
• From the Sports Desk… welcome back to ZRN’s playoff central.
• In the NBA: the Knicks battled the Pistons to a 118-116 victory, taking a 2-1 lead in their series. The Thunder had to come back form a deficit to beat the Grizzlies 114-108, and now leads 3-0 in the series. The Clippers gave a beatdown to the Nuggets, winning 117-83 and going up 2-1 in their series.
• In the NHL: the Panthers shut out the Lightning 2-0, taking a 2-0 series lead. The Maple Leafs beat the Senators 3-2 in overtime, taking a 2-0 lead in the series. The Wild surprised the Golden Knights with a 5-2 victory, pulling ahead 2-1 in the series. And the Blues surprised the Jets with a 7-2 shellacking, with Winnipeg still leading the series 2-1
• And in more Sports, yesterday was the first round of the NFL Draft.
• You can go look that shit up elsewhere. I just wanted to say how stoked I am that my Las Vegas Raiders, with the sixth overall pick, somehow nabbed Ashton Jeanty — a kid who was considered one of the best players in the entire draft and has the potential to be a fucking stud running back. 
• LET’S FUCKING GO RAIDER NATION.
• Today in history… Admiral Lysander and King Pausanias of Sparta blockade Athens and bring the Peloponnesian War to a successful conclusion (404 BC). The Dutch fleet destroys the anchored Spanish fleet at Gibraltar (1607). Highwayman Nicolas J. Pelletier becomes the first person executed by guillotine (1792). Open conflict begins over the disputed border of Texas, triggering the Mexican–American War (1846). Forces under U.S. Admiral David Farragut demand the surrender of the Confederate city of New Orleans, LA (1862). New York becomes the first U.S. state to require automobile license plates (1901). Nazi Germany issues the Law Against Overcrowding in Schools and Universities limiting the number of Jewish students able to attend public schools (1933). The United Negro College Fund is incorporated (1944). Assaulting Chinese forces in the Korean War are forced to withdraw after heavy fighting with UN forces, primarily made up of Australian and Canadian troops, at the Battle of Kapyong (1951). Francis Crick and James Watson publish "Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid" describing the double helix structure of DNA (1953). Robert Noyce is granted a patent for an integrated circuit (1961). President George W. Bush pledges U.S. military support in the event of a Chinese attack on Taiwan (2001). The March for Women's Lives brings between 500,000 and 800,000 pro-choice protesters to Washington D.C. (2004). The Flint water crisis begins when officials at Flint, Michigan switch the city's water supply to the Flint River, leading to lead and bacteria contamination (2014).
• April 25 is the birthday of king Louis IX (1214), king Edward II (1284), general/politician Oliver Cromwell (1599), astronomer James Ferguson (1710), inventor/businessman Guglielmo Marconi (1874), physicist Wolfgang Pauli (1900), journalist Edward R. Murrow (1908), singer Ella Fitzgerald (1917), singer-songwriter/guitarist Albert King (1923), actor/director Paul Mazursky (1930), basketball player/actor Meadowlark Lemon (1932), songwriter/music producer Jerry Leiber (1933), actor Al Pacino (1940), bass player Stu Cook (1945), drummer Steve Ferrone (1950), singer Paul Baloff (1960), actor Hank Azaria (1964), bass player Eric Avery (1965), sportscaster Joe Buck (1969), actress Renée Zellweger (1969), NBA player Tim Duncan (1976), and singer-songwriter Maggie Rogers (1994).

I guess that’s enough. Over the weekend (when I have the luxury of more time), we’ll chat some more about upcoming ways to take part in activism that will help defeat the fascist white nationalist oligarch bullshit that threatens our country. Enjoy your day.