The lithium independence fantasy of America can become a reality sooner with the announcement of an EnergyX project to build a landmark processing plant in Arkansas-Louisiana-Texas. This strategic change impacts China as it is all about blocking the supply chains of the most valuable minerals, which will change the way electric vehicles and renewable energy infrastructure operate across the world in a way that Beijing has never imagined.

EnergyX has already unveiled Project Lonestar Lithium, an innovative plant that aims to produce 5,000 tonnes of its output per year in the initial phase, with an increase to 25,000 tonnes in the final phase. The strategic location of the plant in the region of “Ark-La-Tex” implies the utilization of the existing industrial facilities and the use of the recently identified domestic lithium deposits.

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/53499762

The organizers of a traditional dog sled race in Greenland said they are investigating who sent an invitation to U.S. President Donald Trump’s special envoy to the island.

The Greenland Dog Sledding Association (KNQK) published a statement on social media Tuesday saying an American journalist had informed them that Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry had been invited to its annual race.

The association said it was “unacceptable that political pressure is being exerted from outside” and described “the participation of foreign political actors” as “wholly inappropriate,” adding it was conducting an “investigation” to find out who invited Landry.

Trump last month appointed Landry, a Republican who has been in office since early 2024, to lead his efforts to take control of Greenland. Landry called the “volunteer position” an “honor” in a post on social media and said he would work to “make Greenland a part of the U.S.”

Vice President JD Vance’s wife Usha was supposed to attend the dog sled race last year during an American tour of the island but canceled her participation after protests in the self-ruling Danish territory.

Trump, who has claimed that controlling Greenland is a strategic imperative for the U.S. and Arctic security, recently mocked Copenhagen’s efforts to shore up the island’s defenses.

“You know what their defense is? Two dog sleds,” he scoffed, apparently referencing Greenland’s dog sled patrols.

No surprise there. He's a busy man.

You can't be bothered with the little details like ethics laws when you're busy managing college football, taking over a blue city, and firing tenured professors and anyone else that says something to hurt your fee fees. Not to mention helping the ~~yellow~~ orange king invade Greenland.

Jfc it's exhausting to even think about the level of fuckery this guy constantly has going.

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/53340687

Hundreds of protesters gathered Sunday afternoon for an anti-ICE demonstration that ended with a tense encounter between demonstrators and Tennessee State Troopers on Summer Avenue.

The ICE Out for Good protest, organized by Indivisible Memphis, saw demonstrators march from the AutoZone in the Berclair neighborhood to Grahamwood Elementary. Tensions escalated during the march back after one protester was detained by state officials.

Phone video from the scene also shows a patrol vehicle striking a protest marshal who was standing on the street in front of the vehicle.

The demonstration was organized in response to the deadly shooting of Minnesota mother Renee Good by an ICE agent on Wednesday. Protesters demanded accountability from the federal agency while accepting donations for The Immigrant Pantry.

“What happened in Minneapolis was an offense to every decent person in America who believes in due process, justice, the rule of law and the sanctity of life,” said U.S. Representative Steve Cohen, who represents Tennessee’s 9th District.

At the protest, Cohen shared he and fellow Democrats are working on legislation to reform ICE and said he supports abolishing the federal agency.

“They’re not even looking into their backgrounds. They’re telling them if you don’t like your hands being tied by rules and regulations, they won’t be tied at ICE. That’s why we had this lawless behavior in Minneapolis,” Cohen said.

Action News 5 has reached out to Memphis Safe Task Force and Tennessee Highway Patrol for information on the incident with protesters and the detainment. Both agencies have not yet responded.

The number of local law enforcement agencies in Tennessee that have entered partnerships with the federal government to enforce immigration law has risen to 54.

In recent weeks, sheriff’s departments in Hancock, Lincoln, Madison, Marion, Van Buren and Unicoi counties have signed onto so-called 287(g) agreements with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, according to a federal database.

These largely rural counties join a growing list of Tennessee police, sheriffs and constable districts entering into such agreements. Two state agencies – the Department of Correction and Department of Safety and Homeland Security, which operates the Highway Patrol – have also partnered with ICE to crack down on immigration violations in Tennessee, where immigrants without legal status are estimated to represent 2.2% of the population.

Tennessee is among the states seeing the most rapid proliferation of the immigration agreements since the start of President Donald Trump’s second term.

State Rep. Michael Echols of Monroe, a hotelier and property developer in northeastern Louisiana, will lead the Louisiana House Republican Caucus after his colleagues elected him chairman.

Echols, who is serving his second term, also has an extensive background in the healthcare and insurance industries. He was chosen over Rep. John Illg of Metairie to replace former Chairman Mark Wright, who is running for a seat on Public Service Commission.

Republicans control a super majority with 73 seats in the 105-member House.

Echols will lead the delegation to remain unified in its priorities as well as those of Republican Gov. Jeff Landry, who favored Echols in the secret ballot race.

“I am honored by the confidence my colleagues have placed in me to serve as majority Leader,” Echols said. "Now more than ever, Louisiana needs principled, solutions-oriented leadership that reflects the values and priorities of hardworking families across our state.

"I look forward to collaborating with members of both chambers to deliver accountable, efficient government that fosters economic growth, strengthens public safety and champions local communities.”

Republican House Speaker Phillip DeVillier said Echols will drive the majority's agenda in the chamber.

"Rep. Michael Echols' leadership as majority leader will be instrumental in guiding the HouseRepublican agenda to achieve results for all Louisianans,” DeVillier said.

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/51352587

On roughly 1,400 acres of flat and vacant scrubland near the Mexican border, BorderPlex and its partner, Stack Infrastructure, a data center builder, wanted to build a collection of data centers that would cost $165 billion. The number seemed berserk. The entire U.S. Interstate Highway System cost less than half as much in inflation-adjusted dollars. Even the International Space Station, underwritten by more than a dozen countries, was a bargain by comparison. (It was $150 billion.)

During his 10-minute presentation, Mr. Napier nodded at those concerns, but he emphasized the financial rewards he would shower on the county. There’d be 2,500 construction jobs for starters, and over the next 30 years, a total of about $360 million would flow into Doña Ana’s coffers.

In exchange, as critics would point out, the company would get the mother of all tax breaks. No property taxes and no taxes on equipment purchased to build the data centers, like servers and networking gear.

It has become a truism that the United States no longer builds much of anything on a grand scale, but one category is a spectacular exception. The country is in the midst of a data center building frenzy. Four companies — Alphabet, Amazon, Meta and Microsoft — are expected to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on A.I.-related expenditures, like chips and servers, this year alone. Seven trillion more, McKinsey predicts, will be needed in the next five years.

Naysayers contend that the astounding outlays are inflating a bubble that will end with a calamitous pop. Once that happens, they predict, the country will be covered with a lot of empty buildings, perfect for laser tag and not much else.

BorderPlex, too, is a bit of a mystery. The company’s website does not have a list of employees. There’s no mention of any previous ventures by the company, on the website or in the media. Jupiter appears to be BorderPlex’s debut. The Austin address listed on its filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission — it was incorporated in Delaware last year — is a WeWork space.

The company’s website once had a “leadership” section, according to a story by El Paso News. Among those listed was Alicia J. Keyes, a former New Mexico cabinet secretary of economic development, who was appointed by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham. Another was George Prescott Bush, the son of the former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. Neither returned requests for comment.

The leadership page is now gone.

Having spoken at a handful of public events, Mr. Napier is now keeping mum. He did not acknowledge emails, calls or texts for comment sent over the course of a week. After a reporter visited the WeWork address — no one from the company was there — an email from BorderPlex said the company had nothing to say “at this time.”

Mr. Napier has not been so reticent in the past. In 2019, he published an autobiographical book, “Billion or Bust!” It’s an account of his tenure at Rackspace, a web hosting and cloud services company in San Antonio, which went public eight years after he joined as chief financial officer.

So, billion! Not bust.

In 2020, he and his wife were featured in the Real Estate section of The New York Times showcasing a stylish and spacious home filled with contemporary art, including a sculpture by Tony Cragg that is so heavy the floor had to be reinforced. A specially designed panel that could hide a whiteboard had been installed in the dining room.

“It’s invisible, until you yank on the handle,” Mr. Napier told The Times. “And then out comes this mammoth Lanham-world dream.”

Mr. Napier seems to have shown up in New Mexico with little more than another mammoth Lanham-world dream. He is a familiar archetype, the deal-making middleman, in a relatively new field. At least a dozen such executives are now crisscrossing the country, says Paul Kedrosky, a fellow at the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy.

They are buying land with access to energy and fiber optics. They are beckoning to A.I. companies in need of digital horsepower. And they are pitching states and towns on the idea that data centers offer a seat aboard the A.I. financial rocket ship.

It’s a wing-it, boom-time market where you sell first and find buyers later, and everything is supposed to happen at a frantic speed and on a gargantuan scale. Project Jupiter is not necessarily a $165 billion endeavor. That’s a best-case scenario for a multiphase build-out, contingent on demand. (Phase 1 will cost $50 billion.) But $165 billion! That’s an eye-catching number. It has put both Mr. Napier and Doña Ana County on the map.

“It’s a very speculative real estate game, but it’s sold as a no-brainer for municipalities desperate to land the next big industrial project,” Mr. Kedrosky said. “And right now, there’s this sense among economic development officials that by building a data center you’re joining the future. If you’ve been trying to land a Hyundai plant for years, a pitch like Jupiter will seem irresistible.”

The data center surge combines two elements beloved by American speculators over the centuries, Mr. Kedrosky added. Real estate and technology.

“One of those things is behind every bubble in U.S. history,” he said. “It just so happens that this time we’ve got both.”

The Power Plant Surprise County officials first learned about BorderPlex in November of last year. Ms. Keyes, the former cabinet secretary, arranged for Stephen Lopez, then Doña Ana’s interim county manager, to meet with someone whom she didn’t name. Anonymity is pretty common in the opening steps of an economic development dance.

The guy had lots of questions, Mr. Lopez, who is now the assistant county manager, recalled in an interview. How long would it take to get building permits? In 2023, the state had sued a local water utility for failing to notify residents about those high levels of arsenic. Where did that stand?

Apparently, the man liked the answers. After 45 minutes of talking, he handed over his business card with a name: Lanham Napier.

“That was a good sign,” Mr. Lopez said. “Sometimes they don’t give you business cards.”

During negotiations, which went on for months, Mr. Napier signed a memorandum of understanding with Governor Lujan Grisham to build a scaled-back, $5 billion version of what would become Project Jupiter. Then, less than a month after the governor’s February announcement, supporters of the project in the State Legislature handed it a coup. A bill to modernize the public electrical grid had whizzed through the State House with bipartisan support. Then, on March 20, during the two-day rush at the end of the legislative session, State Senator Michael Padilla, a Democrat, introduced an amendment.

It allowed BorderPlex, and any other company, to build its own power plant, called a microgrid. Moreover, it exempted microgrids from the state’s Energy Transition Act, which mandates a shift to zero-carbon electricity for investor-owned utilities by 2045 — so long as BorderPlex does not sell any power to, say, other utilities. (Data centers consume a huge amount of energy; BorderPlex says its planned microgrid will use natural gas-fired turbines to produce between 700 and 900 megawatts of electricity, enough to power as many as 800,000 homes.)

“The amendment is intentionally deceptive — I have no problem calling it that,” said Stephen Fischmann, a former chair of the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission, an independent state agency that regulates public utilities. A vocal opponent of Jupiter, he said the amendment effectively eviscerates the Energy Transition Act. Microgrids are already being planned for other data centers in New Mexico, enough to generate more power than the state currently uses.

“Once a little more than half of the electricity generated here is exempt from the E.T.A.,” Mr. Fischmann said, “the E.T.A. is meaningless.”

In a phone interview, Mr. Padilla said he wasn’t trying to snooker anyone when he wrote the amendment. If BorderPlex ever wants to sell its excess power, it will have to comply with the clean energy law, he noted. He also acknowledged, with some pride, that the bill had helped to make New Mexico more appealing to the industry.

“We have four or five major data center projects now looking at the state as a result of what we did this year,” he said.

‘You Can’t Drink Data’ The Project Jupiter site is an hour’s drive south of Las Cruces, on a swath of land that in mid-October was unmarked but for a dirt road. Pickup trucks were parked nearby, along with a towing vehicle with “Oversized Load” written on the back. A man in a lime green safety vest said ground had been broken a few hours before.

The new data centers will be built near a vast archipelago of industrial parks and factories and a terminal of the Union Pacific Railroad. There’s a duty-free gift shop not far from the border crossing a few miles away, and just over the fence, on the Mexico side, is a huge Foxconn plant.

Doña Ana County will forgo property tax revenue from Project Jupiter, accepting something called a payment in lieu of taxes instead. How large will those payments be? After negotiations with the county’s economic development team, the payment was set at $12 million a year. If the project lasts for all 30 years of its projected life, that would amount to $360 million.

These details, and the many unknowns about the project, are a special concern of Sunland Park, a city of 15,000 a few miles from the construction site in Santa Teresa. Its Residents have been the loudest opponents of the plan. Two days after construction began, about 40 of them gathered to form a protest organization.

The meeting was held in an empty storefront in a strip mall. There were snacks on a foldout plastic table, Mexican artwork on the wall and a large screen on the side of the room, where online participants from around the state could participate.

A woman named Vivian Fuller led the discussion, passing around a microphone. One of the first orders of business was picking a name.

“Shout it out,” she said.

There was a pause.

“Project Jupiter Makes Us Stupider,” someone suggested online.

“You Can’t Drink Data,” said someone else.

“We’ve been fighting for clean, safe drinking water for a long time,” said Ms. Fuller, who works for the Empowerment Congress, a nonprofit activist group. “To have this humongous data center come in now — it’s awful.”

On one level, Project Jupiter is a ground-level, object lesson in the art of A.I.-related salesmanship and hype. It was only after BorderPlex and Stack won the commissioners’ approval on Sept. 19 that OpenAI and Oracle publicly committed to the project. A joint news release on Sept. 23 suggested that Oracle would lease Project Jupiter and that OpenAI would be the ultimate end user. (Neither company returned calls for comment. The Times has sued OpenAI for copyright infringement related to news content. The company has denied the suit’s claims.)

As for funding, that came even later. Bloomberg reported in early November that a consortium of 20 banks, including Goldman Sachs, were providing an $18 billion loan for construction. That’s a long way from $165 billion, but that number is like a brightly colored banner on the tent at a carnival, said Mr. Kedrosky, the researcher. It is designed to win attention and attract a crowd.

“You promise a great thing, you sell the story hard, you get people to buy in before the thing actually exists,” he said. “That’s how the game is played in this ‘new industrial revolution.’”

The legislation would enable $15 million in state surveillance funding to flow to a local nonprofit — a controversial move that could stymie accountability over the use of such surveillance technology.

This type of funding mechanism has become something of a national trend that police agencies are using to grow their access to surveillance tools: route those technologies through private entities like nonprofits that operate beyond democratic control, essentially outsourcing surveillance and policing.

Prominently, the Atlanta Police Foundation funded and built the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, colloquially known as Cop City, for the Atlanta Police Department; the 501(c)(3) is also the official partner contracting with Flock Safety and providing the city use of the company’s notorious surveillance cameras.

In New Orleans, Project NOLA, a 501(c)(3), has built a large apparatus of more than 200 cameras through donations. News broke earlier this year that the nonprofit was conducting real time facial recognition scans and sending alerts to the New Orleans Police Department, a clear violation of city policy that went unchecked until reporting by The Washington Post revealed the arrangement.

Now, with this pending resolution, Nashville is following the lead of Atlanta, New Orleans, and other cities by leveraging a local nonprofit to build a powerful surveillance infrastructure. Nashville’s version follows the same playbook, but with a local twist that makes it particularly brazen.

Oh for fucks sake...

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee will appeal a ruling requiring the state to remove the National Guard from Memphis as part of a massive police action.

Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti said Tuesday the state will challenge a Davidson County chancellor’s decision temporarily blocking Lee from continuing to deploy the Tennessee National Guard to the city.

“The case presents important legal questions that have ramifications for not just the safety of Memphians now but for all Tennesseans for centuries to come. We look forward to further litigation on appeal,” Skrmetti said a day after Chancellor Patricia Head Moskal issued her ruling.

During arguments before Moskal earlier this month, the attorney general’s office said the courts should not have authority to overturn the governor’s decision to send National Guard personnel to Memphis.

A group of state lawmakers and Shelby County officials filed suit Oct. 17 asking for the Guard to be permanently removed from Memphis where they are part of a local, state and federal force of 31 agencies trying to clamp down on crime.

In her Monday ruling, Moskal said the Guard’s role in the Memphis Safe Task Force violates the terms and conditions of Tennessee’s Military Code. Moskal agreed with the plaintiffs that Tennessee’s Constitution allows the Guard to be mobilized only in “circumstances amounting to a rebellion or invasion,” and even then, “the legislature must declare, by law, that the public safety requires it.”

Neither the legislature nor Memphis officials requested the Guard to be deployed to Shelby County as part of the task force.

Lee directed Guard personnel to Memphis after President Donald Trump signed a memo ordering the Memphis Safe Task Force to be formed. The governor never issued an order for the deployment, only a press release.

Lee said Tuesday he is standing by his decision.

“Memphians know their city is facing a violent crime emergency that the state must address, and we’re confident higher courts will ultimately recognize this as well. The state will appeal, and the Tennessee National Guard will continue to operate as part of the Memphis Safe Task Force while the case is on appeal, per the judge’s order,” Lee spokesperson Elizabeth Johnson said in a Tuesday statement.

The task force has made 2,800 arrests, confiscated more than 450 illegal firearms and located 114 missing children, Johnson said, and added, “there’s no question these public safety efforts must continue.”

These numbers haven’t been able to be independently verified.

More than 1,000 of those arrests were on warrants for homicide, narcotics, firearms and sex offenses committed in Memphis, according to the U.S. Marshals Service. The task force has also issued thousands of motor vehicle citations, eliciting criticism from some local officials that law enforcement is focusing on speeding tickets and minor violations.

The judge’s injunction requires removal of the Guard from Memphis only if the state fails to appeal within five days.

Memphis Police said last week fewer than 200 Guard personnel were in Memphis, but that number was expected to more than double. Recent court filing indicated more than 700 Guard members are patrolling the city

After more than a dozen years of federal oversight, a judge will finally decide whether New Orleans can police itself again.

U.S. District Judge Susie Morgan is expected to end the consent decree that has governed the NOPD since 2013. The city voluntarily entered the agreement following a federal investigation that found systemic problems including excessive force, biased policing and inadequate training and supervision.

The final hearing in U.S. v. The City Of New Orleans is scheduled for Wednesday morning at Loyola University Law School.

City attorneys argue the department has largely complied with court-ordered reforms and established safeguards to prevent backsliding. In a May brief to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeal, they wrote that "none of the systemic violations of the federal laws alleged in the DOJ's 2012 complaint have been found in more than two years."

The brief concluded that "the City had substantially fulfilled the Consent Decree's objectives, with no evidence suggesting a likelihood of regression. Continued enforcement is inequitable and unconstitutional."

The Department of Justice joined the city in September in calling for an end to the decree—a move that gained momentum after President Donald Trump signed an executive order requiring a review and possible termination of all existing federal consent decrees.

City leaders have increasingly viewed the oversight as overly burdensome and costly, with annual costs estimated at $11 million and total spending projected between $130 million and $150 million over the decree's lifetime.

"The millions of taxpayer dollars sucked up by the Consent Decree after there was no longer an underlying Constitution violation are the very funds NOPD needed to keep the City safe," Attorney General Liz Murrill's office wrote in a brief that supported the city's push to end the decree.

Mayor LaToya Cantrell has argued that federal oversight also hurts police morale and makes it difficult to recruit and retain officers.

The ACLU of Louisiana said it is deeply troubled by the move to end federal oversight. The organization called it "a stark reversal of the city's recent commitment to a two-year sustainment period, agreed upon by both city officials and the courts just months ago."

The ACLU also noted the decision reflects a troubling national trend, as the current administration's Department of Justice "signals its intent to roll back police oversight and dismantle consent decrees nationwide."

Judge Morgan's decision will challenge the department to prove its reforms can endure without the court’s supervision.

We have New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell. We have New Orleans Mayor-elect Helena Moreno. Maybe we have New Orleans Mayor-wannabe Jeff Landry, too.

In a Monday interview on Fox News, Louisiana's governor seemed to speak on behalf of all residents in the city of New Orleans the way he answered a question posed by "America Reports" host Sandra Smith: Will New Orleans welcome U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents — an apparent reference to the Border Patrol agents who are reportedly heading our way?

"Absolutely," the guv responded without a nanosecond of a pause. “When ICE is ready, we certainly welcome them to come into the city and be able to start taking some of these dangerous criminal illegal aliens off of our streets, and we’ve got a place to put them at Angola.”

He was referencing Louisiana Lockup, an immigration-specific detention center he created at the Louisiana State Penitentiary with the help of his old pal from their days in Congress, U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. The penitentiary, AKA Angola, and lockup, AKA Camp J, are part of a nationwide immigration lockup system.

So New Orleans is going to be used to fill these cots? Feels takeover-ish to me.

It wasn't that long ago that Landry said the State of Louisiana would help New Orleans get out of its end-of-the-year fiscal mess with Louisiana Bond Commission approval only after using "all necessary measures to thoroughly review the city’s fiscal affairs and, if deemed necessary, appoint a fiscal administrator."

That feels like a takeover move to me.

During a recent interview on WBOK's “Good Morning Show,” which I host, the governor professed to know what's good for New Orleans.

"No governor has spent more time in the city of New Orleans than myself," he said. "I'm working to try to make the city of New Orleans a better, more hospitable place so we can attract people and businesses and folks can feel safe in that city."

Last year, the governor drew rebuke from many in New Orleans when his people suggested that the way to fix all that bothers so many New Orleanians was for the state of Louisiana to take over the New Orleans Sewerage & Water Board.

That felt like a takeover idea to me.

Time after time, Landry says things — and does things — that sure make it seem like he wants to take over the state's biggest economic contributor. So, when I had a chance to ask the governor directly about that, I did.

"Oh no, no, no. I can promise you I do not want to take over the City of New Orleans. I never did. I want the city of New Orleans to function well …"

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/57691068

This gets us to the central problem of today’s surveillance state. No one running the cameras wants to be observed. One reason that city officials object to releasing Flock data, for example, must that they themselves are among the recorded. The cameras are on them too; they too can be tracked. Everything means everything for these everywhere cameras.

A woman is questioning the tactics of the Memphis Safe Task Force after she was forced out of her home half-naked early Thursday morning.

The resident on Railton Road in the Cherokee neighborhood did not want to be identified but said the federal agents were at the wrong house.

“I’ve been having a headache ever since, my body still got chills on it,” she said.

A home surveillance camera captured officers approaching the back door of her house at around 7 a.m.

You can see one of them points at the camera before it goes black. She said the camera was turned upside down.

The woman told WREG that she heard what sounded like someone trying to break down her front door, and she opened the door to find three federal agents on her doorstep, along with several more in her front yard.

“He was like, come out. Come out with your hands up. I was like, okay. He said open the door come outside. Come outside.”

The woman said she was forced outside at gunpoint while ICE agents went inside and searched her home.

“They got the guns on me. I just got red dots all over my body. I’m scared, so when I get outside, I’m naked. I don’t have anything on but my panties,” she said. “I’m like, can I get a blanket? Can I get a blanket, and they wouldn’t give me anything. He came back and said they’re in your attic. By the time they come out of your attic, they’ll be almost done.”

She said the task force members told her they were looking for a Johnny Miller.

Memphis police say Miller, who is charged with attempted murder in a weekend shooting, was arrested Wednesday at a West Memphis motel.

He is locked up in the Crittenden County Jail.

“I don’t even know this guy,” she said.

The woman said that after several minutes, agents gave her a blanket to cover up, but she is still traumatized by what happened.

She says she understands the task force is looking for people with arrest warrants, but they need to find a better way to bring them in.

“You’re looking for a man, I’m a woman. Why would you let me put his clothes on? It was nothing but men out there. It was one lady,” she said.

WREG contacted the DOJ for a comment about the search, and we are waiting for a response.

A warrant was issued Thursday for another man at the same address. The woman who lives there said she is the only person who has lived in the house since 2019.

Hundreds of people packed a town hall in Denver Wednesday night, sharing concerns about the city’s Flock camera contract.

“Then, in July, we learned through Denver audit logs that Denver’s Flock cameras have been accessed over 1,400 times, with the reason for search being Immigration and Customs Enforcement,” said one speaker.

“The mayor announced this morning that he is, once again, unilaterally, without a public process or council vote, extending the city’s contract with ICE,” said a speaker with the Party for Socialism and Liberation – Denver.

Also present at the meeting was Tim Hoffman, director of policy in the Denver Mayor’s Office.

“I think there is a fundamental disagreement in that, yes, there are pictures being taken … but they are not being searched by anybody unless your car is suspected of being involved (in a crime),” Hoffman said during the meeting. “I want to be very clear that it is not the position of the mayor and the Mayor’s Office that you have no expectation of privacy when you enter a roadway.”

Hoffman’s statements were cut off with shouts of “prove it,” among others.

In May, the Denver City Council unanimously voted down a contract extension with Flock, citing privacy concerns and questioning who had access to Denver’s data as the city remains in the crosshairs of the Trump Administration due to so-called “sanctuary” rules. FOX31’s Nate Belt was also told in May that the mayor’s office had asked the council to vote down the contract renewal.

However, the mayor approved a contract extension in August that was just under the cost amount that needed a council vote, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado.

Johnston said Wednesday that new measures were added to the contract extension that include shutting out all access to city data to outside agencies without obtaining a memorandum of understanding, and a $100,000 fine for the technology company if or when data is shared with the federal government.

Denver City Council Member Sarah Parady took to the internet on Wednesday, sharing her concerns about Johnston’s actions.

“Mayor Mike Johnston has announced a backroom deal with the CEO of Flock for several back-end changes to Denver’s Flock system that he thinks are sufficient to address concerns about the technology,” Parady wrote. “His administration is putting in place a 5 month, no-cost extension immediately, without public input or approval of the council.”

Parady was also at the town hall on Wednesday evening, which she said was to hear the community’s concerns about the mayor’s decision.

“I was stunned to learn late yesterday that after convening a task force of local and national experts, Mayor Johnston has been negotiating secretly with the discredited CEO of Flock safety and signing another unilateral extension of this mass surveillance contract with no public process and no vote from city council or input from his own task force,” Parady posted to Instagram.

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/47925000

I stumbled across this 2007 PDF by accident, but thought some people might find it interesting.

JTTF is the task force Trump has named in his controversial memo, NSPM-7.

The Trump Administration is facing mounting criticism over a sweeping directive that expands the government’s definition of domestic terrorism indicators to include a wide range of political beliefs, with lawmakers and civil liberties groups warning it could be used to criminalize dissent.

The order, which directs the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) to investigate “networks, entities, and organizations that foment political violence,” identifies ideological markers such as anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism and anti-Christianity as potential red flags. Rights groups say that language is so broad it risks sweeping in protest movements, advocacy organizations, and critics of the administration.

The order comes amid a widespread crackdown on leftwing groups and organizations in the aftermath of the killing of Charlie Kirk and a shooting at a Dallas ICE facility.

The Joint Terrorism Task Force is a federal law enforcement organization that combats both domestic and international terrorism. The unit collaborates with various federal, state, tribal, and local partners, including the FBI and Homeland Security Investigations, to combat terrorism.

The force grew in scope following the 9/11 terrorist attack, though some cities, such as Portland, have withdrawn their police officers from the JTTF. The task force has a record of controversy given its history of targeting protestors, dissenters, and people of color, according to the ACLU

Interestingly, the FBI and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) are also listed as official federal partners of the Memphis Safe Task Force which the DOJ says arrested around 700 American Citizens in Memphis in just 2 weeks. As of Monday, 130 of those arrests were categorized as simply "other," and the DOJ would not provide further elaboration.

While no mention of JTTF has been officially made in connection with the Memphis task force, recent images such as the one below and video of masked agents taken by Memphis residents indicate that both HSI and the FBI are actively involved in task force operations, along with other federal, local and state agencies.

The city of Portland also appears to have an official memorandum with the JTTF as of 2015.

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/47910108

Hunter Demster pulled out his phone at a gas station in Memphis to record over half a dozen men in bulletproof vests gathered around the flashing blue lights of a Tennessee Highway Patrol car.

Then one of those officers stepped forward and told him to stand 25 feet away because he was violating a new Tennessee law that allows police to create a buffer zone for any of their interactions, according to video reviewed by the Lookout.

“They are explicitly trying to remove accountability for police across the state,” said Demster, a leader with the group Free the 901, a coalition of advocacy groups organizing against federal and state law enforcement’s presence in Memphis.

At the end of September, President Donald Trump and Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee established the “Memphis Safe Task Force” that brought in an additional 700 law enforcement officers, according to a report by the Daily Memphian. The task force includes a combination of federal and state agencies, like U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the ATF, the FBI, the Tennessee Highway Patrol, the state National Guard and more.

The heightened presence of enforcement comes with little detail from officials about the task force’s exact orders and their operational areas.

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/47873560

Of 803 arrests completed so far, 17 of the individuals appear to be juveniles.

DOJ officials broke down the total number of charges recorded as of Monday, Oct. 13, which can be seen below:

Warrant pickups - 297

Administrative - 161

Firearms Arrests - 94

Narcotics - 79

Homicide - 6

Probation/Parole - 2

Sex Offenses - 34

Unexplained "other" charges -130

Another 161 administrative arrests were reported, which DOJ officials said were related to immigration violations.

62 "known gang members" were reportedly identified in the operation as of Monday morning.

Laramie on Instagram: "Clarification: this was a pretextual traffic stop. As many of you have pointed out in the comments, he was pulled over for something that is not widely known as illegal. *** Can’t not share. This is insanity. This not Memphis. This is not safe. This is not what people deserve. @mayorpaulyoung @mayorpaulyoung @shelbytnsheriff @stevemulroy901 DO SOMETHING. #memphis #choose901 #memphisforall #policemilitarization"

Larry Bushart, a 61-year-old former police officer, posted the offending meme last month. In response to a Facebook post about an upcoming vigil for Kirk, Bushart shared an image of President Donald Trump with the quote, "We have to get over it," which Trump said in January 2024 after a shooting at Iowa's Perry High School. Text added to the image said, "This seems relevant today."

Bushart did not elaborate, but the context seems clear: Why should I care about this shooting, when the sitting president said I should "get over" this other shooting?

The image was one of several Bushart posted, and it was far from the most offensive. Still, it certainly feels crass; as people mourned a brutal public murder, Bushart snidely used the occasion to make a partisan political point. But it's certainly well within the bounds of average social media discourse, and you certainly wouldn't expect it to bring the attention of the local police.

According to the Perry County Sheriff's Office website, Bushart was arrested the following morning on a charge of Threats of Mass Violence on School Property and Activities—a class E felony punishable by between one and six years in prison and up to a $3,000 fine. Worse, Bushart's bail is set at an astonishing $2 million.

Under a Tennessee law that went into effect July 1, anyone posting bond must put up at least 10 percent of the total amount, and bail bondsmen must charge a "premium fee" of at least five percent of the total bond amount. Even just to get out of jail ahead of trial, state law says Bushart would have to pay a bondsman at least $210,000.

Bushart posted the Trump meme "to indicate or make the audience think it was referencing our Perry High School," Weems told The Tennesseean in a statement. "Investigators believe Bushart was fully aware of the fear his post would cause and intentionally sought to create hysteria within the community." Weems also told local radio station WOPC the meme "eluded [sic] to a hypothetical shooting at a place called Perry High School."

This justification is downright laughable. In its entirety, the post consists of a direct quote of a statement by the then-former president about a newsworthy event, with text providing context, plus a four-word phrase added. Bushart didn't even create the meme: The Tennesseean's Angele Latham noted it had been "posted numerous times across multiple social media platforms not connected to Bushart going back to 2024."

Bushart's arrest would be humorous if it weren't so serious. He now faces a potential years-long prison sentence for reposting a Facebook meme that doesn't come anywhere close to qualifying as an exception to the First Amendment. Even if the case gets thrown out, he has already spent two weeks in jail and is set to spend two more months until his first hearing.

Majority of Memphis Safe Task Force arrests during Week 1 were warrant pickups, DOJ reports

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC) - The Memphis Safe Task Force conducted 321 arrests in the first seven days of its operation, the U.S. Department of Justice reported Monday.

The DOJ offered some insight into the reasons behind these arrests, although 16% of them have been labeled as “other” without further elaboration.

In the first week of operation, beginning September 29, the 20 local, state and federal agencies that are involved in this crime-fighting operation successfully apprehended 181 warrant fugitives in total. The DOJ says 82 (or 45%) of these warrant pickups were ICE arrests.

The task force also arrested 41 suspects on gun-related charges, 26 for narcotics violations, 18 for sex offenses, two for probation/parole violations, and one homicide suspect.

The DOJ says the task force also made 52 “other” arrests, but no further information on those arrests is available.

Federal officials previously confirmed that the arrest data for the Memphis Safe Task Force would not be broken down by specific agencies.

Agency heads and their deputies from the Louisiana National Guard, Louisiana State Police, and New Orleans Police Department met at LANG’s headquarters at Jackson Barracks in New Orleans on October 3, 2025, to conduct preliminary contingency planning to improve public safety.

Maj. Gen. Thomas Friloux, adjutant general of Louisiana; Col. Robert Hodges, LSP superintendent and Chief Anne Kirkpatrick, NOPD superintendent are working together at the strategic level to develop a contingency plan for a LANG mobilization to the city. Federal funding for the pending mobilization has yet to be approved, and no troops are currently mobilized in Louisiana for public safety support. The LANG acknowledges Governor Landry’s request to the United States Department of War for Guardsmen to mobilize in areas throughout the State.

Further development is pending, and future meetings will be held at different levels to optimize teamwork and ensure the best implementation for increasing public safety should a mobilization occur.

You might need IG to view this video, and I'm sorry for posting an IG link, but it's the only way I know how to learn about shit like this happening in real time.

Here are images if you can't see the video. I know the Wildlife logo on the truck isn't great quality but they've been spotted all over the city working with this federal and state task force.

The image below is from the scene of a wreck Task Force Members caused Wednesday night when they were chasing someone through the city without their siren on and ran a red light

https://youtu.be/80s7oR5h26c

The National Guard was supposed to be deployed, but according to MPD they're not even there yet,, so what is actually going on with this federal take over?

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/47182601

Bisbee, a lieutenant in the Leo network, previously worked at the Federalist Society as Director of State Courts and Deputy Director of External Relations while Leo was an executive. Leo still co-chairs the board.

Bisbee launched two nonprofits out of Nashville in 2024: First Principles Foundation and First Principles Action. Both filed 990–N forms with the IRS in their first year, meaning they each brought in less than $50,000 in revenue. However, this year Bisbee funneled $1.1 million through First Principles Action to the campaign of Republican candidate Katherine Robertson, who is running for the open attorney general seat in Alabama next year and will face former state Supreme Court Justice Jay Mitchell in the Republican primary.

The source of the $1.1 million is unknown, but while Bisbee was in charge at RAGA Trump’s first term “judge whisperer” Leonard Leo was the top contributor to the group year after year, giving millions through his Concord Fund.

According to RAGA’s latest IRS filing, it received no contributions from Leo’s groups in the first half of this year, and his PR firm Creative Response Concepts (doing business as CRC Advisors) is no longer receiving payments of $7,500/month from the AG’s group for “consulting” — signaling a sudden split in the long relationship between Leo and RAGA. RAGA had paid Creative Response Concepts for consulting since 2020.

In a Truth Social rant in May after the U.S. Court of International Trade struck down his tariffs, President Trump suddenly turned on Leo and the Federalist Society, calling him a “sleazebag” who “probably hates America.” Trump “believes Leo tried to take too much credit for the judicial picks” of Federalist Society members Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett, and Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court, The Wall Street Journal reported. Trump and Leo haven’t spoken in five years, the paper noted.

Trump and MAGA world are also likely aware that the Leo-funded right-wing litigation center New Civil Liberties Alliance is challenging the legality of his emergency tariffs.