From the desk of Rich Stephens
News for the week ending 4-11-26
Below find the expanded text from tonight’s broadcast. For corrections or additions, contact Rich directly.
Top Story
Trump administration details rescue of downed F-15E crew as Iran ceasefire takes hold and Pakistan offers to facilitate talks
On Monday, April 6, President Donald Trump, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Gen. Dan Caine, and CIA Director John Ratcliffe publicly described the rescue of two American airmen after a U.S. F-15E Strike Eagle went down inside Iran during Operation Epic Fury. The Pentagon said both crew members were recovered alive in separate rescue missions.
The Pentagon said the first rescue package included 21 aircraft, including A-10 attack aircraft, KC-130 search-and-rescue support aircraft, HH-60W Jolly Green II helicopters, and Air Force special warfare rescue personnel. Trump said the first wave successfully extracted the pilot under fire.
At the April 6 event, Trump said the second rescue mission involved 155 aircraft, including four bombers, 64 fighters, 48 refueling tankers, and 13 rescue aircraft, along with deception activity meant to mislead Iranian forces about the second airman’s location. Ratcliffe said the CIA deployed both human assets and technical capabilities and ran a deception campaign to confuse Iranian forces while locating the missing airman.
Gen. Caine said the first rescue package included A-10s in the Sandy role, drones, and other tactical aircraft suppressing enemy forces in a close fight to protect the pickup force. He also said one Sandy A-10 was hit by enemy fire, continued the mission, exited to another country, was judged not landable, and its pilot later ejected over friendly territory and was safely recovered. Caine said one of the Jolly Green rescue helicopters also took several hits and that its crew sustained minor injuries.
The second crew member, the weapons systems officer, was described by Trump and Caine as injured and evading capture in mountain terrain until American forces could pinpoint his location and launch a larger second rescue force. Ratcliffe said the CIA confirmed on Saturday morning that the airman was alive and concealed in a mountain crevice. Caine said the second rescue launched Saturday night into Easter Sunday and ended with both airmen and all other Americans safely returned.
The rescue unfolded during a week of rapid change in the broader Iran conflict. On Wednesday, April 8, Hegseth and Caine said Operation Epic Fury had entered a ceasefire phase after 38 days of combat, while stressing that the ceasefire was a pause and that U.S. forces remained ready if Iran resumed hostilities. Caine said the joint force had flown more than 10,000 missions, including 62 bomber missions, and struck more than 13,000 targets during the operation.
The White House separately said Iran had agreed to a ceasefire and to reopening the Strait of Hormuz. At the same April 8 Pentagon briefing, Hegseth said the strait was open and that commerce would flow.
Alongside that military shift, Pakistan said it was prepared to help broker the next phase. On April 2, Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said both Iran and the United States had expressed confidence in Pakistan to facilitate talks, and that Islamabad would be honored to host and facilitate meaningful negotiations in the coming days for a comprehensive and lasting settlement.
The official record from that week shows three tracks moving at once: a large U.S. rescue mission inside Iran that brought both downed airmen home alive, a ceasefire phase that U.S. officials said remained conditional, and a diplomatic channel that Pakistan said it was prepared to facilitate.
Pentagon Rescue Summary
CENTCOM Rescue Release
Pentagon Briefing Transcript
White House Release
Pakistan Foreign Ministry Briefing
Politics
DIGNIDAD Act Returns To The Spotlight As Supporters Launch National Coalition
The DIGNIDAD Act is back in the spotlight not because it is a new bill, but because its supporters just gave it a new public push. The bill, H.R. 4393, was introduced on Tuesday, July 15, 2025, and on Tuesday, March 25, 2026, Rep. María Elvira Salazar, Rep. Veronica Escobar, and allied groups launched the National Dignity Coalition and a nationwide “Dignity Tour” to build support behind it. Salazar’s office said the coalition was created to back the DIGNITY Act and help push it toward passage.
The bill itself is a sweeping immigration package, not a narrow border bill and not just a legalization bill. It combines border-security provisions, an asylum-system rewrite, mandatory E-Verify, a legal-status program for many undocumented immigrants already in the country, a separate Dream Act title, and other legal-immigration changes.
One of the clearest enforcement provisions is mandatory E-Verify. The sponsor’s section-by-section says the bill would create a nationwide mandatory employment-verification system requiring U.S. employers to check the work eligibility of all future hires through E-Verify, with the system intended to be fully operational within 30 months.
The bill also creates a Dignity Program for many undocumented immigrants already in the United States. According to the sponsor’s section-by-section, people who have been physically present in the country since December 31, 2020 could enroll if they pass a criminal background check and make an initial $1,000 contribution.
That program lasts 7 years. During that time, participants would have to remain in good standing, check in with DHS every two years, and continue paying until they have paid $7,000 in restitution. The sponsor summary says they would also have to comply with federal and state law, pay taxes, support dependents, carry health coverage, and remain ineligible for federal means-tested benefits or entitlement programs.
After completing the program, participants could apply for Dignity Status. The sponsor’s section-by-section says that status is renewable every 7 years and can be renewed as many times as the person remains in good standing. That means the bill does not give most Dignity participants a direct path to citizenship, but it does give qualifying people a lawful, renewable status that allows them to stay and work in the United States.
The bill treats Dreamers differently. Its Dream Act title would allow certain long-term residents who entered the country as children to obtain conditional permanent resident status, and then later have that condition removed, becoming lawful permanent residents and eventually eligible for citizenship. So the “no path to citizenship” line fits the main Dignity Program better than it fits the bill as a whole.
The asylum and processing side of the bill is also substantial. In addition to humanitarian campuses near the southern border, the sponsor’s section-by-section says the bill would authorize up to three optional processing centers in Latin America and the Caribbean. Those centers could offer asylum pre-screening, family reunification services for children, and employment consultation services. That means the bill would create immigration-processing infrastructure outside the United States, not just at or inside the border.
Another politically important provision is the attorney benefit built into the new system. The sponsor’s section-by-section says the bill would create a loan-forgiveness program for people with a Juris Doctor degree who provide legal services to immigrants at humanitarian campuses. Under that summary, participants could receive forgiveness of 75 percent of their outstanding student loans after four years of service.
So the cleanest neutral summary is this: the DIGNIDAD Act is a large immigration-system rewrite. It would tighten workplace enforcement through mandatory E-Verify, expand border and asylum infrastructure, create up to three processing centers outside the United States, establish a long-term Dignity Program with renewable legal status for many undocumented immigrants already here, and offer a separate permanent-residence path for qualifying Dreamers. The fight over the bill is not about whether it contains enforcement. It does. The fight is over whether the legalization and processing provisions are a workable compromise or a major expansion of immigration support under another name.
Dignity Coalition Launch
Dignity Act Overview
Section-by-Section
Bill Text PDF
Salazar X Post 1
Salazar X Post 2
Iranian General’s Niece and Daughter Taken Into ICE Custody
On Saturday, April 4, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he had terminated the legal status of Hamideh Soleimani Afshar and her daughter and that both were in ICE custody pending removal from the United States. Rubio wrote on X that Afshar had been living in the country as a green card holder and identified her as the niece of former Iranian general Qasem Soleimani.
An official State Department media note the same day matched the core claim. The department titled the release “Secretary Rubio Revokes Green Cards of Foreign Nationals with Ties to Iranian Terror Regime” and said Afshar and her daughter were in ICE custody after Rubio terminated their lawful status. The indexed State Department text also said Afshar had promoted Iranian regime propaganda, celebrated attacks on American troops and military facilities, praised Iran’s supreme leader, denounced America as the “Great Satan,” and supported the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The same official material said Afshar’s husband was barred from entering the United States. It also said Rubio had earlier terminated the legal status of Fatemeh Ardeshir-Larijani and her husband Seyed Kalantar Motamedi, and that both were outside the country and barred from returning.
What is still missing from the public record, based on the primary sources I could verify, is the underlying immigration paperwork. I did not find an ICE statement, court filing, or immigration record showing where the two women were being held, what statutory process was used, or whether formal removal proceedings had already been filed. That leaves enough for a narrow story about an announced State Department action, but not enough yet for a fully documented immigration-case reconstruction.
Rubio X Post
State Department Media Note
State Department Iran Page
Mamdani releases preliminary racial equity plan and city’s first true cost of living measure
On Monday, April 6, Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced two citywide documents meant to work together: the Preliminary Citywide Racial Equity Plan and the inaugural New York City True Cost of Living Measure. In the official rollout, Mamdani said the reports establish a framework for how the city will measure affordability and plan for the future.
The first point that matters is that these are not simply ad hoc policy papers. Both are tied to charter changes approved by New York City voters in 2022. The charter now requires a city true cost of living measure to be produced annually and requires a recurring citywide racial equity planning process with a preliminary plan, a final plan, and progress reports. The charter also says the true cost of living measure is reported in addition to existing poverty standards and does not itself create a right of action.
The racial equity plan is essentially a city-government operating framework. The document says it was developed with 45 city agencies and more than 200 staff, and that those agencies produced over 200 goals and outcomes, over 800 strategies, and over 600 indicators. It is organized across seven broad policy areas: families and youth, economy, housing, infrastructure and environment, health, community safety, and governance.
The True Cost of Living Measure is the affordability side of the same effort. The report defines the threshold as the total annual cost a specific family must cover to be economically secure, based on its location and exact composition, and says there is no single threshold because it varies by family type. The report says it was developed by city agencies with the Urban Institute using the ATTIS model.
The inaugural report uses projected 2022 data, not a live 2026 snapshot. It says all estimates were derived from the Urban Institute’s ATTIS model, applied to 2018 American Community Survey data and projected to 2022, and describes the report as a first-year baseline for future tracking.
That matters because the city’s affordability threshold is not one number. The report gives examples: $70,334 for one adult with no children, $97,527 for one adult with one child, $131,993 for two adults with no children, and $166,279 for two adults with two children. It also says the median threshold for families with children and adults under 65 was $159,197.
The report’s main finding is that 62 percent of New York City residents, about 5.04 million people, did not meet their household’s true cost of living threshold in 2022. It also says about 44 percent of New Yorkers struggling to meet the cost of living are not captured by traditional poverty measures.
The report then breaks that burden down by race, borough, and household type. It says Hispanic residents had the highest rate at 77.6 percent, followed by Black residents at 65.6 percent and Asian and Pacific Islander residents at 63.3 percent, while white residents were at 44 percent. It says the Bronx had the highest borough-level rate at 75.1 percent, and that 73 percent of children in the city lived in families with a true-cost-of-living resource gap.
Taken together, the two documents show what Mamdani is trying to do. The true cost of living report expands how the city measures economic insecurity, while the racial equity plan tells agencies how the city wants them to respond to disparities it says are structural and persistent.
As for the criticism that the racial equity plan is racist or illegal, the official record is narrower than the political argument. I did not find an official court ruling blocking these documents. The plan itself says the city is pursuing racial equity through policies and programs that must comply with federal and state constitutions and all applicable laws, and it also says hiring, promotion decisions, and assignments are not to be made on the basis of race or national origin except where the law allows it.
So the clean factual takeaway is this: Mamdani released two charter-driven tools, one to redefine how the city measures whether New Yorkers can actually afford life in the city, and one to direct city agencies to plan around disparities the administration says are longstanding and structural. But the affordability numbers in this inaugural report are a modeled 2022 baseline, not a current-year measure of what New Yorkers are facing in April 2026.
Mayor’s Release
Announcement Transcript
Preliminary Citywide Racial Equity Plan PDF
True Cost of Living Report PDF
NYC Charter True Cost of Living Provision
NYC Human Rights Law
Supreme Court Sends Steve Bannon Case Back After DOJ Moves To Dismiss Indictment
On Monday, April 6, the Supreme Court cleared the way for Steve Bannon’s contempt-of-Congress case to be reconsidered after the Justice Department moved to dismiss it. In Bannon v. United States, the Court granted Bannon’s petition, vacated the D.C. Circuit’s judgment, and sent the case back for further consideration in light of the government’s pending motion to dismiss the indictment.
The government had already told the Court that this was the result it wanted. In a February filing signed by Solicitor General D. John Sauer, the United States asked the justices to grant the petition, vacate the judgment below, and remand the case so the district court could consider the government’s Rule 48(a) motion to dismiss the indictment.
The case grew out of Bannon’s refusal to comply with a subpoena issued by the House committee investigating January 6. The lower-court record reproduced in the Supreme Court filings says a grand jury charged Bannon on November 12, 2021 with two counts of contempt of Congress under 2 U.S.C. § 192: one for refusing to appear for a deposition and one for refusing to produce documents and communications. A jury found him guilty on both counts on July 22, 2022, and the district court later sentenced him to four months in prison on each count, to run concurrently, along with a $6,500 fine.
Bannon’s Supreme Court petition asked the justices to review whether the contempt statute required proof that he knew his conduct was unlawful and whether the January 6 committee’s composition affected its authority to issue the subpoena. But the Court did not issue a signed merits opinion resolving those questions this week. Instead, it vacated the appellate judgment and returned the case to the lower courts after the government said it wants the indictment dismissed.
Supreme Court Order List
U.S. Response and Motion
Supreme Court Docket
Bannon Cert Petition
DeSantis Signs Florida Bill Restricting Foreign and Religious Law and Creating Terror Designation Process
On Monday, April 6, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed HB 1471, a bill titled “Systems of Law and Terrorist Organizations.” In a press release announcing the signing, DeSantis said Florida “must operate under one legal system” and said the Constitution “must remain the law of the land.” The Governor’s Office described the law as strengthening protections against the application of foreign and religious laws, including Sharia law, when they would violate constitutional rights, while also creating new state-level tools aimed at terrorist organizations.
The enrolled bill and House staff analysis show the law does two main things. First, it creates a new section of Florida law restricting courts and other adjudicatory bodies from enforcing certain provisions of foreign law or religious law when doing so would violate a person’s rights under the U.S. or Florida Constitution. The House analysis says the bill’s definition of “religious law” specifically includes Sharia law.
Second, the law creates a process for the Chief of Domestic Security within the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to designate certain organizations as domestic terrorist organizations or foreign terrorist organizations. The House analysis says a foreign organization must already be designated by the U.S. Secretary of State under federal law, while the House bill page says the designation then goes to the Governor and Cabinet, who may approve or reject it by majority vote. Approved designations are to be published in the Florida Administrative Register.
The bill also reaches into Florida’s education system. House staff analysis says it adds provisions affecting public institutions and students, including possible funding consequences for institutions and disciplinary or expulsion consequences for certain students found to have promoted terrorist organizations. At this stage, the primary-source record shows the law has been signed and enrolled, but I did not find a current FDLE designation list or a live implementation record showing that Florida has already used the new designation power in a specific case.
Governor’s Press Release
Enrolled Bill Text
House Staff Analysis
House Bill Page
Mullin Threatens To Use Airport Customs Processing As Leverage Against Sanctuary Cities
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin is publicly threatening to use airport customs processing as leverage against sanctuary cities. In the interview transcript provided for this story, Mullin said sanctuary cities are “not lawful” and said DHS is going to “take a hard look” at them. He then pointed to cities with international airports and asked, “If they are a sanctuary city, should they really be processing customs into their city?”
He explained the threat in practical terms. Mullin said that if a sanctuary city is receiving international flights and DHS is asking it to partner with the federal government at the airport, but once travelers leave the airport the city is “not going to enforce immigration policy,” then maybe DHS needs to “have a really hard look at that” because it needs to focus on “cities that want to work with us.” That is the clearest statement of both the rationale and the pressure tactic: DHS would continue prioritizing cooperation where local officials work with federal immigration enforcement, and could reconsider customs-processing support where they do not.
Bret Baier then pressed the point directly, asking whether big sanctuary cities with big airports might lose their customs processing. Mullin answered that DHS is going to have to start “prioritizing things,” said Democrats are trying to defund Customs and Border Protection, asked “who processes those individuals when they walk off the plane,” and said he may be forced to make hard decisions about who is willing to work with the department. He closed that portion of the exchange with a simple condition: “We are saying you have got to partner with us.”
That threat would have real consequences at airports that handle direct international arrivals. The Port of Seattle says passengers arriving internationally at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport must go through U.S. Customs and Border Protection at their first point of entry into the United States and that SEA uses its International Arrivals Facility for that process. The Port also describes passport control as a required part of international arrivals and says passengers proceed only after being interviewed and approved by CBP. In other words, if CBP processing were withheld, direct international-arrival operations at an airport like Sea-Tac would not function normally.
The limit of the story, at least for now, is that there is still no official DHS or CBP order showing that customs processing has actually been withdrawn from any airport. So the clean version is this: Mullin is threatening to use customs processing as leverage against sanctuary jurisdictions, says he is doing it because those cities refuse to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement outside the airport, and says they can avoid that pressure by partnering with DHS.
Full Mullin Interview Video
Port of Seattle International Arrivals Guidance
Current Events
Rex Heuermann Pleads Guilty In Gilgo Beach Serial Killings Case
The Gilgo Beach case reached its biggest courtroom turning point yet on Wednesday, April 8, when Suffolk County prosecutors said Rex Heuermann pleaded guilty to the murders of seven women and also admitted killing an eighth. Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney said Heuermann pleaded guilty to three first-degree murder counts and four second-degree murder counts, and in the same allocution admitted killing Karen Vergata, whose death was folded into the plea arrangement rather than separately charged. Prosecutors said he is expected to be sentenced on June 17, 2026 to three consecutive life-without-parole terms for the killings of Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, and Amber Costello, plus a consecutive 100-years-to-life sentence for Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Jessica Taylor, Sandra Costilla, and Valerie Mack.
What makes the plea historically important is that it finally ties one defendant, by his own admissions, to killings spanning nearly two decades. According to the DA’s plea release, Heuermann admitted killing Sandra Costilla in 1993, Karen Vergata in 1996, Valerie Mack in 2000, Jessica Taylor in 2003, Maureen Brainard-Barnes in 2007, Melissa Barthelemy in 2009, and Megan Waterman and Amber Costello in 2010. The DA says several victims were strangled, several were dismembered, and multiple remains were transported to more than one dump site before later discoveries along Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach and elsewhere on Long Island.
The arc of the case explains why the plea matters so much. For years, the Gilgo murders were one of the most notorious unsolved serial-killer investigations in the country. The official record shows the case gained new momentum in 2022. Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison said in March 2022 that the department had brought a “renewed sense of urgency and transparency” to the Gilgo Beach homicide investigation. Suffolk DA materials also say District Attorney Tierney formed the Gilgo Beach Homicide Task Force in February 2022 with local, state, and federal partners. That task force is the structure prosecutors now credit with pushing the case from cold-case frustration to arrest, indictment, and plea.
The prosecution itself did not arrive all at once. Heuermann was arrested on July 13, 2023, and the case then expanded in stages. Suffolk DA materials show the original case grew across 2024, first with a fourth murder charge, then two more, and then, by December 2024, a seventh charged homicide. By the time of the April 2026 plea, prosecutors had built the case into a seven-count murder prosecution before obtaining Heuermann’s admission to the uncharged killing of Vergata as part of the final agreement.
The evidence fight appears to have played a major role in forcing the case toward resolution. Suffolk DA records show a Frye ruling in September 2025 concerning the admissibility of the forensic DNA evidence. Public reporting on the ruling said the defense had fought to exclude the DNA evidence, which investigators tied in part to a discarded pizza crust and hair evidence recovered in the case, but lost that challenge. The guilty plea then came ahead of a planned September trial, strongly suggesting the defense concluded the forensic case would be too difficult to beat in front of a jury.
The plea does not erase the wider history of the case, and it does not necessarily answer every question raised by the broader Gilgo investigation. Suffolk DA materials still reference ongoing work by the Gilgo task force, and public outreach has continued on other victims and remains not folded into this plea. But what changed this week is that the central murder case against Heuermann is no longer a theory built on forensics and phone records alone. The prosecution now has guilty pleas to the seven charged murders and a public admission to an eighth killing from the man it says carried them out.
Suffolk DA Plea Release
Suffolk DA Gilgo Case Page
Suffolk County 2022 Investigation Statement
Gilgo Frye Hearing Decision
Plea Coverage and Transcript Context
Riverside County pursuit ends in crash and self-inflicted gunshot death after failed grappler deployment
On Wednesday, April 8, deputies from the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office located a suspect wanted for grand theft in Jurupa Valley and attempted to stop the vehicle after relocating it near Limonite Avenue and Van Buren Boulevard. The driver failed to yield, and deputies initiated a pursuit. The Sheriff’s Office later said deputies received information during the pursuit that the suspect was armed with a handgun.
The pursuit moved through Jurupa Valley until the Riverside Sheriff’s K9 Unit attempted to deploy a grappler pursuit intervention device near Bellegrave Avenue and Etiwanda Avenue. According to the sheriff’s official release, the deployment was unsuccessful. The vehicle then collided with a wall in the 11000 block of Antigua Drive.
After the crash, deputies from the Special Enforcement Bureau approached the vehicle and found the suspect suffering from injuries consistent with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The Sheriff’s Office said deputies removed the suspect from the car and paramedics rendered medical aid, but he was pronounced dead at the scene.
The case is being investigated under file number JV260980120. The Sheriff’s Office said the Jurupa Valley Sheriff’s Station Traffic Collision Reconstruction Team assumed the collision investigation, and the agency added that it was still unknown whether alcohol or drugs were a factor in the crash.
The official record currently supports these points: the man was being sought on a grand theft case, the pursuit began after he failed to yield, deputies said he was believed to be armed, a grappler device was deployed unsuccessfully, the vehicle crashed into a wall, and the suspect was found with injuries consistent with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. I did not find an official public release identifying the suspect, explaining the failed grappler deployment in technical detail, or naming the vehicle as a white Cadillac CTS.
Riverside Sheriff Release
Riverside Sheriff Alerts Page
Video of Chase, Crash, Standoff
Florida Announces Results Of Operation Highway Shield
On Wednesday, April 9, Governor Ron DeSantis announced the results of Operation Highway Shield, a four-day statewide commercial-truck enforcement operation in Florida.
According to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the operation ran from March 23 through March 26 and targeted commercial vehicle safety violations, criminal activity, and threats to Florida’s transportation network.
FDLE says agencies inspected more than 3,300 commercial vehicles, took 176 drivers out of service, arrested 35 people on criminal-related charges, and took 42 people into custody for federal immigration violations.
One of the most notable figures was 54 drivers taken out of service for language deficiencies. Federal commercial-driver rules require drivers to read and speak English well enough to understand road signs, answer official questions, and complete reports.
The operation was a joint effort involving state and federal agencies, including FDLE, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the Florida Highway Patrol, the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services Office of Agricultural Law Enforcement, ICE, DHS, and CBP.
DeSantis framed the operation as part of a crackdown on unsafe and unlawfully operating commercial drivers, including concerns about bogus commercial licenses. Florida also recently tightened its commercial-driver licensing laws through SB 290, which created penalties for applicants who receive unauthorized help on portions of the commercial driver license exam and for people who knowingly provide that help.
The official record clearly shows the scale of the operation. What it does not yet show is a detailed public breakdown of how many individual cases involved fake commercial licenses versus other violations or crimes.
FDLE Operation Results
FDLE Media Advisory
SB 290 Enrolled Text
Commercial Driver Qualification Analysis
DeSantis X Post
Minneapolis man sentenced in Feeding Our Future fraud case as prosecutors put scheme-wide conviction count at 65
On Thursday, April 9, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota announced that Abdullahe Nur Jesow of Minneapolis had been sentenced to 43 months in prison for his role in the Feeding Our Future fraud scheme. DOJ said Jesow will also serve two years of supervised release and must pay $866,458 in restitution. Federal prosecutors tied the case to the broader $250 million scheme that exploited a federally funded child nutrition program during the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to DOJ, Jesow purported to operate a Federal Child Nutrition Program meal site at Benadir Hall on Lake Street in Minneapolis from December 2020 through September 2021. Prosecutors said the site operated under Academy for Youth Excellence, where Jesow served as secretary. DOJ said the organization claimed to have served more than 1.7 million meals, but the site actually provided only a fraction of them. Even so, Academy for Youth Excellence and its alleged vendor, S&S Catering, received $4,286,088 in federal child nutrition funds based on those claims.
DOJ said Jesow misappropriated some of the money for his own personal benefit, including the purchase of a home in Columbia Heights. He was one of eight defendants charged in a 23-count indictment in September 2022, and he later pleaded guilty on September 18, 2025, to one count of money laundering.
U.S. District Judge Nancy E. Brasel imposed the sentence. DOJ quoted Brasel as saying Jesow’s conduct “severely undermined public trust in government programs and in the government itself.” Federal officials said the case was investigated by the FBI, IRS-Criminal Investigation, and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.
This sentencing is part of a much larger prosecution. In a separate April 9 release, DOJ said the number of defendants convicted scheme-wide in the Feeding Our Future case had reached 65. That means prosecutors had added 19 more convictions since June 12, 2025, when DOJ described another plea as the 46th conviction in the scheme.
So the official record now supports saying this is part of what federal prosecutors describe as a 65-conviction Feeding Our Future fraud scheme in Minnesota as of April 9, 2026. That count is specific to the Feeding Our Future case, not to benefit fraud in Minnesota more broadly.
DOJ Sentencing Release
DOJ 65 Convictions Release
DOJ Guilty Plea Release
DOJ 46th Conviction Release
DOJ 2022 Case Announcement
DOJ X Post
Leak Case Against Former Army Employee Lands After High-Risk Iran Rescue Mission
On Friday, April 3, a U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle was shot down over Iran during a combat mission in support of Operation Epic Fury. U.S. Central Command later said both crew members were recovered in separate rescue missions, with the second recovery requiring a far larger and more dangerous effort. In a later Pentagon account of the operation, President Donald Trump said the second rescue mission involved 155 aircraft and decoy efforts meant to mislead Iranian forces while they searched for the second airman.
The White House publicly staged a media appearance on April 6 focused on the rescue of the missing U.S. airmen in Iran. In that appearance, Trump said the administration had delayed publicly discussing the first rescue and said a leak revealed that a second crew member was still missing, exposing the fact that the operation was still underway. That matters because the rescue was taking place in hostile territory while U.S. forces were still trying to recover the second service member.
Two days later, the Justice Department announced that former Army employee Courtney Williams had been arrested and indicted for allegedly transmitting classified national defense information to a journalist. DOJ said Williams had worked for a Special Military Unit from 2010 to 2016, held a Top Secret / Sensitive Compartmented Information clearance, and had signed a nondisclosure agreement acknowledging that unauthorized disclosure of classified information could be criminal.
The underlying criminal complaint says Williams allegedly communicated SECRET//NOFORN information to “Reporter 1” between January 2022 and August 12, 2025. According to the complaint, the material involved tactics, techniques, and procedures used by the special military unit at Fort Bragg to execute covert missions without being detected. The affidavit says those disclosures later appeared in a published article and book, and that an Original Classification Authority determined the published material contained information properly classified as SECRET with a NOFORN dissemination control.
Investigators say they found extensive contact between Williams and the journalist, including more than 10 hours of phone calls, roughly 180 messages, a reference to returning a thumb drive, and multiple document groupings labeled for the reporter. DOJ also says Williams later acknowledged concern about the amount of classified information that had been disclosed and discussed the risk of arrest for disclosing classified material.
The public charging record does not yet show that Williams leaked the April 2026 rescue mission itself in real time. The complaint instead ties her alleged disclosures to an August 2025 article and book about the unit. But prosecutors say the information she is accused of leaking involved classified operational tactics and procedures, the kind of information that can increase the risk of mission failure, bodily harm, or death if exposed. The statute cited by DOJ, 18 U.S.C. § 793(d), carries a possible penalty of a fine, up to 10 years in prison, or both.
CENTCOM Rescue Release
Pentagon Rescue Account
White House Event Page
DOJ Leak Case Release
Criminal Complaint PDF
18 U.S.C. 793
Haitian Migrant Kills Woman With Hammer
Friday afternoon, April 10, ICE held a press conference about the murder of a woman in Ft. Myers, FL. On April 3 Robert Joachin (wakeen) was seen on surveillance footage beating a car with a hammer outside of a gas station. When the gas station clerk came outside, Juachin approached her, and repeatedly hit her in the head with the hammer until she was no longer alive. Juachin is an illegal alien from Haiti who entered the United States on August 9, 2022 near Key West, FL. He was arrested by Border Patrol and turned over to ICE. An immigration judge issued a final order of removal on September 9, 2022 but he was never removed. The Biden administration issued him Temporary Protected Status in and allowed him to stay in the United States. TPS has been revoked for Haiti, but a DC district court judge has blocked that revocation. The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on April 29, and we will bring you updates when they are available.
Full Press Conference
Supreme Court Order
Supreme Court Docket
Ontario warehouse arson case brings state and federal charges after Kimberly-Clark facility fire
On Friday, April 10, the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office announced state charges against 29-year-old Chamel Abdulkarim of Highland in connection with the fire at the Kimberly-Clark Distribution Center in Ontario, California. The DA’s office described the site as a 1.2-million-square-foot facility and said it filed one count of aggravated arson and six counts of arson of a structure. Abdulkarim was being held without bail.
The state complaint, filed in San Bernardino County Superior Court, alleges aggravated arson under Penal Code section 451.5(a) and six additional counts under Penal Code section 451(c). It also alleges as an aggravating factor that the fire caused property damage and other losses exceeding $10.1 million. The complaint lists seven total counts.
California law makes aggravated arson especially severe when the statutory conditions are met. The law provides that a person convicted under Penal Code 451.5 can be punished by imprisonment in state prison for 10 years to life.
Federal prosecutors also moved on April 10. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California announced that Abdulkarim had been charged in a federal criminal complaint with arson of a building used in interstate and foreign commerce and in activities affecting interstate and foreign commerce. DOJ said the complaint was filed late Thursday.
According to DOJ, the federal affidavit alleges that Abdulkarim filmed himself in the early morning of April 7 setting fire to multiple pallets of paper goods inside the Ontario warehouse. DOJ quoted him as saying, “If you’re not going to pay us enough to [expletive] live or afford to live, at least pay us enough not to do this [expletive].” Federal prosecutors also said he later made statements by phone and text about the fire, including, “I just cost these [expletive] billions,” and, “All you had to do was pay us enough to live.”
DOJ said the fires quickly consumed the building, destroyed it, and caused approximately $500 million in damage. If convicted on the federal charge, Abdulkarim would face a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in federal prison and a maximum sentence of 20 years.
Ontario Police separately said investigators are aware of a video circulating on social media that may depict elements of the incident and are working to authenticate it. Police also said a search warrant was served at Abdulkarim’s residence in Highland and that evidence collected there may contribute to the progression of the case.
Kimberly-Clark said on April 8 that the building was leased by Kimberly-Clark and operated by NFI Industries. The company said there were no reported injuries, no Kimberly-Clark manufacturing assets were impacted, and the person apprehended by authorities was not a Kimberly-Clark employee.
The official record currently supports the charges, the allegation that Abdulkarim set multiple fires inside the warehouse, the no-bail status, the federal interstate-commerce charge, and DOJ’s statement that the fire caused approximately $500 million in damage. I was not able to independently verify from accessible official documents the more specific valuation breakdown discussed at the press conference, including separate building and contents figures, because I did not find a full official transcript or video of the event.
San Bernardino County DA Release
State Complaint PDF
DA Press Conference Release PDF
DOJ Release
Ontario Police Update
Kimberly-Clark Statement
California Penal Code 451.5
Fifth Circuit says federal home distilling ban is unconstitutional
On Friday, April 10, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled that the federal ban on home distilling violates the Constitution’s Taxation Clause and Necessary and Proper Clause. In McNutt v. U.S. Department of Justice, the court said the statutory provisions barring distilled spirits plants from being located in a dwelling house or connected yard, shed, or enclosure cannot be sustained as a proper exercise of Congress’s taxing power.
The case was brought by members of the Hobby Distillers Association and related plaintiffs who said they wanted to distill spirits at home for personal use and experimentation. The opinion identifies the plaintiffs as Rick Morris, Scott McNutt, Thomas O. Cowdrey III, John Prince III, and the Hobby Distillers Association, which the court said had more than 1,300 members as of 2023.
The Fifth Circuit said the prohibition traces back to an 1868 law enacted alongside federal excise taxes on distilled spirits and tobacco. Under the recodified federal statutes at issue, a distilled spirits plant cannot be located in a dwelling house or connected yard or shed, and violating that rule can bring criminal penalties of up to five years in prison, a fine of up to $10,000, or both.
The panel also described direct federal enforcement posture against home distilling. It said TTB warned Scott McNutt in 2014 through a notice of potential civil and criminal liability, and that in November 2023 a TTB employee told the plaintiffs’ lawyer the agency would not consider permits for home distillation in a residence because it was “against the law” and “illegal to distill spirits at a residence.”
The appeals court agreed with the district court on the constitutional issue, but modified the judgment after concluding all plaintiffs had standing to sue. The opinion ends by affirming as modified the district court’s judgment and injunction against enforcement of the challenged provisions.
As of now, federal public guidance has not caught up. TTB’s current website still says federal law “strictly prohibits” producing distilled spirits at home, and the current regulation at 27 C.F.R. § 19.51 still says a person may not produce distilled spirits at home for personal use.
That means the official record now shows a live conflict between the Fifth Circuit’s April 10 ruling and still-posted federal guidance and regulations. I did not find an official DOJ or TTB response yet, and I did not find a Supreme Court filing or stay tied to this opinion.
Fifth Circuit Opinion PDF
TTB Guidance
27 C.F.R. § 19.51
26 U.S.C. § 5171
26 U.S.C. § 5001
NASA’s Artemis II Crew Returns to Earth After 10-Day Mission Around the Moon
On Friday, April 10, NASA’s Artemis II crew returned to Earth, completing the first crewed mission around the Moon in more than 50 years. NASA said the Orion spacecraft splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California at 8:07 p.m. Eastern, ending a 10-day test flight that began April 1 at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The crew consisted of NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, along with Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen. NASA said Artemis II launched aboard the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft at 6:35 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday, April 1, on a planned flight around the Moon and back.
After launch, Orion departed Earth orbit and began its outbound trip toward the Moon. On Monday, April 6, NASA said the crew completed its lunar flyby, the first human return to the Moon’s vicinity since Apollo 17 in 1972.
NASA also said Artemis II set a new record for the farthest distance humans have traveled from Earth. During the flyby, the crew reached a maximum distance of about 252,756 miles from Earth, surpassing the previous record set by Apollo 13 in 1970.
NASA released official imagery from the mission showing Earthset beyond the lunar horizon and a total solar eclipse seen from Orion during the flyby. The agency said the eclipse produced nearly 54 minutes of totality from the crew’s vantage point.
For the return to Earth, NASA said Orion’s service module separated before re-entry and burned up over the Pacific. The crew module then entered Earth’s atmosphere at high speed, deployed its parachutes, and splashed down safely off the California coast.
NASA said recovery teams extracted the crew from Orion and transported them by helicopter to the USS John P. Murtha for medical evaluations before their return to Houston. As of NASA’s initial post-flight releases, the agency had not reported any major anomaly during the mission or recovery.
NASA Launch Release
NASA Lunar Flyby Update
NASA Distance Record Release
NASA Moon Flyby Photos
NASA Re-Entry and Splashdown Updates
NASA Return Release
Finance
Markets
Markets rebounded this week. The Dow had its highest close since late February, gaining 2412 points to close up 5.3% at 47,916.
The NASDAQ saw similar gains, picking up 1023 points and closing at 22,902, nearly a 4.7% gain.
The S&P500 closed at 6,816, gaining 234 points that represent a 3.5% gain.
Gold was more modest with a 1.8% gain closing at $4,787, a pickup of $85.
Sports
The Masters
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Rich Stephens
The Cold Take
