Feds Shoot Two People in Portland: On Thursday afternoon, US federal agents conducting a "targeted vehicle stop" opened fire on two people in a car after the agents say the driver tried to run them over. We have heard that line before, like, maybe a day before when Immigrations and Customs Agents lied about Minneapolis' Renee Nicole Good attempting to run them over, thus allowing them to kill her. According to a Border Patrol spokesperson, the agents in Portland were targeting an undocumented immigrant and alleged member of Tren de Aragua, a gang tied to a Venezuelan prison. Trump has claimed (newly-captured) Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro directed the gang to infiltrate the US and commit crimes here. 

Of course, there is no evidence. The victims were able to drive away, both wounded and found by police. They received emergency medical attention and were rushed to the hospital. Local Portland cops showed up on the scene, but the FBI is taking over the investigation. Portland Attorney General Dan Rayfield said he's launching an investigation into the shooting.

Six People Arrested in Portland Protests: After the shooting, hundreds of protests flocked to the Portland ICE facility. Protesters at times blocked the road in front of the facility. Police arrested six people for disorderly conduct.

Back in Minneapolis: The ICE agent who killed Good has been identified. In an attempt to explain the agent's actions—shooting a woman in the head, in case you forgot—the Department of Homeland Security explained that the agent had been involved in an incident in June where "a child sexual predator [was] trying to evade an immigration enforcement arrest" and "dragged" him with their car. He had to get stitches. DHS Director Kristi Noem first released that information which was enough for the Star Tribune to uncover the agent’s identity, which DHS confirmed. He is Jonathan Ross, doxxed by his own agency. 

"You’re white, you won’t be any fun anyway:"ICE agents arrested Pastor Kenny Callaghan while he was protesting in Minneapolis after Good's killing. He intervened as agents were "circling" a young Hispanic woman, telling them to arrest him instead. He described an ICE agent putting a gun in his face and asking if he was afraid. He said he wasn't. The agents arrested him and threw him in an SUV. They came back several times asking if he was afraid yet. "I’m not afraid of you, and I’m never going to be afraid of you," he replied. After a while, the agents let him go, saying, according to Callaghan, "You’re white, you won’t be any fun anyway. You can get out of the car.” 

Doubling Down: The Trump administration is deploying more than 100 more Border Patrol agents to Minnesota  from operations in Chicago and New Orleans to Minnesota. In fact, they're pausing all operations in Chicago to send a chunk of those agents and all their nonlethal weapons up to Minnesota instead. This means they are not listening to the pleas from Minnesota elected officials urging ICE to get the fuck out of there. 

Jobs: The jobs report is here. It's weak. Trump's Labor Department reported that employers only added 50,000 jobs in December, a dismal cherry on top of a dismal year for job growth. Unemployment is at 4.4 percent, which is marginally lower than November's 4.5 percent. This is the first "clean" jobs report in three months. The government didn't initially put anything out in October during the shutdown and November's numbers were impacted by the closure, too. Both of those reports were revised retroactively to show bigger declines than initially reported

The Weather: Cloudy. Maybe a chance for a sliver of sun in the afternoon if we are good. 

ICE Raid on Aurora: On Wednesday, ICE agents detained people in North Seattle near Evergreen Washelli Cemetery, Seattle Police Chief Shon Barnes confirmed. Barnes said the Seattle Police Department does not have authority over federal agents, but documents all ICE incidents. In a statement, he promised that SPD was "here to keep people safe, regardless of anyone's immigration status." Mayor Katie Wilson responded to the incident in a social media video saying it is "unacceptable to kidnap people going about their lives" and that she's working with other city leaders on how to best protect Seattleites. 

 

 

 

Citizenship Interviews Cancelled: Washington state green card holders are in limbo as their naturalization interviews have been abruptly cancelled without cause the last few weeks. Trump stopped accepting immigration applications from citizens of "high-risk countries" after an Afghan national shot two National Guardsmen in November. Yet, lawful permanent residents from countries not on those lists are seeing their citizenship interviews cancelled. Oath ceremony appointments, citizenship interviews, and naturalization interviews have been cancelled across the board for Washington immigrants since early December. 

Coug Suit: Families of the four University of Idaho students stabbed to death in 2022 are suing Washington State University claiming the school failed to act on reports that Bryan Kohberger, the criminology student and teaching assistant at WSU who pleaded guilty to murdering the students, was stalking other students before the murders. WSU did not comment on the suit. Kohberger is spending life in prison with no chance of parole. 

Iranian Leader Promises Crackdown on Protests: Protests in Iran are reaching historic levels. They started on Dec. 28 when protesters took to the streets over the sudden tailspin  of the country's currency, but quickly became about much more. Protesters demanded political reform. On Thursday, the son of the exiled shah of Iran, Reza Pahlavi, called for protests. This is not a great thing for Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who is calling for a "greater crackdown" on these "vandals" and "saboteurs." He's blamed the US for fanning the flames of the demonstrations. Meanwhile, despite a harsher, militarized response, the threat of serious consequences, and a country-wide internet shutdown, more Iranians joined protests around the nation. 

The scale of the protests in Iran are absolutely unbelievable. Hard to quantify, but I've seen some speculation that this uprising is more significant than the 2023 protests (themselves the largest challenge to the regime since it came into power in '79.)

(Video from @AmirMiresmaeili on Twitter)

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— Justin Ling (@justinling.ca) January 8, 2026 at 12:27 PM

A Real Sentence: The QAnon Shaman is running for governor of Arizona. 

Isn't Efficiency Beautiful? An analysis from Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (Peer) shows that destructiveness of the Department of Government Efficiency's cuts. Peer estimates that DOGE's assault on the federal workforce placed 154,000 employees on paid leave and that all the paid leave cost taxpayers about $10 billion. “Spending over $10bn of taxpayer money to prevent people from working is a hell of a way to run a railroad,” Peer senior counsel Peter Jenkins told The Guardian.

A Song for You: Does this help?