Adam Bonica and Jake Grumbach provide a comprehensive critique of popularist calls for Democrats to moderate their positions in response to Republican gains in the 2024 U.S. election. Of course, one of the issues most frequently singled out for moderation is transgender rights. Within forty-eight hours of Trump’s reelection, Democratic congressmen Tom Suozzi and Seth Moulton spoke out against trans athletes (although Moulton has since walked back those comments). In laying the groundwork for his likely 2028 presidential campaign, California Governor Gavin Newsom has flirted with several far-right positions on trans youth, including banning transition until age twenty-six. Even prior to 2024, the New York Times, Matt Yglesias, and Ruy Teixeira—all highlighted in Bonica and Grumbach’s article as advocates for Democratic moderation—were promoting anti-trans talking points. But the notion that retreating from trans rights will benefit Democrats in future elections rests on three false assumptions. The first is that the current anti-trans backlash is the result of “activists going too far,” a trope that is levied against virtually every social justice movement. This framing allows opponents to cast the rolling back of rights as a “realignment” with public opinion and a return to the “natural order” of things. But that is not at all what has happened here. I’ve been involved in trans communities since the early 1990s, and during that entire time trans people have acted locally—in their schools, workplaces, and communities—to increase awareness and challenge discriminatory practices. The International Olympic Committee began allowing trans athletes to compete way back in 2004, and gender-affirming care for trans youth is now almost three decades old. These are not by any means “novel” or “radical” developments. What is new is that, starting around 2015—in the wake of increased trans visibility in the media (sometimes called the “transgender tipping point”) and the Supreme Court’s decision in Obergefell legalizing same-sex marriage—social conservatives began shifting their efforts toward targeting trans people instead. The attacks have since grown into a highly coordinated and well–funded movement that churns out both anti-trans and broader anti-LGBTQ legislation at unprecedented levels. This is the real reason why Republicans have become obsessed with “fairness in women’s sports,” “biological sex,” “social contagion,” “restrooms,” “grooming,” and other soundbites that didn’t exist ten or fifteen years ago. In other words, there hasn’t been an organic shift in public opinion on trans people but rather a massive astroturfing campaign against us.

The Department of Homeland Security is using a little-known tool to go after its critics.

Twenty-nine year old Chandler Patey has been regularly protesting outside his local ICE facility in South Portland for months, offering up his apartment to fellow protesters to use the bathroom or wash off pepper spray, according to local news. To the Department of Homeland Security, “he is the leader of Antifa in Portland, OR.” That phrase appears in an internal report produced by DHS, the largest law enforcement agency in the country. As they see it, Patey—a young man accused of no crime and who looks like a random protester plucked off the streets of Minneapolis—is a domestic terrorist. In Patey’s apartment, Fox News hosts Laura Ingraham and Jesse Waters saw something sinister: an “Antifa safe house,” as they called it in multiple segments. This kind of idiocy is hardly unprecedented by the standards of cable news, of course; but the federal government is buying into the hysteria, too. Documents leaked to me show Patey and countless other American protesters have been branded as domestic terrorists. As a result, their private information is now being collected and stored in a DHS intelligence system shown below.

A North Carolina man is facing multiple felony charges after he broke into a Little Caesars after closing time and started making and selling pizzas, according to police. It happened Sunday, the day after a massive snow storm hit the state, and the suspect kept all the money for himself, the Kinston Police Department said in a Feb. 2 news release. An arrest was made after the suspect tried to break into the shop a second time, police said. “The Kinston Police Department ... responded to Little Caesars in reference to a breaking and entering. Upon arrival, officers were advised that 41-year-old Jonathon Hackett, a former employee, had unlawfully entered the business on two separate occasions,” police said. “During the first incident, Hackett entered the business, prepared pizzas, sold them to customers, and kept the proceeds for himself. During the second incident, Hackett again broke into the business while it was occupied by employees. Employees attempted to prevent Hackett from entering, which resulted in a physical altercation.”

Elon Musk's X and Grok platforms are facing increased scrutiny from authorities on both sides of the channel.

A Douglas County Man is being held on a million dollars bail after a frightening shooting incident on I-5 last week.

The hack was resolved in a December update.

Over a decade after the maple syrup grading change, Grade A Dark is just not the same.

Organized crime in Mexico is tightening its grip on the vape market, a $1.5 billion industry

Gov. Josh Shapiro called District Attorney Larry Krasner's comparison of ICE agents to Nazis "abhorrent." Krasner responded that Shapiro is "not meeting the moment."

A battle has broken out between Paramount corporate and CBS News' news chief Bari Weiss over cutting ties with new contributor Peter Attia, TheWrap has learned.

A rightwing Brazilian influencer who claimed Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown targeted only “crooks” has been arrested by ICE agents in New Jersey. Júnior Pena, whose full name is Eustáquio da Silva Pena Júnior, declared his support for the US president in a recent video message to his hundreds of thousands of social media followers. “I [support] Donald Trump – I like the guy,” announced the South American TikToker and Instagrammer whose account purports to show “the reality of the United States” from a migrant’s perspective. In a previous video, Pena reportedly urged Brazilians to stay calm and not “despair” after reports that ICE agents were rounding up migrants, including Brazilians. “But they’re all crooks. The lot of them,” he falsely claimed of the migrants being seized. On Saturday, Pena was himself reportedly detained and sent to the Delaney Hall detention facility in Newark, New Jersey. One friend told the local newspaper the Brazilian Times that Pena had been taken into custody after missing a court hearing. The detainee’s lawyer, Andrew Lattarulo, was reportedly trying to resolve the situation and prevent him being transferred to another state.

Once the new seats are filled, Gov. Spencer Cox will have appointed five of the seven justices.

The NFL’s billionaire owners literally can’t lose when it comes to making money. On the field? That’s another matter.

"In 2012, Mette-Marit told Epstein he was “very charming” and asked if it was “inappropriate for a mother to suggest two naked women carrying a surfboard for my 15 yr old sons wallpaper?”" The son in question is going on trial this week for rape, threats, assault, drug use, stalking, etc. He's currently arrested for threatening a woman with a knife this weekend.

In a post that included a stylized graphic of a presumed federal officer holding a gun to the head of someone bearing a physical resemblance to Alex Pretti, Illini Republicans stated that they “stand with ICE” amid the killings of Renee Nicole Good and Pretti in Minnesota. The RSO referred to Pretti and Good, two United States citizens who were both killed by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in the past month, as “traitors.” As of Sunday, the group removed the graphic but kept the larger post, which garnered more than a thousand comments on their Instagram account. The post continues to state that “it is, has, and always will be the mandate of our brave public servants, domestic and abroad, to fell the enemies of the United States of America.” In a written response to questions from The Daily Illini, Illini Republicans declined to comment on whether they were saying Good and Pretti deserved to be killed.

A Lafayette man has been arrested after being accused of posing as a person with special needs in order to commit human trafficking. During their investigation, detectives determined that Deas was posing as a person with special needs who sought the assistance of a nanny. They say that after making contact with the victim using the online service, the victim was directed to a residence in Lafayette where Deas portrayed himself as a person with special needs and required someone to perform tasks consistent with infant and toddler care, including diaper changes. State Police say Deas had previously been arrested on the same charge in November 2019 and December 2021 in cases with a similar nature.

Nominating Gavin Newsom for president in 2028 is the only way for the Democratic Party to avoid another far-right White House, according to the podcaster who suggested that last year’s destructive wildfires in Southern California were caused by homeless arsonists and woke DEI lesbian firefighters.

DPS troopers stand guard in front of the Dilley detention center during a protest last weekend. After a week of public outcry over the South Texas Family

Exactly one month into his term, Mayor Zohran Mamdani has appointed a formerly incarcerated person to manage the facility.