PrairiePundit

 I&I: 1-In-3 Americans Distrust Climate-Change Claims Made By Activists, Policymakers: I&I/TIPP Poll   Until recently, the U.S. and the rest of the developed world pursued a costly global policy of “net-zero” carbon emissions to battle the supposed ill-effect of climate change. But President Donald Trump has changed all that by ending the U.S.’ commitment to the global net-zero effort. Will today’s highly partisan voters support Trump? The latest I&I/TIPP Poll data suggest a high-degree of skepticism among many voters over global warming’s threat. ... I have long been a global warming skeptic.  I have been living in South Texas for several decades and while the weather can be warm it is not noticeably warmer than it was decades ago.   The local temperature today is 68 degrees this morning with a high of 77 expected.  All in all, that is a pretty reasonable weather report on a sunny day.  Even in the summer, I have not found the temperatures...

 CNBC: Apple to open AI server factory in Texas as part of $500 billion U.S. investment   Apple  plans to open a new factory for  artificial intelligence  servers in Texas as part of a $500 billion investment in the U.S., the company said Monday. The U.S. technology giant said it would work with partners to launch a 250,000-square-foot server manufacturing facility in Houston to produce servers for Apple Intelligence, its AI personal assistant for iPhone, iPad and Mac computers. The new factory, which is slated to begin operations in 2026, will form part of a major investment plan Apple is committing to over the next four years. In addition to the new Texas facility, Apple said it also plans to hire around 20,000 new employees across the U.S. Most of the new hires will be focused on research and development, or R&D, silicon engineering, software development, and AI and machine learning, Apple said. ... This is a good move for Apple and for Texas.  They ...

 Townhall: Israeli tanks rolled into the West Bank on Sunday as part of an effort to curb terrorist activity amid the war in the Gaza Strip. This marks the first time this has happened in about two decades. This comes as Israel is currently engaged in a ceasefire agreement with the terrorist group Hamas as the two parties exchange prisoners and hostages. Israeli troops are expected to remain in the West Bank for at least one year, according to  NBC News . The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) indicated that Palestinians who have fled the area amid the fighting will not be allowed to return to their homes. Israel is deepening its crackdown on the Palestinian territory and has said it is determined to stamp out militancy amid a rise in attacks. It launched the offensive in the northern West Bank on Jan. 21 — two days after the current ceasefire in Gaza took hold — and expanded it to nearby areas. Palestinians view the deadly raids as part of an effort to cement Israeli control over t...

  Red State: It looks like some heads may be rolling, and soon. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, in an interview with Breitbart News, stated that he has already decided on the investigators that will be looking into the disastrous Charlie-Foxtrot that was the Biden administration's withdrawal from Afghanistan. Pretty much everything about this operation from start to finish was done wrong, and now, we should finally  learn not only who screwed up but how . “We’ve already identified folks that’ll be in charge of that full investigation inside the Pentagon,” Hegseth said in the interview Thursday. “I don’t have a timeframe on it. Sadly, we’ve already waited two-and-a-half years, three years since what occurred. I don’t want to wait longer, but I always want to get it right,” he said. Getting it right is essential, not only to bring accountability to the people who planned and executed this debacle but to make sure it never happens again. In July 2021, the Biden administration ...

 NY Post: Former CBS investigative reporter Catherine Herridge has gone public with pics showing just how egregious her bosses’ attempted seizure of her files on Hunter Biden’s crimes and COVID-19’s origins was. Stack upon stack of documents. Four large boxes of files and notebooks and other records. All emphasizing her status as the paradigmatic example of Biden-era media censorship. Herridge, a veteran investigative reporter, joined CBS in 2019; in October 2020, after getting access to Hunter Biden’s laptop, she dug up damning details from it including the massive retainer Hunter was paid by a shady Chinese energy firm. She went to her bosses with the find; in a sane world, they would have been thrilled and rushed to air before they could be scooped. Instead, CBS never aired her reporting. And then the network sent Lesley Stahl out to publicly cast doubt on the 100% real and verified laptop material. Not content with this effort to help Joe win in 2020, CBS later fired Herridge a...

 Fox News: The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) eliminated federal regulations created during the Obama administration, which Secretary Scott Turner accused of putting "extreme and restrictive demands" on local housing developers. President Donald Trump rescinded the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) rule, created under former President Barack Obama, during his first administration. Trump said at the time in a speech about cutting red tape in the federal government that the rule serves to "eliminate single-family zoning to destroy the value of houses" at the benefit of "far-left Washington bureaucrats." Then-President Joe Biden later worked to reinstate the rule but ultimately pulled back due to fear it could make him politically vulnerable as he sought reelection, according to Politico. On Wednesday, HUD initiated its own rulemaking to squash the Obama-era AFFH rule, which mandated that localities commission extensive ana...

 Just the News: Despite a string of headlines suggesting that the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and its efforts to slash federal waste is hurting President Trump in the polls, the public appears at odds with the media over its perception of the department and on Trump’s first month more broadly. Legacy media has vilified Musk in recent weeks, zeroing in on his oversight of USAID and the Treasury Department’s payment systems to pronounce the imminent end of major entitlements. Others have pointed to the price of eggs and inflation as the administration works to improve the economy. “Trump pledged to bring down food prices on Day One. Instead, eggs are getting more expensive,” read a CNN headline . “Will the backlash to Elon Musk hurt Republicans?” asked Vox . “Musk and DOGE underwater with some voters in recent polling,” Axios reported . Despite the gloomy headlines, polling from legacy polling outlets and upstarts alike seems to show the public more su...

 Blaze: ... She (Pamala Bondi) said the FBI repeatedly assured her that she had received the full set of documents. However, a source later revealed to Bondi that many more documents had been withheld. "Late yesterday, I learned from a source that the FBI Field Office in New York was in possession of thousands of pages of documents related to the investigation and indictment of Epstein," she continued. "Despite my repeated requests, the FBI never disclosed the existence of these files." "When you and I spoke yesterday, you were just as surprised as I was to learn this new information," Bondi wrote, referring to Patel. She noted that the FBI has agreed to hand over the remainder of the documents by 8:00 a.m. on Friday. Bondi vowed to protect Epstein's victims in her office's release of the information. Further, she directed Patel to investigate why the information had been withheld. ... The remaining documents should have been delivered by this morn...

 Newsmax: Six in 10 Democrats view Israel unfavorably, marking the first time that any one political party has held majority levels of anti-Israel sentiment, according to a new Gallup Poll released Thursday. Just 33% of Democrats have a favorable view of Israel, down 14 points from last year, according to the survey. With Republicans holding an 83% favorability of Israel, the 50-point margin between Republicans and Democrats is also a record, shattering the previous high of a 30-point divide in 2024, according to Gallup. "The widening partisan gap likely reflects Democrats' opposition to Israel's actions in the Israel-Hamas war. It could also be a reaction to Trump's strong backing of Israel, highlighted in his meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House earlier this month," Gallup wrote in its analysis. ... If you are siding with a group that engaged in the mass murder of Israeli civilians you are on the wrong side of history and co...

 DC Daily Journal: ... A fiery showdown unfolded during a House Oversight Committee hearing on Tuesday, spotlighting sharp divisions as Chairman James Comer threatened to eject Rep. Maxwell Frost after the Florida Democrat defied a speaking ban sparked by his sharp-tongued critique of President Donald Trump. The drama kicked off when Frost took the floor and didn’t hold back, labeling Trump the “grifter in chief.” His comments ignited a verbal brawl, prompting Comer to clamp down on Frost’s participation for breaching the committee’s standards of decorum. “So if we wanna look at waste, fraud, and abuse — which I’m down to do — why is there complete silence on the other side of the aisle about looking at the complete grifter that is the President of the United States and the richest man on the Earth,” Frost said, adding, “Why don’t we investigate the real corruption?” The jab at Trump drew an immediate objection from Rep. Clay Higgins of Louisiana. Comer stepped in, pressing Frost t...

 Trending Politics: President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have announced a sweeping investigation into the Biden administration’s handling of the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. During his first Cabinet meeting since returning to the White House, Trump signaled that military leaders involved in the withdrawal will face consequences, suggesting that mass firings could take place. When asked whether his administration would remove top military officers who oversaw the operation, Trump did not hesitate. “Well, that’s a great idea,” Trump said. “I’m not going to tell this man what to do, but I will say that if I had his place, I’d fire every single one of them.” Hegseth, who was tapped by Trump to lead the Defense Department, confirmed that a full-scale review is already underway. “We’re doing a complete review of every single aspect of what happened with the botched withdrawal of Afghanistan and plan to have full accountability,” Hegseth said. “It...

 Headline USA: Anti-Trump FBI Official Leaked Sensitive Investigative Info, Emailed Nude Photo of Girlfriend 'The thread contains an email from Thibault’s FBI account to other FBI officials detailing sensitive investigatory information...' The agent is accused of leading the Trump investigation and obstructing the Hunter Biden probe. 

 Newsmax: President Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday outlining a "cost efficiency initiative" for federal agencies working with the Department of Government Efficiency. The order asks agencies to coordinate with the chief of their DOGE team to review contracts and grants and to terminate or modify them "where appropriate." The order also directs the General Services Administration to submit a plan within 60 days to Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought regarding any government-owned real estate that is "no longer needed." Since beginning his second term last month, Trump reportedly has been weighing the sale of two-thirds of the federal government's office supply to the private sector. The GSA owns, manages, and leases much of the government's real estate and controls and takes care of a large number of federal buildings. But a lack of funding has led to many of those buildings being poorly maintained, and they a...

 Red State: Buh-Bye! Trump Admin Closing 110 IRS Offices, Nobody Sad Except DC Bureaucrats and Biden Sycophants ...   The failed Biden administration felt that the agency should be expanded so they could further hassle you, but the Trump Team—along with Elon Musk and the DOGE—have a different plan and have been busy scaling back our bloated federal bureaucracy: The U.S. DOGE Service, which has led the Trump administration’s cost-cutting efforts, has established a  strong foothold  in the GSA and other agencies. The GSA is working with federal agencies to “fully optimize the federal footprint,” acting press secretary Will Powell said. “We’ll share more information on specific savings and facilities as soon as we’re able.” The IRS in recent years opened more assistance centers as part of a push to improve customer service using additional funding made available through the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. [ Editor's note: The ridiculously named "Inflation Reduction Act" w...

 AP: Venezuelan migrants handed over to Mexico like it’s a U.S. immigration detention facility. Families from Central Asia flown to Panama and Costa Rica to await voluntary repatriation to their countries. Venezuelans from Guantanamo Bay handed off on a Honduran tarmac and returned to Caracas . It all sends the unmistakable message that trying to get to the U.S. border is no longer worth it. U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has laid the groundwork to reverse the region’s migration flow. And while the numbers remain modest, an outline of how the U.S. hopes to overcome limited detention space as it gears up its deportation machine is emerging. In its first month, the Trump administration has reached deals with Mexico , Guatemala , El Salvador , Honduras, Costa Rica and Panama to act as stopovers or destinations for migrants expelled from the U.S. It has brokered deals with Venezuela to pick up its people in Texas, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and Honduras. ... The move has dram...

  Empower Mississippi: Senate Bill 2536, sponsored by Sen. Jeff Tate, would require school districts across Mississippi to teach the success sequence. For many years, the success sequence – graduate from high school, work full time, and don’t have kids until you’re married – has been identified as the tool to escape poverty and live a life free of poverty. Data shows that those who follow the steps as younger adults remain out of poverty when they are older. Among adults who are 32-38, only 3 percent of those who followed all three steps are in poverty today. Meanwhile, of those who missed all three steps, 52 percent are in poverty. And the sequence doesn’t care about race or your background. For blacks who follow all three steps, just 4 percent are in poverty as adults. For Hispanics, it is 3 percent. The same rate of whites. So essentially no difference. Among those who grew up poor but followed the three steps, 6 percent are in poverty today. And if you followed the steps, but ...

 National Review: The now-shuttered U.S. Agency for International Development has funneled at least $122 million in approved grants to terror-tied aid charities, including an evangelical Christian group that in 2014 facilitated a $125,000 sub-grant to a Sudanese terrorist organization linked to al-Qaeda’s Osama bin Laden. USAID has long been complicit in funding humanitarian aid groups associated with designated terrorists, such as Hamas and Hezbollah. This is just one egregious example of the waste, fraud, and abuse within USAID that the Trump administration and the Department of Government Efficiency are working to uncover. “There’s a fox loose in the henhouse of our foreign aid system—a system intended to uplift lives abroad that instead has funneled millions of taxpayer dollars to radical and terrorist-linked organizations,” Gregg Roman, executive director of the Middle East Forum, said in his testimony before House Oversight’s DOGE Subcommittee on Wednesday. The Middle East ...

 AP: Thieves have targeted freight trains running through the deserts of California and Arizona in a string of audacious heists resulting in the theft of more than $2 million worth of new Nike sneakers, including many that haven't hit the retail market yet, according to officials and court documents. In a Jan. 13 robbery, suspects cut an air brake hose on a BNSF freight train traveling through a remote section of Arizona and made off with more than 1,900 pairs of unreleased Nikes worth more than $440,000, according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court in Phoenix. Many of the shoes were Nigel Sylvester x Air Jordan 4s, which won’t be available to the public until March 14 and are expected to retail at $225 per pair, the complaint states. It was one of at least 10 heists targeting BNSF trains in remote areas of the Mojave Desert since last March that authorities are investigating, the Los Angeles Times reported. All but one resulted in the theft of Nike sneakers, according...

 The Telegraph: Ukraine has agreed to a US-proposed deal for the rights to its mineral wealth after Donald Trump backed down on his most extreme demands . Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, is set to sign the deal in Washington DC as early as this Friday, bringing to an end a heated dispute with the US president over the terms of the pact. The draft deal does not commit to Ukraine using the profits from its natural resources to repay the United States up to $500bn (£400bn), a key demand of Mr Trump, who has complained that the US “got nothing back” from its support of the Ukrainian war effort. Instead, Kyiv will contribute 50 per cent of the funds raised by future developments of minerals and energy reserves to a joint fund that would be used to invest in projects in Ukraine. The size of the US stake in the fund is not included in the deal but the Financial Times has reported that terms of “joint ownership” deals will be thrashed out in follow-up agreements. The US will not g...

 Business Insider: Russia is relying so heavily on North Korea that it's getting 50% of its ammo from Pyongyang, Ukraine's spy chief says ... Speaking at a press conference in Kyiv, Budanov said Pyongyang was also providing Russia with 155mm self-propelled howitzers and multiple-launch rocket systems. He has previously said that these were the M1989 "Koksan" howitzer and the M1991 system. Over the last year, North Korea has increasingly dedicated resources to help Russia sustain its war against Ukraine. It deployed an estimated 11,000 to 12,000 troops in Kursk late last year. Pyongyang's involvement comes as Moscow and Kyiv focus on outlasting each other along the largely stagnant front lines and as Russia digs deep into its economy to maintain recruitment and weapons production. North Korea isn't giving its resources away for free. Its leader, Kim Jong Un, is reported by South Korean intelligence to be receiving technological assistance from Russian experts,...

 Newsmax: Illegal immigrants in the U.S., including children 14 and older, will be required to submit personal information, such as fingerprints and home addresses, to a registry under a plan being considered by the Trump administration. "Aliens in this country illegally face a choice," Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem wrote in a memo describing the new policy, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday. "They can return home and follow the legal process to come to the United States or they can deal with the consequences of continuing to violate our laws." The move is part of broad efforts by President Donald Trump to crack down on illegal immigration through mass deportations and border security. Previously, illegal immigrants were committing a civil offense and could be detained and deported but weren't considered to have committed a crime, according to the Journal. Those who qualify but fail to register could be fined up to $5,000 and sentenced to up to...

 Blaze: Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem stated on Monday that the agency has identified some of the individuals who are suspected of sabotaging Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids by leaking information about the planned operations. Earlier this month, border czar Tom Homan revealed that a leak undermined an ICE raid in Aurora, Colorado. ICE had targeted over 100 illegal aliens, mostly Tren de Aragua gang members, but agents nabbed only 30 — just one TDA member. ... Attorney General Pam Bondi warned that there would be consequences for anyone divulging such sensitive information “that jeopardizes the lives of our great men and women in law enforcement.” Homan had noted earlier this month that Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove’s office believed it had identified the source of the leaks. On Monday evening, Noem appeared to confirm the development. ... The leakers will probably lose their jobs and may face prosecution.    See also: Homeland Sec...

 Wall Street Journal: Taiwan Detains Ship and Chinese Crew After Undersea Cable Severed Coast guard declares incident national-security matter and possible case of Chinese sabotage Taiwan detained a cargo ship and its eight Chinese crew members after an undersea fiber-optic cable was severed, in a stepped-up effort to police such incidents, which are often seen as part of China’s pressure campaign targeting the self-ruled island. ... Taiwan should be able to interrogate the crew.  Cutting an undersea cable does look like a deliberate act of sabotage. 

Fox News: The left-wing groups backing the anti-DOGE protests across the country have been funding a variety of progressive causes in recent years, including defunding the police, pushing socialism, anti-Israel protests and opposing President Donald Trump’s agenda in general. In a press release earlier this month, MoveOn.org announced that it was mobilizing resources as part of a "Congress Works for Us, Not Musk" initiative "aimed at pressuring lawmakers to fight back against the Trump-Musk agenda." MoveOn.org has taken millions of dollars from George Soros and his Open Society Policy Center in recent years. Soros is one of the most prominent backers in the United States of left-wing issues, including backing progressive district attorneys that set out to "reimagine policing" in the United States. Additionally, Fox News Digital has previously reported on the Soros network's ties to the anti-Israel protests that swept the country on college campuses ...

 NY Post: A Texas border rancher was killed near the border by a suspected cartel IED earlier this month, the Texas Department of Agriculture told The Post Tuesday — as officials issued an urgent safety warning for the Rio Grande Valley. Rancher Antonio Céspedes Saldierna, 74, who worked on both sides of the border, along with Horacio Lopez Peña, were killed in the blast in Tamaulipas, Mexico, which was just south of Brownsville, Texas. Lopez’s wife, Ninfa Griselda Ortega, was hospitalized with injuries. Saldierna was driving on his ranch when he hit the explosive device , causing it to detonate, according to KRGV. Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller said the deadly explosion is part of a “growing threat posed by cartel activity along our southern border ” and encourages ranchers “to exercise extreme caution” in the area. “I encourage everyone in the agricultural industry to stay vigilant, remain aware of their surroundings, and report any suspicious activity to law enforcem...

 American Action News: Acting United States Attorney Ed Martin of the District of Columbia replied to a post Monday showing a video of a woman calling for the assassination of Tesla CEO and White House Senior Advisor Elon Musk. Martin previously opened probes into Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York and Democratic Rep. Robert Garcia of California over allegedly threatening comments they made about Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and U.S. Supreme Court justices, CBS News reported . The TikTok user admitted to not filing her taxes for eight years before she called for Musk’s murder in a video reposte d to X by LibsofTikTok. “I promised myself I would avoid the news,” the woman, who goes by the username “sarahcroberts” on the since-deleted account, said. “But obviously, I haven’t. Here’s my one thought – I have many thoughts – Elon Musk,” before making a gesture that appeared to mimic cutting a throat. ... “Like when you do X him, and by X, I mean formal...

  Elon Musk @elonmusk · 10h It’s not just that borders were “left open”. There was a massive, concerted campaign to usher in as many illegals as possible on an unprecedented scale in order to achieve permanent one-party rule. Treason. Quote Douglass Mackey @DougMackeyCase · 22h BREAKING: Majority (52%) of American voters believe the Democrats kept the border open deliberately -- Harvard/Harris The Democrats should not get a pass on their illegal immigration scam.  They deserved to lose the 2024 election.  One of the main reasons they lost was the immigration issue. See also: Secretary Kristi Noem @Sec_Noem · 10h Under President Trump’s leadership, we’re already seeing historic results at the southern border. We just broke a 15-year record—only 200 encounters in one day, compared to 15,000 daily under Biden. Strong policies. Real results.