Prepared for the Office of Public Affairs (OPA)
U.S. Department of Homeland Security

Editorial Note: The DHS Daily Briefing is a collection of news articles related to Department’s mission. The inclusion of particular stories is not intended to reflect their importance, nor is it intended to endorse the political viewpoints or affiliations included in news coverage.

Washington Times [3/12/2026 5:42 PM, Matt Delaney, 1323K] reports an antisemitic assailant drove a car full of explosives into a Michigan synagogue Thursday just hours after an ISIS-linked gunman launched a deadly attack at a Virginia college, as the U.S. faces an uptick in domestic terror since the Iran war began. Police in Norfolk, Virginia, said the shooter killed one person and wounded two others on Old Dominion University’s campus before being killed. According to some media reports, the shooter died while students were subduing him. Local authorities did not share the gunman’s identity, but the shooter was reported to be Islamic State sympathizer Mohamed Jalloh. The naturalized U.S. citizen from Sierra Leone was convicted in 2017 of providing support to ISIS. He was also a former member of the Army National Guard. Jalloh was sentenced to 11 years in prison for his ties to the terror group but was released in December 2024. FBI Director Kash Patel said students helped thwart his “act of terrorism” around 10:50 a.m. Thursday. “The shooter is now deceased thanks to a group of brave students who stepped in and subdued him — actions that undoubtedly saved lives along with the quick response of law enforcement,” Mr. Patel wrote on X. In Michigan, a driver rammed a bomb-filled vehicle into a synagogue outside Detroit on Thursday afternoon until security guards shot and killed the attacker. Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard said the guards’ actions kept everyone inside Temple Israel safe, including 140 students at a child-care center attached to the house of worship. “Everything that was supposed to happen, happened,” Sheriff Bouchard said. “Security did their job, and then the responders did theirs.” Police said one guard was taken to a hospital after being hit in the initial crash. Officials didn’t share the driver’s identity, but said the suspect was found dead inside his vehicle. Authorities found a stash of explosives in the back of the car. The two incidents Thursday come less than two weeks after the joint U.S.-Israel military strike killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The theocratic regime has a reputation for using asymmetric warfare, such as “lone wolf” actors or cyberattacks, in response to military action from enemy nations. But the Trump administration on Thursday pushed back on reports of an Iranian-led drone swarm reportedly targeting California. White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt called on ABC News to retract its story about the potential for a drone strike because it provided “false information to intentionally alarm the American people.” [Editorial note: extended commentary featured in Terrorism Investigations section].

CNN [3/13/2026 3:33 AM, Emma Tucker and Elizabeth Wolfe, 19874K] reports a pair of attacks over 700 miles apart on Thursday struck at the heart of community safe havens, leaving shocked Americans with an uneasy sense of security. First, a deadly shooting being investigated as terrorism devastated a Virginia university in a military town. Hours later, a targeted vehicle-ramming attack on a Michigan synagogue left congregants shaken to their core. The shooting at Virginia’s Old Dominion University was committed by a veteran who was a convicted ISIS supporter. The attacker was able to kill one person and injure two others before a classroom of ROTC students subdued and killed him, the FBI said. Then, a vehicle rammed into the Temple Israel synagogue in West Bloomfield Township in an attack the FBI said targeted the Jewish community, carried out by a US citizen who was born in Lebanon, the Department of Homeland Security said. The synagogue had been on high alert for potential violence in the weeks before the building became engulfed in flames after the suspect drove through it with a rifle and a large number of explosives, officials said. Though the motive in the attack is still unknown, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said there is a clear "nexus" between the Iran war and the attack, adding it’s no coincidence the suspect targeted a synagogue named Temple Israel. The attacks are among four acts of violence that have rattled Americans’ collective consciousness in recent weeks. The two attacks on Thursday came just days after two terror suspects were accused of tossing makeshift bombs at a protest outside the New York City mayor’s home Saturday in what authorities have described as an ISIS-inspired attack. Less than two weeks earlier in Austin, Texas, a shooter wearing a hoodie emblazoned with the Iranian flag killed three people and injured over a dozen others in the city’s bustling entertainment district. Though the motive is still under investigation, authorities are investigating whether the shooter was inspired in part by US and Israeli strikes on Iran that weekend, multiple law enforcement officials briefed on the case said. The country is in a "heightened threat environment" since the onset of the war with Iran, a "state sponsor of terrorism," said Jeh Johnson, Homeland Security secretary under President Obama. He urged people to remain "vigilant.". [Editorial note: extended commentary featured in Terrorism Investigations section].

NewsMax [3/12/2026 8:25 PM, Solange Reyner, 3760K] reports former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said Thursday he believes the White House is closely monitoring potential threats both overseas and within the United States, describing an intensified intelligence posture amid ongoing security concerns. Speaking on Newsmax’s "Ed Henry The Big Take," Meadows said officials across multiple federal agencies are maintaining heightened vigilance and providing frequent intelligence updates to the president and senior advisers. "Well, I can tell you it’s on high alert. It has been on high alert," Meadows said, referring to the administration’s response to potential threats. "Those individuals that look at the intelligence reports, both the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security, as well as those in the Oval Office, are continuing to get a readout.". Meadows said the White House is receiving multiple intelligence briefings beyond the president’s standard daily briefing as officials assess evolving risks. "I can tell you, you’re getting multiple readouts in the White House, more so than just your daily briefing," he said. "This is around-the-clock kind of vigil where they’re looking at the potential threats.". His comments come as officials remain focused on security concerns tied to conflicts overseas and possible implications for domestic safety following two incidents in the U.S. Thursday. In Michigan, a man armed with a rifle rammed his vehicle into one of the nation’s largest reform synagogues in a Detroit suburb. In Virginia, a gunman yelled "Allahu Akbar" before opening fire in an Old Dominion University classroom, killing one and wounding two, according to the FBI, which said the shooter had been in the Army and pleaded guilty in 2016 to attempting to aid the Islamic State. Meadows said the situation requires constant monitoring from federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies. "Obviously, the two things that you reported on earlier could have ended very, very differently without the heroic actions of those in and around," Meadows said. Despite those responses, Meadows urged continued awareness from both government officials and the public. "I will say we all have to be vigilant," he said. Meadows also argued that immigration policies have contributed to security concerns, criticizing what he described as years of weak border enforcement. "This is what happens when you have open borders for so long and you have a lack of law and order," he said. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Reuters [3/12/2026 12:07 PM, Nate Raymond, 38315K] reports the Justice Department has hired 42 new immigration judges, many with backgrounds in immigration enforcement, as President Donald Trump’s administration moves to reshape the immigration court system by restocking its ranks with people it dubs "deportation judges." The Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review said a new class of immigration ‌judges was sworn in on Wednesday to serve in immigration courts in 17 states including California, Florida, New York, New Jersey and Texas. The hires are part of a broader push by the Trump administration to bring immigration courts into closer alignment with its hardline deportation policies, replacing judges it has fired or pushed out with appointees who largely have backgrounds in prosecution or immigration enforcement. Immigration judges are not ⁠part of the federal judiciary but instead work as part of the Justice Department. The Trump administration has taken the position that the president and Attorney General Pam Bondi have the constitutional right to remove immigration judges as inferior officers. The 42 new judges come on top of 20 other permanent hires EOIR has announced since October. The office has also brought on dozens of temporary judges, many with military backgrounds, who could serve up to six months, after firing more than 100 judges since Trump took office last year. The latest hires also include several judges with ⁠military backgrounds. More commonly, however, they share experience as prosecutors or in immigration enforcement.

Breitbart [3/12/2026 11:57 AM, Staff, 2238K] reports Transportation Security Administration employees will miss their first paycheck Saturday because of the partial government shutdown while senators try to find a way forward. The Department of Homeland Security shutdown began Feb. 14 after Congress approved funding for all other departments, but Democrats refused to fund Homeland Security without guardrails on immigration enforcement and then-secretary Kristi Noem. Republicans and President Donald Trump are refusing to take that step. On Wednesday, the Senate debated options to get funding for the department, but no bill was passed. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., offered an option of funding all other agencies within the DHS except Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection. That would give more time to debate those two agencies while allowing funding for TSA, Coast Guard, Federal Emergency Management Agency, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. "As for the rest of DHS that does important work to keep Americans safe like FEMA, Coast Guard, TSA, Democrats are here, we are trying to fund those agencies — while ICE and Border Patrol negotiations continue," CNBC reported Murray said.

CBS News [3/12/2026 2:27 PM, Kaia Hubbard, 51110K] reports the Senate failed again on Thursday to advance a measure to fund the Department of Homeland Security, with the impasse growing increasingly acrimonious nearly a month into the partial shutdown. In a 51 to 46 vote, the measure fell short of the 60-vote threshold needed to move forward. The vote was Senate Republicans’ fourth attempt to advance the measure, which would fund DHS through September. Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania was the only Democrat to vote yes. The department has been shut down since Feb. 14, after lawmakers allowed funding to lapse amid a disagreement over how to reform Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection, which are part of DHS. Democrats have opposed funding without reforms since the fatal shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good by federal agents in Minnesota in January. Democrats and Republicans alike have said they are nowhere near an agreement. The two sides have been trading blame in recent days as the shutdown’s strains have begun to be felt, with long security lines stretching through airports. TSA agents are set to miss their first full paycheck this week. Absences have more than doubled, and hundreds of TSA workers have quit. Both sides have pursued creative approaches to remedy the funding lapse. Ahead of the vote on Thursday, Republicans attempted to pass a short-term measure by unanimous consent to fund DHS while negotiations continue. Democrats blocked it. Democrats then attempted to pass measures to fund TSA, CISA, the Coast Guard and FEMA, which DHS also oversees. Republicans blocked those. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer outlined Democrats’ position on the Senate floor Thursday, saying "we all know that we do not have agreement on how to deal with ICE." But he argued "we don’t have to tie that disagreement up and use people at the airports and American citizens as hostages." Senate Majority Leader John Thune responded to Schumer, reminding him that Republicans have tried repeatedly to pass a temporary measure to keep all of DHS funded as negotiations over immigration enforcement continue.

DailySignal [3/12/2026 5:20 PM, Virginia Grace McKinnon, 474K] reports Democrats again voted down a measure to reopen the Department of Homeland Security, leaving the agency with a lapse in appropriations that is 27 days and counting. Senate Republicans only needed seven Democrats to break ranks for the 60 votes necessary to reopen the department, but the measure failed by a vote of 51-46. After two Immigration and Customs Enforcement protesters were shot and killed by immigration agents in Minnesota in January, Democrats have made clear they will not fund the agency without major reforms to immigration enforcement. More than 300 TSA workers have quit, according to CBS News, and security lines have increased at airports across the country. Democrats now want to attempt to fund only the department’s agencies that do not involve immigration, like TSA and FEMA. NewsMax [3/12/2026 4:58 PM, Nicole Weatherholtz, 3760K] reports that the lapse in DHS funding has coincided with the start of a busy travel season, raising concerns about longer security lines as TSA workers manage increased passenger traffic while going without paychecks. Many transportation security officers already live paycheck to paycheck, according to TSA. During last year’s record-breaking government shutdown, the agency said more than 1,100 security officers left their jobs — a more than 25% increase in separations compared with the same period the year before. Airport-led donation drives are subject to federal ethics rules. According to TSA guidance circulated during last fall’s shutdown, management can accept donations from travelers on behalf of the agency and distribute them to front-line workers. However, officials cannot accept cash or cash-equivalent gift cards, such as prepaid VISA cards. Democrats have proposed funding certain agencies such as FEMA and TSA separately, while Republicans have floated a measure to temporarily fund the entire department. Both proposals have failed. The Senate is expected to vote again Thursday on DHS funding, but the measure is widely expected to fail, with both sides pointing fingers at each other for the nearly month-long standoff. Meanwhile, TSA agents will miss their first full paycheck on Friday.

Reported similarly:
ABC News [3/12/2026 5:17 PM, Tesfaye Negussie and Yi-Jin Yu, 34146K]
FOX News [3/12/2026 4:10 PM, Ashley J. DiMella, 37576K]

NewsNation [3/12/2026 3:03 PM, Zach Kaplan, 4464K] reports airports across the country are setting up food banks and requesting donations for Transportation Security Administration workers who continue to work without full paychecks amid the partial government shutdown. It’s the second time in recent months they’ve had to work without pay after last fall’s record 43-day shutdown. Republicans blocked a Democratic effort Wednesday to fund all agencies within DHS except those related to immigration enforcement. The proposal aimed to restore funding and pay for TSA employees and other nonimmigration agencies within DHS. The Washington Examiner [3/12/2026 1:25 PM, Asher Notheis, 1147K] reports Denver International Airport is requesting that flyers donate gift cards to TSA, as the Department of Homeland Security’s shutdown has reached almost four weeks. The airport issued its request on Wednesday to "support the dedicated TSA employees working without pay." Axios [3/12/2026 5:39 PM, Avery Lotz, Christine Clarridge, 17364K] reports Seattle-Tacoma International Airport is collecting donations of food and other items for Transportation Security Administration employees working without pay amid the second government shutdown in six months. SEA opened a food pantry for TSA agents and is asking for donations of non-perishables, hygiene products and baby supplies. Airport dining and retail tenants are helping stock the pantry, with some offering meals and discounts to security staff. So far, the shutdown hasn’t slowed security lines at the airport, where officials say waits are currently about 10–12 minutes with 93% of travelers clearing the line within 20 minutes. Other airports are launching similar efforts. Many transportation security officers already work paycheck to paycheck, TSA says. The agency reported that during last year’s record-long government shutdown, more than 1,100 security officers departed, a more than 25% increase in separations from the same period the prior year. Democrats have proposed funding certain agencies like FEMA and TSA, while Republicans floated a measure to temporarily fund all of DHS. Both efforts failed. According to TSA guidance shared during last fall’s shutdown, management can accept donations from travelers on behalf of TSA to share with front-line workers. However, they can’t accept cash or cash-equivalent gift cards, like VISA cards. FOX News [3/12/2026 4:10 PM, Ashley J. DiMella, 37576K] reports as the lapse in funding at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) continues, many Transportation Security Administration officers (TSA) are "struggling." Fundraisers have begun popping up at airports across the country. Some TSA officers are receiving only partial paychecks — while many are receiving no pay at all. Over 300 airport security officers have left TSA since the start of the DHS shutdown, with callouts — or unscheduled absences — rising to an average of 6% during the shutdown, a TSA official confirmed to Fox News Digital this week.

Wall Street Journal [3/12/2026 6:12 PM, Anvee Bhutani, 646K] reports lawmakers boarded planes Thursday and headed home for the weekend, passing through security checkpoints manned by agents working without pay, as Democrats and Republicans blamed each other for the monthlong impasse over funding the Department of Homeland Security. Funding for DHS lapsed on Feb. 14, held up over demands from Democrats that new restrictions be placed on Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations as a condition for funding its parent agency. Since then, lawmakers have made no progress in resolving the standoff. The shutdown has forced a swath of federal workers—including Transportation Security Administration officers at airports—to continue working without pay, contributing to staffing shortages and long security lines at some airports across the country. TSA employees received partial paychecks earlier this month and are due to miss a full paycheck in coming days, spurring absenteeism just as spring break travel is kicking off. Democrats again blocked a measure to fund DHS on Thursday afternoon. Earlier in the day, Republicans blocked a proposal by Democrats to fund individual parts of DHS, including the TSA and Coast Guard but not ICE. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R., S.D.) and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) sparred on the floor Thursday morning. “There has been offers made repeatedly,” Thune said. “The Democrats have yet to respond.” Schumer shot back, saying that Thune “is saying he will only fund TSA if we will continue to fund, for a short time, for a long time, ICE and Border Patrol,” Schumer said. “Just fund TSA.” The New York Times [3/12/2026 2:32 PM, Carl Hulse, 148038K] reports that with Democrats refusing to back money for the agency without significant new restrictions on federal immigration officers, legislation providing new funding failed on a vote of 51 to 46, well short of the 60 votes required to advance the bill. All but one Democrat, Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, voted no. The outcome meant that agencies including the Transportation Security Administration, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Coast Guard and a federal cybersecurity office would continue without funding, leaving thousands of employees without paychecks, as they have been since the closure began on Feb. 14. Border control and immigration enforcement agencies are operating with additional funding approved separately by Republicans last year.

Washington Examiner [3/12/2026 12:11 PM, Asher Notheis, 1147K] reports the United States is almost two weeks into Operation Epic Fury, its joint military operation with Israel in Iran, and President Donald Trump said at the start of the conflict that it would take approximately four weeks. Bedford highlighted that some Republicans, such as Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), are actively in favor of the U.S. involvement in this operation, but there is still "a lot of hesitance, risk aversion" among Republicans about the conflict being unpopular with Trump. "You had [Senate Majority Leader John] Thune, [House Majority Speaker Mike] Johnson (R-LA), other party leaders who really wanted to see a pivot to affordability messaging and things like that ahead of the midterms," Bedford said on the Hugh Hewitt Show. "They don’t want something that, one, takes the focus off of that messaging, but also might actively hurt, sort of, conditions on the ground for voters, [like] if you see prices at the pump going up, if you see inflation go up as a result of the war." "So most Republicans are really approaching this with skepticism over their political fears," Bedford said. She also said Republicans are "overall" trying to "play it safe on winnable fights." She added that the steps they are taking include pushing a bipartisan housing bill in the Senate and funding the Department of Homeland Security.

FOX News [3/12/2026 6:42 PM, Staff, 37576K] Video: HERE reports Fox News chief congressional correspondent Chad Pergram reports on the DHS funding battle after the Senate blocked a test vote to end the partial government shutdown on ‘Special Report.’

AP [3/12/2026 3:13 PM, Staff, 31753K] reports California Gov. Gavin Newsom said there was no imminent threat to the state, despite a warning from the FBI that Iran could send drones to the West Coast in retaliation for war. Newsom said drone issues “have always been top of mind.” “We’ve been aware of that information. ... It’s all about a posture of preparedness for worst-case scenarios,” the governor said Wednesday. The FBI recently warned police departments about Iran and a possible California strike, though the alert also said it was “unverified information.” “Iran allegedly aspired to conduct a surprise attack using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) from an unidentified vessel off the coast of the United States homeland, specifically against unspecified targets in California, in the event the U.S. conducted strikes against Iran,” the alert said. “We have no additional information on the timing, method, target, or perpetrators of this alleged attack,” the alert said. The alert was posted on X by an FBI spokesperson after a report by ABC News. Separately, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on X that the message to law enforcement was a tip based on “unverified intelligence.”

Reported similarly:
CNN [3/12/2026 3:33 PM, Holmes Lybrand and Josh Campbell, 612K]

Breitbart [3/12/2026 11:02 AM, Jeff Poor, 2238K] reports Wednesday on FNC’s "Hannity," Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) warned the United States was at risk for a terrorist attack. According to the Texas Republican, the threat was higher now than it had been in decades because of porous borders under the previous regime and the government shutdown impacting the Department of Homeland Security. Cruz said, "Well, Sean, as we sit here right now tonight, the threat of terrorist attack is higher now than it has been in decades. And there are two causes of it. Number one, we had four years under Joe Biden of open borders. We had 12 million people flood across the border — basically an open invitation to every terrorist, every Hamas and Hezbollah and IRGC terrorist come to America. We have seen in just the last week two terrorist attacks unfold. We saw just over a week ago in Austin, Texas, a deranged killer showing up in a sweatshirt that said ‘property of Allah’ in a T-shirt underneath with an Iranian flag opened fire at a bar in Austin, Texas, killing several Texans, wounding more than a dozen more. It was a brazen act of terrorism. Then we saw just a couple of days ago, two ISIS terrorists from Pennsylvania travel to New York and throw two handmade bombs. Bombs filled with nails and bolts designed to kill as many people as possible. Fortunately, these terrorists were not very bright terrorists. So, they didn’t actually know how to make bombs that worked. So, the bombs didn’t detonate." "But the terrorists told the Department of Justice they had hoped to kill a lot more people than the Boston bombers did at the Boston Marathon," he continued. "Those are the two terrorist attacks we’ve seen, and we are at danger of more. We have had radical Muslim clerics in the Middle East call for fatwas, issue fatwas against America, instruct Islamists to try to kill as many Americans as they can. And I got to tell you the most indefensible part of all of this — at a time when we are facing profound threats of terrorism, every single Democrat except John Fetterman has voted over and over and over again to shut down the Department of Homeland Security. The Department of Homeland Security, its central purpose is to prevent acts of terrorism. And the Democrats are saying defund DHS when we’re facing a massive risk of terrorism.".

Reported similarly:
New York Post [3/12/2026 1:02 PM, Ryan King, 40934K]

San Francisco Chronicle [3/12/2026 8:36 PM, Sara DiNatale, 3833K] reports the Trump administration is keeping Congress in the dark about the war in Iran and potential threats to California, Democratic members of the House Homeland Security Committee said Thursday. Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Castro Valley, said the administration is refusing to brief Congress, leaving him and other state leaders without any information about what the FBI “actually knows” about nonspecific threats to California and which cities could be at risk. Bay Area law enforcement agencies said Wednesday they were in touch with federal officials after ABC News reported that the FBI last month warned local officers that Iran “allegedly aspired to conduct a surprise attack” by drone-striking the West Coast. “We are ready to protect the homeland and put resources where they have to go,” said Swalwell, who is running for governor, in a virtual press conference from Washington, D.C. “But we don’t have a partner right now in doing that. We have a lot of political theater.” The Democrats’ criticisms and demand for more transparency about the war in Iran highlights tensions between the administration and Congress, which did not vote to declare war. Lawmakers last week voted down a resolution that would have required President Donald Trump to seek congressional approval for further actions against Iran. Democrats have challenged the legality of U.S. strikes on Iran, and charged that Trump has failed to articulate a clear plan for the country’s actions in the Middle East. “You can’t fight a war in secret,” said Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., the ranking member of the Homeland Security Committee. The White House did not immediately respond to questions, but touted its handling of the war in a Thursday press release. The White House said it’s executing “Operation Epic Fury” with “lethal precision." It said the military’s objectives were to dismantle Iran’s weapon capacity and production, destroy its navy and terrorism regime, and ensure the country “will never acquire a nuclear weapon.” News of the FBI alert broke hours after New York Times reported that a preliminary military investigation determined the U.S. was responsible for a deadly missile strike on an Iranian elementary school, compounding a rough media cycle for the Trump administration as it faces mounting public and congressional pressure over an unpopular war. The White House ultimately challenged the credibility of the warning to local law enforcement. On Thursday, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt demanded a retraction from ABC News, and accused the news organization of ignoring that the intelligence was unverified to intentionally alarm Americans. “They wrote this based on one email that was sent to local law enforcement in California about a single, unverified tip,” Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote on social media. “TO BE CLEAR: No such threat from Iran to our homeland exists, and it never did.”

Breitbart [3/12/2026 12:48 PM, Nick Gilbertson, 2238K] reports President Donald Trump torched Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), spoke glowingly of his primary challenger, Navy SEAL veteran Ed Gallrein, and also indirectly called out the Senate for having a "hard time" in passing the SAVE America Act, during a stop in Kentucky on Thursday. Trump laid into Massie for a good ten minutes while speaking at Verst Logistics in Hebron, where Breitbart News, as part of the travel pool, was on hand. Trump bashed Massie as "the worst person," and proceeded to underscore that he opposed the One Big Beautiful Bill and all of the tax cuts it brought Americans. "Massie voted against tax cuts for seniors, he voted against tax cuts for overtime workers, and he voted against tax cuts for earners; tip earners, no. He wanted to increase the taxes. He voted with the Democrats," Trump said. "He voted against border security, where we took the worst border in the history of our country, made it the best border in the history of our country in two and a half months… and he voted against eligibility verification for welfare recipients," the president added. Trump further highlighted that Massie voted with Democrats against reopening the government during the Democrats’ 42-day shutdown in October.

NewsMax [3/12/2026 10:20 PM, Staff, 3760K] reports Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., told Newsmax on Thursday that the Senate should hold a vote on the SAVE America Act so lawmakers are forced to publicly declare their positions on the election integrity proposal. Paul, a co-sponsor of the Senate version of the bill introduced by Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, said on "Finnerty" that Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., is expected to bring the measure forward soon. "I think there is going to be a vote, hopefully within the next week," Paul said. "And I spoke with [Thune] yesterday. I think we need to put everybody on record.". The SAVE America Act would require proof of citizenship to register to vote and require voters to present photo identification to cast a ballot. It would restrict voting by mail to limited circumstances such as illness, disability, military service, or travel. Paul said lawmakers should not be allowed to quietly oppose the measure behind closed doors. "They can tell you privately they’re voting for something, or they’re not going to vote [for] something, put them on record," he said. "We’ll have the traditional vote, and it will not get to 60. But let’s see if we get to 50.". The Kentucky Republican said that if the measure reaches a simple majority, Republicans could consider how to proceed under Senate rules. "If we get to 50, then with the vice president we have 51," Paul said. "Then we can debate, are we going to try to push this to see if we can get it with a simple majority?". The House passed its version of the SAVE America Act on Feb. 11. The measure has faced opposition from some Republicans in the Senate, including Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, as well as most Democrats. Paul said holding a formal vote is the only way to determine where senators truly stand. "Well, I think we need to call them out and vote," he said. "So, until you vote, you don’t know who is ... because people quietly try to kill things by saying, I’m not going to vote for it.". Paul added that public pressure from a recorded vote could influence lawmakers who privately signal opposition. "There’s actually much more pressure that comes to bear when an actual vote happens," he said. "So it may be that people are saying, because they don’t want to vote on this, they’re telling leadership they’re going to vote no, but when push comes to shove, they actually will be a yes.". "So," Paul concluded, "we have to have the vote." [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Daily Caller [3/12/2026 10:17 AM, Nicole Silverio, 803K] reports Democratic Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman said on Wednesday that he will never vote for the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act in its current form. Fetterman said on "The Takeout with Major Garrett" that he is against restrictions on mail-in voting, arguing that it is safe and has even been supported by Republicans. The SAVE Act would require all Americans to show proof of citizenship with documentation in person before voting, which would largely impact mail-based and online voter registration. "I don’t support [it] in its current state to vote Save America. And the president is constantly critical on mail-in voting, and that’s ridiculous," Fetterman said. "It’s safe. Some of the best examples in the country are from red states like Ohio and Florida, of course. And now I have a unique perspective on that too, as in 2019, as I was lieutenant governor, the Republicans in Pennsylvania pushed for mail-in voting." Fetterman acknowledged that most Americans support some form of voter identification and stated he would vote for legislation that required Americans to show ID before voting. He also argued that the legislation will never pass the filibuster.

Reported similarly:
The Hill [3/12/2026 8:14 AM, Alexander Bolton, 18170K]

NewsMax [3/12/2026 12:18 PM, Staff, 3760K] reports Rep. Mary Miller, R-Ill., said Thursday on Newsmax’s "National Report" that passing the SAVE Act is "ground zero to save our country," urging the Senate to bring the election integrity legislation to the floor and put lawmakers on record. "It’s absolutely necessary, and I believe it’s going to happen under the strong leadership of President Trump," Miller said when asked about the possibility of Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., allowing debate on the bill. Miller argued the legislation is central to protecting U.S. elections, linking it to broader concerns about immigration and voter verification. "This is ground zero to save our country," she said, adding, "Barack Obama’s dream to fundamentally transform our country is not dead. The Democrats are carrying it on.". According to Miller, election integrity and border policy are connected. "DHS funding and this issue of election integrity, voter ID and proof of citizenship, it is tied together," she said. "The Democrats opened the border to bring voters in, and now they want to ensure that they are able to cast their vote, canceling out Americans’ eligible votes.".

Washington Examiner [3/12/2026 12:53 PM, David Sivak, 1147K] reports Senate Republicans are planning a marathon debate on President Donald Trump’s marquee elections bill, a move designed to ease tensions with the MAGA Right after Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) ruled out a talking filibuster. Thune’s staff has been gaming out days of floor debate that are likely to begin next Monday or Tuesday, according to two sources familiar with the discussions. Also involved are the White House legislative affairs office and Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), the lead co-sponsor of the legislation, dubbed the SAVE America Act. The contours of that process are still coming together, with Thune first announcing the strategy to his conference on Tuesday, but the overall goal is to replicate a talking filibuster, a way to skirt the usual 60-vote threshold. The strategy falls short of Lee’s request, amplified by Trump and outside activists, that Thune implement a genuine talking filibuster, which only requires 50 votes, and send the bill to the president’s desk. Thune announced earlier this week that he lacked the GOP support to go that route, sparking new rounds of criticism from the Right. Under Thune’s plan, the 60-vote marker remains intact, but Republicans would try to put public pressure on Democrats on everything from voter ID to unrelated topics like transgender politics, issues that Trump wants to make a litmus test for the midterm elections. Both sides would get time to speak in support or opposition to the bill, though Republicans control what gets brought up for a vote, and much of the strategy involves keeping Democrats on defense.

Axios [3/12/2026 6:55 PM, Staff, 17364K] reports President Trump’s suggestion that Republicans attach the SAVE America Act to the must-pass reauthorization of FISA is already complicating one of Congress’ most contentious upcoming fights. Reauthorizing Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is always messy — and it’s shaping up to be a major headache for House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.). The House is expected to move first, with GOP leaders eyeing a vote during the upcoming work period so the Senate has time to move before FISA — which allows warrantless wiretapping of non-U.S. citizens overseas — lapses on April 20. The House has just 12 session days before that deadline. Trump told House Republicans at their retreat this week he’d like to attach the SAVE Act to the FISA reauthorization, a change from the administration’s prior position in favor of a clean extension. "Maybe you put them together, because a lot of people feel very strongly about FISA," Trump said. GOP leadership has also signaled it would prefer a clean extension. A handful of conservatives, including Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), were already floating the idea of linking the two, warning they’d seek to tank FISA without SAVE.

FOX News [3/12/2026 12:30 PM, Stepheny Price, 37576K] reports for the first time in its more than 75-year history, the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list will include an alleged cybercriminal — and officials say it’s a sign of how today’s biggest threats don’t just carry guns, they carry malware. Anibal Aguirre, who also goes by "Prometheus," becomes Fugitive No. 540 on the FBI’s most notorious roster. Investigators say he is the alleged architect behind a sweeping ATM "jackpotting" scheme that uses custom-built malware to force cash machines across the United States to spit out money on command. But authorities say this isn’t just high-tech theft. Federal prosecutors allege the operation funnels millions of dollars to Tren de Aragua (TdA), the violent Venezuelan transnational criminal organization that U.S. officials describe as a terrorist group. "The violent criminals on the FBI’s Top Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list are the worst of the worst, and they are in the FBI’s sights," FBI Director Kash Patel said in a statement ahead of the announcement. "For more than 75 years, the Ten Most Wanted Fugitives program has been one of the FBI’s most powerful tools for bringing dangerous criminals to justice." Patel makes clear the Bureau is counting on the public.

Reported similarly:
NewsNation [3/12/2026 5:52 PM, Andrew Dorn, 4464K]

NewsMax [3/12/2026 3:49 PM, Solange Reyner, 3760K] reports a coalition of longtime allies of President Donald Trump, groups advocating stricter immigration policies, and conservative policy experts has formed a new advocacy group aimed at pressing the administration to intensify deportation efforts against migrants in the United States, reported Politico. The group, called the Mass Deportation Coalition, says it plans to lobby the administration to prioritize the removal of all migrants who are legally eligible for deportation, arguing that immigration enforcement must be significantly expanded to address unlawful entry and overstays. The push comes as the White House told Republicans to say the focus is on deporting just hardened criminals. Axios on Tuesday reported that White House deputy chief of staff James Blair told House Republicans to stop rhetoric on mass deportations and focus on deporting violent criminals, though the report was disputed by the Trump administration.

Politico [3/12/2026 4:45 AM, Samuel Benson, 21784K] reports top allies of President Donald Trump are furious at the White House’s new rhetorical emphasis on deporting violent criminals over all unauthorized immigrants — and they’re launching a lobbying effort to reverse that reversal. A group of longtime Trump allies, immigration restrictionist groups and hawkish policy experts have formed the Mass Deportation Coalition to lobby the Trump administration to refocus its efforts on deporting all eligible migrants. The group has commissioned new polling from one of Trump’s top pollsters to back its thesis that doing so will ensure GOP wins this November, and plans to share that data with White House officials, agency heads and every member of Congress. The new poll was conducted by McLaughlin & Associates, a pollster that Trump has used in all of his presidential elections, and shared exclusively with POLITICO. It found that 66 percent of likely 2026 voters support deporting any migrants who enter the country illegally. When asked if they support deporting all deportable migrants, not just violent criminals, a majority (58 percent) say they do. Eighty-seven percent of Trump 2024 voters surveyed, including 79 percent of Hispanic Trump voters, want the president to exceed the previous largest deportation effort in history, led in the 1950s by former President Dwight D. Eisenhower. “Overwhelmingly, Trump voters expect this from the administration. They don’t just support it, they expect it,” said Chris Chmielenski, president of the Immigration Accountability Project, which advocates for conservative immigration policy. “This is a good way to re-energize the base as we move into the midterms, the same way that Trump was able to do so in the lead up to the 2024 general election.” The new coalition includes Mark Morgan, the former acting commissioner of Customs and Border Protection under Trump; Erik Prince, a Trump ally and former Blackwater CEO; as well as a number of conservative think-tanks and lobbying groups close to the Trump administration including the Heritage Foundation, Federation for American Immigration Reform, American Moment, and the Claremont Institute. Morgan, who also served as chief of the U.S. Border Patrol under both former President Barack Obama and Trump, said a deportation strategy that involves targeting only violent criminals, gang members or terrorists for deportation is “a Clinton-Obama-Biden policy. And it’s historically been a disastrous failure.” The campaign comes as other Republican strategists and lawmakers warn Trump’s mass deportation agenda is becoming increasingly unpopular following ICE operations in Minnesota that killed two U.S. citizens, and could hurt the party’s chances of retaining control of Congress. Since then, the administration has pivoted its message on immigration enforcement while overhauling its leadership at DHS. Border czar Tom Homan replaced CBP chief Greg Bovino in Minneapolis and drew down the immigration enforcement presence there; the president ousted DHS Secretary Kristi Noem last week and tapped Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) to replace her; and even Trump, in his State of the Union address, focused mostly on border security and deporting violent criminals.

New York Times [3/12/2026 6:50 PM, Patricia Mazzei and Nick Corasaniti, 148038K] reports Republican state lawmakers in Florida passed a bill on Thursday that would require voters to verify their citizenship when registering and limit which forms of identification they can present at the polls. Critics say the new requirements would result in the removal of perhaps thousands of voters from the rolls and in the disenfranchisement of young voters. The bill passed in the State House by a 77-28 vote, hours after clearing the State Senate. The votes in both chambers were along strict partisan lines, with all Democrats against the measure. Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, said in a social media post on Thursday that he supported the legislation. The bill’s enactment would make Florida the most populous state in the country to impose proof-of-citizenship requirements on voters, a critical goal for President Trump as he seeks to maintain Republican control of Congress. But the Florida requirements would take effect next year, not before this year’s midterm elections. “This is about the integrity of our elections,” one of the bill’s sponsors, State Senator Erin Grall, a Republican from Vero Beach, said on the Senate floor on Wednesday. “It is something that puts greater trust into our system.” Under the bill, Floridians would have to provide proof of citizenship, such as a birth certificate or passport, when they register to vote. Every existing voters’ citizenship would be verified against government databases, such as Real ID, when the bill goes into effect. If no citizenship document came up, the local elections supervisor would notify the voter by mail; to stay registered, the voter would have to bring proof of citizenship, such as a passport or a birth certificate, to this or her county elections office. About 98 percent of Floridians have Real IDs, according to a state motor vehicle department report in 2023, though about 872,000 residents still do not, Ms. Grall said.

Axios [3/12/2026 3:03 PM, Yacob Reyes, 17364K] reports at the center of a clash between Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier and Tampa Mayor Jane Castor is a question: Should police agencies share the immigration statuses of crime victims and witnesses with federal authorities? Uthmeier thinks so — and at least in Tampa, he may get his way. Research has consistently found that fear of immigration consequences can discourage undocumented victims and witnesses from cooperating with police, which can undermine public safety. Uthmeier gave Castor until the end of the month to direct the Tampa Police Department to reverse policies that prohibit disclosure of the immigration status of victims or witnesses. Other policies flagged by the attorney general include a restriction on officers engaging in "broad-based" immigration enforcement actions. Castor said in a statement released Wednesday afternoon that the city will review its policies to ensure "we use best efforts to support the enforcement of federal immigration law."

Chicago Tribune [3/12/2026 4:48 PM, Madeline Buckley and Sam Charles, 5209K] reports a group of community members, organizations and politicians are petitioning a court to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate and potentially prosecute wrongdoing by federal immigration agents during the Trump administration’s Operation Midway Blitz, accusing Cook County State’s Attorney Eileen O’Neill Burke of failing to act. The petition, filed Thursday in Cook County Circuit Court and signed by clergy, aldermen, county commissioners, unions and advocacy groups, outlines numerous clashes between agents and civilians throughout the fall, most seriously, the killing of Silverio Villegas González in September and the wounding of Marimar Martinez in October. The petition is the latest effort attempting to find ways to hold federal agents accountable for alleged misconduct during immigration enforcement operations in the Chicago area. The issue of state prosecutors pursuing criminal charges against immigration agents has been a matter of public debate as well as the subject of an unusually public squabble between Burke and Mayor Brandon Johnson. Art added that a county judge will first hear the petition later this month. With little faith in federal investigations, community members have pushed for state actors to provide accountability for violence perpetrated by federal agents, but Burke’s office has said the law only allows state prosecutors to pursue charges against on-duty federal agents in narrow circumstances. Her office has also said that it generally reviews cases that are referred by law enforcement and does not undertake boots-on-the-ground investigations.

NewsMax [3/12/2026 6:25 PM, Sam Barron, 3760K] reports Border czar Tom Homan and outgoing Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem were barely on speaking terms, so Homan is working to ensure he has a better relationship with Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., who was named by President Donald Trump to replace Noem last week, Politico reported. Homan has introduced Mullin to key allies of the president along with people shaping immigration policy, Politico reported. Under Noem, Homan felt frozen out of important decisions and disagreed with how immigration law was enforced in large cities. Homan was sent to Minneapolis to ease tensions after federal agents were involved in two fatal shootings of U.S. citizens. "He just wants to make sure that he plays a larger role in how interior enforcement is done going forward," an official told Politico. The White House said Homan will continue to work on a "variety of projects critical to the president’s immigration agenda.". "Tom Homan is an American patriot, career law enforcement officer, and a lifelong public servant who has played a critical role in implementing the president’s America First agenda," said White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson. "Tom has worked closely with relevant agencies to help ensure the president’s success and he will continue to do so with new DHS leadership," Jackson said. "Sen. Mullin will do an excellent job working with relevant partners to build off of the president’s historic successes at the Department of Homeland Security," she continued.

Breitbart [3/12/2026 5:55 AM, Ian Hanchett, 2238K] reports during an interview with Bloomberg on Wednesday, Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) responded to a question on the DHS shutdown creating a vulnerability to domestic terrorism by saying that he’s not sure "how much DHS actually does." And "I would rather the money probably be spent specifically on detailed defenses against terrorism, as opposed to a big, bloated bureaucracy, which is what the Department of Homeland Security has become.". Host Joe Mathieu asked, "Some have worried that the fact that DHS — the department, not your committee — is closed right now, is making us less safe. Is the ability for DHS to combat domestic terror threats compromised by this closure?". Paul answered, "I don’t know how much DHS actually does. I’m one of those people who believes, of course, the FBI has an important task in trying to look for people who are in the country that might harm us. There are aspects of crossing of borders that make a difference, but I’m one of those who, after 9/11, thought, gosh, we’re just going to create these enormous bureaucracies that cost a lot of money but don’t necessarily make us safer. So, I would rather the money probably be spent specifically on detailed defenses against terrorism, as opposed to a big, bloated bureaucracy, which is what the Department of Homeland Security has become." He added that not paying workers as a result of the DHS shutdown is a bad idea, and there should be reforms to ensure workers are paid during shutdowns.

Politico [3/12/2026 4:37 PM, Sophia Cai, 21784K] reports U.S. host cities for the 2026 FIFA World Cup learned Wednesday that a major bureaucratic hurdle, which was holding up hundreds of millions of dollars in federal security funding, had been cleared. The welcomed development came one day after FIFA President Gianni Infantino met with President Donald Trump and White House FIFA World Cup Task Force executive director Andrew Giuliani at the White House. During a call with the White House FIFA World Cup Task Force, Giuliani told host city officials that the Department of Homeland Security has signed off on security grants tied to the tournament, according to two people familiar with the call, granted anonymity to discuss details. The update means cities can count on receiving their share of $625 million in federal security funding allocated for the event.

Washington Times [3/12/2026 1:05 PM, Stephen Dinan, 1323K] reports that a U.N. human rights commission has issued an “urgent action” alert to the Trump administration warning that it has deported too many people, and citing it for “racial profiling and racist hate speech” against refugees and illegal immigrants. The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, part of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, pronounced itself “deeply concerned,” “gravely concerned” and “alarmed” this week about what it’s seen since President Trump took office. The complaints spanned the entirety of the immigration enforcement surge, from how deportation targets are identified, to how they’re treated in detention, to where they’re sent once they are booted from the country. The committee delivered a special scolding over the clashes in Minnesota that saw two U.S. citizens slain, saying those shootings “could constitute extrajudicial killing of two peaceful protestors.” “The committee was deeply disturbed by the growing use of derogatory and dehumanizing language, and the dissemination of negative and harmful stereotypes targeting migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers,” the panel announced on Wednesday. The early warning/urgent procedures alert is supposed to be a prod to the U.S. to change course. America joined the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination in 1994. The panel used the word “racist” more than a half-dozen times in its four-page memo, with a list of complaints that tracked closely with Democrat lawmakers’ press releases. Among them were sharing information between the IRS and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement; conditions inside ICE detention; and Homeland Security’s attempt to wind down Temporary Protected Status, a deportation amnesty, for a number of nations including Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Haiti and Nepal.

AP [3/12/2026 1:21 PM, Nokukhanya Musi and Michelle Gumede, 3833K] reports that four more African migrants deported from the United States arrived in Eswatini, authorities said Thursday. This is the third batch of deportees that the Trump administration has sent to Eswatini. They are the latest of more than 40 deportees sent to Africa as part of largely secretive agreements with at least seven African nations that rights groups and others have protested. Others that have struck third-country deportation deals with the Trump administration include Ghana, Rwanda, Uganda, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea and South Sudan. The latest group of deportees that arrived in landlocked Eswatini included a Tanzanian, a Sudanese and two Somali nationals who would be repatriated to their respective countries of origin, the government said in a statement. It didn’t name them or say where they are being held. Since last July, the U.S. has sent at least 19 people in three batches to Eswatini as part of its hard-line approach toward immigration. The U.S. said the first group of five men sent to Eswatini in July were convicted criminals who had deportation orders. A Jamaican man in that first group was repatriated to his home country in September. The Eswatini government on Thursday said another third-country national had since received his travel documents and “will be departing the country shortly.” It added that talks with other countries of origin for the remaining third-country nationals are ongoing. After the arrival of the latest deportees, the Eswatini government said it “reiterates its commitment to ensuring that the rights and dignity of the third-country nationals are upheld while they remain in the country.”

NewsMax [3/12/2026 8:44 PM, Solange Reyner, 3760K] reports Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers arrested several people accused of violent crimes during recent enforcement actions, according to a statement Wednesday from Lauren Bis, deputy assistant secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. Bis said ICE officers detained people accused of attempted murder, sexual assault, kidnapping, and assault during operations carried out Tuesday. One of those arrested allegedly assaulted a pregnant woman, she said. "These are the types of monsters our officers are arresting and removing from American neighborhoods," Bis said in the statement. The arrests were not tied to a single publicly identified operation, and federal officials did not immediately release the names of those detained or the locations where the arrests occurred. ICE frequently conducts targeted enforcement operations focused on noncitizens with criminal records or pending criminal charges. Bis defended the agency’s enforcement role amid ongoing political disputes over immigration policy and the cooperation between federal immigration authorities and local governments. "While sanctuary politicians demonize ICE law enforcement, our officers continue to risk their lives to remove criminals from our communities," she said. Sanctuary policies, adopted in a number of cities and states, typically limit cooperation between local law enforcement and federal immigration authorities. Supporters argue the policies help build trust between immigrant communities and police, while critics say they can hinder federal efforts to detain people accused of crimes. Immigration enforcement has remained a central focus of the Trump administration’s domestic policy agenda, with officials emphasizing arrests of noncitizens accused or convicted of serious offenses. Bis also pointed to national crime statistics in defending the administration’s policies. "Under President [Donald] Trump, the murder rate has reached a 125-year low," she said. Crime data in the United States is compiled through several federal systems, including the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting program and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s mortality statistics. Analysts often caution that long-term comparisons can depend on which dataset is used and how reporting methods have changed over time.

Breitbart [3/12/2026 4:43 PM, John Binder, 2238K] reports the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has arrested more illegal aliens convicted of crimes like attempted murder, kidnapping, and sexual assault. "Yesterday, ICE arrested criminal illegal alien attempted murderers, sexual assailants, kidnappers, and a criminal who assaulted a pregnant woman," the Department of Homeland Security’s Lauren Bis said in a statement.

Washington Examiner [3/12/2026 11:42 AM, Anna Giaritelli, 1147K] reports senior House Democrats are pushing Immigration and Customs Enforcement for answers about millions of dollars in congressional funding wasted on thousands of vehicles that officers cannot use following a Washington Examiner investigation that exposed the expenditure. Democrats on the House Homeland Security Committee sent acting ICE Director Todd Lyons a letter Wednesday asking the agency to provide contracts and correspondence related to the purchase of 2,500 flashy, logo-centric vehicles by Madison Sheahan, outgoing Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s former appointee within ICE. The letter was obtained first by the Washington Examiner. "On March 8, 2026, the Washington Examiner reported that Madison Sheahan, ICE’s former Deputy Director handpicked by outgoing Secretary Noem, has saddled the agency with thousands of vehicles it cannot use," the committee’s ranking member, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS), and Rep. Shri Thanedar (D-MI), ranking member of Oversight, Investigations, and Accountability Subcommittee, wrote in the letter. "Specifically, in the latter half of 2025, Ms. Sheahan directed the purchase of 2,500 vehicles wrapped in the agency’s logo, contrary to ICE’s policy not to drive identifiable vehicles in public," the lawmakers wrote. "A stunning choice for an agency that claimed at the time that death threats against its officers were up 8,000 percent.". Thompson and Thanedar wrote to ICE last September and asked for similar information about a contract the agency had given to Hendrick Motorsports LLC, a North Carolina dealership owned by a Republican donor. The Democrats on the committee have not received a response. The Democrats gave ICE until March 25 to provide answers to the first letter, as well as copies of all vehicle-related contracts since January 2025; copies of any amendments to vehicle contracts; information on how newly purchased vehicles are being used; and all communications between current and former ICE officials, such as Sheahan, and anyone associated with Hendrick Motorsports LLC or any other vendor that was awarded a contract.

Breitbart [3/12/2026 12:02 PM, John Binder, 2238K] reports a four-time deported illegal alien is accused of leaving an 83-year-old Air Force veteran in critical condition and injuring a 30-year-old man when he allegedly pushed both onto subway tracks in a random attack in the sanctuary city of New York City. On March 10, the New York City Police Department (NYPD) arrested 34-year-old illegal alien Bairon Posada-Herandez of Honduras on attempted murder charges. Now, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is pleading with the city’s sanctuary officials not to release Posada-Herandez from jail at any time, instead turning him over to federal agents. FOX News [3/12/2026 7:07 AM, Alec Schemmel, 37576K] reports that 83-year-old Air Force veteran and grandfather Richard Williams, is reportedly still fighting for his life at a New York City hospital. Posada-Hernandez first entered the country in 2008, and was subsequently deported four separate times, the last time being in July 2020, before reentering later for a fifth time at an unknown location and date, Fox News Digital has learned. At the time of the subway incident this week, Posada-Hernandez had a lengthy criminal history as well, including at least 15 prior charges for crimes such as aggravated assault, domestic violence, possession of a weapon, obstruction of police, simple assault and drug possession.The Daily Wire [3/12/2026 8:07 AM, Jennie Taer, 2314K] reports "Bairon Posada-Hernandez is a serial criminal and a four-time deported illegal alien from Honduras who should never have been able to walk our streets and harm innocent Americans," Deputy Assistant Homeland Secretary Lauren Bis said in a statement Thursday. "We are praying for the victims and their families. DHS is calling upon New York sanctuary politicians to commit to this ICE detainer and not release this heinous criminal back into New York communities," Bis added. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) lodged a detainer on March 10, requesting that local authorities hand Posada-Hernandez over to the feds, according to DHS. Local authorities are not expected to comply due to sanctuary laws.

Reported similarly:
New York Post [3/12/2026 2:28 PM, Georgett Roberts and David Propper, 40934K]
FOX News [3/12/2026 7:07 AM, Alec Schemmel, 37576K]
Daily Caller [3/12/2026 12:11 PM, Derek VanBuskirk, 803K]

FOX News [3/13/2026 3:55 AM, Michael Sinkewicz, 37576K] reports a criminal illegal immigrant accused of sexually assaulting a teenage girl in New Jersey could soon be released under the state’s sanctuary policies, prompting federal immigration officials to issue a warning to local leaders. Gerardo Garcia Gonzalez, a criminal illegal immigrant from Mexico, was arrested by the Ocean County Sheriff’s Office on charges of sexual assault of a victim between 13 and 15 years old, criminal sexual contact and sexual assault by force or coercion. After illegally entering the U.S. in 2001, Gonzalez was returned to Mexico and later re-entered the country at an unknown time, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). "This pedophile should NEVER have been in our country and able to prey on children in the first place," Deputy Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said in a statement. "We are calling on New Jersey sanctuary politicians to NOT release this predator charged with sexually assaulting a child from jail into New Jersey neighborhoods." Bis continued, "This is the exact reason we need sanctuary jurisdictions to work with us. No one should want this sicko to be on our streets." U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) requested that Gonzalez not be released under the state’s sanctuary policies. DHS said the request follows proposals by New Jersey politicians for legislation and executive orders "designed to demonize our brave ICE law enforcement."

Reuters [3/12/2026 7:16 PM, Staff, 38315K] Video: HERE reports Protesters gathered in Monroe, Georgia, on Sunday (March 8) to oppose a planned U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility in nearby Social Circle, raising concerns about the project’s impact on the small community. Olivia Zollino reports.

Breitbart [3/12/2026 12:12 PM, John Binder, 2238K] reports an illegal alien, released into the United States by the Biden administration, is accused of murdering his three-year-old nephew after the toddler’s illegal alien mother abandoned him in the United States when she was deported in January. Illegal alien Samuel Antonio Maldonado-Erazo was arrested and charged with manslaughter in Escambia County, Florida, this month. According to police, Maldonado-Erazo had recently taken custody of his three-year-old nephew after his sister, Wendy Esther Hernandez Reyes, was deported on January 26 of this year and chose not to bring her son with her. Police said Maldonado-Erazo brought his nephew to work with him and ignored signs that the toddler was in severe distress. The boy went into cardiac arrest, and someone called 911. The boy died at a nearby hospital from physical abuse he sustained, allegedly at the hands of Maldonado-Erazo. Police said the boy’s injuries included at least 17 strikes to the head, extensive bruising all over his body, intentional burn marks on his skin, a broken collarbone, a transected pancreas from blunt trauma, and several broken ribs, including one that was detached from his spine. “This crime is absolutely sickening,” Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Acting Director Todd Lyons said in a statement: This little boy suffered extensively and died when his mother abandoned him to Maldonado-Erazo’s ‘care’ — and Maldonado-Erazo himself is an illegal alien who never should’ve been in this country in the first place. I encourage parents to self-deport with their children, but even if they choose not to do that, ICE gives them the opportunity to be removed with their kids. But despite that option, Reyes chose to leave her son here with a violent murderer who took his life.

Axios [3/12/2026 4:07 PM, Joe Guillen, 17364K] reports Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel is scrutinizing plans for a proposed ICE facility in Romulus, while Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s office has remained publicly silent on the issue. The differing levels of state engagement highlight uncertainty about how — or whether — Whitmer will respond as federal plans advance. The Romulus mayor is awaiting clarity on the governor’s stance, too. After Axios first reported a federal floodplain notice tied to the Romulus facility, Nessel (D) wrote a letter demanding ICE halt its plans and comply with state and local laws. She then filed a Freedom of Information Act request last week seeking records related to the warehouse purchase at 7525 Cogswell St. and the intended use of the property. The Romulus warehouse sits on federally identified floodplains that could trigger state or local permitting requirements. ICE has confirmed its purchase of the warehouse, but state, county and city officials tell Axios Detroit that neither ICE nor the Department of Homeland Security have coordinated with them on plans to build a detention facility there.

Chicago Tribune [3/12/2026 8:26 PM, Jason Meisner and Tess Kenny, 5209K] reports Federal prosecutors on Thursday abruptly moved to drop charges against two defendants in the politically charged “Broadview Six” case accusing a group of Democrats and other protesters of conspiring to block and damage an immigration agent’s vehicle outside the ICE facility in Broadview in September. In a one-paragraph filing, the U.S. attorney’s office moved to dismiss the indictment against Catherine Sharp, a one-time candidate for Cook County Board, and Joselyn Walsh, a part-time garden store worker and singer, “in the interests of justice.” “As the United States Attorney’s Office does in every case, the government has continued to evaluate new facts, evidence and information to ensure that the interests of justice are served,” wrote Assistant U.S. Attorneys William Hogan and Matthew Skiba. The motion asked U.S. District Judge April Perry to dismiss the counts “with prejudice,” meaning they cannot be refiled. The motion comes after behind the scenes discussions between defense attorneys for the six defendants in the case, who have claimed that surveillance video and police body camera footage not only failed to show any sort of conspiracy, but also that at least some of those charged barely even touched the vehicle that was damaged. If the judge approves the move, only four other defendants would remain: Katherine “Kat” Abughazaleh, a candidate in the March 17 Democratic primary for the 9th Congressional District seat; Andre Martin, originally of Providence, Rhode Island, who is Abughazaleh’s deputy campaign manager; 45th Ward Democratic Committeeman Michael Rabbit; and Oak Park Trustee Brian Straw.

Bloomberg [3/12/2026 6:26 PM, Staff, 18082K] Video: HERE reports Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey (D) discusses how things are in his city following the withdrawal of thousands of ICE agents who conducted aggressive immigration sweeps. Frey states Minneapolis has “been through so much,” and “in recovery mode.” He also shares insight on how small businesses were affected, what his message is to possible new DHS secretary Markwayne Mullin, and his response to Republican messaging changing on deportations. He speaks with Kailey Leinz on Bloomberg’s “Balance of Power.”

FOX News [3/12/2026 11:55 AM, Peter Pinedo, 37576K] reports U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents busted a South Texas human smuggling ring, resulting in the arrests and sentencing of gangbangers who kidnapped a family and sexually assaulted a pregnant mother. Rodolfo Daniel De Hoyos, 22, a human smuggler who goes by the nickname "Rufles," was sentenced to more than 14 years in prison on Monday for conspiracy to harbor illegal aliens, causing serious bodily injury and placing lives in jeopardy. The sentencing was announced by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas on Tuesday. De Hoyos is the fifth of nine human smugglers arrested in Kinney County, Texas, as a result of an investigation by ICE Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) with the cooperation of the Texas Department of Public Safety and several other law enforcement agencies. The investigation is part of the Trump administration’s Operation Take Back America. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, De Hoyos was involved in the kidnapping and attempted extortion of a family of illegal immigrants, consisting of a man, a pregnant woman and a seven-year-old child. The office said the smugglers sexually assaulted the pregnant woman and held the family for ransom. They obtained at least $1,000 from a relative and further threatened to kill the seven-year-old child and sell the unborn baby if additional payments were not made.

NBC News [3/12/2026 5:24 PM, Suzanne Gamboa, 42967K] reports the Trump administration plans to tap a major engineering and electronic services company to run the country’s largest immigration detention center, where one detainee was killed and two others have died. The Department of Homeland Security intends to award the no-bid contract to run Camp East Montana and manage its detainees to Chantilly, Virginia-based Amentum Services Inc. The company would replace Acquisition Logistics, a small Richmond, Virginia-based government contractor that DHS hired last July for $1.2 billion to build and operate the ICE facility at the Fort Bliss U.S. Army base in El Paso, Texas. By January, three detainees had died while in custody at Camp East Montana. The Jan. 3 death of Geraldo Lunas Campos, 55, originally from Cuba, was ruled a homicide by "asphyxia due to neck and torso compression," according to the final autopsy report. The facility also has experienced outbreaks of tuberculosis and measles. A DHS spokesperson previously told NBC News that the Acquisition Logics contract "was inherited" from the Defense Department and that DHS was reviewing the facility and the contract. DHS said in a posting about the contract award to Amentum that it was for the immediate provision of housing, medical care, transportation and compliance with ICE’s 2025 detention standards. It said the action was "necessary" for uninterrupted operations "following the termination of the incumbent contract." The new contract is for an estimated 180 days.

New York Times [3/12/2026 5:01 AM, Pooja Salhotra, Devon Lum, Alexander Cardia, Dmitriy Khavin, and Edgar Sandoval, 148038K] reports moments before a 23-year-old man was fatally shot by a federal immigration agent, police body cameras captured him driving behind an ambulance in the beachside resort town of South Padre Island, Texas. The driver, Ruben Ray Martinez, had an open bottle of Crown Royal whiskey in his blue Ford sedan and caught the eye of a local police officer directing traffic on March 15, 2025, after a major car accident. Law enforcement officers from several agencies yelled commands at one another and to Mr. Martinez, before an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent fired three bullets through the open driver’s side window, killing Mr. Martinez. Blood spread across his white T-shirt as he was pulled from the car and placed in handcuffs. Nearly one year after the fatal encounter, the Texas Department of Public Safety released video, witness accounts and police reports that recorded a chaotic and confusing scene unfolding in the middle of the night. Federal officials have said that Mr. Martinez, who was driving slowly and braking repeatedly, ran over an agent before he was shot, and some video appears to show a figure on the car. But some footage from key moments is missing, and some is grainy, making it difficult to render definitive conclusions. In an interview after the encounter, a passenger in the car, Joshua Orta, 25, told investigators that an officer had been on the hood but that Mr. Martinez had been scared and did not mean to hurt anyone.

Colorado Newsline [3/12/2026 2:35 PM, Chase Woodruff, 111K] reports six Colorado Democrats on Wednesday demanded answers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials on the agency’s apparent violations of its own rules governing the detention of immigrants in holding rooms in nondescript locations across the state. Scrutiny of the facilities follows a March 8 investigation by the Colorado Times Recorder, based on information from the Deportation Data Project. Last year, more than 3,000 individuals were detained in one of the nine holding facilities in the state, and many of them were recorded as having been kept there for weeks at a time. Prior to last summer, ICE’s rules stated that detainees could be kept in hold rooms — which are prohibited from being equipped with “bunks, cots, beds or other sleeping apparatus,” and many of which do not have toilets — for no more than 12 hours. As it ramped up the agency’s operations in pursuit of its mass deportation agenda, President Donald Trump’s administration in June 2025 increased the time limit to 72 hours. In a letter to Todd Lyons, the acting director of ICE, Colorado Democrats expressed deep concern about “the safety risks of keeping individuals in these holding cells for extended periods of time.” “Detaining people for extended periods of time in small, confined rooms that are meant to be a temporary holding space goes against Department of Homeland Security policy, and we demand these actions stop immediately,” says the letter, signed by U.S. Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper, and Reps. Diana DeGette, Joe Neguse, Jason Crow and Brittany Pettersen.

CBS Colorado [3/12/2026 11:09 AM, Staff, 51110K] reports the U.S. Department of Homeland Security says the ICE agents are no longer in the field following their investigation into the "Ace of Spades" cards being left on cars of recently detained immigrants. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

FOX News [3/12/2026 11:17 PM, Landon Mion, 37576K] reports Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., on Thursday renewed the push for his bill to expand the denaturalization process for people who commit fraud, serious felonies or join terrorist organizations. Schmitt brought up his legislation, the Stop Citizenship Abuse and Misrepresentation (SCAM) Act, after a naturalized citizen originally from Lebanon allegedly rammed his vehicle into a Michigan synagogue and a naturalized citizen originally from Sierra Leone allegedly opened fire at Old Dominion University in separate incidents on Thursday in the latest violent attacks in the U.S. committed by naturalized citizens. "After the SAVE America Act, we must pass the SCAM Act so we can denaturalize & deport those who are here to hurt Americans," Schmitt said on X, referring to the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, which would require voters in federal elections to prove citizenship by providing a photo ID and other documentation, such as a passport or birth certificate. "We must denaturalize those who shouldn’t be here," the senator continued. Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, 41, was shot and killed by security officers on Thursday after driving through Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township near Detroit before the vehicle caught on fire, according to authorities. Ghazali arrived in the U.S. 15 years ago on an immediate relative visa as the spouse of a U.S. citizen and was granted citizenship in 2016, the Department of Homeland Security said. Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, 36, served in the Virginia National Guard from 2009 until he received an honorable discharge in 2015. Previously convicted of attempting to offer material support to the Islamic State, Jalloh reportedly shouted "Allahu Akbar" before opening fire in a classroom at Old Dominion University on Thursday, killing one person and wounding two others. The gunman was also killed. In another incident earlier this month, a shooting was carried out outside a bar in Austin, Texas, by a naturalized citizen, Ndiaga Diagne, 53, who was born in Senegal, leaving three people dead and more than a dozen wounded. Schmitt’s SCAM Act was originally introduced in January in response to allegations of fraud by Somalians in Minnesota. "American citizenship is a privilege, and anyone hoping to be a part of our great nation must demonstrate a sincere attachment to our Constitution, upstanding moral character, and a commitment to the happiness and good order of the United States," he said at the time. "People who commit felony fraud, serious felonies, or join terrorist organizations like drug cartels shortly after taking their citizenship oaths fail to uphold the basic standards of citizenship," the lawmaker added. "They must be denaturalized because they have proven they never met the requirements for the great honor of American citizenship in the first place. We must protect and restore the institution of American citizenship.".

FOX News [3/12/2026 9:30 PM, Staff, 37576K] reports former FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino discusses the escalating threat of domestic terrorism on ‘The Ingraham Angle.’[Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Washington Examiner [3/12/2026 5:07 PM, Jack Birle, 1147K] reports the Trump administration faced another loss this week in its bid to end temporary protected status for people from various countries, despite the Supreme Court allowing the Trump administration to rescind the status twice. The lower-court losses are putting pressure on the justices to hear a TPS case as petitions to the high court pile up. The latest adverse ruling for the Trump administration came Wednesday when the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit declined to rehear a decision from a three-judge panel finding the administration’s revocation of TPS for Venezuela was unlawful. The ruling included a sharp dissent from U.S. Circuit Judge Patrick Bumatay, an appointee of President Donald Trump, in which he claimed the panel had "made itself the Platonic Guardian of our immigration laws rather than neutral interpreters of the law," and ignored the Supreme Court’s previous orders saying the federal government is entitled to rescind the temporary deportation protections for Venezuelans.

CBS News [3/12/2026 12:26 PM, Staff, 51110K] reports the Trump administration has filed an emergency petition for the Supreme Court to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) provided to thousands of Haitians. CBS News’ Camilo Montoya-Galvez reports. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Washington Examiner [3/12/2026 6:00 AM, Anna Giaritelli, 1147K] reports more than 15 federal employees were forced out of senior posts at the Department of Homeland Security agency U.S. Customs and Border Protection during Kristi Noem’s time as secretary, according to three federal sources with direct knowledge. Well over a dozen employees at CBP’s Washington headquarters were forced to resign, retire, relocate, or were terminated at the direction of Noem and special government employee Corey Lewandowski between last October and February this year. The number of CBP officials ousted by DHS leadership under Noem has not been previously reported. The firings are significant because the incoming DHS secretary, Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK), will have to confront the internal tensions, morale problems, and operational issues that Noem and Lewandowski left behind at the department, if he is confirmed by the Senate to the post. In several instances, those pushed out were award-winning government employees, each with decades of experience in the department, according to three officials who spoke with the Washington Examiner.

FOX News [3/12/2026 5:00 AM, Ashley J. DiMella, 37576K] reports as the lapse in funding at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) continues, many Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents have been forced to accept only partial paychecks for their work — and if the shutdown persists, that partial pay will dry up. Many are already receiving no pay at all. Deondre White, a Transportation Security officer (TSO) at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in D.C., is in the latter category — and told Fox News Digital that morale among officers "has not been the best.". "We are trying to do our job," White said Tuesday in an interview. "It’s very crucial to the TSA mission, but, of course, expenses have been our number-one concern." He has not received a paycheck since the furlough, he said — and is unsure if and when that will change. Over 300 airport security officers have left TSA since the start of the DHS shutdown, with callouts — or unscheduled absences — rising to an average of 6% during the shutdown, a TSA official confirmed to Fox News Digital. White said that thanks to the financial support of his family, he’s been able "to show up" for his work. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

CBS News [3/12/2026 6:24 PM, Brian Unger, 51110K] Video: HERE reports as the latest federal government shutdown stretches into its third week, Transportation Security Administration officers across the country say the financial and emotional toll is mounting. The current partial shutdown is the third in six months, and while TSA officers are considered essential federal employees required to report to work, many are not receiving paychecks. Some say they are still recovering from the financial damage caused by the two previous shutdowns. Now, a growing number of officers are quietly speaking out despite strict rules that prohibit TSA employees from talking to journalists without permission from the Department of Homeland Security. A former TSA officer turned writer, Caleb Harmon-Marshall, who publishes the travel newsletter GATE ACCESS, says he has heard from more than a dozen officers who describe what he calls "a federal crisis hiding in plain sight.". Harmon-Marshall interviewed 17 TSA officers at nearly a dozen airports across the country, all of whom asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation. Portions of those interviews were published by Yahoo Creators, today. "I was a former TSA officer, so I know what they’re going through," Harmon-Marshall told CBS News Atlanta. "They are feeling at a crossroads because for many of these officers, this is their career.". One officer who spoke with CBS News Atlanta exclusively described the constant financial uncertainty that comes with repeated shutdowns. "Our kids, our families, houses — everything is at stake at this moment," the officer said. "We are literally drowning in silence, and the world doesn’t even know it.". For many TSA workers, the stress doesn’t end when they leave the checkpoint. "It’s like a lose-lose battle," the officer said. "I can go to work and be stressed out about what I’m receiving at work, or the backlash from passengers or leadership. Then I come home and I’m stressed about an eviction notice or a utility shutoff. I’m losing whether I’m at work or at home.".

CBS News [3/12/2026 6:44 PM, Marissa Armas, 51110K] Video: HERE reports spring break travel is officially underway, which means longer lines and heavier congestion at airports across the country. This year’s travel rush comes as many federal workers continue to report to work without pay during the partial government shutdown. "It’s overwhelming," said Kay Poindexter, who was traveling to Biloxi with her friend Corrine Fehr. "We were on the plane, and the pilot came on and said we’re going to be delayed in taking off because there were so many planes flying into DFW," Fehr said. Thursday, several travelers experienced longer security lines and operational issues as they were heading out for spring break. It started last weekend with the long lines at Houston Hobby and New Orleans airports. "There have been operational ripple effects, so TSA officers may have called out at some airports, which, of course, increases the load for all of those that are remaining working, and so we have seen some airports where there have been longer TSA lines," said Daniel Armbruster, AAA spokesperson. As the partial government shutdown continues, many TSA workers, who are considered essential employees, report to work without getting paid, for now. Johnny Jones with the American Federation of Government Employees Union said the situation is creating additional pressure on workers already facing a surge in spring break travelers. "I’m seeing the employees come to work, they are not certain when they’re going to receive their paycheck; they are definitely struggling. I think the uncertainty is causing all kinds of chaos for them," said Jones.

CBS News [3/12/2026 11:19 AM, Kris Van Cleave, 51110K] reports a father of three felt that he had no other choice but to quit his job as a Transportation Security Administration officer and find other work as the partial government shutdown goes on. Robert Echeverria worked the TSA checkpoints at Salt Lake City International Airport for nine years. "I love the agency. I love the people that I worked with," he said. "But it just, my family has to come first.". With no paycheck or end in sight to the latest shutdown, which has so far lasted nearly a month, Echeverria made what he said was a difficult decision to quit. He’s among the more than 300 TSA officers who have quit since the shutdown began, according to agency statistics obtained by CBS News. "I think the hardest thing is seeing the struggle that my wife was going through and not trying to bring more stress to her," Echeverria said. "But seeing her cry every night, how am I going to feed my family? How am I going to survive?" [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

Bloomberg [3/12/2026 11:09 AM, Zahra Hirji, 18082K] reports the shutdown of the US Department of Homeland Security has thrust into limbo a long-awaited report on how to revamp the nation’s top disaster agency, according to one of the report authors. The report on the future of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which was ordered by President Donald Trump last year, was originally expected to be delivered in December, but Trump extended the deadline to March 25. It’s now unclear if that deadline will be met, said Kevin Guthrie, one of the authors and Florida’s top emergency management official. “We anticipate holding the final meeting soon to formally transmit the report,” said Guthrie in a speech Thursday morning at the National Emergency Management Association conference in Washington, DC. “However, because Congress has not yet passed a funding package for the Department of Homeland Security, that timing remains uncertain.”

CNN [3/13/2026 5:01 AM, Gabe Cohen, 19874K] reports as deadly tornadoes tore through the Midwest and Plains last weekend, state and local search-and-rescue crews rushed to the devastated areas to look for survivors. It wasn’t until the teams deployed that they realized they were operating without a critical tornado-tracking tool typically provided by FEMA. That left responders with a less precise picture of where to search first, two sources familiar with the situation told CNN. The mapping tool pinpoints a tornado’s path of destruction within minutes of touchdown, helping responders focus on the hardest-hit neighborhoods as quickly as possible. Even in storms where FEMA itself doesn’t respond, state and local rescuers rely on the mapping tool, which is provided to them through the agency. But it wasn’t available this time, because FEMA’s roughly $200,000 contract with the company that provides the data expired in February, and the agency’s request to renew it is still moving through Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s strict spending-approval process, according to the two sources and internal documents reviewed by CNN. “Rescuers were flying blind, having to drive around or use news reports to figure out where the impacts were,” one of the sources told CNN. “And when a tornado hits in the middle of the night, every moment counts.” The disruption echoes problems FEMA faced during last July’s deadly floods in Texas, when the same approval processes implemented by Noem – including a rule that all spending over $100,000 receive her personal signoff – slowed the agency’s ability to pre-position search-and-rescue teams, left call centers understaffed and delayed the sharing of data with state partners. Billions of dollars in contracts and grants have stalled at the agency in recent months pending approval by Noem and the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees FEMA, as the Trump administration seeks to rein in wasteful spending and shift more responsibility for disaster response to states. DHS did not respond to a request for comment.

Chicago Tribune [3/12/2026 5:45 PM, Alexandra Kukulka, Michelle L. Quinn, Maya Wilkins, and Amy Lavalley, 5209K] reports Gov. Mike Braun had an aerial survey of the storm damage around Lake Village, which was heavily hit by the storm, Thursday afternoon. Shortly before 1:30 p.m., he landed in a helicopter outside the Lake Village Fire Department, where he took some time to meet with first responders. Kankakee, Illinois, across the Kankakee River from Lake Village, also suffered heavy damage in the storms. After seeing the damage, Braun said he will head back to Indianapolis and consider what the state can do to support rebuilding efforts. Braun said he would also talk to federal officials Thursday afternoon to see what support could come from the federal level. Newton County Coroner Scott McCord identified the victims as Edward L Kozlowski, 89, and his wife, Arlene Kozlowski, 84. Their preliminary cause of death has been ruled as “multiple blunt force trauma” and an autopsy is scheduled for Friday morning at the Tippecanoe County Coroner’s Office in Lafayette, Indiana. Braun drove throughout Lake Village to assess the damage further, stopping at the Kozlowski home to assess the damage. A secondary round of searches Wednesday did not yield any additional victims, he said. Of the buildings inspected Wednesday in the direct path of the tornado, Fifield said 24 had minor damage and another 18 had extensive damage. Additionally, there were seven hazmat incidents, which included gasoline and propane tank leaks. More than 235 structures were damaged in the storm.

Chicago Tribune [3/12/2026 8:05 PM, Madeline King, 5209K] reports nearly 500 structures in Kankakee County were damaged by massive storms that produced tornadoes and hail as they swept across Illinois Tuesday night, according to Gov. JB Pritzker, who promised that state officials would seek federal aid to help those most affected. The governor spent Thursday afternoon in the Aroma Park neighborhood alongside local officials and the Illinois Emergency Management Agency to assess the devastation and discuss aid. Strong tornadoes and large hail ripped through Illinois and Indiana Tuesday night, leveling homes in their wake and killing two people in northwest Indiana. As of Thursday afternoon, National Weather Service meteorologists reported three tornadoes had hit Livingston and Kankakee counties in Illinois and Newton, Jasper and Starke counties in Indiana. Pritzker praised the reaction to the storm from local officials and first responders. “Everybody stepped up. Everybody,” Pritzker said. “When I say, ‘the people,’ I really mean neighbors and friends and people who live in neighboring communities showed up for each other here.” The first step in delivering aid is to estimate the total amount of damage, Pritzker said. He added that the effort was ongoing. So far, officials have reported that local schools, the Kankakee County jail and courthouse, and Riverside Medical Center were damaged, and that 30 or more homes were completely destroyed. Pritzker said the government’s immediate goal was to provide housing for people who lost their homes. Then, once the damage assessment is completed, the state will know how much the community needs in repair funds. Officials said they plan to seek federal financial assistance to support the effort, but Illinois hasn’t had much success securing Federal Emergency Management Agency funds under Republican President Donald Trump. Last month, FEMA denied Illinois’ appeal and affirmed its decision to block funds requested after floods in Cook, Will, Kane, McHenry and Boone counties displaced residents and caused power outages in the summer.

CyberScoop [3/12/2026 11:10 AM, Derek B. Johnson, 122K] reports two years ago, it was revealed that Chinese hackers had compromised at least ten U.S. telecoms, giving them broad access to phone data affecting nearly all Americans. Since then, public officials charged with responding to the campaign and bolstering the nation’s cyber defenses have reported a common problem. Many of their constituents struggle to understand why the hacks – carried out by a group called Salt Typhoon – should rank among their top concerns, or how it impacts their day to day lives. Some state and federal officials worry that this lack of interest is depriving policymakers the public pressure needed to build momentum for stronger action to improve the nation’s telecommunications cybersecurity. Mike Geraghty, the CISO and director of the New Jersey Cybersecurity and Communications Cell, said New Jersey is the nation’s most densely populated state, with a high concentration of critical infrastructure and a major telecommunications footprint. For that reason, a campaign like Salt Typhoon should, in theory, be of strong interest to Garden State residents. “However, if you talk to a person on the street in New Jersey, they’’ll say who cares that the Chinese are looking at – you know – what numbers I call?” he said Wednesday at the Billington State and Local Cybersecurity Summit. “It has a big role to play in my job, but trying to get people to understand what that means for New Jersey is really difficult.” Congress hasn’t passed comprehensive privacy legislation in decades. Meanwhile, cyberattacks that expose sensitive data are widespread, and U.S. companies routinely collect and sell customers’ personal information. Some officials speculate that, taken together, these trends have left Americans numb to data theft and data-for-profit–so additional breaches feel like just another drop in the bucket. Mischa Beckett, deputy chief information security officer and director of cyber threat intelligence at GDIT, said Salt Typhoon’s focus on telecom data can feel like an abstract threat to many Americans. By contrast, other Chinese hacking campaigns like Volt Typhoon suggest potential damage to water plants and electric grids that are easier to grasp.

CyberScoop [3/12/2026 1:10 PM, Matt Kapko, 122K] reports authorities from multiple countries dismantled SocksEscort, a residential proxy network cybercriminals used to commit large-scale fraud, claiming access to about 369,000 IP addresses since 2020, the Justice Department said Thursday. Europol, which aided the investigation alongside various law enforcement agencies, Lumen’s Black Lotus Labs and the Shadowserver Foundation, said the malicious proxy service compromised routers and IoT devices in 163 countries. Officials said the proxy network’s payment platform received about $5.8 million from its customers. The globally coordinated action, dubbed Operation Lightning, took down and seized 34 domains and 23 servers in seven countries. U.S. officials froze a combined $3.5 million in cryptocurrency allegedly linked to the botnet that was created from infected devices. “Cybercrime thrives on anonymity,” Catherine De Bolle, executive director at Europol, said in a statement. “Proxy services like SocksEscort provide criminals with the digital cover they need to launch attacks, distribute illegal content and evade detection.”

CyberScoop [3/12/2026 9:10 AM, Matt Kapko, 122K] reports a 41-year-old South Florida man is accused of conducting at least 10 ransomware attacks and helping accomplices extort a combined $75.25 million in ransom payments while he was working as a ransomware negotiator for DigitalMint. Five of Angelo John Martino III’s alleged victims hired DigitalMint, which assigned Martino to conduct ransomware negotiations on their clients’ behalf — putting him in a position to play both sides, as the criminal responsible for the attack and the lead negotiator for his alleged victims, according to federal court records unsealed Wednesday. Martino allegedly obtained an affiliate account on ALPHV, also known as BlackCat, and conspired with other former cybersecurity professionals to break into victims’ networks, steal and encrypt data, and extort companies for ransoms over a six-month period in 2023. Martino was an unnamed co-conspirator in an indictment filed in November 2025 against Kevin Tyler Martin, another former ransomware negotiator at DigitalMint, and Ryan Clifford Goldberg, a former manager of incident response at Sygnia. Goldberg and Martin pleaded guilty in December to participating in a series of ransomware attacks and are scheduled for sentencing April 30.

FOX News [3/12/2026 8:15 AM, Staff, 37576K] reports an Iran-linked hacking group has claimed responsibility for a cyberattack on Stryker, reportedly disabling 200,000 systems and extracting 50TB of data as retaliation for the ongoing U.S.-Israeli military campaign. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

AP [3/12/2026 1:23 PM, David Klepper, 2493K] reports that pro-Iranian hackers are targeting sites in the Middle East and starting to stretch into the United States during the war, raising the risk of American defense contractors, power stations and water plants being swept into a wave of digital chaos that could expand if Tehran’s allies join the fray. Hackers supporting Iran claimed responsibility for a significant cyberattack Wednesday against U.S. medical device company Stryker. Since the war began Feb. 28, they also have tried to penetrate cameras in Middle Eastern countries to improve Iran’s missile targeting. They have targeted data centers in the region, as well as industrial facilities in Israel, a school in Saudi Arabia and an airport in Kuwait. Iran has invested heavily in its offensive cyber capabilities while cultivating ties to hacking groups. In recent years, groups working for Tehran have infiltrated the email system of President Donald Trump’s campaign, targeted U.S. water plants and tried to breach the networks used by the military and defense contractors. The goal is to wear down the American war effort, drive up the costs of energy, strain cyber resources and cause as much pain as possible for American companies that depend on the defense industry. “Something is going to happen because the gloves are off,” said Kevin Mandia, founder of the cybersecurity companies Mandiant and Armadin. Pro-Iranian, pro-Palestinian hackers claimed credit for disrupting systems at Stryker, a Michigan-based medical technology company. A group known as Handala said the attack was in retaliation for suspected U.S. strikes that killed Iranian schoolchildren.

CyberScoop [3/12/2026 5:15 PM, Tim Starks and Drew F. Lawrence, 122K] reports a cyberattack that an Iranian hacking group said it carried out against medical device manufacturer Stryker might mark Tehran’s first significant cyber action since the start of the joint U.S.-Israel conflict. But even that may have been a happy accident for Iranian hackers in what has been a low buzz of activity during that timeframe, with the attackers striking paydirt by happenstance rather than on purpose. Cybersecurity firms, threat intelligence trackers and critical infrastructure owners have been fighting to separate the noise about proclaimed attacks out of Iran, and the warnings and threats related to the conflict, from what is actually happening and poses any significant danger. “Everybody is scrambling right now,” said Alex Orleans, a long-time Iran threat analyst and head of threat intelligence at Sublime Security. Others said the nascent nature of the conflict is making assessments difficult. “What we see is quite difficult to quantify or characterize about whether there’s been an increase or decrease,” said Saher Naumaan, senior threat researcher at Proofpoint. “I think since we’re only a couple weeks into the conflict, and the regular cadence of Iranian actors isn’t very consistent, necessarily, we don’t have enough data points or enough time to really judge.”

New York Times [3/12/2026 5:55 PM, Pooja Salhotra, 148038K] reports synagogues in the United States and abroad in recent years have become not only places of worship, but magnets for violence. One of the deadliest attacks came on Oct. 27, 2018, when a man with an AR-15 style rifle shouted antisemitic slurs as he opened fire inside a Pittsburgh synagogue, killing 11 congregants and wounding four police officers and others. The mass shooting occurred at the Tree of Life Congregation in a heavily Jewish neighborhood. The shooter was sentenced to death. Jewish communities in Europe and beyond have faced deadly threats, several in recent weeks.

Reuters [3/12/2026 7:44 PM, Jasper Ward, 38315K] reports rights advocates note a rise in anti-Muslim, anti-Palestinian and antisemitic hate in the United States since the start of U.S. ally Israel’s war in Gaza following an October 7, 2023, attack by Palestinian Hamas militants. The United States and Israel also launched a war against Iran on February 28. Jewish advocacy group the Anti-Defamation League tallied 9,354 antisemitic incidents in the U.S. in 2024 a 5% increase over 2023 and a record high since it began keeping track in 1979. The group said the figure represented a 344% increase over the past five years and a 893% increase over the last decade. Following are some U.S. attacks that occurred before a suspect crashed his truck into the hallway of a Detroit-area synagogue where children were attending preschool on Thursday and was shot dead by security personnel, the only fatality in what the FBI called "a targeted act of violence against the Jewish community." JANUARY 28: A car crashed into the entrance of the headquarters of a Jewish religious order in New York City. No injuries were reported. Police are investigating the incident as a hate crime. MAY 22, 2025: Two Israeli diplomats were shot and killed outside an event hosted by the American Jewish Committee in Washington, D.C. The gunman, who was charged with terrorism and hate crimes, is believed to have been motivated by the Israel-Gaza conflict. He told police on the scene, "I did it for Palestine, I did it for Gaza," according to the charging documents. Witnesses recounted hearing him chant, "Free Palestine" after he was taken into custody. FEBRUARY 18, 2025: Authorities in Florida launched a hate crime investigation after a man opened fire on two men he thought were Palestinians but turned out to be Israeli visitors. The victims survived. One was shot in the shoulder and the other in the forearm. NOVEMBER 6, 2024: Masked men attacked two Jewish students who were demonstrating in support of Israel at Chicago’s DePaul University, resulting in minor injuries. The suspect, who was facing hate crime charges, later pleaded guilty to battery and causing bodily harm. OCTOBER 26, 2024: A 39-year-old Jewish man wearing a religious skullcap was shot and wounded as he walked to synagogue in Chicago, Illinois. The suspect, who was apprehended 30 minutes after the attack, was charged with attempted murder, among other crimes.

New York Post [3/12/2026 6:17 AM, Joshua Haigh, 40934K] reports the 2026 Oscars have been placed on high alert following the FBI’s warning about a potential "surprise attack" from Iran. This year’s Oscars ceremony is due to take place on Sunday evening in Los Angeles, and is expected to be attended by an array of Hollywood A-listers including Timothée Chalamet, Rose Byrne, Kate Hudson, Brad Pitt and Nicole Kidman. According to an alert reported by ABC News, the FBI notified law enforcement across California in recent days that Iran could potentially retaliate for American military actions by launching drones toward the West Coast. "We want everybody to feel safe and protected and welcome, so it’s our job as a producing team to make sure that that translates," Oscars telecast producer Raj Kapoor said in a statement to journalists. "We have the support of the FBI and the LAPD, and it’s a close collaboration," Kapoor said. "This show has to run like clockwork. But we want everybody that is coming to this show, that is witnessing the show, that is even a fan of the show when they’re standing outside the barricades." In a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department said that it was at an "elevated level of vigilance" to threats that could include "lone actors" and "sleeper cells". "In light of current global events, the Department remains at an elevated level of readiness and is maintaining increased vigilance as we continue to protect our residents of Los Angeles County. We are working closely with our federal and local law enforcement partners to share intelligence and monitor the ongoing conflict in the Middle East and assess any potential impacts in our communities.

Daily Caller [3/12/2026 8:59 PM, Andi Shae Napier, 803K] reports Jewish Republican Ohio Rep. Max Miller received a threat on his life Thursday “just for being a Jewish piece of sh*t.” Miller, 37, received the spoken threat and posted an audio recording of it to social media, writing, “Every day as a Jewish Member of Congress is another day of receiving these types of threats.” The threat arrived minutes after the attack on the Temple Israel synagogue in West Bloomfield, Mich., but it is unclear if the threat was related to that attack. “Just for being a Jewish piece of sh*t who thinks he owns the world: I hope some f*cking Arab motherf*cker jumps out of the bushes and cuts off your f*cking head,” the man said. “Threats like this are all too common. America was founded on religious freedom, yet Americans still receive death threats simply for being Jewish,” Miller said in a statement to the Daily Caller News Foundation. “Antisemitism is vile and has no place in our country. No one should think it’s acceptable to say something like this to anyone, let alone a Member of Congress.” “I reported this to U.S. Capitol Police and am hopeful they will hold this individual accountable,” Miller added. Miller pointed to the threat as the reason members of Congress hesitate to hold town halls in their districts, saying, “These are the people waiting for a planned event.” Earlier Thursday a man drove his car through the front doors of a synagogue in Michigan, injuring one security officer and starting a fire within the building, which contained a school. The suspect died on scene and nobody else was injured.

Last June, a man who waved a Palestinian flag and threatened Miller and his young daughter allegedly ran Miller off the road in a Cleveland suburb. The incident was investigated by the U.S. Capitol Police and police in Rocky River, Ohio.

The Wall Street Journal [3/12/2026 7:00 PM, Sadie Gurman and Victoria Albert, 646K] reports a suspect accused of killing one person and injuring two others in a shooting at Old Dominion University Thursday was an ex-Army National Guard member who had been previously convicted of attempting to support Islamic State, law-enforcement officials said. Mohamed Bailor Jalloh opened fire in a university classroom at around 10:43 a.m., authorities said. Jalloh said “Allahu akbar” before opening fire, according to Dominique Evans, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Norfolk office. Students in the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps subdued Jalloh and “were able to terminate the threat,” Evans said. Within minutes, the suspect was found dead. “If not for them, I’m not sure what else he may have done,” she said. The attack, which investigators are probing as an act of terrorism, happened just before a man armed with a rifle rammed a vehicle into a synagogue outside of Detroit. The incidents stoked fear of further violence as authorities have been on heightened alert for domestic retaliation in response to the war with Iran. The Old Dominion suspect, Jalloh, pleaded guilty in 2016 and was sentenced to 11 years in prison for what the FBI said was his role in helping an overseas terrorist plot an attack in the U.S. It couldn’t be immediately determined why he was released from federal custody in 2024, though defendants are often freed before the duration of their terms. University police chief Garrett Shelton said the victims were affiliated with the university but didn’t specify whether they were students. U.S. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll said two Army personnel were injured in the shooting, but didn’t provide additional details. A representative for Sentara Health, which received the three victims at its local hospitals, said one of the surviving patients is in critical condition. The other was treated and released. NewsMax [3/12/2026 6:24 PM, Staff, 3760K] reports that the shooting is being investigated as an act of terrorism, FBI Director Kash Patel said in a social media post. Patel said the students’ actions "undoubtedly saved lives along with the quick response of law enforcement.". Jalloh, a former member of the Army National Guard, was sentenced to 11 years in prison and was released from federal custody in December 2024. Ashraf Nubani, a Virginia attorney who represented Jalloh in his 2016 criminal case, did not immediately respond to messages Thursday seeking comment. Jalloh’s sister, Fatmatu Jolloh of Sterling, Virginia, said Thursday she knew nothing about the attack. She said she last saw her brother two days earlier. "I have no idea what is going on," the suspect’s sister said. "I know nothing. I don’t even know who to call.". At a news conference Thursday afternoon, Old Dominion University Police Chief Garrett Shelton said officers responded after receiving reports that people were being shot in one of the classrooms in the university’s business school building, Constant Hall. After the university initially said there were two victims, Shelton said authorities learned that there was a third victim who brought themselves to a hospital. Lt. Col. Jimmy Delongchamp, public information officer for the U.S. Army Cadet Command at Fort Knox, Kentucky, told The Associated Press that two people wounded are members of the Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps at ODU. "We will continue to coordinate with the university and law enforcement agencies as they investigate the incident," Delongchamp said in a brief telephone interview. "There’s still a lot more stuff we have to work out.". The suspected shooter, Jalloh, is a naturalized U.S. citizen from Sierra Leone. The New York Times [3/12/2026 2:40 AM, Campbell Robertson, Devlin Barrett, and Christine Hauser, 330K] reports that the slain army officer was identified by Gov. Abigail Spanberger as Lt. Col. Brandon Shah, who was a professor of military science and a combat veteran. According to his university bio, Colonel Shah, a native of Virginia, had flown Apache helicopters in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, logging hundreds of hours in combat. He earned two Bronze Stars and two Meritorious Service Medals, along with other awards. The attack began just before 10:50 a.m., when, according to federal officials, the gunman entered a classroom in Constant Hall shouting “Allahu Akbar,” an Arabic phrase meaning “Allah is greater” that is used in daily Islamic prayers, and opened fire. Members of the R.O.T.C., or Reserve Officer Training Corps, were in the classroom, and federal investigators were working to determine if the gunman had targeted students who are part of the U.S. military, said people familiar with the investigation. Three people were shot by the gunman, said Dominique Evans, the F.B.I. special agent in charge in Norfolk, who also said that other “brave ROTC members in that room subdued him” before the police and other emergency personnel arrived. The victims included R.O.T.C. members, officials said.

USA Today [3/12/2026 3:02 PM, N’dea Yancey-Bragg, 70643K] reports one person is dead and two people are injured after a gunman opened fire inside a building at Old Dominion University in Virginia, officials announced. At approximately 10:43 a.m. ET, police received 911 calls reporting an active shooter inside Constant Hall, Old Dominion University police chief Garrett Shelton said at a news conference. Officers arrived on scene minutes later and by 10:50 a.m. ET police had determined the shooter was dead. Shelton said it’s not yet clear exactly how the shooter died or if any officers fired their weapons. Two people were transported to a local hospital and a third victim went to a hospital in Virginia Beach on their own, Shelton said. One of the victims has died and the other two are in stable condition. The victims and the perpetrator were not identified. Shelton said police are working to determine whether there were any threats prior to the shooting and whether it was a targeted attack. The Norfolk Police Department are leading the investigation. The Norfolk Police Department confirmed they were on scene responding to the "active incident" at the school on social media.

Daily Caller [3/12/2026 6:44 PM, Mariane Angela, 803K] reports a heroic ROTC cadet fatally stabbed an ISIS-inspired gunman during a shooting inside a Virginia college classroom Thursday, stopping the attack and preventing further bloodshed. Authorities say 36-year-old Mohamed Jalloh entered a classroom on the Virginia campus and asked whether it was an ROTC class before opening fire, killing an instructor and wounding two students. Investigators say the unidentified cadet rushed the gunman and stabbed him, ending the attack before it could escalate further, according to the New York Post. Jalloh had previously been convicted of attempting to provide material support to ISIS and served time in federal prison before his release in early 2024, according to sources familiar with the investigation, the New York Post reported. Federal authorities are investigating the shooting as a possible act of terrorism. FBI Director Kash Patel said several courageous students confronted and restrained the gunman, stopping the attack and likely preventing additional casualties as law enforcement quickly responded. Old Dominion University Police Chief Garrett Shelton said one victim transported themselves to the hospital following the attack, while the two wounded students are members of the university’s Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps program. A Justice Department statement from 2016 said Jalloh had contact that year with both an ISIS operative and an FBI confidential source, during which he spoke about wanting to carry out a mass-casualty attack similar to the Fort Hood shooting carried out by Nidal Hasan. In court filings, federal prosecutors urged U.S. District Judge Liam O’Grady to impose a 20-year prison term.

Breitbart [3/12/2026 5:32 PM, AWR Hawkins, 2238K] reports FBI director Kash Patel used an X post to announce that the FBI is investigating the Old Dominion University shooting as "an act of terrorism." Earlier, Breitbart News cited various reports identifying the ODU shooter as a former National Guardsman who was convicted of supporting ISIS. The alleged Old Dominion attacker, 36-year-old Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, was arrested on July 3, 2016, "for attempting to provide material support to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant." In 2017, he was convicted and sentenced to 11 years in prison. NewsMax [3/12/2026 4:24 PM, Staff, 3760K] reports federal prosecutors previously said Jalloh, a former member of the Army National Guard, was sentenced to 11 years in prison after admitting he attempted to provide support to ISIS. The person familiar with the matter said Jalloh was released from federal custody in December 2024. Shelton said investigators have not yet determined the full cause of the shooter’s death. Shelton said all three victims are affiliated with the university. Sentara Health said two victims were transported by ambulance to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, where one later died and another remains in critical condition. Sentara Health said a third victim arrived in a personal vehicle at the Sentara Independence emergency department in Virginia Beach and was treated and released.

Reported similarly:
The Hill [3/12/2026 6:06 PM, Sarah Davis, 18170K]
NBC News [3/12/2026 5:58 PM, Staff, 42967K] Video: HERE

CBS News [3/12/2026 6:27 PM, Nicole Sganga, Richard Esposito, Sarah N. Lynch, Anna Schecter, Scott MacFarlane, Arden Farhi, Alex Sundby, 51110K] reports a shooting in which a gunman killed one person and wounded two others on the campus of Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, on Thursday is being investigated as an act of terrorism, the FBI said. The suspect, who was killed following the shooting, had previously been imprisoned for several years for trying to support ISIS. The suspect was identified as 36-year-old Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, a former Virginia National Guardsman who had pleaded guilty in October 2016 to attempting to provide material support to the terror group ISIS, Dominique Evans, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Norfolk Office, said during a news conference Thursday night. Jalloh died after being "subdued" by students in the classroom following the shooting, but was not himself shot, Evans noted. Investigators believe he only had one weapon "on his person," Evans said, and no explosives have been found in his car or in any other locations. Investigators have so far found no mention of the war in the Middle East as a possible motivating factor for Thursday’s shooting, Evans said. Two shooting victims were taken to a Norfolk hospital and another victim took themselves to a hospital in Virginia Beach, Old Dominion Police Chief Garrett Shelton said during a previous news conference. Shelton didn’t identify the victim who died, but he said all of the victims were affiliated with the university. The other two victims were in stable condition. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll said on social media that two of the victims were Army personnel. In February 2017, Jalloh was sentenced to 11 years in prison, according to the Justice Department, and was released early in December 2024, according to his Federal Bureau of Prisons record. Evans said that in the 2016 case, Jalloh had sought "to conduct a terrorist attack similar to that" of the 2009 shooting at Texas’ Fort Hood that killed 13 people and wounded dozens more. At his 2017 sentencing, Jalloh claimed he deeply regretted his actions and was disgusted by ISIS.

AP [3/13/2026 12:01 AM, Staff, 31753K] reports court documents show less than two years after Mohamed Bailor Jalloh was released from prison for attempting to aid the Islamic State, he opened fire in a classroom at Virginia’s Old Dominion University on Thursday before ROTC students subdued and killed him. The shooting that left one person dead and another two injured has raised questions about why Jalloh, who the FBI identified as the gunman, was imprisoned and the conditions of his release — with some elected officials questioning how someone with known ties to the Islamic State was able to carry out such an attack. “The horrific tragedy that occurred today on ODU’s campus never should have happened,” U.S. Rep. Jen Kiggans, who represents the congressional district neighboring the university, wrote on Facebook. After Jalloh pleaded guilty in October 2016 to providing material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization — the Islamic State group — a federal judge sentenced him in 2017 to an 11-year prison term with credit for time served retroactive to his July 2016 arrest. Jalloh was released from federal custody Dec. 23, 2024. It wasn’t immediately clear why his release from prison was moved up. Inmates can get time off of their sentences for a variety of reasons, but it isn’t known if that happened in this case. He was on supervised release, which is comparable to probation, when he carried out the attack on Thursday. Based on his release date, that would’ve run into 2029.

FOX News [3/12/2026 4:24 PM, Sarah Rumpf-Whitten, Bill Melugin, 37576K] reports a former Army National Guard soldier convicted of supporting ISIS has been identified as the gunman in a deadly shooting at Old Dominion University (ODU) on Thursday, reportedly shouting "Allahu Akbar" before opening fire. The FBI said earlier it is investigating the shooting at ODU – which left one person dead and two others wounded – as an act of terrorism. Multiple federal sources confirmed to Fox News that the suspected shooter was 36-year-old Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Sierra Leone who spent six years in the Virginia National Guard. Jalloh, who was convicted in 2017 for his involvement in supporting the Islamic State, was released approximately 15 months before the deadly shooting at the Virginia university. A spokesperson with the Virginia National Guard confirmed to Fox News Digital that Jalloh served from April 30, 2009, to April 29, 2015, and he held the rank of specialist when he left with an honorable discharge. In 2017, Jalloh was sentenced to 11 years in prison plus five years supervised release for attempting to provide material support to ISIS, according to the Department of Justice. He was released from prison in Dec. 2024. Jalloh also shared that he had been thinking about conducting an attack similar to the attack at Ft. Hood, Texas, in Nov. 2009, which killed 13 people and wounded 32 others. In a statement on social media, FBI Director Kash Patel said that the agency is "now investigating the shooting as an act of terrorism."

New York Post [3/12/2026 6:08 PM, Caitlin McCormack, 40934K] reports ISIS-supporting ex-National Guard member Mohamed Bailor Jalloh shouted "Allahu Akbar" before launching his deadly attack at Old Dominion University on Thursday, federal officials revealed. Jalloh, 36, busted into an ROTC classroom at the Virginia college and yelled the Arabic phrase, which translates to "God is Great," before opening fire, killing a retired military officer and injuring two others, FBI Special Agent Dominique Evans said at a press conference. The FBI is investigating the shooting as an act of terrorism. Jalloh, a naturalized US citizen originally from Sierra Leone, fatally shot the course’s instructor. Two other ROTC members injured in the attack are both in stable condition. Evans said they are trying to retrace Jalloh’s steps leading up to the attack and track down anyone who may have supported him. Jalloh was previously sentenced to 11 years in prison for offering material support to ISIS, then known as ISIL. He was released in December 2024.

Washington Examiner [3/12/2026 5:08 PM, Claire Carter, 1147K] reports the suspect in a shooting at Old Dominion University on Thursday had previously been convicted of attempting to provide support to the Islamic State terrorist organization, according to the FBI. Authorities identified Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, a 36-year-old former Virginia Army National Guard member who was sentenced to 11 years in prison and five years supervised release in 2017 after pleading guilty to attempting to provide material support to a terrorist organization, in Thursday’s shooting. He was released in December 2024 after serving most of his sentence. The Tuesday shooting unfolded on Old Dominion’s campus when Jalloh allegedly went into a Constant Hall classroom and asked if it was a Reserve Officer Training Corps class before opening fire on the instructor, a retired military officer. The attack was stopped when a student intervened and confronted the gunman, preventing further casualties, according to FBI Director Kash Patel, who said the shooter is dead "thanks to a group of brave students who stepped in and subdued him." Officials have not yet confirmed a motive, but Patel said the bureau’s joint terrorism task force is "fully engaged." Patel did not specify if the case would be treated as a terrorism investigation, though the suspect’s prior conviction could play a role in the inquiry. The two people injured were reportedly ROTC students. According to a Justice Department release from 2017, Jalloh admitted to attempting to assist ISIS, the extremist group responsible for attacks across the Middle East, Europe, and the United States. Prosecutors at the time said he sought to provide support to the organization, which is a designated terrorist group, and thought committing terrorist attacks was "100% the right thing."

Reported similarly:
USA Today [3/12/2026 6:20 PM, Aysha Bagchi, 70643K]
Daily Signal [3/12/2026 6:20 PM, Pedro Rodriguez, 474K]

New York Post [3/12/2026 9:29 PM, Caitlin McCormack, 40934K] reports the instructor who was fatally shot by convicted ISIS-supporter Mohamed Bailor Jalloh was a decorated chair of Old Dominion University’s military science department who served several tours in the Middle East. Lt. Col. Brandon Shah was in the middle of teaching an ROTC course at ODU Thursday morning when Jalloh, 36, stormed inside the classroom and opened fire. Shah completed several tours with the Army since he enlisted in 2003, including deployment to support Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation Enduring Freedom, and a rotation to Atlantic Resolve, according to his university biography. The veteran also served with the Virginia National Guard – of which Jalloh was a member before he became an ISIS ideologue, according to the Department of Justice. The Virginia National Guard did not have any information regarding Shah, but confirmed to The Post that Jalloh was honorably discharged in April 2015, just one day shy of completing six years of service. Shah was a proud alumnus of ODU, the University of Georgia, and the University of Kansas, according to his bio. He collected more than 17 awards linked to his storied military career, including the Air Medal of Valor and three Army Commendation Medals. Shah additionally recorded more than 1,200 hours flying three different aircrafts on top of 600 combat flight hours, according to his university profile. Jason Fedish, one of Shah’s former ROTC colleagues, tearfully described the veteran as a "charmer" and "all-around stud" in a heartbreaking interview with WTKR News 3. Fedish hoped that the ODU shooting was "just a tragic incident that I could mourn," until he started receiving messages about Shah’s death. "You build such a good brother and sisterhood [in the military] and you can tell just by interacting with some individuals that they’re gonna be somebody, they’re gonna do some things that are great for our fellow man and the country and the world, and Brandon was exactly that," Fedish managed to say as he choked up. "When something tragic like this happens, to be able to hang your hat knowing that you died doing what you love and made a great impact is a fantastic thing," he added. Virginia Gov. Abigail Spangberger paid tribute to Shah in a statement posted to X. "A devoted ROTC instructor, Lt. Col. Shah didn’t just lead a life of service to our country, he taught and led others to follow that path," Spangberger wrote. "I am grateful for his example, deeply saddened by his death, and praying for his family.". Two other ROTC members were injured during the shooting, which the FBI is investigating as an act of terrorism. Law enforcement sources told The Post that a group of the students, including one armed with a knife, killed Jalloh before he could harm anyone else. FBI Special Agent Dominique Evans could not confirm if Jalloh targeted the ROTC class.

Wall Street Journal [3/12/2026 9:53 PM, Alyssa Lukpat, Sadie Gurman, and Christopher Otts, 646K] reports an armed attacker died after ramming his vehicle into a synagogue outside Detroit in what federal authorities said was being investigated as a targeted act of violence against the Jewish community. The incident unfolded just after noon at Temple Israel, a Reform Jewish synagogue in West Bloomfield Township, about 20 miles northwest of Detroit. The FBI had no information to share on a motive, said Jennifer Runyan, the special agent in charge of the agency in Detroit. The Department of Homeland Security identified the suspect as Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, a 41-year-old who was born in Lebanon and became a U.S. citizen in 2016. Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard told reporters the suspect breached the synagogue doors with his vehicle and drove down the hall where security officers opened fire. The sheriff said he couldn’t say how the person died. Authorities said the suspect was armed with a rifle and was the only one involved in the attack. One security officer was injured when they got knocked down by the vehicle, Bouchard said. Thirty law-enforcement officers went to a hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation after the suspect’s car caught fire in the building, the sheriff said. A law-enforcement official said the suspect’s body was badly burned. The synagogue’s preschool was in session at the time of the attack, according to state Rep. Noah Arbit, a member of Temple Israel.

New York Times [3/12/2026 8:48 PM, Alexandra E. Petri, 148038K] reports an attacker is dead after plowing a vehicle into a synagogue on Thursday outside Detroit and then exchanging gunfire with security guards in what the authorities described as a “targeted act of violence against the Jewish community.” The attack at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township, Mich., ended with the guards “neutralizing” the attacker, according to Chief Dale Young of the West Bloomfield Township Police Department. About 140 students and staff members at the temple’s preschool were safely evacuated, officials said, but one guard was injured. During a news conference on Thursday evening, the authorities did not disclose the attacker’s identity or provide any motive. Across the country, police departments said they were stepping up patrols at houses of worship. The West Bloomfield Township police received a call reporting an active shooter at the temple around 12:20 p.m., Chief Young said. According to the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office, the driver rammed a truck through the doors of the building and drove down a hall, and a fire started in the building. Sheriff Michael Bouchard described watching a video of the attack that showed the attacker “traveling with purpose” through the hallway. The temple’s security guards “neutralized” the attacker, Chief Young said at the news conference. The federal and state authorities swept the vehicle for explosives, but none were immediately discovered. The attack targeted Temple Israel, in West Bloomfield Township, Mich., where about one-quarter of the 65,000 residents are Jewish. It’s about 25 miles from downtown Detroit. The temple, founded in 1941, is one of the country’s largest Reform houses of worship and the largest in metropolitan Detroit. The temple has more than 12,000 members, according to its website. Temple Israel includes a nursery school and a religious school for children in prekindergarten to 12th grade that meets on weekends and afternoons, according to its website. It also houses a museum with artifacts of Jewish history. One security guard was hit by the vehicle and was taken to the hospital but was expected to be OK, officials said Thursday. Eight emergency responders were being treated at two hospitals in the Henry Ford Health system for unspecified symptoms stemming from the attack, according to a press officer. Several police officers and firefighters were treated for smoke inhalation, the sheriff said. The 140 students and their teachers at the synagogue’s preschool were unhurt, Temple Israel officials said in a statement, praising the teachers and calling the security guards who confronted the “terrorist gunman” heroes. Attacks on synagogues around the United States are on the rise, with the attack on Temple Israel unfolding as tensions build during Israel and America’s new war in Iran. According to the Anti-Defamation League, instances of antisemitism have increased substantially in the United States in recent years. The organization recorded more than 9,300 cases of antisemitism across the country in 2024, the latest year such data was available. That was the highest number since records of those incidents began in 1979.

The Washington Examiner [3/12/2026 5:58 PM, Emily Hallas, 1147K] reports the man accused of ramming his car into a Michigan synagogue appears to have been killed by security guards at the place of worship. The armed male drove his vehicle into the Temple Israel Synagogue on Thursday afternoon and swiftly encountered security officers who opened fire, according to officials. The vehicle caught on fire, but it was gunshots fired by the security personnel that neutralized the attacker, according to the Associated Press. There were no other deaths. At least eight first responders were taken to Detroit-area hospitals following the ramming, Henry Ford Health, a Michigan-based health system, told CNN. A security guard, who was hit by the vehicle and knocked unconscious, was also taken to the hospital. The latest incident comes as antisemitism has spiked in the United States and across the world, particularly in major metropolitan areas such as New York City. There was a 182% increase in antisemitic hate crimes in January 2026 compared to January 2025, according to the New York City Police Department. CBS News [3/12/2026 6:28 PM, Jordan Freiman, 51110K] reports that two law enforcement sources told CBS News there were mortar-type explosives in the vehicle, which caught fire when it rammed into the building. One of the lead security personnel who was hit by the vehicle when it rammed the building was taken to an area hospital for treatment. They are expected to be OK, Bouchard said. Henry Ford West Bloomfield Hospital and Henry Ford Providence Novi Hospital said they were treating eight first responders from the incident, but did not provide details on their injuries or conditions. Authorities did not immediately identify the attacker. A motive was also not immediately clear. Two law enforcement sources told CBS News the suspect’s body was badly burned, complicating identification. NBC News [3/12/2026 9:48 PM, Marlene Lenthang and Phil Helsel, 42967K] reports that a preschool was in session at the temple, which is in a suburb around 30 miles northwest of downtown Detroit, but no children or school staff members were injured, officials said. West Bloomfield Township Police Chief Dale Young said a 911 call at 12:19 p.m. reported "an active shooter situation at Temple Israel where the individual drove into the building.". "Temple security officers engaged the individual and neutralized the threat," Young said at news conference Thursday afternoon. A motive remained under investigation, officials said. DHS said Ghazali was born in Lebanon and entered the U.S. via Detroit on May 10, 2011. He entered on an IR1 immigrant visa as the spouse of a U.S. citizen after "alien relative and fiancé petitions filed in December 2009 were approved in April 2010," DHS said. He had applied for naturalization on October 2015 and was granted U.S. citizenship in February 2016, DHS said. "All of us have thoughts of maybe why this happened," Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard said at the news conference. "But we don’t operate in a world where we can presume something. We have to determine it through investigation.". Temple Israel said 140 students were in its early childhood center at the time of the attack. "We are deeply and humbly grateful to our teachers, staff, security, law enforcement, and Shenendoah Country Club that welcomed us, fed us, and sheltered our staff, teachers, children, and parents. What incredible neighbors we have. What incredible police force we have," it said in a statement on Facebook.

The Hill [3/12/2026 3:47 PM, Ashleigh Fields, 18170K] reports police responded to reports of an active shooter opening fire on Thursday at Temple Israel, a reform synagogue located in the Detroit suburbs. Investigators said a man armed with a rifle drove into the building before police shot him. The crash caused a fire and left smoke billowing from the synagogue, which has around 12,000 members and serves as an early-learning facility for children. Five weeks prior to the incident, clergy and staff participated in an active shooter prevention and preparedness training with an FBI official to promote education, safety and readiness. Authorities are working to uncover the identity of the suspect who launched the Thursday attack and determine a possible motive.

The Hill [3/12/2026 10:49 PM, Ryan Mancini, 18170K] reports the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has identified the suspect accused of attacking a synagogue in Michigan on Thursday as Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, a Lebanese citizen. DHS confirmed Ghazali’s identity in a statement to The Hill. “He was born in Lebanon on January 4, 1985,” a DHS spokesperson said. “He entered the United States on May 10, 2011 at Detroit Metropolitan International Airport on an IR1 immigrant visa as the spouse of a U.S. citizen after alien relative and fiancé petitions filed in December 2009 were approved in April 2010.” “He applied for naturalization on October 20, 2015 and was granted U.S. citizenship on February 5, 2016 under the Obama administration,” the statement concludes. Ghazali lived in Dearborn Heights, a suburb of Detroit, and worked at a local restaurant, according to The Detroit News. His ex-wife filed for divorce in August 2024. They had one child. The night before the attack, Ghazali posted on social media photos of family members killed in an Israeli attack on the town of Mashghara, Lebanon, Drop Site News reported. Dearborn Heights, Mich., Mayor Mo Baydoun also told The Detroit News in a statement that Ghazali “lost several members of his own family, including his niece and nephew, in an Israeli attack on their home in Lebanon.” Investigators alleged that Ghazali was armed with a rifle and drove into the reform synagogue Temple Israel on Thursday. He crashed the vehicle after security officers shot and killed him, with the crash starting a fire at the synagogue, authorities said. One other person, a security officer, was hurt during the incident, Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard said at a press conference. The smoke that billowed from the vehicle after it crashed caused 30 other security officers to be treated for smoke inhalation. FBI special agent Jennifer Runyan, who leads the Detroit FBI office, called the incident “a targeted act of violence against the Jewish community.” Other officials condemned the incident, with Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) calling it “heartbreaking.” Runyan said the FBI is investigating the incident. Israel attacked Lebanon days after it carried out a joint attack with the U.S. on Iran on Feb. 28. Hezbollah retaliated on March 2, launching missiles toward Israel for the first time since their war ended in November 2024. The new conflict has displace 800,000 Lebanese citizens and killed 680 people, Washington Post reported Thursday. The Detroit Free Press [3/12/2026 11:58 PM, Andrea May Sahouri, Niraj Warikoo, 4749K] reports that a neighbor told the Detroit Free Press he lived in Dearborn Heights, west of Detroit, and recently lost family in an Israeli strike in Lebanon. Dearborn Heights Mayor Mo Baydoun said in a statement the suspect "lost several members of his own family, including his niece and nephew, in an Israeli attack on their home in Lebanon" earlier in March. Ghazali was born in Lebanon in January 1985 and entered the U.S. in May 2010 on an IR1 immigrant visa as the spouse of a U.S. citizen, DHS said. He had filed alien relative and fiancé petitions in December 2009, which were approved in April 2010. He applied for naturalization in 2015 and was granted U.S. citizenship on Feb. 5, 2016. DHS did not provide details on his motivation. The neighbor said Ghazali had a brother recently killed in Lebanon in an Israeli strike. Israel has been targeting Lebanon frequently after the war with Iran started on Feb. 28. More than 600 have been killed in Lebanon and hundreds of thousands evacuated, according to Reuters and other media outlets. Wayne County has the highest percentage of Lebanese Americans among counties in the U.S., many of them with family affected by the war. On the block where some neighbors said Ghazali lived, there were no police cars observed on Wednesday evening. A Free Press reporter was approached by two men on the block, grilling the reporter about why she was there. At first they wouldn’t say they were officers -- they were in plain clothes -- but eventually relented, telling the reporter they were police from Oakland County and admitted they were waiting on something, but wouldn’t say what. After that interaction, Kandie Zaidieh, who has lived on the block for 30 years, poked her head out of the door. She was curious. "Do you know what’s going on?" She asked the reporter, who in return asked if she knew Ghazali, and if she had heard what happened in West Bloomfield earlier that day. Employees at the popular shawarma stop, Hamido, down the street told the Free Press he worked there and was “so, so nice” but wouldn’t grant an interview.

New York Post [3/12/2026 10:20 PM, Anna Young, 40934K] reports the antisemitic maniac who plowed his explosive-laden car into a Michigan synagogue’s preschool Thursday carried out the targeted attack after his family was killed in Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon, according to a report. Ayman Ghazali — a 41-year-old naturalized US citizen from Lebanon — had at least four relatives, including a sibling, killed days earlier in military strikes in Machghara amid escalating tensions in the Middle East over the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, sources close to the investigation told The Detroit News. The Israel Defense Forces launched a deadly wave of attacks on Hezbollah leaders in Beirut on Saturday, killing at least 217 Lebanese civilians and injuring nearly 800 more. Ghazali, who died in the brazen attack on Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Thursday afternoon, lived in Dearborn Heights, Michigan, and worked at Hamido Restaurant, a local Middle Eastern eatery, the outlet reported. The wannabe car bomber, who was born in Lebanon in January 1985, became a naturalized US citizen more than a decade ago under the Obama administration after entering the country through Detroit on May 10, 2011, on an immigrant visa as the spouse of an American citizen, the Department of Homeland Security told The Post. He was granted citizenship on Feb. 5, 2016, federal officials said. Ghazali shares at least one child with his ex-wife, who filed for divorce in Wayne County Circuit Court in August 2024, according to court records, the outlet reported. The divorce was finalized seven months later. The armed suspect was found dead inside the car, which was loaded with mortar shells, after the temple’s heroic security guards opened fire and stopped him when he rammed through the preschool’s entrance and barreled through the building housing 140 students, police and sources said. The bomb-packed car sparked a blaze, and he was found inside burned beyond recognition, sources said. No children or staff members were injured in the attack, but the temple’s head security guard was hit by the car and knocked unconscious in the chaos. The guard, along with 30 other emergency responders who suffered smoke inhalation inside the building, were taken to local hospitals for treatment. The suspect’s cause of death remains unclear. While authorities said it’s too early to determine a motive, the FBI, which is leading the investigation, confirmed the incident is being treated as a targeted attack on the Jewish community. Oakland County— where Temple Israel is located — has one of the largest Jewish populations outside of the New York area.

NewsMax [3/12/2026 10:45 PM, Staff, 3760K] reports the armed man who rammed his vehicle into one of the nation’s largest Reform synagogues Thursday has been identified as a 41-year-old naturalized citizen born in Lebanon, according to federal officials. Ayman Mohamad Ghazali was fatally shot by security officers after driving through a hallway at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit, in a vehicle that then caught fire, authorities said. Ghazali came to the U.S. in 2011 on an immediate relative visa as the spouse of a U.S. citizen and was granted U.S. citizenship in 2016, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Jennifer Runyan, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Detroit field office, called the crime a "targeted act of violence against the Jewish community" and said at a news conference Thursday that the FBI is leading the investigation. Investigators have not determined a motive yet. "What drove this person into action has to be determined by the investigation," said Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard. Bouchard said none of the synagogue’s staff or the teachers or 140 children at its early childhood center were injured. In the minutes after the attack, smoke billowed from the synagogue. One security officer was hit by the vehicle and knocked unconscious but did not suffer life-threatening injuries, the sheriff said. And 30 law enforcement officers were treated for smoke inhalation. West Bloomfield Police Chief Dale Young said Temple security officers "engaged the individual and neutralized the threat.". The suspect was found dead inside his vehicle, according to Bouchard. Cassi Cohen, director of strategic development at Temple Israel, was standing at the hallway where the crash happened. She said she heard a loud bang, grabbed a few staff members, ran into her office, and locked the door. "When I heard the crash, I knew it was bad," Cohen said. She said a classroom was near where the car rammed the synagogue and that in addition to the children, who were as old as 4, there were also more than 30 staff members in the synagogue. "Thankfully, we have had many active shooter drills, and our staff is prepared for these situations," she said.

FOX News [3/12/2026 4:13 PM, Michael Ruiz, Adam Sabes, 37576K] reports the FBI conducted an active shooter preparedness training in January at the same Michigan synagogue targeted by an armed attacker who police say rammed a vehicle inside Thursday and died in a fiery shootout with armed security. On Thursday, one security guard at the synagogue was knocked out and dragged to safety by his colleagues, according to Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard. He was taken to a hospital and is expected to recover from his injuries. There were no immediate reports of anyone else being hurt, besides the suspect, Bouchard said. The same FBI division has worked with other houses of worship, schools, hospitals and other sensitive sites around the state and announced the West Bloomfield training in January. An attacker drove a truck through a door at the synagogue at around 12:30 p.m. local time Thursday, and engaged what Bouchard called a well-prepared, armed security team. The truck burst into flames in a hallway, badly burning the attacker’s body and prompting authorities to bring in the bomb squad and sweep for improvised explosive devices.

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Daily Caller [3/12/2026 9:52 PM, Mariane Angela, 803K]

CBS News [3/12/2026 11:29 PM, Erin Jones, 51110K] reports that, for Mothers Against College Antisemitism Board President Miriam Zivin, the details and images coming out of Michigan are unsettling. "Shocked... but not surprised," she said. "The uptick, the increase in these kinds of attacks, should have been a wake-up call a long time ago for a lot of people.". Police say a man crashed into Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, Michigan, and got out with a rifle. Security confronted and killed him, and officials later identified him as a Lebanese‑born U.S. citizen. "This is not going to go away or get better unless we put ourselves in a situation to make everybody safe and say that we are not going to put up with this anymore," Zivin said. She said security has already become a top priority in recent years, especially after Oct. 7, 2023. "Most synagogues and schools have their own private security guards either through the districts in the cities or they will hire companies that are nonprofits, like Shomer Texas, which is a group of volunteers who are very highly trained," she said. She experienced hate firsthand at this Plano synagogue just a few months ago. A guest speaker was giving a presentation on Zoom when someone hacked into the meeting. "The person who hijacked the event was able to take over the board and put up images of antisemitic pictures, antisemitic slogans," she said. "Elementary schools and high schools are seeing incidents like this. Graffiti scribbled on band trailers at Plano West Senior High School. UTD, UNT has seen antisemitic incidents like this.". Now, there’s a call to action. "I think it’s very important for people to push for Congress to endorse legislation that will grant funding to protect Jewish institutions," she said. "There are grants available to nonprofit security groups through FEMA." [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

AP [3/12/2026 7:54 PM, Staff, 31753K] reports the suspect vehicle in a shooting at the United States consulate in Toronto this week has been found and police on Thursday said that it was stolen. Toronto police said the white Honda CR-V was recovered “within hours” of the shooting on Tuesday, but they are not providing any other details. They said the vehicle was stolen shortly before the incident. No injuries were reported after police say two people pulled up in front of the downtown consulate around 4:30 a.m. on Tuesday and shot at the building with a handgun before fleeing the scene. The shooting came amid heightened tension over the Iran war and followed gunfire attacks on two Toronto-area synagogues last weekend. Authorities said the U.S. and Israeli consulates, as well as embassies in Ottawa, would see an increase in security. The shooting was only reported about an hour later and police have said it’s possible the people inside the heavily fortified building were unaware of what had taken place.

Reuters [3/12/2026 6:52 PM, Staff, 38315K] reports Toronto police said on ​Thursday they will increase their presence in the city this weekend during expected protests ‌against the Iran war at an Al-Quds Day rally, citing heightened geopolitical tensions and several recent security incidents including shots fired at the U.S. Consulate. The rally is scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. on Saturday outside the U.S. Consulate, ​with an estimated 3,000 participants and counter‑demonstrators expected, police said. Superintendent Craig Young told reporters police ​will activate their Major Incident Command Centre on Saturday to monitor the rally and ⁠coordinate resources. Police said restrictions on airspace will be in effect above and around the U.S. Consulate ​throughout the weekend, prohibiting drone activity, including micro‑drones. "Our priority, as always, is to ensure the safety of everyone ​involved, including participants, counter-protesters, residents, visitors and our officers," Young said. British police announced earlier this week that Sunday’s planned annual Al-Quds march, organised by the Islamic Human Rights Commission, had been banned, citing the tensions and risks created by the Iran ​war. British police said IHRC was supportive of Iran’s clerical rulers. An Instagram post promoting marches in Toronto, ​organized by the Palestinian Youth Movement, Al-Quds Day Toronto and Lebanese 4 Palestine, urges supporters to rally under the ‌slogan "no war ⁠on Iran and Lebanon." Toronto has a large Iranian expatriate community. "In Canada, people have the right to assemble and express their opinions," Young said. "Those rights are fundamental. At the same time, everyone must respect the law.". The event comes after three separate incidents last week in which gunshots were fired at synagogues ​in the Toronto area, with ​no reports of injury. Police ⁠said on Tuesday that evidence indicates that two men exited a white SUV outside the consulate around 4:30 a.m. that day, fired shots from a ​handgun at the front of the U.S. Consulate and drove away.

New York Post [3/12/2026 4:45 PM, Ben Chapman, 40934K] reports Californian authorities are scrambling to strengthen the state’s anti-drone measures amid fears of an Iranian attack, cops and defense experts told the California Post. A leaked FBI memo on Wednesday caused alarm when it revealed the Bureau had passed on "unverified" information regarding a potential Iranian plot to use unmanned aircraft against the Golden State. The White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt and agency insiders have been quick to shoot down the significance of the alert, saying there were no credible threats against the US homeland. But experts told the Post police and federal authorities are now racing to counter any threat linked to what was outlined in the FBI’s memo. Both police and the feds are racing to shore up drone defenses in California and elsewhere, Haro said, because the danger to the population is so immediate and clear.

Breitbart [3/12/2026 10:00 AM, Frances Martel, 2238K] reports Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, a subordinate of the "supreme leader" who has largely abstained from commentary during the ongoing war with the United States, announced on Thursday that Iran would agree to end the conflict if America and Israel paid "reparations," among other demands. Pezeshkian reportedly made the comments on the social media site Twitter, according to the Iranian state-run Mehr News Agency. "The only way to end this war—ignited by the Zionist regime and US—is recognizing Iran’s legitimate rights, payment of reparations, and firm international guarantees against future aggression," Pezeshkian wrote. The president added that he had held discussions with the leader of Iran’s closest ally, Vladimir Putin of Russia, and the prime minister of Pakistan, Shehbaz Sharif. The Russian government has consistently offered verbal support to Iran during the current conflict, urging Israel and the United States to stop targeting military sites in the country, but has otherwise not taken any meaningful action to help its ally. Pakistan has taken a similar turn, as it is currently occupied with what its officials describe as an "open war" with the Taliban in Afghanistan.

ABC News [3/13/2026 3:09 AM, Staff, 34146K] reports the U.S. and Israel continue their attacks inside Iran as officials there tighten their grip on the critical Strait of Hormuz, disrupting oil supply. [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

FOX News [3/12/2026 8:53 PM, Staff, 37576K] reports White House deputy chief of staff and Homeland Security advisor Stephen Miller discusses the success of Operation Epic Fury and the objectives going forward on ‘Jesse Watters Primetime.’ [Editorial note: consult video at source link]

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