Heartland

• LA wildfire: Looking like something out of a Hollywood movie, the city of Los Angeles is literally on fire. Wildfires pushed by high winds engulfed the high-end neighborhood of Pacific Palisades, forcing 30,000 residents, including celebrities, to evacuate. Multimillion-dollar homes have gone up in flames. With wind speeds approaching 100 miles an hour, the wildfire has spread so quickly that people even abandoned their cars on the roadway, fleeing on foot toward the ocean. It ignited some 200 acres in the Santa Monica Mountains within an hour. As the National Weather Service noted, “This is a Particularly Dangerous Situation — in other words, this is about as bad as it gets in terms of fire weather.” Flights in and out of Los Angeles International Airport are expected to be delayed or canceled. As of this morning, four major wildfires in southern California are burning. The largest is in the Pacific Palisades, which has grown to 3,000 acres and is 0% contained.

• Virginia Democrats keep control of state legislature after special elections (Just the News)

• The Atlanta Public Safety Training Center (a.k.a. “cop city”) has been built (Hot Air)

Politics

• Judge Cannon temporarily blocks release of Jack Smith report on Trump cases (Newsweek) | Justice Department says it plans to release only part of report for now (AP)

• Trump petitions Supreme Court to halt sentencing in hush-money case (Newsweek)

• Make America Grow Again: Donald Trump wants to put America First, and part of that seems to be claiming or reclaiming literal territory. But first, let’s just say for the record that his jokes about former Canadian PM Justin Trudeau being “governor” of a new American state are 100% trolling. There’s no reason to take seriously the idea of annexing Canada. What we should take seriously, however, are three other proposals: acquiring Greenland from Denmark, regaining control of the Panama Canal, and renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene says she’ll introduce legislation for the Gulf renaming, but that’s just icing on the cake. The real difference makers would be Greenland and the Panama Canal. Greenland hosts America’s northernmost military base, Pituffik Space Base, formerly known as Thule Air Base. It’s located along a strategic maritime route, and it has abundant natural resources. His play for the island may also be aimed at keeping China out. The same goes for the Panama Canal, through which an enormous amount of trade happens. The late Jimmy Carter gave it away, and Trump wants it back.

• Humor: Trump announces plan to rename the moon “Space America” (Babylon Bee)

• Carter lies in state: The body of America’s 39th president, Jimmy Carter, arrived in Washington, DC, on Tuesday following memorial events in his home state of Georgia. Carter’s body, in a casket draped with the U.S. flag, was moved to the U.S. Capitol via a horse-drawn carriage flanked by troops from the Army’s Old Guard. His body was placed in the Rotunda to lie in state. The funeral service for Carter will be held at the Washington National Cathedral on Thursday. Following the service, Carter will be flown back to Georgia, where he will be buried on his property next to his wife, Rosalynn, near a willow tree.

• Laken Riley Act passes House: All House Republicans were joined by 48 Democrats to pass the Laken Riley Act on Tuesday afternoon. It was the first bill passed by the 119th Congress. Named after the Georgia nursing student murdered by an illegal alien last year, the legislation will require immigration authorities to detain illegals found guilty of theft-related crimes. Furthermore, it allows states to sue the Department of Homeland Security for any harm illegal aliens have caused residents. After the vote, Speaker Mike Johnson blasted most Democrat lawmakers for voting against the bill, saying, “It is hard to believe after countless horrific stories like Laken’s, ANY House Democrats would vote against deporting illegal aliens who commit violent crimes against American citizens.” The Republican-controlled House passed the bill last year, but the then-Democrat-controlled Senate never took it up. Now, with a Republican Senate, it will be a different story.

Security

• Trump warns Hamas “all hell will break out” if it doesn’t release hostages before he takes office (NY Post)

• Migrant shelter crime: Massachusetts Democrat Governor Maura Healey is fit to be tied after she learned that her state’s sanctuary policies, which she is so proud of, have been exploited by illegal aliens for criminal activities. After an illegal alien from the Dominican Republic was caught with nearly $1 million in drugs and an AR-15 at a temporary shelter, Healey huffed, “It’s outrageous that this individual took advantage of our shelter system to engage in criminal activity.” Following the arrest, Healey ordered an inspection of shelters, but she then blamed the problem on “our broken federal immigration system and the urgent need for Congress and the White House to act on a border security bill to prevent criminals from entering our communities.” How about not inviting people to illegally enter the U.S. and offering them protection from U.S. immigration authorities? Back in 2023, Healey was singing a different tune, boasting that illegal aliens are “drawn here because we are and proudly have been a beacon to those in need.” Following Donald Trump’s election, Healey promised to resist his immigration enforcement plan with “every tool in the toolbox.” It’s almost funny seeing Healey upset over lawlessness when she literally boasted about defending lawlessness.

• ACLU sides with Venezuelan gang over cops: The American Civil Liberties Union is investigating the Aurora Police Department after it arrested members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, who had taken over an apartment complex in the Denver-area suburb. The ACLU’s reason has everything to do with the Aurora PD working with immigration enforcement. The ACLU is literally defending illegal aliens who are members of a violent criminal gang who kidnapped and physically abused a man and a woman whom they “bound,” “pistol-whipped,” “beat,” and “terrorized.” And these two were not the only victims of these gang members. The ACLU argues that since Colorado law restricts state law enforcement from working with federal immigration law enforcement, the arrest and detainment of these illegals should not have occurred. APD Police Chief Todd Chamberlain rejected the ACLU’s characterization of the events, calling them a “gross mischaracterization of the facts,” adding, “Colorado law does not prohibit the Aurora Police Department, or any other law enforcement agency in our state, from assisting federal officials in apprehending criminal offenders or those with federal warrants, both of which applied to the suspects involved in this crime.”

• Man suspected of killing girlfriend week after being deported (Newsweek)

• Biden’s last-minute cigarette ban is a boon for crime: The Food and Drug Administration is moving forward with a new rule that would lower the legal nicotine level for cigarettes, effectively banning all current commercially available cigarettes. This comes at a time when U.S. smoking rates are at an all-time low, according to Gallup polling. Indeed, even the FDA estimates that if the rule were to go into effect, it would only lower the smoking rate by a little more than 1% by the year 2100. However, it would serve as a boon for criminal organizations. As former Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives assistant director Richard Marianos observed, “This is a gift that Biden is giving to criminals out there, and they’re going to see it, and they’re going to capitalize on it, and there’s not a thing we’re going to be able to do except react instead of be proactive.” The window for this rule to be finalized will fall after Donald Trump has entered office, leaving it up to his administration to enforce.

Culture

• Mike Johnson maintains House transgender bathroom ban (NBC News)

• Gender-confused suspect charged with murder in mailman’s lunch break stabbing (Fox News)

• Two federal death row inmates refuse Biden’s commutation (Fox News)

• DeSantis adds conservative reformers to University of West Florida board (Tampa Bay Times)

Misc.

• “The View” host’s husband caught up in RICO lawsuit (Daily Wire)

• The Washington Post lays off 4% of staff (Axios)

• Medical debt banned from credit reports (CBS News)

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