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“Renee sparkled. She literally sparkled. I mean, she didn’t wear glitter but I swear she had sparkles coming out of her pores. All the time. You might think it was just my love talking but her family said the same thing. Renee was made of sunshine.”
The words are those of Renee Good’s wife Becca. They cut to our heart – our humanity. She was shot in the face by an ICE agent, who then muttered: “Fuckin’ bitch.” The murder of this 37-year-old mom as she tried to drive around the ICE guys who stopped her is national news, of course. Almost everyone has seen at least one of the many videos of the incident and, you might say, the national dialogue about virtually anything else has been put on hold.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has arrested, detained, deported, and/or imprisoned many people that it has unilaterally determined to be undesirables. At first, they claimed they would deport only criminals, but it has already gone beyond that. We at the Free Press consider every person who has been sent to the Tecoluca (El Salvador prison), Guantanamo naval base, or detained in other prisons throughout the country to be innocent until proven guilty. We will include students who have been expelled for protesting genocide. It appears the government will revoke Visa's to get rid of undesirable students. This article will be updated as long as is necessary.
BANGKOK, Thailand -- In an unusual display of non-diplomatic language directed at his own country, former U.S. Ambassador to Thailand Robert F. Godec publicly denounced "the reckless and erratic actions of the United States" and President Donald Trump's Iran War.
He also took a swipe at Israel.
"Unfortunately the United States under President Trump is now undermining the [post-1945 international] system," Mr. Godec said, citing Washington's tariffs, political aggression against Greenland and Canada, seizure of Venezuela's former president Nicolas Maduro, the Iran War, and assassination of Ayatollah Khamenei.
"The regime in Tehran is abhorrent, but the United States, working with Israel, undertook this war of choice alone.
"People around the world are bearing the consequences, which could yet get much worse," Mr. Godec wrote in a 1,367-word statement published Thursday (April 23) on the opinion page of the Bangkok Post, the daily English newspaper for foreigners and Thailand's establishment.
The Senate confirmed Mr. Godec to be ambassador to Thailand in 2022. Previously, he was ambassador to Kenya and Tunisia.
It is obvious that the Israelis hate anything that starts with the letter “H,” such as Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis, and Hormuz. So, what do Israelis like? Here is a list of things that Israelis like to do:
Texas Grid Battery Plans
As a sign of how the grid is changing, Octopus Energy USA has introduced PowerStore, a new battery-powered retail electricity plan in the Texas market that allows homeowners to get a 30 kWh battery system installed in their home under a 36-month fixed-rate subscription plan.
The plan, which requires no down payment, offers low-cost electricity of 8 cents per kWh (in addition to utility distribution charges that generally run about 5 to 6 cents per kWh), along with a $45 per month subscription charge for the battery.
This program is similar to other battery-based retail energy plans currently available in Texas, such as those offered by Base Power and Solrite. These plans offer low-cost batteries to homeowners which are then combined and managed as a virtual power plant by the installation firms.
Measure 20-373, “The Lane County Watersheds Bill of Rights,” which is on the ballot for the May 19th election in western Oregon, would enshrine “rights of nature” for water and watersheds in Lane County.
If their spending is any indicator, corporate interests find this incredibly threatening.
Records show that as of April 25th, $188,825 in donations have been made to a group formed in February to oppose Measure 20-373.
According to Kunu Bearchum (Northern Cheyenne, Ho-Chunk Nation), one of the chief petitioners behind the Watersheds Bill of Rights, the opposition group “Protect Our County” is what is known as an “astroturf group” — an organization pretending to represent grassroots people but in reality funded by powerful business interests.
The headlines on Friday blared that the Trump Administration announced a return to the firing squad, but that's just bluster. Much more concerning are the proposed new regulations designed to expedite state executions by cutting access to federal appeals and empowering the U.S. Attorney General to help expedite state executions.
This cannot be allowed to stand, and YOU can do something about it:
People vs. Poison Rally
Monday, April 27, 2026, from 9am outside the Supreme Court
Register to attend or watch online: https://thepeoplevspoison.org
Amal Khalil, a 43‑year‑old Lebanese journalist and correspondent for the Beirut-based daily newspaper Al‑Akhbar, was known for her decades of fearless reporting from southern Lebanon. Her name, Amal (meaning “hope” in Arabic), became tragically symbolic when she was killed in an Israeli airstrike.
Born in 1984 in al‑Baisariyah in the Sidon District, Khalil grew up during the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon. According to publicly available biographical sources, she later became a prominent voice documenting Israeli demolitions, occupation, and human rights abuses in the region. Colleagues described her as generous, courageous, and deeply knowledgeable about the south, often sharing contacts and resources with other journalists. Reporting from outlets such as Middle East Eye highlighted her commitment to truth‑telling and the impact repeated attacks had on her worldview.
Career and Reporting
Khalil began her career covering the 2006 Israeli war on Lebanon, which resulted in: