The News for 1/17/26
The content you hear on this program has not been reviewed by WRFL prior to broadcast and is produced under the discretion of its host DJs, and does not reflect the views of the University of Kentucky, WRFL, or its underwriters.
We’ll get back to the music on 120 Minutes in just a moment, but first, it’s 12:30 and it’s time to check the news, for this week, January 17th.
The Minnesota Star-Tribune published an editorial Thursday titled “Minnesota is under siege. This cannot stand.” In it, the paper’s board said, “The fatal shooting of 37-year-old Renee Good, an American citizen and Minneapolis resident, by ICE agent Jonathan Ross on January 7th brought into brutal focus an enforcement strategy that erodes trust and often puts innocent people and lawful protesters in extreme danger.” It also said that the heavy presence of ICE in Minneapolis and the “willful provocation” of residents and protesters there by ICE “feels like a military occupation”: “What we are witnessing is the storming of a state by the federal government. If battalions of militarized federal agents can occupy American cities, targeting any American seemingly at will without transparency or accountability, then no state is immune. It’s wrong, and it must be stopped,” the editorial said.
In late-breaking news, the Star-Tribune also reported Friday night that a federal judge in Minnesota has now ordered federal agents not to retaliate against peaceful protesters and not to stop drivers in the state, but as of yet it’s unclear what effect this temporary injunction might have on the situation on the ground in Minneapolis. This news comes after a new Economist poll out Tuesday shows that more Americans now want to abolish ICE than to keep it.
Meanwhile, MS NOW reported Friday night that the Trump administration’s Justice Department is escalating its attack on Minnesota Democrats, launching a criminal investigation and issuing subpoenas for governor Tim Walz and mayor Jacob Frey, apparently on the theory that their objections to ICE amount to obstruction. The New York Times previously reported Tuesday that six federal prosecutors in Minnesota resigned this week over Trump’s push to also investigate the widow of the woman killed by the ICE agent, which the Times said the prosecutors found “outrageous”. Governor Walz responded Friday night, “Weaponizing the justice system against your opponents is an authoritarian tactic. The only person not being investigated for the shooting of Renee Good is the federal agent who shot her.” Mother Jones magazine editor-in-chief Clara Jeffery said Friday night, “The DOJ is no longer legitimate on any level. It’s just a goon squad.”
In other news, here at home, the Kentucky Kernel reported this week that Brad Van hook, the UK employee who was suspended from his job after a Facebook comment about Charlie Kirk’s death in September, has now returned to work after a six-week internal review. Also this week, the Kernel reported that a U.S. district judge denied a request by suspended UK professor Ramsi Woodcock to return to the classroom. Instead, the court granted UK’s motion to put the lawsuit on hold while the university continues investigating Woodcock’s comments advocating for the dismantling of Israel as a nation-state. The professor had filed a federal lawsuit against UK in November, saying its investigation was unconstitutional.
In an op-ed for the New York Times on Monday, Greg Lukianoff, the president of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, wrote about universities’ ongoing crackdowns against speech, with university systems in Texas and Florida taking the most heavy-handed approach so far in limiting academic freedom in the classroom. Lukianoff said, “First Amendment advocates often warn about a slippery slope. Once censorship starts at the margins, core freedoms are next. University administrators and state commissars are skipping the slope and going straight for the trap door.”
Finally tonight, Martin Luther King Day is this coming Monday, January 19th, with Lexington’s Freedom March happening downtown at 1 p.m. Lexington Herald-Leader columnist Linda Blackford noted on Thursday that UK, which founded Lexington’s MLK Day observance in 1973, remains a sponsor of this year’s events, and “is apparently still on board, despite federal and state pressure that’s leading it to censor faculty, staff, students, and associated groups”. Blackford asked UK why it pulled its support for the Pride Festival last year if it could still support MLK Day, and a spokesperson told her it’s because Martin Luther King Day is a national holiday. Blackford concluded, “So, small steps, I guess.”
And that’s… the news.