The Conservative Cave
Current Events => Breaking News => Topic started by: SVPete on February 09, 2026, 10:55:28 AM
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California Man Arrested for Sending Texts in Guthrie Disappearance Case
https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/california-man-arrested-for-sending-texts-in-guthrie-disappearance-case-5981613?utm_source=partner&utm_campaign=BonginoReport&src_src=partner&src_cmp=BonginoReport (https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/california-man-arrested-for-sending-texts-in-guthrie-disappearance-case-5981613?utm_source=partner&utm_campaign=BonginoReport&src_src=partner&src_cmp=BonginoReport)
A California man faces criminal charges after federal investigators say he sent texts demanding bitcoin payment for the return of “Today” co-host Savannah Guthrie’s mother, Nancy Guthrie, 84, who disappeared from her home in Tucson, Arizona, last Sunday.
Derrick Callella, 42, of Hawthorne, California, is charged with transmitting a ransom demand related to a kidnapped person and anonymous interstate communications intended to harass or threaten, according to the criminal complaint.
The texts were sent to Guthrie’s daughter and son-in-law on Feb. 4, after the family published an emotional video pleading for kidnappers to contact them about their mother in response to a ransom letter sent to a news station two days earlier, according to the FBI.
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“To those imposters who are trying to take advantage and profit from this situation—we will investigate and ensure you are held accountable for your actions,” FBI Phoenix Special Agent in Charge Heith Janke said in a statement.
Callella, 42, has a prior record in Los Angeles County. He is a former county employee with the Department of Health Services and was charged in 2025 for allegedly stealing nearly $10,000 in unemployment benefits.
I seriously wish to be wrong, but if Nancy Guthrie really is as dependent on heart meds as has been said, she's probably no longer alive.
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2026 Super Bowl halftime show takeaways: Bad Bunny's set list was a cultural game changer (https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/super-bowl-2026-bad-bunny-halftime-show-live-updates-commercials-celeb-cameos/live)
Forget a simple halftime event. Bad Bunny's setlist was a cultural game changer. After months of planning and marketing, the artist born Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio delivered an interactive celebration of Latino culture at one of the most contentious times for the community in the United States.
Bad Bunny's Super Bowl halftime performance featured guest appearances by Lady Gaga and Ricky Martin, along with several cameos of Latin artists who were part of his celebratory stage setup. After opening with his 2022 hit "titi me pregunto" and odes to Puerto Rico and the Latin community, he closed out with DtMF (Debi tirar mas fotos, which translates to I should've taken more pictures), leading a large crowd of guests like a host leading a paranda during Christmas before holding up a football that read "Together, we are America."
Throughout the show, he showcased many elements that resonated with Latino culture, such as a live band, a taco stand, a nail tech doing someone's nails, ordering a piragua (shaved ice), friends and family playing dominoes, and more in a wedding reception scene. All of this while singing, dancing, and wearing a white football jersey that read his last name, "Ocasio," on the back with the number 64, potentially a nod to his mother's birth year, 1964.
Cultural game changer, please. Regardless of one's opinions on him, his music, or the performance itself, six months from now, almost no one will be talking about any change set off by it. The people who make "how stupid are randos on the street" videos should include "name one Superbowl halftime performer from the last five years" to their list of questions to prove how asinine this statement is. A few more folks may be able to answer correctly than ones who can tell us what the capital of US is, but I'd wager not many more.
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‘We’re Not Criminalizing the Unhoused’: How a Homeless Encampment and Drug Dealers Are Destroying a Local Condominium Complex and Turning Its Residents’ Lives Upside Down
https://freebeacon.com/america/were-not-criminalizing-the-unhoused-how-a-homeless-encampment-and-drug-dealers-are-destroying-a-local-condominium-complex-and-turning-its-residents-lives-upside-do/ (https://freebeacon.com/america/were-not-criminalizing-the-unhoused-how-a-homeless-encampment-and-drug-dealers-are-destroying-a-local-condominium-complex-and-turning-its-residents-lives-upside-do/)
HYATTSVILLE, Md.—The sign outside the Marylander Condominiums, a 200-unit complex in Prince George’s County, Md., describes it as a "private community."
But for members of a homeless encampment in the condo’s backyard, the complex also serves as a crackhouse, a bathroom, and the entrance to an open-air drug market, which has become a magnet for organized crime and caused millions in property damage.
Transients break into buildings and smoke crack in the stairwells. Tenants traversing the property must navigate needles, feces, and sleeping bodies as addicts nap half-naked in the hallways and sprawl themselves like welcome mats outside residents’ doors.
Half of the complex has gone without heat since Thanksgiving after vagrants allegedly vandalized the boiler room, causing pipes to burst in several buildings. Some units have lost electricity, too, due to the overuse of space heaters. Though the county instructed those without heat to "vacate immediately" in December, most have defied the order and tried to weather the cold. They say they have nowhere else to go.
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Billed as a "listening session" for condo-owners to air their grievances, the town hall featured a lengthy presentation on how the county was handling its "unhoused" residents.
"We have to be compassionate," the county’s deputy chief administrative officer for public safety and homeland security, Melvin Powell, said of the encampment, addressing the hundreds of residents who could soon be displaced because of it.
"We’re not criminalizing the unhoused," police major Thomas Boone added.
The situation shocked officials at Quasar Real Estate, a local investment firm, when it began managing the Marylander in April 2025. For months, they pleaded with police and county officials to address the open-air drug market that had effectively colonized the condo, which suffered so many break-ins that the company stopped repairing the locks.
But the county—which has the highest Democratic vote-share of any county in the United States, at 86 percent—didn’t clear the camp. Instead, it threatened to sue the condo, which was already tight on cash, for its failure to fix the nearly $5 million in property damage that has been caused by the drug den on its doorstep.
Something like 15 years ago, the City of San Jose tried the then newest proposed solution to homelessness. They set up several "tiny homes" in a corner of Columbus Park. They were right near where SR87 freeway crossed over I880 freeway, and were visible during my AM commute on I880. Very unsurprisingly, the Sacred Homeless swiftly trashed the site. The picture of the area on GoogMaps shows the trash, which included some blue tarps. About a year ago, in part courtesy of the Grants Pass USSC ruling, San Jose finally cleaned out that corner of Columbus Park.
Blame whatever combination of drugs, mental illness, hobo choices, and criminals, a lack of homes is not the problem. The problem is people who are unable or unwilling to live like the rest of society. Subsidizing and enabling the Sacred Homeless is NOT compassion, to the homeless or those they live near/among.
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2026 Super Bowl halftime show takeaways: Bad Bunny's set list was a cultural game changer (https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/super-bowl-2026-bad-bunny-halftime-show-live-updates-commercials-celeb-cameos/live)
Cultural game changer, please. Regardless of one's opinions on him, his music, or the performance itself, six months from now, almost no one will be talking about any change set off by it. The people who make "how stupid are randos on the street" videos should include "name one Superbowl halftime performer from the last five years" to their list of questions to prove how asinine this statement is. A few more folks may be able to answer correctly than ones who can tell us what the capital of US is, but I'd wager not many more.
A small fraction of Superbowl viewers actually speak Spanish, so the NFL narrow-casted, not unified. Having looked over translations of some of the guy's songs, it is likely that a significant %, maybe a majority, of those who did understand him did not appreciate the casual sex, drugs, and booze themes that permeate the songs.
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Vermont EV buses prove unreliable for transportation this winter
https://www.thecentersquare.com/vermont/article_89adc3fd-7efd-403f-85d1-9b9b386705f0.html (https://www.thecentersquare.com/vermont/article_89adc3fd-7efd-403f-85d1-9b9b386705f0.html)
(The Center Square) – Electric buses are proving unreliable this winter for Vermont's Green Mountain Transit, as it needs to be over 41 degrees for the buses to charge, but due to a battery recall the buses are a fire hazard and can't be charged in a garage.
Spokesman for energy workers advocacy group Power the Future Larry Behrens told the Center Square: “Taxpayers were sold an $8 million ‘solution’ that can’t operate in cold weather when the home for these buses is in New England.”
“We’re beyond the point where this looks like incompetence and starts to smell like fraud,” Behrens said.
“When government rushes money out the door to satisfy green mandates, basic questions about performance, safety, and value for taxpayers are always pushed aside,” Behrens said. “Americans deserve to know who approved this purchase and why the red flags were ignored.”
It takes a special kind of moronicrat to think a battery-powered vehicle would be great for a cold-weather state! Cold weather adversely affects battery chemical reactions, affecting charging and range per charge.
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Jeep maker Stellantis announces a ‘reset’ of its business and massive charges. Shares crumble
https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/06/business/stellantis-26-billion-hit-evs-intl (https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/06/business/stellantis-26-billion-hit-evs-intl)
London
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Stellantis, the owner of Jeep and Chrysler, announced a “reset” of its business after its enormous investments in electric vehicles failed to pay off.
The company said Friday that it would take charges of more than $26 billion, the bulk of which includes write-offs and cash payments for canceled EV products and costs of resizing its EV supply chain.
The announcement sent Stellantis (STLA) shares crashing. They fell as much as 30%.
The strategy revision follows similar — and expensive — actions from Ford and General Motors in recent weeks.
Many carmakers in the United States had invested heavily in EV plans in response to strict environmental regulations put in place by the Biden administration. They also expected some states to follow California and ban sales of gasoline-powered vehicles within a decade.
This illustrates what happens when enviro-activism gets codified into regs. Companies scramble to invest and then get burned when regs change. Automobile companies flushed billions down the drain of niche products under government duress.
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Peggy Noonan Still Thinks the Media Tells the Truth
https://hotair.com/david-strom/2026/02/09/peggy-noonan-still-thinks-the-media-tells-the-truth-n3811686 (https://hotair.com/david-strom/2026/02/09/peggy-noonan-still-thinks-the-media-tells-the-truth-n3811686)
Noonan became a national figure as an exceptional speechwriter for Ronald Reagan, best known for penning his speech given after the Challenger accident. Unfortunately, the fact that we all knew it was she who wrote it was mainly due to Noonan's desire to be known as the woman who wrote that speech, which reflected poorly on her.
Noonan became, at least among the intellectuals, something of a celebrity. And, unfortunately, she appears to have reveled in that fact.
It's hard to blame her. Her celebrity and her talent have served her well. But her continued celebrity among intellectuals has come at a price: her ability to think critically. In exchange for her success, she has given her fealty to an establishment that, among other things, was vicious and unfair to her mentor Reagan and to all Republicans.
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In the war between the elite and the hoi polloi, Noonan switched sides.
Nothing betrays this fact more than her lament for the decline of the Washington Post.
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Noonan certainly saw how biased the media was against Ronald Reagan, her boss, and how tolerant they were of the Clintons, for whom she had the capacity for contempt. She has every reason to understand how corrupt the media is, but can't make the leap to grasping the import: the media is not dying because Donald Trump and MAGA killed it or that the economic model changed, but because it killed itself. Lamenting the imminent death of The Washington Post, should it actually die, is as rational as lamenting the death of the old Soviet version of Pravda.
As that last paragraph I quoted pointed out, Noonan had an orchestra pit view of the WashPost's 9 years of trashing Reagan, from the 1980 campaign through his leaving office. Noonan saw the WashPost lie about the US economy in 1992 to torpedo GHWB's reelection chances. Noonan saw the WashPost's 9 years of fellating Bill Clinton to protect him from exposure of what he was. Noonan saw the WashPost's 9 years of trashing GWB ... the WashPost's 9 years of fawning over the racist Obamas and protecting HilLIARy from her ineptitude and inner ugly. How Noonan fantasizes that the WashPost is anything more than a slavish partisan mouthpiece of the Dem Party, I cannot understand.