Accused Killer of 18-Year-Old Student Was Caught and Released at Border in 2023

Jose Nino
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Accused Killer of 18-Year-Old Student Was Caught and Released at Border in 2023

(José Niño, Headline USA) An illegal alien from Venezuela accused of murdering a Loyola University Chicago freshman entered the United States under the Biden administration and was released under the city’s sanctuary policies before the killing, the Department of Homeland Security announced Sunday.

Jose Medina-Medina, 25, allegedly shot 18-year-old Sheridan Gorman early Thursday morning while she walked along the Chicago lakefront with friends, according to a DHS release obtained by Fox News.

The illegal alien was apprehended and released at the border under President Joe Biden’s administration in May 2023, according to DHS. Medina-Medina was also previously released from local custody in Chicago, a sanctuary city, just a month later after police arrested him for shoplifting from Macy’s.

The gunman approached Gorman, a freshman from Yorktown, New York, while wearing a mask at around 1:30 a.m., according to police. As Gorman attempted to flee, he allegedly shot her in the head before escaping to a nearby apartment building.

“Sheridan Gorman had her whole life ahead of her before this cold-blooded killer decided to end her life,” DHS Acting Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said. “She was failed by open border policies and sanctuary politicians who released this illegal alien twice before he went on to commit this heinous murder.”

“We are calling on Governor Pritzker and Chicago’s sanctuary politicians to commit to not releasing this criminal illegal alien from jail back into American neighborhoods,” Bis added.

Gorman’s grieving parents issued a tribute describing their daughter as “deeply loving” and “everyone’s cheerleader.”

A New York state lawmaker condemned the killing as evidence of systemic failure. “Our immigration system is clearly broken and endangering innocent American citizens. No one should be a victim of a system that fails on multiple levels,” State Assemblyman Matt Slater told the New York Post.

Gorman and her friends had ventured out to the pier at Tobey Prinz Beach in the early morning hours to catch a glimpse of the northern lights, according to her family. A masked gunman “emerged from the shadows,” a police report stated. Investigators found a single bullet casing a short distance from Gorman’s body.

“It didn’t seem like it was intentionally targeted toward any of us,” a friend told the Chicago Sun-Times. “It seemed like he was there for a reason, and we were just wrong place, wrong time. I’m guessing, because there was not another shot after that. It was just one.”

No motive has been established for the shooting. The investigation remains open.

José Niño is the deputy editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/JoseAlNino 

Trump Backs Off on Threat To Bomb Iran’s Power Plants

Headline USA Editor
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Trump Backs Off on Threat To Bomb Iran’s Power Plants

(Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com) President Donald Trump has backed off on his threat to bomb Iran’s power plants if the Strait of Hormuz wasn’t “fully opened” by Monday night and claimed that Washington and Tehran had held talks over the past two days, which has been denied by Iranian officials.

“I AM PLEASED TO REPORT THAT THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, AND THE COUNTRY OF IRAN, HAVE HAD, OVER THE LAST TWO DAYS, VERY GOOD AND PRODUCTIVE CONVERSATIONS REGARDING A COMPLETE AND TOTAL RESOLUTION OF OUR HOSTILITIES IN THE MIDDLE EAST,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

“BASED ON THE TENOR AND TONE OF THESE IN DEPTH, DETAILED, AND CONSTRUCTIVE CONVERSATIONS, WHICH WILL CONTINUE THROUGHOUT THE WEEK, I HAVE INSTRUCTED THE DEPARTMENT OF WAR TO POSTPONE ANY AND ALL MILITARY STRIKES AGAINST IRANIAN POWER PLANTS AND ENERGY INFRASTRUCTURE FOR A FIVE DAY PERIOD, SUBJECT TO THE SUCCESS OF THE ONGOING MEETINGS AND DISCUSSIONS,” the US president added.

In response to Trump’s initial post, Iranian media reported that there had been no talks and that Trump backed down because of Iran’s warning that it would retaliate with major attacks on energy infrastructure in Israel and in Arab countries housing US bases. A source told Iran’s Tasnim news agency that the US had sent messages through mediators, but that Iran’s message is that it will continue fighting until “deterrence” is established.

“With this kind of psychological warfare, neither the Strait of Hormuz will return to pre-war conditions nor will calm return to energy markets,” the source added. The Iranian Foreign Ministry also denied that any negotiations with the US were taking place.

Speaking to reporters later in the day, President Trump continued to claim that negotiations were underway and that his envoy, Steve Witkoff, was in talks with an official in Iran he couldn’t name over concerns they would get killed. An Israeli official told Axios that Witkoff had been in contact with Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran’s parliament speaker, but Ghalibaf quickly denied the claim.

“Our people demand the complete and humiliating punishment of the aggressors. All officials stand firmly behind their Leader and people until this goal is achieved,” Ghalibaf wrote on X. “No negotiations with America have taken place. Fake news is intended to manipulate financial and oil markets and to escape the quagmire in which America and Israel are trapped.”

Amid the confusion over Trump’s claim, the war continues, and the Israeli military claimed that it was carrying out “wide-scale” strikes on targets in Iran.

 

This article originally appeared at Antiwar.com.  

Pope Leo XIV Suggests Aerial Bombing Campaigns Should Be ‘Banned Forever’

Headline USA Editor
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Pope Leo XIV Suggests Aerial Bombing Campaigns Should Be ‘Banned Forever’

(Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com) Pope Leo XIV suggested on Monday that aerial bombing campaigns should have been “banned forever” following the atrocities committed from the sky during the 20th century, as he continues pushing an antiwar message following the start of the US-Israeli war against Iran.

“Airplanes should always be carriers of peace, never of war,” Leo said while hosting executives and staff from ITA Airways, Italy’s national airline, and the Lufthansa Group, according to Vatican News. “No one should be afraid that threats of death and destruction might come from the sky.”

The Vatican News report said the US-born pope recalled the bombing campaigns of the World Wars and other conflicts. “After the tragic experiences of the twentieth century, aerial bombings should have been banned forever,” he said. “Instead, they still exist, and technological development, positive in itself, is being placed at the service of war. This is not progress; it is regression.”


Since World War I, the Vatican has been highly critical of modern war. “The combatants are the greatest and wealthiest nations of the earth; what wonder, then, if, well provided with the most awful weapons modern military science has devised, they strive to destroy one another with refinements of horror,” Pope Benedict XV said in an encyclical in November 1914, a few months after the outbreak of the First World War.

“There is no limit to the measure of ruin and of slaughter; day by day the earth is drenched with newly-shed blood, and is covered with the bodies of the wounded and of the slain,” Benedict added.

Pope Pius XII, who led the Catholic Church during World War II, was outspoken about the impact that the strategic bombing campaigns and the war in general had on civilians. “We have had to witness the harrowing scene of death leaping from the skies and stalking pitilessly through unsuspecting homes, striking down women and children,” Pius said in a 1943 letter to US President Franklin D. Roosevelt after US warplanes bombed Rome.

The Second Vatican Council’s 1965 document Gaudium et Spes strongly denounced strategic bombing campaigns aimed at destroying cities, saying: “Any act of war aimed indiscriminately at the destruction of entire cities or extensive areas along with their population is a crime against God and man himself. It merits unequivocal and unhesitating condemnation.”

Leo has made opposing war a major theme of his pontificate since his election as pope on May 8, 2025. Since the outbreak of the US-Israeli war on Iran, he has repeatedly called for an end to the conflict and suggested Christian leaders involved in starting wars should examine their conscience and go to confession, remarks seen as aimed at the Trump administration since Leo is American.

This article originally appeared at Antiwar.com.  

 

Hundreds Go On Strike at Major Navy Shipbuilder in Maine Over Wages and Benefits

Headline USA Editor
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Hundreds Go On Strike at Major Navy Shipbuilder in Maine Over Wages and Benefits

(Headline USA) Hundreds of designers, clerks and technicians went on strike Monday in Maine at one of the U.S. Navy’s largest shipbuilding contractors.

The Bath Marine Draftsmen’s Association went on strike at General Dynamics Bath Iron Works after members voted to reject the shipyard’s proposed wage offer over the weekend. The union represents 627 workers at the historic shipyard, which has built naval ships in Bath for more than a century.

The strike arrived several weeks after a morale-boosting appearance in which U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth touted the need to boost defense manufacturing. It is also taking place as the U.S. intensifies its war effort in Iran.

The union said in a statement that the shipyard’s offer does not address the members’ concerns about wages, insurance coverage and retirement income security.

“We had hoped the company took to heart the statements made by Secretary Hegseth here at GD BIW on February 9th because, our membership certainly did,” union President Trent Vellella said in an emailed statement that also said General Dynamics “continues to make record profits off our labor.”

The shipyard negotiated with the union for three weeks and has been unable to reach accord on a new collective bargaining agreement, said David Hench, a spokesperson for Bath Iron Works. Hench said the company’s proposal includes “historic annual wage increases” of 10.1% in the first year followed by 4% in each of the following three years.

The company plans for business operations to continue during the strike through the use of salaried personnel, subcontractors and other employees who elect to come to work, the shipyard said on its website. The shipyard’s total workforce is about 6,800 people, Hench said.

“The company is continuing to negotiate in good faith with the BMDA to explore opportunities to better align company and union objectives,” Hench said in an emailed statement.

The Bath Marine Draftsmen’s Association is affiliated with the United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, which is commonly known as the UAW and is one of the country’s largest unions. The BMDA members at Bath Iron Works work as designers, nondestructive test technicians, technical clerks, laboratory technicians and associate engineers, the union said in a statement.

Members picketed outside the shipyard Monday in cold and drizzly weather. Workers said they would continue picketing around the clock until they ratified a new contract.

Bath Iron Works is a major shipbuilder for the Navy and was awarded a multiyear contract to build several Arleigh Burke-class destroyers in 2023. The Arleigh Burke is a guided missile destroyer that Navy officials have described as the “backbone of the Navy’s surface fleet.” The Navy exercised an option last year to add an additional destroyer to the contract.

The Navy accepted delivery of the future USS Harvey C. Barnum, Jr., a member of the Arleigh Burke class, last year and it’s due to be commissioned next month, Hench said.

Shipyard representatives did not immediately respond to a question about whether the strike would slow production.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press. 

 

Feds Investigating Deadly LaGuardia Airport Collision

Headline USA Editor
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Feds Investigating Deadly LaGuardia Airport Collision

(Chris Wade, The Center Square)  Hundreds of flights at LaGuardia Airport remain canceled Monday afternoon as federal investigators begin a probe of Sunday night’s runway collision between a plane and a firefighting truck. 

The Air Canada plane carrying 72 passengers and four crew members struck a Port Authority Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting vehicle that was responding to a separate incident late Sunday, according to New York and New Jersey Port Authority Executive Director Kathryn Garcia. 

The pilot and copilot were killed in the crash, while 41 others were taken to local hospitals and 32 have since been released, Garcia said. Some of the passengers had “serious injuries,” she said. 

“This is a developing situation based on preliminary information,” Garcia said in a statement. “The Port Authority Police Department is working closely with our airline partners as well as federal authorities and will provide additional updates as more details become available.” 

The crash shut down LaGuardia, the state’s third busiest airport, until 2 p.m. Monday with more than 600 flights canceled.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul called the runway collision “heartbreaking” and said her “thoughts are with the victims, their families, and everyone affected.”

The National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration are investigating the collision and were expected to provide an update late Monday.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy posted an image that showed the damage to the nose of the Air Canada plane, saying he was en route to the airport in response to the “horrific crash.”

Duffy said the NTSB and FAA were working closely on an investigation, adding that updates would be provided as soon as possible.

“Please keep the victims, families and response teams in your prayers,” he posted on X. 

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney called the collision “deeply saddening” and said Canadian officials are “working closely” with their U.S. counterparts on the ground as the investigation continues. 

“My thoughts are with the victims, their families, and all those impacted,” Carney posted on social media. 

President Donald Trump told reporters on the tarmac of Palm Beach International Airport that it appears the collision was caused by a “mistake” without elaborating. 

“They made a mistake,” Trump said Monday. “It’s a dangerous business. That’s terrible.” 

Trump Asks ICE Agents Not to Wear Masks at Airports, as TSA Officer Absences Climb

Headline USA Editor
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Trump Asks ICE Agents Not to Wear Masks at Airports, as TSA Officer Absences Climb

(Morgan Sweeney, The Center Square)  Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are deploying to airports across the country starting Monday to assist with security efforts, with a request from President Donald Trump that they not wear masks.

In a post to social media Monday, the president said he’s a “BIG proponent of ICE wearing masks” but requested that they not wear them while helping the Transportation Security Administration fill some gaps as the Department of Homeland Security funding bill continues to stall in Congress.

“I am a BIG proponent of ICE wearing masks as they search for, and are forced to deal with, hardened criminals,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “I would greatly appreciate, however, NO MASKS, when helping our Country out of the Democrat caused MESS at the airports, etc.”

The president’s request marks a departure from one of the agency’s more controversial tactics it has used under the current administration as it has worked toward Trump’s mass deportation efforts.

ICE agents will only be assisting with airports’ basic security needs, like “guarding airport entrances and exits,” and not security line screenings, as The Center Square previously reported.

TSA employs tens of thousands of people and has lost more than 400 agents in the latest partial shutdown, after the record 43-day full government shutdown in the fall. However, in addition to those who have quit, “thousands” are calling out from work, according to Lauren Bis, a spokesperson for the department.

The shutdown is causing “thousands to call out from work because they are not able to afford gas, childcare, food, or rent,” the department’s Lauren Bis said in a statement.

In fact, on Sunday, more than 3,450 TSA officers called out from work, the most of any day of the shutdown so far, Bis told The Center Square in an email.

Multiple outlets reported on where ICE agents were being deployed on Monday, including ABC News, which listed 14 major airports across the country, including airports in Atlanta, Baltimore, Houston, New Orleans and New York’s John F. Kennedy and LaGuardia airports. The Center Square reached out to ICE but did not receive a response by the time of publication.

New Orleans’ and Atlanta’s main airports had call-out rates of more than 40% on Sunday, followed by Houston, Baltimore and JFK with call-out rates over 37%, according to Bis.

Many who work for TSA, the Coast Guard, the Secret Service and other agencies within the DHS are going without pay due to the department’s funding bill stalling in Congress for more than a month. Though ICE is also a DHS agency, the One Big Beautiful Bill has enabled them to continue to receive funding.

Liberal Talk Show Host Now Admits that FBI Engineered Whitmer Kidnap Plot

Ken Silva
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Liberal Talk Show Host Now Admits that FBI Engineered Whitmer Kidnap Plot

(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Better late than never, perhaps.

More than five years after the Justice Department announced that it had foiled a purported militia conspiracy to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, liberal talk show host John Oliver is admitting what many in conservative media have been saying all along: The FBI fomented the plot with its own undercover agents and informants.

“We first started looking at this story a few years ago, and it has changed how I view every sting story that’s made headlines since. Remember when that group of men were arrested for trying to kidnap Gretchen Whitmer? Guess how many confidential informants seemed to help that plot along? I’ll give you a clue: It’s a lot more than you’d like,” Oliver said in his most recent episode, which focused on police sting operations.

“And you don’t have to sympathize with these men or agree with their views to wonder if that plan could have even gotten off the ground if there hadn’t been as many as a dozen confidential informants involved and two undercover federal agents.”

Of the 12 men arrested, four took plea deals, five were eventually acquitted, and five were found guilty — two of them in federal court and three in state court.

Two separate courts have upheld the convictions, despite the fact that judges admitted the FBI had provoked the accused. In the state case, a judge acknowledged that an FBI informant created a phony “III%er,” or “3%,” militia group and made one of the defendants its leader. “The 3% groups were established across the country and were created by the FBI. The FBI used assets from other 3% groups in forming the Michigan 3% group,” Judge Thomas Wilson said in January 2025 — upholding the state convictions anyway.

Similarly, in the federal appeal, justices wrote in April 2025 that “the Defendants are correct that the government encouraged them to settle on a plan,” but that “the jury heard the substance of most of these statements and yet still convicted [them].”

The so-called leaders of the plot, Adam Fox and Barry Croft, are serving 16- and 20-year sentences, respectively—both jailed at the supermax prison in Florence, Colorado.

Meanwhile, state defendants Paul Bellar, Joe Morrison and Pete Musico are also serving seven-year, 10-year and 12-year prison sentences, respectively.

Former DOJ pardon attorney Ed Martin said he was looking at the Whitmer case for potential pardons, but Martin was removed from his post earlier this year. Trump has also ruled out pardons, according to Whitmer.

Whitmer, a Democrat, told Michigan Public Radio last May that President Donald Trump asked her about a month ago how she would feel if he pardoned the two men.

“I said, ‘I think it would be the wrong decision,’” Whitmer recounted. “I would oppose it and he said, ‘OK, I’ll drop it.’”

See Oliver’s full episode here:

Ken Silva is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.

Charlie Kirk’s Mentor Dies in ‘Freak’ Accident

Ken Silva
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Charlie Kirk’s Mentor Dies in ‘Freak’ Accident

(Ken Silva, Headline USA) A man who was once a mentor to the late conservative activist Charlie Kirk has died from what’s been described as a “freak” accident while playing pickleball.

Jeff Webb, 76, reportedly died Thursday, about two weeks after cracking his head while playing pickleball.

“Webb was hospitalized, and his family made the decision to take him off life support,” the Daily Mail reported.

Webb, who was at the White House when Kirk was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, said that the country lost a potential future president when Kirk was killed last September.

“We may have lost a future president. Charlie Kirk had it all—charisma, faith, respect for everyone… Now, in his absence, tens of thousands of new chapters are rising. His legacy is just beginning,” Webb told Real America’s Voice at the time.

Along with his conservative activism, Webb was the founder of the cheerleading apparel company Varsity Brands. He was reportedly “one of the most influential figures in the history of the sport of cheerleading and dance,” according to Cheer Daily.

“Varsity Brands is saddened by the passing of Jeff Webb, founder of Varsity Spirit and modern cheerleading. Jeff played a pivotal role in shaping cheerleading as it exists today and in building a community that has impacted generations of athletes, coaches, and teams,” Varsity Brands said upon his passing.

“In recent years, his contributions helped grow the sport both in the United States and globally, including his work with the International Cheer Union, which achieved full recognition by the International Olympic Committee in 2021.”

Ken Silva is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.

Headline Geopolitics: Sarah of DD Geopolitics on Empire and Escalation

Jose Nino
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Headline Geopolitics: Sarah of DD Geopolitics on Empire and Escalation

(José Niño, Headline USA) In this Headline Geopolitics episode, José Niño interviews Sarah of DD Geopolitics, a retired U.S. Navy veteran and independent geopolitical analyst whose outlet has built a reputation for sharp, anti-imperial reporting that cuts against both mainstream media and sensationalist alt-media narratives.

Sarah recounts how her military service radicalized her against the empire, and explains why DD Geopolitics took shape as a truly international, independent media cooperative. The conversation covers the growing Iran war, the deception and theater of the Trump administration, the role of Tulsi Gabbard and Joe Kent, the strategic significance of Argentina and the “Isaac Accords,” and why the Russia-Ukraine front is inseparable from the larger global war now unfolding.

Watch the full interview here:

Follow Sarah on X:
https://x.com/DDGSarah

Follow DD Geopolitics on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/@DDGeopolitics/streams

José Niño is the deputy editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/JoseAlNino

Ex-Obama Official and Epstein Confidant Leaves Goldman Sachs w/ $25 Million Parachute

Ken Silva
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Ex-Obama Official and Epstein Confidant Leaves Goldman Sachs w/ $25 Million Parachute

(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Kathy Ruemmler, the top legal advisor to Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon, has left the bank over her relationship to deceased sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein—collecting a handsome $25 million pay package on her way out.

“Ruemmler, who will leave Goldman in June, saw her annual compensation increase 11% from the $22.5 million she received in 2024,” Bloomberg reported Friday, citing a company filing.

Ruemmler was Obama’s White House counsel from 2011 to 2014 before moving to Goldman Sachs. She reportedly first met Epstein after he called her to ask if she would be interested in representing Bill Gates and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Their relationship grew closer from there. At one point, Ruemmler was an executor of Epstein’s will.

They also gossiped over politics, emails show. In 2018, for instance, Epstein was insulting Trump in emails to Ruemmler. Ruemmler sent a message to Epstein calling Trump “so gross.” A portion of that message was redacted, but Epstein replied, “worse in real life and upclose.”

After those and other emails were made public, Goldman Sachs officials supported Ruemmler. But according to the Journal, others at the investment firm—particularly women—are furious with her.

“In 2024, Solomon organized a dinner at his Manhattan apartment to address the lack of senior women in the highest ranks of the bank, which then had more than 44,000 employees. Some of the women who attended told the Journal at the time that they were appalled that Solomon had Ruemmler help organize the event,” the newspaper reported.

“Solomon later complained in a separate gathering with high-ranking women that Ruemmler had garnered that kind of reaction. He said he couldn’t believe there were senior women at the firm who would bristle at Ruemmler, explaining she was a top adviser and an important resource for the firm, according to people who were present.”

Ken Silva is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.

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