Expert estimates Jocelyn Benson’s husband, Ryan Friedrichs, to make $70 MILLION off Saline data center project

Ryan Friedrichs could recognize a $70 million commission in his current role as vice president of billionaire Stephen Ross’ Related Digital Companies, which is endeavoring to build the $7 billion Stargate data center in Saline Township.

Friedrichs is married to Jocelyn Benson, who in her current position as Michigan Secretary of State is overseeing her own 2026 gubernatorial election.

Related Digital is developing the $7 billion “Stargate” project for Oracle and Open AI on 575 acres. The data center project is one of many proposals across the state that has been met with opposition by residents and communities. Click here to read more.

 

ICE agents rescue child from drowning in Plymouth hotel pool

PLYMOUTH, Minn. - A 4-year-old boy was saved by two off-duty ICE agents in Plymouth who performed CPR on him before paramedics brought him to a hospital.

Big picture view:

The Department of Homeland Security said two ICE agents “sprung into action” to rescue a 4-year-old boy who almost drowned in a hotel pool in Plymouth.

The agents then “performed CPR for several minutes before paramedics arrived.”

The Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that its deputies responded to a possible drowning at the Ramada Inn in Plymouth around 8:30 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 20. The boy was taken to the hospital before deputies arrived. Click here to read more.

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Mortgage Rates Fall Below 6% For First Time Since 2022

The average rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage this week was 5.98 percent, the first time the average rate has dropped into the five percent range in nearly three years, Freddie Mac reported Thursday.

“This rate, combined with the improving availability of homes for sale, is meaningful and will drive more potential buyers into the market for spring homebuying season,” Freddie Mac said.

Mortgage rates peaked at 7.79 percent in October of 2023. When Trump took office in January, rates were around seven percent. Since May, rates have been steadily declining.

On the campaign trail in 2024, Trump frequently said that his administration would bring down mortgage rates to make homebuying more affordable.

“We’re going to bring it down very fast, we’re going to bring energy down. We will drive down the rates so you will be able to pay 2 percent again and we will be able to finance or refinance your homes drastically,” Trump said at a rally in Arizona. Click here to read more.

 

New bill would block scholarship money for students

A new federal program will allow individuals to get an annual tax credit for donating funds for education, but Illinois students can access the money only if the state opts in.

Some lawmakers have proposed legislation that would prevent students from getting that much-needed help.

Senate Bill 3986 would prohibit Illinois from opting into the Federal Scholarship Tax Credit program, which provides privately-donated funds for tutoring, fees for dual enrollment, educational therapies for students with disabilities and other academic needs.

While the bill would deny money for Illinois students, the federal tax credit to donors would not be affected. Donors could still benefit from the tax credit by simply donating to students in other states. Click here to read more

 

World Economic Forum CEO resigns after DOJ files show meetings, emails with Epstein

World Economic Forum CEO and President Borge Brende said he was resigning Thursday, after an investigation was conducted into his ties to late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Brende, a former Norwegian foreign minister who became WEF president in 2017, announced his decision in a statement following the Justice Department’s release of Epstein files that showed he had three business dinners with the disgraced financier and had also communicated with him via email and text, Reuters reported.

“After careful consideration, I have decided to step down as President and CEO of the World Economic Forum. My time here, spanning 8-1/2 years, has been profoundly rewarding,” Brende said in a statement, without mentioning Epstein. Click here to read more.

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Virginia shows Democrats ‘campaign as moderates but govern as Marxists’

The hard left turn of Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger since taking office after running on a moderate platform is being depicted as a warning for Michigan voters heading into the 2026 primaries in August and general election in November.

While highlighting major accomplishments from the state’s Republican House majority in 2025, former Republican National Committee Chair and CEO of Michigan Forward Ronna McDaniel offered a stark warning to Republicans Wednesday as the 2026 election cycle heats up.

Pointing to Virginia as an example of the potential consequences of the 2026 midterms, Michigan could follow the path of Virginia under Spanberger if Democrats regain full control of Lansing. Click here to read more.

 

Soros-Backed Prosecutor Allows Murder Suspects to Avoid Prison Time

Gret Glyer had ounded DonorSee, a charity platform that allowed donors to support specific people while giving video updates to show the donor’s concrete impact. Joshua Danehower, 37, who had gone on one date with Glyer’s wife Heather about 10 years previously, allegedly broke into the family’s house, snuck into the bedroom, and fired 10 shots into Gret Glyer, leaving his wife a widow and his two young children fatherless.

Due to the plea agreement, however, Danehower will move from a jail cell to a mental health facility. After a year, he will receive a psychological evaluation and may then gain his freedom.

Danehower is far from alone, however. Steve Descano, the commonwealth’s attorney for Fairfax County, Virginia, has overseen at least 10 murder pleas of not guilty by reason of insanity. Mental Health America notes that defendants charged with a felony use the insanity plea in less than 1% of cases, and it only succeeds 25% of the time. Click here to read more.

 

Man accused of trying to kidnap 13-year-old girl walking to school

The future was supposed to have arrived this year in a cluster of counties just east of Atlanta in the form of a state-of-the-art factory that would churn out 400,000 electric vehicles a year. But when JoEllen Artz looks about her lifetime neighborhood, all she sees are holes.

“Those shovel holes they made in the ground? That’s it,” she said of the planned site of a Rivian manufacturing plant. “It’s awful, awful.”

The problem is not a lack of funds. On the promise of thousands of jobs, elected officials in Washington, D.C., and Atlanta have pledged some $8 billion to the project, including a $6.5 billion loan the Biden administration green-lit in it’s final hours. Click here to read more.

 

Gun removed from home of man who wished to ‘shoot’ Trump; he claims misunderstanding

WARREN, Mich. - A man said he wanted to shoot the President during public comments at the Warren City Council meeting Tuesday night.

The backstory:

Now that man, Wesley Arnold, is being investigated by the Secret Service. He claims it is all a big misunderstanding.

“I just gave the Service Service my picture I took,” he said.

FOX 2: “You talked to the Secret Service?”

“They just left, they’re the ones that left before you got here,” said Arnold, 80.

The Secret Service did remove a handgun from the home.

FOX 2: “The Secret Service just left, they didn’t arrest you though.”

“That may or may not happen we’ll see,” he said, adding that he isn’t worried. “No, I’m a harmless old man and I believe in freedom of speech and I believe in informing my city council ... (unintelligible). Click here to read more.

 

Brevard Schools win arbitration over teacher’s use of male name for a female student without parental consent

BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. – Brevard Public Schools prevailed in an arbitration dispute over its decision not to renew a Satellite High School teacher’s contract after determining she repeatedly referred to a female student by a male name without required parental consent.

The arbitration, filed by the Brevard Federation of Teachers, challenged the non-renewal of teacher Melissa Calhoun’s annual contract. In a decision issued Feb. 19, the arbitrator confirmed the district acted within its authority and had sufficient grounds for the non-renewal.

“This was not simply a nickname or a casual classroom interaction,” said Superintendent Dr. Mark Rendell. He explained further that deliberate use of male name for a female student constituted active participation in a student’s social gender transition and requires parental knowledge and consent. Click here to read more.

 

Jocelyn Benson’s husband Ryan Friedrichs is an advisor steering hundreds of millions in tax dollars for Rx Kids ‘free’ cash program

Ryan Friedrichs, husband to Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, is helping distribute hundreds of millions in tax dollars to expectant mothers in Michigan through a program proven to increase voter turnout.

Benson, who is overseeing her own election for governor as the Democratic frontrunner, could directly benefit from the program as it scrambles to expand to reliably Democratic areas of the state in the lead-up to the 2026 midterms.

Friedrichs is among 29 members serving on the Rx Kids Advisory Circle that’s helping to helm the nonprofit’s “leadership on fund development, program design, state and national policy, communications, and dissemination,” according to the program’s website.

Others in the circle of trust have strong ties to and close relationships with liberal activist groups promoting universal basic income, Democratic get-out-the-vote efforts, benefits for illegal immigrants, labor unions, pro-Palestinian protests, and other left-wing causes. Click here to read more.

 

Bill creating ‘Second Amendment Sales Tax Holiday’ passed Alabama House

MONTGOMERY, Ala. - A tax-free weekend for guns and ammunition passed on Alabama’s House floor Tuesday afternoon.

Nearly every state republican House member is sponsoring the bill.

House Bill 360 would make ammunition, firearms and hunting supply purchases exempt from state sales tax annually from the last Friday in August to the following Sunday.

The legislature estimates that this could take away around $386 thousand from the state’s Education Trust Fund every year, and if local governments opt in to the program, about $500 thousand from county and municipal funds. Click here to read more.

 

Citizen journalists, citizen sleuths helping to unravel the tangle of Epstein documents

When sifting through the seemingly endless collection of documents in the Epstein files gets to be too much and Ellie Leonard needs a break, she takes a walk outside. Then it’s back to the computer.

The New Jersey mother of four is among hundreds of citizen-journalists, or sleuths, absorbed by the material connected to the late Jeffrey Epstein. She’s determined to learn the stories behind his illicit sex ring and relationships with some of the world’s most powerful people, and publish what she finds on Substack.

“I like a good puzzle,” Leonard said. “I like an investigation. I like things that we have to solve and looking for clues.” Click here to read more.

 

AGs from AZ and CA sue feds over childhood vaccine overhaul

he attorneys general of California and Arizona on Tuesday announced Democrats’ multi-state lawsuit to block the Trump administration’s overhaul of the childhood vaccine schedule.

Democratic officials are calling the federal action unlawful.

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes said the suit names the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as defendants.

The suit goes after “HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and the CDC over their needless, confusing, scientifically unfound and unlawful revision of America’s immunization schedule,” said Mayes during a virtual press conference with California Attorney General Rob Bonta. Click here to read more.

 

Three Mexican Citizens charged with trafficking agricultural workers into servitude on farms in Virginia, North Carolina, and Florida

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Three Mexican citizens have been indicted on federal charges for allegedly running a human trafficking ring that lured agricultural workers from Mexico into forced labor on farms across Virginia, North Carolina, and Florida.

A 35-count indictment, unsealed Friday, alleges that Martha Zeferino Jose, 42; her son, Jeremy Zeferino Jose, 23; and her partner, Jose Rodriguez Munoz, used a farm labor contracting company to exploit the H-2A visa program for financial gain, according to the Department of Justice, or DOJ. Click here to read more.