Talk About Tennis 2.0

Dem Assassin’s Wife Stopped With Gun, Cash, and Passports
TOTALLY NORMAL LUGGAGE
Police are hunting Vance Boelter after he allegedly shot and killed a top lawmaker and injured a senator in Minnesota.
Lauren Lewis
Reporter

Updated Jun. 15 2025 1:11PM EDT
Published Jun. 15 2025 10:05AM EDT

The wife of a man suspected of killing a Democratic lawmaker and her husband was detained in a traffic stop after police discovered a weapon, ammunition, cash, and passports in the trunk of her car.

Jenny Boelter was stopped by officers in Onamia, Minnesota, around 10 a.m. on Saturday, local news KTSP reported, though it was not clear whether the check was a routine stop or a planned raid by law enforcement as part of efforts to track down murder suspect Vance Luther Boelter, 57.

Jenny and three relatives with whom she was travelling were detained for two to three hours while police searched the car and asked questions.

It was not clear whether the couple were living together at the time of the attack, but Boelter’s known residence in Camden, Minnesota, was raided by law enforcement on Saturday afternoon.

Vance Boelter, 57, allegedly shot and killed Minnesota state Representative Melissa Hortman, 55, and her husband, Mark, and wounded state Senator John Hoffman, 60, and his wife, Yvette, while dressed as a fake police officer and driving what looked like a police car on Saturday. His best friend indicated that he was a “strong” supporter of President Donald Trump.

Both couples were attacked in their homes—the Hortmans in their residence in Brooklyn Park in the suburbs of Minneapolis and the Hoffmans at their property in Champlin, north of Minneapolis.

Vance Boelter left behind a list of nearly 70 targets, including Representative Ilhan Omar, Senator Tina Smith, and Governor Tim Walz. Abortion advocates and providers were also on the list, CNN and ABC News reported.

A manhunt is underway for Vance, who is believed to be traveling on foot and is thought to have left the area, police said at a press conference.

The FBI, which is leading the investigation, has offered a reward of up to $50,000 for information that leads to the capture and conviction of Boelter.

(...)

Boelter and his wife worked as private security consultants and ran Praetorian Guard Security Services. Jenny Boelter was listed as president and CEO on the company’s website, which said she had “years of organizational operations and logistical oversight.”

Vance Boelter had been in financial trouble and was struggling to find work in the run-up to the attack, CNN reported.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/wife-of-m ... n-her-car/


I haven't seen much coverage of this part of the story that was obviously posted before he was captured crawling around in the bushes.

Marisa Kabas‬
‪@marisakabas.bsky.social‬
· 1h
Apparently cops saw Vance Boelter sitting in his faux cop car near another Minnesota state rep’s home an hour before he murdered Melissa Hortman and her husband and those cops just let him go.

www.cnn.com/us/live-news...

Far-Right ‘Appeal to Heaven’ Flag Flown Above Government Agency in DC
The “Appeal to Heaven” flag, a popular symbol for Christian nationalists that was waved by January 6 rioters, was raised over the Small Business Administration headquarters last week.


Photograph: SBA_Kelly on X

https://www.wired.com/story/far-right-a ... agency-dc/ (Paywall)


‪Steve Herman ‬
‪@newsguy.bsky.social‬
· 15m



President Trump announces he is gifting two new flag poles to be immediately erected on the the White House lawns that are "tall, tapered, rust proof, rope inside the pole, and of the highest quality."

Well, that's it. This has been the most successful administration in the history of the USA. You now have two new poles at the WH.
Four more years, four more years!!!!

https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/no ... re-defied/

ICE raid on track workers sends shockwaves around racing, 'puts horses at risk'
Dan Wolken
USA TODAY

Like so many farms, meat-packing plants and other industries that rely heavily on immigrant labor, horse racing is full of people who supported President Trump’s campaign in 2024 but did not believe he would target their businesses with the mass deportations he promised.

“They were convinced that he was only going after the bad guys,” said Will Velie, an immigration attorney who specializes in the horse racing industry. “But the definition of bad guys to a lot of people in the administration is anyone here without status.”

And now, perhaps predictably, there’s reason for horse racing to be nervous that it’s about to have a major problem on its hands.

An ICE raid Tuesday morning at Delta Downs in Vinton, Louisiana, where more than 80 backstretch workers were reportedly detained, should be a wake-up call for an industry that would simply not be able to function without a workforce of grooms and hotwalkers and stall cleaners who are, by some credible estimates, roughly 75% immigrants.

They come from places like Venezuela, Panama, Colombia and Mexico, working low-wage jobs but filling indispensable roles, caring round-the-clock for animals worth hundreds of thousands, even millions of dollars.

Most of these workers at the glamorous tracks like Churchill Downs and Saratoga are here on H-2B visas that the prominent and well-resourced barns manage to secure for them, allowing them to travel from one race meet to the next.

Even in the best of times, though, it can be a tricky system to navigate with just 66,000 issued each year by the U.S. government, long processing times and an intricate renewal mechanism. And, of course, these are not the best of times. In a climate where immigrant construction workers are getting systematically arrested in Home Depot parking lots, the only thing that would prevent racetracks from being a big, fat target for ICE are the whims of a president.

“We’re out in the middle of the open,” Velie said. “There’s no hiding. You’re in the middle of a town and they can surround you and come round up a lot of people at once.”

'Everybody's nervous'
Ever since it became clear during the first weeks of the current Trump Administration that its posture toward deportations would be more aggressive than in his first term, it has been horse racing’s barely spoken but impossible-to-ignore fear, lingering in the background every day on the backside.

“Everybody’s nervous about it,” prominent trainer Dale Romans told reporters during a Kentucky Derby-week news conference set up to specifically address the threat posed by a potential ICE raid at a racetrack. “If we couldn’t have an immigrant workforce on the backside, I don’t know how horse racing exists. We need a common sense path to long-term legalization. We’re not talking citizenship, just some kind of work permit.

"The perfect scenario is we get an amnesty program that leads to a work permit. If you’re vetted, if you’re proven not to be a criminal, you pay your taxes, you are sponsored by an employer, you have a right to work in the United States. That’s all we’re asking for.”

It is, of course, a difficult topic to get most people to address. Not just because trainers or owners are reticent to draw undue attention to themselves but because of the clear political implications: The racetrack is, by and large, an unabashedly Republican-leaning ecosystem. Many prominent owners and racetrack executives have direct lines to Trump himself.

And that’s why it seemed like there was relief last week when the Department of Homeland Security issued guidance exempting the agricultural industry, hotels and restaurants from these raids due to the harm being inflicted on those businesses. Though horse racing wasn’t specifically mentioned, it clearly falls into the same category.

Then, a couple days later, the White House reversed course and decided to resume those raids. It didn’t take long for a racetrack to be on the hit list.

“The head of the New York Racing Association, Marc Holliday, is business partners with (Trump’s son-in-law) Jared Kushner, so he had pretty strong assurances there would be some type of executive action protecting the horsemen and agriculture workers,” Velie said. “But I think there’s a lot of competing factions inside the administration battling over this.”

Sweeping up 'folks that are constantly caring for the horses'
Regardless of where you fall on the political spectrum, the issue of whether horse racing should be relying on cheap immigrant labor is fair game for critique. Steve Asmussen, the all-time winningest trainer in North America, earlier this month finally settled a 10-year-old court case with the Department of Labor over hundreds of thousands of dollars in overtime and back pay. Over the years, whenever wages and living conditions of backstretch workers have been subject to media scrutiny, it’s rarely made the industry look good.

It's a tough way to make a living. But in the end, for thousands of people who desperately need it, it is a living. And their symbiotic relationship with horses who need to be fed and taken care of isn't just a human story. One of the biggest concerns coming out of any potential racetrack raid is what happens to the horses while their grooms are being arrested.

"The problem is that the kind of work the people on the backside, the grooms and hotwalkers, those folks that are constantly caring for the horses and making sure they’re maintained and healthy, that job is 24-7 just a real difficult job," said Peter Ecabert, the general counsel for the National Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association.

"It's hard to get anyone to do that job, and we depend a lot on immigrants and they’re hard-working and good people. Obviously there are a couple that may have run afoul of the legal system, and in those cases, especially if there’s a violent situation we don’t want them around either. We’d work with ICE in any way possible to make sure those people are taken into custody and transported back after their due process hearing. But as far as an unannounced raid on the backside of racetracks, that just puts all of us in a real difficult situation and puts the horses at risk."

Chelsea Perez, the senior program manger of equine protection at Humane World for Animals, told USA TODAY Sports that it was critical for any law enforcement action to include a process where the safety and well-being of the horses is secured.

“Horses are large, easily frightened animals who can suffer serious injury or injure others when not properly handled," she said. "The development of appropriate protocols is key to effective emergency response for both law enforcement agencies and equine facility managers.”

Meanwhile, there is a school of thought among those USA TODAY Sports has spoken with that a racetrack in Louisiana was particularly vulnerable to an ICE raid for a few reasons, including the fact that racing in the state is operating under a court injunction preventing the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) rules from being enforced. A HISA spokesperson declined comment, and the National Thoroughbred Racing Association did not answer a request for comment.

Delta Downs is also currently running its quarter horse meet, where there would be stronger suspicion about workers without visas being present than at higher-profile Thoroughbred tracks.

Still, there’s a potential chilling effect for the whole industry now that an ICE raid has taken place at a racetrack, particularly given the lack of consistent message from the Trump Administration.

"There is a lot of tension on the backside," Ecabert said. "People are concerned, obviously, that there’s going to be (another) raid and a lot of apprehensive people for sure."

Of course, this is what many of those owners and trainers voted for – even if they didn’t realize it.

“I got calls from tracks all over the country (the next day), and every one of them was saying the same thing: 'If it happens there, it can happen here. What’s our plan?' Velie said. “The long-term plan is to get your workforce on to stable visas, but in the short term, we’re stuck.”

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/c ... 273527007/

I need to noodle on this for a bit. The backstretch at horse tracks is a very complicated place with a whole range of dynamics in play simultaneously. It's not as simple as anyone makes it sound. Even a great guy like Dale Romans.

A father-of-three was violently beaten and forced into the back on an unmarked car during an apparent Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid, video reveals.

Narciso Barranco, 48, was detained by federal agents in a violent take down outside his workplace in Orange County, southern California on Saturday.

At least seven masked men, armed and wearing US Border Patrol vests, tackled Barranco to the ground and punched him in his face repeatedly in a parking lot.

He screamed out in apparent pain as the agents continued to hit him while has was face down on the pavement and placed him in handcuffs, horrifying footage captured by a bystander shows.

Barranco was then thrusted into the back of an unmarked car by an agent apparently wielding a baton as he yelled out in resistance.

Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told Daily Mail the migrant tried to flee when agents first approached him and 'swung a weed whacker directly at an agent's face'.

Barranco's eldest son Alejandro, a US Marine who served in Afghanistan, says his father is currently being held in a detention facility in Los Angeles.

The detainee's other two sons are also in the military. The trio are understood to be outraged by the incident.


Barranco (2nd right) has three sons who served in the US Marines. The soldiers are outraged by the incident, with the eldest Alejandro (2nd left) saying he feels 'betrayed' by his country

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... mercy.html

Alt National Park Service
‪@altnps.bsky.social‬
Florida is building a new migrant detention center nicknamed “Alligator Alcatraz,” converting an airfield deep in the Everglades into one of the Trump administration’s most ominous additions to its immigration crackdown. FDT!

If you’re wondering what it’s like officials are already referring to it as a “camp,” concentrating people in one remote area… surrounded by alligators, apparently.

This weekend, two friends (both females) will be traveling to the USA with Vennie passports. They have been told that they can enter the USA. But I am waiting to see what happens.
I applaud them for their bravery, and they have to go because they bought the tickets and hotel reservation a while back. But I would be so iffy.
They are entering through NYC.