🔵 LA Whistleblowers Come Forward

Author

Citizen Frank
January 18, 2025

Good morning. It’s Saturday, January 18.

Important note: cf.org is rebranding to thefrank.com. Soon you’ll find us under our new name.

 

Many say that the catastrophic fires ravaging Los Angeles weren’t the fault of Governor Gavin Newsom and LA Mayor Karen Bass. Fires are inevitable in Los Angeles, and the water ran out because no water system could withstand that many fires simultaneously, they add.

But LA firefighters themselves disagree. They say the reason they arrived too late to stop the fires from becoming catastrophic was because of severe budget cuts. The Fire Department did not pre-deploy fire engines to strategic locations, and helicopters arrived half an hour too late to put out the Palisades.

“That [Santa Ynez] reservoir being closed did not allow helicopters to drop and suck water up from five minutes away,” a new firefighter whistleblower, the third who has come forward, told me. “Instead, they had to fly 10 to 15 minutes away to go get water somewhere else.”

Thousands of mainly female protesters descended on Washington, D.C. to protest President–elect Trump’s inauguration on Monday. However, the crowd is only a tenth of the half a million who turned out for the “Women’s March” in 2017.

Saturday’s march, rebranded as the “People’s March,” is taking place at three different locations with demonstrators advocating for a wide range of left-wing causes and showcasing a united front to the new administration.

This morning, a kickoff event took place in Franklin Park for “gender justice” and bodily autonomy, and then demonstrators walked downtown before making their way towards the Lincoln Memorial for the day’s main event.

President-elect Donald Trump told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker in a phone interview Saturday that he will “most likely” give TikTok a 90-day reprieve from a potential ban in the U.S. after he takes office Monday.

Trump said he hadn’t made a final decision but was considering a 90-day extension of the Sunday deadline for TikTok’s China-based parent company to sell to a non-Chinese-buyer or face a U.S. ban.

“I think that would be, certainly, an option that we look at. The 90-day extension is something that will be most likely done, because it’s appropriate. You know, it’s appropriate. We have to look at it carefully. It’s a very big situation,” Trump said in the phone interview.

After Israel’s cabinet on Friday approved the Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal, it is expected to finally take effect beginning at 8:30am Sunday (local), and initially three Israeli women are expected to be named and freed.

“As coordinated by the parties to the agreement and the mediators, the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip will begin at 8:30 a.m. on Sunday, January 19, local time in Gaza,” Qatar’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari announced on X. “We advise the inhabitants to take precaution, exercise the utmost caution, and wait for directions from official sources.”

CNN writes of the Israeli government that “The 33-member group of ministers approved the agreement following a recommendation earlier Friday by the smaller security cabinet.

A Palestinian stabbed a man in central Tel Aviv Saturday afternoon, seriously injuring him, before being shot and killed by an armed civilian.

Police said the stabbing on Levontin Street was a terror attack. The victim, a man in his 30s, was taken to Ichilov Hospital in serious condition. The hospital later said his condition was stable and there was no threat to his life.

The terrorist was identified as Salah Yahye, 19, from the West Bank city of Tulkarem.

Many Americans support President-elect Trump’s agenda, including action on immigration and tariffs, according to a new survey released on Saturday.

The New York Times/Ipsos poll found that 87 percent of respondents support deporting illegal immigrants in the U.S. who have a criminal record, something Trump vowed to execute while campaigning in 2024.

A near majority of respondents, 55 percent, said they support deporting all immigrants who are in the country illegally while 42 opposed it.

Rappers Snoop Dogg and Soulja Boy performed at incoming President Donald Trump’s “Crypto Ball” that was thrown in Washington DC ahead of the inauguration. This is despite Snoop Dogg’s cold treatment of Trump in social media videos in the past.

The two rappers were seen in videos posted to X, performing in front of celebrities and DC politicians including House Speaker Mike Johnson and others.

Although Snoop has had a cold relationship with Trump before, after Trump pardoned Death Row Records co-founder Michael Harris, the rapper said, “I have nothing but love and respect for Donald Trump,” per Billboard.

In a rare shooting in downtown Tehran, two prominent judges from the country’s Supreme Court have been killed and another wounded, according to Iranian state media reports.

Little information was released about the attacker, but at least one of the judges killed was known to handle death penalty cases for activists and opposition members.

Violent attacks like this shooting are uncommon in Iran, a country where the arms of state security maintain tight control of society. Footage from outside the Supreme Court building on Saturday showed security forces filling the street and yellow police tape cordoning off the area.

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