News briefs

Tribune News Service on Jan 29, 2026

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Nationwide economic shutdown set for Friday in protest of ICE policies

Hundreds of organizations from across the country are staging a nationwide economic shutdown on Friday to protest the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement policies and demand an end to ICE operations.

Activists are calling for a day of “no work, no school (and) no shopping” in response to the fatal shootings of at least four people by federal immigration officials in the past two months — including the high-profile shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis this month.

“The people of the Twin Cities have shown the way for the whole country,” organizers of the ICE Out Nationwide Shutdown said in a press release. “To stop ICE’s reign of terror, we need to SHUT IT DOWN.”

Participants in at least 46 states are expected to take part in the general strike — a “blackout day” modeled after last week’s “ICE Out” protest in Minneapolis, when hundreds of businesses closed their doors in a statewide general strike, which was followed by a protest march and rally despite a wind chill of 30 below zero.

—New York Daily News

Texas AG Ken Paxton investigates school district over Islamic Games athletic event

FORT WORTH, Texas — Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is demanding information from the Grapevine-Colleyville school district over its involvement with the Islamic Games of North America.

The Islamic Games athletic event had been scheduled for May 9-10 at Colleyville Heritage High School until the district ended negotiations last week, saying it had learned a sponsor of the event, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, had been declared a terrorist organization by Gov. Greg Abbott.

The Islamic Games have been operating since 1989. Events include soccer, tennis, basketball, volleyball, cricket, flag football, track and field and archery. Grapevine-Colleyville had been renting its schools and fields to the group since 2023.

“The Islamic Games has consistently maintained lawful, professional, and constructive relationships with the municipalities, facilities, and venues that have hosted its events, as well as with community organizations in the states where the Games occur,” organizers said in a statement.

—Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Heated debate over California water plan as environmentalists warn of ‘ecosystem collapse’

LOS ANGELES — The question of how to protect fish and the ecological health of rivers that feed California’s largest estuary is generating heated debate in a series of hearings in Sacramento, as state officials try to gain support for a plan that has been years in the making.

“I am passionate that this is the pathway to recover fish,” said state Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot. “This is the paradigm we need: collaborative, adaptive management versus conflict and litigation.”

The plan is being discussed in three days of hearings convened by the State Water Resources Control Board. It sets out rules for water quality that will determine how much water can be pumped out of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta for the state’s farms and cities.

Years of research shows that fish do better when there is more water in the region’s rivers and the Delta itself. The fish contend with dams that cut off their spawning grounds, nonnative fish such as bass that prey on them and powerful pumps that pull them into areas where they are vulnerable.

—Los Angeles Times

Trump’s options for Iran strike grow even with goals unclear

WASHINGTON — The arrival of a U.S aircraft-carrier strike group in the Middle East has given President Donald Trump new, more forceful options to carry out his threats to attack Iran, but the choices carry serious risks of retaliation from Tehran.

At the same time, Trump’s shifting messages about his goals — removing Iran’s leaders, punishing the regime for its deadly crackdown on protesters or extracting a new nuclear agreement — have raised questions about just what the mission would be, or whether the threat may be an effort to force Tehran to negotiate.

His latest warnings, along with Iran’s threats of response against U.S. installations in the region, have fueled a spike in oil prices.

“The arrival of the Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group provides Trump with an expanded set of offensive options,” said Dana Stroul, a former senior Pentagon official now at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “But he still needs to define an objective for the military.”

—Bloomberg News