Welcome to the W³P Daily News Open Thread.
Post whatever you got in the comments section below.
This feature will post every day at 6:30am Mountain time.
Saturday, July 11, 2026
Rubio Steps in to Save the Day After Walz Pardons Child Sex Offender Facing Deportation
You really have to wonder what's going on in the mind of someone like Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D).
He's done and said a lot of unhinged things. We've also reported on a lot of the fraud now being investigated in his state. But what he did in the case of Tou Lue Vang raised a lot of eyebrows, as we reported.
Vang, who came to the U.S. as a child, pled guilty to criminal sexual conduct after repeated incidents of sexual abuse with a girl starting when she was 10-years-old. He reportedly admitted it, calling it a "minor thing." He would have been deported back when it occurred about 20 years ago, but Laos was not accepting returned deportees in large numbers at that time. So he was allowed to remain in the United States, on supervised release since then.
But then, when President Donald Trump came in, that changed, and Laos began to accept deportees. Hundreds were then deported, and Vang was detained in December. So he was about to be deported.
Then the Minnesota State Board of Pardons, a three-person panel including Walz, stepped in and granted Vang a pardon in June. That was based in part on a letter from the victim forgiving him. However, that doesn't change the facts of what Vang did, although it did remove the conviction.
That's when Secretary of State Marco Rubio stepped in to terminate Vang's legal status in the country so that he could still be deported, and ensure the pardon would not stop that. Rubio has now announced that Vang has been deported from this country, and Rubio chastised the actions of Walz in the matter.
"Just weeks ago, a convicted sex offender and a foreign national was shielded from deportation by the governor of Minnesota," Rubio said. Rubio explained that he had revoked Vang's legal status, and federal agents took him into custody.
"As of today, he has been removed from the United States," Rubio declared, saying Vang would never pose a threat to any American ever again.
"Americans must never be forced by their elected leaders to live alongside foreign sex criminals who have no right to begin with to reside in our country," Rubio continued, saying this administration will always stand with the American people and defend them.
Rubio has taken on many jobs in the Trump administration, but good on him for putting on another hat: saving us from the bad decisions of Democratic politicians like Tim Walz. Thank you for putting the interests of the American people first. This should have been a simple decision; it shouldn't have been hard, yet it appears to be for Democrats like Walz.
Just one of the many, many reasons that we need to take a strong position in November and vote against any Democrat who doesn't put the interests of the American people first.
State senator introduces bill to fast-track development - Wait ...
State senator pockets massive real estate fee from a $30M data center land sale, then introduces bill to fast-track development!
Weeks before introducing a bill to streamline data center development across Pennsylvania, State Sen. Greg Rothman’s real estate firm quietly collected a fee from the $30 million sale of land now hosting the state’s largest proposed data center. Whether that sequence amounts to a conflict of interest - or simply an uncomfortable overlap - depends entirely on who you ask and what standard you think elected officials should be held to.
The Deal, The Fee, The Bill
A real estate closing and a legislative push landed uncomfortably close together on the calendar.
Here’s the documented sequence, according to Spotlight PA’s reporting:
- June 2025: The 500-plus-acre PennTerra tract in Middlesex Township, Cumberland County, sells for $30 million to developers behind PAX-1 - a three-campus, $15 billion data center targeting 1.35 gigawatts of capacity. RSR Realtors receives a fee at closing.
- RSR is chaired by Rothman, who joined the firm in 1989. His father, Bill Rothman, founded it.
- July 14, 2025: Rothman introduces Senate Bill 939, creating “Commonwealth Opportunity Zones” with expedited permitting and - originally - provisions blocking municipalities from imposing stricter zoning rules on data centers than on other industries.
- PAX-1 developer Igal Feibush confirmed to Spotlight PA that RSR was paid “alongside several other brokers and consultants.” Neither party disclosed the dollar amount.
“This political figure who ostensibly represents us, who has been deaf to people's complaints about Middlesex, and has very explicitly supported legislation that would disempower communities further, has a financial stake, best we understand it - at least at some point - in the health of this project.” - John Werner, Stewards of Cumberland County organizer, per Spotlight PA
Rothman maintains the fee compensated prior listing and advisory work for the land’s previous owner - not the data center transaction itself. “RSR has never been involved with the PAX-1 project,” he told Spotlight PA.
Pennsylvania law explicitly allows legislators to hold outside jobs. A 2024 Philadelphia Inquirer analysis found more than half of state House and Senate members do exactly that. Rothman’s voting record also isn’t uniformly pro-industry: he recently voted to eliminate a major data center sales tax exemption.
The real tension here isn’t legality. Feibush and other PAX-1-linked figures donated to Rothman’s campaigns - contributions Feibush characterized as reflections of “personal friendships,” not influence. Meanwhile, SB 939’s most aggressive provisions, including the local zoning preemption language, were later stripped by co-sponsor Sen. Tracy Pennycuick. The bill hasn’t advanced beyond committee.
“I will always work in the best interests of my constituents and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.” - Sen. Greg Rothman, written statement to Spotlight PA
300 Residents, One Town Hall
Cumberland County’s pushback is bipartisan, organized, and showing no signs of quieting down.
The Stewards of Cumberland County drew roughly 300 people to a June town hall - a turnout that signals this fight has moved well past social media complaints into sustained civic organizing. PAX-1 construction is already underway, with blasting and site work beginning in spring and first-phase delivery projected for Q2 2027. Republican state Rep. Thomas Kutz separately released a video distancing himself from data center backlash, signaling real fractures within the party on this issue.
SB 939 sits idle in committee. PAX-1 breaks ground. And the question nobody in Harrisburg seems eager to answer remains sharp: when your firm profits from land you’re simultaneously making easier to develop through legislation, at what point does “perfectly legal” stop being good enough?
https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/news/state-senator-pockets-massive-real-estate-fee-from-a-30m-data-center-land-sale-then-introduces-bill-to-fast-track-development/ar-AA27EBS2
Volkswagen Will Eliminate Almost Half of Production Brands After Losing Market Share to China
The European auto industry is a case study on how short-sighted trade policy goals, results in consequences.
Previously, German auto companies like Volkswagen entered into trade agreements with China and began manufacturing their vehicles with immediate financial success in the market. However, it did not take long for Chinese auto companies to reverse the engineering and begin to deliver the same quality vehicles at much lower prices.
The Chinese then stop purchasing the Volkswagen vehicles and purchase the cheaper version, while simultaneously begin exporting those same vehicles into the home market from where the technology originated.
Today, with a double-digit decline in production, Volkswagen announces they will cut almost half of their brands due to diminished sales.
BLOOMBERG – BERLIN — Volkswagen reported weak sales numbers on Friday, a day after the giant German automaker announced plans to slash the number of models by nearly half as sales plunged, particularly in China.
The Wolfsburg, Germany-based company said group sales fell 8.6 per cent in the second quarter to just under 2.1 million vehicles, with sales in China alone plummeted by more than one-third.
After a board meeting on Thursday, Volkswagen said its “fundamental realignment” over the last three years had reached its next phase, announcing plans to streamline the model lineup by up to half, without providing specifics.
CEO Oliver Blume laid out plans to make VW faster and more competitive through less complexity, focused technologies, better alignment across regional markets and reduction of overcapacities, among other things, citing an “increasingly demanding environment.”
Among its main brands, the core Volkswagen unit saw deliveries of slightly over 1 million vehicles in the second quarter, a drop of 14 per cent from a year earlier. Deliveries at Audi declined 8 per cent and those at Porsche fell 18 per cent. (read more)
Maybe Canada will take note, likely they will not.
The only way to avoid this issue is to protect the domestic market. As soon as you open your market to this claimed reciprocity (panda face), it will not take long until the mask drops, and you notice the dragon face behind it.
Warsaw to build Wall of Remembrance for Polish victims of ‘20th-century Wars in Ukraine’
Warsaw will build a Wall of Remembrance bearing the names of all identified Polish victims of 20th century wars in Ukraine, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has said on the anniversary of a World War II massacre that remains at the center of a diplomatic dispute between Poland and Ukraine.
Saturday
marks the 83rd anniversary of the Volhynia Massacre, when members of
the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) attacked more than 100 villages in
1943, killing thousands of Polish civilians in events that continue to cast a shadow over relations between Poland and Ukraine.
In
a video posted on X marking the anniversary, Tusk called the Volhynia
Massacre "a genocide committed by Ukrainian nationalists against Poles
and Polish citizens of other nationalities."
“Those who were murdered cannot
remain nameless, and they cannot be left without a dignified burial.
Remembering them is our shared duty toward their families, the Polish
nation, and the Polish state,” Tusk said.
He added
that efforts were underway to resume searches and exhumations of victims
of the Volhynia crimes, as well as other Polish victims of 20th-century
wars in Ukraine whose remains have not yet received a proper burial.
The
Volhynia Massacre was the deadliest episode in a broader campaign of
killings in which more than 100,000 Poles were murdered by the Ukrainian
Insurgent Army (UPA) between 1943 and 1945, in what is today eastern
Poland and western Ukraine.
Poland has long classified the
massacres of Poles as acts of genocide, while Ukraine disputes this,
instead framing the killings as a Ukrainian struggle for an independent
state during a time when Ukrainian populations were split between the
territories of Poland and the Soviet Union.
There are ongoing works to identify and exhume all of the victims of the killings, which were notorious for their brutality.
The two countries’ divisive history has come to the fore in recent weeks.
After
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, gave the honorary title of
‘Heroes of the UPA’ to an elite fighting unit in May, he was stripped of
Poland’s highest state honor by his Polish counterpart, Karol
Nawrocki.
The snub led to tit-for-tat diplomatic moves that saw many high-profile political figures on both sides return state honors.
Authorities continue efforts to locate and exhume the remains of Polish victims of wartime killings in Ukraine. 
Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh Announces “Concerning” Leadership Task Force
At the same time as Dept of Labor Inspector General Anthony D’Esposito launches an investigation into H1B visa abuses by corporations who engaged in visa fraud, Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh appoints advisors to the FED on labor policy that includes one of the most egregious violators of H1B fraud, XBox CEO Asha Sharma.
It is beyond frustrating to see our labor system for ‘qualified technical positions’ being abused by companies who are intentionally discriminating against American workers.
American born Asha Sharma was the former VP at Facebook during their $14M settlement with DOJ for discriminating against American workers. Now as CEO of Microsoft XBox gaming, she has announced the termination of around 3,200 employees while Microsoft, company-wide, filed 2,879 Labor Condition Application for H-1B positions in fiscal year 2026.
There is a pattern at work within the high-tech industry where corporations factor in the price of lawsuits as a cost of doing business, a cost-effective way to continue discriminating against American workers. Obviously, they deny this practice, yet the transparent visibility of the practice continuing tell a more honest story.
Into this mix, Federal Reserve Chairman Kevin Warsh announces an advisory network of business and economic leaders to help guide FED policy on a variety of subjects. [CITATION] Within the Productivity and Jobs taskforce, Asha Sharma surfaces as an advisor “to inform the Federal Reserve’s policy judgments.”
I’m sure all of these are lovely people, with the best intentions for their own personal interests. However, where in the dynamic of FED policy advisors is the person who speaks directly to the needs of American workers who are being forced by policy to compete against the entire world for a tech sector job.
Arminio Fraga, founder and chairman, Gรกvea Investimentos; former president, Central Bank of Brazil. Mervyn King, former governor, Bank of England. Raghuram Rajan, professor of finance, University of Chicago Booth School of Business; former governor, Reserve Bank of India. Raj Chetty, professor of economics, Harvard University. Asha Sharma, executive vice president and XBOX CEO, Microsoft Corp. {SOURCE}
VGC – […] Notably, Sharma was named one of three advisors on the Productivity and Jobs task force, which the Federal Reserve says will be assessing, among other things, the impact of AI.
According to a news release, the task force will look at “the economic impact of new general-purpose technologies, including artificial intelligence, to inform the Federal Reserve’s policy judgments.”
Supported by Federal Reserve staff, the task forces will operate independently, with “a mandate to follow the evidence, provide candid feedback, and produce rigorous findings for the Federal Open Market Committee”. (more)
