FBI Provides Description of Guthrie Abductor. Dem Pols Pursue “Trans” Activism Like Ahab Did the Whale. Teachers’ Unions Resort to Lawfare. Pritzker’s People. More
Nearly two weeks after the puzzling disappearance of Today co-host Savannah Guthrie’s mother, Nancy, there are finally some developments:
The FBI has released new identifying details about the suspect who kidnapped Nancy Guthrie — and has doubled its initial cash reward for information leading to a break in the case.
“Today, the FBI is increasing its reward up to $100,000 for information leading to the location of Nancy Guthrie and/or the arrest and conviction of anyone involved in her disappearance,” the FBI’s Phoenix office posted on X.
Forensic analysis of doorbell camera footage at the 84-year-old’s Tucson, Ariz., home has revealed several identifying factors about the masked, armed abductor who was seen on her doorstep, officials announced.
Nancy’s alleged kidnapper is a male, approximately 5’9” to 5’10” tall, with an average build, the FBI Phoenix office said. He was also wearing a black, 25-liter “Ozark Trail Hiker Pack” backpack in the doorbell video, authorities added.
Meanwhile, Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos disputes claims that he withheld essential physical evidence from the FBI in Mrs. Guthrie’s disappearance. “Not even close to the truth,” the sheriff said Thursday on the NBC Tucson affiliate KVOA. The New York Post has a curious story proposing that a hostage negotiator offer the abductor immunity in exchange for the return of Mrs. Guthrie. One hates to ask, but how likely is it that the 84-year-old has survived this terrible ordeal? Savannah Guthrie posted old clips of her mother and the Guthrie siblings when they were younger:
“Our lovely mom,” Savannah Guthrie wrote in the caption Thursday, alongside a yellow heart. “We will never give up on her. Thank you for your prayers and hope.”
Neighbors were asked to make their own security videos available to investigators.
Are you still boiling that Canadian authorities were so solicitous that they might offend a dead “trans”-identifying mass shooter that they identified him as a “female in a dress”? I am — and I am fortunately not alone in my righteous indignation. The Federalist (“Anti-Truth Media Bend Over Backward to Call Canadian Trans School Shooter by His Preferred Pronouns”) observes:
Innocent civilians are dead at the hands of another alleged trans-identifying killer. And as per usual, media propagandists’ biggest concern is whether they’re referring to him with the correct pronouns.
Shouldn’t feminists and sociologists be concerned that this gives a distorted representation of women and violent crime? Here is a picture of a 12-year-old shot in the head while she was trying to protect her friends. According to a survivor, the shooter had vowed to “finish off” his family, including his pro-trans activist mother, Jennifer. Just please don’t misgender him, okay?
Demonstrating that they have their priorities straight, Democratic lawmakers are embracing trans activism “like Ahab chasing that whale.”
Shutdowns are the way we govern now. A partial government shutdown will almost certainly hit the Department of Homeland Security. Democrats detest ICE because meanies there are deporting “our neighbors,” so they are voting not to fund DHS. Ironically, ICE is a part of DHS, which is already funded through 2029.
Speaking of funding, teachers’ unions have always been flush with cash. But school choice is giving them a run for their money – actually, more like competition in educating kids. “Teachers Unions Get Desperate” is the headline of Kimberley Strassel’s Wall Street Journal column. Strassel writes that the unions are filing suits they have no chance of winning just to harass school-choice advocates:
Antichoice plaintiffs “usually file lawsuits right before families sign up for the program just to be particularly cruel. They know they’ll lose nearly every case, but delaying or enjoining the programs in any way is the last-ditch effort to slow maximum uptake for families,” says Tommy Schultz, CEO of the American Federation for Children.
Many suits are striking out. …
Democrats will have to decide how much longer to stick with this unraveling cartel. School choice is out of the bottle, experiencing exponential growth.
Senate hearings are often just grandstanding, but two Republican Senators drew blood yesterday. Power Line had a great item on Senator Josh Hawley’s exchange with Ellison, as did Townhall. Senator Ron Johnson added that Ellison had egged on violence and was responsible for the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. Ellison got a whacking, but he still appeared confident.
Speaking of L’Étoile du Nord, as Minnesota is nicknamed, Governor Walz is asking for a $10 million relief package for small businesses harmed by the immigration situation. It might have been simpler if Minnesota had just obeyed the law and nobody had gotten hurt. Let’s hope the package won’t include too many future “learning” centers.
Pritzker’s Peeps. “In the Midwest, Anti-ICE Democrats Are Failing America” is the headline on a Real Clear Politics story:
Ground Zero is the Midwest, including my home state of Illinois. The state has convened multiple public commissions to undermine the Trump administration’s push to deport criminal illegal aliens — named “Operation Midway Blitz” — and vilify U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement as a “paramilitary force” terrorizing the region.
Illinois’ so-called “leadership” is to blame. Right after President Trump’s resounding 2024 victory on the very issue of border security, Pritzker picked his side: “You come for my people, you come through me.” He repeated the same message in October, when Operation Midway Blitz was supposed to be completed.
Apparently, Pritzker’s “people” are murderers, rapists, and pedophiles who are here illegally. Why aren’t they military veterans who proudly served our country? Why aren’t they police officers trying to keep our streets safe, despite dangerous leftist rhetoric that scapegoats anyone with a badge?
Virginia won’t be purple for the midterms if the state legislature passes — as it will — a new proposal:
Democratic state lawmakers in control of the Virginia legislature are fast-tracking a proposed new congressional map that would give the competitive state up to four more left-leaning U.S. House districts in time for this year’s midterm elections.
“Moderate” Governor Abigail Spanberger is expected to sign it next week.
As a second U.S. aircraft carrier is being sent to the Middle East, Bernard-Henri Levy wonders, “Is Help Still on the Way for Iranian Protesters?” He writes:
I hope that the American armada deployed in the Red Sea, in the Gulf of Oman and at the entrance to the Persian Gulf isn’t a mere negotiating backdrop, bargaining chip or communications ploy, but that as I write, it is identifying its targets, pinpointing the weaknesses in enemy defenses, mapping the nerve centers of power — that it is preparing to strike.
The time for regime change has come. That is what Mr. Trump promised the women and men who, bare-handed and at the risk of their lives, defied this murderous regime when he announced that “help is on the way.”
The study of the humanities has fallen on hard times. A piece in The Atlantic says that the future of the humanities lies in the hands of the multibillion-dollar Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. I tend to think the fate of the humanities lies with grassroots parents who start small classical schools — or curious students who sign up for Latin and get hooked on the riches of our civilization.
Ms. Must wishes she had a smile emoji to use for RFK Jr. explaining why he was not afraid of getting Covid. Savor it, Townhall suggests — but maybe don’t quote it in a family blog.
More Super Bowl halftime fallout: For classicist Victor Davis Hanson, Bad Bunny’s degeneracy evoked that of Satyricon (“Most of Bunny’s lyrics were raunchy and demented, and likely out-Epsteined the imagination of the late Jeffrey Epstein”), while Robby Soave spotted something wholesome in the competing halftime show put on by TPUSA – TPUSA gained a million new supporters immediately after their show.
Wishing you a happy Valentine’s Day tomorrow. As we’ve long said at IW, Valentine’s Day is a great time to bring back Cupid.
We hope you’ll get a box of chocolates. You should also read IW’s Hadley Heath Manning’s important new report, The Dating Decade.
