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It's no surprise that newsmakers try to manipulate the audience. They want you to believe that they are the one holding the line, and they'll use any trick they can to get you there. But don't let them fool you. Get Unspun. I'm Amanda Sturgel. I've been a reporter, and today I teach future reporters to cut the spin and think critically about what newsmakers say. My podcast, Unspun, shows you how to know when you're being manipulated by the news, learn to spot the tricks, and how to make up your own mind about what's true. So if you're tired of being fooled by the news, subscribe to UNSPUN today. Unspun because you deserve the truth. MSW Media. News whispering daily beans. Daily beans. Daily beans. Daily beans. Hello and welcome to the Daily beans for Tuesday, February 24, 2026. Today, the Mexican military has killed a cartel boss in a US Backed raid. An ICE whistleblower has come forward to testify before Congress. Longevity influencer Peter Attia leaves CBS News amid Epstein file fallout. A new lawsuit alleges DHS illegally tracked and intimidated observers and. And my friend sj, the Yosemite park ranger who was fired after hanging the transgender flag in the park, is suing the Department of Interior. AG's on vacation. So I'm your solo Beans host, Dana Goldberg. Hey, everyone, welcome back. It's Tuesday. Allison hopefully is soaking up some rays. Some much needed downtime. I'm so glad she takes a vacation. Self care. We gotta do self care. I'm going to talk about this more in the beans talk, but, man, am I disappointed in the US Men's hockey team. They won the gold. They played hard. They won in overtime. We talked about the guy who got the winning goal, who's just a supporter of the LGBTQ community. But then all of the footage came out. Cash Patel and his frat party in the locker room just yucking it up with these players. And then the president calls and. And of course, it gets worse because they publicly make fun of the women's hockey team that also won a gold medal in overtime. And it's just disgusting. And so I'm just going to say this for all these people on their bandwagon about, oh, protect women's sports and we have to protect women's sports, you know, blah, blah, blah. These guys don't give a shit about women's sports. They don't. This argument for them has always been about transphobia and misogyny. That's what it's rooted in and that's what it's based in. And every time they have an opportunity to show that they support women, Women's sports, they literally drop the ball. I am so disappointed. You know, I said earlier, you know, we should cheer on our Olympians. You should cheer on our Olympians. And then you see these guys doing this in their locker room with Cash Patel on our tax dollar. Our tax dollar. And just turn it in a big old frat party. And listen, Kash Patel, you would never have been invited to that if you had not been the head of the FBI. No, they don't just invite podcasters to the Olympics to do this kind of stuff. I'm just. The whole thing was embarrassing. So I just want to say publicly, I'm pretty disappointed in the men's hockey team. Congratulations on your gold medal that you earned. And then you lost the respect of the general public. So well done. Well done, guys. Not going to belabor that too much. I think we've gotten a lot of news, too, so why don't we do that? Let's hit the hot notes. Hot notes. All right, everyone. First up from Reuters, one of Mexico's most notorious drug lords. This is Nemisio Essegura, or as they call him, El Mencho, which I think is a funny name because it sounds like a Mexican mensch in the Jewish tradition, which would be a good person, but this seems to be a bad person. This guy was killed in a military raid on Sunday. It sparked widespread retaliatory violence. A lot of it's been seen on the news. President Claudia Sheinbaum has been under mounting pressure from Washington to intensify her offensive against drug cartels that have been blamed for producing and smuggling drugs, particularly the synthetic opioid fentanyl. However, those numbers, I think, have been inflated, and a lot of the fentanyl that's coming in is not from Mexico. Okay, so we know that there's been proof of that. Esciguera. He's 59 years old. He is the mastermind of the powerful Jalisco New Generation Cartel, otherwise known as cjng. If you see that. He died in custody after being injured in a military operation by Mexican special forces in the town of Tapalpa in Mexico's Jalisco State. This is according to Mexico's Defense Ministry. After reports of El Mencho's death, cartel henchmen, they did all kinds of damage. They were blockading highways with burning cars. They torched businesses in more than a half a dozen states, paralyzing parts of the country. As of the time this was written, there were no civilian deaths that had been reported. Now, in Jalisco's popular beach resort of Puerto Vallarta, there were tourists that were terrified. On social media, describing what they said was a war zone. You could see plumes of dark smoke that rose into the sky from around the bay. Air Canada, United Airlines, Aero Mexico, American Airlines, they all suspended flights in the area. Ecigueta is a former police officer. He founded and oversaw the rapid rise of cjng, named for the western state of Jalisco that is home to one of Mexico's biggest cities, and that's Guadalajara. In recent years, CJNG has expanded into one of Mexico's most powerful cartels. They're known to be very violent, including forced labor and forced recruitment. Under Omentro's leadership, CJNG also became a highly diversified criminal enterprise, expanding from drug trafficking to fuel theft, extortion, human smuggling, and complex financial frauds. The cartel pioneered use of drones in attacks against civilians in remote regions of western Mexico as part of its rapid territorial expansion. Sunday's raid was one of Mexico's highest profile blows against drug gangs responsible for smuggling billions of dollars of drugs, like I said, including fentanyl, into the United States. Now, in recent years, the leaders of rival cartels, that's El Chapo and El Mayo, as they're known, respectively. They were both captured alive and they are both now in U.S. prisons now. Donald Trump's administration lauded El Met killing, but domestic violence is triggered highlighted the political balancing act that Sheinbaum is having to strike as her government escalates its cartel offensive. On Sunday, Sheinbaum stressed that activities in most areas of the country were proceeding as usual. Schools in various states across Mexico protectively canceled classes for Monday, and that's according to announcements by state level education departments. Security experts were watching whether the raid and death of the cartel boss, that it would fracture CJNG leadership and trigger bloody infighting. And this is a quote, there will definitely be skirmishes between the various factions, and these spasms of violence could last for years. This is from Carlos Olivo. Carlos is a former U.S. drug Enforcement Administration Assistant Special agent in charge and an expert in cjng. US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau, previously ambassador to Mexico, said that Asaguera's killing was a great development for us and Mexico as well as the rest of Latin America. In January, after the US Capture of Venezuela, President Nicolas Maduro Trump said, and I quote, the cartels are running Mexico and warned, we're going to start now hitting land with regard to cartels, which is really interesting because I have to wonder, like we've known this has been going on, but we don't hear about the boat strikes anymore at all. So we know that that was a farce in order for them to invade Venezuela and steal the oil. So we'll see what they say is going on in Mexico. I know they're using fentanyl as an excuse, but Sheinbaum said that she would strengthen efforts to cooperate with the United States to fight the cartels, but vowed to uphold Mexico's sovereignty and warned against any unilateral military action by the US In Mexico. So even though she appreciates the help, she's still standing strong, which I appreciate that. All right, this next one from Ms. Now this is a big story. A whistleblower from Immigration and Customs Enforcement is expected to testify at a congressional forum Monday that the agency is, and I quote, lying to Congress and the American people about its training of new recruits. Now, we've known this, but the fact that there's going to be a whistleblower on record is a big deal. Ryan Schwenk, an ICE Academy instructor from New Recruits before he resigned earlier this month, was set to testify that the agency's training program is now deficient, defective and broken. That's according to information shared with Ms. Now without reform, ICE will graduate thousands of new officers who do not know their constitutional duty, do not know the limits of their authority, and do not have the training to recognize an unlawful order. This is what he's going to say. This is according to experts from his prepared testimony provided to Ms. NOW by the office of Senator Richard Blumenthal. And we know that Blumenthal is a Democrat from Connecticut. Schwenk's testimony at the forum, co hosted by Blumenthal and Rep. Robert Garcia, comes on the heels of mounting public criticism of ICE as its officers have aggressively worked to carry out Trump's mass deportation agenda. Now an ICE officer killed, as we know, Renee Good in Minneapolis last month using tactics that law enforcement experts broadly criticized. Agents from Border Patrol, a separate agency, killed. Alex Preddy also happened to be 37 years old and we know was a US citizen in Minneapolis just days after two ICE officers are also under criminal investigation about whether they lied under oath about the shooting of a migrant in Minneapolis last month. The agency's made sweeping changes to its recruitment processes after the Trump backed so called one big beautiful bill allocated funding for ICE to hire 10,000 new agents on top of the 20,000 and already employed Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem eliminated prior age restrictions for new officers and offered signing bonuses of up to $50,000. Many of those recruits will never see because you don't just get the 50 grand, you actually get it over a period of time. You have to make sure that you hit quotas. There's a whole lot of small print on this. The new documents provided by Blumenthal's office by an unidentified whistleblower provide more insight into how exactly the training protocol has changed. The documents, which appear to be images of the syllabus for the agency's basic immigration enforcement training program, suggest that more than a dozen practical exams have been eliminated and for enforcement removal operations officers, including exams and I quote in judgment, pistol shooting and criminal encounters. The agency also appears to have cut courses in use of force simulation training and legal trainings on criminal versus removal proceedings, among other topics from the training curriculum. The documents indicate. And they suggest that contrary to acting ICE Director Todd Lyon's testimony to Congress earlier this month, new ice officers received 250 fewer hours of training compared to prior recruits. Spokespeople for ICE they didn't immediately respond to Ms. NOW's questions about all this. On Monday. Schweng's prepared remarks indicate he will take aim at these changes and I quote, deficient training can and will get people killed. This is what her prepared testimony says. It can and will lead to unlawful arrests, violations of constitutional rights and a fundamental loss of public trust in law enforcement. Schwenk. He resigned February 13th. His testimony Monday will mark his first time speaking publicly, according to Blumenthal's office. In Schwenk's most recent role at the agency, which he assumed last year, he was an instructor at the Federal Law Enforcement Training center outside Brunswick, Georgia where he taught the legal curriculum. He also served as the on site legal advisor to the Family Detention center in Dilley, Texas. As we know, that's a facility that has recently met headlines for warehousing children, including Liam Ramos, that sweet five year old boy with that little bunny hat and his Spider man backpack that was taken in Minneapolis last month. Now Schwenks was hired by ICE in 2021 as assistant chief counsel for the office of the Principal Legal Advisor, a role in which he represented ICE proceedings before the Executive Office for Immigration Review, an office at the Justice Department that conducts immigration court proceedings and hearings. Prior to working for ice, he worked as an attorney and supervised analysis of criminal justice operations in Denver. This guy's got a lot of experience. So in the statement Blumenthal said the witnesses are coming to Congress because we have the responsibility to not only bear witness to these crimes, but to do something to make sure they don't happen again and urged other would be whistleblowers to come forward. I'm so glad people within ICE and within these organizations are still speaking out. I hope that they're protected. I don't know what it's going to take for Kristi Noem to get fired, but I think the more pressure and the more congressional testimony there is on record, the better we are. All right. We are moving on because there's always a story about Jeffrey Epstein. And here, this is from the New York Times. Emails showed that the Longevity influencer had provided medical advice to Jeffrey Epstein and made crude comments about women. This is Peter Attia. He has resigned from his position as contributor to CBS News after backlash after the revelation of his relationship with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. New York Times kudos for calling him a sex offender. CBS News named Dr. Attia as one of a stable of new contributors in January, just days before the Justice Department released a trove of Epstein files that included more than 1,700 documents with Dr. Attia's name in them, not just one or two. He was in 1700 documents. After the files were released, the network went silent on the matter, with representatives not responding to multiple requests for comment about the future of Dr. Attia's position. And I quote, Dr. Attia's contributing role was newly established and had not yet meaningfully begun. This is a spokesperson for Dr. Attia went on to say as such, he stepped back to ensure his involvement didn't become a distraction from the important work being done at cbs. He wishes the network and its leadership well and has no further comment at this time. Of course he does, because he's pals with Weiss. There's so much bullshit going on at CBS News and there's so many connections to the Epstein files, it's disgusting. Now, Dr. Aktia, he also stepped down from his position as chief science officer of David, which is a protein bar company, after the relationship was made public. The file showed Dr. Actea providing extensive medical testing and advice to Mr. Epstein, lamenting that he couldn't tell anyone about Mr. Epstein's outrageous life and made crude comments about women. The emails prompted condemnation, of course, from many other doctors. Dr. Attia said that he had not known about Mr. Epstein's trafficking and abuse of the women or underage girls, but apologized for the correspondence, which he said he was ashamed of. Now, again, these guys are only Apologizing after they fucking get caught. It is so gross. Their relationship began after Mr. Epstein had already pleaded guilty. It began after he had pleaded guilty in 2008 to prostitution charges involving a minor. And as we know, those are the charges that stemmed from that sweetheart deal. He was accused of so many worse crimes. Dr. Attia was one of several high profile contributors recently named to CBS News by Barry Weiss, the new editor in chief of CBS News, alongside Andrew Haberman, the health influencer Casey Lewis and General Alpha Substack transponder is what they're calling that now. The controversy over Dr. Attia is the latest setback for CBS News, which has found itself in the headlines since Ms. Weiss took over last year. Sometimes I feel like they put her in charge just to take the fall on all this, but she could get herself out of there if she wanted to. The reboot of CBS Evening News under its new anchor, Tony decouple got off to a very bumpy start this year. And Ms. Weiss has faced backlash from a 60 Minutes correspondent who said that one of her stories was held for political reasons. And of course, Ms. Weiss said it needed more reporting before they were to release it. That was the Seacoat, the big story about Seacoat, which Alice and Gil covered on her substack and got released by Canadian media. So another one falls and I hope this happens to more people. I don't cover it in this Daily Beans, but there was another arrest in, in, you know, Great Britain. People are being held accountable, just not the president of the United States at this time. So we'll keep covering all of these stories for you. This next one is from npr. Last month, Colleen Fagan was observing an immigration enforcement operation at an apartment complex in Portland, Maine, when federal agents scanned her face with a smartphone and appeared to record her license plate number. For those of you that are going to go out and they're going to protest, especially like the no Kings. And if you're protesting ice, I really want you to pay attention to the story because I want you to take some precautions. In social media video she recorded, Fagan can be heard asking why the agent was taking information. What the agent said next made the video go viral. And I quote, because we have a nice little database, said the masked agent. And now you're considered a domestic terrorist. Fagan, who is a social worker, has now joined a federal class action lawsuit that argues the Department of Homeland Security and a number of its sub agencies are violating the First Amendment and they're taking actions designed to chill, suppress and control speech that they do not like, quote, a federal agent called me a domestic terrorist just because I recorded agents operating in public in my community. But I have a right to do that and so do others. This is what Fagan said in a statement and went on to say, I want people to know how important it is to use our First Amendment rights to observe and document what is happening. Peaceful dissent is not a crime. Though Fagan's video went viral, her full name had not been widely publicized until this lawsuit. Now the suit filed by the legal nonprofit Protect Democracy and the law firm's done. Isaacson Re And Drummond Woodson alleged federal agents are unconstitutionally retaliating against people who are lawfully observing and recording federal immigration enforcement operations by gathering their personal information and labeling them domestic terrorists. And this is a quote, plaintiffs must either abandon their constitutional rights or accept being cataloged and branded as domestic terrorists. This is what the lawsuit read and it was filed in federal district court in Maine on Monday. It said, that is a choice the Constitution does not require plaintiffs or anyone to make. DHS is not immediately respond to a request for comment on this, and the officials have denied the existence of the database of alleged domestic terrorists since Fagan's video was widely shared. And I quote, there's no database of domestic terrorists run by DHS. Well, this quote is from Trisha McLaughlin, so I'm pretty sure there's probably a database of domestic terrorists run by dhs. She said, we do of course monitor and investigate and refer all threats, assaults and obstruction of our officers to the appropriate law enforcement. Obstructing and insulting law enforcement is a felony and a federal crime. Yes, but recording is not. McLaughlin. Federal agents have access to facial recognition tools that can be used to identify people in the field, as well as the mobile app Mobile Companion, which allows agents to use a smartphone to scan license plates. These kind of surveillance tools have allowed federal agents to intimidate observers and protesters by revealing that they know their names and addresses. Several Minnesota observers who have followed federal agents in their cars have described the experience of agents leading them to their own homes to show that they know where they live. The lawsuit names other main observers who have had the same experience. It is legal for observers to film and follow federal agents at a safe distance. This is from Scarlett Kim. Scarlett is the senior staff attorney with the American Civil Liberty Liberties Union Speech Privacy Technology Project. That's what she told NPR earlier this month. But dozens of people in Minnesota said in declarations collected by the ACLU that they were observing federal agents, but they were told that they were impeding, interfering, or acting illegally. Of course that's what they're saying now. Homeland Security Secretary puppet killer Kristi Noem said at a press conference in July that violence against DHS agents is anything that threatens them and their safety, and went on to say that, including doxing them and videotaping them where they're at when they're out on operations. So she's saying videotaping them is threatening their safety. Bullshit. DHS have crafted a wide definition of doxing, McLaughlin told the American Prospect in September. That, and I quote, videotaping ice lawful enforcement and posting videos and videos of them online is doxing our agents. That's not true. A memo issued by Attorney General Pam Bondi in December lists doxing law enforcement as domestic terrorism. Well, Eleanor Hilton, another resident of Portland, Maine, is also listed as a plaintiff in this lawsuit. Federal agents captured her face and license plate with their phones on January 21st after she began recording them conducting an immigration enforcement operation at a Home Depot. This is what the lawsuit says. Hilton did not stay at her home that night. She was afraid that agents would make good on their threat. She has reduced how often she observes federal agents and no longer uses her own car when she observes. She now parks her car several blocks away from her home and those of family members out of concern that federal agents might recognize her car and trace it to her home. She says on recent trip that she left her personal cell phone at home out of concern that if she was placed on a government list, federal agents might detain her and search her phone. This is what they want. This is the scare tactic that they want. Now Fagan is concerned about being placed on a no fly on similar or similar lists. This is all in the lawsuit and worries her current or future employment could be affected by any labels DHS gives her. Less than a week before Hilton's interaction with federal agents, Tom Holman, President Trump's immigration advisor, told Fox News host Laura Ingraham that he wanted to create a database of people who impede ice. He said this these people who want to, say, follow ICE and film ice, you know what? You can protest. They have that right. Then he added that for those who cross a legal line, we're going to create a database where those people that are arrested for interference, impeding an assault, we're going to make them famous. We're going to put their face on tv. We're going to tell their employers and their neighborhoods and their schools who these people are. But other public appearances, federal officials have denied that that database even exists. And I quote, I can't speak for that individual, sir, lyons said. But I can assure you that there is no database that's tracking United States citizens now. The lawsuit says, and I quote, if defendants denials are true and the actions captured on video simply involved federal agents pretending to add observers to a database, then they are deliberately lying about domestic terrorist watch lists or databases to unlawfully intimid observers. I love this statement. It feels like they're in a catch 22. Either you have the database, which is unconstitutional, or you don't and you're lying to intimidate the observers. The lawsuit's asking a federal judge to stop DHS from collecting records on people and from threatening, harassing and otherwise retaliating against them for exercising their protected First Amendment rights and to expunge records that have already been collected. Joanna Siriani, counsel at Protect Democracy, said the lawsuit will, and I quote, ensure that the federal government can no longer use use unconstitutional surveillance tactics to silence its critics and sideline the observers who protect our communities. So we'll see what happens with this lawsuit. But I have a. I mean it. It sure sounds like there's something here. Our Constitution's there for a reason and they keep violating our constitutional rights. I'm glad people are taking up lawsuits. And last in the hot notes, everyone, speaking of lawsuits, this feels also like a good news story to me, but SJ Jocelyn and other Yosemite national park employees hung that transgender pride flag at El Capitan. Now, Jocelyn has since been fired, as we know. We've covered that on the beans and we also sent you a little good trouble, remember, to help get them reinstated. Well, Shannon, S.J. jocelyn, that park ranger and biologist fired for hanging a transgender pride flag in El Capitan, is suing the Department of the Interior Monday, alleging it violated their First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and I quote, constitutional rights are necessary and guaranteed for every person in the United States. This is what SJ told SFGate this lawsuit is fighting for the rights of average people and is asserting that they don't just exist for the individuals with the most power in the country. The National Park Service and the Department of the Interior did not immediately respond requests for comment and a spokesperson for Yosemite national park said the park had no comment on this. Jocelyn, sj, a non binary bat biologist, was off the clock off the clock when they and other rock climbers hung a huge transgender pride flag in the iconic rock formation el Capitan for three hours in May of 2025. The display was responding to efforts by the Trump administration to erase messaging of transgender people and communities from government websites, including park service websites. SJ was fired from Yosemite in August of 2025. Two other employees were placed on administrative leave. Acting Superintendent Raymond McPadden cracked down on flags in El Capitan shortly thereafter, restricting anyone from hanging banners, flags or signs on the park's national features. Anyone who ignores the new rules could face a six month jail sentence, according to the lawsuit. McPadden's restrictions were dated May 2025, the same day the Trans Pride flag was displayed, but weren't signed or made public until the following day. Hmm, coincidence. According to the lawsuit, Park Service officials told SJ that they were treating the incident as a criminal matter and that they were under active investigation. While Jocelyn hasn't been indicted, they haven't been told the investigation has concluded either. SJ's complaint, filed in the US District Court of the District of Columbia on Monday, alleges the firing and criminal investigation violated Jocelyn's First Amendment and Privacy Act's rights. SJ asked to get their job at Yosemite back and for guarantee that the right to free speech would be upheld in Yosemite. In a motion for preliminary injunction also filed Monday, they said my life has been overhauled by an administration that wants to take away basic constitutional rights and ruin the lives of people who think or are different from them. They went on to say, I won't sit back and accept the failing of American democracy and this lawsuit is my way of giving a voice and fighting for all federal trans and human rights in the United States. Now according to the nonprofit PEER P E E R, which stands for Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, there is no record of discipline or sanction for hanging flags in El Capitan. There's no record and I quote, if Dr. Joslin had hung a flag the administration liked, they would be working at Yosemite today. This is from Clayton Bailey, founding partner at Civil Service Law Center LLP Co Counsel on the case, went on to say that reality is totally antithetical to the basic First Amendment freedoms promised to everyone. Climbers have used the rock formation as a canvas to express messages for decades. I mean, In June of 2020 four climbers hung a Stop the Genocide banner speaking out against Israel's war in Gaza. In February 2025, climbers hung an upside down American flag to protest cuts to the National Park Service. And I quote, the administration is targeting Dr. Joslin because it wants to scare people into silence. This is Joanna Citron Day, General Counsel at PIER and one of the attorneys representing SJ in a news release and went on to say Dr. Joslin exercised their First Amendment rights and is being punished. To send a clear speech the administration doesn't like will not be tolerated. Dr. Joslyn was illegally fired and should be reinstated immediately. I could not be more proud of my friend sj. I am sending them all the best luck in this lawsuit. I know all the beans listeners are and we will keep you updated on how this pans out even if it takes years. All right everyone, thanks so much for listening to the hot notes. We're going to take a quick break and we'll be back with the good news after these messages. We'll be right back. Deleteme makes it easy, quick and safe to remove your personal data online at a time when surveillance and data breaches are common enough to make anyone vulnerable. Thanks to our sponsor, DeleteMe. With DeleteMe, I can protect both my personal privacy and the privacy of my business. If you're online at all, especially if you have any kind of public facing work privacy matters. I'm not in love with the idea that my info can end up on those data broker sites with every everyone can look it up. And lately it feels like every other week there's a headline about a data breach. 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That's JoinDeleteMe.com DailyBeANS code DailyBeans hey everyone. I live in an apartment, so I've never really had to concern myself with the ins and outs of landscaping. But my co host has a yard and thanks to Fast Growing Trees, she now has limes and avocado trees. The limes are abundant and it won't be too long before the avocados start bearing fruit. Fast Growing Trees calls it their guacamole garden, which I love. Fast Growing Trees has pretty much everything fruit trees, flowering trees, privacy trees, shrubs and houseplants. And it feels like a local nursery that happens to deliver anywhere you live. They also help you choose what makes sense for your climate and your space, which is huge if you're not trying to become a plant expert overnight, it really is. Click, order, grow, you pick what you want, they ship it to your door and you get to skip the crowded weekend run to the nursery. They also back it up by the 30 day alive and thrive guarantee. If your plant arrives looking unhappy or if you have issues in that first month, they will replace it for free. And if you need help, their trained plant experts can walk you through planning, picking and care. And their support team is solid. I have seen landscaping quotes that are truly wild. So doing it this way, it saved Alison so much time and money. That support is the difference between I hope this works and I can actually do this right now. They have great deals on spring planting essentials. Up to half off select plants and our audience gets 20% off your first purchase when using the code DAILYBEANS at checkout. That's an additional 20% off. Better plants and better growing at fastgrowingtrees.com using code DAILYBEANS at checkout fastgrowingtrees.com code DAILYBEANS now's the perfect time to plant, so let's grow together. Use Daily Beans to save today. Offer is valid for a limited time. Terms and conditions may apply. I'm Brian Caram and I've spent decades covering politics. Now I'm taking you behind the scenes, one interview at a time. Join us as each week Brian confronts the issues that matter, posing the questions you wish you could ask. No filter, no agenda. Just the truth. We're not here for sound bites. We're here for substance. Join me, Brian Caram every week as we cut through the noise and get straight to it. This is just Ask the Question for curiosity will lead us to the facts. Subscribe now on your favorite podcast platform and remember, when you want answers, all you have to do is just ask the question. All right, everyone, welcome back. It's time for the good news, everyone. Then good news, everyone. Good news. Good news. All right, everyone, I need the good news. Allison's gone. I'm riding solo. You know what makes me happy? Pictures of otters, baby animals. But also I love your confessions corrections. Good news in the Senate and there are so many of them now. We love your misheard lyrics will be stories. What the mutt shit kids say? Anything you want to send us. And just a reminder, you can see the pod pet pics if you become a patron of the Daily Beans. The good news pics are at the bottom of the show notes of each Patreon episode. So just know that. And if you want to send anything into the good news, go to dailybeanspod.com good. Or you can click the link in the show notes. Okay, so we have that for you. All right, let's start with some good trouble. Trump's State of the Union is tonight. It may have already happened by the time you hear this, even for the patrons that get this early ad free. But Trump State of the Union is tonight. So consider tanking. Try tanking. One of the only thing Trump cares about, his TV ratings. Watch one of the alternatives and here's a few alternatives. We've got stuff from Midas Touch that's going to do a people State of the Union. You can do a State of the Union, which is an Oregon town hall with Senator Ron Wyden and Senator Jeff Merkley. There's also a State of the Swamp and that's many political figures and many of the Daily Beans favorites guests. They're going to be speaking at one of these. So regardless, click on one of these. If you get this in time, we're going to have the links in the show notes. I know the State of the Union is late, so I know some of you will actually be listening to this podcast before it airs. And even if you got it in the middle, click on these links anyway and show them support because they're awesome. All right, next up, we've got Gina G in North Carolina. Hi, my beautiful Illuminati. I've got some good trouble to share this weekend. While visiting dc, I made my husband truck all the way to the DOJ to flip off the incomparable Pam Bondi. I'm attaching a picture of my husband took of me in front of the giant banner of Deer Leader as my pod pet tax. I'm also attaching a picture of my rescue rocket. This is a great bird watching photo. The look on your face, Gina. I mean, there is energy behind that. Oh my goodness. And we also have what looks like a beagle Australian shepherd mix. Let me see what I have here for this. We have a beagle. Just a beagle. I didn't even put an Australian shepherd. Although it's really hard for me to believe there's not a little Australian shepherd in that beagle. That is a little cute beagle and a sploot. I love this bird watching photo. Thank you so much. Yes, I give you permission to flip off Pam Bondi and Trump anytime you feel safe. All right, this next one's from Diane. Pronouns she and her I keep a tab open for the contact page for my US Representatives and both of my US Senators, which makes it easy to craft one message and then copy paste to each one as well as sharing to my Facebook page. What a great idea. I think that I'll resend this particular one every Monday morning. All are welcome to use Podpet Tariff Lily in the sunbeam, but here we go. I'm reaching out today to ask what have you done in the past week to push for enforcement of the Epstein Files Transparency Act? All the files have not been released. Next what have you done in the past week to require the DOJ release the Epstein files in the legislatively required way? Protecting the victims while exposing the names of those people involved involved in the abuse of young women and girls? What have you done in the past week to push for the DOJ or Congress to investigate these people involved in the abuse of young women and girls? And what will you do this coming week? Every Monday, Diane's going to send that out to senators. I think it's a great idea and you could do the same. A beautiful kitty cat for Podpet. Thank you so much for that submission. All right, this next one's from Anonymous Pronoun she and her Dana, you asked for otters and I present a river otter. Many moons ago, my son and I volunteered at Brazos Bend State park, about an hour outside of Houston. I was in a rough situation at work and decided to take a day off to go for a scheduled hike with the park ranger. The weather was bad, I was late, and almost no one showed up. However, the ranger knew I had taken the day off and waited for me. Despite the rain, a handful of us decided to do the hike. Can I just say, it was the best hike ever. Shortly into the hike, we saw this otter frolicking about. She was in and out of the water, crossing the path in front of us, and it was honestly a highlight of any hike I've been on. While I'm happily back in New Mexico with glorious mountains all about, I do miss that park. If anyone lives nearby, go. You won't regret it. You likely won't see an otter, but you will for sure see plenty of alligators and birds. Moral of the story? Take the mental health day and go explore one of our amazing state national parks. Anonymous I love that suggestion. I actually was going to give a promise to myself. This otter. It's literally an otter crossing a path. It's just adorable. I told myself I was going to try and get to as many national parks as I can while my body is still capable. And I need to start checking this off. So thank you so much for the reminder. All right, next up is from Kate Pronoun. She and her hello Dana. Thanks for taking the lead on the daily Beans this week. It is my pleasure. Ms. Landingham was a character. Here we go. I knew someone would know. Mrs. Landing Ham was a character on the West Wing. She was President Bartlett's executive secretary, but the character played an important part in Bartlett's life. Another bit of trivia. The character who replaced Mrs. Landingham at Bartlett's executive secretary was Debbie Fitterer, played by Lily Tomlin. Huh. Thank you for that. My pod pet tariff is a picture of my dog, Biscuit. He got me through Covid and crossed the Rainbow Bridge soon after. I have another dog now, but I still miss Biscuit every day. Can you guess the breeds Biscuit is? This looks like a West Highland Terrier. And I'm just gonna say, I don't know, it looks like a Westie, but that's a long redaction bar. Let's see what we have here. Oh, a Karen Terrier. I always get confused like Toto. Oh, it's a Karen Terrier and a Yorkie and it's adorable. Okay. I am so sorry Biscuit went over the Rainbow Bridge. I bet you had a lot of very happy years with this sweet pup. Thank you so much for that. All right, next up from Sue Pronoun. She and her hello. Thanks for your podcast. Listening makes living through these difficult times more hopeful. I would like to give a shout out to libraries this weekend. For our fourth year in a row, we participated in a speed puzzling tournament at Neenah. I hope I'm saying that right. Neenah Public Library in Wisconsin. I love this by the way. They keep coming across my algorithm. This speed puzzling where you put together jigsaw puzzles as fast as you can. They're so fascinating. So this person goes, if you've never experienced speed puzzling, it's more intense than you might expect in a lot of fun. I agree. 50 teams race to finish a thousand piece puzzle within 2 and a half hours. Even the online registration is intense, usually filling up within two minutes. It's free and donations are appreciated. The staff does an amazing job making these events happen. Libraries are awesome. In every new city I have moved to, it didn't feel a official until I had a library card. When my kids were little we would go to Storytime every week where also can you find a book on every subject, a ukulele or wi fi hotspot to borrow all for free. Anyone is welcome. And there are quiet places for taking a break from the outside world. When I hear the people currently running our country talk sometimes I think now there are some folks who should have spent more time at a library attaches a picture of our completed puzzle and our team. Peace be with you P I E C E. So brilliant. Sometimes we have a second team called and also with you. That's fantastic Sue. I've also attached a photo of my littlest during our storytime prime. Thank you libraries and thank you Allison and Dana. Wow, that is a really cool 1000 piece puzzle too. And look at this little one peeking through the knows. This is awesome. Thank you so much for the good news submissions. Thank you for the good trouble that you have to do. If you are watching the State of the Union, don't I mean we're going to cover it. We're going to have clips. We're going to have clips. I'm sure I'll cover it on the Beans talk as well. And yeah, do yourself a favor, if it's going to hurt your mental health, let it go because all you're going to see is a demented sundowning president trying to gaslight the entire country. That's what you're gonna see. I wrapped it up for you. Now you don't have to watch it. Everyone, thank you so much for tuning into the Daily Beans. Thanks so much for all the support while Allison's on vacation. I love holding this down while she's gone. I look forward to the rest of the week and I look forward to more good news from all of you. So thank you for your submissions and they really it is that palate cleanser we need at the end of the episode. So I will be back in your ears tomorrow for Taint of the week. And until then, take care of yourselves, take care of each other, take care of the planet, take care of your mental health health and take care of your family. AG will be back next week and until then I'm DG and them's the Beans. The Daily Beans is written and executive produced by Allison Gill with additional research and reporting by Dana Goldberg. Sound design and editing is by Desiree McFarlane with art and web design by Joelle Reader with Moxie Design Studios. Music for the Daily Beans is written and performed by they Might Be Giants and the show is a proud member of the MSW Media Network, a collection of creator owned podcasts dedicated to news, politics and just justice. For more information Please visit msw media.com msw Media history is messy. It's weird, wild and anything but boring. Rainy Day Rabbit Holes is a history podcast about unhinged stories that make you stop and ask, wait, is this real life? From crazy disasters and tasty scandals to enlightening and surprising heartwarming tales, we explore the moments where people behave badly and sometimes beautifully. We've got naughty politicians, cultural chaos and a deep love for the Pacific Northwest, including Bigfoot. It's thoughtful, irreverent, occasionally serious, and always entertaining. Let's Fall down the Rabbit Hole MSW.