THE BLACK HAND: Investigators scouring the desert around Tucson found a  black glove that appear similar to the ones worn by the kidnapper in video taken at the front door of 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie. It’s been 12 days since the mother of “Today Show” anchor Savannah Guthrie was taken from her home in the middle of the night.

  The gloves could be a major break in the case, providing DNA evidence on the identity of the kidnapper.

  Yesterday, TMZ reported that a deposit of about $152 had been put into the Bitcoin account tied to a ransom demand. Despite promises by Savannah Guthrie to pay a $6 million ransom for her mother, the kidnapper … at least to public knowledge … has not provided evidence that she’s alive. 

FIVE RINGS:  Ukrainian skeleton athlete Vladyslav was disqualified from competition for continuing to wear a helmet commemorating the lives of Ukrainian athletes killed in Russia’s invasion.

  Downhill gold medalist Breezy Johnson crashed in her Super G run, but finished the course.

  American speed skater Jordan Stolz broke the Olympic record by nine-tenths of a second yesterday to win gold in the 1,000-meter men’s speedskating final. He was trailing at 600 meters but turned on the after burners in the last lap.

  Ice dancers Madison Chock and Evan Bates, who had been the favored pair, finished second in an upset by the French couple win silver in their event.

  Americans Liz Lemley and Jaelin Kauf won gold and silver in the women’s mogul event on skis.

  And from her hospital bed, downhiller Lindsey Vonn posted a message about the changed meaning of success after her third surgery on a broken leg: “Success today has a completely different meaning than it did a few days ago. I’m making progress and while it is slow, I know I’ll be ok.”  

UANAPOLOGETIC: Attorney General Pam Bondi was angry and unapologetic facing questions from lawmakers, this time about the slow and clumsy release of the files on sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

  Bondi refused to apologize to Epstein survivors present in the hearing room after releasing documents that identified some victims while keeping secret the names of men who abused them. “You’re siding with the perpetrators, and you’re ignoring the victims,” said Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee. “You’re running a massive Epstein cover-up right out of the Department of Justice.”

  Avoiding the question at hand, Bondi came armed with accusations of her own, asking the Democrats, “Have you apologized to President Trump?” for their votes to impeach him five years ago. “You sit here and you attack the president, and I am not going to have it,” she said. 

THE REGIME:

— A grand jury in Washington declined to indict six Democratic lawmakers who posted a video advising members of the military that they have a duty under military law to refuse illegal orders. The video enraged President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

  The effort to bring indictments was led by Jeanine Pirro, the former television judge who’s now the US Attorney in the District of Columbia. Elissa Slotkin, a senator from Michigan, said in a statement: “President Trump continues to weaponize our justice system against his perceived enemies. It’s the kind of thing you see in a foreign country, not in the United States we know and love”. 

— In line with the electoral fraud claims of President Trump, the House yesterday passed a strict voter identification law that probably has no chance to pass the Senate. The law would require proof of American citizenship to vote.

— A federal judge ruled this week that there is no justification for deporting a Turkish graduate student at Tufts University who was detained by immigration authorities for writing a pro-Palestinian article in the student newspaper.

  Last year immigration authorities were targeting foreign students for things they said, wrote, or demonstrated that might have been in disagreement with the Trump regime.

— Donald T. Kinsella, 79, was sworn in yesterday after federal judges appointed him to be the US attorney for the Northern District of New York to replace a predecessor who had been serving unlawfully. Hours later the White House fired Kinsella.  

THE OBIT PAGE: Actor James Van Der Beek, the smiling golden boy who starred as a teenager discovering love and sex in the late 90s television series “Dawson’s Creek,” died yesterday at age 48. He had announced back in November of 2024 that he had colorectal cancer.

  Van Der Beek was actually a college student when he was cast for a six-year run with “Dawson’s Creek.” While the series was on the air he played a high school football player in the coming-of-age movie. “Varsity Blues” and a bitter, promiscuous, drug-dealing college student in “The Rules of Attraction” (2002), based on novel by a Bret Easton Ellis. 

  Following “Dawson’s” Van Der Beek was in high demand for television series. He made his final screen appearance last year.

  Van Der Beek and his second wife, Kimberly Brook, had six children together.

THE SPIN RACK: NPR reports that five months after the assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, there’s a spate of lawsuits filed by people investigated, fired, and even arrested for their online reactions to his death.

BELOW THE FOLD:  Ever on the alert for national security, Customs and Border Protection on Tuesday was testing a high energy anti-drone laser weapon when they detected a threat, causing the Federal Aviation Administration on Tuesday to  closed the air space for ten miles and ten days around the El Paso airport. 

  Top administration officials claimed that the closure was in response to the incursion of drones from Mexican drug cartels, requiring a military response. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy declared in a social media post that “the threat has been neutralized.”

  And easily done, because the threat turned out to be a loose party ballon and the airport is open again.

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