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The Maplewood City Council on Tuesday continued their discussion regarding when the flag flying outside city hall should be lowered to half-mast. In the first public comment session Ward 3 resident Melessa Dierker began by saying that her family is part of the LGBTQ+ community, and that when the flag was lowered for Charlie Kirk, […]

When ABC suspended “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” last week following a shakedown from the Trump administration, celebrities, free speech advocates, and ordinary Americans voiced their outrage. They were right to sound the alarm — and it (mostly) worked. Kimmel’s back on the air.

But where is that same outrage against the government’s effort to deport Mario Guevara, an Atlanta-area journalist with a work visa who has lawfully resided in the U.S. for 20-plus years? His only “offense” is informing the public of protests against the government.

This week, a final removal order was issued against Guevara, who was arrested (with the baseless criminal charges since dropped) while livestreaming a July “No Kings” protest in Georgia. He might not have a late-night comedy show, but his right to report news is every bit as important as Kimmel’s right to tell jokes.

The stakes in Guevara’s case — both for him and for the country — are even higher than in the Kimmel fiasco that has dominated headlines. Guevara could be deported at any moment, likely to his birthplace, El Salvador, which he fled decades ago to escape political persecution.

Despite the extremely serious constitutional implications of Kimmel’s case, his worst-case scenario was moving from prime time to a podcast. There is no telling what fate might await Guevara if he’s thrown out of the country.

And if that happens, the chilling effect on journalists — particularly noncitizen ones, even those like Guevara with legal status — will be impossible to measure. After all, we only know what news we hear. We don’t know what news we don’t hear because journalists didn’t report it out of fear for their safety or freedom.

Kimmel‘s worst-case scenario was moving from prime time to a podcast. There is no telling what fate might await Guevara.

Kimmel’s professional peers — famous comedians and other celebrities — might feel relieved that Kimmel ultimately got his show back. But most journalists (or comedians, for that matter) aren’t famous and don’t have a Rolodex of Hollywood A-listers ready to come to their defense. Kimmel’s win offers them little comfort.

Independent journalists like Guevara also don’t have money for lawyers, lobbyists, or PR firms to make their case to judges, politicians, or the public (although fortunately, organizations like the ACLU, Free Press, the Committee to Protect Journalists, and others have stepped up).

Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr tried to manufacture plausible deniability in Kimmel’s case, arguing that it wasn’t his public ultimatum but pressure from local audiences that led ABC and its affiliates to pull Kimmel. That’s nonsense, but in Guevara’s case — much like the case against Rümeysa Öztürk, the Tufts University student facing removal for co-writing an op-ed critical of Israel — the government is hardly attempting to hide its agenda.

The federal government seeks to deport Guevara — despite his work visa and despite local prosecutors dropping their case against him for livestreaming in public — because, to them, his reporting makes him an “undesirable.” How did journalism, the only career protected by the Constitution, become a disfavored profession in America?

Guevara’s reporting often focused on immigration enforcement abuses. That earns him no friends in a government that considers U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to be secret police. From seeking to punish social media users who identify ICE agents to investigating radio stations that report on ICE raids to threatening whistleblowers who undermine the official narrative, the administration has made every effort to intimidate those who speak the truth about its immigration policy.

The secrecy is by no means limited to ICE — while Kimmel’s show was in limbo and Guevara wrote letters from his cramped jail cell, the Pentagon announced it would force reporters to pledge to only report authorized information.

What this administration cannot seem to comprehend is that the First Amendment exists for the sole purpose of protecting the right to publish information the government does not want published. There would be no need for a constitutional right to publish what the government wants. Everyone loves free speech when the speaker is on their side.

Guevara is exactly who the constitution was intended to protect — and his retaliatory deportation is exactly the kind of authoritarian censorship it was intended to prevent.

Kimmel will be all right with or without ABC, and with or without you. That doesn’t mean not to protest efforts to censor him — the FCC’s antics are unconstitutional, un-American, and fully deserving of contempt. Carr should be fired and disbarred, and the corporations that caved to him should be ashamed.

But free speech is not only for celebrities. The real battles for our rights are not fought in television studios and theme parks but at protests and in citizen journalists’ home newsrooms. And these days, in detention centers and immigration courts.

KISS founding member Ace Frehley has canceled a Friday concert appearance in California after injuring himself in a fall.“Dear Rock Soldiers, Ace had a minor fall in his studio, resulting in a trip…

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When Black voters stay home on election day, the results have major consequences, according to Marc H. Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League. Morial implored attendees at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s annual legislative conference Thursday to eschew the myth that their vote does not matter. Black voter turnout was more than […]

The lawsuit targets SC Johnson, owner of Ziploc bags, and Bimbo Bakeries, the country's biggest bread and snack food manufacturer.

Apparently, it’s no longer acceptable to speak ill of the dead. Not that it bothers the dead. But it certainly seems to bother a bunch of people who are still alive and who have nothing better to do with their time but snitch on anyone who doesn’t treat Charlie Kirk like an American hero who […]

For 27-year-old Amanda Lien, the decision to start wearing popular wearable tech devices, like her Apple Watch and Oura Ring, didn’t come lightly. The Chesapeake, Virginia-based content marketing specialist works for a healthcare company, and probably knows more about healthcare data privacy issues than most, she said. She’s also not inclined to wear jewelry on […]

A man was sentenced to prison Friday for the murder of a 14-year-old boy in broad daylight more than four years ago.

WASHINGTON — Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh argued in a major case earlier this month that U.S. citizens face few problems in having their immigration status verified if federal agents apprehend them. “If the officers learn that the individual they stopped is a U.S. citizen or otherwise lawfully in the United States, they promptly let […]

A federal mediator will step in as the union and Boeing resume talks next week to end a strike that has dragged on for nearly two months.

September 26 has long been a date marked by pivotal moments that have shaped history across the globe. From groundbreaking diplomacy to significant cultural milestones, this day offers a fascinating tapestry of events that reflect humanity's complexities and triumphs. Let’s take a journey through time and explore some of the most impactful happenings on this day. One of the most notable events occurred in 1983, when the Soviet Union’s early-warning systems mistakenly detected an incoming missile strike from the United States. Fortunately, Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov, the officer on duty, judged the alert to be a false alarm and decided not to report it to his superiors. His calm judgment arguably prevented a potential nuclear disaster during the tense Cold War era. This incident highlights the fragile balance of global peace and the critical role individuals can play in shaping history. Going back to 1789, September 26 marks the day when the United States established

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On our live show, David and staff writer Whitney Curry Wimbish talk about how crypto bought Congress and how Wyoming is becoming the crypto capital.

CHICAGO — A $5 lottery ticket has dramatically reshaped the future for Mt. Carmel resident David Sharp, who recently scratched his way to a $1,000,000 top prize on the Illinois Lottery's Cash Grab Instant Ticket. Sharp purchased the $5 winning ticket at Marathon Gas, located at 1315 W. 9th Street in Mt. Carmel—where he’s a frequent customer. “I’m always drawn to the games with bigger prizes, especially the ones with multipliers. That’s what caught my eye with Cash Grab,” said Sharp. “I scratched it in my truck and couldn’t believe what I was seeing.” Stunned by the result, Sharp walked back into the gas station to verify the ticket with the retail clerk. “I was in shock. I just stood there thinking, ‘No way this is real,’” Sharp recalled. “I had to double-check it to be sure.” The win came with more than just a financial boost. It also marked an early retirement for his wife, Angie

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Today on TAP: It’s the right target, but a $100,000 visa fee is a characteristically bizarre Trumpian remedy.

JERSEY COUNTY - Authorities in Jersey County are seeking the public’s help to identify a man seen carrying what Sheriff Nick Manns said appeared to be a rifle behind the old Walmart building. The sighting occurred on Friday, Sept. 26, 2025, prompting a precautionary lockdown of schools in the Jersey School District, and St. Francis/Holy Ghost was put on what was described as a secure situation. The Jersey County Sheriff’s Office is asking anyone with information about the individual’s identity or anyone who has seen him within the last hour to contact them at 618-498-6881. Residents are urged to report any relevant information to assist the ongoing investigation. There is a heavy police presence around the area where the individual was initially spotted and the schools.

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