Three police officers in Houston were wounded Thursday aftenoon by a shooter who drove away from the scene in a white Mercedes, NBC News reports.  The three were in an area south of downtown when they were struck by gunfire.

The police officers were reportedly involved in a pursuit of the vehicle before the shooting.  All officers are reported in stable condition at a local hospital.

“One of the most important roles of an elected board of education is to reflect the values of the community it serves. The McMinn County Board of Education voted to remove the graphic novel Maus from McMinn County Schools because of its unnecessary use of profanity and nudity and its depiction of violence and suicide. Taken as a whole, the Board felt this work was simply too adult-oriented for use in our schools. We do not diminish the value of Maus as an impactful and meaningful piece of literature, nor do we dispute the importance of teaching our children the historical and moral lessons and realities of the Holocaust.”

“To the contrary, we have asked our administrators to find other works that accomplish the same educational goals in a more age-appropriate fashion. The atrocities of the Holocaust were shameful beyond description, and we all have an obligation to ensure that younger generations learn of its horrors to ensure that such an event is never repeated. We simply do not believe that this work is an appropriate text for our students to study,” says the McMinn County, Tennessee School Board in a statement, as if a book about the Holocaust is supposed to be free of violence and adult content.

There is no “age-appropriate” for this once a kid is older than 14 or 15. There’s no point in indulging this bullshit beyond that, because as we said, we all know the real reason Maus is being banned from that school district. Would love to know if they still carry Huckleberry Finn.

Barrow High School was briefly put on lockdown over reports of student packing heat on campus at 11:00 am Thursday, though it didn’t really matter what time it was because in January it’s pitch black out 24 hours a day there, KTUU reports. No students or teachers were hurt or threatened in the incident in the Arctic coastal town of Utqiagvik (formerly Barrow), Alaska and the student was located by police off-campus shortly thereafter. It’s unclear if the student thought he needed protection from polar bears or if he/she thought the 2007 movie 30 Days of Night – about a horde of vampires that slaughters the entire town – was really going to happen. Or maybe he/she watched John Carpenter’s The Thing too many times, and was worried his/her classmates could be infected.

“I am sure some nerves have been stretched thin but our students and staff have handled themselves very well and the police response was very fast and efficient,” said a Facebook post by either Barrow HS Principal Mark Jenkins or a vicious, hostile alien creature that had assumed the form of Barrow HS Principal Mark Jenkins, pleased that the minor problem had been dealt with.

The San Jose City Council last night passed a measure that requires gun owners in city limits to carry liability insurance, the first US jurisdiction to mandate such coverage, and within minutes of the proposal’s passage gun industry advocates filed a lawsuit to overturn the measure, the San Jose Mercury News reports.

The legislature would also require gun owners to pay an annual registration fee similar to ones paid for cars or pets.  The money collected will go to reduce the costs to the city for gun injuries and to support safe gun ownership programs.

The Supreme Court has ruled officials have the legal authority to regulate gun ownership in their jurisdictions, short of banning gun ownership.  In the Heller decision, the late Justice Antonin Scalia wrote, “Like most rights, the Second Amendment right is not unlimited. It is not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose[.]”

Actress Evangeline Lilly, who plays “The Wasp” in the Ant-Man movies, revealed in a Thursday Instagram post she attended the Anti-Vaxx-a-palooza in DC on Sunday. The photo in the post shows a person with a “Vaxxed Democrat for Medical Freedom” sign mounted on a backpack, which may or may not be Lily, but she makes her stance clear-ish in the text. “this weekend to support bodily sovereignty while Canadian truckers were rallying for their cross-country, peaceful convoy in support of the same thing.I believe nobody should ever be forced to inject their body with anything, against their will… This is not the way. This is not safe. This is not healthy. This is not love. I understand the world is in fear, but I don’t believe that answering fear with force will fix our problems. I was pro choice before COVID and I am still pro choice today,” she writes, co-opting the language of women’s reproductive health, a dick move even if she is a softcore anti-vaxxer.

The National Butterfly Center in the border city of Mission, Texas will be closed this weekend due to credible and specific threats of terrorist violence from QAnon conspiracy theorists and white nationalist terrorists – and a completely insane visit from some of them that nearly turned into vehicular homicide, the Center announced in an email message Thursday.

“We are writing to let you know the National Butterfly Center will be closed Friday, Jan. 28 – Sunday, Jan. 30, due to credible threats we have received from a former state official, regarding activities planned by the We Stand America event, taking place in McAllen, TX, this weekend,” says the Center’s message, neutrally enough, before going into detail about an unnamed “Congressional candidate from Virginia”, accompanied by a supposed “Secret Service agent” who wouldn’t identify himself, making a very threatening visit to the Center’s director, Marianna.

The candidate then stole Marianna’s phone and nearly ran over her son Nick while fleeing in her car, according to the message. The whole thing is batshit and very reminiscent of Pizzagate, as the assholes are obsessed with a small boat dock on the edge of the butterfly center’s property as a transit point for human trafficking – much in the same way they were fixated on the non-existent basement of the Comet Ping Pong pizza restaurant in DC. At least the boat dock is real this time.

Coming February 2022. pic.twitter.com/ey0w4HZXnb

— Arnold (@Schwarzenegger) January 27, 2022

Respondents in a recent Monmouth University poll were asked the question “Some people say there is still a path to reverse the electoral vote count from 2020 and replace Biden with Trump before the next presidential election. Do you feel that there is definitely a path to do this, probably a path, probably not a path, or definitely not a path?” to which 11% of Republican voters said “Definitely”, 19% said “Probably”, 30% said “Probably Not” and 33% said the correct actual answer “Definitely Not”, with an additional 7% of them saying “Don’t Know”. Meaning fully two thirds of Republican voters, give or take because polls, at the very least bad of all options, are not aware that there is no way to reinstate Trump, and 60% think that there at least could be.

Biden MUST be impeached for his anti-white racist exclusion of any white nominee to the Supreme Court

— Anthony Sabatini (@AnthonySabatini) January 27, 2022

At least Sabatini left the gender part out of it, seeing as how Trump had pledged to pick a woman to replace RBG when she died in September 2020, which makes this bitchy reaction seem just slightly less hypocritical than it could have been. Still a deranged reaction, especially since he says this as if he’d be happy with whatever white woman or man Biden would have nominated.

Recent campaign ad targeting suggests that corrupt, misshapen Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is taking the primary challenge from similarly corrupt and misshapen Congressman Louie Gohmert much more seriously than he is from other challengers George P Bush and some woman nobody’s heard of, the Texas Tribune reports. In ads that lean heavily on his already securing the coveted endorsement of the Orange Pharaoh – which is basically the only real contrast he can draw against Gohmert – Paxton has hit hard at the loose-toothed Congressman’s East Texas base.

Literally the only thing Paxton can bring up is the Trump endorsement. It’s not like he can say “Oh look, Louie Gohmert is a white nationalist who sued Mike Pence to overturn the 2020 election and lost,” because neither are considered a bad thing among Texas GOP primary voters. And Paxton sued Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin to overturn the 2020 election and lost.

Gohmert, for his part is hammering at the fact that Paxton has been under felony indictment for six years now, though again that’s not necessarily a bad thing because “the Deep State always comes after the fighters” and blah blah blah. Then again Gohmert could counter that by mentioning he was identified as a security threat in a US Capitol Police intelligence division report. That’s definitely a plus in what’s sure to be a marquee race in MAGA scumbaggery this March.

Entitled white Wisconsin man Kevin Nicholson, a Marine Corps veteran and “business leader”, publicly launched his campaign for Governor on Thursday amid pleas from “establishment” party leaders to not do so, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports. “I’m fighting for Wisconsin’s future. I was born in Wisconsin, and I’m proud to raise my family here. As the Governor of our state, I pledge to use my leadership skills and business experience to build a better future for the children, families, and businesses of our state. I hope you’ll join us as we build a better future,” says Nicholson on his newly launched campaign website (which doesn’t sell any swag).

What Nicholson leaves out is the fact that he’s a proven loser who was defeated in the 2018 US Senate Republican primary to the eventual nominee, Leah Vukmir, who then went on to lose against incumbent Dem Tammy Baldwin, something that factored in to the state Republican “establishment” begging him to not fuck things up again. “If Kevin Nicholson is listening – you need to not run for governor,” said Wisconsin GOP Assembly Speaker Robin Vos just last week. Nicholson was listening and promptly tweeted “Thanks, @repvos, for the political advice. Our elections are a mess, law & order is eroding, schools are failing. How about you focus on doing your job?”

State Republicans are largely gathering around former Lt Governor Rebecca Kleefisch, a basket case on her own even if she wasn’t the absolute failure former Governor Scott Walker’s running mate. But she did technically win a statewide race before, so she’s got the backing of top donors including ultranationalist plutocrat Liz Uhlien. Liz’s husband Dick, for his part, is backing Nicholson again, even after pissing away $11 million on the losing 2018 effort. Cheesy bastards.

In a January 2021 rant on his local radio show obtained by CNN’s KFile, Republican former North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory, currently running in the GOP primary race for the Senate seat being vacated by retiring Senator Richard Burr, compared his being unwelcome to return to a past part-time teaching position at Duke University’s public policy grad school to segregation.

“The head of the policy school called me up and said, ‘Governor, we’ve got some problems. We’ve got some alumni and big donors that don’t want you to come back to Duke to be a part of this public policy school.’ You know what I said to him, I said, ‘If I come back to the, if I come back to the campus, will you serve me at the lunch counter?’ And I meant it. Speaking about the ultimate blacklisting was the African American students from North Carolina A&T University who wanted to eat at the counter at Woolworths, the lunch counter. And they refused them. They were blacklisted because of the color of their skin. Other people are now being blacklisted because of our politics. And it’s both wrong. It’s both deplorable. And we’ve got to speak out against it,” said McCrory.

While the Orange Pharaoh has already endorsed no-namer North Carolina Congressman Ted Budd in the primary race in June 2021, McCrory reportedly remains in contact with Moscow Mitch, who encouraged him to jump in back in April 2021. McCrory has pledged loyalty to the Turtle-faced one, who for obvious reasons beyond that would prefer him to Ted Budd. Or would have, before this recording surfaced, which will probably fuck McCrory if it blows up.

US economic growth hit 6.9% versus an expected 5.5%, Reuters reports. That’s somehow bad news for Biden and the Dems, or it’s not really that impressive, or something. It’ll be on Fox News. They’ll explain the whole thing to you, tell you why inflation something gas prices whatever.

Desiccated walking corpse Kellyanne Conway’s White House memoir “Here’s The Deal” will hit bookstores on May 24th, the Associated Press reports. Since it will almost certainly be a sanitized to the point of fictional account of her time working for the Orange God Emperor, there is very little chance National Zero readers will see any info gleaned from excerpts here.

Two Carlow, Ireland men have been arrested and one indicted on unspecified charges in the now globally famous “Weekend at Bernie’s” scam attempt, IrishCentral.com reports. One of the men, Declan Haughney, 40, claimed to the Irish Mirror that he didn’t know his uncle, Peadar Doyle, 66, had died on Friday, January 21st during the five minute walk to a local convenience store that offers post office services, even though he and an unidentified friend had to physically drag Doyle’s corpse to the shop. “Why would I want to rob my uncle? I’m 40 years of age yeah, I’m not a child, I’m not a young fella. I’m not an eejit to walk into Hoseys [we guess Hoseys is the name of the store] with a dead man and collect his money. Am I cuckoo? Am I cuckoo? I’m not,” Haughney said in an interview with the Mirror on Monday before his arrest and indictment.

The incident wasn’t the last time Haughney carried Peadar’s departed mortal coil, as he served as a pallbearer at the funeral on Monday. Haughney wore a grey tracksuit, but luckily he didn’t have to run away as there was no mention of the scam attempt in the funeral mass proceedings.

Federal Judge Reggie Walton didn’t really understand what Capitol rioter Dustin Thompson’s defense is trying to achieve in calling Trump to the stand to testify as a witness in Thompson’s trial on charges of illegally entering the Capitol and violent and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds, CNN reports. “I just (didn’t) see what more you get having them come into court to testify,” said Walton on Wednesday, skeptical of how helpful it’d be for Thompson’s case. Walton added that the defense could simply present a video of Trump’s speech prior to the riot. Thompson’s attorney Sam Shamansky argued it’s necessary to answer “the question is how and why [Thompson] gets there,” because Trump had the rioters “whipped up into a frenzy.”

“The Court previously ordered the parties to ‘begin work on production and creating a privilege log on Tuesday, January 25, 2022 by 12:00 pm Pacific.’ Order (Dkt. 41). In that Order, the Court requested that parties file joint status reports to summarize the progress made and any disputes that the parties are facing in production. The Court noted that it ‘expects that the parties will work together with the urgency that this case requires.’ Id. The Court is in receipt of the Select Committee and Chapman University’s Joint Status Report (‘Defendants’ Report’) (Dkt. 47) and Dr. Eastman’s Status Report (‘Eastman Report’) (Dkt. 49). In his report, Dr. Eastman stated that he received the documents for review yesterday evening, Tuesday, January 25, 2022, and was able to complete ‘only a preliminary survey of the materials’ last night” – Order from federal Judge David O Carter telling fascist MAGA lawyer John Eastman to hurry the fuck up.

A New York couple has been charged with fraud after they were arrested at January 15th’s Buffalo Bills playoff game for using forged vaccination certificates to attend the game, where proof of vaccination was required, the Associated Press reports.

Michael Nabb, 34, and Amber Nabb, 37, of West Seneca were arraigned on charges of criminal possession of a forged instrument in the second degree, which carries a maximum sentence of seven years.  The charges follow through on a vow by Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul to pursue people who fraudulently produce or use vaccine cards.

Erie County District Attorney John Flynn said the couple had been on the team’s radar for earlier incidents.  Team officials and law enforcement approached the couple in their seats during the third quarter of the game, and later took them away for questioning.

The Department of Justice charged the man who allegedly sold a handgun to the British Muslim man who held four people hostage in a Texas synagogue for ten hours earlier this month, Reuters reports.  The standoff ended when law enforcement stormed the building and killed Malik Faisal Akram.

Henry “Michael” Williams, 32, was charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm.  Williams sold Akram a semi-automatic Taurus G2C pistol on January 13, three days before Akram attacked the synagogue for $150.  He admitted to police that he sold the gun and said Akram told it he was going to use it to intimidate someone who owed him money.

“During the custodial interview with Williams on January 24, 2022, Williams stated to the interviewing agents that he knew he was not allowed to be in possession of a firearm and that he knew conducting the sale of the gun to Akram was illegal,” the complaint says.