SHERO on Sunday

A lightning-fast recap of the week's most significant political and legal events for January 12th - 18th, 2026, before we are on to the next!

A CNN reporter his crew were hit with tear gas as protests erupted in Minneapolis following warnings from officers to step out of a driveway at the Whipple Federal Building. (Photo via screen grab from video CNN)

Welcome to the Sunday Recap, where you can quickly check in to review the week with a minimal time commitment and ensure you do not miss a thing. Each snippet includes several links to credible and free sources, providing more details for those who want to delve deeper into any issue.

This kind of newsletter model, which provides free, reliable, independent journalism that connects the political and legal dots for everyone, works only if subscribers support our work with paid subscriptions. Consider upgrading your weekend by investing in SHERO today. There is a lot to cover for this week, so let’s get started!

Gun Violence This Week

At SHERO, we document all mass shooting incidents for the week every Sunday, so please take a moment to review them and remember to keep up the fight for sensible gun reform. There were five separate mass shooting events in the United States this past week, where 12 people were killed, and 15 were injured.

1. Sunday, January 11, 2026: Slaton, Texas

2. Sunday, January 11, 2026: Los Angeles, California

3. Sunday, January 11, 2026: Newton, Texas

4. Sunday, January 11, 2026: Strasburg, Colorado

5. Friday, January 16, 2026: New Orleans, Louisiana

• Reminder: Next Tuesday, January 20, in the wake of escalating ICE raids, attacks on gender-affirming care, cuts to healthcare, and the deployment of national guard troops in US cities, grassroots organizers are calling on people across the United States to walk out of their offices, schools, and businesses to protest the Trump administration and call for “a free America.”

• According to a new SRS/CNN poll released this week, public opinion on nearly every aspect of Donald Trump’s first year back in the White House is negative, with a majority of Americans saying Trump is focused on the wrong priorities and doing too little to address the cost of living, and 58% calling the first year of Trump’s term a failure.

  

• Several faculty groups denounced the Trump administration this week after the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) demanded the university turn over names and personal information about Jewish members of the Penn community — including personal emails, phone numbers, and home addresses — citing government abuse with “ominous historical overtones.”

• The number of detainees in US Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody has reached a new record high, surpassing 70,000 for the first time in the deportation agency's 23-year history, according to internal Department of Homeland Security data.

• A new report released by the National Transportation Safety Board this week says that years ago, Boeing flagged a potential issue with a bearing that was found fractured on the UPS plane that crashed in Louisville, Kentucky, last year.

• Donald Trump has repeatedly complained to aides in recent weeks about Attorney General Pam Bondi, describing her as weak and an ineffective enforcer of his agenda, as part of an intense campaign by Trump to pressure the Justice Department to pursue his priorities more aggressively.