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Over the top rhetoric is not helpful here. It wasn't the "death penalty", it was a tragic consequence of thinking she could insert herself in an enforcement operation. Someone else asked what to do when receiving conflicting commands from officers --a theory gaining popularity I guess, although none of the videos show an officer drawing a gun before she took action. The answer, again, is to not hit the gas pedal. It is to comply with the nearest command, which every video shows is for her to repeatedly step out of the vehicle. Again, the gas pedal was not the right choice.

We keep circling back to this. She didn't have to hit him. She hit the gas, with an armed officer in front of her car. The circling of erroneous information online that these are "masked men" and not LE, that she had every right to her life and to "flee", "run", etc. all dodge the obvious fact. She pressed down on the gas pedal, with an armed officer in front of her car.

Don't be so certain. It's Minnesota, for one. Secondly, John Adams famously represented the British soldiers in the Boston massacre. There will be someone who believes in the rule of law who takes this on. Most likely, and more to point one, someone brazen and institutionally captured enough will take this on.

100%. This isn't realistic tactics for self defense. It's the dirty, cold reality that when you are faced with a threat, neutralizing isn't going for the shoulder.

Ahh yes. I somehow knew there would be a contentious thread regarding this issue waiting for me when I popped in today. For those who don't know, I moved to Iowa after spending over 20 years living in Minneapolis. And I do mean Minneapolis, not just some suburb in or outside the loop. Dinkytown, Nokomis, and Kingfield neighborhoods, the latter being pretty darn close to where the shooting took place. In fact, one of my high school friends lives on the corner of 34th and Portland. Kind of trippy watching this footage and seeing the house in the background where I spent most of my senior year hanging out. Anyway... It is really fascinating--and sad--how this is all playing out. In addition to watching the actual footage of the shooting, I am experiencing deep deja vu. A little icier than the Summer of Love, but I digress. Corporate media turns out to capture the "mostly peaceful" footage of people laying roses in the snow. Articles hyper-focus on every minute detail of the ICE agent, while the circumstances of the "victim" are quietly swept under the rug. Public schools are closed in the interest of "public safety" and with the ruling narrative lacking nuance, everyone assumes ICE is going to go full school shooter on the town, when in fact Occam's razor points more solidly at the historical rioting, street violence, and arson being more likely threats to public safety. Everyone is gripped with the story sold to them, and frankly annoyed with the administration trying the same tactics. Noem, Trump, etc. throwing hyperbole only feeds the machine. Sigh. At the end of the day, and I do speak as a native Minnesotan who watched the wheels spin on an icy road ("solid footing", really?)... the second she pressed the gas pedal, her life was forfeit. It's a sad, tragic circumstance but it is the truth. Whatever compelled her to do that, was symptomatic of a machine who desperately wanted her to do it: for incitement, radicalization, a REASON to point fingers and blame. The failure to acknowledge consequence and act anyway, is a perfect example of suicidal empathy. But again as a native Minnesotan, none of this is surprising. Just disappointing, as has been the trend with me gazing north for quite some time now.

Oh you know I'm spilling the beans! Maybe I'll bring an appointment confirmation, if that has any weight.

Sorry for the absence guys. This week is the interview for AOS (Thursday) which is super exciting but also Thursday is our first ultrasound. I'm a little over seven weeks pregnant and it is hitting me HARD But I have a feeling Thursday is going to be a great day. I only wish that the ultrasound was before the interview because how awesome would it be to bring those pics as evidence? It is what it is.

Four days apart, incredible! Congrats! What's the interview date? Never mind, busy week and I'm playing catchup lolol

Wonderful news, thanks for sharing and congratulations!

Oh my gosh, so sorry I missed this! We actually explored a couple microwedding companies in Vegas, trying to remember their names (edit: Elopement Las Vegas and Cactus Collective, I looked them up). They essentially work with popular venues including the strip hotels and fill in last minute time windows. So if you're not strict on the day of the week or time, you can get a gorgeous albeit brief ceremony somewhere like Bellagio. We wanted to livestream so the time was very important to us. Both companies were awesome and had a lot of great ideas, including these beautiful desert weddings. They provide all the add-ons like a live musician, a little cake, and connections to veteran photographers and videographers in the area to fill out a package for you. I would say on the more economical end you can probably get a package for around 1k, and that includes officiant/filing fees (though you have to get your own license downtown: Vegas charges $102 for that). Ultimately Jon and I were presented with a venue called GreenGale Farms by one of the companies. They're a farm/animal sanctuary in north Vegas with an olive grove I just fell in love with. Jon and I wanted to get married in nature so it seemed like kismet. When the company who worked with GGF said they couldn't get the date or time we wanted so far in advance (remember we were shopping after our NOA2 received in March, and this was for an October wedding), we reached out to the coordinator at the farm; turned out that we could skip the middleman because they would be able to work with us directly. This is why the companies are good for plans within 2-3 months. Anything longer, reach out to the venue. The major vendors we used were: GreenGale Farms, who provided the venue, coordinator, officiant (who was AMAZING even in meeting him moments before the wedding because he received notes from us through GGF), as well as photography as part of our package. Taylor Made Photography (Heather Taylor), who actually knew GGF and worked out a deal to be our assigned photographer, and we hired her for another hour session later in the evening before our little reception dinner Atomic Style Lounge, for hairstyling (we opted out of makeup and did our own) LoveStream, who produced a three-camera livestream and chat for our family and friends who wanted to tune in; my maid of honor's plus one thankfully was there as a point of contact for setup and camera work so the wedding party could focus on the wedding. Freed's Bakery, who made and delivered our cake direct to the restaurant where we had dinner Renta-Dress and Tux, where we picked up Jon's rental the day before the wedding because it was literally three blocks from the marriage license bureau. They also steamed my skirt for me and made it flawless We stayed at Park MGM and our mothers were next door at NYNY. My maid of honor was rather cheap and insisted on staying at Excalibur which is on the other side of NYNY, bless her heart. All expenses related to the wedding, including our airfare and hotel stay, came to just around 10k. As mentioned before I probably would've skipped the LoveStream service if I knew that interest would be so low. Even still, we're pretty proud of keeping the budget at about a third of the national average. The wedding industry is insanely brutal on pocketbooks. Thank you again for asking! Since someone mentioned wearing comfy shoes, I'm going to attach Jon's favorite pic from our big day. I love those shoes lol! (By the way, I edited all of our photos myself--not because our photographer didn't, but I've been an amateur photo editor for a while and have a certain aesthetic I enjoy so I did more )

Today's stats: June 19, 2025 11:37pm CDT October 2024 Filed I-485 Stats • Approved: 17,439 (+340) • Denied 1566 (+10) • Fingerprint Scheduled: 75 (0) • Interview Cancelled: 487 (-5) • Interview Scheduled: 5964 (-244) • Processing: 14,477 (-103) • Received: 386 (-1) • Rejected: 97 (0) • RFE: 570 (0) • Terminated: 203 (+1) • Withdrawal: 80 (+3) • Others: 7 (0) Percentage of cases approved: 42% Percentage of cases interview scheduled: 14%

Another crazy Tuesday at work but I'm back with a two day update: Today's stats: June 18, 2025 12:35pm CDT October 2024 Filed I-485 Stats • Approved: 17,099 (+222) • Denied 1556 (+8) • Fingerprint Scheduled: 75 (0) • Interview Cancelled: 492 (+18) • Interview Scheduled: 6208 (-185) • Processing: 14,580 (-49) • Received: 387 (-4) • Rejected: 97 (0) • RFE: 570 (-8) • Terminated: 202 (-1) • Withdrawal: 77 (0) • Others: 7 (-1) Percentage of cases approved: 41% Percentage of cases interview scheduled: 15%

Today's stats: June 16, 2025 10:04pm CDT October 2024 Filed I-485 Stats • Approved: 16,877 (+195) • Denied 1548 (+6) • Fingerprint Scheduled: 75 (-1) • Interview Cancelled: 474 (+9) • Interview Scheduled: 6393 (-150) • Processing: 14,629 (-62) • Received: 391 (-2) • Rejected: 97 (0) • RFE: 578 (-1) • Terminated: 203 (+3) • Withdrawal: 77 (+1) • Others: 8 (0) Percentage of cases approved: 41% Percentage of cases interview scheduled: 15%

Well fingers crossed to avoid that! Even still, it's a relief to have my initial fear of an expired medical assuaged. We will handle whatever else comes our way.

Today's stats: June 15, 2025 10:27pm CDT October 2024 Filed I-485 Stats • Approved: 16,682 (+220) • Denied 1542 (+9) • Fingerprint Scheduled: 76 (+1) • Interview Cancelled: 465 (+4) • Interview Scheduled: 6543 (-167) • Processing: 14,691 (-63) • Received: 393 (-2) • Rejected: 97 (0) • RFE: 579 (-5) • Terminated: 200 (+1) • Withdrawal: 76 (+3) • Others: 8 (0) Percentage of cases approved: 40% Percentage of cases interview scheduled: 16%