Zion Mitchell, a Georgia National Guardsman from Macon, Georgia, faces felony firearms-related charges, per DC Superior Court records reviewed by the author. 

According to a complaint filed by US Assistant Attorney Kathleen Kern on September 1, 2026, Mitchell’s arrest arose out of an incident that occurred on August 25 outside the Popeye’s restaurant located at 1226 H Street NE. On that date, Mitchell was part of a six-person Georgia National Guard element in a van parked on the street adjacent to the restaurant. The affidavit of Metropolitan Police Detective Jacob Krycia contains the following summary of the incident:

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Number 30 in our series of occasional roundups on election law and policy:

• Feds intent on meddling: Laramie County Clerk Debra Lee, a Republican, “said the [Department of Justice] monitors’ questions were ‘outside the scope of federal voting rights laws.’ She added that they ‘requested training guides, asked how our new election equipment was acquired, and wanted to examine our tabulators.’” [Adam Edelman, NBC News] 
• “Currently, not a single state meets the restrictive ID criteria in the bill, though Ohio comes close.” A state-by-state survey of the costs, hassles, and burdens on administrators and voters had the Save America Act somehow passed Congress this year. [Institute for Responsive Government] 
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For more than a year, Cato scholars have warned that the Trump administration is turning the federal government into a shareholder in favored companies. Its new oil agreement with Venezuela adds the 32nd entry to Uncle Sam’s rapidly expanding portfolio (table at the bottom): a 35 percent stake in the parent of North American Blue Energy Partners (NABEP), a privately held oil producer controlled by politically connected Venezuelan businessman Alejandro Betancourt. The deal offers the clearest example yet of government by opaque dealmaking and press releases. 

According to the White House, Venezuelan authorities gave NABEP 100-year concessions to 17 oil fields containing an estimated 65 billion barrels. The Pentagon’s Office of Strategic Capital (OSC) gets the 35 percent stake, while the State Department has the right to buy 20 percent of production at cost and first crack at the remaining 80 percent. The agreement also requires US citizens to hold a majority of board seats and gives Washington veto power over every appointment.

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The Jones Act is a de facto tax on Americans trading with one another. By requiring domestic waterborne commerce to use vessels that cost far more to build and operate than their international counterparts, the law raises shipping costs. That’s a real burden given the significance of transportation in a country as vast as the United States and helps explain why relatively little freight moves by water.

Conversely, economic logic holds that lowering these costs will expand commerce, which is exactly what has happened since the Trump administration issued a Jones Act waiver for energy and fertilizer shipments in March. Freed from the law’s constraints, domestic fuel shipments have surged to unprecedented levels.

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In most areas of life, when something isn’t working, we look for a better option. In K–12 education, though, children are assigned to public schools based on where they live—and if that school isn’t a good fit, the child is generally seen as the problem. School choice is changing that by expanding access to alternative learning environments. But educational freedom changes lives only if parents and teachers know what options exist, which is why Cato’s Friday Feature highlights the schools, policies, and organizations bringing those choices within reach.

The rapid expansion of school choice policies, such as vouchers, education savings accounts, and tax credit programs, has given families across the income spectrum increased access to learning options. But it has also highlighted an important fact: tuition funding is only one piece of the puzzle. Families will only use school choice scholarships if they have a good place to use them. 

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Pro-natalists believe that falling birthrates are priming countries for economic collapse. This view is probably wrong, but in any case, the obvious response is expanded immigration. 

Using data from 38 OECD countries, new research finds that 

growth in native-born populations has slowed substantially, while immigration has increased significantly. … [This] immigration has been associated with stronger economic performance.

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