News

News

March 18, 2026

US to Sell Alaska Oil, Gas Leases for 1st Time Since 2019

Wednesday, the U.S. government  will hold a sale of oil and gas drilling rights in Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve for the first time since 2019, the latest test of the industry’s appetite for acreage in the state.

The Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management is offering 600 tracts covering 5.5 million acres (2.2 million hectares) to oil and gas companies.

The bids will be opened and read via a livestream on the BLM’s website at 10 a.m. Alaska time (1900 GMT).

The sale is the first of at least five mandated by President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which he signed into law last year.

His administration has sought to expand domestic oil and gas production and reverse Biden-era restrictions on drilling in the Alaska reserve.

The NPR-A, as the 23-million-acre reserve is known, was designated for oil and gas exploration in the 1970s to address energy shortages.

The last NPR-A lease sale, in 2019, attracted $11.3 million in bids on 1.05 million acres.

The Fake Cop, the Failed Campaign, and the End of Jasmine Crockett

Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) paid a wanted federal fugitive to be her personal bodyguard during her Senate campaign and while serving in Congress. The fugitive used a fake name, drove a replica police car with stolen plates, and told real cops he was a Capitol Police detective. He was shot dead by Dallas SWAT on Wednesday in a children’s hospital parking garage.

The man’s real name was Diamon-Mazairre Robinson, 39 years old, though everybody in Crockett’s orbit knew him as “Mike King.” Robinson wasn’t just faking his name. He was running a company called “Off Duty Police Services” that placed real North Texas law enforcement officers in off-duty security gigs — while himself being a fake cop wanted by federal authorities.

Robinson had seven theft arrests between 2009 and 2012 in Dallas, Duncanville, and Irving. He pleaded guilty to all of them. Somewhere along the way, Diamon-Mazairre Robinson died on paper and “Mike King” was born — a Capitol Police “detective” with a replica unmarked cruiser, license plates lifted from cars outside a military recruiting office, and a client list that included a sitting member of the United States Congress.

CBS News Texas got their hands on payment records showing “Mike King” received payments from Crockett for “security services.” One payment: $340. For a guy whose real resume includes “convicted felon” and “impersonating federal law enforcement.”

The whole con unraveled Wednesday night when Dallas PD’s fugitive unit caught up with Robinson at a children’s hospital parking garage. He barricaded himself in a vehicle. SWAT hit him with tear gas. He crawled out and pointed a gun at officers. They put him down. No officers were injured.

Crockett’s office response? They’re “waiting for more information before answering questions.” Sure. A guy who has been at your side for over a year — at rallies, in the halls of Congress, during a statewide Senate campaign — and you need more time to process the fact that he was a wanted fugitive using a stolen identity.

Crockett just lost her Senate primary to James Talarico, 53% to 45%, on March 3rd. Ten days later, her bodyguard is dead in a SWAT standoff. She’s now a lame-duck Congresswoman sitting on a pile of unanswered questions about how a seven-time convicted felon with a fake name ended up on her security detail — and she can’t even hide behind the campaign anymore because the campaign is over.

Remember Cori Bush? She hired her husband as her security guard, paid him $105,000 in campaign funds, and the DOJ opened an investigation. Bush lost her primary and her husband just got indicted for wire fraud. That’s the pattern when congressional security spending starts getting pulled apart — the thread never stops unraveling.

Crockett dropped nearly $80,000 on security in 2025 alone. That money went somewhere, and “Mike King” was on the receiving end of at least some of it. The FEC filings are public. Reporters are already pulling them. And unlike Cori Bush, Crockett doesn’t even have the excuse that she knowingly hired a family member — she apparently hired a total stranger without running a background check and that stranger turned out to be a federally wanted fugitive.

You don’t keep a guy on your security detail through a Senate campaign for pocket change. And when those numbers come out, the questions get a lot harder to dodge than “we’re waiting for more information.”

Robinson was also using his fake cop gig to promote security placements for the upcoming FIFA World Cup games in DFW. A wanted fugitive impersonating police, placing real officers in off-duty security jobs at one of the biggest sporting events on the planet. The federal investigation that caught up with him this week may have saved Dallas from an international security fiasco.

Crockett’s former staffers already described her as a “boss from hell” who screams at aides until they cry, rarely shows up to work, and compares herself to Beyonce when criticized. Now her personal bodyguard turned out to be a fictional character. Her political career cratered in a primary. And her office can’t even muster a real statement.

Israel: Iran Intelligence Chief Esmail Khatib Killed

Israel’s defense minister said Wednesday that the military killed Iranian Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib.

Khatib’s killing follows Israel killing top Iranian security official Ali Larijani and the head of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard’s all-volunteer Basij force.

Also on Wednesday, Iran launched strikes toward Israel and neighboring Gulf countries, with explosions heard in the United Arab Emirates and Qatar and interceptions reported in Saudi Arabia.

The attacks came hours after Iranian state media confirmed Israel’s military killed top Iranian security official Ali Larijani in an overnight strike, as well as Gen. Gholam Reza Soleimani, the head of the Revolutionary Guard’s Basij force, known for its role in suppressing protests.

An Israeli airstrike struck an apartment building in Bachoura, central Beirut, completely flattening it as day broke.

Two earlier strikes on residential apartments in other central Beirut neighborhoods early Wednesday killed at least six people and wounded 24 others, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.

Israeli strikes targeting central Beirut have become increasingly frequent in recent days, with or without prior warning. The attacks have hit far from the city’s southern suburbs, for which the army issued evacuation notices early in the war with Hezbollah.

The U.S.-Israeli war with Iran has killed at least 1,300 people in Iran, more than 900 in Lebanon and 14 in Israel, according to officials in those countries. The U.S. military says 13 U.S. service members have been killed and about 200 wounded.

Israeli operations continued across multiple fronts on Wednesday, with the military saying it struck branches of al-Qard al-Hasan, a Hezbollah-linked financial network it accuses of funding militant activities.

Additional airstrikes hit several neighborhoods in central Beirut overnight, killing at least 10 people, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry, while Israel said its navy also targeted Hezbollah militants in the city.

Russia condemned Israel’s killing of senior Iranian officials, while its state nuclear agency said a Russian-built nuclear facility in Iran had come under attack but was not damaged.

Iran reported strikes on civilian and judicial sites and announced the execution of a man accused of spying for Israel.

On the ground in Lebanon, residents described growing fear as Israeli strikes increasingly hit central Beirut, shattering any sense of safe areas.

 

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