Two winter-weather-related stories caught my attention in late January and early February 2026, in the form of a paralyzing storm that shut down much of the US; and a beloved folk tradition come to life in a prognosticating rodent.
Asteroid Church, that is, though both stories chronicled below do involve actual physical structures used as houses of worship. Back-to-back displays on January 28th & 29th of asteroid Church, conjoined the manifestation-evoking Quasar at 8 Cancer, pumped up by Jupiter at 17 Cancer, ran the gamut from groundbreaking promotions to Constitution-threatening arrests, as Sarah Mullally was elevated to become the first female Archbishop of Canterbury, and journalist Don Lemon was indicted for reporting on an anti-ICE protest in a St. Paul, Minnesota church.
On Saturday, 24 January 2026, federal ICE agents shot and killed another US citizen in the snowy streets of Minneapolis. And the term ‘agents’ is correct – unlike the killing of Renee Good two weeks previously, where a single agent discharged his weapon, Alex Pretti, 37, was set upon, wrestled to the ground, pepper-sprayed and shot by at least six ICE officers. Pretti, an ICU nurse at a VA hospital, had attempted to help up a woman who had been shoved to the pavement by the same agents; his last words, addressed to her, were “Are you OK?”
It’s another catch-up edition of Cosmic Grab Bag, where AAA delves into previously skipped stories, to set the celestial record straight! This issue is all about protest and insanity, with a successful, bloodless revolution in Bulgaria, and an ongoing, bloody protest in Iran; and two Trumpian moments of note.
It was bound to happen, sooner or later. With tensions high, and ill-trained (1), heavily armed, masked ICE agents roaming the country, someone was going to get hurt. That someone was Renee Good of Minneapolis, MN, an American citizen who lost her life on January 7th when an ICE agent shot her in the face three times at point-blank range, as she was attempting to move her vehicle, which she had positioned to partially block the street.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has come under scrutiny for his orders relating to the recent attacks on supposed Venezuelan drug-smuggling ships in the Caribbean, even suffering friendly fire from Republicans. Reportedly, at the first such attack on September 2, 2025, Hegseth gave the order to “Kill them all,” leading to a “double tap,” a second bombardment of the already destroyed vessel, when survivors were seen clinging to the wreckage in the aftermath.
