Saving Anuri

Democratic Conservation Alliance - There are less than 900 Arctic polar bears left. And every day their habitat is shrinking, food becomes more scarce, and their chance of survival diminishes. Donald Trump has now put the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge - home to the majority of the remaining polar bear population – up for sale. Now, Big Oil is about to move into the only safe place bears like Anuri call home, with full permission to poison their food and even crush their dens under drills and thumper trucks.

Iran threatens ‘complete halt’ to talks with US

The Hill - Iran on Sunday launched retaliatory strikes on Kuwait and Bahrain as it threatens to enforce a “complete halt” to all negotiations that would end the conflict with the U.S. Kuwait’s military said it detected and intercepted Iranian drones and two ballistic missiles. Strikes in Bahrain destroyed the top floor of an 8-story building near the airport, according to the country’s Interior Ministry. No deaths were reported. Bahrain’s Foreign Ministry called the attack “a dangerous escalation that reveals that what Tehran is doing is not a passing act, nor an isolated incident, but rather a deliberate approach and a systemic pattern of repeated aggression.”

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claimed responsibility for the Gulf state attacks and accused the U.S. of violating the ceasefire agreed to in the recently signed memorandum of understanding (MOU) between both countries. The IRGC stated that any more U.S. strikes “will result in the complete halt of all diplomatic processes

Donald Trump

Heather Cox Richardson - Observers are noting that the reflecting pool fiasco, in which Trump created the idea there was an emergency, ignored experts, bypassed normal procedures to give a wildly inflated contract to a crony, bragged about his success, ignored the problems, claimed his enemies had sabotaged him, and finally stationed troops around the landmark he had turned into a swamp, represents the Trump administration perfectly.

But a report by Michael Scherer of The Atlantic about Trump’s remodeling of the West Colonnade is perhaps an even better representation of the Trump presidency. In March, Trump tore up the light brown Tennessee flagstone that paved the walkway in the West Colonnade that connects the White House residence to the Oval Office and replaced it with polished black African granite carved in Italy. When a reporter asked Trump who was paying for the remodeling, Trump answered: “Paid for by me.”

But, as Scherer discovered, that was a lie. He examined National Park Service budget documents showing that the walkway replacement cost taxpayers $689,232, all part of a $1.3 million project that includes new hardware for nearby doors. Last year, Scherer reports, the National Park Service spent $347,503 to replace the stucco on the colonnade wall so Trump could hang pictures of the U.S. presidents alongside plaques featuring his own opinions of them. Documents say the project was a “Rush project at request of POTUS.”

Scherer explains that Trump has redirected taxpayer money from national parks around the country to his own projects, leaving the parks unable to make needed repairs or hire staff. Expected funding for more than 900 Park Service projects never arrived—including $424,000 to replace a guardrail on the edge of a cliff in Colorado’s Gunnison National Park that National Park Service employees identified as “a significant safety hazard for visitors.” For some parks, nearly 70% of approved funds have been pulled back.

Trump has also pulled National Park Service staff to Washington, D.C., for his Freedom 250 events, a crisis because the Park Service has lost almost a quarter of its staff since he took office. In his 2027 budget, Trump calls for cutting staff by another 3,967 full-time employees, or 31%.

That budget also asked for another $10 billion to beautify Washington, a sum that Scherer notes is nearly eight times as large as all the money spent on National Park Service projects in 2025. The Senate Appropriations Committee stripped that request out of its marked-up version of the president’s budget.

 

Meanwhile. . .

Time - California billionaires will appear on the state’s ballot this fall after Gov. Gavin Newsom failed to reach a deal with the union backing the measure. Supporters say the tax would help fund health care, education, and food assistance, while Newsom and other opponents argue it could drive wealthy residents out of the state.

NPR - The U.S. was once the leading force in the world's research engine, but it is now losing ground to China. The country may be taking the dominant role due to significant investments and a disruptive year for American universities under the Trump administration. This year, Harvard University lost its top position in a global ranking measuring academic output to a Chinese university. In fact, seven out of the top 10 institutions on the list, compiled by Leiden University in the Netherlands, are located in China. 

The Congressional Insider- A stubborn Boyle Heights cold storage warehouse fire has burned for nearly a week, sending smoke across much of Los Angeles and forcing repeated shelter in place orders and air quality warnings. Mayor Karen Bass and Governor Gavin Newsom declared emergencies to unlock state resources, even as officials admit the exact cause of the blaze remains undetermined and walls inside the facility are unstable. Firefighters have battled flames fueled by roof top solar panels, foam insulation, an ammonia leak, and possible lithium ion batteries, while 85 million pounds of spoiling food now pose a major biohazard and cleanup challenge.

Earthquakes

Time - Two powerful earthquakes struck Venezuela this week, killing at least 1,400, injuring thousands, and leaving tens of thousands of people unaccounted for. Humanitarian groups are mobilizing emergency relief as rescue teams search collapsed buildings and officials warn the toll is likely to rise. e. 

Intecept files suit gainst ICE, CBP and Homeland Security depoartment

The Intercept -  The Intercept has filed suit against ICE, CBP, and the Department of Homeland Security to force them to release any documents related to a secretive database of activists.  News reports and social media posts suggest that ICE and CBP agents have been building a database of lawful protesters - using photos, video, license plates, and even hotel check-in information. One masked agent told a protester he was recording her "because we have a nice little database, and now you're considered a domestic terrorist."

We've been requesting agency records for months - and under the Freedom of Information Act, these agencies are supposed to respond within 20 business days. But Donald Trump's DHS is flouting FOIA and hasn't produced anything. So we're taking them to court.

Our lawsuit, filed with the support of Democracy Forward, could not be more urgent…Our counsel from Democracy Forward filed suit in the Southern District of New York on Wednesday to force the government to release records ...

Missing Congessman shows up at home

NY Times  - Representative Thomas Kean Jr., who has been missing from Washington for nearly four months with little explanation, is back home in New Jersey.  He could be seen from the street on Wednesday evening, standing in a brightly lit front room of his Westfield home just before 8:45 p.m

 “It’s good to see you,” he said after a reporter for The New York Times rang his doorbell. He was wearing a dark suit and a red tie. “I’ll talk to you next week,” he said. “Thank you.”  Mr. Kean’s wife, Rhonda, stood in the background, smiling pleasantly. He declined additional comment and closed the door.

 Aides had said that Mr. Kean, 57, was being treated for a health condition and was expected to fully recover, but had offered no additional details as their boss missed more than 100 floor votes since the middle of March.

 Mr. Kean, a Republican, is running for a third term in November in one of the country’s most competitive midterm races. His absence from the campaign trail, though, had left even some of his biggest Republican boosters frustrated. A spokesman for Mr. Kean, Harrison Neely, said last week that the congressman was expected to return to Washington on June 30. He declined to say how long Mr. Kean had been home or to offer any additional details about the congressman’s long absence.

Trump regime messing with government websites

The Guardian -   An opaque White House office staffed largely by veterans of Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency” (Doge) has quietly rebuilt some of the federal government’s most sensitive websites – for passport applications, voter registration, prescription-drug pricing and children’s savings – in ways critics say appear to violate federal law.  The National Design Studio (NDS) was established by a Donald Trump executive order last August, and is led by Trump-aligned Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia and staffed by Doge veterans.

A Guardian investigation has found the office has apparently been developing or redeveloping sensitive federal websites, including those connecting Americans with prescription drugs, children’s savings accounts, passports and voter registration. The investigation corroborates and advances earlier reporting by the Drey Dossier, a YouTube investigative outlet.

The NDS built and now operates four public federal websites: ndstudio.gov, trumprx.gov, realfood.gov and trumpaccounts.gov. All four ran commercial visitor-tracking software, configured to evade the privacy tools many web users install, and none carry the public filings federal privacy law requires under laws including the Privacy Act of 1974 and the E-Government Act of 2002.

Federal Judge rejects Trump's assault on voting

ABC News

 - A federal judge has permanently blocked the Trump administration from enforcing an executive order signed last year that required proof of citizenship to register to vote and demanded mail-in ballots be received by Election Day.

Healthcare

The Hill - About four million Americans have dropped out of Affordable Care Act insurance coverage this year as costs soared due to the loss of enhanced subsidies. The figures released late Friday from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services offer the most complete look to date at what happened to enrollment after Republicans in Congress failed to extend enhanced ACA subsidies at the end of last year.

The loss of those subsidies spiked many people's premiums by double digits; the new coverage numbers likely reflect the sticker shock Americans experienced.  nable to pay, they dropped their coverage. 

The report from the health and human services assistant secretary for planning and evaluation said that an estimated 19.2 million people are enrolled in ACA plans as of February.

…..That's a drop of more than 16 percent from the 23 million people who signed up for coverage at the end of open enrollment, which itself was about 1 million fewer than last year.

Environment

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled that air pollution limits tightened by the Environmental Protection Agency under President Joe Biden should remain in force, thwarting efforts by the Trump administration, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other groups to vacate that standard and return to a previous one.

Polls

Pew Reseach  - Across 36 countries surveyed this spring, a median of 76% of adults say they lack confidence in President Donald Trump to do the right thing regarding world affairs. Overall ratings for the U.S. are also largely negative. And the share of people who see the U.S. as a reliable partner is down in many countries since 2022, by anywhere from 17 to 52 percentage points.

Over 5 million Texas kids to be taught Christianity in public schools

MS NOW -  Texas State Board of Education on Friday approved a new required reading list for more than 5 million K-12 public schools that includes stories from the Bible.

The list will affect every grade level. Elementary students will be required to read picture-book versions of “David and Goliath” and “Daniel and the Lion’s Den.” Middle school students must read passages from the Sermon on the Mount from the Bible’s New Testament, while high schoolers must read about Adam and Eve and the parable of the prodigal son.

The changes will impact 5.5 million public school students in the religiously diverse state, according to enrollment data for the 2024-25 school year.

The reading list, which received preliminary approval in April, drew criticism from parents and educators who decried the infusion of religion in public school curriculum. Critics of the list, including religious freedom groups and other faith groups, argued it centers Christianity in public school instruction, raising concerns about the separation of church and state enshrined in the Constitution.

The required list will take effect in 2030.

Trump regime

NY Times - The Trump administration is conducting a far-reaching investigation into whether Yale University’s admissions practices violate anti-discrimination laws, prompting one of the country’s most elite schools to pursue settlement talks with the government, according to three people briefed on the matter.

The Justice Department last month accused Yale’s medical school of giving illegal preferential treatment to Black and Hispanic applicants. But the department’s review is reaching beyond the medical school, the people said, encompassing undergraduate and law school admissions as well.

The expansive inquiry demonstrates the aggressive approach the Trump administration is taking to enforce its interpretation of the Supreme Court ruling that effectively banned race-conscious admissions three years ago. It shows the administration’s intensifying focus on admissions and represents a new front against Yale, which has largely been spared in the White House’s effort to punish elite colleges and reshape academia.

Yale’s quick moves to try to reach an agreement with the government suggest it does not want a high-profile, drawn-out fight similar to the one involving Harvard University. The status of a potential agreement was unclear on Friday, but Yale recently offered a proposal to the government, according to the three people briefed on the matter. The people, who have ties to the Trump administration or to Yale, spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks.

Health

Hartmann Report -  Senate Democrats noticed that traditional Medicare is the only insurance in America with no limit on what it can cost you, and decided to do something about it. Sen. Ron Wyden and 14 co-sponsors introduced legislation Thursday — the Medicare Cost Cap Act — to put a $5,000 annual ceiling on out-of-pocket spending for seniors in traditional Medicare. Right now, beneficiaries owe 20% of their medical bills with no upper bound, which means a cancer diagnosis or a long hospital stay can run into tens of thousands of dollars; that terror is precisely why 43% of enrollees shell out for separate Medigap policies whose premiums keep climbing each year. (As I document in shocking detail in The Hidden History of American Healthcare, that 20% hole was put in there by Southern conservatives to keep Black people from using the system.) Every other corner of the insurance world — employer plans, the ACA — already has a cap. Wyden framed the coming fight as Democrats trying to give Medicare patients “a fair shake” while the other side runs interference for billionaires, and Protect Our Care hailed it as a direct answer to the Trump-era affordability crisis. Yes, it would cost the Treasury real money — perhaps $50 billion a year — and yes, the bill is a long shot in this GOP-run Congress. But that’s the whole point: it draws the line in bright paint heading into November. Following Reagan’s old “Two Santas” strategy, a Republican-run government that found trillions for billionaire tax cuts suddenly developed a “steely concern for the deficit” the moment a middle class grandmother with cancer might benefit. That reflex, too, is a 45-year-old GOP inheritance…

Oil nearing pre-war prices, gas stations leaving charges up

The Hill -  Oil is nearing its prewar price after the U.S. and Iran agreed to a memorandum of understanding (MOU) intended to end the conflict, but gasoline prices remain significantly elevated.  While President Trump has blamed Big Oil for price “gouging,” analysts say it’s individual gas station owners that are slow to lower fuel prices.

“The public is mad at the major oil companies because gasoline prices have not fallen as fast as the price of crude oil. … Their anger is misplaced,” Andy Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates, said in an email to The Hill. “The oil companies own less than 5% of the service stations but their brands are sold at most of them. They should be mad at the local gasoline service station owner. They are making lots of money,” he said.

Trump threatens Europe with possible 100% import tarrifs

The Guardian -  Donald Trump has threatened to place a 100% import tariff on any European country that imposes a tax on digital services from US companies.  Writing on Truth Social on Friday, the US president said that “numerous European countries” had been discussing putting a digital services tax on American companies and that “some of these countries are close to actually doing this”.

“Please let this statement serve to represent that any country that imposes such a tax will immediately be met with a 100% TARIFF on any and all Goods sent to the United States of America,” Trump continued. He added that the tariff would be immediately imposed and supersede any other prior trade deals that existed with the country.

The threat could set off another saga in Trump’s global trade war, in which he has placed drastic tariffs on countries and economic blocs at once. If Trump followed through on his warning, it could set off a larger trade war between the US and EU if the 27-country economic bloc felt compelled to retaliate to the tariff hike.

Effect of miscounting the Census

Project on Government Oversight -   In this report, POGO examines how census accuracy impacts critical federal funding for children aged 0–18 and the services needed to support a wide range of areas that shape their lives, including health, education, housing, economic development, and more.

Many people may not realize how influential the census is in determining how much federal money gets allocated to different geographic regions across the country. Census-guided programs serving children deliver funds either directly to communities or to state agencies. The census influences funding distribution in myriad ways: Depending on the program, it may use census data such as location, population, household income, age, school districts, and school enrollment to determine state eligibility and distribution.

The deficit or surplus of federal funding a state may receive stemming from inaccurate counts can directly impact children’s educational and economic outcomes and more. An undercount could mean fewer dollars, thereby fewer resources. An overcount could result in a state receiving more federal funds than its population warrants; for programs with fixed appropriations, this may proportionately reduce the share available to other states.

The U.S. Census Bureau released an analysis documenting the undercount of children aged 0–4 in the 2020 census: This age group was undercounted more than any other demographic, with approximately 1 million of the young children going uncounted in the 2020 census. They acknowledged that children have historically been miscounted, potentially leading certain states to lose out on significant funding and critical resources for them.

Donald Trump

Axios - In a blistering speech to religious conservatives yesterday, Trump warned that "communists" are taking over the Democratic Party and "they want to completely destroy the traditional American way of life."....Trump spent much of his speech to the coalition's annual "Road to Majority" conference railing against the far-left victories.

• He joked that he'd be the "greatest communist in history" — by giving everyone free rent, free food, free everything. "The problem is, after two or three years, the country is a disaster area," Trump said.
• "The Democrat Party is in big trouble, because this isn't stopping with New York," he went on.  Share this story

Middle East

The Hill -   Iran launched a drone attack against Bahrain early Saturday, hours after the U.S. military carried out strikes on Iranian military sites. Bahrain, which hosts the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet, said it was attacked by a number of Iranian drones and condemned the latest strikes as a blatant violation of its sovereignty. It accused Tehran of “destabilizing security, exporting chaos and undermining regional stability.”

There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties in the Gulf state. Hours later, a shipping monitor run by the British Navy — the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center — said a vessel in the Strait of Hormuz was struck by an unidentified projectile. The ship’s bridge was damaged, but no injuries were reported.

The attack appears to be in retaliation to the U.S. Central Command operation on Friday, which zeroed in on Iranian missile and drone storage sites and coastal radar locations. The strike was a response to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Thursday attack on a Singapore-flagged container ship, Ever Lovely, near the coast of Oman as it was exiting the Strait of Hormuz.

President Trump, in justifying the operation, said Iran had “foolishly” violated its ceasefire agreement.

Polls

Time - President Donald Trump and his allies have touted the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran as a victory, but recent polls suggest that Americans are skeptical that the U.S. is in a better position as a result. Just 24% of Americans think that the war with Iran was worth the costs, according to the latest poll from Reuters/Ipsos. Half of the respondents to the poll said the conflict was not worth it. 

The Greatest Moments in American History

Gavin Newsom

Gavin Newsom - When 10% of the people in this country own two-thirds of the wealth, when we have minted the first trillionaire in human history, and yet your wages have stagnated, and your healthcare costs have skyrocketed, something is fundamentally broken.  It's time for a national billionaires’ tax and a new social compact.

So where do we go from here?

A national billionaires’ tax. A true minimum tax on billionaires — a modern Buffett Rule — that ensures the people at the very top pay at least the tax rate their own workers pay.

End the “tax-free lifestyle loan.” It's the gimmick that lets the ultra-wealthy borrow against their stock portfolios while reporting no taxable income, and then pass the appreciated assets to their children with the gains untaxed.

Rewrite our inheritance rules. If we do not act, that transfer of wealth among the ultra-wealthy will lock in a permanent American aristocracy of inherited wealth, with all the political consequences the founders warned us about.

Return to pre-2017 corporate tax rates. Record corporate profits flowed into stock buybacks and executive compensation. Workers’ real wages stagnated, and vibrant middle-class communities were hollowed out.

Ensure every American owns a stake in the future being built by AI through a national public equity fund. It’s clear that we are entering an entirely new economic paradigm. Automation could create unfathomable growth, but who benefits from that wealth? We need to ensure every American owns a stake in the future being built by AI through a national public equity fund that takes a major stake in the new economy.

We are nearing the 250th anniversary of this country’s revolution. The system America’s founders built was designed to prevent the concentration of power in a few hands, but we have allowed that concentration to happen anyway, slowly, in plain sight, over decades. We can reverse it together, as a country.

Immigration

Washington Post -    Immigrants began making plans to sell or rent their homes, secure bank accounts and figure out thorny issues like child custody arrangements. Business owners started calculating how many days they can continue to employ workers whose legal status is set to expire. And nursing home leaders warned they would have fewer beds to offer if health aides are forced to leave the country.

Panic rippled through communities from Florida to Ohio and beyond in the hours after the Supreme Court cleared the Trump administration Thursday to strip humanitarian protections from Haitians and Syrians — and potentially all 1.3 million immigrants from over a dozen countries who had been previously shielded from deportation.

“The residents will be losing caregivers that they really have become attached to,” said Colin O’Leary, executive director at Laurel Ridge Rehabilitation & Skilled Care Center in Boston. Managers at the facility were racing to figure out how much longer staff members from Haiti with temporary protected status could continue taking care of patients. “That’s a lot for our residents to handle.”

Attorneys said Haitians and Syrians could lose work permits in little more than a month, but the deadline remained unclear because lower court judges must issue orders to implement the decision. Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff, told reporters Thursday that Haitians and others with temporary protected status should be detained and deported once they lose the benefit.

Wikipedia co-founder permanently banned from site

The Free Press - Twenty-five years ago, Larry Sanger co-founded what is arguably the most important encyclopedia in human history. Wikipedia, which now has millions of entries on every topic imaginable, was designed to be a hub of free and unfettered knowledge, built by and open to the public.

So why was Sanger, earlier this week, permanently banned from the site he helped found?  He tells that story for us today. It’s one that starts back in 2001, with the admirable, game-changing goal of democratizing information. But after Sanger left the project in 2002, he “watched in dismay as the site I’d created began to drift from its founding mission.”

Ideological bias took hold; pages were whitewashed; left-leaning outlets came to dominate sourcing; and a small group of administrators grew “beholden more to each other than to any constitutional framework.”

Last week, Sanger launched an effort to reform Wikipedia from within—only to be met with a coordinated effort to ridicule, discredit, and undermine it, culminating in a lifetime ban on Monday. “I knew Wikipedia’s disciplinary processes were bad—but I had never experienced them myself,” he writes.

John Bolton pleads guilty

Headline USA -   Former Trump administration national security adviser John Bolton pleaded guilty on Friday to illegally retaining classified information, sealing a deal with federal prosecutors that could allow him to avoid a prison term.

Bolton is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 28 by U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang in Greenbelt, Maryland.

Bolton, 77, pleaded guilty to a single count of illegally retaining national defense information, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years. His plea agreement with the Justice Department may enable him to avoid time behind bars, but the judge ultimately will decide his punishment.

Mail-In Voting

Bowers News Media -   Yesterday, in response to a lawsuit brought by a group of Democratic states, a federal district court judge blocked Donald Trump's most recent executive order on mail-in voting. This is the executive order from March 31, 2026, that would require states to submit their lists of approved mail-in voters to the United States Postal Service (USPS) in order for the USPS to deliver mail-in ballots to those states.

While is an important win, the fight is far from over. Not only is the Trump administration expected to appeal this ruling, but four weeks ago a different federal district court judge allowed the mail-in executive order to stand. Democrats are and civil rights organizations are appealing that ruling.

....Whether or not states will have to submit an approved list of mail-in voters to United States Postal Service in order to conduct mail-in voting this year will be determined in the courts. On the one side will be the Trump administration, and on the other side will be, primarily, Democratic elected officials like state attorneys general and secretaries of state.

Middle East

The Hill -   Iran on Friday asserted its authority over the Strait of Hormuz, warning that safe passage can only be guaranteed for ships that coordinate with Tehran.  The statement comes after President Trump accused Iran of hitting a commercial vessel sailing close to the coast of Oman with a one-way attack drone. The British military said the vessel was transiting through a United Nations-approved route. 

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi posted on the social platform X that passage through the strait must be coordinated with Iran and that attempts to subvert Tehran could lead to “the suspension of the designated parallel route.”  “Safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz, with ambiguous arrangements, parallel routes, or decision-making outside of Iran’s considerations as the coastal state, cannot be guaranteed,” he said.