These larger gains are also reflected in narrower racial wealth gaps. Among nonunion households, Black families hold 20 percent of the wealth of white nonunion households, a share that nearly doubles to 36 percent among union households. For Hispanic households, this share climbs from 20 percent to 53 percent with union membership, and for families of other racial backgrounds it increases from 45 percent to 52 percent. Although gaps remain between white households and those of color, reflecting systematic racial biases in the economy, these wealth trends suggest that union membership is associated with a reduction in racial wealth disparities.
June 24, 2026
Union membership lessens the ethnic wealth gap
American Progress - Families of color experience the largest proportional gains in wealth when a union member is present, even though overall wealth remains lower than for white households. White union households have about 1.8 times the wealth of their nonunion counterparts, while the proportional differences are larger for other groups, particularly Hispanic and Black households who hold 4.6 and 3.2 times the wealth of their nonunion counterparts, respectively. Union households of other racial backgrounds hold 2.0 times the wealth of their nonunion counterparts, and similar to white families, union Asian households hold 1.8 times the wealth of their nonunion counterparts.
Death sentence without evidence
Deep State Tribunal - United States Supreme Court justices denied the appeal of Texas inmate Charles Flores on June 15, 2026, without a written explanation. Flores sits on death row for a 1999 murder that even supporters of the death penalty now question because the key eyewitness was hypnotized by police. Flores’ lawyers asked the Court to apply Texas’ own “junk science” protections and modern research on memory, but the justices refused to review those claims. For many conservatives, that looks like the system protecting itself instead of seeking truth.
The most troubling detail is simple: there is no physical evidence tying Flores to the crime scene. No fingerprints, no DNA, no gun, no fibers, and no footprints link him to the house where a woman was shot and killed. The State relied mainly on one neighbor, Jill Bargainer, who saw two men in a car outside before the killing. She became the key witness after police used hypnosis to “refresh” her memory. Modern science warns that this kind of hypnosis can warp memory instead of fixing it, especially when done by untrained officers.
Housing
The Hill - President Trump cancelled the signing of a bipartisan housing bill on Wednesday, saying he would not sign the legislation until the Senate passes the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE America) Act.
“Today’s Housing News Conference and Signing is hereby cancelled until such time as we pass the desperately needed SAVE AMERICA ACT, which I consider to be a National Emergency,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.
The development underscores the tension between Trump and Senate Republicans on the SAVE America Act. Trump has pressured Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-N.D.) to abolish the filibuster in an effort to pass the legislation, something Thune has so far refused to do.
Congress last night passed the largest housing bill in decades. The 21st Century Road to Housing Act passed in the House 358 to 32. The Senate approved it on Monday with similar overwhelming bipartisan support. The measure now heads to Trump's desk for his signature. The bill seeks to address the U.S.'s lack of sufficient housing to meet demand. Realtor.com estimated that last year, the U.S. was short by more than 4 million housing units.
Tenants and lawsuits in multiple states call many of these fees inflated, illegal, predatory or overwhelming. “A fee for this, a fee for that was just crazy to me,” Nichole Collins, a former tenant at a Greystar-managed building in Colorado, said. “I had never experienced that before.”
Long lists of fees are common at buildings operated by Greystar, a private-equity backed conglomerate that owns or manages more than 1 million apartments across the US. According to tenants, housing attorneys, public officials and court claims, this tangle of extra charges fattens the company’s bottom line, increases renters’ risks of eviction and undermines fair competition in the apartment market by muddying the real price they pay for shelter.
NYC Primary
Free Press - Whether you hate it or love it, New York still sets the trends that America follows. That’s why the results of Tuesday’s primaries are national news. In a trio of House races in America’s biggest city, left-wing candidates backed by Zohran Mamdani and Bernie Sanders came out on top.
Brad Lander, Claire Valdez, and Darializa Avila Chevalier all won primary challenges against incumbent representatives, promising to tax the rich and spread the spoils among the masses.
Guns
Deep State Tribunal - A Florida appeals court just ruled that banning 18-to-20-year-olds from carrying concealed firearms is unconstitutional — and it could be the crack that breaks open the entire post-Parkland gun law.
Florida’s Fourth District Court of Appeals struck down the state’s concealed carry ban for adults aged 18 to 20, ruling it violates the Second Amendment. The court found no founding-era historical tradition that supports banning this age group from carrying firearms — a key test under the Supreme Court’s Bruen ruling. Florida’s own Attorney General sided against the state’s 2018 gun law, urging the U.S. Supreme Court to strike it down entirely. A growing split among federal courts over gun rights for 18-to-20-year-olds makes Supreme Court review increasingly likely.
Polls
The Contrarian - A recent PRRI survey of over 5,400 Americans confirms that they are deeply attached to democracy. An impressive 68 percent think that “we are in real danger of losing important democratic rights and freedoms we have had in this country,” and a stunning 59 percent, including 66 percent of independents, think Trump is “a potentially dangerous dictator whose power should be limited before he destroys American democracy.”
Trump regime
The Guardian - A group of Texas protesters convicted of terrorism charges received unusually harsh sentences of at least 50 years in prison on Tuesday in a closely watched case that was widely seen as a test case of the Trump administration’s efforts to crack down on dissent.
After a three-week jury trial, the nine activists were all found guilty of a slew of criminal charges in March, stemming from a Fourth of July protest at an immigrant detention facility in Alvarado, Texas, south of Fort Worth. The demonstrators arrived late at night with a plan to set off fireworks as part of a noise demonstration to show solidarity with those detained inside. A few of the protesters spontaneously broke off from the main group and vandalized cars in the parking lot, a guard shack, slashed the tires on a government van and broke a security camera. When a police officer arrived on the scene and drew his weapon, one of the activists fired an AR-15 from the woods, hitting the officer in the shoulder. The officer survived.
Benjamin Song, who fired the gun at the police officer, was sentenced to 100 years in prison. Song was convicted of attempted murder of an officer of the United States, as well as firearm and explosives charges. He was also convicted of riot, providing material support to terrorists. He faced anywhere from 20 years to life in prison.
Zachary Evetts, Autumn Hill, Savanna Batten, Elizabeth Soto and Meagan Morris were sentenced to 50 years in prison. Maricela Rueda, another demonstrator, was sentenced to 70 years in prison. All six were convicted of riot, providing material support to terrorist, and explosive charges. Rueda was also convicted of corruptly concealing a document or record.
Evetts, Hill, Morris and Rueda were acquitted on attempted murder and firearms charges.
The sentences handed down on Tuesday were unusually long, said Barbara McQuade, a former federal prosecutor who served as the US attorney for the eastern district of Michigan during the Obama administration.
“Most often, judges will sentence defendants for separate counts concurrently. Here, it appears that the judge stacked the sentences for each count consecutively. I would have expected lengthy sentences here, more in the ballpark at 15 to 25 years, but nothing like 50 to 100 years,” she wrote in an email.
Middle East
The Guardian - The Senate approved a war powers resolution preventing Donald Trump from continuing hostilities against Iran. In a significant but symbolic rebuke over a conflict that has proven unpopular with the US public, resolution passed by a 50-48 vote. Four Republicans – Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Rand Paul of Kentucky – broke with their party to support its adoption, while John Fetterman of Pennsylvania was the sole Democrat to vote against the resolution. |
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Corporations
Time - The combined compensation of 391 company leaders in the Wall Street Journal’s annual CEO pay ranking amounted to $9.9 billion in 2025, as the newspaper announced that “the $100-million-plus CEO is back with a bang.”
The report, which monitors pay of the heads of S&P 500 companies, found that more U.S. CEOs crossed that pay threshold than in any year since 2021.
The Journal found that companies are anticipating a shift in how their leaders are compensated, mirroring Elon Musk’s “moonshot” pay packages that reward company performance with huge stock or option awards.
The combined pay of those 391 CEOs was dwarfed by Musk’s total compensation as Tesla's CEO, which was $158 billion.
The report, which monitors pay of the heads of S&P 500 companies, found that more U.S. CEOs crossed that pay threshold than in any year since 2021.
The Journal found that companies are anticipating a shift in how their leaders are compensated, mirroring Elon Musk’s “moonshot” pay packages that reward company performance with huge stock or option awards.
The combined pay of those 391 CEOs was dwarfed by Musk’s total compensation as Tesla's CEO, which was $158 billion.
Weather
Time - Europe is heading into its second deadly heatwave in two months after several countries experienced a “heat dome” last month with record-breaking temperatures that killed several people across the continent. Here’s what you need to know about the heatwave and what you can do to protect yourself in high temperatures.
GOP
NY Times - Tucker Carlson, the conservative media giant, and Marjorie Taylor Greene, the firebrand former member of Congress, said they had formally broken with the Republican Party. The split expands the two conservative luminaries’ feud with President Trump into a broader repudiation of the party they once helped shape. Although both said they would not support Democrats, their break from the G.O.P. could exacerbate party turmoil that threatens to suppress enthusiasm, and participation, in the fall midterms.
“I have been a consistent defender for 35 years of the Republican Party,” Mr. Carlson said during a guest appearance on the “Can’t Be Censored” podcast that aired Thursday. “If I’m out, then I think a lot of other people are out.”
Ms. Greene followed up with a social media post saying much the same. “Tucker is not the only one who is done supporting the Republican Party,” she said Monday on X. “There is A LOT of us that are absolutely fed up and will not support a party that betrays its voters and country.”
Health
Headlines USA - The U.S. Department of Justice announced Tuesday that 455 people have been indicted for alleged health care fraud, believed to cost taxpayers over $6.5 billion. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said the defendants spanned 45 states and territories. “These individuals participated in health care fraud schemes involving over $6.5 billion in false claims submitted to Medicare, Medicaid and other health care programs,” Blanche said during a press conference.
Health - More than 11,000 bottles of the blood pressure medication chlorthalidone have been recalled, according to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Manufacturer Inventia Healthcare Limited recalled the prescription-only drug on June 5 due to "failed dissolution specifications," meaning there's an issue with how the tablets dissolve, which could impact their effectiveness.
MorningStar Farms Recalls Popular Frozen Foods
June 23, 2026
Fedral judge strikes down key SAVE act issues
Independent - A federal judge has declared a recently updated federal tool, central to President Donald Trump’s election integrity strategy, unlawful and prohibited its continued use. The ruling marks a significant blow to the administration's efforts to combat alleged noncitizen voting.
U.S. District Court Judge Sparkle L. Sooknanan sided with advocacy groups who argued that the revamped program, known as Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE), improperly collected sensitive personal data.
Critics warned this aggregation could lead to American citizens being wrongly removed from voter rolls.
"All in all, the federal government has knowingly trampled on the privacy rights of American citizens in a manner that threatens the sacred right to vote," Judge Sooknanan stated in her order. "This Court cannot stand idly by while that happens."
She further noted that Congress had explicitly forbidden the centralization of Americans’ personal identifying information, and that the federal agencies involved were aware that the SAVE database violated these statutory protections.
The decision represents a major legal setback for President Donald Trump, who has sought to leverage federal agencies for a nationwide crackdown on noncitizens on state voter rolls.
Where young people work
Specifically, a quarter of people in this age range had leisure and hospitality jobs, the highest percentage among young people in any industry. This category includes hotel and resort clerks, restaurant servers, cooks in sit-down and fast-food restaurants, amusement park attendants, and more.
Another 16.9% of teens and young adults worked as cashiers, customer service representatives, and supervisors and managers in the retail industry.
Racial and ethnic demographics vary among young workers and their industries. Young Black or African American workers had the highest share of employment in leisure and hospitality (28.9% of Black or African American workers ages 16 to 24). Young white workers had the second-highest rate (24.9%).
Young Asian workers had the highest employment rate in education and healthcare services (20.9%). For comparison, 16.8% of Black youths, 13.2% of white youths, and 12.3% of Hispanic youths worked in education and health.
Real Dangers
Forward Blue - Trump's budget bill is moving through Congress right now, and it could gut Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid before the end of the month. We're not exaggerating. Lawrence O'Donnell called it the cruelest budget bill in American history. And he's right.
We've been sounding the alarm for weeks. So has every senior advocacy group in this country. But here's the brutal truth: if grassroots Democrats don't step up today, the safety net that millions of Americans depend on could be dismantled before summer.
Britain
Axios - Keir Starmer was elected as a competent, level-headed antidote to 14 years of Conservative rule — a period consumed by austerity, ideological warfare and the chaos of leaving the European Union. His resignation yesterday, less than two years after a historic Labour landslide, reveals Britain's chronic instability has outgrown partisan explanation.
For many Western leaders, the U.K. is the ultimate cautionary tale — a live experiment in modern populism, unfolding inside one of the world's oldest and wealthiest democracies.
- Brexit began with utopian promises of an unshackled "Global Britain" that could curb immigration, slash red tape and take back control of its borders and budget.
- Instead, a succession of Conservative prime ministers plunged the country into deeper dysfunction: Theresa May was broken by the Brexit negotiations, Boris Johnson by scandal, Liz Truss by market panic, and Rishi Sunak by electoral humiliation.
- Today, Britain remains marooned in a low-growth cycle — saddled with trade friction, high prices, strained public services and a hyper-sensitive electorate that tolerates virtually no political failure.
Starmer's tenure was consumed by migration and cost-of-living crises, providing ideal conditions for Nigel Farage's right-wing Reform UK to peel away Labour's traditional working-class support.
- Enter Andy Burnham: The former Greater Manchester mayor and charismatic "King of the North" is widely seen as the lone Labour heavyweight with the authentic populist appeal needed to blunt Farage's momentum.
- In a special election engineered to return him to Parliament, Burnham beat Reform decisively, likely clearing the way for him to take over the Labour Party and become Britain's next prime minister.
If and when he enters Downing Street, Burnham's greatest challenge will be incumbency — a proven liability across the democratic world in the years since COVID.
- In France, Emmanuel Macron's approval rating has at times fallen as low as 11%, while the far-right National Rally is polling as the favorite to win next year's presidential election.
- In Germany, the far-right AfD has made unprecedented gains and continues to widen its lead over Chancellor Friedrich Merz's conservatives.
- In Hungary, voters ended Viktor Orbán's 16-year rule this April, toppling the most entrenched nationalist government in the EU.
Between the lines: Even President Trump, who faces a treacherous midterm test in November, is proving vulnerable to the same toxic anti-incumbent forces.
- His 2016 victory was intertwined with Brexit's geopolitical shock — a warning that voters across the West were willing to torch the establishment to express disgust with migration, globalization and elites' failures.
- But now Trump is the establishment. High prices and the Iran war have dragged his approval into the high 30s. The world's most successful anti-system politician is suddenly struggling to run against a system he controls. Share this story.
Socialists in America
NY Times - Socialist mayors were a real thing in the first half of the 20th century, when the Socialist Party of America held political sway. Milwaukee had a roughly 40-year run of them, so-called sewer socialists committed to building out the city’s infrastructure and instituting political reform. They lost power in 1960.
Then there was Bernie Sanders in Burlington, Vt., for most of the 1980s. “I’ve stayed away from calling myself a socialist,” he told The Boston Globe after his first win in 1981, “because I did not want to spend half my life explaining that I did not believe in the Soviet Union or in concentration camps.” He soon embraced the label.
And now? The mayor of New York City, the nation’s largest city, is a democratic socialist. Another one could become the leader of Los Angeles, the nation’s second biggest city. The mayor of Seattle is a socialist. And next year, a democratic socialist is all but sure to occupy the mayor’s office in Washington, D.C., a 15-minute walk from President Trump’s residence at the White House.
No one can say for sure whether their success portends national change. Their victories, or their chances of victory, have mostly come in dark-blue Democratic cities. And not every socialist running for mayor in a largely Democratic city has triumphed. Left-leaning candidates recently lost in San Francisco and Philadelphia.
But as my colleagues Campbell Robertson, Jill Cowan and Anna Griffin write, the success of those socialist mayors who did win their races says something about the state of the Democratic Party in the run-up to this fall’s midterm elections. And it gives us a glimpse at what happens when the far left actually takes office.
Immigration
Time - The Trump Administration is seeking to raise the price tag for immigrants applying to become naturalized U.S. citizens by hundreds of dollars. A proposed rule from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) would increase the cost by 75%, from $760 to $1,330, and the cost of submitting the form online would increase by 80%, from $710 to $1,280
The Guardian - A California court has dismissed a lawsuit filed by Donald Trump’s administration against Los Angeles over a city ordinance making it a “sanctuary city” and limiting its cooperation with federal immigration authorities. Fernando Olguin, a judge in the central California US district court, rejected the administration’s argument that the city’s policy was unconstitutional. He gave the administration permission to file an amended complaint. The White House did not immediately respond to the Guardian’s request for comment. |
| The Los Angeles city attorney, Hydee Feldstein Soto, said: “This order reinforces the well-established principle that local governments have the authority to decide how to use their personnel and resources. The goal of this ordinance … is to encourage victims of and witnesses to crime to feel safe coming forward to seek help from LAPD regardless of their immigration status. It does not obstruct or impede lawful federal immigration enforcement operations.” |
Donald Trump
Time - President Donald Trump blamed vandalism for persistent issues with the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, which reopened on June 6 after more than $16 million in renovations to make the pool appear “American flag blue.” The pool’s new blue paint appeared to be peeling off less than two weeks after its completion, and it has been plagued by an algae bloom that has given the water a green tint
June 22, 2026
Age and Politics
Alternet America - A paper published last month in Nature analyzed individual health data from a long-term study of a large, representative sample of Americans across all 50 states. The finding is blunt: conservatives are dying at significantly higher rates than liberals, and the gap did not exist a decade ago.
“2010 is the last year in which we can say fairly clearly that there is not this gap,” coauthor Elizabeth Elder told Fast Company. By 2016 it showed up in biomarkers. By 2020 it was showing up in deaths from heart disease, cancer, and stroke.
The numbers are stark and specific. Between 2020 and 2022, only 0.2% of “very liberal” respondents died of internal causes, compared with 1.34% of “very conservative” respondents.
Voting
CBS News - A federal judge on Monday ruled the Trump administration acted unlawfully when it created a centralized database that contains Americans' private information, which she said has since been used by some states to incorrectly remove U.S. citizens from their voter rolls.
Tucker Carlson leaves the GOP
Alternet - Speaking for his podcast Can’t Be Censored, conservative commentator Tucker Carlson said he is leaving the Republican Party — and he blames President Donald Trump’s ostensible support for Israel.
.... Carlson argued that, by starting a war against Iran in February, he prioritized Israel’s interests over those of the United States. Despite Trump’s claims to the contrary, Carlson asserted that the president was unduly influenced by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to enter a war that America has “effectively lost already.” He added that he believes Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign was funded by individuals whose “loyalty to Israel” does not align with American foreign policy priorities.
The right-wing podcaster’s split with Trump over Israel is part of a broader pattern on both sides of the aisle. A February poll taken by Gallup found support for Israel has dropped among Democrats, Republicans and independents alike. Independents support Palestinians over Israel by 41 to 30 percent and Democrats do so by 65 percent to 17 percent. Republicans still overwhelmingly support Israel, by 70 percent to 13 percent, but this still counts as a 10-point drop since 2024. Overall American support for Israel has fallen from 46 percent to 33 percent in favor of Israel in 2025 to 41 percent to 36 percent against Israel in 2026.
Senate passes housing affordability bill
NBC News - The Senate voted overwhelmingly Monday to pass a sweeping housing affordability bill aimed at lowering costs, putting Congress on the brink of a rare bipartisan victory in President Donald Trump’s second term.
The vote was 85-5. Several senators missed the vote due to severe thunderstorms in the Washington area that led to a ground stop at Ronald Reagan National Airport.
The legislation, which would make it easier to build homes and slap limits on Wall Street investors’ buying up houses, now goes to the House, which hopes to vote on it in the next few days. Then, it would go to Trump’s desk to be signed into law.
Donald Trump
The Hill - President Trump’s relationship with key Senate Republicans, including Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), is crumbling after repeated clashes over strategy on an array of issues. The two sides are splitting further apart as the midterm election nears and GOP lawmakers fear the potential loss of both chambers of Congress.
GOP senators say there has been a major loss of trust between the president and many members of their conference as the White House has repeatedly blindsided Thune and other Republican leaders.
...The president undercut GOP leaders last week when he suddenly ordered Jay Clayton, his nominee to serve as director of national intelligence, to not show up at his Senate confirmation hearing. The reversal of the plan left Thune and other Republicans dumbfounded.
Sen. John Cornyn (Texas), who lost his Senate Republican primary runoff by 27 points after Trump blasted him as “very disloyal” and endorsed his opponent, said Republican colleagues are feeling betrayed by what some of them view as the president’s lack of respect for them as senators and, in most cases, loyal Republicans.
Polls
The Guardian - If any demographic group was key to Donald Trump’s election victories in 2016 and 2024, it was white, blue-collar voters. But in perhaps perilous news for Republicans, Trump’s support from that group has plummeted – as many white, working-class voters have grown upset about everything from increased inflation and gas prices to Trump’s war against Iran. These glaring cracks in Trump’s blue-collar base point to big trouble for Republicans in this November’s midterm elections.
In 2024, Trump won 66% of white voters without a college degree, but a new CBS News poll found that 54% of that demographic disapprove of his performance. That was up from 45% disapproval in February (before Trump began bombing Iran) and up sharply from 32% in February 2025.
This shows severe cracks in Trump’s white, blue-collar base, a group that candidate Trump wooed by promising to crack down on immigration, to reduce prices on day one, to bring back manufacturing jobs and to not start new foreign wars. Many blue-collar voters see that Trump has failed to deliver on any of these promises except for his massive crackdown on immigrants.
Trump calls NY Times treasonous
Independent - Donald Trump lashed out late Sunday night over negative press coverage of his war with Iran, singling out The New York Times for criticism after it asked what the conflict had actually achieved. “The way the Corrupt and Failing New York Times is covering stories on a very battered and beat up Iran, through FAKE & MADE UP ‘FACTS’ is, in my opinion, ‘TREASONOUS,’” the president threatened on his Truth Social platform.
“I will be adding all of their false and ridiculous reporting to my multi Billion Dollar lawsuit against them. They are Criminals!”
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