Housing

Heat

Nautilus -   With blistering heat waves on the rise , scientists are pondering the pressing question: Exactly how much ambient heat can the human body tolerate? The conventional belief among researchers has been that humans can withstand temperatures up to 35 degrees Centigrade (or 95 degrees Fahrenheit) without suffering major consequences like heat strokes or heart attacks.

But in a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Penn State University researchers challenge that limit. They say it doesn’t take into account factors that amplify heat’s effects. For example, many such estimates rely on the dry heat-tolerance level. Dry heat—that is, heat with little to no moisture in the air—is easier for humans to withstand. That’s because humidity—the level of water vapor in the air—affects how human bodies cool off, says graduate student Qinqin Kong, one of the study co-authors. Our bodies regulate temperature in a few different ways. Our skin naturally releases some heat into the air, for one. And wind or a light breeze on a hot summer day can whisk even more heat away. But sweating is best, Kong says.

NYC politics

The Guardian - The New York City mayor, Zohran Mamdani, said on Sunday that he and a slew of Democratic socialist allies who prevailed in recent primary elections were carrying a “national message” to struggling working Americans hungry for a new kind of politics “coast to coast”. His endorsed candidates won Democratic nominations in three races for New York congressional seats, as well as for five state legislature positions in Albany.

He said collectively they were carrying a “New Deal understanding” of Democratic politics to Congress and on to the “national stage”. It spoke, he said, to Americans feeling exhaustion at struggling to make ends meet “every single day”. Mamdani said: “We don’t have to nationalize that message. That is a national message – it’s a national crisis.

Donald Trump

Two Major Trump Corruption Plots Revealed in Just 24 Hours

Supreme Court cases

The Guardian -   The US supreme court has ruled that Donald Trump’s firing of a Federal Reserve governor was unconstitutional, in a landmark ruling that limits a president’s authority over the central bank. In its opinion, the court said that Trump does not have the constitutional authority to fire a Fed governor without cause.

The case was centered on Lisa Cook, a Biden appointee whose 14-year term on the Federal Reserve board of governors is scheduled to expire in 2038. Cook is the first Black woman to serve on the Fed’s board.

Last August, on social media, Trump abruptly fired Cook. The president claimed he had evidence that Cook committed mortgage fraud, an illegal practice where a homebuyer lists a second property as a primary resident to get a better mortgage rate. Cook denied the allegations and sued the Trump administration, saying it fired her without cause.

The justices’ protection over the Fed decision is a departure from how the court has handled Trump in his second term, allowing the president broad power to carry out his agenda without congressional approval.

The Hill -  The Supreme Court strengthened President Trump's control over independent agencies in a 6-3 decision along ideological lines, overruling 91 years of precedent that allowed Congress to insulate certain executive branch officials with firing protections.  

In an expansion of presidential power, the ruling gives Trump the right to sack Federal Trade Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter, a Democratic appointee who took center stage in his quest to set aside constraints on his removal authority.

It formally overturns the high court's 1935 landmark decision, Humphrey's Executor v. United States, which laid the groundwork for certain agencies across the executive branch to enjoy a degree of independence from the White House. These agencies regulate vast swaths of American life, including labor disputes, federal employee rights, workplace discrimination, credit unions, product recalls, plane accidents and more.  

"If anything more is left of Humphrey's, we overrule it," Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority.

Election laws

NBC News -  ­ Rejecting a Republican National Committee challenge, the Supreme Court ruled Monday that elections officials may count mail-in ballots that arrive after Election Day if they were postmarked beforehand

The court, divided 5-4, held that the Mississippi law challenged by the RNC does not unlawfully conflict with the federal law that sets Election Day in early November.

The ruling, authored by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, is a setback for President Donald Trump, who has frequently criticized mail-in voting, claiming without offering evidence that it is rife with fraud. Two of the court’s conservatives were joined by the three liberals in the majority.

The decision avoids an election-year upheaval of state election laws. The Mississippi law and similar measures in 13 other states will remain in effect ahead of November’s midterm elections, when voters will decide which party controls the House and the Senate.

Weather

Time - Weather forecasters warn of a prolonged and dangerous heat wave set to blanket large swaths of the U.S. this week and into the Fourth of July holiday weekend, with temperatures possibly reaching extreme levels and posing a risk to public health. The National Weather Service said on Sunday that the “potentially historic” heat wave will cover most of the central to eastern U.S. 

France Recorded 1,000 Excess Deaths During Heat Wave, Officials Say…First estimates published by the national health agency listed hundreds more deaths per day compared with the daily death rate in previous months.

Supreme Court won't hear appeal of civil judgement against Trump resulting from sexual abuse charges

NY Times -   The Supreme Court on Monday declined a request by President Trump to review a $5 million civil judgment against him after a jury found in 2023 that he sexually abused and defamed the writer E. Jean Carroll.

The announcement by the justices did not include any reasoning, and no public dissents were noted.

A second case that arose out of Ms. Carroll’s allegations also could be headed to the Supreme Court. In January 2024, a separate jury ordered Mr. Trump to pay Ms. Carroll $83.3 million in damages for defaming her in 2019 after she accused him of a decades-old rape. Lawyers for Mr. Trump have said they plan to ask that the justices also hear that case.

Tales from the Attic: Tips for progressives

Word

Via Nitish Alodia

Incarcerating women has increased 600% since 1980

The Guardian -  Two new reports raise questions about the economic tradeoffs of incarcerating women - a prison population that has grown more than 600% in the United States since 1980.

Imprisoning women costs as much as 75% more than incarcerating men, but some of those costs could be offset by halving the amount of time women spend in prison with minimal impacts to public safety, according to new reports from the Council on Criminal Justice, a nonpartisan thinktank.

"Incarceration for women is very expensive, and we are using this very expensive tool, prison, on what is, on average, a relatively low-risk group compared to men," said Dr Stephanie Kennedy, the council's policy director.

Kennedy and her colleagues found keeping women in prison cost roughly $87,000 to $122,000 per woman each year, compared with $70,000 for men. Women's specialized healthcare needs, including pregnancy care, and smaller populations translated to higher per-person costs. The studies found that female incarceration could cost as much as $34bn per year by 2035.

Word

Jon Ossoff: “They worked harder burying the Epstein Files than they ever worked to lower your grocery bill. And while you pay more for everything, the Trumps are raking in billions.

Word

Via Just Saying

Polls

The reality of our first 250 years

Nikhil Pal Singh, Guardian -   Writing during the carnage of the first world war, the iconoclast intellectual Randolph Bourne described the American revolutionary inheritance as a squalid marriage between the town capitalist and plantation patriarch. Glittering generalities of freedom and democracy, Bourne observed, were indelibly marked by their long captivity to the money counters and owners of human chattel.

 In the land lorded over by the likes of Donald Trump, leader of one of the most indecently corrupt, violently inept administrations in the country’s history, the 250th anniversary of the American Declaration of Independence would seem to affirm this judgment. Our moment, defined by the mobilization of market frenzy, machineries of war, deportation deliriums and nativist passions, echoes Bourne’s; it is a time of social fracture, moral failure and hegemonic collapse, with cynical reason ascendant.

 In the days ahead, the US origin story will be told again with fanfare and at great expense, dressed in the garb of Christian nationalism and gaudy militarism, but drained of its narrative power as a world-making event – the idea that “the cause of America”, in the words of Thomas Paine’s 1776 revolutionary pamphlet Common Sense, “is the cause of all mankind”. It is easy in the current context to forget that not long ago, this redemptive idea still resonated. On the night of his election to the presidency, Barack Obama framed his victory as an event that decisively narrowed the gap between the nation’s democratic ideals and its often flawed reality: “If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.

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

The Guardian - On Friday, Trump was addressing religious conservatives at the Faith & Freedom Coalition’s annual Road to Majority conference at the Washington Hilton hotel – his first appearance there since April, when he was rushed off stage after an assassination attempt at the White House correspondents’ dinner.

“I remember this place not so long ago,” he quipped. “Hopefully, we’re going to have a little more pleasant experience.”

Trump hit some familiar themes in his address, defending his war in Iran, making false claims of election rigging and stressing the importance of Republicans retaining control of the House of Representatives and Senate in the November midterms.

He focused on Tuesday’s Democratic primary election results in New York, where three leftwing candidates endorsed by Mamdani, a Democratic socialist who is the city’s first Muslim mayor, upset incumbent or establishment rivals.

The radical left “want to resume the transgender mutilation of children, they want to restart the war on Christians and churches, and as you saw with the communists elected in New York recently … they want to completely destroy the traditional American way of life,” Trump warned.

“Communism is very easy to sell. It destroys everything, but it is very easy. And I’ll be honest – I think I’d be the greatest communist in history.” Mockingly, the president said as a communist he could give free rent, houses and food, but the country would inevitably fail after two or three years. He said: “Everyone will suffer or die. That’s what happens.”

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.