Polls

NY Times -   Republicans are defending seats in Alaska, Iowa, Maine, North Carolina, Ohio and Texas as they try to maintain their majority. Democrats are competitive in all six states - but not leading in enough to take the chamber.

….Democrats face an uphill battle to win control of the Senate but have pulled within striking distance of enough Republican-held seats to put the majority in play this fall, according to new New York Times/Siena polls in six Senate battleground states.

Republicans are hampered by the unpopularity of President Trump and his diminished standing on the economy, while most of the Democratic candidates are so far running ahead of their party's own struggling brand, the polls show.

Winning the Senate remains a stiff challenge for Democrats. Republicans hold 53 seats, meaning that Democrats would need to flip at least four seats while defending all of their own vulnerable ones.

The Times/Siena polls looked at the six states that are considered to be the Democratic Party's best shots at flipping Republican-held seats: Alaska, Iowa, Maine, North Carolina, Ohio and Texas. The surveys found that while all six states are close enough to be competitive, if the election were held today Republicans would be favored in enough states to keep control of the Senate.

NPR - Even though nearly one-third of Americans say they are concerned about the direction the U.S. is headed, the majority say they're "proud" or "very proud" to be an American, according to the latest NPR/PBS News/Marist poll. Close to half of Americans believe the country has strayed significantly from the nation's founding principles. The way Americans feel about the country's current state is largely split along partisan, gender and generational lines. The survey of 1,340 respondents was conducted in early June and has a margin of error of +/- 3.0 percentage points, meaning results could be about three points higher or lower. NPR followed up with several participants to gather their thoughts about America ahead of the 250th anniversary. Read more about what they had to say.

Donald Trump

The Hill -   President Trump on Wednesday distanced himself from his recently released personal financial disclosures showing more than $1 billion in revenue from cryptocurrency sales and other ventures. “I don’t get involved in my personal. We have funds that run my money,” Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews, Md., ahead of his trip to North Dakota, when asked what message the disclosures send to average Americans.

….Trump went on to say the financial institutions that handle his personal finances create a “blind account,” and he “purposefully” does not speak to anyone involved in handling those funds.

“They invest my money. I don’t talk to them. I don’t even speak to them,” he said during the gaggle. “So, I have many people, I don’t know what they call them, closed accounts or something, you put their money and that’s it. I don’t talk to them. They’re big institutions, and they run it.”

…Trump’s personal financial disclosures released on Tuesday showed he raked in more than $500 million from the cryptocurrency venture he co-founded with his sons Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., who were seen with the president as he took questions on Wednesday.

The 25th Amendment

🇺🇸 UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION
25th Amendment, Section 4

“If the Congress [...] determines by two-thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the President shall [not] resume the powers and duties of his office.”

Middle East

The Nation -  Just two weeks after it was signed, the memorandum of understanding between Iran and the United States to wind down Donald Trump’s feckless war is in such serious trouble that diplomats are now gathered in Qatar trying to contain the damage. This, like all the other follies associated with this purblind imperial errand, was an entirely foreseeable development: the agreement-in-process seeks to secure the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for near-total American capitulation on decades of policy red lines for the United States, from the empowerment of regional proxies for Iran to the continued development of ballistic missiles and ongoing nuclear-enrichment initiatives.

Climate change

Washington Post -  A heat dome was strengthening above the Ohio Valley early Wednesday, with more than 150 million Americans covered by heat alerts from the National Weather Service.  This sprawling area of hot air will soon move eastward and spend Thursday to Saturday squarely over the Mid-Atlantic, sending temperatures toward 105 degrees there, and breaking records from Florida to Maine.

So far, the most intense heat and humidity from this weather system have occurred in areas where such conditions aren’t common. On Tuesday, parts of the Midwest experienced higher humidity than some of the world’s muggiest places. Stretches of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin experienced humidity that rivaled or even exceeded that of Dubai, a notoriously humid city on the Persian Gulf.

Demcratic socialists

Alternet -  In one of the most notable upsets of the Democratic primaries so far, Democratic Socialist Melat Kiros, 29, yesterday won the nomination over incumbent Rep. Diana DeGette to represent Colorado’s hotly-contested First Congressional District...

Democratic Socialist elected officials now include U.S. representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rashida Tlaib (both elected in 2018), New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani and Seattle mayor Katie Wilson (both elected in 2025). Democratic Socialist Janeese Lewis George is set to follow as mayor of Washington, D.C....

Colorado’s DeGette has held her seat for nearly 30 years. Kiros was born the same year DeGette was first elected to Congress. Kiros is poised to become the first Gen Z woman elected to Congress. Her win in the solidly blue district that makes up most of Denver means Kiros is likely headed to Washington next year.

Kiros is a fighter who understands what’s worth fighting for, and expresses it clearly. “The thing is, fighting Trump is just one piece of the problem. Trump is not the cause,” Kiros said during a debate earlier this month. “He’s a symptom of a system that is broken and has been broken for a really long time because our party has failed to understand the role that they need to take in getting money out of our politics.”

A former lawyer and Ph.D. candidate, Kiros easily presents herself as a politician for the working class. Her family immigrated to Denver from Ethiopia when she was a baby.

Kiros has never before run for elected office, but she won support from a range of voters with a message of fundamental reform of the American system.

Ford recalls 741,000 vehicles

Independent -  Ford is initiating a recall of over 741,000 vehicles across the U.S. due to a critical transmission defect that could compromise the park system, significantly elevating the risk of a crash or injury.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has detailed that the recall encompasses specific Ford F-150, Lincoln Aviator, Ford Explorer, Lincoln Navigator, and Ford Expedition models manufactured between 2018 and 2021.

According to the report, affected vehicles may experience the temporary engagement of their transmission parking pawl while in motion, particularly when certain shifts are commanded. This can lead to damage to components of the park system. Should this damage occur, the transmission's ability to securely hold the vehicle when in "park" – especially if the parking brake is not engaged – could be impaired. This potential for unintended movement poses a serious safety hazard.

Number of billionaires up 13%

Guardian -   The number of billionaires in the world has jumped by 13% to a record 3,302 people, new figures show, as the super-rich accumulate wealth at an accelerating rate.

Billionaires’ wealth grew by 25% on average in the year ended in April, compared with a 10.8% rise in average personal wealth around the world, the Swiss bank UBS found.

There were 18 people who had amassed wealth between $50bn and $100bn, with a further 19 people who were worth more than $100bn. Of these people, 15 were based in the US.

James Mazeau, an economist at the bank, said billionaires had benefited from the AI boom in the stock market.

“Most [billionaire] wealth is tied to listed companies,” he said. “So part of the rise is due to equity markets.”

….The millionaire class has also been rapidly expanding, according to UBS, which found the global millionaire population reached more than 57.5 million last year…

The US, where more than 440,000 people became millionaires for the first time, made up almost half of the growth in 2025. \

Word

Robert Reich -   Today’s Supreme Court decision ending the independence of independent regulatory agencies, and directly overruling a Court precedent, was justified by a pernicious idea advocated by the conservative Supreme Court majority — that the framers of the Constitution envisioned a so-called “unified executive.” In fact, the framers central focus was to prevent a United States president from becoming too powerful — like the king they were displacing — so they could not have sought a strong, centralized executive branch.

Supremes screw democracy again

NY Times -   The Supreme Court lifted limits on Tuesday on how much political parties can spend on advertising and other expenses in coordination with candidates.  The 6-to-3 decision, divided along ideological lines, is a major victory for Republicans and could undercut one of the Democrats’ financial advantages going into the midterms.

The question before the justices was whether current federal limits on such spending — called coordinated party expenditures — violate the First Amendment. During oral arguments, Noel J. Francisco, a lawyer for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which brought the legal challenge, told the justices that such limits were “at war” with previous decisions by the court that have found that restricting how money can be spent in politics amounts to limiting speech.

…. In dissent, Justice Elena Kagan wrote that the ruling was a recipe for corruption, allowing donors to skirt contribution caps to candidates. “With no limits on coordinated expenditures,” she wrote, “the party can serve as the candidate’s checking account.”

She said that the upshot of the court’s campaign finance decisions was “a legal regime increasingly unable to stop political corruption, and thus to preserve our institutions’ democratic legitimacy.”

Supreme Court to consider assault weapon ban

NBC News  - The Supreme Court agreed to decide whether states and local governments can ban semiautomatic rifles like the AR-15, which are popular among gun enthusiasts but have also been used in high-profile mass shootings.

The court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority that generally backs gun rights, will hear challenges to laws in Connecticut and Cook County, Illinois, which covers the Chicago area. The two combined cases will be argued and decided in the court’s next term, which starts in October.

Born in US? You're a citizen

 NBC News -  Delivering a major blow to President Donald Trump, the Supreme Court on Tuesday blocked his contentious attempt to limit citizenship at birth for those born on U.S. soil. The court, divided 6-3, ruled that the executive order Trump issued Jan. 20, 2025, the first day of his second term, was unlawful. Five justices said the order fell foul of the Constitution’s 14th Amendment, which has long been interpreted to bestow birthright citizenship on almost anyone born in the United States. One justice, conservative Brett Kavanaugh, said the order violated federal law but not the Constitution.

It is the third significant Supreme Court loss for Trump in recent months, following the February ruling that invalidated his sweeping tariffs and Monday’s decision that barred him from immediately firing Lisa Cook from the Federal Reserve.

Supreme Court upholds transgender athlete bans

The Hill -   The Supreme Court ruled states can bar transgender girls from competing on girls' and women's school sports teams, upholding bans in Idaho and West Virginia on Tuesday in a decision set to impact similar laws passed in more than half the country.  Writing for the majority, Justice Brett Kavanaugh rejected arguments that transgender athlete restrictions unconstitutionally discriminate on the basis of sex or gender identity.  

Meanwhile . . .

NPR  - Clergy sexual abuse survivors reached a nearly $400 million settlement with the Archdiocese of San Francisco, advocates announced. The agreement affects around 530 individuals who have filed abuse claims against current or former members of the city's Catholic clergy. (via KQED)

Murders

NPR - The national murder rate in the United States is nearing a record low. Crime data analyst Jeff Asher says that the country in 2025 likely experienced the lowest murder rate ever recorded. Asher shared this prediction in late May, using data he collects from about 600 police agencies for his site, The Crime Index. This nationally representative sample indicates that murders dropped by 18.7% in the first four months of this year compared to the same period last year. All violent crime decreased by 6.4%. An important caveat is that this would be the lowest murder rate since the FBI started publishing national murder numbers in the 1950s. There are some older records of national rates of homicide (a larger category than criminal murder) kept by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Middle East

NPR  - The United States and Iran have sent delegations to Qatar, after exchanging attacks in recent days. The White House said that Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and special envoy Steve Witkoff were on their way there for talks about a long-term peace agreement. Iranian officials have made it clear that they will not meet with them. For Iran, this meeting appears to be more focused on discussing with Qatari officials the release of approximately $6 billion in frozen assets. The release of this money, which is about half of the assets frozen in Qatar, was included in a memorandum of understanding signed by the U.S. and Iran.

 Both countries' haste in these talks seems to stem from a lack of trust, NPR’s Ruth Sherlock says. Iranians, in particular, are concerned that the Trump administration might go back on its commitments, especially given the history of failed talks. Iran is also furious about a separate deal brokered by the U.S. between Israel and Lebanon on a road map to end the war. Israel is still fighting the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia in Lebanon. The Israel-Lebanon deal stipulates that Hezbollah must disarm, and it makes Israel's withdrawal from the large areas of land it occupies contingent upon Hezbollah disarming first. Hezbollah, which was not part of the agreement, has rejected the deal outright, calling it a “surrender of Lebanese sovereignty.”

Climate change

PBS - A new online tool out of the Yale Center on Climate Change and Health (YCCCH) strives to provide hyperlocal information about the range of extreme weather risks on mortality, including the potential impact on older adults.  Researchers used peer-reviewed mortality data from 2007-2020 for the XToll climate dashboard. It visualizes how each relevant weather extreme in the county compares to all the others in the U.S. For example, Hartford County has a heat ranking of nearly 67%, while The Bronx, which has some of the highest heat vulnerability in NYC, has a ranking of almost 95%.

Newsworthy News -  Several European countries recorded their hottest day ever during the June 2026 heat wave. World Weather Attribution said the event would have been “virtually impossible” without human-caused climate change. Researchers said high nighttime temperatures are about 100 times more likely today than two decades ago. Europe has warmed faster than the global average, adding pressure to power grids, health systems, and public trust.

A former Maine chief justice explains how to do it

Sam Smith -  Your editor has noted  how different his mornings and early afternoons feel next to the hours that follow. Starting in the morning I report the grim story of where America is going these days. But when I’m done I soon realize that I’m living in Maine and how different that feels. Which is why this piece by a former Maine chief justice struck me.

Daniel Watham, Maine Morning Star -  As we approach the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, it is worth reflecting not only on what the Founders rejected, but on what they tried to build. They objected to arbitrary power, to laws imposed without meaningful representation, and to courts dependent on political authority rather than justice. In the Declaration, they accused King George III of undermining colonial legislatures and making judges dependent on his will alone.

Those grievances were not historical footnotes. They were warnings. The Founders understood that liberty requires more than inspiring words. It requires institutions, laws, checks and balances, and citizens willing to defend them.

Our system has never been perfect. The promise of equality and self-government announced in 1776 was denied to many Americans for far too long. But the genius of the American experiment is that each generation has been called to make the country more faithful to its founding principles.

That work continues today.

Here in Maine, the institutions of self-government are not abstractions. They are made up of people in our own communities: local officials who administer elections, judges who apply the law, clerks who maintain public records, lawyers who help resolve disputes, jurors who weigh evidence, and citizens who participate in civic life. These institutions may not always make headlines, but they are the backbone of our republic.

Our republic depends on trust — not blind trust, but earned trust. Citizens have every right to ask questions, demand transparency, challenge decisions through lawful means, and expect accountability from those who serve the public. But our republic cannot endure if every institution is presumed illegitimate simply because it produces an outcome we dislike.

As a former chief justice of the Maine Supreme Court, I have seen this work up close. During nearly twenty five years on the bench and thirty four years in private practice, I saw firsthand how much our constitutional system depends on the steady, often quiet work of people who serve their communities. Our republic is sustained not only by founding ideals or public speeches, but by citizens and public servants who take their responsibilities seriously: following the law, respecting established procedures, weighing respecting established procedures, weighing evidence, correcting mistakes when they occur, and accepting lawful outcomes even when they are disappointing or politically inconvenient.

The rule of law is what separates self-government from raw power. Courts do not exist to favor one party, one candidate, or one public official. Judges do not serve a political cause. Election administrators do not serve a political cause. Public servants, judges, and local officials swear oaths not to personalities, but to constitutions, laws, and the people they serve.

New study finds insects greatly undercounted

Time -  The generally accepted figure for the number of insect species on the planet is about six million. Or at least that was the number. According to a new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, however, that head count is also likely an undercount, with the actual number of insect species topping out at anywhere from 14 million to 20 million—or more than three times the current estimate. Within that census there are still local collapses: populations of pollinators like bees and monarch butterflies are declining precipitously, and climate change and habitat loss are claiming other insect species, disrupting the food chain, which is built in part on those tiny creatures at the bottom. The tripling of the overall known species count has implications not only for basic entomological research, but for efforts at conservation as a whole.

Donald Trump

Alternet -   "Trump is essentially beyond the reach of the law in terms of actions,” Jonathan Swan, who with Maggie Haberman co-authored the book “Regime Change,” told Peter Slen from C-SPAN on Monday. “Trump has told senior advisers in the Oval Office that he's going to pardon anyone who came within 250 feet of the Oval Office. I don't think they feel any real concern about illegality."

Trump has undertaken a number of actions that cause people to worry he plans on becoming a dictator. The Atlantic assistant editor Marc Novicoff explained in April that Trump has acted like a dictator in that he “prosecutes his political opponents; deports immigrants … to foreign prisons without due process; solicits tribute payments from corporations and foreign governments; deploys soldiers to American cities that are not, in fact, in civil-war-level chaos; and puts his name and image on government buildings that quite obviously don’t belong to him.”

Trump has renamed government buildings and institutions including the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the U.S. Institute of Peace, Trump Coin, Trump Accounts, TrumpRX, the Trump Gold Card and future U.S. paper currency. He has also unfurled banners with his image over the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Justice and the Department of Labor and urged lawmakers to pass a bill to carve his image onto Mount Rushmore.

"Dictators, once they've secured their grip on near-absolute power — and often once they start to get older — have a tendency to lose touch with reality, which often manifests in the form of grandiosity," UK-based i Paper journalist James Ball said in April. "Stalin was still relatively young when he renamed the city of Tsaritsyn as 'Stalingrad,' but building monuments and renaming things is very much the stereotypical out-of-control dictator move: Saddam Hussein had endless statues and monuments built in his image, while Saparmurat Niyazov of Turkmenistan renamed months, animal breeds, days of the weeks and cities…. The combination of endless flattery from courtiers, unbridled ego, lack of restraint from constitutional processes — and, quite often, the effects of an increasingly superannuated brain — drives many despots in this direction.

Trump Was Indicted Under the Espionage Act. Why Can’t We Read the Report?

NY Times -   Three years ago this month, the Justice Department indicted Donald Trump under the Espionage Act for concealing and refusing to return classified documents after his departure from the White House. Mr. Trump hasn’t had to face trial, and he hasn’t had to fully account to the public for his actions, either.

The Justice Department abandoned the case against Mr. Trump after he won the 2024 election, citing a longstanding departmental policy against prosecuting sitting presidents. Since Mr. Trump returned to the White House, the Justice Department has worked hand in glove with his current lawyers to suppress the department’s report about its investigation of his actions. Judge Aileen Cannon of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, a Trump appointee who presided over Mr. Trump’s case, has issued an order prohibiting the Justice Department from disseminating the report — and effectively prohibiting Jack Smith, the special counsel who wrote it, from speaking about it publicly or even testifying about it to Congress.

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.

ABC News -   The decision gives Trump and future presidents more control over the government and effectively ends the bipartisan, independent nature of regulatory agencies that oversee many aspects of American life.

President Trump, in a post to his social media platform, called the Supreme Court's decision  a "BIG WIN" and "one of the most important ever given with respect to Presidential Powers."

In her dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, accused her colleagues of endorsing a theory of "total executive control" unimagined by the nation's founders.

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