Via Elizabeth Warren

Immigrants

The Guardian -  More than 145,000 US children have probably experienced a parent being detained by immigration authorities since the start of Donald Trump’s second presidency, according to a new report published by a reputed US thinkthank.

The report, released on Monday by the Brookings Institution, estimates that about 146,635 children who are US citizens have had a parent detained during the mass deportation campaign the Trump administration embarked on after he retook office in early January. The study further found that of those children, more than 22,000 experienced the detention of all of their co-resident parents.

Roughly 36% were younger than six years old, underscoring a hardline immigration enforcement strategy that has drawn widespread criticism from civil rights and immigrant advocacy groups.

The Brookings Institution’s report also found that the largest share of US citizen children with a detained parent are linked to Mexico, accounting for nearly 54%, while children with parents from Guatemala and Honduras together make up more than 25%.

Washington DC and Texas have had the highest share of American children with an affected parent, with more than five per 1,000 facing parental immigration detention, according to the report.

Millions Urged To Stay Inside In 11 States Over Air Quality

Newsweek -  Millions of Americans across at least 11 states are being urged to stay indoors and limit outdoor activity as dangerous air quality alerts are in place across parts of the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and Southern California.  According to the National Weather Service (NWS), air quality alerts stretch across states including New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Maine, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland—as well as parts of Southern California, where wildfire smoke is worsening conditions.  ...Most alerts remain in effect from Tuesday morning through Tuesday evening.

NAACP calls for boycott of Southern college sports programs over voting rights

Indendent, UK -  The NAACP is calling on Black athletes and fans to boycott the athletic programs of public universities in states that are taking steps that the nation's oldest civil rights group says are restricting Black voting rights.

Launched on Tuesday, the “Out of Bounds” campaign urges prospective Black athletes, their families, alumni and fans to “withhold athletic and financial support” from major public universities in states that “have moved to limit, weaken or erase Black voting representation.”

If Black athletes participate in the boycott, it could deplete rosters for powerhouse football and basketball programs across the Southeastern Conference and Atlantic Coast Conference.

FBI reported ready to pay for system that will track drivers without a warrant

Newsweek -   The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is reportedly willing to pay up to $36 million to access autehomated license plate reader (ALPR) data nationwide, a purchase that would allow the agency to track vicle movements across the country without a warrant. 

The plan was first reported by independent news company 404 Media, which found out about it through a procurement contract pursued by the FBI. The FBI is looking for a vendor that will let it log into a Software as a Service (SaaS) and query the collected ALPRs with license plate information, a description of the vehicle, a time or date, and geolocation information. 

Bad fire in California hits 17,000 residents

Independent, UK -  Over 17,000 people in Southern California are under evacuation orders as the wind-driven Sandy Fire, reported Monday in the hills above Simi Valley, threatens suburban homes 30 miles northwest of Los Angeles. Simi Valley, situated north-west of Los Angeles, has a population of more than 125,000 people.

By Tuesday morning, the blaze had consumed over two square miles of dry brush and destroyed at least one home, according to the Ventura County Fire Department. While initial gu sts of Santa Anas topped 30 mph, calmer overnight winds aided firefighters and they managed to get the fire 5% contained.

The case for impeaching Trump

 - We must impeach Trump and every senior officer who has enabled the most corrupt pRobert Hubbellresident in our nation’s past, present, and future.

The defining characteristics of the Trump administration are corruption, criminality, and depravity. The breathtaking scope of Trump’s lawlessness far exceeds his feeble attention span and narrow windows of inter-nap activity. Still, for a man who is monumentally incompetent and lazy, he has managed to convert multiple federal departments and agencies into protection rackets for Trump, including (but not limited to) DOJ, FBI, Treasury, Defense, and Homeland Security. Like a mob boss sitting atop a corrupt pyramid, he couldn’t do it alone, and he hasn’t.

Which is why Democrats must initiate the process of impeaching Trump and every “civil officer of the United States” subject to impeachment under the Constitution who has assisted Trump in converting large swaths of the federal government into a criminal enterprise.

Trump has committed an impeachable act every day of his second term (by withholding appropriated funds in violation of the Antideficiency Act), but on Monday, he reached an unthinkable level of corruption: He ordered the DOJ, IRS, and Treasury to gift him a $1.8 billion slush fund. He—and he alone—will decide in secret which of his cronies and family members will receive tax free payouts from the federal government without going through the pesky bother of filing a lawsuit, stating a claim, proving that claim before a jury, establishing damages, and withstanding appeal.

Polls

Alternet - According to an Ipsos/Reuters poll conducted April 15-20, 46% of American adults agreed with the statement that noncitizens cast a large number of fraudulent ballots in U.S. elections, and 50% were very or somewhat concerned about ineligible voters casting a ballot in the midterms.

Trump’s invections against mail voting have also trickled down to the general public: The same survey found that 53% of adults were concerned about fraudulent mail-in or absentee ballots in the midterms.

More generally, a Marist University/NPR/PBS News poll conducted March 2-4 found that 50% of adults thought it was likely that there would be voter fraud in the November elections. By contrast, none of the experts in Votebeat’s informal survey thought it was likely that a significant number of ineligible voters would cast ballots in 2026. Studies have repeatedly shown that noncitizen voting and voter fraud by mail are exceedingly rare.

It’s important to look at polls in the aggregate, and not every survey agrees that such a large percentage of Americans have been convinced by Trump’s claims. In a YouGov/CBS News poll conducted March 16-19, only 23% of adults said they thought noncitizens vote “a lot” in federal elections, although an additional 27% said they do so “sometimes.” And just 32% thought voter fraud and irregularities were generally widespread in U.S. elections; 57% thought they occurred only in a few isolated incidents, and only 11% said there was no voter fraud or irregularities whatsoever.

NATIONAL POLL By Echelon Insights (A) Pres. Trump Approve: 40% (-1) Disapprove: 59% (+2) —— Generic Ballot DEM: 51% (+1) GOP: 43% (-1)

Word

Thom Hartmann -  Back when I was a kid in Lansing, Michigan, my father used to tell me that the difference between America and the places his Army buddies had fought through in Europe and Asia wasn’t the size of our buildings or the strength of our army.

It was, he said, that here a cop couldn’t kick in your door without a judge first deciding there was a good reason, a president couldn’t help himself to the treasury, and he can’t take a king’s gift or send soldiers overseas to kill people without the people’s representatives saying yes. Even the cop shows we watched on TV had police regularly being turned away from people’s doors for lack of a warrant.  More

Dad believed that with the uncomplicated faith of a man who’d watched what happened when those rules disappeared in other countries, and he passed that faith on to me as if it were the most ordinary thing in the world, which, for an American of his generation, it was.

I’ve been thinking about my Eisenhower Republican father a lot lately, because the thing he assumed could never happen in America is now happening here, openly, daily, and with a kind of swagger that suggests the people doing it don’t believe there will ever be a price to pay.

Trump EPA Rolls Back Key Drinking Water Protections

New Republic -   President Donald Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency wants Americans to keep guzzling “forever chemicals” in their water.  The agency offered a formal proposal Monday to repeal Biden-era regulations on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, known as PFAS, a.k.a “forever chemicals,” because they linger in the environment for hundreds or even thousands of years.

.... David Andrews, chief science officer for the Environmental Working Group, told The Washington Post that the decision was “a betrayal of public health and the mission of making America healthier. Safe and clean drinking water should be a right for everyone in this country.”

Trump Suggests Alliance of Dictators to Take Down ICC

New Republic -   While meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping last week, President Trump suggested that China, the U.S., and Russia work together to fight the International Criminal Court.

The Financial Times reports, citing unnamed sources, that Trump himself raised the idea. The White House didn’t mention the proposal in its fact sheet about Trump’s visit, and its spokespeople declined to comment. But Trump has railed against the ICC in the past, demanding in December that it change its founding document to guarantee that it wouldn’t charge himself or any other American officials.

Trump, along with his Republican allies in Congress, has also blasted the ICC’s decision to issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. In February 2025, the White House imposed sanctions on the court itself, and last August, Secretary of State Marco Rubio went further by sanctioning the court’s judges.

$1.8 Billion Slush Fund

New Republic -   The U.S. Treasury’s highest-ranking lawyer quit just hours after President Trump announced his “Anti-Weaponization Fund”—a brazen attempt to dole out $1.8 billion of taxpayer money to his allies, supporters, and himself.

Treasury General Counsel Brian Morrissey resigned shortly after the fund was approved on Monday, according to The New York Times. Morrisey has yet to publicly comment. He served for only seven months.

The fund—created by Trump in exchange for dropping his $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS—allows anyone who feels they were wrongfully targeted by the Biden administration to seek damages. This includes, but is not limited to, January 6 rioters, right-wing think tanks, and the president’s own super PAC. While Trump claims he “wasn’t involved in the whole creation of it,” he controls who sits on the board of the fund.

There’s also a massive disclaimer that states that once the funds are disbursed, his administration has “no liability whatsoever for the protection or safeguarding of those funds, regardless of bank failure, fraudulent transfers, or any other fraud or misuse.” The move preemptively dodges any future legal issues that may arise from awarding funds to people who went to jail for assault and sedition (and have committed other crimes since).

The outcry has been swift and widespread, with Senator Elizabeth Warren calling the slush fund an “insane level of corruption—even for Trump.” California Governor Gavin Newsom said it was “waste, fraud, and abuse in the flesh.” Maybe those same feelings about this blatant self-enrichment scheme got to Morrissey.

Jeffrey Epstein

All 3.5 million pages of the Epstein files have been printed, bound and put on display at an art gallery in Lower Manhattan's Tribeca neighborhood, in the "Donald J. Trump and Jeffrey Epstein Memorial Reading Room."  The files — organized in 3,437 volumes totaling more than eight tons — are located blocks from the jail where Jeffrey Epstein was found dead in 2019, the N.Y. Times' Jesse McKinley notes. 

Church and state

The Hill -  A massive religious gathering on the National Mall backed by the White House is sparking backlash from critics who say it blurs the lines between church and state.

The unprecedented appearance of government officials featured virtual remarks from members of the administration including Vice President Vance, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. President Trump also delivered a brief virtual message in which he read from the Old Testament.

The daylong prayer rally, pegged as part of the America 250 celebrations, comes as concerns mount about the administration’s push for more Christian prayer and religious symbols in schools and for faith-based organizations to get federal funding.

Some critics questioned the constitutionality of the event.

“Rededicate 250 is a betrayal of America’s founding values guaranteed in the First Amendment — which made clear that there shall be no establishment of religion by the government, and that each one of us should be free to live out our beliefs in our own way,” Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush, president and CEO of Interfaith Alliance, said in a statement.

“This event used the power of the government to elevate one thin slice of American religion above others,” he said. “It was a political rally with a political agenda, rather than an event that truly celebrated the long, rich and diverse tradition of religious expression in America.”

Trump read verses from the Book of Chronicles in a video that was filmed in the Oval Office.

Other Republican officials were also sprinkled into the agenda.

Fuel taxes

Energy Information Administration data shows that the average national price per gallon of gas rose from $3.02 on March 2 to $4.12 on April 27 as the global economy dealt with the limited crude oil supply passing through the Strait of Hormuz. Yet prices vary broadly by state. Why? Several reasons, including a state's proximity to an oil supply, competition among gas stations, and supply disruptions. But other factors are more directly in the hands of regional governments, namely, taxes.

State governments levy excise taxes (excise taxes are typically applied per unit of a good or service, in this case, per gallon). In January, the highest gas excise taxes were in California (61 cents/gallon), Pennsylvania (58), Washington (55), and Michigan (52). Alaska and New York charged 8 cents per gallon, the lowest in the nation. 

 

Several states have additional taxes and fees, including for storage, inspection, or environmental cleanup. Plus, many apply general sales taxes to purchases, including gas. New Jersey added the most (39 cents/gallon), followed by Vermont (19 cents/gallon), Florida, Indiana, and Illinois (all at 18 cents/gallon).   

 

With all these taxes combined, California had the highest state tax (71 cents/gallon), while Alaska had the lowest (9 cents/gallon). 

Meanwhile. . .

The Ultimate Guide to Cleaning and Storing Holiday Décor

San Diego shooting

Trump's dubious stock trades

MS NOW  -   Just this week, we found out that in the first quarter of the year, Trump made more than 3,700 financial trades, worth tens of millions of dollars. That averages out to 59 trades a day and nine trades per hour.

The conflicts of interest and personal corruption are simply astonishing. Many of the companies do business with the federal government. In fact, Trump allegedly bought stock in Amazon and Microsoft months before the Pentagon announced agreements with both companies.

Earlier this year, Trump bought a sizable amount of Nvidia stock right before the artificial intelligence chipmaker received permission to export its advanced H200 AI processors to China. Not surprisingly, Nvidia’s stock shot up, earning Trump a tidy profit.

The conflicts of interest and personal corruption are simply astonishing.

Trump also bought a significant share of Intel, the chipmaker the Trump administration took a 10% stake in last year. The company’s stock is up 178% since the beginning of the year. According to Popular Information, an independent newsletter that reviewed the disclosures, Trump bought between $1 million and $5 million in Dell stock, and then nine days later, in a speech in Georgia, told people to “go out and buy a Dell computer.”

“Neither President Trump, his family, nor The Trump Organization plays any role in selecting, directing, or approving specific investments,” the Trump Organization said in a statement. “They receive no advance notice of trading activity and provide no input regarding investment decisions or portfolio management of any kind.”

ICE

Headline USA -   A Minnesota prosecutor announced Monday criminal charges against an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in connection with the non-fatal January shooting of a Minneapolis man. Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said ICE officer Christian Castro is being charged with four counts of second-degree assault and one count of falsely reporting a crime stemming from the Jan. 14 shooting of Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis, who Moriarty said was “here lawfully.” A warrant has been issued for Castro’s arrest.  Moriarty said the case reflects her office’s position that federal status does not shield officers from state prosecution.

 

Middle East

Newsworthy News -   Senate Republicans shut down a Democrat-led bid to shackle President Trump’s Iran campaign, signaling Congress will not handicap U.S. defenses while Tehran pushes its nuclear ambitions. Senate rejected a war powers curb on a 47-53 vote, preserving Trump’s operational latitude against Iran. Republican leadership framed the vote as prioritizing Iran nuclear deterrence over partisan obstruction....Vote split largely by party; Senator Rand Paul was the lone Republican supporting the resolution.

President Donald Trump said he cancelled strikes on Iran planned for Tuesday, once again citing progress towards a deal to end the war that has stalled since negotiations began.  Trump’s Monday announcement on Truth Social came a day after he warned Iran to “get moving, fast, or there won’t be anything left of them.” The President said the leaders of several Gulf countries had requested that he “hold off on our planned Military attack” because “serious negotiations are now taking place” and “a deal will be made.”

Ice cream recalled in 17 states

Health.com - Ice cream from Straus Family Creamery has been recalled in 17 states. The products may contain metal, which poses a safety hazard.  Throw out any recalled ice cream, and go to the company's website for a replacement voucher.

[P.S. Your editor has dropped flavored ice cream in favor of Breyer's vanilla brand. To those of you who thought you were too good for just vanilla, give it a try. I'm hooked. ]

Russia and China

Congressional Insider -  Back-to-back summits in Beijing—Trump with Xi, then Putin with Xi—signal a tightening Russia–China front that tests American leverage and the West’s sanctions regime.

The Kremlin confirmed Vladimir Putin’s two-day state visit to China immediately after the Trump–Xi talks.  Beijing and Moscow will discuss trade, energy, and regional flashpoints while showcasing a long-term “strategic partnership."

The visit’s choreography projects alignment that could blunt Western economic pressure.

Voting

The Hill -  Republicans on Capitol Hill are seeking to shift the blame for the redistricting war onto Democrats, downplaying President Trump’s leading role in a gerrymandering frenzy that’s unpopular with voters of all stripes.  Trump instigated the rare, mid-decade redistricting fight last summer when he pressed Texas state Republicans to redraw their map with designs to eliminate five Democratic seats. Republicans were “entitled” to those seats, he argued, because Democratic gerrymandering in other states had disenfranchised GOP voters.

Almost a year later, that same argument is picking up steam in the Capitol, where a growing chorus of GOP lawmakers are racing to defend the president from Democratic charges that he’s trying to “rig” the midterms to keep Republicans in control of Congress for the final two years of his presidency. 

Word

Via Esta

Weather

The Guardian -   As the US prepares for hurricane season and a summer of record-breaking heat, experts fear the Trump administration’s cuts to climate and weather data programming could make the federal government’s weather forecasts less reliable when they are needed most. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) late last year launched a suite of artificial intelligence-powered global weather forecast models which it said would improve “speed, efficiency, and accuracy”. In March, an agency official said those models were being trained with centuries of weather data.

Artificial intelligence is a valuable tool for weather prediction, but only when it is well-trained with ample data, said Monica Medina, who served as Noaa’s principal deputy undersecretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere from 2009 to 2012.

Under Trump, climate and weather data collection has declined, said Medina. This year, the Trump administration proposed a modest budget increase for the National Weather Service, but a 40% cut to Noaa overall.

Bad stuff

Independent, UK -  Donald Trump’s Department of Justice is launching an unprecedented effort to reward those friends and supporters of the president who were prosecuted or investigated for crimes under previous Democratic administrations by doling out as much as $1.7 billion in taxpayer funds in a new “anti-weaponization fund.”

The new initiative was announced Monday by Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, who was Trump’s personal defense counsel in the multiple criminal cases that were brought against the then-former president for allegedly unlawfully retaining classified documents after the end of his first term and attempting to illegally overturn the 2020 election to avoid leaving office after losing that election to Joe Biden.

Blanche said the new compensation fund is being established to settle a $10 billion lawsuit that Trump, his children and his eponymous real estate and hotel company had filed against the IRS after a contractor for the agency leaked his tax returns to the New York Times during his first term.

According to the Justice Department, the fund will be administered by a five-member commission appointed by Blanche, with one member chosen in consultation with Congress.

Alternet America - This week, another Republican official arrested in a child predator sting. Hunter Rivera, the 24-year-old chairman of the Weld County Republican Party in Colorado, was arrested Thursday during an undercover operation targeting child predators. Investigators posted ads online posing as minors offering sexual acts; several dozen people responded. Rivera was one of two men who arrived at the agreed-upon location.

Rivera faces four felony charges: soliciting a child prostitute, internet luring of a child, cybercrime solicitation involving a minor, and attempted sexual assault on a child. He was held on a $6,500 cash-only bond,

Artificial intelligence

Deep State Tribunal -   A French artificial intelligence boss is warning Europe it has just two years to avoid becoming a digital “vassal state” to American tech giants, and his plan says a lot about the new global power struggle over who controls the machines shaping our lives.  The “two-year deadline” and “vassal state” language are not backed by hard numbers, highlighting how much of this debate is political positioning.

China

 Jim Smith, Talking Turkey -  In January, a university think tank in Beijing published a report with a title that should make Americans sit up straight: “Thank Trump.” According to The Economist, the scholars offered sarcastic but sincere gratitude for what they called Trump’s contributions to China’s rise: “driving away America’s traditional allies,” proving that China is “more trustworthy and stable,” and even pushing Chinese innovation through his tariff wars.

Chinese commentators now routinely describe Trump as an “accelerator of American political decay,” a phrase reported by the New York Times. In their telling, Trump hasn’t just weakened America — he has strengthened China....

How Chinese analysts are framing Trump’s second term:

“Accelerating American political decay.”

Chinese commentators quoted in The New York Times argue that Trump’s rhetoric and institutional attacks validate their long-held belief that the U.S. is in decline.

Driving allies away.

The report claims his confrontations with NATO partners and other allies “weaken America’s global coalition” and leave China looking more stable by comparison.

Supercharging Chinese innovation.

Tariffs and tech restrictions are framed not as setbacks but as pressure that “forces China to innovate faster,” according to summaries of the report.

Strengthening China’s global image.

Chinese state-linked analysts argue that Trump’s unpredictability makes China appear “more trustworthy and stable,” a contrast they are eager to highlight.

Reinforcing China’s narrative of inevitability.

The NYT notes that Chinese media now pair Trump-era U.S. dysfunction with imagery of China’s technological prowess — drones, EVs, robotics — to underscore a message: China is rising; America is faltering.

Russia famously supported Trump’s 2016 and subsequent campaigns, knowing that Trump’s rise would contribute to America’s downfall. Will we see China contributing to MAGA campaigns for the same reason — to “polish us off”?

Workers

Shortlysts _ A new survey of corporate CEOs conducted by Oliver Wyman suggests artificial intelligence may be changing hiring plans in a way that could hit younger workers first. While public discussion around AI often focuses on mass automation or dramatic job losses, executives appear to be making more targeted decisions.

Many companies are reconsidering whether they need as many entry-level workers if AI systems can handle portions of beginner-level tasks.

The numbers changed sharply over the past year. Roughly 43% of CEOs said they expect to reduce hiring for junior positions, up from 17% previously, while only 17% of CEOs surveyed said they planned to increase focus on bringing in more entry-level staff.

Instead of focusing on entry-level hires, many companies are placing much greater emphasis on experienced workers, with 30% reporting they are increasing hiring at the mid-level, up from 10% last year.

The survey also found that more than 90% of CEOs say their companies are already using AI in some form. Despite that, many firms are still early in the process, as 67% said that AI projects are still in either planning stages or pilot programs rather than full implementation.

Jeffrey Epstein

NY Times -   All 3.5 million pages of the Epstein files have been printed, bound and put on display at an art gallery in Lower Manhattan's Tribeca neighborhood, in the "Donald J. Trump and Jeffrey Epstein Memorial Reading Room."  The files — organized in 3,437 volumes totaling more than eight tons — are located blocks from the jail where Jeffrey Epstein was found dead in 2019, the N.Y. Times' Jesse McKinley notes.

Best and worst states for military retirees

WalletHub has released its report on the 2026’s Best & Worst States for Military Retirees...
WalletHub evaluated all 50 states and the District of Columbia across 28 key indicators of veteran retirement-friendliness. The data set ranges from job opportunities for veterans to housing affordability to the quality of VA hospitals.
 

Best States for Military Retirees		Worst States for Military Retirees
1. South Carolina		42. New Mexico
2. North Dakota		43. Colorado
3. Wyoming		44. Nevada
4. New Hampshire		45. Montana
5. Maryland		46. Mississippi
6. Alaska		47. New Jersey
7. Florida		48. Washington
8. Massachusetts		49. District of Columbia
9. Minnesota		50. Vermont
10. South Dakota		51. Oregon

 
Memorial Day Facts

• 100M+ – Households worldwide will watch the National Memorial Day parade broadcast on TV.
• 3.7M – People are expected to travel by plane over Memorial Day weekend (up 0.3% over 2025).
• 818 – Number of hot dogs consumed every second from Memorial Day to Labor Day (seven billion total).

To view the full report and your state or the District’s rank