A new study in Nature Sustainability argues that this history is a guide to what comes next. Coastal Louisiana, the authors write, is ground zero for coastal climate adaptation: a place where rising seas and sinking land are already reshaping where people live, and where planning for movement could offer more agency than crisis-driven displacement.
May 30, 2026
Climate change
Inside Climate News - The shoreline of Louisiana has never been still or fixed, though recent generations have treated it as such. Since the last ice age roughly 20,000 years ago, around when people arrived in what is now the United States, sea levels have repeatedly reshaped aspects of the Gulf Coast. But today, human-caused warming is accelerating that ancient process, pushing Louisiana’s dynamic shoreline into conflict with cities, roads, ports and levees built to contain and stabilize nature.
Polls
Pew Research - A growing share of Americans (62%) say the U.S. and other countries will not do enough to avoid the worst effects of climate change. While majorities say extreme weather events have become more frequent (68%) and more severe (62%), partisans differ in their perceptions, even within the same regions of the country.
Two-thirds of U.S. adults who regularly attend religious services say they have heard their clergy speak about at least one political or social issue in the past few months. Abortion, Israel and homosexuality came up most often out of the seven topics we asked about.
Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool: Some deflecting facts
NY Times - A National Park Service analysis found that the contractor given a no-bid contract to repair the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool is being paid an inflated and excessive profit margin, according to federal documents obtained by The New York Times.
That analysis, prepared by a Park Service contracting specialist, found that the typical profit margin of federal construction contracts like this one is 6 percent to 12 percent. But the firm fixing the Reflecting Pool, Virginia-based Atlantic Industrial Coatings, submitted a bid that charged 20 percent, adding at least $850,000 to what a more typical contract would have cost..... The government eventually agreed to pay the firm $13.1 million, which is seven times the amount that President Trump initially said the work would cost.
JD Vance
Alternet - Judging by interviews President Donald Trump doesn’t sound eager to envision a world without him in charge, and he’s slow to acknowledge up-and-coming lieutenants who are eager to take the reins. The New York Times reports that when confronted with the prospect of Vice President JD Vance as MAGA’s next crowned leader, Trump is loathe to discuss it openly — even as his own personal brand struggles to reclaim the supremacy it once held with legions of largely racist, antisemitic MAGA men.
Citing information from more than a dozen anonymous White House sources, the Times reports that Trump “has told several allies that Mr. Vance has never won a tough race without his help. (Mr. Trump’s endorsement got Mr. Vance over the finish line in a tight race for an Ohio Senate seat.) He has brought up the number of vacations Mr. Vance has taken as vice president. (Mr. Trump does not generally take them.)”
The president has also has repeatedly mentioned the vice president’s initial opposition to starting Trump’s wildly unpopular war with Iran and has even pointed this out in front of. Vance, saying “I’m more of a peace person than you are — but I had to do it,” according to the Times. And Trump has also questioned his decision to send a delegation led by the vice president to an international negotiation — which ultimately failed to end Trump’s war.
Donald Trump
Alternet - The New York Times reports Trump has no intention of making his presidential library a reservoir for review of his administration, as other presidents have done. “In his determination to own and control every document in his future library, the president is working to shield his administration’s inner workings from public view,” reports Times writers Elizabeth Williamson and Minho Kim.
“Mr. Trump had said that the $1 billion project, the priciest presidential library yet, could include a hotel and retail sales outlets. But more disturbing to historians and government watchdogs is his determination to own and control every document a presidential library would contain,” said the Times. “Not since the Watergate era, when President Richard M. Nixon took his fight to control the incriminating White House tapes to the Supreme Court, has a president worked so hard to shield documentary evidence of his administration’s inner workings from public view.”
Axios AM - President Trump was handed a trio of bad news rulings by judges yesterday:
- His $1.776 billion "anti-weaponization" fund was blocked from moving forward for the time being by a federal judge.
- He was ordered by a different federal judge to respond to "grievous" accusations that his settlement with the IRS, which led to the creation of his anti-weaponization fund, was "premised on deception."
- His name was ordered to be removed from the Kennedy Center, with a D.C. district judge declaring, "Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it."
Time - Former Attorney General Pam Bondi on Friday refused to answer questions regarding President Donald Trump’s involvement in the Administration’s handling of investigations into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein during a transcribed interview with members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. During the closed-door interview, Bondi appeared to be “combative” at times and did not answer any question regarding whether Trump directed Bondi to redact any information regarding the Epstein investigations, according to Committee Ranking Member Robert Garcia.
“In fact, she said that she would not speak or respond to any questions that had anything to do with President Trump,” Garcia said. Throughout the interview, Bondi repeatedly pointed to Acting Attorney Todd Blanche in response to questions regarding the release of the so-called Epstein files and the criminal investigations into the disgraced financier, saying “Acting AG Blanche was managing the entire investigation” and that she “did not recall” a lot of the details about events from roughly six months ago, according to Garcia.
Housing
Newsworthy News - The Department of Housing and Urban Development reports that by early 2025, buying a home was unaffordable in 17 states, compared with only California five years earlier. National Association of Realtors analysis finds that households earning around $50,000 can now afford less than one in ten homes on the market, leaving middle-income buyers locked out of more than half of all listings nationwide. Families who played by the rules now discover that ownership has slipped beyond their grasp
The Democrats’ search for a national leader
Steven Hill - So which Democratic candidate will be the right one? A recent poll by Lake Research Partners of 2028 Democratic primary voters found that the two Democratic front runners are Kamala Harris and Gavin Newsom....To me, this is bad news for Democrats. As a Californian, I really don’t see how either Harris or Newsom can be elected president. It’s partly a matter of trying to win the votes of very different electorates in different elections. To get elected as governor or US Senator from California, you have to say and do things to appeal to blue state Californians, as well as state-based organized interest groups, that are going to backfire against you when you try to win votes nationwide.
It’s a simple matter of optics. In 2024, the Trump campaign ran billions of versions of an ad attacking Harris for being supportive of trans rights. The ad slogan “Kamala is for they/them, President Trump is for YOU” resonated bigly in 2024, and will still be effective in 2028.
Newsom has tried to walk back some of his own positions on various liberal issues in preparation for his presidential run, but that won’t matter because those interviews, Twitter posts and video clips still exist. You can’t wave a magic wand and disappear them. His opponent will feature his original statements in ad after ad. The leopard can’t change its spots very easily.
The change in America we largely ignore
Wolves and Sheep - Americans have added six hours of media consumption to their average day, up from 7.5 hours in the 1970s to 13.5 hours today. The extra hours of media consumption mostly involve computers, including desktops, laptops, smartphones and tablets.
This is such a dramatic change in the way we live that any explanation of almost any modern problem we face must at least consider how spending more than half our waking hours using computers has changed us. I mean, computers were inaccessible to the general public before about 1980, and now using computers is how the average American spends the majority of their time.
Sam Smith - And this, I would argue, is a major reason for the cultural and political changes in America: we know more about figures reported in the media than in the important folks in our own communities.
The decline of civil rights
New Republic - We are in a new era of American democracy, particularly for Black Americans. The Republican Party now views Democratic Party electoral wins and policy success as an existential crisis that it must prevent by any means necessary. Crushing Black political power is therefore essential to the GOP, since African Americans overwhelmingly support the Democratic Party. And the current Supreme Court, more than any in decades, has not only removed virtually all constraints on policies that might negatively affect African Americans but actively looks to outlaw any public policy that might benefit Blacks.
This era demands a new framework for Black politics—fresh strategies, tactics, leaders, and goals. We need a “Double Front” approach. And we should be clear-eyed: Even before Callais, the existing models of Black politics were growing stale.
Joe Biden
Headline USA - Former President Joe Biden has sued the Justice Department to prevent it from releasing transcripts and audio of interviews he conducted with his ghostwriter, Mark Zwonitzer, for his 2017 memoir. The DOJ obtained the interview materials in 2023 as part of then-Special Counsel Robert Hur’s investigation into Biden for mishandling classified documents. Hur eventually declined to press charges, in part because he thought Biden would present himself to a jury as a “sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”
Since the investigation is now closed, the House Judiciary Committee and the Heritage Foundation have both sought the transcripts and audio of Biden’s interviews with Zwonitzer. But Biden said in his lawsuit, filed Tuesday in federal court, that disclosing those materials would violate his privacy.
Race to the Moon
Congressional Insider - The United States is racing to plant a permanent flag on the Moon by the early 2030s — and the urgency goes well beyond science.
NASA’s March 2026 national space policy commits to returning astronauts to the Moon and building a permanent lunar base, framing it as essential to American leadership in space.
The lunar south pole, described by NASA as “strategically and scientifically valuable,” is the target site — largely because of water-ice deposits that could fuel long-duration missions and eventual Mars travel.
SpaceX’s Starship is set to begin cargo flights to the lunar surface no earlier than 2028 at roughly $100 million per mission, with Blue Origin’s lander also selected for uncrewed cargo runs.
While NASA publicly emphasizes exploration, science, and Mars preparation, analysts and outside observers increasingly read the program as a strategic hedge against China’s own advancing lunar ambitions
May 29, 2026
Judge blocks renaming of Kennedy Center
The Hill - A federal judge on Friday blocked the rebranding of Kennedy Center to include President Trump’s name and ruled that officials improperly voted to close it starting this summer. U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper sided with Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-Ohio), an ex officio member of the center’s board who challenged the remaking of the storied performing arts center in the nation’s capital.
“The Kennedy Center’s organic statute makes crystal clear that the Center is to be named for President Kennedy, and it cannot bear any other formal name or public memorial based on the Board’s unilateral say-so,” Cooper said in his ruling.
“Congress gave the Kennedy Center its name, and only Congress can change it,” wrote the appointee of former President Obama.
Polls
Presidential approval rating
The Hill- President Trump’s job approval rating fell to a record low of 34 percent in this week’s YouGov/The Economist poll, marking the lowest level recorded in the survey across both of his terms in office. The rating is also lower than any approval rating former President Biden received during his presidency, according to YouGov. The Economist noted Trump “this week became the most unpopular president since our poll started in 2009.”
Generic Ballot: Public Polling Project
Dems 51% (Biggest Lead of Cycle)
GOP 38%
Trump Approval:
Approve 39%
Disapprove 57% (-18 net)
Iran War
Approve 34%
Disapprove 58% (-24 Net)Journalists subjected to unconstitutional search warrants
The Guardian - On Tuesday, a federal judge unsealed records showing that the Department of Justice tried and failed to get search warrants targeting journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort, as well as three protesters involved in the Cities church demonstration in St Paul, Minnesota, last winter.
A court rejected the search warrants – twice. In strikingly blunt opinions, magistrate judge John Docherty said officials didn’t meet basic legal standards and chastised them for failing to mention a federal law that may have made some of the warrants illegal. The Department of Justice later withdrew the requests.
The justice department’s blatant disregard for the constitution and attempt to hide the law is disturbing, even if the department’s recent track record means it’s no longer shocking. With government attacks on freedom of speech increasing and the justice department’s independence declining, it’s more important than ever for judges to aggressively scrutinize government requests, for prosecutors to face real consequences when they abuse their power, and for Congress to pass strong laws protecting first amendment rights.
The search warrant records that were recently unsealed in the Cities church protest case show how the justice department is using the prosecution of protesters and journalists to directly threaten freedom of speech.
Health
Health. com - New research shows just one weekly activity could help you live a longer, healthier life: volunteering.
The study, set to be published in the January issue of Social Science & Medicine, found that volunteering—even for just one hour a week—is linked to slower biological aging, which reflects how old your cells and tissues appear compared to your actual age.
The researchers controlled for other health variables that can slow biological aging—including frequency of physical activity, smoking status, binge drinking, obesity, and more—and still found a connection between volunteering and slower biological aging.
No Kings Movement event
The Hill - The “No Kings” movement announced a nationwide event set for June 14, which is President Trump’s 80th birthday. “The next 250 starts with us. As America approaches its anniversary about what story we tell. We can let strongman politics and corruption define the moment,” the movement’s website states. “Or we can make the story of America about people coming together — across race, background, identity, belief, and community — to defend our rights and build a future rooted in people’s power.”
“On June 14, we rise up, we sing out, and we keep organizing.”
....Since Trump returned to office, three sets of No Kings protests — which were different than what is planned on June 14 — have occurred.a
Middle East
1440 - US and Iranian negotiators reached a tentative deal yesterday to extend a ceasefire by 60 days, reopen the Strait of Hormuz, and begin nuclear negotiations. The proposal has been sent to President Donald Trump for review. News of a potential deal comes as the two countries continue to accuse each other of violating the weekslong ceasefire. The US military struck Iranian missile launch sites and mine-laying boats this week, and also shot down several Iranian drones. Kuwait intercepted Iranian missiles late Wednesday that were apparently directed against a US air base on its soil. (Is the US running low on munitions?)
Separately, Israel has continued strikes this week targeting what it called Hezbollah infrastructure in southern Lebanon. The country issued an evacuation notice on Wednesday covering 14% of Lebanon’s territory—the broadest warning since Israel and Lebanon agreed to a ceasefire last month. The two countries are set to hold security talks today in Washington, DC.
Housing
Greg Gerritt, Prosperity for RI - What we really need is a long term commitment by the federal government to build housing. From the Homestead Act of 1862 until the real estate scum bought off Congress to end public housing in the 19070s so they could jack up rents, what kept housing affordable in the US was public housing. The housing crisis demands immediate action. No one is saying we shall have housing for everyone in any reasonable amount of time by building more, so rent control is the only tool we have that actually will slow rent increases. If you want a working economy, you have to have places workers can afford to live in. Urban New England is in terrible shape when it comes to housing affordability. The people moving away are our future workers and leaders. Rent control will keep workers , young families and creatives, here. But the real estate industry screams bloody murder every time someone offers real affordability for housing. it is time to stop listening to rich criminals who’s business plan is price gouging.
Alternet America - Trump promised housing for 6,000 homeless veterans in Los Angeles, then budgeted exactly zero dollars to build it. Peter Navarro personally called the Pentagon to fast-track a $620 million loan to a rare-earth firm Don Jr. had just bought into. The Justice Department is subpoenaing Reddit and X to unmask anonymous users who criticized ICE. And Utah audited two million voter registrations for a year and found 13 noncitizens who actually voted.
Judge temporarily bars Trump's dubious $1.8 billion fund
NY Times - A federal judge on Friday barred the Trump administration from taking steps to create or operate President Trump’s $1.8 billion fund until a hearing on June 12. The order covers any transfer of money into the fund, decisions on any claims and the disbursement of any payouts.
Voting
NY Times - Louisiana lawmakers gave final approval on Friday to a new congressional map that would eliminate one of the state’s two majority-Black districts, m?aking it the second Southern state to draw and approve carving out such a district since the Supreme Court weakened the Voting Rights Act? last month.
The new map is Louisiana’s response to the court’s ruling, which rejected its previous congressional map as an illegal racial gerrymander. After delaying the state’s U.S. House primaries and negotiating for weeks, the Republican-controlled Legislature settled on redrawing the district at the center of the ruling in a way that reduces the number of Black voters who live in it and hands Republicans a structural advantage ahead of the November midterms.
Feds vs states
Center Square - The Department of Justice filed separate federal lawsuits Wednesday against Washington, Oregon, Maine and Massachusetts, escalating a clash between the Trump administration and Democratic-led states over federal immigration enforcement.
The legal action follows a formal warning issued earlier this month by the Justice Department, which all four states refused to act upon. Federal officials argue the restrictions violate the U.S. Constitution, intentionally obstruct federal power and put undercover agents at risk.
The lawsuits stem from decisions by state motor vehicle departments to suspend or heavily restrict the issuance of confidential, undercover license plates to Department of Homeland Security personnel, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection.
E. Jean Carroll
Headline USA - The top federal prosecutor in Chicago denied Thursday evening that his office had opened an investigation into E. Jean Carroll, the longtime advice columnist who has said Donald Trump sexually assaulted her in a New York department store 30 years ago, hours after multiple news organizations reported that the Justice Department was investigating whether she had lied during the course of civil litigation against Trump.
The Associated Press and other news organizations, citing anonymous sources, reported that the federal prosecutors’ office in Chicago had opened an investigation into Carroll examining possible perjury allegations.
But Andrew Boutros, the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, issued a statement roughly 24 hours after the first report was published saying that his office “has not opened — and has never opened — a criminal investigation into E. Jean Carroll.”
Immigration
Newsworthy News - New evidence suggests federal immigration detention is failing vulnerable men at a pace that should alarm anyone who cares about basic duty of care and government accountability.
The Associated Press reviewed death notifications, autopsies, coroner rulings, and police and emergency medical services records tied to 51 detainee deaths since January 2025.
Homeland Security says suicide remains extremely rare in immigration custody and argues the raw count does not tell the full story.
A peer-reviewed 2020 study found suicide rates in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention rose sharply compared with the prior decade.
A peer-reviewed 2020 study found suicide rates in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention rose sharply compared with the prior decade.
The US government deported more than 21,000 people to countries that the state department deemed too dangerous to visit, according to a Marshall Project analysis of Immigration and Customs Enforcement data obtained by the Deportation Data Project from Trump’s inauguration through mid-March.
Russia
The Guardian - The Nato secretary general, Mark Rutte, has said the alliance is “ready to defend every inch” of its territory after a Russian drone hit an apartment building in Romania, a member state, during an overnight attack on neighbouring Ukraine. The incident in Gala?i, which injured two people, prompted swift condemnation and the threat of repercussions.
“Russia’s reckless behaviour is a danger to us all,” Rutte wrote on social media after a call with the Romanian president, Nicusor Dan. “I affirmed that Nato stands ready to defend every inch of allied territory.”
Jeffrey Epstein
MS NOW - Former Attorney General Pam Bondi is set to testify before the House Oversight Committee on Friday about the Justice Department’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files release. Bondi’s closed-door, transcribed interview before the committee has long been anticipated. She was initially scheduled to testify on April 14, but after President Donald Trump fired her as attorney general on April 2, the Justice Department said she would not go before the panel because she was subpoenaed in her official capacity as attorney general and was therefore no longer obligated to testify.
Democrats on the Oversight Committee pushed for Bondi’s testimony. In late April, they introduced a civil contempt resolution against her, citing what they described as Republican’s caginess about rescheduling her deposition. Less than an hour after the resolution was introduced, Republicans on the committee announced they had secured a new date for Bondi’s appearance and dismissed the contempt charges as “all theater and completely unnecessary.” In a statement Thursday, Democrats on the committee criticized the decision not to videotape Bondi’s voluntary transcribed interview and accused committee chair Rep. James Comer, R-Kentucky, of “working to hide her testimony from the American people.”
May 28, 2026
Justice Alito's son works for the Trump regime
Occupy Democrats - Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito's son secretly received a top job inside the Trump administration while Alito was ruling on massive cases involving the White House. ...Philip Alito, the son of far-right Justice Samuel Alito, was given an appointment as a lawyer at the Treasury Department early on in Trump's second term. His father was aware of the appointment and did nothing to block it, unsurprising since Alito has zero interest in avoiding conflicts of interest or maintaining the legitimacy of the court.
This is the same Samuel Alito who was caught accepting bribes from billionaire Paul Singer in the form of luxury jet travel and an expensive fishing vacation. And that's just what we know about.
According to NOTUS, four government officials confirmed that Alito's son is working inside the office of the general counsel, which supports Treasury Secretary Bessent. Notus described the arrangement as a "closely guarded secret." Philip Alito, in an apparent effort to maintain a low profile, does not have a public resume, LinkedIn profile, or a presence on the Treasury Department. Most of the images available of him online are older, from when his father was first appointed to the court. He's a ghost in the system, getting paid by our tax dollars, and presumably whispering in his father's ear to tilt rulings in Trump's favor.
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