Alternet America

Republicans Are Hiding Their Agenda Until After You Vote

AlterNet America — Sat, 03 Oct 2026 14:21:13 GMT

Good morning, AlterNet America family.

Welcome to the Saturday Wrapup, where I give you my thoughts on the week’s biggest news as I consume my caffeine with you.

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Trump Claims the Secret Service Wanted to Demolish the Oval Office

If the Secret Service actually wanted to tear it down, they would have told him not to.

In a 75-minute interview with TIME magazine published this week, Trump said Secret Service officials approached him with a proposal to tear down the Oval Office and build a replacement. In a reversal of other recent events, Trump claimed he was the one who refused.

Trump said he caught agents inspecting the room and asked what they were doing. One of them reportedly told him, “Sir, we think the Oval Office should be taken down, and we’ll build a new one, sir.” Trump said he rejected the plan and called the Oval Office “a beautiful room that nobody should be allowed to rip down.”

Four former Secret Service officials said the agency has suggested to past administrations ways to improve security around the Oval Office, but has never recommended knocking it down. The Secret Service did not respond to questions about Trump’s recent remarks.

Trump has already made sweeping changes to the White House in his second term. He swapped the Rose Garden for a Mar-a-Lago-like patio, the East Wing for a 90,000-square-foot ballroom, and decked the Oval Office in gold.

A recent Washington Post/Ipsos poll found that 65 percent of Americans have a negative view of his renovation projects, suggesting Trump’s comments could be an effort to save face before the midterms. Speaking of…

White House Told DOJ to Delay Action on Abortion Until After the Midterms

The Comstock Act has waited 152 years. It can wait until November 4.

A senior administration official told the Washington Sun that Trump Chief of Staff Susan Wiles directly ordered Attorney General Todd Blanche to refrain from any legal action related to abortion before the November elections. Wiles reportedly warned that acting on abortion before the midterms would cost the party votes.

Since then, Blanche has urged federal judges to pause lawsuits seeking to block access to the abortion pill mifepristone as the FDA reviews its safety. When a 5th Circuit judge asked DOJ lawyers what the administration’s real position on the drug is, they would not say.

Leaders of the anti-abortion movement said they heard the same message from the administration. Tom McClusky of CatholicVote said he has heard “the same thing from every agency I talk to and from members of Congress,” adding that nothing is going to happen until after November.

One source with White House connections said the administration plans to enforce the Comstock Act, a set of 1873 laws that would ban mailing abortion pills nationwide, after the midterms. Another source said DOJ officials are “actively working on it.”

Politico reported that Blanche told faith leaders during a private call in August that the administration was working to make abortion illegal “in every single state.” The last time he said the word “abortion” on the record was during his confirmation hearings.

USPS Is Testing Cameras on Mail Trucks That Record Every Street

Neither rain nor snow nor your reasonable expectation of privacy.

The United States Postal Service is testing a pilot program that places cameras in roughly 100 delivery vehicles in the Washington, D.C. area, according to a labor-relations letter obtained by 404 Media. The cameras, made by Nextbase, scan roads, signage and sidewalks along delivery routes constantly.

Some USPS vehicles are already equipped with 360-degree exterior cameras for limited, incident-based recording. This pilot is different, because the cameras are recording from the moment the truck shifts into drive until it gets back to the facility.

The USPS said the cameras are used to gather data on road conditions and what it calls “community safety.” The agency responded to privacy concerns in a letter to the postal workers’ union, saying its trucks already drive down every street in every community.

Nextbase cameras can film up to 4K resolution and capture license plate details. The pilot doesn’t employ automatic license plate reader software, but the agency hasn’t disclosed how long footage is stored or who has access to it.

Three Billionaires Fund Over 90% of the GOP Campaign for Wisconsin Governor

Tom Tiffany has more billionaire backers than original policy positions.

Republican Rep. Tom Tiffany has raised more than $26 million in his bid to become Wisconsin’s next governor, and more than 90 percent of that money came from just three donors.

Between August and September, Richard and Elizabeth Uihlein, the billionaires behind the Uline packaging and shipping company, each gave $11 million to the Republican Party of Wisconsin. Diane Hendricks, the co-founder of ABC Supply Co. and the state’s largest conservative political donor, gave a large sum of her own. The state party then funneled more than $24 million of that money into Tiffany’s campaign.

The transfers gave Tiffany an enormous cash advantage in the final weeks of the race. His Democratic opponent, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley, raised just $10 million in the same period.

Wisconsin eliminated limits on individual donations to political parties in 2015, but no candidate had ever been bankrolled by so few people until now. Before the change, individuals were limited to $10,000 a year to a state party committee.

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REVEALED: Leaked Messages Reveal GOP Senator Blew Up at Trump

AlterNet America — Fri, 02 Oct 2026 20:07:18 GMT

Good afternoon. I’m Ryan Rose, and this is AlterNet America. Please take a moment to click the ❤️ and restack this post. The oligarchs’ platforms are trying to keep stories like the ones below from hitting your feeds, and this helps us break through.

Trump spent hours consulting an AI chatbot before ordering the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. Senator Thom Tillis told off Trump in an explosive leaked text message chain. ICE agreements with local police departments have increased by 950% since Trump took office. And Susan Collins is still taking dark money from a defense contractor at the center of an FBI bribery probe.

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Trump Used an AI Chatbot to Decide Whether to Invade Venezuela

Siri, invade Venezuela.

An insider in the Trump administration told TIME magazine the president spent hours in an Oval Office meeting with Elon Musk last December, asking Musk’s Grok chatbot questions about his presidency and his legacy. When Trump asked the chatbot how Venezuelans might respond to the capture of President Nicolas Maduro, it predicted many would welcome the removal.

Trump then ordered Maduro’s capture in January. The experience reportedly left him thinking Grok was an ingenious tool, which contributed to his decision to wage a war with Iran.

Most recently, Trump signed an executive order renaming artificial intelligence to “super intelligence.” He announced the rebrand at his U.N. General Assembly speech last week, where he told the audience his name sounds “much better” and is “much more accurate.”

Trump also released the “White House Accord on Super Intelligence” Tuesday, personally drafted by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and signed by executives from OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI, and others. Neither the order nor the accord contain any new regulations or enforcement provisions for AI.

Sponsored Kalshi poll: Which party will win the U.S. Senate

GOP Senator Ripped Into Trump in Explosive Text Messages

Retiring senators discover their spines the way most retirees discover pickleball.

Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina sent Trump two private text messages this summer that were obtained by Politico and published on Friday. The messages followed Trump attacking Tillis on Truth Social, calling him weak and ineffective and accusing him of spending his remaining months in office working against the Republican Party.

Tillis wrote in a May 22 message: “I still want to help but I don’t take this bullsh*t from anyone, including you Mr. President. Save that sh*t for the cowards who don’t care if you fail. I care if you fail and right now we are failing.”

Trump later posted that Tillis dropped his reelection bid after he learned Trump would not endorse him. In a text back on June 6, Tillis said Trump never explicitly threatened to primary him, and the president was confusing him with the many other Republicans he’s threatened.

“As I have said before, you NEVER threatened me with a primary challenge,” Tillis wrote. “I get that you may have me confused with so many Republicans that you have threatened in the past, but NEVER me. If you had ever threatened me directly with a primary, I would have immediately told you to f*ck yourself, and I would have announced my retirement immediately. Save those threats and head games for cowards and fools.”

Since then, Tillis has split with the White House on a number of issues, including opposing Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh and condemning the Justice Department’s $1.776 billion slush fund. Never before announcing his retirement though.

ICE Agreements With Local Police Departments Have Surged 950%

If a lottery investigator asks for your papers, you are legally allowed to be confused.

Immigration and Customs Agreements New analysis of ICE data shows involvement with local law enforcement agencies has increased by 950% during Trump’s second term. The administration has revived a 1996 law, known as 287(g), which allows local police officers to be deputized by ICE to arrest people they suspect of being undocumented.

Under Biden, about 150 agencies took part. That figure has increased to nearly 1,100 under Trump.

The program has drawn almost 16,000 local officers from 40 states, including police, county sheriffs, state troopers, university law enforcement and even lottery investigators. The administration has said it is seeking at least 3,000 arrests per day.

In August alone, ICE arrested about 50,000 people, an average of almost 1,600 a day. More than 800 non-criminals were arrested each day on average during that period.

Susan Collins Is Still Taking Dark Money at Center of FBI Probe

He is serving time for the donations she is still spending.

Sen. Susan Collins is still getting dark money from sources tied to a defense contractor whose CEO went to prison for illegally funneling campaign contributions to her through a shell company. A ProPublica investigation revealed that the FBI opened a bribery probe into Collins in 2024, but the teams assigned to the case were gutted after Trump returned to office.

The contractor’s CEO, who pleaded guilty to money laundering in 2022, funneled more than $150,000 to a super PAC supporting Collins through a shell company created to hide the transactions. He worked with the FBI for years, describing his dealings with Collins and other lawmakers.

Collins is the only Republican up for re-election in a state that voted for Kamala Harris over Trump in 2024, and her Democratic challenger Troy Jackson has made the FBI probe a central point of his campaign. Collins called the contractor’s CEO “a liar” and dismissed the reporting as the work of Democratic operatives.

Jackson’s campaign said in a statement that he “is refusing corporate PAC money in his campaign for U.S. Senate, unlike Susan Collins who has taken millions from corporate PACs and was eyed by the FBI for steering millions in taxpayer dollars to her major donor until President Trump dismantled the team investigating it.”

Support Journalism That Rejects Billionaire Money

Right-wing billionaires are quietly buying up more media outlets, while smaller outlets unable to keep up shut down on a nearly daily basis. If nobody stops them, the rich and well-connected will be able to act in secret and escape all accountability. AlterNet America doesn’t answer to them. We only answer to you, and that means we can cover these stories the way they need to be covered. But our editorial independence is only possible with the support of our paying subscribers.

If you’re still reading, that means you found this newsletter valuable. Now we need you to make your support official by upgrading your free subscription to a paying one. It only costs 22 cents a day, and it ensures AlterNet America will be able to keep working exclusively for you instead of a billionaire or corporate owner. Please subscribe or upgrade now.

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POSITIVE STORIES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED:

Republican Super PAC Abandons North Carolina Senate Race, Shifts Funds to Kansas. The Senate Leadership Fund, the top super PAC supporting Senate Republicans, said Friday it is canceling all remaining ad reservations in North Carolina, pulling tens of millions of dollars out of the state. The group originally planned to spend $71 million in the state, and has already spent more than $30 million, with $18 million still set aside for the final month on broadcast and cable alone. Senator Thom Tillis is giving up North Carolina’s seat, and Democrats recruited Roy Cooper, a popular former two-term governor, to challenge Republican Michael Whatley, the former chairman of the Republican National Committee.

Federal Judge Rules Law Criminalizing Noncitizen Voting Is Unconstitutional. A federal judge has ruled the 1996 ‘Voting by Aliens’ statute that makes it a federal crime for noncitizens to vote in elections is unconstitutional. The defendants in the case argued that states, not the federal government, have the right under the Constitution to determine voter qualifications. Noncitizen voting is also extremely rare, with only 129 people charged in the law’s 30-year history. Under previous administrations, most defendants took plea deals and were fined around $150, but Trump’s Justice Department has aggressively pursued the cases as part of its larger campaign against voter integrity.

Appeals Court Rules That Training AI on Copyrighted Editorial Work Is Not Fair Use. A federal appeals court has found that an AI company violated copyright law by using a legal publisher’s editorial work to train a competing product. Ross Intelligence, the company, used the summaries written by Westlaw editors to construct an AI-powered legal research tool that did the same thing as Westlaw itself. Ross argued that using the material for training, rather than republishing it, should qualify as fair use, but the court disagreed, finding that the end goal was still a competing commercial product. The ruling does not establish a blanket rule for all AI training, but it does put publishers in a stronger position to fight back.

New York Releases 10-Year Plan to Protect the State’s Most Vulnerable Wildlife. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has released a draft of its updated State Wildlife Action Plan, a 10-year strategy to protect species and habitats before populations decline beyond the point of recovery. The plan, which stretches from 2025 to 2035, includes species like the fox squirrel, which was once common throughout the state but has been displaced by habitat loss and competition from gray squirrels. Conservation groups have urged the DEC to list wolves, cougars, and Canada lynx as protected species, arguing the Adirondack Park could sustain viable populations of all three.

BREAKING: Trump's DOJ Wants to Clear Richard Nixon's Name

AlterNet America — Fri, 02 Oct 2026 14:27:55 GMT

Good morning. I’m Corinne Straight, and this is AlterNet America. Please take a moment to click the ❤️ and restack this post. The oligarchs’ platforms are trying to keep stories like the ones below from hitting your feeds, and this helps us break through.

Trump won’t rule out invoking the Insurrection Act for the November midterm elections. His Justice Department is reviewing whether the prosecutors who brought down Richard Nixon over Watergate treated him unfairly. The Treasury Department has auto-enrolled more than 60 million children in Trump Accounts that nobody asked for. And a man charged with raping two 13-year-olds is on track to become the chief of police in a Louisiana town.

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Trump Won’t Rule Out Invoking the Insurrection Act Around the Midterms

The last time a president invoked the Insurrection Act, Los Angeles was literally on fire.

Trump told Time in an interview published Thursday that he hasn’t ruled out invoking the Insurrection Act or declaring a national emergency around the November midterm elections. Asked about the limits of his presidential power, he said: “I’m not committing to anything. We’re going to see how it plays out in court.”

The 1807 Insurrection Act allows the president to send in troops or federalize a state’s National Guard in the face of an insurrection or obstruction of the law. It has been invoked by fifteen presidents, never for an election. It was last used by President George H.W. Bush during the 1992 Los Angeles riots.

Trump has repeatedly threatened to invoke the act during his second term. He said he’d use it on anti-ICE demonstrations in Los Angeles in June last year, and made the same threat about protests in Portland that October.

Trump has also relied on Title 10 throughout his second term to send federal troops to cities in a “supporting role” for local law enforcement. Those deployments cost taxpayers $496 million.

Trump’s DOJ Wants to Know if Richard Nixon Was Unfairly Prosecuted

Anything but investigating the people in the Epstein files.

The Department of Justice is investigating whether the special prosecutor’s office that investigated the Watergate break-in engaged in misconduct, The Wall Street Journal reports. The review comes more than 50 years after the scandal forced President Richard Nixon to resign.

The review was sparked by Geoff Shepard, an 81-year-old former Nixon aide who has spent years making the case that the deep state pushed Nixon out of the White House. Shepard gave a two-hour presentation at DOJ headquarters titled “Watergate As Lawfare,” in which he laid out his theory that prosecutors met behind the scenes with judges, violating due process.

The language Shepard used in his presentation is eerily similar to the language Trump uses when talking about his own legal problems. Trump has long claimed that his opponents are “deep state” actors using “lawfare” on him.

Shepard had asked for an investigation in 2022 but the Biden administration’s DOJ declined to open one. The current review is preliminary, and the department said it’s not yet clear whether it will lead to a full investigation.

Vice President JD Vance has been making a similar case, telling the Nixon Presidential Library in June that what happened to Nixon was not all that different from what happened to Trump during his first term. He also said Watergate would be a 12-hour news story if it happened today. That part is true.

Treasury Auto-Enrolls 60 Million Children in Trump Accounts Nobody Asked For

Sixty million kids just got their first retirement accounts and their first data breaches at the same time.

More than 60 million children have been automatically enrolled in Trump Accounts, a new type of tax-deferred retirement account for minors, the Treasury Department announced this week. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement that the accounts are now ready to be claimed by parents and guardians.

The auto-enrollment was the administration’s response to extremely low participation. A study by the national nonprofit Commonwealth found that only 5 percent of low- to moderate-income families who qualified for a 530A Trump Account had actually opened one. Families cited confusion over eligibility and taxes, and a lack of trust in the administration.

Children born between 2025 and 2028 could get a one-time $1,000 contribution from the government. Parents can claim an account by downloading the Trump Accounts app and verifying their child’s identity, which requires entering their child’s Social Security number.

The auto-enrollment means the government has linked Social Security numbers of 60 million children to accounts their parents never created. Nobody in the administration has revealed who controls the data, or what security protocols protect it.

Child Rape Suspect on Track to Become Police Chief in Louisiana

A village in Louisiana is about to elect a police chief who may need to arrest himself.

The lone candidate for chief of police in Elizabeth Village, Louisiana was charged with two counts of second-degree rape of two 13-year-old girls. Christopher Paul, 48, was arrested last month after Allen Parish detectives received a complaint, and is currently out on bond.

Sheriff Doug Hebert said detectives received a complaint in early August that Paul raped two girls when they were 13 years old in 2005 and 2006. Paul turned himself in on September 8, after a warrant for his arrest was issued.

Paul’s only opponent, Zachary LaCaze, dropped out of the race Sept. 23 after being told he’d have to choose between his civilian security job at Fort Polk and running for office. LaCaze said he couldn’t afford to lose the family’s main income.

That leaves Paul as the only candidate on the ballot. Elizabeth Village Mayor Mandy Leo Green issued a statement acknowledging residents’ concerns, but said neither her office nor the Board of Aldermen has the power to remove a candidate from the ballot.

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POSITIVE STORIES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED:

Vance Rally in Florida Disrupted by Multiple Protesters. Vice President JD Vance was heckled twice during a Thursday rally in Florida, a state Trump won by 13 points in 2024. The first interruption came while Vance was praising senator Ashley Moody and her record on immigration. The second came while he was promoting Byron Donalds, the Republican candidate for governor. Vance has been traveling through competitive states to boost Republican midterm candidates, but the Florida stop was supposed to be a layup. Instead, he spent part of the event responding to protesters in a room that was hand-picked by his team.

Florida Democrats Out-Register Republicans for the First Time in Years. Florida Democrats added 29,633 active registered voters from September to October, outpacing Republicans, who added 29,140. This is the first time that Democrats have posted a larger monthly net gain than Republicans since the start of Florida voter registration tracking in mid-2021, according to Decision Desk HQ analyst Michael Pruser. Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried credited years of rebuilding the party through year-round organizing and door-to-door conversations. The change comes days ahead of the state’s October 5 voter registration deadline for the November 3 general election.

Upstate New York Protesters Help Two Men Escape Border Patrol Arrest. More than 50 people gathered Wednesday in Oswego, New York and prevented Border Patrol agents from arresting two men who had been trapped on the roof of a house for seven hours. The Oswego Fire Department at one point arrived with a ladder, but the crowd pushed it away. Border Patrol then decided to withdraw, and the two men were able to leave the rooftop and depart in waiting cars. Oswego Mayor Robert A. Corradino said in a statement “our responsibility as a city is clear: we protect our residents, safeguard our neighborhoods, and maintain order.”

Habitat for Humanity Turns Blighted Wisconsin Factory Site Into 20 Affordable Homes. Twenty families now live on a blighted factory lot in Waukesha, Wisconsin that had been vacant and used as a dumping ground for years. Habitat for Humanity completed the Domenica Park subdivision on the former Aeroshade Company site, consisting of 16 single-family homes and two duplex townhomes. Over 1,000 people volunteered or contributed to the project and the City of Waukesha invested $1 million in ARPA funding. Most of the new homeowners are first-time buyers, and Habitat guarantees that monthly mortgage payments will not be more than 30 percent of a homeowner’s income.

BREAKING: Trump Bans Reporters From Press Pool Again

AlterNet America — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 20:17:16 GMT

Trump is continuing to block CNN from his press pool in defiance of a federal court order. He told TIME magazine he would consider issuing preemptive pardons to members of his own administration. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth delivered a rambling address to a silent crowd of service members that included transphobic slurs. And the family of Renee Good, the Minneapolis mother of three who was killed by an ICE officer, has filed a federal lawsuit.

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Trump Removes CNN From Press Pool Again Despite Court Order

A federal judge told the president he could not ban CNN from the White House, so the president stopped going to the White House.

Trump again blocked CNN from the White House press pool Thursday morning, removing the network’s journalists from his upcoming trip to Texas and Oklahoma. CNN was scheduled to fly on Air Force One to cover his visit to a truck manufacturing plant in Denton and a speech in Durant.

CNN was also prevented from traveling with the president last Saturday when he flew to Knoxville, Tennessee to attend a college football game. The White House replaced CNN with Real America’s Voice, a conservative network.

Last week, U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly issued an order prohibiting Trump from blocking CNN, Politico, and MS NOW from the White House grounds. Trump’s decision to ban CNN from the travel pool is not technically a violation of that narrow order, but it is a violation of the First Amendment and due process.

All three media outlets asked a federal court Monday to continue blocking Trump from restricting their access. They warned that the administration would immediately reinstate a total ban if given the opportunity, which today’s events confirmed.

Trump Is Considering Pardoning His Administration Members

Most bosses just offer retirement benefits.

Trump told TIME magazine that he would think about pardoning members of his administration before leaving office. When asked directly if he was considering it, the president said yes.

Trump pointed to former President Joe Biden’s blanket pardons for family members and administration officials as a reason for doing so. Biden’s pardons came months after Trump publicly threatened to investigate and prosecute his political enemies and after Trump’s allies in Congress called for criminal referrals against administration officials.

The comments come as Congress continues to investigate the conduct of many members of Trump’s administration. Several Cabinet officials, especially those who oversaw mass firings of federal workers and the withholding of congressionally appropriated funds, may face prosecution after Trump leaves the White House.

On his first day back in office, Trump pardoned more than 1,500 January 6 defendants, and has used clemency to reward allies facing federal charges. He’s the first president to consider preemptive pardons to members of his own administration while they’re still carrying out government policy.

Hegseth Delivers Bizarre “State of the Force” Address to Silent Room

Pete Hegseth spent a decade at Fox News before deciding that journalists are a threat to national security.

The defense secretary stood before roughly 600 service members at Marine Corps Base Quantico on Wednesday and gave a speech that included testosterone testing, transphobic slurs, and attacks against the First Amendment.

Hegseth boasted about firing longtime military leaders and said generals who didn’t support his agenda would no longer be working at the Pentagon. He then repeated a transphobic slur he has used at several previous public appearances as he listed the types of people he says are no longer welcome in the military.

“It’s worth saying again, so that the fake news understands it,” Hegseth said. “We are no longer the ‘woke’ department, or the ‘weak’ department. Simple translation of that? No fatties, no tr*nnies, no beardos, no weirdos, no wimps, no radicals. Just warriors. Just tough, ready, committed troops … the ideological clowns are out. The patriotic cowboys are in—with testosterone testing on top.”

The defense secretary also attacked the American press, claiming that the U.S. media is worse than Iranian state media. He accused journalists of undermining service members by criticizing the president.

The comments come as Hegseth faces eight articles of impeachment for waging an illegal war in Iran without the approval of Congress. House Speaker Mike Johnson sent the chamber home early to avoid a vote on the resolution, which has been delayed until after the midterm elections.

Family of Renee Good Files Federal Lawsuit Over ICE Shooting

Usually, killing someone and stealing their car lands you in prison.

The family of Renee Good has filed a lawsuit against ICE and the federal government over the killing of the 37-year-old mother during Operation Metro Surge. The family is represented by lawyers from Romanucci and Blandin, the same firm that secured a $27 million settlement for the family of George Floyd.

The lawsuit claims federal immigration officers shot and killed Good on Jan. 7 while she was attempting to comply with agents’ orders. Video recorded by witnesses and the officer who shot her, Jonathan Ross, showed Good starting to drive away before he fired.

The Department of Justice has refused to open a civil rights investigation into Good’s killing, despite an FBI agent’s recommendation. The DOJ also confiscated Good’s vehicle, preventing the family’s attorneys from performing their own forensic examination.

The department has refused to investigate Ross, instead opening an investigation into Good’s widow, Becca, and into activist groups that had been monitoring ICE activity in Minneapolis.

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Thank you again for reading and for supporting independent media. And if you haven’t yet, click the ❤️ and restack this post so we can reach more feeds.

POSITIVE STORIES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED:

Judge Permanently Dismisses “Vandalism” Charge Against Former Olympian. A Washington judge has permanently dismissed the criminal case against a 67-year-old three-time Olympic canoe racer the Trump administration accused of vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. The dismissal was with prejudice, meaning prosecutors cannot refile the charge. Trump had slammed U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro for abandoning the case in July, saying she “choked” and “folded like an umbrella.” Pirro’s own office had conceded in a court filing that the damage to the pool was caused by a botched contractor installation and a rush to finish the project before the America 250 celebration.

Legislation Would Block Renaming of Aircraft Carrier Honoring Black WWII Hero. Senator Tim Kaine has introduced a provision in the Senate version of the National Defense Authorization Act that would make it harder for the Secretary of the Navy to change a ship’s name once it’s been announced. The measure is a direct response to reports that the Navy is considering removing the name of Doris Miller, a Black World War II hero who earned the Navy Cross during the attack on Pearl Harbor, from an aircraft carrier under construction and replacing it with Trump’s. The USS Doris Miller was announced during Trump’s first term and would’ve been the first carrier named after an African American and the first named after an enlisted sailor.

New Jersey Eliminates $90 Million in Medical Debt for Nearly 20,000 Residents. The New Jersey Department of Health announced Sept. 17 that it will provide a ninth and final round of medical debt relief through a partnership with national nonprofit Undue Medical Debt, clearing $90 million in medical bills for nearly 20,000 state residents. Since its inception in 2023, the state’s debt forgiveness program has erased over $1.6 billion in medical debt for close to 900,000 New Jerseyans. Residents who qualify will receive a letter in the mail and do not need to take any action. Governor Mikie Sherrill said the state will continue fighting to lower healthcare costs at a time when federal changes to Medicaid could result in more than 300,000 residents losing their coverage.

California Bans Employers From Using AI to Monitor Workers’ Brain Activity. Governor Gavin Newsom signed legislation Wednesday prohibiting California businesses from collecting data on their workers’ brain activity or using AI-powered surveillance tools to infer their emotional states. The law, AB 1883, restricts employers’ use of systems such as video and audio monitoring, continuous time-trackers, and electromagnetic tracking when those systems use artificial intelligence to collect neural data or recognize emotions. Violations carry civil penalties of up to $500, with enforcement handled by the state labor commissioner and public prosecutors. California is one of the first states to ban specific AI surveillance technologies in the workplace.

BREAKING: Trump’s AI Refuses to Say Who Won 2020 Election

AlterNet America — Thu, 01 Oct 2026 14:36:53 GMT

The Trump administration’s new AI website won’t say who won the 2020 election. Pete Hegseth has announced Elon Musk and Newt Gingrich will help lead the military. The Justice Department is going after nearly every federal judge in a blue state. And a bill to ban congressional stock trading has stalled in the Senate after House Republicans added a voter ID requirement.

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Trump’s AI Chatbot Can’t Decide Who Won the 2020 Election

The government spent millions on a chatbot that couldn’t pass a fifth-grade civics test.

The Trump administration launched a new AI service this week to serve as a portal for federal programs and services. America.gov, powered by Google’s Gemini and Elon Musk’s Grok, now won’t say who won the 2020 election.

The chatbot was telling users Tuesday that Joe Biden won in 2020. By Wednesday morning, the same question was met with a refusal and a message that the site does not offer “political commentary,” as if it had been updated overnight.

The White House told Axios in a statement that the site “will continue to be updated to provide Americans the most accurate and reliable federal information and resources.” Officials have given no details on how the bot’s guardrails work, if there are any.

The next version of America.gov, expected in early 2027, will enable users to complete government applications and renewals across agencies including enrolling in Medicare, applying for passports, and applying for federal jobs. Soon a chatbot that can’t tell you who won an election will be asking for your Social Security number.

Hegseth Puts Elon Musk and Newt Gingrich in Charge of Future Warfare

The future of American warfare is now in the hands of a man who destroyed Twitter.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Wednesday that three Trump loyalists will decide how the United States wages its future wars. Elon Musk, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, and right-wing tech entrepreneur Palmer Luckey will lead the effort, which Hegseth is calling “Project Meridian.”

The trio will work with private sector leaders and Pentagon chief technology officer Emil Michael, a former Uber vice president, to look at future domains of conflict. The findings would be submitted within 120 days and would include a full public rollout, Hegseth said.

He also used the speech to announce the Autonomous Warfare Command, a new military unit focused on robotic, artificial intelligence, and drone warfare. Musk and Luckey have significant financial interests in all those fields.

Hegseth described the trio as “the best forecasters of future conflict” and said the project would be an effort “led by America’s best minds.” None of the three men have military experience in defense strategy.

DOJ Files Complaints Against Nearly Every Federal Judge in Minnesota

Snitches get misconduct complaints.

The Department of Justice has filed misconduct complaints against all but one of the federal district judges in Minnesota, Attorney General Todd Blanche said Wednesday. The complaints name seven judges who spoke to the New York Times for a story on the federal government’s immigration crackdown in the state.

Speaking to the press is not illegal for federal judges, although it is rare. None of the judges mentioned ongoing cases in the article.

U.S. District Judge Patrick Schlitz, a George W. Bush appointee, talked to the Times for 90 minutes. He told the paper the administration’s disregard of court orders in its immigration actions in Minnesota threatens the rule of law.

Schlitz even gave the administration the benefit of the doubt, saying he believed that most of the violations of his court orders were due to incompetence rather than intentional defiance.

Blanche has asked the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals to investigate the judges, and demanded that they recuse themselves from every case involving the Department of Homeland Security. That would bring federal court proceedings in Minnesota to a standstill, which appears to be the goal.

Trump Can Continue Insider Trading After Senate GOP Shields Him

Nancy Pelosi and her husband can sleep easy tonight.

A bill to ban members of Congress from trading stocks has stalled in the Senate after passing the House in July. The Stop Insider Trading Act would ban lawmakers and their families from buying new individual stocks, but Republican leadership attached a voter ID requirement that has killed its chances of moving forward.

The bill would ban only new purchases, allowing members to keep the stocks they already own and sell them whenever they want. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have said the proposal is too weak.

House Republicans also tacked on a provision from the SAVE America Act, which would require photo identification to vote in federal elections. The bill has repeatedly failed to pass on its own, so Republicans bundled it with a measure that polls at over 80 percent approval.

Representative Teresa Leger Fernandez, a New Mexico Democrat, called the bill “a Trojan horse carrying the SAVE Act provisions in it.” A separate Senate version of the bill is currently being drafted, but it has not moved forward.

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POSITIVE STORIES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED:

Federal Appeals Court Upholds Sanctions Against Trump Over Collusive IRS Lawsuit. A federal appeals court is upholding sanctions against Trump’s lawyers after the president tried to steer $1.776 billion in taxpayer money to his allies. U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams ruled that Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS was filed for an improper purpose and that the settlement he reached with his own Justice Department had no basis in fact or law. The deal created a $1.776 billion fund for Trump allies and protected Trump, his sons, and the Trump Organization from future IRS tax audits.

DOJ Goes 0-26 in Voter Roll Grab After Georgia Judge Rejects Demand. A federal judge ruled Wednesday that the Justice Department has no right to Georgia’s unredacted statewide voter registration list, handing the department its 26th straight loss in its bid to access sensitive voting records. U.S. District Judge Victoria Marie Calvert dismissed a lawsuit brought by the DOJ against Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. He had been ordered to turn over the entire voter roll including people’s voting history, driver’s license numbers, Social Security numbers, and full dates of birth. Georgia was one of 30 states and Washington, D.C. that the DOJ sued to obtain unredacted voter rolls, and so far, no federal court has ruled in the DOJ’s favor.

New California Law Gives Incarcerated Firefighters a Path to Cal Fire Jobs. Governor Gavin Newsom has signed Assembly Bill 2483, which will standardize the credentials that incarcerated firefighters receive when they leave prison and give them priority in hiring for certain entry-level positions at Cal Fire. Incarcerated firefighters account for almost half the emergency hours spent fighting California’s wildfires, but many have found it hard to get firefighting jobs when they get out. By 2028, those credentials will match what Cal Fire actually needs to hire someone, opening a pathway to six-figure incomes and state pensions.

California Bans Child Marriage After Nine Years of Advocacy. Gov. Gavin Newsom also signed Assembly Bill 1267 on Wednesday, banning marriages for anyone under 18 in California starting Jan. 1. The state had allowed minors to marry with parental consent and a court order, and the push to close that loophole has taken nine years of lobbying. Similar legislation stalled in committee in 2023 and failed in 2018 after the American Civil Liberties Union raised objections. California is the 18th state to ban the practice altogether. Newsom signed the bill with child advocate Courtney Stodden, who in 2011 married a 50-year-old actor at age 16. Stodden has described the relationship as “predatory” and “abusive.”

BREAKING: Elon Musk Faces Subpeona Over AI Safety

AlterNet America — Wed, 30 Sep 2026 20:36:18 GMT

Trump misspelled “United States” in his own executive order. His administration is trying to deport a Hasidic Jewish man for protesting Israel. The New York City Council has subpoenaed Elon Musk’s SpaceXAI after the company refused to attend an AI safety hearing. And nearly 400 cases of dengue fever have been reported in Florida, with three counties declaring states of emergency.

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Trump Misspells “United States” in Executive Order. Yes, Seriously.

The leader of the free world does not know how to spell the name of his own country.

Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday renaming artificial intelligence to “super intelligence.” He also signed a separate accord on AI regulation with five tech company CEOs, which identifies him as the “President of the Unites States.”

The misspelling was spotted straight away when David Sacks, the White House’s AI adviser, posted a photo of the signing online. Some users asked whether the document itself was written by AI, while others pointed out both orders do pretty much nothing.

The accord signed by the CEOs has not been published in full. The White House fact sheet released with the executive order mentions only the name change, and doesn’t actually contain any new regulations or enforcement provisions.

Trump announced the rebrand at his U.N. General Assembly speech last week, where he told the audience he was renaming AI because “super intelligence” sounds “much better” and is “much more accurate.” He then wondered out loud whether he actually had the power to do it, which is a first.

Sponsored Kalshi poll: Which party will win the U.S. Senate

Trump Administration Seeks to Deport Hasidic Jewish Man Who Protested Israel

“Self-hating Jew” has been upgraded from insult to federal immigration policy.

A Hasidic Jewish religious teacher in New York is facing deportation for protesting Israel. Yehonatan Ovadia was among the participants in an October 2023 protest against Israel’s genocide in Gaza in Rockland County, where an Israeli flag disappeared from the local town hall.

Ovadia has been accused by the government of stealing the flag, which he denies. He and another member of his sect were accused of hate crimes in the disappearance of the flag, but pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of disorderly conduct and paid a fine in early 2024.

The federal government revoked Ovadia’s religious worker visa in August, after which Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained him. He’s currently being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.

Ovadia is suing the government, asserting that he is being punished for religious and political expression. One of his attorneys, Eric Lee, said that calling Ovadia an antisemite is “the peak of absurdity,” given that he’s a devout Hasidic Jew whose opposition to the Israeli government is rooted in his religious beliefs.

New York City Council Subpoenas Elon Musk’s SpaceXAI Over AI Safety Hearing

Elon Musk’s AI can write a novel in thirty seconds but apparently can’t reply to a city council invitation.

The New York City Council has subpoenaed Musk’s SpaceXAI, demanding the company send a representative to testify at an oversight hearing on the dangers of artificial intelligence. It’s the first time Speaker Julie Menin has used the body’s subpoena power.

SpaceXAI was the only major AI company that did not respond to the Council’s request to participate. Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic agreed to attend the October 5 hearing, but only after the Council explicitly threatened subpoenas. Meta was the only one that agreed to come without a threat.

Menin said in a statement that these companies have a significant presence in the city and collectively employ tens of thousands of New Yorkers. She said “these firms owe it to their workers and, above all, to the public to come before the Council, answer our questions, and provide input on our proposed legislation under oath.”

If SpaceXAI does not comply, the Council intends to seek judicial enforcement of the subpoena in the New York State Supreme Court. And if that fails, the Council could pursue civil contempt sanctions.

State of Emergency in Florida as 400 Cases of Dengue Fever Reported

Good thing we put the raw milk guy in charge of public health.

One person has died and nearly 400 have become sick in one of the worst outbreaks of dengue fever in decades in Florida. Three Tampa Bay area counties have declared states of emergency due to the epidemic.

Most of the locally acquired infections in the outbreak have been in Hillsborough County. Tampa General Hospital has treated more than 100 patients, and an 80-year-old woman died September 4 of complications including septic shock and multi-organ failure.

Hillsborough County declared a state of local emergency on Sept. 24, allowing emergency managers to act quickly and preparing for reimbursement from the federal government. Pasco County issued its own emergency declaration and urged surrounding counties to do the same.

Dengue is a mosquito-borne viral illness that can cause fever, severe body aches, and even life-threatening complications. Scientists say the current outbreak is likely related to weather conditions that enabled virus-carrying mosquitoes to reproduce, a pattern that is being exacerbated by climate change.

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House Passes Bill to Renew Federal Funding for ALS Research and Care. The U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation to reauthorize the ACT for ALS, a landmark 2021 law that established federal programs to speed the development of new therapies and improve access to experimental treatments for patients who are unable to participate in clinical trials. The original law authorized $100 million in annual federal funding. Since its passage, an estimated 750 people with ALS have received access to promising experimental therapies through an expanded program of the National Institutes of Health. The reauthorization bill would continue funding through 2031. The bill now goes to the Senate, where it must pass before the current law expires on Oct. 1.

New Mexico Jury Finds Facebook Liable for Over 43 Million Privacy Violations. A jury in Santa Fe found Facebook violated the New Mexico Unfair Practices Act more than 43 million times by misleading consumers about how the company handled their personal data. The case comes out of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, where a third-party personality quiz gathered data on some 87 million profiles and sold it to a political consulting firm whose clients included Trump’s 2016 campaign. In the lawsuit, Facebook was found to have lied about its data practices with third-party companies and profited from misinformation and hate speech while claiming to fight it. A judge will determine penalties. State attorneys are seeking the maximum civil penalty, $5,000 per violation, which adds up to more than $200 billion.

Federal Judge Dismisses Riley Gaines’ Lawsuit Against NCAA Over Trans Athletes. A federal judge dismissed most claims in a class-action lawsuit brought by conservative activist Riley Gaines and nearly two dozen other athletes against the NCAA over its former policy allowing transgender women to compete in women’s college sports. U.S. District Judge Tiffany R. Johnson held that the NCAA is not a state actor and therefore cannot be sued on constitutional grounds. She also found that claims against the University System of Georgia and Georgia Tech were moot after Georgia passed a law prohibiting public institutions from hosting women’s tournaments where transgender women can participate.

Governor Newsom Signs Housing Legislation to Reduce Homelessness. On Monday, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a package of housing bills designed to accelerate and cut the cost of homebuilding throughout the state. The legislation accelerates approval of townhome developments, cuts red tape for factory-built housing, and clears the way for two major redevelopment projects that will create more than 14,000 new homes. The bill package builds on what the governor’s office calls the largest numerical reduction in unsheltered homelessness of any state, a 6.8 percent decrease that is more than double the national average. Annual residential construction in California has increased by 59 percent and average development approval times have been reduced by 57 percent since 2018.

BREAKING: Trump's Pentagon Is Cutting 20% of Military Leadership

AlterNet America — Wed, 30 Sep 2026 14:31:43 GMT

The White House used Customs and Border Protection money to pay for TV ads promoting Trump weeks before the midterms. Pete Hegseth is planning to eliminate 20 percent of the Pentagon’s top military leadership positions. A Venezuelan DoorDash driver shot in the back by an ICE agent in Texas has been charged with a federal crime while the shooter remains free. And MAGA influencers are furious at another ad for casting a young white man as the face of welfare fraud.

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Trump Used Homeland Security Money to Pay for His Propaganda

After months of calling for CBP and ICE to be defunded, we’re a little torn on this one.

The White House used money from U.S. Customs and Border Protection to pay for a series of television ads praising the president, the Wall Street Journal reported. The ads started running last week on Fox News, Newsmax, CBS, and local stations across the country, just five weeks before the midterm elections.

The commercials look and sound like campaign ads, with images of Trump set to music and text boasting about tax cuts and manufacturing. The only difference is a line at the bottom of the screen that reads, “Paid for by the U.S. Government.”

Democratic Senators Patty Murray and Chris Murphy wrote in a letter to DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin that using taxpayer funds on propaganda is illegal. They said the ads “need to immediately come off the air, taxpayers need to be paid back for this theft, and everyone responsible needs to be held accountable for this corrupt and illegal propaganda.”

Pete Hegseth Plans to Cut a Fifth of All Military Leadership

Under Pete Hegseth, the U.S. has lost almost more generals than it did in WWII. That’s not a joke — go look it up.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is planning to cut 20 percent of the Pentagon’s admirals and generals, two officials told The Hill. He is expected to formally announce the cuts in a speech Wednesday at a military base in Quantico, Virginia.

Hegseth has already overseen a steep reduction in the number of top-ranking military officers. At the time of his confirmation, there were ten four-star generals on active duty. Now there are only five.

Hegseth in May signed an order to reduce four-star generals by 10 percent and National Guard general officers by at least 20 percent. He called the policy a way to make the military more efficient, but gave no guidance on how the cuts would actually be made.

Roughly 60 percent of the senior officers Hegseth has fired are women or Black, according to Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island, even though those groups make up fewer than 20 percent of all generals and admirals. His chief of staff reportedly told the Army secretary Trump wouldn’t want to be seen next to a Black female officer at military events.

The cuts come as Hegseth faces increased scrutiny over reports he concealed the number of U.S. service members killed in the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. The House has already scheduled an impeachment vote against him for after the midterm elections.

Venezuelan DoorDash Driver Shot by ICE Is Charged

A DoorDash driver got shot in the back by an ICE agent and somehow he’s the one facing 20 years in prison.

Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, 28, was out making a delivery in Austin, Texas on September 20 when ICE officers in an unmarked truck pursued him during a traffic stop and shot him. His attorney, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, said officers hit his car twice before shooting him in the back of the neck.

Federal prosecutors charged Garces Perez Tuesday with assaulting a federal officer, saying his side mirror struck an agent when he drove away. The officer who shot him did not have a body camera on. ICE agents who made similar claims after past shootings were revealed to be lying once footage was released.

Garces Perez entered the United States legally in 2024 via CBP One, a Biden-era program that scheduled appointments for asylum seekers. ICE used a deportation order issued after he missed a hearing in immigration court because the notice was sent to a former address as justification for the stop.

A federal judge has issued an emergency order to halt Garces Perez’s deportation, and a hearing is scheduled for Wednesday. He’s one of 21 people shot by on-duty ICE and CBP agents during Trump’s second term, eight of whom have died.

MAGA Is Furious That a White Man Was Made the Face of Welfare

Matt Walsh spent his workday arguing that white men don’t sit around doing nothing all day.

Conservative influencers spent the weekend attacking Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders after she posted a welfare ad promoting her state’s work requirement. The ad features a young white man named Brad who spends his time playing video games on his couch instead of finding a job.

The outrage had nothing to do with the work requirement. Commenters were angry because the welfare recipient in the ad was a white man.

Walsh, a pundit for The Daily Wire, said Republicans picked a white man because they didn’t have the courage to use the stereotypes he would have preferred. He suggested the ad should have featured a Black woman named “Shaniqua” instead.

James Fishback, a failed far-right Florida gubernatorial candidate, said the ad should have featured “the baby-momma with a BMW who just got back from her Carnival Cruise.” Far-right influencer RAMZPAUL said Sanders needed to “apologize for her blood libel.”

Brad was more accurate than Shaniqua would have been. Between 52 and 54 percent of food stamp recipients in Arkansas are white, according to state data, and so are 57.8 percent of the state’s Medicaid recipients.

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POSITIVE STORIES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED:

California Passes Ban on Electric Shock Gloves for Law Enforcement. California’s legislature has passed a bill to ban law enforcement from using gloves that can deliver electric shocks, and sent it to Governor Gavin Newsom, who has until September 30 to sign it. The bill comes after ICE awarded a $16.7 million contract to a Kentucky company for 6,000 pairs of the gloves, where an inmate last year died after being shocked 27 times with the gloves and 13 times with a Taser. The bill would also bar California police departments from buying the devices with public money.

New Mexico Land Commissioner Bans Uranium Mining on 13 Million Acres. New Mexico Commissioner of Public Lands Stephanie Garcia Richard, a Democrat, signed an executive order in September prohibiting all new uranium mining projects on state trust lands. She said the environmental and public health impacts of uranium contamination outweigh any potential revenues, citing about 350 abandoned mine sites that still dot the New Mexico landscape. The recent increase in proposals for uranium extraction was attributed by Garcia Richard to the Trump administration, which has sought to fast-track federal permits for mining and designated two proposals near Mount Taylor as priority projects.

Sandy Hook Promise Says Prevention Programs Have Helped Stop 20 School Shootings. Sandy Hook Promise, the nonprofit founded by parents of children killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, announced that its prevention programs have helped stop at least 20 planned school shootings since 2018. The organization runs the Say Something Anonymous Reporting System, which trains students and teachers to spot warning signs of violence and report them through an anonymous tip line. The 20th confirmed intervention happened recently in Arkansas, where an anonymous tip led to the prevention of a possible shooting before it could occur.

New Fleet of Electric School Buses Hits New York City Streets. Bus operator First Student and utility Con Edison are moving forward with a $9 million pilot project to replace diesel school buses with electric ones in East New York, Brooklyn. There are already ten battery-powered buses in service, with a further 40 due by June. The project also has a second phase where the buses will demonstrate vehicle-to-grid capabilities that can feed stored power back into the electrical grid to reduce costs and increase reliability. As of June 2026, there were more than 8,500 electric school buses operating nationwide, up 66 percent from the same time last year.

BREAKING: Trump Gave a Federal Contract to a Kremlin-Tied Company

AlterNet America — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 20:30:09 GMT

Former special counsel Jack Smith told the Senate that he found proof beyond a reasonable doubt that Trump committed serious crimes. The federal government has spent at least $1.7 million on taxpayer-funded television ads promoting the president just weeks before the midterms. The State Department awarded a $50,000 contract to a company with Kremlin ties. And ICE raids in deep-red states are costing the meatpacking industry millions and forcing Republicans to come up with uncomfortable excuses.

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Jack Smith Had Proof “Beyond a Reasonable Doubt” of Trump’s Guilt

He would be in prison right now if the justice system moved as fast as he moved those documents.

Former special counsel Jack Smith told the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday that his investigation produced evidence “beyond a reasonable doubt” Trump conspired to overturn the 2020 election and illegally hoard national security documents at his Mar-a-Lago club.

Smith was appointed in 2022 to investigate Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election and his handling of classified documents after he left office. He got indictments from grand juries in two separate federal districts, but the cases were dropped after Trump won the 2024 presidential election.

Smith testified Trump stored top-secret national security documents in a bathroom and a ballroom where gatherings were held. His team determined that Trump held onto the documents not out of carelessness, but to advance his own business interests.

Smith has wanted to testify before Congress for months but has been blocked by Republicans. He spent eight hours behind closed doors before the House Judiciary Committee in December, but Tuesday’s hearing was his first appearance before the Senate in open session.

Trump Is Spending Millions on Propaganda Ahead of the Midterms

Why would a self-described billionaire spend his own money when yours is right there?

The Trump administration has produced three taxpayer-funded television ads touting the president less than 40 days before the November midterm elections, costing at least $1.7 million in public funds so far, according to AdImpact, which tracks media spending.

The latest ad is nearly the same as one Trump put up on Truth Social in 2023 when he was running for president. Both versions show Trump walking down a black and white hallway, promising to destroy the deep state and drain the swamp. The only change is the disclaimer that says “Paid for by the U.S. Government.”

Top Democratic appropriators have sent a letter to the administration demanding that the ads be pulled and that the sources of funding be disclosed. In a letter to the White House, they said the ads are “most certainly” violating the Consolidated Appropriations Act, which prohibits taxpayer dollars from being used for government propaganda.

Even Republicans have condemned the ads, with Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina telling reporters, “I hate it. It feels like Viktor Orbán talking to the Hungarian people. There’s no place for that sort of thing.”

Trump’s State Department Gave a Federal Contract to a Kremlin-Tied Company

Russia didn’t even have to hack us this time.

The State Department awarded a $50,000 contract to a company called Oxygen Forensics on August 28, the same day a whistleblower exposed the company as a front for Russian ownership. The company had sold phone hacking software to federal agencies for years and it’s not clear how much of that technology was compromised.

The Justice Department announced last week that Oxygen Forensics CEO Lee Reiber and Russian national Oleg Sergeyevich Davydov had been arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud. According to an indictment, the company was owned and controlled by five Russian nationals, including Davydov, through a holding company in Cyprus.

The company allegedly concealed its Russian ownership after the U.S. imposed additional sanctions on Russia in early 2022 following the invasion of Ukraine. Reiber was named CEO and references to Russian ownership were scrubbed from the company’s public filings.

The company’s products have been used by the Defense Department, Secret Service, National Computer Forensics Institute, Homeland Security Investigations, and the DHS Office of the Inspector General. Data from federal procurement indicates the State Department and the U.S. Embassy in Zagreb could have also been compromised.

ICE Raids Are Costing Meatpackers Millions in Deep-Red States

The leopards are done eating faces and have moved on to beef.

ICE raids have shut down meatpacking plants in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas, making workers too afraid to show up for work. The shutdowns have already cost the industry millions of dollars in lost revenue, prompting major cattle industry groups to publicly call on the administration to stop.

Scarlett Mabinger of the Kansas Livestock Association said multiple meatpacking plants in southwest Kansas had to shut down after workers spotted federal immigration officers in their communities and stopped coming in. Those plants usually process thousands of cattle a day, and the animals had to be sent back to feedlots at the owners’ expense.

The Department of Homeland Security confirmed ICE officers were in Kansas but said they were not conducting worksite raids. Secretary Markwayne Mullin said they were targeting “heinous criminals,” despite federal data indicating more than half of those arrested in July had no criminal convictions or pending charges.

In the last election, voters in the affected Kansas counties supported Trump by more than 65 percent. Senator Roger Marshall, a Republican facing a tough midterm race, and fellow Republican Jerry Moran have both called on the administration to work with local officials. Neither has used the word “wrong.”

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Utah State Representative Charged With Fraud, Resigns Immediately. State Rep. Trevor Lee of Utah was charged Monday with multiple counts of fraud and forgery after investigators said he fabricated his income and forged the signature of a former employer to obtain a $1 million home loan. Lee told one company he would return $93,000 in cash advances by securing them a government contract with Hill Air Force Base, and submitted an offer letter from another company with a $190,000 salary he said would never be paid. He told investigators the documents were fake and resigned from his seat immediately after charges were filed.

California Governor Signs Law Allowing Residents to Sue ICE and Border Patrol. On Monday, Governor Newsom signed SB 747 into law, allowing Californians to sue federal officers in civil court if their constitutional rights are violated. The No Kings Act became effective immediately upon signing and is retroactive to incidents dating back to March 1, 2025. It closes a legal loophole created by the Supreme Court’s narrowing of so-called Bivens actions, which had granted federal officers de facto immunity for willful violations of constitutional rights. California is now one of four states to pass some version of the proposal, representing over 70 million Americans in total.

Mamdani Opens Jobs NYC Center to Connect New Yorkers With Public Service Careers. Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced Monday the opening of the Jobs NYC Center, a new walk-in hub at 2 Lafayette St. in Manhattan that will connect New Yorkers with careers in city government. Small Business Services and the Department of Citywide Administrative Services developed the center, turning a long-vacant city-owned space into a home for career services, job fairs, Civil Service exam information, and networking events. Mamdani said in a statement that the path to public service should not be difficult to navigate, and that every New Yorker deserves a real shot at a good job. Walk-in hours begin Oct. 5.

Second Appeals Court Rules That Kalshi’s Sports Bets Are Not Federally Protected. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit on Friday unanimously ruled that sports event contracts offered by prediction market platform Kalshi are not “swaps” under federal commodities law and are instead subject to state gambling laws. This is the second appellate court to side with the states in the ongoing legal fight over prediction markets, joining the Ninth Circuit, which ruled similarly last month on Nevada’s ability to regulate the platform. Kalshi has said its products are complicated financial instruments regulated only by the federal Commodity Futures Trading Commission but the court found a wager on whether a quarterback throws a touchdown is not a complex economic swap.

BREAKING: Trump Just Made Your New Car Worse

AlterNet America — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 14:36:29 GMT

Trump, 80, again fell asleep on camera, this time during his own steel plant announcement. His administration just made your car worse to help the oil industry. The FBI’s co-deputy director, who helped lead the raid on a Georgia election center, resigned after just one year on the job. And Ken Paxton went on stage and bragged about a plea deal that let a child predator walk free.

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Trump Falls Asleep After Announcing New Steel Plant

The event was supposed to be about energy, and the president proved he has none.

Trump again had trouble staying awake during a public event on Monday, nodding off just moments after announcing a $15 billion steel plant in eastern Iowa. As Energy Secretary Chris Wright began to explain the administration’s partnership with Mesabi Metallics, Trump’s eyes closed and his head drooped forward.

Mesabi chairman Rewant Ruia then grabbed the mic to talk about how excited he was for the project. Trump kept his eyes shut and his neck bent throughout the remarks, eyelids fluttering open and shut as Ruia spoke.

When reporters asked Trump questions afterward, his responses were quiet, and his speech was slurred.

Trump has seemingly nodded off during signing ceremonies, Cabinet meetings, the funeral of Senator Lindsey Graham, and most recently, the 9/11 memorial at the Pentagon. His behavior has led politicians and voters to call for a formal health examination, but Trump has refused to undergo one.

Trump Administration Guts Fuel Efficiency Standards for New Cars

Just in case you thought you weren’t already paying too much at the pump.

The Trump administration announced Monday that it is rolling back federal fuel economy standards for new cars. Now automakers will need to improve the efficiency of their fleets by up to 1% a year, averaging 34.9 miles per gallon by 2031.

The rules announced under the Biden administration called for a 2% annual increase, with a goal of 50.4 miles per gallon by 2031. In other words, Trump’s making American cars burn more gas so that oil companies can sell more.

Officials in the administration say that the fuel efficiency technology adds to the cost of vehicles, and the rollback will reduce the price of a new car by about $1,300. Over the lifetime of a less efficient car, fuel costs will be much higher than that.

The move is a direct gift to the oil industry, which has lobbied for years to roll back fuel economy rules. The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, the lobbying group for Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis, applauded the decision within hours of the announcement.

FBI Deputy Chief Overseeing Election Investigations Suddenly Quits

The FBI’s co-deputy director lasted one year working with Kash Patel, eleven months longer than anyone who’s met Kash Patel would have predicted.

Andrew Bailey, who assisted in the FBI’s controversial raid on a Georgia election center in January, resigned from his position Monday. The former Missouri attorney general joined the bureau last September, and didn’t even make it to his first anniversary.

Bailey said he was leaving to return to his family in Missouri. He lauded Trump’s leadership and said he was confident FBI Director Kash Patel will continue to “reform” the bureau.

But according to the New York Times, the real reason was that Bailey and Patel couldn’t stand each other. The two reportedly went months at a time without talking to each other, despite the role being created specifically so that the two men could share leadership after Dan Bongino proved unable to handle it alone.

Former talk radio host and conspiracy theorist Bongino dramatically resigned as co-deputy director late last year. He lasted about nine months in the role before announcing his departure in December, after clashing with Attorney General Pam Bondi over the administration’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files.

Ken Paxton Defends Plea Deal That Let a Child Predator Walk Free

You couldn’t waterboard this confession out of most people.

Ken Paxton on Monday stood before the United States Hispanic Business Council in Fort Worth and defended his office’s handling of a child sex abuse case. The charges involved a Texas man, Adam Hoffman, who pleaded guilty to repeatedly molesting a young boy.

Paxton’s prosecutors had offered Hoffman a plea deal that would have put him in jail for just one day. They also did not include the victim’s age in the plea documents, which meant Hoffman would not have had to register as a sex offender.

Judge Roy Sparkman rejected the deal, calling it absurd and demanding a 60-day sentence instead. Hoffman was released after only 30 days.

Paxton told the audience Monday that the criticism of his office was overblown. He acknowledged Hoffman was released, but said his office “did not control the situation” and “did our best.”

Paxton is running for U.S. Senate against Democratic state Representative James Talarico, who has strongly condemned his handling of the case. In a campaign ad that’s been running since July, Talarico says “We don’t need any more pedophile protectors in Washington.”

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Trump’s Most Fanatical Rally-Goers Are Deserting Him. Several high-profile members of the “Front Row Joes,” a group of MAGA supporters that spent years following Trump around the country to attend his rallies, have publicly split with the president. Rick Frazier, a founding member who estimates he has attended more than 100 Trump rallies, told Politico’s Playbook that Trump’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files and the war in Iran were disqualifying, and that he may not even vote in the November midterms. Trisha Hope, who once published a book consisting entirely of Trump’s social media posts, said a “light switch went on and a veil lifted” when Trump dismissed the Epstein files during a Cabinet meeting.

Secretive Network Finds New Jobs for Climate Workers Fired by Trump. Since the Trump administration began slashing science funding last year, one group called Climate Reserve has been quietly placing fired federal climate scientists and researchers into new jobs at nonprofits and universities. The initiative, born out of private conversations among dozens of laid-off experts, is being driven by former senior Biden climate official Aparna Shrivastava. More than two dozen climate workers have already been transitioned to new roles, and the goal is to reach 50 by the end of September. Climate Reserve has also revived federal projects abandoned by the administration, including EJScreen, a government tool that maps pollution exposure in U.S. communities.

VA Awards Record $1.17 Billion in Grants to Fight Veteran Homelessness. The Department of Veterans Affairs announced a record $1.17 billion in grants to 680 organizations across the country to help veterans who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. The grants will be distributed in fiscal year 2027, following the VA’s housing of 51,936 homeless veterans in fiscal year 2025, the highest number in seven years. The announcement was a positive step from an administration that has otherwise spent the past two years gutting the VA, cutting nearly 28,000 positions in 2025 alone, including thousands of nurses, physicians, and psychologists. Since Trump took office, an estimated 1.2 million veterans have lost their VA physicians.

Wyoming Wind Farm Uses AI Cameras to Protect Eagles. In Converse County, Wyoming, a 110-turbine wind farm is using AI-powered cameras to help protect eagles from colliding with its blades. The system, called IdentiFlight, uses wide-view cameras to spot incoming birds, then a high-resolution camera to track their flight path and classify the species. When it detects a collision risk, it slows the specific turbine in the eagle’s path rather than turning off the whole facility. A 2021 study estimated the technology reduced eagle fatalities by 82% compared with a nearby site, while an updated 2022 analysis put the figure at 85%, though with a wide range of uncertainty.

REVEALED: GOP Candidate's Shocking Posts Call for Execution of Democrats

AlterNet America — Mon, 28 Sep 2026 20:36:20 GMT

The White House just canceled $810 million in health and education funding that Congress had already approved. A Republican nominee for office in Texas was caught calling for the public execution of Barack Obama in since-deleted social media posts. A Moms for Liberty activist who ran for office on an election integrity platform has been convicted on nine counts of election fraud. And the Education Department formally stripped Title IX protections from LGBTQ students.

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Trump Cancels $810 Million in Health and Education Funding

They found $810 million in wasteful spending, which somehow did not include the president’s golf trips.

The Trump administration said Friday that it intends to cancel $810 million in congressionally approved funding for health, education, and refugee programs. The announcement was made just days before the end of the fiscal year and while the House was not in session, giving lawmakers almost no time to respond.

The move is called a pocket rescission, where the president refuses to spend congressionally appropriated money until the end of the fiscal year, allowing the funds to expire. Trump did the same last year to cancel about $4 billion in foreign aid without the approval of Congress.

Over half ($567 million) is being taken from the Office of Refugee Resettlement at the Department of Health and Human Services. Other cuts include $25 million for a program that helps migrant students, $70 million for international academic exchange programs, $28 million in health research funding, and $56 million in housing counseling programs.

The White House described the rescission as a historic action to eliminate wasteful spending. But that television ad telling you to “love me” made the cut.

Sponsored Kalshi poll: Midterms: Congress Balance of Power?

Republican Nominee Repeatedly Called for the Public Execution of Obama

Republican primary voters looked at a man who wanted to hang Barack Obama and said, “Finally, someone who gets us.”

A CNN KFile investigation found that Bo French, the Republican nominee for the Texas Railroad Commission, called for the public execution of Obama and other Democrats in social media posts over the course of six years. The posts have since been deleted, but CNN verified they were French’s by cross-referencing the account’s numeric user ID with several usernames.

In May 2020, amid the investigation into Trump’s ties to Russia, French called for the death penalty for what he dubbed “Obama conspirators.” He wrote the penalty for treason used to be death, “even for a former president,” and tagged the posts with #HangEmHigh.

Earlier this month, French wrote about the student section at a University of Texas football game, calling the racially diverse crowd a “problem” that was “far worse than anyone imagined.” He has also called for the deportation of 100 million people and has asked his social media followers whether Muslims or Jews pose a greater threat to America.

Governor Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton have stood by their endorsements of French, which should look great on their own campaign websites.

MAGA Mom Convicted on 9 Counts of Election Fraud After Running on ‘Election Integrity’

The call was coming from inside the Moms for Liberty meeting.

Gaea Powell, a Moms for Liberty activist and Trump supporter from California, was convicted last week of nine counts of election fraud and could face up to eight years in prison. The charges included falsely stating her place of residence, illegally registering to vote, and casting fraudulent ballots.

Powell twice ran for mayor of Arroyo Grande, in 2022 and 2024, both times running on the integrity of local elections. While warning voters about election fraud, she was filing campaign paperwork under penalty of perjury falsely swearing she lived within the city limits.

Powell also broke local campaign finance laws by promising not to raise or spend more than $2,000 on her campaign in June 2022. She then spent significantly more than that amount on campaign mailers without disclosing it to local officials.

Powell has refused to acknowledge wrongdoing, saying in a statement that she was deeply disappointed by the verdict. She plans to appeal, because if there is one thing she is committed to, it is not accepting results.

Education Department Strips Title IX Protections for LGBTQ Students

“Protecting women and girls” the way the Titanic protected its passengers.

The Education Department said Monday it has formally rescinded a Biden-era Title IX rule that protected LGBTQ students from discrimination. The 2024 rule also required schools to take proactive steps on cases of sexual assault and harassment and expanded protections to pregnant or parenting students.

The announcement came the same day that New York state prosecutors reopened an investigation into the alleged gang rape of a student by seven members of the Chi Phi fraternity at Cornell University. The victim filed a lawsuit last week, asserting she was drugged and raped for hours by fraternity brothers who coerced her into taking drugs and alcohol.

Cornell’s internal investigation resulted in suspensions and the option for the accused to write essays to reduce their punishment. No arrests were made, and the victim dropped out of Cornell.

Shiwali Patel of the National Women’s Law Center called the Cornell case proof of why Title IX protections are necessary. She said the administration has “decided to ignore what survivors need, instead weaponizing Title IX to attack trans students.”

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POSITIVE STORIES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED:

New Mexico Jury Finds Facebook Liable for Over 43 Million Violations. A jury in Santa Fe ruled Friday that Facebook was liable for deceiving its users about data privacy protections on the platform. The case was over the Cambridge Analytica scandal, where a third-party personality quiz collected data on some 87 million profiles and sold it to a political consulting firm whose clients included Trump’s 2016 campaign. The jury found that Facebook made false statements about protecting user data that affected New Mexico’s entire population of more than two million people. Penalties will be determined by a judge at a hearing Oct. 1. State attorneys are seeking the maximum of $5,000 for each violation, which would total more than $200 billion.

Democrats Preparing to Investigate Trump Family Business Deals if They Win Midterms. Corporate donors to Trump’s White House ballroom project and those involved in business deals brokered by Trump family members are expected to be among the first targets of congressional investigations if Democrats win the House or Senate in November, according to a Reuters report citing multiple Capitol Hill staffers and lawmakers. Control of either chamber would give Democrats subpoena power and the ability to launch probes as early as February. Democratic Representative Jamie Raskin and Senator Richard Blumenthal told Reuters they are particularly interested in crypto firms linked to Trump and Donald Trump Jr.’s venture capital firm, 1789 Capital.

At Least 900 Flock Surveillance Cameras Have Been Unplugged in Texas. At least 14 Texas cities and counties have disabled more than 900 Flock surveillance cameras since Gov. Greg Abbott cut off state funding for the devices in late August. Abbott pulled the funds after the Texas Tribune revealed a small state agency quietly funneled at least $30 million into the cameras with little public oversight. Cities like Pflugerville and Hutto ended their contracts after discovering hundreds of law enforcement agencies they didn’t recognize had been accessing their camera data, and the Texas Department of Public Safety had permitted more than 2,800 agencies to search its own network without agreements.

Pennsylvania Proposes Law Requiring Game Publishers to Keep Digital Games Playable. A Pennsylvania state senator has introduced a bill called the Protect Our Games Act, which would give customers at least 60 days notice before a video game publisher cuts off access to a title. The proposed law would then require publishers to offer an offline mode, a patch to make the game independent of the publisher’s servers, or a refund of at least 25% of the original sale price. The bill was introduced after Sony announced it would stop making physical disks by 2028, raising concerns about what will happen to games that are only available digitally when their servers eventually stop working. The bill is still in its infancy, but if it becomes law, it could set a precedent for other states.

BREAKING: Trump Faces His Most Humiliating Weekend Yet

AlterNet America — Mon, 28 Sep 2026 14:36:18 GMT

A heckler called the president a pedophile on live television. A Republican senator said that Trump made a “colossal mistake” by backing Ken Paxton for the Texas Senate seat. The Trump administration scouted locations inside Grand Teton National Park to build a baseball stadium. And major TV networks say they’ll resume White House pool coverage even though Trump is still blocking CNN.

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Trump Heckled at Back-to-Back Events in Humiliating Weekend

There are some things the Secret Service can’t protect you from.

Trump was heckled for the second time in two days on Sunday when a man shouted a profane accusation at him on live television during the Presidents Cup golf tournament at the Medinah Country Club in Illinois. The day before, Trump had been loudly booed at a college football game in Knoxville, Tennessee.

As Trump and PGA Tour CEO Brian Rolapp posed with the Presidents Cup trophy, a man in the crowd shouted the accusation loud enough to be picked up by the broadcast microphones. Other spectators cheered and whooped, while Trump stared straight ahead.

Before the interruption, Trump had congratulated himself on the warm reception he was receiving. He told the crowd that the “fake news media” would claim he got a bad reception, but that in reality, “they love what we’re doing.”

The day before, Trump had been at a game between the University of Texas and the University of Tennessee at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville. When his face appeared on the stadium’s video screen, the crowd booed loudly.

Trump has often been interrupted at public appearances, with much of the heckling focusing on his friendship with late convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. A man yelled “Pedophile protector!” at a Trump rally in Michigan in July and a protester did the same at a factory event in Pennsylvania in June.

Republican Senator Calls Trump’s Paxton Endorsement a ‘Colossal Mistake’

Courage is a lot easier when you’ve already cleaned out your desk.

Republican Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina went on CNN on Sunday and publicly criticized Trump for endorsing Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton over incumbent Senator John Cornyn in the state’s Republican Senate primary earlier this year. He told host Jake Tapper that Trump’s decision was a “colossal mistake.”

Tillis added that Republicans would not be spending “tens or hundreds of millions of dollars” trying to hold Texas if Cornyn had won the primary.

Trump endorsed Paxton over Cornyn in May, helping him win the primary and advance to face Democratic state Representative James Talarico in the general election. The endorsement appeared to be motivated by revenge, as Cornyn had said during the 2024 presidential campaign that the GOP should move on from Trump.

Tillis, who announced his retirement last year, said the party’s demand for total loyalty is unsustainable. He told Tapper that if Republicans are going to attack other Republicans for being in “only the 95th percentile” of loyalty, they need to find another party.

Trump Wants to Build a Baseball Stadium in Grand Teton National Park

Bulldozing a wildlife habitat because billionaires asked has always been America’s pastime.

Major League Baseball and the Trump administration are exploring plans to build a temporary baseball stadium inside Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming to host a single game, according to the Washington Post. National Park Service Deputy Director Frank Lands visited the park this past week and scouted three potential locations within its boundaries.

Luther Propst, a Teton County commissioner, said he spotted Lands at an event inside the park on Thursday but that the deputy director did not mention why he was there. Neither Propst nor any other local official was notified about the proposal or the scouting visits.

The White House said in a statement that this was “not a Presidential directive” and “not being directed by the White House” or “driven by the Department of Interior.” The National Park Service is part of the Department of Interior, which reports to the president.

MLB told the Washington Post that the league approached the administration to ask if it would be possible to host a game at a national park, similar to the Field of Dreams game it has hosted in Iowa. So, don’t blame this entirely on the White House.

TV Networks Resume White House Coverage, but CNN Is Still Blocked

The free press defended itself for nine days.

The major television networks that suspended White House pool coverage in solidarity with CNN announced Sunday they would resume filming the president, even though CNN is still banned. ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC will take turns sending a camera crew to cover presidential events for all of the networks, a job that CNN had been sharing until the ban.

Trump announced he was banning CNN, MS NOW, and Politico from the White House on September 18. He wrote on Truth Social that the three outlets “shouldn’t be able to constantly write or report FICTION and LIES,” though he did not cite any specific examples.

Also on that day, all five members of the TV pool, including Fox News, issued a rare joint statement announcing they would suspend coverage of the president. The three banned outlets sued, and a federal judge ordered their access restored on Thursday.

CNN returned on Friday and covered the Trump-Xi visit to the National Archives. That night, the White House pulled the network from the pool again, and barred it from Air Force One for Trump’s trip to Tennessee on Saturday.

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POSITIVE STORIES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED:

Supreme Court Blocks Missouri’s Gerrymandered Map for Midterms. The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday blocked Missouri from using a gerrymandered congressional map for this year’s midterm elections, ending a yearlong legal battle over redistricting. The unsigned opinion, which noted no dissents, criticized Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins for creating undue confusion about what map was in effect. The gerrymandered 2025 map would have eliminated a Democratic district in Kansas City, but earlier this month the Missouri Supreme Court ruled the map couldn’t take effect unless voters approved it in a November referendum. Voters in Missouri have already begun voting under the old district lines.

GOP Senator Says No Living Politician Should Have a Building Named After Them. On CBS’s “Face the Nation” Sunday, Republican Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana said public officials should not spend public money promoting themselves and should not have buildings named after them while they are alive. His remarks came as a new taxpayer-funded advertisement promoting Trump as “the toughest, most resilient person” aired on several networks and as Trump continued his campaign to rename the Kennedy Center after himself. Kennedy called for a formal change in the rules, jokingly acknowledging that the suggestion might get him in trouble with the president.

Trump-Appointed Judge Finds ICE in Contempt for Deporting Young Asylum Seeker. U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher, who was appointed by Trump in his first term, found the administration in contempt of court Friday for deporting a young asylum seeker to El Salvador in violation of three different court orders. The petitioner, identified only as ELA to protect his identity, was deported twice in the last six months despite being covered by a settlement designed to protect his class of immigrants from removal while their asylum claims are processed. ELA was first deported in March 2026 and returned to the U.S. in August thanks to the efforts of his attorneys, only to be deported again on September 1. Gallagher ordered the administration to send ELA back to the United States and to return all his property and documents.

Federal Court Upholds Block on Tennessee Law Criminalizing Abortion Information. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit ruled Thursday that a Tennessee law criminalizing the sharing of information about legal out-of-state abortions with minors will stay blocked, agreeing with a lower court that the law violates the First Amendment. In her ruling, Senior United States Judge Jane Stranch said Tennessee had “no compelling interest in shielding its citizens from information about activities outside its borders.” Stranch also noted that the law makes it a crime to speak in a way that encourages a minor to have an abortion, but it says nothing about speech that encourages a minor to carry a pregnancy to term. Passed in 2024, the law made it a misdemeanor for any adult to “recruit, harbor or transport” a pregnant minor to obtain an abortion without the consent of their legal guardian.

REVEALED: Trump Wants to Start Another War This Year

AlterNet America — Sat, 26 Sep 2026 14:21:40 GMT

Good morning, AlterNet America family.

Welcome to the Saturday Wrapup, where I give you my thoughts on the week’s biggest news as I consume my caffeine with you.

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Leaked Army Documents Suggest Trump Is Preparing to Invade Cuba

America is eight months into a war with Iran, so naturally it’s time to open a second location.

CBS News has obtained an internal Army message that indicates the U.S. military is quietly building the capability to conduct a new ground operation. The message does not name Cuba, but several U.S. officials told the network the island is the target.

The message asks Army Reserve commands to report the availability of six types of units to U.S. Southern Command, including military police, medical teams and logistics support. With a deadline of 90 to 120 days, the earliest action possible could come in late December.

Earlier this year, CBS reported that U.S. forces conducted surveys of sea approaches and the seafloor around Cuba. Planners at the Pentagon had also considered an air assault involving thousands of soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division, but officials stressed that no decision had been made at the time.

Trump said in March he expected to have “the honor of taking Cuba,” adding, “Whether I free it, take it, I think I could do anything I want with it, if you want to know the truth.” At the United Nations this week, he claimed Cuba’s communist government “will fall” and said Marco Rubio was “deep into negotiations” with Havana.

The Cuban delegation walked out during his speech.

Republicans Are Panicking About a Historic Blue Wave in the Midterms

The rats are not leaving the ship so much as pretending they were never on it.

The panic is beginning to set in for Republicans facing a historic blue wave in the midterms. TIME reports that the party’s own internal polling shows them losing ground in states Trump easily won two years ago with less than six weeks to go until Election Day.

Tim Scott, who runs the NRSC, told the caucus in a closed-door briefing Wednesday that the strategy for the midterms is now all defensive. The party is fighting to hang on to seats in Texas, Iowa, Maine and Alaska. And now North Carolina and Georgia are completely out of the picture.

In Iowa, where Trump won by 13 points in 2024, Republican state lawmakers were told by their own pollsters that anyone in a 15-point district is now in the margin of error, conservative radio host Steve Deace reported. If you’re within 10 points of the leader, you’re in the hole.

Iowa Rep. Zach Nunn voted last week to rein in the president’s war with Iran, one month after campaigning with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Instead of bragging about her Trump endorsement, the GOP nominee for the state’s open Senate seat, Rep. Ashley Hinson, is running ads about working with Democrats.

House Republicans and their allies have bought $485 million in ad time from Aug. 1 through Election Day. That’s only for districts Trump already won.

DHS Lied About Finding 16,000 Noncitizen Voters in Nevada

Even a ouija board would have produced more accurate results.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin announced in July that the department had found 15,903 noncitizens on Nevada’s voter rolls. Now, after months of scrutiny by Nevada election officials, that number is zero.

At an August meeting between DHS officials and Nevada election officers, Nevada Secretary of State Chief Deputy C. Murphy Hebert asked if that number had been vetted. DHS official Kimberley Vogt said the department had “done something with it” to arrive at 15,000, but it had not performed a full manual review of every name.

DHS later revised the number down to 185 people it said were definitively noncitizens on the voter rolls. Those 185 names were reviewed by Greg Ott, a Nevada deputy attorney general, who wrote to DHS this week that all of them were citizens. “You have provided nothing of substance to suggest otherwise,” he wrote.

DHS has since lowered its claim to 6,218, but even that number is meaningless. Ott said DHS is comparing immigration case numbers to voter records, which do not indicate whether someone is a citizen. A match only tells you the number exists in both systems, not that the person attached to it is ineligible to vote.

The Ellisons Are Using Paramount to Build a Surveillance Empire

Most Bond villains would look at Larry Ellison’s portfolio and ask him to tone it down.

A settlement this week between state attorneys general and Paramount Skydance could pave the way for David Ellison’s $111 billion merger with Warner Bros. Discovery. A federal judge on Tuesday questioned the “factual and legal underpinnings” of the pact, but approval is still expected.

Last year, David’s Skydance Media bought Paramount, which owns CBS, Paramount Pictures and Paramount+. The deal was backed by his father Larry Ellison, the billionaire founder of Oracle.

The Trump administration is enabling the Ellisons’ media monopoly at every step. Trump helped broker Oracle’s co-ownership of TikTok earlier this year, and his FCC approved the Paramount deal after David Ellison made editorial concessions. Larry Ellison reportedly promised Trump he would “clean up CNN” if the Warner Bros. deal went through.

Oracle holds a nearly $7 billion contract to manage data for the Pentagon. Larry Ellison bragged more than a decade ago about its ability to track how long a person lingers in a particular aisle of a specific store, and said 5 billion people were already in the company’s “ID Graph.” He made a joke that there were only 2 billion to go.

Larry Ellison told investors in 2024 that “citizens will be on their best behavior because we are constantly recording and reporting everything that’s going on.” At the World Governments Summit in Dubai in February 2025, he said countries should “unify” all of their national data into a single database that AI could study.

The agreement would allow the Ellisons to use their media platforms to amplify fears about crime and terrorism, and then profit when the government buys Oracle’s surveillance technology in response.

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BREAKING: Confused Trump Forgets He Banned the Press

AlterNet America — Fri, 25 Sep 2026 21:02:04 GMT

Trump forgot he banned the press from the White House and wandered around asking where the cameras went. The Supreme Court just handed his administration a tool to purge voters from the rolls six weeks before the midterms. A federal judge found that ICE deliberately punished immigrants in a Lower Manhattan detention facility to force them to self-deport. And hundreds of protesters were arrested outside the United Nations for protesting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech.

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Trump, 80, Forgot He Banned the Press and Asked Where the Cameras Went

Most people develop object permanence by age two.

Trump was baffled by the lack of cameras at the White House on Thursday night, according to MS NOW’s Jonathan Lemire. He told Morning Joe on Friday that the 80-year-old president had been walking around asking aides, “Where are the cameras?”

The cameras were gone because Trump had banned MS NOW, CNN, and Politico from the White House, and every major broadcaster in the press pool suspended coverage in protest. The boycott has been in effect since Monday, and the networks are refusing to return unless all three outlets are allowed back.

Lemire reported that Trump did not consult with his aides before imposing the ban, but that his staff knew exactly how it would end. “They understand that he needs the media like he needs oxygen,” he said, “so he would be the one to miss it.”

U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly issued a temporary restraining order Wednesday night reinstating the outlets’ access, but the administration defied it the next morning. Some CNN and MS NOW journalists were still being turned away that evening as Trump hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping for a state dinner.

Sponsored Kalshi poll: Which party will win the U.S. Senate?

Supreme Court Approves Voter Purge Tool Six Weeks Before the Midterms

Sotomayor, Kagan, and Jackson are less a voting bloc and more of a support group at this point.

On Friday, the Supreme Court voted 6-3 to allow the Trump administration to use a federal database to check the citizenship status of registered voters ahead of the midterms. The unreliable data could result in eligible U.S. citizens being purged from the rolls.

The database is the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements system (SAVE), created 40 years ago to verify the immigration status of noncitizens applying for government benefits. Last year, the DHS linked it to Social Security records and made it available for states to run their entire voter rolls through it.

The League of Women Voters, which is leading the lawsuit against the program, called the decision “profoundly disappointing” and said it “puts millions of Americans at risk of being unlawfully targeted by the administration’s unreliable voter purge database.”

ICE Deliberately Punished Immigrants to Get Them to Self-Deport

They sanitized the record, but not the holding cells.

Federal Judge Lewis A. Kaplan has ordered permanent safeguards against what he called inhumane and unconstitutional conditions in immigration holding cells at 26 Federal Plaza in Lower Manhattan. In a 127-page ruling, Kaplan found that ICE had knowingly deprived detainees of sleep, sanitation, hygiene, food, water, and medical care.

Kaplan wrote that ICE knew that what it was doing to its detainees was wrong, but it kept doing it anyway to pressure them into self-deporting. He also found that ICE employees had attempted to cover up the conditions by sanitizing the record.

One man was held for nearly three weeks in a room with as many as 90 people, according to the trial record cited in the ruling. Another wore the same clothes for 19 days without bathing. One woman said guards provided an entire room of women with only two menstrual pads, and they housed a detainee who tested positive for tuberculosis for six days at its most crowded.

Kaplan found ICE had violated his earlier orders requiring minimum standards of care on 84 separate days and determined the agency would not improve on its own. He put in place permanent safeguards, including that every detainee get at least 50 square feet of space.

Over 100 Arrested Outside the United Nations For Protesting Netanyahu

Apparently warrants only apply to grandmothers and Oscar winners.

More than 100 people were arrested in New York City on Thursday as protesters blocked streets near the United Nations ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to the General Assembly. More than 400 people participated in the First Avenue sit-in, organized by Jewish Voice for Peace and NYC-DSA.

Those arrested included actress Susan Sarandon, comedian Hannah Einbinder, whistleblower Chelsea Manning, New York City Council member Chi Ossé, and Darializa Avila Chevalier, the Democratic nominee for New York’s 13th congressional district. “The deep irony is the person with the arrest warrant for crimes against humanity is not the one that will be facing arrest today,” Chevalier told reporters shortly before she was taken into custody.

Inside the building, dozens of delegations walked out as Netanyahu began his speech. Netanyahu’s response was to call them “moral cowards.” He then directly targeted New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, claiming Jews supposedly no longer feel safe in New York.

Mamdani responded in a statement, saying Netanyahu had used his speech to repeat baseless lies meant to sanitize his genocide of Palestinians. “No lie can change the fact that he remains the subject of an International Criminal Court arrest warrant alleging war crimes and crimes against humanity,” Mamdani said.

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POSITIVE STORIES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED:

House Republicans on Track to Lose Their Majority. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report shifted 15 House races toward the Democrats on Friday, the latest indication that the political environment is turning against Republicans as they head into the midterm elections. Democrats need to win a net of only three seats to get the majority, and Cook now projects they are most likely to pick up between five and 15 seats. There are now 17 Republican held seats rated as Toss Ups, compared to just five Democratic held seats, and Trump is underwater in many of the most competitive districts. Much of the discontent in those districts is being fueled by frustration with how the president is handling the economy.

23 States Urge Congress to Regulate Artificial Intelligence. Attorneys general from 23 states, the District of Columbia, and American Samoa sent a letter to congressional leaders Thursday urging broad federal regulation and safety standards for AI. The letter warned that unchecked AI development could soon threaten the financial system, infrastructure, and national security. New York Attorney General Letitia James said that recent “alarming reports of AI agents breaking containment have shocked the nation,” and called on Congress to act swiftly to establish a regulatory framework. “Artificial intelligence may show great promise, but we have a duty to ensure that this technology does not risk Americans’ safety,” she stated.

E. Jean Carroll Finally Receives Damages After Seven-Year Legal Battle with Trump. Journalist and writer E. Jean Carroll, who sued Trump for sexual assault and won, finally received the $5.6 million in damages awarded to her after a seven-year legal battle. The Supreme Court threw out what was thought to be Trump’s last attempt in late June, but his legal team then asked a court to issue an injunction to claw the money back. This week Carroll said both sides signed an agreement that the injunction was dead. She told AFP the money would go to everything Trump hates, including women’s rights, minority rights, and the environment. A second, much larger $83.3 million payout from a defamation case is still working its way through the courts.

Macklemore Announces “Free Palestine” Tour After Being Dropped from Ed Sheeran’s. Grammy-winning rapper Macklemore has announced the Free Palestine Tour, with three shows scheduled for Dublin, Paris and London in late October, after he was dropped as the opening act from Ed Sheeran’s U.S. stadium tour for making pro-Palestinian speeches on stage at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. Macklemore said that U.S. venues gave Sheeran an ultimatum to remove him or they would cancel shows, and that New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft rallied other stadium owners against him. All proceeds from the tour will go to organizations supporting Palestinians, including Anera, HEAL Palestine, the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund, and UNRWA USA.

Elon Musk Was Fined $137M. Trump's DOJ Wants to Change That

AlterNet America — Fri, 25 Sep 2026 14:30:47 GMT

The Trump administration filed a legal brief in European court to help Elon Musk dodge a $137 million fine for violating online safety rules. Eight sailors tried to kill themselves during the USS Lincoln’s deployment in the Iran war. The Justice Department dismissed more than 50 school desegregation cases that had been in effect since the Civil Rights era. And Virginia just told nearly 235,000 people that the state never should have taken away their right to vote.

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Trump’s DOJ Is Helping Elon Musk Avoid a $137 Million Fine

Your tax dollars are now paying for Elon Musk’s lawyers.

The Department of Justice on Thursday filed an application to join Musk’s legal challenge to a €120 million fine imposed on X last December by the European Commission. It was the first fine issued under the EU’s Digital Services Act, which requires big online platforms to tackle illegal and harmful content.

European regulators said X’s paid blue checkmark system was deceptive, the company failed to meet transparency requirements, and it blocked researchers from accessing public data. Under Musk’s ownership, the platform has become one of the largest sources of disinformation and hate speech in Europe.

The DOJ contends that the European Commission went too far by reaching past X to target Musk personally and other American companies he owns. The Commission said that calculating fines based on the full economic unit Musk controls is precisely how the law is meant to work.

The U.S. government has never before intervened in a foreign regulatory proceeding on behalf of a private citizen’s company. The next time you get a speeding ticket, try calling the White House.

Eight Sailors Attempted Suicide on the USS Lincoln

Eight sailors attempted suicide during the deployment of the USS Abraham Lincoln in the Iran war, according to a letter from acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao. Two of the attempts involved sailors attempting to jump overboard, one in March and one in August. Both were stopped before they went over the side.

Earlier this month, the Lincoln strike group completed the longest deployment of an aircraft carrier in modern military history, spending more than 300 days at sea. Many of the 5,000 sailors on board described it as the worst experience of their lives.

For months, families of sailors and Marines aboard the Lincoln have been reporting that the crew was running short of food, soap, toothpaste, and deodorant. One mother said there was a time when her son ate a half cup of rice and two tortillas per meal.

Sailors described moldy showers, broken toilets, laundry facilities that didn’t work, and shifts of 12 to 16 hours with little time off. The ship had gone 208 straight days without pulling into port before stopping briefly in Oman in July.

Both Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have lied about the conditions on the ship. A few weeks ago, Trump called the reports a “CNN fake report,” saying that he had spoken to a retired admiral who told him the ship was “beautifully maintained and beautifully taken care of.”

If you or someone you know is struggling, the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, by phone or text at 988. Veterans and active-duty service members can press 1 after dialing to reach the Veterans Crisis Line.

Trump’s DOJ Dismissed More Than 50 School Desegregation Cases

Sixty years of ‘F’s, and the government gave them a diploma anyway.

The Justice Department said Thursday it is dropping more than 50 school desegregation cases that have been in place since the 1960s and 1970s. The decrees span from Waterbury, Connecticut, to Flagler County, Florida, and were first filed to dismantle the dual school systems that states built under Jim Crow.

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon described the consent decrees as “onerous and outdated” and said that federal oversight of the districts no longer represents the reality of what’s happening in their classrooms. But the reason many of these decrees have lasted 60 years is that the districts keep failing to meet the requirements.

American schools are more segregated today than they were in the 1980s. In the South, which experienced the most sweeping integration efforts during the civil rights era, 43 percent of Black students were in majority-white schools at the height of desegregation. That figure is now 16 percent.

Since Dhillon’s confirmation in April 2025, more than 75 percent of the division’s staff have resigned or taken early retirement. She’s stopped pursuing the kind of race discrimination cases the division was created to handle, and instead has opened investigations into university admissions and DEI programs.

Nearly 235,000 Virginians See Voting Rights Restored

Somewhere in Virginia, a mailman is delivering a quarter of a million of the worst apologies ever written.

Virginia’s Department of Elections sent mailers this week to 234,852 people telling them that their convictions should never have kept them from voting. The notices come after a federal court ruling earlier this year by U.S. District Court Judge John Gibney, who struck down the state’s practice of automatically disenfranchising anyone convicted of a felony.

The state was supposed to implement the ruling by June 1, but Attorney General Jay Jones initially interpreted the order to cover 284 modern-day crimes. In an August opinion, Judge Gibney rejected that interpretation, saying that only the original 11 felonies applied.

On September 15, Virginia formally reduced the number of disqualifying convictions to murder, voluntary manslaughter, and involuntary manslaughter.

The Sentencing Project reported that in 2024, approximately 260,000 Virginians were barred from voting due to felony convictions, affecting one in ten eligible Black voters in the state. There are 6.45 million registered voters in Virginia as of September 1, and the re-enfranchisement could have big implications for the November 3 midterms.

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POSITIVE STORIES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED:

Rep. Steve Cohen Introduces 26 Articles of Impeachment Against Trump. Rep. Steve Cohen of Tennessee, a senior member of the House Judiciary Committee, introduced 26 articles of impeachment against Trump Thursday. The articles detail abuses of power, violations of his oath of office, corrupt use of the pardon power, emoluments clause violations, unauthorized military force in Iran and Venezuela, attacks on the free press, the deployment of the National Guard into American cities, the birthright citizenship executive order, tariffs imposed under emergency powers, and the move to dismantle the Department of Education. The 26 articles are the most ever filed against a sitting president, more than double the 11 articles the House adopted against Andrew Johnson in 1868.

California Supreme Court Orders GOP Sheriff to Return 650,000 Seized Ballots. The California Supreme Court ruled unanimously on Thursday that Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco must return more than 650,000 ballots he seized from a November 2025 special election on congressional redistricting. The court called the seizure “unlawful” and said California law requires voted ballots to remain in the custody of election officials even during a criminal investigation. Bianco, a Republican and also a candidate for governor, seized the ballots in February, acting on claims from a citizens group that there was a discrepancy of about 45,000 votes. The redistricting measure passed statewide and won in Bianco’s own county by about 80,000 votes.

CEO Who Posted “Lake America” Sweatshirts While Visiting Canada Loses Her Job. Jane Smith, the former CEO of Family First Credit Union in Saginaw, Michigan, is no longer with the company after a Facebook photo of her and three family members wearing sweatshirts that said “Lake America” during a trip to Halifax, Nova Scotia. Smith said the photo was generated using AI and posted to her private Facebook page with a disclosure label, but her sister reposted the photo publicly without the label. The image quickly went viral on social media across Canada, and Smith cut her trip short after receiving threats. The backlash came weeks after Trump signed an executive order in August to rename Lake Ontario, with Prime Minister Mark Carney responding Canadians will call it Lake Ontario “now and always.”

New Jersey Fines Data Center $1.1 Million Over 62 Unpermitted Gas Generators. New Jersey fined DataOne $1.07 million this week for installing and operating 62 natural gas generators at its Vineland data center without the air permits required by state law, the largest enforcement action ever taken against a data center in the state. The generators were operating at capacities of 1,982 kilowatts, more than 50 times the threshold for the state’s permitting requirement. The equipment was spotted by a farmer using satellite imagery, and later investigations from The Guardian and Floodlight News confirmed that 45 of the generators were running using thermal drone footage.

BREAKING: Trump Defies Court Order to Restore Reporter Access

AlterNet America — Thu, 24 Sep 2026 20:12:45 GMT

Trump is refusing to let reporters back in the White House despite a federal court order restoring their access. The federal government is using taxpayer dollars to air a propaganda ad glorifying Trump on Fox News and Newsmax. His administration is threatening criminal prosecution against Americans who criticize AI data centers. And nearly 170,000 pounds of meat have been recalled after being sent to stores and restaurants without inspection.

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White House Defies Court Order, Continues to Block Reporters

It’s like paying the cover fee and watching the bouncer shut the door anyway.

Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly issued a temporary restraining order late Wednesday night that should have restored White House access for CNN, MS NOW, and Politico. Reporters from all three outlets were denied entry on Thursday morning, when the president accused them of writing stories that supposedly threatened national security.

In his decision, Kelly wrote that he was skeptical that the revocation of the press passes was actually motivated by national security. He pointed out that nothing indicated that national security was a factor, as Trump himself cited negative coverage.

Trump attacked Kelly on Truth Social before the ruling even came down, calling him “a great Judge, for them.” He vowed to appeal, arguing that reporters who diss the White House should not be allowed access.

Every major broadcaster in the White House press pool, including NBC, ABC, CBS, and Fox News, suspended coverage of the president on Monday in protest of the ban. They have refused to resume until all three outlets are allowed back.

Taxpayer-Funded Trump Propaganda Ad Airs on Fox News and Newsmax

Even North Korea has the decency not to put “paid for by the government” at the bottom.

The White House this week released a 30-second ad featuring images of Trump with music from singers repeating the words “love me.” The ad boasted about tax cuts and warned of communism, sporting a label at the bottom that read “paid for by the US Government.”

The ad, which ran on conservative programming on Fox News and Newsmax, cost $14,000, according to media tracking firm AdImpact. No one has been able to figure out which part of the federal government paid for it.

Federal law explicitly forbids the use of government funds for propaganda or publicity. The Government Accountability Office has interpreted this for decades to mean that the executive branch can’t spend federal dollars on material whose purpose is self-promotion or partisan messaging.

Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland said on social media that the ad violates the Hatch Act, which prohibits most federal employees from using their authority or government resources for partisan activity. Max Flugrath, communications director at the voting rights group Fair Fight, called it the “weirdest way to violate the Hatch Act, ever.”

Trump Administration Threatens Criminal Charges Against Critics of AI

Apparently 71 percent of Americans are on the Chinese government’s payroll.

The Justice Department warned last week that anyone who advances the interests of a foreign power, including in the form of public demonstrations, must formally notify the government or risk arrest. Those who do not comply may face civil and criminal sanctions.

Two days before the warning, Trump posted on Truth Social that there is a conspiracy against AI and data centers and that the only ones who benefit from it are the Chinese. He called opponents of AI development “treasonists,” traitors, and revolutionaries for an evil cause.

Sen. Tom Cotton went even further in June, asking the DOJ to investigate whether foreign governments were organizing protests against data centers. He said the Chinese Communist Party was trying to manipulate public opinion, and called for AI opponents to be prosecuted under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

A March Gallup poll found that 71% of Americans are against AI data centers in their area, with nearly half of all respondents strongly against it. That includes 63% of Republicans.

Nearly 170,000 Pounds of Uninspected Meat Recalled

Forge a passport and you go to prison. Forge a USDA stamp on 170,000 pounds of meat and it ends up in restaurants across the country.

Star Meat Delivery Inc. is recalling an estimated 167,639 pounds of raw pork, beef and goat products produced entirely outside federal inspection, the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service announced Sept. 22. The products were shipped out after being stamped with a false USDA establishment number.

The meat was shipped to a distributor in Georgia called A&D Foods, which then distributed it to retailers and restaurants across the country. The USDA has not named any specific stores or restaurants that received the recalled products.

No illnesses or injuries have been confirmed to date, but the USDA warned that meat produced without inspection could have undeclared allergens, harmful bacteria or other contaminants. It urged consumers to throw the products away or to return them.

2026 has been marked by steady food recalls. In the first quarter alone, USDA-regulated products posted the third-highest volume in more than two decades. CDC staffing is down 25 percent, and the number of scientists tracking food parasites dropped from 11 to 3.

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POSITIVE STORIES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED:

Democrats Sue to Block Armed Federal Agents from Polling Places During Midterms. Congressional Democrats on Wednesday night sued to block the Trump administration from sending armed federal agents to voting sites in the midterm elections. Joined by Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, the lawsuit seeks a court order to bar federal officers from the vicinity of open polling places, drop boxes and curbside voting locations from the beginning of early voting until the end of ballot curing. DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin has said ICE agents could make arrests at polling places and FBI Director Kash Patel told a Senate panel under oath that the suggestion he would not send agents to the polls was “just another lie.”

Sanders and Casar Introduce Bill to Ban Artificial Superintelligence. On Wednesday, Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Greg Casar, the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, introduced the Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act. The bill would permanently ban the development of artificial intelligence systems that exceed human capabilities and temporarily halt all advanced AI development until a new Cabinet-level Department of Artificial Intelligence is created and writes safety rules. Violations could result in up to 20 years in prison, the same penalty as unlawfully building nuclear weapons. The bill would also direct the State Department to pursue international agreements to ban superintelligent AI.

New York Sues Polymarket for Running an Unlicensed Gambling Operation. New York Attorney General Letitia James and Governor Kathy Hochul announced Thursday that the state is suing the prediction market platform Polymarket for running an illegal gambling business. The lawsuit claims Polymarket did not get a license from the New York State Gaming Commission and accepted users as young as 18, when the legal age for mobile sports betting in New York is 21. The state is asking a court to order Polymarket to cease operations in New York, return all profits from its unlicensed operations, pay restitution to users and pay fines of three times its illegal earnings.

Mamdani Launches “Opera for All,” Bringing 70,000 Free Met Tickets to New Yorkers. Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced a long-term partnership with the Metropolitan Opera, which will provide 70,000 free tickets this season to New Yorkers who haven’t purchased a ticket themselves since 2019. The program will distribute 10,000 tickets each month during the 2026-27 season through a lottery, or about 10% of all available seats. Tickets will be available in all sections of the house, and distributed through public schools, NYCHA, CUNY, all three public library systems, and city social services. The Met has promised to continue the program in future seasons.

BREAKING: Trump Drove White House Ballroom Architect to Quit

AlterNet America — Thu, 24 Sep 2026 14:37:19 GMT

Trump told an architect “I am the code” when warned his White House ballroom could become a death trap. JD Vance was the anonymous source behind one of the stories the White House cited to justify banning Politico. The New Hampshire Libertarian Party posted on social media that it supports the assassination of every elected Democrat in the state. And Texas just discovered that an unknown number of voter registrations were never processed, six weeks before the midterms.

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Trump Told the Architect of His White House Ballroom: “I Am the Code”

The man who builds cathedrals quit because the president wanted a tomb.

Last October, architect James McCrery II quit Trump’s $400 million White House ballroom project after repeatedly warning that the president’s design didn’t include enough emergency exits or fire containment measures. McCrery, who runs a small firm that designs Catholic cathedrals, told Trump the plans violated building safety codes.

Trump told McCrery that no building codes apply to the White House. When pressed further, Trump reportedly said: “I am the code.”

The president had been personally marking up blueprints with a black Sharpie, scratching out service corridors and two sets of service stairs to make the ballroom bigger. His notes expanded McCrery’s original design of 640 seats to extend the entire width of the second floor.

In other notes, Trump asked for Corinthian columns and millions of dollars worth of gold leaf. The papers were then placed in a box in the White House labeled “Docs bearing POTUS’s mark.”

The ballroom plans were to be finalized by June 2026, but officials said as of late August, Trump was still tweaking the design.

JD Vance Was the Source Behind Story Trump Used to Ban Politico

Every office has a guy who eats your lunch from the fridge and then helps you look for it.

The unnamed “senior administration official” behind a June 2026 Politico story on the chances of an Iran peace deal was Vice President JD Vance. The story was one of six Trump cited as having “threatened national security and/or spread falsehoods” when he barred Politico from the White House grounds last week.

Vance had spoken to reporters from several outlets about the Iran negotiations and was granted anonymity in exchange for the information, which the outlets agreed to before he spoke. He told them the odds of a preliminary deal to end the war with Iran were between 80 and 85 percent.

On Monday, Vance told reporters he supported the ban, calling it “totally appropriate.” He said that anyone doing an “objective analysis” would see that Politico is supposedly as biased against Trump as Breitbart was against Obama.

Politico, along with CNN and MS NOW, filed a federal lawsuit against the White House on Monday, arguing that the ban violates their First Amendment rights. Trump-appointed federal Judge Timothy J. Kelly heard emergency arguments Wednesday and said without ruling that legal precedent “wasn’t followed here.”

New Hampshire Libertarian Party Endorses “Assassination” of All Democrats

If you think that’s an exaggeration, it’s actually a direct quote.

This week, the New Hampshire Libertarian Party used its official social media account to call for the killing of elected Democrats in the state. The office of the state attorney general said it was aware of the posts, but has taken no action.

On Tuesday, the party’s official X account posted: “We openly support the assassination of basically every elected Democrat in New Hampshire. But if you don’t have the balls to do that then you should probably vote GOP.”

The same account in 2024 endorsed the assassination of then-Vice President Kamala Harris. The group also posted earlier this year that it was “perfectly permissible to kill” a former member of the state Executive Council for proposing a state income tax.

The New Hampshire Attorney General’s office told NHPR on Wednesday that it is aware of the posts but would not comment further. No charges have been filed, and it’s unclear if they will be.

The national Libertarian Party voted 15 to 2 to eject the New Hampshire chapter in May over years of racist and threatening social media posts. It also cited the chapter’s endorsement of Trump for president in 2024.

The Democratic leader of the New Hampshire House, Rep. Alexis Simpson, said she reached out to the security office at the State House and the attorney general to monitor and investigate the posts. Raymond Buckley, the state Democratic Party chairman, denounced the post and called on leading Republicans to do the same. As of writing, they have not.

Massive Error Affects Unknown Number of Texas Voter Registrations

Texas found a new way to stop people from voting, and this time they’re calling it a glitch.

An unknown number of Texans who registered to vote through the state’s driver’s license website were never actually registered. The Texas Department of Public Safety didn’t forward their applications to county election officials, and the secretary of state’s office said it only found out about the problem last week.

State officials said they would begin sending the backed-up applications to counties overnight, but many were incomplete. Texas’ registration deadline is October 5, and some counties may be processing applications for the next two weeks.

The office of the secretary of state said voters who registered through the DPS website but don’t show up on the rolls can still cast a provisional ballot. Election officials can verify the registration with DPS after the fact, and the provisional vote will be counted if the voter did register.

Texas officials have not explained how a system used by almost six million people between 2020 and 2024 failed to get applications to the counties that needed them. They did say the problem was detected last week, six weeks before a midterm election that polls show their party is losing.

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POSITIVE STORIES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED:

Trump’s Approval Has Plunged Into the 20s, and Republicans Are Giving Up. A new poll has found Trump’s approval rating at 29 percent, an 18-point drop from the start of his second term and a record low for his entire political career. The Iran war and his handling of the economy are fueling the decline, and now costing him support in his own party, where approval fell from 85 percent to 76 percent in one month over the summer. His numbers are worse than Biden’s were at this stage of his presidency and worse than Trump’s own heading into the 2018 midterms when the GOP lost the House. Polls now suggest Democrats could take both chambers in November.

Iowa Judge Throws Out Trump’s Lawsuit Against the Des Moines Register. Iowa District Judge Scott J. Beattie dismissed Trump’s lawsuit against the Des Moines Register, its parent company, and retired pollster J. Ann Selzer on Wednesday. Trump had sued in December 2024, accusing them of fraudulently publishing inaccurate poll results that showed Kamala Harris leading him in Iowa just before Election Day. The judge wrote that Trump’s claims sought to “turn speech that enjoys the highest category of First Amendment protection into a liability.” Selzer said the ruling “reaffirms the fundamental freedom to pursue and publish the truth without political interference.” She also noted, for anyone who needed to hear it, that “polling is a social science, not clairvoyance.”

Senators From Both Parties Demand New Rules for AI-Powered Surveillance Cameras. The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism held its first congressional hearing Wednesday on AI-powered license plate reader networks, focusing on Flock Safety. Republican Senator Josh Hawley, the subcommittee chair who opened a formal investigation into Flock in August, said the cameras represent mass surveillance of Americans who have done nothing wrong. The Washington Post and 404Media have reported on cases of police officers using the camera footage to stalk people, including former partners. Florida and Texas already have banned the cameras on state roads and at least four bipartisan bills have been introduced in the House to regulate the technology.

Ottawa Votes to Rename Trump Avenue. The Ottawa City Council voted unanimously on Wednesday to start the process of removing Donald Trump’s name from a residential street in the city’s Central Park neighborhood. Councilor Riley Brockington introduced the motion, saying Trump does not deserve the honor for his repeated threats against Canada, including tariffs and his executive order to rename Lake Ontario “Lake America.” The street’s name comes from a late-1990s development that named surrounding roads after New York City, including Bloomingdale Street and Staten Way. An attempt to rename the street in 2021 resulted in a 21-21 tie vote among residents. There was no opposition this time

BREAKING: Trump Urged to Declare Martial Law for Midterms

AlterNet America — Wed, 23 Sep 2026 21:02:05 GMT

Some of Donald Trump’s closest outside allies are urging him to declare martial law to seize control of the midterm elections. A shocking new video shows Senator Mitch McConnell unable to speak or respond to basic questions. ICE agents detained an American citizen in Illinois and left him injured on the ground. And a woman in Missouri was dragged away in handcuffs for speaking about surveillance cameras during a public comment period at a city council meeting.

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Trump Allies Are Urging Him to Declare Martial Law for the Midterms

Trump’s allies are not confident he can win the midterms, but they are confident he has a military.

A new report from The Atlantic reveals that some of Trump’s most loyal allies are urging him to declare a national-security emergency to seize control of the federal elections in November. His White House and Cabinet advisers have spent months trying to talk him out of these demands, but even his inner circle admits it could happen.

Attorney Peter Ticktin, who attended military school with Trump as a teenager, claimed without evidence that Democrats have already stolen the election through fraud in the primaries. He said the remaining options are “either martial law, or step aside.”

LindellTV host Wayne Allyn Root has separately called for Trump to declare the emergency on his radio show. Trump responded with interest, only saying that “stranger things have happened.”

Administration officials have authorized the seizure of Georgia election records and examined voting equipment in Puerto Rico, but none of that uncovered the sweeping fraud Trump has alleged. Those pushing for martial law have not cited any evidence, because there is none.

Sponsored Kalshi poll: Ohio Senate winner?

New Video Shows McConnell Entirely Nonverbal, Appearing Confused

Mitch McConnell has returned to the Senate, but it’s unclear whether he knows that.

Journalist Desiree Townsend posted a video Tuesday of the 84-year-old Kentucky Republican being wheeled into a large black car before a Senate vote. Townsend asked McConnell how his weekend went and if he felt ready to get back to work, to which the senator responded only with a feeble wave and peace sign.

Townsend wrote that McConnell appeared somewhat confused by the rain. She said he had a delayed response, and gave no verbal acknowledgment.

McConnell has not spoken publicly since he returned to Capitol Hill after his alleged fall earlier this year. His wife, Elaine Chao, took his place over the weekend for an event at the University of Louisville’s McConnell Center.

The one time McConnell spoke on the Senate floor, he sided with Democrats on a bill his own party opposed. An aide had to step in and remind him what team he was on.

ICE Agents Mistakenly Detain U.S. Citizen, Leave Him Injured on the Ground

Another day, another citizen left bleeding on the ground by federal agents who could not be bothered to check his ID.

ICE agents in Evanston, Illinois attacked a man on Sunday morning, leaving him on the ground with injuries to his head, neck, and teeth. The man can be heard in a video taken by a witness repeatedly telling the agents that he is an American citizen.

Evanston police responded to the scene after callers reported two men arguing and one threatening to take someone into custody. When officers arrived, they found the man on the ground with several people helping him. Witnesses said the five attackers were ICE agents.

ICE said the man resembled someone they were looking for as part of a fugitive investigation, and that he “was not cooperative and refused to identify himself.” DHS has not explained why federal agents left the scene without giving him medical assistance.

Congressional Democrats are documenting more and more of these cases. Earlier this year, a 67-year-old Chicago citizen had his door broken down in a raid and was left zip-tied outside his building for nearly three hours. A citizen in Alabama was detained twice during worksite raids, even after showing agents his REAL ID.

Woman Arrested for Speaking About Surveillance Cameras at City Council Meeting

Getting arrested after one sentence at a city council meeting has to be some sort of record.

A woman in Springfield, Missouri was arrested Monday night for speaking about surveillance cameras at a city council meeting. She was dragged away in handcuffs after saying a single sentence during the public comment period.

Mia Heider had never attended a city council meeting, but she came to this one with a written statement opposing Springfield’s contract with Flock Safety. The company builds surveillance cameras that automatically check and photograph the license plate of every vehicle that passes them.

After she spoke a single sentence, Mayor Jeff Schrag cut her microphone. A police officer approached the podium, told her she was under arrest, and pulled her out of the room in handcuffs.

Freelance photographer Noah Powell was also ticketed and detained after yelling insults at Mayor Schrag as the room was being cleared. He said he plans to fight the charge in court, saying the city’s own ordinance should only allow officers to ask someone to leave.

The arrests followed a 5-to-3 vote earlier in the evening to send a proposed review of the Flock cameras to committee instead of allowing public comment. City Councilor Brandon Jenson told his colleagues “this isn’t how government is supposed to run. It’s just disappointing. And we’re not even allowing folks to speak who clearly came out to share their voices tonight.”

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POSITIVE STORIES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED:

Judge Rejects Todd Blanche’s Attempt to Withhold Foreign-Language Epstein Files. A federal judge has ordered the Justice Department to begin releasing foreign-language documents from the Jeffrey Epstein files, rejecting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s attempt to block them. U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan ruled that the DOJ had failed to follow basic procedural rules before filing its motion, and that the request would have failed on its merits anyway. The Justice Department now has until Thursday to begin reviewing and producing the documents.

Harvey Weinstein Sentenced to 15 Years in Prison for Sexual Assault. Harvey Weinstein was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Wednesday for sexually assaulting former production assistant Miriam Haley at his Manhattan apartment in 2006. Weinstein was first convicted and sentenced to 23 years in 2020, but New York’s highest court threw out the verdict in 2024 and ordered a new trial. A jury convicted him again in June 2025 on the same charge. Haley told the court in a victim impact statement that Weinstein “abused his position and power,” causing a “devastating effect on my life and security.”

Dolly Parton’s Free Book Program Expands After Her Death. Almost a month after Dolly Parton died, her Imagination Library is expanding in London, doubling from five boroughs to ten and making 157,000 more children eligible for free monthly books. Parton launched the program in 1995 to provide books to children in her home county in Tennessee. It has since given away more than 330 million books to over 3 million children in all 50 states and several countries. Jeff Conyers, president of the Dollywood Foundation, told the BBC that Parton would have been incredibly proud to see it growing after her death.

Sea Turtles Nest on California Beaches for the First Time in Recorded History. An olive ridley sea turtle nested near Seal Beach in Orange County, California on September 16, followed by a second nest near the Huntington Beach Pier on September 19. NOAA’s West Coast Fisheries division said it’s the first time any sea turtle species has been recorded nesting naturally on the entire West Coast. The event was so shocking that Trevor McDonald, the marine safety chief for the Huntington Beach Fire Department, said that the lifeguards patrolling at night thought the turtle was sick at first before they watched it start to lay eggs.

We’re Thinking of Changing Our Name

Ryan Rose — Wed, 23 Sep 2026 18:10:40 GMT

Hey, it’s Ryan.

Thanks for reading AlterNet America.

We’ve been thinking a lot about where we’re going, and how we can attract new readers — and voters — to progressive politics.

AlterNet is our core, but it’s not a name new readers are familiar with.

So we’re asking you: what names inspire you?

👉 Click here to take our reader survey.

We look forward to hearing your feedback.

Thanks for your help in advance.

—Ryan Rose, Co-founder, AlterNet America

P.S. Feel free to leave your own ideas for names at the end of the survey.

BREAKING: Trump Secretly Investing in Elon Musk's Company

AlterNet America — Wed, 23 Sep 2026 14:26:09 GMT

Donald Trump made more than 1,100 trades in July, including shares in Elon Musk’s SpaceX. The Texas lawmaker who wrote the state’s abortion ban has admitted to an affair after his former mistress said he paid for her abortions. A man died in a burning car after fleeing from ICE agents in Michigan. And Ken Paxton kept taking money from a Baptist leader accused of sexually abusing boys and young men.

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Trump Made 1,156 Trades in July, Including SpaceX Shares

The presidency was always more of a side hustle.

In a financial disclosure released Tuesday by the Office of Government Ethics, Trump reported making 1,156 trades in July worth between $79 million and $270 million. He bought securities worth at least $43.6 million and sold off at least $35.6 million of them.

He bought shares in SpaceX worth between $15,001 and $50,000 on July 10 and sold shares in the company worth between $1,001 and $15,000 a week later. SpaceX is Elon Musk’s rocket company that depends on billions of dollars in contracts from the federal government.

Trump’s biggest trades were July 20, when his accounts sold between $5 million and $25 million each of Microsoft and Amazon stock. Three days later, the accounts bought back a far smaller amount from both companies.

Trump is the first modern president to refuse to put his assets in a blind trust, meaning he can see what stocks his money managers are buying or selling. The White House says the portfolio is managed independently by third-party financial firms, but Trump still knows what he owns as he makes policy.

Author of Abortion Ban’s Former Mistress Says He Paid for Her Abortions

Chuck E. Cheese is a place where a kid can be a kid, and where a Texas legislator can leave abortion money behind the dumpster.

In 2021, Republican Rep. Giovanni Capriglione was the lead author of the Human Life Protection Act that banned abortion in Texas after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. This week, he admitted to having an affair after the woman he was seeing for 17 years accused him of secretly paying for her abortions.

Alex Grace, a former exotic dancer, said the relationship began in 2004 when she was 18. She told the conservative site Current Revolt that Capriglione paid for multiple abortions, including one time when she was told to collect cash left near a dumpster behind a Chuck E. Cheese.

Capriglione had announced three days before Grace’s interview that he would not seek reelection. After the interview was published, he issued a statement admitting that he had “selfishly” had an affair “years ago,” but that his wife and family had forgiven him.

Capriglione called the abortion allegations “categorically false” and threatened to sue for defamation. He compared it to Dominion Voting Systems’ case against Fox News, which is interesting coming from a man who just confirmed half of what his accuser said.

A Guatemalan Man Died in a Burning Car After Fleeing ICE Agents in Grand Rapids

ICE posted a press release last week about arresting a guy with two unpaid parking tickets, but they’re real quiet about this one.

A man died Sunday morning in Grand Rapids after his car struck a tree and caught fire while ICE agents were pursuing him. The agents had tried to stop his vehicle near Hall Street and Century Avenue around 7 a.m., and he fled about a mile before the crash killed him.

Rep. Hillary Scholten identified the driver as Mario David Coronado Juarez. Neighbors said he was an undocumented immigrant from Guatemala who had lived and worked in Grand Rapids for around seven years.

Grand Rapids police did not reveal ICE’s involvement until Tuesday. Local investigators said federal agents refused to share information about what happened before the crash, and that DHS and ICE are not responding to requests for comment.

Scholten has sent a letter to acting ICE Director David Venturella demanding to know why agents were chasing a man through a residential neighborhood at seven in the morning. Coronado Juarez was the second person to die while fleeing from ICE agents since August.

Ken Paxton Took Money From Baptist Leader Accused of Sexually Abusing Boys

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has built his political career on accusing LGBTQ+ people of being a danger to kids. He has also spent years taking money from a man accused of raping boys and young men.

Paul Pressler was a former Texas appeals judge who led the conservative takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention. In 2017, a man named Duane Rollins sued him, alleging Pressler raped him in 1979 when he was 14 and Pressler was his youth counselor. Several other men stepped forward after the lawsuit was filed, with two joining it.

Paxton received donations from Pressler before and after the allegations, and the Presslers donated to his impeachment defense as recently as 2022, five years after the accusations surfaced. Paxton also highlighted Pressler’s endorsement during his 2013 race for attorney general, calling him a man he “admired and respected.”

Paxton is running for Senate against Democratic state Rep. James Talarico on a platform that includes accusing LGBTQ+ people of putting children in danger and creating a list of trans Texans by name. He might want to consider compiling a list of his donors first.

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POSITIVE STORIES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED:

More Than Half a Million Americans Registered to Vote in a Single Day. At least 550,000 Americans registered to vote or updated their registration on September 15, making it the second most successful midterm drive since National Voter Registration Day began in 2012. Community partners hosted more than 3,500 events across the country, amplified by Sabrina Carpenter, Kerry Washington, the Philadelphia 76ers, and the Chicago Bears. The registration push came despite the Trump administration’s ongoing efforts to restrict voter drives, including an FBI raid this summer on the offices of an Ohio voter registration group over unsubstantiated fraud allegations.

DoorDash Will Pay a Record $131.5 Million to New York City Delivery Workers. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced a $131.5 million settlement with DoorDash on Tuesday after a city investigation found the company had systematically underpaid more than 260,000 delivery workers, including some who were never paid at all. More than $115 million will go directly to workers, with payments beginning in late October. It’s the largest worker settlement in city history, and the largest food delivery worker settlement in U.S. history. DoorDash said in a statement it had “screwed up,” which is what you say when you forget a birthday, not when you steal from 260,000 people.

States Sue to Stop Trump From Paying Companies to Abandon Offshore Wind. Eight East Coast states sued on Tuesday to block the Trump administration from giving two energy companies $1.4 billion to halt offshore wind projects off New York and New Jersey and instead use the money for oil and gas. The administration has now pledged more than $4 billion to companies that are willing to abandon their wind leases. The states say the payments were illegally drawn from the Judgment Fund, which Congress created to pay court judgments against the federal government, not to pay oil companies to stop building windmills.

Fat Bear Week Has Returned. Fat Bear Week is back at Alaska’s Katmai National Park, where brown bears gorge on salmon all summer and the public gets to vote on which one did it best. The competition is a single-elimination tournament that garners nearly a million votes each year. Last year’s champ, Chunk, won even with a broken jaw, because nothing stops that bear from eating. He’s back to defend his title along with 15 other contestants, including a mother who adopted another bear’s cub and a bear named Gully who earned his nickname by eating seagulls.

BREAKING: Trump Humiliated at UN as Delegates Walk Out During His Speech

AlterNet America — Tue, 22 Sep 2026 20:10:34 GMT

Delegates at the United Nations sat in silence and then walked out during Donald Trump’s speech earlier today. The FBI was investigating Republican Senator Susan Collins for an alleged illegal pay-to-play scheme until the Trump administration killed it. FCC Chair Brendan Carr spent nearly a decade in an Alcoholics Anonymous offshoot that former members call a cult. And JD Vance just personally stripped hundreds of thousands of people of healthcare.

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Trump’s U.N. Speech Draws Silence and Walkouts

The United Nations has finally found something its 193 member states can agree on.

Trump used his speech before the 81st U.N. General Assembly Tuesday to issue threats to other countries. The speech drew no applause (despite several awkward pauses that intentionally left room for it) and several delegations walked out while he was still talking.

Most of the Iranian delegation left after Trump asked the audience whether he should “annihilate the Islamic Republic and do it quickly.” The Cuban delegation also walked out, after Trump called the nation “an absolutely failed state” and predicted that its government would fall.

Trump also bragged about a 65-billion-barrel oil deal with Venezuela, where his administration took over the oil industry after U.S. forces captured President Nicolás Maduro in January. He told delegates, “To the visitor belong the spoils.”

Trump’s FBI Shut Down a Bribery Probe Into Susan Collins

Susan Collins wants Maine voters to buy what she’s selling again in November, but they apparently aren’t her only customers.

A new ProPublica investigation reveals that the FBI was building a bribery case against Collins before the Trump administration shut down the case. Martin Kao, the former CEO of Hawaii defense contractor Navatek, told agents his company funneled donations to Collins in exchange for tens of millions of dollars in Navy contracts.

In 2019, Scott Reed of pro-Collins super PAC 1820 PAC met with three Navatek executives at a Washington coffee shop and asked them for $500,000. The executives offered an even larger amount if Collins directed federal business to the company.

Federal law prohibits government contractors from making political contributions, so the executives proposed disguising the contribution under a fake group called “the Society of Young Women Scientist and Engineers.” Immediately following the meeting, Kao gave $150,000 to the PAC.

Kao was charged with campaign finance crimes and loan fraud in 2022. He told agents Navatek had made $900,000 in donations to lawmakers and secured more than $40 million in contracts annually in return.

The FBI was preparing to open a bribery investigation at the end of 2024, but the task force assigned to it was disbanded when Trump returned to office. Some of its members were fired because they had investigated Trump in the past.

Trump’s FCC Chair Spent a Decade in an AA Group Former Members Call a Cult

As it turns out, Brendan Carr’s current job is not his first time working for a cult leader.

An investigation by the Guardian published Tuesday found that FCC Chair Brendan Carr spent about nine years in an offshoot of Alcoholics Anonymous that former members compare to a cult. He joined in 1996, when he was about 17, and seems to have stayed through law school.

Former members say the group’s leader, Michael Quinones, dictated where they lived, worked, and studied. One described him as the “Epstein of AA,” alleging that teenage girls and young women in the group were pressured into “dating” and having sex with male members.

None of the 14 ex-members who spoke to the Guardian alleged that Carr was involved in the abuse. Several described him as a victim of the group, with one saying he used to sneak her food when she was hungry.

Quinones died of cancer in 2007, the same year the group was investigated by police. They did not press charges because the girls were 16 or older, the age of consent in Maryland.

Vance Announces Plan to Cut Hundreds of Thousands From Obamacare

The Trump administration has found a way to punish Americans for not getting sick.

On Tuesday, Vice President JD Vance declared the administration is cutting Obamacare coverage for around 750,000 people it claims are fraudulently enrolled. Another 419,000 enrollees will face new checks of their immigration status and income, with Vance saying he expects most of them to be found ineligible.

CMS administrator Mehmet Oz said some of the enrollees are “phantom” accounts that do not belong to real people. That claim comes from the Paragon Health Institute, a think tank run by a former Trump adviser, which considers anyone who went an entire year without filing a medical claim a potential phantom.

Richard Frank of the Brookings Institution called the administration’s claim that millions of people are wrongly enrolled “implausible,” and said that much of what officials call fraud is really bookkeeping errors. Protect Our Care called the announcement a smokescreen for kicking eligible people off.

In May 2025, the Trump administration quietly reinstated all 850 agents and brokers who were suspended the previous year for allegedly enrolling people in plans or switching their coverage without authorization. The administration has given no reason for bringing them back.

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POSITIVE STORIES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED:

MAGA Festival Headlined by Kid Rock Canceled After Selling Six VIP Tickets. Eric Deters, a former Republican candidate for governor of Kentucky, has canceled the Kid Rock-headlined Freedom Fest he hosts on his farm after selling only six $1,000 VIP tickets. Deters had counted on about 100 of his wealthy friends to foot the bill for the festival, which has previously brought in speakers like Donald Trump Jr. and Candace Owens. He said he’d never do the event again in a Facebook video on Monday, warning that the friends who didn’t show up would never get another favor from him.

American CEO Leaves Canada Early After Posting “Lake America” Photo. Jane Smith, CEO of Family First Credit Union in Michigan, cut short a family trip to Halifax after an image of her family in “Lake America” sweatshirts went viral across Canada. The family created the image on Chat-GPT as a joke about Trump’s executive order renaming Lake Ontario, and her sister reposted it publicly without its AI label. Smith said she received threats over the post and has since apologized, telling a Michigan news station she understands why Canadians took offense.

Kentucky Is Erasing $250 Million in Medical Debt. Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear signed an executive order on September 15 directing $2.5 million to Undue Medical Debt, a nonprofit that buys medical debt for a fraction of its value and then forgives it. The program will cancel about $100 in debt for every dollar the state spends, erasing $250 million owed by roughly 130,000 Kentuckians in a state where one in five residents has an unpaid hospital bill. The first 46,000 letters telling people their debt is gone have already gone out.

Colorado’s Wildlife Overpass Cuts Animal Collisions by 91 Percent. Last December, Colorado opened North America’s largest wildlife overpass over Interstate 25 in Douglas County, and state officials say it has reduced wildlife collisions on that part of the highway by 91 percent. The bridge, 209 feet by 200 feet, is accompanied by five underpasses and a system of fencing to direct animals to the crossings. Cameras have since photographed elk herds on it and pronghorn crossing back to the west side of the interstate for the first time in decades. Because it prevents so many crashes, officials expect the $15 million project to pay for itself in about 15 years.