Good morning. I’m Corinne Straight, and this is AlterNet America.
A MAGA-donor lettuce supplier visited the White House days before the FDA walked back a Cyclospora warning tied to its produce. The Trump administration subpoenaed the phone records of New York Times reporters and their relatives, including one journalist’s mother. A Florida jury found a Republican lawmaker liable for groping and harassing two male staffers and ordered him to pay $450,000. And taxpayers just paid $1.8 million in a no-bid contract to clean up a diesel spill under Trump’s own 250th anniversary celebration.
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Taylor Farms Visited White House Before False Positive
Nothing says “fresh produce” like washing your lettuce in a million dollars.
Executives from Taylor Farms, one of America’s largest produce suppliers, met with White House and FDA officials on July 16, one day before the company issued a voluntary recall of lettuce grown in central Mexico and linked to Cyclospora, the parasite behind a nationwide outbreak of diarrhea, nausea, and fatigue.
Federal investigators traced the outbreak to restaurants including Taco Bell, which sources its lettuce from Taylor Farms.
Then came the twist. On Sunday, Taylor Farms announced the FDA had apologized after a positive lettuce test turned out to be a “false positive.” The company insisted no product had actually tested positive for Cyclospora.
FEC records show Taylor Farms gave $1 million to the pro-Trump super PAC MAGA Inc. in 2025. It has hired former White House official Trent Morse to expand its Washington operation.
The FDA later clarified that the false positive “DOES NOT change the basis for FDA’s ongoing outbreak investigation or the overwhelming epidemiological data” supporting the recall. In other words: the lettuce is contaminated, but the relationship is clean.
The White House Subpoenaed a Reporter’s Mother
Nothing says national security investigation quite like pulling the call logs of a reporter’s mom.
The Trump administration sought the phone records of several New York Times journalists and their relatives — including one reporter’s mother — in an effort to unmask the confidential sources behind articles about the security capabilities of Trump’s new Air Force One jet.
The Justice Department issued subpoenas to third-party phone service providers seeking journalists’ phone and text records. Those came on top of July 10 subpoenas that sought to compel reporters to testify before a federal grand jury. The government also went after the phones of two reporters’ spouses.
The leak investigation began days after The Times reported that federal officials harbored significant concerns about Trump’s Qatari-donated jet. Trump was enraged. The White House directed FBI Director Kash Patel to oversee the investigation.
The Times says two subpoenas sought records dating back to Jan. 1 — many months before the Air Force One articles ran. The paper called it a “bad-faith effort to intimidate the journalists and chill their ability to report.”
If the government is willing to pull a reporter’s mother’s phone records over a story about an airplane, it’s not hard to imagine what they’d do to a small independent newsletter with no legal department and no corporate shield. The only thing keeping this operation running is paid subscribers. If you’re not yet one of them, today would be a good day.
GOP Lawmaker Must Pay $450K for Sexually Harassing Staffers
Florida won’t let a drag queen near a classroom, but the “common sense family man” who groped his staff in one is still serving.
A Florida jury found Miami Republican state Rep. Fabián Basabe liable for sexually harassing two of his male staffers, ordering the former reality TV personality to pay $450,000 in damages after finding he slapped, groped, and attempted to kiss them.
Former legislative aide Nicolas Frevola and former intern Jacob Cutbirth accused Basabe of multiple incidents of battery, including slapping Frevola on the rear and whispering “I want all of that butt” while they stood at the back of a classroom full of elementary school children.
In a 2024 video to constituents, Basabe promised that “should any of these allegations ever prove true against me at any point in the future, I would resign on the spot.” A jury has now found them true. He has not resigned.
Basabe, who fired his lawyers and represented himself, conceded afterward that “representing myself was a mistake.” He still insists he is innocent.
A 2023 investigation by an outside firm hired by the GOP-controlled Florida House found “no evidence” of wrongdoing. The jury weighed the same evidence and reached a different number: $450,000.
Trump Caused Millions in Damage After Freedom 250 Oil Spill
The Great American State Fair left a stain on the National Mall, and for once that’s not a metaphor.
The government awarded a rushed, no-bid emergency contract worth $1.8 million to clean up a diesel spill under Freedom 250, the organization through which Trump is administering the semiquincentennial celebrations.
In May, Freedom 250 and Trump-tied Event Strategies Inc. set up lighting for the Great American State Fair on the National Mall. On May 20, fuel lines spilled at least 30 gallons onto the mall. The fuel seeped underground and contaminated rainwater used to irrigate the grounds. Another spill of unknown size followed.
Government records suggest the spill came from equipment that “lacked required secondary and tertiary containment measures.” The administration blamed vandals slashing fuel lines.
Permit holders are normally held liable for cleanup of this magnitude. Hundreds of citizens petitioned for Freedom 250 to foot the bill instead of the taxpayer. Their calls fell on deaf ears.
The contract, awarded to Maryland-based Custom Lawn Service Inc., took two months to be posted publicly. Officials cited the “emergency nature of the situation.” The situation was so urgent they hid it for sixty days.
Fight Back Against the Billionaire Takeover
The Trump administration has done its best to consolidate ownership of America’s biggest media outlets under a handful of his friends and donors. This includes Jeff Bezos at the Washington Post, Patrick Soon-Shiong at the Los Angeles Times, and the Ellison family at CBS News.
The best counter to MAGA oligarchs trying to control the narrative is healthy independent journalism that doesn’t answer to anyone but readers.
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Thanks for reading, and we’ll see you tonight.
POSITIVE STORIES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED:
Peltola Vastly Outraises Sullivan in Alaska’s Senate Race. The newest campaign finance numbers in Alaska’s U.S. Senate race show Democrat Mary Peltola pulling far ahead of incumbent Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan on fundraising. Since April 1, Peltola raised $6.9 million to Sullivan’s roughly $2 million, with her campaign reporting an average donation of $50 and more than 10,000 volunteers signed up across the state. Forecasters like Sabato’s Crystal Ball still rate the race a toss-up ahead of the Aug. 18 primary. But of the 16 candidates on the ballot, only two have raised any money at all, and the one with the grassroots momentum isn’t the senator.
Federal Judge Tosses Lawsuit Challenging Minnesota’s Sanctuary Policies. A Trump-appointed federal judge threw out the DOJ’s lawsuit challenging Minnesota’s sanctuary policies, which limit cooperation between local law enforcement and federal immigration agencies. The suit was one of at least 27 filed against cities, counties, and states during Trump’s second term. Chief Judge Eric Tostrud dismissed every claim, citing the Tenth Amendment’s anticommandeering doctrine. The administration had used sanctuary policies as justification for Operation Metro Surge, during which immigration agents arrested thousands, shot three people, killed two, and sparked mass protests.
Charlie Kirk Signs Moved off Vietnam Veterans Boulevard in Tennessee. Signs designating part of Tennessee’s State Route 386 as the Charlie Kirk Memorial Highway are being relocated after Vietnam veterans objected. The stretch, long known as Vietnam Veterans Boulevard, is dedicated to the 25 Sumner County service members who died in the Vietnam War, and Sumner County Commissioner Jeremy Mansfield said veterans were never consulted before the first sign went up. Kirk, the Turning Point USA co-founder assassinated in September 2025, had no ties to Tennessee — he was raised near Chicago, lived in Arizona, and was killed in Utah.
Americans Hate AI So Much That Politicians Are Losing Their Seats. Data center projects are generating fierce local backlash across the country, pitting tech companies and utilities against residents worried about water, power, noise, and rising ratepayer costs. In Michigan alone, more than 30 data center projects have been proposed in two years, including a University of Michigan project the Ypsilanti Community Utilities Authority refused to supply water for cooling. And in June, Utah voters unseated longtime state Senate President Stuart Adams, who had helped approve a massive data center. You can court every tech CEO in the state, but the people who pay the water bill still get to vote.
