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A Republican congressman has filed eight articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over the Iran war. Two more Trump officials are fleeing their posts after last week’s midterm blowout. ICE agents blocked ambulances from reaching a hospital emergency room in Los Angeles. And the Trump administration wants to strip food assistance from 6.3 million Americans.
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8 Articles of Impeachment Filed Against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth
The last defense secretary to be impeached was a Confederate sympathizer in 1876. Some things change less than you’d think.
Rep. Thomas Massie, a Republican from Kentucky, filed eight articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth Monday, and is forcing a vote on the measure as soon as this week. The measure is expected to pass the House, as it has the support of the full Democratic conference and some Republicans.
The charges accuse Hegseth of launching unauthorized wars in Iran, Yemen, and Venezuela without the approval of Congress. He is also accused of carrying out extrajudicial killings, ignoring civilian protection laws, and suppressing free speech in the military.
The resolution notes Trump never asked for congressional approval to go to war with Iran, and War Powers Act deadlines expired without consequence. The White House is accused of violating at least three separate sections of that law.
Trump has publicly denied plans to remove Hegseth, but has reportedly been privately surveying White House staff about whether the defense secretary should be replaced. Trump made a similar denial about former chief of staff Susie Wiles just before she resigned last week.
More Trump Officials Flee After Republican Midterm Wipeout
The only thing moving faster than the resignation letters is the search for defense attorneys.
Seven top Justice Department and White House officials have resigned in less than a week following the Republican midterm wipeout. The latest to leave are White House deputy chief of staff Richard Walters on Friday and Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate on Monday.
Shumate is the fourth DOJ official to resign since the elections, following Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon on Thursday and two other senior officials on Friday. Walters stepped down the same day as former White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles.
Four of the seven departures were from the Justice Department, which Democrats have labeled as a top target for congressional investigations beginning in January. The agency dropped its independence standards after the Supreme Court expanded presidential immunity in 2024, and Trump has since told prosecutors to pursue his political opponents.
Under Dhillon, the Civil Rights Division shut down dozens of transgender health clinics and dropped active discrimination cases in favor of lawsuits against corporate diversity programs. Democrats say that record will be among the first things they look at.
ICE Agents Block Ambulances at Los Angeles Hospital as Protests Erupt
The Geneva Conventions protect hospitals during a war, but apparently not during a deportation.
ICE agents arrived at Adventist Health White Memorial Medical Center in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles around midnight Saturday and blocked the ambulance entrance for approximately two hours. The hospital said it was forced to divert ambulances to other facilities while agents formed a line across the ER entrance.
ICE brought a person in custody to the hospital for medical treatment, according to a hospital spokesperson. Agents also attempted to be present during a private physician-patient encounter, but hospital officials refused the request.
Protesters began showing up at the hospital within hours of the blockade, and the crowd continued to grow through the early morning. A teenage girl among the demonstrators was reportedly pepper sprayed by ICE agents and required medical attention.
Hospital president Daniel Fontura said staff reached out to the Los Angeles Police Department for help after agents started blocking access for ambulances and EMS vehicles. The blockade lasted two full hours before the hospital was able to resume accepting ambulances.
Trump Administration Moves to Strip Food Aid From 6.3 Million People
Even Marie Antoinette had the decency to suggest cake.
The Trump administration on Monday proposed a rule that would cut 6.3 million Americans from the federal food assistance program SNAP. The change would end a policy that allows families receiving non-cash benefits such as child care or job training to automatically qualify for food aid.
The rule is aimed at a policy called broad-based categorical eligibility, which 46 states use to help working families who earn just above the poverty line still qualify for food aid. In 2024, SNAP benefits provided approximately $214 million to households that otherwise would have been hungry.
The proposal comes in addition to a 2025 law that already slashed SNAP spending and imposed stricter work requirements, resulting in 5.5 million people losing their food benefits in a single year. With the new rule, more than 11 million Americans would be cut off from the program in less than four years.
The Trump administration tried the same change in 2019, but the Biden administration withdrew the proposal in 2021. If finalized, the new rule would be fully effective in fiscal year 2029. USDA is taking public comments for 30 days.
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POSITIVE STORIES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED:
Four States Could Redraw Congressional Maps After Midterm Blue Tsunami. At least four states are considering redrawing their congressional maps before 2028, leading to redistricting fights that could reshape future control of the House. Maryland, Mississippi, New York, and Wisconsin are all looking at new maps after Democrats won 254 House seats in the midterms to 162 for Republicans, with 19 races still uncalled. Republican redistricting efforts largely backfired in the midterms, with redrawn maps in Texas, Florida, and North Carolina producing little to no gains or actively backfiring as Democrats won seats in districts Trump carried by double digits in 2024.
National Weather Service Restores Balloon Launches After DOGE Cuts. The National Weather Service is resuming its twice-daily weather balloon launches at 92 locations across the country after they were halted by cuts pushed by Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency. The balloons carry instruments that collect temperature, humidity, air pressure and wind data from the upper atmosphere, and former NWS leaders have warned that the disruptions would cause preventable deaths. In Michigan, suspended launches left forecasters without real-world data ahead of a brutal ice storm in March 2025 that turned out to be worse than models predicted.
Missouri Voters Make It Nearly Impossible to Overturn Citizen-Led Initiatives. Missouri voters overwhelmingly approved Amendment 6 Tuesday, which requires 80 percent approval in both chambers of the state legislature before lawmakers can propose changing or repealing any law passed through citizen initiatives. The prohibition extends to all measures approved by voters since 2010, including the 2024 constitutional amendment safeguarding abortion rights. Republican lawmakers asked voters to give up their own power by making it harder for citizens to pass initiatives, and voters rejected that proposal by more than four to one. Then they went further and passed Amendment 6, which makes sure the legislature can’t override them again.
Homelessness in the U.S. Saw Its Largest Drop in More Than a Decade. The homeless population in the United States fell more than 6 percent in 2025, a drop of about 49,000 people, the largest single-year drop in more than a decade. It is the second straight annual decline, following a smaller decline in 2024. An analysis commissioned by the National Alliance to End Homelessness credited federal housing programs funded by Congress, softening rental markets and policies that move people into permanent housing without preconditions. The number of homeless U.S. veterans also fell more than 7 percent last year and is now down almost 60 percent since 2010.
FIGHTERS FOR DEMOCRACY OUT FRONT / NEW BLOOD / NEW IDEAS!
ACCOUNTABILITY! ACCOUNTABILITY! ACCOUNTABILITY!
IF WE WANT THE HARD FOUGHT WIN FOR DEMOCRACY, WE GOT’A HAVE BLUE-PEOPLE WITH BACK-BONE, YOU KNOW WHAT TO DO, LET’S TAKE THE FIGHT TO THEM! KEEP YOUR FOOT ON THE FCKING GAS AMERICANS!
He should have faced justice long ago!