Good morning. I’m Corinne Straight, and this is AlterNet America.
The Trump administration is quietly repurposing federal land for AI data centers with no review or public comment. A Texas cop searched more than 83,000 license plate cameras nationwide to hunt down a woman who had an abortion. A Tennessee candidate for governor says he’d ban mosques, Buddhism, and Hinduism. And the Trump administration denied Oregon emergency funding for two wildfires as 86 blazes burned over a million acres.
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Trump Is Repurposing Public Land for Data Centers
A horse walks into the Bureau of Land Management. It leaves as a bicycle.
The BLM recently approved what is believed to be the first data center on federal public land, greenlighting the project by repurposing a permit originally meant for a solar energy facility.
There was no new environmental review and no public comment.
The agency claimed that a solar farm and a data center are “substantially the same,” citing similarities in acreage, perimeter, and construction time. It then transferred the original environmental review onto the new project.
The approval may have had help from the Bernhardt Group, the lobbying firm led by former Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, which was hired by a project backer around the time the plans shifted.
Local officials say they were never consulted about a facility projected to consume more energy than the entire surrounding town, even though the project was originally approved to generate energy, not devour it.
Texas Searched 83,000 Cameras for Woman Who Had an Abortion
A deputy with the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office in Texas queried a nationwide network of more than 83,000 automatic license plate reader cameras, searching for a woman suspected of self-administering an abortion. The reason entered into the search log: “had an abortion, search for female.”
That single query, which required no warrant, swept across 6,809 law enforcement camera networks, including in states where abortion is legal.
The cameras are made by a company called Flock Safety. Flock’s system captures license plates, timestamps, locations, and direction of travel. Agencies trade their own camera data for access to the broader network, meaning a small-county Texas deputy can search cameras in any participating state without that state’s knowledge or approval.
The woman’s partner had reported her to the sheriff’s office two weeks after the abortion. Deputies opened a “death investigation” of a “non-viable fetus,” collected photographs, the FedEx envelope the abortion medication arrived in, and the instructions for self-administering it.
They consulted the district attorney’s office about whether they could charge her. They were told they could not.
When she later showed up at the sheriff’s office, deputies interviewed her about the abortion. She had actually come to report that her partner — the man who turned her in — had choked her, held a gun to her head, and made her beg for her life less than an hour after the abortion.
The sheriff has since been arrested and indicted on felony charges in an unrelated sexual harassment and whistleblower retaliation case, and charged with aggravated perjury for allegedly lying to a grand jury.
The surveillance infrastructure that made this possible is growing, largely uncovered, and the people in charge of it are lying about how it’s being used. If you want reporting that catches them, become a paid subscriber today.
Tennessee Governor Candidate Vows to Ban Mosques
A Republican running for Tennessee governor believes deeply in religious freedom. He just thinks there’s only one religion.
State Representative Monty Fritts, 63, said in a sit-down interview that if elected he would work to ban mosques and “pagan religions,” a category which included Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism.
His constitutional theory rests on a single word. Fritts argued that the First Amendment begins with “Congress,” and therefore only limits the federal government, leaving states free to establish religion and shut down houses of worship.
“Islam is a little different story than perhaps other religions are, in that it’s not necessarily a religion, it’s a political movement,” Fritts said.
Fritts, who served four years as a state representative, said he entered the race after a spiritual calling. He described waking at 3 a.m. and being approached by strangers who offered him “a word.”
He didn’t say what that word was, but it presumably wasn’t “constitution.”
Trump’s FEMA Denied Oregon Wildfire Money
Turns out the best fire insurance in America is a Republican governor.
FEMA denied two of Oregon Governor Tina Kotek’s requests for firefighting-assistance grants, for the East Evans Creek and Rowe Creek fires, even as it approved three others.
Oregon’s Democratic senators, Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, wrote to FEMA head Robert Fenton to argue the denial marked “a major shift in administrative policy.” They said the two fires met FEMA’s criteria, including a threat to 150 primary residences.
The senators noted the state had 86 active fires as of July 27, burning over a million acres, with more than 33,000 Oregonians under some level of evacuation and impacts to water, power, and 911 systems.
The grants cover up to 75 percent of a state’s firefighting costs. The East Evans Creek fire alone burned nearly 16,000 acres and once put over 230 homes under a Level 3 “Go Now” evacuation order.
Earlier this month, Trump rejected $227 million in blizzard recovery aid for New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island — two days after approving disaster aid for six Republican-led states. As of March 2026, Trump had approved just 23 percent of disaster aid requests from Democratic-led states, compared to 89 percent for Republican-led states.
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POSITIVE STORIES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED:
Todd Blanche’s Attorney General Nomination Stalls Over a $1.8 Billion Slush Fund. Todd Blanche’s path to becoming permanent US attorney general hit a wall on Wednesday when the Senate judiciary committee postponed a scheduled Thursday vote on his nomination. The holdup centers on a $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund created as part of a settlement of Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS, which gave Trump and his family blanket immunity from tax audits filed before the deal. Blanche announced in June that the fund was scrapped, but has repeatedly declined to say so on paper. Republican John Cornyn of Texas said he would not support Blanche until the DOJ confirmed, in writing, that the fund was dead, telling reporters “they’re mistaken” if they think he’ll give up.
Trump’s DOJ Loses Its Bid for New Jersey’s Voter Rolls. Trump’s DOJ is now 0 for 18 in its nationwide crusade to seize state voter rolls. A federal judge dismissed the department’s lawsuit against New Jersey, ruling that the Civil Rights Act of 1960 does not entitle the federal government to a state’s live voter registration database, including voters’ driver license and Social Security numbers. The DOJ tried to salvage the case by citing a recent software glitch that accidentally registered thousands of noncitizens. The judge said that had “no bearing.” The dismissal was with prejudice, meaning the DOJ cannot refile the same claim. It can appeal — and given its track record, it almost certainly will.
The Senate Unanimously Votes Against Any Pardon for Ghislaine Maxwell. On Wednesday, the US Senate unanimously passed a resolution declaring its opposition to any presidential pardon or clemency for Ghislaine Maxwell. The former associate for the late convicted sex trafficker Jeffery Epstein is currently serving a 20-year sentence. Introduced by Senator Jacky Rosen of Nevada, the measure states that granting Maxwell clemency would be “inconsistent with the interests of justice.” Rosen said it sent a clear signal to the White House that “there should be NO special treatment for Ghislaine Maxwell.” Maxwell had earlier invoked her Fifth Amendment right in a congressional deposition and, through her attorney, said she would only talk if granted clemency.
Professors Beat Back State Laws Banning “Woke” Teaching in Court. Public university professors are stacking up courtroom wins against state laws restricting how they teach race, gender, and unconscious bias. This month, a divided Eleventh Circuit panel upheld a block on Florida’s Stop WOKE Act of 2022, ruling it amounted to unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination in violation of professors’ First Amendment rights. More than 15 states have enacted similar measures since 21, and district courts in Mississippi and New Hampshire have already paused “divisive concepts” laws on free speech grounds. Because other states modeled their laws on it, the Florida ruling could ripple beyond the Eleventh Circuit.
