Federal Agents Hunt Down Father Over Anti-ICE Email

A band at Trump's state fair outnumbered its audience, a MAGA congressman answered an affordability question with his steak order, and ocean temperatures hit an all-time record

Good afternoon. I’m Ryan Rose, and this is AlterNet America.

Trump’s Great American State Fair drew a crowd so thin that one youth band reportedly outnumbered its own audience. A MAGA congressman answered a question about affordability by bragging about the lobster tails and ribeyes he planned to grill over the Fourth. Federal agents tracked a Rochester man across the state over a single strongly worded email he sent ICE’s former director. And ocean surface temperatures hit an all-time record on June 21, as scientists warned the planet is entering “uncharted territory.”

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Now, let’s dive in.

Trump’s State Fair Booked a Band Bigger Than the Crowd

When your youth band has more members than spectators, that’s not a state fair. That’s called a rehearsal.

That is what happened at Trump’s Great American State Fair in Washington, where a youth band played to a handful of spectators. A reporter’s video of the near-empty performance went viral, and the mockery followed immediately — not directed at the entertainment, but at the host.

Democratic Rep. Sean Casten suggested the fair was pulling fewer people than the National Mall draws on a normal day. The visual evidence did not help the organizers’ case, as additional photos surfaced showing wide stretches of open grass.

Freedom 250, the group behind the event, insists more than 150,000 people showed up in the first three days. Fox News reporters helpfully explained that the pictures do not tell the full story. Trump himself declared the fair “packed with happy people.”

Trump has been improving crowd sizes since his first day in office. His inauguration drew visibly fewer people than Obama’s, a fact confirmed by aerial photographs and Metro ridership data. At least that time there were people in the photographs.

MAGA Rep. Brags About Lobster When Asked About Affordability

The man who was investigated by the Office of Congressional Ethics for funneling over $25,000 in campaign funds to a company he owns would like you to know that you’re poor because you don’t work hard enough.

Republican Rep. Troy Nehls of Texas was asked on the Capitol steps how House Republicans should make the case that they’re fighting for affordability. He responded by listing the lobster tails and ribeyes he planned to grill in his backyard over the Fourth of July.

When the reporter noted that 60 percent of Americans live paycheck to paycheck and can’t afford any of that, Nehls had an explanation ready. “Maybe the 60 percent of Americans don’t work as hard as I do either,” he said.

A May Politico poll found a majority of Americans believe the cost of living is the worst they can remember, and most of them blame Trump. Gas prices were sitting at a national average of $3.84 per gallon, up from $2.98 two days before U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran.

Nehls called the higher fuel prices a “temporary issue” and floated price gouging as a culprit.

This is a man who once wore a tie with Trump’s face on it to the State of the Union and asked the president to sign it. He is retiring at the end of his term to spend more time with his family. And, presumably, his ribeyes.

Troy Nehls makes $174,000 a year on a government salary and thinks the problem is that you don’t work hard enough. Most of the outlets covering him are owned by people who agree. AlterNet America is not. We don’t have billionaire backers, corporate sponsors, or a congressman’s expense account. We have readers. If you’ve been reading for free, please consider upgrading to a paid subscription today.

Federal Agents Tracked a Man Across Two States Over One Email

One powerless citizen yelled into the void, and the void sent three federal agents after him.

David Streever, a 45-year-old tech worker in Rochester, sent a single strongly worded email to former acting ICE Director Todd Lyons in January after federal officers fatally shot two people in Minneapolis. Five months later, Homeland Security Investigations agents showed up on his porch while he was on vacation in Finland with his 7-year-old daughter.

The email compared Lyons to a Nazi official and predicted his conscience would torment him. It made no threat of violence.

His wife, an Episcopal priest still wearing her clergy collar, met the agents at home with the couple’s 2-year-old. They left a form reading “WARNING NOTICE” and “YOU MAY BE IN VIOLATION OF FEDERAL LAW.” The same agents handed an identical form to a Syracuse poll worker that same day.

Then it escalated. Hours after Streever landed at JFK, a third HSI agent tracked him to his airport hotel and left a business card at the front desk.

DHS declined to comment on the case, saying it investigates all credible threats against its officers. If you think “your conscience will torment you” is a threat, congratulations — you just proved his point.

Ocean Temperatures Hit an All-Time High

The highest ocean temperatures of all time, so far.

Two independent services under the European Union’s Copernicus program confirmed that global ocean surface temperatures hit a record high on June 21, surpassing levels from both 2023 and 2024. The Copernicus Climate Change Service clocked 20.86 degrees Celsius; the Marine Service measured 21 C.

Carlo Buontempo, director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service, warned this could mark “the beginning of a new phase,” with El Niño on the horizon and more records likely to fall. He said the world could be heading into “uncharted territory.”

The cause is not a mystery. Oceans absorb roughly 90% of Earth’s excess heat.

The consequences arrived on schedule. More than 46 million Americans are under extreme heat alerts heading into the July Fourth weekend, with highs topping 100 F in parts of the country.

In Europe, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said more than 1,300 excess deaths had been recorded since June 21. France alone counted about 1,000 more deaths than expected in a single week.

Tedros noted that the “once-in-a-generation” heat wave now happens nearly every year. “Once in a generation” used to mean your grandchildren would deal with it. Now it means June.

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There is no FCC license attached to AlterNet America. There is no broadcast affiliate a regulator can lean on, no parent company a billionaire can quietly buy to make the coverage friendlier. When agents leave warning forms at people’s doors over protected speech, that is exactly the kind of story a licensed outlet learns to soften. We don’t have to.

We report to readers. That is the entire arrangement. It’s why we can write plainly about a congressman who thinks 60 percent of Americans just don’t work hard enough, and about a fair whose own band outnumbered the crowd.

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Thanks for reading. We’ll see you tomorrow.

POSITIVE STORIES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED:

‘Protected First Amendment Speech’: Judge Rules ‘Trump Raped Little Girls’ Signs Are Not Obscene. A federal judge ruled for the third time that protesters near the National Mall can keep flying their “8647” flags and signs reading “Trump raped little girls,” finding that none of it qualifies as a threat, incitement, or obscenity. The Trump administration tried all three arguments and lost all three times. The DOJ first called the signs obscene, then amended its brief to argue they were obscene specifically to minors, which the judge called “bordering on the absurd.” The protest group, Accountability Now, has been running a 24/7 demonstration in Washington since December 2025. The government responded to their constitutionally protected speech by threatening to pull their permits.

Judges Strike Down Trump Administration’s Overhaul of Student Loan Forgiveness. Two federal judges struck down the Trump administration’s attempt to rewrite the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, which since 2007 has canceled student debt for people who spend a decade working in government or nonprofit jobs. The administration’s new rule would have let the Education Secretary strip that benefit from anyone whose employer has a “substantial illegal purpose” — defined to include supporting immigration advocacy, transgender healthcare, or what the rule called “chemical castration of children,” by which it meant completely reversible puberty blockers. More than 20 states and a coalition of nonprofits sued, arguing the program was being turned into a political loyalty test. Both judges agreed.

Florida’s 800-Acre Data Center Plan Is Withdrawn After Backlash. The Deltona Corporation, a Florida homebuilder that spent 50 years turning swamps into subdivisions, decided its next act would be turning 800 acres of abandoned phosphate mines in Citrus County into a hyperscale data center. Residents were not charmed. After a nine-hour planning commission meeting, a grassroots opposition campaign, and a unanimous county moratorium on data center rezoning, Deltona pulled its application last week rather than face a final vote it was going to lose. The company had received $2.8 million in state grant money with the expectation it would create 3,800 jobs. Its attorneys told the planning board the data center might bring 100. The math did not go unnoticed.

NYC Approves $1,000 College Savings Accounts for Every Public School Kindergartner. New York City’s next budget, revealed Tuesday, includes $53 million to open $1,000 college savings accounts for every public school kindergartner. Council Speaker Julie Menin, who helped launch the accounts more than a decade ago, called it the nation’s largest universal college savings program. She cited research showing post-secondary education can nearly double lifetime wages. Kindergartners are automatically enrolled unless parents opt out, and the funds sit in tax-advantaged 529 plans usable for four-year college, community college or vocational school. The Council had pushed for $3,000 for low-income children and fell short, so every student now gets $1,000 regardless of income.