Good morning. I’m Corrine Straight, and this is AlterNet America.
The EPA wants to test your drinking water for birth control pills. Virginia voters approved a new congressional map, and a judge immediately threw it out. Hundreds of immigrants at the Midwest’s largest ICE detention facility are on a hunger strike. And three congressional candidates placed bets on their own elections.
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The EPA Has Questions About What’s in Your Water (And Your Uterus)
The Trump administration has discovered a new pollutant: women’s healthcare.
The EPA has recommended that states begin testing drinking water for abortion medications and contraceptives. The move comes after years of pressure from anti-abortion organizations who discovered that environmental law is a door the courts haven’t locked yet.
The EPA released a list of 374 drugs that states and counties should monitor, advising local governments to create “human health benchmarks” that would define how much of a medication can exist in water systems before it’s classified as a contaminant. The list covers misoprostol and methotrexate, both used in medication abortions, along with several forms of daily birth control and the NuvaRing.
There is no scientific evidence to back up the claim that abortion pills or birth control are polluting drinking water or harming the environment. The EPA has historically issued benchmark lists for pesticides. This is the first time it’s done this for pharmaceuticals.
The EPA said the benchmarks are not regulations, not enforceable, and just meant to empower local decision-makers. Then EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin acknowledged they could lay the groundwork for future restrictions. These two things are in the same press release.
The EPA has opened a 60-day public comment period. If you’re wondering who plans to fill it, the group that believes Americans are drinking other people’s abortions has their response ready.
One Judge Just Threw Out Virginia’s Entire Redistricting Referendum
Virginians voted Tuesday to approve a new congressional map drawn by Democrats that would give them an advantage in ten of the state’s eleven House seats. By Wednesday morning, a judge had declared the election void.
A judge in Tazewell County ruled that the legislature’s constitutional amendment and the referendum voters had just approved were invalid, immediately blocking the state from implementing the new districts. The court declared the amendment invalid from the start and ordered that all votes cast in Tuesday’s election were “ineffective.”
This is the same judge who tried to block the vote twice before it happened. The Virginia Supreme Court stayed both of those rulings and allowed Tuesday’s vote to proceed before deciding the underlying case.
State Attorney General Jay Jones said his office intends to immediately appeal, and the Virginia Supreme Court will have the final say on whether the voter-approved map can take effect.
The Republican National Committee called the redistricting effort a “blatant power grab” and said Democrats had “manipulated voters with misleading ballot language.” This is the same Republican Party whose president spent the last year urging GOP states to redraw their own maps.
So to recap: Judge Hurley tried to block this vote twice before it happened. The Virginia Supreme Court overruled him both times. Virginians showed up and voted by a three-point margin. The will of the voters is currently pending appeal.
Hundreds of ICE Detainees Are on a Hunger Strike
On Monday, hundreds of men inside a Michigan ICE facility decided that refusing to eat was the most power they had left.
At the North Lake ICE Processing Center in Baldwin, Michigan — the largest ICE detention facility in the Midwest — several hundred detained immigrants launched a hunger strike, refusing to eat or work. By Tuesday morning, at least four male pods were confirmed to be involved.
The detainees cited dangerous conditions, a lack of adequate food and medical care, and legal obstacles that have kept them in detention with no clear end. They’re also refusing to perform the internal labor that keeps the facility running, such as laundry, cleaning, and kitchen work.
Deaths in ICE detention are now at a record high. The facility reopened in June 2025. Since then it has consistently held over a thousand people, including hundreds whom federal judges found to have been unlawfully detained.
ICE data says the average stay is 49 days. Detainees say many have been held for close to six months.
Advocates say more detainees are expected to join, and the strike won’t end until someone in charge responds. So far, no one in charge has responded.
Three Congressional Candidates Bet on Their Own Elections, And Lost
Prediction market platform Kalshi announced Wednesday that it had suspended and fined three congressional candidates for placing bets on their own elections. The company called it “political insider trading.” One of the candidates called it a cry for help.
The three candidates are Mark Moran, a former Virginia Democratic Senate primary candidate now running as an independent; Minnesota Democrat Matt Klein, running for the state’s 2nd Congressional District; and Texas Republican Ezekiel Enriquez, who ran in the GOP primary for the state’s 21st Congressional District.
Klein said he heard from friends that there was a prediction market on his primary race, was curious how it worked, and bet $50 of his own money that he would win. He paid a fine of $539.85 and apologized.
Moran did not apologize. “I wanted to get caught,” he said. “People are participating in these markets because they have no hope of a better tomorrow and can’t afford homes or health care.”
All three received five-year suspensions from the platform. Kalshi will donate the fines of over $7,500 combined to a nonprofit that educates consumers about financial markets. The prediction market industry, meanwhile, is lobbying Congress hard, with Kalshi and Polymarket spending nearly a million dollars combined on federal lobbying in 2025.
Both platforms list Donald Trump Jr. as an advisor.
The industry is policing itself, for now. Congress is alarmed, for now. A candidate bet fifty dollars on himself winning a primary and lost both the primary and his Kalshi account.
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POSITIVE STORIES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED:
Navy Secretary Fired Amid Feuds With Military Leaders. Pete Hegseth fired Navy Secretary John Phelan effective immediately on Wednesday, reportedly because Phelan was moving too slowly on shipbuilding reform and kept calling Trump directly, which Hegseth considered bypassing the chain of command. This happened while the Navy was actively blockading Iranian ports, disrupting a completely different chain of command.
John Fetterman receives no support for re-election from Pennsylvania House Democrats. Not a single Pennsylvania House Democrat would say that John Fetterman should run for reelection as a Democrat in 2028, with responses ranging from “at his own peril” to “I’ll hold my tongue so I don’t get in trouble.” Fetterman has spent the last two years breaking with his party on Israel, immigration, Iran, and Trump cabinet nominees, and is now more popular among Pennsylvania Republicans than Pennsylvania Democrats, which is what happens when you vote like one.
Aurora lawmakers reject agreement between police and ICE detention facility. Aurora’s city council voted 6-3 Monday to reject a memorandum of understanding that would have formalized how local police respond to emergencies at the city’s GEO-operated ICE detention facility — the same facility ICE blamed Aurora police for mishandling a detainee escape last year, despite the fact that ICE didn’t call police until four hours after the escape happened.
Suicide deaths in U.S. teens and young adults fell after 988 launch. A Harvard study published Tuesday found that suicide deaths among Americans aged 15 to 34 dropped about 11 percent after the launch of the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline in 2022. That’s roughly 4,500 fewer deaths than projected over the following two and a half years. The Trump administration has celebrated the success by cutting 988 funding and removing LGBTQ+ youth specialized services, a population already at higher risk for suicide.
