Good morning. I’m Corinne Straight, and this is AlterNet America.
The federal agency responsible for containing invasive pests has a bed bug infestation in its own building. The Pentagon just put a January 6 rioter into a sensitive counterterrorism role. George Santos placed bets that he wouldn’t attend Trump’s State of the Union, then publicly pretended he tried to make it. And ICE detainees in 33 states say they were denied medication for diabetes, HIV, epilepsy and cancer while the death toll in custody hit a two-decade high.
Corporate media is running cover. The FCC chair is making sure they know what happens if they don’t. And independent outlets are being bought out one by one. This is the news they don’t want you reading. AlterNet America is the people-powered response to the MAGA billionaire takeover of American media. We are reader-funded, editorially independent, and not for sale. We exist because of you. If you’re not yet a paid subscriber, please upgrade today.
Now, let’s get into it.
The Agency Fighting Invasive Pests Is Infested
America is fighting a war on invasive pests. The pests are winning.
Bed bugs were found in the building that houses the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, the agency whose entire job is containing the spread of invasive pests in the United States. One USDA employee said that the irony “was lost on no one.”
The George Washington Carver Center in Beltsville, Maryland, first notified employees in mid-May. Workers were sent home to telework while the building was fumigated. When they returned, they reported noxious fumes and got sick, so USDA let them work remotely again.
On Friday, the department announced the bed bugs were back. This time, leadership offered no telework. Employees who didn’t want to sit in an infested building were told to burn their own vacation days.
Then management blamed the workers. A chief operating officer emailed staff that the bugs returned because of “insufficient compliance regarding personal items,” and instructed them to bag up their belongings and remove them. Employees noted that taking their things home meant fumigating their own houses at their own expense.
Compliance apparently should have included “don’t let the bed bugs bite.”
The Pentagon Gave a January 6 Rioter a Counterterrorism Job
The Department of Defense has a new approach to insider threats: hiring them.
Elias Irizarry, who pleaded guilty to a charge connected to the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021, has been appointed to a position in the Defense Department’s special operations and low intensity conflict office. The office manages highly classified military operations.
Irizarry was photographed on the day of the riot, looking over a wall in a Make America Great Again hat and holding what appeared to be a metal pole. He was 19 at the time. He pleaded guilty to entering and remaining in a restricted building and was sentenced to 14 days in jail.
His new role is attached to a counterterrorism and irregular warfare team of about 40 people whose responsibilities include embassy security, personnel recovery and hostage rescue. It was unclear who was responsible for the appointment.
Acting Pentagon press secretary Joel Valdez confirmed and defended the hire, calling Irizarry “a qualified, patriotic young professional,” and attacked the reporters who exposed it. At his 2023 sentencing, Irizarry had described January 6 as “the largest attack on our democracy since the civil war.” He would know.
We did not hire a January 6 convict to cover this story. We did not call them a qualified, patriotic young professional. We just hired reporters. Subscribe to support them.
DOJ Investigates George Santos Seven Months After Trump Freed Him
The one time George Santos told the truth, he was betting against himself in private on a gambling site. Now the DOJ wants to know about it.
Former Rep. George Santos is being criminally investigated for insider trading seven months after Trump commuted his prison sentence. On Feb. 23, Santos posted a video promising he’d attend Trump’s State of the Union from the gallery. He did not attend.
What he didn’t mention, according to three people with direct knowledge of his trades, was that he had already placed bets on the gambling site Kalshi that he would not appear. While he was publicly playing the eager guest, millions of dollars were being wagered on Kalshi over whether he’d show.
He allegedly turned a profit in the tens of thousands of dollars off his own deception. Kalshi detected the trades, froze his account, and referred the case to both the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the DOJ.
Asked about the investigation, Santos said, “That’s news to me.” Asked if he ever had a Kalshi account, he said, “I’m not saying yes, I’m not saying no.” Somewhere, a betting market opened on whether he has a Kalshi account.
ICE Custody Is Deadlier Than It’s Been in Two Decades
The acting chief medical officer for DHS says detainees get “better, more responsive healthcare than many aliens have ever received in their entire lives.” One of those detainees pulled out his own tooth.
That was an Albanian man who said his pain grew so unbearable while languishing for months in a New Mexico detention center that he did the dentistry himself. An investigation by The Associated Press and KFF Health News found hundreds of detainees across at least 33 states alleging in federal lawsuits that ICE facilities are failing to provide adequate medical care.
A Honduran mother of two was hospitalized for a heart problem after being denied blood pressure medication in Florida. A Venezuelan man said his leg turned purple and swollen with flesh-eating bacteria after staff in Vermont skipped his scheduled doctor’s appointment. People with diabetes, epilepsy, Parkinson’s, and HIV said their medications came late or never.
One man in Georgia said his wound became infected with E. coli because he slept on a dirty concrete floor amid leaking toilets. A doctor told him he narrowly escaped losing his left leg. He’s now a legal permanent resident, but he isn’t sure he can return to his construction job because he can no longer lift heavy things.
ICE custody is now deadlier than it has been in two decades, researchers wrote in JAMA in April. There have been 51 deaths in DHS custody since the start of Trump’s second administration, with suicides spiking to an unprecedented number.
The number was 44 when the story first broke.
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Thanks for reading, and we’ll see you tonight.
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