Good morning. I’m Corinne Straight, and this is AlterNet America.
Trump lashed out after a heckler at his Michigan rally kept yelling “pedophile protector.” Texas Republican Lance Gooden is now under House Ethics investigation, the second Texas GOP congressman probed this year. ICE just deported Daniel Adongo, the first Kenyan to play in the NFL. And the EPA has exempted data-center power plants from acid rain rules.
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Trump Flips Out at Protester Calling Him ‘Pedophile Protector’
When one person calls you a pedophile protector it’s a heckle. When three people do it, it’s a consensus.
As Trump was extolling his tariffs on foreign automakers at a rally in Michigan Monday night, someone in the crowd shouted “pedophile protector.” The crowd eventually drowned him out with a “USA” chant, and Trump seized the opening.
“He’s a Communist!” Trump said, pointing. “We’re running against Communists now, this is crazy.” He then pivoted into a tangent about how Communists want to take your house, take your money, raise your taxes to 80 percent, and abolish the police and prisons.
None of that is what the heckler said. The heckler said “pedophile protector.”
In January, a Ford worker in Dearborn yelled the same phrase at Trump, who mouthed an expletive and returned a middle finger. Last month, a protester shouted “pedophile” and offered two middle fingers at a Mack truck factory in Pennsylvania.
“Pedophile protector” now has more tour dates than Trump’s cabinet members.
Another Republican Is Under a House Ethics Investigation
A second Texas Republican is under ethics investigation, and by GOP standards, undisclosed assets is a palate cleanser
The House Ethics Committee is now investigating Texas Representative Lance Gooden, following a referral it received last month from the Office of Congressional Conduct. The scope of the probe is unclear.
The committee noted the mere fact of a referral does not indicate any violation occurred. Gooden was less measured, calling the matter “bogus spending allegations perpetrated by dishonest unelected OCC bureaucrats.”
A 2021 complaint alleged Gooden purchased 12 assets worth between roughly $60,019 and $376,000 in 2020 without disclosing the transactions. Whether that relates to the current probe is unknown.
Gooden has represented Texas’s 5th district for seven years and has been a Trump ally for all of them. In 2020, he joined 147 other Republicans in voting to overturn the presidential election results. He voted against Trump’s impeachment after January 6.
He is the second Texas Republican under House Ethics investigation this year. The first was Tony Gonzales, accused of an affair with an ex-staffer who set herself on fire after he ended it. Gonzales resigned in April.
Texas Republican ethics investigations are dropping faster than most outlets can count. Most outlets aren’t counting anyway. We are. A paid subscription keeps us on it, and unlike Lance Gooden’s financial disclosures, you’ll know exactly what you’re paying for.
ICE Deported the First Kenyan to Play in the NFL
It took ICE ten years to deport Daniel Adongo for an expired visa, which is a strange timeline for an agency that says it’s in a hurry.
The 37-year-old was deported to Kenya in June after a federal judge signed a removal order in March. Adongo spent two seasons as a linebacker for the Indianapolis Colts, playing in two games, before being cut in 2015 amid domestic violence allegations. His visa expired in 2016, but he remained in the US for the years that followed.
ICE cited multiple arrests in Indiana over nine years, and a 2020 criminal mischief conviction that carried a one-year jail sentence. Its statement did not explain why he was not deported for the visa overstay at any point in that decade.
Supporters tell a different story. They say his only conviction was a misdemeanor, and that the charges behind his most recent arrest were dismissed. They say his serious mental illness worsened during months in immigration detention.
Doctors and social workers who worked with Adongo believe he may be living with Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy — an untreatable brain disease caused by repeated head impacts, common among contact-sport athletes. A petition to stop his deportation said ICE never confirmed whether he received mental health treatment while incarcerated.
“This is not justice,” the petition read. “He needed a doctor, not a cell.”
EPA Exempts Data-Center Power Plants From Acid Rain Rules
The Trump administration announced that power plants don’t have to follow pollution rules as long as they promise not to share the electricity with people.
Officials announced Monday that power plants serving only data centers, with no connection to the broader grid, are exempt from the Clean Air Act’s Acid Rain Program. The EPA calls these “islanded” plants, and says the program’s rules simply don’t apply to them.
The Acid Rain Program requires power plants to cut emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides. Those are the precursors to acid rain, which damages aquatic wildlife. Exposure to them can also worsen respiratory problems in humans.
The EPA’s program applies to electric utilities. A plant that exists only to power a data center is not deemed a utility, so it does not count.
This is not the first time the administration has ranked data centers above the air. Last month it backed Elon Musk’s xAI in court after the NAACP accused the company of illegal air pollution. It has also moved to curtail environmental reviews of data centers.
That’s three data center favors in two months. The EPA hasn’t moved this fast for the environment once.
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POSITIVE STORIES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED:
US Justice Department Dismisses Charges Against California Union Leader. After more than a year of fighting the case, David Huerta, president of SEIU United Service Workers West, is walking away clean. On Monday, the US attorney’s office in LA filed a motion to dismiss the charges stemming from his arrest at a June 2025 protest against an ICE raid in the city’s garment district. He was initially charged with felony “conspiracy to impede an officer,” later downgraded to a misdemeanor, and prosecutors are now moving to dismiss “with prejudice” by the end of August, meaning it can never be refiled. His arrest, partially caught on camera as agents pinned him to the ground, was one of the first high-profile prosecutions of an ICE protester, and it collapsed alongside a stunning streak of losses for the LA justice department.
FDA Approves First Gene Therapy for Young Children with Sickle Cell Disease. The FDA just approved the first gene therapy for young children with sickle cell disease, called Casgevy, now available for kids as young as 2. It was previously only approved for patients 12 and older. Sickle cell disease causes red blood cells to form into abnormal shapes, leading to severe pain episodes and long-term organ damage. Casgevy works by taking a patient’s own blood stem cells, editing them with CRISPR gene-editing technology to fix the underlying problem, and putting them back. In trials, every evaluable pediatric sickle cell patient went at least a year without a severe pain crisis, and nearly all beta thalassemia patients stopped needing regular blood transfusions entirely.
Pennsylvania Ends Enhanced Criminal Penalties for People Living With HIV. Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro signed a bill ending enhanced criminal penalties for people living with HIV. Under the old law, someone charged with prostitution who was also HIV-positive could be hit with a felony carrying up to seven years in prison, even if they used protection or had an undetectable viral load. The law dated back to the 1990s, when Congress tied HIV/AIDS funding to states criminalizing exposure. Congress dropped that requirement in 2000, but 26 states still have similar laws on the books. Advocates have long argued the penalties don’t reduce transmission and instead discourage people from getting tested. Modern medicine has established that people with undetectable viral loads cannot transmit the virus, which makes criminalizing their existence both pointless and cruel.
New York Gives Families of Schoolchildren $189 Million for Summer Lunches. Every June, millions of low-income kids who eat free lunch at school suddenly lose access to that food because school ends and apparently nobody thought to plan for summer until recently. New York just sent $189 million in Summer EBT benefits to 1.6 million children, with the total expected to reach $240 million and 2 million kids by the time the program is fully distributed. Each child gets $120 loaded onto an EBT card that works at grocery stores and farmers markets. Most eligible families are enrolled automatically through SNAP, Medicaid, or public assistance. Those who aren’t can apply at ny.gov/SummerEBT through September 8. A USDA study found that summer food benefits cut severe child food insecurity by a third.
