Florida regulators stood by as dozens of sloths died, new records reveal
Internal emails obtained by Inside Climate News show the state of Florida saw no need to stop the unfolding mass deaths of sloths at a planned Orlando tourist attraction. By Katie Surma and Kiley Price for Inside Climate News The first warning reached the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission before a single sloth had arrived in Orlando. On Dec. 9, 2024…
In condemning Platner, GOP ignores the elephant in the White House
Congressional Cowards is a weekly series highlighting the worst Donald Trump defenders on Capitol Hill, who refuse to criticize him—no matter how disgraceful or lawless his actions. Republicans of all stripes condemned Democrats this week for having once supported now-former Maine Democratic Senate nominee Graham Platner, saying Democrats should’ve walked away from the candidate after…
The real deep state
A cartoon by David Horsey. Related | Tulsi Gabbard’s humiliation is complete…
Department of Justice warns election officials they could be criminally charged over noncitizen voters
Letters sent to a growing and bipartisan group of states threaten criminal liability, but election officials and experts say they look more like pressure than prosecution. By Jessica Huseman for Votebeat The U.S. Department of Justice has sent letters to election officials in several states warning that they could face criminal prosecution if they knowingly leave noncitizens on…
Party pooper
Donald Trump stumbled into what should have been an easy win by being president on America’s 250th birthday. But he turned it into a cheap, poorly planned exercise in self-aggrandizement—because he’s Donald Trump. From the sparsely attended “Great” American State Fair, to yet another divisive rambling speech for his MAGA minions, Trump’s stewardship of the celebration was a sloppy mess.
My search for a psychiatric bed in an overburdened health system
By Helen Santoro, Illustrations by Oona Zenda, for KFF If you or someone you know may be experiencing a mental health crisis, contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by dialing or texting “988.” Eight days before my 33rd birthday in April, a social worker at a crisis clinic near Denver determined I was an imminent danger to myself. She placed me on an involuntary 72-hour mental…
The socialist left’s curious problems with women
Political movements usually celebrate their greatest successes. They build on them. They elevate them. Which is why the Democratic Socialists of America’s treatment of some of the party’s most successful women, including some of their own, has always been so bizarre. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was never acceptable. Sen. Elizabeth Warren became “the snake.
Tilting at windmills
A cartoon by Drew Sheneman. Related | Trump administration abandons fight against wind energy as clean energy output surges…
Sen. Lindsey Graham dead after brief illness, his office says
U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, one of President Donald Trump’s closest allies in Congress and a longtime advocate of direct confrontation with Iran, died Saturday evening after a “brief and sudden illness,” his office said in statement posted on social media. The office did not provide any additional details about the South Carolina Republican, who was 71 years old. “Senator Graham’s family…
How Republicans paved the way for white nationalists to invade DC
Explaining the Right is a weekly series that looks at what the right wing is currently obsessing over, how it influences politics—and why you need to know. The white supremacist group Patriot Front brazenly marched in Washington, D.C., on Independence Day. Their faces covered in white ski masks and their eyes obscured by sunglasses, the identically dressed group of men celebrated our…
Whale of a tale
A cartoon by Mike Luckovich. Related | Does Trump know which country he’s at war with?
As new minimum wages take effect, California’s cities keep raising the bar
Local governments are pushing wages above the state’s already high minimum, even as many workers still can’t keep up with California’s cost of living. By Mark Kreidler for Capital & Main The flip of the calendar to July brought a scrap of relief to workers scattered from California to New York, as a series of minimum wage adjustments kicked in. Alaska, Oregon and the District of…
Trump fires all Election Assistance Commission members, leaving agency unable to act
The firings leave the federal election agency with no commissioners as Trump seeks to reshape voting rules. By Jessica Huseman for Votebeat President Donald Trump fired all three remaining members of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission on Thursday, abruptly disabling the only federal agency devoted solely to election administration at a moment when Trump has sought to reshape…
He’s suspected of hiring a Venezuelan gang for a political killing. Trump officials still work with him.
Authorities say former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s regime hired Tren de Aragua to kidnap a dissident who had taken refuge in Chile. The suspected mastermind, Diosdado Cabello, remains powerful in the new U.S.-backed government in Caracas. By Sebastian Rotella for ProPublica When Rafael Enrique Gámez Salas crossed the Mexican border in late 2024, U.S.
DOGE closes down
A cartoon by Jack Ohman. Related | Musk would rather sue than hear about how many kids he’s killed…
Trump administration targets state AI laws over ideology
A Federal Trade Commission proposed policy statement criticizes a Colorado AI anti-discrimination effort. By Robbie Sequeira for Stateline The Trump administration is continuing its pushback against state artificial intelligence laws that it views as ideologically biased, proposing a new Federal Trade Commission policy. The proposed policy statement, which is open for public…
James Talarico raises over $30 million in second quarter, campaign says, more than triple Ken Paxton’s sum
The Austin Democrat’s haul is a record for a U.S. Senate candidate in the second quarter of an election year and is nearly three times what Beto O’Rourke raised in the same period in 2018. By Kayla Guo for The Texas Tribune State Rep. James Talarico, the Democratic U.S. Senate nominee, raised a staggering $30 million from April through June, his campaign announced Wednesday — more…
The daily pain of Trump’s vanity
The Conversation is a weekly dive into the most popular stories on Daily Kos and what it tells us about the national political environment. Some weeks are about broad strokes—big policy, momentous decisions, world-shaping events. Then there are weeks like this one, where it’s death by a thousand paper cuts: all the little acts of President Donald Trump’s vanity, incompetence…
‘Gestapo tactics’: ICE is killing innocent people—and trying to cover it up
When Lorenzo Salgado Araujo arrived at a Houston hospital after being shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Tuesday, he was admitted as a John Doe. The federal agents may not have known his name when they set out to the predominantly Latino East End neighborhood to apprehend immigrants that day, but they were extremely aware of who Salgado was as they stripped him of any form…
Weekend at Mitch’s
A cartoon by Clay Jones. Related | GOP desperately insists Mitch McConnell is alive and well…