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At least two Republicans in Congress are now calling for Pete Hegesth’s ouster as secretary of defense.

Following Army Secretary Dan Driscoll’s resignation on Wednesday, Senator Thom Tillis called for President Trump to fire Hegseth, saying that he has “never witnessed more inept management” at the Pentagon.

“If we had a @SecWar who maintained the same priorities and forward-thinking, he would be fighting to retain talented leaders like Dan and the many flag officers he has forced into retirement. Instead, he is creating a leadership void at the top of our military ranks,” Tillis wrote on X. “I urge the President to find a new leader at the Pentagon who will retain and empower our military talent rather than diminish it.”

Later on Wednesday, Republican Representative Don Bacon backed up Tillis.

“I agree with the sentiments of Senator Tillis. I hate to tell the president who he should hire and fire. I don’t know if it’s really my role, but I would say this: I would not—he would not be on my team. I think he is—he has not been a very good leader in many ways,” Bacon said on CNN regarding Hegseth.

Other Republicans have not yet called for Hegseth to go but have expressed concern over Driscoll’s departure.

“I was disappointed. I think he’s been a pretty solid guy. So disappointed,” Senator Mike Rounds told The Hill.

“I’m tired of all the churn,” Republican Representative Mike Rogers, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said Tuesday. “I want to see some stability over there.”

Driscoll informed Trump personally about his fears of a weakened military with all of the high-level military purges pushed by Hegseth. Initial reports suggested that Trump was shocked at the news but has not signaled that any changes are forthcoming.

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Inside Washington

Is this district the key to the 2026 midterms?

The closely watched rematch in Virginia’s 2nd congressional district between former Democratic Representative Elaine Luria and the Republican who defeated her in 2022 is shaping up to be a doozy. The famously swingy district in southeastern Virginia has close ties with the military. President Donald Trump’s war in Iran and commensurate hikes in energy costs—and the extent to which sitting Republican Representative Jen Kiggans gets tagged with them—will define the election.

“Usually, foreign conflicts engender a rally round the flag sentiment in military communities. But in this case, the handling of the Iran war has caused well-publicized hardships for the military, especially sailors. This creates a challenge for Republicans in the 2nd district,” said Jesse Ferguson, a Democratic strategist who has worked on several Virginia races.

In 2022, Kiggans successfully tied Luria to unpopular President Joe Biden. Now the situation is reversed. Trump’s national approval rating is consistently hovering below 40 percent, and he is presiding over an economy that Americans view unfavorably.

“Although Republican voters are notable for their loyalty, the combination of the war going badly and high gas prices will weaken the reflexive support of some GOP voters. The effect will be amplified among independent voters,” Ferguson continued.

Luria has focused on Trump before, including as a member of the select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol—and has acknowledged that her service on that panel may have cost her reelection. But she’s concentrating her campaign on Kiggans’s support for the current Trump administration, not the previous one.

“She’s not a moderate. She can’t separate herself from Trump,” Luria said of Kiggans on MS NOW’s Morning Joe this week, pointing to Kiggans’s vote in favor of legislation that cut Medicaid and other government benefits, and her vote against renewing expired Affordable Care Act subsidies. Luria has also hammered Kiggans over her positions on the Iran war: Kiggans voted seven times against resolutions that would have directed Trump to end the war or seek congressional approval.

Kiggans said in August that she would “like to see that conflict wrap up so we can bring our military men and women home.” But Luria has criticized Kiggans for previously dismissing reports of bleak conditions on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, which is now headed home after a nine-month deployment. “It really shows a lack of care and concern for our military, our military families,” Luria said on Morning Joe. Both Kiggans and Luria are Navy veterans.

The district is uncommonly purple, with voters hopping between narrow support for candidates of both parties in federal and state elections. Although Kiggans flipped the seat in 2022, Trump’s margin of victory in the district was only 0.2 percent in 2024, and Democrat Abigail Spanberger earned just over 53 percent of the vote in the 2025 gubernatorial race. There’s consensus among political analysts on the unpredictability of the contest between Luria and Kiggans: The Cook Political Report, Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, and Inside Elections have all rated the seat as a “toss-up.”

Carolyn Fiddler, a left-leaning state elections expert based in Virginia, told The New Republic that the district has a strong politically independent streak. When she first ran, Kiggans was able to cast herself as more moderate, but now she has a record of supporting Trump’s policies.

“She’s doing nothing to really distance herself from Trump, and I think that’s going to cut against her,” Fiddler continued. Virginia Beach, one of the district’s hubs, is also a key site for wind farm construction—which Trump has opposed. Hampton Roads, the district’s other main city, is also prone to flooding, meaning that climate change could be a concern in the election. “These environmental concerns provide another whole avenue of opportunities for Luria to set herself apart,” said Fiddler.

The race is being closely monitored by House leadership, with Speaker Mike Johnson saying during a visit to the district in August that it “will determine the fate of the country because this will be a close election.” He isn’t being hyperbolic. J. Miles Coleman, the associate editor at Sabato’s Crystal Ball, told The New Republic by email that the fate of the 2nd district would be an indicator of Democrats’ overall chances of taking the House.

“Since the 2008 elections, the party that has won VA-2 has also won the House overall; so Democrats could capture the House without it, but it would be a bit of a curiosity if they didn’t,” Coleman wrote. “If Democrats fail to win VA-2, the majority could still be within reach for Republicans. If Democrats flip VA-2, they probably have at least a majority in the 220s.”

—Grace Segers

Outside Washington

It probably won’t get the attention it deserves—climate fatigue is real—but amid devastating news of flash floods on multiple continents, unprecedented heat waves and revised estimates of heat-related deaths, widespread wildfires, and plummeting harvests, the United Nations has released another climate report, and it’s a doozy. The longtime goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial temperatures is toast, dozens of climate scientists say: Earth will pass that point in a few years. The urgent task now is to reduce emissions with extreme speed, and “aggressively pursue measures that pull heat-trapping gases out of the atmosphere, so global temperatures will start to decline,” The Washington Post reports. “In a best-case scenario, this pathway will limit the planet’s time above 1.5 degrees to a few decades.” The bad news is that carbon removal at scale so far remains highly hypothetical, and even if that changes, “it will not restore the world we once knew.” The Post’s Sarah Kaplan reviews some of the details, and attempts to end on a hopeful—or at least agency-promoting—note: “The report’s authors urged people to stay focused on what scientists do know: That every fraction of a degree matters. That the sooner humanity acts, the safer our future will be.”

Earlier this summer, Inside Climate News analyzed congressional press releases, finding that Democrats’ mentions of climate change had fallen precipitously in recent years, even though there’s little evidence to support this strategy of retreat. A few Democrats, including Senator Sheldon Whitehouse and Representative Ro Khanna, have sharply criticized this trend within the party and urged politicians to talk more about the climate crisis.

—Heather Souvaine Horn

The Ideas Factory

Thursday at 9:30 a.m. the Center for Strategic and International Studies will release a live webcast in which the organization’s Energy Security and Climate Change Program director Joseph Majkut and senior adviser Kevin Brook discuss “the new U.S.-Venezuela oil agreement and what it signals about the growing role of energy in geopolitical competition.”

Public Citizen released a new report alleging that “many” of the companies involved in President Trump’s $3 billion critical minerals initiative “are examples of potential cronyism or are still in the early stages of development.” The watchdog lists examples of firms that “are only nine months old, connected to the administration’s family members or donors, associated with past fraud or fraud allegations, or whose financial backers remain largely hidden from public view.”

—Heather Souvaine Horn

In Closing

Here’s Why That’s B.S.

Why is JD Vance talking about the end of the world with a 22-year-old podcaster? Watch TNR’s Edie Olmsted get into this mess of a story.

Political Trivia Question of the Day

With so many eyes on the Texas Senate race, two questions: Who was the last elected Democratic senator from Texas, and who was the last actually liberal Democratic senator from Texas? The former beat the latter in the 1970 Democratic primary, pounding him from the right over his opposition to the Vietnam War. (Sign up for The TNR Blue Book to find the answer in tomorrow’s newsletter.)

Quick Take

• We have an exclusive new image of Ralph Fiennes from The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping.
• Fiennes plays President Snow, the character played by Donald Sutherland in the original films.
• Sunrise on the Reaping takes place 24 years before the original Hunger Games.

Long before he served as Katniss and Peeta’s mentor, Haymitch Abernathy was a tribute forced to play the deadly reality show under the watchful eye of President Coriolanus Snow. And now you can see what Panem’s ruthless ruler looked like when he oversaw the Second Quarter Quell. We have an exclusive new image of Ralph Fiennes from The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping. It shows Snow was always a stylish menace with a penchant for white roses.

Lionsgate

Look, is Snow a truly vile monster who chose to inflict death and suffering on an entire nation rather than escape Panem for love, all because he wanted to live a life of comfort he believed was his birthright? Yes, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes showed us is villain origin story. But did that man pull off a lifetime of evil while looking good? Also undeniable. In this new image of Fiennes as a middle-aged Snow we see that decades before he met Katniss Everdeen he was still one of the best dressed men in all of Panem with a great head of hair to match his attire. And that attire included his beloved white rose.

If you haven’t read Suzanne Collins’ fifth book in the franchise, the film’s synopsis provides insight into what to expect. It will tell the story about one of the most consequential Hunger Games ever. From Lionsgate:

The Hunger Games: Sunrise On The Reaping will revisit the world of Panem 24 years before the events of The Hunger Games, starting on the morning of the reaping of the 50th Hunger Games, also known as the Second Quarter Quell.

The film comes from longtime series director Francis Lawrence with a script from Billy Ray and Michael Lesslie. It also stars Joseph Zada, Jesse Plemons, Glenn Close, Kieran Culkin, Elle Fanning, Mckenna Grace, Maya Hawke, Whitney Peak, and Kelvin Harrison Jr.

Haymitch will enter the arena this fall. The Hunger Games: Sunrise On The Reaping premieres on November 20, 2026. Will young Haymitch look as good as Snow either before or after his victory? No. But in fairness few in Panem ever looked as good as that presidential monster.

Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. You can follow Mikey on Bluesky at @‌burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.

The post Ralph Fiennes Is Snow In New THE HUNGER GAMES: SUNRISE ON THE REAPING Image appeared first on Nerdist.

The Trump administration has found a new way to target Black and brown students at American universities—by giving white kids all their money.

The Department of Treasury proposed a new rule Thursday that would require the IRS to deny tax-exempt status to any private school offering targeted support for Black and minority students. If implemented, the rule will go into effect on May 31, 2027, and affect an estimated 18,000 schools across the country.

The Trump administration has long asserted that the very programs meant to address the nation’s history of racial discrimination and segregation are themselves a form of racial discrimination in violation of federal standards. The new rule comes amid sweeping efforts by the government to gut funding from supposedly diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, and to reallocate any money that’s not earmarked for the white—sorry, right—purposes.

The proposed rule could have stark implications for historically Black colleges and universities, which are currently tax-exempt. Even as the Trump administration made efforts to gut funding for programs pushing DEI at other schools, these institutions previously received a financial boost from the Trump administration, a surprising move that gave some the impression that the president has no problem with Black people in Black spaces. He just couldn’t stomach them attending the universities his friends’ kids might go to.

The proposed rule also stands to gut charitable giving from donors. If schools fail to comply with the Trump administration’s rule and lose their tax-exempt status, donors’ gifts would no longer be considered tax-deductible. If schools hope to retain their tax-exempt status, the proposed regulation would force institutions to work with donors to determine alternative sets of eligibility criteria for scholarship recipients.

The proposed rule is likely to face legal challenges, but it comes as the Supreme Court has gutted protections against racial discrimination toward Black and minority communities by pretending we all live in a postracial society.

Leon Black, a billionaire investor with millions of dollars in financial ties to Jeffrey Epstein, refused to appear before Congress Thursday.

Black had appeared before the committee for a voluntary, closed-door interview on June 26, where lawmakers used the brief meeting to subpoena Black regarding two nondisclosure agreements he had with different women and to demand he return for a videotaped deposition under oath on September 3.

But Black did not show up. Instead, Black’s legal team filed a lawsuit, suing the committee in an attempt to block the subpoenas.

Earlier this week, Black was identified by outgoing representative Thomas Massie as one of 14 co-conspirators and “perpetrators” of Epstein’s crimes that the lawmaker said the Justice Department should immediately investigate.

In a 28-page complaint, Black’s legal team claimed there was “no justification for such a sweeping and intrusive subpoena served upon a private citizen.”

“Mr. Black supports the congressional efforts to stamp out trafficking and to ensure that this country never has another Jeffrey Epstein. But Mr. Black has already testified to Congress that Epstein had nothing to do with drafting or creating any confidentiality agreements he may possess,” the complaint reads. “He has also informed the Congress that [Ghislaine] Maxwell had nothing to do whatsoever with any such agreements.”

Black co-founded and led Apollo Global Management until 2021, when he was ousted after an internal review found he had significant ties to Epstein, including more than $150 million in payments for financial advice between 2012 and 2017.

Two years later, an unidentified Jane Doe sued Black for allegedly raping her when she was just 16 years old in Epstein’s Manhattan townhouse. The graphic lawsuit detailed that the victim had autism and a rare form of Down syndrome that has left her “developmentally … at about 12 years old.” It was the third such lawsuit accusing Black of rape.

Quick Take

• BoxLunch is debuting a new line of The Nightmare Before Christmas merchandise.
• The collection includes everything from clothing to backpacks to home decor.
• Nerdist’s Take: Many of the pieces in this collection offer fresh new takes on the standard The Nightmare Before Christmas merch, while still making sure to keep the spirit of the movie alive.

September is here, which means spooky season has officially begun. And depending on what department store you happen to be in, it can be Christmas too! Time means nothing anymore, apparently. In the spirit of the season(s), BoxLunch is debuting their new The Nightmare Before Christmas collection. A slew of fashionable pieces have dropped featuring Jack Skellington, Sally, Zero, the Mayor, Oogie Boogie, and Lock, Shock, and Barrel, our very favorite minions. BoxLunch is offering a wide variety of merch that’s sure to delight fans of the 1993 film. The Nightmare Before Christmas has maintained its cultural relevance for over thirty years. It is a movie very close to the heart of both young and old, but especially us rapidly aging millennials.

Click To View Gallery Disney, Loungefly, BoxLunch Disney, Loungefly, BoxLunch Disney, Loungefly, BoxLunch Disney, Loungefly, BoxLunch Disney, Loungefly, BoxLunch Disney, Loungefly, BoxLunch Disney, Loungefly, BoxLunch Disney, Loungefly, BoxLunch Disney, Loungefly, BoxLunch Disney, Loungefly, BoxLunch Disney, Loungefly, BoxLunch Disney, Loungefly, BoxLunch

There’s a diverse range of new products, with every character making a stylish appearance. The high-waisted mom jeans look comfortable and eye-catching with the various patches and intermittent bats flitting up and down the legs. My personal favorite is the woven all-over postcard button-up, which pairs great with the all-over print maxi dress. Hello, couple’s outfit! The Sally, Queen of Scream crew-neck looks warm and snug for when the Christmas part of things rolls around. And we can’t look past the King Jack motorcycle jacket, perfect for Pumpkin Kings and Queens alike. If you’re looking to batter up with your BoxLunch merch, there’s also multiple different options for The Nightmare Before Christmas-themed baseball jerseys.

RELATED ARTICLE

LEGO Ideas’ NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS Set Brings Halloween Town to Life

The collection has plenty besides clothing, like a mosaic Zero cross-body bag. There’s a mosaic theme across a few different items, like the Jack and Sally hill scene mini-backpack and wallet. For some Halloween-y home decor, there’s even a stained-glass hanger. If you want to maximize the practicality of your fandom merch, there’s a bento box proclaiming that “Love Never Dies”—featuring Jack, Sally, and Zero. So come one, come all! Whether you’re looking for a fall vibe or planning ahead for the winter holidays, this collection definitely deserves a look.

Jess Harshbarger writes about movies, books, TV, games, comics, and all things nerdy for Nerdist.

The post BoxLunch’s NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS Collection Is Scarily Good appeared first on Nerdist.

Sailors fresh off the USS Abraham Lincoln have some serious concerns about their record-setting deployment.

MS NOW’s Priya Sridhar appeared on The Last Word Wednesday night after speaking with some of the 5,000 sailors deployed for nearly 300 days onboard the aircraft carrier during their long-awaited port call in Pattaya, Thailand.

“Many of them told me that this was in fact the worst deployment that they have ever experienced,” Sridhar said. “It was incredibly hard. And many of them expressed to me that they actually wished they hadn’t even done a port call, at this point, they wanted to just go directly home.”

The sailors also expressed concerns that amid President Trump’s ongoing war with Iran, lengthier deployments would become normalized and hurt Navy retention, especially among junior service members, Sridhar said.

MSnow: Now, I also got a chance to speak to some of the crew, the regular rank and file sailors who are part of this 5000 member crew that have been on this record setting deployment. And many of them told me that this was, in fact, the worst deployment that they have ever… pic.twitter.com/ioRSuPoH1a

— Acyn (@Acyn) September 3, 2026

Families of sailors aboard the Lincoln have come forward with reports about their relatives’ experiences with poor conditions, food shortages, and sanitation issues. During the Lincoln’s record-breaking deployment, there have been multiple instances in which sailors tried to jump overboard. One sailor who attempted to jump overboard is reportedly facing disciplinary action and could lose half his pay.

But the Navy’s problems are more widespread than just the Lincoln. Trump’s extended military campaign in the Middle East and total disregard for the conditions U.S. service members are facing is seriously killing morale, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s lackluster leadership certainly isn’t helping.

It looks like the issue will only continue to escalate, as Trump is reportedly plotting to ramp up military action against Iran after the midterm elections.

Republican House leadership has announced that the largest U.S. governing body will be taking a massive fall break, seriously cutting legislative calendar before November’s midterm elections. This comes after the House was already out of session for 5 weeks until returning on Monday.

The House will no longer vote in the final two weeks of September as previously scheduled, according to a notice from Majority Whip Tom Emmer’s office. After a Labor Day break, the House will only be in session for four days before representatives head home again  for all of October. 

Rather than pass laws regarding the war on Iran, data centers, the Epstein Files, the affordability crisis, or any of the litany of other issues burdening Americans right now, members of Congress will return home to focus on campaigning for their own reelections—or just take the two-month paid vacation they’ve just granted themselves.  

This comes just days after Speaker Mike Johnson called Representative Thomas Massie “stupid” and “nonsensical” for suggesting that he was going to send the House home to avoid voting on the Epstein Transparency Act II. 

“Tuesday I tweeted Mike Johnson would recess Congress until after the election in an attempt to stymie our latest Epstein bill,” Massie wrote Thursday on X. “Johnson went on TV adamantly saying that was STUPID and we’d work every day. Today he announced we’ll recess on Sept 17… until after the election!”

House members will clear out of the nation’s capital by September 17. 

This story has been updated.  

Following the president’s example, Trump officials have taken to saying whatever comes to mind with little regard for the significance of their office, or the truth.

Donald Trump defended one such slipup Thursday, shielding Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick after his longtime adviser claimed that no Americans had been harmed in Iran.

“Sec. Lutnick had Venezuela on his mind when he said nobody was killed. 18 people were killed in Iran!” Trump posted on Truth Social.

But Lutnick did not mince his words when he flubbed the statistic during an interview with CNBC on Wednesday, making it abundantly clear that the secretary understood he was speaking about Iran.

“The way the president is playing Iran, right, there’s not—there haven’t been American deaths, it’s really just an economic choke-out, which the administration is now executing more broadly and I think it’ll be very effective,” Lutnick told the network.

Whether or not Lutnick was thinking about Venezuela when he opened his mouth hardly matters. His inability to get the facts right revealed just how clueless the Cabinet member is about the administration’s warmongering, whether that relates to an unpopular Middle East war that has cost the American public hundreds of billions of dollars and more than a dozen American lives, or the decision to indiscriminately bomb boats in the Caribbean, infiltrate a South American government, and abduct its leader.

Nonetheless, Lutnick embraced Trump’s cover, writing in a statement Thursday that he “misspoke.”

“Eighteen members of our military have died, and to those families my heart breaks and I am so very sorry for their loss,” Lutnick wrote on X. “I was thinking about the Venezuelan military operation where no service members died.”

Lutnick then invoked the twenty-fifth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attack, claiming that he was “deeply thankful for our military and the sacrifices the men and women who serve our great country make.” He noted that he lost his brother Gary and hundreds of his “close friends and colleagues” in the World Trade Center collapse.

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ordered the new head of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention to remove two measles deaths from the Pennsylvania tally, in an effort to fudge the numbers lower.

Last Friday, the CDC held off on its annual Friday measles update, waiting instead until Sunday, when it removed the Pennsylvania fatalities, adding a note that read, “At this time, available information does not establish whether measles caused or contributed to the (Pennsylvania) deaths or whether the individuals died from other causes while infected with measles.”

The change was made at Kennedy’s personal request, three sources familiar with the conversation told Reuters.

This decision came days after Kennedy and Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro traded barbs online, with Shapiro accusing Kennedy of stoking fear and spreading misinformation by claiming that the measles vaccine contained “fetal tissue,” and that the disease could be cured with “chicken soup and vitamin A.”

“Before [RFK Jr.] held his current position, measles was virtually eliminated in the United States,” Shapiro wrote on X last week. “As recently as 2024, there were only 285 cases of measles across the entire country over 12 months. This year, in just 8 months, there are nearly 400 cases of measles across 29 counties in Pennsylvania alone — and nearly 3,000 cases across the country.... The correlation is clear: Secretary Kennedy has stoked confusion amongst parents and others — and the result has been less protection from measles and more cases.”

Even still, newly appointed CDC head Erica Schwartz removed the deaths from the measles tally in Pennsylvania at RFK Jr.’s behest, completely delegitimizing the findings of their state health care apparatus. Former American Public Health Association chief executive Georges Benjamin called that move “unheard of.”

“The secretary had no business ​interfering in the normal process,” he said. “He has an anti-vaccine agenda and he’s using this to play out his anti-vaccine agenda.”

As Shapiro noted, measles is virtually entirely preventable due to the development of the MMR vaccine, an acronym for “measles, mumps, and rubella.” RFK Jr. of course loathes this vaccine, and his rhetoric against it has surely contributed to the resurgence of the disease—and the deaths which he ordered erased from the database.

President Trump is planning to escalate military action against Iran after November, as his inner circle scrambles to keep him from escalating the Iran war before the midterms.

Reuters reports that White House officials want any new offenses in the war to come after the November vote to prevent heavy losses in the election. For now, the focus is on economic pressure against Iran in order to get a better peace deal, anonymous sources told Reuters.

“We are keeping the pressure on Iran,” an official said. “But November is a priority.”

The latest polls show that the war is highly unpopular, with 63 percent of Americans disapproving of the conflict versus only 31 percent in approval. Iran has every incentive to make things worse in the next two months and step up its attacks on U.S. military bases in the Middle East.

Meanwhile, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has extended troop deployments into 2027, signaling that the war won’t end anytime soon. Warship crews, air defense units, and paratroopers are among those whose deployments have been prolonged. Anonymous sources told The Wall Street Journal that the move is meant to give Trump more options in the war, but it’s also pushing troops to their limits and causing a maintenance backlog.

It’s not clear what Trump will actually do, although the Journal reports that he is discussing how to declare the war over. On Wednesday, he claimed that he was happy with the economic pressure campaign against Iran, but complained about the Iranian people failing to “rise up and fight.” Whatever happens next is not likely to please the American people or ease pressure on the struggling economy.

President Donald Trump just let everyone know how he really feels about Ken Paxton.

Speaking at a dinner at the White House Rose Garden Wednesday, Trump promised to campaign for the Texas attorney general—but couldn’t resist telling everyone what he actually thinks about the Republicans Senate hopeful.

“So, Ken Paxton, you might not like the way he dresses. And I say this—it’s so insulting to him, but I might as well say it—-you might not like the way he looks,” Trump said. “You might not love his look. You might not love his television interviews, but he was the best attorney general in the country, perhaps, he was one of the best in the entire country. And that speaks a lot louder than the suit he’s wearing that doesn’t look so great. Or than anything, frankly.”

Trump: Ken Paxton, you might not like the way he dresses, and I say this, it's so insulting to him, but I might as well say it. You might not like the way he looks. You might not love his television interviews. But he was the best attorney general and that speaks a lot louder… pic.twitter.com/TOu5IP31WE

— Acyn (@Acyn) September 2, 2026

It’s not exactly surprising that Trump’s thinking is so transparently shallow—after all, he’s scouted half his Cabinet members from television shows—but his humiliating outburst highlights how little control the 80-year-old president has over what he says in public.

Trump has repeatedly pledged his desire to see Paxton elected but has yet to commit any part of his $400 million MAGA Inc. war chest to help him win. Meanwhile, Paxton has struggled to match Democratic candidate James Talarico’s funding. According to their latest quarterly filing with the Federal Election Commission, Talarico’s campaign had raked in $31.6 million, while Paxton had only raised $9.3 million.

Instead, Trump has directed his super PAC to spend on ads that focus not on the Republican candidates who are running for the House and Senate, but on the president himself.

If this is how Trump talks about his friends, well … I guess we’ve actually seen him talk about his enemies a lot, and that was really bad, too.

Here’s what’s happening on Santa Cruz County roads this morning…

▼︎ new incidents

Road incidents as of 6 a.m. on September 3

• South Highway 1 at Highway 129 in Watsonville is facing closures because of roadwork. The closure is expected to last until Sept. 9.
   
• There is one-way traffic on Highway 129 at Union Street in Watsonville because of roadwork. This closure is expected to last until Sept. 9.
   
• There is a lane closed on eastbound and westbound Highway 129 at Riverside Drive in Watsonville because of electrical work. The closure is expected to last until 12:01 p.m. tomorrow.
   
• Alternating lanes are closed on Highway 9 at Pool Drive in the San Lorenzo Valley because of bridge work. The closure is expected to end on April 30, 2027.
   
• A lane on Highway 9 at Watermans Gap Junction in the San Lorenzo Valley is closed for tree work. The closure is expected to end at 2:30 p.m. on Sept. 8.
   
• One-way traffic control is in place on Highway 236 at Boulder Brook Drive in the San Lorenzo Valley because of utility work. The closure is expected to end on Sept. 8.

Disclosure: Traffic incidents are partially generated by artificial intelligence. We are constantly working to improve the accuracy and quality of our AI-generated content. However, there may still be errors or inaccuracies. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us.

The post Thursday morning traffic: Multiple closures on Highway 1, Highway 129 appeared first on Lookout Santa Cruz.

Quick Take

• DC Comics unveiled the cover of Batman of Two Worlds for Batman Day 2026.
• The comic will debut on September 19 and feature a brand new Matt Fraction and Scott Snyder story.
• In addition, brand new hardcover editions and paper masks will be available.
• Nerdist take: Batman and Absolute Batman are two of the best books at the moment, so both together is a dream.

We’re eating very well as Batman fans these days. DC Comics has been going from strength to strength with two stellar books with the Caped Crusader, in two different universes. Scott Snyder and Nick Dragotta’s Absolute Batman is the biggest thing in comics (quite literally; the guy is enormous). The Absolute Universe gives us a very dark and different version of the beloved comics. But don’t sleep on Matt Fraction and Jorge Jimenez’s very different, very fun run of Batman in the main DC Universe. Now, for Batman Day 2026, we’re getting both together (kinda), plus a bevy of other Bat things.

DC Comics

Batman of Two Worlds features an all-new Batman story by writer Matt Fraction and artist Javi Fernández, with colors by Tomeu Morey and letters by Clayton Cowles, alongside an all-new Absolute Batman story by writer Scott Snyder and artist Nick Derington, with colors by Frank Martin and letters by Tom Napolitano. Cover art for the comic is by Jorge Jiménez, Nick Dragotta, and Frank Martin.

RELATED ARTICLE

ABSOLUTE BATMAN Should Launch a New Animated DCU

“Without giving too much away,” said Scott Snyder, “both stories are about theft, what theft means in one world versus the other, and what Batman’s form of justice looks like in each. That was the guiding principle that gave us the opportunity to tell two stories that celebrate each interpretation.”

“At the heart of it, it’s really simple,” said Matt Fraction. “One problem, two solutions. Each version of Batman has his own way of working and his own solution to that problem. The fun was putting them side by side so you can see the similarities, the differences, and the unique flavor and texture of each world.”

DC Comics DC Comics DC Comics DC Comics DC Comics

In addition to Batman of Two Worlds, you’ll be able to get several new hardcover editions, available at a participating comic book shop near you:

• Batman Vol. 1: Daylight (HC, $29.99 US) by Matt Fraction and Jorge Jiménez, with a new Batman Day cover by Jiménez paying homage to Absolute Batman #1’s cover by Nick Dragotta
• Batman ’89 (HC, $29.99 US) by Sam Hamm and Joe Quinones, with a Batman Day exclusive dust jacket with artwork from the 1989 Batman movie and a digital code for the film
• Batman: H2SH Volume One (HC, $29.99 US) by Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee
• Batman: The Dark Knight Returns Deluxe Edition (HC, $44.99 US) by Frank Miller, with a new cover by Raymond Swanland featuring artwork from the animated adaptations and a digital code for the animated movies
• Batman: Gargoyle of Gotham – The Deluxe Edition (HC, $34.99 US) by Rafael Grampá

Batman: H2SH Volume One will be published day-and-date globally with publishing partners in Argentina (OVNI), Bulgaria (Pro Books), Brazil (Panini), Germany (Panini), Italy (Panini), Poland (Story House Egmont), and Finland (Egmont Kustannus). Additional international releases will include the Czech Republic (Crew) and more.

DC Comics

And just for silly-silly fun fun, participating comic shops will also have cutout Batman masks based on the art of four of the best to ever do it. All four masks are by Ryan Sook, drawn in the styles of Jorge Jiménez, Nick Dragotta, Jim Lee, and Frank Miller.

All of this and more will take place on Batman Day 2026. That is, of course, September 19. For more information, check out the DC Universe Infinite website.

Kyle Anderson is the Senior Editor for Nerdist. You can find his film and TV reviews here. Follow him on Letterboxd.

The post Take a Look at BATMAN OF TWO WORLDS Comic for Batman Day appeared first on Nerdist.

Trailblazing women’s rights leader Gloria Steinem has died.

She passed away peacefully in her New York City residence, according to a statement posted Thursday on her Instagram account. She was 92.

“Gloria’s near-century on earth were years well-lived, and she continued working for equality until the very end,” the statement read. “Gloria’s greatest gift was her ability to listen to others, to make others feel seen and heard. Her words, actions, and example gave people permission to be their truest selves. Gloria lived true to her independent spirit, always with curiosity and a great sense of humor.”

Steinem emerged as a leader of the second-wave feminist movement through the 1960s and 70s. She often served as the face of a movement that—in no small part due to her influence—witnessed the development of Title IX, laws and regulations guarding women’s legal and financial rights, the passage of Roe v. Wade, the first UN World Conference on Women, and the national expansion of rape crisis centers, turning what had previously been a private issue into a political debate on equality.

Steinem’s journalism career was similarly profound. She broke into the national writing scene in 1962 with a feature for Esquire on contraceptive use that became a vehicle for Steinem to argue against the contemporary demands placed on women, forcing them to choose between having a career or having children.

Her star shone even brighter the following year when she published “A Bunny’s Tale” in Show magazine, exposing the exploitative labor conditions, unsafe working environment, and abysmal pay rates offered to New York City’s famed Playboy Bunnies. To write it, Steinem went undercover for a year, applying to a classified ad under a pseudonym (Marie Ochs) to work at the city’s Playboy Club.

In interviews throughout her career, Steinem explained that it was a 1969 abortion rally that changed the trajectory of her life, morphing her from a nascent journalism star into a public activist. Steinem had gotten an abortion herself years earlier—in 1957—when the procedure was illegal.

Steinem had no biological children but is survived by the four step-children she gained from her husband David Bale, one of which is actor Christian Bale.

This story has been updated.

This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.

Global heating will reach at least 1.8 C under even the most optimistic future, well beyond the Paris agreement goal of 1.5 C, according to a UN report that warns every fraction of temperature rise intensifies destructive extreme weather, glacier melt, ecosystem loss, and island and coastal city submersion.

The report by the Nairobi-based UN Environment Programme confirmed overshooting the 1.5 C goal inscribed in the landmark Paris agreement of 2015 was now “unavoidable” and, despite some progress in addressing the human-caused climate crisis driven by burning fossil fuels, likely in the next few years.

It said: “There are no good outcomes above 1.5 C.”

“We need to see an urgent and unprecedented increase in political will and investment in a climate safe future.”

Heating of up to 3 C above preindustrial levels could lead to glaciers losing more than a quarter of their mass by 2100, raising sea levels by up to 13 cm. Global food production could decline by up to 14 percent by 2050 if there are not effective strategies to adapt.

Human health, water supplies, nature, cities, infrastructure and economies could all be severely damaged. Some losses would be irreversible. Many communities may have to relocate or change their livelihoods.

The report said the best hope for humanity to limit damage was to adopt an “overshoot, peak, and decline” pathway that required immediate and sustained greenhouse gas emissions cuts combined with steps to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

It described the goal of net zero emissions—increasingly politically contentious in some countries—as “an essential milestone that cannot be skipped” and stressed carbon dioxide removal through steps such as establishing vast new forests must occur alongside, not as an alternative to, deep cuts in fossil pollution.

Crucially, the authors of the report, titled Limiting Overshoot, said the average global temperature could be returned to 1.5 C this century only if heating stayed below about 1.8 C. They warned nature’s capacity to store carbon was uncertain and would shrink the more the planet heats.

The president of Palau, Surangel Whipps Jr.—this week hosting regional leaders including Australia’s Anthony Albanese for a Pacific Islands Forum meeting focused on security and climate—said the report was “a fork in the road moment for the planet.”

“It is hard to overstate the depth of emotion for those of us living on the frontline after having fought so hard to put the 1.5 C limit at the heart of the Paris agreement,” Whipps said. “We need to see an urgent and unprecedented increase in political will and investment in a climate safe future. Nobody can read this report and conclude otherwise.”

“We now have to reconfigure our climate governance around dealing with an overshoot pathway.”

Vishal Prasad, from Pacific Island Students Fighting Climate Change, said the report was terrifying for young people from the Pacific. “The International Court of Justice has made it clear—keeping to 1.5 C is not a choice, it is a legal obligation,” he said. “We are not asking for your goodwill. We are not begging you. We are telling you what international law requires of you. End fossil fuel expansion. Your corporate profits cannot be allowed to extinguish our future.”

The UNEP executive director, Inger Andersen, said the future would “bring many unknowns”, but extreme heatwaves—such as those that smashed records and exacerbated wildfires and droughts this northern summer—were already proving climate impacts would “strike faster, hit harder and last longer.”

“We have to act with urgency and determination. Every fraction of a degree avoided, every year by which overshoot is shortened, and every adaptation action taken will save lives, will protect ecosystems, and reduce economic losses,” she told reporters.

Debra Roberts, a report author and co-chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said a key message was that “the rules of the game are now changing.”

“Existing approaches are no longer fit for purpose,” she said. “I think, for me, that’s the clarion call. We now have to reconfigure our climate governance around dealing with an overshoot pathway.”

She said that meant not just pollution cuts and carbon removal, but “bold adaptation” to protect infrastructure and livelihoods, help sustain political and social support for reducing emissions, and prevent resources being diverted to crisis response.

Climate Analytics, a science and policy institute, applauded the report for clearly describing the problem, but said it did a poor job of “showing us that there is a way out.” Its chief executive, Bill Hare, said UNEP had barely mentioned the need to phase out fossil fuels or evidence showing “real zero” emissions was possible in many economic sectors by mid-century.

The report’s authors cited earlier work that found limiting heating to about 1.8 C required global emissions to be halved by 2035. They said existing national policies were projected to lead to at least 2.3 C heating, but it would still be possible to limit stay below 2 C if countries delivered on net zero emissions commitments by mid-century.

Professor Richard Betts, from the University of Exeter and UK Met Office and another report author, said the flooding catastrophe caused by the collapse of rock and glacial ice in Nepal and China was a demonstration of why the world needed to limit overshoot and come back to 1.5 C.

“That specific event obviously is very complicated [but] we are committed to glacier loss,” he said. “We can stop them getting much worse by reducing emissions and limiting the amount of warming.”

Data reporting by Melissa Lewis

The Wonderful Company is the top sprayer of the herbicide glyphosate in California, according to records analyzed by Mother Jones as part of its searchable database of Top 100 users in the state. The company used 328,000 pounds in 2023, the latest year pesticide records are available—about 68 percent more than anyone else in the state.

How California farmers use the weedkiller matters to the rest of the country, too: The state is the largest producer by value of agricultural products in the United States, and produces nearly half of the country’s vegetables and more than three-quarters of its fruits and nuts.

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Glyphosate is the key ingredient in professional-grade Roundup weedkiller, and the most widely used herbicide in the world. In recent years, it has been the focus of intense public debate following more than $12 billion in lawsuit payments to people who say it made them sick. Many labor and environmental groups oppose its use—research has shown it likely harms most endangered species—and so does a key part of President Donald Trump’s base, the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) coalition. (Bayer, which manufactures glyphosate through one of its subsidiary companies, has maintained that the herbicide is safe when used as directed and notes that regulators around the world have approved its use.) 

The Wonderful Company is owned by Linda and Stewart Resnick, major contributors to state politics, including to Gov. Gavin Newsom. Its brands include Pom Wonderful pomegranate juice, Wonderful Halos mandarins, and Wonderful Pistachios. The company has long touted its food brands as health products, at one point claiming their pomegranate juice could “treat, prevent, or reduce the risk of heart disease, prostate cancer, and erectile dysfunction.” (In 2015, the FTC told them to stop making those claims.)

In a statement, a spokesperson for The Wonderful Company said it “is one of the most environmentally focused agricultural enterprises and prioritizes sustainable business practices across its farming operations. The company, the spokesperson added, “currently uses glyphosate only for weed control in our orchards and does so in full compliance with government approved label instructions. It is applied only at ground level to target weeds—never aerially—and shields are used to help ensure the herbicide does not come into contact with trees.”

Wonderful’s new distinction as California’s top sprayer of glyphosate, at least according to the most recently available data, could raise hackles across the political spectrum and with health-conscious and environmentally minded eaters. Two-thirds of Americans favor banning the use of glyphosate, including 70 percent of Republicans and 69 percent of Democrats, according to a new survey released this month by the Annenberg Public Policy Center. 

“It has a well-established toxicity to the environment,” George Kimbrell, an environmental attorney, previously told me. “And, for endangered species, Roundup is a significant risk.”

A 2020 report by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) concluded glyphosate likely harms 93 percent of endangered species and 96 percent of the critical habitat they rely on. Even when farmers take precautions, the residue often persists in the ecosystem around where it’s used. A survey by state inspectors released this year found glyphosate in 100 percent of the waterways tested in the Central Valley, which is the key agricultural region in California.

Kimbrell, who is co-executive director at the Center for Food Safety, helped lead a team of nonprofits that successfully petitioned the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn the EPA’s 2020 recertification of glyphosate as safe to use. The court ruled that the EPA could not say the herbicide is not likely to cause cancer because most of the studies the agency reviewed had “indicated that human exposure to glyphosate is associated with an at least somewhat increased risk of developing non-Hodgkin lymphoma.”

The court added that the agency had also shirked its duty to properly assess the ecological risks of the herbicide. The EPA is now working on a new assessment. Meanwhile, the country continues to rely on the EPA’s nearly 35-year-old assessment that designated the weedkiller as safe to use in 1993—when glyphosate spraying was only a small fraction of what it is today.

The continued use of glyphosate is “a huge injustice. It’s an injustice to the farm workers,” said Irene De Barraicua, director of policy at Organización en California de Lideres Campesinas, whose organization joined Kimbrell in the lawsuit. “Our workers are being exposed to these risky chemicals.”

Farmers and food companies continue to rely heavily on the chemical. Earlier this year, against the wishes of his MAHA supporters, Trump issued an executive order to boost domestic production of glyphosate and help shield its manufacturer from lawsuits.

“Glyphosate is a very useful herbicide,” said Brad Hanson, who runs the Hanson Weed Management Lab at University of California, Davis, where the Resnick’s donated $50 million in 2022 for agricultural research. Hanson, who testifies on behalf of glyphosate manufacturers in court cases, said it allows farmers to reduce their water use and overall costs while increasing their yields.
“If you have a lot of weedy vegetation that is using up the water and soil nutrients, that is water that isn’t getting to the almond tree, or the pistachio tree, or whatever you’re growing,” Hanson said.

Hanson said it’s common to find trace amounts of glyphosate in some food products, such as almonds. He said it wasn’t clear if glyphosate was getting into the nuts because they are harvested by shaking them from the tree and collected from atop ground that contained residue of the herbicide, or whether small amounts of the herbicide are absorbed by the tree and circulated into the growing almonds.

Either way, he said he wasn’t personally worried about it, even as someone who applies the chemical. “I’d rather have less glyphosate in my system than more—but I think if you dug into other stuff, you’d see bigger actual risks,” he told me. “I mean, is glyphosate my biggest risk factor, or is it more likely that my cheeseburger and IPA habit is a bigger problem?”

Though the science is mixed, several recent studies have suggested that exposure to glyphosate may pose health risks. One study found it resulted in brain inflammation in mice at doses equivalent to what regulators say is safe. Another found it may have increased metabolic and liver problems in California children living close to where it is sprayed. A study published in July found that women exposed to glyphosate mid-pregnancy were more likely to give birth too early. (Bayer says glyphosate safety is “supported by one of the most extensive bodies of research.”)

The second largest sprayer in California was the Sierra Pacific Timber Company, which uses the chemical after logging or wildfires in order to help baby conifers—the trees loggers favor—grow back faster. Our yearlong investigation, which Mother Jones published in April, revealed that record amounts of glyphosate were being sprayed in California’s forests. 

Other notable glyphosate users in California include Caltrans (#5), the state transportation agency, which applies it for aesthetic and safety reasons, including fire prevention and weed reduction along highways to improve drivers’ lines of sight; John Hancock (#12), the financial company that owns almond and pistachio farms; Gallo (#14), the largest family owned winery in the United States; Fondomonte (#16), a Saudi-owned company that has been criticized for sucking up scarce groundwater to grow hay (which it then exports) in the Arizona and California deserts; and California State Parks (#36), which manages 1.6 million acres of public land.

Each of these users defended their applications of glyphosate as responsible in statements to Mother Jones, except John Hancock, which declined to comment, and Gallo, which did not respond to our questions.

The US Forest Service, which came under scrutiny following our investigation for its growing use of the herbicide in national forests, is #88 on the list. Notably, though, it is not technically required to report all of its glyphosate usage to the state database. 

Additional data reporting by David Ritsher.

Felton voters approved a major investment in their fire department, paving the way for paid firefighters alongside volunteers. The move comes after years of staffing challenges and slow response times that left the mountain community questioning whether its traditional volunteer model was sustainable.

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Gloria Steinem, the celebrated author and activist who became one of the most visible symbols and potent voices of the U.S. women’s movement and a fierce advocate for feminist causes throughout her life, has died. She was 92.

The post Gloria Steinem, a potent voice of U.S. feminism and co-founder of Ms. Magazine, dies at 92 appeared first on Lookout Santa Cruz.

This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for its newsletters.

Amid a growing nationwide backlash against license-plate cameras, California this week, for the fifth year running, failed to enact regulations on the technology.

A bill in the Legislature would have strengthened privacy protections on how license plate data is collected and shared. It also would have guarded against misuse of automated license plate readers (ALPRs) by law enforcement officers.

But after clearing the state senate the bill was stopped in the Assembly by majority leader Cecilia Aguilar-Curry on Monday, the final day the Legislature meets this year, before it could be introduced for a floor vote. It was one of a handful of bills that enjoyed strong support from lawmakers and looked poised to pass but died under mysterious circumstances.

FLOCK SAFETY CAMERAS: Read more Lookout news and Community Voices opinion coverage here

All the bills California lawmakers have proposed since 2022 to reform or update regulations on license plate tracking by law enforcement agencies have failed to pass or become law. A similar bill passed last year but was vetoed by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

“It’s a really disappointing outcome at a time when there is bipartisan concern about this mass surveillance tool,” UC Berkeley Center for Law & Technology codirector Catherine Crump told CalMatters. Crump testified in support of the bill in July.

Lawmakers pushing for more regulation of the readers point to police misuse of the data they collect, including illegally using it to help federal immigration enforcers and stalking women.

But law enforcement agencies say many of the proposed regulations would cripple a tool they say has helped solve a wide range of crimes.

“We were concerned that this bill was going to limit the utility of ALPR data to solve crimes, find missing persons, exonerate innocent individuals, and so the fact that it did not pass, we’re glad for that,” California State Sheriff’s Association legislative director Cory Salzillo told CalMatters.

Mounting privacy concerns

Failure to pass the bill or even bring it up for a final vote comes at a time when opposition to license plate readers is growing in and beyond California. Police in Los Angeles and Redwood City and elected officials in California localities like El Cerrito and Campbell have ended contracts with the license plate reader company Flock Safety in recent weeks. Nationwide, more than 200 cities or law enforcement agencies ended license plate reader contracts in August, more than any other month since 2021, according to Secure Justice, a group led by Brian Hofer, a Bay Area privacy advocate who was held at gunpoint after a license plate reader incorrectly told sheriff’s deputies he was driving a stolen car.

License plate readers use cameras and artificial intelligence to log the plate numbers of passing cars. The readers are joined into networks used by law enforcement and information from them can be shared locally or nationwide. The tech can locate criminal suspects or missing persons, but it’s also been tied to police misconduct and immigration enforcement in violation of state law. More than 230 California police or sheriff’s departments currently use license plate readers, according to bill author Senator Sabrina Cervantes, a Democrat from Riverside. 

An automated license plate recognition camera near an orchard along Avenue 7½ outside of Firebaugh. Credit: Larry Valenzuela / CalMatters

“It’s unfortunate that Senate Bill 1013 did not get the chance to be voted on before the deadline passed, but I look forward to continuing to fight for the privacy rights of Californians next year,” she wrote in a statement shared with CalMatters.

Cervantes argued in July that protections in the bill are necessary to prevent unlawful data sharing, because license plate readers routinely collect information about the movement of millions of law-abiding Californians, and to stop other forms of police misconduct. Lawmakers say license plate readers were unlawfully used by law enforcement officers to stalk or harass private citizens in Los Angeles, Marin, Orange, Riverside, Sacramento, San Diego and Shasta counties.

Enforcement agencies outside of California have put the technology to even more controversial use. Oakland activist Crystal Zermeño, who attended a protest against the technology outside City Hall last month, said she’s concerned about the tech being used to track women who get abortions or by federal authorities. After Cervantes’ bill died, she asked,  “How could we not as a state have the political will to do this in a moment when all of these [federal immigration enforcement] attacks are happening and we have limited defense?”

Cervantes’ Senate Bill 1013 would have restricted state law enforcement agencies to using license plate data only for locating criminal suspects or missing people, would have made police take privacy and cybersecurity training, would have restricted sharing with national databases by default, and would have required the attorney general’s office carry out random audits of license plate reader activity for misuse.

Had the bill come up for a vote, it still might have died, given support for the readers as tools of law and order. Nearly 40 law enforcement agencies and police unions opposed the bill.

Regulations in the measure had already been weakened, trading a requirement that police delete license plate data after 30 days for one that they “archive” it after 60 days, at which point they would need to obtain a warrant to search the data, unless it was connected to an active investigation or vehicle hunt. Police argued that old license plate data had helped solve cold cases and missing people investigations, and some, like the California State Sheriff’s Association, opposed the bill even after it was watered down. Newsom vetoed last year’s bill in part because it would have ordered police to delete license plate data after 60 days.

CalMatters reporting last year and this year found that local law enforcement agencies across Southern California repeatedly shared information with federal immigration agencies, a violation of a state law. A 2020 state audit and investigation by Attorney General Rob Bonta found similar violations of state law that prohibits sharing license plate reader data with out-of-state or federal law enforcement agencies. Since June 2024 the California Attorney General’s Office has contacted 18 law enforcement agencies about possible or known violations of Senate Bill 34 and filed a lawsuit against the city of El Cajon near San Diego to stop the practice.

There are more than 70 documented instances nationwide where police officers misused automated license plate readers to track their wives, stalk formal partners or pursue love interests, according to the Washington Post, including former Riverside County sheriff’s deputy Alexander Vanny, who used Flock to stalk his former fiancée and was sentenced to six years in prison in February.

The technology can also inaccurately label some drivers as criminal suspects, leading to potentially violent confrontations. A Los Angeles Police Department audit released in July found that one out of three vehicles identified as stolen by Flock cameras were inaccurately identified.

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