This MAGA influencer runs a charity to teach kids civics. Much of the money goes to him instead.
Nick Adams’ Foundation for Liberty and American Greatness has brought in millions in donations and helped him land a State Department appointment, but records show there is almost no indication FLAG was spending that money on its stated mission. By Kali Bomeli for ProPublica In a private ceremony on Sept. 17, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth stood at a podium inside the National…
China’s EV problem: What happens when millions of batteries die?
Across the country, many retired electric vehicle batteries are processed by uncertified recyclers, creating environmental and worker safety risks. By Andrew Liu for Inside Climate News After spending the past decade building the world’s largest electric vehicle market, China is confronting one consequence of its success: a growing wave of batteries nearing the end of their service…
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Trump and Kash can’t stop running to court
Injustice for All is a weekly series about how the Trump administration is trying to weaponize the justice system—and the people who are fighting back. This week’s Injustice features two of the most litigious people you know, with President Donald Trump running to the Supreme Court not once but twice, but forgetting to go thrice, and FBI Director Kash Patel’s defamation lawsuit antics…
Palm Beach airport unveiling
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“The ICE Agent Behind Me Grabbed the Back of My Shirt and Just Threw Me Like a Sack of Trash”
A 68-year-old nurse who brought her mobile clinic to serve visitors at an ICE detention center, only to be thrown to the ground by ICE agents. A pair of cemetery workers who were maced and handcuffed at work after ICE agents broke through a gate to reach them. A family of six wrongly detained for a month. A trans man forced to labor without pay in ICE detention, and a legal observer beat with a baton at the scene of Alex Pretti’s killing.
These are some of the 54 people who filed tort claims against federal agents this week as part of a nationwide ACLU push for ICE accountability. 32 are US citizens, 22 are immigrants. And they’re all seeking monetary damages for harm sustained during Donald Trump’s ICE surge.
Under US law, it is near-impossible for a person to file a civil rights lawsuit against an individual federal agent, the way someone who’s been hurt by a local or state police officer could. But an increasing number of people harmed by ICE and DHS agents are filing tort claims: demanding monetary compensation from the federal government for what has been done to them.
Two US citizens who work as groundskeepers at a cemetery outside Chicago, were maced, handcuffed, and detained after masked officers broke into a gated area of their workplace.
Norma Bowe, the nurse attacked outside a detention center, is suing in New Jersey. For years, Bowe has operated a mobile health clinic out of an RV, traveling to underserved areas of the state to provide vaccines, diabetes screenings, and stroke assessments.
When the husband of one of her students was detained a week before graduation, Bowe and her volunteer team took her clinic to the notorious Delaney Hall detention center. There, they served families who came to visit detained loved ones—and, as protests outside and inside the detention center heated up this summer, they provided first aid.
“Mostly it was, can I have a band aid? Do you have any feminine hygiene products? I need diapers for my baby,” Bowe said. But on May 25, things changed when Bowe tried to help a woman who ICE agents were dragging across the ground. “This young woman was yelling, ‘Help me! Help me!’ I’m thinking I’m going to help her up,” Bowe told Mother Jones. “And the ICE agent behind me grabbed the back of my shirt and just threw me like a sack of trash.”
Bowe was in shock. “I thought of Alex Pretti, because he was also a nurse, and he was also helping someone who’d been knocked down.” Bowe was treated for a concussion, and for a kneecap fracture. She’s now suing ICE for $500,000.
Some of the other people filing tort claims against ICE weren’t even at a detention center or at a protest. Darren Eichler and Daniel Greer, two US citizens who work as groundskeepers at a cemetery outside Chicago, were maced, handcuffed, and detained after masked officers broke into a gated area of their workplace. Eichler was taken to the hospital, and Greer was held in an unmarked DHS facility, they said.
“The ICE agents that attacked me followed me by transport in one of their unmarked vehicles to the hospital, and then came into my room with me in a trauma unit while I was trying to be treated,” Eichler said. His eyes burned for hours, since he had contact lenses in when he was maced.
Both were released after several hours without charges—though the agent in the hospital with Eichler forgot to remove Eichler’s handcuffs before leaving, and a nurse had to chase him down, the men told Mother Jones. They say they both still get flashbacks when they hear a police car or helicopter go by.
“Without accountability, you know this is just going to continue, and continue, and continue,” said Bowe, the nurse from New Jersey. “How many people have been injured by these folks and cannot speak for themselves, cannot do anything in fear of retaliation?”
ALT George Santos Got Busted For Manipulating Political Betting Markets—and Seems to Have Little Remorse
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced Friday that former congressman and current legend George Santos has been fined $35,000 for attempting to place bets on his own attendance of the State of the Union in February. He’s also been banned from the prediction-market platform Kalshi for 3 years.
According to the CFTC:
While buying and selling positions in this market, Santos posted on social media about his plans to attend or not attend the SOTU. In his social media posts, Santos made a series of material misrepresentations and omissions about whether he would attend the SOTU. After these posts, the SOTU contract prices moved in a direction that was favorable to Santos’ positions which allowed him to make over $17,500.
A day before the State of the Union, Santos said in a video he posted to X: “I’m going to be there for the State of Union in the gallery, guys.” He posted on Instagram asking his followers if he should wear a “bedazzled suit” or a more toned-down option. Then, he didn’t show up.
Santos was expelled from Congress in 2023 after he was charged with a litany of offenses that included identity theft and pilfering campaign funds. He was sentenced to prison for 87 months, though Donald Trump commuted his sentence and he was released after 84 days.
Santos’ lawyer, Joseph Murray, wrote in a statement that the former congressman held “no intent to deceive any person, nor intent to manipulate any market,” when he placed Kalshi bets on his own potential travel to the State of the Union. Murray added that Santos has settled with the CFTC and intends to “put this matter behind him.”
Santos, however, does not seem to have moved past this just yet: he has posted on X about Kalshi five times in the past 24 hours, calling it a predatory platform, demanding that its founder be deported, and threatening to have it “legislated out of existence.”
We need @Kalshi to be regulated as a gambling platform and remove them from the protection veil of “contract swaps” I’m going to embark on a full blown advocacy effort and I have them legislated out of existence!
Touché bitches let’s see who wins!
Place your bets while y’all…
Sam Altman is still making the case for parenting via ChatGPT
The stench of desperation wafts through Washington
Maybe it’s the hot summer months, but a smell continues to emanate from the White House as costs rise and the war in Iran remains hot. And try as they might, the ghosts of anti-COVID-19 vaccination rhetoric and South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham cannot save the GOP from the stench they have created ahead of this year’s midterm elections. And it was all on video.
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Trump fatigue is real
The Conversation is a weekly dive into the most popular stories on Daily Kos and what it tells us about the national political environment. It’s a bit ironic that one of the week’s top stories was this one: It’s ironic because Daily Kos stories headlining President Donald Trump performed like crap this week. That’s unusual. If Trump is good at one thing…
They worked to protect public health. Now they want the public’s votes.
By Phil Galewitz, Christine Mai-Duc, and Amanda Seitz for KFF A handful of former public health officials are campaigning for top statewide offices across the country, testing whether their experience with covid and other hot-button health issues will appeal to voters in November. The officials, all Democrats, are running at a time when the Trump administration is reducing…
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45 years ago: MTV launched a new era of music
On August 1, 1981, Music Television—known as MTV—launched its first broadcast with The Buggles’ “Video Killed the Radio Star,” ushering in a new era of pop music. “The best of TV combined with the best of radio,” video jockey Mark Goodman told the audience in the wee hours of the night. It turned out to be a potent mix, with video becoming as important as the music itself.
Red scare vs. orange scare
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