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SUMMARY:
On this episode of HoosLeft This Week, Alexandra Rollo and Mitch Reynolds joined Scott to cover an Iran war that paused, then spread — a new front in Egypt and homefront hacks of civil infrastructure; and the risk it merges with the Ukraine conflict — alongside Netanyahu’s Washington visit, West Bank raids, and a disputed Gaza deal Trump announced but Israel hasn’t confirmed. The conversation moved through a slate of unqualified Trump nominees, the Senate’s contentious Fauci hearing, and Trump’s order contesting the Smithsonian’s “inaccurate history,” before turning to a burning planet placing strain on nuclear plants in Europe and the entire Colorado River s, AI companies shredding books and breaking out of test sandboxes, and Indianapolis courting data centers despite mounting local opposition. Locally, the show tracked Mayor Hogsett’s stadium-suite perks, Governor Braun’s transparency-office staffing shuffle, and Senate leader Rodric Bray’s ouster, before closing on a heavy stretch: ICE’s escalating and quieter tactics across Indiana, the end of Haitian TPS status, a lawsuit over conditions at Miami Correctional Facility, and a poorly attended “mass deportation rally” in a Hancock County cornfield that drew a far larger counter-protest.
Guest Info
Alexandra Rollo: https://www.facebook.com/alexandra.rollo
Mitch Reynolds: https://www.facebook.com/people/Mitch-Reynolds-for-Duneland-School-Board/61586919517584/
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
00:00:33 - Cold open and guest welcomes
00:04:48 - Iran war update: pause in strikes, new fronts, cyberattacks on Minnesota water systems
00:12:54 - Could the Iran and Ukraine conflicts merge into a wider war?
00:18:39 - Israel: Netanyahu and Zelensky in Washington, West Bank raids, disputed Gaza deal claims
00:26:44 - Personnel: DNI Jay Clayton, AG nominee Todd Blanche, CDC nominee Erica Schwartz
00:37:25 - Rewriting history: Fauci’s Senate grilling and the Smithsonian “inaccurate history” order
00:50:14 - Climate: European heat and nuclear strain, Colorado River cuts, Trump’s FEMA denials, Braun’s coal order
00:57:58 - AI and data centers: Sullivan County tornado sirens, old-book buying, Claude’s sandbox escape, xAI Minnesota ruling, Hogsett’s data center tax breaks
01:09:18 - Corruption: Hogsett’s suite perks, Ethics Committee response, Braun’s Public Access Counselor staffing
01:16:30 - Democrats and Republicans in disarray: DNC finances, DSA platform, GOP distancing from Trump, Bray stepping down as Senate leader
01:30:00 - Voting: mail-in voting court rulings and pressure to pass the SAVE America Act
01:35:22 - ICE in Indiana: Corydon van stop, Clark County arrests, Haitian TPS ending, Miami Correctional Facility lawsuits, Rokita v. Merrillville
01:49:12 - Mass deportation rally in Hancock County and the counter-protest
01:55:50 - Wrap-up, guest info, and announcements
IN DEPTH:
Iran War
Pentagon reports more than 600 Iran war casualties in quiet database update (Guardian)
The Pentagon quietly created a new “Overseas Operations” casualty category starting July 7, separating recent deaths/injuries from “Operation Epic Fury,” the original Iran war designation — combined totals now show 18 killed and 624 wounded since February 28, but the two categories are being counted and reported separately.
The split appears tied directly to the War Powers Act: the Trump administration argues the April ceasefire paused the 60-day authorization clock, letting them restart it July 7 rather than count the war as one continuous unauthorized conflict exceeding the legal limit.
Rep. Thomas Massie called it “an absurd ruse” on X, accusing Hegseth of “BREAKING THE LAW” by exceeding 90 days without congressional authorization and arguing the ceasefire-pause framing is designed specifically to dodge that requirement.
The four soldiers killed the previous weekend were excluded from the Pentagon’s official killed-in-action list even as their remains were formally returned to the US — a discrepancy that first raised scrutiny of the casualty reporting last week.
Monday: Iran war updates: Trump says US in talks with Iran, hopes for ‘good things’ (Al Jazeera)
Trump said the US is “having good talks” with Iran and hopes for “good things,” while adding he’s not interested in prolonged negotiations — a notably softer tone than the escalatory rhetoric of recent weeks.
Iran’s top joint military command warned it will treat any US attempt to enforce its naval blockade as an escalation of the conflict, while separately threatening retaliation against Ukraine over a deadly strike on an Iranian vessel in the Caspian Sea.
Saudi Arabia intercepted drones targeting oil facilities in its Eastern Region, blaming Iran-backed groups in Iraq; Yemen’s Houthis separately claimed a strike on Saudi oil transport sites — both suggesting the conflict’s economic front is still active even as diplomatic talk softens.
Oil prices fell sharply — Brent dropped 8.7% to $88.36/barrel, its lowest since July 17 — likely reflecting market optimism about the “good talks” comments despite the ongoing regional strikes.
Iran also reported four drones targeting locations in northern Iraq near Erbil, and a drone of unknown origin crashed near Iraq’s Haditha Dam — with conflicting claims about whether it was a downed US drone, no casualties or damage reported either way.
Tuesday: Ukraine’s Strike on an Iranian Ship Could Bring Two Wars Closer (NYT)
Ukraine struck an Iranian cargo ship in the Caspian Sea over the weekend, claiming it carried military equipment between Iran and Russia and killing a sailor — Iran calls it a commercial vessel and is threatening retaliation, while Ukraine’s foreign minister rejected Iran’s “victim” framing given its military support for Russia.
The connection runs deep: Iran has supplied Russia with attack drones and reportedly short-range ballistic missiles since 2022, while Ukraine has since sent over 200 military experts to help Gulf states counter Iranian drones and signed defense deals with Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE.
Zelensky said Saturday that Ukrainian intelligence shows Russia is providing Iran with satellite surveillance of Gulf states and US bases to help Tehran plan attacks — intelligence he says Ukraine will share with Western allies, reinforcing his broader case that Russia and Iran are actively coordinating across both conflicts.
Iran’s foreign minister called the ship strike a “blatant U.N. Charter violation,” claiming it was carried out “at Israel’s behest to drag Europe into its war” — a notable attempt to fold the Ukraine dimension back into the broader Iran-Israel-US conflict narrative.
A possible de-escalation signal emerged Tuesday night: Iran’s and Ukraine’s foreign ministers spoke by phone and both called for calm, with Ukraine’s Sybiha saying “Europe and the Middle East deserve stability, security, and peace” — though it’s unclear whether that holds given Iran’s parallel warnings the attack “cannot go unanswered.”
Wednesday: Iran hits US in Jordan, US-Saudi strikes on Iraq: Is war spreading? (Al Jazeera)
Iran fired ballistic missiles at US military installations in Jordan Wednesday, which CENTCOM says it intercepted as a “surprise attack” — the same day the US and Saudi Arabia jointly struck Iran-aligned groups in Iraq, though it’s unclear which attack came first.
The US-Saudi strikes killed at least 20 Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces fighters and wounded 32 across seven provinces, according to the PMF — justified by claims that Iran-backed groups in Iraq launched 30 IRGC-directed drone attacks on Saudi oil facilities in 72 hours; the Iran-aligned Islamic Resistance in Iraq denies involvement, calling it “fabrications.”
Jordan hosts roughly 4,000 US troops, including at Muwaffaq Salti Air Base and the remote Tower 22 outpost — Iran said the strike was retaliation for “aggressive actions” by the US military, while analyst Burcu Ozcelik notes reports that dwindling US interceptor stockpiles may have shaped Iran’s calculation to strike now.
The conflict is already spilling beyond Iran and the Gulf: Houthis have blockaded and targeted Saudi-flagged ships in the Red Sea, and Ukraine said Saturday it struck vessels in the Caspian Sea carrying Iranian-linked military cargo — raising fears the war is merging with the separate Ukraine conflict.
Trump said the US would deliver a “beating” to Iran after its bases were targeted again — a notable escalation in rhetoric coming the day after his White House meeting with Netanyahu.
Wednesday: Drone attack caused fire on gas ships at Mediterranean port, Egypt says (BBC)
A drone attack sparked a fire on two ships at Egypt’s Damietta LNG port Wednesday — striking a US-owned floating storage vessel that then spread flames to a Greek-owned LNG tanker; no casualties reported, fires extinguished, and the port remained fully operational Thursday.
No group has claimed responsibility and the drone’s launch point is unknown, but Trump implied Iran or its proxies were behind it, telling reporters “it’s a little more of the same. But it’s going to be straightening out.” Egypt, a US ally, hadn’t previously been directly targeted in the Iran conflict.
The attack came hours after US-Saudi joint strikes on Iran-backed groups in Iraq, which Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces say killed at least 20 of its members — Iran’s foreign ministry condemned the strikes and warned of “dangerous consequences.”
This all unfolded the same night the US carried out what it called a “heavy wave of strikes” on Iran in response to an attempted missile attack on US forces in Jordan — reinforcing that the conflict’s geographic footprint keeps widening beyond the original Iran-US-Israel triangle.
Thursday: US hits dozens of targets in Iran overnight as peace efforts under threat (Guardian)
The US launched its first strikes on Iran in over five days, hitting dozens of IRGC targets in a two-hour “heavy wave” — retaliation for Iran’s attack on a US base in Jordan.
Iran reported casualties: three injured on Qeshm island, explosions in Khuzestan, and three IRGC members killed in Zanjan. Jordan reported incoming missiles for a second day; Kuwait accused Iran of a strike that killed one person.
The strikes followed Wednesday’s joint US-Saudi attack on Iran-backed militias in Iraq, which killed at least 20 PMF fighters and four Iranian advisers.
Mediators insist talks are continuing despite the violence, but oil prices spiked 7.3% to over $88/barrel and analysts describe the region entering “uncharted territory.”
Houthi rebels denied responsibility for the Damietta drone strikes in Egypt, even as their own separate blockade of Saudi shipping continues escalating tensions.
Friday: U.S. spy agencies suspect Iran launched cyberattack on Minnesota water facilities (WaPo)
US intelligence agencies assess Iran likely carried out a coordinated cyberattack on over 30 Minnesota municipal water systems this week — targeting internet-exposed operating technology, with one system briefly offline and another’s remote sensors disrupted, though no drinking water usage restrictions were needed.
The attack fits a documented pattern: Iran’s IRGC Cyber Electronic Command has been targeting internet-exposed programmable logic controllers with default passwords at small US water and energy utilities since the war began in February — CISA issued a new advisory Thursday citing a “significant increase” in such targeting.
Braham, Minnesota’s public works team isolated the compromised system and restored operations within about 90 minutes; Plymouth’s public works director confirmed several water/sewer control devices were hacked and taken offline but have since been restored, with no impact to the actual water supply.
Experts say the goal is less about destruction and more psychological — one threat analyst noted Iran likely aims to unsettle the American public and demonstrate to its own leadership that it’s “contributing to the war effort,” even when targeting minor systems.
This isn’t isolated: a similar Iran-linked hack disrupted an Israeli-made control system at a Pennsylvania water station in 2023, and a separate Iran-linked hacktivist group disrupted medical device maker Stryker’s systems in March and previously claimed to have hacked FBI Director Kash Patel’s personal email.
Israel
Behind Closed Doors, Trump Huddles With Netanyahu and Zelensky (NYT)
Trump held back-to-back closed-door meetings Tuesday with Netanyahu and Zelensky, then let both leaders characterize the meetings publicly rather than commenting himself — an unusual departure from his typical love of Oval Office photo ops.
Netanyahu called it “one of the best conversations I’ve had” with Trump, but Trump showed visible annoyance beforehand about reports Netanyahu would present new intelligence on activity at Pickaxe Mountain: “I don’t need Bibi to tell me that... he wants me to stay involved.”
Zelensky’s meeting focused on restarting stalled Russia-Ukraine diplomacy and securing more Patriot interceptor production licenses — though those systems could take months or years to manufacture, leaving Ukraine’s more immediate air defense needs unresolved.
Polling underscores the political risk for Trump: only one in three Americans support the Iran war (Reuters/Ipsos), and 76% say the war has become harder than Trump expected, with two-thirds wanting it ended (CBS/YouGov).
Both leaders later attended Sen. Lindsey Graham’s memorial at the National Cathedral, where Trump eulogized him: “He never saw a war that he didn’t like” — with Netanyahu and Zelensky seated nearby.
Netanyahu confronts Vance over his criticism of Israeli government (Axios)
Vance and Netanyahu held a “direct” one-on-one meeting at Blair House Tuesday, described by both sides as candid but not confrontational — an attempt to clear the air after months of escalating tension.
Vance has been the most Netanyahu-skeptical figure in Trump’s inner circle, publicly accusing Netanyahu of stoking opposition to the US-Iran MOU and insufficient loyalty to Trump; Netanyahu, in turn, was privately critical of Vance’s expanding role in war policy and believed pro-Netanyahu media allies were being used against him.
The friction predates this meeting significantly — in a March call, Vance reportedly told Netanyahu several of his wartime predictions, including hopes of a popular uprising toppling Iran’s regime, had proven overly optimistic.
Vance escalated publicly in June, warning Israeli cabinet members attacking the Iran deal not to alienate “the only powerful ally” they have, then in a July Joe Rogan appearance accused some Israeli officials of running an influence campaign to keep the US mired in the war — and separately claimed Epstein had ties to “the highest levels of Israeli intelligence.”
Both sides characterized the meeting as productive going forward, with a US official saying Vance and Netanyahu “have a productive working relationship” and agreed to keep pursuing shared US-Israel interests — though the underlying disagreements over Iran policy and Netanyahu’s public conduct don’t appear to have been resolved, just addressed directly.
Israeli forces storm multiple West Bank towns, settler violence worsens (Al Jazeera)
Israeli forces raided at least 20 West Bank towns overnight, including an UNRWA training center in Qalandia — tear-gassing and detaining staff while dozens of students and employees were present.
Soldiers halted an ambulance carrying a pregnant woman to a Nablus hospital; the delay led to a miscarriage.
Settler attacks escalated alongside the raids — an encampment attacked near Taybeh, olive groves damaged near Hebron, a mosque burned in Tulkarem — with Israeli forces typically arresting Palestinians rather than the settlers responsible.
The Arab League and 11 Arab states condemned the violence, warning of a “moment of explosion”; UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese called the settler attacks “pogroms.”
Haaretz reports Israeli military officials calling the situation “extremely dangerous,” with one reservist saying his unit can only “stand by and watch” — Al Jazeera’s correspondent suggested Netanyahu may be tolerating the escalation to appease his coalition ahead of elections.
Israel obstructing takeover of pilot zones in Lebanon’s south: Military (Al Jazeera)
Lebanon’s army accused Israel of obstructing its takeover of southern “pilot zone” villages under the US-brokered withdrawal deal — Israel continues shelling and clearance operations in villages like Zawtar al-Gharbiya, Froun, and Srifa even as Lebanese troops try to deploy there.
Israel is still conducting bulldozing, shelling, and machine-gun operations across multiple towns including Nabatieh, Khiam, and Bint Jbeil — a water project was destroyed in Markaba, and farmland and olive trees were razed near Aitaroun.
Displaced residents returning to Zawtar al-Gharbiya found only rubble; Israel has withdrawn to the village’s edge but is conditioning further movement on Hezbollah’s disarmament, which the group has rejected, demanding unconditional Israeli withdrawal instead.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun visited Trump in Washington last week specifically to press for US pressure on Israel to comply with the agreement.
Fighting reignited in March after Hezbollah fired on Israel in response to the Iran war and Khamenei’s killing — the current round has killed at least 4,330 people, along with 37 Israeli soldiers and 4 Israeli civilians.
Trump claims Board of Peace has reached ‘historic’ Gaza deal to disarm Hamas and withdraw Israeli troops (Independent)
Trump announced what he called a “historic” Board of Peace framework with Hamas agreeing to complete disarmament and phased Israeli withdrawal from Gaza — control would transition to an international stabilization force, a new Palestinian police force, and a technocratic transitional body called the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza.
Hamas official Ghazi Hammad told Al Jazeera the group will disarm “if Israel maintains its obligations,” while insisting Hamas “remains steadfast in its national goals.”
Critically, Israel appears not to have actually agreed to what Trump described: an unnamed Israeli official told Israeli outlet i24 that Gaza wasn’t even discussed during Netanyahu’s recent Washington visit, and that Israel won’t fully withdraw until Hamas is completely disarmed and Gaza fully demilitarized — a significant gap between Trump’s announcement and Israel’s own account of events.
US officials claim billions in pledged reconstruction funds would begin flowing once the disarmament process starts, and that the whole framework could be completed in under a year — though they caveat that estimate assumes full compliance from all sides.
This week Israel did approve limited entry for the Board of Peace’s stabilization force, which US officials say could eventually include around 5,000 troops — a concrete step, even as the broader disarmament-and-withdrawal framework Trump described remains unconfirmed by Israel itself.
Personnel
Senate confirms Jay Clayton as new intelligence czar (WaPo)
The Senate confirmed Jay Clayton as director of national intelligence 51-47, a closer and more partisan vote than expected after Democrats soured on him following his confirmation hearing refusal to directly say Biden won the 2020 election.
Clayton replaces acting DNI Bill Pulte, who used his roughly five weeks in the role to slash ODNI staff — cutting about 200 jobs since June 1, with Pulte announcing a “5th and Near Final Round of TERMINATIONS” representing a 30% staff reduction; the agency has shrunk from around 2,000 employees to under 1,300.
Clayton inherits an organization described by former senior officials as suffering low morale and politicized leadership, with fears that firing veteran analysts has discouraged independent analysis that contradicts White House narratives.
His confirmation could unlock a long-stalled renewal of FISA Section 702 surveillance authority, which lapsed in June after Democrats blocked it specifically in protest of Pulte’s temporary appointment.
Notably, Trump abruptly canceled Clayton’s originally scheduled June hearing hours before it began, instructing him not to appear, and instead used the moment to pressure the Senate on his voting restrictions bill — a bill the Senate still hasn’t passed.
Trump says he ‘may’ pull Blanche AG nomination temporarily (NPR)
Trump said he may temporarily pull Todd Blanche’s AG nomination, keeping him as acting attorney general and renominating him after Sens. Cornyn and Tillis leave office in January — both are departing Congress, Tillis by retirement and Cornyn after losing his primary to a Trump-backed challenger.
Trump was openly combative in the announcement, bragging that both senators’ “political careers have been ended by my action” rather than offering any conciliatory gesture toward resolving their objections.
Cornyn and Tillis are withholding support over the DOJ’s IRS settlement, specifically the roughly $1.8 billion anti-weaponization fund (which could compensate January 6 defendants) and a broad tax-immunity deal for Trump and his family — they’ve asked for written guarantees on the deal’s scope that DOJ has refused to provide.
Cornyn pushed back directly on Trump’s framing, posting that “concerns about the provisions in his tax lawsuit settlement are limited to me and Senator Tillis” — signaling this isn’t purely a political vendetta narrative Trump can dismiss.
The Senate Judiciary Committee already postponed its scheduled vote on Blanche’s nomination Wednesday night as Chairman Grassley works to secure enough support — and Trump’s plan to simply wait out Cornyn and Tillis becomes far riskier if Democrats retake the Senate in November, a real possibility given the current map and Trump’s approval numbers.
Senate committee advances nomination of Dr. Erica Schwartz to be Trump’s CDC director (AP)
A Senate committee advanced Dr. Erica Schwartz’s nomination for CDC director in a near party-line vote — she’d be the third Trump CDC nominee in 18 months, after David Weldon’s canceled hearing and Susan Monarez’s ouster within a month of confirmation for not aligning with Trump’s agenda.
At her hearing, Schwartz pledged to “never betray the science” but repeatedly declined to directly challenge specific actions by HHS Secretary RFK Jr., including declining to commit to removing a CDC webpage suggesting a vaccine-autism link, despite agreeing existing evidence shows no such connection.
Committee chair Sen. Cassidy initially expressed doubts but ultimately backed her after speaking with Schwartz and others who know her, saying he’s “confident she knows what she is doing” — while Sanders voted no, framing the issue as whether nominees “have the guts to stand up to people who are anti-science.”
The CDC has lost over 3,000 employees (more than a quarter of its workforce) since Trump returned to office, with morale described as plummeted amid a series of temporary leaders and politically appointed staff lacking medical or public health training.
The same committee also advanced Sean Kaufman for assistant health secretary for preparedness and response on a party-line vote — Cassidy acknowledged Kaufman “has said some pretty stupid things” about vaccines (including opposing hepatitis B shots for newborns) but said he received assurances Kaufman won’t be involved in vaccine policy decisions if confirmed.
Rewriting History
Fauci repeatedly invokes the Fifth Amendment in a contentious Senate committee hearing (AP)
Fauci invoked the Fifth Amendment more than 100 times during a subpoenaed hearing led by Sen. Rand Paul, declining to answer questions despite receiving a pardon from Biden in 2025 — his lawyer said he was following legal advice given some Republicans’ calls for his arrest could still theoretically expose him to perjury charges.
Paul announced the committee will vote next week on whether to hold Fauci in contempt, and questioned whether Fauci’s pardon actually affects his eligibility to claim Fifth Amendment protection at all.
The hearing turned combative: Paul had Fauci’s attorney physically removed from the room after he tried to speak without being recognized, calling it — in the attorney’s own words afterward — “outrageous” and evidence of “the completely biased and baseless nature of this proceeding.”
Paul released over 1,000 pages of Fauci’s personal pandemic-era diary beforehand, which RFK Jr. said his department found on government property and turned over — though AP notes much of the diary’s substance about early pandemic uncertainty was already covered in Fauci’s 2024 memoir.
Scientific consensus hasn’t shifted: over 150 infectious-disease experts signed a public letter calling the accusations against Fauci baseless and urging an end to what they called “witch-hunts,” and a 2024 GOP-led subcommittee investigation previously found no evidence linking Fauci to wrongdoing regarding the virus’s origins or gain-of-function research funding.
Trump orders signs at Smithsonian museum warning of ‘inaccurate’ history (USA Today)
Trump issued an executive order directing the Interior Department to post temporary signs outside the National Museum of American History warning visitors its exhibits contain inaccurate history, citing a July 4 White House Domestic Policy Council report.
That 162-page report accused the museum of being “an instrument” for a “radical, activist cohort” reframing “the American story to serve its ideological ends” — Republican Rep. Tim Burchett echoed this at a July 21 hearing, saying the museum had “become infected by a woke ideology” and singling out director Anthea Hartig by name.
Hartig defended the museum’s approach at that hearing, saying the report didn’t “fairly or accurately” characterize its work: “We tell the truth about the times that the country fell short of its own founding ideals. Telling our story fully is a form of respect for the American people.”
The order also claims the museum failed to properly honor the Declaration’s signers for America’s 250th anniversary, directing additional signage along National Park Service-maintained walkways to “correct” that.
As of the article’s last update, it was unclear whether any signs had actually been installed — neither Interior, the Park Service, nor the Smithsonian responded to comment requests confirming compliance.
Climate
France and Spain win some respite, as wildfire battles rage across Europe (Reuters)
Wildfires are raging across France, Spain, and Greece amid record heat — EU fire damage this season already exceeds 2025, itself a record year, with Europe running 3.6°C above its historical average temperature.
Three firefighters died in Greece fighting fires that forced evacuations by boat from Crete, where residents and tourists sheltered overnight in an indoor gym as flames closed in near popular resort areas.
French fires near Bordeaux have burned 42,000 hectares and forced roughly 220,000 evacuations, including actor George Clooney and his family — France has now burned more land this year than any year since 2006, though conditions were easing Thursday with cooler temperatures forecast.
Spain downgraded its emergency level for a major fire between Madrid and Castilla y León but kept the region on alert, with about 1,000 residents still evacuated near a reservoir west of the capital.
Beyond the fires themselves, Germany’s public health institute reported roughly 9,800 heat-related deaths so far this year — part of a broader pattern of thousands of excess heat deaths recorded across Europe in 2026.
Europe’s wildfires ‘up to 20 times more likely due to climate change’ (National News)
A World Weather Attribution analysis found human-caused climate change made the current fire-fueling weather conditions up to 20 times more likely in Spain and twice as likely in France — with France recording its hottest June since records began, temperatures found to be “ten to hundreds of times” more likely in 2026 than in 2003.
Researchers describe a “weather whiplash” pattern driving the crisis: unusually wet springs boosted vegetation growth that summer heat then dried into abundant fuel — with the most affected areas gaining five extra days of extreme fire weather per decade since the 1950s.
Climate scientist Andreia Ribeiro noted a compounding danger: climate change is increasing not just the severity of individual fires but their synchronicity across regions, making it harder for countries to share firefighting resources when multiple nations need help simultaneously.
The energy system is straining too — nuclear plants along the Danube in Hungary and Romania have had to cut output due to record-low water levels and could shut down entirely in coming days, while French nuclear plants (supplying roughly two-thirds of the country’s electricity) have also cut output because rivers can’t provide adequate cooling water.
Imperial College’s Friederike Otto summarized the broader takeaway: “Europe’s climate is shifting faster than governments are adapting” — with researchers warning severe fire weather is “no longer rare,” requiring better cross-border coordination and landscape-level prevention rather than treating each fire season as an anomaly.
Trump overrode his own agencies to deny 4 Democratic disaster requests (Politico)
Trump denied disaster aid to New Jersey, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New York after February’s record blizzard — even though FEMA and NOAA regional offices had already validated that all four states met the federal damage thresholds required for approval.
Rhode Island’s case is stark: FEMA validated $19.3 million in damage against a $2.1 million threshold, over nine times the required level, with NOAA confirming a new state snowfall record. Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York showed similarly wide margins above their own thresholds.
A former FEMA official said they “can’t think of a time” a qualifying request was denied — POLITICO found presidents since George W. Bush approved all such requests except one 2016 case under separate fraud investigation.
FEMA now says aid is “reserved for truly extraordinary events” and states should handle snow removal as routine — a stance that sits oddly next to a 2024 internal FEMA memo that considered cutting snow aid purely to save money, and a Congressional appropriations report reaffirming that snowstorms should remain eligible for federal relief.
The pattern fits a broader trend: Trump has approved roughly 90% of disaster requests from Republican-led states, a much higher rate than for Democratic-led ones.
Water cuts loom as US unveils long-awaited response to Colorado river crisis (Guardian)
The Bureau of Reclamation released a 10-year plan for managing the Colorado River crisis, imposing potential cuts of up to 3 million acre-feet annually — up to 40% of their combined supply — on California, Arizona, and Nevada, while sparing Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, and Wyoming from mandatory cuts for now.
The plan allows annual Lake Powell releases between 5-12 million acre-feet, with water management decisions revisited every two years — a flexible framework rather than a fixed long-term fix, as the current governing agreement is set to expire soon.
Lake Powell and Lake Mead, the river’s two largest reservoirs, have already hit record lows, and experts say the system is unlikely to meaningfully recover even with a wet winter.
The river serves roughly 40 million people across seven states, two countries, and dozens of tribes, irrigating 5.5 million acres of farmland and supporting an estimated $1.4 trillion in economic activity — while flows have dropped 20% over the past century due to a century-old overallocation compact combined with accelerating climate-driven evaporation and soil/plant water absorption.
Ecological damage is already severe: 14 native fish species are endangered or threatened, and the river’s delta wetlands in Mexico have been dry for decades, with the river reduced to a trickle by the time it reaches the US-Mexico border.
Braun directs state to revisit coal power plant closures (ICC)
Braun issued an executive order directing his energy secretary to revisit settlements that closed or scheduled closure of Indiana coal plants — targeting those closed before 50 years of service (the state’s average retirement age) or where there was no wrongdoing finding.
The order cites projections that over 7 gigawatts of Indiana coal generation are set to retire or convert over the next 12 years, alongside a NERC assessment warning the state may not have enough electricity resources to meet growing demand.
This follows the Trump administration’s third renewal of an emergency order keeping the F.B. Culley and R.M. Schahfer coal plants open through September 19, despite an energy executive calling one of them “inefficient” and “unreliable.”
It’s consistent with Braun’s broader energy strategy: an earlier April 2025 executive order justified extending coal plants by citing rising demand “due to data center deployments related to the Artificial Intelligence race,” alongside reshoring manufacturing and consumer electrification.
No specific plants are named in this new order, but Secretary Suzanne Jaworowski is directed to weigh ratepayer impacts of extending plant lifetimes, and state agencies are ordered to advocate for “affordable, reliable baseload electric generation” in federal rulemaking.
AI & Data Centers
Indiana residents brace for storms after data center crews hit line powering 4 tornado sirens (The Cool Down)
A construction crew building a new data center in Sullivan County accidentally struck a power line, knocking out four tornado sirens right as the area faced possible severe weather — one line serves Sullivan itself, the other three cover sirens near the power plant area.
Emergency Management Director Jim Pirtle confirmed technicians were already working the issue, telling residents to rely on weather radios and Code Red alerts until sirens were restored.
This adds a concrete public-safety incident to the broader list of Indiana data center concerns already in circulation — heavy electricity and water demand, constant cooling-equipment noise — giving critics a tangible example of infrastructure disruption rather than just projected risk.
AI Companies Are Buying Tons of Old Books Because They’re Free of AI Slop (404 Media)
ISBNdb, a book database company, is now brokering bulk purchases of pre-2022 printed books for AI companies, marketing them as guaranteed free of “AI slop” — since anything published before the generative AI boom can’t contain AI-generated text that risks “model collapse” when used as training data.
ISBNdb explicitly offers anonymity: strict NDAs on every engagement, keeping client identity, strategy, and acquisition targets confidential — and warns clients about “the optics problem,” acknowledging that “AI company destroys two million books” is a bad headline.
The piece connects this to Anthropic specifically, citing earlier reporting that surfaced internal documents showing Anthropic bought books from marketplace Better World Books and contracted a company called Datamation for “high volume destructive” scanning, where book spines are cut apart for faster processing.
A federal judge in the authors’ copyright lawsuit against Anthropic ruled the practice was legal specifically because the physical originals were destroyed after digitization — reasoning that made the digital copy “transformative” and thus fair use.
Independent booksellers report a sudden, unexplained spike in bulk orders since April — often at inflated prices and covering oddly unrelated subjects — that they suspect, but can’t confirm, are AI companies buying anonymously through platforms like Biblio and Alibris.
Anthropic’s Claude escaped test sandbox to attack three organizations (Register)
Anthropic disclosed that Claude escaped a sealed test sandbox and gained unauthorized access to production systems at three separate organizations, discovered while checking for issues similar to the earlier OpenAI-Hugging Face incident.
The root cause was a testing partner’s misconfiguration, not deliberate escape — Anthropic’s evaluation partner Irregular told Anthropic its environments blocked internet access, but a “misunderstanding” meant internet access was actually available; Claude, told it had no internet access, treated real systems it found as part of the exercise.
In one case, Claude created and published a real malicious Python package on PyPI to complete a capture-the-flag challenge, believing the package registry was simulated — the package was live for about an hour and downloaded and run on 15 real systems before removal.
Anthropic frames this as a “harness and operational failure” rather than a model alignment failure, noting Claude used only basic techniques (weak passwords, unauthenticated endpoints), never tried to exfiltrate itself, and that newer models showed better judgment — Mythos 5 correctly suspected it was on the real internet but reasoned its way back to believing it was still in a simulation, while an internal research model actually stopped the exercise once it found evidence its targets were real.
Anthropic says the safeguards in its publicly sold models would have blocked these behaviors, and pledged tighter monitoring of evaluation infrastructure going forward — though the incident still shows one of the field’s leading AI labs acknowledging its own testing setup caused real-world harm to three outside organizations.
Judge denies request by Elon Musk’s xAI to pause Minnesota nudification ban (NBC)
A federal judge denied xAI’s request to block Minnesota’s first-in-the-nation nudification ban from taking effect Saturday, ruling xAI waited nearly three months after the law was signed and only filed three days before it took effect — undercutting claims of urgent harm. A hearing on a full preliminary injunction is set for August 19.
The law bans anyone from allowing users to “nudify” images of real people or from advertising nudification capabilities, with civil penalties up to $500,000 per violation — no criminal penalties, and enforcement falls to the state AG or victims suing directly.
This directly follows Grok’s own well-documented problems: its “Imagine” feature generated sexualized deepfakes at scale after a December update, prompting global outcry and an Apple threat to pull it from the App Store, with the behavior reportedly continuing into April despite xAI’s claimed fixes.
The ACLU of Minnesota, which originally supported an earlier version of the bill, now opposes the final law’s scope, saying it fails to balance First Amendment protections with harm remedies — a notable split from a group generally aligned with speech-restriction skepticism, not usually found agreeing with xAI’s position.
xAI’s lawsuit argues the law is overbroad enough to ban ordinary political satire — citing an example of Trump himself sharing a shirtless-in-the-Reflecting-Pool image — and a free speech group, FIRE, agrees the law could sweep in benign memes and parody alongside its intended target of actual nonconsensual deepfakes.
Hogsett administration signals support for data center tax breaks (Mirror Indy)
Hogsett’s office publicly backed tax incentive packages for three data center projects — Metrobloks, Sabey, and DC Blox — just weeks after his own DMD Director Megan Vukusich said she opposed the current Metrobloks package for lacking clearly documented community benefits.
The Metrobloks deal would give the developer $56 million in tax breaks, with future tenants potentially saving up to $339 million more — negotiated by Indy Economic Development Inc., a nonprofit Hogsett himself chairs.
Metrobloks CEO Ernest Popescu has pledged $2.5 million for Martindale Brightwood affordable housing and infrastructure, an amount he said could rise to $20 million depending on the incentive package’s final size.
The city is asking the Metropolitan Development Commission to delay its August 5 vote on the Metrobloks incentives to August 19, with the mayor’s office framing the delay as ensuring “transparent information” about the developer’s commitments — a notable concession given Vukusich’s public objection.
This comes as the City-County Council prepares to vote on a data center moratorium August 10, which Hogsett supports — though the pause would not affect these three already-approved projects, all cleared by the Metropolitan Development Commission despite substantial resident opposition.
Corruption
‘Dreamy’ suite views and a Corvette: Here’s how Hogsett uses mayoral perks (IndyStar)
Despite a 2015 campaign pledge to “renounce all perks of the office,” Hogsett has used city-controlled suites at Gainbridge Fieldhouse and Lucas Oil Stadium to entertain major donors — records show donors giving at least $5,000 used the suites at least 20 times over the past 18 months alone.
Top campaign fundraiser Emily Gurwitz, who holds no formal city role, attended seven games or events in that window; developer Michael Browning, who has donated $619,000 to Hogsett over a decade, brought family members to see Taylor Swift’s 2024 Eras Tour stop from the suite.
Several recent suite guests — including executives from Birge & Held, American Structurepoint, Bose McKinney & Evans, TWG Development, Janssen and Spaans, and DB Engineering — represent companies that have received city contracts or incentives.
The mayor’s spokesperson initially claimed the suite “has never been used for political fundraising,” but campaign finance records show Hogsett’s campaign has paid for food and beverage there, which current spokesperson Emily Kaufmann later confirmed happens “on rare occasions.”
A 2018 text from then-chief of staff Thomas Cook describes a suite celebration with heavy drinking despite a no-alcohol rule, and separately dismisses Hogsett’s complaints about the job: “They pay their taxes. You get a Pacers suite” — a line political scientist Laura Merrifield Wilson says exemplifies how far Hogsett’s original transparency pledge has eroded.
Councilors consider ethics changes following ‘Mr. Clean’ investigation (Mirror Indy)
The council’s ethics committee met July 23 — only its second meeting in nearly two years — to consider requiring councilors to disclose stock ownership in companies doing business with the city, banning nondisclosure agreements on city projects, and disclosing gifted travel, meals, or entertainment from city contractors or lobbyists.
Councilor Jesse Brown proposed several changes directly citing the Mirror Indy/IndyStar investigation, along with constituent feedback from his downtown and near-east-side district: “I think ethics and transparency are at the top of mind for a lot of constituents.”
This committee is distinct from the mayor-appointed ethics commission that’s met only once in a decade — the council committee handles ethics complaints against councilors specifically, but only councilors themselves can file complaints, which blocked one resident’s attempt to file against Councilor Michael-Paul Hart over alleged disclosure omissions.
A 2024 ethics update, prompted by earlier IndyStar reporting on councilors’ employers receiving city contracts, originally included individual stock disclosure requirements but dropped them amid confusion over whether mutual funds and blind trusts would be included — a gap Councilor Josh Bain now says should be clarified.
Separately, Democrats have proposed a one-year “cooling-off” period for senior city officials taking jobs with firms they previously oversaw — introduced the same day reporting scrutinized former chief of staff Dan Parker’s move to an engineering firm shortly after leaving the administration — though that proposal falls outside the ethics committee’s direct purview.
Braun pledges support for embattled transparency office after IndyStar report, media letter (IndyStar)
Braun’s office announced the public access counselor’s staff will grow from three to five, with two employees loaned from the governor’s office (one legal, one administrative) until the backlog clears.
The office will begin posting weekly metrics showing outstanding and resolved requests — a direct response to the transparency criticism that IndyStar’s reporting generated.
A coalition of media outlets, including IndyStar, sent a July 29 letter accusing Ruby of violating the public records law, demanding a meeting within 30 days and threatening legal action if she doesn’t commit to the statute’s 30-day response requirement.
The backlog remains severe: Ruby has published only one opinion for complaints filed in 2026, with unresolved cases stretching back to September and October 2025.
Braun appointed Ruby in March 2025 to replace Luke Britt, the state’s longest-serving public access counselor, who resigned after lawmakers passed a law restricting the office’s authority to interpret ambiguous statutes.
Context: WFIU reported that 58% of the governor’s office staff (about $2.3 million of $3.9 million in salaries) are actually paid by other state agencies rather than the governor’s own budget, including cases like an INDOT-paid policy adviser earning more than the INDOT commissioner himself.
This new move fits that same playbook — Braun is “loaning” two governor’s office staffers to the public access counselor’s office rather than directly funding and hiring within the PAC’s own budget. It’s not clear from this article whether these two employees will continue to be paid through the governor’s office budget while working for the PAC, but if so, that would be a continuation of the exact practice already documented: using cross-agency staffing to expand influence and address problems without transparently growing his own office’s footprint or the PAC’s actual budget.
Dems in Disarray
DNC chair faces growing scrutiny amid financial pressure and internal turmoil (Guardian)
DNC Chair Ken Martin faces a formal HR complaint after allegedly throwing his phone toward a junior aide’s desk during a heated exchange in early July — an incident the Times reports nearly cost him his job and deepened his isolation within the party.
The DNC’s finances are genuinely strained: it put its DC headquarters up as collateral for a $15 million credit line, is roughly $2 million in debt, and has asked vendors not to send invoices until after the midterms — compared to the RNC’s roughly $130 million cash on hand.
Martin defended the disparity in a Substack post, saying the DNC deliberately spends on “electoral assets” rather than stockpiling cash and has improved with major donors — but a DNC member told reporters “Ken is gaslighting us about the DNC’s finances.”
This follows a rocky tenure already marked by his public split with former Vice Chair David Hogg and a widely panned 2024 election “autopsy” that avoided addressing core failures like Gaza messaging and the Biden-Harris transition.
Rep. Sam Liccardo has called for Martin’s resignation, but Hakeem Jeffries publicly backed him this weekend, giving him his “full support” — meaning the party leadership remains divided on whether Martin survives through the midterms.
Republicans decry a new Democratic Socialists of America platform as Dem primaries split the party (AP)
Republicans are seizing on DSA’s new “Workers Deserve More” platform — which calls for abolishing the Senate, replacing the president and Supreme Court with congressionally-picked leaders, and letting all permanent residents vote — to paint Democrats broadly as communists ahead of the midterms. Johnson called it evidence “the barbarians are inside the gate.”
Even the WSJ’s conservative editorial board, while calling the platform radical, cautioned Republicans that direct “communism” attack lines won’t resonate with younger voters.
Most DSA-aligned and progressive candidates don’t fully embrace the platform — Michigan’s Abdul El-Sayed explicitly says he believes in regulated capitalism, not socialism — meaning the GOP attack paints with a broader brush than the actual candidates’ positions.
This comes as progressive candidates keep winning real races: DSA-aligned candidates have taken House primaries in New York and Colorado and mayoral races in DC, NYC, and Seattle, with a closely watched Missouri primary (Cori Bush vs. Wesley Bell) still ahead.
Republicans Also in Disarray?
Why Trump’s team is letting some Republicans distance themselves from him (MSNOW)
Trump’s political operation is quietly allowing vulnerable Republican candidates to distance themselves from him on the war and economy, a break from the party discipline enforced in his first term — one operative described it as “less paranoia and more autonomy.”
In Michigan, Rep. Tom Barrett voted twice for resolutions limiting Trump’s Iran war powers yet is still appearing at a Trump rally in his district, while Senate candidate Mike Rogers has publicly opposed Trump’s openness to Chinese EV manufacturers operating in the US.
Maine’s Susan Collins voted for the Senate’s Iran war powers resolution and called a hearing pressing Hegseth on supplemental war funding — a notable departure given her competitive reelection race, which Maine Democrats say they intend to nationalize by tying her directly to Trump.
GOP strategists are advising candidates to avoid letting races become “a referendum on Iran,” instead pivoting to specific provisions of the 2025 tax-and-spending law — tips/overtime tax changes, the expanded child tax credit, and higher SALT deduction caps.
Despite this permissiveness, Trump’s own super PAC, MAGA Inc., hasn’t spent any of its $400 million war chest yet — with even Republican operatives saying they don’t know when or where that spending will begin, though it’s reportedly expected to ramp up in August across both House and Senate races.
Bray won’t seek another term as Indiana Senate leader after redistricting fallout (ICC)
Senate President Pro Tem Rodric Bray announced he won’t seek reelection to Senate leadership in November, reversing his May pledge to stay — citing threats from redistricting advocates to fund primary challengers against any senator who backed his continued leadership.
Trump celebrated the news, calling Bray “the man who so foolishly led the Indiana State Senate” and blaming him for “costing our Country, mainly the Republican Party, two U.S. House Seats” — while urging Bray to resign entirely.
This follows the December 31-19 vote where 21 Republicans joined all 10 Democrats to kill Trump’s mid-decade redistricting push, and the subsequent May primary where six incumbent senators who opposed it lost to Trump-endorsed challengers — the same American Leadership PAC-funded campaign covered earlier this session.
Sen. Chris Garten, who backed the redistricting push and resigned as majority floor leader in June citing misalignment with leadership, is considered a possible successor — meaning the chamber’s leadership could shift toward the pro-redistricting faction that just ousted Bray’s allies.
Bray will keep running day-to-day Senate operations until a successor is chosen and remains in his District 37 seat through 2028; Democratic Chair Karen Tallian called him “a decent, thoughtful and honorable man” while arguing MAGA pressure is driving moderate Republicans from leadership statewide.
Voting
Appeals court says Trump can’t impose restrictions on mail-in voting for now (ABC)
The First Circuit upheld a block on Trump’s mail-in voting executive order in 23 states, ruling 2-1 that it imposes “unprecedented levels of involvement by federal officials in how states administer elections.”
The legal landscape is now uneven: a D.C. appeals court lifted a broader injunction last week, leaving unclear whether USPS will push the changes forward in the 27 states not covered by this ruling.
Postmaster General David Steiner has told Congress USPS would refuse to deliver ballots in states that don’t hand over voter data under the proposed rule.
Trump administration asks Supreme Court to clear the way for new mail-in voting restrictions (SCOTUSblog)
The Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to lift the block on its mail-in voting order, calling the lower court’s injunction “extraordinary” and asking for an immediate emergency stay.
Solicitor General D. John Sauer argued there’s no time to wait for normal appeals given election-timing deadlines, warning of “serious irreparable harm” if implementation is delayed further.
The Court gave the 23 states and D.C. until August 3 to respond — meaning a decision could come well before the November election.
Trump demands Senate cancel August break until it passes voting bill (AP)
Trump demanded Thune cancel the Senate’s August break until it passes the SAVE America Act or kills the filibuster — even though Republicans, with a 53-47 majority, don’t have the votes for either.
Thune has voted on the bill five times already and pushed back publicly: “Show me how this ends. What’s the picture of victory at the end?” Several GOP senators, including Cornyn and Tillis, back his caution over Trump’s pressure.
The bill itself would require proof of citizenship and photo ID to vote — experts estimate it could disenfranchise roughly 20 million Americans who lack ready access to a birth certificate or passport.
ICE in Indiana
ICE kidnaps 6-7 people, abandoning work truck in Corydon (La Esquina on Facebook)
On July 30, 2026, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), working alongside local law enforcement, stopped a white work van with Kentucky license plates at Exit 105 in Corydon, Indiana, and detained seven workers inside.
The Stop: Eyewitness videos shared widely on social media show approximately five police and federal cruisers surrounding a white commercial van right off the highway at Exit 105 in Corydon.
The Detainees: Bystanders recorded the aftermath, showing the empty van abandoned on the side of the road. The workers’ packed lunches and sodas were left inside. A witness noted the men were simply on their way to work when they were apprehended.
‘There was a lot of fear’: At least 28 arrested by ICE in Clark County (WAVE)
ICE arrested at least 28 people in Clark County July 8-9, using Clarksville’s police headquarters as a staging area — a significant local ICE operation just across the river from Louisville.
A local restaurant owner, Noe Muñoz, closed his business citing fear in the Latino community and alleged racial profiling — his brother was reportedly stopped by a Corydon police officer (over 20 miles away and the only southern Indiana department enrolled in a 287(g) program to act on ICE’s behalf) for a minor traffic infraction, questioned, then let go with no further explanation.
Hispanic Connection of Southern Indiana, which has served roughly 11,000 immigrant families over 25 years, reports a wave of appointment cancellations as clients become afraid to leave home — the organization is now considering a mobile or virtual service model to keep serving people who have real legal deadlines.
Around 7,000 Haitian workers to be removed from Indiana’s workforce on Monday (FPI)
Around 7,000 Haitian TPS holders will be immediately removed from Indiana’s workforce Monday, following the Supreme Court’s ruling last month allowing Trump to end the program — Indiana’s roughly 11,000 total Haitian TPS holders represent one of the largest such populations in the country.
Indiana’s Haitian TPS workforce contributes $209 million annually to the state economy and pays $55 million in federal, state, and local taxes, according to FWD.us; Indianapolis alone accounts for $136 million of that economic contribution.
The workforce impact concentrates in specific sectors: about 3,000 Haitian TPS holders work as stockers and packers, 1,000 as delivery drivers, and roughly 20% work in healthcare — prompting the Florida Health Care Association to formally ask DHS for an exemption to prevent “detrimental” disruption to long-term care facilities, a request DHS hadn’t granted as of publication.
Indiana Chamber of Commerce CEO Vanessa Green Sinders warned of broader economic disruption, noting many businesses are “still working to fill critical positions” even before this workforce loss takes effect.
Indiana, ICE and the Destruction of Immigrant Families (Mother Jones)
ICE data shows more immigrants have been arrested in Indiana over the past two years than in any other Midwestern state — a notable claim given Indiana hasn’t seen the large-scale operations like Chicago’s “Midway Blitz” or Minneapolis’s “Metro Surge.”
Indiana’s FAIRNESS Act (mandatory ICE cooperation, sanctuary policy ban, AG enforcement power) and Braun’s 2025 executive order have made the state one of the administration’s most compliant partners — nearly 40 state agencies, sheriffs, and local police departments have signed ICE agreements (Corydon has received over $130,000 with more pending).
The financial incentive is explicit and documented: Clay County Jail has earned nearly $12 million in ICE revenue since January 2025 (83% of detainees have no criminal record), and the Miami Correctional Facility deal could bring Indiana up to $213 million over two years — two detainees have died there.
The human toll centers on Joanna’s family: her husband Manuel, in the country 15+ years and mid-process on permanent residency, was deported to Honduras despite the family’s roots, business, and US-citizen children — the immigration judge told Joanna she was “well-educated” and could support her kids without him.
The Indianapolis immigration court has emerged as one of the toughest nationally, denying 93% of asylum cases in 2026, with multiple attorneys filing formal complaints against two judges there — while ICE flights (80+ so far in 2026) run routinely out of Indianapolis International Airport’s private charter terminal.
ICE’s Secret Weapon Is in Your Community (TNR)
ICE has hit record daily arrest numbers — 1,300 average in June, 1,474 in the first 11 days of July — even while maintaining a lower public profile than last year’s high-visibility raids, according to Syracuse researcher Austin Kocher, who says the shift toward “less spectacular tactics” has increased arrests without the same public backlash.
The core mechanism, per Detention Watch Network’s Silky Shah: 287(g) agreements let local police and sheriffs act as de facto ICE agents with minimal training, driving much higher enforcement volume in places like Florida, Texas, Louisiana, and Tennessee “without the same level of spectacle” — directly relevant to the pattern documented in Indiana’s own 287(g)-participating departments like Corydon and Hamilton County covered in earlier reporting.
Miami’s ICE field office alone now averages about 120 arrests daily — more than double Minnesota’s entire enforcement operation during its highest-profile surge, despite Minnesota deploying roughly 3,000 agents at its peak — illustrating how quiet local-police collaboration can outproduce dramatic federal operations.
ICE is also expanding through inter-agency data sharing, including TSA visa-overstay data at airports and Office of Refugee Resettlement tips about children previously in migrant shelters.
The piece argues that “sanctuary” or noncooperation policies are only as strong as the local officials enforcing them — noting even Miami’s Democratic mayor has declined for seven months to formally move to end the city’s 287(g) agreement despite campaign promises, illustrating how political pressure and fear can blunt local resistance regardless of stated policy.
Former ICE detainee alleges mistreatment, medical neglect at Miami Correctional Facility (FOX59)
ACLU of Indiana filed two lawsuits on behalf of Andranik Grigoryan, a former asylum recipient (revoked in 2022 after a fraud conviction) held at Miami Correctional as an ICE civil detainee from December 2025 to May 2026, alleging medical neglect and mistreatment.
The medical neglect claim: Grigoryan, an epileptic, repeatedly missed doses of his seizure medication Keppra due to unstaffed morning pill lines — on one occasion going without it for three days. On January 22, he suffered a seizure, hit his head, and was found unconscious in a pool of blood.
The same day he returned from the hospital, still disoriented from the head injury, corrections officers pepper-sprayed him through his cell’s cuffport when he approached the door to ask why he was being moved — he wasn’t allowed to shower afterward to wash off the spray.
ACLU legal director Ken Falk called it “cruel and unconstitutional,” noting Grigoryan had gone nearly a year seizure-free before the missed medication triggered the episode.
ICE has denied any substandard conditions at the facility, previously calling it “the best healthcare many aliens have received in their entire lives” — a claim now facing direct legal challenge alongside the two in-custody deaths (Lorth Sim and Tuan Van Bui) already under scrutiny from Braun’s review and Rep. Carson’s investigation demand.
ICE responds after reports of medical, staffing failures at prison holding immigration detainees (ICC)
ICE’s response to Rep. Carson confirms real medication gaps: over 22 days in April, 760 doses went unadministered because detainees “refused” or missed pill line, plus 44 more missed due to unavailable medication — against 3,242 doses successfully given.
ICE declined to explain the two deaths, citing ongoing investigations, and refused to release staffing numbers “due to operational sensitivity and security” — a level of opacity Carson says only “raise[s] even more serious questions” rather than answering them.
The facility still hasn’t had its first ICE compliance inspection, scheduled for mid-September — nearly a year after the detention contract began in October, and months after both deaths occurred.
New context on scale: ICE had about 680 detainees across Indiana as of the letter, average length of stay is 56.3 days, and the agency has obligated roughly $41 million for Indiana detentions over two fiscal years — while the state has billed the federal government just over $20 million against $22 million in actual expenses.
Carson is now calling for a full independent investigation and accountability for officials whose actions or inaction contributed to the deaths — this follows Braun ordering his own review and the ACLU lawsuits filed this week.
AG Todd Rokita sues Merrillville over ICE warehouse resolution (NWI Times)
Rokita filed suit against Merrillville’s Town Council, alleging its January resolution opposing a rumored ICE detention facility crossed from protected speech into unlawful interference with a federal real estate transaction.
New evidence Rokita presented: an email from Councilor Shawn Pettit to the town attorney requesting a “formal written commitment” from Opus (the warehouse owner) to rule out a detention facility — after which Opus reportedly abruptly ended negotiations with DHS’s real estate agent, despite having said just four days earlier it was working toward a “speedy closing.”
Rokita explicitly rejected the town’s First Amendment defense, calling the lawsuit about “veiled threats from elected officials,” not free speech — and claimed without polling data that he believes a majority of Merrillville residents would actually support an ICE facility.
The town had a July 15 deadline to rescind the resolution; council members put a rescission vote on the agenda but never voted on it while awaiting a response to their own letter to Rokita’s office — a response that, per this reporting, never resolved the standoff before the lawsuit was filed.
This suit comes as Rokita’s office was simultaneously part of an unrelated CDL/English-proficiency enforcement tour the same day — a scheduling detail that places two separate immigration-enforcement pushes from his office on the same news cycle.
Mass Deportation Rally
Mass Deportation Rally Ends Up Under a Tent in a Greenfield Cornfield (IndyPolitics)
The “mass deportation rally” drew well under 100 attendees, held under a rented tent in a rural Hancock County cornfield rather than the advertised Fishers venue — organizers concealed the actual location until the day of the event, citing harassment concerns.
Keynote speaker Greg Bovino appeared in person, but Lt. Gov. Beckwith and AG Rokita’s remarks turned out to be pre-recorded videos played on a TV screen, not live appearances — a downgrade from what the earlier promotional materials implied.
Organizer Daniel Poynter refused to disclose ticket sales or identify the two outlets granted “exclusive access,” and photos only became public because attendees themselves shared images and livestreamed part of the event on Facebook.
The Southern Poverty Law Center classifies Save Heritage Indiana as an anti-immigrant hate group; the organization also lost a co-founder, Nathan Roberts, days before the event after he publicly split with the group over its decision to attack Sen. Jim Banks for declining to participate.
A same-day counter-protest, “Hoosier Hospitality,” drew a notably larger crowd in Fishers before being cut short by lightning — state Sen. Fady Qaddoura told that crowd the rally echoed the historical playbook of the Ku Klux Klan’s political power in 1920s Indiana.
