SUMMARY:
On this week’s edition of HoosLeft This Week, Scott is joined by Fort Wayne Democratic House District 81 candidate Sharon Wight and first-time guest Allen Miller, Democratic candidate for House District 73, for a two-hour survey of a week that felt like a rerun of every bad week before it. The show opens on a cascade of ICE violence — a fatal shootings in Maine, a man hit by a truck while running from them in Florida, another death in a detention facility, and a GEO Group employee shooting a protester in Colorado — before moving to Pete Hegseth’s testosterone-testing “High-T Department of War” and the full collapse of the Iran MOU, with the naval blockade reimposed, nightly strikes on Iranian infrastructure, and American service members killed in Jordan. Congress blocked the NDAA over the war, 103 House Democrats voted to cut Israel aid, and Rubio launched campaigns to both dismantle the ICC and convene 60 nations around a left-wing terrorism threat the data doesn’t support. Canadian wildfire smoke blanketing much of the US, Trump’s prime-time election fraud speech, Mullin’s threats to state election administrators, and the Jay Clayton and Todd Blanche confirmation hearings round out the national block. The Indiana portion of the show covers the Chuck Goodrich/Gaylor Electric conflict of interest, the end of diversity contracting, SNAP enrollment down nearly 14% while the state sits on a $4 billion surplus, free school meals at risk for 650,000 Hoosier children, a third consecutive SUN Bucks opt-out, the Indianapolis data center moratorium and DC Blox approval, and a closing conversation on daylight saving time and the case for putting Indiana on permanent Central Standard Time.
Guest Info
Allen Miller: https://millerfor73.com/
Sharon Wight: https://www.electsharonwight.com/
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
00:00:33 — Intro: Welcome, Housekeeping & Guest Introductions
00:05:19 — ICE State Violence: Biddeford Maine Shooting, St. Augustine Death, Another Death in Custody, GEO Group Employee Shoots Protester, Merrillville Stands Its Ground
00:24:33 — Hegseth’s “High-T Department of War” Back in Open Conflict with Iran
00:33:17 — Israel: NDAA Blocked Over Iran War, Israel FUTURES Act, Settlement Expansion, and 103 House Democrats Vote to Cut Israel Aid
00:42:22 — ICC: Rubio’s Dismantlement Campaign, Human Rights Groups Sue, and the John Birch Society Parallel
00:47:07 — Rubio’s Left-Wing Terrorism Conference and the Numbers That Contradict It
00:50:19 — Canadian Wildfire Smoke: Indiana’s Worst Air Quality on Record, Banks and Moreno Blame Canada
00:58:20 — Trump’s Election Fraud Speech: Declassified Documents That Say the Opposite, Mullin’s Threats to States
01:10:05 — All-of-Government Election Interference: Jay Clayton Confirmation Hearing, Gabbard Georgia Raid, NYT Subpoenas
01:16:01 — Blanche Confirmation Hearing: Anti-Weaponization Fund, Abortion Pills, and Epstein Survivors
01:19:07 — Epstein: Ruemmler’s Testimony, Leon Black Reschedules, Dershowitz No-Shows
01:25:34 — AI and Data Centers: Anthropic’s State-by-State Safety Strategy; Indianapolis Moratorium Advances; DC Blox Irvington Approved
01:33:03 — Indiana Corruption: Chuck Goodrich Named Commerce Secretary While Remaining Gaylor Electric CEO; PAC Donations; End of Diversity Contracting
01:42:00 — Indiana SNAP Cuts, Free School Meals at Risk, and SUN Bucks Opt-Out — While the State Sits on $4 Billion
01:50:41 — Daylight Saving Time: Sunshine Protection Act Passes the House; The Case for Permanent Central Standard Time for Indiana
01:57:02 — Outro: Guest Plugs and Sign-Off
IN DEPTH:
State Violence
Feds turn over evidence in Renee Good and Alex Pretti killings to Minnesota after months of delay (Politico)
Federal prosecutors turned over long-withheld evidence — hard drives, body camera video, and Renee Good’s damaged SUV — to Minnesota investigators Monday, more than six months after the January killings of Good and Alex Pretti during immigration protests.
The breakthrough appears linked to leverage: state prosecutors had offered to share their evidence in a separate case against ICE agent Christian Castro in the nonfatal shooting of Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis only if the federal government reciprocated with the Good and Pretti evidence.
AG Keith Ellison called the six-month delay “deeply troubling,” saying “it should never have taken this long” and expressing hope it signals “the beginning of a major course correction.” Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said she isn’t yet dropping her lawsuit against the administration.
Pretti’s family’s lawyer noted federal officials still won’t publicly confirm any cooperation agreement exists: “No family should be required to beg federal authorities to do their job.”
Meanwhile, Houston prosecutors say they face the identical stonewalling in a separate case — the DA there doesn’t even know the names of the ICE officers involved in last week’s killing of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, saying “the federal government has not invited us in.”
26-year-old Colombian man killed in Maine ICE shooting (Maine Public)
A 26-year-old Colombian man, Joan Sebastian Durán Guerrero, was fatally shot by an ICE officer in Biddeford, Maine, Monday morning — and Sen. Angus King’s office says DHS Secretary Mullin initially told King the man was the intended target of an arrest warrant, then reversed hours later, confirming the victim was not the person named in the warrant.
ICE’s official account: an “illegal alien” left a residence in a vehicle, agents attempted a stop, the vehicle tried to flee, and an officer “fearing for public safety” opened fire. No body cameras were present, according to King.
Advocacy groups say the victim was actually authorized to work in the US and had been issued a Social Security number — directly contradicting DHS’s framing of him as someone who had been ordered to leave the country.
Gov. Mills called the revelation that he wasn’t the intended target “even more disturbing and infuriating,” and roughly 200 people rallied in Biddeford within hours demanding ICE leave Maine. Vigils were planned in Biddeford and Portland that evening.
Both of Maine’s senators — independent King and Republican Collins — are calling for a full, transparent investigation; DHS says its inspector general’s office in Boston has taken over, working with the FBI. The officer involved has been placed on leave, standard protocol for police-involved shootings.
Biddeford protests erupt after ICE shooting (Maine Public)
Protests erupted at Mechanics Park in Biddeford within hours of the shooting, swelling from an impromptu gathering to over 100 people, then to hundreds more marching to Republican Sen. Susan Collins’s office chanting “ICE Out!”
Rep. Chellie Pingree told the crowd her constituents want ICE defunded and dismantled: “They’re basically out of control.” Attorney General Aaron Frey confirmed the ICE officer will be placed on leave, with Biddeford, Saco, and Maine State Police assisting the investigation.
One resident’s account captured the mood: “This happened a few hours ago, and there’s hundreds and hundreds of people who just sprang out of the frigging earth” — a city councilor calling the spontaneous turnout “the only thing that’s going to keep people safe right now.”
Vigils were scheduled for Monday evening in both Biddeford and Portland, while local officials, including the mayor, called for a full and transparent investigation.
ICE agent who killed man in Biddeford identified as former Maine law enforcement officer (Portland Press Herald)
The ICE agent who killed Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero has been identified as David Michael Brouillette, 37, of Manchester, Maine — confirmed by his ex-wife Ashley Brouillette, who says he called her admitting to the shooting and asking her to lie about his character.
Per Ashley Brouillette, Brouillette claimed the shooting was justified because Durán Guerrero “tried to hit him with his car” — but she says the videos she’s seen don’t show that: “Nowhere in there does it show that this man charged at you with a car.” She described him as “unusually calm” discussing it.
A separate AP report, citing Brouillette’s ex-wife, his 18-year-old daughter, and an estranged relative, found he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and ADD as a child, was initially rejected by military recruiters over those diagnoses, and was only admitted a year later after going off his medication.
Ashley Brouillette also provided a voicemail from fall 2025 in which Brouillette tells her “you should have your f***ing throats cut” — she says she’d previously reported concerns about his mental health to his military superiors and wanted to go public because of that history.
DHS has refused to confirm or deny his identity, with an ICE spokesperson calling any naming “doxxing” that puts officers “under constant threat from violent agitators” — even as multiple independent sources (a witness, coworkers at the Manchester Fire Department, and the crowdsourced ICE List database) converged on the same identification.
Brouillette’s work history is scattered: volunteer firefighter positions in Manchester that ended after “several spats with department leadership,” a resignation from a Maine DHHS enforcement role after eight months, and various stretches as a corrections officer, VA police officer, and truck driver — with no criminal convictions found in a Maine background check.
Man fleeing immigration officers in Florida is struck and killed by tractor trailer (AP)
A 28-year-old man fleeing ICE and Homeland Security Investigations agents near St. Augustine, Florida was struck and killed by a semi truck Tuesday while running across a busy road — the third death in a week tied to ICE encounters, following the Houston and Maine shootings.
The article puts a running total on it: at least 10 deaths connected to encounters with immigration agents since Trump’s mass deportation campaign began last year. DHS confirmed the operation occurred but hasn’t disclosed what prompted it or the status of three other people in the vehicle.
This fits an established pattern beyond shootings: a man in Southern California died last summer after being struck by an SUV while fleeing agents near a Home Depot; a Honduran gardener was killed by a pickup truck in Virginia in October during a similar foot-flight scenario.
Mexico’s government said Tuesday it has asked US state attorneys general to review migrant deaths in ICE custody or during raids for possible criminal prosecution — an unusual diplomatic escalation from a foreign government into domestic law enforcement conduct.
Furious Trump overturns suspension of ICE traffic stops amid MAGA criticism (CNN)
Trump was reportedly furious that Homeland Security paused most ICE traffic stops without telling him first — Mullin and Homan made the call unilaterally after the Houston and Maine shootings, and Trump only learned of it by watching news coverage framing it as him “weakening” enforcement.
MAGA-aligned figures drove the reversal: Steve Bannon ally Mike Davis said on air, “You work for President Trump, you don’t work for Senate Democrats, you don’t work for Susan Collins... he needs to stop being a wimp” — directly targeting Mullin.
The original pause specifically applied to ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations agents, barring them from initiating vehicle stops unless working with partner agencies to execute a criminal warrant on someone already in a vehicle — a real operational constraint that’s now been lifted.
Crucially, CNN confirms neither Salgado Araujo nor Durán Guerrero — the men killed in Houston and Maine — was actually the target of the operations that killed them, undercutting the argument that traffic stops are simply targeting known criminals.
DHS separately pledged to “rapidly” deploy body cameras nationwide in response to the shootings — a promise that has already been made and broken once before, after the Minneapolis killings in January.
Venezuelan man becomes 22nd person to die in ICE custody this year (Guardian)
Jesús Manuel Arenas-Silva, 45, died Monday while being transferred between Georgia ICE detention facilities — found “unresponsive” on a transport bus, with suspected cardiac arrest. He’s the 22nd person to die in ICE custody this year.
His sister and advocacy groups say he went without necessary medication for an unnamed condition throughout his detention, despite family requests he be allowed to bring it — he reportedly called his sister from custody saying officials weren’t giving him what he needed. DHS disputes this, pointing to a line in its press release stating he “received medical care and was seen by medical professionals.”
He was held at Irwin County Detention Center — a privately run facility with a documented history of abuse allegations, including a 2021 whistleblower complaint that led the Biden administration to terminate its ICE contract, and a 2022 Senate subcommittee finding that female detainees there were subjected to “excessive, invasive, and often unnecessary gynecological procedures.” The facility resumed ICE detentions last year.
ICE reported 33 deaths in custody in 2025 — the highest total in over two decades — and deaths have continued climbing in 2026, prompting the UN human rights commissioner to call for “prompt, independent, impartial and effective investigations.”
Off-duty employee at Colorado ICE facility arrested for shooting protester (Guardian)
An off-duty GEO Group employee, Brandon Booth, 42, shot and injured a woman Thursday outside the Aurora, Colorado ICE facility after protesters blocked employees’ vehicle entry — police say the woman and a friend had a verbal confrontation and photographed employee vehicles before Booth got out and fired a single shot as they walked away.
Booth was arrested on probable cause of attempted second-degree murder, first-degree assault, felony menacing, and unlawful carrying of a concealed weapon; GEO Group placed him on unpaid administrative leave. The victim’s injuries are non-life-threatening.
GEO Group is a $4 billion private prison company with deep DHS ties — former GEO executive David Venturella was named acting ICE director in June, the same detention conglomerate whose Aurora facility is currently dealing with a tuberculosis outbreak that has sickened at least 12 detainees, which we covered earlier this week.
Aurora Police Chief Todd Chamberlain called it “a tragedy on all fronts,” pledging “an ethical, thorough, objective, and comprehensive review” while emphasizing “constitutional rights are a pivotal part of a just society – violence is not.”
Indiana Angle: Merrillville Council not ready to walk back opposition to potential ICE facility (IPM)
Merrillville’s town council tabled — rather than granted or denied — Rokita’s demand to rescind their resolution opposing an ICE detention facility, voting to wait for his response to their explanation rather than immediately capitulating.
Council member Shawn Pettit had moved to deny Rokita’s request outright, arguing “we don’t need somebody coming into town and telling us how to do economic development”; the tabling vote was a middle path proposed instead.
Council member Keesha Hardaway pushed back hardest on Rokita directly: “This violates our First Amendment right on freedom of speech... he is trying to squelch the voices of the town of Merrillville, and I will not tolerate that.”
The dispute may be moot regardless: Pettit noted the warehouse reportedly under consideration for the ICE facility has since been leased by private businesses, meaning federal officials may no longer be interested in the site at all.
Middle East
Hegseth Wants to Test Troops’ Testosterone Levels. It’s Absurd—and Dangerous. (Slate)
Defense Secretary Hegseth announced service members over 30 will be tested annually for testosterone deficiency, with treatment (testosterone shots) offered to those who score low — part of what he’s branding “The High-T Department of War,” framed around “restoring and optimizing your natural capabilities” and keeping the military’s “leading edge of lethality.”
Slate’s Fred Kaplan calls the policy “ill-informed on every level” scientifically: testosterone levels fluctuate throughout the day, and Harvard Medical School research says a single test showing abnormal levels “may actually be unrelated to this hormone” — there’s no clear consensus on what counts as “normal” in the first place.
A major NIH study found testosterone correlates with muscle mass but not muscle strength — undermining Hegseth’s stated “lethality” rationale even on its own terms, since bigger muscles aren’t necessarily stronger ones.
Real medical risk: the FDA added warnings last year that testosterone-boosting drugs increase risk of high blood pressure and blood clots, and an endocrinologist told Kaplan the injections can cause “aggressive behavior and mood swings” — a notable irony for a policy pitched around discipline and readiness.
Kaplan’s sharpest point: testosterone has little bearing on how modern warfare actually functions — drone operators, AI programmers, and intelligence coordinators need “a knowledge of strategy and science,” which Kaplan notes Hegseth has “discouraged, even barred, U.S. officers from pursuing.”
US attacks Iran as Tehran retaliates against UAE tankers in Strait of Hormuz and Bahrain (AP)
The US struck Iranian coastal and military sites early Tuesday, hours after Trump announced the US is “reinstating” a naval blockade on Iran — reversing the blockade lift that had been part of the interim deal.
Iran retaliated by striking two UAE-linked tankers with cruise missiles, killing one mariner and wounding eight others, while also attacking Bahrain — home to the US Navy’s 5th Fleet — which sounded missile alert sirens twice. The UAE has threatened to retaliate directly against Iran, raising the risk that it gets pulled into direct fighting.
In a major reversal of longstanding US policy, Trump announced the US will now charge ships a toll — 20% of cargo value — for safe passage through the strait, calling it reimbursement for “protection.” This abandons the freedom-of-navigation principle the US Navy has defended since the Barbary Wars.
Trump told a conservative radio host the interim deal “was built to test” Iran and that Iran “didn’t honor the test” — framing the collapse as anticipated rather than a diplomatic failure.
Oil prices jumped to a one-month high above $84/barrel — still below the war’s $120 peak, but the reversal in US policy plus the tanker attack threatens further disruption. The blockade resumes at midnight Wednesday Dubai time.
Yemen’s Houthis strike Saudi Arabia’s Abha airport with missiles and drones in a sharp escalation (AP)
The Iran-backed Houthis struck Saudi Arabia’s Abha International Airport with missiles and drones, retaliating for Saudi airstrikes that hit Sanaa’s airport earlier the same day. No casualties reported on either side, but it’s the sharpest escalation between the two since a Saudi-led coalition last targeted Houthi areas years ago.
The trigger: Saudi/coalition forces struck Sanaa airport’s runway specifically to prevent an Iranian plane from landing — Yemen’s ruling council said it had denied Iran’s request to fly a Houthi delegation home from Khamenei’s funeral because Iran wanted to bypass normal civil aviation protocols. The Houthis said the plane was diverted and landed elsewhere instead.
A Houthi military spokesman warned airlines to avoid Saudi airspace entirely “until the blockade on Sanaa International Airport is lifted,” while Yemen’s government closed all the country’s airports “until further notice.”
The UN Security Council held an emergency meeting, with officials warning “Yemen and the wider region cannot afford another cycle of escalation” and urging all sides back to UN-mediated talks — this breaks a relative calm that’s held since a 2022 UN-brokered truce.
Wednesday Latest: U.S. disables ship that allegedly tried to sail to Kharg Island as feud over Strait of Hormuz escalates (CBS)
The interim ceasefire has fully collapsed: the US launched its fourth and fifth consecutive nights of strikes, reimposed the naval blockade on Iranian ports, and disabled a tanker that tried to reach Kharg Island — the first such action since the blockade resumed Tuesday.
Trump escalated his rhetoric significantly, telling Fox News that next week “gets really bad” for Iran with plans to hit power plants and bridges “unless they get to the table and negotiate” — a threat experts say could constitute a war crime if it targets civilian infrastructure rather than military use.
Casualties are mounting on the Iranian side: the death toll has reportedly grown to 35, with over 300 wounded and 72 hospitalized, following strikes on coastal cities and a military barracks. Iran continues retaliating against US allies — Jordan, Bahrain, and Kuwait all reported intercepting Iranian missiles and drones.
Vance offered a notably candid defense of the administration’s diplomacy on Joe Rogan’s podcast, describing internal Iranian tension between “hardliners” and “pragmatists” and accusing well-funded critics of deliberately trying to “tank the negotiation” — a rare acknowledgment of friction both within Iran’s government and among US critics of the deal.
Amid the chaos, a rare piece of good news: a US-Iran dual citizen, Dena Karari, was released after being barred from leaving Iran for over a year on unproven espionage allegations — she’d suffered a heart attack on July 8 while still trapped there.
US hits more bridges in Iran in an expansion of its airstrike campaign (AP)
The US struck bridges in Iran’s Hormozgan province overnight, killing at least seven — part of Trump’s expanded campaign now explicitly targeting infrastructure like bridges and power stations to pressure Iran on the Strait of Hormuz. This is the sixth consecutive night of US strikes.
Iran retaliated by firing missiles at Qatar — a key mediator trying to end the war — forcing the country to sound shelter warnings twice; falling debris wounded a child. Iran also struck Bahrain and Kuwait over the bridge strikes.
The toll is mounting: Iranian officials say US strikes have killed more than 35 people and wounded over 300, with new casualties from Friday’s attacks not yet tallied.
Trump’s primetime claim that “we are likewise winning big in Iran” sits awkwardly against Lloyd’s List data showing weekly cargo shipments through the strait dropped almost a quarter at the start of the month — before this latest surge in attacks — with some shippers now transiting with location devices off or simply refusing to move at all.
US forces have redirected three vessels attempting to run the blockade, disabled one that didn’t comply, and boarded another to “ensure full compliance” — concrete evidence the blockade is being actively enforced, not just threatened.
Friday: US and Iran escalate strikes across Mideast; bridges and a water plant hit (AP)
The US struck bridges, energy sites, and collapsed a surveillance tower at Iran’s Chabahar port Friday — the seventh consecutive night of strikes — while Iran retaliated against Qatar, Bahrain, and Kuwait, where a power and water desalination plant was damaged. About 90% of Kuwait’s drinking water comes from desalination.
Casualties are climbing on both sides: Iranian officials say at least 46 people have been killed and over 400 wounded in recent strikes; the US acknowledged 13 additional service members injured since Monday, bringing the war total to 14 US troops killed and 427 wounded since it began in February.
Iran acknowledged for the first time that US strikes have hit its power infrastructure, with the Energy Ministry asking southern provinces to conserve electricity amid extreme heat — though it didn’t specify what was struck.
A separate strike in northern Iraq’s Kurdish region killed at least nine people, apparently targeting Iranian Kurdish dissident group Komala — Iran hasn’t claimed it but has targeted the group before.
The strait remains the core of the conflict: crossings fell to a three-week low of just eight vessels Thursday, oil climbed above $86/barrel, and Iran continues insisting on exclusive control and fee-charging rights over what the world has long treated as an international waterway.
Senate Dems block defense bill in protest of Iran war (Politico)
Senate Democrats blocked the $1.15 trillion NDAA defense policy bill Tuesday, with every Democrat present voting no in a 50-46 procedural vote that fell short of the 60 needed to advance — an unusually rare move that hasn’t happened since Republicans blocked defense legislation over “don’t ask, don’t tell” in 2010.
Schumer tied the blockade directly to Iran: “The NDAA cannot become a permission slip for that recklessness... Trump does not get to drag the American people deeper into a war he cannot explain and does not know how to end, and then demand Congress look the other way.”
The bill’s fate was foreshadowed weeks earlier — only 4 of 13 Democrats on the Armed Services Committee supported it in committee markup, and all four (including ranking member Jack Reed) flipped to “no” on the floor, giving Democrats unanimous opposition.
Republicans call it playing politics with national security, touting a 3.6% troop pay raise, drone technology investment, and shipbuilding funds — but they’re privately pessimistic about the path forward, with Sen. Rounds saying Democrats need to make “a reasonable offer” to break the logjam, though “we haven’t heard what they want.”
This adds to broader dysfunction heading into an October government funding deadline — separately, House GOP hard-liners already tanked their own competing NDAA version two weeks ago, though party leaders may have a deal to revive it.
Senate Stalls NDAA With Major Israel Plan Critics Call ‘Treason’ (Military.com)
Buried inside the NDAA that Senate Democrats blocked over Iran war concerns is Section 1217, the “Israel FUTURES Act” — a provision requiring the Pentagon to establish permanent joint US-Israel defense research and technology integration, including AI, quantum computing, directed-energy weapons, and the “Golden Dome” missile defense system.
Critics — spanning an unusual coalition from former NCTC director Joe Kent to online commenters using words like “treason” — argue the provision would embed Israeli companies and personnel inside sensitive Pentagon programs, citing the 2020 Iron Dome dispute (Israel refused to share source code needed for full US integration) and the Jonathan Pollard espionage case as cautionary precedent.
A striking detail: the Defense Intelligence Agency reportedly raised Israel’s counterintelligence threat rating to “critical” — its highest level — with a senior US official describing Israeli intelligence collection against top American officials as “unhinged.”
The vote itself doesn’t tell you who supports Section 1217 specifically — Sen. Gillibrand co-sponsored the underlying Israel FUTURES legislation but still voted against advancing the NDAA, meaning the 50-46 procedural vote reflects Iran war objections broadly, not a referendum on the Israel provision.
The House hasn’t passed its version either — a procedural rule failed 198-224 on June 30 — and if both chambers eventually pass competing bills, negotiators would have to reconcile the House’s Section 219 with the Senate’s Section 1217, meaning the provision could still be stripped, altered, or preserved before any final NDAA.
In seismic shift, more than 100 House Democrats vote to end Israel aid (Politico)
Wednesday’s House vote saw 103 of 211 voting Democrats (plus 10 “present” votes) back an amendment to cut $3.3 billion in Israel aid — a dramatic jump from just 37 Democrats who supported a similar effort two years ago. It still failed 314-104 due to near-unanimous Republican opposition.
The vote split Democratic leadership publicly: Whip Katherine Clark and even Nancy Pelosi backed the amendment, while Minority Leader Jeffries opposed it, calling it poorly constructed and potentially harmful to Gaza humanitarian aid — though Jeffries also acknowledged “a meaningful change in direction is needed” in US-Israel policy.
Support came from a genuinely broad ideological range — not just progressives like Rep. Casar, but also hawkish Rep. Seth Moulton (challenging a progressive senator from the right), campaign-arm leader Rep. Underwood, and leadership member Rep. Neguse — suggesting this isn’t purely a left-flank phenomenon.
Jeffries managed the internal party rift by holding two private caucus meetings and ultimately telling members to “vote their conscience,” a notable departure from typical leadership whipping on Israel-related votes.
Rep. Gottheimer, a pro-Israel Democrat, called the vote count “a seismic shift” and “devastating,” while Casar framed it as ending “an unaccountable blank check” for Netanyahu — both sides agreeing on the vote’s historic significance even as they disagree on what it means.
Israeli ministers announce plans for new illegal settlements in Gaza and West Bank (Guardian)
Israel’s defense and finance ministers announced plans for three military “Nahal” outposts in northern Gaza and $318 million in new West Bank settlement funding — a pattern advocacy groups say is a “reckless pre-election sprint” ahead of October 27 elections, with bulldozers already working on at least seven settlements meant to be populated before polling day.
Israel’s deputy chief of staff confirmed the military now controls 65% of Gaza — far beyond the 53% agreed under Trump’s ceasefire — and called it “victory,” citing over 70,000 Palestinians killed. That figure includes more than 21,000 children (over 1,000 under age one), 10,000+ women under 60, and 5,000+ elderly — all implicitly labeled “terrorists” in the general’s framing, which the IDF declined to directly address when asked.
The West Bank commander, Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth, publicly praised violent settler outposts — illegal even under Israeli law — as security “partners,” a stance that has prompted dozens of former Israeli political and military leaders, including two former prime ministers, to threaten legal action against their own government.
The UN human rights office for Palestine released a report this week stating flatly: “Settler violence is state violence,” describing how Israel uses settlers to advance annexation while ensuring systematic impunity for violence.
International Relations
Rubio vows to ‘dismantle’ International Criminal Court (CNN)
Rubio announced a “whole-of-government campaign” to “dismantle” the International Criminal Court, urging allied nations to withdraw from it and cut financial support — with State Department officials threatening travel bans, visa revocations, and sanctions against countries that don’t comply.
The pressure specifically targets countries that “partner with US law enforcement, host a US military presence, or benefit from the broader US security umbrella,” with officials warning those relying on US assistance while remaining ICC members “are likely to come under increased scrutiny.”
Rubio’s WSJ op-ed characterized the ICC as run by “a powerful network of leftist nongovernment organizations, smug globalists, and hostile Third World governments” — rhetoric accompanying his rejection of calls to investigate alleged US war crimes tied to El Salvador deportations, deadly boat strikes on alleged narco-traffickers, and the Iran war.
DAWN’s executive director pushed back on Rubio’s framing of their investigation request, telling CNN: “It is not the ICC that Rubio is dismantling brick by brick — but the rules-based international order that grew out of the ashes of World War II.”
This escalates a campaign that began during Trump’s first term over Afghanistan war crimes investigations — the current administration has already imposed sanctions on ICC officials investigating both the US and Israel.
Human rights groups sue over Trump administration’s sanctions on ICC for investigations into Israel (AP)
Human rights groups DAWN and Taxpayer Alliance Against Genocide sued the Trump administration Wednesday, arguing sanctions imposed on the ICC over its Israel investigations have illegally forced them to self-censor their own advocacy work.
The sanctions stem from a 2024 ICC arrest warrant for Netanyahu and his former defense minister over alleged Gaza war crimes — Trump’s executive order responded by threatening “tangible and significant consequences” for anyone connected to the court’s “transgressions,” and the US has since sanctioned Palestinian rights groups, ICC judges and staff, and UN special rapporteur Francesca Albanese.
DAWN’s director Omar Shakir put it bluntly: “The government is violating the constitutional rights of American citizens in order to shield officials of a foreign government who have committed a genocide.” The lawsuit says DAWN has halted ICC submissions, stopped sharing evidence with sanctioned NGOs, and cut off engagement with Albanese entirely to avoid prosecution risk.
The stakes described in the lawsuit are severe: violating the sanctions could mean prison time and major fines for anything characterized as providing a “service” to a sanctioned party — a term the plaintiffs call “extraordinarily capacious,” reaching almost any act that “confers a benefit.”
This directly ties to Rubio’s WSJ op-ed pledging to “dismantle the ICC — brick by brick” — Rubio argues the court’s “overreach” could subject Border Patrol agents, prosecutors, and Marines to prosecution, framing ICC jurisdiction as an existential threat to US sovereignty.
Historical Context: How the John Birch Society radicalized the American Right (Niskanan)
The Birch Society’s “Get US Out of the UN” campaign was rooted in the belief that international bodies exist to subordinate American sovereignty to a hostile global conspiracy — Dallek notes Birchers “rejected the United Nations, NATO, all international institutions, engagement” and saw US allies as “overrun with communists.” That’s structurally identical to Rubio’s argument this week that ICC jurisdiction “would mean the death of the U.S. as a sovereign and independent nation” and that accepting it means surrendering “control of our national destiny.”
The specific mechanism differs — Birchers organized grassroots letter-writing and local chapters to pressure politicians; the current administration is using state power directly, sanctioning ICC judges, prosecutors, and even US advocacy groups like DAWN under threat of prison time. But the underlying claim is the same lineage: that international law and institutions are illegitimate impositions on American sovereignty rather than agreements the US voluntarily joined or a body it has interacted with since Nuremberg.
Worth noting the throughline Dallek draws in the interview: mainstream conservatives of the Buckley/Reagan era were “interventionist,” not isolationist — they wanted the US engaged in shaping global institutions, not withdrawing from them. Today’s version scrambles that old alignment: the administration is simultaneously hyper-interventionist militarily (Iran) while treating international legal accountability as an existential threat — a fusion Birchers themselves never quite achieved, since their isolationism cut against military intervention too.
Rubio convenes countries on left-wing political violence (NPR)
Rubio convened officials from over 60 countries — mostly European and Latin American — to address what he calls a rising threat of “left-wing” political terrorism, a talking point Republicans are prioritizing ahead of the midterms.
The data doesn’t support the framing: a CSIS report found left-wing terrorism incidents technically surpassed right-wing incidents as of July 2025 for the first time in 30 years — but only because right-wing incidents dropped dramatically (from an average of 22.7/year 2016-2024 down to just 1 by mid-2025), while left-wing incidents rose modestly (to 5). The report’s own authors warn right-wing violence could easily return to elevated levels and that both should be taken seriously.
Stephen Miller escalated the rhetoric sharply, framing the perceived threat in war-footing terms: “If your civilization is your home, you must defend it with the same passion and force as if an enemy intruder is inside your own house.”
The administration is already acting on this framework: it designated four European antifa groups as foreign terrorist organizations in November, and Rubio announced Thursday a new policy giving the State Department broad authority to deny visas to anyone deemed to have supported, funded, recruited for, or logistically aided such groups.
Republicans have repeatedly “conflated democratic socialism — which often centers on universal healthcare, higher taxes on the wealthy and stricter corporate regulation — with communism,” intensifying since Mamdani’s mayoral win and his allies’ primary victories in New York last month.
Wildfires
More Canadian wildfire smoke shrouds US midwest, mid-Atlantic and north-east (Guardian)
Canadian wildfire smoke is affecting about 109 million Americans across the Midwest, mid-Atlantic, and Northeast — Chicago hit a “hazardous” air quality index of 361, with Baltimore, DC, Philadelphia, and Cleveland all in “very unhealthy” or worse territory.
The smoke originates largely from roughly 194 out-of-control fires in Canada, including one 787,802-acre blaze near Ontario’s Wabakimi park — smoke plumes are expected to keep drifting east, potentially reaching Europe.
The World Cup final in East Rutherford, NJ on Sunday is being watched closely: an incoming storm system could either clear the air or drag more smoke down to ground level depending on timing, with organizers “monitoring” conditions ahead of the 3pm kickoff.
A 2025 Carnegie Mellon study estimated wildfire smoke caused $200 billion in health damages and 20,000 premature deaths in 2017 alone — useful context for the scale of harm beyond the visible haze.
Canada wildfire smoke leads to air quality alerts for Sunday, Monday (IndyStar)
Indianapolis issued Knozone Action Days for Sunday and Monday due to Canadian wildfire smoke, while IDEM issued Air Quality Action Days for Saturday through Monday across northern and central Indiana — with heavy smoke lingering longest in the north due to a stationary weather front.
The Canadian Climate Institute ties the severity directly to climate change: Canada is warming twice as fast as the global average, extending fire seasons and intensifying blazes in its boreal forests — while NASA separately confirms human-caused climate change has increased fire weather risk in the western US as well.
Indiana Sen. Jim Banks says U.S. should sanction Canada over wildfire smoke (WNDU)
Sen. Jim Banks is calling for sanctions against Canada over recurring wildfire smoke, telling reporters “it’s time to sanction Canada, hold them accountable” and demanding Canada pay Americans’ healthcare costs tied to the smoke.
Trump echoed the sentiment on Truth Social, accusing Canada of “willful negligence” in forest management — a claim that sidesteps climate science.
Moreno to Introduce Bill to Hold Canada Responsible for Wildfire Smoke (Firehouse)
Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH) will introduce the “CANADA FIRE Act” July 20, which would sanction Canadian officials, freeze their assets, revoke visas, and impose tariffs over wildfire smoke — the bill even directs the president to determine within 30 days whether Canada is at fault, triggering mandatory sanctions if so.
Scientists directly contradict the bill’s premise: University of Waterloo’s Rebecca Saari says “climate change has increased wildfire activity in the U.S. and Canada,” and University of Alberta fire researcher Jen Beverly told the BBC that Canada’s boreal forests inherently produce hard-to-control fires that climate change is making more frequent — not something better government management could have prevented.
Fire scientist Mike Flannigan put it bluntly: until governments address climate change itself, the smoke will keep coming — a direct rebuttal to the bill’s premise that this is a matter of Canadian “failed leadership” or “incompetence,” as Moreno’s statement claims.
Canadian PM Mark Carney turned the criticism back on the US, noting Canada is investing in clean energy while the US has “obstructed” it, particularly wind power: “Climate change is the responsibility of everyone, truly everyone, including the United States.”
Election Security
Trump Makes Outlandish Claims About Election Results in Address (NYT)
Trump’s prime-time address made sweeping, unsubstantiated claims that US elections have been “rigged and stolen,” citing newly declassified documents — but the actual documents released by the White House, per the Times’s live fact-checking, don’t support his claims and in several cases directly undercut them.
On Venezuela: Trump claimed the documents show a “specific plot” to “digitally rig” elections with methods “that could not be detected.” The actual CIA analysis says Venezuela had “some capability” to manipulate its own elections but explicitly found it had no ability to affect elections outside Venezuela — the opposite of what Trump claimed.
On Michigan: Trump touted a Muskegon voter registration investigation as new evidence of fraud — but it’s been public since 2020, no fraudulent registrations ever resulted in an actual ballot being cast, and the FBI closed the investigation in September 2025, finding no criminal violation or national security threat.
The speech doubled as a pressure campaign for the SAVE America Act — Trump wants Congress to pass his voter ID/citizenship verification bill, which remains stalled in the Senate because Thune says the votes simply aren’t there to break a filibuster.
Georgia’s senators pre-butted the speech aggressively: Ossoff called Trump “the world’s most famous sore loser” and warned that delegitimizing Georgia’s 2020 results would be “declaring Georgia voters illegitimate”; Warnock called him “a liar, a cheater and a fraud.” Notably, Senate Majority Leader Thune also distanced himself, calling 2020 “a closed issue” and saying Republicans are focused on 2026, not relitigating Trump’s grievance.
TV coverage split sharply along ideological lines: Fox and Newsmax aired the speech live unedited, but even Fox notably hedged afterward — Sean Hannity called Trump’s claims “pretty remarkable” without endorsing them, and correspondent Aishah Hasnie said on-air the network “is not in a position to evaluate the accuracy of the president’s statements and claims at this time,” a notable distancing from a network that paid $787 million to settle a defamation suit over its 2020 election coverage. ABC, CNN, and NBC declined to carry the speech live at all, opting instead for post-speech fact-checking segments.
Mullin pushes states to comply with election demands, echoing Trump’s claims about midterm risks (AP)
DHS Secretary Mullin threatened states with lost funding, investigations, fines, or prison time if they don’t comply with Trump’s election demands — but experts say the threats are likely hollow, since courts have repeatedly ruled the federal government can’t legally compel states to hand over voter data.
Mullin repeated Trump’s unsubstantiated claim of 250,000 noncitizen voters found across California, Nevada, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania — based on DHS’s use of public data that election experts say is too incomplete and outdated to reliably determine citizenship status. Election officials in the named states said they’ll review the findings but noted noncitizen voting is exceedingly rare, backed by research.
Newsom’s response was blunt: “California has free, fair, and secure elections and we will fight for them. Try us.” Nevada’s Secretary of State Aguilar said his office has already done “significant work” to keep voter rolls clean independent of federal involvement.
The legal record is stark: David Becker of the Center for Election Innovation and Research says 15 courts — including six Trump-appointed judges — have already confirmed the federal government cannot legally demand states’ sensitive voter data, calling Mullin’s threats “illegal.”
The irony under the surface: Mullin pledged updated cybersecurity resources for election officials within 30 days, but Trump’s administration has already gutted CISA’s election security operation — placing over a dozen election-focused staffers on leave, cutting $10 million from related cybersecurity initiatives, and leaving the agency without a Senate-confirmed director. Aguilar’s reaction: “Actions speak louder than words, and in their case, it’s all been talk.”
Now We Know the Road to Emergency Rule (Hartmann Report)
Hartmann’s central prediction: if Democrats appear to be winning in November, Trump will invoke Thursday’s election-fraud speech as pretext, declare a state of emergency, deploy ICE and a National Guard “Rapid Reaction Force,” and frame resulting protests as attacks by “left-wing communist radical domestic terrorists” — a scenario explicitly speculative, not reported fact.
His argument for why this time differs from January 6: in 2020, Trump’s own Attorney General, FBI Director, DNI, Joint Chiefs Chairman, DHS Secretary, and National Guard chief would have refused an illegal order — this time, Hartmann argues, those positions are filled with loyalists like Blanche, Miller, and Homan who wouldn’t refuse.
Hartmann draws directly on this week’s Rubio-Mullin coverage as supporting evidence — the designation of leftist groups as terrorist organizations, the SAVE program pressure campaign, and Thursday’s speech all fit his framework of pretext-building.
His practical argument isn’t really about Trump — it’s about ordinary people in unremarkable positions (National Guard officers, county clerks, poll workers) who comply with unlawful orders under pressure. He draws the comparison to Nazi Germany, arguing the country “didn’t fall to a majority” but to widespread small compliances.
His concrete recommendations for listeners: meet local election officials now, ask sheriffs on the record whether they answer to the county or to Washington, identify local election lawyers, and build relationships before a crisis — arguing that people who’ve already decided what they’ll do behave differently than those improvising under pressure.
Confirmation Hearings
Trump’s intelligence nominee Jay Clayton clashes with Democrats over 2020 election (AP)
Jay Clayton, Trump’s nominee to lead national intelligence, repeatedly declined during his confirmation hearing to directly say Biden won the 2020 election, instead saying only that the results were “certified” — frustrating Democrats including Sen. Ossoff, who asked the question multiple times before Clayton said “I’m not going to get into this with you.”
Sen. Mark Warner, the intelligence committee’s top Democrat who had previously praised Clayton’s nomination, called himself “bitterly disappointed” after the hearing; Schumer called Clayton’s performance “abysmal” and said it makes Democratic votes less likely.
Clayton also declined to say whether former intelligence director Tulsi Gabbard’s visit to a Georgia election office during an FBI search was appropriate, initially claiming he wasn’t aware of it, then appearing to backtrack — Warner said it “strains credibility” that he hadn’t known.
Clayton, currently the Manhattan US Attorney, faced questions about his office’s subpoenas of four NYT journalists over Air Force One security reporting — he wouldn’t discuss details or confirm White House involvement, saying only he’s “confident in procedures we have in place to protect freedom of press.”
The confirmation has real legislative stakes: it could unlock a stalled bipartisan renewal of FISA Section 702 surveillance authority, which expired in June — though Trump has said he won’t sign any FISA renewal unless Congress also passes his voter citizenship verification bill, which lacks the votes to pass the Senate.
Takeaways from Todd Blanche’s confirmation hearing for attorney general (NPR)
Blanche, currently acting AG, faced skepticism from both parties over the “anti-weaponization fund” — a $1.776 billion fund tied to settling Trump’s IRS lawsuit. He’s declared it dead, but a federal judge blasted the underlying settlement Monday, and Sen. Cornyn established that Trump technically hasn’t agreed in writing to kill it, meaning it remains an enforceable contract Trump’s lawyers could try to invoke later.
Blanche’s own words underscored Democratic concerns about his independence — when asked if he and Trump are friends, he said “I’m his lawyer — was his lawyer. And now I’m the deputy attorney general,” referencing his prior role as Trump’s personal defense attorney in criminal cases. Sen. Booker said this “casts a shadow over any ideas of independence.”
The Epstein files remain a bipartisan sore spot: Blanche claimed the administration has been “extraordinarily transparent,” but Sen. Durbin countered that it took an act of Congress to force disclosure at all, and Blanche took responsibility for repeated redaction failures that exposed victims’ identities.
Durbin pushed Blanche to personally meet with 10 Epstein victims within 30 days; Blanche wouldn’t commit, saying they could meet with a staffer instead — a claim Booker called “utter nonsense.”
Republican support isn’t guaranteed either — Sen. Tillis had been hesitant beforehand but ended his questioning telling Blanche “you’ve done a great job today” after Blanche agreed the anti-weaponization fund should be codified out of existence by Congress.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche Commits To Ending Abortion Pills By Mail (HuffPost)
Blanche committed to Sen. Katie Britt that DOJ will “prioritize” restricting mail-order abortion pills, saying “I very much commit our resources to stopping this” — despite mifepristone’s two-decade record of FDA-approved safety.
ACLU’s Deirdre Schifeling said Blanche “demonstrated that if confirmed... he will be content to go along with anti-abortion extremists’ plan to restrict medication abortion nationwide,” noting he repeatedly entertained “dangerous misinformation” and “fringe legal theories” from senators without pushing back.
The DOJ’s ongoing lawsuit against the FDA seeking to block mifepristone by mail remains unresolved — when pressed on it, Blanche repeatedly deferred to the FDA’s separate safety review, avoiding a direct commitment on the litigation itself.
Epstein survivors urge Senate to reject Blanche as attorney general (The Hill)
Epstein survivors and advocacy group World Without Exploitation are publicly urging the Senate to reject Blanche’s confirmation, citing the DOJ’s release of files that exposed survivors’ names, phone numbers, and home addresses while many alleged abusers’ names remained redacted.
Virginia Giuffre’s brother and sister-in-law appeared in the group’s video campaign holding her photo, saying “our family’s safety was put at risk” by the DOJ’s handling of the disclosure — Giuffre died by suicide last year.
The group also alleges millions of Epstein-related DOJ files remain unreleased, and claims the government has failed to pursue individuals allegedly complicit in Epstein’s crimes, “shielding them from greater accountability.”
Blanche has tried to distance himself from the controversy, telling Fox News in April that the Epstein files “should not be a part of anything going forward” and framing the document release as a resolved chapter — a characterization directly at odds with the survivors’ ongoing public campaign against his confirmation.
Blanche meets Epstein survivors after Tillis demand (Reuters)
Blanche met with Epstein survivors Thursday only after Sen. Thom Tillis — one of two Republicans whose votes he can’t afford to lose on Judiciary — publicly conditioned his support on that meeting happening.
Survivor Dani Bensky, who’d testified before the committee that same day, called the meeting insufficient: “He danced around his wording, repeatedly interrupted us and could not commit to anything that would demonstrate good faith or begin to restore trust.” She said he offered no credible plan for accountability beyond Epstein and Maxwell themselves.
Survivors say they’d been requesting meetings with Blanche for months with no response — undercutting any framing of this as a proactive gesture rather than a vote-securing maneuver forced by Tillis’s ultimatum.
The anti-weaponization fund remains the other lingering problem: Sen. Cornyn told Reuters Wednesday he’s still undecided because it’s unclear the fund has actually been killed — Blanche has said it’s “dead” but continues declining to put that in writing, leaving the underlying contract enforceable.
Epstein
Former Obama counsel ‘not completely truthful’ in Epstein testimony, Democrats say (Guardian)
Democrats emerged from Kathryn Ruemmler’s closed-door testimony calling her account not credible — Rep. Robert Garcia, top Democrat on Oversight: “It is difficult to see how she’s being completely truthful in there.” He noted she wasn’t under oath, unlike her prior sworn testimony obligations.
Her own emails undercut her “casual acquaintance” framing: she called Epstein “Uncle Jeffrey” and “sweetie,” accepted luxury gifts, was listed as a backup executor of his will, and in 2015 wrote him that “getting you some peace with respect to all of this legal shit is important to me” — years after his 2008 conviction.
Comer’s sharpest criticism: her communications show her trying “to rehabilitate his image after he was convicted of solicitation of a minor,” not simply representing a shared client as she claims.
Despite announcing her Goldman Sachs resignation in February, reports emerged in June that CEO David Solomon asked her to stay on as an adviser — a decision Sen. Warren and Rep. Krishnamoorthi are now formally questioning, asking the bank what Ruemmler had disclosed about her relationship with Epstein before joining the bank.
Ruemmler’s own closing framing was notably self-exculpatory: she called Epstein “a masterful liar” who “used me... to legitimize his standing” — recasting herself as one of his victims of deception rather than a willing beneficiary of the relationship.
Epstein Associate Leon Black Agrees to Testify in Congressional Probe (NOTUS)
Leon Black deposition scheduled for Thursday this week has been moved to September 3. Last month, he showed up for a voluntary interview but refused to hand over nondisclosure agreements or answer key questions, prompting bipartisan frustration from the committee, which then subpoenaed the co-founder and former CEO of Apollo Global Management. He must also turn over the NDAs by the end of next week.
Comer’s central question remains unanswered: whether Epstein was directly involved in drafting or funding NDAs paid to women. Black has claimed no knowledge of Epstein’s crimes, only awareness of his 2008 conviction — a claim lawmakers clearly aren’t taking at face value given the subpoena.
Alan Dershowitz cancels on House Oversight ahead of planned Epstein interview (Politico)
Alan Dershowitz, who helped craft Epstein’s controversial 2008 plea deal, backed out of his scheduled Monday interview with House Oversight — his lawyers told the committee he wouldn’t appear, and the panel is now trying to reschedule.
Dershowitz’s role has long drawn scrutiny: critics say his work securing that lenient plea deal allowed Epstein to continue abusing victims for years before his 2019 arrest and death in custody.
This adds to a growing witness list: former JPMorgan/Barclays executive Jes Staley is set to testify July 23, and Leon Black — as we just covered — is now scheduled for a sworn deposition September 3.
AI-Data Centers
Anthropic has a counter to OpenAI’s ‘reverse federalism’ play (Politico)
Anthropic is pursuing what amounts to a regulatory arms race across states — rather than pushing the same AI safety bill everywhere like OpenAI, it’s endorsing progressively stronger laws in each new state (California, then New York, Illinois, now Massachusetts), each one exceeding the last.
The strategic split has a name: OpenAI’s lobbyist Chris Lehane calls his company’s approach “reverse federalism” — getting states to adopt similar rules to build a de facto national standard by consensus. Anthropic’s Cesar Fernandez explicitly rejects that framing, saying “we’re looking for legislation that meaningfully raises the bar on safety,” not uniformity.
Anthropic’s Massachusetts-backed proposal is notably aggressive: it would require leading AI companies to hire independent evaluators assessing catastrophic risks like bioweapon development assistance, with enforcement power given to the state attorney general — which Anthropic calls the strongest state AI safety proposal in the country.
The article ties this to Anthropic’s own Claude Mythos model, which the company found during testing could exploit security flaws in every major computer operating system — triggering the export controls covered in our product info that were later lifted.
Both companies are now spending heavily in state political campaigns through dueling super PACs, with Anthropic additionally cutting direct checks to California legislators aligned with its safety views — Fernandez says the company isn’t coordinating with employees who separately donate, but acknowledged those employees “work at Anthropic because they’re concerned about the future of AI.”
Councilors advance temporary data center moratorium that Hogsett backs (IndyStar)
The Indianapolis City-County Council’s Metropolitan and Economic Development Committee voted 10-3 to advance a moratorium on new data center approvals — all Democrats in favor, three Republicans opposed over the lack of a formal definition of “data center,” which Lewis says will be added before the full council vote August 10.
Mayor Hogsett publicly backed the pause Monday night, ending months of avoiding direct comment on the issue — his statement came minutes after a resident publicly challenged him to stop “hiding behind the veil” of calling it a land-use issue for others to decide.
DMD Director Megan Vukusich also endorsed the pause, saying her department has spent over a year trying to craft zoning rules and has been forced to evaluate data center proposals case-by-case in the absence of specific regulations — calling DMD “a target caught up in an issue discussed nationally, but with no decision-making power.”
The moratorium could run through December 31, 2027, giving the city time to study data center size limits, height, environmental impact, generator testing, and e-waste disposal — though Lewis said the actual pause could end up shorter.
If it passes, Marion County would join 19 other Indiana counties that have already paused or banned new data centers — over 30 residents rallied outside the meeting chanting “Pause today, protect tomorrow,” backed by the Citizens Action Coalition, which has sponsored billboards calling data centers the state’s “number one threat to utility affordability, reliability and environmental sustainability.”
‘You’re poisoning our community’: Irvington data center is approved (IndyStar)
The MDC approved the DC BLOX Irvington data center 6-1 despite months of organized opposition — the meeting erupted into chaos immediately after the vote, with residents shouting expletives and one yelling “You’re poisoning our community!”
The moratorium the council advanced earlier this week won’t apply retroactively — this project, along with the earlier-approved Martindale-Brightwood and Decatur Township centers, sails through untouched, while the city debates rules that arrive too late to matter here.
Local council members split along the district line running through the site: Democrat Andy Nielsen (Irvington) opposed it, citing a survey showing over 80% of his constituents against it; Republican Michael-Paul Hart supported it for the tax revenue — roughly $30 million over 10 years under abatement — despite being booed repeatedly during his remarks.
DC BLOX’s attorney touted closed-loop and waterless cooling systems, claiming the facility would use less water than a single restaurant — worth scrutinizing given what we learned from the Cheyenne story last week about what “closed-loop” actually means in practice and what maintenance discharges these systems can still generate.
A same-day complication elsewhere: DMD Director Megan Vukusich publicly opposed a separate $56 million tax incentive package for the Metrobloks data center, urging IEDC to withdraw it and cautioning against rushing decisions while the moratorium process is still underway — a notable inconsistency, since her own department’s land-use recommendation helped clear the way for DC BLOX just hours earlier.
State Contracts
Indiana commerce secretary to continue leading major electric contractor (ICC)
Newly installed Commerce Secretary Chuck Goodrich will keep his job as CEO of Gaylor Electric, one of the nation’s largest non-union electrical contractors, while simultaneously serving as commerce secretary — taking just a $1 state salary while working full time in both roles.
Goodrich said the firm may continue to compete for state economic development incentives even while he leads the state agency that administers them: “If Gaylor is developing jobs in high demand, they will submit just like everybody else.”
Gaylor already has active contracts with the state — signed in 2019 — promising millions in investment and over 100 jobs in exchange for tax credits, and the company specifically builds large-scale data centers, an industry facing growing local backlash across Indiana.
Goodrich donated $25,000 to Braun’s 2024 campaign; Braun praised his business background, saying he’s “signed the front side of a paycheck.” Goodrich previously chaired the non-union National Associated Builders and Contractors group that backed Indiana’s 2012 right-to-work law.
Who bankrolled Trump’s redistricting revenge effort? We now have a clue (IndyStar)
Gaylor Electric — CEO Chuck Goodrich’s company, now led by Indiana’s new commerce secretary — was the largest individual/business donor to the American Leadership PAC, giving $300,000 less than a month before May’s primary to help fund Trump’s redistricting retaliation campaign against Indiana Republicans who opposed mid-decade redistricting.
Braun’s own political group, Hoosiers for Opportunity, Prosperity and Enterprise, gave $750,000 — more than the $500,000 previously reported — while Reps. Houchin, Yakym, and Messmer each contributed $75,000 from campaign funds. The largest donor overall was Trump-aligned Securing American Greatness at $2.5 million.
The spending worked: five of seven Trump-targeted incumbent senators lost their primaries in May, plus an additional Trump-endorsed challenger won an open seat — a total of $13 million in ad spending statewide, per AdImpact.
The timeline is notable: Goodrich donated in May, then was appointed commerce secretary weeks later — a sequence worth noting given Goodrich’s $25,000 direct donation to Braun’s 2024 campaign and his continued role as Gaylor CEO while overseeing the very state economic development apparatus his company can now compete for incentives through.
Indiana to end race, gender preferences in state contracts (ICC)
Braun ended race- and sex-based contracting preferences in Indiana’s 40-year-old diversity business program, based on a Rokita legal opinion citing the 2023 Students for Fair Admissions Supreme Court ruling — but left veteran-owned business preferences intact.
Democrats call the move an executive overreach: Rep. DeLaney said “we now have an imperial governor,” and Rep. Gore argued “the Attorney General does not invalidate statutes. The Governor does not repeal laws” — since the underlying statute was never repealed by the legislature.
Sen. Yoder’s characterization of the new “merit-based” system as a “VIP entrance for the wealthy” is the through-line to the Goodrich story — the state is dismantling programs designed to offset historic exclusion from capital and professional networks while simultaneously installing a sitting corporate CEO to run economic development with minimal separation from his own business interests.
Rep. Harris, chair of the Black Legislative Caucus, noted the diversity program exists precisely because “race-neutral” policies failed for decades — a rebuttal that lands differently once you see how “merit” is actually being applied elsewhere in the administration.
State Funding Priorities
Indiana families dropped from SNAP as state and federal changes collide (WFYI)
Indiana SNAP enrollment dropped nearly 14% statewide from April 2025 to April 2026 -– driven by both federal cuts and new state restrictions taking effect simultaneously. Marion County saw an even steeper 17.5% decline.
Trump’s budget law cut federal SNAP funding by $186 billion, the largest cut in the program’s history, while Indiana’s own Senate Enrolled Act 1 narrowed eligibility further — ending expanded categorical eligibility (expected to remove about 3,112 households) and lowering the asset limit from $5,000 to $3,000 for households without an elderly or disabled member.
The new state law also requires applicants to report the citizenship status of every household member, even those not applying for benefits, with unverifiable statuses reported to federal immigration authorities — a policy likely to discourage mixed-status families from applying at all.
A local public health official’s blunt warning: “Neither local government nor charitable food assistance is going to be able to offset the reduction in benefits.” Congress also eliminated funding for SNAP-Ed, the nutrition education program that helped recipients stretch limited grocery budgets.
Cuts to SNAP, Medicaid could impact free school meals at high-poverty schools (ICC)
Falling SNAP and Medicaid enrollment threatens a domino effect on free school meals: schools qualify for the Community Eligibility Provision — automatic free breakfast/lunch for all students, no paperwork — when at least 25% of students are enrolled in SNAP or similar programs. As enrollment drops, schools risk losing that status.
The Center for American Progress identifies 643,773 Indiana students whose automatic free/reduced meal eligibility could be jeopardized, citing the same SNAP decline we covered in the previous article — a 15% drop from January 2025 to April 2026, or 92,000 fewer Hoosiers receiving benefits — plus 174,000 Hoosier children no longer covered by Medicaid in that same window.
The financial stakes if a school loses CEP status: families must individually apply and prove income under $42,900 (family of four) for free meals or $61,050 for reduced-price — those who don’t qualify pay full price, an estimated extra $1,080/year for a typical two-child Hoosier family.
Nearly 2,000 Indiana K-12 schools are eligible or near-eligible for CEP already, but only 400,000 of 1 million eligible Hoosier children currently get automatic free meals — some schools already opted out over concerns federal reimbursement doesn’t cover full meal costs, meaning the erosion described here compounds an existing gap.
Indiana not to participate in SUN Bucks in 2027 (FOX59)
Indiana will opt out of the federal SUN Bucks (Summer EBT) program for a third consecutive year in 2027 — the program provides $120 per student for summer groceries when kids lose access to free school meals, and it kept over 650,000 Indiana children fed when the state participated in 2024.
FSSA’s stated rationale shifted this year: last December, the agency cited cost — an estimated $5-7 million needed to administer the program — but this week’s statement instead says the program is “no longer necessary” because “our economy now stronger” and families have access to “well-established summer meal options.”
Advocates dispute that framing directly — Mark Lynch of Indy Hunger Network noted Indiana is one of very few states to opt out, and emphasized SUN Bucks lets parents choose their own family’s food rather than requiring them to physically transport kids to feeding sites.
Rep. André Carson introduced the Summer Meals for Kids Act last month, which would force state participation in SUN Bucks nationally — his framing: “We can find the money when we need the money. Our kids should not pay the price of adults fighting over politics.”
Indianapolis mother Dee Johnson, who received the benefit in 2024, described its value plainly: “It’s a small thing that they can do to help people. Why wouldn’t you want to help people?”
Indiana’s state budget reserves jump 60% in past year to $4B (ICC)
Indiana’s cash reserves jumped 60% to nearly $4 billion, driven by tax collections growing 6.8% when only 0.8% growth had been projected — Braun is framing this as fiscal strength giving the state “flexibility.”
Democrats want action now rather than waiting for January’s session — Rep. Porter argued the state shouldn’t sit on a growing surplus while asking “what about the students? What about those parents that need childcare vouchers to go to work?” — pointing to K-12 schools and childcare programs he says have been squeezed under the current budget.
The reserves are projected to hit $5.3 billion next year — about 23% of state spending, well above the 10-15% range Republicans have historically targeted, undercutting the argument that this level of reserve-hoarding is fiscally necessary rather than a political choice.
Even the Republican Senate Appropriations chair struck a cautious note, citing a $500+ million road funding shortfall, a Department of Child Services budget overrun, and unfunded teacher pension liabilities as reasons to hold back — worth noting since Braun’s gas tax holiday is a direct contributor to that road funding shortfall.
The surplus won’t trigger Indiana’s automatic taxpayer refund law, which only activates if reserves exceed 12.5% of spending in odd-numbered years — meaning ordinary Hoosiers won’t see a rebate check despite the state sitting on record reserves, even as Porter and other Democrats say basic services remain pinched.
Indiana purchases pricey hospitality suite for historic DC race (ICC)
The Indiana Economic Development Corp. is spending $200,000 (up to $250,000 with add-ons) on a hospitality suite for the Freedom 250 Grand Prix, an IndyCar street race circling the National Mall August 22-23 as part of the 250th anniversary celebrations.
The suite includes 30 tickets and all-inclusive food and beverage, with IEDC able to buy up to 10 more tickets at $5,000 each for a maximum of 40 attendees.
The state’s framing leans on Indiana’s genuine motorsports credentials: the industry generates $2.75 billion annually and supports over 11,000 jobs statewide, with most IndyCar teams headquartered in Indianapolis — giving Braun’s administration a plausible economic development rationale for the spend, distinct from pure political optics.
…and Finally This Week
House passes Trump-backed bill that would make daylight saving time permanent (NBC)
The House passed the Sunshine Protection Act 308-117 Tuesday, which would make daylight saving time permanent nationwide — locking clocks to the time currently observed March-November unless a state opts out before the law takes effect.
Trump has publicly pushed for passage, calling the biannual clock change “ridiculous” and framing it as a political win for Republicans, while sponsor Rep. Vern Buchanan carried the bill through the House.
The bill’s fate in the Senate looks shaky: Sen. Tom Cotton blocked a fast-track version last year over safety concerns — permanent DST means sunrise as late as 9am in parts of the country, creating dark morning commutes — and a Senate aide says Cotton will again ask Majority Leader Thune not to bring it to a vote. Thune himself was noncommittal, noting a prior permanent-time mandate “was tried once before and repealed.”
This mirrors a failed 1970s precedent: Nixon signed a similar permanent DST law during the oil crisis, but it was repealed within a year after public backlash over dark early mornings — a history several House members cited as reason for skepticism the Senate will act differently this time.
Rep. Rich McCormick, an ER doctor, offered a health rationale: “You get more depression, you get out of joint” from the twice-yearly time shifts — while 19 states have already passed contingent legislation ready to adopt permanent DST if Congress acts.
What permanent daylight saving time would look like in your state (The Hill)
If permanent daylight saving time passes, Indianapolis would see the latest sunrise of winter shift from 8:06am to 9:06am, while the earliest sunset would move from 5:20pm to 6:20pm — meaning darker mornings but lighter evenings.
That 9am winter sunrise puts Indianapolis among the more extreme cases nationally — comparable to Grand Rapids, Michigan, and worth flagging given the article’s core safety concern: permanent DST tried in the 1970s led to multiple children being struck by vehicles walking to school in pre-dawn darkness, including eight deaths in Florida, before the law was repealed within a year.
Indiana is notably absent from the 19 states that have already passed contingent legislation to adopt permanent DST if Congress acts (a list that includes several Midwest neighbors like Minnesota) — meaning Indiana would default to observing whatever Congress mandates unless the state legislature acts separately.
Bottom line for Hoosiers: nothing changes right away even if the Senate eventually passes it — but if it does take effect, Indianapolis parents would be sending kids to school before sunrise for a significant stretch of winter, the same safety dynamic that killed the original 1970s experiment.
