HoosLeft This Week May 17, 2026

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HoosLeft This Week May 17, 2026

Indianapolis attorney and community advocate Karla Lopez Owens joins the panel along with Gen-Z political activist Reece-Axel Adams. We look at the week's US, world, and Indiana news.

Scott Aaron Rogers

May 17, 2026

Thank you Claire Detels, Hoosier Lemon, Lori, and many others for tuning into our live video! Join us for our next live video in the app.

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SUMMARY:

On this week’s HoosLeft This Week, Scott is joined by Indianapolis attorney and community advocate Karla Lopez Owens and Reece Axel-Adams — who opens the show with a personal announcement about withdrawing from his Statehouse District 53 race to focus on his health — for a wide-ranging two hours that moves from Trump’s embarrassing performance in Beijing and the economic fallout of the ongoing Iran war, through a corruption double-header featuring the Trump IRS slush fund and Sean Duffy’s corporate-sponsored road trip, to the continuing demolition of federal public health infrastructure under RFK Jr. The second half turns squarely to Indiana: Karla breaks down the statewide ICE detention protests and the federal government’s failure to pay its tab at Miami Correctional Facility, before Scott and Reece work through the Indiana Supreme Court’s abortion ban ruling, the Braun administration’s Medicaid overhaul, the OPHS audit scandal in Indianapolis, Indiana’s stubborn holdout status on medical marijuana, the razor-thin Deery recount situation and Diego Morales’s conflict-of-interest problem, property tax cuts gutting school budgets and teacher pay, the new bell-to-bell cell phone ban, the Marion County youth curfew, and a pair of environmental stories — the Martindale-Brightwood and Madison County data center fights — capped off with the Mirror Indy headline of the year about Speedway’s water treatment problem.

In Depth

Trump in China: The Thucydides Trap & The Efficiency Moat

‘I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation,’ says Trump amid Iran talks (Guardian)
- Trump, asked if American financial pain is motivating Iran peace talks: “I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation. I don’t think about anybody.”
- US inflation hit 3.8% in April — fastest pace since 2023 — driven by energy costs since the US/Israel attack on Iran in late February
- Gas averaging $4.50/gallon (4-year high); food up ~4%; airline fares up 20%+
- His own officials can’t get their story straight on when relief comes — Wright, Hassett, and Rubio have all given contradictory timelines
- Rubio’s take: Americans should feel “very fortunate” because other countries have it worse
Billionaires, Wall Street CEOs join Trump China trip. What it signals. (Palm Beach Post)
- Trump arrived in Beijing Wednesday with a delegation of corporate elites — Elon Musk, Tim Cook, Jensen Huang, and CEOs from Goldman Sachs, Boeing, Cargill, and more — greeted by 300 schoolchildren waving flags, singing songs, and jumping up and down in excitement.
- Eric Trump also on the trip — the Trump Organization has a seat at the table
- Brennan Center (March 2026): Trump has pocketed an estimated $3B from business ventures since January 2025; much of it from foreign governments seeking favor
- Treasury’s Bessent, not Rubio, led summit planning — economics over diplomacy, by design
- What’s likely getting ignored: Taiwan, China’s nuclear buildup, AI security, North Korea, China backing Russia in Ukraine
Takeaways from Trump’s trip to China: Taiwan, a new framework for relationship and flattery for Xi (AP)
- Xi opened by warning that mishandling Taiwan could lead to open conflict; Trump said nothing publicly about Taiwan the entire trip — then on Air Force One home, suggested he might reconsider the approved $11B arms sale to Taipei after “hearing Xi out”
- Trump couldn’t recall Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te’s name; on military intervention if China attacks Taiwan: “The last thing we need right now is a war that’s 9,500 miles away”
- Trump left Beijing without a single concrete trade deal announced — possible Boeing order of 200 planes, possible soybean/beef purchases, possible “Board of Trade”
- China’s framing of the summit — “constructive, strategic, stable relationship” — went unchallenged by Trump and will now anchor Beijing’s messaging for the rest of his term
Trump Surrenders To China In The Most Embarrassing Diplomatic Display In US History. (Dean Blundell)
- Trump described the CEOs of Apple, Tesla, Nvidia, and Boeing as coming “to pay respects to you, China” — on the official broadcast, in the Great Hall of the People
- Xi: “Currently, a transformation not seen in a century is accelerating across the globe, and the international situation is fluid and turbulent. The world has come to a new crossroads.”
  - “Can China and the United States overcome the Thucydides Trap and create a new paradigm of major country relations?”
  - “Cooperation benefits both sides, while confrontation harms both.”
  - “We should be partners, not rivals, achieve success for one another, prosper together and forge a correct way for major countries of the new era to get along with each other.”
- Trump: ““It’s an honor to be with you. It’s an honor to be your friend.”
  - “You’re a great leader. Sometimes people don’t like me saying it, but I say it anyway, because it’s true.”
  - “The relationship between China and the USA is going to be better than ever before.”
  - “I was particularly impressed by those children. They were happy. They were beautiful. Those children were amazing.”
Trump blames Biden for US ‘declining’ after Xi comments on ‘Thucydides Trap’ (The Hill)
- Xi referenced the “Thucydides Trap” — the theory that a rising power displacing an established one leads to war — and Trump’s response was to post on Truth Social that Xi was talking about Biden, not him
- Trump: “When President Xi very elegantly referred to the United States as perhaps being a declining nation, he was referring to the tremendous damage we suffered during the four years of Sleepy Joe Biden”
The Efficiency Moat: Why China Is Beating the U.S. on AI… And Everything Else (BIG)
- China’s consumption rate is ~40% of GDP vs. 55-65% for most countries — the difference goes to state-directed investment in domestic industry, the equivalent of $7 trillion/year in manufacturing subsidies; no one can compete with that
- Result: China is monopolizing global industrial production across EVs, drones, batteries, solar, pharmaceuticals, machine tooling — and is now targeting AI
- The US compute advantage in AI is real (3 years ahead in chips) but increasingly irrelevant — Chinese labs are extracting 4-7x more intelligence per unit of compute, and their models run at a fraction of the cost (DeepSeek vs. Claude Opus: 11x cheaper on input, 28x cheaper on output)
- Why China is winning on AI efficiency: a thousand competing labs publishing open-source research vs. five closed US hyperscalers that profit from inefficiency — they sell tokens, not performance
- Why the US fell behind everywhere else: China is running the same competition and IP policies the US used from the 1930s through the 1970s; we abandoned them in the 1980s in favor of financialization and monopoly
- The CEOs on Trump’s plane have no incentive to fix this — Wall Street profits from Chinese manufacturing suppressing US labor costs while boosting stock valuations
- Stoller’s bottom line: the status quo works great for American oligarchs and Chinese leadership alike; it’s everyone else who’s getting wrecked

Live Updates (CBS)
- Help from China?
  - Trump says Xi told him China would not give Iran military equipment: “That’s a big statement”
    - ‘According to Mr. Trump, Xi told him that he’s “not going to give [Iran] military equipment. That’s a big statement. He said that today. That’s a big statement. He said that strongly.”’
  - Trump says he and China’s Xi “feel very similar on Iran”
    - ‘Mr. Trump noted that both countries want the Strait of Hormuz — a key chokepoint that 20% of the world’s oil usually travels through — to be reopened -- and both want to keep Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.’
- UAE Actively Involved
  - Araghchi accuses UAE of being “active partner” in US-Israeli war against Iran (MEMo)
    - Iranian FM Abbas Araghchi, speaking at the BRICS summit in India, accused the UAE of being an “active partner” in the US-Israeli war against Iran — may have “acted directly” against the country
    - Araghchi pointed to an alleged secret meeting between Netanyahu and UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed — which Abu Dhabi denied
    - Relations between Iran and the UAE have cratered since the war began February 28; ceasefire announced April 8 hasn’t stopped the accusations
  - The U.A.E. Has Been Secretly Carrying Out Attacks on Iran (WSJ)
    - WSJ confirmed the UAE has been secretly conducting military strikes on Iran — including an April hit on an oil refinery on Lavan Island that knocked it offline for months
    - Iran responded to that strike with over 2,800 missiles and drones targeting the UAE — more than any other country, including Israel
    - The UAE never wanted this war, but Iranian strikes on its airports, tourism, and property market forced a strategic shift — it now sees Iran as an existential threat to its economic model
    - The US quietly welcomed UAE participation; after US/Israel destroyed Iran’s air defenses, the risk of flying combat missions over Iran dropped sharply
    - Evidence of UAE involvement has been hiding in plain sight — open-source researchers spotted French Mirage fighters and Chinese Wing Loong drones (both UAE assets) photographed over Iran since mid-March
  - UAE tried to coordinate with Saudi Arabia, Qatar to strike Iran during recent war (Jerusalem Post)
    - UAE’s MBZ tried to convince Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and other Gulf states to coordinate military strikes against Iran — neighbors said it wasn’t their war, frustrating Abu Dhabi
    - Trump administration backed UAE’s push and tried to pressure Saudi Arabia and Qatar to join — they refused
    - Saudi Arabia then struck Iran on its own in March without coordinating with the UAE, then pivoted to helping Pakistan mediate
    - Qatar considered striking Iran after Iran hit Ras Laffan — the world’s largest LNG plant — but chose de-escalation instead
    - The snub helps explain UAE’s subsequent moves: withdrawal from OPEC/OPEC+ in late April and deepening ties with Israel
- Israel-Lebanon
  - Lebanon-Israel talks produce new ceasefire, hope future meetings will “advance lasting peace”
    - Lebanon-Israel talks produced a 45-day ceasefire extension; military talks at the Pentagon May 29, political track June 2-3
    - The existing ceasefire has been ceasefire in name only — both sides conducting daily small-scale attacks; Israel killed an alleged Hezbollah leader in Beirut on May 7, killing at least a dozen
    - Hezbollah wasn’t at the table — and they’re the ones doing the attacking
  - Israel launches new strikes on Lebanon after ceasefire extension
    - Less than 24 hours after agreeing to a 45-day ceasefire extension, Israel launched airstrikes on at least five villages in southern Lebanon — Hezbollah has been attacking throughout regardless, and opposes the negotiations entirely
- Dueling Blockades
  - 78 ships have been turned back by U.S. blockade, Central Command says
    - ‘The ongoing U.S. blockade of the Strait of Hormuz has now turned back 78 ships either exiting or entering Iranian ports, the U.S. Central Command said on Saturday.’
    - ‘The blockade has been one of the main snags in the negotiations between the U.S. and Iran over a lasting ceasefire. President Trump has said the blockade will remain in place as a condition for further talks, while Iran says the blockade itself is a violation of the ceasefire’
  - Iran has prepared plan to “manage traffic” in strait, official says
    - ‘The head of the Iranian parliament’s national security commission said Saturday that Iran has prepared a plan to “manage traffic” along a designated route in the Strait of Hormuz.’
    - ‘”In this process, only commercial vessels and parties cooperating with Iran will benefit,” Ebrahim Azizi said on social media. He said that “necessary fees” will be collected.’
    - ‘The route will remain closed “to the operators of the so‑called ‘freedom project,’” Azizi wrote, appearing to refer to the United States’ operation in the Strait of Hormuz, which has been termed “Project Freedom.”’

Corruption

Trump’s $10 Billion Shakedown of IRS Takes Unnervingly Corrupt Turn (TNR)
- Trump sued the IRS for $10 billion over the leak of his tax returns; his own DOJ — which he controls — is now negotiating a “settlement” with him using taxpayer money
- The proposed settlement creates a $1.7 billion fund drawn from the Treasury’s Judgment Fund, overseen by a commission Trump can fire at will, with no required transparency on who gets paid
- Potential recipients include January 6 insurrectionists and “entities associated with President Trump himself”
- Rep. Jamie Raskin: the 14th Amendment prohibits using federal money to compensate people who participated in insurrection — this may do exactly that
- Raskin’s bottom line: “Congress never would have passed a $1.7 billion slush fund for his friends — this is completely outside of our constitutional framework”
Following the Money on Sean Duffy’s Road Trip (American Prospect)
- Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy filmed a five-part family road trip TV series while overseeing a department dealing with an air traffic controller shortage and multiple deadly airline crashes
- The trip was funded by a 501(c)(4) nonprofit also called The Great American Roadtrip — no donor disclosure required — sponsored by Boeing, Toyota, Shell, United Airlines, Google, Royal Caribbean, and others, each paying between $100K and $1 million; larger donors got VIP access to Duffy and his team
- Since taking over DOT, Duffy has stalled airline consumer protection rules, issued zero fines to airlines in 2025 (first time since records began in 1996), and forgiven outstanding penalties — all staunchly opposed by the same industry sponsoring his vacation
- Boeing — the top sponsor at up to $1 million — has since seen the FAA lift its 737 MAX production cap and had its ability to self-certify aircraft restored, despite a safety record that includes crashes killing over 300 people
- CREW filed an ethics complaint; no congressional hearings scheduled

Share Progressive Indiana Network

Patel Grilled by Congress

Previously: Under Kash Patel, “FBI” Means Foolish, Belligerent, and Incompetent (TNR)
- Patel uses the FBI’s government Gulfstream for personal travel — repeated trips to watch his singer girlfriend Alexis Wilkins perform and socialize with friends
- SWAT teams have been deployed to Wilkins’s events under the guise of security; in one instance, agents were reportedly forced to drive one of Wilkins’s friends home after a night of partying in Nashville
- The FBI’s public corruption squad has been disbanded; an investigation into immigration czar Tom Homan — reportedly caught on tape accepting bribes — was shut down
- Patel appears to be stalling the release of Epstein files to limit political damage to Trump
- FBI director invites fresh scrutiny over travels with appearance at US men’s hockey team celebration (NPR)
Kash Patel lashes out as lawmakers question ‘excessive drinking’ (WaPo)
- Patel appeared before the Senate Appropriations Committee Tuesday ostensibly to defend the FBI’s $12.53 billion budget request — it quickly became something else entirely
- Sen. Van Hollen opened by citing Atlantic reporting that Patel’s excessive drinking has impaired his ability to lead the bureau; Patel called it “a total farce,” then accused Van Hollen of “slinging margaritas” with Kilmar Abrego Garcia in El Salvador and running up a $7,000 bar tab — Van Hollen: “You don’t know what you’re talking about”
- While that exchange was still happening, Patel’s official FBI account on X was live-posting Van Hollen’s campaign finance records as opposition research — from a government account
- Sen. Patty Murray referenced a viral video of Patel drinking beer in the US Olympic hockey team’s locker room after their gold medal win in Italy: “If you really want to pop bottles in a locker room, stick to podcasting”
- Patel denied the FBI is investigating journalists or ordering polygraph tests to identify leakers to the press — both claims have been reported
Van Hollen posts alcohol use test results after challenging Patel to take survey (The Hill)
- ‘Democrats have called on Patel to take the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) in the wake of reporting from The Atlantic claiming the director was drinking excessively and at times was difficult to reach.’
- Van Hollen called Patel’s bluff the next day — publicly posted his own AUDIT alcohol screening results after Patel agreed at the hearing to take the test “side by side”
- Van Hollen’s results: drinks two to three times a week, answered “never” to all problem-drinking questions; Patel has not responded
- Van Hollen on the $7,000 bar tab Patel used as a gotcha: “You got me, I catered a holiday reception for my staff with campaign — not taxpayer — dollars! Now let’s see your receipts. #ReleaseTheTab”

Elections

Re-litigating 2020
- Colorado governor cuts Tina Peters’ prison sentence in half, will release her on parole June 1 (Colorado Sun)
  - Peters was the Mesa County Clerk who orchestrated a 2021 breach of her county’s election system — arranged for a conspiracy theorist to use a staffer’s credentials to access a sensitive software update, photos leaked online, county had to scrap all its voting equipment; convicted on multiple felony counts in 2024, sentenced to nine years
  - Colorado Gov. Polis cut her sentence in half Friday, ordering her released on parole June 1 — drawing condemnation from Democrats, the Republican prosecutor who tried her, and county clerks statewide
  - Polis’s rationale: the appeals court already found her sentence was partly based on her speech, not just her conduct; he called it “unduly harsh” for a first-time nonviolent offender — but no pardon: “She’s a convicted felon. She deserves to be a convicted felon.”
  - The decision likely ends Polis’s future in Democratic politics — all 66 Colorado Democratic legislators signed a letter urging him not to do it; Trump immediately posted “FREE TINA!”
  - Context: Trump has been retaliating against Colorado over Peters’ conviction — yanking disaster aid, canceling $109M in transportation grants, dismantling NCAR, relocating Space Command to Alabama
VRA Fallout
- What Is the Purcell Principle? Supreme Court Called Out Over Alabama Order (Newsweek)
  - SCOTUS cleared Alabama to use a map a lower court twice blocked as intentional racial discrimination — less than a week before primary voting was set to begin
  - The move invoked the Purcell principle debate: Purcell says courts shouldn’t create election chaos close to voting day — critics note SCOTUS itself created the chaos here, not the lower courts
  - NBC’s Lawrence Hurley: “The aim of the Purcell principle is to avoid ‘judicially created confusion.’ To the extent there is confusion now, it has been created by the Supreme Court itself”
  - The backstory: SCOTUS ruled against Alabama’s maps in 2023, Alabama defied the ruling with a new map that a lower court found was still intentional discrimination — then SCOTUS stepped in to bail them out anyway
  - Bottom line: a court that spent years telling Alabama its maps were illegally diluting Black voting strength just handed Alabama those same maps back, days before an election, with no explanation
- Supreme Court rejects bid to revive Democrats’ Virginia redistricting plan (Politico)
  - SCOTUS rejected Virginia Democrats’ emergency appeal Friday, letting stand a state Supreme Court ruling that nullified a voter-approved redistricting referendum — no dissents noted, no explanation given
  - The Virginia Supreme Court had thrown out the referendum 4-3, ruling it was passed after early voting had already begun, violating the state constitution — federal courts rarely override state courts on state constitutional questions, making this always a longshot
  - The practical result: Virginia’s elections go forward under the existing map — 6 Democrats, 5 Republicans — killing Democrats’ bid to eliminate all but one GOP seat
  - Gov. Spanberger: SCOTUS chose to “nullify an election and the votes of more than three million Virginians”
  - Taken together with the Alabama ruling earlier this week, SCOTUS has now handed Republicans two redistricting wins in five days heading into the midterms — with zero explanation in either case
Louisiana
- Sen. Cassidy says changes to Louisiana’s May 16 election have caused confusion, disenfranchisement (WWNO)
  - Louisiana’s primary was thrown into chaos by Gov. Landry’s last-minute suspension of congressional races — ballots didn’t match sample ballots, some voters got the suspended congressional race, others didn’t, and 40,000+ absentee ballots for that race won’t be counted
  - Sen. Bill Cassidy, facing a Trump-loyal primary electorate that never forgave his impeachment vote, made the extraordinary move of urging Democrats to re-register as No Party so they could vote for him in the closed Republican primary — LSU’s Robert Mann: “You don’t call somebody like me if you’re not really worried you’re going to miss the runoff”
  - Projected turnout around 20-25%, down from ~50% in the last contested Senate race; multiple voters reported believing the election had been canceled entirely
  - Mann’s summary: “The legislature and Gov. Landry have created a system that is almost designed in a lab to discourage people from participating in the electoral process”
- Cassidy loses reelection bid (NBC)
  - Sen. Bill Cassidy is out — the Louisiana Republican who voted to convict Trump after January 6 lost his primary tonight, with Trump-endorsed Rep. Julia Letlow and state Treasurer John Fleming advancing to a June 27 runoff
  - Cassidy wasn’t just targeted for the impeachment vote — as chair of the Senate HELP Committee, he was vocally critical of RFK Jr. and wavered on his confirmation; Trump also blamed him personally when surgeon general nominee Casey Means stalled in committee, calling him “a very disloyal person”
  - Trump on Cassidy’s loss: “His disloyalty to the man who got him elected is now a part of legend, and it’s nice to see that his political career is OVER!”
  - The result cements Trump’s grip on the GOP — Cassidy is now another impeachment voter who won’t be returning to Congress; Letlow goes into the runoff as the heavy favorite with Trump’s full backing
  - Worth noting: Cassidy’s desperate pre-election strategy of recruiting Democrats and independents to cross over and vote for him in the closed primary clearly didn’t move the needle
West Virginia
- West Virginia election results: Who won primaries for US Senate, House? (USA Today)
  - Sen. Shelley Moore Capito won her primary 66.5%, House incumbents Rep. Carol Miller and Rep. Riley Moore held their nominations easily — no surprises
  - The real story is procedural: first statewide election under both a new strict photo ID law and a newly closed Republican primary simultaneously — political scientists flagging it as a test case for how dual access restrictions affect turnout
Nebraska
- Scott Petersen wins GOP primary race for Nebraska secretary of state against incumbent Bob Evnen (Nebraska Examiner)
  - Nebraska’s biggest primary upset: Scott Petersen knocked off incumbent Secretary of State Bob Evnen 55-45, running on election conspiracy theory platforms — hand counts, restricting mail voting, questioning whether ballot machines can be hacked
  - Petersen consolidates the election denier vote that split against Evnen in 2022; Rep. Don Bacon called him “President of the TinFoil Hat Club”
  - Elsewhere: Gov. Jim Pillen and Democrat Lynne Walz advanced easily in the gubernatorial primary; AG, Treasurer, and Auditor races were largely uncontested
- Denise Powell wins Democratic primary for Nebraska’s 2nd congressional district (NPR)
  - Political organizer Denise Powell defeated State Sen. John Cavanaugh by ~2 points in the Democratic primary for Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District — the Omaha-area “blue dot” that voted for Biden and Harris and is now an open seat with Republican Don Bacon retiring
  - Powell faces Trump-endorsed Republican Brinker Harding in November; with the House majority on the line, over $5.6 million in outside money flooded the primary
  - Cavanaugh’s loss avoided a Democratic nightmare: had he won and vacated his state senate seat, the Republican governor would have appointed his replacement, potentially giving the GOP enough leverage to change how Nebraska awards its Electoral College votes
- Cindy Burbank — who plans to drop out of general election — defeats alleged GOP ‘plant’ in bizarre Nebraska Democratic Senate primary (NY Post)
  - Nebraska’s Democratic Senate primary was a deliberate placeholder operation: pharmacy technician Cindy Burbank won 90-9% over pastor William Forbes — then immediately plans to drop out to clear the way for independent Dan Osborn, the union leader and Navy veteran the Nebraska Democratic Party actually wants facing Sen. Pete Ricketts
  - Both candidates accused the other of being a GOP plant; Forbes has ties to the conservative Leadership Institute and previously voted for Trump; Osborn is not a registered Democrat but leads Ricketts by 5 points in a Democratic-aligned poll while both actual Democrats lose to Ricketts by double digits
  - Ricketts’s read: “The Democrat brand is so damaged in the Midwest that they know they can’t win statewide by running a Democrat”

Public Health

Nationally
- FDA Chief Pushed Out in Latest Sign of Public Health Chaos Under RFK Jr. (Democracy Now)
  - FDA Commissioner Dr. Martin Makary resigned after 13 months — pushed out for trying to block fruit-flavored vapes (angering Trump) and failing to restrict mifepristone access fast enough (angering anti-abortion groups); Trump on his way out: “He was having some difficulty”
  - Replacing him in an acting capacity: Kyle Diamantas, a Florida attorney, former Abbott Laboratories rep, and personal friend of Donald Trump Jr. — no medical background whatsoever
  - The US now has no confirmed FDA commissioner, no confirmed CDC director, and no Senate-approved surgeon general — all while RFK Jr. runs HHS
  - Harvard professor of medicine Dr. Aaron Kesselheim: “Nobody was happy with what he did” — Makary tried to please everyone and satisfied no one; the acting replacement is unlikely to inspire more confidence
  - Public Citizen’s Health Research Group Director Dr. Robert Steinbrook on the broader damage: “When you pick [health agencies] apart for particular theories and the idiosyncrasies of the HHS secretary, you destroy things which take years, if not decades, to rebuild”
- FDA shakeup continues with departure of top drug regulator, just days after agency chief resigns (NBC)
  - Days after Makary’s resignation, the head of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research — the division that regulates all prescription and OTC drugs — also walked out; Dr. Tracy Beth Høeg was the fifth person to hold that post under Trump 2.0
  - Høeg’s brief tenure included challenging already-approved RSV treatments, pushing back on a fast-tracked diabetes drug, and co-writing the scientific justification for gutting the childhood vaccine schedule — arguing, against nearly a century of evidence, that aluminum in vaccines is a concern
  - The FDA now has an acting commissioner with no medical background and an acting drug division head replacing someone who was herself already acting — with HHS saying it’s “actively searching” for permanent leadership
- A “Scheme” Against Dobbs: SCOTUS Dissent Hints at Next Phase of Abortion Rights Fight (Intercept)
  - SCOTUS ruled Thursday that telehealth access to mifepristone can continue while the underlying case plays out in lower courts — blocking a 5th Circuit ruling that would have required in-person dispensing, a critical blow to abortion access especially in ban states
  - Thomas and Alito dissented, with Thomas arguing the 1873 Comstock Act — an unenforced anti-obscenity law — prohibits mailing abortion medication; Alito called telehealth abortion a “scheme” to get around Dobbs, lamenting that abortions have actually increased since the ruling
  - The new acting FDA commissioner, Kyle Diamantas, was reportedly on the phone with anti-abortion advocates within hours of his appointment, promising mifepristone review would be a “top priority” and that he is “pro-life”
  - Advocates warn the administration may be slow-walking action on mifepristone until after the midterms to avoid electoral backlash — then move; roughly two-thirds of all US abortions are now medication abortions
In Indiana
- Indiana abortion ban law stands as state Supreme Court rejects challenge (ICC)
  - Indiana’s Supreme Court rejected a challenge to the state’s near-total abortion ban 4-1 — no oral arguments, no explanation, one page
  - The challenge argued the ban’s health exceptions were too narrow to comply with the state constitution’s life and liberty protections; the court let stand a lower court ruling that the “reasonable medical judgment” standard is constitutional
  - The lone dissenter, Justice Goff, noted the exceptions don’t cover psychological conditions — including cases where a woman shows signs she intends to hurt herself
  - The numbers tell the story: reported abortions in Indiana dropped 99% from 9,529 in 2022 to 126 in 2025
  - A separate challenge arguing the ban violates Indiana’s religious freedom law is still alive — oral arguments scheduled September 10
- Indiana unveils Medicaid overhaul aimed at pressuring hospitals to lower prices (ICC)
  - Indiana unveiled a first-in-the-nation Medicaid overhaul that ties reimbursement increases to hospitals’ commercial pricing — lower commercial rates get bigger Medicaid bumps, higher-priced systems get smaller ones; the goal is to use Medicaid as leverage to drive down commercial prices
  - Indiana’s commercial hospital prices are among the highest in the country; Medicaid costs are growing at 9.5% annually — FSSA Secretary Roob: “You’re cannibalizing teacher pay, higher ed — all the stuff the general fund pays for”
  - Rural and critical access hospitals are insulated from the pricing pressure and get the largest reimbursement increases — up to 158% of current fee schedules — plus an additional $177 million in rural support
  - One flag worth noting on air: this is a Braun administration initiative, and the framing is genuinely populist — but the mechanism still flows through a Medicaid system that the federal government is simultaneously trying to gut
  - Make that all make sense:
    - Medicare rates are the baseline — the federal government sets what it pays for any given procedure, and everyone in the industry treats that number as the reference point. So when they say a hospital charges “252% of Medicare rates” commercially, they mean if Medicare pays $1,000 for a procedure, that hospital charges private insurers $2,520.
    - Medicaid reimbursements are separate and almost always lower than Medicare — often much lower. Indiana is now using those Medicaid reimbursements as a carrot/stick: hospitals that keep their commercial prices lower get bigger Medicaid payment increases, hospitals that gouge commercially get smaller ones.
    - The 155% figure isn’t 155% of Medicare rates — it’s 155% of the hospital’s current Medicaid fee schedule. So if a hospital currently gets $500 from Medicaid for that same procedure, they’d now get $775. That’s still way below the $2,520 they charge commercially, but the gap between Medicaid reimbursement and actual cost of care is a chronic industry complaint — hospitals have always argued Medicaid underpays and they make it up on commercial patients.
    - The theory here is: if we reward you more through Medicaid for keeping commercial prices down, you have less incentive to gouge commercial payers. Whether that pressure is strong enough to actually move commercial prices is the real question — and the article doesn’t answer it.
- Indianapolis Office of Public Health and Safety under the microscope following internal audit (Mirror Indy)
  - The Indianapolis Office of Public Health and Safety is under state audit after an internal review found contracts went to individuals and organizations with ties to OPHS employees — potential conflicts of interest referred to the State Board of Accounts in March
  - The internal audit also found poor oversight, unclear policies, high turnover, and loose grant reporting across a review period covering 2020-2025 — hundreds of millions in federal pandemic funds flowed through the agency with minimal documentation
  - Democrat Councilor Dan Boots: “Where did it all go?” — Republican councilors want to pause future OPHS funding; OPHS Director Merkley says corrective measures are in place and the city is in compliance with federal requirements
  - Former OPHS employee Shonna Majors: “There were no SOPs in place when I was there, and I begged leadership to put those into place because I knew something like this could happen”
- Will Indiana legalize medical marijuana? One lawmaker is writing a plan after federal moves (WFYI)
  - Indiana Sen. Mike Bohacek (R) is drafting a medical marijuana bill ahead of the 2027 session, citing federal reclassification of cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III
  - Gov. Mike Braun has signaled willingness to consider legislation — a notable shift for a state with some of the most stringent marijuana laws in the country
  - Indiana is the last holdout in the region — every surrounding state has legalized cannabis in some form — and Hoosiers are already spending $1.2 to $2.6 billion annually on cannabis products, mostly out of state
  - Advocates have seen roughly 15 bills die in the legislature over 10 years; the most common excuse was “wait for federal rescheduling” — Jeff Staker of Hoosier Veterans for Medical Cannabis: “Now they can’t kick the can down the road because the road doesn’t exist anymore”
Immigration / DOC
- Statewide Day of Action
  - Indiana Protests Call for Changes to Immigration System (WIBC)
  - Statewide protests target ICE detention at Miami Correctional Facility (WANE)
  - Protesters in Mishawaka demonstrate against ICE, Indiana’s involvement (WVPE)
    - 28 protests took place across Indiana Saturday as part of the Indiana Statewide Day of Action, targeting ICE detention at Miami Correctional Facility and broader immigration enforcement under Trump and Gov. Braun — Fort Wayne, Indianapolis, Mishawaka and dozens of other cities participated
    - Organizers cite that 70% of those arrested by ICE have no criminal history; a current Miami Correctional officer reportedly told organizers the facility lacks adequate staffing to manage both state inmates and ICE detainees
    - Key demand beyond ending detention: funded immigration courts — organizer Elizabeth Marvin: “A large chunk of them are going through it the right way and are being detained as they leave their court hearings”
    - Sandra Garza of Fuerza Unida: “The original concept was to get people back to their home countries in a humane way. We have now lost that humanity.”
- Feds owe Indiana millions for immigration detention at state prison (ICC)
  - Indiana has spent $12.5 million housing ICE detainees at Miami Correctional since the contract began in October — but has received less than $5.1 million back from the federal government, a gap of over $7 million
  - The contract pays Indiana $291.24 per bed per day — about four times the normal $75 daily per-inmate cost — for up to 1,000 detainees at a time, but the feds are four months behind on payments
  - The state prepaid nearly $15.8 million in upfront infrastructure costs to prepare the facility Trump officials dubbed the “Speedway Slammer” — Indiana is now waiting on reimbursement for that too
  - Monthly reporting on the contract exists only because Democrats successfully amended SB76 to require it — and even then, the March and April reports were “mistakenly left off” the Budget Committee agenda
  - Karla wrote all about SB76 in March (KLO on Substack)
- Previously: Indiana Sheriff Sues Over Law Requiring Immigrant Detention (Bloomberg)
  - Monroe County Sheriff Ruben Marté sued the state in April to block Indiana Senate Enrolled Act 76 — the same immigration enforcement law requiring the Miami Correctional ICE contract reporting — arguing it would force his deputies to hold people on ICE detainer requests without a judicial warrant or probable cause, violating the Fourth Amendment
  - Marté currently refuses to honor ICE detainers without a judicial warrant and is already in a separate lawsuit over that policy; SEA 76 would make his current practice illegal starting July 1
  - The core constitutional problem: ICE detainer requests don’t require evidence of probable cause or review by a magistrate — they simply ask local authorities to hold someone up to 48 hours past when they should have been released, which Marté argues constitutes an unlawful new seizure
Indiana Elections
- Indiana’s Senate District 23 race could come down to a single vote (WFYI)
  - Incumbent state Sen. Spencer Deery (R-West Lafayette) leads Trump-backed challenger Paula Copenhaver by three votes in Senate District 23 — the race came down to provisional ballots counted county by county this week
  - Deery drew a primary challenge after refusing to support Trump’s mid-decade redistricting push; of the eight Senate Republicans primaried this cycle, only Deery and one other survived their Trump-backed challengers
  - No automatic recount in Indiana — one would have to be requested by a candidate or party chair; a related headline suggests Deery ultimately held on by three votes
  - Possible recounts of tight state Senate races could extend into July (ICC)
    - Final tallies confirm Deery leads Copenhaver 6,337 to 6,334 — three votes; Sen. Liz Brown of Fort Wayne also survived her Trump-backed challenger Darren Vogt, but by only 14 votes
    - Recount filing window is open — Copenhaver has until Tuesday noon, any Republican county chair in the district until May 22; neither Copenhaver nor Vogt has responded to press inquiries
    - If a recount is sought in the six-county Deery-Copenhaver race, expect it to run into July — the 2024 House recounts weren’t finalized until August
- SOS Morales asked to step aside if recount occurs, criticized for D.C. trip (Indiana Citizen)
  - State Rep. Ed DeLaney (D-Indianapolis) is calling on Secretary of State Diego Morales to recuse himself from any Deery-Copenhaver recount — Morales chairs the Recount Commission, is affiliated with Turning Point USA (which endorsed Copenhaver), and publicly backed the redistricting plan Deery voted against
  - Morales’s office: he has “no intention of stepping away from the Constitutional and statutory duties of his office”
  - DeLaney’s call for recusal came a day after Morales drew criticism from voting-rights advocates over his trip to Washington, DC, where he met with “federal officials and national leaders to discuss continued efforts to strengthen Indiana elections.” Morales’ office also highlighted the “continued collaboration with state and federal partners to ensure Hoosiers can have confidence in the electoral process.”
  - Common Cause Indiana’s Julia Vaughn noted Morales handed Indiana’s voter rolls to USCIS and DOJ — “I’d suggest that, instead of chasing photo ops, Secretary Morales commit himself to not sharing sensitive Hoosier data with the federal government”
  - Morales Says He Will Chair Any Recount, Rejecting Calls to Step Aside (IndyPolitics)
    - Morales didn’t just reject the recusal call — he’s also in political trouble of his own making; seeking renomination at the state Republican convention, he failed to qualify as a delegate in his own home district in Marion County, finishing 12th out of 18 candidates with 3.55% of the vote
    - Also: the Marion County Election Board voted unanimously in March to refer Morales to the State Inspector General over a campaign video allegedly shot at the county election center, and banned him from non-public areas of the facility
- Open primaries for Indiana, an old idea worth dusting off (Statehouse File)
  - Abdul-Hakim Shabazz, editor of IndyPolitics.org, is proposing Indiana adopt open primaries — all registered voters on one ballot regardless of party, top two advance to November; if any candidate clears 60%, they win outright with no runoff
  - His core argument: closed primaries hand meaningful decisions to 8-12% of the most ideologically committed voters; in most Indiana districts the primary IS the general election, leaving 88% of voters as spectators by design
  - The 60% threshold is the twist — it spares taxpayers a pointless November contest in lopsided districts, which in Indiana is most of them
  - His honest assessment of the proposal’s chances: zero — no citizen initiative process in Indiana means it would have to pass through the same legislature full of people who got there under the current system: “Asking them to change those rules is like asking the house to vote on whether the casino should keep its license”
For the Kids
- Property tax cuts hurting Indiana public schools (WFIE)
  - Indiana’s Senate Enrolled Act 1 property tax cuts are projected to cost public schools statewide over $700 million across three years
  - East Gibson School Corporation expects to lose $400K — already leaving custodial positions unfilled, considering raiding the education budget, and not replacing two of four retirees; Superintendent Galvin: “It’s not if you’re gonna have a referendum, it’s when”
  - Larger districts are hit harder — EVSC alone projects losses of over $10 million; statewide, 30-45 school corporations are eyeing November referendums to ask voters to raise taxes to offset the cuts
    - Previously: ICPE predicts up to 100 districts will consider referendums (WTHR)
      - The Indiana Coalition for Public Education puts the number of districts considering November referendums at up to 100 — nearly double earlier estimates — after surveying schools statewide; 99% of respondents said the property tax cuts are already hurting them
- Education group: Inflation still outpacing Indiana teacher pay (PNS)
  - The property tax cuts driving the school funding crisis also directly undercut any path to teacher raises — SEA 1 will cost Indiana school districts $744 million by 2028, and collective bargaining rights that could help teachers advocate for themselves remain off the table in Indiana
  - Indiana teachers earn roughly 77 cents for every dollar earned by similarly educated professionals — average starting salary $45,000, experienced teachers $59,000, both below the estimated living wage for a single adult in Indiana
  - NEA President Becky Pringle: educators earn less today in real terms than they did 10 years ago; Indianapolis Public Schools, Noblesville, Rush County, and Hamilton Southeastern have all announced staffing reductions for next year
- Indiana schools face stricter cellphone rules under new ‘bell-to-bell’ law starting July 1 (ICC)
  - Indiana’s new “bell-to-bell” cellphone ban takes effect July 1 — no personal wireless devices during the school day, including smart watches and gaming devices; exceptions for emergencies, medical needs, and IEP/504 accommodations
  - The law shifts enforcement from teachers to administrators — guidance from the Indiana Department of Education on implementation has not yet been published, with six weeks to go
  - Schools can opt for locking pouch systems like Yondr at $15-30 per unit, but aren’t required to purchase them
  - Braun and lawmakers signaled this may just be the start — conversations are already underway about school-issued Chromebooks and tablets and their effects on developing brains; Braun: “There’s always next year”
- Indiana House forms committee to study NIL for high school athletes (21 Alive)
  - The Indiana House formed a summer study committee on NIL for high school athletes — several states have already implemented high school NIL, and the IHSAA is already set to allow athletes to be paid for their personal brand starting next year
  - The committee’s primary concern is guardrails — specifically preventing school transfers driven by money; it will include parents, coaches, athletic directors and superintendents
  - Rep. Alex Burton (D-Evansville) helped establish the committee: “This puts Indiana in a position to really lead in this space — prioritizing high school diplomas, college readiness, and making sure our athletes are not transferring schools for athletic purposes”
- IMPD chief issues video message as youth curfew takes effect (FOX59)
  - Marion County’s summer youth curfew is now in effect — 17-year-olds must be home by 1 a.m. weekends and 11 p.m. weekdays; 15-16 year olds by 11 p.m. weekends and 9 p.m. weekdays; 14 and under by 9 p.m. seven days a week
  - IMPD Chief Tanya Terry sent a video message directly to Marion County students on the last day of school urging families to stay engaged; IMPD reports that while overall violent crime is down, the number of teenagers involved in shootings or homicides is up
  - Rev. Malachi Walker of Young Men Inc., a 33-year-old youth empowerment program serving boys 8-17, summed up the stakes simply: “We’re living in a time in our city where we need to do something, and we need to do something fast and drastic”
Environment
- New data center proposed in Madison County; public hearing scheduled for June 9 to consider a 6 month moratorium (Herald Bulletin)
  - Madison County’s Plan Commission voted to start the petition process for a six-month moratorium on data centers in unincorporated areas of the county — public hearing June 9, commissioners could act June 16
  - The trigger: residents say Vantage is proposing a 650-acre data center near a juvenile detention center; more than 50 people showed up to oppose it — notably, no application has even been filed yet
  - The Madison County Economic Development Corp. has already come out against the moratorium — the familiar tension between economic development interests and community pushback is already in play
- Martindale-Brightwood residents take data center fight to court, citing environmental racism (WFYI)
  - Martindale-Brightwood residents and the Hoosier Environmental Council have filed a legal challenge to block a Metrobloks data center approved for a 14-acre site on North Sherman Ave. — asking Marion County Superior Court to invalidate the rezoning and halt construction
  - The site has a documented history of industrial pollution; residents argue the project threatens groundwater and continues a “legacy of environmental racism” — the Protect Martindale-Brightwood coalition: “We will not allow our neighborhood to be treated as a sacrifice zone”
  - This is part of a broader Indianapolis pattern — Decatur Township residents filed a similar suit to block a $4 billion Sabey Corp. data center on the southwest side; Indianapolis proposed its first data center zoning rules but critics say they don’t go far enough
  - The underlying driver: Indiana passed data center tax abatements in 2019, making the state a magnet for these developments — cheap land, tax breaks, and communities with less political power to push back
- IDEM to Speedway: Urine trouble (Mirror Indy)
  - The town of Speedway’s population explodes from 14,000 to 350,000 on race day — and all that beer they drink eventually ends up at the Speedway Wastewater Treatment Plant, which has violated its state discharge permit in seven of the last ten years, primarily due to ammonia from urine
  - The plant can handle the volume — it’s the chemistry that’s the problem; the plant is only 1.3 miles from IMS, meaning it receives urine at maximum concentration before it has any chance to dilute
  - IDEM cited Speedway for permit violations from 2022-2025 and the town signed a settlement — the fix is a $14 million plant upgrade starting in June, paid for by an $8/month sewer fee increase for residents over the next 20 years