SUMMARY:
Scott is joined by singer-songwriter and Porter County Recorder candidate Leslie Nuss Bamesberger and Bloomington activist and graduate student Bryce Greene for a packed two-hour episode covering a week that had almost everything. The national segment moves through the white supremacist attack on the Islamic Center of San Diego, the sputtering Iran war and its chaotic Israel dimension, the Trump administration’s escalating pressure on Cuba, a week of staggering domestic corruption, the Ebola outbreak in the Congo, and the week’s primary results across six states — including Thomas Massie’s AIPAC-funded ouster in Kentucky and Chris Rabb’s progressive triumph in Philadelphia. The panel also digs into the DNC’s botched autopsy release, the stolen election theory circulating around Elon Musk and Starlink, and the Epstein files — including Sarah Kellen’s House testimony and new reporting on the Zorro Ranch communications infrastructure. The final 35 minutes turns to Indiana: Republican implosion in the Secretary of State’s race, Todd Rokita’s latest shenanigans, Indiana’s mixed education numbers, and a growing backlash against data center development in Indianapolis.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
00:00:00 Welcome and introduction
00:02:00 Social media and support plug; guest introductions
00:04:02 San Diego mosque attack — white supremacy, incel ideology, and congressional rhetoric
00:11:53 War in Iran — aircraft losses, War Powers votes, Trump’s “peace deal”
00:16:39 Israel angle — Ahmadinejad regime-change plot, Netanyahu tensions, Ben-Gvir flotilla video, sexual abuse allegations
00:23:57 Cuba — Raúl Castro indictment, carrier group, Starlink aid offer, invasion fears
00:31:41 Trump corruption — insider trading disclosures, the $1.776B Anti-Weaponization slush fund, Senate Republican revolt
00:39:20 Ebola outbreak — Bundibugyo virus, Congo response gaps, USAID cuts, RFK Jr. and MAHA kooks
00:45:34 Tuesday primaries — Georgia, Alabama, Kentucky (Massie defeat), AIPAC money
00:55:51 Idaho, Texas, Oregon, Pennsylvania — Rabb’s progressive upset, Shapiro’s national positioning
01:01:26 DNC autopsy — Gaza omission, Martin’s failures, Amanda Litman and Dan Pfeiffer call for his ouster
01:09:17 Ashley St. Clair and the 2024 stolen election theory — Musk texts, Tripp Lite, Starlink DTC satellites, North Carolina precinct data
01:17:22 Epstein — Sarah Kellen testimony, Frédéric Fekkai, Philip Levine, Patrick Demarchelier; Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez on Zorro Ranch infrastructure
01:25:28 PSA — Crossroads Commons, Salem, Indiana
01:26:04 Indiana elections — DLCC investment, Two GOP recounts, Banks and Rokita abandon Morales
01:32:56 Rokita roundup — price gouging investigation; “86” First Amendment case; transgender birth record interventions; “Don’t Say Gay” expansion push
01:40:01 Indiana education — reading recovery rankings; charter school study and Wildstyle Paschall’s critique; IPS board vacancies
01:47:30 Carmel and Fishers ranked top places to live — and what the rankings ignore
01:50:41 Braun’s National Guard military police force — Rep. Matt Pierce’s warning
01:53:27 Data centers — Indianapolis moratorium resolution; DC Blox east side proposal; community opposition
01:58:51 Closing remarks, guest info, upcoming PIN programming
IN DEPTH:
San Diego Mosque Shooting
What to know about a deadly attack by teen gunmen on a San Diego mosque (AP)
San Diego mosque shooters met online and left writings expressing hate, FBI says (AP)
Two white supremacist teens attacked the Islamic Center of San Diego, killing three men before dying by suicide
The suspects — aged 17 and 18 — met online, called themselves “Sons of Tarrant,” a reference to the 2019 Christchurch mosque shooter who killed 51
Writings included calls to “exterminate” Muslims, Nazi symbols, and broad hatred toward Jews, LGBTQ+, Black people, and both political parties
30+ guns, ammunition, and a crossbow recovered from two residences; investigators still probing whether broader plans existed
Security guard Amin Abdullah shot back and triggered lockdown before being killed — likely saved 140 children steps away
Other victims Mansour Kaziha and Nadir Awad drew the gunmen away from the building before being killed in the parking lot
Imam noted the mosque was accustomed to hate mail and drive-by harassment — but nothing like this
San Diego mosque attack follows surge in public anti-Islam rhetoric (WaPo)
Attack follows a documented surge in public anti-Islam rhetoric from elected officials
Rep. Andrew Ogles (TN): “Muslims don’t belong in American society” — posted on X in March
Rep. Randy Fine (FL): compared Muslims unfavorably to dogs — February
Sen. Tommy Tuberville (AL): “radical Muslims” are coming to “destroy the West” — January, on the Senate floor
Muslim leaders said the attack “did not occur in a vacuum” — directly linking congressional rhetoric to the shooting
The day before the attack, Trump headlined a White House-backed Christian nationalist prayer festival on the National Mall
String of recent attacks on houses of worship: Detroit synagogue (truck ram + fire), Michigan LDS church (4 killed), Minneapolis Catholic church (2 children killed)
Jewish Federations lobbying Congress for $1 billion in security funding for faith institutions nationwide
Male Supremacism and Misogyny Was Central to the San Diego Mosque Shooting. Why Did So Much Coverage Miss It? (Ms)
Mainstream coverage largely missed the central role of male supremacism and misogyny in the shooters’ manifestos
Both cite the 2014 Santa Barbara sorority attack, the 1989 Montreal Polytechnique massacre, and the 2011 Norway youth camp attack as inspirations
One manifesto coins the term “MisanthropistCEL” and glorifies mass killers as “incel saints”; one shooter self-identified as a misogynist and had been active in incel online communities since 2022
Manifesto progression: starts with antisemitism → moves to misogyny (”after the Jew, the most evil creature is the woman”) → then Islamophobia, anti-immigrant, anti-Black, anti-LGBTQ rhetoric
Shooters also identified as accelerationists — seeking to hasten societal collapse through violence
Pattern mirrors 2011 Norway massacre coverage, which similarly underreported the antifeminist ideology driving the attack
Analysts warn: misogyny isn’t a side note — it’s structurally intertwined with white supremacist and other extremist violence
War in the Middle East
Monday: Trump says he’s postponing ‘scheduled attack of Iran tomorrow’ at Middle East leaders’ request (CNBC)
Trump announced via Truth Social he was calling off a “scheduled attack on Iran” set for Tuesday, May 19
Leaders of Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE personally asked him to hold off, saying a deal was close
Military still on standby — Hegseth and Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. Dan Caine ordered to be ready for “full, large scale assault on a moment’s notice”
Trump’s stated red line: no nuclear weapons for Iran
The U.S. and Iran remain in a military and economic stalemate over the Strait of Hormuz, with dueling blockades choking global oil shipping
A ceasefire technically remains in effect but has been repeatedly violated — Trump called it “on life support” last week
Notable: Hegseth was in Kentucky attending a campaign rally against Rep. Thomas Massie while all this was unfolding
Tuesday: US Senate votes to advance resolution to curb Trump’s Iran war powers (Guardian)
Senate voted 50-47 to advance a war powers resolution requiring Trump to get congressional authorization to continue the Iran war
First time the chamber has advanced the bill — eighth attempt since the conflict began in February
Four Republicans broke ranks: Bill Cassidy (fresh off a Trump-endorsed primary loss), Lisa Murkowski, Rand Paul, and Susan Collins
Cassidy’s statement: Congress has been “left in the dark” on Operation Epic Fury — no authorization can be justified without clarity
John Fetterman was the sole Democrat to vote against it
Still just the first step — Trump would almost certainly veto even if it passes both chambers
Democrats framing it as a pressure campaign: “Republicans are starting to crack” — Schumer
Thursday: GOP leaders abruptly cancel House vote on Iran war powers, shielding Trump from rebuke (CNN)
House GOP leaders abruptly canceled a scheduled war powers resolution vote Thursday when it became clear they were about to lose due to absences
Resolution introduced by Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY) would have required Trump to end the Iran conflict without congressional authorization
Democratic leaders: House Republicans are “a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Trump administration”
Meeks: “They knew it was going to pass, and as a result they cheated” — vote now pushed to early June after Memorial Day recess
Trump meanwhile claims the Iran war is “very popular” — a CNN poll shows 77% of Americans, including a majority of Republicans, say his policies have increased their cost of living
Friday: Congressional report tallies 42 US aircraft lost or damaged in Operation Epic Fury (Military Times)
Congressional Research Service tallied 42 U.S. aircraft lost or damaged in Operation Epic Fury — the most complete public accounting yet, since the Pentagon hasn’t done its own
Six crew members killed when a KC-135 tanker went down over western Iraq March 12 — the only confirmed U.S. fatalities on the list
Drones took the hardest hit: 25 of 42 losses were unmanned aircraft, mostly MQ-9 Reapers (each of which cost over $30M)
Cost of the war has climbed to $29 billion — up from $25 billion just two weeks earlier — and doesn’t include base repair costs
Notable gaps: the report likely undercounts helicopter losses, and omits several Army special operations aircraft deliberately destroyed on the ground inside Iran
Saturday: Trump says peace deal with Iran is imminent (Politico)
Trump announced Saturday a peace deal is “largely negotiated” — would include reopening the Strait of Hormuz; details still being finalized
Key terms remain unresolved: no confirmation the deal includes limits on Iran’s nuclear program, missiles, or proxy activity
Trump also confirmed a call with Netanyahu that “went very well” — notable given their reported tensions all week
Hard-line GOP pushback immediate: Graham, Wicker, and conservative media figures warned a deal that lets Iran survive would undo everything Operation Epic Fury accomplished
Israel Front
The Trump Administration’s Iran Plan Is Even Crazier Than We Thought (TNR)
NYT reported that the U.S. and Israel attempted to install Mahmoud Ahmadinejad — Holocaust denier, called for Israel to be “wiped off the map” — as Iran’s post-war leader
Plan: an airstrike was meant to kill Ahmadinejad’s guards and “free” him; he was injured instead and “became disillusioned with the regime change plan”
Ahmadinejad had met with Israeli representatives in Guatemala and Hungary between 2023 and 2025
Operation was primarily Mossad-driven; U.S. signed off shortly before execution — and apparently saw him as analogous to how they handled Maduro in Venezuela
Bottom line: the U.S. and Israel went to war with no clear idea what government they’d accept in Tehran — and their best answer was a guy who spent years calling for their destruction
Wednesday: Trump says Netanyahu will ‘do whatever I want’ on Iran after pair said to hold tense call (Times of Israel)
Trump claimed Netanyahu “will do whatever I want” — one day after a reportedly tense call where the two disagreed on Iran diplomacy
Netanyahu wanted continued military pressure to destroy Iran’s infrastructure; Trump was pursuing a Qatar/Pakistan-brokered framework for a ceasefire and 30-day negotiation window
IRGC warned that if strikes resume, the conflict “will spread far beyond the region” — and claimed Iran hasn’t yet deployed its full capabilities
Pakistan’s interior minister made a second trip to Tehran in one week as mediator; China’s Xi called resumed hostilities “inadvisable”
Wednesday: Outrage over Israel’s Ben-Gvir flotilla abuse video (Al Jazeera)
Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir posted a video of himself taunting zip-tied flotilla activists on their knees in “stress positions” as Israel’s national anthem played
430+ activists from 46 countries were seized in international waters when Israel intercepted the latest Gaza-bound aid flotilla
Global backlash: Italy, France, Netherlands, and Canada summoned Israeli ambassadors; even Netanyahu and U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee rebuked Ben-Gvir
Ben-Gvir is a convicted racist with ties to the outlawed Kach terrorist organization — and he controls Israel’s Border Police
Freed Gaza Flotilla Activists Report Sexual Abuse, Rape in Israeli Custody (Haaretz)
Released flotilla activists report beatings, tasing, sleep deprivation, and at least 15 documented cases of sexual abuse — including allegations of rape and forcible penetration with a firearm
Abuse allegedly concentrated on one Israeli naval vessel converted into a makeshift prison with shipping containers and barbed wire; activists held without water, blankets, or basic conditions for two days
Israel’s prison service flatly denied all allegations; Reuters could not independently verify them
Rome prosecutors opened investigations into kidnapping, torture, and sexual assault; Germany and France reported activists returned with injuries requiring medical attention
Cuba
US charges Raúl Castro with murder as Trump escalates pressure on Cuba (Reuters)
U.S. charged 94-year-old Raúl Castro with murder over the 1996 shootdown of two Cuban exile planes over international waters — four counts of murder, conspiracy, and aircraft destruction
No extradition expected; acting AG Blanche suggested Castro would face charges “by his own will or by another way”
Follows the January capture of Venezuelan President Maduro — part of a broader Trump/Rubio push for regime change across Latin America
Rubio simultaneously offered Cuba $100 million in aid while the U.S. maintains a de facto fuel blockade causing power outages across the island — Cuban foreign minister called it cynical
Cubans outraged at US charges against Raúl Castro as fears of military strikes grow (Guardian)
Cubans across the political spectrum are outraged — even those who’d lost faith in their own government are showing up to protest the indictment
Military strike fears are real on the ground: Havana residents are nervously asking who their neighbors are, knowing proximity to government officials makes them a target
The buildup has been weeks in the making: surveillance flights, an aircraft carrier group entering the Caribbean, CIA director landing in Havana, and intelligence reports (of disputed credibility) claiming Cuba possesses drones
Context the indictment omits: Brothers to the Rescue had been deliberately provoking Cuba for years — buzzing Havana, dropping leaflets — and Fidel Castro had repeatedly warned Washington to rein them in before the shootdown
Rubio’s $100M aid offer widely seen as sophisticated regime-change bait — targeting Cuban resentment of military elites who have generators while civilians endure 22-hour blackouts
A Canadian nickel mining company with major Cuban holdings is reportedly in talks to hand control to a former Trump adviser — a preview, one European businessman said, of “the barefaced corruption that would accompany any US control over Cuba”
Cuba Girds for Invasion as Trump Launches Raúl Castro Indictment Amid Punishing Blockade (Drop Site)
The “intelligence” that Cuba had 300 Iranian drones was leaked to Axios — buried in the article was that any attack plans were purely defensive, contingent on a U.S. strike first
Cuba’s military is badly degraded — fewer than two dozen serviceable aircraft, outdated navy — but its asymmetric “People’s War” doctrine assigns wartime roles to every able-bodied adult
The $100M aid offer is largely contingent on accepting Starlink devices — the same destabilization tool used ahead of the Iran war
Cuba’s infant mortality rate has nearly doubled since 2018; surgeries postponed for 100,000 patients including 12,000 children — researchers attribute it directly to U.S. sanctions
Previous U.S. aid shipments via the Catholic Church — meant for Hurricane Melissa victims — still haven’t been fully delivered
Corruption
The smoking guns in Trump’s new financial disclosure (Popular Information)
Last week, Trump filed a 113-page document cataloging his stock purchases in 2026.
Missed required 45-day disclosure deadlines on many trades; fined $200
Trump bought up to $215K in Thermo Fisher stock in the weeks before — then he toured their facility and publicly praised them
Bought up to $5M in Apple stock before he lauded Tim Cook in a Kentucky speech; up to $7.2M in Apple total during March alone
Bought Micron stock, then called it “one of the hottest companies” on Fox News the next day
Told a Georgia crowd to “go out and buy a Dell computer” nine days after buying at least $1M in Dell stock
Multiple trades marked “UNSOLICITED” — undermining the White House claim that an independent advisor controls everything
US government agrees to drop tax claims against Trump in broadening of IRS lawsuit settlement (AP)
U.S. permanently dropped all existing tax claims against Trump, his sons, and the Trump Organization as part of the IRS lawsuit settlement
Addendum signed by acting AG Blanche declares the government “forever barred and precluded” from examining Trump, his family, and affiliates — DOJ claims it only covers existing audits, not future ones
A former IRS commissioner said he’d never seen the government agree in advance to permanently forgo examination of previously filed returns for a specific person
Trump Just Gave Himself a $1.8 Billion Slush Fund to Reward His Friends (Mother Jones)
Trump dropped his $10B IRS lawsuit in exchange for a settlement that created the $1.776B “Anti-Weaponization Fund” — paid for by taxpayers
Fund is controlled by a five-member commission appointed by the AG; Trump can remove any member — effectively no independent oversight
Quarterly reports go only to the AG, not Congress or the public — who gets paid and how much may never be fully disclosed
House Democrats called it a “collusive lawsuit” settled collusively to produce a slush fund — noting no sitting president has ever sued the government he leads for taxpayer money
Leaked IRS Memo Proves How Blatant Trump’s Slush Fund Theft Really Is (TNR)
IRS’s own lawyers wanted to fight Trump’s lawsuit — their memo noted it was filed two years past the legal deadline, and that the leaker was a Booz Allen contractor, not an IRS employee
DOJ, run by Trump’s former personal lawyer Todd Blanche, ignored the memo and settled anyway
At a Senate hearing, Blanche couldn’t commit to barring Jan. 6 rioters from the fund — including one pardoned Jan. 6er who was subsequently convicted of child molestation and allegedly tried to bribe his victims with anticipated fund payouts
Blanche also couldn’t name the commissioners, couldn’t say who would choose them, and claimed Trump had no influence over the process — senators weren’t buying it
‘Incredibly hostile’ GOP senators hammer Todd Blanche in closed-door meeting: report (Raw Story)
Blanche’s closed-door meeting with Senate Republicans on the fund lasted nearly two hours and was described as a “s---show”
Sen. Thom Tillis called it “stupid on stilts” and “tyranny”
Per CNN’s Raju: “all” GOP senators voiced opposition — “hardly any came to its defense”
Republicans also warned the fund could derail their priority immigration/reconciliation bill
Controversy over Trump ballroom and $1.8B ‘slush fund’ sends Senate running from the Hill in GOP revolt (Independent)
Senate Republicans fled DC without voting on ICE funding — the slush fund demand was the primary holdup
Mitch McConnell: “The nation’s top law enforcement official is asking for a slush fund to pay people who assault cops? Utterly stupid, morally wrong”
Leadership didn’t have 51 votes; even Tuberville called it a “curveball”
Trump’s $1 billion ballroom security ask — stripped from the bill by the Senate parliamentarian — added to the dysfunction
House canceled its own Friday votes minutes after the Senate punted
Fascists use corrupt, clientelist relationships to consolidate power, enforce ideological conformity, and control the economy
State-sanctioned monopolies: think of Trump’s relationships with the business elite
Party-state fusion: see DOGE and the large-scale purging of non-MAGA government employees
Quid Pro Quo Privilege: members of the public and lower-tier civil servants receive tangible benefits for loyalty. We are here.
Co-opting the culture: think of MAGA aligned media, UFC, Indycar; Kennedy Center takeover
Ebola Outbreak
What to know about the Bundibugyo virus, a species of Ebola causing an outbreak in Congo (AP)
Residents burn an Ebola treatment center in Congo as anger grows over the outbreak (AP)
Bundibugyo virus — a rare Ebola strain with no vaccine or treatment — has killed 160+ suspected dead, 671 suspected cases in Congo; WHO says real numbers are almost certainly higher
Outbreak likely began months ago but spread undetected because health authorities were testing for the wrong Ebola strain
Now spread across three provinces and into Uganda — covering a 500km range
Mortality rate estimated at 30%+; healthcare workers and family caregivers are highest risk
Public health response falls back to basics: contact tracing, isolation, protective equipment, safe burial practices
Locals burned an Ebola treatment center after being blocked from retrieving a friend’s body for burial — safe burial protocols clash directly with local funeral customs
Response severely hampered: weak health infrastructure further degraded by international aid cuts, 920,000 internally-displaced people in the epicenter, with active ISIS-linked militant attacks in the same area
No vaccine or treatment available; earliest candidate is 6-9 months out
U.S. restricting travelers from Congo, Uganda, and South Sudan; Americans must route through Dulles for screening
This Ebola outbreak raises questions about when it all began — and the U.S. response (NPR)
CDC only learned of the outbreak on May 14 — one day before it was officially announced — after hundreds of cases had already accumulated; a former CDC official called that “weird”
U.S. humanitarian funding in Congo dropped ~80% under Trump — from $900M+ to $179M — gutting the informal disease surveillance networks that aid workers provided in conflict zones
USAID’s Congo mission was shuttered entirely last year, eliminating on-the-ground disease intel capacity
U.S. withdrawal from WHO has shrunk WHO’s international emergency division — compounding the detection gap
At least one American aid worker infected; six more high-risk exposures — being transferred to Germany for treatment
State Department denied aid cuts affected the response; CDC’s incident manager deflected when asked directly whether funding cuts caused the delay
Meanwhile, these are the kind of people leading US public health agencies:
Feds Blame Ebola as They Refuse to Bring Back Wrongly Deported Woman (TNR)
DHS deported Colombian immigrant Adriana Zapata, 55, to Congo — a country she has no ties to — a 2024 court order barred her return to Colombia due to documented torture by an abusive ex-partner with police connections
She has serious untreated medical conditions including severe vascular disease; Congolese officials said at the time of deportation they couldn’t care for her
A federal judge ordered her return; DHS responded by claiming they couldn’t find her — despite her address appearing in prior court filings and being shared in court the day before
When that failed, DHS cited the Ebola outbreak as justification for ignoring the court order — even though she’s in Kinshasa, which has no cases, and was deported before the outbreak was announced
RFK Jr fires leaders of group that sets guidelines for preventive healthcare (Guardian)
RFK Jr. fired the two chairs of the US Preventive Services Task Force — the panel that determines what preventive care insurance must cover for free, including mammograms and colonoscopies
No reason given in the termination letters; Kennedy told Congress last month he was reforming the “lackadaisical” panel
HHS had already largely sidelined the taskforce over the past year — postponing meetings and leaving cervical cancer screening updates and maternal depression guidelines in limbo
Health advocates fear Kennedy will replace expert members with political appointees, as he did with the vaccine advisory committee
MAHA’s latest conspiracy? Blaming Bill Gates for spike in tick bites (Independent)
Tick-related ER visits have hit their highest level in nearly a decade — the real cause is warmer winters, habitat changes, and reduced wildlife diversity
MAHA Moms Coalition is promoting a debunked conspiracy that Bill Gates bred and released ticks carrying alpha-gal syndrome to drive consumers toward plant-based meat — a theory fact-checked and disproven in 2023
A separate conspiracy blames Pfizer for planting ticks to create demand for their Lyme disease vaccine — which was actually announced before the tick surge and targets a bacterial protein, not mRNA
RFK Jr. himself previously said he “probably” promoted the Plum Island bioweapons origin theory for Lyme disease
Tuesday Primaries
Big wins, surprises and signals from Georgia’s primary night (AJC)
J6er Chuck Hand wins SD15 primary
Sentenced to 20 days in jail and 6 months probation for illegally demonstrating at Capitol
Ran for US House in ‘24
Another Trump enemy falls as Brad Raffensperger loses Georgia primary (Politico)
Brad Raffensperger — who defended Georgia’s 2020 results against Trump’s pressure — finished 3rd in the GOP gubernatorial primary
MAGA billionaire Rick Jackson ($65M self-funded) and Trump-endorsed Lt. Gov. Burt Jones ($28M) advanced to a runoff with 32.5% and 38.4% respectively
Both are courting the same MAGA base — runoff will test Trump’s endorsement power against Jackson’s cash
Georgia AG Chris Carr, another anti-overturn Republican, also failed to advance — old-school Georgia GOP is effectively finished
Former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms wins Democratic nomination for Georgia governor (GA Recorder)
Keisha Lance Bottoms won the Democratic gubernatorial nomination outright — no runoff needed
No Black person, no woman, and no former Atlanta mayor has ever been elected Georgia governor; Democrats haven’t won the office since 1998
She’ll face either Jones or Jackson in the general, with Republicans having already outspent Democrats by roughly $100 million to almost nothing
Bethel, Warren hang on to Georgia Supreme Court seats (GA Recorder)
Two Republican-appointed Georgia Supreme Court justices survived Democratic-backed challengers — Sarah Warren won comfortably; Charlie Bethel barely held on with 51.1%
Challengers Fmr. State Sen. Jen Jordan and personal injury attorney Miracle Rankin were backed by Planned Parenthood and reproductive rights groups; incumbents had Kemp and evangelical organizations behind them
Bethel’s near-loss signals real vulnerability on the court despite the nonpartisan ballot
Mike Collins and Derek Dooley head to runoff in Georgia Senate GOP race (Politico)
Trump-endorsed Congressman Collins led with 40.5%
Kemp-endorsed former football coach Dooley finished 2nd with 30%
Sets up a proxy fight between Trump and Gov. Kemp; Trump’s endorsement in the runoff could be decisive
Meanwhile Ossoff sits on $31 million and counting, watching Republicans burn through resources fighting each other
Alabama
Tuberville, Jones advance to November face off for Alabama governor (Montgomery Advertiser)
Tuberville wins the GOP primary easily, setting up a November rematch against former Democratic Sen. Doug Jones — who lost to Tuberville by 20 points in 2020
Kay Ivey is term-limited out, making this the first open governor’s race in years — and Tuberville enters as a heavy favorite in deep-red Alabama
Jones won the Democratic nomination with 73%; his platform centers on Medicaid expansion, early voting, a state lottery, and IVF protections
Steve Marshall concedes in U.S. Senate race; Barry Moore, Jared Hudson go to GOP runoff (AL Reflector)
Trump-endorsed Rep. Barry Moore led with 40% but fell short of 50%; former Navy SEAL Jared Hudson edged out AG Steve Marshall for second — Moore and Hudson head to a June 16 runoff
Marshall conceded Wednesday after finishing ~5,000 votes behind Hudson despite raising $1.4 million
Moore had Trump’s endorsement and Club for Growth backing; Hudson ran strong in Jefferson and Tuscaloosa counties
Alabama’s ‘ghost’ congressional primary: What you need to know about the special election (AL.com)
Supreme Court’s 6-3 ruling in Louisiana v. Callais reinstated Alabama’s previously invalidated maps, gutting VRA Section 2 protections across the South
Alabama voided its May 19 congressional primaries in four districts (AL-1, AL-2, AL-6, AL-7) before results were even released — first time since the 1800s; special elections set for August 11 with no runoff, plurality wins
All other May 19 races — governor, U.S. Senate, statewide offices — count normally; congressional runoffs go June 17
The new maps convert AL-2 from a majority-Black Democratic seat (currently held by Rep. Shomari Figures) to a majority-white Republican-leaning district
Kentucky
Trump picks off Massie in Kentucky (Politico)
Trump ousted seven-term Rep. Thomas Massie in Kentucky’s 4th District — defeated by Trump-endorsed former Navy SEAL Ed Gallrein in what became the most expensive intraparty House primary on record ($33M+ in ad spending)
Massie’s sins: voted against Trump’s tax-and-spending package, supported Iran war powers limits, and helped lead the bipartisan push to release the Epstein files
AIPAC-linked super PACs spent $9M+ against Massie; a Trump operative PAC spent nearly $7M more — outside money proved decisive
Defeat silences Trump’s loudest remaining Republican congressional critic and sends a clear warning to any remaining dissenters
Trump-backed Andy Barr wins GOP nomination for Mitch McConnell’s Senate seat in Kentucky (NBC)
Trump-endorsed Rep. Andy Barr won the GOP nomination for Mitch McConnell’s retiring Senate seat, defeating former state AG Daniel Cameron
Trump cleared the field by endorsing Barr and convincing businessman Nate Morris — who had Vance’s backing and strong MAGA ties — to drop out in exchange for an ambassadorship
Barr is a heavy favorite in November; Kentucky hasn’t elected a Democratic senator since 1992
Democratic nominee is Charles Booker, a two-time Senate candidate
Idaho
Nine Idaho Republican lawmakers lose primary election, including some who pushed for budget cuts (Idaho Capital Sun)
Nine Republican incumbent legislators lost their primaries in Idaho — five of them members of the “Gang of Eight,” a conservative bloc that pushed steep spending cuts during a session marked by a budget shortfall
The budget committee vice chair also lost his seat — voters appear to be punishing the austerity caucus
Gov. Brad Little survived an eight-way primary; incumbent congressional Republicans all held on
Idaho Democrats fielded candidates in all 35 legislative districts and all statewide and federal races — double their 2022 numbers and up significantly from 2024
Next Week: Texas
Trump’s endorsement of Ken Paxton over John Cornyn roils Texas Senate race (The Hill)
Trump endorsed scandal-plagued AG Ken Paxton over incumbent Sen. John Cornyn in the May 26 Texas GOP runoff — catching Senate leadership off guard and putting the seat in play
Cornyn has a massive money advantage ($20M vs. $5M in runoff spending) but Trump’s endorsement may be decisive; polls show Paxton tied with Democrat James Talarico vs. Cornyn’s slim lead
Murkowski warned the Senate majority is now in “jeopardy”; a Republican strategist told The Hill Trump’s leverage over Senate leadership “is now pretty much gone”
Oregon
Oregon voters decisive as they reject gas tax, renominate Drazan (OPB)
Christine Drazan won the GOP gubernatorial nomination, setting up a rematch against Democratic incumbent Gov. Tina Kotek — who beat her by 4 points in 2022
Oregon voters rejected a gas tax measure 80-20 — the Iran war has driven Oregon gas prices up 35% in the past year, making any new fuel taxes a non-starter
Drazan is notably avoiding any public mention of Trump; Kotek is making him the centerpiece of her general election argument
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania’s Democratic Gov. Shapiro wins his primary, as do his endorsed candidates (PBS)
Shapiro ran uncontested, went 3-for-3 with his endorsed candidates in three key swing congressional districts — targeting seats held by Reps. Scott Perry, Brian Fitzpatrick, and Ryan Mackenzie
Shapiro is framing his reelection around flipping the state legislature Democratic for the first time in 30+ years — promising to fund mass transit, build housing, and codify abortion rights if he gets a Democratic majority
He’s positioning himself as a national accountability figure against Trump, with 2028 White House talk already swirling around him
Progressive Rabb wins 3rd District race with boosts from ‘the squad’ and local grassroots activism (WHYY)
State Rep. Chris Rabb upset early favorite Sharif Street in Philadelphia’s 3rd Congressional District, winning ~45% to Street’s under 30% — backed by AOC, the Squad, Philly DSA, and the Working Families Party
Rabb was the only candidate calling for an end to U.S. aid to Israel and the only one willing to use the word “genocide” — a key differentiator in the race
Street’s concession framed it as a wake-up call: “There was a movement called ‘Reclaim’ — they wanted to reclaim their party”
The win is a direct rebuke of the Democratic establishment — 3rd-place Ala Stanford was hand-picked by incumbent Dwight Evans to succeed him, and Street had the most institutional support
Primary results spell the end for four PA House incumbents (City & State PA)
Four Pennsylvania House incumbents lost their primaries — three Democrats, one Republican
Most notable: Greg Vitali, a 33-year Democratic incumbent and environmental policy veteran, lost 62-38 to Haverford Township Commissioner Judy Trombetta
Republican Bud Cook lost by double digits to a pro-DOGE challenger; freshman Democratic Rep. Ana Tiburcio, just months into her first term, lost 56-44 to an Allentown city councilmember
DNC Autopsy
Facing intense internal pressure, DNC releases postelection autopsy that criticizes Kamala Harris (AP)
DNC released a 192-page 2024 autopsy — concluding Harris “wrote off rural America,” failed to hit Trump with sufficient negative firepower, and that Democrats’ messaging is too focused on reason and winning arguments “even in cycles when the electorate is defined by rage”
Report notably omits Biden’s decision to seek reelection, the rushed Harris substitution, and the Gaza divide — AOC called the Gaza omission “notable” and declined to back Martin’s leadership when asked directly
Martin sat on the report for months, released it with annotations calling its own findings “incomplete and unsubstantiated,” and then disowned it: “I am not proud of this product; it does not meet my standards”
The report’s primary author -– Paul Rivera, a friend of Martin’s — was quietly fired the same day it was released
Democratic operatives furious — not just at the findings, but at the timing: the party spent a day relitigating 2024 instead of hammering Trump on Iran, prices, and the ballroom slush fund
Dan Pfeiffer: “It’s hard to imagine anyone handling anything worse. He is not the right person to lead the DNC at this time”
Why the DNC autopsy report matters (Amanda Litman)
Litman’s bottom line: the report is garbage — Rivera never gathered all relevant data, didn’t record interviews, couldn’t be fact-checked, and omitted Biden’s age, Gaza, Tim Walz, TikTok, and YouTube entirely
Martin’s real failure wasn’t the bad report — it was getting a bad report back and not fixing it, not holding the author accountable, and then spending five months gaslighting people who asked about it
The DNC currently has negative $3 million cash on hand — Martin is failing at the most basic function of the job before the autopsy scandal even started
Litman’s core argument: the rules governing how the 2028 primary gets run are being written right now — and after this, no one will trust Martin to oversee that process fairly
“We should not settle for mediocre men enabling other mediocre men to fail to the top” — Martin needs to go
Stolen Election?
Ex-MAGA influencer shares election conspiracy theory involving Elon Musk (Raw Story)
Caveat: Ashley St. Clair is a motivated source — she’s had a bitter public falling out with Musk, alleges he cut her child support for “disobedience” and spent fewer than four hours with their child in its first year
She claims Musk told her personally that he knew Trump won hours before the AP called the race at 5:34 a.m. on November 6
She alleges Musk possessed “real-time data” on elections through secretive satellite technology
She says Musk shared internal America PAC data with her that raised questions about how he obtained election information not available through standard door-knocking operations
The Gap in How America Detects Election Fraud I Found in the Epstein Files (Downwind of Truth)
What’s documented: Musk texted a confidant on October 5, 2024 about unleashing “the anomaly in the matrix” through “lasers from space” that was “not something on the chessboard” — the NYT verified those texts; St. Clair says he told her the same thing in person
What’s documented: Epstein’s recovered files show him recruiting NSA-trained mathematicians specializing in wavelet analysis — the exact mathematical technique whose output is literally called “an anomaly in a matrix” — while simultaneously advising on the satellite project that became Starlink and maintaining direct contact with Musk
What’s documented: Tripp Lite — whose battery backup units are physically connected to vote tabulation servers across the country — was transferred to Eaton Corporation through Leonard Leo’s dark money network; Eaton then partnered with Peter Thiel’s Palantir; Starlink’s Direct-to-Cell satellites were emergency-authorized in swing states six days before the election and 265 new DTC-capable satellites were activated October 30
What’s alleged but unproven: that this infrastructure was used to push unaudited firmware updates through battery backup devices into vote counting servers, shifting presidential totals without touching down-ballot races
What the data shows — but doesn’t prove: precinct-level analysis in North Carolina found Trump outperformed other Republicans by 5.5% while Harris underperformed other Democrats by 1.8%, with the gap larger in Election Day counts than early votes — exactly the pattern the theory would predict, though researchers like Mebane caution most anomalies may be ticket-splitters
What Justice says would prove or disprove it: a paper ballot hand count, an independent wavelet analysis of precinct data, forensic examination of battery backup firmware, and Starlink’s DTC connection logs from the election window — none of which has been done
Epstein
Former Epstein assistant Sarah Kellen testified before the House committee. Here’s what we know (PBS)
Epstein’s former personal assistant Sarah Kellen testified in a closed-door House Oversight deposition — describing herself as a survivor, not an accomplice: “I was a literal indentured slave. I had zero power or authority”
Kellen says the federal government branded her a criminal in the 2007 non-prosecution agreement without ever once contacting her — she didn’t know her name was in the document until it became public two years later
Committee chair Comer said members of both parties were split on whether to view Kellen as survivor or accomplice — but noted DOJ treated her as an aid to prosecution, not a co-conspirator
She reportedly named three previously unnamed men who had sexually abused her during the testimony.
Here is who Epstein’s longtime assistant accused of sexual abuse (CNN)
Frédéric Fekkai: celebrity hairstylist with a long documented relationship with Epstein — used his apartments, asked him for business help, was described by Maxwell as “friendly, very friendly” with Epstein; Kellen alleges he assaulted her in a Hawaii hotel room in the early 2000s before she even met Epstein; his rep flatly denies it
Philip Levine: former Miami Beach mayor and failed 2018 gubernatorial candidate; Epstein files show years of contact with both Epstein and Maxwell — Levine wrote Epstein after his release from jail saying “you are a great guy”; Maxwell says Levine introduced her to Bill Clinton and called them “very good friends”; Kellen alleges he assaulted her at an Epstein/Maxwell rental in St. Tropez; Levine previously said he only met Epstein “a few times” and regrets it
Patrick Demarchelier: French fashion photographer, died 2022; Kellen testified he introduced her to Epstein — characterizing him as a scout for Victoria’s Secret models; she alleges he exposed himself to her; no direct connection to Epstein appears in the DOJ files, and he cannot respond to the allegations
None of the three have been charged; Comer called Kellen’s testimony “by far the most substantive and productive interview” the committee has conducted
Jeffrey Epstein Was CIA. The Communications Network at Zorro Ranch Proves It. (The Pugilist)
What’s documented:
Epstein rejected cheap gigabit fiber for Zorro Ranch and instead chose a 27-mile encrypted military-grade microwave link to Sandia Crest — dismissing bandwidth twice because, Valdes-Rodriguez argues, he wasn’t moving large files, he was transmitting something specific and covert
The contractor who built it — Future Technologies Venture — specializes in “mission-critical connectivity” for government and military environments, and now holds a $151B Missile Defense Agency contract under the Golden Dome initiative
The system connected to a satellite earth station with direct-to-orbit uplink capability, authorized under an active FCC license — creating an untraceable data path from Zorro Ranch to anywhere on Earth
Donald Barr — father of AG William Barr, who oversaw Epstein’s custody and death — served in the OSS and hired the teenage, degree-less Epstein to teach math at Dalton School in 1973
Henry Singleton, OSS veteran and defense contractor who built missile guidance systems, owned the neighboring ranch and was Epstein’s first-choice relay point; his son appears in Epstein’s black book
The FCC licenses for Epstein’s encrypted microwave network are still active under new ownership — Donald and Mary Catherine Huffines, who secretly met with Russian officials in 2018 to help deliver a Trump letter to Putin and negotiate the release of Russian spy Maria Butina; Huffines is currently running for Texas comptroller with Trump’s endorsement
What she concludes but hasn’t proven:
Epstein was a multigenerational CIA asset, identified and cultivated by Barr Sr. possibly as young as age ten
The network running through Epstein had simultaneous American, Israeli, and Russian intelligence components — and protected itself across administrations through the children of its founders
The full Epstein files have never been released precisely because they would expose this network, not merely the abuse
Indiana Elections
Dems Get a Boost
National Democratic group aims to help break GOP’s Indiana House supermajority (IndyStar)
The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee — the national party arm dedicated to flipping state legislative chambers — is targeting 11 Indiana House races, including five in central Indiana, marking the first time national Democrats have invested at this level in the statehouse
Democrats need to flip just four seats to break the Republican supermajority, which would give them the ability to deny quorum on controversial bills
Most competitive races: HD-25 (R-Cash vs. D-Stoner — separated by 60 votes in 2024), HD-62 (R-Hall defended by just 2 points), HD-71 (D-Dant Chesser defended by 3 points)
Hamilton County seats HD-24 (R-Hunter Smith vs. D-Rachael Bleicher) and HD-39 (R-Danny Lopez vs. D-Lindsay Gramlich) are among the targets — reflecting continued Democratic hopes in Indianapolis suburbs going purple
Democrats are playing both offense and defense — some targets are seats they already hold by razor-thin margins, others are pickup opportunities in districts that trended close last cycle
Republican Recounts
Trump-backed candidate seeks recount in Indiana Senate race with 3-vote margin (ICC)
Trump-backed Paula Copenhaver — a staffer to Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith — has filed for a recount after losing to Sen. Spencer Deery by just three votes in the SD-23 Republican primary
Copenhaver claims 14 Democrats or self-identified progressives crossed over to vote in the open Republican primary for Deery, who was targeted by Trump for voting against the congressional redistricting plan
Deery’s response: “Our state and country are ill-served anytime a candidate refuses to accept the will of the voters” — a notable line coming from a Republican
Recount could drag into July given the six-county district; Copenhaver’s attorneys want to depose the 14 identified voters, arguing they waived ballot secrecy by publicly disclosing their votes on social media
Challenger seeks recount of 15-vote loss to Republican Sen. Liz Brown (ICC)
Sen. Liz Brown’s challenger Darren Vogt — a Jim Banks staffer also backed by AG Todd Rokita — filed for a recount after losing SD-15 by just 15 votes; technical glitches in Allen County left preliminary tallies incomplete until the day after the primary
Brown, who is Trump-endorsed and voted FOR the redistricting bill, turned it around on her opponents: “Is Jim Banks funding this, or is Rokita trying one final tactic to rid the Senate of its most independent conservative voice?”
GOP Secretary of State’s Race
GOP secretary of state race scrambled as US Sen. Banks’ staffer enters (ICC)
Jim Banks’ senior staffer Max Engling entered the Republican secretary of state race just one month before the June 20 convention — despite Banks having endorsed incumbent Diego Morales just two months earlier
David Shelton — Knox County Clerk and year-long candidate who has criticized Morales’ conduct in office — called Engling “just another amateur wanting a job he has no qualifications for” and said Banks is clearly abandoning Morales: “They’re cutting bait on Diego”
Engling previously ran for Indiana’s 5th Congressional District in 2024, finishing third with under 10% — before that he was an aide to Kevin McCarthy
Morales refuses to drop out after Banks, Rokita withdraw support in GOP secretary of state race (ICC)
Banks and Rokita jointly withdrew their endorsements of Morales and backed Engling — Banks citing a specific scandal: a former Morales staffer, allegedly a non-citizen, was registered to vote using a temporary driver’s license
Rokita personally called Morales and asked him to drop out; Morales refused — “The decision belongs in the hands and only the hands of Republican convention delegates”
Morales has faced a string of controversies: a taxpayer-funded vehicle, unexplained international travel, and no-bid contracts for donors
Most of Indiana’s Republican congressional delegation lined up behind Engling; Shelton — who has been running for a year — called it “political scrambling and backroom pressure campaigns”
Braun says he’s neutral in turbulent GOP Indiana secretary of state race (ICC)
State Treasurer Daniel Elliott became the latest Republican to break with Morales — calling on him to resign as secretary of state entirely, not just drop out of the race
Braun stayed neutral, noting he never endorsed Morales to begin with — pointedly adding “whenever you try to intervene and say this or that, I don’t like that”
Full November field shaping up: Republican convention (June 20) features Morales, Engling, Shelton, and Reitenour; Democratic convention (June 6) is Beau Bayh vs. Army veteran Blythe Potter; former GOP Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard running as Lincoln Party; Libertarian Lauri Shillings also on the ballot
Rokita Fuckery
30 major fuel retailers under investigation for price gouging in Indiana (ICC)
Rokita’s office is formally investigating 30 major fuel retailers for price gouging following Gov. Braun’s April energy emergency, which suspended both the 7% gasoline sales tax and the 36-cents-a-gallon excise tax through June 7
170+ consumer complaints received; investigators are comparing retail prices to wholesale costs seven days before and after the April 8 executive order
AG’s office built a public dashboard tracking prices at 4,600 Indiana gas stations — INFuelWatch.com — so consumers can check prices and file complaints directly
SHADES OF COMEY CASE: ACLU says Indiana man did not threaten state officials by posting ‘86’ on social media (Indiana Citizen)
Rokita’s office sent an investigator to a Monroe County man’s home to warn him he could be indicted — for posting “86” on the Facebook pages of Rokita, Lt. Gov. Beckwith, and Sen. Banks
The ACLU filed suit, arguing “86” is standard slang for “remove” or “get rid of” — not a threat — and that the door-step visit by a badge-carrying investigator is textbook First Amendment intimidation
The visit was recorded by a door camera; the investigator explicitly invoked the indictment (by Trump’s DOJ) of former FBI Director James Comey: “If Comey was indicted, we could easily indict you over this today”
Rokita’s response: called the ACLU “anti-American,” “deranged,” and running a “communist” mission — and vowed to drain their bank account in court
Indiana is trying to undo court-approved birth record changes for transgender people (WFYI)
Rokita’s office has been intervening in closed, sometimes sealed court cases — cases the state was never a party to — to reverse judge-approved gender marker changes on birth certificates for transgender Hoosiers
At least nine cases confirmed; in one instance Rokita intervened a full year after the judge ruled; his office won’t say how many interventions it has pursued or how many it has reversed
Indianapolis resident Rhye Carroll had her case sealed and closed in October 2025, updated all her documents, and booked an overseas trip — then learned in April that Rokita had reopened her case and is seeking to reverse the order
The legal hook: Braun’s March 2025 executive order directing state agencies to enforce a “biological binary” — which prompted the health department to stop processing gender marker changes entirely and forward all requests to Rokita’s office instead
Rokita wants ‘teeth’ for Indiana ban on human sexuality content (ICC)
After the ACLU dropped its challenge to Indiana’s “Don’t Say Gay” law — which bans human sexuality instruction for preschool through third grade — Rokita declared victory and immediately called for expanding the ban to every grade
Rokita now says he doesn’t trust the Department of Education to enforce the law and wants lawmakers to give it more “teeth” — his benchmark for comparison: the 14 teachers who lost licenses this year after criminal convictions
ACLU: “Vague censorship laws chill speech and leave educators questioning how to serve their students” — the organization dropped the suit after losing at the Seventh Circuit but says its concerns remain
Education
Indiana’s reading recovery ranks sixth in national report (ICC)
Indiana ranked 6th in reading recovery — but the average Hoosier student is still 0.31 grade equivalents behind 2019 levels; the 6th place ranking just means we’re losing less badly than most states
Math is worse: Indiana ranked 29th, still half a grade level below 2019, with researchers citing constantly shifting state standards, eroding teacher licensing requirements, and mass mid-year teacher departures
The “learning recession” started nationally in 2013 — seven years before the pandemic; Across the US, eighth graders are now at their lowest scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress since 1990
Harvard researcher: “The pandemic was the mudslide that followed seven years of erosion”
Indiana charters edged traditional public schools in academic gains after COVID, study says (Chalkbeat)
A Brown University study found Indiana charter school students posted greater academic gains post-COVID than traditional public school peers — with the gap growing each year from 2021-22 through 2023-24
Gains were most pronounced for Black and Hispanic students and the lowest-performing and economically disadvantaged — groups that charter advocates will tout heavily
Key caveat: the study is still undergoing peer review, researchers haven’t yet determined why charters outperformed, and the analysis excluded rural students almost entirely due to the lack of charters there
Important questions about methodology and context (Wildstyle Paschall)
The innovation charter schools are NOT performing better, the study doesn’t seem to mention it
Even Chalkbeat doesn’t calculate White students data because of data suppression
Many schools changed grade levels and charter schools opened and closed making direct comparisons complicated
Award winning Indy charter schools have been caught TARGETING students using incredibly high discipline to push out special needs children
BOTH IPS, innovation charters and independent charters as a whole are NOT meeting the state average and the “success” gap between any of them is SMALL
Allissa Impink gave up her IPS board seat so voters could fill it. Majority of spots now on November ballot (WFYI)
IPS board member Allissa Impink resigned effective June 15 — timing it deliberately before the June 18 filing deadline so voters, not the board, choose her replacement through 2028
Combined with three expiring seats and another vacancy, five of seven IPS board seats will be on the November ballot — the first under Indiana’s new partisan school board election law
The stakes couldn’t be higher: IPS faces a $40 million cash deficit, an expiring operating referendum, and a state-created body (IPEC) that has already stripped the elected board of control over buildings, transportation, and property tax levying
Quality of Life
Carmel, Fishers named top 2 places to live in country by U.S. News & World Report (WTHR)
U.S. News & World Report ranked Carmel #1 and Fishers #2 on its 2026-27 “Best Places to Live in the U.S.” list — with Noblesville at #18 and Greenwood at #26
The rankings evaluate value, desirability, job market, and quality of life across 850+ cities
Worth noting: these are among the wealthiest, whitest, most politically homogeneous suburbs in the state — the rankings measure amenities, not equity
So yeah, top places to live…
Unless you’re a trans person who wants to live their life openly
Unless you’re a woman who needs access to abortion care
Unless you’re the kind of person who doesn’t want to live in a…
Militarized Police State
National Guard says first members of new military police force ready for deployment (WRTV)
Braun signed a law creating a designated military police response force within the Indiana National Guard — the governor alone can deploy it anytime he believes civilian agencies are “overwhelmed,” with no requirement that local officials request it
The first 40 National Guard MPs have completed a supplemental Indiana law enforcement training course — but critics note it’s a workshop, not the full academy curriculum required of civilian officers
Rep. Matt Pierce’s warning: this opens the door for a governor who doesn’t like a particular mayor or local officials to deploy military police into urban communities without their consent — a dynamic already playing out at the federal level under Trump in D.C.
Braun and the bill’s author say coordination with local law enforcement would happen “as a matter of course” — but that coordination is not legally required
Data Centers
Here’s how Indy plans to regulate data centers (Mirror Indy)
Indianapolis City-County Council on May 4 unanimously passed a resolution calling for a pause on new data center approvals until the city can adopt new zoning regulations — but it’s purely symbolic, the Metropolitan Development Commission doesn’t have to comply, and a Republican councilor called it “political theater”
Proposed zoning regulations are expected to be discussed over the coming months and would cap noise at 65 decibels and require developers to submit water management, electrical capacity, and noise mitigation plans — but critics say it doesn’t touch health and environmental concerns
Two data centers already approved this year: a $500M complex in the Martindale-Brightwood neighborhood and an 18-football-field-sized facility in Decatur Township; about a dozen Indiana counties have issued moratoriums, with Marshall County going further with a permanent ban
Residents push back on a $2 billion data center proposal on Indy’s east side (WFYI)
Georgia-based DC Blox wants to build a $2 billion, three-building data center campus on Indy’s east side — a former Ford factory brownfield — using up to 78 megawatts of electricity (about as much as a city the size of Muncie or Anderson) and 56 backup generators
Dozens of residents showed up with “Block DC Blox” signs, raising concerns about noise, water use, power grid strain, and the health risks of digging up contaminated soil on a brownfield site
Critical procedural detail: because DC Blox filed for a variance rather than a rezoning, the City-County Council has no veto — opponents must convince the Metropolitan Development Commission directly at the June 11 hearing or the project moves forward
