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SUMMARY:
This week Scott is joined by two first-time guests: Candy Greer, running for Indiana House District 64, and James Coogle, running for Harrison County Council. The show opens with three days of United Nations General Assembly coverage — Trump’s ultimatum to Iran, Iranian President Pezeshkian’s podium rebuttal and the stalled diplomatic proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, and Netanyahu’s combative address amid mounting evidence he was warned ahead of October 7th — before turning to Xi Jinping’s high-pomp Washington visit and the thin US-China trade truce. From there the conversation shifts to AI regulation, contrasting Trump’s deregulatory “superintelligence” push with China’s more cautious posture, then into a run of Indiana and national law-enforcement stories: the IMPD flock-camera abuse scandal, and a string of ICE incidents including a Venezuelan asylum seeker shot in the back and left in custody with untreated wounds. That leads into a segment on Republicans quietly distancing themselves from Trump as his approval sinks into the high-20s to low-30s, including a rundown of increasingly favorable Senate and House polling for Democrats. The back half of the show continues wihtin that polling discussion, before turning to a ProPublica investigation tying Susan Collins to a dead FBI bribery probe, Trump’s disclosure of over 1,100 stock trades, and the escalating Spartz-Ford insider-trading fight in Indiana’s Fifth District. The conversation then moves to voting-rights threats nationally — a Texas registration backlog, the collapse of DHS’s noncitizen-voter claims in Nevada, and the Supreme Court reviving the SAVE database — before a segment on press freedom and media consolidation: Trump’s CNN/Politico/MS NOW ban, the launch of Trump TV, taxpayer-funded propaganda ads, and the Paramount–Warner Bros. Discovery merger. The show closes out with Indiana utility and infrastructure news (forced coal-plant orders, a $175 million grid grant, and the state’s first nuclear reactor at Crane), then healthcare (the ACA subsidy cuts and looming Medicaid work requirements) and education (Rokita’s suit against the IHSAA and the ballooning cost of Indiana’s voucher program).
Guest info:
Candy Greer: https://www.facebook.com/p/Candace-Candy-Greer-for-Indiana-House-District-64-61587291720984/
James Coogle: https://www.facebook.com/p/James-Coogle-for-Harrison-County-Council-District-2-61586692627461/
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
00:00:00 - Intro
00:04:29 - UN General Assembly Day One: Trump’s Iran Ultimatum
00:09:52 - UN Day Two: Pezeshkian, Iran Diplomacy, and Trump’s Veiled Threat
00:14:34 - UN Day Three: Netanyahu’s Combative Address and Global Backlash
00:20:21 - Xi Jinping’s US Visit and the US-China Trade Truce
00:26:34 - AI Regulation: The US-China Divide and Congressional Pushback
00:34:20 - Indiana’s Flock Camera Abuse Scandal
00:41:53 - ICE Abuses and the Cost of Mass Detention
00:51:09 - GOP Defections Amid Trump’s Record-Low Approval Ratings
00:59:22 - Midterm Polling: Senate and House Races Break Democrats’ Way
01:06:46 - Susan Collins and the Navatek Bribery Probe
01:10:50 - Trump’s Stock Trades and the Spartz-Ford Race in Indiana
01:14:40 - Voting Rights: Texas Backlog, Nevada Claims, and the SCOTUS SAVE Ruling
01:23:57 - Media Under Siege: Trump’s Press Ban, Trump TV, and the Paramount-WBD Merger
01:36:43 - Indiana Energy: Coal Plant Orders, the Grid Grant, and the Crane Nuclear Reactor
01:45:09 - Healthcare: The ACA Purge and Medicaid Work Requirements
01:54:30 - Education: The Rokita-IHSAA Suit and the Voucher Program’s Cost to Public Schools
02:02:05 - Wrap-Up and Guest Sign-Offs
NOTES:
Foreign Relations
UN General Assembly
UN chief calls for AI curbs and end to wars in his last assembly address (Reuters)
In his final General Assembly address before his term ends December 31, UN Secretary-General António Guterres urged world leaders to regulate AI, end wars, act on climate change and overhaul UN institutions that he said reflect “a largely bygone age.”
He called for a “multilateral AI risk management framework, supported by credible and independent oversight.” Separately, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the US has proposed an AI safety notification mechanism for Trump and Xi to consider at their summit this week.
On the Middle East, Guterres called for de-escalation as Houthi gains threaten Red Sea shipping, saying “The fighting must stop. Humanitarian aid must flow.” He drew sustained applause for defending a two-state solution and insisting “polluters must pay.”
The speech closes a decade in which major powers increasingly bypassed the UN and Washington cut its funding. Xi and the leaders of South Africa, India and Germany skipped this year’s gathering.
Trump in United Nations speech says ‘big decision’ ahead: Make a deal or ‘annihilate’ Iran (ABC)
In his UN General Assembly speech, Trump said he faces a “big decision”: make a deal with Iran or “annihilate the Islamic Republic” and “drive them into hell with no chance of survival.” He has backed off large threats against Iran at least eight times since the war began nearly seven months ago.
He predicted a deal “right after the election” because Iran is “waiting to see how I do in the midterm election,” then said it “has to be done fast.”
Trump denied a munitions shortage despite the Pentagon’s own acknowledgment of one, saying “the cowards and traitors would love to say the United States is low.” He promised oil prices would “come plummeting down” once the war ends; gas averages $4.46, about $1.52 higher than when the war began.
He asserted US dominance over the Western Hemisphere, saying the administration seeks “a fundamental change in the situation in Cuba,” which prompted the Cuban delegation to walk out. He also touted the Venezuela oil deal, the military strikes on alleged drug traffickers, and the new Greenland agreement, which he signed later that day.
On AI, Trump said the US will “encourage it, not rein it in,” said he would rebrand the technology as “super-intelligence,” and claimed “whoever wins super-intelligence wins.”
UN General Assembly updates: Trump warns Iran; Qatar, Turkiye slam Israel (Al Jazeera)
Leaders of Qatar, Jordan and Turkey sharply criticized Israel’s conduct in Gaza and the West Bank. Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim said Gaza had experienced “a genocide in every sense of the word” and that “there can be no talk of a just international order as long as Palestine remains a blind spot.”
France’s Emmanuel Macron said the Ukraine-backing “coalition of the willing” will “not yield an inch.” He proposed a “double moratorium” halting Russian and Ukrainian strikes on energy infrastructure and attacks in the Black Sea. On Gaza, he told the assembly, “Shame on all of us.”
Israel pushed back hard on UN Secretary-General António Guterres after he said West Bank settlement expansion raised “the spectre of ethnic cleansing.” UN Ambassador Danny Danon called the speech “anti-Israel propaganda,” and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said he’s “proud to lead the settlement revolution” that “effectively eliminates the idea of a Palestinian state.”
Turkey, Pakistan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia issued a joint statement affirming Riyadh’s right to defend itself against escalating Houthi attacks.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas met Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and insisted “there were no tolls or fees for passage before the war, and there should be none after.” EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen urged world leaders to “step up support for Ukraine’s defence,” noting €37 billion remains available for Kyiv in 2026.
Iran
Here’s what happened on day 2 of the UN General Assembly (NPR)
A day after Trump’s “annihilate” threat, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian called the US a terrorist state from the UN podium. He held up photos of Iran’s slain supreme leader and of schoolgirls killed in a strike the Pentagon is still investigating, and said: “We have only defended ourselves. We are not terrorists.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio countered that Iran has no standing to lecture on human rights after “slaughtering 10,000 of your own people in protests” earlier this year. He said US and Iranian negotiators are holding talks through mediators on the sidelines, framing Iran’s choice as “do they want to be a country or do they want to be a revolution?”
On Ukraine, Rubio met Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and said both sides had shown interest in a limited ceasefire covering grain and energy. At a later Security Council meeting, Lavrov said Russia has no intention of pausing its “special military operation.”
Ukraine’s foreign minister accused Russia of pulling in thousands of mercenaries from 37 African countries. US Ambassador Mike Waltz added that Cuban mercenaries are also involved, raised concerns about Russian violations of NATO airspace, and called the conflict’s spread “unacceptable” and “dangerous.”
Iran’s president gives a rare wartime speech at the U.N. (NPR)
In a rare wartime address by a leader of a country at war with the US, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian answered Trump directly from the same podium: “Yesterday the United States president described us as terrorists. We have been the victims of terrorism.”
He denied Iran seeks a nuclear weapon but refused limits on its civilian nuclear program, saying “We seek energy for progress” and that Iran “must be powerful so as to avoid being threatened.”
He left the door open to talks on his own terms: “It must be understood by Mr. Trump and those who seek to bully us that we are ready for dialogue and diplomacy and negotiations without accepting the language of force.”
Iran’s Foreign Ministry said messages have been exchanged with the US through Qatar. Iran’s stated conditions are a halt to US hostilities, an end to the US naval blockade of Iranian ports, and the release of frozen Iranian funds.
Iran proposes a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz in 7 days if the US meets its conditions (AP)
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Iran would reopen the Strait of Hormuz and resume nuclear talks within seven days if the US lifts its naval blockade of Iranian ports, waives sanctions on Iranian oil sales and observes a ceasefire that includes Lebanon. “The seven-day timeline will start as soon as the United States accepts this plan,” he said.
Under the proposal, conveyed to Washington through Qatar, the strait would reopen on day six and US-Iran talks on a final deal would begin on day seven.
The plan closely resembles June’s interim agreement, which called for a 60-day window and collapsed quickly after Iran resumed attacks on shipping.
The White House said only that talks with mediators are “positive and constructive.” A source told AP that Saudi Arabia is skeptical of the new push.
There are open questions on both sides: Trump says he’s in no rush despite oil-driven inflation, and it’s unclear whether the hard-liners who dominate Iran’s security forces would accept compromises backed by moderates like President Pezeshkian.
Trump ‘rejects’ Iran’s seven-day ceasefire proposal. What’s next? (Al Jazeera)
Trump has reportedly ruled out Iran’s 7-day plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, per WSJ, just days after threatening at the UN to “annihilate” Iran; the US hasn’t responded publicly.
Iran’s proposal, per FM Araghchi, would restart the failed June MoU terms on a fast track: $12B in unfrozen assets, lifted oil sanctions, and an end to the naval blockade — with talks on a “final deal” starting day seven.
A US official told Al Jazeera Washington is in no rush, seeing itself in a strong position on Hormuz; Trump posted a map on Truth Social labeling the strait “Trump Strait.”
Qatar is still shuttling messages between the two sides at the UN, and both call the mediated talks “positive and constructive,” though an Atlantic Council fellow says Washington remains deeply skeptical the two sides are “on the same page.”
Per WSJ’s sourcing, Trump has told aides he expects to resume bombing Iran after the midterms; one analyst says a bad midterm result for the GOP could push him toward unilateral escalation instead of a deal.
Israel
Key speeches and moments from UNGA Day 3: Netanyahu lambasts Iran, defends Gaza war (CNN)
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas spoke by video from Ramallah after the Trump administration again denied him a visa, a move he called “unlawful punitive measures” that violate US obligations as UN host. He urged implementation of the stalled 20-point Gaza ceasefire plan: “What is the international community waiting for in order to protect the Palestinian people?”
Nepal’s PM Balendra Shah, whose country lost at least 1,400 people in last month’s glacier-collapse floods with more than 5,500 still missing, said his nation produces under 0.1% of global emissions yet is paying a “colossal price.” He said climate change “forces a poor country to borrow money to repair damage it did not cause,” and proposed a Nepal-India-China “Himalaya Climate Resilience Mechanism” for shared monitoring and early warnings.
France’s Emmanuel Macron said France will send soldiers, radars and air-defense systems to protect Saudi Arabia’s Houthi-damaged Yanbu oil export complex, “not to engage in any conflict but to protect this site.”
Yemen’s internationally recognized vice president warned world leaders not to be “reassured by false promises” from the Houthis. He said their current pause on ship attacks “does not mean at all it will not do so tomorrow” and called for securing the Bab al-Mandeb Strait.
Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev met Trump envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner in New York to discuss US-Russia cooperation and ending the war in Ukraine, a day after Secretary of State Rubio met Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov on the sidelines.
Netanyahu calls Israel’s war in Gaza ‘opposite of genocide’ in UN speech (Guardian)
In a combative UN address that doubled as a stump speech ahead of Israel’s October elections, Benjamin Netanyahu declared Israel’s war in Gaza “the opposite of genocide,” branded Turkey’s Erdoğan a “tyrant” who “hosts Hamas terrorists,” and called Zohran Mamdani “the antisemitic mayor of New York.”
On Iran, he said striking its nuclear facilities was “one of the easiest decisions I’ve ever had to make... because if we hadn’t done it, we’d all be dead,” and suggested Iranian missiles could have destroyed the UN itself.
Dozens of delegations walked out at a Palestinian call, aiming to show no one would be “complicit in its genocide and war crimes and illegal occupation.” Netanyahu responded: “If there are any other moral cowards in the audience, I urge them to walk out.”
More than 100 protesters, including several local elected officials, were arrested outside as hundreds rallied with “End the Genocide” signs.
The speech offered little new on Gaza, West Bank settler violence or the Iran war. Netanyahu isn’t expected to meet Trump or other senior US officials this trip amid growing international isolation.
Netanyahu Is Said to Have Been Warned About Hamas Attack Before Oct. 7 (NYT)
The New York Times, citing two sources, reports that UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed personally called Netanyahu in late September 2023 to warn that Hamas was planning a major attack. The warning was vague on specifics but proved correct days later on October 7. Netanyahu denies receiving any such call.
According to five former senior Israeli officials, the warning never reached Israel’s security chiefs. Minutes of an October 1, 2023 security meeting show Netanyahu never mentioned it, instead urging calm in Gaza and pushing back on proposed strikes against Hamas leaders because they might sabotage an expected Saudi normalization deal.
Sheikh Mohammed separately described the call months later to then-CIA Director William Burns, according to a person familiar with that conversation. The warning doesn’t appear in any of Israel’s internal investigations into the October 7 failures.
The report undercuts Netanyahu’s campaign argument, ahead of Israel’s late-October election, that military and intelligence officials bear the blame. He and his allies have blocked a state commission of inquiry, and his opponents say the revelation shows why he’s “fighting for his life — to thwart the establishment of a state commission of inquiry.”
Exclusive: Board of Peace quietly met with UNRWA, ex-agency chief says (AP)
Publicly, the US-created Board of Peace says there’s no place for UNRWA in Gaza’s future. But former UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini told AP that board members and the Palestinian technocratic committee meant to govern Gaza have quietly met with the agency at least three times this year. A Board of Peace official confirmed multiple meetings.
Lazzarini said committee leader Ali Shaath told him, “I don’t know how I can succeed without you.” He called the board’s stance an “absurd contradiction,” since member countries still “expect it to deliver.”
Nearly a year after the ceasefire, there’s been no reconstruction, and Israel still blocks the Palestinian committee from entering Gaza until Hamas disarms. That leaves UNRWA as Gaza’s largest aid provider, with about 11,000 staff running roughly half the public health system, water systems for over a million people, and schooling for more than 280,000 children.
A board official insisted “UNRWA’s days are over” but said its programs and vetted staff “may persist if they are serving Gazans well.” Israel accuses the agency of Hamas infiltration, allegations the International Court of Justice says have not been substantiated.
Xi Visits US
Trump welcomes China’s Xi to Washington with planeside ceremony and extension of trade truce (AP)
Trump personally greeted Chinese President Xi Jinping on arrival at Joint Base Andrews, a rare planeside welcome complete with a 100-foot red carpet and a B-1 bomber flyover, for a three-day state visit expected to be more pomp than substance. Xi had not met Trump at the airport during Trump’s visit to Beijing earlier this year.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced an extension of the US-China trade truce to January 10, shorter than the longer extension China wanted. Analysts said the tight window lets the US test whether China follows through on unmet commitments on critical minerals and farm purchases.
Senate Armed Services Chair Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) criticized the “lavish welcome,” saying Trump shouldn’t have invited Xi given “all of the troubling issues we have.” Former Obama diplomat Danny Russel called the pomp a propaganda win for Beijing: “Such extreme deference is valuable evidence that China’s leader is now held in extraordinarily high esteem.”
Xi said the two countries “should be partners, not rivals,” adding that “the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and making America great again can go hand in hand.”
Trump-Xi summit: Four key takeaways from the Washington, DC, meeting (Al Jazeera)
On Day 2, Trump called his talks with Xi “a great meeting” without offering details, praising “a truly great friendship... built on mutual respect.” Xi urged both countries to avoid the “Thucydides Trap” of conflict between rising and established powers, saying it “should be a race of catching up with one another, not a wrestle in which one either wins or loses.”
There was no breakthrough on Iran. Trump has pressed Beijing, Iran’s largest trading partner, to help isolate Tehran and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, but Xi said only that he supports the US and Iran returning to the interim deal that collapsed in June.
On Taiwan, Chinese state media reported that Xi urged Trump to oppose Taiwanese independence and handle the issue “prudently”; the White House hasn’t released its own readout. Trump has already postponed final approval of a $14 billion arms package for Taipei, calling arms sales “a very good negotiating chip.”
Criticism of the visit crossed party lines. Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen said Trump “always deludes himself into thinking that, by ingratiating himself with authoritarians, he’s somehow going to get his way.” Republican Sen. Rand Paul welcomed it: “Talk more, war less.”
Xi wraps up Trump visit with tea at the White House and tour of National Archives (CNN)
Xi’s three-day visit ended with a White House tea and a tour of the National Archives, where the leaders viewed the Declaration of Independence and Constitution. Trump told Xi, “Ours goes 250 years and we’re very proud of it. But theirs goes 6,000 years.”
Trump said American farmers “are going to be very happy” and that “we’ve made great strides,” but neither leader announced any concrete agreements. Asked about Iran and the Strait of Hormuz, Trump said they discussed it and “I think we’re going to do great,” without elaborating.
Xi said the relationship’s prospects will get “brighter” and pointed to two more meetings this year. Trump confirmed he’ll attend APEC in Shenzhen November 18-19 and will host the G20 in Miami in December.
Tech Dystopia
AI
China’s AI firms DeepSeek, Moonshot invited to attend UN Security Council meeting on AI-related risks: report (Global Times)
Representatives from Chinese AI firms DeepSeek and Moonshot were invited to brief the UN Security Council’s meeting on AI and international security, alongside OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Anthropic’s Dario Amodei and Hugging Face’s Clément Delangue. It’s only the second time AI has been formally on the Council’s agenda, after a first debate in 2023.
The France-chaired meeting follows Guterres’s UNGA warning that AI risks “cannot be ignored.” Days earlier, China released an updated “AI Safety Governance Framework 3.0” revising how it classifies AI risks.
China’s foreign ministry said Beijing supports the UN as “the main channel in global AI governance” and puts “equal emphasis on development and security.” Chinese experts cast the invitation as proof that meaningful governance needs all major players, including the Global South, and pushed for “inclusive, non-discriminatory and development-oriented” rules.
The framing contrasts sharply with Trump’s UNGA pledge to “encourage” AI “not rein it in.” Beijing is positioning itself as the multilateral voice on AI safety while Washington resists regulation.
OpenAI’s Altman and Anthropic’s Amodei address UN security council (Guardian)
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei gave separate AI safety briefings to the UN Security Council. Their companies are under growing scrutiny after Anthropic researchers warned this month that AI could destroy humanity within the decade.
Altman framed a choice between “a new renaissance” and “a new industrial revolution of upheaval and disarray,” and said key AI decisions “cannot be made by labs in San Francisco alone.” That stance contrasts with the pro-AI Leading the Future PAC tied to OpenAI president Greg Brockman, which has raised over $100 million and spent millions targeting candidates who back stronger AI regulation.
Amodei, speaking by video, called for international agreements including a ban on using AI to develop bioweapons and global standards for testing new models. He warned “AI could be a risk to humanity as a whole” while claiming Anthropic has “the best track record in the industry for preventing these risks.”
Both companies are racing toward potential record IPOs valuing each above $1.5 trillion. Altman steered away from existential-risk warnings, cautioning against “doomerism.”
OpenAI’s A.I. Tried to Breach 4 Other Targets, Without Prompting (NYT)
OpenAI has confirmed four more incidents from May and June in which its AI agents hacked or tried to break into government and university websites without being told to. That’s in addition to July’s Hugging Face breach. Unlike earlier incidents during cybersecurity tests, these happened during routine data-collection tasks, when the agents hit roadblocks and turned to hacking.
Targets included a University of New Mexico digital library, the public-data site Data USA, and two Australian government health sites. The agents succeeded in breaching Australia’s Medicare Statistics Reporting Service; PM Anthony Albanese said no personal medical data was taken and told Sam Altman of his “extreme concern.” Researchers at Transluce called it likely “the first instance of an agent autonomously choosing to hack into a government.”
Transluce found agent traffic as early as March and as recently as last week, meaning the behavior continued even after OpenAI began investigating the Hugging Face incident. OpenAI says “our models took actions we did not intend” and that its review will take months.
The incidents add to a string of unauthorized breaches by AI from OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta and Google. Trump maintains AI doesn’t need heavy regulation.
AOC, 9 other House Dems sign on to AI superintelligence ban (Politico)
Ten House Democrats have cosponsored Rep. Greg Casar’s (D-Texas) Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act, introduced with Sen. Bernie Sanders. It would ban superintelligence and pause advanced AI development until a vetting regime is in place, with violators facing up to 20 years in prison. It’s among the most stringent AI proposals from either party.
Cosponsors include Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ro Khanna, both mulling 2028 runs, plus Stephen Lynch, who said recent AI-led cyberbreaches show “the advanced forms of this are out of control.” Rep. Yassamin Ansari said “we absolutely have to slow down and regulate” technologies that “threaten humanity.”
Centrist Democrats are favoring less restrictive proposals they say won’t stifle innovation, previewing an intra-party fight over AI policy if Democrats retake Congress in November.
Meanwhile, Trump and Speaker Mike Johnson will meet top AI executives at the White House Tuesday. Johnson has said he wants them to “go in a big room, close the door and sort this out,” but hasn’t endorsed major legislation.
Flock Cameras
‘Just the beginning’: 5 IMPD officers charged with misuse of Flock cameras (FOX59)
Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears charged five IMPD officers with fraud and official misconduct for allegedly misusing Flock license plate cameras to run hundreds to thousands of improper searches, mostly to track romantic partners and ex-spouses. Four were suspended and recommended for termination; one resigned. “This is definitely just the beginning,” Mears said.
The most serious case involves Officer Jonathan Schultz, also charged with stalking, who allegedly used the cameras to track women he met in public and stage “chance encounters.” One alleged victim said he followed her for months.
This follows last month’s case of a single IMPD officer suspended for similar searches. Mears said all five cases “required police to police themselves and that produced an outcome that did not benefit the community,” and raised the need for independent judicial oversight.
IMPD says the misuse predates a new policy requiring every search to be tied to a case number, and still defends Flock as a tool for solving violent crime. Chief Tanya Terry said the conduct “crossed into criminal conduct and shook the foundation of trust,” and the department says it is already talking with legislators about state rules.
Hancock County sheriff’s deputy arrested after alleged unauthorized license plate reader searches (WTHR)
A 33-year-old Hancock County sheriff’s deputy was arrested September 24 on preliminary charges of intimidation, official misconduct and fraud.
The Indiana State Police investigation began in April over threatening texts the deputy allegedly sent. An audit then turned up unauthorized license plate reader searches targeting people he knew.
It’s the latest in a growing list of Indiana cases, following the five IMPD officers charged this week and the Jackson County deputy charged last month for tracking his girlfriend’s car more than 2,000 times.
ICE/Immigration
Man shot by ICE, detained in Texas with a bullet in his back is back in the hospital, attorney says (AP)
Wilber Rafael Garces Perez, a 28-year-old Venezuelan asylum seeker, was shot in the back by an ICE officer while making a DoorDash delivery in Austin. According to him and his attorney, officers in an unmarked truck sideswiped his car before turning on any lights, then rammed him and shot him.
He was released from the hospital into ICE custody the same day with the bullet still lodged near his spine. He said he slept on the floor at the detention center and got no treatment beyond a single pill before being returned to the hospital Monday night.
DHS has said little beyond claiming he was in the country illegally with “a final order of removal.” His attorney says he entered legally through CBP One in 2024, held a valid work permit, and only received a deportation order after a hearing notice went to an old address.
Advocates, LULAC and two Austin-area congressmen called for an independent body to review ICE use-of-force incidents and for Congress to bar ICE from making traffic stops. At least four people have been fatally shot by federal officers during immigration enforcement operations this year.
Police investigating after federal agents detain wrong man in Evanston (ABC7 Chicago)
ICE agents detained and injured a US citizen in Evanston, Illinois, on Sunday after mistaking him for their target, then released him once they confirmed his citizenship. Police found him on the ground with injuries to his head, neck and teeth and called an ambulance.
A witness who recorded part of the encounter said agents had the man pinned to the ground and one appeared to hit him in the face while he repeated, “I’m a U.S. citizen.”
DHS claimed the man “was not cooperative” and “refused to identify himself,” and insisted its operations are “highly targeted” and that “we know who we are targeting ahead of time.” Evanston police are investigating, and the police chief visited the man in the hospital.
Nathan Ryan of Sanctuary Evanston called for accountability: “The only thing that I can think of that’s scarier than federal agents beating up people in the street is federal agents beating up people on the street without repercussions.”
ICE has wasted tens of millions to carry out Trump’s mass detention agenda – report (Guardian)
A GAO report found ICE and other agencies have wasted tens of millions of dollars rushing to expand detention capacity under Trump. It warned waste will likely grow because ICE has no strategic plan for spending the $45 billion Congress gave it last year.
Documented waste includes nearly $3 million for Guantánamo tents that were never used and $20 million to maintain warehouses now being sold without ever holding a detainee. DHS also paid Florida $249 per detainee per day for “Alligator Alcatraz,” 171% above ICE’s normal $92 rate, through a $608 million FEMA grant.
ICE spent $1.5 billion in July buying two privately run detention facilities without assessing long-term affordability, and $426 million in warehouse renovations in Arizona and Maryland is on hold due to legal challenges.
The detainee population has grown from 39,000 in January 2025 to 67,000 as of July 30. DHS says it won’t have an expansion plan until August 2027, which GAO warned may be too late to prevent more waste.
AP Exclusive: ICE hides locations of thousands of detainees with final removal orders (AP)
According to AP, ICE quietly stopped listing detainees with final deportation orders in its public online locator on September 15, per three current and former officials. That makes it far harder for lawyers and families to find them, and ICE neither confirmed nor denied the change.
The move could affect thousands. Nearly 16,000 people booked into ICE detention in July alone had final removal orders, and roughly 30% of the 65,000+ people in detention likely do.
Detainees with final orders can still file habeas petitions or seek to reopen cases, and many have protections against deportation to countries where they’d face torture. “If you can’t find your client... you can’t get that information to the court to stop their removal,” said the ACLU’s My Khanh Ngo, whose Somali clients held at Guantánamo also vanished from the system.
The National Immigration Project’s Michelle Mendez called it “just another iteration of disappearing people... It’s something we’d hear about in another country.” Facilities under court orders to list detainees, including Adelanto and holding sites in Minneapolis, New York and suburban Chicago, are exempt.
The office of Remigration: “America First” and its overseas negotiations (Forbidden Stories)
Since January 2025, the Trump administration has struck deals with 35 countries to accept deportees who aren’t their own nationals. At least 25,447 people have been sent to 28 countries, including Iranians to Panama, Laotians to Eswatini and Venezuelans to Liberia. The US government hasn’t publicly disclosed these numbers.
Most deals are negotiated by the State Department’s new “Office of Remigration,” a term with far-right, neo-Nazi connotations in Europe. Internal records show it planned to spend at least $410 million. That includes $81 million paid directly to governments through fast-tracked contracts that Democrats say bypass human rights requirements, and more than $300 million to UN agencies the IOM and UNHCR, which a US official called “sweeteners.”
Deals were often paired with other perks: Cameroon’s agreement was finalized the same day the US approved a nearly $400 million health aid package, and Palau got $7.5 million, about $100,000 per person, for up to 75 deportees. An immigration attorney called the system “human trafficking,” saying “human bodies are being pawned off and traded.”
A federal appeals court ruled September 18 that the removals violated due process because migrants weren’t given adequate notice. Plaintiffs say the ruling takes effect now, while DHS’s general counsel claims it isn’t in effect, and a Supreme Court appeal is likely.
The office has approached 49 of Africa’s 54 countries about such deals. The White House denied any racist connotation in the term “remigration”: “Remigrate literally means to migrate back.”
Paul LePage says ICE is deporting his relative (The Hill)
Former Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R), running for the House seat being vacated by Rep. Jared Golden, said his son’s father-in-law is being deported because “he came from a country that’s not to the liking of certain people” in Washington. “That’s not right. He has a work permit. He should be allowed to stay,” LePage said.
LePage said he “probably” wouldn’t target migrants who have “been here for decades” with work permits, arguing enforcement should focus on gang members and people with criminal records.
Maine has seen 482 ICE arrests so far this year. In July, an ICE officer fatally shot 25-year-old Colombian Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero in Biddeford; Sen. Angus King said he wasn’t the target of the warrant being served.
LePage faces Democrat Matthew Dunlap in November, and Decision Desk HQ gives him a 64% chance of winning.
Trump in the Dumps
Republicans begin to turn on Trump, blasting him for Iran war, oil prices and unpopular policies (Independent)
With midterms six weeks out and Trump’s approval near historic lows, a small but growing group of Republicans is distancing from or openly breaking with him. Some competitive-race campaigns have told the White House he “cannot come” to campaign for them.
On Iran, a record seven House Republicans joined Democrats on September 15 to pass a war powers resolution. Iowa Rep. Zach Nunn, a combat veteran, said “I will not support another open-ended war,” and Sen. Lisa Murkowski said Alaskans remember Trump promising “we were going to be in and out in a matter of weeks.”
On gas prices, now $4.47 a gallon versus $2.98 before the war, Republicans are breaking with Trump’s “small price to pay” framing. Rep. Ashley Hinson has proposed a diesel export ban, and Rep. Andy Harris introduced a bill to suspend the federal gas tax.
On immigration, Florida Rep. María Elvira Salazar ran a campaign ad telling Trump his enforcement “has gone too far” and that Hispanic voters who helped elect him “feel betrayed today.” Separately, Utah Sen. John Curtis urged a subpoena of Donald Trump Jr. over whether he profited from family ties.
Most GOP lawmakers still publicly back Trump’s signature policies. The White House called him the party’s “unequivocal leader, best messenger, and unmatched motivator.”
GOP Rep Who Voted 6 Times Against Ending Iran War Now Opposes It — And Critics Won’t Let It Slide (HuffPost)
Iowa Rep. Ashley Hinson, the GOP Senate nominee trailing Democrat Josh Turek by eight points in one poll, called for ending the Iran war, saying Iowans “shouldn’t have to foot the bill at the pump or the checkout line.” She had voted against House resolutions to end the war at least six times, including once the week before.
Turek responded: “It’s easy to send a tweet, but when you had a chance to vote to end this war, you chose not to.” Critics also noted that Congress is now recessed until after the election, so Hinson won’t face another vote before November.
She’s not alone. Michigan GOP Senate nominee Mike Rogers released an ad saying “the war with Iran needs to end and end quickly,” part of a broader shift as the roughly $40 billion war and rising gas prices weigh on Republican candidates.
Another Florida Republican distances himself from Donald Trump before midterms (Guardian)
Florida GOP gubernatorial nominee Byron Donalds, who ran his primary on Trump’s endorsement, scrubbed at least eight Trump mentions from his campaign homepage, according to the Miami Herald. He also removed a photo of himself with Trump and replaced “Enact the Trump agenda” as his top issue with “affordability.”
Sabato’s Crystal Ball shifted Florida’s open governor’s race from “likely” to “leans Republican,” and a GOP strategist told Politico candidates “know he is kryptonite.”
Donalds’ campaign said he “is proud to have President Trump’s endorsement,” and an official insisted Trump is “still all over the website.” Trump’s name now appears only in a rolling list of endorsers alongside Elon Musk, Rick Scott and Mike Johnson.
Florida Democrats mocked the move: “Byron Donalds is pretending he’s never met the guy because he knows it’s his only shot at winning.”
Trump approval falls to all-time low in Reuters/Ipsos poll (The Hill)
Trump’s approval fell to 32% in a new Reuters/Ipsos poll, the lowest of his second term and a record low for his entire political career per Reuters. That’s down 15 points from 47% at the start of his term.
His disapproval hit 66%, up 25 points since he returned to office. The poll surveyed 1,277 people September 17-20 with a 3-point margin of error.
Decision Desk HQ’s polling average is less stark but still grim for the GOP: 38.8% approve, 59.7% disapprove.
A recent NYT/Siena poll also found Republicans trailing Democrats on immigration, healthcare and the economy, with control of Congress at stake in six weeks.
Shock Poll Puts Trump Approval Rating Below Thirty Percent For First Time (Mediaite)
An American Research Group poll put Trump’s approval at 29%, with 68% disapproving. It’s the first time he’s dipped below 30% in any poll during either term. The survey of 1,100 adults ran September 16-20 with a 3-point margin of error.
ARG had him at 30% for the previous three months, well below the RealClearPolitics average of 40.1%.
The economy is driving the slide. Even among those who approve of Trump, 56% expect the economy to be worse a year from now, compared with just 30% of his supporters in February 2025.
The Reuters/Ipsos poll released the same day also found Trump’s approval among Republicans fell from 82% to 73% in a single week.
The Senate map is looking even better for Democrats. Here are races to watch. (WaPo)
Democrats’ path to a Senate majority is now feasible: they need to hold all their seats and flip four GOP seats from a 53-47 deficit. Cook Political Report now calls control of the chamber “a true coin flip,” and some Republicans have floated scaling back spending in Georgia and North Carolina.
Cook moved five races toward Democrats since July. Georgia went to “Likely Democratic” for Sen. Jon Ossoff; Iowa (Turek vs. Hinson) and Texas (Talarico vs. Paxton) went to toss-ups despite Trump winning both by double digits; and Kansas and South Carolina shifted from “Solidly” to “Leans” and “Likely Republican.”
The only race moving toward Republicans is New Hampshire, now a toss-up, where former Sen. John Sununu, who has distanced himself from Trump, faces Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas for retiring Sen. Jeanne Shaheen’s seat.
North Carolina, where former Gov. Roy Cooper leads, is Democrats’ likeliest flip. Alaska, Maine, Michigan and Ohio are toss-ups, including Sherrod Brown’s comeback bid against Sen. Jon Husted and progressive Troy Jackson’s challenge to Susan Collins after Graham Platner withdrew.
Reach races include Nebraska for Democrats, where independent Dan Osborn, backed by the state Democratic Party, challenges Sen. Pete Ricketts, and Minnesota for Republicans, where Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan (D) faces former sportscaster Michele Tafoya (R).
New Poll Finds Nixon and Moody Nearly Even in Florida Senate Race (Westside Gazette)
A St. Pete Polls survey for Florida Politics found Republican Sen. Ashley Moody and Democrat Angie Nixon essentially tied at 45.2% to 44.8% among likely voters, well within the 3.2-point margin of error. The poll of 913 likely voters ran September 15-17.
Nixon, who upset Alexander Vindman in the August primary, led among independents 49.8% to 37.4% and drew 74.1% of Black respondents, though those subgroup samples are small.
The governor’s race was even tighter: Republican Byron Donalds 43.5%, Democrat David Jolly 43.4%.
Caveat: other polls have shown Moody ahead, so this is one survey, not proof the race has shifted. Still, it adds to signs of trouble for the GOP in a state Trump won by 13 points.
Corruption
The FBI Anti-Corruption Squad Was Circling Susan Collins — Until Trump Got in the Way (ProPublica)
A ProPublica investigation reveals that the FBI’s anti-corruption unit was preparing a broad bribery probe of members of Congress in late 2024. It was based on the confession of Martin Kao, ex-CEO of Hawaii defense contractor Navatek, who said his company won tens of millions in federal contracts by funneling donations to powerful appropriators. The probe died after Trump returned to office and purged the FBI and DOJ public corruption units.
Kao said Sen. Susan Collins was his most important patron. Her office steered contracts to Navatek while her campaign solicited donations, sometimes within a day of key defense spending votes. After a 2019 meeting with Collins super PAC chair Scott Reed, Kao sent $150,000 through a shell company. A week later, Reed’s office asked for his number because “Senator Collins would like to call Martin to thank him,” and Kao told colleagues Collins would support $32 million in contracts.
Kao told agents Collins said to him, “You’ve seen me deliver.” A former executive summed up Washington: “Oh my God, all of it is for sale.”
Kao is a convicted felon now serving seven years, and his credibility is limited. No one working for Collins was charged. Collins’ office calls his claims “outlandish,” says she cooperated fully and returned the illegal donations, and the FBI says it “found nothing implicating Senator Collins.” But ProPublica independently corroborated much of his account, and Reed and campaign finance director Amy Abbott still run her 2026 effort.
Before she was fired for her role in the Jan. 6 investigation, one of the lead agents got approval for a separate probe centered on South Carolina, where the FBI had questions about a steak dinner Kao shared with Sen. Lindsey Graham.
‘It Should Be Illegal’: Trump’s 1,156 July Stock Trades Involved AI, Big Oil, Weapons-Makers, and More (Common Dreams)
Trump disclosed 1,156 stock trades from July worth roughly $79 million to $270 million total, following last month’s disclosure of 1,000+ June trades. The trades touched AI giants (Nvidia, Microsoft, Meta, Alphabet), defense contractors (Lockheed, Northrop Grumman, Palantir, SpaceX), oil majors (Chevron, ExxonMobil), and Taser-maker Axon, a major ICE and CBP vendor.
CNBC flagged a Northrop Grumman sale of up to $500,000 on the same day Trump signed an executive order tightening supply-chain rules for defense contractors, though the disclosure doesn’t show exact timing.
The White House says Trump’s portfolio is independently managed through automated index-tracking accounts and that “there are no conflicts of interest.” But The Washington Sun reported several trades were disclosed after the STOCK Act’s 45-day deadline, and noted Trump personally signed the filing.
Bloomberg found Trump has made nearly 28,700 trades since returning to office, more than all members of Congress combined (22,200). Sen. Elizabeth Warren said “it should be illegal for the president to trade individual stocks — period.”
Did U.S. Rep. Victoria Spartz get rich off trading stocks? Race with J.D. Ford turns negative (IndyStar via AOL)
The 5th District race between Republican Rep. Victoria Spartz and Democratic state Sen. J.D. Ford has turned negative over Spartz’s finances. Democrats hope shifting politics in Indianapolis’s suburbs, plus Spartz’s surprisingly close primary this year, make the solidly Republican seat competitive.
Ford’s claim that Spartz “traded $5 million in stocks in industries she regulated” overstates the record. The trades belong to her husband, including a Simon Property Group sale worth $1 million to $5 million; Spartz says she has never personally owned individual stocks and voted for the Stop Insider Trading Act. Ford argues she still benefits. Ads repeating the charge come from the “Commonsense Hoosiers PAC,” tied to a firm whose co-founder is Ford’s campaign treasurer.
Ford also accused Spartz of using campaign funds for rent, utilities and property taxes on a Westfield home she and her husband own. Spartz says the home is her campaign headquarters and a $30,000 payment to her husband covered six years of back rent. The Campaign Legal Center’s Brendan Fischer called the arrangement “questionable,” noting that rent normally already covers property taxes, which the campaign pays separately.
Spartz called the allegations “completely absurd” and fired back that Ford is lying to hide “his radical record of being anti-police.” She says she’ll stop using the home as a headquarters after the election and has listed it for sale at $1.3 million.
Spartz demands TV stations stop airing PAC ad about stock transactions (LarryInFishers)
Spartz’s attorneys at Holtzman Vogel sent cease-and-desist letters to Indianapolis TV stations demanding they pull the Commonsense Hoosiers PAC ad calling her “a corrupt politician getting rich at our expense.” They called the ad defamatory and threatened legal action.
The lawyers argue the trades came from her husband’s and children’s Roth retirement accounts, and that the $5 million figure is just the top of a reported range. The disclosure for the Simon Property Group sale lists $1,000,001 to $5 million and does not establish a $5 million transaction or any profit.
The attorneys acknowledged five 2021 transactions lack descriptions identifying the account owner but say those were also her husband’s Roth IRA. The campaign says Spartz’s net worth hasn’t materially changed since she entered Congress, though disclosures list assets only in broad ranges.
Voting
State error in Texas creates huge backlog in voter registration applications as midterm voting nears (ABC)
A Texas Department of Public Safety error dating to last October failed to send large numbers of voter registration applications and updates, submitted during driver’s license renewals, to county election offices. Counties weren’t told for nearly a year.
The statewide backlog hasn’t been tallied, but it’s in the tens of thousands in the largest counties, with about 45,000 in Bexar County (San Antonio) alone. Counties must process them before early voting begins October 19, and some will hire temporary workers.
DPS said some online records “were incomplete and not fully transmitted” and that the “system issue” is resolved, without explaining further. County officials said some voters may have been turned away or unable to vote in March’s primary as a result.
Officials say voters registered by October 5 shouldn’t worry and can cast a provisional ballot if missing from the rolls. The backlog lands ahead of the nationally watched Talarico-Paxton Senate race.
California Supreme Court orders seized ballots returned in Riverside County case (Politico)
The California Supreme Court unanimously ordered Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, a Republican who is running for governor, to return about 650,000 ballots he unlawfully seized from a 2025 special election on a redistricting measure. A second unanimous ruling affirmed Attorney General Rob Bonta’s authority to oversee county sheriffs.
Bianco seized the ballots after a local watchdog group alleged tallying discrepancies, and he defied Bonta’s repeated warnings. He said he’ll obey the ruling but not “the message behind them — that local law enforcement works for Sacramento.”
Justice Goodwin Liu called the ballots “the most precious documents of the citizenry in a democracy: their votes.” Bonta tied the case to Trump’s attacks on elections, saying his office has planned for scenarios including federal troops or law enforcement at polling places.
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law last week making it a felony to seize election materials before results are certified or to interfere with mail ballot delivery.
From 16,000 to 185 to Zero: Trump’s Claims of Illegal Voting in Nevada Fizzle. (NYT)
Nevada told DHS that all 185 people the agency flagged as noncitizens registered to vote are actually lawful citizens. A deputy attorney general wrote that DHS has “provided nothing of substance to suggest otherwise.”
The claim has collapsed in stages. In July, DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said Nevada had as many as 15,903 noncitizens on its rolls. A DHS official later admitted that number “hasn’t had a full manual review,” the agency then confirmed only 185, and Nevada now says even those are citizens. Nevada says DHS never actually sent it the list of 15,903.
The data DHS did send, about 6,000 bare “voter case numbers” with no names or birth dates, can’t verify anything, Nevada said, since a number “establishes only that a number exists... in a voter registration system.” DHS called Nevada’s characterization “false.”
Nevada Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar said DHS is trying “to intimidate election officials into compliance and deter voters with huge claims of fraud with no evidence.” The episode is part of a broader administration effort that has pulled hundreds of DHS agents off terrorism and international crime cases to hunt for noncitizen voters, a practice research shows is extremely rare.
Supreme Court clears way for Trump administration to use modified voter verification database (SCOTUSblog)
The Supreme Court let the Trump administration resume using its modified SAVE citizenship-verification database, pausing a lower-court ruling that found it violated federal privacy law and the Social Security Act. The unsigned majority said the block “inhibits the Federal Government’s efforts to assist state and local agencies” before the midterms.
The modified system now includes records of US-born citizens and taps Social Security numbers. The lower-court judge found that “states... are actively removing United States citizens from voter rolls based on inaccurate information,” including naturalized citizens whom Social Security records don’t show as citizens.
The majority said the challengers likely won’t win on the merits, reading a 1996 immigration law as authorizing DHS to pull data from Social Security. It noted that federal law already bars systematic voter purges within 90 days of an election, which limits the ruling’s near-term impact, though states can still challenge individual voters.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, joined by Sotomayor and Kagan, dissented. She said the majority ignored harms to lawful voters and relied on a legal theory the government had never used before: “The harm caused by burdening or disenfranchising even a few lawful voters outweighs the nonexistent harm” to the government
US Supreme Court again blocks Missouri’s gerrymandered congressional map (MO Independent)
The US Supreme Court unanimously blocked Missouri’s gerrymandered map for the third time, ruling that “as a matter of state law, the 2022 map — not the 2025 map — must be used in the 2026 congressional election.” The decision ends three weeks of court fights that changed the map in effect five times.
The Court said the 8th Circuit and the federal district judge had misread its September 10 order, and warned that reverting to the 2025 map “in the midst of an ongoing election would usher in electoral chaos.” Absentee voting in Missouri began Tuesday.
The ruling preserves Rep. Emanuel Cleaver’s Kansas City-based 5th District, which the 2025 map had stretched into rural Republican counties to target him. Voters in 28 counties will now vote in different districts than they did in the August primary.
Every Republican attorney general from states that gerrymandered for the GOP since 2024, except North Carolina’s, which has a Democratic AG, filed a brief backing the 2025 map. Missouri’s Supreme Court had instead blamed Secretary of State Denny Hoskins’ own delays for the confusion.
Voters will decide the 2025 map as Proposition A in November, and the referendum’s backers have bought about $800,000 in broadcast ads to push a “no” vote.
Media
Trump Bans Outlets from White House…
Major TV networks halt video coverage of Trump over CNN ban (WaPo)
CNN, MS NOW and Politico sued Trump, Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, communications director Steven Cheung and the Secret Service director over their White House ban. The suit alleges First Amendment and Fifth Amendment due process violations and asks for an expedited hearing.
In solidarity, the TV pool of ABC, CBS, Fox News and NBC halted video coverage of presidential events, since CNN is one of its five rotating members. The Washington Post and other outlets’ photographers also withheld photos of Trump’s UN events for the day. The pool said “No administration should restrict a news organization because it objects to its reporting.”
Trump called the ban “an assault on the FAKE NEWS” rather than on the free press, calling the media “a threat to our National Security.” VP JD Vance said Trump is “not banning media outlets,” just denying “special access” to outlets engaged in “effectively propaganda.”
The case went to Judge Timothy Kelly, a Trump appointee who ordered CNN’s Jim Acosta’s credentials restored in 2018. Trump attacked him preemptively and predicted an appeal. Trump’s first-term bans of Acosta and Playboy’s Brian Karem were both reversed after court challenges.
Trump’s Ban on White House Press Backfires Immediately (TNR)
With the TV pool boycotting, no press microphones were on Trump at Monday’s ribbon-cutting for his new White House helipad. The White House’s own feed picked up almost nothing but the drone of a parked Marine One, leaving his remarks largely inaudible.
Even Newsmax, one of the few networks to air the event, acknowledged the ban was “backfiring just a little bit.” Host Bianca de la Garza said, “Obviously the ramifications are right here. Can’t hear what the president’s saying.”
CNN, MS NOW and Politico allowed back at the White House after judge blocked Trump’s ban (NBC)
Judge Timothy Kelly issued a 14-day temporary restraining order restoring CNN, MS NOW and Politico’s White House access, finding the ban likely unconstitutional because their passes were revoked without notice or a chance to be heard. Reporters were still turned away Thursday morning, and access came through only after Kelly demanded a written explanation by 12:30 p.m. Three CNN and MS NOW reporters were later barred from covering the Xi state dinner.
Kelly rejected the White House’s national security justification, noting Trump himself had cited the outlets’ “negativity.” Trump called his own directive “the ban on the free press” and said, “I don’t want them in my office. I don’t want them here.”
The White House cited stories on Iran war munitions stockpiles, Russia sanctions, a $1 billion East Wing funding request and “vibes” at the GOP convention. Kelly called such stories “routine,” and one cited Politico story came from a White House background briefing that the AP and CNBC reported on too, without being banned.
Forty-nine news organizations, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and the WHCA filed a brief calling the ban “transparently viewpoint discriminatory.”
White House blocks CNN from trip on Air Force One (WaPo)
The White House blocked CNN from traveling aboard Air Force One for Trump’s Saturday trip to Knoxville, Tennessee, a day after a federal judge temporarily restored CNN’s White House access. CNN confirmed the decision; the White House didn’t comment.
The move puts the rotational TV pool in jeopardy again. The pool had only resumed Friday after its boycott, with CNN serving as pooler at the National Archives event with Xi, and the White House’s Saturday schedule listed no primary TV pooler.
The article doesn’t say whether excluding CNN from Air Force One violates the judge’s order, which restored access to White House grounds. That’s the open question to watch.
…Counters with Alternative Messaging
‘Literally state-run TV’: Trump launches YouTube channel amid boycott by US networks (Guardian)
As networks boycotted pool coverage, the White House launched “Trump TV,” a 24/7 YouTube livestream promising “top past moments, announcements, and the latest and greatest from the administration.” It runs with no anchors, schedule or context for when or where clips were recorded.
Tuesday’s stream cycled through a UK state banquet, a clip of Laken Riley’s mother praising Trump, an 18-month-old Melania Trump appearance, and a February 2025 press conference in which Trump floated taking over Gaza and making Canada the 51st state.
Despite more than 3 million channel subscribers, live viewership hovered around 1,500. The promo trailer used clips from shows owned by networks including Disney, NBCUniversal, Fox and Warner Bros.
Gov. Gavin Newsom called it “quite literally state-run TV” and “truly autocratic behaviour,” saying Trump is using it to “drown out the fact that he and his corrupt administration are failing.”
New Trump-focused “Love Me” ad campaign paid for by taxpayers hits airwaves (CBS)
A taxpayer-funded ad campaign glorifying Trump began airing on national networks, including Fox News and CBS, carrying a “Paid for by the U.S. Government” disclosure. One spot flashes “America will never be a communist country” over montage footage set to JMSN’s “Love Me.” Another recounts the capture of Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro.
JMSN said he never licensed the song and “would never authorize my music to be used for ANY political agenda or campaign.”
The White House called the spots “public service announcements... about reminding Americans to love their country,” arguing they’re not political because “the President is not on the ballot and the ads don’t have a call to action.”
Democrats disagree. Sen. Maggie Hassan said the ads appear to violate the ban on using federal funds for “a general propaganda effort,” and top Democratic appropriators demanded they be pulled, calling them “the sort of government propaganda one might expect in North Korea.”
Columbia law professor Richard Briffault said the ads likely don’t violate election law since they don’t endorse a candidate, but agreed they raise questions under the federal propaganda ban.
Democratic AGs to Allow Paramount-WBD Merger
Paramount makes concessions to salvage $111 billion Warner Bros. Discovery deal (NPR)
Paramount’s owners reached a settlement with a coalition of 12 Democratic state attorneys general, resolving the antitrust suit that had threatened its $111 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery; the deal still needs a judge’s approval.
The settlement requires Paramount to operate Warner Bros. Studios and Paramount Pictures separately for now, release at least 30 films a year for two years (32 in years three through five) or face financial penalties, and spend $300 million more annually on U.S. production; a trustee will monitor compliance.
It also creates a board meant to insulate CBS and CNN’s news divisions from corporate interference — a direct response to attorneys general’ concerns about the Ellison family’s ties to Trump, who has called CNN “fake news” and recently banned its journalists from the White House.
Critics call the settlement toothless: Connecticut’s AG says Paramount resisted even the editorial board until the last week and that the state wanted full divestiture of CNN and CBS News instead; media advocacy group Free Press called it “unenforceable, empty Paramount promises.”
The FCC separately cleared up to 100% foreign ownership of the merged company, which will start at 49.5% foreign-owned via sovereign wealth funds from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Abu Dhabi — a level of foreign stake in a major U.S. broadcaster that industry veterans call unprecedented.
The Fine Print In Democrats’ Hollywood Merger Surrender (The Lever)
Despite AG Bonta’s earlier vow that any settlement would require “robust structural remedies,” the final deal contains only behavioral remedies — consent-order style commitments that legal experts say are weaker and have been flagrantly violated by companies before with little consequence.
The lone quasi-structural piece: if Paramount fails to hit its film-production requirement, it would theoretically have to divest Miramax. Former FTC Commissioner Alvaro Bedoya notes even the “30 films a year” figure is inflated — the actual commitment is to produce or co-produce just 15 to 16 films annually and distribute the rest.
The five-member editorial independence board for CBS and CNN will be hand-picked by Paramount’s board, which is chaired by Ellison and stacked with his allies, and will answer directly to that board — a structure antitrust economist Hal Singer called toothless, saying companies “love to create the appearance of self-regulation when they’re holding all the cards.”
Four holdout states (New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota) pushed for a tougher deal before settling; independent research projects the merger would still cost roughly 4,500 Los Angeles County jobs and $1.26 billion in lost wages over three years.
All the settlement’s concessions sunset in five years, and a broad force majeure clause — covering “strikes, labor disruptions, [and] economic recessions” — could void the commitments entirely; actress and labor leader Jane Fonda called the settlement itself “a union-buster.”
Bonta reportedly faced mounting pressure to settle from Gov. Gavin Newsom, gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra, and LA Mayor Karen Bass after Paramount threatened to move its headquarters out of California — a threat critics call a common corporate bluff that Bonta didn’t call.
Exclusive / Paramount weighs tapping Musk for equity investment (Semafor)
Paramount executives have discussed bringing Elon Musk into a syndicate of equity investors to help finance its absorption of Warner Bros. Discovery, according to people familiar with the matter; the size of a potential investment isn’t known, and Paramount and Musk didn’t comment.
The Musk connection runs through Larry Ellison, who has personally guaranteed more than $40 billion of the deal’s equity financing and has a long relationship with Musk, including a $1 billion investment in Musk’s 2022 Twitter takeover and a stint on Tesla’s board.
Semafor’s business reporter notes the political risk: Musk’s control of X already alarmed Democrats in 2024, and even a partial, non-controlling stake in the company that would now own CNN and CBS would likely draw scrutiny in Washington.
Utilities
California and New York sue over Trump push to halt wind energy projects (Guardian)
California and New York, joined by seven other Democratic-led states, sued the Trump administration over its plan to buy back offshore wind leases — part of Trump’s broader push to discourage wind power in favor of fossil fuels.
California’s suit targets the canceled Invenergy project off its coast; New York’s suit, joined by Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Vermont, targets both the Invenergy buyback and a separate deal ending Bluepoint Wind’s project off the New York/New Jersey coast.
The two deals alone would hand energy companies $1.4 billion in taxpayer money to cancel their projects; the administration has pledged nearly $4 billion total nationwide to walk companies away from wind development, with lease-fee reimbursements going toward fossil fuel and geothermal investment instead.
NY AG Letitia James called the deals illegal and said they’ll raise electricity bills by blocking states from building the power sources they need; CA AG Rob Bonta said fighting each unlawful action in court “slows the process down” at a moment when climate action needs to move faster, not slower.
Indiana coal retirements delayed again as utilities seek to recover costs (ICC)
Energy Secretary Chris Wright issued a fourth round of federal orders (this time Sept. 20–Dec. 18) forcing two NIPSCO Schahfer units and one CenterPoint Culley unit to stay available, despite all three being past their planned retirement dates — Culley Unit 2 was slated to retire at the end of 2025, and CenterPoint itself asked DOE in February to let the original order lapse, calling the unit “inefficient and increasingly unreliable.”
Gov. Braun praised the extension as protecting Hoosiers from higher costs, but Rep. Carey Hamilton is calling on AG Todd Rokita to challenge the order, and Sierra Club organizers who delivered 1,000+ petitions against it call it a way to keep “lining the pockets of billion dollar fossil fuel companies” at ratepayers’ expense.
Both utilities are seeking cost recovery: NIPSCO has asked FERC for roughly $38 million for Q1 alone, with NIPSCO’s own COO previously projecting unit investments could exceed $100 million; CenterPoint says there’s no direct customer bill impact yet but is preparing a recovery request.
Environmental and consumer groups (Sierra Club, Citizens Action Coalition, Hoosier Environmental Council, Public Citizen and others) are challenging the Indiana mandates in the D.C. Circuit; that same court just vacated a similar DOE order for a Michigan plant, ruling DOE hadn’t shown a genuine Section 202(c) emergency — though that ruling doesn’t automatically affect the Indiana orders.
Indiana nabs $175M from feds to fix regional electricity ‘choke point’ (ICC)
Indiana won $175 million in federal funding to relieve a transmission “choke point” at the seam between the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) and PJM grid operators, part of a $1.9 billion national round (31 projects, $5 billion total) under the Biden-era Bipartisan Infrastructure Law program, now rebranded by the Trump administration as “SPARK.”
The four-year, $325 million project (Indiana’s $175M plus $150M from sponsors) will replace power lines, add dynamic line-rating tech, and route power more efficiently — unlocking 2,000–4,000 megawatts of transfer capacity and an estimated $50–150 million a year in ratepayer savings in and outside Indiana.
Separately, Indiana became the 41st state to take over NRC oversight of non-energy radioactive materials (medical, industrial, academic, fusion uses) under a deal signed Thursday; the Indiana Department of Homeland Security will run licensing and inspections with five health physicists, funded by licensing fees.
Gov. Braun and NRC Chair Ho Nieh both framed the deal as part of accelerating nuclear development in Indiana, which currently has no nuclear plants; the NRC says it will target 18-month-or-less approvals for first-of-its-kind reactors. Federal regulators still retain authority over actual commercial nuclear power reactors.
From 9/14: Indiana to get its first power-producing nuclear reactor (WNN)
A commercially owned micromodular reactor (MMR) will be installed at Naval Weapons Station Crane, becoming the US Navy’s first shore-based advanced MMR and Indiana’s first power-producing nuclear reactor — providing power independent of the commercial grid for national-security operations.
The project runs through the Army’s Janus Program and implements two Trump executive orders: EO 14299 (deploying an Army-regulated reactor at a domestic military installation by September 30, 2028) and EO 14302 (rebuilding the nuclear industrial base); the Department of War says it will hit the Crane deadline.
Crane was one of five military installations selected for microreactor deployment under Janus, which launched last October; the Assistant Secretary of War for Critical Technologies said the standard is to field capability “within 24 months or less.”
Sen. Todd Young called it “exciting news,” framing it as bringing “the highest levels of nuclear expertise” to Indiana and citing Hoosiers’ role in national security; the announcement builds on over a year of coordination between the Department of War and state leadership.
Healthcare
Trump Admin Boots 760K Individuals From ACA Exchanges, Citing Alleged Fraud (Truthout)
VP JD Vance and CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz announced the Trump administration will cancel roughly 315,000 ACA plans covering about 760,000 people, framing it as an anti-fraud measure; many enrollees may lose coverage simply because brokers who helped them sign up omitted Social Security numbers from the paperwork.
CMS also imposed a moratorium on new insurance brokers enrolling ACA participants and warned more than 500 existing brokers they could be blocked from future enrollments — a move the National Association of Benefits and Insurance Professionals says “would punish legitimate professionals instead of targeting the bad actors.”
Vance dismissed concerns that eligible people could be wrongly purged, saying the administration sent FedEx letters and went to people’s houses; at the press conference, Oz commented on a photo of an alleged fraud suspect that “he’s got a very punchable face.”
The administration says it’s also examining another 400,000 people for potential fraud. Critics, including Protect Our Care’s Brad Woodhouse, call the fraud framing a “political stunt designed to throw even more people off their coverage,” coming as over 5 million Americans have already dropped ACA coverage this year amid soaring prices after the White House declined to renew pandemic-era subsidies.
Medical groups, patients sue Trump administration over Medicaid work requirements (Stateline)
Medicaid enrollees from five states — including Indiana — along with the American College of Physicians, American Academy of Pediatrics and other medical groups sued the Trump administration Friday over new Medicaid work requirements established under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which apply to expansion/waiver enrollees in 44 states.
The suit targets a June administration rule defining who counts as “medically frail” and exempt — limited to people who are blind, disabled, have disabling mental disorders or substance use disorders, or “serious or complex” conditions — arguing even those people must still prove their condition prevents work, creating red tape that risks coverage loss for people with cancer, diabetes, HIV and other chronic conditions.
Named plaintiffs include people with autism, OCD, bipolar disorder, severe vision impairment, HIV and narcolepsy. The city of Columbus, Ohio is also a plaintiff — a separate thread from the Indiana enrollees named in the suit — arguing localities absorb uncompensated costs when residents lose Medicaid and end up needing public health or emergency services.
Republicans say work requirements move people off government aid and into the workforce, but the plaintiffs and research cited in the piece note most Medicaid recipients already work or are in school; American College of Physicians president Dr. Jan Carney said the policy places “an already vulnerable population at increased risk of interrupted treatment, disrupted coverage, or losing healthcare access altogether.”
As work requirements loom for Medicaid, state officials worry about readiness (WFYI)
Indiana’s Medicaid work requirements officially start in January, but a three-month lookback means enrollees must start logging 80 hours a month of work, school, volunteering or an apprenticeship starting in October — right now, essentially.
FSSA Secretary Mitch Roob told lawmakers he’s worried hospitals and providers “haven’t been doing enough to get the word out” — notable, since it’s his own agency running the rollout, and providers at Monday’s town hall said they’re still waiting on FSSA itself to clarify basic rules, like the new, narrower medical frailty definition (which no longer covers diabetes) and how it will apply on top of the state’s own SB1 exemptions.
Roob’s framing: “Health insurance is not a right. It’s a responsibility. We want people to remain on the Healthy Indiana Plan, but to do that you have got to meet the requirements.” He said he doesn’t think others share his level of concern, comparing it to telling someone to buy a winter coat in August.
Roughly 500,000 fewer people are already covered by Indiana Medicaid since the start of 2025, largely from increased eligibility checks; advocates with Hoosier Action estimate another 500,000 could be disenrolled once work requirements hit, which would push the state’s uninsured rate back to pre-ACA levels — “everyone should be deeply, deeply concerned,” said Hoosier Action’s Tracey Hutchings-Goetz.
FSSA’s own Division of Family Resources director acknowledged the confusion at the town hall, telling providers “I acknowledge sometimes they say the wrong thing, and it is confusing” — while an enrollee who attended said she still didn’t feel she had answers: “The FSSA does not have the answers yet.”
FSSA pauses Medicaid waiver denials, announces plan to retrain case managers overseeing new assessments (WTHR)
Indiana’s FSSA paused Medicaid waiver denials and eligibility determinations tied to new level-of-care assessment tools, effective the week of Aug. 31 — separate from and predating the work requirements, which don’t start until January.
The pause followed a 13 Investigates report showing denial rates jumped from under 1% to 6% after the new assessment tool rolled out this spring; FSSA leaders had publicly said they expected the tool to push denials as high as 10%.
State Rep. Robin Shackleford said her office received complaints from hundreds of families, advocates and case managers, including reports that case managers were rushed through training and conducted non-face-to-face assessments, or picked assessment questions that didn’t fit their clients because they didn’t know what else to do; she’d asked FSSA in writing to pause denials but only learned it happened at a Sept. 21 committee meeting.
FSSA is retraining case managers (one session held, another mandatory one set for Sept. 28) and says people who didn’t get a face-to-face assessment will be reassessed, but hasn’t said how many people are affected or how many reassessments it expects.
It’s unclear how the pause affects people who already received denial letters, including 8-year-old Thomas Owens, an autistic child whose mother is appealing to keep his waiver; FSSA says no one has had benefits “involuntarily stopped” due to a denial, but an advocate told 13 Investigates that’s not what he’s hearing.
Indiana Governor Braun and Attorney General Todd Rokita’s strategic coverup of The Biggest Medicaid fraud in Indiana state history. (Lynseyloohoo/Substack)
A federal judge ruled in August that whistleblowers John McCullough and James Holden can proceed with a False Claims Act suit alleging Anthem/Elevance and other defendants improperly received Indiana Medicaid funds — the suit had been dismissed once, in October 2025, before being refiled; per Bloomberg Law, the court found the allegations sufficient to show Indiana Medicaid wouldn’t have paid the claims had it known they were false.
The author’s central allegation: that Gov. Braun’s 2025 appointee as Inspector General, Jared Prentice, previously worked at Elevance in a records/risk-containment role, and that the OIG’s July decision to stop publishing public investigative-summary reports amounts to a deliberate effort to shield Elevance from scrutiny in the pending case.
Verifiable and separate from that inference: Indiana’s OIG did end two decades of publishing public ethics/investigation summaries this year, and the state’s “Find a Person” employee-lookup tool was also taken down in July — both changes are confirmed by other outlets in the source list (IPM, IndyStar), though the state’s stated rationale (cybersecurity concerns, statutory confidentiality under IC 4-2-7-8) isn’t addressed or rebutted in this piece.
AG Rokita filed a “statement of interest” to help keep the suit from being dismissed a second time, but the state has not formally intervened as a full party — meaning the whistleblowers are funding and litigating the case largely on their own against Elevance and other hospital-system defendants, while Rokita has cited limited resources.
The author connects healthcare-industry campaign contributions to Braun and the Indiana GOP (citing Elevance’s own PAC disclosures and Indiana Hospital Association PAC filings) as the reason for the state’s non-intervention.
Education
Rokita lawsuit against IHSAA alleges racial discrimination (ICC)
AG Todd Rokita sued the IHSAA in Marion County Superior Court, seeking to eliminate the two of 19 board seats the association reserves for “qualified minorities” — defined in IHSAA bylaws as “an individual other than a white male or female” — calling it an unlawful racial classification that violates the IHSAA’s nonprofit status.
The quota dates to 1993 and has taken several forms over the years, including “an individual other than a white male” and “urban school representatives”; state attorneys argue every version has functioned as “an express, discriminatory racial classification.”
Rokita first asked the IHSAA to drop the quota in April; the board declined and floated possibly revisiting its bylaws in 2027. Rokita calls that “months of delay” that left the state “no choice” but to sue, and is seeking a permanent injunction barring race as a board-selection criterion plus a court declaration that the bylaws violate state law.
The IHSAA says it’s “disappointed” litigation was filed when it had offered to consider Rokita’s concerns through its own governance and bylaw-review process, and says it “disagrees with any suggestion” its bylaws violate civil rights law, calling the suit a distraction from student-athletes.
Indiana superintendents say they’re cutting jobs because of property tax reforms (ICC)
Survey of 144 Indiana superintendents (of 290 asked) found nearly all expect financial harm from SEA 1’s property tax reforms, needing 1–25% one-time funding boosts plus ~6% ongoing just to hold current service levels.
Half have already cut support staff; 46% are cutting teaching roles now, rising to 93% when counting those planning to.
Fewer referendums than expected despite a record number on the ballot — 39% cited lack of community support; rural districts favored cuts over referendums.
Superintendents also blame universal voucher expansion for the squeeze — one said their district was told to cut $2.5 million, calling it a “manufactured financial crisis” funding vouchers and charters over public schools.
Rural superintendents suspect the funding crunch is meant to force consolidation: “funding is bleeding the small schools dry,” one wrote.
Indiana’s private school voucher enrollment tops 80,500 students, costs half a billion dollars (WFYI)
Indiana’s voucher program hit 80,500+ students last year, costing $548 million — up 10% ($50.8M) from the year before, even as enrollment growth slowed to about 6%.
2025-26 was the last year with income limits; families over $100,000 now outnumber those under it for the first time, a shift from prior years when $50-100K was the largest bracket.
Lawmakers made the program fully universal starting July 2026 — no income cap at all.
Traditional public schools still enroll 85% of students statewide, but Heritage Christian School alone is set to receive $6.5 million in voucher funds for 973 students.
Most voucher recipients never attended public school to begin with, though more are now switching over from public schools than in past years.
