Welcome to my very first independent newsletter! Headlines can often feel like a blur of slop, especially when our federal government is being run by known political grifters. To maintain my sanity, I prefer to collect and analyze headlines over the course of a full month. This helps me to track overall trends regarding information access, first amendment, and fourth amendment issues across states and ensure that the information that I am consuming is as accurate as possible.

That being said, I do this completely on my own time without the financial backing of an organization. This means that I do not have the resources to conduct follow-up interviews, get by every paywall, or make this as visually appealing or concise as I would like. I write without the use of AI and source each story utilizing tailored key term searches. I do my best to catch and correct mistakes and refrain from posting unverifiable news.

Man oh man what a month September was! I almost regret starting my newsletter this month because there is so much to cover but this activist chooses to see this as an opportunity to lose the training wheels on my political tech journalism journey. In the spirit of not letting my perfectionism get in the way of progress, I present to you my September Politics and Technology newsletter.

Federal Government

The Trump administration continues to take drastic action based on the conspiracy theories it campaigned on.

Department of Homeland Security arrested 11 New York state elected officials for attempting to inspect conditions at a 10th floor detention center. This is the latest in a trend of escalating ICE arrests and reports of unsafe and inhumane conditions. ICE has made worksites the target of raids to fulfill Trump’s promise of the “largest deportation operation in US history” To achieve this ICE has awarded Palantir another $30Million for “Voluntary Return Program” that encourages people to self deport to avoid being arrested. Further, ICE has revived a $2 million dollar contract with Israel based spyware company Paragon that was put on hold by a Biden administration executive order that restricted federal agencies from utilizing commercial spyware due to human rights violation. DHS struck deportation deals with Uganda and Honduras as a part of a continued search for third party countries willing to accept US deportees.

Further, the agency calls for the “left” to “turn down the rhetoric” after reporting that ICE agents are facing a 1,000% increase in assaults on the job. This pales in comparison to the heartbreaking stories of community separation, terror, and repression at the hands of ICE and DHS that continue to come in across the country. Federal immigration Judge orders for the deportation of Mahmoud Khalil citing his pro-Palistinian advocacy as proof of “hateful behavior and rhetoric” Similarly, Salvadorian Journalist Mario Guevera has been detained by ICE for over 100 days after being arrested in Georgia, while covering the No Kings summer protests. Despite original minor charges being dropped, the journalist now faces deportation to El Salvador. The Free Speech community is calling it what it is, censorship and an attempt to chill free expression.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) funding is in flux and the future availability of the disaster preparedness toolkit remains uncertain. The contract that funds the toolkit is being renewed for only weeks at a time while the country is deep into hurricane season. This comes after Kristi Noem DHS secretary reported that there was a security breech in IT resulting in 23 firings.

The Department of Education (DOE) announced that it will be ending the Blue Ribbon Program that recognized top performing schools across the country since 1982. Some states are opting to create their own Blue Ribbon Programs. Additionally the DOE has ended the Competitive Fostering Diverse Schools Program, responsible for millions of dollars worth of school funding, citing anti-Diversity Equity and Inclusion rhetoric and a pivot to a focus on “mental health”. These cuts are the latest in the continued effort by the Trump Administration to consolidate power in state run education boards by dismantling the DOE. The White House has initiated a task force on AI Education with the goal of “preparing young people for an AI dominated workforce”. The Task force is supported by a long list of tech giants who have pledged to support this task force in its implementation. “The Robots are Here” says Melania Trump. Federal lawmakers introduce No Social Media in School Act seeks to block Kid’s access to social media during school hours with geofence.

The Social Security Office’s Data Officer resigned citing “culture of panic, and dread” over lack of data security transparency and concerning practices by Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). DOGE bypassed federal Privacy Act protections to access protected US data in its quest to “identify wasteful spending and abuse”. Americans concerned about what personal data DOGE may have vacuumed up and away to undisclosed servers may take this quiz.

The Department of Health and Human Services’ Center for Disease Control (CDC) saw 200 websites full of health data go offline last month. The Trump Administration has agreed to restore the sites that were removed after a series of Trump’s Anti-DEI executive orders. The pages and sites that were primary targets included information on LGBTQ+ care, HIV testing, and Pregnancy health. Regulatory agencies saw a databases that detailed ongoing regulatory actions taken down and partially restored. When restores “gender” was changed to “sex” and key health data was missing.

Elon Musk’s xAI and the Trump Administration’s General Services Administration (GSA) have partnered on a deal that allows government agencies to access Grok chatbot for 42 cents per organization as a part of the White House’s OneGov strategy to integrate AI tools in US government. A coalition of over 30 consumer protection groups said that Grok was unfit for government use because it doesn’t align with Trump’s AI Action plan, which requires federal AI systems to be objective and be “neutral, nonpartisan tools that do not manipulate responses in favor of ideological dogmas.’” Grok has been known to generate and publish racist, hateful, and false claims on X in response to public posts.

States

Some states are courting surveillance tech while others are defending against Trump Admin attacks.

States across the country create copycat DOGE agencies. Iowa’s DOGE is threatening teachers’ pensions in their quest to “cut wasteful government spending”.

The Big Lie continues as the Trump administration sues multiple states over access to voter data. The states facing lawsuits from the Trump Administration over vote certification includes New Hampshire Oregon, and Maine. Similarly the Kansas Governor was sued for not turning over Food Stamps Data to the Trump Administration.

Dilworth, Minnesota Police sign a 3 year contract with Clearview AI facial recognition technology to aid police in ongoing and future investigations. Sanford, Maine to consider Flock cameras for traffic enforcement and police investigation. Flock has been accused of violating Illinois privacy law by being used for tracking pregnant women seeking abortions. This is a company that is used by hundreds of Police Agencies across the US.

University of California in LA saw research funding cuts by Trump admin and are suing back in response. UC Berkely shared a list of 150 students and Faculty at the request of the Trump Administration as a part of an ongoing effort to chill campus dissent. Trump administration is seeking $1Billion from the university as settlement for claims of antisemitism.

Michigan Republicans seek to ban VPN usage and online porn access. No US state has successfully banned VPN usage as it infringes on anti- censorship rights. However, Michigan’s latest attempt is prompting calls from concerned citizens across the country. Bluesky to require age verification in Wyoming and South Dakota while opting to go dark in Mississippi due to more restrictive internet laws.

Cyber Rights

Corporations are being ordered to pay up for violating our rights to privacy and informed consent.

Federal Lawmakers sent a letter to ICE director requesting transparency about a new biometric scanning app used by US Border and customs agencies called Mobile Fortify.

Americans are starting to see their piece of the Facebook settlement coming in after the company’s Cambrige Analytica political data scandal. 23andMe requests approval for a $50M settlement after a 2023 data breach exposed the data of 6.4 million users. Google Must pay $425Million in settlement for privacy invading data collection practices. The deadline to file a claim is Nov 4 for AT&T customers seeking settlement money after data breach resulting in $144 Million dollar Class Action Settlement.

Lots of wins for consumer privacy and consent brought to you by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Your favorite ticket scalpers, Live Nation and Ticketmaster are being sued by the FTC… again. Amazon must pay $2.5 Billion to settle with the FTC after scamming customers into purchasing Amazon Prime. This is the largest settlement in FTC history to date. the FTC has fined Disney $10Million for collecting children’s data from YouTube videos. This ruling comes as Disney agreed that it violated child privacy laws by uploading content promoted to children then collecting the viewer data for targeted advertising purposes. Disney was warned back in 2020 but the company failed to change its practices to satisfy the COPPA (Children’s Online Privacy Protection) rule.

Corporation Watch

Tech billionaires bend over backwards to swallow as much government funding as possible.

Google sends a letter to the House Judiciary Committee in an attempt to repair bad blood and secure government contracting deals. Google admits that it worked in collaboration with the Biden administration to deplatform content creators spreading COVID-19 Election denial content. “I am feeling super confident in our ability to work with this administration to show them that Google is all in,” Google Public Sector CEO Karen Dahut said in June. The Heritage Foundation, prominent ultra-conservative political think tank, remains unconvinced by Google’s plea. Daniel Cochrane, a senior research associate at the Heritage Foundation says “As I said in my testimony before the Texas State Senate last year, ‘Platforms such as Google are… deploying new methods of social manipulation like prebunking, designed to psychologically inoculate voters against (what they consider) mis or dis information.’ Those manipulations continue — albeit in a more subtle form.”. Video social media app TikTok’s sale to US controlled investors has been cleared by Trump’s September 25th Executive order. The full list of investors is not yet publicly available. As a part of a preliminary deal, Oracle has been confirmed as the company that will be in charge of app security and the algorithm. Among other potential investors include private equity firm Silver Lake and Fox Corps. Oracle is now closing in on a $20 Billion dollar AI cloud deal with META.

Concerns of an AI bubble continue to grow following Oracle’s $300 Billion dollar investment in OpenAI. Despite ORCL.N stock jumping 36%, Economy experts are warning that the private AI field has failed to return on investments as remaining performance obligations (RPO) reflect contracted services, yet do not reflect guaranteed income. NVIDIA invests $100Billion into Open AI in exchange for AI use of NVIDIA’s chips. This sends NVIDIA shares up by $200 Billion, raising antitrust concerns. U.S. government seeks 10% investment in Intel for domestic chip production plans.

Boeing and Palantir announced a partnership that aims to speed up defense by leveraging AI to “standardize data analytics and insights across its geographically dispersed family of defense factories,”. SpaceX tries to secure funding meant for high speed internet access, leaving rural communities set to receive fiber optic cables at a disadvantage.

Tesla is being probed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on account of faulty Digital Doors handles raising safety concerns. Microsoft to un-bundle teams from Office suite to satisfy EU antitrust requirements.

Former WhatsApp executive files a suit against parent company META stating that META violated cybersecurity regulations following the Cambridge Analytica settlement.

Lachlan Murdoch to take control of Media empire in new settlement of family trust after Rupert Murdoch’s death left a power vacuum in the News Corp media empire.

Weather Report

The current state of hate, extremism, and free expression… also underwater internet cables.

Domestic Terrorism is up 300% according to the DHS and the FBI is terming the phenomenon Nihilistic Violent Extremism. On that vein, a Mississippi Student was found hanging from a tree at Delta Tree university. This has officially been ruled a suicide but community residents are seeking answers and Colin Kapernick is funding a second autopsy.

Trump’s tariffs are impacting Americans and their businesses. UPenn is projecting a $22K loss in income for median income households in the US. I’m no economist but I can feel the impacts myself as these tariffs are impacting Black Beauty businesses raising prices for beauty staples.

Undersea Internet Cable mysteriously cut in the Red Sea interrupting internet service in Asia and Middle East. These outages can sometimes occur due to ships, sharks, or underwater tectonic shifts. However, there have still been no reported explanation for this outage as of Oct 1.

Student Memorials for Charlie Kirk held by conservative student groups in schools across America. Social Media users of all ages saw a rise in online gore and hate after the Charlie Kirk assassination. ABC followed by Nextar and Sinclair temporarily pulled then restored Jimmy Kimmel’s show over his critical comments following Charlie Kirk’s assassination. This is only the highest profile case of political retaliation and backlash that followed the heavily publicized assassination.

Good News

The People continue to stand up fight back and win while human and civil rights are under attack!

After 2 years of trying to prosecute 61 Atlanta Forest Defenders in a RICO conspiracy charges were dismissed by Fulton county superior court judge Kevin Farmer. Ending the largest criminal racketeering case against US protesters in US history.

There were nationwide protests on Labor Day led by labor organizers and community activists organizing against billionaires and Trump. Workers Over Billionaires rally held in Chicago in protest of funding cuts and ICE presence. Veterans and activists in Virginia protest cuts to the VA. Rallying at Sen Tim Budd’s office, while in Ann Arbor Michigan, VA advocates Organized by the American Federation of Government Employees Local 2092 protested the Executive order that removed collective bargaining rights for workers at the VA. resulting in the termination of more than 1,000 non-bargaining unit probationary employees amid a series of proposed federal cuts.

Illinois signs Anti-SLAPP legislation into law protecting public media and journalists. Chicago activists are deploying effective community based organizing and surveillance operations against ICE. Deploying patrol volunteers on bike and foot to warn communities about ICE activities. Similarly, protests erupt out of Philidelphia, Bucks county “We’re paying for our sheriffs to do the work of Immigration and Customs Enforcement,” said Juan Navia, a Cuba-born plaintiff in the case. “That’s not something we as voters signed up for.” 287(g) agreement, a controversial section of a 1996 Immigration Act was used to justify police collaboration with ICE. This community in Oregon is organizing against ICE to keep parents and students safe during drop off and pick up after a parent was detained on the way to work.

Harvard students protest Trump after the administration demanded significant changes along with a threat of withholding $9Billion dollars in funding. Harvard faculty chapter of the American Association of University Professors, filed a lawsuit against the Trump Administration. DC students across the district protest militarized police crackdown by walking out at four major universities.

Google Data Center construction stopped by St Louis activists, construction withdrawal, and 60,000 petition signatures. There is now a 1 year ban on data centers in the state of Missouri. The people have been effectively organizing against Data Centers across the country and have developed a toolkit to empower communities with resources and strategies. Grassroots leaders with Our Revolution delivered over 80,000 petition signatures to the Capitol Hill offices of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, calling on them to formally endorse Zohran Mamdani. Kansas Activists are organizing to be heard by our Federal Government and maximized their time in the US capitol by meeting with legislators and protesting.

Fedral health data must be restored ruled courts after Doctors for America won their suit. The defendants included U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and federal health agencies and officials who work under him. The plaintiffs include, among others, the Vermont Medical Society, the Washington State Nurses Association and the International Association of Providers of AIDS Care. Jessie Mahr, director of technology at the Environmental Policy Innovation Center (EPIC). is leading a data preservation effort after Trump administration censors scientific data “It’s information that everyone should know about their health and wellbeing within an area,” Mahr said. These resources aren’t just used by the general public, she added, but by government agencies themselves.

A federal district court has ruled that the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) acted unlawfully when it directed federal agencies to terminate more than 25,000 probationary employees.U.S. District Judge issued preliminary injunctions in lawsuits against the Los Angeles Police Department and the Department of Homeland Security over officers’ treatment of journalists. The judge wrote that federal officers “indiscriminate use of force … will undoubtedly chill the media’s efforts” to cover protests and that the police department violated both state and federal law. President Donald Trump’s administration must update its immigration services website to reflect that 600,000 Venezuelans with temporary protected status are legally allowed to live and work in the United States, a federal judge ordered. That ruling found Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem had unlawfully canceled temporary protected status, or TPS, extensions granted by President Joe Biden’s Democratic administration for 1.1 million Venezuelans and Haitians.

Black Music Action Coalition gala raising money for Altadena relief and other advocacy work tonight at the Beverly Hilton (with Irving Azoff, John Legend and Kai Cenat being honored), how Altadena can keep its soul and if freedom of speech will ever truly extend to Black artists in court.

Wyoming show of intentional de-escalation over pizza“(He said), ‘Donnie, I’d really like to give you a hug, I’m sorry for what I said, too, but you have your AR trapped on your chest,’” Crerar said. “And without hesitation, I took my AR sling off, handed it to my friend next to me, and Dylan and I hugged.”

High speed internet may be connecting a town near you thanks to BEAD funding!

Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) dollars are at work across the country! Fiber optic cable construction is underway, connecting communities across the country to reliable high speed internet. Despite NTIA’s changes to BEAD policy that prioritized spending on high quality fiber-optic connection over satellite, and SpaceX telling US states to revise their BEAD proposals, calling fiber investments “wasteful” and “unnecessary”, fiber optic is winning out across the country!

LFT, Louisiana’s only 100% community owned fiber optic internet provider opens their office in Lafayette to be more accessible to the community. Vermont Broadband chief says “This focus on low-Earth orbit satellites, that’s not infrastructure, that’s renting space,”Fargo, North Dakota sees two fiber optic providers installing fiber optic cables in the region.Stratford, Connecticut connecting communities to reliable high speed internet for the first time. Carson California broke ground on the city’s first-ever municipal fiber optic network, a “landmark $27 million investment fully funded by the city. Albuquerque New Mexico rescinded its fiber optic moratorium to allow installation and proper feedback opportunities from the community. Vancouver, Washington is seeing fiber optic expansion and increased provider competition, after an increase in demand for high-speed internet. In New Orleans, Louisiana, fiber internet is coming to Buras in Plaquemines Parish, fulfilling a federal grant aimed at bringing high-speed connections to more rural areas. Springfield, Massachusetts wants a guarantee from Fiber Optic company that “no neighborhood will be left behind”. Greenville, South Carolina city council unanimously passed first reading to allow fiber optic broadband to be installed within city limits– only one more vote before installation can begin. Reno, Nevada’s Bureau of Land Management has approved 400 miles of Fiber optic cables to ensure connectivity statewide for schools. libraries, hospitals, clinics, and communities.

Though there have been significant losses for progress and human rights across the US, the people have shown grit, bravery, and determination while standing up for their communities. I can’t think of anything more American than that. I can’t think of anything more un-American than the corporations and politicians who weaponize policing and disinformation to stand in the way of progress.

Horoscope

The month starts out with mystery in the air when Mercury, the planet of communication, moves into Scorpio on October 6. This is a sign from the stars to lean on your connections and deepen them through meaningful conversation. Let empathy and human connection lead you through the month.

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Until Next Month ^.^
-Raelyn Roberson