Happy Pride!

June is here, it is queer, and it is chaotic.
Archiving the events of May required extra time and caution.
Thank you for your patience and your concerned messages. My writing was slow this month as I processed the damage that our government has done to my rights as a Black voter, as worker with a 401k, and a DC resident. A lot of my free time has been spent helping activists take back their privacy online, and having joyful moments in my community.

Thankfully, I write this newsletter without the expectation of timeliness or perfection. I write to process and understand the world around me, one month at a time. I let curiosity and hope for our future guide my research, while determination and outrage fuels my writing. Boy did May give us all a lot to be curious, hopeful, and outraged about -I present to you the May Newsletter.

Use the table of contents below to navigate this letter… or tackle the 30 min read time head on.
Skip to the Good News. Read the June Horoscope.

Federal Government

Supreme Court Guts Voting Rights, FCC Gatekeeps Communication, White House smears FEMA, stolen worker data left unprotected.

The Supreme Court eviscerated the last functional provision of the Voting Rights Act, their devastating Louisiana v. Callais ruling in. Alito cited misleading data from Department of Justice (Doj). The claim was copied almost verbatim from a friend-of-the-court brief filed by the DoJ’s where they based analysis on, the Census Bureau’s current population survey, which is known to produce misleading turnout statistics.

The Federal Communication Comission (FCC) used false claims of Immigrant fraud as reasoning for proposed changes to their benefit program Lifeline. These changes would drive up internet costs for everyone, while making identity verification requirements even stricter -potentially requiring full Social Security numbers, and classify Lifeline as a “federal public benefit,” -a shift that could limit eligibility for some non-citizens. It also introduces new consent and enrollment rules “aimed at curbing improper participation” in a crucial program for low income communities.

A proposal, released by a council appointed by Trump, makes sweeping recommendations for changes to Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Their report largely failed to address how these reforms would meet the increasing needs of an emergency management system that is already struggling to keep pace with extreme weather events fueled by the climate crisis.

A federal identity monitoring program, created after a 2015 breach of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) exposed roughly 22 million records of Federal Workers, will end. The program included credit monitoring and identity theft insurance coverage. The breach impacted more than 22.1 million people and were overwhelmingly assessed to have been linked to China.

Tech CEOs and Trump visits China while Naval blockades quell societal unrest in Iran, Cuba, and US -due to rising costs, blackouts & starvation.

Prominent U.S. executives from Big Tech and Wall Street to agriculture and aerospace joined President Trump on his trip to China where he met with President Xi Jinping. The two leaders were expected to discuss Iran, trade and artificial intelligence, and reach trade agreements. The president posted a lenthy rant about unrelated topics in a post on Truth Social following the trip.

Iran has reportedly caused billions of dollars in damage to U.S. military assets and bases in the Gulf region, sparking questions about the Trump administration’s transparency regarding potential costs for repairs. Pete Hegseth, in his first appearance before Congress since the Trump administration, dodged questions about the reasoning and cost of the US Iran war. Officials have said that many troops are now relocated to “hotels and office spaces” across the region and as far as Europe. the positioning of troops in civilian structures raises concerns of the U.S. using civilians as “human shields.” US continues blockades in the Strait of Hormuz which has been closed by Iran –pending failing ceasefire negotiations, leaving thousands of sailors stranded in the gulf with dwindling supplies. As a result of a different US blockade, Cuba’s worsening power crisis is fueling growing unrest across the island. As blackouts intensify and the Cuban government says it has run out of oil because of the U.S. blockade.
Soaring gas prices make It hard for commuters to get to work. Stanford scholars forecast that average households may spend $857 more on gasoline in 2026. Commuter students struggle to keep up with rising gas prices . Some commuters are now biking to work.

CORRUPTION IN FRONT OF OUR FACES: The Slush Fund, Souvenir Bourbon Bottles, Gold Bars, & Bribes to Avoid Epstein Accountability.

Trump filed a notice of voluntary dismissal in his $10 billion lawsuit against his own IRS and the Department of the Treasury, permanently ending the case. As a part of a Settlement agreement, the U.S. government would permanently drop tax claims against Trump, effectively shield the president and his family from further examination of finances and legal conduct. The U.S. Office of Government Ethics on Thursday released financial disclosure forms. The disclosures also show that Trump was months late in disclosing tens of millions of dollars in stock trading. Presidents are required to publicly disclose stock transactions exceeding $1,000 within 45 days, with records showing that he was assessed with a $200 fee for being late.

Also as part of the settlement, the DOJ announced the creation of a nearly $1.8 billion fund to pay people who say they were victims of government “weaponization,”. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche told lawmakers that there would be “no partisan requirement” to file a claim, but also declined to rule out whether January 6 Insurrectionists, campaign donors, or hate group Oath Keepers would be eligible. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., told Blanche he was acting “like the president’s personal attorney. Former Proud Boys Leader, Henry Tarrio (convicted by a jury in 2023 of seditious conspiracy after prosecutors said he helped organize the Capitol insurrection) said he believes he is owed “somewhere in the mid-tens of millions” of dollars from the fund. MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell said he will seek $400M in compensation. ” Former Capitol Hill Police officers sued Trump.

Trump signed a bill ending record-breaking agency 75 day shutdown of the DHS. The bill provided funding for 20 of the DHS’s agencies, including the TSA, FEMA, Coast Guard and Secret Service, through the end of the fiscal year. Senate Republicans removed a $1 billion Secret Service funding request, that would have helped fund Trump’s ballroom project, from their immigration enforcement funding bill, revealing internal Republican objections and dissent against the project.

FBI Director Kash Patel has forced dozens of staff to take lie detector tests while in ‘panic mode’ to save his job. The Atlantic follows its bombshell Kash Patel exposé with new claims about personalized bottles of bourbon being given out as souvenirs.
Rush, a former senior executive service-level CIA employee in Virginia, was arrested on May 19, after FBI agents searching his home seized more than 300 1-kilogram gold bars valued at more than $40 million.
Howard Lutnick, told lawmakers in a closed-door interview earlier this month that he met Jeffrey Epstein only three times and had no “personal or professional relationship” with the disgraced financier, according to a newly released transcript of the meeting. Lutnick donated $5M to House GOP super PAC ahead of Epstein deposition. The comments came during a closed-door interview before the House oversight and reform committee earlier this month, during which lawmakers questioned Lutnick for several hours about his previous ties to Epstein and his past statements about their interactions. The US commerce secretary,

Federal Courts Fed up with Trump Agenda of Unlawful Repression: ICE Activity ruled Illegal, Discriminatory Maps, & Destruction of Evidence

More than 10,000 times, judges have said ICE detentions, typically carried out with no opportunity for detainees to plead their case, were illegal –roughly 90 percent of all cases, representing a staggering rejection of Trump’s immigration agenda. Texas mother of 4 released from ICE custody after A federal judge ordered her release, more than a month in to detention. The judge ruled that she was detained for “no discernible reason.”

A federal judge in Tennessee dismissed criminal charges against Kilmar Abrego García, an immigrant who was wrongfully deported to El Salvador where he was tortured in the CECOT facility. A federal judge in New York has banned US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents from arresting immigrants in or around three federal courthouses in lower Manhattan. The ruling is in response to a suit brought by the ACLU.

After Texas Department of Public Safety trooper, trained and authorized to detain undocumented immigrants as a part of a 287(g) agreement, picked up Cabrera on his way home from work. Church and school leaders who know the teen wrote letters of support, his classmates held small demonstrations off campus calling for his release, and reports of his detention caught the attention of U.S. Congressman Greg Casar. U.S. District Court Judge Jason Pulliam ordered the federal government to release Cabrera, finding that the teen had no criminal history, was not a flight risk, posed no danger to the community, and had been complying with the conditions of a prior release.
ICE blames a mother it deported for her two-year-old son’s alleged murder in the US months later. Orlín Josué Hernandez Reyes, 2, showed multiple broken bones, burns and evidence of sexual abuse after his death in March. Wendy Hernandez Reyes and her sister were in a car that was pulled over in early January in Alabama as she headed to her job laying concrete foundations. The Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office, one of many that cooperate with federal immigration authorities under the 287(g) program, then handed her off to ICE, who detained her in Louisiana.

Three Democratic members of Congress U.S. Reps. Greg Stanton, Yassamin Ansari and Adelita Grijalva wrote a letter demanding ICE to answer questions about the use of pepper spray on 47 detainees at a Mesa holding facility. DHS accused the two Arizona Democrats of lying about what they saw during unannounced oversight visits of a Mesa facility and insisted that reports of overcrowding and overflowing toilets are false.

Federal court blocks Alabama’s midterm gerrymandering plan. The three-judge panel blocked the state from re-implementing its 2023 congressional maps they found as “tainted by intentional race-based discrimination.” Republicans said they would immediately appeal the decision back to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court earlier this month allowed Alabama to proceed with redistricting, kicking the process back down to the lower court.

A federal judge ruled that White House staff must preserve their official records, including communications that they send via non-official text message services.

States

Virginia Supreme Court overturns the will of the voters: Redistricting War continues, major fair maps battle lost.

The Supreme Court of Virginia struck down the congressional redistricting approved by voters in April. — by a 52% to 48% margin . The ruling is a major setback for Democracy and for a voter-led attempt to counter the pro-GOP gerrymandering led by President Trump. The Majority ruling says that the legislature violated the multi-step process for putting constitutional amendments on the ballot.

Connecticut to Investigate Roblox, Utah’s First in the Nation VPN restrictions, & Minnesota’s law limiting addicting social media features.

Connecticut’s attorney general’s office announcing on Tuesday that it is investigating Roblox. State officials worry that the platform is being used to draw youth into disturbing and violent interactions, and that older users are exploiting loopholes in the platform’s safety protocols to gain access to victims.

The Missouri Senate approved legislation requiring pornographic websites to verify users are adults. Members of the House voted 112-25 to approve the legislation. Since the House took up the Senate-amended bill without requesting changes, it now goes to Gov. Mike Kehoe where it awaits a signature.

Utah became the first state in the U.S. to officially try to restrict VPN access, a loophole that internet users are using to get around age verification.

Gov. Tim Walz signed into law, bipartisan legislation requiring children 15 and younger to get parental consent to have social media accounts while limiting “addictive” features. The law enacts new guardrails for Minnesota children on social media platforms including Instagram, TikTok and SnapChat.

Cyber Rights

Musk in Court: Lost AI Lawsuit and Damaging Texan’s Homes with Terrestial Debris & Sonic Booms.

A jury in California took less than two hours to decide that Elon Musk waited too long to file a lawsuit against his one-time business partner Sam Altman over the direction he’s steered the artificial intelligence company OpenAI since the two had a falling out nearly a decade ago.

Dozens of Central Texas residents file suit against SpaceX alleging ‘terrestrial bombardment’ resulting in property damage. Plaintiffs are seeking more than $1 million in damages. The same week, 80 South Texas residents claim their homes were damaged by “massive” sonic booms from the SpaceX facility in a federal lawsuit filed in the U.S. Southern District of Texas.

The AI Harms Experts Warned Us About: Restricted News Access, Politically Weighted Algorithms, Killer ChatBots, and AI Porn.

CBS News shut down its radio news service after nearly 100 years of operation, blaming challenging economic times as the world moves on to digital sources and podcasts.
More than 340 local news outlets are limiting the Internet Archive’s access to their journalism. Many sites are owned by five of the seven largest local news publishers in the country: USA Today Co., McClatchy, Advance Local, MediaNews Group, and Tribune Publishing. Wayback Machine has highlighted its efforts to minimize abuse of its site, including implementing systems that limit bulk downloading and working with vendors like Cloudflare to monitor bot activity. The Atlantic’s CEO Nick Thompson said blocking the Internet Archive is important for publishers that want to maintain leverage when negotiating licensing with big AI companies.

A study published finds that TikTok’s algorithm systematically prioritized pro-Republican content in three states leading up to the 2024 US elections.
Parents Sue OpenAI, after ChatGPT gives medical advice leading up to an overdose Death. The incident followed several months of ChatGPT encouraging Sam Nelson to engage in increasingly dangerous behaviors, according to the complaint.

A Texas man faces federal charges after prosecutors say he created and distributed AI-generated pornographic images depicting women – including celebrities, public figures, and people he personally knew. Federal investigators accuse Arturo Hernandez of Bedias, Texas, of publishing more than 100 online albums containing explicit AI-generated content over more than a year. Authorities say the case falls under the federal Take It Down Act, which prohibits the sharing of intimate imagery without permission”

Tale of Two Age Verification Strategies: Utah’s VPN Bans v.s. Minnesota’s ID-less Age Estimation and what trade groups have to say.

New cybersecurity research indicates that one of the world’s leading age verification providers collects and shares highly sensitive personal data—including facial photos and device fingerprints—with third parties. U.K.-based nonprofit Internet Matters surveyed a thousand children about age-verification checks online, and about half said that age checks were easy to bypass. Some young hackers, have found that drawing on a fake mustache with a makeup pencil is enough to bypass age restricted websites.

Utah’s Online Age Verification Amendments went into effect in May. The new law adds two new restrictions related to VPNs. Attacks on VPNs are recognized by privacy advocates as attacks on the tools that enable digital privacy. After suing Utah over free speech concerns the, The Computer & Communication Industry Association, representing Amazon, Apple, Google and Meta, withdrew its complaint the same day. They did so after confirming the law could not be enforced by government prosecution. The owner of PornHub is suing Utah to stop the enforcement of its newest age verification law. Utah has required adult content companies to verify the age of online users since 2023, after which PornHub blocked access to its site for the entire state.

In contrast to strict age-verification, which typically requires government IDs Minnesota’s recently enacted law would require only “age estimation,” in which social media companies use multiple data points, like the content a person consumes and posts, to estimate the age of users.
NetChoice, the powerful trade group representing large social media sites like TikTok, Instagram and Facebook, asked Walz to veto the Minnesota bill that lawmakers passed by a wide margin this month.

Corporation Watch

The AI Bubble Threatens to Pop Our Entire Economy: Banks Shuffle Oracle Data Center Construction Debt, IPOs Siphoning Our Retirement, & Betting on War.

New Nasdaq 100 (.NDX) rules went into effect May 1. The new “fast entry” provisions are expected to speed ​up the addition of newly listed megacap companies to the benchmarks. Our 401(ks) could be forced to buy in. Groups including JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and SMBC are trying to find ways to distribute portions of data center-related deals to a broader range of investors. Lenders are exploring private deals to sell stakes in the debt as well as so-called risk transfers to reduce exposure to big borrowers and free up capacity for more lending. Lenders, including JPMorgan and MUFG, have spent more than six months distributing $38bn of construction debt tied to a data center project leased to Oracle in Texas and Wisconsin.

SpaceX revealed plans for what could be the biggest-ever initial public offering. The stock sale alone could make Musk the world’s first trillionaire. Forbes currently puts his net worth at $839 billion. The proposed governance would constitute the most management-favorable governance structure ever brought to the U.S. public markets at this scale. SpaceX’s Securities and Exchange Commission SEC filing shows that he lost $2.6 billion from operations last year on $18.7 billion in revenue. The filing also revealed that Anthropic is paying $15 billion a year for access Musk’s Collosuss 1 data center.

Anthropic confidently filed for IPO -it hasn’t decided on the number or price of shares to be offered. Anthropic raised $65 billion in private funding that will push its valuation to $965 billion.

OpenAI confidentially files for a U.S. initial public offering, which was last valued at $852 billion. OpenAI launched an AI consulting arm valued at $14 billion. Open AI launched a self-serve ad platform. The non-profit that controls OpenAI says it will commit an initial $250 million for grants, partnerships and direct work aimed at helping workers and economies ​navigate the disruption caused by AI technology.

Weather Report

Excersising the Right to Protest: May Day Labor Strikes & Days of Action, Athletic Boycotts, and Detention Center Hunger Strikes.

Tens of thousands of Illinoisans joined more than 50 May Day rallies linking labor, immigration rights and anti-war calls across the state. Schools planned lessons, rallies and field trips after Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Teachers Union reached an agreement to make May 1 an official civic day of action. Some students also attended an annual march Downtown to protest the Trump administration’s policies. In Washington, D.C., activists and organizers rally and shut down 4th and Pennsylvania Avenue to observe May Day and D.C. Statehood Day. Roughly 2,290 workers, represented by the University of Illinois Chicago Graduate Employees Organization, are striking after months of contract talks.

Tennessee troopers kicked protesters out of legislative hearings on a map that would reshape the majority-Black congressional district in Memphis. Thousands of Mississippians marched in protest on in response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision to weaken the Voting Rights Act. The NAACP launched the “Out of Bounds” campaign which calls on Black athletes and fans to boycott the athletic programs of public universities in states that are taking steps that the nation’s oldest civil rights group says are restricting Black voting rights.

Activists say at least 20 immigrants at the Desert View Annex in Adelanto, California, have launched a hunger strike demanded that Geo Group Inc., the owner and operator of the facility, remove mold, improve drinking water and provide timely medical care to people with chronic health conditions. Detainees at Delaney Hall detention center in Newark, New Jersey are staging a hunger strike over poor conditions, delayed medical care and what relatives and retaliation by authorities. The strike sparked protests where Federal agents are using brutal force against protesters. Family members of ICE detainees at Delaney Hall in Newark call for release of “innocent people”. US Senator Andy Kim said he is alarmed after speaking over the long weekend with dozens of the 700-plus detainees held at the facility. Kim was among those injured when agents fired pepper balls into the crowd. Gov. Mikie Sherrill was denied access to the facility. New Jersey state police set up designated protest zones and vehicle checkpoints outside an immigration detention center.

Cyber Attacks & Data Breaches on the Rise: You Data For Ransom, Costing Companies and Victims Millions.

Canvas was hacked again on May 7 by ShinyHunters the criminal hacking group which claimed responsibility with a ransomware message on Canvas’s login page. The hack is considered the largest educational security breach on record due to its global scale, affecting 8,809 universities, educational ministries, and other institutions worldwide. ShinyHunters threatened to release Canvas’ sensitive data unless its ransom was paid by May 12. Although the terms of the agreement are not publicly known, unconfirmed rumors suggest that US$10 million was paid. A class action was filed in U.S. District Court in Waco by a nursing student at Baylor University in response to the breach. KKR & Co. and its Instructure Inc. unit are facing several federal class actions.

Federal judge in Nebraska has been asked to approve a $10 million settlement in a class-action lawsuit over a data breach at Nelnet in 2022 that affected student loan borrowers serviced by Edfinancial Services and the Oklahoma Student Loan Authority.

Shiny Hunters said in an online forum that the stolen Ticketmaster data includes the names, addresses, phone numbers and partial credit card details of customers. The group’s post said the data was available for purchase for $500,000 in a “one-time sale.”
Charter Communications has confirmed a data breach after the ShinyHunters threatened to leak stolen data unless a ransom is paid. where attackers claimed to have stolen 40 million records through a voice phishing (vishing) attack that compromised an employee’s Microsoft Entra account. Charter Communications faces federal class action suits following the breach. According to the threat actor, the stolen records contain customer names, email addresses, addresses, phone numbers, phone type, plan information, and some CPNI data. The threat actor also claims to have stolen customer support ticket data.

US officials suspect Iranian hackers are behind a series of breaches of systems that monitor the amount of fuel in storage tanks serving gas stations in multiple states. The hackers responsible have exploited automatic tank gauge (ATG) systems that were sitting online and unprotected by passwords, allowing them in some cases to tinker with display readings on the tanks.

You should check if you are impacted by data breaches at https://haveibeenpwned.com/.

AI Hyperscalers ruled Unholy: From the Pope to the County

On May 25, Pope Leo XIV’s published his first encyclical Magnifica humanitas, the 42,300-word encyclical warns about the growing power of artificial intelligence and calls for stronger regulation of the technology. Framed as an appeal for the defense of humanity in a rapidly automating world, the text urges governments, corporations, and individuals to slow the rate of technological development and ensure that AI remains subject to ethical and political oversight.

Nearly 50,000 Lake Tahoe residents have to find a new power source after their energy source looks to redirect lines to data centers. Northern Nevada has become one of the fastest-growing data-center corridors in the country. Google, Apple, and Microsoft have either built or are planning facilities around the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center east of Reno. The shift means that Liberty Utilities has less than a year to secure new power suppliers to replace most of its electricity supply as regional energy demand continues to rise.

El Paso County Commissioners Court questioned representatives from El Paso Electric about any potential impacts from data center development in the region. El Paso Electric and El Paso Water officials presented reports about infrastructure planning and its potential impacts on unincorporated areas during a special session. Knox County commissioners are exploring options to limit data centers before they’re built. Saline Township Treasurer Jennifer Zink announced her resignation at the end of a board meeting, citing death threats, as construction continues on the 1.4-gigawatt Related Digital data center located within the township. The township board originally voted against the rezoning of more than 500 acres of agricultural land for the data center. The data center’s developers then sued the township, leading to a settlement that allowed the project to continue.

Trump Administration Targets Americans: Domestic Terrorist or Dissent?- Palantir wants to decide.

The White House released a public counterterrorism strategy, authored by Trump’s counterterrorism czar, Sebastian Gorka, claiming that left-wing extremists are one of the three top counterterrorism priorities facing the United States. a New York Intelligence and Counterterrorism Bureau report warns of widespread upheaval in response to AI adoption.

Federal agents have raided the homes of three southern California immigration activists in what the activists allege is the latest escalation in a Trump administration campaign to harass a volunteer-led advocacy group that organizes neighborhood ICE-watch patrols. Immigration activists say DHS Agents with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), of intimidation campaign. VC Defensa organizes ICE patrols, a hotline and community support for immigrants in Ventura county.

Palantir is battling the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency for the ability to bid for a contract to modernize its data analytics system. Nonprofit Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression sued DHS, seeking to compel the agency to turn over records about the alleged “domestic terrorist” database under the Freedom of Information Act. Another lawsuit, filed against DHS in Illinois earlier in May, challenges the federal government’s collection and storage of DNA samples from four people who were arrested at anti-ICE protests in Illinois.

The Struggle to Stop Detention Centers: Calls for transparency and questions about legality.

Use-of-force data published by The Washington Post show staff at the Krome North Service Processing Center, reported more uses of physical force against immigrant detainees than any other detention center over a two-year period. NBC News requested emergency call logs from regions where the 16 largest immigration detention centers are housed around the country. Six jurisdictions located in Washington, California, Georgia, Michigan and Texas responded with detailed call logs. At least 39 emergency calls include descriptions of inmates experiencing “acute psychosis” and an “altered mental state. Rep. Mike Levin, D-Calif., made a surprise visit to ICE’s Otay Mesa Detention Center, he was told he could not speak to detainees.

Santa Clara County officials to threaten legal action and raising new questions about federal detention capacity as Northern California County zoning laws for the site of the planned center do not allow for detention centers or any type of facility that holds or imprisons people.
Schuylkill County residents had sharp criticism for county officials — especially concerning the proposed detention center during the commissioners’ May 21 work session meeting.

Pomona County may have found an alternative legal way to ban new detention centers and curb ICE activity within the city. Enveloped in a city zoning update, Ordinance 4365- with stricter rules on warehousing and security fences, included a clearer definition of what constitutes a detention center and the restriction of them across all city zoning.

A Noticias Telemundo investigation documented a marked increase in cases of people posing as federal agents. The recorded incidents include intimidation, robbery, and sexual assault, as well as so-called “immigration operations” carried out by armed vigilantes against what they describe as an “invasion” of foreigners in the United States — a trope that Trump has repeatedly invoked.

Good News

Tech Workers Defend Rights: Open Source OS safe from Age Restriction & Google workers unionizing.

After Colorado introduced legislation that would require all OS to conduct age verification, a Linux developer testified Colorado House of Representatives committee meeting to make his case. “Everyone should have access to the ability to create with a computer,” Richell testified. “Open-source software makes that possible. It ensures that everyone, regardless of age or background, can learn, experiment, and build at the most fundamental level.” SB26-051 passed with an exemption excluding open-source operating systems like Linux from its rules.

Google DeepMind workers in UK vote to unionize amid deal with US military. In a letter slated to go to management workers at Google DeepMind, the company’s AI research laboratory, requested recognition of the Communication Workers Union and Unite the Union as joint representatives of the lab’s UK-based staff. “I have joined the union due to concerns about AI being used to empower authoritarianism, whether through military or surveillance applications, both foreign and domestic,” added the worker, who requested anonymity because of fear of retaliation. “By unionizing, we are taking the traditional route for workers to organize and have a say.”

Towns Across America Divest from Flock

Bandera town council voted 3–2 to terminate a contract with Flock Safety—prompting a fiery response from one council member who floated banning phones, cameras and even internet service altogether.
Dayton, Ohio has covered its Flock automated license plate reader cameras with black trash bags in because police are unsure whether the cameras are still active and the city also doesn’t know whether it is allowed to take the cameras down.
The city of Edmonds has canceled its automated license place reader contract with Flock Safety. Dane County Sheriff’s Office will stop using dozens of AI surveillance cameras posted up across Madison and surrounding towns, after the county Board of Supervisors pulled funding from a contract with Flock Safety.
‘Flock No’ urges Cleveland Mayor Bibb, city council to discontinue Flock.
2 Boulder residents sue over city’s use of Flock cameras, citing widespread privacy violations. The lawsuit is asking a judge to block the police department’s use of its 31 cameras and require the city to release records of the data collected.

Hawaii undoes Citizens United, Wins for reproductive health and safety, Mamdani Balances Budget, Flavor Flav Supports Women’s sports.

Hawaii Legislature passes first-in-nation bill targeting Citizens United ruling. The Democrat-dominated Hawaii Legislature voted 24-0 in the Senate and 50-1 in the House to send Senate Bill 2471 to Governor Josh Green’s desk.

Abortion pills can remain available through the mail for the immediate future after the Supreme Court on Thursday paused a lower court ruling that would have blocked access while a lawsuit proceeds.

Maine Gov. Janet Mills on Tuesday celebrated a new law aimed at addressing the state’s backlog of untested sexual assault forensic examination kits. The Joyful Heart’s End the Backlog Campaign has achieved what once felt impossible: all 50 states have enacted at least one pillar of rape kit reform, with Maine becoming the 50th and final state. The win for reproductive health is a testament to the power of sustained, survivor-centered advocacy, led by actress Mariska Hargitay.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Tuesday unveiled a $124.7 billion budget that he said would close a projected $12 billion deficit over the next two years without drawing from the city’s rainy day reserves, raising property taxes, or making major cuts to social services. 

Commissioners unanimously approved the plan for a parade to celebrate female athletes with a parade on July 16 at 8 p.m., beginning at Bellagio and proceeding south on the Las Vegas Strip to Toshiba Plaza in front of T-Mobile Arena. She’s Got Game, LLC, is working in partnership with MGM Resorts to flesh out events for “SHE Weekend,” July 16-19.

Happy Pride: Watertown High plays A Mother of A Revolution for thousands despite School Board banning the performance.

The Watertown High School Band practiced the music for five months. But last week, the Watertown School Board banned “A Mother of A Revolution!” from the high school spring concert, saying it violated the district’s controversial issues policy. Composer Omar Thomas, who traveled to Wisconsin to be part of the event, stood before the musicians to conduct the instrumental composition that’s inspired controversy in the community. An overflow crowd listened outside under windows. And online, more than 3,000 people joined to watch the performance on a livestream. : “This piece is a celebration of the bravery of trans women, and in particular, Marsha ‘Pay it No Mind’ Johnson. … Existing as a trans woman, especially a trans woman of color and daring to live authentically, creating a space for oneself in a transphobic world is one of the bravest acts I can imagine.”

Horoscope

June started with Mercury moving into Cancer, driving up emotions- especially sentimental ones. Venus moves to Leo on the 13th, making for bold romance. Then the New Moon comes on the 14th in the Gemini position. Mars also moves to Gemini, evoking themes of war and wit. Murcury retrograde begins on the 29th, bringing tension chaos and confusion. The Full moon rises on the 29th in the Cancer position, signaling closure. Jupiter moves into Leo on the 30th bringing themes of creativity, fame, and children.

Take this is your sign from the Moon and the Stars to brace for a month of high emotions, tension, chaos, then closure. Things will go wrong in the month of June but with Gemini on your side, you can see past the cloud and into a creative and peaceful future.

Until next month,
<3 Raelyn