Greetings from August, June was a kooky one.

Experiencing the month of June was so intense that I felt the need to put a few weeks between experiencing it and writing about it. Besides, I celebrated Juneteenth by spending time with my friends, near water, and most importantly resting and resisting reading the news! Well- resting and resisting as much as could while the events of the month happened around me in DC.

Even though this newsletter is getting to you a whole month late, I still think the events of June deserve your attention. From the Cage Match at the White House to the closing of Aligator Alcatraz– I did my best to process, fact find, and archive what was truly a historic month of headlines.

Presenting the June Newsletter!

Please use the table of contents below to navigate the contents. This one is dense–42 minute read time. A new Raelyn.info record!
Skip to Good News

Federal Government

Happy 80th Birthday Mr. Genocide: The White House Cage Match, Insider Crypto Corruption, and the Near Miss Terror Attack.

Public Integrity Project sued, in a last attempt to stop Trump’s “UFC Freedom 250” event on behalf of an activist and a Vietnam War veteran. A federal judge ruled on Friday that the White House was allowed to stage the UFC show. What followed was a historically shameful, violent, and corrupt spectacle. Event Strategies, which arranged Trump’s January 6 rally produced the Freedom 250 anniversary events.

The first professional sporting event hosted on the White House South Lawn, was a celebration for Trump’s 80th Birthday. It cost UFC’s parent group TKO roughly $60 Million. Paramount+ owned by David Ellison, owned exclusive rights to the stream of the fight and boasted 17M viewers and historically violent match outcomes with every fight ending in Knockouts and Technical Knockouts. Paramount UFC used Trump-family-owned World Liberty stablecoin to pay the fighters. World Liberty Crypro company is one of Trump’s largest wealth generators while in office. Trump also holds significant shares of TKO. Eric Trump denied insider trading allegations after screenshots shared online appeared to the show UFC commentator Daniel Cormier receiving a message from Eric Trump asking whether any of the fights would be rigged.

A 92-foot-tall, 600-ton steel structure called ‘The Claw’ stood taller than the White House and damaged the taxpayer maintained South Lawn. A commercial airline pilot filed aviation safety reports, after powerful lighting used during its construction allegedly shone directly into their cockpit.
Cage fighters made their walkouts from the Oval Office. Heavyweight fighter Josh Hokit celebrated his win by yelling a racist right-wing conspiracy theory directed at former First Lady Michelle Obama. FBI director Kash Patel posted premature details to social media about five arrests related to the about the ongoing Secret Service investigation of a planned terror attack targeting the VIP spectators of the fight.

Accountability V Trump: Slush Fund, Sexual Assault Conviction, the Epstein cover up, and Tired Election Fraud Claims.

A federal judge indefinitely blocked the Trump “Antiweponization Fund” and issued a seven-day deadline for acting AG Todd Blanche, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward to declare under penalty of perjury that it would not move forward with the slush fund. DOJ attorneys declined to offer that commitment in writing.

Federal judge orders Trump to pay E. Jean Carroll $5.8 Million in damages, after a jury found that President Trump sexually abused and defamed her. Todd Blanche said he is developing “roadblocks” to shield President Trump from potential prosecutions after he leaves office in 2029. An extract from an upcoming book by New York Times reporters Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, titled Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump, reveals the internal chaos as the President’s team mishandled the Epstein Files release and attempted a cover-up.

A federal judge gave Todd Blanche until July 2 to produce unredacted versions of Epstein files, or provide an explanation for why it cannot produce the unredacted records. The decision was the result of a suit brought by attorney and independent journalist Katie Phang.

Trump’s White House signed an Executive order: Promoting Advanced Artificial Intelligence Innovation and Security that seems to signal that the Trump administrtaion has serious concerns about AI as a risk to national security. The EO provides deadlines for CISA, OPM, and the Department of Defense to expedite protection of civillian infrastructure from cyberattacks.

Trump walked out of an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press, after he repeated false claims that the 2020 presidential election was rigged and faced questions about compensation for those charged in the January 6 insurrection.

In contrast to Trump’s refusal to take accountability, ex National Security Advisor John R. Bolton, pleaded guilty in federal court to willfully retaining national defense information.

Iran War: Bombing under “Ceasefire” and Grok the defense contactor.

The chief digital and artificial intelligence officer for the Department of Defense wrote that Grok “enabled U.S. forces to deploy over 2,000 munitions to 2,000 distinct targets within 96 hours during Operation Epic Fury. Starlink has played a key role in U.S. military operations against Iran, supporting high-tech ordnance ranging from aerial attack drones to unmanned surveillance and strike vessels.

Iran announced that it would treat all of Elon Musk’s companies in the Middle East, including SpaceX’s Starlink internet service, as military targets as it retaliates against the U.S. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard has previously threatened other U.S. tech companies, including Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft and Google.
Despite the Ceasefire, US and Iran exchanged fire, and Israel carried out air strikes in the south of Lebanon. The United States and Iran reached an initial agreement to open the Strait of Hormuz and further extend a shaky ceasefire in the Iran war.

The Supreme Court Rules against: Refugees, Tans student athletes, and Gun restrictions.

The Supreme Court cleared the way for the Trump administration to strip immigrants of a humanitarian status that protects them from deportation. It overturned decisions ​by federal judges that had halted the administration’s actions terminating Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, for more than 350,000 people from Haiti and 6,100 from Syria.The court backed the federal government’s authority to turn away asylum seekers when officials deem U.S.-Mexico border crossings too overburdened to handle additional claims.

The court cleared the way for states to impose restrictions on transgender student athletes, upholding laws in West Virginia and Idaho banning them from female sports teams.

The ​justices struck down a Hawaii law restricting the carrying of handguns on private property open to the public, like most businesses, without the owner’s permission.

Federal Departments: Out- Student Loan forgiveness And Reparations. In- Media Mergers that enrich Trump’s Donors

DOJ released a memo arguing that states do not have to provide in-home or community-based care to people with disabilities who need support.
The DOJ joined a lawsuit on behalf of the United States of America, attempting to stop a first-of-its-kind reparations plan that would offer Black residents and their descendants up to $25,000 for past raced-based housing discrimination.

The Justice Department’s Antitrust Division signed off on Paramount’s $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros, allowing the blockbuster media merger to move forward. Paramount to combine with the entertainment and media company behind a vast film and television studio, CNN, and the HBO Max streaming service, which would be combined with Paramount+ to create a new offering of about 200 million subscribers.

The Education Department announced a request to take emergency steps to revise the application for Public Service Loan Forgiveness, or PSLF, a popular student loan forgiveness program. The revision would update the PSLF form to require employers to certify that they aren’t engaged in activities that have a “substantial illegal purpose,”. DOE also said said it was finalizing new federal student loan rules that would tie schools’ federal loan access to the earning power of graduates.
A coalition of 25 states and the District of Columbia sued, challenging a Trump administration rule that caps federal student loans for borrowers pursuing a graduate degree.
A pair of federal judges struck down the overhaul in two separate cases in favor of advocates who said the program risked becoming a tool for political retribution.

Congress: Funds ICE, Continues Epstein Interviews, and actually Passes helpful housing legislation for once.

Congress approved, on a party-line vote, another $69.5 million in funding for ICE and CBP. The measure passed by a vote of 214 to 212. Trump signed the bill. The vote marks the end of a 115 day standoff over immigration policy. Congress is giving ICE more than three times its last annual budget. The funding is meant to cover three years, unlike a traditional annual funding bill.

Bill Gates sat for a closed-door transcribed interview before the House Oversight Committee about his relationship with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Gates said he never sought nor reciprocated a personal relationship with Epstein. After billionaire Leon Black testified voluntarily before Congress and refused to answer questions about nondisclosure agreements, he was told to come back under two subpoenas.

The House passed the 21st Century Road to Housing Act in a 358-32 vote , following an 85-5 vote in the Senate. Just hours before a scheduled bill signing ceremony, Trump took to social media to cancel it until the SAVE act -his pet legislative project that election experts call “the most restrictive voting bill ever.”,  is passed. The bill went into law without the president’s signature

States

Pushing back on Federal Overreach

Officials from Oregon, Washington, Massachusetts, Illinois, North Carolina and Connecticut declined an invitation from the Trump administration to showcase their states at the giant fairgrounds being built on the National Mall. largely due to costs, a spokesperson for Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek, a Democrat, pointed to concerns about the partisan nature of the event,

Reversals and Regret: Elijah McClaine, Detention Centers on hold, and Data Center Tax breaks.

A Colorado court reversed homicide convictions against two paramedics in the 2019 death of Elijah McClain, a Black man who was pinned down by police and injected with a fatal dose of ketamine. The appeals court upheld Cichuniec’s assault conviction, but faulted the instructions given to jurors with respect to the criminally negligent homicide charges before they deliberated. The ruling sends their cases back to a lower court for a new trial on that charge. Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser will appeal.

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes and the DHS have agreed to put the state’s lawsuit to stop the Surprise Detention Center project on hold. This comes after residents frustrated by a city council that has refused to oppose the opening of an immigration detention center, began organizing to disincorporate the city, stripping away the council’s power.

DHS and ICE will sell a warehouse in Romulus they had intended on making a Detention Facility. A hearing related to a lawsuit filed by the State of Michigan and City of Romulus against DHS and ICE was canceled, then Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said that the federal agency was abandoning the project.

Ohio lawmakers are trying to scale back a data center tax break after learning it gave up more than $1.5 billion in tax revenue last year. But contracts show Amazon, Meta and Google secured these sales tax exemptions through at least 2050.

Age Verification Laws in effect and Data Breach payouts.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta sued the genetic testing company formerly known as 23andMe over its handling of a 2023 data breach that exposed nearly 7 million users’ sensitive personal information. Victims of a 2023 data breach at 23andMe will share $46.75 million.

The City of Fort Smith is seeking a $1.2 million refund from the software provider used for emergency dispatch services over claims that a security breach violated state and federal rules for accessing criminal information systems. Despite the breach, city leaders say the new consolidated 911 call center will be online by the July 6 deadline.

The Washington State Department of Social and Health Services is notifying thousands of people after discovering a former employee improperly accessed client information stored in an internal agency database. DSHS said an internal investigation in March 2026 found the employee had accessed personal information for reasons unrelated to their job duties.

Iowa launches a rulemaking process for state’s new porn age verification law. It is unclear if some sites will simply block access for all users.

S.B. 2420 was supposed to take effect Jan. 1, but a federal judge blocked it in December after finding it likely violated the Constitution. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton appealed that decision. Last month the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily lifted that block, allowing the law to move forward while the legal challenge continues. The appeals court did not explain its reasoning, and the decision could still change as the case works its way through the courts.

A federal court in Cincinnati upheld a state law requiring age verification on social media and websites, ending the order blocking an Ohio law on age verification and parental consent for those under 16 using social media to go into effect.

Cyber Rights

Politically Motivated Attempts to Stop Dissent: Federal Workers, Student activists, and protesters.

Last month, the White House announced that its new app would be automatically downloaded onto the work phones of millions of government employees. Federal workers hate it and can’t get rid of it. “I deleted it as a test and it came immediately back,” says an employee from the USDA. It is, apparently, the same version that is available to the public on the Apple and Google app stores. A button within the app allows users to “text President Trump,” which autofills a text bubble reading “Greatest President Ever.

Federal prosecutors unsealed an indictment against eight pro-Palestinian activists who are accused of conspiring to run a criminal intimidation campaign against University of Michigan officials. A University of Michigan student who participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations on the Ann Arbor campus filed a lawsuit that said university officials and investigators violated Walker’s constitutional rights through undercover surveillance, unlawful searches and retaliatory arrests connected to protests over the war in Gaza.

A controversial bill is proposing that NYPD create a plan for instituting anti-protest buffer zones around many NYC schools. City Council Speaker Julie Menin announced a revised version of the controversial Intro 175-B bill that would enable the New York City Police Department to establish so-called “buffer zones” around many K-12 schools during protests as a public safety measure. The revised legislation was introduced this month with 34 sponsors — enough to override a mayoral veto and five more than backed the original proposal now that it excludes colleges.

Florida International University students who silently protested with matching T-shirts that said “ICE OFF FIU” were charged with conduct code violations. The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) wrote in a June 18 letter to university officials that not only does FIU need to drop its case against the students, but it needs to revise its code of conduct to comply with constitutional protections for free expression.

Exhibit AI: How GPT and Dark web is being used to prove guilt in court.

An ATF special agent returned to the stand in the federal arson trial of Jonathan Rinderknecht, telling jurors investigators found software on the defendant’s phone linking him to the dark web and that he asked ChatGPT how to delete all video messages from iCloud shortly after a search warrant was served. A Bic lighter was found, a geo-fence location puts him there, the Uber passengers he dropped off said that he appeared agitated, and there’s a motive: he wanted to wage war against the rich.

A Wayne, New Jersey man is facing federal charges after authorities say he tried to help the ISIS terror group hide its online communications from law enforcement. Mohamad Sagha was charged with attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization. The federal charges largely center on a piece of computer software. the undercover informant told Sagha that official ISIS leaders had published an article telling fighters to use a Virtual Private Network, or VPN, to mask their locations and avoid getting caught by police. Sagha immediately offered to help. He bought a VPN subscription meant to cover up to five “brothers” and sent the login details straight to the informant. He even walked the informant through the technical steps of how to set the software up.
A federal judge in Mississippi has disqualified the attorneys on both sides of a contract dispute after finding that their failure to verify AI-generated research led to fabricated ​legal citations in court filings. Both sides will ⁠need to find new lawyers, the judge said. Lawyers may use AI tools, but they ​are required to verify that materials submitted to a judge are accurate.

Threats and opposition to Age Verification Legislation.

The KIDS Act, will raise the risk for journalists, dissidents, and whistleblowers. Age verification law risks blocking valuable information, exposing data Child online safety laws requiring app-store age verification could unintentionally restrict teens’ access to news, burden local journalism, and create privacy risks. FCPS parent warns school board about risks of online age verification for students An FCPS parent urged the School Board to oppose online age verification laws, citing privacy, security and student access concerns. KIDS Act removes KOSA duty of care and adds mandatory age verification, meaning every adult on covered platforms may need to hand government ID to a third-party company. House Energy and Commerce Committee leaders reached a bipartisan agreement on legislation intended to strengthen online protections for children, reopening a path for congressional action on the long-stalled Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA).

Texas urged the Supreme Court to leave in place an order by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit that allows the state to enforce a law that imposes age-verification. A student group and a trade association came to the Supreme Court asking the justices to restore orders by a federal judge in Austin, Texas, that bar the state from enforcing a law that imposes age-verification and parental-consent requirements on minors’ access to apps and paid content within those apps. Texas users of the microblogging platform Bluesky were told they’d need to verify their ages before continuing to use the site. “You are accessing Bluesky from a region that legally requires us to verify your age before allowing you to access the app.

Corporation Watch

Censorship Cover-ups and Consolidation: The telecom industry in June

60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley, was fired by CBS News after clashing with the network’s new management, Barry Weiess, issued a public statement on Instagram accusing the network’s new executives of silencing employees and claiming they instructed him “to inject falsehoods and bias” into his reporting.

(FCC) released results from its AWS-3 spectrum sale, Auction 113, which showed Verizon as the dominant buyer by spend, with T-Mobile US and AT&T also picking up sizable allocations while EchoStar and SpaceX took home only a handful of licenses each. T-Mobile won 102 licenses for $277.8 million, giving it the largest haul by license count, while AT&T picked up 10 licenses.

IBM covered up a massive data breach for years. and two of its subsidiary companies were allegedly breached during the mid-2010s, revealed in an unsealed lawsuit, filed in 2020 by former former vice president of threat intelligence of IBM where he accused the company of getting hacked three times in the previous decade by foreign governments and then covering up the breaches.

Comcast will split into two publicly traded companies through a spin-off of NBC Universal and Sky, separating its broadband internet arm from a media and entertainment business. This decision comes from industry pressure from streaming rivals and industry consolidation. Comcast said that after the spin-off, it will exist solely the provider of internet and wireless cell service through its Comcast and Xfinity brands, and plans to retain a 19.9% stake in NBC Universal co-CEO Mike Cavanagh will take over NBC Universal, and former CFO Michael Angelakis will return to serve as the new CEO of Comcast. Shares surged 20% after the company announced it would spin off its media portfolio of NBC Universal and Sky. The spin-off is expected to be completed in about one year.

ON Semiconductor Corp said it had agreed to acquire Synaptics in an all-stock deal valued at about $7 billion, its largest acquisition to date. The acquisition is aimed at accelerating growth in so-called physical AI, which refers to AI embedded in devices and machines.

FOX Corporation announced they have entered into a definitive agreement under which FOX will acquire Roku for $160.00 per share in a combination of cash and FOX Class A common stock, valuing Roku at approximately $22 billion in enterprise value. Fox says the deal will create the third-largest television company in the United States.

Rocket Lab to Acquire Iridium, creating A Fully Vertically Integrated Space company. Unites Rocket Lab’s leading launch and satellite manufacturing capabilities with Iridium’s global network. The transaction will give Rocket Lab an immediate foothold in space-based applications, including both proprietary and standards-based satellite Internet of Things (IoT) and direct-to-device (D2D), PNT, and critical safety-of-life services.

Roblox Corp Sued for Securities Fraud after Age Verification Rollout Leads to 18% Stock Drop. claims the online gaming company misled investors about its expected growth after implementing a new age verification system. Another class action suit against Roblox filed this month is led by mother of a 13-year-old Georgia boy who claims her son’s activity on Roblox’s platform was illegal child labor .

Google DeepMind and independent movie studio A24 entered into a partnership to explore how ​AI can support filmmakers and creative professionals. ​Google has also made a $75 million investment in the independent ‌film ⁠studio, The partnership will give A24 access to ⁠DeepMind’s ​research, infrastructure and global reach.

Trillionaire an Delays: Following up on the SpaceX and AI IPOs

Space X made history as the largest public offering ever, raising $75 billion for Elon Musk’s rocket company and achieving a valuation of around $1.77 trillion. This briefly made Elon Musk the world’s first Trillionaire.
OpenAI did not disclose the size or terms of the offering, and said a timeline has not yet been determined. Reuters had reported that the AI giant is targeting a valuation of up to $1 trillion. Tools for Humanity, the eyeball-scanning startup co-founded by Sam Altman, is reportedly conducting layoffs despite a $2.5 billion valuation and millions of sign-ups..

Avoiding AI Accountability: From stealing porn to train AI to Self-driving cars killing people in their homes.

A federal judge has rejected Meta’s attempt to dismiss a lawsuit from Strike 3 Holdings against the company for scraping its content to train its AI models. According to the judge’s ruling, Strike 3 Holdings’ investigation showed coordination across Meta’s IP addresses that proved “a coordinated effort to gather data,” as opposed to the action of random employees.

A 76 year old woman was killed in Texas after a Tesla crashed into her while she was inside her home. Tesla has accepted no responsibility, Ashok Elluswamy, who leads AI at Tesla, wrote on X, “In this case, the driver manually overrode self-driving by pressing the accelerator all the way to 100% of the accel pedal in this residential area. They reached a speed of 73 mph during the crash, and had the accelerator pressed even after the crash.” Tesla is facing a new wrongful death lawsuit. plaintiffs are seeking more than $1 million in damages, accusing Tesla and the driver of negligence, gross negligence, and wrongful death.

Off the Record Retreat Agenda Exposed: Build a Cult and Navigating WWIII

Dialog, a private, invitation-only organization co-founded in 2006 by Peter Thiel, had details of their off-the-record retreat exposed, after exposed records were revealed by the Swiss hacktivist maia arson crimew. Asked on a sign-up form to predict the future, registrants returned again and again to the same theme: that AI will reorder work, war, education, and belief within a few years. Several foresee mass labor displacement and a swing back toward unions and government programs; others predict an “AI winter,” domestic terrorism targeting data centers, criminal defendants choosing AI lawyers over public defenders, or religious revival provoked by the disruption.

Weather Report

Deportation Details: Babies Behind Bars, Detainee Deaths, Indefinite Incarceration, and the Volunteers Fighting for Information.

A leaked memo to staff from the agency’s acting director, David Venturella, revealed that ICE will no longer be required to report deaths that happen within 30 days of detainees being released from custody. A report by Human Rights Watch shows that death rates in ICE immigrant detention centers has more than doubled under Trump. A report analyzing records obtained by the Deportation Data Project, found that the agency has considerably upped its detentions of children aged 3 and under during Trump 2.0. More babies are behind bars in America than ever before.
Immigration-related arrests in Pennsylvania have more than quadrupled during Trump’s second term. Mexican man died in ICE custody in Laredo TX, is at least the 5th ICE fatality death in Texas this year. A Georgian immigrant who died in ICE custody is the 50th person to die in detention during the second Trump administration.

A new report alleges mismanagement at a El Paso Fort Bliss facility produced unsafe conditions that contributed to detainees’ deaths and suffering even as millions of tax dollars were wasted on contractors.
A contract obtained by the Houston Chronicle details the costs of Dilley, the nation’s only family detention facility. The Detention Center is costing at least $13.1 million per month, plus another $2.5 million Most of that money is going to CoreCivic.
Government Accountability Office report documents serious problems at Camp East Montana, a sprawling tent facility at Fort Bliss in El Paso where three detainees have died in little more than six months.
Federal government looks to house ICE detainees in Minnesota private prison owned by CoreCivic, which openly partners with ICE for other facilities. The contract description says the facility would have a capacity of up to 1,600 detainees and would include services like medical care and transportation.
The Greene County Sheriff’s Office, conducted a large-scale immigration enforcement operation near the intersection of routes 29 and 33 in Ruckersville. A volunteer lawyer was on the scene and hat this to say “There were so many empty vehicles on the side of 29 and 33- I’m watching a tow truck pull away one right now. That’s pretty haunting. There’s just dozens of cars that have been left.”

New data reveals the modest impact of Operation Metro Surge and the reality of detention conditions in Minnesota. Nearly half were eventually deported, mostly to Mexico and Ecuador. Only two people were deported to Somalia. Lawyers, many volunteers, filed over 1,000 habeas corpus petitions challenging people’s detentions, with immigration judges ordering releases in a majority of cases. Nearly 90% had of those detained at Delaney had no criminal records.

The number of people in ICE detention at least a year has spiked five-fold, leading to an unprecedented surge in petitions asking a federal judge to intervene. Though he doesn’t represent the United Nations as a whole, the U.N.’s human rights chief called for independent investigations into ICE custody deaths. Türk’s call for action was followed an announcement by the federal government’s Homeland Security watchdog office that it will be investigating deaths in ICE custody and use of force on detainees in immigration jails. American Oversight filed two FOIA lawsuits in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia seeking records related to the alarming rise in deaths in immigration custody.

The People Are Protesting!: Detention & Deportation, Cuts to Healthcare, Data Centers, and Donald Trump Himself

Immigration advocates, faith leaders, Japanese internment camp survivors and their descendants completed a four-day, 45-mile pilgrimage to Dilley Detention facility, demanding its closure.
A Newark man employed by GEO Group was charged with assault by auto after investigators determined that he drove his red Dodge Challenger into an activist pretesting outside Delaney Hall detention facility on Father’s Day. Protesters and police clashed again at Delaney Hall after the city of Newark lifted a 9 p.m. curfew, resulting in two arrests.

Proposals for data centers and ICE detention facilities in Marana are dividing neighbors and turning some against their local leaders. “Well, first I think everyone on our city council needs to be replaced. What they are doing to Marana and surrounding areas is destroying our future and our kids’ futures,” a Marana resident said.

Students held protests against the ongoing federal immigration crackdown and cuts to public education. Students from Great Barrington’s Monument Mountain Regional High School walked out of school and took to Route 7 with signs and chants for passing traffic: “We want justice, we want peace, we want ICE off our streets!”
Quakertown Borough have released a full recount of the student-led anti-ICE protest that happened in February, addressing the controversial police handling of the incident and a full timeline of events. The timeline details how the students worked together to prevent the arrest of the girl who was identified as the “primary instigator”.

More than a dozen healthcare workers, advocates and elected officials gathered on the steps of the Pennsylvania State Capitol lighting 1,450 candles to protest federal healthcare cuts and launch a week of nationwide advocacy. The legislation includes nearly $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) over the next decade. Around 80 people participated in a symbolic “die-in” in East Oakland to protest federal funding cuts to healthcare. Hundreds gathered for the demonstration, which was led by a coalition of health care workers and activist organizations.

Donald Trump was booed loudly by fans inside Madison Square Garden when he was shown on video screens during the national anthem as he became the first sitting president to attend an NBA Finals game. The Knicks then proceeded to lose their game. Protests in DC for UFC match.
Protests in Albania over Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner’s $1.4bn purchase of communist-era military base on the island of Sazan.
Anti-Trump street artists known as VJayBombs, targeted Washington, D.C., landmarks and locations with a spree of projections depicting Trump Admin officials as swamp monsters. Stephen Miller appeared as a vampire bat-like creature hanging from the ceiling; the Reflecting Pool, where Secretary of State Marco Rubio surfaced as a fish; and the DOJ, where the diaper-clad bottom of a man appeared under a banner showing Trump’s head and torso. The projections also included Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth depicted as a crocodile along ‘86 47.
Another guerrilla protester etched “86 47” on the lawn at the National Mall.
The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool landmark was refilled with water after Trump had its neutral grey bottom repainted “American flag blue.” The Interior Department posted on X that the nanobubble technology had “very effectively killed the algae,” and National Park Service crews would spend several days vacuuming up the dead algae from the bottom of the pool. The reflecting pool remains green despite unsuccessful attempts to kill the algae. The blue paint at the bottom of the pool peeled in places, prompting Trump to claim that vandals sabotaged the pool. This claim led to multiple arrests, including a former US Olympian.

Data Center Dissent: Moratoriums, Dashboards, and…A Job Fair!?

Police fatally shot a 1 year old boy in Mississippi while responding to a call about shoplifting. The killing ignited tensions between police and Black residents with many protesting and calling for police abolition and reform.

In Washington County, Maryland, local leaders have been urged to replicate a temporary halt on new data centers to block federal immigration detention centers after ICE pulled out of seven planned new sites. Residents urge data center-style curbs on ICE warehouses after federal officials abandoned a detention expansion plan.

Environmental activist Erin Brockovich launched a portal to keep track of expanding data centers in Georgia. “This map captures the real-world footprint of that race — revealing patterns of growth, conflict and uncertainty,” Brockovich said.

New data center in Lyon Township still needs final approval as residents continue to voice their anger. As part of their final proposal, they claim their water cooling systems will use less than nine million gallons of water annually across all six buildings.

County meeting turns into bizarre data center job fair. Frustration boiled over on the dais and in the gallery as community members pressed Doña Ana County commissioners for answers about a promise to hold a public meeting addressing concerns about the massive data center under construction in Santa Teresa. There was a general expectation it would follow a question-and-answer format where constituents could give input to the commissioners. the date and the agenda of that meeting quietly changed. A flyer circulated online last week invited the community to a “community open house and career fair” hosted not by the county government, but by the data center’s builders and developers: Stack Infrastructure; Bloom Energy, which plans to power the facilities with fuel cell technology; and tenants Oracle and OpenAI. The Alameda County Board of Supervisors approved a one-year $2.4 million contract extension for Flock Safety surveillance technologies with the Sheriff’s Office in a 3-2 vote, despite opponents’ warnings of contract loopholes that could put the region’s immigrant community at risk.

FIFA and Fraud: Dynamic Pricing, Insider Trading, and Data Breaches

FIFA is expected to generate $11 billion in revenue, the most in the tournament’s history. Pricing and availability varies considerably depending on who’s playing and who’s winning. FIFA, the sport’s global governing body, has engaged in more aggressive ticketing tactics compared with previous tournaments, including dynamic pricing, staggered ticket drops and promoting its own resale platform.
More than 120 civil society groups issued a travel warning to the 10 million potential visitors about “serious rights violations” under the current political climate, including “arbitrary denial of entry and risk of arrest, detention and/or deportation”. Players from participating countries were subjected to extensive screening and restrictive visas. The Iranian team had to commute from Mexico to US games, as the US would not allow Iranian players to stay within the US.

A Google engineer allegedly pocketed $1.2 million from Polymarket trades based on confidential information, after he got an early look at insider data showing singer D4vd would be the surprise upset winner of Google’s “Most Searched” person of 2025 title, and he used the highly confidential information to cash in with Polymarket bets, federal authorities say.

The FBI issued a warning that Criminals are exploiting traffic distribution systems to silently redirect users to fraudulent sites, and the FBI says the threat is growing rapidly as attackers become more sophisticated.

ShinyHunters stole Social Security numbers and driver’s licenses from franchise applicants, then published a 9.4-gigabyte archive after 7-Eleven refused to pay. More than 40 million Spectrum customer records were accessed by hackers who used voice phishing to trick an employee, exposing full names, contact information, account plans and support ticket histories. An older couple lost almost $12,000 after using a third-party travel-booking website.
ShinyHunters published data stolen from Madison Square Garden online for anyone to download, including what they say is customers’ personal information. The data contains a list of “talent,” including former Knicks players and coaches, and whether other celebrities are considered “Low Risk” or “High Risk.” The data also contains emails between customers and MSG. MSG Entertainment, which owns Madison Square Garden, was slapped with a class action lawsuit in a New York federal court.

Researchers uncovered a massive breach of Fortinet firewalls that has given attackers near-unrestricted access to some of the world’s largest and most powerful organizations, including Oracle, Chevron, Lenovo, Federal Express, a NATO defense contractor, and Fortinet itself. Nearly 74,000 Fortinet devices from more than 21,000 IP addresses in 194 countries have been compromised and their plaintext credentials exposed online.

Targets of Political Repression: Judges, Teachers, Protestors, Governors, Whistleblowers, and Laid Off Federal Workers.

Gov. Gavin Newsom says Trump’s DOJ is investigating him and his wife. The Justice Department did not provide details of what the probe entails, but Newsom says it is ‘coming after’ first partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom specifically. Newsom says federal agents have been knocking on the doors of his friends and family members.
After Judge John Coughenour blocked President Trump’s bid to end birthright citizenship, he and his wife were targeted by Trump. They were Swatted and received bomb threats.
Many Federal Judges, retired and sitting have reported cruel backlash for ruling against Trump’s policies.

The Trump administration announced it is seeking to revoke the citizenship of 17 U.S. citizens accused of immigration fraud. Officials said the move represents the largest-ever effort by the U.S. government to use its denaturalization powers.

Two federal officers intimidated a poll worker at a voting location during New York’s primaries to confront her about a social media post she’d written criticizing the ICE officer who fatally shot Renee Good.

FBI raids homes of Michigan students and workers for Palestine activism. “I was there when the FBI showed up. They threw flashbangs into the upstairs bedrooms, they used battering rams these raids were very shocking, very violent.” Federal prosecutors are portraying eight pro-Palestinian activists tied to the University of Michigan as extremists who carried out a coordinated campaign of threats and vandalism against university officials. The indictment charges the defendants with conspiracy to transmit threats in interstate and foreign commerce. Two of the defendants also are charged with conspiracy to tamper with a witness, and one is charged with destruction of property to prevent seizure. The indictment includes no terrorism counts, no assault counts, and no hate crime counts.
Two people accused of committing arson during protests of the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center (commonly known as Cop City) now face federal charges. In addition, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr re-indicted the same two people, adding a third. The three face two counts of criminal damage to property in the second degree and one count of arson of lands
The eight convicted in the Prariland Texas demonstration were sentenced to shockingly long and disproportionate sentences ranging from 30 to 100 years. The 30-year sentence was imposed on a defendant who didn’t even attend the protest, and whose “crime” was moving a box full of antifascist zines during the investigation.

Congressional lawmakers grilled Chicago Public Schools CEO Macquline King in an hours-long hearing on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. Republican-led U.S. House Education and Workforce Committee echoed the Trump administration in arguing the policies violate federal civil rights laws and discriminate against other students. King and the other school leaders appeared measured in their comments, defending their policies while seemingly trying not to invite further federal scrutiny. Federalist Society advocate releases report claiming Georgia schools have been evading Trump policies and secretly training teachers to be “woke“. Paul Zimmerman alleges that City Schools of Decatur hid race-based policies from federal oversight after embedding DEI ideology in teacher training and curriculum.

A police report confirms someone vandalized Dan Berulis’ car a day after Musk shared his identity online. federal IT staffer Dan Berulis discovered his car brake lines had been cut soon after he filed a whistleblower report alleging activity by members of the Department of Government Efficiency resulted in a “significant cybersecurity breach” . Former xAI engineer Devin Kim alleges he was illegally fired for trying to implement safety mechanisms for Grok.

A year later, laid-off federal workers are still piecing their lives back together. When David Harbourt signed onto a recent video call, he was alone in a motel room in central Kansas. But in any given week, he could be somewhere else. A year after losing his federal job, Harbourt now spends about half of every month on the road, from contract to contract while his wife and two children remain home. For the tens of thousands of federal workers in Maryland who were laid off in the early days of the second Trump presidency, the cuts set off months of financial strain, career upheaval and emotional fallout in a state unusually dependent on federal employment.

Good News

FIFA Festivities, Alligator Alcatraz Closed, Birthright Citizenship remains law, and the contagious courage to speak out against ICE

Many advocate groups hosted FIFA watch parties to protect viewers from ICE.

Florida officials announced the closure of “Alligator Alcatraz. Environmentalists and the Miccosukee Tribe seek full restoration of the land and accountability for environmental damage.

A Los Angeles nonprofit honored public schools superintendent Alberto Carvalho with a “Courage in Leadership” award at a gala in Hollywood. The charity event thrown by education organization Families in Schools will recognize Carvalho for his outspoken stance against the immigration enforcement policies of US President Donald Trump, Former ICE detention facility worker reflects on impact of ICE and denounces expanded finding. The experience left a profound impact on me and my values. Rather than a career in law enforcement, I decided to find a way to help people.

The Supreme Court struck down President Donald Trump’s executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship Trump v. Barbara. A federal judge has ruled that a policy suspending asylum decisions is unlawful. The judge also struck down three related policies, two of which were also aimed at people who come from one of the 39 countries that Trump has targeted with a ban on entry, and a third which imposed a blanket halt on asylum decisions at USCIS. The decision requires USCIS to begin processing hundreds of thousands of suspended applications.

Modesto will temporarily stop enforcing mask-ban ordinance at protests, judge rules U.S. District Judge John A. Mendez granted a preliminary injunction requested by the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, freezing the ordinance until a final decision on the case is reached. He also denied the city’s request for a stay, which would have paused the court order pending an appeal.

Juneteenth Miracles: Obama Center opens, Data Centers banned, professors reinstated, and Mail in ballots protected

The Obama Presidential Center opened to the public on Juneteenth. The event celebrating a new museum and civic center dedicated to his eight years in the White House, called on Americans to resist the forces of political cynicism ​and division and instead embrace “our shared responsibilities as citizens.”

San Marcos becomes the first Texas city to ban data centers after San Marcos City Council voted 4-3 to define data centers and make them ineligible for any part of the city in its zoning laws, citing concerns that these developments would funnel water and energy resources from the local community. The Boulder County commissioners voted unanimously to enact a six-month moratorium on accepting applications on data centers and detention centers while working on code changes to potentially prohibit them in code changes to potentially prohibit them in the county’s industrial areas. A public hearing on the moratorium will be held within 30 days, when the commissioners will have the opportunity to amend it and decide if it should stay in place for the full six months.

The court backed state laws that allow mail-in ballots received after Election Day to be counted, rejecting a Republican-led challenge to a five-day grace period in Mississippi.
Federal judge ruled that the Trump administration SAVE project to aggregate Americans’ personal data to check voter eligibility is unlawful, and the resulting data tool cannot be used in its current form.

Academic and Artist Freedom Wins: Climate Data, Kennedy Center, Student Loan forgiveness, and Reinstatement after Political Firings.

Ex-NOAA employees re-create a valuable climate data site shut down by Trump. The database of federal global warming research recreates a website that was closed amid the administration’s broad retreat from climate science.

A federal judge ruled that President Donald Trump’s handpicked board at the Kennedy Center did not have the authority to rename the venue. Kennedy Center memo directs staffers to remove Trump’s name from the arts center. the federal judge overseeing the Kennedy Center lawsuit ordered the center to give him a status report on the center’s operation and programming within the next few weeks. Judge Christopher R. Cooper also said that the Kennedy Center must explain the purpose and status of the tarp and scaffolding that have been placed over the front. The Kennedy Center website logo no longer includes “Trump” after a federal judge ruled President Donald Trump’s name had to be removed from the institution’s branding.

Judge blocks rule to strip public service workers of student loan forgiveness after Trump signed an order to the effect. A federal judge blocked the Trump administration from implementing a new rule ⁠stripping public service workers of eligibility for federal student loan forgiveness if it deems their employers to have a “substantial illegal purpose”.

Arbitrator rules that SJSU must reinstate professor fired for pro-Palestinian protests.San José State Professor Sang Hea Kil, will return to work after an arbitrator ruled the termination was excessive. She was represented by the California Faculty Association who celebrated her reinstatement as a win for academic freedom. The court refused to let Trump fire Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook as it stood firm to preserve the central bank’s cherished independence against an unprecedented challenge by the president.

Horoscope

I am writing this Horoscope with the 20/20 hindsight of already experiencing most of July. Maybe it’s confirmation bias, but this tracked!

July started with a Mercury retrograde, in Cancer at that so we felt extra sensitive, You weren’t imagining the sluggish energy and miscommunication! Venus moved into Virgo on the 9th, putting acts of service and love at center-stage. …No Comment. The New Moon on the 14th was in Cancer signaling a renewed focus on the home. Tracks, I have been cleaning my home nonstop it seems. The Sun moved into Leo on the 22nd bringing an optimistic and generous aura for an entire month. The month ends with a Full moon in Aquarius meaning emotion and intuition is intensified. The Sun is also aligned with Jupiter, supposedly marking the 29th the luckiest day of the whole year. Hmm yet to be determined as I am writing this on the 29th.

Until next month,
<3 Raelyn