Happy August!

The month of August is one of my favorites. With the end of the chaos of summer approaching, the stable fall months are just within our reach… or so I hope.

The month of July was definitely a circus of historic proportions, but was also a good reminder that justice and progress are inevitable. So long as we make the brave decisions; to stand up for our neighbors, resist authoritarianism, and value the truth, we can and will build the U.S. we deserve!

You can also be brave by reading this 38 minute-long recap of July headlines; lovingly read, fact checked, and archived by yours truly ; )
Please utilize the table of contents to navigate this letter. Click here to skip to the Good News and Here to read the August Horoscope.

Federal Government

The Casualties of a pointless War: American Democracy, 18 Men and women dead, and our Tax Dollars

The White House sent Congress the text of an interim U.S.-Iran agreement to halt the war and open the Strait of Hormuz. July saw deadly escalations before pausing near the end of the month- Iran rejected the pact and fired at boats in the strait, the U.S. military launched weeks of airstrikes in Iran.

The Pentagon appears to be covering up casualties and information about the US’s War against Iran. The Pentagon’s official online list of service members, killed in the ongoing Iran War, temporarily did not include the soldiers who died the Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan, during renewed fighting late July. Their names were published in a Pentagon press release announcing the formal transfer of their remains back to the US, but not in the database. The Department of Defense is directed by law to publish information about ongoing wars. The US Military is running low on munitions and the war continues to be unpopular.

The Trump administration went before Congress for more funding for the War. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told lawmakers that the war with Iran has already cost $37.5 billion, and Hegseth asked for $70 billion more. He dodged direct questions from the Senate appropriation committee about the objectives of the war. The House passed additional war funding, before ultimately failing in the senate.

America’s 250 Birthday: Freedom250 Fyre Festival of Tax Fraud and Failed DC “Beautification”

The original America’s 250th birthday planners envisioned a Smithsonian-led blockbuster festival stretching from the Washington Monument to the U.S. Capitol that would be open to all and free of partisanship. What we got was a depressing flop of epically underwhelming proportions.
Featured acts originally included the Commodores, Young MC, and Flo Rida, but most of those performers pulled out, several saying they had been unaware the event would have a political undertone. Luckily very few people had the displeasure of experiencing what was truly a series of unfortunate and bastarized events.
People attending the opening night heard from Trump at a campaign-style rally. Not all states had a booth, and the Virginia booth closed temporarily due to extreme heat. The entire fair was forced to close early on its second day, because of a storm. a Confederate flag had to be removed from the North Carolina booth at the fair, prompting one of the sponsors to drop out.

The bill for America’s birthday celebration events is growing, and the Trump administration wants taxpayers to pay it. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act of July 2025, which passed with only Republican votes, already allocated $150 million in federal funds to the Interior Department last year for such events. Democrats on the House Natural Resources Committee published a 55-page report accusing the group of aiding President Trump in turning America’s milestone into a “hotbed of corruption and self-enrichment” through tactics that potentially amount to criminal fraud.
The Interior Department seeks $10 million from Congress to reimburse the National Park Service for costs incurred during the May prayer event Great American State Fair and the July Fourth fireworks display.

The reflection pool was green with algae, then drained revealing debris from the firework show. The Arts of War statues, originally bronze, were covered in nearly 24-karat gold leaf in a project that cost $5.1 million.

Senators Dead, Dying and Missing: Lindsay Graham & Mitch McConnell

Senator Lindsay Graham died suddenly on July 11 after likely suffering a tear in his aorta. His sister Darline Graham Nordone was named by the South Carolina Governor as her late brother’s temporary replacement, until primary elections for their seat are held. Rep. Ralph Norman currently leads in polling for the Republican primary . Trump has already endorsed her campaign for U.S. Senate.
In attendance at Graham’s funeral were President Trump, Cabinet officials, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, and current and former senators and lawmakers. The Senator was one of Ukraine and Israel’s strongest advocates in Washington, as well as a known warmonger and racist.

McConnell, 84, was admitted to the hospital last month on June 14 then revealed this month that it was due to a fall. The Senator has not been seen at work for over 40 days. The office of Senator Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., released an update on his health this time with a statement from the congressional Office of Attending Physician stating the senator has not yet been medically cleared to leave a rehabilitation facility where he is undergoing physical therapy.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear is giving Sen. Mitch McConnell, an ultimatum, demanding that he prove he’s still capable of serving in the U.S. Senate — or resign. There are rumors that the Senator has passed without his office notifying the public. To try and end these rumors, his wife Elaine Chao released a proof of life photo where the Senator is seen posed upright and smiling while holding the day’s newspaper. The photo is prompting speculation around its authenticity, however digital forensic experts cleared the image as not AI generated.

Federal Court Rulings: Poor Pool Installation, Tiktok Ban Lifted, Detainee Health, and Kash Patel called a Googly Eyed Kremlin Bitch

The DOJ moved to drop its criminal prosecution of a former Olympian charged with destroying the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, saying the damage was instead the result of a “rushed and botched installation.” 

The Department of Justice says Federal employees can download TikTok on their government devices. A 2022 law H.R.7521 – Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act banned federal employees from using the short-form video app on those devices. The law no longer applies, thanks to a deal transferring ownership of TikTok’s U.S. operations to a joint venture backed by Oracle, Silver Lake, and MGX.

A federal judge in Florida issued a Temporary Restraining Order barring thousands of CSX railway workers represented by SMART-TD from striking over a punitive new attendance policy—and ordering the union to discipline any member who defied the ban. No strike had been called, though the union’s general committees had formally objected that the Notice constituted “an unlawful unilateral modification of the parties’ Collective Bargaining Agreement in violation of the Railway Labor Act.

U.S. District Judge ordered the government to make sweeping changes to medical care, sanitation, food, recreation, disability accommodations and visitation in detention facilities. Among other things, Sykes ordered the government to ensure detainees were provided 24-hour access to clean potable drinking water, nutritious and sanitary meals that contain a sufficient number of calories, and adequate sanitation throughout the facility, to include daily cleaning and mold remediation. The Judge also ordered that ICE develop and file, within 14 days, a plan to implement these comprehensive systems.
“The federal government isn’t responsible for the way detainees are treated inside the Adelanto ICE Processing Center” an assistant US attorney argued “At the end of the day, GEO makes day-to-day operational choices, “

A federal appeals panel tossed out a lower court ruling that freed Columbia University graduate student Mohsen Mahdawi from immigration custody, ruling that federal judges lack the jurisdiction to hear his habeas corpus petition while removal proceedings are active.

A federal judge dismissed FBI Director Kash Patel’s $10 million lawsuit against a blogger who called him a “googly-eyed Kremlin bitch.” In his final order, Nevada Chief District Judge Andrew Gordon dismissed Patel’s lawsuit against Jim Stewartson, finding that he did not have “personal jurisdiction” over the internet commentator.

A Federal Judge awards Hunter Biden $1.7M in defamation suit against ex-Overstock CEO and 2020 election denier Patrick Byrne, who’d falsely claimed Biden solicited an $800 million bribe from Iran in 2021.

Agencies & Departments: Testosterone for Troops, Puppet Agencies, Automating Government Services, and Information Removal

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth backed the U.S. Navy Blue Angels amid a review by the military into one of the ​jets flying at low altitude over a crowd in Florida, sending sand and beach items flying during an airshow celebrating the squadron’s 80th anniversary and the United States’ ​250th anniversary.
The Pentagon will screen the testosterone levels of soldiers 30 and up, Hegseth announced via X. Hegseth did not address whether women — thousands of whom serve in frontline combat roles — would also be subjected to hormone testing. The Pentagon declined to provide further details beyond the contents of the video when asked for details on the proposed screening policies.

DHS Secretary Mullin says he’ll chase voter fraud after Trump revives election claims, pledging to aggressively pursue voter fraud cases. The Homeland Security secretary Mullin refused to comment, however, on a shooting in Maine and other deadly encounters with ICE from this month.
(DHS) ahead of Trump’s Election remarks said the agency found thousands of noncitizens on voter rolls in California, New Jersey, Nevada and Pennsylvania.

Former DOGE employees at the National Design Studio redesigned US government websites installing visitor-tracking software on vital federal websites. The NDS built and now operates four public federal websites: ndstudio.gov, trumprx.gov, realfood.gov and trumpaccounts.gov. Analysis of the underlying source code for four of the websites found that on at least two of them, the studio installed a commercial tool called PostHog that closely tracks what every visitor does on the site. Another tool, apparently made in-house, sends user data to a destination that is not visible on the public internet.

After testing approaches to automation internally, GSA is inviting federal employees across government to see how they can apply them in their own organizations. 2026 moonshot goal to save and automate 1 million hours of work for its employees, the agency will showcase and share those internal efforts with a governmentwide audience on July 30. One certain talking point for the event will be a step-by-step guide GSA released in June to cut, streamline and automate work called the Elimination, Optimization and Automation playbook.

In a postmortem report, CISA revealed that its staff had to create an incident response plan, or “”playbook,”” during the early stages of the cybersecurity breach. The agency emphasized the importance of having playbooks for “all anticipated needs” to ensure organizations are prepared for security incidents. The admission came after an investigative journalist informed the agency about sensitive keys and credentials for accessing US government systems being exposed by one of its contractors. In response to last month’s Executive Order, the ​U.S. will formally bring together AI developers and essential civillian services ‌providers to share information on cybersecurity vulnerabilities identified by advanced AI systems and coordinate responses. Anthropic and OpenAI have released powerful AI ​systems capable of identifying software and infrastructure vulnerabilities at scale.

The Energy Department has taken down consumer energy resources without explaining why, the latest example of changes to public-facing federal information under the Trump administration. USDOT removes cycling road safety measures from website. The League of American Bicyclists is urging Congress to explain why the Department of Transportation is no longer encouraging states and local governments to provide safety measures like bike lanes.

Take two. Is this thing on?: The Makeup White House Correspondents Dinner, The Epstein Transparency Act, and More Tired Election Claims

Three months after the first event was derailed by an assassination attempt, the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) hosted their make-up dinner. Trump began his remarks after the awards program, expressing gratitude for the Secret Service and protection over his family and others, and repeatedly flirted with the prospect of remaining in office after 2028, at times joking about a third term while also insisting he intends to abide by the Constitution. The Wall Street Journal was honored for its reporting on deceased convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The winning project centered on an uncovered album created for Epstein’s 50th birthday that included a lewd letter reportedly signed by Trump.

A federal judge is reviewing whether the Justice Department properly redacted files released under the Epstein Files Transparency Act. (DoJ) ignored a deadline set by the attorney general of New Mexico, to share information about the abuse of girls at a remote Zorro ranch formerly owned by the disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche met with survivors of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein following the demand by a Senator Tillis whose support is crucial to advancing his nomination to lead the Justice Department. One accuser, Dani Bensky, expressed frustration after the meeting, saying Blanche appeared to treat it as “a mere ‘check-the-box’ exercise intended to secure votes for his confirmation.” A survivor shared her story for the first time, detailing the lengths she went to to try to take matters into her own hands and kill the pedophile, because of how little faith she had in prosecution stopping Epstein’s abuse.

Survivors urged the U.S. Senate to reject Todd Blanche’s full-time appointment to lead the (DOJ) ahead of confirmation hearings on Capitol Hill Liz Oyer, a former pardon attorney fired by Blanche after she refused to recommend restoring firearms rights to the actor and Trump ally Mel Gibson, condemned Todd Blanche, over his testimony to the Senate judiciary committee.

President Donald Trump used a primetime address to the nation, to justify his push to pass a strict voter ID bill in Congress that has not advanced because it lacks enough support from Republicans.The White House named several states with voter roll data “compromised” by China. These states are Oklahoma, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Michigan, and Rhode Island, according to one of dozens of recently declassified federal documents, released in tandem with Trump’s address. The president pressed the GOP to embrace his latest allegations and documents he claims is “evidence” to support his tired debunked claims of widespread voter fraud. It was a shameful moment.
Trump’s advisors tried to stop the spech form happening, but Trump insisted. had initially wanted to give the televised address a few weeks earlier, in late June, but advisers managed to put it off. As an alternative idea — and to avoid a prime-time address — the president’s team pitched the idea of presenting the declassified information to reporters during a White House briefing.
GOP candidates kept their focus on issues they see as more salient to voters.
Former GOP the lack of new evidence undercut Trump’s broader effort to pressure Republicans into passing the Save America Act, Two Republicans opposed are Tillis and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), indicated in interviews afterward that Trump’s speech did not change their position.

States

Defending Elections Against President’s False Claims: Oklahoma, New Jersey, Michigan, California, Colorado, Connecticuit, Florida, and Rhode Island

States are playing defense amid Trump’s latest election fraud claims.
Oklahoma election officials say declassified documents showing breach of voter rolls were misleading.
NJ Gov. Sherrill defended security of NJ elections after a software error wrongly registered ineligible voters, and stated he launched an investigation into the matter.
Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson (D) stressed that some 1,600 bipartisan professional election administrators and thousands of trained poll workers monitor each election, and that results are checked by dozens of audits. “Michigan elections are safe and secure — any suggestion otherwise is designed to undermine our voters’ basic rights,” Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) said in a statement on Trump’s remarks.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) called the president’s speech the “ramblings of a mad king” while Secretary of State Shirley Weber (D), sought to assure Californians that noncitizen voting “remains exceedingly rare.” “Nevada voters deserve facts, not fear,” Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar (D) said in a statement. “The President has spent the better part of a decade attempting to manufacture a crisis around voting when there is none.”

State and local authorities and juries continue to enforce election integrity in court. Hamtramck city councilman acquitted of felony election fraud, forgery charges Hassan was initially charged in August 2025 with election law forgery, two counts of unqualified elector attempting to vote, forging a signature on an absentee ballot application and providing a false statement in an application for an absentee ballot. Wayne County jury acquitted Hamtramck City Councilmember Mohammed Hassan of both felony counts of election law forgery and forging a signature on an absentee ballot application. However, the jury found Hassan, who also serves as the city’s mayor pro tem, guilty of providing a false statement in an application for an absentee ballot, a 90-day misdemeanor.

Elon VS Minnesota: Musk Sues an Entire State in Defense of …AI Deepfake Nudes!?… Weird.

In Minnesota, a new law goes into effect banning the use of AI that lets users depict real people as naked in fake photos or videos without their permission. Elon Musk’s Space xAI sued Minnesota’s Attorney General arguing that the law violates First Amendment protections and that the penalties are too steep.

State vs Federal Agents: DC Deployment, The Traffic Stops Turned Deadly and the Violent Agents Behind Them

Trump’s National Guard deployment in D.C. has been extended until 2029. Federal panel reviews park fencing plan and visitor screening center to improve White House securityThe Trump administration is proposing to improve security around the White House by putting up a fence around nearby Lafayette Park to help limit public access when law enforcement authorities determine doing so is necessary. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth hosted a ceremony in D.C.’s Malcolm X Park, to recognize National Guard members and celebrate the restoration of the park’s fountains – and was met by protests. “Guard, go home!” and “Say it loud, say it clear: Immigrants are welcome here!” members of the crowd shouted as they blew whistles and banged on drums. A D.C. think tank recently found that the deployment of National Guard members by the Trump administration had no effect on violent crime but reduced opportunistic property crime in high-visibility tourist areas.

U.S. ICE agents shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, 52, during a traffic stop in Houston. He was not the person federal authorities had been targeting in a Houston operation, U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia said. Araujo was a homebuilder who had lived in the U.S. for more than 35 years, had no criminal record and was close to finishing the long process of obtaining legal status when he was killed. Three men, including Salgado Araujo’s brother, were detained by ICE during the fatal traffic stop. The federal agents weren’t wearing body-worn cameras, The Harris County District Attorney’s office said it would conduct an investigation into the shooting. The office is consulting with local prosecutors in Minneapolis, where federal agents fatally shot two U.S. citizens, to learn how they have navigated investigations into federal immigration agents,

ICE officers killed Joan Sebastian Guerrero in Biddeford Maine, 26, originally from Colombia, had authorization to work in the U.S. and had been issued a Social Security number. The federal agents weren’t wearing body cameras. Video captured by a witness shows agents pulling a limp body from a car and shackling his wrists moments after an ICE agent killed him. U.S. Sen. Susan Collins said Mullin told her the Boston office of the Department of Homeland Security’s Inspector General has taken over the investigation in cooperation with the FBI. David Brouillette’s, the officer who shot Sebastian, own Ex-wife says he had racist beliefs, violent tendencies.

the advocacy group Ohio Immigrant Alliance released a list of 59 active and former ICE and CBP agents charged with sexual and violent crimes between 2007 and 2026. Fifty of 59 cases the group documented were sex crimes, many of them committed against children. And the problem, according to their research, is getting worse: “Cases documented in 2025 and 2026 alone account for 42.4 percent of the list — 25 out of 59 cases,”

Cyber Rights

Graphene OS VS the Feds: The Struggle for Rights to Privacy At Borders and Airports

(CBP) quietly updated the rules governing border searches of electronic devices. The new directive — CBP Directive 3340-049B significantly expands what agents can do when you enter the United States with a smartphone, laptop, tablet, or even a smartwatch.

The DOJ is attempting to prosecute an Atlanta resident in connection with the Stop Cop City because he had GrapheneOS on his phone, an open-source operating system that enables users to enter a passcode and wipe a phone clean. The case centers on US federal statute that makes it a crime to destroy property in an effort to prevent it from being seized. Experts said it may be the first time the law has been aimed at GrapheneOS, which works on Google Pixel phones, and expressed concerns about a technology created for privacy and security being used to criminalize protesters

The person behind the popular satirical Instagram account @CatsOnACouch with the ACLU of Maine, has filed a lawsuit against JD Vance and the US Secret Service, claiming she was prevented from attending the vice-president’s visit to Bangor. Court documents state that after registering and waiting in line outside the Bangor airport, McGonigle was identified by name by armed Secret Service officers, denied entry to the event, and told: “We know where you stand.”

Meta must face lawsuit for using AI to lay off workers

Meta Workers filed a lawsuit against the company. A group of 26 Meta employees allege in a lawsuit that the company used AI systems and keystroke monitoring to target workers on medical or parental leave for mass layoffs. The tech giant says people—not AI—made its layoff decisions. The plaintiffs are seeking a preliminary court ruling to stop Meta from finalizing the layoffs while they pursue their ​claims, along with relief that could include reinstatement, back pay, lost equity, benefits and other damages.

Apple attempts to avoid making “Pervert Glasses”

Apple is delaying the release of their version of Meta glasses, and are reportedly conducting additional work on privacy features, and other product safeguards. This comes as Meta glasses, released without key privacy safeguards are under fire as “pervert glasses” after case after of misuse where its users secretly record and harrass workers and women.

The Fight for Physical Media: Sony and The PSBlackout

Sony angered gamers recently by announcing it would end physical disc sales by 2028, Games preservation group DoesItPlay is planning a protest for the week of Aug. 23. Dubbed “PSBlackout,” it calls on players to keep their PlayStations powered off for the week: “No logins, no play sessions, no purchases on any of Sony’s platforms.”

Data Breach Accountability

North Carolina Business Court judge has ruled that Bojangles must face accountability to workers over Russian hacker data breach. Over 387,000 files were obtained illegally in 2024, the lawsuit claimed. The case was bounced from federal court but resurfaced in NC court. according to the state lawsuit. Russian cybercriminal group DragonForce stole and posted information on the dark web, including Social Security numbers and other personal data. The new complaint accused Bojangles of failing to adequately secure employee data, misleading workers about how safe its systems were and improperly benefiting by skimping on cybersecurity.

Former and current students and employees filed a consolidated class action petition against The College of Healthcare Professions, a vocational school in Houston, being sued after it reportedly failed to protect students and staff from a “massive and preventable” data breach. Names, addresses, social security numbers, financial information, medical information, health insurance information and government ID information, were all affected, according to the database. The lawsuit stresses that medical information in particular is highly valuable to cybercriminals, with “complete identity theft kits” reportedly selling for up to $1,000, according to the lawsuit.

Law firm WilmerHale sued in class action after data breach Large U.S. law firm WilmerHale ​has been sued in federal court in Washington over a data breach that allegedly exposed ‌sensitive personal data in a cyberattack earlier this year. The plaintiff, Nevada resident Jason Perry, said he was suing on behalf of himself “and thousands of ​other similarly situated persons in the massive and preventable cyberattack.

Frontier Airlines is facing two lawsuits, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado, by a former employee and the other by Colorado customer, and both ask to be certified as class actions. The complaints say Frontier fell short of FTC data-security guidance and kept people in the dark about exactly what was taken and when. Filing asks the court to force Frontier to provide at least three years of credit monitoring for everyone in the putative class. According to an independent write-up, Frontier’s mobile booking API would spit out a full internal booking record as long as an attacker had a PNR and a passenger’s last name, which are both printed on every boarding pass. The researcher says that the response included unmasked passport numbers, full home addresses, Known Traveler Numbers, and payment details, and that Frontier was first alerted to the problem on March 3.

Corporation Watch

Hack or Hype?: Open AI Hugging Face Hack

Hugging Face reported that it had experienced a powerful attack completed entirely by AI agents. The Hugging Face hack occurred during an internal “benchmark” evaluation designed by OpenAI to assess how well two of its most capable models could find and exploit security flaws in digital systems. Although the experiment was intended to remain within OpenAI’s test environment, the models independently determined that the answers to the benchmarking exercise were hosted on Hugging Face’s platform and launched their attack to get inside.
The Cloud Security Alliance released a postmortem report where they wrote that the agents followed inefficient routes and exhibited clumsy behaviors that no human would choose, repeated actions that they had already completed, hallucinated reams of incoherent commands, and were sloppy and did not cover their tracks well. Hugging Face warned that the AI agents made brilliant technical moves and were able to rapidly adapt to new scenarios in the 3 days-long hack. The company would not say how much the hack cost it but said staff worked for many hours to rebuild about a third of their infrastructure.

The Blurred Line Between Industry and Government: Private Prisons winning Federal Contracts and Tech CEOs turned Federal Advisor

Private immigrant detention center in Otay Mesa sold to DHS as part of $1.5 billion deal. CoreCivic has sold two of the largest immigration detention facilities in California. The deal included a second California immigration detention facility. CoreCivic said it anticipates that the sales will bring the company an estimated net proceeds of approximately $1.1 billion.

Xbox CEO Asha Sharma named Federal Reserve Advisor just days after layoffs affected Xbox workers. While the Xbox CEO has the necessary qualifications for the position on paper, the decision has been controversial both for her role in the elimination of jobs and the ongoing trend of giving Big Tech greater access to governmental ears that are determining how best to reshape policy and practice.

The “Human first” Approach from Tech Companies: Layoffs, Outtages, and Negative Free Cash Flow keeping the AI bubble from popping

Thousands of T-Mobile customers in the United States reported service outages. Some users on social media reported their phones being stuck in “SOS mode.”

Samsung Electronics America cutting 739 jobs in New Jersey adding to ongoing tech layoffs. A majority of people affected have received relocation offers, but others were let go, it added without elaborating. At SEA’s Plano, Texas office, some 100 workers ​including staff in its mobile division, have been let go.

Electricity flickered on and off for about 10 minutes throughout the Eastern half of the U.S., from Chicago, to Boston and Miami. He ties the problem to Data Center Alley in Ashburn, Virginia Experts say cracks in our infrastructure grid are starting to show as the data center industry consumes electricity at a rate the world has never experienced. Dominion Energy said a piece of equipment on one of its high-voltage transmission lines that serves data centers failed, knocking it out of service. As a result, the data centers systems switched to backup power, causing the rippling blackouts.

Google’s parent company Alphabet saw its share price drop by nearly 7%, while Elon Musk’s electric vehicle-maker Tesla saw its stock fall 14.5%. Both reported negative free cash flow – the money retained after paying for operations and investments – in financial results on Wednesday, alongside promises to spend billions more in the months and years to come.

Apple filed a lawsuit against OpenAI alleging the artificial intelligence firm stole company trade secrets in a move to create its own hardware device. The suit claims OpenAI poached Apple employees, coaxing them to hand over confidential material, product designs and other tightly held information.

Weather Report

Death Camps: ICE and DHS responsible for Detainee Neglect and Cruelty

ICE detentions hit highest monthly total in June since crackdown began More than 43,000 immigrants were arrested last month as DHS continues to detain people in less-publicized enforcement surges. Records reveal “systemic neglect” after immigrant died at Camp East Montana. Geraldo Lunas Campos repeatedly raised concerns about his mental health before he died at Camp East Montana in West Texas. Records indicate the facility’s staff failed to respond adequately. Advocates for immigrants and military veterans are calling for an investigation after a detainee at the Northwest ICE Processing Center in Tacoma alleged he was sexually assaulted by a GEO Group detention officer during a pat-down search. An Afghan national who fought alongside U.S. forces died from an allergic reaction while in the custody of ICE, one day after he was detained for deportation proceedings.

Arson charge lodged against ex-Army soldier in fiery attack on Manhattan federal buildingAn arson charge was lodged against a former Army soldier who was detained without bail after a prosecutor said he gave investigators a lengthy confession detailing his fiery attack on a federal building in Manhattan that houses immigration court proceedings.

All the food is poison and we are choking on smoke: The Preventable and obvious consequences of Trump’s attacks on science

As a result of extreme climate conditions 200 out-of-control wildfires burn in Canada, causing millions of Americans in the mid-West and North East to experienced hazardous air quality due to the smoke. Donald Trump accused Canada of “poisoning” the US’s air with smoke billowing from a slew of forest fires and threatened sanctions upon the country’s northern neighbor. Trump announced additional Tarriffs on Canada. The US has been forced to pay back $81bn in tariffs so far this fiscal year. DOGE cuts and delays left Northern states ill-equipped to face the fires.

US is experiencing an outbreak of cyclospora, a foodborne infection caused by a parasite that’s typically spread through food or water contaminated with human feces. Six active cyclospora outbreaks are under investigation, three have been marked as ended. Federal health officials have linked cyclospora outbreaks in four additional states to the same iceberg lettuce sourced from central Mexico that has sickened thousands of people in the Midwest. The new states are Illinois, Kansas, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania. They join Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky and West Virginia as part of the country’s largest known cyclosporiasis outbreak. According to the FDA, a total of 1,947 people infected with cyclospora and reporting exposure to Taco Bell have been reported by nine states. Illnesses started on dates ranging from June 22 to July 20. There have been at least 98 hospitalizations and no deaths. Taylor Farms issued a voluntary recall for all iceberg lettuce sourced from its central Mexican facility, and Taco Bell pulled the affected lettuce from its restaurants.

The FDA announced that Midwest Poultry Services, L.P. is voluntarily recalling 1,589,577 dozen white shell eggs and brown cage free shell eggs produced in Texas because they have the potential to be contaminated with Salmonella. The CDC put out an advisory about the Salmonella Outbreak

Data Breaches

Chick-fil-A data breach: a credential stuffing attack broke into Chick-fil-A One loyalty accounts between June 17 and 19, 2026, exposing names, QR codes, stored balances, and partial card numbers.

Sumner County Schools is delaying the start of the school year after officials say unauthorized users broke into the district’s network.

The New York City Department of Transportation discovered that scammers affixed at least one fraudulent QR-code sticker to a ParkNYC meter. The link sent users to an entirely different site, asking them to input their location and payment information.The FTC says if you use a QR code, check the website it sends you to and make sure to look for misspellings or a switched letter.

TriWest officials notified 11,844 beneficiaries of a data breach that may have affected their protected health information.

The Current State of Hate, Extremism, and Repression: Whitewashing History, Lynchings, Transphobia, The Cuba Report, And the Tate Brothers Arrested… Again

White Nationalist group cult and MLM, the Patriot Front roamed the streets of D.C., on July Fourth weekend, wearing khakis, blue shirts and uniform patches. They were seen crowding into metro cars, chilling the residents of the city. The planned demonstration of force was timed to bring a fringe group of extremists into public view as the nation marked 250 years of its independence.

The Trump administration replaced an exhibit on slavery at the site of President George Washington’s home in Philadelphia with a version that historians say whitewashes the nation’s history.

The State Department in a new report linked Cuba to a range of protests in the U.S., including demonstrations surrounding the murder of George Floyd in 2020, the Black Panthers and “antifa”. United Nations Ambassador Mike Waltz said Cuba’s regime is “a national security threat,” accused China and Russia of “collecting information around our military bases in Cuba” during an interview on “Sunday Morning Futures” with Fox News’s Maria Bartiromo.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission EEOC voted 2-1, with the one Democrat commissioner in dissent, to move forward in publishing a proposed rule to remove the requirement for tens of thousands of private sector employers to submit workforce demographic report. The rule is a part of an administration effort to overhaul decades of traditional civil rights enforcement — and a broader push against diversity, equity and inclusion efforts inside corporate America. Civil rights lawyers say this demographic data is critical to enforcing anti-discrimination laws. The rule is open to public comment

South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace’s went on a transphobic tirade during a congressional hearing on oversight of the National Museum of American History. Citing a recent White House report that criticized the museum for including LGBTQ figures and media in its exhibits, Mace attacked Smithsonian leaders specifically for featuring RuPaul. Mace remains unpopular as she lost her bid for Governor during the primaries, and she continues to receive death threats.A federal judge overseeing one of two lawsuits challenging Trump’s attempt at removing transgender troops, questioned discrepancies in the government promoting TRT for cisgender soldiers while making the case that the need for hormone treatment is disqualifying for those who are transgender.

The Tate brothers were arrested... again this time in Miami. US magistrate Lauren Louis set a detention hearing for 13 August to determine whether the Tates should stay in jail or be released during what could be a months-long extradition process. The brothers have long claimed that their violent and misogynistic statements have been taken out of context or were intended as jokes. The brothers were charged with rape, bodily harm, human trafficking and controlling prostitution for gain relating to three other accusers in the UK. Days before their arrest, the brothers partied with Paolo Zampolli in D.C. The Tates were also seen on Capitol Hill, where they met with lawmakers, including Texas Rep. Wesley Hunt

40-year-old Havertown, Pennsylvania, man has been arrested and charged after racist and threatening voicemails were left for Delaware County Sheriff Siddiq Kamara.

Protests: Data Center Opposition, Calls for Impeachment

A heated meeting in Doña Ana County about the Project Jupiter data center led to three arrests for disorderly conduct and strong reactions from the public.
An Air Force major was arrested in uniform on the steps of the Capitol after he called for the impeachment of Trump.

Good News

Data Center and Detention Center Bans Across the Country

Neptune Township has become the latest New Jersey municipality to ban data centers, joining a growing number of towns trying to keep the facilities out of the state. The township committee approved an ordinance prohibiting data centers in all zoning districts.

ICE detention center in Utah reportedly canceled before opening after ICE allegedly canceled their plans to convert a warehouse in Salt Lake City into a detention center. The local pressure building that led to this victory is credited to Uproar Utah, a grassroots organization formed to oppose the conversion of warehouses to detention facilities. They focus on educating the public about detention centers and filing lawsuits to slow the conversion process down. Uproar encourages those wanting to fight back to become educated about the center and write to their local representatives.

Neptune officials voted to ban data centers and detention facilities citing concerns over energy and water usage.

Humboldt County supervisors directed staff to draft a ban on ICE detention facilities and a one-year moratorium on new data centers. The decision comes after public concern over rumors that a proposed Amazon warehouse could become an immigration detention center.

Farmland along U.S. 68 south of downtown Wilmington is slated for an Amazon data center, but a federal judge has ordered the city to redo some key steps, after finding Wilmington violated rules tied to open meetings. The judge also ordered that the public must have an unrestricted ability to speak at future site plan approval hearings.

Sierra County enacts 18-month data center moratorium, after hearing more than an hour of public comments, nearly all opposed to data centers in the community, on data center development in a surprise move during the regular meeting. It comes as state lawmakers propose a statewide moratorium for consideration in the next legislative session.

Protesting is Productive: Student Radio Find its Own Sound, Tech whistleblowers Defended, and University cuts ties with Border Patrol

Students and members of the community who were involved in Cleveland State University’s former student radio station – which the university transferred last year to Ideastream – have launched a new web-based station. “We miss our FM signal, but not being regulated by the (Federal Communications Commission) gives XCSB a certain amount of freedom that we didn’t have before. I am incredibly proud of the sound we have.”

A federal labor law judge determined that the software maker Atlassian had illegally fired an employee who questioned company policy changes.
Following a CalMatters investigation, students and faculty at UC San Diego protested against campus police for collaborating with Border Patrol through a federal grant program. The university will stop participating in the program and aiding patrols.

Student Loans Discharged, Journalist Sources Remain protected, Planned Parenthood Funds Restored, and White House Builder’s Descendants Found

A federal appeals court rejected a challenge to a landmark settlement agreement, and required the Education Department to continue discharging the federal student loans for more than 500,000 Americans. The ruling by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals is the culmination of months of failed efforts by the Trump administration to delay relief for student loan borrowers under the landmark 2022 settlement agreement, which provides $23 billion in discharges of federal student loans, refunds of past payments, and other relief.

Planned Parenthood regained access to federal funding, one year after Republicans were able to cut its clinics off from Medicaid for 1 year.

Criticized by a federal judge for sloppy legal work, the DOJ grudgingly withdrew subpoenas that would have compelled three New York Times reporters to testify about their sources for articles about President Donald Trump’s Qatari-gifted Air Force One jet.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced a first-of-its-kind rule to protect New Yorkers from subscription traps and junk fees. The Click-to-Cancel Rule alone is estimated to save New Yorkers up to $162.5 million per year. The rules, which go into effect in October, will protect residents from being trapped in never ending subscriptions, like at gyms and hotels, and by hidden junk fees.

ABC News and American Ancestors, one of the nation’s largest genealogical organizations, found the first confirmed living descendants of an enslaved individual who helped build the White House. 10 Million Names spent over two years searching through dozens of records across several states looking for names of enslaved individuals who worked on the White House who might have a traceable family line to people living today.

Horoscope

Venus Moves back home into Libra on the 6th, an ideal time for finding love or making a connection, before moving into mysterious Scorpio on the 10th. Creative energy will be high in August, as Mercury moves into Leo. Eclipse season begins on the 12th, with a solar eclipse, signaling shock or an epiphany. Also on the 12th, the annual Perseid meteor shower will occur. The Sun moves into Virgo on the 22nd, the ideal time for getting organized and getting stuff done. Murcury follows the Sun into Virgo on the 25th, an ideal time for planning, studying and get this, sorting out fact from fiction! The month ends with an emotional flood, the lunar eclipses in Pisces on the 28th signaling a major ending. Cry.

Take this as your sign from the Moon, stars, and meteors to lean into your creative energy and get stuff done! Plan, study, and grieve the end of what has been a turbulent yet revealing summer

Until next month,
<3 Raelyn