Indiana Stories
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Fever star Caitlin Clark ruled out for rest of WNBA season
Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark has been ruled out for the remainder of the 2025 WNBA season due to injury, she announced on social media Thursday night.
Clark, the 2024 No. 1 pick, had been limited to 13 games this season and hadn't appeared since July 15 when she suffered a right groin injury in the final minute of the Fever's win over the Connecticut Sun.
"I had hoped to share a better update, but I will not be returning to play this season," Clark posted. "I spent hours in the gym every day with the singular goal of getting back out there, disappointed isn't a big enough word to describe how I am feeling."
Clark has also missed time this season with left quad and left groin injuries. ESPN also confirmed that she suffered a bone bruise in her left ankle during a workout in August that she had to rehab concurrently with her groin.
Mapmaking F**kery
Potential map shows 9 heavily Republican congressional districts
A map of possible congressional districts obtained by News 8 on Tuesday showed a scenario under which Indiana could be left with nine Republican-controlled U.S. House seats.
Two sources familiar with the discussions said the map has been circulating among Indiana Republican Party insiders for at least a week, though there have not been any formal discussions surrounding them. The sources, who asked not to be identified to discuss internal matters, said several versions of the maps exist. Some give Indiana Republicans an 8-1 advantage in the House while others would provide a 9-0 advantage. The sources said the maps are purely hypothetical and no formal discussions have taken place. They said the maps came from allies of the Trump administration in Washington, not Indiana Republicans.
The map obtained by News 8 would redraw Indiana’s nine U.S. House districts in a manner that would give Republicans a double-digit edge in all of them. Notably, Marion County would be split among the 6th, 7th and 8th districts, with Democrat Andre Carson facing a district that stretches into deep red southeastern Indiana.
Indiana Gov. Mike Braun appointed five members to a commission that will examine how Indiana could redraw its state lines to include nearly a third of neighboring Illinois' counties. (Peoria Journal Star)
What is the Indiana Illinois Boundary Adjustment Commission?
The commission was created as a result of the passing of House Bill 1008 in May with a goal of examining how Indiana could accept counties seceding from Illinois.
The bill says the commission must include six members from Indiana and five from Illinois "appointed under Illinois law." But only six members (the number of Indiana appointments) are required for the commission to conduct any business.
Thirty-three Illinois counties have previously voted to explore the idea of secession, according to NBC5 Chicago.
It's important to note, however, that some of the Illinois secession movement leaders have indicated the purpose of their separation votes was not to join Indiana. Many counties instead passed such referendums to study the possibility of secession, spurred on by a feeling of being underrepresented in their government.
Trump’s ICE Gestapo Comes to Indiana
Indiana National Guard to provide administrative support to ICE in September
Indiana National Guard troops will mobilize to assist Immigration and Customs Enforcement with transportation and logistics across the state beginning mid-September, a spokesperson for Gov. Mike Braun confirmed.
Around 50 Hoosier guardsmen will help ICE officials with tasks such as answering phones, biometric collection, tracking expenses, entering data and maintaining vehicles. They will not engage in law enforcement functions or make arrests, the spokesperson said.
Plans to have guardsmen assist ICE is the latest evidence that Indiana is preparing to become a linchpin of Trump's mass deportation efforts. The state is making 1,000 beds in the Miami Correctional Facility available for immigrant detainees awaiting deportation, and Trump plans to use Camp Atterbury to hold detainees as well.
Indiana already has one of the largest detention centers in the Midwest in Brazil's Clay County Jail, which has moved more than 3,000 people through its facility since Trump took office.
Indy Democrats clash with sheriff over holding ICE detainees in the jail
A routine budget hearing this week turned into a rebuke of Marion County Sheriff Kerry Forestal, who faced calls from residents and some members of the City-County Council to stop housing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees in the local jail.
Some Democrats on the committee went so far as to say they wouldn’t vote to approve the sheriff’s annual budget unless he ended an agreement with the federal government to house ICE detainees, which currently leads to a payment of $75 per day for each detainee.
Forestal, a Democrat who’s in his last term, faced more than an hour of questioning and public comment. He told councilors that he is upholding the law… point[ing] to Gov. Mike Braun’s executive order on immigration and a letter from Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita, who threatened to sue local sheriffs who don’t cooperate with federal immigration authorities. The attorney general has filed lawsuits against the sheriffs in Monroe and St. Joseph counties.
Democratic councilors Carlos Perkins, Brienne Delaney, Frank Mascari, Dan Boots, and Crista Carlino pressed Forestal to end cooperation with ICE. Republican councilors largely praised the sheriff.
Displeased with the two major parties?
A new initiative — Independent Indiana — launched Tuesday to help spotlight and provide resources to Hoosiers who are running, and winning, as independents.
The idea began when Executive Director Nathan Gotsch, himself a 2022 independent candidate for Congress, dug into election results across the state.
“In 2023 and 2024, 244 independent candidates qualified for partisan races,” Gotsch said in a news release. “More than half of them — 52% — won. Those results point to something real happening in Indiana politics.”
Independents aren’t just running for local offices. More are aiming higher, from countywide seats to the state legislature and even Congress. Nearly a third of independents who lost in 2023-2024 still received 30-49% of the vote.
To get on the ballot, candidates must collect petition signatures from registered voters equal to 2% of the most recent secretary of state vote in their district. For a statewide race, that means nearly 37,000 signatures — closer to 50,000 in practice once rejections are factored in. With paid circulators charging at least $15 per valid signature, ballot access for a statewide independent candidate can cost more than $700,000.
Rokita, Morales, or Both?
This week, 21 attorneys general added their signatures to a letter penned by Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita to express support for eliminating DEI requirements for federal contractors.
Earlier this year, the Department of Labor proposed rescinding affirmative action requirements for companies that work with the federal government—something the attorneys general said the DOL should do quickly.
“The federal government has no right to mandate affirmative action plans that prioritize ideology over merit,” a statement from Attorney General Rokita read in part. “These regulations promote unlawful discrimination, undermine true equal opportunity and needlessly burden employers. Federal contractors should hire based on skill and experience, not political agendas.”
“It’s another manipulation of what DEI is really about,” State Rep. [Earl] Harris [Jr (D-East Chicago)] said. “DEI is about merit and that’s what employers want. They want to hire the best, so why would we make it so that it makes it harder for them to get access to the best?”
In his letter, Rokita wrote that roughly one-fifth of the American workforce works for a federal contractor, and that rescinding these regulations could save $8.5 billion over the next decade. But Rev. Greene said he questions whether the move could actually save money in the end.
“If you put something in place that creates less competition, you’re not going to save money,” Rev. Greene said. “The data shows from DEI that a lot of the minority companies are able to do it cheaper. If we go back to the ‘good old boys’ network, we’re not going to be quote unquote saving money.”
Hoosiers weigh in on moving municipal elections to even-numbered years at public meeting
Secretary of State Diego Morales is hosting a series of public meetings on whether the state should require all municipal elections to move to presidential or congressional mid-term election years.
Part of the meeting was a presentation by the Secretary of State's office. It covered the potential cost savings and voter turnout impact of moving municipal elections. Municipal elections statewide in 2023 cost about $18 million, with voter turnout of just 20 percent.
There are more public meetings in coming weeks — in Jeffersonville, Lake County and Evansville.
Indiana Citizen sues over access to voter list
The Indiana Citizen filed suit Tuesday against Indiana’s secretary of state and attorney general, seeking a list of more than 585,000 registered Hoosier voters sent to the federal government to verify citizenship status. The offices have refused to provide it.
Reporter Marilyn Odendahl requested the list in October 2024, after Secretary of State Diego Morales and Attorney General Todd Rokita issued news releases about the request.
The letter, addressed to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Ur Jaddou, asked the agency to use its “Person Centric Query Service” to verify a list of names and dates of birth. The list of 585,774 includes those who registered without an Indiana driver’s license number or a social security number — or who live overseas.
Indiana has 4.8 million residents registered to vote, so the letter invited scrutiny of about 12% on the rolls.
The secretary of state’s office told the Citizen it has identified about 1,600 registered voters as potential noncitizens based on information from the Bureau of Motor Vehicles and the vendor overseeing the statewide voter registration system.
GOP Making Indiana a Terrible Place to be a Kid
Indiana slashing rates for child care providers
Child care providers around Indiana will see reimbursement rate cuts of 10-35% as the state’s Family and Social Services Administration tries to close a $225 million funding gap.
The sustainability maneuver could push providers to drop out of a low-income child care program, however.
“We made this decision to protect the children and families that depend on (Child Care Development Fund) vouchers. There is only one pot of money — we could either protect providers or kids, and we chose kids,” said Adam Alson, the director of the Office of Early Childhood and Out-of-School Learning.
CCDF is a federal program that provides financial assistance via subsidies or vouchers to low-income families to help them pay for child care so parents can work or attend education and training programs.
The rate cuts weren’t an easy decision, [Director of the Office of Early Childhood and Out-of-School Learning Adam] Alson said, but the only other way to rein in spending would’ve been to cut the number of families in the program.
Right now, 55,000 children receive a voucher — above the pre-pandemic average of 35,000 participants.
When the pandemic assistance waned, the state tapped surplus money from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program in fiscal year 2025 to cover the loss. But those funds are no longer available for CCDF, which means the state would have to pull from its General Fund to make up the difference.
To establish “equitable” reimbursement rates, the state received surveys from 25% of licensed child care providers and analyzed their cost data, arriving at reimbursement levels that “reflect current operating realities,” a news release said.
Rates for infant and toddler care, for instance, will drop by 10%. Rates for preschoolers between the ages of 3-5 will be cut 15%. And rates for school-age children will be cut by 35%.
Indy students join nationwide rally for gun safety reform
Hundreds of Indianapolis students gathered Friday afternoon on the south steps of the Indiana Statehouse, part of a nationwide walkout and rally for gun safety reform.
The event was organized in response to the recent school shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where two children were killed and 18 more were injured.
As of 2023 the Center for Disease Control and Prevention listed firearms as the leading cause of death for children age 1-17 in the U.S., and Everytown for Gun Safety ranks Indiana 27th in the country for gun law strength.
The last legislation Indiana passed regarding firearm use was House Bill 1296, which repealed the law requiring a person to obtain a license to carry a handgun in Indiana. It was signed into law by then Governor Eric Holcomb in March 2022.
No gun control, but here’s $27M
Nearly $30 million will go to 494 schools and school systems across the state, thanks to Indiana Homeland Security's School Safety Initiative.
The schools that applied for the $27.1 million in grant money ranked categories for what its district needed the most, including school resource officers, technology, support services, firearm training for staff, design and construction, site vulnerability assessment, bullying prevention and a few others.
The majority of the money went toward funding school resources officers — nearly $19 million for 328 schools.
US/World News
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Quick Hits
Trump says he's moving Space Command HQ to Alabama because of Colorado's mail-in voting system
"The problem I have with Colorado, one of the big problems, they do mail-in voting, they went to all mail-in voting, so they have automatically crooked elections," Trump said in the Oval Office.
While Trump had announced, and it was later confirmed, that Huntsville was the preferred location for U.S. Space Command headquarters, the Biden administration halted those plans in 2023 because of concerns with Alabama's restrictive abortion law. As a result, the head of Space Command decided that year that the military branch would build out its headquarters in Colorado Springs, instead.
Abrego Garcia to Eswatini Now?
The Trump administration told Kilmar Abrego Garcia on Friday it is now seeking to deport him to the tiny African kingdom of Eswatini, formerly known as Swaziland, according to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement email obtained by CBS News.
U.S. employers added just 22,000 jobs in August, according to a report Friday from the Labor Department. The unemployment rate inched up 4.3%. Revised figures also show there was also a net loss of jobs in June for the first time since 2020, in the midst of the pandemic.
The U.S. has now had four months in a row of pretty anemic job growth. Average job growth between May and August was down 75% from the same period a year ago.
There was a net loss of jobs last month in manufacturing, construction, and oil drilling — all industries that the Trump administration is trying to promote.
A modest increase in health care jobs was partially offset by continued cuts in the federal workforce. The federal government has shed some 97,000 jobs since the beginning of the year, and government payrolls are expected to shrink further in the coming months when severance payments to employees who took buyouts end.
Nearly 500 people detained in Hyundai raid
Immigration authorities said Friday they detained 475 people, most of them South Korean nationals, when hundreds of federal agents raided the sprawling manufacturing site in Georgia where Korean automaker Hyundai makes electric vehicles.
Steven Schrank, the lead Georgia agent of Homeland Security Investigations, said during a news conference Friday that the raid resulted from a monthslong investigation into allegations of illegal hiring at the site and was the “largest single site enforcement operation” in the agency’s two-decade history.
Agents focused their operation on an adjacent plant that is still under construction at which Hyundai has partnered with LG Energy Solution to produce batteries that power EVs.
The South Korean government expressed “concern and regret” over the operation targeting its citizens.
Koreans are rarely caught up in immigration enforcement compared to other nationalities. Only 46 Koreans were deported during the 12-month period that ended Sept. 30, 2024, out of more than 270,000 removals for all nationalities, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Mamdani, AOC and other DSA members should leave party: Dem Rep. Tom Suozzi insists
“Zohran Mamdani and other Democratic Socialists should create their own party because I don’t want that in my party,” Suozzi, a Democrat, said of the far left policies on CBS New York’s “The Point” show with Marcia Kramer that aired Sunday.
Suozzi — whose third congressional district includes parts of Queens as well as Long Island — also said he hopes “he [Mamdani] doesn’t win” the mayoralty because “it will be bad for the Democratic Party.”
Trump renames DOD to ‘Department of War’
Donald Trump signed an executive order on Friday to rebrand the Department of Defense as the Department of War, a callback to the department’s original name used from 1789 to 1947.
The directive will make Department of War the secondary title, and is a way to get around the need for congressional approval to formally rename a federal agency, an administration official said.
“We won the first world war, we won the second world war, we won everything before that and in between,” Trump said at the signing. “And then we decided to go woke and we changed the name to the Department of Defense.”
The administration has already begun implementing the symbolic changes: visitors to the Pentagon’s defense.gov website are now automatically redirected to war.gov.
“We’re going to go on offense, not just on defense. Maximum lethality, not tepid legality. Violent effect, not politically correct,” the secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, said in the Oval Office. “We’re going to raise up warriors, not just defenders. So this war department, Mr President, just like America is back.”
Speaking of ‘Going on Offense”
US military kills 11 people in strike on alleged drug boat from Venezuela
The United States has deployed warships in the southern Caribbean in recent weeks with the aim of following through on a pledge by Trump to crack down on drug cartels.
Tuesday's strike appeared to be the first such military operation in the region to that effect.
Seven U.S. warships, along with one nuclear-powered fast attack submarine, are either in the region or expected to be there soon, carrying more than 4,500 sailors and Marines.
Experts skeptical of legality of Trump’s strike on alleged drug boat
Under intense pressure from Capitol Hill to provide a legal rationale for the unprecedented killing of 11 alleged drug smugglers by the US military, the Trump administration has so far ducked lawmakers and provided a mishmash of public justifications that raise serious questions about the legality of the strike, legal experts and congressional sources say.
The Defense Department on Friday abruptly canceled classified briefings it was set to provide in the morning to several key House and Senate committees
Broadly, administration officials have sought to make the argument that the 11 people on a speedboat that the US blew up in international waters in the Caribbean this week were legitimate military targets because they were members of a loosely organized Venezuelan criminal gang called Tren de Aragua, which the US has designated as a terrorist organization.
The president has the authority under Article II of the Constitution to use military force when it is in the national interest, and when it does not amount to “war” in the constitutional sense, which requires an act of Congress. Past administrations have interpreted these standards fairly broadly — especially in the decadeslong war against al Qaeda, ISIS and other evolving Islamist terror groups — and Trump officials have also claimed the president was exercising his inherent Article II powers here.
Venezuela flies military aircraft near U.S. Navy ship for a second time, Pentagon officials say
For the second time in two days, Venezuela has flown military aircraft in the vicinity of the USS Jason Dunham in international waters near South America, multiple Defense Department officials confirmed to CBS News Friday, describing the action as turning into a "game of chicken."
The Dunham, an Aegis guided-missile destroyer, did not engage, the officials said. The aircraft was within weapons-range for both the aircraft and the ship, the officials added.
This comes after CBS News reported Thursday that two F-16 fighter jets also flew over the Dunham earlier that day. The Pentagon later confirmed that incident, describing it in a statement as a "highly provocative move" that "was designed to interfere with our counter narco-terror operations."
Trump weighs strikes targeting cartels inside Venezuela, part of wider pressure campaign on Maduro
Asked Tuesday if the US would consider strikes on Venezuelan soil against the Maduro regime, Secretary of State Marco Rubio didn’t count out the possibility.
Botched Navy SEALs North Korea Mission Exposed
United States Navy SEALs shot and killed several North Korean civilians during a botched mission in 2019 to plant a listening device in the nuclear-armed country, reportedly approved by US President Donald Trump.
[SEAL Team 6] – the same one that killed former al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in 2011 – was tasked with covertly going ashore in North Korea and planting a listening device to spy on the country’s leadership.
But working in the dead of night with blackout communications, a series of errors led to civilians – several North Koreans reportedly diving for shellfish – inadvertently coming across the US special forces as they splashed ashore.
The SEALs opened fire, killing all those on board a small fishing vessel, the [New York] Times report said, without specifying the number of casualties.
Officials familiar with the mission told the Times that the US soldiers “pulled the bodies into the water to hide them from the North Korean authorities”. One source described how SEAL members “punctured the boat crew’s lungs with knives to make sure their bodies would sink”.
Message intended for BRICS nations?
China Projects Power in Twin Gatherings
The leaders of China, North Korea and Russia stood shoulder to shoulder Wednesday as high-tech military hardware and thousands of marching soldiers filled the streets of Beijing.
Two days earlier, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping huddled together, smiling broadly and clasping hands at a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.
Or for a domestic audience?
Trump posts image warning Chicago as Guard deployment threat looms
“I love the smell of deportations in the morning… Chicago about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR,” the post said.
The image depicts Trump in a black cavalry hat, aviator sunglasses, white undershirt, dark green collared short-sleeve shirt and dark pants. Lake Michigan and the Chicago city skyline sit in the background, with smoke and fire spreading and five helicopters overhead.
“Chipocalypse Now” in lettering resembling the poster for the 1979 film “Apocalypse Now” appears on the computer-generated image as well.
Washington DC mayor signs order to continue cooperation with federal police
Washington DC’s mayor, Muriel Bowser, appeared to bow to Donald Trump’s military occupation of the nation’s capital on Tuesday, signing an executive order that formalizes cooperation with federal forces even as residents push back against the city’s takeover.
The Tuesday order establishes the “Safe and Beautiful Emergency Operations Center” – borrowing from Trump’s own branding – to institutionalize collaboration between city officials and various federal agencies including the FBI.
On Wednesday, Bowser pushed back against accusations that she’s willing to continue Trump’s federal takeover.
“I want the message to be clear to the Congress, we have a framework to request or use federal resources in our city,” Bowser told reporters during a press conference. “We don’t need a presidential emergency.”
“Let me tell you, without equivocation, that the mayor’s order does not extend the Trump emergency,” she added. “In fact, it does the exact opposite. What it does is lays out a framework for how we will exit the emergency. The emergency ends on September 10.”
Bowser’s executive order mandates that federal officers adhere to transparent policing practices, requiring them to avoid wearing masks, display clear agency identification, and provide proper identification during arrests and public encounters.
But DC residents have criticized Bowser for opting for collaboration with the federal government over resistance.
Continued Degradation of US Public Health
Crosstalk and shouting ensued as senators, some of them doctors, demanded explanations for Kennedy’s controversial actions in his first eight months as the nation’s top health official.
Among them: High-profile resignations and firings at agencies like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A changing U.S. vaccine policy that would limit access for some Americans as the country heads into peak respiratory illness season. Replacing a key panel of medical experts with hand-picked candidates with anti-vaccine stances.
Undergirding the heightened scrutiny was a call for Kennedy’s resignation from more than 20 medical societies and organizations, and a column from former CDC Director Susan Monarez, who wrote in The Wall Street Journal that her firing last week was part of a “deliberate effort to weaken America’s public-health system and vaccine protections.”
U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made myriad false and misleading claims
KENNEDY, on the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines: “The only confusion I expressed is exactly how many lives were saved. I don’t think anybody knows that.”
THE FACTS: A 2022 study published in the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases found that nearly 20 million lives were saved by COVID-19 vaccines during their first year, including 1.9M in the US.
KENNEDY, on COVID-19 booster shots: “Anybody can get the booster.”
THE FACTS: The Food and Drug Administration has approved updated COVID-19 shots, but only for seniors or younger people with underlying health risks. Many pharmacies are unwilling or legally barred from giving vaccines outside the uses endorsed by the FDA and other federal authorities.
KENNEDY, on how many Americans have died from COVID-19: “I don’t think anybody knows that, because there was so much data chaos coming out of the CDC and there were so many perverse incentives.”
THE FACTS: This data is easily accessible. Approximately 1.2 million Americans have died from the virus, according to both the CDC, and the WHO.
KENNEDY, in response to Sen. Tina Smith, a Democrat from Minnesota, accusing him of blaming school shootings on antidepressants: “You’re just making stuff up.”
THE FACTS: Kennedy did not say outright in a Fox News interview last week that antidepressants are responsible for school shootings. But he did suggest that they could play a role, saying that the National Institutes of Health is “launching studies on the potential contribution of some of the SSRI drugs and some of the other psychiatric drugs that might be contributing to violence.”
“Today’s children have to get between 69 and 92 vaccines in order to be fully compliant, between maternity and 18 years. It’s 19 vaccines, 92 doses. Only one of those vaccines has been tested against a placebo.”
THE FACTS: Decades of research before and after their approval has shown those on the market are safe and effective — including placebo-controlled studies. There is no evidence that the childhood vaccine schedule is harmful. It’s backed by the American Academy of Pediatrics and doctors say multiple vaccines are not a problem.
KENNEDY: “Trump has now allocated through the one big beautiful bill $50 billion, so $10 billion a year over the next five years. What we give to rural hospitals, that’s 6%, represents $19 billion a year. So we’re increasing that by $10 billion. So we’re infusing more than 50% increase in the amount of money that is going to rural communities over the next five years.”
THE FACTS: they did that to offset significant cuts that rural hospitals are expected to endure as a result of the legislation, which also slashes $1.2 trillion from the federal budget over the next decade, primarily from Medicaid.
Roughly 10 million people are expected to lose health insurance from the legislation. Most people will lose Medicaid.
That will leave many hospitals with patients who can’t afford to pay for emergency services. The changes are expected to hit rural areas, where as many as 1 in 4 Americans rely on Medicaid to pay for health insurance, particularly hard. Estimates have suggested that rural hospitals, in particular, could lose between $58 billion and $137 billion over the next decade because of the bill’s provisions.
Kennedy to link Tylenol use in pregnancy to autism, report says
U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. plans to announce that use of Kenvue's (KVUE.N), opens new tab popular over-the-counter pain medication Tylenol in pregnant women is potentially linked to autism, contrary to medical guidelines that say it is safe to use, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.
Kennedy, in the report, will also suggest a medicine derived from folate called folinic acid can be used to treat symptoms of autism in some people, the WSJ reported.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and leading medical organizations agree on the safety of acetaminophen, its use during pregnancy, and the information provided on the label, the company said.
Florida surgeon general says state will eliminate all vaccine mandates
Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo said Wednesday that the state will work to eliminate all vaccine mandates, a move that drew condemnation from public health experts.
“All of them. All of them,” Ladapo said during a news conference as the crowd stood and erupted in applause. “Every last one of them is wrong and drips with disdain and slavery." He said the Florida Department of Health will work in partnership with the governor.
Ladapo has railed against vaccines in Florida in the past, saying that people under 65 shouldn't get an mRNA Covid vaccine, at the time contradicting guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And during a 2024 measles outbreak in the state, he said that parents should watch for measles symptoms but could make their own decision about whether to send children to school. He did not encourage vaccination.
Ladapo's announcement came as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis revealed the establishment of the Florida Make America Healthy Again commission, which will recommend state-level integration of President Donald Trump and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s Make America Healthy Again effort.
This Week in Epstein
House Oversight Committee Releases 33K+ Pages
The files include court documents, flight records, and a video of Epstein's cell block from before his death that includes a minute missing from earlier videos.
Many of the documents were already in the public domain.
Epstein accusers put pressure on Congress to release the files
A group of Jeffrey Epstein accusers on Wednesday told emotional, gut-wrenching stories of sexual abuse at the hands of the late convicted sex offender and his co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell, raising pressure on lawmakers to back the release of all of the files in the Justice Department’s years-long Epstein investigation.
The bombshell news conference was organized by Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Ro Khanna, D-Calif., and comes as the bipartisan duo push to collect 218 signatures — half of the members of the House of Representatives — to force a vote to compel the Justice Department to release all of the files in the Epstein case.
The White House framed voting for the discharge petition as a “hostile act” toward the Trump administration.
The accusers at the conference said that if Congress isn’t willing to release all of the investigative documents pertaining to Epstein, they would compile their own list of names to hold those in Epstein’s orbit accountable. "Together as survivors, we will confidentially compile the names we all know, who were regularly in the Epstein world,” said Lisa Phillips, who said she was brought to Epstein’s island.
Trump says the Justice Department has 'done its job' in releasing Epstein documents
In a lengthy Truth Social post, Trump attacked Democrats and charged that they did "nothing" about Epstein "while he was alive except befriend him, socialize with him, travel to his Island, and take his money!" Trump was friends with Epstein for years, though he said in 2019 — after the disgraced financier's sex trafficking arrest — that they had "a falling out." Epstein died by suicide in jail in 2019, and conspiracy theories about his death and criminal case have flourished in the years since.
Trump said Democrats "knew everything there was to know about Epstein, but now, years after his death, they, out of nowhere, are seeming to show such love and heartfelt concern for his victims. Does anybody really believe that?"
"The Department of Justice has done its job, they have given everything requested of them," he continued. "It’s time to end the Democrat Epstein Hoax, and give the Republicans credit for the great, even legendary, job that they are doing."
Trump was FBI informant in Epstein case, Speaker Johnson says
Speaker Mike Johnson has said President Donald Trump was an FBI informant in the Jeffrey Epstein case.
Johnson made the remark Friday when a reporter asked him about the president dubbing the Epstein scandal “the Democrat Epstein Hoax.”
“What Trump is referring to is the hoax that the Democrats are using to try to attack him,” Johnson said.
“It’s been misrepresented. He’s not saying that what Epstein did is a hoax. It’s a terrible, unspeakable evil; he believes that himself. When he first heard the rumor, he kicked him out of Mar-a-Lago.”
He went on to say, “He was an FBI informant to try to take this stuff down. The president knows ― and has great sympathy for the women who suffered these unspeakable harms. It’s detestable to him.”
'Unconstitutional' and 'unlawful': Judges push back on Trump's expanding power
Judges issued orders blocking the president's use of the wartime Alien Enemies Act to speed deportations, the federal deployment of the National Guard for law enforcement purposes in California, the freezing of $2 billion in federal funds to Harvard, and the termination of protected legal status for hundreds of thousands of Haitians and Venezuelans.
It was the worst week in the courts in months for President Donald Trump and his administration — and came after another major loss last week, when an appeals court struck down some of his tariffs. Trump is already appealing that ruling to the Supreme Court and has said it would be a "disaster" if it's not overturned.
The high court has granted the Trump administration’s emergency requests in 17 of 22 cases to date, a recent NBC News analysis found.
“The courts aren’t going to strike down all that they’re doing, and, at the end of the day, they’ll end up accomplishing more by flooding the zone,” a lawyer who is close to the White House said in May in reference to the administration's strategy.
The losses:
Judge calls Harvard funding cuts an ideologically motivated 'assault'
The administration had said it was freezing over $2 billion in funds because of Harvard's failure to combat antisemitism. U.S. District Judge Allison D. Burroughs said in her Wednesday ruling that the claim "reeks of pretext."
Judge says National Guard deployment to Los Angeles was unlawful
On Tuesday, a federal judge in California found the administration was violating a 19th-century law barring the domestic use of the military for civilian law enforcement activities.
In his 52-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer said the troops did more than [protect federal property and personnel] — a violation of the Posse Comitatus Act. The 1878 statute prohibits the president from using the military as a domestic police force without approval from Congress.
Also on Tuesday, an appeals court in Louisiana issued an order blocking the administration from deporting alleged Venezuelan gang members using the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which had been tasked with reviewing the issue by the Supreme Court, found the government had not shown there was a warlike invasion going on.
“Our analysis leads us to GRANT a preliminary injunction to prevent removal because we find no invasion or predatory incursion,” the panel’s majority wrote.
Trump takes tariff fight to the Supreme Court
The ruling the president has expressed the most concern about was handed down on Aug. 29, when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit found he had exceeded his authority when he imposed tariffs using an emergency powers statute.
“Tariffs are a core Congressional power,” it said, upholding a lower court's finding that Trump's orders are “invalid as contrary to law.”
Deportation move 'arbitrary and capricious'
In a ruling late Friday, a federal judge in the Northern District of California ruled that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s actions “in vacating the orders of the prior administration and terminating" Temporary Protected Status for hundreds of thousands of people from Haiti and Venezuela exceeded her statutory authority and must be set aside.
“For 35 years, the TPS statute has been faithfully executed by presidential administrations from both parties, affording relief based on the best available information obtained by the Department of Homeland Security in consultation with the State Department and other agencies, a process that involves careful study and analysis,” [US District Court Judge Edward Chen] wrote. “Until now.”
One Big Thing - Downballot Blues
(quotes from linked articles in italics)
Some numbers from Ballotpedia:
Following the 2020 presidential election, 61.7% of Hoosiers lived in one of the state's 82 Solid Republican counties, which voted for the Republican presidential candidate in every election from 2012 to 2020, and 27.8% lived in one of four Solid Democratic counties.
According to Ballotpedia's annual state legislative competitiveness report, Indiana had a Competitiveness Index of 26.2, ranking it 33rd of the 44 states that held elections.
Nine of the 125 seats up for election were open (7%).
29 of the 116 incumbents who ran for re-election faced contested primaries (25%).
58 of the 125 seats up for election were contested by both major parties (46%).
From Wikipedia:
As of the 2024 Census estimates, the population of Indiana was 6,924,275, the average population of Indiana's 92 counties is 75,264, with Marion County as the most populous (981,628), and Ohio County (5,996) the least. 54 counties have 30,000 or more people; 17 counties have populations exceeding 100,000, five of which exceed 250,000; and only six counties have fewer than 10,000 people.
Constitutional offices
These are the core offices that must be elected in every Indiana county, according to the state's constitution. They all serve four-year terms.County-Level Elected Officials in Indiana
Auditor: Serves as the county's chief financial officer, keeper of accounts, and clerk to the board of county commissioners and the county council.
Circuit Court Clerk: Acts as the chief election official for the county and as the administrator for the judicial system. The office is often simply referred to as the "county clerk".
Coroner: Determines the cause of death in cases involving violence, casualty, or other suspicious circumstances.
Recorder: Maintains permanent public records, primarily those related to real estate, such as deeds and mortgages.
Sheriff: Administers the county jail and provides law enforcement services.
Surveyor: Manages and maintains the county's surveying records, including information on property boundaries and drainage systems.
Treasurer: Collects taxes and has custody of and investment responsibility for all county revenues.
Prosecuting Attorney: Although elected to represent a judicial circuit, this office is included in the list of local offices because the circuit's boundaries are typically defined by a county line.
Non-constitutional offices
These offices are established by state statute and play critical roles in county governance.
Board of Commissioners: Consists of three elected members who serve four-year, staggered terms. This board serves as the county's executive body, overseeing the administration of county business and many departments.
County Council: Serves as the county's fiscal body, with ultimate decision-making power over spending and revenue. It approves the annual budget, sets tax rates, and establishes compensation for county officials and employees. It consists of seven or nine members, each serving four-year terms.
County Assessor: Determines the assessed value of property within the county and certifies these values to the county auditor.
Judges: Judges for the circuit and superior courts are elected at the county level.
Republican Robert Vane in Capital Chronicle 8/23/22:
The Democrats have not won a statewide race in Indiana since 2012 (Joe Donnelly and Glenda Ritz — both of whom were soundly defeated in their respective re-election efforts). Republicans have won five consecutive gubernatorial elections (the longest streak since the GOP won five straight from 1968 to 1984).
More than 85% of all county-elected officials throughout the state are Republican, and I’ve yet to encounter a single sane person who believes U.S. Sen. Todd Young will be defeated in his re-election effort this fall.
The Republican caucuses in both the House and Senate have maintained supermajority status since the national GOP landslide in 2010. A Democrat hasn’t won the statewide offices of secretary of state, auditor of state, or treasurer of state since current Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett left office in December 1994.
7/10/23 IDP Press Release “INGOP: Indiana Isn’t Gerrymandered Enough”
The Indiana Democratic Party is today calling out Indiana Republican Party Chairman Kyle Hupfer for his comments this weekend saying that Republicans should “own” over 90% of the seats in the state legislature.
These comments show the Indiana GOP’s continued attack on democracy. Democrats routinely get over 40% of the vote in Indiana, yet control just 30 percent of the seats in the State House and 20 percent of the seats in the State Senate.
IMPORTANTVILLE, 7.9: “Indiana Republicans hold more than 90 percent of all county-elected offices. Is there a ceiling in this November’s municipal elections? Or could you get more?
“Can you disavow folks of this cockamamie gerrymandering talk? I mean, we’re underrepresented in the legislature. We should own 90 percent of it if the lines were drawn accurately.”
Hupfer Steps Down as Indiana GOP Chair with 90%+ county-level offices
Hupfer, who served six and a half years and four election cycles in the role at the behest of term-limited Gov. Eric Holcomb, led the Indiana GOP to remarkable heights, including securing more than 90 percent of all county-elected offices across the state, a new record, on top of a record 19 mayoral offices flipping to Republicans.
Uncontested Elections (from Ballotpedia)
Throughout 2024, Ballotpedia covered 76,902 elections in 50 states, the District of Columbia, and five territories. Of that total, 53,485 (70%) were uncontested and 23,417 (30%) were contested.
An uncontested election is one where the number of candidates on the ballot is less than or equal to the number of seats up for election. Candidates running in uncontested elections are virtually guaranteed victory.
On average, between 2018 and 2023, 58% of elections covered by Ballotpedia have been uncontested.
The 70% uncontested election rate found in 2024 was the highest rate Ballotpedia has covered in a year since data collection began in 2018. The second highest rate was 65% in 2020. The lowest rate in a year was 50% in 2021.
Indiana all of 2024 - Elections: 2,799 Uncontested:1,842 65.8% Contested:957 34.2%
Indiana November 2024 - Elections:1,599 Uncontested:1,005 63% Contested:594 37%
