update - Fed'l judge rules Alina Habba is illegal and voids all her official actions

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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced plans to ask a court to determine whether Democrats who fled the state to prevent Republican redistricting efforts had "vacated" their office.

After Democrats denied the Texas House of Representatives a two-thirds quorum for the second day in a row on Tuesday, Paxton released a statement on his intentions to have their seats declared vacant.




"Democrats have abandoned their offices by fleeing Texas, and a failure to respond to a call of the House constitutes a dereliction of their duty as elected officials," Paxton said. "Starting Friday, any rogue lawmakers refusing to return to the House will be held accountable for vacating their office. The people of Texas elected lawmakers, not jet-setting runaways looking for headlines. If you don't show up to work, you get fired."


The statement went on to insist that Democrats were "refusing to perform their duties in a manner that amounts to abandonment of office."

"If the runaway members of the legislative minority do not return to the House and resume performance of their duties by the deadline, Attorney General Paxton will seek judicial relief confirming that their office is vacant," the statement said.

On Monday, House Speaker Dustin Burrows (R) signed civil arrest warrants for the missing Democrats.



Ken Paxton seeks court order declaring that Dem 'runaways' vacated their seats

 

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BOSTON (AP) — A federal judge on Tuesday blocked the Trump administration from reallocating $4 billion meant to help communities protect against natural disasters.

U.S. District Judge Richard G. Stearns in Boston granted a preliminary injunction sought by 20 Democrat-led states while their lawsuit over the funding moves ahead.



A spokesperson for the Federal Emergency Management Agency did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell said in a statement that she would continue fighting to make sure “communities can adequately prepare for natural disasters.”

Massachusetts and the other states that brought the lawsuit argued FEMA lacked the authority to end the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities program and redirect more than $4 billion of its funding. The program aims to harden infrastructure around the country against potential storm damage.

FEMA initially announced it was ending the program, but later said in a court filing that it was evaluating it.

Noting money for the program was allocated by Congress, the states’ lawsuit says any attempt to redirect it would run afoul of the Constitution.

A lawyer for the government, Nicole O’Connor, argued at a hearing in July that the funds can be used both for disaster recovery and disaster prevention and that FEMA should have discretion to use the money how it sees fit.




In his ruling, Stearns said he was not convinced Congress had given FEMA any discretion to redirect the funds. The states had also shown that the “balance of hardship and public interest” was in their favor.

“There is an inherent public interest in ensuring that the government follows the law, and the potential hardship accruing to the States from the funds being repurposed is great,” Stearns wrote. “The BRIC program is designed to protect against natural disasters and save lives.”

The program has provided grants for a range of disaster management projects, including strengthening electrical grids, constructing levees for flood protection and relocating vulnerable water treatment facilities. Many of the projects are in rural communities.

FEMA said in a news release in April that it was “ending” the program, but the agency’s acting chief, David Richardson, later said in a court filing that FEMA was merely evaluating whether to end or revise it.




Stearns said it appeared FEMA had decided to end the program and was “inching towards a fait accompli,” noting it had cancelled new funding opportunities and told stakeholders they shouldn't expect any unobligated funding.

The states, including California, New York and Washington, argued that the threat of losing the funding alone had put numerous projects at risk of being cancelled, delayed or downsized. And they warned ending the program would be highly imprudent.

“By proactively fortifying our communities against disasters before they strike, rather than just responding afterward, we will reduce injuries, save lives, protect property, and, ultimately, save money that would otherwise be spent on post-disaster costs,” they wrote in the suit filed in July.

FEMA said in a court filing that an injunction on its use of the funds could hamper its ability to respond to major disasters.

But Stearns said the administration could come back to him to release funding should a disaster of “unprecedented proportions” occur.

Jack Brook And Michael Casey, The Associated Press

Federal judge rules Trump administration cannot reallocate billions meant for disaster mitigation

 

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[Valcazar]

This week, the administration also published its guidance on birthright citizenship, which will allow ICE to enter maternity wards and demand papers from families after their infants are born. If the parents can't prove their citizenship, the government can take the newborn away from its parents and deport it to whatever country it wants, one legal analyst described.

Fucking gross.

 

[Frankfooter]

Fucking gross.

Cue the new underground midwife network.
That should keep people of colour from giving birth in hospitals, which I imagine is their goal.

 

[Valcazar]

View attachment 469703

I wish I remembered what thread it was where someone kept not understanding that this is what was going to happen with expedited removal when they just scrapped due process.

 

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View attachment 469708

The question here really is whether this remains bluster or not.
I'd like to think Trump and co feel it would backfire on them with everything going on, but it might just encourage them to try it out of desperation.

 

[wigglee]

Trump doesn't care about the judiciary, or the Congress or the Constitution. He's a fascist dictator and he'll do whatever he wants unless the people wake up and turf his ass out of office.

 

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The Trump administration has suspended $584 million in federal grants for the University of California, Los Angeles, nearly double the amount that was previously thought, the school’s chancellor announced Wednesday.

UCLA is the first public university whose federal grants have been targeted by the administration over allegations of civil rights violations related to antisemitism and affirmative action. The Trump administration has frozen or paused federal funding over similar allegations against private colleges.




“If these funds remain suspended, it will be devastating for UCLA and for Americans across the nation,” Chancellor Julio Frenk said Wednesday in a statement, noting the groundbreaking research that has come out of the university.

The departments affected rely on funding from the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Energy, Frenk said.

The U.S. Department of Education did not immediately respond to an email from The Associated Press requesting comment.

The Trump administration recently announced the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division found UCLA violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 “by acting with deliberate indifference in creating a hostile educational environment for Jewish and Israeli students.”

The announcement came as UCLA reached a $6 million settlement with three Jewish students and a Jewish professor who sued the university, arguing it violated their civil rights by allowing pro-Palestinian protesters in 2024 to block their access to classes and other areas on campus.





The university has said that it is committed to campus safety and inclusivity and will continue to implement recommendations.

The new UC president, James B. Milliken, said in a statement Wednesday that it has agreed to talks with the administration over the allegations against UCLA.

"These cuts do nothing to address antisemitism," Milliken said. “Moreover, the extensive work that UCLA and the entire University of California have taken to combat antisemitism has apparently been ignored.”

Milliken said the “cuts would be a death knell for innovative work that saves lives, grows our economy, and fortifies our national security. It is in our country’s best interest that funding be restored.”

As part of the lawsuit settlement, UCLA said it will contribute $2.3 million to eight organizations that combat antisemitism and support the university's Jewish community. It also has created an Office of Campus and Community Safety, instituting new policies to manage protests on campus. Frenk, whose Jewish father and grandparents fled Nazi Germany to Mexico and whose wife is the daughter of a Holocaust survivor, launched an initiative to combat antisemitism and anti-Israeli bias.



Last month, Columbia University agreed to pay $200 million as part of a settlement to resolve investigations into the government’s allegations that the school violated federal antidiscrimination laws. The agreement also restores more than $400 million in research grants.

The Trump administration plans to use its deal with Columbia as a template for other universities, with financial penalties that are now seen as an expectation.

_____

This story corrects that Columbia agreed to pay $200 million last month and not last week.

Julie Watson, The Associated Press

UCLA says Trump administration has frozen $584 million in grants, threatening research

 

[Frankfooter]

The Trump administration has suspended $584 million in federal grants for the University of California, Los Angeles, nearly double the amount that was previously thought, the school’s chancellor announced Wednesday.

UCLA is the first public university whose federal grants have been targeted by the administration over allegations of civil rights violations related to antisemitism and affirmative action. The Trump administration has frozen or paused federal funding over similar allegations against private colleges.




“If these funds remain suspended, it will be devastating for UCLA and for Americans across the nation,” Chancellor Julio Frenk said Wednesday in a statement, noting the groundbreaking research that has come out of the university.

The departments affected rely on funding from the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Energy, Frenk said.

The U.S. Department of Education did not immediately respond to an email from The Associated Press requesting comment.

The Trump administration recently announced the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division found UCLA violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 “by acting with deliberate indifference in creating a hostile educational environment for Jewish and Israeli students.”

The announcement came as UCLA reached a $6 million settlement with three Jewish students and a Jewish professor who sued the university, arguing it violated their civil rights by allowing pro-Palestinian protesters in 2024 to block their access to classes and other areas on campus.





The university has said that it is committed to campus safety and inclusivity and will continue to implement recommendations.

The new UC president, James B. Milliken, said in a statement Wednesday that it has agreed to talks with the administration over the allegations against UCLA.

"These cuts do nothing to address antisemitism," Milliken said. “Moreover, the extensive work that UCLA and the entire University of California have taken to combat antisemitism has apparently been ignored.”

Milliken said the “cuts would be a death knell for innovative work that saves lives, grows our economy, and fortifies our national security. It is in our country’s best interest that funding be restored.”

As part of the lawsuit settlement, UCLA said it will contribute $2.3 million to eight organizations that combat antisemitism and support the university's Jewish community. It also has created an Office of Campus and Community Safety, instituting new policies to manage protests on campus. Frenk, whose Jewish father and grandparents fled Nazi Germany to Mexico and whose wife is the daughter of a Holocaust survivor, launched an initiative to combat antisemitism and anti-Israeli bias.



Last month, Columbia University agreed to pay $200 million as part of a settlement to resolve investigations into the government’s allegations that the school violated federal antidiscrimination laws. The agreement also restores more than $400 million in research grants.

The Trump administration plans to use its deal with Columbia as a template for other universities, with financial penalties that are now seen as an expectation.

_____

This story corrects that Columbia agreed to pay $200 million last month and not last week.

Julie Watson, The Associated Press

UCLA says Trump administration has frozen $584 million in grants, threatening research

When you send money to the mob once you should assume they will come back for more later.

 

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Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY) claimed on Wednesday that he and two other House Democrats had been “trapped” at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in New York by an officer that refused to identify themself, keeping he and his colleagues, “in essence, incarcerated.”




In a social media post on X, Espaillat said that he, along with Reps. Dan Goldman (D-NY) and Nydia Valazquez (D-NY), attempted to visit the Sunset Park Detention Center in Brooklyn in an effort to observe the treatment of detained migrants.

“We know for a fact there’s over 100 immigrants that are being detained here, and we have the jurisdiction and the responsibility to come here and have oversight over this operation,” Espaillat said in a video posted to social media.



“We were greeted by a masked agent who refused to give us his name, who refused to show his face, and who proceeded to lock the door, keeping us, in essence, incarcerated, because we cannot go in or out until we get further notice.”

Espaillat cited law that bestows upon members of Congress the right to visit migrant detention centers operated by the Department of Homeland Security without prior notice, though said he was still denied entry into the facility. He also said that he and his Democratic colleagues had been prevented from leaving the facility grounds after the unnamed officer locked an exterior gate.



“We have been trapped in here by a masked agent with no name ... whom we cannot determine who it is because he refuses to show his face,” Espaillat said.

“So we’re trapped here, we spoke to the supervisors here to let them know that we are duly-elected members of Congress, and Section 527 allows us the oversight responsibilities to go in there and see what is going on with the detention of immigrants.”

In June, the entire New York City congressional delegation – including Espaillat, Goldman and Valazquez, signed onto an letter to DHS demanding the right to visit detention centers, a letter that apparently went either unread or ignored.

As of Wednesday afternoon, it’s unclear whether the three New York Democrats remained trapped on the grounds of the detention facility.

“This blatant lack of respect towards the legislative branch is a deterioration of checks and balances, all while they hide their atrocities from the public,” Espaillat wrote in a social media post. “The people demand answers, and immigrants deserve humanity.”

Watch the video below or use this link here.

'We've been trapped!' Democratic lawmakers say ICE 'incarcerated' them at detention center

 

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MAGA cheerleader Kari Lake has incorrectly claimed that 80,000 Americans have signed up to join ICE to assist Donald Trump’s administration in its crackdown on illegal immigration.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem last week invited applications for U.S. citizens to join the controversial law enforcement agency, saying: “Your country is calling you to serve at ICE. Your country needs dedicated men and women of ICE to get the worst of the worst criminals out of our country.




“This is a defining moment in our nation’s history. Your skills, your experience, and your courage have never been more essential. Together, we must defend the homeland.”

Her recruitment drive was swiftly followed by Trump’s border czar Tom Homan reporting on Tuesday that 300,000 people have been deported in the past 200 days and that a further 1 million in the United States illegally have left of their own volition.

Lake, a former TV journalist, failed Arizona political candidate. Now senior adviser to the U.S. Agency for Global Media, appeared on Rob Schmitt’s Newsmax’s show on Wednesday and said she was “very encouraged” by ICE’s progress but insisted there was still work to do, claiming that 15 million migrants had entered the country without permission during Joe Biden’s presidency.

“I saw it with my own eyes,” she told Schmitt. “It was just tragic to see. And you think of the children who were trafficked.




“But I think the fact that so many Americans are signing up to be ICE agents. And I heard Kristi Noem, our great Secretary of Homeland Security, say 80,000 Americans have signed up.

“They want to take part. They want to help send these people back home, repatriate them back to their homeland and save our homeland. And so I’m actually very encouraged. I see good things happening in this first 200 days.”

Lake appeared to be misquoting Noem, who said in a DHS press release and during an appearance on Fox News’s Fox and Friends breakfast show on Wednesday that ICE had received 80,000 applications in response to her job advert, not that it had made 80,000 new hires.

Noem told Fox the agency is seeking to fill 10,000 officer positions and that the influx of applications had been “overwhelming.”



Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem says she has been ‘overwhelmed’ by the influx of applications she has received from members of the public seeking to join ICE (AP)
ICE states on its website that it currently has “20,000 law enforcement and support personnel in more than 400 offices in the United States and around the world.”

One person who has signed up to join the agency’s ranks is former Superman TV actor Dean Cain, who announced his decision on social media this week and encouraged others to follow his example, stressing that anyone doing so would enjoy “great benefits” like a $50,000 signing-on bonus and would not need an undergraduate degree.




“Since President Trump took office, ICE has arrested hundreds of thousands of criminals including terrorists, rapists, murderers, pedophiles, MS-13 gang members, drug traffickers, you name it – very dangerous people who are no longer on the streets,” Cain told his followers.

“If you want to help save America, ICE is arresting the worst of the worst and removing them from America's streets. I like that. I voted for that.

“They need your help, we need your help, to protect our homeland for families. Join today if it’s something that tickles your fancy because we can use you.”


Kari Lake claims ‘80,000 Americans’ have signed up to join ICE

 

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