Bits n’ pieces from east, west and beyond

East, west or beyond, sooner or later events elsewhere may have a local impact. 

A recent sampling:

“Roughly” 50% of the U.S. is in drought, according to the National Drought Mitigation Center. 

Last week the National Weather Service said 163 million people lived in “heat risk” areas, particularly noticed by those working outdoors, in hot warehouses, or in hot delivery trucks. OSHA’s heat standard proposals have been stalled; their current head was a top safety executive at Amazon, when their warehouses, according to a Senate report, were twice as dangerous as their competitors.

Europe’s record-breaking heat wave has been linked to at least 1,300 deaths.

Labor Department data says employers added 57,000 jobs in June, less than expected. In May there were 129,000 more jobs. Hourly earnings are up 3.4%, but annual prices increased 4.2%.

Fourth of July in D.C., at over 100 F: hundreds of people were evaluated for heat-related illnesses. Mother Jones said at least 34 were hospitalized. A two-hour evacuation of the National Mall, due to a severe thunderstorm, preceded President Donald Trump’s speech: he praised the bombing of Iran, said he’d stop a communist takeover before the mid-terms and promised to restrict mail-in ballots.

Trump was confusing communists with Democratic Socialists, historian Heather C. Richardson pointed out: communists call for the end of private ownership of production and state control of private enterprises, which is not any part of Democratic Socialists’ policies.

The Fourth was also marked by hundreds of masked Patriot Front white supremacists marching in D.C. chanting “reclaim America” while carrying Confederate flags, various media reported.

The American Civil Liberties Union will spend over $50 million on the mid-term elections, NBC reported. Half will go to ensure a smooth administration of elections as Trump seeks to exert federal control over what is a state function, under the guise of preventing voter fraud. 

ACLU funds will be used to train volunteers to encourage voting, and to ensure voter access while monitoring ballot counting and certification. The ACLU deems this a necessary investment given the Trump administration’s attempt to suppress votes, gerrymander, undermine mail-in voting and to seize state election info.

According to the ultra-conservative Heritage Foundation, there have been 100 voter fraud cases between 1982 and 2025.

The U.S. Supreme Court recently delivered a volley of end-of-term decisions, including: a 6-3 ruling allowing the federal government to turn back asylum seekers before crossing into the U.S.; a ruling allowing Haitian and Syrian Temporary Protected Status people to be removed from the U.S. (6-3); a vote striking down limits on political party spending (6-3); a ruling allowing Mississippi election officials to count ballots postmarked by Election Day, but received up to five days later (5-4); it struck down as unlawful, 6-3, a Trump administration attempt to end birthright citizenship; it voted in favor of striking down a law that limits the president’s power to fire Federal Trade Commission members (6-3); it ruled that location data is private and protected from unreasonable searches, and, the Court rejected Trump’s push to toss the $5 million verdict in the E. Jean Carroll sexual abuse case.

Headlines, for brevity: Immigrant Arrests Surge…as ICE Clamps Down; ICE releases a Texas nun intercepted walking to church in her habit [Congress secured her release]; These Immigrant Kids Were Once Protected. Under Trump, Their Deportations Have Tripled; The death rate for ICE detainees has skyrocketed under Trump; Judge rejects Justice Department attempt to get names of 2020 election workers in Georgia's Fulton County; Trump Pulled In at Least $2 Billion After Returning to the White House; Nearly a Million Investors Lost a Total of $3.8 Billion on Trump Crypto Coin; US looking at easing restrictions on radiation exposure at…nuclear power plants; Court Blocks [Trump administration] Firings of Intelligence Officers Who Worked on Diversity; Hamas dissolves its government in Gaza to transfer power to a UN-backed committee, and, Man sues DHS after agents tracked him down for sending a scathing email to ICE [the suit accuses DHS of “brazen abuse of authority”].

Blast from the (recent) past: Six months ago David Streever sent an email to Todd Lyons, then acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It said, “The way you are protecting the obvious execution in Minnesota, even as we see the videos, will lead to your downfall. Even Trump will turn on you before the end, and you will be a sad, despised man who eats himself alive with shame at your own pathetic weakness. You will never know peace. You will seek to lose yourself, to escape the burden of knowing the truth about yourself. But wherever you go, you will find yourself. You will torment yourself until your last day on Earth.” 

Federal agents tracked Streever down five months later, claiming he had “threatened” Lyons, and saying he should sign “warning” documents. Attorneys say the email was not a threat. Streever learned about others facing similar false accusations and did not contact the agents. Instead, he and his wife went public. Streever said: “For them to come after me for one email, it makes me feel like we do have a lot of power. It makes me feel like they do care that we’re speaking up.”