What Happened Today – September 14, 2026

Empty 18-square-foot metal mesh cage on artificial turf inside a fenced yard at the Alligator Alcatraz detention site in Florida

Homeland Security inspectors photographed this 18-square-foot cage at Alligator Alcatraz in January, where 79 detainees were caged in conditions the watchdog called unprecedented at ICE sites (DHS Office of Inspector General photo).

The Supreme Court won’t let Donald Trump’s post office decide who gets a mail ballot. A federal judge froze his Postal Service rule for this election, and Monday the Court refused to lift that freeze. The rule would have let the post office refuse any ballot from a voter the state had not first reported … Read more

What Happened Today – September 13, 2026

NSA National Security Operations Center watch floor at Fort Meade with monitors and agency seals

The National Security Operations Center at Fort Meade, shown on its 50th anniversary in 2023, watched the world around the clock as the NSA prepared its biggest reorganization in a decade around AI and China. (NSA photo)

Donald Trump’s hand-picked board says the Kennedy Center goes broke unless his name goes back on the memorial. He took over the institution 18 days into his term. A judge ruled in May that Congress alone can rename it. Crews pried his name off in June, and a tarp has hidden the sign ever since. … Read more

What Happened Today – September 12, 2026

FEMA headquarters building at 500 C Street SW in Washington, DC, with the agency sign and Homeland Security seal

FEMA headquarters in Washington, the agency Homeland Security tried to cut in half over FEMA's own objections before a federal judge ruled the plan illegal Friday. (GAO photo)

The officials who planned to cut FEMA in half deleted their Signal messages about it. Judge Susan Illston ruled Friday that their plan broke the law. She found that Donald Trump’s Homeland Security Department stripped FEMA of control over its own people and committed the agency to getting rid of more than 10,000 employees, with … Read more

What Happened Today – September 11, 2026

Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Zohran Mamdani crouch beside a toddler in a school uniform at a Manhattan 2-K childcare provider on opening day.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Zohran Mamdani greeted a toddler in Little Dominican Republic on the first day of free 2-K, a program some providers are running before the city has paid them. (Courtesy New York Governor's office)

Todd Blanche got his job by promising senators in writing that his $1.8 billion payout fund was dead. Forty days later, on a Friday night, his Justice Department filed a two-line notice appealing the ruling that Donald Trump sued himself and the government never defended the case. The department’s first appearance is to appeal the … Read more

What Happened Today – September 10, 2026

Entrance to Berkeley Law at the University of California with Benjamin Cardozo's inscription on studying the precepts of justice carved above the doors

Benjamin Cardozo's words on the precepts of justice greeted students at UC Berkeley Law, where the Justice Department accused the school of favoring Black applicants, 51 of its 1,128 students. (Art Anderson, CC BY-SA 3.0)

It took the US Supreme Court to make Missouri count 305,000 of its own voters’ signatures. They filed a petition in December protesting a map that carved up a Democratic seat in Kansas City at Donald Trump’s urging. Missouri’s secretary of state sat on it for eight months, then rejected it on primary day. When … Read more

What Happened Today – September 9, 2026

Sea otter floating in algae at Elkhorn Slough estuary near Moss Landing, California

A threatened sea otter floated in Elkhorn Slough near Moss Landing, California, habitat that nearly two dozen states sued to keep protected under the Endangered Species Act. (Robert Scoles, ESNERR/NOAA)

Leitaea Lowrimore needed a lawyer to find a doctor who would keep her alive. Three emergency rooms in two states refused to treat the Oklahoma mother over six days in February. She had an ectopic pregnancy, one growing outside the womb, which ruptures and bleeds without treatment. One doctor said it could cost him “10 … Read more

What Happened Today – September 8, 2026

Natalie Harp leans over a laptop on Donald Trump's Oval Office desk while JD Vance looks on

Assistant to the President Natalie Harp leaned over Donald Trump's Oval Office desk last August, several months before he handed her $45,000 in cash as a "holiday gift." (Official White House photo by Daniel Torok)

A Border Patrol analyst in Spokane read a stranger’s bank activity, and a Montana trooper found a reason to pull him over. Nobody knows how a federal agent in Washington and a state trooper in Montana came to be talking about one black Chevy on Interstate 90, because the government won’t say. We know it … Read more

What Happened Today – September 7, 2026

Map posted by Donald Trump showing the American flag covering Canada, Mexico, Greenland, Iceland and the Caribbean, labeled United States of America and Gulf of America

Donald Trump posted this map painting Canada, Mexico, Greenland, Iceland and the Caribbean as American territory on Labor Day, hours before Canada's tariffs on US goods took effect. (Truth Social)

Donald Trump answered Canada’s tariffs with a Truth Social post, and the tariffs took effect anyway. Ottawa’s levies on $20 billion in American goods went live at 12:01 a.m. on Tuesday, matching the 50% he put on Canadian wine, cement and hockey sticks last month. On Monday he posted “NO MORE SELLING BOMBARDIER IN THE … Read more

What Happened Today – September 6, 2026

Trump Truth Social post showing a map of New Mexico with Mexico crossed out and replaced by America

President Donald Trump posted this map renaming New Mexico "America" on Sunday, then called the state "one of the great vote cheating states of all time." (Truth Social, @realDonaldTrump)

Donald Trump asked the Supreme Court on Sunday to let the Post Office refuse to deliver or return ballots that were already in the mail. North Carolina started mailing ballots on Friday. A federal judge blocked the Postal Service rule the same day because no state can comply with it in time. It requires every … Read more

What Happened Today – September 5, 2026

Equal Earth projection world map with country borders and no labels, showing Africa at its true size relative to Greenland

An Equal Earth map showed Africa at 14 times the size of Greenland, the proportion the U.S. alone rejected in a 164-1 UN vote to retire the Mercator map (Equal Earth map by Tom Patterson, public domain).

Do you remember the 21st night of September? Donald Trump stood at Charlie Kirk’s memorial that night and told tens of thousands of mourners, “I hate my opponents, and I don’t want the best for them.” The same day his administration announced it would tie Tylenol to autism. If either one has blurred into everything … Read more

What Happened Today – September 4, 2026

Booking photo of ICE agent Christian Castro in an orange jail uniform from the Cameron County Sheriff's Office

ICE agent Christian Castro pleaded not guilty to six counts of lying about shooting a Venezuelan man through a Minneapolis front door, then went free on $75,000 bond. (Cameron County Sheriff's Office photo)

Police in Arlington, Virginia, opened a criminal investigation of ICE agents this week for a beating the federal government calls “necessary force.” José Mejía Hernandez was walking to a bus stop one morning last month when two men in plain clothes got out of an unmarked car. He ran. He says he remembers a jolt … Read more

What Happened Today – September 3, 2026

Official portrait of former Justice Department pardon attorney Liz Oyer in front of an American flag

Former pardon attorney Liz Oyer sued the Justice Department today, saying it fired her in 2025 for refusing to fake an "independent review" to restore Mel Gibson's gun rights. (Official Department of Justice photo)

Every judge on Missouri’s Supreme Court agreed that the congressional map Donald Trump wanted has never been the law. Missouri redrew its map last year at Trump’s request to erase the Democratic district in Kansas City. More than 300,000 voters responded with a petition demanding a referendum, which under the state constitution freezes a law … Read more

What Happened Today – September 2, 2026

US Mint rendering of the 2026 Trump $1 coin, with Donald Trump's portrait on the front and the presidential seal on the back

The US Mint began selling $1 coins with Donald Trump's face after its own advisory committee refused to review the design, the first sitting president on US currency since 1926. (US Mint rendering)

Donald Trump’s Justice Department told the states to turn in their immigrants or their neediest families will lose their welfare checks. Every state shares $16.4 billion in cash aid for needy families. For 28 years only welfare offices had to report undocumented immigrants to Washington. Now every state agency must, including the DMV and the … Read more

What Happened Today – September 1, 2026

USS Abraham Lincoln flight deck lined with fighter jets as the carrier arrives at Laem Chabang port in Thailand

The aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln arrived in Laem Chabang, Thailand, for its first port call after 286 days at sea, most of them in the Iran war. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Gage Thomas)

Sailors walked off the USS Abraham Lincoln onto a pier in Thailand today after 286 days at sea with no port call at all. Carriers normally pull into port about every six weeks to take on supplies and let the crew ashore. The Lincoln left San Diego the week before Thanksgiving, got sent to the … Read more

What Happened Today – August 31, 2026

White House bowling alley after its 2019 renovation, with a single lane, tufted blue sofas and a Be Best sign on the wall screen

The White House bowling alley, renovated in 2019 under First Lady Melania Trump, drew a $1.1 million lighting contract this year, 12 years after Republicans killed an Obama-era renovation. (Official White House photo, Andrea Hanks)

Construction crews at the White House are working 20 hours a day on a ballroom the Chief Justice says is likely illegal. Five justices let the work continue Monday by ruling that nobody has the right to sue over it, but never decided whether the ballroom is legal. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that federal … Read more

What Happened Today – August 30, 2026

Donald Trump interviewed by NBC's Kristen Welker in a Wisconsin barn with farm equipment behind them

Donald Trump walked out of this June 5 Meet the Press interview with NBC's Kristen Welker in an Eau Claire, Wisconsin, barn, and Sunday asked the FCC to punish her. (Official White House photo by Joyce N. Boghosian)

Donald Trump asked the FCC to punish a journalist for doubting him. Kristen Welker reported on NBC that his primary endorsement record was mixed. Six of his candidates lost Republican primaries in August. Trump called her a “Hostess,” accused her of “purposeful inaccuracy,” and said she would be reported to the FCC “for rebuke or … Read more

What Happened Today – August 29, 2026

Woman holding groceries and boy plugging a charging cable into an electric car in a home garage

A family charged an electric car at home as Maryland awarded $28.5 million for electric buses and 35 apartment-complex charging ports while gas prices climbed. (Colorado Energy Office photo)

Donald Trump’s Department of Homeland Security used a tariff audit form to subpoena a Minneapolis reporter’s phone records. In February a federal judge twice refused agents a warrant for Georgia Fort’s YouTube account because they could not show she had committed a crime. He also ordered them to tell her if they tried again. Weeks … Read more

What Happened Today – August 28, 2026

Yellow Boston Dynamics Spot robot dog walking on a runway between armed airmen in camouflage at RAF Leeming

A Boston Dynamics Spot robot walked between armed Royal Air Force airmen during a 2021 exercise at RAF Leeming, the four-legged model ICE moved to buy for immigration enforcement. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman John Ennis)

Immigration agents are getting electric shock gloves and robots that open doors. ICE signed a no-bid contract this week for 6,000 pairs of gloves that shock anyone “actively or passively resisting,” which covers a person who goes limp. The agency said today it would buy four-legged Boston Dynamics robots that can open a door on … Read more

What Happened Today – August 27, 2026

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz seated at a Healthcare Advisory Committee meeting

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., shown with Medicare chief Mehmet Oz in May, wrote Samoa's leader in 2019 seeking its MMR data, contradicting his sworn testimony to Congress. (Official HHS photo)

Twenty masked federal agents held off a tribe’s police so contractors could start drilling for Donald Trump’s border wall. They came onto the Tohono O’odham Nation in Arizona at four in the morning Tuesday with a Border Patrol SWAT team and drill trucks to work three sites. The Nation had posted No Trespassing signs two … Read more

What Happened Today – August 26, 2026

New York State search and rescue team with raft and helicopter on a flood-damaged riverbank near a church in western North Carolina after Hurricane Helene

New York State swift water rescuers worked a flood-ravaged riverbank in western North Carolina after Hurricane Helene, the region now getting 828 affordable apartments from federal disaster funds. (Photo: NYS Swift Water Rescue Team)

Twenty-four states took the Supreme Court up on its dare in two days. On Monday the Court unblocked Donald Trump’s mail voting order, ruling the states sued too soon because courts only review final rules. The final rule says the USPS will not deliver your ballot unless the envelope carries a tracking barcode and your … Read more

What Happened Today – August 25, 2026

Packed Kennedy Center Concert Hall audience watching the annual Messiah sing-along with orchestra, chorus, and Christmas trees on stage

A capacity crowd filled the Kennedy Center's Concert Hall for the 2023 Messiah sing-along, a Washington tradition since 1971 in the building Trump's lawyers now call "decrepit." (Photo: Dclemens1971, CC BY 4.0)

Donald Trump’s lawyers told a federal judge today that the Kennedy Center must carry his name or be torn down. A court ordered his name pried off the building in May after ruling the renaming illegal. His board voted it back on this month while he listened in by phone. Now the Justice Department calls … Read more

What Happened Today – August 24, 2026

Kehinde Wiley painting Young Artists After Siamesas 1960 showing four young Black subjects posed against a vivid teal and red floral background

Kehinde Wiley's Young Artists After Siamesas 1960, commissioned by the State Department in 2013 and now marked for sale after officials branded the Obama portraitist's work "woke." (Official US State Department photo)

Six justices gave Donald Trump a head start on the midterms. The Supreme Court will let his election order take effect before any court rules on whether it’s legal. The federal government now tells your state who counts as a citizen, and your state tells DC the name and address of everyone who votes by … Read more

What Happened Today – August 23, 2026

Hawk Fire glows on ridge above Reno homes at night

The Hawk Fire hit 15,000 acres above Reno neighborhoods this weekend, forcing 42,000 evacuations with 45,000 more on warning as Nevada declared a state of emergency. (Photo: Truckee Meadows Fire & Rescue Station / Instagram)

Dr. Oz took three questions on Face the Nation to say a childhood vaccine will not kill your child. Trump called the 55-year-old MMR vaccine “quite lethal” two weeks ago. Asked to clarify, his Medicaid administrator answered questions about parental rights. The third time he was asked, he said the vaccine is not lethal. On … Read more

What Happened Today – August 22, 2026

Trump shows Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney a white model of his planned triumphal arch in the Oval Office

President Donald Trump showed Prime Minister Mark Carney a model of his planned triumphal arch at the White House last October, ten months before Carney said America attacked his country. (Official White House photo)

The Prime Minister of Canada says America attacked his country. The 50% tariffs Trump long threatened hit at midnight Friday after US negotiators demanded in the final hours that Canada surrender its right to make trade deals with other nations. Canada stopped negotiating and set dollar for dollar retaliation for September 8. Asked why he … Read more

What Happened Today – August 21, 2026

Exterior of Patterson Point supportive housing apartments in Goleta, California

Patterson Point opened in Goleta, California, with 23 solar-powered studio apartments for special needs and formerly homeless residents, proof a housing authority can still build for its most vulnerable. (Courtesy of the Housing Authority of the County of Santa Barbara)

Donald Trump threatened to sue a think tank for $5 billion over numbers it published. The Center for American Progress measured crime in Washington, Los Angeles, and Memphis and found his National Guard deployments didn’t change the crime rate. His personal lawyer, not the White House counsel, sent a nine-page letter threatening the suit unless … Read more

What Happened Today – August 20, 2026

New York State Capitol building in Albany with its front plaza on a clear day

The New York State Capitol in Albany, where the FBI said a local woman who pledged allegiance to ISIS planned a bombing while senators met inside. (Official New York State photo)

ICE’s own emails now confirm it let Iran’s government edit America’s deportation lists. “Per request from the Iran Embassy [sic] I added a few cases,” one official wrote before the first of three flights that returned more than 100 Iranians. Detainees had sworn in court that Iranian officials somehow knew the details of their asylum … Read more

What Happened Today – August 19, 2026

President Trump signs his name on the granite of the new White House helipad as construction workers in safety vests stand behind him with the White House in the background

President Donald Trump signed the granite of his new $5 million White House helipad, paid for by Marine One's manufacturer, and promised cocktails there before ballroom events. (Official White House photo)

They can’t ban abortion everywhere, so they tried to ban telling you where it’s legal. Indiana moved to punish Planned Parenthood for telling minors which states allow abortion. Separately, HHS killed 53 teen pregnancy prevention programs that worked and ordered abstinence-only lessons in their place. Federal courts blocked both, with an appeals court ruling that … Read more

What Happened Today – August 18, 2026

Judge Tomoko Akane, president of the International Criminal Court, in judicial portrait

Tomoko Akane, president of the International Criminal Court, was sanctioned by Secretary of State Rubio as the State Department pursues its declared campaign to dismantle the court (© European Union, 1998-2026 / Laurie Dieffembacq).

Governor Greg Abbott turned Texas into a sanctuary state for one ICE agent. Christian Castro shot a Venezuelan man through the front door of a Minneapolis home in January, then lied about it so thoroughly that federal prosecutors charged the man he shot. Minnesota later charged Castro with felony assault, Texas Rangers arrested him, and … Read more

What Happened Today – August 17, 2026

Aerial view of the Rio Grande flowing through the 1,400-foot limestone cliffs of Mariscal Canyon in Big Bend National Park

The Rio Grande carved 1,400-foot-deep Mariscal Canyon through solid limestone in Big Bend National Park, where CBP paused its $1.7 billion border project as bulldozers cleared a route. (National Park Service photo)

Donald Trump threatened to bomb the country trying to end his war. Oman is a longtime American ally, the mediator both sides trust and the channel for every Hormuz negotiation. On Saturday, Iran announced the two countries had agreed on a plan to reopen shipping. Trump’s answer came Monday: “If Oman gets in the way, … Read more

What Happened Today – August 16, 2026

Aerial view of dead grass patches on the National Mall near the World War II Memorial in Washington

President Donald Trump posted this photo of dead Mall grass on Truth Social, blaming vandals for damage webcam images traced to his July 4 stage and crowds. (Truth Social photo)

Donald Trump just showed every nation the value of being America’s military ally. Hours before 18,000 South Korean soldiers began annual joint exercises with US troops, Trump ordered Hegseth on Truth Social to gut the drills because of his “very good relationship” with Kim Jong Un. He added, in what he called an unrelated point, … Read more

What Happened Today – August 15, 2026

Rendering of the White House ballroom interior with gold trim, marble floors, and a presidential seal, from Trump's Supreme Court filing

President Donald Trump asked the Supreme Court to restart construction of the ballroom that destroyed the East Wing, a project nearing $1 billion after his private-funding pledge collapsed. (White House rendering from Supreme Court filing)

Federal prosecutors spent the past year investigating Loren Merchan because her father presided over the trial that made Donald Trump a felon. Merchan co-owned a marketing firm until late 2024, and the subpoena that opened the investigation never named a crime. It demanded the firm’s private communications with top Democrats, including Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, … Read more

What Happened Today – August 14, 2026

USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier with rust-streaked hull at sea, full flight deck and two fighter jets overhead

Rust streaked the hull of the USS Abraham Lincoln by March 3, only four months into the deployment its sailors' families now describe as unbearable. (U.S. Navy photo)

At least three sailors on the USS Abraham Lincoln have reportedly tried to jump into the ocean, but Trump says their deployment is “not nearly long enough.” He has kept the carrier at sea for nine months fighting his Iran war, including a record 208 straight days without touching land. This week, crew member families … Read more

What Happened Today – August 13, 2026

Analysts at computer workstations inside the Las Vegas fusion center, surrounded by a wall of surveillance video monitors

Analysts monitored surveillance feeds inside the Las Vegas fusion center, the kind of government data hub CBP employees exploited for more than a decade to stalk exes and tip smugglers. (FBI photo)

For the first time since Roe v. Wade fell, a federal judge ruled the Constitution protects abortion in Idaho. Legislators there barred doctors from ending a pregnancy to save a woman who might take her own life. Mental health was the leading killer of Idaho’s pregnant women, according to the state’s own maternal mortality committee. … Read more

What Happened Today – August 12, 2026

Aerial view of White House ballroom construction on the demolished East Wing site and a new helipad under construction on the South Lawn, July 2026

Trump's ballroom construction rose over the demolished East Wing in July as a new helipad tore up the South Lawn, work now totaling at least $927 million. (Photo: G. Edward Johnson, CC BY 4.0)

Trump has been lying about who pays for his White House makeover since before he broke ground. He said dozens of times that private donations would fund the construction. The Washington Post found his administration stuffing more than $870 million into the White House upkeep budget, including one unidentified $70 million deposit, and we are … Read more

What Happened Today – August 11, 2026

Screenshot of Pete Hegseth's Signal message listing F-18 launch times and strike windows for the 2025 Yemen bombing campaign

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth texted these Yemen strike timings into an unsecured Signal chat in 2025; a Pentagon review now admits that campaign killed 153 civilians. (Signal screenshot published by The Atlantic)

ICE agents chased down an American mother in Virginia and put a gun in her face because she cursed at them. Carolina Molina was dropping off business cards at immigration law offices in Falls Church when she told the agents arresting two men what she thought of them. Two SUVs boxed in her car and … Read more

What Happened Today – August 10, 2026

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Sen. Darline Graham, and Gov. Henry McMaster stand at the new Joint Base Lindsey Graham sign in South Carolina.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth dedicated Joint Base Lindsey Graham in South Carolina beside Sen. Darline Graham, appointed to her brother's seat within a day of his death. (Official Army photo by Curt Loter)

Donald Trump overrode virtually every medical scientist on Earth today. His executive order cuts the vaccines recommended for every American child to 11 and drops hepatitis and meningitis protection for most kids, in the middle of America’s worst year for measles in 35 years. It also orders the MMR vaccine split into three separate shots … Read more

What Happened Today – August 9, 2026

Sophie Cunningham of the Indiana Fever in a red Indy jersey during a game against the Minnesota Lynx

Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham faced the Minnesota Lynx on August 2, days before Florida's attorney general threatened assault charges over a flagrant foul on her. (Photo: John Mac, CC BY-SA 4.0)

Today Donald Trump maneuvered the lawyer who won his personal immunity case into the White House counsel’s office, which represents the presidency. Will Scharf was one of Trump’s personal lawyers who convinced the Supreme Court that presidents cannot be prosecuted for official acts. His reward comes two days after the Senate confirmed Todd Blanche, Trump’s … Read more

What Happened Today – August 8, 2026

Former President Joe Biden seated with Jill Biden, George W. Bush, Kamala Harris, and Mike Pence at Richard Cheney's funeral at Washington National Cathedral

Former President Joe Biden joined George W. Bush, Kamala Harris, and Mike Pence at Dick Cheney's November funeral, months before his son revealed his cancer had spread to his bones. (U.S. Army photo by Christopher Kaufmann)

America’s largest reservoir just fell to its lowest level ever. Lake Mead has been dropping for 25 years. On Thursday it hit its lowest depth since it was created nine decades ago. Forty million people in seven states depend on Lake Mead and the Colorado River. Trump calls climate change a hoax. Nine days ago … Read more

What Happened Today – August 7, 2026

Riot police with shields face protesters at night outside Delaney Hall immigration detention center in Newark, New Jersey

Riot police confronted protesters outside Delaney Hall in Newark before mass arrests on May 31, at the immigration jail whose operator New Jersey subpoenaed after a third detainee death. (Photo: Jwswikiuser191)

264,000 Americans stopped looking for work last month. Nobody needs a government report to tell them the economy is worsening. Grocery and gas prices have climbed for more than a year while paychecks barely moved. Today’s report showed where that leads. Stores and restaurants cut jobs because customers stopped spending, and more people decided looking … Read more

What Happened Today – August 6, 2026

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks next to a smiling President Donald Trump during a Camp David cabinet meeting on July 31, 2026.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth spoke beside President Donald Trump at Camp David on July 31, days before Trump called reporting on their clash over missile stockpiles treasonous. (Official White House photo)

The Supreme Court ruled weeks ago that Donald Trump cannot erase birthright citizenship with an executive order. Today he tried again. He signed two new orders restricting who is born a citizen, called the 6 to 3 ruling from his own conservative majority “very unfortunate,” and told reporters “we’re making adjustments.” The Constitution says every … Read more

What Happened Today – August 5, 2026

Alt image tag Ruger Mark IV pistol with suppressor and red dot optic on white background

A Ruger pistol fitted with the suppressor a Texas federal judge just freed from 90 years of registration rules, one year after Trump's tax bill erased their $200 tax. (Mitch Barrie / Flickr / CC BY-SA 4.0)

New Mexico sued the Justice Department after waiting seven years for the Epstein files it was promised. In 2019, federal prosecutors asked the state to shut down its investigation of Zorro Ranch and pledged to share everything when their case ended. New Mexico finally reopened the investigation this year and has asked ten times for … Read more

What Happened Today – August 4, 2026

Capitol security camera image from January 6, 2021, with labels identifying ten Oath Keepers members and associates in the crowd inside the building

Oath Keepers members moved through the Capitol on January 6, 2021, in a surveillance photo prosecutors labeled as evidence before DOJ dismissed the final case against them. (US Department of Justice photo)

Kansas beat the anti-abortion movement twice in two days. On Monday, Judge Christopher Jayaram issued a 260 page ruling that the state cannot force women to wait 24 hours or answer questions about their finances or their reasons before ending a pregnancy. He wrote that under the Kansas Constitution’s guarantee of bodily autonomy, his ruling … Read more

What Happened Today – August 3, 2026

Masked ICE agents in tactical gear and camouflage confront protesters outside the Broadview ICE processing center, one demonstrator pulled to the ground beside a pink protest sign.

Masked and armored ICE agents confronted protesters outside Chicago's Broadview processing center, the anonymity a federal judge ruled this week that New York cannot ban (Photo: Paul Goyette, CC BY 4.0).

Border agents swabbed a four-year-old’s cheek and uploaded her DNA to the FBI’s criminal database. Federal agents sent more than 2,700 records into that database every day last year, nearly a million in all, most from people never charged with any crime. Immigration enforcement now captures more profiles than any police force in the country, … Read more

What Happened Today – August 2, 2026

Yellow and black Sikorsky UH-60A Black Hawk firefighting helicopter carrying a water snorkel over smoke and forest at the Sinlahekin Fire in Washington

Northwest Helicopters' Black Hawk "Bumblebee" worked the Sinlahekin Fire as wildfires burning into Spokane destroyed more than 600 structures and forced 60,000 evacuations. (Public domain photo via InciWeb)

Illinois went and found the people Washington stopped feeding. About 148,000 Illinois residents have lost food assistance since new federal work rules hit in May, veterans, people in their sixties, and parents of teenagers among them. On Saturday the state began depositing $400 onto the grocery cards of every affected person. Nobody had to fill … Read more

What Happened Today – August 1, 2026

AI-generated image posted by President Trump showing him peering over mountains above a Greenland village with the caption Hello, Greenland

Donald Trump posted this AI image of himself looming over Greenland a day after telling a radio host to bet on American control of the island (Screenshot via Truth Social)

Donald Trump spent his Saturday posting fake pictures of himself again. Between attacking his own prosecutor and declaring victory in Iran, he made time to publish 43 posts in an afternoon. In one he kisses a golden Jesus. In another he looms over Greenland, a day after telling a radio host to bet that America … Read more

What Happened Today – July 31, 2026

Workers painting the drained Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool blue with the Washington Monument and Capitol dome in the background, April 2026

Contractors painted the drained Reflecting Pool in April, the rushed $14.6 million job prosecutors admitted Friday caused the damage Trump blamed on vandals. (Photo: G. Edward Johnson, Creative Commons)

A lie about paint put a 67-year-old Olympian in handcuffs. We knew nobody in Ohio was eating cats and dogs, and the vice president admitted he would “create stories” to get attention. We knew a Sharpie stretched that hurricane map into Alabama. And we knew there was no 300-foot gash in the Reflecting Pool. Trump … Read more

What Happened Today – July 30, 2026

U.S. Marines aboard a UH-1Y Venom helicopter flying over open water near the amphibious assault ship USS Boxer in the Middle East

Marines flew a UH-1Y Venom off USS Boxer in the Middle East on July 22 as the Senate rejected another bid to limit the Iran war 49-50. (U.S. Navy photo)

Senator John Cornyn refuses to vote for Todd Blanche, Trump’s attorney general, until the Justice Department documents what it already claims is true. Blanche settled Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS with a $1.8 billion fund for his allies and a shield protecting his family’s past tax returns from audit, forever. Blanche testified the fund is … Read more

What Happened Today – July 29, 2026

Anthony Fauci seated at a Senate hearing witness table, reading from a printed statement into a microphone.

Former White House chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci invoked the Fifth at Rand Paul's Senate COVID hearing, saying the chairman called it solely to trap him into a false statement. (Photo via gop.gov)

The morning after a federal judge ruled that a contract cannot erase state law, ICE wrote the same words into four more contracts. Washington spent three years in court getting health inspectors inside ICE’s largest Northwest detention center, where detainees filed 3,500 complaints and inspectors with every legal right to enter were turned away at … Read more

What Happened Today – July 28, 2026

Black-draped Senate desk of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham with white roses

Sen. Lindsey Graham's draped Senate desk bore white roses as the late South Carolina Republican lay in the Capitol Rotunda and Trump eulogized him at Washington National Cathedral. (Official U.S. Senate photo by Ryan Donnell, courtesy U.S. Senate Commission on Art)

Samuel Tunick gave border agents a passcode that wiped his phone, and the government made him the first American ever charged with that crime. The agents had no warrant. They pulled him into a back room at the Atlanta airport and refused his requests for a lawyer. The Justice Department wants to put him in … Read more

What Happened Today – July 27, 2026

Sen. Mitch McConnell seated with a neck pillow as Elaine Chao stands beside him in a photo released during his rehab stay.

Sen. Mitch McConnell posed with his wife, former Secretary Elaine Chao, in a photo his office released Sunday as he remained uncleared to leave rehab six weeks after his fall (Official U.S. Senate photo).

America chose sides. When the UN voted Friday to keep its human rights chief, 144 countries said yes. The United States and nine others, including Russia and North Korea, said no. France counted the votes out loud and posted that the world no longer listens to America. American diplomats answered Monday by walking out of … Read more

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