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 from a stun gun and then waking up at George Washington University Hospital, where doctors found bleeding inside his skull. His lawyers gave police bystander video and statements from witnesses who saw an officer’s vehicle hit him. ICE strapped an ankle monitor on him and let him go.
Homeland Security says a man whose only conviction is for public intoxication in 2020 went to the hospital “out of precaution.” His lawyers released photos showing both eyes blackened and one side of his face scraped raw from cheekbone to lip. Virginia’s attorney general said he would not look at the case without a police report. Nobody in government had filed one. 17 days after his arrest, Mejía Hernandez did.
I’ve emailed 8,974 stories over 582 straight nights, free and without ads. The algorithm can’t show them all to you. Add your email address at govbrief.today and I will.
🟠128|🟠120|🟢80|🔴139|🟢48
White House website launches arcade games where players catch "crossers" for a deportation high score, with an official calling it "a culture of fun and winning."
Today’s GovBrief News
Trump says the US has "essentially taken over Iran" while holding no Iranian territory, and calls the war "small potatoes" and a "military conflict."
Source: Mediaite
September 4, 2026
Pennsylvania coroner confirms a 2-month-old Lancaster County girl died of measles, one of 2 infant deaths the state had called only "measles-associated."
Source: WGAL Lancaster
September 4, 2026
Fake website for Republicans' first midterm convention redirects visitors to the Justice Department's Epstein files 5 days before the Dallas event.
Source: NBC Dallas
September 4, 2026
Trump orders agencies to start removing gray wolves from the endangered species list and tells Interior Secretary Burgum to push states to let ranchers shoot them.
Source: USA Today
September 4, 2026
Federal judge extends block on Trump's Postal Service mail-voting order, ruling states can't "pivot this late," the same day North Carolina mails its first ballots.
Source: The Associated Press
September 4, 2026
Justice Department sends Nevada 7 FBI subpoenas for voter data after judges tossed its lawsuit demanding the same files, one of 23 rejected.
Source: The new York Times [gift link]
September 4, 2026
North Carolina's Republican-led elections board votes party-line to toss more mail ballots over errors it previously let slide, the same morning counties begin mailing ballots.
Source: WRAL Raleigh
September 4, 2026
Federal judge lets Pentagon fire 3 Stars and Stripes journalists for telling CBS their reporting should be free of government influence, finding no clear First Amendment violation.
Source: UPI
September 4, 2026
Trump threatens to stop trading with countries running trade surpluses unless the Federal Reserve cuts rates, hours after a stronger-than-expected 162,000-job August report.
Source: The Independent
September 4, 2026
US diesel hits a record $5.85 a gallon, up nearly 60% in a year, as Iran and Ukraine wars knock refineries offline.
Source: CNBC
September 4, 2026
Federal magistrate orders Justice Department to name who conceived its scrapped $1.8 billion "Anti-Weaponization Fund" for people claiming unfair prosecution, rejecting weeks of resistance.
Source: The Washington Post [gift link]
September 4, 2026
ICE agent Christian Castro pleads not guilty to 6 counts of lying about shooting a Venezuelan man in Minneapolis and goes free on $75,000 bond.
Source: KSTP St. Paul
September 4, 2026
Justice Department antitrust official orders a "Pause on Canada" in cooperation during the tariff fight, then calls it a mistake after The Wall Street Journal reports it.
Source: The Wall Street Journal [gift link]
September 4, 2026
Supreme Court lets party committees buy midterm ads at discounted rates long limited to candidates, after Republican committees vowed hundreds of millions to "obliterate" Democrats.
Source: SCOTUSblog
September 4, 2026
Prosecutors admit in court they have no evidence Olympian Davey Hearn damaged the Reflecting Pool yet fight a permanent dismissal, as Trump keeps claiming vandalism.
Source: WRC Washington
September 4, 2026
Trump will fly the Qatari-gifted Air Force One to Ireland this month, 2 months after secretly leaving Turkey on another plane over security concerns.
Source: CNN
September 4, 2026
Senate nominee Ken Paxton reports no rental income from 6 homes listed for rent and omits $1.3 million in golf resort mortgages, ProPublica and The Texas Tribune find.
Source: ProPublica
September 4, 2026
Sunnyvale, California, launches Beam, an all-electric ride-hailing service with $3.50 fares and $1.75 for seniors, teens and low-income riders, funded for the next 20 years.
Source: The San Jose Spotlight
September 4, 2026
Arlington, Virginia, police open an investigation of ICE agents accused of a beating that left a man with a brain hemorrhage, as Homeland Security calls it "necessary force."
Source: WUSA Washington
September 4, 2026