Officials Decry Retribution as Vance Defers $1.3B in Medicaid Payments to CA

“Political retribution, plain and simple,” was how US Sen. Alex Padilla described an announcement by Vice President JD Vance late Wednesday regarding the White House’s decision to withhold $1.3 billion in Medicaid reimbursement payments to California. Vance and Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, claimed the state’s Medicaid records have generated “red…
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Judge Blocks US Sanctions Against UN Palestine Expert Francesca Albanese 

A federal judge on Wednesday temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s sanctions on Francesca Albanese, a UN expert on the occupied Palestinian territories, concluding that the sanctions violated her right to free speech after she called for Israeli officials to be charged with war crimes. U.S. District Judge Richard Leon said that the sanctions against Albanese violate her right to free…
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Trump Counterterrorism Strategy Expands Administration’s War on Progressives

The White House’s 2026 Counterterrorism Strategy, published May 6, reveals startling new details about the Trump administration’s plans to target progressives. The new memo builds on one issued last September, called the National Security Presidential Memorandum 7 (NSPM-7) on “Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence.” Organizers warn the administration’s so-called “America…
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Trump Appoints Former Private Prison Executive as New Director of ICE

The Trump administration announced Tuesday that former private prison executive David Venturella will lead U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in an acting capacity after the agency’s current director departs at the end of the month. Venturella has been a senior adviser to ICE since February 2025 and previously worked at the private prison giant GEO Group for more than a decade…
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A New House Resolution Would Dismantle DHS and Defund Trump’s War Machine

For antiwar progressives in Congress, public disgust with Donald Trump’s violent, fumbling presidency has presented them with a specific challenge: confronting Trump’s brutality at home and abroad, while pressing a global reset button on human rights. With voters angry about tax dollars funding genocidal carnage overseas, and her Chicagoland district among the many communities reeling from Trump’s…
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State Dept. Revoking Passports Over Unpaid Child Support in Revival of 1996 Law

The U.S. State Department announced on Thursday that it will begin revoking passports of parents who owe significant child support. The department said that it would begin revoking U.S. passports of parents who owe $100,000 in unpaid child support — some 2700 U.S. passport holders — before expanding to include any parents who owe more than $2,500 in child support. The Department of Health…
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