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May 15, 2026

8 entries on this date.

Colorado Gov. Polis commutes Tina Peters' election-tampering sentence after Trump pressure campaign

On May 15, 2026, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis commuted the nine-year prison sentence of former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, convicted in 2024 of tampering with the county's election equipment, ordering her release on parole June 1, 2026 -- roughly halving her sentence. The commutation followed a months-long public pressure campaign by President Donald Trump that combined personal insults of Polis ("Scumbag Governor"), threats to federal disaster aid and federal program placements in Colorado, and repeated demands on Truth Social to "FREE TINA!" Peters's conviction was a state offense and so sat outside Trump's federal pardon power; clemency could come only from Polis.

Trump misses STOCK Act 45-day deadline; OGE fines him twice for late stock-trade disclosures

A May 15, 2026 Washington Post analysis of financial-disclosure forms the U.S. Office of Government Ethics released the prior day reported that President Donald Trump missed the 45-day filing deadline the STOCK Act imposes on covered securities transactions, and that OGE assessed him $200 fines on two separate occasions for failing to report stock trades on time. The late filings include a February 10, 2026 Nvidia purchase made days before a market-moving Meta–Nvidia deal that lifted Nvidia shares roughly 2.5 percent, and $5 million–$25 million each in Microsoft and Amazon sold in February and repurchased in March shortly before the Pentagon announced plans to deploy Microsoft and Amazon technology in classified computer networks.

President Trump bought more than $500,000 in Palantir stock, then publicly praised the federal contractor on Truth Social

Newly released federal ethics filings disclosed in May 2026 show that President Donald Trump purchased more than $500,000 in Palantir Technologies stock — a company holding extensive federal contracts across ICE, the Defense Department, and other agencies his administration directs — over the weeks before he publicly praised the company on Truth Social ("Just ask our enemies"). The buy-then-tout sequence, reported May 15, 2026, drew ethics scrutiny because the President used the office's public platform to boost a stock he personally holds and whose revenue depends on his administration's contracting decisions.

DOJ and Texas AG Paxton secured $10M settlement forcing Texas Children's Hospital to end transgender youth care, create detransition clinic

On May 15, 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced a joint settlement with Texas Children's Hospital in Houston resolving a healthcare-fraud investigation into the hospital's billing for pediatric gender-affirming care. The hospital agreed to stop performing puberty-blocker and cross-sex-hormone procedures on minors, pay over $10 million in damages and civil penalties, terminate five physicians, and establish what DOJ and Paxton's office both called the nation's first dedicated "detransition clinic" funding care for patients who discontinue gender transition.

Woman gives birth on a Brooklyn courtroom bench while in custody awaiting arraignment

On the night of May 15, 2026, Samantha Randazzo, 33 and nine months pregnant, gave birth to a boy on a bench inside Kings County Criminal Court in Brooklyn while in NYPD custody awaiting arraignment on low-level drug-possession and trespassing charges, hours after a city hospital discharged her back into custody. Public defenders who witnessed the birth said she was restrained and lacked medical care, privacy, or dignity; the state Office of Court Administration disputes that she was shackled to the bench. The Brooklyn District Attorney's office later dismissed her charges.

South Carolina enacted a law barring transgender students from school restrooms matching their gender identity

On May 15, 2026, South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster signed H4756, the "South Carolina Student Physical Privacy Act" (Act No. 152), requiring that multi-occupancy restrooms and changing facilities in public K-12 schools and higher-education institutions be designated for use by one biological sex, defined as sex assigned at birth. The law effectively bars transgender students from facilities matching their gender identity and threatens noncompliant districts and colleges with the loss of up to 25 percent of state funding. It took effect the same day.

Florida Legislature, FDLE steered $6M budget earmark and $16M in grants to Peregrine Technologies without competitive bidding

On May 15, 2026, the Florida House Justice Budget Conference Committee inserted a $6 million appropriation for a law-enforcement data-integration platform into state budget negotiations, wording that mirrored FDLE's own January 2026 budget request naming Peregrine Technologies directly. Peregrine's head of business development, Matthew Melton, is married to Rep. Fiona McFarland, a member of the conference committee that added the funding, and the company's lobbying firm donated $225,000 to Republican leadership PACs in the months before. FDLE's State Board of Immigration Enforcement separately granted more than $16 million from a $250 million immigration-enforcement trust fund to over two dozen local agencies earmarked to buy the same Peregrine software.

Tennessee Gov. Lee signed HB0754 requiring providers to report transgender patients' data to the state

On May 15, 2026, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee signed HB0754 into law as Public Chapter 932, requiring healthcare providers and insurers that receive state funds to report data on patients who receive gender-affirming care — including treatment type, sex assigned at birth, age, county, and provider information — to the state health department. Providers who fail to comply face license suspension of at least six months and fines of up to $150,000, and the law also requires people seeking insurance coverage for gender-affirming care to purchase detransition coverage. Critics describe the reporting regime as a surveillance registry of transgender Tennesseans.