2,119 events on record Subscribe September 16, 2026
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Timeline

Every entry in the archive, ordered by event date. Page 5 of 43, showing July 31, 2026 to August 7, 2026. Pages contain 50 entries each; entries for a given date may continue on the next or previous page.

2026 Events (1,295)

August(188)

DOJ Civil Rights Division found Duke Law School discriminated based on race in admissions

The Justice Department's Civil Rights Division announced on August 7, 2026 that Duke University School of Law intentionally discriminated based on race in admitting its 2023, 2024, and 2025 incoming classes, violating Title VI and the Supreme Court's 2023 SFFA v. Harvard ruling. It is the first law school, following prior findings against UCLA, Yale, and UC Davis medical schools, that the Civil Rights Division has found in violation of SFFA.

FTC ended disparate-impact credit-discrimination enforcement and retroactively softened three settlements

On August 7, 2026, the Federal Trade Commission voted 2-0 to adopt a policy statement declaring it will no longer pursue "disparate-impact" or "unfair discrimination" claims under any statute it enforces, including credit-discrimination cases under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act. Chairman Andrew Ferguson said disparate-impact liability "imposes liability for discrimination without any evidence that anyone intended to discriminate" and that the Commission "never had authority" to apply it. As part of the policy, the FTC reviewed and modified compliance obligations in three already-settled auto-dealer discrimination cases -- Napleton Inc. ($10 million), Passport Auto Group ($3.3 million), and an individual formerly of Coulter Motor Co. -- that had relied in part on statistical evidence of discriminatory effect.

Pentagon revoked former Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall's security clearance after his on-record criticism of Air Force One's replacement jet

The Pentagon revoked former Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall's eligibility to access classified information and barred him from holding any sensitive position on August 7, 2026, alleging he disclosed classified details about the Qatari-donated Air Force One replacement's capabilities to a media outlet. The action followed New York Times reporting, in which Kendall was quoted on the record, that the new jet lacked its predecessor's advanced antimissile defenses. Kendall told the Associated Press he was "completely mystified" by the revocation and said no one had specified what he was accused of disclosing.

Two of six Savannah Police Department employees who misused Flock cameras remain unnamed after four were charged

The Savannah Police Department terminated four sworn officers and two civilian employees on or about August 7, 2026, after an internal investigation found they used the department's Flock Safety license-plate-reader system to run searches on personal acquaintances and family members unrelated to law enforcement purposes. One of the six also gave an outside law-enforcement agency unauthorized access to the system. SPD opened the investigation July 27, 2026 and referred all six cases to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation; the GBI has since arrested and charged four of the six -- Marquis Dillard, Donald Phillips, Matthew Rich, and Calandic Thomas, recorded as their own entries. The remaining sworn officer and civilian employee have not been named or charged as of this recording.

Former Polk County, Georgia officer arrested for misusing Cedartown PD's Flock license-plate system via task-force access

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation arrested former Polk County Police Department Officer Tracey Royston, 51, of Cedartown, Georgia, on August 7, 2026, on four misdemeanor counts of misuse of a license plate reader system. Royston, while detached to the GBI-managed Northwest Georgia Drug Task Force, used the access that assignment gave her to the Cedartown Police Department's Flock Safety system to search it multiple times between 2024 and 2025 for non-law-enforcement purposes, after Cedartown police asked the GBI to investigate on July 31, 2026.

Mississippi prison officials revoked tablet access for 34 death row inmates hours after advocacy story published

On August 7, 2026, Mississippi Department of Corrections officials revoked personal tablet access for all 34 men held in Unit 17, the death row unit at the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman, within two hours of Mississippi Today publishing a story about the men's advocacy work with the nonprofit Humans Remain. The men said officials cited the unit's restricted status, advocate Liz McCann's use of the devices to contact the men, and the story's publication itself as reasons for the removal; MDOC did not respond to a request for comment on the action or when access might be restored. One month later, the tablets had not been returned.

Ohio Capital Journal investigation reveals JobsOhio chairman lobbied for Intel despite 2023 pledge

On August 7, 2026, Ohio Capital Journal reported that Josh Rubin, chairman of the JobsOhio board and principal of lobbying firm The CJR Group, continued lobbying Gov. Mike DeWine's office and other executive agencies on behalf of Intel after joining the board in September 2023, despite pledging to the governor's office that he and his firm would cease work for clients with matters before JobsOhio. JobsOhio, the quasi-private Ohio economic-development agency Rubin chairs, disbursed more than $2 million to Intel in fiscal years 2023-2024 as part of a $150 million incentive package for the company's delayed Ohio chip plant. Ohio Ethics Commission Executive Director Paul Nick said Rubin's continued lobbying registrations and active work for Intel appeared to violate his 2023 pledge.

Interior paid RWE $1.22 billion to terminate its New York, California, and Louisiana offshore wind leases

On August 6, 2026, the U.S. Department of the Interior announced a $1.22 billion settlement with German energy company RWE under which RWE voluntarily relinquished its offshore wind leases in the New York Bight and off the coasts of California and Louisiana. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum welcomed the deal, and RWE said it would redirect $900 million into a stake in a Louisiana LNG terminal and $300 million into natural gas turbine reservations. The settlement is the fifth Trump administration lease-termination deal with an offshore wind developer, bringing total federal buyout payments to nearly $4 billion.

Trump signed two new executive orders again restricting birthright citizenship after Supreme Court struck down his original order

On August 6, 2026, President Trump signed two executive orders again seeking to restrict birthright citizenship, weeks after the Supreme Court ruled in Trump v. Barbara (June 30, 2026) that his original January 2025 order denying citizenship to children of undocumented immigrants was unconstitutional. The first order lists categories of U.S.-born children -- including those of "alien enemies," foreign government lobbyists, and members of terrorist organizations -- that it deems ineligible for citizenship, while the second delegates authority to the Secretaries of State and Homeland Security to deny visas to and take enforcement action against travelers found to be engaged in "birth tourism."

DOGE refused to answer GAO's questions after audit found it overstated 'Wall of Receipts' savings

A Government Accountability Office report released August 6, 2026, found the U.S. DOGE Service consistently overstated cost-cutting savings on its public "Wall of Receipts," claiming credit for lease terminations that began before DOGE existed and for a contract cancellation that was never carried out. The audit, requested by Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Gary Peters (D-Mich.), found DOGE could not substantiate the methodology behind most of its reported savings -- and gave DOGE the opportunity to respond to or contest the findings, which DOGE did not do.

Trump ordered leak investigations, threatened jail time over reporting on depleted US munitions stockpiles

President Trump ordered new investigations into leaks of information about depleted U.S. munitions stockpiles on August 6, 2026, after weeks of media reports describing dwindling Army Tactical Missile System, Precision Strike Missile, and interceptor inventories from the Iran war. On Truth Social, Trump called the leaks "treasonous" and said "long term jail sentences will be sought," while the White House separately maintained the reports were inaccurate. The order followed a heated exchange with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth over the shortages, which the Pentagon and White House denied took place.

CFPB placed union organizing chair Stephen Wheeler on administrative leave without disclosing any cause

CFPB placed Stephen Wheeler, chair of the agency's National Treasury Employees Union organizing committee, on administrative leave on August 6, 2026, citing an investigation whose scope and allegations the agency has not disclosed. The union says the timing follows Wheeler's public advocacy — including a July congressional-hearing appearance in union apparel and an NPR interview about forced staff relocations — and calls the investigation retaliatory; Wheeler called it a "fishing expedition." He is the second CFPB union member placed on leave under the Trump administration, after Alexis Goldstein was fired in February 2026 following a leave that began in February 2025.

HSI agent covertly surveilled Rep. Ilhan Omar's town hall from vehicle with mismatched license plates

On the evening of August 6, 2026, an undercover Homeland Security Investigations agent was found stationed outside Rep. Ilhan Omar's (D-MN) monthly town hall at the Richfield Community Center in Richfield, Minnesota, monitoring the building from a Ford Explorer carrying mismatched license plates. Richfield police grew suspicious, ran the plates, and confronted the agent, who first identified herself as event security before admitting she worked for HSI and was conducting an unrelated undercover operation with no advance coordination with local police. Omar sent an oversight letter to HSI's St. Paul field office demanding an explanation, citing a pattern of the administration using ICE to surveil political opponents.

White House pushed to delay hemp ban while Chief of Staff Susie Wiles' son-in-law stood to profit

The White House pushed Congress to delay a federal ban on intoxicating hemp products days before it was set to take effect, reversing course on a law President Trump signed in November 2025. White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles' son-in-law, Bret Worley, is CEO of MC Nutraceuticals, a hemp-derived product manufacturer that lobbied allies to seek the same delay; the White House denies Wiles was involved. The push, reported August 6, 2026, drew objections from Republican senators including Ted Budd and Tom Cotton.

North Carolina General Assembly ratified bill letting Chief Justice suspend trial judges without pay

On August 6, 2026, North Carolina's Republican-controlled General Assembly ratified House Bill 377, the "2026 Court Changes" act, authorizing the state Supreme Court's Chief Justice to unilaterally suspend a trial court judge without pay while the Judicial Standards Commission investigates a complaint against them. The House adopted the conference report August 5 after the Senate adopted it July 29, and the bill was presented to Gov. Josh Stein on August 7. House Speaker Destin Hall said afterward that he wants Chief Justice Paul Newby to use the new power against judges who rule leniently on bail; Gov. Stein vetoed the bill on August 17, warning it would have a "chilling effect on judicial independence."

State Department launched pilot bond program charging Dominican immigrant-visa applicants up to $250,000 to overcome public-charge denials

On August 5, 2026, the State Department, in coordination with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, launched a pilot program requiring certain immigrant-visa applicants from the Dominican Republic who had been denied on "public charge" grounds to post a bond — reported in individual cases at $100,000 to $250,000 — to overcome the denial. The pilot is separate from the department's existing nonimmigrant visitor-visa bond program, covering 50 countries at $10,000-$20,000, which became permanent August 3, 2026. Officials said the Dominican Republic was chosen first based on visa-processing volume and that the program could expand to other countries.

Trump alleged Wayne County vote fraud without evidence, warned of a 'Rigged Election' after El-Sayed's Michigan primary win

On August 5, 2026, President Trump posted on Truth Social that Wayne County, Michigan, home to Detroit, is "one of the most corrupt voting areas in the United States," claiming without evidence that "more votes" were cast "than there are voters" and warning of "fake mail-in ballots" before urging Michiganders to "get ready for another Rigged Election." The post came one day after progressive Democrat Abdul El-Sayed won Michigan's Democratic U.S. Senate primary over Rep. Haley Stevens. Wayne County's clerk said the primary had no problems other than the length of the count, and Trump's own Justice Department had deployed election monitors to Detroit for the same primary without reporting any complaints.

New York Times reveals ICE threatened Chicago, Minneapolis sheriffs with prosecution over jail access

On August 5, 2026, The New York Times reported that federal immigration officials had sent letters threatening to criminally charge Hennepin County (Minneapolis) Sheriff Dawanna Witt and Cook County (Chicago) Sheriff Tom Dart with witness tampering over their departments' limits on ICE access to jail inmates, hand-delivering the threats to both sheriffs in early July. Both sheriffs said their policies — honoring ICE custody requests only when accompanied by a judicial warrant — comply with the law and that the threats would not change their conduct. Legal experts told the Times the witness-tampering theory would likely be difficult to prosecute.

GAO report found federal agencies, including the Executive Office of the President, withheld DOGE personnel and ethics-compliance records

The Government Accountability Office reported on August 5, 2026 that it still could not identify everyone who worked for the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) or verify their ethics-training and financial-disclosure compliance, more than a year after Elon Musk left government. GAO identified only 206 DOGE-linked personnel in the Executive Office of the President and obtained ethics and disclosure records for just 64 of them, after the Executive Office of the President and ten other federal agencies did not respond to its requests for records or interviews. The report, GAO-26-108403, also found the U.S. DOGE Service could legally continue operating despite DOGE's formal shutdown.

Interior Department installed Project 2025 author Dennis Kirk inside its inspector general's office; former IG called it a threat to independence

Reporting on August 4-5, 2026 revealed that the Trump administration had installed Dennis Kirk, a co-author of a Project 2025 chapter on decentralizing and privatizing the federal government, inside the U.S. Department of the Interior's Office of Inspector General in Washington, D.C. Former Interior Inspector General Mark Greenblatt and Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) both said the placement threatens the office's independence, while Interior's OIG declined to confirm or deny it. Kirk previously held a similar placement inside the intelligence community's inspector general's office in 2025.

Scripps News investigation revealed Trump's disclosed stock trades in Axon and other companies awarded immigration contracts

A Scripps News "ICE Inc." investigation published August 5, 2026 reported that President Trump's 2025 annual financial disclosure, received by the Office of Government Ethics on June 29, 2026, showed 24 trades totaling $1.26 million in Axon Enterprise stock -- a company the Department of Homeland Security awarded more than $30 million in new body-camera contracts on July 17, 2026, days after ICE agents fatally shot two immigrants in separate encounters. The same disclosure showed trades in other companies holding immigration-enforcement contracts, including The GEO Group, CoreCivic, Amentum Holdings, and Palantir Technologies. The White House said Trump's investments are managed by independent third parties without his involvement.

AP investigation reveals ICE detained more than 50 spouses and parents of active-duty troops amid military-family policy rollback

An Associated Press investigation published August 5, 2026 found U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has detained more than 50 spouses and parents of active-duty U.S. service members since President Trump took office for a second term, under a Department of Homeland Security policy implemented in April 2025 that ended decades of bipartisan leniency for military families. At least six of those detained have been deported and one self-deported, and at least eight remained in federal immigration custody as of the report. AP identified the cases — the first such accounting, since the government does not track them — by analyzing federal court records, media coverage, and interviews with families and attorneys, and said the true number is likely higher than the 52 cases it found.

DOJ pressured Connecticut Children's Medical Center into ending gender-affirming care for minors in third hospital settlement

On August 5, 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice announced an agreement with Connecticut Children's Medical Center requiring the hospital to stop providing gender-affirming care — puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and related procedures — to minors. The hospital agreed to pay a monetary penalty and dedicate an additional $500,000 to the care of patients DOJ says were harmed by the procedures, while denying all of DOJ's allegations. DOJ said the agreement follows similar settlements it reached with Texas Children's Hospital and the Cleveland Clinic Foundation.

LA Public Press investigation revealed LA County women's jail had years of brown water, mold, and broken plumbing despite health citations

An LA Public Press investigation published August 5, 2026 reported that LA County's Sybil Brand Commission, the county's independent jail oversight body, found in a report submitted to the Board of Supervisors in June 2026 that Century Regional Detention Facility, the county's only women's jail in Lynwood, has had brown, foul-smelling drinking water, mold, broken plumbing, and recurring bug infestations documented since at least 2022, calling it "an ongoing and unresolved public health crisis." The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health has cited the LA County Sheriff's Department, which operates the jail, for related environmental-health violations every year since 2022, and about half of the roughly 1,700-capacity facility's current population is pretrial and has not been convicted of a crime.

Phoenix police officers used unreported force, including a taser, on a stopped couple and filed no report

On August 5, 2026, Phoenix police officers Luis Vasquez Jr. and Antonio Felix stopped a Dodge Charger near 19th Avenue and Broadway Road in south Phoenix and used force -- including a stun gun, an arm bar, and repeated punches -- against the man and woman inside, without activating their body-worn cameras or filing a required use-of-force report. The stop surfaced only after one victim escaped and reached Tempe police, whose officers found the account so extreme they initially suspected the assailants were impersonating police rather than being real officers. Phoenix's own investigation later confirmed both were on-duty officers.

Mooresville, NC officer misused Flock license-plate cameras 31 times to track boyfriend's ex-wife

Mooresville, North Carolina police officer Elizabeth Snowman was arrested and charged on August 5, 2026, after Police Chief Ron Campurciani said she accessed the department's Flock automated license-plate-reader system 31 times -- including twice while off duty -- to track her boyfriend's ex-wife. Snowman logged most of the searches as motor vehicle infractions and was released on a $5,000 bond; the department is reviewing roughly 10 additional cases of potential Flock misuse, three of which the chief said already look problematic. The arrest came a week after a Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officer was placed on unpaid leave over similar Flock-system misuse allegations.

West Virginia Gov. Morrisey circulated unsubstantiated fraud claims, misleading graphic to justify clothing-voucher program's closure

West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey publicly claimed, without evidence, that recipients of the state's $200 school clothing allowance program were spending funds on "beer and cigarettes," then circulated an AI-generated graphic asserting 49.5% of program funds were withdrawn as untraceable cash. The state's Department of Human Services did not respond to a request for supporting data, and Morrisey's stated justification for closing the program early shifted over the course of the week from a funding shortfall to alleged fraud.

DHS defied a federal court order to image 800 immigration agents' cellphones sought as evidence in LA racial-profiling suit

On August 4, 2026, U.S. District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong held the Department of Homeland Security in contempt of court and imposed $500-per-day fines for failing to comply with a January 2026 order requiring DHS to create digital images of the personal and government cellphones of more than 800 immigration agents involved in 2025's "Operation At Large" Los Angeles immigration crackdown. DHS admitted in June 2026 it was processing only three phones every two weeks, a pace that would take nearly four years to complete; plaintiffs in the underlying Vasquez Perdomo v. Noem suit say the records may show a pattern of racial profiling by agents who used slurs including "wet" and "tonks" to identify Latino people for stops.

GAO report found FEMA and DHS cut FEMA's workforce 17% without assessing disaster-response readiness impact

On August 4, 2026, the Government Accountability Office reported that FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security cut roughly 17% of FEMA's workforce -- more than 4,300 employees -- in fiscal year 2025 without assessing how the reductions would affect the agency's ability to respond to disasters. GAO found neither agency conducted a workforce-needs analysis before pushing voluntary-separation programs or declining to renew contracts for hundreds of CORE employees, and that FEMA had operated without a strategic plan since rescinding its prior one in May 2025. DHS concurred with GAO's recommendations for a new plan and workforce analysis but said implementation depends on a permanent, Senate-confirmed FEMA administrator.

CBP sought private contractors to track down and photograph deported people's homes abroad to collect fines

On August 4, 2026, U.S. Customs and Border Protection posted a solicitation seeking private contractors to locate and photograph the homes of people it has deported to Mexico, Honduras, and Guatemala, so the government can pursue unpaid failure-to-depart fines that can reach $998 a day and up to $1.8 million per person. The program, capped at $9 million over two years, would have the government own all data investigators gather with unlimited reuse rights, and comes after CBP's three existing debt collectors reported finding no one located outside the U.S. as of July 2026. Sens. Dick Durbin and Alex Padilla have called the underlying fines "arbitrary and potentially unlawful" and say DHS did not respond to their July inquiry about the program.

HHS awarded a $150 million sole-source contract to a firm founded by Trump EPA/Interior appointees for migrant children's legal defense

On August 4, 2026, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Refugee Resettlement filed a Federal Register notice announcing intent to award a one-year, $150 million single-source cooperative agreement to Burke Law Group, a 26-employee Houston firm with no immigration-law practice area, to represent roughly 24,000 unaccompanied immigrant children in immigration court. The firm's founder, Marcella Burke, is a former Trump EPA and Interior Department appointee; co-founding partner Jeffrey Hall left the firm in late 2025 after Senate confirmation to lead an EPA enforcement office. The award follows the August 1, 2026 lapse of a longstanding, unpaid contract with a network of roughly 100 nonprofit legal-aid organizations that had represented the children for over two decades.

Trump DOJ obtained court vacatur of Oath Keepers leaders' January 6 seditious conspiracy convictions

On August 4, 2026, at the U.S. Department of Justice's request, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta granted a motion to dismiss and vacate the January 6 seditious-conspiracy convictions of eight Oath Keepers members, including founder Stewart Rhodes. In a written order, Mehta said the government offered no legal or factual justification for dismissal and that granting it was not in the public interest, but concluded he had no authority to deny the motion. The vacatur went beyond Trump's January 2025 clemency, which had commuted or pardoned the defendants' sentences but left their jury convictions on the record.

Senate committee chairman ruled Fauci's Fifth Amendment privilege invalid, moved to hold him in contempt of Congress

On August 4, 2026, Sen. Rand Paul, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, released a resolution to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress after Fauci invoked his Fifth Amendment privilege more than 100 times at a July 29, 2026 hearing. Paul had ruled during the hearing that Fauci's privilege did not apply because of a prior pardon and ordered him to answer, then treated his continued refusal as "obstruction of a congressional investigation" and scheduled a contempt vote for August 6, 2026.

Yellowstone County, Montana retroactively moved ballot-initiative deadline a month earlier at data-center developer's urging, killing citizen petition

On August 4, 2026, Yellowstone County, Montana's attorney's office announced that the signature deadline for a citizen ballot initiative regulating data centers had actually passed a month earlier, reversing the August 12 deadline the county's own election department had given organizers in June. The county said it adopted the new July 13 deadline after data-center developer Quantica Infrastructure's attorney flagged a different statute to the county attorney on July 30.

Tarrant County Judge O'Hare cleared meeting chambers, had ex-Rep. Lon Burnam arrested during his public-comment turn

On August 4, 2026, Tarrant County Judge Tim O'Hare ordered sheriff's deputies to clear the Commissioners Court chambers in Fort Worth, Texas, after several attendees applauded a speaker who criticized his handling of the meeting on a proposed cut to county polling sites. Roughly 30 minutes later, deputies arrested and booked former state Rep. Lon Burnam on a charge of disrupting a meeting after he continued speaking past his allotted public-comment time and was carried from the chamber. No source reported a weapon or safety threat.

Missouri Secretary of State Hoskins rejected sufficient-signature referendum on GOP congressional map as unconstitutional

On August 4, 2026, Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins rejected a referendum petition from the PAC People Not Politicians seeking a public vote on the state's new GOP-drawn congressional map, ruling that congressional redistricting is not subject to Missouri's referendum process at all -- a novel legal theory -- despite the petition having gathered signatures exceeding the required threshold. Hoskins said the signature count did not matter because "they are unconstitutional," and simultaneously rejected a second, separate ballot petition on different grounds. People Not Politicians sued within hours, and Missouri courts must resolve the dispute by September 8, 2026, the deadline for finalizing the November ballot.

North Carolina House Republicans passed HB958, cutting early voting from 17 to 10 days and denying recourse to wrongly-purged voters

On August 4, 2026, the North Carolina House passed House Bill 958 in a 62-47 party-line vote, cutting early voting in primaries, runoffs, and special elections from 17 days to 10 and allowing challenges to early and mail ballots for up to three days after an election. The bill also denies voters removed from the rolls as deceased under a flawed federal-database match any way to prove the removal was a mistake. Protesters chanting in the House gallery were removed as the vote proceeded.

OPM finalized rule ending independent MSPB, Federal Circuit review of suitability firings for ~1M workers

On August 3, 2026, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management published a final rule, "Suitability Action Appeals," eliminating Merit Systems Protection Board and Federal Circuit review of suitability-action appeals and replacing them with an appeal process OPM adjudicates itself, effective September 2, 2026. The rule follows a separate OPM rule, effective July 30, 2026, that for the first time extended suitability actions -- a vetting tool historically used only to screen job applicants -- to post-appointment conduct by sitting federal employees, with only a written response and no evidentiary hearing before removal. OPM's own rule text projects the July 30 change will reclassify about half of federal employee removals government-wide, previously handled through the standard disciplinary process that carries a right to appeal to the MSPB.

Trump named Defense Secretary Hegseth's wife to chair a new White House military-family commission

On August 3, 2026, President Trump signed an executive order creating the President's Military Spouse Commission and named Jennifer Rauchet Hegseth -- wife of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth -- as its chair. The appointment extends a documented pattern of her unofficial influence at the Pentagon: the Wall Street Journal reported she attended at least two meetings with foreign military counterparts where sensitive information was discussed, despite attendee lists for such meetings normally being limited to cleared personnel with a need to be there.

Wall Street Journal investigation reveals ICE's internal-affairs office ran surveillance operation to unmask hundreds of online critics

A Wall Street Journal investigation published August 3, 2026 found that ICE's Office of Professional Responsibility, traditionally the agency's internal- affairs unit, has issued hundreds of administrative and grand jury subpoenas to social media companies to identify anonymous users critical of the agency, monitoring nearly 20 platforms and cross-referencing DMV records and police reports to map critics' identities and relationships. The investigation documented at least 131 doxxing or threat cases opened between January 2025 and March 2026, and found ICE spending on surveillance technology and contractors rose 57 percent year over year to $258 million; no charges have been filed in most of the identified cases.

ICE detained Kosovo-born former CIA informant Blerim Skoro despite 2022 torture-risk protection order

On August 3, 2026, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained Blerim Skoro, a Kosovo-born Staten Island taxi driver and self-described former CIA and FBI informant, at ICE's immigration office in Elizabeth, New Jersey, where he had gone to renew his paperwork. Skoro holds a November 2022 federal court order granting deferral of removal under the Convention Against Torture due to the risk of torture or death if returned to Kosovo, and his attorney says ICE was required to obtain judicial permission before deporting him, which it did not do. His attorney filed a habeas corpus petition challenging the detention the following day.

Indiana Gov. Braun fired IURC Commissioner Zay, called cited cause 'ancillary,' day before agency shelved rate-hike reconsideration vote

On Aug. 3, 2026, Indiana Gov. Mike Braun fired Utility Regulatory Commissioner Andy Zay, weeks after demoting him as IURC chair over a June vote approving a $71 million AES Indiana rate increase. The state cited financial-disclosure and personnel violations, but Braun told reporters those grounds were "ancillary" and that he was disappointed Zay hadn't prioritized affordability. The next morning, the IURC pulled from its agenda a scheduled vote to reconsider that same rate increase, with the new chair citing a lack of consensus among commissioners.

Audit found Elk Grove PD shared license-plate data with 3,600+ outside agencies in 8.3 million searches

A public-records audit released August 3, 2026 by the privacy advocacy group DeFlock Elk Grove found that between 2021 and March 2026, the Elk Grove Police Department's Flock Safety license-plate-reader network was searched roughly 8.3 million times by more than 3,600 outside organizations -- 97% of all searches on the system, versus about 3% by Elk Grove PD itself. More than 1.3 million of those searches came from over 3,200 federal and out-of-state organizations, and about 4.3 million came from 290 California agencies with no data-sharing agreement on file, both categories California law generally restricts from receiving the data.

Wisconsin Judicial Commission charged Winnebago County judge with threatening attorneys, demanding $28,000 payment over political support

On August 3, 2026, the Wisconsin Judicial Commission filed a formal misconduct complaint with the Wisconsin Supreme Court against Winnebago County Circuit Court Judge Scott Woldt. The complaint alleges that after his contested 2023 reelection, Woldt threatened attorneys who had backed his opponent and demanded a $28,000 campaign-cost payment from one of them, and separately questioned a Filipino-descent psychiatrist expert witness's understanding of English during a 2023 hearing. Woldt, previously suspended in 2021 for unrelated misconduct, denies wrongdoing through his attorney; a three-judge panel will review the complaint.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection denied a British Dartmouth student reentry and refused for weeks to explain why

On August 2, 2026, U.S. Customs and Border Protection denied British citizen and Dartmouth College sophomore Taha Tariq reentry to the United States at the Derby Line, Vermont border crossing, while the three American classmates traveling with him were admitted within hours. CBP told The Dartmouth only that Tariq underwent "additional inspection" and was found inadmissible, and in two subsequent on-the-record statements over the following three weeks declined to say whether he had been issued an expedited removal order or to explain the basis for the denial. Tariq's attorney said CBP "lacked proper grounds to deny re-entry," and as of the most recent reporting Tariq remained stranded in Canada, finishing his summer coursework remotely.

Arkansas State Police trooper punched 18-year-old woman in face during traffic-stop arrest

On August 1, 2026, Arkansas State Police Trooper Moisses Arellano forced 18-year-old Alisa Hackett to the ground and struck her in the face with a closed fist during a traffic stop near Manila, Arkansas, after a second trooper told him to arrest her because she "got an attitude." Arellano's own use-of-force report states he punched Hackett because she would not roll onto her stomach on his commands; dashcam video later released publicly shows Hackett telling him "you cannot punch me in my face" and Arellano responding "who says I can't." Hackett was booked on five charges, none of which have been dropped, and filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against Arellano.

New York Times reveals DOJ subpoenaed freelance journalist over North Korea SEAL Team 6 reporting

The New York Times reported on August 1, 2026 that the Justice Department had subpoenaed freelance journalist Matthew Cole, seeking two years of his notes and grand-jury testimony to identify sources for his reporting on a failed 2019 Navy SEAL Team 6 mission in North Korea. FBI agents delivered the previously undisclosed grand-jury subpoena to Cole's New York home in February 2026; it was issued by federal prosecutors in Newport News, Virginia. The Times is paying for Cole's legal defense and called the subpoena "another brazen and illegal attack" on journalists.

July(251)

Los Angeles County DA charged LAPD officer with 16 felony counts for recording colleagues' racist, sexist and homophobic remarks

The Los Angeles County District Attorney's office charged LAPD officer Daniel Flores on July 31, 2026 with 16 felony counts of illegal eavesdropping for secretly recording 16 colleagues -- 122 recordings in all -- who made racist, sexist, and homophobic remarks, evidence he submitted to LAPD's Internal Affairs Division and the Los Angeles Police Commission. Flores faced up to 13 years in prison under the felony charges. On August 20, 2026, amid public criticism that the prosecution would chill future whistleblowers, the DA's office reduced the charges to misdemeanors and did not oppose a request for judicial diversion.

CBP contractor Barnard Construction bladed and cleared Texas state trust land in Presidio County without required consent

On July 31, 2026, the Texas General Land Office sent a cease-and-desist letter after finding that Barnard Construction, a federal contractor building U.S. Customs and Border Protection's border wall, had used heavy equipment to blade terrain and clear vegetation across more than a mile of state trust land in Presidio County, Texas, without the GLO's required written consent. The land is part of a roughly 10,000-acre grazing lease the GLO holds with Trans Pecos Ice LLC along the planned Big Bend-area wall corridor; the GLO said the unauthorized clearing devalued the lease and demanded restoration and a reclamation plan. CBP acknowledged the incident and said it was working with the contractor and the GLO to resolve it, while Barnard did not respond to requests for comment.

Axios investigation reveals FBI obtained South Carolina voter's IP address in probe tied to Trump's unsubstantiated fraud claims

On July 31, 2026, Axios reported that the FBI had requested and obtained the IP address associated with a South Carolina resident's online voter registration, part of the Trump administration's investigation into unsubstantiated 2020 election-fraud claims. The FBI made the request in March 2026 and received the data in June 2026 through York County, South Carolina election officials; a York County official with roughly 20 years' tenure called it his first such interaction with law enforcement, and a former senior Justice Department official described the request as an inappropriate "fishing expedition" into private voter data. The tactic surfaced alongside a separate Justice Department lawsuit campaign seeking voter-roll access from roughly 30 states and Washington, D.C., and could extend to any of the 43 states plus D.C. that allow online voter registration.