pelespirit

Democrats had been pressing for an amendment to cryptocurrency legislation that would have forced the release of information and exhibits itemized in a list of evidence held by the justice department from the 2019 child sex-trafficking case against disgraced financier Epstein.

Democrats had weighed in on the issue, hoping to force a release of the documents. “The question with Epstein is: Whose side are you on?” California Democratic US House member Ro Khanna, the author of the Epstein measure, told Axios. “Are you on the side of the rich and powerful, or are you on the side of the people?”

But Republicans on the US House rules committee voted down the amendment that would have allowed Congress to vote on whether the evidence – which includes micro cassettes, DVDs, CDs including one labelled “girl pics nude book 4”, computer hard drives and three massage tables in green, beige and brown – should be released.

Civil rights organizations and anti-corruption groups voiced alarm Monday after the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate confirmed the first federal judge of President Donald Trump's second term, granting 38-year-old Whitney Hermandorfer a lifetime position on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit.

"Her limited legal career shows a demonstrated hostility towards the protection of civil and human rights—including a disturbing and unacceptable record on reproductive rights, LGBTQ equality, birthright citizenship, labor and employment, environmental protections, and the expansion of executive power—which should be disqualifying for any judicial nominee," Lena Zwarensteyn, senior director of the fair courts program the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, said following Hermandorfer's confirmation via a party-line vote.

ProPublica has obtained a blueprint of the system, which would create an “on demand” process allowing Immigration and Customs Enforcement to obtain the home addresses of people it’s seeking to deport.

Last month, in a previously undisclosed dispute, the acting general counsel at the IRS, Andrew De Mello, refused to turn over the addresses of 7.3 million taxpayers sought by ICE. In an email obtained by ProPublica, De Mello said he had identified multiple legal “deficiencies” in the agency’s request.

Two days later, on June 27, De Mello was forced out of his job, people familiar with the dispute said. The addresses have not yet been released to ICE. De Mello did not respond to requests for comment, and the administration did not address questions sent by ProPublica about his departure.

Word of Gomes da Silva’s detention spread quickly through Milford, a 30,000-person blue-collar town 40 miles southwest of Boston. When he didn’t show up to volleyball practice that Saturday morning, his teammates and coaches assumed he must have overslept. Then coach Andrew Mainini got a text from a player, an undocumented 17-year-old who was in the car with Gomes da Silva. ICE had let him go along with an exchange student from Spain, but held onto Gomes da Silva. Mainini recalled feeling shocked and helpless. “We didn’t know what to do,” he said.

When Colin texted his mother to say ICE had taken Gomes da Silva, Greco could not believe it. She thought it must have been a typo. But then she jumped into action. Greco reached out to her sister, an immigration attorney, who alerted a longtime immigrant rights advocate in the governor’s office. She also began contacting local reporters and helped connect Gomes da Silva’s parents, who are undocumented, with a legal team and Low, a Portuguese speaker. “The dad was obviously grief-stricken,” she said, “and his English was getting worse and worse because he was just so emotional.”

On June 5, Immigration Judge Jenny Beverly in Chelmsford ruled that DHS had not proved that Gomes da Silva was a “danger to community” and set a $2,000 bond for his release. Outside the courthouse, friends and teammates celebrated the decision. Gomes da Silva was freed that day and, standing through a car’s sunroof, rode back home as his neighbors and relatives awaited waving signs. His father, in tears, apologized as he embraced him.

Sixty-nine of the roughly 110 lawyers in the Federal Programs Branch have voluntarily left the unit since President Donald Trump's election in November or have announced plans to leave, according to the list compiled by former Justice Department lawyers and reviewed by Reuters.

The tally has not been previously reported. Using court records and LinkedIn accounts, Reuters was able to verify the departure of all but four names on the list.

Reuters spoke to four former lawyers in the unit and three other people familiar with the departures who said some staffers had grown demoralized and exhausted defending an onslaught of lawsuits against Trump's administration.

"Many of these people came to work at Federal Programs to defend aspects of our constitutional system," said one lawyer who left the unit during Trump's second term. "How could they participate in the project of tearing it down?"

A coalition of mostly Democratic-led states filed a lawsuit on Monday challenging a move by U.S. President Donald Trump's administration to withhold about $6.8 billion in congressionally approved federal funding for K-12 schools.

Attorneys general or governors from 24 states and the District of Columbia sued in federal court in Providence, Rhode Island, arguing that the U.S. Department of Education and the Office of Management and Budget threw schools nationwide into chaos by unconstitutionally freezing funding for six programs approved by Congress.

The freeze extended to funding used to support the education of migrant farm workers and their children; recruitment and training of teachers; English proficiency learning; academic enrichment; and after-school and summer programs.

The administration also froze funding used to support adult literacy and job-readiness skills. The government was legally required to release the money to the states by July 1, the lawsuit said. Instead, the Education Department notified states on June 30 that it would not be issuing grant awards under those programs by that deadline. It cited the change in administration as its reason.

Edit: Listed in complaint- https://rhodeislandcurrent.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Dkt.-No.-1-compl.pdf

• STATE OF NEW JERSEY
• COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS
• STATE OF NEW YORK
• STATE OF ARIZONA
• STATE OF CALIFORNIA
• STATE OF COLORADO
• STATE OF CONNECTICUT
• STATE OF DELAWARE
• THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
• STATE OF HAWAI‘I
• STATE OF ILLINOIS
• STATE OF MAINE
• STATE OF MARYLAND
• ATTORNEY GENERAL DANA NESSEL FOR THE PEOPLE OF MICHIGAN
• STATE OF MINNESOTA
• STATE OF NEVADA
• STATE OF NEW MEXICO
• STATE OF OREGON
• JOSH SHAPIRO, in his official capacity as Governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
• STATE OF RHODE ISLAND
• STATE OF VERMONT
• STATE OF WISCONSIN

The state prison system has had a population more than 200 inmates over capacity on average during the past roughly two years. It was 193 male inmates over capacity on average between July 2023 and May 2025, according to data presented at the meeting. The system averaged 31 female inmates over capacity during that same time frame, the data show.

The agency got a little over $8 million to purchase man camps to provide overflow housing within the Missouri River Correctional Center. The department anticipates it to house 72 to 96 inmates, said Michele Zander, chief financial officer for the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. The $8 million would cover the housing units, an emergency generator, washers and dryers, technology costs and more.

The idea would be for the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to provide case management and behavioral health services, while the Burleigh Morton Detention Center would handle operations. Zander said the agreement is expected to take effect sometime early next year.

The bulk of the deficiency — a little over $8 million — came from county and regional jails that the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation previously contracted with to house inmates that state facilities don’t have room for.

A federal judge in Texas has reversed a Biden administration rule that wiped medical debt from credit reports, affecting nearly 15 million Americans.

The rule, which did not discharge debt but changed how credit scores could be calculated, would have removed $50 million of medical debt from credit reports.

U.S. District Judge Sean Jordan, who was appointed by President Donald Trump during his first term, argued in his decision that the Fair Credit Reporting Act does not allow the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) to remove medical debt from reports.

The videos show him doing mundane tasks, like laying on a bunk bed inside the facility, riding in a golf cart and sitting at a table in front of a cup of instant ramen in a mess hall. He also shows something that looks like meat loaf or bread in a container, while a voice says, “Doesn’t look very appetizing, does it?” Then he throws the food away.

“A lot of officers quit just because they were trying to help out the residents/inmates,” he said, according to New Times. “And their bosses kept telling them, ‘If you help them out, like give them water, take them to the bathroom, you will be fired.’”

The TikTok videos have surfaced among controversy about conditions at the site. Wives of detainees told the Herald that they have limited access to showers. Bugs like mosquitoes and grasshoppers are inside the cells, and the air conditioning had stopped working earlier this week, they said.