pelespirit

Four congressional Democrats traveled to El Salvador to demand the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia to the United States. The Congress members will meet with U.S. embassy officials to advocate for Abrego Garcia's release.

Reps. Yassamin Ansari of Arizona, Maxine Dexter of Oregon, Maxwell Frost of Florida, and Robert Garcia of California all made the trip to El Salvador.

The lawmakers followed Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen, who also made a trip to San Salvador last week in an effort to secure his release.

Florida officials first became aware that Centene owed the state money in 2021. At the time, Ohio, Mississippi and other states were reaching settlements with the Medicaid giant after it overbilled for prescription drugs.

The overbilling was uncovered by politically connected Mississippi law firms, which helped states negotiate settlements with Centene in exchange for millions of dollars in contingency fees, the New York Times reported last year.

The data the law firms used to calculate how much each state was owed is hidden from the public, the Times reported, making it impossible to know whether Centene paid its full share.

Florida signed on with one of the firms, Liston & Deas, in December 2021. Months earlier, other lawyers working with the firm on the Centene settlements donated $100,000 to the Republican Party of Florida and $10,000 to then-Attorney General Ashley Moody’s political committee.

The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on Tuesday in the first of two cases in April involving religion and public schools. In Mahmoud v. Taylor a coalition of parents from Montgomery County, Md., contend that requiring their children to participate in instruction that includes LGBTQ+ themes violates their religious beliefs and thus their First Amendment right to freely exercise their religion.

While its cyber abilities receive notably less attention than those of other intelligence agencies (like, say, the NSA), the FBI has a fairly sophisticated hacking arsenal, the likes of which isn’t without controversy. In 2022, the New York Times reported that the FBI had sought to procure a tool that could hack “any phone in the U.S.” The tool was sold by the NSO Group, the notorious Israeli spyware vendor, whose products have been ensnared in hacking scandals all over the world. In 2023, the New York Times reported that a federal agency had disobeyed the Biden administration, which had issued a rule that barred federal agencies from doing deals with NSO. The FBI was asked to investigate which agency had disobeyed the White House and ultimately found that the agency itself had bought the tool.

Several recent operations helmed by the FBI have demonstrated the agency’s increasingly powerful cyber capabilities. In January, it closed a backdoor to thousands of U.S. computers infected with Chinese malware by taking over the hackers’ command-and-control server. In 2023, the FBI also used one of its NITs to somehow unmask a Tor user who was part of an anti-terrorism case. That same year, the bureau hacked and infiltrated a ransomware gang known as “Hive,” which allowed it to ultimately disrupt the criminal operation. In general, the bureau knows what it’s doing when it comes to cyber, even if it does keep a low profile.

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The Republicans and Trump administration on Monday announced that it will resume involuntary collection measures against defaulted federal student loan recipients, including garnishing wages, tax refunds, and Social Security benefits and "other actions to help borrowers get back into repayment," as the U.S. Department of Education euphemistically said.

It started with a weird letter. On April 11, Harvard University officials received a series of outlandish written demands from the Trump administration, including a “request” to install outside auditors who would monitor the school’s academic departments.

Or put another way, the White House effectively argued, “This mess is Harvard’s fault for not realizing that we shouldn’t have sent our absurd correspondence.”

Harvard representatives issued an official response of their own, noting that the original letter “was signed by three federal officials, placed on official letterhead, was sent from the email inbox of a senior federal official and was sent on April 11 as promised.” The university added, “Recipients of such correspondence from the U.S. government — even when it contains sweeping demands that are astonishing in their overreach — do not question its authenticity or seriousness.”

On Tuesday, the Planet over Profit and #teslatakedown coalition will picket the New York home of billionaire James Murdoch, a Tesla board member. Musk’s electric vehicle company has faced allegations of air and water pollution around its factories in the US, “and because there’s no greater threat to our ability to live rich, dignified lives on a safe, stable planet than the Trump/Musk regime,” according to organizers.

In Michigan, Jewish organizers are running a phone bank to turn out climate and environmental voters ahead of the May 6 municipal elections. In Duluth, Minnesota, traditional Ojibwe blessings for Mother Earth will open an event featuring students spearheading efforts to install solar energy in local schools and environmental scientists on the need to protect the local EPA water lab.

Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr is set to announce a ban on certain artificial food dyes in the US, according to a statement from the health agency.

Kennedy plans to announce the phasing out of petroleum-based synthetic dyes as a "major step forward in the Administration's efforts to Make America Healthy Again" the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said on Monday.

No exact dates for the changes were provided, but HHS said Kennedy would announce more details at a news conference on Tuesday.

The dyes - which are found in dozens of foods, including breakfast cereals, candy, snacks and beverages - have been linked to neurological problems in some children.

Neither DeSantis’ nor Uthmeier’s offices responded to Miami Herald questions about whether the state has directed police to continue enforcing the law despite the federal court order.

“When I issued the temporary restraining order, it never occurred to me that police officers would not be bound by it,” Williams said. “It never occurred to me that the state attorneys would not give direction to law enforcement so that we would not have these unfortunate arrests.”

At another point in the hearing, the judge said: “There is no such basis,” for the arrests. ”Why aren’t these people being released immediately?”

Yes despite her stay of the state law, a Florida Highway Patrol trooper arrested the Georgia man in north Florida this week under the statute targeting undocumented immigrants who enter Florida illegally — though it turned out the man is a U.S. citizen, born in Georgia.

A North Dakota federal judge ruled this week that a group of Catholic employers do not have to follow new federal regulations meant to protect workers’ access to abortion and fertility treatment, and to shield LGBTQ employees from discrimination.

The order, released Tuesday by Judge Daniel Traynor, relates to two documents issued by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission last year. One is a rule implementing the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act and the other updated non-binding guidance on Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlaws workplace discrimination.