California's Still Counting Votes, But the Investigations Have Already Begun
Plus: The government is burning climate funds. Republicans resist Trump, selectively. Why Albanians are protesting Jared and Ivanka. The latest on the SAVE Act. And how Budapest Pride survived a ban.
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Trump’s effort to rewrite the rules of voting just hit a roadblock in the Senate.
Four Republicans — Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Mitch McConnell, and Thom Tillis — joined Democrats to block an attempt to attach the SAVE Act to an immigration funding bill.
The legislation, formally called the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, would require new proof of citizenship to register to vote. Supporters say it is about election integrity. Voting rights groups warn it would create a paperwork trap for millions of eligible voters — including married women, naturalized citizens, rural voters, people without easy access to passports or birth certificates, and anyone whose legal documents do not perfectly match their current name or address.
Trump has said the measure would “guarantee” Republican victory in the midterms.
For now, the Senate stopped it. But the effort is not over. House Republicans are already introducing spin-off bills, including REAL ID grant legislation, that could move pieces of the SAVE Act agenda through other budget mechanisms.
That is why we built a PDF Space with Adobe Acrobat: so you can see what is actually in the SAVE Act, what it could mean for voters, and what you can do to prepare.
We included our explainer, official documents, legal challenges, executive orders, and data. You can ask questions in the chat, and the answers come with citations to the source material.
No internet slop. Just the reporting and the receipts. Ask your questions here.
In today’s newsletter: Senate Republicans are bucking Trump, selectively. The slush fund that was supposedly dead. Bill Pulte, counting his Senate friends on one hand. Trump spent another billion dollars hating windmills. 60 Minutes’ new boss vows independence. Graham Platner’s week, still getting worse. And from Budapest, something that might actually make you smile.
Here Are Your Headlines
Watching Over: The DOJ sent an attorney to Los Angeles to observe ballot processing. That, in itself, wouldn’t be terribly unusual. But it comes as a Trump-appointed prosecutor announced his office has opened “multiple election fraud investigations” in California, which is notoriously slow about counting ballots. Trump claimed, without evidence, that there is “BIG cheating by the Dumocrats” there. State Attorney General Rob Bonta said his office “stands ready to protect voters and ensure California’s election laws are followed.” Ballots are still being tallied in many races, including the closely watched governor’s race and the Los Angeles mayor’s race.
Permanent: Trump said he’ll formally nominate Todd Blanche, his former personal defense attorney, to serve as attorney general for the United States on a permanent basis.
Unlimited ICE: The Senate handed Trump $70 billion more for immigration enforcement with no new limits on ICE’s powers. The breakdown: $38.5 billion for ICE, $26 billion for CBP, and $5 billion for DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin to spend at his discretion. That’s on top of roughly $100 billion ICE and CBP already have from earlier Republican funding bills. Several Republicans voiced concerns, but only Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) joined Democrats in voting no.
Carte Blanche: Reconciliation, the process Republicans used to pass the bill, let them sidestep Democratic opposition. It also allowed unlimited amendments. Senators used that to repeatedly force votes on measures to block Trump’s slush fund or divert it to law enforcement officers injured on Jan 6. Three Republicans voted with Democrats, but the measures failed. GOP Leader John Thune (R-SD) maintains the slush fund is a “settled issue” because acting Attorney General Todd Blanche testified it’s dead. Trump keeps suggesting he’ll revive it.
Anti Pulte: A number of Republicans also pushed back on Trump’s pick for acting Director of National Intelligence, Bill Pulte. Three Republicans voted with Democrats to block Pulte from serving as acting DNI while he’s director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. That failed, but enough Republicans joined Democrats to defy Trump and block an extension of a controversial surveillance program that the Trump administration wants renewed. Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), who helped negotiate the proposed extension, said the “complete irresponsibility of putting forward” Pulte forced him to vote against the extension. Trump said Pulte’s tenure as DNI won’t be “permanent” but also told the Wall Street Journal he’d like Pulte to start downsizing the DNI staff.
Few Minutes More: In a memo to staff, 60 Minutes executive producer Nick Bilton vowed that under his leadership, the show will “always make the story the North Star, not relationships nor politics nor anything else” and the team “will never be instructed by the ownership of the company.” He sent the memo after the dramatic ouster of legendary correspondent Scott Pelley, who accused CBS News leadership of “murdering” the broadcast. Two other fired correspondents also allege they were pressured to alter stories for political reasons, though that happened before Bilton joined. The show’s three remaining correspondents condemned the “heartbreaking” purge of journalists and producers. “Newsrooms are not supposed to run like dictatorships,” they wrote. Their decision to remain is not “an endorsement of the existing power structure,” they explained, but an attempt to “stay and fight” to save the outlet they love. They wrote that Bilton’s “commitments” must be put into practice. “If not,” they warned, “we leave.”
Hostile Environment: The Trump administration is methodically dismantling the infrastructure that protects Americans from environmental and climate disasters.
Back to Black: Trump redirected $700 million that was originally earmarked for reducing CO2 emissions. He’s using it instead to bolster the coal industry. The administration claims this will save consumers money and calls coal “cleaner than ever.” In fact, coal produces more greenhouse gases than any other fossil fuel, and ranks as the second-most expensive way to produce electricity, behind nuclear.
Losing Our Sea Legs: The Trump administration is dismantling a massive real-time ocean monitoring network. Project 2025 recommended this, claiming the system is “the source of much … climate alarmism.” The network doesn’t just track the changing climate — it also helps predict extreme weather, and is relied on for warnings that experts say “save lives.” They also say the system saves more money in averted climate costs than would be saved by dismantling it.
Does Not Compute: A federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration from dismantling the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder. NCAR is home to a massive supercomputer center used to monitor hurricanes, wildfires and much more. The judge concluded the attack was driven by Trump’s grudge against Colorado and was a part of a pressure campaign to force state lawmakers to do his bidding — including pardoning convicted election conspiracist Tina Peters, which Gov. Jared Polis eventually did (after initially resisting.)
Donald Quixote: Seven Democratic-led states sued the Trump administration over its decision to hand an energy company nearly $1 billion in taxpayer funds to walk away from two offshore wind projects and pour money into fossil fuels instead. Trump, who has made his hatred of wind turbines a key component of his energy policy, has now spent nearly $2 billion taxpayer dollars paying companies to cancel offshore wind projects.
Turning the Screw: [Trigger warning: Graphic description of what screwworm does to the body] US officials are scrambling to contain a potential outbreak of New World screwworm, detected in Texas for the first time in decades. The fly lays eggs in open wounds and its maggots eat live flesh, harming livestock, other animals, and, occasionally, people. It was eradicated from North America in the 20th century, but has been spreading northward again. DOGE’s decimation of USAID killed a program aimed at keeping the flesh-eating pest from crossing the Mexico-US border. Texas’ agriculture commissioner says the USDA is now moving “too slowly.” Experts warn an outbreak could cost over $1 billion and drive beef prices higher.
Keep reading to find out…
Why Trump critic John Bolton faces up to 5 years in prison.
The concerning new allegations about Graham Platner — and what the News Not Noise community thinks about them.
How a surprisingly positive jobs report contributed to the stock market’s worst day all year.
Why Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump have inspired thousands of Albanians to take to the streets.
Hungary’s leader tried to ban Pride marches. Now he’s gone — and Pride is legal again.
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