Texas Adds the Bible to the Syllabus
Plus: Someone came for Pete Buttigieg's children. The Court sides with guns, chemicals, and Trump. When political beliefs become a crime. New Epstein drama. And a landmark cure for Louisiana.
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In today’s newsletter: Californians billionaires in the hot seat. Surprising day in the case over the Palisades fire. The government’s new definition of terrorism. The Supreme Court shields Monsanto, shuts the door to asylum seekers, and sides with indoor guns. Bolton takes a plea. A judge presses the government on Epstein file redactions, and a financier’s Epstein answers fall short. Alligator Alcatraz reaches its end. The Reflecting Pool mystery deepens. The catastrophe unfolding in Venezuela. And Life 2 for a sickle cell patient is today’s News That Doesn’t Suck.
Here Are Your Headlines
Required Reading: Texas will now require over five million public school students to read select verses and stories from the Bible. According to one proposal the reading would include the David and Goliath story or Adam and Eve depending on the kids’ age. A proponent said that the Bible had a “remarkable impact on our culture, our societies and our laws” and should be taught in a “Christian state.” Some experts say this is a first-of-its-kind reading list. Critics argue it violates the constitutional separation of church and state and unfairly promotes Christianity over other religions. The state school board also reformed social studies, reducing focus on world cultures and history. More here.
Cruel Hoax: Pete Buttigieg was briefly separated from his children after law enforcement received what turned out to be a false, anonymous, and potentially politically motivated report alleging he posed a danger to his kids. Buttigieg revealed this himself in a Substack newsletter posted today, titled “A Terrible Thing Happened to My Family.” He said it was the hardest, darkest experience of his life and wrote, in part, “I cannot describe the mix of rage and sadness that I feel at the idea that someone brought our children into this.… For God’s sake, they are just kids.”
Pay Up: Come November, Californians will have a chance to decide whether the state should impose a new tax on billionaires. 1.6 million residents signed a petition calling for it — more than double the number required and one of the highest in state history. The measure would be a one-time tax equal to 5% of a billionaire’s wealth, payable over five years. It’s projected to raise $100 billion, which would be directed to shore up health care, public education, and food assistance threatened by Trump administration cuts. Read more here.
For: Supporters argue the tax is small, relative to the overall wealth of California’s billionaires ($2.2 trillion) and how much their wealth has grown (158% from 2023-2025). They note that billionaires currently pay the equivalent of roughly 0.2% of their wealth in state income taxes. More on the tax here.
Against: A group of California billionaires has poured nearly $100 million into competing ballot measures designed to weaken or kill the tax. Some critics warn the tax could drive billionaires out of California, costing the state revenue. Gov. Gavin Newsom opposes it for that reason. His alternative is a national tax on wealth over $100 million — one of several proposals he calls an “economic reset for America,” aimed at reducing wealth inequality nationwide. Read his proposals in full here.
Standstill: A federal judge declared a mistrial in the case against the man accused of starting the 2025 Palisades Fire in Los Angeles. Jurors told the judge they were “at a standstill” and couldn’t come to a unanimous decision. A retrial is set to begin in October.
Chilling: Earlier this week, we told you about the extraordinary sentences handed down in the Trump administration’s first major terrorism case against alleged members of an “antifa cell.” Eight people received a combined 450 years in prison for events surrounding an anti-ICE demonstration outside Texas’ Prairieland detention center last July. A former marine reservist received 100 years for non-fatally shooting a police officer. Maricela Rueda received 70 years. Six other defendants received 50 years each. We want to call your attention to another sentence, and what it could mean for political speech and protest. Daniel Sanchez Estrada was sentenced to 30 years in prison. He wasn’t involved in what prosecutors described as a premeditated attack on the detention center. In fact, he wasn’t at the protest at all. He was convicted of concealing documents after he moved a box of zines from his home following a jailhouse call from his wife, Rueda. The box contained journals and political publications with anarchist and anti-government writings. The material was legal and protected by the First Amendment. He received 30 years because the prosecution effectively treated shared political beliefs as shared responsibility for a crime. The case relied on Trump’s domestic terror memorandum, which directs federal agencies to target “anti-fascist” networks and defines the threat to include anyone with “extreme viewpoints on immigration, radical gender ideology, and anti-American sentiment.” The DOJ warned that these convictions “will not be the last”. An expert at the National Lawyers Guild said the precedent could expose people to terrorism charges for “very simple, mainstream activism.”
Passing Judgment: The Supreme Court issued several significant rulings this week, siding with gun owners, the administration’s immigration agenda, and manufacturers of allegedly carcinogenic chemicals.
Round Up: The Court voted 7–2 to shield Monsanto, owned by Bayer, from thousands of lawsuits alleging the company failed to warn consumers about possible cancer risks from exposure to glyphosate, the main ingredient in the weedkiller Roundup. MAHA reacted with fury. A growing body of evidence links glyphosate to cancer; in 2015 the World Health Organization classified it as “probably carcinogenic.” But the EPA, in Trump’s first term, determined glyphosate was “not likely” to cause cancer in humans. In Trump’s second term, the EPA forbade states from placing their own warnings on products it deems safe. Bayer argued it cannot be sued for omitting a warning that federal regulators did not require and that states were barred from adding. This despite the fact that the EPA’s determination that glyphosate is safe was successfully challenged — in part because it relied on studies influenced by Monsanto — and the agency agreed to issue a new determination later this year.
Ladder, Lifted: The Court voted 6–3 to allow the Trump administration to turn back asylum seekers at the southern border. Critics, and the three dissenting justices, argued this decision violates Congress’ authority over immigration enforcement and could imperil the lives of refugees denied entry. Stephen Miller, whose ancestors fled antisemitic pogroms in Europe, gloated, saying that “America’s doors are closed fully to asylum seekers.”
No Protections: The Court also voted 6–3 to allow the Trump administration to remove Temporary Protected Status from more than 350,000 migrants from Haiti and Syria. They are now vulnerable to deportation. Attorneys representing some of the migrants warned the decision would “directly result in thousands of innocent people dying violent, needless deaths.” The ruling may also affect hundreds of thousands of other people in the country under Temporary Protected Status.
Fire Away: The Court voted 6–3 to overturn a Hawaii gun law that required firearm owners to get permission from owners of private property — grocery stores, coffee shops, etc. — before carrying a concealed weapon inside. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson argued in her dissent that the Court’s conservatives were “protecting guns, not consistently preserving any principle of law.”
Facing the Music: John Bolton, former Trump national security adviser and now outspoken critic, pled guilty to mishandling classified information. Under the plea deal, he faces up to five years in prison — far less than he might’ve otherwise received — and a $2.25 million fine. Bolton’s lawyer argued his punishment was a double standard, saying Bolton “kept a record to preserve history, but Donald Trump kept secrets to serve himself” and went unpunished.
Keep reading for information on…
Why a judge concluded the DOJ is violating the Epstein Transparency Act
What a billionaire Epstein associate refused to say in a closed-door hearing
The final fate of Alligator Alcatraz
Why the Park Service agrees with Trump’s Reflecting Pool vandalism claims — and why critics think the call might be coming from inside the house
Days after stunning election victories, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani achieves an unprecedented and controversial policy goal
Venezuela was hit by one of the strongest earthquakes in its history — then, seconds later, an even stronger earthquake struck
Why missiles are flying in Iran, once again
How one young man became the first in an entire region to be cured of a devastating disease
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