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Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison is suing Texas Gov. Greg Abbott for refusing to honor a request to extradite an ICE agent facing criminal charges in Minnesota. Agent Christian Castro faces multiple charges stemming from the shooting of a man during an immigration raid, including allegedly giving a false account of what happened. Abbott says he won’t sign the extradition papers until Minnesota repays federal money lost to fraud, a demand with no legal relevance to the case.
Today I spoke to Ellison about the case. He called Abbott’s refusal “anti-constitutional” and said it “defies precedent.” If Castro leaves the country, Ellison told me, “There is no escape. He’s going to stand trial in Minnesota.”
We also discussed the investigations into the killings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti. Ellison says federal authorities have handed over some evidence, but Minnesota is still waiting for the complete files. On J.D. Vance, who has called for Ellison to be investigated over fraud in Minnesota, Ellison was unsparing: “I don’t think Vance has cognitive issues. I think he has moral issues.”
On today’s news that Trump’s Education Department is moving to strip the American Bar Association of its role accrediting law schools, Ellison said, “This is classic Third Reich stuff,” saying, “Show me a totalitarian society and I will show you a government that wants to punish lawyers, punish academics, punish journalists, punish anyone and anyone who might say that what they’re doing is wrong.”
He does not mince words or shy away from a fight. Find our full conversation at the top of this email.
PS: My fancy camera decided not to cooperate today, so we went with the backup. Hence the slightly strange framing. But more importantly: Do you like the new wall color?
Also in this newsletter: 10 days without power. The court weighs in on the ballroom. The cost of Trump’s pardons. Why you should care about the bond market. Trump’s new fight with lawyers. Trump’s devoted assistant under scrutiny. Women rally for Lindsay Clancy. And in News That Doesn’t Suck, electric flight just got real.
Here Are Your Headlines
In the Dark: Desperation is mounting for tens of thousands of people across northern Indiana who are now in their tenth day without power. Many are in Gary, a majority-Black city where one-third of residents live below the poverty line. Grocery store shelves are bare, schools and businesses closed, and medications have spoiled. People are lining up for meals, searching for places to charge their phones or connect to the internet, and staying up late, afraid of looters in the dark. The utility, NIPSCO, said it could be days before power is fully restored. “We’re always in survival mode in Gary,” one resident said. “I think that’s probably why it wasn’t so much of an uproar because the first few days, it was like, ‘OK, we’re used to this.’ … But this is the second week now. It’s not OK for us to continually be in survival mode, doing the best that we can.”
Pardon Me: A new House Judiciary Committee report found that Trump’s pardons have saved white-collar criminals from paying nearly $1.7 billion in penalties owed to victims and taxpayers.
Go Ahead: Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts allowed Trump to continue work on his White House ballroom while the court considers a legal challenge against the project.
Pentagon v The Press: The Pentagon fired Eric Slavin, the editor-in-chief of Stars and Stripes — the highly regarded military news outlet, along with the paper’s publisher and one of its reporters. Slavin told the Associated Press he believes he was fired for perceived “insubordination,” after saying in an interview that he works “for Stars and Stripes. Not for the Pentagon. Not for any administration.” Stars and Stripes received some funding from the Pentagon but it has long operated with editorial independence. Until now. Under Hegseth, the Department of Defense has taken issue with its reporting about conditions on the USS Abraham Lincoln, and its objections to press restrictions at the Pentagon. The Pentagon says it defends American freedom. That includes the freedom to report objectively on the Pentagon.
The Name’s Bond: Financial experts and governments around the world are increasingly worried about the U.S. bond market and what it may signal about the U.S. economy. This week Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced that the Treasury would “at least” double some of its purchases of long-term bonds. That’s called a buyback. It didn’t go as likely planned. To understand why that matters, here’s a quick bond-market primer: Bonds are essentially loans to the government. The yield on a bond is the return investors demand for lending the government money. When investors demand higher yields, it costs the government more to borrow and more to service its enormous debt. Those higher rates can ripple through the economy. This week Bessent announced a buyback to drive yields lower. It worked, but only briefly. Within hours, yields were climbing again back near 20-year highs. Experts say Bessent’s move didn’t produce an enduring response because it didn’t address the bigger forces that are pushing yields higher. Those forces include stubbornly high inflation, which makes bonds worth less, so investors demand a better return to keep buying them. Investors are also worried about record U.S. debt and the unpredictability of Trump’s economic policies. Bessent’s buyback was, ironically, part of that story. Treasury buybacks are usually announced on a schedule. This one was unexpected. Why should you care? The bond market is a measure of investor confidence in the U.S. economy, and some experts note yields haven’t been this high since before the Great Recession. Higher yields also mean the U.S. has to spend more just to pay interest on its debt, leaving less money for everything else. And, perhaps most importantly for you, bond yields help drive the rates Americans pay on all kinds of major loans, including mortgages and car loans. Those rates are already high. And there’s the political aspect: The bond market is one place investors are registering their concern about Trump’s policies.
How Strange: Bessent this week admitted to reporters he didn’t “really understand” why oil prices had spiked, dismissing them as “noise.” In the words of a Fox News host, “Literally everyone else knows” why prices spiked. Just one day earlier, Trump announced “the most crushing economic operation ever taken against any country,” threatening “tremendous economic consequences” for any nation helping Iran.
Anti-Accreditation: The Education Department formally recommended stripping the American Bar Association’s authority to accredit law schools when it comes up for renewal next month. The ABA reviews nearly 200 law schools. Its accreditation can determine whether schools qualify for federal student loan funds and, in many states, whether graduates can sit for the bar exam. This is a sharp escalation in the Trump administration’s longstanding feud with the ABA, which Republicans accuse of having a liberal bias. The group won a lawsuit against the Justice Department last year, after arguing the DOJ illegally canceled millions of dollars in grants for domestic violence and sexual assault services because the ABA had criticized the administration. The ABA also suspended a diversity rule for law schools shortly after Trump took office. Trump has called accreditation his “secret weapon” to influence and reshape higher education, and critics warn he is trying to use it to pressure schools to fall in line with his views. “This is classic Third Reich stuff,” Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison told News Not Noise. He said he thinks this effort against the ABA won’t succeed. (Watch the rest of our conversation at the top of this newsletter.)
What’s In a Name: The Pentagon is considering renaming an aircraft carrier now under construction, potentially after Trump. For years, the carrier was supposed to be named after Doris Miller, a Black World War II hero. “This is a slap in the face to every war hero and every service member who has worn the uniform,” the NAACP’s president said. “It’s beyond comprehension for a president to want his own name on a Navy ship while our armed forces are living in deteriorating conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln.”
Cabin Fever: Trump is also getting involved in how the Navy builds its ships. He ordered the Pentagon to replace the modern system used to launch planes from this aircraft carrier — which is already half-built — with an older steam catapult system. Experts warn it could cost billions while leaving the Navy with a system that is more expensive to operate and less reliable.
Making History: Progressive state Sen. Aisha Wahab won the special election to replace former Rep. Eric Swalwell, who resigned in April after being accused of sexual assault. It’s another one of these races where Super PACs connected to AIPAC poured more than $6 million into supporting Wahab’s opponent, Bay Area Rapid Transit Director Melissa Hernandez. Wahab will be the first Afghan American to serve in Congress. She and Hernandez will face each other again in November.
All’s Not Well for Swalwell: The FBI raided former Rep. Eric Swalwell’s Washington, D.C. home and seized his electronic devices at San Francisco airport. Agents are reportedly using civil rights statutes to investigate allegations of sexual harassment and assault. That’s unusual; sex crimes are usually prosecuted by state and local authorities.
Always There: The White House is reportedly furious about all the attention on Natalie Harp, Trump’s omnipresent assistant. Observe the internet’s obsession here and here. In our opinion, much of this is tabloid noise. But it also raises legitimate questions about her access and influence. Harp’s devotion to Trump is quite something. She reportedly writes him fawning letters, declaring he is “all that matters” to her and that she is “unworthy” of him. She once sprinted after his golf cart rather than be left behind and jumped in the trunk of an SUV when there was no room for her in his motorcade. She posts to Trump’s social media accounts on Trump’s behalf, potentially including the racist video depicting the Obamas as apes, and prints articles for him to read on paper. But there are more serious concerns. For about a year, Harp reportedly resisted seeking a routine security clearance for unknown reasons, until Trump personally intervened. She also has a remarkable degree of control over the information and people Trump has access to, something that has reportedly frustrated and concerned others in the West Wing. Some have apparently tried to limit her access to him. They failed.
Failed By the System: Lindsay Clancy’s defense rested its case, arguing she should not be held criminally responsible for killing her three children because she was suffering from postpartum psychosis. Multiple witnesses, including Clancy’s family members, testified about her devotion to her children and declining mental health before their deaths. Clancy’s former mother-in-law described her as a “wonderful mother” who was “begging for help.” A psychologist who treated her after the killings testified she had a “mental disease” and said government psychiatric testing found no evidence she was exaggerating or faking her symptoms. “She really loves” her children, the psychologist testified, “and thinks of them every single day.” Hundreds of supporters, mostly women, gathered outside the courthouse, many wearing pink shirts emblazoned with phrases like “She Needed Help.” They rallied to support Clancy and call attention to the failures in women’s mental health care. “Women are being dismissed, neglected and ignored when we speak up,” one attendee said. “We’re scared because nobody takes us seriously.”
News That Doesn’t Suck
Uplifting News, Literally: If you’ve taken a flight recently, you’ll know first-hand how much prices have skyrocketed. That’s largely due to fuel costs, which are up 70% from last year, thanks to rising oil prices. “High oil prices will inevitably mean higher ticket prices,” the director general of an airlines group said. “There’s just no way to avoid that.” That might not be true for much longer. A company called Heart Aerospace just successfully flew a 30-seat jet for 27 minutes, powered entirely by a battery. No jet fuel involved, at all. It’s the largest fully battery-powered aircraft ever flown. Electric flight has a few major advantages. For one thing, it’s greener. Air travel accounts for 2.5% of total CO2 emissions, and replacing just 10% of current fuel demand would mean saving 700,000 barrels of oil per day. Electric engines are also quieter and could be over 40% cheaper to operate compared to traditional ones. They have fewer moving parts and could be charged with locally generated electricity, providing more independence from the all-too capricious oil market. The main problem is that batteries are simply too heavy. So manufacturers like Heart Aerospace are starting with hybrids. Major airlines are interested; these small planes could be perfect for regional flights. It will likely be years before they’re taking passengers in the air, but this voyage represents a major step forward in the field of electric flight. If things develop like they did for cars, that field might arrive sooner than you’d think. Would you take an electric flight?
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