curated citations to news sources
NY Times: How the Minnesota Shootings Suspect Was Caught
A two-day manhunt ended Sunday night as police captured the suspect, Vance Boelter, in a field. No force was used.
(NY Times more…)
Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – June 15, 2025
Yesterday began with the horrific news that a gunman had shot two Minnesota lawmakers and their spouses in what Minnesota governor Tim Walz said appeared to be a “politically motivated assassination.” State representative Melissa Hortman, who was the top Democrat in the Minnesota House, and her husband, Mark, both died in the attack at their home in Brooklyn Park, a city near Minneapolis. The gunman also shot Democratic Minnesota state senator John Hoffman nine times and his wife, Yvette, eight at their home in Champlin. The hospital reports they are in stable condition after surgery.
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MAGA Republicans are working hard to identify Boelter with what Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) called “Marxism” and Senator Bernie Moreno (R-OH) called “the extreme left,” but as investigative journalist Phil Williams of NewsChannel 5 Nashville notes, public databases show Boelter was in the past a registered Republican. His evangelical religion and his anti-LGBTQ and anti-abortion stances reflect MAGA positions. Boelter’s roommate told reporters that Boelter was a “strong” supporter of President Trump.
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While Trump and his loyalists are trying to project an image of invincibility, their actual power seems to be faltering.
Ten years ago tomorrow, on June 16, 2015, Trump rode down the escalator at Trump Tower to a lobby filled with extras, to announce he was running for president. One reporter called his speech, in which he claimed that Mexico was sending criminals and rapists to the United States, “eccentric.”
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)
Dean Blundell: The Ideological Trail of Vance Boelter: MAGA Devotion, Christian Nationalism, and a Deadly Attack on Democracy
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Christina Pagel: America’s descent into the suppression of dissent
Tracking the Trump administration’s actions across four domains of suppressing dissent.
- make it harder for people to know what there is to dissent to, but undermining press freedom
- make it harder for people to defend themselves against the state by systematically weakening the independence of law enforcement, attacking law firms who bring cases against the state, and attacking judges who rule against the state
- target perceived prominent enemies of the state directly (both individuals and organisations) to prevent them becoming a focus for stimulating dissent and to discourage others from taking a stand
- to suppress protests, to punish protesters or to punish others who are directly dissenting
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(Christina Pagel more…)Daily Beast: Trump Orders ICE Vengeance on ‘No Kings’ Protest Cities
RETRIBUTION MOVE
President gives nakedly political order for law enforcement to target Democratic cities.Bloomberg: Trump Sued Over ‘Intimidation’ Campaign Against Major Law Firms
The American Bar Association on Monday sued President Donald Trump, challenging an “intimidation policy” it says the White House is using to try to sideline some of the country’s top law firms.
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Raw Story: Canadian PM ‘shuts off’ Trump as press conference heads ‘off the rails’
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney interrupted question and answer session with Donald Trump at Monday’s G7 summit before the U.S. president got too much into the weeds discussing ICE raids on “blue cities,” according to CNN correspondent Kristen Holmes.
As Trump began to rehash his usual talking points, claiming former President Joe Biden allowed “murderers, killers, people from gangs, people from jails,” into the United States, the Canadian leader — and host of the meeting which is being held in Alberta — stepped in.
“If you don’t mind, just — I’m going to exercise my role, if you will, as G7 chair, since we have a few more minutes with the president and his team, and then we actually have to start the meeting to address some of these big issues,” Carney said.
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Ruth Ann Crystal MD: COVID and Health News 6/15/25
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On June 9, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. dismissed all 17 members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), replacing them with new appointees including vaccine critics like Robert Malone and Martin Kulldorff. Martin Kulldorff has earned thousands of dollars as a paid expert witness in lawsuits against Merck’s Gardasil HPV vaccine. The American Medical Association (AMA) and other groups called for an immediate reversal and a Senate investigation, emphasizing that ACIP plays a vital role in setting U.S. vaccine schedules, school requirements, and outbreak responses. The AMA emphasized that vaccines are proven to significantly reduce hospitalizations and deaths, and stressed that vaccine policy must stay independent and grounded in scientific evidence.
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Science magazine reported this week that more than 340 NIH employees signed the “Bethesda Declaration” to protest the cancellation or freeze of approximately 2,100 research grants and $2.6 billion in contracts, warning that politicizing funding decisions undermines science and endangers public health. They urge NIH leadership to restore peer‑reviewed grants, resume halted trials, and defend unbiased biomedical research from political interference. “A second letter backing the Bethesda Declaration has so far been signed by 19 Nobel Prize winners and two former NIH leaders, among others.”
(Ruth Ann Crystal MD more…)James Eagle: Do Americans die earlier?
…America’s healthcare bill is sky‑high yet its citizens die younger. The average American pays $12,555 per head, which means the US spends 2.5× the OECD average on healthcare. This matters because that level of spending represents 17.6 % of US GDP. This level of spending is crowding out wages, dividends and fiscal fire‑power.
NewsNation: RFK Jr.’s vaccine moves raise fears ahead of next school year
Your Local Epidemiologist: A dose of rejuvenation, infectious disease update, Pride Month, and sunscreen rumors
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Snopes: Yes, U.S. Army secretary said there is a soldier stationed on the moon. (There isn’t)
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Gil Duran: Startup seeks Trump AI emergency for California tech city
A company called Frontier Valley wants Donald Trump to declare a “national security emergency” so it can take over part of Alameda Point in the San Francisco Bay and build a privately run, AI-focused tech city.
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Robert Reich: Why Standing Up Against Trump is Good for Business
Corporations are just brands and talent. Surrendering to Trump sacrifices both.
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Guardian: ‘Extremely disturbing and unethical’: new rules allow VA doctors to refuse to treat Democrats, unmarried veterans
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Medical experts said the implications of rule changes uncovered by the Guardian could be far-reaching.They “seem to open the door to discrimination on the basis of anything that is not legally protected”, said Dr Kenneth Kizer, the VA’s top healthcare official during the Clinton administration. He said the changes open up the possibility that doctors could refuse to treat veterans based on their “reason for seeking care – including allegations of rape and sexual assault – current or past political party affiliation or political activity, and personal behavior such as alcohol or marijuana use”.
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Apple Insider: Trump Mobile’s made-in-US iPhone 17 competitor is really made in China
… is made by Wingtech, owned by the Chinese-owned manufacturer Luxshare. … believed to be built in Kiaxing, Wuxi, or Kunming, in China.
Tracking the Lawsuits Against Trump’s Agenda
Project 2025 Tracker
DOGE Tracker
ProPublica: Elon Musk’s Demolition Crew
Wired: 6 Tools for Tracking the Trump Administration’s Attacks on Civil Liberties
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