curated news excerpts & citations
… trying to ‘unbury the lede’
Harriet Torry @ WSJ:
U.S. Economic Growth Slowed to 1.5% in Second Quarter
U.S. economic growth slowed in the second quarter, weighed down by strong imports to fuel the artificial-intelligence boom.
The AI surge has become such a huge part of the economy that it’s a big growth driver and also affects trade in a way that can offset some of that growth. Specifically, high demand for imported components like semiconductors weighs against the U.S. growth calculation because the products aren’t made in the U.S.
Robert Reich: The Incredibly Shrinking American Workforce
This month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the labor participation rate — the percentage of people of working age who are working or actively looking for work — is now down to 61.5 percent. That’s 0.6 percentage points lower than it was at the first of the year.
In other words, the U.S. economy has lost 1 million workers since January.
It’s the lowest level of labor participation in 50 years outside the pandemic.
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Adeel Hassan @ NY Times:
A U.S. Citizen Deleted His Phone’s Data. Now He Faces a Felony Charge.Federal prosecutors charged a man returning to the United States with obstruction because he gave them a passcode that erased his smartphone during a customs search.
(Adeel Hassan @ NY Times more…)
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Lisa Needham @ Public Notice: The new “science golden age” looks suspiciously like a grift
Trump wants to run scientific research like his family business.
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Jack Hopkins: If You Wanted to Test the Most Dangerous Court in America, You’d Pick a Monster. They Picked a 47-Year-Old Grandmother.
No charges. No criminal history. A green card and a classified file she will never be permitted to read.
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Joyce Vance: The Ever Expanding, Power Hungry Trump Presidency
(Joyce Vance more…)
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James Eagle: Poorer countries favour China more positively
(James Eagle more…)
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Alex Hannaford: The influencer teaching millions to fear solar
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Nick Turse @ Intercept: Iran Has Figured Out How to Overwhelm U.S. Air Defenses
As the U.S. runs short of interceptor missiles, Iran is carrying out strikes with a mix of attack drones and advanced ballistic missiles.
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Thom Hartmann: That Sign in Front of the Smithsonian is More Dangerous Than You Think
Trump’s Smithsonian purge follows the same roadmap used by Stalin, Hitler, Mao, and every strongman who came before…
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Ken Klippenstein: The Pentagon’s New Missile Gap
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Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – July 30, 2026
Sixty years ago today, on July 30, 1966, Medicare and Medicaid went into effect. A year earlier, President Lyndon B. Johnson had signed the Medicare and Medicaid amendments Congress had made to the Social Security Act of 1935, establishing two national health insurance programs. Medicare used federal funds to cover seniors, while Medicaid covered people who qualified on the basis of income using federal and state funding. The programs expanded health insurance to millions of uninsured Americans.
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)Rebecca Robbins, Reed Abelson @ NY Times: Trump Will End Subsidies for Medicare Drug Premiums
Millions of older Americans could pay more for their prescription drug coverage next year.
Brockovich AI Data Center Reporting
resources tracking the “Andes” hantavirus outbreak
Apocalypse Early Warning System
Al Jazeera Death toll and injuries live tracker
Mike Ludwig @ truthout: ICE Says 51 People Died in Custody Under Trump. Experts Say That’s an Undercount.
ICE Accountability Project
Sergio Martínez-Beltrán, Ximena Bustillo, Jasmine Garsd @ NPR: Deaths of migrants in ICE custody hit record high under Trump
- July 14: Juan Jairo Coronilla Duran
- July 13: Joan Sebastian Guerrero
- July 7: Lorenzo Salgado Araujo
- June 4: Mamuka Artmeladze
- April 16: Aled Damien Carbonell-Betancourt
- March 25: Jose Guadalupe Ramos-Solano
- March 16: Royer Perez-Jimenez
- March 14: Naseer Paktiawil
- February 25: Nurul Amin Shah Alam
April 1 – Jennifer Peltz and Jake Offenhartz @ AP: Death of a refugee left at a Buffalo doughnut shop by Border Patrol is ruled a homicide - January 24: Alex Pretti
- January 14: Heber Sanchaz Dominguez
- January 14: Victor Manuel Diaz
- January 9: Parady La
- January 7: Renée Good
- January 6: Luis Beltran Yanez-Cruz
- January 5: Luis Gustavo Nunez Caceres
- January 3: Geraldo Lunas Campos
- December 31, 2025: Keith Porter
Suffering Under President Obama
NACDL Criminal Case Tracker
Texas Tribune: A Walk for Peace: photos of Fort Worth monks’ journey to Washington
Walk for Peace – Dhammacetiya – The Ancient Sacred Buddhist Scripture Stupas
Margaret Chase Smith: Declaration of Conscience
NPR: January 6, 2021: A visual archive
Accountability Initiative ICE List
GriftMatrix
Trump Action Tracker
Timeline: Tracking the Trump Justice Department’s Anti-Voting Shift
Tracking the Lawsuits Against Trump’s Agenda
Trump Pardons Database
Project 2025 Tracker
DOGE Tracker
ProPublica: Elon Musk’s Demolition Crew
Wired: 6 Tools for Tracking the Trump Administration’s Attacks on Civil Liberties
