curated news excerpts & citations
… trying to ‘unbury the lede’
Gregory Andrews:
The Graph That Should Be Front-Page News
Every so often the Earth produces a signal that is impossible to ignore. This graph is one of them. It shows sea-surface temperatures in the Niño 3.4 region of the equatorial Pacific, one of the most important parts of the Earth’s climate system. Each blue line represents a different year since 1982. The red line is this year. It doesn’t just set a new record. It has departed entirely from the range of previous observations.
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The question is whether we’re willing to pay attention and act before the changes become too large, too rapid and too interconnected for us to manage.
Zahra Hirji, Laura Millan, Joe Wertz, Ana Campoy @ Bloomberg: Funding Cuts Threaten World’s Champion For Cutting Heat Deaths
Few places have had as much success in tackling heat-related deaths as Maricopa County in Arizona, which saw fatalities fall in the past two years after almost a decade of increases. But now officials are contending with a blazing summer and looming cuts to funding.
Fiona Macdonald @ BBC: ‘At risk of horrific contamination’: The Soviet nuclear submarine wreck that is a ‘ticking time bomb’
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Dylan Tusinski, Reuben M. Schafir @ Portland Press Herald: Who is Joan Sebastian Guerrero, the man killed by ICE in Biddeford?
Details are trickling out about the man who was shot dead in the street by federal immigration agents early Monday morning.
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Presente! Maine confirmed that Guerrero was authorized to work in the United States and had been issued a Social Security number.
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Guerrero worked as a food delivery driver, according to Madalynn Gagne, who works at the Applebee’s in Biddeford. He would pick up orders several times each week, often with his family waiting in the car.
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Recent photos from Guerrero’s Facebook page showed him grinning with his partner and 3-year-old daughter.
(Dylan Tusinski, Reuben M. Schafir @ Portland Press Herald more…)Rachel Ohm @ Portland Press Herald: Sen. King says Biddeford shooting victim was not intended target of warrant
Portland Press Herald: Security footage shows moments before and after ICE agents shot man in Biddeford
Heather Cox Richardson: “In a statement tonight the Department of Homeland Security claimed that the officer shot because he was “fearing for public safety.”
David Bier of the Cato Institute and Aaron Reichlin-Melnick of the Immigration Council both called out that language, noting DHS was claiming not that the officer feared for his life, but that he had a vague concern for “public safety.”
Orlando Mayorquín, Robin Stein, Devon Lum @ NY Times: Witnesses Say ICE Fired Fatal Shot Into Open Passenger Window in Houston
Alex Nguyen @ Texas Tribune: What we still don’t know about the ICE shooting in Houston
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Brian Dolinar @ Truthout: Community Activism Forced Federal Government to Abandon Plans for ICE Warehouses
Activists are now watching to see whether the Trump administration will instead further privatize immigration detention.
(Brian Dolinar @ Truthout more…)
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Michael Fanone: Racist Cop Forgets His Bodycam Is On — What He Says Ends His Career
A 27-year officer got caught trashing Somali, Latino, and Black communities on his own camera. He’s gone. The tapes his department won’t release are the actual story.
(Michael Fanone more…)
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Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – July 13, 2026
Today began with yet another demonstration of the fact that the U.S. options for extricating itself from Trump’s war on Iran with conditions anywhere near as good as they were under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) negotiated with a number of countries under President Barack Obama, or even as good as they were in February 2026 before Trump and Israeli president Benjamin Netanyahu launched air strikes on Iran, do not appear promising.
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)
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Chris Geidner: Federal judge finds Trump’s IRS case and “settlement” was “improper,” sanctions lawyers
Richard Rubin, C. Ryan Barber @ WSJ: Judge Says Trump Tried to Manipulate Legal System With IRS Lawsuit
Ruling delivers a scathing rebuke to the president over case that led to the creation of $1.8 billion fund and no-audit pledge
Joyce Vance: Judge Is A Big No On Trump’s Slush Fund
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Judd Legum: Massive giveaway to Trump donors buried in obscure government document
The administration quietly delivers a huge win to corporate poultry processors, who have donated tens of millions to Trump and his allies, at the expense of family farmers.
(Judd Legum more…)
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Miles Taylor: Trump opened an investigation into reporters. Then his own “leak” probe leaked.
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A lot of what’s going on here is “unprecedented.” First, there’s the president of the United States personally overseeing an FBI probe of reporters because of a story that “embarrassed” him. Second, and more surprisingly, there’s the fact that folks inside Trump’s own government were apparently unwilling to go along with that kind of corruption, or at least unwilling to stay quiet about it. They picked up the phone and called the very newspaper he was targeting to expose a president who is actively trying to censor the news. Third, there’s the stark reality that the censorship campaign itself is escalating to a dramatic new phase.
(Miles Taylor more…)
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John Casey @ RawStory: The worst obsessions of demented Trump just collided in one sickening post
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Trump’s beloved, and illegally obtained, new plane exists because a Gulf Muslim monarchy handed it to him. Qatar is a Muslim nation, an Arabic-speaking nation, and it bought Trump’s affection with a flying palace. He accepted it happily, repainted it in his own colors, and boarded it like an arrogant, pretentious snob.Yet when Trump wants to make the Obamas look foreign, dirty, dangerous, and illegitimate, he reaches for that same cultural signifier, Arabic script, and turns it into an expression of blistering bigotry.
(John Casey @ RawStory more…)
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Ruth Ann Crystal MD: Dr. Ruth Report 7/12/26
(Ruth Ann Crystal MD more…)
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 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
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