MS NOW host Chris Hayes eloquently described the blue tsunami of Democratic wins in last night’s midterm elections as a “repudiation” of the Republicans’ “grossness” and “cruelty” of attacking transgender people.
“I was really upset by the the grossness and the cruelty of the closing message of Republicans in Michigan about the things they said about Abdul El-Sayed,” Hayes said in a recent broadcast, “but also the attack on trans folks that has just become so toxic and so common and so cruel and so ceaseless.”
“It was every ad, every ad. You watch a Sunday football game, and it was, ‘These people are the reason. This is the problem. This is the thing you have to think about.’ And they pumped hundreds of millions of dollars. And I saw Republicans, hardcore Republicans, when asked in man-on-the-street interviews, ‘What are you voting for?’ It’s, ‘I want to get you know boys out of girls’ sports.'”
“And to see the repudiation of that approach specifically, when that pollution was pumped into the discourse with hundreds of millions of dollars, like that people are like, ‘I don’t care about that and I reject that,’ there’s, like, some salvaging of decency for people that are our neighbors and our friends and our loved ones, who are a tiny minority of this population, who somehow have become the ritualized scapegoat for an entire political party that spent hundreds of millions of dollars trying to make everyone fear and hate them,” Hayes said.
“I’m just very, very grateful that that did not work.”
agreed.
'general hospital'?
willow got the austrailain doctor to exam nina. she had to pull strings to get this to happen. nina had just been told that jack's body had been found and that carly and cassadine were suspected.
josslyn went to the p.d. to see if she could help carly. she figured out that carly was hiding something and carly said she was protecting some 1 but not the killer. she was protecting some 1 who was innocent. (she means charlotte and danny who found jack's body in the pool before drew and ava moved it to the preserve and buried it there.) josslyn told her that she had to help herself because josslyn has enough going on. carly asked about that and josslyn told her about jude jax, her cousin showring up and how he wanted to take control of the company and how he wanted to take phoebe away from brook lynn and chase.
brook lynn went to her uncle sonny to tell him that jude showed up and wants to do a dna test to prove he is really phoebe's father. brook lynn says she will do anything to keep her daughter. sonny tells her he's going to help her.
lucas texts his roommate who shows up at the hospital and says he wasn't planning on arresting carly. lucas asks fitz to look at the autopsy with him. then after they do, lucas explains his point. jack was drinking and jack took a sleeping pill (this is the thing drew gave ava to slip into jack's drink). and he was found with everything on - including socks and shoes.
why did he take a sleeping pill? if he wasn't about to go to bed, why did he take 1? lucas says some 1 drugged jack.
Wednesday, November 4, 2026. Chump is a lame duck as Democrats take control of both houses, US House Rep Robert Garcia advises the administration to "lawyer up" as he is set to become Chair of the House Oversight Committee in January, Priss Pot Pet Hegseth is involved in one scandal after another, ICE continues to attack immigrants and US citizens, and much more.
Yesterday was the last day of voting for the midterms and the results were huge and telling with Democrats taking control of both houses of Congress. Both. Chump is now a lame duck who will struggle through the next two years desperate for meaning but most of all attention. With the midterms over, the media will begin focusing on the 2028 presidential election which will further sideline Chump. It is the end of his era.
As Ben (MEIDAS TOUCH) notes in the video above, Chump is now saying he wasn't on the ballot. This despite the fact that he has declared he was, that he's said over and over. "Pretend I'm on the ballot." He said it as midterm convention in Dallas back in September, he repeated it non-stop on his DESPERATION TOUR.
President Trump implored voters over the course of the midterm campaign to “pretend I’m on the ballot.” He said it not once, not twice, but 47 times this fall.
And voters did -- just not the way he hoped.
The Democratic wave in the congressional elections on Tuesday amounted to a stinging rebuke of a deeply unpopular president after more than a decade in which he has dominated the national stage. More than any of his predecessors, Mr. Trump deliberately made the midterm contest a referendum on himself, only to pay the price.
The electoral backlash extended even into deep red states and indicated that Mr. Trump has lost his hold over the coalition that lifted him to the White House twice. Frustrated by high gas prices, an intractable war with Iran and allegations of flagrant profiteering by Mr. Trump and members of his circle, voters who previously took a chance on an outsider promising change either rejected his party or stayed home.
As of early Wednesday morning, the Democratic margin of victory in the overall national vote for House seats was expected to be about 13 percentage points, the largest that either party has lodged in a congressional election since at least 1976, according to estimates by The New York Times. It will dwarf even the margins that the Republicans won in their two big landslide victories of modern times when they defeated congressional Democrats when Bill Clinton held the White House in 1994 and Barack Obama was president in 2010.
Thanks to redistricting, that margin may not translate into as many seats as the winners gained in those watershed years. Gerrymandered House districts leave far fewer seats available for poaching by the other party than in the past. But the overall margin of Democratic victory indicates that while the president has two more years left in office and can still wield power to great effect, Americans are signaling the beginning of the end of the Trump era.
A little bit earlier today, MS NOW's MORNING JOE reviewed the results.
There are all sorts of victories from last night and all are worthy of praise. We'll note that Keisha Bottoms won the office of governor in Georgia and this will make her the first Black female governor in the United States, Christopher Wiggins (THE ADVOCATE) notes, "New Hampshire voters have elected Chris Pappas to the U.S. Senate, making the Democratic congressman the first out gay man elected to the chamber and preserving a Senate seat for his party," Johnny Perez-Gonzalez (WHYY) notes US House Rep Sarah McBride became the first openly transgender member of the House of Representatives in 2024 and that she was re-elected last night, Edith Olmstead (THE NEW REPUBLIC) notes Peggy "Flanagan will replace Democratic Senator Tina Smith, making her the first Native woman in the U.S. Senate," Hafiz Rashid (THE NEW REPUBLIC) notes, "Michigan voted to send Democrat Abdul El-Sayed to the Senate Tuesday night, making him the first Muslim senator," Texas and Kansas made history with their slate of candidates winning elections that Dems have not won in decades.
The Trump administration’s hyper-politicized military environment apparently has thousands of active-duty military members looking towards the exit.
A survey by Common Defense Civic Engagement, a grassroots veterans organization, found that 53 percent of active-duty service members want to leave because their service is becoming more politicized.
Another 45 percent of polled respondents shared that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s policy changes and the ensuing instability had made them consider leaving their stations sooner rather than later.
The poll also found that 67 percent of active-duty respondents felt that the recent policy decisions affecting America’s military branches were being made for political gain rather than mission readiness.
[. . .]
The survey, which was conducted in September and released in October, reported that 50 percent of respondents disapproved of Donald Trump’s job as commander-in-chief. Those polled felt similarly about Hegseth, who received a 45 percent approval rating and a 50 percent disapproval rating.
Like the military, the rest of the American people weren't happy with Chump's antics. They sent a very clear message.
So what happens now? Thomas Kika (ALTERNET) notes David Rothkopf warned Joanna Coles on THE DAILY BEAST podcast:
Without Republicans in control of Congress to rubber-stamp his agenda or stand aside while he pursues whatever ends he wants, Rothkopf further predicted that Trump will go to increasingly dangerous lengths to keep getting the attention he craves, possibly involving his well-established fixation on nucelar weapons.
“Particularly if Congress is taken away from him as an option, it’s all going to be whatever goes on inside his head,” Rothkopf said. “We’re already watching the decay of this mind. I mean, there are all these early signs of dementia and everything else, but the next couple of years are going to be like watching a nuclear meltdown: the Chernobyl inside Donald Trump’s head.”
He added: “Trump has a relationship with nuclear weapons that should scare the s—— out of us all because he does consider it. He does want to think about it. And there are other stories of [him] saying, ‘Well, why don’t we use nukes?’ And military people saying, 'No.' I think there are military people who are already deeply fed up with Trump and have seen the damage... he and [Defense Secretary Pete] Hegseth have done to the military in manifold ways, who would resist. I really do think that’s a bridge too far.”
Abuse of the rule of law and shredding of the CONSTITUION account for some of the votes against Chump in the midterms. Erin Keller (INDEPENDENT) reports:
The former head of the FBI’s Chicago office is suing senior Justice Department officials, alleging he was forced to resign over his refusal to pursue politically motivated investigations into anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement protesters.
Douglas DePodesta, a 24-year bureau veteran, filed the lawsuit Monday, accusing federal officials of pressuring him to target people opposed to the Trump administration, The Associated Press reported.
He also claims Andrew Boutros, the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, sought his removal and later blamed him for the collapse of a high-profile case against six protesters.
DePodesta, whose departure was announced over the summer, told the ABC7 Chicago I-Team that he did not leave the bureau voluntarily.
"I was forced to resign. This was by no way voluntary," DePodesta said in an interview published Monday. "I was ordered by the highest levels of the FBI that I needed to leave my position."
The lawsuit names FBI Director Kash Patel, Attorney General Todd Blanche, Boutros, the Justice Department and the FBI as defendants. It alleges that "Boutros initiated and caused unconstitutional actions taken against DePodesta."
Boutros is accused of pressuring senior officials to remove DePodesta after the prosecution of the so-called “Broadview Six” fell apart. Those six were protestors who were prosecuted for protests near an ICE facility in Broadview, Illinois.
That sounds like something in need of a Congressional investigation.
Several watchdog organizations have sued the U.S. Department of Defense and Secretary Pete Hegseth over a newly formed advisory committee that includes figures such as Elon Musk, citing fears over "private interests" and a lack of transparency with the public.
The 37-page complaint alleges that Hegseth unlawfully created the committee named "Project Meridian: the Future of Warfare," is keeping its records secret, and is composed of "private-sector membership" that "raises precisely the type of conflict-of-interest concerns" that the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) "was designed to address."
Consequently, the nonprofit groups say, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia should bar Project Meridian from conducting operations until the Department of Defense changes its practices.
[. . .]
The watchdogs point specifically to FACA, a law that "governs the establishment, operation, and termination of advisory committees within the executive branch of the Federal Government." Among other things, FACA requires that a federal advisory committee that includes nongovernmental members "make its records and meetings open to the public, and be fairly balanced in its membership."
That is not the case with Project Meridian, according to the complaint.
"No members of Project Meridian provide a meaningful counterweight to the biases and profit-driven view of Project Meridian's current non-government employee members," the lawsuit states, pointing to the only government employees in the project reporting to Hegseth and other members having ties to President Donald Trump.
US House Rep Robert Garcia, re-elected last night, will be the Chair of the House Oversight Committee. Last night, he advised the administration, "Lawyer up." Priss Pot might want to consider doing so immediately. Here's the press release from the Democrats on the House Oversight Committee:
Today, Rep. Robert Garcia, Ranking Member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, released the following statement after Democrats secured a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives. Following this win, Garcia will become Chairman of the House Oversight Committee, where he has vowed to take on the Trump Crime Family, corporate corruption, DHS and ICE abuses, and the cover-up of the Epstein files. His statement can be found below.
Trump always needs a fall guy. After the 2018 midterms, in which Democrats picked up 40 seats and regained a House majority, the role fell to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, whom Trump had been itching to fire over the Russiagate investigation. Within a few weeks, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke also “resigned” under a cloud of scandal. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis left office around the same time, not because Trump was displeased with Mattis but because Mattis was displeased with Trump. “We’re looking at a lot of different things, including the Cabinet,” Trump said the day after the 2018 election. “You know, it’s very common after the midterms. I didn’t want to do anything before the midterms.”
The most obvious reason to dump Hegseth is that Trump’s Iran war enraged voters by driving up oil prices. Less than one month into the war, Trump was already positioning himself to blame his defense secretary if it went badly. “I called a lot of our great people,” Trump said at a public appearance with Hegseth in Tennessee, “and Pete, I think you were the first one to speak up. And you said, ‘Let’s do it, because you can’t let them have a nuclear weapon.’” Ouch!
The Atlantic’s Nancy Youssef and Jonathan Lemire reported on November 1 that Trump was asking political allies “about the job performances of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and General Dan Caine.” But the knives are out much more for Hegseth. He “is good at telling the president what he wants to hear,” one outside Trump adviser told The Atlantic. But now, Youssef and Lemire write, Trump is “searching for a scapegoat, and has focused on those who had told him that a war with Iran would be quick and decisive.”
Congress can’t stand Hegseth. That articles of impeachment have been drawn up for Hegseth is perhaps no great distinction. The same happened to former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, ex–Attorney General Pam Bondi, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr., and Education Secretary Linda McMahon. But in Hegseth’s case, the impeachment resolution was introduced by Hegseth’s fellow Republican, Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky. Massie introduced his impeachment bill as a privileged resolution, which meant the House was required to vote on it within two days. Fearing it would actually pass, House Speaker Mike Johnson called an early campaign-season recess to kill it. Last week, Massie told a reporter that he would reintroduce this resolution after the midterms. “Trump should fire Hegseth to avoid Hegseth’s impeachment,” Massie said on X.
Once upon a time, when the US government went into a court room, the judge could expect that they'd be telling the truth. Under Chump? Liars all over the place. Ashlyn Walker (OK) report:
Former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and former Attorney General Pam Bondi have been thrust into an explosive federal court ruling after a judge found that an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer fabricated arrest records and lied under oath, OK! can reveal.
According to court documents obtained by OK!, U.S. District Judge Mustafa Kasubhai issued a 50-page ruling on November 2, finding that federal immigration authorities repeatedly violated an injunction restricting warrantless arrests in Oregon.
In a stunning finding, the judge determined that an ICE officer had falsified information in official government records to justify an immigration arrest.
The court also found that the officer gave false testimony under oath while attempting to explain discrepancies in the documentation.
The findings emerged during proceedings examining whether federal immigration authorities had complied with an earlier court order governing arrests without judicial warrants.
The ruling raises serious questions about the accuracy of federal immigration records and the government’s compliance with judicial oversight.
A federal judge in Oregon wants more ICE agents on the witness stand after finding that an officer lied in an official arrest record, saying live testimony helped expose it.
U.S. District Judge Mustafa T. Kasubhai, a Biden appointee, said the case showed why courts should hear directly from government officers when their accounts are disputed, rather than rely solely on written statements.
“Evaluating live testimony is a time-tested method for truth finding,” Kasubhai wrote in court filings reviewed by Newsweek. “Written declarations are convenient, but insufficient on their own when witnesses are willing to lie.”
“Live testimony is necessary. Examination and cross-examination are necessary,” the judge continued.
[. . .]
The judge said the discrepancy might not have been discovered had the officer not been required to appear and answer questions under oath.
“This case underscores what happens if people were not called to testify under oath in a courtroom, if as a society we do not demand that government agents explain their actions, and if the public fails to shine a spotlight on what is happening under cover,” Kasubhai wrote, “people with authority know they will not be held to account.”
Their days of lying and getting away with it are over. We've noted the lying that Chump's officials and officers have repeatedly carried out in courts and we've noted that they no longer deserve the presumption that they will tell the truth. When you are caught lying repeatedly, you have destroyed your own reputation. Rahman notes in his article:
Kasubhai also said he would no longer give the defendants the “presumption of regularity,” which generally allows courts to assume government officials have properly carried out their duties unless evidence shows otherwise.
“This presumption no longer holds for Defendants. The evidence in this case proves as much,” the judge wrote, adding, “One must earn credibility by acting with integrity.”
Kasubhai pointed to similar concerns in courtrooms across the nation. In September, a federal judge in Massachusetts said that after “repeated misrepresentations by ICE officers,” the court would no longer give ICE the presumption of regularity.
That's what happens when you lie to the court repeatedly and that's what this administration has done repeatedly.
Footage has emerged of a masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent pulling their handgun on a dogwalker in North Hollywood, Los Angeles, during Friday’s arrest of a Venezuelan man who DHS says had received a final order of removal.
ICE adopted more aggressive tactics after Donald Trump returned to the White House in January 2025 having vowed to crack down on illegal immigration during the 2024 presidential election campaign.
[. . .]
On Friday the Los Angeles Times published a video it said had been recorded earlier that day during an ICE operation in North Hollywood, credited to Damari Butler. The footage was filmed from an elevated position, possibly a building, above the ICE agents, who are wearing tactical gear reading “ICE Police.” It has since circulated widely on social media.
The footage begins with one ICE agent detaining a man who had been pinned down on the sidewalk, while a second aims a can of spray at a bystander with two dogs on leads who had stopped at the scene. DHS told Newsweek the detained man is Angel Luis Gonzalez Lobo, describing him as “an illegal alien from Venezuela with a final order of removal.”
[. . .]
It then cuts to two agents dragging the detained man, who is shouting in Spanish and appears to be moaning in pain, towards a vehicle. During the commotion, a can of an unidentified spray is dropped by one of the agents, and the dogwalker moves over and picks it up.
He is swiftly grabbed by an ICE agent and throws the can further down the road, after which a second agent pushes him into a bush and points a pistol at his head from a range of several inches.
Pulling a gun on an unarmed citizen? ICE just thinks they can get away with anything . . . because Chump has allowed them to get away with anything. On Monday, ICE agent Mario Alberto Morales turned himself in. Emma Tucker and Isa Mudannayake (CNN) report:
The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer accused of running over an undocumented immigrant from Mexico with a vehicle was released on a $30,000 bond Monday after appearing in court for a bond hearing, according to his attorney.
A grand jury indicted Mario Alberto Morales Friday on a charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon after he allegedly struck the man, causing multiple leg fractures. Morales’ next court hearing is set for December 2, according to his attorney David Lindenmuth.
Morales was driving an ICE vehicle, a Jeep Grand Cherokee, near Houston on October 10 when he started to pursue a vehicle driven by Miguel Parra Hernandez, an ICE spokesperson said. Parra Hernandez, who has lived in Harris County for more than 30 years, has no criminal record and had no deportation order at the time of the incident, Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare said at a news conference Friday.
Parra Hernandez, 48, and another occupant in the vehicle with him began to flee on foot after Morales pursued their vehicle, Teare said. “What happened next shocked our entire community,” the district attorney said before playing video he said showed Morales striking Parra Hernandez with his vehicle.
[. . .]
The other occupant in the car with Parra Hernandez was identified by ICE as Jose Mendoza-Cervantes, who the agency said was the target of the operation. But Teare said the man by that name has been “apparently dead for nine years” and did not identify the other man with Parra Hernandez inside the vehicle.
In a previous interview with CNN, Parra Hernandez’s brother said the other man in the truck was not Mendoza-Cervantes, the person ICE said it was trying to arrest. “We don’t know him,” said Rodolfo Parra Garcia. “The person ICE was looking for was not the person with my brother.”
Jhonatan Fabricio Taizha Urgiles was walking to his car at 7:15 on a Monday morning when ICE officers asked him for his papers. Four days later, a federal judge in Philadelphia ruled that everything that followed was illegal: the handcuffs, the back seat, and the cell at the Federal Detention Center.
U.S. District Judge Catherine Henry granted his habeas petition on Friday, Oct. 30. She held that ICE arrested him without a warrant and jailed him without an individualized custody determination, which violated both federal immigration law and his due process rights. She ordered his immediate release.
The ruling is about the arrest. The story inside it is about what allegedly happened at the gate of his house. According to the petition, as recounted in Henry’s opinion, an ICE officer threatened to shoot the family dog, tased it, and then attacked Taizha Urgiles’s brother so violently that it broke his leg. At the hospital, doctors said the brother needed surgery. ICE refused it at that time.
The court did not rule on those allegations. It did not have to. The government’s own filing gave the judge enough to free him.
There was a time when Americans could reasonably assume that registering to vote was an ordinary act of citizenship, not an invitation for the federal government to start snooping around their lives.
Under Donald Trump, apparently, those days are over.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement has morphed from an agency charged with enforcing immigration laws into something far more dangerous: a heavily armed, increasingly unaccountable surveillance operation serving a president who has never met a democratic institution he didn’t want to bully, bend or break.
Trump’s personal Gestapo is no longer just about rounding up immigrants (whether in the country legally or not). It’s about building a government with the technological firepower to find people, track them, investigate them, and make them think twice about exercising their constitutional rights.
[. . .]
Because the evidence supports a much less dramatic conclusion: noncitizen voting is a real but rare problem, while the government’s appetite for collecting personal information is getting awfully big.
And somehow, we’re supposed to believe the threat to democracy is the immigrant who might cast an illegal ballot—not the government building a surveillance machine that could put millions of legitimate voters under suspicion.
That’s why ICE has become Trump’s Gestapo. The danger isn’t that America has become Nazi Germany. It’s that a government agency is accumulating the tools, secrecy and political permission to treat ordinary people as targets first and citizens with rights second.
ICE doesn’t need to know how you voted. It doesn’t need to turn the polling place into an extension of its surveillance operation. And Trump’s obsession with election fraud doesn’t give his administration permission to treat every voter like a suspect.
The right to vote isn’t a privilege bestowed by Donald Trump. It’s a right that belongs to the people.
If this administration can’t understand the difference, the rest of us had better defend that right before the machinery built to frighten immigrants becomes a tool for frightening everybody else.
Let's wind down with this from Senator Elizabeth Warren's office:
Senators raise concerns that McDonald’s is pressuring franchisees to follow AI-driven pricing recommendations that could undermine competition and drive up prices amid food affordability crisis.
Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Representative Becca Balint (D-Vt.) demanded answers from McDonald’s President and CEO Chris Kempczinski about how the company generates AI-driven pricing recommendations, whether McDonald’s pressures franchisees to follow them, and how the company assesses the technology’s potential harm to consumers and competition. The letter came after reports that the company is using artificial intelligence (AI) to determine the “optimal price” for individual menu items at each of its locations and pushing franchisees to adopt these AI-based prices.
“We are concerned that McDonald’s may be using AI to squeeze consumers into paying higher prices, and that its AI pricing tools may facilitate collusion between franchisees who should be operating as competitors,” wrote the lawmakers.
U.S. Representatives Greg Casar (D-Texas), Jesús “Chuy” García (D-Ill.), and Mary Gay Scanlon (D-Pa.) also signed the letter.
According to recent reports, McDonald’s has developed an AI-based pricing tool that it may be using to recommend specific prices for each individual store, building off the massive trove of consumer data that Amazon has collected through its loyalty program and mobile app. For example, two McDonald’s-operated restaurants just two miles apart in Fresno, California reportedly charged prices that differed by as much as 21 percent for the same menu items. The lawmakers raised particular concerns about McDonald’s use of AI-based pricing at a time when food prices are rising nationwide and particularly at McDonald’s. One report found that certain McDonald’s menu prices doubled between 2014 and 2024, rising more than three times as fast as overall inflation and driving away customers who previously relied on McDonald’s for an affordable meal.
“We are concerned that McDonald’s is using its extensive consumer data and algorithmic pricing tools to unfairly raise prices on consumers who are already struggling with high food and dining costs,” wrote the lawmakers.
The lawmakers also questioned McDonald’s for reportedly putting pressure on franchisees to adopt its pricing recommendations, including through new business standards and potential consequences for franchise renewals. They warned that encouraging competing franchisees to rely on a shared pricing tool informed by nonpublic data could undermine independent pricing decisions and raise antitrust concerns.
“While McDonald’s asserts that using data and analytics to inform pricing is a standard business practice, pressuring competing franchisees to use a shared AI pricing tool built on nonpublic data is not a standard business practice, but rather a potential antitrust issue,” continued the lawmakers.
The lawmakers requested answers by November 16, 2026, on the data and algorithms used to generate pricing recommendations, the extent to which franchisees adopt those recommendations, the pressure McDonald’s places on franchisees to comply, and the company’s assessment of potential antitrust risks.
Senator Warren has long fought consolidation, collusion, and price gouging in the food industry and across the economy, and worked to lower costs for American families:
On October 5, 2026, Senator Warren (D-Mass.) warned that giant food and grocery mergers may increase costs, harming American families, restaurants, and small businesses.
On April 14, 2026, Senator Warren (D-Mass.) and Minority Leader Schumer (D-N.Y.) led a group of colleagues in calling on the Trump administration to address anticompetitive practices in the food industry like surveillance pricing.
On March 24, 2026, Senator Warren (D-Mass.), along with four colleagues, called on the FTC to crack down on war-related price gouging.
On March 12, 2026, Senator Warren (D-Mass.) pressed Amazon on the company’s use of opaque algorithms to overcharge schools, local governments, and taxpayers for essential goods.
On February 4, 2026, Senator Warren (D-Mass.) wrote to Google with concerns that the company’s integration of AI into its shopping services could be used to set personalized prices and manipulate consumers into spending more.
In July 2025, Senator Warren (D-Mass.), Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), and Representative Chris DeLuzio (D-Pa.) reintroduced the Price Gouging Prevention Act, which would protect consumers and prohibit corporate price gouging by authorizing the FTC and state attorneys general to enforce a federal ban against grossly excessive price increases.
In October 2024, Senator Warren (D-Mass.), Bob Casey (D-Pa.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) slammed McDonald’s for squeezing customers with excessive price increases.
In October 2024, Senator Warren (D-Mass.) and Representative Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.) wrote to the CEOs of Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, and General Mills, pressing their executives on the companies’ pattern of profiteering off consumers, both through “shrinkflation” and dodging taxes on the profits they made from that price gouging.
In August 2024, Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Bob Casey (D-Pa.) sent aletter to Rodney McMullen, chairman and CEO of Kroger, raising concerns about Kroger’s use of Electronic Shelving Labels (ESLs) to potentially surge grocery prices and exploit consumers.
In May 2024, while chairing a Senate Banking Subcommittee on Economic Policy hearing, Senator Warren (D-Mass.) called out giant corporations for hiking up food prices while raking in record profits, and urged action to promote competition and bring down costs.
In May 2024, during a hearing of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, & Urban Affairs, Senator Warren (D-Mass.) called out food industry price gouging and urged action to combat unfair pricing practices.
In April 2024, Senator Warren (D-Mass.), Bob Casey (D-Pa.), and Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.)wrote to DoorDash and UberEats, the two largest delivery platforms, calling out their use of hidden junk fees.
In February 2024, Senator Warren (D-Mass.) joined Senator Bob Casey (D-Pa.) inintroducing the Shrinkflation Prevention Act to crack down on corporations that deceive consumers by selling smaller sizes of their products without lowering prices.
A Georgia man pardoned by President Donald Trump for participating in the January 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection has been charged with making threats to execute federal judges.
According to an FBI affidavit filed on October 29, Cleveland Grover Meredith Jr., 58, is accused of posting on Facebook in late April: “ALL J6 Federal JUDGES will be EXECUTED!”
The FBI alleges Meredith made the threat from Canton, Georgia, while targeting officials in Washington. He has been charged with interstate communication of threats, a federal felony.
“The message, which expressly threatened execution, constituted a true threat under the circumstances,” an FBI agent wrote in an affidavit obtained by Newsweek. “Because Meredith directed his message over the internet to public officials in Washington, D.C., the threat was made in interstate commerce.”
The affidavit noted that Meredith, who was arrested on Monday, had previously been interviewed by FBI agents on two occasions in 2024 and 2025 regarding social media posts that appeared to be threatening in nature.
none of those people should have been pardoned.
'general hostpital'?
brook lynn went to talk to josslyn. she gave her a bottled water and asked about her cousin jude jax. josslyn repeated what she's told every 1, her father said jude was never to be trusted, he's only in it for himself. brook lynn thanks her and says she'll take the bottle to recycle. josslyn says if she needed her dna all she had to do was ask. this will let brook lynn do a test on phoebe to determine if jax is her father or not without jax knowing.
trina told portia and isaiah that heather was back in town. portia told her daughter that heather was not going to hurt her, she'd make sure of it.
anna bumped into heather at bobby's and heather thought they were friends. anna isn't her friend. anna's trying to get her out of port charles. she says that she should give up sidwell's island and move out of port charles and just come back when she wants to visit with her grandson ace.
jason arrives at the police station and talks to carly who lets him know that she hasn't said anything about danny and he makes it clear that he's grateful for that.
fitz is convinced he has proof that carly killed jack (she didn't) and they think cassadine helped her.
what's the proof? the bracelet he's asked her about, he has a photo of carly wearing it.
carly can't tell him that she gave it to charlotte because she doesn't want to get charlotte and danny involved.
alexis asks ava about ethan's whereabouts. ava says he ghosted her. why? she needs him to come back to port charles. ava explains if that's what she wants, she might be disappointed. alexis grasps that ethan isn't the father and that ava knows that. alexis tells ava that her sources at the p.d. tell her jack brennan's body has been found. do they know how he died? alexis tells her she doesn't know. she doesn't know if that drug ava gave jack had anything to do with his death.
Tuesday, November 3, 2026. Today is the end of midterm voting so if you haven't voted yet, please do so. Chump drags his DESPERATION TOUR to the reflecting pool disaster he created, Priss Pot Pete Hegseth is in so much trouble -- losing Chump's favor, awarding a contract to a corrupt company, those he's pissed off gathering evidence for a possible impeachment hearing, Epstein rattles from the grave, an ICE agent who rammed a man with his car breaking the man's leg turns himself in, and much more.
I’m optimistic that the American people recognize that our democratic institutions and sense of decency can bring us together.
We have come back from crises before. We were more divided than we are today during the Revolution, the Civil War, Reconstruction and Vietnam. For 250 years, our country has prevailed in fits and starts, forging achievements, however imperfect, related to race and equality in American life.
But given our divisions, as we vote we must each ask ourselves: What kind of leadership will see us through the current crisis? Why do we continue to support leaders who are invested in deepening our divides, who tap into conspiracy theories to frighten the public, deny facts and, to quote Alexander Hamilton, “throw things into confusion,” so that they “may ‘ride the storm and direct the whirlwind’”?
Most midterm elections are seen as referendums on the policies of the president. This one is no different. But there’s something more fundamental at stake here, beyond policy differences. This election is about the people — who are empowered to check our chief executive — and the candidates running for Congress, who either have sworn an oath to the Constitution or hope to do so. Whether they are prepared to honor their oath should matter enormously to everyone who values the idea of us— the idea of America.
President Donald Trump has been met by a public display of taunts, jeers and NSFW protest signs on his final campaign stretch.
Trump, 80, visited Dubuque, Iowa on Sunday, ahead of Tuesday’s midterm election. The appearance came as the senior president reversed his initial decision to cancel the trip on Thursday, stating he would appear via telerally.
The about-face gave anti-Trump demonstrators the chance to share their thoughts with the president in person.
As the presidential motorcade passed through the streets on the way to the rally venue at the Five Flags Civic Center, a string of protesters held up signs and made obscene gestures at Trump, according to pictures captured by Reuters and Getty photographers.
One NSFW sign read, “2 Days A-----e,” referring to the date of the midterm election, while multiple people were photographed flipping Trump the bird.
Hours before voters will take to the polls in a midterm election that will be considered a review of President Donald Trump’s second term, the president spent his last major televised appearance before Election Day highlighting his troubled Reflecting Pool project and his efforts to reduce crime in Washington, D.C.
Trump spoke for nearly 20 minutes at the Reflecting Pool about the structure’s renovation project and crime and vandalism in Washington, D.C., before pivoting to the election.
He showed photos of grass he alleged had been vandalized, called former FBI Director James Comey a “dirty cop” and joked he is giving “serious consideration” to renaming the Reflecting Pool, a reference to other buildings and institutions Trump has renamed after himself during his second term.
How fitting that his tour would conclude at the site of his big failure. He hired poorly and instead of admitting that, he went on to blame the problems with the reflecting pool on vandals. Atlantic Industrial Coatings admitted that human oversight, design flaws, incompatible chemical layering, and heat-reaction issues resulted in the peeling of the blue liner. Chump couldn't admit to it because he picked them -- that's what he declared April 23rd, that he found them and he selected them. This was a no-bid contract, by the way. So it was a sign of his corruption and his incompetence and his rage. That was just the way to wind down his DESPERATION TOUR. It is his farewell tour in many ways. With him lying about the reflecting pool yet again as AP notes:
The president brought some visual aids to his speech on the Reflecting Pool, holding up photos to show what he deemed to be neglect of the iconic Washington site.
Trump held up pictures of “rusted” pipes and algae as he persisted in claiming that vandalism to his repairs had also been documented, a claim that was undermined in court filings by the president’s own administration.
He'll never do another national tour. Not just because he was falling apart but because there will be no need. No one wants him, correct, but he'll never run for president again. Even if he barnstorms it some for the 2028 candidate, he still won't be the center of attention. This was it. This was the final tour he'll be doing. He can leave the White House, crawl back under his rock and live out the rest of his pitiful days.
Retiring Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) said Sunday that potential Republican losses in Tuesday’s midterms would trigger an internal party debate over the MAGA movement — one he said the GOP needs.
“I do think there will be a debate in the party, and I think we need it,” Bacon said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Host Jake Tapper had asked whether major Republican losses in the House or Senate could mark “the beginning of the end” for MAGA.
Bacon is also saying that a big loss in today's midterms should mean Chump is no longer leader of the GOP.
These days, the lies are far more brazen and blatant, and an accusation of lying barely rates a mention in any news story.
That’s partly -- or largely -- because Trump has turned the Republican Party and the MAGA movement into one big disinformation outfit. He doesn’t spin. He lies over and over, and his party and cult happily go along with and cheer on his deceit. The GOP’s midterm effort that he’s leading -- like his past presidential campaigns -- is foremost a disinformation operation. Trump never stops pumping out extreme falsehoods.
He tells the crowd at one rally that “98 percent” of Somali immigrants in the United States “don’t work…because they steal so much. They all have a Mercedes-Benz…low IQ. And they live better than you.” He repeatedly proclaims that the United States is experiencing an economic Golden Age after he “inherited the worst inflation in American history” and that inflation is down to 1.8 percent. The worst inflation in US history was 23.7 percent in 1920, and it was 3.0 percent when Trump returned to the White House last year. Currently, it’s 3.7 percent.
He calls his Democratic foes and critics “communists.” They are not. Even members of the Democratic Socialists of America are not communists. He continues to spread the debunked MAGA conspiracy theory that James Talarico, the Democratic senatorial candidate in Texas, left the campaign trail to be treated for mental illness. He asserts that Democrats are for “open borders” (they are not) and that President Joe Biden allowed 25 million people to “pour across the borders,” including drug dealers, rapists, and 11,888 murderers. These numbers are exceedingly wrong.
Perhaps the most disturbing lie Trump has been hawking is that schools are performing gender transition operations on children without the knowledge of their parents. This is batcrap crazy -- but it fuels anti-trans paranoia. Schools these days cannot even dispense an aspirin without the consent of a parent. And there is no evidence to support this claim. Does Trump -- and the MAGA devotees he’s trying to stir up -- believe there are operating rooms in schools where these procedures are happening in secrecy?
At a rally in Georgia, Trump went deep on this lie:
We got critical race theory and transgender mutilization insanity out of our schools. I mean, we have five states where your child goes off to school as Tim and comes back as Tammy, three or four days later. It’s true. And teachers make -- somebody makes a decision. Can you imagine? “Goodbye, Timmy. I love you so much. I’ll see you later.” And you say, “Where’s my son? My son is in the hospital.” Can you imagine? Can you imagine? They don’t even need approval. It’s sick. You’ll have five -- I think Minnesota and some others -- I think it’s five or six states. You know that, right?
Donald (“pretend-I’m-on-the-ballot”) Trump has made this election into a referendum on him. Good.
He is a historic anomaly whose election to the highest office in the land -- twice! -- will forever be a stain on the judgment of the American people. A president who lies incessantly; who generates fear and fuels hatefulness; who viciously attacks the free press, political opponents, and all who disagree with him; who uses his office for personal gain; and who cozies up to dictators such as Vladimir Putin while turning against our historic friends, such as Canada.
For the sake of our democracy and our future, we must send a clear signal on Tuesday that we find Trump repugnant. A rejection beyond mere repudiation. A clear vote of no confidence.
While Trump and his Republican enablers have manufactured false threats to America -- Americans who are Muslim, Mexican Americans, Latino Americans, transgender Americans, fraudulent voters, “globalists” -- they dismiss the real threats to America that are growing worse by the day: climate change; widening inequalities of income, wealth, and political power; unregulated AI; and the most expensive and least effective healthcare system in the world.
We must get back to work on what is critical to our future.
Every branch of the federal government is now under the control of the Republican Party, and the Republican Party is under the control of Trump. Unless constrained, he and they will be emboldened — to eliminate what’s left of the Affordable Care Act, to further cut Medicare and Medicaid, to eviscerate Social Security, to give even more tax cuts to the rich and large corporations.
On today's MORNING JOE, Joe and the panel address the closing arguments from Chump and other Republicans.
Bill Scher (WASHINGTON MONTHLY) has done great work for the last six months. Today he notes:
Trump’s strategy to contain a Blue Wave has been to crisscross the country, insert himself in as many Senate races as possible, insist that he is “on the ballot,” and try to juice turnout among his loyalists. As I wrote three weeks ago, several of Trump’s predecessors learned the hard way that presidents aren’t very useful at juicing midterm turnout. And nothing in the last three weeks—from widening Democratic poll leads to worsening inflation numbers to Trump’s fixation on Senator Jon Husted’s ass—suggests he’s going to be an exception.
And even if Trump somehow managed a late turnout surge and fended off the worst outcomes, that should offer Republicans only a modicum of comfort. For one, Trump will never be on the ballot again. A baseball team can’t rely on one relief pitcher forever, and a political party can’t rely on one president forever. That so many Republican incumbents need rescue missions and compelling Republican fresh races are hard to find are signs that the ultra-self-centered Trump has done little to build a bench.
Second, Trump is the main reason why so many Republicans need rescuing. His policy choices on tariffs and Iran were childishly impulsive and erratic, as were his stubborn refusals to change course. The resulting impact on consumer prices hit Americans hard and spared no Republican base voters. At the same time, Trump has flaunted his ability to line the pockets of himself and his family members. He has jettisoned core conservative principles regarding limited government when it suits his political or personal purposes. All of this has ruptured the bond he had forged with Republican base voters and contributed to job approval ratings languishing in the upper 30s.
Trump’s inability to think two steps ahead has also led to boneheaded political mistakes. As Semaforrecently reminded readers, Trump opened two Senate seats, now on the verge of flipping, by plucking Ohio’s JD Vance out of the Senate to be his Vice President and making North Carolina’s Thom Tillis miserable enough that he refused to run for re-election. His longstanding feud with Governor Brian Kemp made it impossible to recruit the popular Georgian to run against Senator Jon Ossoff. He endorsed the scandal-tarred Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in the primary against incumbent Senator John Cornyn, and he handpicked the not-ready-for-prime-time Darline Graham to run and keep her late brother’s Senate seat in South Carolina.
More broadly, Trump insistence on personal loyalty made it difficult for most Republican incumbents to develop personas independent of him—which can come in handy when trying to survive a midterm election against the backdrop of an unpopular president.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has not been forthcoming about the war in Iran to President Donald Trump, opting instead to classify it in “rosy terms” to keep the president “happy,” according to a bombshell report in The Atlantic.
In the report that dropped on Monday, The Atlantic’s Jon Lemire cites officials close to Trump, who say that Hegseth may be deceiving the president about the state of the war:
Hegseth is not a popular figure in much of the White House. Some close to Trump suggested to us that the defense secretary has not been honest about the state of the war, which he consistently paints in rosy terms to keep Trump happy. “Hegseth is good at telling the president what he wants to hear,” said one of the outside advisers.
At the same time, Trump has been consulting with friends about the performance of Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine, Lemire writes.
Trump has also been questioning allies about the job performances of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and General Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, two outside advisers close to Trump told us. Hegseth and Caine have been two of Trump’s key counselors on the war. In its earliest stages, they were also among the most publicly optimistic about its prospects — although they haven’t held a press conference since May. Trump often solicits opinions from a kitchen Cabinet of friends outside his administration before making any personnel moves.
Chump picked him. His deception and dim witted nature is on Chump. But Chump can never be at fault in his mind so his plan to push the blame all off on Priss Pot Pete is in keeping with Chump's standard operating behavior. Phillip Nieto (DAILY MAIL) writes:
Donald Trump is secretly asking close advisers about whether Pete Hegseth and General Dan Caine should be fired after the midterms, even as he weighs restarting the bombing of Iran.
The president has been quizzing allies on the performance of his defense secretary and his Joint Chiefs chairman, the two men who assured him the war would be wrapped up well before the midterms, according to the Atlantic.
A fresh round of strikes could come within days of Tuesday’s vote, advisers said.
As Republicans face the real possibility of losing the House and Senate, Trump has concluded the Iran war would be partly to blame and trained his attention on the advisers who promised a quick and decisive fight.
Speaker of the Closet Mike Johnson sent the House home quick rather than take a vote on US House Rep Thomas Massie's impeachment bill on Priss Pot Pete. When they come back, Johnson most likely will not be able to avoid a vote. If he is or if Hegseth survives the vote, this is the outgoing Congress. The incoming Congress will have much to do and that would include reviewing Hegseth's poor performance as Secretary of Defense. Priss Pot is aware of that and that's why he's expressed interest in having Marsha Blackburn appoint him to her Senate seat should she win tomorrow's race for governor of Tennessee. While he's preparing alternate escape routes, those who have worked with him are compiling information should Congress require it. Susan Greene (DAILY MAIL) reports:
One set of documents is stashed in a gun safe in Northern Virginia. Another sits in a safe deposit box at a Washington, DC, bank. A third is tucked away somewhere on the West Coast.
All three hold evidence that fed-up Defense Department officials hope will force Pete Hegseth out after next week's midterm elections.
Pentagon sources told the Daily Mail they and their colleagues have spent much of the last 22 months compiling emails, memos and meeting notes.
The files detail times the defense secretary and his inner circle allegedly ignored strategic and legal advice, berated the experts who gave it, withheld information from Congress and the public, and threatened the careers of subordinates who either challenged his decisions or struck him as too woke, fat, queer or disloyal.
They figure the paper trail, plus a list of potential witnesses from inside the department, will come in handy if Democrats retake the House in November and, as expected, open an impeachment investigation in 2027.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has made some "uncontrollable enemies" with his political purges in the military, according to a new report — and this may ultimately incentivize President Donald Trump to let go of his controversial cabinet official.
"Two of the officials asserted that Hegseth could work across party lines, depending on how aggressive Democrats were in their investigations," reported The Washington Post's Noah Robertson and Dan Lamothe on Sunday. "Still, several others predicted that his critics, both in Congress and in the Pentagon, could feel more emboldened to oppose him if Democrats take power."
"“Pete has made so many enemies — and uncontrollable enemies,” one person familiar said," according to Robertson and Lamothe.
Earlier in the same article, they noted that the same congressional Republicans who have otherwise toed the line for Trump have found themselves instead drawing the line when it comes to Hegseth.
"With limited exception, Republican lawmakers have declined to stand in Hegseth’s way while he has purged dozens of senior military leaders he’s deemed disloyal, waged an eight-month war in Iran without the consent of Congress and pursued an unprecedented campaign against the illicit drug trade," the Post wrote.
It added, "Democrats would give Hegseth far less room for maneuver once the next Congress convenes in January. Already, some are threatening to investigate and try to remove him from office if they reclaim a majority."
On Monday, a shocking new report revealed that half of U.S. armed forces service members want to quit because of the policies and poor leadership of President Donald Trump and his officials. Experts warn that the situation has become a full-blown “readiness crisis” that reduces the country’s military capabilities.
According to Military.com, a poll conducted by Common Defense “found that 53 percent of active-duty service members want to separate from service sooner because they said the military is becoming more politicized.” The survey revealed that 45 percent of service members are considering quitting specifically because of policy changes and uncertainty under the Trump administration, and that “67 percent agree that decisions affecting service members are being made for political gain, not mission readiness, compared to 25 percent who disagreed.” These findings come amid Trump’s ongoing conflict with Iran, and as the president considers resuming an all-out war following this week’s midterm elections.
"Veterans know what real leadership looks like: you take care of the people under your command and you keep politics out of the mission," said Jose Vasquez, U.S. Army veteran and executive director of Common Defense. "Right now, nearly 8-in-10 veterans and military families say they're being left behind, and active-duty troops are telling us that politicization is pushing them toward the exit. That's not a talking point; it's a readiness crisis.”
This is not surprising and it has been building and this is also why I've noted several times in the last months when the DoD has boasted of recruitment that I'm not so sure those claims are accurate regarding recruitment numbers because, again, I have been told that recruitment numbers have gone down under Priss Pot Pete.
When Hegseth was first nominated by Chump for the position, we noted he was not fit. We noted he had no experience with leadership that indicated he could handle it. We did that because several higher ups were appalled that Hegseth was nominated. We questioned everything about his nomination including his sexism and racism which were already well known. Priss Pot seems to love showing just how unfit he is for the post he holds. Erik De La Garza (RAW STORY) notes:
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s Pentagon has awarded weapons maker Raytheon a no-bid contract extension worth up to $394 million — despite its admission to defrauding the military, PunchUp reported Monday.
The two-year radar maintenance extension came a month after the Navy determined that Raytheon could remain eligible for government contracts despite the fraud, according to the report.
“These schemes to defraud caused the DOD to pay Raytheon over $111 million more than Raytheon should have been paid on the contracts,” the Justice Department said in 2024.
Raytheon admitted to inflating the price of an Air Force radar maintenance deal by roughly $11.1 million and committing a separate $100.1 million fraud involving an Army Patriot missile contract. It entered a deferred prosecution agreement requiring three years of government oversight.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene posted on social media that the Jeffrey Epstein controversy, foreign policy decisions regarding Israel and Iran and domestic economic pressures are driving widespread voter backlash against President Donald Trump and the Republican Party ahead of the Tuesday, November 3, midterm elections.
She argued that the administration and party leadership attempted to block transparency and protect influential figures, leading to a bitter public falling-out in which Trump criticized her.
[. . .]
Greene took to X on Sunday, November 1, to explain her bleak midterms forecast for Republicans, writing, “For anyone who is confused about why Democrats are likely to win. Here’s your starter pack of reasons. We tried to stop all this. But Trump doesn’t like me and Massie. He likes his Epstein friends and Netanyahu.”
Chump wanted to protect Epstein's customers. And that may be because he himself was one -- as documented in the Congressional report issued last week. Yohann Thiou (ESPRESSO) notes:
Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee are calling for a special counsel to investigate the ties between Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein. Their report, released on October 26, brings together several allegations of violence against the U.S. president and challenges the Justice Department’s handling of the case. The White House denies all the allegations.
The 53-page document was presented by Jamie Raskin, the committee’s top Democrat. Its authors examine material concerning 11 women, five of whom directly accuse Trump of rape or assault in circumstances connected to Epstein. The report was prepared by the committee’s Democratic staff.
The authors compiled previously public accounts and expanded on some testimony. They argue that, taken together, this material warrants a criminal investigation into Trump’s possible involvement in Epstein’s exploitation activities. The alleged incidents mainly date from 1992 to 1997, in New York and Palm Beach, Florida.
Beatrice Keul is among the accusers. According to the report, the former beauty pageant contestant alleges that Trump raped her at New York’s Plaza Hotel in November 1993. Stacey Williams, Jill Harth, Katie Johnson and an unnamed woman also make direct allegations involving separate incidents.
Immigration. Chump's war on immigrants will impact voting today. He has killed people in this war -- immigrants and US citizens. He has broken up families. He has ruined lives and allowed his ICE to behave like bullies. For example, running over someone with your car is being a bully. Dropping back to October 10th:
Leslie Briones, who is the Harris County Commissioner for Precinct 4, released a statement on Saturday saying, "I am horrified to learn that an ICE vehicle struck a man on Clay Road this morning in Precinct 4. While we wait to learn more, my prayers are with his family. Under the Trump administration, ICE has brought chaos and destruction to communities across our country. ICE must cooperate fully with the Harris County Sheriff's Office and release all video evidence of this incident. We demand full transparency, accountability, and respect for the rule of law."
Cesar Espinosa with FIEL Houston released a statement on Saturday afternoon saying, "We have more questions than answers. The biggest question we have is why does this keep happening? We demand answers and transparency from all agencies involved. the community needs to know the identities of the agents and if there are charges that are filed for the wrongdoing committed."
Harris County Attorney Abbie Kamin released on statement late Saturday afternoon saying, "This morning, there was another incident involving ICE actions in Harris County. Time is of the essence in getting the facts, and the public deserves clear, accurate answers. ICE must cooperate fully with the local investigation. My office supports Sheriff Ed Gonzalez and District Attorney Sean Teare in their ongoing independent investigation, and the Harris County Attorney's Office stands ready to assist and support these critical efforts. We will continue to monitor developments closely as the facts become clear."
Alejandra Salinas, Council Member Houston-At Large for Position 4, released a statement on Facebook Saturday saying, "ICE agents hit a Houstonian with a vehicle while pursuing him during an enforcement operation this morning, leaving him hospitalized with serious injuries. This is yet another example of ICE operating without accountability and harming our community. All video evidence should be released, and ICE must cooperate fully with a transparent investigation by local law enforcement so those responsible are held accountable."
Surveillance video obtained by ABC13 shows the moment an unmarked SUV carrying U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents ran over a man during a pursuit at a shopping center in west Harris County.
The video shows a white pickup truck stopping along Clay Road, facing oncoming traffic. Two men get out of the truck. One runs toward Highway 6, while the other, identified by ICE as Miguel Parra-Hernandez, runs through a shopping center parking lot.
Moments later, a dark, unmarked SUV turns into the parking lot and runs over Parra-Hernandez.
A witness who spoke with ABC13 on the condition of anonymity said he saw the incident unfold.
"He said, 'Ah! Ah! Ah! You broke my leg! You broke my leg!'" the witness recalled.
So now they're running down suspects -- please note, a suspect, they had no idea who this man was -- with their cars and inflicting physical damage.
ICE is out of control. They are terrorizing people across the country. They are poorly trained and often unqualified. Which makes them not unlike their current leader Markwayne Mullin.
A federal immigration officer charged with aggravated assault after he ran over a Mexican man with his car in Houston will turn himself in on Monday, according to his attorney.
Mario Alberto Morales, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer, struck Miguel Parra Hernandez, a 48-year-old construction worker, with his unmarked SUV on Oct. 10, as he chased Parra Hernandez through a parking lot. A grand jury indicted Morales on Friday on a felony charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
Morales is planning to turn himself in at a courthouse sometime on Monday, David Lindenmuth, his attorney, told The Associated Press. Lindenmuth previously told the AP that the incident was “clearly just an accident” and that local officials had “invented a crime out of thin air.”
ICE officer Mario Alberto Morales turned himself in Monday after being indicted last week in connection with running over a man who was on foot. The case has put Morales’ work record under scrutiny and called attention to the administration’s hiring surge last year to fill in immigration enforcement posts.
The case has escalated criticism of the administration’s attempt to quickly increase the ranks of ICE officers to fulfill President Donald Trump’s mass deportation pledge, just as voters are heading to the polls for midterm elections.
[. . .]
Video of the collision captured by cameras from local businesses and bystanders recorded Morales pursuing Parra, who exits a stopped truck and begins running. Morales’ vehicle makes a quick left turn in front of a stopped vehicle and hits Parra.
Morales’ body camera video captures the officer saying, “You got hit with the car, bro,” turning Parra over, straightening his leg, trying to pick him up from under his arms and telling others he should be moved into the car.
Let's wind down with this from Senator Elizabeth Warren's office:
Lawmakers warn that OSHA’s rollback of respirator rules could endanger workers, exposing them to hazardous chemicals and airborne illnesses
“The Labor Department is endangering workers and prioritizing the interests of unscrupulous employers over Americans who work hard to provide for their families.”
Washington, D.C. — U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Representative Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) led their colleagues, Senators Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.), alongside 23 U.S. Representatives, in calling on the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to abandon its proposed rollback of workplace respirator protections. In a letter to Assistant Secretary of Labor for Occupational Safety and Health David Keeling, the lawmakers warned that the changes could expose workers to dangerous chemicals and airborne hazards, despite objections from labor unions, medical professionals, and industry experts.
“OSHA now seems to be moving rapidly to finalize the removal of critical respiratory protections from more than a dozen OSHA standards. Most OSHA standards take years to move through the same steps these respirator rules have in a matter of months,” wrote the lawmakers.
The proposed rules would weaken requirements for employers to provide effective respirators to workers exposed to hazardous substances, including lead, asbestos, formaldehyde, and inorganic arsenic. The changes would also eliminate medical evaluation requirements for employees who wear certain types of respirators, raising concerns about the risks to workers with underlying health conditions.
“Unions, medical professionals, and industry experts have cautioned you against removing this requirement. In fact, the Advisory Committee for Construction Safety and Health (ACCSH), which is statutorily required to provide advice to OSHA on construction-related issues, recommended that you not proceed with this rulemaking,” continued the lawmakers.
National Nurses United also warned that weakened respirator programs could leave health care workers exposed to airborne hazards that cause serious illness, long-term health problems, and death. Labor unions and construction industry groups have also raised concerns about the risks to workers and employers.
“The Labor Department is endangering workers and prioritizing the interests of unscrupulous employers over Americans who work hard to provide for their families,” concluded the lawmakers.
The proposed respirator changes are part of a broader Department of Labor deregulatory effort. Since July 2025, OSHA has proposed more than 60 deregulatory actions, including changes to workplace safety requirements covering general workplace hazards, construction lighting, and safety color codes.
In addition to Warren and Omar, the letter was signed by U.S. Senators Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.), and U.S. Representatives Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.), Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.), Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), Jonathan Jackson (D-Ill.), Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.), Judy Chu (D-Calif.), Lucy McBath (D-Ga.), Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.), Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), Adelita Grijalva (D-Ariz.), LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.), Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas), Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), Dwight Evans (D-Pa.), Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.), Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), Suzanne Bonamici (D-Ore.), Veronica Escobar (D-Texas), Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), Val Hoyle (D-Ore.), Maxine Dexter (D-Ore.), and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.).
