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US Monthly Headline News August 2026 - Page 2
by Finya Swai

Democrats are reacting to the Justice Department’s move to drop its Reflecting Pool vandalism case against a former Olympian David Hearn, saying the move validated their longstanding criticism that the administration is weaponizing the Justice Department.

The Justice Department on Friday moved to dismiss its felony destruction of property charge against Hearn after finding that the damage to the pool’s lining was caused by a “rushed and botched installation,” not vandalism as alleged.

While the department’s conclusion cited construction faults in its reasoning to dismiss the case, the Trump administration rejected the conclusion and continued to argue vandalism was the reason for the botched multi-million dollar renovation.
Exclusive: Daphy Michel, from Haiti, was dropped off in Pittsburgh in 20F temperatures wearing summer clothes
Alba Asenjo Domínguez

The family of a Haitian immigrant who froze to death in early March at a bus shelter in Pittsburgh after she was dropped off in the city by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is poised to file a lawsuit this month against the United States and “multiple other governmental and non-governmental entities”, the Guardian has learned.

Daphy Michel, 31, had been in county jail for six months after a reported mental health crisis and street incident, and then was arrested by ICE before being released with a ankle monitor.

She was left to make her way home to Charleroi, a small community on the outskirts of Pittsburgh about 20 miles (32km) away, but was found dead three days later. In June, Pennsylvania officials said she died from hypothermia and ruled her death a homicide.
By Julie Watts

California's High-Speed Rail Authority repeatedly missed key deadlines to buy its trains, a failure federal officials cited when they pulled $4 billion in funding a year ago. More than a year and a half after the original deadline, the authority still cannot say when it expects to award the contract. The state says that the date remains "TBD."

Approved by voters in 2008, the project was originally designed to link San Francisco and Los Angeles in under three hours with electric trains capable of reaching 220 mph. There's no direct line between the two major cities, and the ride now takes 10.5 to 12 hours.

But the current plan is limited to the middle section of the route — a flat 171-mile stretch between Merced and Bakersfield in the Central Valley, selected because construction was expected to be easier, with no need to drill any tunnels. It's estimated that high-speed rail would cut that three-hour train ride in half.  
The lawmaker has previously been accused of concealing her own health struggles.
Julia Ornedo
A 73-year-old Republican senator is coming to Mitch McConnell’s defense as many demand transparency about his health mystery.

Maine’s Susan Collins lashed out at those demanding answers about McConnell’s weeks-long absence from Congress, following a fall that sent him to the hospital on June 14.

“Mitch was the longest-serving leader in Senate history,” Collins told The New York Times.
The president vowed to push for the payout fund if Senate Republicans fail to confirm Todd Blanche as attorney general, reigniting a dispute over the settlement.
By Mark Walker

President Trump said on Saturday that he would revive a proposal for a $1.8 billion so-called anti-weaponization fund that would compensate his supporters if the Senate does not confirm his nominee for attorney general.

The administration had backed off plans to establish such a fund in June as it was criticized as a scheme to reward political allies with taxpayers’ dollars.

But in a social media post, Mr. Trump reacted to skepticism about his nomination of Todd Blanche, his former defense lawyer, to be attorney general, saying that he would keep Mr. Blanche as the acting attorney general if the Senate failed to confirm him, and added that he would “push hard” to pass legislation creating the fund.
Story by Anushka Basu

・Capital One reportedly said it closed more than 300 Trump Organization accounts after a months-long review of anti-money laundering.

・The bank is seeking to dismiss a suit by the Trump Organization and Eric Trump, saying the political debanking claims lack merit.

・Trump-linked entities say the accounts were shut down for political reasons following the Jan. 6 Capitol riot in 2021.

Capital One Financial (COF) reportedly said that it closed the bank accounts of the Trump Organization after a months-long review by its anti-money laundering (AML) team, marking the first time a bank has publicly linked AML concerns to the President's family business.

The bank moved to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the Trump Organization and Eric Trump, claiming the allegations of political debanking were “misguided” and “based on cherry-picked quotations unsupported by the full context” of documents submitted to the court, Reuters reported on Saturday.
Story by Joseph McBride

Donald Trump has famously claimed that he is very hard to beat at golf and once reacted with hostility after losing to a 15-year-old during the 2007 Westchester Men’s Club Championship.

Trump, 80, celebrated winning the annual Trump National Golf Club Bedminster club and senior championship this year, allegedly carding 70 on a Par-72 course. This follows Trump's double victory in Florida two years ago, as he continues to dominate at his own clubs.

His latest success takes his number of victories at his clubs to over 40, though his scores have been questioned during his two presidential terms. Trump has faced allegations of cheating on the course, but back in 2007, he suffered a humbling defeat. It all comes as Trump rudely showed where his priorities really were when greeting military troops.

Sportswriter Rick Reilly has accused Trump of cheating on several occasions and decided to examine his tournament history in an article for The Guardian. Reilly once said of Trump, "When it comes to cheating, he’s an 11 on a scale of one to 10."

Reilly has continued to call out Trump, and before his Bedminster championship in 2025, he wrote on social media, "Hey Trump, tomorrow is the Senior Champ at Bedminster. Are you shameless enough to pretend you won it? Even after the whole planet saw you cheat in Scotland? Is your ego that sick."
Story by Alexander Willis

Amid his bid for confirmation, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche issued a notice Sunday night declaring that the Justice Department had rescinded its controversial “anti-weaponization fund” designed to award payouts to Capitol rioters, but journalists immediately noticed “the fine print” told a different story.

“Look what they just tried to sneak through at midnight,” wrote Brett Meiselas, co-founder of the progressive media organization MeidasTouch. “What a scam!!!!”

Reading the “fine print” of Blanche’s notice, however, MeidasTouch argued that the DOJ not only neglected to terminate Trump’s IRS immunity, but had actually reaffirmed it.
Story by IdahoLearningNews Editorial Team

The number has become a shorthand for the case, but it is often flattened in retellings. The setting matters because civil courts can treat silence differently than criminal courts.

Donald Trump invoked the Fifth Amendment 440 times in the New York civil fraud case, but the 440 invocations happened in a deposition, not at trial. New York judge Arthur Engoron counted the answers in a written decision, making the figure a court-record reference point rather than a campaign-trail estimate.

That distinction matters because a deposition is sworn pretrial testimony, and because civil litigation gives silence a different role than it has in a criminal case. The number is consequential, but it is not the same as a criminal conviction or an admission of wrongdoing.

The figure came before trial
The 440 count traces to Trump’s Aug. 10, 2022 deposition in the New York attorney general’s civil fraud investigation and lawsuit. Engoron, who presided over the case, cited the number in connection with that sworn testimony.
Story by Steve Benen

Donald Trump’s Reflecting Pool renovation project was already an embarrassing fiasco. The president obsessed over the renovation project, which he apparently saw as a metaphor of sorts: He would tackle a lingering problem that had vexed previous administrations, while delivering impressive results quickly and cheaply.

It wouldn’t just be a triumph for his presidency, it would be a totemic success story, demonstrating how Trump’s unique approach to problem-solving is fundamentally superior to what Americans have come to expect from traditional officials.

We soon learned otherwise. Indeed, reality quickly left little doubt that the water was too green, the costs were too high, the no-bid contract was too indefensible, the timeline was too long, the blue paint floated to the surface too often, and the draining and refilling of the pool was too frequent.

The Republican proved the opposite of his intended point. Instead of demonstrating the superiority of his model, he offered timely evidence that his approach — rooted in cutting corners, controversial contracts, rushed timelines, etc. — simply doesn’t work.
Story by David Edwards

Court documents revealing that President Donald Trump was de-banked after a money laundering probe have been linked to a reinvigorated effort to protect him from prosecution by acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.

Capital One's July 31 filing marked the first time a bank formally tied anti-money laundering concerns to Trump's business empire, according to Al Jazeera.

Two days later, Blanche tried to lock in a written guarantee barring the IRS from auditing Trump, his family, and his business entities for conduct predating the settlement, according to NPR.

"Friday: Capital One reveals Trump was debanked bc he was laundering money. Sunday: Acting Attorney General solidifies promise his tax crimes won't be punished," national security blogger Marcy Wheeler wrote on X.
Story by Nicolai Haugsted

Donald Trump is once again facing accusations over his conduct on the golf course after celebrating another club championship victory, with critics questioning whether the win was as straightforward as the president claimed.

The latest controversy erupted after Trump declared himself champion at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, before posting footage of the decisive shot that quickly became the focus of online scrutiny.

Trump competed in both the Senior Men’s Club Championship and the Super Senior Men’s Club Championship at Trump National Golf Club Bedminster on August 2.

Soon after the event, he announced his victory on Truth Social, claiming he had finished with a score of 70 despite having little time to practice because of his presidential duties.

“The Winning Shot in the Bedminster Club Championship! Thank you very much to all of those who participated. I won with a score of 70… It’s called TALENT, and I have it, and they don’t!”
Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, spoke about Todd Blanche ahead of the confirmation vote on whether to make Blanche Attorney General.
Story by Kathrine Frich

When high-stakes political moments are broadcast live, a single question can derail an entire press event.

A routine document signing is supposed to project calm control. Instead, one recent ceremony spiraled into a heated outburst that left audiences at home completely stunned.

Meltdown on camera
During an August 3 Fox News broadcast, President Donald Trump sat in the Oval Office to establish a new commission. Then, an MS Now reporter shifted the topic to a high-profile legal defeat.

The journalist asked about the Justice Department abruptly dropping its criminal case against former Olympian David Hearn. Authorities had originally accused the athlete of vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

The president immediately directed his fury at U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro. “I guess she choked! I don’t know what the hell happened,” he told the press pool, according to Fox News cited by the Irish Star.
Story by Matt Naham

Nearly three dozen former federal judges backed the sanctions imposed on Donald Trump's attorneys and said there should be no stay pending appeal, given the "strong evidence of collusion and lack of adversity" and "bad faith" underlying the president's lawsuit against the government he heads.

As Law&Crime has reported, U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams on July 13 found Trump's lawyers filed a "non-adversarial, collusive" lawsuit to "manipulate the judicial process" and improperly force the IRS into a $1.776 billion "settlement" with "no viable basis in law or fact."

Consequently, the Obama-appointed judge imposed both monetary and non-monetary sanctions against Trump's attorneys, going so far as to refer Alejandro Brito to the Florida Bar. The monetary sanctions were "appropriate […] reimbursement" for the 35 former federal judges and ex-IRS officials who separately intervened as amici curiae or friends of the court, the ruling said.

Unsurprisingly, the former judges sought $4,610.83 and ex-IRS officials asked for $39,000 in attorneys' fees. Just as unsurprisingly, Trump's legal team has, on an expedited basis, sought a stay of Williams' order pending an appeal to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, claiming the judge's bar on "referring to the settlement in official proceedings" and "wrongful invitation to seek fees" exceeded her authority.
Opinion by John Stoehr

I am a republican liberal in every way except one.¹ When it comes to the very obscenely rich in the United States, I take an aggressive zero-tolerance attitude. Break their monopolies. Seize their estates. Confiscate their wealth. They have built a system by which to steal our freedom as well as our money. They are criminals. We should treat them as such.

I have been pretty consistent. I have always believed in the fundamentals: enumerated rights, separation of powers, an independent judiciary, and so on. I have believed in an active government that does more than protect individual liberty and property. It should promote civic virtue and advance the common good, too. (These concerns for the republic put the republican in "republican liberalism.") And I have believed in economic equality. To me, taxing the very obscenely rich makes America a place that's fairer and more prosperous for all.

But we are no longer talking about billionaires who merely exploit racism and bigotry to achieve policies, like deregulation and tax cuts. (Think the Koch Brothers.) We are talking about billionaires who are trying to turn themselves into a permanent ruling class presiding over naked structures of exploitation. They have conspired to bribe the president, control the government, drain public coffers, skyrocket public debt, and extort the American people – forcing us to make choices we would not make if we were truly free. (Think Elon Musk.)
Story by Matthew Rozsa

President Donald Trump’s former White House communications director, Anthony Scaramucci, has emerged as a frequent critic during the Republican’s second term. Perhaps this is why — in light of the news that after an assassination threat Trump switched planes, hid in a catering cart and used a separate plane containing reporters as a decoy — Scaramucci led the pack on X in ridiculing Trump as a “coward.”

“This image of Trump in the catering cart is going to be hard to shake,” Scaramucci tweeted, showing an image of Trump hiding in a cart that has not been confirmed. “You know he’s livid that it got out. If he wasn’t a coward, he would’ve told them, no chance I’m doing that.”

George Conway, a former Republican attorney who was also married to Trump's first term counsel Kellyanne Conway, took a swipe at Trump's weight with his own comment. While retweeting former President Barack Obama's NSC staffer Tommy Vietor saying "the mental image of Trump hiding from Iran in a catering cart is devastating. A weak, stupid old man hiding from the consequences of his own decision while endangering others," Conway added, "Agree. But also, I’m incredibly impressed with the physical strength and toughness of the catering cart. Wow."

Similarly Democratic strategist Christopher Webb exulted in Trump’s perceived embarrassing story, showing a montage of images purportedly showing him in various carts while posting “the catering cart memes are doing me in.”
Story by Kathleen Culliton

President Donald Trump's administration has quietly "weaponized" a power cloaked in secrecy to punish his critics and prop up corrupt power brokers, according to a new report.

Trump's government has been revoking the visas of foreign leaders, judges and journalists while quietly reinstating those of like-minded allies, the New York Times reported Sunday.

“No recent American administration ever did this kind of open attack on freedom of expression” said John Feeley, a career diplomat. “A congressman or a prosecutor without a U.S. visa...is somebody who is flying with a broken wing.”

Past State departments have also revoked visas but mostly to keep security threats out of the country or fight corruption, the Times reported.
Opinion by Michael Tomasky

It was heartening to see a couple of polls come out recently showing that for the first time in a long time, Americans trust the Democrats more than the Republicans on the economy. It’s insane that this can come as a surprise, and that these two parties are even running as close to one another as they are is absurd. Trusting the Republicans more on the economy at this point is like trusting Sean Combs to be your babysitter.

For decades now, the Republican Party has built it electoral success on myths and lies. Ronald Reagan was the last Republican president who your average person would say left the country better off than he found it. I wouldn’t say that, for a range of ideological reasons, but I’m a liberal. I’m ready to admit, however, that your average person would say that about him.

But that’s a long, long time ago now. You have to be in your fifties at least to have any memory of it. But the last three Republican presidents—Bush, Bush, and Trump—have been disasters. The first Bush oversaw a double-dip recession and a massive savings and loan scandal that looted the treasury. The second Bush started a costly and tragic war based on lies and nearly brought the global economy to its knees. Trump, you know about—corruption, fascism, and staggering incompetence.

President Trump continues to say that Iran wants to make a deal to end the war and that the U.S. has control over the Strait of Hormuz. Meanwhile, the president downplayed concerns about the conditions aboard the USS Lincoln. MS NOW Senior National Security Reporter David Rohde and New York Times Chief White House Correspondent Peter Baker join Stephanie Ruhle with more details and analysis.
Tasia Fortune, 29, was found hanging from a tree in Mississippi. Dr. Rashad Richey discusses on Indisputable.
Story by Lee Moran

Fox News this week aired a rare on-air correction after it showed a graphic that falsely claimed the average price of gas in America was lower now than it was at the same point in 2025.

The erroneous graphic aired on America Reports and also on Fox Business Network on Monday. It compared gas prices now, last week and a year ago.

It said they were currently at $4.06, but falsely said they were at $4.13 a year ago ― when they were actually about a dollar less.
Fox News graphic claims falsely that the average price of gas one year ago was $4.13, lower than it is right now. It was actually $3.14! pic.twitter.com/qaHapCkrZA

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 17, 2026

The large year-on-year increase has been largely attributed to the knock-on effects from Donald Trump’s war on Iran, which he launched in February, and the subsequent stalemate over the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow channel through which vast quantities of the world’s oil is carried.
Story by Sarah K. Burris

President Donald Trump’s second-term revenge campaign, critics warn, is no longer confined to angry posts and political grudges. Instead, Trump is increasingly turning beyond his political foes and deploying the vast power of the federal government against anyone who resists, embarrasses or simply defies him.

New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie argued in a blistering Wednesday column that Trump's ongoing efforts for revenge against his political foes are warping the federal government into an instrument for settling scores.

Bouie cited former officials Trump continues to see as disloyal, including Gen. Mark Milley, John Bolton, Mike Pompeo, and Mark Esper. All of his targets go beyond former aides to include civil servants, prosecutors, judges, Republican impeachment supporters, and even voters who rejected him in 2020. The result has been a White House driven less by a public agenda than by the president’s desire to punish people who defy or embarrass him.

The two best examples come from the Kilmar Abrego Garcia case and the prosecution of David Hearn.

Garcia was deported to the brutal prison in El Salvador despite open legal challenges and against the explicit instruction of the judge to turn the planes around.
Long before Donald Trump became a businessman, television star, and president, the people who knew him in Queens were already getting a glimpse of the personality the world would later recognize. Childhood friends and classmates remember a competitive, loud, energetic boy who loved winning, sometimes broke the rules, and wasn't afraid of confrontation.
Story by Matthew Chapman

White nationalist leaders gathered in Rome, Italy, this year to map out how they could exploit America's collapsing local news industry, openly celebrating the death of community journalism as a golden opportunity to organize unchecked in rural areas.

Phil Williams, a legendary local reporter from Nashville, reported the development for the Confront the Hate Substack.

At an invitation-only retreat hosted by white nationalist publisher Counter Currents inside the Rome headquarters of an Italian neo-fascist group, propagandist Kevin DeAnna told roughly 50 attendees that vanishing local newsrooms mean there's essentially no one left to hold local governments accountable.

"You should be fantasizing about this. This is a good thing," DeAnna said.
Story by Alex Bollinger

CNN confronted a conservative pundit with a supercut of Donald Trump insulting women, and he wasn’t able to answer why he still thought Democrats are more sexist than Republicans.

The right has been outraged at Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) this past week for mentioning White House aide Natalie Harp in one of his speeches. Ossoff highlighted her unusually close relationship with the president when, in a speech last weekend, he said that Trump would rather “build his ballroom and travel with Natalie to their apparently defenseless flying palace gifted by the Emir of Qatar” than do his job.

“It’s been amazing to watch this White House melt down over this all week,” Ossoff said on MS NOW later in the week, adding that White House staffers are “public officials paid by the taxpayer with immense power in positions of public trust” to explain why he thinks it’s fine to subject them to public criticism.
CNN broadcast a brutal montage of Donald Trump making offensive remarks about women after Scott Jennings expressed outrage over Senator Jon Ossoff's controversial comment.
At a 2016 press conference, Donald Trump publicly urged Russia to locate Hillary Clinton's missing emails, a statement that set off years of debate over foreign interference, political norms, and the boundaries of acceptable campaign rhetoric.
Story by Chirag Radhyan

Caitlin Clark and Paige Bueckers gave fans a moment they won’t stop replaying, and it had nothing to do with the final score.

Late in the second quarter of Thursday’s Fever-Wings game, Clark was dribbling out the clock with Dallas holding a foul to give. Bueckers grabbed her arm to draw the whistle, and Clark clearly didn’t appreciate it. She yanked away, fired the ball down the court near Bueckers, and stayed visibly frustrated as the two headed toward the tunnel.

Bueckers wasn’t rattled. Cameras caught her looking at Clark and mouthing two words that instantly took over WNBA social media: “Calm down.”

The line landed everywhere within minutes. Fans, podcasters and outlets all weighed in on who came out looking better in the exchange, and the reactions ranged from amused to pointed.

“Paige says ‘calm down,’ and she’s absolutely right. Caitlin Clark has been weird as [expletive] lately with all the shenanigans and flailing and shouting at refs,” one fan wrote on X.
Story by Thomas Kika

The fiasco surrounding the USS Abraham Lincoln has seen President Donald Trump's disrespect for the military reach new lows, and according to a report from The New Republic, some troops have finally had enough and are letting their disgust be known.

In recent weeks, reports have emerged revealing the alarming conditions aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, a vessel that has been stationed in the Middle East since November and is nearing the record for the longest ever deployment, set back in the Vietnam War. Aboard the ship, troops and officers are reportedly dealing with worsening food and resource shortages, as well as deteriorating physical conditions, with some areas becoming infested with mold. Driven to extreme desperation, some troops have also reportedly attempted to jump overboard to escape the conditions onboard.
Story by Lacy J

Texas Roadhouse says the accusation circulating this weekend that its white servers are deliberately contaminating food ordered by Black customers is completely unfounded, and that the company is investigating.

The statement went up about an hour ago. The company said it is aware of the video being shared with an accusation made toward its restaurants, that it believes the accusation to be completely unfounded, that it takes every accusation toward the brand seriously, and that it is investigating what it called alleged abhorrent behavior.

That was the second statement of the day. Roughly eight hours earlier, the company posted a more general message saying it does not tolerate discrimination, harassment or mistreatment of any kind and expects its staff to treat every guest with dignity. That version never mentioned what it was responding to. It also opened with a note that the company had lost its verification badge, so its replies in comment sections were not being seen, which is why it was posting statements as standalone images.
Story by David Edwards

The Justice Department pressed the Supreme Court to lift an injunction blocking President Donald Trump's mail-ballot order, even after its only argument had "evaporated."

Trump signed Executive Order 14399 in March, directing the United States Postal Service to impose new requirements on mail-in ballots ahead of the November midterm elections. Federal courts repeatedly blocked it, including with two separate injunctions from a Massachusetts federal judge now barring implementation of the order for the Nov. 3 election.

The Trump administration moved forward with the plan anyway. On Friday, the Postal Service published that final rule.

The department had argued before the Supreme Court that the legal challenge was premature because no final postal rule existed at the time.

UCLA election law professor Rick Hasen wrote Monday that the new development wiped out the government's entire case for lifting the injunction.

"DOJ's argument has evaporated," Hasen pointed out.
David Edwards

A federal appeals court ruled in President Donald Trump's favor but warned him that his mail voting order may be impossible to carry out and could be swiftly blocked if he tries.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled Tuesday that the lawsuit was not yet ready for court review, according to Democracy Docket.

The Democratic groups had not yet suffered enough concrete harm to sue, the court found.

The order directs the U.S. Postal Service to withhold mail ballots from anyone not on citizenship lists compiled by the Department of Homeland Security, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.

The Brennan Center said that millions of eligible voters could have their ballots go undelivered, with no notification that they had been blocked. The court insisted that it could intervene if Trump went too far.

"If the federal agencies were to take the actions the Plaintiffs fear and if they were to attempt to impose those massive changes on the States' voting systems on the threshold of the upcoming election," the court wrote, going further than its ruling required.
Story by Matt Naham

As the U.S. Supreme Court weighs a challenge to the ruling of a federal judge in Massachusetts, that same judge has demanded that the Trump administration swiftly respond to the allegation that it "flouted" an injunction.

The DOJ filed a notice on Friday for U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani, telling her "after the courts were closed" that the USPS sent a "final rule" to the Office of the Federal Register, to be formally published "on August 26, 2026" and effective as of "August 21, 2026."

While the notice acknowledged Talwani's injunctions in the cases State of California v. Trump and League of Women Voters of Massachusetts v. Trump, the DOJ said the final rule would "make clear that the Postal Service will not take any action to implement the rule specifically for any election to be held on or before November 3, 2026 unless and until the government obtains relief from both of those orders."

The judge, a Barack Obama appointee, has repeatedly held that Section 3 of President Donald Trump's executive order 14399 was an "unconstitutional" directive for the USPS to "refuse to transmit mail ballots for certain voters," a federal takeover threatening the "fundamental right" to vote.

The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in a 2-1 decision recognized that the president "direct[ed] unprecedented levels of involvement by federal officials in how states administer elections," and left that injunction in place — teeing up an ongoing Supreme Court fight between blue states and the federal government.
The Supreme Court is allowing an executive order by Trump restricting mail-in ballots to proceed just months before the midterm elections. Alicia Menendez – in for Nicolle Wallace – is joined by Lisa Rubin, Ian Bassin, Andrew Weissmann, and Eddie Glaude for analysis on Deadline White House.
Story by Jordan Liles

In August 2026, people shared a rumor purporting white servers at Texas Roadhouse, Logan's Roadhouse and potentially other restaurant chains were conspiring in a large Facebook group to lick their fingers and touch or spit in the food of Black customers.

The claim stemmed from an alleged screenshot of a Facebook post that appeared in a group named White and proud (one of several such groups using the same name and profile image). In the now-unavailable and possibly deleted post, which was shared shared in group No. 1492087406264148 (archived), a user named Nancy Smith warned "blacks" against eating at the two restaurant chains and told of a secret Facebook group (not one of the White and proud groups) with more than 400,000 members participating in promoting unsafe, racist food practices.

For example, on Aug. 24, an Instagram user posted two slides: first, one of Texas Roadhouse's responses to the rumor calling the matter "completely unfounded," and second, the purported "contamination" Facebook post screenshot itself, visible below:

TikTok user Sannie Yeanay presented the rumor in a popular video (archived), calling the text in the screenshot "genuinely disgusting."
Story by Dan Heching, CNN

Dolly Parton, who rose from humble beginnings to the greatest heights of American music and became one of the country’s most philanthropic, unifying and beloved stars, died Tuesday at her home in Nashville, according to a family statement. She was 80.

The statement, attributed to her nephew Bryan Seaver, said Parton died “peacefully.” A small, private service will be held for her close family, the statement added.
Story by Maya Boddie

A North Carolina police department is investigating the apparent hanging death of a Black man, but authorities say they have not yet determined how he died.

Demetrius Fleming, 38, was found dead Friday (August 21) at a home on Roanoke Avenue in Roanoke Rapids, WRAL reported. Roanoke Rapids Police Chief Lawrence Wiggins said Fleming was already dead when emergency crews arrived and was found “connected to a ligature.” Authorities have not disclosed what type of ligature was involved.

The 911 call that brought officers to the home reported an attempted suicide, but Wiggins said the caller was not at the scene and was someone close to Fleming.“We're treating this as an open, equivocal death investigation,” Wiggins said, according to WRAL.
Story by Matthew Chapman

A federal judge ruled Monday that President Donald Trump's administration violated her court order blocking new mail-in ballot restrictions, catching officials making contradictory claims to different courts within weeks of each other.

U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani found that the Trump-governed U.S. Postal Service defied her preliminary injunction by quietly finalizing a rule implementing Trump's executive order on mail-in ballots just days earlier, sending it to the Federal Register on August 21, despite her explicit order barring them from "initiating or completing" any such rulemaking.

"Defendants violated the preliminary injunction in this case," Talwani wrote.

The rule in question would prohibit the delivery of mail ballots in states that haven't turned over extensive information about who is and isn't voting by mail on their voter rolls to the federal government. It faces lawsuits by two dozen states and voting rights organizations.
Story by Haniyah P.

Texas Roadhouse faced calls for a boycott after a social media post, later proved to be a hoax, revealed alleged discriminatory practices.

Last year, Target witnessed firsthand the results of national boycott calls from Black communities. And this year, Texas Roadhouse may be the next company to face the reality of losing Black consumers. This week, a since-deleted post made in a private Facebook group entitled “White and Proud” gained attention across social media platforms as a shared message to Black diners.

“To all you blacks in here keep this in mind. Hope you enjoy your meal next time you eat out. There is a Facebook group that I am part of,and it is for white servers. We have come up with a plan. When a table of black diners comes in and places their order we walk back to the kitchen to get your food when ready. There is ALWAYS a blind spot in the kitchen and we are licking our fingers and touching your food. If it happens to be a Texas Roadhouse or Logan’s, those rolls are full of our white saliva. Some of the cooks are in on this too. Think they are playing. They aren’t. Believe me, this has been going on since y’all started this nonsense with Karamello the candy bar Anthony crap. Btw, the group has over 400k members. Enjoy y’all’s food,” the post read.
Opinion by Bill Blum, The Progressive

There is no bigger con man in the United States than Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts. Not even President Donald J. Trump.

The con began in September 2005, during Roberts’s confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Articulate, handsome, and energetic at fifty years old, Roberts seemed to have been culled “straight from central casting,” as Republican Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama actually remarked on the first day of the hearings. Roberts was also convincing—he famously promised that if confirmed, he would serve in the fashion of a baseball umpire, calling only “balls and strikes, and not to pitch or bat.” Seventy-eight Senators, including twenty-two Democrats, fell for the ploy and voted to give him the lifetime assignment.

The biggest yarn Roberts told during his hearing concerned his views on the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA), a cornerstone of American democracy, which the Supreme Court gutted this past April in a redistricting case from the state of Louisiana (Louisiana v. Callais).

As is his prerogative as Chief Justice, Roberts assigned the task of drafting the Callais majority opinion to fellow conservative Justice Samuel Alito, who responded with a 6 to 3 ruling that held that, henceforth, Section 2 of the landmark legislation would require VRA plaintiffs to meet the nearly impossible burden of proving that redistricting maps challenged as “racial gerrymanders” were created with discriminatory intent rather than for permissible political purposes. The opinion allowed Louisiana to eliminate one majority Black Congressional district. It also effectively negated legislation passed in 1982 that had amended Section 2 to permit the Justice Department and private citizens to challenge election laws that have the effect of diluting minority voting power without proving intent.
Story by OK! Staff

The inclusion of President Donald Trump's name was apparently a major factor in the collapse of the Kennedy Center, according to a new report.

Donald Trump's Influence Behind Kennedy Center's Financial Collapse
Documents obtained by The Washington Post show that adding Trump's name to the Kennedy Center's walls seemingly caused widespread discontent among its donors and negatively impacted ticket sales.

The financial situation plunged further when the Trump-allied board of trustees decided to rename the Kennedy Center as The Donald J. Trump and John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts last December.

Per The Washington Post, the center’s financial records showed that the arena stood to fall at least $100 million short of its initial projected revenue target for the 2026 fiscal year.
Opinion by Malcolm Ferguson

Army chief of staff General Randy George insisted on conducting a probe into whether the Pentagon violated protocol after the military performed a fly-by around MAGA musician Kid Rock’s Tennessee estate—and a “No Kings” protest. Days later, he was fired.

George was reportedly advised by the Army’s No. 2 officer General Chris LaNeve to drop the probe at the behest of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

This new information, reported by The Washington Post, offers a potential catalyst for George’s abrupt firing, as the Pentagon gave no specific reason when he was booted out in April.
Story by Maria Villarroel

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said he “bluntly” confronted Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. about the dangers of “spreading misinformation” after two individuals died in the state of measles for the first time in 35 years.

Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday night, the Democratic governor apologized for being late, explaining he had just gotten off the phone with Kennedy, who offered help managing the measles outbreak.

“Part of the reason why I was late is I've been sitting out in the parking lot talking to Secretary Kennedy, who reached out to me this morning. And while I appreciate his willingness to offer staff to assist us, we think we're able to manage this through the Department of Health. I was very, very blunt with him,” Shapiro said. It comes as

“And I made very clear that his actions and the rhetoric that's coming from this administration are having a negative impact on communities across America, particularly right here in Pennsylvania, that there are real-life consequences to spreading misinformation. There are real-life consequences to scaring people and not relying on actual doctors and actual medical professionals to provide unbiased information to parents so that we can make reasonable decisions for our kids,” he added.
Story by Dexter Brinson

Leed-Himmel Industries, a custom aluminum manufacturer with more than 100 years of history in Hamden, Connecticut, has announced its closure after decades of operation. Owner Howard Goldfarb attributes the shutdown primarily to skyrocketing business costs and tariffs imposed under President Donald Trump’s administration, marking an end to a long-standing local employer and economic contributor.

Rising Costs and Operational Challenges
For years, Leed-Himmel Industries had been a reliable source of employment and local tax revenue, paying approximately $160,000 annually in property taxes. However, escalating expenses steadily eroded the company’s profitability. Health insurance premiums for workers increased sharply, alongside growing costs for building, vehicle, and workers’ compensation insurance. Even as production slowed, the company’s electricity bills soared past $500,000 annually, straining financial resources.

Goldfarb had expressed concerns about these rising costs as early as 2024, warning that the business might become unsustainable. He told reporters at the time, “We’re just working to pay the electrical bill.” Despite efforts to adapt, the continuous climb in expenses made it impossible to maintain operations at a viable level.

Tariffs: The Final Nail in the Coffin
Goldfarb identifies tariffs imposed by the Trump administration as the decisive factor pushing Leed-Himmel over the edge. These tariffs increased the cost of raw materials, notably aluminum, forcing the company to tie up substantial capital in inventory before receiving customer payments. “If our costs were what they were eight years ago, I wouldn’t have shut it down,” Goldfarb said while walking through the largely empty factory floor in 2026.
Story by Julia Ingram

Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested a record high of more than 800 people without criminal records a day in July on average, new federal data shows. The surge in arrests comes as the White House pushes the agency to hit a target of 2,000 per day.

July is the first month in President Trump's second term when people with only civil immigration violations — rather than pending criminal charges or convictions — made up more than half of those arrested. An average of more than 1,580 people were arrested each day in July, also a new high for the current administration.

Enforcement ramped up this summer after a drop following public backlash to the Department of Homeland Security's operation in Minneapolis, a funding standoff and a shake-up in DHS leadership. But, as has been the case with ICE's previous big city crackdowns, rising arrest totals come with spikes in community arrests of people without criminal records.
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