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Story by Alexander Willis

Journalists and legal experts reacted with disgust Monday to the federal raid on the home of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), with several arguing that the criminal probe shattered a critical, longstanding norm.

“The Trump [Justice Department] tears up yet another long-standing policy/norm, this one of refusing to take actions like this before an election,” noted Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, an immigration attorney and senior fellow at the American Immigration Council.

“[Attorney General Todd] Blanche, when he was Trump's lawyer, argued that so long as a candidacy was declared, no such action should occur. Now, it's 3 weeks from an election.”

Federal agents executed a search warrant early Monday on Omar’s home in Washington, D.C., as part of a criminal investigation, but “provided no other details,” the Associated Press reported.
Story by Danielle Kate Wroe

Barely a day passes without Donald Trump's conduct sparking widespread discussion around the world, and his most recent rally address is definitely no different. Taking the podium at a midterm rally in Tennessee, the President stunned onlookers after boasting to a gathering of devoted followers that he could essentially say whatever he pleased, and they would still enthusiastically approve.

Reveling in the crowd's admiration, Trump proclaimed: "There's such love in these rooms. It's like, I mean, it's amazing, when you stand up here, it's like the love. I could say the stupidest things, and you'd clap." However, some failed to notice the irony in his statement.

Rather than taking offense that he had just suggested they would unquestioningly applaud complete nonsense, the supporters positioned behind him seemed to validate his point.

Creepily, the audience members were still grinning broadly after being insulted. In the background, you could see their shoulders bouncing with amusement as they cheerfully glanced at those around them.

It's an unsettling indication that Trump's followers will unquestioningly support him – even when his statements lack coherence.
Opinion by Svante Myrick, opinion contributor

I don’t think of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito as a particularly funny guy. But his recent interview with CBS News legal correspondent Jan Crawford made me laugh out loud.

“We are not part of any political movement, and we are not attempting to further any political agenda,” Alito said.

C’mon, man, you’re killing me!  

Alito’s claim is hilarious in an absurdist deadpan sort of way. But the laughter it provokes is not happy laughter. It’s the kind of grunt that pops out of your mouth when you hear President Trump spout some ridiculous thing. It’s preposterous that he is our president, and yet there he is.

When it comes to Alito’s claim, the history is clear. The right-wing Supreme Court majority — Alito and Clarence Thomas hold down its right-most edge — was built explicitly to further a political agenda.

The Federalist Society, the Heritage Foundation and the whole massive right-wing infrastructure built over the past 50 years is the fruit of a long-term campaign by corporations, foundations and wealthy individuals to amass enough political and legal power to reverse a century of progressive advances.
By Alexandra Hutzler

A federal judge expressed alarm at how quickly the Trump administration moved to use taxpayer funds for midterm election advertisements following an Oval Office meeting between President Donald Trump and Republican operatives.

U.S. District Judge Jennifer Rochon issued a temporary restraining order Sunday to immediately stop the propaganda ads, a win for pro-democracy groups who argue they are an illegal misuse of funds appropriated by Congress.

The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) was able to shift $20 million for the ads in a matter of hours, Rochon said in a 40-page opinion Monday explaining her decision.  The restraining order is necessary to ensure the government doesn’t just “reapportion funds from another source to continue running similar advertisements,” she wrote.

The New York Times reported earlier this month that Trump and his White House chief of staff, Susie Wiles, met with Republican strategists on August 7 to talk about the midterms and how to use money from a super PAC to support Republican candidates.

“During that meeting, President Trump reportedly expressed a desire to promote his administration and showed the strategists videos of himself, including footage later incorporated into one of the challenged advertisements,” Rochon wrote in her opinion.
Matthew Stone, 45, opened fire at his home in Erie, killing 6 family members and 2 neighbors, before turning the gun on himself, according to the county coroner.
By David K. Li

The victims of a mass shooting in northwest Pennsylvania included the gunman’s wife and pregnant daughter who was due to give birth on Monday, authorities said.

Matthew Stone, 45, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound on Friday after killing six members of his own family and two neighbors, Erie County Coroner Lyell Cook told NBC News on Monday.

Victims included the shooter’s wife Michelle Stone, 44, pregnant daughter Angelina K. Stone, 24, and sons Matthew Stone Jr. 21, and Jonathan Stone, 19, according to the coroner.

Angelina Stone was carrying “an unborn fetus who was supposed to have been born today,” Cook said.
Andrew Feinberg

House Speaker Mike Johnson has told the Trump administration he has doubts about its plan to broadcast the firing squad execution of Fort Hood gunman Nidal Hasan, warning that video of the killing could end up as "a recruiting tool for future terrorists."

Johnson was asked about the plan by CBS News national correspondent Robert Costa, who noted that Vice President JD Vance had already said he would "not watch it." The speaker said he hadn't yet discussed the matter with President Donald Trump, Vance or Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who announced last week that the December 3 execution would be public, but that members of his conference had raised objections.

"There are colleagues who have concerns," Johnson said. The worry, he explained, was that the government would be producing a video that extremists could use as "a recruiting tool for future terrorists," adding: "You know, we got to think through the policy implications of all that. I wouldn't be watching it if it was aired."
By Gloria Pazmino

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani ordered a comprehensive review of the New York Police Department’s use-of-force policies, his office announced Monday.

The review – the first of its kind in about a decade – comes as Mamdani faces increasing pressure from his base, who say he has not done enough to reform public safety and the criminal justice system, both pledges he made when he ran for mayor last year.

The review is expected to be completed in the coming months and will engage community groups during the process.

Mamdani also announced several reforms aimed at increasing accountability when police officers are accused of misconduct. The proposed reforms include a change which would make it easier to complete the disciplinary process before an officer retires from the force.
By Kevin Liptak, Kylie Atwood

President Donald Trump is weighing whether to dismiss Kimberly Guilfoyle from her position as US ambassador to Greece after a string of reports about misconduct, a person familiar with the matter said Sunday.

Trump has been monitoring reports claiming Guilfoyle, who was engaged to Trump’s eldest son Donald Trump Jr. for four years, accepted lavish gifts as ambassador and sought money in exchange for providing access to administration figures before she was confirmed.

Lawyers for Guilfoyle have denied the allegations about seeking money and said reports about her travel were misleading, adding that she complied with federal gift and reporting requirements.

The State Department’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) is investigating Guilfoyle amid the misconduct allegations, a source familiar with the effort told CNN Monday.

The change is in response to the case of Win Rozario, a 19-year-old Queens man, who was shot five times and killed while experiencing a mental health crisis in his home in March 2024.
Kevin Breuninger

President Donald Trump on Monday defended last week’s decision to temporarily ease restrictions on Russian diesel fuel exports after the announcement drew bipartisan criticism.

Trump, in a Truth Social post, accused the media of hypocrisy for allegedly refusing to cover past purchases of Russian energy by the European Union.

“The European Union paid Russia 250 Billion Dollars for Energy, and the Fake News Media doesn’t want to get near that story,” Trump wrote.

While the president did not specify, his figure roughly tracks with some estimates of how much the EU has spent importing fossil fuels from Russia since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. The European Commission has launched a plan to phase out its dependence on Russian energy.

“I made the right choice for the American People — ALWAYS, AMERICA FIRST!” Trump wrote in the social media post.
Story by Samantha Loren, U.S. Political Reporter

A viral recording that threatened to upend the Texas Senate race has been thrown into doubt after an Ohio mental health facility flatly denied ever treating Democratic candidate James Talarico.

The audio clip, which received over six million views on X, was released by pro-Trump influencer Nick Sortor and appeared to show a woman answering the phone at the Lindner Center of Hope in Ohio saying Talarico had been discharged that evening.

Sortor claimed the recording proved Talarico had lied about having the flu during a nearly two-week absence from the campaign trail.

But the center issued a statement on Sunday directly contradicting the allegation, saying: 'Representative James Talarico has never received treatment from Lindner Center of Hope.'
Opinion by Malcolm Ferguson

Texas attorney general and Republican Senate candidate Ken Paxton was asked to explain the constant, controversial leaks coming from a September campaign event. He doesn’t think they matter.

“There have been now five audio leaks from a private fundraiser you attended on September 24 published by various media outlets,” Fox News host Alica Acuna asked Sunday. “Are you concerned that they all came from the same, and are you figuring out who did it? But then also, it raises some flags … over your thoughts, publicly and privately, over the president and Washington.”
Story by Will Neal

Donald Trump’s scandal-plagued Senate nominee in Texas faces a fresh nightmare over claims he partied in Dubai with his lover and two fugitives wanted by the Justice Department.

State Attorney General Ken Paxton spent New Year’s Eve 2024 reveling in the Middle East with Tracy Duhon, Anosh Ahmed, and Samer Suhail, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The MAGA candidate’s wife is not Duhon but state Sen. Angela Paxton, who’s currently divorcing him on “biblical grounds.” Federal prosecutors in the U.S. had slapped Ahmed and Suhail with healthcare fraud charges just months before they attended the party with the top Texas law enforcement official.

Ahmed also gave roughly $190,000 to Paxton’s previous campaigns, including payments of around $25,000 that landed in the attorney general’s war chest after the DOJ had charged the healthcare executive, according to the Journal.

Footage from the event shows fireworks erupting from Dubai’s Burj Khalifa tower to ring in 2025. The camera then pans down to show Paxton and Duhon watching the display together from a balcony, with Suhail standing behind them.
Story by Sara Boboltz

Alex Gibney’s Musk documentary, out in theaters nationwide next week, has already been grabbing headlines for the alarming texts its billionaire subject once sent to a romantic partner, former right-wing influencer Ashley St. Clair.

St. Clair, who participated in the film, revealed that Elon Musk told her shortly before Election Day 2024 that he was feeling “optimistic” because “tomorrow we unleash the anomaly in the matrix.”

Asked what he meant, Musk pointed to “lasers from space,” saying, “I have over 10,000 lasers in space right now.”

Was Musk interfering in the 2024 election? Gibney has been careful to note that he cannot say whether Musk was bragging to a romantic partner or lying. At a Friday screening of the new film, the director said the texts to St. Clair seemed like a pretty important detail to include. He also shared his theory about what Musk was actually talking about.
Story by Marco Margaritoff

Nearly two-thirds of Americans believe that President Donald Trump has engaged in illegal or unethical activity to profit from his presidency, according to a new poll released Tuesday from The Associated Press and NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

“Most Americans say President Trump has prioritized his personal financial interests and the interests of people close to him since taking office again in 2025,” the AP-NORC article states in its introduction. “Far fewer say he has prioritized the country as a whole or people like them.”

The nationwide survey was conducted between Sept. 24 and Sept. 28 and found that 41% of the 2,140 polled U.S. adults believe Trump has done something illegal to profit from his position, with another 18% arguing he has done something “unethical, but not illegal.”

That puts general distrust in the MAGA leader’s ethical or legal behavior at a whopping 59% in the poll, which further found that only 18% of respondents said Trump has done “nothing wrong” — while another 21% said they do not know whether he has or hasn’t.

“More adults see Trump as focused on his own business interests and those of his inner circle than on the country as a whole or people like them,” states the poll in its introduction. “A majority, 56%, say Trump has prioritized his personal business interests ‘a lot.’”
Story by Bennito L. Kelty

A retired conservative federal judge says one personnel move by House Speaker Mike Johnson would tip off Americans to a scheme to override voters.

J. Michael Luttig, a former judge on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, told Jim Acosta on Tuesday's episode of "The Jim Acosta Show" that the warning sign is Johnson firing the clerk of the House and installing a loyalist before the 120th Congress convenes on January 3.

"If Mike Johnson fires the clerk and puts in his place a loyalist to Mike Johnson and the House Republicans and to Donald Trump, that will be the signal moment that will tell the American people that Donald Trump and Mike Johnson are going to try to refuse to seat Democrats-elect in the 120th Congress," Luttig said, adding that this "is where the whispers began and are getting louder by the day."

Luttig explained that under Article I, Section 5 of the Constitution, the House is "the judge of its elections and returns," which he said has been interpreted for 200 years to let the chamber decide whom to seat, even when those members were elected by voters in their districts. Under House rules, the clerk submits the official roll of members-elect certified by their states, and Johnson as speaker has the power to fire the clerk and name a temporary replacement, Luttig said.
Story by OK! Staff

Elon Musk and former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem have been exposed in a blistering federal court ruling accusing top government officials of orchestrating a smear campaign against a longtime FEMA employee, OK! can reveal.

According to court documents obtained by OK!, U.S. Magistrate Judge William Fitzpatrick determined that Musk, Noem, and other senior officials knowingly spread false accusations against former Federal Emergency Management Agency Chief Financial Officer Mary Comans after she was abruptly fired in February 2025.

Elon Musk's 'Criminal' Claim Backfires
The judge described the government's conduct as "outrageous" and concluded that officials had launched a coordinated campaign to destroy the reputation of a career public servant.

The controversy erupted after Comans was accused of improperly directing millions of dollars toward luxury New York City hotels housing migrants.

On February 11, 2025, Musk reposted Comans' photograph on X alongside allegations that she had funneled $58 million toward migrant accommodations, calling her supposed conduct a "criminal action."

But Fitzpatrick determined those allegations were entirely false, finding Musk knew the information was inaccurate when he circulated it.
ei=15
Opinion by Greg Palast

Rodney Ellis forged 750,000 ballots in an attempt to steal the election away from Donald Trump — or so say the MAGA-nauts.

Ellis supposedly did this dastardly deed all while running Harris County, which includes Houston.

I asked the alleged perp himself, County Commissioner Ellis, how he could possibly forge three-quarters of a million absentee ballots. At eight seconds per signature, it would take a normal human about 200 years to sign them all.

The commissioner, an attorney, said, “I’m too lazy to sign hundreds of thousands of ballots. I'd be nuts."

The ridiculous accusation would all be a laugh, except for an attempted murder and vigilantes armed with AR-15s who appeared at his daughter’s pajama party. It would be a laugh if not for the untold number of Black and Hispanic voters terrorized at ballot dropboxes. A laugh if not for Ken Paxton and his Ku-Kluxxing of the vote.
Story by OK! Staff

President Donald Trump’s taxpayer-funded television campaign has received an abrupt cancellation notice, and a constitutional scholar says Americans should never have been forced to finance it.

U.S. District Judge Jennifer L. Rochon ordered the administration Sunday night to cancel any remaining commercials paid for with public money. Her temporary restraining order will remain in effect for two weeks.

Judge Blocks the $20 Million Campaign
Rochon sided with a coalition that includes the nonpartisan watchdog Common Cause, which alleged that the ads represent an illegal misuse of congressionally appropriated funds.

The Department of Homeland Security tapped $20 million for the campaign. Senior DHS official Holly Mehringer said the money came from funding available for “commemorating efforts and events related to border security.”
Story by Sarah Ewall-Wice

Donald Trump has reportedly ordered the White House counsel to investigate allegations against his former director at the Kennedy Center.

According to a bombshell Axios report, Trump’s former attorney Alina Habba accused former Ambassador Ric Grenell of failing to deposit a multimillion-dollar donation her husband made to the center a year ago.

The report was based on four senior administration officials and three insiders briefed on the matter.

The allegations were reportedly relayed to the president in the Oval Office on Friday, with the donation valued at nearly $6 million, according to Habba, White House sources told Axios.

A senior administration official emphasized that they were only allegations and that it was unclear whether they were true or a “misunderstanding,” but the allegations appear to expose a feud at the top of the MAGA ranks.

“POTUS doesn’t want to deal with this. Of course, he’s concerned. But if there is missing money, this is a big, big problem,” another official told Axios.
Story by David Kurtz

What Election Officials Have Long Feared
In a major escalation of its multi-prong attempts to interfere in the midterm elections, the Trump DOJ has given California 48 hours to take steps to prevent an unknown number of alleged noncitizen voters in Los Angeles County from voting — or face legal action, Reuters exclusively reports.

This new Trump DOJ initiative is different from its earlier, largely unsuccessful efforts to obtain voter information from various states. Instead, it is now demanding that Los Angeles County take affirmative steps to prevent the counting of ballots cast by people on a list provided by DOJ who it alleges are “likely noncitizen voters” who received mail-in ballots.

The Trump DOJ’s demands came in the form of a threat letter Tuesday to California Secretary ‌of State Shirley Weber from acting Deputy Deputy Attorney General Trent McCotter — an extraordinary intervention by the department’s No. 2 official.

The existence of the letter was confirmed by the Justice Department. It’s not clear how DOJ came up with its list, which was provided to Los Angeles County on a “password-protected thumb drive.” Past attempts by the Trump administration to identify noncitizens who are allegedly registered to vote have been deeply flawed and wildly inaccurate.
Story by Leigh Kimmins

President Donald Trump has said leakers of sensitive data “should be shot.”

The 80-year-old has sought to create a watertight administration after his first stab at the presidency was beset by leaks and whistleblowing. However, if Trump’s words are any indication, it hasn’t worked—and he’s frustrated.

“Leakers should be, in my opinion, leakers should be shot,” Trump said at a campaign rally on Wednesday.

The crowd in Bullhead City, Arizona, agreed. Cheers, shouts of “Yeah!” and scattered applause followed the president’s jaw-dropping statement.

He continued, “They should be shot. In the old days, we used to shoot leakers, you know, when they leak what time you’re going to attack a country… leakers should be dealt with very, very strongly. To me, they’re the scum of the earth.”

Trump appeared to be talking about a leak about the start time of Operation Midnight Hammer, the joint effort between the U.S. and Israel to hit Iran with a flurry of airstrikes in June 2025.

“Somebody leaked, some sleazebag. They ought to go to jail or be shot. For the rest of their life, they should be in jail, but they leaked that we were leaving at 12:07 from Missouri, and it was in The New York Times, CNN.”
Story by Reanna Smith

Donald Trump has been branded a "sociopath" after calling his own supporters "collateral damage" while boasting about how his doctors would not help anyone who became sick at his rallies during a foul-mouthed rambling speech.

The 80-year-old president made the bizarre remarks while bragging about taking multiple cognitive tests.

"Remember, I'm the only one who took the test, you know I took the aptitude test or whatever the hell they call it, I took it. Every time I do a physical I take a mental test, and I've aced it," Trump told the crowd during a rally in Bullhead City, Arizona, on Wednesday.

It comes after Trump was deemed 'grotesque' for his behavior with aide Natalie Harp and new press secretary Katie Zacharia.

The tests Trump has taken do not measure aptitude or intelligence, they are used to detect whether someone has mild cognitive impairment or early signs of dementia.
Story by Jack Crosbie

The general theory of economics is a simple one: some numbers you want to go up, other numbers you want to go down. A businessman like Donald Trump knows this - but unfortunately, during his second term, many of the wrong kinds of numbers have been going up, up, up.

Case in point: a new Consumer Price Index report issued today by the Department of Labor showed that prices and inflation are up in September, and are significantly higher than they were last year. In September alone, prices rose 0.6 percent, the highest monthly increase in several months, showing that the damage caused by Trump's economic policies is only increasing. Those prices are, overall, 3.7 percent higher than they were last year.

Even single-digit percentage changes have big impacts on Americans' lives, especially when some of the most vital stuff we buy has been hit the hardest. Gas prices alone rose 9.1 percent in September, accounting for almost half of the overall price increase. Fuel oil, what most people use to heat their houses, also shot up 15.3 percent. That's the biggest increase since March, shortly after the beginning of the Iran war, which is still very much unresolved.

"Oil right now is much cheaper than it was under sleepy Joe Biden," Trump said recently. This is technically true for at least one point in time - the price of a barrel of crude briefly spiked to almost $140 in 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine - but fails to note that even after that world-historic event, prices for consumers largely stabilized. Gas, for instance, leveled out around $3.20 per gallon by the end of 2022, and stayed there till Trump took office. The national average today is $4.33.
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