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Dean Blundell: “The $400 Million Question: Was Trump’s “Privately Funded” Ballroom Always Headed for Your Wallet? On July 31, 2025, Donald Trump made a promise. He was going to build a 90,000-square-foot ballroom on the East Wing of the White House — a venue grand enough for state dinners, presidential inaugurations, and the kind of …
The Conversation: “The U.S. government “is able to purchase Americans’ sensitive data because the information it buys is not subject to the same restrictions as information it collects directly. The federal government is also ramping up its abilities to directly collect data through partnerships with private tech companies. These surveillance tech partnerships are becoming entrenched, …
Department of Justice (DOJ) Deputy Inspector General Performing the Duties of Inspector General William M. Blier announced today that: The DOJ Office of the Inspector General (OIG) is initiating an audit of DOJ’s compliance with the Epstein Files Transparency Act. Our preliminary objective is to evaluate the DOJ’s processes for identifying, redacting, and releasing records …
Follow up to previous post – ICE Seeking Office Space in Over 40 States – See Also ICE Detention Reengineering Initiative – “Under the Detention Reengineering Initiative (DRI), U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) will fully implement a new detention model by the end of Fiscal Year 2026. This effort …
Washington Post [no paywall]: “Congress ends ban on mining near Minnesota’s pristine Boundary Waters. The Senate repealed the Biden-era moratorium that safeguarded America’s most-visited wilderness, with the measure now going to Trump for his signature. The Senate voted 50-49 on Thursday to repeal a ban on mining near the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in …
Just Security – By Christopher Fonzone. April 15, 2026. “On April 1, 2026, the Department of Justice issued an opinion by the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) concluding that the Presidential Records Act (PRA) is facially unconstitutional because it exceeds Congress’s constitutional powers and aggrandizes the Legislative Branch at the expense of the independence and …
Jason Leopold, Bloomberg – “Welcome back to another edition of FOIA Files. I thought it was a cruel April Fool’s joke when on April 1, the Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel publicly released a bombshell 52-page opinion. It said that the Presidential Records Act is “unconstitutional” and that President Donald Trump “need not …
“President Trump DOJ says he’s not required to turn over official records.” The Justice Department has concluded that a federal law requiring presidential records to be turned over to the government is unconstitutional, a senior White House official tells Axios. The finding is an indication Trump will be reluctant to give all of his official …
Washington Post [no paywall]: “A committee led by the interior secretary known as the “God Squad” voted Tuesday to exempt oil and gas companies from complying with the Endangered Species Act when drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, a move expected to threaten Rice’s whale and other species with extinction. Meeting for the first time …
Inside Climate News: Republican lawmakers are advancing legislation that would shield major polluters from legal accountability for climate change harms. Republican lawmakers in multiple states and Congress are advancing proposals to shield polluters from climate accountability and prevent any type of liability for climate change harms—even as these harms and their associated costs continue to …
SpyTalk: “FEW NATIONAL SECURITY DEBATES HAVE RILED UP AMERICANS more than the permission Congress has given the government to eavesdrop on their private emails and phone calls. The legislation that gave these intrusive powers to the likes of the NSA and the FBI is up for renewal later this spring, and signs are that it …
Pew Report – “Nearly four years after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, a majority of Americans continue to say abortion should be legal in all or most cases. Now, with a patchwork of differing state laws in effect, perceptions of abortion access vary by where people live. A 60% majority of U.S. adults …
