United States | News & Politics

In California, the Law Enforcement Mutual Aid Fund sets aside $25 million annually to let law enforcement agencies work across jurisdictions to fight natural disasters and other major emergencies. In a briefing obtained by The Intercept, acceptable LEMA use cases are listed as fires, storms, flooding, earthquakes, natural or man-made disasters, and “other extra ordinary events requiring emergency law enforcement mutual aid on a case by case basis.”

As “Gaza solidarity” encampments popped up across college campuses in April and May 2024, Jodi Lopez, staff services manager at California’s Office of Emergency Services, informed the leadership of at least 30 public universities — including Cal Poly Humboldt — that if they were to require mutual aid assistance, LEMA would be available to reimburse their expenses, attaching a flyer that detailed eligible costs.

A Cal OES spokesperson confirmed in a statement to The Intercept that “Local law enforcement who provided that support to Cal Poly Humboldt were reimbursed through the LEMA Fund program.” The statewide office “is committed to protecting Californians and supporting local partners in times of crisis, regardless of political views or affiliation,” the spokesperson wrote.

Official document warns of "National Security Concerns"

One of Maxwell’s lawyers, Leah Saffian, released a statement Friday saying that employees at Camp Bryan “have been terminated for improper, unauthorized access” to an email system that allows prison inmates to “communicate with the outside world,” following a leak of Maxwell’s “privileged client-attorney email correspondence.”

Nearly every Republican in the US House of Representatives voted on a bill to compel the release of documents tied to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The lone "nay" came from the Republican lawmaker from Louisiana, Clay Higgins, who defied his party saying his vote was a principled "NO".

"What was wrong with the bill three months ago is still wrong today," Higgins wrote on X. "It abandons 250 years of criminal justice procedure in America."

The resounding vote in favour of the Epstein bill, 427-1, marks a rare moment of bipartisanship on Capitol Hill. Hours later, the US senate too approved the legislation, clearing the way for the final act - President Donald Trump's signature.

In a struggling area of Lincoln, a program pays for repairs and energy efficiency upgrades in rental buildings. In return, landlords must keep rents affordable.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/55420884

Archive: https://archive.is/H2zPf

By MEE staff
Published date: 18 November 2025 21:54 GMT

Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Tuesday announced that he is designating the Muslim Brotherhood as well as the Council on American Islamic Relations (Cair) - the largest civil liberties group for American Muslims - as both foreign terrorist organisations and transnational criminal organisations.

As a result, both groups would be barred "from purchasing or acquiring land" in the state of Texas, Abbott said.

The proclamation gives the state's attorney general leeway to sue the groups accordingly.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/39177793

By MEE staff
Published date: 18 November 2025 21:54 GMT

Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Tuesday announced that he is designating the Muslim Brotherhood as well as the Council on American Islamic Relations (Cair) - the largest civil liberties group for American Muslims - as both foreign terrorist organisations and transnational criminal organisations.

As a result, both groups would be barred "from purchasing or acquiring land" in the state of Texas, Abbott said.

The proclamation gives the state's attorney general leeway to sue the groups accordingly.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/38999290

Officials admit ‘inadvertent removal’ after court ruled Britania Uriostegui Rios should not be sent to Mexico

The Trump administration is working to return another individual to the United States who was wrongfully deported to their home country in violation of a court order.

Officials acknowledged in a court filing last week that Britania Uriostegui Rios, a transgender woman, was "inadvertently" deported to Mexico in violation of a March court order which ruled that she was likely to face torture if she returned there.

The administration is working to bring Uriostegui Rios back to the US from Tijuana while it looks for an alternative country to deport her to. Uriostegui Rios is also suing to force the administration to release her from custody when she returns to the US.

A Chinese immigrant was found dead in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention, with his hands and feet tied behind him, an attorney has alleged.

TL;DR: Trump is unlikely to suffer much from the release of the files. The morality matters to some of the base, but not much and not for anyone running for office.

I think the most interesting thing here is the summary of what the "pillars" of MAGA are, and how they interact with conspiracy theory.

A coalition of Democratic lawmakers with military and intelligence backgrounds urged servicemembers and those in the intelligence community to defy any illegal orders.

The video, which is edited to show multiple lawmakers reading one statement, comes as President Trump has carried out deadly boat strikes in the Caribbean, near Venezuela.

“We know you are under enormous stress and pressure right now, Americans trust their military, but that trust is at risk. This administration is pitting our uniformed military and intelligence community professionals against American citizens like us. You all swore an oath to protect and defend this constitution,” the lawmakers said in the video.

“Right now, the threats to our Constitution aren’t just coming from abroad, but from right here at home. Our laws are clear,” they added. “You can refuse illegal orders…you must refuse illegal orders. No one has to carry out orders that violate the law or our constitution.”

The video features Sens. Elissa Slotkin (Mich.) and Mark Kelly (Ariz.), and Reps. Jason Crow (Colo.), Chissy Houlahan (Pa.), Chris Deluzio (Penn.) and Maggie Goodlander (N.H.).

Since the boat strikes began in September, lawmakers have pressed the Trump administration on whether servicemembers involved could be held legally responsible for deaths that may be found unlawful. The military strikes have killed at least 83 people, and while the Trump administration has accused the boats of ferrying drugs, they have blown them up in deadly strikes rather than the typical practice of interdicting the boats.

DOJ claimed in an internal opinion that servicemembers cannot be held liable for the strikes.

But Senate Judiciary Democrats, in an October letter, argued that the strikes put servicemembers in a difficult position, as they are being asked to make illegal kills.

The United States Code of Military Justice “prohibits the premeditated and unlawful killing of a human being,” they wrote in a letter, but that it also requires obeying orders, “putting our service members in the impossible position of risking criminal prosecution for carrying out an unlawful order to kill civilians or risking prosecution for disobeying superior orders.”

That's the entire article.

Formatting emphasis mine.

Here is the video released by Democrats:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Iux161DZAA

(sorry, New York Post is the only source of the video itself, in its entirety, with no editorializing, that I can find at the moment.)

[EDIT] Thanks to DemBoSain:

https://bsky.app/profile/slotkin.senate.gov/post/3m5vtxjmgnk23

In case you missed it, this came soon after a 427-1 vote by the House of Representatives to release the Epstein Files.

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/11/18/house-approves-epstein-files-bill-in-near-unanimous-vote-00656764

A federal court on Tuesday blocked Texas from using a redrawn U.S. House map that touched off a nationwide redistricting battle and is a major piece of President Donald Trump’s efforts to preserve a slim Republican majority ahead of the 2026 elections.

The ruling is a blow to Trump’s rush to create a more favorable political landscape for Republicans in next year’s midterms, at least for now. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott vowed a swift appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court and defended the map that was engineered to give Republicans five additional House seats.

But in a 2-1 ruling, a panel of federal judges in El Paso sided with opponents who argued that Texas’ unusual summer redrawing of congressional districts would harm Black and Hispanic residents. The decision was authored by U.S. District Judge Jeffrey V. Brown, who was nominated to the bench by Trump during his first term.

The intervention on behalf of the accused sex trafficker comes as Trump is under fire over his ties to Jeffrey Epstein.

Not content to simply deport as many South American migrants from this country as possible, the Trump administration leaned into its lies about the latent threat to national security the mere existence of foreign people poses to national security.

President Trump's dismissal of Jamal Khashoggi's brutal murder by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as he praises him as "one of the most respected people in the world" is a chilling display of prioritizing profit over justice.

The Trump administration “explicitly directed the Legislature to redistrict on race,” the court recognized.

A volunteer on Jose Barco’s defense team said that the veteran was not able to reach out to his family before the deportation was initiated

“The public perception of this case is that it’s about politics,” U.S. Judge Jeffrey Brown, a Trump appointee, wrote in the ruling striking down the new lines. “To be sure, politics played a role in drawing the 2025 Map. But it was much more than just politics. Substantial evidence shows that Texas racially gerrymandered the 2025 Map.”

Brown ordered that the 2026 congressional election “shall proceed under the map that the Texas Legislature enacted in 2021.” The case will likely be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, but time is short: Candidates only have until Dec. 8 to file for the upcoming election.

...

Tuesday’s decision came from a three-judge panel made up of Brown; U.S. District Judge David Guaderrama, a Barack Obama appointee; and Judge Jerry Smith, who was appointed to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals by Ronald Reagan.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) signaled in an interview with Axios on Monday that she would not support New York City Council member Chi Ossé in a primary challenge against House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.).

Why it matters: Ocasio-Cortez is one of several high-profile progressives distancing from Ossé's potential run, arguing that it is a distraction from New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani's victory.

Ocasio-Cortez told Axios during a brief interview at the U.S. Capitol that she was "not aware" that Ossé was challenging.

"But," she added, "I certainly don't think a primary challenge to the leader is a good idea right now."

City Councilmember Chi Ossé of Brooklyn has taken the first official step toward a Democratic primary challenge against House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, the highest-ranking Democrat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

“The Democratic Party’s leadership is not only failing to effectively fight back against Donald Trump, they have also failed to deliver a vision that we can all believe in,” Ossé said in a statement.

Ossé, 27, was elected to his second full term on the City Council in November and recently joined the Democratic Socialists of America. He has used a growing social media presence to engage New Yorkers on how the government works and when it doesn’t.