True Blue Progress

The Biden administration took steps to shield workers from extreme temperatures. The Trump administration is taking a gentler approach with employers.

The New York Times | By Scott Dance | Aug. 1, 2026 | Gift 🎁 Link (no paywall)

Republicans in Washington are taking steps to roll back federal workplace heat protections as summer temperatures surge.

The Trump administration is moving to rewrite Biden-era rules that would mandate breaks and access to water and shade for workers, in a step businesses lauded but that labor groups said could weaken already limited federal protections. Congress is considering legislation that would go a step further, prohibiting the Labor Department from adopting the Biden-era heat plan or similar rules.

A​t the same time, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration is curtailing workplace inspections that President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s appointees had increased to raise awareness of heat-related illnesses. [....] The proposed revisions would also reverse momentum toward codifying extreme heat as a workplace hazard. Stretches of record heat have persisted across the country this summer, punctuating decades of steadily climbing summer temperature highs and more frequent spells of dangerously hot conditions. Another “heat dome” is bringing extreme temperatures to the South and Midwest this week. [....] Heat is linked to hundreds of workplace deaths each year, but labor groups say the true toll is unknown because heat-related illnesses are not properly tracked or reported. In 2024, the death toll was at least 530, according to data compiled by the A.F.L.-C.I.O.

Trump Doesn't Care About Worker Health & Safety

For Trump, it is all about helping corporations make more money for shareholders.

Worker safety is Trump's last concern.

Trump LASHES out at his own DC attorney over DOJ admission Reflecting Pool damage wasn’t vandalism

President Trump took to social media to “100% disagree” with U.S. Attorney for DC Jeanine Pirro after the DOJ dropped charges against a former Olympian who was accused of damaging the paint of the Reflecting Pool. MS NOW White House Reporter Akayla Gardner has the latest from Washington, DC. 

Now Trump is continue to lie that vandals caused the damage in order to save face. And he has even gotten his Interior Secretary to continue to lie for him. According to The Washington Post:

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum sided with Trump on Saturday, writing on X that the “evidence is clear” that vandalism was what damaged the pool.

😳 RFK Jr's epic CNN crashout 😳

RFK, Jr doesn't know what he is talking about.

He is a lawyer who has benefited monetarily and in terms of power acquisition from his off-the-wall medical conspiracy theories, especially about autism and vaccines.

RFK, Jr cherry picks his research from sources that are usually not credible.

He is not a scientist and it is doubtful he even understands scientific articles that he reads.

RFK, Jr is a danger to not only to the health of US citizens but to the health of people all over the world because the conspiracies he promotes are spread worldwide and because illness travels across boarders.

ICE is ambushing travelers at San Francisco International Airport.

The English Elm: The Tree That Witnessed the Revolution

This tree, at the northwest corner of Washington Square Park [in New York City], is one of the only living beings in the city that experienced the American Revolution. Estimated to be more than 300 years old, it’s known as a “witness tree,” said Harold Holzer, the Manhattan borough historian. [....]

The English elm is popular among several creatures that we share the city with. One of its branches is curved in a way that makes it ideal for pigeons to perch and squirrels to splay out on, Ms. Seamans said. [....]

The English Elm is literally living history, holding the collective breath of New York over three centuries. In her book “When Trees Testify,” the plant biologist Beronda L. Montgomery writes of how trees, through photosynthesis, capture the exhales of humans, which become part of their physical form. “That plants, including trees, hold the transformed breath of decades of human life in their physical form positions them as powerful vessels of the present, even as they represent and testify to history and those from their past.” [emphasis added] In this way, the English Elm has, in its body, the breaths of the centuries of people who’ve visited Washington Square. It holds the breaths of the civil rights activists who’ve rallied there, the jazz musicians who’ve played there, the skateboarders who’ve done flips on the fountain, the chess players who’ve sat there for hours.

This is a gift 🎁 link, so there is no paywall to read this NY Times interactive article that also visits five other sites to show how the past lives on today in Lower Manhattan.

THE NEW YORK OF THE PAST IS STILL VISIBLE TODAY YOU JUST HAVE TO LOOK

Anna Kodé reported on six New York sites that explore different facets of the city’s history and can all be visited in a Lower Manhattan walking tour.

The New York Times | By Anna Kodé | Photos/Video by Todd Heisler | Design by Eden Weingart and Umi Syam |July 25, 2026

A dramatic reversal among a crucial voting bloc is emerging as the defining story of the 2026 midterm landscape, according to new polling analyzed by CNN's Harry Enten.

In the fall of 2024, voters under 50 gave Kamala Harris only a narrow three-point edge over Donald Trump, but today, the president's net approval rating among that same group has collapsed to negative 41 points in CNN's polling average — a swing of roughly 38 points against the president. By contrast, voters 50 and older have moved against Trump by less than half that amount, a shift of under 15 points.

Chart above was modified by RCraig09  for Wikimedia Commons. The original chart was by Ashley Wu for The New York Times. "Note" "for original NY Times chart: "Data excludes Alaska. Sources: C.D.C. Wonder; Edison Research By The New York Times"

Sadly, while the administration was lying, I saw MAGA posts defending Trump and claiming the Reflecting Pool problems were due to vandalism.

The difference between Vietnam and Iran is