A Call to Arms

Jim Saksa at Democracy Docket:

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) assured a judge in Washington, D.C., that it was shuttering a controversial citizenship database, but would make the tool available to four Republican-led states on a different judge’s orders. The paradoxical situation emerged after both federal judges issued contradictory rulings on the database, which critics say is ill-suited for voter verification and prone to flagging U.S. citizens as potential noncitizens.  In a joint status report filed Friday night, DHS’s lawyers said they were complying with District Court Judge Sparkle Sooknanan’s ruling shutting down the Systematic Alien Verification for Eligibility (SAVE) database, which was initially created to determine eligibility for federal public benefits. In his March 2025 executive order, President Donald Trump directed DHS to incorporate Social Security Administration (SSA) data into SAVE and allow state election officials to run registration records through it in bulk. That violated federal privacy and administrative laws, Sooknanan held in June.  But a few weeks later, a federal judge in Florida found that a settlement agreement that DHS entered into with Florida, Ohio, Iowa and Indiana in November 2025 required the agency to continue to make the modified SAVE system available to those states for voter record citizenship audits.

[...] The federal government said Friday that it was trying to simultaneously comply with the two conflicting orders “to the greatest extent possible.” As a result, DHS and SSA “are in the process of providing a technical workaround that would allow for bulk-uploads and SSN searches for the State of Florida, Ohio, Iowa, and Indiana—even while those capabilities remain disabled for all other users,” DHS’s attorneys wrote. In emails attached to the filing, DHS attorneys say the states’ access has already been restored. The plaintiffs in that case — the League of Women Voters, Democracy Forward, the Fair Elections Center and the Electronic Privacy Information Center — asked Sooknanan to issue a new court order blocking the four states’ carve-out.

Instead, Sooknanan directed the plaintiffs and federal defendants to attempt to settle the matter between themselves by the end of Monday. If they are unable — which seems likely — the two sides will file briefs ahead of a July 20 hearing. Sooknanan, a Joe Biden appointee, also ordered SSA to explain its position on whether it is bound by her court order or the Florida order.  DHS appealed Sooknanan’s order, but not the Florida ruling issued by District Court Judge T. Kent Wetherell II. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit could issue a ruling there as early as July 20. Last week, Sooknanan rejected DHS’s request to temporarily pause her injunction while the appeals are heard in an opinion that ripped into Wetherell, a Trump appointee. 

Ilana Berger at MMFA:

Fox personalities are promoting a false narrative that Democrats and left-leaning organizations are primarily responsible for nationwide opposition to fast-tracking construction of large and energy-intensive data centers. Both Fox News and Fox Business have pushed claims that protests against data center projects are being led by “far-left activists” and politicians who are working to “make sure we lose the AI race” with China — with some on the networks also accusing data center opponents of having ties to China or Chinese-linked funding networks themselves.  In reality, experts are skeptical of “claims that Beijing is directly and intentionally involved in the US data center discourse,” according to WIRED, and Fox was forced to apologize after repeatedly boosting claims that opposition to a proposed data center in Utah was being funded by China. Meanwhile, polling increasingly suggests that both Democrats and Republicans are concerned about the negative impacts of data centers — a recent survey from Heatmap Pro found that “at least seven in 10 Americans would now oppose a data center being built near their home,” including 78% of those who voted for former Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024 and 63% of those who voted for President Donald Trump.  Meanwhile, right-wing media are divided over the impacts of the technology and the infrastructure that supports it. As Fox has leaned into supporting the Trump administration's AI ambitions, the technology is seeing significant pushback, with many calls for regulation coming from other right-wing media figures and Republican politicians ahead of the midterm elections. 

Josh Marcus at The Independent:

In an upcoming speech this Thursday, President Donald Trump will reportedly reveal plans by foreign nations to interfere in the 2020 election. The exact content of the speech is not yet known, but its claims will be based on declassified intelligence information, MS Now reports. The remarks could touch on a host of U.S. adversaries that intelligence officials have said sought to meddle in the 2020 election, including Russia, Iran and Venezuela, the latter of which is often cited in MAGA conspiracies. The Independent has contacted the White House for comment. On Monday, President Trump previewed the address with a brief message on Truth Social, describing it as a “Speech to the Nation” planned for 9 p.m. Eastern time.

Later Monday, Trump told reporters that his comments were “just gonna be a speech like a lot of my speeches.” The president has long claimed without evidence that he won the 2020 election.

No foreign adversary attempted to alter or hack into any “technical aspect” of the 2020 voting and reporting process, according to a report released in March 2021 by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, reflecting the judgement of the nation’s top intelligence agencies at the time. “Unlike in 2016, we did not see persistent Russian cyber efforts to gain access to election infrastructure,” the report stated. Russia did, however, spread misinformation aimed at “denigrating President [Joe] Biden’s candidacy and the Democratic Party,” while Iran “carried out a multi-pronged covert influence campaign” intended to undermine Trump’s re-election prospects. China, meanwhile, concluded that neither candidate was “advantageous enough for China to risk getting caught meddling, and assessed its traditional influence tools — primarily targeted economic measures and lobbying — would be sufficient,” the ODNI report concluded.

Lake Powell reaching critically low elevation levels, experts say

The reservoir is nearing the lowest point at which hydropower can be produced.

Lake Powell, the second-largest reservoir in the U.S., is nearing critically low water elevation levels, the latest data shows.

As of Monday, water levels at Lake Powell measured at 3,524.3 feet above sea level, according to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation tracker.