Wow! Raskin just sent Kash Patel this letter. It’s umm… interesting. Read it twice. 👀
The House Judiciary minority says Patel has handed out more than $1 million in “bonus” payments to agents on his Director’s Advisory Team and his security detail. The letter calls it a personal slush fund.
Here’s the mechanism. Federal pay is capped by statute. The letter alleges Patel routed money around that cap. Nearly $8,000 per agent, every two-week pay period. Some collected five in a row. Roughly $40,000 each.
Then the accounts ran dry. Raskin says some of the payments bounced.
Who got paid? The letter points to the unit NOTUS reported as the “Payback Squad.” And it ties the cash to silence, alleging agents were polygraphed over whether they helped cover up Patel’s drinking.
Now the other column. The agents he fired include an FBI Medal of Valor recipient, the official who led the Jan 6 law enforcement response, a Marine combat veteran cut weeks after his wife died of cancer, and a counterintelligence unit that tracked Iranian threats.
Reward the loyal. Purge the rest.
Raskin wants every bonus, every authorization, and every legal memo on whether this broke federal law. Deadline June 29.
Fifty years of rules keeping off-road vehicles on designated trails — GONE.
Lifted trucks, ATVs, dirt bikes, snowmobiles.
Anywhere they want. On your public lands.
Nixon protected it. Carter protected it. Trump just erased both quietly on a Friday afternoon.
A grizzly bear will abandon its habitat when there's just one mile of road per square mile. One mile. Now there's no limit on where these vehicles can go.
In the Mojave, desert tortoises have already lost 96% of their population in some monitored areas - partly because off-road vehicles crush their burrows. A federal judge just ordered 2,200 miles of trails closed to protect what's left.
Then Trump signed this.
No designated trails. No boundaries. No framework at all. When vehicles go off trail they shatter habitat into pieces too small for wildlife to survive in. They destroy stream banks. They push predators toward humans. And when that happens, the animals always lose.
There was no vote. No public comment. Just a signature.
Now the agencies tasked with writing replacement rules are the BLM, the Forest Service, and the National Park Service - all under an administration that has spent months dismantling every protection they had.
The Interior Department, led by Doug Burgum, is in charge of most of it. The same Doug Burgum who has opened public lands to drilling, mining, and grazing at every turn.
Don't hold your breath.
When the last quiet place is gone, what do we tell the children who never got to hear it?
#DemsUnited
DOE Sec. Chris Wright said that his agency did not aim to punish states that Trump lost the 2024 election in when it canceled clean energy projects in them.
BUT his lawyers said otherwise—causing a judge to order the grants be restored.
https://t.co/bROiKVe33D
The leaked Iran deal that is floating around suggests that this is a pretty simple transaction: we are paying Iran billions to reopen the Strait. Period. Stop.
That's probably why they are refusing to release it.
The performers for the Obama Presidential Library opening on June 18 have been announced:
Stevie Wonder
John Legend
Jennifer Hudson
The Roots
Bruce Springsteen
Christina Aguilera
Marsai Martin
Common
U2’s Bono and The Edge
Eddie Vedder
Marc Anthony
Tems
Ridglan is closing down, and all the dogs should soon be freed! I just posted this to our rescuer network.
This would not have happened without our supporters on social media. Y'all were a key part of this—and will be a key part of the victories to come!
@factpostnews@humaneworldorg@BornFreeUSA@HoustonChron@KHOU Is there anything we can do to shut down this company and save the elephants?
"East Texas Elephant Experience, an animal facility located in the eastern city of Cut and Shoot, Texas"
I told ya we are at a turning point! Not just one but two cabinet secretaries joining the fight against Ridglan Farms-and all animal experiments.
The writing is on the wall.
ALL BEAGLES RELEASED: 325 beagles are being relocated from Ridglan Farms after @BDRRescue secured an agreement to close the facility. The last 150 dogs will be out by August.
After the August transfer, there will be no more dogs at Ridglan Farms.
📸 Big Dog Ranch Rescue
WE DID IT! 🎉🐶 Ridglan Farms is shutting down after decades of breeding for animal testing.
Soon, 2000+ beagles will be in loving homes❤️
BFP was honored to help place 568 of these dogs. Thank you to every donor, volunteer, foster, adopter, rescue partner, & activist involved.