Wednesday’s Mini-Report, 8.12.26

Today’s edition of quick hits.

* Aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln: “Family members and sailors say months at sea with no end in sight to a grueling Middle East deployment have intensified worries about mental health and the risk of self-harm aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln. Those concerns were brought directly to Navy leadership Thursday, when family members spoke to Acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Cao and other senior officials during intense town hall meetings, according to two spouses who attended.”

* Keep an eye on this one: “Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers may soon be outfitted with gloves that can deliver painful electric shocks intended to gain compliance from combative individuals. ICE plans to spend up to $20 million to purchase thousands of ‘conductive distraction and de-escalation devices’ for officers and agents by March, according to a notice published Monday by the Department of Homeland Security.”

* White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt is stepping down at the end of the month. There’s been no announcement as to how long it will take before she gets a job at Fox News.

* A closely watched case: “A federal judge on Tuesday blocked the U.S. Postal Service ‌from implementing part of President Donald Trump’s executive order that aims to tighten rules for mail-in voting ahead of November elections that will decide control of Congress. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston marked the latest setback for Trump’s push to expand the federal government’s role in overseeing elections.”

* Dismantling Viktor Orban’s legacy will take time and concerted effort from many: “Hungary’s parliament elected Andras Baka, a former head ​of the Supreme Court, as the country’s next president on ‌Tuesday, a symbolic step in Prime Minister Peter Magyar’s effort to dismantle former premier Viktor Orban’s bastions of power.”

* There’s some question as to why, exactly, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro is doing this: “The Justice Department has convened a special grand jury in Washington, a rare legal body that officials say could pave the way for federal prosecutors in the nation’s capital to investigate some of its biggest and most controversial cases.”

* Some news can be offensive and predictable at the same time: “Since immigration agents began carrying out a string of big, aggressive sweeps last year, civil rights groups have argued that the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign has been defined by brazen racial profiling. Now, body-camera footage, text messages and other documents emerging from lawsuits around the country reveal how race and ethnicity have figured in the dragnets that unfolded in Los Angeles, Chicago, Minneapolis and other U.S. cities.”

* The crisis will persist, even if the administration buries its head in the sand: “The Trump administration has pulled federal funding for an annual report chronicling the changing environment of the Arctic, where rapid warming is upending ecosystems, reconfiguring trade routes and scrambling Great Power strategy.”

* Robert Gilman is headed home: “Russia released an American military veteran on Tuesday, allowing his return to the U.S. after four years of what his family and U.S. officials allege was wrongful incarceration and abusive treatment that left him near death.”

* The resolution of a story we covered a few years ago: “Phyllis Zorn, the reporter whose acts of journalism served as an excuse for the August 2023 police raid of the Marion County Record, will get $850,000 from the city of Marion to settle her federal lawsuit over the raid. Attorneys for Zorn and the city filed a motion Tuesday, exactly three years after the raid, to dismiss the case. Kansas Reflector reviewed a copy of the settlement agreement, which has not been entered into the court record.”

See you tomorrow.

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