Steven Hill, Democracy SOS. \America’s greatest anti-poverty program has long been the great income leveller in an unequal economy and democracy. And now it faces an existential threat. A financial tsunami of giant proportions is heading our way. It is due to arrive in about six years, and if it strikes with full force it will […]
This story was originally published by Inside Climate News and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. For a few weeks each summer, the Sebasticook River in Benton, Maine, is paved with flashing silver scales, so thick it seems you could almost walk across. The alewives have returned for their annual migration. On a mid-May weekend, […]
Jackie Barlow and Stewart Mitchell “We’re used to people saying ‘fuck no’ and doing it anyway.” These words were seemingly spoken by our very own Governor Gretchen Whitmer earlier this month, caught on a hot mic chatting with Oracle executive Clay Magouryk. The two were celebrating breaking ground on the controversial new AI data center […]
The Trump administration is planning on building a fleet of government-owned planes specifically to perform 24-7, short-notice deportations as part of its all-out effort to make Trump’s delusions of one million deportations per year a reality.The Department of Homeland Security is currently looking for a private company to operate a fleet of at least nine large jets both at home and abroad, providing the DHS with pilots, nurses, and security, Bloomberg reports. In addition to last-minute deportations, the planes will also carry the upper echelon of the administration’s staff on diplomatic trips. Although the government has yet to disclose how much its 24-7 fleet would cost, it spent about $140 million on six Boeing deportation jets last year. And the Federal Aviation Administration has recently noted that multiple jets from Avelo—an aircraft company that has already worked closely with DHS—are now owned by DHS.The MAGA-verse generally celebrated the news. Owning its own fleet would make it easier for the government to carry out deportations, perhaps the key tenet of the administration’s agenda. Yet the administration is still no closer to reaching its unrealistic goal of one million deportations per year. DHS estimates that a contract would begin in summer of 2027 and continue through 2032.
Supporters are drafting a policy demand letter that Maine’s next nominee must publicly commit to if they want support from the largest organizing network in state history.