Trump says Hormuz Strait to open Tuesday; Trump keeps up pressure for controversial election bill – August 3, 2026

It's Monday, August 3rd. I'm Scott Baba. President Donald Trump pulls back on threats to attack Iran again, claiming this is the country's last chance to negotiate a deal. This is the last chance. This is not something that if it doesn't happen. This is a last chance for them to sign a good document. Democrats spar ahead of tomorrow's Michigan primary. Let's be clear. This is an important election in a couple days, but we have to win in November. We have to keep Michigan blue. And California Attorney General Rob Bonta sues the Trump administration over its attempt to give the personal data of some social service program recipients to the Department of Homeland Security. Its attempts, ongoing attempts, that it's shown in many places and spaces to collect more data about more Americans and put it all in a singular. central database. This approach is cruel, it's unnecessary, and most importantly, it is illegal. These stories and more coming up. From the studios of KPFA in Berkeley, this is the Pacific Evening News. I'm Scott Baba.

President Donald Trump said new talks with Iran are a, quote, last chance for Tehran to reach a deal and avoid an escalation of U.S. strikes. We're talking at the request of Iran, backed by Saudi Arabia, backed by UAE. and backed by Qatar in particular, but others also. Many countries called, many, the leaders of many, are friendly with a lot of them, almost all of them, one way or the other, and they all wanted to give this a last chance. This is a last chance. This is not something that, if it doesn't happen, this is a last chance for them to sign a good document. It's the latest turn in a five-month-old war that's seen the president repeatedly threatened major attacks only to pull back. Trump said negotiations will focus first on reopening the Strait of Hormuz, a critical route for global oil, before turning to Iran's nuclear program, what he calls the denuclearization phase. But Iran is pushing back on that framing. Tehran denies its negotiating with the U.S. at all. Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson Eshmael Baghei insisted the country is only working out a temporary shipping route through the strait with Oman, and that the strait would stay closed until the United States' so-called violations end, saying, as long as the current U.S. evil acts continue, as long as the naval blockade of Iran remains in place. As long as U.S. military aggression against Iran and its interests carry on, and as long as the United States continues the violations it has committed during this period, there will naturally be no significant development or major change in the situation in a strait of Hormuz.

The United States maintains Iran has no authority over the waterway, though Iran has repeatedly attacked vessels trying to pass through without its permission. Speaking on Air Force One over the weekend, Trump said he had scrapped plans for a massive strike, originally set for Sunday. This, after hearing from Gulf allies, including Saudi Arabia's crown prince, who reportedly warned that further escalation could destabilize the global economy. It took many, many years to ever build it back. I don't think it would be even buildable. So we had an attack that would be the biggest attack since World War II, and it would have been disastrous for it. And they didn't want us to do it. And frankly, Saudi Arabia didn't want it either. They thought that. A deal is eminence. This isn't the first time Trump has backed away from major threats against Iran. Similar reversals happened in April, May, and June. Critics say the pattern reflects an erratic approach to the conflict. Speaking on CBS has faced the nation yesterday, Democratic Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona said Trump is, quote, flailing. Here's a guy who got us into this without a strategic goal, without a plan, without a timeline. He's got a Secretary of Defense that doesn't know how to manage this war, who decided a good metric at the beginning was just to drop as many munitions as he could on as many targets. And now we've got a munitions shortage. Big surprise. So they're flailing, they're stuck, they're responsible for this. And the president is the one that has to try to figure out a way out of this. I would suggest to him, though, that the solution is not to do the same thing that he's been doing, not to have his real estate buddy and his son-in-law in charge of a negotiation, to put some people in here that know how to do this, how to talk to the Iranians. Trump insists he's simply giving Iran, quote, every last chance before decapitation. Meanwhile, after nearly five months on the sidelines of the Iran War, Yemen's Houthi rebels are opening up a new front. The Iran-backed group has launched strikes on Saudi Arabia's state oil company and announced a blockade of Saudi ships in the Red Sea, adding another critical waterway to the region's security concerns along with the Strait of Hormuz. Analysts say the Houthis are testing Saudi red lines, demanding free movement at Yemen's ports, prisoner exchanges, and a share of oil revenue to pay government salaries. Saudi Arabia responded by announcing a new defense coalition to protect Red Sea shipping.

Satellite imagery shows apparent damage at two Saudi refineries and a Saudi-flagged oil tanker was targeted this week. Experts say the escalation reflects both the Houthi's own grievances with Saudi Arabia and a calculated move to demonstrate strength. Even as Iran, their main backer has been weakened by U.S. and Israeli strikes. The top international envoy overseeing Gaza's fragile peace process met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today, pressing him to halt ongoing strikes as both sides work to implement a deal to disarm Hamas. The meeting described as, quote, constructive in detail comes after a bloody weekend. Israeli strikes killed at least 17 people overnight Saturday alone, despite the ceasefire framework calling for a halt to attacks. Israel said it won't withdraw troops from Gaza until Hamas is fully disarmed and its tunnels are destroyed. Hamas said Israel must stop its attacks and pullback forces first before it hands over weapons. Benjamin Netanyahu has still not publicly said whether he accepts the broader plan President Trump announced last week, even as his far-right allies push him to reject it outright. Mediators Egypt, Qatar, and Turkey have condemned the continued Israeli strikes, calling them a breach of the agreement. Israeli forces now control an estimated 60 to 70% of Gaza well beyond the boundary set under October ceasefire. And residents say Israeli-held territory keeps expanding, forcing new waves of displacement. More than 1,200 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli strikes since that ceasefire took hold, even as the war's overall death toll in Gaza has surpassed 73,000. This, according to health officials in Gaza. Four Israeli soldiers have been killed in the same period. Two Republican senators who threatened to block Todd Blanche's nomination for Attorney General now say they'll support him. But Democrats and legal experts warn the deal that got them there may not hold up. Republican senators John Cornyn and Thom Tillis had deemed written confirmation that a controversial $1.8 billion payout fund for self-described victims of political prosecution was dead before they voted in favor of Todd Blanche. Todd Blanche issued that order last night, tied to Trump's settlement of a lawsuit against the IRS.

The fund had raised concerns on both sides of the aisle that it was structured in such a way that it could be abused for partisan politics and personal profit with very little oversight. A judiciary committee vote to move Todd Blanche's nomination forward was originally scheduled last week, but was pushed to Tuesday in the face of opposition from John Cornyn and Thom Tillis. Trump had said in a social media post that he might pull Todd Blanche's nomination. and resubmitted after John Cornyn and Thom Tillis leave office next year. Critics of the deal, note Todd Blanche only rescinded the order creating the fund, not the underlying settlement agreement that established it, which still requires all parties' consent to change. That means that Trump, a plaintiff in the case who has defended the fund as recently as this weekend, could theoretically move to revive it. Trump has continued praising the fund and one of his allies posted that the deal, quote, can be undone after Tuesday.

Critics call the agreement hollow and warn the administration could bring back a similar fund under a different name or use a separate legal process to pay out claims anyway. Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut said, quote, Corrin and Thom Tillis seem to have gotten nothing. The tax immunity deal is still unlimited in terms of tax control liability. And the slush fund, or the thug fund, as I call it, is still alive and well so far as Donald Trump is concerned. Meanwhile, in a post on social media, Democratic Senator Adam Schiff of California called for a binding legislative statute to kill the bill, deal, saying, quote, This supposed deal doesn't prevent payouts to violent insurrectionists in the future. It doesn't prevent the admin from bringing the slush fund back from the dead next week or using DOJ's judgment fund for the same illicit purpose. It leaves in place a tax immunity deal that could help Trump skip taxes on the $2.3 billion he made last year and leaves it vague who and what is covered. Thom Tillis defended the deal, saying the fund is, quote, rescinded to death. The Judiciary Committee's vote on Todd Blanche nomination happens tomorrow. Senator Republicans are racing to clear a pat-to-do list before leaving Washington for the week on Friday. Their top priority, a stopgag spending bill to avoid a government shutdown ahead of the November midterms. Key senators unveiled a short-term spending bill on Sunday that would keep federal agencies funded past the midterm elections as they look to avoid a government shutdown during the middle of campaign season. The bill would fund the government through December 11th. Appropriations chair, Susan Collins, and top Democratic appropriations. Patty Murray worked together on the measure, which differs from the House bill. It keeps housing and nutrition funding intact through the fall and extends veterans' health care authorization. A procedural vote is expected early this week. If it passes, the House could take it up when lawmakers return in late August. If not addressed, the government runs out of money October 1st. Republican Majority Leader John Thune is also pushing to confirm 74 of President Trump's nominees at agencies including state, energy, treasury injustice. That includes Todd Blanche's bid for Attorney General at the Department of Justice. Separately, the Senate is expected to easily pass new sanctions on Russia, allowing tariffs of up to 100% on countries buying Russian oil and gas.

Republicans are also trying to finalize a $95 billion package for the Iran War and Farm Aid using a process that sidesteps a Democratic filibuster, though several GOP senators remain opposed. Whatever doesn't get done this week likely slides to September. Meanwhile, Senate Republicans push to pass that stopgack spending bill comes with a notable twist. It also delivers a rebuke to President Trump. Tucked into the measure is a provision blocking the White House from giving political appointees sweeping new power over hundreds of billions of dollars in federal grants. Appropriations chair Susan Collins said the rule change proposed by the White House Budget Office in May could, quote, politicize grants and harm rural communities in biomedical research. The proposed rule would let political appointees screen research grants for alignment with Trump's political priorities, including blocking projects tied to diversity initiatives. It would let agencies cut off funding at any time. The Trump administration argues the change ads needed oversight. Budget Director Russ Vought pointed to a controversial NIH grant that reached a Chinese virology lab as the kind of funding the rule is meant to catch. If the bill passes both chambers, the rule will be frozen until at least December, a sign that some Senate Republicans are willing to break with the White House as they race to beat Friday's deadline. President Trump's side an executive order today that has established a new White House commission aimed at putting military families at the heart of military readiness. He also addressed the latest on the Iran War, saying he expects the Strait of Hormuz to be fully open by tomorrow. Max Pringle has more. Trump said the executive order called the Military Spouse Commission will advise him on policies affecting military spouses and families and provide annual recommendations to improve their quality of life while strengthening military readiness. Desire Thompson's sale, along with new commission member Christy Mullen, wife of Secretary of Homeland Security, Secretary Markwayne Mullin. These are outstanding people, everyone. The commission is designed to give the White House a direct line to the challenges facing military spouses, including child care, employment, housing, health care, education, and the demands of repeated deployments. America cannot have the strongest military of the world without the love and devotion of our remarkable military spouses who make the extraordinary sacrifices for our country. They really are extraordinary. Many military spouses spend months separated from their loved ones while our heroes are deployed overseas.

Military families also endure frequent moves and other unique challenges. And the challenges are legendary. They write books about them. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's wife, Jennifer Pete Hegseth, will chair the commission. I've spent the last year traveling around, meeting with military spouses and families around the world and around the country. And it's the same from Kentucky to Singapore. It's housing. It's health care. It's employment. It's child care, it's education, and so we're going to take a look at all of those things. Meanwhile, President Trump responded to a reporter's question about the status of the Iran war. Trump said Iranian negotiators have hinted that they're ready to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Iran closed the vital waterway after the war started in February. We're talking about the street, the opening of the strait, having it open literally by tomorrow, completely open. And that's phase one and phase two is we then will talk about the nuclear capacity, the nuclear, as we've been mentioned. Basically, it's, I think, most of the denuclearization of rent has to happen. Trump has promised breakthroughs in negotiations several times in the past few months, only to see hostilities break out again. For KPFA News, I'm Max Pringle. Russia dropped eight glide bombs on the Ukrainian city of Zaporizia in just 90 minutes Sunday, killing one person and wounding more than 30. The powerful Soviet-era bombs damaged 22 apartment buildings. Meanwhile, Ukrainian drone strikes and debris killed at least nine people across Russia and Russian annex Crimea, according to regional officials there. Neither side's claims could be independently verified. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine's long-range drones are hitting targets deep inside Russia, including oil refineries and a strategic bomber base as part of a push to force Russian president Vladimir Putin towards peace talks this fall. Volodymyr Zelensky also renewed pleas for more U.S.-made Patriot air defense systems, saying only they can reliably stop Russian ballistic missiles. President Trump has not committed to letting Ukraine manufacture the systems itself. Prominent Russian anti-war politician Boris Nadezden has fled the country, announcing his arrival in France just days after being barred from running in September, September's parliamentary elections. In a video filmed in front of the Eiffel Tower, Nadezdin said, quote, the good news is I'm alive and free, but sadly, not yet in Russia. Nadezdin had been barred from leaving Russia amid a bankruptcy case and was labeled a foreign agent as the Kremlin worked to sideline anti-war candidates ahead of the vote. He was ultimately disqualified after being charged with displaying extremist symbols. He did not explain how he managed to leave the country.

In an interview with the Washington Post last month, Nadezdin said he feared for his life, invoking the fates of opposition figures Borin Nepsov, who was shot in 2015, an Alexei Navalny, who died in prison in 2024. Nadezdin first gained national attention running against the war in Russia's 2024 presidential election. Japan's Prime Minister visited the earthquake hit Kumamoto region today as residents cleared debris in punishing heat, nearly a week after a magnitude 7.1 earthquake struck. The quake killed 38 people, including one who died of apparent heat stroke while sheltering in a car. Temperatures neared 104 degrees today. More than 46,000 households remain without water, and over... 8,500 people are still in crowded emergency shelters, many without air conditioning. Prime Minister Sanaai Takaichi toured the damage by helicopter and visited a well-equipped shelter, drawing criticism online that the visit didn't reflect conditions elsewhere. She promised further government support after Kumamoto's government pressed for better access to clean water and medical care. Separately, a store operator apologized to the family of an employee killed in a post-quick explosion after acknowledging it had told her to retrieve cash from a safe inside a collapsed mall. Meanwhile, the U.S. dollar dropped sharply against the Japanese yen today after President Trump and Japan's finance minister confirmed a rare coordinated intervention, the first joint U.S.-Japan currency operation in more than a decade. The dollar had climbed above 163 yen last month, a 40-year high, before falling to around 156 yen following the announcement. Reports say the U.S. sold euros to buy yen, helping strengthen the currency. Trump said the move reflects a, quote, good relationship with Japan, adding the U.S. saw financial benefit from it. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the action countered, quote, disorderly yen movements, and that the U.S. won't hesitate to intervene again. Japan's finance ministry confirmed it bought yen in coordination with the U.S. Treasury, saying the move addressed excessive volatility. A weak yen has fueled inflation in Japan by making imports more expensive. And let's call this kind of open joint intervention rare. The last major example, came after Japan's 2011 earthquake and tsunami. 25 states are suing the Trump administration over its newest round of tariffs, calling them an illegal workaround after the Supreme Court struck down the president's earlier import taxes in February. The administration imposed tariffs of 10 to 12.5% on 59 countries and the European Union last month, framing them as a response to forced labor practices.

New York Attorney General Letitia James said it's really just another attempt to, quote, illegally raised taxes on families and businesses. After the High Court rejected his use of emergency powers, Trump is now relying on a different law, Section 301 of a 1974 trade statute, which permits the president to impose import taxes and other sanctions against countries found to engage in unfair trade practices. That law survived legal challenges during Trump's first term when he used it to tariff China. A White House spokesperson defended the new tariffs as a lawful response to unfair trade practices. President Trump is intensifying pressure on Congress to pass the Save America Act, which he describes as an election security measure. If enacted, the legislation would restrict mail-in-voting and require voters to present a birth certificate or passport matching their current legal name. Voting rights advocates warn the requirement could prevent many eligible Americans from casting ballots, particularly married women who change their last names. KP Faye's Sharon Sabota reports. Today, Trump wrote in a social media post, John Thune should not allow the U.S. Senate to leave town until it passes the Safe America Act or, far better still, terminates the filibuster, where Republicans can then quickly pass everything they ever dreamed of, end quote. While Democrats have unanimously rejected the Save America Act, Trump has used every opportunity to tout it, including when he was interviewed on NBC about the passing of Senator Graham. He said, we're all set for the Save America Act. He was pushing the Save America Act like crazy. On July 16th, Trump insisted that the Save America Act was necessary to protect American democracy during his prime time address. Congress must pass the Save America Act. How easy is that to do unless you want to cheat? The only reason you wouldn't do it is you want to cheat because your policies are so bad and your candidates are so pathetic that you can't get away or can't get elected any other way. This landmark bill requires that all voters must show photo voter ID. How simple is that? Could I have your photo, please? Photo, voter ID. All voters must provide proof of citizenship. Are you a citizen of our country, please? He also said he pushed for the end of all mail-in ballots except for active duty service people and those with extreme special circumstances. If you watched California in so many other places, mail-in ballots are inherently corrupt. That claim is unsubstantiated. On July 22nd, the House passed a $95 billion budget proposal. with $73 billion designated for the Pentagon security needs like the war with Iran, $12 billion for farmers experiencing the ripple effects of Trump's tariff policies, and another $10 billion for voting law changes like the controversial Save America Act. While Trump refers to the Save America Act as a simple measure that no one would oppose unless they're cheating, many Americans say it could ultimately keep them from voting.

The U.S. Department of State shows that only about half of Americans have a valid passport. Nearly 10% of voters do not have their birth certificate in hand. Denise Witsick is a feminist scholar based in Oakland. She says the Safe America Act has the potential to disenfranchise many vulnerable populations, including people who've been adopted, transgender folks who've elected to change their name, and most ironically. married women. Women aren't the only population that it will impact, obviously, trans folks and people who have been adopted and who have changed their names. Or people who have just changed their names for their own reasons. We're allowed to do that. And if we don't have a kind of so-called paperwork... that indicates a kind of a matchup to our names at birth, this will provide a hindrance. With success, there's a particular irony when it comes to married women. The Republican Party is the quote-unquote traditionalist. party, the party that stands, I would say, for a patriarchal standard in terms of gender relationships and supporters of marriage. And so women who comply with the patriarchal standards or who are traditionalists or for whatever reason, if they cannot prove. that their names have been changed from what their birth certificates say, then they will not be allowed to vote. Kimmyora Ward is from the Sacramento area. We'll lose 70 million voters, 9 to 1, that will be women. Ward says this is not an accident, but instead something that has been in the making for four decades. They're not making it up as they go. They've been planning this for 40 years. The Heritage Program has been chipping away at this issue, and we have been losing our rights for 40 years and losing our money. $15 trillion have gone from the bottom to the top 1%. Reckless and intentionally so. Terry and Martha Ford. are proud grandparents of three children, but they've also become activists. Obviously, we're here because of women. And women have, to me, a clear understanding of the propriety of things, of how we should be active. Keep us out of war, perhaps. If the Safe America Act were to pass, Martha Ford, who took her husband's last name, would be impacted. If anybody is... being attacked or jailed or killed. I mean, it's effects on all of us. And that money from our taxes goes to bomb girls' schools.

anywhere, it's our money. And so, you know, we're responsible for it, too. And we need to speak up and say, we don't like it. We don't agree. We need to change. While she might be able to handle the logistics of proving her identity and American citizenship, she knows that not everyone else will. And she says, we can't afford not to have women's voices represented in elections. For Pacifica, KPFA Radio, I'm Sharon Sabota. The man convicted of killing former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband made his first appearance in state court today weeks after being sentenced in federal court. JD Vance Belter is already serving two life terms plus 40 years after pleading guilty to federal charges in the killings and in the shooting that critically wounded state Senator John Hoffman and his wife. He now faces separate state charges including murder, attempted murder, and animal cruelty. after the Hortman's dog was fatally injured. I'm Scott Baba. You're listening to the Pacific Evening News. We'll be back with more after this. Uncle Chubby, do you even know what the cloud is? Of course. It's where you keep pictures of cats and your taxes. That's not. Okay. What about algorithms? Are those the fancy moves the kids are doing on TikTok? Wow, we are so doomed. Hold on now, we don't need any of that stuff because we've got KPFA. KPFA? Yep, it's on the radio? You just turn the dial and boom. Real news, real music, real conversations, no downloads, no passwords, and no spinning wheels. Even you can handle that. Exactly. KPFA, where simplicity meets brilliance. And it's listener supported, so it's all about community. KPFA, 94.1 FM. No cloud, no algorithms, just great radio. The nation's most expensive Democratic state primary race wraps up tomorrow in Michigan. Former Detroit area County Health Commissioner Abdul El-Sayed is from the party's progressive wing. Democratic establishment leaders have largely thrown their support to his opponent, Congresswoman Haley Stevens. They argue she will be more electable in the November primary against the Republican candidate, former Congressman Mike Rogers. Eileen Alendary reports. Retiring Michigan Democratic Senator Gary Peters told a weekend gathering that selecting Congresswoman Haley Stevens as the party's Senate nominee is the surest path to a Democratic victory in the midterm elections. When she got elected to the Congress, she flipped a seat from a Republican to a Democrat. She knows how to beat Republicans.

Let's be clear. Let's be clear. This is an important election in a couple of days. But we have to win in November. We have to keep Michigan blue. Haley Stevens is the person to do that. Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer also says Stevens has the best chance to win in November against Republican Mike Rogers. Abdul El-Sayed took the issue of electability head on in his opening remarks at a weekend rally in Dearborn Michigan, a majority Arab-American city near Detroit. Now the simplest definition for the idea of electability is that you get elected. My whole name is Abdulrahman Muhammad Assayy. That's a whole name. My first name alone has 11 letters in it. Got sounds that come out of parts of people's throats. They don't know they have. And for most of my life, I thought my name meant that I would be fundamentally unelectable. And then Donald Trump got elected and I said, you know what? If that man can get elected, what the hell does unelectability mean anyway?

Ads funded by Super PACs supporting Haley Stevens have tried to make the case that Abdul El-Sayed is unelectable. Here's one from the United Democracy Project, which is affiliated with APAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. The ads don't mention Israel. Why are Republicans spending money in the Democratic primary to help Abdul El-Sayed? Abdul El-Sayed repeatedly endorsed defunding the police, then lied about it until CNN exposed him. He has a history of disrespecting women, including Michelle Obama and Gretchen Whitmer. Abdul El-Sayed even expressed sympathy for a terrorist who attacked a synagogue full of children. Republicans are meddling because Abdul El-Sayed can't win the general election. UDP's responsible for the content of this ad. Independent analyses have debunked the claims in the ad, but Super PACs have spent a record amount more than $60 million to defeat El-Sayed and elect Stevens. That's more money than has ever been spent on a Democratic Senate primary. The APAC-affiliated United Democracy Project accounts for about half that spending. Stevens has been a reliable vote in favor of military aid to Israel. bucking the rising tide of popular anger over the slaughter in Gaza. El-Sayed argues that despite the blizzard of ads against him, Michigan voters are connecting to his message of Medicare for All, affordability, his calls to stop funding genocide, and to get big money out of politics. If Abdul El-Sayed wins, Republicans will try to paint him as too far left for Michigan. But at the Dearborn Rally, Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar said none of Abdul El-Sayed's arguments are too radical for Michigan voters. She pointed to his endorsement by the United Auto Workers Union. Auto workers know who has stood with them. They know who has walked their picket line. They know who has fought for manufacturing, for collective bargaining, and for good union jobs. Their endorsement says something profound. that people who make America run believe Abdul will fight for them in the US Senate. And that's why when I hear powerful people whisper about electability, I laugh at them. El Sayed is also endorsed by Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren and New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer recently came off the sidelines and endorsed Haley Stevens. The latest polls show El Sayed in the lead. There is a generational split with older voters favoring Stevens. and younger voters, El-Sayed. I'm Eileen Alfandary for KPFA News.

Maryland lawmakers began a special session today to consider a first step towards partisan redistricting that could hand Democrats an additional U.S. House seat by 2008. The General Assembly is debating a constitutional amendment giving Democrats more room to redraw congressional maps. Voters would have to approve the change before new district lines could even be considered. Democrats currently hold seven of Maryland's eight House seats. The target is the state's lone Republican district held by Andy Harris, a chair of the House Freedom Caucus. Republicans call the move a blatant power grab. Governor Wes Moore said it's a necessary response to GOP redistricting elsewhere, and it says voters not, quote, party bosses will have the final say. If approved by lawmakers, the amendment would go before voters this November. Maryland joins New York among Democratic-led states taking steps towards new maps ahead of 2028, as a national redistricting battle that began a year ago continues to shape the House map. After the Trump administration seized voting machines and ballots in certain states, democracy watchdogs are calling for the public to become active participants in the November midterm elections that will determine control of Congress. Eric Galatas reports. Democracy watchdogs warn that President Donald Trump is setting the stage to tap emergency powers to ensure that Republicans don't lose control of Congress in November's midterm elections. Since January, the Trump administration has used federal law enforcement to raid election facilities to seize ballots and voting machines in places like Georgia and Puerto Rico. And Trump continues to cast doubt on the integrity of elections in Montana and across the nation. Robert Weiner with the Lawyers Committee for Civil rights under law says members of the public need to get involved. You can be a poll watcher. You can be an observer. You can voice your view that no one will be allowed to intimidate people so that they don't vote. Keep Our Republic, an advocacy group whose members include legal scholars, former federal lawmakers, and top cabinet officials warn that if Trump declares a national crisis, he could use presidential emergency powers to take over U.S. voting machines. The Trump administration says it's working to ensure that Americans have full confidence in how elections are handled, including accurate and up-to-date voter roles, free of errors, and unlawfully registered non-citizen voters. Trump is also called... for Republicans to nationalize the November vote, but Weiner notes the U.S. Constitution gives states the sole authority to run elections. He says the nation's founders understood the potential dangers if a single authority had the power to decide election outcomes. The fact that we have all these different governmental entities running the elections makes it harder for anybody to influence them improperly. There's no evidence that non-citizen voting has ever imposed.

impacted an elections outcome, according to a bipartisan policy center report. Weiner says it's important to keep in mind that Trump only claims fraud in elections he lost in 2020 and when Republicans suffered losses in the 2018 midterms. The bottom line is that our electoral system is safe. It has integrity and people can rely on their vote being accurately counted and any claim to the contrary or untrue. This is Eric Galatas reporting for the big Sky Connection. With Wisconsin's primary, less than two weeks away, organizers are pushing to get more Native American voters to the poll, arguing that even in a lower turnout election year, tribal sovereignty and issues on the reservation are on the ballot too. Chuck Wormbach reports. The nonpartisan group Wisconsin Native Vote is about a decade old and is now up to four organizers around the state. They've already been doing outreach at powwows and a variety of other community events. Spokesperson and organizer Anne Egan Walkaw is a member of the Menominee tribe. She says a key message is that voting is a way to make sure native voices are heard. We told people to vote for the seventh generation. That's what really resonates with people because our ancestors worked to make sure Mother Earth was... clean, healthy for us, and it's our job to do that for the next seven generations, but also it's working to make sure we retain our sovereignty. Egan Walkosso's tribal sovereignty is an especially powerful theme for the Menominee, which only won back full tribal status in the early 1970s after much activism and debate with state and federal elected officials. Still, this is not a presidential election year, and Wisconsin only has high-profile races for governor. the House of Representatives and state legislature. Statewide voter turnout is expected to be down from 2024. But Egan Walkaw says there are some big problems, new and ongoing, likely to motivate tribal members to vote. Like we had listening sessions and people came to talk to us about issues that are important to them, like the data centers, you know, the opioid problem that we have on our reservations. Egan Walker says she does encounter people who are cynical about voting and politicians, but she says she asks them, do they really want to do nothing at election time? For National Native News, I'm Chuck Kornbach. A multi-state coalition is suing President Donald Trump over an alleged attempt to disclose Americans' personal data to the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies. KPFA YouthWorks intern Amina Gordon has more.

For the 80th time since Donald Trump took office, California Attorney General Rob Bonta is suing his administration. Banta is joined in the lawsuit by 22 other attorney generals and two governors, including A.G. Letitia James of New York and A.G. Brian Schwab of Washington, D.C., who are co-leading the coalition with him. The lawsuit is in response to a notice the Trump administration issued pertaining to the temporary assistance for needy families, or T-A-N-F, program, which each month provides financial help to 350,000 families in California alone. The announcement, sent out last month, expands the federal government's ability to share personal information of those who receive help from the program, such as social security numbers, income, and immigration status, including from those who are no longer on financial assistance. One of the recipients of the newly released data would be the Department of Homeland Security. It oversees the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency, better known as ICE, which has seen more than 50 people die in their custody since January 2025, the beginning of Trump's second term. Common Cause, a nonpartisan watchdog organization, says the proposal deliberately weaponizes food intended for children, in action it calls, quote, unnecessarily cruel, end quote. Rob Bonta in the Coalition assert that the notice is in violation of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, which established TANF, and limits federal supervision of the assistance program. The Trump administration is trying to exploit this critical safety net program for social security numbers, marital status information, income information. and other sensitive data from current and past recipients all to fuel its mass surveillance efforts. Its attempts, ongoing attempts, that it's shown in many places and spaces to collect more data about more Americans and put it all in a singular central database. This approach is cruel, it's unnecessary, and most importantly, it is illegal. They also claim that the proposed rule change is quote, arbitrary and capricious, end quote, with no reasoned explanation for the change. They argue it violates the spending clause by adding new requirements to receive the TANF money that states had not agreed to when they initially accepted the funding. In a press release published today to go along with the filing of the suit, Banta writes, quote, while the Trump administration continues to break the law in order to amass an even greater trove of people's personal information,

We'll continue stepping in to protect the privacy of our people." End quote. The lawsuit lists three federal agencies and their executives as defendants. The Administration of Children and Families and Alex J. Adams, the Office of Family Assistance in David Swigle, and the Department of Health and Human Services, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.., respectively. As it stands, the notice is set to allow disclosure of data on August 11th. For KPFA, I'm Amina Gordon. State health officials say two people have died in the cyclospora outbreak in Michigan. They are the first confirmed deaths in the United States related to the microscopic parasite. The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services said today that both had underlying health conditions that may have been impacted by the intestinal illness and dehydration. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said cyclospora is a microscopic spherical parasite that commonly causes watery diarrhea with, quote, frequent and sometimes explosive bowel movements. The parasite spreads through feces. In the past, people have been infected by consuming fruits or vegetables that were exposed to contaminated irrigation water. Federal prosecutors have now dropped charges against all four people accused of vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. A case President Trump had pointed to as proof of vandalism, not shoddy construction. The reflecting pool underwent a $14 million restoration this year, but turned green with algae and newly installed lining began peeling within days of reopening. Several people were arrested and charged with intentionally vandalizing the pool after being seen picking pieces of the pool's lining out of the water. Prosecutors now say newly released evidence from the Interior Department points to a botched installation by Trump's own contractor, citing rain, wind, and rushed work ahead of the 4th of July celebrations, not sabotage. The president pushed back against the reversal, insisting the pool's lining, was deliberately cut with knives. Speaking to reporters today, he said U.S. attorney Jeanine Pirro made a mistake in dropping the case. I was disappointed with Jeanine Pirro. Really disappointed with Jeanine Pirro. She, uh... She folded like an umbrella and people get away with things and it's a disgrace. Trump accused Piero of caving under pressure. The judge was extremely unfriendly to Janine and frankly I think she choked because the judge was really vicious. Instead of going after the people that did it, the judge went after her and went after her department and I guess she choked.

I don't know what the hell happened. The president would not say whether he's reconsidering her position. Defense attorneys say their clients, including a veterinarian and a former Olympic canoeist, were arrested, fingerprinted, and publicly accused by the president himself, only to have the charges collapse months later. One attorney said his client lost two jobs over the arrest. The American Red Cross has declared the second national blood supply crisis in its 145-year history after donations hit a four-year summer low. In its announcement last week, the organization said it had less than a one-day supply of type O positive blood, the most commonly used type, and is limiting how much it sends to hospitals. Officials blame extreme heat, wildfires, and widespread food-borne illness for keeping donors away, even as summer trauma cases push hospital demand up. The Red Cross said it just needs three more donors to every blood drive to stabilize the supply. Anyone eligible is urged to book an appointment at Red Crossblood.org or by calling 1-800 Red Cross. Democrats have gone quiet on climate change since the 2024 election, betting that talking less about it and more about the cost of living is the path back to power. But a new study is challenging that strategy, suggesting silence on climate may be costing Democrats more than it's saving them. Suzanne Potter reports. New polling finds that contrary to popular belief, Democratic candidates who talk about climate change actually gain voters in California and nationwide. After the 2024 election, many Democratic candidates stopped campaigning on global warming. But new polling from the 2035 initiative at the University of California, Santa Barbara, finds that the so-called climate hush is actually counterproductive. Dr. Gabriel de Roche says people who support action to combat climate change are highly motivated to vote. We found that prioritizing climate change actually did increase the likelihood that a voter would vote for that candidate. That's among voters who are open to voting for Democrat. Polling did not show the same results for committed Republican voters. Data show the top issues for voters of all stripes, our affordability, the economy, and health care. Climate change comes in 12th on voters' list of priorities. However, when respondents were asked to choose between two candidates with a random list of priorities, candidates who emphasized climate change came out on top. De Roche says voters are less supportive of policies that emphasize bans or fees to combat climate change, but they're enthusiastic about building out solar and wind.

It's very important to communicate about the cost-saving potential of clean energy. That's going to be a key way to generate more support for building out this very important infrastructure. Among people who responded to the survey, electric vehicles got lukewarm support, and 43% said they oppose nuclear power. For California News Service, I'm Suzanne Potter. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation finalized its 2026 water management plan for Shasta Reservoir in late spring, with a promise to deliver more than 2 million acre feet of Sacramento Riverwater to Central Valley Farms. That's about 717 billion gallons tapped from the state's largest river. Environmental groups like San Francisco Baykeepers say the plan violates federal and state laws that protect endangered species like Chinook salmon, and they are taking legal action to keep fish populations from further decline. Vic Bodoyan reports from Fresno. Sacramento River Chinook salmon could be in more trouble than usual this year. They need cold water to spawn and for those eggs to incubate successfully. But the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation's temperature management plan is favoring farmers over fish. As on all the state's major rivers, Shasta Dam blocks salmon from spawning in high mountain tributaries of the Sacramento. They need a continuous flow of cold water throughout the summer to hack successfully. Their survival is connected to the amount and timing of water releases. Those decisions are made by federal and state scientists and bureaucrats. John Rosenfield is science director for San Francisco Baykeeper. He explains why the Fed's water management plan poses a critical threat to Chinook salmon. This year, because there was low snowpack, there was less cold water than you would expect from such a full reservoir. And it meant that under the Endangered Species Act rules that the Bureau of Reclamation operates under, it had to plan to release water at a certain rate that would keep enough cold water in the reservoir to be released slowly onto these fish eggs through the fall. But it did not plan to... operate that way. It planned to deliver as much water as they could, increasing delivery allocations throughout the winter while claiming that they couldn't meet the requirements of the Endangered Species Act. Baykeeper and other environmental advocates announced they are bringing litigation against the Bureau of Reclamation on the grounds that it is violating endangered species laws that protect migratory fish in the state's rivers and in the San Francisco Bay estuary. Rosenfield points out that the Bureau usually prefers to release water on a schedule to meet the demands of agricultural contractors. Then, later in the year, cold water in Shasta Reservoir is depleted, resulting in water releases into the river so warm that it kills the eggs and smolt of endangered salmon spawning in the fall. Rosenfield suggests it doesn't have to be that way.

If you manage the reservoir properly, you can have cold water throughout the summer and release that cold water preferentially to support these incubating salmon eggs. But if you release too much water, too much warm water to deliver to agriculture and cities, that you then have to use limited cold water to cool that warm water down when you release it so that it's at. or below the necessary temperature, then you're going to run out of cold water before these eggs can hatch and before some of the eggs even begin to incubate. Because of the early snow melt in the mountains this year, the large and early drawdown of water is especially threatening to wildlife in the Sacramento and other watersheds. In the drought year of 2015, federal regulators depleted cold water reserves behind Shasta Dam to serve agricultural contractors. The resulting warm water in the Sacramento River killed a reported 97% of juvenile winter-run Chinook salmon. Rosenfield says another catastrophe could be averted this year if political leaders applied existing laws. There are state and federal laws that are... designed to protect San Francisco Bay, its watershed, and the fish and wildlife that the California public and everyone values so much. They require protection of endangered species and fisheries, non-endangered species. Although he asserts the Trump administration doesn't care about endangered species or the health of California's waterways, John Rosenfield says that state officials could do something about it. This is an opportunity for the state government to act under its own authority, under state laws, to protect the same species, water quality, and fisheries that we all benefit from. And the state government is not doing nearly enough with its own authority to protect these endangered populations and these collapsing fisheries and are deteriorating water quality. And that's really on the Gavin Newsom administration because they have the authority to act and they're just not doing it. The current threat to the fragile Chinook salmon population comes as they are just beginning to recover enough to open the commercial fishing season for the first time in three years. That should be a good sign, but San Francisco Baykeeper and its allies fear another big fish kill in the Sacramento River could push the species even closer to the brink of extinction. Vic Bedouian reporting for Pacific Evening News and KFCF Radio. The California Democratic Party is backing a ballot measure to slap the state's roughly 200 billionaires with a one-time 5% wealth tax, despite pushback from within its own ranks, including Governor Gavin Newsom. The party's executive board narrowly voted to endorse Proposition 40 on Sunday.

Progressive backers, including independent Senator Bernie Sanders, and Democratic Representative Ro Khanna, say the tax would fund health care for middle and low-income Californians. Gavin Newsom has called the measure flawed, arguing wealth taxes belong at the federal level, not the state level, since billionaires can simply relocate. Polling from March showed about half of Californians support the measure. voters decide in November. Light winds and lower temperatures are in the forecast to help firefighters with wildfires in eastern Washington state that have forced the evacuation of 60,000 people in the Spokane area. The fires have destroyed at least 600 homes, businesses, and other structures. The fires have burned more than 12.5 square miles around Spokane, the second largest city in Washington. An official said Sunday that 390 square miles have burned across the state.

Bay Area weather this evening, mostly clear, lows around 60, partly cloudy tomorrow morning before becoming sunny, highs in the 80s to lower 90s. In the Central Valley, clear tonight with lows in the low 70s. Tomorrow, sunny and hot with a high near 105. In Los Angeles tonight, partly cloudy with lows in the high 60s, sunny tomorrow with a high near 90. That's it for the news tonight. I'm Scott Baba. Good evening. Nia Imani, Kujajakaliyah. Transitions on Traditions, a soul sonic rhapsody of words, sound, and power, where yesterday meets today and reaches towards tomorrow. I'm Greg Bridges, your host every Monday night from 8 to 10. Join me as we explore all that comes under the umbrella called jazz. From Lester Young to Lester Bowie, from Coleman Hawkins to Ornett Coleman, from Langston Hughes to Nikki Giovanni and beyond, Transitions on Traditions. Monday's 8 to 10 p.m. on listener-sponsored radio, KPFA. You are listening to 94.1 KPFA, 89.3, KPFB in Berkeley, 88.1 KFCF in Fresno, and online at KPFA.org.