Alcatraz: Should Congress Turn Part of a National Park Back Into a Prison?

President Richard Nixon, a native Californian, promoted an idea in 1972 to turn an iconic stretch of California’s coastline into a national park. It would include the headlands around the Golden Gate and two nearby islands. One was Angel Island, and the other was Alcatraz—where a federal prison had been permanently closed nine years earlier. On Feb. 8, 1972, Nixon sent a message to Congress. “I propose legislation to establish a Golden Gate National Recreation Area in and around San Francisco Bay,” he said. “Altogether, the area would encompass some…

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MoveOn Statement on President Trump’s Latest Abuse of Power

WASHINGTON – In response to Newark Mayor Baraka’s arrest while protesting the Trump administration’s anti-constitutional efforts to abduct innocent people, MoveOn Civic Action released the following statement: “The Trump administration is abusing its power to arrest anybody who disagrees with them—everyone from mayors to judges to students. This is part of President Trump’s authoritarian playbook to scare the American people into silence and complicity. “We all have the constitutional freedom to express our political opinion and to peacefully protest. We cannot allow the Trump administration to take those rights away…

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Lawmakers question Noem over cuts to CISA, FEMA, TSA

House lawmakers left with lingering questions about proposed budget cuts at the Department of Homeland Security after a Tuesday oversight hearing with Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. The hearing, before the House Appropriations Committee’s homeland security subcommittee, was held days after the Trump administration released its proposed fiscal 2026 “skinny budget.” The request would increase overall DHS funding — largely at Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Patrol — it would also cut budgets at several component agencies, including the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the Federal Emergency…

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Trump Finally Drops the Anti-Semitism Pretext

The intensely hostile letter that Education Secretary Linda McMahon sent to the leadership of Harvard yesterday has a lot going on. But the most notable thing about it is what it leaves out. To hear McMahon tell it, Harvard is a university on the verge of ruin. (I say McMahon because her signature is at the bottom of the letter, but portions of the document are written in such a distinctive idiolect—“Why is there so much HATE?” the letter asks; it signs off with “Thank you for your attention to…

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Democrat Invokes ‘Trans Jesus’ After Amending Gender Bill Out of Recognition in Middle of Night

A Colorado state senator appeared to belittle the faith of critics by referring to “trans Jesus” amid debate on HB 25-1312, after he and his party amended the bill beyond recognition in the wee hours of Monday night, two days before the end of the Colorado legislative session. HB 25-1312 drew national scrutiny after a Colorado Democrat compared concerned parents to the Ku Klux Klan. The bill originally mandated courts to consider “deadnaming” and “misgendering” as forms of “coercive control” in custody disputes, meaning that parents who dissent from gender…

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