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NATIONAL NUTCASERY
grifting into high gear
Just when you thought team MAGA had grifted every grift possible from the West Wing, they come up with a new one. This time, it’s the creation of a massive new fund to compensate President Donald Trump’s allies who claim to have been wrongfully targeted by the Biden administration, according to reports in both ABC News and the New York Times, citing unnamed sources.
Discussions are reportedly underway to create the fund in exchange for Trump dropping his $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over the 2019 leak of his tax returns, according to ABC News. The fund would be overseen by a commission that would have total control over doling out payments. It remains unclear who would be on the commission or how they would be chosen.
What is clear is the source of the $1.7 billion to fund the fund: U.S. taxpayers. ABC reported that the money would come from the Treasury Department’s Judgment Fund, which holds reserves to pay “court judgments and compromise settlements of lawsuits against the government.” Trump’s Justice Department is reportedly expected to settle the case any day now, with the new so-called “weaponization” fund serving as a key pillar of the settlement deal.
Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS has been rife with questions of ethical and financial conflicts of interest from the start. Trump himself acknowledged that in October: “It’s awfully strange to make a decision where I’m paying myself.” Meanwhile, U.S. taxpayers are grappling with skyrocketing gas prices and higher costs fueled by the Iran war, which Trump declared himself unconcerned about this week, saying he doesn’t “think about Americans’ financial situations” even “a little bit” while negotiating with Iran.
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restrict the district
One week deeper into the primary season, and the political ground is still shifting under our feet, making it impossible to know what the congressional maps will look like in the fall. Republicans have been busy disenfranchising their constituents this week; here’s a roundup:
In 2023, the Supreme Court ordered Alabama to create a second majority-Black congressional district. That was Allen v. Milligan, a rare voting-rights win. This week, the same Court vacated it. Governor Ivey called a special session and a special election before the ink was dry: SCOTUS cleared a path for the state to return to its old map for the midterms on Monday. Ivey on Tuesday set a special primary date as Aug. 11 for the 1st, 2nd, 6th and 7th congressional districts.
Mississippi called a special redistricting session for May 20, then canceled it — though the governor made clear he still wants the maps redrawn. Gov. Tate Reeves said Wednesday that Republicans are planning to redraw the state’s congressional map and dismantle the state’s lone majority-Black district by 2027.
The state has a higher share of Black residents — 38% — than any other in the U.S.
In South Carolina, Gov. Henry McMaster reversed his previous stance against redistricting and is now set to call a special session allowing senators to pass a map with a simple majority. He made that call just one day after five Republican state senators voted with Democrats to reject a plan to redraw the maps to eliminate the state’s only Democratic seat, currently held by Rep. Jim Clyburn.
Lawmakers in Louisiana advanced their plan to eliminate one of the state’s two Democratic and majority-Black districts. Although early voting was set to begin only a few days after the Supreme Court ruling and more than 40,000 ballots had already been returned, Republican Gov. Jeff Landry suspended the state's House primaries. Government moves fast when it’s keeping one party in power!
The U.S. Supreme Court refused Friday to allow Virginia to use a new congressional map that favored Democrats in all but one of the state's U.S. House seats. Since those maps are overturned for now, people are tossing around ideas like adding seats to the VA Supreme Court (Republicans did it in Utah!).
Maryland may jump in to help Democrats. The state’s Democratic Governor Wes Moore has been supportive of redrawing his state’s map, but the idea stalled in Maryland’s Senate. That may be changing: Maryland Senate President Bill Ferguson, who rejected earlier proposals, met with Moore on Wednesday, and a spokesperson said “he’s open to a conversation about next steps.”
Meanwhile, Hakeem Jeffries is crafting a plan to squeeze as many as a dozen seats out of Democratic states for 2028 — even states with nonpartisan redistricting requirements, according to CNN. “The days of Democrats unilaterally disarming are over,” Jeffries said. A “person close to Jeffries” told CNN that the effort will include a messaging push against any Democrat who resists. Honestly, I’m glad to hear this!
STATEWIDE SHENANIGANS
pumping the brakes on the speedway slammer
In news that will not surprise those who have pattern recognition skills, months into Indiana’s agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the federal government has paid just a fraction of the expenses the state has incurred holding detainees at Miami Correctional Facility, an expense report obtained by IndyStar shows. Indiana has not been paid at all for services rendered in 2026, according to the Department of Correction. The state has spent about $7 million to accommodate detainees at the Miami Correctional Facility this year as of March.
Hoosier officials agreed to a two-year contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to hold up to 1,000 detainees at a time in a previously unused wing of the prison. Under the agreement, which began Oct. 1 and runs through September 2027, ICE will pay Indiana $291.24 per bed per day — which DOC Commissioner Lloyd Arnold has said is about four times the $75 daily per-person cost for inmates at the prison. Reports to the State Budget Committee show DOC has spent $12.5 million housing detainees since the contract began through March, but has received less than $5.1 million from ICE over that time period.
abort the court
Indiana’s near-total abortion ban has survived a key legal challenge, as last week the Hoosier Supreme Court decided not to take up an appeal brought by the ACLU and Planned Parenthood. The state Supreme Court did not hear oral arguments in the lawsuit before releasing a one-page Supreme Court order saying the justices had reviewed the Court of Appeals ruling and all the legal briefs submitted in the case. The justices, however, did not give any explanation for their decision.
Indiana’s law bans abortions at any stage except in cases of rape or incest, to protect the life and health of the mother or a fatal fetal anomaly — though each with varying time limits. Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers argued in the challenge that the ban’s health exceptions allowing abortions were too narrow to comply with state constitution’s life and liberty protections. The appeals court ruling found that the abortion ban’s “reasonable medical judgment” standard for the exceptions was constitutional.
The number of abortions performed in Indiana has dropped by 99% from 9,529 in 2022 to 126 during 2025, according to state Department of Health reports. Doctors reported fatal fetal anomaly or serious health risks to the mother as the reasons for more than 90% of abortions during 2025.
LOCAL FOCUS
ask the mayor
In last week’s installment of Ask The Mayor, Terre Haute Mayor Brandon Sakbun addresses the primary election and voting in Vigo County, suspension of the gas tax, and more at City Hall. The mayor touched on topics familiar to anyone paying attention in the Hoosier state: rising costs, diminishing opportunities, and brain drain. Sakbun wants to maintain our citizenry and entice others to join it by investing in “quality of life and quality of place […] that's parks, that's housing, that's opportunities to shop, dine and drink.” Check out the whole interview at Indiana Public Media.
GOOD TROUBLE
the real way to save children
Ms. Rachel, Mister Rogers’ current avatar, has shared steps to take to close Dilley detention center and end family detention:
Call your members of Congress
If your representatives are supportive, thank them publicly with a post—let them know this matters
”We can help bring children and families home ❤️
There is no safe amount of time for a child to be in a detention center. Not one day. Not one hour.”
save the date
Get Free and 50501 are holding a national day of action on June 27th called All of U.S. 250. While the Trump regime plans a whitewashed, anti-American celebration of our 250th anniversary, we will mobilize together to tell our nation’s story truthfully, celebrate the progress we have made through struggle and commit to the work to ensure liberty and equality for All of U.S. We can learn more, find events already on the books in our area and get involved here.
UPCOMING EVENTS
visit the Blue812News Local Events calendar to see all upcoming events
Friday, May 22nd at 5:30pm: Calling all volunteers and supporters! Join us for a celebration of all your good work toward the priMARY win and help us kick off the second phase of this campaign. Join us for ice cream sundaes, outdoor games, and a drop of new campaign swag. 5:30-7pm at Deming Park (Lion 3 shelter). This party is free and all about this movement of working together for the people of the 8th district. More info & register here.
Tuesday, May 26th at 6pm: Nasty Women of Vigo County meeting. 5-7pm at the VCPL Main Branch.
END ON A HIGH NOTE
The Supreme Court ruled that mifepristone can continue to be prescribed via telehealth and mailed to patients. The 7-2 decision means an earlier ruling from the conservative-dominated U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit restricting access to the drug will remain blocked, for now, though the issue could return to the Supreme Court down the road. Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented, as expected.
Oklahoma became the 17th U.S. state to ban child marriage. The law goes into effect November 1 and prohibits anyone under the age of 18 from getting married, with no exceptions. Before the bill’s passage, state law permitted minors to get married with the consent of a parent or guardian and children 16 and under could get married with permission from a court. If you’re wondering, Indiana allows 16- and 17-year-olds to get married with approval from a juvenile court judge, but only to someone no more than four years older.
Federal judges have ruled against ICE in immigration detention policy cases more than 10,000 times, a roughly 90 percent failure rate for Trump’s team, a Politico analysis found. Agents often wouldn’t give detainees an opportunity to plead their cases, which judges declared was illegal.
About 7 in 10 Americans oppose building data centers near their homes, a new survey found. How much do people hate data centers? They’d rather live near a nuclear power plant, according to the survey. Yikes.
Hawaii’s Democratic governor signed into law a bill that uses a novel approach to reduce the influence of corporations and hard-to-track “dark money” groups that have been able to spend unlimited amounts on politics since SCOTUS ruled in Citizens United. This is a really big deal!
Australia’s Trump Tower plans have been scrapped after its developer said his brand has become ‘toxic’.
Secret Handshake, an anonymous group of artists, is out with a new video game about Trump and the Iran war. The game is available to play online, but three fully functional arcade cabinets are currently installed at the Washington, DC, War Memorial and will remain there for the next few days. The game is impossible to win—and that’s the point.
Two men have opened the first new library in Gaza, filling it with books found in rubble.
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