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Donald Trump told a North Carolina crowd that he would withhold disaster relief funds if his Republicans lose the midterms. Consumers are boycotting ranchers who voted for Trump and then asked for bailouts when his trade wars destroyed their markets. Two women have filed a class-action lawsuit against Jeffrey Epstein’s estate, alleging that their photos were found in his collection. And gas stations in Texas and Florida are posting “out of diesel” signs as the war in Iran rages on.
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Even the crowd reacted negatively, and these are people who cheer for deportation flights.
Trump told a rally in Gastonia, North Carolina on Wednesday that he would withhold FEMA funding from the state if Republican Senate nominee Michael Whatley loses in November. The crowd groaned before he claimed he was joking.
North Carolina is still reeling from Hurricane Helene, which killed more than 200 people and tore through neighborhoods in 2024. Trump said the federal government has spent more than $2 billion on recovery so far, and any additional money depends on Whatley winning.
The Trump administration is facing multiple lawsuits for using federal funding to punish states that voted against him. In January 2025, the White House froze trillions of dollars in federal grants for health care, education, and disaster relief, forcing more than 20 state attorneys general to file. A federal judge blocked the policy within days.
North Carolina has not elected a Democratic senator since 2008, but former governor turned Democratic nominee Roy Cooper is leading in every major poll. Jokes like that are just one reason why.
Trump’s trade wars destroyed agricultural exports, and the ranchers who voted for him took billions in government bailouts to cover their losses. Turns out consumers were paying attention.
Progressive consumers are boycotting MAGA ranchers with the help of Blue Dot Farmers, a grassroots network that started on Facebook. The site lists more than 200 producers who did not vote for Trump, and business for participating farms has surged.
Blue Dot does not require participants to prove how they voted. Instead, it asks them to be open about their values, and allow consumers to make up their own minds. The network is built around the slogan: “Know your farmer. Know your food.”
After joining, Nebraska rancher Trina Hanzel went from having a handful of direct customers to receiving more than 150 messages a week. She said that she’s now selling out of inventory that used to sit for weeks.
You can either own the libs, or own a functional business.
Jeffrey Epstein has been dead for seven years, and his victims are still finding out what he did to them.
Two women, identified only as Jane Doe and Amy in court papers, sued the co-executors of Epstein’s estate in federal court Tuesday. They assert that their photos were found in Epstein’s stash of child sexual abuse material, and that they weren’t notified when the images were handed over to federal investigators.
Federal agents seized what the lawsuit calls a “modeling book” from a locked safe in Epstein’s New York home in 2019 alongside a collection of thousands of images and videos. Epstein and his associates allegedly told people it was for developing Victoria’s Secret models.
The lawsuit, filed in the Southern District of New York, names more than 40 people whose images were allegedly part of the collection. It requests class-action status, at least $6 million in damages, and for a judge to design a formal program to identify and notify victims.
Epstein died by suicide in 2019 before he could stand trial, and no one was ever charged over the images. Trump, who was once close friends with Epstein, insists he was the one guy who noticed nothing.
At least the empty pumps match the empty shelves.
Gas stations in North Texas and Florida are running out of diesel as the Iran war drives fuel prices to their highest levels in years. Photos of “out of diesel” notices have been circulating on social media all week, seven months into a conflict with no end in sight.
The Strait of Hormuz normally carries about a fifth of the world’s oil, but shipping through the passage has collapsed since the U.S. and Israel invaded Iran in February. Ongoing attacks on energy infrastructure in the region have tightened supply even further.
Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, said the individual station outages do not yet amount to a national shortage. Stations can run dry for routine reasons, including delivery delays and unexpected local demand, and data still shows outage levels within normal range.
Still, diesel is uniquely vulnerable as the winter months approach. If the Strait remains closed when consumption rises for heating, isolated outages could become regional.
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** House Passes Bipartisan Bill to Stop Big Tech From Raising Your Power Bill.** The House on Wednesday passed the Ratepayer Protection Act, a bipartisan bill that would require data center operators to pay for their own grid upgrades. As a surge in AI-driven data center construction sweeps the nation, utility companies are shifting the costs of new grid infrastructure onto residential customers. In 2024, consumers paid $4.3 billion for transmission upgrades in 13 states, driven in part by data center growth, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists. The bill passed out of committee unanimously earlier this summer and now heads to the Senate, where a companion bill has been introduced by Republican Jon Husted of Ohio.
** ICE Agent Who Shot a Man Through a Door and Lied About It Is Federally Charged.** The Department of Justice has charged ICE agent Christian Castro with making false statements in relation to the January shooting of Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis during Operation Metro Surge in Minneapolis. Castro allegedly fired his weapon through the closed front door of a home, striking Sosa-Celis in the leg and sending a bullet into a child’s bedroom wall. He then told police that Sosa-Celis and another man had attacked him with a broom handle and a snow shovel, but surveillance footage showed the story was fake. It is the first federal prosecution of any agent involved in the Minneapolis crackdown, which also resulted in the shooting deaths of two American bystanders.
** Mayor Zohran Mamdani to Install 17 New Public Bathrooms Across NYC.** New York City will install 17 new public bathrooms in high-traffic areas across all five boroughs, Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced Wednesday. The facilities will be free, ADA accessible, fully touchless, and open 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. People experiencing homelessness will be able to access them after hours with tap cards distributed through local community partners. Some of the sites will be near Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, Columbus Park in Brooklyn, and Cooper Square in the East Village. The project is part of a broader program to install more than 2,100 public toilets throughout the city by 2035.
** Scientists Discover the First New Cat Species in 100 Years.** Scientists have discovered the first new cat species since 1923, a three-pound spotted wildcat from Bolivia named
