Good morning. I’m Corinne Straight, and this is AlterNet America.
The Republican Party’s first-ever midterm convention is descending into chaos days before it begins. The Trump administration is threatening to demolish the Kennedy Center if a court won’t let the president put his name on it. The Secretary of Agriculture says she is “not privy” to discuss where America’s new beef imports are actually coming from. And two people in Pennsylvania have died from measles as calls for RFK Jr.’s resignation grow louder.
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The party that claims to be for working Americans is charging $25,000 a person just to walk through the door.
The National Republican Campaign Committee is hosting the first-ever midterm convention on September 9 and 10 in Dallas, and it’s falling apart before it even starts. House members are being asked to pay a minimum of $25,000 to attend with a guest, with higher packages running up to $100,000.
Corporate sponsorship dollars are being funneled into a private nonprofit called the Dallas Host Committee, which says it has raised $45 million in less than a month but isn’t required to say who gave it. The committee calls itself “nonpartisan,” which is not generally a term used for an entity co-chaired by a former RNC national finance chairman and created simply to host a Republican convention.
There is no actual party business to conduct at the convention, since no candidates are being nominated in a midterm year. Invitations only went out in the last few weeks, and many Republican leaders have scheduling conflicts. One Republican strategist told Puck that it has turned into a “sh*t show.”
The convention is also scheduled the day before the twenty-fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. The optics of a black-tie gala on September 10 are about as good as the planning that went into the event.
When the toddler cannot have the toy, the toddler breaks the toy.
In a court filing Monday, Justice Department attorneys threatened to demolish the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts if a federal judge blocks Trump’s plan to put his name on the building.
The filing described the center as a “decrepit, dilapidated, crumbling building” in a “financial and structural death spiral” and suggested it could be replaced with “a large outdoor amphitheater overlooking the Potomac River that has been proposed, by some, for many years.”
The filing reads less like a legal document and more like a post from Truth Social. DOJ attorney Brantley Mayers argued that the Kennedy Center’s board “recognizes that President Trump’s efforts and prestige provide the sole hope for the Center’s financial survival,” and that without prominent recognition of Trump, “the donors will not contribute.”
In reality, Trump’s takeover has only accelerated the center’s decline. The Kennedy Center is on track to fall $100 million short of its profit goal, with the losses directly tied to Trump changing the institution’s name. It expects to miss its budget target by 70 percent.
School cafeterias have been getting away with mystery meat for decades, but they never used to need a cabinet secretary to run cover for them.
On Truth Social last Friday, Trump said the US would allow up to 300,000 metric tons of ground beef to be imported tariff-free over the next 90 days, claiming the move would lower prices for consumers. When reporters asked Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins on Tuesday which countries will be exempted, she said she was “not privy to talk about that.”
Not even Republicans were laughing. Wyoming Senator John Barrasso, the GOP majority whip, said Americans want “U.S. beef on the table, not foreign imports.” Nebraska Senator Pete Ricketts warned that flooding the market with lower-quality beef “compromises Nebraska farmers and ranchers.”
The timing is particularly bad for cattle ranchers, who are getting ready to bring calves to market this fall after years of low prices and uncertainty from the administration’s tariff policies. At this point, the cows have more job security in whatever country they’re from than the ranchers do here.
Multiple senators are calling on RFK Jr. to resign amid another measles outbreak, but he’s never been one to take medical advice.
Two unvaccinated people have died from measles in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, the first measles deaths in the United States this year and the first in Pennsylvania in more than three decades. There have been 393 confirmed cases across 28 Pennsylvania counties and 2,777 nationally in 2026, a 35-year high.
Democratic senators and public health groups are calling for Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to resign. Maryland Senator Angela Alsobrooks wrote on X that Kennedy’s “lies and conspiracy theories are making Marylanders sick.” Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock called Kennedy “a hazard to our health.”
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro told reporters he had a “blunt” conversation with Kennedy about the crisis. He said Kennedy’s actions and the rhetoric coming from the administration “are having a negative impact on communities across America” and that “sharing conspiracy theories and misinformation does not help the cause of public health.”
Give Kennedy enough time and he’ll have polio polling at pre-war numbers.
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Federal Judge Blocks Ohio Proof-of-Citizenship Voting Requirement. A federal judge in Cleveland has temporarily blocked an Ohio law requiring voters to prove their citizenship when they register to vote. U.S. District Judge Solomon Oliver Jr. said the requirement likely violates the National Voter Registration Act because people already have to swear under oath that they are citizens. The ruling prohibits the practice before the October 5 registration deadline for this fall’s midterm elections, but Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose said he would appeal immediately. Ohio is one of a number of states to pass proof-of-citizenship requirements this year, with a separate lawsuit filed in South Dakota the same day over a similar law.
** Fort Worth City Council Approves $11.25 Million Settlement in Atatiana Jefferson Case.** The Fort Worth, Texas city council has unanimously approved an $11.25 million settlement to the family of Atatiana Jefferson, a 28-year-old Black woman who was shot to death by a police officer in her own home in 2019 while she was playing video games with her nephew. Officer Aaron Dean responded to a non-emergency welfare check, never identified himself as police, and opened fire through a window after Jefferson picked up a gun because she heard someone outside. Dean was found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to over 11 years in prison. Jefferson’s sister called the settlement “a rare instance in which a family has received accountability both criminally and civilly following the killing of their loved one by a police officer.”
Federal Judge Orders Release of Houston ICE Shooting Witness. U.S. District Judge Alfred H. Bennett ordered immigration officials to release Daniel Tirado Pantoja, who was a passenger in the van of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo when he was shot and killed by an ICE officer in Houston on July 7. Tirado Pantoja has no prior criminal record and is not a flight risk or a danger to the community, and the judge ruled that holding him without a reason violated his right to due process. ICE initially said Salgado Araujo rammed their vehicles, but the three other men in the van said ICE vehicles hit them from behind and from the side before an agent opened fire. It is the second witness to the shooting a federal judge has ordered released from custody. The ICE officer who fired the shot still has not been publicly identified.
** Charges Dropped Against Teacher Arrested for Clapping at Data Center Meeting. **The city of Emporia, Kansas has dropped criminal charges against Lux Claridge, a high school teacher who was dragged out of a city commission meeting and arrested for clapping during a presentation about a proposed 1,000-acre hyperscale data center project. Claridge was taken into custody, charged with disorderly conduct and interfering with a law enforcement officer, and held for eight hours. After the arrest, the city moved its commission meetings to a virtual format and got rid of public comment, citing “public safety.” The city has announced that in-person meetings will return in September. The data center project will be put to voters in November, if voters get to have their say.