National Stories
Headlines
Scott’s Story: The “One Big Beautiful Bill”
Extends Trump Tax Cuts ($3.7T over 10 yr)
No Tax on Tips or Overtime (with limits)
Raises Standard and SALT Deductions
Raises Estate Tax Exemption
Increases Military Spending by $153B
$170B Dedicated to Trump’s Immigration & Deportation Goals
$45B for “detention centers”
$30B for personnel, transportation, facility maintenance
$46.5B for border wall
Makes ICE the largest federal law enforcement agency
Annual average budget of $37.5B
nearly 20 years’ worth of detention funding to be spent only in a four-year period
costing the federal government more than all of the other federal law enforcement agencies combined - DEA, FBI, ATF, the Secret Service and the Marshals Service.
More than the military expenditures of all but 15 countries
$1.3T in Health Care & Food Program Cuts
Medicaid
11.8 million people could lose their health insurance coverage over the next decade.
Adds 80-hour per month work requirement for adults without children or disabilities.
More frequent eligibility checks
Program would not fund services at clinics that also perform abortions.
Tightens rules for payments to states
SNAP
Requires states to provide funding for food assistance program.
Only provided to permanent, legal residents.
New work requirements for people 55 to 64.
Requires congressional approval to increase benefits.
Exempts Alaska and Hawaii from cost sharing.
If your income falls below $58,000, you’re likely to lose benefits from programs such as Medicaid, health insurance market-places, supplemental nutritional assistance program (SNAP) and students loans.
If your income is in the top 0.1%, you’ll have an even greater benefit in 2027. You'll save $301,550, or 2.3%—partially because of other changes that will sunset by 2030
Michelle’s Story: “Alligator Alcatraz”
Five Democratic state legislators were denied entry to Florida’s new immigration “detention center” deep in the Everglades known as “Alligator Alcatraz.”
According to Florida State Sen. Shevrin Jones, officials claimed the lawmakers couldn’t enter due to “safety reasons,” yet gave no explanation and wouldn’t even say whether those same concerns apply to the migrants held inside. When the legislators pressed the Florida Department of Emergency Management for answers, the agency hung up on them.
According to Gulf Coast News Now: “The Department of Homeland Security confirmed to us today that the facility is expected to cost about $450 million per year, with each bed costing $245 per day. Officials say they expect to have 5,000 beds…
…[Gov.] DeSantis has defended the facility and its purpose. He said he’d like to see other states follow Florida’s lead. ‘Don't let Florida be the only state. We've got very red states that should be doing this just as much as Florida is doing, that will increase their numbers,’ DeSantis said during a recent visit to the site.”
Alligator Alcatraz latest: Lawmakers denied entry, first detainees arrive
Chelsea’s Story: Citizen Action
1. No Kings Protests. Millions came out to take action against poor policy and authoritarianism. Protests were mostly peaceful, police brutality in LA and SLC.
2. Direct Impacts we can make locally: Be together, volunteer, organize.
3. Future acts: 50501, Indivisible, MADVoters, Cliff Cash & Organizing Indiana (Michelle)
Michael’s Story: Public Health and the Environment
1 Reducing cleanup goals or “Environmental Restrictions”
2 Understanding how and what we use from the earth
3 Air Quality
Indiana Stories
Quick Headlines - Around the Corn
New State Laws Take Effect July 1st
No more luxury cars for state officials
Increased speed limit on I-465
Law also allows state to make any interstate highway into a toll road
Transgender ban extended to college sports
there are less than 10 transgender athletes who are active in the NCAA
Expungement opportunity for red flag records
No more student IDs for voting
DEI rollbacks at educational institutions, state agencies, and licensing boards
Require counties to cooperate with ICE
Lab-grown meat ban
Partisan school board elections
Expansion of lifeline law to intoxicated minors
Eliminate state funding for public broadcasting
Cuts to university degree programs
Michael’s Story: State University Program Cuts
Six of Indiana’s public colleges and universities are cutting or consolidating more than 400 academic degree programs ahead of a new state law that takes effect this week, the Indiana Commission for Higher Education (CHE) announced Monday.
Nearly one in five degree programs will be eliminated, suspended or merged across six institutions: Ball State University, Indiana State University, Indiana University, Ivy Tech Community College, Purdue University and the University of Southern Indiana.
The bulk of the cuts were reported at Indiana University, where 249 degree programs will be affected. Purdue University followed with 83 programs. Ball State submitted 51 programs, and Indiana State reported 11. Ivy Tech, the state’s two-year community college system, is taking action on 10 programs. The University of Southern Indiana reported four.
Chelsea’s Story: Union School Corp.
State legislators say they have put Union on the chopping block because of poor performance. But district leaders believe the real reason is so the state can reap the benefits of the Indiana Digital Learning School, a virtual school Union has overseen since 2017 — growing to 7,500 students and paying the district an estimated $3 million in oversight fees annually.
the district believes the real reason is the millions it receives from the INDLS, which is run by the publicly-traded virtual learning company Stride Learning, formerly known as K12 Inc.
Union and the Clarksville school districts are the only districts with statewide e-schools. Many other Indiana school districts have created or are exploring online schools that serve local students to bring in more money or to keep them from departing to other online schools.
Clarksville also partners with Stride/K12 and the Indiana Gateway Digital School, is run by a family with political influence Union lacks. Clarksville’s superintendent Tina Bennett is the wife of Tony Bennett, the former state superintendent of Indiana and Florida. He was also an executive at Stride/K12 before retiring in March.
Indiana state officials also have little confidence in small districts overseeing large online schools after two virtual charter schools overseen by the 1,000-student Daleville school district were found in 2017 to be defrauding the state with inflated enrollment numbers. State and federal investigators have estimated the schools improperly received between $44 and $154 million and have pursued separate cases, both criminal and to recover money.
The superintendent of the two schools pleaded guilty early this month to a federal charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud as part of the case.
Citing poor test scores, Indiana’s state legislature voted in April to close the Union schools by 2027 and send its 300 students who attend classes in-person to neighboring districts miles away.
The online school would then be on its own and either shut down or bring its millions to another partner, either another district, the state or as a charter school
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Michelle’s Story: Rural Hospital Closures
Twelve Indiana Rural Hospitals at Risk of Closure
A July 2, 2025 report from WBIW lists 12 Indiana hospitals that could be imperiled by federal Medicaid cuts
Daviess Community Hospital in Washington
Memorial Hospital Logansport in Logansport
Community Hospital of Bremen Inc. in Bremen
Ascension St. Vincent Randolph in Winchester
Ascension St. Vincent Jennings in North Vernon
Ascension St. Vincent Clay in Brazil
Ascension St. Vincent Salem in Salem
IU Health Jay Hospital in Portland
Franciscan Health Rensselaer in Rensselaer
Sullivan County Community Hospital in Sullivan
Adams Memorial Hospital in Decatur
Harrison County Hospital in Corydon
Additionally, reporting from InkFreeNews adds two more Ascension St. Vincent‑affiliated facilities to the list:
Ascension St. Vincent Dunn
Ascension St. Vincent Williamsport
These hospitals serve as critical access points and major employers in small towns like Winchester.
Projected revenue losses could lead to service reductions or full closures, worsening health and economic outcomes locally.
Senate letter: https://fox59.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/21/2025/06/letter_on_rural_hospitals.pdf
Rural Health publishes report
Medicaid plays an outsized role in rural America, covering a larger share of children and adults in rural communities than in urban ones.
Nearly half of all children and one in five adults in small towns and rural areas rely on Medicaid for their health insurance.
Medicaid covers nearly one-quarter of women of childbearing age and finances half of all births in these communities.
“Medicaid is a substantial source of federal funds in rural communities across the country. The proposed changes to Medicaid will result in significant coverage losses, reduce access to care for rural patients, and threaten the viability of rural facilities,” said Alan Morgan, CEO of the National Rural Health Association. “It’s very clear that Medicaid cuts will result in rural hospital closures resulting in loss of access to care for those living in rural America.”
Sen. Chris Garten quotes that don’t age well:
“It costs rural hospitals more to deliver care in these areas. That’s just the reality. We also gotta accept that if you live in rural Indiana, you have made that choice. Nobody forced you to move to rural Indiana where you are far away from a system where you are in an area where it costs more to deliver care. There are choices to be made in this space.”
(Chris Garten, regarding HB 1004, March 2025)
Back in 2024, Sen. Garten thought the answer would be free market principles and competition.
“There’s a very long pipeline of integrated health care entities top to bottom,” Garten said. “… This pipeline is wrought with, I think, a lot of opportunity to really improve the system, improve outcomes in the health care space — but also improve price as well. And I think we do that through free market principles and competition.” (Capital Chronicle, June 13, 2024)
Now he’s gone to “Rural Hoosiers…just move.” When are Republicans going to learn the goal for healthcare cannot be profit-driven?
Will Non-profit Really Become Non-Profiteering?
Gov. Mike Braun, has signed a landmark bill (HB 1004) that would strip charity hospitals of their non-profit status if they continue to charge high prices. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/09/indiana-hosptial-law-non-profit
The legislation, the first of its kind in the United States, followed uproar across the state after a Guardian series in October that investigated how one major Indiana non-profit hospital system bought up its competition, then hiked its prices, leaving businesses and patients struggling to pay their medical costs.
In the wake of the Guardian investigation, Braun, then the Republican gubernatorial candidate, and his Democratic rival both criticized the hospital system, Parkview Health, for its high prices, and lawmakers vowed to take action against the non-profit chain, which charged some of the highest prices in the country despite being based in Fort Wayne, Indiana, the US’s most affordable metro area.
Scott’s Story: Gun Violence in Indianapolis
Mass Shooting in Downtown Indianapolis Leaves 2 Teens Dead, 5 Injured
Incident occurred around 1:30am after a fireworks show.
A 16-year-old died at the scene, a 15-year-old later at a hospital
IMPD Chief Chris Bailey scolds parents: "We are not your children's keepers. You are."
Hogsett Announces Curfew
Follows last weekend’s 7 dead, 9 injured in 11 incidents.
Should note that Indy homicides are down this year.
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