Indiana Stories
Around the Corn (Quick Headlines)
Vance Pushes Redistricting (tease One Big Thing)
Vance met privately with Braun and others at the Indiana Capitol on Thursday.
O'Rourke held a town hall in Indianapolis Sunday as part of a nationwide tour.
Indiana agencies outline spending cuts in pursuit of 5% reserve
Indiana’s state agencies are slowly earning approval for their plans to save money after being hit with effective 10% spending cuts amid a tough budget cycle.
A grim May revenue forecast prompted lawmakers to cut most agency appropriations by 5% in the latest biennial budget — and authorize the State Budget Agency to withhold another 5%.
Agencies were forced to describe how they’ll meet that target in “strategic spending reduction plans” due at the end of June. The first batch of plans got the green light last week.
FSSA plans aggressive new budget method to control growing Medicaid Costs
In 2023, the state contributed nearly $3 billion, or just over 16% of FSSA’s $18 billion budget. The $4 billion in 2025 was nearly 21% of the $20 billion budget.
But, going forward, the agency will work backwards by assuming the state would only contribute 2%, shrinking the overall budget.
At a meeting Wednesday night, the city’s Public Safety and Criminal Justice Committee passed an amended version of the curfew proposal, which now heads to the full City-County Council with a recommendation to pass.
State law allows moving curfew hours by up to two hours when conditions necessitate it for public safety, but it’s only a temporary measure. The proposed public safety curfew hours are designed to expire after 120 days unless the council takes further action.
The state already has a statewide curfew. The proposal would begin the curfew two hours earlier in Marion County. The curfew for youth 15- to 17-year-olds would be between 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. Sunday to Thursday and between 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. Friday.
Former Porter Co jail officer charged with trafficking contraband to inmate
Johnny Maynor III has been charged with trafficking with an inmate involving a controlled substance, a Level 5 felony; official misconduct, a Level 6 felony; and misdemeanor trafficking with an inmate, according to the Porter County Sheriff’s Office.
Drivers in Indiana with a darker fashion sense can now get a license plate to match. The Hoosier State has joined Iowa, Kentucky, Minnesota and others in offering blacked-out plates as an alternative to more traditional designs.
“Speedway Slammer”
Ice to hold 1,000 detainees in Indiana after deal with state’s prison system
ICE will be housing detainees at the Miami correctional center, a prison run by the Indiana department of corrections. The move is part of the US government’s rapid expansion of immigration jails after Donald Trump’s sweeping spending bill allotted roughly $170bn to Ice, an extraordinary sum making the agency the most heavily funded law enforcement department within the federal government.
IMS owner asks Homeland Security to stop using IndyCar in 'Speedway Slammer' plans
“We were unaware of plans to incorporate our imagery as part of (the Aug. 5) announcement,” Penske Entertainment said in a statement provided to IndyStar. “Consistent with our approach to public policy and political issues, we are communicating our preference that our IP not be utilized moving forward in relation to this matter.”
The company, which announced the sale of a 33% stake to Fox Corp. last week, fell short of publicly demanding any sort of retraction or issuing a formal cease-and-desist order to prevent future use of either the car imagery or the use of “speedway.”
Of note, in October 2019, just over a week before he formally announced the purchase of the assets that would become Penske Entertainment, Roger Penske received the medal of freedom from President Donald Trump during the latter’s first term.
Trump administration stands by 'Speedway Slammer' branding for ICE detention
a DHS spokesperson told IndyStar that the Trump administration has no plans to change its marketing.
“An AI generated image of a car with 'ICE' on the side does not violate anyone’s intellectual property rights. Any suggestion to the contrary is absurd," reads the statement, issued Aug. 6. "DHS will continue promoting the ‘Speedway Slammer’ as a comprehensive and collaborative approach to combatting illegal immigration.”
Beckwith Scandal Factory Keeps Pushing Out Hits
Beckwith faces backlash over immigration remarks
"(Undocumented immigrants) don't have a right to see a judge. They're here illegally," Beckwith said in Vigo County on Monday.
"The 1951 Refugee Convention and the 1967 protection of refugees, they both require us to provide people with an opportunity to present their case," [director of legal services for Indy's Exodus Refugee Immigration organization, Rachel] Van Tyle said.
While undocumented immigrants don't have a guaranteed right to stay in the U.S., the Constitution does guarantee them due process under the law.
"No person shall... be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law," reads in part the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution.
"So, when the Japanese were bombing Pearl Harbor, did we give them due process to actually see a judge?" Beckwith asked the crowd. "They invaded our country."
"Illegal migrants who have broken our laws and crossed into our country illegally do not receive Constitutional Due Process rights merely for being on our soil. If that were true that means if Russia invaded Alaska Russian soldiers would be required to receive Constitutional rights also. This is absurd. Constitutional rights are not bestowed upon individuals simply because their feet are on our soil.
Indiana GOP roiled as top officials accused of watching lewd AI video of lawmaker's wife
Beckwith’s Senior Advisor Erin Sheridan Abruptly Terminated
On [Aug 1], Sheridan was abruptly terminated after refusing a request to resign. “I was never written up, reprimanded, or told there were any performance issues,” Sheridan told Indy Politics. “I was simply asked to resign. I said no. And then I was fired.”
Sheridan, a longtime Republican operative with deep ties in legislative circles, had been one of Beckwith’s most visible and engaged staffers. But behind the scenes, sources say, tensions were growing between professional governance and performative politics. When asked why she hadn’t come forward with allegations of internal dysfunction, Sheridan offered this:
“I did report all the wrongdoings and advised them to abide by policies. But they wanted someone who was willing to shake the boat—and he’ll have a church pay his ethics fines.”
Top staff for Indiana’s lieutenant governor played a video showing [State Rep. Craig Haggard (R-HD57)]’s wife seemingly topless, apparently using an AI program to alter the woman’s real performance at a state talent show hosted on April 9.
Gregg Puls, the deputy chief of staff and chief ethics officer to Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith, and Devin Norrick, a lawyer on contract with the office, watched the deepfake video of the lawmaker’s wife in the lieutenant governor’s statehouse office on April 10 and laughed, according to the people familiar with the incident.
A second person familiar with the video described concerns raised among women on Beckwith’s staff about repeated comments made in the lieutenant governor’s office by Puls about the breasts of other staffers and the lawmaker’s wife and urged one of Beckwith’s staffers to file a formal complaint. The second person familiar with the events inside the lieutenant governor’s office characterized it as sexual harassment.
Marion County Prosecutor Investigating
Gov. Mike Braun addressed the issue with reporters Tuesday afternoon, saying “each state office is … going to have to do its own accountability. If it were in my office, there would be quick getting to the bottom of it, and full accountability.”
“I didn’t like the response from the governor’s office saying, ‘Not our problem,’ because I think that’s a cop-out and sort of disgusting,” Haggard said.
Posting deepfake pornography is now a crime under federal law and most states' laws.
The federal TAKE IT DOWN Act became law in May 2025. This law makes non-consensual publication of authentic or deepfake sexual images a felony. Threatening to post such images is also a felony if the defendant did so to extort, coerce, intimidate, or cause mental harm to the victim.
Indiana makes it a crime to distribute or post, without consent, "intimate images" depicting sexual conduct or nudity. Intimate images include computer-generated images created using AI or a computer program that appear to depict the alleged victim. (Ind. Code § 35-45-4-8 (2025).)
US/World News
Quick Headlines
DOJ doubles reward for arrest of Venezuela’s Maduro to $50M
The Department of Justice (DOJ) on Thursday upped the reward it’s offering for information that leads to the arrest of Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro to $50 million.
Federal court filing system hit in sweeping hack
The electronic case filing system used by the federal judiciary has been breached in a sweeping cyber intrusion that is believed to have exposed sensitive court data across multiple U.S. states
It is not immediately clear how the hackers got in, but the incident is known to affect the judiciary’s federal core case management system, which includes two overlapping components: Case Management/Electronic Case Files, or CM/ECF, which legal professionals use to upload and manage case documents; and PACER, a system that gives the public limited access to the same data.
The hack is feared to have compromised the identities of confidential informants involved in criminal cases at multiple federal district courts
Azerbaijan and Armenia sign peace pledge at White House summit with Trump
Azerbaijan and Armenia fought over Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnically Armenian enclave in Azerbaijan, in the 1980s and 1990s and violence has flared up in the years since.
The White House said that, as part of the deal, the US will also help build a major transit corridor that will be named the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity.
Iran has said it will block a corridor planned in the Caucasus under a United States-brokered peace accord between Azerbaijan and Armenia, which has been hailed by other countries in the region as beneficial for achieving lasting peace.
Ali Akbar Velayati, a top adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, said on Saturday that Tehran would block the initiative “with or without Russia”, with which Iran has a strategic alliance alongside Armenia.
Trump Will Meet Putin in Alaska
President Donald Trump will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday to discuss a potential ceasefire in Ukraine, marking the first time the leaders of the two countries have held talks since 2021.
Russian officials have reportedly presented U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff with a list of ceasefire demands that include Ukraine giving up the eastern Donbas region, most of which is already occupied by Russia, as well as Crimea
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky quickly and pointedly rejected any potential deal that would involve handing over Ukrainian territory.
RFK Doing RFK Stuff
RFK Jr cancels $500m in funding for mRNA vaccines
will impact 22 projects being led by major pharmaceutical companies, including Pfizer and Moderna, for vaccines against bird flu and other viruses
Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, a vaccine sceptic, announced he was pulling the funding over claims that "mRNA technology poses more risks than benefits for these respiratory viruses".
Related? Officer killed, suspect dead in shooting outside CDC
A DeKalb County Police officer died confronting a gunman near the Emory Atlanta campus, which is right outside the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Police on the scene were still hearing gunfire at the nearby CVS at the intersection-- where Schierbaum said police found the shooter on the second floor of the CVS. The shooter had been injured by gunfire.
The 30-year-old shooter also tried to get into the CDC's headquarters in Atlanta but was stopped by guards before driving to a pharmacy across the street and opening fire late Friday afternoon, the official said. He was armed with five guns, including at least one long gun, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the investigation.
had blamed the Covid-19 vaccine for making him depressed and suicidal, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press on Saturday.
"Kennedy is directly responsible for the villainization of CDC's workforce through his continuous lies about science and vaccine safety, which have fueled a climate of hostility and mistrust," said Fired But Fighting, a group of laid-off employees opposing changes to the CDC by President Donald Trump's administration.
Economic News
A top Federal Reserve official says dour jobs data backs the case for 3 rate cuts
Michelle Bowman was one of two Fed officials who voted a week and a half ago in favor of cutting interest rates. Such a move could help boost the economy by making it cheaper for people to borrow money to buy a house or a car, but it could also threaten to push inflation higher.
Bowman and a fellow dissenter lost out after nine other Fed officials voted to keep interest rates steady, as the Fed has been doing all year. The Fed’s chair, Jerome Powell, has been adamant that he wants to wait for more data about how President Donald Trump’s tariffs are affecting inflation before the Fed makes its next move.
At a speech during a bankers’ conference in Colorado on Saturday, Bowman said that “the latest labor market data reinforce my view” that the Fed should cut interest rates three times this year. The Fed has only three meetings left on the schedule in 2025.
Trump’s new tariffs go into effect as US economy shows signs of strain
President Donald Trump began imposing higher import taxes on dozens of countries Thursday just as the economic fallout of his monthslong tariff threats has begun to cause visible damage to the U.S. economy.
Just after midnight, goods from more than 60 countries and the European Union became subject to tariff rates of 10% or higher. Products from the EU, Japan and South Korea are taxed at 15%, while imports from Taiwan, Vietnam and Bangladesh are taxed at 20%.
Trump on Wednesday announced additional 25% tariffs to be imposed on India because of its purchases of Russian oil, bringing its total import taxes to 50%.
The Swiss executive branch, the Federal Council, was expected to meet Thursday after President Karin Keller-Sutter and other Swiss officials returned from a hastily arranged trip to Washington in a failed bid to avert a 39% U.S. tariffs on Swiss goods.
Import taxes are still coming on pharmaceutical drugs, and Trump announced 100% tariffs on computer chips. That could leave the U.S. economy in a place of suspended animation as it awaits the impact.
The president’s use of a 1977 law to declare an economic emergency to impose the tariffs is under a legal challenge.
Trump has accused India of "fueling the Russian War Machine," while China — the world's top importer of Russian oil — has so far escaped similar punishment.
The Trump administration reversed its ban on Nvidia selling its H20 AI chips to China last month, alarming Republican hawks who fear that the move will "supercharge the Chinese AI capabilities commercially and militarily."
The Trump administration told Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te to cancel a planned stopover in New York this month en route to Latin America, cognizant that the visit would inflame tensions with China. Lai canceled his trip entirely.
Trump's strained relationship with Modi could result in the cancellation of this year's Quad summit, an Indo-Pacific security dialogue between the U.S., India, Australia and Japan that Trump embraced in his first term. The Pentagon is also reviewing whether to continue AUKUS, a Biden-negotiated defense pact designed to arm Australia with nuclear-powered submarines.
Trump has defied a bipartisan U.S. law requiring the Chinese-owned app to be sold or banned — a stark reversal from his first term, when his administration led the charge to label TikTok a national security threat.
US companies spending record amounts to protect executives as threats rise
U.S. companies are spending record amounts to keep their executives safe in response to rising threats and the killings of two high-profile corporate officials in separate attacks in Manhattan over the last eight months.
Corporations have doubled the number of plain-clothed security teams outside buildings in New York City since a shooting last week in which four people were killed
Median spending on executive security for top officers including chief executives, chief financial officers and others rose 16% to a record $106,530 last year, according to new data from Equilar, which reviewed financial filings for the 500 largest U.S. public companies by revenue.
Israel-Gaza
Netanyahu Announces Plan to Occupy Gaza City
Before the cabinet meeting Netanyahu said he wanted Israel to control all of Gaza, but in the new plan only Gaza City is mentioned.
Reports in Israeli media suggest there were heated exchanges with the army's chief of staff, who voiced his strong opposition to a full takeover of Gaza.
Israel has said it currently controls 75% of Gaza, while the UN estimates some 86% of the territory is either in militarised zones or under evacuation orders.
UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has called Israel's escalation "wrong" and that it "will only bring more bloodshed".
On Friday Germany's Chancellor Friedrich Merz said his government will not approve any exports of military equipment to Israel that could be used in Gaza until further notice.
Last Week: Canada follows France and UK with plan to recognise Palestinian state
most countries - 147 of the UN's 193 member states - formally recognise a Palestinian state.
Fascism Watch
Maddow says, “we are there” already.
“We have crossed a line,” she said on “The Rachel Maddow Show” Monday. “We are in a place we did not want to be, but we are there. The thing we were all warning about for the last few years is not coming, it is here. We are in it. This is what [it’s] like, it turns out.”
Maddow argued that large swaths of the country might easily overlook this downward slide, as movies are still being produced, sports continue to be played and families are still discussing the same old issues they always have around their kitchen table each night.
“But also, at the same time, life in the United States is profoundly changing,” Maddow added Monday. “It’s profoundly different than it was even six months ago, because we do now live in a country that has an authoritarian leader in charge.”
She then put it even more bluntly: “We have a consolidating dictatorship in our country.”
“A massive, anonymous, unbadged — literally masked — totally unaccountable internal police force that apparently has infinite funding but no identifiable leadership,” said Maddow. “And they act in ways designed to instill maximum fear and use maximum force.”
Apple CEO Tim Cook slammed for 'bribing' Trump with bizarre gift
This week, the head of the technology company joined the President in the Oval Office to announce that Apple is adding $100 billion to the $500 billion pledge the company had made in February to boost its investment in US manufacturing and tech training.
Cook says that Apple aims to manufacture all the glass used on the front of iPhones and Apple Watches right in Kentucky, and it seems that he is solidifying his commitment to this ongoing development with a gift - a customized glass plaque on top of a 24-karat gold stand.
Another X user wrote: “Tim Cook showed up with a made-up award, praised Trump on camera to placate him, and walked out with a tariff exemption.
Justice Department launches grand jury probe of N.Y. Attorney General Letitia James
James won a civil fraud case against President Trump and his companies in 2023, resulting in millions of dollars in penalties linked to fraud allegations.
The DOJ is seeking more information from James about the suit, and appears to be operating under a theory that James may have deprived Trump and his adult children of their rights as part of that case, the sources said.
Appeals court blocks contempt proceedings against Trump officials over deportations
The three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit was split 2-1, with two Trump appointees in the majority and an Obama appointee dissenting.
The decision overturns Washington-based Chief Judge James Boasberg’s finding of probable cause that officials could be held in criminal contempt over flights that removed alleged gang members from the U.S. after Boasberg had ordered the Trump administration to halt the deportations
Trump taps federal law enforcement agencies to police Washington, D.C.
The surge in federal policing in the city began just after midnight on Friday morning and is expected to last seven days, with the option to extend enforcement "as needed"
Trump announced plans for a Monday press event in a post on his social media site, Truth Social.
Trump took to social media earlier this week saying crime in the district is "out of control" and repeated his threats to exert federal control of local government.
Washington, D.C., has seen a decline in violent crime since [2023]. In 2024, local lawmakers there passed a far-reaching bill aimed at improving public safety. Violent crime in the city hit a 30-year low last year, according to the Justice Department.
That decline is in line with a nationwide trend of significant decreases in violent crime.
One Big Thing - Gerrymandering
Texas Democrats on Monday prevented their state’s House of Representatives from moving forward, at least for now, with a redrawn congressional map sought by President Donald Trump to shore up Republicans’ 2026 midterm prospects as his political standing falters.
After dozens of Democrats left the state, the Republican-dominated House was unable to establish the quorum of lawmakers required to do business. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has made threats about removing members who are absent from their seats.
The Republican-dominated House quickly issued civil arrest warrants for absent Democrats and Abbott ordered state troopers to help find and arrest them, but lawmakers physically outside Texas are beyond the jurisdiction of state authorities
History of breaking quorum
Indiana Gerrymandering
Trump’s redistricting fight mushrooms with Vance in Indiana and Florida joining the fray
Vance met privately with Braun and others at the Indiana Capitol on Thursday.
Afterward, Braun sidestepped redistricting — contrasting Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s enthusiastic embrace of Trump’s demands. “We discussed a number of issues, and I was pleased to highlight some of the great things happening in Indiana,” Braun said via his official social media account.
Braun would have to call a special session to start the redistricting process, but lawmakers have sole power to draw new maps.
Republican U.S. representatives outnumber Democrats in Indiana 7-2, limiting possibilities of squeezing out another seat.
Mitch Daniels speaking against it
“It would just be wrong,” Daniels told POLITICO. “People there have a right to pick the person they want.”
“My sense is you’d have to torture the lines to eke out another one somehow,” Daniels said. “It would be so overtly partisan that I would hope that they would abstain from it.”
If redistricting were to happen, Daniels said, “the ideal ought to be districts which make geographic sense” and “cross as few jurisdictional lines as possible.”
Oh yeah, Mitch? The 2010 Election, the RatF*ck Gerrymander that followed, and why it paved the way here.
The most blatant piece of this story is project REDMAP (Redistricting Majority Project), a Republican project that was developed in response to the Democrats’ successes in the 2008 election.26
REDMAP’s goal was for Republicans to gain control of the majority state legislatures in time for the next round of redistricting. Recognizing Democrats’ relative weakness in state legislatures, the GOP invested substantially in flipping state legislative chambers from blue to red in the 2010 midterms. The project was successful: the party gained nearly 700 state legislative seats and 22 state trifectas (control over both chambers of the legislature and the governor’s office), compared to just 11 for Democrats.27
In 2011, Republicans leveraged their new state-level dominance and recent advances in districting technology to enact a very aggressive and sophisticated redistricting plan, which allowed them to win a majority in the 2012 House midterms, despite losing the popular vote for the House and losing the presidential election. This was a qualitative escalation in the gerrymandering wars, widely documented, and widely excoriated—especially by Democrats.
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