Indiana Stories
Around the Corn (Quick Headlines)
Indiana’s state police, prisons and more ink immigration enforcement agreements with ICE
If U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement approves the agreements, the Indiana State Police, Department of Homeland Security and Department of Correction would join four local Hoosier agencies — and nearly 900 others from across the nation — that have inked similar deals.
The formal partnerships are authorized in Section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act and let ICE delegate certain immigration enforcement powers to state or local officers.
There are three active program models: task force, warrant service officer and jail enforcement.
The Indiana State Police has submitted a memorandum of agreement for the task force model, according to an ICE list of pending deals that was updated Friday morning. So did the Department of Homeland Security.
The Department of Correction asked for a warrant service officer deal. The agency is “working with ICE to make available up to 1,000 beds at Miami Correctional Facility,” the news release said.
Indiana immigration arrests surge
Nearly 1,400 people in Indiana have been subject to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement administrative arrest since Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration, as of June 26. That’s almost an 80% increase over the same period last year, according to ICE records obtained by the Deportation Data Project and published July 15.
State Senator Liz Brown to Face Primary Fight
Texts accusing “Liberal Liz” Brown of betraying her conservative values on the Second Amendment and transgender issues have been flying in northeast Indiana— funded by a dark-money “social welfare” nonprofit that no one knows about or isn’t willing to divulge.
Brown — a staunch pro-lifer — has been a fixture in the Senate Republican caucus since 2014. But now high-profile GOP Hoosiers like U.S. Sen. Jim Banks and Attorney General Todd Rokita have put her in the crosshairs for 2026.
The focus started when Rokita called out Brown for not hearing a stringent immigration bill during the legislative session. As the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, she has the power to choose which bills get heard. Ultimately, the legislation died.
Brown, who is also an attorney, ultimately filed a disciplinary action against Rokita.
One of the [text] ads takes Brown to task for her role in hearing a constitutional carry bill in 2021. She declined to give the legislation a hearing and instead the Senate removed permit fees.
Brown also voted against a bill to ban transgender Hoosiers from high school sports in 2022. She did support a college ban this year.
Browns’s conservative credentials have dipped recently, according to two GOP rankings.
The Conservative Political Action Conference issues annual rankings of lawmakers. In 2019, Brown’s score was 85% and has since dropped to 61% in 2023.
GOP-aligned Americans for Prosperity also issues scorecards. Her ranking in 2022 was 100 and dropped to 86 and 78 in the next two years.
They are paid for by Hoosier Leadership for America — a nonprofit that was established in 2024.
The group has a Huntertown P.O. Box. The incorporator is a man out of Virginia that the ICC could not locate.
Donors behind the Hoosier Leadership for America nonprofit are shielded under law [it’s a 501(c)(4)] — but if it were organized as a political action committee, they would be public.
On Thursday afternoon, Darren Vogt, who previously served on Allen County Council and currently holds a seat on the board of Northwest Allen County Schools, announced his candidacy.
He served 12 years on the Allen County Council, including six as president. It’s interesting to note that Vogt ran for the same senate seat in 2014.
Currently, he serves as Field Operations and Special Assistant to U.S. Senator Jim Banks.
EPA launches emission deregulation proposal from Indiana trucking facility
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday released a proposal to scrap the 15-year-old regulation that empowers the agency to curb greenhouse gas emissions — a move EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin billed as the “largest deregulatory action” in the nation’s history.
On December 7, 2009, the Administrator signed two distinct findings regarding greenhouse gases under section 202(a) of the Clean Air Act:
Endangerment Finding: The Administrator finds that the current and projected concentrations of the six key well-mixed greenhouse gases—carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), and sulfur hexafluoride (SF6)—in the atmosphere threaten the public health and welfare of current and future generations.
Cause or Contribute Finding: The Administrator finds that the combined emissions of these well-mixed greenhouse gases from new motor vehicles and new motor vehicle engines contribute to the greenhouse gas pollution that threatens public health and welfare.
These findings do not themselves impose any requirements on industry or other entities. However, this action was a prerequisite for implementing greenhouse gas emissions standards for vehicles and other sectors.
If finalized, his proposal would strip the EPA’s authority to set standards for greenhouse gas emission regulations on motor vehicles and engines.
“Do not listen to those haters. The sky will not fall,” Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita said. “We have the cleanest air, the cleanest water.”
US/World News
Quick Headlines
Epstein Story Follows Trump to Scotland and Back
It comes as the legal team for Epstein's conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell, indicated she would only testify before Congress on what she knows about the case if she is granted strict legal protections.
Amid public pressure for more disclosures in the Epstein case, a House of Representatives committee subpoenaed Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence, to testify before lawmakers on 11 August.
Questions about Trump's relationship with Epstein followed him on to Air Force One on Tuesday, where he was asked to expand on comments he made the previous day in Scotland where he said: "He [Epstein] stole people that worked for me."
Maxwell Transferred to Texas “Club Fed”
A Bureau of Prisons source told the New York Sun that Maxwell’s transfer was “unusual” as it was handled by bureau officials themselves, rather than by the US Marshals Service, which typically oversees the interstate transportation of inmates.
On Friday victims of Epstein said they were “horrified” by her prison transfer.
Senate votes against resolutions to block arms sales to Israel even as it continues to starve Gaza
27 Democratic Senators – a majority of the caucus – voted for the measure.
Chuck Schumer, the Democratic minority leader from New York, and Cory Booker, a Democratic senator of New Jersey, voted against the measure, but progressives like Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, and Jeff Merkley of Oregon, were joined by moderates including Jon Ossoff of Georgia, Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, Tim Kaine of Virginia, and Dick Durbin of Illinois, in supporting the effort to cut off arms supplies to Israel.
Twelve of the Democrats who voted for the measure previously voted in April against a similar resolution, NBC reports.
Trump administration is launching a new private health tracking system with Big Tech’s help
More than 60 companies, including major tech companies like Google, Amazon and Apple as well as health care giants like UnitedHealth Group and CVS Health, have agreed to share patient data in the system. The initiative will focus on diabetes and weight management, conversational artificial intelligence that helps patients, and digital tools such as QR codes and apps that register patients for check-ins or track medications.
The announcement comes days after Senate Intelligence Chair Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) requested that OSC investigate Smith for “unprecedented interference in the 2024 election,” claiming that Smith’s “legal actions were nothing more than a tool for the Biden and Harris campaigns.”
The Hatch Act restricts federal government employees from using their positions to engage in political activities.
Corporation for Public Broadcasting says it's shutting down
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the conduit for federal funds to NPR and PBS, announced on Friday that it is beginning to wind down its operations given President Trump has signed a law clawing back $1.1 billion in funding for public broadcasting through fiscal year 2027.
CPB informed employees that the majority of staff positions will be eliminated with the close of the fiscal year on September 30, 2025. It said a small team would remain until January to "focus on compliance, fiscal distributions, and resolution of long-term financial obligations
NPR, which produces news programs such as Morning Edition and All Things Considered, relies on direct federal funds for only a small portion of its budget. But its approximately 1,000 member stations receive a heftier portion of their operating revenue through CPB. Those in rural and poor areas in particular rely on CPB grants.
Texas Republicans Go Big in Brazen Gerrymander Attempt
A draft map released Wednesday would add three new districts that would have voted for President Donald Trump in 2024. That would mean 79% of the state’s districts (30 out of 38) would have backed the president compared to his 56% share of the vote in the state.
It would also put two House Democrats who won Trump districts in significantly more danger in 2026.
The proposed map is intended to help the GOP hold on to the House — where they have a historically narrow majority and history suggests Democrats are very likely to pick up seats — in the midterm elections. The map could help Republicans flip five seats, significantly raising the bar for a Democratic takeover of the chamber.
All told, the [Brennan] Center found 11 Republican-drawn maps that had extreme partisan bias, compared to four drawn by Democrats, ahead of the 2024 elections.
Which brings us to the latest developments. They certainly reinforce the idea that Republicans are more ruthless about using this power.
The reason Texas is so controversial isn’t just that Republicans are drawing such a slanted map; it’s mostly when they have chosen to do it – in the middle of the decade, outside the normal post-Census redistricting process.
And while Democrats are talking about a tit-for-tat in which they would do the same thing in states like California and New York… [they] would also face major legal and political hurdles in these states to make that a reality.
Another Ivy Rolls Over as Regime Eyes State Schools Next
Brown Strikes Deal to Restore $510M in Federal Funds
As part of the deal, Brown University will contribute $50 million to “workforce development organizations” in the state; end programs that promote “race-based outcomes, quotas, diversity targets or similar efforts”; and maintain “women-only and men-only” facilities and sports teams on campus.
The Trump administration had been investigating Brown’s response to alleged cases of antisemitism on its Providence, R.I., campus, as well as the institution’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policies.
Brown was one of 60 colleges and universities that the Department of Education’s civil rights arm warned earlier this month could have federal funding taken away over alleged antisemitic discrimination and harassment on campus.
Follows Columbia, Penn agreements in July.
Columbia said July 23 it had agreed to a $200 million fine to restore federal funding.
The school was threatened with the potential loss of billions of dollars in government support, including more than $400 million in grants canceled earlier this year. The administration pulled the money because of what it described as Columbia’s failure to address antisemitism on campus during the Israel-Hamas war.
Columbia agreed to administration demands such as overhauling its student disciplinary process and applying a federally backed definition of antisemitism to teaching and a disciplinary committee investigating students critical of Israel.
Under a July agreement resolving a federal civil rights case, Penn modified a trio of school records set by transgender swimmer Lia Thomas and said it would apologize to female athletes “disadvantaged” by Thomas’ participation on the women’s swimming team.
The Education Department investigated Penn as part of the administration’s broader attempt to remove transgender athletes from girls and women’s sports. As part of the case, the administration had suspended $175 million in funding to Penn.
More Elite Schools Under Attack
Harvard - The administration has frozen more than $2.6 billion in research grants to Harvard, accusing the nation’s oldest and wealthiest university of allowing antisemitism to flourish. Harvard has pushed back with several lawsuits.
In negotiations for a possible settlement, the administration is seeking for Harvard to pay an amount far higher than Columbia.
Cornell - The White House announced in April that it froze more than $1 billion of Cornell’s federal funding as it investigated allegations of civil rights violations.
The Ivy League school was among a group of more than 60 universities that received a letter from the Education Department on March 10 urging them to take steps to protect Jewish students or else face “potential enforcement actions.”
Northwestern - Like Cornell, Northwestern saw a halt in some of its federal funding in April. The amount was about $790 million, according to the administration.
Duke - The administration this week froze $108 million in federal money for Duke. The hold on funding from the National Institutes of Health came days after the departments of Health and Human Services and Education sent a joint letter alleging racial preferences in Duke’s hiring and admissions.
Princeton - Dozens of research grants were suspended at Princeton without a clear rationale, according to an April 1 campus message from the university’s president, Christopher Eisgruber. The grants came from federal agencies such as the Department of Energy, NASA and the Pentagon.
UCLA Becomes Largest School Targeted by Administration
The Trump administration is freezing hundreds of grants to UCLA for allegedly failing to promote a research environment free of antisemitism and other bias at the university — the latest escalation in tensions between the UC system and the federal government.
The cuts come just days after the university settled a $6.4 million lawsuit that alleged it failed to prevent — and at times allowed — antisemitic behavior. Separately, the U.S. Department of Justice that same day said UCLA had violated civil rights laws by “creating a hostile educational environment for Jewish and Israeli students.”
Along with UCLA, UC Berkeley is one of five UC campuses that have faced multi-pronged federal investigations this year by both the Education and Justice departments over allegations of antisemitism.
Emil Bove Confirmed to the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
The Republican-majority Senate voted 50-49 to confirm President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer Emil Bove, who has been serving as a senior Justice Department official, to a lifetime appointment on the Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Moderate Republican Senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine joined all Democrats in opposition.
Bove overcame fierce opposition from Democrats, who walked out in protest when the Senate Judiciary Committee advanced his nomination, and more than 900 former Justice Department employees, who accused Bove of undermining the integrity of the department.
Whistleblower accuses Bove of telling DOJ subordinates to defy court orders.
In his complaint, [Fmr Acting Deputy Director for the Office of Immigration Litigation Erez] Reuveni said that during a March 14 meeting with senior officials, Bove told them that the government planned to deport migrants over the weekend under an 18th Century wartime powers law known as the Alien Enemies Act on one or more scheduled flights. Bove told them the planes "needed to take off no matter what," the complaint alleged.
Bove allegedly predicted that a court might try to block the removals before they could be carried out. Bove stated that "DOJ would need to consider telling the courts 'fuck you' and ignore any such court order," the complaint alleged.
Bove also ordered prosecutors to drop a corruption case against New York Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat who cultivated ties with Trump, citing the mayor's upcoming re-election campaign and his assistance in Trump’s immigration crackdown.
The directive prompted the resignations of 11 prosecutors, including the acting U.S. attorney in Manhattan, who accused Bove of relying on improper political considerations and striking a quid pro quo with Adams.
Bove spearheaded the firing of January 6 prosecutors.
The Trump administration has fired a group of Justice Department prosecutors involved in the 6 January criminal cases and demanded the names of FBI agents involved in those same investigations so they can possibly be ousted.
The acting deputy attorney general, Emil Bove, a Trump appointee, ordered the firings, according to a memo obtained by the Associated Press; and in a separate, earlier memo identified more than half a dozen FBI senior executives who were ordered to retire or be fired by Monday.
Bove also on [Feb 28] asked for the names, titles and offices of all FBI employees who worked on investigations into the 6 January 2021 US Capitol riot – a list the bureau’s acting director said could number in the thousands.
Bove’s confirmation will restore a majority for Republican appointees on the appeals court, which hears cases from New Jersey, Delaware and Pennsylvania.
Economy Beginning to Show Signs of Recession
White House Releases New Tariff Plan
The new tariff regime did not go into effect Friday, as had been expected.
Instead, the tariffs will be implemented on August 7 to give Customs and Border Protection sufficient time to make the necessary changes to collect the new duties.
the “universal” tariff for goods coming into the United States will remain at 10%, the same level that was implemented on April 2.
But that 10% rate will apply only to countries with which the US has a trade surplus – countries to which the United States exports more than it imports. That applies to most countries, a senior administration official said.
A 15% rate will serve as the new tariff floor for countries with which the United States has a trade deficit. About 40 countries will pay that new 15% tariff.
And more than a dozen countries have tariff rates that are higher than 15%, either because they agreed to a trade framework with the United States or because Trump sent their leaders a letter dictating a higher tariff.
Stocks Battered By Friday Sell-Off
The Dow closed lower by 542 points, or 1.23%. The broader S&P 500 fell 1.6% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite dropped 2.24%.
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq posted their worst day since May and April, respectively. The Dow posted its worst day in over a month and closed its worst week since early April.
Job Growth Slows Significantly
The US economy added just 73,000 jobs last month, and the monthly totals for May and June were revised down by a combined 258,000 jobs.
With those monumental, quarter-million-job downward revisions, the meager job gains in June were the weakest since December 2020, the last time the labor market had monthly job losses. The pace of job creation seen so far this year is the weakest in decades, outside of recessions.
Trump Fires Labor Stats Chief in Response
On social media Trump claimed that Erika McEntarfer, commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), had "RIGGED" jobs figures "to make the Republicans, and ME, look bad".
The unprecedented move by the White House sparked accusations that Trump was politicising economic data.
Former US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers said: "Firing the head of a key government agency because you don't like the numbers they report, which come from surveys using long established procedures, is what happens in authoritarian countries, not democratic ones."
One Big Thing - Homelessness in Indiana
Trump’s 7/24/25 Executive Order: “Ending Crime and Disorder on America’s Streets”
Shifting homeless individuals into long-term institutional settings for humane treatment through the appropriate use of civil commitment will restore public order. Surrendering our cities and citizens to disorder and fear is neither compassionate to the homeless nor other citizens. My Administration will take a new approach focused on protecting public safety.
do not fund programs that fail to achieve adequate outcomes, including so-called “harm reduction” or “safe consumption” efforts that only facilitate illegal drug use and its attendant harm;
ending support for “housing first” policies that deprioritize accountability and fail to promote treatment, recovery, and self-sufficiency; increasing competition among grantees through broadening the applicant pool; and holding grantees to higher standards of effectiveness
Indy to shut down Fountain Square homeless camp after months of debate
After a spate of negative press and neighbors’ mounting concerns, the city told IndyStar July 25 that it will shut down the camp by Aug. 11.
The move reverses the city's prior stance, shared with IndyStar as recently as July 23, that the camp did not warrant closure under a 2021 city ordinance — the so-called “homeless bill of rights.” That policy typically allows residents to stay in camps so long as they are not overrun with waste, blocking a public right-of-way or severely threatening public safety.
Some neighbors and local business owners in Fountain Square have been fed up with the trash, human and animal waste, drug use, and drunkenness they say they have witnessed on city-owned property near the major commercial corridor of Virginia Avenue. A recent incident of alleged animal abuse at the camp in June ignited concerns after one neighbor found a dog's mutilated remains.
City officials and social workers are urging patience as they ramp up a new program called Streets to Home Indy that will fundamentally change the way Indianapolis deals with homeless camps. Instead of sweeping people away to other areas, the city aims to methodically shut down camps after moving more than 300 people known to be living outdoors into housing by next June.
The goal is to push about 350 people living on the streets — about 20% of the city's total homeless population of roughly 1,700 — into stable housing over the next year. This "Housing First" approach, which does not hinge on standard requirements for housing like employment, income, background checks or sobriety, has led to lasting reductions in the most vulnerable homeless populations in cities like Dallas, Milwaukee and Cleveland.
With the nation's homeless population reaching a record-high of more than 770,000 people last year, Indy's "Housing First" approach differs from interventions like public camping bans passed in other communities. Indiana lawmakers considered and ultimately rejected a bill this spring that could have forced cities to jail campers who refused to leave public property.
Critics see hypocrisy in Fountain Square camp closure
Displaced residents won't be housed through the new program because it's still ramping up.
Many neighbors and advocates denounced that decision as merely shifting the problem of unsheltered homelessness from one neighborhood to the next without addressing core needs for affordable housing and social services.
[Office of Public Health and Safety Director Andrew] Merkley said residents will be offered emergency shelter beds, as required by the city ordinance governing camp closures. But he conceded that those beds aren't good options for many people. Advocates say they force people into stressful group-living settings that often impose restrictions on substance use, couples and pets.
The city's shift toward "Housing First" practices, which aim to house residents so they can seek health services and income from a place of stability, conflict with a new federal directive that urges governments to forcibly remove homeless people from the streets and place them in treatment facilities.
Thomson said Bloomington was “barely treading water with our homelessness” and urged jurisdictions outside the city and a regional housing district “to cease transferring individuals to Bloomington if they are not from here.”
She said that some people have come to Bloomington for resources—like rehabilitation or hospital services—that are unavailable in their own place of residence, then find themselves unable to return. Others have been brought to the city by sheriffs or municipalities, she said, but she declined to specify which jurisdictions have sent people to Bloomington.
The press conference was just the one of only a few that Thomson has held since she took office in January 2024, and it focused on housing—a topic that she campaigned on and describes as her “top priority.” Thomson—who ran, in part, on her experience as CEO of Habitat for Humanity of Monroe County—praised the array of nonprofits that help people experiencing homelessness in Bloomington.
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