GovBrief Today #415

GeorgeBounacos

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Judge Douglas Micko rebuked federal prosecutors Friday for charging a Minnesota woman with conspiring to violate religious freedom at a church protest she never attended, writing, "the government had an intense appetite to initiate" the case.

Fifty-year-old Heather Danae Lewis picked up auction items from a parking lot where church protesters later gathered. Prosecutors traced her cellphone to the location, matched her driver's license photo to a woman in the video, and charged her with two federal crimes. Federal agents pulled her over and interrogated her for hours. She remained under criminal indictment for 22 days. Judge Micko dismissed the charges Friday with prejudice, ensuring they can never be refiled, and noted the government hasn't produced a single piece of evidence against any of the 39 defendants.

In North Carolina, former Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson built his entire political career on lecturing voters about Christian family values. He was later exposed as the author of posts on a pornography site where he called himself a "black NAZI" and advocated for reinstating slavery. Voters rejected him by 15 points in a state Trump won the same night. This week, on a pastor's podcast, he admitted he had lied to the public and would do it again because he was protecting Donald Trump's 2024 campaign.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott officially designated the country's premier Muslim civil rights organization a terrorist group, a label the State Department has never applied. He used that Texas-only designation to block every Islamic school from a billion-dollar voucher program designed to fund religious education. The state made more than 2,200 schools eligible for Texas families. Not a single one was Muslim until the families sued and a federal judge forced the door open.

Thirty-eight people are still facing federal charges built on flimsy evidence and civil rights statutes turned inside out. Call the U.S. Attorney's office in Minnesota and demand Pam Bondi drop every one of them.

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Today on the Website: https://go.govbrief.today/260321-full

[1] https://go.govbrief.today/lewis-charges
[2] https://go.govbrief.today/iran-war-mar21
[3] https://go.govbrief.today/ice-tsa
[4] https://go.govbrief.today/phillips-waffle-house
[5] https://go.govbrief.today/mueller-dies
[6] https://go.govbrief.today/stitt-trump
[7] https://go.govbrief.today/trans-athletes
[8] https://go.govbrief.today/robinson-lie
[9] https://go.govbrief.today/islamic-vouchers

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Bundalicious

Blatant corruption, not even trying to hide it. Absolute fucking clown show installed everywhere. When the fuck are you guys gonna put a stop to the madness? You can never be trusted again if your system allows this level of incompetence to rise to the top and stay there.

2 weeks ago |

Sebastopol140

SlavaUkrainisaysSteveBuscemi

floofnmeeps

Oh the reaction when he finally meets his maker is going to be YUUUGE. If no one else makes it a national holiday, I'm going to celebrate it annually anyway 🥳💃🏼🕺🏼👯‍♂️

sunnydayingermany

if ICE comes to airports the TSA is going to be pretty pissed off with them, aren't they?

You would think it won't be pretty, especially since ICE is being paid. Here in DC, there are big nonprofit & union efforts to at least feed TSA workers.

DidCatchABreak

Thank you, George

thomasbornemann626

Reaction to Mueller's death was predictable. No class whatsoever.

sirleoiii

Just remember this the next time there is a Charlie Kirk and the right goes into shock when people aren't noticeably sad enough.

notsurewhattocallthis

Thanks @GeorgeBounacos .

iamthemurray

Still don't get how you can get public funds for private schools. The only people going to them are the one who can easily afford it without any grants...

The argument is that it would help the people who can't easily afford it without the grants. Which used to be a convincing argument to me until I did the research and found out that vouchers help no one and hurt the majority.

twoamartist

Because the Texas leadership is a bunch of corrupt “Christian” lunatics.

Ezzy666

They convinced the public that they would accept any student from failing public schools. The owners of charters donate to local politicians so nothing is done when they don't accept students, embezzlement and fraud

TheFastpaws

Clean!

Some cats'll mother anything.

BDSMThroatHugs

#2 Although Russia has normalised this indiscriminate attacks on energy infrastructure are a bit warcrimey.

I'm with you and Waltz made it worse with his threats today.

gabrielofsa

Thanks for ur servicio

You're very welcome. Thanks for being here to help amplify the news!

ImmatellallyallboutFightClub

Thanks as always for updating us, OP.

We played outside yesterday so she spent the day absolutely bushed, curled up in the heated throw.

Oooh, playing outside is a special kinda two-way cat thing. (looks to Artemis on her heated throw) Never mind, you wouldn't get it.

Iaimtomisbehave

#9 The only people using the voucher program here are folks with kids already in private schools. The program is stealing money from Texas public schools, as predicted. https://www.texasaft.org/policy/privatization/vouchers/a-growing-billion-dollar-boondoggle-whats-happening-with-vouchers-in-texas/

PuzzledCompletely

Same in TN, but uncovering the discrimination helps uncover the overall boondoggle.

FiftyShadesOfArugula

Same as all privatization. The goal is always to enrich private entities on the taxpayer dime as they downgrade the service and jack up the costs. Only in this case it comes with a side of far-right & religious indoctrination.

Yes it does, and I will fight this until I am done in! https://www.texastribune.org/2025/11/07/dan-patrick-charlie-kirk-turning-point-usa-texas/

I used to be on the "I mean, vouchers just make sense" side for a while. But then I actually looked into what effects it has. It just doesn't do anything for the students that use it (they aren't getting a measurably better education) and it harms the other students (they are losing out money which makes their education worse). Private schools, on average, *are not better* than public schools on average.

tentacularfleshscape

Also the private schools will just raise their tuition by the amount of the voucher to continue excluding the riff raff

Catsbycat

DJTrickyM

Wtf is with that Charlie Kirk Pic that's creepy af

Rhythmaster

He smiled like that on purpose as a "debate tactic" because he knew it creeped people out. Ole gummy.

HashMaster9k

Is that uh...like...right when it happened?

McFrazzlestache

That's just what he looked like. I know, right? Bastion of free speech looked like a skin suit for a cockroach alien.

IrateWolfe

Why is nobody talking about 4- the new head of FEMA publicly claims he's been magically teleported against his will to Waffle House. More than once?!

I'm 100% with you. I need some congressional committee hauling his ass in and oversighting him for a few hours. He'll crack and tell them about the voices.

sundaymondayhippyday

We don’t need a scared head of FEMA …. So we just think bullshit?

faphappyscreencappy

spontaneous9

Dude. That happens to me ALL THE TIME.

No way I ever went there willingly, I swear on the grave of my Great Aunt Jemima.

yalczero

Getting there after becoming blackout drunk doesn't count as teleporting.

well achshully .... /gallery/3yrs-sober-today-lXDUMxh

while on the other hand ...

BipedalHumanoidWithSlightlyDifferentNoseRidge

#2 such a whiny little bitch.

Even though I've always been empathetic to Iran due to their treatment by the US, I'm openly barracking for Iran here...

TheWombatStrikesAgain

"We forced this war onto you, but here's how you're allowed to fight back..."

I do hope in addition, they then overthrow their own government and restore democracy!
40,000 dead Iranian protesters in weeks want to have dies 4 something!

trump screwed that for them too.
... because it was a home grown movement, not a CIA driven one.

Yeah he said he would help them….
We will back you up!
Then later revealed they were screwed, TACO indeed.
“Economically with tariffs!”

chewmaca2

#3 TSA is quitting because they are not getting paid. So I am going to assume he is going to just pay ICE with magical money that wasn't there for humane funding needs.

The massive budget bill mid-2025 funded ICE. :(

It's still thousands of employees to take over for TSA and that money wasn't available for humane reasons but magically available to fund ice.

Correct. Congress appropriated money for ICE last year, but TSA's appropriation ran out. That was the entire idea behind the Democratic Party leverage to bring changes to ICE, literally saying they would not move forward on the rest of DHS until changes were made to ICE. Now it's a staring contest and the people are caught in between. To be fair, though, it is illegal to use funds appropriated for one department for another.

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