Good Morning, this is the Commonwealth Report.
News for the public, not the powerful.
Are Police Now Working For ICE At Checkpoints Near You?
Across the country, immigration agents have moved deep into the interior, far from any border, and they’re bringing local cops with them. ICE is now paying state and local police to help, and the money is staggering. One estimate says the total could hit two billion dollars this year alone. In Florida, police departments pocketed nearly forty million dollars for vehicles and gear. In the Florida Keys, agents threw up a checkpoint on the only highway in and out, a tourist route, and made more than three hundred arrests. They’re stationed at courthouses, bus stations, train terminals, and airports too, snaring domestic travelers who never came near a border. The ACLU’s Naureen Shah put it plainly. “We’ve never seen this financial incentive scheme exist.” Remember this. You’re a citizen. You don’t have to show your papers. But when your own police answer to ICE, that freedom starts to feel awfully thin. This is how a free country gets remade one traffic stop at a time, local cops trading community trust for federal cash.
Why Are Most Americans Ready To Scrap Private Health Insurance?
A majority of Americans, fifty-two percent, now say they’d replace private health insurance with a government plan. Only thirty percent say no. Support runs even higher among younger people and independents. And no wonder. After Republicans let the enhanced tax credits expire at the end of last year, premiums roughly doubled. Enrollment in Affordable Care Act plans has cratered, from more than twenty-four million people down to about nineteen million. That’s roughly five million Americans who dropped their coverage because they simply couldn’t pay. Bernie Sanders and his allies say now’s the moment for Medicare for All. Advocates warn “millions more Americans will lose the care they rely on.” When working families are getting squeezed this hard, folks stop asking whether change is radical and start asking why we waited so long. This wasn’t an accident or a market failure. It was a choice made in Washington, and the bill landed on your kitchen table.
Is The White House Burying Files On A Trump Accuser?
A woman known in court records as Jane Doe 4 has gone off the grid, and a relative says she’s living in fear of retaliation. She told the FBI, in four separate interviews back in twenty nineteen, that Jeffrey Epstein abused her in the nineteen eighties and that Donald Trump assaulted her when she was between thirteen and fifteen years old. The White House flatly denies it, calling the allegations completely baseless and backed by zero credible evidence. Now a federal judge has ordered the Justice Department to release her unredacted interview notes or explain why it won’t. That order has become a flashpoint for acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s confirmation, and it lands just as the Supreme Court rejected Trump’s final appeal in the E. Jean Carroll case. Her relative said simply, “Trauma is brutal. Chronic trauma destroys.” When a government fights this hard to keep files hidden, Americans have every right to ask what’s inside them, and why the most powerful man in the country doesn’t want them to see.
What Does America’s Birthday Feel Like If You’re Queer?
This Fourth of July, the nation turns two hundred fifty years old, and the fireworks are already booked. But for a lot of LGBTQ Americans, the celebration lands with mixed feelings. Many say they thought they were safe here, and now they’re not so sure. The Trump administration has spent the year rolling back transgender protections. It yanked the rainbow flag from the Stonewall National Monument, the birthplace of the movement, before backing down under a lawsuit. Major New York hospitals stopped gender-affirming care for trans youth after federal funding threats, and the Justice Department subpoenaed patients’ private medical records until a judge blocked it. Still, more than a million people marched in New York, chanting that they will not be erased. A country turning two hundred fifty ought to be big enough for every one of its citizens. Freedom that only covers the people in power isn’t freedom at all. It’s just privilege wearing a flag.
Could The Right Workout Guard Your Brain Against Dementia?
Let’s end with your health. A new study out of Texas A&M looked at older adults with early memory loss, the stage doctors call mild cognitive impairment. Poor sleep is closely tied to dementia risk, so researchers wanted to know what actually helps people sleep. They fitted folks with a smart ring that tracked every movement for two weeks. The finding surprised them. Both light walking and vigorous, high-intensity exercise were linked to fewer sleep disruptions, and the hard workouts helped the most. Moderate activity, the old go-to advice, showed no clear benefit at all. One researcher said “high-intensity exercise is the best way to improve sleep.” Careful here though. This was a tiny study, just seven people, so it’s early. But with roughly twelve million Americans already facing memory decline, and that number set to climb fast, it’s a lead worth chasing. Sometimes the best medicine is a hard walk and a good night’s sleep.
And that’s the way it is, Today Wednesday, July 1, 2026. I’m Thom Hartmann.
