Good Day, this is the Commonwealth Report.
News for the public, not the powerful.
Senate Democrats Kill Mike Johnson’s Fake Stock Trading Ban
Senate Democrats just blocked a Republican bill that claimed to ban stock trading in Congress. Wednesday’s vote was 53 to 47, and it needed 60. It’s called the Stop Insider Trading Act, and Speaker Mike Johnson pushed it through the House in July. Here’s the trick. It only stops lawmakers, spouses and dependent kids from buying new stocks. They’d keep everything they already own. It leaves out the president and vice president. And Republicans bolted on pieces of Trump’s SAVE Act, a photo ID mandate Democrats call voter suppression. Senator Dick Durbin called it “meaningless messaging.” Public Citizen’s Craig Holman called it a ruse. The Democrats’ answer was simple. Put a real ban on the floor if you’re serious. Americans overwhelmingly want lawmakers out of the market. What they got was a campaign ad with a poison pill inside.
Did a Federal Judge Just Force Trump’s DOJ to Move on the Epstein Files?
Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly ruled Wednesday that the Justice Department must fast-track three Freedom of Information requests from the watchdog group Democracy Defenders Fund. One seeks records from the Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell investigations that mention Trump or Mar-a-Lago. The others seek communications involving Pam Bondi, Todd Blanche, Emil Bove, Kash Patel and Dan Bongino. The judge cited a poll showing 69% of Americans think the government’s hiding details about Epstein’s clients. She also cited reports that Bondi pressured about 1,000 FBI personnel to comb 100,000 records and flag every mention of Trump. Norm Eisen promised, “We will hold their feet to the fire.” It’s not a total win. There’s no deadline, and DOJ can still withhold material. But a government that hides the truth about powerful men can’t claim to serve the rest of us.
Mamdani Lands $607 Million for Public Housing, Then Torches Rich Crybabies
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced $607 million to modernize the Nostrand Houses, a public housing complex in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn. Then reporters asked about something else. Wealthy plaintiffs are suing to kill his tax surcharge on second homes worth more than $5 million. Mamdani didn’t flinch. He said those lawsuits are about protecting people who own a secondary home worth over $5 million, and he said it standing in housing that’s suffered a legacy of disinvestment. He said the surcharge “is legal and it is right.” He said public housing residents have poured themselves into the city and often haven’t received that love back. It’s part of his block-by-block push to deliver on the affordable housing promises of his 2025 campaign. This is what government looks like when it works for the many. Those who’ve gained the most pay their share.
Is Even Trump’s Friend Jim Justice Turning on the ICE Crackdown?
West Virginia Republican Senator Jim Justice, a close Trump ally, told Politico the administration needs to step back and rethink its immigration sweeps. He said the first step to getting better is admitting you’re doing something wrong. And he said, “You’re dragging people away that have lived on your street corner for 15 years.” Justice sits on the Agriculture Committee. He spoke after the Kansas Livestock Association, the Oklahoma Cattlemen’s Association and the Texas Cattle Feeders Association said ICE operations are having a massive chilling effect on legal, documented, skilled workers. In West Virginia, the ACLU found about three-quarters of the nearly 600 people arrested in January’s Operation Country Roads had no criminal record. When cattlemen and Trump’s own allies say stop, this isn’t law enforcement anymore. It’s sabotage of rural America.
Did the White House Hand Eric Schmitt the Lie That Blew Up in His Face?
Tuesday, Missouri Republican Senator Eric Schmitt thought he had Jack Smith cornered at a Judiciary Committee hearing. He claimed the former special counsel secretly went to Atlanta in 2024 to collude with DA Fani Willis, using an Atlanta Hawks game as cover. One problem. Smith was actually at an Iowa Hawkeyes game in Maryland. Senator Amy Klobuchar helped take it apart in real time. Now a senior Republican senator, speaking anonymously to Raw Story, says, “I’m pretty sure the White House asked him to do it.” That senator thinks the White House probably supplied the material too. That same morning, Axios had floated Schmitt as a 2028 vice presidential contender. If that senator’s right, the White House is feeding Congress fiction to smear a prosecutor. That’s not oversight. That’s propaganda.
Why Are Pennsylvanians Still Dying From a Disease We Beat Decades Ago?
Pennsylvania’s Health Department confirmed its 5th measles-associated death of the year Wednesday, the 3rd in Lancaster County. The person wasn’t vaccinated. Neither were the other four, two Lancaster County infants who died in August, an 18-year-old in Mifflin County and a 40-year-old woman in Jefferson County. The state now counts 943 cases across 39 counties, the most of any state, and fewer than 1% involved vaccinated people. Before this year, Pennsylvania hadn’t seen a measles death in 35 years. Meanwhile Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s CDC has confirmed only two measles deaths nationwide. There’s one bright spot. Pennsylvanians got more than 53,000 MMR shots in September, over twice the usual. We’ve had a vaccine for more than 60 years. When politicians sell doubt about science, children pay with their lives.
And that’s the way it is, Today Thursday, October 1, 2026. I’m Thom Hartmann.
