In my opinion, the main story about the State of the Union last night is how utterly trivial the State of the Union was – the biggest takeaway the press can collectively come up with is that it was the longest State of the Union in recent history, clocking in at 100 minutes. (That is 100 minutes longer than anyone should listen to that man bloviate.)
Several nouveau and some classic reminders still apply: we may be beginning my tenth year of journalism, but I focus on national news within my areas of expertise–which, at this point, includes (1) health news, (2) queer news, (3) news about law and government, (4) news about descent into authoritarianism, and (5) connections between news stories. At this point, NNR summaries will merely toe-dip into other topics, if that–we are committed to a focused and sustainable format. And, of course, for the law things you read here, I’m offering context that shouldn’t be considered legal advice. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers. Onward to the news
Chinga La Migra
Image unnamed and licensed to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
- Detention Dystopia. Hello, and welcome to the part of the NNR where I remind you just how bad things are with the U.S. detention system again. The administration broadened ICE “authority” this cycle to detain refugees who delay seeking a green card–an incredibly unhinged proposal even by this administration’s standards. Just to remind folks, definitionally, refugees are severely traumatized people who have entered the country legally after an extremely rigorous process, specifically because it is not safe for them personally to be in their home country. This would be bad enough, but it’s rendered even more malicious when you remember that this administration also stopped issuing green cards for any applicants from many different countries at the end of last year. And all of this is accompanied by increased stories in the news about ICE buying warehouses to create detention “mega-centers,” which presumably is where they plan to put all of these legally-present people. Thankfully, there were also some stories about locations that successfully blocked ICE from doing any such thing, and apparently some Dems in Congress plan to introduce a bill to block it as well.
- Spotlight on ICE (again, still). There are yet again a lot of ICE-related stories this cycle, although admittedly some of them highlight just how fed up most of the country is. A former ICE instructor made news when he disclosed that the agency has systemically removed many much-needed guardrails from its onboarding process, including screening protocols and hundreds of hours of mandated training. There was another federal opinion about ICE illegally denying opportunities for release and holding detainees past when legally allowed–a process which is likely now easier because so many of the country’s immigration judges have been fired in the past year–NPR reports that two immigration courts have no judges at all. There is also a lawsuit being brought to make CBP stop pressuring unaccompanied minors to self-deport. Against that backdrop, it’s hardly surprising that New Jersey introduced the FUCK ICE Act and Chicago’s denizens chose ‘Abolish Ice’ as the name of their new snowplow.
From the Department of Health and Human Sacrifice
Image unnamed and in the public domain
Poison Potpourri (again, still). By this point, I’m sure you’re as tired of reading about vaccine hell as I am of typing it–but we yet again have more updates. That said, this cycle has one silver lining–after the FDA refused to review Moderna’s flu vaccine application, they pulled a u-ie and decided to review it after all. I also have some new info for you, but it isn’t great–the CDC is again playing musical chairs because the Deputy Director resigned. The NIH director, Jay Bhattacharya, is apparently running the CDC for now as well? Which is vaguely terrifying, because this is the guy that pulled a bunch of research funding for funsies during 2025.
CDC staff changes:
Spills in Aisle 47
‘Toddler Supermarket Tantrum,’ taken with permission from Stockcake.com
- Dystopian DOJ. There was a lot of sketchy records-related news about this administration this week. Representative Pramila Jayapal was in the news for reporting that the Department of Justice was spying on her while she reviewed the Epstein files. And speaking of the DOJ and Epstein files, NPR is also reporting that the DOJ withheld records when they released the Epstein files because they implicated Trump in sexually abusing a minor. Finally, a federal judge ruled that the DOJ may not search a phone that they seized from a reporter’s home.
- Shutdown Shuffle. Congress has not reached a deal for funding the Department of Homeland Security as I type this, and the department remains shut down. Before you get too excited, however, this is unlikely to impact ICE and CBP, which are still swimming in money after the Big Bullcrap Bill Act last year. Instead, it impacts other department programs like TSA and FEMA–which is likely why the administration tried to turn up the heat by canceling PreCheck for flights. (They then walked that back only a day or two later.)
Ways to Weather This
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Recent Judicial Resilience. With so much of the country’s court systems being broken, it’s easy to forget how much the courts still impede the administration. We got a reminder of this over the past week when the Supreme Court decided to strike down Trump’s tariffs, leaving the administration fumbling and Trump himself spewing vitriol. Though they are attempting to impose new ones, it’s likely those will quickly be paused as well, and in the meantime everyone from Fed Ex to Costco is demanding refunds. And on the other side of the bench, a grand jury in DC refused to indict several federal Congresspeople who told troops they should ignore illegal orders. These glimmers of functionality matter, because they slow down or eliminate pieces of authoritarianism and buy time for longer-term strategies.
So that’s what I have for you this cycle, and I’m sorry, there are still no news refunds. For making it through, you deserve this unusual fetch session and a less corrupt government. I’m still figuring out sustainability, and I would love feedback in the National News Roundup ask box, which is there for your constructive comments. Send me questions! Send me feedback! Send me more hours of sleep!
National News Roundup 