NEWS: Kristi Noem Lied to Congress + Nuremberg Trials for Trump Regime?

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Mar 04, 2026

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Here’s what you may have missed:

ProPublica, Kristi Noem Misled Congress About Top Aide’s Role in DHS Contracts

At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Sen. Blumenthal asked Noem whether Lewandowski has “a role in approving contracts.” Noem said: “No.” Internal DHS records reviewed by ProPublica contradict that — Lewandowski personally approved a multimillion-dollar contract last summer and is typically the last signature before Noem’s on large contracts. He is an unpaid “special government employee” who has declined to disclose whether outside companies pay him. Knowingly lying to Congress is a federal crime, though rarely prosecuted.

The Nation, Democrats Should Launch a “Nuremberg Caucus” to Investigate the Crimes of the Trump Regime

Cory Doctorow, a writer and longtime critic of corporate consolidation, proposes that “congressional Democrats launch a “Nuremberg Caucus,” an effort to determine what accountability for the grotesqueries of Trump’s regime should look like. People need to be held responsible for the corruption, concentration camps, and executions of US civilians by federal goon squads.”

NPR, How the Federal Government Is Painting Immigrants as Criminals on Social Media

The White House posted the wrong photo of Ricky Chandee, called him “WORST OF WORST,” and falsely claimed multiple felony convictions. He has one, from 1993 at age 18. He worked for Minneapolis for 26 years and never missed an immigration check-in in over 30 years. NPR reviewed 130 Minnesota cases and found widespread inaccuracies. Over 70% of all ICE detainees nationwide have no criminal record per ICE’s own data. DHS did not dispute NPR’s findings and responded: “The fact that NPR is defending murderers and pedophiles is gross.”

Inside Climate News, War in Iran Could Have ‘Historic’ Disruptions on Energy Markets

Strait of Hormuz traffic, a key oil shipping lane, collapsed from roughly 60 ships per day to 5. Saudi Arabia’s Ras Tanura facility was hit; QatarEnergy halted liquid natural gas exports. Oil rose 7% Monday. S&P Global’s Jim Burkhard said it could be “the largest oil supply disruption in history.” Columbia’s Daniel Sternoff, senior fellow and head of corporate partnership strategy at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy, said Iran is deliberately using energy as a pressure point and that “We are really quickly into a really dangerous phase here of which there is no precedent.”

The New Republic, The Republican Meltdown Over Iran Is Just Beginning

Is MAGA media’s habitual propagandizing for Trump showing cracks? Less than a week into Trump’s war with Iran, Megyn Kelly said U.S. troops “died for Iran or for Israel…Our government’s job is not to look out for Iran or for Israel. It’s to look out for us.” Tucker Carlson called the war “absolutely disgusting and evil” and said Netanyahu made the decision, not Trump. Steve Bannon called it a “betrayal.” A CNN poll found 77% of Republicans still support the war. Congressional Republicans are so far siding with Trump. Iran is bombing Gulf States like Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain. The U.S. has told hundreds of thousands of civilians to leave but has no evacuation plan. The CIA has reportedly begun arming Iranian Kurds to jumpstart a civil war.

Reuters, Autism Researchers Form Independent Committee as Counter to Kennedy-Appointed Group

RFK Jr. replaced the entire Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee—which guides roughly $2 billion in annual research—with 21 new members, several of whom have promoted debunked vaccine-autism claims. Credible public health officials, including former coordinating committee members, NIH directors, and autism scientists, formed an independent rival committee to provide a science-based alternative. ”A similar group of medical organizations and respected vaccine experts have been working to combat what they see as misinformation on inoculations coming from the Trump administration.”

States Newsroom, Taxpayer Dollars Flood Pregnancy Centers. Oversight Hasn’t Followed.

Crisis pregnancy centers are most often faith-based nonprofits that offer free pregnancy tests and ultrasounds while dissuading women from pursuing abortions and contraceptive options. Nearly $1.3 billion in local, state, and federal government grants went to 1,259 centers from 2019 to 2024. Oversight of how this money is spent is minimal. Documented harms include a patient who was told an ectopic pregnancy could be saved whose tube later ruptured, a suicidal patient who was told God would give her strength, and a couple given an ultrasound image of a bladder instead of a uterus.

Mother Jones, Trump’s DEI Crackdown Hit a Wall in Court. What’s Next?

Mother Jones interviewed Sarah Hinger, the deputy director of the ACLU Racial Justice Program about what to expect now that a federal judge voided the Department of Education’s “Dear Colleague” letter, which threatened schools with funding loss if they maintained DEI programs. That letter never defined what the Trump administration considers illegal about DEI. The ACLU sued on behalf of the NEA’s roughly three million educators, arguing the Department of Education violated due process and First Amendment protections. Hinger said the ruling forces the department to define its legal theory going forward, making future directives more vulnerable to challenge.

Common Dreams, ‘Enough Is Enough’: Sanders, Khanna Propose Billionaires Tax to Raise $4.4 Trillion

Sanders and Khanna introduced a 5% annual wealth tax on 938 billionaires collectively worth $8.2 trillion. Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman, economists at University of California, estimate the wealth tax would raise $4.4 trillion over a decade. The new tax revenue would be used to fund $3,000 direct payments to “every man, woman, and child” in households earning $150,000 or less, reverse $1.1 trillion in Medicaid and ACA cuts estimated to cause more than 50,000 unnecessary deaths, and expand Medicare to cover dental, vision, and hearing. No one worth less than $1 billion pays more. The Washington Post reports the proposal is supported by roughly two-thirds of Americans.

On Friday afternoon, Liberty University Law School emailed its first and second-year students about an “exciting opportunity to intern with the Department of Labor in DC.” The available positions covered the full breadth of the DOL’s activities — “litigation, appeals, regulations, policy, etc.” The email, sent by Derek Green, an associate director at the law school, stressed that those accepted into the program “will make incredible connections that will payoff [sic] later.” For second-year students, the internship “could lead to a full-time job offer for after your 2027 graduation.”
One important caveat: only passionate devotees of President Trump would be considered. Students who “aligned politically with President Trump” and were “willing to work hard” were strongly encouraged to apply, even if they had poor grades.

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