Democratic Underground: Forums for U.S. Liberals and Democrats

DOD Officially Drops 180 Faiths From Military's Recognized Religion List

Military.com has learned that the Department of Defense, for the first time in almost 10 years, has dramatically reduced its number of recognized religious faiths and belief systems by approximately 180. The reforms mark the first time the list has been officially revised since a memo was issued March 27, 2017, decreasing the total number of faiths from roughly 211 to its new number of 31. The changes were iterated in a May 20, 2026, memorandum issued by the Under Secretary of War and signed b ...

mahatmakanejeeves

Water begins flowing into Reflecting Pool with blue paint job complete

Water begins flowing into Reflecting Pool with blue paint job complete Will Vitka | will.vitka@wtop.com June 4, 2026, 2:11 PM (1/5) The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool began refilling Thursday with water bubbling up through pipes at the center of the pool, slowly unveiling the full effect of a recent dark-blue paint job. Work to resurface the reflecting pool was completed Wednesday and the pool is expected to be refilled no later than Sunday, according to a court filing from U.S. Departmen ...

highplainsdem

Kevin O'Leary's gargantuan data center cut down by half after battle with Utah lawmakers

Shark Tank celebrity investor Kevin O'Leary has decided to join the data center gold rush, but Utah Senate President J. Stuart Adams is mucking up his claim. O'Leary's proposed data center — to be built in Box Elder County, Utah — is called the Stratos Project and would service AI development and support U.S. defense operations, according to Business Insider. The initial plan was to house a 10,000 acre data center on 40,000 acres of land. But his plans changed on Thursday when he agreed to sha ...

Eugene

Trump administration probes 15 medical schools over admissions policy

WASHINGTON, June 4 (Reuters) - The ‌U.S. Justice Department said on Thursday it had opened civil rights investigations into 15 medical schools examining potential race discrimination over their alleged ⁠use of race in admissions. The department said in a statement the probes would examine whether the schools, each of which receives millions of dollars in federal funding, are complying with a Supreme Court ‌decision ⁠that barred r ...

mahatmakanejeeves

Trump delivers $700M boost to coal, including wartime authority funds

Energy & Environment Trump delivers $700M boost to coal, including wartime authority funds by Rachel Frazin 06/04/26 04:15 PM ET The Trump administration is putting nearly $700 million toward coal, one of the president's favorite energy sources. ... President Trump announced the move during Thursday remarks in the Oval Office, saying his administration is "taking historic action to bring down the price of energy and the cost of living for all Americans with the power of clean, beautiful c ...

mahatmakanejeeves

Trump administration has separated dozens of children from their parents for a second time, AP finds

(AP) Eleven-year-old Ederson Galicia Alva had just stepped off the plane and into the Miami airport’s dim hallways when federal agents pulled his mother aside for questioning. Again. ... Panic welled up. His excitement at soon being back at recess with his Florida classmates fell away. Would the government take her away again? This was not his first trauma. In 2018, when he was just 3 years old, Ederson was taken from his mother’s arms at the U.S.-Mexico border under the first Trump administration’s family separation policy and kept apart from her in a government facility for months.

mahatmakanejeeves

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent refuses to say whether Trump remains exempt from IRS audits

(AP) Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent refused to say Wednesday whether President Donald Trump and his family would still get immunity from IRS audits after the administration abandoned plans for a $1.776 billion compensation fund that would have benefited the president’s allies. “There’s continuing litigation, and I’m unable to comment on ongoing litigation,” Bessent told lawmakers at the Senate Finance Committee hearing.

mahatmakanejeeves

President Trump says he will nominate Todd Blanche to serve as attorney general

(NPR) President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he will nominate Todd Blanche to serve as attorney general, tapping his former personal lawyer who has aggressively pursued the Republican president's agenda while leading the Justice Department in an acting role. Trump said at a dinner at the White House that he plans to nominate Blanche formally on Thursday, according to a video of the event posted on social media by a White House aide. ... "We are going to make him permanent attorney general," Trump said at the Rose Garden event.

everyonematters

Republicans see trouble with independents for Trump

(The Hill) Republican senators are growing increasingly concerned about President Trump’s weak polling numbers with independent voters and warn that the GOP may be headed for a political wipeout in the November election because Trump’s popularity with Republican primary voters isn’t translating across the broader electorate. Several Republican senators told The Hill that polling data shared at a Tuesday conference meeting by Senate Republican Conference Committee Chair Tom Cotton (Ark.) indicated Democrats have a significant polling lead among independents five months before the general election.

KS Toronado

Thursday's Condensed News Cartoons

Expand Featured Stories

Issue Forums

Alliance Forums

Latest Breaking News

Homicide convictions reversed for Colorado paramedics who injected ketamine into Elijah McClain

1 hr ago - By MEAD GRUVER and MATTHEW BROWN Updated 5:30 PM CDT, June 4, 2026 FORT COLLINS, Colo. (AP) — A Colorado court reversed homicide convictions against two paramedics on Thursday in the 2019 death of Elijah McClain, a Black man who was pinned down ... (AP)

Surprise! S&P will not change its rules to get SpaceX in early

1 hr ago - The S&P said Thursday that it's not changing its rules to fast-track mega-cap IPOs onto its marquee stock index, the S&P 500. Why it matters: S&P's decision doesn't mention SpaceX, but it means that Elon Musk's company — as well as A ... (Axios)

Several Women Who Dated Graham Platner Recall 'Unsettling' Behavior

2 hrs ago - On Tuesday evening, after a whirlwind day in Washington, Graham Platner, the Democratic candidate for Senate in Maine, rushed home. Rumors were spreading from Portland to the Potomac about Mr. Platner’s messy personal life, after news reports th ... (NY Times)

Donald Trump Schedules D.C. Rally With Lee Greenwood And Christopher Macchio After Artists Bail On Freedom 250 Concert S

2 hrs ago - Donald Trump said that he’s now planning a June 24 rally in Washington, D.C. with Lee Greenwood and Christopher Macchio performing after a line up of artists pulled out of previous plans for a Freedom 250 concert series on the National Mall. Tru ... (Deadline)

Prosecutors lose appeal in Arizona's fake elector case and vow to present it again to a grand jury

3 hrs ago - PHOENIX (AP) — One of the three remaining criminal cases stemming from efforts by President Donald Trump's supporters to overturn the 2020 election results appears headed back to a grand jury in Arizona. The case began in April 2024 when an indi ... (AP)

New '60 Minutes' Executive Producer Sends Out Memo After Scott Pelley Firing, Says Show Will Never Be "Instructed By The

3 hrs ago - Ownership” Of CBS On Stories --------------------------------------------------- Following the firing of Scott Pelley and others at 60 Minutes, the show's new executive producer Nick Bilton sent out a new memo to staffers Thursday in an effort t ... (Deadline)

Republicans probe China's influence in data center opposition

4 hrs ago - House Energy and Commerce Republicans are claiming there is "strong evidence" that growing opposition to data centers in communities across the country is due, at least in part, to foreign influence campaigns linked to China. Chair Brett Guthrie (R-K ... (Politico)

ICE to stop reporting deaths of newly released detainees, internal memo says

4 hrs ago - WP Exclusive ICE to stop reporting deaths of newly released detainees, internal memo says The agency is facing pressure to improve medical care in its facilities after reporting the deaths of 18 detainees in the first five months of this year. June 4 ... (Washington Post)

Water begins flowing into Reflecting Pool with blue paint job complete

5 hrs ago - Water begins flowing into Reflecting Pool with blue paint job complete Will Vitka | will.vitka@wtop.com June 4, 2026, 2:11 PM (1/5) The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool began refilling Thursday with water bubbling up through pipes at the center of th ... (WTOP)

Spain's reckoning with clergy abuse enters a new chapter as Pope Leo visits

6 hrs ago - By SUMAN NAISHADHAM Updated 1:43 PM CDT, June 4, 2026 Leer en español MADRID (AP) — In the 1970s, in a devoutly Catholic Spain still ruled by dictator Francisco Franco, Paula Alonso-Pimentel was sent for catechism at age 8 to a religious ... (AP)

Corporate Donors to Trump's White House Ballroom have Received $50 Billion in Government Contracts Since the East Wing w

7 hrs ago - Over half of corporate ballroom donors – 14 out of 27 – have received new or increased government contracts over the last 6 months totaling over $50 billion. -snip- Most of the corporate donors – 16 out of 27 – are facing federal ... (Public Citizen)

Trump delivers $700M boost to coal, including wartime authority funds

7 hrs ago - Energy & Environment Trump delivers $700M boost to coal, including wartime authority funds by Rachel Frazin 06/04/26 04:15 PM ET The Trump administration is putting nearly $700 million toward coal, one of the president's favorite energy sources. ... (The Hill)

Kevin O'Leary's gargantuan data center cut down by half after battle with Utah lawmakers

8 hrs ago - Shark Tank celebrity investor Kevin O'Leary has decided to join the data center gold rush, but Utah Senate President J. Stuart Adams is mucking up his claim. O'Leary's proposed data center — to be built in Box Elder County, Utah — is called ... (Independent)

DOD Officially Drops 180 Faiths From Military's Recognized Religion List

8 hrs ago - Military.com has learned that the Department of Defense, for the first time in almost 10 years, has dramatically reduced its number of recognized religious faiths and belief systems by approximately 180. The reforms mark the first time the list has b ... (Military.com)

Trump administration probes 15 medical schools over admissions policy

8 hrs ago - WASHINGTON, June 4 (Reuters) - The ‌U.S. Justice Department said on Thursday it had opened civil rights investigations into 15 medical schools examining potential race discrimination over their alleged ⁠use of race in ... (Reuters)

Bright City Lights Might Be Making Your Allergies Worse

8 hrs ago - If you live in a big, brightly lit city and you feel like allergy season just never ends, you might be right: New research shows that light pollution prompts plants to shed pollen longer, increases the growth of notoriously allergenic ragweed and mak ... (NYT)

Marjane Satrapi Dies: Iranian-French 'Persepolis' & 'Radioactive' Director Was 56

9 hrs ago - Marjane Satrapi, the Iranian-French artist, animator and Oscar-nominated director best known internationally for her 2007 biographical animated feature Persepolis and Rosamund Pike-starring film Radioactive, has died. She was 56. “Marjane Satrap ... (Deadline)

Meta Silently Added Face-Recognition Code for Its Smart Glasses to Millions of Phones

9 hrs ago - Meta has quietly embedded face-recognition technology for its smart glasses into an app downloaded to millions of phones, according to a WIRED analysis of the company's software. Code discreetly added to Meta’s AI app over multiple updates this ... (Wired)

Hezbollah's Fiber-Optic Drones Expose Cracks in Israeli Defenses

10 hrs ago - An explosive drone snaked between the hills of southern Lebanon before striking an Israeli armored personnel carrier. Two days later, another slammed into a tank. Three days after that, a third pounded into a missile-defense system. Each day, multipl ... (New York Times)

Ex-national security adviser John Bolton will plead guilty in classified information case: AP source

10 hrs ago - WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Trump administration national security adviser John Bolton has agreed to plead guilty to a single count of retaining classified information under a deal with the Justice Department that could allow him to avoid prison ti ... (AP)