Rümeysa Öztürk, one of several pro-Palestine scholars kidnapped and imprisoned by the Trump administration under its dubious interpretation of an 18th-century law and a Cold War-era national security measure, was released from Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody Friday following a federal judge’s order. U.S. District Judge William Sessions III in Vermont ruled that Öztürk — a 30-year…
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Press freedom in the United States has fallen to its lowest level since Reporters Without Borders (also known as Reporters Sans Frontières or RSF) began publishing its annual ranking more than 20 years ago, with President Donald Trump’s return to power “greatly exacerbating the situation,” RSF said Friday. The U.S. fell from 55th to 57th place on RSF’s World Press Freedom Index…
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Hundreds of people rallied in Wisconsin’s largest city on Saturday to protest the Trump administration’s arrest of Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan on what critics called “baseless” charges of felony obstruction after she allegedly helped an undocumented immigrant evade arrest during an appearance in her courtroom. FBI agents arrested Dugan, 65, on Friday following an investigation…
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Federal immigration authorities deported three U.S. citizen children on Friday — including one with cancer who was reportedly expelled without medication — in a move that critics and one judge appointed by President Donald Trump said was carried out without due process. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) New Orleans field office deported the American children — ages 2, 4…
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A trio of Democratic senators on Thursday demanded answers from embattled Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth regarding U.S. airstrikes in Yemen, which have reportedly killed scores of civilians including numerous women and children since last month. “We write to you concerning reports that U.S. strikes against the Houthis at the Ras Isa fuel terminal in Yemen last week killed dozens of civilians…
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This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on Apr. 25, 2024. It is shared here with permission under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license.
This is a breaking story… Please check back for possible updates…
Federal agents arrested a sitting Wisconsin judge on Friday, accusing her of helping an undocumented immigrant evade arrest after he appeared in her courtroom last week, FBI Director Kash Patel said on social media.
In a since-deleted post, Patel said the FBI arrested 65-year-old Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan “on charges of obstruction.”
“We believe Judge Dugan intentionally misdirected federal agents away from the subject to be arrested in her courthouse… allowing the subject—an illegal alien—to evade arrest,” Patel wrote. “Thankfully, our agents chased down the perp on foot and he’s been in custody since, but the judge’s obstruction created increased danger to the public.”
It is unclear why Patel deleted the post. U.S. Marshals Service spokesperson Brady McCarron and multiple Milwaukee County judges confirmed Dugan’s arrest, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. McCarron said Dugan is facing two federal felony counts: obstruction and concealing an individual.
The Journal Sentinel reported that Dugan “appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Stephen C. Dries during a brief hearing in a packed courtroom at the federal courthouse” and “made no public comments during the brief hearing.”
Dugan’s attorney, Craig Mastantuono, told the court that “Judge Dugan wholeheartedly regrets and protests her arrest,” which “was not made in the interest of public safety.”
The FBI had reportedly been investigating allegations that Dugan helped the undocumented man avoid arrest by letting him hide in her chambers.
Wisconsin state Rep. Ryan Clancy (D-19) said in a statement Wednesday that “several witnesses report that [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] did not present a warrant before entering the courtroom and it is not clear whether ICE ever possessed or presented a judicial warrant, generally required for agents to access non-public spaces like Judge Dugan’s chambers.”
Clancy continued:
I commend Judge Hannah Dugan’s defense of due process by preventing ICE from shamefully using her courtroom as an ad hoc holding area for deportations. We cannot have a functional legal system if people are justifiably afraid to show up for legal proceedings, especially when ICE agents have already repeatedly grabbed people off the street in retaliation for speech and free association, without even obtaining the proper warrants.
While the facts in this case are still unfolding, it’s clear that actions like Judge Dugan’s are what is required for democracy to survive the Trump regime. She used her position of power and privilege to protect someone from an agency that has repeatedly, flagrantly abused its own power. If enough of us act similarly, and strategically, we can stand with our neighbors and build a better world together.
Prominent Milwaukee defense attorney and former federal prosecutor Franklyn Gimbel called Dugan’s arrest “very, very outrageous.”
“First and foremost, I know—as a former federal prosecutor and as a defense lawyer for decades—that a person who is a judge, who has a residence who has no problem being found, should not be arrested, if you will, like some common criminal,” Gimbel told the Journal Sentinel.
“And I’m shocked and surprised that the U.S. Attorney’s office or the FBI would not have invited her to show up and accept process if they’re going to charge her with a crime,” he added.
Julius Kim, another former prosecutor-turned defense lawyer, said on the social media site X that “practicing in Milwaukee, I know Judge Hannah Dugan well. She’s a good judge, and this entire situation demonstrates how the Trump administration’s policies are heading for a direct collision course with the judiciary.”
“That being said, given the FBI director’s tweet (since deleted), they are going to try to politicize this situation to the max,” Kim added. “That sounds an awful lot like weaponizing the DOJ, doesn’t it?”
Responding to Dugan’s arrest, U.S. Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) said on the social media site Bluesky: “The Trump admin has arrested a judge in Milwaukee. This is a red alert moment. We must all rise up against it.”
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The ACLU on Friday revealed new details about the Trump administration’s plans to expand Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centers in 10 states across the nation, with private prison corporations — whose share prices soared after the election of President Donald Trump — seeking to run at least a half dozen proposed ICE facilities. The documents, obtained via a Freedom of…
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The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday issued a ruling with no noted dissents affirming a federal judge’s order compelling President Donald Trump’s administration to enable the stateside return of Kilmar Abrego García, a Salvadoran man wrongfully deported to a notorious prison in his native country. “The rule of law won today,” said Andrew Rossman, one of Abrego García’s lawyers.
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Vice President JD Vance, Second Lady Usha Vance, and two top Trump administration officials traveled to Greenland on Friday on an itinerary that was markedly curtailed from its original plans due to Greenlanders’ frosty reception amid President Donald Trump’s ongoing threats to take the Arctic island from NATO ally Denmark — even by armed force if deemed necessary.
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-backed Israeli forces drew international condemnation Friday after bombing the only cancer hospital in the Gaza Strip, where more than 700 Palestinians including over 200 children have been killed this week and where the death toll from 532 days of genocidal assault is approaching at least 50,000. Israel Defense Forces troops carried out an airstrike on the abandoned Turkish-Palestinian…
This story originally appeared in Common Dreams on Mar. 20, 2025. It is shared here with permission under a Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) license.
As U.S. President Donald Trump prepares to sign an executive order Thursday directing officials to shut down the Department of Education, Democratic politicians, teachers and communities across the nation are vowing legal and other challenges to the move.
Trump is set to check off a longtime Republican wish list item by signing a directive ordering Education Secretary Linda McMahon to “take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education and return education authority to the states.”
Shutting down the department—which was created in 1979 to ensure equitable access to public education and employs more than 4,000 people—will require an act of Congress, both houses of which are controlled by Republicans.
“Trump and his Cabinet of billionaires are trying to destroy the Department of Education so they can privatize more schools.”
Thursday’s expected order follows the department’s announcement earlier this month that it would fire half of its workforce. U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and more than three dozen Democratic senators condemned the move and Trump’s impending Department of Education shutdown as “a national disgrace.”
Abolishing the Department of Education is one of the top goals of Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation-led roadmap for a far-right takeover and gutting of the federal government closely linked to Trump, despite his unconvincing efforts to distance himself from the highly controversial plan.
U.S. Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.) called Trump’s bid to abolish the Department of Education “more bullshit” and vowed to fight the president’s “illegal behavior until the cows come home.”
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said on social media: “Trump and his Cabinet of billionaires are trying to destroy the Department of Education so they can privatize more schools. The result: making it even harder to ensure that ALL students have access to a quality education. Another outrageous, illegal scam. We will fight this.”
It's the billionaires vs. the kids of America.
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) March 20, 2025
Donald Trump and Elon Musk side with the billionaires.
I'm siding with our kids and our teachers every time. https://t.co/CIaNw4G4BG
New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin, a Democrat, warned that “ending the U.S. Department of Education will decimate our education system and devastate families across the country.”
“Support for students with special needs and those in rural and urban schools will be gone,” he added. “We will stop at nothing to protect N.J. and fight this reckless action.”
Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association (NEA)—the nation’s largest labor union—said in a statement Thursday that “Donald Trump and Elon Musk have aimed their wrecking ball at public schools and the futures of the 50 million students in rural, suburban, and urban communities across America, by dismantling public education to pay for tax handouts for billionaires.”
Musk—the de facto head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)—is the world’s richest person. Trump and McMahon are also billionaires.
“If successful, Trump’s continued actions will hurt all students by sending class sizes soaring, cutting job training programs, making higher education more expensive and out of reach for middle-class families, taking away special education services for students with disabilities, and gutting student civil rights protections,” Pringle warned.
“This morning, in hundreds of communities across the nation, thousands of families, educators, students, and community leaders joined together outside of neighborhood public schools to rally against taking away resources and support for our students,” she continued. “And, we are just getting started. Every day we are growing our movement to protect our students and public schools.”
“We won’t be silent as anti-public education politicians try to steal opportunities from our students, our families, and our communities to pay for tax cuts for billionaires,” Pringle added. “Together with parents and allies, we will continue to organize, advocate, and mobilize so that all students have well-resourced schools that allow every student to grow into their full brilliance.”
Yolanda, a special ed assistant, is on the frontlines of Trump’s attack on public education. His latest move to eliminate the Department of Education threatens her job & the students she supports—along with school aides, bus drivers, custodians & educators who keep our schools… pic.twitter.com/rTiCULim8A
— SEIU (@SEIU) March 20, 2025
National Parents Union president Keri Rodrigues said that closing the Department of Education would disproportionately affect the most vulnerable students and communities.
“Let’s be clear: Before federal oversight, millions of children—particularly those with disabilities and those from our most vulnerable communities—were denied the opportunities they deserved,” Rodrigues said in a statement. “The Department of Education was created to ensure that every child, regardless of background or ZIP code, has access to a public education that prepares them for their future. Eliminating it would roll back decades of progress, leaving countless children behind in an education system that has historically failed the most marginalized.”
The ACLU is circulating a petition calling on Congress to “save the Department of Education.”
“The Department of Education has an enormous effect on the day-to-day lives of students across the country,” the petition states. “They are tasked with protecting civil rights on campus and ensuring that every student—regardless of where they live; their family’s income; or their race, sex, gender identity, or disability—has equal access to education.”
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, responded to Trump’s looming order in four words: “See you in court.”
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Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s Thursday announcement that the independent United States Postal Service is partnering with the Department of Government Efficiency on a cost-cutting crusade that includes a planned reduction of 10,000 workers stoked fears that one of America’s most trusted and relied-upon federal agencies is on a path toward privatization. In a letter to congressional…
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Women and their allies took to the streets of cities and towns from coast to coast Saturday for a “Unite and Resist” national day of action against the Trump administration coordinated by Women’s March. “Since taking office, the Trump administration has unleashed a war against women driven by the Project 2025 playbook, which is why, more than ever, we must continue to resist, persist…
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As Palestinians released from Israeli imprisonment recount torture and other abuse suffered at the hands of their former captors, the Trump administration on Friday approved a new $3 billion weapons package for Israel. The new package, reported by Zeteo’s Prem Thakker, includes nearly $2.716 billion worth of bombs and weapons guidance kits, as well as $295 million in bulldozers.
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Several recent journalistic investigations — including one published Tuesday by The Associated Press — have deepened the understanding of how Israeli forces are using artificial intelligence and cloud computing systems sold by U.S. tech titans for the mass surveillance and killing of Palestinians in Gaza. The AP’s Michael Biesecker, Sam Mednick, and Garance Burke found that Israel’s use of…
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Fifteen Democratic state attorneys issued a joint statement Wednesday vowing to protect access to gender-affirming healthcare amid the Trump administration’s attacks on transgender people, which include a new executive order aiming to ban trans girls and women from competing on female sports teams. “We stand firmly in support of healthcare policies that respect the dignity and rights of all…
Reporting Friday that aides to Elon Musk — the billionaire backer of Republican President Donald Trump who runs the Department of Government Efficiency — locked career civil servants out of computer systems containing the personal data of millions of federal employees raised alarms among observers who said the move is consistent with the administration’s efforts to assert authoritarian control…
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An executive order signed Wednesday by Republican U.S. President Donald Trump authorizing the deportation of noncitizen students and others who took part in protests against Israel’s annihilation of Gaza was condemned by civil rights defenders as an overzealous bid to smear the movement for Palestinian rights under the guise of combating antisemitism. Before publishing the order — which is…
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With some Los Angeles-area landlords jacking up rental listing prices by 50% or more as historic wildfires rage, housing advocates in the nation’s second-largest city are calling for an immediate eviction moratorium and rent freeze. As California authorities have noted in recent days, state Penal Code Section 396 prohibits taking “unfair advantage” of consumers during times of emergency or…
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Thousands of Oregon medical caregivers at Providence hospitals launched what organizers are calling the largest healthcare strike in state history Friday as they fight for improved patient care, fair wages, and better working conditions in their new contract. Around 5,000 nurses, doctors, midwives, and other healthcare professionals began their indefinite strike at 6:00 am local time Friday…
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At least seven far-right members of the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, are calling on the country’s defense minister to order the total destruction of northern Gaza’s food, water, and energy sources — most of which have already been obliterated by 15 months of relentless attacks — and the killing of any Palestinian who isn’t clearly surrendering to the attackers. In a letter to Israeli Defense…
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Republican U.S. President-elect Donald Trump vowed Tuesday that his administration will “vigorously” use capital punishment as part of his “make America safe again” agenda, despite copious evidence that the death penalty does not deter crime, is racially biased, and results in wrongful executions. Responding to Democratic President Joe Biden’s Monday commutation of 37 federal death sentences…
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While neocons from both sides of the proverbial political aisle welcomed what some described as President Joe Biden’s “long overdue” decision Sunday to allow Ukrainian forces to strike deep inside Russia with U.S.-supplied long-range missiles, antiwar voices sounded the alarm on what one senior Kremlin official called “a very big step towards the start of World War III.” “Biden has for the…
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In a move that alarmed green groups, Republican President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday tapped Chris Wright — the CEO of a fracking company who denies the climate emergency — as his energy secretary. Wright, who leads the Denver-based oil services company Liberty Energy, is a Republican donor whose nomination to head the Department of Energy is backed by powerful fossil fuel boosters…
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Sen. Bernie Sanders announced Wednesday his intention to bring a floor vote on resolutions aimed at blocking a series of proposed arms sales to the Israeli government as it wages a war on Palestinians in Gaza that is the subject of an ongoing International Court of Justice genocide case. In September, Sanders (I-Vt.) introduced half a dozen joint resolutions of disapproval — which were…
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The chairperson of a leading U.S. private prison corporation on Thursday gushed over the “unprecedented opportunity” presented by the prospect of Republican President-elect Donald Trump delivering on his campaign promise to begin the mass deportation of unauthorized immigrants on his first day in office. As Common Dreams reported Thursday, Trump’s campaign confirmed that “the largest mass…
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The world’s nations must commit to dramatically slashing greenhouse gas emissions in the near future or risk a “catastrophic” rise in global average temperatures, a key United Nations climate report published Thursday warned. “It is still technically possible to meet the 1.5°C goal” set out in the Paris agreement, “but only with a G20-led massive global mobilization to cut all greenhouse gas…
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