It Was on Your Table Every Morning Growing Up. It’s Dying Before Our Eyes. No One Wants to Face It. The powerhouse of American citrus is suffering a brutal decline. Everyone has a theory about why.

damn slate.com/business/202...

Trump fought to keep the ballroom fundraising contract secret. Here’s what’s in it. The agreement governing hundreds of millions in private donations was kept secret until a watchdog group sued and a judge ordered it disclosed.

Secret $ for White House ballroom: "Provisions peppered throughout the agreement prevent the signatories from revealing the identities of anonymous donors, and a review process for detecting conflicts of interest ... makes no mention of ... the president...." www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

Survey Finds Election Officials Remain Concerned About Safety, Lack of Government Support Amid new and persistent challenges, local election officials are preparing to ensure the 2026 midterms are safe and secure.

www.brennancenter.org/our-work/ana...

Local Election Officials Survey 2026 75 percent of local election officials have not received additional resources from their state or local government to address federal cuts to election security services. At least 71 percent of officials have done some preparation or planning for scenarios that could disrupt election administration.

Our latest survey of local election officials found that 75% of election officials have not received additional resources from their state or local government to address federal cuts to election security services. bit.ly/41pYmNr

Wealthy Donors Are Hiding Political Money in Secretive Nonprofits

Super PAC money is more and more likely to have come from secret donors hidden from the public. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/03/u...

How Corruption Affects Democracy When elected officials are corrupt, citizens participate less in the democratic process and lose faith in government.

New analysis on corruption and its dangers from my Brennan Center colleagues... www.brennancenter.org/our-work/ana...

In this month's filings from MAGA Inc., the Trump-affiliated super PAC:
-A new donor, HealthEquity Trust Co. in Utah, gave $1 million in February.
-MAGA Inc. paid $41,566 to the Air Force for travel.
docquery.fec.gov/pdf/888/2026...

Firm That Planned Trump’s Jan. 6 Rally Received No-Bid Contracts

"[A]gencies invoked legal loopholes meant for special situations — instances of urgent need, or cases where only one specialized vendor could do a job — and gave the contracts to Event Strategies." www.nytimes.com/2026/03/18/u...

Firm That Planned Trump’s Jan. 6 Rally Received No-Bid Contracts

The Trump administration has bypassed regular procedures to award more than $13 million in contracts to the company that helped organize Trump’s rally on Jan. 6, 2021, repeatedly creating hidden business opportunities that only one firm could win www.nytimes.com/2026/03/18/u...

Florida Legislature approves bill requiring voters to provide proof of citizenship • Florida Phoenix The Florida Legislature has approved a bill (HB 991) that will require proof of U.S. citizenship for registering to vote, similar to federal legislation being advocated for by President Trump and Republicans in Congress. But while the Trump-backed SAVE Act is heading for defeat in Washington, Republicans are celebrating their achievement in Tallahassee. “The Florida […]

Last week, the Florida Legislature passed a bill requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote, which state lawmakers modeled after the proposed federal SAVE America Act.

Millions of Americans Don’t Have Documents Proving Their Citizenship Readily Available Requiring Americans to prove their citizenship to register to vote would exclude millions of citizens from the political process.

As the Senate preps to debate the SAVE Act, some research I've done w @brennancenter.org to add context
1. We surveyed (with UMD and VoteRiders) Americans to understand who doesn't have easy access to proof of citizenship. The answer? 21.3m! (This number has gotten a lot of play; this is the source)

Beware of Novel Claims of 2020 Election Fraud Any ostensibly new intelligence that the Trump administration might muster should be met with extreme skepticism.

We already know what they'll try to say about the 2020 election. www.brennancenter.org/our-work/res...

4 Things Billionaires Are Doing With Their Money to Influence Elections

$1 of every $5 that went to fund federal campaigns in 2024 came from 300 billionaires, or $3 billion. www.nytimes.com/2026/03/09/u...

Undoing Accountability: An Update on Trump's Attacks on Inspectors General - Public Citizen

New: "Trump Eradicates Critical Oversight as he Fires More Inspectors General than All Other U.S. Presidents Combined"

Douglas S. Pasternak for @publiccitizen.bsky.social

Big four super PACs focused on control of Congress raised $71 million in dark money last year - Issue One The four main super PACs focused on helping Democrats and Republicans win House and Senate elections raised a combined $71 million from affiliated dark money sources in 2025, according to…

The four congressional party-affiliated super PACs have raised $71 million through their dark money affiliates so far this cycle. issueone.org/press/big-fo...

Billionaires Are Swaying Elections in All Corners of America

"In total, 87 percent of the money given to [Illinois] gubernatorial campaigns came from billionaires." www.nytimes.com/2026/03/09/u...

Documents Reveal a Web of Financial Ties Between Trump Officials and the Industries They Help Regulate ProPublica is releasing a trove of disclosure records that detail the finances of more than 1,500 Trump appointees, including former lobbyists, industry executives and at least a dozen officials who d...

Documents reveal a web of financial ties between Trump officials and the industries they help regulate:

ProPublica is releasing a trove of disclosure records that detail the finances of more than 1,500 Trump appointees who declined to identify former clients.

Trump's Iran Strikes Are Unconstitutional Congress must act.

President Trump’s Iran strikes are unconstitutional. Congress must act. bit.ly/4aYZgop

Three previously unknown donors gave $26 million to Trump-aligned dark money group - Issue One An Issue One examination of tax filings has revealed three previously unknown donors who gave more than $26 million to Securing American Greatness, a dark money group that supported President…

Donors to pro-Trump dark money group revealed to be ... other dark money groups. issueone.org/press/three-...

Money in Politics Roundup — February 2026 These stories on campaign finance and influence peddling are shaping the midterms.

www.brennancenter.org/our-work/res...

Blind refugee abandoned by Border Patrol dies in Buffalo. A nearly blind refugee abandoned by Border Patrol miles from his home dies in Buffalo after having been missing for nearly a week.

US immigration officials picked up a blind Rohingya refugee last week in Buffalo, NY. Then, realizing they had no basis to deport him, they released him five miles from his home. He needed a walking stick and died trying to make his way back to his house: www.investigativepost.org/2026/02/25/b...

The Politics of Judicial Elections 2023-24 Spending hit new highs, fueled largely by interest groups and battles over abortion rights.

Just published my analysis of spending in the 2024 state supreme court election cycle. At $157 million, this was the most expensive cycle ever for judicial races…by a lot. Including in states where judicial elections probably weren’t on your radar.

Pro-Trump Super PAC Raises Record-Breaking $305 Million MAGA Inc. has relied on multimillion-dollar donors to raise an unprecedented amount in support of a lame duck president.

More context on MAGA Inc. here: www.brennancenter.org/our-work/ana...

Image of an FEC filing showing Foris Dax Inc. $5,000,000 donation to the MAGA Inc. super PAC.

Foris Dax, the parent company of Crypto[dot]com, gave another $5 million to the pro-Trump super PAC, MAGA Inc., in January, extending its lead as the group's top donor with $35 million donated since Trump was elected.

Local Journalism Directory | Media and Democracy Project We created a directory to help you find local journalism and local news sources in your area worth reading and supporting.

Hi @jeffsharlet.bsky.social

We’ve created a searchable 50-state directory of 2,200+ *local* news outlets.

Subscribing to local supports newsrooms and is a pro-community and pro-democracy action.

www.mediaanddemocracyproject.org/journalism-d...

Not to mention there is no practically attainable number of guns that would allow individual Americans to win a war against the world's biggest military.

Bar chart showing the $3 billion Trump made in the first year of his second term vastly overshadows amounts involved in the most notorious US corruption scandals.

Trump's self-enrichment in just the first year of his second term dwarfs the most notorious corruption scandals in U.S. history. Check out our roundup for more: www.brennancenter.org/our-work/res...

Yesterday, those who teach Intro to Sociology at Florida colleges (as opposed to universities) received a ready-made curriculum from the state and were ordered to teach it.

Yes, you read that correctly. The *state* is enforcing a curriculum on college profs, complete w/ the following restrictions:

Nine Solutions for Political Corruption A new era of anticorruption reform is long overdue.

We need a new way forward. Congress must pass powerful anti-corruption reforms to change the course of the country. www.brennancenter.org/our-work/res...

Pro-Trump Super PAC Raises Record-Breaking $305 Million MAGA Inc. has relied on multimillion-dollar donors to raise an unprecedented amount in support of a lame duck president.

This money is, of course, in addition to the record-breaking haul for a Trump-affiliated super PAC, the White House ballroom, the nation's 250th anniversary celebrations, and so on... www.brennancenter.org/our-work/ana...