Thursday, October 29, 2026 · Evening Edition

Today

By StaffNews Desk

Good morning. The Justice Department has issued grand jury subpoenas to California officials, escalating its claim that the state may have as many as 20,000 non-citizens registered to vote; ABC reports the subpoenas hit local election officials as part of a probe into the state's voter rolls. A federal judge gave the government until noon Friday to disclose which states received letters pressing them to hunt for voter fraud. Trump himself simply called the Alaska Senate race voter fraud. The fraud narrative is the pretext; federal power is the weapon.

That weapon points at the administration's enemies. Trump has spent the pre-midterm stretch siccing the Department of Justice on his Black, female political opponents. Republican John Nagel demanded Rep. Ilhan Omar release her immigration files amid a federal investigation; Trump, at a Texas rally, mocked her citizenship: "She goes, 'I have constitutional rights.' The arrogance,". Even his own aren't spared: the IRS has accused Rick Jackson, the Trump-backed Republican nominee for Georgia governor, of manipulating his company's taxes.

At the Pentagon, defense secretary Pete Hegseth reportedly dismissed Lt Gen Brett Sylvia, a high-ranking army strategist on the joint staff, over alleged leaks, with the case referred to the justice department for criminal investigation.

The same state menacing its critics is quietly dismantling care. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is recruiting new members to revive a dormant CDC vaccine advisory panel, while CMS is proposing heavy restrictions on traditional Medicare enrollees' remote monitoring devices that would hit rural seniors. In Texas, a court order exposed the Republican Women's Caucus Fund and John Braun behind texts posing as resources for transgender students. Pennsylvania's competitive House races could hinge on who voters blame for high prices, and a US-brokered ceasefire in occupied Oleshky held for a third day even as Russia struck elsewhere in Ukraine.