FBI never probed ‘confidential' talks between DNC, Clinton campaign George Soros group, bombshell intel files show
The documents revealed that Leonard Benardo and Jeffrey Goldstein — Open Society's regional director and senior policy adviser for Eurasia, respectively — held talks with then-DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz in early 2016 about smearing Trump as well as distracting from the 'growing scandal' surround Clinton's 'possible corruption' as secretary of state.
In a January 2016 memo, the Soros operatives discussed with Wasserman-Schultz the negative fallout from Clinton Foundation donors getting preferential access to Hillary and the 'timely deletion of relevant data from mail servers.'
8 The files revealed that Open Society member Leonard Benardo (above) and Jeffrey Goldstein held talks with then-DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz in early 2016 about smearing Trump.
Open Society Foundation
The year before, the former secretary of state had nixed more than 30,000 emails from a private server. The FBI confirmed in a subsequent investigation that the messages included 'very sensitive, highly classified information,' but no charges were brought.
According to another memo, this one from March 2016, then-President Barack Obama didn't want the controversy to 'darken the final part of his presidency' and apparently tried to pressure his attorney general, Loretta Lynch, to meddle in then-FBI Director James Comey's investigation of the Clinton emails.
'Barack Obama sanctioned the use of all administrative levers to remove possibly negative effects from the FBI investigation of cases related to the Clinton Foundation and the email correspondence in the State Department,' the memo declared.
8 The DNC saw the scandals' threat to Clinton's campaign as 'minimal' and worked on developing a two-pronged counter-attack 'focused on discrediting Trump through debates and propaganda activities.'
Ron Sachs – CNP for NY Post
As a result, the DNC saw the scandals' threat to Clinton's campaign as 'minimal' and worked on developing a two-pronged counter-attack 'focused on discrediting Trump through debates and propaganda activities' — with the help of 'special services.'
Those included either the direct involvement of intelligence agencies or the use of a now-discredited dossier compiled by ex-MI6 spy Christopher Steele, alleging Russian leader Vladimir Putin had blackmail material on Trump.
At the time, the files also disclosed, Lynch was communicating with Clinton campaign political director Amanda Renteria and the Democratic candidate was in the process of discussing a plan with adviser Julianne Smith that Benardo described as 'a long-term affair to demonize Putin and Trump.'
8 Jeff Goldstein appears to have died last year but had been based in Washington, DC, as the senior policy adviser for Eurasia at the organization.
Getty Images
'HRC [Hillary Rodham Clinton] approved Julia's idea about Trump and Russian hackers hampering U.S. elections,' a bombshell July 27, 2016, email from Benardo laid bare the plot. 'That should distract people from her own missing emails. … The point is making the Russian play a U.S. domestic issue.'
Benardo currently serves as senior vice president at Open Society Foundations, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Goldstein's current status is unclear
8 In a January 2016 memo, the Soros operatives discussed with Wasserman-Schultz the negative fallout from the 'timely deletion of relevant data from mail servers.'
Bonnie Cash/UPI/Shutterstock
The memos and other intelligence files were handed over to the Obama FBI, and bureau deputy director Andrew McCabe shared them with senior officials at the Department of Justice — but the information implicating Clinton in the Russiagate scandal was never fully investigated.
Comey later told the Department of Justice's Office of Inspector General he didn't view the intelligence — which had been obtained by Russian hackers — as 'credible.'
Former FBI General Counsel James Baker disagreed and told the DOJ OIG 'how personally bothered he was' by Lynch's interactions with Clinton's campaign, adding that 'he and other FBI executives had great concerns' about evidence in the memos implying Lynch would 'use her position to make sure that Hillary Clinton was not prosecuted.'
8 Special counsel John Durham unearthed the stunning disclosures as part of a multi-year investigation into intelligence efforts surrounding the 2016 election.
Getty Images
Special counsel John Durham unearthed the stunning disclosures as part of a multi-year investigation into intelligence efforts surrounding the 2016 election and maintained in his assessment that the 'Benardo emails were likely authentic.'
When Durham interviewed Benardo, the Open Society employee said 'to the best of his recollection, he did not draft the emails.'
'The [Clinton] campaign might have wanted or expected the FBI or other agencies to aid that effort ('put more oil into the fire') by commencing a formal investigation of the DNC hack [by Russia],' Durham's annex noted.
8 Former FBI Director James Comey later told the Department of Justice's Office of Inspector General he didn't view the intelligence — which had been obtained by Russian hackers — as 'credible.'
REUTERS
'The Office's best assessment is that the … emails that purport to be from Benardo were ultimately a composite of several emails that were obtained through Russian intelligence hacking of the U.S.-based Think Tanks, including the Open Society Foundations, the Carnegie Endowment, and others.'
The CIA determined that the intelligence was also not 'the product of Russian fabrications' as early as 2017.
The FBI received an investigative referral from the CIA related to the Clinton files after an Aug. 3, 2016, meeting at the White House at which Obama, Comey, then-CIA Director John Brennan, Vice President Joe Biden, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper were all present.
8 The memos and other intelligence files were handed over to the Obama FBI, and bureau deputy director Andrew McCabe shared them with senior officials at the Department of Justice.
Getty Images
The information implicating Trump was still 'disseminated through leading U.S. publications,' the intelligence files recounted, as part of 'the first stage of the campaign' by Clinton associates 'due to lack of direct evidence' of Trump's purported collusion with Russia.
Attorney General Pam Bondi, CIA Director John Brennan and FBI Director Kash Patel approved the release of the files Thursday by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa).
'Based on the Durham annex, the Obama FBI failed to adequately review and investigate intelligence reports showing the Clinton campaign may have been ginning up the fake Trump-Russia narrative for Clinton's political gain, which was ultimately done through the Steele Dossier and other means,' Grassley said in a statement.
8 Attorney General Pam Bondi, CIA Director John Brennan and FBI Director Kash Patel approved the release of the files Thursday by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa).
Ron Sachs – CNP for NY Post
'These intelligence reports and related records, whether true or false, were buried for years. History will show that the Obama and Biden administration's law enforcement and intelligence agencies were weaponized against President Trump,' he also said.
'This political weaponization has caused critical damage to our institutions and is one of the biggest political scandals and cover-ups in American history. The new Trump administration has a tremendous responsibility to the American people to fix the damage done and do so with maximum speed and transparency,.
Reps for Clinton did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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San Francisco Chronicle
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- San Francisco Chronicle
What to know about past meetings between Putin and his American counterparts
Bilateral meetings between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his U.S. counterparts were a regular occurrence early in his tenure. But as tensions mounted between Moscow and the West following the illegal annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and allegations of meddling with the 2016 U.S. elections, those became increasingly less frequent, and their tone appeared less friendly. Putin and Joe Biden Putin and Joe Biden met only once while holding the presidency –- in Geneva in June 2021. Russia was amassing troops on the border with Ukraine, where large swaths of land in the east had long been occupied by Moscow-backed forces; Washington repeatedly accused Russia of cyberattacks. The Kremlin was intensifying its domestic crackdown on dissent, jailing opposition leader Alexei Navalny months earlier and harshly suppressing protests demanding his release. Putin and Biden talked for three hours, but no breakthroughs came out of the meeting. The two exchanged expressions of mutual respect, but firmly restated their starkly different views on all of the above. They spoke again via videoconference in December 2021 as tensions heightened over Ukraine. Biden threatened sanctions if Russia invaded Ukraine, and Putin demanded guarantees that Kyiv wouldn't join NATO –- something Washington and its allies said was a nonstarter. Another phone call between the two came in February 2022, less than two weeks before the full-scale invasion. Then the high-level contacts stopped cold, with no publicly disclosed conversations between Putin and Biden since the invasion. Putin and Donald Trump Putin met Trump met six times during the American's first term -– at and on the sidelines of G20 and APEC gatherings — but most famously in Helsinki in July 2018. That's where Trump stood next to Putin and appeared to accept his insistence that Moscow had not interfered with the 2016 U.S. presidential election and openly questioned the firm finding by his own intelligence agencies. His remarks were a stark illustration of Trump's willingness to upend decades of U.S. foreign policy and rattle Western allies in service of his political concerns. 'I have great confidence in my intelligence people, but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today,' Trump said. 'He just said it's not Russia. I will say this: I don't see any reason why it would be.' Putin and Barack Obama U.S. President Barack Obama met with Putin nine times, and there were 12 more meetings with Dmitry Medvedev, who served as president in 2008-12. Putin became prime minister in a move that allowed him to reset Russia's presidential term limits and run again in 2012. Obama traveled to Russia twice — once to meet Medvedev in 2009 and again for a G20 summit 2013. Medvedev and Putin also traveled to the U.S. Under Medvedev, Moscow and Washington talked of 'resetting' Russia-U.S. relations post-Cold War and worked on arms control treaties. U.S. State Secretary Hillary Clinton famously presented a big 'reset' button to Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at a meeting in 2009. One problem: instead of 'reset' in Russian, they used another word meaning 'overload.' After Putin returned to office in 2012, tensions rose between the two countries. The Kremlin accused the West of interfering with Russian domestic affairs, saying it fomented anti-government protests that rocked Moscow just as Putin sought reelection. The authorities cracked down on dissent and civil society, drawing international condemnation. Obama canceled his visit to Moscow in 2013 after Russia granted asylum to Edward Snowden, a former National Security Agency contractor and whistleblower. In 2014, the Kremlin illegally annexed Crimea and threw its weight behind a separatist insurgency in eastern Ukraine. The U.S. and its allies responded with crippling sanctions. Relations plummeted to the lowest point since the Cold War. The Kremlin's 2015 military intervention in Syria to prop up Bashar Assad further complicated ties. Putin and Obama last met in China in September 2016, on the sidelines of a G20 summit, and held talks focused on Ukraine and Syria. Putin and George W. Bush Putin and George W. Bush met 28 times during Bush's two terms. They hosted each other for talks and informal meetings in Russia and the U.S., met regularly on the sidelines of international summits and forums, and boasted of improving ties between onetime rivals. After the first meeting with Putin in 2001, Bush said he 'looked the man in the eye' and 'found him very straightforward and trustworthy,' getting 'a sense of his soul.' In 2002, they signed the Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty -– a nuclear arms pact that significantly reduced both countries' strategic nuclear warhead arsenal. Putin was the first world leader to call Bush after the 9/11 terrorist attack, offering his condolences and support, and welcomed the U.S. military deployment on the territory of Moscow's Central Asian allies for action in Afghanistan. He has called Bush 'a decent person and a good friend,' adding that good relations with him helped find a way out of 'the most acute and conflict situations.' ——
USA Today
a few seconds ago
- USA Today
American Nazis: The Aryan Freedom Network is riding high in Trump era
HOCHATOWN, Oklahoma, Aug 8 (Reuters) - Wearing cargo shorts, flip-flops and a baseball cap shading his eyes from the sun, Dalton Henry Stout blends in easily in rural America. Except for the insignia on his hat. It bears the skull and crossbones of the infamous 'Death's Head' SS units that oversaw Nazi Germany's concentration camps – and the initials 'AFN,' short for Aryan Freedom Network, the neo-Nazi group Stout leads with his partner. From a modest ranch house in Texas, the couple oversee a network they say has been turbocharged by President Donald Trump's return to the White House. They point to Trump's rhetoric — his attacks on diversity initiatives, his hardline stance on immigration and his invocation of 'Western values' — as driving a surge in interest and recruitment. Trump 'awakened a lot of people to the issues we've been raising for years,' Stout told Reuters. 'He's the best thing that's happened to us.' While the Aryan Freedom Network and other neo-Nazi groups remain on the outermost edges of American politics, broadly regarded as toxic by conservatives and mainstream America, they are increasingly at the center of far-right public demonstrations and acts of violence, according to interviews with a dozen members of extremist groups, nine experts on political extremism and a review of data on far-right violence. More: Neo-Nazi leader accused of inspiring school shooting, plotting NYC attack extradited to US Several trends have converged since Trump's re-election, Reuters found. Trump's rhetoric has galvanized a new wave of far-right activists, fueling growth in white supremacist ranks. Trump's pardons of January 6 rioters and a shift in federal law enforcement's focus toward immigration have also led many on the far right to believe that federal investigations into white nationalists are no longer a priority. And the boundaries of the far right itself are shifting. Ideas once confined to fringe groups like the Proud Boys — who helped lead the January 6 siege — are now more visible in Republican politics, from election denialism to rhetoric portraying immigrants as 'invaders.' Trump's public support and pardons for far-right figures helped normalize those views, the researchers said. As the Make America Great Again movement has come to define the party's identity, the line separating the far right from mainstream conservatism has grown increasingly difficult to draw, they added. What was once extreme now blends more easily into the broader far-right, not because those extreme groups have changed, but because the terrain around them has, said Heidi Beirich, co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, a nonprofit that tracks hate speech and extremism. 'A Proud Boy doesn't even seem that scary anymore because of the normalization process,' she said. That shift has coincided with a surge in white nationalist activity. White extremists are committing a growing proportion of U.S. political violence, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data project, a nonprofit research outfit that tracks global conflicts. In 2020, such groups were linked to 13% of all U.S. extremist-related demonstrations and acts of political violence, or 57 of the events ACLED tracked. By 2024, they accounted for nearly 80%, or 154 events. Trump has denied that he supports white extremism, and the White House rejects the notion that his rhetoric promotes racism. More: Crypto's Nazi problem: With few rules to stop them, white supremacists fundraise for hate 'President Trump is a president for all Americans and hate has no place in our country,' White House spokesperson Harrison Fields said in response to questions for this story. 'President Trump is focused on uniting our country, improving our economy, securing our borders, and establishing peace across the globe.' Fields also pointed to a significant rise in support for Trump among Black voters. In last year's election, his share of the Black vote nearly doubled from 2020 to about 15%. Trump has batted away accusations of racism. At a campaign rally last year, he declared, 'I'm not a Nazi. I'm the opposite of a Nazi.' A few months earlier, he told an interviewer that he can't be racist because he has "so many Black friends." Even as he has made inroads with non-white voters, Trump has consistently drawn support from white nationalist and extremist groups while using racially divisive rhetoric. He promoted the false claim that Barack Obama, the nation's first Black president, was not born in the U.S. In his 2024 campaign, he suggested immigrants commit violent crimes because 'it's in their genes,' a remark condemned by many as racist. Stout said his group opposes violence. Yet the Aryan Freedom Network openly advocates preparing for a 'Racial Holy War.' It promotes white superiority ideology, seeks to unify elements of the broader white nationalist movement and actively recruits former members of other extremist groups. More: New blueprint emerges to fight extremism that hits close to home The Trump administration has scaled back efforts to counter domestic extremism, redirecting resources toward immigration enforcement and citing the southern border as the top security threat. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has reduced staffing in its Domestic Terrorism Operations Section . The Department of Homeland Security has cut personnel in its violence prevention office . Some specialists in domestic terrorism say these moves could embolden extremists by weakening U.S. capacity to detect and disrupt threats. The DHS and FBI have defended the cuts, saying they remain committed to fighting domestic terrorism. The FBI said in a statement it allocates resources based on threat analysis and 'the investigative needs of the Bureau,' and that it remains committed to investigating domestic terrorism. 'RACIST ROYALTY' In his first interview with any news organization, Stout met Reuters journalists in April at a restaurant in Hochatown, Oklahoma, a quiet town known for its hiking and fishing about an hour's drive north of their Texas home. He was joined by his partner, who goes by the name Daisy Barr. Stout says AFN is focused on staying within the law. 'We got to watch our Ps and Qs,' he said. Then his tone turned apocalyptic: 'And when the day comes, that will be the day – that's when violence will solve everything.' While he offered no timeline, researchers who study domestic extremism say the comment reflects a strategy among some far-right groups: operate within the law while openly predicting a moment of upheaval. The Aryan Freedom Network first drew national attention in 2021 after organizing a 'White Unity' conference in Longview, Texas. By the following year, it was distributing flyers in cities across the country. One in Texas featured racist caricatures of Black Americans — one swinging from a street lamp amid rubble and an overturned car — alongside the caption: 'At the current rate of decline what will America's major cities look like in ten years?' AFN also began staging protests, often targeting drag events and LGBTQ+ gatherings. Stout says the demonstrations were designed to attract recruits. Its conferences and annual 'Aryan Fests' have become networking hubs for the far right, drawing attendees from groups such as the Ku Klux Klan and other white nationalist organizations, according to two individuals affiliated with those movements. Reuters was unable to independently verify the claim. The pseudoscientific notion of a superior white Aryan race – essentially Germanic – was a core tenet of Hitler's Nazi regime. AFN gatherings brim with Nazi memes: Swastikas are ritually set ablaze and chants of 'white power' echo through the woods. AFN's website pays specific tribute to violent white supremacist groups of the past, including The Order, whose members killed a Jewish radio host in 1984. Two key members responsible for the killing were sentenced to lengthy prison terms and are now deceased. Stout's beliefs are rooted in the Christian Identity movement, which claims that white Europeans, not Jews, are the true Israelites of biblical scripture and therefore God's chosen people. Stout and Barr also claim that Black Americans, under Jewish influence, are leading a Communist revolution — an ideology that fuses racial supremacy with far-right conspiracy theories. Stout, 34, and Barr, 48, were born into self-avowed white supremacist families with deep ties to the Ku Klux Klan, infamous for its white robes, burning crosses and long history of racist violence, including decades of lynchings and terrorist campaigns against Black Americans. As a child, Stout said he attended Klan ceremonies and white nationalist youth camps. He recalls reading translations of SS training manuals from Nazi-era Germany. And while other girls were playing video games, Barr said she was wrapping torches in burlap strips, for secret KKK cross-burning ceremonies. Though they now identify as American Nazis, their ideology is anchored in the KKK and other white extremist groups. Their families are well known to historians of the movement. Stout's father, George Stout, was a 'grand dragon' in the White Knights of Texas, a KKK offshoot. He declined to comment for this story. Barr's late father was a KKK 'grand wizard' from Indiana who was sentenced to seven years in prison for holding two journalists at gunpoint. AFN requires members to use aliases; she chose 'Daisy Barr' after the name of a female Klan leader of the 1920s who sold Klan robes and died in a car crash. One person familiar with the couple described their 2020 marriage as a union of 'racist royalty.' They filed for divorce two years later, but Stout said the split was in name only – a legal move to shield their assets in case they faced civil rights lawsuits like those that once bankrupted the Klan and Aryan Nations, a neo-Nazi group held liable in a 1999 civil suit for inciting violence. Stout and Barr declined to share membership numbers but said AFN now has nearly twice as many chapters as the 23 it claimed in early 2023. The Terrorism Research and Analysis Consortium, a private research group that monitors extremist movements, estimates AFN's members have grown to between 1,000 and 1,500. 'We collect and record every event of theirs,' said TRAC researcher Muskan Sangwan. Some of the earliest chapters, including those in Texas, likely began with around 100 members each, Sangwan said, suggesting the group may have had roughly 200 members in its initial stages. Chris Magyarics, a senior researcher at the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish advocacy organization that monitors antisemitic harassment, said he was skeptical AFN was so big but said he had no independent data on its size. 'The previous largest neo-Nazi group only had a couple of hundred,' he said, referring to the National Socialist Movement, which has been in steady decline. Reuters was unable to independently establish the extent of AFN's membership. Despite the uncertainty over its numbers, AFN is on the radar screens of independent researchers. Jon Lewis, a research fellow specializing in domestic extremism at George Washington University's Program on Extremism, said the group has been 'really popular' among far-right 'accelerationists,' a term used by white supremacists who advocate violence to hasten a race war. Stout said his group has benefited from the decline of the Proud Boys following the Capitol attack. Once prominent for street clashes during the Trump administration, the Proud Boys have faced legal setbacks and public scrutiny since many of its members were convicted – and later pardoned by Trump – for their roles in the January 6 Capitol riots. The group describes its ideology as 'Western chauvinism.' Critics say the group uses the term 'Western' rather than 'white' to veil its racism, a charge the Proud Boys' defenders deny. Stout described groups like the Proud Boys as 'civic nationalists' – movements that draw in followers with patriotic rhetoric, then serve as stepping stones toward more overtly racist organizations like AFN or the Klan. 'A lot of newbies, new people to the movement, join that type of movement before they join us,' Stout said. Reuters was unable to reach a Proud Boy representative for comment. WEAPONS AND RACE WAR Although Stout said the Aryan Freedom Network rejects violence, firearms and tactical training remain central to its identity and feature prominently in its gatherings and recruitment efforts, according to a review of federal court records. One former member, Andrew Munsinger, built and traded semi-automatic AR-15 rifles and other weapons, using a machine shop to fabricate untraceable parts, according to an FBI affidavit filed in federal court. He boasted to other AFN members of stockpiling ammunition and constructing explosive devices, and claimed to have pointed a shotgun at a sleeping prosecutor, the affidavit said. Munsinger, who went by the alias 'Thor,' was arrested last year in Minneapolis on federal charges of illegally possessing firearms. As a convicted felon, he was barred under federal law from owning weapons. He attended at least five AFN events in one year, the FBI said. Agents described him as an adherent of accelerationism, which seeks to provoke a race war through violence. AFN is 'an umbrella organization for other white-supremacist organizations,' the affidavit said. Documents relating to Munsinger's case, including testimony from an FBI informant who infiltrated the group, offer a glimpse inside its operations: firearms training across several states, encrypted communications focused on weapons, a recruitment event at a lakeside bar in Ohio, and new members building timber swastikas in a ritualistic initiation. Stout said he disavowed Munsinger, who was convicted by a federal jury in April of illegally possessing firearms and ammunition, as well as trafficking marijuana. He is awaiting sentencing. Munsinger and his attorney did not respond to requests for comment. Stout said his network has links to the Klan, which has splintered and shrunk dramatically since its peak a century ago. In May, Reuters attended a modern-day Klan ceremony held in a clearing deep within the woods on private land in northeastern Kentucky. William Bader, leader of the Trinity Knights, a small Klan faction, donned a purple silk robe and conical hood as he presided over the swearing in of about half a dozen heavily tattooed new members. In an interview, Bader said Trump has energized the white nationalist movement. 'White people,' he said, 'are finally seeing something going their way for once.' Bader said he had previously attended an AFN event without elaborating. Steve Bowers, another Klan official at the ceremony, which didn't involve AFN, said he isn't a fan of Trump because of his administration's close ties with Israel. But he said many white nationalists are fully behind the president. 'People think he's going to save the white race in America,' said Bowers, dressed in a white KKK robe and hood, decorated with two blood crosses on the chest. The Klan once claimed as many as six million members in the 1920s. It had dwindled to an estimated 2,000 to 3,000 members across 72 chapters by 2015, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit that tracks extremist groups. More recent figures are unavailable, a research analyst at the center said. AFN has adopted certain tactics and rituals of the Klan, including widespread distribution of racist flyers. AFN's flyers have appeared in multiple cities and towns, from Florida to Washington state, according to police reports. Stout and Barr said they view them as a recruitment tool. Police in West Bend, Wisconsin, said hundreds of flyers targeting immigrants were distributed in May. One flyer found in the Wisconsin village of Mukwonago read, 'Tired of being discriminated against because you're white? Join.' Stout said members are instructed to distribute flyers at night — what he calls 'night rides,' echoing the Klan's term for its historic terrorism campaigns against Black people. In another echo of the Klan, its signature cross burnings, swastikas are set alight at AFN gatherings. In an AFN video posted online, Stout stands on the bed of a pickup truck, masked and flanked by armed guards, arm raised in a Nazi salute. 'White power!' he shouts in a hoarse Texas drawl, wearing a chest rig for rifle magazines. His audience returns the Nazi salute. 'White Power!' they call out. At the restaurant in Oklahoma, asked why he believes his group is gaining momentum, Stout offered a simple explanation. 'Our side won the election,' he said. (Additional reporting by Jim Urquhart in Oklahoma and Kentucky, and by Jana Winters and Ted Hesson in Washington. Editing by Jason Szep)
USA Today
a few seconds ago
- USA Today
Sex toys, crypto and the WNBA
Happy Friday!🙋🏼♀️ I'm Nicole Fallert. Poppy the axolotl found a new home. WNBA sex toy incidents started by Crypto meme coin group Cryptocurrency meme coin creators say they are responsible for the sex toys being thrown at multiple WNBA games, and they are planning more "pranks." You read that correct: From Atlanta to Los Angeles, no arena has been safe from neon green objects whizzing from the stands, through the air and onto WNBA courts. What to know about Trump's proposed census President Donald Trump announced his intention to "immediately begin work on a new" census, raising questions about whether the plan would be constitutional and how it would affect the partisan makeup of Congress. His announcement came amid Texas Republicans' efforts to perform an unusual mid-decade redrawing of congressional maps, which are normally drawn after the census determines the number of seats in each state's delegation at the beginning of each new decade. Political experts told USA TODAY Republicans want to draw new congressional districts, so they might be able to mitigate the number of seats they lose. More news to know now What's the weather today? Check your local forecast here. IndyCar dragged into controversy with Trump administration's ICE car, 'Speedway Slammer' About 70 miles north of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, home of the Indianapolis 500, a new immigration detention center got a noteworthy and controversial name: 'The Speedway Slammer." In a social media post, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Kristi Noem published an image of an Indy car driving past a prison emblazoned with the letters ICE — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement — and No. 5, which belongs to NTT IndyCar Series driver Pato O'Ward, the only Mexican in the Indy 500 and the series this year. The Speedway Slammer joins "Alligator Alcatraz,'' a detention center in Florida that marked the only other partnership with a state to expand ICE detention capacity. One man's journey to reclaim family land in the American South Heirs' property is usually defined as land handed down without clear, official documentation. Over the course of the 20th century, Black Americans lost roughly 80% of the property they owned at the peak of ownership a few decades after the Civil War because of theft and systemic injustices. How hard could it be to "not lose" several dozen acres of land? In a nation where the scars of slavery and racialized violence still loom, pretty hard, as it turns out. Researchers estimate that between 1865 and 1910, Black Americans acquired 15 million acres of land. But by 2001, an estimated 80% of it had been lost. Read Georgia man Saul Blair's story, the first in a two-part USA TODAY series, "The Heir's Property." Today's talkers Don't want Insta followers seeing your location? Instagram's new feature shows users' current locations, prompting some to worry their location will suddenly be shared on the platform. While location services already existed on the app through the tagging option on posts and stories, some social media users raised concerns about Meta's new map feature that shows a user's last active location. A user's location is updated whenever they open the app or return to the app if it's been running in the background, per Meta. Here's how to turn Instagram map location sharing on and off. Photo of the day: Calling all pommel horse fans Missing last summer's Olympics? Get your gymnastics fix this weekend as the U.S. gymnastics championships kick off in New Orleans. Is Simone Biles competing? Nicole Fallert is a newsletter writer at USA TODAY, sign up for the email here. Want to send Nicole a note? Shoot her an email at NFallert@
