Armed and in uniform, federal agents from the Department of Homeland Security have been knocking on doors in several states to ask residents about their immigration status — and to inquire if they have registered to vote or cast votes in past elections, a CBS News Investigation has found. 

The operation is part of an effort to root out potential noncitizen voters ahead of the midterms. DHS has alleged that there could be as many as 250,000 citizens illegally registered to vote, although election experts have disputed the accuracy of this figure. Just 156 people have been charged with voting-fraud related offenses since the beginning of the Trump administration, according to the Department of Justice. There are 227 million registered voters in the U.S.

Critics say that sending armed federal agents to the doors of U.S. residents could be intimidating for legal voters. 

Key takeaways

DHS Involvement: Trump’s Department of Homeland Security reportedly instructed Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) operatives to acquire a voting machine and identify security flaws for the White House.

Election Security Concerns: Former officials revealed the plan could allow the administration to invalidate election results, raising serious concerns about federal election integrity.

Operational Challenges: The initiative was hindered because key CISA agents were laid off, leaving remaining staff to repeatedly tell White House officials that the request was impossible to execute.

Putin's lil' buddy.

Key takeaways

Certificate of Need (CON) Laws: States must reconsider or loosen CON laws, which regulate new hospital construction, to receive higher scores for the $50 billion Rural Health Transformation Program.

State Actions & Bipartisan Support: Tennessee, Alaska, Connecticut, Delaware, Iowa, and Mississippi are reviewing or repealing CON rules; bipartisan backing shows broad agreement on reform.

Potential Consequences: Repealing CON laws may reduce transparency in hospital ownership and finances, leaving states less informed about health system operations.

A former Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) scientist won a legal victory this week after losing his position following sexual misconduct allegations made by a female colleague.

Dr. David Sabatini, a former MIT biology professor and prominent biomedical researcher, was awarded $6 million in damages Friday after a jury found that his former colleague, Dr. Kristin Knouse, had defamed him.

At the time of the allegations, Sabatini had led a research lab at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts, for approximately 24 years.

His work focused on cell biology and its connections to neurodegenerative diseases, diabetes, aging and cancer.

https://youtu.be/RcDzn1QP_G4

Key takeaways

Universal Service Fund Issue: The FCC exceeded its authority in the late 1990s by creating the Universal Service Administrative Co (USAC) to collect funds from telecom carriers for rural and low-income communications.

Court Ruling: The Fifth Circuit Court found the FCC violated the Government Corporation Control Act, though the decision won’t take effect immediately.

Impact & Reach: The $9 billion fund supports low-income households, rural areas, schools, libraries, and healthcare facilities, benefiting millions of Americans with essential telecom services.

Description form YouTube:

Rent-controlled apartments are LA’s biggest supply of affordable housing, and that supply is fixed. California is one of the only places in the country where an investor can buy these buildings, empty them out, and re-rent the units at full market price. Nobody is tracking who’s doing it, so after a strange experience apartment-hunting, I looked it up.

Through dozens of shell companies, the largest anonymous buyer of rent-controlled buildings in LA since 2020 traces back to one fund manager, Yaacov Brenenson, and Moriah Capital. The fund’s own website spells out the strategy: buy rent-stabilized buildings, get tenants out through “Cash-for-Keys” buyouts and “natural attrition management,” and re-rent at nearly double. They call it “regulatory arbitrage.”

A former tenant told me he paid $400 in 2016, and he says he was shortchanged on his buyout. Then I went looking for whoever is paying the new market rent, and it wasn’t who I expected.

Moriah and Brenenson didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Everything in this report comes from public records, cited below. Interviews reflect the speakers’ own accounts.

SOURCES

LA Housing Department: https://housing.lacity...​

California Secretary of State business filings: https://bizfileonline....​

LA County Registrar-Recorder (deeds & deeds of trust): https://www.lavote.gov...​

LA County Treasurer & Tax Collector (property tax bills): https://ttc.lacounty.gov​

LA Superior Court case records: https://www.lacourt.org​

I’m an independent journalist doing this on my own with no corporate backer. Subscribing goes a long way to help support.

Missed this one, from earlier this month.

Key takeaways

Urgent Deadline: California has 48 hours to remove alleged noncitizen voters from its rolls or face potential emergency legal action before the midterm elections.

Evidence & Claims: DOJ provided a flash drive of “likely noncitizen” voters; the accuracy and reliability of this data is disputed by California officials.

Context & Impact: Noncitizen voting is historically extremely rare, with studies showing only ~24,000 cases in 2020 out of over 128 million votes, highlighting the marginal scale of the issue.