In today’s news headlines, a 68-year old man named Robert Darrell Chain was arrested on Thursday by heavily armed FBI officers at his home in Encino, California for threatening violence against reporters at the Boston Globe. Mr. Chain had repeatedly called the offices of the Globe and made threats, echoing President Donald Trump’s exact words, that the media was “the enemy of the people.” He made the threats after the Boston Globe led newspapers around the country to publish a series of coordinated op-eds denouncing Trump’s violent rhetoric aimed at the media precisely because it endangers the lives of journalists in the way that Mr. Chain has done. In one phone call he was reported to have said, “As long as you keep attacking the president, the duly elected president of the United States, in the continuation of your treasonous and seditious acts, I will continue to threaten, harass, and annoy the Boston Globe.” If convicted of his charges he faces 5 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

President Trump’s evangelical advisory board is considered illegal according to an advocacy organization that is mounting a legal challenge. According to the group Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the advisory board of Evangelical Christians that Trump just met with on Monday is likely to violate the Federal Advisory Committee Act. The organization’s CEO Rachel Lasar said, “We are tired of watching him give unprecedented access and influence to one religious group. And we’re tired of the secrecy. We’re asking them to shut down.” According to the Washington Post, “The president’s evangelical advisory board was created during the campaign and has met several times since the election with the president and staff, including this week’s White House dinner. The group has advised White House staff on issues including taxes, health care and judicial appointments, Americans United claims.”

The popular California-based burger chain In-N-Out is under fire from Democrats after it was revealed to have made large contributions to the Republican Party. Eric Bauman, the chair of California’s Democratic Party posted a tweet on Thursday calling for a boycott of the chain saying, “let Trump and his cronies support these creeps.” A public filing shows In-N-Out donated $25,000 to the state Republican party this week. It has supported both Republicans and centrist Democrats in the past.

President Trump on Thursday attempted to explain the reason why White House Counsel Don McGahn was stepping down. In a tweet he said McGahn, “was NOT responsible for me not firing Bob Mueller or Jeff Sessions.” The Washington Post speculated, “did Trump just cop to trying to fire both men?” The paper raised the fact that the tweet is, “something that’s likely to be of interest to Mueller in the obstruction of justice investigation, which reportedly has examined Trump’s efforts to fire Mueller himself.”

Meanwhile a new Washington Post-ABC News poll has found Trump’s disapproval rating at an all-time high of 60%. The poll also

FEATURING MUMIA ABU-JAMAL – He recently recorded this commentary from behind prison walls about Congressional bi-partisanship.

Listen to his commentaries at www.prisonradio.org.

Mumia Abu Jamal is a political prisoner and award winning journalist.

FEATURING MARY ANNE HITT – As part of its on-going project of dismantling public safety protections, the Trump administration is considering rewriting a rule that regulates mercury and other hazardous emissions from coal-powered plants. The Mercury and Air Toxics Standards which were implemented in 2012 have dramatically reduced pollution from dangerous chemicals and protected public health.

The EPA’s own estimation is that the standards prevent up to 11,000 premature deaths, 100,000 asthma and heart attacks, and create up to $90 billion in healthcare benefits annually.

The announcement to rewrite the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards comes just days after Trump’s government announced it would gut the Clean Power Plan, which was President Obama’s signature climate change achievement.

The upshot is that Trump is paying deference to coal – an industry that is already dying a natural death – over the health and well-being of Americans.

For more information vist www.SierraClub.org and www.BeyondCoal.org.

Mary Anne Hitt, Director of Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign.

FEATURING ROBERT WEISSMAN – As Republicans gear up for rushed confirmation hearings next week to install President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, a new report by Public Citizen has analyzed his publicly available judicial record. And the results are worse than we can imagine. In case after case Kavanaugh has sided with business interests over human interests. According to the consumer advocacy group, he, “decided or wrote an opinion against the public interest 87 percent of the time in split-decision cases in five key areas, including consumer, environmental and worker rights cases.”

Meanwhile, progressives are angry that Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer cut a deal with Mitch McConnell to fast track the confirmation of 15 conservative judges ahead of the long weekend so that Senate Democrats running for re-election could have more time to campaign their home districts. They’re calling on Schumer to #WhipTheVote of all his party members in the Senate to oppose Kavanaugh’s confirmation.

Read the full report at www.citizen.org.

Robert Weissman, a public interest advocate and activist and the President of Public Citizen.

The Florida election race for Governor got ugly just a day after Tuesday’s primary election when the white Republican nominee Ron DeSantis made racist remarks against his opponent Andrew Gillum who is African American. This is what DeSantis – who is strongly backed by President Trump – said in an interview on Fox News. 

Gillum was an “articulate spokesman” for “far left views,” and warned voters that, “the last thing we need to do is to monkey this up by trying to embrace a socialist agenda with huge tax increases and bankrupting the state.”

That’s Florida Republican Gubernatorial candidate Ron DeSantis using racist language to refer to his opponent Andrew Gillum in a Fox News interview. President Trump, who is known for his addiction to Fox News claims he had not heard DeSantis’ comments.

A contentious gubernatorial debate in New York between candidates from the same party made waves on Wednesday. Incumbent Governor Andrew Cuomo faced off against progressive favorite and actor-turned-activist Cynthia Nixon. Here is a brief clip of the debate during a particularly tense moment. Cuomo is seeking a third term and has a significant lead over Nixon ahead of the September 13th primary race.

Trump this week said that there would be violence from opponents of the Republican Party if it lost the midterm elections in November. He was asked by reporters on Wednesday what he had meant by a claim he made on Monday at a closed-door meeting with evangelical leaders. At the Monday meeting Trump had reportedly said that if Democrats win, they “will overturn everything that we’ve done and they’ll do it quickly and violently.” On Wednesday he stuck to that script saying vaguely, “I just hope there won’t be violence…If you look at what happens … there’s a lot of unnecessary violence all over the world, but also in this country. And I don’t want to see it.” He did not mention that it is his supporters who are far more likely to be armed with weapons than gun-control supporting Democrats.

Among the policies that Trump and his party fear will be overturned are deregulations of polluting industries. On Wednesday news emerged that the government will propose the rewriting of rules meant to regulate mercury and other hazardous emissions from coal-powered plants. The Mercury and Air Toxics Standards which were implemented in 2012 have dramatically reduced air pollution and protected public health. According to the Environmental Defense Fund, the rules, “ensure 90 percent of the mercury in coal burned in power plants is not released into our air,” and that, “the standards save up to 11,000 lives each year and prevent thousands of heart attacks, asthma and bronchitis attacks, hospital and emergency room visits.”

Education Secretary Betsy Devos is overseeing her own deregulatory agenda. The New York Times on Wednesday obtained a copy of proposed changes to how campuses deal with accusations of rape and sexual assault. The new rules would, “narrow the definition of sexual harassment,

FEATURING ONNESHA ROYCHOUDHURI – As we hurtle toward the midterms elections this November, many Americans who despair of the future of our nation under Donald Trump’s presidency are hoping Democrats will win majorities in both houses of Congress and save the day. But Trump and his party have already done so much damage, rolling back rights and regulations.

As Trump attempts to usher in an era of white-minority rule over an increasingly diverse nation, it is easy to give in to the despair and hope we survive the next couple of years. But a new book urges Americans – at least those of us who reject the notion of ‘alternative facts’ – that we have far more power than we think we do.

Onnesha Roychoudhuri, writer, editor and educator. Her work has been published in Rolling Stone, Boston Review, The Nation, American Prospect, Salon, and Mother Jones. She is the co-founder of Speech/Act, an organization working at the intersection of storytelling and social justice. Her new book is called The Marginalized Majority: Claiming Our Power in a Post-Truth America.

FEATURING BART JOHNSEN-HARRIS – Amid the excitement over Florida’s primary election upsets this week was one singular issue that barely made it into the national news coverage but that has stymied local politicians on the Gulf Coast. And that is the growing infestation of toxic algae blooms off of the Florida coast. So invasive and intense is the algae that marine life, tourism, commercial fishing, and coastal businesses have been deeply impacted.

Florida Governor Rick Scott has received the brunt of blame for not doing enough about the algae. Having reached his term limits as Governor he is challenging Democratic Senator Bill Nelson’s seat and easily won the Republican primary for that race on Tuesday. But critics point out he lost a number of votes to an opponent who barely ran, likely because of his inaction on algae. Both Nelson and Scott blame each other for the damage caused by the algae.

While the algae blooms are a natural phenomenon, they have been fueled by unchecked water pollution.

For more information visit www.environmentamerica.org.

Bart Johnsen-Harris, Clean Water Advocate with Environment America.

Andrew Gillum, the mayor of Tallahassee, Florida, has won the Democratic nomination for Governor, making history as the first Black gubernatorial nominee of a major party in his state. Democrats picked Gillum on Tuesday after Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders had stumped hard for him. According to the Miami Herald, “Running to the left of his rivals and despite being vastly outspent, the charismatic and proudly liberal Gillum built a devoted statewide following of progressives. He had a well-received message of social justice and lifting up the downtrodden and an appeal to Florida’s growing diversity.” Gillum beat former U.S. Rep. Gwen Graham who had initially led the polls and was favored by party leaders to win.

Florida Republicans picked Representative Ron DeSantis, who had been backed by Trump as their party’s nominee for Governor. The race between DeSantis and Gillum in November will be a symbolic battle between Sanders’ and Trump’s approach to American politics. Already Trump jumped into the fray, tweeting on Wednesday morning that Gillum was, “a failed Socialist Mayor.”

Arizonans also went to the polls on Tuesday in their state’s primary race to choose party nominees for a Senate seat being vacated by Jeff Flake, as well as for Governor and two House seats. Representative Martha McSally won the Republican Senate nomination, beating out Kelli Ward and Joe Arpaio, both of whom are loyal to Trump. Arpaio is the former Sheriff of Maricopa County who was convicted by the federal government and controversially pardoned by Trump. Democrats picked Kyrsten Sinema for the Senate nomination, who could beat McSally in November, flipping a crucial Senate seat from Red to Blue.

Arizona’s governor’s races resulted in Doug Ducey winning the GOP’s primary versus David Garcia on the Democratic side. If Garcia wins in November he would be the state’s first Latino Governor in decades, and is a progressive who backs Medicare-for-all.

Canadian trade representatives joined trilateral talks on NAFTA on Tuesday, just a day after US President Trump announced that the US struck a deal with Mexico alone. The announcement came amidst the latest round of talks to redraw the North American Free Trade Agreement. With Canada rejoining talks, it is possible that NAFTA might be saved, but a Friday deadline to do so looms large. According to Reuters, “Ottawa will be under pressure to accept new terms on autos trade, dispute settlement and intellectual property rules after the United States and Mexico agreed on Monday to overhaul [NAFTA].” After today’s news headlines we’ll speak with Patrick Woodall of Food and Water Watch to understand what the latest news on NAFTA means.

The death toll from Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico last year has once more been updated. Gov. Ricardo Rossello updated the official number of dead from 64 to a whopping 2,975. The revision came after an independent study commissioned by the government was conducted. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders used the revised estimate to praise her president’s disaster response saying Trump, “remains proud of all of the work the Federal family undertook to help our fellow citizens in P...

FEATURING ISRAEL CONCHA – Deportations of undocumented people living in the US have risen under Donald Trump. But they were high enough under his predecessor Obama. What happens to the thousands of people who spent decades, or even the majority of their lives in the US and are deported?

Now, one organization in Mexico is attempting to make something positive out of the deportation crisis by offering support for those newly deported people who were forced out of the country they consider home and into a country that may seem foreign.

New Comienzos, which translates into “New Beginnings,” was founded by my guest Israel Concha, and is located in a part of Mexico City called Little LA.

For more information visit www.newcomienzos.org or via Watzzapp at 55-77-33-1436. To donate visit https://gogetfunding.com/newcomienzos/.

Israel Concha, Founder and President of New Comienzos.

FEATURING PATRICK WOODALL – President Donald Trump announced on Monday morning that his administration had negotiated a bilateral trade agreement with Mexico as part of efforts to reconfigure NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement. In a move that appeared to snub Canada – the third nation party to NAFTA – Trump made the surprise announcement saying that Canada could join later, “if they’d like to negotiate fairly.”

Many are urging caution as the bilateral deal between the US and Mexico still has uncertainties including over tariffs that Trump imposed on Mexican steel. The US Congress and lawmakers from Mexico and Canada would still have to vote to ratify any deal to formalize it.

Patrick Woodall, Research Director with Food & Water Watch and Food & Water Action.