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Trump Fascist Government Will Stage Jan 3 Attempted Coup 2
THE COMING CRISISThe Final Battle for America’s Democracy
newrepublic.com/article/215198/2027-new-congress-final-battle-american-democracy
Michael Luttig/September 10 2026
THE COMING CRISISThe Final Battle for America’s Democracy
Forget November 3. It’s January 3 when Donald Trump and his MAGA Republicans might bury our democracy once and for all.
Here’s how.
Donald Trump instigated a war against America’s democracy on January 6 2021. He and his Republican allies would have crippled America’s democracy that day had his own vice president not refused to be party to the gravest constitutional offense a president can commit—the refusal to relinquish and peacefully transfer the power of the presidency to his duly elected successor.00:0303:12Read MoreToday almost six years later Donald Trump and his Republican congressional allies are even more determined to prosecute the president’s war against American democracy to its catastrophic end than they were on January 6 2021.That catastrophic end could well come on January 3 2027 when Trump and his Republican congressional allies wage the final battle in Trump’s determined war to corrupt America’s democracy and deliver a lasting political victory over the Democrats for his MAGA Republican Party.Trump and his Republican allies have been preparing for this final battle since January 6 2021. For the past six years they have embarrassed themselves and the U.S. with their preposterous win-at-any-cost denial that Trump lost the 2020 presidential election and their deceitful slander of America’s democracy. Since his return to the White House Trump’s every unconstitutional act in his effort to seize control over the midterm elections—each hailed by his prostrate Republican Congress—has been toward the end of ensuring that Republicans retain a majority in the 120th Congress.Trump told talk show host Dan Bogino on February 2 “The Republicans should say ‘We want to take over. We should take over the voting.’… The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting.’” The Republicans have dutifully fallen in line.Before Donald Trump arrived it was the Republicans who professed to stand for the Constitution principle truth honesty integrity—even honor. Republicans were the proud party of Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan. It was our party that could be expected to put country before party when the time came as when Barry Goldwater and other party elders told Richard Nixon in 1974 that it was time to resign the presidency. That was then. None of this is true of today’s Republican Party and this Republican Congress. So enthralled with the forty-seventh president are today’s House Republicans that they long ago abandoned everything the Republican Party has stood for since its founders first met in Ripon Wisconsin in 1854.Today’s congressional Republicans took a blood oath six years ago not just to put their party before their country but to put Donald Trump before their country. And so it is that only weeks before the midterm elections House Republicans have already sworn their allegiance to Donald Trump and doomed the U.S. to another January 6 next January 3.So unalterably subjugated to Trump is today’s Republican House that even a decisive victory for Democrats and a resounding repudiation of Trump and the MAGA Republicans at the polls in November will not guarantee that a Democratic majority-elect will be seated in the 120th Congress on January 3.All year long Trump has been dragooning House Speaker Mike Johnson and the congressional Republicans into prejudging as fraudulent the upcoming November elections of the presumed Democratic majority as he himself has already prejudged those elections. His dragooning appears to have worked. House Republicans are now poised to claim that the midterm elections were stolen from them when they meet on January 3 to decide which members-elect will be seated in the 120th Congress.Over the past year and a half since his return to the White House Trump has exploited every conceivable unlawful means possible to rig the midterm elections in favor of the Republicans and the federal courts have struck down as unconstitutional every one of these unlawful attempts. He will try every unlawful means over the remaining weeks to ensure that Republicans handily win the midterm elections in November. Those of us who oppose his illegality will look to the courts but the federal courts will be institutionally incapable of checking his final unlawful rampage.Trump punctuated his expressed intent to interfere in the midterm elections eight weeks ago in a national prime-time address on “election integrity” accusing the Democrats and the Chinese in particular of threatening the free and fair elections in November. In that address he claimed without evidence or support (as usual) that the 2026 midterm elections were being threatened by noncitizen voting weaknesses in voter registration systems foreign interference and vulnerabilities in electronic voting systems.The concocted address was universally panned as purely partisan devoid of evidence and support and anticipatory of his forthcoming claim in November that the Democrats won a majority in the House of Representatives only because of fraud in their respective elections.Everyone knows that the greatest threat to the upcoming midterm elections is not the Democrats or the Chinese noncitizen voting or electronic voting machines but the president of the United States and his servile Republican Congress.Every member of Congress takes a solemn oath to support and defend the Constitution an oath that obligates them to honor the will of the American electorate. It is a sacred imperative that the Congress of the United States must defend our constitutional right to choose our representatives to Congress against all enemies domestic as well as foreign who would deny us this fundamental right.There was a time not long ago when virtually every member of Congress could be expected to commit to the peaceful transfer of congressional power in advance of an election just as every president could be expected to commit to the peaceful transfer of presidential power. But those times came to an abrupt end upon Donald Trump’s arrival in January 2017. In a damning indictment of the president and today’s congressional Republicans it would be hard to find even one congressional Republican with the integrity sense of duty to country honor and courage to put America above the Republican Party let alone above Donald Trump.Yet America’s only hope for saving its democracy and avoiding another crippling constitutional crisis on January 3 is for the House Republicans to decide that they are not going to betray their oaths and their country one last time for Donald Trump and telegraph to Trump and Mike Johnson that any unconstitutional plan they might be contriving to deny Democratic members-elect their rightful seats in the 120th Congress would be dead on arrival January 3.If there are any such Republicans in the Congress today they should announce well before November 3 that they will not be party to Trump’s and Johnson’s attempt to steal the midterm elections from the American people.In fact the House members of both political parties should stand united before November 3 and affirm to the American people that in the United States of America government derives its just powers from the consent of “We the People”—the governed. They should campaign in the fall on any refusal by their political opponents to affirm the same. Their political opponents should in turn campaign on House members’ refusal to affirm that they will not be complicit in any attempt to steal the midterm elections.Standing united before the midterm elections against any attempt by Trump and Johnson to overturn those elections would go a long way toward restoring Americans’ lost trust in their Congress and their government. It would send a powerful message to Trump and Johnson that Americans will never again be forced by their own government to endure another January 6.While it is small solace Americans are not entirely at the mercy of this Republican Congress to suddenly decide to honor its oath to the Constitution and the American people. It will be the Supreme Court not Trump Johnson or even the House of Representatives that will have the final word as to who will be seated in the 120th Congress of the United States.Article I Section 5 Clause 1 of the Constitution provides that “Each House shall be the Judge of the Elections Returns and Qualifications of its own Members.” Under Clause 1 the House of Representatives is the “judge” of its “elections” and “returns.” But the House’s power is not plenary. The Constitution constrains how the House can exercise its power to refuse to seat members-elect. Indeed in 1969 in Powell v. McCormack the Supreme Court ensured that the House constitutionally exercised its power to “judge the qualifications” of members-elect when it ordered the seating of New York Representative Adam Clayton Powell who had won reelection in 1966 despite a House vote to refuse to seat him. Just as the court intervened then so also will the Supreme Court ensure that the House exercises its power to “judge” its “elections” and “returns” within the limits imposed by the Constitution. At least we hope it will but can we be sure with this court?Whether the House constitutionally exercises its power not to seat members-elect will ultimately be determined by the federal courts and the Supreme Court—not by a majority vote of the House of Representatives.This is how the crisis would unfold. The precursor of the crisis will come sometime before noon on January 3 when Speaker Johnson removes current House Clerk Kevin McCumber and replaces him with a person loyal to Johnson and House Republicans who they know will refuse to list on the statutory roll of representatives-elect to the 120th Congress any Democrat-elect whom Johnson and the Republicans direct him or her not to list. Under Rule II Clause 1 of the Rules of the House the Speaker of the House has the unilateral power to remove the incumbent clerk and then the power under Title 2 U.S.C. § 5501(a) to replace him temporarily with whomever he wishes until the House elects a successor. McCumber is a Republican appointed by former Speaker Kevin McCarthy. He is widely respected for his integrity and faithful adherence to the Constitution and is reputed to be unwilling to carry out orders he considers to be unconstitutional.The first moment of constitutional crisis will come when sometime before the 120th Congress has been gaveled into session the loyal temporary clerk refuses to list Democrat representatives-elect on the clerk’s roll of representatives-elect that determines who may participate in organizing the new Congress. At that moment interested members-elect and others will be forced to seek a writ of mandamus—a court order to a government official instructing him or her to perform a mandatory duty—from the federal court to the temporary clerk ordering him or her to list on the clerk’s roll all members-elect who have been certified by the states as having been elected from their districts to the new Congress.Members-elect will argue that the clerk has a ministerial duty under 2 U.S.C. § 26 to list all representatives-elect whose properly filed state certifications show that they were “regularly elected in accordance with the laws of his state or of the United States.” Because the clerk has no authority to omit any duly certified representative-elect even if a representative-elect’s election is contested the clerk unquestionably has a ministerial duty under law to list all duly certified representatives-elect. But this begs the question whether a court will issue the writ of mandamus to the acting clerk.At first blush a court will be reluctant to order the clerk to list all duly certified representatives-elect because of an instinctive belief that such an order would interfere with the constitutional process of the House to judge its own elections and returns. The wise and learned judge however will understand that rather than interfering with the House process issuance of the writ will actually enable the House process to proceed to completion without judicial interference. Were that wise and learned judge to issue the writ his or her order would immediately be appealed to the Court of Appeals and from that court to the Supreme Court while the country and the world wait in suspense.The next moment of constitutional crisis will come if and when after appeals the court finally issues the writ of mandamus and the clerk refuses to obey the court’s order to list the Democratic representatives-elect. At that point it is possible there will be no further federal court involvement until such time as the 120th Congress officially convenes and votes not to seat representatives-elect. Then that vote by the 120th Congress will be immediately reviewable by the federal courts up to and including the Supreme Court of the United States.Judicial review of the House’s decision not to seat Democratic representatives-elect in the 120th Congress would take weeks if not months during which time the United States would be in the throes of a paralyzing constitutional crisis helplessly vulnerable to all the world’s evil as it would have been in January 2021 had Mike Pence not thwarted Donald Trump’s plan to overturn the 2020 presidential election.It is not difficult to imagine the many possibilities some of the most critical being entirely realistic. It would be the ideal moment for China to move against Taiwan by way of military blockade attack or even invasion. It would be the perfect moment for Vladimir Putin to complete his conquest of Ukraine and perhaps even to move militarily against Estonia. Every passing day could bring a deepening economic crisis worsened by our angry allies around the world who would welcome the opportunity to requite Donald Trump for his belittling mockery of their countries and presidents. Without the Congress the United States would be powerless to respond to any of these crises.The House has historically claimed that its decision not to seat a member-elect because of fraud or irregularities in the elections is unreviewable by the federal courts. But its decision is reviewable. The Constitution unquestionably requires the House to seat a member-elect who was validly elected in a free and fair election. The Article 1 Section 5 power of the House to be the judge of its elections and returns does not give the House the power to deny a seat in the Congress of the United States to a candidate elected by the American people in a free and fair election on the mere assertion pretextual or otherwise by a simple majority of the House that the candidate’s election was tainted by fraud.Thus on and after January 3 if congressional Republicans were to determine that a Democratic member-elect was elected because of fraudulent voting and refuse to seat him or her that determination would be scrutinized by the federal courts up to and including the Supreme Court.It will never be a nonjusticiable political question whether the United States House of Representatives by simple majority vote can refuse to seat a member elected to Congress by the American people in a free and fair election on the pretextual and unsupported assertion that the member-elect’s election was tainted by fraud. Such is the very opposite of a nonjusticiable political question committed to the House of Representatives. For in the decision of this question lies the answer to perhaps the most fundamental question under the Constitution: Is the United States of America a democracy in which “We the People” elect our representatives to the Congress and to the presidency or is it not?I don’t intend to be overly sanguine about this Supreme Court. This is the court that shattered the one constitutional truth in the U.S. since 1789 that “no man is above the law” and placed Donald Trump of all presidents above the law in Trump v. United States. This is the court that betrayed the Constitution by refusing even to decide whether Trump was disqualified from the presidency under the Fourteenth Amendment because of his insurrection against the Constitution which he clearly was. This is also the court that has cynically authorized Trump’s lawlessness for the past two years through its aptly named “shadow docket” without so much as briefing argument or written opinion.But surely by now this court must understand what it has wrought for the U.S. and the Constitution and is aghast as we all are even if it is not penitent. Surely surely it will understand the signal moment in American constitutional history that would be presented and this time understand its supreme obligation to the nation.Between now and November 3 congressional Republicans would do well to ponder one last time the fate of their Republican Party were the Supreme Court of the United States to reverse a fraudulent determination by the 120th Republican Congress not to seat Democratic members-elect who would give the Democrats majority control of the House.Two hundred and fifty years into the greatest experiment in self-government in the history of the world the Republican Party would finally meet the fate to which it has been destined since January 6 2021 and cement its place in history as the most corrupt political party ever to emerge in the United States of America for its second attempt in six years to defy the will of the American people on Election Day.If we Americans are to save our democracy from the forty-seventh president and his MAGA Republican Party we must disenthrall ourselves from our political bondage to Donald Trump and MAGA as Abraham Lincoln urged the nation in 1863 to disenthrall itself from its bondage to the ruinous political dogmas of its time. “We must disenthrall ourselves and then we shall save our country” the sixteenth president admonished. The Republican Party in particular must finally loose the chains of its political and moral enslavement to Donald Trump and separate itself from the MAGA political party cult.The writing is already on the wall Republicans.
The Final Battle for America’s Democracy
newrepublic.com
Forget November 3. It’s January 3 when Donald Trump and his MAGA Republicans might bury our democracy once and for all. Here’s how.
As the coast begins to crumble, the clock ticks on moving San Onofre’s radioactive waste
www.latimes.com/environment/story/2026-09-12/as-coast-begins-to-crumble-clock-ticks-on-moving-san…
A view of decommissioning work at San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station in San Clemente.
A view of decommissioning work around San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station reactor containment domes in San Clemente on Aug. 21. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
By Blanca Begert
Staff Writer
Photography by Allen J. Schaben
Sept. 12, 2026 3 AM PT
Storm-driven erosion exposes vulnerability of California coast , reviving questions about keeping 3.6 million pounds of radioactive waste just 100 feet from the Pacific at decommissioned San Onofre nuclear power plant.
Utility officials insist seawalls and steel canister storage system can withstand tsunamis, quakes and rising seas for decades, even as scientists warn of hazards of storing nuclear waste indefinitely in a seismically active area next to the ocean.
With Yucca Mountain effectively cancelled, federal officials promote new “campus” storage sites in Utah and other states, promising jobs and consent-based siting while communities debate becoming America’s long-term nuclear waste repository.
As parts of the Southern California coastline crumbled into the sea, slammed by intense waves and flooding in recent days, oceanographer Kim McCoy had one thing on his mind: the nuclear waste set in concrete on the beach near San Clemente at the shuttered San Onofre nuclear power plant.
“Rising sea levels, storm waves, El Niño which increases wave height … these could wash away a section of the walkway that protects the San Onofre seawall and the waste canisters are just 100 feet away from that,” the former wave dynamics researcher and longtime advocate against beach storage of nuclear waste said.
Most experts agree the risk of erosion damaging the nuclear waste storage system is extremely low, in the near term. The plant’s owner, Southern California Edison, has promised the California Coastal Commission to move the waste to higher elevation on site if modeling shows sea level rise and erosion will start to pose a challenge.
But the recent waves, fueled by Hurricane Marie far away in the Pacific, re-surfaced the issue of the ultimate fate of the highly radioactive spent fuel that used to power the reactors.
“At the moment, it is under control, I think it’s essential to say that,” said James Day, a geology professor at UC San Diego. “But geologically we must be thinking long term. The waste lasts for hundreds, if not thousands of generations.”
1 Rows of round concrete vaults, each holding a canister of used nuclear fuel, sit underground at the Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation at the former San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station.
2 San Clemente, CA – Indep
3 San Clemente, CA – Aug. 21, 2
1. Rows of round concrete vaults, each holding a canister of used nuclear fuel, sit underground at the Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation at the former San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station. 2. Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation (ISFSI) where dry cask storage of used nuclear fuel is stored horizontally at the decommissioning San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station. 3. A photograph above the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station hangs on the wall of a conference room at the facility.
Seen from I-5, the twin domes of San Onofre look like they’re part of an operating facility. Red lights flash at the top of each sphere, visible from afar, amid the chaparral and military buildings of Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton.
But go behind the security checkpoint and you see a demolition site. Trailers and tents now sit where acres of office buildings, steam turbines, diesel generators, control rooms, cooling pools and water treatment plants have been knocked down and hauled away, since a scandal involving faulty steam generators shut the plant down in 2013.
Most of the rubble, which is only mildly radioactive or not at all, has already been sent to sites in Utah, Texas and Arizona.
The iconic twin domes that once housed the reactor cores will start coming down early next year. But the 3.6 million pounds of high-level waste will stay in the coastal community indefinitely.
How much of a safety hazard that is depends on whom you ask.
“San Onofre is sitting on some fairly young rocks in a seismically active region,” Day said at a recent symposium at the Scripps Seaside Forum in La Jolla, hosted by the Samuel Lawrence Foundation. “This is not the sort of place you would leave nuclear waste.”
Others noted that collapse of beach slopes could make the site more vulnerable to tsunamis. They spoke of the corrosive effects of the ocean air on the steel canisters that hold the waste.
A model display of a nuclear fuel assembly.
Manuel Camargo, principal manager, strategic planning, San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, talks about nuclear waste storage with a model of a nuclear fuel assembly in the background on Aug. 21 in San Clemente. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
“They could be doing more monitoring,” Greg Jaczko, former head of Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said of Edison. The utility tracks air temperature and radioactivity, checks canisters for cracks on the outside and inspects test canisters that mimic the active waste ones for signs of degradation.
They say their system will be safe for decades to come.
“The maximum credible tsunami here would not even overtake the seawall,” said Manuel Camargo, principal manager of decommissioning for Edison, standing on the concrete pad that holds the steel waste storage canisters. “The maximum credible earthquake, somewhere around a 7.0 magnitude, would produce something about half of what this system is designed to withstand.”
As he spoke, just in front of the plant, surfers were catching waves. He pointed out where Edison is bolstering a path below the sea wall. Based on state data from the California Ocean Protection Council, the sea wall would not be inundated before 2050, Camargo said. “It’s an extremely robust system.”
Rows of round concrete vaults, each holding a canister of used nuclear fuel.
Rows of round concrete vaults, each holding a canister of used nuclear fuel. The system, built into the bluff above the Pacific Ocean, holds dozens of canisters of radioactive waste and is designed to withstand fire, flood and tsunami.
Yet despite confidence in its protective measures, even the utility wants the waste out of there as soon as possible. Because this status quo is expensive.
From 1982 through 2014, Edison customers, like many ratepayers around the country, paid into a federal fund for a promised permanent nuclear waste storage site. But plans for a deep geological repository beneath Yucca Mountain in Nevada crumbled in the face of local pushback in 2011.
Utilities around the U.S. now sue the federal government every year to recoup their storage expenses because the Department of Energy has not come through on its promise. The lawsuits cost taxpayers $2 million a day, according to Camargo.
“It’s so safe that it’s almost a problem,” Camargo said. “It’s not a priority to a lot of folks to move it.”
1 San Clemente, CA – A
2 San Clemente, CA – A ca
3 San Clemente, CA – A cauti
1. A caution: radioactive material sign is posted as Kevin Sheek, senior advisor for Emergency Planning, San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, gives a tour of the Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation (ISFSI) . 2. An estimated 5,000 rail cars wait to be loaded to haul away dismantled plant materials. 3. The plant is located on an 84-acre site on the Pacific coast within the boundaries of the Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton in San Diego County.
Camargo, like so many in the nuclear power industry, is hanging his hopes on a new idea. The Trump administration’s Department of Energy wants to create “campuses” in several states to store waste, and in exchange, give local jurisdictions funding to develop different aspects of the nuclear cycle — like fuel creation, power generation and potentially fuel recycling.
The administration wants to address the fact that waste is sitting at 80 reactor sites around the country. It also needs places for waste from new reactors it wants to build. Several states including California have bans on new nuclear power until there is permanent federal storage. Some state leaders are trying to make an exception for small modular reactors such as the one the Port of Long Beach wants to build on a floating barge offshore.
For the record:
4:45 p.m. Sept. 12, 2026A previous version of this article listed Indiana as one of the five potential states to host nuclear waste campuses. The fifth state is actually Louisiana.
The Energy Department announced in July that it had signed memoranda of understanding with Utah, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Idaho and Louisiana to explore their potential as campus hosts. Congressman Scott Peters and Mike Levin, whose district includes San Onofre, support this idea, and Camargo said Edison was in discussions with Utah and Tennessee about how it can help.
Other efforts to create nuclear waste storage facilities since Yucca Mountain have floundered. But boosters of the campus idea say this will be different, since the plan draws on principles of “consent-based siting” developed under the Obama administration and offers money and jobs.
“The community engagement piece has been central to our entire strategy, and we’re giving the community these options and funding to win,” said Tim Kowalchik, research director at Utah’s Office of Energy Development.
Others in Utah disagree, indicating it could be a long road to community buy-in. “What we’re seeing still is very limited community engagement and transparency about these proposed plans,” said Carmen Valdez, radioactive program manager with the nonprofit Heal Utah. “Our communities have always said no to becoming a waste site. We don’t want to be the toilet bowl of the nation.”
A man points to decommissioning work during a tour of a nuclear waste storage facility.
Kevin Sheek points to decommissioning work around reactor containment domes during a tour of the nuclear waste storage facility. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
Finland is the country furthest along in building a deep, permanent geological storage for nuclear fuel. It will soon place canisters thousands of feet underground in stable rock formations and seal them off forever. Sweden has also broken ground on a facility, and Switzerland and Canada have chosen sites.
Camacho and lawmakers are optimistic that the U.S. can create something similar, and remove the waste from San Onfre in 10 to 15 years. If not, in 2103, when the site’s earliest canisters’ approach their intended 100-year lifespans, the utility may have to start transferring the fuel into new ones.
Nurses Across US & The Globe Demand Hospitals Cut Ties With Palantir, Citing ICE and Gaza
National Nurses United is expanding its campaign against Palantir in a global week of action starting on September 28.
truthout.org/articles/nurses-across-us-demand-hospitals-cut-ties-with-palantir-citing-ice-and-gaza/
By Shireen Akram-Boshar , TRUTHOUT
PublishedSeptember 11, 2026
Health Workers for a Free Palestine picket military intelligence company Palantir on December 21, 2023 in London, England.
GUY SMALLMAN / GETTY IMAGES
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National Nurses United (NNU), the largest union of registered nurses in the U.S., is demanding that hospitals cut ties with Palantir, with nurses citing the firm’s role in developing technology used to surveil immigrants in the U.S. and target civilians in Gaza.
The union – which represents more than 225,000 nurses in all 50 U.S. states — has announced a global week of action against Palantir, set to begin on September 28.
Palantir’s “AI-powered tools for large-scale data collection and mass surveillance… threaten human rights globally,” the union said in a press release announcing the campaign.
The global week of action is aimed at pushing all public institutions — including hospitals and other health care providers — to end contracts and partnerships with Palantir, and to divest from the company, the union said.
The global week of action builds on a national day of action, also led by the union, which saw demonstrations in eight cities across the U.S. on August 27, including in Portland, Maine; Washington, D.C.; Chicago; Austin; and Los Angeles.
Palantir Paid No Federal Income Tax. Its Global Tax Rate Is Just 1.4 Percent.
The infamous surveillance company paid $22.7 million in global corporate taxes while raking in $1.6 billion in profits.
By Brett Wilkins , COMMONDREAMSAugust 7, 2026
The global week of action is also coordinated with health care workers in the U.K., where National Health Service (NHS) workers and activists will protest Palantir’s use in health care on October 1. Other organizations, like Amnesty International and the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) Movement, are also part of the global week of action.
“Palantir has no place in patient care, no place in our communities, and no place in our society,” a NNU nurse said in a video from the August 27 day of action.
The nurses have outlined Palantir’s complicity in human rights violations both nationally and internationally, from detentions of immigrants by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to the genocide in Gaza.
“We think that a company that specializes in mass surveillance, kidnappings and killings, has no place in patient care,” one nurse explained in a videoposted by the California Nurses Association.
During the August day of action, nurses placed 50 pairs of baby shoes in the street in each city – to represent the 500 babies and toddlers who have been detained in immigrant jails since President Donald Trump started his second term. The nurses also brought letters written by children in ICE detention.
“Palantir, we know, helps ICE identify people to kidnap off of our streets,” another nurse said during the day of action.
The company also has “their hands in the genocide and murders of civilians in Gaza,” another nurse present at the protests said. “They’ve [helped with the targeting of] hospitals, schools, mission workers taking food and aid….”
In a statement shared with Truthout and read at the August 27 day of action, Chicago-based nurse and NNU member Elizabeth Lalasz said that “nurses, health care workers, our patients, immigrants, and allies from every walk of life stand united here in Chicago and all across the country to demand an immediate end to the violence inflicted by Palantir technologies and the Trump administration.”
“As we speak, Palantir’s AI is enabling atrocities and human rights abuses: ICE killings, mass deportation, and concentration camps with no access to health care – even the imprisonment of more than 500 babies and 6,200 children – and Palantir is providing the technology for Israel’s U.S.-funded genocide in Gaza, the cruel and illegal war in Iran, and mass surveillance at home and abroad,” she went on.
Lalasz also noted that Palantir has partnered with the world’s largest health care corporations “to suck more and more profit from our broken health care system, causing untold suffering in our hospitals.”
“This country could fund health care for 12 million children with the money spent on ICE detention alone,” she said.
João Paulo Connolly, an activist in the Bay Area who has organized protests against Palantir, explained in a webinar that “Palantir’s profit model is data extraction and surveillance,” and then “giving employers new, powerful ways to monitor and spy on their workers at all times and track their behavior,” while also selling the health care industry and the federal government “unprecedented levels of access” to this data.
Nurses Across US Demand Hospitals Cut Ties With Palantir, Citing ICE and Gaza
truthout.org
National Nurses United is expanding its campaign against Palantir in a global week of action starting on September 28.
Architect of billionaire tax tried to ‘extort’ support for the measure and targeted women, union reports find
www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-09-11/architect-of-billionaire-tax-tried-to-extort-support-…
SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West President Dave Regan speaks during a summit hosted by Politico in August in Sacramento. (Annie Barker / Associated Press)
SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West President Dave Regan denied the allegations. He said he did not attempt to extort from union officials, or assault or threaten female labor leaders.
Taryn Luna. (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)
By Taryn Luna
Senior Sacramento Reporter
Sept. 11, 2026 9:36 AM PT
SACRAMENTO — SEIU United Healthcare Workers West President Dave Regan allegedly tried to “extort” an SEIU state council endorsement of the billionaire tax ballot measure from other California union leaders, according to an investigation commissioned by Service Employees International Union.
The investigation and a second inquiry conducted on behalf of SEIU California found that Regan allegedly threatened and intimidated women who worked for the state council, and in one instance, physically assaulted a former executive director of the labor organization.
Regan, in an interview with The Times, denied the allegations that he attempted to extort from union officials. He also denied assaulting the executive director and said he did not threaten female labor leaders. He repeated a counter claim he made to the union: The allegations against him are retaliation for his advocacy for Proposition 40, the proposed wealth tax that will be on the Nov. 3 ballot.
“They are internally contradictory, they are fundamentally biased, and maybe most importantly, they are politically motivated,” Regan said about the probes.
The law firm hired by the national union investigated Regan’s claim of retaliation but found the allegation could not be substantiated.
David Huerta, the president of SEIU United Service Workers West, and three other labor leaders filed a rare formal union charge against Regan in February.
The national union of SEIU has ultimate authority to resolve charges filed under its constitution and hired the New York labor law firm Cohen, Weiss and Simon to independently investigate the claims. The firm interviewed 18 current and former SEIU leaders and others in the California labor movement over nearly three months, according to its report.
The law firm’s report, reviewed by The Times, supported Huerta’s claim that on Dec. 3 Regan suggested the state council could be investigated for “governance issues” if the council did not endorse the billionaire tax on the November ballot. Huerta was then president of SEIU California.
“During the investigation, Huerta reported that he left the conversation with Regan feeling ‘extorted’ and believing that Regan might report unspecified governance concerns to the United States Department of Labor, which is known to be unfriendly to labor unions under the Trump Administration, if state council did not support the billionaire tax,” the report said.
The law firm’s investigation substantiated an allegation that on the same day, Regan threatened Tia Orr, executive director of SEIU California, over the council’s position on the ballot measure. The SEIU probe found an allegation that Regan also assaulted one of Orr’s predecessors in the job, Courtni Pugh, in 2009, to be credible.
“SEIU California leaders filed charges against Dave Regan alleging a pattern of bullying, threats, abuse, harassment, physical violence and attempted extortion,” said Christopher Calhoun, a spokesperson for SEIU California, in a statement. “Initial investigations pertaining to these charges substantiated most of SEIU California leaders’ allegations.”
State union officials have temporarily banned Regan from the offices of SEIU California, a council of union leaders that coordinates political operations for all SEIU-affliated unions in the state, to protect female employees, according to the state council’s report.
Democratic National Committee delegate Courtni Pugh speaks at the California Democratic Party breakfast in Chicago on Aug. 20, 2024. (Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
“Sufficient evidence was also found to substantiate that Regan has engaged in a pattern of subjecting former and current SEIU California female directors to intimidating and threatening physical behavior and verbal abuse,” the report commissioned by the state council said.
Leaders and workers within the labor movement describe Regan’s alleged behavior as an open secret at SEIU, which represents more than 2 million members nationwide and is the largest union in California.
The law firm hired by SEIU submitted its investigation report on July 28. Regan remains in his job as an administrative process moves forward with hearings. Regan will get a chance to make his case before SEIU determines any appropriate disciplinary action.
SEIU President April Verrett has the power to temporarily suspend Regan as the process plays out.
“SEIU is deeply committed to the safety and well-being of all people, including our members, staff, and the public, and takes these matters seriously,” said Dan O’Sullivan, a spokesperson for SEIU. “As soon as these concerns were raised, we initiated a deliberate and thorough process and retained independent, outside investigators to look into these allegations. Our process is active and ongoing, and the next steps include appointing a hearing officer and holding an evidentiary hearing through which all parties will be afforded due process.”
At a California Federation of Labor event on Dec. 3, Regan told Orr that “state council better endorse this measure by Jan. 1 or I’m coming for you,” she told investigators in both probes.
Regan rode to the airport with Orr and sat next to her on the plane “as part of a continued effort to intimidate her into providing state council’s support for the billionaire tax,” Orr told the investigators. As they left, Regan tapped his watch to suggest her time was running out, the report stated.
Regan told investigators that he learned last year that Orr was working behind the scenes to undermine his billionaire tax proposal. If approved by voters, the measure will retroactively apply a one-time 5% tax on the net worth of billionaires who were residing in California as of Jan. 1, 2026.
Regan denied that he threatened Orr, calling the claims “completely fabricated.”
“And again, the source of that is somebody who is not in favor of Proposition 40, and somebody who has not been leading the state council with practices of good governance,” Regan said in an interview.
Regan also denied intimidating Orr to investigators hired by the national union, but offered a different perspective on the SEIU California executive director. He said he traveled with Orr as a friend that day, had previously supported her professionally and offered her a job, according to the report.
The law firm said Orr believed that Regan was a “bully” who mistreated women of color and made it difficult for them to do their jobs at SEIU and had even “fought someone” when he didn’t “get his way.” Regan denied those allegations, including that he mistreated women of color.
“Orr therefore took Regan’s statement that he was ‘coming for’ her as a threat to her job security and her physical safety. She contemporaneously shared this fear with a colleague. Moreover, her response to Regan’s statement is reasonable because three interviewees — both current and former employees of state council — corroborated that Regan has verbally berated and at times physically intimidated or assaulted former state council executive directors,” the report stated.
The investigation commissioned by the national union concluded that UHW then launched a “fishing expedition” into the state council’s finances under Orr’s leadership, but did not substantiate a claim that Regan defamed her to allies of the labor movement.
The SEIU investigators also wrote that the claim that Regan assaulted Pugh was substantiated.
Pugh told investigators that Regan kicked open her office door and “jacked” her against the wall, according to the investigative report. While she was “pinned,” Regan pressed his finger into her chest and screamed that she was a “dumb ass,” the report said.
When he left her office, Pugh fell to the ground and began to hyperventilate, according to the report. Two colleagues found her, helped her breathe into a paper bag, and walked her home, the report said.
Regan denied the allegation.
“It is a complete fabrication and a fiction made by somebody who has all of the incentive possible to critique or trash or criticize UHW generally, and me specifically, and no, there was no mention of it for 17 years,” he said.
The report also concluded that Regan recently threatened to sue SEIU Local 221 President Crystal Irving in an attempt to silence her from warning others about the alleged assault against Pugh.
Regan said the national union’s investigation was “fundamentally flawed” because it stated that Pugh “had nothing to gain from sharing her story” with Irving. Pugh, now a political consultant, has worked against the billionaire tax ballot measure, which Regan said gave her a reason to lie about him.
Pugh called Regan’s response “offensive to the women” who she said objected to his behavior. She said she detailed the alleged incident at the time to board members who oversaw her work and SEIU leadership. The encounter, she said, was well-known.
“I told my colleagues and organization leaders when it occurred,” Pugh said in a statement. “I was asked to participate in the later investigation because so many people had heard about the 2009 incident over the years. I chose to participate in the investigation because I saw that his behavior had continued and in hopes that no one else would have to endure this kind of treatment from him.”
Regan, in his interview with The Times, also denied the allegation that he attempted to force the state council to support the billionaire tax.
David Huerta, president of SEIU-USWW, speaks during a Memorial Day action in Los Angeles on May 21. (Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)
“Huerta then asked Regan if it was his intention to initiate an investigation,” according to the report. “Regan replied, ‘I don’t have to; there are others who would.’ In that conversation, Regan demanded a full endorsement of the billionaire’s tax initiative measure by the state council by Jan. 1.”
Regan told investigators he raised governance issues with Huerta and could not remember if he demanded the council’s support for the billionaire tax during the conversation, though he said he had been seeking the endorsement for months, according to the national union’s report.
“The investigation found that Regan likely suggested he would cause the DOL to investigate state council,” the report said. “According to Regan, he did discuss with Huerta that an investigation was possible.”
The executive board of SEIU California later voted in July to remain neutral on Proposition 40, marking a blow to Regan’s efforts to overcome an onslaught of opposition from California Gov. Gavin Newsom, billionaires and liberal groups concerned that the measure could backfire and reduce state tax revenue collected from the ultra wealthy.
Regan filed a counter claim with SEIU in April, alleging that the state council initiated the complaint and launched their own investigation into him as a retaliatory “character assassination” for his advocacy for the billionaire tax, which the SEIU report said was not substantiated.
The investigative report submitted to the national union raised questions about Regan’s tactics to earn support for his causes.
Investigators said their probe “revealed that Regan has been associated with similar extreme efforts to secure political endorsements in the recent past.”
The firm reported that it reviewed text and email messages in which a representative for Regan offered to drop part of his counter claim “in exchange for the state council’s endorsement of Tom Steyer for governor.”
“In an email response to that offer, a State Council representative stated they have ‘no interest in a behind-the-scenes trade involving dropping internal charges of misconduct in exchange for the making of a political endorsement.’”
The person working with Regan who sent the offer denied to the law firm that the conversation constituted extortion.
“This denial is not credible,” the firm wrote in the report. “The Regan Offeror stated that they were ‘extremely careful’ with their language when conveying Regan’s offer, as they were aware that what they said could be misconstrued as extortion. That the Regan Offeror took such care suggests that the offer was likely extortion.”
Regan also denied the claim, which he called a “complete fabrication.”
A second investigation by the Los Angeles law firm Barboza & Associates, which was hired by SEIU California, found sufficient evidence to substantiate a complaint that Regan bullied Jessica Bartholow, the council’s government relations director.
Bartholow reported to her superiors at SEIU California that Regan stood uncomfortably close and hovered over her at the bar at a fundraiser for the state Senate leader in San Diego in March as tensions flared over the billionaire tax. He then screamed an expletive at her in front of a crowd of lawmakers and lobbyists when she walked away from him, according to the state council’s report.
“Bartholow was scared and her heart was pounding,” investigators wrote in the report for the state council that was reviewed by The Times. “Bartholow had heard that Regan could be violent, and she did not know what he was going to do.”
Regan told investigators and The Times that he swore at Bartholow but denied that he physically intimidated her. Regan said he was upset with her over an allegation that she previously threw “four staff members of UHW out of the state council office.” The report commissioned by the state council discredited his claim and said “Bartholow did not throw UHW staff out of the SEIU California office or treat them rudely or disrespectfully.”
Lawyers hired by the state council said Regan intimidated another woman within the union during their investigation.
The state council investigation included an allegation that Regan physically and verbally intimidated Susan Li, an assistant director of external organizing for SEIU Local 721, on April 30 after a meeting with the Assembly Speaker’s Office and the California Primary Care Assn. Regan was allegedly upset with David Green, president of SEIU Local 721 who had just left for the airport, and began randomly screaming at Li, according to the investigative report on the probe commissioned by the state council.
Regan described the encounter as a conversation and said he did not scream at Li.
The state report said Regan “attacks female staff members instead of taking his concerns to the individuals who had the authority to make decisions.”
“Time and again, Regan unleashed his hostility toward the women who worked for SEIU California, and one from Local 721, in a physically intimidating and verbally abusive manner,” the report concludes.
Regan vigorously denied this assertion.
The state council report said Regan often berated Pugh when she worked at SEIU.
“Every week it was, ‘What the f— were you doing in this meeting? Why did you say that? You dumb ass bitch,’” the SEIU state report said. “Every time Regan called Pugh, she put him on speaker phone so everyone could hear him call her a f—up and tell her to f— off. Not one person said anything.”
Pugh told investigators hired by the national union that Regan continued to belittle her in meetings until she eventually resigned from the state council. She said she believed he formed a coalition to force her out of her job and that she would have been fired if she had not stepped down.
Terry Brennand, director of pensions, revenue and budget at SEIU California, told investigators that he and Mary Gutierrez, now deceased, heard Pugh sobbing in her office after Regan allegedly assaulted her.
“Brennand believed Pugh was in shock and traumatized,” the state SEIU report stated. “Pugh seemed frozen, terrified and not quite clear-headed. It was not the usual Pugh, who was direct, thoughtful and expressive. She was shaking and clearly traumatized.”
Three current and former SEIU California executive directors, all women of color, told Brennand that Regan had bullied them, the report said.
“That’s his forte,” Brennand said to investigators. “That’s his wheelhouse.”
Regan denied that he has a problem with women, or women of color.
“It is 100% false,” he said.
Lorena Gonzalez, president of California Labor Federation, said Regan’s union is overwhelmingly composed of women and women of color, who just reelected him to a position he’s held for 16 years.
“Ultimately they have the ability to make this determination of whether he’s an appropriate leader, which they just made again,” she said. “I think what’s most important is that we have to keep our eyes on the fact that Medi-Cal is being cut and we have no solution but the billionaire’s tax to fill that cut.”
Times staff writer Kevin Rector contributed to this report.
Attendees wear "Billionaire Tax Now" shirts during a campaign kickoff event for the California Billionaire Tax Act at The Wiltern in Los Angeles, California, US, on Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026. An influential union has introduced a ballot initiative to impose a one-time 5% tax on billionaire wealth, as a political spending committee backed by Google co-founder Sergey Brin, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and others will support three different voter initiatives that would limit and restrict the creation of new taxes in the state. Photographer: Tim Rue/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Taryn Luna covers Gov. Gavin Newsom and California politics in Sacramento for the Los Angeles Times.
www.latimes.com
SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West President Dave Regan denied the allegations. He said he did not attempt to extort from union officials, or assault or threaten female labor leaders.
The U.S. government is going after a Michigan labor union over its Palestine activism
mondoweiss.net/2026/09/the-u-s-government-is-going-after-a-michigan-labor-union-over-its-palestin…
The U.S. government is going after a Michigan labor union over its Palestine activism
The U.S. government is criminalizing a campus labor union at the University of Michigan for supporting Palestine. We are calling on fellow labor organizers to resist this dangerous act of repression
BY ADI SALEEM AND YARDEN AZOULAY KATZ SEPTEMBER 10, 2026 1
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“The Gaza solidarity encampment at the University of Michigan, which was violently disbanded by UM police in May 2024. Photo by TAHRIR Coalition.”
“THE GAZA SOLIDARITY ENCAMPMENT AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN, WHICH WAS VIOLENTLY DISBANDED BY UM POLICE IN MAY 2024. PHOTO BY TAHRIR COALITION.”
On June 10, 2026, the FBI raided the homes of activists involved in Palestine solidarity activism at the University of Michigan (UM), who are now known as the “Michigan 8.” In a show of force, federal agents in military gear broke through the door of a home in Ypsilanti, MI, to arrest a couple of individuals. That day, the FBI also arrested individuals connected to UM Palestine activism in Illinois and Wisconsin. The Justice Department indicted these activists on wildly exaggerated “conspiracy” charges. They could face decades in prison.
The government is now targeting a pro-Palestinian campus labor union involved in defending the Michigan 8.
Last month, August 2026, the Graduate Employees’ Organization (GEO), which represents over 4,000 UM graduate student workers, was served a subpoena signed by the Justice Department’s attorney on the Michigan 8 case. This came shortly after UM and a local prosecutor tried – but failed – to bring down GEO’s President using baseless “embezzlement” charges. The August subpoena requests extensive information about GEO, including a list of current and former members, meeting minutes, and financial records, dating back to 2023.
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This is a clear criminalization of ordinary labor organizing. It’s also a “fishing expedition” that is meant to help the government’s case against Palestine solidarity activists.
The developments in Michigan closely follow those in Minnesota, where certain anti-ICE organizers (the “Minnesota 15”) were also indicted on “conspiracy” charges in June 2026, and where federal agents had spied on unions and used a subpoena to obtain union financial records.
The federal government understands that our struggles are connected. It’s time all labor unions realize it too, and refuse to separate Palestine solidarity or migrant justice organizing from labor organizing.
Criminalizing a pro-Palestinian labor union by targeting its president
The University of Michigan has been working with the local and federal governments to attack GEO. In recent years, GEO, which is Local 3550 of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), has won concessions. In April 2023, it went on the longest strike in the University’s history, which resulted in better pay and health care for graduate workers. And while big labor unions have historically been on the side of U.S. imperialism (AFT’s current President Randi Weingarten is a staunch Zionist), some union locals, such as GEO, have embraced Palestine solidarity.
Recognizing this emerging alliance between labor and Palestine solidarity organizing, the University turned to the legal system to criminalize the union. This past summer, they went after GEO’s President, Hiab Teshome, an MD-PhD student at UM.
Hiab Teshome, President of GEO and an MD-PhD student at the University of Michigan. (Photo courtesy of GEO Communications Team)
HIAB TESHOME, PRESIDENT OF GEO AND AN MD-PHD STUDENT AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN. (PHOTO COURTESY OF GEO COMMUNICATIONS TEAM)
On June 15, 2026, just five days after the FBI raids on the Michigan 8, Detective Sergeant Ryan Cavanaugh of the University of Michigan Police Department called Teshome on her personal phone to say there was a warrant for her arrest and that she would soon be charged with “embezzlement” and “false pretenses.” According to Teshome, he said he wanted to talk about the logistics of her turning herself in to the police. Cavanaugh is well-known to the campus Palestine solidarity movement: he has pepper-sprayed some protesters in the past, allegedly tackled others, and also attended the September 9, 2026, court hearing for the Michigan 8, where we saw him speaking with the U.S. government attorneys. Organizers, including Teshome, also report that Cavanaugh has a history of harassing them. In February and April of 2026, Cavanaugh had called Teshome to tell her she was being investigated for “embezzlement,” but without giving specifics. Teshome says she referred Cavanaugh to her lawyer, but he failed to respond to her lawyer’s calls. Instead, he continued to call, text, and email Teshome directly, and even visited her former residence, believing it was her current home.
Detective Sergeant Ryan Cavanaugh of the University of Michigan Police Department being honored as “Veteran of the Game” in a Michigan basketball game, November 2019. Cavanaugh, who receives a salary of $103,334, is described in University reports as a “Master Trainer in Threat Assessment and Management,” a certificate given by the Department of Homeland Security. He served in the US Army for 23 years, including in Egypt, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Cuba. (Photo: University of Michigan Division of Public Safety & Security)
DETECTIVE SERGEANT RYAN CAVANAUGH OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN POLICE DEPARTMENT BEING HONORED AS “VETERAN OF THE GAME” IN A MICHIGAN BASKETBALL GAME, NOVEMBER 2019. CAVANAUGH, WHO RECEIVES A SALARY OF $103,334, IS DESCRIBED IN UNIVERSITY REPORTS AS A “MASTER TRAINER IN THREAT ASSESSMENT AND MANAGEMENT,” A CERTIFICATE GIVEN BY THE DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY. HE SERVED IN THE US ARMY FOR 23 YEARS, INCLUDING IN EGYPT, GUATEMALA, EL SALVADOR, AND CUBA. (PHOTO: UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN DIVISION OF PUBLIC SAFETY & SECURITY)
It turned out that the “embezzlement” charges concerned purchases made by a student group in which Teshome was the designated co-signer. UM claimed the purchases weren’t properly accounted for – yet Teshome did not make these purchases herself and was no longer involved in the group. She was implicated simply by being a co-signer, on paper.
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Rather than try to resolve this bureaucratic matter internally with its own students, UM took the unprecedented step of turning to the local county prosecutor, Eli Savit (who calls himself a “progressive prosecutor” and is currently running for Michigan Attorney General). Using the narrative and information provided by Cavanaugh, Savit then pressed felony charges against Teshome for embezzlement and false pretenses.
Detective Sergeant Ryan Cavanaugh of the University of Michigan Police Department (on left) pepper spraying the crowd outside the UM Museum of Art on May 3, 2024. The crowd had gathered to call on the UM Regents, some of whom were inside the museum for an event, to divest from Israel. Four protestors were detained, arrested, and given trespass warnings in that protest. (Photo: TAHRIR Coalition)
DETECTIVE SERGEANT RYAN CAVANAUGH OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN POLICE DEPARTMENT (ON LEFT) PEPPER-SPRAYING THE CROWD OUTSIDE THE UM MUSEUM OF ART ON MAY 3, 2024. THE CROWD HAD GATHERED TO CALL ON THE UM REGENTS, SOME OF WHOM WERE INSIDE THE MUSEUM FOR AN EVENT, TO DIVEST FROM ISRAEL. FOUR PROTESTORS WERE DETAINED, ARRESTED, AND GIVEN TRESPASS WARNINGS DURING THAT PROTEST. (PHOTO: TAHRIR COALITION)
At Teshome’s arraignment on June 26, 2026, an Ann Arbor judge noted that the University had requested that Teshome be banned from campus as part of the bond conditions. Such a ban would have prevented Teshome from participating in the union’s bargaining with the University. The judge refused that request, but instead banned Teshome from the University’s administration building and specifically noted she must stay away from the UM Regents. The Regents, who set the University’s major policies, have been targeted by campus activists with calls to divest from Israel. This bond condition shows that the attack on Teshome was also meant to stifle such divestment campaigns.
In response, many showed solidarity with Teshome. An open letter in support of Teshome was signed by hundreds of individuals and several organizations, including the Harvard Graduate Students Union (HGSU-UAW Local 5118) and the Huron Valley DSA. Yet conspicuously absent from the signatories was Michigan’s labor union establishment, which did not seem to grasp the political significance of the attack on a union president. This is the same labor establishment that had failed to heed a call by Palestinian trade unions, following October 7, 2023, to disrupt the entities enabling Israel’s genocide in Gaza.
Nonetheless, the grassroots prevailed. On August 6 2026, activists and community members packed the court for Teshome’s probable cause conference. The judge, Cedric Simpson, dismissed the charges within minutes. The court, Simpson said, “is certainly not getting involved in that.”
Criminalizing the whole union
After the effort to bring down Teshome failed, the next target became the union as a whole.
The federal government served a grand jury subpoena, dated August 6: the day that the charges against Teshome were dismissed by the court. The subpoena – signed by the Justice Department Attorney Maggie Smith from the Michigan 8 case and by Detroit office FBI agent Kara Phipps – asks for the following information, dating back to January 1, 2023:
“1. Collective bargaining agreements;
2. Constitution and By-laws;
3. All disbursement records and receipts journals pertaining to union officials;
4. All union employee personnel records, to include all payroll records, W-2 Forms, W-4 Forms, 1099’s, etc;
5. All associated membership agreements;
6. Listing of all active and former union members;
7. Complete listing of all officers and executive board members, to include position.
8. All minutes of membership meetings and Executive Board meetings” [emphasis added].
“The University of Michigan and the federal government are attacking our union and the broader labor and Palestine solidarity movement because we are powerful and because we are challenging the University’s material investments in genocide,” said GEO President Hiab Teshome. GEO’s lawyers are currently attempting to get the subpoena quashed on the grounds that it is too broad in scope and violates the union members’ rights to free speech.
GRAND JURY SUBPOENA SERVED TO THE GRADUATE EMPLOYEES’ ORGANIZATION (GEO), AFT LOCAL 3550, MARKED AUGUST 6, 2026. THE SUBPOENA WAS SIGNED BY MARGARET (“MAGGIE”) SMITH, ONE OF THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT’S ATTORNEYS ON THE MICHIGAN 8 CASE, AND DETROIT OFFICE FBI AGENT KARA PHIPPS. THE GOVERNMENT BOTCHED THE DELIVERY OF THE SUBPOENA, INITIALLY SENDING IT VIA FEDEX RATHER THAN SERVING IT IN PERSON. IT WAS THEN SERVED ON AUGUST 26, 2026.
The attacks on this Michigan labor union closely parallel the federal government’s tactics against the anti-ICE movement in Minnesota, following the January 2026 murders of Alex Pretti and Renée Good by ICE agents. As part of their investigation into “domestic terrorist financing,” federal agents used subpoenas to obtain several years’ worth of wire transfers made by the Service Employees International Union, which largely represents health care workers. The individuals who so far have been singled out by the government, the Minnesota 15, may now face decades in prison, just like the Michigan 8.
“What is happening to our labor union and other unions across the country is extreme acts of workplace repression by our employer collaborating with the state and the federal government to weaken labor organizing and violate our right to collective action,” Teshome noted.
The major labor unions can no longer keep pretending like workers’ struggles can be separated from Palestine solidarity or from the struggle against ICE and policing. No one should stay neutral on this moving train.
Ways to support the Michigan 8 and Minnesota 15
Donate to the Michigan 8 legal fund and visit defendmichigan8.org
Donate to the Minnesota 15 legal fund and visit minnesota15.org
We Defend the Minnesota 15 Defendants | Minnesota 15
minnesota15.org
On Tuesday, June 16, the federal government arrested fifteen of the tens of thousands of people who took a stand against ICE terror in Minnesota.
Union boss behind billionaire tax bullied, tried to ‘extort’ staffers over the measure, reports find
www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/seiu-dave-regan-billionaire-tax-22427506.php
By Hannah Wiley, Sara Libby,
Staff Writers
Updated Sep 11, 2026 12:01 p.m.
SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West President Dave Regan takes part in a summit hosted by Politico on Aug. 11, 2026, in Sacramento.
SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West President Dave Regan takes part in a summit hosted by Politico on Aug. 11, 2026, in Sacramento.
Annie Barker/AP
The head of the healthcare union behind California’s controversial billionaire tax allegedly bullied, intimidated and attempted to extort fellow labor leaders in his quest to marshal support for the ballot measure, according to an internal investigation obtained by the Chronicle.
The investigation, which took place between April and July 2026 and was conducted by the New York-based labor law firm Cohen, Weiss and Simon, partially substantiated allegations against Dave Regan, president of SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West, as he was working to get Proposition 40 onto the November ballot.
Prop 40 would impose a one-time, 5% wealth tax on anyone worth more than $1 billion. It would apply retroactively to people living in California on Jan. 1, 2026. It is intended to backfill cuts to the state budget by the Republican-backed One Big Beautiful Act.
The charges against Regan were filed by some of the state’s top leaders connected to the statewide umbrella group, Service Employees International Union, and its local affiliates, including David Huerta, Arnulfo De La Cruz, Crystal Irving and David Green.
SEIU has stayed neutral in the Prop 40 campaign, a decision that demonstrates how deeply divided many of the state’s major Democratic groups feel about the measure, including many of the state’s most prolific labor unions. The California Teachers Association and the State Building and Construction Trades are also among those opposing the tax.
But the investigation underscores the degree to which the measure fractured California’s most powerful labor union and its network of influential leaders.
Allegations against Regan include that he “violated the SEIU Constitution by threatening and defaming certain union leaders as part of his campaign to secure endorsements for the Billionaire Tax” and that Regan assaulted former SEIU-affiliated leaders, according to the report.
A separate claim from Regan’s allies, which was not substantiated, alleged that the opposing labor leaders “violated the SEIU Constitution by targeting Regan with a retaliatory ‘character assassination’ in the form of false assault allegations, internal union charges and a meritless investigation into his behavior.”
One claim of bullying against Regan was not substantiated. But the investigation determined that Regan did attempt to extort an endorsement for the billionaire tax from the SEIU State Council by suggesting in a December 2025 conversation with Huerta, who heads the SEIU-United Service Workers West but was also then the state council’s president, that Regan could cause the federal Department of Labor to investigate the council.
That conclusion was reached, in part, because the investigation “revealed that Regan has been associated with similar extreme efforts to secure political endorsements in the recent past,” including another incident in which Regan had allegedly offered to drop his counter-charge if the state council endorsed billionaire philanthropist Tom Steyer during his run for governor earlier this year.
The investigation also substantiated a claim that Regan allegedly attempted to defame and bullied Tia Orr, SEIU’s executive director, for not supporting the billionaire’s tax. The report noted that Regan allegedly told Orr that “State Council better endorse this measure” by the start of 2026, “or I’m coming for you.”
The investigation partially substantiated another another claim that Regan attempted to “damage Orr’s reputation” by “spreading falsehoods to allies, legislators, and the governor about Orr, including that Orr was involved with a corruption case involving Dana Williamson,” Newsom’s former chief of staff who pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges this year. The claim also alleged that Regan launched a “fishing expedition, including repeated requests for many years of state council data and records” in an attempt to “chill state council members’ behavior” as they voiced concerns over the tax.
As it investigated the competing claims over Regan’s behavior as he attempted to shore up support for Prop 40, the firm probed a much earlier incident in which he was accused of assaulting a union leader in 2009.
The staffer, referred to in the report as Person A, told investigators that in 2009, when she was serving as executive director of the SEIU’s state council, Regan came to her office to discuss his frustration with her handling of a ballot measure. He “kicked in her office door, and ‘jacked’ her ‘against the wall,’” the report says. “Regan also pushed his finger on Person A’s chest and screamed that she was a ‘dumbass.’”
Regan denied the allegations to investigators, but they ultimately substantiated the claim based on Person A’s interview and separate interviews with a colleague who spoke with her immediately after the incident.
“Person A had nothing to gain from sharing her story,” investigators wrote.
A separate investigation, by the law firm Barboza & Associates, substantiated claims by SEIU State Council staffer Jess Bartholow that Regan physically intimidated her “by standing very close to her, hovering over her, and silently glaring at her” at an event in San Diego on March 20.
According to the report, Regan approached Bartholow at the Pro Tem Cup, a community event held by leaders of the California Senate.
At the event, Regan allegedly approached Bartholow, leaned in closely to her face and said, “You don’t know anything about how to do your job.”
“Bartholow tried to de-escalate the situation by saying, ‘OK, thank you for letting me know,’ and walking away,” the report said. “As Bartholow walked away, Regan allegedly yelled, ‘Fuck you,’ really loudly.”
Investigators noted throughout its report that Regan denied the allegations against him, even as he admitted to make certain comments. In a statement, SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West defended Regan and discredited the investigation as politically motivated because it said several individuals involved in the probe are opposed to Prop 40 or have personal bad blood with Regan and his union.
“California’s largest healthcare worker unions, understood from the beginning that mounting a campaign to tax billionaires to restore massive federal healthcare cuts would upset some of the state’s wealthiest and most powerful interests and could bring unfounded personal attacks,” the statement said. “This misinformation campaign will not distract the elected leadership or members of SEIU-UHW from passing Proposition 40 and protecting healthcare, hospitals and emergency rooms for millions of Californians.”
The statement also acknowledged that Regan had used profanity against Bartholow, who the healthcare union alleged had treated its staff and members “abusively.” The group denied Regan’s comment was a threat.
Both reports say Regan was barred from at least one SEIU property as a result of his behavior, and detail new policies the union incorporated to ensure women would not be alone with him.
“As a result of Regan’s alleged conduct, State Council instituted a new safety protocol,” the Cohen, Weiss and Simon report notes. “Under this protocol, male staff were directed not to leave an event when women colleagues intended to remain, and to escort the women to their rooms at the end of the night.”
SEIU’s spokesperson Christopher Calhoun said in a statement that “SEIU leaders in California are proud of taking action to stand up for our values: respect, workplace justice, fairness, gender equity, racial justice, and nonviolence.”
“We stand with women, women of color, workers, and all those who have been bullied or oppressed by those who have power over them,” Calhoun said. “We ask members every day to stand up to power and speak out against abuses. We are inspired by their courage, and our leaders, too, are saying, ‘Enough! ’”
Union boss behind billionaire tax bullied, tried to ‘extort’ staffers over the measure, reports find
www.sfchronicle.com
The investigation underscores the degree to which the measure fractured California’s most powerful labor union and its network of influential leaders.
A.I. Boom Poses Growing Public Health Threat, Former E.P.A. Officials Warn
Air pollution from gas-fired power plants to run data centers is expected to add at least $20 billion in annual health care costs by 2028, the group warns.
www.nytimes.com/2026/09/10/climate/ai-data-centers-air-pollution-health.html
Rows of low-slung homes abut a flat expanse of dirt where an enormous data center is planned.
A neighborhood near the construction site of a Meta A.I. data center in El Paso, Texas.Credit…Ivan Pierre Aguirre for The New York Times
Hiroko Tabuchi.png
By Hiroko Tabuchi
Sept. 10, 2026
Updated 1:06 p.m. ET
A group representing more than 800 former employees of the Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday sounded the alarm over the health consequences of data centers. It warned that Trump administration policies to weaken pollution safeguards and speed up approvals of the facilities threatened to exacerbate those health harms.
In a report released Thursday, the nonprofit Environmental Protection Network examined pollution from power plants, gas turbines and diesel generators needed to meet data centers’ surging electricity demand. And it listed 30 federal actions taken by the Trump administration that it warned would increase pollution-related health risks as more data centers open across the country.
The report builds on modeling from academic researchers that projects that air pollution from data centers could contribute to roughly 600,000 asthma symptom cases, 1,300 premature deaths and more than $20 billion in annual public health costs by 2028. But the former E.P.A. employees note that these estimates do not account for the rollback of environmental regulations under the Trump administration, which could further increase emissions and health risks.
“What concerns me now is the role E.P.A. and other government agencies are playing and proudly touting: weakening the very safeguards designed to protect people from the pollution in the name of helping tech and power companies accelerate these data center build outs,” said Dr. Lynn Goldman, a pediatrician and former E.P.A. assistant administrator and a member of the group.
“These are decisions that can affect what Americans breathe, what gets into our water and, ultimately, what can make its way into our soil and food supply,” said Dr. Goldman, who is now dean emerita of the Milken School of Public Health at George Washington University.
The E.P.A. did not respond to a request for comment.
Data centers are the target of a national, bipartisan backlash. Much of the debate has focused on worries about a quickly changing economy and the loss of jobs to machines, along with noise, energy costs and water use.
But concerns about air pollution from the gas-burning plants to power the centers are drawing more attention.
More than 1,300 data centers already operate in the United States, and more than 2,000 more are planned, according to Cleanview, a market intelligence company that tracks U.S. power infrastructure and data center development. Still, polling shows the majority of Americans oppose data centers in their communities, elevating the issue to one that could affect November’s midterm elections.
President Trump has held steadfast in his support of A.I. Last week, the president lashed out at communities that are protesting data centers.
“The only reason that communities throughout the U.S.A. should not want Data Centers is if they want to end up being backwards and poor,” Mr. Trump posted on his Truth Social site. “If they want to be successful and rich, with far lower taxes and jobs all over the place, let Data Reign.”
Mr. Trump has acknowledged, however, that families should not have to bear higher electricity bills and his ratepayer protection pledge seeks to prevent A.I. data centers from driving up electricity costs for millions of Americans.
The former E.P.A. employees argue that protecting families from pollution, illness and medical costs warrants the same urgency.
“If the administration has already said that families shouldn’t have to bear higher costs of electricity because of the A.I. boom, we think the same principle should apply to health,” said Marc Boom, a former senior adviser in the E.P.A.’s policy office.
Under President Trump, the E.P.A. has made establishing the United States as the “A.I. capital of the world” a central goal. It has made it easier for data centers to run certain kinds of emergency generators that burn diesel fuel and emit soot, nitrogen oxides and other harmful air pollution. It has proposed a sweeping rule change that would let developers start building data centers and power plants before their air pollution permits are approved. And it has exempted off-grid gas plants that supply data centers from federal limits on pollution that causes acid rain.
To make more electricity available, the E.P.A. has eased restart rules for long-idled coal and gas-burning power plants, proposed the repeal of power-plant carbon standards, and is moving to make it harder for communities to weigh in on proposed data centers through public comment. At the same time, it has throttled clean energy wind and solar projects.
The former E.P.A. employees group also points to a mismatch between the scale of the A.I. build out and the E.P.A.’s capacity to oversee it. With staffing levels at their lowest in four decades, the E.P.A. lacks the personnel and resources to monitor pollution and enforce limits, said Larry Starfield, a former principal deputy assistant administrator in the E.P.A.’s Office of Enforcement.
“They’ve got fewer inspectors to go out there,” Mr. Starfield said. “They’re conducting quick and simple inspections. That’s not going to be effective for data centers.”
Shaolei Ren is a professor of electrical and computer engineering who studies A.I. and society at the University of California, Riverside, and led the analysis used by the Environmental Protection Network. He said because of the Trump administration’s explicit focus on increasing the use of fossil fuels, “the actual impact could be worse than we modeled.”
To protect public health, he said, there also needed to be a focus beyond tech companies’ emissions of planet-warming greenhouse gases, to air pollution that harms local communities.
“Tech companies report their energy use, their carbon emissions, but there’s no mention of local air pollution,” he said. And while tech companies often offset their greenhouse gas emissions with investments in clean energy, he said, it was trickier to offset local health risks.
A.I. Data Center Pollution Poses Health Threat, Former E.P.A. Officials Warn
www.nytimes.com
Air pollution from gas-fired power plants to run data centers is expected to add at least $20 billion in annual health care costs by 2028, the group warns.
Stop the Rollout At The VA
stoptherollout.org/
THE “FEDERAL EHR,” FROM THOSE INSIDE THE SYSTEM
The Administration just promised Oracle another $17 billion to “modernize” VA’s health record. Their system is harming veterans’ healthcare. It’s time to pull the plug.
Take Action: 3 Ways
Read the History ↓
In 2018, Trump political appointees signed a $10B no-bid contract to replace VA’s award-winning, homegrown health record (EHR) with a failing commercial product from Cerner Corporation. When the Cerner EHR was tested at five hospitals, the results were catastrophic: system-wide failures, clinician burnout, decreased productivity, and veteran deaths.
In 2022, Cerner was acquired by Oracle, and rollouts were halted pending safety improvements. By the end of 2025, nearly none of those improvements were made. Nevertheless, VA Secretary Doug Collins had declared accelerated “EHR modernization” — more Oracle rollouts at more VA hospitals — to be a top agency priority.
On August 19, 2026, VA increased Oracle’s contract ceiling by $17 billion — to $27B. Around the same time, VA’s newest Oracle sites — in Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio — began reporting the same glitches and safety risks that had plagued VA’s Cerner sites — and harmed patients — since 2020.
This doesn’t need to happen.
It’s time to stop the line. It’s time to stop the handouts.
It’s time to stop the rollout.
1978 – 2016
The system clinicians built
In 2016, CPRS-VistA — VA's homegrown health IT system — was among the top-rated electronic health records in the world. It had been designed in-house and refined over decades by VA clinicians, for the purposes of patient care, education, research, and benefits — not billing or data monetization, as with most commercial EHRs. For over two decades, it was the digital backbone for improvements in safety and clinical outcomes known widely as the "VA quality revolution."
2017 – 2018
The no-bid contract
VA leaders decided to replace VistA with Cerner, a commercial vendor whose Millennium product was marketed primarily to improve medical billing.
"The Cerner Millennium® architecture provides the detailed clinical information needed to accurately prepare claims, proactively guard against denials and defend the right to bill."
— Cerner marketing materials, 2010
At $10 billion, it was one of the largest no-bid contracts in civilian government history.
The decision was driven partly by Jared Kushner, amid a larger, well-documented push to privatize VA healthcare.
"[Former VA Secretary] Shulkin and I talked about this issue… he sent over his top five people on the EMRs… We said guys, we want a solution to some of the systems… in two weeks, come back to us, that's what we want to see. They came back in two weeks with something that made a lot of sense."
— Jared Kushner, leaked audio
When VA clinicians and bioinformatics experts asked why, they were given three justifications:
✗
Outsourcing VA's health IT would save money.
why it's false ＋
✗
VistA couldn't be modernized.
why it's false ＋
✗
Cerner's product was necessary to link veterans' VA and military health records.
why it's false ＋
Each of these claims is false.
click a claim above to learn why
2020 – 2022
First rollouts, first harms
PAGE 2 · THE HUMAN COST
"I've got two little 7-year-old granddaughters. I know I'm not living forever, but I would have liked to see them graduate from high school."
— Charlie Bourg, Army veteran · harmed by Cerner EHR · Chewelah, Washington
Read Charlie's story, and others like it, on the next page →
The Cerner system went live at five VA Medical Centers — Spokane, Walla Walla, White City, Roseburg, and Columbus. Within days, clinical staff in Spokane identified dozens of problems — including a safety risk they would spend years fighting. Orders clinicians had correctly entered — referrals, medications, appointment requests — vanished into a digital void that investigators dubbed the "unknown queue."
"the new EHR did not alert the provider but accepted the entry as successful and then routed the order to the unknown queue."
"A healthcare provider entered a follow-up psychiatric care order for a homeless patient identified as at risk for suicide. The new EHR sent the order to the unknown queue. The patient was not scheduled for follow-up care and later contacted the Veterans Crisis Line reporting a razor in hand and a plan to kill himself."
— VA Office of Inspector General, July 2022
The Inspector General also learned that Cerner had known about the unknown queue before VA's go-live: customers had flagged the problem on the company's user forum since 2014.
"This is dangerous, and they're going to inflict it on my fellow veterans."
— Monica McLaughlin, Navy veteran and nurse at Mann-Grandstaff VA, December 2021
"My fear was that somebody was going to die."
— Heather Hill, psychotherapist, December 2021
Over eight months at Spokane VA alone, over 11,000 orders disappeared into the unknown queue, causing harm to 149 veterans.
"Nearly 150 veterans were harmed by delays in care resulting from this unknown queue." — David Case, Deputy Inspector General · Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs · July 20, 2022
One of them was Charlie Bourg — a Vietnam-era patient and VA employee whose prostate cancer spread undetected for over a year while his urology referral sat in the "unknown queue."
→ Read Charlie's story, and others like it, on the next page
2022
Rollouts halted. Numbers counted. Oracle buys the contract.
VA clinicians rendered their verdict on Cerner in the KLAS national EHR survey:
21%
of VA's Cerner users said the new system enabled them to deliver high-quality care
64%
said VistA did
Independent analysts projected the actual cost of EHR "modernization":
$50 billion
Institute for Defense Analyses lifecycle cost estimate was $49.8 billion for 13 years of implementation plus 15 years of sustainment
$28 billion
Cerner was acquired by Oracle Corporation — a Silicon Valley database company with no previous healthcare experience
Oracle promised to review and improve the product. Before long, it was washing its hands.
"Our findings show that nothing related to the EHR's functionality or performance had anything to do with the care this veteran received."
— Michael Egbert, Vice President of Corporate Communications, Oracle · September 2022
Take Action: 3 Ways
Read the History ↓
2023
"Flip the switch."
With rollouts on hold, the original five rollout sites continued grappling with hundreds of "major system failures": outages, degradations, over 1,909 hours of downtime — about 80 days in total.
"Our clinicians are exhausted, sometimes tearful, and frankly, distressed."
— Dr. Meredith Arensman, Chief of Staff, Columbus VA · House testimony, September 2023
The majority were attributed to the vendor.
826 major system failures, October 2020 – March 2024 · before and after the April 2023 pause
379 before
447 after
Whose failures they were
654 the vendor's
172 the department's
— VA Office of Inspector General
Rep. Rosendale: "Do you think that it is fair to use the VA and our Nation's heroes as a testing ground for your products?" · Mike Sicilia, EVP Oracle: "We are not universally creating custom products at our discretion. We are instructed and contracted to do so by the VA…" · May 9, 2023
Meanwhile, the remainder of VA facilities — over 165 medical centers and 1,200 clinics — continued to run CPRS-VistA without issue, and Oracle users continued using it for read-only chart review. That year, over 600 of them petitioned VA to finally pull the plug on the Cerner-Oracle contract and "flip the switch" at Oracle sites from read-only to live, read-write VistA.
They were ignored. But the switch still exists. The petition does too.
PAGE 3 · THE ALTERNATIVE
Page 3 — coming soon — makes the evidence-based comparison between Cerner-Oracle and CPRS-VistA. Teaser: there is no comparison. And the path forward is clear: the real federal EHR is CPRS-VistA.
Click here to take action and receive updates when Page 3 goes live →
2024
One "success," on crutches
VA deployed the Oracle system at North Chicago Lovell Federal Health Care Center in March. As a fully integrated VA-DoD facility, most Lovell staff were dually appointed in the military health system — which had just completed its own Oracle migration. VA researchers noted that the Lovell deployment required "a tremendous amount of national support as well as support from other centers."
"This level of support is likely unsustainable as multiple sites simultaneously undergo EHRM."
— VA QUERI PEC 20-168
Three months later, the same researchers found Lovell's rollout limping along, taxpayer-funded crutches notwithstanding. EHR satisfaction was down by 12 points; twice as many clinicians reported high EHR-related stress; and confidence in the system's ability to keep patients safe had declined.
This "success" was later cited as evidence to proceed with new rollouts.
Rep. Luttrell, asking whether clinicians' satisfaction with the system would beat a coin flip: "Better than 50?" Oracle Health's Seema Verma: "I think it is going to be better than where—" · House Committee on Veterans' Affairs · February 24, 2025
Meanwhile, a separate VA analysis — presented in September 2024 but never published — found persistent 30–40% drops in primary care volumeacross all six rollout sites.
EARLY 2025
The Oval Office, day one
On the first day of his administration, President Trump hosted Oracle founder Larry Ellison at the White House and announced Oracle's lead role in the $500 billion Stargate AI data-center buildout.
President Trump and Larry Ellison at the presidential lectern in the Roosevelt Room, January 2025
Oracle founder Larry Ellison at the podium with President Trump, Roosevelt Room, the White House · Stargate announcement · January 21, 2025 · Frame from the official White House video · public domain
Shortly thereafter, Sahil Lavingia — a software developer charged by DOGE with rooting out fraud, waste, and abuse at the VA — wrote a blog post.
"The world's first electronic health record system, VistA, was built by VA employees over 40 years ago. Maybe the government could in-source and open-source its software stack after all."
— Sahil Lavingia, "DOGE Days"
He was fired the next day.
In January, the inspector general who had helped expose the failures in Spokane had been fired as well.
Shortly thereafter, new VA Secretary Doug Collins wrote — in the Detroit Free Press — that Oracle EHR rollouts were among the top priorities for the Veterans Health Administration.
LATE 2025
Same warnings, new experts, new privacy concerns
GAO and the Washington Post reported that few improvements had been made to the product being deployed at VA — including to known safety risks. Their concerns were ignored.
Meanwhile, new concerns had emerged about patient data privacy: outside VA, Oracle Health was being sued over security breaches and monetization of identifiable patient data.
Rep. Budzinski, asking whether veterans' data would be used to train Oracle's AI · "Ready, Set, Go-Live: Assessing VA's EHR Modernization Deployment Readiness," Subcommittee on Technology Modernization · December 15, 2025
2026
Acceleration
Messaging about the virtues of the Oracle product — now rebranded the "Federal EHR" — has begun appearing in VA staff emails and on waiting-room video screens.
Waiting-room television at a VA medical center showing a presentation: 'March 17 — 25 days to EHRM — Michigan,' with the caption 'There are over 1200 super users in Michigan'
Waiting-room screen at a VA medical center · summer 2026 · "25 days to EHRM ⇒ Michigan"
The White House has requested $4.25 billion for further Oracle deployments in Fiscal Year 2027 — enough to double VA's psychology staff for five years. The House ultimately appropriated $3.4 billion. The Senate has not passed the budget. Click here to take action to stop the handouts … or keep reading.
Meanwhile, Oracle rollouts have accelerated at VA medical centers — in Michigan, Indiana, Ohio.
Clinicians at those sites report the same issues documented at every Oracle site for six years:
▸
No historic patient notes migrated from CPRS-VistA.
▸
Work that used to take seconds — order entry, notewriting, scheduling — now takes minutesor more.
▸
Dozens of staff have been pulled from clinical duties — including at other VAs — to babysit the Oracle EHR.
▸
Morale is plummeting, moral injury is rampant, and clinicians are weighing early retirement.
▸
Productivity has been ramped down, appointments cancelled, and patients pushed to Community Care.
▸
Referrals appear to be disappearing into an unknown queue after successful entry by providers.
▸
Rumors abound regarding serious patient harms.
"I now write out prescriptions to private pharmacies old-school, on paper, because I don't trust it."
— a VA physician, December 2025
"The system should make us safer. We shouldn't have to figure out how to make the system safer."
— Gordon Winters, Army veteran and retired VA nurse
When clinicians and healthcare leaders speak up, they are ignored or silenced. Some have been asked to sign non-disclosure agreements.
On August 19, 2026, VA raised Oracle's contract ceiling by another $17 billion, to nearly $27 billion, and extended it through 2031.
The contracting documents record: "no changes to the nature of the work."
— Contract modification, August 19, 2026
On October 24, 2026, VA plans to deploy the Oracle EHR at 3 new medical centers, including the Louis Stokes Medical Center in Cleveland.
Take Action: 3 Ways
Read the History ↑
TODAY
It's time for VA leadership to stop treating its workforce, patients, and mission as expendable resources — to stop using VA dollars as Oracle's piggybank and VA administrators as Oracle's PR division.
It's time for Congress to stop rubber-stamping a crony contract from a corrupt administration.
It's time for VA clinicians to stop being silenced and to remember your oaths: first, do no harm; service to those who served; to care for those who bore the battle. It's time to stop blaming yourselves for other people's bad decisions, and asking yourselves and your colleagues to bear the cost.
It's time to stop the handouts.
It's time to stop the line.
It's time to stop the rollout.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
Start wherever you are. Steps marked anonymous require no name or email. Every path counts.
1
Join the movement
2
Learn more
ANONYMOUS
3
Blow the whistle
ANONYMOUS OPTION
1
Join the movement
Follow our social media, join a local Stop the Rollout community, and hear about other actions as they come up. A name and a personal (not VA) email or Signal handle are all it takes.
Join the movement on Action Network →
Or sign up right here
Get campaign updates by email: subscribe to the Stop the Rollout Substack.
Have two more minutes? Save the incident documentation guide for your records.
2
Learn moreANONYMOUS
Read the history above. Read the peer-reviewed case against the rollout. Check our sources against your own experience — that's what evidence-based means.
Read the comprehensive history (PDF) →
Attend the Stop the Rollout workshop — URGENT · September 14, 2026 →
3
Blow the whistleANONYMOUS OPTION · READ THE GUIDE FIRST
First, download the reporting guide — what to document, how, and what's legally protected. Save a copy for your records. Read it before you talk to anyone. Then, if you're ready, file an intake with the Government Accountability Project attorneys who are aggregating clinician reports.
Download the event reporting guide (Word doc) →
complete one record per incident · deidentify any PHI/PII
File an intake with GAP attorneys →
intake.whistleblower.org · (202) 457-0034
It's time to stop the rollout.
Click here to join the movement
WHO WE ARE
We are veterans, healthcare workers, and health policy and bioinformatics scholars, with frontline and leadership experience inside VA and other healthcare institutions. We aim to protect veterans by ensuring that decisions about VA health information technology are driven by safety, evidence, transparency, and accountability. We have watched a functioning, publicly owned health records system get replaced by an inferior, privately owned one — at enormous human, financial, institutional, and ethical cost. It's time to stop watching.
Page 2: Hear Charlie's story →
Written by veterans, VA clinicians, and health-policy and bioinformatics scholars. Every claim on this page is sourced to inspector general reports, GAO findings, congressional testimony, federal contracting records, and on-record reporting. Items still in verification are labeled.
Whistleblower Intake — Government Accountability Project
intake.whistleblower.org
Whistleblower intake system for Government Accountability Project. Securely submit and review case applications.
Billionaires and Techno Fascists Like Both Capitalist Candidates For California Governor
Becerra backers with business in Sacramento spend tens of millions boosting his gubernatorial bid
www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-09-10/special-interests-spend-millions-boosting-becerra-in-…
Sec. Xavier Becerra in a white shirt
Xavier Becerra, who is running for governor of California, prepares to answer a question from the media after touring businesses in Little Tokyo in Los Angeles on Aug. 18. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
Seema Mehta.Portrait of Gabrielle LaMarr LeMee
By Seema Mehta and Gabrielle LaMarr LeMee
Sept. 10, 2026 3 AM PT
Powerful corporations and interest groups with business in Sacramento are among the donors that have poured nearly $50 million boosting Democrat Xavier Becerra’s bid for California governor, far outpacing Republican rival Steve Hilton.
Meta, which recently reached a landmark $17.1-billion child-safety settlement, joined Realtors, labor unions, tribes and healthcare groups in writing large checks to support Becerra.
Backers tout Becerra’s union roots and healthcare expertise as he emerges from a tumultuous primary and is the front-runner in the race to replace termed-out Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Companies and special interest groups with some of the diciest issues expected to land on California’s next governor’s desk are among the top financial backers of Democrat Xavier Becerra, the gubernatorial front runner.
Money from Big Tech, the healthcare industry, labor unions and tribes helped propel Becerra’s bid for governor, which languished at the outset then took off just months before the June primary. All are major players in national and state politics and have a major financial stake on the policies of California’s next governor.
Meta, which has contributed nearly $1.2 million to groups backing Becerra’s campagin, has faced mounting scrutiny by lawmakers and the courts. The Menlo Park-based company, which operates social media and communication platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, just agreed to a landmark $17.1 billion settlement to resolve multi-state claims that its apps endanger children.
The state Legislature in August also passed a measure to bar social media platforms from providing an “addictive feature” to lure children, as well as bills to shield Californians from threats posed by the boom in artificial intelligence and data centers. The fate of these measures is now in the hands of Gov. Gavin Newsom, and the next governor likely will have to decide whether approve even stricter controls on Big Tech.
Meta is among eight donors that wrote seven-figure checks supporting Becerra’s gubernatrial campaign, with most of he money funneled to independent committees backing the Democrat that are not allowed to legally coordinate with the candidate. Campaigns often find back doors to do so.
Former state Sen. Steve Glazer, a Democrat who ran Jerry Brown’s successful 2010 gubernatorial campaign, said such spending is not surprising.
“Look, millions and billions of dollars are at stake, and the governor is the central point for all of that in California,” Glazer said. “It’s not a gamble anymore. You’re not picking a winner or a loser, right? So the floodgates open up for a runaway winner like Xavier Becerra.”
Xavier Becerra’s top financial backers include Realtors, labor unions, technology companies, healthcare groups and Native American tribes
Through his campaign committee and independent committees backing him, Becerra has received support from more than 16,000 individuals and organizations for a total of $48.4 million.
Table with 2 columns and 15 rows of data. (column headers with buttons are sortable)
Name Amount
California Assn. of Realtors $3,000,000
Laborers Pacific Southwest Regional Organizing Coalition $2,489,200
Pechanga Band of Indians $2,250,000
California Medical Assn. $1,400,000
Meta Platforms Inc. $1,195,000
California State Assn. of Electrical Workers $1,054,700
AirBnB Inc. $1,000,000
Uber Technologies $1,000,000
Yuhaaviatam of San Manuel Nation $578,400
Chevron USA Inc. $500,000
California Resources Corporation $500,000
Global Medical Response Inc. $500,000
DaVita Patient Protection Committee $500,000
McDonald's $500,000
Vlad Tenev, founder of financial technology company Robinhood $289,000
Table includes donors who gave more than $250,000. Amount raised as of filings available Sept. 3.
California Secretary of State
LOS ANGELES TIMES
Becerra, the former secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and a longtime congressman, won one of the top two spots in the chaotic June primary. Republican Steve Hilton, a conservative media commentator and strategist who was endorsed by President Trump, won the other slot to advance to the Nov. 3 election. Becerra is considered a heavy favorite to win, given that Democratic voters in California outnumber Republicans nearly 2 to 1.
Becerra has the financial edge in the race, raising at least $30 million while also receiving significant support from the independent committees. Donors have contributed $48.8 million to Becerra’s campaign committee as well as outside efforts supporting his bid, according to a Times analysis of contributions through Sept. 3.
Donors have contributed $48.8 million to support Xavier Becerra
Candidate committee fundraising, in millionsIndependent committee fundraising, in millions
Jan.2026
March
May
July
5
5
10
10
15
15
20
20
25
25
Primary election
Jan.2026
March
May
July
5
5
10
10
15
15
20
20
25
25
Primary election
Primary election
Primary election
Amount raised as of filings available Sept. 3.
California Secretary of State
LOS ANGELES TIMES
A Becerra spokesman said that although the campaign welcomed support from any donor, he would not weigh their contributions as he makes policy decisions if elected
“Xavier Becerra is laser-focused on making California work for working people — lowering costs, building housing, and making this state affordable again,” said Jonathan Underland, a spokesman for the Democrat. “Anyone willing to stand with us in that fight is welcome to join it, and we won’t hesitate to challenge anyone who gets in the way of that goal.”
His GOP rival raked in $18.8 million, including a $90,100 contribution from the candidate himself. Hilton’s top donors are billionaires and business executives including manufacturer Donald Friese and his wife Andrea, Silicon Valley billionaire Tim Draper, former Fox Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch, Google co-founder Sergey Brin, Los Angeles real estate magnate Geoffrey Palmer and the founder of defense contractor Anduril Industries, Palmer Luckey.
Executives and employees at Lighthouse Worldwide Solutions Inc., a company that makes contamination monitoring systems, contributed more than $474,000 to Hilton’s campaign.
A small handful of donors gave to both candidates. Uber and its employees gave nearly $42,000 to Hilton, while the company and an affiliated political action committee spent $1,039,200 supporting Becerra. Vlad Tenev, founder of the financial trading platform Robinhood, gave $289,000 to Becerra and $15,000 to Hilton.
A committee ostensibly established to oppose Hilton, an effort that effectively propped him up among Republican voters before the June primary, raised $2.5 million through large donations from the California Nurses Assn., the Service Employees International Union, the Democratic Governors Assn. and wealthy businessman Bill Bloomfield, an unsuccessful congressional candidate and Republican-turned-Democrat.
Hilton said Becerra’s financial backers are unsurprising and illustrate the “corruption” created by one-party rule in Sacramento.
“All these businesses and organizations assume he’s going to be the next governor, so they’re trying to bribe him,” Hilton said in an interview. “You can call it donations if you want, but it’s actually legalized bribery. … Big business and special interests are shoveling cash into his mouth in the hope that they can bribe him to do their bidding.”
Becerra, who served in public office for nearly 35 years, has a long history of support from powerful industries, labor unions and others with business before the government. During his 24 years in Congress, donors spent roughly $11 million supporting Becerra, according to the Times analysis and Open Secrets, a nonprofit, nonpartisan tracker of campaign fundraising. While he served as California attorney general for four years, contributors spent nearly $9.4 million backing him.
Among the former Biden Cabinet secretary’s top financial backers in the governor’s race are labor unions, healthcare groups, tech companies and Native American tribes that own some of the state’s splashiest casinos. All will probably be affected by decisions made by the next governor.
The Laborers’ International Union of North America and local affiliates and political arms, focused on infrastructure projects and the creation of union jobs, has contributed nearly $3.2 million. A committee associated with the California Assn. of Realtors that is focused on housing, real estate policy and property rights has spent nearly $2.8 million backing Becerra.
The Pechanga Band of Indians chipped in more than $2.3 million to efforts supporting Becerra at a time that gaming issues continue to be scrutinized.
A Pechanga representative said the tribe’s leader was unavailable due to travel but pointed to a statement he made before the primary.
“Secretary Becerra has stood with Indian Country for decades and understands Tribal sovereignty. When tribal healthcare was on the line, he was there,” said Tribal Chairman Mark Macarro. “This experience comes from a lifetime of public service, not a checkbook.”
The California Medical Assn. has spent nearly $1.5 million backing Becerra at a time of deep impending federal healthcare funding cuts and efforts by the state to backfill that lost financial support.
Dr. René Bravo, president of the California Medical Assn., which represents more than 50,000 physicians, said their spending was spurred by their belief that Becerra is the best candidate to take on impending federal healthcare funding cuts that will harm millions of Californians access to care.
“Xavier Becerra understands healthcare and the challenges facing patients and physicians. The next governor will make critical decisions on MediCal, the physician workforce, affordability and access to care,” Bravo said. “We’re investing in this race because those decisions will directly affect California patients and physicians.”
Meta declined to comment on its contributions, and the Realtors and the Laborers did not respond to requests for comment.
Becerra, asked about the Realtors’ large donations supporting his campaign, noted that most of the money was contributed to committees outside his control. But he argued that his policy priorities have long been clear, including when he was an afterthought in the gubernatorial race.
“I was pretty clear in the primary, where I wasn’t getting as much support from a lot of different folks,” Becerra said Friday at a news conference in north Long Beach supporting Proposition 1, a proposed $11.25-billion bond measure on the November ballot to boost affordable housing construction around the state.
“What I will tell you is this: Take a look at my record. Take a look at what I’ve said, and rather than look to inflated promises, look at what I’ve done in my record,” Becerra said, standing in front of Laborers’ International Union of North America members clad in orange safety vests. “And I will tell you, I have built, not just as a public servant, but when I was wearing myself that orange vest as a construction worker, as a laborer for Local 185, in my younger years, I was out there helping build. And so what we’re going to do is we’re going to do what we need to do, regardless what the voices say. We’re doing it because the people demand it.”
Fossil fuel and renewable energy firms have also supported Becerra. Chevron and affiliated groups and employees, spent more than $1.1 million boosting his bid — money that his Democratic rivals in the governor’s race and other critics, including climate activist Jane Fonda, pounced upon before the primary.
Billionaire hedge fund founder Tom Steyer deployed mobile billboards touting Becerra saying “You need Chevron, I need Chevron,” a clip from a longer comment about how every Californian doesn’t drive an electric car.
Chevron did not respond to a request for comment.
Earlier this year, Becerra was a single-digit polling afterthought in the crowded race to replace Newsom, who is termed-out. But after a dizzying primary that included a potential front-runner, then-Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Dublin), dropping out amid allegations of rape and sexual assault, Becerra took the lead in the Democratic field and placed first in the June election.
Becerra, 68, has a long career in elected office, serving two years in the state Assembly, 24 years in Congress, four years as California’s attorney general, and four years in the Biden administration.
While he was in Congress, donations to his federal campaign committee grew dramatically, according to an analysis of Federal Election Commission documents provided by Open Secrets.
In the early 1990s, Becerra was receiving donations in the low six figures, but by the end of his time in Congress, he was receiving well over $1 million during each two-year electoral cycle.
Finance, insurance and real estate firms and trade groups, such as Charles Schwab, the National Assn. of Insurance and Financial Advisors, the New York Life Insurance Co., Merrill Lynch and Pacific Life Insurance, were major supporters of Becerra, who served on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, which regulates taxation. Such donors contributed more than $2.6 million to his congressional bids, according to Open Secrets.
Healthcare interests came in a close second, contributing more than $2.4 million to his congressional campaigns in the years before he was nominated and confirmed as Biden’s secretary of Health and Human Services, according to Open Secrets. Among the groups that supported
Becerra’s federal campaigns included organizations representing physical therapists, anesthesiologists, podiatrists, assisted living and long term care facilities, and dietitians. While in Congress, Becerra was a strong advocate and supporter of the Affordable Care Act, a landmark healthcare overhaul championed by former President Obama.
Labor donated more than $1.7 million to Becerra’s congressional bids, a trend that continued when he ran for attorney general. Unions representing laborers, electrical workers, pipe fitters and firefighters donated $1 million, according to the Times analysis. The number has spiked to $6.3 million for Becerra’s gubernatorial bid.
Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, president of the powerful California Labor Federation, said Becerra’s personal and political resume are significant at a time when the next governor will need to tackle artificial intelligence and the potential resulting job losses, the state’s volatile budget and federal funding cuts to MediCal and Medicare.
“He comes from a union family,” she said. “He has a long history of being on the right side of working people in a lot of different roles — in Congress, as attorney general and as secretary of Health and Human Services.”
Becerra backers with business in Sacramento spend tens of millions boosting his gubernatorial bid
www.latimes.com
Companies and special interest groups with some of the diciest issues expected to land on California’s next governor’s desk are among the top financial backers of Democrat Xavier Becerra, the gubernat…