The Los Angeles Dodgers said on Thursday they denied US immigration enforcement agents access to the parking lot at Dodger Stadium earlier in the day.
“This morning, ICE agents came to Dodger Stadium and requested permission to access the parking lots,” the baseball team said in a post on X.
“They were denied entry to the grounds by the organization. Tonight’s game will be played as scheduled.”
But Ice said in a response to the Dodgers’ tweet that its agents “were never there”, and Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs at the DHS, said in a statement that “this had nothing to do with the Dodgers. CBP vehicles were in the stadium parking lot very briefly, unrelated to any operation or enforcement.”
Ri-i-i-ght. What could be more American than rounding up fans at the ballpark and disappearing them? It’s the new National Pastime: Fascism.
John Carney And Eric Adams–Perfect Together:
After years of legal battles, Mayor Adams’ administration got a green light from New York’s highest court Wednesday to shift hundreds of thousands of retired municipal workers into a controversial, cost-cutting Medicare Advantage plan.
The ruling marks the conclusion of a legal battle that started shortly after Adams became mayor in January 2022, when a group of retired city workers sued his administration over its effort to eliminate their traditional Medicare coverage and shift them into an Advantage plan.
The retirees, concerned the Advantage plan would diminish the quality of their coverage, alleged in their suit the switch violates local administrative law they say requires the city to provide them with traditional Medicare, consisting of the federal program paired with a city-subsidized supplement.
Lower courts have repeatedly sided with the retirees, barring Adams’ administration from moving forward with the plan.
Until yesterday. Say, isn’t Delaware’s Worst Governor Ever a mayor somewhere now? Where there are mayors, there are retired municipal employees. Just sayin’.
Trump’s Cognitive Decline In Plain Sight (And Earshot–oops, did I say ear shot?). Please read this. If not for laughs, just to understand how the press is failing us for not pointing out the obvious.
Sen. Mike Lee Is Having A Bad Month. First, his callous dismissal of the assassinations in Minnesota. Now, this:
People across the political spectrum hope Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) makes like a tree and leaves national forests — and other federally owned land — alone.
Last week, the Lee-led Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee released a draft proposal, intended for inclusion in the so-called “One Big Beautiful Bill,” that would mandate the sale of between 2.2 million and 3.3 million acres of public land owned by the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service in the American West.
The proposal has drawn condemnation from lawmakers, environmental groups and outdoor enthusiasts of a range of political stripes. (See all the various condemnations linked in the piece.)
Lee drew strong condemnation from many of his fellow conservatives in particular, who have slammed the proposed sell-off as a betrayal of the American people.
Lee defended himself in a Saturday episode of Glenn Beck’s podcast, blaming the backlash on “falsehoods being circulated by the left.”
Because ‘the left’ controls the entire media landscape nowadays.
Judge Rules Against Trump Plan To Tie Transportation Funding To Immigration Enforcement. Which reminds me, which of these judicial decrees are being honored by Trump?:
A federal judge on Thursday blocked Donald Trump’s administration from forcing 20 Democratic-led states to cooperate with immigration enforcement in order to receive billions of dollars in transportation grant funding.
Chief US District Judge John McConnell in Providence, Rhode Island, granted the states’ request for an injunction barring the Department of Transportation’s policy, saying the states were likely to succeed on the merits of some or all of their claims.
The ruling came in a lawsuit filed by a group of Democratic state attorneys general who argued the administration was seeking to unlawfully hold federal funds hostage to coerce them into adhering to Trump’s hardline immigration agenda.
Democratic Attorneys General are one of the last bastions against fascism. Just sayin’.
Kill Your Lawn. We’re in the process of doing just what this Kent County Master Gardener suggests:
Lawns are the most irrigated “crop” in the U.S, covering approximately 40 million acres of land — twice as much as our national parks. They provide no nourishment to any species (except Japanese beetles), and they degrade the soil and watershed due to their shallow roots and the chemicals property owners use to kill weeds and insects and to maintain the color. While patches of lawn are useful for children and pets, most homeowners blanket their property with turf. The impact of this monoculture of lawn devastates the environment.
According to American Farmland Trust, over 31 million acres of U.S. farmland has been sold to developers since 1982. The USDA’s data shows that forested land has been the largest source of land development. Not coincidentally, the past six decades have seen a 40% decline in insect species, and a 50% reduction in bird species’ populations.
Most flowering plants and food crops need insects for pollination. Almost all of North America’s terrestrial bird species rely on insects for part of their diet. According to Doug Tallamy, professor of entomology and wildlife ecology at the University of Delaware, “A single pair of breeding chickadees must find 6,000 to 9,000 caterpillars to rear one clutch of young.” These caterpillars depend on native plants for nourishment. Neither lawn nor nonnative plants can do the job.
We’re fortunate in that our youngest daughter has a Masters’ in Sustainable Landscape Design. But, if you are a gardener, you can do this. This article has loads of helpful suggestions. After all, it’s nice to be thanked by a monarch butterfly.
Delaware’s New Marijuana Commissioner Taking Cautious Approach. Probably the right long-term strategy, but a bit frustrating in the short term:
“The sovereignty of the county versus sovereignty of the state is an issue above my pay grade, and so I don’t want to weigh in to what the state should do on that level, but it’s important that businesses have have a place to locate,” he said with a diplomatic grin, sidestepping the political landmines scattered around Delaware’s newest recreational marijuana industry.
Sanderlin said his main priority is to get the adult industry up and running, and to “let the industry thrive.”
“It’s just making sure that it’s done in a way that causes the least amount of those unintended consequences, and unforced errors that you have to go back and fix, which slows things down,” he said.
Al (not A. I.) will be writing tomorrow’s Open Thread as I’m heading down to Dover for the State Democratic Convention. My main purpose in going is to support the candidacy of Evelyn Waters Brady for State Chair. I had never met Ms. Brady prior to her decision to run. To say I was impressed is an understatement. She has demonstrated an openness and humanity which is what I believe the Party needs. Someone committed to growing the grassroots of the Party. I know her opponent well. It would be hard to imagine someone less-suited for that role than Cassandra Marshall. She used to blog here. If you go back to, say, 2016, you will see her repeat the pejorative ‘Bernie Bros’ over and over again. She is the opposite of inclusive. She is now the insider choice of the BHL/Carney minions. Not only would she do nothing to expand the party’s grassroots, she has demonstrated as the Wilmington Party Chair her desire to exact retribution on those who don’t kiss her ring. In other words, grassroots volunteers would not be welcome in her Democratic Party.
I hope I haven’t been too subtle here.
What do you want to talk about?