The Gov Hub Newsletter: June 10, 2025

Welcome to The Gov Hub Newsletter by Girl and the Gov® – a Dem tent weekly that shares action items you can do from your phone, good political news, civic engagement tools and topics, and a little dose of political goss too, right to your inbox.  

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GOOD NEWS BEARS

Positive political wins [yes, those do exist]

CA GOV. NEWSOM LAUNCHES CAL-ASSIST MORTGAGE FUND FOR CA DISASTER SURVIVORS: With the goal of helping those impacted by recent disasters, including the LA firestorms, California is launching the CalAssist Mortgage Fund. Eligible Californians whose homes were destroyed or are now uninhabitable will be able to apply for grants through the program to cover up to three months of mortgage payments, capped at $20,000 total. The $105M fund is rounded out further with $25M in housing counseling support via the California Housing Finance Agency [CALHFA]’s National Mortgage Settlement Housing Counseling Program. For those that apply for the grants, the application is free and the grants do not have to be repaid. Importantly as well, for those approved, the grants be sent directly to an approved homeowner’s mortgage servicer. 

ILLINOIS AWARDS $23M IN EQUITABLE ENERGY FUTURE GRANTS: Gov. JB Pritzker in partnership with the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity announced a boost to the state’s goal of supporting and building out the clean energy workforce. The boost comes in the form of $23M in funds made available through the Equitable Energy Future Grant Program, which puts seed funding and pre-development funding into the hands of qualified contractors and entities to bring energy efficiency and renewable energy projects to fruition in historically disadvantaged communities. Alongside this round of awarded funds, applications have opened for a 3rd round through December 31, 2025.

MD GOV. MOORE ANNOUNCES GRANTS TO ADDRESS TEACHER SHORTAGE: Per Gov. Wes Moore’s office, the Maryland Higher Education Commission is allocating $1M in grants across 11 colleges and universities in the state to train displaced federal workers interested in pivoting to a role in teaching. The grants give participating educational institutions the assist in providing former federal workers with the training and licensure support to get them up and running in a teaching career. In the same vein, the program support aims to help shore up the approximately 1,600 teacher vacancies across Maryland.

KANSAS GOV. KELLY INVESTS $2.3M IN DIGITAL WORKFORCE READINESS PROGRAMS: With the goal of leveling up workforce readiness in Kansas, Gov. Laura Kelly announced $2.3M in investment for the DOCK Program, or rather the Digital Opportunities to Connect Kansans. Via the Kansas Office of Broadband Development, DOCK will partner with 13 community organizations to bring access to digital tools and training to an estimated 50K residents. The participating organizations will cover a range of educational verticals from digital literacy to digital safety.

ELECTORAL WIN → San Antonio, Texas – the 7th largest city in the country – elected Gina Ortiz Jones as their next Mayor, winning the runoff election.

EXTREMISM

…that’s the tweet [or the x]

*Editor’s Note: Many of the stories below are fluid, meaning updates are coming in frequently and each has the possibility of changing within minutes, hours, etc of the send of this newsletter. The below represents a recap of the latest at the time that this newsletter was sent.

• The protests against ICE raids using military-style tactics in Los Angeles, or more specifically, people that are masked, without badges, consistent uniforms, or warrants that are kidnapping people, putting them in unmarked cars and taking them to unknown locations, have a number of components to them. The top-line ATM:

  • PRESS: Journalists being shot at by law enforcement including a NY Post reporter shot in the head with a rubber bullet, a 9 News Australia reporter being shot by a rubber bullet, a photojournalist being shot with an explosive device, and a CNN crew being escorted out of the protest zone they were covering and being asked by cops to put their hands behind their backs…

  • TRUMP CALLS FOR NEWSOM’S ARREST: First, the border czar [Tom Homan] failed to rule out arresting California Gov. Newsom or LA Mayor Karen Bass. Trump, when asked if his border czar should arrest Newsom, said “I would do it… I think it would be a great thing.” Newsom’s response covered two elements – one that arresting a governor of either party would be a huge escalation, and two – “arrest me already and leave these kids alone.”

  • THE LEGALITIES IN MOTION: 

    • Trump made the false claim, aka lied that he’d told Gov. Newsom that he would federalize the National Guard if Newsom didn’t get the protests under control. Per Newsom, “he’s a stone cold liar.” And to add, Trump had Truth Social’d that the “national guard was doing a great job” BUT THE NATIONAL GUARD WAS NOT EVEN DEPLOYED THERE YET.

    • The Troop Component 2.0: Trump deployed 2,000 National Guard members Saturday under the guise of “the city burning,” then on Monday, he ordered another 2,000 to LA, followed by the Pentagon calling up 700 active-duty Marines to the city. The National Guard troops deployed, BTW have been underprepared, sleeping on floors, without federal monies for housing, food, and water. The Marines don’t have orders other than to “protect federal buildings” meaning that they’re sitting ducks waiting for someone aka anyone to light even the slightest match to the situation, that would enable Trump to say “see it’s an invasion” and invoke the Insurrection Act.

    • California AG Rob Bonta has filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Governor against Trump, Hegseth, and the Defense Department led by the argument that Trump’s federalization of the National Guard against Newsom’s wishes crosses the bounds of legality.

  • REALITY SNAPSHOTS FROM LA: While Trump & co try to paint a picture of widespread violence, with Kristi Noem saying LA “is a city of criminals,” this is the reality on the ground in the majority, and this, this, and this.

• What’s ICE been doing? Let’s recap: They’ve been raiding kindergarten graduations, detaining 4th graders attending their immigration hearings, and traumatizing families trying to build better lives for themselves, oh and how could we forget accidentally detaining a U.S. Marshal. ICE has also been at all of the places criminals typically go – like to volleyball practice like this high schooler was doing, and immigration check-ins like this 19-year old soccer player was doing, and at a Home Depot to secure day labor jobs. And then there’s the citizens, like the 16 and 17-year olds described here that were profiled and hauled away by ICE.

FULL SEND…TO A FRIEND

Stories that are guaranteed to make it to the group chat

• GOP state Rep. Travis Corcoran of the live free or die state [that’s New Hampshire, btdubbs] took his racist, factually inaccurate thoughts and put them on digital paper [email], sharing that “African Americans are to blame for gun violence, not guns.”  

• Palm Beach Tan in Cleveland Park was visited by none-other than the guy behind the MAHA movement – yes, the one who’s anti-vaxx and wack, RFK Jr.

• In what looks and feels like a scene out of a WW2 documentary, tanks began to roll into D.C. for Trump’s birthday meets military parade which is scheduled for Flag Day. Whatever happened to birthday cake and balloons? Guess that concept is too Democratic?

• A new hire raising eyebrows, including his own, is the 22-year old former Heritage Foundation intern Thomas Fugate who was hired to lead terrorism prevention at the Department of Homeland Security. He has – and this may come as a shock – at the age of 22, no national security background, and according to this reporting, wouldn’t normally have even been qualified enough to interview for a junior position. 

• Do-nothing DOGE did it again – waste time and money, this time with relation to the Department of Education, which due to DOGE x the Trump Admin’s attempts to illegally shutter the agency, has forced employees on leave. But here’s the kicker – those employees, who are now barred from doing their jobs, but still have to be paid, which means that about $7M a month of taxpayer money is going out to pay these employees who are now idle. 

• Filed under “unqualified for the job” is David Richardson, the current FEMA head [yes, that does sound like a band from the 90s], who told staff that he had no idea that hurricane season was a thing…something that the Trump Admin tried to clean-up as a “joke” [no one is loling or lawling though].

• ICYMI, the Trump Admin is looking to cancel federal funding for California, having his team of [add your own descriptor here – reader’s choice!] people id-ing grants that they can withhold from the state. The irony/insanity/hilarity of r-u-fucking-kiddin’-me is that California is a donor state – like California is the reason red states stay afloat. Specifically, California pays $83 billion more to the federal gov than it received from the federal gov, which kind of seems like a big fat duh, since the state is literally the world’s 4th largest economy.

CHRONICALLY ONLINE

Politics meets social media

• The messiest break-up to date – Elon and Trump – has more accusations, finger pointing, highs/lows, and weird alliances than a Real Housewives reunion, and Congressman Jared Moskowitz [D-FL] seems to agree, meme-ing his dream reunion seating arrangements with the characters [actual people somehow] involved, and Congresswoman Melanie Stansbury [D-NM] who came to the House floor with a Real Housewives of Pennsylvania Ave poster. 

• Congresswoman Maxine Waters [D-CA] was denied entry to do her job – oversight of federal facilities – at the Metropolitan Detention Center, where SEIU California President David Huerta, who was arrested by ICE, is being held.

• Being undocumented is a civil offense equivalent to jay walking – this immigration lawyer explains it in under 60 seconds.

• The Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick is apparently under the impression that America can “build bananas” here, which was a calculus that came to light in a war of words with Congresswoman Madeleine Dean [D-PA].

• Congressman Eric Swalwell [D-CA] and Congressman Jared Moskowitz [D-FL] took a ride on the ~subway~ for an episode of Train Takes focused on how FEMA is not prepped and the Elon v. Trump feud.

• Senator Elissa Slotkin [D-MI] drilled into Trump’s nominee for national cyber security director, on his potential new boss's goal of slashing half a billion in funding for cybersecurity – something that has China and Russia salivating at the bit. Senator Andy Kim [D-NJ] also pointed to the math not mathing for the nominee, who claimed to care about cybersecurity, but then ain’t about funding the tools that make it possible.

HEALTH & WELLNESS

In the club, we’re all sick

• RFK Jr. broke his promises [**pretends to be shocked**] to Senator Bill Cassidy [R-LA], and fired all 17 CDC vaccine advisory panel members. The panel, made up of medical and public health experts’ j-o-b was to advise the CDC on three things – the safety, the efficacy, and the clinical needs of vaccines.

• Following the fall of Roe, the Biden Admin made the argument [and tried to implement it as a policy] that under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act [EMTALA] that emergency rooms that received Medicare dollars were required to provide abortions in cases where the life of the mother was threatened. However, as seen in the years since, states with abortion bans have fought this tooth and nail. FF to now, and the Trump Admin is hitting uno reverse on the whole kit and kaboodle, no longer requiring that abortion care is provided to patients in medical crisis. The expected result is uneven care amongst states and hospitals, delayed care that increases bad outcomes and maternal mortality, and more legal challenges around reproductive care.

• On the heels of two states voting to remove fluoride from public water [Florida and Utah], a new study published in the JAMA Health Forum found evidence that saying toodles to fluoride will increase dental care costs and tooth decay for children. The specifics: an estimated 25 million cavities that could’ve been prevented and $9.8 billion in costs that never needed to come out of consumers’ pockets.

• Following the Trump Admin’s decision to allow the sale of forced-reset triggers [makes semiautomatic pew pews fire faster like a machine gun], 16 states are suing, arguing that the allowance of these triggers not only violates federal law, but also worsens public health [context: gun violence was marked as a public health crisis by the Biden Admin’s U.S. Surgeon General].

BACK ON OUR BILLSH*T

Bills, bills, bills

FEDERAL, ICE: Senator Marsha Blackburn [R-TN] has introduced a bill that is essentially a legal subtweet at Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell, following him releasing an executive order designed to increase transparency around immigration enforcement operations happening in Nashville Metro. The bill “claims” to go after those allegedly “doxing ICE agencies” with the goal, per The Tennessean, of making it illegal to "publish the name of a federal law enforcement officer with the intent to obstruct a criminal investigation or immigration operation.” The bill – the Protecting Law Enforcement from Doxxing Act – goes after blue city mayors, per the Senator’s exact words, that she believes are “obstructing immigration enforcement activities.”

THE ACTION ITEMS

Get ‘em done from your phone

ACTION 1 - ARREST OF POLITICAL OPPONENTS

The Ask: Tell Kristi Noem & Kash Patel that arresting political opponents is a huge NO.

The Background: Congress has oversight responsibilities. Arresting political opponents performing their Constitutional duties is undemocratic and must cease.

ACTION 2 - MEDICAID [yes, hit send AGAIN]

The Ask: Tell your Senators to protect Medicaid.

The Background: The “Big Beautiful Bill” headed to the Senate. The cuts to Medicaid and SNAP cannot stand. 

KEY READS

Important stories from around the USA

• NPR: What powers does Trump have to send troops to cities – even if they don’t want them

• Politico: These Presidential Breakups From History Have a Lesson for Elon Musk

• AP: Florida agency tells newspaper to halt reporting angle on foundation associated with governor’s wife

• USA Today: When does a protest become a riot? Experts weigh in admit unrest in LA

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