The Gov Hub Newsletter: June 16, 2025

The era of petty men, lame birthday parties, an a lot of fucked up shit

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Gov Hub
June 16, 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 AG BONTA DELIVERS $275K SETTLEMENT FOR CONSUMERS MISLED BY MAGAZINE BILLING COMPANY: Stepping back in time to 2022, an investigation was spurred by consumer complaints against magazine billing company, Pacific Magazine Billing. The complaints alleged that the company was using deceptive practices against consumers. Specifically, the company was accused of sending mailers that looked like bills for existing magazine subscriptions, but in actuality would unknowingly sign-up customers without their consent. The investigation led by a coalition of DAs and the California DOJ [led by AG Bonta], found that the company violated California’s False Advertising and Unfair Competition Laws. The resulting settlement has the company paying $275K [will go to enforcing consumer protection laws] and has banned the company from participating in the mail order magazine solicitation industry.

MA GOV. HEALEY OPENS APPLICATIONS FOR FREE EARLY LITERACY TUTORING FOR SCHOOLS: Massachusetts Gov. Healey announced that school districts can now apply for what is being dubbed as “high-dosage early literacy tutoring” for students in 1st-3rd grade. The program, created as part of the Governor’s literacy improvement initiative, will provide both 1v1 and small-group tutoring sessions for students multiple times per week for a 10-week period. The tutors will be provided to approved districts for free and will have both IRL and virtual versions available, all with the goal of enhancing literacy rates amongst students. Run-through the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, the tutors selected will be approved vendors that utilize evidence-based methods to ensure students have the foundational skills to build on throughout their education. School districts can express their interest in the program here.

NY GOV. HOCHUL GREEN-LIGHTS $325M IN GRANTS FOR CLEAN WATER INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECTS: A fresh round of funding through the Water Infrastructure Improvement and Inter-municipal Water Infrastructure Grants Program, totaling $325M, will be available for municipalities to apply for starting on June 20, 2025. The grant funding is designed to help municipalities repair and upgrade their drinking water and sewer systems, enhancing water and environmental safety, as well as creating jobs. Leading the charge on project priorities for grant applicants, are projects aimed at addressing PFAS issues, along with small and rural sewer projects. There are additional categories of note, with application help available for interested local govs here.

NC GOV. STEIN SIGNS BILL EASING LICENSURE BARRIERS FOR SOCIAL WORKERS MOVING TO THE STATE: North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein signed HB 231 into law or in the long words variation, entered the state into the Social Work Interstate Licensure Compact by signing said the bill. This move will enable social workers that have been licensed in other states, that are a part of the compact, to contend with less licensure bureaucracy should they move to North Carolina and wish to continue their careers in social work. The goal is to ensure that new residents are able to stay in the industry they’re trained in. The law will take effect starting on October 1, 2025.

EXTREMISM

…that’s the tweet [or the x]

  • Tragedy struck on Saturday, when a man impersonating law enforcement assassinated Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, and shot state Senator John Hoffman and his wife, who jumped in front of their daughter to save her. The politically motivated violence led to a manhunt for the suspect, Vance Boelter, who has since been apprehended. The suspect had a 70-person hit list that included Democratic elected officials, abortion activists and providers. Per the suspect’s friends, he was a Trump supporter, religious, and deeply conservative. Reactions to the violence at a snapshot:

  • Senator Amy Klobuchar [D-MN] joined Katie Couric to talk about the friend that she had lost - state Rep. Melissa Hortman.

  • Mike Pence, who condemned the violence and shared his view that it should be unequivocally across party.

  • And then there’s Senator Mike Lee [R-UT], who shared an image of the masked gunman [murderer] at the front door of one of the gunned down electeds, with “nightmare on Waltz street,” followed by this Tweet sharing “this is what happens when Marxists don’t get their way.” And as Jack Schlossberg puts it, he either is making fun of an elected official and her spouse being murdered OR is inciting more violence. 

  • Trump turned up the Sunday scaries last night, directing ICE to focus on and expand deportation efforts in cities run by Democrats, with a special focus on LA, Chicago, and NY.

  • In Los Angeles, there have been multiple reports that ICE is going to parks around the city and arresting caregivers, not sure separating them from the children they’re caring for, but then  throwing those children in the back of an ICE van until the parents are located – there’s a word for this BTW, and it starts with a “k” – can you guess it?

CHRONICALLY ONLINE

Politics meets social media

  • ICYMI, the GOP made three Dem Govs come to DC the chitchat with the cameras on in a hearing about immigration. The key takeaway however, is that the GOP members of Congress clearly were not familiar with NY Gov. Kathy Hochul’s game, which is evident AF with this Hochul v. MTG exchange, followed by this slay of a post by Hochul [translation for non-north east readers: “you’re pathetic].

  • In that same hearing, Massachusetts Congressman Stephen Lynch [D] can be seen and heard discussing ICE and it’s tactics, which he compared to the Gestapo, and shared how he’s proud of his Dem colleagues that are sticking up to the thuggary on display by the Trump Admin [and that Trump is a wannabe gangster].

  • Once upon a time, Pennsylvania and Delaware were one state, until they broke up on separation day, something that Congresswoman Sarah McBride [D-DE] and Congressman Brendan Boyle [D-PA] illustrated with this improv-style Reel.

  • In the petty Olympics, CA Gov. Newsom is in the lead [50 Cent is in 2nd] with this TikTok trolling Trump about how California could just cut funds from him, this TikTok showcasing Krisiti Noem’s many outfits worn as a political theater artist, this TikTok pointing to Newsom winning against Trump, and this one making fun of Trump’s wittle birthday pawty.

CATACLYSMIC CORRUPTION [& INCOMPETENCE]

Mostly stories that involve Elon and his besties

  • The newly confirmed IRS chief, Billy Long, is a former member of Congress from Missouri who can run, but can’t hide from allegations that he’s been ingratiated with firms that peddle phony bologna tax credits and a company - White River Energy, that according to RollCall dropped dinero into Long’s campaign fund that had been used for his failed Missouri senate run, which he then proceeded to use to pay himself back for a loan he’d made to that his own campaign…

  • Trump’s pick to lead the FAA, Bryan Bedford, isn’t exactly taking off with those that are fans of the truth because allegedly and according to reporting by Politico, Bry Bry lied in his official bio about being certified to fly aircraft commercially. 

  • Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill [and now Democratic nominee for NJ Gov] absolutely cooked SecDef Hegseth on why they had not received his nomination for Chief of Naval Operations, and highlighted, per her exact words “I think we again have seen the managerial incompetence.”

  • Citing meddling by the Trump Admin, all twelve members of the board that oversees Fulbright Scholarships resigned in protest. The now former board members, published a statement sharing that the Admin had commandeered their authority by denying scholarship awards to a big chunk of people who had already gotten the green light to carry out the Fulbright mission.

  • Treasury Secretary Bessent showed Senator Coons and fans of CSPAN that he was unaware of how many new Russian entities he’d used his sanctions authority to put sanctions on – btw, the answer was/is zero, so not exactly a hardball Q.

FULL SEND…TO A FRIEND

Stories that are guaranteed to make it to the group chat

  • Hosted at the same time as the D.C.'s weirdo fest, were the No Kings protests held around the country to the tune of millions of attendees – like so many attendees that the protests broke records for largest ever, with 2,000+ locations.

  • Providing further proof that D.C. is not a real place, staffers of New Hampshire Senator Jeanne Shaheen [D] spent a day last week manhandling a giant moose stuffed animal named Marty in and out of the elevators and office at the Hart Senate Office building for an annual event. Marty also made his journey down from NH with a giant stuffed animal bear named Kodak. 

  • In a walk through memory lane petty meets facts edition, California Governor Newsom’s office released this one-sheeter on the six times that Trump didn’t take over a state guard, like on J6 or at Charlottesville, accurately painting the picture about what Trump’s goals are this time around.

  • GOP South Carolina state Rep., Freedom Caucus co-founder, and father of two, Robert John “RJ” May III was indicted on federal charges for allegedly using a Biden-themed account to distribute child sexual abuse material. According to reporting from of all places, Fox News, the username was labeled “Joebidennnn69”.

  • It’s giving Madonna, it’s giving life, in the form of four iconic drag artists that attended the same performance of Les Misérables at the Kennedy Center as Trump and his besties like Laura Loomer. The Queens got cheers, Trump got boos.

  • Crafting a group chat roster is an art – and in this one dubbed the Hellcats, the roster includes four women veterans running for office, all Democrats. The GC of Congressional candidates that includes JoAnna Mendoza [fmr Marine, AZ] Rebecca Bennett [fmr Navy, NJ], Maura Sullivan [fmr Marine, NH], and Cait Conley [fmr Army, NY], is named after the first female Marines that served in WW1.

BACK ON OUR BILLSH*T

Bills, bills, bills

FEDERAL, ANIMAL WELFARE: A bipartisan bill has been intro’d by Rep. Jaime Raskin [MD-D] and Rep. Young Kim [CA-R] to “incentivize pet suppliers to donate leftover and usable food and supplies to animal shelters,” per the bill’s PR. The bill will have a Senate companion [tbh, waiting to see what BabyDog thinks of this] and nails it on cute acronym status being dubbed the BARK Act aka The Bring Animals Relief and Kibble Act.

FEDERAL, FENTANYL: The HALT Fentanyl Act, a bipartisan bill with the goal of tackling the opioid epidemic,  is headed to Trump’s desk for signature. The bill, and likely soon-to-be law, has fans and haters - with some saying that it will make fentanyl-related research harder to conduct, and others saying that this will help with law enforcement efforts around the trafficking of the substance. Regardless of POV, the Act makes an emergency rule circa 2018 that had classified fentanyl as a Schedule I controlled substance [harsher sentences for possession based on this classification], permanent.

THE ACTION ITEMS

Get ‘em done from your phone

ACTION 1 - TROOPS V. PEOPLE

The Ask: Tell Congress, troops should not be deployed against U.S. citizens.

The Background: As we’ve seen across the last week+, Trump has federalized National Guard troops and deployed Marines in response to protests against ICE. Instead of listening to the concerns of citizens, the Admin is actively working against them and putting Americans against Americans. 

ACTION 2 - PUBLIC LANDS

The Ask: Tell Congress, hands off public lands.

The Background: The Trump Admin is playing auctioneer with public lands, putting the environment, monuments, and local economics on the chopping block. Tell Congress, hands off.

IT’S THE ECONOMY, STUPID

That money though

  • The global economy is now on track to be the worst economy since the 1960s according to the World Bank. One of the central factors it names will not come as a shock, but for the record here is Trump’s trade wars.

  • Paging the legal team on this one – as Trump announced that he’s launching Trump Mobile phone service in the U.S. It’s giving Trump University 2.0.

  • Status Update: Since the Trump Admin turned the student loan payment machine back on, millions of Americans have seen their credit score drop because they are not able to afford the payments, never received a notice about payment, wait times to remedy issues are through the roof because of layoffs at the Department of Education, and so on.

KEY READS

Important stories from around the USA

  • NBC News: ‘Innocent bystander’ shot dead by ‘peacekeepers’ during ‘No Kings’ protest in Salt Lake City

  • AP: A Border Patrol agent died in 2009. His widow is still fighting a backlogged US program for benefits.

  • Politico: Trump has a plan to remake the housing-finance system. It’s baffling to many lawmakers and experts.

  • KUT News: A Texas law made college more affordable for undocumented students. What happens now that it’s gone?

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