The Gov Hub Newsletter: March 24, 2025

Cancel culture is now the Trump Admin just canceling gov programs and services...hell of a rebrand.

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Gov Hub
March 24, 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]

NC GOV. STEIN SIGNS DISASTER RECOVERY ACT OF 2025 PART 1: The first bill that Governor Josh Stein of North Carolina has signed is designed to provide disaster recovery relief to the western part of the state, which is still reeling from the damage spawned by Hurricane Helene. The “part 1” of the Disaster Recovery Act totals $524M in total aid and extends the statewide declaration of emergency until June 30, 2025. The line items in the package include:

  • $200M for farmers that lost crops due to Helene

  • $120M for a home reconstruction & repair program

  • $55M for local gov infrastructure grants that can help small businesses

  • $100M for to repair 8K private roads & bridges

  • $20M for debris clean-up

  • $9M for a school extension learning recovery program for kids that missed school

  • $217M to also help get people back into their homes in eastern NC

NY AG JAMES WINS LAWSUIT AGAINST ANTI-ABORTION EXTREMIST GROUP: New York’s AG Tish James won a lawsuit against an anti-abortion extremist group known as Red Rose Rescue. The quick skinny is that the group blocked entrances, harassed patients and staff, invaded clinics, and intimidated people trying to access their healthcare, which can be summed up as “unlawful obstruction.” The lawsuit was brought in 2023, citing violations of both the New York Clinic Access Act and federal Access to Clinic Entrances Act as reasons for the suit. Fast forward to now, and U.S. District Court Judge Kenneth M. Karas has agreed that the group used a coordinated strategy to prevent people from receiving care. As for what’s next, the court will schedule further proceedings to determine what the remedies will be.

ALABAMA PASSES PAID PARENTAL LEAVE FOR STATE EMPLOYEES: A bipartisan bill is headed to the governor’s desk in Alabama that will make state employees, including teachers, eligible for paid parental leave. The new mandate will offer up to eight weeks of maternity leave and two weeks of paternity leave after birth, stillbirth, or miscarriage of a child. The new policy aims to help with quality worker retention and bring the state in line with others offering similar policies. 

NM GOV. LUJAN GRISHAM SIGNS BILL THAT PROTECTS STUDENTS RIGHT TO WEAR CULTURALLY SIGNIFICANT REGALIA AT GRADUATION CEREMONIES: In New Mexico, Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham signed SB 163 into law, which ensures that students are able to wear clothing, accessories, and objects during graduation ceremonies that express their cultural heritage. The legislation takes particular note to prevent school boards or charters schools from preventing Native American students from wearing items of importance at graduation ceremonies. The bill passed unanimously in both chambers before heading to the governor’s desk.

FULL SEND…TO A FRIEND

Stories that are just about guaranteed to make it to the group chat

  • The Trump Admin is canceling the legal status of 532K immigrant – yes, as in people that “came here the right way” – demanding that they either self-deport or face arrest by ICE. The groups impacted are those that received status through CHNV, a Biden-era program designed to reduce illegal immigration - amongst the immigrants groups are Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans will be impacted.

  • Unbeknownst to many, undocumented immigrants file and pay taxes. For at least the last three decades, this has been the case, with the IRS keeping their information – like it’s supposed to do for all taxpayers – confidential. NOW, the IRS and Homeland Security are in the midst of making a deal, where the IRS could possibly share or confirm the addresses and personal information of the TAXPAYING undocumented immigrants with Homeland. 

  • Not to be confused with the gold(en) toilet, golden shower, or golden era that can be Googled in conjunction with the current president’s name, but the “golden dome” is the pie in the sky concept that the Admin wants the Pentagon to ‘“spare no expense” on building, i.e. a missile defense system that would defend the entirety of U.S. territory from long-range missiles. 

  • DOGE cuts are responsible for the indefinite closure of 425 campgrounds around PA. That means if you begrudgingly said yes to a camping trip this summer, you might just be saved by the bullshit. 

  • A new study shared the best state for women – Massachusetts – the worst state for women – Mississippi – and every state in between in how they fair. Texas for one, ranked 5th worst state for women nationally.

  • Broken down by this chart and Steve Kornacki, voter data shows that white non-college educated men and white college educated women are living in two entirely different and opposite political and cultural universes. Like, so far a part they might as well be on dif planets.

  • Cancel culture has taken on a new form with the Trump Admin with its USDA now canceling $500M in food deliveries to food banks. Per WashPo, the food deliveries canceled include meat and cheese, and that many food banks weren’t even notified of the change.

CATACLYSMIC CORRUPTION

Mostly stories that involve Elon and his besties

  • ICYMI, the Trump-appointed head honcho of the Social Security Admin [Leland Dudek] had a hissy fit after a judge blocked DOGE from accessing sensitive info on millions of Americans [think: social security numbers, medical records, etc]. The federal judge called it a “fishing expedition” and quote, ““never identified or articulated even a single reason for which the DOGE Team needs unlimited access to SSA’s entire record systems.” Dudek then threatened to shut down social security in total, which he uno reversed on when the judge clarified the ruling.

  • Billionaire Sec. of Commerce Howard Lutnick sat down with two tech dudes [one is wearing a blazer that clashes with his pants FYI for the eyeballs] to claim that if seniors complain when they don’t get their Social Security checks, they’re clearly “fraudsters” for complaining… which BTW is the narrative they’re trying to build outwardly to match with their plan of purposely sabotaging Social Security so that 1. No one gets their money that they’re entitled to 2. It makes the admin so non-functional it tanks its reputation.

  • The Trump Admin illegally fired this FTC commissioner who was investigating Amazon, Facebook, and Walmart, as well as the other Democratic FTC commissioner. The goal? Knockdown investigations into corps up to shady sh*t.

  • Creating a meme coin isn’t just tool-ish for the regular dude, but for a president it’s corrupt in the eyes of Senator Booker and Rep. Auchincloss, who both acknowledge that it enables foreign powers to funnel money to the president with no disclosure or oversight. 

EXTREMISM

…that’s the tweet [or the x]

  • This tourist from the UK was detained for 19 days in  ICE custody and was returned to Whales in “leg chains, waist chains, and handcuffs,” which according to her parents left her traumatized. It’s no wonder that both Britain and Germany have now issued warnings to their citizens about traveling to the U.S – and the same goes for this Canadian MP about Canadians traveling to the U.S..

  • Amongst those deported from the U.S. under the potentially illegal use of the Alien Enemies Act, in chains with heads shaved to a maximum security gang prison in El Salvador, is Andry, a gay make up artist and barber who was seeking asylum in the U.S. Then there’s Yamarte Fernández of Dallas whose own mother recognized him in a gov video – and to note, a man with no criminal record. The same goes for Francisco Javier Garcia, also a barber living in Texas, who trusted he would be deported to Venezuela, only to land at the El Salvadorian prison.

  • Both the Air Force and the Navy have sent out memos according to this reporting from Military.com, that warned troops to be cautious of the political speech they use online and IRL. The memos cited the Uniform Code of Military Justice’s Article 88 and how it responds to violations “for certain criticisms of the president or superior officers” and have been viewed as taking a threatening stance around free speech. 

  • An Iowa State Rep. with a beard as creepy as his views, distributed a booklet to every member of the Iowa House that says that women’s rights are the “scheme of the devil.” The booklet of bologna was written by the Christian nationalist group Capitol Ministries according to reporting from Iowa Starting Line.

TOP OF THE EARBUDS [& SCREENS]

Listen, watch, learn

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HEALTH & WELLNESS

In the club, we’re all sick

  • RFK Jr.’s proposal for solving bird flu is “letting it spread amongst flocks of birds on poultry farms,” something that scientists have red flagged as a strategy that would only allow a stronger, mutated variation of the virus to form and spread. Given that he allegedly thought cutting off the head of a dead whale and driving home with it was a good idea, a rational solution was certainly not on our bingo cards, so alas. 

  • For another decision devoid of logic, and frankly care for humanity, the Trump Admin is considering axing the CDC’s HIV prevention division. Per NBC, the move would not just put the 1.1-1.2 million people who are vulnerable to acquiring HIV, but would put the burden on states [and taxpayers] for prevention initiatives. 

  • The anti-vax admin directed the NIH [National Institutes of Health] to terminate tons of grants for projects that focus on both vaccine use and hesitancy. One of the projects given the “bye bye birdy” was Dr. Sophia Newcomer’s on vaccine and healthcare access in rural areas, which PBS chatted with her on.

  • On the hate on vaccine train is Republicans in West Virginia who are proposing making the state the only in the country to not have a mandatory childhood immunization program.

  • Sorry to bring this back to RFK Jr, but really all roads seem to lead there these days… and this one to a directive he made to the org he used to head/lead/be in charge of to take down a FAKE CDC website they were allegedly using to influence people’s health decisions. Translation: fake a government website loaded with inaccurate and/or highly biased misinformation.

  • Then in what’s known as Cancer Alley in Louisiana, the Trump Admin has dropped a lawsuit against the Denka petrochemical plant that is accused of emitting unsafe levels of toxic chemical chloroprene. The reason for the drop? “DEI.”

THE ACTION ITEMS

Get ‘em done from your phone

ACTION 1 – FEDERAL JUDGES

The Ask: Tell Congress not to impeach, attack, or go after federal judges just because they don’t like their rulings.

The Background: The Trump Admin and anyone Elon can buy are introducing legislation to limit the rulings of or throw out federal judges that they just don’t like. There are three bills introduced in Congress in this camp so far – The PEPPER Act, the Judges Act, and the No Rogue Rulings Act. It’s a no on all three.

ACTION 2 – SOCIAL SECURITY

The Ask: Tell Congress not to gut & kill social security – in case you missed this one last week + you should do it again TBH.

The Background: Millions of Americans rely on their lifetime earned social security benefits to keep a roof over their heads, food on their tables, and the lights on. Failing to protect these hard-earned benefits that people have paid into should not be an option Congress even considers no matter what Elon says on a whim.

BACK ON OUR BILLSH*T

NEW MEXICO, SAFETY: New Mexico’s state Senate has voted “yes” on a bill that would create a “Turquoise safety alert” akin to an “Amber alert” to hasten the sharing of information on Native Americans that go missing. Similar in function, the turquoise alerts would generate cellphone alerts from law enforcement when evidence is found of “imminent danger in the disappearance of a Native American” according to AP.

CHRONICALLY ONLINE

Politics meets social media

  • This Fox News host shared out loud this sentiment about providing disabled kids with a public education “we’re against it.” 

  • The Florida Dept of Edu published a list of approved books where it misspelled “9th” and “12th” grade over 60 times. The jokes write themselves.

  • Kara Swisher chatted with Monica Lewinsky on what the tech industry would look like if women had been and were involved, dropping this theory on how AI has arisen because of men’s desire to “make life” and have “control.”

KEY READS

Important stories from around the USA

  • Politico: It’s not just impeachments. Republicans are eyeing other ways to rein in federal judges.

  • USA Today: Changing the narrative: how Trump 2.0 is reframing George Floyd and the 2020 protests

  • The Hill: Fungus labeled ‘urgent threat’ by CDC is spreading rapidly, hospital study finds 

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