The Gov Hub Newsletter: October 7, 2025

AB246: This bill came in reaction to DOGE’s dangerous cuts to SSI and provides protection from eviction for up to six months for tenants that see a decrease in their household income as a result of a social security payment being interrupted.

AB628: This new law requires that in order for a rental unit to be considered habitable or rentable rather, it has to include a working stove and fridge.

AB414: This new law requires that landlords return security deposits electronically if that's what their tenant wants instead of just the ol’ paper check situation.

AB806: This new law mandates that mobile home parks are not allowed to prevent residents from either installing or using AC. It also requires that mobile home parks provide an indoor cooling common area during Extreme Heat Warnings.

AB863: This new language access-forward law directs the Judicial council to consolidate eviction summons by making them all one, multilingual form.

$16.6M to maintain SNAP benefits + $1.2M to maintain SNAP staff at UNM & NMSU

$8M for food banks and pantries

$2M for school-based food programs

$1.5M to help people meet work requirements for benefits

$3M for nonprofit health clinics

Trump and TX Gov. Greg Abbott has sent Texas National Guard troops to Chicago for “law enforcement,” a move that both IL Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson didn’t ask for, didn’t want, and are fully against.

ICE violently handcuffed Chicago Alderperson Jessie Fuentes [equivalent of a city councilperson] in a hospital where they brought a man that they’d detained, who was injured as a result of them chasing him. Fuentes simply asked if they had a signed judicial warrant, and this was their reaction.

ICE conducted a violent, middle of the night, military-style raid in a Chicago apartment building, rappelling from a helicopter into the building where they threw flash bang grenades, and proceeded to detain children and adults with zip ties. Citizens were amongst those handcuffed and detained.

Also in Chicago, a border patrol agent was caught on candid cam tackling a civilian and making a threat to bystanders. ICE also teargassed Chicago Police Department Officers “by accident,” which follow accusations from Broadview Police Chief Thomas Mills that ICE has verbally harassed him and that ICE has called in fake 911 calls to drain the department’s resources.

In  Colorado, ICE stopped a family at gunpoint, smashing the windows of a couple driving with their 1-month-old baby. The family was returning home from the Alamosa County courthouse when they were aggressively stalked and forced to pull over.

The current president said he’d be open to using the Insurrection Act to deploy military force if the federal courts continue to legally cock block him from sending National Guard troops into places that he dislikes but claims are “war zones.”

A Trump-appointed federal judge threw a big ol’ rejection at the Trump Admin’s efforts to send National Guard troops to Portland, Oregon, blocking the move not just once, but twice in the course of two days.

SCOTUS is hearing arguments for a case that challenges conversion therapy bans – bans that exist in almost half of U.S. states that push back against a scientifically discredited and harmful practice. The case made its way to the court from Colorado as a result of a challenge from a “Christian” counselor claiming that the law violates her 1st Amendment rights.

In Epstein files related news, SCOTUS said no to considering Ghislaine Maxwell’s appeal of her sex trafficking convictions. Then, adding to the plot, Trump said he’d consider a pardon for Maxwell - oh, and also Diddy, he’d consider that one too.

Despite pressure from the founder of the defunct Trump University [the current president btw, a federal prosecutor has declined to charge one of Trump’s vendetta targets, NY AG Tish James, with mortgage fraud. The reason? The prosecutor found no probable cause.

An investigation is under way after South Carolina Circuit Court Judge Diane Goodstein and former state senator husband’s home exploded. Speculation has run wild around the incident since Goodstein had recently ruled against the Trump Admin, which has temporarily blocked the DC election commission from releasing voter files to Trump’s DOJ; she’d also been receiving an onslaught of death threats recently.

The Treasury Department announced its big plan to celebrate America’s 250th birthday – the launch of a $1 coin with Trump on it. The coin drafts have gone live, and while they do include an image of the current president with his fist raised and his campaign slogan post-assassination attempt, it also shows him with a turkey neck and wrinkles even Botox couldn’t fix easily.

Country star Zach Bryan who has been mostly commonly in the news this last year for trying to silence his ex-gf Brianna Chickenfry with an NDA on their relationship, has regained some ground with fans after teasing a new song where he shits on ICE.

As MAGA continues to have a tantrum over Bad Bunny performing at the Super Bowl halftime show, Bad Bunny joked in his SNL monologue that people have four months to learn Spanish. Meanwhile, MTG’s personal tantrum on the performer’s selection has included her calling for Congress to make English the official language of the U.S.

The Utah state leg voted to approve a new congressional map that gives Dems two pick up opportunities. The new map still requires judicial approval, so TBD. 

A professor at the University of Washington went viral last week after she and her class chased a man out of her classroom that was trying to crash her class with Nazi salutes and slurs. 

In India, at the Durga Puja Festival, an artist portrayed Trump as “the devil” as seen here. The depiction comes amongst widespread backlash against Trump for his 50% tariff on Indian goods, a move that has widely been viewed as a betrayal.

Job growth has gone MIA, with Moody’s reporting ‘essentially no job growth’ over the last month. The analysis from Moody’s Analytics chief economist, as shared by The Hill, is that the job market is weak AF and not eating its Wheaties. 

Russell Vought of Project 2025 and now the head of Trump’s Office of Management and Budget is reporting that it may not pay federal workers currently furloughed as a result of the government shutdown. The Office is claiming that it has the right to withhold the backpay based on a wackadoodle-doo interpretation of the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019.

The Trump Admin are thinking [apparently they do that] about selling high-performing bits and pieces of the federal government’s $1.6 trillion student loan portfolio to the private market. According to reporting from Politico, the move would be legal after a Treasury Department consult and if it didn’t cost taxpayers money – the jury is still out on how that would even measure out.

Treasury Secretary Bessent, who is best known for his almost-physical altercations with fellow Trump Admin staff, announced that multi-tasking beyond comprehension is so0o0 back, by sharing that the Social Security commissioner will also oversee the IRS. That means Social Security Administration Commissioner Frank Bisignano will also be tasked with the day-to-day operations of the IRS.

This candidate to be the mayor of Jersey City, NJ filmed himself on a scavenger hunt to find affordable housing in the city – these were the results.

Filed under heartwarming content is this video of a young student getting advice from fmr VP Kamala Harris on how he should run his student council campaign. 

Meanwhile, under LOL worthy news, Pete Buttigieg responded to Tucker Carlson’s attempt to spread a rumor that he’s faking being gay in this interview.

Video has emerged of GOP Congresswoman Marianette Miller-Meeks [IA] telling Johnson County, Iowa Republicans that the only time she would ever hold a town hall with her constituents [those that employ her] was “when hell freezes over.”

Congressman Ted Lieu [D-CA] took to the members' train to share that the Dems are in town ready to work, and to showcase that Republicans are nowhere to be found.

AOC went to face-to-camera on TikTok to share what she learned from pulling a GOP member aside and asking them off-camera what their POV is on the shutdown and the impact of Trump’s bill on the rural hospitals he represents. His response is… well… you can watch her debrief.

ICYMI Congresswoman Madeline Dean [D-PA] held Mike Johsnon’s feet to the fire about Trump’s racist memes featuring Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer.

In a game called whatever Speaker of the House Mike Johnson can do to prevent a vote on the Epstein files, he’s continued to avoid swearing in newly elected Dem Congresswoman-elect Adelita Grijalva [AZ]. Grijalva has called the move “suss.”

The White House has frozen $18 billion in infrastructure funding for NYC that’s supposed to be used to fund the expansion of the Second Avenue subway line and construct new train tunnels across the Hudson [think NJ Transit]. Trump’s Transportation Sec. Sean Duffy says they’re withholding the funds because of “DEI programs.”

The government shutdown has continued without a path forward found on funding and the ACA tax credit extensions Democrats are fighting for. Democrats also want a reversal in the Medicaid cuts that Trump’s “big beautiful bill” put into motion. On the Congressional side of the fight, Speaker Mike Johnson [R] was called out on live tv for complaining that the capitol was quiet despite having sent everyone home.

The Ambler Road Project, which was approved during the first Trump Admin, then uno-reversed during Biden’s Admin, has come back online into the realm of ‘get after it.’ Trump has asked his minions to authorize the approvals for the 211-mile industrial style road through Arctic caribou country in Alaska in order to mine critical minerals like copper, cobalt, gallium, and geranium. 

A coalition of nonprofits and groups are suing the EPA for canceling the Solar for All Program, calling the move illegal. The $7 billion – billion with a B – program was supposed to make solar power more accessible to almost a million lower-income Americans.

Despite having zero research to back-up the following decision, the CDC gave a thumbs up to Trump’s CTA to split up what’s known in doctor speak as the MMR vaccine and to anyone as the one that you get to protect against measles, mumps, and rubella. The shots have been combined since 2009, and if split up [again, with no scientific reason for doing so], would increase costly visits to doctors offices and be a costly logistical nightmare for manufacturers.

While ACA/ObamaCare marketplace enrollment has increased across the country, KFF reports that 57% of Marketplace enrollees live in Republican congressional districts. 

As a result of Trump’s heinous “big beautiful bill” passing, Planned Parenthood Arizona announced that they are no longer able to accept patients on Medicaid.

Politico: What I Learned By Watching Every Pam Bondi Speech

AP: Fears of massive battery fires park local opposition to energy storage projects

Virginia Dogwood: At a Virginia roundtable, advocates warn contraception rights are at risk

Time: Gossiping Is Smarter Than You Think