Welcome to The Gov Hub Newsletter by Girl and the Gov®, which shares the latest from the wild west of political landscapes, highlighting news that fits the qualifications of the good, the bad, the ugly, and the downright absurd.

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GOOD NEWS BEARS

Positive political wins [yes, FR]

→ NJ GOV. MURPHY SIGNED A BILL CREATING CABINET LEVEL DEPT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS: In the Jerz, all-things military and all-things veterans have lived under one department – the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs [DMAVA]. And while ‘DMAVA’ is low key fun to say, the state leg agreed upon passing a bill that would split the departments into two, giving each the space and resources to fully tackle their mandates. As a result, the soon-to-be, cabinet-level Department of Veterans Affairs will be stood up in the weeks to come, with the legislation taking effect 120 days from its signing, with the goal of setting up the transition for success. The Department will be solely responsible for veterans affairs, covering everything from services to benefits, and beyond.

→ CT GOV. LAMONT ANNOUNCED THE CREATION OF THE OFFICE OF BEHAVIORAL HEALTH ADVOCATE: Made possible through legislation that had been passed and signed, the state of Connecticut has a new independent state office in the books – the Connecticut Office of the Behavioral Health Advocate. The new office’s mandate at-large is focused on ensuring that the state’s residents have access to mental health and behavioral health care resources. The to-do list for the office will include helping providers ensure they receive payments for claims submitted to health insurance carriers; providing deats and recs in the realm of behavioral health to agencies, lawmakers, etc; orchestrating public comment periods for new regulations; coordinating services with the Office of the Healthcare Advocate; creating a toll-free number that access the Office’s services; and more.

→ NM GOV. LUJAN GRISHAM ANNOUNCED FREE UNIVERSAL CHILD CARE WILL BE AVAILABLE TO ALL COME NOVEMBER ‘25: New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced that the state will be lifting the income requirements for New Mexico’s childcare assistance program starting on November 1, 2025, which expands access to care for all. It’s estimated that this policy change will save families, on average, $12,000/year. The policy decision makes New Mexico the first state in the nation to offer free universal child care. In addition, for local governments and schools that wish to create a new child care facility, they will soon be able to apply for low-interest loans to help bring projects to fruition. Child care providers will also have the ability to access more funding if they pay all of their entry-level employees at least $18-$21/hour and operate 10 hours/day, five days a week.

→ AZ GOV. HOBBS SIGNED AN EXECUTIVE ORDER TO PROTECT ACCESS TO COVID VACCINE: Following in the footsteps of other Dem govs, Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs has made moves to protect access to the COVID vaccine in the state. The moves come in the form of an executive order that directs the Arizona Department of Health Services [ADHS, not to be confused with ADHD] and the state’s Board of Pharmacy [BOP – yes, BOP!] to make the COVID vaccine widely accessible for those that want them. It also enables a standing order, or what is essentially a prescription, to be written by ADHS for pharmacists and other health providers so that they can administer the vaccines at-scale. The EO also addresses the guidance puzzle piece, directing ADHS to continue giving the 411 on vaccine safety and effectiveness to the relevant parties.

EXTREMISM

…that’s the tweet [or the x]

• Conservatives have taken it upon themselves to dox and endanger anyone that they disagree with by creating several different public databases [websites], including a professor watch list, that share who they think are “radical leftists” and their employers.

• A man in Utah has been arrested for allegedly planting a bomb under a parked media vehicle in Salt Lake City. It was reported that the device was lit but failed to function [thank God], and that there were more explosives found at the suspects’ home.

• Fox & Friends host Brian Kilmeade said that he thinks that homeless people should be executed via involuntary lethal injection. The comment was made during a conversation about the murder of Iryna Zarutska and the man arrested for her murder. Brian has since apologized for his incendiary and incredibly dangerous comments.

• Keeping the rhetoric at a fever pitch, the current president blamed the “left” and “left leaning groups” for the murder of Charlie Kirk, calling the left, “scum.” And with that it appears regardless of his stoke the fire modus operandi, he cares more about his ballroom construction than his deceased friend.

• Current Vice President JD Vance hosted the Charlie Kirk show yesterday under the guise of honoring his friend, but really was just soft-launching the vengeance tour that Stephen Miller has cooked up to go after left-leaning organizations – which Miller views as a part of a ‘terrorist network.’ Editor’s Note: the investigation into Charlie Kirk’s murderer is still ongoing, as in all the details on his political leanings, family ties, and everything else is still generally TBD.

• Starting with the 2027 admissions cycle, the nation’s service academies will allow students to apply with their scores from a conservative Christian based standardized test, the Classic Learning Test [CLT].

• The current president signed an order that will send the National Guard to Memphis, Tennessee. The argument is a “crackdown on crime.” The city’s mayor, Paul Young, shared with AP, that in contrast to the state’s governor, he not only didn’t ask for the National Guard to come in, but does not believe that their presence will do anything to reduce crime.

FULL SEND…TO A FRIEND

Stories that are guaranteed to make it to the group chat

• GOP candidate for Senate, current AG of Texas, and allegedly man with a wandering eye [and a lazy eye], Ken Paxton’s most recent extramarital affair – like the one that’s caused his wife to divorce him for “biblical reasons” – was had with a “Christian influencer and mom of seven.” The Daily Mail got down and dirty with the deats, alleging that Paxton and Tracy Duhon hit it off at the 2024 Kentucky Derby.

• MAGA is pissed at FBI Director Kash Patel, who has come under fire for his handling of the Charlie Kirk assassination investigation, namely the manhunt for the murder suspect. During the manhunt, he inaccurately claimed that the suspect was in custody, got into a yelling match with staffers, and appeared not to be in lockstep with Utah officials working the case. Patel will face the evolving critiques of his performance with this investigation and his role overall in the weeks to come when he finds himself in front of the Congressional Oversight Committee.

• Speaking of the FBI acting all WTF, 14 workers at the Yellowstone Valley Animal Shelter were sent to the hospital, after the FBI used its incinerator to burn two lbs of meth that they had seized. The incinerator is most often used as related to animal control, but is also used by law enforcement for drug burns.

• Fmr Missouri House Speaker, Republican John Diehl, pleaded guilty in federal court to pandemic loan fraud, specifically the misuse of $379K in loans that went to covering personal expenses instead of supporting his law firm through the pandemic. The man is no stranger to scandal, and came into national notoriety in 2015 when he had to resign from his post after he was found to have sent sexually explicit texts to an intern.

• Fmr GOP Congressman Madison Cawthorn was arrested in Florida over a no-show in court. The no-show is allegedly related to an incident where he was driving without a valid license. What a wild way to put your name back on the radar before potentially launching a Congressional campaign…

• Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna [R-FL] has been sending around a letter that already includes the signature of 15 of her Republican colleagues, with the goal of having a statue of Charlie Kirk made and placed in the US Capitol. Meanwhile, the GOP keeps blocking a plaque that was meant to honor the January 6 Capitol Police that’s supposed to hang in the Capitol. 

• An erotica novel made its way around Hill circles and to the White House because its alleged author is a Trump appointee. The 28-page smut writing apparently came from the pen of Tucker Stewart, the deputy assistant secretary of agriculture. 

HEALTH & WELLNESS

In the club, we’re all sick

• It’s been reported that The Trump Admin has plans to incinerate $10M of birth control and contraceptive methods that were once bound for U.S. foreign aid recipients. That’s not super new - what is new is a Trump Admin statement put out in response to an NYT piece, that as further explained by Jessica Valenti,  falsely paints all birth control as a form of abortion. TL;DR on why this matters: they’re trying to rebrand birth control as abortion to be able to ban it.

• Toward the end of the week, the crock of anti-vaxx cronies that thanks to RFK Jr are making up the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices will meet, chat, and vote on loosening vaccine recommendations and/or eliminating some altogether. On the chit chat crony chopping block, are the combo shot for measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella; hepatitis b is also going to b(e) discussed.

• The headline says it most: “CDC to fund study on debunked link between vaccines and autism."

CATACLYSMIC CORRUPTION

And other moves of disproportionate idiocy

• Missouri state Republicans have sent a plan to GOP Gov. Mike Kehoe’s desk that will push one of the state’s two Dem-held Congressional seats into deep lean-red territory, giving the GOP a possible seat pick-up in the ‘26 midterms. The plan, which Kehoe is expected to thumbs up, did cause a minor stir amongst a few state Republicans, including State Rep. Bryant Wolfin [R] who viewed the move as antithetical to conservative values and state Senator Lincoln Hough who voted against the measure and then was removed as the chair of the Appropriations Committee as punishment. However, the GOP is gonna GOP, and with the massive majority that they have in MO’s state leg, the plan has moved ahead to next steps.

• The Washington Post has fired columnist Karen Attiah, claiming that her posts critiquing Charlie Kirk using his own words are a violation of their social media policy. Attiah has rebuffed those claims and called the firing a violation of journalistic standards. For reference, one of the posts includes a video of Charlie saying these words:  “Black women do not have the brain processing power to be taken seriously. You have to go steal a white person’s slot.”

• In what appears to be a super anti-free speech, anti-first amendment move, The Trump Admin has said that it may revoke current visa or deny them going forward based on whether or not someone made light of the assassination of Charlie Kirk.

IT’S THE ECONOMY

Money, money, money

• Food prices have seen their largest monthly increase since August 2022, and per reporting from ABC News, prices are 2.7% higher now than they were a year ago.

• Farmers may get a government bailout or some form of government financial aid, as they struggle to stay afloat following a mixture of Trump tariffs, Trump’s trade war with China, cutting USDA programs, and cutting USAID programs. Apparently, the bail out is being discussed amongst Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins and members of Congress.

• The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office [CBO] dropped its latest economic projections for the next three years, and its… welp put your seatbelts on. The report projects more inflation, less employment, and less growth over the next year. The reason? The combo meal that is Trump’s tariffs and Trump’s “big beautiful bill.”

• A new proposal just dropped from the Trump Admin, and its goals/dreams/desires/literal pipe dreams, is to end the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program. The 15-year old program required big time polluters [think over 8,000 facilities and suppliers] to report their greenhouse gas emissions. The deats and data was then used to determine what rules can be made to reduce air pollution. 

CHRONICALLY ONLINE

Politics meets social media

• A clip making its rounds is this one – of Trump at his golf club in Bedminster saying “Smart people don’t like me.” And actually, there are two clips, because there’s also this one of him from his Fox & Friends appearance last week where his reply to being asked “how do we fix this country?” was “I couldn’t care less.”

• The collab post shared enough times to get its own CBS Evening News segment, is this one, a joint post from the Young Democrats of Connecticut and the Connecticut Young Republicans condemning and rejecting all political violence.

• In direct contrast to a message of unity, sitting GOP Congressman Bob Onder [MO] went on rambling rant about how liberals "embrace evil.” 

• Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear [D] hung out with Seth Meyers and told him how from his POV, as a Democrat he was able to get elected twice in a super red state.

• Congressman Josh Harder [D-CA] caught people's attention with this Reel introducing a bill to drain the swamp, the No Bribes For Politicians Act.

• Dem Candidate to be the next Governor of NJ, Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill went down to Monmouth to visit the track – and turns out she knows what a horse girl is.

LEGAL BEAGLE

Lawsuits & legal tings to know about

• Three former FBI officials have filed a lawsuit against FBI Director Kash Patel and AG Pam Bondi. The suit alleges that in order for Patel to keep his paycheck, he had to follow through on orders from the White House and Trump’s DOJ to fire them.

• The state of Iowa has been ordered to pay a number of transgender students, as well as leaders of an LGBTQ+ organization for denying them use of the capitol bathrooms while there in 2020. The suit alleged that they had been harassed and victims of sex-based discrimination and unlawful retaliation. The resulting settlement comes three years after the suit was filed, and does not require the state to admit any wrongdoing, per reporting from them.

• U.S. District Judge William Alsup ruled that the Trump Admin acted illegally when it used its Elon Musk shaped magic wand to fire probationary employees en masse. The judge ruled that while he views it as too late to reinstate the employees, he is requiring that the majority of the agencies involved with the firings send letters to each fired worker stating for the record that they were NOT fired for bad performances.

KEY READS

Important stories from around the USA

• Politico: 10 Political Violence Experts on What Comes Next for America

• The 19th: Women judges see rising threats to their work – and clear paths to defusing them

• WSJ: Divorce Plunged in Kentucky. Equal Custody for Fathers Is a Big Reason Why.

• Politico: The rural health ‘Hunger Games’ are underway

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