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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]

MA GOV. HEALEY ANNOUNCES THREE IMMEDIATE STEPS TO PROTECT ACCESS TO VACCINES IN THE STATE: In response to anti-vax health secretary RFK Jr., restricting access to vaccines, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey has announced three immediate actions being taken by her admin to do the opposite – ensure access to vaccines to MA residents. First on the list of actions, is Gov. Healey directing the state’s Division of Insurance [DOI] and the state’s Department of Health [DPH] to require that health insurance carriers in the state cover vaccines recommended by MA’s DPH – in other words, the gold standard of approval for whether or not a vaccine gets covered or not is no longer RFK Jr’s CDC. Second on the list of actions, is a standing order written by DPH Commissioner Dr. Robbie Goldstein, that will allow all pharmacies in the state to provide the COVID vaccine to anyone that wants one over the age of five [under five allowed via pediatrician]. An added positive layer to that win, is the DPH Commissioner has now been given the thumbs up to determine which routine vaccines can be given by pharmacists. Last on the list of actions, the state, as Gov. Healey’s direction is participating in a multi-state Northeast health collaborative aimed at protecting public health in the region. 

NY GOV. HOCHUL SIGNS AN EXECUTIVE ORDER PROTECTING VACCINE ACCESS IN THE  STATE: In reaction to the same anti-vax, anti-science RFK Jr. regime action, NY Gov. Kathy Hochul has signed an executive order that ensures that New Yorkers are able to access a COVID vaccine should they want one. Specifically, the EO does three main things:

• Allows doctors and nurses to issue both patient-specific and non-patient specific orders to pharmacists for patients 3y/o+

• Allows pharmacists to administer COVID vaccines for kids under 18

• Allows pharmacists to prescribe COVID vaccines

The EO is a part of a 30-day emergency declaration. In tandem with this EO, Gov. Hochul has opened the door to working on a long-term legislative solution with the state leg. In addition, Commissioner James McDonald has issued what’s known as a ‘standing order’ for the COVID vaccine, that will enable pharmacists across the Empire State to make sure they can be given those that want them, when they want them.

NC GOV. STEIN SIGNS EXECUTIVE ORDER CREATING AI LEADERSHIP COUNCIL & AI-FOCUSED INITIATIVES: North Carolina’s Gov. Josh Stein has signed an executive order on AI with the goal of ensuring the state is ahead of the curve when it comes to AI policy, literacy, and use. The EO has three core components. The first has created an AI Leadership Council that’s tasked with keeping the Governor and state agencies in the loop on AI policies, strategy around implementation, training, and so on that should be considered or built out. The second component has created the North Carolina AI Accelerator, that per the Governor’s Office, will operate, “within NCDIT to serve as a centralized hub for AI governance, research, partnership, development, implementation, and training.” Thirdly, the EO, requires that all NC state agencies have an AI Oversight Team in charge of AI literacy and fraud prevention training.

IL GOV. PRITZKER SIGNS BILL THAT REQUIRES PUBLIC UNI HEALTH CENTERS TO OFFER MEDICATION ABORTION & CONTRACEPTION: With the signing of a bill [HB3709] by Gov. JB Pritzker, Illinois has become the first midwestern state to require that public colleges and universities provide access to medication abortion through their health centers, tele-health, or a licensed outside provider. The new law, as reported by Ms. Magazine, also requires campus pharmacies to dispense prescribed medication abortion and contraception. The law, which aims to enhance access to reproductive care for students, has gone into effect for the 2025-2026 academic year.

HEALTH & WELLNESS

In the club, we’re all sick

• Blue states are banding together on both coasts to protect public health. On the west coast, California, Oregon, Washington, and now Hawai’i have joined forces under the banner of the West Coast Health Alliance. The partnered states are set to provide coordinated health guidance to their residents, specifically around vaccination, informed by scientists and public health experts that also rely on science.

• Florida’s Surgeon General announced that the state is going to end all vaccine mandates in the Sunshine State, opening the door for the state to become the preventable polio state or measles HQ – pick your preventable poison, ya know. The Surgeon General also claimed that vaccine mandates were akin to slavery. That very same guy, who somehow has a medical license, admitted that he and his team had not done any studies on the potential impacts of removing the vaccine mandate(s).

• Following RFK Jr.’s firing of his CDC director [reminder: for not wanting to cross the line with vaccines], he faced questions from the Senate. From the Dems, like Sen. Rapchael Warnock [GA] and Sen. Michael Bennet [CO], RFK Jr.’s incompetence was harped on and highlighted. From the GOP, like Sen. Bill Cassidy [LA], his hypocrisy was called out – but so was Cassidy, for having voted to confirm RFK Jr. who has long-been anti-vax. 

• Chagas disease, also known as the ‘kissing disease’ has made its way to the USA, and is hanging out in the Southern portion of the country ATM. The disease travels through an insect aptly named the ‘kissing bug,’ because it bites people on their faces. 

• In Texas, Gov. Abbott [R] is getting his signing pen ready for an anti-abortion bill that will enable private citizens to anyone that prescribes, distributes, or provides abortion medication to or from Texas.

• In South Carolina, a hearing has been scheduled for October 1st for an abortion bill that takes extreme to new limits. If passed, the bill, SB323, would put abortion and homicide on the same line [reminder: death penalty is a thing in SC].

• In Virginia, three rural healthcare clinics operated by the Augusta Medical Group, are set to close as a result of the major healthcare-related cuts coming through via Trump’s “big beautiful bill.”

• The CDC’s Foodborne Diseases Active Surveillance Network has scaled back its work of monitoring life-threatening food borne illnesses. It now only tracks Salmonella and a strain of E. Coli, and stopped its monitoring of listeria, vibrio, campylobacter, cyclospora, shigella, and yersina.

FULL SEND…TO A FRIEND

Stories that are guaranteed to make it to the group chat

• Trump’s Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent is rumored to have threatened to punch a fellow Trump Admin official, Bill Pulte, in the face at a MAGA podcast influencer birthday party last week. The reason apparently being that Bessent heard that Pulte was talking shit about him to Trump.

• A Cranford, NJ man went viral for protesting high property taxes at a board meeting, where his form of protest was breakdancing.

• The hug that raised eyebrows around the world last week was this one had and pictured between Congressman Ro Khanna [D-CA] – who has been spending time texting with notorious right-winger Steve Bannon – and Congresswoman right-wing conspiracy theorist, MTG. The hug happened at a presser with Epstein victims, pushing for a bill that would require the release of the Epstein files, an issue they mutually care about. 

• Trump attended the U.S. Open in NY and was, to the surprise of no one, booed en masse. And that reaction was actually expected so much, that the USTA was told to advise tv broadcasters not to cover Trump at the event because of ‘possible negative crowd reactions.’

• At the top of cringe mountain is the UFC event that’s set to happen at the White House in June 2026. Not to fear, there will apparently be weigh-ins at the Lincoln Memorial….

• In a rollercoaster of WTFs, Speaker Mike Johnson [R-LA] first claimed that Trump was an FBI informant as related to the Epstein case…followed by him saying what he said was a mistake aka not true…aka a lie.

• Oregon state Senator Cyrus Javadi announced that he’s switching parties, from GOP to Democratic. In his announcement he notably said, “I’m not leaving my principles, just aligning with people who still share them, still show up to govern, and are more interested in bipartisan solutions than obstruction.”

CATACLYSMIC CORRUPTION

And other moves of disproportionate idiocy

• There aren’t any roses in the White House Rose Garden, only thorns, or grifters rather [yes, including GOP electeds] trying to gain the fancy of Trump at what they’re calling the ‘Rose Garden Club.’

• A North Carolina state Senator was caught on candid cam on the legislative floor trading stocks while on the job.

• The push for the release of the Epstein files has continued following a major presser with victims last week, a number of them voicing their disdain for how the DOJ operating in this interview, and Congressman Thomas Massie [R-KY] revealing the name of the GOP mega-donnor that’s running ads against Massie, because as Massie claims, this donor is mentioned in Epstein’s black book.

• Under the Biden Admin, DOT head Pete Buttigieg had proposed a rule that required airlines to compensate passengers when they experience flight disruptions; the rule-to-maybe-be was in the public comment phase The Trump Admin, who put Sean Duffy, a fmr reality star and fmr airline lobbyist, in charge of DOT, has decided to nix that very rule. 

• Despite literally cutting healthcare funding for 9/11 first responders and putting them through bureaucratic red-tape nightmare x ten, the Trump Admin is looking into ways that it can take over the 9/11 memorial and museum in downtown Manhattan.

EXTREMISM

…that’s the tweet [or the x]

• Trump has a violence boner for places governed by people he doesn’t like or deems to be political opponents/enemies. Heading into the weekend, he displayed that passion in a weird AI social media post declaring that Chicago was going to understand why he’d renamed the Department of Defense, “the Department of War.” 

• Speaking of the department rebrand mentioned above, it was made possible through Trump signing an executive order, but in reality only makes the title “Department of War,” the department’s second name. The move, which is basically a gov way of deciding to go by one’s middle name, was done this way to avoid having to go through Congress.

• DHS announced that  it’s calling its immigration crackdown that’s supposed to start this week in Chicago, “Midway Blitz.” Vom.

• Trump told his besties at the White House Religious Liberty Commission at an event at the Museum of the Bible, that his Dept. of Edu was going to be issuing some sort of guidance or framework for “protecting the right to prayer” in public schools.

• A massive raid went down in Georgia at a Hyundai-LG plant, where federal immigration officials arrested 475 people just trying to do their jobs at work. The majority of those arrested are South Korean nationals – the South Korean government has stated that they’re assisting their citizens involved.

IT’S THE ECONOMY

Money, money, money

• Hiring has stalled faster than a stick shift car being driven by a first-time driver. August numbers show that the U.S. only added 22,000 new jobs and that the unemployment rate skyrocketed to its highest point in FOUR years, to 4.3%. The leading industries bleeding jobs are those associated with growth, construction and manufacturing.

• Arkansas farmers, who mind you, overwhelmingly voted for Trump [despite him screwing them last time too], are begging for a bailout. The reason? An estimated 30% of farmers in the state are expected to go bankrupt as a result of Trump’s tariff policies, as well as the Trump & Rubio-led decimation of the USAID.

• Mark Zuckerberg was caught on a hot mic during a presser with Trump. At the presser he was asked how much money he was planning on investing in the U.S. in the years to come – he said “at least $600B through 2028,” before whispering to Trump after, “I wasn’t sure what number you wanted to go with.”

CHRONICALLY ONLINE

Politics meets social media

• GOP Sen. John Kennedy [LA] took to the Senate floor with a horror movie-esque poster that an intern probs made, that depicted what he claimed would happen if you ate the radioactive shrimp that was recalled a few weeks back; his claim – posted on his YouTube BTW –  is that it would turn people into aliens.

• Sen. Richard Blumenthal [D-CT] pressed a Trump judicial nominee on the opinion that she’d disclosed around Roe v. Wade that it was “not workable” or “mainstream.” Also noted is the fact that this nominee isn’t even admitted to practice law in the state in which she’s aiming for a judgeship. 

• The MA AG’s office brought the Beyoncé memes to the feed with this post, connecting the dots between the trifecta that is actions taken on behalf of MA residents, MA residents, and the AG’s office.

• NY Gov. Kathy Hochul brought the chronically online term ‘crash out’ to the stage to discuss how the GOP and those waging war against normalcy, democracy, and decency, want “us” to crash out.

• Both Congressman Joe Neguse [D-CO] and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries [D] took to the mic [in different instances] to point out how obsessed Republicans are with talking about fmr President Biden – like Mariah Carey level.

• Congresswoman Sarah McBride [D-DE] put a pitch out into the universe to Taylor Swift & Travis Kelce, for them to have their future wedding in Delaware.

WEATHER REPORT

Climate & enviro-related deats

• In what feels like a members-club but for firefighting, California has offish joined the Northwest Wildland Fire Fighting Compact. The compact was started circa 1998, and gives its members the ability to share firefighting resources, tools, tech, etc. 

• The Trump Admin is on war-path to shutdown the agency that’s #1 task is to probe chemical disasters to understand ways to prevent them from happening again. The agency, the U.S. Chemical Safety Hazard and Investigations Board, is being called duplicative to other environmental and worker related  agencies.

LEGAL BEAGLE

Lawsuits & legal tings to know about

• Following Trump’s urging, SCOTUS decided to lift a judge’s previous order that had limited immigration enforcement from profiling people in LA based on if they spoke Spanish or worked in a particular industry. The decision was classically along ideological lines.

• A big fat “L” in the book for Trump with this news – a federal appeals court has rejected Trump’s attempt to overturn the $83.3M judgement against the current president, that’s owed to E. Jean Carroll, following her winning a defamation suit against him.

• SCOTUS however handed Trump another win ATM, allowing the Trump Admin to remove FTC Commissioner, Rebecca Slaughter. The specifics of the emergency request from the Trump Admin push back on the precedent set in a case from 1935 [Humphrey’s Executor v. United States] that had limited a president’s ability to fire FTC commissioners without cause.

KEY READS

Important stories from around the USA

• NY Post: South Carolina community pushes for hate crime legislation after Black man shot at while waiting to go to work

• Glamour: Jasmine Crockett Won’t Sugarcoat the Mess We’re In

• Politico: 2 Friends, 1 Senate Race and the Democratic Quest to Win Over ‘Normal’ People

• Axios: Black women’s unemployment spikes amid Trump’s federal workforce cuts

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