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Trump picks Heidi Overton, a top White House aide, to lead the Food and Drug Administration

WASHINGTON — Heidi Overton, a top White House aide, has been picked to lead the Food and Drug Administration, President Donald Trump announced Wednesday.

Overton is a medical doctor and deputy director of the White House Domestic Policy Council who has worked on several of Trump’s second-term health initiatives. She has become a trusted administration figure and a champion of the Republican president’s goals.

If confirmed by the Senate, she would have to balance a raft of competing priorities, including Trump’s fixations, the anti-regulatory interests of traditional Republicans, and the anti-corporate posture of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Those challenges dogged the tenure of the previous FDA head, Marty Makary. He resigned in May, leaving behind unfinished projects such as work on ultraprocessed foods, antidepressants, and COVID-19 shots.

Referring to her as “Dr. Heidi” in a Truth Social post, Trump said Overton was a smart and respected “rockstar” who would deliver on his priorities of faster cures, innovation, lower drug prices and more wins for Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” movement.

Kennedy posted on X that Overton has “exceptional judgment, professionalism, discipline and an unwavering commitment to the American people.”

Overton has promoted Trump’s health priorities

Overton attended medical school at the University of New Mexico and has a doctoral degree in clinical investigation from Johns Hopkins University, according to her LinkedIn profile. Before joining Trump’s second administration, she was the chief policy officer at the America First Policy Institute, a conservative think tank.

In recent months, she has appeared with the president to announce major projects, including some of his “most favored nation” deals with drug companies to lower prices to those of other developed countries and his recent vaccine order that sought to split the combined measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine into three separate immunizations — against the advice of medical groups.

At an Oval Office event to promote that order, she stood by Trump as he falsely suggested the number or timing of vaccines could play a role in rising rates of autism spectrum disorder. Scientific consensus and decades of studies have firmly concluded there is no link.

Overton has been critical of abortion pills and, if confirmed, would be positioned to roll back FDA rules that made them more accessible. U.S. abortion opponents have expressed frustration that the administration has not acted to stem the flow of such pills prescribed online, a situation they view as undermining state abortion bans.

Mifepristone is typically used with misoprostol in medication abortions that make up close to two-thirds of abortions in the U.S. Medical professionals call it “among the safest medications” ever approved by the FDA.

To be confirmed, Overton must seek approval from a narrowly Republican-led Senate and face questions from the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. Its chair, Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, a physician from Louisiana, has been a vocal critic of some of Trump’s actions to sow doubt in vaccinations, including the MMR order.

Democratic senators slammed the nomination on social media.

“Heidi Overton is a far-right, anti-abortion extremist who has no business leading the FDA,” posted Washington Sen. Patty Murray, a committee member.

Makary’s replacement will face challenges he left behind

Before he left the FDA, Makary had drawn complaints from health industry executives and anti-abortion activists. The frustration with him came to a head over the agency’s lack of movement on flavored e-cigarettes. Companies such as R.J. Reynolds are seeking to market to adult smokers, but sweet-flavored vapes have long been blamed for the trend of teenage vaping. FDA scientists have hesitated to endorse those products to curb adult smoking.

Days before Makary’s departure, the agency opened the door to allowing more unauthorized electronic cigarettes and nicotine pouches onto the U.S. market, in a policy change that essentially bypassed FDA experts.

Pharmaceutical companies will be looking for changes at the agency, too, after rejections or reversals of biotech drugs intended for rare diseases. Complaints from biotech companies, investors and patient groups have grown and been taken up by conservative lawmakers.

Makary tried to assuage industry grievances, in part by announcing new programs designed to streamline or accelerate drug approvals. Some of those initiatives, however, have meant new headaches for the agency.

Several of Makary’s deputies also exited the agency.

Vinay Prasad, the vaccine and biotech chief, stepped down in April following intense criticism from drugmakers, patients and investors. Tracy Beth Hoeg, who was involved in scrutinizing the safety of antidepressants, COVID-19 vaccines, and other widely used therapies, was replaced as FDA’s acting drug center director.

MAHA has high expectations of FDA’s next head

Overton would also need to tend to the priorities of Kennedy’s health movement, some members of which are already skeptical of her.

Kelly Ryerson, an activist critical of pesticides who is known to her supporters as “Glyphosate Girl,” told The Associated Press that Overton parroted pesticide manufacturer Bayer’s talking points in a MAHA roundtable at the White House in April.

“I was stunned by the blatant, undisguised corruption,” Ryerson said.

One major decision for the next commissioner is what to do about peptide regulation. A panel of federal health advisers selected by Kennedy recently recommended easing access to several peptides that are popular with wellness influencers and celebrities, despite warnings from FDA scientists that the chemicals have not been shown to be safe or effective.

The agency recently proposed a rule change that would require food manufacturers to notify regulators before introducing new ingredients or additives into processed or packaged foods. But it is still working with the White House to finalize a first-of-its-kind definition of ultraprocessed foods, which Kennedy blames for elevated rates of diabetes, obesity and other chronic conditions.

Under Kennedy, the FDA has set up extra hurdles for vaccine testing and blocked the publication of research into the effectiveness of COVID-19 shots. Kennedy stood by Trump recently as the president signed the executive order aimed at upending childhood vaccinations in the U.S. despite unprecedented financial and logistical challenges.

The FDA also has an ongoing review of widely used antidepressants, including whether they may increase the risk of autism and other disorders when used during pregnancy. The medicines have long been a target of Kennedy, who was a leader in the anti-vaccine movement before joining the government.

In recent weeks, the agency has been investigating two summertime foodborne illness outbreaks: a cyclospora outbreak linked to tainted iceberg lettuce that has sickened thousands of people and a multistate salmonella outbreak linked to jalapeño peppers.

August 19, 2026
Human error, gaps in FAA oversight seen as possible factors in last year’s Northeast Philly medical jet crash

A series of human and oversight failings is being eyed by federal investigators as possible contributors to the fatal crash of a medical jet in Northeast Philadelphia last year, according to documents filed by the National Transportation Safety Board.

The federal agency does not identify a cause of the Jan. 31, 2025, crash of the Mexican-owned medical transport that crashed near the Roosevelt Mall just after takeoff, killing all six people onboard and two on the ground.

But among the factors it has found during a 1½-year probe are possibly fatigued pilots who had never flown in or out of the airport, an improper setting on the Learjet tail’s elevators, and a lack of Federal Aviation Administration safety checks on a workhorse foreign-owned carrier.

Images released by the NTSB as part of their investigation show the scene along Cottman Ave. where a medical plane that crashed, in Northeast Philadelphia on Jan 31, 2025.Courtesy of NTSB

Upon impact, the 1982 Learjet 55 erupted into flames that spread to homes and cars in the heavily populated area. At least 24 people were reported injured. The jet took off just after 6 p.m. that Friday and within a minute had begun a swift nosedive into the sidewalk near Cottman Avenue and Roosevelt Boulevard.

On board were 11-year-old Valentina Guzmán Murillo, who had just received care at Shriners Children’s Philadelphia before returning home to Mexico; her mother; a pilot; a copilot; a flight physician; and a paramedic.

Investigators going through the debris on Cottman Avenue Saturday, Feb. 1, 2025, in Philadelphia. A medical jet with six people on board crashed Friday evening near the Roosevelt Mall in Northeast Philadelphia.Charles Fox / Staff Photographer

Potentially fatigued pilots and potential training weaknesses

As investigators try to piece together what might have gone wrong in the cockpit, they are focused on the two pilots.

One factor that could have played a role was their workload in the days leading to the fatal crash. They had flown multi-leg trips all four days before the accident.

NTSB investigators also looked into the effects of “spatial disorientation,” a phenomenon pilots experience when their perception of motion and relation to the Earth’s surface becomes mismatched.

During the ascent from Northeast Philadelphia Airport, the pilots rolled the plane to the right by 12 degrees. Air traffic controllers then communicated with the pilots, and the pilots responded just as the plane began to rotate back to zero degrees. According to the NTSB, within 10 seconds of their last communication with the air traffic tower, the plane continued rolling to the left at a rapid speed until the plane stopped climbing.

“Pilots who are properly trained and current in instrument flying can normally use instrument information to overcome misleading sensations, however, even well-trained pilots experience sensory illusions from time to time,” NTSB investigators wrote.

When there is a delay, it can take a few seconds or more for a pilot to regain spatial awareness. But during that delay, a pilot may make inappropriate control inputs that place an airplane in “an unrecoverable trajectory.”

In interviews with the pilots’ most recent training instructors at Flight Safety International in Tucson, Ariz., the pilot in command demonstrated a “tendency to react before thinking through a problem,” the report says. The instructor noted that the same pilot would select modes of operation when the autopilot system was off, something the pilot in command is supposed to delegate to the second-in-command pilot.

“That allows the pilot to concentrate on actually flying the aircraft. So what happens is, if the autopilot’s off and the pilot flying goes to select modes of operation, it’s distracting him from flying the aircraft, which typically results in deviations of altitudes, speeds, and headings,” said the flight instructor, who was not identified in the report.

Images released by the NTSB as part of their investigation show the wreckage of a medical plane that crashed in Northeast Philadelphia on Jan 31, 2025.Courtesy of NTSB

The second-in-command pilot’s training report also showed that his lack of recent experience in flying a similar-model Learjet “was evident.”

A spokesperson for Jet Rescue Air Ambulance, the Learjet 55’s operator, could not be immediately reached Wednesday for comment on the new release of documents.

Jeff Guzzetti, a former NTSB investigator, wondered if the low visibility that night, made more hazardous by overcast and lightly choppy weather conditions, could have exacerbated a phenomenon called somatogravic illusion.

That happens when rapid acceleration or deceleration, or other changes in gravity, can cause pilots to falsely believe a plane is pitching up or down when it is not.

“When you look at those four things — the low cloud ceiling, nighttime conditions, high velocity descent, less than a minute after takeoff — that could be consistent with spatial disorientation,” he said. Add in other distractions, like changing radio frequencies, and even experienced pilots have lost their bearings while relying solely on their instruments to navigate, Guzzetti said.

Images released by the NTSB as part of their investigation show the medical plane that crashed in Northeast Philadelphia on Jan 31, 2025.Courtesy of NTSB

Investigators search the jet

The extreme impact, and a debris field scattered across more than a dozen city blocks and a shopping center, has hampered the investigation. Nearly all parts of the plane, from its engines to the mechanical and electrical systems that controlled the jet, were found in damaged condition.

Even so, the NTSB has reported that the jet’s pitch trim, which would have aided the angle of flight and airspeed, was not in optimal position. That meant the pilots would have had to exert up to 50 pounds of force against the controls during takeoff and 12 pounds for level flight, investigators said.

Arthur Alan Wolk, a Philadelphia-based aviation attorney and pilot, was dubious. “They blame the pilot for the trim,” he said. “I don’t think you can rely on that record” because the impact makes interpreting the damaged parts difficult.

Wolk also said the pilot could have corrected for this by hitting an electrical trim switch. “Could it have happened? Yes. Is it a factor? In my opinion, I don’t think so.”

The investigation devoted extensive research into tanks filled with oxygen and other gases the medical jet had on board, which could have led to a fire or impaired the flight crew. Investigators said cameras that caught the airplane’s descent did not show trailing smoke or any visible internal fire.

In all, 11 gas cylinders were recovered with various states of damage. In previous incidents, investigators noted, flight crews had become incapacitated by carbon dioxide exposure. The Learjet’s carbon dioxide tank was found with its valve stem fractured, though the NTSB did not say if it believed there had been a leak prior to the crash.

Jet Rescue Air Ambulance told the NTSB that the company had no record of the raft for this jet and believed it was installed by a crew member without authorization.

Despite the NTSB stating in March 2025 that the cockpit voice recorder had not worked in years, investigators were able to repair its analog tape and listen to the audio. But the recordings were of a prior landing.

The report did not say why the device failed to record the final takeoff. This jet was not required to carry or maintain a cockpit voice recorder, though it was listed on the preflight checklist.

The NTSB also examined the Learjet’s logbooks and maintenance reports and found they were largely in order, though they could not determine if any new maintenance was done prior to the final flight.

From left Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker, Sean Patrick Duffy, United States Secretary of Transportation turning to acknowledge Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro’s work at press conference. These three and others tour the scene of medical jet crash, Cottman Avenue on Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. The plane crashed Friday evening, Jan 31, 2025.Alejandro A. Alvarez / Staff Photographer

Lack of FAA oversight

A major piece of the investigation rests on the FAA’s Dallas International Field Office, which oversaw the U.S. operations of the medical jet operator.

Because the operator flew unscheduled, non-U.S. registered flights, FAA personnel said they were limited to performing “ramp checks,” or unannounced inspections of the aircraft and crew on the ground, as a safety measure. But when investigators searched the FAA’s safety assurance system for any record of ramp checks, they found none prior to the fatal crash.

Asked by NTSB investigators if there was a requirement to perform ramp checks or other surveillance on operators like Jet Rescue Air Ambulance, the primary inspector stated: “Oh, I’m not sure.”

The primary inspector continued that there was no surveillance plan in place before the time of the crash and that FAA staff in charge of Jet Rescue Air Ambulance’s operations had no knowledge of the operator’s previous crashes. The operator experienced a fatal accident in November 2012 in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., a nonfatal accident in February 2019 in Toluca, Mexico, and a fatal accident in November 2023 in Cuernavaca, Mexico.

Jet Rescue Air Ambulance was not on the FAA’s Heightened Surveillance List, which would have flagged the operator for additional inspections.

Unscheduled operators like Jet Rescue Air Ambulance are required to notify the Dallas FAA field office before operating in the United States, which the FAA would use to determine when inspections are needed. But Jet Rescue Air Ambulance did not notify the office of its operations before the accident flight, according to the NTSB findings.

The NTSB release of evidence comes as federal probers complete their investigation phase and prepare their final report, followed by a review process that can take up to six months.

August 19, 2026
This secular congressman is urging Democrats to fight Christian nationalism

When Rep. Jared Huffman came out publicly in 2017 as a “nonbeliever,” he was only the second member of Congress in modern times to do so — even though a quarter of U.S. residents identified as nonreligious.

Things have changed since for the secular cause on Capitol Hill.

The Freethought Caucus, which Huffman launched in 2018 to promote church-state separation, has grown to 37 members — more House lawmakers than the uber-conservative Freedom Caucus (32) or the Congressional Prayer Caucus (34), according to the platform LegiStorm.

And the percent of lawmakers who choose not to give a religious affiliation or say the unspecific “other” has more than doubled in the past decade, from 16 to 40.

Along the way Huffman, a Northern California Democrat who is a Humanist, has become a kind of national spokesperson for promoting a secular government. And as some data shows many Americans increasingly displeased with the way religion and politics are mixing, he sees an opportunity for his cause, and for his party.

“I think the game has changed,” Huffman said. “Republicans have made a losing bet. Democrats need to understand that and be ready to connect.”

The data is somewhat more complex. Chip Rotolo, senior researcher at Pew Research, said growing majorities of Americans want congregations and pastors to stay out of partisan politics but also approve of some unspecific religiosity having influence in public life.

“It does seem people are more reluctant to see [organized religion] engaging with politics.” Rotolo said. “But at a national level they’d like to see ‘religious values,’ broadly spoken, incorporated.”

President Donald Trump’s administration has vigorously pressed the idea that the United States is a Christian nation, sponsoring a massive evangelical jubilee on the National Mall in May and a June report that described church-state separation as a legal error.

Those efforts have thrilled many Christian conservatives but also prompted concern from others, Huffman among them. He is taking aim at Christian nationalists on his biggest-ever stage, with a book “No Prophets” published this week.

The book argues that extreme Christian nationalism, which fuses Christian and national identities, is the country’s most dangerous political movement. Huffman, 62, accuses his congressional colleagues — including Democrats — of being far too timid on confronting the issue. At the same time, he argues that religious nationalists are “sailing headlong into a failing wind.”

Lance Wallnau, a MAGA influencer who has described himself as a Christian nationalist, rebuffed the idea that his worldview is dangerous.

“I’m looking for a leader whose values align with the transcendent values of when we were founded as a nation,” he said, noting that multiple early U.S. states officially aligned with various Protestant denominations. “They weren’t concerned about a Christian government. What I’m advocating isn’t some oddball thing. We shouldn’t shift the foundation of the house.”

As far as whether secularism is rising, Wallnau said: “Is it possible for America to get more un-Godly? Sure. The Bible talks about gross darkness covering the people.”

Majorities of Americans say houses of worship should not endorse candidates (79%, according to Pew Research) and should “keep out of political matters” (66%). And those numbers have grown. A decade ago, 66% opposed endorsing candidates and 49% said congregations should keep out of politics.

Just 10% of Americans say their views of Christian nationalism are favorable, while 31% are unfavorable (most Americans say they aren’t very familiar with the term). Sixty percent of Americans in 2024 told Gallup they would vote for an atheist, up from 49% in 1999.

University of Notre Dame political scientist David Campbell said Huffman is probably right that secularism’s impact in the U.S. is growing. He called the change “one of the most significant developments in American society in the last generation.”

However, Americans’ attitudes are complex and don’t point in only one direction.

Pew recently found that 37% of Americans say religion’s influence in the U.S. is growing — the highest percentage in 24 years. And 55% of Americans see that as a positive thing, compared with 22% who see it as negative.

Even as Huffman’s caucus is growing, Congress still significantly overrepresents Christians (87% versus 62% of American adults) and significantly underrepresents those who say they have no religion (28% of the U.S., 0.6% of Congress).

Experts who measure Christian nationalism say about a third of Americans embrace or sympathize with the movement. According to a PRRI survey last year, that one-third number has been stable since 2022.

Robert George, who teaches law, religion and philosophy at Princeton University, wrote in an email that Huffman and the Freethought Caucus are actually advocating for socially liberal causes — on abortion, gender and others — and dressing that up as neutrality.

The caucus, and Huffman’s political allies in general, want to further their own “doctrine” or worldview — just like those on the religiously conservative side, George wrote in an email.

“Neither side is violating the ‘separation of church and state’ when they do that, irrespective of whether their advocacy relies on secular or religious rhetoric,” he said.

In “No Prophets,’” Huffman argues that the Religious Right movement of the 1970s was focused on engaging the democratic system to attain culture war wins. Now, he writes, religious nationalists have morphed into a “scorched earth insurgency,” with crowds carrying crosses during the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol, states passing laws mandating the Ten Commandments on display in public schools and Trump administration officials launching and taking part in Christian prayer services inside federal agencies. Huffman sees this movement as actively seeking “to destroy” democracy.

His book aims to be a call to action for fellow Democrats, whom he calls his “greatest frustration” on this topic. In his view, Democratic lawmakers and public officials have done far too little to push back against Christian nationalist ideas.

The Humanism that Huffman affiliates with is a loose philosophy based on the idea that humans should work to improve society and live ethically, guided by reason, not necessarily by anything supernatural.

He doesn’t reject the label “atheist” but says he prefers “leaving room” for new discoveries.

“We all want to understand our place in the universe and what all this means. You can see that — especially the younger generation — some are really struggling,” he said.

But to Huffman, who was raised in a very religious home in an offshoot of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, personal questions of faith are very different from what he sees as government overreach.

“Reckoning with Christian nationalism is unavoidable,” he writes in his book. “This movement is forcing us to make urgent choices.”

Scott Clement contributed to this report.

August 19, 2026
There’s less wildfire smoke for now, but the fire season is far from over

Amid a summer marked by hazy skies in parts of the country, there is currently less wildfire smoke blowing across the United States and Canada compared to recent weeks.

In Oregon and Washington state, where much of the smoke has originated, 51 active fires had burned through 2.52 million acres as of Tuesday – down from a peak of 2.83 million acres on Aug. 12. Although skies are still smoky across portions of the Pacific Northwest and northern Rockies, not much is blowing east of there.

But this lull in smoke coverage and slight decrease in fire activity could be short-lived.

“We already have the most active fire season in recorded history for the Pacific Northwest,” climate scientist Daniel Swain said in a live stream broadcast Tuesday.

From Thursday into the weekend, a disturbance from the Pacific Ocean is forecast to track toward and across Oregon and Washington state as well as British Columbia and Alberta in Canada, leading to stronger winds and the potential for dry lightning.

“We’re expecting an increase in fire risk in the Pacific Northwest as we get another heat wave followed by yet more dry lightning. So, unfortunately that isn’t the most favorable pattern for the Pacific Northwest,” Swain said.

In the United States and Canada, national wildland fire-preparedness levels remained at 5 — the highest on the scale — which indicates national firefighting resources are in high use and emergency measures may be needed to sustain operations.

How bad this fire season has been

So far this year, nearly 7.3 million acres of land have burned across the United States. That’s about 36 percent higher than the annual average between 1983 and 2025.

In Canada, about 10.2 million acres have now burned, roughly 46 percent higher than the 25-year average.

And since July, about 26 percent of the Northern Hemisphere land area — covering around 10.3 million square miles — has at some point experienced moderate or greater concentrations of black carbon, the soot particles released by wildfires.

Across the Pacific Northwest, weather from late August into September looks drier than normal and occasionally windy.

The Post’s El Niño tracker shows that this region may experience extremely dry conditions into the fall, suggesting that the period of heightened wildfire risk — and the potential for widespread smoke blowing across the U.S. — is far from over.

Fire weather risk on Saturday

Annual wildland acres burned in the United States

August 19, 2026
‘No serious dispute’ that Comey’s seashell post could be read as a Trump threat, prosecutors say

WASHINGTON — The Department of Justice is defending its prosecution of former FBI Director James Comey, saying “there is no serious dispute” that a social media post of seashells he made last year could be understood as a threat against President Donald Trump.

Prosecutors also called into question Comey’s account that he had found the seashells in the numerical arrangement of “86 47” while walking on a beach in North Carolina and suggested that his May 2025 post on Instagram was an effort to generate attention for a forthcoming novel about a social media personality whose words inspire his fans to attack his foes.

The arguments in motions late Tuesday represent the government’s most detailed explanation of its indictment and were filed in response to wide-ranging defense efforts to dismiss the case on grounds including that it constitutes a vindictive prosecution and that Comey’s post did not amount to a true threat. Comey’s lawyers contend that investigators in the case misled judges, submitted documents containing false statements, withheld key facts, and repeatedly came up empty in their efforts to prove that Comey intended a physical threat or knew that the number 86 could suggest violence.

The entry for “86” from Merriam-Webster, the dictionary used by The Associated Press, says its meaning is “to throw out,” “to get rid of” or “to refuse service to.” Trump, a Republican, is the 47th president.

The Justice Department maintains that the post constituted a real threat

Federal prosecutors maintain that the photo of the seashells, which Comey said he found on the beach, constituted a threat against Trump. Comey deleted the post shortly after he put it up, saying he did not know that anyone interpreted the numbers as a call to violence. His lawyers have said that the slogan has long meant to “get rid of” or “eject” and has been featured on thousands of items sold online and regularly displayed at protests.

But the department sought in its filings to place the post against the backdrop of assassination plots or attempts against Trump in the months before and after Comey’s post. Prosecutors say that two minutes before the post was made, Comey’s wife texted him a screenshot of a definition of “86” that said “to get rid of or refuse service.”

“There is no serious dispute that an objective viewer of Comey’s post could read it to mean ‘Kill President Trump,’” prosecutors wrote.

The photo was posted days before Comey was set to release a novel he wrote titled “FDR Drive,” in which a prosecutor pursues a far-right social media personality who has called out his adversaries by name and inspired violence against them by his fans, the department said.

After the Instagram post provoked an outcry, according to the government’s filings, Comey’s publishing agent observed in a text message to him that he had “gone viral.” Comey responded that that was “not my intention, but I’ll be OK if it sells books.” The agent replied, ”Music to an agent’s ears.”

Prosecutors also asserted there was “reason to doubt” Comey’s account of having come upon the seashells while on a walk, saying they were located 4 miles (6 kilometers) “down from the beach from beachfront property where Comey was staying, in an area separated from the ocean by a sand dune.” They said there was “no evidence that anyone else arranged, photographed, or even saw the shells.”

Comey has called the case vindictive, but prosecutors deny that

Comey’s lawyers have called the indictment, which was filed months after an earlier and unrelated case against him was dismissed, part of a Trump retribution campaign targeting one of the president’s vocal critics. Trump fired Comey as head of the FBI in 2017 as Comey was overseeing an investigation into potential ties between Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and Russia. Trump since then has called for him and other perceived adversaries to be jailed.

But the Justice Department denied allegations of vindictiveness, saying the decision to indict Comey was made by the U.S. attorney in the area and did not stem from a directive from the president or the attorney general.

To bolster their claims that Comey was unjustly targeted, defense team argued that investigators struggled to develop compelling evidence from witnesses that Comey had intended the post as a threat, but they concealed that from federal magistrates as they applied for warrants to search digital accounts associated with Comey and his wife

For instance, defense lawyers have said, the FBI searched an internal database of information about open and closed investigations for any indication of an association between Comey and the term “86” but found inconclusive results. An FBI agent also requested a review of the FBI file for the case against reputed mobster John Gambino, which Comey worked on as a young prosecutor, but found no references to the term “86.”

Investigators also interviewed a key government cooperator in the case, Salvatore “Sammy the Bull” Gravano, who said he did not recall ever discussing the term “86” with Comey or hearing it in connection with the trial.

The latest filings made clear that the administration was standing behind the premise of the case.

“No Government theory was disproved at that time, or now. No intentionally false omission exists, much less one made with reckless disregard for the truth,” prosecutors wrote. “The evidence still supports that Defendant acted at least recklessly by consciously disregarding a substantial risk that his coded message of “8647” that he sent to his 200,000 or so Instagram followers, and the millions of secondary social media users who would view this as threatening violence against the President of the United States.”

August 19, 2026
With limited options, Trump tries economic pressure on Iran — again

BERLIN — Iran has survived harsh U.S. sanctions since 1979. It is betting it can endure even more.

In the 47 years since the Islamic Revolution, the United States has taken step after step to isolate the country with only a brief reprieve after the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which President Donald Trump excoriated and abandoned in 2018.

Trump promised “maximum pressure” then, and now, with limited military options, threatens even more. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned last week of “never before seen” measures — perhaps, analysts suggest, secondary sanctions on countries like China that buy Iranian oil, or further penalties on financial transactions.

Iran is more likely to step up attacks on U.S. allies in the Persian Gulf than to surrender its hold on the Strait of Hormuz, analysts said. “Iran’s economy is in serious trouble, but it is not collapsing,” said Danny Citrinowicz, an Israeli expert on Iran. “More importantly, the regime is likely to escalate before it capitulates.”

U.S. and international sanctions and economic pressure did help lead to the 2015 nuclear deal, when the supreme leader then, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, authorized negotiations to limit Iran’s nuclear program in return for frozen assets and sanction relief.

Since Trump withdrew from the deal and imposed more sanctions, Iran has adjusted to a high level of economic disruption, developing sophisticated smuggling routes and new markets, particularly for oil. For now, Iran insists on maintaining effective control of the strait while the U.S. Navy continues to blockade it. A few ships are slipping through, but traffic is down more than 90% from before the war.

Iran’s economy is badly damaged, hurting ordinary people, but its leaders have shown, through brutal crackdowns on protest and dissent, that they are relatively unconcerned with public opinion.

Having survived what it once feared — an Israeli-American war against it — a more military-minded and authoritarian Islamic Republic has itself doubled down. Esmail Baghaei, the spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry, said Monday that new measures would have “no effect on Iran’s position.”

Economic pressure will only succeed if “our resilience is greater than that of the Iranian regime, and it’s not clear that’s a good bet,” said Suzanne Maloney, an Iran expert and director of foreign policy at the Brookings Institution. “Iran’s economy has been shaped by U.S. economic pressure.”

The oil economy

Iran’s economy is suffering, without question, but gradually, while the regime keeps a stranglehold on any popular protest.

Since the war began in earnest in February, the Iranian economy and its industrial sector have been contracting in tandem for the first time in eight years, said Esfandyar Batmanghelidj, CEO of the Bourse & Bazaar Foundation, a research organization based in London.

Iran will face more challenges, from higher inflation to weakness in the job market, he said. “But it won’t lead to a different political outcome.”

Some Iranian leaders, to be sure, are deeply concerned with the economic disaster and support a more rapid diplomatic deal with Washington. But the leadership appears united in retaining effective control over the strait as its best leverage and deterrent against another war.

Iran has adapted to U.S. and international sanctions by increasing its ties to Russia and China. It sells most of its oil at a discount to China, which has ignored international sanctions against the purchase of Iranian oil. It also uses small, independent Chinese refineries, known as “teapots,” that are less exposed to U.S. sanctions.

Iran has developed smuggling networks and a “shadow fleet,” transferring its oil to other ships that can easily disguise its origin. And it has built up its industrial sector and cut back sharply on imports and its use of the dollar, using foreign banks and bartering oil for goods.

Since the war and the U.S. blockade, Iran has been storing oil onshore and in a variety of older tankers, while shipping some of it by road and rail and reducing output on some wells. When the memorandum of understanding with the United States was signed in June and the U.S. blockade was temporarily lifted, Iran used the period of calm assiduously.

Iran had oil already outside the strait to sell before the blockade, and at the outset of the agreement it exported another 80 million barrels before Washington reimposed sanctions and the blockade, easing the pressure on storage, said Brett Erickson of Obsidian Risk Advisors.

Before the war, Iran was exporting about 1.8 million barrels a day. Now, given the increase in the oil price because of the conflict, Iran is ahead of what it budgeted for oil sales for this year, he said.

The exchange rate for the Iranian rial against the dollar is bad, but the speed of depreciation is slowing, as is inflation. If Washington is relying on economic pressure, “you wouldn’t want slower inflation and a lower rial exchange rate than before the war,” Erickson said.

For the policy to succeed, “we need to push them down quickly, not wait nine more years to collapse them,” he added. “A dagger hurts but doesn’t lop off the head of the enemy.”

A battle of economic wills

Iran is gambling that the closure of the strait will put more pressure on Trump to blink first and negotiate a deal that Iran can accept. Iran is counting on increasing economic anxiety from the United States’ allies to push Trump back to the table.

The global economy is missing millions of barrels of oil a day and strategic stockpiles, including in Europe and the United States, are badly diminished. Ukraine continues to damage Russia’s refineries, further cutting the amount of oil on the market.

Regionally, key energy producers including Qatar, Bahrain, Iraq and Kuwait are badly hurt by the closure of the strait, and Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Oman have argued in Washington against further military escalation, given Iran’s ability to strike their energy infrastructure.

“In a battle of economic wills it’s very uncertain the West will win,” Maloney said.

Trump defends the war as necessary to ensure that Iran can never build a nuclear weapon. But after he abandoned the 2015 nuclear deal, Iran tried to pressure the world with enhanced enrichment that brought it to the edge of being a nuclear-capable military power, even as it denied ever seeking a bomb.

That assurance died with the former supreme leader. His son and successor, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, appears ready for open-ended confrontation with the United States and is considered by U.S. intelligence to be more flexible about creating a nuclear weapon. In Iran, said Vali Nasr, an Iran expert and professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, trust in Trump is minimal and the 2015 deal is considered “a four-letter word.”

Now, Trump is offering Iran very little in exchange for opening the Strait of Hormuz, with no U.S. commitment to unfreeze its assets or lift sanctions. “There is no reasonable deal for Iran on the table,” Nasr said.

“The choice is between total surrender and fighting it out,” he added. “And they have bet that the only way to get a better deal is to accept costs now and hold the global economy’s and Trump’s feet to the fire.”

August 19, 2026
Voters in a Chesco township will be asked whether to expand their board in November amid data center backlash

East Whiteland voters will decide this November whether they should add more elected officials to represent them, after residents’ staunch opposition to a controversial 1.5 million square-foot data center project propelled them to petition for a larger board of supervisors.

In a quick but forceful flurry, residents collected at least 500 signatures to get a question on the Nov. 3 general election ballot asking voters if they want two more elected officials. If the ballot issue is approved, it would bring the number from three to five members on the board of supervisors.

The impetus for the question was the township’s handling of a proposed data center project, expected to be constructed at the former 79-acre Cyprus Foote Mineral Co. property, a Superfund site on the line between East and West Whiteland Townships.

The project loomed large as township resident Jessica Larkin collected signatures for the referendum. She had to be “careful to clarify” that the question was not just on the data center, she said.

“It’s connected, though, because this board and the overall township management is all connected to how these projects get pushed through and approved, and I think that the conversations, while it did start with the data center, did kind of just bring us to general approach in the future of the township,” she said.

Board members are elected at-large and serve six year terms. They appoint township staff and members of the boards and commissions within the township, plus hear conditional use applications, levy taxes, and more.

In a letter to fellow residents, Larkin wrote that “a township the size of East Whiteland would benefit from having five supervisors.”

“A larger board has the potential to provide a broader range of perspectives, more balanced representation, and additional voices to help guide decisions affecting our growing community,” the letter continued.

The township and supervisors board chairman did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the ballot question and its impetus.

The data center project, which secured early approvals from township leadership in 2018 and 2024, stoked renewed ire from residents when its developers, Green Fig LLC and Sentinel Data Centers, requested to expand the project earlier this year. (The proposal has ultimately changed shape several times.)

The community turned out in large numbers to oppose the data center’s expansion — and mere existence. They made lawn signs and posters, spoke for hours during public comment, protested outside meetings, and showed up in such large numbers that they even shut meetings down. Alongside other residents opposing projects in their communities, they traveled to Harrisburg to call on Gov. Josh Shapiro and lawmakers to institute a moratorium on data center construction.

Earlier this week, amid increasing opposition among Pennsylvanians to the projects, Shapiro signed a sweeping executive order that requires local approval for projects to receive state permits, which could block many developments from moving forward.

Larkin, 44, a resident of the township for more than a decade, lives about a mile away from the site of the planned data center. She started attending meetings on the proposal, she said, and it was “just eye-opening to see how the process worked, and to learn how these projects get approved.”

“Ultimately, after attending several meetings and watching residents passionately oppose the project, it felt like we could use a little bit more representation,” she said.

Along with a team of other residents, Larkin, in less than two weeks, collected enough signatures to meet the county’s early August deadline to put the referendum on the ballot.

For local elected officials, data center projects have proved to be thorny. They hesitate to vote the projects down immediately. In the absence of state leadership earlier this year, a smattering of municipalities have, in recent months, charged township staff to pen ordinances to get ahead of any proposed projects so they have some level of control over where they go.

In East Whiteland, construction of the data center remains fraught, with concerns of construction unfolding on a contaminated parcel prompting a temporary work stoppage and a pending request to make changes to the plans.

Even if it has grown beyond just the data center, Larkin hopes residents see the need for more elected officials.

“There’s close to 15,000 residents, and there’s so many talented people that spoke up at these meetings,” Larkin said. “And I just would love to see more representation and more involvement at this level and with this consideration in terms of developing our township.”

This suburban content is produced with support from the Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Editorial content is created independently of the project donors. Gifts to support The Inquirer’s high-impact journalism can be made at inquirer.com/donate. A list of Lenfest Institute donors can be found at lenfestinstitute.org/supporters.

August 19, 2026
8 takeaways and surprises from Florida, Wyoming, and Alaska primaries

Many of the highest-profile elections on Tuesday night went just as expected. But across the country and down the ballot in four states, there were some surprises.

In a onetime battleground state that has shifted firmly to the right, Florida Democrats took dueling approaches as they attempt to win statewide for the first time since 2018. They picked a democratic socialist to run for Senate and a former Republican to run for governor.

GOP voters picked one House incumbent to succeed Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, and ousted another mired in scandal whom DeSantis declined to support.

A Democrat is locked in a tight race for a special election for a heavily Republican Pennsylvania state House district, and President Donald Trump’s pick for Wyoming governor lost to a state lawmaker.

Here’s a rundown from Tuesday’s elections.

Scandal in Washington topples a GOP incumbent in Florida

Of eight Florida House incumbents who faced primary challenges, only one lost: Republican Cory Mills.

Mills, a two-term lawmaker from the Daytona Beach area, faces mounting allegations of sexual misconduct, domestic abuse, and campaign finance violations. The House Ethics Committee said it authorized more than 20 subpoenas as it investigates him.

As DeSantis stayed out of the race, Trump stopped publicly backing Mills, and some of Mills’ House GOP colleagues endorsed a challenger. Primary voters in his district followed suit: They picked former news anchor Ryan Elijah by a margin of 13 percentage points, signaling voter distaste for incumbents’ scandals.

In a Truth Social post Wednesday morning, Trump endorsed Elijah.

“I told Congressman Cory Mills of Florida, a friend of mine, to get out of the Race, but he wouldn’t listen,” Trump wrote. “He thought he could win, so who can blame him? We now have a great candidate, Ryan Elijah, running in his place! Ryan stands for EVERYTHING MAGA, and is respected by ALL.”

Democrats pick a former Republican and a new DSA member

Democrats haven’t won statewide in Florida since 2018, and they face long odds this year. A pair of wild cards who won over primary voters will try to reverse the party’s losing streak.

David Jolly, a Republican turned independent Trump critic turned Democrat, beat challengers from the left to take on Rep. Byron Donalds (R) in the governor’s race.

He’ll be on the ballot alongside Angie Nixon, a progressive state lawmaker from Jacksonville who recently joined the Democratic Socialists of America but had not been endorsed by the group or any of its chapters. Facing Alexander Vindman, a key witness in Trump’s first impeachment trial, she overcame a massive disadvantage in fundraising and spending. She will face Sen. Ashley Moody (R), who is in her second year in Congress after being appointed to fill the seat left open when Marco Rubio became secretary of state.

Donalds and Moody will be heavily favored. Although this election will herald the end of DeSantis’ ironfisted leadership in Florida, he has managed to turn the former swing state into a conservative bastion.

Florida House Democrats hold on for now

DeSantis’s move to redraw the state’s congressional map and give the GOP a boost scrambled the field for many House races.

But some of the incumbents whose districts were splintered managed to hang on: Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D), who faced criticism for shifting to run in a predominantly Black seat, beat four Black candidates.

Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D), a moderate, ran in a new district, a battleground where he defeated a democratic socialist. He will now face a self-described “America First” mayor.

As in that race, Democrats are expected to fight for other seats that were redrawn to favor Republicans: In Tampa, Rep. Kathy Castor (D) is facing former state lawmaker Mike Beltran, while an empty seat in southern Florida pits restaurant franchisee Casey Askar (R) against Pia Dandiya (D), a tech executive and former teacher.

The GOP’s best flip opportunity is likely to come in the Orlando area, where the Republican primary to take on Rep. Darren Soto (D) was too close to call early Wednesday.

Another loss for Trump in a governor’s race

The power of Trump’s endorsement took another blow after his preferred candidate in Wyoming’s gubernatorial primary, Megan Degenfelder, lost to state Sen. Eric Barlow.

Degenfelder, the state’s superintendent of public instruction, secured Trump’s endorsement before she even announced her campaign. But Barlow had years of experience in party leadership in the state legislature, as well as the cash advantage.

Gubernatorial candidates in Iowa, Minnesota, South Carolina, and Georgia also lost GOP primaries despite Trump’s backing.

Mixed results for Wyoming’s right wing

In a deep red state like Wyoming, political fights are usually about how far right Republicans should go.

State Rep. Rachel Rodriguez-Williams, chair of the ultraconservative Wyoming Freedom Caucus, accused Barlow of being insufficiently conservative during his time as House speaker and opposed his gubernatorial run. Others in Wyoming’s right flank did well on Tuesday.

Rep. Harriet Hageman, Trump’s pick for the open Senate seat vacated by the retiring Sen. Cynthia Lummis, won her race handily. Secretary of State Chuck Gray, aligned with the Freedom Caucus, won the crowded primary for the state’s sole House seat, vacated by Hageman, a conservative who unseated the fierce Republican Trump critic Liz Cheney in 2022.

A surprising showing for Democrats in Pennsylvania

In a Pennsylvania special election, Democrat Brandon Dukes held a narrow lead over Republican Scott Timko in a state House district that Trump carried by 18 percentage points in 2024. The race remained uncalled early Wednesday morning.

The district includes parts of Butler County close to the site where Trump was shot at during a campaign rally two years ago. Tuesday’s winner will complete the months left in the term of a lawmaker who stepped down. Dukes and Timko are also competing in November for a full term.

While special elections generally have low turnout, Tuesday’s contest could be an early sign of shifting political sentiments in the swing state. Pennsylvania is home to several battleground congressional districts in the fight for control of the U.S. House.

Democrats have won or overperformed expectations in special elections in the past year, including an upset in a Florida state legislative district that includes the president’s Mar-a-Lago estate.

AIPAC makes a difference

The force of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee was on display in a California special election where the pro-Israel lobby’s last-minute intervention may have thinned the margin between two Democrats competing for the seat vacated by Eric Swalwell (D).

AIPAC’s super PAC, the United Democracy Project, swooped in and spent millions of dollars on advertising in the final two weeks of the race. The election was too close to call Tuesday despite state Sen. Aisha Wahab, a critic of Israel, finishing with a double-digit lead over her opponent, Melissa Hernandez, in the primary.

AIPAC’s involvement in races has become controversial, including in Michigan, where Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed turned its super PAC’s massive spending against him into a rallying cry for his supporters. Tuesday’s outcome showed that despite its polarizing brand, AIPAC still wields power in congressional races.

Alaska sets up competitive Senate showdown

Sen. Dan Sullivan (R) and former representative Mary Peltola (D) advanced to the general election in Alaska’s Senate race.

The state’s unusual ranked-choice system means two additional candidates who finished lower in the primary will also make the general election ballot. But it remained unclear Wednesday morning who the final two candidates will be.

Sullivan is one of Democrats’ biggest targets this year in their bid to retake control of the Senate. Peltola, who was previously the state’s sole House member, was recruited by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (New York) and has been an adept fundraiser.

August 19, 2026
Viral French musician Plumes serenades animals at the Philly Zoo

Loris Assadian, a French singer-songwriter and animal advocate known professionally known as Plumes, is globally recognized and celebrated for his distinctive sound and special connection with animals.

Videos of him playing his flamingo-pink guitar for farm and zoo animals have captivated millions of viewers worldwide, including former President Barack Obama, who talked about Assadian earlier this summer during the final month of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

Also count Megan Paier, of Cherry Hill, among the many fans of his calming musical moments. A member and volunteer docent at the Philadelphia Zoo, she thought it would be great after watching his reels on Facebook if he came here. “The way animals respond to him just warms the heart,” she said.

Assadian warms up before stepping to the tortoise environment.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer

So she reached out in March, DMing him. “What do I have to lose?”

He got back to her right away.

She asked how much it would cost, and he told her he didn’t accept any money, he just needed his expenses covered.

He visited the zoo Tuesday — after running up the Rocky steps — and serenaded the tortoises ahead of sessions on Thursday and Friday, when he will play for other animals. Most tickets are already sold out.

Assadian serenades Abrazzo, a Western Santa Cruz Galapagos tortoise estimated to be around 97 to 100 years old.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer

Assadian began performing for animals three years ago in France when he played Beatles songs for some local cows.

His appearance in Philly is the first at any U.S. zoo, and only his second visit to the United States (he went to Alaska last month).

Elizabeth Gibbons and her 2-year-old daughter Opal watch as the tortoises listen.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer

Elizabeth Gibbons, of Kennett Square, is an “oh my gosh, a huge fan” and was excited to see he was coming to Philadelphia but disappointed she wouldn’t be able to be there.

She was at the zoo on Tuesday with 2-year-old daughter Opal and a mothers group from West Chester when she saw him opening his guitar case and teared up.

Megan Paier, the docent, noticed and got Assadian to take a selfie with her.

Before he plays, Assadian always talks with the animals’ caretakers to learn about their personalities and behavior. He keeps his own body language neutral, avoids sudden movements, and doesn’t expect or force interaction.

Assadian’s mother, Valerie, his social media videographer, records him with Abrazzo, a Western Santa Cruz Galapagos tortoise estimated to be around 97 to 100 years old.Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer

Beyond social media popularity, Assadian’s acoustic sessions serve as genuine behavioral enrichment for animals. Last year, he partnered with the Université de Nanterre for a scientific study at the Branféré animal park to evaluate music’s direct impact on animal behavior.

August 19, 2026
Americans are destroying license-plate cameras as surveillance backlash grows

Adam Heimerman kept seeing the surveillance cameras on his way to work as a river guide in East Tennessee, and the sight rankled him.

More than 130,000 of the automatic license-plate readers now dot the country, according to the crowdsourced tracker DeFlock.org. The artificial intelligence-assisted devices have been embraced by law enforcement as powerful investigative tools but widely denounced by the public over privacy concerns.

For Heimerman, who’s 37 and running as an independent candidate for Congress, the cameras were one more sign that the United States was becoming a police state, he said in an interview. Then in July, the Blount County Sheriff’s Office alleges, Heimerman shot four of the cameras — including one near a church where worshipers sat inside.

Heimerman declined to discuss specifics of his case, but he said he believes there’s widespread frustration over local governments that keep using the cameras despite community pushback. That has fueled a wave of recent vandalism across the country, he said.

“When people act out in a manner that we’re witnessing, things have gotten bad and they no longer feel like they’re being heard,” Heimerman said. “People are tired of being told to sit down and be quiet and write a letter.”

“How-to” videos have spread online that demonstrate how to disable the cameras from collecting footage using wire cutters and heavy gloves. People from an array of backgrounds — college students, computer engineers, a U.S. Air Force engineer — have been accused of vandalizing the devices.

Cameras were recently damaged in communities around Detroit. In Winona, Minn., all eight of the city’s readers were cut down and stolen.

Flock Safety, one of the largest players in technological surveillance, is often the target of the ire. The company operates cameras in more than 6,000 communities across the country that record 20 billion plate scans a month. Critics concerned about the information the devices collect and store say the cameras aren’t just tracking license plates, but people’s personal movements as they visit places like gun ranges, doctor’s offices, or marijuana purveyors.

That criticism cuts “across partisan lines,” said Eleni Manis, the research director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, a nonprofit that fights government surveillance.

“As Americans we drive where we want and when we want,” Manis said. “Tracking ruins that for all of us. And that’s partly why this has gotten under everyone’s skin.”

Flock, which did not return requests for comment, has defended its product and said that it has been used to solve countless crimes, including helping to uncover the identity of the mass shooter at Brown University last year.

But misuse is rampant, a Washington Post report this month found. Authorities have charged or accused at least 50 law-enforcement officers of using license-plate readers for unauthorized purposes, including to stalk their exes. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers have also accessed Flock’s nationwide database through local partners to conduct immigration searches.

Last week, the company announced it was enacting major changes to prevent abuse by law enforcement, including requiring officers to label searches with criminal case numbers and reducing the amount of days data is stored from 30 to seven.

Community backlash against the cameras has been fierce, with 100 jurisdictions around the country pausing or canceling contracts in recent months, according to data compiled by DeFlock.org.

Despite that, some have turned to vigilantism — spray painting the devices red, ramming their pole mounts with pickup trucks, and slapping on stickers to block the camera lenses.

Online videos even suggest the tools one might need to rip down cameras or disrupt their feeds with green laser pointers.

A number of prominent influencers have applauded the vandalism, including right-wing pundit Tucker Carlson.

Rick Wilson, the co-founder of the anti-Trump Lincoln Project political action committee, recently described in detail on a podcast the kind of “cheap green laser pointer” that can easily be purchased online to interfere with devices.

“There are a lot of tools for citizens to express their discomfort of these things that are knowable and available,” Wilson said in an interview. “I’m not suggesting that people break the law. I’m suggesting that you are not helpless against a surveillance state that does not have your best interests in mind.”

Carlson has portrayed the vandals as grassroots heroes fighting back against government overreach.

“It’s not drug-addicted kids,” Carlson said on his podcast recently. “It’s sober, decent patriot Americans who believe the promises of their country. Flock was not part of the country they signed up for. No one asked their permission to steal their images and to spy on their conversations. They don’t think that makes them safer. They understand that it’s to strip them of their most basic humanity.”

Last month, when a 20-year-old from West Virginia was arrested and charged with defacing Flock cameras, a host of Facebook commenters rushed to his defense, offering fake alibis.

“He was saving my neighbors dog from a fire all day couldn’t be him,” one Facebook user wrote.

“That man is innocent,” wrote another. “I saw him serving at a soup kitchen at the time of the incident.”

In that case and others, images of the alleged vandals were captured on the very cameras they sought to deface, a fact law enforcement has been quick to point out.

In a February news release announcing destruction of property charges against a 24-year-old in Michigan, the Waterford Police department noted, “Ironically, Detectives discovered one of the [cameras] had captured an image of the vehicle and license plate driven by the suspect at the time the cameras were damaged.”

“[No] one is entitled to maliciously destroy property of another, including that of the Waterford Police Department,” the statement said.

Heimerman, the congressional candidate and lifelong East Tennessee resident, said he’s running to represent the state’s 2nd District because he is worried that the needs of ordinary citizens are getting lost amid rampant corporate greed. His Republican opponent, Rep. Tim Burchett, earlier this month introduced legislation to ban federal money from being spent on the cameras.

Heimerman, who vaguely recalls voting for Barack Obama, said he has written his own name in for president on the ballot for decades. A GoFundMe organized for his legal defense has raised over $13,000.

Heimerman says he’s grateful for the attention his case has received, hoping it means that people are “waking up” to the need to pay attention to what local government is doing, not just those at the federal level.

“It kind of brings a highlight to how much a boiling point we are at,” he said. “People are fed up.”

August 19, 2026